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By now, hopefully readers of our website and loyal listeners to the Lions of Liberty podcast have already heard about Rand Paul's remarks concerning Obama's deal with Iran. If not, I highly recommend listening to yesterday's special edition of the Rand Pauluses and Minuses podcast, featuring Marc Clair, Scott Horton and myselfdiscussing it. But, I'll recap it here in this week's first point of "Pauluses and Minuses."
Rand Criticizes Iran Deal, Calls for Sanctions to Stay in Place
Rand Paul hesitated in responding to news that President Obama's deal to remove / reduce sanctions against Iran in exchange for comprehensive reforms in their ongoing nuclear arms capability, in order to allow him to read the bill, according to Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo. And that is what makes his response all the more puzzling, as he either completely misunderstood it, or willingly misrepresented the facts.
As per Rand's Facebook page:
"The proposed agreement with Iran is unacceptable for the following reasons:
"1) Sanctions relief precedes evidence of compliance, 2) Iran is left with significant nuclear capacity, 3) it lifts the ban on selling advanced weapons to Iran
"I will, therefore, vote against the agreement.
"While I continue to believe that negotiations are preferable to war, I would prefer to keep the interim agreement in place instead of accepting a bad deal."
The full text of the deal is available here, and as it's fairly plain to see, Rand's response is wholly inaccurate. The relief does not precede compliance – the exact opposite in fact. Iran isn't left with anything more than the bare minimum of nuclear sites needed for power, a hugely reduced nuclear stockpile (2%) and nowhere near the number of centrifuges that would be required to create a bomb.
In regards to Rand's contention that this removes the arms ban on advanced weaponry sales to Iran, he has a point, however that point won't be applicable on a level that could possibly worry anyone for 8 years. The pact does allow conventional arms to be supplied to Iran in 5 years, and missile technology in 8. But any honest analysis of Iran vs. the United States in a military conflict would find that Iran would be of little threat to the United States even if it had a significant nuclear program – which they don't and are even more assured to never have under this deal. That they might acquire additional non-nuclear arms almost a decade in the future is of little concern.
Rand's inaccurate statements in his opposing points would be bad enough, but additionally he proves himself to be a hypocrite where Iran – and by proxy, Israel – are concerned.
Rand's stance typically has been to encourage diplomacy and oppose sanctions – yes, even on Iran, which he voiced in January of this year. He also echoes this in his new book Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America(look for more in depth commentary on that soon), wherein he discusses the impact of governmental policy "on the street" and notes how powerful the "Arab Spring" can be as a tool for change. Yet, here he is, having turned a complete about-face on the Iran deal, calling for all the sanctions to stay in place instead of agreeing to this (impressive, in my view) deal.
It makes no logical sense and betrays his own ideals. Perhaps this is because of a back-room agreement with Sheldon Adelson, as Horton suggested on the podcast. Perhaps it's what he thinks he has to say to woo neocon backing. Whatever his internal logic, it doesn't coincide with mine or anyone that can claim a libertarian mindset.
This is a massive disappointment and one of the most upsetting actions he has taken since he's been in office or on the campaign trail.
Check out the full show below:
Paul Calls for More Scrutiny of Immigrants From Islamist/Jihadist Regions
In a story that the media is predictably blowing out of proportion, Rand stated in response to the suspected terrorist attack in Chattanooga last week that he felt potential immigrants and students from regions that are "hotbeds" of jihadism and Islamism should be subjected to more scrutiny than those from other regions.
"I'm very concerned about immigration to this country from countries that have hotbeds of jihadism and hotbeds of this Islamism," Paul told Breitbart. "I think there does need to be heightened scrutiny. Nobody has a right to come to America, so this isn't something that we can say 'oh, their rights are being violated.' It's a privilege to come to America and we need to thoroughly screen those who are coming."
Rand is half right, even though I don't agree with the notion that the government owns all of the land in the U.S. But, should we accept the notion – in theory – that America is the "private property" of the people within the country, Rand would be correct that no one has a "right" to access this property.
Where I'm a bit torn is on the "higher scrutiny." While in one sense I do think that it's a bit absurd to single out a group or region for stricter standards, we don't live in a vacuum. Regions that may pose a threat to the people of this country do exist with a higher chance for immigrants that have nefarious intent than others, and it would boil down to what these screening processes would entail. I don't have a problem with government doing due diligence for background screenings, or hosting question sessions with would-be applicants.
Just as a business has the right to more thoroughly vet the employee of a former rival suspecting corporate espionage, or someone who may have a spotty work record, the U.S. sould be able to apply deeper scrutiny to immigrants.
I'm going to give this one the dreaded…
Rand Paul to Join "Centennial Monetary Commission?"
Forbes is reporting a very interesting movement that Rand Paul is at the hub of along with several other prominent members of the Congress and Senate – the Centennial Monetary Commission. This commission would have significant impact over U.S. monetary policy, which of course goes a long way with Paul, who has taken up the fight against (or to reign in and make transparent) the Fed from his father.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the bicameral Congressional Joint Economic Committee — Congress's own resident "Think Tank" — recently, without fanfare, introduced a potentially transformational piece of legislation in the House. Reportedly, this action has been followed by introduction in the Senate by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). This matters. Welcome the prospect of a Centennial Monetary Commission.
The official bill is numbered H.R. 2912, and the quick summary within the text is:
To establish a commission to examine the United States monetary policy, evaluate alternative monetary regimes, and recommend a course for monetary policy going forward.
Continued from Ralph Benko at Forbes:
The Commission isn't hostile to the Fed. Nor is it designed to impair the Fed's autonomy. The Fed now, almost universally, is seen as in "uncharted territory." The Commission, simply, is designed to chart the territory.
The Commission is chartered to be impeccably empirical, to "examine how United States monetary policy since the creation of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 has affected the performance of the United States economy in terms of output, employment, prices, and financial stability over time…."
This Commission has been a long time coming, in my opinion, as the Fed has run autonomously without examination for far too long and with far too narrow of an economic bent. It's been a "Keynes, Keynes, Keynes, Keynes World."
There are a tiny handful of policies which determine whether or not we have a climate of equitable prosperity. What happened 15 years ago? Tax policy did not dramatically then change. Neither did trade, regulatory, or spending policy, not in such a way to explain the withering of the American Dream.
One thing only changed 15 years ago: monetary policy. The Federal Reserve drifted from its policy of the "Great Moderation" put in place by Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. Economic stagnation is not of necessity the New Normal. Stagnation is the result of bad government policy.
Co-sponsorships in the Senate by Sens. Paul and Cruz are especially significant. Sen. Paul has laid down another marker on tackling the role of the Fed in job creation. He also was the first Senate co-sponsor of the Monetary Commission in the 113thCongress. He is the prime Senate sponsor of "Audit the Fed."
Sen. Paul's credibility on this potentially highly relevant issue cannot be denied. Should he take the "money issue" into his presidential campaign it could prove a game changer. (Full disclosure, one of my sons is a volunteer for the Rand Paul presidential campaign.)
As Benko notes, and against which it's hard to argue, Rand's monetary policy goals stand apart from the crowd and are one of seemingly few positions that he's staying consistent on as his campaign evolves. The prospect of his taking a position of strong influence on the Fed and monetary moves is one that weighs quite positively on me.
The Current "Paulus-Minus" Tally:
80 Pauluses / 27 Minuses / 5 Push
Be sure to check out our latest companion podcast edition of Rand Pauluses and Minuses, and stay tuned for the newest edition!
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1659 N. Spring St. Suite 107
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Contact & Team
Pharmacy Select – The Organization
LLP formed in 2001 representing over 6000 community pharmacies nationwide
Partners of the organization: Each in business for over 25 years
Pace Alliance
Independent Pharmacy Cooperative (IPC)
Distinct business entities with equal access to the most comprehensive contracting organization
Contract Centralization
Centralized system creating efficiency for vendor, pharmacy, and wholesaler, including contracting and marketing
Single rebate/administrative fee payment for vendors and ease of rebate disbursement
Merged membership data for computations of sales, membership demographics and utilization
Vendor Contracts, Negotiations, and Strategic Business Meetings
Pharmaceutical contracts:
Annual RFP process begins each August
Over 100 generic vendors offering competitive pricing on over 10,000 products
Market share, promotional, and educational programs with brand manufacturers
2 major wholesalers supporting and servicing the contracts
Non-pharmaceutical and Service agreements:
Serviced through wholesalers and direct-to-vendor contracts
Marketing programs and discounted pricing for member pharmacies
Annual Business Summit:
2019 meeting to be held September 10-12 in Portland, Oregon.
Meet with the Pharmacy Select Board of Directors and Senior Vice President to exchange and collaborate on strategic initiatives as well as explore new opportunities.
Administrative Fees and Program Opportunities
Administrative Fees:
Contract maintenance: loading and application
Discount to pharmacies with structural flexibility
Market share programs:
Incentive to gain larger percentage of marketplace sales versus competition
Volume incentive programs:
Incentive tiers based upon growth of sales
Promotional allowance and data mining capabilities:
Reporting features and promotion of products to members
Communications: blast fax, email, telemarketing calls, flyers-mailers
Educational and clinical program development:
Programs customized for vendor partners, based upon individual goals
Detailed marketing plans

