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Quackwatch Home Page
During the past few years, thousands of physicians have begun selling health-related multilevel products to patients in their offices. The companies most involved appear to be Amway, Body Wise, Nu Skin (Interior Design), and Rexall. Doctors are typically recruited with promises that the extra income will replace income lost to managed care.
In December 1997, the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) advised against against selling "non-health-related products" to their patients. CEJA's policy statement hit hard at the potential conflict of interest and pressure inherent in such sales:
The for-profit sale of goods to patients by physicians inherently creates a conflict of interest. Physicians engaging in this activity have a direct financial interest in selling the goods to patients; but the sale may or may not be in the best interests of the patients. Physicians may be tempted to sell items for profit even though their patients do not need the products. Even if most physicians are capable of resisting such temptation, the more ethical course is for professionals to avoid placing themselves in temptation's way, This conflict of interest is particularly troubling in the office setting, where most patients appear because they are in need of medical attention. In the ordinary market setting, consumers can be trusted not to purchase items which they do not want, thus a voluntary sales transaction is taken to be in the best interests of both parties. But the voluntariness of any sale to a patient in a medical office setting is open to serious question. . . .
The offer of goods In the treatment setting puts subtle pressure on sick and vulnerable patients to purchase them. Patients may purchase goods out of a misplaced desire to please or to "get in good" with their physicians. They may feel that they have to purchase those goods in order to secure the physician's favor. These feelings, whether justified or not, may interfere with the open exchange and the level of trust between physician and patient [1]
Although the statement did not mention products sold through multilevel marketing, CEJA chairman Robert M. Tenery, Jr., M.D., latr said that it had been triggered by the growing number of physicians who had added an Amway distributorship to their practice [2]. Amway responded:
The Amway Rules of Conduct expressly prohibit distributors from selling or displaying Amway products or services in retail establishments, which includes professional offices [2].
In June 1998, AMA House of Delegates voted to return the report to CEJA for clarification and rewording. During the heated discussion, supporters of the measure expressed alarm about the sale of "neutraceuticals" and "cosmeticeuticals." An alternate delegate from Kansas, for example, said: "We have a number of people . . . who are frankly acting like quacks. They sell vitamins that are not efficacious for their patients." [3].
In June 1999, the AMA House of Delegates narrowly approved new ethical guidelines emphasizing that physicians should not coerce patients to purchase health-related products or recruit them to participate in marketing programs in which the physician personally benefits, financially or otherwise, from the efforts of their patients. The guidelines clearly frown on doctors profiting from the sale of health-related nonprescription products such as dietary supplements, safety devices, and skin-care products similar to those to available at local pharmacies or health-products stores [4-6]. But for those who do, they outline several limits:
My concern goes beyond the conflict-of-interest inherent in MLM sales by health professionals. Most health-related MLM products are either useless, irrationally formulated, marketed with unsubstantiated claims, and/or overpriced. Many patients are being invited to spend upwards of $50 per month for such products. Such solicitations reflect poor medical judgment, lack of ethics, or both. Patients who can benefit from taking dietary supplements can get them for much less money at a pharmacy or health-food store.


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Well, that didn't take long.
The Bears are showing Jay Cutler the money. And it's a nice chunk of change.
The 26-year-old QB gets an extension through 2013 worth $30 million with $20 million of that in guaranteed cash, according to several sources.
The deal ranks Cutler fifth among the NFL's highest-paid quarterbacks behind Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Phillip Rivers.
Cutler, 26, is still under contract through 2011 on his six-year, $47.86 million rookie deal signed with the Broncos. By obviating a 2011 lockout, Cutler gets an early chunk of change and the prospect, if things don't work out, of being on the open market as a veteran and still-young 30-year-old gunslinger.
The deal also works well for the Bears.
Cutler was due a $12 million roster bonus in 2011, but that money basically now goes to his contract. That gives them room to, presumably, build up players around their franchise QB.

subset: commoncrawl


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WHEREAS, the Office of the Governor and the state of Louisiana have a long-standing commitment to working toward a drug-free Louisiana;
WHEREAS, the employees of the state of Louisiana are among the state's most valuable resources, and the physical and mental well-being of these employees is necessary for them to properly carry out their responsibilities;
WHEREAS, substance abuse causes serious adverse consequences to users, impacting on their productivity, health and safety, dependents, and co-workers, as well as the general public;
WHEREAS, to curb the use of illegal drugs by employees of the state of Louisiana, the Louisiana Legislature enacted laws which provide for the creation and implementation of drug testing programs for state employees; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of the state of Louisiana would best be served by a statewide policy on rules and procedures for drug testing state employees;
NOW THEREFORE I, KATHLEEN BABINEAUX BLANCO, Governor of the state of Louisiana, by virtue of the authority vested by the Constitution and laws of the state of Louisiana, do hereby order and direct as follows:
A. All executive departments and all other agencies, boards, commissions, and entities of state government in the executive branch over which the governor has appointing authority or, as chief executive officer of the state, has general executive authority, which are not authorized by the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, as amended, or legislative act to manage and supervise their own system, (hereafter "executive agency") shall promulgate a written policy which mandates drug testing of employees, appointees, prospective employees, and prospective appointees, pursuant to R.S. 49:1001, et seq., as set forth in this Order.
B. All executive departments which operate under the authority of another statewide elected official or which are authorized by the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, as amended, or legislative act to manage and supervise its own system, (hereafter "executive agency") are requested to promulgate a written policy which mandates drug testing of employees, appointees, prospective employees, and prospective appointees pursuant to R.S. 49:1001, et seq ., as set forth in this Order.
A. The appointing authority of each executive agency shall duly promulgate a written policy in compliance with R.S. 49:1001, et seq., which at a minimum mandates drug testing of an employee or appointee (hereafter "employee") or a prospective employee or prospective appointee (hereafter "prospective employee") as follows:
1. When individualized, reasonable suspicion exists of an employee's drug use;
2. Following an accident that occurs during the course and scope of an employee's employment that a) involves circumstances leading to a reasonable suspicion of the employee's drug use; b) results in a fatality; or c) results in or causes the release of hazardous waste as defined in R.S. 30:2173(2) or hazardous materials as defined in R.S. 32:1502(5);
3. Randomly, as a part of a monitoring program established by the executive agency to assure compliance with terms of a rehabilitation agreement;
4. Prior to hiring or appointing a prospective employee, except employees transferring from one executive agency to another without a lapse in service;
5. Prior to promoting an employee to a safety-sensitive or security-sensitive position or to a higher safety-sensitive or security-sensitive position; and
6. Randomly, for all employees in safety-sensitive or security-sensitive positions.
B. The appointing authority of each executive agency shall determine which positions within their agency, if any, are "safety-sensitive or security-sensitive positions," by considering statutory law, jurisprudence, the practices of the executive agency, and the following non-exclusive list of examples of safety-sensitive and/or security-sensitive positions:
1. Positions with duties that may require or authorize the safety inspection of a structure;
2. Positions with duties that may require or authorize access to a prison or an incarcerated individual;
3. Positions with duties that may require or authorize carrying a firearm;
4. Positions with duties that may allow access to controlled substances (drugs);
5. Positions with duties that may require or authorize inspecting, handling, or transporting hazardous waste as defined in R.S. 30:2173(2) or hazardous materials as defined in R.S. 32:1502(5);
6. Positions with duties that may require or authorize any responsibility over power plant equipment;
7. Positions with duties that may require instructing or supervising any person to operate or maintain, or that may require or authorize operating or maintaining, any heavy equipment or machinery; and
8. Positions with duties that may require or authorize the operation or maintenance of a public vehicle, or the supervision of such an employee.
C. Prior to the appointing authority of an executive agency promulgating its drug testing policy regarding safety-sensitive and/or security-sensitive positions, the appointing authority shall consult with the Louisiana Department of Justice.
A. No drug testing of an employee or a prospective employee shall occur in the absence of a duly promulgated written policy which is in full compliance with the provisions of R.S. 49:1001, et seq .
B. Any employee drug testing program in existence on the effective date of this Order shall not be supplanted by the provisions of this Order, but shall be supplemented, where approximate, in accordance with the provisions of this Order and R.S. 49:1001, et seq.
SECTION 4: All information, interviews, reports, statements, memoranda, and/or test results received by the executive agency through its drug testing program are confidential communications, pursuant to R.S. 49:1012, and may not be used or received in evidence, obtained in discovery, or disclosed in any public or private proceedings, except in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding or hearing, or civil litigation where drug use by the tested individual is relevant.
A. Pursuant to R.S. 49:1011, an executive agency may, but is not required to, afford an employee whose drug test result is certified positive by the medical review officer, the opportunity to undergo rehabilitation without termination of employment.
B. Pursuant to R.S. 49:1008, if a prospective employee tests positive for the presence of drugs in the initial drug screening, the positive drug test result shall be the cause of the prospective employee's elimination from consideration for employment or appointment.
SECTION 6: Each executive agency shall procure employee drug testing services through the Office of State Purchasing, Division of Administration, pursuant to applicable bid laws.
SECTION 7: Each executive agency shall submit to the Office of the Governor, through the Commissioner of Administration, a report on its written policy and drug testing programs, describing the progress of its programs, the number of employees affected by the programs, the categories of testing being conducted, the associated costs of testing, and the effectiveness of the programs, by December 1, 2005. Each executive agency shall annually update its report by December 1.
SECTION 8: All departments, commissions, boards, agencies, and officers of the state, or any political subdivision thereof, are authorized and directed (or requested pursuant to Subsection 1B) to cooperate with the implementation of the provisions in this Order.
SECTION 9: This Order is effective upon signature and shall remain in effect until amended, modified, terminated, or rescinded by the governor, or terminated by operation of law.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Fox McKeithen
Secretary of State


