text:
Hide videos securely and conveniently in Video Locker! – The ultimate hidden gallery app for hiding videos on Android.
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*App must not be moved to SD card.*
* Do not delete .VL folder.*
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2)Removed from recent app list – Video Locker App will not appear in 'recent apps' list
3)Lock on sleep – If you forgot to exit Video Locker, the app will lockout as soon as your device goes into sleep mode.
4)Folder level locking – lock individual hidden video albums. This allows you to show only 1 hidden video album without exposing the others.
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So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.- Revelation 3:16
What are your convictions? The principles you live by?
If you were asked to list them, could you?
And if you can list them, would they be honestly YOURS?
Or would the list be only the opinions of someone else?
We need to have well-formed, personal convictions that we will stand up for, regardless of danger, embarrassment, or our own timidity .
How do we get that? Oftentimes, our convictions come from our family upbringing. We develop ideas from the ideas of our parents. Of course, many of us discard those convictions as we get older, believing them old-fashioned, or out-of-date in a fast, high-powered world.
Today, many of the principles we once lived by seem to have been thrown out the window and traded-in for popular opinion. We don't want to appear different from others, so we look at media personalities and take on their personas rather than develop our own.
Why do we do this? Is it because creating convictions requires deep thought and we simply don't have, or take, time to do that? We have little silence in our world. And the multitude of noises that daily assault us don't allow for much critical thinking.
Well, we have to make time. Carve it out of our day; it's that important. Because our thoughts always precede our actions. Our thoughts present us with a choice, and our choice is based on the convictions we hold.
Each of us as an individual is so very important to life itself. We may not think we are, but we are part of a plan in the mind of a God who loves us. He has given us a part to play in this world that He put us in. In this time, in whatever place we are, our convictions are important.
Indeed, the strong convictions of even one person can better the universe in ways we may never suspect or understand.
Let's think about our convictions. Let's not be without principles.
Let's not be afraid to express them, and to act on them.
Let's not be wishy-washy about what we believe.
People disagree. But God allows for heart-felt belief on every side of any issue. He expects that we will have thought about it though. In fact, I believe He demands us to come up with our own personal, and well-thought out, convictions of the heart.

subset: commoncrawl


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Calcium supplements may raise risk of heart attack
Calcium supplements, which many people consume hoping to ward off osteoporosis, may increase the risk of heart attack by as much as 30 percent, researchers reported on Friday.
These tiny tablets which carry concentrated doses of calcium were also associated with higher incidences of stroke and death, but they were not statistically significant.
The researchers advised people consuming calcium supplements to seek advice from their doctors, take more calcium-rich foods and try other interventions like exercise, not smoking and keeping a healthy weight to prevent osteoporosis.
"People regard calcium supplements as natural but they are really not natural at all," Ian Reid, professor of medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said in a telephone interview.
Reid and colleagues in Britain and the United States conducted a meta-analysis encompassing 11 studies that tracked nearly 12,000 elderly people over four years.
Half of them were given calcium supplements and the other half placebo or dummy pills with no therapeutic content. The results were published in the British Medical Journal.
"What we found was a 30 percent increase in heart attacks in the people who were randomised to take calcium," Reid said.
"If you have 1,000 people taking calcium for five years, we will expect to find 14 more heart attacks, 10 more strokes and 13 more deaths in the people given calcium than they would have had if they hadn't been treated with calcium," Reid said.
"That is 37 more adverse events and we expect 26 fractures being prevented. So calcium is associated with more bad things happening than with bad things prevented."
While experts are not certain about the biological mechanism by which calcium supplements may damage the body, studies in the past have linked high levels of blood calcium to more heart attacks and damage to blood vessels, Reid said.
"When you take calcium supplements, your blood calcium level goes up over the following four to six hours and goes up to the top end of the normal range," he said.
"That doesn't happen when you have calcium to eat in your diet because the calcium from food is very slowly absorbed and so the blood calcium level hardly changes at all."
Higher blood calcium may lead to the formation of plaques in blood vessels, which can lead to heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, Reid explained.
"People have always focused on fat levels in the blood as driving that process (plaque formation) but there is increasing evidence now that calcium levels in the blood might drive that as well," he added.
SOURCE: BMJ, online July 29, 2010.
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A new study carried out at the University of Haifa has found that the hormone oxytocin, the "love hormone", which affects behaviors such as trust, empathy and generosity, also affects opposite behaviors, such as jealousy and gloating. "Subsequent to these findings, we assume that the hormone is an overall trigger for social sentiments: when the person's association is positive, oxytocin bolsters pro-social behaviors; when the association is negative, the hormone increases negative sentiments," explains Simone Shamay-Tsoory who carried out the research.
Previous studies have shown that the oxytocin hormone has a positive effect on positive feelings. The hormone is released in the body naturally during childbirth and when engaging in sexual relations. Participants in an experiment who inhaled the synthetic form of the hormone displayed higher levels of altruistic feelings, and it is supposed that the hormone plays an important role in the formation of relationships between people.
However, in earlier studies carried out by other investigators with rodents, it was found that the hormone is also related to higher levels of aggression. Therefore, it was decided to examine whether the hormone also affects negative social sentiments. The present study, which was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, included 56 participants. Half of the participants inhaled the synthetic form of the hormone in the first session and were given a placebo (a dummy drug) in the second session; the others were given a placebo in the first session and oxytocin in the second session. Following drug administration each participant was asked to play a game of luck along with another competitor, who was in fact – and without their knowledge – a computer. Each of the participants was asked to choose one of three doors and was awarded the sum of money that was hidden behind that door. Sometimes the participant gained less money than the other player, and sometimes more, creating conditions in which a person might well develop feelings of envy and gloating.
The findings show that those participants who inhaled the "hormone of love" displayed higher levels of envy when the opponent won more money and of gloating when they were ahead. Another interesting result was that as soon as the game was over, no differences between the participants were evident with regards to these sentiments. This indicates that the negative feelings were empowered only in the course of the game itself.
"Following the earlier results of experiments with oxytocin, we began to examine the possible use of the hormone as a medication for various disorders, such as autism. The results of the present study show that the hormone's undesirable effects on behavior must be examined before moving ahead," Dr. Shamay-Tsoory concludes.


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text:
Donald Trump has a massive bombshell to drop on President Obama. One he says "we'll change the course of human history."
The real estate tycoon told WWN yesterday that his announcement on Wednesday would be "the biggest announcement in the history of the world." He reportedly went on to tell the WWN editorial board that "no man has ever uttered words that will have such a dramatic effect on mankind. Not Martin Luther King, not Ghandi, not Jesus. Only Trump. My statement tomorrow will go down in history as the most important statement every made by a human being."
So what is the bombshell?
The Donald wouldn't say, but he strongly hinted to WWN's Frank Lake that it was "not good" for Obama and that everyone will look at the President in a "totally different light."
WWN can confirm that The Donald hinted at his bombshell. He is going to say that President Obama is, in fact, an alien from Planet Zeeba. "The President is a Zeeban. That's a fact and I'll prove it on an etch-a-sketch."
But that's not the big, HUGE bombshell that The Donald is promising.
"If I told you today what the bombshell was, you'd probably have a heart attack right in front of me," The Donald said.
When WWN asked The Donald if he was just doing this as a publicity stunt or as promotion for The Apprentice, The Donald took out his golf club and swung it at Frank Lake. Luckily, Frank Lake ducked and then, in an act of great human kindness, bent down and picked up The Donald's toupee.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama got a glimpse of the Trump Bombshell:
President Obama then surprised reporters when he reportedly said, "I've seen Trump's bombshell and I have a bigger bombshell to drop on Trump. I will out-Trump, Trump."
"He couldn't shine my shoelace," Trump said in response. And to prove that he was more powerful than the President, The Donald put his name on another 3,000 buildings in New York. "I have a bigger 'stick' than Obama. Let me just say that," Trump reportedly said.
Some are speculating that the bombshell is NOT about Obama being from Planet Zeeba. Here's what some think the bombshell is really about:
1. Obama was born in Saudia Arabia and owns 3,000 oil wells.
2. Obama is a Scientologist.
3. Obama is running a dog-fighting ring out of the White House.
4. Obama is the grandson of Karl Marx.
5. Obama is not left-handed!
6. Obama is a eunuch.
7. Obama voted for Ronald Reagan.
8. Obama is gay.
9. Obama is really just a hologram. He doesn't exist.
10. Obama is Osama's son.
What do you think The Donald's bombshell is?


