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COLUMBUS -- There was a deja vu moment in the Ohio House a couple of weeks ago, as lawmakers, on a lopsided vote, passed legislation to increase criminal penalties against people who abuse or neglect pet dogs and cats.
For half an hour or so, lawmakers stood up and mostly sang praises to House Bill 274 and the Cleveland area television weatherman who the law changes are named after, honoring his efforts to stop animal abuse.
Under the legislation, individuals who "knowingly cause serious physical harm" to companion animals would face felony charges, according to an analysis by the state's legislative service commission.
Under current law, such abuse is considered a misdemeanor on a first offense and a felony on subsequent violations.
The bill also tightens prohibitions in state law for kennel owners who abuse or neglect animals in their care. Resulting fines would be directed to county humane societies or law enforcement who investigate cases of neglect and abuse, to be used for training expenses.
Sound familiar?
It should, because the state lawmakers have been debating comparable legislation for years.
Just ask Rep. Ron Gerberry (D-Austintown), who carried Nitro's Law for several general assemblies with hopes of ensuring kennel owners who abuse pets would face stiffer penalties.
The legislation was named for a canine that was among more than a dozen dogs found dead or dying from extreme neglect in 2008 at the High Caliber K-9 kennel on Coitsville-Hubbard Road in Youngstown. The owner of the business faced a few misdemeanor convictions and subsequently filed for bankruptcy, avoiding additional civil penalties.
That bill had bipartisan support, passed the Ohio House on multiple occasions and even was recommended for passage on a unanimous vote of a Senate committee, all before being left to die at the end of each session due to opposition in the latter chamber.
Earlier this year, Republicans in the Senate agreed to insert language into the budget that they said would implement the intent of Nitro's Law, ensuring kennel owners and employees who abuse or starve animals could face heightened charges.
Flash forward to the passage of HB 274 in the House earlier this month and you'll hear a lot of the same arguments Gerberry and Nitro's Law advocates have been making for years.
While representatives voiced optimism that the new bill would move through the Senate, Gerberry offered a few words of caution.
"It's the second time during this legislative session that this chamber has really, I think, stood up, and we'll stand up again today, pretty much unanimously, and say abusing animals is wrong," Gerberry said during the floor debate on the bill. "It's something that should be a fifth-degree felony."
He added, "There are people that don't agree with this chamber that are across the Rotunda. And we are going to have to do a very, very strong and fervent job of getting these folks to hear it, put it before the committee, let it have a vote and get it to the Senate floor and have a vote there...."
Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.


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Times are tough and you gotta do what you gotta do - even if that means living in the closet.
Just ask Sergio Santos, an architect with big dreams who lives in a tiny little space.
In order to be able to afford to eat, Santos, who lives in Delray Beach, negotiated with a man to rent out his closet. We won't repeat it again and yes, you read it right. Santos rents the closet for $150 a month, which is a steal, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
U.S. & World
"I pay only $150 a month and I love it," Santos said.
This isn't one of those MTV Cribs "You can fit a family of four in my shoe closet" closets or a "There's a mean witch and a talking lion fantasy land" in the back of a spacious wardrobe.
The room itself is 5 1/2 by 14 feet - or just large enough to squeeze in an Oompa Loompa, but not big enough to fit Shaq's foot or Yao Ming's head. Santos can spread his arms and touch both walls.
Santos, who has designed housing projects, high rises and office buildings, retrofitted the tiny quarters to now have a bedroom, office and mini-kitchen. And don't think Santos goes without the pleasures of life. He has cable TV, Internet service, a computer, mini-fridge and a microwave.
The thrifty, extreme makeover cost him $64 using recycled parts. Santos lost his architect job in January and now is a waiter (and a mini miracle worker).
No word on if the 39-year old has chronic back pain or if he can ever use the line, "Wanna go back to my place?"
We wouldn't recommend it.

