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Sagan, Olivia and Waite, Edmund and Cowan, Steve and Casey, Helen and Evans, Karen (2007) Putting good practice into practice : literacy, numeracy and key skills in apprenticeships. Part 2, Revisiting and re-evaluating. National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy, Institute of Education, University of London
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Academic Programs
International Beliefs and Values Institute
Dr. Craig Shealy, Executive Director
Phone: (540) 568-6477
E-mail: email@example.com
Location: Eastover House
Web site: http://www.jmu.edu/ibavi
The mission of the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI) is to examine, describe and explain the linkages between the implicit or explicit beliefs and values of individuals, groups, organizations, governments and societies around the world and those actions, policies or practices that are demonstrably grounded in or legitimized by these specific beliefs and values. This mission and the concomitant activities of the IBAVI shall be deliberately pluralistic, critically-minded and self-reflective, grounded in sound scholarship, and informed by reasoned dialogue.
The purpose of the IBAVI is to demonstrate that human beliefs and values are:
- central mediating processes for behavior at individual and societal levels, but they may or may not be "known" (i.e., may be implicit or non-conscious), and are not necessarily logically grounded.
- determined by an individual's history, larger culture and unique Zeitgeist, inculcated over time, and may or may not transcend (i.e., may be relative to) a specific time and place.
- acquired and maintained via complex interactions among developmental, affective and attributional processes.
- inextricably and ultimately linked to the actions, policies and practices of individuals, groups, organizations, governments and societies.
Analysis of recent events and available evidence suggests that it is neither unreasonable nor alarmist to conclude that we are placing ourselves at increasing risk of causing negative and potentially irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet. As such, a critical mass of the world's population must come to understand that the actions, practices, and policies of individuals, groups, organizations, governments, and societies are mediated by beliefs and values that may be highly subjective, non-conscious and self-serving rather than just, equitable, rational and sustainable. Such understanding must be sufficiently achieved in the near future by a substantial proportion of the world's population - as well as those who are in positions of relative power and influence - and subsequently translated into relevant actions, practices, and policies. To accomplish these goals, the international academic community - in concert with allied individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors - must become much more proactive and deliberate, in order to organize and direct its vast analytic capacity toward an understanding of these real world issues, and subsequently translate what we discover and assemble into terms that can be readily apprehended by the academy, policy makers and the public at large.
Toward these ends, and more specifically, the International Beliefs and Values Institute maintains that we must establish a more just, equitable, rational and sustainable world order, in which:
- conflicts can be resolved through dialogue, reason, mutual understanding and reconciliation;
- human and minority rights are demonstrably respected and protected;
- the ecosystem and natural resources upon which life depends are secured and preserved;
- individuals and groups are neither persecuted nor denied equal access to education or social, legal, political and economic resources for arbitrary and capricious reasons (e.g., of ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, political views, religious faith or lack thereof, social and economic status, or family lineage);
- educational systems deliberately expose students of all ages to the perspectives and experiences of individuals, groups and cultures around the world; and
- tolerance and understanding supplant hatred and violence in matters of cultural difference and religious faith.
The IBAVI engages in a range of scholarly activities, including but not limited to the promotion of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research regarding the etiology and maintenance of beliefs, values, and worldviews, translation of such research into accessible media and materials, development of web-based resources, and co-sponsorship of relevant scholarly events.Education
Consistent with its mission, rationale, and purpose - and complementary with its scholarly emphasis - the IBAVI sponsors and engages in a range of educational activities and initiatives designed to promote a greater understanding of the "what," "how" and "why" of beliefs and values. That is, the IBAVI is interested not only in showing what human beings believe and value around the world (a descriptive level of analysis), but exploring and providing credible answers as to how, why, and under what circumstances human beliefs and values are acquired, maintained, and/or transformed (an explanatory level of analysis). In addition to these descriptive and explanatory issues, the IBAVI is interested in promoting efforts to translate such belief/value information so that it may be integrated within various processes and experiences across the educational continuum.


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David Clough, a producer from Fessenden, N.D., was elected the new chair of the Northern Crops Council at their Nov. 24 meeting. The Northern Crops Council is the governing board of the Northern Crops Institute.
Clough represents the North Dakota Wheat Commission. He began his first three-year term on the council in 2007.
Robert Majkrzak, Red River Commodities Inc., was elected council vice chair. Majkrzak fills a food processor seat on the council. His first term on the council began in 2007.
Clough succeeds Dan Wiltse, who died in a tragic farm accident on Oct. 22. Wiltse, a producer from Lisbon, N.D., was elected council chair in June. Wiltse represented the North Dakota Oilseed Council.
The NDSU President, North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture and representatives of the North Dakota Wheat Commission, North Dakota Oilseed Council, North Dakota Barley Council and North Dakota Soybean Council permanently occupy six seats on the council. Producers and food processors from Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, who gain seats on the council through election by the permanent members, fill the additional 11 seats.
The Northern Crops Institute supports regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting educational and technical programs that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern-grown crops. Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and commodity groups in those states and Montana fund the institute.


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News & Events
Lester M. Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D. - American Seed Trade Association
This text contains Dr. Crawford's prepared remarks. It should be used with the understanding that some material may have been added or deleted during actual delivery.
Speech before
American Seed Trade Association
American Organization of Seed Certifying Agencies
Joint Annual Convention
Remarks by
Lester M. Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Acting Commissioner of the FDA
June 29, 2004
Good morning, thank you Jim (Jim Tobin, Monsanto, Vice-Chair of ASTA) for your kind introduction. I'm pleased to meet with you this morning, and to participate in this historic joint meeting of ASTA and the Association of Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA).
I congratulate ASTA on its distinction of being one of the oldest trade organizations in the US, (founded in 1883). Both ASTA and AOSCA (established in 1919) are organizations with a long and distinguished history of working together in the development, production, preservation, distribution, and quality assurance of plant seeds. Certainly seeds are the foundation for both human and animal life on earth, providing food, fiber for clothing, and many industrial products that we all use every day.
As your meeting schedule for the remainder of the day illustrates, both organizations play an essential role in certification and conservation of seeds of all types ranging from lawn grasses, trees, and shrubs to all types of food crops nationally and globally.
Yesterday you heard from Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman about the many areas of overlapping interest between your industry and activities of USDA. There are also many areas of mutual importance and potential collaboration for FDA and the seed industry, including food security, food safety, biotechnology and nutrition. I'd like to touch briefly on each of these areas this morning.
As organizations involved in the international trade of seed for human and animal foods, your collaboration is essential in assisting the FDA in its lead role of protecting the nation's food supply from acts of Bioterrorism. Under new authorities granted to the agency by Congress following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, FDA has implemented four new food security regulations to prevent and respond to food safety threats.
- Interim final rules on Prior Notice of Importation
- Interim final rules on Registration of Food Facilities
- Final rules on Administrative Detention
- Upcoming final rule on Establishment and Maintenance of Records.
It is important for you, the Seed Industry to understand how these new regulations apply to you. Whether seeds are subject to the rules of Prior Notice of Importation depends on whether the seeds meet the definition of food.
FDA considers a seed to be a food if it will be used for human or animal food or if those involved in importing or offering the product for import reasonably believe that the seed will be directed to a food use. For example, seed that is imported for use in animal feeds would require prior notice, as would seed to be used for human food such as sesame seeds or poppy seeds to be used in baking, or oilseeds for processing into edible oils, or seed to be used in the production of edible sprouts. If the seed is to be used only for cultivation, prior notice of importation is not required.
These new rules represent innovative solutions to 21 st century problems. They offer us new information on food production and distribution for the first time, including a complete inventory of food facilities both foreign and domestic, comprehensive information on all imported foods, and information on precisely who is handling the food throughout the entire chain of custody on either side of the border. These new rules will allow FDA to better identify potentially dangerous foods, as well as respond more quickly to new threats and to handle foodborne illness outbreaks more efficiently.
Since the passage of the Bioterrorism Act, our agency has devoted intensive efforts to implementing it. We've developed the necessary rules and guidance, and conducted extensive outreach to food exporters in Canada, Mexico, and South America, and elsewhere around the world. We are also working with Canada and Mexico on food security systems and infrastructure at both borders. We have set up internet-based programs to be available around the clock where firms can register prior notice of intended imports.
By the end of this summer, this in-depth comprehensive protective system will be fully in place and functioning.
FDA is also extensively involved and committed to the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), a national initiative designed to integrate America's laboratory infrastructure to better detect and respond to bioterror agent threats to the food supply at local, state, and federal levels. The key goals of FERN are:
- Prevention (federal and state surveillance sampling programs to monitor the food supply)
- Preparedness (strengthen laboratory capacity and capabilities)
- Response (surge capacity to handle terrorist attacks or a national emergency involving the food supply), and
- Recovery (support recalls, seizures, and disposal of contaminated food or feed to restore confidence in the food supply).
