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You may have one in your pocket. They only cost about 25 cents. But if you have always used one to play guitar, you are lost if you don't have one. They are picks! Skinny little bits of celluloid, plastic, nylon, or any of a hundred other substances. There really isn't anything special about picks except that you probably use one every day.
Picks finally got some respect back in 1995, with the Miller Freeman publication of the book Picks!, by Will Hoover. It's a cute book, and it's informative in an area where little knowledge had previously been gathered.
"Picks are fun," says Hoover. "Fun is the word."
Indeed it is, ask anyone who collects them. The hobby of pick collecting got a real shot in the arm when the Hoover book was released, because there was finally a written reference work that created a common language.
Why collect picks? "Why not?" say collectors. Picks have attributes that make them collectible. There are endless varieties, lots of vintage makes, and your favorite guitar player probably uses one. Wouldn't it be nice to own one of his (or her) picks? They don't take up much space, a ready trader market exists to meet your needs, and vintage picks are cool case accessories for your old guitar. We talked to some pick collectors to find out what inspires them.
"I really like the vintage picks," says Chris Gaylord, a South Carolinian who has collected picks for 18 years. Gaylord has acquired a well-deserved reputation as a plectrologist. His interest in and knowledge of vintage picks has spread beyond the picks themselves and into pick display items such as cards, boxes, and pouches from the vintage era.
"My collection is broad and showcases picks made by several companies, starting with D'Andrea in the 1920s, to Gibson in the '30s and '40s, to the Herco and Fender picks of the '50s, along with a lot of forgotten names like Coast, H&F, and Wabash.
"I have many discontinued sizes and shapes represented in an array of colors and materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, glass, stone, horn, metal, leather, and celluloid."
Harry Anderson has many vintage picks, but takes a different approach to collecting. Beginning in the mid '80s, Anderson began collecting picks with store logos on them. Now his collection contains picks from 49 states (only Idaho isn't represented).
"I like to describe mine as a general collection" he says. "It contains picks from nearly every state and 10 countries, and it has several dozen genuine tortoiseshell picks, as well as hundreds of vintage picks. There are picks made from brass, copper, aluminum, stainless steel, wood, stone, glass, ebony, felt, nylon, coconut shell, pecan shell, buffalo horn, carbonate, and graphite.
"It also contains pick pouches and pick boxes from D'Andrea, Fender, Gibson, McPherson and Herco," he adds. "I have full pick cards from Nick Lucas and Bob Clifton, as well."
The world of pick collecting took a new turn in February, 1991, when Anderson spoke with Alan Greenwood of VG magazine. Greenwood, VG's publisher, was impressed with Harry's picks and told him he could display his collection at the magazine's booth at the vintage guitar show in Pomona, California, the following year. Anderson easily filled up a 20" × 16" frame with about 150 picks, and the display generated a lot of interest.
Jeff White is a collector with different interests.
"I have a big collection of celebrity picks and my collection consists mostly of bands and artists whose music I enjoy," says White. "For example I am a big fan of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Gary Hoey, Edward Van Halen, Santana, and Aerosmith. I try to focus on obtaining picks from just these artists first, since they are my favorites. Most of my picks are from rock and roll bands and players."
But White likes vintage picks as well, and he senses a growing interest.
"My favorite pick of all is a Nick Lucas-impressed pick from the '30s," he said. "Lucas was the first guitarist to popularize the use of a flat pick on the guitar, and bring the guitar out from a background instrument to the forefront as a stand-alone instrument. Due to his popularity at the time, picks were made by the D'Andrea company bearing his name embossed into the pick. This, no doubt, is the first signature pick made. These early examples of the Nick Lucas pick are hard to find, but they're out there," says White.
As one might expect, Hoover also collects.
"Ninety percent of the picks photographed for the book are mine," he says. "We actually shot about 800 photos and only a small number were used. I have thousands of picks now, all vintage." For Hoover, the impetus to collect and to write the book came from fountain pens.
"I went to a fountain pen show and looked at all the cool swirly plastic," he recalls. "At least I thought it was plastic until I found out it was celluloid. When I realized picks were made out of celluloid, too, I knew I was onto something."
As one who came to pick collecting only very recently, Jeff White relates, "I was never intrigued to start collecting picks until about two years ago, when I met a member of Steve Vai's band and he gave me one. I then thought I would do a search on the Internet to see if anyone out there collected signature picks. Low and behold, there is actually an on-line community of people who collect picks and trade them back and forth for certain artists.
"Once I got involved in trading picks within this group, my collection just took off."
The online community to which White refers is call Pick-net, and details can be found at White's website, http://home.earthlink.net/~jeffwhite/theuniversalpicktrader.html.
Pick traders on the internet swap duplicates to fill out collections. Trading has helped White build a fine collection in a short time, though he says his is on the small side.
"I have about 900 signature picks, which is a modest [amount], since some traders I know have thousands. I also have roughly 300 vintage and 200 promo picks," he says.
Anderson got started collecting when some vintage picks were new! While in high school, he bought a Gibson ES-150 and a multicolored Mosaic pick he still has.
"That was 1954, in North Dakota," he says. "How it stayed with me all these years, I don't know." Anderson now has over 3,000 picks in his collection, but he still makes regular runs to find old ones. "They are harder to find now than back in the '80s," he remarks. "Small towns and old mom-and-pop music stores are still good for finding them. I've got plenty of duplicates, so I do a lot of trading now."
Gaylord has an impressive collection of vintage picks, but oddly enough his first collectible pick was from a celebrity.
"When I was in the seventh grade, someone gave me a Paul Stanley block logo pick," he said. But now he says he has too many to count.
"I currently have thousands," he effuses, adding he enjoys trying to unearth old picks. "Vintage picks can best be located in old music stores, but other places may have old picks, including pawn shops and antique stores. My dad added drug stores to my list of places to look. In earlier times, these were considered variety stores, and many sold guitar strings and picks."
VG also has a couple of budding pick collectors on staff. Dave Kyle, the roadworthy reporter from Nashville, has a small collection.
"I started collecting when I was doing stagehand work for rock and roll bands," he said. "They would leave scads of them laying around. And being a guitar player, I thought they might come in handy. Having been around some of the most famous players in the world, it's kind of nice to have a little something to remember them by."
Steve Patt, VG's former product reviewer extraordinaire and a family practice physician, has started a mini pick museum at his shop.
"I actually kick myself for not starting earlier," he said. "When I think of the live shows I've seen – Jeff Beck with Nicky Hopkins and Rod Stewart at the local ice rink, The Who at a small joint in Baltimore, and Jimi Hendrix at a real dungheap in Washington, I could've snagged picks willy nilly!
"They're a lovely and ephemeral way to capture the moment, and aside from their historical significance, quite nice to look at."
Hoover captured a bit of that ephemeral nature in his book and notes that celluloid, the material used to make picks from the beginning, is now being phased out and replaced by plastics.
"I'm sorry to see celluloid go, but I'll keep looking for picks. They are out there hiding in a million dresser drawers, in old brown and pink cases, and on dusty shelves in stores."
Perhaps you would like to start collecting.
"People of all ages can afford and enjoy this hobby," says Gaylord. "A person should have no problem finding at least one field that suits them."
"My hat's off to all the early collectors who turned me on to this non-dangerous mania," Patt adds. "Including my friend Guy DeVille, who publishes the Pick Tips newsletter. It's a great help."
If you start collecting, remember there are as many varieties and colors as you can imagine. They don't cost a lot and don't take up much space. You can also get celebrity picks for a minimum of effort. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to your favorite celebrity's fan club or management company. Many will send you picks free of charge. Celebrity picks are among the most popular on the Internet. If you opt for vintage picks, you can find traders among your guitar-fan friends, on the Internet, and in Pick Tips. If you look carefully, you'll find picks for sale at guitar shows, or at older music stores.
You may have to spend some money to get certain picks, but don't let that spoil your fun. "Most pick collectors are into trading," says Anderson. "They seem to be having a whole lot more fun than the ones trying to make money at it."
It could just be that pick collecting is the most equitable of all the hobbies associated with vintage guitars. And as Gaylord notes, "Haley, my 6-year-old daughter, has been at it for a year now."
Pick selection courtesy of Chris Gaylord. Photo: Brett Sterrett.
This article originally appeared in VG May 1999 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
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SNOW HILL – Worcester County exercises tight control over fuel access by county vehicles and equipment, Public Works Director John Tustin reported this week in the wake of the Wicomico County fuel thefts allegedly perpetrated by staff in that county.
Drivers must use an electronic card to access Worcester County fuel, Tustin said, and each time fuel is pumped from the county's two fuel stations, the amount and the vehicle are recorded. The cards are standard amounts and only permit a certain amount of fuel to be pumped.
"My vehicle has 22 gallons a tank. I can only get 25 gallons at a time with this card," Tustin said. "It's not a wide open card."
Tustin also pointed out both fuel stations are under surveillance. "Tapes are made of everyone in and out," Tustin said.
The Snow Hill fuel station is open access 24 hours a day, but the fuel station at the Ocean Pines Wastewater Plant is behind closed fencing overnight, although drivers can access the station with their card.
Maryland State Police and other law enforcement, as well as state officials, also use Worcester County fuel stations, as Worcester County staff and police do when driving official vehicles in other jurisdictions. All are billed for usage by the jurisdiction that owns the fuel station.
"It provides great flexibility," said Tustin.
Heavy equipment at the landfill, like bulldozers and compactors, fuel up at an old, immobile tanker truck.
"No wheels, no engine, no windshield. It can't move other than being dragged around the landfill," Tustin said.
Although the landfill tanker is not monitored through a card system, fuel use there is very consistent, he said, with no anomalies.
Tustin could remember only one instance of fuel theft in his tenure, when an employee was caught fueling his personal vehicle with county fuel. The employee was fired.
Each department receives a monthly bill for gasoline, with usage listed by vehicle and driver. Custodial supplies are also tracked carefully, and monthly bills are sent out.
"The controls are in place," Tustin said.
Fleet maintenance, which keeps $15,000 worth of parts on hand, creates work orders for every repair and includes all parts used. "There's a great paper trail," Tustin said.
After the report, Commissioner Judy Boggs said, "I see really great accountability and a great system of checks and balances."

