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Underground Coal Mine
Fatal Fall of Face, Rib, or Pillar Accident
January 22, 2010
Bledsoe Coal Corporation
Abner Branch Rider
Big Laurel, Leslie County, Kentucky
ID No. 15-19132
Accident Investigators
Charles Ramsey
Coal Mine Safety and Health Inspector
Sandin Phillipson
Geologist, Roof Control Division
Pittsburgh Safety and health Technology Center
John Boylen
Roof Control Specialist
Debra Combs
Educational Field Services
Originating Office
Mine Safety and Health Administration
District 7
3837 South US Hwy 25E
Barbourville, KY 40906
Irvin T. Hooker, District Manager
At approximately 9:15 a.m. on Friday, January 22, 2010, a 29-year old miner with 10 years experience as a continuous miner operator was fatally injured when a rib roll occurred, causing a massive rib rock to pin him against the mine floor. The victim was trimming and cleaning the mine floor with a Joy Model 12CM remote control continuous mining machine in a bolted crosscut when the accident occurred. The rock that fell broke into several pieces, with the total size measured at approximately 82 inches high, 66 inches long, and 108 inches wide. The total weight of the rock prior to breaking was approximately 9.3 tons.
The Abner Branch Rider Mine is an underground coal mine owned and operated by Bledsoe Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of James River Coal Company. The mine is located in Leslie County, Kentucky and is developed in the Hazard #4 Rider Seam. Mining height ranges from 5 � feet, to 10 feet and the mine is accessed by four drift openings. A total of 60 miners are employed on two production shifts and one maintenance shift, five days per week, 9 hours per shift. This mine has one working section with an average production of 1,466 tons per day. Coal is extracted from the faces by a continuous miner and transported by a continuous haulage system and belt conveyors to the surface. Materials, supplies, and miners are transported via rail motors and rubber tired mantrips.
The principal officials for the mine at the time of the accident were:
Tim Frasure ............... President
David Osborne ............... General Manager
Bobby Strunk ............... Superintendent
Steve Shell ............... Safety Director
The last regular safety and health inspection (E01) conducted by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) prior to the accident was completed on December 22, 2009. The Non-Fatal Days Lost (NFDL) injury incidence rate for the Abner Branch Rider Mine through the 3rd quarter of 2009 was 3.90, compared to a National NFDL rate of 4.12.
On Friday morning January 22, 2010, at approximately 7:00 a.m., six members of the day shift production crew, under the direction of Paul Bentley, Section Foreman, entered the mine via rail mantrip. They arrived on the 001 Mechanized Mining Unit (MMU) at approximately 7:30 a.m. Four members of the crew were already on the section, having begun work at 5:00 a.m. to perform roof bolting operations. Upon arrival, Bentley began conducting an on-shift examination of the section and the remainder of the crew began normal production operations.
At approximately 8:30 a.m., Travis Brock (victim), Continuous Miner Operator, trammed the miner to the face of the #3 Heading. After completing the cut, Brock backed the continuous miner just outby #34 Crosscut. The roof bolting machine, which was on cycle to bolt the completed cut, was in the #2 Heading. Before it could be trammed to the #3 Heading, a 10 to 12 inch offset in the floor of the #3 Left Crosscut needed to be trimmed and the crosscut cleaned. After changing 4 or 5 bits on the mining machine, Brock began to trim and clean the crosscut. Bentley and Daniel Nantz, Roof Bolter Operator, were standing at the edge of the #3 Right Crosscut. As Brock began backing up the miner, Bentley heard rib rock fall. Looking toward the miner and not seeing Brock, Bentley and Nantz went to check on him. The continuous miner and bridge units suddenly lost power and Jerry Hawkins, Front Bridge Carrier Operator, observed Bentley and Nantz rushing towards the continuous miner. Hawkins and James Sizemore, Outby Bridge Carrier Operator, went to investigate. Bentley and Nantz found Brock pinned underneath two sections of the fallen rock, behind the continuous miner. With assistance from Hawkins, Sizemore, and Jerry Caldwell, Roof Bolter Operator, the portion of broken rock that struck Brock was removed and he was placed on a backboard. James Lawson, Face Belt Attendant, called outside and notified June Turner, Surface Dispatcher, of the occurrence of a serious injury. First aid was administered by Caldwell, a Mine Emergency Technician. Brock was then carried to the #3 Right area at #33 Crosscut and placed in the bucket of the Simmons-Rand 602 Scoop. He was transported in the scoop to the end of the track at #12 Crosscut on 8 Mains and placed on the rail mantrip. Accompanied by James Noble, also a Mine Emergency Technician, Brock was transported to the surface where he was pronounced dead at 11:10 a.m. by Jimmy Couch, Assistant Deputy Coroner.
The MSHA National Call Center was notified at approximately 9:28 a.m. by Barbara Smith of Bledsoe Coal that a life threatening injury had occurred at the Bledsoe Coal Corporation's Abner Branch Rider mine. The MSHA District 7 Office was notified by the National Call Center at approximately 9:33 a.m. A verbal 103(j) Order was issued to Steve Shell, Safety Director, at approximately 9:35 a.m. by Jim Langley, Assistant District Manager. Langley then notified Lester Cox, Harlan Field Office Supervisor, to dispatch Charles Ramsey, MSHA Accident Investigator, to the mine site. The 103(j) Order was modified to a 103(k) Order after MSHA arrived at the mine.
The accident investigation was conducted in cooperation with the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing (OMSL), with assistance from the mine operator and employees. A list of persons participating in or present during the investigation is included in Appendix A.
Representatives of MSHA, OMSL, and the operator traveled underground to the accident site to examine the scene and begin an investigation of the existing physical conditions.
On Saturday, January 23, 2010, a representative of MSHA's Educational Field Services reviewed training records and a representative of MSHA's Pittsburgh Technical Support office provided assistance with evaluation of the geologic conditions on the 001 MMU.
Interviews were conducted with 16 persons on January 26, 2010 at the Barbourville MSHA District Office in conjunction with OMSL representatives.
This massive rib roll occurred in the 8 Mains Section at the intersection of #34 Crosscut and the #3 Heading. The 8 Mains had been developed 34 crosscuts, which represents the maximum eastern extent of mining. Five entries or headings had been developed on 55-foot centers and crosscuts on 63.5-foot centers. Mining was accomplished with a continuous haulage system, resulting in 60� angled crosscuts turned from the #3 Heading, which is also the belt entry. Mining width varied from 18 to 20 feet. Primary roof support consisted of 5-foot long, 7/8-inch diameter, fully grouted bolts. No rib support was observed on the 001 MMU.
