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IgG Food Intolerance Tests: What does the science say?
I spend a lot of time as a pharmacist discussing side effects and allergies to drugs. For your own safety, I won't recommend or dispense a drug until I know your allergy status. I don't limit the history to drugs—I want to know anything you're allergic to, be it environmental, food, insects, or anything else. Allergies can create true therapeutic challenges: We can't dismiss any allergy claim, but as I've blogged before, there's a big gap between what many perceive as an allergy and what is clinically considered a true allergy. My concern is not only avoiding the harm of an allergic reaction, but also avoiding the potential consequences from selecting a suboptimal therapy that may in fact be appropriate. You may need a specific drug someday, so I encourage patients to discuss vague drug allergies with their physician, and request allergist testing as required.
Food allergies can be as real as drug allergies, and are arguably much harder to prevent. We can usually control when we get penicillin. But what about peanuts, eggs, or milk, all of which can also cause life-threatening anaphylaxis? Food allergies seems to be growing: not only anaphylaxis, but more people believe they have some sort of allergy to food. Allergy is sometimes confused with the term "intolerance", which seems more common, possibly as the availability of "food intolerance testing" grows. Food intolerance testing and screening is particularly popular among alternative practitioners. Testing can take different forms, but generally the consumer is screened against hundreds of food products and food additives. They are then provided with a list of foods they are "intolerant" to. I've spoken with consumers who are struggling to overhaul their diet, having been advised that they are actually intolerant to many of their favourite foods. These reports are taken seriously by patients who believe that they'll feel better if they eliminate these products. In the pharmacy, I've been asked to verify the absence of trace amounts of different fillers in medications because of a perceived intolerance. Children may be tested, too, and parents may be given a long list of foods they are told their child is intolerant of. I've seen the effects in the community, too. Think going "peanut free" is tough? A public school in my area sent home a list of forbidden food products: dairy, eggs, bananas, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame, flax seed, kiwi, chicken, and bacon. Were these all true allergies? It's not disclosed. Anaphylactic or not, the parents had informed the school, and the school had banned the food product.
But can a simple blood test actually identify and eliminate food intolerance? That's the question I wanted to answer.
When it comes to food intolerance testing, blood tests are just the start. Other methods used include vega testing, the K-Test, hair testing,and applied kinesiology. But the blood tests are enjoying new popularity—and even pharmacies are now actively promoting these tests:
You might love food, but some food might not love you
The HEMOCODE Food Intolerance System can unlock your hidden food sensitivities
Speak with your Rexall Pharmacist today to learn about a painless blood test that can identify over 250 common foods that may be causing you unpleasant symptoms such as chronic fatigue, migraines, back pain, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, acne, diarrhea and constipation.
There's a short video (above) that is very illustrative. Narrated by a pharmacist, it describes that a simple fingertip blood test is used to screen blood against 250 items. Test results are then reviewed by "naturopathic medical professionals" who will describe the foods and other products that you are intolerant to, and your degree of intolerance. You're also advised:
Your personalized results also include recommended vitamins and supplements that are uniquely suited to the customer, based on the foods that are suggested to be eliminated from your diet, which are themselves, uniquely personal.
So the $450 blood test, includes dietary change recommendations as well as vitamin and supplement recommendation. The vendor explains it as follows:
By adding personalized vitamin and supplement recommendations, the Hemocode System will help consumers move towards optimal nutrition as they work to eliminate offending foods from their diets. No other food intolerance program offers this type of seamlessly delivered, highly customized solution. In addition to delivering a meaningful wellness benefit to their customers, the inclusion of dietary supplement recommendations as part of Hemocode creates an opportunity for retailers to recognize: accretive revenue from Hemocode System sales; incremental growth in their core vitamin program and an enhancement of their market differentiation.
This testing is also positioned as a weight loss plan:
Would I be able to lose weight with HEMOCODE?
Your chances of permanent success are excellent: HEMOCODE(TM) works differently than other conventional diets and rules out the yoyo-effect.
Is HEMOCODE a miracle diet?
It is not a miracle diet, but a scientifically based diet modification. Unlocking your HEMOCODE(TM) gets to the root of your problem. Food intolerances can be the cause of a weight problem and inhibit the success of losing weight with conventional diets. The HEMOCODE(TM) test looks at foods on a one-by-one basis for individual intolerances.
Hemocode is just one of several blood tests that's marketed. There's also the YorkTest in the United Kingdom and also Canada:
Food intolerance is all about how your bodys immune system the bodys natural defence against foreign substances, such as poisons and harmful bacteria reacts to specific foods. [sic]
Food intolerances are believed to arise when certain, incompletely digested food particles enter your bloodstream and are treated as foreign substances. This results in your immune system producing tailor-made antibodies (IgG), which attack the food in question. Some researchers believe this inflammatory response in the body can increase certain symptoms. Food intolerance has been associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), bloating, tiredness, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, eczema, headaches and migraines.
So just what is the evidence supporting the use of food intolerance tests?
Testing Principles
Diagnostic tests can be as pseudoscientific as treatments. To evaluate, we ask the following:
- Analytic validity: How reliable is the testing? This includes within-laboratory and between-laboratory precision.
- Clinical validity: How consistently and accurately does the test detect an objectively-measured clinical status? The test should be both sensitive (few false negatives) and specific (few false positives). Patients in the same circumstances should consistently have the same test results.
- Clinical utility: What is the natural history of the disorder? Will the use of the test make any difference in the outcome? Interventions taken should be evaluated and compared against no testing.
- Ethical, legal, or social implications : What are the potential patient consequences of the use of the test, and its results? What if the results are erroneous?
It all boils down to a single question that must be satisfactorily answered before we proceed with testing: How has this test been validated?
What's a Food Intolerance Blood Test Actually Testing?
Hemocode is an IgG blood test, according to the manufacturer (text now removed; cached version here):
The Hemocode System is a finger prick test that identifies specific immune system-based food intolerances.
Everything we eat can elicit a positive or negative reaction in the body. If you are intolerant to a certain food and you continue to eat it, your body will mount an inflammatory reaction which may manifest in a variety of lifestyle-affecting conditions such as headaches, chronic pain, digestive disorders and many other issues
The Hemocode food intolerance test is a statistically proven, doctor and pharmacist recommended IgG-related test that determines which foods are causing negative reactions.
The YorkTest is also an IgG test. There is no published information in the literature that describes either the Hemocode or the Yorktest, or their analytic validity for any of the products tested for.
Understanding IgE, allergies, and what IgG means
Food allergies are reaction to food proteins. They may be categorized as immunoglobulin E (IgE)–mediated (immediate) reactions, non–IgE-mediated (delayed) hypersensitivity reactions, and mixed reactions. IgE-mediated reactions are the ones we worry about when we hear about a "food allergy": flushing, itchy skin, wheezing, vomiting, throat swelling, and even anaphylaxis. These reactions can occur immediately following exposure, and are the consequence of the interaction of allergens with IgE located on mast cells. The interaction causes the release of inflammatory chemicals like histamine and leucotriene, triggering the the allergic response which is typically skin related (itchiness, swelling and rash) but may be anaphylactic as well.
Not all reactions follow this cascade. Non-IgE-mediated allergic reactions can cause localized (e.g., contact dermatitis) or generalized reactions, which are usually gastrointestinal or dermatological in nature. Celiac disease is a non-IgE related allergic reaction. Finally, some allergic disorders are both IgE and non-IgE mediated, such as atopic dermatitis (eczema).
Beyond the IgE mediated reactions, there are a number of possible reactions to food, which may be termed "food intolerances". Not immune-system based, they're more common than allergies. They include conditions like lactose intolerance, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), enzyme deficiencies, metabolic conditions, infections and other processes. It's a catch-all term by definition.
So where does immunoglobulin G (IgG) come in? IgG molecules mediate interactions of cells with different cellular and humoral mechanisms. IgG antibodies signify exposure to products—not allergy. IgG may actually be a marker for food tolerance, not intolerance, some research suggests:
- Children with eczema and egg or milk allergies with higher levels of IgG to milk/egg were more likely to be tolerant of these foods at a later age.
