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If ever there were a poster child for the dual—one might say dueling—nature of the Windows 8 user experiences, it's Internet Explorer 10. As with the OS on which it runs, Internet Explorer 10 offers two separate but complementary user experiences, a standard Windows application that runs in the desktop environment and a touch-first, Metro-styled app. Today, I'd like to focus on the latter.
(Want to discuss IE 10 Metro? I've written a blog post, Some Thoughts About Web Browsing In The Windows 8 Consumer Preview With IE 10, for which comments are enabled. I can't yet enable comments on full-length articles like this one, sorry. --Paul)
Microsoft describes the dual Internet Explorer experiences as "one great browser engine with two different experiences … or skins." In my experience, that's a bit of a stretch. Instead, I find the interactions between these two applications to be confusing and disarming, and while both are excellent in their own way, I suspect that your usage of either will vary depending on situation.
That is, most people interacting directly with a touch-based device such as a tablet computer will most certainly stick to IE Metro, as I call it. Those who regularly interact with the desktop—either because they're using a traditional PC or a docked tablet or hybrid laptop—will most likely be more comfortable in the more feature-packed desktop version of the browser.
There will be overlap, of course, and some may ultimately be drawn to IE Metro even though they prefer the desktop. Those using a coming generation of modern PC devices may find themselves moving, somewhat effortlessly, between the two.
We'll see.
Understanding IE Metro
Internet Explorer 10 for Metro is a touch-friendly, Metro-styled web browser that works pretty well with mouse and keyboard too. It offers an add-on free experience that is safer than its desktop cousin but at the expense of some useful functionality.
Like other Metro-style apps, IE 10 Metro is immersive, or tailored for a touch-first device experience. That means no visual distractions—thanks to its lack of chrome—and the ability to use simple gestures to navigate the web and pan and zoom across individual web pages. These work largely as expected, with double-tap and pinch to zoom actions as per other mobile browsers.
Where's the browser? IE 10 Metro offers a chrome-less browsing experience
Interestingly, IE 10 Metro also changes the web in some crucial ways. Onscreen controls like check boxes and radio buttons are styled differently so that they're touch-friendly. It's very similar to the experience offered by the Windows Phone version of Internet Explorer, in fact. (One difference: IE Metro doesn't offer a way to switch between desktop and mobile web pages views.)
Some common browser activities are handled quite a bit differently in this version of Internet Explorer. For example, search and sharing occurs from the system-wide contracts that are available from the Charms bar. And the Metro Devices interface is used to print and interact with other devices.
Some things, of course, are the same as with the desktop version of IE. Aside from the basic feature set, including features like InPrivate and Tracking Protection, you'll find that many keyboard shortcuts from desktop IE continue to work in the Metro version of the browser. And if you find a page that won't work in Metro IE—perhaps because of its lack of add-on support—you can easily open that page in the desktop version of Internet Explorer and get back to work.
Navigating the user experience
As a Metro-style app IE Metro offers a distraction-free, chrome-less user interface by default. And like other Metro apps, you can use an edge UI—swiping up from the bottom of the screen or down from the top—to display various commands and controls. (Keyboard users can use WINKEY + Z, while mouse users can right-click anywhere onscreen.)
The IE Metro tab switcher and navigation bar.
Where most Metro-style apps feature a single app bar, however, IE Metro offers two app bars, one at the bottom of the screen and one at the top. The bottommost app bar is called the navigation bar, and it includes Back, Site Icon, Address Bar, Refresh/Stop, Pin to Start, Page Tools, and Forward buttons. The topmost app bar, called tab switcher, includes active tab thumbnails and New Tab and Tab Menu buttons.
Metro IE, like other Metro-style apps uses new system-level functions for settings, (web) search, sharing, and printing, as well as for working with other devices (like projecting a page or web video to a secondary screen). These capabilities are all accessible via the Charms bar--remember, WINKEY + C--via the Settings, Search, Share, and Devices charms, respectively.
Printing is handled at the system level, through the Devices charm.
The Settings pane is particularly interesting, and offers a nice browser-wide Zoom capability that will help all web pages fill the screen without losing graphical or textual quality. (This works globally and separately from the pinch and double-tap zooming capabilities.)
Internet Explorer 10 (Metro) settings.
Using IE Metro
In use, Metro IE works much like its desktop cousin but with some interesting differences. Key among these are some missing features, including a decided lack of support for browser add-ons. More surprisingly, perhaps, is right-click: It doesn't work in IE Metro as it does in the desktop versions of the browser, and in fact only serves to bring up the navigation bar. That means you can't right-click any element on a web page and access advanced options related to the background and images, selecting text, getting properties, and so on. If that's a problem for you, you'll want to stick with the desktop version of IE.
Also missing: Home, advanced menus off the Back and Forward buttons, and, surprisingly, an obvious interface for Favorites. As it turns out IE Metro does support Favorites--in fact, Favorites are one of the things that's synced from PC to PC if you enable a Microsoft ID and browser settings sync--but only via Search. To find a favorite web site, display the navigation bar, select the address bar, and then type to search. The navigation tiles above will auto-filter as you type, displaying results from four places: Frequently-visited web sites, pinned web sites, Favorites, and, interestingly, popular web sites.
Type in the address bar to filter the results to frequently-accessed sites, pinned sites, Favorites, and popular web sites. My site is all four!
That said, Most actions will work as expected in IE Metro. You can tap hyperlinks to access the underlying page, scroll with your finger, and so on. Back and Forward work via the appropriate navigation bar buttons, through keyboard shortcuts, horizontal swipes of the finger, or, for you mouse users, via new Back and Forward controls that appear on the left and right side of the screen as you mouse in those areas.
Click that tiny widget on the left center of the screen to go back while in normal, full-screen mode.
Tabs also work as expected, and the new tab switcher lets you add and remove tabs, start a new InPrivate Browsing tab (via a menu off the Tab Menu button), and clean up tabs (i.e. remove all but the currently displayed page). If you're used to using keyboard shortcuts to manage tabs, those all work fine too: CTRL + T for a new tab, CTRL + W to close a tab, CTRL + TAB to switch between tabs and even CTRL + SHIFT + P for a new InPrivate Browsing tab.
IE Metro handles downloads a bit differently than the desktop version of IE. Instead of multiple Save As choices on file downloads, you get just Run, Save and Cancel. And Save works like Save and Run in desktop IE, since you're prompted to run downloaded executables after the download completes.
The IE Metro download experience.
Finally, there's a fun new capability that's tied to the site icon, which you can see to the left of the address bar. When you visit a web site that offers a Windows 8 app, the site icon will indicate that the app is available. Tap this normally untappable button and a new menu item, Get the app, will appear. (If you already have the app in question, the item will read Switch to app. Tap that and the app will run.)
If a web site offers a Windows 8 app, it can advertise it through the site icon button.
Pinned web sites
If you're familiar with Internet Explorer 9, you know that Microsoft added a unique ability to that version of its web browser: The ability to pin web sites to the Windows 7 Start menu and taskbar, alongside those for traditional Windows applications. These pinned sites work much like regular applications, and appear in a special version of the Internet Explorer 9 browser frame that is colored code to match the design of the underlying site.
The desktop version of Internet Explorer 10 provides this same capability in Windows 8, but the new Metro-style version of IE 10 offers a unique, Metro-based take on this functionality: You can now pin web sites to the Start screen as well.
This makes sense when you consider that the Start screen is replacing the application-launching functionality of the Start menu and taskbar in Windows 8. But there are some curious behaviors—and differences with taskbar/Start menu pinning—to know about.
To pin a web site to the Start screen, load it in Internet Explorer Metro and then tap the Pin button in the navigation bar. You're given a chance to rename the site before it's pinned. (Some web sites have annoying long names.)
The live tile for a newly pinned site, like those for newly installed applications and apps, can be found at the end (i.e. the far right side) of the Start screen. They don't offer as many options as those for Metro-style apps, but they can be moved, renamed, deleted, and, as with taskbar-pinned sites, can offer simple alphanumeric notification badges (such as the tile for an email service that displays the number of unread emails).
Within the browser, however, pinned sites also offer another feature borrowed from pinned taskbar sites: Jump lists. So if you tap that site tile, you'll notice that IE Metro loads with a slightly different user interface, assuming of course that the pinned site utilizes jump lists: The Pin to Start button in the navigation bar has been replaced by a new menu button. And if you click this button, you'll see whatever jump list the site provides. (The items in this menu will of course vary from site to site.)
Pinned web sites can optionally display jump lists when loaded in IE Metro.
One final bit of trivia: You may know that pinned sites in IE 9 and Windows 7 run in their own browser frame, and not in a normal browser windows. But this isn't the case with IE 10 Metro and Windows 8. Instead, these pinned sites load inside the same IE Metro app as any other web pages, and they will load alongside whatever other tabs were already open in the browser. I'm guessing this happens for security reasons, but I'm still waiting for the IE team to respond my requests for a meeting about this and other IE 10 topics.
Final thoughts
There's a lot more going on with Internet Explorer 10 in general, and with IE 10 Metro specifically, but that will need to wait for Windows 8 Secrets. In the meantime, it's fair to say that Microsoft has created a unique solution for web browsing in Windows 8--no, two unique solutions--which should please fans of both the touch-first Metro environment and the desktop. IE Metro blends the friendliness of a mobile browser with the power of a full-blown desktop solution. It should prove very popular with Windows 8 device users in particular.