Mining height from the mouth of 8 Mains to #15 Crosscut is approximately 12 feet, decreasing to approximately 9 feet inby #16 Crosscut as a rider seam splits from the mining horizon and rises into the roof. Mining height in the vicinity of the accident site is 9 to10 feet. Outby #33 Crosscut, the ribs exhibited sloughing and the sharp pillar corners created by the continuous haulage mining method had either sloughed off or exhibited fracturing 3 to 4 feet into the pillar from the acute-angled corner.
Inby #32 Crosscut, 8 Mains dropped from 5 to 3 entries. At this location the coal seam dropped to approximately six inches in thickness in #33 Crosscut and was replaced by sandstone and shale. Between #33 and #34 Crosscuts, the roof changed from strongly cemented, generally smooth shale, to gray mudstone. Inby #34 Crosscut, the coal seam increased quickly to normal thickness. The inby rib point where #34 Crosscut was turned toward the #2 Heading occurred within this transition area. At the pillar corner, the coal height was approximately 3.3 feet. The fallen rock measured 6.8 feet and there was approximately 10 inches of roof rock. At a depth of 5.5 feet from the former pillar corner, at the back of the fall, the rock measured 3.3 feet in height with a corresponding increase in coal height. This wedge of rock broke loose and fell out along the rock/coal interface, striking the continuous miner operator and pinning him to the mine floor.
Beginning in #33 Crosscut, the coal pinched out to approximately six inches in thickness as interbedded sandstone and shale was encountered in the mining horizon. The coal began to resume normal thickness inby # 34 Crosscut as the contact between coal and overlying shale and sandstone rose rapidly into the roof. The 8 Mains was narrowed down from five to three entries upon encountering the sandstone roll. Between #33 and #35 Crosscuts, the roof changed character from strongly cemented shale, which formed a generally smooth roof horizon outby, to gray mudstone that hosted abundant, large, randomly oriented plant debris with numerous development style pot-outs in the roof.
Inby the #34 Croscut intersection, the interbedded sandstone and shale rose quickly with a related increase in coal thickness. The contact between coal and the overlying sandstone and shale was defined by an undulating slickenside plane that exhibited a strike of North 12� West and dip of 50� West. The slickenside was traced directly from the #3 to #2 Heading, trending through #34 Crosscut, and projected toward the #4 Heading, where a prominent, planar slickenside with the same strike was present in the roof (Figure 2, Appendix C). The 50� West dip of the slickenside defined a formative sliding plane through the acute-angled corner of the pillar on the inby side of #34 Crosscut (Figure 3, Appendix C).
The fatal rock was defined by the North 12� W slickenside, which formed the undercutting formative plane that allowed sliding of the pillar corner down the 50� inclined surface (Figure 3, Appendix C). The top of the fatal rock separated along a smooth bedding lamination in the sequence of interbedded shale and fine-grained sandstone. The fallen pillar wedge consisted entirely of rock and was estimated to be 110 cubic feet in volume, weighing approximately 9.3 tons. The fallen wedge was trapezoidal in shape, defined by the inclined slickenside plane on the bottom, the horizontal delamination plane on top, and the two converging ribs. Part of the fallen wedge was defined by a plane of tensile failure in the fine-grained sandstone, which defined a planar fracture 9 feet long by 3.3 feet high, oriented vertically above the inclined slickenside plane and intersecting the horizontal delamination horizon (Figure 4, Appendix C). The plane of tensile (of tension) failure was 5.5 feet from the former pillar corner, and the fallen wedge tapered from a height of 6.8 feet at the pillar corner to 3.3 feet at the rear of the wedge as the slickenside rose into the pillar (Figures 3 and 4, Appendix C).
An MSHA Analysis of Retreat Mining Pillar Stability (ARMPS) of 8 Mains indicates a Pillar Stability Factor of 0.83 beneath the 820 feet of overburden at the accident site. This value does not meet the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended Stability Factor of 1.33.
The January 22, 2010, preshift examination conducted between 4:30 a.m. and 5:50 a.m. by Lowell Harris, Third Shift Section Foreman for the 001 MMU, was called outside at 6:25 a.m. The only hazardous condition noted in the preshift record for the 001 MMU was "Not Bolted," and the corrective action was "Tagged." There was a statement in the remarks section that read, "Use caution around ribs and watch for draw rock." The preshift examination did not identify any specific hazardous rib or roof conditions and no corrective actions for rib and roof conditions were recorded. The examiner either ignored or did not recognize the hazardous rib conditions, because the day shift crew was directed to proceed underground to begin production without hazardous conditions being recorded or corrective actions taken.
There were, in fact, numerous hazardous conditions present on the 001 MMU at the time of the preshift examination. There were numerous locations with loose coal/rock ribs on the 001 MMU, including the rib in the No. 3 Heading at #34 Crosscut that fell, causing fatal injuries to the continuous miner operator. There were also violations of the Approved Roof Control Plan at multiple locations on the 001 MMU. The maximum allowable entry width of the pillar shears was exceeded in two locations, creating excessive intersection widths. Roof support materials were not installed in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations; channel straps were installed over cracks and draw rock without using the correct bearing plates. The #2 Heading at #33 Crosscut was not bolted completely along the left rib. Six separate locations were identified as violations of the approved roof control plan. Lowell Harris, Foreman, performed an inadequate preshift examination.
No specific hazardous rib or roof conditions are recorded for any preshift examinations dating back to January 7, 2010 for any shift, other than a statement in the remarks saying, "Use caution around ribs and watch for draw rock." No corrective actions for any rib or roof conditions were recorded in the preshift examination report in the books reviewed. The statement to use caution or watch for hazardous conditions is not an acceptable corrective action to prevent serious injuries from occurring.
No hazardous conditions were noted in the on-shift examination conducted by Paul Bentley, Foreman, at the beginning of the shift. The hazardous roof and rib conditions present on the 001 MMU were not identified and corrected or posted until the hazardous conditions were corrected. Mine management directed work to be performed in the #3 Right Crosscut where the accident occurred and other locations on the 001 MMU where hazardous conditions were present. The three previous on-shift examinations and the pre-shift examination on the morning of the fatal accident for the 001 MMU did not identify any hazardous rib or roof conditions or corrective actions. Miners were exposed to loose ribs and inadequately supported roof conditions throughout the duration of these shifts. Not only did the Pre-shift Examiner perform an inadequate examination prior to the fatal accident, but Bentley also performed an inadequate on-shift examination prior on the 001 MMU prior to the occurrence of the fatal accident.