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KC voters to determine future of health levy
Tax helps fund health care for poor, ambulance services
Next week, Kansas City, Mo., voters will decide if the city will continue to help pay the medical bills for its poorest residents.
Question 1 on the ballot asks voters whether they want to renew the city's health levy for another nine years, generating an estimated $15 million every year.
Every year, Truman Medical Center's Kansas City hospital and five health clinics spend more than $130 million on care to the poor, money that they never get back.
"I'm not on Medicaid, so I have to come to (the emergency room)," said Delisa Jackson.
She said she's been forced to use the ER to get treatment for her lupus since she was first diagnosed four years ago. Kansas City's health levy ends up covering the bills for that treatment.
The owner of a $100,000 home in Kansas City would pay about $50 a year under the health levy. Most of the money goes to Truman Medical Center or the other clinics.
Sheri Wood at the KC CARE Clinic said most people who get care at these locations have few other options.
"Most of them are at 100 percent of the poverty level, so they have very limited resources," Wood said.
She said without the health levy, clinics like hers would have to rely even more on donations. She said her clinic already has to turn a couple of hundred people away every week because there aren't enough appointment times available.
At TMC, where more than a quarter of its care goes to treat poor patients, losing the health levy money would restrict what it could do. The hospital's Gerald Grimaldi said it could lead to cutbacks.
"If the funding is not renewed, Truman Medical Center would have to make some serious adjustments to the services we provide," he said.
The Kansas City Fire Department's ambulance service also gets health levy money amounting to about $2.4 million in an $18 million ambulance budget.


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Poor Kayla. No matter how hard she tries the moon just sits there — tauntingly — just beyond her reach. It's a daily ritual that her father decided to finally capture on video, much to our benefit.
This video, which was published to YouTube on Friday, has already attracted close to a half-million hits, and it's not difficult to see why. Kayla's moon obsession — and frustration — is an endearing reminder of our own childhood.
Writing on Reddit, Kayla's dad says the two of them "go through this routine every single day."
She will go on and on about the moon and not being able to get it whether I ask or not. I usually just 'okay' her until she stops. But this time I played around with her a bit. She enjoys it. She's 2.
The video prompted Redditor QuauSi801, who works at NASA, to extend an invitation to the pair to come visit their facilities in California.
Goodbye, Moon!


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LPL Investment Holdings Inc. (LPLA), parent company of the largest independent broker-dealer, LPL Financial, announced Monday that it has successfully refinanced its long-term debt, and that it will pay a special $2 dividend for shareholders in May, with the possibility of further dividend payments in the second half of the year.
CFO Robert Moore said the refinancing will produce annualized savings to the company of about $10 million and "increased financial flexibility," though he said that considering possible acquisitions is "just a portion of that flexibility," and that the announcement is "not meant to signal that we are now in acquisition mode."
(In January 2012, LPL announced it would acquire wealth management and reporting firm Fortigent.)
Specifically on the debt refinancing, LPL has established a new Term Loan A of $735 million maturing on March 29, 2017, and a new Term Loan B of $615 million maturing on March 29, 2019. It will also maintain a revolving credit facility of up to $250 million. Moore (left) said the new agreements reduce interest expenses, extends maturity dates of the debt, "including our revolver which was to expire in 2013," and also allows for "the alteration of many covenant structures whose roots go back to 2007." The new debt structure, he said, gives LPL the ability to continue its growth; being able to do so at a lower cost was "very compelling."
On the dividend front, LPL will pay a special $2/share dividend, its first, on May 25, 2012 to all shareholders of record as of May 15, 2012. In addition, LPL plans to pay regular quarterly dividends, initially up to $0.12 ($0.48 annually), in the second half of 2012. However, Moore was quick to point out that those quarterly dividends would still need to be approved by LPL's board.
Moore said the restructuring and dividend reflected the "primary component to our capital management strategy." That is, to "invest in organic growth of the business; provide 'oxygen' capital" for possible acquisitions; conduct share repurchases to offset any dilution from its option grant programs for management and advisors; debt repayment; and dividends. "We've become much more clear about how we use those levers," Moore said, with Monday's announcement marking a "key milestone in that process." The debt restructuring and dividend payment arose out of a "fairly large balance of cash on our balance sheets" from cash flow of the business and from LPL's IPO in November 2010, which Moore said yielded a set of tax refunds.
With the restructuring, which he characterized as a "one-for-one takeout of debt, so no incremental debt was created," LPL decided to use "a portion of the excess cash for the $2/share dividend," or about $230 million, which Moore said would "take free cash down to about $300 million, which is consistent with the size of our business and its cash flow needs."
Moore concluded by saying the actions "when taken together, constitute a much more firmly established approach to our capital management effort—ability to invest in the business organically; to attract new advisors; enhance growth of existing advisors" and invest in technology.


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Phoenix, AZ, November 13, 2012 – – ClearDATA Networks, Inc., the leading healthcare cloud computing platform and service provider, today announced that MU Medical Management, an Arizona-based, practice management and medical billing services provider, is hosting its Vitera Intergy EHR/Practice Management software on ClearDATA's HIPAA-compliant HealthDATA Cloud Platform. MU Medical utilizes the billing function within Intergy to provide billing services to doctors and facilities across the United States. Hosting with ClearDATA eliminated MU's need for new servers and increased its productivity by not having to manage its systems, applications, security, and compliance.
By moving its Vitera Intergy EHR to the HealthDATA Cloud, MU can effectively provide a high performance, reliable, billing services to clients regardless of their location. The Cloud infrastructure also allows MU Medical to cost effectively grow its business by adding virtual servers and storage as needed, instead of having to purchase additional computers.
"Hosting our EHR with ClearDATA allows us to expand our services to healthcare organizations nationwide with minimal expense," said Chris Meola, Director of Operations for MU Medical Management. "We've been hosting with ClearDATA for nearly eighteen months and enjoy great peace of mind from the reliability, security, HIPAA compliance, and backup protection their HealthDATA cloud platform provides us. Their support staff is excellent."
About MU Medical Management
Mu Medical Management was established in 2004 and services doctors and medical facilities across the United States. Its clients range in practices from highly-specialized to generalists. Our Mu Medical team is highly experienced in the nuances of Practice Management, Medical Billing and Coding and electronic health records (EHR). Each member of our team is a certified billing and coding professional and we are proud members of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and the Arizona Medical Group Management Association (AzMGMA). For more information, visit: http://www.mumedical.com/ or call: (480)-314-7528 x111.
About ClearDATA Networks, Inc.
ClearDATA Networks, Inc. is the market leader for cloud computing and information security services for healthcare providers, software vendors and VARs, and 100% dedicated to the healthcare field. ClearDATA's services enable providers to fully automate and securely manage healthcare medical records, applications, IT infrastructure and digital storage. The company provides HITECH HIPAA-compliant cloud infrastructure and managed cloud services, offsite backup and disaster recovery, medical image archiving, healthcare information security and world-class support. The company also offers HIPAA Security Risk and Remediation services to hospitals and providers in order to ensure that they meet the rigorous standards of HIPAA security required for protected health information to demonstrate Meaningful Use and to ensure a highly secure environment prior to enabling a HealthDATA Cloud platform installation. For more information, call 602-635-4000, email: sales@)cleardata.net or visit: http://www.cleardata.net.


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Equipped with four DIN objectives including 100x oil immersion and comes standard with mechanical stage slide holder for a full-featured, reliable instrument – with modern new LED light system.
- Variable intensity 5.5V LED cool illumination system
- Built in rechargeable battery with detachable AC power cord
- 10X Eyepiece with scale pointer
- Monocular head rotatable 360°
- DIN Achromatic parfocal and parcentered Objectives 4X, 10X, 40XR & 100XR (oil)
- Total 40X to 1000X magnification
- Coarse & fine controls
- Spiral condenser N.A.1.25 with iris diaphragm
- Vinyl dust cover, spare bulb & immersion oil
- CE Certified
Advantage of LED illumination:
- Life time of LED bulb is 100,000 hours
- LED consumes very little power
- Fully charged battery provides up to 15 hours of normal use
- Versatile power allows cordless use for portability
- Cool LED prevents focus deviation caused by heat-deformed equipment
Five Year Warranty: The manufacturer warrants each instrument to be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use (one year on electrical components). It does not cover damage resulting from abuse or misuse, repairs, or alterations performed by other than authorized repair technicians, or damage occurring in transit.