subset: commoncrawl


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As shown by yesterday's numbers, MSN's financial performance continues to deteriorate. With each passing quarter, in my opinion, the chance that the division will ever mount a serious challenge to Google and Yahoo in search (or any web business) gets slimmer and slimmer.
- MSN advertising revenue rose only 7% y/y, a deceleration from December's mediocre 12% and September's 20%. This compares to Yahoo's 34% and Google's 79%.
- Search revenue actually declined y/y. Microsoft blames this on the transition to adCenter, but shrinking revenue in a market growing this fast is a terrible sign. All else being equal, shifting to adCenter modestly increases revenue-per-click because MSN goes from booking net revenue to gross revenue. This illustrates just how much revenue is being lost due to lower keyword prices on adCenter than Yahoo.
- Operating income also declined, from positive $102 million to negative $26 million. The division is now detracting from the performance of Microsoft as a whole.
- The plunge into the red resulted from declining revenue and a headcount increase of a whopping 35%. Whatever the new folks are doing, they aren't selling ads.
MSN's heavy investment in headcount and R&D, combined with a renewed willingness to run the division at a loss, shows how seriously Microsoft is taking MSN and the Google threat. Despite this, however, the division's performance shows no signs of a turnaround (on the contrary, it just gets worse). Analysts and commentators conditioned by years of Microsoft's come-from-behind victories in software continue to act as though MSN's ascendancy is only a matter of time. The numbers (and general business history) suggest otherwise.
Microsoft has been at the web business for 11 years now–and it is still running a distant third. How long Microsoft will continue to believe that gaining real traction online is just a matter of hiring the right people, developing the right algorithms, or spending the right amount of money remains a mystery. Unless the MSN division soon shows signs of first stabilizing and then regaining share, however, even the Microsoft faithful may eventually have to throw in the towel.
The hirings of Steve Berkowitz, Ray Ozzie, etc. are positive, but, for MSN, they are probably too little too late. I continue to believe that the best solution to a tough problem is a spin-off. It worked for Expedia, Slate, and other Microsoft web businesses, and it still has a chance of working for MSN. Also, why any one company wants to have $50 billion in revenue and compete with IBM and Oracle on one end and Google, Time Warner, and Sony on the other is beyond me. With each successive re-org, however, it becomes clearer that Microsoft is deadset on doing just that.


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Reblogged from NaturalNews.com
Synthetic artificial butter flavoring chemical promotes the development of
Alzheimer's Disease
We are exposed to dangerous chemical compounds every day from a variety of household and environmental sources as well as from most processed foods. Extensive research has shown that these synthetic compounds promote the development and progression of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and dementia. Now researchers signal a strong warning about artificial butter flavorings commonly used in microwave popcorn and a variety of other food products. Countless individuals are at risk as they unexpectedly consume foods ranging from margarine and snack foods to candy and baked goods.
Scientific evidence now indicts the chemical compound known as diacetyl (DA), a flavoring agent that provides the flavor and appearance of butter, as a component in the development of beta-amyloid tangles associated with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers publishing in the journal, Chemical Research in Toxicology found evidence that diacetyl intensifies the damaging effects of an abnormal brain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease. DA is used in dozens of food products to provide the taste and appearance of butter and to extend shelf life. Diacetyl disrupts electrical and chemical brain signaling leading to Alzheimer's disease.
About the author:
John Phillip is a Health Researcher and Author who writes regularly on the cutting edge use of diet, lifestyle modifications and targeted supplementation to enhance and improve the quality and length of life.
Use Coconut Oil to make your stove popcorn and help prevent Alzheimer's Disease at the same time! You can find quality coconut oil at any of our 3 Baum's locations! To learn more about coconut oil, check out this post.


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Sunday, May 30, 2010
Nigh on unbelievable now, but these actually existed.
When radium was first discovered it seemed so mysterious and exciting that it must somehow be good for you - it was crow-barred into an array of means of ingestion, including fags. Radium Cigarettes - Jesus.
Surely nothing contemporary will be quite so tragically laughable in the future.
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Pacific Combat Zone
PT Boat Virtual Tour
Patrol Torpedo Boat-309 is the only restored World War II combat veteran Higgins class PT boat on public display in the United States today. Our display replicates a dock in the South Pacific where the crew is preparing for a night mission.
Take the Virtual Tour


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I bought this because Simon told me to. Simon said.
This book is a series of essays related to the 2009 conference of The Beeronomics Society. It says on its back cover that it "is the first economic analysis of the beer market and brewing industry" but that is just silly puffery. There have been loads of economic analysis of the beer market and brewing industry. Frankly we have been weighed down by them. Don't make me review Tremblay and Trembaly again. Do you remember those graphs and tables?
This book is a lot like one of my favorite sets of essays, the papers from the "Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture." It is also a lot like Beer and Philosophy, a set of essays which included one from me on the underlying philosophy of beer regulation in Canada. What they all have in common is that they are a collection of papers tackling aspects of a general topic from various points of view. In the TEOB you will find 18 papers from the 2009 conference organized under the four topics of history, consumption, industrial organization and the new beer markets. With any luck, as with the annual baseball conference but unlike Beer and Philosophy, the followup second conference of The Beeronomics Society will issue another volume of essays reflective of the topics covered in September 2011.
So is it worth getting? For a book nerd like me, sure. I was a little uneasy with the superficiality of the first essay "A Brief Economic History of Beer" given it covered so much of time and culture so quickly. However, when I saw that there was an essay by Richard Unger, everyone's favorite beery medievalist and Renaissance man, I was won over. And the essay "Recent Economic Developments in the Import and Craft Segments of the US Brewing Industry" by the manical graph-huggers¹ T+T may serve as something of an update of their 2005 book. Best of all, each submission comes with its own bibliography alerting folk like me to other papers and texts that might be out there just waiting to be added to the book shelf.
Published, too, by Oxford University Press, this book is another sign that we fans of beer and brewing live in lucky times. If I have more intelligent comment after reading a bit more, I will add it in the comments. But at this point this, too, looks like a good buy for the serious beer nerd.
¹ There are seven graphs and four table in just 18 pages!!!