The company's training records were examined by representatives of MSHA's Educational Field Services (EFS). No training deficiencies for Brock were noted. All training records were examined and no deficiencies were found for other company employees.
An analysis was conducted to identify the most basic causes of the accident that were correctable through reasonable management controls. During the analysis, root causes were identified that, if eliminated, would have either prevented the accident or mitigated its consequences. Listed below are root causes identified during the analysis and their corresponding corrective actions implemented to prevent a recurrence of the accident:
- Root Cause: The operator failed to support or control the mine rib to prevent the massive rib failure, which resulted in fatal injuries to the continuous miner operator.
Corrective Action: The hazardous rib conditions were corrected. The operator also conducted and documented safety meetings with all employees on proper identification of hazardous conditions.
- Root Cause: The operator failed to instruct miners with regard to properly identifying hazardous conditions.
Corrective Action: The operator conducted and documented safety meetings with the miners for all three shifts on the proper identification of hazardous conditions. The miners were instructed to report to mine management immediately any hazardous conditions observed.
- Root Cause: The operator failed to conduct adequate preshift and on-shift examinations on the 001 MMU. Uncorrected roof and rib conditions existed during the shift, which posed hazards to the miners. None of the hazardous conditions, including hazardous ribs, were recorded in the preshift or on-shift examination books.
Corrective Action: The hazardous rib conditions were corrected. The operator conducted and documented safety meetings with all employees, including the mine examiners, on properly identifying and recording hazardous conditions. Additionally, the operator instituted a policy of posting the findings of the preshift examiner where those findings could be observed readily by the miners prior to their entry into the mine.
- Root Cause: The operator failed to have in place an adequate roof control plan addressing proper support of mine ribs in changing geological conditions and to support the ribs properly on the 001 MMU.
Corrective Action: The operator has developed and submitted a revision to the current roof control plan, which has been approved. The revision states actions that will be taken to support rib conditions in various heights and geological conditions. Fletcher twin-head, walk-thru roof bolters with rib bolting capacity have also been installed.
This fatal accident occurred because the operator failed to support the rib on the 001 MMU to protect the miner. Additionally, the operator failed to conduct adequate preshift and on-shift examinations and ignored the hazardous rib conditions on the 001 MMU. And, the operator failed to change its Roof Control Plan to address the changing geological conditions which occurred on the 001 MMU.
Order No. 8356693 was issued verbally to Bledsoe Coal Corporation on January 22, 2010, at 9:35 a.m. under the provisions of Section 103(j) of the Mine Act. This order was modified to a 103(k) Order at 11:15 a.m. on the same day.
104(a) Citation, No. 8355745 for a violation of 30 CFR, � 75.220(a)(1) - The operator failed to develop a roof control plan that was suitable for the prevailing geological conditions on the 001 MMU, located at 8 Mains. Provisions were not made in the mine's roof control plan to control ribs in changing mining conditions, and an adequate pillar stability factor was not being maintained. A portion of rib, which measured 3.3 to 6.8 feet thick x 5.5 feet long x 9 feet wide was not supported properly on the corner of the left pillar inby #34 Crosscut in the #3 Belt Heading on 8 Mains. Due to changing geological conditions in this area, including increased mining height and a sharp increase in the coal height meeting with sandstone and shale roof rock, a slickenside plane was formed. This condition allowed the rib to slide out, fatally injuring the continuous mining machine operator.
104(d)(1) Citation, No. 8355746 for a violation of 30 CFR, � 75.202(a) - The ribs on the 001 MMU were not supported to protect miners from hazards of loose ribs. The investigation of this fatal accident, which occurred on January 22, 2010, revealed that the operator failed to support the loose coal/rock ribs in the following locations: (1) at #32 Crosscut on the sides and inby corners of the coal pillar blocks in the #3 and #4 Headings,(2) at #33 Crosscut in the #3 Belt Heading where the upper inby corners of the left and right ribs were separated from the coal pillar and top approximately � inch and in the #4 Heading where loose coal was separating from the rib line, and (3) at #34 Crosscut in the #3 Belt Heading, where the right side inby corner of the coal pillar cracked and separated from the pillar and a part of the rib measuring 3.3 feet to 6.8 feet thick x 5.5 feet long x 9 feet wide slid out of the rib line and struck the continuous miner operator fatally injuring him. In the #3 Heading at #34 Crosscut, the 2nd shift foreman's dates, times, and initials were on the exact location of the loose area of the rib that detached from the rib and slid out, fatally injuring the continuous miner operator. Upon examination of the pre-shift book dates, back to January 7, 2010, foremen were writing the following statement in the "Remarks" section, "Use caution around ribs and watch for draw rock." No written explanation was given as to any measures taken to protect miners against the hazardous rib conditions. The operator has engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence in that management did not take measures to ensure safe working conditions around ribs. This violation is an unwarrantable failure to comply with a mandatory standard.
104(d)(1) Order, No. 8355747 for a violation of 30 CFR, � 75.360(a)(1) - The operator failed to conduct an adequate pre-shift exam on January 22, 2010 for the 001 MMU located at 8 Mains. The following conditions were found during a fatal accident investigation: (1) loose ribs in various sizes were found at (a) #32 Crosscut on the sides and inby corners of the coal pillar blocks in the #3 and #4 Headings, (b) at #33 Crosscut in the #3 Belt Heading, the upper inby corners of the left and right ribs were separated from the coal pillar and top approximately � inch, in the #4 Heading, loose coal was separating from the rib line, and at #34 Crosscut in the #3 Belt Heading, the right side inby corner of the coal pillar had cracked and separated from the pillar and a part of the rib measuring 3.3 feet to 6.8 feet thick x 5.5 feet long x 9 feet wide slid out of the rib line, fatally injuring the continuous miner operator; (2) the entry width of the sheared corner of the rib in #3 Left and #3 Right at #33 Crosscut measured 30 feet. The maximum allowable entry width of the sheared area in the approved roof control plan is 28.1 feet; (3) in various areas in the #2, #3, and #4 Headings, T-5 dome channel straps were installed over cracks and draw rock in the roof with a regular 6 x 6 flat roof bolt plate, which is not in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations; and, (4) an area along the left rib in the #2 entry at #33 Crosscut, that measured 7 feet x 12 feet, was not completely bolted. The operator has engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence in that upon inspection of the pre-shift exam book, none of these hazardous conditions were recorded in the 001 MMU exam book. This violation is an unwarrantable failure to comply with a mandatory standard.