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Has to be a prank.Spinefarm website says nothing about this and the text on the main page seems fairly sardonic.
We're open to such things, we've even talked many times about doing it with Inja, but in a way that's redundant because we can already get Erica
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Business people and college students alike will love this custom messenger bag with matching striped handle.
Vertical design Side Swipe Custom Logo Messenger Bag with adjustable shoulder strap.
Why choose custom messenger bags for your next promotional campaign? If you're looking to have your company noticed at a tradeshow, you need to be strategic to be seen through all of the visual clutter. Don't worry, we're not suggesting a giant inflatable gorilla or a slew of scantily clad women. By selecting a covet-worthy, colorful and useful logo messenger bags, you're well on your way to getting your brand recognized on the show floor.
One of ePromos' non-woven custom messenger bags is a smart choice for a promotional giveaway. These bags are very affordable without appearing cheap. Their non-woven material makes these the most cost-effective customizable messenger bags available. The eco-friendly, recyclable material that these bags are made from comes in a wide variety of colors to complement your brand and make your logo messenger bags stand out from other boring black totes.
Beyond their colorful exterior, these bags have the added benefit of being one of the most useful custom bags available. If you want people clamoring for one of your logo bags, a messenger bag is the right choice. Sure, there may be cool logoed items given away at other booths, but once someone has one of your custom messenger bags, everything will just get tossed in that. They're perfect for holding anything from paperwork to pineapples while still maintaining a sleek look thanks to their tailored construction. Plus, the shoulder strap on messenger bags sets them apart from other tradeshow tote bags; it makes these bags comfortable to carry and allows for hands free toting - all the better to schmooze and shake hands!
The utility of these logo bags also means they'll see the light of day once the big event is over. Messenger bags work just as well to tote the necessities for daily life as they do to haul conference swag. They make a great giveaway for people in any industry and walk of life since everyone has a load to bear at some point or another.


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Finally a commentator has had the guts to attack the bariatric surgery myth (see below).
We have been arguing for years that these operations to reduce stomach size in various ways cannot possibly have any physiological effect on caloric intake and that their effect is purely psychological. "I have been anesthetized, I have scars on my stomach and I have been told that I can't eat as much as before". Some sort of vague threat is implied. If they eat too much they will get abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting. But patients eventually figure out that they can indeed eat as much as before without pain or nauseas and the weight is regained. The reason is that the esophagus is the smallest part of the GI tract. It is impossible to make any part further along smaller than the esophagus or food will back up in the esophagus and cause aspiration of food into the lungs which can be fatal. So, whatever will go down the esophagus will go through the stomach no matter how small it is made as long as it is bigger than the esophagus and from there right into the small bowel where it is rapidly broken down by the digestive enzymes.
The only type of bariatric surgery that makes physiological sense is bypass of the small intestine to cause malabsorption, a much bigger and more hazardous procedure with many side effects.
Remembering Susan
In the era before antibiotic treatment of ulcers, many gastrectomies were done to reduce stomach acid production and patient did not lose weight dramatically. Why? Because they were not told they had to eat less.
Here is a typical instruction to patients undergoing bariatric surgery (http://www.obesitysurgery.ca/faq.php ). Note that the patient MUST be "committed to your new lifestyle."
Q: How much weight will I lose?
A: Studies show that most LAP-BAND patients successfully lose between one-half and two-thirds of their excess weight. Results vary due to numerous factors. You need to be committed to your new lifestyle and eating habits. We expect that your weight loss will be gradual (2 – 3 pounds per week). Twelve to 18 months after the operation, the rate of weight loss usually slows down. Losing weight too fast creates health risks and can lead to a number of problems. The goal is to have a weight loss that prevents, improves, or resolves the health problems connected with severe obesity.
And another from a review article in the NEJM by Dr Eric DeMaria in reference to his recommendation for bypass surgery in a case presentation.
"She should be required to make a commitment to an appropriate postoperative regimen of diet, exercise, and medical and surgical follow-up care."
So why can't obese patients commit to a new lifestyle WITHOUT the surgery? What is really effective, the surgery or the post-op diet and exercise. The only way to tell is to do a SHAM-OPERATED RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL. Obese patients wanting surgery are randomly assigned to one group has some form of bariatric surgery or another group that is anesthetized, the same incisions made bowel is manipulated but no bypass or stapling is done. The post-op care team is blinded to the type of surgery and both groups get the same post op attention. Only after such a trial can we know if the effects of surgery are physiological of psychological, if bariatric surgery is just not another form of psychic surgery.
But there are a number of obesity "experts" who promote bariatric surgery as the ultimate answer to the obesity epidemic. One of these is Arya M. Sharma, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine, Canada Research Chair for Cardiovascular Obesity Research & Management, McMaster University (http://www.cardio.on.ca/obesity) who is paid handsomely from taxpayer dollars and drug companies to promote the myth of bariatric surgery and various drugs for obesity. He refuses to even entertain the thought of doing a randomized, sham-controlled trial of bariatric surgery before spending billions of taxpayer dollars on the procedures with no proven benefit in a controlled trial.
Here is Dr. Sharma. "I think that much can be derived from careful objective observational studies, and indeed the majority of our knowledge in medical practice comes from empirical observation and NOT from controlled trials (the field of cardiology being the exception – this may be largely, because the field of cardiology lends itself best to such studies). These are far more difficult in other areas of medical practice, especially when dealing with long-term outcomes in low-risk populations. While providing the best possible care, we need to ensure that we do not degrade our patients to the level of laboratory animals just to prove a point that is reasonably obvious and biologically plausible based on what we already know. When you have no Class A evidence the right thing to do is to base your decisions on Class B or even Class C evidence, rather than do nothing. I come back to the point about checks and balances that need to be in place, but I also say that the time to act is now – the clock is ticking….."
The same has been said about every treatment in the history of medicine; unethical not to do it, improved surgical techniques, can't do a randomized trial, can't wait for randomized trials, obviously effective, calculated benefit based on case controlled studies, Medicare pays for it, etc. If we continued to subscribe to the intuitive approach we would still be using blood-letting for pneumonia. Any treatment for any disease (other than hormone deficiency) must be subject to rigorous scientific investigation. Patients are NOT treated like "laboratory animals." There are very detailed ethical guidelines about conducting controlled trials. Many "obvious and biologically plausible" treatments have turned out to be useless or harmful when subjected to controlled trial. Modern medicine like to pride itself on practicing evidence-based medicine. But when it comes to deeply held beliefs in the power of a treatment, particularly when it is good for one's bank account, the search for evidence becomes less imperative.
Dr. David D'Alessio of the University of Cincinnati says, bariatric surgery is "kind of the Wild West…huge demand, no regulation [and] patients are willing to do whatever it takes to get it."
It is a mystery to me why the populace insists that its government scrutinize new drugs in great detail and insist on years of testing before they are licensed but any surgeon can come up with a superficially attractive operation and he and his colleagues can perform thousands of them at great expense in money and possibly lives before anyone gets around to doing an experiment to prove that the operation's benefits outweigh its risks or have some benefit over medical treatment. See my blog on angioplasty for a classic example of billions of dollars spent on a procedure with no benefit. The latest surgical scam is the "liberation" treatment for multiple sclerosis upon which billions of dollars will be spent for a totally unproven, scientifically absurd procedure. Perhaps surgeons are the modern high-tech shamans. Surgery still maintains an aura of supernatural healing; evil spirits are being extirpated. To subject surgical procedures to controlled trials disturbs faith in its magical powers.
Will making the stomach smaller cure this women? The chocolate-coated ice cream bar will melt in the esophagus and pass through any orifice larger than a the diameter of a pin and pass rapidly through a gastic pouch no matter how small. The only cure for this women in mastering her food addiction. See my photo essay on food addiction.
July, 26, 2006
Taxpayers the losers in weight-loss surgery funding
OTTAWA — 'I n one form or another, the corset has swaddled women since Cleopatra laced herself breathless for Caesar. Medieval women used leather and wood plates to flatten bulges. In Shakespearean times, 13 inches — no more, no less — was deemed the proper circumference of a feminine waist. And 18th century ladies cinched themselves to the point of frequent fainting. The 1890s produced the hourglass silhouette made famous by [actress and singer] Lillian Russell. If modern fashion has its way, the stage joke of a husband lacing his wife's corset will repeat itself endlessly in connubial bedrooms across the country." – Life magazine 1948.
For centuries, women handled fat the old-fashioned way. They hid it. More precisely, they shaped it to a particular aesthetic form. Corsets served strictly architectural purposes. Throughout the Victorian era, corsets used vertical steel rods to keep the female figure rigidly aligned with the blueprint, though the use of whalebone continued into the 20th century. These rods were appropriately called stays, defined by Oxford as "appliances used to hold up part of a structure." Corsets worked and they were cheap. Eatons listed an economy corset in its 1901 catalogue at 28 cents.
With lightweight plastic stays, as Life magazine's postwar essay suggests, corsets became modern appliances. With further refinements, they remained (along with girdles) essential woman's wear well into the 1960s when they were rendered obsolete, first by fashion and now, finally, by surgeons with vacuum pumps.
Men used corsets, too, both for aesthetic deception and for medical reasons (wounded by gunshot in 1968, Andy Warhol wore a corset every day for the last 20 years of his life). But corsets primarily shaped the lives of women, just as cosmetic surgery now primarily shapes the lives of women. Casual tummy surgery is probably preferable to corsets — people who have experienced neither really can't say. But the public policy issue here isn't the change in fashion.
It's the difficulty in distinguishing cosmetic alteration from medical procedure — and in determining who pays.
Start with the soaring use of weight reduction surgery in the U.S. These operations range from minimalist procedures (say 10 pounds) to heavy-duty surgery (say 50 pounds or more). On the one hand, cosmetic surgeons insist they do shapes, not weights. But who determines real motives — doctor or client? Since it's now the client who pays for most of these procedures, the distinction is mostly moot. On the other hand, weight-loss operations performed on the "morbidly obese" — any person 100 pounds or more overweight — are deemed medically necessary. Eighty seven per cent of these patients are women.
In the early 1990s, U.S. doctors performed 16,000 of these bariatric (meaning weight) operations a year. In 2004, they performed more than 100,000. This year, they will perform 200,000. Obesity is, after all, ballooning. And doctors now perform these operations on adolescents. The cost averages $30,000 (U.S.) per operation. Perform it 100,000 times and you have an invoice for $3-billion.
This is an interesting calculation because there are more than 100,000 people in Ontario alone who qualify, by medical definition, for this operation — perhaps 150,000. Last year, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan paid $15-million (Canadian) to send a mere 600 of them to the States for this surgery at an average cost of $25,000. In a study released Monday, however, the U.S. government reported that four bariatric operations in 10 result in serious complications within six months — driving the cost in these cases as high as $65,000 (U.S.).
But, ominous as these costs appear, no one should think that the provinces will be able to restrict medicare access to weight-loss surgery for long. Now that governments are paying for the removal of fat from people who are "morbidly obese," it's only a matter of time before they extend coverage. People 90 pounds overweight will want coverage, then people 80 pounds overweight.
Restrictions will finally be deemed discriminatory — violations, no doubt, of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Self-indulgent people who eat too much and exercise too little will inevitably come to regard shape and weight as entitlements.
Weight-loss surgery is a dubious proposition. In one Canadian study, Dr. Raj S. Padwal at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton found that bariatric patients shed between 35 and 60 per cent of their baseline weight in these operations — and, 10 years later, may maintain a loss of only 16 per cent. This simply means that a 300-pound person will become — in the long run — a 255 pound person, almost as fat as when he or she started. This person could achieve the same result by losing 4.5 pounds a year.
Fifty per cent of Canadians are now deemed overweight. Depending on your perspective, this means either 17 million people or 17 million patients. What to do with them? A few years back, Dr. Kenneth Walker, the Canadian medical columnist, facetiously suggested the use of force — that fat people be locked up in prison camps until they lose weight. In the end, though, there's only one responsible option. Self-government. And, perhaps, corsets.