subset: commoncrawl


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Stress is what you feel when you have too much to handle. You may have too much work to do, or you may be having trouble with children or a spouse. If stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can affect your health.
We all "hold" stress in different ways. Some people hold stress in their minds. They may worry so much about a problem that they can't think clearly.
If you hold stress in your body, it can affect your back. You may begin to tense your back muscles, which can trigger low back pain or make it worse.
Round and round you go
Stress and low back pain can create a vicious circle. You have back pain, and you begin to worry about it. This causes stress, and your back muscles begin to tense. Tense muscles make your back pain worse, and you worry more ... which makes your back worse ... and so on.
You'll always have some stress in your life, but you can try to prevent situations that cause stress and change how stress affects you.
Time management
When you don't have enough time, things pile up and stress mounts. Try these tips for managing your time:
Some behaviors and lifestyle choices can help your body bounce back from stress.
Interacting with others
If you have a lot of stress, tell people about it and ask for help.
Look for support from:
Last Revised:
December 14, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
William H. Blahd, Jr., MD, FACEP - Emergency Medicine & Robert B. Keller, MD - Orthopedics
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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On This Page
Public Health Statement for Chlorodibenzofurans (CDFs)
(Dibenzofuranos Policlorados (DFPCs))
May 1994
This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for chlorodibenzofurans (CDFs). It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at 1-888-422-8737.
This Statement was prepared to give you information about chlorinated dibenzofurans (CDFs) and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to them. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,350 hazardous waste sites as the most serious in the nation. These sites comprise the "National Priorities List" (NPL). Those sites which are targeted for long-term federal cleanup activities. CDFs have been found in at least 57 of the sites on the NPL. However, the number of NPL sites evaluated for CDFs is not known. As EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which CDFs is found may increase. This information is important because exposure to CDFs may cause harmful health effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure to CDFs.
When a substance is released from a large area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment. This release does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a substance only when you come in contact with it. You may be exposed by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing the substance or by skin contact with it.
If you are exposed to substances such as CDFs, many factors will determine whether harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity of those health effects will be. These factors include the dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed, and your individual characteristics such as age, gender, nutritional status, family traits, life-style, and state of health.
1.1 What are CDFs?
CDFs are a family of chemicals known as chlorinated dibenzofurans. These chemicals contain one to eight chlorine atoms attached to the carbon atoms of the parent chemical, dibenzofuran. The CDF family contains 135 individual compounds (known as congeners) with varying harmful health and environmental effects. Of these 135 compounds, those that contain chlorine atoms at the 2,3,7,8-positions of the parent dibenzofuran molecule are especially harmful. Other than for laboratory use of small amounts of CDFs for research and development purposes, these chemicals are not deliberately produced by industry. Most CDFs are produced in very small amounts as unwanted impurities of certain products and processes utilizing chlorinated compounds. Only a few of the 135 CDF compounds have been produced in large enough quantities so that their properties, such as color, smell, taste, and toxicity could be studied. The few CDF compounds that have been produced in those quantities are colorless solids. They do not dissolve in water very easily.
There is no known use for these chemicals. CDFs are often found in association with dibenzo-pdioxins (CDDs), which cause similar toxic effects.
1.2 What happens to CDFs when they enter the environment?
Small amounts of CDFs can enter the environment from a number of sources. Accidental fires or breakdowns involving capacitors, transformers, and other electrical equipment (e.g., fluorescent light fixtures) that contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to release high levels of CDFs formed by thermal degradation. A fire involving a transformer containing PCBs contaminated the State Office Building in Binghamton, New York, with CDFs. Accidents of a different kind involving heated PCBs occurred in Japan (Yusho incident) and Taiwan (Yu-Cheng incident). These incidents involved exposure to CDFs-contaminated PCBs that were used as a heat exchanger fluid for processing rice oil and which accidentally leaked into the oil. CDFs are also produced as unwanted compounds during the manufacture of several chlorinated chemicals and consumer products, such as wood treatment chemicals, some metals, and paper products. When the waste water, sludge, or solids from these processes are released into waterways or soil in dumpsites, they become contaminated with CDFs. CDFs also enter into the environment from burning municipal and industrial waste in incinerators. The exhaust from cars that use leaded gasoline, which contains chlorine, releases small amounts of CDFs in the environment. Small amounts of CDFs may also enter into the environment from burning of coal, wood, or oil for home heating and production of electricity. Many of these chemicals or processes that produce CDFs in the environment are either being slowly phased out or strictly controlled.
CDFs in air are present mostly as solid particles and to a much lesser extent as vapor. Some of the CDFs present in air return to the land and water by settling, snow, and rainwater. An amount of CDFs in the vapor phase is destroyed by reacting with certain chemical agents (called hydroxyl radicals) naturally present in the atmosphere. CDFs may remain in air for an average of more than 10 days depending on the CDF compound. Once in the air, CDFs can be carried long distances. They have been found in air and waters and at the bottom of lakes and rivers in areas far away from where they were released into the environment. CDFs tend to stick to suspended particles and settled particles in lakes and rivers and can remain at the bottom of lakes and rivers for several years. Sediment acts as a medium where CDFs that are present in air or water eventually settle. CDFs can build up in fish, and the amount of CDFs in fish can be tens of thousands times higher than the levels in water. The CDFs in water can get into birds or other animals and humans that eat fish containing CDFs. CDFs bind strongly to soil and are not likely to move from the surface soil into groundwater. In some instances, CDFs from some waste landfills may reach underground water. CDFs are more likely to move from soil to water or other soils by soil erosion and flooding. The breakdown or loss of CDFs in soil occurs over years, so CDFs remain in soil for years. Most CDFs found in plants are probably deposited by air. Cattle that eat plants on which CDFs have been deposited will build up some of the CDFs in their bodies. Some of the CDFs will enter the milk and meat of cattle.
1.3 How might I be exposed to CDFs?
CDFs are found at very low levels in the environment of industrial countries and at even lower levels in nonindustrial countries. People are exposed to very small levels of CDFs by breathing air, drinking water, and eating food, but most human exposure comes from food containing CDFs. The levels of CDFs in air are usually higher in city and suburb areas than in rural areas. The concentration of CDFs in city and suburb areas ranges from less than one femtogram (fg) (one quadrillionth of a gram, that is 1/1000,000,000,000,000th of a gram) to a few picograms (pg) in a cubic meter (m³) of air. The levels in rural air are usually so low that measurements are not possible. The levels of CDFs in most drinking waters are also below the level that can be measured. CDFs were found in drinking water of one of the 20 water supplies in New York State at a concentration of 3.4 parts of CDF in a quadrillion part of water. CDFs are not found in soils that have not been polluted. CDFs have been detected in the stack emissions and ash from certain industries and processes that are sources of these compounds in air at levels that are thousands of times higher than the levels in the air that we usually breathe. Once emitted in the air from stacks, CDFs are dispersed by the cleaner air and the level of CDFs drops substantially. Similarly, the levels of CDFs in waste waters from certain industries and in soil at dumpsites can be thousands to millions times higher than the levels found in clean water and soil.
Some products you use, such as paper towels, coffee filters, tampons, and milk cartons, can contain extremely low levels of CDFs. The intake of CDFs from these sources is very low. Since CDFs tend to concentrate in the fat, and milk contains fat, mother's milk can be a source of CDFs for babies. But considering the small amounts of CDFs in milk and the other beneficial effects of human milk to a baby and the length of time a baby uses mother's milk, scientists believe that mother's milk, on balance, is still beneficial to babies. Cow's milk and formula usually contain lower amounts of CDFs than human milk. Children playing in dumpsites may come in contact with CDFs through their skin and by eating dirt. It has been estimated that over 90% of the total daily intake of CDFs (on the order of a few pg per day) for the general adult population occurs from eating food containing them. The rest comes from air, consumer products, and drinking water. Meat and meat products, fish and fish products, and milk and milk products contribute equally to intake of CDFs from food, while intake from vegetable products contributes much less. Eating large amounts of fatty fish from water containing CDFs may increase your daily intake of CDFs from food.
People in certain occupations may be exposed to higher levels of CDFs than the general population. Exposure in the workplace occurs mostly by breathing air and touching substances that contain CDFs. Workers involved with cleaning up after transformer fires, workers in the pulp and papermill industry, workers in municipal incinerators, and workers in sawmills may be exposed to higher levels of CDFs than the general population. Contact with CDFs at hazardous waste sites can happen when workers breathe air or touch soil containing CDFs.
1.4 How can CDFs enter and leave my body?
If you breathe air that contains CDFs, they can enter your body through your lungs and pass into the bloodstream, but we do not know how fast this occurs or how much of the CDFs will pass into the bloodstream. If you swallow food, water, or soil contaminated with CDFs, most of the CDFs will probably enter your body and pass from the stomach into the bloodstream, but we do not know how fast this occurs. If you touch soil containing CDFs, which might occur at a hazardous waste site, some of the CDFs will pass through your skin into the bloodstream, but we do not know how fast this occurs. Most commonly, CDFs enter your body when you eat food contaminated with CDFs, in particular fish and fish products, meat and meat products, and milk and milk products containing CDFs. Exposure from drinking water is less than that from food. For people living around waste sites and for people who work with or around other chemicals that produce CDFs when heated, skin contact with contaminated soil or breathing CDF vapors are the most likely ways CDFs will enter the body. Once CDFs are in your body, some may change into breakdown products called metabolites. We do not know whether these metabolites are harmful. Some metabolites and some unchanged CDFs may leave your body mainly in the feces and in very small amounts in the urine in a few days, but other unchanged CDFs may stay in your body and be stored for years in your body fat. CDFs build up in milk fat and can enter the bodies of infants through breast feeding. CDFs can also enter the bodies of unborn babies through the placenta.
1.5 How can CDFs affect my health?
Much of what we know about the health effects of CDFs comes from studies of accidental poisonings in Japan and Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s, where many people ate food cooked in contaminated rice oil for several months. In both of these incidents, the rice oil was contaminated with PCBs that contained CDFs. The amounts of CDFs that these people accidentally ate were much higher than those normally found in your diet. Skin and eye irritations, especially severe acne, darkened skin color, and swollen eyelids with discharge, were the most obvious health effects of the CDF poisoning. However, these effects did not develop in some people until weeks or months after exposure and might not have occurred at all in other people. CDFs also caused vomiting and diarrhea, anemia (a blood disease), more frequent lung infections, numbness and other effects on the nervous system, and mild changes in the liver, but there were no permanent liver changes or definite liver damage in the people who accidentally ate the CDFs. The children born to the poisoned mothers also had acne and other skin irritations. Young children of these mothers also had some trouble learning, but we do not know if this effect was permanent. It is unknown whether these health effects were caused by CDFs alone or CDFs and PCBs in combination. We know nothing about the health of people who are exposed to low levels of CDFs by breathing, skin contact, or for long periods of time.
Many of the same health effects that occurred in the people accidentally exposed also occurred in experimental or laboratory animals that ate CDFs. Animals fed CDFs also had severe body weight loss, and their stomachs, livers, kidneys, and immune systems were seriously injured. Some fed high doses died. CDFs also caused birth defects and testicular damage in animals, but we do not know if CDFs make males or females infertile. Most of the effects in animals occurred after they ate large amounts of CDFs for short periods or smaller amounts of CDFs for several weeks or months. Nothing is known about the possible health effects in animals from eating CDFs over a lifetime. Only one study tested animals exposed to CDFs by skin contact. The health effects were similar to those that occurred in animals that ate CDFs. We do not know the possible health effects in animals of breathing in CDFs. The amounts of CDFs that caused health effects in animals were far greater than the levels normally found in the environment.
We do not definitely know if CDFs caused cancer in any of the accidentally poisoned people. There are no cancer studies in animals that ate or breathed CDFs. One study found that CDFs alone did not cause skin cancer in animals when they were applied to the skin for several months. However, when researchers applied another carcinogen to the animals' skin before applying CDFs, skin cancer developed. Although skin cancer developed in these animals, the Department of Health and Human Services, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the Environmental Protection Agency have not classified the carcinogenicity of CDFs.
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed to CDFs?
There are tests to find out if CDFs are in blood, body fat, and breast milk; however, these are not routinely done. High levels of CDFs in these body fluids and in fat will show that you have been exposed to high levels of CDFs. However, these measurements cannot show the exact amount or type of CDFs you were exposed to or for how long you were exposed. These tests do not predict whether you will experience harmful health effects. Blood tests can detect recent exposures to CDFs, but are not always the easiest, safest, or best method. Fat biopsies (small amounts of fat taken with a needle and syringe) may be less traumatic to a small child or very sick person and more diagnostic than blood tests. Nearly everyone in the United States and other industrial countries has been exposed to CDFs because they are found throughout the environment, and nearly all people are likely to have some CDFs in their blood, fat, and breast milk.
1.7 What recommendations has the federal government made to protect human health?
There are no federal guidelines or recommendations for protecting human health from exposure to CDFs. CDFs are, however, listed as hazardous waste components by the EPA.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1994.. Toxicological profile for chlorinated dibenzorufans (CDFs). Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
Where can I get more information?
If you have questions or concerns, please contact your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
For more information, contact:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop S102-1
Atlanta, GA 30333
Phone: 1-800-CDC-INFO · 888-232-6348 (TTY)
Email: Contact CDC-INFO
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
- Page last reviewed: January 21, 2015
- Page last updated: January 21, 2015
- Content source: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry


