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Need a resource to find Indian Health Services in the Lower 48?
Are you an Alaskan Native or Chugach shareholder that lives in the lower 48? How do you find free health care through the Indian Health Services? The Southcentral Foundation has a program to help you find the health services you need.
Alaska Native Health Resource Advocate Program. Created in 1997, the Alaska Native Health Resource Advocate Program (ANHRAP) was developed to meet the information and referral needs of Alaska Native people in the continental United States.
ANHRAP assists Alaska Native people identifying, locating and connecting with appropriate and available health, social, educational, legal, employment, disability, treatment, housing and other related programs and/or services.
Outside of Alaska
Toll Free: (866) 575-6757
PO Box 2045
Milton, WA 98354-2045
Interviews are conducted over the telephone. Customer/owners residing in the Seattle-Tacoma area can request an appointment to meet with ANHRAP staff at a designated location.


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When they bring the 4 or 5 candidates in here, they're all good candidates and they all fit our needs.
They know the people that we're working with. They understand the industry that we're in.
They were very, very helpful in talking to me about issues related to culture, issues related to chemistry, that proved very valuable to me.
Their strategic counsel, process, and dedication were instrumental in helping us recruit a number of exceptionally talented leaders.
They do their homework as it relates to the organization, so they know what the organization is all about – their values and their culture.
When we got it down to the three finalists, everybody that we talked to was on the same page as us. We got right into the discussion about how we were going to grow the business.
It isn't easy leading the search for next Executive Director for one of our state's most critical economic entities, but the McDermott & Bull team rose to the challenge. They did their homework, found a terrific slate of candidates and helped us ensure that our choice for the job was the very best.

subset: commoncrawl


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A willing buyer.
A willing seller.
A sealed deal with both sides satisfied, right?
Not, unfortunately, for a 20-acre parcel in Gastonia at the corner of Robinwood and Kendrick roads.
Before the seller can sell and the buyer buy, the Gastonia City Council must give its blessing and change the zoning classification to allow for a development, anchored by a Harris-Teeter supermarket, the buyer plans to build.
No change, no deal. The willing buyer and the willing seller get hosed by government regulations.
A council vote on the zoning change is expected tonight. Also expected is a standing-room-only crowd of people who oppose the proposed development.
Most of the opponents live in the area. They say the development will bring additional traffic, which they do not want.
If opponents bring enough pressure to win two votes on the city council, the zoning change goes down and, apparently, the deal between willing buyer and willing seller.
All is lost because of rules by a government that has no ownership of the property.
Supporting the property owner is the best way for the council to vote tonight and any other time zoning stands in the way of the owner�s desire to do as he or she wishes with his land.
In this case, a vote to change the obstructive zoning would pave the way for economic development and jobs for this community with a 9.6-percent unemployment rate.
Developers say the supermarket and additional shopping area would create 300 to 400 new jobs. Those jobs are greatly needed here and would provide a boost to the local economy.
To dismiss area residents� concerns about traffic would be short-sighted by the council. There is a wealth of information available about new development and the traffic it does or does not bring, as well as the patterns of traffic that does increase.
It would be wise for the council to find solutions if traffic is a problem because of new development.
There is another important issue brought to light by this zoning request. It is Gastonia�s stance on new business.
To place a roadblock on the development would send a mighty signal that this is not a business-friendly community and discourage further new business that would bring purchasing choices to residents and, most definitely, additional jobs.
That�s not a signal to send if the council wants Gastonia to flourish and thrive, adding to its existing desirability as a great place to live � and increasing the tax base so that an excessive burden is not on residents and the homes in which they live.
The council has postponed action on the rezoning request once. It is time to remove the uncertainty.
We encourage council members to move forward with a vote tonight, approving the zoning change so that the deal between the willing buyer and the willing seller can be complete. The right to do what he or she desires with the land belongs to the property owner.


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A spectator is handed three brass rings and some paper. The rings fit together in such a waythat they can be formed into a drum. The paper acts as the skin and the rings are usedto secure the paper in place on each side of the drum. Even though the spectator assembles the drum and it is obvious that there is nothing inside, the performer tears the paper andreveals something inside. You can produce four half dollars or some other object(s) of similarsize.
Do you own this product? Write a review.


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Aviation Sciences Institute
The primary mission of the Aviation Sciences Institute is to provide its students with the highest quality aviation education and flight training possible. The fundamental belief of the ASI is that the best trained students will be the safest and most successful aviation professionals. The Aviation Sciences Institute will strive to excel as a world leader in Aviation Education. To that end, the Aviation Sciences Institute will provide the students with the most current information, technology, and personalized training available in the aviation profession.
Why Choose Aviation?
50 years of training professional pilots
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Faculty & Flight Instructors are professional pilots
Alumni profile
Gamaliel Marcus Neyor
Gamaliel Marcus Neyor is passionate about the impact Southeastern Oklahoma State University has had on his professional life. Recently becoming the youngest captain at Delta Airlines, the proud alumnus praises the school that led to his success in the aviation field. To read more click Neyor's


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Fred Collopy is a Professor of Design and Innovation. He received his PhD in Decision Sciences from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has done research on forecasting, the perception of time by computer users, the impact of competitor information on decision-making, and the application of design ideas to management. With Dick Boland he edited Managing as Designing, which was published by Stanford University Press. His research has been published in both academic and practitioner journals including Chief Executive and Interfaces. A website detailing his work is available at collopy.case.edu. As a software designer and developer, he created The Desk Organizer (published in 1982 by Warner Software), Rule-Based Forecasting (an expert system to select among alternative business forecasting models), Imager (an instrument for playing visual music), and most recently Business Animator (an interactive implementation of the cycle model).
He has consulted in the areas of information systems (Cleveland Foundation, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Hillmed Medical, IBM, Society Bank, KeyCorp, Ford Motor Company, Sealy, Biological & Popular Culture, Inc., Cleveland Public Schools), business forecasting (Prodigy—IBM/Sears, Prince Manufacturing, Fingerhut Corporation, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Naval Office of Personnel Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, WCPN—Cleveland Public Radio, Cleveland Public Schools), and telecommunications modeling (City of Cincinnati, State of Massachusetts, Mid-States Theaters, National Urban League).
More information about Fred Collopy


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NZ Actor defends Agent Anna
Property Here - Monday, March 04, 2013
Actor Roy Billing, who plays Anna's boss, Clint, in the TV One hit comedy seriesAgent Anna, is defending the programme which is facing criticism from real estate agents.
Barfoot & Thomson managing director Peter Thompson has called it a "load of rubbish" and Real Estate Institute of NZ chief executive Helen O'Sullivan has described the lying, back-stabbing, cheating and promiscuity depicted on the programme as "not real life", despite not having watched the show.
But Billing, who has starred in Hell Has Harbour Views, Packed to the Rafters andUnder the Mountain, said: "I have had many dealings with estate agents in New Zealand and Australia, and when I first saw the scripts I thought that many of the real estate scenes read more like a documentary than a fictional TV series, but funny nevertheless.
"Ms O'Sullivan begs to differ and would have us all believe that real estate agents are near sainthood in their business practices, as I am sure all commission sales people are.
"Maybe I, [and] hundreds of thousands of Kiwi viewers, and all of us involved in Agent Anna are missing something here?"
Producer Rachel Gardner said the comedy aimed to be something "that all Kiwis would relate to and find funny".
When contacted yesterday, Ms O'Sullivan said she did not wish to make any further comments.
More than 1.2 million have tuned into the series since it began in January, averaging more than 400,000 viewers an episode, says TV One.
Lifen Wei, a Barfoot and Thomson agent from Pukekohe, said the series was a "fairy tale" and did not depict what was truly happening in the industry.
"Let's face it, in New Zealand the wife is the boss who makes the decision," said Miss Wei, who joined the industry slightly over a year ago.
"We won't be selling any properties if we dressed in super short skirts or go after their husbands."
However, she said the comedy did give agents something to talk about - especially at open homes.