text:
Relative Maturity: 0.3
Trait: Roundup Ready 2 Xtend®
Features & Benefits
Roundup Ready 2 Xtend technology
Big yield plus defense
Broadly adapted variety that will move in and out of the Valley
SCN with excellent IDC
Excellent emergence for early planting or reduced tillage
Flower Color: Purple
Pubescence Color: Tawny
Pod Color: Brown
Hilum Color: Brown
Plant Type: Medium
Plant Height: Med-Tall
Phytophthora Gene: Rps 1c
SCN Gene: PI 88.788
Region Adaptability
Emergence: Excellent
No-Till: Excellent
Wide Row Adaptation: Above Average
Stress Tolerance: Excellent
Standability: Very Good
Chloride Sensitivity: N/A
Herbicide Tolerance
2,4-D Choline:
Disease Tolerance
PRR Field Tolerance: Very Good
IDC Tolerance: Excellent
BSR: Above Average
White Mold: Very Good
Root Knot: N/A
Stem Canker: N/A
Frogeye: N/A
Cercospora: N/A
Yield Environment Placement
Tough: Excellent
Variable: Excellent
High Yield: Excellent
Soil Placement
Stress Prone: Very Good
Variable: Excellent
Poorly Drained: Very Good
Highly Productive: Excellent
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto's Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS FOR USE ON PESTICIDE LABELING. IT IS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL AND STATE LAW to use any pesticide product other than in accordance with its labeling. NOT ALL formulations of dicamba or glyphosate are approved for in-crop use with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybeans. ONLY USE FORMULATIONS THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY LABELED FOR SUCH USES AND APPROVED FOR SUCH USE IN THE STATE OF APPLICATION. Contact the U.S. EPA and your state pesticide regulatory agency with any questions about the approval status of dicamba herbicide products for in-crop use with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybeans.
Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybeans contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate and dicamba. Products with XtendFlex® Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba. Glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Dicamba will kill crops that are not tolerant to dicamba. Glufosinate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glufosinate. Contact your seed brand dealer or refer to the Monsanto Technology Use Guide for recommended weed control programs.
Performance may vary from location to location and from year to year, as local growing, soil and weather conditions may vary. Growers should evaluate data from multiple locations and years whenever possible. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® and Roundup Ready® are trademarks of Bayer Group.
Contact Us


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Over the past two months a growing group of women residents of the Downtown Eastside as well as a coalition of DTES and women-serving organizations have been raising the urgent issue of women's safety in shelters in the Downtown Eastside. This has come in response to a number of reported sexual assaults in DTES shelters.
We have been dismayed by the lack of response by all levels of government about the ongoing violence committed against women in the Downtown Eastside. We have been outraged that all four of our correspondences have been ignored. We have been shocked that our delegation to BC Housing in March 2011 was met with a heavy presence of police and we were shut out from any dialogue on this issue. All this suggests to us that BC Housing as well as city and provincial officials do not consider women's safety a priority within their funded facilities.
Sexual assaults against women in this neighbourhood are normalized as we have seen with the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered women. Women should not have to "choose" between the indignity of homelessness and being warehoused in shelters, and the high-risk of assault associated with both. We will not remain silent or complicit and are continuing a grassroots campaign based on three core demands that we believe can and should be met in a timely manner.
We are calling for:
1) A 24 hours low-barrier women-only (includes all self-identified women) drop-in space and shelter in the Downtown Eastside, ideally on Hastings Street between Main and Jackson. The establishment and operation of this service should be done through an accountable process including a transparent call for tenders and in consultation with community organizations and DTES resident women.
2) Housing for homeless women and children with at least 100 new units to be made available immediately.
3) Clear provincial standards for women's safety in co-ed shelters to be implemented immediately in all existing and new shelters, including but not limited to:
• Women-only facilities in co-ed shelters with adequate women-only beds and services within those spaces.
• Women staff and training for all staff by women's organizations experienced in issues of sexual and gender violence. Shelter contractors must demonstrate the ability to ensure safety and security for women shelter users and all staff must be able to demonstrate an understanding of gender inequalities that contribute to violence against women.
We are calling on allied groups, communities, and individuals to support us. Please get involved and spread the word!
For more information email firstname.lastname@example.com or call 604 681 8480 x 234.
Website: https://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/
1) PETITION: Please sign our online petition. We are hoping to gather 5000 signatures in two weeks and need your help to make this happen! Link to petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/DTESsafe/petition.html
2) ENDORSE: If you are a member of a DTES organization, women's group, social justice collective, community centre, union, or campus group, we request that you please endorse our three demands by emailing email@example.com or calling 778 885 0040.
Our current list of endorsers include: Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, DTES Power of Women Group, WISH Drop-In Centre Society, Walk4Justice, Battered Women's Support Services, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, PACE Society, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council, Vancouver Status of Women, Oxfam Canada, No One Is Illegal Vancouver, Vancouver Action, Council of Canadians, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, Aboriginal Women's Action Network, West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund, Streams of Justice, Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, Carnegie Community Action Project, Purple Thistle Centre, W2 Community Media Arts Society, Life Skills Centre , Ending Violence Association of BC, Portland Hotel Society, Pivot Legal Society, UBC Centre for Race Autobiography Gender and Age studies, Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements, Women Against Violence Against Women, Aboriginal Front Door, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Simon Fraser Universtiy Women's Centre Collective, University of Victoria Women's Centre Collective, Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement Ottawa, York University Free Press
3) WRITE-IN: We are requesting that everyone to please send an email along the lines of the below to all of the following people in BC Housing, City Council, MLA's and MP's. Email addresses compiled here:
firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com
RE: Safe Housing and Safe Services for Women in the DTES
It has come to my attention that for the past two months a coalition has been raising the urgent issue of women's safety in shelters in the Downtown Eastside. I have been dismayed by the lack of response by all levels of government about the ongoing violence committed against women in the Downtown Eastside. Sexual assaults against women in this neighbourhood in particular are normalized and their safety is not considered of highest priority as we have seen with the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered women. This would never be acceptable in any other part of town. I support the call for a 24 hours drop-in space and shelter for women in the Downtown Eastside, housing for homeless women and children, and clear protocols to be established within co-ed shelters.
– Open Letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson "Women Respond to Sexual Assaults in Downtown Eastside Church Shelter While Shelter and City of Vancouver Ignore Reports" http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6390
– Press Release "Women Respond to Comments by Reverend Ric Matthews of First United Church; Reiterate Calls for 24-hour Women's Shelter and Safe Housing in DTES" http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6496.
– Press Release "Women's Action in Downtown Eastside for Women's Safety" and Open Letter to BC Housing: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6692
– Video of press conference: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/video/press-conference-women-respond-sexual-assault-dtes-shelter/6484
– Podcast of Vancouver DTES women's groups shut out of B.C. Housing office: http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/pivot-legal-society/2011/03/vancouver-dtes-womens-groups-shut-out-bc-housing-office
– Women rail against violence in shelters: http://www.theprovince.com/news/assault+protest/4488619/story.html
– Safe Housing, Safe Shelters and Safe Services for Women: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/vancouver-politics-and-service-provision/6707
– More emergency shelter spaces needed for women, Vancouver council hears: http://www.straight.com/article-382418/vancouver/more-emergency-shelter-spaces-needed-women-vancouver-council-hears