FERN offers a tiered screening and confirmation testing laboratory network of federal, state, and local government laboratories responsible for analyzing food samples implicated in threats, terrorist events, or contamination; responding to large-scale emergencies involving food; and conducting ongoing programs to monitor foods for the presence of threat agents.
State participants of the FERN include agricultural, public health, veterinary diagnostic, and environmental laboratories. Laboratories from a variety of federal agencies are also members of the FERN. These laboratories represent the FDA, FSIS, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Agency. Other federal members of the FERN include the Agricultural Research Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, the FERN is working closely with the Laboratory Response Network (LRN) and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) to ensure there are no gaps in our nation's safety net for human health. This is an ambitious effort, but it is an important one. And we hope we can count on your support of this strategic initiative.
All this does not mean we have eliminated the possibility of a terrorist attack on our food supply. But I'm happy to say we are far better prepared to prevent, mitigate, or cope with it than we were three years ago.
Of course, hand-in-hand with our new responsibilities in food security are our ongoing responsibilities and activities relative to protecting our food supply from unintended contamination.
As you know, FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety and proper labeling of ALL plant-derived foods and feeds. Regardless of whether they are of imported or domestic origin, or whether they are derived from crops modified by conventional breeding techniques or genetic engineering techniques, they must meet the same rigorous safety standards. Under the FFDCA, it is the responsibility of you, the industry, to ensure that the products you market are safe and properly labeled.
Just as ASTA's motto " first the seed" indicates the role you play in sustaining human and animal life, so does FDA believe that in many instances food safety of plant foods must begin with the seed.
Certainly, of ongoing concern to FDA are the recurring outbreaks of foodborne illness related to consumption of sprouts. In almost all cases, contaminated seed was the source of the contaminated sprouts both for Salmonella sp. and E. coli 0157:H7. In fact, just in the past several weeks FDA has worked with at least six individual sprout producers relative to product recalls of alfalfa sprouts distributed throughout the western US due to a possible seed contamination with Salmonella Bovismorbificans, an organism rarely seen in the US.
It is crucial that you, who are in the business of seed production, ensure that seeds for sprout production are grown under good agricultural practices (GAPs) in order to minimize the likelihood that they will contain pathogenic bacteria. This is especially important since only a small fraction of the seed produced is used for sprouting so at the time of production, seed growers may not be aware that the seed will be used for human consumption. FDA's guidance on good agricultural practices (GAPs) can be found in the "FDA Guide to Minimize Microbial Hazards for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables."
Key sources of contamination in seed production include:
- Agricultural water sources
- Use of manure as fertilizer
- Harvesting, transportation, and seed-cleaning equipment
- Seed storage facilities
In October, 1999, as many of you may know, FDA issued guidance for the industry, "Reducing Microbial Food Safety Hazards For Sprouted Seeds". Most of FDA's resources have been focused on conditions and practices at the sprouting facility, however, the first 2 of 5 recommendations in this guidance deal with seed production and post-harvest conditioning, storage and transport.
FDA strongly recommends that seed suppliers and distributors establish a sampling plan and criteria for seed sold to sprouters, and that testing seed for pathogens be considered.
The educational video that FDA produced in partnership with California Department of Health Services goes into a lot more detail (Module 3A, pp 14 - 20) concerning the challenges and practices associated with seed production, conditioning, storage, assigning of lot numbers and microbial testing. This video would be useful for producers, distributors and others that handle seed that may be destined for food use, i.e., sprouting.
Increasing awareness of the potential for contamination from the field through the sprouting facility and implementing GAPs and GMPs to improve handling of seeds and sprouts will not only reduce the risk of foodborne disease and assist FDA in its mission of protecting the public health, but also enhance food security.
Food GMPs
With respect to food GMPs, I would also mention that FDA is currently undertaking two important initiatives – the modernization of the current food GMPs and development of GMPs for dietary supplement manufacturers – which are aimed at improving the quality of the foods that we eat and reducing the risk of adverse health effects to consumers.
The food GMPs were originally promulgated in the late 1970's and were last revised in 1986 in response to the identification of several newly emerging food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella enteriditis, and hemorrhagicE. coli. Food GMPs are an important part of the nation's control over food safety problems. Processing failures resulting from a lack of the application of modern GMP controls are a major cause of food product recalls.
Since the last revision of food GMPs, we have continued to greatly expand our understanding of food-borne illness and have recognized the importance of several new bacterial, viral, and protozoan foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes, Norovirus, and Cryptosporidium. In many cases, these pathogens can be adequately controlled only by the implementation of appropriate GMPs in food processing.
Food allergens and certain other food ingredients are now recognized as a hazard for sensitive individuals. Cross-contamination of food products with a food allergen can also be prevented through the implementation of appropriate GMPs in food processing.
Rapid advances in food processing technology have also occurred since the GMPs were last revised. Modernization of the GMPs will be essential in creating opportunities for incorporation of newer technologies and better manufacturing techniques and process controls.
We believe this effort, like our work on current good manufacturing practices for medical products, will improve the safety of conventional foods and dietary supplements.
FDA (CFSAN) began the effort to examine the underlying health basis and enforceability of its preventive controls, including GMPs by establishing a Food GMP Modernization Working Group in July of 2002. This Working Group initiated research in two areas: the impact of current GMPs on food safety, and the impact of revised GMPs on food safety and the likely economic impact of such revisions.
I am pleased to announce that as a part of this continuing process to modernize the food GMPs, FDA will hold three public meetings this summer to obtain stakeholder input (especially from small businesses) on ways in which the food GMPs should be updated. These meetings will be held in different regions of the country, with one in College Park, MD, one in Chicago, IL and one in Monterey, CA. The three meetings were recently announced in the Federal Register and include a list of specific questions about food GMP modernization that FDA would like participants to address.
FDA intends to evaluate the data and information received from these public meetings to determine appropriate revisions to food GMP regulations. We will be accepting written comments through September 10, 2004, at which point we will proceed with rulemaking.
In concert with this review and modernization of food GMPs, FDA is also pushing hard on finalizing the first GMP and labeling guidelines for dietary supplement manufacturers.
Consumer interest in dietary supplements has increased exponentially in recent years. According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, American consumers are spending $18 billion annually on dietary supplements and there are about 29,000 such products on the market, with another 1,000 new products introduced each year.
Last spring, FDA proposed comprehensive new regulations that will set manufacturing and labeling standards for the first time for all dietary supplements marketed in the United States, focusing on their quality, consistency and potency .
When finalized, this rule will help protect consumers from dietary supplements that contain impurities or contaminants as a result of how they are manufactured or handled. It will also place dietary supplement labeling under closer scrutiny. Dietary supplement labels cannot claim the supplement will treat or cure a disease, and since December 2002 FDA has worked with the Federal Trade Commission to challenge false claims of supplement effectiveness for treating a range of diseases.
In short, the dietary supplement GMPs will eliminate the "buyer beware" situation Americans now commonly face when they purchase these types of health products.
In keeping with our risk management strategy, FDA will continue to coordinate future revisions of the food GMPs with dietary supplement GMPs to ensure we are doing all we can to protect and advance the public health.
Perhaps one of the great success stories for your industry in the past decade has been the development of bioengineered foods. Your success in bringing these food crops into production has gone hand in hand with FDA's development of rational procedures to ensure the safety of these new food products. And your success with the first generation of bioengineered crops has been phenomenal.
Food crops developed by genetic engineering were first introduced for commercial production in the US in 1996 and by 2001 more than 109 million acres worldwide were planted with bioengineered crops and this acreage continues to grow.
The United States accounts for about two-thirds of all the bioengineered crops planted globally including corn, cotton, soybeans, canola, squash, and papaya. As of 2001, 68 percent of the soybean crop planted in the U.S. consisted of bioengineered varieties, along with 26 percent of the corn crop, almost 70 percent of the cotton crop and about 55 percent of the canola crop. In Hawaii, 53 percent of the papaya crop is bioengineered varieties.
Most of the bioengineered crop varieties planted today consist of herbicide or insect resistant varieties, but I know that your industry is hard at work on the development of new and better seeds that will provide advantages not just to the producer, but also to the consumer in terms of altered nutrient composition to enhance health, altered processing characteristics and even production of pharmaceuticals.
Let me just restate FDA's policy upfront relative to these bioengineered food crops. FDA established its basic policy on bioengineered foods in 1992 when it issued its guidance " Policy on Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties". This policy has not changed, but has been clarified on several occasions.
New substances introduced into food via plant breeding (either traditional or bioengineered) are considered food additives if they are not GRAS or pesticides. In 1995, we provided additional guidance on a voluntary consultation process. According to this policy, we at the agency rely on you the seed developers and producers to voluntarily notify the agency before marketing a bioengineered crop seed or food.
Notification leads to a two-part consultative process that involves a discussion of relevant safety issues and a subsequent submission by the developer of a safety assessment report.
Subsequently, we provided additional draft guidance regarding the use of antibiotic resistance marker genes in bioengineered plants, suggesting that when these genes are used they should be assessed to determine whether the presence in food of the enzyme or protein encoded by the antibiotic resistance marker gene would compromise the therapeutic efficiency of orally administered antibiotics.
