text:
* Prices may differ from that shown
Smooth silk in a glass is what they advertise and this is precisely what you get. Several pints of John Smiths whilst sat in the beer garden have gone down rather too easily in the past because of its low ABV of 4% and its very mild bitter taste. I have enjoyed many an evening drinking nothing but `smiths` and this surprises me. As a keen ale drinker I usually try anything that is new and grow easily bored of the same drink but John Smiths will always satisfy my needs without becoming difficult to drink. I have had several people tell me they have it in shandies but I cannot verify how nice this is as I am not a shandy drinker.
Price wise you will find John Smiths one of the most respectably priced beers in the pub. I can pay anywhere from £1.80 to £2.80 for a pint in most establishments. At local shops and supermarkets you can pick up 8 440ml cans for around £7 and a crate of 20 for between £15 and £18.
If you like your traditional ales then you may not find this too your liking as it doesn't not have much of a taste. If however, you are looking for something you can drink all night but find lager bloating, or you simply fancy a change then this is the beer for you. If anyone has experimented with John Smith Shandies then please share your thoughts on the matter.
...I'm in the pub and fancy a pint - what do I go for?
Well, if i'm involved in a hefty drinking session, i'll probably opt for John Smith's Extra Smooth as it's one of the only beers on the market that (for me at least) doesn't result in a massive hangover. That's not to say John Smith's is my favourite bitter; you just can't beat the flavour of a decent local real ale, and i'm also partial to a cool lager on a hot day - but... John Smith's does makes for an easy-drinking and pleasant tipple, and there's nowt wrong with that.
Founded over two-hundred years ago, the John Smith's brewery has gone from strength to strength and now produces the most popular beer in Britain. The success of the company has been partly down to their clever advertising campaigns, the latest of which feature the straight-talking Peter Kaye and his amusing antics.
Price-wise, four John Smith's Extra Smooth cans (440ml) are available for £4.28 from Tesco, whilst the twelve pack retails at £9.25. From the pubs John Smith's always seems to be reasonably priced - a couple of years ago you could get a pint for around £1.80, but now the prices have crept up to round the £2.50 mark.
The extra smooth variety of the beer was first introduced in 1993, and as its title would suggest, the drink is rather smooth with a generally creamy finish. The beer's flavour is mild, although there is a fruityness about it which I find pleasant. In terms of its alcohol content, 4% is the magic figure - seems to be a middle-of-the-road beer which is neither to light or too heady. I generally like to drink the beer fairly cold, although not to the brain-freeze inducing extent of Guinness Extra Cold. Consuming John Smith's below room temperature actually makes it refreshing, perfect for those summer evenings in a hot pub. I like the fact that the drink isn't too gassy - meaning that it's fairly easy to drink without getting overly bloated. I also enjoy the creamy head which seems to last a decent amount of time before dissipating.
No, John Smith's Extra Smooth it isn't the best bitter in the world - it lacks a complexity of palette that certain real ales have in abundance, and is frequently frowned upon by the aficionados. However, I personally enjoy the beer as a pleasant pint, and anything that doesn't give me a terrible hangover has to be a winner.
Since it feels like summer is here, I thought I'd review a few drinks and here's one I love, with a splash of lemonade.
John Smiths Bitter
Known as the nation's favorite, the original John Smith began his drinking empire in 1847, his bitter has since become the No. 1 no nonsense ale.
The no nonsense beer's include Original Bitter, Magnet and Extra Smooth.
John Smiths Extra Smooth Bitter
This particular bitter was first launched in 1993, and as mentioned before, it is known as the nations no. 1 ale. it is known to have a distinct cereal character, with malty, caramel notes being complemented by some fruitiness. It is most definitely, a full flavored smooth bitter.
It is available in draught from the pub, or in 440 ml cans, also available is John Smiths Extra Cold in draught from the pub, this is the same great smooth flow bitter, only a lot colder.
The 440 ml cans contain a floating widget and are 3.8% volume. Each can is 1.7 units (know your limits, and drink responsibly)
John Smiths can be bought and consumed at the pub for around £2.80 a pint or purchased in cans from most supermarkets and off licenses, prices may vary. I currently buy mine in packs of 4 from Tesco express and usually buy 8 cans because, they more often than not, have an offer on of two packs of 4 for £7.00. It can be bought in larger packs, again prices will vary from one place to another.
My Opinion
When I say I buy the bitter, that isn't strictly true, as my hubby is usually the one to come home from the shop with it. We both love it, but it is his favorite drink along with a few others. It was my husband who first introduced me to John Smiths, I never used to drink bitter, I was always one for lager. In the beginning I drank bitter shandy which I really like. But as time has gone on I have put less and less lemonade in with my bitter and now I barely put any in at all.
I really like the smooth cold creamy taste of John Smiths Extra Smooth, it taste's somewhat malty and seems to slide down the throat very smoothly, I love this drink ice cold, straight from the fridge, so on the weekend we have to push the food aside to make sure we have lots of room to put our John Smiths. (Now I've made us sound like alcoholics) I don't drink too many cans at any one time, hubby on the other hand could drink for England (if I let him).
Although I do really like the taste of John Smiths Extra Smooth, I'm not over keen on the smell of it, It's the same with all bitters I find the smell rather nasty, which I suppose is rather strange because if something doesn't smell very good to someone then the chances of them wanting to eat or drink whatever it may be are slim. Taste and smell go together and if your nose says no, then more often than not your mouth will agree. But I can drink this without any concern to the smell of it, that does confuse me and if anyone can explain this to me I would be very grateful.
So as a quick summary to John Smiths Extra Smooth, I can say, it's easy to drink with not as high a volume as some other bitters, it tastes creamy and smooth and is wonderfully refreshing with a splash of lemonade, ice cold from the fridge on a warm summers evening.
I'm giving John Smiths 4 stars because I really like the taste but I knocked a star off because of the smell.
Thank you for reading my review also posted on Ciao
Simply wrong. It's a best seller according to the admen. Well just because it sells well does not mean its any good. It just shows how over hyped marketing and the perfection of the brewers arts in selling anything to the masses if we can get away with it attitude pervades the drinks market.It is rubbish, you can tart it up as smooth, which it is. Ale, which it is not, satisfying and full bodied, it is neither. I will never buy it in Public houses or give it away Supermarkets. There are hundreds of better brews out their, try, nay demand something better.
Well, I will be honest, when i drank from 18 I was a lager boy, but I curiously tried John Smiths, and boy did I like it, I started on John Smiths and its Johns I still love to this day. It is smooth, doesn't gas you up as lager or cider would. Has a very mild, yet distinctive taste of which you can't fail to love. It is also much better value than lager and is usually about 30p a pint less. Also you can buy 15 cans of it for a tenner at your local morrisons or supermarket. Which will work out at about 67p a can, which is just under a pint per can. It is always increasing in value, which is good as some people can't always afford to drink in pubs now. The canned johns comes with a "widget" at the bottom of the can, which helps keep it fresh and stop it from settling and ruinging the splendid taste.
John Smiths bitter is obviously synonymous with the alcoholic drink we call bitter. Prior to the invention of the 'widget' which lurks at the bottom of the can of beer to produce an emulation of the draft beer we drink in pubs and some restaurants, the can of bitter before the 'widget' was an inferior version of the draft pint or half a pint we enjoyed at the pub, but when the widget was created and introduced to the can of beer and in this case, John Smiths Extra Smooth - beer drinking from a can or tin skipped to a new level. With John Smiths Extra Smooth, one can enjoy the taste and texture of this favourite drink (amongst many) in the comfort of their own home or at a picnic, as if they had just had the drink poured from a draft pump from the local pub. Although, not quite the same as a pub draft pint, John Smiths Extra Smooth from the can is pretty close and very enjoyable.
Of course, bitter is made from hops and brewed in the traditional way which produces beer. The alcoholic content of John Smiths Extra Smooth is relatively low as compared with other beers on the market, but there is enough content to feel the positive glow from the effects from the alcohol. I think this drink makes a great 'winter' drink, although I would enjoy a jar or two in the warmer moments of the year.
If you haven't tasted John Smiths bitter, then I can only describe it as a malty, yeasty, bitter taste, but with some sweetness. John Smiths Extra Smooth gives a lovely creamy texture too, as enhanced by the creamy head in which accompanies the dark nectar once poured into the glass of your choice - for me, the traditional straight pint glass, although for other, more experienced and veteran drinkers may prefer the traditional pint glass with a handle, but folk can drink in any way they wish and may prefer a refreshing half a pint.
I have chose to drink John Smiths Extra Smooth for an occasion for quite a few years now and would recommend this drink to people who enjoy bitter and for those who have not tried the delights of a bitter beer. It is possibly an aquired taste to enjoy a bitter beer, but once aquired, perhaps like Stilton cheese, you'll love and adopt it forever.
I would give full marks to this delicious and wonderful bitter beer.
When i used to go out i used to drink lager all the time but being a women out on the town with the girls was hard as they were knocking back the shorts or cocktails with the fancy umberellas, and there was me on the lager but keeping up with them was hard work the lager seemed to really gas me up and was heavy so i knew i had to change my drink and there was no way i was opting for a cosmopolitan, an
Ayway my hubby who has always been a john smiths drinker allowed me a taste of his at first i found it quiet "bitter" and when i say that i do not mean bitter as in the drink bitter but as in the taste, Anyway once i got over the initial bitter taste and had another swig i found it to be really nice and fresh. So on my next night out which was with hubby i decided id stick to John smiths all night to see how my body would deal with it.
And im suprised at how well i reacted with it , it did not make me feel bloated and i found it easy to drink at a relaxed pace , and unlike lager i was not running to the toilet every ten minutes so i could have a wee.
And the best bit of all is the morning after the night before i awoke with no hangover, which i find to be a god send as usually i wake groaning and moaning affraid of venturing out of bed as every step feels like a convoy going through my head, but i had nothing i was fresh as a daisy , ok i was a little dry in the mouth and needed lots of water , but that comes with any night out .So for me i will be sticking to this beverage and will continue to relax and enjoy with friends and on the odd occasion i shall even try to convert them to drinking it too.
John Smiths Extra Smooth is a very mild tasting bitter with a taste that is pleasant but not too strong, making it ideal for drinking along with a meal as its flavour will not overpower the taste of whatever it is you are eating. Its texture is unsurprisingly smooth, and this combined with its mild taste means that it is very easy to drink for prolonged periods.
Unlike many bitters it's not particularly heavy, and despite its reasonably high ABV of 4% it does not feel at all strong, and I find that drinking several pints of John Smiths Smooth leaves with me with a pleasant calming feeling, whereas one pint of certain other ales of a similar percentage would leave me feeling considerably more 'jolly'.
At under £2 a pint in most pubs its very competitively priced, and combined with its gentle taste and mild-feeling strength, its easiness on the wallet makes it ideal for the odd casual drink when you want to relax but don't want to end up tipsy. A four pack of 440ml cans will cost you a little under £4 in most supermarkets, making it great value for drinking at home as well, and Asda are currently running an offer of 8 cans for £6 up until the end of 2009, whilst Tesco are selling 15 cans for £10.
A pleasant, mild and good value bitter.
Nutritional information (per 440ml serving)