text:
Vancouver's Leader in Transition toward Strong, Resilient, Complete Communities
Time: November 14, 2019 from 6pm to 7pm
Location: Kits Community Centre
Street: 2690 Larch Ave
City/Town: Vancouver
Website or Map: http://www.kitscc.com
Phone: RSVP: email@example.com or on event post
Event Neighbourhood and Type: kitsilano, recycling, zero waste, seed library
Organized By: Ross Moster, Kathy McKay, Alison Bealy, Kits Village Vancouver, Westside Neighbourhood Food Network, and Kits Community Centre
Latest Activity: Nov 13, 2019
Export to Outlook or iCal (.ics)
Drop off your clean plastics at our monthly recycling depot. Pre-sort your plastics and arrive no later than 6:45. (Please note that we can't accept anything before 6 pm.)
Kits Community Centre, 2690 Larch Ave. The depot will be held in the patio outside of the south entrance to the community centre, immediately north of 12th and Larch.
Cost: Free.
RSVP: email@example.com
Recycling categories:
1. Soft plastics, i.e. any plastic bags, wraps or packaging,
2. Hard plastics, i.e. any hard plastics (#1 thru #7, but w/metal parts etc. removed),
3. Styrofoam blocks,
4. Styrofoam containers, i.e. cups and food take out containers,
5. Styrofoam peanuts and other "soft" styrofoam,
6. Wax lined beverage containers,
7. Foil lined bags (packaging and wraps).
If you're driving, it's best to park either on 12th Ave eastbound or on Larch south of 12th.
Next depot: December 19
WANT TO HELP? We're looking for one or two additional volunteers to help 4-6 times/year for an hour a month on the evening of the depot (6-7).
The depot is supported part of the year by a Greenest City Neighbourhood Small Grant from the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Foundation administered by Kits Neighbourhood House.
Village Vancouver is a member of Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks (vancouverfoodnetworks.com) - check it out!
We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the Xwméthkwyiem (Musqueam), Skwxwúmesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
If you'd like to opt out of event invitations or other types of messages from the Village Vancouver website visit your email settings page here: villagevancouver.ca/profiles/profile/emailSettings
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text: HOYLAKE, England -- Even after his worst 72-hole finish in a major, Tiger Woods says he would pick himself for the Ryder Cup team. Marcus Davenport Womens Jersey . His first major of the year, and second tournament since March 31 back surgery, wasnt much of an audition for U.S. captain Tom Watson. Woods was never the same after opening the British Open with a 69. The mistakes kept piling up, and so did the big numbers, and he closed with a 3-over 75 on Sunday at Royal Liverpool. "I just made too many mistakes," Woods said. He finished at 6-over 294, matching his highest score in the British Open. Only three players had a worse score, including U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer, and Woods finished in 69th place. His previous worst was a tie for 40th in the PGA Championship last year and the 2012 Masters. Worse yet, he didnt even beat the 64-year-old captain. Watson birdied his last hole for a 68, "Its just one day. Its a snapshot," Watson said. "Its not a big deal." Still, the concern was clear. Watson was speaking to the media as Woods was still on the course when he asked if Woods was shooting under par. Told that he was 4 over at the time, Watson said, "Thats not very good." Woods still has two tournaments left before the end of Ryder Cup qualifying at the PGA Championship. He is No. 72 in the standings, and aside from winning the final major of the year, his best bet is to be one of Watsons three picks. Asked if he would be inclined to pick him if were in Watsons position, Woods said with a smile, "I would say yes." "But thats my position, my take on it," Woods said. "Hes the captain. Obviously, its his decision. Hes going to field the best 12 players that he thinks will win the cup back. And I hope Im on that team." Woods is unlikely to make the FedEx Cup playoffs unless he picked up top-3 finishes at Firestone and the PGA Championship, and that means Watson would have to judge him on those tournaments unless Woods were to play elsewhere. Europe isnt appealing, with events in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy. "It would make it tougher for me to pick him if hes not playing," Watson said. Watson is more inclined to see more from Woods before a rush to judgment. Woods has played only six rounds since back surgery to alleviate a pinched nerve that forced him to miss three months, including two majors. The scorecard showed two triple bogeys and three double bogeys. He said his return at Congressional three weeks ago, where he missed the cut by four shots, was at least a chance to make sure he was pain free and shake off some rust. The rust was still there "I was certainly expecting it, yes, but I just thought that I know how to play links golf," Woods said. "I know how to grind it on these golf courses, and hitting the shots I thought I could get around here. I did the first day. After a bad start I got it back. And unfortunately, as I said, I made too many mistakes with the doubles and triples." He said he remained encouraged -- the same word he used when missing the cut at Congressional -- and even said he could see comparisons to these last two tournaments with a rehab assignment for a baseball player. "Theres a lot of things I need to work on, but I havent been able to work a lot," Woods said. "I was down for three months. So Im just now starting to come back. ... Im still building. Im still working on my game. And Im getting stronger and faster." Woods has missed only one Ryder Cup since his first one in 1997. That was in 2008, when he missed the second half of the season with reconstructive knee surgery. He was a captains pick in 2010 by Corey Pavin, following a year of personal turmoil that led to divorce and the hiring of a new swing coach. Woods went 3-1 in Wales, his best performance in a Ryder Cup. He was confused talking about that year, saying he was coming off an injury and missed most of the summer. That actually was the following year, when Fred Couples picked him for the Presidents Cup team. Either way, Woods felt he could contribute to the team and "thats all you want as a pick." Wil Lutz Womens Jersey . Horford is out 3-to-4 months with a torn pectoral muscle for the Hawks, who have won two straight and five of six games. Atlanta improved to 2-0 on the residency with Saturdays 93-91 triumph over Minnesota, as Ivan Johnson scored his teams final four points, including the game-winning free throw with 4. Morten Andersen Jersey . -- Wide receiver Sidney Rice should be fully recovered from a torn knee ligament by the time the Seattle Seahawks start defence of their Super Bowl title, general manager John Schneider said Wednesday. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Taysom-Hill-Jersey/ .C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes have activated defenceman Joni Pitkanen from injured reserve.Manchester Uniteds American owners are set to raise around $150 million by selling more of their shares in the club on the New York Stock Exchange. The English Premier League club announced Wednesday that the Glazer family is selling 8 million shares with reduced voting rights, which equates to around 5 per cent of the business. The Glazers, who maintain control of the club, previously sold 10 per cent of their holding via a stock listing in 2012. Michael Thomas Saints Jersey. . The latest share sale was announced on a day when United shares closed at $19.31, with the Glazers cashing in at a time of renewed confidence at the club. It also comes two months after Malcom Glazer, who led the family takeover of United in 2005, died. His six grown children control the club. ' ' '


