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Top 15 Production Cars from the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show
Owner: Ben Stewart
I've owned 11 cars (not counting a crappy '72 Econoline van that had no engine when I bought it for $200 and had no engine a year later when I sold it for $200). All of them have been pretty reliable, and as a bonus, none have tried to kill me.
Except for number 11.
I bought a '64 Jeep J200 Gladiator from someone in New Jersey in 2008. He was three-quarters of the way through the restoration when he ran out of dough, so I got it at a reasonable price. It drove pretty well for having drum brakes and no power steering. But this guy installed a four-inch lift kit from some company I've never heard of, and I think he forgot to tighten all the nuts holding the U-bolts to the axle (and maybe missed a few more bolts I never found).
I was proudly driving my new truck home after an easy visit to the DMV when I crossed over a really rough patch of pavement with a few good potholes. Well, those potholes were enough to throw that Jeep into the dreaded death wobble. I worked at Four Wheeler magazine in the '90s and never experienced death wobble in my 4x4s, or in anyone else's. But I had heard the stories, and they were right: It feels like a giant's hand is vigorously and rhythmically shaking the top of the cab as you're driving. The truck shook so hard before I could slow it down that the distributor cap popped off the engine.
Yes, I still own the J200. Today, with all the bolts tightened and a steering stabilizer shock installed on the front end, the death wobble is long gone. But every time I drive that truck and hit any kind of bump, my teeth clench, and I wonder if it's going to try to kill me again.
Owner: Michael Frank
I'd wanted a 21-window T1 bus to drive around when I was in college, and even found one in Seattle, when I was home for the summer. But the aging hippie owner couldn't let go of this part of his lost youth and, even when I held the $1500 in cash under his nose, he begged off.
Now I had all that dough burning a hole in my pocket, and idle time. So I made a critical mistake and jumped at the next VW I could afford—a 1960 Beetle for $1000.
I should've suspected something when the guy I was haggling with left it running the whole time. As soon as I got the Beetle home it wouldn't restart, and I spent the next two months rebuilding the entire fuel system. Only I diagnosed the problems in the wrong order. So I started with the carburetor and worked my way backwards, to the gas tank. Then I moved on to the clutch, the leaking window gaskets, the headliner, the brakes... Every dime I earned in two summer jobs went into that heap, and every spare moment not working for minimum wage, I had grease under my nails and was cursing like a sailor in my parent's garage.
Then it was August and I was ready to drive back to college. I got 50 miles out of town when the Beetle died. The fuel filter was overwhelmed with leftover dreck from the rusty gas tank and some of that detritus had killed the brand-new carburetor too. I had no time to fix all that before classes started, so the VW sat on my parents' lawn for nine months while I was away.
The following summer I finally had the Beetle running beautifully, but I was so fed up that I dumped it on the first buyer I could find, at a huge loss. The next car I bought was a totally gutless Toyota Tercel that never needed any repair work beyond replacing the tires. (Until a homeless guy moved into it while I was away during a college winter break... but that's another story.)
Rugged Off-Road Trucks You Won't Find in the Showroom


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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- HSN announced that Betsy Olum has been appointed general manager beauty and merchandising strategy. She will report directly to Lynne Ronon, HSN EVP merchandising.
In this newly created position, Olum will be responsible for developing and implementing innovative merchandising strategies designed to maximize HSN's beauty business. She will also work with HSN's senior merchandising team to identify strategies to position HSN for accelerated growth. In addition, she will be charged with analyzing assortments, evaluating brand productivity and identifying hsn.com merchandising opportunities across all of the company's divisions.
"We are thrilled to welcome to our team one of the beauty industry's best-known and most accomplished marketers," said Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN. "Betsy's appointment underscores our commitment to expanding our beauty portfolio with unique brands and products as well as maximizing our assortments and products across all of our categories and driving their expansion."
Olum began consulting with HSN in January, overseeing the overall assessment of the company's beauty business. Previously, she spent ten years at Sephora as the SVP marketing, where she is credited with creating and launching the Sephora brand in the U.S. while developing, branding and launching some of the company's most successful brand partners. Prior to joining Sephora, Olum was general manager, North America at Escada Beaute, which she helped build in the U.S., initially as the VP global marketing and creativedDirector, and subsequently as general manager for North America. In 1999, she opened Prema Nolita Day Spa in New York, which she owned and operated for five years while simultaneously working as a brand consultant for Sephora. She has also held marketing positions at Avon, Charles of the Ritz and Erno Laszlo, and served as a buyer in the cosmetics department for Bloomingdale's.


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" EDF Energy is one of the UK's largest energy companies in the UK and is the new name for the merged London Electricity and Seeboard Group of companies. EDF energy generate around 7% of the UK's electricity and over a quarter of the UK Population depend on them for their electricity. The company employ 11,3000 people and supply energy to approximately 5 million customers through their retail brands. EDF Energy encompasses London Energy, SWEB Energy and Seeboard Energy as well as having its own EDF Energy customers which were formerly Virgin HomeEnergy customers. "
I have a property which I let out, my tenants were liable to pay their gas bills while I was paying their electricity. I make sure everyone is registered with BG as electricity is also provided by BG and I have a trust to BG as I read bad reviews of EDF. One of my tenants said a letter arrived from EDF with an unknown name on it, she didn't open it and brought it to me along other mail. I have the liability to check everything to make sure the safety of my tenants, the letter was coming from a third party company and threatening to break the door, change the meter and get a warrant. These all sound terrifying as my tenants have little kids too and I don't want them to be affected by this, I have called EDF and explained all this and the lady on the phone keeps asking my name, I said I would not give it as it's got nothing to do with me, we were worried of the threats of my tenants being cut out of gas in the cold winter. She just said she will take notes but she won't guaranty there won't be someone cutting the gas off. She also won't give details as since when the property was provided by EDF as the account holder was not us. My tenant has switched her gas and electricity to another company. If EDF comes in place, I only hope there won't be further problems caused due to this, stay away from EDF, they don't really help at all...Still worried for my tenants though..
Moved into a new property last July, signed up with edf, after 8 months received a bill from south electric.It turns out edf has been supplies wrong address under my name and my address for post 8 months! I received bills from them all the time but they actually supplies same apartment in block 3 (I am block1).Then called them 5 times over last 2 months ask them to refund, and everytime someone promised me to refund me immediately yet NO REFUND TILL TODAY!!!!RUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISHRUBISH
Just a warning to any other EDF Energy customers out there about the 'direct debit deal'. One of the terms of the deal is that they do an annual 'balancing' of the account and if you owe over £150 they will take this directly from your bank account via your direct debit. In my case they have done so without warning, so the first I knew about it was that my account was in overdraft and had been stripped of £379! I made a complaint to EDF Energy about this and received a fairly instantaneous reply pointing me to this part of their terms and conditions and stating 'you should have received an e-mail...' I've check my mails and haven't received one, I'm on paper billing and haven't received a bill. Also, I'd already received my annual account in February as that was the anniversary of my direct debit sign up. So:
- No notice given of additional payment to be taken,
- Annual 'balancing' was undertaken not on the anniversary (as per their T&Cs) but after a 16 month period
- No bill received
In addition my monthly direct debit payment had already been taken, so the balancing was done in addition to my monthly payment. Needless to say, I contacted EDF Energy about this again pointing out all of the ways in which they had failed to correctly deal with this transaction and I am still waiting for a reply. So if EDF want to fob you off they reply quickly, if they have a case to answer then you have to sit and wait around until they can be bothered coming back to you. In the meantime my account is in overdraft and, not surprisingly, I am switching to Scottish Power.
I am now going to claim the money back under the direct debit guarantee - but be warned if you're with EDF, they seem to think that the direct debit permits them to bleed your bank account dry with no warning. Not sure the 6% discount was worth it.
I moved into my first rented house in July of 2011 and I decided to take charge of all bills and accounts to get us sorted. I'm living with 4 other female students and our main concern was the internet package - I didn't put a lot of thought into our utility providers.