Calories: 143,
Fat: 0g,
Carbs: 10.3g,
Protein: 0g
John Smiths Extra Smooth is probably my favourite alcoholic drink. Some might think that it isn't really much of an ale, preferring some of the more obscure 'real ales' that there are on the tap in your local pub.
My other review of Guinness mentioned that you can usually tell how much the rest of the tab at the bar with cost by the price of a pint of John Smith Extra Cold. JJJJ and tomflint will know that John Smith Extra Cold is usually ordered in Wetherspoons Ryde at precisely 11.50pm on a Saturday night by adamnrown400. This drink makes a good addition to the quiz machine and slips down very easily.
John Smiths advertising campaign has in recent years focussed on the everyman, and it is true to say it's the Daily Star of alcoholic beverages. I think this is probably down to the price of the pint itself. It usually retails quite cheaply in comparison to many other pints of the same calibre. In Spoons the pint comes in at a very reasonable £1.85.
John Smiths is well worth a try next time you are in a pub!
John Smiths Extra Smooth is a premium bitter and you'll find the cans in packs of four, ten or fifteen located on the premium bitter cans shelf of the major supermarkets. Shop around and you should still be able to find a pack of 15 for a tenner - at least I did yesterday at my local Tesco.
As far as bitters are concerned Boddingtons is the brew from the can that in recent years I've tended to fully appreciate usually on a Sunday afternoon. However, John Smiths Extra Smooth has always been a decent competitor with its darker tone, fruitier taste and creamier textures, but still quite light for a bitter. What's more, unlike Boddies, it rarely leaves me with a splitting headache after one or four cans.
The Extra Smooth canned brew is a touch stronger than the draught at 4% alcohol content - well under the level required to blow your head off... unless you drink a crate. It's unusual for me to prefer a canned lager or bitter from a can over the draught version but John Smiths Extra is a rare exception - I actually think it has a fuller tastier flavour from the can when compared to the draught (although that didn't stop me drinking nine pints of draught at the recent Grand National event).
Cans of John Smiths Extra Smooth contain widgets and therefore it is important to serve them chilled although ice cold is not necessary in my opinion. The beer is best served poured slowly into a tall glass. Patience is required as the micro bubbles rise through the dense toffee coloured liquid to the surface where a thick creamy head forms in slow motion. Extra Smooth means the fizz is minimal; this is not a gassy concoction. One thing guaranteed is that the creamy smooth consistency of this bitter ensures it will always go down nicely, though beware this brings with it certain risk factors. For as you swig the smooth brew and cast aside the empty cans into the corner of the room (or behind the couch depending on the arrangements of your interior décor) there's always the risk of an impending panic when you're watching ther match and at the half-time interval you suddenly realise there's only one four-pack left in the fridge.
An acquaintance once told me that JSES lacked flavour. After looking at him with restrained disgust I told him that he was an imbecile and knew nothing about life. The fact that he was holding a bottle of Budweiser merely proved my point.
When I first started drinking I couldn't find an alcoholic beverage to suit my taste. I had tried lager, cider, stout, spirits and mixers, wine....the list goes on. One day however I came across a drink which, while it didn't blow me away, was easy to drink and relaxing but also got me pretty darn drunk (good times). That drink was John Smiths extra smooth.
John Smiths is a bitter with 4% alcohol content which in my opinion is just right, as often anything stronger than that doesn't taste particularly nice. Its best served cold and has a nice bitter taste (but not too bitter), and also a creaminess to it. The drink is also great in the summer as it is quite light and refreshing.
A can of John Smiths contains a 'widget' which aids the pouring of the beer and helps to prevent getting a huge head on it. The widget can also be used for a game of 'beer pong', where by you have two people at opposite ends of a table, and in turn try to bounce the widget into the other persons glass. If it lands in the glass the person whose glass it is has to 'down' half of their pint (or all of it depending on how hardcore you are). This is a very fun game if you're looking to get drunk quickly.
I'm sure many of you will have seen the adverts on TV with Peter Kay ("ave it"). They are light hearted and show that John Smiths is a drink which doesn't take itself too seriously.
John Smiths is priced very well. It is more expensive than 'John Smiths original', but it is better tasting and is not fizzy. At ASDA a pack of 4 cans costs 3.92, and a pack of 15 costs about £10. Often supermarkets will have John Smiths on offer so you can get it even cheaper! In most pubs from draught it is priced around £2.00, but this varies depending on the pub.
Overall I love this bitter. It is an easy going drink which doesn't break the bank. It's also good at getting you pretty hammered! What more could you ask for from beer?
A delicious draught ale, if a little bit heavy on the stomach. Gulping this down all night is liable to give you a bit of a dicky tummy. However it is one of the nicest bitters I've ever tasted and it doesnt surprise me that it is the biggest-selling in Britain.
This is the sort of drink that works best in the context of a meal, typically a pub lunch. It is filling but not overly so, and tastes best when nice and cool.
If you insist on drinking it out of a can, I definitely wouldn't recommend having it luke-warm. In a pub it normally has a bit of a head on it, but out of a can you're basically just drinking foam.
It has a pleasant and distinctive taste. The reason for this is probably that the majority of John Smiths Extra Smooth is the pasteurised and filtered version, served from pressurised kegs, rather than the more traditional version served by pubs from casks. It is easy to drink in moderation, like most ales and goes down nice.
4% proof.
Mass produced by Scottish Courage, this has got to be one of the worst beers ever brewed, and it's popularity speaks volumes for the power of advertising over people's tastebuds.
People who drink this seem to do so for its 'texture', "it's so smooth" they cry! Yes, just a shame about the taste, which of course, is of no importance compared to this sacred "texture" !
Beware any beer branded "creamflow". It means they've pasteurised it (to kill off the nasty taste and to make it easy to care for), pumped it full of chemicals (to kill of the nasty taste and to make it "smooth"), and pumped it full of Nitrogen (to make it "smooth"). It's chilled so it attracts lager drinkers, but more importantly, to hide the taste. If you ever sample one of these, the coldness does its best to hide the poisonous taste, but let it acclimatise to room temperature a little more and the full 'flavour' is soon exposed!
And what a flavour. You really can taste the chemicals it's been saturated with, and it's unpleasant and nauseating. Unlike an ale, this "beer" requires very little care on the part of the pub/bar where it is served. Just mass produced, bunged in a keg, cooled and away you go!
The title of another opinion on this vile concoction, "beer for people who don't like beer" sums it up perfectly. It is a sad reflection on the tastebuds of the nation that this is such a popular drink, and is often the only bitter available in trendy "clubs", which is a great shame for people who prefer to drink bitter than lager. When the choice is between lager and this tripe, even as a confirmed bitter drinker, I have to side with the lager! Which is much more boring, but at least it's weak taste isn't unpleasant.
The draught version is vile, and the canned version is much the same, but added to the flavour of all the chemicals is the taste of the can its been in.
I beg of you all, please stop buying this crap! The more you buy it, the more widespread it'll become, and the bigger the profits for Scottish Courage, who deserve to be fined, not rewarded, for such an insult to our tastebuds.
Hangover??? Yes, I had a hangover, it was awful. I had the headaches, the dizziness and the shakes.Do I regret it?..Nope! Let me tell you why. I?m a big big fan of John Smiths Bitter, I drink it like pop, pint after pint after pint. You see the thing is, this stuff goes down so well, and when your in the pub with a few of your mates, you don?t actually realize how much you have had. A Little About It. John Smiths is a established bitter. It is Britain?s best selling, and commands 15% of the UK bitter market. It is Brewed by Scottish and Newcastle, and originates from Tadcaster in Yorkshire ( I think). The Look When poured it appears a little cloudy, and has a nice thick head ( like me I suppose), John Smith and I, we are so alike. The head, once settled is about ¾ of a inch thick. Bitter?, nope that isn?t the key word, smooth and creamy would be my description. The Taste This stuff is damn refreshing, probably from the fact that is served at 8 degrees. Now at first it?s cold, very cold infact. I usually leave mine for a minute or two, whilst I waft my mates smoke out of my face, and draw patterns in the condensation that builds up on the glass. The first gulp and all you get is the head, the second and your into the good stuff. This bitter slips down the back of your throat easily. I?m not a lager drinker, so it defiantly doesn?t taste like that, it?s more of a taste of Guiness, but not as thick, a hint of fizz, and a whole lot of body. It?s quite filling. Enjoyment ? Yes, it?s enjoyable, I prefer it from the pump as opposed from a can, because although it has that lovely floating widget ?bob?, and a attractive green can, with those hilarious adverts, I do tend to find that when you get to the end it tastes a bit tinny. Does it get you drunk? Aye it does, at 4% volume, it?s not the strongest of ales, but because it goes down so we
ll, you do tend to end up crawling home. (well I do) I drink this at anytime, Whether I?m out on a bender with my mates, having Sunday lunch at my mothers or watching the Toon Army kick Dynamo Kievs backside on the box. I love it. Availability John Smiths is available anywhere, you pay about 1.90/ 2.00 for a pint and a four pack costs about 4.50 in 440ml cans. Anything else? Ermm that John Smith?, he is my best buddie. Enjoy Lianne
You know you love 'em, the great Peter Kay adverts on the telly just now? "'Ave It" with the football and the great bomb into the pool after the posh dives have been done! Well I love them anyhow. Onto the booze. Let's see, I've read a couple of ops on this beer and was surprised at how many people were so unimpressed with it. The words "flavourless," "too cold," and "utter crap" have seemed to be the most prevalent of all so I'd like to step in with my tuppen'orth and set the record straight. If you followed the category listing to get to this opinion then I apologise, you've been mislead, it's not an ale, it's a bitter (difference is quite simply that this is a nitrogenated beer and comes in a keg rather than a cask) so there's the first reason that a lot of people have been unimpressed I reckon: You should not go up to the bar for a pint of Smooth and expect it to be anything like the Spitfire/Abbott/Old Speckled Hen beers, it just is not a real ale at all. Any complaints can be made to CAMRA and you'll get a nice letter back with the dog hairs, pipe tobacco smell and dribble marks included gratis. That said, I love real ales but I have yet to apply for my 3 legged dog and beard set. Let us begin. The beer is, quite simply, freezing cold (real ale buffs, I know..... I'll provide you with a hexi block heater if I ever go for a pint with you) and very, very creamy (sieves and anti froth spoons can also be provided). It's a good session beer in my experience, at a little over 4% ABV it won't get you well smashed in a hurry and the taste is just great. To drink the beer is to taste the class that comes out of Tadcaster, a lovely, creamy, easy going beer that will keep you upright for quite a while while adding a certain mellowness to the drinker. It's what I'd call a Rugby Club drink - after the game, a cool, creamy dri
nk that will allow you to keep going for a long session (you know rugby players) and still be able to order your kebab without slurring and remember the words to all the mucky songs. As far as prices go, there's so much regional variation that it's very hard to pin down a specific price. You'll generally get a pint for about £2.00, I've seen it as low as £1.45 and as high as £3.00 but as a general rule you'll find that a couple of quid a pint is about average. The price quoted below is the price at my local. All in all I can't praise this drink enough. The booze content is fine for the drinker of plenty, the taste is nice and creamy, slightly nutty/hoppy and very good to quaff. This beer is great. Buy it and smile :¬D That was the Boon.
John Smiths is firmly established as Britain biggest-selling bitter and the leading Scottish Courage brand now commands more than 15% of the total UK standard bitter market. Brewer: Scottish & Newcastle Style: Ale.