subset: commoncrawl


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When you lose enough weight, buy some new pants. When you have pants that fit you properly, you'll be better able to keep track of whether or not you're keeping the weight off. It will also cause you to be more driven to keep being healthy so that you don't have to spend money on new clothes, in a larger size!
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To lose weight while keeping your favorite meals in your diet, seek out substitutes. Pinpoint the highest calorie ingredients in your recipes, and research what you can use instead. For example, using an egg substitute can make many meals more diet friendly. While substitutions may change the taste slightly, they'll allow you to keep enjoying the foods you love.
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Avoid spending too much time in the kitchen or dining room. Do not use these rooms for activities other than eating. When you do something in your kitchen or dining room, you might be tempted to eat because you think of this room as a place where you can eat.
When trying to lose weight, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to go into this journey with a friend. Have a support system that you can lean on when you are getting discouraged. Having someone who is going through it at the same time is so helpful, and you can also learn some new tips.
As mentioned previously, finding a diet plan that works for you is the hardest part of losing weight. Once you find a diet you like it's easy. Following the tips above you should be able to find a diet and exercise plan that works for you and makes you happy at the same time.


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Providers of Memory Care & Family - Resource - Library Products
Each (AL) Assisted Living community is responsible for providing an ongoing program of activities designed to meet, in accordance with the comprehensive assessment, the interests and the physical, mental and psychosocial well being of its residents. Within our Activity & Memory Care Resource Library you will find the tools and materials to help you ensure your community's program is effectively and easily implemented every month to stay compliant and provide excellent Activity Programming to your residents encouraging the participation of your Volunteers, Staff and Family Members whenever possible. The Activity & Memory Care Resource Library includes tools and materials for the following areas:
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RoadsideThoughts |
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada |
Home >> State of Alabama >> Lauderdale County >> Antioch | Index... |
Welcome to Antioch ...Antioch is located in Lauderdale County<1>. The location of Antioch has been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (ie- the GNIS).<2> Antioch is 730 feet [223 m] above sea level.<3>. Time Zone: Antioch lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time Telephone area codes for Antioch: (256) and (938)<4> Communities Also Named Antioch ...While we believe that this Antioch is located in Lauderdale County, we know of another 6 Alabama communities named Antioch. Those communities are located in the following counties: Bibb, Calhoun, Cherokee, Covington, Montgomery and Pike County. Beyond Alabama, there are 95 communities that are also named Antioch - they are located in Arkansas (6), California, Florida, Georgia (9), Illinois, Indiana (4), Kansas (2), Kentucky (5), Louisiana (3), Mississippi (7), Missouri (2), Nebraska, North Carolina (6), Ohio (2), Oklahoma (2), Ontario, South Carolina (6), Tennessee (13), Texas (11), Virginia (3) and West Virginia (3). For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Antioch. Communities near Antioch ...We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Antioch.
To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy. We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Antioch. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Antioch. Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Antioch. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Antioch. We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Antioch. See our Newspapers Page for Antioch. TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Antioch ...Looking for more information about Antioch? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions. While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Antioch, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Antioch. Off-the-Road Links ...Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Antioch. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page. The official website for State of Alabama: https://www.alabama.gov/ Footnotes ...
Thank you for visiting our website.
In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.
If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.
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TechRadar Verdict
A stunning statement CD player where the statement appears to be that Red Book CD isnt just alive and well, but able to hold its head high in the battle of formats - vinyl included. An extraordinary achievement and achingly desirable.
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A true tour de force in design, technology, engineering, build and sound quality
Brings an unprecedented degree of life, and vitality to CD replay
Plays to CDs strengths rather than mimicking turntable sound
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Angled transport mechanism makes removing CDs fiddly, and its hard not to finger the playing side
Very expensive
Why you can trust TechRadar
Few modern hi-fi components create an impact that reverberates around the globe, but in 2001, a compact yet satisfyingly weighty lozenge of aluminum finished with an attractively ribbed top and bubble glass porthole that was softly backlit to show off the circuitry within, did just that.
All the more remarkably, it was a stand-alone DAC - the kind of product hitherto confined to the unglamorous backwaters of the accessory market.
The DAC64, as it was called, changed all that. Made by Kent-based British high-end specialist Chord Electronics, it combined in an entirely unprecedented way, killer aesthetics, innovative 64-bit conversion and filter technologies, plus the sublime build quality for which Chord had already carved itself a much-envied reputation with its amplifiers.
It made add-on DACs sexy and, more importantly, offered the opportunity for owners of aging, mid-market CD players to experience true high-end sound quality.
When Chord produced the dedicated Blu transport a few years later, many felt that the combo raised the bar for digital replay to new heights.
In any case, the DAC64 and Blu now form the cornerstone of the entry-level Choral range. Back then, if you wanted to build a full-fat, no-holds-barred Chord-based system (quite something if you're into XXL statement hardware) it had to be fronted by the dinky duo. The end result of this approach, while undoubtedly intriguing, formed a pretty spectacular visual mismatch to say the least.
What Chord's customers were crying out for, understandably, was a 'Big Daddy' CD spinner - something that combined the technical and sonic excellence of the Blu/DAC64 in one full-size and memorably impressive chassis.
A player, moreover, that would score a very definite line in the sand for Red Book standard digital replay. In other words, Chord's best game, with cost more or less no object. The best CD player ever? That's the general idea and given Chord's customary confidence in these matters, it's interesting to note that the word "probably" doesn't get a look in.
So here it is, the Red Reference CD, Chord's unique take on state of the (digital) art. In essence, it marries enhanced elements of the Blu transport with a supercharged version of the DAC64 to, in the company's own, rather dry, words, "give the most accurate reproduction of CD that can be obtained".
Talking to Chord's managing director, John Franks, while he's in a more candid mood, it's clear that were the statement directed at the likes of Naim or Krell, or anyone else with designs on owning the coveted "World's Best" tag, it would be rather more concise. To wit, "Eat this".
Unmistakably a design from the house of Chord, the Red Reference is a stunningly solid and exquisitely finished piece of work. Apart from the signature bubble glass porthole, the casework is manufactured entirely from solid aluminium and feels immensely rigid.
Perhaps that's an inadequate description. It feels rigid enough for a police hit squad to use it as battering ram to attack the front doors of slumbering villains. And, believe me, the doors would come off worse. Naturally, this makes it an ideal support structure for the CD mechanism beneath that distinctive and sturdy clamshell clamp that's reminiscent of the Blu's.
And here's the really neat bit (on paper, at least). Uniquely, the area allocated to the CD mechanism cuts back into otherwise four-square-with pillars casework at 45 degrees, the idea being to allow front access to what would otherwise be a top-loading mechanism, even if the player is placed on the shelf of a rack. This seems thoughtful.
An equally nice touch is the solenoid controlled fluid-damped door, a simply beautiful piece of precision engineering completely worthy of the asking price. The trouble begins - and we might as well get this gripe out of the way now - when you go to place a CD in the transport or, indeed, remove it.
There just doesn't seem to be an elegant way to perform either task thanks to the absence of any appreciable finger room around the disc.
It's just plain fiddly and, after a while, makes you long for a slide-out drawer.
Thankfully, it's the only real ergonomic foible and, in all other respects, the Red Reference is a delight to use. The front panel design incorporates ball-bearing push buttons for the commonly used functions and a dual display showing CD status on one side and input, buffer and frequency information on the other.
At the rear, connections are made via gold-plated phono or BNC coax, plastic optical fibre, or balanced XLR-style connections.
The transport is a Philips CD Pro 2 powered by a switch-mode power supply that has its own AC filter. It's re-clocked using what Chord calls "a highly accurate crystal oscillator" before the data is fed to the upsampling and filtering electronics.
This is where the Red Reference begins to show some serious processing muscle. The latest evolution of the Watts Time Alignment (WTA) filter, which has a 4096 tap length, is used to put the squeeze on transient timing errors - something Franks reckons we humans have evolved to become especially sensitive to - and reconstruct the digital data to either 44.1, 88.2 or 176.4KHz (the default setting) sampling frequencies.
The digital signal is converted from 176.4KHz to analogue audio using 1024 tap filtering and a 64-bit digital signal processing core. This is followed by 64-bit seventh order noise shaping, 2048 times oversampling rates and improved pulse width modulated elements. The upshot, according to Chord, is unprecedented low level detail resolution.
The DAC also features selectable RAM buffer technology that sequentially takes in all the data, re-times it and then sends it out giving jitter-free operation. Digital data from other sources can also be fed into the Red via the optical or AES balanced XLR connections.
But Chord know that today's cutting-edge is tomorrow's blunt instrument.
The Red Reference uses Field Programmable Gate Arrays that can be reprogrammed by simply changing the EPROM memory chip. Future-proofing is thus assured, as is flexibility. The provision of digital inputs and outputs means the Red Reference can be both a CD transport and a DAC for other components.
We were fortunate enough to be given the luxury of testing the Red Reference over an extended period of several weeks. During that time, it was slotted into a couple of visiting Beautiful Systems, as well as performing front-end duties in this reviewer's regular reference set-up, partnering a Musical Fidelity kW500 integrated amp and Monitor Audio GS20 speakers.
The results were as consistent as they were extraordinary. In the case of the Beautiful Systems - with electronics from Leema and Ayre respectively, both of which tote highly regarded "giant killing" CD players - the Red Reference effect was far from subtle.
And it wasn't what we were expecting. Both the Leema Atila and Ayre are wonderfully grown up-sounding CD players - clean, smooth, detailed and effortlessly musical with a generous dose of the analogue-like warmth that has become a hallmark of high-end digital replay.
Yet, returning to them after listening to the Chord, each sounded curiously dull and listless, as if the lifeblood and vitality had been sapped from the music.
In fact, it didn't matter which system the Red Reference was plumbed into, its contribution was always the same: not necessarily a big improvement in refinement and smoothness, but a huge leap in the sense of space, physicality, energy, drive, dynamics and 'life'.
Systems simply sounded more powerful and authoritative with the Chord in situ, as if a more muscular, transparent and expensive amp had been drafted into the mix, as well as the superior source. And here's the most remarkable thing.
The Red Reference, unlike some five-figure CD spinners, doesn't try to sound as if it possesses the more superficial attractions of an expensive turntable: the silky, finely textured top-end, and an alluringly organic character. There is no obvious 'analogue flavouring'.
Rather, it puts forward the case for CD like little else we've ever heard - perhaps, for the first time, as a sonic equal in the things that really matter such as the sense of 'performance', and the feeling of 'being there'.
Drum kits, for example, assume a palpable presence in the listening room, taking on a startling power and intelligibility. Bass instruments are presented in a new light too, displaying hitherto unsuspected layers of subtlety and harmonic shading that elevates their usual underpinning role, too often blandly executed, to that of a major contribution.
The frankly amazing resolving power of the Chord has huge benefits in conveying the character of the performance space as well as the performers - not just the subtle reverberations and reflections, but, you'd swear, the localised fluctuations in air pressure. If the best hi-fi is about the suspension of disbelief, the Red Reference's attention to this particular detail is second to none.
The Red Reference's intoxicating sense of energy and musical conviction is, understandably, most compelling with exceptional recordings - Elvis Costello's version of Edith And The Kingpin from the album A Tribute To Joni Mitchell is especially scalp-prickling - but, to varying degrees, the Red Reference seems to raise the game of any CD regardless of the style of music and production values.
No, it doesn't sound like a turntable. In truth, it doesn't sound like any other CD player in our experience, either. It simply gets you closer to the music.
Hot-breath-down-collar close, in fact. In this respect alone, the Red Reference, it seems to us, is worth every penny of its considerable asking price. The stunning design and bullet-proof build complete the seduction, but it's the sound we really fell in love with. We were blown away by it, but you've probably guessed that already.
Tech.co.uk was the former name of TechRadar.com. Its staff were at the forefront of the digital publishing revolution, and spearheaded the move to bring consumer technology journalism to its natural home – online. Many of the current TechRadar staff started life a Tech.co.uk staff writer, covering everything from the emerging smartphone market to the evolving market of personal computers. Think of it as the building blocks of the TechRadar you love today.