The previous tenants had used EDF and so the easiest thing to do was just to stick with them and simply ring them up and change the name and bank account. Oh how wrong I was to think that was going to be simple. At this point we still didn't have any internet so I was lugging my laptop to and from campus to use the university internet and every time I got more and more furious at how awful their website was. My first thought was to click on the "Moving Home" tab, but they asked me for a customer reference number which I didn't have. I was a completely new tenant and nobody left a customer reference number. There wasn't even an option if you didn't have one. So I looked for a phone number to ring.
The number was free from a BT landline so I wasn't completely raging at the 45 minute waiting time for the phone at 4.00pm - I thought this would be a quiet time but obviously not. With a horribly old-fashioned phone I couldn't even put it on loudspeaker. I should also point out that the first time I rang them on a weekday at this time they said the office had been closed early - fantastic!
When eventually getting through to them I had a very friendly, but unfortunately incompetent woman on the other end taking my details, asking for meter readings etc. before being informed that the system had crashed and she'd have to ring me back in two days' time. Which she never did. I decided to leave it another week before ringing back and being told my letter was in the post. I got one letter a week letter for electricity only; I had clearly stated I wanted dual fuel. Not only that she had spelt my name wrong (Rachel - which I spelled out to her) and put my surname as my first name. The letter was addressed to Miss Soper Racheal...seriously? Who's first name is Soper?! And my e-mail address was incorrect. I managed to change this online with a complicated log-in but have not yet been able to swap my names around so letter still come saying "Dear Soper,". About 3 weeks letter a letter cam addressed to the homeowner asking me to create an account for gas which I had to use a different e-mail for.
The only thing I can give to EDF is that setting up a budget direct debit on their website was easy and so far my money has gone out of my account on the same day each month with no problems, but I don't get bills either online or in the post. Prices are reasonable for 5 people.
The customer service is awful and I told them this in a complaint online which in 5 months I have not heard back from. I think the decency of an apology would be nice, but obviously not. With no experience of other energy providers I don't know if other are better, but I'm going to do my research and look into switching.
I am writing this review in an attempt to somehow vent and release the frustration I am feeling at the moment with the customer service department of EDF Energy. These people are without doubt the most incompetent, useless, lying and disorganised operation I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I am warning you all to never sign up with this company as the frustration and anger you will suffer as a result of their absolute joke of a customer services department will probably shorten your life...
My frustration began in December 2010 when a price comparison service linked to my mortgage provider signed us up with EDF. After 5 months of phone calls I finally had my prepayment gas meter changed to a direct debit one. That was in May. I am still waiting for my first bill. For the last 8-10 weeks I have spent hours upon hours on the phone trying to get this sorted out. The lady who dealt with my initial call commented (in an exaggerated tone of shock and disbelief) that there was some sort of "system problem" with my account and that she would take my number and call me back in 15 minutes with an up to date bill and a normally functioning account. This was the first of a long line of broken call back promises. I have since called them no less than 20 times to get an update on my query, and each time I am advised of the same "system problem" - this is apparently something to do with a new IT system they have installed. They then promise to look into it ASAP and call you back within a set time period.....on the rare occasions they do ring back its just to tell you that there is still "a problem with the system" which is out of their control. Most of the time, however, they just don't call back. The latest call (the one which has prompted me to write this review) was even more frustrating than usual as the rude woman advised me that my situation was not a priority and could not give me any sort of time scale for when I may receive a bill...not even when I asked if it would be sorted within 5 years......I kid you not. She even had the cheek to advise me that today they were only dealing with emergency customers who had lost their supply. This is fair enough as obviously people in this situation should take priority. However, when I advised her that it may therefore be a good idea to relay this information on a recorded message at the start of the call so as to prevent a ridiculously long wait in a call queue, she smugly remarked that this is something she would mention to management. When I asked to speak to a manager low and behold there was no one available.
DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THESE PEOPLE - even if they are a bit cheaper
26/12/11 - update - These idiots have now sent me 2 red demand letters for non payment of bills. What is even more frustrating here is that I am actually about £300 in credit with them due to an offer which I received when I took out my mortgage. They have my money but due to their *-%$"*& "system problem" they cannot amalgamate my accounts and use my credit for payment! The red demand letters where worded quite threateningly and I am concerned that this will affect my future credit rating. Will they eventually cut off the gas? All I want to do is pay what I owe and leave these people. But it seems I am trapped and helpless.....can anybody advise me what to do next?........is it worth taking legal action?.......I feel like I deserve compensation for what they have and still are putting us through. Has anybody been in a similar situation in the past?............PLEASE ADVISE
I realise that utility companies do not make the most interesting of subjects to review but I felt the need to do one on EDF energy as I have recently had a couple of good customer service experiences with them. It may seem like simple things that they have done but it is nice to know that one of the big 6 energy companies appears to want to offer their customers a good service.
Who are EDF Energy?
EDF Energy were created in 2002 when the French energy company bought over Seeboard, London Energy and SWEB energy.
EDF Energy are one of the so called big 6 energy companies which also includes British Gas, EON, Npower, Scottish and Southern and Scottish Power. I am always shopping around to try and save on utilities and insurances and have been with four of these companies at some point over the last few years so have experienced a few of the companies customer services or sometimes perhaps a lack of it.
Why EDF Energy?
As mentioned above I am always on the lookout for a cheaper deal and decided to look at my options for Gas and Electric especially as my previous supplier Scottish and Southern had promised me a cheap deal only to hike my direct debits twice in quick succession as they, in my opinion, had quoted me direct debits thet were far too low to try and entice me in.
I decided this time to look myself online at my options and compare prices of all the various companies. EDF Energy were coming out with the biggest savings for me and were also offering a discount of £100 over the first year for new dual fuel customers. My Direct Debit payments would be in total £30 less than I was paying before. I went for this deal and also clicked through to them from topcashback.co.uk making myself £80 in the process so I was very happy getting a cheaper deal, saving £30 a month and getting £80 for moving.
The big test for me when you move your gas and electric comes after you have been with them a few months to see if the savings which have been promised materialise. At the time of writing I have now been with EDF Energy for over six months and have now received my second quarterly bills. I was pleasantly surprised to be £49 in credit for my gas and £29 in credit for electricity, especially as I was paying £30 a month less and these credits had been built up over the most expensive months between November and May.
I have found EDF Energy to be the cheapest option for me and have saved a lot of money so far since I moved to them although I appreciate that all the energy companies seem to offer different levels of value depending on your location.
Customer Service Experience
I am a big fan of good customer service and have found some of the energy companies to have very low levels of customer service in the past. Since moving to EDF Energy I have contacted them a couple of times and they have pleasantly surprised me on each occasion.
The first time I called through to EDF Energy was shortly after I received my first quarterly bills. The bills came through about a day or so after someone had came to read my meters, but the bills had the dreaded estimated readings on them. I called EDF expecting the usual process of pressing different numbers to navigate through their system and then holding for ten minutes to speak to someone. I was pleasantly surprised when I rang the free phone number, which was instantly answered, only to be greeted by a cheerful voice at the end of the phone asking how they could help.
When I explained about the estimated bills the operator told me that it was no problem and not only would she get actual bills sent out straight away but she would also change my billing date immediately so that in future they would fit in with the dates my meters were read. All dealt with in a matter of minutes I went off the phone feeling happy with the service received and confident with the solutions offered by the operator.
My second call to EDF Energy came after my second gas bill arrived. As mentioned this bill showed me to be over £49 in credit for my gas but there was also a note saying that my direct debit payment would be reducing from £59 a month to £24 a month which concerned me greatly as this was clearly too great a drop. I phoned thinking that things couldn't go as smoothly again only to be again pleasantly surprised. The phone was answered after two rings by another operator who was equally as cheerful and helpful as the first. Are you calling about your payment change Sir? Yes, it looks a bit low, I replied. (Nothing like stating the obvious!) There has clearly been a mistake, how about I change it now to £50 a month?. Again problem solved in no time at all and I again went off the phone thinking what good customer service I had just received.
