text:
Palbociclib Expanded Access Program Now Open To Eligible U.S. Patients With HR+, HER2- Advanced Breast Cancer
Pfizer Inc. today announced that the company has initiated a multi-center, open-label expanded access program (EAP) in the United States for the investigational CDK 4/6 inhibitor, palbociclib. Through the program, palbociclib is being made available for use in combination with letrozole for post-menopausal women with hormone receptor positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer for whom letrozole is considered appropriate therapy. Healthcare professionals and patients can learn more about the palbociclib EAP by visiting www.clinicaltrials.gov (trial number: NCT02142868).
Under its expanded access programs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works with companies to allow access to investigational therapies to patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses who do not otherwise qualify for participation in a clinical trial and for whom there are no comparable or satisfactory alternate therapies.
"Palbociclib is being evaluated as a potential new treatment for women with HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer, who represent the largest subgroup of women with this disease," said Dr. Mace Rothenberg, senior vice president, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, and chief medical officer, Pfizer Oncology. "As announced this week, we have completed the submission of a New Drug Application for palbociclib in the U.S. based on the results of our Phase 2, PALOMA-1 study. With recruitment of new patients to our Phase 3 PALOMA-2 and PALOMA-3 trials now complete, Pfizer is initiating the Palbociclib Expanded Access Program. This program will provide a mechanism by which eligible women who may benefit from treatment with palbociclib can gain access to this investigational therapy at this time."
About the Palbociclib EAP
The palbociclib EAP is a U.S.-only, single-arm, open label study for post-menopausal women with HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer. Women enrolled to the study will receive palbociclib for use in combination with letrozole, and therefore must be deemed appropriate for letrozole therapy. Additional enrollment criteria are available at www.clinicaltrials.gov (trial number: NCT02142868).
U.S.-based health care professionals seeking more information about the palbociclib EAP can call 1-800-420-6755 or e-mail [email protected] for further details.
Patients who are interested in enrolling to the palbociclib EAP should speak with their physician to understand if palbociclib is an appropriate treatment option.
Palbociclib is an investigational therapy and is not approved for any indication in any markets.
More information and Frequently Asked Questions
About Palbociclib
Palbociclib is an investigational oral targeted agent that selectively inhibits cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) 4 and 6 to regain cell cycle control and block tumor cell proliferation.[1]
Loss of cell cycle control is a hallmark of cancer and CDK 4/6 are overactivated in numerous cancers, leading to loss of proliferative control.[2],[3] CDK 4/6 are key regulators of the cell cycle that trigger cellular progression from growth phase (G1) into phases associated with DNA replication (S).[4],[5] CDK 4/6, whose increased activity is frequent in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC), are key downstream targets of ER signaling in ER+ BC.[6],[7] Preclinical data suggest that dual inhibition of CDK 4/6 and ER signaling is synergistic and has been shown to stop growth of ER+ BC cell lines in the G1 phase.
About Pfizer Oncology
Pfizer Oncology is committed to the discovery, investigation and development of innovative treatment options to improve the outlook for cancer patients worldwide. Our strong pipeline of biologics and small molecules, one of the most robust in the industry, is studied with precise focus on identifying and translating the best scientific breakthroughs into clinical application for patients across a wide range of cancers. By working collaboratively with academic institutions, individual researchers, cooperative research groups, governments, and licensing partners, Pfizer Oncology strives to cure or control cancer with breakthrough medicines, to deliver the right drug for each patient at the right time. For more information, please visit www.Pfizer.com.
Pfizer Inc.: Working together for a healthier world®
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. To learn more, please visit us at www.pfizer.com.
DISCLOSURE NOTICE: The information contained in this release is as of August 21, 2014. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments.
This release contains forward-looking information about palbociclib, an investigational therapy, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements include those about palbociclib's potential benefits and the potential indication for the treatment of postmenopausal women with ER+, HER2- advanced breast cancer who have not received previous systemic treatment for their advanced disease (the "Potential Indication"). Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including the ability to meet anticipated clinical trial commencement and completion dates and regulatory submission dates, as well as the possibility of unfavorable clinical trial results, including unfavorable new clinical data and additional analyses of existing clinical data; whether and when the FDA will accept the New Drug Application (the "NDA") submitted for palbociclib; whether the PALOMA-2 Phase 3 trial of palbociclib for the Potential Indication will demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival and whether the other Phase 3 trials of palbociclib will meet their primary endpoints; whether regulatory authorities will be satisfied with the design of and results from our clinical studies; whether and when drug applications may be filed in any other jurisdictions for the Potential Indication or in any jurisdictions for any other potential indications for palbociclib; whether and when the NDA or any such other applications may be approved by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which will depend on the assessment by such regulatory authorities of the benefit-risk profile suggested by the totality of the efficacy and safety information submitted; decisions by the FDA and other regulatory authorities regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of the Potential Indication or any other such indications; and competitive developments.
A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.
# # # # #
[1] Clinicaltrials.gov. Study of Letrozole with or without PD 0332991 for the first-line treatment of hormone-receptor positive advanced breast cancer. Available here: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00721409?term=PD+0332991&rank=10. Accessed August 19, 2014.
2 Shapiro GI. Cyclin-dependent kinase pathways as targets for cancer treatment. J Clin Oncol. 2006;24(11):1770-1783.
3 Weinberg RA. The Biology of Cancer. New York, NY. Garland Science; 2013.
4 Hirama T and H. Phillip Koeffler. Role of the Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors in the Development of Cancer. Blood. 1995; 86: 841-854.
5 Fry D et al. Specific Inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 by PD 0332991 and associated antitumor activity in human tumor xenografts. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. 2004; 3: 1427-1437.
6 Finn RS et al. PD 0332991, a selective cyclin D kinase 4/6 inhibitor, preferentially inhibits proliferation of luminal estrogen receptor-positive human breast cancer cell lines in vitro. Breast Cancer Res. 2009;11(5):R77.
[7] Lamb R, Lehn S, Rogerson L, Clarke RB, Landberg G. Cell cycle regulators cyclin D1 and CDK4/6 have estrogen receptor-dependent divergent functions in breast cancer migration and stem cell-like activity. Cell Cycle. 2013;12(15):2384-2394.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
No serious health risks are associated with travel to Turkey, and no vaccinations are required for entry. However, travelers are advised to have vaccinations for hepatitis A and typhoid and to take precautions against malaria if visiting the far southeast. To avoid problems at customs, diabetics and other persons who carry needles and syringes for medical reasons should have a letter from their physician confirming their need for injections. Rabies can be a problem in Turkey, occasionally even in the large cities. If bitten or scratched by a dog or cat about which you have suspicions, go to the nearest pharmacy and ask for assistance.
Even in areas where there is no malaria, you'll want to use something to ward off mosquitoes. All pharmacies and most corner stores and supermarkets stock a variety of oils and/or tablets to keep mosquitoes at bay, as well as sprays and creams you can apply to exposed skin; it's generally easy to identify these products as the packaging usually includes a picture of a mosquito. If you can't find what you want, try asking using the Turkish word for mosquito: sivrisinek. It often seems as though mosquitoes favor foreigners, particularly the fair-skinned, so a Turk's assurances that mosquitoes in a particular place are "not bad" can be both sincere and misleading.
Given the high temperatures in summer, dehydration can be a problem, especially in southern and eastern Turkey. Remember to sip water throughout the day rather than waiting until you are very thirsty.
For minor problems, pharmacists can be helpful. Pharmacists at any eczane, or pharmacy, are well versed in common ailments and can prescribe some antibiotics and other medications for common travelers' illnesses. Many of the same over-the-counter remedies available in Western countries can be found in Turkish pharmacies, which are usually well stocked. Even a Turkish pharmacist who doesn't speak English will often be able to recognize a specific remedy—particularly if you write the name down—and be able to find an appropriate alternative if that medication is not available.
Doctors and dentists abound in major cities and can be found in all but the smallest towns; many are women. There are also hastanes (hospitals) and kliniks (clinics). Road signs marked with an "H" point the way to the nearest hospital. Even if doctors cannot converse fluently in English, most will have a working knowledge of English and French terminology for medical conditions. Turkish dentists, called diş hekimi, diş doktoru, or dişçi are highly regarded.
Food and Drink
Tap water is heavily chlorinated and supposedly safe to drink in cities and resorts. It's okay to wash fruits and vegetables in tap water, but it's best to play it safe and only drink şişe suyu (bottled still water) or maden suyu (bottled sparkling mineral water, also referred to simply as soda), which are better tasting and inexpensive. Do not drink tap water in rural areas or in eastern Turkey. Turkish food is generally safe, though you should still be careful with some types of street food, such as chickpeas and rice (nohutlu pilav) and stuffed mussels (midye dolması), which can host a number of nasty bacteria.