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June 20, 2007, - 5:15 pm
Circumcision Declines: Another Symptom of Illegal Aliens
Yet another interesting symptom of the massive illegal alien migration into America: Fewer American males are circumcised. And that's a health concern.
Even though circumcision has been proven to help prevent the spread of AIDS and lower chances of certain types of cancers (like penile cancer) and urinary tract infections, doctors say that immigration (and liberals) have led to circumcision of American males to drop from a rate of 90% in the '70s to 57%, today. Males in Latino and Asian countries (including Muslim countries, like Malaysia–even though Muslims are supposed to circumcise) are not circumcised, and they are exporting that trend here as they enter our borders.
AP reports:
In some states, the rate is well below 50 percent.
Experts say immigration patterns play the biggest role in the decline, which is steepest in Western states with big populations from Asian and Latin American countries where circumcision is uncommon. …
Circumcision remains the nation's most common surgery, and the United States is still one of the few developed countries where a majority of baby boys are circumcised….
About one in three males worldwide is circumcised. In the United States, the rates vary widely by region.
It is most prevalent in the upper Midwest. In 2004, according to data compiled by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 79 percent of newborn boys in the Midwest were circumcised before leaving the hospital. Michigan and Kentucky had the highest rates, at 85 percent.
In the fast-growing West, the rate declined dramatically – from 64 percent in 1979 to just under 32 percent in 2004.
In California, the rate of hospital circumcisions among newborns was 21 percent. California – which has more immigrants than any other state – had the lowest circumcision rate in the study, which had comprehensive data on only 27 states.
The decline coincides with rising immigration from Asia and Latin America….
Circumcision was uncommon in 35-year-old Usha Toland's family, which has roots in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Oh, and liberals and their holistic medicine and other psychobabble also contribute to the decline:
The trend has also accompanied a change in Americans' attitudes toward medicine and their bodies.
"The rates of drug-free labor and breast-feeding all rose during the 1980s, while the initial declines in male circumcision rates began during the 1980s as well," said Katharine Barrett, an anthropology lecturer at Stanford University. "It may have been part and parcel of the wider effort to reclaim bodies – adult female and infant male – from unnecessary and potentially harmful medical interventions."
Sad to say, some of the lefties who populate my religion–which mandates circumcision–are contributing to the problem with a "cut-less" bris (Jewish circumcision rite):
On the eighth day of her son's life, Julia Query welcomed friends and family to celebrate his birth and honor their Jewish heritage.
But there was no crying, no scalpel, no blood, no "mohel" – the person who traditionally performs ritual circumcisions in the Jewish faith. In fact, Elijah Rose's "bris" differed markedly from the ceremony long used to initiate Jewish boys into a covenant with God: There was no circumcision.
"I knew before I was even pregnant that I would not circumcise," said Query, 39, a San Francisco filmmaker whose son was born in 2002. "It's not like you're just cutting a piece of paper off a pad – there's no 'cut here' line. It's not made to be cut off, and I would never, ever do that to my baby."
Tags: Agency for Healthcare Research, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AIDS, America, anthropology lecturer, Asia, California, cancers, Circumcision, Debbie Schlussel Yet, Elijah Rose, holistic medicine, India, Julia Query, Katharine Barrett, Kentucky, Latin America, Malaysia, male circumcision, Michigan, Midwest, penile cancer, San Francisco, Sri Lanka, Stanford University, surgery, United States, urinary tract infections, Usha Toland


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Dham Yatra
- Babulnath Mandir, Mumbai, Maharashtra - With Mouli Ganguly
- Hinduism
- Hindi
Age Ratings : All Ages Experience rich Hindu divinity while exploring some of India's culturally plush as well as inviting locations. These cherry-picked documentaries capture the splendor of the site and treat your eyes to the sacred sight of the Almighty. You not only get to experience the daily rituals and common practices carried out by people to appease the deity, but also understand the reason behind their existence. Without having to leave your room, they transport you to the place of worship, showing you the nooks and crannies of it._x005F _x005F We have chosen temples hidden away in the depths of the natural treasures, surrounded by few human settlements, as well as the temples that are frequented by people all around the world. With this series, you'll get a birds' eye view of the location. Whether you're planning a trip to the pious destination or simply seeking information about India's rich religious heritage, this series can be your go-to guide for ultimate devotional getaway.


