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Breaking the stink bug cycle
So you had a stink bug invasion inside your house this past fall, winter and spring. Now that it's nearly summer, you're not seeing them anymore. Has the problem gone away?
Hardly. If any adult stink bugs were inside your house this spring, they have: 1) died inside the house; and/or 2) found their way back outside to mate and lay eggs.
It's the second possibility you need to be concerned about. The population of stink bugs outside your home could multiply exponentially this summer. An adult female stink bug can lay 20-30 eggs in a mass and as many as 400 eggs in a season. Usually, there are two generations that survive in a season. So from that single stink bug, you could potentially have hundreds more later on.
So, even though stink bugs may be out of sight to you this summer where your house interior is concerned, don't let them be out of mind. By using the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap outdoors in July, August and September, you can break their breeding cycle and put a dent in the problem. Any number of stink bugs you can catch is significant.
Where can you purchase them? A complete list is coming soon on our web site... stay tuned!
June 16, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
RESCUE! offers both outdoor and indoor solution for stink bugs
For all of you who are seeing stink bugs on your toothbrush, or discovering dozens a day inside your home, help is on the way!
In addition to our forthcoming outdoor Stink Bug Trap, RESCUE!® unveiled an indoor solution for stink bugs last week at the 2011 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas.
Available in July 2011, the RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap works outdoors to intercept adult stink bugs before they enter homes, as well as the younger generations that damage gardens and fruit trees. The trap lures multiple species of pest stink bugs with pheromone attractants that are odor-free to humans.
The reusable trap comes with a 2-week attractant supply and has a suggested retail price of $19.99. A 7-week attractant refill will be sold separately for around $9.99 retail.
When stink bugs venture inside homes to overwinter as summer turns to fall, RESCUE!® has a trap for that as well. With a light accessory that retails around $17.99, the same RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap can be used indoors. The blue LED light attachment plugs into a wall outlet and illuminates the trap to draw stink bugs when they are active inside the home.
Once stink bugs are trapped either outdoors or indoors, they dehydrate inside the trap chamber for easy, odor-free disposal and reuse.
The stink bug has been called a "terrorist bug"; its spread deemed a "national crisis". It has received major media attention since September 2010 when its populations exploded in the U.S.. RESCUE!® is the first established lawn & garden product manufacturer to offer an answer to the growing problem.
Stink Bugs damage fruit, vegetables and farm crops – but when they invade the indoors in colder weather, they really raise a stink. With no effective natural enemies, stink bugs have been discovered in 33 states to this point – most recently in Michigan and Iowa.
Outdoor testing of the RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap was conducted at the USDA's 800-acre facility in Beltsville, MD. RESCUE!® designed both the trap and the controlled-release technology for the pheromones, enabling the attractants to last over a number of weeks and lure stink bugs from a 30-foot radius.
RESCUE!® became aware of this pest in 2002, as a result of working with university and federal researchers who saw a stink bug infestation as having potential to be a significant problem in the U.S.. When the stink bug population exploded in late summer/fall 2010, the R&D Department took its knowledge gained from these years of research to come up with a retail product to trap these pests.
Established in 1982, parent company Sterling International, Inc. sells its RESCUE!® traps and attractants for wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, flies, Japanese beetles and Oriental beetles through home improvement centers, hardware stores and lawn & garden retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond. The traps are manufactured in the USA at Sterling's headquarters in Spokane, Washington.
May 17, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Where the stink bugs are...
Curious about which states have the worst stink bug problem?
This graphic maps out the states where stink bugs have been detected, the states where stink bugs are a nuisance, and the "red zone" states where stink bugs are at crazy, tear-your-hair-out, burn-down-the-house and hunt-down-the-person-who-brought-them-here levels.
Which level of infestation are you experiencing?
April 20, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
A "Stink Bug-pocalypse?"
All signs and news stories like this one are pointing to a stink bug plague of "biblical proportions" this year. Is this overly dramatic? Perhaps. But when your home -- your sanctuary -- is threatened by these smelly pests, it doesn't take that many to make you pull your hair out.
Some readers have said they are killing 40-50 a day in their homes. This gentleman claims to have killed over 12,000 of them in his Maryland farmhouse.
What about you? We want to hear more about your stink bug situation where you live. Please share with us below... or better yet, on our Facebook page, where we occasionally post contests and give away prizes!
February 22, 2011 in Bugs in the news, Entomology, New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Is Pittsburgh the epicenter of the stink bug invasion?
What's happening in Pittsburgh to make stink bugs such a hot topic? Looks like a warming trend where daytime temps reached the 60s this past week is playing a role in stirring up these stinky specimens. The adult bugs are getting restless inside the houses where they found shelter when the weather turned colder last fall.
Thanks to this Post-Gazette blog post, this Post-Gazette article, this WPXI-TV news story, and this one on KDKA-TV, we're getting an extraordinary response from western Pennsylvania for our Stink Bug Trap. Retailers in the area are on it, too, letting us know they're hot to get the product on their shelves!
We know that inside the house, stink bugs respond to light and seek moisture. When they are disturbed or threatened, they emit a chemical defensive secretion. In lay terms, they stink!
Whether it's flushing them down the toilet, vacuuming them (which causes that chemical defense) or dunking them in a water/dish soap mixture, people are getting by with home remedies for now because there is no effective extermination method.
The good news is that these overwintering adults will start to leave the house when spring's warmer temperatures hit.
We wish it were sooner, folks, but help is on the way... Hang on for the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap, coming July 2011!
February 17, 2011 in Entomology, Introductions, New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Western PA heralds RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap arrival
Folks in western Pennsylvania are among those anticipating the arrival of the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap on store shelves, thanks to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Doug Oster's blog post, article, and Sunday morning show on KDKA-AM.
Busy Beaver will carry the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap at all of their locations in western PA and eastern Ohio. Other known retailers in that region are Agway in Greensburg, PA; Best Feeds Garden Center in Gibsonia, PA; and Martin's Flowers & Shrubs in Belle Vernon, PA.
This list will grow; check back for more retail locations in the coming months!
February 14, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
More about the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap
A comment on our last blog post brought up some good points and questions about the product that we want to answer here.
Q: Will the Stink Bug Trap attract more stink bugs onto your property that wouldn't ordinarily be there?
A: No. The RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap will catch stink bugs within a 20-foot radius. It will attract the bugs that are already in your yard and prevent them from damaging your garden or getting in your house. All of our RESCUE! traps work this way, in fact -- it's a misconception to believe that they lure insects from all over the neighborhood.
Q: Will the trap work indoors?
A: No, the trap is intended for use outdoors to prevent the stink bugs from doing damage in your garden or getting inside your house. Once stink bugs are inside your house, they do not respond to the pheromone lures. If our testing leads us to a solution for catching stink bugs indoors, we will most certainly share that.
Q: Some stink bugs are beneficial. Will the trap catch them along with the pests?
A: We recognize that some stink bugs, like the Spined Soldier Bug, are beneficial. The RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap will catch the stink bugs that are pests and leave the beneficial insects alone.
Keep your questions coming!
February 11, 2011 in Beneficial insects, Bugs in the news, Entomology, Introductions, New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (56) | TrackBack (0)
Got a Stink Bug problem? Thanks to RESCUE!, there's a trap for that!
(tap, tap, tap) Is this thing on?
Just checking the microphone and sound system since we haven't broadcast anything here in a while.
We're back... with big news. Many of you have asked us about a solution for stink bugs. Since last September, they've received major media attention when their numbers exploded in the U.S. The stink bug has been called a "terrorist bug" by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and its spread was deemed a "national crisis" in a letter written by Bartlett and 14 other members of Congress.
Just five months later, a solution has emerged: the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap from Sterling International.
(So, does this mean that we can say "RESCUE! solves national crisis"? I like the sound of that headline!)
Stink Bugs damage fruit, vegetables and farm crops -- but when they invade the indoors in colder weather, they really raise a stink. With no natural predators, stink bugs have been discovered in 30 states to this point. Michigan was added to the list last week.
Available for shipments in July 2011, the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap works outdoors to catch adult stink bugs before they enter homes, as well as the younger generations that damage gardens and fruit trees. The trap lures multiple species of stink bugs with pheromone attractants that are odor-free to humans.
The reusable trap comes with a 2-week attractant supply and is expected to be priced at $19.99 retail. A 7-week attractant refill will be sold separately for $9.99 retail.
Testing of the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap was conducted at the USDA's 800-acre facility in Beltsville, MD. Sterling designed both the trap and the controlled-release technology for the pheromone. Though difficult and expensive to produce, the pheromones will be manufactured in-house thanks to Sterling's expertise in chemical synthesis.
Established in 1982, Sterling International, Inc. sells its RESCUE! traps and attractants for wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, flies, Japanese beetles and Oriental beetles through home improvement centers, hardware stores and lawn & garden retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond. The traps are manufactured in the USA at Sterling's headquarters in Spokane, Washington.
February 7, 2011 in Bugs in the news, New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBack (0)
WHY-vangelists share their photos
I caught five yellowjacket queens and one blackjacket queen over the weekend in my W*H*Y Trap. Unfortunately, I can't show you this catch because I forgot to take a photo of it -- it was time to rebait the trap and I was eager to do so to catch the paper wasps I saw flying around.
Thankfully, we have some early WHY-vangelists who have done a better job of documenting what their W*H*Y Trap has caught so far this spring. Take a look...
Pat Pfeifer in Plummer, Idaho had a good early catch of wasps in the top chamber of his W*H*Y Trap (note the bodies that had already sunk to the bottom of the water):
This photo shows a trap in Canada -- Creston, BC to be exact. The catch is from late April/early May:
Here are some photos showing the top and the bottom of the W*H*Y Trap in Greenacres, Washington:
Our favorite is still from Stamford, TX -- this shows a catch made back in February!
Keep those W*H*Y Trap photos coming, folks!
May 26, 2009 in Hornets, New RESCUE! Products, Wasps, WHY Trap, Yellowjackets | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Wasp weather... and we're catching them!
If the Northwest could string together more than two 70+ degree days in a row, we'd all be very happy. But this week, those two warm spring days were enough to capture a bunch of paper wasp (and some yellowjacket) queens in the WHY Trap. The photos and video below were taken on president Rod Schneidmiller's property.
Last night, three days after those photos and video were taken, it snowed. Many of the wasps were still alive today, and they huddled together for warmth near the top of the trap:
April 23, 2009 in New RESCUE! Products, Video, Wasps, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
W*H*Y: The Buzz is getting out!
Today's edition of our local paper, the Spokesman-Review, includes a story about our new W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets.
Here's an excerpt:
"Snow on the ground means nothing at Sterling International, the Spokane Valley company that's buzzing around the clock making traps targeting the stinging bugs of spring and summer.
Sterling, which has been in business more than 25 years, has just released a product six years in the making, a three-in-one plastic trap it calls the WHY.
As in wasps, hornets and yellowjackets."
Click here to read the full article.
February 3, 2009 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
All hands on deck
One phrase you'll never hear at Sterling International: "That's not my job." No one here is above doing any task, because we're all invested in the success of our company.
Today was a perfect example. In order to produce enough W*H*Y Traps to meet a truckload shipment to Wal-Mart, everyone from the office -- the President, his wife, the Vice Presidents, our General Counsel, Marketing, Customer Service and R&D -- worked the assembly line today. Our blistering pace produced 6 pallets' worth (3,360 traps) in four hours.
Below L-R: General Counsel Bob Loomis, VP of Sales Jim Oxley, Gigi Schneidmiller and President Rod Schneidmiller set the pace at the beginning of the line.
Below: Personnel from Marketing, Customer Service, R&D and Operations load attractant into the traps, attach lids, and enclose the traps in the cardboard packaging before they're boxed up.
This isn't the first time we've been "all hands on deck". It's happened various times in our 27-year history.
One of the examples our President likes to cite took place in the late 1980s. He explains: "Sterling got a call from L&L Nursery Supply, a major distributor of our products. They had a regional account out of Portland, OR called Bi-Mart that was carrying another brand of yellowjacket trap, but that manufacturer was done shipping product for the year.
"It was early afternoon on a Thursday. We were told that if we could get yellowjacket traps to them by Friday, they would buy our product. However, we didn't have the product made up, and the day's deadline for shipping had passed. We pledged to do what we could.
"We had the office staff and everyone else out there assembling traps, and we held off the truck until 7 p.m. I personally loaded up the trailer. Thankfully, Spokane to Portland was one day service, so L&L was able to get product into the Bi-Mart stores on Friday.
"And Bi-Mart has been a customer of ours ever since."
January 19, 2009 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
First W*H*Y Traps shipped today!
Perhaps you noticed that I goofed and posted the W*H*Y Wednesday post on Tuesday. But I was just too excited, because our first W*H*Y Trap shipment went out today!
These traps -- all 3200 of them -- are destined for Wal-Mart stores in Florida. Ironically, the Yellow Freight truck was running late after being stuck in the snow. But at 4 p.m., we loaded 6 pallets onto the truck and sent it on its way to warmer climes.
Here's a photo of (L-R) yours truly, Paul Crooks (Industrial Engineer) and Alyssa Ando (Marketing Coordinator) in front of the shipment:
And here are some scenes from earlier today as the assembly line rolled out the W*H*Y Traps:
If you're in Florida, these will be coming to a store near you... and many more will be shipped out to other states next week!
December 23, 2008 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Sterling gets an early Christmas present
Hot off the presses -- or in this case, the injection molding machine -- we have our first complete, non-prototype, finished W*H*Y Trap!
President Rod Schneidmiller holds this early Christmas present by our company tree in the front lobby.