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May 16, 2013
By Rebecca Nuttall
Special to the NNPA from the New Pittsburgh Courier
Members of the Black intelligentsia let out a collective victory cry last week when hip-hop artist Lil Wayne lost a multi-million dollar endorsement deal with Mountain Dew as a result of lyrics comparing the beating of murdered teenager Emmett Till in 1955 to female genitalia.
Led by outcry from Till's family, one by one the nation's Black bloggers and columnists were sounding off. Their justice was swift. Or not. While the song, which featured Wayne's lyrics, was released in February, it took until May for Mountain Dew to take notice and drop him.
Still Mountain Dew's action, coupled with Reebok's latest decision to sever ties with hip-hop artist Rick Ross because of his own offensive lyrics, could be indicative of the growing power of public opinion when married with social media. Perhaps if enough people stand up, in the form of blogs and twitter posts, these kinds of heinous lyrics will no longer percolate the airwaves.
"Artists now are going to be more careful about what they say," said nationally known hip-hop artist Jasiri X from Pittsburgh. "They were so used to saying the most outlandish and ridiculous stuff."
This certainly wasn't the first time Wayne recorded offensive lyrics, but it was perhaps the first time the lyrics gained national attention. Now Jasiri X hopes Americans will begin to turn to conscious rappers, who promote more positive images of African-Americans as an alternative.
"I think it shows the power we have as a community. I think it's a power we've always had, we complain, but we don't really organize," he said. "My only concern or critique is what we need to do is offer an alternative."
However, Jasiri X and other conscious rappers say White CEOs are actually the ones pulling the strings behind these mainstream hip-hop artists.
In an effort to hold them accountable, one group, the Internet collective FAAN Mail, which stands for Fostering Activism and Alternatives Now, sent a letter to Universal Music Group. The letter was in response to a music video by rapper 2 Chainz that carries on the rap tradition of objectifying women.
"It's really about representations of Black people that these older white CEOs are comfortable with," said Jasiri X, who runs the One Hood Media Academy where young Black males learn how to use the media to promote positive images of their peers. "At the end of the day, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross are really intelligent. Neither of them are really street guys, they're playing a character for these White CEOs to make money so that's really who we have to challenge."
Jasiri X pointed to other conscious artists like Lupe Fiasco as examples of musicians making a positive impact on the Black community by promoting positive images. During a recent visit to Pittsburgh, Fiasco performed at Carnegie Mellon University and put students in Jasiri X's One Hood Media Academy on the guest list so they could attend.
"If we have artists like that, that's who I want to see Mountain Dew work with," he said.
Some believe the Black community has the power to change the face of the music industry, but if Wayne is so abhorrent, why did he surpass Elvis Pressley last year as the leading male with the most entries on Billboard's Hot 100 chart? Does Black America really care if Wayne's lyrics are insensitive? And what about White America, whose buying power accounts for a great deal of Wayne's success? Tell us what you think.


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syngo.CT DE Direct Angio
syngo.CT DE Direct Angio accurately highlights bone structures on CT angiography (CTA) datasets. The highlighted pixels can be removed by a single click, e.g. subtract bone in CTAs. Overcoming limitations of conventional bone removal software, the Dual Energy approach reliably isolates even complex vasculature, for example, at the base of the skull where CTA's are difficult to interpret.
Requerimientos Generales
Minimum Software Version
(one of the following)
or higher
syngo.via VA11
Please Note: Additional technical pre-requisites may apply. Upon receiving your request, your local Siemens representative will clarify whether your system meets the requirements.


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Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn will star in Lifetime's upcoming Flowers in the Attic, an adaptation of the 1979 V.C. Andrews novel, TVLine reports.
Never miss an episode! Add new fall shows to your Watchlist
Graham has signed on to play Corrine, a widow who brings her four children to stay at her parents' house. Burstyn will play Corrine's mother, Olivia, who locks the children in the attic to protect them from their grandfather.
The incest-laden story was also made into a film in 1987, starring Victoria Tennant as Corrine and Louise Fletcher as Olivia.
Will you watch Lifetime's Flowers in the Attic?


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Yo Yo Ma spotted in Chicago
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Yo Yo Ma spotted in Chicago
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A little thing I knocked up for Coventry Clandestine Cake Club, and to celebrate Brenda's 60 yrs toiling away keeping the royalists happy. A vanilla sponge with a Damson gin liqueur buttercream and damson jam filling, Renshaw icing Union Jack, and flowerpaste, cake-smashing guitar!
The lovely Renshaw people at Mybakes offered me one of their very-handy-for-Union-Jacks Great British Icing packs, so in my best Corporate Whore voice, I said Yes please! The packs contain 4 x 200g, 1 x Red, 1 x White and 2 x blue and are available from Asda, Morrisons, and Hobbycraft. I used 30g of red, 85g of white and 185g of blue for this cake, and one was very happy with one's results :)
- 150g Unsalted butter at room temp
- 140g Golden caster sugar
- 3 Free range eggs
- 140g Self raising flour sifted
- 30g ground almond
- 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.
- 150g Unsalted butter at room temp
- 300g Icing sugar sifted
- 1 TBSP Milk
- 1 TBSP Damson gin liqueur
- 100g Damson jam
- Flowerpaste for the guitar
- Edible ink pen for doodling on it
- Preheat the oven to 180c
- Grease and line or cake release spray 2 x 7" round cake tins
- In a large bowl cream together the butter and caster sugar
- Add one egg at a time and keep mixing.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix in.
- Add the sifted flour and ground almond and fold in with a metal spoon or a spatula.
- Split evenly into the two cake tins.
- Bake for 20-25mins, until golden brown, and just starting to come away from the sides of the tins. Test the centre with a cocktail stick, knife, or cake tester and it should come out clean from the centre.
- Leave to cool for 10 mins in the tins, then tip onto a rack to cool completely.
- For the buttercream, mix together the butter, icing sugar, milk, damson liqueur together until light, smooth and fluffy.
- If you want a flat top to the cake then you want the bases of the sponges on the top and bottom, this means you may want to slice the dome'd tops off, then apply 2/3 of the buttercream to one and the jam to the other, then sandwich together.
- With a palette knife use more of the buttercream to fill out the filling gap and also apply a smooth thin layer all over the cake to help the icing stick smoothly. See photo 1 below.
- Roll out the blue icing on a surface powdered very lightly with cornflour. Measure the height and diameter of the cake, add at least an inch and then you'll know how big a disc of icing you need. I rolled out 400g and you can see from photo 2 once it was thin I had a little bit spare around the edges lol
- Roll out the white icing to the same length and cut the strips you need. I used a see through ruler and pastry cutting wheel for this. Wet the blue icing a touch just where the white strips are going to go to help them stick. I used a little brush for this.
- Roll out the red icing, cut the strips, wet the white icing where the red's going to go and stick 'em on.
- Now it's destruction time! Yay! Cut away from the centre with a knife and peel back the flaps of icing.
- Dig out some of the sponge with a fork and mix with a small bit of buttercream to keep it moist. then put back into the 'crater'.
- Stick your very fine musical instrument into the middle of the crater.
- I then mixed up the last of the buttercream with some blue gel colouring and piped around the base of the cake to tidy it up.
- Eat in an anarchic way with the Sex Pistols playing loudly.
Jubilee tunage!
Kicking off with your eating music Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
Kicking off with your eating music Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
The majesty of Freddie Mercury! Queen - We Are The Champions!
What's that? You want to see prisoners dancing to Queen - Radio Gaga? OK...
Yeovil's finest! PJ Harvey - 50ft Queenie.
A lovely bit of QOTSA - No One Knows.
And finally, as Brenda smiles along with all the singing Sirs in a concert sorted by the no doubt future Sir Gary of Barlow The Subways - Rock and Roll Queen.
Stay regal people.


