text:
Which is more realistic, conjuring a a Happy-Days-Are-Here-Again Democratic Party or expecting the Outlaw-Josey-Wales part of the Republican party to vanish?
Right now I would say the next ,1000 to 2,000 Dow points rests on these curious visions of the future.
Let me explain.
First, there's some amorphous talk out there that the president, in the second term, will become more hospitable to big business, to the trigger pullers, to the corporations who have not had his ear. The idea is that there are enough companies out there that want to break bread with the president and there's enough give to the president in his second term that a new rapport, a new friendship is about to break out.
Somehow, that Happy-Days-Are-Here-Again skein of thought is in the ether and I have to tell you I don't understand it at all. Why does Obama have to compromise? What did he do to have to make peace or break bread with anyone? He won this victory by appealing solely to his constituency, which is growing much faster than the Republicans' constituency. I see him going the opposite. Big business doesn't want to play ball with him? To heck with them. Banks and bankers gave tens of millions of dollars to defeat him? Forget about them. Bury them, even.
I saw NOTHING in this election that would make the relationship with business cozier. In fact, I think quite the opposite. Things are going to get more chilly because he believes that they aren't going to hire no matter what he does, or at least hire here.
The idea that he is suddenly going to make nice with the potential big hirers, the oil and gas and refining and chemicals businesses because energy is so cheap? Good luck with that. The companies and leaders in those industries tried to bury him. They did everything they could to crush him. Now he is supposed to be magnanimous? Why? Would you be? I sure wouldn't be. Because of legacy? What's the legacy of the fossil-fuel gang in a Green Presidency.
The bankers and the oil men were the big losers Tuesday night and the stocks reflected it yesterday. They can recover because they did well before when he disliked them and they will do well now when he dislikes them. But they won't ever have a friend in this White House.
Don't believe me? Consider this. In the first Obama campaign he received tens of millions of dollars from bankers and business people and he did little to help them. Then they turn on him and now he's supposed to help them?
The president will not get you 1,000 or 2,000 more points on the Dow because of some new attitude. That attitude doesn't exist. Stop your dreaming.
Now, the other side is more intriguing and more important. There's a battle for the soul of the Republican Party and it is made up of people who fear losing their seats in Washington vs. the true believers, the guys who holed up with the Outlaw Josey Wales at the beginning of that fabulous movie. These are people who refuse to surrender when the War Between the States was over because they never accepted that it was a lost cause and intended to fight on no matter what.
Call these people the Tea Partiers. They have no sense of self-preservation because it doesn't intrigue them. What matters is the cause or causes.
I think the leadership of the GOP, whoever that might be right now, let's call it John Boehner 'cause he's trying to lead, is worried about losing in 2014. Boehner seems worried about not even being speaker. You have to figure that he and the party minions have figured out that if they can't sweep when unemployment is almost 8% they aren't ever going to sweep. The idea of throwing us into another recession where unemployment goes to 9% isn't necessarily a winning strategy if it didn't work at 8%.
So, rational people would argue that you have to eliminate the Outlaw-Josey-Wales factors. I say factors, because some of them have to do with social issues, which lost the votes of women. I don't know if the GOP can ever stop single-issue candidacies.
But the major Outlaw-Josey-Wales factor has to be dealt with, which is the perception that no matter what, rich people must not pay more taxes. That tenet, I believe, made it almost impossible for anyone who doesn't make a lot of money to vote GOP.
Put simply, the Tea Party were perceived as class warriors, not the Democrats. They were perceived as warriors carrying the plutocracy banner. The presidential candidate didn't help because I think the vast majority of people, including the considerable number who pay little or no federal income tax, can't believe that he paid little or no federal income tax.
These people are lost to the GOP. They went Democratic.
So here's what all of this comes down to. Does the GOP leadership realize that running on the principle that the rich should never have to pay more taxes is a LOSER? Does the leadership recognize that 90% of the country is being sacrificed for the right of the 10% to pay less?
Forget ideology. Forget what the government does with the money. Forget the bloated budget. Accept that without compromise we will fall over the fiscal cliff and back into recession and it will be man-made because the losing party didn't adjust.
No one is going to blame the winning party for not adjusting. It won, for heaven's sake.
The losers have to adjust. If they cast out the Josey-Wales lost-causers and stop defending the 10%, particularly the 1% that funded so much of their campaigns, then we go higher, much higher.
If they don't compromise we are sunk. The next 1,000 to 2,000 is down until we readjust to a worse economic world where we can't be the engine and China can't be the engine and Europe just splinters and falls apart.
That's why, reluctantly, I can write 1,000 words on politics, and not stocks, and actually have it matter!


text:
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Lung Cancer
CT of the Chest
A recent CT of the chest (W/O contrast) done as a follow up to a chest x-ray revealed the following: 1. Biapical pleural parenchymal scarring 2. Small 4.0 mm subpleural nodule right upper lobe laterally 3. Small calcified granuloma right middle lobe. The chest x-ray was done for shoulder pain I was experiencing (which showed that I had tendinitis in the shoulder) and upon examination of the shoulder, the doctor was concerned with lymphedema of the left axilla and decided I should have a chest x-ray as well, and this is when the above came out.
Is there anything to worry about? In how many months should I follow up? The strange thing is that I have had a chronic cough for a while that sounds like geese honking. I sometimes have wheezing, and when I sit down and my lungs are pressed against the couch I feel like I can not catch my breath. Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Any lung nodule like the ones seen in your case need to be followed with CT scan of the chest. CT provides a more detailed information about the nodules including the location in the lung. The 4mm nodules are too small to biopsy and so they are usually observed with follow up CT scans.
Usually these small lesions are represent an infection or scar. In midwest a fungal infection known as histoplasmosis also very common. Depending on the age of the patient and the smoking history they may also be malignant as well. A nodule smaller than 1cm is hard to biopsy and in these cases we usually decide to follow up with CT scan to determine if they are increasing in size. Scars usually don't change, whereas infection may disappear once treated.
At this time an appointment with a pulmonologist would be helpful as s/he can weigh in the risk factors, review the CT and determine whether a biopsy or just observation with follow up CT is appropriate.
Shaheen Islam, MD, MPH
Clinical Associate Professor
Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University

subset: commoncrawl


text:
But here's a collection of the Low-Sugar or Sugar-Free Chocolate Treats that made the cut and many of them are also gluten-free as well. I hope one of these can help you celebrate Valentine's Day without completely abandoning your diet; just click the link under the photo to see each recipe.
But there are many good sweeteners on the market and your favorite brand will probably work just fine in these recipes, as long as it's a sweetener that's used 1:1 to replace sugar. I've also had good luck in the past baking with Splenda, so if you're not against using that it's definitely an option. (Please no "foodie police" comments; use any sweetener you prefer and let others do the same!)
Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Brownies with Walnuts would be a hit any day of the year!
These Flourless and Low-Sugar (or sugar-free) Chocolate Shortbread Cookies are another Valentine's Day chocolate option that won't leave you feeling deprived, and these cookies are gluten-free as well!
Greek Yogurt Dessert with Hazelnut Agave and Shaved Dark Chocolate is delicious and comes together in minutes. This is also gluten-free.)
Low-Sugar and Flourless Chocolate Coconut Drops with Almonds as a Christmas cookies, but these would be lovely for Valentines Day. These are gluten-free.
Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Bread is delicious, maybe even for breakfast on Valentine's Day?
Last, but certainly not least, these Whole Grain Low-Sugar (or sugar-free) Chocolate Cookies with Pecans just might be my favorite cookie recipe on the blog.
I know there are other good cooks coming up with diet friendly recipe ideas for Valentine's Day, so if you have a good suggestion for a Valentine's Day dessert, we'd love to hear about it in the comments. (Bloggers are welcome to leave recipe links for other low-sugar cookies or desserts; other types of links won't be published.)