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How would you describe Deliver Paper Studio? We are a refined paper studio aimed at creating conceptually driven wedding invitations for design-conscious brides.
What inspired the company? Deliver was born to fill a void. Over and over we kept seeing the same designs in the wedding world but we knew there was more to wedding paper than just a formula, template or trend. No two brides or couples are identical and we believe the same should be true for design. We knew it took research, attention to detail and a good eye to bring about unique and intentional designs, and that is what we set out to do. It also didn't hurt we had friends getting married left and right that needed help with designs so we were happy to test the waters individually before taking the leap together into what is now Deliver.
What inspires you? We are incredibly inspired by brides who have a vision but trust us with the outcome. If a bride gives us just an inch of their vision and all of their trust, we run a mile with it hoping to push it as far as we can. Where there is trust there is creative freedom. We are also inspired by tangible design such as texture, shapes, architecture, fine art and textiles. We are currently into studying architectural shapes and light.
What is the best part about working as a team? We would easily say there are so many benefits working as a team. Mostly, it helps with the decision making process. It requires that we slow down and have a conversation to ensure it is the correct decision rather than quickly and solely making one without someone looking over details or designs. Also, we are strong team and enjoy bouncing ideas of each other, which always helps provide creative clarity.
How would you define your style? Our style is a mix of classic typography meets modern use of composition and shapes with a little edge thrown in. We love creating out of simple shapes, lines and paper textures for an overall clean design.
How does Deliver differ from other wedding invitation services? Rather than just create an invitation, we aim to establish a brand which serves as a visual extension of the couple. Every job is full of deep research, exploring various options and fine tuning design in hopes of creating a look and feel that is simple, effective and all their own. Then, from wedding invitations and response cards to wax seals and envelope liners, we want to carry the established identity throughout the wedding to give the guests an overall experience, personally connecting them to the couple and who they are.
What would be your mission for Deliver? We hope to inspire brides to think of their wedding not as a Saturday event or a Pinterest board, but as an atmosphere established by good design and tasteful style.
Tell us a little about Kelly: Kelly is a a curious lady with passion that won't be beat. Outside of design, music is Kelly's greatest passion thanks to her dad who had her hooked on Stevie Nicks at the age of four. In her free time, Kelly still loves to shoot film, experiment in the kitchen, find new music and travel to new cities with her husband.
Tell us a little about Sam: Sam is a gentle soul with a smile so big her eyes disappear. When she has a moment, Sam likes to cruise around on her new bike, read a good book or add to her vintage paper and magazine collection (long live paper!). Oh yeah, and she just got engaged!


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Duggal at Global Shop 2016 – Meet Our Artist – Yulia Gorbachenko
Duggal at Global Shop 2016 – Meet Our Artist – Yulia Gorbachenko
Yulia specializes in fashion and beauty photography, a practice in which very small details can make a dramatic difference. Yulia has to think of everything. The lighting has to be exact, the model, her hair, makeup, nails and styling, and, of course, the concept of the shoot that organizes all of these considerations. Her goal is always to render that core idea in the most sumptuous and stunning image possible. Her gift is her acute perception of detail.
She began to learn how to do make her startling images when she first received a semi-professional camera for her twenty-first birthday. She soon started shooting and grew to love photography very quickly. She developed her photography style through studying Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), eventually graduating with a Master's Degree. Yulia was born and raised in Ukraine, but now she lives in New York with her husband and son. She feels she was born to live here, at the intersection of beauty, photography and commercial opportunities to work hard for something she loves. Yulia hopes to use Duggal's fabricated pedestals to showcase her work.
To schedule a tour of our GlobalShop booth in Las Vegas to see the artists' work in person, sign up here.
CONTACT US VIA EMAIL: firstname.lastname@example.com


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COPYRIGHT © Whimsical Flukes of Essence | By Mysticaldivine/Faiqa / [2016].
Registration# [EO4G-AXHN-CRAM-CMQE]
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material from this Blog without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. If used/or mentioned, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Mysticaldine/Faiqa] and/or [Whimsical Flukes of Essence | By Mysticaldivine/Faiqa] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content./Us Copyright Law&Act
The whimsical flukes of Arshi Essence …Through my eyes 🙂
Hello! Arshi Lovers,
Stories of Arnav and Khushi which I love to call "Whimsical flukes of an essence " as The essence of these stories are inspired by the show Is Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon which is whimsical and makes us feel the music of flukes in the air….at least I do feel that…
I started writing these stories a little after the show ended to keep this essence around…A Couple of One/Two/Three Shots among a Short story "Inciting Desires 2" along with A Fan Fiction having some mystery around through "A Silent Roar" and now with a thriller FF "Crumbling Embers.
Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing these.
Note: The links to all my FF are provided in the "index" tab while "Crumbling embers" has a separate tab at the top of this page. You can come back to this page by clicking on the "Home " icon provided at the top…
My Current Mystery/Romance is "Induratize "..enjoy
Feel free to ask Q Here… Chatting Lounge
~ Faiqa ~
#Arshi #Sarun #IPKKND #BarunSobti #SanayaIrani #Isspyarkokyanaamddon #Arnav #Khsuhi /
Diaphanous / Delicate/Fine/Transulent


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Hungry for Hope: Sex and Skinny Conference offers Information, Worship and Experiential Activities for Mental Health Professionals and the Public
Contact: Mary Anne Morrow, Director of Communications, Timberline Knolls, 602-359-6989, firstname.lastname@example.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 30, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Many women today struggle with numerous challenges including eating disorders, trauma and body image issues. Research indicates that three out of four women have eating issues and one out of four women has experienced sexual abuse. To help individuals, mental health professionals and those with loved ones affected by these disorders, FINDINGbalance, a leading Christian resource for eating and body image issues, and its sponsors including Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, are holding a special conference, Hungry for Hope: Sex and Skinny, June 21 – 24, 2012, at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. Nestled in the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, an English Tudor-style castle, is a healing destination for those seeking physical, emotional and spiritual renewal.
"At Hungry for Hope, Christian clinicians have the opportunity to learn from and connect with other professionals who share their faith and values," said Constance Rhodes, founder and CEO of FINDINGbalance. "Many women, and men, have some sort of eating issue. A full 40 percent of new visitors to porn sites are women and a significant percentage of those with eating disorders have experienced sexual trauma or addiction."
The conference's theme of Sex and Skinny will take a look at God-given sexuality, which has been a point of contention within the church for millennia. This often results in women feeling shame, fear and confusion about their bodies. For women to operate in a healthy way in these areas, Christian leaders and laypersons need to be equipped with scripturally sound views of sexuality and the body.
"Research studies have shown that women struggling with eating issues such as anorexia, bulimia, exercise addiction and emotional eating, also often struggle with sexual ones," said Margaret Nagib, PsyD, spirituality clinical coordinator at Timberline Knolls and keynote speaker at the conference. "True healing from these issues can only be realized as the individual identifies how these behaviors are used to cope with emotional and relational pain and looks to God as her source for her deepest longings and needs."
Hungry for Hope is designed as a retreat to encourage, inspire and equip professionals and community members with stories, practical clinical tools and spiritual teaching to promote a healing path. For more information or to register for the event, please visit: www.hfhconference.com/content/register.html
Todd Warren, spirituality coordinator at Timberline Knolls, will be performing at the conference. A nationally-known songwriter, recording artist and ordained minister, Todd uses his music to help women and girls express and celebrate their spirituality.
About Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center:Timberline Knolls is a leading private residential treatment center for women and adolescent girls (ages 12 – 65+) with eating disorders, substance abuse, trauma, mood and co-occurring disorders. Located in suburban Chicago, residents receive excellent clinical care from a highly trained professional staff on a picturesque 43-acre wooded campus. Women and families seeking Christian treatment can opt for specialized Christian-based therapy. For more information on Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, call us at 877.257.9611. We are also on Facebook – Timberline Knolls, and LinkedIn – Timberline Knolls.
About FINDINGbalance:FINDINGbalance is the leading Christian resource for eating and body image issues. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, FINDINGbalance has been working for over a decade to provide Christ-centered videos, articles, curriculum, presentations and conferences that equip lay people and clinicians alike to help people eat well and live free from eating and body image issues. Learn more at their award-winning website, www.findingbalance.com.
About Hungry for Hope:Hungry for Hope is the premiere Christian conference for eating disorders and body image issues. Hosted by FINDINGbalance in a turn-of-the-century Castle in Colorado Springs, this unique conference combines Christ-centered teaching with worship, experiential activities and the arts to refresh and restore those impacted by and/or serving those with eating disorders and body image concerns. Learn more at www.hfhconference.com.