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F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is widely recognized as a literary masterwork. Yet as even the book's editor, Maxwell Perkins, said to Fitzgerald about a draft of the 1925 novel, the title character "is somewhat vague."
Hazy doesn't work in cinema, so when director Baz Luhrmann decided to bring "Gatsby" to the screen, he and his creative team went on the filmmaking equivalent of an anthropological dig. The goal: unearth what was left unsaid in Fitzgerald's slender tale of Jay Gatsby, a millionaire bootlegger, and his unrequited love for a married socialite, Daisy Buchanan.
The film, opening May 10, overflows with all the touches you'd expect from the director of "Moulin Rouge!" — elaborate production and costume design, modern music in a period setting, theatrical acting — while hitting the seminal scenes and lines in Fitzgerald's classic.
But Luhrmann recognized the danger of missing "Gatsby's" emotional forest for all of the novel's expositional trees. So he, co-screenwriter Craig Pearce and a cast headed by Leonardo DiCaprio (who plays Gatsby), Carey Mulligan (Daisy) and Tobey Maguire (narrator Nick Carraway) looked for clues wherever they could be found — and then came to their own storytelling conclusions.
Luhrmann delved into Fitzgerald's life, letters and other writings, ultimately relying heavily on "Trimalchio" — Fitzgerald's early draft of "The Great Gatsby" — and biographies of his wife, Zelda, whom the novelist described as the first American flapper. One of Daisy's lines comes from a note the novelist sent to his early love, Ginevra King.
When the source material left some questions unanswered, Luhrmann followed his own hunches. A case in point: The novel suggests that Gatsby, a former soldier, penned a heartbreaking letter to Daisy on her wedding day. The book never reveals the contents, but its impact on Daisy is profound.
Luhrmann and his team decided that the missive was Gatsby's confession of undying love in a relationship doomed by his poverty and set out his thoughts to Daisy. "You see my uniform hid the truth that I was poor," the letter reads in the film's imagination, its lines meticulously inked with a turn-of-the-century fountain pen on vintage paper (in handwriting that mimicked Fitzgerald's, no less).
The full note never appears on screen, but the fact that Luhrmann felt compelled to create it in such detail speaks to the director's attention to detail and the intricacies of his creative embellishments.
"I have one duty — to the best of my ability to captain the storytelling team, and to tell and reveal the story," said the 50-year-old Luhrmann, who followed his Oscar-nominated "Moulin Rouge!" with the critical and commercial disappointment "Australia." "I set out to reveal 'The Great Gatsby,' but I also set out to do a movie of it."
While Gatsby's famous bashes are even more excessive in Luhrmann's imagination than in the novel, with fireworks choreographed to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," the director said he labored to keep the story intimate and immersive.
He filmed several sequences in long takes, as if "The Great Gatsby" were live theater, and shot it in 3-D; the stereoscopic technology, Luhrmann said, heightens the film's emotions, moving the audience from spectators to participants. "It was our poetic glue," the director said of 3-D.
The director briefly needed his own adhesive to keep "The Great Gatsby" from falling apart. Worried about its budget, Sony Pictures backed out of the movie (the film was ultimately co-produced by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow), and numerous production delays, some tied to weather, postponed the film's release from last fall to May.
Luhrmann began to consider adapting the novel after listening to it as a recorded book while traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway after finishing 2001's "Moulin Rouge!" But it took a while to figure out how to translate "Gatsby" into a cinematic language that preserved Fitzgerald's voice.
His answer, and one of the film's most notable departures from the novel, is revealed as soon as the movie starts. Traumatized by all he has witnessed, Nick is convalescing in a sanitarium. A doctor prescribes that he write about what happened in West and East Egg, the respective New York homes of Gatsby and Daisy, and Nick's recollections become the movie's framing device.
That hurdle behind him, Luhrmann and his team turned their attention to the film's supporting characters: Daisy's husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton); Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher); Myrtle's husband George (Jason Clarke); and Daisy's friend and accomplished golfer Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki). The task, as DiCaprio said, was tying to sort out "the choose-your-own interpretation of who these people are." "What makes 'Gatsby' the book that it is," the actor said, "is that people still have conversations about it."
Is Gatsby truly in love with Daisy, or is she just another arrow in his social-climbing quiver? Why does Daisy choose to stay with Tom, whom she knows to be a serial philanderer? Would Gatsby and Daisy eventually have ended up together were it not for George Wilson's bullet? The movie has an opinion about all such questions.
Luhrmann said that adapting any well-known text, just as he did with DiCaprio in "Romeo + Juliet," will raise someone's dander. And it may not just be his telling of the story that some find fault with — his unconventional musical choices may prove polarizing.
Just as he used songs by Elton John, David Bowie and U2's Bono in "Moulin Rouge!," Luhrmann infused "The Great Gatsby" with tracks from an array of modern musicians — Florence Welch and Lana Del Rey, plus Kanye West and the husband-and-wife duo of Beyoncé and Jay-Z (the last serves as an executive producer).
Luhrmann said criticism is inevitable whenever you touch a hallowed text, be it by Shakespeare or Fitzgerald. "If you go near anything, you are going to be tarred and feathered," he said.
Mulligan agreed some censure is certain. "There will definitely be some purists who won't respond well to any deviation of what's exactly written in the text. I feel that way about my favorite books," she said. "But I think people will come away witness to an epic love story."


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Max Lucado, in his book, �In the Eye of the Storm,� writes about a baseball player named Steve Lyons.
Max Lucado, in his book, �In the Eye of the Storm,� writes about a baseball player named Steve Lyons.
�Lyons will always be remembered as the player who dropped his pants,� wrote Lucado. �He could be remembered as an outstanding infielder. He could be remembered as a player who played every position for the Chicago White Sox. He could be remembered as a guy who always dove into first base, or as a favorite of the fans who high-fived the guy who caught a foul ball in the bleachers. Lyons could also be remembered as an above-average player who made it with average ability. But he won�t. He�ll be remembered as the player who dropped his pants on July 16, 1990.
�The White Sox were playing the Tigers in Detroit. Lyons bunted and raced down the first-base line. He knew it was going to be tight, so he dove at the bag. �Safe!� the umpire exclaimed. The Tiger�s pitcher disagreed. He and the umpire got into a shouting match, and Lyons stepped in to voice his opinion.
�Absorbed in the game and the debate, Lyons felt dirt trickling down the inside of his pants. Without missing a beat, Lyons dropped his britches, wiped away the dirt, and about 20,000 jaws hit the bleachers� floor.
�As you can imagine, the jokes began. Women behind the White Sox dugout waved dollar bills when Lyons came onto the field. One columnist wrote, �No one has ever dropped his drawers on the field. Not Wally Moon. Not Blue Moon Odom, not even Heinie Manush.� Within 24 hours of the incident, Steve Lyons received more exposure than he�d gotten his entire career; seven TV interviews, and 20 radio interviews.
�Lyons, thinking of all his newfound fame, then said, �We�ve got this pitcher, Melido Perez, who earlier this month pitched a no-hitter. I�ll guarantee you he didn�t do two live interviews afterwards. I pull my pants down, and I do seven interviews. Something�s pretty skewed towards this zany game!��
I think any time you see a ball player diving head-first into first base, throwing caution to the wind, you should take notice. It just doesn�t happen that often. But come to think of it, how often do you see anybody diving head first into anything? It�s too seldom, right?
My friends, Jesus Christ wants you to dive head-first into him. In Luke 5:1-11, Jesus stepped on to a boat that had four fishermen on it. One of the fishermen was a man named Peter. Jesus said to Peter, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch (Luke 5:4, NKJV). But Peter told Him that they had fished all night without catching anything. And then Peter said, nevertheless at your word I will let down the net (vs. 5). The Bible then tells us that when the nets were lowered, they brought in so many fish that the nets were breaking.
At first, Peter was disinterested in what Jesus had to say. But having spent time with Christ, Peter realized He was something special! So Peter threw caution to the wind and surrendered to Jesus, and He gave up his life of fishing to follow Him. Just like Steve Lyons gave up his body trying to make it to first base safely, Peter gave up his life to Jesus and surrendered to Him.
Let me ask you something � are you ready to give up your life to Jesus Christ today? Are you ready to throw caution to the wind and dive headfirst into a life of surrender to Jesus before you know what He wants from you? Jesus is not looking for a partial surrender, but for 100 percent commitment from each of us. He is looking for complete abandonment.
Today, you may be tired and burnt out. Surrender to Jesus anyway. You might find it inconvenient. Surrender anyway. His plans may not make sense to you. Surrender anyway. What nets are you holding in your hands today that are keeping you from following Christ? It�s time to drop them and follow Jesus.
Jimmy Black is pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shelby.