More recently we issued draft guidance for industry on voluntary labeling to indicate whether foods have or have not been developed using bioengineering. This document lays out four guiding principles on appropriate ways the industry could voluntarily provide information on a food label about bioengineering.
All foods, whether conventional or bioengineered, pose the same types of inherent risks to human health: the potential to contain toxins, allergens, and antinutrients. Safety assessments for bioengineered foods thus should focus on whether the genetic change alters the potential toxicity, allergenicity or level of antinutrients compared to the conventional food source. In addition, the agency suggests that you also evaluate the safety of intended changes to nutrient composition and perform compositional analysis for unintended changes.
To date, bioengineered foods have proven to be no different from their conventional counterparts and so, although FDA issued a proposed rule in 2001 concerning making the voluntary notification of intent to market mandatory, this rule has not been finalized and the voluntary notification procedures remain in effect. We encourage you to continue to voluntarily seek FDA consultation prior to commercial marketing of your new products.
I'm pleased to report that to date all developers of bioengineered foods have voluntarily consulted with FDA prior to marketing their products, and FDA maintains a listing of these completed consultations on our website.
I know that you as an industry are keenly aware of the numerous trade issues that have arisen relative to bioengineered food crops. The EU has been consistently hostile towards bioengineered agriculture and food products. US corn cannot be shipped to the EU because of their concerns that shipments may contain varieties of corn unapproved in the EU. The EU has also instituted mandatory traceability and labeling requirements. Some African countries have refused US food aid for the same reason. However, with recent statements by WHO and FAO relative to the potential importance of bioengineered food crops for alleviating hunger in developing countries perhaps we will start to see changes in this area.
We are currently nearing completion of a draft guidance concerning field trials of bioengineered food crops. The development of this guidance is a high priority for the Administration and the industry, to enhance public confidence, avoid product recalls, and provide an international model to address the adventitious presence of bioengineered plant material in non-bioengineered crop fields.
The goal of this guidance is to ensure that material from field trials is safe prior to any inadvertent entry into the food supply. In essence, this would be the protein safety component of a full voluntary consultation relative to the protein's toxicity or allergenicity. It would not replace the full consult prior to marketing.
In addition, FDA in conjunction with USDA and EPA commissioned the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine to develop a science-based framework to assess or predict unintended health effects of bioengineered foods to assist us in our evaluation of these products prior to commercialization. We anticipate that the National Academies will release this report at the end of July.
Pharmaceutical Crops
With continued and rapid advances in biotechnology come many new and interesting challenges for FDA. The production of food crops engineered to produce pharmaceutical and industrial compounds is one of these challenges. While FDA has sole responsibility for ensuring the safety and efficacy of the pharmaceutical products produced by plants for use in humans, we share the responsibility for ensuring the safety of these products developed for use in animals with USDA. Initially, FDA considered a rule to facilitate enforcement actions if material from pharmaceutical crops entered the food supply, but this was found not feasible.
Currently, FDA is considering an adventitious presence guidance document analogous to that for food-use crops, but USDA and WHO want a mandatory regulatory process so there will undoubtedly be future interagency meetings to discuss these issues. FDA and USDA jointly issued draft guidance on this topic in September of 2002
Bioengineered Plants for Better Nutrition
Two other important FDA initiatives I'd like to bring to your attention are ones in which ASTA members may ultimately play a major role. These are FDA's initiative on qualified health claims and the Agency's initiative to help reverse the obesity epidemic in this country. Advances in the nutritional sciences relative to the importance of various nutrients in maintaining and enhancing health, and the role of fats and carbohydrates in the current worldwide obesity epidemic may well highlight major opportunities for the bioengineering of food crops for improved nutrition and health.
Qualified Health Claims
FDA is acting on the recommendations of its Health Claims Task Force that builds on a number of other ongoing initiatives focused on improving food safety and nutrition…
Most notably, FDA has been hard at work defining a process and long-term regulatory alternatives to help consumers get more information about the health consequences of their food choices by providing interim guidance to industry on qualified health claims in labeling foods and dietary supplements. This is an area were development of bioengineered foods for better nutrition and health could play an important role.
This past year also witnessed a major change in the nutrition label on foods to include a separate listing of trans fatty acids. This was the first significant change on the Nutrition Facts panel since it was established in 1993.
We are also in the early stages of discussion on developing guidance relative to the definition of, and use on, the NFP of net carbohydrate content.
In tandem with these recommendations from its health Claims Task force, FDA is also acting on recommendations from its Obesity Working Group (OWG). In March of this year, FDA released the final report of its OWG. This report highlights how FDA can contribute to the solution of this obesity problem in the context of its mission and regulatory authority.
This report is comprehensive, and offers a number of compelling recommendations on how to combat obesity. The report also maps closely to our Strategic Plan, in particular our goal of providing consumers with better information to help them lead healthier lives through better nutrition.
The cornerstone of the Obesity Working Group report is the idea that America must get back to basics and that "Calories Count." In other words, there is no substitute for the simple formula that 'calories in must equal calories out' in order to control weight. The report builds on these nutrition fundamentals through a comprehensive, science-based and consumer-friendly set of initiatives.
Food Labels
The first critical set of recommendations involves enhancing the food label. The report recommends that FDA evaluate how the Nutrition Facts panel (NFP) can be revised to highlight the critical role calories play in consumers' diets. The goal in modifying the food label is to arm consumers with more of the information they need to make sound food choices:
Calories – A notice of proposed rule making on possible revisions to the food label relative to calories. We want to increase the font size for caloric content to make it more visible and easier to read on the label. We also propose to have the % of the daily value for calories appear right next to the calorie content rather than in tiny print at the bottom of the NFP. That way a consumer can easily tell what proportion of their day's allotment of calories they are consuming with a single food item
Serving Sizes – We are encouraging food manufacturers to consider revision of certain labels as single-servings if the food item can be reasonably consumed as one serving. For example, a 20 oz bottled soft drink would have the calorie content listed on the basis of the full 20 oz being a single serving rather than having the calorie content listed on the basis of an 8 oz serving and saying the bottle contains 2.5 servings. Flexibility in the current regulations would allow this change to be implemented immediately and we want to encourage manufacturers to take advantage of that.
Carbohydrates – FDA has received petitions from manufacturers and is in the process of publishing a proposed rule to provide for nutrient content claims related to the carbohydrate content of foods. The content of sugars and starches relative to fiber content of plant foods may be an area ripe for genetic modification
Comparative Labeling Statements – FDA is also encouraging the use of comparative labeling statements to make it easier for consumers to compare different types of foods and make healthy substitutions.
Consumer Education
The second major recommendation of this report involves initiating an education campaign focused on the "Calories Count" message. Because the obesity epidemic is particularly alarming in children, we are focusing our education efforts to children and young adults.
Restaurant Nutrition Information
The third set of recommendations from FDA's Obesity Working Group is focused on encouraging restaurants to provide nutrition information. American consumers now spend approximately 46 percent of their total food budget on food consumed outside of the home, and these foods account for a significant portion of total calories consumed.
FDA is urging the restaurant industry to launch a nation-wide, voluntary, and point-of-sale nutrition information campaign for customers. FDA also encourages consumers to routinely request nutrition information when eating out. In addition, the final report calls for the development of options for providing voluntary, standardized, simple, and understandable nutritional information, including calorie information, at the point-of-sale in a restaurant setting. And it recommends that FDA involve restaurants in a pilot program to study these options in a well-controlled setting.
I'm pleased to say that we have already gotten responses from a number of 'fast-food' restaurant chains.
Increased Enforcement Activity
The fourth set of recommendations involves various enforcement activities to ensure the accuracy of the information in the NFP and ensure that consumers can monitor their intake of calories and nutrients.
FDA has issued a general letter to food manufacturers, encouraging them to review nutrition information and ensure that the serving size declared is appropriate for the commodity in question. The report also calls for stricter enforcement activities against those manufacturers that declare inaccurate serving sizes, and we intend to follow this guideline to make sure Americans have the best, safest information about the foods they are consuming.
Increased Research Collaboration
The final set of recommendations involves increased collaboration on obesity research – on everything from the relationship between overweight/obesity and food consumption patterns to incentives for product reformulation. It calls for joint research with USDA's Agricultural Research Service on a USDA-sponsored obesity prevention conference to be held in October 2004. And we also want to convene a nationwide dialogue with interested stakeholders over the course of the year.
I thank you for your attention, and the opportunity to share with you some of FDA's many activities relative to enhancing food security, food safety and nutrition in furthering its mission of protecting and promoting the public health.


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Stuffed Squid
For this recipe you will need:
To prepare this recipe:
Wash and clean the squid. Finely chop the tentacles of the squid. Place in a bowl. Wash the rice and place it in the bowl with the squid. Get the olive oil hot in a deep frying pan and put in the finely chopped onions. As soon as they are transparent put in the squid, rice, salt, pepper, sugar cinnamon, raisins and a wine glass of water. As soon as the mixture is reduced to a thick paste, remove from the flame and add the finely chopped parsley. Half fill a body cavity of the squid with the filling and secure the top half with a toothpick. Arrange them in a pan, add the tomato and stew gently. The squid will be done when it's easily punctured with a toothpick.