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Available soon
Available soon
Our Values:
Respect | Diversity | Professionalism | Curiosity
Our Belief:
Health is not the absence of disease - it's a complete state of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. Like the World Health Organisation, we see health as a resource for life and not itself the object of living. Health is the product of structural and social determinants. We believe that habits are normal, functional, learned responses to specific situations and these responses are a combination of cognitive, environmental and behavioural patterns. We recognise that some habits may have negative outcomes and it is a choice to learn how to change habits and build resilience.


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MCA – Microsoft Certified Architect Program
The Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) program helps enable the highest-achieving professionals in IT architecture to distinguish their expertise. If you have proven experience as a technology architect who designs and delivers IT solutions for enterprise customers, and technical and leadership skills that surpass those of your peers, consider earning the MCA certification. By doing so, you can validate your advanced proficiency and join an exclusive, world-class community of experts.
Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com
Level: Successful candidates generally have ten or more years of IT experience, and five or more years of specific architectural experience. Microsoft Certified Master certification is a prerequisite for all MCA Technology certifications.
Audience: Practicing IT Architect, Microsoft Certified Master
Type: Microsoft Certification
Microsoft Certified Architect Program Overview
Why get certified?
Earning a Microsoft Certification validates your proven experience and knowledge using Microsoft products. Designed to be relevant in today's rapidly changing IT marketplace, Microsoft Certifications help you utilize evolving technologies, fine-tune your troubleshooting skills, and improve your job satisfaction.
Whether you are new to technology, changing jobs, or a seasoned IT professional, earning a Microsoft Certification demonstrates to customers, peers, and employers that you are committed to advancing your skills and taking on greater challenges. In addition, certification provides you with access to exclusive Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) resources and benefits, including opportunities to connect with a vast, global network of MCPs.
Why get an MCA certification?
Individuals who earn an MCA have achieved the capstone certification from Microsoft, proving their ability to architect large-scale complex solutions with Microsoft technologies. As such, they are recognized by Microsoft and the IT industry worldwide for having achieved the highest level of professional certification on Microsoft server products. MCAs report that their certification has brought them:
More market credibility
More effective deployment services
Increased number of requests for advice or participation in projects
In addition to providing opportunities for career advancement and higher earning potential, an MCA offers these benefits:
Recognition for achieving the capstone certification from Microsoft, proving your ability to architect large-scale complex solutions with Microsoft technologies
Membership on the MCA distribution list in your specific solution area
Promotion of your name and technical services on the Microsoft website
MCA certificate and plaque
Potential to participate on future MCA Review Board panels and in beta exam development
The MCA certification is granted after the candidate successfully passes the MCA Board exam, which includes a portfolio submission, multiple presentations, and an intensive Q&A with a panel of Microsoft Certified Architects on the MCA Review Board. During the MCA Board exam, the candidate must definitively display the six competencies of business acumen and technological proficiency.
MCA certifications
Microsoft currently offers four MCA certifications:
MCA: Microsoft Exchange Server
MCA: Microsoft SharePoint Server
MCA: Microsoft SQL Server
MCA: Windows Server: Directory
These certifications are designed for architects who specialize in using Microsoft technologies to provide solutions for enterprise customers. Professionals who hold an MCA certification are generally recognized by Microsoft and the IT industry worldwide as individuals who hold the highest level of professional certification on Microsoft server products.
Steps to Becoming a Microsoft Certified Architect
Earn a current Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) certification for the technology for which you wish to pursue an MCA technology certification. MCM certification is a prerequisite for all MCA technology programs.
Register for the Microsoft Certified Architect program.
The registration team will review the application to ensure that you have met all of the application requirements.
Note The application fee for the MCA program is US$125. If you are accepted into the program, the fee to take the MCA Board Exam is US$7,500.
Review the program resources.
After you successfully register for the MCA program, you will be granted access to portfolio documentation and resources to help you prepare for your MCA Board exam.
Prepare the required program documentation.
Prepare a portfolio that includes your work history, a project case study, and a project presentation, all of which should show how your skills and work experience directly apply to each of the six MCA competencies.
Review the program competencies
Submit your documentation and schedule your Board Exam.
When your portfolio is complete, submit the documentation for review by the program manager for your technology track. If your portfolio addresses the objective content requirements for an effective Review Board review, the program manager will approve you to schedule an MCA Board Exam. Once the portfolio documentation is approved, you may pay the program fee and schedule your appearance before the Review Board.
The following MCA Review Board dates are currently scheduled for the Microsoft Certified Architect program. All MCA Board Exams will be held in Redmond unless otherwise noted.
Important: Registration deadline for an MCA Board Exam is two months prior to the indicated Review Board date.
Microsoft Certified Architect: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Microsoft Certified Architect: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Closed Beta at SharePoint Conference
Microsoft Certified Architect: Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Microsoft Certified Architect: Windows Server 2008 R2: Directory
Note MCA Board Exam dates are subject to change at the sole discretion of Microsoft.
Learn more about the MCA Board Exam
Successfully complete your MCA Board Exam.
You will appear before an MCA Review Board of peers, which consists of Microsoft Certified Architects (MCAs). Your MCA Board Exam will last up to four hours and will include presentations you deliver based on your portfolio and a technology-specific case study, each of which will be followed by intensive Q&A sessions with Review Board members. You will receive performance results by email within two weeks.
Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com


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Are you an organ donor?
Nick Rhoads: "I wish you had asked me an easier question. Currently I am, and I'm proud to donate my organs to science."
Jacob Steel: "Yes, I am. If I get into a wreck, I will donate my organs to someone else."
Jessica Kain: "Yes. I'm the type of person to help other people, and I think being an organ donor can give someone else a second chance."


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Note2: This only involves sharing printers though Samba. It is not required for those who connect to CUPS directly.
There seems to be a reoccurring bug that shows up in every other release of Ubuntu / Mint. In one release it's not an issue in the next release it is an issue. What should happen is the CUPS service will start and provide Samba with a list of available printers. When the Samba service starts it reads that list and makes these printers available to the network. What does happen is that both services are started but in the wrong order. Samba starts first, does not see a list of printers, and then CUPS starts - but by then it's too late.
This fix will make the starting of Samba conditional on CUPS starting first:
[1] Make a backup copy of the smbd Upstart script:
[2] Edit the smbd Upstart script as root:
Code: Select all
sudo cp /etc/init/smbd.conf /etc/init/smbd.conf.bak
[3] Change the following line:
Code: Select all
gksu gedit /etc/init/smbd.conf
To this:start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up)
EDIT: On new systems the order of cups and net-device-up may have to be reversed:start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up and started cups)
start on (local-filesystems and started cups and net-device-up)


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The first version of pdisk was written in late 1996 when I was a member of the MkLinux team at Apple Computer. Since pdisk provides some functionality that other MacOS partitioners don't, a simplistic port was done to the MacOS, using some generic SCSI access code written by another programmer at Apple.
In January 1997 I got hijacked onto the Rhapsody project. I did a quick initial port to Rhapsody/Darwin/MacOS X and then nothing happened for a while.
In December 1997, I added support for ATA/ATAPI devices to the MacOS version of pdisk. Various other small changes worked in during early 1998 and then it languished for a long time.
In February 2000, I finally got a machine to run LinuxPPC on. I worked on pdisk some and put a distribution together in May. Since then I haven't really done anything with it.
These days I don't even run Linux anymore. I get maybe one email about pdisk a month if that.


