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Having rather heartily endorsed the cliff deal yesterday (see directly below), I now feel compelled to consider the opposing case. In political terms, I think there's no doubt Obama "won." But let's think about more from a policy perspective.
I taped a radio interview yesterday evening with Joshua Holland, the host of AlterNet's radio show and a fine fellow, and he challenged me on yesterday's column. He caught me a tad off guard, damn him, by talking actual substance! He pointed to a post by Brad Plumer on Wonkblog at The Washington Post in which Plumer noted that the terms of the deal in fact add up to more austerity than England and Spain:
A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests Congress has enacted around $304 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts for the coming year, an austerity package that comes to about 1.9 percent of GDP. (That's merely the size of the cuts and taxes; it's not necessarily the effect on growth.)
This includes the expiration of the payroll tax cut, which will raise about $125 billion this year. It includes $50 billion in scheduled cuts to discretionary spending from the caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act, as well as $24 billion in new Obamacare taxes and $27 billion in new high-income taxes. It also includes about $78 billion from the now-delayed sequester cuts — assuming that these either take effect or are swapped with other cuts.
As Plumer acknowledges, it's hard to compare this to other countries because there's no consistent baseline scenario. Even so, it's interesting to chew on, and concerning.
Obama did a good job in these negotiations within the box, shall we say. His list of wins is a lot longer than the Republicans' is within that box. But what he doesn't do enough of on economic questions in particular is try to take the conversation outside the box.
This is going to be tremendously important in the next two months. Republicans are going to define the upcoming debate as getting government spending under control, which always polls well. They're going to have certain stupid centrist groups that obsess about the debt on their side. It can be hard in a context like that to explain to people that there's such a thing as good government spending, that without some public-sector investment, the economy will stall.
Obama and most Democrats tend to make a fairness/compassion argument against domestic spending cuts the GOP wants: "I'm not going to balance the budget on the backs of working poor people" and so on. That, too, polls well, so maybe it's the right thing.
But he really should make a macroeconomic argument as well. I'd think that might be possible by using the European case: "They chose austerity and they're stuck in neutral over there." It can't hurt for people to see a Democratic president saying we should not emulate Europe, which leaves the GOP saying we should. A nice switch!


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Red and Orange Hues
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subset: commoncrawl


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This week in new hires, Aberdeen Asset Management announced the opening of a New York City office; MFS Investment Management welcomed Philip Stewart and promoted David Bryant; Leslie Voth was named CEO at Pitcairn; and Michael Millman joined U.S. Bank's Private Client Reserve in San Francisco.
Also, John Fleurant moved up at New York Life; Eric Kolts joined Commonfund; Gil Ahrens went to Citi Private Bank; Mike McNamee moved up at the Investment Company Institute; and Lori Stafford-Thomas joined Jackson National Life.
Aberdeen Opens Office in New York City
Aberdeen Asset Management recently announced the opening of a new office in New York City. Sir Peter Westmacott, British ambassador to the United States; Roger Cornick, Aberdeen's chairman; and Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen's chief executive, marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Aberdeen has had operations in the U.S. since 1995 and established its North American headquarters in Philadelphia in 2005. The new office will serve as a business development and marketing center.
MFS Adds New Positions in Midwest, Southeast
MFS Investment Management announced Tuesday that it has expanded its defined contribution investments (DCI) specialist sales team from seven to nine, with the addition of new positions in the midwest and southeast. Philip Stewart has joined the firm as a DCI specialist, responsible for DCI sales in the midwest, and is based in Minneapolis. David Bryant, formerly an inside DCI specialist, has been promoted to DCI specialist, focused on the southeast.
Prior to joining, Stewart spent 16 years with Wells Fargo, the last seven of which were spent working directly with advisors and retirement consultants in the defined contribution marketplace.
Bryant joined in 2008 as an internal wholesaler and was named an internal DCI specialist in 2010. He began his career in the financial services industry in 2007 at State Street Corp.
Pitcairn Names Leslie Voth CEO
The board of directors of Pitcairn Co. announced the appointment of Leslie Voth, president, as CEO, succeeding Dirk Jungé, who continues as chairman.
Voth was appointed to her previous position as president and COO in 2008, after having been a member of the senior management team since 1996. Prior to joining, Voth was vice president of the Meritor Financial Group for nine years.
U.S. Bank's Private Client Reserve in San Francisco Welcomes Millman
U.S. Bank announced Tuesday that Michael Millman has been appointed senior vice president and wealth management advisor for The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank in San Francisco. In this role, he will develop and implement customized investment strategies and plans for high-net-worth individuals and families.
Millman brings more than 17 years of private banking, financial planning, and investment management and trust experience to his new post. Before joining, he served as senior vice president and wealth advisor for Wells Fargo Private Bank. He has held senior-level advisory positions with such firms as Bank of America Private Bank, Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab & Co. John Fleurant Named Deputy Chief Financial Officer for New York Life
New York Life announced Monday that John Fleurant has been promoted to deputy chief financial officer, a new position. He will report to Michael Sproule, executive vice president and CFO. Fleurant will also retain his current roles as senior vice president of finance and controller, positions he has occupied since joining the company in 2010.
Immediately prior to joining the company, Fleurant served as controller at Prudential Financial. After joining Prudential in 1995, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including chief financial officer for domestic businesses. Before that, he was a senior manager for Deloitte & Touche, where he spent nine years.
Commonfund Names Eric Kolts Managing Director in Commodities Group
Commonfund recently announced the appointment of Eric Kolts as managing director in its commodities group. In this newly created position, he will participate in the development of new commodities strategies, as well as work alongside Commonfund's account-specific relationship officers. He will be based in Wilton, Conn., and report to Tyler Stevens, managing director, commodities group.
Prior to joining, Kolts was head of global marketing and sales, Merit Commodity Partners (Global Commodity Finance), New York City and Dubai. Previously, he served as vice president—product manager, commodity indices at Standard & Poor's. He was also a director at Dow Jones Indices.
Citi Private Bank Adds Ahrens in Palo Alto
Citi Private Bank announced that Gil Ahrens has joined the firm's Palo Alto office as director and UHNW private banker. He will report to Lisa Roberts, northern California region executive.
Ahrens joins from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Palo Alto, where he was most recently a director in the firm's private wealth management group working with a broad network of venture capital and investment banking clients. Prior to his wealth management role, Mr. Ahrens had been with JPMorgan since 2007 as managing director, head of venture coverage. He previously spent eight years at Piper Jaffray & Co.; three years before that at Cowen & Co. as an investment banker; and began his career at Sanyo Electric Co. in 1991 in strategic planning.
ICI Names Mike McNamee Chief Public Communications Officer
The Investment Company Institute has named Mike McNamee its chief public communications officer. In his new role, he will be responsible for all media and public relations, public policy writing, editorial, website, and design activities, and for the ICI Education Foundation. He will report to ICI President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens and replaces F. Gregory Ahern, who held the post for the past eight years.
Previously, McNamee was senior director, policy writing and editorial. He joined ICI in 2006 as director, media relations. Prior to joining ICI, he was deputy Washington bureau chief at BusinessWeek, where he had held numerous positions during his long tenure there. He also worked as Washington economics correspondent for The Dallas Morning News, economics reporter at USA Today, and business editor of The Indianapolis Star. As a journalist, McNamee made frequent broadcast appearances as a commentator on financial and economic issues. Lori Stafford-Thomas Joins Jackson National Life
Jackson National Life Insurance Co. announced Monday that Lori Stafford-Thomas has joined the company's corporate communications team as director of external communications. In her new role, she will oversee the media relations and external outreach efforts of Jackson and its affiliates, including National Planning Holdings and Curian Capital. She will also be responsible for maintaining and enhancing the corporate image of the company and its subsidiaries. She is based in Denver and will report to Matt Gonring, vice president of corporate communications.
Stafford-Thomas has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications. Prior to joining, she held the positions of assistant vice president of strategic marketing and communications and AVP of corporate communications at Fiserv. She has also headed the communication departments at Modine Manufacturing Co. and Sports Buff Promotions. Earlier, she was a television anchor for nine years with WISN-TV (ABC) in Milwaukee.
Read the Oct. 10 New Hire Roundup at AdvisorOne.


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Current mortgage rates in Norwich, Connecticut
While newspapers such as The Norwich Bulletin have always been great vehicles for gathering local real estate news and information, consumers now can easily track mortgage interest rates for Norwich in a real-time format and contact the mortgage company directly themselves via telephone or e-mail inquiring about a mortgage for Norwich.
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Before you buy a new house in norwich, CT or refinance your existing home to a lower rate, it is advisable to compare the current mortgage rates offered by leading lenders in CT. We've done extensive research to find top-rated lenders with competitive rates in CT and last updated these rates on . It is easy to compare the different interest rates and terms offered by local lenders in CT and you can contact any of the lenders by simply clicking on the "Go" button below the lender's logo.