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patterns > ohdessaknits
> Little Monster Hat
Little Monster Hat
A perfect hat for the little (or not so little) monster in your life. Using bulky yarn and US 10 needles, this is a quick knit! Leave it plain for a fun shaped hat, add strings to tie under the chin, or go all the way with button eyes and an embroidered mouth, there are many ways to customize this hat for whoever is going to wear it.
This hat is knit-in-the-round no seaming to worry about later. The ear-flaps are knit first with the rest of the hat being built onto them. Knit in garter stitch, this hat is an excellent way to show off variegated or tonal yarns. The pointy ears are then shaped using short rows so there are no stitches to pick up. Finally, the top is grafted together using Kitchener stitch for a clean finish.
Baby (toddler, child/small, medium, large) Finished hat measures 14 (16, 18, 20, 22) inches around Finished hat fits up to 17 (19, 21, 23, 25) inches around
- 1 (1, 2, 2, 2) balls of Loops & Threads Charisma (3.5 oz. skein/ 109 yds, 16 stitches in 4 inches on US 13 needles) or other similar bulky yarn
- US 10 (6mm) 16 inch circular needle (for the larger sizes you might want a 24 inch long circular or a set of double pointed needles)
- stitch holder or straight needle
- 2 1-1/2 inch diameter buttons for eyes (optional)
- Contrasting yarn to embroider mouth and attach buttons(optional)
- Yarn needle to weave in ends and embellish
25737 projects
stashed 15383 times
- Page created: October 11, 2010
- Last updated: October 12, 2010 …
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If you are using a screen reader and having any difficulty using our website, we are here to help! Contact Customer Care at 888-623-2880 or email us at email@example.com.
Registered users have the ability to track their orders. To do so, simply go to My Account and click on the Order History tab. This section will let you see where your order is as soon as it is shipped by FedEx or USPS. Most orders take a minimum of 1 to 2 full business days to leave our warehouse, before being released to FedEx or USPS entering the shipping process.
It is L'OCCITANE's intention to satisfy our customers. For this reason, we will gladly issue a full refund to the original credit card for any unopened merchandise that is returned within 30 days of the date of receipt. After 30 days, a store credit or exchange will be issued for any unopened merchandise returned up to 60 days after purchase. Items purchased with cash maybe be exchanged or a store credit issued. There are no cash refunds. All items must be accompanied by the original receipt and in unopened, saleable condition.
Returns can be made through one of our boutiques or through our customer service department, regardless of whether the merchandise was originally purchased online or in a boutique. However, we are only able to process returns if the products were purchased from L'OCCITANE directly – through one of our retail locations, our website or our mail order department. We are not able to process returns that were purchased through any of our wholesale partners.
We currently have 3 flat shipping rates. We only ship via FedEx. Typically, we offer Free Standard shipping on all orders over $49 (excluding tax) or similar promotion.
We only charge sales tax in the states where our stores are located. This tax is based on the shipping address. You can browse our store locator to double check if we have a store in your state.
Please call 1-888-623-2880 or email us if after hours. We cannot guarantee that cancellations or changes will be possible due to the promptness of our order processing.
Gift cards are available for purchase on line in any denomination of $25, $50, $100 or $250. Visit Our Gift Card page for more information or to purchase. Gift Cards are available for redemption online and Boutiques or by telephone (1-888-623-2880). When you purchase your gift card regular shipping charges may be added, as well as sales tax, if applicable.
1) View our Gift Boutique for an array of gift selections for women and men in varying price ranges. Some selections are elegantly pre-wrapped and available for immediate shipment. You can also add a personalized note.
2) Build your own gift by selecting the products you wish to give. We will choose the most appropriate packaging for your items, and you can also add a personalized note. This option may add one business day to the order processing time.
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Scroll Down to the lower portion of the checkout page and enter it in the Promotion Code box and click on the arrow. If your code is valid, you will see the code that has been activated.
Occasionally L'OCCITANE.com offers promotions through emails, catalogs, and advertisements. You will always receive free standard shipping on orders over $80. Once you sign up for our L'OCCITANE.com email newsletter, you will receive email promotions and offers that include special codes for special free shipping or other discounts. To sign up for our e-newsletter please click on "Email Signup" on the bottom banner of the page.
** Please note that excessive abuse or misuse of promotions and codes may result in order or item cancellation. In order to allow fair redemption and distribution of promotions to all of our registered clients, L'OCCITANE may restrict redemption to one per client.
Most promotion codes and offers are for a limited time, cannot be combined with other offers, and are one per customer per order, so be sure to add the one you most want to your order.
Some Discounts don't require a promotional code. In this case, simply add the promotional item to your cart and be sure you have met the offer requirements.
We, usa.loccitane.com, do not ship internationally. Please check if the country you would like to ship your order to is listed on the international homepage at www.loccitane.com.
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If an item is out of stock, we'll happily send you an email when it's back in stock. Simply click "Be notified when product is back in stock" on the Product page and supply your email address. We'll notify you when the item becomes available. Or, use the Boutique Locator to find a store near you (call ahead to confirm that they have your desired product in stock). L'OCCITANE does not offer a backorder service.
Phonetically you pronounce our name "lox- ee- tahn".
L'OCCITANE means "the woman from Occitania". Occitania is the name of the ancient geographic area in southern France, spanning from northeastern Spain to northwestern Italy.
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Well, it's that time of the year again. You've probably sent your children off to class in the fall and what do you get in return? The inevitable reminder that you are now in debt thanks to the tuition bill. I mean sure, there's financial aid out there, such as internal and external scholarships, and federal/state grants. However, what happens if that's not enough to cover full tuition costs?
According to Betsey Mayotte, director of Regulatory Compliance for American Student Assistance, the Department of Education has issued new "draft rules" that can potentially affect the eligibility criteria for Parent Direct Plus loans and graduate loans. This is all being done with the mentality of not loaning out more money than what can be paid back.
So in that case, what are my options? Here's a few that we think can benefit you depending on your personal needs:
Tuition Payment Plans:
Always try, if possible, to work something out with the university or college that your child is attending. Maybe a payment plan can be drawn up where you can pay the rest of the tuition debt on a monthly basis over the rest of the school year. Taking this route may save you money from interest fees as well as being debt free by the time of graduation. However, there's always a catch. If you fall past due on your payment which could happen after any unexpected crisis, then your child may not be able to sign up for classes for the next term, or even worse, not receive his or her diploma until the bill has been paid.
So what's option number two?
The bright side of this option is that there is no limit on the amount of money you can take out for a loan up to the cost of attendance. There is a light credit check, but even if you don't pass it, you can get an endorser. If your endorser is not "creditworthy" then your child can apply for additional unsubsidized Stafford loans.
So what's the catch here? Well, you have to look at the big picture. As stated by Mayotte, "A $20,000 loan for freshman year may sound manageable, but multiply that by the number of years you expect your student to be in school and the number of college bound children in the household and suddenly you owe $160,000 in Parent Direct PLUS loans, assuming you only have two children." This would give rise to a sum of $1,800 a month under a standard 10 year plan. Not to mention, Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for income-based repayment options, unless you consolidate your loans under the Direct Loan program. But even then, for a person with an annual income of $80,000 the monthly payments would still be $1,000/month. This could really poke a hole in your retirement savings.
If you think that your child will pay the loan back to you, remember the loan can never be changed to your child's name and all deferment options will be based on your situation, not the student's.
So, is any other option?
Co-signing a Loan:
If you don't want to take up a loan under your personal name, you can co-sign the loan instead.
Ninety percent of private student loans have cosigners, usually being parents. What many don't understand is that by co-signing the loan, you are now equally responsible for the debt. Even if all payments are up to date, this can heavily affect your debt-to-income ratio. This could really be harmful to you when trying to refinance your home, buy a car, or involve yourself in anything that has to check your credit and/or income.
The risk is big as Mayotte shares when she relates "As private loans have very few lower payment or other options if the borrower cannot pay, and may not have discharge provisions if the borrower should pass away or become disabled like federal loans have, it can actually be riskier for the parent to co-sign on a private loan than it would be for them to take out the federal PLUS loan under their own name."
Final Tips:
If you end up not having any other option and take out loans, be smart and proactive. If the loan is deferred while at school, try to at least pay off the interest that keeps piling up over time. This could save you thousands! If you can add payments as well, even better! You will be happy you did so as time goes by and you see your friends who didn't drown in debt. Also, keep in mind that there are always scholarships available at the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation. All you have to do is take short and free online quizzes on a wide range of subjects. No essays, applications, or specific GPAs are required. Log on to www.cksf.org today to register with an account and ge


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I really can't tell if this model's beautiful life is about to be saved or snuffed out by some kind of bulbous brain sucker.
The description makes it sound like an inflatable bike helmet but that could be because the writer had one on his or her head as well, and it was controlling their actions, because that's what these bulbous brain suckers do.
I'll err on the side of sanity and say this is a bike helmet, and that it was one of five projects that won an award at INDEX this year. Called Hövding, the design is the work of Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, and apparently erupts from the scarf around your neck when "it senses abnormal movement."
Yeah, anyway, for some reason or another I have this little suspicion that this helmet could be an example of form over function. Just a tad. [Dezeen]
You can keep up with Jack Loftus, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook.