This recipe will serve 8 to 10 people.


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Nancy Blackett and Arthur Ransome
Skip to Origins and Life with the Ransomes, Rescue and Restoration
Nancy Blackett was Arthur Ransome's favourite amongst his various cruising yachts. He named her after his favourite character, the adventurous and irrepressible leader of the Amazon Pirates in his "Swallows and Amazons" books.
She provided him with the inspiration for possibly his best book, "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea", widely regarded as a classic of both children's and seafaring literature, in which she plays a leading role as the Goblin. Its action takes place almost entirely aboard the little boat, as the four children seek to sail her across the North Sea, at night, in a storm without any adult aboard. Ransome sailed the course himself in Nancy, and worked on the book aboard her, while living near Pin Mill on the River Orwell in Suffolk, where the story starts.
Nancy Blackett is immediately recognisable from Ransome's description, illustrations and many key details:
"I say, just look down,"said Titty. They looked down into the cabin of the little ship, at blue mattresses on bunks on either side, at a little table with a chart tied down to it with string, at a roll of blankets in one of the bunks, at a foghorn in another, and at a heap of dirty plates and cups and spoons in a little white sink opposite the tiny galley, where a saucepan of water was simmering on one of the two burners of a little cooking stove."
Many visitors to Nancy Blackett like to identify the bunks used by the individual Walker children (girls in particular have a penchant for Titty's bunk – fore-cabin, port) and other features.
Origins and Life With the Ransomes
Skip to Rescue and Restoration, or go back to the top
Nancy Blackett was built in 1931, by Hillyards of Littlehampton. She is twenty-eight feet long, excluding her bowsprit, with an unusual Bermudian cutter rig. Exactly like the Goblin, she has roller-reefing, operated by a little brass handle, and, down below, four bunks with blue mattresses, and a little white sink opposite a tiny galley.
She had already had two owners, and two names – Spindrift and Electron – before Ransome found and bought her in 1934, for £525. He was at the time in the process of moving from the Lake District to East Anglia, with the aim of doing some sea sailing. His delivery voyage with his new boat, from Poole Harbour to the East Coast, was hair-raising, as his Biography and Letters reveal: gales, damage, and an occasion where the navigation lights blew out, and he used a torch shone through a red plastic plate to 'frighten off the Flushing-Harwich steamer' – an incident which eventually appeared in "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea". Ransome got plenty of good sailing out of Nancy.
As well as his research trip to Holland, he took her round to Portsmouth and back with his friend Richard Rouse, a voyage he wrote up under the title 'Saturday to Saturday' for the Cruising Association Bulletin. But one of his favourite destinations was the Walton Backwaters, just a few miles down the coast from his home on the Orwell. He would sail down, and anchor there, ostensibly to work, but often yielded to the temptation to do a little exploring in his dinghy, Coch-y-Bonddhu. The Backwaters formed the setting for his next book, "Secret Water", which includes a brief appearance by the Goblin.
The Ransomes rarely hung on to boats, or houses, for very long. By 1937, in deference to his wife Evgenia's desire for a larger galley, Arthur had ordered a larger yacht, Selina King, to be built at King's boatyard in Pin Mill, and sold Nancy Blackett in 1938. He retained his affection for her, however – perhaps because she was the one boat out of the seven he owned which he had not bought new.
"Fools build and wise men buy," he once said, but it was advice he rarely followed himself.
Rescue and Restoration
Over the following half-century, Nancy Blackett had five different owners, who mostly cared for and enjoyed her. But by 1988 she had been allowed to deteriorate in Scarborough harbour, and it was here that she was discovered in near-derelict condition – planks worn and holed, hatch-covers gone, water pouring in and out of her – by Michael Rines, who decided to purchase and restore her, though at that time, knowing nothing of Arthur Ransome or her connection with him. By pure chance, he lived on the Orwell, almost next-door to the house Ransome had lived in when he owned Nancy Blackett, and he brought her back to the Orwell to be restored.
After a year of hard work, she was in good enough condition to be exhibited at the East Coast Boat Show, and Mike Rines held a celebratory dinner at the Butt & Oyster in Pin Mill, to which he invited many influential Arthur Ransome devotees (including members of the original family on which the 'Swallows' were based) with whom he had corresponded during the restoration. Many of them had not met each other previously, and a year later, triggered by another restoration, this time of the dinghy Amazon, they went on to form the Arthur Ransome Society.
Once Nancy Blackett was fully restored, Mike Rines put her up for sale. The newly-formed Arthur Ransome Society was given the option to purchase, but was not then in a financial position to do so, and so she went to another private owner. It was when he put her on the market, in 1996, that the dream of preserving her for posterity, and of owning her for the enjoyment of all Arthur Ransome fans, was born.
The result was an appeal which raised the purchase price of £25,000 in five weeks, and which became the Nancy Blackett Trust. Under its care, Nancy Blackett's future is assured; she is sailing again, and will remain recognisable as the boat Ransome knew and loved. In the summer of 2002 she retraced Goblin's fictional route from Pin Mill to Flushing (Vlissingen) in Holland, and has so several times since.
For a complete summary of Nancy Blackett's ongoing adventures see the Timeline.
Header image: Still from BBC Countryfile, April 2013.
Page image: Arthur Ransome sailing Nancy Blackett.


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Have a Tax Question? Ask a Tax Expert
Hi and welcome to Just Answer!If the group is not registered - which name and tax ID are used for that CD account?
Cd is now being held in the name of a registered, not for profit society to which we are loosely affiliated.
If CD is in the name of a physical person - the interets credited on that CD will be reported to the IRS for that person (and his/her SSN) and that person will need to include that income into his/her tax return.That person should receive the form 1099-INT reporting the interest income.
The entity is a registered non-profit corporation. What would my quilting group have to do to transfer the funds in that CD into our group name without tax consequences to our group? My group is not incorporated and is not tax exempt?
If your group is not incorporated - what is a legal definition of your group? If that a partnership? Your wrote "our group name" - how the group name is registered?Also I am still not completely clear who owns that CD?
Legler quilters is a group of old ladies who quilt for individuals. Not a partnership or anything registered. The CD is in the name of a local historical society. The quilters quilt in a building owned by the historical society and are a "living exhibit" there. The society is a not-for-profit organization and they are holding the cd on behalf of the quilting group.
If a group of individuals act jointly - the group is treated as a partnership regardless if it has any official registration or not.A partnership is the relationship existing between two or more persons who join to carry on a trade or business. Each person contributes money, property, labor or skill, and expects to share in the profits and losses of the business.The local historical society may not hold funds fro another organization and earn interest on these funds. That will be a violation of their By Laws and may jeopardize their non-for-profit status.Funds that belongs to the local historical society may bay be used only according to its documents and generally may not be transferred to third party.A charitable organization must make available for public inspection its approved application for recognition of exemption with all supporting documents and its last three annual information returns. The organization must provide copies of these documents upon request without charge (other than a reasonable fee for reproduction and copying costs). Penalties are provided for failure to comply with these requirements.


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As countries gather this week in China for climate change talks, a report Monday says developing nations could use international law to break the current deadlock in negotiations by suing industrialized nations.
"A large part of the relevant legal literature suggests that the main polluting nations can be held responsible under international law for the harmful effects of their greenhouse-gas emissions," says lawyer Christoph Schwarte, author of the paper published by London-based Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD).
Schwarte says he can see developing countries using legal action as a bargaining chip in negotiations, especially if climate change worsens. Since the Copenhagen summit in December 2009, little progress has occurred in climate talks. Officials from countries worldwide began a week of negotiations Monday under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"Progress in the international climate change negotiations is nowhere near enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a safe level," says Joy Hyvarinen, FIELD's director. "Something new is needed to push the negotiations forward." The report does not advocate a particular course of legal action.
Wendy Koch has been a reporter and editor at USA TODAY since 1998, covering politics and social issues. She's begun a quest to build the most eco-friendly home her budget allows. She'll share her experience and give you tips for greening your home. More about Wendy


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How I Got The Clap And Other STD Stories: The Unusual Suspect
April is STD Awareness Month, and we asked you to share your STD-related stories so we could learn from
your each other's mistakes. If you have a tale involving sores, Valtrex, or a judgy gynecologist, send an email to [email protected]. We will keep your identity anonymous.
