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The State of the Earth, 2010
These days, I see how optimistic and positive disaster and apocalypse movies were. Remember how, when those giant asteroids or alien spaceships headed directly for Earth, everyone rallied and acted as one while our leaders led? We're in a movie like that now, except that there's not a lot of rallying or much leading above the grassroots level.
The movie is called Climate Change, and you can tell its plot in a number of ways. In one, the alien monsters taking over the planet are called corporations, while the leaders who should be protecting us from their depredations are already subjugated and doing their bidding. Think of Chevron, Exxon, Shell, and the coal companies as gigantic entities that don't need clean water, or food, and don't care much if you do (as you can see from the filthy wreckage in their extraction zones and their spin against the science of our survival).
My recent research into conventional disasters suggests that climate change, despite its unconventional scale, is unfolding in ways familiar from the aftermaths of numerous hurricanes and earthquakes: The ruling elites too often "lead" by creating a second wave of destruction, while the rest of us pick up the pieces and do our best to do what's necessary. This is a movie whose crisis is upon us and whose resolution is out of sight, but if we are to be saved, I'll put my money on the small characters mitigating the crisis and getting us through the rough times to come.
The Day the Earth Got Stood Up
Last December, the Copenhagen Climate Summit gave the heads of state supposedly negotiating a future climate-change treaty a clear-cut choice between short-term profits for the few and the long-term survival of practically everyone and everything. As I'm sure you'll recall, they chose the former. You, the summer ice of the Arctic, about half the species on Earth, the shorelines of quite a few places, the glaciers of Glacier National Park, the birds in the trees, the marmots on the mountains, and the long-term future of just about everything were sold out for the sake of the market status quo, not by all the world's nations, but by the most powerful among them.
Not all of the elected leaders failed us. President Evo Morales of Bolivia called a people's summit on climate change which is going on right now, and the most threatened countries did a heroic job of facing up to the world's most powerful ones—tiny Tuvalu, soon to go beneath the waves, told off China, for example. Thanks to their stand and so their insubordination, Bolivia and Ecuador both lost their shot at State Department funding meant for poor countries which need to prepare for future climate-change disasters.
Forbidding Planet
Bill McKibben offers another compelling plot for this horror movie in his new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Its premise is not that something terrible came to Earth—after all we were the ones, over the last 200 years, who sent all those billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere—but that we ourselves have landed on a strange, dangerous, unfamiliar new planet he calls Eaarth. Think Forbidden Planet without Robby the Robot; think The Tempest with neither Ariel nor Prospero.
We no longer live on the kind, comfortable, stable planet we evolved on, he begins:
For the last ten thousand years that constitute human civilization, we've existed in the sweetest of sweet spots. The temperature has barely budged; globally averaged, it's swung in the narrowest of ranges, between fifty-eight and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. That's warm enough that the ice sheets retreated from the centers of our continents so we could grow grain, but cold enough that mountain glaciers provided drinking and irrigation water to those plains and valleys year round; it was the "correct" temperature for the marvelous diverse planet that seems right to us. And every aspect of our civilization reflects that particular world.
We built our great cities next to seas that have remained tame and level, or at altitudes high enough that disease-bearing mosquitoes could not over-winter. We refined the farming that has swelled our numbers to take full advantage of that predictable heat and rainfall; our rice and corn and wheat can't imagine another earth either. Occasionally, in one place or another, there's an abrupt departure from the norm—a hurricane, a drought, a freeze. But our very language reflects their rarity: freak storms, disturbances.
And then he begins to make the case that this planet, the one we've always lived on, no longer exists.
Nobody marshals facts better than McKibben. The first two chapters of Eaarth line up the evidence in a devastating way to show that climate change is not (despite the political rhetoric of the past decade) some horrid thing to be visited upon our grandchildren. It's here right now, visiting us. Here's just a sample of our world today:
A NASA study in December 2008 found that warming [of more than a degree and a half Fahrenheit] was enough to trigger a 45 percent increase in thunder-clouds that can rise five miles above the sea, generating 'super-cells' with torrents of rain and hail. In fact, total global rainfall is now increasing 1.5 percent a decade. Larger storms over land now create more lightning; every degree Celsius brings about 6 percent more lightning, according to the climate scientist Amanda Staudt. In just one day in June 2008, lightning sparked 1,700 different fires across California, burning a million acres and setting a new state record. These blazes burned on the new earth, not the old one ... In August 2009, scientists reported that lightning strikes in the Arctic had increased twenty-fold, igniting some of the first tundra fires ever observed.
According to the [National Sea Ice Data Center]'s Mark Serrenze, the new data "is reinforcing the notion that the Arctic ice is in its death spiral."
Then he mentions that a trillion tons of Greenland's ice melted between 2003 and 2008, a mass ten times the size of Manhattan. Someone recently pointed out that the term moving at a "glacial pace" makes no sense any more, not now that Greenland's ice sheet is pitted and undercut by rushing torrents of meltwater and the glacial landscape of mountaintops from the Andes to the Rockies is changing with almost blinding speed.
Weird stuff is happening everywhere: Since McKibben's book went to press, numerous news sources reported that a two-mile-long island in the Bay of Bengal, long fought over by Bangladesh and India, is no longer a bone of contention. The rising waters have erased it.
McKibben doesn't say a lot about himself in the book, except for some New England anecdotes to which the Massachusetts-raised Vermonter was a witness. Too bad, since he himself could star in the movie you should be watching, the one about the low-key writer-guy who, upon realizing that his excellent writing on climate change isn't waking us up enough, takes to dashing around the planet to do the job as an activist.
Mr. Smith Goes to Copenhagen. (People eager to suggest that flying is carbon-intensive should check themselves; the world is not going to be saved by individual acts of virtue, only by collective acts of change of a kind that would lead to China and the United States radically revising their energy policies.) In recent years he seems to have become one of the figures I've run across occasionally in my own activism: someone so filled up with purpose they've become a conduit for change, and a lot of the personal—like ease and comfort—get washed aside for the sake of the mission. He's achieved remarkable things. Notably with 350.org.