Here's a closer look:
I can't tell you how excited we are to have a finished product. These photos don't do it justice -- the parts have such a high-quality look and feel. Everyone in the office was positively giddy to see and hold the trap. Next week we hope to be running the parts, assembling the traps with their attractant and packaging, and shipping displays.
December 11, 2008 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Parts is Parts
And parts are good, when we're talking about parts that make up our highly anticipated new product! We're getting close to having all the parts ready to assemble the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets. Our Engineering Department is tweaking things like the clarity of the tube, the finish of the top and bottom caps, and the fit of the assembled parts. It's all looking very good, and I should be able to post some photos of the parts in the next few days.
In the meantime, enjoy this blast-from-the-past commercial which talks about some less appealing parts...
December 9, 2008 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
WHY-vangelist in Texas inundated with paper wasps
Brenda in West Texas is anxious to try out the new W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets early next year. She just wrote to us and told us her situation:
"We live in West Texas and are inundated with paper wasps. When I walk out the front door, I take a fly swatter with me so I can fight my way off of the porch. In the summer, they dive bomb us when we are in the pool. We go through cases and cases of Wasp spray each summer. Those darn things can get inside the home through the smallest crevice and yesterday we had 25 in our living room when we returned home. Needless to say, we are very anxious to purchase a case of WHY traps and have them out in early spring so we can catch the queens."
We're glad to have Brenda as another WHY-vangelist and I'm offering her an "I know WHY" t-shirt to thank her.
How can you become a WHY-vangelist? By telling us on our web site where you are, and why you need the W*H*Y Trap. Here's the direct link: Tell us WHY.
And you can see where other WHY-vangelists are located and what they have said here.
November 11, 2008 in Hornets, New RESCUE! Products, Pest horror stories, Wasps, WHY Trap, Yellowjackets | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
W*H*Y Wednesday: European Paper Wasp
Today begins a new series, "W*H*Y Wednesday", where we focus on one of the 20 species of insects caught in the soon-to-be-released W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets. The conclusion of this series should coincide with the early availability of the W*H*Y Trap at your local retailers.
We start with a transplant from Europe that is making its mark in a growing portion of the U.S.: the European Paper Wasp, Polistes dominulus. This type of paper wasp is considered a non-native or invasive species.
The highlighted portion of this graphic shows where the European Paper Wasp can presently be found in the U.S.:
Appearance: With their yellow and black markings, European Paper Wasps are frequently mistaken for yellowjackets. As with all paper wasps, their waist is very thin, and their hind legs dangle down when they fly. European Paper Wasps are distinguished by their orange antennae.
Habits: European Paper Wasps are active during the day and rest on the nest at night. Adult paper wasps feed on sugar and nectar-like food. Larvae eat protein that is gathered and chewed by adult wasps as they prey on other insects. Colonies last one year, with new queens overwintering to make new nests the following spring.
European Paper Wasp nests: Their nest resembles an upside-down umbrella shape, and the open cells can be seen from below. Queens begin forming nests from wood and live plant fibers in the spring. Most European Paper Wasp nests are a single layer of hexagonal brood cells. These wasps prefer to nest in sheltered locations, but with much greater propensity to use manmade structures than other wasps -- structures such as eaves, decks, patio furniture, outdoor garbage containers, barbecue grills, mailboxes, birdhouses and planter pots.
Nature toward humans: It's unusual for European Paper Wasps to attack unless humans approach too close to a foraging wasp or nest. They can inflict painful stings when they do attack, and like yellowjackets, European Paper Wasps can sting multiple times. It is important to note that because of this species' tendency to nest within manmade structures, European Paper Wasps are more likely to be found in areas of human traffic, increasing the chances of accidentally disturbing a hidden nest.
Compared to other species, European Paper Wasps nest earlier in the spring, in a wider variety of nest sites, most of them sheltered. They are also more aggressive and feed on a wider variety of insects. For these reasons, the European Paper Wasp numbers are growing in the U.S. and out-competing native wasps.
The European Paper Wasp is most common in countries around the Mediterranean. It's also reportedly found in southern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and China.
Good news for those who have this species in their backyard: The new W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets will catch European Paper Wasps.
October 1, 2008 in Entomology, New RESCUE! Products, Wasps, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Can't wait for ACE to discover WHY
We're excited to introduce the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets to Ace Hardware and their dealers this week in St. Louis. Ace was the first national account to recognize the potential of the W*H*Y Trap last spring, and their buyers added the product to their lawn & garden lineup without hesitation.
Ace dealers have been hoping to see a new RESCUE! product for years, and especially one that catches paper wasps.
Stay tuned for blogging from the Ace show.
September 15, 2008 in Introductions, Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, Retailers, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
W*H*Y Trap gets its close-up
The new W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets makes its debut on retail shelves early next year, and we plan to support the launch with TV advertising. We have some great TV spots in the can already, but one crucial shot we were lacking was a good close-up of the W*H*Y Trap in action with live insects buzzing around inside.
Wasp, hornet and yellowjacket colonies reach their peak at the end of summer, as we've pointed out in previous postings. And so, hoping to get a good "body count" inside the trap, we waited out the summer and set aside time last week to get that crucial close-up shot with the help of North by Northwest Productions.
We started with a trap full of European Paper Wasps, Bald-faced Hornets and Yellowjackets...
But some heavy wind forced us to move inside the garage to film it in front of an open window...
Not to worry -- here's how it looked on the screen... beautiful!
September 3, 2008 in Hornets, Introductions, Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, Video, Wasps, WHY Trap, Yellowjackets | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Tell a friend W*H*Y
Want to tell someone you know W*H*Y? We have a series of e-postcards on our www.whyistheanswer.com web site that you can easily e-mail to a friend. You can find the postcard page here.
The postcard will show up as an e-mail from you with your own personal message, and will include a link back to the site so the recipient can learn about the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets.
Here's a sampling:
August 21, 2008 in Hornets, Just fun, New RESCUE! Products, Wasps, WHY Trap, Yellowjackets | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
W*H*Y Trap elements coming together
As we near our Fall trade show season, the raw materials needed to start producing the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets are coming together. In the past two weeks, we've received elements of the packaging for the W*H*Y Trap, which makes the Marketing team quite happy.
Here's the cardboard "wrap" which goes around the trap. Note the diagram showing all 20 species that the trap catches and their corresponding markings.
Here's the foil pouch which contains the W*H*Y attractant refills:
Here's the header card that goes on top of our floor display:
And here's the display box for our W*H*Y attractant:
I'm banking on all these elements grabbing the consumer's attention in a store environment and communicating the quality of the product. Our wonderful designers at Sigma get the credit for the striking graphics, and Spokane Packaging for the design of the cardboard wrap and displays.
August 20, 2008 in Life at Sterling, New RESCUE! Products, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Where are the wasps? (or the hornets, or the yellowjackets)
So you've heard horror stories about giant European Hornets, or maybe you've read about red wasps and their fiery sting... but you're not sure if you have these nuisances in your neck of the woods.
It's WHY to the RESCUE! We have a new resource on our www.whyistheanswer.com web site for the WHY Trap. It's an interactive map that tells you which of the 20 species of wasps, hornets and yellowjackets are found in your area of the U.S.
Simply roll over each insect (it works better if you do it slowly) with your mouse pointer, and the U.S. map is highlighted with the "footprint" of where each insect is found. Then you can click on the insect if you want to find out more about its nesting habits, nature toward humans, etc.
You can find the map here.
August 11, 2008 in Helpful resources, Hornets, New RESCUE! Products, Wasps, WHY Trap, Yellowjackets | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
True Value sees the value in WHY
Another retailer with a national presence is on board to carry the WHY Trap for Wasps, Hornets and Yellowjackets:
True Value has added the WHY Trap to their warehouses, so that the thousands of True Value dealers across the country will be able to offer it to their customers. We're looking forward to showing the product to dealers at their Fall Market in Atlanta this October!
August 4, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products, Retailers, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Two more places to find the WHY Trap
The WHY Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets continues to make waves as our RESCUE! sales force presents it to their key accounts this summer. We have two more great retailers that are on board to carry the WHY Trap in 2009:
Orchard Supply Hardware has 85 stores in Northern and Southern California. They've been carrying our RESCUE! Yellowjacket Traps and Fly Traps for years, and will add the WHY Trap to their lineup next spring.
Attic Trunk is an online retailer boasting a variety of items sold for use around the home, from computers to wind chimes. In addition to carrying all of our Fly and Yellowjacket products, they carry the RESCUE! Japanese Beetle Trap. They are so enthusiastic about the WHY Trap that they've already listed it on their web site (under the "Outdoors" section).
OSH and Attic Trunk join Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart as the retailers solidly on board to carry the WHY Trap. Look for it on their shelves in early 2009!
July 29, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products, Retailers, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
More places WHERE you can find WHY
Wondering WHERE, besides Ace Hardware, you'll be able to purchase the new WHY Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets from RESCUE! when we introduce it next year?
Oh, just a few small retailers, like this one:
and this one:
and another one you may have heard of:
Yes, Lowe's, Home Depot and Wal-Mart know WHY. All three will have the WHY Trap on their shelves next year.
July 10, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products, Retailers, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
New WHY Trap commercials win awards
We learned last week that the new TV spots created for the W·H·Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets have won two 2008 Bronze Telly Awards.
Created by Jones Advertising in Seattle and produced by North by Northwest in Spokane, the TV spots won in the "Household Packaged Goods" and "Use of Humor" categories.
The 29th Annual Telly Awards competition received over 14,000 entries from ad agencies, television & cable stations, production companies, and corporations around the world. The Bronze award is the competition's second highest honor. (The Silver Telly is the top honor, and Jones Advertising won some of those several years ago for our SMARTrap and Japanese Beetle Trap spots).
Here are the two spots. The first is called "Break Room":
The second spot for the W·H·Y Trap is called "Rumble".
July 9, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products, Television, WHY Trap | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Red wasps have a new enemy
Just when you think the news about our new W·H·Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets can't get any better, our scientists go and add two new species to the list, after some extensive testing in the mid-South this spring. And they're both red wasp species -- which anyone in the southeastern U.S. knows is a real coup. Here's our press release:
New W·H·Y Trap catches two red wasps, bringing species count to 20
Spokane, WA, June 30, 2008 -- Red wasps, a significant pest problem for residents of the southeastern United States, will finally meet their nemesis in 2009: the new W·H·Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets.
Scientists at Sterling International recently added two red wasp species -- Polistes carolina and Polistes perplexus -- to the long list of insects caught in the new W·H·Y Trap from RESCUE!. Their addition brings the total count of targeted wasp, hornet and yellowjacket species to 20.
When the W·H·Y Trap lands on retail shelves in spring 2009, consumers will have one answer for these stinging, nest-building, backyard-invading insects.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a sting from a red wasp feels far more painful than stings from other species of paper wasps. Red wasps are also known for building some of the largest nests of any wasp species.
The W·H·Y Trap will catch the queens of each species in the spring before they build nests, and will capture the foraging workers throughout summer and fall. Refill attractants will be available so the trap can be used for multiple seasons.
As with other RESCUE! products, the W·H·Y Trap uses attractants rather than killing agents. Once lured inside, the insects die naturally.
Since 1982, Sterling International, Inc. has created insect traps and attractants as an alternative to sprays. Based in Spokane, Washington, the company sells its RESCUE! brand Fly Traps, Yellowjacket Traps and Japanese & Oriental Beetle Traps through home improvement centers, hardware stores and lawn & garden retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond.
Do you live in an area with red wasps? Have any red wasp stories you'd like to share? Feel free to add a comment.
June 30, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
My parents, the "WHY-vangelists"
My parents visited me over the weekend, and I armed them both with "I know WHY" t-shirts and brochures about the WHY Trap. Back home in Tucson, my mom found the perfect pair of pants in her closet to complete the ensemble: capri pants in our RESCUE! green, with a fun bee print on them to boot.
My parents have two brand spanking new Ace Hardware stores near them, which they planned to visit and WHY-vangelize by telling the owners about the WHY Trap.
And it turns out that Ace IS the place -- the first place to commit to carrying the WHY Trap and the WHY Attractant refills in its warehouses around the country in 2009! Read more in this press release.
May 14, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Coverage from the National Hardware Show
AVING Global News Network covered the debut of our W-H-Y Trap for wasps, hornets and yellowjackets last week at the National Hardware Show. Here's the link to their story and photos.
May 12, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Gang members invade our WHY Trap exhibit...
...Actually, it was just us. On Day 2 of the National Hardware Show, the RESCUE! Sales & Marketing team hammed it up in "biker gang" jackets. Alyssa was a wasp, Jim was a hornet, and Jonathan and I were yellowjackets.
Here we are approaching the Convention Center...
And in the booth...
These outfits reflect the concept we used in one of our new TV commercials for the WHY Trap. Called "Rumble", the spot shows a family in their backyard about to enjoy some hamburgers from the barbecue. Suddenly, a gang of "yellowjackets" (3 guys in yellow jackets) bust through the gate to crash the picnic. They are followed by three wasp women, and three bad hornets who close in on the family, digging into the potato salad and Kool-Aid, poking the hamburgers on the barbecue and threatening to sting. The WHY Trap comes to the rescue, as mom hangs it up in a tree to draw the "gang members" away from the family's patio.
The spot was conceived by Jones Advertising of Seattle, and produced by North by Northwest in Spokane, Washington. You can see it here.
May 9, 2008 in New RESCUE! Products | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)