text:
Incorporating Subsistence Into A Probit Analysis Of Household Nutrition Levels
Previous nutrient demand and consumption analyses show that several economic and sociodemographic variables are often associated with intakes. However, most of the literature does not account for differences among individuals within households. This study reviewed possible definitions of nutrient differences with respect to nutritional needs. Nutrient levels defined by the Thrifty Food Plan were used as subsistence levels for households in the 1977-78 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey. Probit analysis showed that the usual variables found related to nutrient intakes did not differentiate among subsistence groups. Household life cycle and working female heads influenced whether the household was under its requirement level.
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Volume (Year): 23 (1991)
Issue (Month): 01 (July)
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- Chavas, Jean-Paul & Keplinger, Keith O., 1983.
"Impact Of Domestic Food Programs On Nutrient Intake Of Low-Income Persons In The United States,"
Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics,
Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 15(01), July.
- Chavas, Jean-Paul & Keplinger, Keith O., 1983. "Impact of Domestic Food Programs on Nutrient Intake of Low-Income Persons in the United States," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(01), pages 155-163, July.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Originally published October 20, 2008 at 12:00 AM | Page modified October 20, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Biden exhorts Tacoma crowd
At a rally in Tacoma that drew an estimated 12,000 people, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden rejoiced over the endorsement of Barack Obama by Republican and retired general Colin Powell but cautioned supporters not to be overconfident about Obama's lead in the polls.
Seattle Times business reporter
TACOMA — Liz Burn waited more than six hours to hear Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden speak at a rally at Cheney Stadium on Sunday.
"It's worth it," she said before the rally even started. "They're my rock stars."
Burn was among 12,000 people who attended what campaign staff members called Biden's biggest vice-presidential rally.
Clouds melted and the sun warmed the field just before the event kicked off, featuring the biggest names among Washington Democrats. After warm-ups by the likes of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and congressional hopeful Darcy Burner, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell introduced U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who introduced Gov. Christine Gregoire.
By the time Gregoire ceded the podium to Biden, the crowd had been through hearty rounds of cheering for Democrats and booing President Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Biden lavished praise on the governor and senators, and wished Burner well in her 8th District race with a "good luck to you, kiddo." Then he turned to stumping for the presidential ticket.
He rejoiced over receiving the endorsement on Sunday of Republican Colin Powell, a former general and secretary of state, but cautioned supporters not to be overconfident about Barack Obama's lead in the polls.
"Polls don't determine the outcome of elections; votes do," the Delaware senator said, reminding people that the deadline for registering in person to vote is today.
"We've been dug into a very, very, very deep hole, both internationally and at home," he said. "The stakes could not be higher. ... This is the single most consequential election since 1932," when Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency.
With Obama as president, Biden said, the country's economic fortunes would improve.
He also disparaged McCain's economic policies as more of the same-old Republican trickle-down ideology.
"There's not one fundamental economic issue that John McCain disagrees with George Bush on," Biden said. McCain wants to "double-down" on tax cuts to the wealthy, he said.
That's not to bash the wealthy, said Biden, who headed after the rally to a $1,000-a-head reception and a $25,000-a-head "VIP" event at the Seattle Sheraton.
"I think they're just as patriotic as poor folks," he said. "We just haven't asked as much of them."
He and Obama would restore America's middle class and regain respect for the U.S. internationally, Biden said.
"The first step we're going to take is we're going to end this war in Iraq," he said to wild cheering.
Biden reiterated the campaign's plan to cut taxes for the middle class, saying it's "not just because it's fair," but because helping the middle class benefits the economy as a whole.
He also called for Congress to institute a three-month moratorium on mortgage foreclosures to give the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry time to work.
And Biden rebutted recent Republican concerns about redistributing wealth, saying that rich Americans have become richer under Republican policies. They have been redistributing wealth, he said, "and it's been all the wrong way."
Helping the middle class through this hard time is about more than saving the economy, Biden said, assuring the crowd that he and Obama know how deeply the crisis cuts into people's lives.
"It's more than losing your house, it's losing your self-esteem," he said. "It's not just about you losing your job. It's about dignity."
Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or email@example.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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Using phpmailer at the moment for tell a friend code and the hosts are not keen on me using it for any more of my websites, due to security/spamming issues on shared servers. What's a better form of code for this, that wouldn't get the hosts jittery please?
Hey Dez,
A colleague of mine wrote two articles about sending mail from web applications and some good things to know when you do. Both are well worth the read.
[What good Web Developers should know about sending E-mail with a follow-up article [URL="http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2011/11/16/when-you-really-need-your-email-delivered-ndash-signing-your-mail-using-domain-keysdkim"]When you really need E-mail delivered – Signing your mail using Domain Keys/DKIM](http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2011/09/27/what-all-good-web-developers-should-know-about-sending-email)
Some things that are covered in the articles include setting up SPF records for the domains that you are sending email for, and using DKIM to sign your emails.
You're implementing "Send to friend" functionalities, which are often quite easy to hack, so make sure that you're doing everything you can in your apps to prevent them being exploited. Things to check for include content injection and "scripability", e.g. could someone write a script to hit your page and send emails out, double checking and encoding your content is a way to prevent the former, while captchas can help with the latter.
These are just suggestions, and based on how your app is built their might be many more (or only a few) things that could help to secure it some more.
Thanks John - it's appreciated. If anyone else has anything to chip in with this, please do.
Is there any way of adjusting the code below, to also allow a static IP that isn't within the allowed countries please?
$config['redirect_to']='http://www.websiteaddress.com/'; //redirection url for visitors from not allowed countries
$config['allowed_countries']='at,be,ch,de,dk,es,eu,fi,fr,gb,gg,gi,gr,ie,im,it,je,my,nl,no,pt,se,tr,tz,us'; //allowed countries codes
Any help much appreciated.
Is that config for PHPMailer? Or for some other application that is managing access to the site?
Apologies John - posted in the wrong section about a different (unanswered) subject.
ahaha no worries (I thought it seemed an odd follow up question :P)