350 Degrees of Inseparability
A word about that number, 350. For a long time, McKibben relates, the premise, or pretense, was that the parts per million of atmospheric carbon we needed to worry about was 550, double the historic concentration. As it turns out, it was also a random figure, easy to calculate, not too alarming. We weren't anywhere near there yet, which is why we could frame global warming as some terrible thing that was going to happen way down the road—the grandchildren theory of climate change.
Then the scientists got more data and so more precision about where peril lay: In December of 2007, NASA climatologist James Hansen announced at the American Geophysical Union that 350 was about the upper limit at which life on Earth as we know and like it was likely to continue.
We're now at about 390. We don't get to go up dozens of more degrees before the peril strikes. We need to go down now, dramatically. Imagine that change of numbers as like shifting from worrying about whether the butter on your toast was going to clog your arteries way down the road to worrying about whether you'd just swallowed a dose of really creepy industrial sludge and should start puking. The crisis was, in fact, in the past, and the future was upon us.
"The day Jim Hansen announced that number was the day I knew we'd never again inhabit the planet I'd been born on, or anything close to it," McKibben writes in Eaarth. So he co-founded a grassroots organization, 350.org, with a posse of younger activists he'd met through a climate-change campaign in Vermont.
That small team proved something important: that we could respond to what's happening on our planet with a speed nearly commensurate with the growing danger. The group's numerical name, with its crystal-clear target, worked in every imaginable language on Eaarth as words would not have.
A year after Hansen's announcement, McKibben sent me an e-mail:
What we need is a rallying cry, an idea around which to coalesce. That's why we're running 350.org, and why we'll do a huge global day of action on Oct. 24. We need a measuring stick against which to critique Copenhagen, and 350 ppm CO2 is the best one we're going to get. It implies dramatic and urgent and apple-cart-upsetting action, but it comes at it from a position of strength, not defensiveness. Our hope is that a huge worldwide outpouring on Oct. 24 will set a bar to make any action in Copenhagen powerful.
It worked.
It Happened One Day
At this point, let Climate Change, the movie, zoom out from following our protagonist to pan the amazing October 24 visual spectacle of groups of all sizes around the world pushing the number 350—spelling it out (and into our consciousness) with their bodies for overhead photographs, holding signs in tribal villages, schoolyards, and urban plazas, everywhere from Madagascar to Slovakia. In one poignant case, a lone girl in Babylon, Iraq, who—you might think—had enough to worry about already, held up her hand-drawn 350 sign for a photographer who somehow managed to send the picture in to the organization. (I did my own little bit for the day, getting a few writers—Diane DiPrima, Ariel Dorfman, Barry Lopez—to contribute 350-word pieces they'd written to spur on the participants.)
There were more than 5,000 actions in 181 countries, which is to say, in most parts of the world. I've asked some groups and it's clear that quite a lot of people now know what the number 350 means. So did a lot of politicians and policy-makers by the time Copenhagen came around. The action mattered. Things changed.
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Economic expert predicts NH will lag in job growth Says Seacoast will be the hub for activity, innovation
Thursday, February 28, 2013
ROCHESTER — The guest presenter at the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce's Economic Update Breakfast on Tuesday morning was Brian Gottlob of PolEcon Research. He was not the bearer of great, or even particularly good tidings to an audience that included a strong contingent of bankers and realtors, as well as public officials.
"That is prototypical of what the future needs to be. Can you build on that?" he inquired.
"Brains are the most viable commodity in the 21st century," he said, asserting that they are the key to Rochester's and the Seacoast's economic success.
"Rochester can have a good workforce by capturing (people) from other markets," he said, before dropping another fact — the number of Rochester households comprising families with children declined about 10 percent over the decade, while Dover's actually increased by a similar percent.
"Safran will bring jobs and all kinds of feeder companies will bring more jobs," Cormier predicted.


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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Santa may arrive by sleigh, but there was plenty of holiday cheer that came to Binghamton aboard a locomotive on Wednesday. The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train made a stop at the Binghamton East Rail Yard. The train collects money and food for CHOW and this year is also benefiting victims of Hurricane Sandy. Hundreds of people gathered to look at the cars decked out in lights, enjoy some festive tunes, and of course, to see Saint Nick. It's a tradition for many who knew they'd be battling big crowds to catch a glimpse of the fun.
"This year, yeah, the last two years it got really busy down here, that's why we picked a good spot in the back where we can just see everything this time," said Josh Marshall, a Windsor resident.
This is the 14th year Canadian Pacific has collected items and spread cheer in the Southern Tier.
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CALIFORNIA -- It's a very sneaky thing they do-physically exhaust you til you can't think, then tell you to sign because this one-time-only offer in front of you. Where should I start...
Just joined this gym after my original gym went out of business. I'm a 24 year old athletic female. I immediately made an appointment to redeem my 'Free Session with a Personal Trainer' for 6pm the following day. I show up on time and my trainer finally shows 45 minutes late. We do a rigorous session involving weighted stair climbing, lunges, leg press, etc.(for 3 days after I COULD NOT WALK, due to the soreness & tightness of my Achilles tendon, I could not flex my foot, the only relief came when I walked on tip toe. I suspect the trainer did not realize he was overworking my legs, and neither did I because I trusted the trainer) Throughout the session, the trainer, a young male, complimented my hair, told me I was "pretty" & "hot" and then informed me he and his friends love to drink & bar-hop & I should come sometime (Hmm, is he actually hitting on me...or is he trying to ensure he makes a sale?)
After my session I expressed interest in pricing, so I was taken, red-faced & covered in sweat, back to the negotiating tables. They showed me the paper with the prices listed on it & start reading it, crossing of some prices & writing in a cheaper to make it seem like I was getting a deal. I asked if I could think about it, and he replied no, this deal was too good to sleep on. Now or never. Well, it worked, I fell for it.