- Resolution of cow's milk allergy is associated with increasing IgG
- A study found increasing IgG in patients who underwent oral immunotherapy for milk or peanut allergy
That research is continuing. But given the lack of correlation between the presence of IgG and physical manifestations of illness, IgG testing is considered unproven as a diagnostic agent as the results lack clinical utility as a tool for dietary modification or food elimination.
The Evidence Check
I sought to understand the literature supporting IgG blood tests. There are no citations on the Hemocode website, and the term Hemocode does not appear in Pubmed. The Yorktest website cites a placebo-controlled study which it claims demonstrates its IgG test reduced symptoms in patients already diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This finding has been criticized for multiple shortcomings, suggesting the effectiveness of the test in this population remains to be established.
In light of the lack of published clinical trials that validate Hemocode or Yorktest, I looked for consensus opinions and statements on IgG testing from allergy and immunology experts. Here's what I found, emphasis added:
From the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology & American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology: Allergy diagnostic testing: an updated practice parameter:
IgG and IgG subclass antibody tests for food allergy do not have clinical relevance, are not validated, lack sufficient quality control, and should not be performed.
And from the the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) Practice Paper, Current approach to the diagnosis and management of adverse reactions to foods [PDF]:
Some tests are considered unproven in regard to the diagnosis of specific food allergies. Those for which there is no evidence of validity include provocation-neutralization, cytotoxic tests, muscle response testing (applied kinesiology), electrodermal testing, the "reaginic" pulse test, and chemical analysis of body tissues. Measurement of specific IgG antibodies to foods is also unproven as a diagnostic tool.
From the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology [PDF]:
220.127.116.11. Nonstandardized and Unproven Procedures; Guideline 12:
The (Expert Panel) recommends not using any of the following nonstandardized tests for the routine evaluation of IgE-mediated (food allergy):
- Basophil histamine release/activation
- Lymphocyte stimulation
- Facial thermography
- Gastric juice analysis
- Endoscopic allergen provocation
- Hair analysis
- Applied kinesiology
- Provocation neutralization
- Allergen-specific IgG4
- Cytotoxicity assays
- Electrodermal test (Vega)
- Mediator release assay (LEAP diet)
From the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA):
Inappropriate use of Conventional Testing: Food specific IgG, IgG4; Use: Diagnosis of food sensitivity / allergy.
Method: Antibodies to food are measured using standard laboratory techniques.
Evidence: Level II
Comment: IgG antibodies to food are commonly detectable in healthy adult patients and children, independent of the presence of absence of food-related symptoms. There is no credible evidence that measuring IgG antibodies is useful for diagnosing food allergy or intolerance, nor that IgG antibodies cause symptoms. In fact, IgG antibodies reflect exposure to allergen but not the presence of disease. The exception is that gliadin IgG antibodies are sometimes useful in monitoring adherence to a gluten-free diet patients with histologically confirmed coeliac disease. Otherwise, inappropriate use of food allergy testing (or misinterpretation of results) in patients with inhalant allergy, for example, may lead to inappropriate and unnecessary dietary restrictions, with particular nutritional implications in children. Despite studies showing the uselessness of this technique, it continues to be promoted in the community, even for diagnosing disorders for which no evidence of immune system involvement exists.
From the Allergy Society of South Africa, Position Statement: ALCAT and IgG Allergy & Intolerance Tests [Diagnostic tests for food allergy [Sixth Report on Allergy:
We are concerned both that the results of allergy self testing kits available to the public are being interpreted without the advice of appropriately trained healthcare personnel, and that the IgG food antibody test is being used to diagnose food intolerance in the absence of stringent scientific evidence. We recommend further research into the relevance of IgG antibodies in food intolerance, and with the establishment of more allergy centres, the necessary controlled clinical trials should be conducted. We urge general practitioners, pharmacists and charities not to endorse the use of these products until conclusive proof of their efficacy has been established.
From the Food Allergy Initiative:
IgG Testing: This test checks your blood for the presence of food-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. Unlike IgE antibodies, which occur in abnormally large quantities in people with allergies, IgG antibodies are found in both allergic and non-allergic people. Experts believe that the production of IgG antibodies is a normal response to eating food and that this test is not helpful in diagnosing a food allergy.
Interestingly, IgG tests are also rejected as unproven by at least one insurer, Aetna:
IgG RAST/ELISA Testing: There is no evidence that IgG antibodies are responsible for delayed allergic symptoms or intolerance to foods.
A consumer advocacy group investigated different allergy tests, including IgG, and noted the following:
Researchers from the consumer group trialled alternative tests that claim to diagnose food intolerances through analysis of blood samples or strands of hair, changes in electric current, or resistance to pressure applied to their legs or arms. They found that:
- The tests diagnosed 183 intolerances – although the researchers actually had just one medically confirmed allergy and one food intolerance between them
- Identical blood and hair samples sent under different names to the same company produced different test results
- There was little or no overlap between test results from different companies
- The testers felt the practitioners applied more pressure when measuring resistance for certain foods – which they were then told to avoid
- The tests recommended excluding up to 39 foods – which could make it difficult to eat a balanced diet and lead to nutritional problems.
The tests cost between £45 and £275 each, but an expert panel of medical specialists and a dietitian that assessed the results felt that none had diagnostic value for genuine allergies or intolerances.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has evaluated the marketing of the YorkTest and the claim the test is clinically validated, and noted the following:
YorkTest provided three papers to support their claims for the FoodSCAN intolerance tests and believed those showed that the presence of IgG antibodies in the blood was indicative of food intolerances. however, we were concerned that the studies were conducted on people suffering from chronic medical conditions such as IBS and migraine and considered that those findings did not support a general claim for diagnosis of food intolerance. We noted one of the studies was published in an academic peer-reviewed journal, but also noted that although the study concluded that IgG tests may have a role in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, it did not refer to food intolerance among the general population and also stated that futher clinical research was required. We acknowledged that the independent charity Allergy UK endorsed YorkTest's FoodSCAN range with one of their Consumer Awards but also noted this was based on anecdotal evidence (self-reporting) that individuals felt they were benefiting from using the tests. We concluded that the evidence submitted was not sufficiently robust to prove the efficacy of the tests for diagnosing food allergy or intolerance.
On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) 7.1 (Truthfulness) 50.1 (Health Beauty and Therapies)
At present, there are no reliable and validated clinical tests for the diagnosis of food intolerance. While intolerances are non-immune by definition, IgG testing is actively promoted for diagnosis, and to guide management. These tests lack both a sound scientific rationale and evidence of effectiveness. The lack of correlation between results and actual symptoms, and the risks resulting from unnecessary food avoidance, escalate the potential for harm from this test. Further, there is no published clinical evidence to support the use of IgG tests to determine the need for vitamins or supplements. In light of the lack of clinical relevance, and the potential for harm resulting from their use, allergy and immunology organizations worldwide advise against the use of IgG testing for food intolerance.


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Had a new Carrier Infinity system (Heat Pump - split system - crawlspace)in a 1962 vintage tri-level 3000 sq ft brick home in Huntsville, Alabama. We are experiencing very hot/humid conditions (95+ temp and 105 heat index). House has 3 yr old double-pane windows, upgraded insulation in attic and crawlspace - walls too difficult to breach/repair, so they have whatever they put in back in '62, probably next to nothing. Replaced a 10 yr old York with the highly recommended Carrier. Never had duct dripping with York or its' predecessor, an old Bard. Carrier system is great - quiet and pumps out very cold air, variable speed seems to be efficient. All ducts (rectangular and round sheet metal) are now sweating profusely. Original fiberglas insulation is soaked. I know that is ruined and must come off. Crawlspace ducts are easy access for new insulation. Ducts that feed upper level are trickier - they are under floor between joists in overhead of a finished basement with suspended ceiling. I have removed ceiling tiles to allow better air circulation, and bought a 45 pint/day dehumidifier for this area, which is extracting a lot of water. Crawlspace has 2 powered vent fans exhausting to outside. This fall when I have time off, I plan to take off all existing insulation, apply duct seal mastic and tape on all joints, and re-insulate with new insulation. I have not yet called my HVAC installer until i use up my DIY skills.