text:
Professionals & Multifamily divisions boosts BG Staffing GP
BG Staffing has today reported its financial results for its second quarterly period and six months ended 26th June 2016.
The US provider of temporary staffing reported that its revenue in Q2 2016 exceeded Q2 2015 by $12.8m, an increase of 25.8%. During the quarter gross profit increased in each of its three business divisions.
Multifamily increased 48.4%, Professional increased 52.7% and Commercial increased 8.8%. The company's operating income exceeded Q2 2015 by $1.3m, an increase of 48.8%, but its net income was less than Q2 2015 by approximately $65,000, a decrease of 4.4%
During the six-month period to 26th June revenue exceeded the first six months of 2015 by $31.5m, an increase of 34.7%. Gross profit also increased in each of the company's three business divisions. Multifamily increased 47.2%, Professional increased 74.4% and Commercial increased 13.6%.
Operating income exceeded the first six months 2015 by $3.1m, an increase of 87.8%. Net income exceeded the first six months 2015 by approximately $604,000, an increase of 37.2%
Q2 2016 Pro forma revenue exceeded Q2 2015 by $4.3m, an increase of 7.3%. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2016 exceeded Q2 2015 by $0.6M, an increase of 11.5%. For the six-months to 26th June 2016 Pro forma revenue exceeded the first six months of 2015 by $11.7m, an increase of 10.6%. For the six months to 26th June 2016 Pro forma adjusted EBITDA exceeded the first six months of 2015 by $1.6m, an increase of 18.4%.
L. Allen Baker, Jr., president and chief executive, stated, "As evidenced by the continued strong growth in each of our three business segments, we continue to build upon our foundation combining organic growth and disciplined, accretive acquisitions.
"While net income and EPS were negatively impacted as the result of a $404,000 ($0.05 per diluted share) one-time debt extinguishment expense, this early elimination of high interest debt will result in less interest expense going forward. We continue our geographic and industry expansion plans and expect to finish 2016 as our strongest."