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So my youngest brother is heading to Texas for the summer for work.
And so, of course, we had to have a party to send him off.
And so, of course, it had to be cowboy/rodeo themed.
It was a great event. Everyone wore mustaches and drank from mason jars and ate ribs. Super great!
|(Also, my sister-in-law found pseudo kinder eggs as a tiny little
corner market and brought some for the kids...those things are
so much fun.)
|Mustaches tickle...even painted ones.
And then, of course, we had to have a rodeo.
And then, of course, we had to play baseball (??). Ok, that's not strictly Texan, but it was big fat fun.
But mostly we just had a great time together and that was the best part of it all.
Best of luck Joely Bug in your gigantic Texas adventure.


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Take to the skies and look down over magical Orlando from above with a ride on this brand new giant Ferris wheel. The Orlando Eye offers a new perspective on the City Beautiful as you soar peacefully through the air and scope out landmarks from on high.
Hop into one of 30 spacious, high-tech viewing capsules and be effortlessly lifted up 400 feet (121 m), experiencing breathtaking 360-degree views of the surrounding Central Florida landscape. The Orlando Eye is the tallest observation wheel on the East Coast, and its gradual rotation gives you an ever-changing perspective. Each capsule has Apple iPad Air tablets that allow you to explore and learn more about the city sights in several languages, effectively letting you delve beyond what the eye can see.
A flight on the Orlando Eye lifts you high enough to see the skyline of downtown Orlando, the colorful rides of nearby theme parks, beautiful lakes and lush landscapes, and views that stretch all the way to Cape Canaveral on Florida's coast.
With your ticket to The Orlando Eye, you also have the option to purchase discounted admission to can't-miss Orlando attractions Madame Tussauds and SEA LIFE Aquarium.


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Congregation Ale House: Eat, Pray, Glug
When ordering the rib-eye burger at Congregation Ale House, don't expect anything massively portioned or customizable. This isn't that kind of burger. It doesn't drip with too much sauce, there is no option for bacon, and it fits snugly inside one hand since it's only a few cup sizes bigger than a slider. Yet you should cradle this burger in both palms; treat it as a two-fisted ground-beef sandwich that demands your full attention. Half-cuffed in paper to bind it together and to capture any escaping juices, it's a good-looking burger, with a roasted tomato peeking out, slippery grilled onions attempting to escape and arugula that somehow manages to class it up a bit.
It is well-constructed and thought-through, the bun having as much integrity as an English muffin. The edges are burnt to a toasted crisp; the white Cheddar cheese has melted so fully onto the finger-thick patty that it's practically been absorbed. You inhale the thing in seconds, chasing it with a beer that you picked from a blackboard menu, which is larger than the one for the food. You had ordered it by standing in line with the rest of the patrons, paying on the spot and getting a numbered placard to display on your table as though you were at Carl's Jr.—wait, what?
Congregation, which is part of a mini-chain of beer bars, with other "chapters" in Azusa and Pasadena, has a church theme, but it's done with just enough tongue-in-cheekiness that it bypasses blasphemy and becomes nothing more than good-natured satire. A "collection box" next to the register is actually the tip jar. Happy Hours are called "Mass," with a late-night one called "Midnight Mass." And flitting about the room in fetishistic Catholic-schoolgirl uniforms, their pleated skirts hitched up scandalously far above the knee, are servers who'll offer to top off your soda. But if it's water you want, you need to get it yourself from a "Holy Water" station.
Congregation Ale House 201 E. Broadway Ave., Long Beach, (562) 432-2337; www.congregationalehouse.com. Open Mon.-Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m.; Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.midnight. Dinner for two, $15-$25, food only. Full bar.
Religious kidding aside, Congregation is all business. It's downright liturgical in charging only $7 to $8 for the holy trinity of foods that go well with beer: sausage sandwiches, burgers and pizza. This place understands that those willing to queue up to order food in a bar such as this aren't interested in anything fancier than what they can hold in their hands or eat with their fingers. The sausages are labeled "exotic" because there isn't a hot dog in the bunch. The knife-scored bratwurst is roasted until the snappy casing nearly bursts. Adorned with grilled onions and peppers, it's laid down not on a hot dog bun or a roll, but rather a thick, halfway-folded flatbread that actually complements the sausage the same way a plain cracker highlights a piece of fine cheese—without drawing attention to itself. Or you could opt for a sausage platter, for which a duck-and-bacon sausage and a pork-and-goat-cheese link are cut into coins and speared on toothpicks, ready to be dunked into two kinds of mustard: one beer-infused, the other sugary sweet.
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But it's the Belgian fries, stubby potatoes spears cooked to the correct proportion of crunch and fluff, that become the perfect excuse to explore all the dipping sauces, especially the curry ketchup. Yes, it may be Heinz adulterated with spices, but it somehow transports your palate to a London chip shop with a side trip to a Mumbai chaat stall. Since you get two choices of sauce per order of fries, also ask for the sweet-chili sour cream, which is just bottled Thai sweet-chili sauce poured over a dollop of plain sour cream—two things that shouldn't work together but do. And if you order the chicken salad, know that it is a salad in name only. The generous amounts of grilled breast-meat cubes, artichoke hearts, goat blue cheese and roasted tomatoes will blot out the insignificant pile of arugula until it becomes little more than inconsequential garnish in a bowl as big as a wash basin. But if you want some artichoke, don't settle for what you get in that salad—have a real one, halved and roasted with salt and oil until the petals come off with a gentle tug. Dip each one in a surprisingly sharp chipotle mayo before scraping the meaty ends with your front teeth.
Since you're going to be drinking inordinate amounts of beer, it's almost sacrilegious to not have a pretzel. Once your teeth breach the crisp outer crust, the doughy twists are softly pliant. It's the most thematically appropriate item here. Did you know the shape of a pretzel symbolizes arms crossed in prayer? Cue Homer Simpson: Mmm . . . sacrilicious. . . .
This review appeared in print as "Eat, Pray, Glug: Drink beer and eat burgers with other blasphemers at Congregation Ale House in Long Beach."
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201 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802
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took my first muzzle stuffer out...
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well I ran super hot water through it until it came out clear, ran some rags down the barrel, used a q-tip to clean out the drum, soaked the nipple in hot soapy water and ran water through it again just to be sure. let it sit for a while and gave it a light coat of bore butter. some may say it's a gimmick product but for $7 a tube I think it's a negligible expense. it definitely helped slow down rust deposits on my dads muzzle stuffers up on the mantle and it definitely helps with loading. my brother in law swears by it though he has a home made bullet lube that he likes more but he's too stingy with it so I have to just use bore butter as a bullet lube as well.
ignore my complete lack of capitalization. I still have no problem correcting your grammar.
I never said half the stuff people said I did-
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Southwest Airlines on Monday laid out its plans for its new flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Dallas Love Field will be one of its destinations.
Southwest, which has acquired takeoff and landing rights to add 27 flights at the Washington airport, said it will begin its Dallas flights on Nov. 2, along with service to Akron-Canton, Ohio, and Indianapolis. Southwest did not reveal how many flights will go on each route. It said the schedule will be released in mid-May.
Southwest currently offers service to Atlanta, Houston, St. Louis, Kansas City and Austin out of the Washington airport.
On Aug. 10, it will launch service to three cities: six flights to Chicago Midway, three to Nashville and two to New Orleans. On Sept. 30, it will launch service to Tampa Bay on with two flights, and add three more flights to Chicago.
On Nov. 2, it will add an unspecified number of flights to Houston Hobby and St. Louis.
"By year's end, we'll offer 44 daily departures to 14 destinations from Reagan National Airport." Southwest executive vice president Ron Ricks said in Southwest's announcement. "We've been interested in expanding at Washington National for a long time."
Southwest picked up the 27 pair of takeoff and landing slots from American Airlines, which was forced by a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to divest slots and gates at the Washington airport and at New York LaGuardia. American must also give up gates at five other airports, including Dallas Love Field.
"Southwest appreciates the efforts of the U.S. Department of Justice in making this historic opportunity possible and providing us with the ability to grow at this important airport," Ricks said. "We also thank the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for its leadership in providing convenient accommodation for our new DCA service."
Southwest also announced some other new service not related to Washington National: St. Louis-San Francisco beginning Sept. 30; Los Angeles-Omaha beginning June 9; and Boise-Los Angeles, Saturday only flights beginning June 14.It will also add a St. Louis-Los Angeles flight beginning June 8;


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Product: Canola oil, 24 fluid ounces, $3.
Key ingredients: Canola was developed through conventional plant breeding from rapeseed, an oilseed plant grown primarily in western Canada and related to the turnip family.
The pitch: Reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.
How it works: Canola oil is high in a monounsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid, which has been shown to reduce serum cholesterol levels and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. One-third of the polyunsaturated fat in the oil is omega-3, the healthful fat found in salmon and other fatty fish. Omega-3 fats reduce the stickiness of blood cells and help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Pros: The Food and Drug Administration recently allowed canola oil to claim on labels that limited evidence suggests consuming about 11/2 tablespoons of canola oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to its unsaturated fat content. It's free of cholesterol and trans fat and is the lowest in saturated fat of any common edible oil. Canola oil has a high heat tolerance, neutral taste and is high in vitamin E.
Cons: The FDA endorsement has a few strings attached. To achieve a benefit from the oil, it must replace a similar amount of saturated fat in your diet - and must not increase the total calories you consume in a day. Canola oil is 100 percent fat, so if you consume a lot of it, the oil will add up to fat on your body.
Bottom line: Choose canola oil over others for cooking, but don't use the health benefits as an excuse to use a lot because, like all oils, it's high in calories.
- Wire reports
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BuckeyeGrove had the news on Sunday that Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater offensive lineman Michael Brewster was expected to announce a commitment to Ohio State today or Tuesday. Brewster has made it offi...
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text: 7" short in ditsy floral Item E7841 Color: MANOR BLUE Size: 30 All sizes are US sizes. 30 Size Charts Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prices do not include taxes. Add to Bag Wishlist Add to Bag Add To Wishlist share: size & fit Classic fit. 7" inseam. Product Details These shorts pay homage to the classic bermuda with a narrow leg, a refined cut and a clean hook-and-bar closure at the waist. As an added bonus, they are finished with a subtle floral print that lends a bit of extra style to any outfit. Cotton. Zip fly. Machine wash. Import. Online only. Item E7841.