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Sopranology, absolutely not closed. Would love you to attend!
I made the forum inaccessible to unregistered lurkers or posters who haven't at least posted a few times. Wanted to make sure people who read this stuff had shown at least the commitment to post once in a while. Please add your name to the Convention Roll Call thread to be officially counted.
Re: Update on Chase's availability#31
Tony, his spirits crushed after b-lining to the fridge first thing in the morning: "Who ate the last piece of cake?"


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Arizona State Post-MortemPosted by AMurawa on April 4th, 2013
Now that all 12 conference teams are officially in the offseason, it's time to take a look back and evaluate each team's 2012-13 performance. Today we start with Arizona State.
What Went Right
A lot of things went right for the Sun Devils this year, as they won 12 more games this season, but a lot of those things stemmed from the eligibility and success of freshman point guard Jahii Carson. He was this team's catalyst from start to finish and many of the areas in which ASU improved can be directly traced back to him. Carrick Felix's offensive explosion? It certainly wouldn't have happened without Carson's play-making ability and the attention he drew from defenses. Herb Sendek's new slightly-more-uptempo approach? It was almost entirely tied to Carson's strengths. And best of all, for the first time since James Harden left Tempe, Sun Devils basketball is unabashedly cool again.
What Went Wrong
Any time you're ranked below 300th in the nation in free throw percentage (64.9% as a team), you know you're going to frustrate your coaching staff. The Sun Devils lost seven games this season by five points or less, and their combined free throw percentage in those games was even worse than the season average at 59.6%. Games like their home game against Stanford where they just 8-of-16 from the stripe in a three-point loss have to stick in the craw, even months later.
While you've got to recognize the great impact that Felix had on both ends of the court for the Sun Devils, there is little question that Jahii Carson was the team's best player and it's most valuable. He was the only major addition to a team that had won just 10 games in 2011-12 and he was not only the focal point offensively, he also injected the team with confidence and excitement.


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It's Wednesday! That means a brand new (title pending) episode!
This week, I touch on Madagascar 3, and then the Tank and I discuss Ridley Scott's new epic, "Prometheus"! There's a lot of wildly varying opinions on this movie… I honestly don't think there's any consensus at all on it. Find out what Tanker and I think by listening in!
From there we use "Prometheus" to launch a discussion about the "Alien" franchise. It's a storied series, with 4 very different films on its roster. We break 'em down for you, and go over our thoughts on them, including – which is better, Alien or Aliens? Plus our feelings on the Alien 3 "Assembly Cut".
All that, plus the Box Office Roundup, "Has Tank Seen Scarface" and our look ahead at what's on the radar. It's a great episode, check it out, you wont want to miss it! 😀 You can download it directly here or search for (title pending) or Tank and Fogs on iTunes!
To keep in touch with the goings on all week long, stop by and give our facebook page a like!


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The Island broker
A tiny realm all to yourself? Farhad Vladi can make that dream come true. For the past 40 years, he has been selling islands all around the planet – to people who really want to get away from it all.
The man
Muskets are not everyone's cup of tea. But such weapons are not quite so offputting if you read Robinson Crusoe as a child, the famous story of a seafarer stranded on a desert island; or if you were so enthralled by the book that you later decided to deal in islands; or if, decades later, the great-great-great-granddaughter of the seafarer on whose life the novel was based, dies, and it turns out that in her will she states that there is no more worthy heir to the stranded sailor's antique gun than you: Farhad Vladi, Hamburger, 69 years old, island broker for more than four decades.
What do you do then? Be coy, say you couldn't possibly accept the precious gift simply because you had done business with each other a while back – until the son of the deceased comes along and creates facts: A will is a will, not a matter for discussion; the musket comes to Hamburg. And here it now lies, in an office overlooking the Binnenalster lake in the center of Hamburg. The year 1705 is scratched into the shaft along with a name, Alexander Selkirk – that of the sailor who inspired Daniel Defoe's novel.
It all began when 18-year-old Farhad Vladi was waiting for his friend Jakob to arrive at a café where they had arranged to meet. Jakob was late and while Vladi waited, his eye was caught by a newspaper and the story of a someone he had never heard of, who had just bought an island for 5000 deutschmarks. "Hey, Jakob, I'm going to buy myself an island tomorrow," he told his friend, when he finally turned up. Five thousand deutschmarks, he could scrape that much together somehow. Parents and relatives would lend him something for sure. But it wasn't to be right then. Instead his parents wanted him to complete an apprenticeship with the bank, get himself a proper job first.
In the early 1970s, Vladi sends 100 deutschmarks to a newspaper on the Seychelles, requesting it to place an ad: "Wanted – island to buy" But what he doesn't know is that 100 deutschmarks will buy him a whole page over there. Very soon, he hears back from an islander.
The islands
Vladi's first client wants 300,000 deutschmarks for his island. Vladi draws up a prospectus and makes the rounds of Hamburg society in search of a buyer. In the end, three Hamburg businessmen seal the deal and Vladi earns a three-percent commission – 9000 deutschmarks. "For a young man like me, that was a fantastic amount of money," he recalls.
He now has around 12,000 islands dotted about the oceans belonging to a good 40 countries in his archive, which is the work of decades. When an island changes hands somewhere on the plant, he is usually involved. At present, he has around 120 islands on his books. Although for most people, palms, sandy beaches and constant sunshine spring to mind when they think of desert islands, but palms and constant sunshine actually cancel each other out: Rain is an occasional must because otherwise you would always have good weather, but not a single plant on your island.
There's no traffic, no stress, no bad news.
To put it another way: Tropical islands are great, but so are islands off the coast of Canada or Northern Europe. Whispering Trees is one of the islands off the east coast of Canada – a fine place for fishing, canoeing, rambling. That's the one type of island. The other could be Taiaro, for instance – an atoll in French Polynesia with a 12-square-kilometer lagoon. It's all a matter of taste, as Vladi puts it. The main motive for purchasing an island is always the same, though: absolute peace. "You get there, and none of the things that got on your nerves at home are there: There's no traffic, no stress, no bad news."
His clients
It's this remoteness and seclusion that has prompted more and more NGOs and states to buy islands in recent years, especially when the islands are inhabited by rare or endangered animal or plant species. Vladi has sold over 200 islands to Canada, for example. Although he is duty bound, as a real estate agent, to forward all offers to the vendor, he does voice recommendations. In his view, the greater the client's interest in preserving the island in its natural form, the better.
A jetty was all Depp built there
These days, leasing is becoming an increasingly important way to come by island, as compared with purchasing one. And celebrities especially tend – unexpectedly – to opt for rental. Exceptions prove the rule, however, and one such is Johnny Depp, in whose island purchase Vladi had a hand. The actor is practically the ideal buyer in terms of nature conservation – if you can actually talk about nature conservation when it takes an air and sea journey of thousands of kilometers to get there. "A jetty was all Depp built there; otherwise he has left the island completely intact," says Vladi. His vacations there look something like this: He arrives in his yacht, ties up at the jetty, takes walks on the island but eats and sleeps on board.
International superstars are the exception among Vladi's clientele. Most of his buyers are not famous; many are freelancers: lawyers, tax advisors, doctors, and also self-employed tradespeople. Only recently, a joiner with a family of four bought a Canadian island and now he's building a house there, little by little. °That island is gone, it will never come back on the market," says Vladi. It's a family thing – when the children grow up there and have good memories of that time, they will never sell, or only "if they are really feeling the pinch."
… and the prices
One thing's for sure, the days when huge returns could be reaped on island deals are past and gone. In the property bubble, the prices for islands have also skyrocketed – it's an absurd race. An owner once demanded 1.5 billion euros to let an island on the Philippines. "That is verging on the fraudulent," says Vladi. At the moment, the market is showing healthy shrinkage, and Vladi isn't even particularly concerned about it.
Whispering Trees, for example, the Canadian island so perfect for anglers is currently up for sale at just under 50,000 euros. That's the minimum offer price. The upper limit would have been adjusted if a Chinese consortium had actually bought land for 166 million euros off the coast of Panama. But then it turned out that the U.S. military had buried weapons on the island at the end of World War Two. Before anyone buys that particular island, the weapons would have to be removed, Vladi prophesies.
And perhaps investing in an island is ultimately a worthwhile proposition for buyers even without rising returns on their investment: It's always on islands, after all, where fabulous treasures are supposed to be buried. But anyone hoping to unearth Robinson's Crusoe's musket has already missed the boat.