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Ritalin is a central nervous system stimulant which, for reasons still not well understood, has a calming effect on the ADHD child. Knowing this, many issues need to be considered regarding these prescribed stimulant medications, including side effects, consequences of long-term use, abuse and overprescribing patterns due to mismanagement and misdiagnosis.
A review of side effects commonly associated with stimulant medication should be considered as more and more children are prescribed these potent psychoactive drugs. Some of Ritalin's documented side effects include anorexia, weight loss, irritability, abdominal pain, headaches, emotional oversensitivity, insomnia, depression, nervous habits, anxiety, impaired cognitive performance and psychotic symptoms (Pain & Stress Publications, 1996 report).
Two recent studies discussed some of these side effects. In 1998, researchers studied sleep disturbances of ADHD children taking stimulant medication. They questioned parents of 20 ADHD children on stimulant medication, 20 unmedicated children with some psychiatric diagnosis (other than ADHD) and 20 nonclinical control children. The parents of the ADHD children reported significantly more problems with their children on settling and going to sleep, plus disruptions during sleep and morning activities (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1998, vol. 54).
The second study looked at the psychotic side effects of these stimulants, a more serious issue. Researchers performed chart reviews over a five-year period at an outpatient clinic for all children diagnosed with ADHD who had been prescribed stimulant medication. Of 98 children, six developed psychotic or mood-congruent psychotic symptoms during treatment. They concluded that awareness of the potential for psychotic side effects from stimulant medications is important when prescribing for children (Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 1999, vol. 44).

subset: commoncrawl


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Monday morning at 9:00 EST, Microsoft announced that its long-awaited Office 2007 System was complete, setting the stage for a late November 2006 business rollout of the products and a wider consumer launch in January. Microsoft is touting Office 2007, in tandem with upcoming products such as Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007, as the linchpin of a new round in corporate spending.
"We've crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate," says Microsoft president Jeff Raikes , who oversees the company's Business Division. "The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It's rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity."
Microsoft had previously announced its Office Technology Guarantee program, which allows customers who purchase new PC with Office 2003 preloaded between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007 to receive free or inexpensive upgrades to similar Office 2007 product versions. Details about these so-called cross-grades are available through PC makers.
These screenshots depict the Trial version of the final shipping version of Office 2007 Enterprise. The first part of my Microsoft Office 2007 System review will be available shortly.


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SBC Communications Says Goodbye to Goodby
SBC Communications has taken its $100 million account away from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and will spread the account over several other agencies it has on its roster.
"We have been with Goodby for the last six years, and they have done a terrific job," said Larry Solomon, the SBC spokesman. "They have some great talent at the agency, but moving forward, we decided we would move in a different direction."
Yea, right. That's code for "someone screwed up".


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P is for Practical | |
PerlMonks |
The Dynamic Duo --or-- Holy Getopt::Long, Pod::UsageMan!by ybiC (Prior) |
on Mar 29, 2002 at 17:31 UTC ( [id://155288] : perltutorial . print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
"There's seldom an excuse to have an undocumented Perl script.""WWJD? JWRTFM."So say Jeffreys Copeland and Haemer, and I humbly concur.In one of their very last columns from the now-defunct Server/Workstation Expert magazine (formerly SunExpert), the Jeffreys extolled the virtues of providing user-documentation in your camel-code with a particular pair of Perl modules: Getopt::Long and Pod::Usage:
To put that in my own words:
The Jeffreys went so far as to helpify and manatize a helloworld.pl script. However, in the interest of avoiding plaguarism lawsuits, I took this oportunity to make a still-small yet ever-so-slightly-more-useful program to fetch current condition reports from Weather Underground**. By doculating it with these swell modules, I hope to show One Way To Do It. Before we look at some code, here's a summary of what we'll do with These Fine Modules.
*No offense intended to monks of this ilk; I'm a recovering server-guy myself
RELEVANT CODE, and DISCUSSION:The Getopt::Long and Pod::Usage modules have *great* pod. (hint, hint) So rather than regurgitate that, let's walk through relevant chunks of our example program. Starting from the top:
Of course, you have to tell Perl to load the needed modules (you do use warnings and strict, don't you??):
Since these scalar names start with "$opt_", we know that they're Getopt::Long-facilitated commandline option . I happen to want a default value of 0 for debug, as it's used to set the verbosity level of Weather::Underground output. The other three are declared as lexicals here, for use in just a bit.
As the comment says, this Getopt::Long function allocates options and arguments for the program. The first (alpha) part of the hash keys are the long form of the command-line switches. The second (=1|!) part of the keys are argument specifiers. Our example program uses two of the seven available argument specifiers. "=i" requires an integer argument to assign as the variable's value, and "!" takes no argument, but does 'def' the variable. You can perldoc Getopt::Long to see what the other 5 arg specs are.
So far, we've been dealing with Getopt::Long, but pod2usage is obviously a Pod::Usage function. If the Getoptions() call above fails, we have Pod::Usage print the program's pod USAGE, OPTIONS, and ARGUMENTS (as spec'd by verbose level one), then end the program run. Much friendlier than some cryptic or die $!; message, eh?
In the same vein, we print the 'help' messages if an invalid value was entered for --debug, or if you purposely called --help:
Likewise, print the 'man' messages if the program was called with --man:
The body of the program falls here, but since it does the Weather::Underground fetch stuff, we'll ignore it for now.
And finally, if the program is called with --versions, this block runs and prints a mess of version number info:
RUN the PROGRAM, WILLYA?!
So, when we call our program like so wunderg.pl --help we get this message on screen:
wunderg.pl paris,france 'london, united kingdom' actually *does* something, thanks to the fine folks at wunderground.com and Weather::Underground:
And wunderg.pl --debug 'new york, new york' has W::U to tell us more details of the fetch: SUNDRY COMMENTS: * on Getopt::Long *Options can be called in either longform:wunderg.pl --versions Minot,ND wunderg.pl --debug=1 Minot,ND wunderg.pl --help wunderg.pl --man Or shortform: wunderg.pl -v Minot,ND wunderg.pl -d 1 Minot,ND wunderg.pl -h wunderg.pl -m * on Pod::Usage *podusage() called with only a 0 or 1 as argument is shortform verbose level:pod2usage(1); podusage() called with only a quoted text string as argument is shortform for error message: pod2usage("Hrm..."); Arguments can be combined, but only in longform: pod2usage({-verbose=>1, -message=>"Hrm...",}); THE FULL MONTY:This is the only place where I've used <code> tags, so that you can use the d/l button below to fetch this program.
Back to


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Francis Andrade
Office Location
I have been working in the financial services industry since 2005, with a focus on fostering strong client relationships and helping customers achieve their personal financial goals. I hold a Masters degree in Business from the University of Bombay. I look forward to working with you.
TD Wealth Financial Planning
Your priorities are important to us. We can work together towards your goals, and can help with:
Tax Planning
Work with us to assess and recommend strategies that can help to reduce your tax burden, and:
- Reduce your taxable income during your lifetime or upon passing away
- Explore income splitting strategies
- Take advantage of tax deductions and credits available to you
Retirement Planning
We can offer strategies to help you become retirement-ready by discussing questions like:
- How much income is needed for the retirement you aspire to?
- How can you save enough to fund your retirement?
- How can you reduce taxes during retirement?
- When should you start taking your government benefits?
Estate Planning
Estate planning helps ensure your wishes are carried out and is an effective way to benefit your heirs.
- Ensure you have an up-to-date Will and Power of Attorney
- Consider using executor services like a corporate executor or Power of Attorney for Property
- Transfer your wealth and help avoid any unintended consequences
Success Begins With Understanding
Your hopes and expectations are at the heart of your financial plan.
That's why at TD Wealth Financial Planning we take the time to discover and appreciate your needs, and include them in any discussion of your goals, so that together we may set a course for the future that you envision for yourself and your family.
The goals and dreams you and your family share for your work and career, well-being, home, lifestyle and legacy.
Our Steps To Preparing A Plan Uniquely Yours
Tim – Making sure Patty's legacy lives on
When Tim and Patty were faced with a life-altering event, their TD Wealth advisor helped them through the deeply personal aspects of legacy planning. Hear, in Tim's words, how their TD Wealth advisor took the time to understand their vision and helped establish a legacy in Patty's honour that will inspire students for years to come.
Steve & Lee-Ann – Creating a personalized plan to retire early
Steve and Lee-Ann know that the path to retirement has many twists and turns. They found that having the right TD Wealth advisor to help answer their questions, even the ones they didn't know to ask, can help uncover new possibilities. Find out how personalized retirement planning helped this couple retire earlier and make up for lost time.
Your Unique Goals
Knowing that you have a plan for tomorrow will help you concentrate on getting more out of life — today.