I swipe my credit card, go to sign the signature pad- but the pad doesn't work! So they print out a hard copy for me to sign... only then do I see the $3360 they are trying to charge the card (they only show you the weekly (not total) price, so in my exhausted stupor I asked him repeatedly "So it's $140 charge, that's all?" he had repeatedly replied "Yup!" he must have not realized I was referring to the total charge. Total charge is actually $140 x 4 x 6 )
I'm so glad they were having technical difficulties & weren't able to get my signature on that contract. I stood up & quickly explained "I can't do this after all, sorry to waste your time, I have to go" and I left.
Oh but wait, just as I get a foot out the entrance, my trainer stops me & whispers that he "could get in a lot of trouble for this"..."& don't tell the boss"... but his friend on the outside world will be my trainer for a much lower price than LA Fitness trainers! here's his phone number! I never called.
This sounds obvious but PLEASE bring your calculator & actually add it up if you're going to deal with the LA Fitness salesmen
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dan gordon on 01/18/2011:
I just started with a trainer at 24hr fitness. He wants to start slow. I can't imagine working you to death then expecting you pay so much. Its a separate entity than LA Fitness and just another reason I left and went to 24hr. Way different vibe and very happy to have left LA Fitness.
ok4now on 01/19/2011:
Good for you for walking and not falling for their pressure tactic. This is a common sales tactic to get your C.C. payment then lock you in with no recourse. I have been subjected to this highly unethical scam by car dealers, window & gutter sales people and carpet dealers. They force you to make a decision NOW or the "great deal" is no longer available. Reputable businesses do not do this. Keep looking.
rockfishing on 01/19/2011:
Good thing you caught it before you got scammed. As I tell my kids when dealing with salespeople. That great deal will be there tomorrow or the next day if you are dealing with a reputable company. When anyone tells you you have to sign now or you will loose whatever, then it's time to run, not walk, away. The older you get, the easier it is to say no to these scam artist.
Wanda Marceta on 11/12/2014:
My experience with this high pressure personal training was awfull . After I signed and got my first training free I was pressured to by some more and decided to buy 4 more sessions,when I thought they expired I was told that I really signed a contract for a year. mediately I tried to cancel talk to corporate office where I was told I couldn'tget out of it unless I paid $960.00, half of the $ 1,900 I signed for a year without knowing I was doing that, since the print was soo small I could't read tired and not been able to move after the intense training session I just have had. I signed thinking I was only doing it for a month, 4 trainig sessions, not a year. Ends up I hve to pay $160.00 a month plus my gym membership $29.95 for a year. It's a lot of money for me, I am 65 yrs old and cant't afford it but I guess there is no way out, is like signing your own death sentence in a way. Please read carrefully what you are signing before you do, remember they do not let you out of the contract once you sign.
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Personal Trainer at LA Fitness Stole my CC Information
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CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA -- I decided to get a membership at the LA Fitness in Casa Grande, Arizona and their management is a joke. I'm 19 years old and went in there to get a membership and paid $99 activation + first and last months deposit at $29.99/month. About $160. Only 3 days later the trainer I was set up with finally convinced me to get the training sessions at $25/session after texting me by getting my phone number off of my personal information. Not only was he (Mike) hitting on me and asking how many piercings I had he said I had only one day left to get the training sessions at $25/session and I would have to either call him with my cc number or text it to him. This seemed unnecessary to me, since my number was already on file. I told him I wouldn't have money in my account until the next day. After my complimentary training session he asked to see my card, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and continued to write my entire cc number down, with expiration date and security code, and PUT IT IN HIS POCKET! When he texted me 2 days later asking when my direct deposit would go in, I told him it wouldn't matter because that I cancelled my card because of him writing my CC number down. When I called Nolan, the manager, he said Mike had told him about the situation and he would never do it again. Well I work in a hotel and if anyone ever did that that would be fired on the spot. I called Corporate twice and two different people said sorry it was past my 3 days so I couldn't get a refund. Even though trainers they hired are scumbags. He was clearly trying to do something with my CC because he felt the need to ask when I would get my direct deposit in. LA Fitness is only about sales, not about making customers happy. Try another gym, DO NOT GO HERE!!!!!
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SCAMMED on 12/29/2011:
LAFitnessUX on 02/13/2012:
I agree. I've had bad experience with the management too. See http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=18970
Sounds like nothing has changed since my experience I 2007. Stay away from LA Fitness!!!! They are scumbags!!!!!
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You Can Never Cancel Your Trainer Service in LA Fitness
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I have been being LA Fitness member for years. The only thing I don't satisfy is their cancellation policy. I have not idea why can't I do that online. I have to send an mail to their office and the letters can never be received by them. ..
I signed up a trainer service in the last May and on the second of I signed up I called that club and let their manager who helped me to sign up I want to cancel the service and at the time he said he will do that for me. I was okay about his reply and just left that away; however, on the next month I got my CC bill and found out they still charging me for the server. So, I wrote a letter to their office and let them know I want to cancel the service, and I have been waiting for few days .... never got reply back, so I decided to do that through my CC company. I did a dispute on the charge on my membership fees. After almost a month my CC company refunded my initial membership fee, so I thought LA fitness has canceled my membership for the trainer service, but I was wrong they kept charging me my monthly fee. So I did another dispute on the monthly fee, and I wait for another month, ... this time they sent me my agreement to my CC company and told them I have signed up the service that's why they charged me. So I sent an letter to them again and it was never been received again. And they kept charging me again. I was like I can never cancel it once I signed up.
After that I went to my club and asked one of their employees about that, and she said she will ask that manager for me and get back to me later. Well, I have been asking she for few times but she still said couldn't contact that manager or he is off. .. And I gave up this time. I believe she won't be able to help me too.
Recently I called their headquarters office and talked to a guy, on the first time he said he needs to locate my information and asked me leave my number and will call me back later; however, he never called me back. So, on the next day I called again and this time he can located my file, then he told me I have balance and kept telling me I need to pay, and he never listened to my explanation, so well then I have to told him I will call him back.
Now I think I can only to ask my CC company and see what can they do for me.