Questions: 1) Any interim solutions to minimize dripping until i can re-insulate? 2) Is insulation the only or best solution? 3) What is best new insulation? I have read closed-cell, fiberglas, even bubblewrap - it's all about air gap and sealing leaks... All opinions and suggestions gladly accepted. |
Follow-Up Postings:
You must have a high humidity level in the basement to cause all this condensation. Do the powered vent fans run continuously? If not then this would be an entry point for humid air to enter. If they do run all the time, then they could be causing a negative air pressure situation in the basement. The outside humid air is entering through any leakage points. I would think about getting rid of the fans and sealing the exhaust. There is no harm in insulating metal duct work. In my opinion the right solution is to address the humidity problem. This humidity will enter your house which will cause your Infinity system to work harder to remove it. |
The variable-speed system is probably producing colder air as it approaches the set point. That is a product of the program to control humidity. The byproduct is colder ducts which leads to the condensation. It seems like dehumidifier in the basement is the right idea. The fans in the crawlspace might be increasing the condensation if there is more water available from the air than from the ground. Your best solution might be to enclose the crawl. Is there plastic on the ground now? |
Thanks for the 2 posts offering advice. I have a good vapor barrier in the crawl space, but I am going to go back over it this weekend to check for tears or gaps, especially in back corners and around load bearing CMU columns. I may try turning off the 2 crawl space vent fans and covering the openings with plastic for a few days. The condensation/dripping has slowed with just a 24 hour run of the dehumidifier in the family room adjacent to the crawl space. We have emptied the container 4 times since initially turning it on around 8 PM last night. Obviously the fiberglas duct wrap is still soaked and will likely take a while to dry out. As I said, I will replace that this fall - maybe with something like ArmaFlex / K-Flex. Anyone have recommendations on the duct insulation products? I was reading about a product that seems like a double wall aluminum that is used as a radiant heat barrier in sheet form under roof decking, and as a duct wrap product. I know they use very expensive double wall stainless steel pipe insulation in the power plants where I work, and the air gap between the walls cuts heat loss tremendously on high temp steam lines. Anyway, I am pleased to date with the Carrier system with regard to cooling and quiet operation. Thanks again for the support! |
- Posted by energy_rater_la (My Page) on Thu, Jul 26, 12 at 18:11
not the foil bubble foil wrap! instead when you undertake this job in the switch unit to from fan on auto to on position unwrap duct use duct wrap to externally insulate it will take several days, depending on size adding external insulation to supply plenum take plastic to help you slide around in there foil bubble foil for ductwork is easy..but best of luck. |
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subset: commoncrawl


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Find this page online at www.coolrunning.com/results/04/ma/Jun26_DeerIs_set1.shtml
Thanks to Cynthia Hastings for Timing and results
June 26, 2004 Deer Island Weekly 2.65 miles, flat.
No entry fee, no amenities of any kind.
Fog, no view of anything: life is tough but the tough get running.
Kids hill climb loop, unmeasured distance


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Kallark let me refresh your memory you f***** lying hypocrite. Kallark did you not say you were married? Is this what a black married men engage in locker room talk. Perhaps we now know why black children grow up in a single parent family household. There are no black men that have any values or morals. Oh here is your conversation with Warriorisgay,AB, this "randomness" word you keep using in your posts doesn't make sense.
"As far as Warriorisgay,
you both have engaged in locker room talk about black females that were nauseating and disgusting. Had I said anything in comparison would you have the same conversation with me and give me the same endorsement to Stupidity101. I will post the disgusting comments if you would like. However, I will choose the higher ground at this time."
I don't know what you're talking about. I know you said earlier that I somehow approved of pornography. Where do you get off saying that? I need you to post what I supposedly said that shows my explicit or implicit approval of pornography. We actually spoke about that and you agreed that I didn't approve of pornography right?? So what are you saying?? You don't understand AmericanStupidity 101 because you are blinded by your Pan-Aryanism. I'm confused again though because when AS 101 called white people dumb, you quoted Albert Einstein (a German born Jew who fled Nazi, Germany) as a good example of a white person who was not dumb. I thought Pan-Aryanists didn't like Jews? When Ms. Hagelstein spoke about her proud German heritage you then went into a discussion about the purity of the white race and how racial miscegenation was a bad idea according to your opinion. Can you help me out please?
#11448 Oct 22, 2012
contrarytoyourbeliefs (Warriorisgay) wrote:
Yeah, I am not a wigger. I date white women, black women, any woman, so what? If you exclude black women from women you would date, then your loss. Lots of beautiful classy ones and well taken care of. You will bring up some ghetto a$$ sisters, well, they are no worse than the toothless meth whores in rural areas. We all have are defects. So you wouldn't bang Halle Berry, Kerry Washington, Lacey Duvalle, Beyonce, Toni Braxton? You are either high or lying!
Kallarks reponds,
"My man...lol. My thoughts exactly! I totally agree!"
For people not familiar with LACEY DUVALLE that Kallark27 fantasizes banging is a black PORN QUEEN. What kind of message are you sending to your children or grandchildren Kallark. That their Husband, father, or grandfather wants to BANG a black porn queen?
I love my wife dearly, I can't see me with any other woman regardless of their beauty and I wouldn't even engage in little boys locker room talk. I know Kallark not all black men are perverts, just you......
Stay tune Kallark I paste more of your degrading comments in regards to your wife. You know the old cut and paste. Like to see how you spin this one........


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The City of Santa Clarita and several community partners are encouraging graduating seniors to wear a white ribbon on graduation day as part of the White Ribbon Campaign, which raises awareness about the importance of driving safe and making it home alive this graduation season.
As part of the program, a Santa Clarita Sheriff's deputy speaks at each local senior assembly and distributes the white ribbons for students to wear on their gowns during graduation. These white ribbons serve as a reminder to celebrate commencement in a safe and sober way and to remember those local teens lost to reckless driving. Five names will serve as reminders to Santa Clarita Valley teens this 2013 graduation season including Sarah Alarid, Jaime M. Arias, Eric Gilhooley, Dakota DeMott and Derek Millsap.
"Graduation is a time of celebration and we want each and every senior to make it home safe this year," said Mayor Bob Kellar. "I encourage graduating seniors and community members to wear a white ribbon during graduation as a way of honoring those we have lost and as a pledge to drive safe and act responsibly this graduation season."
The White Ribbon Campaign began on May 19 and will continue through June 1, 2013. The campaign was developed in 1998 in response to concerns over the number of local teens who lost their lives in vehicular collisions as a result of someone's bad decision to drive recklessly or while impaired. This White Ribbon campaign is part of the Drive Safe Program, initiated by Frontier Toyota with the assistance of several community organizations including Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station, Safe Rides, The Signal and the City of Santa Clarita.
For more information on White Ribbon Week in Santa Clarita, visit HenryMayoGiving.com/Programs-and-Events/White-Ribbon.


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Cooper 2142W Electrical Wall Plate, Oversize Thermoset Duplex Receptacle Wall Plate, 1-Gang - White
Ask a Question
About this Product
The Cooper 2142W 1-Gang Oversize Thermoset Duplex Receptacle Wall Plate features the Cooper exclusive timesaving Screw-Catch design that holds mounting screws captive to simplify installation. The Cooper 2142W 1-Gang Oversize Thermoset Duplex Receptacle Wall Plate features a smooth, sleek design making it very easy to clean. The matching mounting screws are included with the wall plate. | |
Features:• One-gang oversize duplex receptacle wallplate • Matching mounting screws provided • Easily cleaned |
Specifications:• Model: 2142W • Color: White • Gang: One • Plate Material: Thermoset |
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What is the measurement of this Cooper electrical wall plate? It says "Oversize."
The dimensions for the Cooper 2142W are as follows: 5.25" Height x 3.5" Width.