text:
Utilities Feeling Rooftop Solar Heat Start Fighting Back
December 30, 2013 Leave a comment
Utilities Feeling Rooftop Solar Heat Start Fighting Back
If you wonder why America's utilities are rattled by the explosive growth in rooftop solar — and are pushing back — William Walker has a story for you. A flip-flop wearing Walker stands in his driveway pointing to a ubiquitous neighborhood feature – solar panels on the roofs of five of six houses nearby. He lives in Ewa Beach, a development on the sultry leeward coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu built on land cleared of sugar cane fields.Shade is scarce and residents here call their homes "hot boxes," requiring almost round-the-clock air conditioning. Hawaii, which imports pricey oil to power its electricity grid, has the highest utility rates in the nation — at 37 cents a kilowatt-hour, they're more than double California and triple the national average.
With bills for 1,600 square foot houses like these running as high as $400 a month, solar is seen as less a green statement than an economic no-brainer given state and federal tax credits for as much as 65 percent of installation costs. Almost every day since Walker and his wife Mi Chong moved in last April, solar installers came rapping on the door, hawking a rooftop system.
They finally bought one: an 18-panel, $35,000 installation producing 5.9 kilowatts of power financed for $305 a month. It would be connected to the grid under a system known as net metering that essentially lets residents deduct the value of their solar-produced electricity from their power bill and even be paid for electricity in excess of that.
Paying for Itself
Walker estimates his bill would have dropped most months to an $18 service charge — offsetting that $305 loan payment. Anticipating his power bills would continue to rise, he figured the system could pay for itself in as little as five years; his electricity after that would be free.
That is until his utility, a subsidiary of Honolulu-based Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., told the Walkers they couldn't connect their system to the grid. They aren't alone. Solar installers here estimate that hundreds if not thousands of the state's residents are being put in solar limbo by a virtual moratorium on new connections in many parts of the company's service area.
America's Power Machine
The reason, according to the Hawaiian Electric Co.: so many Hawaiians are stampeding to solar that circuits may become oversaturated, causing voltage spikes, damaging appliances, electronics and even the utility's equipment. The company needs more time to study the matter.
The Walkers, who say they got no advance notice of the shutdown, are now paying both their power bill and their monthly rooftop loan. HECO, as the utility is known, recently told them they will eventually be allowed to join the grid without having to pay for expensive equipment upgrades. It still can't say when.
'Profit Motivation'
"Everyone is on board with getting solar and HECO has now put up a wall," Walker said. "The only thing we can see is profit motivation."
Spurred by a drop in panel prices, robust government subsidies and a technology that no longer appears experimental to mainstream America, rooftop photovoltaic solar is bursting out everywhere. About 200,000 U.S. homes and businesses added rooftop solar in the past two years alone – about 3 gigawatts of power and enough to replace four or five conventionally-sized coal plants.
The U.S. set a single-quarter record with 31,000 residential rooftop installations in the three months through Sept. 30. Solar represented 72 percent of all power added in the U.S. in October.
Connection Slowdown
Utilities, seeing a threat to about $360 billion a year in power sales and a challenge to the hegemony of the conventional grid, are feeling the heat and fighting back. HECO, despite criticism from Hawaii's solar industry, denies the moratorium is anything more than an honest effort to address the technical challenges of integrating the solar flooding onto its grid.
The slowdown comes in a state where 9 percent of the utility's residential customers on Oahu are already generating most of their power from the sun and where connections have doubled yearly since 2008.
In California, where solar already powers the equivalent of 626,000 homes, utilities continue to aggressively push for grid fees that would add about $120 a year to rooftop users' bills and, solar advocates say, slow down solar adoptions.
Similar skirmishes have broken out in as many as a dozen of the 43 states that have adopted net-metering policies as part of their push to promote renewable energy. In Colorado, Xcel Energy Inc. has proposed cutting the payments it makes for excess power generated by customers by about half, because it says higher payouts result in an unfair subsidy to solar users.
Arizona Protesters
It faces a fight from solar advocates who are circulating a petition that has attracted 30,000 signers.
In Arizona, 1,000 protesters last month swarmed the state capital while local and national solar advocates lobbied against an effort by utility Arizona Public Service to impose a $50 monthly fee on new solar adopters. Solar advocates said the charge would have crippled the state's 10,000-worker solar industry and thwarted the desire of residents to have a choice in the power consumption.
State regulators, after two days of often contentious debate, voted to allow the state's largest utility to charge customers about $4.90 a month for solar connections after Dec. 31 — less than 10 percent of what it was asking for.
Falling Short
Don Brandt, chief executive officer of APS and its parent company Pinnacle West Capital Corp., panned the deal, saying that while it nods to the impact that net metering is having on utility operations and revenues, it "falls well short of protecting the interests of the 1 million residential customers who do not have solar panels."
Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity Corp., said it was "crazy for a utility to charge for services they didn't deliver.
''Why not tax energy efficient homes, or small homes that consume less than average?'' said Rive, whose company is the nation's second-largest rooftop solar installer. ''APS just doesn't want to lose control."
The battle is far from over.
On the island of Oahu, HECO is "working really hard" to find a solution to oversaturated circuits caused by the rapid solar rollout, CEO Richard Rosenblum said. The utility's engineering studies on solar are expected to be done by March, he said.
"We see ourselves as a trailblazer," said Rosenblum. And one of the problems of being a trailblazer is sometimes the trail is not clear.''
Republican Representative
Rosenblum pointed to planned HECO grid investments in smart meters and other communications devices he said that will help it speed up and smooth out the embrace of solar going forward.
Representative Cynthia Thielen, a Republican state legislator who has publicly pushed for the utility to liberalize its solar policies, is more than skeptical.
"This is a company with a drenched-in-oil mentality," said Thielen, who has served in the legislature since 1990. "They've fought from day one on renewables. I look at the company as ultimately becoming obsolete unless it changes its practices."
What's mind-boggling to many of the stewards of America's 3,200 utilities is how fast solar has mutated from a fringe power source to a technology being peddled today at outlets like IKEA Group and Home Depot Inc.
Sure, environmental groups like the Sierra Club are aboard. But solar is also being embraced by middle-class home owners like the Walkers, Republican legislators like Thielen and corporations like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which expects 1,000 of its approximately 4,500 stores to be solar powered by 2020.
Green Tea
A pro-solar group in Georgia consisting of Sierra Club members and Tea Party founders calls itself the Green Tea Coalition.
The fuss might seem overheated based on current numbers — solar power provides less than 1 percent of the nation's energy needs. Yet it's the rapid escalation of solar and the exponential long-term projections for its rollout that caused Fitch Ratings Ltd. in July of this year to warn that the solar juggernaut is "casting a shadow on U.S. utility rate design."
Moreover, solar's potential is coming as escalating fossil fuel prices make it competitive — even without subsidies — with conventional electricity.
That's already occurred "at a domestic level in many countries" with some U.S. states like Hawaii and California already at or near parity and others to follow soon, according to an Aug. 8 research report by Citigroup Inc. Parity will only escalate as fossil fuels get more expensive and solar gets cheaper.
'Steals Demand'
"This dynamic is not being fully appreciated in the power sector," according to the report, written by a group of analysts including Shahriar Pourreza and Ryan Levine. "Not only does solar steal share of new electricity demand, it parasitically steals demand from previously installed generation, and does at the most valuable 'peak' part of the demand curve."
As for solar's ultimate potential, California alone could produce 76,000 megawatts of solar power — more than the state's total installed capacity in 2012 — if it deployed all the rooftop solar it has room for, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group.
All of which makes the fights being played out in Hawaii and Arizona pivotal — they are certain to set the stage and tone for future battles in other states. And given what's happened, those future fights may be messy.
Arizona Money
Money poured in to Arizona in the weeks leading up to the November vote by state regulators on the proposed monthly solar charge. APS and its backers spent $3.7 million on an ad campaign while solar advocates mustered $350,000. Lobbyists, hired-gun activists and pollsters all waded into the fray, with ads that took on the appearance of a negative electoral campaign.
A utility-supporting group ran a 30-second television ad comparing California solar companies helping to fund the pro-solar campaign to Solyndra LLC, the Obama-backed solar-panel maker that went bust after defaulting on a $535 million federal stimulus loan guarantee.
Meanwhile, solar supporters used Barry Goldwater Jr., son of deceased Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, in a radio spot that featured the sound of a trumpeting elephant, the symbol of the Republican party, and called on listeners to prevent APS from "trying to kill energy choice."
When you speak with Jeff Guldner, APS's senior vice president of customers and regulation, he echoes a familiar and reasonable argument as to why solar users connected to the grid should help pay to maintain it.
Maintenance Bill
A system of generous net metering rules may have made sense at the outset of the solar revolution to get the party started. Now, however, it's clear that it will have enormous disruptive impacts on APS and other utilities that bear the burden of keeping the grid operating.
"Somebody has to pay for maintenance and upkeep," Guldner said, and solar users in the current rate structure aren't doing so.
One problem with those economic arguments is that the politics aren't yet lining up to support that. People may be fond of Apple Inc., Google Inc. or Walt Disney Inc. but the public doesn't often love its power supplier — no power or gas utility appeared on Fortune magazine's list of the 50 most admired companies in 2013.
Republican and libertarian support for solar is informed by a "don't tread on me" response to the utility monopoly system, making foes of those that might have been friends. It's a wing of the pro-solar coalition that no one — and certainly not the anti-solar crowd — anticipated.
Unexpected Crowd
Bill Hansen is part of that unexpected pro-solar crowd.
On the warm, blue-sky day when Arizona began two days of hearing on APS's $50 monthly solar charge, Hansen, a retired 83-year-old former Iowa lawmaker and lifelong Republican, rose at 6 a.m. and made the 35-mile drive from his Sun City home to Phoenix to give the utility and the Arizona Corporation Commission hell.
Hansen, president of the Sun City West Property Owners & Residents Association, represents the retirement community's 24,000-plus residents, 10 percent of whom have investments in solar-energy companies.
He had plenty of company. On the day of the vote, the pro-solar demonstrators vastly outnumbered those who had come to plead the utility's cause. They were also in a far better mood – – outside, a brass band tooted out standards, a DJ played loud rock music and organizers doled out t-shirts, water bottles and pizza to people holding signs that said "People Power Over Monopoly Power: No to Solar Tax!" and "Solar Works For Arizona."
Inside, it was clear that APS and its supporters were out of luck. The idea for the $4.90 fee came from the solar side — and very likely swung the vote.
The charge won't be enough to cover the utility's grid costs until their next rate case in 2015, APS's Guldner said, and will probably require the company to ask for much bigger fees down the road.
"In 2016, that rate increase could be a big one" and the utility will probably win the argument, Guldner said.
Bob Stump, chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission, said he voted in favor the $4.90 charge because he feared the higher fee sought by APS would have slowed solar development in the state, jeopardizing the ability to produce 15 percent of its power from renewables as required by law.
'Fair Outcome'
"It's a fair outcome," said Stump.
Utilities may be missing out on some big solar positives, said Jigar Shah, head of a consulting company and author of "Creating Climate Wealth." Solar generation peaks at the hottest time of the day, the time most people switch on their air conditioners, thus taking the strain off conventional power plants when they most need the relief.
Aggregated solar power will also let utilities put off building costly plants and transmission lines, saving investors and ratepayers money, said Shah, the former CEO of SunEdison LLC.
Shah's advice: get with the program, otherwise utilities are simply inviting people to leave the grid.
"The utilities are playing this wrong, saying you're with us or against us," he said. "It's not the solar industry that's the problem — it's their refusal to recognize the benefits of new technologies."
Policy decisions are already affecting solar installations. HECO's moratorium in Hawaii is putting a damper on what had been a booming home-grown solar industry there.
Slowing Down
The fourth quarter is typically the busiest time of the year for solar installers as homeowners rush to take advantage of federal and state tax incentives. Installers can rack up as much as two thirds of their annual sales in the last three months of the year. Instead, solar companies in Hawaii say their revenue has been reduced by half or more compared with the same time last year. Inventory is piling up.
The new restrictions "are slowing things down with no easy solution," said Leslie Cole-Brooks, executive director of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association. "It's not good news for the solar industry or for customers who want to invest in solar."
Order Drop
One of the island's biggest solar wholesale businesses is run out of a group of drab cinder-block warehouses at the terminus of a narrow, dead end-road near the edge of downtown Honolulu's Chinatown. Rolf Christ, a German native and the company's owner and president, has been working in the Hawaii solar industry since 1980.
The past three and a half years have been crazy, he said. Solar sales on Oahu were so robust that Christ has more than quadrupled his warehouse space for R&R Solar Supply to 25,000 square feet from 6,000 square feet. Now, a lot of that space is stuffed with solar modules stacked two-stories high on shipping pallets.
Christ typically orders modules before the fourth quarter. HECO's moratorium has "pretty much brought the whole industry to a screeching halt," he said.
"It was the worst time of year to do it," he said of the policy change. "It was the worst way to do it."
King Kalakaua
HECO has been around a long time and some, like Thielen, think that may be its problem. It traces its roots to 1881 when Hawaii's King Kalakaua met Thomas Edison and five years later decided to light his palace with electricity. Its subsidiaries serve 95 percent of the state's residents, bringing power to Oahu, the Big Island, Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
The issue, according to HECO, is that for about 20 percent of Oahu's grid there is so much solar connected you can't add more without further study because of the potential for reliability and safety issues. Solar advocates have said the figure is arbitrary.
Arbitrary or not, it means new solar customers must await engineering studies to determine if they can connect without causing surges that may damage appliances, electronics or utility equipment. Some might have to pay for utility equipment upgrades that could cost thousands of dollars before getting approval to connect.
"This is about safety," said Scott Seu, HECO vice president for energy resources and operations. "We are so far ahead of the rest of the nation as far as the amount of distributed rooftop solar in our neighborhoods that we are now at points where there are potential safety and operating liability issues."
'Fast Track'
The issue of solar saturation is complicated and controversial and both sides in Hawaii have their points, said Michael Coddington, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. HECO's policies on solar connections are "similar to many other states" and could be considered "progressive" relative to the policies of many utilities, he said.
"The utility is following the rules per se," said Coddington, who co-wrote an NREL study on the matter. On the other hand, if you are a solar photovoltaic developer or customer, "you want the 'fast track' approach, as detailed impact studies are often costly and time-consuming and could require costly mitigation strategies. I understand the frustration."
Customers like the Walkers are more than a little frustrated. They see the company as dragging its feet in an effort to stave off a threat to its very business model. And even when they finally get to connect, they wonder if the hassle has been worth it.
'Driving Us Off'
"I feel like they are driving us off the grid," Mi Chong said.
Phil Undercuffler hopes HECO will drive lots of people off the grid. Then he will sell them batteries.
Battery storage is the holy grail of the off-the-grid crowd. They let users store up excess energy for rainy or cloudy days when solar isn't working. In theory, you don't need a power company if you have solar tied to battery storage, especially here. Oahu gets an average of 271 sunny or partly sunny days a year.
Last month, Undercuffler spoke to a standing-room-only audience of more than 100 solar installers in a Honolulu Marriott who came to hear his pitch for battery storage units sold by Outback Power Inc.
The vast majority of HECO solar customers don't have battery storage; it's considered too expensive. With the possibility that the moratorium in some sections of Hawaii could go on for two more years, homeowners could make batteries work financially and cut the cord from the utility altogether, said Undercuffler, Outback's director of product management and strategy.
"You watch, all these installers are going to go to batteries," said Jeff Davis, a partner in an Oahu company called Kamiyama Solar Electric who is known as the Solar Guy on a local talk radio program. "The utility has opened up the genie bottle."
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Chediak in San Francisco at firstname.lastname@example.com; Christopher Martin in New York at firstname.lastname@example.com; Ken Wells in New York at email@example.com