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After almost 15 months of its longest, deadliest, and most unconventional deployment, the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the US Army is packing up to leave Iraq.
When it goes home to Fort Stewart, Ga., this month, the unit will be among the last to return from the "surge," Washington's move to calm the sectarian bloodshed that had consumed Baghdad and much of Iraq.
In many regards, the plan worked. Violence dropped as about 30,000 extra US soldiers moved into combat outposts around Iraq starting in February 2007. Last month, the number of Iraqis killed was 515; last June, that figure was 3,000.
Still, while the 1/64 recognizes much progress during its tour, the majority of the more than dozen soldiers and officers interviewed question if their effort will have been worth it in the end. Many say their mission helped bring about only a lull in the sectarian killings and feel that neither the Iraqi government nor its forces are ready, capable, or even motivated to build on the successes of the surge.
"We have no control over what happens once we leave. No one is prepared to stay here 20 years of their lives to make sure this place stays good," says Spc. Mark Webster, a native of San Luis Obispo, Calif., stationed at the neighborhood garrison of Adel. These combat outposts (COPS) have been scattered throughout Baghdad since the start of the surge. "We have accomplished things; we kept it at a general lull," adds Specialist Webster.
Although the experience of the 1/64 applies to only one slice of Baghdad, many of the issues and challenges it has grappled with are similar to those confronting other units in Baghdad and in other restive provinces – Anbar, Diyala, and Nineveh – where most of the surge units were deployed.
Life on the front lines
Getting US soldiers into the dusty neighborhoods of Baghdad was a cornerstone of the surge.
At COP Adel, a battered shopping center now barricaded with giant walls and nicknamed "the mall," soldiers from the 1/64 recently milled around in front of their Humvees. Inside, others nibbled on hot meals trucked in from Camp Liberty, the battalion's headquarters within the sprawling US command complex next to Baghdad's airport. A few pump iron, some mop up, others surf the Internet.
"They tell us we are doing something for our country, but I do not see it," says one soldier, who did not want to have his name published. "It seems more like the real fight is in Afghanistan … instead they get us into this [area of operation], which is more like Mr. Rogers' neighborhood."
Adel, a once-prosperous middle-class area, is now almost all Sunni and poor. Shiites fled the sectarian violence of 2006 and their homes have been occupied by Sunnis displaced from neighboring Hurriya. That shift is just one example of the new sectarian segregation throughout Baghdad.
Many average Iraqis in Adel, as well as in the areas of Jamiaa, Iskan, Khadra, Washash, and parts of Mansour, where the 1/64 operated, give credit to the US for the turnaround in their western Baghdad neighborhoods. But they fear a return to the not-so-distant days of lawlessness should US troops leave soon. The 1/64 is being replaced with another unit.
On a recent house-to-house search in Adel by members of the 1/64, accompanying Iraqi soldiers seemed more interested in chatting and texting on their cellphones than the mission at hand.
"It's tiring. It has been five years. Now it's called knock-and-search instead of raids. A lot of the [Iraqi] soldiers do not want to do their jobs," grumbles Staff Sgt. Jose Benavides from Miami. "If the Americans leave, the sectarian violence will flare up."
In one stately Adel villa, Iman Marouf says she's "guarding" the house for its absent Shiite owners. No Shiites have dared return to the neighborhood since a bombing last month targeted some who had come back.
"Fear consumes people. Hearts are still filled with fear," says Mrs. Marouf, gesturing emotionally.
Her sister, Jinan Marouf, adds: "All this calm is temporary, trust me. If we get someone like Saddam Hussein back, Iraq will be itself again. We need someone with his control."
From the Adel outpost, the soldiers served as cop, community benefactor, and mentor to Iraq's fledgling security forces.
On a recent drive with Lt. Col. Edward Chesney, the 1/64's commander, through his area of operation, he recounted how the local Iraqi police unit was rebuilt from scratch in many of the mainly Sunni neighborhoods he oversees. It's now staffed with men, some ex-insurgents, mostly on the US payroll.
He spoke of how commercial thoroughfares are being slowly revitalized with US grants to shop owners and of the public-works projects initiated and paid for by the US military.
He described with enthusiasm how US funds are being spent on creating municipal outposts, known as public-works substations, in many of these once no-go neighborhoods to encourage the Shiite-led Baghdad municipal authorities to pitch in.
But when it comes to broader Iraqi reconciliation, he says, that's something you can't impose. "That's something they are going to have to work through," he says. "I think foundations have been laid in our areas, but if progress does not continue there is potential for things to unravel again."
The toll of multiple tours
At the 1/64's headquarters inside Camp Liberty, framed photos pay tribute to the 12 US soldiers and one Iraqi interpreter that the unit lost during its deployment in Iraq.
Among them is Maj. Sid Brookshire, from Willard, Mo., who died June 20, 2007, when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. Five soldiers and one interpreter died March 10, 2008, when a suicide bomber attacked them. They had been conducting an "economic assessment" in a Mansour market in order to provide local shopkeepers with grant money.
The losses quickly took their toll on the men and women of the unit, many who had already served several tours.
"At first I was shocked, because we had not had a casualty in six months. People were talking already about going home," says the unit's public-affairs officer, 1st Lt. Tabitha Hernandez, from Wellsville, N.Y. "The worst part for me was seeing grown-up men cry."
She says the March attack was a "hard hit" for the platoon to which the dead officers and soldiers belonged and the battalion as a whole, which comprises a core force of about 830 plus an attachment of about 170.
Lieutenant Hernandez says nearly 40 percent of the battalion's members are in Iraq for a third time since the start of the war in 2003. "It's astronomical," she says.
For Sgt. Mark Martin, a father of three from Chatsworth, Ga., on his third tour, the toll of the multiple and almost back-to-back deployments for many units is grueling. "We are so stretched that constantly, if we are not training back home, we are here."
And many within the battalion wonder just how long the war will – or should – go on.
Maj. Chris Budihas recalls how in 2004 – while he was serving in Najaf to the south – he had asked the commander of US troops in Iraq at the time, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, whether there would be an Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) 12 or 13, the US military's term for tours of duty in Iraq.
"He looked down, shifted the sand with his boots, and told me 'maybe'," says Major Budihas, who is finishing up his 17-month tour as part of OIF 6.
In 2007, Budihas, of Jacksonville, Fla., had already been in Iraq for three months working at division level in Baghdad but was seconded to the 1/64 after it lost Major Brookshire.


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Comparing Help Authoring Tools (HATs) with Drupal is like comparing apples with oranges.
HATs are used by Technical Authors to create content in various formats for end users to read. Drupal is open-source software that is used to create websites for users such that they can contribute to the content (for example: blogs, personal or corporate websites, e-commerce sites and intranets).
That said, if you are a HAT user and then have to work in Drupal, it is useful to be forewarned of the main differences. The top 3 things that a HAT user will miss when starting to use Drupal:
1. The most frustrating thing about using Drupal, having come from a HAT background, is having no summary list of pages (topics) available in a different frame.
As an Administrator in Drupal, you can view a list of pages, but you can only edit the properties of one page at a time. There is no multiple-selecting and no drag-and-dropping. So topic management can be very labourious.
2. Out of the box, there is no way of managing links. So, for example:
- If you delete a page then all links pointing to it will break, and there are no messages to warn you.
- When creating a link in a page you have to know the path and name of the destination page – there are no helpful lists of available pages.
There are modules you can install, which can help. The "Links" module is the most complete on paper but, in Drupal 6, it can cause a programming error (i.e. not an error in the way I installed it).
3. Out of the box there is no WYSIWYG editor. For the majority of HAT users this is a must. You can only write your content in full/filtered html.
I highly recommend installing the "Wysiwyg" module. This module makes it much easier to install WYSIWYG editors. Some of these are less successful than others. If you are interested in keeping your underling code clean (i.e. free from unnecessary <span> tags created by inline styling), I recommend the "TinyMCE" editor.