text:
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Dental and Oral Health (Adults)
Fimbriated Fold Pain
So three days ago, my fimbriated fold under my tongue began to feel slightly painful. The next day, it was really painful. Today, it`s still painful and my second fold feels uncomfortable. Another symptom is a dry mouth with chapped lips. I have a teeth retainer. This is really annoying because it hurts to talk, eat, and drink.
It is difficult to determine the cause of your pain from your description. It is possible that you could have scratched this area with something like a potato chip. It is also possible that you could have a lesion similar to a cold sore that will take 7 to 10 days to heal.
If it is not better in 7 days, go to your dentist to get an accurate diagnosis of the source of the pain and a treatment for it.
D Stanley Sharples, DDS
Clinical Assistant Professor of Primary Care Dentistry
College of Dentistry
The Ohio State University


text:
Bahawalpur Board Date Sheet 2012 of Matric (SSC)
Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Bahawalpur which is also known as BISE Bahawalpur Board has not yet announced the Matric (SSC) Date Sheet 2012. Students can check BISE Bahawalpur Board Matric (SSC) Date Sheet 2012 here soon.
BISE Bahawalpur Board Matric Exams 2012 would be held in March 2012 as mostly the Matric Exams held in March every year and BISE Bahawalpur Board announces SSC date sheet one month before the commencement of exams. So we can say that Matric (SSC) Date Sheet 2012 would be announced in February 2012.
There are eight boards in the Punjab province and mostly Matric (SSC) Exams of all boards held on the same day every year. All the Punjab boards yet has not announced any date sheet for the Matric (SSC) Exams 2012.
BISE Bahawalpur Board students now submitting the admission applications for the SSC Exams 2012 and the date sheet 2012 of matric would be announced soon after the completion of application process.
Students keep in touch with us we will publish Matric (SSC) Date Sheet 2012 when BISE Bahawalpur Board will announce it.


text:
The internet as liberation theology (Marc Rotenberg, "Internet Liberation Theology", 7 November, 2001) is arguably its first meme. It has certainly remained its most pervasive. From email to Wikileaks, the Net has helped liberate its users from (say) the tyranny of distance and autocratic regimes (John Nichols, "Revolution 2.0: The People of Egypt Win a 'Media War", 11 February, 2011).
The good news continues to be spread through word of mouse: computers will set our minds free and lead us to the promised land. The 'promise' is of a shared domain — the internet remains a place where anybody could go and be themselves.
There have always been naysayers, of course. Becoming masters of our own domain was also seen as a mixed blessing (Cass Sunstein, "Is The Internet Really a Blessing for Democracy?", Summer, 2001). The freedom to "filter" (customise, personalise) content in the information age threatens to limit people's "exposure to topics and points of view of their own choosing". The concern was that the promised land might turn into a mere "echo chamber" (William Saletan, "Bubble Think", 3 May, 2010). Creating the world in our own image therefore has a potential downside — enclosing the 'liberated' within their own filter bubbles (Eli Pariser, "Beware Online Filter Bubbles", 11 March, 2011).
The possibility of creating the world in our own image invariably raises the question: to what extent do we really live in a self reflective culture? On the one side of the looking glass, computers enable us to limit our view of the world to an 'image' we create online (by making it reflect personal tastes and sensibilities). On the other side of the looking glass, computer programs will reflect that world back to us by trying to "predict what we want" to see online. (Natasha Singer, "The Trouble With The Echo Chamber Online" 28 May, 2011). Consequently, "you start to become more and more like the image of you because that is what you are seeing."
Its for this reason that we need to beware of the internet as liberation theology (Trevor Butterworth, "Beware The Internet As Liberation Theology", 8 September, 2010). The promise of personal freedom remains an interpersonal issue, and so raises concerns about the status of our choices. As Butterworth observes, the internet should therefore be seen "within the context of what it does for us and how we use it".
Witness the ascent of Wikileaks in the information era. The rise (potential fall and possible rise again) of Wikileak's founder Julian Assange is particularly informative. Perhaps the best way to look at the internet's liberation theology is to explore the rape allegations within the context of Wikileak's own assumptions. Wikileak's own allegation of mass murder will provide our entry point into the looking glass.
As we shall see, freedom is just another word for contemplating our own reflections. Indeed, the way internet users process information predates the advent of computers, and merely reflects the way we want to see (filter) the world in the first place.
Wikileak's has therefore held up a mirror to the world in a different way – by inadvertently revealing that reasoning is often motivated and directed towards "goal supporting perceptions or beliefs" (Dan Kahan, "What is Motivated Reasoning and How Does it Work?", 4 May, 2011). We obviously don't have to look too far to observe how Wikileaks sees itself. According to its own site, Wikileaks believes that the sharing of information "improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people". Wikileaks clearly views itself as a freedom fighter and purports to fight the good fight by acting as 'the people's' mediator.
Wikileaks can liberate us all from the tyranny of false imagery through the sharing of information. A (more) transparent society will supposedly let us pass through the veil of appearances. And it fights the media war by deploying other media (leaked documents, classified videos, etc). Consequently, Wikileak's goal is to freely share information "so readers and historians alike can see the evidence of truth". Wikileaks actively works towards the "improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history".
It's no accident, then, that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides the template for setting our minds free. Specifically, this new media outlet – aka the people's press – defends the "right to freedom of opinion and expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"
Few can deny that Wikileaks provides an invaluable corrective (or supplement) to official versions of events. The site is obviously designed to level the playing field by ensuring greater truth and responsibility online. It gives power back to people like you and I by calling on our elected representatives to be more truthful and accountable in the real world.
Wikileak's liberation theology couldn't be more transparent, and gives rise to the possibility of a Utopian ideal through the use of the internet. "Principled leaking…can alter the course of history in the present, and it can lead us to a better future". It isn't difficult to see that there are two interdependent assumptions being made in this proposed information utopia: that facts speak for themselves – they act as their own truth bearers – and they need to be spoken for (attested to in the public domain).
A third assumption can be clearly seen, too: that a free exchange of information can improve our collective understanding and/or heighten our sense of civic responsibility. Leaking information will therefore motivate us to think and act more rationally. Unfortunately, these assumptions are simply taken on faith, and obscure something apparent to anyone who frequents the internet: 'facts' are filtered through the prism of sensibility and are subjected to interpretation and re-contextualisation. Consequently, the 'evidence of truth' (and the corresponding issue of accountability) remains contested terrain.
Witness the war of words over the leaked video provocatively called Collateral Murder. While the video footage is remarkable for providing an unvarnished view of the theatre of war, there appear to be conflicting interpretations of what the images might actually mean (or be saying).
Do they really depict the cold blooded murder of civilians or are we witnessing killing done in the heat of a perceived battle? Is it even possible to see a moral (or legal) distinction in these images anyway? Is our view of them clouded by the fog of war or made even murkier in the cold light of day?
The classified footage clearly documents three air to ground attacks from inside the cockpits of two Apache helicopters. Collateral Murder depicts the deaths of predominantly unarmed people (reports vary between 12 and 18), and includes two Reuters reporters mistaken for armed combatants.
Perhaps what is most telling is that these images 'speak' to people in different ways. That is to say, conflicting interpretations reveal the way 'facts' can convey different information to observers. Compare the viewpoints of Salon's Glenn Greenwald and Hudson Institute's Gabriel Schoenfeld. Their informed views may be divided along partisan lines, and so, displace the conflict onto the battlefield of public discourse.
Greenwald – a liberal critic of American foreign policy – says we are witnessing a a slaughter that has become "standard operating procedure" within an "occupation" that has turned an entire nation into a theatre of war. Indeed, Operation Iraqi Freedom has culminated in "hundreds of thousands of dead innocent civilians" and a "deceitful cover up".
The leaked footage therefore merely provides a snapshot of American forces waging war against a "vast majority…of clearly unarmed people". Further, what we are seeing includes the "plainly unjustified killing of a group of unarmed men (with their children) carrying away an unarmed, seriously wounded man to safety" (Glenn Greenwald, "Iraqi Slaughter Not an Aberration", 6 April, 2010).
Gabriel Schoenfeld – a member of a conservative think tank – counters in the Wall Street Journal that the images fail to depict the bigger picture or what had been happening off camera. He says American forces typically "refrain from attacking targets precisely because civilians are in harm's way" Further, the "video makes plain that in this incident, as in almost all military encounters in both Iraq and Afghanistan, our soldiers are up against forces that do not wear uniforms—a violation of international law precisely because it places innocent civilians in jeopardy. Responsibility for civilian deaths in such encounters rests with those who violate the rules of war" (Gabriel Schoenfeld, "Warfare Through a Soda Straw", 23 June, 2010).
Rising Appalachia 'Alive' (album stream) (premiere) // Music
Lost Bayou Ramblers "Allons a Lafayette" (video) (premiere) // Music
Jean Caffeine "Winter of Hate" (video) (premiere) // Music
Authenticity Issues and the New Intimacies
// Marginal Utility
"The social-media companies have largely succeeded in persuading users of their platforms' neutrality. What we fail to see is that these new identities are no less contingent and dictated to us then the ones circumscribed by tradition; only now the constraints are imposed by for-profit companies in explicit service of gain.READ the article