text:
"Searches for New Physics at MiniBooNE: Sterile Neutrinos and Mixing Freedom."
Background:Georgia Karagiorgi completed her undergraduate degree at Florida Institute of Technology in 2004. She received her Ph.D. in Experimental High Energy Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, under the supervision of Prof. Janet Conrad. Her doctoral thesis work was completed on the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab, and its focus was the first antineutrino appearance search at MiniBooNE. The search served as a direct test of the LSND evidence for sterile neutrino oscillations, and as an independent test of the low energy excess previously observed in the neutrino appearance search performed by the MiniBooNE collaboration. Dr. Karagiorgi's findings revealed direct agreement with LSND, but incompatibility with the neutrino results, which prompted many in the theoretical neutrino community to consider sterile neutrino oscillations with CP-violation as an interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE results. Dr. Karagiorgi pursued this possibility independently, and found that sterile neutrino oscillations with CP violation alone are insufficient in explaining the global experimental picture. Her results prompted the consideration of other non-standard physics as possible explanations of the LSND and MiniBooNE results, and inspired new experimental proposals to further test those possibilities. As a graduate student, Dr. Karagiorgi was the recipient of several awards including the Martin Deutsch Award for Excellence in Experimental Physics by the MIT physics department (2009); the Young Scientist Award by Nuclear Physics A (2008); and the Doug Michael Memorial Experimental Neutrino Challenge Award (2007). Currently, she is a post-doctoral researcher at Columbia University, where she is involved in the construction of the MicroBooNE experiment. MicroBooNE is a forefront liquid argon TPC neutrino experiment in the US. With her participation in MicroBooNE, Dr. Karagiorgi aims to further explore the sterile neutrino oscillation hypothesis associated with the MiniBooNE and LSND experiments and study the nature of the MiniBooNE low energy excess, as well as address important R&D questions for next-generation neutrino detectors which will look for CP violation in the standard three-neutrino sector.


text:
Troubleshooting the InterAv alternator system.
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
Note: when sorting by date, 'descending order' will show the newest results first.
Forum Rules


text:
October 15, 2006 This folks, is a picture of Nowhere Else. Indeed, this is Nowhere else Road, Nowhere Else, situated in Tasmania,Australia's second largest island. Tasmania has always been one of the most remote places on earth. 20,000 years ago its inhabitants lived further southward than any other humans and the island was chosen as the site for a remote and inescapable penal settlement in 1803 as it is separated from the main continent of Australia by several hundred kilometres of the roughest water in the world – Bass Strait. It is not just remote, being spectacularly beautiful and possibly the most unspoiled natural environment on the planet with a fiercely green vote at the ballot and more than 40% of its of 68,332 square kilometres being National Parks and World Heritage Sites. Taswegian's are a relaxed bunch, with a reputation for an oddball sense of humour, as evidenced by some of the official town names. Doo Town in Tasmania is a holiday village where all the house names contain doo, such as This Will Doo, Doo Come In, Love Me Doo, Much-A-Doo, and Doo Little. There's also the quaintly named Tasmanian location of Nowhere Else. Situated 20 minutes from Devonport, Nowhere Else shares a postcode (7306) but has no pub, no council, not even a general store. The general store is nearby but it's not in Nowhere Else, cos its somewhere else. So when we saw that a property was for sale on Nowhere Else Road, in Nowhere Else, Australia, 7306 we figured that it might be useful to one of our readers, if only for value on your business card. At an asking price of AUD$350,000 (US$260,000) for 40 acres of prime rural land, it's worth a look.
Truth be known, the most suitable vocation for the property in its current context is as a lifestyle farming block amongst other such farms. The property consists of 40 acres of prime rural land surrounded by bush, which includes access to the famous Quilty horse riding Trail, but will suit almost any purpose including breeding horses, cattle, sheep and light cropping.
The three bedroom home is elevated to capture views of nearby Mount Roland and to retain privacy. The property has four dams, two water tanks and a nearby creek supplies the property all year round.
Interested parties can reach the Estate Agent, Apollo by email and view the property online here.


text:
Text by Bruce Miles
Images from Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Club Archives
On February 18, 1971, the eyes of the World Alpine Ski Racing community were focused on Sugarloaf Ski Resort in the western Mountains of Maine.
The Alpine race series known as the World Cup of Alpine Ski Racing was holding one of its events on Sugarloaf's Narrow Gauge ski trail.
Since 1955, the Narrow Gauge had been the site of many local and national races, including the NCAA Championships, but hosting this series of competition would bring international fame to the race trail and the mountain it was on.
Bruce Miles is executive director of the Ski Museum of Maine.


text:
Accessing my inner Grinch
I see that the Sydney Festival has been generally greeted with hosannas, palm leaves and so on, with only a few grumpy souls daring to swim against the popular tide and ask "where's the meat?" Much as I hate to align myself with Fairfax critics - or, worse, the "elitists" - and given that my experience of the festival is limited to viewing the program (although I've seen a sizeable proportion of the programmed work and, yes, liked it), I have to place myself with the questioners. A keen sniffer of the wind, I wonder if this festival's unarguable commercialism will indeed be taken as the "gold standard" for Australian arts festivals. In the current funding climate, which is gleaming with the steel of promised razor gangs, it doesn't seem unlikely. And the prospect fills me with gloom. I hope it's unwarranted, but pessimism - if undesirable as a default position - is often borne out in contemplating Australian cultural policy.
Sydney attracted an attendance of an estimated 1 million people (as a proportion of population, a figure of 23 per cent), as opposed to half a million for Melbourne - around 13 per cent. It was an undeniable crowd pleaser, with headliners like Björk, Brian Wilson and Joanna Newsom, some interesting dance, a minimum of theatre and absolutely no "art" music, whether contemporary or classical. There's no doubt in this little blogger's brain that the artistic substance and energy lies with the Melbourne programs over the past few years. (Just compare the programs: MIAF 2007 here, Sydney 2008 here.) As a commissioner and programmer, MIAF artistic director Kristy Edmunds, following on from Robyn Archer, has led the way in curating some of the most exciting and ambitious festivals of recent years, in the face of some of the most vicious public attacks ever seen on a festival director.
The question is whether an arts festival is about, well, art, or whether it has to disguise itself as a big party in order to survive. Those of us who love art have had a good run in Melbourne these past few years. But Toto, I've got a bad feeling about this... are we going see the fabulous land of Oz dissolve back into the grey plains of Kansas? Maybe it was but a fitful gleam that oh so briefly illuminated the antipodean shadows. Maybe I need to get out of the country for a while to regain some perspective. Maybe I'm talking through my hat. Sydney was always a different city to Melbourne, after all. I guess time will tell.


text:
The raid on Kim Dotcom's sprawling mansion in Coatesville, New Zealand had all the trappings of a Hollywood film. Two helicopters brought in a dozen tactical officers, armed with automatic weapons, to storm the mansion while the Internet mogul was throwing a party for his 38th birthday. With guns drawn, the officers rounded up the party attendees. But when they went after the head honcho himself, Dotcom allegedly barricaded himself in a safe room. Ian Fleming would have had trouble writing a better arrest scene for a James Bond thriller.
Newly-released video shows the scope of the Jan. 20 raid, a high-powered operation that was meant to take down the man accused of up to $500 million worth of major copyright violations around the world, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
At 6:47 a.m., the first helicopter descended into the gravel driveway in front of the $24 million mansion, located just 15 miles outside of New Zealand's largest city Auckland. A camera on board the chopper was rolling throughout the landing and picked up audio from the raid even as authorities were inside.
(LIST: Megaupload Founder Kim Dotcom, by the Numbers)
The forces that swooped in were part of New Zealand's elite Special Tactics Group, a SWAT-like team of troops who typically handle high-risk situations. They "were the best people for the job," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald at a court hearing Thursday.
But New Zealand authorities have come under fire for using too much force. The 6′ 7″, 300-lb Finnish entrepreneur was admittedly a "low threat," according to an officer who testified before the court. He did explain that the support teams didn't don any tactical gear that day because "it wasn't appropriate under these circumstances." But they still landed dozens of officers and police dogs in two helicopters and four trucks, and armed themselves with high-powered weapons. "Police aren't every day going into houses armed to the teeth," Dotcom's lawyer Paul Davison told the hearing at Auckland High Court. "That's not the ordinary police practice around the country."
The video shows the helicopter landing on the mansion's sprawling grounds, with lush lawns filled with ornate shrubbery and statues of giraffes. Ground forces arrived just minutes after. The helicopters were the Special Tactics Group's best defense against the guards that stood at the entrance to Dotcom's driveway. When Dotcom, in his bedroom with the shutters closed, got wind of the invasion, he pressed an alarm button at the side of his bed to alert his security staff, he told the court, after which he escaped to the "red room" a panic room he installed just off his bedroom, created for this express purpose.
Dotcom testified that he let the tactical unit come find him, rather than "popping out of that secret door and maybe scaring someone who might shoot me." He sat for 13 minutes, he said, until police found him in the panic room, sitting with the door unlocked and his hands up. But within two seconds, he testified, they had tackled him: "I had a punch to the face, I had boots kicking me down to the floor, I had a knee to the ribs and then my hands were on the floor." New Zealand police gave a markedly different account, announcing in January that they had to "cut their way" into the safe room, where Dotcom was holding "what looked like a sawed-off shotgun," they said in a statement.
(PHOTOS: The Larger-Than-Life Lifestyle of Megaupload's Kim Dotcom)
The helicopter cam, still hovering above the 25,000-square-foot home, reveals the arrest process through arresting officers' radio transmissions. "Mr. Dotcom has been shown the warrant to seize the property."
In June, the search warrants used to raid Dotcom's property were declared invalid. Justice Helen Winkelmann argued that the warrants obtained and shown to Dotcom upon his arrest were "general warrants" that didn't adequately state the types of materials police could seize. "The warrants could not authorize seizure of irrelevant material, and are therefore invalid," Winkelmann wrote in her judgment. Dotcom has been fighting to get back the 135 computers and hard drives that police grabbed that day when they took him into custody.
The three-day hearing was called in response to the illegal seizure, which could have serious effects on Dotcom's long-awaited October extradition hearing, where authorities could send him to the United States to stand trial. He faces five counts of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering, as do his alleged conspirators Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk. They have all maintained their innocence.
In the meantime, Dotcom has remained on a modified form of house arrest, allowed out only to "go swimming once a week and travel twice a week to an Auckland studio to record music." He's passed the days mocking authorities from the safety of his newly-launched Twitter feed, and he recently unveiled his first full-length recording titled "Mr. President," a seeming plea to U.S. president Barack Obama (under whose jurisdiction he was charged) to loosen copyright laws.