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In case you needed further confirmation of how insensitive investors were to price when it came to getting in on the Facebook IPO...
Even after falling 45% from its IPO, Facebook stock is still trading at more than twice the price of the average hot tech stock on a price-earnings basis.
Specifically, at $21, Facebook is trading at 32X next year's estimated earnings per share of $0.64.
Apple, Google, eBay, and Priceline, meanwhile, are trading at only 15X next year's estimated earnings. (And that's before Priceline's post-earnings collapse, which will bring the multiple down modestly).
There is an argument to be made that Facebook should trade at a premium to these four big tech companies, but it's not obvious why the premium should be as big as it is.
For example:
- Facebook appears to be earlier in its growth cycle than Apple, Google, et al, suggesting that it can grow earnings faster than those companies over the next 5-10 years.
- Facebook has built a huge global "platform" that could conceivably be used to launch massive new products over the next 5-10 years. This creates the "option value" that some analysts talk about.
These two attributes suggest that Facebook warrants a premium multiple.
- Facebook is already a big, mature company with nearly $5 billion in revenue
- Facebook's revenue growth is decelerating rapidly
- Facebook is being hit by a transition to mobile devices, which creates uncertainty about future growth
- Facebook's profit margins are shrinking as it invests heavily
- Facebook is cash-flow negative (i.e., it's burning cash) because it's investing heavily in infrastructure
- Analysts' projected estimates for Facebook appear to be a fair guess at what the company will earn next year, not low-balled numbers that the company will almost certainly beat
All of these attributes warrant less of a premium (and, possibly, no premium at all).
Now, deciding on a "fair" earnings multiple for a stock is a subjective exercise, and there are a wide range of reasonable and defensible arguments for all stocks, including Facebook. The one rule of thumb is that when investors are getting more exuberant and excited about a company's earnings prospects, multiples generally increase. When investors are getting more gloomy and cautious, multiples decrease.
Right now, investors are still getting more gloomy and depressed about Facebook, in part because of the "meh" quarter the company just reported. If Facebook were to post surprisingly strong results in its next quarter, however, the market's mood would change quickly, and Facebook's multiple would likely increase.
Further complicating matters, it's also a subjective exercise to choose which companies to compare Facebook's multiple to.
Many investors who own Facebook (and want it to go up), for example, reject the idea that Facebook should be compared to Apple, Google, Priceline, and eBay. Instead, they say, it should be compared to LinkedIn and Amazon, two other hot tech companies that have much higher earnings multiples.
Amazon, for example, is trading at nearly 100X next year's estimated earnings, and LinkedIn is trading at nearly 90X. Next to those multiples, Facebook's 30X doesn't look so extreme.
However, there are several reasons why comparing Facebook to LinkedIn and Amazon may be wishful thinking:
- The profit margins for both LinkedIn and Amazon are currently depressed by heavy investment and are expected to rise radically in future years. This is a subtle but very important difference between Facebook and Amazon/LinkedIn. Facebook had an extraordinary 50% operating margin last year, which suggests its margin has only one way to go--down. This means that earnings can grow no faster than revenue and may grow more slowly than revenue. Amazon/LinkedIn, meanwhile, have margins that are currently depressed by heavy investment and are expected to expand rapidly in the next couple of years, driving earnings growth that is much faster than revenue.
- The expected earnings growth for both LinkedIn and Amazon is much faster than Facebook. LinkedIn's revenue is expected to grow ~80% this year, versus about 40% for Facebook, and LinkedIn's margin is expected to rise. Amazon's revenue is still growing 30% per year, and its margin is expected to nearly triple over the next couple of years. This will drive huge earnings growth at both companies. Facebook's earnings growth, meanwhile, is expected to be a modest 30%. All else being equal, faster earnings growth warrants a bigger multiple.
- There's less uncertainty with LinkedIn and Amazon. Amazon is a very established business with a well-understood business model. LinkedIn, meanwhile, has several powerful, diversified revenue streams. Facebook, on the other hand, still has only one main revenue stream, and there is a lot of controversy about the sustainability and effectiveness of its product.
- LinkedIn and Amazon are likely to be less affected by the transition to mobile as Facebook is. LinkedIn's main businesses are professional subscriptions, which are helped, not hurt, by the mobile transition (because they make the service more accessible). Same for Amazon. Facebook, meanwhile, has to deal with smaller screen sizes and lower tolerance for ads, suggesting that the mobile transition could hurt the company.
- LinkedIn's estimates, at least, are considered conservative, suggesting that the stock's multiple is not actually as high as it appears. Investors think LinkedIn will continue to blow away its earnings estimates each quarter. By the time we get to mid-2013, therefore, the "earnings" analysts are using to value the stock should be a lot higher. Facebook's meanwhile, may be the same (or lower).
So you see, there are many reasons to think that Facebook does not deserve the super-high multiples enjoyed by LinkedIn and Amazon.
Also, if LinkedIn or Amazon were to stumble, their stocks (and multiples) would get crushed. Either stock could trade at half its current multiple or lower and still seem "expensive," so there's plenty of downside in both. For now, the market expects that there is huge potential earnings growth "embedded" in these companies, so it's willing to pay up. But arguing that Facebook's multiple should be closer to the multiples of stocks that have screamingly high multiples that might get crushed is not exactly conservatism.
So, what is the right multiple for Facebook?
There's no right multiple. Valuations are based on the future and no one knows for sure what the future holds. Ultimately, stocks are worth what other people will pay for them, and valuation is always a subjective exercise.
That said, an objective analysis of the situation suggests--at least to me--that Facebook's multiple is still uncomfortably high.
When Facebook went public, I argued that it might fairly trade at 20X-30X next year's expected earnings--a premium to Apple, Google, et al, but not a massive premium. On the earnings estimates at the time, that equated to a price of $16-$24.
This analysis suggested that Facebook is now, finally, getting toward the middle of that range.
Facebook's earnings outlook has actually deteriorated modestly since the IPO, which is one of the reasons the stock has crashed.
Wall Street analysts (and I) expected Facebook to handily beat the Q2 guidance it gave analysts during the IPO roadshow, which would have suggested that the estimates for 2013 earnings were too conservative and would rise.
But Facebook only met its Q2 guidance. So the 2013 estimates did not go up.
And now, instead of the $0.80-$1.00 that most analysts quietly expected Facebook to earn next year, it looks as though the current estimate of ~$0.65 is reasonable (or even aggressive).
So that changes the "fair" valuation modestly.
Applying the same "fair" multiple range of 20X-30X to projected 2013 earnings of $0.65 instead of $0.80, I get a "fair value" range for Facebook of $13-$20.
This doesn't mean that Facebook will ever trade in that range (though it's getting close). It only means that $13-$20 seems like the level at which Facebook's valuation seems "fair" as opposed to "expensive."
Again, this is all subjective. If Facebook gave the market something to get excited about, the stock could reverse its decline and trade at a super-premium multiple for several years. On the other hand, given the upcoming lock-up releases and the potential for Facebook's outlook to further deteriorate, the stock's multiple could continue to compress.
In any event... the logic above is why you're not going to hear me say that Facebook is "cheap" at $20. It isn't.
SEE ALSO: Facebook's Stock Crash Has Now Created Several New Problems For The Company...