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syngo.via WebViewer
syngo.via WebViewer provides mobile access to images - in diagnostic reading quality
syngo.via WebViewer1 is the mobile extension of syngo.via. A tablet or web browser is all you need to access images in diagnostic reading quality, including thin-slices and image reconstructions, from Apple devices.2 If you cannot access a syngo.via workstation, for example, when you are somewhere in the hospital outside of the radiology department, traveling or at home – with syngo.via WebViewer, you get instant mobile access3 to clinical cases, displayed in excellent quality.
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1The application syngo.via WebViewer is not for diagnostic viewing/reading on mobile devices in the US. Please refer to your sales representative whether the product is available for your country. Diagnostic reading of images with a web browser requires a medical grade monitor. For iPhone and iPad country specific laws may apply. Please refer to these laws before using for diagnostic reading/viewing. For Japan: Applications on iPhone / iPad / iPod are not a medical device in Japan. Use at your own risk. They are not intended to be used for diagnosis.
2Apple, the iPhone, the iPad, iPod Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
3Prerequisites include: Internet connection to clinical network, DICOM compliance, meeting of minimum hardware requirements, and adherence to local data security regulations.


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Apply now and join the Creative Cities Network of UNESCO
The call for applications is open to cities that have invested in culture as means to promote sustainable development. See more about the application procedure and apply by the end of June
- April 14, 2019 13:00
- Aseniya Dimitrova
Cities worldwide can now apply to join the Creative Cities Network of the United Nations Education and Science Organization (UNESCO). The network was created in 2004 with the objective to foster international cooperation between those cities that have invested considerably in culture as way to promote sustainable development. It covers the following topics: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music. Nowadays 180 cities in 72 countries from around the world are joining forces to develop common strategies in pursuit of more inclusive, resilient and safer lifestyle. Accordingly, through this initiative cities contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 agenda.
Becoming a creative city means that local authorities are committed to promoting inclusive approaches that involve all stakeholders and vulnerable groups in favour of sustainable development. The former are expected to be sharing good practices, to develop partnerships enhancing creativity and the cultural industries, strengthen participation in cultural life and integrate it in local plans for urban development. The call for 2019 edition is open to UN Members States and Associate Members by the end of June. Applications will be assessed based on action plan and expected contribution to the objective of the Network, together with the commitment of the city to the SDGs.
Find more about the call and the application procedure at the Official page of UNESCO.
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The discussions between Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore about race issues are almost always both amusing and thoughtful. This one from 2011 concerns the controversy I wrote about earlier today about the removal of the n-word from a recent edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
As I said before, it is one thing to hear or read such words and quite another to say or write them. I am not arguing that feeling such a difference and being reluctant to use the word, as is the case with me, is perfectly rational. But I am saying that a case can be made that it would be better to phase out the use of such words except in those situations where we need to use it for historical accuracy or to make a specific point, and even then its use should be minimal.
I am trying to think of a word that had once been used as a race or gender or ethnic or sexual slur and ceased to be considered so over time because people started using it casually and repeatedly. I cannot think of an example but perhaps readers can.
(This clip was aired on January 11, 2011. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)


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Stories of experiences - good and bad - while trekking. The funnier they are the more we like them.
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Mercury is found in the earth's crust and is ubiquitous in the environment. Thus, even without amalgam fillings, everyone has small but measurable blood and urine levels. Amalgam fillings raise these levels slightly, but this has no clinical significance.
The legal limit of safe mercury exposure for industrial workers is 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for 8 hours per day and 50 weeks per year. Exposure at this level will produce urine mercury levels of about 135 micrograms per liter. These levels are much higher than those in the general public but produce no symptoms and are considered safe.
Most people without fillings have a maximum of 5-10 micrograms per liter of urine. Most practicing dentists have levels below 10 micrograms per liter, even though they are exposed to mercury vapor when placing or removing amalgam filings and typically have amalgams in their own teeth. Thus, even with that exposure, the maximum levels found in dentists are only twice those of their patients—and most dentists are have the same levels as most patients. These are far below the levels known to affect health, even in a minor way.
Despite these facts, small percentages of dentists, physicians, and chiropractors are advising patients to have their amalgam fillings replaced with other materials. Their advice is typically accompanied by one or more tests that are either misinterpreted or completely bogus. These activities are the hallmarks of a scam.
Breath Testing
Breath testing is done by asking the patient to chew gum vigorously for several minutes and then probing the mouth with an industrial mercury detector. These instruments measure changes in electrical conductivity caused by absorption of mercury or other metals onto a gold foil film. In the hands of anti-amalgam dentists, several factors combine to produce falsely high readings.
- Vigorous chewing provokes a release of detectable but tiny quantities of mercury in the breath for a few minutes. Because people only chew during a small part of the day, the resultant readings are much higher than the average amounts released per 24 hours. The correct way to quantify mercury release (or potential absorption) is to determine the average amount over a 24-hour period.
- The devices suck in the air so that any metallic vapor and various other compounds are deposited on a gold film. The electrical resistance of the film is measured and interpreted. The volume of the mouth is 100 to 200 cubic centimeters. The device is designed to measure a volume of air several times the capacity of the mouth. When applied to the mouth, it creates a vacuum that causes mercury to be released from the fillings, leading the machine to give an artificially high reading. This reflects not only more mercury than would normally be present, but also other substances (including copper, silver, tin, plastics, foods, and gasses produced by bacteria), which also deposit on the film and change its electrical resistance. Typically the patient is shown how high the needle has gone and told that this number indicates mercury poisoning. Small errors in measurement, or large errors produced by the multiple sampling of the same volume, compound the problem.
- To ensure accuracy, these machines should be calibrated by testing them with standard concentrations of mercury. This is important because over time, the build-up of substances on the gold film tends to raise the readings. Anti-amalgam dentists almost never calibrate their equipment to retain accuracy.
Urine Testing
Because mercury is ubiquitous, the body reaches a steady state in which tiny amounts are absorbed and excreted. Thus, it is common to find mercury in people's urine. Mercury can also be found in the blood, because this is the major medium for transporting materials around the body. Large-scale population studies have shown that the general population has urine-mercury levels below 10 micrograms/liter. Industrial workers, and dentists, who have regular exposure to mercury vapor also have low values. Because urine-mercury levels represent the chronic, steady state, exposure to the body of mercury, they are fairly reliable indicators of past exposure, since they tend to even out the peaks and valleys of transient rises and falls in the blood level. Urine measurements should be performed on the first urine specimen of the day, which would be the most concentrated, or (preferably) on a 24-hour urine specimen.
Urine mercury levels can be artificially raised by administering a mercury scavenger (chelating agent) such as DMPS or DMSA, which collect the small amounts of mercury from the body, concentrate them, and then force them to be excreted. In other words, mercury that normally recirculates within the body is now bound and excreted. The urine level under such circumstances is artificially raised above the steady-state level. A study of urine mercury levels in people given DMSA or a placebo has found no association between the mercury levels and the number of dental amalgam surfaces [1]. The use of a chelating agent before testing—"provoked testing"—should be considered a scam. Anyone told that a urine-mercury level produced after taking DMPS represents a toxic state is being misled.
In February 2005, the State of Connecticut obtained a consent order barring psychiatrist Robban Sica, M.D., from using provoked testing to diagnose "heavy metal toxicity." [2] It would be good if all state licensing boards did the same.
Blood Testing
Mercury is excreted by the kidneys, which filter the blood. The mercury levels of blood are lower than those of urine and therefore more difficult to detect. For this reason, blood testing for mercury is not commonly done. Even at high levels of mercury exposure, industrial workers show blood concentrations in the parts-per-billion range, typically less than 5 parts per billion. These are close to the limits of detection. In this range, the amounts are too small to identify the type of mercury or its source. Urine mercury testing gives a more meaningful picture of exposure and is also more accurate because the mercury is more concentrated.
Skin Testing
Skin testing for allergies is both an art and a science. Correct concentrations of a suspected offender must be correctly applied and interpreted. To be valid, patch testing must be done by a qualified tester using appropriate controls. Mercury patch testing is usually done with corrosive mercury salts that cause the skin to redden and possibly swell. Even very dilute concentrations can cause redness [2]. Anti-amalgamists misinterpret these signs of irritation as allergy or toxicity. So-called "positive" tests indicate only that the body can detect the substance. True allergy to mercury is very rare. Its symptoms are like those of any other allergy and include itching, rashes, and swelling. Allergic responses do not include "brain fog," forgetfulness, or other nonspecific symptoms. Moreover, sensitivity to mercury might be the result of exposure to mercury from other sources, such as certain vaccine preparations, preservatives in cosmetics, or foods (most notably fish).
Stool Testing
No stool test for mercury has been standardized. Fecal mercury levels are not an accurate indicator of mercury exposure. The amount found in stool reflects the amount eaten and not absorbed plus anything excreted in the stool. Stool patterns (frequency, consistency, volume, and density) vary widely from person to person, and thus, the amount of mercury found in stool would be very hard to translate into to body burden, body stores, or excretion. Only about 5-10% of ionic mercury (the kind associated with most alleged poisonings) is absorbed from the gut. The main route of mercury excretion is through the kidneys into the urine, and not into the stool. Further, to make an analysis, ionic mercury must be separated from any organic mercury that occurs in foods, which is difficult to do. Thus, at best, a stool test might indicate that mercury entered the gastrointestinal tract, but it could not provide an accurate measurement of either exposure or what was absorbed into the body.
Hair Analysis
Hair mercury levels are not an accurate indicator of mercury exposure. Hair testing has never been standardized to provide meaningful information. In fact, it cannot be standardized because:
- Traces of everything eaten, imbibed, or breathed can end up in the hair. While hair analysis may be of use for detecting substances—such as arsenic—that are not part of the normal environment, mercury is ubiquitous and is normally found in the hair, whether the person has mercury fillings or not. It gets there from food, water, and air.
- Mercury can be accurately measured in blood and also in urine, which is a distillate of the blood serum. Hair is similar to the outer layer of the skin and has no blood supply. Thus the amount of mercury in hair does not reflect the concentration in the rest of the body. Measurements of blood and urine from thousands of people have never shown high levels of mercury in the general population. Only workers with high work exposure have shown abnormal levels in blood and urine, but these are not in the toxic range.
- Hair grows at different rates in different individuals and its composition is quite variable. Measuring mercury means measuring an absolute amount that is compared to the weight of the whole hair; that is, determining the concentration, expressed as micrograms of mercury per gram of hair. However, the amount of a substance absorbed into the hair is influenced by surface area and hair composition. Since hair thickness, density, shape, and surface area vary from person to person, one cannot make a "standard" comparison.
- Hair is subject to washing, shampoos, rinses, colorants, sun exposure, leaching from swimming and bathing, hair dryers, and a host of other treatments. Substances are regularly removed from the hair by these treatments, but the amounts removed are not known since the hair treatments are so varied. Similarly, other substances—including heavy metals—can actually be added by some of these processes. With some substances being added and others being removed, it is clear that the relative concentration of any particular substance, especially a metal, changes constantly and is thus uncertain..
Thus it should be obvious that analyzing hair for mercury is a waste of time and money and cannot be used to diagnose mercury poisoning. A competent practitioner would easily know this. It is fraudulent to use hair analysis to diagnose "toxic levels" of mercury (or any other heavy metal) or to assess nutritional status (and claim someone is "deficient" and prescribe or sell them supplements). Dr. Stephen Barrett calls commercial hair analysis "the cardinal sign of quackery." [2]
Saliva Testing
Larry Clapp, a nonpracticing attorney who "coaches" people on how to deal with prostate cancer, prostate problems, and erectile problems, recommends that amalgam fillings be removed as part of his treatment system. In 2002 and 2003, he promoted an Immune Antibody Test," a saliva test that he claimed would help guide "detoxification" after the removal of the fillings. During that period, his mercurytestkits.com Web site claimed that the test measured antibodies created by the immune system to deal with mercury in the tissues and that high readings were associated with serious illness. I am not aware of any such processes. The Web site site that advertised the test is no longer posted; and the lab that was doing it no longer offers it.
Electrodermal Testing
Some practitioners use quack diagnostic devices that are said to detect "electromagnetic imbalances." One wire from the device goes to a brass cylinder covered by moist gauze, which the patient holds in one hand. A second wire is connected to a probe, which the operator touches to various points inside the mouth. This completes a low-voltage circuit, and the device registers the flow of current, which the operator misinterprets as abnormal.
- Frumkin H. Diagnostic chelation challenge with DMSA: A biomarker of long-term mercury exposure? Environmental Health Perspectives 109:167-171, 2001
- Consent agreement. In re: Robban Sica, M.D.. Petition No. 2002-0306-001-043, Feb 2005.
- Barrett S. Commercial hair analysis: A cardinal sign of quackery. Quackwatch, Jan 5, 2001.
Dr. Baratz, who practices in Braintree, Massachusetts. has extensive training and practical experience in internal medicine, emergency medicine, oral medicine, dentistry, material science, and research methodology. He also serves as a medical and dental consultant to many state licensing boards, federal agencies, insurance companies, and the legal profession.
This article was revised on February 19, 2005.