text:
Headlines (Campus Updates)
United Way Discovery Fair & bake sale contest Oct. 10, noon - 2 p.m.
Communications, Public Affairs & Marketing
Oct 9/13
Laurier's Waterloo campus will kick off its United Way campaign Oct. 10. The kick-off event will feature representatives from United Way to talk about the impact of your donations, as well as a healthy dose of baking, competition and prizes!
Waterloo Campus kick off: United Way Discovery Fair and baking contest
Time: October 10, noon - 2 p.m. with brief presentations at 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.
Location: The Turret
Hear presentations from United Way and university representatives, visit United Way booths to learn about the work of United Way agencies, eat some sweet treats and enter to win amazing prizes! Get your United Way passport stamped at each booth to enter to win a prize. You can also enter to win prizes by completing your United Way pledge form at the event.
Dont miss the bake sale competition at the United Way Discovery Fair! Will it be a cookie from the Presidents group or a brownie from one of the faculties that tantalizes your taste buds? Bring your coins to buy some baked goods, or better yet, if you like to bake and have a competitive streak, put a team together to compete! The team that raises the most money will receive a certificate, a small prize to share and bragging rights for the year.
A key part of Lauriers focus on inspiring lives of leadership and purpose is supporting the communities in which we reside. It has been a proud part of our history, and is an essential part of our future. Lauriers support takes many forms, and during the month of October each year, one of the ways we impact our communities is by supporting the United Way of Kitchener Waterloo & Area, the Brant United Way and United Way Toronto through Lauriers United Way campaign.
The impact that the United Ways support of member agencies has on the people who use their services is profound. Many of us have benefitted from these services directly, or have friends or family members who have. This is the bigger picture that we hope people understand when they make the decision about supporting the campaign.
Laurier's Brantford campus held its campaign kick-off and baking contest October 1.
More information about the United Way Campaign and the agencies it supports will be posted to the website once the campaign begins.


text:
President, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Risk Management Association, Richmond Chapter
Richmond, Va.
It is a pleasure to be with you today to discuss the economic outlook for 2006 and beyond. It is a pleasure, in part, because the economic outlook is fairly encouraging. Growth is on a solid footing, despite this year's run-up in energy prices and the disruptions of a devastating hurricane season. And after a brief pause this fall, employment is expanding again at a healthy pace, consumer spending continues to grow briskly, and business investment spending is robust. Granted, housing activity seems to be softening, and at least some potential price level pressures remain, so it may be too soon to break out the champagne. But inflation expectations remain contained, and we at the Fed are well-positioned to resist inflation pressures, should they emerge.
So all in all, it is quite a good outlook.
In my remarks today, I would like to review the economic outlook in a bit more detail, and then talk about monetary policy. As always, my remarks reflect my own views, and not necessarily those of my colleagues in the Federal Reserve.
The really striking feature of the current outlook is the extent to which economic activity in general and consumer spending in particular has rebounded from the shock of last year's hurricane season. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, fears were widespread that consumers might pull back sharply on spending, both in response to sharply higher retail gasoline prices and out of a general sense of heightened anxiety about potential fallout from the storm damage.
Survey measures of consumer confidence, which plummeted in September, seemed to bolster this view. But the effect of the storms on consumer outlays have turned out to be far more limited than expected, exemplifying the oft-cited resilience of the U.S. economy. Apart from auto sales, which slid following expiration of the summer's "employee discount" promotions, retail sales have held up fairly well and overall consumer spending has continued to advance. And on the whole, holiday spending came in stronger than many feared in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
I would argue that this episode illustrates quite well how consumption expenditures are governed predominantly by households' assessment of their own future income prospects, rather than by any general economic nervousness, despite how they respond to telephone pollsters. With healthy income growth ahead and a reasonably strong overall job market, the outlook for consumer spending looks good.
Housing market activity has been very strong over the last several years, and the historically low level of inflation-adjusted mortgage interest rates explains much of that strength. The fall in interest rates that began early in 2001 stimulated spending in interest-sensitive sectors like housing and durable goods and partially offset the then-emerging weakness in business investment spending. As the latter has recovered in the last two years, and real interest rates have had to rise as a consequence, a gradual "handoff" from housing investment has been expected.
That handoff has yet to occur; the ratio of business to residential investment outlays fell from around 2.75 in 2000 to about 1.75 last year, and has been fairly constant since then. Instead, the combination of low inflation-adjusted interest rates and sustained real income gains have continued to provide a strong stimulus to housing demand.
In recent months, we have received widespread anecdotal reports of what one informant of ours called "a return to normalcy" in several housing markets in our District. The multiple first-day bids and final sales at above-asking prices that were observed in some markets seem to have become less common. And in some markets, the amount of time a home stays on the market has returned to more typical levels.
At the same time, the aggregate measures of housing activity have so far shown only limited pull-back from their peaks and remain at historically high levels. The fact that housing market activity typically declines in the last few months of each year is making it difficult to collate quantitative and qualitative evidence and assess seasonally adjusted housing market trends. Still, mortgage rates are likely to stay somewhat above their recent lows in the coming year, so I would expect housing price appreciation to flatten out next year and aggregate residential investment to stop growing or perhaps even decline.
The fundamentals for business investment in equipment and software look quite sound. Business output is expanding steadily and real funding costs are relatively low, both because inflation-adjusted, risk-free rates have been low and because corporate risk spreads are relatively narrow.
Evidently, there has been a sufficient flow of opportunities to deploy new capital profitably. Business investment in equipment and software has grown at over 11 percent in real terms since the first quarter of 2003, and it appears poised to grow at rates almost that strong next year. Capital formation, particularly investment in information and communications technology (ICT), played an instrumental role in the widely noted surge in productivity growth that took place in the late 1990s. The fundamental driving force was the sustained and rapid fall in the relative prices of these technologies.
Although initial productivity growth figures for that period were revised downward in subsequent data releases, our best estimates now are that productivity accelerated significantly in the mid-1990s from the relatively stagnant pace of 1.5 percent seen over the previous 20 years to 2.6 percent over the second half of the 1990s.
Productivity has grown at surprisingly strong rates since then — 3.4 percent since the end of 2000 — despite significantly lower rates of capital formation. Productivity growth in the first half of this decade thus must be mainly attributable to gains in what economists call "total factor productivity" — that is, output growth in excess of all input growth through reorganization of the use of those inputs. At the risk of oversimplification, one could say that firms increased productivity in the 1990s by providing workers with better technology, but in this decade by restructuring business processes to better exploit the technology they had.
One interpretation of these two episodes is that ICT investment outlays yield both an initial productivity gain (which our standard methods attribute to capital deepening) and then further productivity gains down the road as business processes are steadily optimized for the new infrastructure.
One implication of this perspective on recent productivity trends is that the current expansion in business investment is laying a foundation for future growth in total factor productivity, and thus provides at least some grounds for optimism that productivity growth might come in at 2.5 percent or higher, rather than the long-run trend rate of 2.25 percent.
Unfortunately, empirical evidence on this is limited, and as always, forecasting productivity growth should be done with humility, given economists' notably poor track record in this area.
Gains in labor productivity, whether due to capital deepening or improved business processes, ultimately pass through to real incomes. As a result, total real personal income has grown recently: over 2 percent per year since the rebound in employment in mid-2003, despite significant energy price increases. If productivity growth continues at or above trend, as seems likely, then we should see healthy growth in real income next year, anticipation of which should continue to support consumption growth in 2006.
Labor markets have recovered from the recession of 2001. Although employment was stagnant for a time following the downturn, hiring picked up in 2003. Of course, Hurricane Katrina disrupted labor markets by forcing the displacement of close to a million people from the Gulf Coast region. That separated a substantial number of workers from their employers, and damaged a substantial portion of the capital stock in the affected areas. As a result, U.S. employment growth was noticeably depressed in September and October, although quantitative estimates of the storms' effects are imprecise.
Payroll expansion has averaged over 200,000 jobs per month since October, however, more than enough to keep up with the growth in working-age population.
The overall outlook therefore is for a healthy expansion next year. Real GDP should grow at about 3.5 percent. Household spending should grow at about the same rate in real terms. Business investment should expand substantially faster than overall output and residential investment should expand more slowly, perhaps even falling in real terms. And I expect employment to track the growth in the working-age population in 2006.
This is a fairly balanced picture, but naturally there is some uncertainty attached to it. Economic fundamentals could depart from their anticipated trajectories in any number of ways that could leave a mark on U.S. economic aggregates.
For example, spot oil prices — or other commodity prices for that matter — could well turn out either above or below the path embodied in futures prices. Many global commodity markets have been affected by the unanticipated surge in worldwide demand over the last several of years; those for which supply elasticities are low have experienced significant price run-ups. Commodity price surprises in either direction could alter aggregate supply conditions and either add or subtract from output growth.
On the demand side, there is some uncertainty regarding the rate at which housing activity is at all likely to cool in the coming year. Although I do not think that a sharp fall in housing investment is likely, a range of forecasts from flat to moderately declining seem reasonable.
And while continued growth in the share of output devoted to business investment seems highly probable, it is difficult to foresee with any certainty the scale of investment that businesses will find profitable to undertake, so spending growth in this category could well deviate from expectations.
In contrast, growth in household spending is easier to forecast, because both economic theory and empirical evidence indicate that consumption growth is tied closely to income growth over time. The range of likely outcomes for real consumption growth is correspondingly more narrow.
Differences between how economic fundamentals are expected to unfold and how they actually unfold can have important implications for real interest rates and thus for monetary policy.
As I have emphasized elsewhere, a real interest rate is a relative price — the price of current resources relative to the future resources one either forgoes by borrowing or obtains by investing. Real interest rates need to respond to changes in the relative pressure on current versus future resources.
Unpredicted movements in economic fundamentals, to the extent that they affect the relative pressure on current and future resources, thus will have implications for policy rates, even in situations in which inflation and inflation expectations are low and well-contained.
Core inflation has been low and relatively steady in the last several years. The inflation measure that is widely preferred on methodological grounds, the price index for core personal consumption expenditures, has averaged 1.8 percent over the 12 months ending in November. That is within the 1-to-2 percent range that I and others have proposed as an announced target.
Even before Katrina, overall inflation, including food and energy prices, was elevated due to the run-up in energy prices in the spring and summer. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely disrupted energy production in the Gulf and led to sharp increases in refining margins and prices for gasoline and natural gas. U.S. natural gas production and petroleum refining are still down 5 percent since Katrina, and crude oil production is down 10 percent.
Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, as the magnitude of the effects on Gulf Coast energy production became clear, many observers came to fear that the resulting sharp increase in energy prices might lead to a broader increase in inflation, and perhaps even recessionary forces. These observers appeared to be reasoning by analogy to the 1970s, but I believe that analogy is seriously mistaken.
Inflation expectations were unanchored in the 1970s, the credibility of the Federal Reserve was low, and people expected the Fed to allow energy price shocks to feed through to overall inflation. The Fed often accommodated that expectation by preventing short-term real interest rates from rising. In fact, at times we kept nominal rates from rising as fast as inflation and thus provided further monetary stimulus. The Fed was then forced to raise rates dramatically to bring inflation back down, and in the process induced an economic contraction, exacerbating the real effects of the oil price shocks.
Thus, the proper lesson from the 1970s is not that energy price shocks induce major recessions or cause widespread inflation; it is that monetary policy that reacts to energy price shocks by accommodating the rise in inflation can induce major recessions.
Monetary policy should to respond to energy shocks by remaining focused on price stability. That way, the economy can respond to energy price shocks the way it should — the relative price of energy increases, but core inflation remains anchored. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, monetary policymakers naturally have focused on the risk that the attendant energy price increases would "pass through" to an acceleration in core inflation. While the lack of an upsurge in the core PCE inflation figures since September is somewhat encouraging, I think it is too soon to declare that "pass-through risk" is entirely behind us. This assessment is consistent with the statement released by the FOMC following its December meeting, which noted that, "…elevated energy prices have the potential to add to inflation pressures."
To my mind, any energy price pass-through to core inflation that is more than marginal and transitory would be unwelcome.
Thus far, market participants appear to believe that core inflation will remain contained. Survey measures of expected inflation rose sharply in September when retail gasoline prices reached their peak, but have come back down since. Measures of expected inflation derived from market prices of inflation protected U.S. Treasury securities drifted up a bit this fall, but they too have returned to mid-summer levels.
To maintain credibility for price stability, it is essential that monetary policy should respond vigorously to any visible erosion in inflation expectations.
Many of you may have noticed that in the statement released following the last FOMC meeting, the term "accommodation" was dropped, or, in the words of one of my colleagues, "given an honorable discharge." Many observers are taking this as a sign that the Committee may be coming close to completing the current sequence of tightening moves that began in June of 2004.
I discussed earlier that in an era of low and stable inflation, real interest rate movements will predominantly reflect the relative pressure on current versus future resources. Recessions, in modern industrialized economies, are associated with transitory declines in the demand for current goods and services. Since demand ultimately will recover, real interest rates need to fall in recessions to reflect the abundance of current relative to future resources. Thus, the FOMC engineered a reduction in real interest rates in 2001 that lasted until mid-2004, when a steady recovery in demand became evident. Since then, the economy has been on a transitional trajectory toward a path characterized by sustained and balanced expansion with relatively full utilization of resources. Along this transition, real interest rates have been rising toward a range consistent with the sustained growth path to which the economy has been headed.
It deserves emphasis, however, that sustained growth is not likely to be perfectly smooth and predictable. Unpredicted variations in economic fundamentals can and will affect economic conditions, even if they are not so large as to induce a recessionary break in growth.
And as I emphasized earlier, if those variations have implications for the relative pressure on current versus future resources, they will have implications for real interest rates as well. The long expansions of the 1980s and 1990s were both cases in which interest rates fluctuated as the economy experienced sustained growth.
Thus, whenever the current sequence of tightening moves reaches completion, short-term interest rates should not be expected to remain constant for an extended period of time. Instead, they will likely move from time to time during the expansion ahead.
Policymakers will need to be alert for movements in economic fundamentals that shift the relative pressure on current versus future resources in ways that require changes in real interest rates, even if inflation pressures subside.
Jim Strader
(804) 697-8956
(804) 332-0207 (mobile)
Laura Fortunato
(804) 697-8196
(804) 698-0927 (mobile)