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For the past several decades, military ethicists and professionals debated .. In his essay "Loyalty, Honor and the Modern Military," Wheeler argues that for
Many people know what the words Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, By wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army you are expressing your loyalty.
I was told during my 20s and 30s there was no chance that someone like me could have a career in music, and this perspective was reiterated by so many industry "professionals" and media outlets that I lost count. I almost gave up. Thankfully, fellow artists like Lou Reed advocated for me so intensely that I got a foothold despite the worst intentions of others. In that sense, I am one of the luckiest people in the world.
12 Oct 2011 Every private has spent countless hours writing meaningless essays where The point I am making is that the Seven Army Values of Loyalty,
US Army Values: Loyalty essaysLoyalty is one of the US Army's seven values, which is supposed to come about through the allegiance that soldiers show
microevolution + time + isolation + selection pressure + changing environment = macroevolutionThese ideas were discussed at the 1980 Chicago Conference on Macroevolution. For more information, please see the Roger Lewin article "Evolutionary Theory Under Fire", Volume 210, 21 November 1980, pp 883-887.We have transitional fossils, despite the creationist claim that "there are no transitional fossils". We have transitional fossils for humans, too, in spite of the claim that "there are no ape-men." (see Time magazine, August 23, 1999; "How Man Evolved", by Michael Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, pp. 54-55). The References section of this essay contains links to transitional fossils, including some with pictures.It is puzzling that transitional fossils are more rare than we would expect. I think that paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould is on the right track with his theory of evolution through Punctuated Equilibrium. This theory states that major changes occur locally in an isolated population, so that fossils are more rare than would be expected by the slow, stately progress of change predicted by Charles Darwin. Punctuated Equilibrium is not just an excuse for finding no transitional fossils, because many such fossils have been found. Transitional forms are found locally for certain animals, and outside the "evolution zone" the transition looks quite abrupt because of migration of the new and displacement of the original species.When I look at the flowers in our front garden I marvel at the pistils and stamens, and at the mechanism for pollination and reproduction. It startles me that such a thing could arise simply from natural selection through mutation, in just a billion years. We have examples of change in moths, finches, people, and bacteria, but these examples are kind of unsatisfying in comparison to the great variety of form that we see in nature. Is there more to it?I realize that my life-span of about 80 years is so short that I cannot properly comprehend a million years, let along a billion. My common sense is simply not equipped to make a proper analysis of the time span required to produce a moon flower, or a bird, or a human.I think the "not enough time" problem bothers atheists more than it bothers me. I believe that God directs the processes that we call "random", and that He can engineer an unlikely event according to His plan. With God Almighty in charge, the unlikely becomes certain. I would be more comfortable with a theory that includes proper statistical measures, but I do not require it. Atheists require it.Certain recent evidence indicates just the opposite of what our common sense tells us. It appears that evolution actually occurs much faster than we would expect from natural selection through random mutation alone. Punctuated Equilibrium takes advantage of this difference by proposing that local changes occur rapidly in a small population under survival pressure.This is an unsolved puzzle. The mechanism that drives evolution is something for future biologists to research and figure out. I think that the mechanism is more complex than just natural selection through random mutation. However, I don't believe this to be an enormously difficult puzzle. Scientists finished decoding the human genome in June 2000, and further analysis should provide some answers. We don't know exactly how mutations occur, although that marvelous DNA structure seems to favor viability when it reproduces.The term "Pre-Cambrian Explosion" refers to the sudden emergence of complex life forms after millions of years of single-celled creatures. How did evolution produce a sudden burst of advanced complexity? How does a paramecium become a trilobite in such a short time? This is a bigger puzzle for evolutionary theory. I thought that perhaps this big jump could be explained by the development of sexual reproduction over single-parent reproduction, until someone directed me to another development.Geologists have recently found evidence that something very strange happened to the earth right at the Pre-Cambrian boundary. Discoveries like this make science exciting! It appears that a global freeze suddenly gave way to a very hot period. This abrupt change must have had something to do with the sudden explosion of life forms, but what? The researchers suppose that isolation and selection pressure during that event produced an "evolution engine" capable of great leaps in a short space of time. But the details, the mechanism, and the verification are still anybody's guess.A gap in does not prove the existence of God. We are not at the end of science, or history, until Jesus returns in person.The biggest mystery of biology is the emergence of the first life forms from the "soupy seas". This problem is not strictly of the field of evolution, but of biogenesis instead. It is a related field, so I will discuss it here.A biologist named Stanley Miller has done amazing experiments with lightning that produce amino acids from simple carbon compounds and water. Beyond that, biologists are fairly confident that they can develop a reasonable progression from RNA to DNA, then up through single-celled organisms to multi-celled creatures, and onward to the plant and animal kingdoms. However, the gap between amino acids and RNA remains a mystery.Various mechanisms have been proposed to cross this gap (lightning, solar energy, comets, etc.). However, even the most reasonable mechanisms are extremely unlikely to have produced life on this earth in the space of 3 billion years, according to the latest analyses.As noted earlier, the small probabilities here bother me less than they would bother an atheist, because I believe in more than just a tinkering God. I believe in a God who knows and cares for even the sparrows (Matthew 10: 29-31). Yahweh is always directing and caring for His creation. He does not show up only when evolution needs a boost. Jesus Christ is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28: 20).I would like to discover a sound scientific treatment of the amino acid - RNA gap, because I believe that science allows us to reveal the marvels of God's creation. Until then, here is how I shall answer the question."I don't know. Only God Almighty knows."I realize that this is not a good answer among men. But it was a good answer for the prophet Ezekiel (37: 3), and it will be good enough for me.There are some non-scriptural objections to evolution that I have heard from Christians:1. Cruelty of Evolution"Evolution is cruel, wasteful, and inefficient; God would not accomplish His creation that way."With regard to "wasteful and inefficient", I have not seen a Bible verse that states that God's ways are waste-free and efficient according to the judgment of 21st-century Americans. In contrast, God's ways often look wasteful and inefficient in man's eyes. For example, consider the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20: 1-16. The vineyard owner wasted his money on the workers hired to work for only the last hour. But God does not call this waste and inefficiency. He calls it grace and mercy.The creation of the dinosaurs would seem like a waste of time on the way to creating mankind. They ruled the earth for millions of years and then were wiped out pretty suddenly. Why did God bother to create them? One may ask the same question in the field of astronomy. The other galaxies besides our Milky Way are magnificent to look at through powerful telescopes. But we won't get the chance to make much use of them, unless Jesus' return is a lot farther off than most people think. Why did God bother to create all those extra galaxies? One would have been plenty.The charge of cruelty is another matter. Where does the Bible say that the working out of God's plan here on earth never involves cruelty? There is plenty of cruelty in the coming of Jesus Christ:I know that God is not cruel. When I see cruelty in this world, I look for an explanation involving our sin, not God's intention."Survival of the fittest is cruel. Death is cruel. God would not design his creation that way."There are some places in the Bible where apparent cruelty is recorded, and man's sin cannot reasonably be the cause.It strikes me as very presumptuous to claim to know the mind of God Almighty, to know His designs and to know what He judges to be cruel and what to be kind. Isaiah 55: 8-9 compares our intellect to God's: "This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts higher than yours."Perhaps God created the process of evolution as a way for life to survive the natural calamities that He knew would come, such as the meteorite impact at Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Penninsula that is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. A remnant of the animals (mammals, birds) apparently did survive and went on to re-populate the earth. This view is consistent with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19, where a remnant is saved because of God's mercy. (If you want to know why God sent or allowed the Chixculub meteorite in the first place when there was no sin of mankind to destroy, you'll have to ask Him when you get to heaven. I plan to. The same question applies to present-day hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters.) This view asserts that evolution is not God's ideal process for creating life, but instead evolution is God's way of providing for life to survive and thrive in a difficult and dangerous universe. Life on earth has indeed survived for many millions of years despite the worst that satan could throw at it. The universe is good - good enough for us to marvel at along with the Psalmist. But God's ideal arrangement for life is . . . heaven!Albert Einstein followed what he thought to be God's perfect simplicity in relativity. After many scientific successes, he reached a dead end when confronted with the unavoidable complexities of quantum mechanics. Each time he read a new modern theory, he rejected it with the words "If I were God, I would not have designed it that way." Finally Niels Bohr advised him to stop telling God what to do.St. Paul gives a long warning against criticizing the ways of God in Romans 9: 9-24. He gives examples from Biblical history, then denies our right to conclude that God was unfair or unkind. Note especially verse 20: "No, don't say that. Who are you to criticize God? Should the thing made say to the one who made it, 'Why have you made me like this?'"God chose a certain method to spread the Gospel message: Tell people, and then those people will tell other people, and so on. We humans could easily conclude that this method is cruel and inefficient by looking at human history. Jesus Himself was crucified for spreading the message this way. St. Stephen, St. Paul, and all the Apostles except for St. John are thought to have suffered violent deaths for spreading the Gospel message. We can see that this method is inefficient because 2,000 years later there are still people in the world who have not heard about Jesus. Some people have heard the message so poorly communicated that thay are not inclined to accept it. Yet we do not deny that God chose to use this method to spread the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ. Neither can we conclude that God did not use evolution because to us it seems cruel and inefficient. If you do not accept evolution as being from God, then I suppose you have one fewer "God-is-cruel" scenario to wrestle with. But it is a mistake to say, "In my judgment this process is cruel, so therefore God must not have permitted this process to occur."2. Common Sense"The idea that we all crawled out of the mud is contrary to common sense."So is the idea that we are living on a little globe spinning around a sun through empty space. But here we are.3. Random Chance Creating Order"You could shake up a bunch of watch parts in a bucket all day long and never get a watch."I've never met anyone who has tried shaking up those watch parts for a million years, or even for 10,000 years. I don't think the mechanism is the same, anyway.4. Evolution and Christian Faith are Incompatible"Theistic evolution is sitting on the fence. Pick one or the other."So is theistic meteorology sitting on the fence, but most Christians believe in it. God sends rain according to His plan, but water evaporates from the oceans and falls out of clouds as rain. They are both true. There is no conflict. Even Elijah knew that clouds were a sign of rain, although it was God who directed them (1 Kings 18:44).5. Theistic Evolution is a CompromiseMy dictionary defines a compromise as "a settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions". There is the additional implication that these concessions are bad because we don't want to give up part of the Bible. Certainly we do not! So let's look at what we give up in the alleged "compromise" of theistic evolution. So - theistic evolution does not fit the definition of a compromise because we don't have to give up anything that is truly of value to our faith. Now let's look at what we gain. 6. Evolution is Not "Very Good" In Genesis 1:31 God looks over all that He has made: "And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good." This verse is used to contend that evolution cannot be part of God's plan because natural selection, the survival of the fittest, cannot be "very good" in God's eyes. Creationists quote a fragment of the very last paragraph of Darwin's book as evidence that evolution is not very good: "...the war of nature, from famine and death...".
But the original Hebrew word has more meanings than that. can mean the planet, the land and its inhabitants, ground, soil, country, or territory (Zodhiates, page 1600-1601). When the late Menachem Begin and other Zionists speak of , or Greater Israel, they are referring to Israel's pre-1967 boundaries plus Jerusalem and the West Bank of the Jordan River. They are not laying claim to the Himalayas. If we understand to mean the region of the Middle East, then the story of Noah's flood does not have to cover Mt. Everest at 29,028 feet.Let the Earth Bring Forth.
The phrase "let the earth bring forth..." occurs three times in Genesis 1 (verses 11, 20 with water, 24). It does not refer to simple growth from nutrients, because this chapter is about creation. The literal meaning of this phrase matches theistic evolution better than any other creation theory! It's almost a definition of theistic evolution, which is why I put it at the top of this essay. God commanded the earth to produce animals, and the planet did so according to His command.These verses contradict the idea of direct creation of non-human life forms. Carnivores
There are several verses in Genesis that are taken to mean that animals were vegetarian until the Flood. Genesis 1:30 states: "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." After the Flood, God states in Genesis 9:3 "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things."I like the idea expressed in Genesis 1:30 of God's providence for all creatures. I also like the idea of the Peaceable Kingdom, where the lion lies down with the lamb and there is no violence. We don't have a clear indication of when the carnivorous animals switched to eating meat, because Genesis 9:3 refers only to mankind. Job 39:27-30 could indicate that eagles were created as carnivorous animals, but it's not clear enough by itself. I have looked at the sharp teeth of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and they don't look like something created by an to chew vegetation. Since I understand the references to death in Romans 5:12 to mean spiritual death, the presence of carnivorous animals does not pose a theological problem. This issue is not essential for salvation. I simply don't know how Genesis 1:30 fits in with what I can observe about animals. When taken with verse 29, the two verses could be merely a description of who gets to eat what kind of vegetation (man - seeds and fruit, animals and birds - grasses and plants). I do know that verse 30 occurs in a section that describes God's providence for all creatures, and that is the faith message I can take from it.With regard to pre-history and evolution, we do not know how long satan has been allowed some measure of influence and interference in the world. The Garden of Eden sounds somewhat like a sanctuary set up by God to guard Adam and Eve against the outside world. Was there trouble and danger out there even before the Fall of Mankind?In any case, the creation account in Genesis 1-2 is incomplete. Astronomy shows us this in a spectacular fashion. I think that the biological account in Genesis is also incomplete. Who can completely describe the mighty work of creation in just 2 chapters? Not Moses, nor any other possible human author of Genesis. God Almighty rested for the only time recorded in the Bible! I think there is a lot more that happened historically than just those relatively few words in Genesis 1-2. I think a few sentences cover millions of historical years, such as in Genesis 2:7: "The time came when the Lord God formed a man's body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person."Is the Bible incomplete? Yes, John says so at the end of his Gospel, in 20:30-31: "There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name." John repeats the "incomplete" assertion in 21:25: "There were many other things that Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written."What we have is sufficient for Faith. The details left out are interesting, but they are not needed for Faith and Salvation. So we need not worry about the Bible being incomplete. We have enough testimony, both for our own faith and to witness to the world. I don't usually grind through the beginning of Genesis verse by verse, trying to match each one individually with a scientific or historical finding. I think that that approach obscures the greater faith message of the Author.
The Hebrew word used here for "men" is "Ghever," and it is commonly associated with warfare. Exodus does not specify how or if the men were armed (unless perhaps Exodus 13:18b?), but we know that numerical strength meant a great deal in the military accounts of the Old Testament. 600,000 soldiers of any kind would make for an enormous army in antiquity, about ten times as many soldiers as fought at the Battle of Kadesh (an Egyptian-Hittite clash on the river Orontes) in the same era. Yet it does not seem to occur to the fleeing Israelites to fight back against the pursuing Egyptians. They behave like a small band of trapped refugees. Other Bible sources, such as the census that was taken later, indicate a much smaller number of Hebrew refugees.