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Gas by the glass: North Garden's contaminated water
Ann Messina still remembers the day the Department of Environmental Quality told her to stop eating the eggs her chickens were laying and to stop bathing and washing clothes in the water from her well.
She and her husband thought they'd done the necessary due diligence before buying a home in North Garden in 1990. They stayed clear of the Ivy Landfill. They had the house tested for radon. And the health department found their high-yielding well potable.
What the Messinas didn't know when they closed on the house was that state officials were investigating a nearby petroleum spill that had been silently seeping into the earth and had fouled a neighbor's well. And while one state agency investigated the cause of the contamination, another okayed a permit to drill a well for the Messinas' new house.
Flash forward 15 years. Earlier this year, houses began rising next door to Messina. She wonders if new neighbors will face the same water hazards– and why the Department of Health approved well permits on a site so close to the largest underground petroleum spill in Albemarle County.
Dan McLaughlin owns those seven lots, and he feels like a victim, too. He's waited 14 years before building on his land, thinking government agencies would take care of the cleanup during that time.
He applied for a well permit, drilled two wells that came up clean– only to find that Albemarle had enacted an emergency ordinance specifically geared to stop him from building. "I feel like I've been singled out," he says.
"My concern is that no other family be exposed" to toxic substances, says Messina, who for 12 years has had to filter every ounce of water she uses. And she's alarmed that government agencies still don't seem to be talking to each other about the hazards in the ground.
The contamination near Red Hill School may be the county's largest, but it's far from the only underground danger zone. Buried oil storage tanks– time bombs waiting to leak their unsavory and unsafe contents– dot the landscape, as the City of Charlottesville discovered this spring during digging for its East Mall expansion. The extent of the potential soil and water contamination is anybody's guess.
Trading Post
The Trading Post on the corner of U.S. 29 south and Taylor's Gap Road is like many country convenience stores that save rural residents a run into town when they crave smokes, need a gallon of milk, or want a couple of gallons of gas.
The store was built in the early '60s, before the Environmental Protection Agency existed and before the dangers of underground tanks were publicized.
"In the '50s and '60s, they used metal for both the tanks and the lines," says John Ekman, whose father bought the Trading Post in the 1980s. "No one thought about them deteriorating."
Right before Christmas in 1988, an anonymous caller reported a gasoline taste in the water at a home near the convenience store. That was the same year the EPA called for all those old rust-prone steel tanks to be replaced within 10 years with coated steel tanks, fiberglass, or specially treated rust-resistant steel.
"We have no clue how much was released or for how long prior to 1988," says Mac Sterrett, petroleum storage tank program manager for the Department of Environmental Quality's regional office in Harrisonburg.
But remediation didn't begin for another decade.
"There was a dispute about who was responsible," says Sterrett. "Finally, it was conclusively shown that Charlottesville Oil was responsible around '96 or '97."
"The reason it took 10 years was DEQ didn't take state lead," says Messina, explaining that rather than begin the remediation itself, the agency waited for Charlottesville Oil and the Trading Post to do a site investigation.
The Trading Post is independently owned. However, Charlottesville Oil owned the tanks that held the gas there, and "They contended for the longest time they weren't responsible," says Todd Pitsenberger, DEQ senior hydrogeologist and case manager for the spill.
In 1990, Charlottesville Oil removed a 1,000 gallon-gasoline tank from the Trading Post and reported contaminated soil and "free product"– petroleum– in the hole.
"The biggest crime is the gas tanks were removed, and there wasn't anybody from the DEQ or a fire marshal watching when they knew there was a problem in the area," says Messina. "They closed the holes and sealed them off, making remediation more difficult."
In 1997, Charlottesville Oil signed a consent order agreeing to a cleanup. Owner Phil Dulaney did not return phone calls from the Hook for this story.
Under the Virginia Petroleum Storage Tank Fund, to which Virginians contribute 3/5-cent per gallon every time they fill up, the party responsible for a release pays for remediation. Charlottesville Oil had to pay $50,000, but is eligible for up to $1 million per release in reimbursement from that state fund.
According to the DEQ, the Trading Post spill is the only one in this region that has exceeded $1 million. Charlottesville Oil is no longer paying for the ongoing remediation– the state is– but the company still pays for charcoal filtration systems for some of the contaminated wells.
But Charlottesville Oil is not the only party held responsible for spills at the Trading Post.
When petroleum showed up in a monitoring well that previously had not shown any contamination, the DEQ suspected a new release. Testing showed the gas was consistent with the Amoco the Trading Post sold after it put in its own tanks, not the Gulf or Chevron gasoline formerly provided by Charlottesville Oil.
In 2002, Ekman père admitted a gasoline line had broken during construction in 1998. He said it had been fixed, but acknowledged that the break had not been reported, according to the DEQ's case summary. The company that runs the Trading Post, J&F Ekman Inc., was fined $10,000 for not reporting the spill, and held responsible for $5,000 in remediation costs.
A third known spill occurred at the Trading Post in 2002 when a faulty switch on the groundwater remediation system failed, and 275 gallons of gasoline went back into the ground.
Since remediation began in August 1998, over 4,200 gallons of petroleum have been recovered and approximately 3.2 million gallons of contaminated water treated. And 12 wells have been contaminated at one time or another.
The plume is huge, extending 1,700 feet in length and as much as 300 feet wide. Petroleum has soaked the soil down into bedrock.
"That site won't be cleaned up in our lifetime," Pitsenberger says.
Funny taste
"When I bought the house, the DEQ knew, and the health department knew we were within a short distance from a contaminated site," says Ann Messina, "but I had no way of knowing.
That's how her dream house on Red Hill School Road turned into a nightmare.
"Our well was clean until we had been using it a few months," she recalls. They noticed a mild odor in the water as it came out of the faucet.
The family began drinking bottled water, and Messina called the Department of Health, which recommended having the water tested. A water treatment company came to the house, evaluated the water, found "detectable levels of naturally occurring hydrocarbons," but did not recommend further testing.
"The description sounded 'natural,' so we resumed our normal use of the water but continued drinking bottled water," says Messina.
Benzene, a carcinogen, was the hydrocarbon found in the Messina well. "I guess I did not feel alerted to the possible dangers," she says. "Unless you live on top of an oil well, benzene is not really 'naturally' occurring in Virginia."
She adds, "The point is, if you're not aware there's something out there to be worried about, you don't know what questions to ask to have it taken care of."
Two years later, in 1993, Messina was "shocked and traumatized" to learn from an adjacent property owner of the area's groundwater petroleum contamination and that the DEQ's forebear, the State Water Control Board, had been investigating since 1988.
"Why does the health department not see this as a health risk and within their jurisdiction to prevent?" she asks.
"Our requirements are just to address coliform," says Gary Rice, environmental services supervisor with the Thomas Jefferson Health District, now in Louisa. "I would assume legislation would have to take effect to test for anything besides coliform."
Rice adds that contaminated sites are primarily handled by the DEQ, which directs and monitors the cleanup.
"We as health department officials are very concerned about anything that concerns the health of anyone in Albemarle County," he stresses.
Messina started working on legislation. In 1998, the late state senator Emily Couric carried a bill to assure communication between the DEQ and the Virginia Department of Health. Messina testified before the Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, and the bill passed both houses.
Problem solved, Messina thought– until Dan McLaughlin drilled two new wells for the houses he's building next door.
"The DEQ notifies the Department of Health of all new underground tank releases," says Pitsenberger at DEQ. "The information is made available to them. It's their responsibility to look at it before issuing new permits."
Couric's legislation did not stop the health department from issuing McLaughlin two well permits.
"The health department is supposed to use the database to communicate with DEQ– but that didn't happen," says Messina.
When the well permits were issued to McLaughlin, the health department included a copy of a February 18 DEQ letter that notes the nearby petroleum contamination in the Red Hill area, says Kelly Lobanov, Virginia Department of Health spokeswoman in Richmond.
So Albemarle County began to enact its own laws. Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors passed a groundwater ordinance that requires that wells be drilled before building permits are issued.
Another in February specifically targeted McLaughlin. The supervisors passed an emergency ordinance that requires that any well within 2,000 feet of a contaminated plume must be tested before a building permit is issued– "directly as a result of the Red Hill case," confirms Tamara Ambler, natural resources manager for Albemarle County.
"We were under the assumption the Department of Health would look at open [contaminated] sites and be the filter," she says. "They didn't. The county felt it needed to step up to the plate and monitor."
McLaughlin's new wells were tested for benzene and toluene, and the results showed no contamination. "We didn't have other means of preventing those building permits from going forward," says Ambler.
The February 18 letter the DEQ's Mac Sterrett wrote– the same one that the Department of Health attached to McLaughlin's permit– states that once the wells are in use, they may still become contaminated, says Ambler. "Ann [Messina] probably used hers for three months before anything showed up," she notes.
"Nobody knows that will happen," counters McLaughlin. "The store right there has no problem."
Messina worries that using water from the new wells will draw the contaminated plume toward Red Hill School, which has a monitoring well to test groundwater quality.
"My concern is that new people will be living with a well near a plume DEQ feels is susceptible to contamination," she says.
She also believes McLaughlin was aware of nearby groundwater contamination when he built her house, a charge he vehemently denies.
"She had a one-year warranty [on the house]," says McLaughlin. "She never said anything until 1993."
Witching well
Dan McLaughlin lives in an off-the-grid all-solar house. The old hand pump that he uses for a mailbox is evidence of his interest in water– and he's highly offended at any suggestion that he'd deliberately drill a well that produced contaminated water.
"I've been drilling wells for 20-something years," he says. "I know this area and I know I've got good water for the houses I'm building."
Houses closer to the Trading Post than Ann Messina's on Red Hill School Road show no contamination. McLaughlin drilled two new wells on a corner of his property across the street from wells that have stayed clean, and he says they're on an entirely different plume.
"I applied for a well permit last October or November," he says. "I was never trying to hide anything."
He says he feels hurt that the BOS enacted the emergency ordinance directed toward him that shut him down for a month– and especially that no one let him know about it or approached him for his input.
He points to big-ticket homes going up across from the Ivy Landfill with its known groundwater contamination. "Why are they building houses across from the landfill?" he asks. "What's the difference, if people drill wells and still can't use the water?"
What really has him upset are the assaults on his integrity. "I didn't want to have my kids hide their heads because of something their dad did," he says.
"Dan's a pretty knowledgeable guy," says Ekman at the Trading Post. "He understands the geography of this area. He's a good guy. He wouldn't have done it if he thought it was going to be a problem."
McLaughlin plans to put four 800-square-foot rental houses in the lots beside Messina. "I want good water for the people living here," he says. "I wouldn't put the time and money into this if I thought it was a problem."
Besides, he adds, "Poor people have got to live somewhere."
Alternate water supply
Pat and Dave Simpson live down the road from Ann Messina, one of eight North Garden homeowners with a carbon filtration system installed on their well after they noticed a gasoline smell in their water in 1994. Do they drink the water?
"Oh yeah," says Pat Simpson. The water is tested before the family drinks it.
She describes her neighborhood as "kind of the poster child" for what happens when state agencies don't communicate.
And she's optimistic the county and DEQ will find a site for a community well, the latest plan to solve the neighborhood's water woes.
Albemarle's Ambler got permission June 29 to test the water on a nearby landowner's property. The next step– if the water tests clean– is to negotiate permission to supply water from that source to houses with contaminated wells. "We're sort of getting toward the end of opportunities," says Ambler.
If a suitable community well site is found in water-scarce North Garden, taxpayers will pick up the tab from another state fund: LUST– Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.
"The county's not in the water business," says Supervisor David Bowerman, and he doesn't think development should be allowed in areas without potable water.
Statewide, over the past 15 years, 525 wells have been "impacted" (DEQ-speak for "contaminated") by petroleum.
In Albemarle, 35 wells have had carbon filtration systems over the years, and 17 of those are active now. "From that you can conclude the Trading Post is pretty bad, because eight of those 17 are there," says Pitsenberger.
And while the Trading Post may be the worst, it is by no means the only one. At Hunt Country Store in the high-priced Foxfield neighborhood, three wells are contaminated.
"Great houses aren't exempt from groundwater contamination," notes Pitsenberger.
Free Union's Maupin Brothers Store has three "impacted" wells, as has the Thomas Grocery in Scottsville.
Ann Messina drinks the water from her well, but she's had problems with the carbon filtration system, for which Charlottesville Oil pays. She says for the second summer in a row, the bill was in arrears and the treatment company wouldn't maintain the system until it was paid. And she doesn't see filtration as a permanent fix anyway.
She fears the groundwater contamination will prevent her from ever selling her house– the Couric bill she helped get passed requires homeowners to disclose that condition to potential purchasers.
"Call a banker, and see if they'll issue a mortgage to a house with an alternate water supply," she says.
And as the mother to two children, she worries about the possible effects of lifelong exposure to toxic substances.
Contaminated water has turned Messina into an activist, and she's channeling her countless hours of research and dealing with government agencies into making sure other families don't find themselves in the same position.
"I think it's important to get this out," she says. And while she's taking the legislative route to change state and county laws, she nevertheless warns homebuyers: Beware.
The Trading Post, a.k.a. X Pressway, on U.S. 29 south is the site of Albemarle's worst petroleum contamination, and the cleanup is expected to go on for years.
Ann Messina lives near the Trading Post and noticed a gasoline smell in her water shortly after buying her house in 1990.
The Messinas use an elaborate carbon filtration system to make their water safe to drink.
Messina fears the four new houses going up beside her will draw petroleum-laden water toward Red Hill School.
Pastoral Red Hill School still has clean water from its wells, despite its proximity to a neighborhood where eight wells are polluted by petroleum.
Ann Messina still finds it appalling that the state knew about groundwater contamination– but allowed a well to be drilled for the house she bought in 1990.