text:
Published on Digestive system.
Our conscience perceives this part of the rectum differently from the upper rectum. It has to do with the role of the sphincter. The sphincter is a frontier. Conflicts in this area are experienced in a feminine manner, due to a specific characteristic.
It is important to understand that the tension is yin, feminine, due to a lack of boundary setting on the part of the Father. In other words, if the Father was too lenient, the person does not know his limits, becomes excessively passive, excessively feminine, and may suffer from incontinence. If the person suffers a great tension and does not verbalize it, it may develop cancer. Here, in this part of the body, conflicts are experienced in a feminine manner. The person releases, releases, and releases. He never ceases to release and can do nothing to stop the outflow. The person is tremendously yin, tremendously passive. Bowel incontinence shows a constant revelation of the person's underworld, of his subconscious, of his hidden side, his hidden emotions, and his true identity. The person with incontinence cannot position himself from an identity standpoint.
When a woman (or a very yin, very feminine man) does not know her limits, her sphincter ceases to work effectively. It is a reaction grounded on our collective subconscious. In fact, in pre-historic times, men imposed the limits on women.
In older people, incontinence happens due to senility, due to loss of control of the masculine side, of the yang side. Incontinence also happens to some homosexual men and some women, due to their preference for anal sex. It is not because they practice anal sex, but rather because they are very submissive, too yin, too passive. They are people who overdevelop their feminine side at the expense of their masculine side.
Incontinence may also happen, in isolated episodes, due to a great fear.
When a person feels fear, he feels that someone may attack him. As a result, the sympathetic nervous system prepares to escape. Here, contrary to the energy of rage, which rises up to the scapular waist, the energy of fear goes down the lower limbs. The legs prepare to run and the anticipation that the person may have to run for a good while may give him the urgency to empty out the sacs of urine and faeces to run faster. This is why, sometimes, a scared person may experience urinary or bowel incontinence.


text:
SALISBURY- The majority of Salisbury City Council voted this week to move forward with a charter amendment concerning power over the selection of the City Attorney despite a plea to hold off for additional public input.
The Charter Amendment Resolution changes the city solicitor's appointment process from a nomination by the mayor to an appointment solely by the vote of the council. In addition, the city solicitor shall no longer serve at the pleasure of the mayor, but at the pleasure of the council, additional legal counsel will be retained by council only, and the duties of the city solicitor will no longer be determined and assigned by the mayor.
Right off the bat, Councilwoman Eugenie Shields set a motion to postpone the resolution in order to discuss the matter further and provide additional time for public comment. She is interested in taking the time to research other municipalities whose city attorney serves at the pleasure of the city council.
"The last work session was the first time I had heard about the change," she said. "This is a very serious change to the charter and I think we should just not rush though this."
Councilwoman Laura Mitchell agreed.
"I don't understand the haste in which this is being done," she said.
Mitchell said discussion began during a work session after the city attorney, Paul Wilber, had left the room, and by the next morning the discussion had formed into a resolution to amend the charter.
Through Mitchell's research, she has found only two cities in Maryland, Hurlock and University Park, which have legal counsel serve at the pleasure of the city council.
"The research I have done indicate that this is a major mistake and not keeping with what the majority of the State of Maryland does," she said. "This charter strips the mayor of many of his power into a weak mayor form of government."
Council Vice President Deborah Campbell explained that the current language of the charter involving the city attorney is a core issue that impedes the council in performing its legislative duty.
Campbell referred to an example of being denied access to legal counsel that occurred on June 8 when Council President Terry Cohen called for a closed session to occur the following day for the council to be updated on pending litigation, which hadn't occurred in two and half years. Mayor James Ireton had instructed Wilber not to attend the scheduled meeting because the public had not been given 24-hour notice.
"There were 20 items that the council needed to be brought current on and these various items impact other decisions the council is making," she said. "We can't do the city's business in this environment. I think while names will be called and blocks will be thrown, I do believe it is the right thing to do and we need to do it now." Councilman Tim Spies agreed.
"I think that sort of behavior is in the way of us actually knowing what is going on and moving forward with our agendas, and the agenda of the city, which is to make this a better place to live," he said. "That is the purpose of this body and without direct access and pre-access to legal counsel we are rowing with a broken oar."
Shields and Mitchell both stated they were not aware of any other time that council has been denied access to legal counsel and believed that the issue lies in lack of communication.
"I have never had a problem in the six years that I have been sitting on the council to get an answer from the attorney," Shields said. "What it is, is working relationships. When you have good working relationships with people in how you do things then some of the problems could be avoided"
Mitchell added that she didn't think a charter change is going to correct the lack of communication between the city council and administration.
"I think we are endangering separation of powers and certainly changing the structure of government is a very serious matter that we should not be doing in a week's time," she said.
Council President Terry Cohen along with rest of the majority of the council disagreed with the motion to postpone the resolution.
"This is being done on the regular course of hearing resolutions in accordance with state law," she said. "I don't think this is in haste, I think this is long overdue."
Cohen said that the June 9 meeting was only one example of council being denied access to the city attorney.
"I think that this was a fairly serious incident though because council doesn't know what is happening with litigation," she said. "When we come to this table to take a vote on something, we have no idea whether or not there are background issues that we should be aware of before we cast a vote."
The council voted down the motion to postpone the resolution for a change to the charter in a 5-2 vote with Mitchell and Shields in favor.
The city council continued to discuss the matter further, but it was clear the votes were already in place to move the resolution forward. The vote was also 5-2 to pass the charter change with Mitchell and Shields in opposition.
Following the final vote City Administrator John Pick read a letter written by Mayor Ireton who had to leave the meeting early due to a prior engagement.
Mayor Ireton stated that if the charter change will fundamentally change the City of Salisbury form of government from what has always been a strong mayor form of government to a parliamentary form of government.
"Tonight's proposed charter change, regardless of how quickly it came to be or how little work session discussion or public input there has been, essentially signals the beginning of a strong council-president form of government – something that exists nowhere in the State of Maryland," he wrote. "Our form of government states that the legitimacy of the office of the mayor comes from our citizens through elections, not from the legislative branch."
The mayor added that the city's employees will be affected by the change because it is estimated that 80 percent of the legal department work is for administration.
Mayor Ireton asserted "council leadership has invented a problem in order to afford them the ability to fire the present city attorney. There will be vehement denial of this and righteous indignation for the mere suggestion that this is the case."