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With an outpouring of generosity, the ArtRageous Gaye-La! event celebrated Gaye Wolfe, an artist-hero of our community, and the gifts she leaves behind. Heartfelt thanks to Charlie Wolfe and Sam Smith for donating Gaye's amazing artwork to a silent auction in support of the arts advocacy, education and presentation efforts of Bunnell Street Arts Center. Board President Rika Mouw installed the exhibit beautifully with the assistance of Carla Cope, Michael Walsh and Brianna Allen. Kammi Matson designed an enticing online gallery.
Special thanks to Maura's Cafe, The Grog Shop and Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge for contributing outstanding food, flowers and beverages. Ann-Margret Wimmerstedt, Aimee Sulczynski and Brianna Allen added sparkle and sizzle to the decor. Everyone enjoyed a serving of feathers and sequins. Bunnell board members Aimee, Carla, Carol Swartz and Dave Eckwert staffed the event with style. Thank you, Michael and Brianna, for volunteering to serve beverages, and Dave for DJ'ing. Musicians Sunrise, Lindianne, David Grimes, Mavis Muller, Sally O and Mary Jane Shows serenaded us in true Gaye-la style and all joined in for a final Wolfe howl.
We especially thank board members Erin Hollowell and Rika Mouw for expertly organizing and envisioning the event. Several lovely, original works of art are still available for purchase, from small prints at $10 to framed monoprints at $50. Please stop by Bunnell to see these gems and support Gaye's legacy.
Asia Freeman and Adele Groning
Bunnell Street Arts Center


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[Tom] wanted to try his hand at high-speed photography and needed some equipment to get things rolling. Not wanting to spend a ton of money on a lighting rig or trigger mechanism, he decided to build his own. In a three part series on his blog, he details the construction and testing of his high-speed setup along with the improvements and lessons learned along the way.
His adventures started out with a small off-brand Cree LED clone and an ATiny15L that was collecting dust in his workshop. He built a simple circuit that would trigger the LED to light his subject, which in [Tom's] case was a bowl of milk. Rather than using a motion or sound trigger, he opted to mount a small piezo to the bottom bowl, firing the LED any time a droplet hits the bowl's surface.
The pictures he took were decent, but he knew he could get better results. He purchased a new, more powerful Cree LED, and wrote a small terminal program that allows him to tweak his flash parameters using his laptop. The results he gets now are far better – in fact, he has a whole gallery of pictures you can check out.
If you want to delve into high-speed photography as well, all of the schematics and code can be found on his blog.


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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It's a bad time for the New England Patriots to allow points late in halves and long kickoff returns throughout the game.
Fix that fast or the Baltimore Ravens and speedster Jacoby Jones could run them right out of the postseason.
The Patriots advanced to Sunday's AFC championship game with a 41-28 win over the Houston Texans despite giving up kickoff returns of 94 and 69 yards — the longest against them this season. They won even though they allowed 10 points in the last 1:15 of the first half and 15 points in the last 12 minutes of the game.
The Ravens moved on with a 38-35 double-overtime win over the Denver Broncos after Jones caught a 70-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco with 31 seconds left in regulation.
That's the same Jones who led the NFL in average kickoff return yardage (30.7) and brought back two of them for touchdowns. Yep, the same guy who drew a defensive pass interference call at the Patriots' 7-yard line in Week 3, setting up Justin Tucker's 27-yard field goal on the final play. Baltimore (12-6) won that game, 31-30.
New England (13-4) can't afford another loss.
So coach Bill Belichick is emphasizing, as he does every week, the need to stop kickoff returners and keep teams from scoring with time running out in either half.
"We always think that the end of the half can get a little different than the rest of the game because of situational play," he said Tuesday. "Also, sometimes offensively, teams change their method of attack and what they're doing and how they're doing it and that kind of thing. So you have to adapt and adjust to what they do.
"We have to do what we're doing better. It's definitely a point of emphasis and I'm sure it will be important in this game. We'll definitely work on it."
The problem is one of poor execution rather than a lack of effort, Belichick said.
"We were trying to do the right things and we did some things that were good, but then we did some other things that weren't as good as they need to be," he said. "Houston was able to take advantage of some of the things we were doing."
The same problem of late scores surfaced in two of the Patriots four losses.
They led the Ravens 30-21 on Sept. 23 then allowed 10 points in the last five minutes. Three weeks later, they led the Seattle Seahawks 23-10 then gave up two touchdowns in the last 7½ minutes and lost 24-23.
The Patriots won their next seven games before the twin troubles came together in a 41-34 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The Patriots had rallied from a 31-3 deficit to tie the game at 31 with 6:43 left in the game.
But LaMichael James returned the kickoff 62 yards, Colin Kaepernick threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree on the next play and the Patriots couldn't recover.
"We face good returners every week," Belichick said. "It's always a huge point of emphasis for us but it will continue to be. (You) just can't put a team in that kind of field position consistently and that's what we did (against Houston)."
Those long runbacks against the Patriots are rare. They allowed the third fewest average yards (20.5) on kickoff returns this season. But against Houston, they gave up a 35-yarder along with the 94- and 69-yard runbacks, all by Danieal Manning. Those led to 17 points.
"Overall, that's been probably as consistent as anything we've done as a football team for the entire season," Belichick said. "Of course, it's disappointing. Those are plays that you don't want to happen, certainly not three of them in one game."
But the Patriots are confident they can recover in time for the game that stands between them and a second straight Super Bowl appearance.
"It's very important," unusually subdued special teams captain Matthew Slater said. "We know we need to perform better. We can't put our defense in bad situations. … We've got to prepare for Jacoby and we know how good he is and what he's capable of.
"So I'm confident we'll have it fixed."
How, at this late stage in the season, can the Patriots do that?
"You go back to the basics," Slater said. "Go back to the fundamentals and the rules that we have as coverage players, just doing our job better and doing our assignments better. It's been a strength for us this season."
That season is more likely to end if they keep giving up long kickoff returns and late-game points. The Patriots would prefer to finish games the way they did in last year's 23-20 win over the Ravens for the AFC championship on the same field where they'll meet Sunday.
Baltimore took the ball at its 21-yard line with 1:44 left and made it all the way to a second-and-1 at the New England 14 with 27 seconds remaining. A field goal would tie the game. But the Patriots met the challenge as Sterling Moore broke up two passes before Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal attempt.
"There's a good history of the two teams playing against each other," New England defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. "You're going to try to analyze all that and take a look at it and see what you can come up with that will hopefully help put you in a successful situation for the weekend."
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What is the difference between the normal link and Secure Link functions?
The normal link connects most easily with the subwoofer or surround speakers, so you cannot specify which device to link when there are multiple wireless sound devices.
But, you can specify which device to link to by using the Secure Link function.


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Define Your Holiday Strategy
This is the first holiday season in which the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt. For Small and Medium Business (SMB) owners, the season presents major challenges and maybe – just maybe – some opportunities.
Some aspects of this holiday season (such as showing employee appreciation) will be much the same as in "normal" years. Others will be radically different but retailers of all scales and types will be struggling. Ultimately, this could give you a chance to make up some ground on your rivals, and increase your market share.
The key is agility.
Covid Precautions
Adapting successfully during this pandemic means, first and foremost, making sure your customers can confidently buy from you safely.
Your safety plan may look different from other company's, but don't be afraid to get creative with your approach. Many businesses might be offering delivery options for their customers, but that might not be right for everyone. You should also investigate the possibility of curbside pickup.
Moving online doesn't mean losing the festive spirit, either. Some stores are experimenting with the idea of holding virtual parties and retail events – these can drive sales in much the same way as in-person holiday gatherings but without the risks.
If you are pivoting to online sales and events make sure to update your marketing plan. Some small businesses have been hesitant to get into the world of digital marketing, but this holiday season you can't afford to ignore it. If you do, you may be left behind. A recent survey reported that 70% of companies have invested more in content and social media marketing than they did last year.
Starting Early, Finishing Late
When it comes to making a success of this holiday season there is one factor that matters above all others: maximizing sales. Given the pandemic, it might not be immediately obvious how to do this. You can take inspiration from some of the biggest brands in the world – Visa and Amazon.
One of the most ambitious ways in which huge companies are seeking to maximize their profits this season is to extend the season itself. Amazon, for instance, moved its biggest annual shopping event – "Prime Day" – from July to October. Amazon also said it would invest over $100 million as part of a promotion for third-party sellers, assisting many SMBs who use the platform. Replicating this approach might mean encouraging shoppers to make their holiday purchases earlier, or making it clear that holiday sales will run well into the new year.
Another way to increase sales is to make sure that consumers have as diverse a range of payment and delivery options as possible. To encourage holiday sales, many credit card companies are offering lower processing fees, and SMBs can benefit from this. Research indicates that accepting credit cards allows businesses to get paid 2x faster, and therefore helps increase sales.
Shopping Small
There are signs that this holiday season could be good for small businesses. Shoppers are more aware of the difficulties that SMBs are facing this holiday season as a result of the virus, and are keen to support their local businesses. This means that local businesses could benefit from local increased sales.
In principle, this trend should benefit almost every SMB out there. In practice, however, consumers may need to be encouraged to shop small. This is because, with many physical shops closed, it can be difficult for consumers to find local shops.
If you are using this holiday season to start a digital marketing campaign, your campaign should stress how engaged you are with your community, and how much you have given back to it over the years. In the context of the pandemic, people are pulling together and supporting each other as never before, and ideally, you want to be a part of this!
Agility and Adaptability
Ultimately, this holiday season will be a testing ground for small businesses. Those that are agile, adaptable, and able to rapidly shift their stances could do very well, especially as their less well-prepared competitors drop off.
The most important element in your holiday planning is to embrace change. Rather than trying to scale your existing operations in the hope of bringing in enough revenue, you should take this opportunity to radically rethink your business.
The most successful small businesses are those that have updated their business model for the age of Covid. A recent survey by the nonprofit National Main Street Center found that over 40% of businesses added curbside services since the pandemic began. These are also the companies that have maintained their profit margins in the last few months.
Similarly, innovative approaches might work for other SMBs. For instance, you can use the time your physical store is closed to launch an email marketing campaign, or to complete backlogged tasks.
Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