subset: commoncrawl


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Preparing for a Spring Race? - Mar 9, 2017
As many of us are preparing for a spring race, we are increasing the mileage and increasing the repetitive loads on our soft tissues. This can lead to areas of tissue tightness or stiffness that can affect our comfort and performance. You should take the time to stretch out these specific areas for a prolonged stretch period. Try holding the position 3-5 minutes a side every day for a week.
The attached image of a great quad stretch for both quads at the same time. Quads get really stiff with long runs, speed work and hill repeats. Be sure there is no pain, only strong pulling in the front of the thighs. Separate the knees and lower your buttocks to the floor. You can use a block or a stool behind your upper back or go right to the floor if you are comfortable. Stay there for 3-5 minutes.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Body positioning during running - Feb 16, 2017
We all have a natural and comfortable way of standing and running but there is a preferred form or posture to maximize your efficiency and minimize efforts to your muscles while running. Striving to get close to this can be helpful in speed and injury prevention.
You will likely need a mirror beside your treadmill or set up your video on your phone to film your position.
Optimal position is having a fairly straight alignment of the head over the shoulders, shoulders over hips, and hips over ankle joints. So, if I took a photo of you running I could draw a straight line through your ear canal, shoulder joint, hip joint and ankle when you are in the hip extended position. There is a slight forward lean that comes from your ankles of ~20 degrees. No bending from the waist at all so keep your buttocks tucked in.
With all of the treadmill running with our weather this month I thought we could have something to think about.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Benefits of Water Running - Feb 10, 2017
In this crazy weather, we may need to consider alternatives to running outdoors. Treadmill is always a good choice but be sure to vary the speed and incline during your run to avoid overuse injuries. Repetitive strain of the same tissue is one of the leading causes of running injuries. Especially to the plantarfascia, shins, calfs, achilles and hamstrings. When we run outside, these factors vary without our knowledge. This allows for changes of muscle length, recoil, different muscle use, and periodic breaks to individual tissues.
If you want to take impact or of the equation altogether and try something different, try water running. This is a great cardio activity and you can simulate the running form and focus on good core activation and body mechanics.
To water run:
- put on a water belt that they use for aqua size and go into the deep end. You can do laps in a lane as long as your feet don't touch. Alternate your feet and arms in the same pattern as running while feeling a medium firm core. This activity is really hard and much more taxing than running outdoors so cut your run time in half. I would say a 30 min workout would equate a 10-12k run at moderate pace.
Stay safe on the roads this weekend, especially with snowbanks.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Hot or cold for pain? - Feb 2, 2017
This is a question I get frequently from athletes. There are a lot of recommendations when you have an injury or soreness from running. I will try to give you my two cents.
Hot- applying heat to any tissues can improve circulation to the area and reduce tension in a tissue. If you have an injury or soreness this can assist with tissue repair and recovery by bringing repair cells to the area quicker. It may also reduce spasm in a muscle. It is ok to use heat right away after injury if it feels good. You can use hot bath, whirlpool and hot packs. Be sure to watch the area to avoid burns with heat packs.
Cold- ice and cold packs can reduce blood flow to an area and create an analgesic effect. If your main complaint is pain or excess swelling, this may be a good choice. If it feels worse after, maybe try heat next time. I wouldn't cool an area more than 10 minutes at a time.
Of course, when in doubt, ask a physio!
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Can good core strength improve running? - Jan 16, 2017
Having a solid base (our trunk) reduces the effort that the extremities have to use to propel ourselves forward. We can become faster with the same effort with improved core activation with running. Good running form has an erect trunk position with a slight forward lean from the ankles ( 5-10 degrees). The best way to work on core for runners is to focus on keeping the spine position strong while in running simulated movements. This does not imply that doing crunches, planks, back extensions are useless but they may not transfer over to the running activity as well as choosing core activation in a standing position.
Try this... stand on one foot, hold your core strong ( not your breath) and raise the opposite hip to 90 degrees while raising the alternate arm in a running type pattern. Hold 10 seconds. repeat 10 times each side. You can progress to doing this on a balance board or Bosu as long as you can hold your core steady.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
PART 2: Shin Splint Prevention - January 12, 2017
Another reason for the development of shin splints apart from a drastic change in training is tightness in the calf muscles. This can create a shortened contact of the foot on the ground. The ankle cannot be flat and flex forward at the same time if the muscles behind the foot are tight. This will force you to lift your foot earlier in the cycle via contraction of the shin muscles. This results in overuse of this tissues and then.... yup, PAIN!
Good news!!! We can avoid this by stretching your calfs after you run or do any impact/jumping activities.
Following are the two calf muscle stretches. One with back knee bent, other one is straight. Hold each position for 60-90 seconds, both sides.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
PART 1: Avoiding Shin Splints - Jan 5, 2017
Shin splints are an inflammation of the tissue on the front of a persons shins. It can hit either one or both legs. It can feel like sharp pain, tightness, pressure, or cramping. It is unpleasant and can definitely make running difficult.
Prevention is the key to this one. Causes are often a drastic change in training pattern; beginning hill training with too many repeats, rapid change in speed (new run partner or pace), a change in type of running shoe and using them for a longer run, a drastic increase in volume or a significant time off then returning to same run pattern.
If you experience these symptoms, you cannot beat it. You need to take a minute and identify the cause and then rest until the pain subsides (usually a few days off). You could swim or bike in its place just no impact. Slowly return to your running and be conscious of the causative factor.
If the pain doesn't subside or you cannot identify the cause. Come see me, there are other causes that are person specific.
Remember, most pain with running comes from changes to your routine. Take caution with big changes.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Hip Flexor Stretch - December 29, 2016
Many of us spend many of our waking hours in a seated position, whether at work or relaxing at home. This can lead to shortening of the tissues on the front side of our hip and thigh. This is less than ideal for maintaining a good running form. It reduces our ability to extend our hip, decreases function of the gluts, and forces us into forward bending of the trunk and reduces our core activation. A good stretch to perform 2 to 3 times a week can reduce this significantly and improve our running form and speed over time.
Try this stretch for 5 minutes each side 2-3 times a week. It should not be painful but comfortable and you should stay still rather than bouncing as much as possible.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Hurt vs Harm? - December 16, 2016
How do we know whether to run through the pain or to stop running when something hurts?
It can be tricky sometimes to know if a pain is ok to run through or not. Here are a few guidelines to go by;
- Discomfort from a previous workout that is present in large muscles and usually both sides of the body is often delayed onset muscles soreness. This is still microtrauma to tissue so go easy and avoid an intense run in this state.
- pain should not worsen with running. If something is tight and uncomfortable when you start but dissipates as you warm up, it is often ok.
- if pain is worse while running or after a run you should take some time to allow it to heal.
- if a pain have been present for more than 5 days, you should consult a health care professional. It is better to check it out than make it worse.
- if you felt a sharp pain in an area while running that is causing ongoing pain or spasms, you should stop running.
- bruising and swelling are not normal. You should rest and get it checked if it persists more than 5 days or worsens.
- numbness and tingling is not abnormal symptom. It is a result of a nerve compression. If it persists during your run, you should rest and get it checked if it does not dissipate after a day or so.
As runners we are used to a certain level of pain with training. Saying this, you will also know if a new pain is unusual. You know your body well. If it feels wrong, rest and/or get it checked out. You will save more time off running in the long run by nursing an injury really early.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Myth vs. Reality - December 8, 2016
Myth: to avoid running injuries, it is best to run 2-3 times a week and cross train with cycling and swimming to equal 6 times a week.
Reality: No study has successfully quantified optimal or ideal frequency of training.
My educated opinion: The majority of running overuse injuries are weight bearing pathologies involving low and medium metabolism tissues. Although reducing impact on these tissues can reduce the accumulated stress on them, it may also not allow enough stress to build up the tolerance needed for long distance running and increase the risk of injury. Cross training has many advantages on muscle balance, flexibility and cardiovascular system but you should try to run 4 days a week minimum while training for longer events. Adding 10-20 minutes of impact on the days of cross training can reduce the chances of overuse injuries, odd as it sounds.
Another advantage of frequent running is the unconscious learning of efficient mechanics.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Foam rolling or stretching? - November 3, 2016
Actually, both!
Foam rolling and stretching achieve different goals in the body's recovery.
Foam rolling is the use of a dense foam in the form of a roller 3-6 feet in length in order to perform self myofascial release in the soft tissues. It can be use to remove adhesions of fascia to muscle tissues (rolling from origin to insertion of a muscle) release trigger points (holding 60 seconds on tender spots in tissues), improve circulation, and encourage tissue recovery.
Stretching is not the same as rolling. Stretching is the act of prolonged lengthening of muscle tissue after its repeated shortening during exercise or sustained postures (i.e. Siting at a desk all day yields short hip flexor). Stretching should be completed after activity and not before. Muscles needed to be stretched vary from person to person. I would only focus on muscles that you feel are tight post run. For a good stretch, the position should be maintained from 2-5 minutes. No bouncing as this can cause a stretch reflex or muscle damage. No pain should ever be felt during a stretching as this's damage tissue.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery
Myth vs. Reality - October 20, 2016
Many practices and beliefs have persisted over time without any challenge from a process of scientific analysis. It is essential to challenge theories with new knowledge, evidence, and analysis repetition of results.
Myth 1- Cause of Running Injuries
Myth- Most running injuries are caused by external factors ( shoes, running surfaces, etc) or intrinsic factors ( poor flexibility, muscle weakness, abnormal biomechanics..).
Reality- The main cause of running injuries is the amount of stress applied to the tissues. Nearly 80% of running injuries are attributable to an increase in training volume or intensity.
Your community Physiotherapist,
Julie McGivery