text:
Wild India: Elephant Attack – How to know an elephant is going to charge
How to tell if an elephant is about to charge is the second part of the article in the Wild India: Elephant Attack series.
Human-elephant conflict is increasing due to ever increasing human-habitations encroaching on the forest lands, forest fires destroying habitats, invasives reducing the amount of food available for elephants, increased exploitation of forest produce (NTFP), cultivation of species preferred by elephants like paddy, banana close to the forests and elephant corridors etc.
A major part of the elephant habitat is outside our protected areas. The Government has not agreed to the recommendation of the Elephant Task Force to create a separate authority for elephants. In that Elephant Task Force report, there was a suggestion to buy back land and recreate the elephant corridors. Even that is not happening. So the conflict is going to continue. In this article I am going to show how to tell an elephant is going to charge and whether it is a mock charge or serious charge.
Speed of a Wild Elephant:
Usain Bolt ran the London 2012 100m Olympics final at 9.63 seconds, so his speed was 37.383kmph. An elephant can run at an estimated speed of between 35-40kmph speeds, crushing all the bushes on the way. So the only way one can evade an elephant attack in Wild India is if the person can read the intent of the elephant and starts running and creating a big enough distance between himself and the elephant before the elephant starts the charge.
How to tell an elephant will charge:
Iain Douglas-Hamilton as a 22 year old youngster had gone to Africa to do a study on Lions. When he saw that Dr. George Schallar was already doing study on Lions he did a study on Elephants. It was indeed a boon for all the elephant lovers, as his work in Manyara National Park, was the first to do systematic research on elephants in Africa. His pioneering effort resulted in the book Among the Elephants.
In the Page 68, 4thparagraph of the book Among the Elephants By Iain & Oria Douglas-Hamilton, he has given the signs to know if an elephant is going to charge:
"Another distinct pattern of behaviour with practical as well as theoretical interest was the twiddling of the trunk, the swinging of one of the front legs to and fro, and rocking from side to side which I saw when an elephant appeared to be deciding between attack an retreat. These were typical displacement activities. In elephants they were a great help to me in predicting their behaviour. The more marked these activities the less likely the elephant was to charge. Very often the most impressive threat displays emanated from the most frightened elephants which were unlikely to make a serious attack.
Niko was particularly interested in the differences in character between individual elephants where this led to their behaviour becoming predictable. As we passed one matriarch named Inkosikaas, with an upswept tusk like a sabre, she shook her head in mild annoyance. I stopped the car and told him to watch these elephants, because within about five minutes they would charge. Inkosiakaas fiddled with her trunk, then turned to the other cows on either side of her and clashed tusks with them in turn, putting her trunk in their mouths one after the other. This seemed to reassure her and almost exactly five minutes later she delivered a beautifully impressive threat charge. This was her own predictable quirk, unique among the elephants of Manyara: the tendency for delayed action aggressive displays."
Unfortunately, this knowledge is not disseminated among people. I first read this from a book written by a hunter (Danta Hatira Pratihinsha by Gadadhar Ray). I read it in the late 70's and saw the behaviour in 90's. This hunter had experienced this behaviour in the 1930's and 1940s. Unfortunately, not many people have read it since this book was written in a local language (Oriya). Douglas-Hamilton recorded this behaviour in African elephants in the late 1960's and early 1970s. I hope to educate all the people in the human-elephant conflict areas, so that lives can be saved. You will also find this behavior in the short film A God in Distress.
Elephants can stand remarkably still and people often dont realize what is going to unfold. So they move closer with small zoom lenses hoping to get a closeup of a Wild elephant. And then the charge is unleashed. Because the realization dawns late, people lose precious seconds, which can be the difference between life and death.
There have been cases of journalists losing their life in South India while trying to photograph wild elephants in Indian jungles. A wildlife enthusiast working in IBM in Bangalore was reported to have died due to heart-attack when a wild elephant charged.
How to know it is a serious charge:
Wild elephants often mock charge. A lot of people mistake a serious charge of a wild elephant to be mock charge and either hold their ground or start running late. When the elephant has got serious intent, you can see that its trunk is coiled inwards and its ears are close to the head.If you are roaming around in Wild India in the elephant habitat, then you have to look for these signs.
In 1963, A Border Roads Construction department truck was kicked down a cliff by an elephant and nine people had died. In South India, there have been many cases of elephants attacking vehicles. So when you know that it is a determined charge by a wild elephant, it is better to back off.
Wild India: Narrow escapes from Elephants:
If one is on foot in Wild India, there are theories that if you hide behind a bush, the elephant may not see you. In his book Elephant Gold by P. D. Stracey, he has mentioned a few such narrow escapes from a charging elephant. In Page 198, he writes Walsh, another tea-planter, described to me how he was following an elephant in thick bush when it suddenly whipped round and charged him; he tripped as he took a step backwards in the act of raising a rifle and sat down at the base of a tree and perhaps this may have made the elephant lose sight of him and charge on and past him.
- Elephants have very keen sense of smell and acute hearing. So if one can hide without making any sound and if the wind is blowing from the side of the elephant towards you, then perhaps you can survive.
- Throwing away any cap or part of clothing can also help in distracting the elephant before you make good your escape. In one case a person threw his white lungi and when the wild elephant got busy in shredding it into pieces, the person ran away to safety.
- One can also escape the wrath of an attacking elephant, by climbing a large tree and sitting on a branch beyond the reach of the elephants trunk. Not many city bred wildlife enthusiasts know how to climb a tree. So this is another reason to be cautious when you are on foot in Wild India.
- If there is a big enough ditch, then try to remember your school days when you were involved in long jump competitions and jump over. The elephant is most likely to stop. However, if the ditch is small enough, then the elephant is more likely to take a detour and try to reach you with its trunk.
Since prevention is better than cure, if you are trekking on foot, better to get a local trekker. Their senses would be much better than us. In one case my trekker could smell elephant, and I could smell it only after a further 15 feet or so. That could be the difference between life and death. Similarly, watching TV and exposed to loud sounds has got its impact on our hearing abilities. So a local tribal is likely to be of a lot of help and invaluable in saving you from elephant attacks in wild India.
If you have any questions about Wild India: Elephant Attacks or more specifically on How to know if an elephant is going to charge then you can ask in the comments section below.
- GoPro Hero 12 Black - 6 September,2023
- Leopards: The Last Stand - 2 July,2023
- Drifting in the Waters of Sundarbans - 26 March,2023


text:
Eighth ESUG Smalltalk Summer School
August 28th - September 1st
Southampton, UK
For the 8th consecutive year, the European Smalltalk User Group organizes a Smalltalk Conference to bring together Smalltalk users from both academia and industry in a friendly atmosphere. As always the attendents will enjoy tutorials, workshops and demonstrations on various Smalltalk related subjects. Due to the recent upliving of Smalltalk, this year promises to be really exciting. The location of Southampton, on England's south coast, while it has been dubbed as the 'Entertainment Capital of the South', is also the ideal touring base to explore the Hampshire region, one of the most interesting regions in England.
The report about this Summer School, written by Niall Ross, is available in pdf format.
We even have four pictures that were taken. The first one shows the presentation area (picture) where some people are debating while others were having coffee nextdoors. Then we took some group pictures. The first picture (picture) shows the regular commotion when too much people need to find a place in front of a camera. The next one (picture) is all but complete (only Michel Tilman is missing, as he took the picture). The final group picture (indeed, with Michel) was able to capture everybody.
We have also got a lot of the presentation that were given, and we have made them available in several formats. The presentations can be accessed from the programme page, or directly from the following list if you know the name or presenter:
The Programme of this Summer School is still available. The Call for papers is also still up.
ESUG200 took place at the Southampton Institute. More information about the location, how to get there and the prices and registration can be found at the Information pages.


text:
[Bradley W. Lewis] is no stranger to Nixie clock builds, and he felt his latest commission was missing something. Instead of merely mounting the Nixie clock into a case resembling an NES console, he goes full tilt and makes it into an NES console emulator. After some work on the milling machine, a wooden box has room to squeeze in a few new components. [Bradley] originally planned to mount only an Arduino with an ArduNIX shield to handle the Nixie clock, but the emulator demands some space saving. Flipping the Arduino on its side freed up plenty of room and the shield still easily connects to the adjacent Nixie tube board.
A Raspberry Pi serves as the console emulator and was mounted close to the side of the case to allow access to its HDMI port. The other ports from both the Arduino and RasPi stick out of the back, including an extension to the Pi's RCA video out and buttons to set both the hour and minutes of the clock. The two surplus NES buttons on the front of the case control power to the RasPi and provide a reset function for the Nixie clock.
If that isn't enough Nixie to satisfy you, check out the WiFi Nixie counter.