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tnchuck100 on 02/07/2011:
If you are beyond your contract expiration date you need to send your notice of cancellation by certified mail/return receipt requested. Upon receipt of the delivery confirmation you can then prove to your credit card company that any further charges are fraudulent.
However, if you are still under contract you are caught between a rock and a hard place.
a.c :) on 05/19/2011:
wow that's incredible!
just me on 11/01/2011:
contact your state attorney general's office for their assistance, especially if they have a consumer protection section.
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Personal Training trick contract
Posted by
WINTER PARK, FLORIDA -- I join LA Fitness in July. The give you one free personal training session with there smooth talking salesman. I had put on some weight and he made me feel like I needed help to loose the weight. I was willing to do anything. I had a few sessions and was disappointed. I was hurting so much that I found it hard to come in on other days to work out. I was told I would hurt but it would get better. I just listen to what they said and did my best.
The contract was for 3 months at $200.00 dollars a month which is $50.00 dollars a week. I was see the trainer weekly. On my 9Th week I made it a hour long session because I often felt rushed. The next day I was in so much pain in my lower back. I called my doctor and was able to get an appointment for the following day. One x-ray, one MRI and an appointment with a neurosurgeon later. I knew I would not be gong back to the gym. My main priority was getting better so I could get back to work. I called the gym to informed them of my injuries and ask for a refund on my 2 last session which totaled $100.00, I was informed by the manager of the gym that I had to be disable in order to get my money back. I refused to be disable. I just thought of it as a lost. Like I said before my priority was getting back to work. I am a nurse so I need my back.
To my dismay I got my credit card bill and I had a charge for another $200.00. from LA Fitness. I thought it was a mistake. I went to the LA Fitness to clarify these charges. I was humiliated by there condescending manager who informed me that my training contract automatically renews itself if I do not cancel it in writing. I told him that I completed my contract obligation and he should me on the contract where it states "IF THIS IS A FINANCE AGREATMENT IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY CONVERT TO A MONTH TO MONTH AGREAMENT AFTER THE INITIAL TRM AND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL YOU SEND A 20 DAY WRITTEN NOTICE OF CANCELLATION VIA CERTIFIE MAIL". I never heard of such a thing. Shame on my for not reading the contract completely. I read total $650.00, $50.00 joiner fee. and I paid them the money. I was losing 2 sessions due to injury and now I have an additional 4 session that I have no intentions of using. I called the credit card company and filed a dispute and they informed me that LA Fitness is schedule to take an additional $200.00 making and additional 4 training sessions totaling 10 training sessions. I would not allow any of there trainer to touch me.
Currently I am fighting to get my money back and stop anymore deduction on my credit card. This is a nightmare! The staff was so wonderful until I signed on the dotted line. None of them informed me about the automatic renewal. Not even when I was signing the contract nor when I injured myself. This is trickery, BUYER BEWARE. I am devastated and afraid.
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How Do I Cancel My LA Fitness Pro Results Body Of Change Personal Training Contract?
Posted by
someone who knows
To cancel your La Fitness Pro Results personal training simply write a letter to the Better Business Bureau, and wait. Having an attorney send a letter to their corporate office also helps. These are almost always guaranteed to work if your problems are legitimately concerning (and referencing) trainer no shows, being switched trainers numerous time, harassment, stolen sessions, or misrepresentation at the point of sale (the time of signing up), such as being told you can cancel your contract at any time with no penalty or not being told effectively and directly that your contract will automatically convert to a month to month program upon completion, both of which I'll discuss next.
Very often La Fitness Pro Results sales representative will mislead you by telling you that you may cancel your personal training contract at any time with no penalty, which is completely false, (in some states) such cancellation usually requires a buy-out fee/penalty of 50% of the remaining balance and can total many hundreds of dollars. Some are in excess of a thousand. Also La Fitness Pro Results sales representative will mislead you about your contract automatically renewing. One of their 'gimmicks' in this regard is to use 'fast talk' and refer to this as your "Rate for Life Guarantee", when in effect all of their personal training contracts are set to automatically renew after their initial term (month to month).
In April 2008 (or approximate to that time) La Fitness mysteriously cancelled numerous contracts (and stopped billing) those which had entered automatic renewal, in which members checking and credit cards accounts were being billed for MANY months after their initial term, some for over a year, with payments ranging $100-$400 monthly. These contracts (payments/drafts) were mysteriously cancelled yet to my knowledge none of the funds were ever returned to the clients. This was done company wide, and was not mentioned to upper management or club management. This was a onetime thing. They did not cancel all auto-new contracts. It appears they only cancelled those who had been in auto renew for quite some time, as they let many in auto-renew at that time continue, and they still continue to automatically renew contracts on a daily basis.
It may also be possible they've decided to let all contracts auto-renew, yet set a pre-determined amount of time they would allow such contracts to continue to be billed (for example an additional 12 months), then cancel future drafts at such a pre-set time.
It was suggested to the owners of the company and their corporate brass to provide a list of ALL clients not using their personal training. This was suggested as a way of increasing customer service. This was rejected. Why? They feared that if 'non using clients' (but who were still being billed/drafted) were contacted, they would immediately become aware they were still being drafted for a contract they thought was completed and not using, resulting in people contacting their banks in order to stop electronic billing, and this could cost the company millions! As a result, the only list provide to the club is a much shorter (safe) list of members whose accounts were active recently, but who have not used their personal training in the past 30 days. Anyone outside of that time frame is not put on that list due to the reasons I just explained.
I've been told directly by the owner and "La Fitness Top Brass" their fear is having an attorney/attorney general shut down their ability to auto-renew contracts which would cost the company millions of dollars yearly.
Also their clients have had thousands upon thousands of sessions stolen by trainers, resulting in trainers fraudulently getting paid at the loss of sessions to the clients, very often with neither the client nor La Fitness even being made aware, and sessions never being restored. La Fitness is aware of the loopholes which allow their clients sessions to be stolen, but have done little to correct the problem due to cost and inconvenience. Such solutions could include a finger print system, or a signature verification system, or simply locking down accounts which are not being used.