text:
found a new home!
Plenty of my friends are looking
for one too. Find a pet to adopt.
I am purebred.
I am being potty/crate trained, learning to sit, down, stay and some tricks too!
Won't you let me parole to your home and I will be so grateful.
All dogs are from rural area shelters and brought into the prison where they live with the female inmates 24/7 and are taught all their basic obedience!
Banjo, a Lockhart Rat Terrier dog was adopted! Here's how you can benefit by looking at adoption as an option to buying a Rat Terrier for sale in Lockhart, or seeking a Rat Terrier dog from a breeder in Lockhart.


text:
Go to the site home page
|Contributor's Name
|Paul Dibden
|Profile Image
|Date added to NoD
|Thursday, 20 April, 2017 - 08:27
|Twitter Screen Name
|South West UK
|Click to view Twitter feed
|View contributors Twitter feed
|Click to view Facebook page
|Click to access RSS Feed
This section of the Nature of Dorset enables you to look at records submitted by nature watchers from across the county. Records are collected from their Twitter 'tweeted' observations which are then indexed, collated and stored in the main Nature of Dorset database of recorded sightings. To make this data more easily digestible it is presented here as reports, maps, charts and photo galleries together with the original tweets from which the these various views are generated. By using the FIVE icons above you can click/tap to see:
On every page there is an option to print what you see if required. Once you have finished with the page you need to use your browsers 'page page' function to return to the contributor's home page before you can select another option.


text:
Enrollment at College of Marin has plummeted to the lowest level in at least a decade as students face cuts to course offerings, higher fees and a more difficult financial aid environment, officials said Tuesday.
Enrollment dropped to 6,620 students this semester, down 9.8 percent from 7,337 students in the spring semester of 2012, mirroring drops in enrollment statewide.
The enrollment dropped as the college, facing budget pressure, cut 19 courses from the schedule compared with spring 2012, continuing a trend that has shrunk the course catalogue by about 50 classes, or 6 percent in the past three years.
Such cuts, which have happened across the state, have made it harder for students to find classes, pushing some of them out of school.
"I don't know how many people who have been totally disenfranchised just because they weren't able to get in, and that's something that we really hadn't experienced before as a system," said Cari Torres, interim dean of instruction for College of Marin.
Spring enrollment figures for California were not yet available Tuesday, but as of this fall statewide enrollment had dropped by nearly 500,000 students over four years and courses were cut by nearly 25 percent, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office.
While College of Marin has fared better than many of its peers in California, its revenues have suffered from stagnant property values. The college began the school year with a $2.2 million deficit in a $70.1 million budget. Officials are working to cut several million dollars in the next few years.
Lance Reyes, a third-year engineering student who serves as president of College of Marin Associated Students, said he has not had difficulties enrolling in classes but many of his classmates have.
"I know the school is doing the best they can," he said. "But at some point, there are just too many students vying for the same class."
Students have also been hit with huge fee increases across the state. The annual cost for a full-time student is at least $1,104, well over double the cost of $480 four years ago.
"To some people that might seem like a little bit of money, but there is a good population of people who that is a lot of money to," said Scott Blood, a political science student and the student representative on the College of Marin Board of Trustees. "It could be prohibitive to a lot of people, and I think we might forget that."
In addition to the fee increases, students seeking financial aid have been hit with changes, including higher academic targets for students receiving federal Pell grants. At College of Marin, some 586 students were denied financial aid this semester because of poor grades, officials said.
"Five years ago financial aid applicants represented about 20 percent of our student population," financial aid director David Cook said in a statement. "Now they represent close to 80 percent of our student population."
Contact Will Jason via email at email@example.com or via Twitter at http://twitter.com/willjason
2004: 7,676
2005: 7,016
2006: 6,686
2007: 6,667
2008: 6,770
2009: 7,139
2010: 8,025
2011: 7,862
2012: 7,337
2013: 6,620