As I mentioned these were just little things, but getting through to someone quickly and speaking to someone cheerful and helpful at the other end of the phone was a really good change. I went off the phone both times happy and with confidence that the EDF Energy employee wanted to help me and would do exactly as they had said they would.
I have been very happy with EDF Energy during my six months or so with them. They have saved me a decent amount of money so far when compared to my previous energy supplier which is always a nice start. There have been a couple of small things which I have needed them to sort for me which they have done in a very nice, helpful and extremely efficient way which means that I should never receive estimated bills or scary bills saying that I owe a lot of money.
EDF has been menacing me for more than one year now using the contract signed 6 years ago. My business collapsed with the finacial crisis. I paid every electricity been used. They tried to scare me to pay a heavy fine to them to end the contract. They said that if my contract with the landlord not end then my contract with EDF not end as well. I will be responsible for the electricity usage until my contract with the landlord ends. Since the shop closed, somebody else traded in the shop. But EDF is charging me for the electricity used by the other people. They are sending scary letters all the time. The service people of EDF ot helping at all. All they did is to scare me to pay a heavy fine. I am really stressed for more than one years now. Writing this review to warn you to keep away from EDF. I am trying to ask help from Citizans Advice Bureau now.
I spent an hour trying to register so that I can review our account on line. I was totally frustrated by refusal to accept a 16 letter password with one upper case letter (how silly isthat!) or to accept the name of the small busingess which they have used for hard mail correspondence. No phone no on the letter inviting me to go on line. It seems to take years to escape the legacy of a nationalized industry. I see I have to write 70 more words. Otherwise EDF have been OK pricewise and offering deals. What else can I say? If you face calling them I think you are answered from the United Kingdom. Might be better to outsourse this. They are usually more helpful in Mumbai, Poon or Bangalore. I resent that I' ll have to cheqck the bank account to see the charge this quarter.that's enough fr now
I have been an EDF customer for the last 2 years and in general their prices have held below the average, so in terms of value, whenever I have reviewed comparisons web sites, there is very little to beat them. However they are just starting to lose the edge for me on what appear to be trivial things but....
I joined them with dual fuel and self meter readings. With this you got Nectar points for supplying the readings yourself. This has now been stopped, apparently I like thousands of other customers have told them to invest in more important things!! - Somehow I just don't seem to remember this conversation!
Maybe I can accept that the cost this was giving EDF has been used to offset some of the price rises being passed on to the customer, but I would like to really see where that money has gone (maybe larger bonuses for directors)?
Other things that annoy me are the quarterly bills I get. Why do I have to have two separate letters with identical contents (bar one has the gas prices and the other the electricity info). Why not email it to me? I submit the readings, so they know I have a PC.
This quarter, in both letters, there is a booklet explaining to me how EDF is going to give me back some benefits. When I read it, there is nothing new there, but if I want I can fill in a form and post is back to them asking them to advise me on how I can make further savings - Of course I do, what person would not, but why do we have to fill in a form? If their green credentials are so good, why do they not do it automatically?
Maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man but.....
Warm enough guys! Thought not. So much for global warming! How is it when its warm they bang on about man-made global warming and when its very cold they say it's a freak winter and so not relevant, November almost the coldest on record. I suppose I'm doing just that as a global warming sceptic with this review this week but the fact that 50% of any gas bill price rise is European green taxes; supposedly to help slow global warming is all you need to know on just how any levels we are being ripped off on with the global warming hype. It's my understanding that the warmer it gets the less gas we are supposed to use. Even though Western Europe is being flooded with new gas pipelines and sources we have seen the price rise 40% from 40% more supply. The problem is the European parliament love those juicy green taxes as do the British government like their tax take from the utilities and so they both have no intention of doing much about the ever increasing price hikes by the big six energy companies here. The higher the price the more they make and the less confidence we have in all three as a consumer. To put it bluntly the market mechanism to decide gas prices is deliberately broken and the feeble regulator is about to be disbanded by Cameron. Get used to profiteering guys.
British Gas are the biggest crooks, charging any customers that have always been with them on the standard tariff 17% higher than any of the other big six, the greedy sods cashing in on vulnerable people who don't know how to switch or intimidated by British Gas when they do switch with demands from old bills, and indeed the new suppliers they move to with greedy monthly bills for your 'estimated usage'. It's those huddled masses that are scared to leave British Gas that keep that 17% in place. But just by switching away from the standard British Gas tariff and having your bill paid online with the same company you can save around £200 per year. But no one is telling enough people that. Why would they. The truth is Thatcher sold off most of our gas storage capacity and so when North Sea oil gas runs down we had to buy in the bulk of our gas from Norway and the like, but nowhere to warehouse the gas and so we cant it in bulk when its really cheap, instead having to buy it all year around and so the price easily manipulated by many factors that commodities like this will be affected by, including wars and politics. The reason why British soldiers are dieing in Afghanistan is to allow a massive web of gas pipes from the old Russian Republics to weave through the country to bypass Russia, especially through Helmund Province, why that area is so much of a blood bath for the allies, the Taliban quite fancying a slice of that oil and gas profit coming through their patch, the only real use for Afghanistan to the west.
Not only do we need the heating on all day because we are bloody freezing but because the pipes will freeze up if we don't have it on. My cousin is a plumber so we are lucky if we have a problem but what we didn't realise is we have to keep the house reasonably warm when we are not in it or the pipes could freeze.
-The 5 key Rules-
#1- Keep the central heating (if you have it) at 12C-15C, if it is forecast to freeze.
#2- Attic pipes are most likely to freeze so keep them insulated. Double lag your hot water tank. Keep your attic hatch open so the warm air can rise and stop the water tank freezing.
#3- Keep kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors open so that house pipes under the sink etc can stay tepid. If the pipe does freeze then use warm towels and gentle heat to clear them as if its to hot then they could crack at the joints.
#4- If you are rural then turn off the supply to outside stopcock and taps.
#5- If you are away from your house or flat for a long time then it may be worth draining your cold water system.
Our water, of course can't be switched through another supplier and water meters do offer discounts to smaller families and singletons. We have saved 70 a year with our meter. But even with water the regulator is feeble enough to allow them to push up water prices in times of plenty of bloody water on what we call a typical English summer, just to give the shareholder a decent divvy.
Gas can be switched, of course, always a hassle and can bound to cause family or housemate arguments as you attempt to split and then drive down those bills. The energy companies want to make it hard to switch as it messes them around to and so the big six work together and so not there for the customer. The switching websites tell us how smart we are to change supplier but don't mention they take a 10% commission or fee for every change between the energy suppliers, how they make their money. Seemplez! You then have to question if the switchers have allegiance to certain energy companies and so some gentle engineering in their compare price search engines nudging you the way of that particular company. I guarantee you that if you tap the same information into six separate switching sites no price will be the same, which they should be, the whole point of these sites and the democratic mechanics of the World Wide Web.
If you are ready to switch then a little tip is contest your current providers increase. Energy companies have up to 65 working days after the price increase has been implemented on the bill to inform their customers. Once informed by letter or email of the price increase, you have 20 working days in which to reject the rise. Yep, you can legally reject the increase if you're not happy. We did exactly this. However, you must then make arrangements to switch energy providers within three weeks, the hassle, so only do it if you are sure. Normally the switching process takes around two months, as was the case when we moved to EDF. During that time you can continue to enjoy your current energy prices. In other words, you won't have to worry about paying out more money on the back of any price hikes. What's more, if your particular provider takes the full 65 working days to inform you of these price increases and you then reject them, you could enjoy the lower price for as much as 21 weeks!
We switched from East Midland Electricity to Powergen to save around £100 a year on the electric bill but most of our regions leccy is generated in gas powered stations and so the price soared on the British Gas Bill. So we shopped around and decided to move to EON, which had a deal on at the time in the medium-energy user tariff.