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You may also be interested in the following products:
Leviton Electrical Wall Plate, Combination, 2-Toggle Switch & 1-Decora, 3-Gang - White
Leviton Electrical Wall Plate, Combination, 2-Duplex & 1-Toggle Switch, 3-Gang - White
Leviton Duplex Wall Plate, 1-Gang, Non-Magnetic Stainless Steel, Standard
Leviton Electrical Wall Plate, Duplex Receptacle, 4-Gang - White


text:
Hi All
Trying to figure out what kind of tree this is. Any help would be appreciated as I have hundreds of seed pods on my lawn and wondering if I should save the seeds. Here are the photos
Follow-Up Postings:
Honey Locust, Gleditsia triacanthos. A very commonly planted shade/timber tree. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Article at Wikipedia:
- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, Mar 26, 12 at 16:44
second link, at the link below, says: This species is a thorny, woody legume tree that has a tendency to be an aggressive colonizer. Root suckers and abundant seed production ... which loosely translates into 'invasive' .. in some areas .. if your lawn is covered with pods.. i suspect you have many seedlings in the area.. and wonder what in the world you want to save more seed.. lol ... do whatever makes you happy .. ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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"This recipe is better than the beer bread Tastefully Simple sells. And that is some good bread!A tasty alteration to turn it into a breakfast bread that will make your mouth water is...Follow the dry recipe sifting the flour before measuring and adding to other ingredients. Now add 2-3 heaping tablespoons of Vanilla Capaccino (or Vanilla coca)..."


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Oct 11, 2012 10:37 AM by Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - California's reign of pump pain is easing as prices drop for the second day in a row.
The AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Thursday says the average price of regular is just under $4.66 a gallon - down more than a penny in two days.
However, it's still the highest price in the nation.
The highest state price is $4.75 a gallon in the San Luis Obispo area. San Francisco has $4.73, with Los Angeles and San Diego reporting around $4.70.
The drop follows a 50-cent runup at the pump, fueled in part by refinery and pipeline problems. Some lawmakers have called for an investigation of the hike.
Analysts say California's early switch to a cheaper but more polluting winter blend of fuel should help lower prices.
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English Premier League, Liverpool – Manchester United, Sunday,
Though this match is available in those people who has Direct TV and Dish Network at home. But, don't worry guys, you can still able to watch Liverpool vs Manchester United live stream online TV from here. You don't need to have a programming in your PC just visit and enjoy watching Liverpool vs Manchester United.
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Flo is not quite a normal teenager: at the time, as all his friends think only about sex, he can not even pronounce the word "S - E - X". But everything changes completely when one morning Flo wakes up from a strange call. This is his "best friend", excited for the first time, begins to talk to him. He claims that Flo severely neglected them for 15 years, and it's time to release him and start acting. Miserable existence must end, and this means that everything will be totally different since now .
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Arkansas Oil Spill
9:53 am
Mon April 1, 2013
Oil Spill Contained, Crews Focus On Cleanup
Over 100 workers and several vacuum trucks continue to clean up oil after a pipeline operated by ExxonMobil burst near Mayflower on Friday. The oil spill, which has been contained, caused officials in Faulkner County to evacuate 22 homes as lawns and streets in the Northwood subdivision became drenched in oil.
Heavy rains over the weekend caused some to worry about the effects of runoff into Lake Conway, though that danger has been prevented. Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson says workers are using several methods to control the spill."We're continuing to strengthen underflow weirs or underflow dykes, really just to control rainwater runoff," says Dodson. There are approximately 13-16 vacuum trucks. We call them vac-trucks, vacuuming surface oil off of water we've retained," he says.
After containing the spill, workers are now focusing on cleaning up the affected neighborhood, says Dodson."Operations that are new include pressure washing of the streets. That process is underway. I think they're monitoring how much they can pressure wash without actually damaging the asphalt."
"You know a lot of oil that came through there, in excess of 2,000 barrels, less than 10,000 barrels. We don't know the exact number yet. Crews there have removed all of what we call free product, which is standing oil," says Dodson.
The pipeline, which carries oil from Illinois to Texas, was installed in the late 1940's .
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Some people, especially working on the front-line of delivering aid programmes, are uncomfortable with the idea that aid should be more strongly linked to results. Some point out that there is no evidence that government officials and aid workers will respond to incentives (see this article by Ngaire Woods and Paolo de Renzio); indeed, the very idea seems to impugn the character of development professionals. Others are concerned that an increased focus on results will add to the bureaucratic burden of form filling and reporting which plagues the life of front-line staff (see this essay by Andrew Natsios, former USAID Administrator.) On his blog yesterday, Simon Maxwell lists four further concerns which he says give rise to uncomfortable "seat shifting" about results : that the evidence won't really be used; that linking aid to results relies on a simplistic, deterministic view of development; that it risks focusing too much on results which can be measured, rather than deeper but less observable changes; and that a results-based approach fails to take account of the complexity of how aid transactions actually feed through into activities.
These are serious and important concerns. In particular, if measuring results is simply bolted on to the existing systems for the allocation and management of aid, the danger is that we add to bureaucracy with little real benefit. But if better measurement of results is used instead by aid agencies to simplify the way they manage aid programmes, rather than just adding new reporting, then the results agenda creates the opportunity to reduce bureaucracy, decentralise decision-making, increase country ownership, increase the focus on outcomes that really matter, step away from linear, deterministic thinking about how results are achieved, focus more on relationships and institutions, and really liberate development workers to work on what really motivates them – delivering change on the ground – and less on managing the bureaucracy at home.
This post sets out how a focus on results might unlock changes in the way aid is managed, which could lead to significant improvements in aid effectiveness.
Let's deal first with the question of motivation. In a recent post I reported Dan Pink's claim that people are generally not motivated by money to do cognitive and creative tasks. This led Nandini to ask:
How do you reconcile these views with those in Cash on Delivery aid, where incentives are clearly being proposed to motivate government officials to get the job done?
I do not think that most people who work in development are in it for the money. Most of the aid workers could earn much more, and live more comfortable and less stressful lives, if they did something else. Aid workers don't want to get rich: they want to help make the world a better a place. And though they are often teased for being self-righteous, it is a genuinely noble and admirable motive.
I also know many fine public servants in developing countries who are similarly motivated by service to their country. They often burn with national pride and want their country succeed. They want to address social injustice and poverty. They are hard working and often paid very little. They too would be insulted by any suggestion that they are in it for the money.
That isn't to say that there aren't some officials in both developed and developing countries who are corrupt and greedy. In some developing countries where civil service salaries are very low, some people are not fortunate enough to get over Dan Pink's hurdle of "being paid enough that they don't have to worry about money". For these people, money may be a motivator, but for reasons I've set out elsewhere, I think aid plays a relatively minor role in changing their behaviour.
If the people making these decisions are not motivated by money, what is the point of linking aid to results? The answer is that incentives still matter. People who work in NGOs spend a big part of their time writing grant applications, and sucking up to donors, not because they enjoy it but because they want to increase the funding for their organisation. Within aid agencies, people spend a lot of time doing things they don't really value, because that is what they have to do to be allowed to spend money on the programmes they care about. Clearly people working in development are responding to incentives, not related to their own incomes but because they want to expand and sustain the programmes they think are important. So incentives matter, and they do change people's behaviour.
Incentives to be ineffective
Within the current aid system, donor agencies and their staff face powerful incentives to give less effective aid. For example:
- Some donors give "tied aid", even though this is estimated to reduce the value of aid by 15-30%. Tied aid is a consequence of domestic political pressure. Some donors allege that tied aid necessary to maintain public support for their aid programme (e.g. US food aid).
- Conditions are often imposed on aid, not because anybody believes the conditions really make a difference to what happens – all the evidence suggests to the contrary – but they enable donor governments to claim that they are "doing something". Though we know aid works best when we the developing country has real ownership over their policies, in practice the aid system regularly undermines this ownership by setting conditions and imposing its own systems of accountability and control.
- Donors like to retain the flexibility to turn the aid tap on and off at short notice (a practice often disgracefully known as using a "short leash") so that they can respond to domestic political pressures, even though the lack of predictability is one of the biggest impediments to aid effectiveness.
This behaviour is driven mainly by the proper and important need for aid agencies to show to their taxpayers that their money has achieved something. Because aid agencies have found it hard to show a clear link to results, sometimes for quite respectable reasons, a complicated bureaucratic culture has grown up to trace how inputs are used, to set milestones and benchmarks, to and to encourage very high levels of engagement with recipients about how they propose to go about spending the money. But this behaviour, while a completely understandable and rational response to the need to be accountable, reduces the effectiveness of aid.