I wanted to let you know about my experience with an STD because although I feel uncomfortable telling anyone else about it, I think it's important for other people to be aware. In November I noticed bumps on the outside of my genital region and thought they were just pimples. They didn't go away, and when I told my boyfriend he freaked and said he had them too. He blamed me for getting infected, but I hadn't been with anyone else since we started dating! The first doctor I went to had no idea what they were. She tested me for every STD known to man, gave me some antibiotics, and sent me on my way. I wasn't happy with that, especially when the STD results all came back negative. I saw another doctor, a dermatologist because it seemed appropriate since it was a skin condition. She knew what it was immediately — molluscum contagiosum. I hadn't ever heard of it, but apparently it's a pretty common skin condition and little kids get it all the time. It's spread by skin-to-skin contact, and doesn't have any long-term health effects, but in adults it's usually passed by sexual contact. It's very contagious, and I had never heard of it before!
The treatment involved either freezing them off with liquid nitrogen or just cutting them out. It hurt, and for a while I kept getting more. After a couple treatments, I finally got rid of them all. Now they've been gone for a couple months, and I couldn't be happier! So, yes, there are the common STDs like herpes, chlamydia, etc., but don't forget about the ones people never mention. They can still cause problems, both physical and emotional!


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by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) Feb 6, 2013
A Komodo dragon in Indonesia has attacked two employees in one of the giant lizards' protected island habitats, leaving its victims hospitalised with serious injuries, an official said Wednesday.
One victim, a 50-year-old park ranger, was sitting at his desk at the Rinca island front office, where tourists usually check in, when the two-metre-long monitor snuck into his room Tuesday afternoon.
"The man panicked when he saw the Komodo and tried to escape by jumping on a chair, but the Komodo quickly grabbed and bit one of his legs," Komodo National Park official Heru Rudiharto told AFP.
Rudiharto said the ranger was the victim of a similar Komodo attack in 2009 and was still traumatised.
Another employee, aged 35, heard the ranger scream and quickly ran to his aid, but the lizard also attacked him, taking a bite at his leg.
Both are in good condition after being given stitches at a health clinic, Rudiharto said, but they are being monitored in hospital to ensure an infection does not develop.
Until recently, Komodos were believed to hunt with a "bite and wait" strategy using toxic bacteria in their saliva to weaken or kill their prey, before descending in numbers to feast.
But recent research found that the dragons' jaws are armed with highly sophisticated poison glands that can cause paralysis, spasms and shock through haemorrhaging.
They are native to several Indonesian islands and are considered a vulnerable species, with only a few thousand left in the world. Their normal diet consists of large mammals, reptiles and birds.
A Komodo in October attacked a woman collecting grass for animal feed at the park, Rudiharto said. She has recovered from a serious leg injury.
The world's largest monitor lizard, Komodos can grow up to three metres (10 feet) and typically weigh to 70 kilograms (150 pounds).
Kenya suspends top wildlife officials in poaching probe
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said in a statement that the officials were ordered "to take leave to facilitate internal investigations into the wildlife security situation".
Poaching has spiked recently in East Africa, with whole herds of elephants massacred for their ivory.
"The suspensions had to be done to pave way for investigations... we are waiting for the final report," KWS spokesman Paul Mbugua told AFP.
He stressed that no charges have been brought against the officials, Peter Leitoro, the deputy director of security, and Benjamin Kavu, deputy director of wildlife and community.
Last month officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa seized more than two tonnes of ivory, which had reportedly come from Tanzania and was destined for Indonesia.
Last year poachers killed at least 360 elephants in Kenya, up from 289 in 2011, according to official figures.
At least 40 poachers were killed last year as rangers battled the raiders.
The illegal ivory trade is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used to make ornaments and in traditional medicine.
Trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after elephant populations in Africa dwindled from millions in the mid-20th century to some 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.
Africa is now home to an estimated 472,000 elephants, whose survival is threatened by poaching as well as a rising human population that is causing habitat loss.
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Author Archives: Brock
Halloween Weekend 2016
Come to dEaD Allen's for Halloween Weekend 2016! One of the best weekends of the season! Don't miss out on all the fun. Hayrides, crafts, pumpkin painting, costume & site decoration contests, site to site trick or treating and new … More
GOA Fall Festival 2016
GOA Fall Fest Event Information: October 22, 2016, 2PM-11PM, Gates open at 1PM and close at 11:30PM. Live music by Jackson Ward & Pat Russell Band Camp for GOA weekend and leave your camper on site for FREE if you … More
Labor Day 2016
Come camp with us one more time before the kids head back to school. Check out our Labor Day schedule – COMING SOON! Route 64 Band will play Saturday, September 3, from 7-11pm!
Pack your Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts and join us as we transform the pool deck into a tropical island getaway!! Enjoy island music and fun times! Optional BBQ dinner will be served. $3/per person.
July 29-31 Fiesta Weekend Kids Maracas craft, Chili Pepper Relay, Mexican Dinner on Saturday night $3/per person. Get your sombrero and join the fun!
Father's Day Weekend
Help us celebrate Father's Day as we feature our Father's for the weekend. Don't forget to bring dad to our Sunday breakfast!
Independence Weekend 2016
Come spend our favorite holiday with us!! 3 night holiday minimum required. Call (804) 966-2582 to make your reservations!
3rd Annual GOA Fall Festival, October 22nd, 2pm – 11pm
GOA Fall Fest Event Information: October 22, 2016, 2PM-11PM, Gates open at 1PM and close at 11:30PM. Live music by Jackson Ward & Pat Russell Band Golf Carts, RTVs, ATVs, Bikes, Utility Trailers are not permitted for day visitors. … More
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Come join us for the last big weekend before the kids head back to school!! 2015 Labor Day Weekend Schedule
Labor Day Weekend 2015
Summer is not over yet! Come celebrate with us before the kids head back to school. 2015 Labor Day Weekend Schedule


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VA San Diego Healthcare System
VASDHS provides medical care for the 25th year at Stand Down
VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) organized and managed the medical tent for the 25th year of Stand Down, from July 13 – 15 at San Diego High School. This year, more than 110 VASDHS volunteers served 446 Veterans and their dependents at the medical tent. Overall, 1,110 homeless Veterans and their family members participated in this year's Stand Down.
Stand Down is an annual three-day homeless Veteran outreach program to help get Veterans off the street and into rehabilitation. The program started in San Diego as a team effort between the VA Medical Center and Veterans Village of San Diego and has expanded to over 200 cities throughout the nation.
Special thanks to our VASDHS team including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and many other medical and support personnel who staffed the event.


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|Doll, Kenneth - Ken
|Sharma, Brajendra
Submitted to: International Journal of Sustainable Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/10/2011
Publication Date: 2/1/2012
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/55020
Citation: Doll, K.M., Sharma, B.K. 2012. Physical properties study on partially bio-based lubricant blends: Thermally modified soybean oil with popular commercial esters. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering. 5(1):33-37. Interpretive Summary: We have blended modified soybean oil with conventional synthetic lubricant base stocks in order to synthesize a high performance lubricant that is partially bio-based. The use of lubricants is ubiquitous throughout industries, such as transportation and metal manufacturing, and one only has to look at the news to see the growing concern irreparable environmental damage caused by petroleum based products. However, bio-based products are not currently suitable for some applications. Although considerable effort is ongoing in regard to this issue, a blending is also a viable strategy where formulators can take advantage of synthetic materials yet still have a highly bio-based product. This research will benefit those formulators who are working on low cost lubricant formulations where a bio-based product is a clear advantage.
Technical Abstract: An initial evaluation of several oils, including: soybean oil (SBO), high oleic SBO, and thermally modified SBO, compared their acid values and viscosities over 28 days stored at 85 deg C. As expected, the acid values and viscosities increased and the high oleic oil demonstrated a smaller effect. Surprisingly, the thermally modified oil was no better than ordinary SBO showing that a blending strategy may be necessary for the use of this oil in many lubricant applications. Lubricant blends were prepared by mixing thermally modified SBO with a series of compatible ester-based synthetic fluids. These displayed oxidative stabilities, by pressurized differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC), similar to the biobased oil, but the values obtained for viscosity and pour point were as expected from the blend ratio; that is, addition of more ester fluid into the blended lubricant made its properties more like the ester fluid.


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Grand Poohbah
perpetuallysad has no updates.
Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,728
My Mood:
My mom has lied to me my whole life
This is sorta complicated, so bear with me. When I was a teenager and went to apply for my driver's license, I realized that the last name on my birth certificate was different than the last name on my social security card. Obviously, this was quite a surprise. My father died when I was 2 years old, so my mother explained this by saying that the hospital had mistakenly put her maiden name as my last name (when this happened she claimed this was the first time she's even realized that my last name on the birth cert was not correct...). I'm sure you've already noticed a contradiction: if she didn't know the name was different until that day, how did she know the hospital made a mistake? Anyhow, I digress...The license place said they had to use the name on my birth certificate, so at the age of 17 my last name suddenly changed. The license place suggested from then on I hyphenate my last name to show both names that way I wouldn't have issues with registering for college and all the billion other things you have to do with both your birth certificate, social security number and your driver's license as proof of identity. Anyhow, I just accepted what my mom said, or really, I just let it go. It has bothered me greatly, but since my father had died so long ago, it wasn't like I could get him to have my certificate changed.