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New for 2015
The Chrysler 200 is all new for 2015, with fresh styling, a pair of engines, a nine-speed automatic, and available all-wheel drive.
Vehicle Overview
The Chrysler 200 is a midsize sedan available in front- and all-wheel-drive forms, and can be had with a V-6 instead of the standard I-4 engine, with a segment-first nine-speed automatic that's operated with a rotary shift knob instead of a traditional shift lever. The 200 sits below the 300 as Chrysler's smaller sedan.
The 2015 Chrysler 200 can be had with a 2.4-liter I-4 that produces 184 hp and 173 lb-ft of torque, and is paired with a nine-speed automatic that drives the front wheels and powers the new sedan to an EPA rating of 23/36 mpg city/highway. For buyers wanting more power, or perhaps all-wheel drive, a 295-hp 3.6-liter V-6 that produces 262 lb-ft of torque is required, and manages 19/32 mpg in FWD trim, and just 18/29 mpg in AWD trim.
Chrysler has packed lots of technology and goodies into the 200, with a 5- or 8.4-inch infotainment screen using the automaker's Uconnect system, hands-free keyless access with push button or remote start, heated/ventilated front seats, dual-pane sunroof, a rotary shifter for the 9-speed automatic, electronic parking brake, and a rearview camera with dynamic gridlines. The Chrysler features a number of class exclusives, such as adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, forward collision warning with active braking, park assist with parallel and perpendicular space capability, and an available AWD system on the V-6 model.
The 2015 Chrysler 200 earns a five-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA (out of a possible five stars), and is considered a 2015 Top Safety Pick+ by the IIHS.
What We Think
The 2015 Chrysler 200 can't help but look like a hero after the Chrysler Sebring/200 it replaces. Despite the rental-lot roots of its predecessor, the new Chrysler 200 is a decent midsize sedan. In a Driven review we noted the V-6 models were surprisingly sporty: "You can recognize a so-equipped model by its surprisingly wicked exhaust note. Lead engineer Doug Verley says it's the 'happy result' of not having enough room in the center tunnel to fit both a full-size exhaust resonator and all-wheel-drive hardware. There's plenty of bite behind that bark. The naturally aspirated 3.6-liter engine delivers its power smoothly at any speed. That's an advantage compared with the somewhat peaky turbo four-cylinders that many competitors now offer in lieu of a V-6." Inside the new 200, the pleasant surprises continue:
"The materials are good for a mid-size sedan. Top models feature real wood trim. Even the Limited model we tested (one up from the base model) has soft, nicely grained surfaces. And yet, good for a mid-size sedan still isn't quite good enough to pull off such an intimate design. It's lovely to sit low in a $100,000 Jaguar F-Type, ensconced in leather and wood. It's not as pleasant to stare at acres of rubberized plastic in a $30,000 Chrysler. The 200's cabin redeems itself with easy-to-use in-car technology. Chrysler has figured out the perfect combination of touchscreen, buttons, and dials. The shifter, a rotary knob like Jaguar uses, feels just right."
In another Driven review, we compared the 2015 Chrysler 200 with a 2014 Honda Accord, noting that "the Accord's combination of virtues — chiefly its clear packaging advantage along with its better city fuel economy — better align with the priorities in this segment and put it on top in this match-up. But the stylish Chrysler is going for something slightly different here, and that's probably not a bad idea." For a vehicle that went from the bottom of the segment to somewhere near the front, the Chrysler 200 has significant progress. All the changes won't likely cause Honda or Toyota executives to lose any sleep, but unlike the last-generation Chrysler midsize sedan, the new 200 is built for more than just rental lots.
You'll Like
- Much improved over previous generation
- Many class-exclusive features
- Handsome styling
You Won't Like
- Engine stop-start system isn't the smoothest out there
- Back seat not the most spacious in the segment
- I-4 model's city fuel economy
Key Competitors
- Honda Accord
- Nissan Altima
- Toyota Camry
- Chevrolet Malibu
- Ford Fusion


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From MGM's DVD-on-demand project, the somber made-for-TV melodrama Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love is now available on a no-frills, standardized disc for the pleasure of your perusal. Despite an occasional moment of juicy high melodrama, Son-Rise is unfortunately no match for elegant messes of unintentionally mind-bending televised burlesque like MGM's previously issued Portrait of an Escort, or more recently premiered slices of filigreed angst like Lifetime's Girl Fight and Bling Ring.
James Farentino and Kathryn Harrold play Suzi and Barry Kaufman, fictionalized counterparts of the real-life couple whose two-year-old son, Raun, was diagnosed with autism in the late 1960s. As Barry and Suzi soon discover to their horror and chagrin, autism at that time was such a diffuse and baffling diagnosis that available treatment options nationwide were incredibly limited and inadequate, ranging from the bizarrely experimental to the barbaric. Even the most ambitious treatments offer little or no hope of real progress beyond the mastery of a few simple motor commands. Determined not to give up on Raun, Suzi and Barry embark intuitively on a radical program of treatment they devise themselves, exhaustively observing and documenting their son's behavior and responses to various stimuli, and working tirelessly to establish a meaningful and consistent way of communicating with him, and allowing him to interact with his environment.
Son-Rise is based on a nonfiction chronicle of the same title, and the disc cover trumpets the adaptation as "award-winning," but unfortunately, aside from its emotionally swollen, declaratively saccharine approach to the material, the movie just doesn't contain enough persuasively cinematic moments to achieve any real dramatic power. A written nonfiction treatment exhaustively cataloguing minute changes in the behavior of a child acting out meaningless, repetitive compulsions such as plate twirling could easily be riveting, but an onscreen treatment requires a much boldly experimental approach to achieve a similar effect. Son-Rise, tragically, is not up to this challenge, and becomes mired in an oddly apropos repetitive cycle of flatly overplayed melodramatic moments and bland documentary tedium.
Like all of MGM's DVD-on-demand titles, Son-Rise is presented without special features and with timed chapter stops unrelated to the onscreen action. In this case the lack of augmentation is probably deserved, although it also seems slightly incongruous since the allegedly award-winning movie smacks of something that was produced specifically to be shown in classrooms or for informational purposes. Aside from its self-important educational value, the film is a wasted exercise, both as legitimate drama and as unintentional kitsch.


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All Items > Self Defense > Knuckle Weights
Hot Pink Classic Knuckles Belt Buckle
- Height:2.25"
- Width:4.00"
- Material:Stainless Steel
- Color:Pink
- Weight:3.75 oz.
- Thickness:0.25"
- Hole Size:1.00"
- Brand:Fat Boy
- Model:Hot Pink
- Country of Origin:China
- Product Type:Knuckle
The Classic style knuckle belt buckle makes a great fashion accessory, paper weight, or desk item for the office. This knuckle features a hot pink finish and is sold for novelty purposes only. Please consult local laws regarding these items before purchasing.
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International Edition
September 25, 2017
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Taiwan must address issue of insufficient talent with action
The China Post news staff Sunday, January 26, 2014, 12:01 am TWN
It was funny to see how the minister in charge of making the blueprint for Taiwan's development spelled out matter-of-factly the government's directions for building up the nation's pool of talent this week.
Kuan Chung-ming, who heads the freshly created Cabinet-level National Development Council (NDC), said that over the past few years, government agencies proposed numerous solutions to the problem of talent shortage, but only last year did the government sum them up into three goals: one for cultivating talent, one for recruitment and one for keeping talented people from leaving.
The goals do not seem wrong at all, but they are so obvious and banal that one could not but wonder why the government needed to spend a few years coming to such obvious conclusions.
And during all those years, how many of those proposed solutions were implemented? Probably very few. Probably none of them (if ever any of them have been implemented) have been very effective, or a guru of Taiwan's semiconductor industry wouldn't have complained about a lack of talent in Taiwan.
The NDC minister was actually spelling out the goals in response to complaints and criticisms made by Morris Chang, chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's biggest contract computer chip maker.
In a public speech about the problems of human resources in Taiwan, Chang noted that local politics are very liberal, but all others — such as policies concerning human resources, technology and capital — have been very conservative.
One of the causes of his grumbling is apparently the ban on semiconductor companies — including TSMC — from constructing and running advanced 12-inch wafer fabs in China. It is a ban on which the government relies to maintain Taiwan's technological competitiveness, but to which companies attribute their loss of competitiveness in the fast growing China market.
The local displays industry has also been faced with a similar situation where they are forbidden by the Taiwan government from building advanced LCD panel plants in China, which is now the biggest TV market of the world.
Chang did not go into detail about those conservative policies, but pinpointed the lack of talent as the major problem underlying Taiwan's economic woes.