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Dealing with a suicide or attempted suicide is stressful enough. Some health plans make the experience worse by refusing to cover medical costs for injuries that are related to suicide or an attempt — even though experts say that in many cases such exclusions aren't permitted under federal law.
Dealing with a suicide or attempted suicide is stressful enough. Some health plans make the experience worse by refusing to cover medical costs for injuries that are related to suicide or an attempt — even though experts say that in many cases such exclusions aren't permitted under federal law.
When a 24-year-old woman with bipolar disorder attempted suicide last year by taking an overdose of an anti-anxiety medication, her mother assumed that her employer plan covering them both would pay the bills for her daughter's hospital care. But the insurer declined to pay the $6,600 charge, citing an exclusion for care related to suicide.
"I didn't think I had any grounds" to appeal the decision, said the mother, who lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., and did not want to be named. "I thought that's just the way it was."
After negotiations with the hospital, the bill was reduced by half and her daughter has been paying off the balance in installments, the mother said.
"Suicide is a common exclusion," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health policy at George Washington University. "Insurers are all over the place on this, and state law varies tremendously." In court cases arising from a denial of benefits, "if the suicide attempt is related to a diagnosis that was treated, typically 'the courts' will not deny coverage," says Ann Doucette, a GWU research professor of evaluation and health policy.
Under 2006 rules implementing the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), employment-based health plans can't deny eligibility for benefits or charge a person more because he has a particular medical condition such as diabetes or depression.
Insurers, however, are allowed to deny coverage for injuries caused by a specific activity or for those that arise from a particular cause that is spelled out in the policy. (These are called "source-of-injury" exclusions.) For example, an insurer that generally covers head injuries and broken bones could decide not to cover those injuries — and spell that out beforehand in the policy — if they're caused by risky recreational activities such as skydiving or bungee jumping. In a similar vein, insurers sometimes apply source-of-injury exclusions to refuse to cover injuries that are intentionally self-inflicted.
Mental health advocates and government experts point to the HIPAA rules, noting that source-of-injury exclusions aren't allowed if they're the result of a medical condition. So if someone is severely depressed or suffers from another mental illness and sustains injuries from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, for example, the health plan can't deny claims, these experts say, if the plan would generally cover the treatment for gunshot wounds that were not intentionally self-inflicted.
Further, the 2006 regulations "make clear that such source-of-injury exclusions cannot be imposed even if the mental health condition is not diagnosed before the injury," a Department of Labor spokesman said in an e-mail.
Roughly 38,000 people commit suicide annually, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. (For every suicide death, there are an estimated 11 attempted suicides.) And more than 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental health condition, said Jennifer Mathis, director of programs at the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
While the HIPAA nondiscrimination rules apply to all employment-based health insurance, the new federal health law has extended those rules to the individual insurance market.
Some plans offered on the health insurance marketplaces contain source-of-injury clauses, said Carrie McLean, director of call centers at eHealth, which sells health insurance online.
Some exclude coverage of injuries related to suicide in all cases, while others make an exception for mental illness, she said.
Under the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, health plans generally must provide mental health and substance use disorder benefits that are comparable to benefits for medical/surgical care. But if a plan denies coverage following a suicide or suicide attempt, it's probably not a parity issue because patients generally would require medical or surgical care to treat physical injuries rather than therapy or other mental health services. according to the Labor spokesman.
Questions about suicide exclusions in individual market plans should be directed to the state insurance offices or the federal Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Labor spokesman. Someone enrolled in a group plan may file an appeal with the health plan.
This column is produced through a collaboration between The Post and Kaiser Health News. KHN, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health-care-policy organization that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. E-mail: questionskaiserhealthnews.org.


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Red Lobster says it's feeling the "Beyoncé Bounce."
The seafood chain known for its cheddar biscuits says sales surged 33 percent on Sunday, compared with last year's Super Bowl Sunday. The increase came after the release of "Formation," in which Beyoncé says she took a man to Red Lobster after sex. Red Lobster says it's sure the mention is responsible for at least part of its sales jump.
The pop culture spotlight is no doubt a welcome change for Red Lobster, which was sold by Darden Restaurants in July of 2014 after it suffered ongoing declines in sales. The chain, which is now privately held by investment firm Golden Gate Capital, says it has posted sales gains every quarter since the separation.
And after the mention by Beyoncé, it says it was also a trending topic on Twitter for the first time.
"It's clear that Beyoncé has helped create some Red Lobster fans, and we are very grateful to her for that," Red Lobster CEO Kim Lopdrup said in a statement.
Erica Ettori, a Red Lobster representative, said she could not "confirm or deny" whether the chain has reached out to superstar, but noted that things were "moving fast."
Regardless, the chain is already trying to make the most of its moment. It tweeted that, "'Cheddar Bey Biscuits' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" The chain is also noting that lobster is considered a romantic food.
Red Lobster, based in Orlando, Florida, has more than 700 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
U.S. & World
Another brand also enjoyed some attention from the star over the Super Bowl weekend. Beyoncé posted a photo on Facebook of herself relaxing on a couch, captioned, "It was a Super weekend Airbnb."
It was a Super weekend AirbnbPosted by Beyoncé on Monday, February 8, 2016
Beyoncé reportedly stayed at a $10,000-a-night 12-acre estate in the Los Altos Hills of California with stunning views of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The online rental company would not confirm or deny if Beyoncé paid to stay as a guest or was endorsing the company, citing guest privacy rules. But Airbnb released a statement with a playful nod toward one of her hits.
"We're huge fans of Beyoncé, we're thrilled to see her Facebook post and hope she was crazy in love with her Airbnb listing," Airbnb said.
Elizabeth Arakelian contributed to this report.