--------Top Tariff Saving--------
First: Utility (iSave Dual Fuel V6) £1, 008, saves £391
Scottish Power (Online Energy Saver 11) £1,047, saves £352
E-on Save Online 4 (Dual Fuel) £1,089, saves £310
The above were the best deals we could get and so we went with EDF as it's in our region. It did take all of those two months to get our first bill and British Gas kept charging us for those two months, regardless of the above rule, and so more phone calls their to get the refund. I'm sure EDF would do the same thing if we were switching the other way and the theory is you get so tired of chasing the money you give up. I don't give up.
The EDF call-centre was British to make things easier and they were polite. I'm sure the nice people of EDF are used to these calls. We all understand massive corporations make their huge wealth by bullying small people, the staff and customer having something in common. Remember that next time. I'm not a call-centre ranter (even on BT's technical line!) and I actually rang up Virgin yesterday to thank them for their excellent first 6 months on their fibre optic broadband service. I can imagine working in a call-centre it's a terrible experience when you have a mortgage to pay.
We pay monthly and so far the bills have been soft to keep us quiet but we do expect that to change once we are into the 18 month contract (that's all they offered). I tend to check the guy who reads the meter with my reading to make sure we don't get ripped off so the number of therms used matches the bill. It's our second biggest bill at £75 behind the mortgage (we fiddled an obscure rebate on the council tax) and so I will be keeping an eye on it. We pay online for the discount and with bills around £10 a week in the summer we have already made what feels like a huge saving. But as global warming is a load of bollocks and the freezing weather set for well into the New Year we fully expect a huge bill next quarter. As far as combining gas and electricity...well that means only one thing only. Booooooooom!
I have been with edf now for over 3 years, before that I used to change over regularly and I found with all of them, it always sounded better at first and then the next year it would all go up because they'd tried to make it sound better to start with. My belief is they all do this including edf to get you to go to them.
So after I joined edf I had to call them about something, I can't remember what now, but their customer service was excellent. It's a free phone number so I didn't mind how long I waited which generally hasn't been long, on the odd busy time it's been longer but then I'm not paying for it. You can call Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Sat 8am to 2pm which is good because you can call in the evenings when you're home from work. It was someone I could understand and that could understand and I remember feeling pleased that the problem was sorted straight away.
From that point I decided all companys are swings and roundabouts with price and actually customer service is so important when something goes wrong or you just need to ask advice about something that I'd rather stay with edf because their customers service is excellent.
Since then we moved and an offer came up - edf were offering cavity wall insulation to their customers, my name is the account holder because I'm the one at home making all the calls, they don't allow joint membership - this worked in our favour! I phoned up and asked about the grant, was it based on our household income or my income because I was the named person, they assured me that it was my income (which was hardly anything) and so we proceeded and had free cavity wall and loft insulation last year!
Since then I have also wanted to reduce our outgoings, so I rang customer services and they were extremely helpful and said that they couldn't tell me the best deal over the phone but to go on the website and have a look at the online deals and then call back with which tarrif I'd like to be on. It seems a bit odd but I can understand they can't tell you which is the cheapest option but they have it all on their website and you can just switch over to their cheapest option.
Sometimes I find it takes a little bit of explaining if I have a question to ask, but it's always in the end sorted out and we understand each other. I've had times in the past with other companies where I just put the phone down in fraustration because I wasn't getting anywhere.
Their bills are fairly easy to understand, sometimes if they change something I just ring customer service and they explain it over the phone. I also like the little bar chart they have on your statement which shows how the average electricity or gas you used this quarter last year, how much you used last quarter and how much you've used this quarter. So you can easily see if your usage is going up or down. It's based on your usage not your cost so it's very acurate.
Edf are also linked with nectar points so all the time I'm collecting nectar points at the same time. They are also hot on any energy saving advice they can give which is helpful, you can ask them how you can save etc.
They claim 'With the recent addition of British Energy, we're now proud to be Britain's largest electricity generator, and we're committed to lower carbon energy production.'
On edf's website is also an energy adviser section to help you learn how to save money and to reduce electricity/gas usage.
Last year they also sent 4 free energy saving lightbulbs.
I decided that as prices go up and down whoever you're with it's best to find someone that you can deal with and seems to give a good service as well as average cost.
Well, I signed with EDF a couple of years back as I was gullible enough to listen to their promises of 'low prices for ever', 'duel fuel savings' etc. Now I feel like a dual fool! Electricity price crept up slowly - fair enough. Then a gas bill for just over £2500! What?!?!? Customer services told me it was because of estimated bills. Absolute nonsense. I have had regular meter readings. They said 'Don't worry, if you pay £240 a month until it's paid that will be fine.' I can't afford that so their solution was to take me to court to force me to have a pre pay meter installed so that every time I put money on the meter, it automatically takes half the money for the 'debt'. If I change supplier they will send me a final bill for the full amount so I am stuck with these incompitant fools. I am in a situation where I can't afford to pay the amount I would need to to keep the gas on, so I am having to do without gas altogether which is very hard when you have a gas cooker and gas central heating. It is now November and winter is well on the way. Don't know what I'm going to do on Christmas day. I am having to use a few small heaters to keep warm. I can't wait for my next electric bill!
Needless to say I don't recommend EDF and I am furious with them. I wish I could think of a way out of this but I just can't.
Tried to migrate to them a couple of months ago.. totally incompetent from start to finish. First they phoned me telling me there were two meters (one is unused) and I told them which one I used. It turns out they did exactly the wrong thing and unless I migrate both meters my current supplier won't allow the migration to go ahead.. EDF should have known this as it's not exactly unusual to have multiple meters.
2 weeks later I got a letter congratulating me on moving to EDF and asking for my gas meter reading - I politely phoned them and pointed out that the gas meter was outside and only they had the key. A day later EON told me they'd blocked the migration.. something EDF seemed completely unaware of when I phoned them.
It turned out EDF had actually lost the details of the second meter - which they had themselves phoned me about 2 weeks previously - so I had to give them all the information again. Apparently it takes them *another* two weeks to process this information.
2 weeks later guess what. They did *exactly* the same thing - told me the migration had gone through with exactly the same letter I'd received previously, and had *still* not requested both meters so had been immediately rejected - something they *still* had no record of.
I called and went through the same. They said *another* two weeks.. having lost all confidence that this company could even remember what day of the week it was let alone manage an electricity supply I told them where to shove it.
I have been an edf customer for five and a half months now and felt that I needed to give credit where credit is due. I cannot really review their product as we pay for gas and electricity and that's what we get - as you would expect; but I can pass comment on their customer service.
I've phoned them on three different occasions and every time spoken to somebody British. I, along with many others find this very important because foreign call centres can often be difficult to communicate with. Not only have the customer service representatives been British but they have been very helpful. They are always very polite, communicate clearly and action what you want them to. The other good thing is that, although they tell you of their new products and services, they do not try the hard sell.
The edf website is very user friendly and you can create your account where you can view previous bill information and give your readings online. Giving readings online not only saves the hassle of a phone call but is also part of their "read, reduce reward scheme". This scheme rewards you with nectar points: you get 1000 points a year just for giving quarterly readings that's 2000 points a year if you get gas and electricity from them. You can then earn a further 1000 points if you reduce your consumption year on year.
There's no pointing in showing prices as you can get this information from them put it is worth saying dual fuel customers can get a discount of £50.40 if you pay by direct debit.


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Video: De'Anthony Thomas goes 3-for-3 at Oregon Preview
De'Anthony Thomas opened up his outdoor track and field season with three wins at the Oregon Preview Meet at Hayward Field on Saturday.
DAT anchored the 4x100 meter relay team (Arthur Delaney, Dior Mathis, B.J. Kelley) to a meet record time of 40.35, then he won the 100m dash in a wind-aided 10.31 and followed it up with a victory in the 200m with another wind-aided time of 21.17.
Click the video tab above from KVAL Sports to watch De'Anthony's day on the track and hear his thoughts on his performance.


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The highest flood warning will be removed from the River Thames this afternoon.
Severe flood warnings have been in place on the Thames for more than a week, but the warnings are to be downgraded to a flood warning, the second highest warning, this afternoon.
The Environment Agency said although the severe warning was being removed, people should remain vigilant because river levels remain very high across the south-east, including in Elmbridge.