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Getty Images
Denver needed 51 points to escape with a three-point win at Dallas on Sunday.
But that doesn't mean that Denver will not be a simply overwhelming favorite in Week Six against 0-5 Jacksonville.
The LVH Las Vegas Hotel and Casino made Denver a 28-point favorite against Jacksonville in Week Six, according to the sportsbook itself and multiple point spread monitoring sites.
At the very least, this is the biggest point spread for an NFL game since 2007, when New England was favored by 25 points, per Marc Lawrence's 2013 Stat and Log Book, a record of recent line history.


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Got a long car journey ahead of you? If so, there are some essential checks you need to make before you set off. It's a great way to travel, but unless you want to end up risking problems half way through, you need to prepare well first. Here's everything you need to do.
Check your tires
Make sure that your car tires are pumped to the optimal level. You'll find the correct pressure in your owner's manual, so get some air into them! Not only will it help you drive in a more efficient way, but it will also reduce the risk of an accident. While you are looking at your tires, you should also check the threads to see if they are worn anywhere.
Refresh your toolkit
At a very basic level, you should have a spare wheel, jack, and wheel removal tool. On long journeys., statistics suggest that you are more at risk from a puncture or a wheel blow. You should also consider the time it will take to change your tire. Torque tools will help you remove those nuts faster than a standard hand tool, which you will be happy about if you blow a tire in the middle of nowhere at night.
Top up your oil
Use your dipstick and ensure there is enough oil in there.If there isn't, top it up. If the oil runs dry in your vehicle, it's going to spell major engine problems – and you may end up needing a brand new car. Also, check for the last time you had your oil and filter changed. If it was a long time ago, it's best to replace them before you set off on a long drive.
Water and coolants
Water and coolants are vital to your car's health, so check that you have enough to last the distance. On hot days, you should also check this more often. If it's cold, make sure that your antifreeze levels are high enough, too. It will help stop the coolant freezing over when you make pit stops.
Wiper check
Your windscreen wipers might be the last of your worries but make no mistake, you will need them. And, of they don't work, it could have you in all kinds of trouble. Whether it is pouring down with rain or you hit a dust storm, it's going to be bad news if you can't see out of your windscreen. Also, take this time to inspect your windscreen for any little chips – they could turn into dangerous cracks on your journey.
Make sure that your lights are working, too. If you don't make this simple check, you could have an accident.Even if you don't, you are just asking to be pulled over by the highway patrol. It's going to save you a long time, in the long run, so the sensible move is to check them.
This one could be the most important on the list! If you have kids, it can be tough for them – and you – on a long journey. To help them get through it, make sure you have plenty on hand to keep them entertained.
Enjoy your trip!


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Picture by Nicobobinus: Bromley-by-Bow
It's not unusual to share your name with others. Zeitgeist children cluster in their schoolyards, inscribing worksheets with Olivia P, Olivia J, Olivia F, and on through the alphabet. Funny David Mitchell vies for attention with Writer David Mitchell, both of them overshadowing Politician David Mitchell and Canadian Lacrosse Player David Mitchell, while Accountant Down The Road David Mitchell and That Guy From Karen's Sister's Choir David Mitchell languish in obscurity. Even people with more peculiar names—Felicity Matheson, Shari Akbar, Giacomo Corrado—frequently have to share.
All the same, you'd think that one of the few advantages of being named Barnabé Wender would be some level of uniqueness.
Unfortunately for Barnabé Wender—and indeed for Barnabé Wender—there are two of them. Even more unfortunately, they both live in places named Bromley.
Barnabé Wender arranges to meet Barnabé Wender on neutral territory, in St James's Park, far from either Bromley. The lake's been drained for cleaning, but there are still a few ducks left, fighting for space around the remaining puddles; Barnabé tears off a chunk of bread and throws it onto the concrete.
Barnabé Wender arrives late, carrying a bulging Somerfield bag. "Barnabé Wender? I'm Barnabé Wender," he says. His smile is wide.
"Hello," Barnabé Wender says.
"These are for you, I think," Barnabé Wender says, hefting the bag. "Amazon wishlist books. They arrived last week—your birthday, I suppose? Lots of notes from people I'd never heard of, anyway. Carmen says she misses you."
Barnabé Wender takes the bag; he has little choice. "Thank you," he says stiffly. There's a teach-yourself-Spanish book on top, and a copy of Singstar Abba, and he tenses at the idea that his friends have seen a wishlist with Singstar Abba on it and thought it belonged to him.
"I've updated my profile to make sure it won't happen again," Barnabé Wender tells him.
"I appreciate that," Barnabé Wender says.
They fall into silence. Barnabé Wender has his bread in one hand, and the bag of books in another; he can no longer feed the ducks. Barnabé Wender watches him.
"So," Barnabé Wender says.
"So," Barnabé Wender replies.
They're silent again.
Barnabé Wender has an itchy nose, but it would be a sign of weakness to scratch it, and his hands are full anyway. He concentrates on looking steadily at Barnabé Wender without blinking too much. "This can't go on," he says.
"No," Barnabé Wender replies.
This has happened before. Bromley (home of Barnabé Wender) is five miles north-east of Charing Cross, which is confusing in many ways because Bromley (home of Barnabé Wender) is also nine miles south-east of Charing Cross. North-east Bromley's addition of "-by-Bow" is enough to distinguish the two locations in casual use, and on careful maps; but it's a clumsy solution at best, and unequal to boot. Barnabé Wender feels that it's time for south-east Bromley to make some concessions.
"What I suggest," he says, "is that you change your name to Barnabé Wender-by-Chislehurst."
Barnabé Wender smiles again. His hands are empty. "Interesting idea," he says.
"It needn't be a legal change," Barnabé Wender says. "Everyday usage would suffice."
"The trouble with that," Barnabé Wender says, "is that I like my name as it is. And I've already registered barnabewender.com."
"But I," Barnabé Wender says, "have barnabewender.co.uk."
"Now that's hardly the same thing," Barnabé Wender says.
Barnabé Wender tries not to show his anger. "I also," he says, finally solving his hands problem by putting the loaf of bread in the bag, "have an extensive supply of business cards which I do not wish to waste."
"And I," says Barnabé Wender, "know how to punch you so it hurts."
Barnabé Wender flails defensively with the bag, but it's too late; Barnabé Wender is already too close, grinning. His eyelashes are dark and long. Barnabé Wender raises his arms to protect his head, dropping the bag; Barnabé Wender goes for his stomach. He's right; he does know how to punch so it hurts. Barnabé Wender stumbles backwards, out of range, then runs back in to kick, but he's slow and clumsy and Barnabé Wender evades him easily, moves in to hit him again.
Barnabé Wender turns around, almost falling into a bench, and runs. There are no footsteps behind him.
He reaches the bridge, panting, and then dares a backwards glance: nothing. He turns around completely, to check: still nothing. There's a tree blocking his view of the place where he and Barnabé Wender met, but there's no sign of pursuit. He bends over to catch his breath.
A voice comes from close behind him. "You forgot your books," Barnabé Wender says, and swings the bag up in a wide arc into the side of Barnabé Wender's head.
It's dark by the time Barnabé Wender-by-Bow makes it back to his local tube station, bruised and nauseated; he stumbles out of the carriage and over to the wall, where he rests for a moment, then forces himself to straighten up. He makes it outside before he slides towards the ground again. His shirt catches on the brickwork behind him, a plastic supermarket bag is clutched to his chest; his tie is missing, along with one shoe. He blinks, slowly, as Singstar Abba spills from the bag onto the footpath beside him in a shower of crumbs.