104(d)(1) Order, No. 8355777 for a violation of 30 CFR, � 75.362(a)(1) - During the course of MSHA's Fatal Accident Investigation which began on January 22, 2010, it was found that adequate on-shift examinations were not performed on January 21 and 22, 2010, on the 001 MMU. The following deficiencies were noted: (1) the 2nd shift on-shift report for January 21, 2010, did not identify a hazardous rib condition in the #3 Belt Heading, (2) the 3rd shift on-shift report for January 22, 2010, did not identify a hazardous rib condition in the #3 Belt Heading, and (3) the 1st shift on-shift report recorded on January 22, 2010, which was performed approximately 1 hour prior to the fatal accident, did not identify any hazardous rib condition. All three on-shift examiners recorded "None Observed" in the on-shift record for the #3 Belt Heading. Mine management directed that the offset in the mine floor be trimmed in #3 Left Crosscut. The operator has engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence in that the hazardous rib conditions were not found, and no action was taken, which led to the exposure of the Continuous Miner Operator to fatal crushing injuries. This violation is an unwarrantable failure to comply with a mandatory standard.
Persons Participating in the Investigation
Mining Company Officials
Tim Frasure .......... President
David Osborne .......... General Manager
Bobby Strunk .......... Superintendent
Harold Callahan .......... Foreman
Steve Shell .......... Safety Director
Paul Bentley .......... Foreman
John Williams .......... Attorney
Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing
Tim Fugate .......... Accident Investigator
Greg Goins .......... Deputy Chief Accident Investigator
Tracy Stumbo .......... Chief Accident Investigator
Randy Turner .......... Roof Control Specialist
Ronald Turner .......... Inspector
Dean Bush .......... Safety Analyst
Ricky Johnson .......... Roof Control Specialist
Mine Safety and Health Administration
Tommy Hooker .......... District Manager
Jim Langley .......... Assistant District Manager
John Pyles .......... Assistant District Manager
Steve Sorke .......... Roof Control Supervisor
Ron Burns .......... Supervisor
John Boylen .......... Accident Investigator
Charlie Ramsey .......... Accident Investigator
Frankie Gibson .......... Coal Mine Inspector
Sandin Phillipson .......... Pittsburgh Technical Support
Debra Combs .......... EFS Specialist
Charles Maggard .......... EFS Supervisor
List of Persons Interviewed
David Osborne .......... General Manager
Bobby Strunk .......... Superintendent
Harold Callahan .......... Foreman
Paul Bentley .......... Foreman
Daniel Nantz .......... Roof Bolter Operator
Doug Hornsby .......... Electrician
Larry Neff .......... Roof Bolter Operator
James Lawson .......... Face Belt Attendant
John Noble .......... Scoop Operator/MET
Mike Lewis .......... Roof Bolter Operator
Jerry Caldwell .......... Roof Bolter Operator/MET
James Sizemore .......... Bridge Carrier Operator
Jerry Hawkins .......... Bridge Carrier Operator
Jamie Carnes .......... Outby Miner
Chad Chasteen .......... Surface MET
Steve Osborne .......... Rail Motor Operator


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subset: commoncrawl


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Alright, alright, I know I'm late, very late, white rabbit style late. Thing is, as I told you last week, I'm not currently home, and while I managed to watch this week's episode I hadn't had the time to blog about it until now. First I thought I was not going to blog about it at all, but it was a very good episode (especially with such a predictable boot) so better late than never right?
(however, it's going to be short and picture-less analysis)
So as I said, good episode this week. I hope production finally understands that having a cast comprised of people who know and love the game gives you a better season that would be famous recruited people who don't know and care about the game, just being on TV.
– Dawn Meehan: Wow. If there was any doubt that she is a strong woman, that challenge showed us what she's made of. That being said, she's still on the chopping block sooner or later if she doesn't manage to make a big move. However, she seems to be on board with John and Jim's plan.
– Elyse Umemoto: Still not playing the game, she's too busy cuddling with Ozzy. She could be next to go and she may not see anything coming.
– Jim Rice: He realized that being in that 5 people alliance was not good for him. Targeting Elyse is a great idea, but I'm not sure he's seeing that the really dangerous item here is Keith and Whitney, much more than Ozzy and Elyse.
– John Cochran: So did we see what we've been promised with Cochran starting to unfold this week? Are he and Jim (and Dawn) going to try to take Elyse out to assert their position in the game and in the tribe? However, they'll need more people on board for it to work. More people meaning Keith and Whitney. Will they accept? It's not in their interest to do so, or is it?
– Keith Tollefson: We didn't really see him this week, so I'm going to expand on the previous question. What's best for him and Whitney? Stick with Ozzy and Elyse? Or go with Jim, Cochran and Dawn? Well, thinking about it, it's better to jump ship and go with Jim, Cochran and Dawn. Here is why: If they stick with Elyse and Ozzy, they sure can take the others out, but they'll be only four people when merge come, any surviving Savaii member not in the alliance will jump to Upolu. On the other hand, Jim, Cochran, Dawn, Keith and Whitney can be a very strong five at the merge.
– Ozzy Lusth: Maybe one day he should start thinking about playing this game instead of just trying to get into some girls pants. Just saying.
– Whitney Duncan: Apparently she is an item with Keith (and if there was any doubt, that brief shot when they all got their swimsuit and he was "checking" her tan line on her butt dismissed any possible doubt), in other words, they are the dangerous couple out there. Not sure where this will bring us.
– Albert Destrade : Was he even there this week?
– Benjamin "Coach" Wade : He must be happy, for once in three appearance he is the leader of the tribe and he calls the shots as far as voting goes. How long this will last? No idea. Especially because his social game still sucks (trusting Brandon too much, hoping that Stacey would accept a hug after being voted out, etc.) Also kuddos to him for recognizing that he was not playing the game the first two times.
– Brandon Hantz : Talking about not playing the game… His apologies to everyone and their mothers were funny, especially when he was betraying his alliance by doing so and without realizing it. Now his quest for rehabilitating the name Hantz is annoying and embarrassing. I hope he gets voted out soon, he uses too much camera time and once again it's not even really about him but about Russell.