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LispWorks CAPI User Guide
12 Graphics Ports
12.2 Features
The main features of graphics-ports are:
Each port has a "graphics state" which holds all the information about drawing parameters such as line thickness, fill pattern, line-end-style and so on. A graphics state object can also be created independently of any particular graphics port.
The graphics state contents can either be enumerated in each drawing function call, bound to values for the entirety of a set of calls, or permanently changed.
The graphics state includes a transform which implements generalized coordinate transformations on the port's coordinates.
Off-screen ports can compute the horizontal and vertical bounds of the results of a set of drawing function calls, thus facilitating image or pixmap generation.
LispWorks CAPI User Guide (Windows version) - 22 Dec 2009


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MOD Pizza, founded by Scott and Ally Svenson, announced that Scott Svenson will become CEO of the fast-casual chain.
The company, which pioneered the concept of fast-casual pizza with the opening of its first store in 2008, currently operates from eight locations in the Seattle area.
Svenson will take the helm effective immediately and focus on accelerating the company's growth, with plans to double the number of stores in 2013.
"When we entered the market in 2008, we were the first to bring together the best of made-on-demand, individualized pizzas with the convenience and value associated with fast-casual dining," Svenson says.
"Over the past five years, we have thoughtfully grown the company with the goal of creating a unique customer experience and scalable brand that we can expand across the country," he adds. "Following the incredible success of our most recent store openings, I feel now is the time to accelerate our growth via a combination of company-owned and franchised stores. I couldn't be more excited about the opportunities ahead for MOD."
A Seattle native and a graduate of Harvard University, Svenson spent 11 years (from 1988–1999) living and working in London.
Svenson advised high-growth, middle-market companies at Drexel, Burnham Lambert (in New York and subsequently London), and Apax Partners & Co (London), and was deputy CEO of CrestaCare plc, the third-largest long-term healthcare provider in the U.K.
In 1994, Svenson and his wife Ally cofounded Seattle Coffee Company in London, growing the brand to 65 company-owned stores in three years, while introducing England to the world of made-to-order espresso drinks and the coffee bar culture.
In 1998, Starbucks Coffee Company acquired Seattle Coffee Company as its entry into the European market.
Svenson assumed the role of president of Starbucks UK, and subsequently president of Starbucks Europe, during which time he helped author the company's European Strategic Plan.
In 1999, Svenson and his wife helped to develop and launch Carluccio's in the U.K., an award-winning Italian deli-cafe concept, which went public on the AIM market in 2005 and was subsequently sold in 2010.
Svenson, who for the past three years has been the CEO of Freestone Capital Management, the largest independent wealth and asset management firm in the Seattle market focused exclusively on the needs of affluent families, recently sold a controlling interest in Freestone to its management team in order to free up his time to focus on building MOD.
Jim Alling, MOD advisory board member, former president of Starbucks North America and Starbucks International, and current COO of T-Mobile, says, "Scott understands how to grow a business quickly. At the same time, he knows how to build a culture that will protect the soul of the business and the entrepreneurial spirit of the team. I look forward to watching MOD Pizza flourish under his leadership."


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Click on the "Crime Type" button on the top of the map and then select which crime types you want to see and then click the "Done" button. Note that you can choose to see "All" or "None" of the incidents by using the same method.
Show All Answers
Crime Reports is a company that provides law enforcement agencies with a web-based service for managing and controlling the sharing of incident data with the public, in near real-time. Community members can then access their neighborhood police incident information for free, empowering them to make informed decisions to help improve the safety of their families, friends, property and the community at large.
No. No personal data such as names, date of birth, social security number, or other personal information are used in this product. The only data used to create these maps are reported incidents, dates, times and locations.
No, Crime Report shows only certain types of incidents that the Essex Police are dealing with. To see a list or display certain types of incidents, click on the "Crime Types" button on the top of the webpage just above the map. With this button you can see the "types" of incidents that are listed on our maps and can choose which incidents you choose to see or not see.
No. Although many of the incident listed on our map are in fact crimes, they are not "all" crimes. For example, you will see some flags with cars, these are traffic complaints which in many cases are not criminal. This may be where an officer issued someone a traffic ticket for speeding.
Incidents that are in the crime types that are listed but first be verified by the investigating officer to ensure the report is accurate. Once an officer has verified an incident that is a crime type listed, it typically takes about 24 hours to show up on the map.
Like searching for a type of incident, you can choose to search for incidents on specific dates by clicking on the date options on the top left of the map. You can quickly select 3, 7, 14 and 30 days or you can open up the calender and pick the dates you want.
If you have information about an incident that may help, please contact us. Write down the "incident number" you are referring to and contact us at 802-878-8331 - 24 hours, 7 days a week.
When you point at the map with your mouse you should see a "hand". Simply click your left mouse button and drag the map to the left, right, up or down to get the area you want.
To make the map smaller or larger simply click on the "+" or "-" signs on the top left of the map. You can also use the slide bar to make the map larger or smaller
Six months of incidents are available on these maps.
Crime Reports has the ability to show up to 9,999 incidents on the map at one time.
If you have a question that was not answered please email the Police Department. If you have a question or helpful hint that may help others using this site please let us know.


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2013 Acura ILX Hybrid
Acura's first hybrid is a premium compact car that promises 38 mpg, but its Honda Civic roots show through a little too clearly.
With cars such as the RL, TL, and TSX, Acura occupied a very narrow band of the sedan market, but now the ILX extends the brand down toward the compact segment, giving buyers real model differentiation. And the ILX brings Acura its first hybrid car.
I spent a day with the 2013 Acura ILX Hybrid in that cauldron of cars, Los Angeles. My CNET colleague, Antuan Goodwin, previously reviewed the ILX Premium, the non-hybrid, top-trim version of the car. When we had that car in at CNET HQ, Antuan pointed out where its Honda Civic foundation showed through the Acura veneer.
That's right, the ILX is based on the Honda Civic. Although not a case of brand engineering, as the ILX has a different body than the Civic, much else is the same, including the power train options. The ILX Premium used the same engine and transmission as the Civic Si.
Click through for the full photo gallery and more details.
The ILX Hybrid and Civic Hybrid also share a power train, a 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine complemented by an electric motor. The engine produces 111 horsepower and 127 pound-feet of torque, while the motor, powered by a lithium ion battery, makes 23 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque. The electric motor steps in to help the engine during acceleration and enables idle-stop, in which the engine shuts down when the ILX Hybrid is stopped in traffic. The power gets fed to the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
I like the looks of the ILX. The front end may be a little bland, but the rear fenders give it nice style. However, this exterior doesn't scream premium sedan, and would look perfectly fine on a Civic. The interior is where the real difference between Acura and Honda can be seen. The ILX Hybrid had power-adjustable leather seats and the complete electronics package, including navigation with traffic.
As I cruised around the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, the navigation system proved invaluable for route guidance, and I especially appreciated lane guidance when approaching a junction with 10 lanes splitting off in either direction. But the maps in this system suffer from the age-old problem with Honda navigation systems, where the street names are difficult to read due to jagged letters. The traffic avoidance proved of little use, too, the algorhythm not being bold or creative enough to steer clear of miles and miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405.
A clear Acura cue was the big dial/button/joystick in the center of the dashboard, surrounded by far too many buttons. Having used this interface in Acura vehicles for about five years, I consider myself a pro. As such, it was easy to enter addresses and select music from the stereo.
With the ILX Hybrid's electric power steering and CVT, driving is an unengaging task. The wheel turns easily, accompanied by the electric whirr of the steering boost. Throw the shifter in Drive and the car rolls unconcernedly forward. But as a hybrid, the car shows a few quirks.
The aforementioned idle-stop feature shut off the engine whenever I held my foot down on the brake, at either a stoplight or in slow traffic. Releasing the brake caused the engine to crank up again, with the abruptness of a waking giant. The operation of the hybrid power train is the same as in the Civic Hybrid, and includes the same amount of roughness. There is no means of disabling the idle-stop feature.
Accelerating the ILX Hybrid means a tortured grind from the engine as the tiny mill runs up its revolutions. At only 127 pound-feet of torque, this engine should not be able to move the somewhat plush ILX very well, but the additional twist from the electric motor makes for enough pickup to keep from being run over.
I was amused to see paddle shifters on the ILX Hybrid's steering wheel, which let me choose seven virtual shift points for the CVT. As a premium compact focused on fuel economy, the car has nothing sporty about its handling or engine performance. I would expect these paddles to go largely if not completely unused.
The ILX Hybrid carries a little more weight, about 100 pounds, more than the Civic Hybrid, which does not entirely explain the fuel economy difference. The Civic Hybrid gets 44 mpg in city and on highway, where the ILX Hybrid only gets 39 mpg city and 38 mpg highway. In my driving, which was biased toward traffic-heavy freeways, the trip computer ended up at about 36 mpg. Although, below the EPA estimates, the ILX Hybrid still showed itself to be frugal with the gasoline.
The base ILX Hybrid, without navigation, goes for $28,900, but the Technology version I was driving has a price tag of $34,400. That price seems a little high, especially when the ILX Hybrid has to face off against the Lexus CT 200h, a more economical car that feels a little more luxurious in the cabin.