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Last night, Dollhouse served up a blend of the Borg, The Matrix and The Cell... and then revealed how they all fit together, in a wholly original story. And then we finally learned the secret origins of Rossum. Spoilers ahead.
Over the past few weeks, Dollhouse season two has started reminding me of Jericho season two — both shows came back from cancellation, with a limited number of episodes. Both shows' fans cherished hopes that they'd continue past those truncated second seasons, but the people making both Jericho and Dollhouse seemed aware that they shouldn't save any trail mix for the hike back. Both shows abandoned their slow, incremental approaches and started racing forwards... almost too fast. But I'd way rather have too fast than too slow... or a setup that never pays off.
The other comparison, while we're at it, is that both Dollhouse and Jericho have pretty unique spins on the apocalypse — both involving an evil corporation and entitled assclowns who just have to control everything.
So last night, Dollhouse served up one decent episode, and one great one. In the first hour, we learned, yet again, that you never really leave the Dollhouse. Victor's contract expires, and he gets set free, wealthy but adrift, and unsure why he's in love with a woman he can't remember. He's so used to doll life, he sleeps in his bathtub because it reminds him of his coffin. And then he gets kidnapped/recruited to become a soldier in a new Rossum unit, that's basically a linked group mind. And then in the second hour, Echo, Victor and Sierra get sent to the Attic, where they encounter Mr. Dominic, and a serial killer... who turns out to be one of the founders of Rossum Corp.
The first hour was a slight disappointment, but only a slight one. After seeing so many hints about Victor's war-related PTSD, I figured we were in for an exploration of the ways in which trauma comes back even after you think you've defeated it. Even though Topher seemed so confident that they'd "cured" Victor's PTSD, I assumed we were going to learn otherwise. But after waving a bit in that direction, the episode lurched towards the "hive mind" soldiers thing — which was a really neat concept, and yet another fresh spin on the Dollhouse's tech. (The execution was pretty good, but the "chanting soldier voices" thing veered towards being cheesy once or twice.)
Mostly, instead of being an homage to Kimberly Peirce's underrated movie about PTSD and getting re-drafted against your will, the episode "Stop Loss" served to show us just one more way in which Rossum is evil. And at this point, we're pretty much primed to think Rossum is more evil than a dozen standard evil corporations put together. So it's just as well that the show is moving forward beyond showing us how evil Rossum is — towards explaining how Rossum got that way, and how our heroes are going to fight it.
You have admire how quickly the second episode, "The Attic," ran through all the standard science-fiction cliches for this sort of situation. Echo is in a virtual shared world, along the lines of the Matrix, and then she and Laurence Dominic are being chased by a shadowy serial killer through people's worst nightmares. The first half of the episode was fun, and some of the nightmare imagery was pretty jarring — especially the vision of Echo and the other dolls on tables, with wires going into their brains and tubes going down their throats, as liquid slowly flows into their trays.
There's nothing wrong with a "chasing a serial killer through people's nightmares" episode — we all like a good mindscape serial killer. But it's probably just as well that the episode took a sharp lurch halfway through, when the good guys finally catch up to the evil mass-murderer Arcane — and he's revealed to be a British nerd.
The Attic turns out to be more than just the random hell all of the broken dolls and disloyal employees are sent to — it's a giant computer, made out of hundreds of human brains, all supercharged by experiencing trauma over and over again. It's another neat spin on the show's central "brain hacking" conceit, and then it leads to us discovering the origins of Rossum. Arcane, the serial killer, is actually Clyde, the co-founder of Rossum, who developed "encephalic coding and communication," only to be betrayed by his partner after he imprints someone with a more docile version of his own mind.
And ever since Clyde got sent to the Attic — in 1993 — he's been running statistical analysis and scenarios for the future of the ECC technology. And in all but 3 percent of these scenarios, the ability to read and write brains leads to the collapse of civilization. Presumably, Rossum has access to Clyde's data-crunching, and knows about this — but doesn't care.
Conveniently, Clyde's memory of the name of his partner in founding Rossum, as well as the person who was imprinted with the obedient "Clyde 2.0" persona, has been removed. But it turns out Echo's original personality, Caroline Farrell, discovered who they were before she was wiped and turned into a doll. (We know a lot of time passed between Caroline breaking into the Rossum lab on that college campus and her becoming a doll — so presumably she discovered more about Rossum during that time.) So after Echo and the others break out of the Attic, they know enough to start taking the fight to Rossum.
Once again, the star of last night's episode was really Olivia Williams as Adelle — her arc moved awfully quickly, but it was still pretty amazing to watch. In the first hour, she has one last fling with "Roger," her perfect lover who's installed into Victor's body — only to have Roger confess that he's in love with someone else... Sierra. Even a pre-programmed lover won't love Adelle. "Roger" only rubs salt in the wounds by scoffing at the idea that Adelle would be pathetic enough to hire a programmed doll to love her. This rejection, and evidence that Adelle has lost her grip on the Dollhouse by not preventing Victor and Sierra from "grouping," sends her into a tailspin, and she spends pretty much the rest of the episode drunk, while everyone around her schemes. Echo bursts in to tell Adelle that they're not equals, and Boyd tells Adelle that she needs to find the old Adelle quickly, or he'll help take her down.
And then Adelle takes a shower with the Actives, and when she comes out, she's apparently sobered up a bit — and chosen her side in the fight between Rossum and the human race. We think at first that Adelle has finally discarded the last little piece of her soul and become "Darth DeWitt" in full — but then it turns out she sent Echo to the Attic on purpose, to discover Rossum's secrets.
If these episodes had aired on a weekly basis, this progression would have felt a lot slower, probably — Adelle losing control of the Dollhouse to Harding, selling out to get it back, turning into a bitter shell of her former self, and then finally making her choice. But even getting all six of these episodes over a three-week span, it still feels like a pretty intense journey, with Olivia Williams fully investing you in Adelle's downward spiral.
Once again, I also really liked Echo — especially the bit where she went shopping in the Dollhouse's imprints and turned them into an all-you-can-eat skillset buffet. After so long of Echo being helpless and glitchy and confused and headachy, it was just beautiful to see her turning her previous source of weakness into an amazing strength. And yay for Echo taking on an army single-handed and winning, by hacking their brains with her super-brain. If we didn't already know the good guys were going to lose, I'd say maybe Rossum had created the engine of their own destruction.
And I wonder if Victor and Sierra are gone for good — are they just Tony and Priya now? Their love has overcoming brainwashing and programming, and now it's overcome a military hive mind as well. I wonder if we'll get to see what it is that drives them apart in the future?
Speaking of which, it seems like we're leaping over the flashforwards in "Epitaph One" at amazing speed now. I'm having a hard time figuring out where those segments fit into all this. I'm guessing we've already passed by the sequence where Echo is programmed to be a Russian girl and complains to Ballard about her headaches — when did that happen? Right before Alpha's visit? It doesn't seem like the sequence of events allows for that. (Or did that scene purely happen in Echo's nightmares inside The Attic?) And then the scene where the Rossum scumbag Mr. Ambrose takes over Victor's body and announces that the Dollhouse is now renting out its Actives to become spare bodies for rich people — did that happen during the three months Echo was away, but before Mr. Harding took over the Dollhouse? I'm a bit confused at this point.
In general, though, Dollhouse is delivering unforgettable characters and a mind-blowing spin on its basic premise, and it's really fully become the show it's hinted at from the beginning. It's going to be a long three weeks' wait to see our heroes posse up to take on Rossum, and I'm hopeful based on the past few weeks' incredibly strong track record that the revelations about Caroline's past aren't going to be disappointing. (It helps to know that the next episode is written by Tim Minear, the man who can do no wrong.) Even if you were hoping the show would plunge us into the post-apocalyptic Felicia-Day-on-the-run future right at the start of the season, you can't deny that getting to see the building blocks of that future sliding into place has been amazing. This show may be on its way to cancellation, but we're going to be seeing people building on it for years to come.
Also, I hate to be a broken record, but the more we see of season two, the sadder I am that the show didn't put its best foot forward. The season's first two episodes were just so lackluster, compared to everything that's come after, that it's depressing to look back on them. I get very sad when I think of the fact that Fox sent out DVD screeners of "Vows," the I-married-a-boring-arms-dealer episode, to every TV journalist in the country, thus generating bad or no buzz. What if Fox had mailed out the Sierra/Nolan episode instead? Or any of the episodes since then?
Anyway, there are just three episodes of Dollhouse left, including two present-day ones and then a return to the post-apocalyptic future. Now that the show has already proved it's not holding any plot (or character) developments back for a later that'll never come, those last three episodes are going to be the most anticipated television of January, as far as I'm concerned.


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Employers using wellness programs are seeing a 6.1% average annual medical cost trend reduction and a 13.5% average annual medical cost trend reduction among members with core conditions, according to a new study.
The study was conducted by Zoe Consulting Inc. on behalf of Interactive Health Solutions Inc., a provider of performance-based health management solutions for employers.
Asthma, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, diabetes and hypertension are examples of core conditions, and many of the health effects from core conditions can be managed through early detection as well as compliance with prescribed therapies.
The study also finds a 7.7% reduction in per member per month during the survey's final year, and 85% of members maintained or lessen their health risk levels.
Additionally, respondents spent fewer days out of the workplace because of workers' compensation and short-term disability claims, the study reveals. In fact, respondents returned to their jobs up to nine days sooner while under workers' compensation and 17 days sooner for those on short-term disability.
"Employers are continuously searching for responsible ways to reduce health care spending, which has grown to over 25% of total labor expense," says Joseph O'Brien, president and CEO of Interactive Health Solutions. "We have a long history of pioneering game-changing wellness programs. The analysis conducted by Zoe Consulting confirms our wellness programs deliver meaningful results for individuals and their employers."
This independent analysis is based on multiple years of medical claim data from two comparable population groups.


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Competition is a good thing, and the browser arena has been a fierce arena for years now. There are at least four "major" browsers each vying for your attention, along with lots of smaller spin-offs (SRWare Iron or Flock, anyone?).
While the browser usage charts we share from time to time show overall browser usage amongst the Web at large, Download Squad readers are not exactly the average bunch in terms of browser use. So today we have one simple question for you:
What's your primary Web browser?
Ask DLS: What's your primary Web browser? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/16/ask-dls-whats-your-primary-browser/