Flood warnings also remain in place for the Thames at Thames Ditton, Thames Ditton Island, East and West Molesey, Hurst Park, Walton Bridge, Desborough Island and the Xcel Leisure Centre.
Simon Hughes, Environment Agency regional manager, said: "Our sincere sympathy is with those who have already experienced flooding and will continue to work with our professional partners and local communities to respond to the ongoing flooding.
"While it is positive news that river levels along the Thames have stabilised enough to remove the severe flood warnings, we are still urging communities to be vigilant as river levels are still high and flood warnings remain in force across many parts of the south east.
"Groundwater flooding also remains a concern as catchments are saturated following the heavy rainfall in the past few weeks."
People are also advised to avoid walking or driving through flood water and should look out for other hazards, including fallen trees. For more information, visit environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods.


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Stability and Balance in Locomotion Through Exercise (StaBLE)
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- Tabular View
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- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Persons with Morbus Parkinson commonly develop gait and balance disorders leading to dependence, loss of mobility and a high risk of falling.
This study investigates the effectiveness of a sensorimotor treadmill intervention to improve walking and balance abilities in persons with early stages of Parkinson's disease. The sensorimotor treadmill training is conducted on a special treadmill device which is challenging the participants by small oscillations. This intervention, which is supposed to simulate walking on natural, uneven surfaces, is compared to a conventional treadmill training.
Hypothesis: Sensorimotor treadmill training leads to larger improvements in walking and balance abilities as compared to conventional treadmill exercise.
|Parkinson's Disease
|Behavioral: treadmill walking Device: Treadmill
|Phase 1
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Sensorimotor Treadmill Training to Improve Gait and Balance in Parkinson's Disease
- Change from Baseline Gait Speed [ Time Frame: 8 weeks and 20 weeks ]Self selected walking speed is assessed on a 10 meter walk distance
- Change from Baseline Balance [ Time Frame: 8 weeks and 20 weeks ]Mini - Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini - BESTest), Postural Sway in the Romberg Test with eyes open and eyes closed for 30 seconds
- Change from Baseline Gait Performance [ Time Frame: 8 weeks and 20 weeks ]Two Minute Walk Test (2MWT), Timed "up-and-go" Test, Assessment of tempo-spatial gait parameters
- Change from Baseline Mobility [ Time Frame: 8 weeks and 20 weeks ]Rivermead Mobility Index
- Change from Baseline Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) [ Time Frame: 8 weeks and 20 weeks ]
|Study Start Date:
|June 2013
|Study Completion Date:
|June 2016
|Primary Completion Date:
|June 2016 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: sensorimotor treadmill training
specific treadmill control using oscillating platform
|Behavioral: treadmill walking Device: Treadmill
Active Comparator: conventional treadmill training
conventional treadmill control
|Behavioral: treadmill walking Device: Treadmill
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Parkinson's disease stage 1-3 Hoehn and Yahr
- United Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) 'gait' or 'postural stability' subscore of 1 or more
- Ability to stand unaided and walk without an assistive device
- Stable medication during the study period
Exclusion Criteria:
- On-off and wearing-off phenomena
- Unstable medical or psychiatric illness
- Clinically relevant cardiovascular or orthopaedic disease
- Severe polyneuropathy
- Cognitive impairment
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01856244
|Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Institute of Sport Science and Sport, Gebbertstr. 123b
|Erlangen, Germany, 91058
|Principal Investigator:
|Klaus Pfeifer, Prof. Dr.
|Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Institute of Sport Science and Sport
|Responsible Party:
|Prof. Dr. Klaus Pfeifer, Prof. Dr., University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01856244 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|May 8, 2013
|Last Updated:
|October 4, 2016
Keywords provided by Prof. Dr. Klaus Pfeifer, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg:
Parkinson's Disease
treadmill training
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Parkinson Disease
Parkinsonian Disorders
Basal Ganglia Diseases
Brain Diseases
Central Nervous System Diseases
Nervous System Diseases
Movement Disorders
Neurodegenerative Diseases
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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There is virtually no doubt what Shabazz Muhammad's answer will be when the question is posed: What has his time at UCLA taught him? "Defense," he says. So obvious, right? But it is not limited to his significant progress on the basketball court preventing opponents from scoring points.
He guards now, and he is guarded.
He plays defense, and he is defensive.
He is no ordinary college athlete, in part because of his spectacular talent, more so because it was his recruitment, of all the hundreds of Division I prospects in the 2012 class, of all the elite prospects who preceded him, that was identified by the NCAA as worthy of a warning to the colleges involved.
It's not that he is brusque or difficult or contentious, though Muhammad might be entitled to all three. He is pleasant but circumspect, as one might expect from a young man who, on this morning, woke up after scoring 23 points in a double-digit road victory over a top-10 team and discovered that the most intense conversation about his evening at Arizona regarded the handsome backpack he carried into the interview room—and whether it was legitimately obtained.
"They're looking for anything, even if it's like a backpack," he tells Sporting News. "There are bits and pieces they all look for, especially when you're on a high-profile stage. They're all looking for something."
There is not a sense of weariness to these words, however. When Muhammad speaks, he has a teenager's accent, if there is such a thing. You get bothered when a college athlete is referred to as a "kid"? Say hello to Muhammad, hear his greeting in return and then try to argue your case.
He plays with a teen's joy, as well, but with the precision and intelligence of a player growing in maturity. When Muhammad was a high school prospect and the recruiting analysts were writing odes to his talent as a 6-6 small forward as Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, they spoke of his impressive athleticism and his uncommon effort—"motor" in the language of the game—but the words "volume shooter" always were somewhere in the neighborhood.
He was not regarded as an exceptional long-range shooter. His profile on Scout.com identified that under "areas for improvement." Even the coach who recruited him to UCLA, Ben Howland, says Muhammad was a "scorer, not shooter" when he signed last spring to play for the Bruins. Now? Muhammad is second in the Pac-12 in 3-point accuracy, converting 43.6 percent of his attempts.
"That's one thing I really worked on, my 3 and my jumpshooting," Muhammad says. "People said I really couldn't shoot, so it's always trying to prove somebody wrong and get bits and pieces of my game out that people haven't seen yet."
He worked with his father, Ron Holmes, who played for Southern Cal in the early 1980s. He has continued the process with his coaches at UCLA. They stress repeating his form, jumping and landing in same spot to keep the shot on target, following through after the release.
"The guys in the league who are great shooters, J.J. Redick and guys like that, they are straight up and straight down and always follow-through, a good mechanical shot," Muhammad says. "That's one big thing I've really improved on. With coach Howland, every time I shoot a shot he's like, 'Stay in it, hold your follow-through.' "
The intimation he was a "gunner" or a "chucker" no longer defines him, either. That's what such a player used to be called. Now it's "volume shooter." None fits Muhammad any longer.
As UCLA (16-5, 6-2 Pac-12) prepares to face crosstown rival USC (8-13, 3-5) Wednesday night—his status for the game is in question because of a stomach illness—he hasn't once launched 20 shots in a game and averages 13.6, of which he converts 47.5 percent. It's only two more shots per game than classmate Jordan Adams, a terrific scorer but nearly as accurate with his attempts.
"What a great competitor," Howland says. "When the lights go on, when the cameras are on, it's 20 percent better. It's really incredible how his focus, his concentration, his competitiveness take his game to another level.
"He plays well in practice. He's just even better in games. You also have guys who are good in practice who don't show up when the lights come on. Give me the guy that when the lights come on gets better. Because there aren't a lot of them."
His beginning
The first glimpse of Muhammad available to college basketball fans came when the Bruins faced Georgetown at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, after he'd missed three games because of NCAA suspension as well as several weeks of practice because of an injured shoulder, it was easy to wonder why there'd been so much fuss about him.
He appeared out of shape and a bit slow, primarily because he was both. The shoulder injury prevented him from practicing but also from running. All the jostling that goes with a good jog was too painful.