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Served cold
The Lexicon article on Butterbeer says that the drink can be served both hot and cold. I found the source for it being served hot (PoA10), but I couldn't find where it's stated that it's served cold. Anyone know? ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 01:42, December 25, 2009 (UTC)
- As of now, I don't know either, but if i got information regarding this, i will inform you immediately. --ÈnŔîčö DC(Send me an Owl!) 14:45, December 25, 2009 (UTC)
Real World
Do they make real-life butterbeer? If so, where can I get some? Mushroomtube579 01:54, December 25, 2009 (UTC)Mushroomtube579
- Yeah, In The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando, Florida U.S.A. that will be open Spring season Next year. --ÈnŔîčö DC(Send me an Owl!) 14:49, December 25, 2009 (UTC)
Butterbeer glass mugs?
Does anyone know if you will be able to buy those mugs at Universal? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.127.116.11 (talk • contribs).
In the Romania books this is named BereZero , that Zero Beer in Enghlish , and it meens alcohol-free beer . But in English books is Butterbeer , and that meens Butter Beer and butter is an aliment not alcohol-free . --Roselyn 11:49, January 4, 2011 (UTC)
Harry, Ron and Hermione bought it in the 3 Broom sticks when they were 13 and no body batted an eye. And Lupin gave some to Harry, too. Why are 13-year-olds allowed to drink it if there's alcohol in it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Eievie (talk • contribs).
- It's because butterbeer has such a low alcohol content that it's not feasible for a human to become seriously intoxicated on it. Note that Ron implies he could not purchase firewhisky, a much harder substance, at the Three Broomsticks at the age of 15 in OotP. -- 1337star (Drop me a line!) 00:48, May 1, 2012 (UTC)
No Alcohol?
The article asserts that it is never mentioned anywhere in the franchise that this drink actually contains alcohol. Is that true, or does anyone know of a reference that would actually prove that it does contain alcohol? ProfessorTofty (talk) 21:36, December 15, 2012 (UTC)
- Doesn't Harry mention in the sixth book how he wonders how Ron and Hermione's relationship will change under the effects of Butterbeer? And then there's the fact that Hermione seems drunk (she might just be really happy) after she finishes her butterbeer at the three broomsticks. And house-elves get really drunk off it... --Hunnie Bunn (Owl me!) 20:57, January 20, 2013 (UTC)
- Yeah, you're right. Thanks for that! ProfessorTofty (talk) 21:39, January 20, 2013 (UTC)


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Mary Altaffer / AP
Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his wife Janna arrive at a campaign event on Sunday in Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – In a sign that the Republican ticket is trying to expand the electoral map before Tuesday's election, Paul Ryan held his first public campaign rally since being selected as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick in the traditionally blue state of Minnesota with just two days to go before Election Day.
"Minnesota, you gonna help us win this election?" Ryan asked a nearly 6,500-person crowd in the Twin Cities.
Until recently, neither Ryan nor his running mate paid much attention to the North Star state, which President Barack Obama won in 2008 and which awards 10 electoral votes.
Eric Thayer / Reuters
Supporters listen as Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan attends a campaign event in Minneapolis, Minn. on Sunday.
Ryan and his wife, Janna, ate dinner in downtown St. Paul last week, and he held a fundraiser in Minneapolis on Oct. 13. But Sunday's rally marks the first public event for either Ryan or Romney during the general election.
Speaking at an airport hangar at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with about 48 hours before Election Day, Ryan asked Minnesotans to unite behind Romney-Ryan.
"We could use your help, Minnesota. How about it? What do you say?" he said to cheers. "Look at this: Vikings for Romney-Ryan. Even Vikings fans and Packers fans can lie down together for this country."
He even joked about how he is constantly confused for being from Minnesota.
Ryan said: "You know, as I travel around the country and this has been my story for years, in D.C., people say 'Oh yeah, Ryan, you're that budget guy from Minnesota, right?' I say, 'No I'm from Wisconsin, close. We're the Catholic deer hunters; they are the Lutheran deer hunters."
It was Ryan's largest solo campaign crowd to date and he fed off the energy in the state that borders his home state of Wisconsin.
"You know this is a critical election. You know it's a critical moment. We can't handle four more years of this, and Minnesota, work with us. Join with us. Together we can do this. Two more days and we get America back on the right track you guys. Two more days!" Ryan said.
Sunday's stop in the Twin Cities area is one of four events for Ryan as he also held events in Wisconsin and Ohio earlier in the day and will head to Colorado for a final rally tonight.