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Raymond James (RJF) said Friday that it has recruited three Merrill Lynch (BAC) advisors to its independent broker-dealer near Nashville. The news comes three days after it announced the hiring of a former-Merrill team in Louisville that chose to join its employee broker-dealer.
The ex-Merrill team going independent comes to Raymond James with about $860,000 in combined yearly fees and commissions and $140 million in assets, while the employee advisors generated some $2.7 million in annual production and managed about $853 million in assets.
The three advisors moving to independence are Lee C. Vaughan, John F. Connelly and James L. Maddux, said Scott Curtis (left), president of Raymond James Financial Services, the firm's independent broker-dealer.
"Independence provides a permanent solution to the frequent challenges and frustrations facing advisors at many of the larger firms," said Curtis in a statement. "Attracting Lee, John and Jim to Raymond James is proof that our advisor-centric culture and broad platform continue to appeal to some of the very best advisors in the industry."
Vaughan pointed to several factors that were important in making the decision to join Raymond James. "Among them was the firm's strength and stability and its advisor-focused culture. The appeal of being independent while serving our clients' best interests was very compelling," he said in a statement.
Coming over to Raymond James Associates, the firm's employee channel, are Harry Wall, Marc Young, Timothy A. Campisano and Brent A. Carlton, who recently formed Louisville Capital Advisors of Raymond James, says Tash Elwyn (right), Private Client Group president of Raymond James & Associates.
"I'm thrilled to welcome such an accomplished team to Raymond James," said Elwyn, in a statement. "The members of Louisville Capital Advisors are highly regarded individuals who collectively bring over 110 years of industry experience and knowledge to our firm. We could not ask for a stronger team to join us in the Louisville area."
Added Tom Hirsch, Louisville complex manager and a former Merrill Lynch branch manager: "It is an honor and a privilege to again have the opportunity to work with each member of this team. They are talented professionals who have distinguished themselves throughout their careers as honest, ethical, hard-working individuals who put their clients' interests first. To a person, they are a pleasure to be around."
Raymond James said Tuesday the Department of Justice had allowed it to wrap up one regulatory process ahead of schedule in connection with its purchase of Morgan Keegan.
On Wednesday, the firm said it had priced an offering of 6.90% senior notes due in 2042 and valued at $350 million at 100% of the principal amount. Raymond James also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $52.5 million in aggregate principal amount of notes to cover overallotments, if any.
The net proceeds of the offering are expected to be used for help pay for the Morgan Keegan acquisition, which is expected to close in April 2012. The remaining portion of the purchase price will be funded using cash on hand, the net proceeds from the recently completed public offering of nearly 11.1 million shares of common stock and the net proceeds from one or more anticipated public offerings of senior-debt securities and, only if needed, borrowings under a bridge facility.