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Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) does not plan to spread its wings to offer its large customer base other applications besides its customer relationship management (CRM) applications, a company executive said.
"We haven't even scratched the surface of the potential CRM market," said Polly Sumner, chief adoption officer and member of the executive management team at the enterprise cloud computing company.
Salesforce.com aims to become number one in market share in the CRM market in the major countries of the world, rather than branching out and applications for financial or human resources, she added.
"We have talked about it internally and decided not to," Sumner said.
However, Salesforce.com has a small fund which has invested in some startup application companies, she added.
The company expects that its AppExchange online marketplace for cloud computing applications will help address the diverse application requirements of enterprise customers, Sumner said.
She was in India this week to convince independent software developers (ISVs) in the country of the benefits of developing their applications to its Force.com platform for building and running business applications in the cloud.
The company's over 82,000 paying customers are potentially a large and global market for Indian ISVs, Sumner said. The company does not however resell these applications, apart from listing them on AppExchange.
Building an ecosystem is a critical component of Salesforce.com's strategy to make its platform a cloud computing standard, Sumner said. "We believe that the collaboration cloud is how we will spread across the enterprise, and then create even more demand for cloud computing applications that can be provided by our partners," she added.
The company however questions moves, including one in October by Intel, to drive interoperability and standards for cloud computing.
Intel said last month that it helped create the Open Data Center Alliance of more than 70 global businesses that will create a roadmap to drive interoperability, flexibility and industry standards for the cloud and next generation data centers. The Open Data Center Alliance represents more than US$50 billion in annual IT investment, the company said.
If earlier it was thought that the way to make applications interoperable was to integrate the lowest level of the application, the consumer Internet has showed that the integration can be done at the top as in a mashup, Sumner said. The mashup is the most popular integration of the Internet today, and nobody had to make a standard to make that happen, she added.
Salesforce.com already works and exchanges data with a large number of applications that are not on Force.com, including applications from Oracle, SAP, custom applications and other cloud applications, Sumner said. About 50 percent of the transaction volumes on Salesforce.com is machines calling machines, and applications calling applications running outside the Force.com cloud, she added.
It may be enough to use open APIs (application programming interfaces) and existing standards, rather than define new standards, Sumner said. "What we have out there is interoperable enough that we can just keep going," she added.


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Pat Green "Songs We Wish We'd Written II"
May 11, 2012
Pat Green announces the release of "SONGS WE WISH WE'D WRITTEN II", due in stores May 2012. The album marks Green's first release on his new record label Sugar Hill Records and is the follow-up to his 2001 collaboration with friend Cory Morrow, "SONGS WE WISH WE'D WRITTEN".
Nearly a decade after releasing the first tribute-collaboration with Morrow, Green has sold over 2 million albums, earned three Grammy nominations, released a string of Top 10 hits and created a well-earned reputation for bombastic live shows. Tapped in People magazine as "the Springsteen of the South West," he has become a cultural force selling out venues from House of Blues in Los Angeles to Nokia Theater in Time Square, down to the Houston Astrodome in Texas.
Known for his infectious enthusiasm for music and life, Green's energy is contagious and sends a charge through a live audience. That energy has been captured once again on record with his new album "SONGS WE WISH WE'D WRITTEN II".
"We hope our fans enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it", said Green, who recorded the album with his longtime road band in Texas. "You'll hear a few songs you already know and may notice others that are unfamiliar; which was by design. I enjoy spreading the word about great talents and great music".
The album gives Green opportunity to pay tribute to a wide range of writers from Texas troubadours Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Walt Wilkins, Will Alan Sexton and Todd Snider, to some of Nashville's finest including Will Kimbrough and Jon Randall. It gives Green a chance to interpret some of his favorites written by well known artists such as Tom Petty, Shelby Lynne, Ross Childress and Ed Roland. It also shines a light on music from hitmakers Glen Ballard and Liz Rose along with up-and-coming talent Aaron Lee Tasjan.
Green's diverse musical palate was developed at an early age surrounded by a blended family of nine children. "In a home with that many kids I listened to a little bit of everything from country and 80's music, to the best of Motown and Classical", said Green. "I'm just a fan of music, period. I'm beyond lucky to do what I do for a living and thankful I get to record songs that I love".
Delivered with his signature "let the good times roll" attitude and guy-next-door charm, "SONGS WE WISH WE'D WRITTEN II" is a collection of ten songs that fans are sure to enjoy. Green is currently writing new material for his next album and will head into the studio early next year to record.


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4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1996
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/06/1996
Page tools: Print Page Print All | |||
Definitions and references
Age pensioners - people receiving full or partial age pension excluding associated wife's or carer's pension. Men 65 years and over and women 60.5 years and over may be eligible to receive the age pension.
Aged - men 65 and over and women 60 and over.
Consumer price index - a measure of change over time in the retail price of a constant basket of goods and services. The choice of goods and services is representative of consumption patterns of employee households in metropolitan areas. Indexed to 1990=100.
Disability support pensioners
Employees - all wage and salary earners who received pay for any part of the reference period.
Equivalent income - usual income adjusted to allow comparison of economic well-being between income units, using Henderson equivalence scales. These equivalence scales are illustrative and not necessarily endorsed by the ABS.
Female/male ratio of mean total full-time adult earnings
Full-time employees - employees who usually work 35 hours or more a week, or the agreed hours of a full-time employee.
GDP (gross domestic product) - an aggregate measure of the value of economic production in a year.
GDP spent on income support - special appropriations under the Social Security Act for income support as a proportion of GDP.
Gini coefficient - an index for measuring inequality of income. The index, always between 0 and 1, is low for populations with relatively equal income distributions and high for populations with relatively unequal distributions.
Gross income - usual income, before tax or any other deductions are made.
Gross state product - a similar measure to GDP but based on state income estimates.
Household disposable income - household income (as measured in the Australian National Accounts) less income tax and other direct taxes, fees, fines etc charged by the government, consumer debt interest and transfers overseas.
Income unit - a group of related people who live together and form a single spending unit. Income units can be considered to be families, except that non-dependant children and other adults living in the same household are separate income units.
Main income source from government payments - government pensions or allowances form the largest component of usual income.
Managerial employees - adult managerial, executive and professional staff, generally defined as those employees who do not receive payment for overtime, and/or who are in charge of a significant number of employees in a separate establishment(s).
Mean total weekly earnings
Mean weekly ordinary time earnings of full-time non-managerial adults
Median weekly income - the level of weekly income at which half the income units have higher incomes and half have lower incomes.
Net income - gross income less personal income tax (including the Medicare levy).
Ordinary time - employee's agreed hours of work including annual leave, paid sick leave and long service leave.
Real household disposable income - household disposable income (as measured in the Australian National Accounts) adjusted for change in prices.
Share of gross cash/net equivalent income going to top/bottom quintile - share of gross cash/net equivalent income received by the 20% of income units with the highest/lowest incomes.
Sole parent pensioners - recipients of the sole parent pension. In 1989, the supporting parent benefit and A class widow pensions were combined to form the sole parent pension. Figures prior to 1989 include these two pensions.
Unemployment allowees - the number of recipients of unemployment benefit prior to 1991 and of Job Search allowance, Newstart allowance and Youth Training allowance since then.