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You can divide the world into two kinds of people: Those whose hearts cracked a little bit last weekend at the news that Casey Kasem was doing his final radio countdown of the hits, and those who said, "Casey who?" OK, there's probably a third group, maybe the largest of all — the ones who said, "What's radio?"
For those of us who grew up listening to Kasem play the top 40 records in America every weekend, the only thing sadder than his departure is that he outlived his own medium. When it comes to music, radio is a desiccated shell of its old self.
But back when radio mattered, nobody on it mattered more than Kasem, whose "American Top 40" was ubiquitous — and I'm not using the word lightly. In 1998, while live on the air in Los Angeles, Kasem called information for a telephone number. After he'd gotten it, his co-host asked the operator if she knew who she'd been talking to. "Sure!" she chirped. "Casey Kasem!"
Kasem's supple, mellifluous voice was unmistakable. But he was much more than just a talented set of vocal cords. The first rock 'n' roll jock to knit together a national radio audience, he was a major force in creating a national pop-music culture and documenting its history.
Before "American Top 40" came along on July 4, 1970 — 39 years to the day before Kasem signed off for the last time — rock 'n' roll radio was strictly a local affair. There was no way for a kid in, say, Albuquerque, N.M., to know what the kids in New York and Los Angeles were listening to. In those days before digital shape-shifting, there was no Internet, no MTV and practically no pop-culture coverage in newspapers.
Rock 'n' roll consisted of the 25 or 30 records your local station was willing to play at any given moment. If a local program director decided to ban a record — out of racial impulses (in Albuquerque, we never heard James Brown's "Say It Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud") or unease at risque lyrics ("Let It All Hang Out" by the Hombres never made our local airwaves) or even just personal taste (Barry McGuire's pounding, apocalyptic "Eve of Destruction") — it simply didn't exist.
All that changed with "American Top 40." Kasem played Billboard magazine's top 40 records each week, and unless a local program director was willing to start hacking up the reel-to-reel tapes on which the show was distributed, there was no way to censor it. Politically incendiary records like "Ohio," Crosby, Stills Nash & Young's anguished shriek about the National Guard shootings at Kent State, and lascivious, erotic wallows like Sylvia's "Pillow Talk" could suddenly be heard on stations that had shied away from "Wake Up Little Susie." Even when "American Top 40" started providing warning notes to program directors with instructions on how to edit songs out of the show, most found it not worth the trouble.
Along with allowing kids from coast to coast to hear one another's favorite records, "American Top 40" gave them a sense of their own history. Rock 'n' roll had always been a disposable culture; records climbed the charts and then dropped off into the mists of late-night oldies shows; teenagers grew up and were replaced by new audiences.
But Kasem studded his show with anecdotes and chart information from years gone by that both quantified and personalized the music's history. When he announced, during the opening moments of the first American Top 40, "This week at No. 32, a song that's been a hit four different times in 19 years," I was inextricably hooked. (It was the Four Tops version of "All in the Game," if you're interested ... which if you've read this far in a story about Casey Kasem, I know you are.)
These days, with the wealth of information available with a few keystrokes to the wireless generation, "American Top 40" had lost much of its impact. The show, which once aired on more than 500 stations, an astonishing number in the pre-satellite age, had dwindled as technology and microtargeted radio formats ate away at Kasem's audience. It was more than a little weird to hear Kasem, 77, introducing heavy metal headbangers and gangsta rappers to his original audience's grandchildren.
Ironically for somebody who did so much to pry open rock 'n' roll culture, Kasem may be best known in today's Internet culture for an act of self-censorship. One of his much-loved Long Distance Dedications — which usually reunited long-lost friends or lovers — went disastrously awry in 1985, when his scriptwriters had him read a forlorn letter about a late beloved dog named Snuggles coming out of a sizzling Pointer Sisters dance record.
Instead of a song to Snuggles, Kasem dedicated a volcanic stream of four-letter words to the writers, while the tape was still rolling. The outtake, which has circulated endlessly on the Web, is so astonishing that when I met Kasem a few years ago, I asked if it was really him.
"Oh, that's me for sure," he acknowledged with a pained smile. "No fake. I just blew up. It was a bad day."
No matter. As someone once said — every week for 39 years — keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
Rising Appalachia 'Alive' (album stream) (premiere) // Music
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"No Dollars in Duende": On Making Uncompromising, Spirited Music
// Sound Affects
"On the elusive yet clearly existential sadness that adds layer and texture to music.READ the article


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The Older Americans Act is the major federal vehicle for delivery of social and nutritional services for older persons.
These include supportive services, congregate nutrition services (meals served at group sites such as senior centers, schools, churches, or senior housing complexes), home-delivered nutrition services, family caregiver support, community service employment, the long-term care ombudsman program, and services to prevent the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older persons.
The OAA also supports grants to older Native Americans, as well as research, training and demonstration activities.
The Administration on Aging in the newly established Administration for Community Living in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services administers most OAA programs. Since the enactment of OAA, Congress has reauthorized and amended the act numerous times. In the past, OAA reauthorization has included extending the act's authorization of appropriations (funds to operate it) for five-year periods. The last OAA authorization occurred in 2006. The authorization of appropriations for most OAA programs expired at the end of fiscal year 2011. However, Congress has continued to appropriate funding for authorized activities. In the 112th Congress, comprehensive OAA reauthorization legislation was introduced that would extend the authorization of appropriations for most OAA programs through fiscal year 2017. However, Congress has yet to vote on the authorization.
The Older Americans Act is vital to the well-being of California's 5 million seniors. I urge you to contact your elected officials, at all levels of government, be they county supervisors or state legislators, and urge them to send resolutions to our federal legislators in support of extending the reauthorization of OAA.
Contact your federal legislators and urge them to vote for the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act. I'm pleased to say that state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Monterey, has agreed to sponsor a state resolution asking the federal government to reauthorize the Older Americans Act. Please let him know you appreciate and support his efforts.
You can help bring a smiling face and a nutritious meal to local seniors by contributing your loose change to the Meals on Wheels February Coin Drive. Bring your coins to any Bay Federal Bank or make a donation online at www.communitybridges.org.
The next meeting of the Santa Cruz County Seniors Commission will be 1:30-3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at the County Regional Transportation Office, 1523 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. The public is encouraged to attend.
Contact Chuck Molnar at 831-454-2355 at the Santa Cruz County Seniors Commission Office.


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Was anybody else totally bored by that TMZ video?
James, Haley, Jacob. Jacob in the bottom.
Was anybody else totally bored by that TMZ video?
James, Haley, Jacob. Jacob in the bottom.
Maggie: "While she takes care of the men with the guns, why don't you sit down and I'll make you a nice, hot cup of tea?"
Pan Am stewardesses: prepared for anything!
Yippee! Jacob in the B3. Serves him right.
Wow, Stefano can stay if we get lose Jacob. But I think Jacob is safe. Stefano hasn't had a strong fan base from the start.
"How do you know the chosen ones? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his friend. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame... for one person. In the dark. Where no one will ever know or see." - Sebastion, Babylon 5
I hope Stefano leaves tonite. I put all my points on Stefano!
Excellent, the bottom three are my least favorites.
The TMZ video was odd, but I did like James zinging that guy back.
It was me. I let the dogs out.
I think Stefano is leaving. He's had so many weak performances in a row. However, I'm hoping that Jacob's turn in the B3 will leave him a bit more humble next time around!!
And Pia needs a personality. Even during the jokes on the TMZ segment, she just stood there and smiled.
Iggy Pop - I am throwing up a bit in my mouth....
"It's a dog eat dog world out there and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear." - Norm from Cheers


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As you may know, President Obama wants a complete review of human spaceflight and NASA's blueprint for returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. He chose Norm Augustine, a retired head of Lockheed Martin and a longtime aerospace executive, to head the review panel.
During a briefing Friday, Augustine outlined his plans to take a "fresh, independent look at the human spaceflight program and go where the facts lead." Nasa Watch has a bit more on the briefing.
Augustine said he would not ignore the fact that money has already been spent developing the Ares launch vehicles, but in essence added that good money won't chase bad if the panel decides this is the wrong approach to NASA's next chapter of human spaceflight. The review is to be completed in August.
Clearly human spaceflight is an integral part of Houston's vibrant scientific community and economy, and there will be an intense amount of interest in this panel moving forward from that perspective.
Interestingly, Augustine was asked to perform a very similar exercise in 1990 when he and others were tasked with recommending a future for NASA (see the report). Essentially the report ranked scientific activities such as robotic missions above the international space station. From the executive summary:
It is our belief that the space science program warrants highest priority for funding. It, in our judgment, ranks above space stations, aerospace planes, manned missions to the planets, and many other major pursuits which often receive greater visibility.
It is this endeavor in science that enables basic discovery and understanding, that uncovers the fundamental knowledge of our own planet to improve the quality of life for all people on Earth, and that stimulates the education of the scientists needed for the future.
Science gives vision, imagination, and direction to the space program, and as such should be vigorously protected and permitted to grow, holding at or somewhat above its present fraction of NASA's budget even as the overall space budget grows.
I certainly take Augustine at his word that he will provide a fair assessment of the prospects for the future of human spaceflight. He has an excellent reputation for fairness and intellect.
Yet based upon his past record, I don't think there's any question Augustine might be inclined toward science-oriented missions rather than sending humans to the Moon or Mars.
These are clearly uncertain times as Johnson Space Center embarks upon STS-125, which is just about the most poetic synthesis of manned spaceflight and a space science program one might imagine. Augustine and his panel would do well to remember that the Hubble Space Telescope would not have been possible but for human spaceflight.
RELATED: Join me Monday morning right here to follow the countdown of space shuttle Atlantis toward its planned 1:01 p.m. CT launch.


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Four people killed in Pender mobile-home fire
Posted January 18, 2009
Updated January 19, 2009
Burgaw, N.C. — Four residents of a mobile home died Sunday in a fire in the Woods Mobile Home Park at 3990 U.S. Highway 117 South near Pike Creek Road.
The Burgaw, Rocky Point and Maple Hill fire departments responded to the fire shortly after 3 a.m.
The first firefighters to arrive found flames coming from the front and back of the single-wide home.
The bodies of three victims – two adults and one child – were found in the master bedroom at one end of the home. Another child's body was in a bedroom at the other end.
The bodies were sent to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill for identification.
A fifth resident escaped with burns and was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center for treatment.
The State Bureau of Investigation and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been called to assist the Pender County Fire Marshal's and Sheriff's offices in the investigation.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Sunday evening.