If taxpayers (and their representatives: politicians) cannot observe the results of aid, in a far away country about which they know little, they will be inclined to insist on getting whatever second-best information can be assembled to satisfy themselves, and to demonstrate to taxpayers, that the aid has been well used. The consequence is that aid is made less effective. For example:
- There are political costs (and risks) to making long term aid commitments, and to untying aid, but in the absence of measures of results there is no political cost to the invisible loss of effectiveness that unpredictability and tied aid create.
- Donors know that country ownership is essential for aid to be used well, but they nonetheless feel that they have to impose their own systems to determine how aid will be used and to track implementation.
- There are political and strategic benefits to giving aid in every country and every sector; but in the absence of measures of results nobody knows how much inefficiency this proliferation creates, nor is there anything to force donors towards a better division of labour.
It is as though we plant a tree and then dig it up again once a week to see how the roots are doing; and then we wonder why it isn't growing very fast.
We cannot wish this problem away. It is right and inescapable that donors must be accountable to taxpayers. Donors cannot avoid these pressures simply by making international agreements to do better in future (which is why those agreements are implemented only sketchily and slowly, if at all). Nor will they meet the need for accountability merely by improving their communications or changing the narrative. A stronger link between aid and results looks to be the only sustainable way to solve this problem.
The risk of additional bureaucracy
The audit culture in aid is beginning to create a backlash among development professionals. Earlier this month, the Institute of Development Studies organised a meeting to "take the first step towards resisting the audit culture of philanthropic foundations and government ministries." And in an important essay which is getting a lot of attention, Andrew Natsios (a former Administrator of USAID) wrote about what he sees as the most disruptive obstacles to development work in agencies such as USAID: layers and layers of bureaucracy. He argues that an emphasis on measurement is at odds with the fact that transformational programs are often the least measurable and involve elements of risk and uncertainty.
And if that is how the staff of donor agencies are feeling, imagine how much worse it must be for hard-pressed officials in developing countries, and NGOs trying to keep their overheads to a minimum.
Some people have a reasonable fear that push for better measurement of results, and a better link between aid and results, is a further and troubling manifestation of this bureaucratic tendency. There is a significant risk of additional bureaucracy if the need to measure results is simply bolted on to the existing systems. But if donors are willing and able to use the stronger link to results to simplify the way they manage aid, this offers the best – perhaps the only – opportunity to step away from "command and control" management of aid.
Will measuring results make the system better or worse?
The argument for greater use of linking aid to results is not based on the simplistic notion that we should motivate aid workers or officials in developing countries with monetary rewards (which I don't believe). Instead it is based on the idea that if we can tackle the problem of lack of information about results, it becomes possible – and indeed desirable – to allow decentralised decision-making by people on the ground who know much more about what is important and what works; so respecting country ownership, and liberating developing countries and aid agencies from much of the bureaucracy of the aid system.
Cash on Delivery aid is a possible example of this approach. It is a market-like mechanism, in that the donors set a price that they are willing to pay for certain types of result, and they allow governments to decide for themselves whether and how to supply those results. But it is rightly a long way from a pure market solution. I would like to see it tested because I hope that if aid is linked explicitly to an independently-verified measure of the results that we care about, this might enable donors to change the way that they relate to recipient governments and the way they manage aid. There should be no reason to agree milestones and benchmarks, no need to set targets; no need for policy conditions or inspections of public financial management. There does not need to be a simplistic, linear model of how results are achieved, monitored at every milestone and benchmark. Financial commitments linked to results could be long-term and predictable. Developing countries could choose their own priorities, and take responsibility for their own progress. Cash on Delivery might enable donors to respect country ownership, and the diversity of approaches countries will take, while still being able to report to domestic taxpayers what difference aid has made.
Simon Maxwell is right to point out that too much development thinking simplistically assumes that inputs are translated into outputs and outcomes, as implied by the logframe approach. But this is surely a critique of the existing approach in which inputs, activities and outputs are obsessively described and tracked and rather too little attention is paid to the actual outcomes. A results-based approach, by contrast, would enable the development partners to step away from deterministic models, to invest more in relationships and institutions, to be politically savvy and opportunistic, to learn as they go, and to deliver results in ways that are messy, unpredictable and imprecise but which actually work.
Simon Maxwell is also right to highlight the importance of institutions and capacity in developing countries. Many existing approaches to development pay too little attention to this: because of our need to track inputs and activities we tie up partner governments in red tape and try to direct proceedings from the outside or – worse – bypass government systems to deliver services through NGOs and the private sector. This undermines institutions and systems. By contrast, one of the motives behind Cash on Delivery is that it enables developing countries to figure out their own way to deliver results, and so to strengthen their own national institutions and policy making. Because in this model donors are focused only on results, they do not need to intervene intrusively in how countries make progress, so enabling the institutions of developing countries to draw in outside expertise they actually need, want and use; innovate; test ideas; set their own priorities; adopt their own approaches; and learn.
Sceptics are certainly right to ask if a results-based approach will focus on the wrong results: there is a risk that we will link aid to short term, measurable indicators instead of sustained institutional and economic change. That is certainly a shortcoming of today's aid system, which sets targets for all kinds of short term activities which may or may not be important ("set up an anti-corruption commission" or "reduce double shift working by teachers") and creates a huge industry of people designing ways to monitor these indicators, while accepting with apparent equanimity that we lack even the most rudimentary information about the things we ought really to care about, such as whether corruption is being reduced or children are learning at school. It is possible that, under the banner of results-based aid, we could simply reinforce this short-term interventionism by linking money to short-term indicators that donors currently believe might matter. But if we resist this bureaucratic temptation and instead link aid to results that really do matter – such as reductions in maternal mortality or improvements in access to clean water – then we reduce, not increase, the risk that the aid system is too focused on the wrong things.
The hypothesis is that by addressing particular information failure – lack of information about results – and if necessary dedicating some resources to it, we might be able to break away from the coping strategies which donors have had to adopt, which create a lot of pressures which make aid far less effective and which waste a lot of time and money on nugatory work. But this will require some imagination on the part of aid agencies to think about how they can simplify their existing systems for managing aid when they link aid more robustly to results. Development professionals are right to worry that if results monitoring is simply added to existing systems, the effect will not be greater simplicity but more complexity and bureaucracy.
In my view, it is disrespectful to aid workers and to officials of developing countries to suggest that they are motivated by money. That is not the logic behind linking aid to results. It also disrespectful to occupy so much of their time on bureaucratic administration, recording information about inputs and processes, milestones and benchmarks, when they would generally make a greater contribution if they were free to deliver development results.
Aid is made less effective by the incentives which aid agencies face, which they in turn transmit to their staff. In large part, these unhelpful incentives are a consequence of lack of information about results. If we can measure results better, and if we can use this to simplify the management of aid (and not simply bolt additional reporting on to existing bureaucratic processes), this will enable more decentralised decision-making, respect country ownership, make the jobs of aid workers and government officials more rewarding, improve the effectiveness of aid, and so reduce poverty faster.
20 Responses to Incentives, results and bureaucracy in aid
I think there is actually a problem even if you are motivated by incentives. Consider a salesman selling faxes to small businesses in a high street store. The business recognises and rewards the meeting of monthly targets.
But what happens is that if you actually meet the target (and sometimes if you don't), it is increased the following month. Which can be incredibly demotivating to the salesman. This is particularly true when the number of small businessmen coming to the store in a given month is essentially random, so it is hard to measure the actual influence of a given salesman on the monthly sales – they may be more influenced by fluctuations outside of their influence.
I'm no aid expert, but it strikes me that there could be a large amount of nescience involved in the hitting (or not hitting) any given target within the life of any project.
Owen — really enjoyed your thoughtful piece — you've addressed some key concerns and brought out the nuances regarding incentives vs money, results vs/with flexibility, very well. And as you know, I am a fan of COD and wish some countries and donors would try it out seriously. Still, I keep thinking why 'lock' COD as just a way of doing aid, and not articulate it as a way in which Governments can use their own resources, including general budget support funds, to do COD in a manner that sets up the right incentives within their own countries? Eg getting districts to focus on increasing learning outcomes in education. Of course such a proposition comes better from inside countries, perhaps thats your hesitation, but would it not be a worthwhile effort to have a group of serious people in a country engage with this scenario? Even as 'pilot' experiment in say 5% of the country?