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About Rob Pegoraro
I'm a D.C.-based journalist who writes about (and is often frustrated by) computers, gadgets and other things that beep. More info at http://robpegoraro.com.
Thanks! But, technically, Verizon doesn't own Yahoo yet; the transaction isn't scheduled to conclude until sometime in June. Not that I will write about net-neutrality issues any differently after then...
One detail that Mike didn't mention in his summary: the startup that seemed most engaged with the patent system and most cognizant of its exposure to trolls had also paid the IP law firm Dow Lohnes to write and file its patent application. That's a seriously expensive way to buy some certainty.
There was an interesting thread about the post in a private Facebook group afterwards. Most of the respondents -- almost all but me veterans of startups, investments in same or both - were pretty cynical about the long-term utility of patents for non-biotech tech startups. But one guy did get some affirmative responses when he suggested sticking to provisional applications as a cheaper way to keep your options open.
My charitable interpretation would be that Norquist genuinely fears that people taking the easy way out would leave money on the table by not claiming deductions they're eligible for, thereby raising their tax rates. My uncharitable read is that he just wants to keep taxes as painful as possible, therefore increasing everybody's resentment of them--the old "heighten the contradictions" play.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which has paid Techdirt's Mike Masnick for some work and also hosts the Disruptive Competition Project blog I write for, has also backed Intuit. I agree with CCIA on other issues, but I have no idea where they're coming from on this one.
TBL acknowledged the usual issues with DRM before making that statement, saying "some people think DRM is bad because it's unbelievably burdensome and difficult, and anyway it isn't very effective." But, he added: "there's this boundary of which people are prepared to put things out without DRM."
I think he views this a case where either the DRM will let Big Copyright's content move onto the open Web, or that stuff will remain confined to Flash pages and mobile apps, thereby weakening the Web as a whole.
I think his logic is stronger for movies than e-books, seeing as how Amazon's HTML5 Kindle reader app apparently doesn't employ any DRM beyond only showing a chapter at a time: http://copyrightandtechnology.com/2011/08/31/amazon-lowers-the-speed-bump-with-kindle-cloud-reader/ But movie studios have a history of not taking "yes" for an answer, so more-or-less effective DRM in HTML5 still might not coax them out of proprietary systems.
I hope I'm right about this, and that you are too...
What did Beckerman say about how this new organization will fit in next to all of the existing lobbies that claim to represent Internet users and entrepreneurs: EFF, Public Knowledge, CDT, Free Press, Engine Advocacy, Disruptive Competition Project, and so on? It's never seemed that Washington has lacked for somebody to say "this is bad for an open Internet"; it just needs a greater willingness among elected officials to listen.
... the subtext of many of the questions today was this idea that there is such a thing, as Sen. Lee said, of "natural, algorithmic" search--like it's something available from the local farmer's market. I got the sense that he'd never heard of black-hat SEO, content farming, Google-bombing and all of the other tricks that require any decent search engine to make constant tweaks to its algorithm. He might want to talk to whoever who ran his campaign's online marketing about those things.
(That said, if Google really did threaten Yelp and TripAdvisor with removal from its general search listings when each asked to be left out of Google Places listings, it's got some serious explaining to do.)
I can forgive the band for wanting to forget that hideously awful business decision. (Here's Microsoft's press release, and here's my review from the time... please forgive the too-charitable assessment.)
You're welcome! In case you were curious about the exact date involved, Price told me that they conducted that BitTorrent survey on Dec. 12.
If anybody has questions about that post, I can answer them here.
That organization launched its opt-out site, yellowpagesoptout.com, back in August of 2009. I used it myself not long after and haven't been stuck with a phone book since.
Probably a mistake to write that "news outfits leak internal emails"--in my experience, newspapers don't order up controlled leaks the way companies and government offices do. These things happen on their own; a reporter finds a memo interesting/annoying/confusing enough and forwards it to somebody who can publicize it.
No, I didn't leak this memo. I do, however, wonder why newspapers don't recognize that newsroom-wide memos will inevitably leak and post them on their own sites first, instead of letting Romenesko et al. run up traffic by reposting them elsewhere.
It's extraordinary how Apple can stay clammed up in the face of bad PR--I didn't get any sort of response from the company to my own intemperate screed.
Don't take this post to be any sort of statement by management; they're not paying me nearly enough to take on that role. That said, I'll make two points:
1) Yes, you have to register to comment. We had a massive spam problem until we adopted that. And even requiring a login hasn't ended comment spam... because you can lie when you set up an account. We have no way of checking that, the same way that TechDirt can't prove that it's really Rob Pegoraro, the Post tech columnist, writing this comment. (It is. Honest!)
2) Some of my favorite commenters don't post under their real names--"wiredog," "54Stratocaster," "tbva," for instance. Something like half of my comments come from people who don't use their real names, and on some blogs (Nationals Journal comes to mind) it's more than half. Yet we have great conversations there.
The same is not true on some of our political blogs. Not even close. Why that happens would be fascinating subject for a sociological dissertation. Meanwhile, I myself have no problem with anonymous user input and wouldn't want any new commenting system to close off that option.
The site's Twitter feed and blog also have yet to address this issue. Perhaps Hulu is not particularly proud of what its owners have directed it to do?
... and the MPAA's earlier attempts to extinguish them. Wish I'd thought to note that issue in my own post!
Frank's one of the better writers--make that, prose engineers--in the Post newsroom.
FWIW, I also saw his post as evidence that it's healthy for journalists to have an academic background in something besides journalism. But maybe that's just me trying to rationalize my failure to make much real-world use of an international-relations degree...
This was a fun panel discussion to run, and I'm glad you found it "entertaining and enlightening." I still can't believe we didn't even get into the "graduated response" issue in an hour and a half of chatter, though. (Does that suggest what a hairball ACTA is becoming?)
BTW, to address the sentiment of the first two comments: A lot of these discussions do seem to assume that the right legal and technological framework will let copyright owners regain control of their work's distribution, but I don't think that's quite possible. So in my closing statement, I noted how I only had to paste a few strings of text into the command line to enable DVD playback in Ubuntu, DMCA or not.
After writing a piece taking the entertainment industry for task for things like forcing useless DRM on their customers, I sometimes get a response along the lines of "How can you possibly tell a movie studio or a record label how to do its job? You've never made a movie or recorded an album!"
And when that happens, I have a hard time resisting the temptation to send this reply: "How can you possibly tell a newspaper writer how to do his job? You've never reported a story for a daily paper!"