Also all La Fitness gym members need to be made aware that their billing information (while safely hidden) has the potential to used by the personal training department to bill ongoing services for personal training without the main members knowledge/authorized signature. This has also happened numerous times, to unwitting spouses and often by underage children, using their parents accounts even with the sales representative knowledge the child is underage and doesn't have their parents approval. Sales representative have also fraudulently and intentionally charged accounts of members for personal training services without the members' knowledge.
If you have had problems in these areas above, you may choose to contact an attorney, the Better Business Bureau and your State Attorney General.
The owner of the company is Louis Welch (email@example.com)
The owners personal 'right hand person' is Suzzie Horton cell 949-633-8072 (firstname.lastname@example.com)
The head of human resources is Mindy Stokesberry 949-255-7236 (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Rob Bryant heads the legal department. (I'm not sure but his email may be email@example.com, email@example.com)
Some other top brass contact info:
Mike Ulliberry 'Super Duper' Regional VP
cell 480-824-3826 (email@example.com)
Todd McSeveny 'Super Duper' Regional VP cell 954-650-1325
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LA FITNESS SCAM - Stay Away From This Club
Posted by
HOPKINS, MINNESOTA -- I was scammed into a personal training program at L. A. Fitness in Hopkins MN.
The VP Daniel [snip] told me "I have a lot on my plate and lots of things to do." When I spoke with him regarding my situation.
I also found out that the training manager Brett - the one responsible for my scam was terminated from the company because of his lack of integrity. I am sure there are many others out there that were scammed by Brett and other staff at L. A. Fitness.
I recommend a memebership at Lifetime - more expensive but the customer service is worth the extra $$$
I lost a lot of money. I was willing to work with them to find a resolution instead of asking for my $ back but they did not go out of their way to even care about my situation.
BE AWARE of LA FITNESS —— PAY MORE $$$ AND STAY AWAY FROM THIS CHEAP HEALTH CLUB.
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Predatory Personal Training Contracts
Posted by
WINTER PARK, FLORIDA -- Honestly, the gym fee is reasonable, and the staff has been friendly and professional. However, I learned a pretty important (and expensive) lesson when it came to signing a contract for the personal training. First, the "pitch" was a pretty high-pressure situation (more on this later). When I expressed my financial reservations, I was told "Don't worry about it. Just let me know if it becomes a problem, and we'll figure something out." I wish I had gotten that in writing. When the finances became a problem, I found out I was on the hook for 50% of the year's fees for canceling. Technically, this was all in fine print on the contract. I admit I should have been more careful. But, this information was not clearly conveyed during the signing, which by the way took place after an intense "trial" workout. To say I was in the right state of mind to make a major financial decision would be a lie.
Management handled my concerns professionally and assured me that the sales staff would make contract obligations clearer in the future, but obviously that doesn't do much to help me out. Ultimately, I can't fault the local branch much, and I will continue to use the basic gym membership, as it is affordable and nearby.
However, I feel that the L. A. Fitness business policies would best be described as predatory. By this I mean the "pitch" for personal training is, as mentioned previously, a high-pressure situation. This is not the fault of the individual salesperson, per se. The staff clearly follows a scientific approach to sales that involves gathering information about the client's motivations and all their possible excuses and uses this information after the trial workout to convince the client that they need to hire a personal trainer. The contract itself is designed to screw anyone who changes their mind or later finds out that they can't afford it.
The lessons here: A) Do not sign a contract unless you KNOW that it fits safely within your budget. B) Do not sign a contract unless you KNOW that you need a trainer to help you keep fit. If you do sign a contract, and later realize that it just wasn't meant to be, LA Fitness will get your money, and they will not apologize for it.
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False signature
Posted by
Scammed Customer
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- When I first walked into LA Fitness to find out about prices (because the information is not online and they won't give it to you over the phone-wonder why), the "weekend manager" sat me down and went over some basic prices, after he was finished he asked me "So how would you like to pay?" Reminder: I only went in to compare prices, and I had told him that. He was so pushy about getting me to join, I finally gave in. But that was NOT the worst of my experience with LA Fitness. I signed up for my free personal training session-which went really well-until I was basically forced to go over fees for training sessions. I decided to try a couple out, handed over my credit card and signed for what I believed to be was that fee. Little did I know that what I was signing was basically my life away! After a few sessions I decided I no longer needed training, I went to talk to the personal trainer manager about it and he informed me I had signed a YEAR CONTRACT! I about had an anxiety attack! I asked him when I did that, because no one put a contract in front of me to sign, or gave me any copies of this so called contract. Apparently when I signed for my credit card fee, I was also signing a contract. He showed me my electronic signature on a contact that I know I would have NEVER signed if I had seen it. I was so furious! I called the corporate office and they refused to talk to me. My mom even tried calling both the La Cienega location to talk to them about it, and they hung up on her! This whole process has been the worst experience I've had to deal with-with a gym-and I would not recommend signing any "credit card" fees with LA Fitness, you might be signing a contract!
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Anonymous on 12/16/2009:
So you gave in because he was being pushy? That's mistake number one. They're pushy because they make good commissions on these long term contracts. You're going to have to fulfill the contract they are not going to let you out of it. At lease you get to be one of those "cool" gym people for at least a year. By the way, good luck when you try and cancel the membership after the year is up.
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Ignorant Personal Trainers/Dirty Gym/Dirty Towels/Threat of Assault
Posted by
DALLAS, TEXAS -- I have been fit for over 20 years and belonged to many gyms and this was the arm pit gym from hell.
Trainers -
Of course, I fell for the "free" personal training used car pitch and was insulted at the ignorance of the personal trainers. I am a type 1 diabetic and not once did they ask if I had any medical conditions. After being dragged through a kindergarten level explanation of the benefits of exercise, I basically had to tell the guy, "I'm sorry, but your service isn't worth free, much less $50 a session."