– Edna Ma: I felt bad for Edna when she realized that she was the sixth member of a five people alliance. I really did. But afterwards her attempt to be liked by her tribe seemed very annoying. However it's interesting to see that she reacted in that way instead of flipping out on her tribe mates. It may actually have made her win some more days on the island.
– Mikayla Wingle: "It's in his blood." Seriously Mikayla? Do you believe that stupid thing that you said? This one and probably a few more… So far she is this season's big disappointment. He believe that she had a nice edit during the first two episodes because of Brandon's stalkery portrayal, but now I start to believe that she's actually pretty dumb and completely clueless about many things, the game included.
– Rick Nelson: Maybe one episode we'll see hi more than 10 seconds. Maybe.
– Sophie Clarke: Not much about her, yet, she's really seems to be positioning herself in the best spot in the whole game (well, I kinda said the same thing last week). We'll see where this brings us (and her).
– Stacey Powell sent to Redemption Island: She was really funny. Intelligent too apparently. Too bad she didn't make any friends, cause it seems that it gets down to that in the end.
Redemption Island
I was a bit sad to see Papa Bear go, but happy Christine stay alive. Oh by the way, I suspect Christine to read this blog. If this is the case, Christine, don't be shy, drop me a line and say hi (and thank you for being a reader). Same applies to any other past or current contestant.
Next time on Survivor:
-I forgot what's happening in the preview except something about Coach not wanting to be called Benjamin.
-Who will be sent to Redemption Island?
If Savaii loses, will Cochran and Jim manage to oust Elyse? I kinda hope so. If not, Cochran is in trouble.
If Upolu loses, who is out? Edna, Mikayla or Brandon? I hope it's Brandon, but I'm afraid it will be Edna.
What about you? Do you agree with my analysis?
Ok, next week, I'll be back home, so you can expect a more timely and more fleshed out analysis.


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Why would a half-Asian be proud?
Proud of being white? Or proud of being Asian?
We're expected to be proud of being Asian yet own mothers fetishized White men – believed white men to be far superior to Asian men, and believed white features to be more desirable on a male? Whenever people look at me, they make comments about my tall nose and small face – so why not just go get a full white guy? We're like a testimony to how obsessed Asian women are with white features. Literally every time someone asks "what are you?" – and you respond with "I'm Half Chinese," they say, "it must be your mom who is Chinese."
Combine this with the fact that everyone hates Asian men – including white women, and Asian women themselves who view you at best as an odd looking Asian mixed minority (Uzbek, Xinjiang), or at worst, like a full Asian
How can we be proud to be half Asian, when everywhere we go we see Asian women throwing themselves at plain, basic, ugly White men – proving that Asian women really will do anything to integrate and upgrade themselves with white blood? We really are supposed to be okay with going to school, being laughed at for being a chink or a small-dicked Asian, humiliated for our Asian looks by white people, when your own mother was literally sleeping with the men who look exactly like the kind of guy saying this shit to you?
Then our mothers have the NERVE to tell us to be proud to be Asian? To be part of a race of men whose women outmarry at a rate of 50-60%? Why not just identify as white – since they are the guys who are able to walk all over Asian women, getting sex and love whenever they want with both white and Asian women – and if we identify as Asian we are putting ourselves right back in the cultural ghetto our mothers tried to escape from?
Our features are Asian. Our eyes might be Asian. Or our hair texture. Or our bodies. You we half-Asian, yet Asian women, and white women, continue to reject Asian men in favor of tall, powerful White Western men. Asian women claim that all half Asian men are beautiful – based on what they see on the internet, yet the internet only collects the most beautiful specimens. What about the half Asians who look indistinguishable from full Asians? Or the ones who look ugly, and then disappear from Asian womens' minds?
We have to then live with the fact that Asian women around us continue to literally bow then like dogs to men like my father, racist, unemployable, unreliable white men – because they're tall and white. And my father isn't even that bad a guy! What about the white men who are such horrible racists that they get off on dominating Asian vagina in order to prove their superiority?
Oh yes, let's be proud that:
- 95% of our fathers were white.
- Our mothers chased tall bearded white guys.
- Our moms were bar girls, race climbers, status chasers, mentally ill, superficial, cruel, ex-prostitutes, mentally ill, money-obsessed, spent their whole life fetishizing white male features, obsessed with Europe, etc., etc.
- Our fathers were manipulative, oftentimes racist men who used white worshipping Asian women to their benefit of finding partnership, sometimes abandoning us because they didn't want a half Asian child.
We look Asian. We are "Hapa," meaning that in the eyes of our own mothers and millions like them, and millions of people around the world – we are still Asians. We have white blood, yet we are nowhere near the level of attractiveness of the white movie stars that our mothers drooled over. Are there Chinese movie stars like Hu Dong who have tall noses? So why would a half-Asian be of any value – when Asian women really just want blue eyed, blond haired white men?
So they gave us a label: Hapa, which is nothing more than a clever attempt at giving us self-esteem, as if we were best of both worlds, or a beautiful blend – yet all it means is that we were infused with the blood of a white man, and always and only a white man. They point us at Hapas and make comments about our tall noses or big eyes, and if you don't have those features, then you're just another inferior Asian man. So I have had Asian women walking smugly with their white boyfriends look at me as if I was the enemy – even though my father is white.
Have you noticed White women don't search out Asian men to create "beautiful Hapas / Eurasians, or Hun Xue Er?" Because like Asian women, they desire white men, so they have no good reason to make up lies about the beauty of Eurasians. Their children will be white.
Don't get me started on "there were just more white men around;" Asian women are deliberately ignoring Asian men, who by natural law exist in equal numbers, even in Asian countries, to pair up with white men.
There is very little that could convince me otherwise; maybe if there weren't millions upon millions of them I would think it was a coincidence… but there are.
And maybe if I wasn't turned down by Asian women with regards to my Asian heritage – I would have faith that indeed, my own mother and women in my family, were all just coincidences.
"But you get turned down because of your personality."
Contrary to what people believe, I became like this out of anger at treated poorly, whereas until I was in my early 20's I was well liked, popular, thousands of friends on Facebook, tall, good looking, until it became self-evident to me, through observation, careful study of online dating patterns, and personal experience, that Asian blood is problematic.