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By Ronald Fraser – Using a cockeyed logic, the U.S. Congress, in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, set the stage for the modern drug war by giving marijuana and heroin the same "most dangerous" Schedule I classification. In addition, the act declared both drugs lacking any known medical uses.
Today marijuana's guilt by association seems downright silly. After 40 years of rehabilitation and a new-found respectability in at least 25 states, marijuana's public image has matured. Heroin's has not. It is time to separate the two drugs, leaving heroin under federal control and passing marijuana regulation to the states.
Congress has steadfastly refused to revisit the status of marijuana while the states have served as public policy laboratories. One by one, the states, taking their policy making responsibilities seriously, have reexamined the status of marijuana again and again. Federal lawmakers, on the other hand, are hung up in a 1970s time warp.
A Medical Use? While heroin has been approved for limited medical uses in several countries, the prospect for its legalization in the US is dim. How about marijuana? Today, medical doctors in a growing number of states are now authorizing the use marijuana to relieve pain, fight depression and activate appetites in chronically ill persons suffering from cancer and other life threatening conditions.
Unlike policymakers in Washington – according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – in nineteen states public policies now accept that marijuana does, in fact, have bone fide medical uses: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington State.
A bill to legalize and regulate medical marijuana is now before the New York State legislature. And the following professional groups have expressed support for passage of the bill: the American Public Health Association, the American Bar Association, the New York Nurses Association, the New York AIDS Coalition and the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York.
A Criminal Offense? Once upon a time, both heroin and marijuana use could bring jail time in all 50 states. No more. First time possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use has been decriminalized and is now treated more or less like a traffic ticket in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island. Heroin? No change.
Legalized? While nineteen states have found a medical use for marijuana and fifteen treat its possession much like a traffic ticket, Colorado has given marijuana a total reprieve from its 1970 misclassification. Not only is marijuana decriminalized in Colorado and approved for medical use, last November Coloradans passed a ballot initiative legalizing marijuana for recreational use as well. Further north, a ballot initiative legalizing recreational use of marijuana also passed in Washington State.
Easily Abused? Admittedly, all drugs, including both marijuana and heroin, can be abused. But so can over-the-counter cigarettes, legal for recreational use in all 50 states. In fact, a stronger case can be made that cigarettes, not marijuana, is a better fit for classification as a Schedule I substance, alongside heroin. Cigarettes kill thousands of Americans each year and, unlike marijuana, cigarettes have no redeeming medical value.
Ronald Fraser, Ph.D., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Write him at: email@example.com


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"Moderate, consistent evidence shows that health benefits derived from the consumption of a variety of cooked seafood in the US in amounts recommended by the [2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, US Department of Agriculture] Committee outweigh the risks," said Roger Clemens, PhD, CSO at Horn Company, Chatsworth, California, and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.
He recognized two, 3- to 5-ounce servings each week of such fish as salmon, oysters and rainbow trout, provide an average of 250 mg/day of n-3 fatty acids associated with the reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dr Clemens said, "Consumers can safely eat at least 12 ounces of a variety of cooked seafood per week provided they pay attention to local seafood advisories and limit their intake of large, predatory fish like shark."
Toxicologists like Wallace Hayes, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health, said there is ongoing research to improve food safety especially for those predatory, saltwater fish like shark, tile, swordfish, and king mackerel that may carry a contamination many consumers are wary of.
"The bigger the fish, the more they've been around and the greater the potential for their level of mercury," said Dr Hayes, recognizing studies that show varying amounts of methylmercury toxicity can impact the developing brain during the third trimester of pregnancy or through breast milk. Repeated low level exposure can also affect cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and cognitive aging systems.
Doris Hicks, seafood technology specialist with the Sea Grant Program, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware, worries consumers confused with the risks will prevent them from eating seafood weekly.
"Seafood is unique because there are measurable benefits and risks," said Dr Hicks, explaining consumers must not only be aware of the source and quality of their seafood, but the handling practices, preparation and storage of seafood they may consume at home or in restaurants. "Most of the public recognizes the health advantages of seafood but over half have also heard something negative."
She has discovered many doctors and nurses are telling their patients to reduce their seafood consumption. In response, she worked with other food scientists to conduct online surveys and focus groups with healthcare professionals which ultimately led to the creation of an online educational resource for both health professionals and consumers, www.seafoodhealthfacts.org.


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Good Debt vs. Bad Debt
When most people think of debt, they automatically assume that it is bad for your finances. While this is often true, it is not always the case. A person can carry both good and bad debt for a variety of reasons.
Good debt is taken on for a sound reason and there is an expected payoff later. Examples of good debt include student loans and mortgage loans. With bad debt, there is no upside to paying interest on the borrowed money. Types of bad debt include credit card debt as well as payday advance loans.
There are also types of debt like auto loans that can be good or bad depending on your situation. Figuring out which debt to carry can help you maneuver your personal finances into positive territory. To help you do this, we are going to take a look at good debt vs. bad debt.
Credit card debt
Bad debt
Credit card debt is the worst kind of debt to carry. Sure, credit cards are easy to use; just swipe the card and off you go. However, this convenience comes at a cost: high interest rates that can reach 15% to 20%.
Carrying a balance on a credit card is the exact opposite of saving money in a savings account. Instead of you saving the money, the bank is earning interest on money it lent to you.
Auto Loan
Most often bad debt
Financing a vehicle is the option most people choose when buying a car. Financing a car isn't as much of a choice as it is a necessity, since a car is a large purchase. When weighing good debt vs. bad debt, it's important to consider the practical value of your purchases. Paying interest on a car loan is considered bad debt, but paying cash usually isn't an option for most people. Your car gets you to work, school and other places on time, which makes financing a car worthwhile for a lot of people.
Buying an appreciating asset and leasing a depreciating asset is always a good idea. This means that buying a used car with low miles is a sensible choice for many. Therefore, having the auto loan can be considered good debt under certain circumstances. Either way, paying cash for a car is usually the better choice if you can afford it.
Mortgage loan
Good debt
Buying a house is the dream of many families around the world, as having a home to call your own is often considered a symbol of having made it.
Hardly anyone would pay cash for a house — even if they had the money. There are two reasons for this: First, it is better to use leverage and take advantage of the bank's money to buy the home. This will free up your money for daily living expenses and retirement investing. Second, depending on where you live, there is a tax deduction on mortgage interest.
Good debt vs. bad debt is a title bout you don't want to miss…
Credit Card