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Mises Daily Articles
Thoughts on Capital-Based Macroeconomics
Part I.
In 1979 the Cato Institute published a collection of Hayek's post-Nobel-laureate contributions to Austrian monetary theory, policy, and macroeconomics titled, Unemployment and Monetary Policy: Government as Generator of the Business Cycle. The monograph made more available to an American audience material originally published by The Institute of Economic Affairs in London in 1975, including the foreword by Gerald P. O'Driscoll and "A Note on Capital Theory" by Sudha R. Shenoy. This volume has been one of my favorites and has been a source I have used frequently during nearly 30 years of commentary on Hayek's business cycle theory. It is good to see others highlight passages from the work as was done most recently in the "Quotation of the Day" posted by Don Boudreaux on November 12, 2012 at Café Hayek. Much of the content or similar content is available in New Studies in Philosophy, Economics and the History of Ideas. For those who prefer an audio rendition of many of Hayek's arguments during this same period of time my mentor, Fred R. Glahe , has made an audio of Hayek's lecture given at the Department of Economics of the University of Colorado on April 28th, 1975 available at the Mises Institute web site. The question and answer period with CU-Boulder faculty is quite interesting, especially in the context of the then-emerging stagflation and the breakdown of the Keynesian synthesis that occurred along with and because of the development of the Phelps-Freidman natural unemployment rate theory.
Bourdeaux's quote of the day (p. 40):
The conquest of opinion by Keynesian economics is due mainly to the fact that its argument conformed to the age-old belief of the businessman that his prosperity depended on consumer demand. This plausible but erroneous conclusion was derived from his individual experience in business, namely, that general prosperity could be maintained by keeping general demand high. Economic theory had been rejecting this conclusion for generations, but it was suddenly made respectable by Keynes. And since the 1930s it has been embraced as obvious good sense by a whole generation of economists brought up on the teaching of his school. Thus for a quarter of a century we have systematically employed all available methods of increasing money expenditure, which in the short run creates additional employment but at the same time leads to a misdirection of labor that must ultimately result in extensive unemployment.
Boudreaux's commentary:
It is useful to add to this Austrian insight Bob Higgs's important theory of regime uncertainty . (For a longer treatment, see here. [For an update see here and here]) Nothing in economic theory argues against the possibility of a relatively rapid restoration of employment – employment of labor and other resources rapidly channeled into what Arnold Kling describes as patterns of sustainable specialization and trade. In contrast, demand-management policies, such as those favored by Keynesians, effectively aim to channel unemployed workers and other resources back into the employments that have proven to be unsustainable.
He continues:
The freer the market, the more rapid such restoration will be. But frantic post-boom government meddling into the economy — meddling both real and monetary, and both actual and plausibly threatened – dampens not only the ability but also the willingness of entrepreneurs and investors to experiment with creating sustainable patterns of specialization and trade. The faux-sensible "government must do something" [link added] attitude itself prolongs, and perhaps even deepens, the economic problem that that "doing something" is imagined to solve.
Besides this critique of Keynesianism, whether of the "bastard" form or of the actual economics of Keynes, which is highlighted by Boudreaux, the short monograph (slightly more than 50 pages), the writings make several important extensions, revisions, and updates to Hayek's analysis from the 1930s and 1940s that are relevant today including, but not limited to:
1. Hayek provides a very explicit analysis of the causes of unemployment. Unemployment, properly understood, is a microeconomic phenomenon. The cause of unemployment is a misdirection of production that leads to "existence of discrepancies between the distribution of the demand among the different goods and services and the allocation of labor and other resources among the production of those outputs" (Hayek 1979, 25). Thus for Hayek, as for Mises, economic explanations of unemployment should be tied to Say's law properly understood (See "Why Your Grandfather's Economics Was Better than Yours: On the Catastrophic Disappearance of Say's Law" by Steven Kates.) As such, and as emphasized by Bourdeaux, demand management policies will be ultimately ineffective in generating sustained recovery. Hayek explains (p. 41), "The places where the misplaced workers … can find lasting employment can only be discovered by letting the market freely operate."
2. Hayek broadened his causes of misdirections of production to include the not only classic Austrian business cycle related malinvestments but also any misdirection from Cantillon effects (See Thornton's "Cantillon on the Cause of the Business Cycle"). The allocation of resources and the valuation of assets (bubbles) are temporarily shaped by the non-neutrality of monetary changes. Misdirections will always occur following any monetary shock and the misdirections will depend on where and how new money spending enters the spending or income stream. In addition Hayek extended the causes of misdirections of production to include fiscal policy induced manipulations of the spending stream. As a consequence he cautioned that while active policy, whether monetary or fiscal policy, might temporally appear to succeed, such policies could make an "eventual breakdown even worse" (p. 3). This caution held, even for an economy already in recession. A Keynesian policy, even if initially stimulative, results in misdirections of production and is not sustainable. Active policy ultimately "creates more unemployment [emphasis original] than the amount it was originally designed to prevent" (p. 11). This point is reinforced in a new working paper by Adrian Ravier, "Dynamic Monetary Theory and the Phillips Curve with a Positive Slope." Ravier argues, "the long-term effect of monetary policy is never neutral. While it is true after a boom-bust cycle the economy returns to the natural rate of unemployment, the crucial point is that the 'natural rate' at the end of the cycle is quite different from the one evident at the start. This requires an 'Austrian' Phillips Curve with a positive slope."
3. Further, like Higgs, Hayek recognizes (p. 42), "We must certainly expect recovery to come from a revival of investment." He then cautions that return to sustainable growth and high employment is not likely if the wrong policies are adopted, "Neither subsidization of investment nor artificially low interest rates is likely to achieve this position. And least of all is the desirable (i.e. stable) form of investment to be brought about by stimulating consumer demand."
Part II.
Recently in the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O'Grady's in "Ben Bernanke: Currency Manipulator " argues, "Latin America is rightly worried about the Federal Reserve's monetary policy."
Relative to U. S. monetary policy, O'Grady points out,
From September 2008 through the end of 2011, Mr. Bernanke's Fed created $1.8 trillion in new money. But Fed policy makers were only warming up. In September they announced that they will engage in a third round of quantitative easing — that is, more money creation, ostensibly to spur growth and thus bring down unemployment — at a rate of $40 billion per month with no deadline.
With so many dollars sloshing around in US banks and with a fed-funds rate set near zero, investors have found it hard to earn a decent return. The scavenger hunt for yield has sent dollars rushing into emerging markets where, as they are converted into local currency, they put upward pressure on the exchange rate.
O'Grady then provides analysis consistent with an Austrian, or capital-based macro insights without explicit reference.
The sustainability issue [see Roger Garrison's "Natural Rates of Interest and Sustainable Growth"] is troubling. As Bank of England Governor Mervyn King noted in a speech last week: "When the factors leading to a downturn are long-lasting, only continual injections of [monetary] stimulus will suffice to sustain the level of real activity. Obviously, this cannot continue indefinitely."
In a perfect world, the end of the dollar flows — or a downturn in soaring commodity prices when investor expectations begin to shift — would simply mean an economic slowdown. But booms are almost always accompanied by credit expansions, and Brazil's is no different. Since 2004, bank credit has grown to 167% of gross domestic product from 97%.
What happens when a leveraged economy, living on accommodative monetary policy, suddenly finds the spigot turned off? Ask Americans who were on the receiving end of Fed tightening in 2007.
Andreas Hoffman in "Zero-Interest Rate Policy and Unintended Consequences in Emerging Markets" provides arguments and evidence of how the current loose polices adopted by major central banks including Bernanke's Fed and the European Central Bank have adversely affected countries on the periphery. From the abstract:
In response to the subprime crisis and Great Recession central banks in advanced economies have cut interest rates towards zero and increased monetary accommodation to step-up domestic growth. In this paper I attempt to describe the unintended consequences of the low interest rate policies in emerging markets. I argue based on the Mises-Hayek business cycle theory that the current low interest rate policy in advanced economies may have planted the seeds for new bubbles and gave rise to interventionist cycles in emerging markets. I show that capital flows to high-yielding emerging markets translate into monetary expansion in emerging markets. In the face of buoyant capital inflows fear of floating forces emerging markets to follow the interest rate policy of advanced economies. The monetary expansion triggers mal-investment and over-borrowing [emphasis mine]. To stem against arising inflationary pressure and kill-off speculative capital inflows empirical evidence suggests that emerging market governments increasingly repress financial markets. International financial markets disintegrate. I conclude that the monetary policy of the large advanced economies is incompatible with financial integration and globalization.
Austrian economists should continue to develop this extension of Austrian business cycle theory.
Part III.
In a recent Circle Bastiat post, "Fiscal Stimulus or Fiscal Depressant?" Joseph Salerno provides a summary of recent research on Keynesian multipliers that provides some support of Austrian arguments.
Of special interest may be an IMF Working Paper entitled "How Big (Small?) Are Fiscal Multipliers?" by Ethan Ilzet, Enrique G. Mendoza, and Carlos A. Vegh. Summarizing some of the results from a study, Salerno reports:
Last and most important for the US economy, the study sorts the sample into "country-episodes" where the total central government debt to GDP ratio has exceeded 60 percent for more than three consecutive years. This is the case for the US from 2007 to the present. For the high-debt country-episodes the impact fiscal multiplier is close to zero and the long-run multiplier is -2.30. This means that $1.00 of additional government spending has no effect on impact but in the long run destroys $2.30 of total output in the economy.
Salerno concludes:
Of course, the very concept of a fiscal multiplier is completely rejected by Austrian economists and it has been subject to detailed and devastating critiques in the works of Henry Hazlitt, William Hutt, and Murray Rothbard. But the dawning realization among mainstream economists that government spending, at least in some circumstances, may actually destroy income and depress economic activity is a long overdue and highly welcome development.
This is extremely relevant as our politicians prepare to discuss policies to deal with the current policy induced budget deficit and expanding government debt. The actual problem is not the deficit, nor the debt, but the size of government relative to the economy. As I have tried to emphasize — based on work by Gwartney, Holcombe, and Lawson, "The Scope of Government and the Wealth of Nations." and by Vedder and Gallaway, "Government Size and Economic Growth" — in early 2009, when much of the current expansion in the size of government was being implemented, "Even if the current stimulus and budget proposal have short-term benefits in terms of measured GDP, the results will be temporary. And, by these estimates, they would come at a significant long-run cost to the economy."
Garret Jones at EconLog in his post " Which hurts more in the short run, tax hikes or spending cuts?" highlights two other studies that do not neatly fit the textbook Keynesianism that was the engine behind the bad fiscal policy beginning in 2008 under Bush and raised to unrealistic extremes by the Obama administration in early 2009.
The first work is a 2011 IMF working paper, " Expansionary Austerity: New International Evidence" by Guajardo, Leigh, and Pescatori. The graph Jones highlights from the work (see below) bears careful examination in light of the real danger that higher taxes will be a major tool in the current administration's plan to reduce the deficit. Higher taxes, notwithstanding the standard textbook Keynesian analysis, are significantly more contractionary, both short-run and long-run, when compared to spending reductions of similar magnitude. The second paper, written by two New Keynesians, Blanchard and Perotti, provides evidence about the impact of spending and tax shocks that should be relevant to Austrians. From the abstract, "One result has a distinctly nonstandard flavor: both increases in taxes and increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on investment spending." From the conclusion, "the response of investment, which decreases in response to both increases in taxes and increases in spending, is hard to reconcile with the Keynesian approach [emphasis mine]."
The chart from Guajardo et al. (p. 25) clearly indicates that spending cuts have relatively minor short-run impacts, especially relative to tax increases of similar size, on private consumption and real GDP. If correct, the graph perhaps provides indirect evidence supporting a Rothbardian policy to aid recovery. While like Hayek, cited above, Rothbard in America's Great Depression (p. 21) argues that the "the most important canon of sound government policy in a depression, then, is to keep from interfering in the adjustment process," he (p. 22) also recommends:
There is one thing the government can do positively, however: it can drastically lower its relative role in the economy, slashing its own expenditures and taxes, particularly taxes that interfere with saving and investment. Reducing its tax-spending level will automatically shift the societal saving-investment–consumption ratio in favor of saving and investment, thus greatly lowering the time required for returning to a prosperous economy. Reducing taxes that bear most heavily on savings and investment will further lower social time preferences. Furthermore, depression is a time of economic strain. Any reduction of taxes, or of any regulations interfering with the free market, will stimulate healthy economic activity; any increase in taxes or other intervention will depress the economy further. [notes eliminated]
Assuming an economy's response to a tax cut is similar in magnitude, but opposite in direction, to a tax increase, even if reducing government has, as indicated by Jones's figure, a short-run contractionary effect, the effect would be small and overwhelmed by the impact of the simultaneous tax reduction. In the longer run the impact of the government spending reductions on output and consumptions are non-existent or small in the graph. The impact of the tax cuts on consumption and output would be positive and significant. If the results on spending reported above by Salerno are more representative of the economy and would also be valid not only for a spending increase but for spending decreases, a $1.00 reduction in government spending would have no effect on impact but in the long run would lead to an additional $2.30 of total output in the economy. In either case the spending and tax cuts should expand the economy in the long run in ways likely to be sustainable. The result is even more likely when coupled with the conclusion from Blanchard and Perotti that both the tax and spending cuts should contribute to increased investment.
In the current economic environment — a slow recovery from a depressed economy, large government deficits and debt, and a size of the national government relative to the economy, 22-25 percent, clearly above a level consistent with adequate economic growth — Rothbard's recommendation is a win-win policy. But as important in the long run, the Austrian policy would move the economy a la Gwartney et al. to higher sustainable growth path, a path with a good chance of actually providing sufficient prosperity, to not just reduce deficits, but to pay down or ultimately eliminate the debt burden.
John P. Cochran (1949-2015) was emeritus dean of the Business School and emeritus professor of economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver and coauthor with Fred R. Glahe of The Hayek-Keynes Debate: Lessons for Current Business Cycle Research. He was also a senior fellow of the Mises Institute and served on the editorial board of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.