text:
Get Online, Get Outside
Savvy outdoors enthusiasts use the Internet to congregate, not isolate.
By Katie Armstrong
While working from his Austin home, Brian Greenstone can openly do what many cubicle dwellers have to do in secret: search the Internet for fun stuff to do. When he finds an interesting outdoor activity, from spelunking at Longhorn Cavern to touring the scenic gorge at Canyon Lake, he logs in to hillcountryoutdoors.com and posts a brief description of the event. Then other club members can sign up and simply show up at the appointed time and place. Anyone who has ever tried to get three friends to agree on a movie, a restaurant or an outdoor activity will quickly learn to appreciate the convenience of online scheduling.
As a member of Hill Country Outdoors, Greenstone and others like him are discovering that the Internet is a tool that brings people together - in real life, not just online. Instead of keeping people isolated and inside, outdoor-oriented Web sites and listservs are helping birders, anglers, hunters and hikers get together to enjoy the Texas outdoors. Whether you're passionate about casting for bass or spying on the blue jays in your backyard, you'll be sure to find a community of like-minded folks online. Here are five services that help you find people who enjoy the outdoors as much as you do - and you don't have to be an Internet whiz to take advantage of them.
General Outdoors-Hill Country Outdoors
Austin-based Hill Country Outdoors is an outdoor-oriented social club that schedules a variety of events every week. Members can hike, tube, kayak, camp and participate in organized sports. More adventurous outings include special trips to Big Bend and other national parks and travel outside the U.S.
"A lot of people are trying things they would never try, like windsurfing, caving, skydiving," says Kieve Garner, who's been an event leader for about a year. "It offers them the opportunity to stretch their comfort zone."
HCO started as a club with a Web site in 2001 and now has up to 550 members, says Bill Talbot, the club's owner.
"We try to introduce people to different activities, and a lot of our events have the beginner in mind," he says. "It's done well in Austin because we've got the greenbelt in our backyard and there's so much to do within an hour or two."
Members can participate in as many activities as they choose, using a calendar on HCO's Web site to register for events. Members can also post personal profiles on the Web site with information and pictures, and e-mail other members. There are also active message boards geared toward specific activities, like team sports and camping.
HCO is affiliated with the American Outdoor Network, and HCO members can participate in other clubs' activities. Other Texas outdoor clubs are Bayou City Outdoors in Houston, DFW Outdoors in Dallas/Fort Worth and Adventure Club S.A. in San Antonio.
Five to 10 events per month are open to the public. Basic membership costs $24.95 per
month, with options for semi-annual and annual membership rates.
Fishing-Texas Fishing Forum
Texas Fishing Forum bills itself as the "best place in Texas to talk fishing." More than 25,000 registered members do just that. TFF hosts forums dedicated to everything to do with fishing: there are forums about boats, tournaments, freshwater fishing, saltwater fishing, fly fishing, bass, catfish, crappie and even kayak fishing.
Members can post pictures within forums, as well as link to sites like www.myfishingpictures.com and www.photobucket.com to share photos of the big ones that didn't get away.
Registration is free, and after signing up users can trade tips, share stories and ask questions. Members can also have profiles on the Web site and send messages to each other.
Two fishing buddies, Ben Moore of Grapevine and L.J. Bybee of Azle, met through TFF's partner-finder function. Bybee usually fished with co-workers, but after retiring he needed a new way to find fellow anglers. Moore was looking for someone to share his boat and expenses with. A posting and a reply later, the two set up an initial fishing trip and have been floating the waters of Lakes Texoma and Tawakoni for strong fighting fish nearly every weekend since.
"It has worked out great with Ben," says Bybee. "He has become a good friend and I enjoy fishing with him."
TFF even has a tournament for trash-talking anglers, which began when moderator Bob Smith noticed that anglers were fighting and complaining through the forum during the rainy 2005-06 winter. Looking to channel that energy into something constructive, he created the Match Play tournament. Participating anglers are grouped into five two-person squads. The rival teams are then "matched" to each other, and over the forum they make a connection, pick a lake and start trash-talking.
"We like calling it the art of being a smart-arse," says Smith. "Everyone else can chime in on the fun as well."
Then the rivals meet and compete with each other to see if they bagged as much as they bragged. The tournament concludes with a "fish-off," where the top two teams compete for the title and all the anglers can meet each other face to face.
"The thing that makes this so great is the opportunity to release a lot of frustration in a
fun way, but more importantly you get to meet a lot of people in a low-key, low-risk
setting," says Smith. "There have been great friendships that evolved out of this game."
One to Watch: Angling Masters
Launched in early 2007, Angling Masters is a freshwater fishing-oriented social networking Web site, similar to MySpace. The site is the project of co-founder Dave Abbott, a lifelong fisherman who envisioned an easy way for anglers to share fishing stories and compare their catches.
It's free to become a member, or "build a cabin," in Angling Masters-speak. Cabins consist of personal profiles, pictures and a fishing blog where members can share their "I-caught-one-this-big" stories. Members can also create and manage a list of online fishing buddies. Businesses and clubs can also have profiles, called "marinas."
A unique feature of Angling Masters is its fish calculator function, which allows
members to type in the variety and measurements of their catches. Using information
about the typical size of each fish in different locations, the fish calculator awards points
and rankings so anglers can compare their catches.
Hunting-Texas Lease Connection
Texas Lease Connection is designed to help hunters find leases and landowners find hunters. Landowners can post detailed profiles of their properties, including pictures. One Central Texas listing boasts that hunters can find "fish, hogs, varmints and whitetails" on the property.
Hunters can match their exact hunting preferences and search for leases by county, zip code, region of Texas, and game. Then they can narrow down their selections by price range, driving distance and amenities.
Texas Lease Connection also gives members the option of creating a personal profile and joining a members' directory. A partner-finder function helps hunters find new buddies to hunt with. The Web site also provides links to Texas hunting dates and resources like sunrise/sunset information and hunting tips.
A six-month membership with the Web site costs $29.99.
TPWD is preparing to launch a similar service in May that will be free to use for all landowners and hunters. Landowners will be able to post detailed information about their leases, such as game available, allowed weapons, number of acres and the number of hunter positions available.
Hunters will be able to search by a variety of criteria, such as county, lease type, game, the number of hunters in the party and cost per hunter.
"The intent is to give people a free way of finding out where the land is, and helping
landowners list their properties," says Kathleen Martin, a Web administrator for TPWD.
Other hunting resources:
www.texashuntfish.com - allows members to post journals and read hunting news
and has product reviews.
www.texashuntingforum.com - has the same open-forum format as Texas Fishing Forum, only with a hunting focus.
Birding-Texbirds Listserv
Texbirds is an e-mail distribution list (or "listserv") that reaches about 1,500 birders across the state. Founded in the mid-1990s, Texbirds is sponsored by the University of Houston. By keeping discussion focused on birds, Texbirds has built a solid reputation as a reliable and up-to-date source of information for birders of all levels.
"Some want to chase rare birds, some are working on conservation issues," says list manager David Sarkozi. "Some of the world's experts are members, some have just learned their first few birds. There is room for all of them."
Some expert Texbirds users include Joshua Rose, program director at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Jennifer Owen, a natural resource specialist at Estero Llano Grande State Park, and John Arvin, research coordinator of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.
Using Texbirds is just like spreading birding information by word of mouth, only it reaches hundreds of Texas birders instantly. Subscribers can enlist the aid of fellow birders to identify birds, share their sightings and organize outings. Susan Schaezler, co-owner of Warbler Woods in Cibolo, uses Texbirds to alert birders about rare bird sightings in the preserve.
"Using Texbirds shares our sightings and excitement over our birds," she says.
"Spontaneous birding trips is who we are and why the listserv exists," says Barbara Ribble of Austin.
It is an understatement to say that birders will go to great lengths to see rare birds. Instant communication from Texbirds provides the quick turnaround time that birders need to spot elusive species.
Birders from all over Texas and the U.S. descended on Big Bend National Park in August and September to glimpse the secretive fan-tailed warbler, which had never been seen in Texas before. Gail Morris of the Fort Worth Audubon Society made the nine-hour drive two weekends in a row to see the bird.
"We have even driven to Oklahoma to see a rarity," says Morris. "Any rarity within nine hours is worth the drive!"
Wireless Internet keeps traveling birders connected with Texbirds. Wi-Fi access is available at all Texas safety rest areas and travel information centers. Many Texas RV parks also offer wireless Internet. Go to www.rvtravel.com/wifi.html for a list. Subscriber Carol C. Ferguson says using Texbirds makes her feel like part of the birding community.
"Before finding Texbirds, I birded on my own, going to places that I knew were good for
birds and where I had good experiences," says Ferguson. "However, Texbirds not only
put me in touch with places where certain birds were seen, but I received the benefit of
debate and discussion between very knowledgeable Texas birders about bird behavior,
bird physiology, migration, habits, whatever you can think of relating to birds."
It is free to subscribe to Texbirds, and users need only an e-mail address to send and
receive messages.


text:
Hi there! Hero Arts is turning 45 this year, and we are celebrating with a giant, three day blog hop chock full of fantastic inspiration using new and old catalog products, and masses of prizes from so many sponsors… you're not going to want to miss anything! You should have arrived here from Ellen Hutson LLC, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. I have a project to share with you today (the project you see in the banner above! Eek!)
To celebrate their 45th anniversary, Hero Arts released several "new" stamp sets that contain compilations of images from their older releases. There is such a wide variety of styles and images in this catalog…. it's fun to see how styles have changed over 45 years in the crafting business! My project today is an anniversary card using the darling little bear from From the Vault Cute Animals and a new anniversary die, along with some ink blending using some of the new Reactive Inks (seriously, these inks are SO fun.) Let's get started with all of the details on how I created my project!
To start, I stamped the adorable little teddy bear from From the Vault Cute Animals on some white card stock using Intense Black ink, then colored it with my Copic markers and die cut it with the coordinating frame cuts. I also die cut a white tag and stamped a greeting on it from Mix and Match Compliments at a slight angle.
Next, I used the new Fruit Punch Reactive Ink to create some custom colored paper. I wanted a coral-red shade of card stock to match the cheerful, almost hibiscus red of the teddy bear's heart, so I blended the Fruit Punch Reactive Ink on some plain white card stock using a blending tool (this stuff blends like butter… so smooth), then used that panel of custom card stock to do some die cutting. I first die cut the new anniversary die, then did a partial cut of the Heart Confetti cover plate die to create some little hearts that perfectly matched my color scheme. (Yes, I'm crazy enough to care about such things.)
I then layered all of the die cuts on an A2 Pebble card base in keeping with my gray, white, and bright red color scheme. I first adhered the white tag with foam adhesive after I'd added a red twine bow to the top of the tag. I added the teddy and the die cut anniversary with some more foam tape, adding a few little accents of the matching red hearts, some sequins, and some white Nuvo drops for added textural difference.
Well, that's all for my project today! Now, this gigantic blog hop has been generously sponsored by some of our favorite crafting companies, including:
(Side note: isn't it absolutely amazing how all of these companies have come together to celebrate each other's successes? The kindness and camaraderie amongst the companies are some of my favorite elements of this industry!) Here's a full list of the prizes up for grabs:
- Hero Arts: 3 $145 Gift Certificates, 3 $45 Gift Certificates
- Altenew: $50 Gift Certificate
- Art Impressions: $25 Gift Certificate
- Ellen Hutson LLC: $50 Gift Certificate
- Gina K: $100 Gift Certificate
- Jennifer McGuire Ink: $100 Hero Arts Gift Certificate, 5 Share Handmade Kindness goodie bags
- Laurie Willison: 2 Card Hanger Dies
- Lawn Fawn: $50 Gift Certificate
- My Sweet Petunia: 1 Prize Bundle (Original MISTI, a set of Creative Corners, a Cut-Align, and a bar magnet)
- Online Card Classes: 5 spots in the Stamp Happy In Good Company: Hero Arts class
- Pink Fresh Studio: $45 Gift Certificate
- Scrapbook & Cards Today: 3 copies of Scrapbook & Cards Today Summer 2019 Issue
- Scrapbook.com: $50 Gift Certificate
- Simon Says Stamp: $50 Gift Certificate
To win, simply leave comments on the stops of the hop! The more comments you leave, the greater chance you have to win! Comment by Sunday, June 2 at 11:59pm PST, and we will announce the winners on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
Your next stop on the hop is Ilina Crouse, or you can head back to the Hero Arts blog to get the full blog hop list. Congratulations to Hero Arts on 45 years!! Cheers to the next 45 years! Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy hopping!