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Hospitals Left Behind in Rally After Citi Note
Citi analyst Gary Taylor released a deeply pessimistic note today on the hospital sector, downgrading eight companies, including four to sell. The sector mostly fell even as the broader market rallied.
Taylor expects Medicare to get hit hard by spending cuts as Congress works to slash the deficit in the second half of the year. If Republicans take over the Senate, the cuts could be particularly draconian, Taylor argues.
"If healthcare facilities stocks plummeted 40-50% during the summer of 2011 as a divided Congress debated entitlement cuts, how low could the stocks go in 2013 if Republicans control both houses of Congress and are forced to raise the U.S. debt ceiling again?"
Taylor downgraded Tenet Healthcare (THC), Lincare Holdings (LNCR), AMN Healthcare Services (AHS) and Sun Healthcare (SUNH) to sell, and downgraded HCA Holdings (HCA), Health Management Associates (HMA), Universal Health Services (UHS) and LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT) to Neutral.
Gene Therapy Is Nearing a Major Breakthrough
3 Alibaba Headlines: AliPay Hits Canada; More Markets For Taobao; Taking a Page From Ikea
Escalating Quickly? Dow Drops 77 Points as Hawkish Fed, North Korea Sink Stocks
Tech Today: Facebook's Reckoning, Red Hat, AMAT On Tap
Apple iPhone X: Reports of Delays Keep Coming, iPhone 8 Debut 'Lukewarm'


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Revlon Colorist Reviews
great colorand staying power — 9 years, 3 months agomeadowwood1 | 413 reviews
Didn't do a thing.The only reason I could see for using this haircolor is if you don't like being noticed. This color did not make my haircolor change or even give it a nice sheen. It did nothing. Perhaps it would cover grays for those who need it, but that is about the only reason I could dream of that someone would enjoy the results of this product. If you don't have grays, like me, then pass it by. — 8 years, 11 months agobecksstein | 160 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 0 of 1 people said helpful
Revlon ColoristThey need to bring Revlon Colorist back! to the stores, As for my opinion It's the best stuff on the market and very well worth it's money, Works first time verses using other and having to do you hair several times and the new junk they bring out stinks as for how well they work. :) Although on the other hand I also know not all people have the same hair so what might be great for one might not work as good for others. — 6 years, 1 month agopinkballoon3 | 1 reviews
I Love this productI decided to start touching up on my color myself to save money from going to the salon ever 2 months. I tried this product on a whim because of the color glaze that comes with it and I was also drawn in by the cute packaging. I bought two boxes since I have long hair. I was happily surprised to find that the dye smelled so nice - similar to lightly scented shampoo. It didn't possess a strong ammo...read morenia smell like some other products that stink up my bathroom and make it unbearable to breathe. I use the glaze conditioner once a week, which I think works great as a detangler. There is a good amount in there for several weeks too.. Today, It's been about 6 weeks since I've dyed my hair and my color is still vibrant. From the first week to just this past weekend, I've been getting non-stop compliments about my color. I haven't noticed any noticeable fading either. I will be having to touch up my roots again soon since it's starting to show, and I definitely will be buying this product again and again. I can finally take a long break from the expensive salons. — 8 years, 7 months agojoonbug60 | 4 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 2 of 2 people said helpful
Covers the grayI use Revlon Colorist because it covers the gray well. — 8 years, 11 months agoguruwan2b | 5 reviews
i love coloring my hairpersonally i think this is a real good product, the color glaze wasnt all it was cracked up to be, but the hair color it self was great. i did have to use 2 boxes though because i have really thick hair, but it was really great, and alot of the time the drugstores will have a sale on it. i would purchace it again,but it does leave your hair in real good condition — 8 years, 12 months agoinfinity | 18 reviews
colorthe color lasts — 9 years agoapacia | 4 reviews
Eh...not that greatI was not satisfied with this product. I didn't feel that it was easy to cover all of my hair (and I have thin, fine hair). Also, even though the color on the box was pretty noticably different from my natural color, it didn't turn out that color at all. My natural hair color is a dirty blonde and I chose a medium brown (which is dark on the box)...and the result was a very strawberry-blonde. ...read moreHow does that happen? It wasn't terrible, just not what I was going for at all. And I expected more for the price I paid. — 9 years, 2 months agomissyannmwc2 | 18 reviews
Didn't cover my grayThe color on my not yet gray hair was great! However, I was looking for something that would take care of the few gray hairs I have and this did not get it done. — 9 years, 3 months agoJessicaT | 3 reviews
I give it a 6Colorist is a quality product and left my hair feeling healthy and looking shiny and rich. What I was disappoint ed with was the color itself. I looked at teh chart and chose the color that would achieve the desired color with my color at the time . The actual color was much darker than I expected. — 9 years, 3 months agoPiclady | 15 reviews
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My Reasons for Reporting This