Locker Room & Equipment-
Deciding to keep the membership for 90 days due to long workdays/winter weather and the inability to work out outside, I soon encountered the "wet dog" smell of the locker room that never went away. Everything seemed "greasy" and unsanitary, and no effort was made to keep the place clean. Not only that, you had to try 2 or 3 cardio machines to find one that wasn't bent, squeaking or otherwise not working. Seriously, how can it be good for you to use an elliptical with one bent pedal??
Towels -
On many occasions, they were out of the towels I paid the extra $5 a month to use and on more than one occasion, the towel smelled like it had never been washed - only dried. It is enough to make you vomit when you are working out and go to wipe off only to smell someone else's dried sweat.
Management -
I enjoy shooting basketball a couple of times a week, but the basketball courts at this place are overrun by teenage thugs from 6pm-close every night. Not an organized league, just a group of parking lot thugs playing full court indoors. I've waited as much as an hour and a half for these thugs to get off the court and even after front desk staff indicated they had received many complaints, still failed to take action.
Threat of assault -
The last straw came just last week, after 3 of us waited around and tried to squeeze in some b-ball time, only to be run over by the full court thugs as usual. This time, one of them punted a basketball at me and told me to get off the court. I said, "I pay my dues just like you, so you need to share the court." After being further intimidated, I walked out and canceled my membership immediately.
Customer Service -
I have not heard from the "Operations Manager" that was supposed to contact me about the incident. I did receive notification that my membership was canceled per my request, but that it was still active until July 20, 2009. I demanded a refund from corporate and they referred me to the "Ops Manager" at the location, who said it was his 2nd day on the job. The corporate membership moron had the nerve to say, "why don't you just try to work out at a different time of day?" I joined to avoid evening rush hour traffic, so I need to pick a time other than 6-11pm?? Did I mention that they start shutting the lights off 15 minutes before the posted closing time??
I am pretty confident this chain will be out of business soon and it suits them well. Their staff can go back to selling the used cars glutting the market and the thugs can find a basketball rim in a parking lot somewhere.
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Soaring Consumer on 05/12/2009:
You need to take the threat seriously and file a police report.
DigitalCommando on 05/12/2009:
Before paying anything, you are entitled to a free
walk- through to inspect the joint and that is the time you notice all the BS and walk out the door. If the place stinks, you can bet there is mold, fungus, sweat, urine and feces over every square inch of that place. But the reason you KEEP going there is because all of those nasties will help you build up a resistance to other viruses like the birdbeakalitis flu from the chang dang dynasty.
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Working for LA Fitness
Posted by
CAPE CORAL, FLORIDA -- I was a personal trainer at LA Fitness for over a year. There was some new blood coming into its own in upper management and looking for a way to make a name for themselves. After giving all I could to make a living there I was wrongly accused of stealing training sessions. I and many others with this company used a simple practice for getting paid. When someone ran out of the sessions that they were paying for, we would train them for free on that day and charge them at a later date... Most don't know or care as long as they can train when they want to. This goes on all the time, as a matter of fact I'm sure all the trainers do it every day all over the country. I learned how to do this from one of the other trainers at the gym. So as it come to pass, once this new person took over and the economy took a dive, the co. started doing research and found out what was going on. In there infinite wisdom they decided to give me the ax... I still don't know why I was singled out, maybe its because I wouldn't do all of the things they wanted me to do.(rob people blind). Well anyway, they took my last paycheck, and fed me crap about refunding sessions and taking it out of my pay. Needless to say I'm not very pleased about how it was handled, and would like nothing more than to warn anyone who thinks this is a good place to work, or even be a member of, be very careful.
This place is full of crooks, ex-cons, and people who do not care about anything other than money. like I said before once they got you your theres.... BE FOREWARNED THIS PLACE SUCKS.. ALL THEY WANT IS YOUR MONEY !!!!!!!
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Soaring Consumer on 03/24/2009:
Contact your state's labor board.
They have no right to deny you the money you earned on the job for reasons that have nothing to do with the status of your employment.
Anonymous on 03/24/2009:
So it sounds as if the whole "Train now, pay later" tactic was a bit shady and really a violation of company policy, and therefore you were being accused of giving free sessions. If that's the case, you have no room to complain for being let go. Doesn't make a difference if all of your fellow trainers did the same thing. It's like speeding down the road with 5 other drivers, and telling the cop who pulls you over "Well everyone else was speeding, too!" It's just not a valid excuse.
If I'm mistaken and that was actually permitted, then they had to have some other solid evidence against you to make accusations and ultimately dismiss you because of it. If they didn't, they open themselves up for some big wrongful termination lawsuits.
Anonymous on 04/22/2009:
Hey, taking your last pay check is NOT LEAGAL! They would have to take you to court or prove without a doubt that you did something and only a Judge can decide wheather you owe them or not. Go to you local labor board. It doesn't sound like they can prove anything and you deserve you pay from this crappy place. That guy was wrong that posted that they can take your pay check. Not without the court systems being involved. Companies are not above the law!!! Good Luck
Anonymous on 04/22/2009:
Not exactly true, a company can withhold your paycheck if they determine you owe them money upon termination...they do not need a court order to do so. But, you also have the right to challenge it, you should start by contacting your HR dept and ask them what your next step is.
Ponie on 04/22/2009:
'...people who do not care about anything other than money.' Evidently you're in that league otherwise you wouldn't complain about not getting your paycheck. Just let them keep it if you 'do not care about' it. By your own admission, you were giving away training sessions even though they purportedly were paid at a later time. How can a company keep their books honest and straight if this goes on? I'm sure some do it, but when caught there's usually some penalty to be paid.
Anonymous on 04/22/2009:
If you are an ordinary employee working for the company (employer is deducting payroll taxes) and not a self employed contractor then no employer in any state with or without court order can garnish/deduct an amount from a paycheck that would result in the employee getting paid less than the the state/federal minimum wage.
If you are an 'ordinary' employee as I described then report them to DOL in Tampa 1-866-487-9243.
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Senate Confirms All Four Obama Nominees to TVA Board..Almost
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This is very good news:
The Senate confirms V. Lynn Evans, Peter Mahurin, Michael McWherter and Joe H. Ritch to the TVA board.