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You often hear long-time New Yorkers say things like: "I'd never been to the Empire State Building (or the Statue of Liberty) until a friend came from out of town and wanted to go."
That was pretty much my story, too, until George, a young man from Greece, came to Massachusetts and told us that his dream was to visit New York City. And he had his own list of must-sees: The Empire State Building, Times Square, the Apple Store, the Hard Rock Café and especially Madame Tussauds. "Madame Tussauds?" I said. "I thought that was in London," but George assured me there was one in Manhattan.
And because George is a budding chef, his must-see list included the famous New York restaurants that have three Michelin stars (there are five of them in Manhattan.) He could recite the names of their chefs, just the way movie fans recite the names of their favorite film stars. We had only two days to show George all of that-- Dec. 29 and 30-- so we drove to Manhattan to stay in daughter Eleni's apartment, which was empty over the holidays.
The first day, Nick took George to Ground Zero and the Empire State Building, but they didn't go up either one, because heavy fog had covered the city and there was zero visibility. But George did manage to get photographed outside the restaurant he most wanted to see – Eleven Madison Park (chef Daniel Humm, tasting menu $295. excluding beverages). And Nick took him to the bustling Apple Store at 59th and Fifth Avenue, where George pondered buying a tablet.
The next day I was the tour guide and we had to pack a week's worth of sight- seeing into 24 hours. First stop was the Museum of Natural History. George had seen the film "A Night at the Museum". We arrived before the museum opened at ten and the line of waiting families wound around the block. As soon as we got in, we hit the high spots:
Here's George, wearing camouflage, posing in front of the elephants. Next came the battle between the whale and the giant squid.
Here's the famous 94-feet-long blue whale hanging from the ceiling of the Hall of Ocean Life. And of course the dinosaur skeletons, although they did not scamper around as they did in the movie.
Next we took the subway from 80th Street down to Columbus Circle, where we photographed the window washers dangling from the Trump International Hotel and Tower. We admired the statue of Columbus in the center of Columbus Circle and I told George the story of how Mafia Boss Joe Colombo was shot right there in 1971 while addressing a huge crowd at the Italian Unity Day Rally, protesting the media's use of the word "Mafia.". (Nick covered it for The New York Times.)
Then we walked across to the Time Warner Center where we found, on the 4th floor of the Atrium, two of the three-star restaurants, Per Se (chef Thomas Keller, 9-course tasting menu $325 excluding beverages) and Masa (chef Masayoshi Takayama, prix fixe menu $450 excluding beverages.) We took pictures but we did not eat at either one. You can probably figure out why.
Instead we walked down Seventh Avenue to my personal favorite Greek restaurant Molyvos, between 55th and 56th, where we enjoyed the three-course Express Lunch menu for $28, with some nice wine from Santorini. Then we went around the corner to see the very trendy Milos Restaurant, whose chef is Costas Spiliadis—one of George's idols. We walked in to see the famous "fish market" in the back, where diners go to choose their seafood. It's flown in daily from Greece and the prices start at $125 a pound and go up.
From 55th Street we started walking down Seventh to see Times Square. I knew it would be crazy on the day before a million people crowded in on New Year's Eve (plus 6,000 cops). As we approached, we encountered this homeless man, holding a sign that read, "Happy New Year! No Family. Nowhere to go. Please help raise $48 for a hostel. Thank you! I Miss the Good Life."
I gave him some change, he continued sleeping, and we moved on, encountering the infamous Naked Cowboy. I had warned George about the scam artists who populate Times Square; topless women in bikinis and men dressed like Sesame Street or Star Wars characters. They come up to you, say, "Take a photo with me" and then demand $20 . So we stealthily photographed the Naked Cowboy from the back and moved on.
Next Blog Post: George and I survive Times Square, shake hands with VIPs at Mme. Tussauds, marvel at the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center, and ride 65 floors up to the Top of the Rock.