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Transport ministers back new EU core transport network (TEN-T)
European Commission proposals include high technical standards and 10 major transport corridors.
Last week transport ministers reached agreement on proposals to transform the existing patchwork of roads, railways, airports and canals into a unified European transport network. The proposed Regulation for Guidelines for Trans-European Networks (TEN-T) will remove cross-border bottlenecks, upgrade infrastructure and streamline cross-border transport operations for passengers and businesses throughout the EU.
Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said: "This is a very significant step forwards. Transport is the lifeblood of the European economy. And if it does not flow smoothly, our economy will weaken and fail to grow. Ministers have today given strong political backing for plans to build the strategic transport connections necessary to fuel Europe's future economic growth."
Ministers endorsed the Commission's proposals for:
1. A new EU transport core network
Ministers backed proposals for a focused EU core transport network to be completed by 2030. Built using 10 major implementing transport corridors, this core network will establish the vital transport connections necessary to underpin the single market and fuel future economic growth. It allows a more focused and effective targeting of EU transport investments.
The core network will be complemented by a comprehensive transport network feeding into it, with a time horizon of 2050. This comprehensive network will ensure full coverage of the EU and accessibility of all regions. Both layers include all transport modes: road, rail, air, inland waterways and maritime transport, as well as intermodal platforms.
For links to the Council website, with maps agreed at the Transport Council see:
2. High technical standards on the core network
The Commission's proposals set common technical requirements for the TEN-T infrastructure – with stronger requirements for the transport core network. This is to ensure seamless transport connections interoperability throughout the network.
It is clear that, in particular, for the core network, technical requirements must be interoperable across the network. For example, ERTMS (the European Rail Traffic Management System) – the basic ITS systems to control the trains must apply on most parts of the TEN-T network. Equally, road safety standards in terms of tunnel safety requirements and road safety requirements must apply across the network, and the technology for ITS (intelligent transport systems) must join up. Also if there are future electric vehicle infrastructure charging points to be built, logically, they must meet common standards, so the cars can use them all across the network.
3. 10 major transport corridors
A major innovation on the new TEN-T guidelines for is the introduction of 10 implementing corridors on the core transport network. This is necessary to ensure co-ordinated development of the network. The corridors will bring together the Member States concerned, as well as the relevant stakeholders, for example infrastructure managers and users. European co-ordinators will chair "corridor platforms" that will bring together all the stakeholders – these will be a major instrument to guarantee co-ordination, co-operation and transparency.
The Commission's TEN-T proposals define the maps, technical requirements and target deadlines for the completion of the comprehensive and core network. Under the new proposals, the new core European transport network will connect: by 2030:
86 main European ports with rail and road links
37 key airports with rail connections into major cities
15,000 km of railway line upgraded to high speed
35 major cross-border projects to reduce bottlenecks
See http://ec.europa.eu/transport/index_en.htm for the Commission's proposals for core network maps, national maps, project lists.
The TEN-T guidelines are an important element of the infrastructure package put forward by the Commission in October 2011, which also included the Connecting Europe Facility and the project bonds initiative.
What happens next?
The agreement reached today is a first step in the legislative process. The proposed regulation must still be approved by MEPs in the European Parliament at first reading. A vote by the European Parliament is foreseen for early 2013. With strong political will, the final text could be adopted in the first half of 2013. For more background information on the Commission's TEN-T proposals:


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During the past weeks, the island of Comino has been in the news. The controversy surrounding the deckchair/umbrella hawkers free-for-all at the Blue Lagoon focused on overcharging, breaching of permit conditions and the resulting lack of space for the public making use of public facilities at the beach.
Fines were imposed by the Malta Tourism Authority. This is fine (pun intended) in the short term. However, we need to plan for the long term, keeping in mind that the island of Comino, is first and foremost a Natura 2000 site and a touristic destination second. Sites forming part of the Natura 2000 network are designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPA) according to the Habitats and Birds Directives of the European Union, where habitats and species are listed. The Directives are designated to provide protection to the most vulnerable of the species listed.
It has been stated that every day, at the peak of the summer season, as many as 5,000 visitors land on Comino, most of whom remain in the Blue Lagoon and its environs .
The Natura 2000 Management Plan for Comino published recently, considers that tourism at the Blue Lagoon needs to be controlled efficiently in order to ensure that it is "in harmony with the site's conservation needs". One of the measures which the Comino Management Plan establishes as an operational objective is "to plan and implement a tourism carrying capacity assessment of the Blue Lagoon".
The Management Plan believes that the tourism carrying capacity assessment should be carried out within the first year of the plan's implementation, which means pretty soon! The issue is of fundamental importance in ensuring that the activity permitted on the island of Comino is compatible with its ecological requirements.
It is not known whether this carrying capacity assessment has been carried out yet. If not it should be done at the earliest.
This is not the first time that Maltese authorities have been asked to consider a proposal to study the possibility of limiting access to a specific site for protection purposes. Around 12 years ago, after rehabilitation work carried out at the Hypogeum in Ħal-Salfieni was concluded, it was decided that there was an urgent need to control its microclimate in order to better protect this archeological jewel so a maximum limit of 80 visitors per day was established.
Various other countries place limits on tourism in order to better control its environmental impacts. There are various examples, but permit me to point to the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 545 kilometres off the coastal city of Recife. The archipelago is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the number of visitors is restricted in order to adequately protect its environmental patrimony. The environmental protection rules of the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha go into such detail as to even forbid the use of sunprotection lotions/creams or even the use of footwear on the beach, as well as curtailing various other activities incompatible with the archipelago's ecological characteristics!
It is a path we should consider following for Comino, if we are serious about protecting the little that we still have.
It is welcome news earlier this week as three of Malta's environmental NGOs, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Friends of the Earth and Nature Trust, have endorsed the proposal for carrying out the capacity assessment of the Blue Lagoon at Comino. Comino deserves our protection. Implementing the Natura 2000 Management Plan for Comino would be a suitable first step.
And the sooner, the better.
published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 11 September 2016