The vote was by unanimous consent
Submitted by WhitesCreek on January 2, 2013 - 11:50am.
Here are the Alexander and Corker press releases.
I do seem to remember Corker doing a lot of grandstanding on this but he seems to have caved in the end. Thank you, Senator Corker.
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I recently almost died from a heart attack because after a really horrible crash (don't ask), Debian unstable on my laptop wouldn't boot anymore. The system hung at "Waiting for root filesystem...", and I was in panic mode as I feared I lost all my data (and as usual my backups were waaay too old).
At first I was suspecting that something actually got erased or mangled due to the crash, either at the dm-crypt layer, or the LVM layer, or the ext3 filesystem on top of those. After various hours of messing with live CDs, cryptsetup, lvm commands (such as pvscan, pvs, vgchange, vgs, vgck) and finally fsck I still had not managed to successfully boot my laptop.
I finally was able to boot by changing the initrd from initrd.img-2.6.30-2-686 to initrd.img-2.6.30-2-686.bak in the GRUB2 menu (at boot-time), at which point it was clear that something was wrong with my current initrd. A bit of debugging and some initrd comparisons revealed the cause:
Both, the cryptsetup and lvm2 packages were no longer installed on my laptop, which made all update-initramfs invokations (e.g. upon kernel package updates) create initrds which did not contain the proper dm-crypt and lvm functionality support. Hence, no booting for me. I only noticed because of the crash, as I usually do not reboot the laptop very often (two or three times per year maybe).
Now, as to why those packages were removed I have absolutely no idea. I did not remove them knowingly, so I suspect some dist-upgrade did it and I didn't notice (but I do carefully check which packages dist-upgrade tries to remove, usually)...
Nice coreboot news — the Free Software x86 firmware ("BIOS") is featured on the cover of issue 186 of the Linux Journal.
Anton Borisov's article Coreboot at Your Service! explains the basic ideas behind coreboot, how to build an image for your board, which payloads are available and how they are used, e.g. GRUB2, SeaBIOS if you need legacy BIOS callbacks (e.g. for booting Windows), Etherboot/GPXE, or more fun stuff such as space invaders or tint (a tetris clone) in your flash ROM chip...
If you read the article and think the build process is a bit complicated and ugly, do not despair! We're currently in the process of converting the whole coreboot code base to use kconfig (the widely-known configuration tool used by the Linux kernel, busybox, and other projects), so in the very near future the whole process for building a coreboot image will work like this:
$ make menuconfig $ make
Flashing the image can then be done using an EEPROM programmer and/or via the user-space utility flashrom (available for Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, etc.)...
It's nice to see that coreboot is getting more and more coverage in "mainstream" media and is growing both in number of deployments and in number of supported chipsets and boards.
We are desperately in need of more developers though, there are just way too many chipsets, boards, and datasheets out there; we're happy about every patch and every new tester or developer who likes to mess with code that runs in the very first few (micro)seconds after power-on.
If you think kernel hacking and related low-level development is nice, you might also be interested in writing code where there's no RAM yet (as coreboot has to initialize it), there's no serial port for debugging (coreboot has to initialize it), no PCI devices have been set up, most of your auxiliary hardware is not yet up (ethernet NIC, parallel port, audio, IDE, SATA, USB, you name it). It's a fun environment to work in and you'll learn a lot about PC hardware, even if you (so far) thought you knew everything there is to know.
Feel free to join us on the mailing list or on IRC in #coreboot on Freenode.
I've been using CRM114 as spam filter for a while now, and I'm quite happy with it. Due to bug #529720 though (incompatible upstream file format changes) I decided to start my setup from scratch with a recent CRM114 version from unstable. Here's a short HOWTO, hope it's useful for others.
First you need to install crm114 and set up a few files in your $HOME directory.
$ sudo apt-get install crm114 $ mkdir ~/.crm114 $ cd ~/.crm114 $ cp /usr/share/doc/crm114/examples/mailfilter.cf.gz . $ gunzip mailfilter.cf.gz $ cp /usr/share/crm114/mailtrainer.crm . $ touch rewrites.mfp priolist.mfp
Edit ~/.crm114/mailfilter.cf and set the following variables (some are optional, but that's what I currently use):
:spw: /mypassword/ :add_verbose_stats: /no/ :add_extra_stuff: /no/ :rewrites_enabled: /no/ :spam_flag_subject_string: // :unsure_flag_subject_string: // :log_to_allmail.txt: /no/
The :log_to_allmail.txt: /no/ option should probably stay at "yes" for the first few days until you have tested your setup and everything works OK. The ~/.crm114/allmail.txt file will contain all your mails, in case something goes wrong.
Now set up empty spam and nonspam files like this:
$ cssutil -b -r spam.css $ cssutil -b -r nonspam.css
Test the setup by invoking mailreaver.crm as follows, typing some test text and then pressing CTRL+d:
$ /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u ~/.crm114 test [CTRL-d] ** ACCEPT: CRM114 PASS osb unique microgroom Matcher ** CLASSIFY fails; success probability: 0.5000 pR: 0.0000 Best match to file #0 (nonspam.css) prob: 0.5000 pR: 0.0000 Total features in input file: 8 #0 (nonspam.css): features: 1, hits: 0, prob: 5.00e-01, pR: 0.00 #1 (spam.css): features: 1, hits: 0, prob: 5.00e-01, pR: 0.00 X-CRM114-Version: 200904023-BlameSteveJobs ( TRE 0.7.6 (BSD) ) MF-35EB8B9A [pR: 0.0000] X-CRM114-CacheID: sfid-20090920_151224_574131_D290E589 X-CRM114-Status: UNSURE (0.0000) This message is 'unsure'; please train it!
The output should look similar to the above. If there are errors instead, you should check your settings in ~/.crm114/mailfilter.cf.
Now you have to setup a procmail rule for crm114:
:0fw: crm114.lock | /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u /home/uwe/.crm114 :0: * ^X-CRM114-Status: SPAM.* IN.spam-crm114
In my case this rule is also followed by a spamassassin rule, so all my mail goes through two different spam filters (will look into dspam and bogofilter also I guess, the more the better).