text:
I'm a learner. A figure-it-out-er. Not a school textbook kind of learner (sorry, Math!) but a hands-on, "I want to know how to do that" sort of gal. I believe it's never too late in life to learn something new. And teaching yourself something new gives you the biggest emotional boost you can imagine! You didn't used to be able to do it but you took the time to teach yourself and NOW YOU CAN DO IT! Showing your kids you can teach yourself something is also a wonderful example for your children. Let's talk about learning new things and how to go about teaching yourself something new.
Parts of this post originally appeared on my blog Painted Butterfly Studio in February 2012. Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Clicking through and making a purchase helps me in a small financial way, thank you!
Still Learning After All these Years
When I was about 7, the only bike I had access to was my dad's rusty old bike from when he was a kid. It was a sturdy pink girl's beach cruiser and Dad had used it to deliver newspapers. As the oldest of 8 kids, I'm sure he didn't even care that it was pink, he had a bike!
And I didn't care that it was rusty, had flat tires and weighed about 50 lbs. I had a bike!
I taught myself how to ride it in the backyard. I would lean the bike against the fence, climb up and perhaps get one or two pedals before I'd fall off. The bike was so large that I couldn't actually sit on the cushion and reach the pedals at the same time. So I had to pedal standing up (I'm sure I had thighs like steel back then!).
I spent a full summer in the backyard, practicing on that old bike with the flat tires on the grass. Occasionally I'd call my mom outside to watch me.
For Christmas that year, I got my first new bike! It was beautiful. I remember that it was blue and had streamers from the handles. And a banana-seat! That morning my Dad was going to put the bikes in the trunk of the car and he said he would teach us how to ride them that afternoon at my aunt's house.
"Dad, let me try and ride! I just know I can do it."
He was hesitant. I remember my mom chimed in and said that I'd been practicing on his old bike in the backyard for months.
I swung my leg over the bike and took off pedaling. I remember how fast the bike was and how easy it was to pedal. After months of being on flat tires, this was it…I was riding!!
As I rode back towards my Dad, I remember his smile and how proud he looked. I'd done it. I'd put my mind to it and I'd taught myself, without anyone's help. And that thought has carried with me my whole life.
Teaching Myself What I Want to Learn
When I wanted to learn how to knit, I got a pair of needles, some yarn and a book from the library and I taught myself. It was hard, especially because I'm a lefty and the book showed it from the right side. I had to reverse the directions in my head but I know how to knit a scarf!
When I want to try a new recipe, I buy the ingredients and I make it. I took sewing lessons in high school to learn the basics. When I want to make an outfit, I tweak a little here and there on the pattern and I make it my own.
As an adult and as a mom, I'm still learning, yes. And I hope that I'll forever be learning. I know that there are tons of other things that I'd love to know how to do (play piano, bake bread from scratch and plant a garden). And I have many years ahead to learn them. NOTE – When I originally wrote this post in 2012, I'd written that I wanted to learn how to bake bread from scratch. I'm happy to note that I've since learned how to do this!
It's just the start for my kids. I want to foster in them that they can be their own best teacher. That with determination, anything is possible. And I'm hoping that these little moments (like learning how to ride a bike) are the turning points in their life that it was in mine.
Teach Yourself Something New – What to Learn & How to Do It
Is there something you always wanted to learn? This is the time! Here are a handful of ideas on things you can learn NOW and tips on how to do it.
- Playing the piano. If you don't have a piano at home, start with a keyboard. There are online lessons or DVDs to watch that will teach you. Or if you need one-on-one, find a local piano teacher who can help you start with the basics.
- As a seamstress, I hear from friends all the time that they wish they could sew. That's easy – buy a simple sewing machine, some fabric and practice! There are plenty of simple, straight edged patterns you can follow (like pillowcases, tablecloth, elastic waist skirt or a blanket).
- How to do a cartwheel. Or any gymnastics skill. Sorry to break it to you but as an adult, you're more prone to injury if you aren't already in tip-top shape. I'm a tumbling teacher (I've been teaching at a local rec center for 20 years). You don't want to just throw yourself around the living room or on the grass at the park to learn a tumbling maneuver. Your best bet is a local gymnastics school or YMCA that offers specific classes geared to adults.
- Want to take beautiful photographs? You don't even need the fanciest camera, just a few handy tips about lighting can help make a big difference. Find a book (I bought Digital SLR Cameras and Photography For Dummies)
- Auto mechanic basics can not only save money, they come in handy during an emergency. At the least learning how to change a tire is a great thing!
- I taught myself how to braid my own hair in high school but had a trickier time when it came to braiding my daughter's! There are some really cool books and online videos with hair styling ideas.
- Learning a new language can open up a whole new world! I've never been able to grasp languages myself but I had a friend who wanted to learn Italian so she took a class at a local community college.
- Is there a kitchen skill you've always wanted to learn? There are so many fun cooking classes available that will teach basics like efficiently chopping onions! And of course a helpful cook book will help you expand your horizons and help you get creative.
- Looking for enlightenment? Consider a Bible study at your local church, a small group discussion or find topics online that will help strengthen your spirit.
- Always wanted to be an artist? If you make art, then you're an artist! So grab a few supplies and start creating what comes to you. No need to obsess about perfection, just draw, paint or create what makes you happy (and don't get wrapped up in Pinterest or a so-called "fail"!)
How to Learn
- Ask around. Chances are you want to learn something and someone you know already knows how to do it. Perhaps you can trade skills?
- The library is a great resource for books. They also sometimes conduct free classes.
- Community college. If you can't take a full course, many schools have weekend "crash" courses for a nominal fee.
- YouTube and Google. The internet is your teacher. Type it in and you're sure to find a tutorial or video.
What's the one thing YOU'VE always wanted to learn? Share with me in the comments!


text:
Date of birth: 10/10/14
Gender: Female
Snuggles was caught from the streets by Michel Rescue Dogs. It was a challenging rescue and Snuggles arrived to GDS with the most horrendous case of sarcoptic mange we have ever seen. We were concerned that she would not survive given the severity of her condition. We are thrilled that she is recovering and her fur in growing in fluffy! Unfortunately, Snuggle was positive for leishmania and is being treated. Her kidneys were not affected however so we hope to see her recover to a healthy state. She is still shy with new people but coming around slowly. One can only imagine what she suffered and how she was treated while living on the streets. We are hoping for a local home for this tiny, lovable, fur ball!
Yes, I am interested in sponsoring and/or adopting Snuggles!


text: On Saturday 12 December 2009 02:09:52 Alberto Villa wrote: > could it be because my PACKAGESITE is actually an empty directory? ok, i see that i should use the default (8-current), but the program shouldn't fail anyway -- Alberto Villa <villa.alberto at gmail.com> http://wiki.FreeBSD.org/AlbertoVilla I don't do it for the money. -- Donald Trump, Art of the Deal