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1. Questions
It is still said, maybe believed in Texas and Alaska, that in the American democracy the people are approximately equal and they are free in choosing and influencing those who govern them and deal with the rest of the world. In fact American democracy is hierarchic democracy. The American people, of course, like any other, is for general purposes rightly thought about in terms of classes somehow understood — as Americans themselves have lately been saying. The fundamental classes surely are neither equal nor free in choosing and influencing their government. They are instead a hierarchy, ranked from top to bottom.
So it has confidently been said. But patently the Obama election was unprecedented. More than that, it overjoyed most of the human race in America and in touch with America. It overjoyed me, along with others, to the point of tears. Next day no voice was heard against this fine thing at the common table of a London gentleman's club in which I found myself, a table whose conservatism until then was impervious to the outside world.
There are questions we still don't hear about the election and questions we do.
Is it now too simple to say that American democracy, like the English democracy that superimposes on itself crown, prince and little princelings, is hierarchic? If you make a judgement about this democracy, for or against, by what means do you do so, by what principle or whatever? There is also the commoner question of what will come of the Obama presidency, and the question of what ought to come of it, and the little question of whether some of us must now repent error about America.
2. Hierarchic Democracy
Certainly until the election anyone capable of detaching from conventions of vagueness, and capable of registering some simple numbers and their consequences, could come to contemplate a certain proposition. This proposition is that the top 10th of the American population in terms of wealth and income, that class, has about 1,000 times the political influence and power of the bottom 10th.
The first of the simple numbers in support of the proposition is that the top 10th of Americans in terms of wealth and income has about 70% of the wealth of the society. The bottom tenth has none — it owns nothing significant and probably owes more money than it has. In income, the top 10th has about 30%. The bottom tenth has about 2%.
There used to be Marxists. Whatever Marx's percipience as moralist, denied by himself in favour of his view of himself as scientist, we did not need and do not need his metaphysical, historical, economic and political theory to know the connection of the wealth and income inequality with political influence and power.
What is needed is only escaping from self-admiring lesser intelligence, think-tank intelligence. What is needed is actually taking in what has been reported at least implicitly in decent newspapers about poverty, as against the profits of the finance houses and the stinking bonuses. What is reported, say, of the parents who only have time for trying to get for themselves and their unhealthy, ignorant and ill-fated children half a life.
Do you say that the actual proposition on American hierarchic democracy, that the top tenth has about 1,000 times the political influence and power of the bottom tenth, is plucked out of the air? Yes it is, in a way. It rests on fact, of which you have heard a little, but it certainly is not the result of quantification by known economists and political scientists. That is their failing, not mine. It is a failing of the known members of whole professions. Whether the estimate of about 1,000 to 1 is a little overdone or not, we are right not to be intimidated into hesitancy by their weakness in academic will and the pursuit of relevant truth.
Do you say Americans have been unequal in political power and inflence, all right, maybe just 500 to 1, but they have still been free? Do you have the idea, murmured by liberals for their own purposes for decades, that equality and freedom or liberty are two different things? And that they conflict — as taxes for universal healthcare conflict with the rights of money? Do you say that inequality in missiles does not affect freedom of action, affect it long before they are launched?
There has never been a greater social and political nonsense. Suffice it to say, to the perceptive reader, or even a Pentecostal, that if you and I are in competition or conflict, and you become more and more unequal to me, in cash and maybe in the end in my having a gun, your voluntariness reduces at every stage, in the end to zero. Equality and freedom, where they matter most, are one thing. They are one thing in hierarchic democracy.
3. The Election
Did the Obama election refute, modify or anyway re-open the proposition that in America the top economic class has had and will have 1,000 or 500 times more political influence and power than the bottom class? Is there more to this democracy's nature? Is it changing? Do some of us have to think now that the future obligation of Americans may not be the same as their obligation until now, which has been mass civil disobedience against their hierarchic democracy?
One part of work towards an answer will have to do with a fact rightly remarked on. The campaign of Obama and the Democratic Party raised unprecedented funds, about $640 million. McCain and the Republican Party had about $360 million, partly as a result of accepting public financing, which had some effect on their private donations. The totals are important, but less important than the source of the Obama donations. Somewhere on the way to half the $640 million was raised from small donations. It was raised from people giving less than $200. It was raised, you might risk saying, from ordinary Americans.
It has to be allowed, I think, that the victory showed that American hierarchic democracy has had in it certain possibilities. It had in itself the possibility, in particular, that in an extraordinary circumstance it could rise above its grotesque inequality and subjection.
The circumstance, however, was not in itself the new ideas of raising money on the part of the Obama campaign, partly by means of the internet, or the military campaign of voter registration and the like. Causal explanation of anything interesting is rarely simple. Those several things can be said to have succeeded, but succeeded because of something more fundamental. They succeeded, in brief, because of two other more significant necessary conditions. One was a nearly unique national circumstance. The other was an absolutely unique candidate.
The national circumstance consisted first in two wars, inane and grisly to many, at least doubtful and self-hurting to many more. There was climate change in it too, and the denial of it refuted by hurricanes. There was the dimwit President. The circumstance came to consist more dramatically in what came out of nowhere at the right time, the collapsing of the money-system, until then supposed to be a natural edifice and defended and extolled as such by the Republicans.
There was something else that also came out of nowhere, a little earlier, the other significant necessary condition. That was Obama, the human drama of Obama. Because he was black, he was rightly perceived as having some humanity unknown or uncertain in previous presidential candidates. He was perceived as being bound by his own existence to humanity. He did not have to be more than black for it to be true. But he had, too, the freedom and audacity of intelligence, demonstrated where it always must be, by language.
The election might turn out to be the most consequential in American history. But, to come to what you do not need telling, it did not change the simple numbers with respect to wealth and income or the resulting inequality and subjection in political influence and power. Those things are with us. Nothing has changed, for example, with respect to what may be not only a financial but an otherwise politically valuable fact in the next presidential election, an answer to this one. That would be many more small donations than had by Barack Obama, gathered by wealth on behalf of a reactionary Republican candidate.
4. The Principle of Humanity
Do you anticipate an adverse judgement on American hierarchic democracy, more than implied already? Are you, maybe, superior in advance to any such judgements? Do you remember some first year philosophy and say that maybe there is no standard of right and wrong, no moral truth, only subjectivity? Does the weakness of so much political philosophy come back to mind?
Do you remember the social contract theory of justice of John Rawls of Harvard and that it sticks in its liberalism at the beginning, in something called the Original Position, and so is dead certain to get it out at the end? Do you remember that the neo-conservative Robert Nozick, also of Harvard, chose not to notice that a liberty is not any freedom, say a freedom to rape, but a freedom with justification, which latter justification he did not provide for the freedoms of his just society, where the starving have no right to food?
Do you remember stuff about human rights, much of it of good intention, some of it merely liberalism, all of it forgetful of the fact that every human right is trumped by another one, often the same right also had by someone else? Do you go further back, to Utilitarianism, or to the London School of Economics today, and note that Utilitarianism commits you to a slave class in a society when that will none the less produce the greatest total of satisfaction taking into account everybody, the greatest happiness of the greatest number?
There is something plainer, something blessedly short on theory, something without contrivance, loose abstraction, easy metaphor or readily manipulable generality. Hierarchic democracy is wrong in terms of fundamental right and wrong, right and wrong often understood differently, but open to being understood literally and clearly. It is so understood in the Principle of Humanity.
This is the principle that we are to eschew pretences of impossibility and the like, but instead take actually rational steps, steps that do serve a certain end and do not in themselves defeat it — the end of getting and keeping people out of bad lives. It is not that the end justifies the means, but that the end and the means justify the means.
Bad lives, and good lives, are not left obscured by the cant of our political classes, but defined in terms of the fundamental desires of human nature, our fundamental human goods. These are a decent length of conscious life, bodily or material well-being, freedom and power, respect and self-respect, the goods of relationship, and the goods of culture. It not a principle of respect, of which we have too much. It is not a principle that pretends that there is a general exonerating or mitigating difference between acts and omissions. It is not so temperate in expression, so restricted to Parliamentary Language, as to serve pretences of reason and the tolerable in a society. It is the principle of the Left in politics, the Left when it is true to itself.
If the Principle of Humanity is an attitude, like all things ranged against it, including the Word of God, it is also a moral truth. It is such in virtue of being the principle to which we are all already committed by our common human nature. One part of that is those shared fundamental desires. Another part is our all having and depending on reasons, these by their nature being general. You are committed to the Principle of Humanity or something very like it, for a start, by your justifying your escaping a bad life rather than somebody else's having a still better good life, and your reason being by its nature general, useable by all.
What remains here is only to make explicit a judgement on hierarchic democracies, America first, a judgement resting at bottom on the Principle of Humanity.
As a consequence of the class-inequality and class-subjection, and the selfishness that is all that defines the political tradition of conservatism, our democracies have not had what alone can be the greatest recommendation of anything that has the name of democracy. Nothing else is near to this recommendation. Our democracies, that is, have not been in anything like accord with the truth that in making decisions two heads and hearts are better than one, and more are better than two. The truth, evidently, rests most of all on the heads and hearts having equal and free expression.
Our merely hierarchic democracies have instead been standing crimes against humanity. They have been such at home and abroad, in Kentucky and Iraq. They are taking from an easily defined group of Africans 20 million years of living time. They have made insignificant in its consequences what is ordinarily and dimly called terrorism, including the terrorism of the Palestinians against neo-Zionism in historic Palestine. American democracy is the product of two political parties owed to the class structure, the Democrats with a greater inclination to humanity but about as much constrained by a society organized in its denial of moral and other truth.
5. What Will Come of the Presidency?
Will the presidency of Obama falsify that judgement, trim or qualify it? We don't know, any of us, but I and many others remember that there was once a lesser joy. It was a lesser joy only because of its being in a place now of less consequence for all of us. It is easy to remember another election, in Britain, that other hierarchic democracy, the election of May 2, 1997. It was to be, maybe, the end of the vile dragging down of Britain from 1979 by Thatcherism. Here are some recollections of that election written down before now.