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By Garth Risk Hallberg (June 1, 2016)One Comment
The Last Samurai
By Helen DeWitt
Miramax, 2000
Miramax, 2000
|Most "cult" writers find their disciples only after years of semi-obscurity; Helen DeWitt, who published her first novel The Last Samurai in 2000, found hers in the first sentence of the jacket copy. "Destined to become a cult classic": thus spoke the oracles of the Talk Miramax/Hyperion marketing department, and subsequent events seemed to bear out their augury. Last summer, in a New York magazine poll, the critic Sven Birkerts called The Last Samurai "The Best Novel You've Never Read." And now the Young Turks at N+1 have gone him one better, devoting 40 pages of their winter issue to an excerpt from DeWitt's second novel, Your Name Here, "a complicated and important work of art which unjustly has not yet been able to find a publisher in the United States or England" – a "cult" work in the making.
We learn as children, of course, that only the morally obtuse stoop to judging a book by its cover, but in revisiting The Last Samurai – which is indeed complicated, important, and a work of art – it's worth considering the mixed blessing of all prophecy, and the backhanded compliment implicit in that jacket-copy prediction. Why "cult?" Why not just, "destined to become a classic?"
A biographical critic might connect DeWitt's "cult" status to her uncompromising authorial persona. The word "reclusive" appears three times in the N+1 introduction, which nods approvingly at her expatriatism (she has lived in England and now resides in Germany). Like her literary forebears, DeWitt has embraced cunning, exile, and the writer's version of silence. Yet she is hardly J.D. Salinger. She keeps a blog called paperpools. For a few dollars, you can download a short story from www.helendewitt.com – in Microsoft Word format, no less. One recent customer even got a nice email from the author. "Reclusive" doesn't seem to be the right word.
An overhasty reviewer might offer an equally easy and equally unsatisfying answer to the question of "cult": The Last Samurai's erudition limits its audience. The story concerns two linguistic prodigies, a mother and a son, and their learning gives the novel its texture. Greek and Japanese characters pepper the page – one imagines a typesetter groaning, head in hands – as do math problems and intertextual allusions ranging from Homer and Ovid to Kinski and (natürlich) Kurosawa. Intellectually, then, DeWitt seems aligned with the post-Ulysses school of anatomic novel-writing, which has produced more than its fair share of "cult" writers: William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace…
Following Joyce, though, the anatomist embeds and signifies his learning in a style of pyrotechnic complexity; his cult status (a sign of high seriousness) is secured not by the range of his references, but by his refusal to translate his shibboleths. DeWitt deploys her erudition quite differently. She doesn't merely write Greek and Japanese; she teaches them. The patient reader emerges from The Last Samurai able to read a Greek cognate such as ανδρασιν ("men [M. dative plural]"). In this, the novel harkens back to a premodern, rather than to a modernist, tradition. Helen DeWitt has taken quite literally the Horatian injunction to instruct as well as to entertain.
Her prose, too, diverges from the gnomic prolixity of other "cult" writers. This is not to say that she isn't a stylist, but rather that she seems determined to distance herself from the stylist's customary repertoire. Linguistic and cultural references may enrich the diction, but DeWitt's basic unit of composition is the simple, declarative sentence. Take this passage from the prologue, in which Sibylla Newman, the narrator, tells us how she came to be born: "My father was struck speechless with disgust. He left the house without a word. He drove a Chevrolet 1,300 miles." These sentences are like the logical propositions Wittgenstein describes in the Tractatus. Each corresponds to, and so depicts, a state of affairs. The syntax seems almost reactionary: subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb. Keep reading, though, and you discover that simple propositions bend toward the moral and the metaphysical as surely as the dream-tongue of Finnegans Wake:
In later years my father sometimes played a game. He'd meet a man on his way to Mexico and he'd say, Here's fifty bucks, do me a favor and buy me some lottery tickets, and he'd give the man his card. Say the odds against winning the jackpot were 20 million to 1 and the odds against the man giving my father the winning ticket another 20 million to 1, you couldn't say my father's life was ruined because there was a 1 in 400 trillion chance that it wasn't.
With its colloquial repetitions, its undifferentiated dialogue, and its gallows humor, this passage is typical of the novel as a whole, as is the leap from the quotidian "fifty bucks" worth of lottery tickets to the melancholy grandeur of ruined lives – the scale of a number like 400 trillion, ineffable but terribly exact.
Beneath the simple surface of DeWitt's propositions, then, lurks a vast ambition: an ambition that privileges form over fact and inquiry over knowledge. Like the early Wittgenstein, DeWitt wants to clear away the confusions that arise from the sloppy use of language, and like the later Wittgenstein, she wants to run against the boundaries of language and to gesture at what lies beyond them. The result is a peculiar tension between precision and disorder. That DeWitt sustains it for more than 500 pages is as much an ethical statement as an aesthetic one.
The beginning of the novel proper deposits us in present-day London, in the company of Sibylla, who has dropped her graduate studies at Oxford after an unplanned pregnancy. Her narration of these circumstances never quite reaches the point of conception, both because Sibylla keeps digressing about various historical geniuses and because she keeps being interrupted by her five-year-old son Ludo, himself a
"Why are they fighting?
Can't you read what it says?
OF COURSE I can read it but WHY
Well, they're looking for samurai to defend the village from bandits."
DeWitt presents Ludo's interruptions just as I have presented them here, unannounced and unexplained, and as they proliferate, The Last Samurai's early chapters become a bricolage of narration and digression and bits of the books and movies with which Sibylla tries to occupy her son. The effect is both artful and the opposite of artful: it feels like the truth. Apparently, the life of a single mother with a child prodigy is more disorienting than glamorous.
Social facts peek through the gaps between the different narrative registers. Lacking a labor permit, Sibylla works off the books, typing up old issues of magazines like Sportsboat and Waterski International for digitization. At the same time, she attempts to keep an eye on Ludo. They live in a cramped, sporadically heated apartment, and in an economy that privileges utility over talent. They are barely hanging on. Sibylla earns our sympathy by playing this situation for comedy:
I should be typing Advanced Angling as they want it back by the end of the week, but it seems important to preserve my sanity. It would be false economy to forge ahead with typing until maddened to frenzy by an innocent child.
It becomes apparent that she herself is a genius, and one might think she'd want to furnish her genius son with the tools to avoid meeting a fate like her own. Instead, Sibylla feels an obligation to protect him from the vulgarity and stupidity of a world that, for example, pays people to retype Advanced Angling. She likens conventionally successful people, such as Ludo's otherwise unnamed father, to Liberace; against them she sets her personal pantheon of iconoclasts: Glenn Gould, Rilke, Akira Kurosawa.
A running set of epigraphs from Kurosawa makes it clear that Sibylla sees these heroes as latter-day samurai, bound to a code that transcends the philistinism of daily life. She cultivates the code in Ludo, too. After she takes him to a poorly received concert by an avant-garde Japanese pianist, one Kenzo Yamamoto, a quest, of sorts, is inaugurated. Ludo decides to use the scant information his mother has given him to look for his missing father. He will test seven men – the pianist, an artist, two journalists, and two adventurers – to determine their suitability.
|The introduction of an old-fashioned plot into The Last Samurai's principled disorder is jarring. The model, however loose, is The Seven Samurai, in which, we are told a young ronin joins a band of warriors to defend a village against bandits. Ludo is the ronin, obviously. But who are the bandits? And what is the village? More jarring still is a concurrent shift in voice. Halfway through the novel, without warning or ceremony, DeWitt has switched narrators, so that the second half of the book will be Ludo's. As a structural enactment of the child's ego-separation from the parent, this is wholly appropriate. However, we hunger for Sibylla's point-of-view, and as Ludo's search for his samurai takes him farther and farther from the apartment, we will spend less and less time in her company.
In place of the comforting rhythms of a well-made modernist novel, DeWitt, characteristically, has given us something asymmetric and surprising. We think not of the painter of modern life, imposing form on chaos, but of the bansai artist, whose scissors follow the tree where it wants to go. The form of any novel, of course, tends toward a narrative end, and Sibylla's digressions and distractions, however captivating, have thus far frustrated our desire for plot. Indeed, Sibylla increasingly sees herself at loose ends, or even a dead one.
Though Ludo's voice bears a filial resemblance to his mother's, his world is still full of possibility, and as he explores it, the story accelerates. One of his seven samurai punches him. One slices Ludo with a knife. One, having stared too long into the abyss, thinks of jumping. Each has a story of his own, a nested narrative, and each of these stories is more moving than the last.
More importantly, Ludo offers us a clearer understanding of what we read in the first part of the book. Sibylla, a charming and very literary eccentric, emerges in his eyes as a fully articulated human being – and as a woman whose frustration with the world threatens to destroy her. We recall, for example, that she tried to kill herself before her son was born. "What if a person called the [suicide hotline] and they weren't very helpful?" Ludo asks one of his samurai.
What if there was a person who thought the world would be a better place if everyone who would enjoy seeing a Tamil syllabary had access to a Tamil syllabary? What if there was a person who kept changing the subject? What if there was a person who never listened to anything anybody said?He said: Did you have anyone special in mind?I said I was speaking hypothetically.
This is a lie, of course. As Ludo continues, we can hear in his anaphoric fragments the measure of his desperation:
The type of person who thinks boredom a fate worse than death. The type of person who always wants things to be different. The type of person who would rather die than read Sportsboat and Waterski International.
He asks his interlocutor to help him save the person of whom he's been speaking. And in the space of a few sentences, the novel's resistance to imposing a conventional form on its material starts to look more like a refusal to let the story ripen before its time. All along, the quest of DeWitt's last samurai has been not to seek out like minds, but to redeem one very particular mind. And note, too, that The Last Samurai can be read as either singular or plural: there may be more than one. Redemption, the calling out from samurai to samurai, seems very much like the project of the novel.
It is difficult to know what to make of DeWitt's more recent work, which resists even more forcefully received wisdom about what fiction should look like and how it should read. But by turning her back both on the formal strictures of the well-made novel – which, absent their ability to surprise, decay into meaninglessness – and on the stylistic habits of postmodernism, Helen DeWitt has crafted at least one book that speaks directly to "the type of person who thinks boredom a fate worse than death." It is a small band, no doubt, like the mystery cults of Greece, or the Gnostic Christians, hermetic and even self-involved, but absent the safety of crowds, the ideal reader of The Last Samurai depends on art to make sense of the world. Which is a way of saying that the novel dignifies the term "cult," and not the other way around.
Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A Field Guide to the North American Family. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Canteen, The Pinch, Slate, and The Quarterly Conversation, among others, and in the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008 (Harcourt Books) and Best of the Web 2008 (Dzanc Books).
Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A Field Guide to the North American Family. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Canteen, The Pinch, Slate, and The Quarterly Conversation, among others, and in the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008 (Harcourt Books) and Best of the Web 2008 (Dzanc Books).