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Reports earlier this week indicated the DLC was in negotiations with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABCB) to purchase large quantities of liquor at a much lower price than it could get from wholesalers in Maryland.
Worcester County Public Information Officer Kim Moses confirmed this report in an email saying, "in representing the best interests of the licensees and the citizens, we negotiated a sweetheart deal with Alabama and took it."
Yet, in taking that deal, they may have inadvertently broken the law.
When the quasi-governmental Worcester County Liquor Control Board (LCB) was disbanded last year after a public scandal and the corresponding eight-month investigation by the state Comptroller's office found them guilty of multiple violations of state law including price discrimination, illegal sales, purchases, and violating state trade practices, the county government took over, creating the DLC via State Senator Jim Mathias' Senate Bill 906.
In doing so, language was added to Article 2-B (15-205), that states the county can buy liquor from anywhere, as long as the entity they purchase liquor from has a license to sell in Maryland.
However, Lou Berman, Auditor and Investigator for the Comptroller's Field Enforcement Division, confirmed yesterday that the Alabama ABCB had not secured a license to sell liquor in the state of Maryland.
"They haven't even applied for the license yet", said Berman.
What makes Alabama's lack of license even more compelling is the fact that the deal brokered between the County DLC and the Alabama ABCB has already produced a substantial transaction, one that by definition of the law, could be deemed unlawful, and subject to potential seizure of the illegal products.
"We took delivery of our first shipment on Monday, Oct. 31, at a cost of $175,000, and the shipment is sitting in the warehouse awaiting issuance of the permit," said Moses in her email.
Moses went on to explain that the Comptroller's office notified the county that there was a "licensing issue" with the state of Alabama and now the county is backpeddling to fix their error, with some reports implicating that the county may be trying to send back the shipment of booze to Alabama.
"Alabama is one of the 19 controlled states that we can purchase from, and we failed to consider the licensing aspect. We jumped the gun prematurely in our efforts to obtain the best pricing for our citizens and businesses," said Moses.
County Attorney John "Sonny" Bloxom said he "wasn't at liberty to talk about whether or not the purchase had been made" but did say that the county, under the advisement of the Attorney General's office is in the process of "helping Alabama get the proper licensing in place. It costs about $200."
Critics of the government's involvement in the liquor business were quick to make comparisons to this purchase and shipment of liquor in Alabama to one of the surprise findings in the Comptroller's investigation, which was that the LCB had brought 200 cases of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum from an unlicensed retailer in Washington DC and then essentially smuggled it across state lines in 2007.
The obvious difference in this case, is that the LCB purchase was from a retailer, and the Alabama purchase is from a wholesaler, but the similarities between the two are at least partially prudent because it seems that in both cases, liquor was brought across state lines illegally, as per Article 2-B.
However, it was a bit surprising that the county licensees, who were so adamantly in favor of the disbanding of the quasi-governmental LCB, have proverbially been watching this situation unfold from the sidelines and have provided little commentary on it.
"Bobby Cowger [the new director of the DLC] has been trying to get us on board with what the county is doing and keeping the markups reasonable, and we met with him this week and he mentioned a deal they were trying to make that would get us better prices," said Doug Buxbaum, owner of Buxy's Salty Dog Saloon and president of the Worcester License Beverage Association. "Obviously, as business owners, we want to get the best prices we can to help us survive, but we certainly don't want to get them illegally."
Cowger who ran the LCB in the early 2000's, led the county dispensary to its highest profits in history, before making way for Brian Sturgeon, whose business prowess quickly turned local licensees against him, and his strategies for running the LCB took revenues to all-time lows and eventually got the 75-year-old monopoly disbanded.
Although it seems Cowger is trying to mend the relationship with the licensees, he is still tasked with trying to make the county good profits, despite the competition with the wholesalers on the second tier of the state's three-tier liquor dispensary system. Couple that with the fact that the county's retail stores are reportedly down almost 10 percent in sales, most likely linked to the state's 50% hike in alcohol tax which sent many local consumers to Delaware to buy booze, and it perhaps explains the rather long distances Cowger is apparently willing to go to get good pricing on liquor for Worcester County.
"Bobby Cowger is not Brian Sturgeon, and he would never knowingly break the law," said Worcester County Commission President Bud Church. "He's done a great job for the county and the licensees since he took over."
Moses said in her email that the state wholesaler's unwillingness to go down on their pricing prompted the sweetheart deal.
"Last year, $11.2 million in products were purchased from wholesalers at steep markups that run contrary to our goals as a department to offer licensees the best price possible", she said; "We have tried without success since assuming operations on July 1, 2011 to negotiate better pricing from the wholesalers."
The state Comptroller's office is reportedly looking into this situation, and has reportedly known of the DLC's intentions to utilize out of state suppliers for at least several weeks, as per a letter dated Oct. 3, to Bloxom from the Comptroller's Tax Consultant II Joanne Tetlow.
The letter was in response to a Sept. 7 letter penned by Bloxom asking if the County could purchase alcoholic products from the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control and the State of Virginia's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Tetlow's response was lengthy, but clearly stated "If the DLC intends to make purchases and to have the VDABC ship or cause to be shipped to the DLC the product so purchased, the VDABC would have to qualify and hold the requisite license or permit under Article 2B."