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Groveport resident Diane Factor is looking forward to a visit from her brother sometime in the next few weeks.
Groveport resident Diane Factor is looking forward to a visit from her brother sometime in the next few weeks.
Then they'll both hit the road: Her brother, Dave Brown, is walking across the United States via U.S. Routes 40 and 50 to commemorate his late wife, Joan Chermack Brown, and raise money for ovarian cancer research. Factor plans to join him in his trek through Ohio.
Brown, a Newark native, began his walk Feb. 28 in Atlantic City. The 61-year-old has been averaging about 14 miles a day since leaving the coast and will have covered about 3,000 miles total by the time he reaches San Francisco.
He has been faithfully recording photos and anecdotes from each day's walk and posting them on his website, ocjoan.blogspot.com.
Factor said Brown's schedule would have him traversing across Ohio from March 29 through April 14. She looks forward to cheering him on and walking with him, she said.
"We both grew up in Newark," she said. "Dave graduated from Newark Catholic High School, and our mom, Leola Brown, and brother, Dan Brown, both still live there.
"He's hoping to raise awareness and money for research -- $100,000 total -- and we're hoping that his native state will be particularly supportive of his efforts as he walks through Ohio."
Brown is collecting donations online and via check in memory of his deceased wife for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Thus far, he has raised about $10,000 toward the $100,000 goal.
Factor said that along with the donations, her brother has been very thankful for the offers of lodging as he crosses the country; she said he's had to stay in a motel only one night thus far, thanks to everyone's generosity and support.
Although the project seemed overly ambitious at first, she said, she soon realized that if anyone could do it, her brother could, and she quickly agreed to support him.
"After Joan died in 2011, he told us about this idea, and I said, 'That's a long time, and 3,000 miles is a long way,' but after it settled in, I agreed it was a wonderful thing for him to do," Factor said. "Both Dave and Joan were members of the American Volkssport Association, a walking club that they did a lot of events with before she died, so it makes sense he'd want to do this.
"Joan was such a wonderful person, and they were both avid walkers who had about 30 great years together."
According to Factor, Joan Brown received a clean check-up in February 2011 before suddenly falling ill in April. She succumbed in August 2011.
"It's such a scary disease and easy to miss the signs, so part of what Dave is doing is passing out educational information on cards along the way," Factor said.
Brown wrote on his website that his wife had asked him to do something to help educate women about ovarian cancer. He refers to her as "the love of my life."
"Before she passed away from the dreaded disease, she told me if there was anything that I could do to use her experience to help other women with ovarian cancer, she was for it," he wrote. "This is the reason for the walk."
Information about ovarian cancer, daily travel updates, donations, providing lodging or Brown's walking route are available on his website or by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com.


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A site for the Marsden Fund projects at the University of Otago and the University of Canterbury
Investigators: Zach Weber; Maarten McKubre-Jordens
Monday, November 19, 2012
"Non-Classical Analysis" PhD position open in Christchurch
Along with the Models project here at Otago, another Marsden project on paraconsistent real analysis is starting up at the University of Canterbury: Applications are invited for a PhD student on the Marsden-funded project Non-classical Foundations of Analysis. The project seeks new mathematical models of the continuum, using paraconsistent logics to prove theorems that are classically hidden by inconsistency. The successful applicant will carry out doctoral study at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. The topic of the thesis is flexible within the parameters of the project; the appointment is for three years. For details, see the project website.
Posted by Zach Weber at 4:47 PM
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No announcement yet.
Sugar VS HFCS
new posts
Senior Member
- Dec 2006
- 444
It would be easier to use more sugar if the price of it wasn't artificially inflated.
Why Congress Should Repeal Sugar Subsidy | Chris Edwards | Cato Institute: Daily Commentary
REALLY High Fructose Corn Syrup
Interesting story here:
HFCS in soda has much more fructose than advertised, a new study finds - latimes.com
BOOSTER SHOTS: Oddities, musings and news from the health world
High-fructose corn syrup in soda has much more fructose than advertised, study finds
By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
11:58 AM PDT, October 26, 2010
High-fructose corn syrup is often singled out as Food Enemy No. 1 because it has become ubiquitous in processed foods over about the last 30 years ????? a period that coincides with a steep rise in obesity. One of the primary sources of HFCS in the American diet is soda ????? in fact, many public health advocates refer to soda as ???liquid candy.???
That nickname is more apt than advocates realized, according to a study published online this month by the journal Obesity.
Researchers from the University of Southern California???"?s Keck School of Medicine went shopping in East Los Angeles and bought 23 cans and bottles of popular beverages. Then they sent them off to a laboratory in Massachusetts that used a technique called high-performance liquid chromatography to determine how much fructose, glucose and sucrose were in each sample. Each beverage was tested three times, and all samples were unlabeled.
Before we get to the results, let???"?s pause for a quick review on sugars. Fructose and glucose are simple sugars. Fructose is sweeter than glucose and has been shown to do more damage to your metabolism. Sucrose ????? better known as table sugar ????? is a 50-50 combination of fructose and glucose. The HFCS used in soda is supposed to contain no more than 55% fructose and 45% glucose, according to the Corn Refiners Assn. (Another popular formulation is 42% fructose and 58% glucose.) This slight difference is the reason why we here at Booster Shots frequently say that HFCS is just as unhealthy as ???natural??? sugar.
But it turns out that some of the stuff they put in soda isn???"?t HFCS, it???"?s RHFCS ????? Really High Fructose Corn Syrup.
The Keck researchers found that the sweeteners in Coca-Cola and Pepsi contained as much as 65% fructose (and only 35% glucose), and Sprite registered as much as 64% fructose (and 36% glucose).
???The type of sugar listed on the label is not always consistent with the type of sugar detected,??? they wrote. ???Considering that the average American drinks 50 gallons of soda and other sweetened beverages each year, it is important that we have more precise information regarding what they contain, including a listing of the fructose content.???
To make sure the high-performance liquid chromatography tests were accurate, the researchers also sent samples of pure fructose, pure glucose and pure sucrose. The test detected 9.9 grams of fructose in a 10-gram sample of fructose, 9.8 grams of glucose in a 10-gram sample of glucose, and 9 grams of sucrose in a 10-gram sample of sucrose.
The study included a few other surprises:
- Mountain Dew had 13% less sugar than advertised on the label, and Dr. Pepper had 8% less.
- Tested samples of Mexican Coca-Cola ????? which is supposedly made with cane sugar instead of HFCS ????? contained no sucrose, only fructose and glucose in a 52%-to-48% ratio.
- 17% of the sweetener in Red Bull was fructose, even though sucrose and glucose are the only sweeteners listed on the label.
Nestle continued: "At most, HFCS is supposed to be 55% fructose, as compared to the 50% in table sugar. Most foods and drinks are supposed to be using HFCS that is 42% fructose. A percentage of 55 is not much different biologically than 50, which is why the assumption has been that there is no biologically meaningful difference between HFCS and table sugar. This study, if confirmed, means that this supposition may need some rethinking."
The USC researchers pointed out that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows for some wiggle room on nutrition labels. Sodas are allowed to have as much as 20% more of a nutrient ????? including sugar and HFCS ????? than is indicated on the side of the can. Even Cokes and Pepsis with 65% fructose instead of 55% are only 18% higher than advertised.
Sorry if i dug this up. But it should be known that different bottlers in Mexico use different formulations for Coca-Cola. For example:
Coke from Tijuana has the best taste to me very even, not too sweet but yet not too bitter, Jalisco, Acapulco, Aguascalientes are also decent.
However Coke from Nogales, Mexicali, Zacatecas...is not so good.
It's also worth noting that 90% of the 12oz bottles I have found at Smart N Final, Costco, and other stores have been the more bitter Mexicali formula.
However I once saw some 12oz at Food 4 Less that was from Tijuana...only once in 5 years have I found that variant.
Always look at the cap to see which bottler it is, then note the taste associated with it, and you'll never fail picking the right one up next time.
Originally posted by Mr Zabe View PostSo, Mexican Coke that the US market gets is not what we thought it was, beet or cane sugar?
There seems to be a time-relationship, too. I once kept an unopened 2-liter bottle of 7-Up refrigerated for several years, and then tested it to find that the sugar content had basically become 100% glucose. So, I guess there's a reaction that eventually breaks down the fructose into glucose. Possibly the latter is slightly more stable?
It would be interesting to test a bottle right off the production line. To account for how much better the sodas that start with sucrose taste, it might be that near 50/50 fructose/glucose mixtures are "special". Or maybe the enzyme process to produce fructose from corn syrup has a side effect that shifts the taste slightly? I'm guessing that *someone* has done research on this. Perhaps the soda companies before they first started using HFCS....