I'm still skeptical about COD. What sort of measurements will be used?
Owen thanks for a very useful piece which touches on a number of key issues, and summarises different positions very well. Clearly we know we have a measurement issue and associated attribution problem, we also have an aggregation problem, and we have an ownership problem – particularly of front line staff in agencies that Dennis Rondinelli in 'Development Projects as Policy Experiments', and many others, have pointed out for some time.
It seems to me that if we need an 'intelligent mix' of ways of addressing these problems we need a) to recognise different ways of viewing the world and diffrent types of change process ranging between: i.e. the world is predictable and objectives can be set and organisations held accountable to them, or the course of events is complex & cannot be predicted or controlled, through to development is about empowering less privileged to hold the powerful to account , b) to acknowledge there are different forms of measurment and accountability that are dominant within these i.e. more focused on principal-client for the first, peer and social accountability for the second and political accountability for the third and c) to be clear there are favoured methods of 'measurement' within these schemas i.e. more RCT type methods with the first; more peer reviews and stakeholder assessment type processes with the second; and more social accountability and 'voice' type options with the third.
One important advantage of the last is its potential in providing real time 'signals', if harnessed cleverly i.e. by Ushahidi type crowdsourcing, which could provide a much better bottom-up baromoter of change which might in turn inform taxpayers elsewhere though a shortened route of accountability. This might also help address the critique of the evaluation of the first pahse of the Paris declaration which noted the technocratic nature of the process was liable to alienate parliaments and citizens everywhere.
Of course how we arrive at deciding what is the intelligent mix for a given issue is very much a key part of the debate, along with the perennial question of how organisations provide the 'enabling environment' (or incentives) for their staff to listen and repond to information, learning, and feedback particularly from those with the least power in the system.
Hi Owen — Thanks for this piece. Clearly written and compelling as usual.
I appreciate your re-framing of results-based financing (RBF) away from simple motivation and towards the idea that it is about demonstrating results vs inputs — which can then allow for a lot of other desirable changes. But I have a slight different take on one thing you mention, which is that NGO and other workers are not primarily motivated by money and get pissy when it is suggested that they are. I've traveled in a few SSA countries over the last year writing about RBF (for health) programs for the World Bank. The front line NGO staff I interview are certainly motivated by money — as you say, they want more of it so they can do more with the programs they care about (and/or they want to get all they've budgeted for if the "incentive" is actually a penalty for non-performance, as it is in Liberia and S Sudan). Health facility staff too want more money. It's the first thing they ask for when you ask them what will motivate them. They'd also like phone scratch cards, housing allowances, school allowances for their kids, and stuff for the clinic like lab coats, computers, an ambulance.
What they get upset about is the suggestion that they weren't thinking about performance or results until the World Bank showed up and told them that they should. OF COURSE they care — that's why they got into the business. They may track it differently than the World Bank does — through best practices based on lessons learned, which may be shared in various forums — but for them, it counts. (Not to mention that contracts are usually based on targets and NGOs risk not having their contracts renewed if they perform badly.)
I have two concerns. First, COD aid. I'm a fan and I think it should be tried, but I worry that an incentive payment to the top for, say, a reduction in maternal mortality, will not translate to all the many levels and layers of people down that are needed to achieve that result, which, first, is notoriously hard to measure anyway, but also requires people far far away from developing country capitals to make decisions: a woman has to choose to come to a facility rather than deliver at home with the traditional birth attendant who she's known a long time and is comfortable with. The TBA has to not lure the woman away from the facility. The facility has to have competent staff, a midwife, a physician assistant, and it helps if they're getting paid on time and reporting into an HMIS. They need an ambulance in case of complications. And a million other little things. I'm torn between the reality of this complexity and the need to keep COD aid "pure" in the sense of little or no donor interference.
This relates to my second concern, which is about a kind of RBF — the type that gives incentives (fee for service, bonus, penalty) to public and private facilities, a la Rwanda, Burundi. Rwanda is well known for being hugely successful and Burundi is shaping up to see positive results as well. And they are regarded as country led/owned. But they are really, really complex. In Burundi, for example, there are over 150 composite quality indicators alone. All sorts of new structures and comittees have to be established and data collection and monitoring procedures — and there's a huge need for TA. I'm not the only one who's worried about the wisdom and sustainability of such complexity, even if results are being achieved.
Just a few thoughts. Apologies for the length of this comment, and thanks again for this great post. I hope it's widely read.
The data would be independently verified.
This is a big concern that many proponents of CoD aid tend to gloss over.
First of all, independent verification (a.k.a. audit) is not easy, especially in the settings that we are discussing here. To be able to audit e.g. "each additional child who completes primary school and takes (but not necessarily passes) a standardized test", you need to have:
1. a verified starting point that is audited for completeness of number of children who have completed school and taken the test;
2. a system which measures the increase and has sufficient internal controls to make the it sufficiently likely that the resulting numbers are accurate;
3. a way to verify the design, existence and operation of these internal controls (which would include at least some real-life observation by the putative independent auditor).
In many of the settings that we discuss here, this is highly unlikely to transpire; e.g. can you imagine an adequate system of nation-wide internal controls in Somalia of Afghanistan — or an independent auditor verifying the existence and operation of those controls?Secondly, even if all this would exist, it would become quite expensive. Independent auditors don't come cheap in the first place (and I say this as a former auditor with one of the big international audit firms), and for this sort of work you would pay quite a premium. Would the advantages of CoD outweigh the extra cost of the audit?
Not to be too pedantic, but I said that 'many [emphasis added] proponents' gloss over the issue, not all — with CGD being a clear exception.
I am struck by the huge expense and time that is devoted to designing and monitoring a vast range of activities and intermediate indicators associated with aid programmes … All for what, exactly?
I think we fully agree there, but our conclusions are different: I would say that many of those monitoring activities are quite useless as well (and, as somebody who would love to see more accountability in aid, I say this with pain in my heart). The difference is that CoD is impossible without effective monitoring/audit because you will not know whether the delivery actually eventuated — in other words, without verification it becomes just a slightly dressed-up form of cash aid. This is not true for more classical forms of aid: we might not know much about their effectiveness (sadly), but the verification is not essential to their execution.
So yes, there is an issue around verification/audit that is unique to CoD aid, and that does not get enough attention.
But do the COD reuslts necessarily translate to short or long term development? Who is pacified more, the donor who sees great vaule for money for his tax payer, or the citizens who don't necessarily get a say out of it?
Another classic post we can use in the advanced development course.
I would like to go back to the original issue: do we need to focus on results? It goes back to the old discussion on process approach and goal oriented approach. According to some proponents of the process approach, emancipation was the main development goal, so who cares whether the school is built, or the food produced. By having unclear, vague or multiple objectives, some NGOs, but also bilateral and multilateral agencies, have unmeasurable results. They have a right to choose this approach, and important lessons can be learned in the process.
When development is funded by donor money, especially donor government money, some rules have to be followed. One of them is that it should be used for what it is aimed for. Cash on delivery complies with this rule. Working "in the general direction of good" doesn't. This is why this kind of projects NGOs should rather finance with their own resources.
This is not because there is a belief that only results count. It is because the tax payer has a legal right to know what his money was used for. Moreover, as the needs are way bigger than the available resources priorities must be set. Normally the first investment will be the one where there is a guaranteed maximum return. Less will be invested in more risky ventures, although I would agree there must always be enough "risk capital"for innovative or risky approaches.
Just wanted to add that in a long-term consultancy I did for Sida on supporting some framework NGOs to set up non-linear, outcome-focused RBM systems for their operations in deepening democracy (which, by the way, was a BATTLE! both internally in the NGOs and took more than anticipated 'sensitisation' within the donor agency), we recently came to a situation where one of the NGOs who previously resisted the whole RBM-thing said: "Wow, NOW I get it. We could really use this to reclaim power over our own programmes." So can RBM be an empowering tool rather than a draining, bureucratic, vertical one led by donor interests? Yes, absolutely! But instead of spending time and energy on resisting it, it actually takes some guts to 'claim' it, fit the language to one's own reality and start to communicate results (and to motivate why all are not necessarily quantifiable if that is the case)! I see lots of similarities between RBM and 'systematic investigative reporting' (being a former journalist), and that just makes it so much more interesting… Thanks for an interesting article! Charlotte (firstname.lastname@example.com)
What gets me is that so many of the "results" are fuzzy around the edges with everyone in the reporting chain, governments, development partners and donors all wanting to see the positive story. There is little independent verification. So everyone is focusing on a satisfyingly positive story and there is little time to focus on the lessons and what's not working.