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I've been working with pre-release versions of Windows Vista for, well, years now, and in recent month, it's been interesting to watch as Microsoft has made tremendous gains in both hardware and software compatibility. In this part of my Windows Vista Beta 2 review, I'll focus on the level of compatibility you expect in this milestone release, using my own hardware devices and must-have software applications as examples. Overall, Vista's compatibility is excellent, though work will be ongoing for the rest of the year to make things even better. As you might expect, there are still some issues, and depending on your needs, the inability to access a particularly important hardware device or application will make Vista Beta 2 a non-starter for many people.
Hardware Compatibility
As someone who has to install Windows over and over again because of the work I do, I can say with some degree of certainty that there is little in life as satisfying as a clean Device Manager. What I mean by this is that completing Windows Setup is only the beginning of a full Windows installation: Once Windows is up and running, the next step is to ensure that all of your hardware devices are recognized and working properly. You do this with Device Manager.
In Windows XP and previous Windows versions, Device Manager was easy to get to: You opened up the Start Menu, right-clicked My Computer, chose Properties, and then navigated to the Hardware tab in the System Properties dialog. Windows Vista, go figure, adds an extra step because, ahem, Microsoft likes to keep people on their toes. Now, the System information window appears when you choose Properties from the Computer right-click menu (Figure), and if you want to get to the old System Properties dialog, and thus to Device Manager, you have to choose Advanced System Settings from the task list of that window. Fortunately, things proceed similarly to XP from that point on, though of course you'll need to navigate through a User Account Control (UAC) dialog to get there (see my showcase on User Account Control for more information).
Anyway. Device Manager is pretty straightforward. What you get is a nice listing of the hardware devices in your system, and if they're all working correctly--that is, all of them have working device drivers that enable Windows to interact with them--the Device Manager can be described as "clean," with no errors or issues. However, that's not generally how most Device Managers look after Windows Setup installs. Instead, you will typically see a list of "banged out" devices--i.e. devices that include a yellow exclamation point, or bang, next to them (Figure). These devices are not installed correctly, and to get them working, you'll need to install devices drivers. There two basic ways to get drivers installed in Windows today: Via EXE-style setup routines, or via INF-based routines that you trigger directly from within Device Manager. (Increasingly, Windows Update is a good source for drivers as well; this will become more prominent in the Windows Vista timeframe.)
Windows Vista, like Windows XP, generally comes up for the first time with a number of banged out devices, depending on the hardware configuration. I've been installing Vista builds on up to five different PCs depending on the build, but for purposes of this review, I'll focus on my two most-often-used machines, a x64-based desktop and an Intel Pentium M-based notebook, to give you an idea of what to expect.
The desktop, an HP a640n, includes a 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon-64 processor 3400+ (single core) with 2 GB of RAM, ATI Radeon X800 XL (AGP-based) graphics with 256 MB of RAM, a 250 GB ATA hard drive, an integrated 9-in-1 memory card reader, a dual layer DVD burner, various USB and Firewire ports, and integrated AC'97-based audio. It's pretty much your basic PC desktop, though I've upgraded some components over the past year and a half, and I have a nice 1920 x 1200 widescreen HDTV display.
The notebook is an 18-month-old Dell Latitude D810 with a 2 GHz Pentium M processor, 1 GB of RAM, ATI X600 Mobility graphics with 128 MB of RAM and driving a 1680 x 1050 widescreen display, a 60 GB IDE hard drive, and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive. It's connected to a docking station with external speakers, and a HP scanner. On both systems, I print via a network-attached Dell laser printer. There are numerous other PCs available for networking, via both domains and workgroups, a Media Center PC, an Xbox 360, and various other devices.
The most obvious thing to note about device compatibility out of the box is that about 50 percent of Windows Vista Beta 2 installs do not install sound card drivers out of the box, regardless of the system. (Reader feedback on this issue has been fascinating: Some report no problems at all. For others, sound never works.) You can discover whether sound works without opening Device Manager, however, as you'll see that the volume icon in the system tray has a red "x" through it if its not working. On most of my test machines, including the notebook, I've been able to get sound drivers installed through Windows Update, which is pleasant. But on the desktop, I need to install XP drivers, which seem to work fine. (Be sure to use the absolute latest drivers. In previous Vista builds installing XP drivers was problematic; that's usually not the case anymore.)
There are always going to be compatibility issues with a new OS, of course. I couldn't get the Dell printer to work via Dell's installer routine, for example. I even tried copying the install files from my application install network share to the local desktop so I could use Vista's compatibility mode to fool the setup application into thinking my PC was running Windows XP (Figure). It didn't work.
The HP scanner was the cause of even more excitement. After failing to install HP's silly set of scanner applications (which include the device's driver), I figured I'd let Vista try to install the drivers itself. The Vista driver installation procedure is ponderous, but it usually does the job. The scanner, however, proved to be its master. First, you get a Found New Hardware dialog (Figure), which lets you determine how you'd like to install the hardware device it just discovered. I chose the recommended option (Locate and install driver software) first, just in case it actually worked. It didn't, so it prompted me to insert the disc that came with the device. I pointed the wizard to the appropriate network share, watched as it found the correct driver (Figure) and then waited. Bang! The system crashed to the BIOS and rebooted.
Oh, the fun we have. After booting back in Vista, I was curious to see if the scanner would actually work. (Hey, you never know.) The scanner actually did appear in Scanners and Cameras in the Control Panel, but I can't scan with it. And when I press one of the buttons on the scanner, an empty dialog pops up. While fooling around with the Scanners and Cameras portion of Control Panel, I actually triggered a traditional Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), which, frankly, you don't see very frequently in Vista.
Now, I'm obviously singling out the hardware that didn't work here. The truth is that most hardware does work fine with Windows Vista, assuming you're running the 32-bit version. Users of the x64 versions of Windows Vista are going to be in for a nasty surprise, however, because of limitations Microsoft has imposed on that platform for reliability reasons. (See my Windows Vista 64-Bit (x64) Support showcase for more information.) The situation (on both traditional 32-bit systems and x64) will certainly improve over time.
Software Compatibility
Software compatibility is, of course, another sticking point. As I discovered during an ill-fated attempt to start using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (see my preview and mini-review), nothing halts an OS migration faster than discovering that applications you require every day won't work. Such, sadly, is the case with Windows Vista Beta 2, though the situation has already improved dramatically since the early CTP (Community Technical Preview) builds.
There are two facets to Vista software compatibility that need to be called out. The first, a technique that Microsoft also employed in Windows XP, involves writing software "shims" for specific applications and application types, in order to fool them into working in Windows Vista. The problem is that a lot of application installers and applications are written to work with specific Windows versions (i.e. with "Windows XP" instead of "Windows XP and newer") and they need to be gently prodded to work correctly. There are also the standard manual compatibility modes, which sometimes work. Both of these are a continuation of work that began in Windows XP.
The second method Microsoft uses to get legacy applications working in Windows Vista is a bit more brilliant, mostly because of the way its implemented. Here's an example: When you try to install the latest iPod software from Apple, the installer initially balks because it's designed to work only with Windows 2000 and XP (Figure). Then something happens that still makes me smile every time I see it: The Program Compatibility Assistant appears, notes that you seem to be having trouble installing an application, and asks if you'd like to try again (Figure). If you choose to reinstall, the application will install correctly. Every single time. It's a joy.
But here's why this is so classic. Microsoft could have simply designed this thing to work silently under the covers, fixing recalcitrant application installers without your knowledge. In fact, I bet some people will argue that it should work that way. But by calling out what it's doing in this fashion, Microsoft is explicitly telling customers, "Hey, Windows Vista is a new operating system. It's different from Windows XP. And while this old application really shouldn't work on Windows Vista, we're going to make it work, just for you." It actually gives you the feeling that you're using something new and wonderful, and reinforces your decision to take a chance on the Next Big Thing. It's almost Apple-like in its reassuring smugness, and I love it. I hope they don't make it work automatically, I really do.
My software compatibility checklist
Anyway, you're probably curious about the success rate of application installs on Windows Vista. As with hardware, I can't provide a complete list of application compatibility for Beta 2, but what I can do is run down the list of applications I always install on a new Windows box and see how my most frequently-needed software fares in this release. The prognosis, largely, is positive. Here's how my software installation checklist works out:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
Works: Yes (with warning message)
Notes: Photoshop Elements 4.0 appears to work fine, if slowly at times, but there is a warning dialog stating that this program has known compatibility issues. You can choose to check for solutions (there are none right now) or just run the program.
Adobe Reader 7.x
Works: Yes
Apple iPod Setup (2006-03-23)
Works: Yes (After Program Compatibility Assistant intervention)
Notes: If you plug in an iPod, you'll need to actually run this application; otherwise, Windows will go into an infinite loop trying to detect and redetect the iPod. I can't get iTunes to recognize my iPod, however. So the whole thing is kind of a bust at this point.
Apple iTunes and QuickTime Pro 7.1
Works: Yes (with problems)
Notes: iTunes installs but behaves strangely. The desktop and Quick Launch toolbar icons for the application are blank and cannot be fixed. Performance is horrible, even more so that iTunes' usual problems. Both iTunes and QuickTime Pro are incompatible with the Windows Aero user interface; when they are running, Windows Vista reverts to the Windows Basic UI. (See below for more information.)
Diskeeper 10
Works: No
Notes: This application will not install, even with manual compatibility overrides. However, Windows Vista does have a built-in automatic disk defrag utility (that is based on Diskeeper code).
Update: Diskeeper Corp. is offering a free trial version of a Vista-compatible Diskeeper 10 from its Web site.
Flickr Uploadr 2.3
Works: Yes
Works: Yes
Notes: This is an ancient FTP application that I use to upload images to my blog. I'm not sure why I still use it, as it hasn't be updated in years, but it does work pretty well.
Microsoft CMD Here PowerToy
Works: No
Notes: This application will not install, even with manual compatibility overrides.
Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006
Works: Yes
Notes: This application runs fine but the main application window will not render the normal Windows Aero chrome border (instead, it resembles the Windows Basic UI). Oddly, sub-windows do utilize Windows Aero.
Microsoft Office 2003/2007 (and OneNote, FrontPage 2003/SharePoint Web Designer 2007)
Works: Yes
Notes: Both Office 2003 and 2007 install and work normally in Windows Vista Beta 2, though Office 2003 has performance issues the first time you save any document. Starting with Office 2007 Beta 2, the Aero glass effects work properly in Office 2007 as well.
Microsoft TweakUI PowerToy
Works: No
Notes: This application will not install, even with manual compatibility overrides.
Microsoft Windows Live Messenger Beta
Works: Yes
Notes: As long as you have the latest beta version, this works fine. However, you can't update a previous version to the latest version from within Messenger. Just download the latest version and install that way. I have seen some performance issues related to Sharing Folders, so you might consider not using that feature.
Mozilla Firefox 220.127.116.11 with Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar and Macromedia Flash
Works: Yes
Notes: Firefox works fine, as do the two Firefox adds-ons I always install.
Napster 126.96.36.199
Works: Yes (After Program Compatibility Assistant intervention)
Notes: Be sure to do a custom install. Napster wants to copy music files to C:\Users\[user name]\Documents\My Music by default, which is wrong: The My Music folder has been replaced by the Music folder, which is now located at C:\Users\[user name]\Music.
Nero 7 Ultra Edition
Works: No
Notes: This one fails silently during install. I'm told Nero 6 does work, but I haven't tried that yet.
PKWare Secure ZIP
Works: Yes
Slysoft AnyDVD
Works: Yes
TechSmith SnagIt 6.2 and 8.0
Works: Yes
Notes: SnagIt 6.2 is an ancient version of TechSmith's screen capture utility but I prefer it over newer versions because of its simple UI. That said, I just recently upgraded to SnagIt 8.0 and it works (and looks) great.
WinZIP 10
Works: Yes
Zone Alarm Security Suite
Works: No
Notes: No security suites will currently install on Windows Vista. To get around this, I installed the free trial version of eTrust EZ Antivirus, which installs and runs perfectly in Vista and satisfies the Security Center's need for an antivirus solution it can monitor.
Other software compatibility issues
There are a few more software compatibility issues that bear mentioning.
When an application (or even the shell) isn't responding in Windows Vista Beta 2, the application window (or, in the case of Explorer.exe, the entire desktop) becomes grayed out. You can then choose to end the application or wait for it to respond again. Except in rare cases, waiting usually works.
Some applications like Azureus (a BitTorrent client) and iTunes have display issues that prevent them from working properly with the high-end Windows Aero user interface ("glass"). In these cases, you'll see a warning dialog warning you of this and then the UI will switch to the Windows Basic look and feel (Figure). When you close the offending application, the UI switches back to Windows Aero.
One of the most frequent questions I get these days regards performance. Many people want to know whether Windows Vista performs well enough for day to day use. Correspondingly, many others are curious whether Vista Beta 2 is viable as their primary OS. The answer to both questions is a qualified no. Though I am in the process of switching to Vista Beta 2 as my primary OS, that's my job, and I'm only doing it so that I can by more knowledgeable about the system. Though Microsoft has made huge gains in compatibility, Vista is still not ready to be used as your sole OS, and should only be installed in a dual-boot situation with XP, or on a dedicated test system.
Performance, likewise, is sub-par, though to be fair, Microsoft hasn't done much performance work yet. That will come in the release candidate (RC) phase of Vista's development, which is underway now.
That said, Vista is maturing nicely, and while I anticipate some issues, I hope I'll be able to stay in Vista most of the time going forward. My advice to most people, however, is to test it but not get overly aggressive in trying to move to Vista entirely. You'll just end up missing the performance and compatibility of XP at this point.