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You all must remember Lindsay + Joey's engagement photos from last year, so I'm so happy to be able to show off their wedding!
[images from Brion Hopkins Photography]
Everyone told us it would be, and our wedding indeed turned out to be the best day of our lives. The experience of having everyone important to us gathered in one place to celebrate our commitment to each other was surreal.
We wanted our wedding to be rustic and chic at the same time–classy, but casual. We also wanted to get married in my home town – Sacramento. Not only did we have a personal friendship with the Wilson family, but we fell in love with Wilson Vineyards from the second we saw it. Located in Clarksburg, just outside of Sacramento, it truly captures everything that is great about California's Central Valley. A beautiful old barn sits on the property overlooking the vineyards on one side and a creek on the other. We held the ceremony just outside the barn on the lawn, and shaded everyone under parasols.
Immediately following the ceremony we held a cocktail hour on the lawn, and our dear friend, soul singer Chris Pierce and his band performed for our first dance (his song, "Slow Life"), with an hour-long set to follow for us all to dance to.
We held the rest of the dancing, as well as dinner, cake-cutting, and toasts inside the open-air barn, with only a brief and spontaneous migration out into the vineyards to witness the staggering sunset. The buffet-style feast was at once a raving success and our biggest regret of the night – we got so caught up talking and dancing that we didn't eat a bite! Luckily, we knew from our tasting that the food was superb; our friends still talk about it. We danced the remaining hours until the party's end, and left on an enduring high.
Our memories are enhanced by photographer Brion Hopkins' artful capturing of the faces, the energy, and the ambiance created by the hard work of everyone listed below. His knack for shooting in an original, yet timeless fashion was the reason we chose him and is the reason we're thankful to have his photos as the lasting record of the best day of our lives.
Location: Wilson Vineyards, Clarksburg, CA
Wedding Coordinator – Sandy Wilson
Caterer: All Seasons, All Reasons
DJ: Tom Fretwell
Cake: The Sweetest Things, Sacramento, CA
Florist: Katie Edwards of Ambience Floral Design
Hair/Makeup: Artisan Salon
Dress: Miosa (Sacramento, CA)
Shoes: JCrew
Groom's Suit: Theory
Photographer: Brion Hopkins
Brion Hopkins is a member of Brooklyn Bride's vendor listings.


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Media Library
Dr Andrey Antov values the benefits of working within an interdisciplinary team to advance cancer care and help patients.
Dr Andrey Antov sees much potential for navigators when it comes to applying genetic and genomic testing to cancer care.
Dr Andrey Antov expands on how the healthcare team can work together to provide the best possible care for their patient.
Dr Andrey Antov recognizes how important the role of the navigator is in dealing with genetic and genomic testing, as the navigator often needs to help the patient gain access to the appropriate therapy, work with different stakeholders, monitor data, and more.
Dr Andrey Antov believes it's important for patients to participate in clinical trials for a multitude of reasons, as clinical trials can benefit both the patient and the healthcare system as a whole.
Dr Andrey Antov provides an overview of the role of Jackson Laboratory in the field of cancer genetic testing and in the education of nurses and navigators who co-manage patients at high risk or with a diagnosis of cancer.
Dr Andrey Antov identifies situations in which people may want to consider genetic testing.
Dr Sanjiv Agarwala predicts that the cancer biomarkers of the future may be "mobile biomarkers," meaning measures of the tumor microenvironment or immune response that change with therapy and may be able to determine treatment efficacy.
Dr Sanjiv Agarwala discusses the usefulness of MSI and TMB as novel biomarkers for various cancer types. His argument is that the first FDA approval of a therapy based on MSI rather than tumor type makes this biomarker useful, but TMB is not yet ready for "prime time."
Best Practices in How Oncologists and Pathologists Can Work Together to Optimize Biomarker Testing for their Patients with Cancer
Dr Sanjiv Agarwala describes best practices developed at St. Luke's Cancer Center, where a committee has been formed in which clinicians and pathologists meet to reach consensus on reflex testing of molecular biomarkers, as well as the value of biomarker testing in enhancing patient care.


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The Bosphorus, Istanbul and Mountainous Terrain of Turkey – February 21st, 201241.0N 28.9E
This orthorectified wide-swath ASAR image shows the city of Istanbul, Turkey, straddling the Bosphorus. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea (top right) with the Sea of Marmara (top center).
Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey. The Istanbul metropolitan province (municipality) had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe (including the Asian side of the city), after London and Moscow. The city is located in northwestern Turkey within the Marmara Region on a total area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi).
Turkey is divided into seven census regions: Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a long, narrow belt. This region comprises approximately one-sixth of Turkey's total land area. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian plateau becomes increasingly rugged as it progresses eastward. Turkey's varied landscapes are the product of complex earth movements that have shaped the region over thousands of years and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles owe their existence to the fault lines running through Turkey that led to the creation of the Black Sea.


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WYAS Login
|Preceding Week
|12 January 2020 - 18 January 2020
|Following Week
|14 January
Events & News
Come and join us for a friendly evening of chat, Tea, Coffee and Cakes.
Our esteemed editor has asked that if any member has articles for the Phobos magazine, could they please forward them to him.
STELLARIUM - Probably the best free planetarium program around!
Thanks to Eric Wiley for the donation to the
StarGazing Live raffle.
Fancy building a telescope from scratch?
Or how about a cardboard steam engine!
Have a go at a cardboard newtonian.