"As the spring of 1997 came on, the state of Britain was…awful to me and others. A Conservatism despicable in its cupidity and stupidity was now at least questionable to all persons in touch with the world. All now had reasons in their own lives for doubt about the condition we were in, reasons of self-interest. … But the state of Britain now, compared with five years ago, was in fact not so much more disturbing that the Conservatives could not possibly win again. They might again call up benighted selfishness and make good use of it. …
…But during election night, despite this resignation beforehand, my feeling became the feeling of many, which was joy. Lovely joy. Long before morning, the shits were gone. Their electoral defeat was complete and unprecedented. Their departure had been long delayed, but they were gone. …
It took me aback, as my own joy did. Could it be that my paper on democracy and the need for it to be accompanied by civil disobedience…was put in doubt by this glorious election?"
Blair and those with him then did as much as Thatcher, indeed more than Thatcher, to worsen and disgrace a nation. The terrorist war against Iraq was not according to international law but owed to the pomposity of two shysters. It was owed as well to lying or culpable self-deception about weapons of mass destruction. It has been the intentional killing of innumerable innocents. In his own country, Blair made the poor poorer and the rich richer. He degraded the public discourse on which tolerable government depends, first by establishing that the response to a question need never be an answer. He reminded us that the aim of selling, whether in business or politics, is never truth. He reminded us that his conservatism is indeed that tradition in politics whose self-interest is without the support of any moral principle whatever.
May we anyway persist in the hope for America and the world that has succeeded the joy of the election of Obama?
The hope of Britain in 1979 was also owed to relief and happiness and hope, but it was different. The election of Blair had in it no honest openness. At the time it was left far more unclear what New Labour would do. It was the party that had changed its name, taken the public ownership of essential things out of its founding document, had in it the sociological bumble of a Third Way in society, but it was also the party that declared its allegiance to a history whose unsurpassed contribution to civilization was the National Health Service.
Obama did not take only small donations, and he has also been a politician in that line of life's necessity of concealment. He has not been and is not being as open and specific about all the policy or inclination to policy that it is reasonable to think he has. But he has been more specific than Blair. He undertook, and not merely conjecture, that the rich would pay a little more income tax, that the very poor would not pay any, that corporations would not be able to feed off a society and its laws and institutions while escaping contributing to it by having an address somewhere else.
Obama undertook enough to make talk of his 'socialism' useable. He left us in little doubt about the direction of change as distinct from how far it would go. To his eternal credit, whatever happens, he made his countrymen at least smile at that sum total of pretence of humanity and relevant intellectual content in the tradition of conservatism, the joke against reality of the trickle-down theory of economics and well-being. Blair did not make us smile at the wretched thing, but added to the number of its pious enunciations of the thing and the hypocrisy of it.
6. What Ought To Come of the Presidency?
Partly for reasons of which you have heard something, the Principle of Humanity is not hard to establish, despite the self-interest of us all. You can say that it alone is open to the proof that a principle of right and wrong can have, which is a consistency with our human nature. Something else implicit in it is as clear.
The supposed means to ends in our societies divide into three kinds: the real, the ineffective and the self-defeating. The exemplar of a political party devoted to the second and third kinds of supposed means, among other things cheaper, is of course Britain's New Labour Party, the party of lofty shams, nearly as dismal and truth-averse under Brown as it was under Blair. From Obama, we can maybe expect something else, the use of real means, to the end of a recognizable idea of the Principle of Humanity.
There is something harder than the general question of what is right, and such general truths about means as to how to do it. What is harder are many more particular propositions about real means. You do not get to particular policies, for or against terrorism or anything else, by a leap from such a principle as that of Humanity. You get to them by way of propositions of fact, minor premises in lines of argument. Inevitably many of these are judgements of probability.
Still, some conclusions are evident. One is that the world is indeed patently in need of change, America will be ascendant in it for a while longer, and so America needs to change.
For a start, it needs to be led by its President as near as possible to a truth, for which only memory or some reading is needed. That is the truth that Islam is a great culture, of great peoples. If it understands them, it no more consists in killers than the great culture of which America is a part. Indeed by comparison, rightly leaving aside patriots defending their people against invasion and occupation, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Islam has only little handfuls of killers. There is nothing in Islamic history in our centuries that is remotely comparable to the barbarism of our war on the people of Iraq and the illusion that our war on Afghanistan is our own actual self-defence.
Obama must remember that he can do more in history than Abraham Lincoln did in freeing the slaves. He can act for the world by acting in America. He can do more than anyone else to try to bring about peaceful revolution. No one supposes, and no one should suppose, that the end in view can come about by any other means than American hierarchic democracy, very importantly the means of a democracy first made less hierarchic, as it certainly can be.
No one supposes that some of the U.S. Army might wake up one day, as indubitably it should, and as the British Army once did, and might discover its own Col. Rainsborough, who says in good American and keeps alive the idea 'Really I think that the poorest he that is in America hath a life to live as the greatest he'. So the future if it is to be decent is to be found in the indecency of American democracy.
There are other things about as clear. Of course the concentration camp that is Guantanamo must be closed immediately, and of course America must give up the torture that is alien to almost all of its people. The useless pretence that our armies remain in Iraq for the good of the Iraqis should be abandoned absolutely, and we should withdraw immediately. Obama should also see his way to something not half-witted about Russia, for example the truth that to be threatened by missiles on the puerile ground that they are only defensive is to be threatened by missiles.
Palestine, that cause of so much, the running sore of the world, is also clear. Zionism, the project and defence of Israel in roughly its original borders of 1948, has the clear justification of the Principle of Humanity. Neo-Zionism is the intention and policy, long-running and settled, to deprive the Palestinians of at least their liberty in the last 1/5th of their homeland, historic Palestine. Their defence of themselves against this, their liberation movement, their terrorism, also has the clear justification of the Principle of Humanity. Both Zionism and the Palestinian defence against neo-Zionism are to be reverenced.
If, unsatisfied by what you have heard, you ask what the Principle of Humanity is, one part of the answer is that it is the principle that has these consequences. It is inconceivable that human decency brought into clear reflection could do other than accord to the Palestinians a moral right to their terrorism against neo-Zionism within historic Palestine. Obama should think on this in particular, remembering the past of his own people.
It is also clear that in a circumstance in which an indigenous people is being destroyed in the homeland taken from them, there is every reason not to resist the arming of those who are capable of supporting them. Whatever may be said of avoiding further proliferation of nuclear weapons, it is perfectly arguable that Iran should not be obstructed from coming to possess them in order to have a power in support of the Palestinians comparable to that of neo-Zionism against them.
To come back to America, of course a New Deal is needed in order to bring about recovery from our economic crisis. What is not needed is deference to the those who brought it about. They are not only the money-grubbers in Wall Street, of course, but the rest of America in business that has given them respect. Where Roosevelt went before, Obama can follow.
What is also needed is a presidency of audacity that goes beyond its first thoughts about bringing Americans of moral distinction and force into its administration, or at least to the edge of it, maybe to give a lecture or two in the White House. The new presidency needs to bring in people whose line of life and powers and independence of character, free from the compromises of politics, have let them and made them think more about things, show the gross inconsistencies of America. The first of these people in America is the greatest of its academics, he who has transformed his own subject in the universities, and for his judgement on his own country has had the acclaim of the civilized world, Noam Chomsky.
7. Errors to Repent
There is an error for the likes of me to repent. There was indeed more hope in its democracy for America and hence for the rest of us than we thought. It is clearer now. Some other shits have gone. Here are sentences of mine that were in their conclusion mistaken.
"One smaller sample has to do with the American elections to the Senate in November 2004, when Bush became president again, this time by winning. Of the eight Senate seats where there was no sitting incumbent, and thus a real race, winners officially spent an average of $9,473,789, much more than the losers. One consequence of such facts is is a tremendous reduction in voter choice, a decimation of it. This is not about the losers. Ideas and options of potential candidates who cannot attract dollars and so do not run at all are never heard. No real reformer of health or corporation taxes is going to raise $9,473,789. He might get $100,000, and so he doesn't try."
In the Obama election, America achieved a kind of wonder. It showed the world that human nature, in its fundamental desires and in its ability finally to see by way of its reasons through absurd conventions of thought and feeling, can on occasion lift the hope of the world by the use of hierarchic democracy. Although main facts of that democracy are still there on the ground, I and others have been wrong. I do not persist in the mistake.
I do persist in something else. There can be an honour and courage on the Left that can never be had on the Right. That honour and courage is what is lacked, say, by any father in the conservative tradition. He knows that he is defending what he would rightly abhor and would in circumstances kill for if some tables were turned — if, that is, his child were growing up maimed by inequality and subjection so that somebody else's child could ride to school rather than walk.
TED HONDERICH is Grote Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University College London and Visiting Professor at the University of Bath. His relevant books are After The Terror (Edinburgh University Press, 2002), On Political Means and Social Ends (Edinburgh University Press, 2003), Humanity, Terrorism, Terrorist War (UK: Continuum Publishing / US: Seven Stories Press, 2006), Punishment: The Supposed Justifications Revisited (Pluto, 2006); Philosopher: A Kind of Life (Routledge, 2001).


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I'm wondering if there are other resources that cover Carter-Wegman style message authentication, besides the sources themselves.
Is there an online text or a book that covers their ideas? I'd prefer something that's very thorough, and less importantly, free. I'm just really trying to get a feel for their ideas and related works.
Wikipedia covers VMAC, which is an application of their ideas, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMAC
The original sources are linked through http://www.dblp.org/search/index.php#query=author:mark_n_wegman:&qp=H1.1000:W1.4:F1.4:F2.4:F3.4:F4.4
...and you can refine the search to just Wegman and Carter's works by clicking on Carter on the right side.


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A chance find, as I wasn't intending on going to Avondale via the railway line today (but I had to, as I missed a bus up on the ridge). According to Wikipedia, this is a Plasser and Theurer DGS 62 N dynamic track stabiliser.
But this other one ... well, a friend mentioned a name to me, but at the moment, I can't locate it online. Any rail fans out there care to help out?