text:
Quick, easy starts even after storage
Cleans carburetors and fuel injectors
Protects engine from gum, varnish, rust, corrosion
16-oz. bottle treats up to 40 gallons
STA-BIL fuel stabilizer keeps fuel fresh for quick, easy starts after storage. This top selling fuel stabilizer removes water to prevent corrosion and cleans carburetors and fuel injectors. STA-BIL prolongs engine life by protecting it from gum, varnish, rust, and corrosion. STA-BIL eliminates the need to drain fuel before storage and keeps stored fuel fresh for up to 12 months. For all 2-cycle and 4-cycle marine engines. Effective in all gasoline, including ethanol blends. This 16-oz. bottle treats up to 40 gallons. Shipped ground only.


text:
Posted 6 years ago
(1 item)
I have 6 of these great old movie posters 28 x 22 each. These are framed and there are 22 more unframed. I friend's mother collected them and not sure what to do with them now. Any ideas?
Also, where would this size poster have been displayed?
Love, love, love the American Pickers!


text:
Dragon was an owner surrender due to eviction. The owners had actually fostered her and had never really led to an adoption.
Adoption fee is $250 and includes DHPP & rabies vaccinations, heartworm testing, spay/neuter surgery, deworming, and microchip. All animals are examined by a veterinarian. Please fill out our application at http://adoptadog.goodkarmapetrescue.org if you are interested in meeting or adopting this dog and we will be in touch right away!
GK was started in 2011 by Stacey Chen, who decided that she could best provide for her foster animals by starting a rescue that aims for best care rather than high volume. We intend to stay as small as we need to be to ensure that every one of our foster animals is treated with the same care and respect we show our own furry family.
GK is based in Fort Lauderdale and is supported by wonderful, dedicated foster parents throughout the South Florida area. If you are interested in helping to save lives through volunteering, fostering, or adopting, please get in touch with us!
Our contract allows us to come visit you and your new family member after the adoption to make sure everything is going well and your new pet is happy & healthy.
Thank You!
Your message has been sent to Good Karma Pet Rescue.
You'll receive a copy, too, at to help you keep track of which pets you've inquired about, and which shelters and rescues you've emailed.
NOTE: Some shelters have physical locations you can visit; some of these shelters may only have pets for a limited time, so please do not wait for a reply—just go visit the shelter! Other organizations are rescue groups run by busy volunteers who may take a while to reply. You can find information about the shelter or rescue group caring for this pet, and their adoption procedures, on the pet's details page on Adopt-a-Pet.com.


text:
This game was classified by the community with the following category scores - Violence=1/3, Sex=0/3, Mature Content=0/3. Join the paintball battle with your friends in Avatar Town. Features weapon upgrades, perks, kill streaks, taunts, and lots of paint! Play offline against bots or online with up to 15 other players.
Buy Xbox content on Xbox.com. Your Xbox 360 console will automatically download the content next time you turn it on and connect to Xbox Live.Learn More


text:
Is it okay to use just sitting and touch points as the primary object in Mahasi style vipassana?
I am a chest breather and find that when I try to use the abdomen as the primary object I become agitated because I have to force myself to use abdominal breathing in order to feel any kind of motion there.
Should I learn how to abdominal breath?
Is it just the motion involved in breathing that is important to focus on? Could I focus on the motion of chest breathing as the primary object instead?
Do we have to focus on breathing in order to meditate?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