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A poster child for the way in which a 401(k) plan should not be run.
I participated on a panel at an investment gathering a couple of weeks ago. Toward the end of my comments, I briefly discussed the settlement proposed by plaintiffs in the Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. case. To my surprise, the audience was absolutely riveted by what I was saying. I'd like to chalk up that reaction to my stellar good looks and overall peachy disposition, but alas, neither would be true. Even more remarkable, this occurred late in the day when I was about the last remaining obstacle between the audience and Happy Hour. All that made me think that a column on the Wal-Mart case would be interesting to advisors.
The Wal-Mart case is the poster child for the way in which a 401(k) plan should not be run: plan investment options bearing excessive and entirely unnecessary costs, undisclosed conflicts of interest, lack of meaningful disclosure of costs to plan participants (which was actually part of the agreement between plan fiduciaries), and, I'd argue, an apparent absence of any serious fiduciary mindset on the part of the plan sponsor fiduciary and the trustee fiduciary.
A Bit of History
Jeremy Braden, a Wal-Mart employee from Ozark, Mo., filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mo., against Wal-Mart in March 2008. He alleged that Wal-Mart breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Braden had two basic contentions. First, the 10 mutual fund investment options offered by the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan--eight of which were actively managed--were not only priced at retail but highly priced at retail to boot, so they were imprudent per se given that the Wal-Mart plan held about $11 billion in assets. Second, Braden argued that the process by which these investment options were selected for the plan menu was essentially a corrupt one because every fund generated revenue-sharing payments to Merrill Lynch in its capacity as the (fiduciary directed) trustee and (non-fiduciary) record-keeper of the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan.
The district court judge tossed Braden's lawsuit in late 2008, but his decision was unanimously overturned in November 2009 by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was then returned to the district court for further action. The parties then eventually agreed to settle the case with the district court judge providing preliminary approval of the settlement last month and final approval set for March. Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $13.5 million with the net amount (after attorneys' fees, costs and administrative expenses) going to pay for plan expenses.
The Menu of Investment Options for the Wal-Mart 401(k) Plan
What follows is a table detailing the menu of 10 mutual fund investment options offered to participants by the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan in 2008, the year that Braden filed his class action lawsuit. (The plan apparently offered other investment options in addition to the mutual funds in the table. These included (1) a common/collective trust, (2) a stable value fund (comprised of a money market fund, a common/collective trust, and traditional and synthetic guaranteed investment contracts) and (3) Wal-Mart common stock).
While Braden's pleadings focused on the high retail-priced annual expense ratios of the mutual funds, there seems to have been no mention of the annual turnover rate or any commissions for the funds. Yet the harmful monetary impact of either or both of these factors--which are represented in the following table--on the wallets of plan participants can, in some cases, could be a multiple of the impact made by expense ratios alone.
The costs in the preceding table are expressed in basis points (bps). One basis point is equal to 1/100th of one percentage point (0.01%). 100 basis points therefore equal one percentage point (1.00%).
The expense ratio of a mutual fund is determined through an annual calculation in which a fund's operating expenses are divided by the average dollar value of its assets under management. Operating expenses are taken out of a fund's assets and reduce the return to plan participants invested in the fund. For example, the AIM International Growth Fund (Class A) had an annual expense ratio of 145 basis points (1.45%) which, every year, came out of the pocket of those plan participants invested in this fund. Some mutual funds have a marketing cost--referred to as a 12b-1 fee--which is included in the fund's operating expenses. Nine of the 10 funds in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan bore a 12b-1 fee.
Note that a fund's trading activity--that is, the fund manager's purchase and sale of securities in the fund--is not included in the calculation of the annual expense ratio. Instead, the cost of this trading activity is measured by a fund's annual turnover rate. A fund's turnover is the rate at which a mutual fund manager buys or sells stocks or bonds for the fund during the course of a year. A fund's turnover rate equals the lower of these purchases or sales (i.e., trading costs) divided by the average net assets of the fund.
Although it's difficult to precisely calculate the amount of a mutual fund's annual trading costs, it's possible to make a rough estimate. In his book, Bogle on Mutual Funds, the legendary John Bogle suggests doing so by doubling a mutual fund's turnover rate, and then multiplying that number by 0.60%. For example, the AIM International Growth Fund (Class A) has a turnover rate of 38%. Doubling that number yields 76 and 0.60% of that number is 46 bps. So a participant in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan invested in this fund would have paid an annual expense ratio of 145 basis points (1.45%) of its invested assets plus annual trading costs of approximately 46 basis points (0.46%) of those assets, for an estimated total of 191 basis points (1.91%) each year.
And there's more. The AIM International Growth Fund (Class A) also bore a (front-load) commission of 550 basis points (5.50%). This is the percentage that a participant in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan who held that fund may have paid (to the fund company providing the fund) on the amount of new assets it invested each time in the fund. (Instead of being paid on a front-load basis, commissions can alternatively be paid on a spread-load or a back-load load basis.)
By the way, it's important to understand that commissions are sometimes confused with "brokerage commissions," but the two are completely different. Brokerage commissions are the costs racked up by a fund manager when buying and selling securities within a fund. Although commissions and brokerage commissions are paid by a plan participant to any fund companies that provide funds in which a participant is invested, they are accounted for (or not) in different ways. The cost of a brokerage commission is removed from the net asset value (NAV) of a mutual fund share, which reduces the performance of the share to that extent. So at least this cost factor is accounted for, however murky that may be. But the cost of a commission is not accounted for in any formal reporting formats at all. This cost factor is neither removed from the NAV of a fund share (thereby reducing performance) nor is it included in the annual expense ratio of a mutual fund (thereby increasing costs). That's why explanations of the negative effect of, say, front-load commissions "averaging out" and therefore "going away" over time are the complete opposite of simple arithmetic reality. In fact, the difference in accumulated wealth between a plan account bearing no (or low) commissions and one bearing low (or high) commissions grows absolutely over time--all other costs and performance being equal.
It's probable that a participant in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan with a relatively larger plan account would pay a smaller commission because of break-points. And it's always possible that Wal-Mart negotiated with the fund companies to get all commissions in the plan waived--whether front-load, spread-load, or back-load. But given the other facts in this case, one can't have confidence that such negotiations took place. In fact, no participant should pay any commissions in any 401(k) plan, especially one with billions of dollars in invested assets.
But folks, that's not all. All these hits to the wallets of participants in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan (or any unnecessarily high-priced plan) contribute to what I've called the "negative compounding effect of lost money." The costs just described for the AIM International Growth Fund (Class A) add up to about 2 percentage points annually--and more when commissions are included. They obviously reduce a plan participant's wealth immediately.
But there's an additional penalty on the accumulation of wealth: the negative compounding effect of the money that's used to pay for the foregoing costs. This money, which is "lost" in the sense that it won't ever be available for compounding into additional wealth, represents a phantom-like negative impact on the growth of total wealth.
Here's how Braden's recent pleading in support of his motion for a court order to preliminarily approve the Wal-Mart class action settlement put it: "…the nature of Braden's claims--that small dollar amounts of additional fees cause compounded losses in savings over time. While the present value of any given participant's claimed losses due to [Wal-Mart's] conduct… are relatively small in terms of dollars, their effect on future retirement savings is what Braden has undertaken to redress." (Emphasis in the original.)
Did Wal-Mart Waste Corporate Assets?
As the sponsor of a 401(k) plan, Wal-Mart owes a plethora of fiduciary duties to the participants in that plan. Distinct from such duties are the fiduciary duties owed by Wal-Mart to its stockholders. The Wal-Mart 401(k) plan had just over 1 million participants in 2008, purportedly comprising nearly 90% of its U.S. workforce. Although Wal-Mart has no obligation to match any contributions made by plan participants, it reportedly voluntarily contributed $932 million to the plan in 2007 alone.
The Wal-Mart 401(k) plan was a decidedly inferior one in all respects, especially considering that it was sponsored by such a large and sophisticated company as Wal-Mart. I don't see how anyone, especially Wal-Mart's ERISA counsel (in private, of course), could disagree with that. The case could be made, then, that Wal-Mart wasted corporate assets--nearly $1 billion in one year alone!--when it made matching contributions to the accounts of plan participants, contributions that came from corporate coffers. Making matching contributions out of hard-won profits to a qualified retirement plan that's decidedly superior in all respects is one thing, but any such contributions made to an inferior plan is quite another.
As the legendary Rex Sinquefield has said: "Poor performance is not cheap. You have to pay dearly for it." Making matching contributions with perfectly good corporate money to a 401(k) plan with a suboptimal menu of investment options is the very epitome of poor performance.
The Trust Agreement Between Merrill Lynch and Wal-Mart
There is a great "disconnect" in the ERISA statutory scheme: While a plan sponsor has always had the duty to defray only reasonable costs for a plan under ERISA section 404(a), the service providers to such plans never had the duty to actually disclose such costs to sponsors or plan participants. (This should change--at least some--this spring.) The Trust Agreement Between Merrill Lynch Trust Company, as the Trustee of the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan, and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., as the Employer (August 1, 2003), is a good example of affirmatively withholding such costs (i.e., effectively hiding them) from plan participants.
Section 4.04 of the Trust Agreement reads, in part: "[Wal-Mart] agrees that it will not, nor will it permit any employee of [Wal-Mart], to disclose, in whole or in part, the Written Fee Report [describing the fee break-down of the plan's mutual fund investment options] or any information in the Written Fee Report, to any person…This obligation of [Wal-Mart] not to disclose the Written Fee Report or any information in the Written Fee Report shall survive the termination of this agreement. [Wal-Mart] and the Trustee [i.e., ERISA section 403(a) fiduciary Merrill Lynch] agree that in the event of a disclosure of the Written Fee Report or any information in the Written Fee Report by [Wal-Mart] and/or any of its employees, contrary to the terms of this Agreement, the Trustee may terminate this Agreement immediately."
Merrill Lynch, the fiduciary trustee and record-keeper of the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan, continues to serve the plan in both capacities to this day.
The Proposed Independent Advisor to Wal-Mart
In addition to paying $13.5 million, Wal-Mart has also agreed to provide nonmonetary relief including retention of an ERISA section 3(21)(A) "independent" advisor for a period of two years from the date of final approval of the settlement. This advisor will assist Wal-Mart in its continuing efforts to remove retail-priced mutual funds, or funds that pay 12b-1 fees or revenue-sharing, from the menu of investment options offered by the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan. Wal-Mart has also agreed to consider, when appropriate, adding low-cost, passively managed investment options to the plan menu (apparently there are now two index funds on the menu).
The advisor will additionally provide independent advice and recommendations concerning the selection and monitoring of plan investment options. The words "advice" and "recommendations" in this context signal that the advisor will be a 3(21)(A)(ii) fiduciary who renders investment advice for a fee. That means the advisor won't be an ERISA section 3(21)(A)(i) fiduciary who exercises discretionary authority or control in the management of the plan or disposition of the plan's assets. "Discretion" is the lynchpin here, imbuing a fiduciary that has it with actual independent authority. The pseudo-"independent" fiduciary to be retained by Wal-Mart will have no such discretion and therefore will have no authority to effect real change in the Wal-Mart 401(k) plan and in the fiduciary mindset of Wal-Mart in its duties as the plan sponsor.
W. Scott Simon is an expert on the Uniform Prudent Investor Act and the Restatement 3rd of Trusts (Prudent Investor Rule). He is the author of two books, one of which, The Prudent Investor Act: A Guide to Understanding, is the definitive work on modern prudent fiduciary investing. Simon provides services as a consultant and expert witness on fiduciary issues in litigation and arbitrations. He is a member of the State Bar of California, a Certified Financial Planner, and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst. Simon's certification as an AIFA qualifies him to conduct independent fiduciary reviews for those concerned about their responsibilities investing the assets of endowments and foundations, ERISA retirement plans, private family trusts, public employee retirement plans as well as high net worth individuals. For more information about Simon, please visit Prudent Investor Advisors or you can e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com. The author is not an employee of Morningstar, Inc. The views expressed in this article are the author's. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Morningstar.
©2017 Morningstar Advisor. All right reserved.


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Microbiology of Methane Hydrates
The methane gas hydrates found in sediments along continental margins and beneath permafrost are a remarkable natural fuel resource. They dwarf all other fossil fuels in terms of their potential as an energy resource. These hydrates, however, may also represent an important environmental hazard: methane release that could contribute to global warming. We need to understand the environmental implications of methane hydrates and their behavior and distribution in the subsurface environment. The methane in hydrates is largely a metabolic waste product, yet little is understood about the microbial communities in the sediments that produce the methane.
INL researchers are studying the basic microbial and chemical processes that form methane proximal to the hydrates. Vertical sections of the hydrate-rich sediments have been sampled, and the microbial communities have been characterized to determine the relationship between the location of the microbes and the location of the hydrate in the sediments. An INL team has collaborated in three international coring efforts off the coast of Japan and on the Mackenzie Delta in Canada's Northwest Territories.
A principal objective is to determine the in situ rates of methane production. This requires knowing the types of microbes, their activity, their biomass, and their distribution in the sediments. Current models for methane production contain no meaningful biological information. Modelers need realistic methane production rates to estimate the extent of the huge methane hydrate resource in the earth.
Ongoing research activities include growing microbes collected from the subsurface in bioreactors to determine methane production rates under simulated in situ conditions. Using the bioreactors, we have estimated the pressure and temperature limits of the microbes. DNA signatures of the various methanogens have been obtained from a range of geographic locations and subsurface depths.
Selected Publications/Presentations
- Colwell, F.S., S. Boyd, M.E. Delwiche, D.W. Reed, T.J. Phelps, and D.T. Newby. 2008. Estimates of Biogenic Methane Production Rates in Deep Marine Sediments at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia Margin. Appl. Environ. Micobiol. 74:(on-line)
- F. S. Colwell, "Constraints on the Distribution of Microorganisms in Subsurface Environments," Subsurface Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, J. K. Fredrickson and M. Fletcher, eds., Wiley-Liss, Inc., 2001.
- F. S. Colwell, invited speaker, International Continental Drilling Program, Mallik Gas Hydrate Research Well Workshop, July 2001.
- F. S. Colwell, invited speaker, 5th RIDGE Theoretical Institute on the Subsurface Biosphere at Mid-Ocean Ridges, (Big Sky, Montana) July 2000.
- F. S. Colwell, M. E. Delwiche, D. Blackwelder, M. S. Wilson, R. M. Lehman, and T. Uchida, "Microbial Communities from Core Intervals, JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 Gas Hydrate Research Well, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada," Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 544, S. R. Dallimore, T. Uchida, T. S. Collett, eds., 1999, pp. 189–195.
- F. S. Colwell, invited speaker, Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology: Special Session on Microbial Ecology of the Deep Subsurface (Atlanta, Georgia) May 1999.


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Boring Blog Vector
Humorous illustration of two stylized animals on a simple background – a horse or donkey and a kangaroo. The horse says "I have nothing to say" and the kangaroo replies, "You should blog about it". You could use this vector as a funny clothing design or for your own caricature of humorous comic book.


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