"I got out of shape. I gained some pounds," Muhammad says. He went from his preferred weight of 220 all the way to 235. "It was really hard trying to carry all that weight, especially trying to be a dynamic and explosive player. Losing that really helped me out."
He stopped drinking juices and opted only for water, and combining that with a smart diet and the physical demands of being a college basketball player brought him back to his preferred weight.
"I feel better, never tired on the floor," says Muhammad, who has played 30 minutes or better in more than half his games.
"But it was also from all the stress of not being able to play," Howland says. "I didn't realize how much it was wearing on him until that first home game against Indiana State, how dejected he was. You could just see the pressure, the stress, weighing on him."
There is a lot Muhammad has been through, and a lot he hasn't, since we were supposed to meet in August as UCLA prepared for its playing tour of China. After the NCAA warned such schools as UCLA, Duke and Kentucky to beware of his potential eligibility issues, Muhammad wasn't permitted to make that trip as an investigation into his amateur status — and his family's ties to financial advisers — commenced. All this also meant there wasn't much he could say to the media. That investigation continued into the fall and all the way to November, when he missed the opener of the new Pauley Pavilion.
Only after an NCAA investigator's boyfriend bragged during an airplane flight that she had promised Muhammad would not be cleared to play college basketball, and after the conversation was recounted to the Los Angeles Times—only after that embarrassment did the NCAA grant Muhammad eligibility to play, with his suspension standing as time served.
"That was pretty disturbing. I don't know why they'd try to jeopardize somebody's college career just to try to do it," Muhammad says. "I know I'm a good kid, so I don't know why they'd do that. Sometimes people want to do what they want to do and think they have the authority that is greater than this UCLA program."
When the NCAA was picking through his business, Muhammad studied the cases of others who'd been spun through the amateurism blender: Kansas' Josh Selby and Mississippi State's Renardo Sidney. He figured that based on his case and what he learned of those he might miss only "a couple of games."
As each game passed without his clearance, though, Muhammad began to wonder if it might stretch to four games, or five, or six. Interesting, he did not suggest he'd ever given up hope of playing at all.
His playground
Why does it matter for a player who clearly would be draftable by the NBA even if he were not allowed to play in college? It is quite clear he is in love with the game. He enjoys playing with the Bruins. Howland says he has had to order Muhammad to cut back his personal, post-practice workouts to save the wear-and-tear on his knees and legs.
Muhammad has all of Westwood, one of the loveliest and most appealing neighborhoods in Southern California, as his playground. He is attractive, fit, famous. And where does he go? More often than seems reasonable, he goes into the gym to work on that jumpshot.
"Oh, yeah. I'm always in the gym," Muhammad says. "Coach says sometimes, 'Don't get in the gym.' I still try to sneak in there. I just want to be the best, and I want our team to win. I think for that I have to really work on my game.
"Everybody's getting along on the court. We're being unselfish, wanting to get the extra pass and playing a lot of defense really aggressively. I think those two things are the mainstays of our team. I always think about my future, but right now I think about just winning everything and trying to get to Georgia this year."
The Final Four is in Atlanta, in case that reference seems remote. Muhammad firmly believes the Bruins can make what would be the program's 19th and Howland's fourth. To get there, the greatest improvement will have to be at the defensive end, where they rank only 95th in efficiency. The Bruins have three freshmen in the starting lineup, four in the playing rotation. Perhaps that is to be expected.
"It's such a vast, huge difference going from being an AAU, high school player to a high-major college playing against guys 3-4 years older than you that all want to kill you because you're the next coming. He's dealt with that," Howland says. "His defense, still, has a ways to go—as with any freshman—but he's improving."
In more ways than one, honestly. Which is kind of too bad.


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16 comments:
Perfect choices, Kalyn - to be able to snack and feel good about it is a gift. Ever since I interviewed you by e-mail about this very topic a few years ago, I have managed to lower the carb intake when we snack. Of course, we still do potato chips.ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for these! Great ideas, I've been trying to figure out what to make...ReplyDelete
I'm going to try the chick peas and the tortillas. But I think I'm going to have to triple or quadruple the recipes for the bunch of snackers we'll be having! Probably ought to start now - ha!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the great ideas.
Yummy. Can't wait to try these!ReplyDelete
What a great post, Kalyn! You've given us lots of great alternatives for a delicious Super Bowl party!ReplyDelete
Healthy, fancy fare for a great Super Bowl party! The white bean dip and falafel look great.ReplyDelete
creative ideas!ReplyDelete
What a great layout, nice variety, pleanty of different flavors, great ideas!! Pictures are beautiful! Especially liked the chickpeas!ReplyDelete
Hi Kalyn - great round-up! I've been wanting to prepare a tuna mousse so that is going on my to-do list.ReplyDelete
I never thought about South Beach super bowl recipes, but after looking at my recipe round-up - I can see how the traditional bash would be a s.b. danger zone - I've got a mental note to tuck in some lighter options next year! Enjoy the game!
Thanks so much for these ideas. I'm always looking for snacks that are SB friendly. Your site is great!ReplyDelete
Great party ideas! Enjoy the weekend and the big game!ReplyDelete
These are great ideas! I make a white bean/artichoke dip that is very similar, but without the parmesan to keep it dairy-free.ReplyDelete
These are great, can't wait to try the dip, looks fabulous! Thanks.ReplyDelete
I love your line-up, Kalyn. I could make any of these - even if I don't watch the Superbowl. ;)ReplyDelete
Kalyn- have you ever tried 'Kale chips'? There are as crunchy and satisfying as potato chips, are easy to make, and require a minimal amount of oil. I got the recipe from Epicurious but it's basically Kale leaves with the center ribs cut out, tossed with a tiny bit of olive oil (1 1/2 - 2 tbl for a whole bunch) and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper (or any other spices). Then just bake at 200 degrees for 30-35 minutes. When I've brought these to parties they've been huge hits and people are always asking for the recipe!ReplyDelete
Emily I've vaguely heard of this idea of making chips from Kale but haven't tried it. Sounds like something I might like though, thanks for the idea. Perfect for something like this.ReplyDelete
I'm so happy you're taking the time to comment on Kalyn's Kitchen! I love hearing from people who stop by, especially if you're sharing feedback or asking questions about a recipe I've posted here.
I've recently changed my comment settings so people can comment without signing in, but you will need to check the box to show you're a live person, and comments on older posts won't show up until I publish them. Thanks for understanding!
And if you really like the recipe, Pins, Shares, Tweets, and Yums are always appreciated!


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Color: Cafe Glace; Size: M
EBD service is amazing. I initially put in my address incorrectly and they easily fixed it. Additionally, the shipping was fast. The glasses themselves are fine; they're not bad. I ordered these and also Aura in warm tortoise, and I just prefer the other one more. If I didn't get those, I would probably rate these five stars, but because I have two I can see what about these glasses I'm meh about. The main thing for me is just the color. I somehow thought that the grey from afar would stand out more and make them look really unique, but they don't really. They kinda just take away the darkness of the top tortoise color. For me personally, I don't like that too much. I like dark glasses (which is what Aura in tortoise is) because it brings out my dark hair and dark eyes. So, I'd just recommend the glasses in a different color. But the grey may add a happy medium for those who like dark ish glasses but don't like them extremely dark, so it's all personal preference
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Was a little hesitant to purchase these because I always try on hundreds of frames in stores with no luck, but I am so glad I went out on a limb! They fit my (pretty small) face perfectly and I've gotten tons of compliments already in the first week of wearing them! Only reason I gave them 4 stars is that I've got a very narrow nose so they slip down kinda easy, but I'm sure most people wouldn't experience this issue. Love them, love the price, love the quick turnaround time. Love, love, love.