text:
by Progressive School Graduate Amal Jacobson
Tonight I was asked to give a speech on Neohumanism, but that of course leads us to the obvious question, "What is Neohumanism?" It's not an easy question to answer. Is it a philosophy? A way of life? An attitude? Or is Neohumanism a practice — a task we need to rebuild ourselves towards anew with each passing day? The answer, I suppose, is all of the above.
Neohumanism was given by the Indian philosopher, poet and linguist, P.R. Sarkar. He gave his first talks on the subject in 1982, late in his life considering he died only eight years later, but it represents in the trajectory of Sarkar's thought in many ways a culmination or summation of the ideas he developed throughout his life. Sarkar, being an Indian and being a linguist, often used to start with the etymology behind Indian words. Society, for example. What is society? In Sanskrit, the root language of all the Indian languages, the word for society is samaj, coming from the root word "sam," meaning "to move together." And so, for Sarkar, society represented a body of people moving collectively, inclusively, with an inherent dynamicity. To put it quite simply: as a family.
One human family. The idea seems almost throwaway. It's incredibly simple, and yet it is in its simplicity that the idea gains its true power. If all human beings are part of one human family, then what right do we have to create artificial divisions between one person and another? Between race, religion, nation or creed? How would I behave if I considered other people my fellow brothers and sisters, together with me as my companions as we moved ahead on the path of human progress?
The responsibility here, of course lies with the individual. Much more than a mere philosophy, Neohumanism demands action. It is one thing to think with my head, that all people are a part of my family, and it is another thing to feel it with my heart: to have those feelings demonstrated by my actions. Neohumanism is not just a philosophy, in other words, but a practice.
Universalism is an idea we can all relate to, in theory. I mean, why not? It sounds good, right? How are you supposed to disagree with something as agreeable as universalism? The problem, of course, arises when I try to make the leap from theory into practice. How do I live my life, demonstrably, everyday, in such a way that I can practice a sustained universalism? The answer is a tough one, but it is a simple one, a beautiful one, a powerful one. What, after all, could be more powerful than the power of love itself?
Yes, that's right, you heard me: love. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I stripped away all the philosophical intricacies of Sarkar's vast body of work and brought it down to its bare, most tender essentials: real, human love. And I'm not talking about any kind of love – romantic love, passionate love, Platonic love. I'm talking about empathy – compassion – more precisely, the identification of my self with the other. This, of course, brings us back to why Sarkar called Neohumanism a form of humanism in the first place: because it strikes at the core of our questions regarding human identity. Who am I? What is my role in this world?
The questions sound almost glib, but could not be more deeply relevant to the problems of our postmodern world. You know, the other day I was in the mall, thinking about these very things, and just at that moment I noticed something. My friend was eating an Auntie Anne's pretzel, and on the wrapping I saw their slogan, leaping out at me: "I snack, therefore I am." Now, just how perfect is that? It seems innocent enough, but if you'll bear with me for just one moment, just think about that for a second. Think about its implications. I snack, therefore I am. The slogan, once analyzed, relies on several philosophical presuppositions. First of all, it presupposes that my identity is defined by some sort of exteriority, rather than by anything inside. In other words, I am Amal because I am twenty-five years old – because I am a man – because I am American. Who am I? Well, my favorites movies are blah blah blah, and I really love this kind of music but I really hate that kind of music. I'm like vanilla and you like chocolate. Once properly analyzed it becomes clear that, "I snack, therefore I am" actually explicitly states that I am actually nothing but an amorphous glob, only given identity once I consume their product. A scary thought, once you stop and think about it.
So, the question remains: who are you? Who are you, really? Are you an American? Most of the people are in this room, I suppose. But what about the people who aren't? We have something in common with them too, don't we? Okay, of course we do. So, beyond being American, who are we really? What race are you? Myself personally, I'm half-Mexican, half-White. But what in God's name does that even mean? I don't know. I grew up this way, and I have absolutely no clue. Okay, so beyond that. I am a man. Beyond that, even, I am a human being.
But what else am I? Do I have the courage to transcend my boundaries, to challenge my barriers, to rise above distinctions, and see myself for who I really am? Do I have the audacity, the temerity, even, to call myself as I really am: do I have the courage to call myself a child of the Divine? This, of course, brings us to the most powerful dimension of Neohumanism: a dimension that is difficult, frightening, and yet cannot be ignored – the spiritual dimension.
Spirituality is often something we don't want to think about, don't want to consider, because of its religious implications. But who said I was talking about religion? Other people balk at spirituality for other reasons: after all, if something is merely spiritual, then maybe it sounds nice, but what it could it possibly offer us, concretely, in the building of a better world? The question Sarkar would ask, however, is different: if you try to ignore spirituality, then what are you left with in its absence? Stuff? Clothes? Food? Fragmentary, transient objects that my mind desperately clings to in order to formulate an even more fragmentary identity? We have already seen the concrete results of this kind of materialism: I snack, therefore I am. Materialism has led the world to be consumed by unparalleled consumerism and exploitation: of the planet, of the eco-system, of animals and of my fellow human beings. By considering matter as the be-all and end-all of existence, we have preoccupied ourselves solely with trying to get as much of this material stuff as we possibly can, almost always in an unsustainable way. It is destructive, it is unsustainable, and more deeply, it is fundamentally anti-human.
To return to our original question, what is Neohumanism? Neohumanism is a philosophy, a practice, a way of life, that teaches us to live sustainably in this world – to live with the spark of love and flame of moral courage. It is an educational system that teaches us from a very young age to identity ourselves not as belonging to clan X or to tribe Y, but to identify ourselves as fundamentally being a part of one integrative, cohesive, divine whole. We are all part of one family of creation, and the only way to guarantee that we continue to function here on this Earth, sustainably, is by treating one another with compassion, with respect, and with the knowledge that just as my life is important to me, so are the lives of others equally important to them. What is Neohumanism? In the words of P.R. Sarkar, Neohumanism is "the [cultivation] of love for all created beings of the universe." No small task, indeed.
But let's bring this down to the human level. What does it mean, to live as a neohumanist? To be educated in Neohumanism? The answer to this is easier than you think: just take a look around – take a look at your children. I went to a Neohumanist School – The Progressive School of Long Island. I know what it means, to be taught these ideas, and to have them cultivated in my childhood from the age of five. I am the result. Your children are the results. We are all imperfect, but we have come here on this planet to do something, each and every one of us. My coming is significant, and your coming is no less significant. If we are all part of a cohesive, united human society, then it means that we all have something to contribute. This is the essence of Neohumanism: armored with love, there is no power on Earth that can stop us from doing great things – together.


text:
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced features available, you will need to register first. Registration is absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
hatred: (1) prejudiced hostility or animosity, (2) intense aversion derived from fear, anger, or an sense of injury, (3) extreme dislike, (4) detest, abhor, abominate, or loathing
healing: (1) to make whole, (2) to restore to health, (3) to overcome, (4) mend, (5) to restore to original purity and integrity, (6) to return to a sound state
happiness: (1) good fortune, (2) prosperity, (3) well-being and contentment, (4) pleasurable and satisfying, (5) joyous
Lynn Seiser (b. 1950 Pontiac, Michigan), Ph.D. has been a perpetual student of martial arts, CQC/H2H, FMA/JKD, and other fighting systems for over 40 years. He currently holds the rank of Yondan (4th degree black belt) from Sensei Andrew Sato of the Aikido World Alliance and Sandan (3rd degree Black Belt) from Sensei Dang Thong Phong of the International Tenshinkai Aikido Federation. He is the co-author of three books on Aikido (with Phong Sensei) and his martial art articles have appeared in Black Belt Magazine, Aikido Today Magazine, and Martial Arts and Combat Sports Magazine. He is the founder of Aiki-Solutions and IdentityTherapy and is an internationally respected psychotherapist in the clinical treatment of offenders, victims, and families of violence, trauma, abuse, and addiction. He is a professor of clinical and forensic psychology with an expertise in family violence and treatment. He currently lives in Marietta, GA and trains and teaches at Kyushinkan Dojo, Roswell Budokan.