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This is probably too soon for people to help me identify this ornamental pineapple. This plant was originally from the fruit of an ornamental pineapple that has been severed from the mother plant. If I remember correctly, the pineapple fruit was about 2 or 3 inches at that time and it was about to be discarded. I took the fruit home, since I have previous experience of saving the tops of an pineapple fruits and planting it, I thought I'll try it with this inedible, miniature, pineapple fruit.
So I cut the top off, planted it on a very small pot with potting soil, and placed in a closed container to keep the humidity high. After more than three months with nothing of a sign if it's growing or not I was about to discarded it, thinking it was a failure, then decided to give it one more month. I'm so glad I waited because it finally showed sign that is growing by the addition of new leaves. I then transplanted into a bigger container. Here is the picture of it a few more months later (the old leaves has been completely replaced with new ones): I forgot how the mother plant look like--I think it has a red hue color to the leaves, but not as red as the young pineapple in the picture. The mother plant I think was grown in a 5 - 6 inches pot, so the mother plant wasn't that huge. Can anyone identify this young bromeliad plant? |
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Could be a Ananas lucidus |
Could be. Ugh! Wish I could have written down the scientific name or have taken picture of it. Searching for Ananas lucidus yealded a lot of result that looks similar to the plant, so it's pretty much impossible to identify what I have. Thank you, hanwc, for your reply! |
Revision of Ananas recently , make this now Ananas comosus var, erectifolius , or even easier Ananas Chocolat. The absence of spines and colour makes this id easy . |
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Ben Oliver, 35, is contributing editor on CAR magazine. He also writes about cars and business for the Mail on Sunday in the UK, and for major magazines and newspapers around the world. He lives in London and Sussex with his partner Victoria, his elderly lurcher and nine old bicycles.


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Shim JH et al. – In a setting of non–curative resection for gastric cancer, age was not a limiting factor. Rather, the risk of postoperative morbidity should be considered carefully in total gastrectomy and combined resection.
Methods- The study reviewed 278 patients who underwent non–curative resection for advanced gastric cancer.
- The clinicopathological features of elderly patients (≥75 years, n=257) and younger patients (<75 years, n=21) were compared.
- Although no difference was observed in terms of preoperative performance, there were distinct differences in terms of albumin level, presence of symptoms, and the rate of comorbidities between the two groups.
- The postoperative morbidity and mortality rate did not differ between the two groups.
- Age, preoperative performance status, preoperative transfusion, and presence of comorbidity were not independent predictors of postoperative complications.
- However, the extent of gastric resection and combined resection were closely related to postoperative complications in patients with non–curative gastrectomy.


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Thinking of becoming a foster parent? Read on for insights and advice from a local expert on everything from getting started to getting it right.
Synonyms for the word "foster" include nurture, raise, promote, further—actions that can make a world of difference when applied to an at-risk or underprivileged child. In recognition of Foster Care Awareness Month this May, we talked with Nicole L. Mudd, a foster care home-finder for Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth on Long Island, about what it takes to be a foster parent, rights and responsibilities of the job, and other ways to help children in need.
The first [step] would be to contact an agency in your local area…to see what their policy is. There is usually a training period you would need to go through, and they also do a fingerprint background check as well as a background check through the state central registry for child abuse and neglect, to have [potential] foster parents and any other members of the household cleared. It's a matter of doing paperwork, going through the training process based on what the agency requirements are, [and] waiting for the clearance papers to come back stating that you are eligible.
First and foremost is really being a team player and working together with the agency, county workers, and with the birth family in order to meet the child's goal of either returning home to the parents or being adopted. [And] meeting the child's needs, whether it is medical needs or behavioral needs or any type of emotional needs that they have—really just being caring and loving.
I would say definitely know your comfort level as to what you feel you can provide for a child. If you don't have any experience with a child with developmental disabilities, take some training classes or try and get the most knowledge possible to be able to meet that child's needs. If it's a medical condition, most agencies provide training based on whatever it is so [the foster parents] will meet the child's needs. It's all about meeting the child's needs so that they can meet their ultimate goal by either being adopted or moving home to their families. It's definitely a big responsibility [and] it's a lot of work, but in the end…foster care is really [about] making a difference in the child's life.
Working with the agencies to get the child to medical and dental appointments, assisting them in reaching their permanency goal, [and] understanding and encouraging birth-parent-and-child visits.
They have the right to say no to us for a placement—it doesn't mean that we're not going to call them the next time. They can say "I want one child," or "I want a sibling set," or "I can take five." They have a lot of rights. They're included in all agency planning in regard to the child's school. We give them as much information as we possibly can before we place the child there, because that helps the parent to meet the child's needs.
Allow the child to have some input as to what their room might look like. Allow them to have some ownership there. Allow them to share things. One of the biggest things we encourage our parents to do is have the child pick something that they want for dinner—every member of the house picks dinner for a certain night, [and] they all cook it together. The more input the child has, the more likely they are to feel comfortable there and the more likely they are to kind of follow along with the rules of the home.
There are volunteer opportunities if you're not able to open your home to a foster child. There are plenty of opportunities out there [to] make a difference in a child's life, like mentoring programs, Big Brothers Big Sisters. There are a lot of mentoring programs out there where you can still be that positive adult in a child's life if you're not able to open your home to be a fulltime foster parent, because it is a huge commitment.
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Tuesday 3rd January 2012 | 12:09
Today I wrote an article for CityAM about the Iowa caucus and Mitt Romney's candidature. Here are some more expanded points about how tonight's events work and how the situation seems likely to pan out from them.
1. You don't need to be a Republican to vote, as long as you become one. True, only registered Republicans can vote, but you can have been a lifelong Democrat and switch your registration to the Republican on the night. It's as simple as that. So if you wanted Barack Obama re-elected, you might decide to go along and caucus for a candidate, such as Newt Gingrich, who seems unlikely to perform well against the President in November. Few, I suspect, would be bothered.
2. Caucusing takes ages. You turn up on a cold winter's evening (no postal ballots here) to your local sports hall, library or church, listen to speeches from each of the campaigns, then write the name of your preferred candidate on a scrap of paper. Once these are counted and announced, the process begins of electing members of the various county and state bodies that go on to actually choose the delegates. Essentially, those wanting to take part have to book out their entire evening – don't think of it as a UK-style 'voting on your way back from Tesco.'
3. This favours zealots. Due to the non-user-friendly nature of the process, caucus-goers must either be inspired or unhinged. It is for this very reason that the Obama campaign placed such emphasis on the state – that it could romance enough 'hope-hope-change-change' voters to brave the cold. On the Republican side, the mass throngs of organised evangelicals and hardline conservatives have dominated a process with such low turnout. It was exactly these voters who propelled former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee to his caucus win in 2008 – gained with 40,954 votes of the state's 607,927 registered Republicans, or under 7% of those eligible to caucus. This is exactly why moderate former Utah governor Jon Huntsman explained his decision to skip the caucuses by declaring "they pick corn in Iowa, they pick Presidents in New Hampshire." The fact the state has only picked two eventual GOP nominees in a contested contest in the past 25 years backs up such assertions. All of this probably helps candidates with something different to say like Ron Paul, Rick Santorum or perhaps Rick Perry.
4. And the organised. If you can win with such small numbers, those running the most effective ground operation matters. Ron Paul's army of young people, bussed in from out of state in a manner reminiscent of Obama's 2008 victory, will certainly help with this. But Mitt Romney, who has had a team camped out here since around 2006, has a good handle on the lay of the land – his exceptionally well-funded and disciplined campaign have been frantically calling their core supporters, built up over years, wishing them 'Happy New Year' and politely reminding them of their caucus location. Rick Perry – and most certainly the shambolic Gingrich campaign – will have nothing to match it.