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Read Time:3 Minute, 9 Second
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Moments after winning the 2014 Miss America crown, Nina Davuluri described how delighted she is that the nearly century-old pageant sees beauty and talent of all kinds.
The 24-year-old Miss New York is the first contestant of Indian heritage to become Miss America; her talent routine was a Bollywood fusion dance.
"I'm so happy this organization has embraced diversity," she said in her first press conference after winning the crown in Atlantic City, N.J.'s Boardwalk Hall. "I'm thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America."
Her pageant platform was "celebrating diversity through cultural competency."
The native of Syracuse, N.Y. wants to be a doctor, and is applying to medical school, with the help of a $50,000 scholarship she won as part of the pageant title.
She is the second consecutive Miss New York to win the Miss America crown, succeeding Mallory Hagan, who was selected in January when the pageant was still held in Las Vegas. The Miss America Organization will compensate Hagan for her shortened reign.
Davuluri's victory led to some negative comments on Twitter from users upset that someone of Indian heritage had won the pageant. She brushed those aside.
"I have to rise above that," she said. "I always viewed myself as first and foremost American."
She had planned to go to the scene of a devastating boardwalk fire in the New Jersey communities of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights Monday afternoon. But pageant officials canceled that visit after learning that Gov. Chris Christie was making cabinet officials available at that same time to business owners victimized by the fire.
Davuluri will visit at an unscheduled future date, pageant officials said early Monday.
She will still make the traditional frolic in the Atlantic City surf Monday morning.
Her first runner-up was Miss California, Crystal Lee. Other top 5 finalists included Miss Minnesota, Rebecca Yeh; Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones, and Miss Oklahoma, Kelsey Griswold.
In the run-up to the pageant, much attention was given to Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, the Army sergeant who was believed to have been the first Miss America contestant to openly display tattoos. She has the Serenity Prayer on her rib cage, and a smaller military insignia on the back of one shoulder.
Vail won a nationwide "America's Choice" vote to advance as a semi-finalist, but failed to make it into the Top 10.
In a Twitter message Sunday before the finals began, Vail wrote: "Win or not tonight, I have accomplished what I set out to do. I have empowered women. I have opened eyes."
Jones made it into the top 5 wearing a bedazzled knee brace. She tore knee ligaments Thursday while rehearsing her baton-twirling routine, which she executed flawlessly Sunday night.
The pageant had pitted 53 contestants — one from each state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — in swimsuit, evening gown, talent and interview competitions.
Sam Haskell, CEO of the Miss America Organization, said he was thrilled it all played out in Atlantic City after a six-year stint in Las Vegas.
"This is where we belong," he told The Associated Press. "This is the home of Miss America, and this is where we're going to stay."
The pageant started in Atlantic City in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourism season for an extra weekend.