Fast forward to today. I finally went to the social security office to get a new card with the corrected name because I need to put my name on my husband's checking and they wouldn't accept the two different names...anyhow. I give the lady my stuff and explain that I need to change the name to the name I've gone by since 17. She asks me what my father's name was and I tell her Joe Smith (or whatever) and she goes "OH". And of course I was like "what"? And she says, "well it shows here than in 1976 (when I was nearly 1 year old) that your last name was changed by your mother". Which this is clearly surprising to me since she claimed to have never realized the mistake until after my father died. So, I said, what name did it used to have and she told me that it was my mom's maiden name (I'll use Jones for the sake of little story and I'll use Smith as my dad's last name). So apparently when I was born my social security card was issued with my mom's maiden name (just as my birth certificate indicated), but in 1976 she went to the office and had it changed. She changed my last name on the card to Smith from Jones. At the same time, she also changed who was identified as my FATHER. Originally it was a totally different name (I'll say it was James A. Brown). So I ask the lady if I could have a copy of this information and she said she wasn't allowed to tell me (at this point she hadn't told me the original father's name). So I spent about an hour chit chatting and getting friendly with her in an attempt to get her to tell me what my REAL FATHER'S NAME WAS. When I got all done with changing my social security card I had to sign some forms and she passes me this piece of paper and says, "I cannot let you have this, but if you wrote down the name there's nothing I can do about it." So I see that my real father's name is James A. Brown.
I proceed to walk outside, sit in my car and cry hysterically. I've gone my entire life without a father. The man I thought was my father died in a motor cycle wreck when I was only 2 years old. At several points in my life I have attempted to question my mom about the person I thought was my father but she has never really told me much of anything about him. Then about 3 years ago I happened to find that my mother and my supposed father weren't married until about a year after I was born. When I found this out, I asked my mom how this was (she had always told me she was married before I was born) and she SWEARS that she cannot remember and she's certain she was married before I was born and she has NO IDEA how they could be showing a different marriage date. So, I guess I've always wondered.
Anyway, I called her this afternoon to confront her with all of this stuff and she initially acted like I was telling her I had 2 heads and kept swearing she had no clue what I was talking about and said she never hear of James A. Brown and the SS office must have made a mistake. I pointed out all of the things I have outlined above and she started sounding really hysterical and kept repeating that "Joe Smith is your father" "Joe Smith is your father"...over and over. Again I tried to ask how this other name is recorded as my father and she says "That name should have never been on there!" So voila! She has revealed she DOES know James A. Brown and I ask who he is and she says its none of my damn business. Of course, I tell her it is my business and it ends up with her screaming at me and hanging up the phone.
So here I sit. 33 years old and find out today that the person I believed to be my father is in all probability not my father and that my actual father is alive somewhere. I've lived my entire life without a father and she refuses to tell me anything. What would you do? She is not going to give me more information, but I do know that a few other people may know (my ex-step dad for one). I need to know the truth. How should I go about this? Do you think there is anyway to compel her to tell me?
I'm seriously on the verge of a nervous break-down. Aside from my brother dying, this is the worse pull the carpet out from under my feet situation that has ever happened to me. I don't know how to function. I don't know what to do.
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FerretGuy5 has no updates.
Member Since: Jan 2009
Location: Southwest Oregon really, really ridiculously rural.
Posts: 244
My Mood:
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
You might be able to get the information you need from Latter Day Saints Family History Library. I doubt if you will get the information from your mother.
Junerain has no updates.
Member Since: Jul 2004
Location: dreamy land
Posts: 12,619 (SuperPoster!)
My Mood:
491 hugs
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
Wow! That truly must feel like not only the rug has been pulled from underneath you, the very Earth!!!!
I would hold fast to the truths that ARE still truths in your life- it sounds like you have a family of your OWN at least a husband of your own- is he a comfort in the midst of all this?
You are still YOU and a very special You at that.
Others can have ideas on how to get the info you need...but I wanted to extend EMOTIONAL support to you
Grand Magnate
Lenny has no updates.
Member Since: Feb 2008
Location: SC
Posts: 4,083
My Mood:
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
We are only as sick as our secrets...
I am sorry perpetuallysad...that is hard....I had a similar situation in my life..right befor my Mom passed away she shared that I had a sister I never knew I had...She had an affair and gave the baby up to keep me...we all lived under the threat(darkness) of this secret....
I would wait a few days...and then ask her again,,explaining the need for you to know your genetic history..to be aware of any and all health issues you might face in your or your childrens life...It is you right to know...
It would be hard for her to keep this secret buried when facing issues relative to your or her grandchildrens future...
Again,,,I'm sorry...but this is not a problem without a solution...but one you might have to work for..
With Care,
I have only one conclusion,,and that is things change too quickly for me to draw them....
Sobriety date...Halloween 1989.
I was plucked from hell...and treat this gift as if it is the only one...
Grand Poohbah
perpetuallysad has no updates.
Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,728
My Mood:
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
Thanks everyone for responding to me. Coincidentally and quite luckily, I had an appointment already scheduled with my psychiatrist for today, so it was helpful to go and be able to talk with him about all of this. That's not to say I'm all better or anything, but at least I am able to accept him as an authority and it helps me to allow myself to be angry at my mom. My mother has continuously done extremely damaging and painful things to me and my siblings my entire life and I still cling anxiously for approval I will never get from her. I guess if nothing else, I have finally gained the incentive to cut her out, like I have needed to do for a very, very long time.
To give an idea of how she is and how she reacted to me finding this information, I'll paste the email she sent me this morning.
Anyhow, I guess, geeze, I really have no idea what to think or feel or do.
valexand has no updates.
Member Since: Jun 2006
Location: Everywhere. This is not a joke.
Posts: 126
My Mood:
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
First of all, sad to hear about the loss of your brother. I have a brother, I love him so much.
Could there be some serious reason why your mom isn't telling you the name of your real father? Maybe he is not a good person, maybe he had done harm to your mom? How old was your mom when she had you? Young pregnant mothers are probably already quite scared about their whole situation. Maybe you mom's case was even worse since there wasn't a "stable" husband by her side for the much needed support. Maybe she REALLY does not remember, especially when that time of her life was so tough.
At this point and for the next hours nothing is going to change by not knowing your dad's name. If I were you I would try to calm down and see your mom's viewpoint. Of course what she did (keeping you in the dark) was not fair to you but I'm sure she had to do it to protect you.
For now calm down. Step by step you will get to the bottom of this. Good luck!
swwalsh2003 has no updates. Edit
Posts: n/a
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
I don't know where your from, but I am in Canada. We have the ability to get a long form birth cert. it tells you your parents full names at your birth (both) and thier birth dates. This also will tell where your parents were born. This would get you a start to finding your father. I hope you have something like this here you are.
Junerain has no updates.
Member Since: Jul 2004
Location: dreamy land
Posts: 12,619 (SuperPoster!)
My Mood:
491 hugs
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
Cutting her out just may be a good idea- I recently cut out my supposed 'best' friend and it felt freeing it felt very good.
As far as what to think or feel, I say YOU are still YOU, despite who you were parented by, biologically.
I believe my true father is my heavenly father.
Is your husband a comfort to you in the midst of all this?
Grand Poohbah
perpetuallysad has no updates.
Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,728
My Mood:
Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
My husband is wonderful. And I am extremely lucky for that.
The major part of my pain is that this isn't even close to the first time she has lied, but this is, perhaps, the biggest lie. She's a very hurtful person and the email I pasted is a very good sampling of how she talked to and treated me for much of my life. Constant threats, constant guilt and constant reversal of the truth. Unfortunately, I have always sought approval from her which I will never receive. Its something I work on constantly with my pdoc, but cannot yet seem to accept.
And my mom wasn't young when she had me, or at least not overly young. She was almost 21 years old. And while there surely are some circumstances around this that she doesn't want to share, for whatever reason, I believe it is my right to know. She has never held back from telling me other "bad" things, so its a matter of her trying to control me as usual by not telling me about this now. Honestly, the betrayal of having a father (good or bad) ALIVE my whole life, yet never knowing is something that I can't even begin to cope with. My emotional stability on a super good day is tenuous at best. Right now its like my brain is barely functioning. All day I just blared the radio and cleaned (something I do when I am frantic). It keeps my brain drowned out so that my thoughts don't consume me.
Thank you all for listening to me. It means a lot. I've been a member of this forum for years, but mostly just read. Thank you very much for being here for me.
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Re: My mom has lied to me my whole life
I am so sorry for the shock an pain that you're going through. Your mother, whatever her reasons, might have handled this better. Then again, maybe she handled it the best way she could.
I have a cousin that is 8 years older than I am. When he was filling out papers for college he too discovered that his mother's maiden name was on his birth certificate. Knowing his father, the man that raised him, he knew that something was wrong. There's no way my uncle would have been that irresponsible, let his mother give birth unmarried in the 50's.