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I have spent the last 10 years obsessing over every single detail about the last day I spent with my mom on December 25.
I woke up that morning from the worst sleep ever. The only two words I can use to adequately describe the nightmare I experienced was black and suffocating. I was surrounded by blackness and I could not breathe. I was scared but in a way, I couldn't describe. When I emerged from the bedroom, my mom took one look at me and asked if I was okay. I wasn't and I wouldn't know why for another 30 or so hours. Normally, we would have talked about what I had experienced but, it was just too heavy and sad to share on her most favorite holiday.
We bustled about the house, as usual, that day. Her cooking and singing her favorite Luther Vandross Christmas songs and me finishing wrapping the Christmas gifts she saved for me to wrap for her. We talked, laughed, gossiped and ate the green beans she cooked for later at breakfast; and I felt the heaviness of the night's sleep slowly lift as we exchanged gifts. Always my best friend, she made everything better for me.
We celebrated Christmas, as usual, that year with our family at my aunt E and uncle G's house. One of my most favorite family gatherings of the year! My mom knew how much I loved it but took her time getting ready to go…as she did every year. Once you entered their home you were greeted with love, laughter, kids running around and the smell of all my favorite foods. Nothing better!
After a marathon of pictures, catching up, and plates of food, my mom and I packed up to head back to her house. I was scheduled to work the next day in Chicago before returning the next day to finish my week off with my mom in Dixon. I also arranged to take my three-year-old, goddaughter with me. Since the office would only have one other person there, my goddaughter and I would hole up in one of our empty conference rooms to pass the time reading, coloring, and playing with toys until we could head to the zoo.
Once we returned to my mom's house, I quickly gathered what I needed, kissed my mom goodbye as she laid on the couch and headed to my car to pick up my goddaughter. Small problem, my car was somehow stuck in the driveway. The same car we used to pull into the driveway no more than an hour ago. It wasn't snowing but there was a layer of ice coating the ground below. I couldn't move it in the right direction, every effort pushed the car further into the plowed snow on the side of the driveway. My mom, now standing in the door, called my uncle and then my cousins to help in what none of us could understand, how in the world is this car even stuck? I thought about how ridiculous it would sound for me to call my manager and tell her that I couldn't make it to work because my car is stuck in the driveway with no snow. So, I was determined to honor my commitment. With the help of my family, we finally got the car out. I wouldn't understand until the following day, why it was so difficult to move that car, I wasn't supposed to leave.
My mom called me twice on the 26th. Both times mostly to check and see if I was doing okay taking care of a toddler. "How are you and your charge? How did you both sleep? What are you making her for breakfast? What time are you coming back home?", she asked. The last call that day from her was mid-morning with more of the same ending with her saying she would see me later.
A few hours later I would get two calls from my family in Dixon. One to tell me that my mom was being rushed to the hospital and to come home immediately and the other one I have never forgotten. The second call came as I was driving home from Chicago with my goddaughter in tow about forty-five minutes later. When I answered the phone my normally calm Aunt who was also an LPN was yelling at me to get there and I heard crying in the background. I yelled back at her that I had to drive 2 hours to get home and I was driving as fast as I could. I pleaded with her to tell me what was wrong, but she was having none of it. Hearing a break in her voice when she yelled again for me to get there sent me into hysterics as I hung up the phone.
I immediately called my dad in Louisiana who did his best to calm me down so I could make it safely. I just remember telling him, "I can handle anything except her death, I will never recover from that." He told me to focus on getting there and take it from there.
When I arrived, everyone was outside. I ran to the ER entrance. I knew it was bad. I still feel like this part happened in slow motion. They shuffled me down a hallway and into a large room. Once inside, my family lovingly surrounded me and told me she didn't make it. Make what?
My mom died on December 26, 2008, minutes before that second call from my aunt. My entire existence changed in one afternoon.
I remember asking for someone to pray and then I went to see her, although not the circumstances we talked about earlier in the day. She was dead now. The stain of blood still on her lips from the blood clot that took her life. My beloved everything was now pain-free with her parents.
I can somehow recall things like the color of the first shirt I bought, as the only daughter of her dead mother, a red turtleneck from Shopko. The furniture in her living room hastily rearranged to make room for the paramedics to get the stretcher in and out of her house. The beautiful white suit wrapped in dry cleaner's plastic I found hanging on the back of her bedroom door, the same day I fretted about how I would dress her for her funeral. Driving with my cousin Londa to CherryVale Mall to buy suits for the visitation and funeral and learning that dead people don't need shoes in their caskets.
That first year was blurry. I often awoke surprised I hadn't died the night before from grief. I got up each day with a heavy sigh convinced of two things; someone was praying for me and God needed me to stay on earth but for what reason, I didn't know.
Now, 10 years later, the pain is still thick and I maneuver through it. Most days I still find it unbelievable that my mom is dead. But she is and life goes on.
I find comfort in the love and lessons she shared with me, my daughter's connection to the Nana she never met, and knowing that when I need her most my mom is with me. Mostly, I remind myself that I have more memories with her than without her and that means everything.