text:
Microbes Hitch Rides Across Ocean on Dust Plumes
Thousands of species of microbes make the giant leap across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to North America by hitching rides on dust plumes high up in the atmosphere, a new study finds.
The findings, detailed in the December issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, have implications for understanding the transport of both air pollutants and organisms, and could influence the way we view the atmosphere's relationship to Earth's life.
"I think we're getting close to calling the atmosphere an ecosystem," said lead author of the paper describing the research David J. Smith, who recently earned his PhD at the University of Washington. "Until recently, most people would refer to it as a conveyor belt, or a transient place where life moves through. But the discovery of so many cells potentially able to adapt to traveling long distances at high altitudes challenges the old classification."
Small life, small world
Smith and his colleagues sampled two large dust plumes that wafted over the ocean from Asia in spring of 2011 at Mount Bachelor in the Cascade Mountains of central Oregon, according to a university release. It's estimated that each year such dust plumes carry about 7.1 million tons of aerosols, tiny particles like dust, other pollutants and even microbes that are suspended in the air.
The team's initial search for microbes in the plumes relied on traditional methods of culturing these life forms, and found only 18 species. That work was published in July.But the scientists were able to gather enough DNA from the biological samples they took to apply more fine-tuned methods to analyze samples. These methods revealed a whopping 2,100 unique species in the plumes.
"It's a small world. Global wind circulation can move Earth's smallest types of life to just about anywhere," Smith said in a statement. [Tiny Grandeur: Stunning Photos of the Very Small]
Of the microbes the team identified, about half were bacteria and half were fungi. Most of them originated from soils and were dead once they reached North America, according to the release. Most of the microbes also posed no threat to humans.
Many of the species traced by the study are found at low, background levels on the West Coast, but their numbers spiked when the plumes arrived. Because of this, the scientists likened the microbes to other forms of air pollution that are also present in the background, but that can become elevated during particular events.
"I was very surprised at the concentrations. One might expect the concentrations of cells to decrease with altitude based on fallout and dilution," Smith said. "But during these plume events, the atmosphere was pooling these cells just as it does with other kinds of air pollution."
Biological final frontier
Two of the three taxonomic families of bacteria that the scientists identified are known to adapt well to harsh conditions, such as those in the chilly upper troposphere, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. These bacteria can form spores that allow them to essentially hibernate.
The scientists haven't seen much evidence for the growth of microbes when aloft, but the microbes can influence precipitation by acting as nuclei that water vapor can glom onto to form rain and snow. Other studies have estimated that microbes serve as the nuclei for about 30 percent of the world's precipitation, the release noted.
The scientists hope to sample the upper atmosphere for more such microbes, seeking a better understanding of how they interact with that harsh environment and how they might affect the global flow of life. But such efforts face challenges, the researchers note.
"Because it is so difficult to get samples, I argue it's probably the last biological environment on the planet to be explored," Smith said.
This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to Live Science. Reach Andrea Thompson at email@example.com and follow her on twitter @AndreaTOAP. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
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Andrea Thompson is an associate editor at Scientific American, where she covers sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to that, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered Earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a bachelor of science and and masters of science in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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By Ben Turner


text: PRI Manual Techniques are available on DVD or digital download! Nearly two hours of video including demonstration, instruction and explanation of each manual technique is provided by Ron Hruska, the creator of these manual techniques. This information compliments PRI course instruction and desired PRI clinical application, progression and outcomes. Written instruction for each manual technique is also provided in a printable format.


text:
This is my first attempt at seriously using Gimp. I am more of a front end developer slash developer myself and I have only used Gimp or Photoshop for very basic stuff such as removing backgrounds, cropping. So this the first time I want to do more and as I am planning on ditching PS I am trying to work with Gimp. Please see attached image
It shows simple rounded buttons with nice inner shades and a beveled background as well as inlaid text. How in Gimp do I:
- Create this
shadegradient effect on the button? - Do the
inlaid/embossedinset text effect? - Make the button background with the inset lines?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Checking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1K3L7RdbKw for engraved text (engraved = embossed)


text:
Women in North Kirklees urged to attend smear tests
Dr David Kelly, chairman of North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said people should make a simple decision to take cervical cancer seriously when they receive an invitation to have a smear test. He said: "Women have no need to be embarrassed by the tests, which are quick and painless. "A simple smear test enables women to receive treatment before it is too late, preventing unnecessary deaths. So our message is clear – don't ignore your smear test." The message comes as National Cervical Cancer Screening Week gets underway. The CCG said cervical cancer is the most common form of cancer in women 35 and under, as nine women are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each day and three women will lose their lives. In most cases cervical cancer is caused by a virus. Though four out of five women will be affected most will not develop cancer, but those who do can usually be cured if it is diagnosed early enough.


text:
The Taste Of Death
To start this quest, speak to Brother Verulus. You can find him in Understone Keep, blocking a door to the Hall of the Dead. Talk to him about the Hall of the Dead and offer assistance. He will give you a key and tell you to investigate.
In or near the Halls of the Dead in Markarth, Eola will ask you to meet up with her at Reachcliff Cave, starting The Taste of Death. The location is south west of Markarth. Here you have two options
1) Enter the Cave alone
2) Ask Eola to accompany you
If you're a lower level (Less than 20) player it's better to ask her to tag along. The path is linear and there are a couple of Draugrs on the way. The final level has a high level Draugr Death Overlord who uses Shouts.
- If you're a high level (over 40) the Draugr Death Overlord will be replaced by a nameless Dragon Priest. He will be powerful, but he does not carry one of the collectable masks.
Speak with Eola after the Cave is cleared. She will task you with finding a feast to please Namira. She needs a priest and wants you to convince Brother Verulus (He can be found at the Halls of the Dead in Markarth) to join you to the Cave.
Once you bring him to the cave, Eola will hypnotize him and make him take a nap on the altar of Namira. She proceeds to request that you kill him and take the first bite.
Afterwards, Namira will speak to you (but only if you eat) and reward you with The Ring of Namira. The ring increases stamina by 50 and will give you increase in health and health regeneration if you feed on a corpse (ring must be equipped to feed on a body, and a small menu will appear asking if you want to eat or search the body).
- Warning* It is possible to kill Eola after you begin the quest and if you do so, the quest will automatically fail and you won't be able to repeat it afterwards.


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Traverse from South to North, Matthes Crest 5.7 |
Tuolumne Meadows, California USA | ||
Avg time to climb route: 3-6 hours
Approach time: 2-3 hours Descent time: 2-3 hours Number of pitches: 8 Height of route: 500' (length is 1 mile) Overview
The traverse from south to north is the standard route, and almost synonymous with the Matthes Crest. Walking along an exposed ridge with sections of technical climbing characterize the climb. Dozens of short routes have also been done on the sides of the Crest since the 1960s, but have generally not been recorded. Most parties only do two-thirds of the ridgeyet the climbing is great for the entire length. The Matthes Crest is sought after for its length, enjoyable climbing, and spectacular positions in the midst of some of the most amazing scenery anywhere.
- View all 49 photos of Traverse from South to North as: Thumbnails | Slideshow
Climber Beta on Traverse from South to North
Which SuperTopo guidebooks include a topo for Traverse from South to North?
Find other routes like
Traverse from South to North
Everything You Need to Know About
Tuolumne Meadows
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Traverse from South to North
Links to related internet pages with info on Traverse from South to North
Other guidebooks that include info on Traverse from South to North
Other Routes on Matthes Crest


text:
Simplifying Big Data for the Enterprise
Earlier this year we announced partnerships with key players in the Apache Hadoop community to ensure customers have all the necessary solutions to connect with, manage and analyze big data. Today we're excited to provide an update on how we're working to broaden adoption of Hadoop with the simplicity and manageability of Windows.
First, we're releasing new previews of our Hadoop-based solutions for Windows Server and Windows Azure, now called Microsoft HDInsight Server for Windows and Windows Azure HDInsight Service. Today, customers can access the first community technology preview of Microsoft HDInsight Server and a new preview of Windows Azure HDInsight Service at Microsoft.com/BigData. Both of these new previews make it easier to configure and deploy Hadoop on the Windows platform, and enable customers to apply rich business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPivot for Excel and Power View to pull actionable insights from big data.
Second, we are expanding our partnership with Hortonworks, a pioneer in the Hadoop community and a leading contributor to the Apache Hadoop project. This expanded partnership will enable us to provide customers access to an enterprise-ready version of Hadoop that is fully compatible with Windows Server and Windows Azure.
To download Microsoft HDInsight Server or Windows Azure HDInsight Service, or for more information about our expanded partnership with Hortonworks, visit Microsoft.com/BigData today.
-David Campbell, Microsoft Technical Fellow


text:
- Why Adopt?
- Who Can Adopt?
"The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. … [I]ntercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin."
-Hague Adoption Convention, Preamble
Every child benefits from a loving home in deeply profound ways. Intercountry adoption has made this permanently possible for hundreds of thousands of children worldwide. When children cannot remain with a relative, and new parents within their communities cannot be found, intercountry adoption opens another pathway to children to receive the care, security, and love that a permanent family can provide.
Some additional resources:
Child Welfare Information Gateway – A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Medline Plus – A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
A Healthy Beginning: Important Information for Parents of Internationally Adopted Children (PDF 167KB) – a brochure from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"My Administration remains committed to helping every child find a loving home." – President Barack Obama, Presidential Proclamation of National Adoption Month 2012.