text: Speech Sound Disorders in Children: Exploring Subgroups Section Editor(s): Tyler, Ann A. PhD, CCC-SLP; Issue Editor Topics in Language Disorders: April/June 2011 - Volume 31 - Issue 2 - p 93–95 doi: 10.1097/TLD.0b013e318217e4fb Foreword Free Article OutlineOutline Article MetricsMetrics REFERENCES The classification of types or subgroups of speech sound disorder (SSD) has been of interest in the last decade, because the heterogeneity in this population has been acknowledged and examined. Currently, there are several widely recognized classification systems based on etiology (Shriberg, 2010), surface speech patterns (Broomfield & Dodd, 2004; Dodd, Zhu, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2006), or underlying deficits (Stackhouse & Wells, 1997). The latter two systems focus more squarely on symptoms and proximal causes of possible subtypes of SSD. The etiological system is aimed at delineating diagnostic markers related to underlying genetic influences. Although proposed subtypes differ across these systems, similarities among them suggest that there are at least three broad groups: (1) a group with speech delay/disorder whose errors are primarily substitutions and omissions of differing degrees of involvement/severity; (2) a group with speech errors that are articulatory in nature, characterized by distortions; and (3) a group with speech, segmental, and suprasegmental features that are consistent with dysarthria, apraxia, or both. Such classification systems are relevant not only for furthering our characterization of childhood SSD, but more importantly for testing the efficiency of current treatments and development of new treatments uniquely suited for a specific subtype. In this issue, investigators explore the classification of subtypes with different methods, explore behavioral traits associated with unique subtypes, and examine the efficiency of several interventions. The issue begins with an age-old question, revisited by Barbara Dodd, regarding whether or not it is important to distinguish between a delay and a disorder. Dodd asks this question because it pertains to the children's underlying cognitive-linguistic skills and, in particular, deficits that may separate groups and be important for developing effective interventions. Dodd examines cognitive flexibility and nonverbal rule abstraction in two groups; one is differentially diagnosed as delayed because there are speech error patterns seen in typical development, but not appropriate any longer for the child's age. The second group is differentially diagnosed as disordered because of the presence of speech error patterns that are atypical during development, as represented in a large normative sample. The disordered group performed more poorly on a task requiring shifting attention between conceptual domains and on one involving rule abstraction using computer animation. Such tasks also involve memory and inhibition and thus point to general cognitive processes in phonological acquisition. Dodd suggests that knowledge of such deficits can inform treatment so that activities focus on rules and patterns, as well as expressive output, and that this should lead to improvements in phonological awareness and literacy. These most challenging difficulties in the area of literacy and academic achievement for children with persistent SSD are also at the heart of the work described by Lewis and colleagues in the next article. They too examine cognitive-linguistic skills thought to be closely associated with behavioral traits of disorders such as SSD for the purposes of genetic analysis. Measures of oral motor skills, phonological awareness, phonological memory, speeded naming, and vocabulary are compared for a large sample of 4- to 7-year-olds referred from clinical caseloads of practicing speech-language pathologists. Skills are compared as the sample is partitioned using three different classification systems to identify different subgroups—one based on severity, one on the cooccurrence of language impairment (LI) and reading disorder (RD) with SSD, and the last on subtypes encountered in clinical practice. Phonological memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary differentiated subtypes among each of the classification systems. Children with cooccurring SSD + LI + RD performed more poorly in both phonological memory and phonological awareness than children with SSD only or SSD and just one other cooccurring disorder. Children with SSD + LI also performed more poorly on these measures than children with SSD only. These results reinforce the clinical impression that SSD often cooccurs with other disorders and manifests a variety of underlying deficits best explained by the Multiple Deficit Model (Pennington, 2006; Pennington & Bishop, 2009). Appealing to this same multiple deficit model, the next article describes an intervention study involving preschool children with severe cooccurring SSD + LI and multifaceted needs. These needs in oral language, speech intelligibility, and phonological awareness/emerging literacy were addressed differently using two previously tested and proven, efficacious interventions. Tyler, Gillon, and colleagues sought to determine whether a phonological awareness intervention could be successfully provided in younger children with cooccurring impairments and to examine the extent of direct and indirect gains in skills addressed across both interventions. Intervention groups made significant gains in all measures – speech, language, and phoneme awareness—and the gains in percent consonants correct were large. There were, however, only trends favoring better performance for the skills targeted specifically by each intervention. Such results magnify the impact of multiple underlying deficits and long-term need for interventions that target affected cognitive-linguistic skills. Also in search of skills that are linked to behavioral traits and shed light on genetic influences, Peter and Raskind explore motor abilities in multigenerational families. Their approach presumes that it may be more fruitful to study multiple generations of families for unique subtypes rather than a large heterogeneous population to identify candidate genes. They investigate repetitive and alternating speech and hand motor tasks, adjusting for change in these tasks across the life span. What their results provide is evidence that genetic mechanisms cluster differently in different families. Two families shared similar motor deficits underlying SSD consistent with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Clinically, this verifies the importance of identifying the crucial underlying skill(s) and designing and testing interventions aimed at diminishing the behavioral symptoms to eliminate long-term effects. It also means that if we have the luxury to be able to identify the probable underlying mechanism in any one family, we will know more about the type of intervention to provide. In the final article, Preston and Koenig explore whether phonetic variability in repeated productions can be used to identify subgroups in children with residual SSD with an average age of 12;1 They approach this little studied group with no a priori assumptions about subtype classifications. Although acoustic and transcription-based measures were not correlated and did not differentiate groups with high or low variability, there were associations between transcription-based measures and language skills. Once again, these findings lead us to questions concerning the relation between less accurate speech production and poorer language skills. As a group, the articles in this issue bring researchers and clinicians closer to understanding the critical underlying skills that may be disrupted in different types of SSD, whether those are identified by type of surface speech error pattern or cooccurring condition such as LI or RD. Those critical skills appear to be primarily cognitive-linguistic; phonological memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, cognitive flexibility, and rule abstraction. For some cases, especially those where CAS is suspected, there may be slowed motor sequencing, detectable across generations of a family. Clinically, these findings implore us to investigate interventions targeted specifically to these skills in well-defined and documented clinical subgroups. Such is the kind of intervention study reported in this issue. It joins a growing literature that suggests for children with multiple deficits, interventions must integrate oral language and phoneme awareness/early literacy skills. One important element is emerging from this intervention research: Speech intelligibility need not be the sole focus of the intervention. As long as speech production activities, such as minimal pairs, are integrated with other goals, gains appear to be a downstream byproduct of various cognitive-linguistic interventions. Thus, when we are assured that a motor impairment is not operating, an integrated focus on linguistic rule and pattern learning, phonological memory, and phonological awareness may be the most efficacious for clinical cases from the typical subgroups we encounter as clinicians. Ann A. Tyler, PhD, CCC-SLP Issue EditorBack to Top | Article Outline REFERENCES Broomfield J., Dodd B. (2004). Children with speech and language disability: caseload characteristics. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 39, 303–334. Cited Here... | PubMed | CrossRef Dodd B., Zhu H., Crosbie S., Holm A., Ozanne A. (2006). Diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. Cited Here... Pennington B. F. (2006). From single to multiple deficit models of developmental disorders. Cognition 101, 385–413. Cited Here... | PubMed | CrossRef Pennington B. F., Bishop D. V. M. (2009). Relations among speech, language, and reading disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 283–306. Cited Here... | View Full Text | PubMed | CrossRef Shriberg L. D. (2010). Childhood speech sound disorders: From postbehaviorism to the postgenomic era. In R. Paul & P. Flipsen (Eds.), Speech sound disorders in children (PP. 1–33). San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing. Cited Here... Stackhouse J., Wells B. (1997). Children's speech and literacy difficulties. London: Whurr. Cited Here... © 2011 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins


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From Center Valley, Pennsylvania, USA:
I am a freshman in college, and am just getting over mono. A week after I was feeling better, I began getting really thirsty and frequently urinating, and the clinic at school tested my sugar via a prick of my finger, and it was normal. However, a few days later, my symptoms still exist (frequently urinating, extreme thirst, and I've been taking naps like I was when I had mono). Has mono virus has ever been proved to cause anything related to diabetes? I will return to the health care providers here at school in a few days, but I was wondering what you think.
Some viral diseases, such as mono, can trigger the onset of clinical diseases such as diabetes. In addition, some viruses (that's not the case for mono) might also start the autoimmune disease process that many years after leads to clinical diabetes.
Original posting 29 Apr 2003
Posted to Research: Causes and Prevention and Diagnosis and Symptoms
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- Telephone:
- 01484 691761 | 07572 715865
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STUNNING EXAMPLE OF THIS TOP OF THE RANGE SUV AUTOMATIC, HUGE SPECIFICATION WITH SUPERB AUTOMATIC GEARBOX, SMOOTH DELIVERY OF POWER WITH EXCELLENT 1.6 PETROL ENGINE, IN SHIMMERING PEARL WHITE WITH FULL BLACK LEATHER WITH SILVER STITCHING, GREAT TO DRIVE AND SUPER LOW RUNNING COSTS..... THIS IS A ONE OWNER CAR WITH FULL SUPPORTING NISSAN MAIN DEALER SERVICE HISTORY....... , 3 months warranty, Full dealership history, Excellent bodywork, Black Full leather interior - Excellent Condition, Pearlescent Pearl White, 1 owner, We at The Small Auto Company pride ourselves in selecting only the best small automatic cars. Only, £11,475
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Pearlescent Paint, ONE OWNER FROM NEW, TOP OF THE RANGE EXAMPLE, ONLY 12,000 MILES WITH FULL NISSAN HISTORY, FULL LEATHER INTERIOR, SAT/NAV, REVERSING CAMERA'S, 17in Urban Alloy Wheels, 5.8in Touch Screen, Automatic Climate Control, Automatic Wipers, Bluetooth Phone Integration, CD Radio, AUX Socket for MP3 Players, USB Port, Colour Reversing Camera, Cruise Control and Speed Limiter, DAB & Internet Radio, Drive Computer, Front and Rear Electric Windows, Heated Front Seats, I-Key with Start/Stop Push Button, Low Tyre Pressure Indicator, New NissanConnect with 5.8in Touch Screen Navigation, Privacy Glass, Upholstery - Premium Leather Seats with Piping, 3x3 point rear seat belts, 6 Speakers, 60/40 Folding Rear Seats, ABS with Brake Assist, Air conditioning, Airbags, Alloy wheels, Armrest with Coloured Stitching, Automatic Lights, Black Headliner, Blind Spot Warning, Body Coloured Bumpers, CD Player, Child locks & Isofix system, Cruise control, Cupholders x 2, Daytime Running Lights (LED Upper Combi Light), Centre Rear Seat Belt, Drivers Seat Height Adjuster, Electric windows, Engine Immobiliser, Electrically Adjustable, Electric Folding and Heated Door Mirrors, Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Folding rear seats, Front 12V Socket, Front Fog Lights, Front Seat Belts with Load Limiter and Pretensioner, Front and Rear Head Restraints, Front and Rear Side Airbags, Glovebox, Grey Centre Console, Heated Rear Screen, Heated seats, Height adjustable drivers seat, Immobiliser, ISOfix Childseat Anchorage Points (Rear x2), Leather Steering Wheel, Leather seats, Lumbar support, Outside Temperature Gauge, Parking aid, Passengers Airbag with Cut - Off Switch, Power steering, Radio, Rear Door Child Locks, Rear Wiper with Intermittent, Remote Audio Control on Steering Wheel, Remote Central Locking, Leather Gear Knob, Satellite navigation, Tilt - Adjustable Steering Wheel, Third Brake Light, Traction control
- 201811062183194
- 2015
- 65
- £11,475
- 1148
- 12,000
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Vehicle summary
|Body style
|Engine size
|1598 cc
|Fuel type
|Number of doors
|Number of seats
|Gearbox type
|Continuously Variable Transmission
|CO2 emissions
|139 g/km
|Insurance group
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (miles)
|60000 miles
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (years)
|3 years
|Standard paintwork guarantee
|3 years
Performance & economy
|Fuel consumption (urban)
|No details available
|Fuel consumption (extra urban)
|No details available
|Fuel consumption (combined)
|47.1 mpg
|0 - 60 mph
|No details available
|Top speed
|No details available
|Engine power
|115 bhp
|Engine torque
|No details available
|1565 mm
|Height inclusive of roof rails
|No details available
|4135 mm
|2530 mm
|1765 mm
|Width including mirrors
|No details available
|Fuel tank capacity
|No details available
|Minimum kerb weight
|No details available
|Interior features
|Exterior features
|Outside Temperature Gauge
|Body Coloured Bumpers
|Drive Computer
|17in Urban Alloy Wheels
|Black Headliner
|Electrically Adjustable, Electric Folding and Heated Door Mirrors
|Front 12V Socket
|Rear Wiper with Intermittent
|I-Key with Start/Stop Push Button
|Drivers Seat Height Adjuster
|Bluetooth Phone Integration
|Grey Centre Console
|Automatic Wipers
|CD Radio, AUX Socket for MP3 Players, USB Port
|Heated Rear Screen
|Privacy Glass
|Remote Audio Control on Steering Wheel
|Heated Front Seats
|Leather Gear Knob
|Front and Rear Electric Windows
|Sports Seats
|Cruise Control and Speed Limiter
|New NissanConnect with 5.8in Touch Screen Navigation
|Cupholders x 2
|DAB & Internet Radio
|Upholstery - Premium Leather Seats with Piping
|Automatic Climate Control
|6 Speakers
|Leather Steering Wheel
|Tilt - Adjustable Steering Wheel
|5.8in Touch Screen
|Armrest with Coloured Stitching
|60/40 Folding Rear Seats
|Drivers Airbag
|Low Tyre Pressure Indicator
|Blind Spot Warning
|Third Brake Light
|Daytime Running Lights (LED Upper Combi Light)
|ABS with Brake Assist
|Colour Reversing Camera
|Rear Door Child Locks
|Speed Sensitive Power Steering
|Front and Rear Head Restraints
|Passengers Airbag with Cut - Off Switch
|Front and Rear Side Airbags
|Remote Central Locking
|Electronic Stability Program (ESP)
|Centre Rear Seat Belt
|Front Seat Belts with Load Limiter and Pretensioner
|Lane Departure Warning, Moving Object Detection and Around View Monitor
|Front Fog Lights
|Automatic Lights
|ISOfix Childseat Anchorage Points (Rear x2)
|Engine Immobiliser
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This includes MPG figures which are calculated under European Standards, in test conditions, and will vary under normal driving conditions. The information displayed above describes the typical specification of the most recent model of this vehicle. It is not the exact specification for the actual vehicle being offered for sale which may vary. Specifications for older models may also vary. Please contact us prior to purchase to confirm the exact specification of this vehicle.
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The emergence of the 'Third World' is generally traced to onset of the Cold War and decolonization in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s the "three worlds of development" were central to the wider dynamics of the changing international order. By the 1980s, Third Worldism had peaked entering a period of dramatic decline that paralleled the end of the Cold War. Into the 21st century, the idea of a Third World and even the pursuit of some form of Third Worldism has continued to be advocated and debated. For some it has passed into history, and may never have had as much substance as it was credited with, while others seek to retain or recuperate the Third World and give Third Worldism contemporary relevance. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction this edited volume brings together a wide range of important contributions. Collectively they offer a powerful overview from a variety of angles of the history and contemporary significance of Third Worldism in international affairs. The question remains; did the Third World exist, what was it, does it still have intellectual and political purchase or do we live in a global era that can be described as After the Third World?
This book was previously published as a special issue of Third world Quarterly.
1 After the Third World? History, destiny and the fate of Third Worldism Mark T Berger 2 Using and abusing the concept of the Third World: geopolitics and the comparative political study of development and underdevelopment Vicky Randall 3 The rise of neo-Third Worldism? The Indonesian trajectory and the consolidation of illiberal democracy Vedi R Hadiz 4 The hares, the hounds and the African National Congress: on joining the Third World in post-apartheid South Africa John S Saul 5 The Second Age of the Third World: from primitive accumulation to global public goods? David Moore 6 Re-crossing a different water: colonialism and Third Worldism in Fiji Devleena Ghosh 7Spectres of the Third World: global modernity and the end of the three worlds Arif Dirlik 8 Transforming centre–periphery relations: the empire of capital and the making and unmaking of the Third World Fouad Makki 9 From national bourgeoisie to rogues, failures and bullies: the contradictions of 21st century imperialism and the unravelling of the Third World Radhika Desai 10 Reconstituting the Third World? Poverty reduction and territoriality in the global politics of development Heloise Weber 11 Beyond the Third World: imperial globality, global coloniality and anti-globalisation social movements Arturo Escobar 12 Third Worldism and the lineages of global fascism: the regrouping of the global South in the neo-liberal era Rajeev Patel and Philip McMichael 13 Globalising the Zapatistas: from Third World solidarity to global solidarity? Thomas Olesen
THIRDWORLDS will focus on the political economy, development and cultures of those parts of the world that have experienced the most political, social, and economic upheaval, and which have faced the greatest challenges of the postcolonial world under globalisation: poverty, displacement and diaspora, environmental degradation, human and civil rights abuses, war, hunger, and disease.
THIRDWORLDS serves as a signifier of oppositional emerging economies and cultures ranging from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and even those 'Souths' within a larger perceived North, such as the U.S. South and Mediterranean Europe. The study of these otherwise disparate and discontinuous areas, known collectively as the Global South, demonstrates that as globalisation pervades the planet, the south, as a synonym for subalterity, also transcends geographical and ideological frontiers.


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- Misconfigured System an Emerging Threat
- Manufacturing, Energy Targeted Industries
- Cyber Crime Network Dismantled
- Ex-CIA Officer gets 20 Years
- SHARP Boosts Bottom Line for WV Fabricator
- Fuji Electric Fixes Alpha7 PC Loader
- Schneider Mitigations for Modicon Controllers
- Omron Working on Network Configurator for DeviceNet Fix
Chemical Safety Incidents
NIST Revises Random Number Generation
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 @ 04:07 PM gHale
In response to concerns about cryptographic security, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revised its recommended methods for generating random numbers, which is a crucial element in protecting private messages and other types of electronic data.
The move implements changes to the methods proposed by NIST last year in a draft document issued for public comment.
NIST Updates ICS Security Guide
Grant Money for Security Projects
Students Defend 'Operation Transit Storm'
Cyber Lab Available for Training
The updated document, "Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators," describes algorithms to reliably generate random numbers, a key step in data encryption.
One of the most significant changes to the document is the removal of the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm, often referred to conversationally as the "Dual Elliptic Curve random number generator."
That algorithm spawned controversy because of concerns it might contain a weakness that attackers could exploit to predict the outcome of random number generation. NIST continues to recommend the other three algorithms included in the previous version of the Recommendation document, which released in early 2012.
The revised version also contains several other changes. One is the CTR_DRBG — one of the three remaining random number algorithms — and allows additional options for its use. Another change recommends reintroducing randomness into deterministic algorithms as often as it is practical, because refreshing them provides additional protection against attack. The document also includes a link to examples that can help developers to implement the SP 800-90A random number generators correctly.
The revised publication reflects public comments received on a draft version for the "Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators."
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Radiator details and specifications
The Hts is not your standard towel rail when finished in one of the classic metallic finishes achieved by K8 Radiatori. With its classic design, excellent heat output and versatility, the Hts will prove a statement piece within any bathroom setting. For more information, please call the Walney Sales Office on 03332 400 636.


text: Looking for a nice gift? How about a La Bota Diner Cheque?! Give friends, family or colleges a great night with the La Bota Diner Cheque. The amount of the cheque you can determine yourself and it's valid endlessly. Please visit La Bota for more information or call us on 071-5146340.


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What can we do for you?
Magenta is a full service Advertising Agency founded recently in Egypt yet supported by a wealth of knowledge and experience brought together by its team and founders making Magenta the local creative house that speaks the language and understands the market and its uniqueness.
Years experience
Completed projects
Happy clients
Days a week
Magenta provides clients with results-focused, full service advertising agency solutions. With in-house resources and both online and offline marketing expertise, we are able to deliver creative promotions and advertising services at highly competitive rates. Unlike a traditional advertising agency, Magenta has the capacity to develop, produce and deploy fully integrated marketing services with both online and offline components.
Magenta Advertising Agency
Do you know that Magenta name is not just a print color " CMYK" !! Magenta is a beautiful city in Italy where our Founder lived and studied Graphic arts. He has ben Influenced by that culture and decided to transfer this culture to Egypt. Then our story is began .. Year 1859 there was a war between the French and the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in the city of magenta, the city was famous for its type of dyes named Fuchsia, After the French victory and for other marketing reasons they changed the name of these dyes from Fuchsia to Magenta. On 2004 there was a creative group of youth whom founded magenta company which based on the cooperation the loving recipe among them . Magenta is an advertising agency which is smart, creative, and innovative to provide top quality of advertising service to reach our customers aim and let them the most special ones in Egypt and International market↓


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MATR by spurse
Our world is rapidly changing: new forms of time are emerging: shockingly rapid events and extremely long events -- millions of years long -- that are shaping us, and the world, in as yet unknowable ways. These forms of time are little sensed -- for after all how do we sense such slow changes? This project, MATR, seeks to engage this question by developing a "sense organ" for hearing new forms of time. This app, designed by the research collective spurse, is part an experimental music generator, part a wayfinding device and part a sensing system for large scale forces.
How does it work? MATR streams data from large scale and micro scale temporal phenomena and transforms it via non-linear processes into a dimensional sound field, attuning one to fundamentally unseeable large and small scale forces. The pulse, amplitude, and timbre of this interactive sound experiment will be completely controlled by the collected data variables. Please join us in evolving this work, download, use and tell us what happened -- does it change how you sense, move, or interact?
During the 2011 CAFKA bienial: "Survive. Resist.", spurse has set up a temporary research site outside the Kitchener City Hall (Ontario, Canada) where the public may be introduced to the use of MATR. Participants can participate in specific research exercises, collect data and bring their experiences back to the research center. This information will be fused to evolve the sense organ and help to broaden the scope of MATR research. This app has been developed in collaboration with the Communitech App Factory, and the arts organization CAFKA by spurse.
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch