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The Principal Investigator of the ResIn study from October 2015 is Professor James Batchelor, in the Clinical Informatics Research Unit within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, UK. Previously, the PI was Dr Stuart Clarke (Southampton).
Co-applicants are Michael Head (University of Southampton), Joseph Fitchett (Harvard School of Public Health), Rifat Atun (Harvard School of Public Health), Marie-Louise Newell (University of Southampton), and Anthony Scott (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). Michael Head is the senior research fellow (and project lead) and Becky Brown is the project research fellow.
Professor James Batchelor
James is the Director of Clinical Informatics at the University of Southampton.The Unit provides innovative informatics software and solutions to clinical and laboratory research within the Academic and NHS environment. More recently these solutions are being adopted within the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network and the province of Alberta. He has been a Technical Adviser to Department of health organisations such as the NCRN and NIHR regarding the implementation of large Health related systems. James also assists in the development of specialist solutions based around emerging techniques and technology. James is often a keynote speaker at international conferences on the adoption of cloud technology for clinical research. He has an interest in Information architecture; Data Protection Law; Forensic Sciences.
Dr Michael Head
Michael Head is a Senior Research Fellow based in the Faculty of Medicine and the Global Health Research Institute at University of Southampton. He joined Southampton is October 2015, and prior to this was at University College London for eleven years in the Farr Institute for Health Informatics, acting as researcher and project manager on the UK Infectious Disease Research Network (IDRN). He is co-founder of the ResIn study and has been involved in leading work on mapping infectious disease research investments since 2006 (initially via the Infectious Disease Research Network). Michael has excellent links and broad knowledge of the infectious disease research community, and has authored several influential reports on IDRN outputs and priority topics. He has completed a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, has studied epidemiology to postgraduate level at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and has also trained in global health, systematic reviews, health policy and data linkage. He has research interests in care homes and infectious disease (especially scabies), and also public engagement (he is a regular speaker on the subject of vaccinations and 'anti-vaxxers' at Skeptics in the Pub meetings around the UK, and has taken this talk into secondary schools).
Further information is available at Michael's researchgate profile, or at google scholar.
Dr Rebecca Brown
Rebecca Brown is a Research Fellow for the ResIn study based in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. In 2011, she received a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester following which she went on to be awarded an MSc in Immunology from Imperial College, London in 2012. She has completed her PhD in Clinical Microbiology at Cardiff University during which she has worked closely with Public Health England to monitor epidemiology of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections, and to develop diagnostics and molecular typing methods for human Mycoplasma species.
Dr Joseph Fitchett
Dr Joseph Fitchett is a Frank Knox Fellow in public health and infectious disease epidemiology at Harvard University, focusing on the impact of global policy on vaccines, drugs, and access to heath technologies.
In particular, Joe's work has focused on vaccines for emerging infections, drugs for neglected diseases, and the intersection between the TB and HIV epidemics. Joe is a co-founder of the ResIn study and also a collaborator with the Global Burden of Disease study.
During his doctoral programme, he has also worked for the Gates Foundation in London on maternal and child health programmes.
Further information is available at Joseph's researchgate profile, or at google scholar.
Prof Rifat Atun
Professor Rifat Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard School of Public Health, MA, USA. He has many years of research experience in global health financing and has published widely in high-impact journals in this area. In 2008-12 he was a member of the Executive Management Team of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation Cluster. He chaired the panel that made annual funding recommendations of US$ 2-2.5 billion and hence was able to gain unique insight into how investment decisions are made and how they drive the formulation of policy for infectious diseases.
Further information is available at Rifat's researchgate profile, or his institutional webpage.
Prof Marie-Louise Newell
Marie-Louise Newell is Professor of Global Health and has a background in Medicine, Demography and Epidemiology; her research has focused on maternal and child health, particularly infections and transmission from mother-to-child. At the University College London Institute of Child Health, she led a European cohort of HIV-infected pregnant women and their children, and was involved in research in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Since late 2005 for eight years, she has been based in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa as Director of the Wellcome Trust-funded Africa Centre for Health & Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal where she has initiated a broad innovative programme of research addressing the impact of HIV infection at a population, household and individual level. She established a partnership with the SA Department of Health in the Hlabisa sub-district to provide HIV treatment and care, resulting in more than 28,500 HIV-infected people initiated on treatment by mid-2013. Recent research from the Centre has shown that the HIV treatment provided in the public programme has resulted in a substantial reduction of adult and child mortality, and has started to have an impact on HIV incidence. However, with success also comes concern: her interest in infections in pregnant women and their children is now moving to evaluating the mid- and longer term implications of exposure to infections and treatment for the woman and her child. She reviews for a large number of expert journals, is member of international expert review bodies and was appointed a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2013.
Now at Southampton, she is focusing on research on the mid- and longer term consequences of exposure to HIV and its treatment in fetal and early life for children born to HIV infected mothers, as well as continue to evaluate HIV prevention interventions. Marie-Louise is also leading on the development of a Global Health Research Institute at Southampton.
See more information at Marie-Louise's institutional profile, or on Researchgate.
Prof Anthony Scott
Anthony trained in clinical infectious diseases and epidemiology before moving to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya in 1993. He has spent most of the last 20 years in Kenya, studying pneumococcal disease and pneumonia in children and adults, and vaccines to prevent them. Anthony is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science and works in clinical paediatrics in Kilifi. He joined the School in January 2013 after 15 years based at Oxford University. In addition to his research he has developed a surveillance network for invasive bacterial diseases in East Africa (Netspear) and co-directs the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System. Anthony works frequently with WHO and GAVI on vaccine preventable diseases and with the Ministry of Health in Kenya on the evaluation of pneumococcal vaccine. In the UK he is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and Director of the the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Immunisation at LSHTM which involves a portfolio of work on disease burden, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine safety, modelling, cost-effectiveness, vaccine acceptability and policy implementation in collaboration with Public Health England.
Anthony's main research interests are in child health and vaccines in East Africa. He runs the Pneumcoccal Conjugate Vaccine Impact Study, an effectiveness evaluation of vaccine introduction in Kenya, and a series of associated studies of transmission and modelling of pneumococcal disease, evaluation of vaccine safety, and pathogen population structure.
See more information via Anthony's institutional profile, or Researchgate.
Additional or previous collaborators
Dr Stuart Clarke
Stuart is PI on the ResIn grant. Dr Clarke developed his independent research career in 1999 when he was Director of the Scottish Meningococcus and Pneumococcus Reference Laboratory. His research focuses on the molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae and other vaccine-preventable bacterial infections, particularly in relation to polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. Dr Clarke was involved in the national meningococcal carriage study, led by Professors Martin Maiden and James Stuart, which was mainly funded by the Wellcome Trust. His laboratory led on the Scottish component of the study jointly with Health Protection Scotland. His laboratory was the first to introduce automated methods for multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and was also the first reference laboratory in the world to introduce the method as a routine clinical service. He has since been involved in various pneumococcal and MenB carriage studies. The Southampton paediatric pneumococcal carriage study has been running for 10 years, since the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in the UK.
In collaboration with a pharmaceutical company, Dr Clarke leads the microbiology component of a 5 year programme of work which aims to generate epidemiological data to further explore determinants of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and the contribution of bacterial and viral pathogens to Acute Exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) episodes. Dr Clarke has many other international collaborations, mostly in South East Asia. In Singapore, he collaborates with Professor Martin Hibberd and Dr Swaine Chen at the A*Star Genome Institute Singapore and also with colleagues in the Department of Microbiology at the National University of Singapore where he holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position.
Stuart obtained a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Leicester. He was Director of the Scottish Meningococcus and Pneumococcus Reference Laboratory in Glasgow between 1998 and 2004. He then took up specialist training in public health in Hampshire and was awarded an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2005. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom in 2007.
Dr Clarke is Reader in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant in Health Protection. He splits his time between the University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine and Health Protection Agency Microbiology Services Southampton. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers in the areas mainly in the field of N. meningitidis and S. pneumoniae infection. His current work focuses on the epidemiology of pneumococcal carriage and disease in relation to polysaccharide conjugate vaccines.
See more information at Stuart's institutional profile, or on Researchgate.
Amos Lichtman
Amos is a Masters of Public Health student at the Harvard School of Public Health, and is in his final year of M.D. studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He began working with the ResIn study in 2014, while studying under Dr. Rifat Atun at HSPH. He completed his Sc.B. in neuroscience at Brown University, and also has been involved epidemiological research and systematic reviews.
Damilola Soyode
Damilola Soyode is currently a Master of Public Health student at Harvard School of Public Health focusing on global health and an M.D. candidate in her final year at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She received a BSc in biology from Imperial College London, UK where she concentrated on infectious agents and epidemiology. She became part of the ResIn study in 2014.
Jimena Villar de Onis
Jimena Villar de Onis is a Masters in Science in Public Health candidate at the Harvard of Public Health, focusing on global health, disaster relief, and failing health systems in countries dealing with humanitarian disasters. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Law with honours where she studied human rights and the interface of public health and the law. Jimena joined the ResIn study in 2014 to explore global funding on Ebola.
Vaitehi Nageshwaran
Vaitehi is currently a final year medical student at Imperial College London. She completed her BSc in Immunity and Infectious Diseases in 2013. She is a member of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), and as such is particularly interested in the role of universities in infectious disease research.
Charlie Zhou
Charlie Zhou is a final year medical student at the University of Oxford. He received a BA in Pathology in 2013 from the University of Cambridge, specializing in cancer and virology. He joined the ResIn study in 2014 to help delineate research funding towards oncology in the UK.
Kevin Kasozi
Kevin is a final year BSc Computing student at Bournemouth University. As part of his final year project, (Spring 2017), he is updating the ResIn visualisation that allow the user to produce customised graphics relating to research investment and burden of disease. He is also adding new features such as interactive chloropleth maps and additional selections, to ensure the end-user can generate a wealth of informative graphics tailored to their own requirements.