text:
Review of the week
Let Me In
I Am Kloot
If John Lennon had been Mancunian, born a generation or so later, less bitter (early) and less soppy (later) and with a philosophy based on wisdom built from lack of success rather than guilt built on long-time success, he might have sounded like John Bramwell, voice and writer of I Am Kloot. Bramwell sounds authentically world-weary but – and this is important – not worn down. Not yet. In these elegiac, often quietly captivating songs the tempos are slow, the drum pulse is subdued and the guitars stay mostly in the background. Appropriately, given that he sings of missed opportunities, layers of regrets and wondering who "snuck into your life/And overnight has changed the locks", Bramwell comes with the bluster-free tone of the bar philosopher who isn't going to try to convince you you're only a good turn away from living ideally. In Some Better Day, he drops in lyrical or musical references to T.S. Eliot, the tabloids, the Kinks and the Beatles (melodically in particular) and sings of looking for a better way "through the gales of life and laughter, when you can't see what you're after", only to conclude with the ambiguous hope and despair of "drag me to the kitchen sink/my whole day is on the brink/from here I can still see the moon/I think I'll move there some day soon". But as mellow as these songs are, he isn't wholly resigned; he holds on stubbornly. "Hold back the night, the streets are filled with laughter/Soon I'll be after you once again/Come to my house and say we're friends''. Sure, that isn't "Boom boom boom let's go back to my room/We can do it all night and you can make me feel right", but then it's not "I would rather not go back to the old house/There's too many bad memories", either. Like a contemporary from across the Pennines, Richard Hawley, or their Manchester mates from Elbow (whose Guy Garvey produces, as he did on 2010's even better, more lushly set Sky at Night), I Am Kloot traffic in the kind of gentle tunes that sit beside you and ask, "Surely you remember me, we go way back?".There's no finer moment on this slowly revealing and then long-satisfying album than the final track, Forgive Me these Reminders. Here is a song that could have existed in a smoke-stained Frenchman's pocket in 1963 or with some satin-suited piano player in 1973 or, indeed, among the offerings by the Smiths in 1983. Tristesse does translate.
Alternative rock
Yo La Tengo
(Matador/Remote Control)
In rock'n'roll, the passing of time generally confers prestige and authority: a veteran artist becomes the godfather of a movement, with all the orthodoxy that implies. What's often lost is the intimacy of personal experience – too often the first casualty of representing something greater than your own identity – but that's definitely not the case with steadfast New Jersey trio Yo La Tengo. On Fade, the indie band's 13th studio album in a career that began in 1984 and solidified in 1992 with the current line-up of Ira Kaplan (guitar and vocals), his wife Georgia Hubley (drums and vocals) and bassist James McNew (bass and vocals), Yo La Tengo explore the personal changes, whether material or minor, of time's march. The 56-year-old Kaplan sings about losing people and the realisation that people you love are starting to slip away, but the tunes remain couched in the band's traditional language. Opener Ohm has a fuzzy electric chug, while Well You Better is vintage keyboard pop, and The Point of It augments acoustic guitar strums; gentle repetition makes their murmurs into movements. By refusing to resort to hubris, YoLa Tengo leave the concerns of Fade to slowly sink in. Nothing is rushed and the tracks reveal their charms over time – a subject that increasingly perplexes the musicians. That's a quandary, and while Yo La Tengo don't quite resolve it, they do bring it into focus.
LIKE THIS? TRY THESE: Sebadoh, Bakesale; Smudge, Manilow.
Man with No Past Originating the Future
For his seventh studio LP, the American-born producer known simply as Osunlade puts distance between himself and the throbbing pulses of his deep-house records and driving remixes. African rhythms and his spiritual connections to Yoruba culture remain an influential force, but after almost a decade spent calling the island of Santorini home, Osunlade's output sounds more relaxed, earthy, mercurial; less high-tech, chemical, urgent. Noteworthy is Osunlade's breadth of vision, ranging from the piano-driven, kitchen-sink midday drama called Goddess, to the shimmering free-jazz referencing Satellite beneath the Stars. In the maddeningly brief Luna Moth, it's easy to imagine Stevie Wonder has slipped in behind drum kit and keyboards, playing just after the metronome to give it a wonderfully lazy party vibe. In Camera Shy, multiple pulses combine and intensify as prayerful backing vocals soar. Later, when synthesiser oscillators mimic the eerie tones of a theremin in heavenly closer Looking through the Crowds, it's as if Prince has finally found the right backing for one of his slinky ballads. Osunlade once revealed he approaches songwriting as if everything is an R&B tune needing a house remix. That methodology's endurance is called into question here, unlike the seriously soulful vocals providing recurring highlights.
LIKE THIS? TRY THESE: Moodymann, Black Mahogani II; Joseph Malik, Diverse.
Antony Gray
Bach, along with Liszt, was probably music history's greatest transcriber, Australian pianist Antony Gray observes in the notes to his three-CD collection of Bach transcriptions by other composers. But where Liszt's eye fell where it might, Bach raided his own music. This fascinating set shows how he – above anyone – has been fertile ground for others, too. It has 62 transcriptions from cantatas, choral works, suites and organ works by composers great and small – Bach, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Saint-Saens, Busoni (but not the chaconne from the D minor violin partita, possibly the most famous transcription of all), Reger, Bax, Bliss, Bridge and Percy Grainger. There are also transcriptions by pianists such as Wilhelm Kempff, Earl Wild and Carl Tausig. Some are unadorned and literal, others highly imaginative, such as Frank Millward's The Crucifixion Blues from the Mass in B Minor, Wild's Homage to Poulenc based on a keyboard partita and Grainger's Blithe Bells – a free ramble on Sheep May Safely Graze. Several pieces were apparently transcribed specifically for this project, one by Gray himself. An accomplished player, Gray tends to take a sober approach with moderate tempos. He refers to the intricacies and formidable technical demands forbidding fast speeds, but he also liberates the complicated structures and inner voices. Fine spacious sound, excellent notes.
LIKE THIS? TRY THIS: ShuraCherkassky, Bach-Busoni Chaconne.
Folk rock
Irish baby-faced talent Conor O'Brien picked up a lot of fans and a Mercury Prize nomination for the debut album by his folk-rock Villagers project in 2011. When he played at the Spiegeltent at the Sydney Festival, the room hung on his every word and erupted at the end. I couldn't see why. The album was often interesting, but its weaknesses were amplified live when the slightness of his insights (the emotions seemed read about rather than experienced) and the plainness of songs (you could tell where each one would go within a minute) revealed that he had more living and experimenting to do. Two years on and the second Villagers' album has me considering getting on the O'Brien bandwagon. You can still hear the influence of Glen Hansard (Nothing Arrived could have been a Frames song) and Leonard Cohen (Grateful Song, premiered at the Spiegeltent) but Awayland is rich with experiments and successful ones at that. There's still plenty of acoustic-pushed song craft but there's also brass used for more than token effect, bustling energy tying him to rock as much as folk, and a smart use of electronics that goes further than some laptop rhythm under a whey-fed tune and into Thom Yorke territory. At the same time, O'Brien's lyrics, which sometimes come in a rush of imagery and metaphor, have substance to them now, not just cleverness.
LIKE THIS? TRY THESE: Lisa Mitchell, Bless this Mess; Edward Deer, About Monsters.
This is the album that Stephen Magnusson has been building towards. The Melburnian has long distinguished himself as being among the world's most fascinating guitarists, and now he pulls together a combination of musicians to make a group sound that is just as distinctive as his own playing. Like Magnusson's guitar work, that sound is not one thing but a series of colliding sonic worlds whose common denominators are enchantment and drama. He has assembled the unusual line-up of vocals (Carl Pannuzzo), trumpet (Eugene Ball) and drums (Sergio Beresovsky). The hallmarks of Magnusson's art are starlit enchantment one moment, scorching intensity the next. In Pannuzzo he has a singer who can earth the ethereality with unselfconscious wordless improvising but also add an angelic halo here or there. At its most potent, his singing is a bullish, braying roar that matches Magnusson's fiercest howls of distortion. Ball, by contrast, is all quicksilver darts and flashes, with the ability to flick a switch up to an operatic strata of drama and anguish. Beresovsky makes the bass-less grooves dance, orchestrating the colours at his disposal, allowing him to shade Magnusson's constant shifts. These may be between acoustic and electric guitars, or on the latter between shimmering rapture and snarling fury. Always there is an oddly ephemeral quality at play, which makes this a particularly magical album.
LIKE THIS? TRY THESE: Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, Magico; Julien Wilson, Stephen Magnusson, Kaleidoscopic.


text:
Banned snooker player Stephen Lee was fined £1,815 today after admitting a charge of fraud relating to his personal cue.
Lee, 39, of Birch Gardens, Trowbridge, appeared before magistrates in Swindon to admit a single charge of fraud by false representation.
The court was told Lee, who was once ranked number five in the world, arranged to sell his personal £1,600 snooker cue to a fan through his Facebook page.
But although the man, who is based in Hong Kong, paid the money into Lee's wife's bank account, the cue was never sent - and Lee continued to use it.
Prosecutor Michelle Hewitt told the court that Lee offered his personal snooker cue for sale to the victim, Marco Fai Pak Shek.
"After some negotiations, it was agreed that the victim would pay £1,600 for the defendant's personal snooker cue," Ms Hewitt said.
"Arrangements were made by the defendant and the victim, who is based in Hong Kong.
"Following the arrangements, the victim agreed to pay £1,600 into Mr Lee's wife's bank account, which he did."
Ms Hewitt said Lee agreed to arrange for modifications to be carried out on the cue, before he sent it to Mr Shei.
"But following the transfer of the funds, the defendant failed to send the snooker cue or make any arrangements for the modifications to be carried out as agreed," Ms Hewitt told the court.
"When there was no sign of the snooker cue, a report was made to the police. They carried out an investigation and arrested the defendant.
"The defendant was still using the cue as his own personal property."
Mr Shek made a formal complaint to police on January 24 this year, after the promised John Parris Ultimate cue failed to arrive.
Ms Hewitt said Lee had promised to send the cue along with letters of authenticity from himself and John Parris.
"Mr Shek received an email from the defendant saying he was going to personally deliver it to Hong Kong," Ms Hewitt said.
The email read: "If you want the cue, you need to drop the charges and I will sign some pictures for you," the prosecutor added.
However, Mr Shek refused to drop the charges and the case against Lee, who has no previous convictions, continued.
Representing Lee, Mark Glendenning said his client had repeatedly apologised to Mr Shek for failing to send the cue.
"Mr Lee has a number of fans on his Facebook site and they regularly engage in conversation," Mr Glendenning said.
"He has previously sold things to fans without incident. An arrangement was reached for the sale of Mr Lee's personal snooker cue but it needed some work doing.
"Mr Shek sent the money via bank transfer and Mr Lee fully accepts he received that money."
Mr Glendenning said Lee had made "some efforts" to arrange for work to be carried out on the snooker cue.
"Life took over, Mr Lee found himself embroiled in a number of difficulties which have been much publicised in relation to his career and that took a great deal of his time and energy," Mr Glendenning said.
"He accepts in full he should have sent this cue, the difficulty being with his personal life impacting on his professional life.
"There was an intention to send that cue to Hong Kong but things took over and it didn't get there."
Mr Glendenning said Lee is not working and receives £133 of benefits per fortnight.
John Fryer, chair of the bench, told Lee: "In arriving at our sentence at this matter, we have taken into account a number of things - your previous good character, you have not appeared before the courts before, and we have given you credit for your early guilty plea.
"We also note that you are on benefits and your income is significantly lower."
Lee was fined £110 for the offence and told to pay Mr Shek £1,600 in compensation, along with £85 prosecution costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Mr Fryer asked Lee if he would be able to pay the total £1,815 to the court following the hearing.
Lee, who was wearing a black jacket, black T-shirt and jeans, replied: "I can't pay that today, no."
Mr Fryer said: "It will be deducted from your benefits on a weekly basis. We will also make a collection order, which means if the payments stop, someone will be knocking on your door."
Lee's appeal against his 12-year match-fixing ban was dismissed in May leaving him facing a £125,000 bill.
He was ordered to pay the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association £75,000 in costs from the original hearing, £30,000 from the first part of his appeal and a further £20,000 from the second part of his appeal.
Lee refused to comment about the case and his ban as he left court but a message later appeared on his Facebook page, saying: "Well the guilty plead was honest as I took the money from a fan and I new (sic) that I had a plan to be out in hong kong in march to meet with him my self and hand the cue over and have a frame with him..."