5. Mitt Romney wasn't meant to win here. Since June, the not-Romney conservative has held a solid lead in Iowa, in its different incarnations: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. Each of these fell by the wayside either through implosion or, in the case of Gingrich, after relentless attack from Romney's SuperPAC. The fact you need so few votes to win has meant the Bachmanns and Santorums of this world targeted their limited resources at the state, leaving Mr Romney free to work on the other 49. Should he win tonight, it will be because of the money he and his friends have spent, the professional organisation of his campaign, and – above all else – by default.
6. A win for Rick Santorum or Ron Paul helps Romney. Rick Santorum, a former Senator who lost his seat by 16 points in 2006, who is so far associated with the Christian Right that gay rights activist and sex columnist Dan Savage has successfully redefined his surname on Google (not for the faint of heart). Currently polling at 4% outside Iowa, he does not have the time, money or organisation to truly take on Mr Romney in a national contest. Similarly, Ron Paul's libertarian appeal, though better managed than Mr Santorum's efforts, has an obvious glass ceiling that any non-conservative candidate in this race would face. Newt Gingrich and even Rick Perry, both flawed but somehow credible Presidential candidates, would build on a win in Iowa to mount a formidable challenge to the Romney machine – indeed, Mr Gingrich is still theoretically tied with Romney in national polls. But such a situation now seems very very unlikely, with a win by Santorum or Paul giving Mr Romney a leading rival into the later primaries, following his near inevitable victory in New Hampshire, who he will find it exceptionally simple to beat.
7. Iowa doesn't matter: Mitt Romney has probably won already. This media circus is all good fun, with so many amusing candidates helping to add to the soap opera appeal of the 'contest', but none of it really matters. The point of the early states is to give second tier candidates a chance of entering the top tier before the entire nation has a primary. But Romney's lock on New Hampshire and the likelihood of his performing at least 'well' tonight make his position secure. We will, in all likelihood, be left with a race with only one serious candidate. Saving a miracle for Mssrs Perry and Gingrich tonight, Mitt Romney will be the Republican candidate to take on Obama, and the vulnerability of the President to his moderate businesslike message will be the real story.


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For the past several years, a pair of alternating biennials have been presented in the month of March (though the shows and events associated with them often start in February and end in April). In odd-numbered years, there's the well-established Month of Photography, and in even-numbered years, like 2014, there's the still-emergent Month of Printmaking — this year dubbed Mo'Prints.
As with Month of Photography, Month of Printmaking is a loosely associated series of shows and panels presented at galleries and other art venues along the Front Range. It was organized by the Invisible Museum and headed up by Marina Graves and Alicia McKim along with Mark Lunning, printmaster and owner of Open Press. The festivities began on February 28, when Open Press: Celebrating 25 Years of Printmaking — featuring work that Lunning has produced over the years at his Open Press atelier — opened in the McNichols Building in the Civic Center.
Lunning has distinguished himself over the last quarter-century, emerging as one of the most significant printers in the state through Open Press. Having grown up in Westminster, he settled in Denver in the '80s after studying art at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He was exhibiting his work at the venerable but long-gone Inkfish Gallery when, in 1987, the director there, Paul Hughes (now at Z Art Department), commissioned him to do an etching. Lunning was in the same studio building with artist Michael Duffy, who had an etching press. The Hughes commission gave Lunning a chance to sharpen his etching skills, which he had learned in college just a few years earlier.
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When Duffy moved back to his home town of Chicago and took the press with him, Lunning was inspired to start Open Press. He had also determined that there was a dearth of local printmakers, and therefore a pent-up demand for such a service. After talking with other artists, Lunning was confident that he could make a go of the print business, so he quit his day job as a land surveyor and put out his shingle on Market Street, in the neighborhood that was not yet called LoDo. This was in January 1989, and his first client was the late Dale Chisman, who had been having his prints done in New Mexico and New York.
There's an interesting six-degrees-of-separation angle to this history, which hit me as Lunning was telling it. Duffy had been a student of Mary Chenoweth, and so, too, had Chisman. Chenoweth first came to Colorado Springs to teach printmaking at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center School (though she later moved over to Colorado College, where she encountered Duffy and Chisman). It was at the CSFACS that some of the most significant prints in the history of Colorado had been pulled. That means that in some sense, Open Press is an heir to the main attraction in the history of Colorado printmaking: the prints done from the '30s to the '50s at the CSFACS.
Lunning moved Open Press several times — first to Blake Street, then to Wazee, and finally to the Baker location it has occupied for the past eighteen years. The business has been through tough times as the economy has gone up and down, but Lunning's dedication to his craft and his marvelous skills, both of which inevitably led to the creation of first-rate prints, have allowed Open Press to survive and even prosper. This fact is indisputable as you take in the impressive show on view at the McNichols.
Lunning chose thirty artists who had made deep commitments to Open Press over the years and gave each of them an individual section — sometimes one major print, sometimes a group of them. He also included another twenty artists whose work is represented in various portfolios he organized. In addition to being an artisan who executes the work of others, Lunning is an artist himself and included his own work — notably, the prints from his "Urban Garden" series, in which he combines abstractions of plants with simplified structural forms evocative of buildings.
Given the enormous expanses of the McNichols Building, Lunning chose mostly monumental prints — or those in portfolios that, though small, take on a monumental presence when seen together. As you'd expect, one of the showstoppers is Chisman's "Slip (Yellow Crown)," in which layers of translucent paper have been adhered to the foundation sheet; the imagery includes scribbles, a profile, a paw and a crown.
Although some of the artists who've worked at Open Press have made work that has the "look" of printmaking, with lots of fine parallel lines — like the prints by Brian Comber and Michael Burnett — others have created works that more resemble watercolors. These include the smeary monotype landscape by Joellyn Duesberry and the abstracts by David Yust and Mary Mackey. A couple — Homare Ikeda and Ken Elliot — use printmaking to stand in for painting, and you need to look closely to tell that these works are actually monotypes. The expertly executed woodcuts, which are richly colored, have their own distinctive look. Among them are Randy Hughes's expressive view of aspens and Josh Bales's comix-inspired imagery.


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Johnson County Community College
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Julie Haas, associate vice president, marketing communications, ext. 3120
Diane Carroll, writer/editor/media relations, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, sports information director, ext. 3122
Swingle Singers
Swingle Singers
Swingle Singers feature vocal agility and captivating showmanship
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Swingle Singers, an international a cappella phenomenon, will appear at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, in the Carlsen Center's Yardley Hall as part of the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College.
Tickets, which are $45 and $35, are available through the college box office at 913-469-4445 or at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.
The group, which has been around almost five decades, now is comprised of seven London-based singers who deliver folk ballads, funk jams and fugues with equal precision and passion. They are carrying on the group's tradition of pushing the boundaries of what the human voice can achieve.
The Swingle Singers got its start in 1963 when eight Paris-based jazz session singers worked their way through some Bach keyboard repertoire one day and discovered a natural swing to the music. Without changing a note of the original score, they adapted the music for voice, added a rhythm section and persuaded Phillips record company to record it for them as Christmas presents for family and friends. To their surprise, Jazz Sebastien Bach reached No. 1 on the charts and won several Grammy awards.
The a cappella group, complete with its own vocal rhythm section, has performed on the world's most famous stages, sustaining a level of international popularity beyond the dreams of its founder, American-born Ward Swingle.
The current lineup, of course, is made up of new members since 1963. Ward Swingle affectionately refers to them as his grandchildren.
The members are Edward Randell, bass; Sara Brimer, soprano; Carrie Wheeler, alto; Oliver Griffiths, tenor; Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, soprano; Kevin Fox, baritone/vocal percussion and Christopher Jay, tenor.
Today's Swingles represent a modern incarnation of an ensemble whose music has evolved and expanded to encompass styles far and beyond the swung Baroque and infamous "ba va da" of the 1960s, although audiences will usually hear a tribute to the original French group. Along with the repertoire, the stage show has grown into a full-blown lights and choreography spectacle.
The Swingle Singers have won five Grammy awards and released more than 50 recordings, including unique arrangements of songs by Björk, Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, Sting and the Beach Boys. Ferris Wheels is the group's latest recording.