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Market Leader in Ribbon and Narrow Fabric Technology
The Original since 1887: For over 125 years the Swiss enterprise Jakob Müller AG has been developing innovative technology for the ribbon and narrow fabric industry and is today the global market leader.
Global Presence
The sun never sets on Jakob Müller AG. Worldwide there are more than 1000 employees working on four continents and a representative network covering 60 countries.
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Customer Focus
Müller products are the benchmark for performance, quality and safety. Optimal customer benefit is assured with perfect service covering technical support, customer specific training and rapid delivery of spare parts.
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Systems and Solutions
Jakob Müller AG's product portfolio covers all the equipment needs of the ribbon and narrow fabric manufacturing industry. A single source from yarn warping, through to final weaving, knitting, crocheting and label manufacture.
More information


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But this week, we are back with a vengeance. Well, maybe not a vengeance, but we are back anyway. Aaaand actually we've just learned that this is the last one, so hey we're back for one!
I loved high school so much. I had good friends, loved my classes and activities, was good at school which helped, was the thinnest I've ever been in my life and spent my days zipping around in Jerome (my car, read the post!). My favourite class (besides choir, we were Glee before Glee was Glee, fool) was Advanced Placement European History. It just sounds super exciting, right? Besides the basic reasons I loved the class (Europe schools America in history SO hard!) it was the way Mr. Stan made everything come to life.
|Riding a flamingo on Mr. Stan's lawn in high school
My favourite thing we did in AP Euro was when learning about the Luddites, who protested against newly developed labour-saving machinery from 1811 to 1817 by destroying the new technoogy - we brought in our own technology (that we no longer needed or worked), and took to it with axes and giant hammers! Talk about an affective lesson! I brought in an old microwave I think, and we smashed it to bits. Just so cool.
Mr. Stan had a bust of Lenin on his desk throughout the year, and on my last day of school, I took him and left a ransom note saying he was going travelling for the summer - I took him with me on my family trip to Europe, photographed him in front of landmarks and in funny positions, and sent them to Mr. Stan weekly with an email address I set up - firstname.lastname@example.com. It was so awesome, and a friend of mine later took him on another trip and took over the email.
OMG I am such a nerd.
There are a few memories that stand out from my entire time at secondary school. In the UK, secondary school goes from ages 11 - 16 - so for me they were probably my most formative years.
When I started secondary school I was unlucky enough to be separated from my primary school best friend due to a mix up in Sam's. We had the chance to pick a friend to be put in a tutor group with and I put Sam - my best friend of 5 years and ended up with a Sam I barely knew - sad times! On the plus side, I was put in a tutor group with a girl I knew from my swimming club - so at least I had someone.
It turned out that was not the blessing I thought it was. The girl - lets refer to her as W - had come with her own group of friends and none of them welcomed me as a new friend. In fact, as school goes they saw me as a threat and did not want me around. In the first week when I accidentally put my arm through a Bunsen burner - subsequently burning off my entire sleeve - they took great joy in coming up with all kinds of fire related names, all unpleasant!
For two years I took their unpleasantness and bullying and as we did a lot of classes in our tutor groups so I could never escape them. They trapped me in lockers, 'lost' my homework and did everything they could to make going to school horrible. The thing was I realised pretty quickly I didn't want to be W's friend, but I was trapped in classes with few other people to turn to.
As the years went on classes became divided by ability and I gradually found new friends. It was this time that stood out to me over any other. One nondescript day I had a geography class and as usual we were passing a notebook of notes along the row of girls I was sat with. On the row was a girl I hadn't met till that class but she became my confidant. I still have the notebooks and find it funny looking back at how she invited me to join her group.
At lunch time that day we had agreed I would very publicly leave where I sat with my old group and join her group. It's so funny looking back - I doubt anyone really cared but for me the moment was huge. As I play it back in my mind, the whole of my year fell silent as I packed up my stuff and took the 10 steps from old bitchy group to new friends. I never looked back. The new group were all so friendly I wondered how I had never got to know them before.
From that moment onwards, my school life changed forever, I had real friends. Friends who wanted me to hang out after school and wanted me to be part of their group and most of all share opinions. Year later the old group and I found a way of making friends - I even went on to live with W, but that's a whole other story!


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Why Choose Us?
- Niche expertise from senior-level consultants. Our expertise lies in working collaboratively with public- and private-sector policymakers, executives and directors to strengthen organizations. As specialists rather than generalists, we focus our strengths on doing a top notch job for a very specific group of clients in a select number of focus areas.
- Flexibility to serve you better. We employ a team of highly experienced consultants and draw from our pool of subject matter experts when their expertise can help us better serve you. This produces a highly nimble, streamlined approach to providing you the services you need when you need them.
- Personal service. We develop a keen understanding of your needs, opportunities and challenges, and creatively explore the key technologies every municipality should have in place. Our experts create customized solutions that help you drive greater cost efficiencies, optimize resources, and improve productivity while optimizing service delivery. We work with you to reach your strategic goals and optimal success.
- Big enough to serve, small enough to care. While a large firm may assign your business to less experienced people, we are small enough to offer very personal, responsive service from senior-level consultants. You appreciate it when deadlines are met, phone calls are returned and your challenges are given in-depth, creative thought. We work diligently to maintain the quality, integrity and innovation on which our success is built.
- United in our drive to achieve a common goal. Our energetic and attentive professionals work in supportive, team-oriented environments to help our clients succeed. They work diligently every day to ensure your long-term vision is grounded in short-term wins and practical strategies. Our specialists come from diverse backgrounds and geographies, but share a positive attitude and passion for the business.
- Performance-based processes. We continuously build upon a service platform that ensures high quality, competitive rates and allows you to focus on your core business. We meet with our clients regularly to review our performance and plan for future activities. As your needs change, we are flexible to making the adaptations needed to accommodate your needs.
- Commitment to workplace diversity. As one of our core values, we foster a diverse and inclusive environment that welcomes and retains talented individuals from all walks of life. We leverage a rich mixture of backgrounds, insights and perspectives to provide value for our clients, and we maintain a culture where individual differences are valued, allowing our professionals to contribute to their fullest potential and empowering our professionals to succeed.


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London, December 2007
Very excitingly just had confirmation that BBC1 and ITV have both used my music this year.
Working on a version of Peer Gynt with the complete, wonderful and amazingly little-known (apart from the two orchestral suites) music by Grieg.
The first stop on my Cello Pilgrimage was a great success, raising £1,300 for the church. More concerts planned for next year. Picture above is me rehearsing in Fingringhoe church. More info on the cello pilgrimage site (see right).


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Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Not-Awesome List for July 22nd, 2007
These things are, very simply put, NOT awesome:
• My Neck
• My dried-up contacts
• child molesters
• the unibomber
• Disappointing Character 1
• Hot fries Diarrea
• Let-down of a Personality 2
• Global Warming
• Made-up crap.
• receiving RedBlocks.
• paying for Harry Potter thrice, not seeing once, but seeing a woman throw up.
• bitches
• AIDs in Haiti
• Informatics
• Web work
• being at work at 8:30
Posted by TheZealot at 11:17 PM 3 comments:
Monday, July 09, 2007
Check out this ironic online advertisement posted with "Fight Club". (If you've seen the movie "Fight Club", and you know it's themes inside and out, you'll understand)
What kind of closet defines me as a person?
Posted by TheZealot at 12:44 PM 1 comment:
Just Saw Transformers
Yes, I gave in. And let me tell you this movie is absolutely BRILLIANT. From a marketing, product placement, and flexible budget standpoint. Plot: This giant Rubrik's Cube can change ANY electronic device (read: product placement)into a living, mechanical organism. The decepticons are after the cube to...take over the universe...and the Autobots must stop them. The autobots can change into any vehicle they scan (read: automotive product placement) and try to fight the other bots out of view of humans (read: cheap shooting locations until the end, when you can bring them in public for an all-out fight). They also learn English by browsing the World Wide Web!!!!! (read: any website product placement) Brilliant!
From a storytelling standpoint, Michael Bay's brillance at storytelling isn't so shiny - He doesn't know the meaning of "restraint"; in other words, when to TAKE SOMETHING OUT so it's more powerful. The music blares the entire movie, only stopping to take in redundant, action-describing dialogue or obnoxious sound effects and explosions. For example, the ice is breaking underneath the explorers' feet, they yell, "THE ICE IS BREAKING". When they pick up the escaping soldiers, the voice-over says, "Get'em home" when a single cut back home could say that better. I mean, the actors WON'T SHUT UP! If you don't believe me, watch it again for clarity. They won't shut up!
Bay has a lot of style backed by no sense of timing. The whole movie rolls by at a breakneck pace to cover all the material specifically designed to cover the widest possible audience. For example: Captain Lennox of the escaping force talks to his wife and kid, saying he's coming home soon. 30 seconds. We see a reaction shot of the wifey at home. 5 seconds. They reunite at home. 10 seconds. Just because Commander Cody, or Lennox, or whatever-his-name-is can kick some robot ass, that doesn't mean I'm going to care about him. And people won't STOP TALKING! And what's with those football villians imported from the 80s?
But with all the money made on this bitch from advertising, Bay can now independently finance his dream film. And that's how this merry-go-round works. Can you blame him? I would've done it! Bay: will you give me a job?
Posted by TheZealot at 11:15 AM No comments:
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