Oh, let me guess: your parents weren't like that, right? Nearly half of all Asian women conveniently make up myriad excuses about Asian patriarchy, yet COINCIDENTALLY Asian men are also rated as lowest on the attractiveness scale? Or maybe your mom suddenly became "very aware" of Asian culture after her kids came out looking Asian, and started backpedaling on her hate in order to prevent her child from having poor self esteem?
Which patriarchs were that? The same ones dropping nukes on Hiroshima, exterminating Jews at Auschwitz, or cutting off the hands of Congolese children?
Notice how the "excuses" for why this relationship is so frequent constantly change? First – it was that Asian men were too controlling; then, it was that Asian men were patriarchal foot-binders; then, that they were took meek, pushovers, and too nice; then, that they were too short; then, finally, after intense scrutiny, "there are just more white men around me" (despite blacks and Hispanics strongly preferring each other, even when in a minority), "that they just fell in love," Of course they'll tell you that – who the hell would want to turn their own son into a nihilist keenly aware of evolutionary science?
It would make no sense for a father and mother to tell their own son that race matters.
They would do everything in their power to deny that race was the common factor in their marriage (even if they didn't admit it), to prevent their son from coming to the same conclusions that I did.
The thing is, I used to be one of you: a proud Eurasian. My mother was long dead after getting sick from my C-section and I never saw who she really was – but in a way the differences in my parent's ethnicity never was evident to me except in pictures and I passed as "white enough"" with an undercurrent of pride for my Asian side; but the older I get, the more Asian and I look, and I've been taking a good look at these couplings and their public behavior. They're all the same; the guy is tall and really white. I don't believe in excuses of patriarchy.
And then after Elliot Rodger, it all became evident to me – all the self doubt, self hatred, insecurity and anger I had, and plain old crazy behavior, was passed down from my mother; all of the psychotic mannerisms of both myself and my brother were the direct result of having such a hateful woman as a mother.
Your mother, Hapa, was doing it for physical reasons. You were allowed to exist only because you had a white father. How embarrassing is that? And there are millions upon millions upon millions of Asian women and white men (even the liberal anti-misogyny ones) who feel that you're upgraded because you're white – your white father rescued you from a hellish existence of being an Asian, and being an Asian patriarch.
Hapa men largely live in denial; they claim their mothers fell in love with their fathers despite these couples being so visible and so monstrously vitriolic towards Asian men, that you can't go a single day without seeing them. Maybe, Hapa, your mom can take you out to Chinese food and you can pretend you actually have a culture – at least one that wasn't one of convenience to her when she was looking for white males to partner up with.
You're living paradoxes. Go outside and look at the uniform smugness of these couples, then remind yourself that your parents were the same. Exact. Way.
It took me 25 years to realize it after so long of utter and complete life destroying catastrophe and psychological trauma that has left me socially incapable and mentally distraught. Maybe you think you're better than me because you can accept it, and accept your parents; but even Hitler's dog loved him unconditionally.
Your parents believed in the superiority of white males – something you will NEVER be. Keep being proud, you coward.
"I know proud Hapas."
No, in all likelihood you know guys who pass entirely as white, or you know guys who are closeted homosexuals afraid to come out and offend their conservative parents. If you don't believe it, go find one and talk to him.


text:
Who is the most improved player under Jurgen Klopp?
There are a lot of possible contenders, but the two leading candidates are probably Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino.
Firmino has really shone since the German's arrival — he has been moved into a more attacking role and has seen his number of goals and assists greatly multiply.
He is now arguably the first name on the teamsheet, we simply don't look as dangerous going forward when he does not play.
Carra questions LFC striker
Reds defender in awe of attacking teammates
Liverpool can with title with sexy football says Utd star
And Klopp has now revealed why he thinks the Brazilian has been such a revelation:
I knew Roberto before I came here and he is a very good player.
"I played [against him] a number of times when he was at Hoffenheim so I knew a lot about him.
"The only thing what he shows now is this mixture of talent and attitude. He's a really good player and he loves what he is doing.
"He is how good offensive players should be, kind of selfish, but actually it's not too important for him if he scores or not." (official site)
Firmino began his football education with Figueirense in Brazil. He moved to Hoffenheim in the summer of 2011 and scored 38 league goals in 140 games for the German outfit.
In 2015, Brendan Rodgers brought him to Liverpool. He has scored 13 league goals in 37 games since his arrival and clocked up many more assists.
How impressed have you been with Roberto's development? Let us know in the comments.


text:
Residential Organizing
Our home is where we spend much of our time. A place to gather with friends and family; at times a place of solitude.
The things we allow into our home and the things we surround ourselves with make a statement about who we are and what we love. A home that is clutter free, allows us freedom to do what we want, when we want, with those we want.


text:
The Race Elite Race pant is a lightweight, waterproof trouser made from super soft and stretchy fabrics. Perfect for wet and windy conditions.
Inov8 Say:
Super soft and stretchy, this lightweight waterproof trouser has been designed to protect mountain athletes in the wildest of conditions, while stretching with the lower body to allow unrestricted running movement.
The Race Elite Race Pant is made from DWR water proof fabric with a 4-way stretch for unrestricted running movement. It's hydrostatic head is 10,000 and it has a 10,000 B-1 rating for breathability. These super soft and lightweight pants have an elasticated front and flat back waist band for extra comfort. It also packs into it's own inner pocket for easy storage when your on the move.
One of it's key features is the Knee length Aquarguard zips that make the trousers quick and easy to get on and off, before, after or during a race. Combined with it's elasticated hem and reflective detailing, these waterproof pants are perfect for mountain athletes in wet and windy conditions.
- Reviewed by Ultralight Outdoor Gear


text:
We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.
-Barack Obama
We organize holiday workshops,motivation conferences,health sensitizations for our beneficiaries and their families. The different workshops organized, will be addressed to suit the specific needs of each community, ensuring that it creates the desired impact our vision seeks to attain.
Event Organizing Intern
We have no vacancy available now.


text:
The people who live here call it their "pier-and-beam house." They've lost a lot--all of their security, most of their sobriety, some of their sanity--but they still have a sense of humor. Or irony, at least. The "house" is the underbelly of a bridge on Northwest Highway, a slab of concrete never meant to be seen, much less slept on.
They like it here--James, Carl, Linda, sometimes Woodstock and Sundance, sometimes a few others. As far as homeless camps go, it's a pretty sweet deal. They have a few turtles and their beloved "duckies," a flock of two dozen or so swimming in the murky water that borders their camp--their "oceanfront," they call it. And it's close to work: The busy intersection where they nickel-and-dime their way to a new bottle, maybe even a hotel room, is just 15 yards away.