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In Which We Learn How To Correctly Prepare A Canvas For Painting
I Paint
by MOLLY LAMBERT
Because I didn't go to art school, a class in the painting department was out of the question. Instead I signed up for the introductory painting class in the illustration department. The illustration department was a sort of more old style branch of the school, like what I imagined a 1950s art school to be like. The idea that you could teach somebody how to make art seemed as ridiculous to me as the idea you could teach someone how to write. You either could or you couldn't. You can or you can't.
I was deciding between drawing and painting. Like most people, I maintain a variety of side talents that I can imagine could be my main talent if only I were a little more focused on it, and I am very talented at drawing. I spent the majority of my school years drawing in notebooks during class and while my style is more caricaturish than strictly realistic, I am pretty fucking good. So the prospect of drawing in a real art class was exciting, as was that of life models, which seemed really official and traditional. But given the choice, the asceticism of drawing; the discipline and repetition verging on tedium, the limited supplies? It didn't stand a chance against the painting class.
Painting, with all its accessories and trappings, had mystique I could not explain. It appealed deeply to my Irish-Catholic half, the side of me that enjoys going to botánicas and cataloguing sins and saints. But it mostly had to do with paintings. With the way that observing certain paintings could induce really powerful feelings in me.
I wanted to see what I had inside. The same way I was sure I could write a great song if I only knew how to play the guitar, I was convinced I had paintings in me. I was sure they would come out of me as soon as I got a brush in my hand. That when I had a little technique and a canvas in front of me it would be impossible to contain them.
On the first day of class I ran into a really pretty girl I kind of knew who had inspired me a few months before to stop wearing bras entirely after seeing her at a restaurant in a wife-beater without one. "Wow, cool" I'd thought admiringly, "She doesn't give a fuck. And neither do I!" I tend to overdo it when I go to an extreme. She was on her way to the drawing class, and encouraged me to come so we could be in it together. I thought about it for a second. I loved making friends, especially very attractive ones. But I was really committed to the idea of the introductory painting class. To painting.
Every week after that I'd see her in the stairwell. We'd greet each other, then she'd turn the other way to head into the drawing class. Even when I didn't see her I would imagine her going to the drawing class to sketch and long to have followed her that first day. Being good at drawing, it turned out, had no bearing on other kinds of art.
The painting teacher was a tall willowy bald man in a tunic with the kind of round frame glasses favored by older artist types. He commuted in weekly from New York. He was cold, with a zen master manner that appealed to me. I decided immediately that I liked him. In retrospect he was gay but I never thought about it at the time. During the first class he showed us some of his recent work; a series of grayscale oil paintings of the interior of a washing machine. "This guy is fucking serious," I thought admiringly.
I was a senior in college, avoiding thinking about what I was going to do exactly after graduating. My boyfriend of a year had gone abroad and I was unprepared to feel so weird about our breakup. I'd decided not to do a thesis because a big project that was due all at once and mostly unsupervised seemed like the worst possible idea for a Ferris Bueller finish everything at the last minute person like me. But my friends were incredibly busy, and I had too much time to think about how I really felt (terrible).
Painting seemed like an elegant solution to all my problems. In lieu of a thesis, it would give me one thing to focus on. Going down to the art school would provide variety in my routine and I could devote all my unspoken for spare time to working on my paintings. To becoming a painter, a thing I was sure I could also be. It didn't occur to me that I might later resent my own arrogant blitheness that it would be easy.
I bought as many art supplies as I could afford, which was not all that many because I learned quickly that oil painting is a truly expensive pursuit. I was attracted to the accessories, the tinctures and tools. But I'd had no idea just how many accessories there really were, how much alchemy and liniment went into preparing the canvases. How familiar I'd soon become with the nightmarish poetic phrase "rabbit-skin glue."
I might have known some of this if I had asked any of my many, many friends who painted and took art classes even the most rudimentary questions about what a painting class might entail in advance of signing up for the painting class at the art school. But I had just charged in confidently like an idiot, like I generally always did.
The first few weeks of the class knocked the arrogance right out of me. I couldn't do anything. I had no knowledge, no background, no color theory. I thinned the paint wrong. I held the brush wrong. I couldn't mix colors correctly to save my life. Everyone else in the class seemed to know exactly what they were doing. They could all paint.
I asked for help every minute, but it didn't help any. I was terrible. Relentlessly terrible. Terrible in new and inventively terrible ways, ways that seemed to baffle the teacher and any classmates who caught a glance of my canvases. There was a wall between me and being any good at painting, and I could not get over the wall. I could barely even make out its sides. But I felt it there in front of my face, blocking me from my goal.
All we painted were still lifes. There would be three set-ups and over three hours, and each session was a lesson for me in abject failure. I was the worst person in the class by a long shot and it was humiliating. I fucking sucked. The teacher would come stand near me and just sort of shake his head. He was right to be confused. Why was I there?
Our homework was the same as the classwork. Three still lifes, a different color scheme each week. I went to the art building on my campus and set up my easel and materials by the picture window. I was jealous of the studio cubicles, especially of the clippings taped up inside, your own space to just dwell on inspirations and ideas.
Having a cubicle means you are a real artist, I thought. I saw the real artists I knew, working on their thesis projects, utterly consumed in themselves. "Why didn't I do a thesis? Why didn't I write a novel? Or short stories? Because I am a fucking idiot."
Then I tried to paint the shells that I was looking at again, and failed. Each attempt a failure in a totally different way. In one the shells are much too pink. In another the arrangement appears two dimensional. I found a new way to fail every time. I painted slower, then faster. Sober, then high. I went to the studio drunk and ended up falling asleep on the bench in the lobby. I woke up and outside the glass it was snowing.
I began to dread painting, because I dreaded being terrible. I hated the endless inevitable failures that were my attempts at translating an image from real life onto a canvas. I did not enjoy being terrible at it, and the classwork and homework were so rigid that there was no possibility of adjusting the subject matter to my outsider style, as I had done in other fields such as dance. I wondered a lot why it was that I so vehemently couldn't enjoy something I wasn't good at. How egotistical that was.
I was accustomed to picking things up easily, impressing and occasionally frustrating others with the seeming effortlessness with which I could pick new things up at will. There was no picking up painting. It was hard work and I was out of my depth. And I could tell. And the teacher could really tell, and he was getting sick of my excuses.
I had been able to bullshit my way through a lot of things in life, but I could not bullshit a painting. Furthermore, there was no failing, because I had already failed a class earlier in the year. I needed the credit to graduate. I stopped going to class.
My refusal to attend coincided with a big snowstorm after a long weekend and I wrote off the first couple weeks of missed classes as weather related. The third week I was just slacking and knew it. The teacher knew it too. He e-mailed to say he'd fail me if I didn't show up the next week. "This guy is fucking serious," I thought irritatedly.
I came back to class and tried to be less of an asshole, but was almost definitely even more of one in this attempt. The only place I really thrived in the class was during the critiques. Oh I had opinions about everyone's paintings. Positive ones! I could talk all day about what I liked about one painting or another. I loved talking about what I liked about things. I was still the worst painter but I sure talked the most during the crits.
I thought a lot about this tendency I had, towards language. How when I saw a tree I immediately began describing it in my head. I had talked about it with my boyfriend right before he'd left. He had countered that he never did that. That when he looked at the tree he saw only the tree. And if he started to break it down, it was into colors and shapes. Images, not words. I didn't understand. He never read for pleasure either.
Painting seemed more mystical than ever. Now that my fantasy of being good at it had been destroyed and replaced with the truth (that I sucked) I was in complete awe of anyone with any painting talent. Anyone who was better than me was a genius. I admired those with talents I couldn't master. It was like being good at a sport.
I continued to go to class. I stopped dreading failure. I didn't expect failure, but neither was I devastated when it happened. My ego was no longer in it. I had no natural talent for painting, but that didn't mean none could be cultivated. Sometimes I'd feel as though I had gotten one detail about the set-up across in my painting, and that would satisfy me enough to keep going. I had a couple of stupid winter hats, and whenever I wore one I was mistaken for an art student (and then asked directions).
It was not sudden but I began to understand. I started to look at things differently. I learned to think about the quality of the light. How things appeared to be different colors depending what time of day it was. How to observe buildings. How to describe without words. How this was a whole other language, a universal one, and I did know it. I had just been trying too hard to force everything into my own native dialect.
We stopped doing still lifes and started painting nudes. I liked the life models. I felt connected to my own brushstrokes and color choices in a way I previously hadn't. Whatever it was I was trying to comprehend, I couldn't possibly put it into words, and I understood now how that was the point (zen master indeed). I had climbed the wall.
As with any fallow time, when I think about this period of my life I just wind up romanticizing it. I remember how cold I was and how heartbroken, how thwarted I felt and how hurt. I see myself riding my bike to the studio through the snow, listening to Southern gangsta rap on headphones, the music you listen to that helps blunt your feelings (rather than the miserable music you use to indulge them) with my portfolio slung over my shoulder. How determined I must have looked. It makes me laugh.
I proposed a series of paintings of small toys for my final project and was approved. I hung out with my other recently single friend who was an actual painter and we worked on our art in her attic room which had a big awesome skylight. We smoked joints and listened to Electric Light Orchestra albums on her record player while we painted. That I thought I was miserable that semester seems so ridiculous now.
I had no idea if I was going to pass the painting class given those three absences, and passing was necessary for my graduating, and graduating seemed crucial given how much money I was now (am) in debt for. I was nervous regarding a lot of other things about my immediate future, absolutely none of which would turn out to matter at all.
When I think of the thing I might have written that semester had I dedicated myself to it I feel no remorse. No regret that I failed to take on a big writing project instead. No curiosity about what I might have produced. It would never have been any good. You cannot produce something great on purpose or on schedule. The painting class was more important, akin to psychedelics. It was the most important class I ever took.
The teacher surveyed my final project; small still lifes of toy cars. In his affectless tone he said something measuredly complimentary about my curve towards improvement and I felt myself stir with deep pride. How could I tell him how much it meant that he had tolerated me, had humbled me, had let me learn the lesson for myself? And then how much I had learned? I couldn't tell him, so I didn't. I passed painting with a C.
Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She is a writer living in Los Angeles. She twitters here and tumbls here. She last wrote in these pages about her feud with Jack Nicholson.