text:
P.L. 92–603, Approved October 30, 1972 (86 Stat. 1329)
Social Security Amendments of 1972
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(g) [42 U.S.C. 402 note] (1) In the case of an individual who is entitled to widow's or widower's insurance benefits for the month of December 1972 the Secretary shall, if it would increase such benefits, redetermine the amount of such benefits for months after December 1972 under title II of the Social Security Act as if the amendments made by this section had been in effect for the first month of such individual's entitlement to such benefits.
(2) For purposes of paragraph (1)—
(A) any deceased individual on whose wages and self-employment income the benefits of an individual referred to in paragraph (1) are based, shall be deemed not to have been entitled to benefits if the record, of insured individuals who were entitled to benefits, that is readily available to the Secretary contains no entry for such deceased individual; and
(B) any deductions under subsections (b) and (c) of section 203 of such Act, applicable to the benefits of an individual referred to in paragraph (1) for any month prior to September 1965, shall be disregarded in applying the provisions of section 202(q)(7) of such Act (as amended by this Act).
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(j) * * *
(2) [42 U.S.C. 414 note] In the case of a man who attains age 62 prior to 1975, the number of his elapsed years for purposes of section 215(b)(3) of the Social Security Act shall be equal to (A) the number determined under such section as in effect on September 1, 1972, or (B) if less, the number determined as though he attained age 65 in 1975, except that monthly benefits under title II of the Social Security Act for months prior to January 1973 payable on the basis of his wages and self-employment income shall be determined as though this section had not been enacted.
(3) [42 U.S.C. 414 note] (A) In the case of a man who attains or will attain age 62 in 1973, the figure "65" in sections 214(a)(1), 223(c)(1)(A), and 216(i)(3)(A) of the Social Security Act shall be deemed to read "64".
(B) In the case of a man who attains or will attain age 62 in 1974, the figure "65" in sections 214(a)(1), 223(c)(1)(A), and 216(i)(3)(A) of the Social Security Act shall be deemed to read "63".
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Sec. 132.
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(g) [42 U.S.C. 401 note] For the purpose of Federal income, estate, and gift taxes, any gift or bequest to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, or to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or any part or officer thereof, for the benefit of any of such Funds or any activity financed through any of such Funds, which is accepted by the Managing Trustee of such Trust Funds under the authority of section 201(i) of the Social Security Act, shall be considered as a gift or bequest to or for the use of the United States and as made for exclusively public purposes.
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Sec. 222. [42 U.S.C. 1395b-1 note] (a)(1) The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, directly or through contracts with, or grants to, public or private agencies or organizations, shall develop and carry out experiments and demonstration projects designed to determine the relative advantages and disadvantages of various alternative methods of making payment on a prospective basis to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other providers of services for care and services provided by them under title XVIII of the Social Security Act and under State plans approved under title XIX of such Act, including alternative methods for classifying providers, for establishing prospective rates of payment, and for implementing on a gradual, selective, or other basis the establishment of a prospective payment system, in order to stimulate such providers through positive (or negative) financial incentives to use their facilities and personnel more efficiently and thereby to reduce the total costs of the health programs involved without adversely affecting the quality of services by containing or lowering the rate of increase in provider costs that has been and is being experienced under the existing system of retroactive cost reimbursement.
(2) The experiments and demonstration projects developed under paragraph (1) shall be of sufficient scope and shall be carried out on a wide enough scale to permit a thorough evaluation of the alternative methods of prospective payment under consideration while giving assurance that the results derived from the experiments and projects will obtain generally in the operation of the programs involved (without committing such programs to the adoption of any prospective payment system either locally or nationally).
(3) In the case of any experiment or demonstration project under paragraph (1), the Secretary may waive compliance with the requirements of titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act insofar as such requirements relate to methods of payment for services provided; and costs incurred in such experiment or project in excess of those which would otherwise be reimbursed or paid under such titles may be reimbursed or paid to the extent that such waiver applies to them (with such excess being borne by the Secretary). No experiment or demonstration project shall be developed or carried out under paragraph (1) until the Secretary obtains the advice and recommendations of specialists who are competent to evaluate the proposed experiment or project as to the soundness of its objectives, the possibilities of securing productive results, the adequacy of resources to conduct it, and its relationship to other similar experiments or projects already completed or in process; and no such experiment or project shall be actually placed in operation unless at least 30 days prior thereto a written report, prepared for purposes of notification and information only, containing a full and complete description thereof has been transmitted to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Finance of the Senate.
(4) Grants, payments under contracts, and other expenditures made for experiments and demonstration projects under this subsection shall be made in appropriate part from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (established by section 1817 of the Social Security Act) and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund (established by section 1841 of the Social Security Act) and from funds appropriated under title XIX of such Act. Grants and payments under contracts may be made either in advance or by way of reimbursement, as may be determined by the Secretary, and shall be made in such installments and on such conditions as the Secretary finds necessary to carry out the purpose of this subsection. With respect to any such grant, payment, or other expenditure, the amount to be paid from each of such trust funds (and from funds appropriated under such title XIX) shall be determined by the Secretary, giving due regard to the purposes of the experiment or project involved.
(5) The Secretary shall submit to the Congress no later than July 1, 1974, a full report on the experiments and demonstration projects carried out under this subsection and on the experience of other programs with respect to prospective reimbursement together with any related data and materials which he may consider appropriate. Such report shall include detailed recommendations with respect to the specific methods which could be used in the full implementation of a system of prospective payment to providers of services under the programs involved.
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Sec. 226.
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(b) [42 U.S.C. 1395m note] (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 1814 and section 1833 of the Social Security Act, any health maintenance organization which has entered into a contract with the Secretary pursuant to section 1876 of such Act shall, for the duration of such contract, (except as provided in paragraph (2)) be entitled to reimbursement only as provided in section 1876 of such Act for individuals who are members of such organizations.
(2) With respect to individuals who are members of organizations which have entered into a risk-sharing contract with the Secretary pursuant to subsection (i)(2)(A) prior to July 1, 1973, and who, although eligible to have payment made pursuant to section 1876 of such Act for services rendered to them, chose (in accordance with regulations) not to have such payment made pursuant to such section, the Secretary shall, for a period not to exceed three years commencing on July 1, 1973, pay to such organization on the basis of an interim per capita rate, determined in accordance with the provisions of section 1876(a)(2) of such Act, with appropriate actuarial adjustments to reflect the difference in utilization of out-of-plan services, which would have been considered sufficiently reasonable and necessary under the rules of the health maintenance organization to be provided by that organization, between such individuals and individuals who are enrolled with such organization pursuant to section 1876 of such Act. Payments under this paragraph shall be subject to retroactive adjustment at the end of each contract year as provided in paragraph (3).
(3) If the Secretary determines that the per capita cost of any such organization in any contract year for providing services to individuals described in paragraph (2), when combined with the cost of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund in such year for providing out-of-plan services to such individuals, is less than or greater than the adjusted average per capita cost (as defined in section 1876(a)(3) of such Act) of providing such services, the resulting savings shall be apportioned between such organization and such Trust Funds, or the resulting losses shall be absorbed by such organization, in the manner prescribed in section 1876(a)(3) of such Act.
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Sec. 245. [42 U.S.C. 1395x note] (a) The Secretary is authorized to conduct reimbursement experiments designed to eliminate unreasonable expenses resulting from prolonged rentals of durable medical equipment described in section 1861(s)(6) of the Social Security Act.
(b) Such experiment may be conducted in one or more geographic areas, as the Secretary deems appropriate, and may, pursuant to agreements with suppliers, provide for reimbursement for such equipment on a lump-sum basis whenever it is determined (in accordance with guidelines established by the Secretary) that a lump-sum payment would be more economical than the anticipated period of rental payments. Such experiments may also provide for incentives to beneficiaries (including waiver of the 20 percent coinsurance amount applicable under section 1833 of the Social Security Act) to purchase used equipment whenever the purchase price is at least 25 percent less than the reasonable charge for new equipment.
(c) The Secretary is authorized, at such time as he deems appropriate, to implement on a nationwide basis any such reimbursement procedures which he finds to be workable, desirable and economical and which are consistent with the purposes of this section.
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Sec. 305.
* * * * * * *
(b) [42 U.S.C. 401 note] (1) Sums appropriated pursuant to section 1601 of the Social Security Act shall be utilized from time to time, in amounts certified under the second sentence of section 201(g)(1)(A) of such Act, to repay the Trust Funds for expenditures made from such Funds in any fiscal year under section 201(g)(1)(A) of such Act (as amended by subsection (a) of this section) on account of the costs of administration of title XVI of such Act (as added by section 301 of this Act).
(2) If the Trust Funds have not theretofore been repaid for expenditures made in any fiscal year (as described in paragraph (1)) to the extent necessary on account of—
(A) expenditures made from such Funds prior to the end of such fiscal year to the extent that the amount of such expenditures exceeded the amount of the expenditures which would have been made from such Funds if subsection (a) had not been enacted,
(B) the additional administrative expenses, if any, resulting from the excess expenditures described in subparagraph (A), and
(C) any loss in interest to such Funds resulting from such excess expenditures and such administrative expenses,
in order to place each such Fund in the same position (at the end of such fiscal year) as it would have been in if such excess expenditures had not been made, the amendments made by subsection (a)[312] shall cease to be effective at the close of the fiscal year following such fiscal year.
(3) As used in this subsection, the term "Trust Funds" has the meaning given it in section 201(g)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act.
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Sec. 401. [42 U.S.C. 1382e note]
* * * * * * *
(d) In addition to the amount which a State must pay to the Secretary for the fiscal year 1983 or the fiscal year 1984, as determined under subsection (a), the State shall also pay, for the fiscal year 1983, 60 percent of the further amount that would be payable but for the limit specified in subsection (a), and, for the fiscal year 1984, 80 percent of such further amount. For each fiscal year thereafter, the limit prescribed in subsection (a) shall be inapplicable and a State shall pay to the Secretary the full amount of any supplementary payments he makes on behalf of such State.
* * * * * * *
[Internal References.—SSAct §§202(e) and (f), 215(b), 1101(a), 1814(b), 1866(a)(1)(O), 1875(b), 1877(b)(3) and 1886(c)(4) cite the Social Security Amendments of 1972. SSAct §§201(g) and 201(i) and 1616(d) have footnotes referring to P.L. 92-603.]


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Celebrating Joe Hill: 100th Anniversary, November 19, 1915, Part 2
Joe Hill Roadshow, 100th Anniversary Tour
The nationwide tour honoring the life of Joe Hill, presented by Crossroad Music, stopped in West Philadelphia on July 25. I just joined the I.W.W., Philadelphia Branch, and I'm now a proud, card-carrying member. This concert provided the opportunity to connect to the music of labor activism and to honor Joe Hill.
The previous post, Celebrating Joe Hill: 100th Anniversary, November 19, 1915, Part 1, provides a brief history of Joe Hill's life and his association with the Industrial Workers of the World.
The anniversary tour began in Chicago and will finish with their last concert in Salt Lake City. A complete listing of the tour dates is available at Joe Hill 100.com.
The Roadshow in Philly featured the folk duo Magpie, singer-songwriter Charlie King, and protest singer George Mann. Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner have been touring as Magpie since 1973, performing a poignant and lively mix of folk, jazz and blues. Charlie King sings and writes about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Pete Seeger described him as "one of the finest singers and songwriters of our time." Reference: Jon Bekken, Joe Hill Roadshow will be in Philly this Weekend.
Local Connection
West Philadelphia resident John Braxton joined the performers. John Braxton and I have a connection through Swarthmore College. When I was active in the living wage campaign at Swarthmore, I met John when he spoke at one of our events in 2002. At the 2010 Commencement, the college president awarded John, Class of 1970, an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws for his labor activism and as co-founder of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice Coalition. In his address to the students, John said,
We face problems on a scale that we have never faced before — but they are solvable if we don't ignore them. The solutions require building powerful social and political movements — and people do find a way to do that even in the darkest times. Today, we have the tools to guide this process more intelligently and nonviolently. The moral arc of the universe does bend towards justice — if we harness ourselves and help it to bend.
Bekken's article quotes John as saying,
Today, when the gap in wealth and income between the richest and the rest of us is greater than at any time since the 1930s, it's a good time to remember that Joe Hill worked for justice for all workers around the world.
The Music
The evening performance began with the rousing, "The Preacher and the Slave," a song Joe Hill wrote as a parody of the hymn, "In the Sweet By-and-By" and coined the phrase "pie in the sky." The I.W.W. targeted the Salvation Army for satire because of their illusory promises to workers:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
The concert turned into a sing-a-long, as all the music is singable and many in the audience were familiar with the words.
George Mann sang, "Which Side are You On," written in 1931 by Florence Reece, the wife of a union organizer for the United Mine Workers. Florence borrowed the melody from a traditional Baptist hymn.
Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Poor folks ain't got a chance
Unless they organize
"There is Power in the Union," another song by Joe Hill, who used the tune of Lewis E. Jones' 1899 hymn, "There Is Power in the Blood."
If you like sluggers to beat off your head,
Then don't organize, all unions despise.
If you want nothing before you are dead,
Shake hands with your boss and look Wise.
Come, all ye workers, from every land,
Come, join in the grand industrial band;
Then we our share of this earth shall demand.
Come on! Do your share, like a man.
Before the song, George read a letter to the editor of Solidarity from Joe Hill.
Near the end of the program, audience and musicians joined in singing "Solidarity Forever," a song sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Although the song was written for the I.W.W, other union movements have adopted the song as their own.
They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women; they divide us old and young,
But they'll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung,
For the Union makes us strong!
A progressive union since its founding in 1905, the I.W.W. has been committed to anti-racism, and at its height, counted among its supporters radical and class fighters. One hundred years ago, Joe Hill understood and advocated for social justice. His songs stay in our political consciousness, encouraging and guiding us toward one big union for all.