No one would have expected to find Hal Samples here. Not now. Maybe five years ago, back when his coke dealer was taking home so much of Samples' salary from Prestige Ford, the dealership might as well have cut out the middleman and bought an eight-ball for him. Back when he was crashing in a vacant apartment furnished with dog shit and little else--hoping no one would find him, praying someone would. Back when his body had given up on him, as had most of his friends and family. But not now, not after losing the drugs and alcohol, not after finding God. Yet, here he is.
Hero to Zero is at Angstrom Gallery on January 17 from 8 p.m. to midnight. The show is sponsored by Prestige Ford, City Color Imaging, Philanthropy World magazine and Phil Romano. All proceeds benefit Central Dallas Ministries and A Friend Indeed Foundation. Call 214-417-8283 or e-mail email@example.com for more information.
But Samples is merely a guest today, not a resident.
"You got any pictures?" James asks. He's all bones and leather, a scraggly gray bush of a beard obscuring most of his face. Samples digs through his bag and finds a thick stack of 3-by-5 photo proofs. There are a handful of James and Carl in there, some of Linda and Woodstock, a few more of the camp. James and Carl squat together and flip through the stack slowly, elbowing each other when their familiar faces appear. Carl and James are a matched set, their beards and tent-pole limbs making them look like Civil War POWs. There's a great shot of them standing arm in arm in the scrub brush outside the camp. It's called "Best Friends."
Samples has gotten to know James and Carl and the others pretty well over the past five months. He's gotten to know plenty of homeless people during that time. Maybe 800, maybe more. He visits them at their improvised homes behind supermarkets and restaurants, under bridges like this one, in the soup kitchens and shelters. And he takes photographs of them, of where they live and how, sometimes letting them take their own.
Most of these people haven't seen a photograph of themselves in years, some in decades. Maybe, Samples figures, by seeing themselves in the camera's mirror, they can be inspired to stop drinking or to reconnect with their families or to do whatever it takes to get them back on the road to reality and off the street. It's happened before. To him.
"When I ended up at my aunt and uncle's house, they took a photograph of me," Samples says. This was almost four years ago, when the bottom fell out and he tumbled along with it. "And I looked like hell, man. That photograph I carried with me to the rehab out in Mabank. I pinned it to my corkboard above my twin bed. As I started putting meat back on my bones, working out and eating, it didn't look like the same person anymore. People would come in, 'Who's that?' So that was something that worked on me. It's working on these guys right now. Not all of them, but I can guarantee you it's working on some of them."
It seems as though it's working here. Sort of. The change in James and Carl is subtle but noticeable at their camp under the bridge. A few weeks ago, Samples dropped off a photo album he'd made for them; since then, they've cleaned up. Piled neatly by the entrance to the camp are a dozen or so garbage bags filled to the brim. James proudly waves his arm over the stack, making sure Samples sees what they've done.
Samples knows how far James and Carl have come--and how far they have to go. He's come a long way himself. Five months ago, Samples, 31, barely knew how to work his camera. Five years ago, he didn't know how to work his life. Now, his Hero to Zero project is putting both to work for him, using his photographs--and his life story--to raise money and awareness for a segment of the population that's invisible but unavoidable as he literally puts a face on the homeless problem. But he knows it takes more than that, so he's sitting through meetings, networking, speaking to whomever will listen, partnering with Central Dallas Ministries and A Friend Indeed Foundation, organizations that have the money and connections to do things he can't. He's becoming more involved in the day-to-day lives of the people he's met along the way: James and Carl, Bill and Red, Cindy and Shots, Hollywood. Samples' relationship with the homeless community--and the people who will decide its future--deepens by the day as he moves from behind the camera and into the frame.
It's a dangerous position for Samples, exposing him to extreme moments of joy and pain. Anything could happen at any time. Anyone could disappear. Looking around James and Carl's makeshift camp, you notice that this is their graveyard as well. There are no bodies, but painted on one of the bridge's cement supports is an ad hoc tombstone: "Skeet--Rest in Peace--Amen Brother."
James stands in front of the memorial as he says his goodbyes. "I'm not gonna be around here much longer," he says, casting his eyes around the only home he knows. He has 59 tickets from the city for panhandling and being drunk in public. He knows he's moving on soon, one way or another. Maybe to jail. Maybe to another bridge, another camp. Or maybe on the wall next to Skeet. You never know where you'll end up when you start falling. You might even end up back at the top, helping everyone else up.
"If you asked me two years ago, I wouldn't have been able to pick this in a multiple choice of two as one of my options," Samples says. "I wouldn't have."
Five thousand people. Actually, 5,181. That's how many in Dallas County are homeless, according to the census taken by the Greater Dallas Homeless Alliance on January 21, 2003. Odds are, the real total is at least double that number. It's hard to imagine they found every homeless person; they looked for just seven hours.
Whatever the magic number is, everyone seems to have a theory on how to reduce it. It's impossible to get anyone who's connected with the homeless on the phone without hearing a 15-minute discourse on what the city should do with the $3 million in bond money it has earmarked for a new homeless shelter, which was approved in a May 3 election. Where they should put it, what kind of services it should have, who should run it.
Talk to Herschel Weisfeld, who runs the Sara Ellen & Samuel Weisfeld Center and spent several years on Ron Kirk's homeless task force, and you'll get one answer. Call up Judith Anne Sturrock, executive vice president of the nonprofit A Friend Indeed Foundation and chairwoman of the site selection committee for the city's homeless shelter, and you'll get another one. Same goes with Central Dallas Ministries' Larry James, the Day Resource Center's James Waghorn, just about anyone who has anything to do with homeless people in Dallas.
They don't agree on much, except one point: the importance of Hal Samples. A former homeless man who looks like an artist and talks like a car salesman can bridge more gaps than just about anyone else involved in the cause. He's comfortable in either world, whether he's taking meetings with restaurant mogul Phil Romano or taking a new sleeping bag to a friend. They all speak with a parent's pride when talking about Samples and his efforts, because to them, this is proof that the time and energy they've spent hasn't been wasted.
"Anytime a person who has experienced homelessness...comes back to the community, it's a tremendous help, because it's like learning a foreign language," says Waghorn of the city-run Day Resource Center. The center is just around the corner from City Hall and provides showers and computer access for the homeless, among other things. "You know how to speak that foreign language; you know how to understand the tribulations that these people are going through. So you're just a motivation to them."