text:
The Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Reunion Tour will make a stop at Kingsbury Hall on Saturday, so bring your friends and spouses.Unless, of course, you plan to be one of the audience members who ask the co-hosts advice on an awkward sexual problem. Then to avoid embarrassment you should probably leave the relatives at home.Carolla and Drew Pinsky, who co-hosted the top-rated syndicated radio call-in show "Loveline" from 1995 to 2005, have reunited for a U.S. tour. The duo will talk about their advice-line experiences, dish about behind-the-scenes events and, of course, take questions from audience members who need medical and relationship advice.On paper, Carolla and Pinsky never seemed as if they would mesh. But somehow their contrasting personalities worked spectacularly. Carolla, 48, who once hosted "The Man Show" with Jimmy Kimmel, is an acerbic comic whose podcast was recently named "Most Downloaded Podcast in the World" by the Guinness Book of World Records. Pinsky, 54 and a certified medical doctor, is the mild-mannered star of "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" and the go-to doctor on CNN when celebrities struggle with medical problems and sobriety. He has hosted "Loveline" at a Los Angeles radio station since 1984 and continues to do so, with partner "Psycho Mike" Cottonwood.On the show, Pinsky was the straight man to Carolla's smart-alecky rants and wisecracks. Besides being helpful to callers who were often teenagers with R-rated questions the show was frequently hilarious.Carolla's jester persona magnified Pinsky's professional, no-nonsense advice. While Carolla would sometimes undermine Pinsky's counsel making fun of callers and offering bad advice Pinsky remained calm. The two also seem to genuinely like each other."Drew's greatest virtue is that he knows he's not funny," Carolla said during a recent telephone interview with both men. "It's like thinking you can box well but you're not, and that doesn't turn out well. He doesn't burden himself with mirth.""When I am funny, it's by accident," Pinsky quickly added, proof of the chemistry the two have. Pinsky said Carolla adds a fresh, everyman perspective to the show. "Adam's good," he said. "He has learned to listen, and he's insightful.""I'm the common denominator," Carolla said.
Wiseguys presents Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Reunion Tour.When • Saturday, 7:30 p.m.Where • Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, Salt Lake CityTickets • $30 and $50 at kingsburyhall.utah.edu
Here are some of the more tame questions that callers have asked on "Loveline."I look at porn every day. Am I addicted? How can I tone it down?What are the risks of nipple-piercings?I'm 19, and I met a guy who's 40. He has three kids, and a daughter who's older than I am. Should I continue seeing him?I once shot myself and became blind. Should I have kids?


text:
Race 1
Marco Sørensen did a great job in qualifying for race 1. For most of the session it seemed likely to be the first pole position of the year. Marco dropped to P5 just a few seconds before session ended.
The race itself did not turn so well. After a messy start, Marco was fighting hard to overtake. In the twisty sectors of the track, Marco had no problem keeping up with his competitors. What he gained in sections, was unfortunately lost on the straights.
Marco Sørensen : "Though I was in the slipstream of the other cars I wasn't able to keep up with guys in front of me. A bit of a weird feeling. We'll keep on pushing for better results tomorrow." Marco ended 9th in Race 1.
Meanwhile Marlon Stockinger qualified poorly having hit traffic during what should have been his flying lap. During the race he accidentally hit the anti-stall, so the car went into neutral. He recovered quite quickly but lost a lot of pace and finished in P19.
Race 2
The qualifying for race 2 was chaotic and driven in very wet conditions. The drivers were struggling to keep the cars on track in the heavy rain. This caused three red flags which made the race directors add 5 minutes to the total time of the session.
Marco Sørensen : "It was almost impossible to keep the temperature in the tyres, which reduced the level of grip dramatically. Lots of spinning cars caused yellow flags as well as red flags and I was not able to put in a clear lap at all."
At the end of the session Marco was on a quick lap, having achieved the fastest sector times, unfortunately he had to cancel this lap because of a red flag.
Because of heavy rain, Race 2 started behind safety car with Marco in P13. On the third lap the cars were released to race and Marco pushed hard.
Marco Sørensen : "As soon the safety car went in, the visibility was almost gone. With minimal amount of grip, the car felt very much alive. After few laps, I had a quick spin and lost some positions."
Marco kept fighting and gained the positions that he lost in the spin. He was driving his quickest lap times at the end of the race, which he finished in P10.
"We have had some ups and downs through this weekend. Today the qualify messed up which affected the race a lot. We will keep on pushing to get the everything perfectly running before the next race, i'm sure our hard work will pay off in the end." -Marco
Marlon Stockinger failed to finish.
The next event will be held together with the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix the 25th and 26th of May.


text:
— If Kate looked nervous, it's hardly surprising. Speaking slowly and professionally, she only appeared to stumble once.
"I'm only sorry that William can't be here today," she said during her first-ever solo speech, at a children's hospital in Ipswich, England. She meant that she would have liked her husband to see the charity, East Anglias' Children's Hospices, for which she is patron. But she must have been wishing he was there to hold her hand, too.
30 years ago, in 1981, Charles accompanied Diana for her first speech. Back then, the new Princess of Wales was very different from the confident and grown-up woman her son has married. But today, you felt Kate is still learning the lessons of Diana's life.
When Princess Diana gave her first speech, she looked daunted. The setting was a grand chamber full of men. Diana spoke fast and under her breath. She even recited some Welsh, making the task yet more difficult.
Kate chose to speak at a childrens charity, a far more relaxed setting. She wrote the speech herself, I'm told. Like Diana, she kept it simple. She wore a dress borrowed from her mom, perhaps for good luck.
One more similarity: Both Kate and Diana wore blue for their first speech. That is perhaps Kate's small tribute to the woman who walked this path before her, so many years ago.


text:
Carroll brings confidence in cutter back to rotation
BALTIMORE -- Scott Carroll used the past month to transform himself into a new pitcher. He wasn't going to the mound every fifth day as a member of the White Sox starting rotation, so he had a chance to rediscover his confidence and develop a new pitch.
The pitcher took the opportunity to work on his cutter -- a nice complement to his sinker -- which he's now throwing with more regularity and which he can now bring with him back to a starting role.
"The stuff that I'm featuring now in my repertoire is a lot more just aggressive," Carroll said. "I'm able to get both righties and lefties out consistently and it's helping out because they can't just defend against the sinker. They have to defend against both sides with the cutter and sinker."
He'll make his first start since May 19 on Thursday when Chicago opens up a four-game series with the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto. He will replace Andre Rienzo in the rotation, who is being moved to a long-relief role after losing five consecutive starts.
Armed with a new pitch and carrying expanded confidence, Carroll has the ability to make this stint in the starting rotation last longer than his previous five-game stretch.
"I think a guy that goes out there starting that's not very comfortable with [a pitch] doesn't necessarily want to use it," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said.
That wasn't the case with Carroll's cutter in the bullpen. Since he wasn't being counted on to deliver six or seven innings every five days, Carroll had more time to develop the new pitch and even had chances to throw it in some of the lower-leverage situations as a long reliever.
So there were perks to his time out of the rotation -- a time that he took in stride and didn't view as a "demotion." The rookie has shown people that he doesn't have to just be a starting pitcher in this league, but that he also has the ability to be a solid reliever. After going 2-3 with a 6.15 ERA as a starter, Carroll logged a 1.83 ERA in six appearances out of the bullpen -- all of which lasted at least two innings.
"It was a good opportunity for me to put another feather in my cap and show that I have the ability to do both things and my skills can be used in the bullpen or starting," Carroll said. "I think it helped me mentally and just confidence-wise to incorporate a new pitch."
David Wilson is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
[Page 77]
|Councilmen of Rokiskis with President Molevin
[no individual names appear]
|Hon. Prof. Israel Abrams
[Chief Rabbi of Cape Town]
[Page 87]
|The Bet-Sefer Yavneh in Rokiskis
[Hebrew Primary School]
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Rokiskis, Lithuania Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2017 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 10 May 2003 by OR


text:
Re: question about metastatic cc
the new year has started with terrible news. my sister met with drs and they told her the cholangiocarcinoma is metastatic. the tumors found on her ovary and her liver is cc. it is heartbreaking. she is only 47 yrs old. they told her the only option is chemo. i havent gotten the full information from her yet because she is so upset but she said they told her they are going to do a short term chemo followed by some kind of pill that is very strong and will have numerous side effects. they give no guarantee of anything. i am praying for a miracle. i dont know if anyone here can give me some added insight to this treatment, or suggestions or hope. i dont know what to do or where to turn. it is frightening.