text:
In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan slamming into the Philippines, relief organizations are calling on Americans to donate funds to their efforts. Want to donate to a group not listed below? CharityNavigator.org rates organizations based on their financial health, accountability and transparency.
• UNICEF staff in the Philippines is being repositioned to provide emergency aid and the organization is gearing up to deliver supplies to children and their families. Donations can be made online or by texting RELIEF to 864233 to donate $10.
• CARE teams are on the ground in the Philippines and the organization plans to provide emergency relief to thousands of families. Donations can be made online or by calling 1-800-521-CARE within the U.S. or +1-404-681-2552.
• World Vision is mobilizing nearly 500 staff around the country to respond to the disaster. Donations are accepted online and the organization also lets you sponsor a child in the Philippines.
• The American Red Cross has volunteers spread throughout the region and accepts donations online. You can also mail a check to your local American Red Cross chapter designating Philippines Typhoons and Flood in the memo line.
• The U.N. World Food Programme is urging Americans to make donations to support its emergency food relief after Typhoon Haiyan. You can donate online or by texting the word AID to 27722 to donate $10.
• Save the Children is mounting disaster relief efforts to help children and families in the area. Donations can be made online or by texting DONATE to 20222.
• AmeriCares is deploying medical aid and a relief team to Philippines, and says an emergency shipment with enough medical aid for 20,000 survivors is already on its way.
• The Philippine Red Cross has deployed staff and volunteers across the region. You can easily make a donation through organization's website.
• Doctors Without Borders has had emergency teams in Cebu since Nov. 9.
• To donate to the Salvation Army's Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts, visit its website or text TYPHOON to 80888 to donate $10 and reply YES to confirm your donation. The organization uses 100% of all disaster donations in support of disaster relief.
• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has sent an emergency response team to assist with safe water, hygiene and sanitation needs, with additional aid to follow. Donations can be made online or by calling +1 855 9RESCUE.
• The International Medical Corps is on the ground coordinating with their partners in the Philippines to distribute and provide medical aid. Donations can be made online or by calling1-800-481-4462.
• Mercy Corps responders are working with local partners to provide food, water and shelter. Donations can be made online.
• Handicap International supports people with disabilities and vulnerable populations in situations of poverty, conflict and disaster. The group has been working in the Philippines since 1985 and is preparing emergency aid for the hard-hit city of Tacloban. Donations can be made online.
• The United Methodist Committee on Relief is providing funds for the purchase of emergency food, water and and water purification tablets in Tacloban. Donations can be made online or by calling 1-888-252-6174
• Catholic Relief Services says its assessment teams have reached the hard-hit island of Leyte by boat. The organization will prioritize emergency shelter, water and sanitation, household relief items potable water and toilets. Donations can be made online or by calling 1-877-435-7277.
• Looking for someone in the Philippines area that is in your family or a friend? Google has launched a person finder for the storm, also known as Yolanda in the Philippines, where you can try and find out someone's whereabouts or enter your own information.


text:
Review Vacancy
Date Posted: 11/22/22
Applications Due: 02/27/23
Vacancy ID: 117313
Position Information
AgencyMental Health, Office of
TitleNurse Practitioner (Psychiatry), Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center, NP22290
Occupational CategoryHealth Care, Human/Social Services
Salary Grade24
Bargaining UnitPS&T - Professional, Scientific, and Technical (PEF)
Salary RangeFrom $109307 to $125472 Annually
Employment Type Full-Time
Appointment Type Permanent
Jurisdictional Class Competitive Class
Travel Percentage 0%
Workweek Other (see below)
"Other" Explanation To be determined.
Hours Per Week 40
From 8 AM
To 4:30 PM
Flextime allowed? No
Mandatory overtime? No
Compressed workweek allowed? No
Telecommuting allowed? No
County Oneida
Street Address Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center – York Street Clinic/Bldg 63
1400 Noyes Street
City Utica
Zip Code13502
Job Specifics
Minimum Qualifications One year of permanent, competitive service as a Nurse Practitioner and eligible for transfer
Open Competitive Opportunity:
NYS Registered Professional Nurse License and NYS Education Department Certification to practice as a Nurse Practitioner and reachable for appointment on the current Civil Service eligible list for the title.
Nurse Practitioner is a continuous recruitment examination. The minimum qualifications are a New York State License to practice as a Registered Professional Nurse and certification by the New York State Education Department in the Psychiatry specialty area to practice as a Nurse Practitioner. Candidates interested in applying for the open competitive opportunity must complete the New York State Application http://www.cs.ny.gov/extdocs/pdf/nysapp.pdf) and submit it via email to: firstname.lastname@example.com OR mail to:
New York State Office of Mental Health
Decentralized List Unit
44 Holland Avenue
Albany, NY 12229
Duties Description As a Nurse Practitioner, you would provide primary health care working in collaboration with a licensed physician or physicians. You would assess the physical and psychosocial status of clients by means of interview, health history, physical examination, and diagnostic tests. In accordance with a written practice agreement and written practice protocols that include specialty areas and are agreed upon in advance by you and the physician of record, your work may include the diagnosis of illness and physical conditions and the performance of therapeutic and corrective measures. You may also perform employee health examinations in accordance with the practice agreement and practice protocols. In small medical offices, supervision of subordinate staff may be required.
Additional Comments NOTES:
1. If you fail to maintain your license and/or registration once you are appointed, action will be taken to remove you from the position.
2. In order to be eligible for appointment and to maintain employment, you cannot be listed as an excluded individual or entity on any of the Federal and/or State Medicaid and Medicare exclusion lists (or excluded from any other Federal or Federally assisted program). If you are appointed and subsequently listed as an excluded individual or entity on any of these lists (or excluded from any other Federal or federally assisted program), you may be terminated from your employment.
3. If appointed you may be required to become an enrolled Medicare provider; obtain and provide to your employer a National Provider Identifier (NPI) number issued by the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES); and otherwise actively participate to the degree necessary to allow for your services to be billed through Medicare and Medicaid. If you are appointed and you lose the ability to bill through Medicare and Medicaid, you may be terminated from your employment.
4. Your degree or college credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the NYS Education Department as following acceptable educational practices. If your degree or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. You can write to the Examination Information Desk of the Department of Civil Service for a list of acceptable companies who provide this service. You must pay the required evaluation fee.
Background Investigation/Justice Center Review:
Prospective appointees will be: 1) Checked against the Staff Exclusion List (SEL) maintained by the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. Prospective employees whose names appear on the SEL as having been found responsible for serious or repeated acts of abuse or neglect will be barred from appointment and may have their names removed from the eligible list(s) for the title(s) if applicable. 2) Investigated through a Criminal Background Check (CBC), which includes State and federal Criminal History Record Checks. All convictions must be reported; conviction of a felony or misdemeanor, or any falsified or omitted information on the prospective appointee's employment application, may bar appointment or result in removal after appointment. Each case will be determined on its own merits, consistent with the applicable provisions of State and federal laws, rules, and regulations. Prospective employees will be fingerprinted in order to obtain a record of their criminal history information, and may be required to pay any necessary fees. 3) Screened against the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR). Prospective employees will be required to pay any necessary fees. Additionally, prospective employees whose names are indicated on the SCR may be barred from appointment.
Generous benefit package includes:
• Paid vacation leave
• Paid personal leave
• Paid holidays
• Paid sick leave
• Tuition aid
• Medical, Prescription, Dental and Vision care benefits
• Membership in the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System, and
• Various savings plan programs.
Additional Comments: Posted Hiring Salary includes an Increased Hiring Salary ($5,757) and Geographic Differential ($20,000) added to the statutory hiring rate ($83,550). Geographic Differential added to the job rate ($105,472) for the PS&T Grade 24.
OMH hospital employees must be fully vaccinated or willing to become fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Candidates who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 may not start working until two weeks after their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Some positions may require additional credentials or a background check to verify your identity.
Contact Information
Name Human Resources
Email Address firstname.lastname@example.com
Street Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center
1400 Noyes Street
City Utica
State NY
Zip Code 13502
Notes on ApplyingIndicate the Title, Location and the Vacancy ID of the position you are applying for in the subject line and email to firstname.lastname@example.com OR mail to:
New York State Office of Mental Health
Decentralized List Unit
44 Holland Avenue
Albany, NY 12229
Please complete and submit the NYS-Application:
The Mission of the New York State Office of Mental Health is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, with a focus on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. Applicants with lived mental health experience are encouraged to apply. OMH is deeply committed to supporting underserved individuals, organizations and communities. To this end, OMH is focused on implementing activities and initiatives to reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations. A critical component of these efforts is ensuring OMH is a diverse and inclusive workplace where the unique attributes and skills of all employees are valued and utilized to support the mission of the Agency. OMH is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
FAQs • How to Get a State Job • Workers with Disabilities (55b/c) • Civil Service Exams
State Agencies: Department of Civil Service • Office of the State Comptroller
OER Link: Employee Unions and Bargaining Units
Exam announcements • General Information about NYS Government
© 2024 NYS Office of Employee Relations
StateJobsNY ℠ 2024 NYS Office of Employee Relations
Accuracy • Privacy • Accessibility • Contact


text:
So in love with this vibrant editorial in MarchVogue. I'm normally not into orange but I love the way it was used here.
What inspiration I'm taking away from these images:
1. That laid back Cali-in-the-70's vibe
2. Pops of color (bright pink, warm orange, cherry red) mixed with black and shine
3. Amazing artwork, pottery, and textiles collected from across the globe
Digital images created by Moodboard from March US Vogue/Photography Mario Testino/FYI: This isn't the whole editorial.


text:
Skip to content
Voyager Legend Charge Case Charging Case
Keep the Plantronics Voyager Legend charged on the go with the pocket-sized charging case, the perfect accessory for storing, protecting, and recharging your headset. The case's internal battery can recharge the Voyager Legend headset twice for up to 14 hours of additional talk time (up to 21 hours talk time total). LED indicators show the battery status of both the headset and the case at a glance. Case recharges from any micro USB charge cable (2-foot USB-to-micro USB cable included).
Next Steps
Connect with us today
Ready to deploy a world-class communications solution? Poly is here to help. Contact us or a certified partner in your area today to get started.