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1. Briefly describe the paper and its contribution to computer graphics and interactive techniques. Please give your assessment of the scope and magnitude of the paper's contribution.
2. Is the exposition clear? How could it be improved?
3. Are the references adequate? List any additional references that are needed.
4. Are all important aspects of the algorithms, systems, and/or experiments described in enough detail to reproduce the results presented in the paper?
5. Does the paper provide an adequate evaluation of the proposed methods? Are the limitations and drawbacks of the work clear?
6. Please rate this paper on a continuous scale from 1 to 5, where:
1 = Definitely reject. I would protest strongly if it is accepted.
2 = Probably reject. I would argue against this paper.
3 = Possibly accept, but only if others champion it.
4 = Probably accept. I would argue for this paper.
5 = Definitely accept. I would protest strongly if it's not accepted.
7. Please rate your expertise in the subject area of the paper on a continuous scale from 1 to 3, where:
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8. Explain your rating by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the submission. Include suggestions for improvement and publication alternatives, if appropriate. Be thorough. Your explanation will be of the highest importance for any committee discussion of the paper and will be used by the authors to improve their work. Be fair. The authors spent a lot of effort to prepare their submission, and your evaluation will be forwarded to them before the rebuttal period.
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[ Data Visualization ] Based on the Autodesk platform, Digizyme plug-in proves aesthetic and educational effectiveness.
By Kevin Davies
January 10, 2012 | In 2010, a reporter sat in a Life Technologies hotel suite admiring a promotional video illustrating one of the company's latest research projects—a single-molecule sequencing system featuring enzymes tethered to fluorescing quantum dots. The video was impressive not merely for pushing the boundaries of sequencing technology, but equally for showcasing some powerful production qualities in 3D animation and rendering that, until recently, would have seemed the provenance of a Pixar movie.
That video was produced by a Boston company called Digizyme (www.digizyme.com), founded in 1999 by Gaël McGill as a side business while he worked on his Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School. Since then, Digizyme has become a respected source for educational and promotional animations, simulations and videos for many diverse life science applications.
"The visual communication of science—that's where my passion is," says McGill. He recognized early on that graphic design, animation and visualization tools were needed by several industries, not least his fellow scientists. Clients include academics as well as biotech, pharma, medical device companies, along with science museums, and public television stations.
After a hiatus to run the company full time after his postdoctoral fellowship, McGill joined the Harvard Medical School faculty five years ago in the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics, where his research focuses on how visualization impacts research and education. He is also creating a new graduate program to train students in biovisualization approaches.
Most companies offering animation tools are staffed by visual specialists or animators with a strong artistic background collaborating with scientists. "There are some great companies in this space, but what sets us apart is that we're scientists," says McGill. "Everyone at Digizyme is dually-trained as a scientist-animator, scientist-artist, or scientist-programmer. As a result, our visualizations are directly informed by the primary literature and based on raw data."
At Digizyme, McGill recruits twin-threat staff with a science graduate degree as well as strong artistic talent. The company has created stereoscopic movies for science museums, custom projects for pharma clients including Amgen, J&J, Novartis, Life Technologies, and Genentech, as well as completed work for several major hospitals, research institutes, and universities. McGill is also the Digital Media Director and a collaborating author for E.O. Wilson's 'Life on Earth' digital biology textbook.
Going Hollywood
The software that powers the Digizyme platform is Maya, a suite developed by Autodesk, which is a modeling, animation, simulation, and rendering application widely used in media and entertainment circles to create video game characters and environments and special effects for feature films. Of course, such software was never intended to display life sciences data.
"What are we doing with Hollywood software?" says McGill. "There's been billions of dollars invested in films to create powerful software suites, such as Maya."
McGill says that current bioscience research features "an incredible richness of datasets that is just overwhelming. We see visualization as the key to knowledge integration—it offers a powerful and flexible platform to import and synthesize data from various fields—data that would not otherwise interact."
One example would be to create an intracellular landscape using cryoEM tomography data to map the location of proteins in a cell. This map could be populated with atomic resolution protein structures, and then set in motion and simulated using various algorithms including Brownian dynamics. "This begs the question: What software do I use for this sort of thing? It doesn't currently exist, but it's something that interests many scientists. Our approach is to modify and adapt existing animation tools from Hollywood—platforms like Autodesk Maya—to advance toward that goal."
McGill's team built a new layer of code to make Autodesk's Maya more biologically relevant, resulting in a plug-in toolkit called Molecular Maya (mMaya). (see, "A Better World")
Molecular Maya focuses the modeling, animation, rendering, and simulation capabilities of Maya in the context of biological animations and structures. For example, instead of modeling DNA from scratch, it provides a direct link to a scientific database that downloads data directly into Maya and automatically creates the 3D model. McGill and his team are also developing tools in mMaya to rig macromolecules to facilitate biophysically-accurate animations as well as to build molecular environments.
Molecular Maya is written in languages (including Python and MEL—Maya Embedded Language) that allow other researchers to extend its capabilities. "We've created a series of free, open-source scripts that lets anybody type in a protein ID, say, and with a click, have this directly connect to the Protein Data Bank so they can model, manipulate and animate a protein within seconds," says McGill.
This accessibility came to light in the recent IGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) world jamboree, where student teams from around the world used synthetic biology principles to design novel cellular circuits and hybrid proteins. "For a student team trying to design something in a forward engineering approach, the design piece is not just making a pretty picture, it can be an integral part of the conceptualization and experimental approach," says McGill. For the past few years, he has been involved with this competition by hosting seminars and offering workshops to help students use Maya and Molecular Maya. (Autodesk has also sponsored IGEM the past three years.)
Not Just Pretty Pictures
McGill underscores the critical role that visualizations can play in experimental research. "I've worked with colleagues at Harvard Medical School where the process of creating a visualization can change one's understanding of the protein," says McGill.
In one project carried out in collaboration with renowned structural biologist Stephen Harrison, who specializes in proteins on the surface of HIV, McGill created an animation that depicts how a viral surface protein—gp41—spears the target cell membrane and refolds on itself to drive membrane fusion and facilitate viral infection. Proteins aren't static, they're shape shifters," says McGill. "gp41's conformational change cannot be depicted with the typical linear interpolation morphing techniques. It undergoes a helical transition and refolds completely." And trying to communicate such a critical and unusual conformational change in a standard research paper was next to impossible.
McGill's group helped Harrison visualize gp41's unique conformational change and, in the process, communicate the mechanism in a way that hopefully facilitates drug discovery. "Understanding the specific mechanism of how gp41 refolds may drive better approaches to drug discovery or vaccine development," he says.
Another example is Shawn Douglas (Wyss Center, Harvard Medical School), a former visualization student of McGill's and now a leading figure in the field of DNA Origami—designing novel DNA molecules to fold in vitro to create biologically useful entities. Douglas' Maya plug-in, Cadnano (http://cadnano.org), greatly simplifies DNA origami projects and brings the power and ease of use of typical modeling tools in Maya to this rapidly growing field.
"We're now collaborating to have both plug-ins—mMaya and Cadnano—work together inside Maya," says McGill. "Cadnano figures out how to create the genetic sequences that, when mixed in a test tube, fold into the shape of an object modeled in Maya. It's magic—a great example of how a design tool can transform a process that previously took weeks or months to navigate."
Visualization research isn't just about making movies but also about understanding how to design the most effective movie to impact a target audience. Says McGill: "We're very interested in understanding how design choices—how we represent or animate a process—can have an impact on the effectiveness of a movie, especially in the context of educational animations. We strive to create animations and interactives that have a high pedagogical impact on students, not just animations that are engaging and aesthetically pleasing."
In one recent project, hundreds of students assessed four different styles of animating a simple molecular interaction: a hormone binding to a cell surface receptor. McGill and his collaborators tested students before and after viewing these animations as well as monitored their reactions using eye-tracking methods. "Typical medical animations often impart decision-making properties to molecular entities—as if molecules know where they are going. This couldn't be further from the truth!" says McGill. He acknowledges that creating animations that depict both the stochastic nature of the molecular world while keeping students' attention on the mechanism and specificity of an interaction is quite a design and technical challenge.
McGill has created an educational web site called molecularmovies.com. It has three sections: one is a Showcase of some of the best online cell and molecular animations, organized by scientific topic. A Learning section contains McGill's teaching curriculum at Harvard Medical School, available free. And third is the Toolkit section, where researchers can download Molecular Maya. •
A Better World
The life sciences community might appear a little staid next to some of Autodesk's other marquee clients, including James Cameron, Frank Gehry, Disney, and Boeing. Not so, insists Patrick Byrne, director of business development for the Californian company that celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2012.
"Our mission is helping customers imagine, design and create a better world," says Byrne. The principal customers are in architecture/engineering, manufacturing and media/entertainment. Within the latter group, Autodesk has been building a product development group to extend Maya into life sciences. "It sits in our media and entertainment team, because Maya was developed for media professionals," says Byrne.
But why life sciences? "When we look at the range of industries we're in, the concept of design workflows is transparent across all industries. Whether you're in one of those industries, our tools enable you to be more efficient, more iterative and more creative. And when we look at academic research, we see an interesting place," says Byrne. "Without much ado from us, people like Gael have taken Maya and used it as a platform to develop visualization tools for their industries. We want to extend and enable that."
One of the keys to Maya's popularity is not just the modeling, texturing and rendering capability, but its extensible nature. Users can write their own plug in, which can be complex or very simple. For students and academic users, Autodesk offers free access to the software for three years in a termed-free license (http://students.autodesk.com/). "As you're perfecting your skill, let's make sure you have access to the tools to perfect your craft," says Byrne.
Byrne sees three prime opportunities for Maya in the life sciences: first, as a platform for innovative tools; second, use in science education curricula; and third, helping scientists in industry visualize and communicate research to a wider marketplace.
There is some strong competition in the marketplace, including an open-source product called Blender, and its derivative Bio-Blender, but Byrne sees the market expanding.
Support of the IGEM competition, for example, puts Maya in the hands of a global student body eager to harness the software in various synthetic biology applications. Byrne says he is proud of the MIT group, which won the 2011 IGEM prize in the health/medicine category, enabling cells to autonomously regenerate. •
This article also appeared in the January 2012 issue of Bio-IT World magazine.
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