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Acer Aspire S7 Series Ultrabook - Intel Core i7, 8GB, 256GB SSD, 13.3"Screen, 1920x1080,Windows 8 64-bit - NX.MBKAA.009Item#: 9672108 | Model#: NX.MBKAA.009
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Acer Aspire S7 Series Ultrabook Product Details
Acer Aspire Ultrabook
With the Acer Aspire Ultrabook you can enjoy your digital lifestyle to the fullest. This ultrabook boasts its ultra-slim, ultra-sleek profile yet powerful computing features, and it has numerous entertainment options, making it the ultimate companion wherever you go. It comes packed with Dual Core Intel® Core i7-4500U 1.8GHz Processor and 8GB of DDR3L Memory, providing rock-solid performance and reliability on the go. Plus, it has a 256GB SSD to provide a secure storage for sensitive data. It also features a 13.3 in. Active Matrix TFT Color LCD Touch display for superb visual entertainment experience along with ease of navigation. The Windows 8 64-bit operating system comes pre-loaded for an optimized system performance. Also features USB 3.0, integrated LAN, integrated wireless LAN, integrated Bluetooth, and Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU. Order the Acer Aspire Ultrabook today!
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Expressive Writing in Male Infertility
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- How to Read a Study Record
|Infertility, Male
|Behavioral: Expressive writing
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Expressive Writing as a Therapeutic Intervention in Male Infertility
- Scores on rating scale for perceived stress in infertility [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Scores on rating scale for personality dimensions [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Sperm parameters [ Time Frame: 3-12 months ]
- Score on rating scale for coping [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
|Study Start Date:
|November 2006
|Study Completion Date:
|February 2009
|Primary Completion Date:
|June 2008 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: A 1
Expressive writing
Behavioral: Expressive writing
Patients in the intervention group write on three day for 20 minutes about highly emotional topics In the control group patients write on three days for 20 minutes about topics with relatively low emotional involvement such as diet, time management and sport.
Detailed Description:
Expressive writing is a therapeutic intervention designed by the psychologist James W. Pennebaker. Individuals write on three days for about 20 minutes about particularly stressful experiences in their life. Several studies showed that expressive writing can have beneficial effects on the frequency of health care utilization and well-being. Particularly in patients with rheumatism, kidney cancer and posttraumatic stress disorder expressive writing showed an positive effect on subjective well-being. Furthermore, in several studies expressive writing showed a positive effect on immune parameters.
As many studies suggest an important negative effect of stress on well-being and sperm parameters in male infertility, we want to investigate the effect of expressive writing in male infertility.The expressive writing condition is compared to a non emotional writing condition, in which individuals write about mainly non emotional topics such as time management. In this randomized-controlled trial subjects were allocated sequentially by block wise randomization (block size of 4). For randomization a computer generated random list was used. The allocation was concealed in a series of numbered sealed envelopes. The envelope was opened immediately before the first writing session.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 55 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Male infertile patients with a pathological spermiogram according to WHO criteria
Exclusion Criteria:
- Drugs affecting sperm quality
- Patients with chromosomal anomalies affecting sperm quality (e.g. Klinefelter- Syndrome)
- Severe Psychiatric disorder defined as psychotic disorder (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) or substance-related disorder
- Patients currently in psychotherapeutic or psychiatric therapy
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00385346
|University of Bonn, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine
|Bonn, Germany, 53105
|Study Chair:
|Reinhard Liedtke, MD
|University of Bonn, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine
|Responsible Party:
|Prof. Dr. R. Liedtke, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00385346 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|October 5, 2006
|Last Updated:
|June 29, 2010
Keywords provided by University Hospital, Bonn:
Expressive writing
Male infertility
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Infertility, Male
Genital Diseases, Male
Genital Diseases, Female
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 25, 2017


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Hurricane resident Dan Cook is sure he doesn't owe any taxes, so he knew the automated phone call he received more than week ago wasn't actually from the Internal Revenue Service.
Many people across the country, including Cook, have received calls from scammers posing as the IRS, insisting that they owe taxes and that money needs to be sent right away.
"I knew it was a scam right off the bat," Cook said of his call. "I know how it works. They don't just call you up on the phone with a robo-call. The first thing they do is send you a letter. It says, 'you owe taxes, how about sending a check?'"
After the robo-call, Cook received several calls in two days from people claiming to be from the IRS, who threatened him with criminal charges. He wasn't fooled
"I asked him why he lowered himself to become a thief and robber by trying to scare people into giving them money," Cook said. "He insisted they are the IRS. I asked him where my notification by mail, that is required by law, was and he said they sent one. He told me I needed to speak to his supervisor, who is apparently the 'closer' in this scam."
Cook refused and hung up.
The caller then phoned three more times. After he let the last two calls go to his answering machine, he hasn't heard from the scammers since.
But he wanted to warn others who may be receiving similar phone calls.
"I undoubtedly am not the first person they've tried to pull this scam on," Cook said. "The IRS is probably flooded with reports. I know there are people that would hear IRS and tremble in their shoes and send the money."
IRS spokesman Michael Dobzinski confirmed similar scams are prevalent throughout the country — and the scammers are often hostile, in an attempt to intimidate their targets.
"The IRS doesn't make threatening phone calls," Dobzinski said. "And if people do owe the IRS money, they are usually aware of that."
IRS employees would also not ask taxpayers to wire money, or to provide credit or debit card numbers over the telephone.
The IRS has been aware of the scams since last October, Dobzinski said. Since, the IRS has compiled some of the tactics scammers are commonly using.
Scammers have been known to threaten victims with jail time or driver's license revocation, then hang up and call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, Dobzinski said.
In some cases, scammers have targeted immigrants and threatened to have the target deported.
There have also been reports of scammers knowing the last four digits of the target's social security number.
In some cases, the IRS phone number can even appear on the target's caller ID.
If a taxpayer does owe money and doesn't pay, the case can eventually get turned over to collections and the taxpayer could receive phone calls, Dobzinski said.
But the taxpayer would receive a series of notices before it got to that point.
Dobzinski recommended asking for the caller's IRS badge number, then calling the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040 to confirm the agent's legitimacy and find out if taxes are actually owed.
If people know they don't owe taxes, they should call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.
Dobzinski said targets should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their "FTC Complaint Assistant" at FTC.gov.
Reach Erin Beck at firstname.lastname@example.com or 304-348-5163.


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One reason why I love living in Italy? I can have sweets every day... for breakfast. Here in Rome, most locals start the day with coffee and a cornetto, Italy's answer to France's croissant.
Want to taste the best of Rome's cornetti? Then choose your cafe carefully. Especially in the center, many spots simply microwave frozen pastries, dusting them with powdered sugar to make them look homemade. For a real taste of a melt-in-your-mouth Italian cornetto, make sure you go to a bakery or cafe that makes their pastries fresh every morning, like these 5 great spots for cornetti in Rome.
View 5 Best Places To Get Cornetti in Rome in a larger map
About the author: Amanda Ruggeri, a journalist based in Rome, blogs at Revealed Rome. She's written for the New York Times, Guardian, Fodor's, New York Magazine, and AFAR, among other publications. You can follow her on Twitter: @revealedrome


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christopher::: wrote:Manapa wrote:at the moment I am trying to practice restraint in speach, only saying what I think is necessary or of some value (even if it seams silly ), and trying to not engage in agressive discussions, which can be a problem particularly on the net.
I am also trying to be honest with myself more, reflecting on what personal narative I am building and how true it is to me as a person conventually, and what my goal is.
for me it has been a trying few weeks and one I am sure will shape the future in a way I may not like when I get there, there has been anger, depression, drink, lack of heedfulness and mindfulness and other unworthy actions in the last few weeks which have not been useful to my circumstances.
Sounds like its been a tough few weeks for you, Manapa. Sorry to hear that. Do you feel there is a relationship between your efforts to restrain your speech, your self reflection, and then the anger, depression and lack of heedfulness you are experiencing?
This is something i've heard from others and have also experienced. You start to make efforts at changing your behavior, at self-restraint, and feel like crap.
Do you find any of pink trike's ideas helpful?
it is because of my actions and behaviour, the lack of mindfulness etc that I am making more of an effort, I allowed my mind to rule itself so I am dealing with the consequenses!