text:
tubbypaws has been asked to make a little papercraft city at this year's Gamecity videogame festival in Nottingham, UK and you can too. There is a magical papercraft generator you can use there. It can makes lots of different papercraft buildings and you can arrange them how you want^-^ They will be building LittleGameCity in the circus tent on the market square. If you can and have time make papercraft city time^-^
no one told tubbypaws what happened, it's sad. If anyone still wants to see the magical papercraft generator please tell tubbypaws and I will put it up here in the future.


text:
Less than two weeks ago, the United States Department of Treasury very quietly released its own internal projections for the federal government's budget deficits over the next several years.
And the numbers are pretty gruesome.
In order to plug the gaps from its soaring deficits, the Treasury Department expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year.
Then nearly $1.1 trillion next fiscal year.
And up to $1.3 trillion the year after that.
This means that the national debt will exceed $25 trillion by September 30, 2020.
Remember, this isn't some wild conspiracy theory. These are official government projections published by the United States Department of Treasury.
This story alone is monumental– not only does the US owe, by far, the greatest amount of debt ever accumulated by a single nation in human history, but $25 trillion is larger than the debts of every other nation in the world combined.
But there are other themes at work here that are even more important.
For example– how is it remotely possible that the federal government can burn through $1 trillion?
Everything is supposedly totally awesome in the United States. The economy is strong, unemployment is low, tax revenue is at record levels.
It's not like they had to fight a major two front war, save the financial system from an epic crisis, or battle a severe economic depression.
It's just been business as usual. Nothing really out of the ordinary.
And yet they're still losing trillions of dollars.
This is pretty scary when you think about it. What's going to happen to the US federal deficit when there actually IS a financial crisis or major recession?
And none of those possibilities are factored into their projections.
The largest problem of all, though, is that the federal government is going to have a much more difficult time borrowing the money.
For the past several years, the government has always been able to rely on the usual suspects to loan them money and buy up all the debt, namely– the Federal Reserve, the Chinese, and the Japanese.
Those three alone have loaned trillions of dollars to the US government since the end of the financial crisis.
The Federal Reserve in particular, through its "Quantitative Easing" programs, was on an all-out binge, buying up every long-dated Treasury Bond it could find, like some sort of junkie debt addict.
And both Chinese and Japanese holdings of US government debt now exceed $1 trillion each, more than double what they were before the 2008 crisis.
But now each of those three lenders is out of the game.
The Federal Reserve has formally ended its Quantitative Easing program. In other words, the Fed has said it will no longer conjure money out of thin air to buy US government debt.
The Chinese government said point blank last month that they were 'rethinking' their position on US government debt.
And the Japanese have their own problems at home to deal with; they need to scrap together every penny they can find to dump into their own economy.
Official data from the US Treasury Department illustrates this point– both China and Japan have slightly reduced their holdings of US government debt since last summer.
Bottom line, all three of the US government's biggest lenders are no longer buyers of US debt.
There's a pretty obvious conclusion here: interest rates have to rise.
It's a simple issue of supply and demand. The supply of debt is rising. Demand is falling.
This means that the 'price' of debt will decrease, ergo interest rates will rise.
(Think about it like this– with so much supply and lower demand for its debt, the US government will have to pay higher interest rates in order to attract new lenders.)
Make no mistake: higher interest rates will have an enormous impact on just about EVERYTHING.
Many major asset prices tend to fall when interest rates rise.
Rising rates mean that it costs more money for companies to borrow, reducing their leverage and overall profitability. So stock prices typically fall.
It's also important to note that, over the last several years when interest rates were basically ZERO, companies borrowed vast sums of money at almost no cost to buy back their own stock.
They were essentially using record low interest rates to artificially inflate their share prices.
Those days are rapidly coming to an end.
Property prices also tend to do poorly when interest rates rise.
Here's a simplistic example: if you can afford the monthly mortgage payment to buy a $500,000 house when interest rates are 3%, that same monthly payment will only buy a $250,000 house when rates rise to 6%.
Rising rates mean that people won't be able to borrow as much money to buy a home, and this typically causes property prices to fall.
Of course, higher interest rates also mean that the US government will take a major hit.
Remember that the federal government already has to borrow money just to pay interest on the money they've already borrowed.
So as interest rates go up, they'll be paying even more each year in interest payments… which means they'll have to borrow even more money to make those payments, which means they'll be paying even more in interest payments, which means they'll have to borrow even more, etc. etc.
It's a pretty nasty cycle.
Finally, the broader US economy will likely take a hit with rising interest rates.
As we've discussed many times before, the US economy is based on consumption, not production, and it depends heavily on cheap money (i.e. lower interest rates), and cheap oil, in order to keep growing.
We're already seeing the end of both of those, at least for now.
Both oil prices and interest rates have more than doubled from their lows, and it stands to reason that, at a minimum, interest rates will keep climbing.
So this may very well be the start of the great financial reckoning.
Share via:


text:
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to carry out a periodic review and revision, as appropriate, of the air quality criteria and the primary and secondary standards for six criteria air pollutants, which include lead. EPA is currently reviewing the Lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Primary standards set limits to protect public health, including the health of "sensitive" populations such as asthmatics, children, and the elderly. Secondary standards set limits to protect public welfare, including protection against decreased visibility, damage to animals, crops, vegetation, and buildings. An early step in EPA's process for reviewing the NAAQS is to develop an Integrated Review Plan (IRP) for reviewing the science associated with the primary and secondary NAAQS. EPA has requested that CASAC provide consultative advice on Volume 2 of the Lead IRP. This volume identifies policy-relevant issues in the review and serves as the EPA's planning document for the Integrated Science Assessment for Lead, describing key considerations and the process for its development as part of the review of the NAAQS for lead. The IRP for the Lead NAAQS review will be a 3-volume document. Volume 1 of the IRP contains contextual background material and the anticipated schedule for the current review of the air quality criteria and NAAQS for Pb. Volume 3 will discuss key considerations related to planning decisions on quantitative exposure and risk analyses that may be warranted for the review, and will be the subject of a future consultation with the CASAC.
On this page:
See EPA's PDF page to learn more about PDF files.
Top of Page


text:
80,000 jobs lost, unemployment spikes
Employers slash jobs for third straight month while unemployment jumps to 5.1%, a nearly three-year high.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. employers slashed jobs for the third straight month in March and unemployment rose to a nearly three-year high, offering the latest signs that the economy has fallen into a recession.
The Labor Department's much anticipated report, released Friday, showed a net loss of 80,000 jobs last month. That marks the third straight month that jobs have fallen - the longest period of decline since early 2003.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that payrolls would fall by 50,000 in the latest reading.
The new report also pegged job losses in January and February at 76,000 each month.
Those revisions added an additional 67,000 job losses to previous readings. The Labor Department now estimates that the economy has shed 232,000 jobs in the first three months of this year.
"The revisions are the real surprise in the report," said John Silvia, chief economist for Wachovia. "If we had known it was anything like that, there would not have been any debate going on about whether we were in a recession. It's pretty stark."
The job losses were widespread, with the battered construction sector losing 51,000 jobs and manufacturing employment falling by 48,000. But there were also losses in key service sector industries. Retail employment dropped by 12,000 jobs, and business and professional service employers cut staff by 35,000.
Unemployment rate rises
The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8% in February. The new reading is the highest level since September 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Economists had forecast that unemployment would rise to 5%.
The unemployment rate is based on a separate survey of households, rather than the employer survey that produces the closely watched payroll number.
The household survey gave an even grimmer view of job losses. It found that the number of Americans saying they were unemployed soared by 434,000, the biggest jump in that reading since October 2001, right after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Economists say the prospect of a quick pick-up in jobs is not good, given current problems in the economy. Silvia estimates there will be job losses every month through at least August.
"It's not going to be a lot of fun. Recessions are never fun," he said.
Others say that job losses could continue into next year.
"The job market is a lagging indicator," said Arpitha Bykere, economic analyst at RGE Monitor.com. "We can expect the picture to get gloomier. We won't see a positive picture any time soon, even if the economy recovers."
But some other experts said that while job losses are climbing, the job market is still relatively strong by historic standards, although even they expressed concerns about growing weakness.
"So far the job strength has held up consumer spending when there's been a lot of other bad news," said Tig Gilliam, CEO of Adecco Group North America, the unit of the world's largest employment agency. "If we have serious job deterioration in the job market, that could feed into problems. But as long as we're at 5.1% unemployment, or even 5.5%, I don't think that should drive a consumer spending halt."
Still the 5.1% unemployment rate only describes part of the problem for those struggling to find work in the battered labor market. The number of people outside of agriculture who are working part time who want to work full-time is now up 591,000 compared to a year ago.
Candidates chime in
The job report reverberated on the campaign trail Friday, as the presidential candidates sounded off on the economy.
"Despite today's news, the Democrats will continue to advance their anti-growth agenda," said Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.
Democratic frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama called the report "the latest evidence that Washington needs fundamental change because it has failed the American people." And Democratic hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton said "it's time the president and John McCain recognize the r-word: reality."
The job outlook will be a key factor influencing interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve when it meets on April 29-30.
Earlier this week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made his bleakest and bluntest assessment on the economy's condition. The central bank chief told a joint congressional committee that a recession is possible in the first half of this year.
Investors placing bets using Chicago Board of Trade options were already pricing in a 100% chance of at least another quarter-percentage point cut even before the jobs report came out. But the chance of a half-point cut rose to 38% in morning trading following the report, after being at 20% at the end of trading Thursday.