So he decided to come up and talk to my father since my father discovered at 15, after the death of his mother, that the man that had been listed on his birth certificate was not actually his father. In my own father's case, my grandmother did not have a choice, she was legally married to her Mr. Brown even though they had been seperated for 3 years and living on two different sides of the country when my father was born.
So anyway, my cousin comes up, terribly upset looking for answers. Which my father provided for him, with the exception of the man's name. He said my cousin would have to ask his mother that question himself. It turns out that my cousin's biological father was not honest with my Aunt, and there was a whole drama surrounding this. Before my cousin left that night my father told him "your father is the man that raised you. X has loved you and treated you exactly the same as your brother since you were a baby." My cousin was mature enough to realize that his mother gave him a gift of a loving father. To this day his mother does not know that he knows about the circumstances of his birth.
So here's the thing, if you have to know ask her siblings, relatives, or her friends from that time etc. But what if you're wrong, what if she did the right thing by burying something in the past? What if it turns out that she was raped or whatever? But before you open up Pandora's box, be prepared to deal with the consequences. And in my opinion, you don't have a right to know. She should not have to relive something she so obviously wants to forget just to satisfy your curiosity.
And there is a possibility, however remote, that she's telling the truth. My daughter was listed at birth as an African-American male in her military medical records. We're so white we glow in the dark, and she is obviously not now, nor ever been a male. It was quite a bit of red-tape to clear that up as she was born over-seas.
I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
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text:
Kenneth W. Dobyns
Page 1 of 6
Moatz, Harry
From: kwdx@...
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 8:01 AM
To: ethicsrules comments
Subject: Comments on proposed ethics rules
Comments concerning
Docket No.: 2002?C?005
Changes to Representation of Others
Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
My comments outline objections to failure of the proposed regulations to stay within the scope of authority granted by the statutes setting forth what the Patent and Trademark Office may and should do.
It is proposed to institute regulation 11.12(a) as follows: Sec. 11.12 Mandatory continuing training for licensed practitioners. (a) Continuing education requirements. (1) All practitioners licensed under Secs. 11.6 or 11.9 to practice before the Office shall complete a continuing education program as required from time?to?time by the USPTO Director, except those registered practitioners expressly exempted in paragraph (b) of this section from the requirement of this regulation. The USPTO Director will announce each fiscal year whether an education program will be required, and the dates for the program. No more than one mandatory continuing education program would be required each fiscal year and the requirement may be as infrequent as once every three years. The fiscal year is October 1 through September 30.
This presumably comes under the aegis of
35 USC Sec. 2. ? Powers and duties
(b) Specific Powers. ?
The Office ?
(D) may govern the recognition and conduct of agents, attorneys, or other persons representing applicants or other parties before the Office, and may require them, before being recognized as representatives of applicants or other persons, to show that they are of good moral character and reputation and are possessed of the necessary qualifications to render to applicants or other persons valuable service, advice, and assistance in the presentation or prosecution of their applications or other business before the Office;
There is a provision in the Administrative Procedures Act which states
5 USC Sec. 500. ? Administrative practice; general provisions
., Page 2 of 6
(b) An individual who is a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a State may represent a person before an agency on filing with the agency a written declaration that he is currently qualified as provided by this subsection and is authorized to represent the particular person in whose behalf he acts.
(e) Subsections (b)?(d) of this section do not apply to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office with respect to patent matters that continue to be covered by chapter 3 (sections 3133) of title 35.
The Administrative Procedures Act limits the Patent and Trademark Office in its ability to regulate the practice before the office of attorneys to the procedures set forth in 35 USC 31?33. This is complicated by the fact that 35 USC 31 has been repealed. When it existed, it read
Section 31 Regulations for agents and attorneys
The Commissioner, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, may prescribe regulations governing the recognition and conduct of agents, attorneys, or other persons representing applicants or other parties before the Patent and Trademark Office, and may require them, before being recognized as representatives of applicants or other persons, to show that they are of good moral character and reputation and are possessed of the necessary qualifications to render to applicants or other persons valuable service, advice, and assistance in the presentation or prosecution of their applications or other business before the Office.
One presumes that this is considered equivalent in scope to 35 USC 2(b)(D) and that the statutory authority for the exception to the Administrative Procedures Act is thus contained in 35 USC 2(b)(D).
Both old 35 USC 31 and new 35 USC 2(b)(D) allow the Patent and Trademark Office to require applicants for recognition as patent attorneys, BEFORE BEING RECOGNIZED as representatives of applicants or other persons, to show that they are of good moral character and reputation and are possessed of the necessary qualifications to render to applicants or other persons valuable service, advice, and assistance in the presentation or prosecution of their applications or other business before the Office.
The Patent and Trademark Office is now proposing a regulation to require applicants to periodically show that they are possessed of the necessary qualifications, etc., AFTER THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN RECOGNIZED. This is outside the scope of the allowable proofs allowed by 35 USC and also goes beyond the scope of the limited exception granted to the Patent and Trademark Office by the Administrative Procedures Act.
It is proposed to amend regulations as follows: Sec. 1.21 Miscellaneous fees and charges.
(a) Registration of attorneys and agents:
(7) Annual fee for registered attorney or agent:
(i) Active Status?100.00
. Page 3 of 6
(ii) Voluntary Inactive Status?25.00
(iii) Fee for requesting restoration to active?50.00 status from voluntary inactive status
(iv) Balance due upon restoration to active status?75.00 from voluntary inactive status
The justification provided for this new annual fee for maintenance of registration is that, in the past, the fees paid by applicants and patentees have supported the costs of the activities that maintain the patent practitioner's community reputation for integrity. The proposed annual fee is introduced pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 41(d). The annual fee is intended to fund the costs of the disciplinary system, and maintaining the roster of registered practitioners up?to?date by (i) annually surveying the practitioners for current address/telephone/e?mail information, and (ii) daily updating the roster with new changes of address. With an annual fee, the Office would be funding the disciplinary system as State Bars do, by dues from the bar members. Bar disciplinary activities are generally regarded as being in the interest of maintaining the Bar's reputation for integrity and supporting the willingness of potential clients to engage the services of practitioners.
35 USC 41 (d) reads:
Sec. 41. ? Patent fees; patent and trademark search
The Director shall establish fees for all other processing, services, or materials relating to patents not specified in this section to recover the estimated average cost to the Office of such processing, services, or materials . . .
There are no processing, services or materials being provided to the persons who are to be required to pay the annual fee. Attorneys already pay state bar dues to support the state disciplinary action. The Patent and Trademark Office disciplinary actions are added to the existing systems to protect those people who file patent applications. It is not unreasonable that applicants should be required to pay the cost of protecting their own interests. In most instances this additional tax on the attorneys would be paid eventually by the applicants in any event. But most importantly, there is nothing in 35 USC 41(d) which authorizes this additional tax on attorneys, and the Administrative Procedures Act allows attorneys to practice before the Patent and Trademark Office, subject only to the authority given the Patent and Trademark Office by 35 USC sections 31?33.
It is proposed to introduce
Sec. 11.19 Disciplinary jurisdiction.
(c) Misconduct ? grounds for discipline. (1) Practitioners. Acts or omissions by a practitioner (including a suspended, excluded, or inactive practitioner), acting individually or in concert with any other person or persons constituting gross misconduct, violating the imperative USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct, or the oath taken by practitioner shall constitute misconduct and shall be grounds for discipline, whether or not the act or omission occurred in the course of providing legal services to a client, or in a matter pending before the Office. Grounds for discipline include:
Page 4 of 6
(i) Conviction of a crime (see Secs. 11.24, 11.803(d) and 11.804(b));
(ii) Discipline imposed in another jurisdiction (see Secs. 11.24 and 11.803(e)(1) and (f)(4));
(iii) Failure to comply with any order of a Court disciplining a practitioner, or any order of the USPTO Director disciplining a practitioner;
(iv) Failure to respond to a written inquiry from OED Director in the course of an investigation into whether there has been a violation of the imperative USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct without asserting, in writing, the grounds for refusing to do so; or
(v) Violation of the imperative USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct. See Sec. 11.100(a).
The statutory grounds open to the Patent and Trademark Office under 35 USC 32 are as follows:
Sec. 32. ? Suspension or exclusion from practice
The Director may, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, suspend or exclude, either generally or in any particular case, from further practice before the Patent and Trademark Office, any person, agent, or attorney shown to be incompetent or disreputable, or guilty of gross misconduct, or who does not comply with the regulations established under section 2(b)(2)(D) of this title, or who shall, by word, circular, letter, or advertising, with intent to defraud in any manner, deceive, mislead, or threaten any applicant or prospective applicant, or other person having immediate or prospective business before the Office...
The proposed rules, at section 11.19+, confuse acts of misconduct, which should serve as grounds for exclusion, with proof that those acts of misconduct took place, such as conviction of a crime or discipline imposed by a state. Conviction of a crime should be considered as proof that the crime took place, but conviction of a crime is not, per se, an act of misconduct, merely proof of an act of misconduct. Discipline (such as disbarment) imposed by another state is not, per se, an act of misconduct, but is merely proof of an act of misconduct.