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Philly's 'live stop' vehicle-towing operation protested
Two University of the Arts students mounted a protest at Philadelphia City Hall Wednesday against "live stop." That's the program that gives police and the Philadelphia Parking Authority power to tow vehicles with out-of-date registrations or inspection stickers.
Jordan Shade's own experience inspired the protest. She was pulled over simply because her car's registration was out of date.
"They told us they were going to tow our car on the spot. We had no say in the matter. There was no wiggle room," Shade said. "And then we spent the entirety of the day going to Traffic Court, paying fines, taking taxis all over the city.
"I think it cost about $800 in total by the time we got our car back," she continued. "And that was lucky. We were lucky we could afford to get our car back that day."
Shade set up a piece of glass symbolizing a car windshield in the courtyard of City Hall next to a copy of the "live stop" program law. She encouraged people such as Kristie Low to write their stories on the windshield.
Low said she was driving a friend's car when she was pulled over by the police.
"I didn't know the car had bad stickers on it. Me and my 13-year-old daughter were in the car and police pulled us over, turned around and said, 'Ma'am hand me the keys, we're taking your car.'
"So they took it. It cost $1,300 to get taken out. I didn't have the money so I let them keep the car," said Low.
The police left Low and her daughter without an alternative way to get home. They were stuck in the rain for three hours, waiting for a ride.
"The police are required to give you a ride home or to take you to a center of public transportation but that doesn't always happen," Shade said. "That's sort of an area of contention with people."
Shade hopes that this protest will inspire conversation about "live stop," which was enacted to get better compliance with Pennsylvania's mandatory car insurance law.
Support provided by


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Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages, welcome to the inaugural blog, the beginning of an era. Welcome to "The Resh says:"
For starters, The Resh says...I don't know why I'm seeing all of these regulars in the blog world are deciding to hang it up. I just read one is quitting because it is becoming to flooded with top 10 lists, repetitive complaints, and
This started out as a comment, but the blog I was commenting on pissed me off so much that my comment basically ended up being longer than the blog itself, so I felt no one would bother reading so I made it into it's own blog.
And my comment was....
I have to disagree completely with you on Cena owning Shamrock, Severn or Blackman. Unless you are going on mic skills, and
IMO, I think weight classes in WWE would help to make the product more interesting and a lot more believable. To help identify my point, remember back when Rey Mysterio had the WHC. I like Rey a lot, he's put on great matches, classics even in WWE and WCW. But I'm sure more people than not will tell you it just sounds a bit ridiculous when you hear "weighing in at 175 lbs. the World Heavyweight
I'm going to start off by saying I'm a wrestling fan, not just a WWE or TNA or ROH fan. I like them all. Admittedly, I enjoy/watch WWE more often than the others, so you'll never really see me on here bashing TNA or trying to contribute "intelligent" opinions about it because I know some/but not a lot.
But last night, while watching iMPACT, I caught the X-Division contest


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Brocade Software Networking Solution Delivers Easy-to-Configure Firewalls, VPN Gateways, and other Networking Services
Recently, Rackspace Hosting , the open cloud company, announced the addition of the Brocade Vyatta vRouter to its portfolio of networking and security solutions for the Rackspace Hybrid Cloud. The new Brocade Vyatta vRouter is a software network appliance that offers a customer-selectable software image for easy-to-configure firewall capabilities that deliver increased security. The solution also provides Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway functionality and other networking services to customers, such as network address translation (NAT) and routing.
"We're expanding the reach of our hybrid cloud portfolio by giving customers more choices for security and networking solutions to use across their public, private and dedicated cloud environments," said John Engates, CTO at Rackspace. "To complement our existing physical firewall capabilities, the Brocade Vyatta vRouter now delivers virtual firewall and advanced networking solutions that enable customers to connect their data centers with the Rackspace Hybrid Cloud."
The Brocade Vyatta vRouter adds to the breadth of Rackspace's networking solutions, which consist of physical firewalls and load balancers, as well as global traffic management, threat management, web application firewall and log management capabilities in the hybrid cloud. The flexibility to select between physical and virtual devices allows customers to choose the right solution to meet the unique networking and security needs of their business.
The Hybrid cloud also provides customers with a path to grow within Rackspace's portfolio. Today, customers can leverage virtual appliances and then move to physical devices for networking and security services as their business and application needs evolve.
The Brocade Vyatta vRouter features a variety of capabilities, including:
With the ongoing threat of cyber attacks, this on-demand solution is ideal for businesses needing to store valuable information. Ecommerce companies in particular are able to leverage the Brocade Vyatta vRouter and its firewall capabilities to enhance security around stored customer data and online transaction information.
"The value of the Brocade Vyatta vRouter is both in the security and cost savings it provides," said Jack Lopez, chief technology officer at Netcare. "The flexibility of this solution allows us to quickly create a secure virtual firewall that our customers can use to protect their cloud servers from outside threats. This can be done in a fraction of the time it would take to configure a physical firewall solution and it is far more economical."
Businesses using site-to-site VPN applications will also benefit from the software networking appliance, as it gives them the ability to add more utility-based resources and increase capacity outside their local datacenter, while minimizing costs.
"The strong strategic partnership between Rackspace and Brocade is a testament to our shared vision of an open cloud that enables customers to control not only their applications, but also the networks that service them,"said Kelly Herrell, vice president and general manager of Software Networking at Brocade. "Vyatta is a strategic component of the Brocade strategy for The On-Demand Data Center, providing businesses with the flexibility and freedom to securely merge their data center with public clouds like Rackspace to form a hybrid solution." For more information, visit http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/vrouter/
About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace is the open cloud company and founder of OpenStack, the standard open-source operating system for cloud computing. Headquartered in San Antonio, Rackspace delivers its renowned Fanatical Support to more than 200,000 business customers, from data centers on four continents. Rackspace is a leading provider of hybrid clouds, which enable businesses to run their workloads where they run most effectively — whether on the public cloud, a private cloud, dedicated servers, or a combination of these platforms. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, and is featured on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.
SOURCE: Rackspace Hosting


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Australian swagman costume
"Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong ..." You can create a jolly swagman outfit with things you've got at home. Just add cork hat, a billy and a homemade swag and your little swagman is ready to camp out.
Number of players:
What you need:
- 1 x checked flannel shirt
- 1 x pair of old brown pants
- 1 x red neck kerchief
- 1 x towel (to roll up for a swag)
- 1 x billy or water canteen
- 1 x broad brimmed hat
- 6-10 corks (or beads if you can't locate corks)
- string
Make your swagman hat by attaching corks or beads to the brim of the hat with string. These will help keep the flies off your "swaggie's" face while he's roaming the countryside.
Dress in shirts and pants, add the red kerchief around the neck. Tie bits of string around the knees (to keep snakes from slithering up).
Make a swag by rolling up a towel or blanket. Tie string around either end, then loop an old dressing gown belt through both ends and use it as a strap to carry the swag on your back.
Draw on a bushy beard or you can make one out of brown or black felt.
Now go catch that jumbuck for tucker.
- The "Waltzing Matilda" in Banjo Patterson's lyrics refers to the swaying motion of swagmen as they roamed the countryside with their swags swaying from side to side on their backs.
The leather thongs tied below the knee of a swagman's trousers are 'bowyangs.' They stop the trouser waist falling down when the swaggie squats: prevents 'builder's bum,' if you like.
More Australia Day ideas:
- 30 things to do with kids on Australia Day
- Make a map of Australia collage
- Australia puzzle map
- Australia Day colouring pages
- Australiana colouring pages
- Best Aussie jokes for kids
- Aboriginal handprints
- Boomerang art
- Make a cork hat
- Australian flag collage
- Create an Aboriginal dot painting
- Aboriginal stick painting
- Make an Australia Day beach swag
Learn about, print out and colour the flags of Australia:
- Australian Aboriginal flag
- Boxing Kangaroo flag
- Torres Strait Island flag
- Flag of New South Wales
- Flag of Victoria
- Flag of Queensland
- Flag of Tasmania
- Flag of South Australia
- Flag of Western Australia
- Flag of Northern Territory
- Flag of Australian Capital Territory