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My cold calling survey is already yielding some very interesting results.
I announced the survey in my September Research Magazine article, "Cold Calling 2012." If you have not read it, I would (of course) highly recommend it. Catch it here.
As my way of saying "Thanks" for taking my survey, I will send you a copy of all my Research Magazine articles on cold calling published through 2012.
A key question on my survey is: What is the most difficult part of the cold calling process? Please describe in detail.
I then took all of these answers and categorized them. Here are the categories, some of the responses, and my analysis of the first two categories. I will share a detailed analysis of all the categories when the survey is done.
Meantime, the first two problems are:
Doing It
- Dedicating a block of time every day to the process on a consistent basis.
- Picking up the phone and starting.
- Actually making the calls.
There were 21 answers, all similar to these, making this the largest category.
I have two theories on why it's so hard for some people to make cold calls.
1) The successful advisor syndrome.
Forty-one percent of the people who responded to my survey have been in the business six years or longer, and 27.6% have been in business 10 years or longer.
These people know, whether conceptually or not, how much they are worth an hour as a financial advisor. (For those who may be new to this column, it's about $1,000 per hour when that time is spent meeting with clients and prospects.)
For someone worth anywhere close to this number, it will be difficult to get motivated to do something that you know you could hire out for $20 an hour or less.
2) The failing cold caller.
39 respondents who answered my survey have been in the industry for more than three years. 57% of those opened less than 10 new households in the last year. So for them, it's not working. It's mighty hard to continue doing something that doesn't work.
- Rejection feels painful. It's also scary, since rejection is one less person who is a "possible" until he or she rejects you. Dumb, huh.
- Maintaining focus through a large number of no answers.
- Getting over the rejection.
I hate to tell you, but the problem is in the method.
The "cherries and pits" method that I teach totally handles rejection. It shifts you from being the rejectee to being the rejector.
The only way I know to prove this to you is have you try it. Go get one of my scripts, make 200 calls, and whenever anyone says, "I'm not interested," you say, "Thankyouverymuch" and move on.
Only look for people who are interested and qualified right now. Ignore the rest.
You reject those who do not meet your criteria. Simple and very powerful.
The remaining problems people report are:
- Succeeding.
- Finding interest.
- Script.
- Getting to the decision-makers.
- Setting appointments.
- Lists.
So—stay tuned to my Research Magazine articles, this blog, and Financial Advisors Cold Calling on LinkedIn.


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The track is based on Asian traditional music. On the one hand, it brings a listener to magic atmosphere of China, Japan and Thailand, and, on the other hand, it creates perfect soundscape for meditation or watching picturesque landscapes of Asia.
This is an ambient version of original version of the track.


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GQ China Recalls Issue Due to Faulty Reporting (Or Whiny Rich People)
Tainted milk is so last season. The latest Chinese product recall is a magazine. After a GQ story about spoiled twenty-somethings drew lawsuits and questions about journalistic ethics, the mag yanked issues from the shelves. Business Insider explains why.
A feature on spoiled Chinese twenty-somethings led to the recall of the July issue of the Chinese edition of GQ, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Though nobody can confirm exactly why, the magazine was quietly taken off the newsstands only a day after its release.
A Global Times article about the recall, which claimed that the founder of Beijing's Sports Car Club, who was featured in the piece, threatened to sue GQ over the story because he was allegedly not informed the interview was being recorded, was also taken down on Friday.
The piece—"Super Kids Driving Luxury Cars"—was high on elitist materialism and low on empathy, according to various reports.
As The Wall Street Journal put it:
The way GQ tells it, their main concerns are luxury cars, the latest fashions and whose father has the most money."
The piece is full of the kind of elitist comments that drive many Chinese up the wall. One man met an attractive woman and wanted to hang out—until he realized her car was "five years out of fashion."
"Secondhand goods," he said, losing interest immediately.
A GQ editor decline to comment on the article or the recall, though as The Wall Street Journal reports, newsstand owners confirmed that the issue was recalled and replaced, and, "the front page of the new July GQ now lists 'Middle Class Children' as one of its top articles."
Republished with permission from BusinessInsider.com. Authored by Antonina Jedrzejczak. Photo via GQ.com.cn.


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Marjaavaan is a story of love birds Raghu and Zoya enjoying their lives until a vertically challenged gang leader with harmful intentions turns their world upside down.


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DPx HEST Knife 3-1/8" Blade, Removable Micarta Slabs - RCHEST
RCHEST: DPx H•E•S•T
ESEE Knives
About Robert Young Pelton... The adventurer, Robert Young Pelton is known for overcoming extraordinary obstacles in his search for the truth. He has made a career of bypassing the media, border guards and the military in his goal of getting to the heart of the story. In his travels to and through the world's most dangerous places, Pelton has shared risks with his hosts and often has become the sole surviving witness to history-shaping events. His recent journeys have taken him inside the siege of Grozny in Chechnya, the battle of Qala-I-Jangi in Afghanistan, the rebel campaign to take Monrovia in Liberia, inside the hunt for Bin Laden in the Tribal Areas with the CIA, with insurgents during the war in Iraq and running RPG Alley every day for four weeks with Blackwater in Baghdad.
Articles about Robert Young Pelton from (will open a PDF file in a new window) Outside Magazine, Time, USA Today and Forbes.
DPx H•E•S•T describes this item as follows:
You are now the owner of the DPx H•E•S•T limited edition knife. I designed it to be a durable blade that will be your constant companion. The "DP" means it is designed to be used in the world's most dangerous places and is the title of my long running guide. H•E•S•T stands for "Hostile Environment Survival Tool". In my travels through over three dozen conflict zones and well over 100 countries I have needed a simple durable tool that is tough enough to accomplish big tasks but also get you out of a pinch when a sharp edge is needed. The DPx H•E•S•T will put you in command of tight situations whether they be urban or rural, remote or local, planned or unplanned.
Your DPx H•E•S•T will serve you well in the wilderness as a light multipurpose point, edge, chopping, skinning, trimming and even shaving blade. The DPx H•E•S•T is also a handy everyday utility knife with its bottle opener, pry bar and rugged field-sharpenable edge. Best of all it's an excellent heirloom, gift and constant companion whenever a sharp edge or a no nonsense tool is needed.
The DPx H•E•S•T knife-like every product from ESEE Knives-is guaranteed for life. If for any reason your knife breaks or fails, return it with your purchase information and address and a new one will be shipped. Numbered knives will be replaced with non-numbered knives.
I never advocate the use of violence in foreign lands. It's quite common for the victim to become the victimizer after you best your attacker. The DPx H•E•S•T is an ideal self-defense tool (it is not sold as a lethal weapon). Slip the tight compact DPx H•E•S•T into your palm with the edge just poking out. When in extremis use the fighting grip for extra punch and grip when things get slippery. Your DPx H•E•S•T will remain securely under your control due to its large fighting grip and triple "bite" (blade, point and "prybar") Unlike traditional knife fighting which assumes a longer blade and multiple sharp cutting and jabbing, the DPx H•E•S•T is a confidence builder and only for use in last resort.
The knife is one of man's most important and basic tools. A sharp edge and sturdy grip are the basic starting point. Your DPx H•E•S•T knife not only delivers unusually thick steel (comparable in thickness to blades of 12" or longer!) but a razor-sharp edge. The DPx H•E•S•T is designed with an optimum blade length to create maximum force and control of the cutting process. Get used to handling your knife, feel the balance and practice cutting, prying, concealed carrying, open fighting grip and hammer. You should be able to develop muscle memory to prevent cuts and attain comfortable movement. Most of all, keep your knife sharp. A small whetstone is ideal.
The wire break notch at the base of the blade also acts as the choil allowing you to keep a sharp cutting blade from point to base. The careful alignment of the choil and the opener also gives you two very stable lashing points for an improvised longer spear handle, axe or dead drop trap.
You have a bottle opener and small pry on the top of the DPx H•E•S•T. You can also hook the prybar under a cap and pop it off. The 3/16th-inch-thick top area ahead of the bottle opener/pry allows you to hammer the blade through thick wood, creating a durable axe type tool
It's tempting to use the knife point of your DPx H•E•S•T as a prybar, chisel or splitter. Don't. This quickly leads to damage to the sharp tip and requires regrinding and sharpening to keep the smooth razor-like curve of the blade. I have including a prybar/scraper tool that you can smash with a hammer or rock to split, open, shave off kindling or crack. When the pry bar tip gets dull, just sharpen it up.
You may have wondered why most knives don't provide a functional storage area. Some do and make the handle too light or weak for the blade. Your DPx H•E•S•T has an area hollowed up inside the open fighting grip and Micarta handles to store a wide variety of "must haves" that range from emergency "get out of jail" money to fish hooks and line. Brass slotted screws are provided to quickly remove or open the grips. The storage area is not waterproof, but can be easily made so by adding a bead of silicon on each side before reassembling.
Some owners may want to use their DPx H•E•S•T skeletonized. The knife is light and small enough to be carried as a neck knife using longer paracord for the sheath or to make your DPx H•E•S•T flat and more concealable. Others may like a personalized paracord or leather strip wrap instead of the Micarta handles. It's your knife, so make it work for you. The lashing holes in the back and front of the cutout are designed to start and end your paracord or leather wrap handle. Use plenty of paracord and it can come in handy in the bush.
The DPx H•E•S•T knife is designed to be part of a complete wilderness or expedition survival system. Not only can the open handle be used as a secure lashing point but there are four holes that are designed to be used as horizontal and vertical lashing points for use in dead falls, spears or heavier tools. The unusual thickness and rugged design is made for abuse.
The exposed steel of your DPx H•E•S•T will rust, the hard powdercoating will chip and the knife will show the effects of use. But that is exactly what a knife designed for an active lifestyle should do. Don't baby, it but always keep a good edge on your knife.
Your kydex sheath is heat molded to your DPx H•E•S•T and comes with a system that allows customization for belt, pocket, neck, MOLLE and other carry methods. The sheath will be tight at first and then wear in. You can also use the mounting screws to adjust the belt mount and tightness.
Your DPx H•E•S•T knife has a 1095 high carbon durable edge with 57-58 on the Rockwell scale. Any blade - even ours - will wear after rough use. The key to putting the edge back is a consistent angle on each edge. Field sharpening requires a stone harder than steel and a smooth stroke. It's worth bringing a ceramic or stone sharpener into the field. One trick is to blacken the edge with soot and watch the new edge being laid down. Shave the steel down until you leave a thin burr, then flip it over and repeat. Ideally, start with a rough stone and switch to a fine stone. With some experience you should master a crisp straight edge. For harder work, create a beveled edge that becomes tighter, 18 degrees to 22 degrees at the edge. You can use water, oil or nothing on your sharpening stone.
As you and your DPx H•E•S•T knife become constant companions you may want to make it uniquely yours. I encourage you to create a handle or sheath that makes the knife your own. You can use bone, wood, metal, plastic or any durable material to create a handle molded to your hand. Your knife can be refinished, engraved or painted in your own color. Commemorate a tour, trip or special event to make your DPx H•E•S•T knife a family heirloom. I designed the knife for my own personal use; why not customize it for yours?
View Instruction Sheet (Front).
View Instruction Sheet (Back).
- Ergonomic Design
- Wire Break Notch
- Dual Vertical Lashing Points
- Fulcrum Hinge / Mounting Point
- Inside / Outside Hand Grip
- Dual Horizontal Lashing Points
- Pry Bar / Scraper / Hook
- Open Fighting Grip
- Bottle Opener
- 7 5/8" by 1" by 3/16"
- 1095 High Carbon Steel
- Can be used Skeletonized without Micarta Handle
- Designed for Field Sharpening
- Unique Heat-Treated Process
- 57-58R HRC Rockwell Scale
- Hidden Storage Compartment
- Multi-mount Sheath
- Green Canvas Micarta Handle Slabs
- Lifetime Warranty
- Blade Length: 3 1/8"
- Overall Length: 7 1/2"
- Weight: 4.5 oz.
- Made in USA