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Hemorrhoid symptoms
Hemorrhoids have been classified in the two main varieties: external and internal.
External Hemorrhoid symptomsIn their most simple form, they may be present without giving rise to any symptoms and are usually unobserved until one of the various complications arises.
When symptoms are present, they are commonly described by the patient as a feeling of fullness, or a heaviness in the region of the anal margin.
Occasionally there is itching (pruritis) which is never intense unless followed by infection.
They are covered with skin which is unchanged in color and are soft swelling shich can be made to disappear on pressure. They are situated at the edge of the anal orifice.
When inflamed, there is acute pain which is more intense during defecation. The hemorrhoidal mass then is of a violet or purplish color, inceased in size, is firm and cannot be made to disappear on pressure.
There is an increase in local temperature and in some cases, a spasmodic contraction of the sphincter ani muscle.
Pain is severe in infected hemorrhoids, even in the small type. This may be readily expained by the rich sensory nerve supply in the lower part of the anal canal and margin of the anus.
When thrombosis occurs, there is a history of a sudden acute pain, commonly first noticed during defecation or straining which frequently disappears after the completion of the act. This is followed by a contant pain of more or less severity, due to the pressure on the nerve endings, and depending upon the extent of the swelling which disappears as the swelling subsides.
A thrombosed external hemorrhoid is usually self-limited and may terminate by resolution, leaving a skin tab or it may end by rupture on the skin surface and the evacuation of the clot, with more less hemorrhage. If followed by infection, it may be the direct cause of a marginal abcess. When the attack terminates by resolution, there is a tendency for it to recur.
Connective Tissue Hemorrhoids - Skin tabs - Sentinel Piles SymptomsIf uncomplicated, they cause no symptoms except in the toilet of the part, which incidentally can often be prevented by careful cleansing of the parts after defecation with some soft, material (wet wipes are fine as well). When complicated by infection, or fissure-in-ano, there is .
In extreme and severe cases, there is loss appetite, coated tongue, and digestive disturbancs, insomnia, fast pulse, slight rise of temperature and nervousness.
Internal Hemorrhoids SymptomsThe chief symptoms of internal hemorrhoids according to the frequency of occurence, are:
1. Bleeding
2. Prolapse
3. Itching ( pruritis )
4. Mental depression
5. Pain
Bleeding hemorrhoidsBleeding is the earliest and most common of symptoms and generally occurs during the act of defecation. It varies in a mount from the streaking of the stool in mild cases, to such an extent in extreme cases, that the patient becomes weak from the loss of blood.
The amount of blood lost each time does not often exceed a few teaspoonfuls, is of a dark color, and venous in origin. Occasionally, it is bright red or arterial in origin. In some cases spurting from the parts may be observed.
When a moderate degree of hemorrhage occurs at each and every defaction over a long period of time, anemia and cachexia follow which might be easily attributed to some other malady. It is surprising to note how rapidly the cachexia and anemia disappear when the hemorrhage has been controlled.
In cases of internal hemorrhoids of long standing with marked prolapse, the bleeding has a tendency to decrease because of the mucous membrane becoming thickened and less vascular.
Prolaped Protruding PilesThis cannot occur until the hemorrhoids have formed definte and distinct masses, and therefore it is generally a late symptom. Other than bleeding, it is the chief that causes the patient to seek medical advice.
At first it occurs only defecation following drastic purgatives or diarrhea, and returns spontaneously after the act. As time goes on, the protruding parts cease to return; the patient acquires the habit of reducing them by gentle pressure after each act of the bowels. In some cases of years' standing, the patient becomes a past master of this art and aids it by certain muscular movements and manipulation of the buttocks.
The protruding parts tend to become pedunculated and may prolapse on the slightest exertion when the patient walks, lifts, sneezes or coughs.
Unless the sphincter ani muscle is relaxed, they are likely te become strangulated at any time and this may be followed by thrombosis or by gangrene. In prolapsed piles there is usually a slight discharge of mucus which is sufficient in amount at times to keep the skin damp, soil the clothing, and cause itching.
Itching ( Pruritis )Itching is not a common symptom, but in many cases it may be the first sign noticed by the patient. It is to be remembered that hemorrhoids are only one of the numerous causes of pruritis.
In protruding internal hemorrhoids which prevent the sphincter ani muscle from entirely closing, the presense of mucus from the exposed mucous surface moistens the skin around the anus and is the cause of the irritation.
A proof that the itching is really caused by the discharge of the protruding pile, is that as soon as the pile disappers as result of treatment, the itching ceases. When this doen not occur, some other cause should be sought and treatment instituted accordingly.
Mental DepressionHemorrhoids can make people feel mentally depressed. It is often observed that as soon the patient is relieved from hemorrhoids an entire change in mental attitude of the patient occurs. His state of gloom was changed to a brighter and more optimistic view of life in general.
PainThis is a rare symptom of internal hemorrhoid unless complicated by infection or strangulation. Internal hemorrhoids may be present for year with constant bleeding and protruding of the parts, and give rise to nothing more than the sensation of weight and dragging in the region of the rectum.
It has been stated that pain from piles may be referred to different parts of the anatomy; the most common being the bladder and testicles in the male, and the uturus and ovaries in the female. As well as sciatica, pain in the back, so-called lumbago.
Where pain is complained of the chief symptom of the patient, and on examination you do not find protruding strangulated internal hemorrhoids, the pain is probably from some other cause. The common causes of pain are anal fissures, cryptitis, abscess, proctitis, and thrombosed external hemorrhoids.
Intestinal disorders
Celiac disease
Anatomy anus and rectum
Causes of hemorrhoids
Prevention of hemorrhoids
What are hemorrhoids
Types of hemorrhoids
External hemorrhoids
Internal hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoid symptoms
Diagnosing hemmorhoids
Hemorrhoid treatment
Ulcerative proctitis
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Accredited Member School - Criteria
An Accredited Member shall meet the following criteria:
- Each classroom has one teacher who holds an age-appropriate diploma from an
AMI or MACTE accredited teacher training institute or any other teacher training
programme that may be recognized by the CCMA.
- Each classroom has a full range of Montessori materials as recommended by
CCMA, which offers the broad curriculum to allow for sequential learning.
- Have multi-age grouping in each classroom (3-6,6-9,9-12 etc.) which supports
the concept that learning is a social process.
- Have a long uninterrupted work cycle which allows for the development of focus,
concentration, and engagement.
- Have a policy of admitting children to the programme at the appropriate age
level consistent with Montessori principles and sensitive periods for learning.
- Programmes for children 3-6 years of age, require attendance five days per
week for consistency in learning.
- Agree to abide by the CCMA Code of Ethics.
- Have successfully completed the Accreditation process which includes a comprehensive review of policies, standards, and practices of the school by a CCMA Accreditation team.
- Is licensed by the appropriate Provincial Licensing Authority.
- Meets the relevant Building, Health, Safety, and Fire codes and carry
appropriate insurance.
- Is guided by the educational philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori.


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How to Change the E-mail Signature on the iPad 2
The default "Sent from my iPad" signature isn't all that personal, so be sure to change it.
- Tap Settings from the iPad home screen.
- Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Signature.
- On the next screen delete "Sent from my iPad," and add your own signature.
- Click the tab on top of the screen that says "Mail, Contacts…" to save.