Finally, in .muttrc I have the following configs so I can press SHIFT+x to mark a mail as spam, and SHIFT+h to mark it as non-spam (ham).
macro index X '| formail -I X-CRM114-Status -I X-CRM114-Action -I X-CRM114-Version | /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u /home/uwe/.crm114/ --spam' macro index H '| formail -I X-CRM114-Status -I X-CRM114-Action -I X-CRM114-Version | /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u /home/uwe/.crm114/ --good' macro pager X '| formail -I X-CRM114-Status -I X-CRM114-Action -I X-CRM114-Version | /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u /home/uwe/.crm114/ --spam' macro pager H '| formail -I X-CRM114-Status -I X-CRM114-Action -I X-CRM114-Version | /usr/share/crm114/mailreaver.crm -u /home/uwe/.crm114/ --good'
Important: crm114 is most effective if you start with empty CSS files (as shown above) and only train it by marking mails as spam/ham when it gets them wrong. The process will take a few hours or maybe a day (depending on how many mails per day you get), then the misclassification rate gets very low...
Update 2009-09-23: Changed --spam/--nonspam to the correct options for mailreaver/mailtrainer, --spam/--good.
paniq has released a new CC-licensed album named "From zero to hero". Quoting from the site:
This album supports the Piratenpartei Deutschland, which takes part in the general elections for the first time, and stands for freedom of information and open governance. Klarmachen zum Ändern!
There is no advertising budget. If you happen to like this album, please take the time to recommend it to your friends and colleagues.
Song: paniq - 8-Bit Pioneers (2:20 min, 4.3 MB)
License: CC-by-sa 3.0
Source: archive.org
Purchase from: ?
If you ever wanted to support an open-source project but you are not a programmer, here's one (of many possible) ways to help:
The Miro project (Internet TV / Video and Audio Podcast application for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X) is seeking for pledges/donations that will be used to add subtitles support in Miro.
To quote from the announcement:
We're hoping to build real subtitle support into Miro in the next couple months, but we need your help! So we've started a Kickstarter project to raise $1,000 to develop this feature for Miro on all three platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux. Can you pledge to help make it happen? One of the great things about the Kickstarter model is that unless we can reach $1,000, your pledge won't be charged.
(if you live in the United States, donations are tax deductible — we are a 501c3 non-profit)
There are 11 days left to make a pledge.


text: DIGITAL TREASURES : Item Viewer home : browse : advanced search : preferences : my favorites : about : help add to favorites : reference url back to results : previous : next Brick Bank Building at # 1 Main Street Hopkinton TitleBrick Bank Building at # 1 Main Street Hopkinton Full Size Image http://dlib.cwmars.org/cdm4/images/full_size/hopkinton/4.jpg SubjectHistoric buildings-Massachusetts-Hopkinton; Bank buildings-Massachusetts-Hopkinton; Main Street (Hopkinton, Mass.) DescriptionView of north side of a brick commercial bank building at one Main Street Hopkinton, with pillars front and side. It includes adjacent and connected one story building, both are framed by wrought iron fence with stone posts. Label indicates it was also Dr. Patten's house, later in time. Also referred to as Manor House, built ca 1830. PublisherC/WMARS, Inc. http://www.cwmars.org Date1880 Typeimage Formatimage/jpg Identifier004, Closet Box 9, File #21 Source4x6 inch photograph printed by William Robinson from plate glass negative in 1970's Languageen-US RelationFrom The Hopkinton Public Library Treasure Room Coverage42.22861°N; 71.52306°W RightsPlease request permission in advance to use image by contacting Rownak Hussain @Hopkinton.org add to favorites : reference url back to results : previous : next powered by CONTENTdm ® | Contact: June Stokoe ~ Digital Initiatives ~ C/W MARS ^ to top ^


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Tom Watson
TRAINING: About 7:30 am every weekday Miss Jones brings up my tea tray and insists I dress. It is unacceptable to be seen in my dressing gown outside of my bedroom she tells me, and just for this I may wear it to the weigh-ins. A man in his robe to the public, a genuine stance of defiance. You see, I have to change my clothes about four times a day from the sweat-drenched training attire provided by Lonsdale into something more comfortable. As trivial as this sounds, it's rather a grind. With training starting at 9, resuming again around 2.30 followed by an evening class, the changing is almost unbearable. As you can imagine not only does this issue of such frequent changing irritate me greatly but it also keeps my maid quite busy. Maids are not cheap. Weekends the days are differing but still typical. Early morning, I jog. Afternoons I choose to read, sew (just kidding) or call on friends. One of my favorite social activities is hosting a tea party but I don't get too much time for that these days. Sadly, most Americans aren't too fond of the stuff.
When and why did you start training for fighting? My fight career began at 16 years old, when I realized that by living a few years of my life like most won't, I could live the rest of my life like most can't.
What ranks and titles have you held? UCMMA Middleweight MMA Champion, 3 time BAMMA Middleweight World Champion, ISKA Cruiserweight British Champion, 3 time ABA Southern Counties Champion, Full Contact Unlicensed Boxing Champion, Cliff Richard Invitational Chess Champion 1991
Do you have any heroes? Karen and Michael J Watson
What does it mean for you to fight in the UFC? Anywhere that I can represent Queen and Country is a great honor.
Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? BA (Honours) Degree of the highest order in Media and Cultural Studies
What was your job before you started fighting? Agricultural land owner and licensed slaughterman
Specific accomplishments in amateur competition? Amateur Boxing Standout 2006, Multiple ABA Southern Counties Champion
Specific accomplishments in pro competition? MFC Knockout of the Year 2010, Five Time Fight of the Night Winner, Three time Knockout of the Night Winner, Longest Reigning BAMMA Champion
Ranks in any martial arts styles: BJJ Purple Belt
Favorite grappling technique: The one that works
Favorite striking technique: Repeat as above
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