There are crimes which are grounds for disbarment in some states but not in other states. A prime example, recognized in discussions of the ABA's model code, is involuntary manslaughter, which is not usually considered an example of moral turpitude. Killing someone while driving an automobile known to be unsafe might be considered the crime of involuntary manslaughter, but probably should not be, per se, a grounds for exclusion from patent practice. I do not believe that conviction of this crime, or disbarment from state practice because of such conviction should, ipso facto, be incontrovertible grounds for exclusion from patent practice.
The confusion arises with respect to the statute of limitations for initiating exclusion proceedings. The statute of limitations should be set in motion by the act of misconduct, not by later conviction of that misconduct. If the Patent and Trademark Office cannot get its act together enough to initiate exclusion proceedings, even if it then holds them in abeyance, when someone is accused of murder, but must wait until the conviction before doing anything, it is the fault of the office that the statute of limitations has run. Murder is an act of moral turpitude. Conviction of murder is not. The statute of limitations begins to run with the commission of the act. If the act of misconduct or moral turpitude is well and deliberately hidden, that might be grounds for tolling the statute of limitations, but not inertia on the part of the office. That is why we have statutes of limitations.
L Page 5 of 6
Proposed Sec. 11.803 Reporting professional misconduct provides that
(f) Conduct that constitutes a violation of paragraphs (a)
through (e) of this section includes, but is not limited to:
(1) Failing to comply with the provisions of paragraphs (d) or (e) of this section;
(3) In the absence of information sufficient to establish
a reasonable belief that fraud or inequitable conduct has
occurred, alleging before a tribunal that anyone has
committed a fraud on the Office or engaged in inequitable
conduct in a proceeding before the Office; or
(4) Being suspended, disbarred as an attorney, or disbarred on consent from practice as an attorney on any ethical grounds (including ethical grounds not specified in this part) by any duly constituted authority of a State, or the United States, or resigning from the bar of any State, or Federal court while under investigation.
It is inelegant draftsmanship of a regulation to use subsections that tell what other sections (presumably unintelligible without help) actually mean. From this, we acquire, in subsection (1), the truism that violation of paragraph (e) is a violation of paragraph (e), in case there was any doubt.
Subsection (3) would make it professional misconduct allege, before a court (not before the PTO) that fraud may have occurred. In a court proceedings, it may be necessary to make such allegations to support court proceedings to obtain evidence that the fraud did occur. How proceedings are conducted before courts is not for the PTO to regulate. If the court finds that professional misconduct sufficiently egregious to merit discipline has occurred, the court will discipline the attorney. The PTO can then use these court proceedings to determine whether or not the PTO should also discipline the attorney. If the courts do not object to such allegations but the PTO does, should the PTO force actions in litigation to be taken (even more than is the current case) by patent litigation specialists who are not registered to practice before the PTO?
A practitioner who is suspended or disbarred is required by proposed section 11.803 to report that fact. So far, so good. But subsection (4) states that the fact of being suspended or disbarred is a violation of the earlier sections which require a practitioner to report that fact. This is confused and inelegant drafting of a regulation. Better draftsmanship should be expected.
Sec. 11.804 Misconduct provides that
It is professional misconduct for a practitioner to:
(c) Engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation;
(g) Engage in disreputable or gross misconduct.
If section 11.804(c) is approved, it will be professional misconduct to act dishonestly. Everyone is less than honest on occasion. When the wife of a practitioner asks the practitioner "Does this dress make me look fat?" and the practitioner gives the only safe answer, is he subject to disciplinary action? If this regulation is enacted, I believe I could find evidence to disbar any practitioner, and, if the same rule applied to PTO officials, to discipline any of them.
. Page 6 of 6
If section 11.804(g) is approved, it will be professional misconduct to engage in disreputable misconduct. "Disreputable misconduct" is a term which means whatever its user wants it to mean. Logically, it means nothing more than conduct which is bad for the reputation of the person accused of such misconduct. The reputation depends upon the community in which that reputation is maintained. A few of the things which could be disreputable misconduct in different communities are
a. getting drunk at a party and putting on a lamp shade as a hat, b. public cursing, c. promoting atheism or communism, or any other unpopular ism, d. appearing in public in shabby clothes, e. declaring bankruptcy, f. expressing sexist or racist opinions, g. homophobia, h. homosexuality, i. promiscuity, j. having a child out of wedlock, k. or, in the code of one college, having a pattern of tardiness.
I do not think the PTO should be in the business of deciding what is disreputable misconduct. It is too much like "conduct unbecoming an officer."
Sec. 11.806 Sexual relations with clients and third persons includes
(c) Paragraph (b) of this section shall not apply to sexual relations between a practitioner and his or her spouse or significant other . . .
which leads to the vagueness of the term "significant other." Arguably, anyone a practitioner is having sexual relations with is, for that period of time, his or her significant other. Without definition, this term seems to make the remainder of the regulation unenforceable if a well thought out defense is raised. And I doubt if the term can be defined with any precision.
I hope that the Patent and Trademark Office will keep the limitations of its statutory authority in mind when making rules. If more statutory authority is needed, the Patent and Trademark Office should seek it, but it should not act as if it had the authority when it does not.
Kenneth W. Dobyns


text:
Note: Mary was not enrolled on the 1896 Olive Roll as some descendants bel ieved. Her uncle Thomas Hill was enrolled on the Olive Roll for Absentee Wyandotte Indians. He is buried in the Huron Cemetery in downtown Kansas Ci ty, Wyandotte County, Kansas
Father: Abraham Halfhill b: 1794
Mother: Wyandot Indian Woman Hill b: ABT 1815 in Wyandot Tribal Lands (Wayne County, Michigan)
Marriage 1 William Benjamin Barber b: 7 AUG 1828 in Fowler, Trumbull County, Ohio
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text:
Coolest Pumpkin Ever Is a Working Tetris Game
I don't know about you, but I am the worst pumpkin carver ever! I can barely do the basic triangles and my kids get so frustrated with me about it. Some people are very skilled and creative pumpkin carvers and can do so many cool and creative things to bring their jack-o-lantern to life. I can't because I am a pumpkin carving tool!


text:
The Sunnyside Unified School District is exploring the possibility of a $74 million bond election in November.
Superintendent Manuel L. Isquierdo and staff are meeting with business owners, educators and nonprofit organizations about forming an exploratory committee. The Governing Board would have the final say on forming a committee.
"This is the best opportunity to see the district through by investing in this bond. The district would be able to maintain and sustain programs for the next 10 years," Isquierdo said.
If a committee is formed, town halls would be held to inform voters about the election and encourage them to register to vote, said Hector M. Encinas, the district's chief financial officer. The Governing Board must decide by July 1 whether it will put the issue on the November ballot.
On Tuesday, the Governing Board is holding a 5:30 p.m. special study session about the $1.1 billion state budget deficit this coming fiscal year, and its impact on the district. The study session will look at funding options. It will be held at district headquarters, 2238 E. Ginter Road.
Funding options to be discussed include:
• The $74 million bond election to support and maintain computer-technology instruction and infrastructure; remodeling of schools, including new air conditioners and roofs; and new school buses. The bonds would be repaid in 25 years, assuming there is a 5 percent increase in property valuation and the bonds sell at a 6 percent interest rate.
The repayment plan would be structured so as not to increase the current debt-service requirement, meaning a homeowner's taxes would not increase. Currently, the owner of a $100,000 home is paying $138 in taxes for repayment of bonds sold in prior years.
"We have to be sensitive to what the economy can withstand and what our taxpayers can withstand. This is one of the things that will have to be considered," Encinas said.
• A 10 percent capital-outlay budget-override election to support capital improvements, new buses, and buildings and technology improvements. If it is approved, the district would receive $9 million a year for five years, $6 million the sixth year, and $3 million the seventh year. The average homeowner's taxes would increase $159 a year.
• A call for a 10 percent maintenance-and-operations budget-override election to pay for all-day kindergarten; art, music and physical education classes at elementary schools; and for teachers, counselors and campus monitors.
The current maintenance-and-operations budget is $90 million, and 85 percent of this budget is used for salaries and benefits. If the measure passes, the district would be allowed to continue receiving about $9 million a year for five years. If it is not approved, the district would have to reduce its maintenance-and-operations budget in 2012-13 by $3 million, and do so each year through 2014-15.
The board also will discuss proposed state cuts, including:
• A $1.6 million cut in federal funding created by stimulus funds over 2 1/2 years. Half of that funding has already been spent on staff positions, and the board will have to figure out where it can make up the difference.
• A $1 million cut in the unrestricted capital-outlay budget, and $3.1 million in the soft-capital budget. These reductions will halt the ability to sustain technology gains in the classroom.
These proposed cuts for the 2011-12 budget by the Legislature are on top of cuts made in the current budget. A $141 million budget was approved for this school year - $41 million less than the 2009-10 budget.
The Sunnyside district is the second-largest in the Tucson area, with 22 schools, 17,500 students and 2,145 employees.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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