text:
The smoke rose out of the fog machine. The Miami Heat's acquisitions strutted out to the court. As the crowd soaked in the scene LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh boasted about "winning multiple championships."
Endless scrutiny followed.
The Heat fell in the 2011 NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks and James shrunk in fourth-quarter stretches. The general public wondered if constructed super teams could win NBA titles.
The Heat wrote their comeback story by finally winning last year's ultimate prize over the Oklahoma City Thunder, but a similar script has played out with the Lakers. They acquired superstar talent during the offseason in the form of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash.
Paired with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, Lakers forward Metta World Peace likened the group as "rock stars." And before playing a single game, Nash and Howard appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline, "Now This is Going to Be Fun."
Far from it.
The Lakers (17-21) enter tonight's game against the Heat (24-12) in 11th place in the Western Conference. Many presumed these teams could meet in this year's Finals. Now, Bryant has tabbed this game as a "benchmark" on where the underperforming Lakers rank among the NBA's elite.
The Lakers often considered their standard as championship or bust, but Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni highlighted the team's expectations this way.
"Our goal is to make the playoffs," he said of his team which is three games behind the Portland Trail Blazers (20-18) for the eighth playoff spot in the West.
Hence, that's why many of the Lakers bristled on whether the Heat's initial struggles a year before winning a championship serves as a comparable case study.
"This is a totally different team," Howard said. "Miami, they had guys who basically are still in their prime coming together. With us, we have two guys coming off injuries and Kobe is 34 and Pau is 30."
There are more differences.
The Heat started off 9-8, fueling speculation Miami would fire coach Erik Spoelstra. Even former Lakers coach Phil Jackson predicted such a scenario. But Spoelstra stayed and the Heat then won 15 of 16 games in December.
After their 1-4 start, the Lakers fired coach Mike Brown and rid themselves of the Princeton-run offense. In came D'Antoni's fast-paced offense and a few problems emerged. The Lakers' veteran-laden roster struggled playing with the speed the system demanded. Nash missed 24 games because of a fractured left leg and couldn't initially engineer D'Antoni's offense as he did through four seasons in Phoenix where he won two NBA MVP awards.
"We've had a lot of injuries and a coach firing," Bryant said. "There was a lot of drama and unexpected things that took place."
There's too many to count.
A New York Daily News report two weeks ago suggested Howard and Bryant had a near locker-room altercation, an incident they strongly denied. They poked fun at it by posting a photo on Twitter featuring them pretending to fight.
As Howard has played through nine month-old back surgery, his 17.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game represent his lowest marks since the 2006-07 season. Gasol has openly lamented how D'Antoni's system features him too much on the perimeter while averaging a career-low 12.2 points and 8.4 rebounds.
Antawn Jamison expressed frustration over once falling out of the rotation. Injuries to Nash (left leg), Howard (right shoulder), Gasol (knee tendinitis, concussion) Jordan Hill (season-ending left hip injury) and Steve Blake (lower abdominal injury) contributed to more instability.
"They had to adjust to another system when they got here and now it's another system," D'Antoni said. "It's hard for players to find that comfort level and the confidence to perform.
"If you lack a little bit of confidence, this league will eat you up. It's an unforgiving league, especially when it's the Lakers. Everyone wants to beat you anyway."
The 2010-11 Heat remained healthy and finished eighth in total offense (102.1 points per game) and sixth in total defense (allowing 94.6 points per game). This season, the Lakers rank fourth in total offense (103.4 points per game) but 26th in total defense (101.5 points per game).
"The Lakers are much more vulnerable than Miami was," TNT analyst Steve Kerr said. "Miami could win ugly and stop people. They may not always have it offensively, but they were always in it.
"The Lakers just haven't been good defensively. It's tough to win consistently in the NBA that way."
Still, James believes that pales to the scrutiny Miami faced.
"No one will ever be able to compare what we went through," James told reporters. "Even though they're not winning and they're losing a lot of games, it's still nowhere near what we went through."
Upon hearing that, Bryant replied, "What does he want, a cookie?"
ESPN devoted a whole section dubbed the "Heat Index" chronicling Miami's everyday success - and failure. Anger still stewed over James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and announcing his departure through an hour-long show titled "The Decision." Stories ran rampant over the revelation that several Miami players cried in the locker room after a loss. Endless debate ensued on whether James or Wade ran the team and if Bosh seemed like the odd man out.
"It was tough for everybody to take that it actually happened," Jamison said of Miami's acquisitions. "It seemed like when those guys got together everyone was against them."
Well, not everyone.
Howard cried as he watched James win his first NBA title last season. The reasons went beyond frustration over having back surgery and falling short in the NBA playoffs with the Orlando Magic.
"I was happy to see him overcome all the things that people were saying and all the things he had to overcome from leaving Cleveland," Howard said. So I was happy for him."
The criticism James faced struck Howard, considering his own reputation took a hit after his own departure from Orlando. Howard admires how James overcame such criticism, but the Lakers say they don't take many teachable lessons from Miami's 2010-11 season.
Instead, Bryant often tells his teammates about the Lakers' 2002-03 campaign, which featured a 12-19 start and ended with an appearance in the Western Conference semifinals.
"A lot of times I feel like Forrest Gump sitting on the bench, telling the story of his life," Bryant said with a laugh, "I hope they draw inspiration from it."
The Lakers sure hope so. Or else they'll just become another example of a star-studded team falling short of an NBA title.


text: Locations to offer a Wi-Fi Internet café area with complimentary coffee. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. is celebrating the completion of two newly remodeled state-of-the-art stores in central Florida. The stores are located at 951 State Road 434 W. Longwood, Fla. and at 7800 U.S. 17/92 S. Fern Park, Fla., located in the Main Street Square shopping


text:
Check out this little contraption, a little over-engineered but otherwise 100% functional:
This is a picture taken while the wing is being dyed blue. All I had handy was some soft lockwire to build the prototype. I'd like to see if the hardware store has some lightweight aluminum rings about 3" in diameter, attach suction cups to that. I had to dip this disc 18 separate times, and one cup failed once, because I forgot to hold the disc instead of the device while I was having trouble removing all the little effing squares. That was with the cups on the other side, of course. That's why I made it 3 cups total, was for the underside. You can't have just one in the middle on most discs due to the nipple, and 2 doesn't give you 360 degrees of control while handling. Triangulation of the cups resolved the issue.


text:
likely from later practioners who pushed jhana to deeper limits: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9016#p140097daverupa wrote:tiltbillings wrote:The reality is, as has been discussed at length on DW, that that is not really an accurate portrayal of vipassana meditation as it is actually practiced.BuddhaSoup wrote:
I think this is an important point that Ajahn Geoff is trying to bring out. A number of western teachers that developed the 'vipassana school' in the west came, in part, from a Burmese background, that taught vipassana as a separate practice, sometimes thought of as 'dry insight,' or a standalone form of insight meditation exclusive of jhana.
And yet, the misunderstanding persists that this is what Vipassana Practice^TM looks like - altogether different than jhana, vipassana and samatha as practices and not qualities, etc etc.
Surely we all know that vipassana-samatha are a pair to be developed in tandem, with imbalances duly rectified, and that this paired foundation is what facilitates bringing the awakening factors to fulfillment by development, which includes jhana.
So I wonder, where is this repetitive structure of misunderstanding coming from?


text:
This is not a theme park news site. Of course I write about theme park news stories from time to time, but that's not the goal of The Coaster Critic's Blog, by design and by necessity.
In 2011, the salary for a roller coaster critic isn't enough to support myself let alone my family. So, I've got a full-time day job and when I'm home I love spending time with my family. In addition, my vision for the site has always been: "One Coaster Enthusiasts Opinions & Experiences". At times in the past I've raced to be first, or one of the first with breaking news, but I don't think that is this site's strength. There are a number of sites that do that really well. They either have a staff of people or one person updating the site full-time.
Submit a Theme Park News Story
While the goal of The Coaster Critic's Blog will never be to just BE FIRST, I realize that the site has a community of visitors that at times would like to discuss the latest news or even news that's not even breaking anymore. So, I'm rolling out an idea that I had a few months ago. From now on you'll be able to submit news stories that I'm calling Theme Park (You)Reports. I'll revise it, if needed, and publish it as soon as possible if it's post-worthy.
For breaking news of all kinds I created Theme Park Syndicate. It's constantly updated with theme park news, podcasts, videos, and blog posts from around the Web. I know that there's currently a regular following that visits the site on a daily basis.
Submit a Theme Park (You)Report>>>
What's Your Take?
What do you think about the YouReport? Do you think that you'll be submitting any news? Do you think it's a good idea? Leave a comment below.