text:
spow had een nieuw logo ontwerp nodig en lanceerde daarom een wedstrijd op 99designs.
Een winnaar werd gekozen uit50 ontwerpen ingezonden door18 freelance designers.
I am looking for a logo for ScratchWraps - my range of protective products for iPods, PSP's and other gadgets. My target audience is mainly 14 - 35 years old but I do sell items aimed at potentially older customers to (satnav protectors etc). With this in mind, I'd like the logo to be young and trendy, but still clean and stylish with a tech edge.
Wrap it up before you scratch it up
Desired Color Scheme:
Up to the designer
Desired Style:
Young and trendy, but clean and stylish with a tech edge. Possible "Web2.0-ish"
Accepted File Formats:
Photoshop, Illustrator, fonts etc
You'll find a complete explaination of just what ScratchWraps are at the current website: ScratchWrapz.com Please note I am about to rebrand as ScratchWraps (with an 'S' not a 'Z' as I have recently acquired that domain). Ignore the current colour scheme - feel free to come up with your own. I like the Web 2.0 look with gradient greys etc. I'd rather no images of iPod's etc were used in the logo.
Some designs I like:
The tagline is: "Wrap it up before you scratch it up"
Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.
Bekijk hoe een ontwerpwedstrijd werkt of leer meer over logo ontwerpdiensten.


text:
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Cattle rose for the first time this week on speculation that a winter storm sweeping across the U.S. may reduce animal weights, while beef exports jumped. Hogs fell, capping the longest decline since October 2008.
A weather system may drop more than 12" of snow in parts of the Great Plains, according to the National Weather Service. Steers averaged 1,385 lbs. in the first four days of this week, down 0.3% from a week earlier, government data show. Beef-export sales tripled in the week ended Feb. 14.
"Storms like this can certainly take weight off of cattle," Dennis Smith, an analyst at Archer Financial Services, said in a telephone interview. "That's been one of the bearish factors, the heavyweight cattle," while exports were "outstanding," he said.
Cattle futures for April delivery rose 0.3% to settle at $1.28225/lb. at 1 p.m. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price fell 1.7% this week, the biggest loss since Jan. 18.
In colder weather, cattle use more energy to stay warm, leading to lower weights. Beef-export sales rose to 22,161 metric tons (48.8 million pounds) from 7,302 tons in the week ended Feb. 7, USDA said today.
Feeder-cattle futures for March settlement advanced 0.4% to $1.4125/lb.
Hog futures for April settlement fell 0.9% to close at 81.65 cents a pound. That marks the eighth straight drop, the longest slump since Oct. 6, 2008.


text:
'Making them more relaxed'
UK Daily Mail
Feb 16, 2013
Sleeping pills may be disturbing river ecosystems by turning fish into greedy, risk-taking loners, say researchers.
Scientists studied the behaviour of perch exposed to a sedative which is carried into waterways through sewage.
The drug, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety and insomnia called oxazepam, made the fish bolder and less social.
They left the safety of their schools to forage alone – making them vulnerable to predators – and also ate more quickly than normal.
'Normally perch are shy and hunt in schools,' said study leader Dr Tomas Brodin, from Umea University in Sweden.
Experience the massive benefits of our Ultimate Krill Oil now at 60% off!


text:
The sequel to Rockstar's sinister action game about a man who wakes up in a living nightmare where he is being stalked for sport and must sneak through the shadows and kill by whatever means he can devise in order to fight his way out. The sequel picks up with a new lead character, new gangs, a new storyline with gruesome twists and turns, and much more.
Our guide to brutalization is here.
Manhunt 2 brings all the fun of a killing spree to the comfort of your living room. Read More »
Rockstar releases an official statement regarding the game's status in the UK. Read More »
Don't let the "downgrade" from AO fool you -- this isn't going to be one for the kids. Read More »
Will a last-minute appeal save Manhunt 2 from being put down? Read More »
We get a chance to try out Rockstar's next installment of stealthy (and of course, sanguine) survival horror. Read More »
Release Region: United States
Release Date: October 29, 2007
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Release Region: United Kingdom
Release Date: August 29, 2008
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Also available on: PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
For more info on these technical requirements and features, please view GameSpy's Specs FAQ.
Manhunt 2 at IGN
Manhunt 2 Cheats at IGN
Manhunt 2 Guide at IGN
Manhunt 2 at GameSpy
Manhunt 2 at GameStats


text:
LONDON—Embroiled in a vast phone-hacking scandal involving the company he founded, respected entrepreneur and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch expressed concern Monday that he might have caused significant damage to his heretofore pristine reputation.
Murdoch, who established his widely admired career on the foundations of basic morality and sound business ethics, has, until now, been revered as a pillar of honesty and accountability in the media world. However, the Australian-American billionaire said the events of the past few months could make it very difficult for him to restore honor to his otherwise spotless legacy.
"I have spent more than 50 years working to establish a résumé of integrity, virtue, and unwavering beneficence, and now it could all be washed away by this one careless mistake," said Murdoch, speaking with the candor, sensitivity, and humility for which he is greatly admired. "I have let down my family, I have let down my employees, but most importantly, I have let down all of those around the world who have long known me as both a genuine humanitarian and a gatekeeper for truth."
As news of the scandal continues to blemish the tradition of journalistic excellence and dignity exemplified by News Corp.–owned outlets such as the New York Post and the Fox News channel, Murdoch himself has remained focused on rectifying his missteps, starting with paying those affected out of his own pocket.
"Look, anyone who knows me knows that I have never cared about money," said Murdoch, explaining that his distress over invading the private lives of citizens far outweighs his concern for his company's quickly falling stock prices. "While some of my competitors focus on sensationalist or partisan headlines to sell papers, I've always been willing to do whatever it takes to ensure my products are as fair and committed to the truth as I myself am. After all, truth and fairness are what people have come to expect from Rupert Murdoch."
"You don't get to be the world's most successful media mogul by being unscrupulous," Murdoch added.
Members of the media elite said they were stunned to learn that Murdoch, who has always served as the exemplar of all that is good and decent in his profession, was capable of such a clear ethical violation.
"I keep waiting to hear a report that this is all some kind of mistake," media expert Ken Auletta said of the controversy that has caused millions of people to reassess their opinion of Rupert Murdoch as a man of the most upstanding moral pedigree. "If someone like Rupert—who I think we can all agree was regarded as one of the finest human beings on the planet before this shocking scandal broke—can compromise his values and violate the principles of journalistic integrity that he himself has always been so deeply committed to, it really makes you lose faith in the entire industry."
Despite the fallout from the controversy continuing to implicate News Corp. employees and other powerful people throughout the United Kingdom, Murdoch has been lauded for unflinchingly bearing the full burden of the scandal.
"Obviously, my only recourse is to protect what's left of my reputation and the reputation of News Corp. by resigning as chairman and CEO," Murdoch said. "There can be no scapegoats. And out of respect for the victims, I will not settle any charges against me out of court. Justice must be served."


text:
A Pennsylvania inmate is claiming Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian have caused him "extreme emotional distress."
D.J. Goodson is suing the sisters after watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and "Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami," TMZ.com reported.
Goodson claims he's permanently scarred from watching domestic abuse (a boxing match on the show featuring Kim), emotional abuse (rantings courtesy of Kourtney and "paramour Scott") and racism (Khloe referring to a baby doll as "the black baby").
U.S. & World
According to the lawsuit, the sisters' actions caused Goodson "mental anguish, embarrassment, shame and humiliation." He continues to suffer nervousness and anger issues he attributes to watching the shows over the summer, the lawsuit says.
The Kardashians may want to consider letting this go to trial. It would be great reality TV material.
Goodson wants $75,000.