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We're back with another release on the heels of our schema change. This release includes some fixes that were hot-fixed to the production servers late the other week as well as some that have gone through the usual beta process. As such, most of the changes have to do with new or changed features of that release, plus some assorted refactoring and other bugfixes. Thanks to chirlu, nikki, and the rest of the MetaBrainz team for their hard work on this release!
Happy series editing!
The git tag for this release is
The full list of fixed tickets, as usual:
- [MBS-6181] – Deleted editors may be nominated for auto-editorship
- [MBS-6309] – Search results don't have a score column anymore after a few pages
- [MBS-7354] – Internal Server Error in mini relationship editor when a relationship has been removed
- [MBS-7513] – Uploading PDF cover art requires the user to switch to the "All files" filetype in the file selection dialog
- [MBS-7514] – New accounts may be called "Deleted Editor #nnn"
- [MBS-7516] – Age of 0 not displayed in user profiles
- [MBS-7519] – "PDF file" labels displayed on top of image previews
- [MBS-7530] – Caught exception in MusicBrainz::Server::Controller::Series->add_alias "The edit could not be created.
- [MBS-7532] – ISE: Undefined value when relating Release Groups to an ordered Series
- [MBS-7533] – Can't create a new series from inline search
- [MBS-7538] – Regression: Not possible to edit URL relationship attributes
- [MBS-7539] – series. numbering elements is not auto-edit while setting automatic is
- [MBS-7543] – "Cancel" does not cancel changes made in mini-relationship-editor for instrument-performer ARs
- [MBS-7544] – Grouping link types are selectable in the release editor
- [MBS-7545] – Release editor creates empty URL edits if you just change the release name
- [MBS-7548] – Automatic series ordering doesn't work correctly
- [MBS-7549] – Regression: Release Editor URL seeding does not work anymore
- [MBS-7550] – Regression: Editor search is broken
- [MBS-7555] – ISE when changing series order numbering
- [MBS-7556] – URL cleanup broken on edit URL pages
- [MBS-7558] – Relationship-editor shows "The end date cannot preceed the begin date" incorrectly
- [MBS-7559] – Sort name guess case is missing from series alias pages
- [MBS-7561] – Relationship editor doesn't show the count of selected recordings
- [MBS-7562] – Regression: Error trying to unset a label in "edit release label"
- [MBS-7563] – Multiple failures on "edit label"
- [MBS-7570] – Add series and instruments as linkable entities in annotations
- [MBS-7576] – Not possible to add relationships to a non-label from a label edit page
- [MBS-7579] – Error while trying to add a release
- [MBS-7593] – Regression: Seeding URLs to mini-relationship editor is broken
- [MBS-7597] – Replacing recording-work relationship in relationship editor fails
- [MBS-7599] – Relationship editor doesn't load relationships for some recordings
- [MBS-7600] – Firefox: "Edit Note" does not show Add Release Label if the annotation gets removed
- [MBS-7603] – Replication trigger missing for link_attribute_text_value table
- [MBS-7493] – Redirected MBID pages, slave/beta servers, and non-preferred scheme should use rel=canonical to link to the main site
- [MBS-7517] – Deleted editors should appear as "deleted", not as "Limited User"
- [MBS-7567] – Provide "copy/sort" bubble for all alias sortnames
- [MBS-7575] – Support creating/editing URL relationships with the /relationship-editor endpoint
- [MBS-7596] – The relationship editor dialog should work on a copy of the relationship until the dialog is accepted
- [MBS-7619] – admin/config.sh means configuration is split between files (and since checked-in complicates customization)
- [MBS-7547] – Remove MAC authentication for WS


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Sorry, the blog at sonasblog.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.and
The authors have deleted this blog. The content is no longer available.
The internet can be a very ephemeral place. I do, however, find it interesting that the four "Ph.D's" who were supposedly unconnected to Sona reacted to adversity in exactly the same fashion as Sona did: by pulling the whole thing down in a huff.


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Not Bullish On Jeter In a New Uniform
by Eno Sarris //
Things are getting heated in the negotiations between Derek Jeter and the Yankees. Over the holiday week, Brian Cashman dropped this bomb in typically understated fashion:
"We understand his contributions to the franchise and our offer has taken them into account," Cashman said. "We've
encouraged him to test the market and see if there's something he
would prefer other than this. If he can, fine. That's the way it
That is the way it works, but of course the baseball blogosphere took the tidbit and ran with it. Some of the fake baseball cards created by Beckett.com were chilling, and the prospect of Jeter in another uniform should be doubly chilling to fantasy players planning on snapping up Jeter as a bounce-back shortstop in 2011.
R.J. Anderson did a fine job taking a look at the historical precedent that 37-year old shortstops have provided in his article on Jeter earlier in the month. The most damning paragraph:
In June, Jeter will turn 37. No shortstop (defined by
having played at least 50% of their games at the position along with 300
plate appearances) aged at least 37 has ever hit more than nine home
runs in a season. Since 1970, only 20 shortstops met that qualification
after turning 37, with the highest batting average being .295, the
highest on-base percentage being .367, and the highest slugging
percentage being .419. Over the last three seasons, Jeter's line:
.301/.369/.414. Meanwhile, only two of those players finished with an
OPS above the league's average.
Looking at Jeter's combination of BABIP and batting average last year (.307 BABIP, .270 batting average), you might wonder where some optimistic batting average projections are coming from. Bill James has him projected at .295, for example. On the other hand, Jeter is still athletic, has a much better career BABIP (.356), and could easily find himself batting closer to .300 next year.
And yet, if Jeter ends up in a different uniform, he probably won't be a great bounceback pick. Three important statistics that have always been in Jeter's favor could then work against him: plate appearances, runs and RBI.
If Jeter were to don a new uniform in 2011, the most vulnerable statistic would be runs scored. Since Jeter joined the Yankees' lineup for good fifteen years ago, he's averaged 112 runs per season. That's meant that even in his worst seasons, he's been a boon in the category. The Yankees lineup has driven him in prolifically, and last year that offense scored the most runs in baseball (859). The offenses on the two teams that have been linked to Jeter, the Giants and Orioles, weren't even close. In fact, the Giants (697 runs) scored only 81% of the runs that the Yankees scored.
Let's say we walk the runs and RBI projections for Jeter back 15% – after all Jeter would improve those two lineups ostensibly – and the package looks a little worse. Now we're talking about a player that will gather around 85 runs and 50 RBI.
And there's one last caveat. The projections we've been using here – Bill James' on FanGraphs – use 703 plate appearances. A 37-year-old shortstop has never amassed 700 plate appearances. Omar Vizquel's 659 plate appearances in 2006 is tied with Luke Appling's effort in 1946 as the most ever by a 37-year-old at the position. Only nine other men have ever crossed the 600 plate appearance threshold. If we remove another 50 plate appearances to place Jeter in the middle of the best old shortstops ever, now we're hoping that Jeter can get to double-digits in homers and steals, and worrying that he might not garner even 80 runs and 45 RBI.
Later in 2011 drafts, you may be looking at Jeter among some shortstops that are at least five years younger than him. Would you pick Jeter over Alexei Ramirez (.280, 18 HR, 80 R, 78 RBI, 12 SB), Stephen Drew (projected for .270, 16 HR, 82 R, 67 RBI and 8 SB), or Elvis Andrus (.274, 2 HR, 82 R, 43 RBI, 34 SB)?
The answer to that question will depend, of course, on the actual draft positions required to grab each of the shortstops in question. But, looking at the runs and RBI totals of this projected crew, it doesn't look like Jeter would be the same old Jeter in a new uniform. Fantasy managers looking to grab Jeter as a value should join the throng hoping that Jeter will re-up with the Yankees.
For more on Derek Jeter and other shortstops, check out Bloomberg Sports' Front Office.