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The DN News Desk reports on information from all around the globe. The desk puts the spotlight on personalities and businesses across various verticals that have an influence on their industry.
Published October 7, 2020


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Police shot and killed a man suspected of robbing an Upper East Side pharmacy at gunpoint Friday, and officers tracked him through a decoy pill bottle equipped with a GPS device, NBC 4 New York has learned.
NYPD says the suspect, identified as 45-year-old Scott Kato of Mount Vernon, robbed the pharmacy at Second Avenue and 69th Street at about 1:30 p.m., and fled in a Jeep Compass with cash and pain pills.
The NYPD began stocking city pharmacies with the decoy pill bottles last year in an attempt to crack down on robberies. The bottles look like containers of oxycodone, and even rattle when shaken, but contain a GPS device instead of painkillers.
A tracking signal is emitted when the bottle is separated from its base.
NBC 4 New York has learned that authorities tracked Kato, who is believed to have robbed this pharmacy five times since December 2011, as he fled toward the FDR Drive.
Officers encountered him along a service road; police say he reached for a gun, which is when police fired. Four officers fired their guns, the NYPD said.
He was killed and his gun was recovered, police say.


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CULTURE- ART FEATURE- </span>Retro-spective: Whitehead's groovy reels
My father once confessed he worried that I was leading a "zig-zag" life. My career meanderings, however, look like a straight line compared to Liverpool-born Peter Whitehead, who in his 70-year lifespan has studied physics, pursued painting, worked as a newsreel cameraman, bred falcons, and penned novels.
And for one glorious period in the late 1960s, Whitehead shot avant-garde films delving into the counter-culture movements in London and New York. Beyond capturing the ethos of the moment, Whitehead's intimate approach to documentary, extracting meaning from the most ordinary moments, established a precedent followed by future nonfiction filmmakers, in particular rock-u-mentarians.
Since late July, the University of Virginia Art Museum's video gallery has rotated four of Whitehead's films— Wholly Communion (1965, 33 minutes), Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967, 70 minutes), Benefit of the Doubt (1967, 65 minutes), and underground cult fave, Charlie is My Darling (1967, 60 minutes). Currently, the Beat poet-centered Wholly Communion is on show.
But when I dropped by the gallery, the week's fare was the remarkable Charlie is My Darling (next screening: September 18). Filmed over the course of three days, the black-and-white documentary follows the Rolling Stones on tour through Belfast and Dublin, just after "Satisfaction" became their first trans-Atlantic hit.
This is the time of Bill Wyman and Brian Jones, when Keith Richards, far from looking like death on a good day, sports acne on his chin. No one involved has a clue the Rolling Stones will still be rolling 40 years later; fame is novel and most likely fleeting, which leads to unselfconscious on-camera confessions. Drummer Charlie Watts thinks he'll be a graphic designer when he's not a musician, and the late Jones poignantly and prophetically says, "My ultimate aim is never to be a pop star."
What's compelling about Whitehead's raw camerawork is its "you are there" quality. The camera often zooms in for an extreme close-up, only to pull back quickly and pan to another face or focus out a window, mimicking how our own erratic eyes might experience the situation. His awareness of composition comes through in his use of shadowy foreground elements to frame highlighted action in the distance. The mid-film street scenes are particularly brilliant for their contrast of the humdrum everyday with the Stones' flavor-of-the-week celebrity.
Whitehead's celluloid trips into these trippy days will culminate with the screening of The Fall on October 17 at Vinegar Hill Theater as part of the Virginia Film Festival.
"The Films of Peter Whitehead" continue at the University of Virginia's New Media Gallery through September 30. Wholly Communion shows through September 2 and again the week of September 25. Tonite Let's All Make Love in London screens the week of September 4. Benefit of the Doubt screens the week of September 11. And Charlie is My Darling shows the week of September 18. 155 Rugby Road. 924-3592.


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Oktoberfest season is wrapping up. I know, I know. It seems silly when we're not even half way through the month of October itself, and yet, who are we to argue with the Germans? As I'm sure you know (or can find out on the googlemachinethingy), Oktoberfest generally begins late-September and runs for just over two weeks. All the beer served must be brewed inside the Munich city limits. If you think this might be a touch limiting, you'd be... well... right.
Traditionally, Octoberfest beer was rich, malty, strong, and hearty. The style served was known as Märzen, in that it was brewed in March, lagered ("stored" - if you ask for a lager in Germany, don't be surprised if somebody gives you a suitcase and a puzzled look) through the summer in cold caves, and served in Spring. It was strong, around 6-7%, malty, and with a smooth, warming drinkability so common to the darker German beer styles. Sadly in modern Germany, as elsewhere in the world, the trend towards paler, lighter beers has overtaken tradition, and jumped up and down upon it's jaunty Tyrolean Fedora. The most popular style of beer now served at Oktoberfest is the Helles or Hell, meaning "pale", and being a 5.2-6% abv malty pale lager. It's still very tasty and thirst quenching, and goes wonderfully with your Weisswurst or Steckerlfisch, but if you yearn for complex maltyness and strength, you may wish to leave the Wies'n and head into town to the Spaten bierhalle.
There are many funny stories and myths about the origin of the term "bock", but the true etymology is lost in the beer haze of history. Suffice to say that bock is simply strong beer. A doppelbock is a double-strength bock, and was (arguably) created by Munich's Paulaner monks as "liquid bread" to sustain them through Lentern fasting. Apparently getting rat-arsed is OK in the eyes of the Lord, but eating is cheating! The original was named "Salvator", and by way of homage, most doppelbocks are given a monicker ending in -ator.
Optimator is Spaten's contender in the doppelbock stakes. It pours a deep brown with coppery highlights, and throws a massive nose of fresh baked pumpernickel bread (perhaps with a thin spread of marmite), chocolate, and black forest cherries. The palate is full bodied, almost syrupy, but without being cloying. There's an excellent balance between malt, hops, and yeast, with a beautiful delicate spicyness (nutmeg?) and notes of caramel joining the promised bready nose. The finish is warming, with a sweet and slightly peppery purr of alcohol blending the flavours, and leaving you with a slightly heady and sensuous joy.
Get yourself a traditional German Brezln and pour a glass of Optimator. A match made in Munich.