text:
Tag Archives: workshops
Seasonal Yoga Academy/Registered Yoga Teacher
Registered Yoga Teacher
I completed my Seasonal Yoga Teacher Training in March 2017 and am now a 200 hr Registered Yoga Teacher.The range of practices are a very natural extension of my creative sound and voice explorations, and feed directly into the work in a very holistic way.
Many thanks to everyone at the Seasonal Yoga Academy and to all the wonderful people I have met and shared experiences with on the journey so far.
Please visit my Breathspace website for more info.
Creative Collective, Platform
Stories of Easterhouse
As part of Made in Easterhouse at Platform Glasgow, I worked on the final stages of Stories of Easterhouse with the Creative Collective and Platform Associate Artist Katy Dye.
I recorded the stories, generated atmospheric backdrops through a creative sound workshop and composed the audio pieces for the final installation.
The map/sound installation is running through October/November 2016.
Good Days Bad Days Excerpt
Background to Good Days Bad Days
Working in collaboration with writer Martin O'Connor, Good Days Bad Days was a 5-month research and development project with Glasgow's North East Recovery Community commissioned by Platform-to-Health and GRAND (Getting Real About Alchohol N Drugs). Participants were engaged in conversations focusing on remembering their first and last alcoholic drink, to open up bigger discussions of childhood and family life; living conditions and wider society in Glasgow and the impact of addiction and recovery on individuals and communities.
These conversations formed the basis of an immersive sound installation that was staged at Platform Glasgow and as a headphone installation at Outskirts Festival in 2016.
The research was preliminary work for Martin O'Connor's spoken word/theatre work The Mark of the Beast, which we developed for Martin's performances at Platform, Glasgow in 2018. (***** The Herald)
Martin O'Connor/Good Days Bad Days
Good Days Bad Days Sound Installation
Good Days Bad Days is a new work created in collaboration with writer/theatre-maker Martin O'Connor. Initiated by Martin, the work explores issues/ideas around alcohol and addiction in Glasgow.
From November 2015 – March 2016 we worked with participants from six recovery cafes in the north east of Glasgow (NERC – North East Recovery Community) as part of our research and development.
The end of this phase culminated in a sound installation I composed incorporating the voices and stories of the NERC.
27th March, installation, Platform Glasgow
April, headphone installation, Outskirts Festival, Glasgow
Vocal Sound Bath
EVENT CANCELLED My apologies but due to insufficient numbers I have cancelled this event as I needed to cancel the venue hire in advance.
If you are interested in future workshops please email me so I can keep you posted directly or subscribe below.
Subscribe to my mailing list
Carnival Summer School
I was delighted to co-facilitate the drumming activities with Erin Scrutton at the Platform Glasgow Carnival Summer School for children and young people. Other activities included movement, circus skills, big makes, costumes. An excellent week in general: skills, fun + games, parading, performing – some really wonderful moments and a huge dose of fun!
Sonic Bothy Paritor Award
Some excellent news for Sonic Bothy recently.
Sonic Bothy was one of several Glasgow Life/City Council partnered projects submitted to the National Music Council Awards, and was very excited to receive the Paritor Award for New Music in Education. Read more about the Paritor Award and other winners at the National Music Council website.
Read more about Sonic Bothy inclusive new music ensemble here.
Sonic Bothy Open Sessions
Looking forward to these Open Session workshops with Sonic Bothy at City Halls in February.
Teaching Fellow University of Glasgow
After being awarded my PhD from University of Glasgow I worked as a Teaching Fellow in Music there for two years.
2009-2011 University of Glasgow (Music)
Teaching Fellow (0.6 fte)
In brief, areas of work included:
Sonic Arts Levels II and III;
Practice-based Composition Workshops;
Contemporary Music Ensemble;
Lectures in Music and Technology;
Advising UG Dissertations and students on the MLitt in Popular Music Studies (Creative Practice);
First GLEAM concert organiser and host;
Music Education Project Organiser;
Course Administration.
2004-2009 University of Glasgow (Music):
Graduate Teaching Assistant
SoundAround/Perth Concert Hall
SoundAround was a mental health music/sound workshop + performance project co-facilitated with Erin Scrutton.
Over 10 weekly sessions we created a range of musical materials using voice, drumming, percussion and recorded sounds to create a final live interactive performance for the 'Come Awa' In' opening weekend of Perth Concert Hall in Scotland.


text:
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Follow that Pooch!
21 comments:
- CoyoteFe said...
Terrific! You captured them perfectly. Doesn't their forward stance look like they are ready to run with the wind?
- February 23, 2009 at 12:21 AM
- Dave said...
Excellent picture Ken. A great dog-study. - Dave
- February 23, 2009 at 4:00 AM
- Hilda said...
Aww, the poor babies! Great capture, KM!
Man, I can't imagine walking six dogs all at the same time!
Don't forget to vote for the April theme! We get two choices this time, thanks to Elaine. Please help spread the word too.
- February 23, 2009 at 4:43 AM
- Cyd said...
PERFECT... you are a canine mind reader KenMac!
- February 23, 2009 at 8:01 AM
- Tanya Breese said...
LOL love that! Are you the Dog Whisperer?!
Wow, I can't imagine walking so many dogs. These dogs are very well behaved. My 2 would be chasing after the loose dog with me flying on the other end of the leashes!
- February 23, 2009 at 10:03 AM
- -K- said...
Reminds me of one of my favorite movies - "Moonstruck."
- February 23, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Hmm, here's a career opportunity I've missed. (You'd think one of them, just one, would feign indifference.)
- February 23, 2009 at 11:50 AM
- Daryl said...
I love to see dog walkers on the way to Riverside Park .. everyone is so eager to get there
- February 23, 2009 at 12:10 PM
wow, that's incredible.
- February 23, 2009 at 1:23 PM
- Virginia said...
AH, GIrl this is the job for you. I agree. That must be one fine B.... well good looking canine they're ogling!
- February 23, 2009 at 2:01 PM
Mine are so big it takes two of us to walk them. These are well behaved doggies.
Cute pic!
The Blue Ridge Gal
- February 23, 2009 at 2:36 PM
- Lori Skoog said...
If I lived there, I just might be a dog walker. Check out my new dog....soon to be another farm dog.
- February 23, 2009 at 2:54 PM
- marley said...
Great capture!
- February 23, 2009 at 3:17 PM
- Judy said...
So cute, they do look like they are wondering why they can't run too. Great catch.
- February 23, 2009 at 3:28 PM
- Diederick Wijmans said...
That's what you call concentration!! An excellent catch!
- February 24, 2009 at 3:03 AM
- • Eliane • said...
I wonder what they give them. I am always amazed at how calm those dogs are. As if the dogwalkers were giving them a little sedative before taking them outside.
- February 27, 2009 at 9:41 PM
- sonia a. mascaro said...
Wow! Great photo! You catch very well the longing and the desire in their eyes.
- March 11, 2009 at 4:17 PM
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ninest123 08.28
- August 27, 2015 at 11:44 PM