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Event: Exhibition (permanent) County: Greater London Nelson, Navy, Nation: The story of the Royal Navy and the British people, 1688–1815From bustling dockyards to ferocious sea battles, the gallery brings to life the tumultuous 18th century, exploring how the Royal Navy shaped everyday lives as it became a central part of society and turned sea-faring...National Maritime Museum - Royal Museums Greenwich | 21 October 2013 — 21 October 2022
Event County: Fife The Battle of Waterloo 18 June 1815On the 18ᵗʰ June 1815 the Battle of Waterloo saw the defeat of Napoleon's French Army by the Seventh Coalition commanded by The Duke of Wellington. This great battle put an end to the Napoleonic Wars with France.British Forces Philatelic Service | Elie LEVEN | 18 June 2015 — 30 November 2020


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Howard Lone Bright Spot
July 19
What a difference a week makes.
A week ago we got up this morning and were giddy following a four-game sweep of the Reds at home. This morning, we got up and the giddy feeling was gone after we lost three of four in Chicago. It could have very easily been a sweep.
Ryan is off to a strong second half start. He's been known to turn it up in the second hlf of the season. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he's hit in 18 straight games at Wrigley Field, longest streak for a Phillie since Dick Allen (1964-67). He's been our lone bright spot on the offense.
Inconsistent offense and pitching continues to plaque the Phillies. Who would have ever thought that J-Roll would be hitting .182 since coming off the DL and Werth would have one home run off a lefty and a .160-something batting average with runners in scoring position. Certainly not blaming these two for the team's offensive troubles but those numbers are stunning.
After the game, the Phillies had a short flight to St. Louis where it doesn't get any easier. A four-game series against the Cardinals starts tonight. After tonight, the Phillies face their best three pitchers who are a combined 32-12.
Then, home for four games with the Rockies starting Friday night. Jiminez leads the majors with a 15-1 record. He's pitching tonight which means he'll face the Phillies this weekend. Oh brother.
Streak Ended
Lakewood CF Jiwan James was hitless in three at-bats in yesterday's second game in Kannapolis (1-3 in the first game). His hitting streak ended at 24 consecutive games, a club record.
He had just 18 hits in the first 17 games but went 16-28 in the next seven games.
The 21-year-old was a football-baseball star at Williston (FL) High School. Phillies drafted him in the 22nd round in 2007 and were able sign him.
A pitcher-outfielder, he was 0-4 in his pro season debut with the Gulf Coast League Phillies. He missed the entire season in 2008 because of a right biceps injury and was moved to the outfield a year ago at Williamsport. The 6-foot-4 switch hitter began the season slowly (.213 when he began the streak) before catching on fire.
James is currently batting .275; .280 against right-handed pitchers. July: .381 in 16 games. His most productive inning is the first: 26 hits. He has 24 stolen bases (15 caught).


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I'm currently working on a college project and I'm having a bit of trouble figuring my db structure out.
I have a table "users" that stores the user account data(username, password, email). Each user would have several tables associated with it, and also, data rows in various other tables.
Since each user could have several tables associated with it, i want to store the name of the tables and the name of a user, in a separate table.
I have something like:
userdata:Code:+-----------+------------+-- | Id(int,pk)| user |....etc +-----------+------------+----- | x | user1 | +-----------+----------- +---- | y | user2 | +-----------+----------- +---- . . .
However, when I try to insert values like this in my usersdata table, I getCode:+-----------+---------+-----------+ | Id(int,pk)| userid |tablename |....etc +-----------+---------+-----------+ | 1 | x | table1 | +-----------+---------+-----------+ | 2 | x | table2 | +-----------+---------+-----------+ | 3 | x | table3 | +-----------+---------+-----------+ | 4 | x | table4 | +-----------+---------+-----------+ . . .
In my case, "x"=15. In "projdb", i have `userdata`.`userid` as a foreign key referencing `users`.`id` Both userid and id are INT, and `id` is the primary key wi auto increment in `users`. I have set ON UPDATE CASCADE, and ON DELETE CASCADE.Code:ERROR 1062: Duplicate entry '0' for key 'PRIMARY' SQL Statement: INSERT INTO `projdb`.`userdata` (`userid`, `tablename`) VALUES ('15', 'table2') ERROR 1062: Duplicate entry '0' for key 'PRIMARY' SQL Statement: INSERT INTO `projdb`.`userdata` (`userid`, `tablename`) VALUES ('15', 'table3')
Can I bypass this error? Or is my approach wrong?
Any help would be gladly appreciated :<


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So if you have not heard from me...please know it is because I have no way of reaching you. And if you have a question, the best way to ask is through email at email@example.com.
And to 'susan in seattle' (and anybody else in the Pacific Northwest)...yes I will definitely be in Seattle for the book tour. On Saturday May 5th. I am just waiting to work out a few details before I announce it officially. Hope to meet you there!


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Moderator: Hitoru
Arctic wrote:Hi guys. Legal question here I'm hoping someone can help with: Is it possible for a non-US citizen to purchase a firearm in the US for export? Not legally. Nonimmigrant aliens generally are prohibited from possessing or receiving (purchasing) firearms and ammunition in the United States.
There are exceptions to this general prohibition. The exceptions are as follows:
1.nonimmigrant aliens who possess a valid (unexpired) hunting license or permit lawfully issued by a State in the United States;
2.nonimmigrant aliens entering the United States to participate in a competitive target shooting event or to display firearms at a sports or hunting trade show sponsored by a national, State, or local firearms trade organization devoted to the collection, competitive use or other sporting use of firearms;
3.certain diplomats, if the firearms are for official duties;
4.officials of foreign governments, if the firearms are for official duties, or distinguished foreign visitors so designated by the U.S. State Department;
5.foreign law enforcement officers of friendly foreign governments entering the United States on official law enforcement business; and
6.persons who have received a waiver from the prohibition from the U.S. Attorney General.
Significantly, even if a nonimmigrant alien falls within one of these exceptions, the nonimmigrant alien cannot purchase a firearm from a Federal firearms licensee (FFL) unless he or she (1) has an alien number or admission number from the Department of Homeland Security (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service) and (2) can provide the FFL with documentation showing that he or she has resided in a State within the United States for 90 consecutive days immediately prior to the firearms transaction
As in, is there any way I can buy a gun to ship back to Egypt without being a US resident or citizen? Not legally.
On a related note... any recommendations for an affordable, reliable semi-automatic handgun?
Arctic wrote:Many thanks, bobbyvandammit and Hitoru for the swift and detailed answers.
Sucks that there's no way I can buy a gun while in the States.
Helwan, well, I can get a Helwan pretty easily (I think), but if memory serves, I recall it jammed up on us a couple of times. Not sure if that's a recurring problem, but don't really want to find out.
Main problem is, since the uprising here, the prices of firearms have risen over a 1000%, with a thriving black market. The Helwan, about the cheapest firearm you could buy here pre-revolt, now reportedly costs around EGP 12,000 (about USD 2,000). For a crummy, Egyptian-manufactured 9 mm. You can imagine what classier firearms cost.
Plus the demand for gun licenses is through the roof, with reports of bribes rising to around EGP 50,000 for an expedited license.
Why would anyone ever bother buying one at that price?
That is ridiculous. Why would anyone ever bother buying one at that price? When you're over here, get to a range and shoot to your hearts extent. That's what I would suggest.
because other people are buying at that price and sometimes you want to be sure you aren't the only one in the neighborhood with a piece?
do they allow dealer to dealer exports of pistols or other firearms? i would imagine there would be more paperwork/stricter regulations, but i would think there would have to be a legal way to get a gun out there, or maybe to a third country that does allow exports of weapons to egypt?
Better to get raped by the price than in the ass. I'm guessing your dad wont sell/give you one of his.
Arctic wrote:Woodsman wrote:That is ridiculous. Why would anyone ever bother buying one at that price? When you're over here, get to a range and shoot to your hearts extent. That's what I would suggest.
Kilroy wrote:because other people are buying at that price and sometimes you want to be sure you aren't the only one in the neighborhood with a piece?
do they allow dealer to dealer exports of pistols or other firearms? i would imagine there would be more paperwork/stricter regulations, but i would think there would have to be a legal way to get a gun out there, or maybe to a third country that does allow exports of weapons to egypt?
Like Kilroy said.
It was always hard to get a license under Mubarak. When the uprising started, the state imploded on Jan. 28, and the police just melted away, after reportedly opening up the prisons to let out criminals. Others jails were stormed by families to release their relatives. We had a few weeks of sheer terror where there were armed assaults, murders, robberies, arson, and what not.
This was unheard of in Egypt. It was a police state, and those tend to be able to keep crime rates in control, at least in urban areas. So the wave of crime that descended upon us caused such horror, demand for firearms surged like you wouldn't believe. The criminals had guns. Egypt is a transit point for guns from Sudan and Libya headed for the Palestinian territories, and even under Mubarak you could get an AK-47 if you had the right contacts and were willing to risk jail, electrocution and maybe a little sodomy.
After the uprising, police stations were raided, and entire armories looted. It got so bad that, I kid you not, the state formally announced they would grant an amnesty to anyone who returned a stolen police firearm AND throw in an on-the-spot gun license to boot.
I'm fortunate in that my dad, a veteran who lives nearby, has firearms, so he loaned me one when my neighborhood set up armed checkpoints, barricades and sniper nests and went on lock down. That way, I didn't have to turn up for guard duty with a golf club, a butcher's knife, or a stick, as so many of my neighbors did.
It's been brought somewhat under control, but you still have armed robberies in the boondocks and the occasional shooting.
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the laws, because it was so freaking hard to get a license (short of bribes or contacts) that I never had to. But I think maybe some of the licensed dealers can get you a piece from the US. I guess I'll try and find a guy who knows a guy who can legally get me a piece without raping me on the price. Not holding my breath though.
if you are in egypt, one of the better things you'll probably find is a helwan, the maadi-licensed version of the beretta m 1951. it's one of the current models used by their military.
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