text:
He still thinks about using every day, but it's faded with time. Sometimes it's a smell or a glimpse of the old life that sets his mind rolling.
On March 18, 2011, Jeff Leach began a new life.
"I don't know why," he said. "Clarity. This burden was lifted off me. I totally gave it all up. Whatever happens, happens. Quit worrying about if she's going to divorce you. If she's going to divorce you, she's going to divorce you. You deserve it. You're an idiot. You brought it on yourself. Don't worry about her. Don't worry about the kids. Don't worry about the family. Worry about yourself right now. Everything else will fall in place."
Behind him was a life he couldn't control. Ahead of him was the last leg of more than a decade of drug abuse and addiction.
With everything in his life hanging by a thread, Leach crossed the boundary that had eluded him. His story isn't rare, but for millions of Americans, its outcome — homecoming and overcoming — remains out of reach.
Now, as a counselor in training at the place that aided his salvation, his hand is stretched down into that world he left behind. With all his strength, he is trying to pull up the faces that are a mirror to his past.
"I put my whole heart into it. I matured. I grew up," Leach said. "Every day, I see a me. Not a lot of these people make it. But when they do, when you see that one person come in here who looks like he's been through hell and back, like he's been dragged through the mud, and you see him a few months later and he looks like a shiny new penny, it makes it all worth it."
Leach got his first exposure to alcohol about age 12.
It always seemed innocuous enough, and is a must for many in a state where 26 percent of high school students report having drunk more than a few sips of alcohol before age 13, according U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"There was some drinking going on in my family. I say it wasn't excessive, but now when I look back on it, I guess it kind of was," Leach said. "The Shreveport Captains use to be here. I remember my dad used to say, 'Hey, go get me a beer.' They would let me get it for him and take it back to him.
"I was walking back and thought I'd try it. I took some sips and ended up liking it. One time, I was walking back and drank all of it. 'What happened?' 'Oh, I dropped it.'"
Adolescents whose parents have substance abuse problems are more likely to develop such problems themselves, according to the DHHS. Those problems can include mimicking ineffective coping behaviors, such as using drugs and alcohol.
That normalcy would survive throughout his years at Riverside Elementary and Captain Shreve High School.
Marijuana was first, followed by LSD and pharmaceuticals. Leach described a rampant high school drug scene, one that manifested itself every day.
"I had my sports friends, which, whenever I was at practice or a game, I'd hang out with them," Leach said. "Then I would go hang out with my other group of friends. My using buddies. They were all good kids from good families. They just got hooked up with the wrong people. We were smoking weed before school, during school and after school. We would take acid right before school and just trip all day. My ninth-grade year, that was the thing to do."
His football coach cut his playing time after dozens of missed practices. He said he was spending that time getting high with his friends, and rather than quit in favor of practice, he went deeper into his new passion.
"I dropped off the football team that year altogether," Leach said. "It never occurred to me that was all the start of an addiction. Not at all. Not at all."
Between 2009 and 2010, Louisiana was one of the top 10 states for past-year cocaine use and illicit drug dependance among people 12 and older, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Marijuana is the most commonly cited drug among treatment admissions in Louisiana, and nearly 4 percent of the state reported using a drug other than marijuana in the month before the survey.
Leach wasn't drinking heavily or using drugs after earning his GED in 1997. But a car accident that year put him in a 10-day coma, and coming out on the other side was the start of a long road.
"That's when I really started thinking I was invincible. Nothing could hurt me," Leach said. "The doctor told me never to drink again. Well, I'll show you. I started drinking heavily and more heavily. They put me on Lortabs, so I started taking Lortabs. Cocaine and methamphetamine were real prevalent. It seems like then was when there was no limit. I would drink until I passed out. I would do drugs until the drugs were gone, then I'd keep looking for more drugs. I couldn't do enough. And that stayed with me until 2011."
For more than a decade, Leach said he stumbled from job to job without a real aim for his life.
From selling ham to commercial driving, he said he found drugs complicating every career he picked up. But it didn't always keep him from working.
"I started working in a pharmacy. I ran the drugs to different floors. Some of them made it, some of them didn't," Leach said. "Almost every job I've ever had, I've lost over drugs and alcohol. Whenever I had to start paying for my own crap, when my dad cut me off, I saw oil field work, and it was tough work but it was good money. They weren't drug testing, and if they did, the boss would let you know or he'd give you some pee."
In 1999, he remembered getting serious about quitting the lifestyle. A few Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, however, couldn't end the streak.
"I wasn't ready to stop yet. I kind of thought I had a problem," Leach said. "But I would see other people out there doing drugs and alcohol, and they were making it. And I thought, 'Well, damn, I can do it.'"
He was discharged from military service in 2005 after failing a drug test.
"After that, I was just homeless basically. I was living with friends, just really, really getting bad off into cocaine, shooting cocaine intravenously," Leach said. "It was bad. I just hit rock bottom. I had nowhere else to go. I was 110 pounds dripping wet. In 2006, I was having heart murmurs. I had passed out this one night after doing a big ol' shot of cocaine. I looked at myself and knew it was time to quit."
His first time at STEPS Detox of Shreveport, operated by the Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse of Northwest Louisiana, was another failing. Clinical care would help him reach six months of clean living, but it wouldn't last.
"When my wife and I met, basically it was a new thing. I thought I could beat the addiction. I had a steady job as a mental health tech," Leach said. "Three months into dating, we went out with some friends and I thought I could handle some beers. One beer led to 15."
Here began a five-year motif.
"He just acted like a fool, kind of stupid. Just kind of belligerent," said Jamie Leach, his wife. "I took him to the car, put him in the backseat and let him pass out. I didn't know I was going to fall in love with him. That was the first time I'd seen him drunk. I still feel like it was my fault."
They were married seven months after they began dating. It went downhill quickly, they said.
"It was like every other time," Jeff Leach said. "I already slipped now, why not just keep going?"
Their relationship would exist for years on rocky ground. Theft was common. So were late nights and missing days. There were talks about divorce.
"For the longest time, my kids would see Jeffery's vehicle was not at home. 'Where is Jeffrey?' Which I never knew what to tell them," Jamie Leach said.
Family is often the first victim of drug addiction, Narcotics Anonymous spokeswoman Jane Nickles said. Whether through theft, physical violence or neglect, Nickles said family members are often too personally involved to be the bedrock of recovery.
"They have to be willing to help themselves," Nickles said. "Peer members of recovery groups have rebuilt their own lives, and they can share those stories. Peers help them identify the harm they've done, then they must take responsibility for it."
The last time she threw him out of their home, Jamie Leach said she was sure it was the end of their relationship.
He called her the next day, looking for financial aid to return to treatment. She refused, but soon learned he had made it into rehab himself.
It was March 18, 2011.
Five days of STEPS Detox and two months in the Buckhalter Recovery Center preceded another month at a � Way House.
"I begged and pleaded for them to let me back into Buckhalter. I'd already been there twice," Leach said. "I was going to school. I was working. Everything was going real good. I'd take the bus wherever I needed to go. Her and I were doing great. We were talking every day. She'd come by about every day."
And then the moment he'd set his heart on came — a homecoming.
"I wanted him to be out there on his own first before he came home. I was still kind of gun shy, afraid it would all fall apart," Jamie Leach said. "He was a totally different man this go-round."
No action comes without motivation, even salvaging and saving a life.
"Family and children are often used as a motivator to get clean," Shreveport's Center for Families Executive Director Emeritus Kim Bailey said. "It used to be said you can't get off drugs or alcohol for someone else, but we take anything as a starter. As they get stronger in their recovery, they really want to do it for themselves."
At the end of his trial, Leach said he let go of his fears and his confusion. He didn't forget who was important to him, but instead took stock of those people and knew he couldn't have them without a healthy life.
What he has now is time — time for his wife, time for his stepkids, time to rebuild.
"They have their stepdad back," Jamie Leach said. "They know now they can rely on him. It's changed for them for the better. For one thing, I'm not an unhappy mommy. I'm happy. I'm not stressed. When Jeffery's vehicle is not home, they just say, 'Is Jeffery at work?' Now they know he's going to come home. They know he's going to be there for them for whatever reason."
He still thinks about using every day, but it's faded with time. Sometimes it's a smell or a glimpse of the old life that sets his mind rolling.
"It used to be fishing. If I thought about fishing, I thought about drinking. But now I can fish, and it's fine," Jeff Leach said. "I don't think about it as much as I did at the beginning of my sobriety, but now, it's not nearly as intense. I don't react on it now. For me, it's going to be how I react on it that defines the future."
His future, he said, is pulling others out of that old darkness.
"My main goal is to give back to the council what the council has given to me. It's a big deal for me to work with the council. It's a plus to see where you were," Leach said.
Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse of Northwest Louisiana: www.cadanwla.org
Information from: The Times, http://www.shreveporttimes.com