"I just admire that young man," A Friend Indeed's Sturrock says. "I mean, I am so glad that he's in my life...I had a group of pastors on a Monday meeting, and when he got up and spoke, I got back up, and I said, 'Do I even need to be up here?' because he pulled at your heartstrings."
That's because Samples' story at once suggests the city's current system for helping the homeless can work, but for only a lucky few.
When Samples hit the streets, for example, he says he needed more than just a place to sleep. He needed full rehabilitation. But he'd made too much money as a salesman at Prestige Ford to qualify as an indigent, so the state wouldn't provide care for him. His aunt and uncle went online to try to find a solution. And there it was, at www.houseofisaiah.org, the House of Isaiah, a Christian ranch for men in Mabank, an hour outside of Dallas. Isaiah Robertson, a former All-Pro linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills, started the ranch in 1989 as a place to kick drug and alcohol addiction and rehabilitate the "whole man"--mind, body and spirit.
"[Robertson] would have me go dig, like, solid septic tanks, and then he'd come out there and say, 'Man, I didn't tell you to put it right there. I told you to put it right there," Samples says. "It's 4 in the morning with a flashlight and shit everywhere.
"That was my new high, that place," he says. "Because it would provide endorphins. Not knowing what was gonna happen the next night. Somebody's gonna fall through the ceiling as they're pulling a Bender from Breakfast Club going to the meds cabinet. Picking up the anti-psychotics instead of the Valiums he was looking for and carping out in my wing."
Samples had relapses after leaving the House of Isaiah--he celebrated two years of sobriety on December 4--but that's the nature of addiction. For the most part, however, his stay at the ranch did the trick. And now, to some, he's an expert, the guy who can show everyone else the way.
"It's been made obvious to me that they're wanting to get my input on what worked for me, or what I think works," he says. "And when I say what worked for me, that's my opinion. I can only tell you, from my experiences, I had to be taken out of my environment for a long period of time to debrief all these things that were in my mind and re-establish some life skills and stuff."
Of course, you can't ship every homeless person, every seemingly hopeless addict out to the sticks and hope they come back as legitimate contributors to society. Samples is a unique case. They all are. But if the city can build the right kind of shelter and put enough money behind it to make it go, some believe that would work almost as well. Sturrock sees Samples--with his personality, his photographs, his past--as a lightning rod for this enterprise, a focal point that will open up wallets and minds.
"You can talk about all the people in Dallas and what we should do, but it's person on person," she says. "You know, we need to get to the heart and the soul of the people here, whether they give a shoe or a meal or they adopt a room at this new shelter. I've had very philanthropic people who I've spoken to, and they said, 'What's it gonna cost? Come back with a piece of real estate and a plan, and I will assist you in this endeavor.'
"Now, they could build another auditorium or another place to put art--they can, and they probably will--but they want to make a difference. And the difference in Dallas, Texas, is the homeless. It's not building parks. It's not Wal-Mart coming in and building a grocery store. It's not building another huge building. To make a difference in Dallas, Texas, today is [dealing with] the homeless problem. So how do we approach that? How do you tell the citizens of Dallas that they need to step forward and make a difference?
"Through Hal."
Samples knows what people think when they hear him talk about Hero to Zero. Shouldn't it be Zero to Hero? The other way, the way he has it, is just not very uplifting. Must be some mistake. They don't know where it comes from, what it means to him. They don't know that his life, at least part of it, is summed up by those three words. In that order.
"Hero to zero" was a phrase he used around the office at Prestige Ford, where he was a high-rolling salesman for almost a decade. At the time, he was referring to the monthly sales figures: "Last month's hero, this month's zero," he says. "At the end of the month, you start all over. Everyone's at the bottom." It took on a new meaning a few years later.
He was at the bottom when he started at Prestige in 1989--washing cars, watching the salesmen work the lot in their sharp suits and leave for the day in spotless cars. Samples wanted to be one of those guys: "I figured that would be a way to earn my status," he says. It didn't take him long. He was still a teenager when owner Jerry Reynolds put him on the sales floor.
"I've always had a certain sympathy for kids that work with the wash rag," says Reynolds, who started out washing cars in 1973. "It's a tough job; it's hard to wash cars when it's 110 degrees, or when it's 20 degrees. I just saw something in him that reminded me of me. I just sort of took him under my wing. He had more natural talent for this business than anyone I'd ever seen."
Prestige's general manager, Charlie Nixon, says Samples was a natural salesman, an instant hit. He was breaking sales records as quickly as he could set them. His first month on the floor he made salesman of the month. Ford included a feature on him and his sales technique in the company magazine, and he was profiled in the Dallas Times-Herald. He had a hot car, a hotter girlfriend and a money clip stuffed with hundreds. Before he was old enough to drink--legally--he had more money than he knew what to do with. That didn't last long.
He was making 10 to 12 thousand a month, partying harder by the day, because, really, what were they going to do--fire him?
By the time he was 25, he had a desk job in the finance department at Prestige, bringing in $150,000 a year, and although he was working 80 hours a week, his world really revolved around drugs and alcohol. In 1998, he picked up his third DUI. So he partied harder.
"I had a real strong addictive personality," Samples says. "I had a cocktail box, with your trazodones and your methamphetamines and the beers I'd have in the shower before I'd start my day. I'd hide 'em behind the towels underneath the bathroom sink. After a while, I'd forget where I was at."
"At one point, to get his attention, I put him back washing cars for a week," Reynolds says. "He literally took the shirt and tie off, put the uniform on and went back there for a solid week and washed cars...I finally decided this kid's got to hit rock bottom before he's going to be able to bounce back."
In succession, Samples lost his job at Prestige, his wife, his apartment, his 401(k), his Harley, his ability to use one of his eyes and part of his mind. Hero to zero.
The bounce back began in 2000, when it seemed least likely to occur. Samples hadn't eaten in four days. He couldn't see very well because one of his eyes had gotten stuck in its socket, giving him a "lazy eye." His face was puffy and discolored, with luggage under his eyes. He didn't smell very good. Not surprising: The only things in his apartment were a dog, dog shit and fruit flies.
He walked into his apartment one day to find his uncle, Donny Geldert, waiting for him. "It [the apartment] was nasty, disgusting, sickening," Geldert says. He and Samples were more like brothers since they weren't far apart in age; Hal's mother had him when she was 16, and Geldert was her younger brother. Everyone else had disappeared from Samples' life--some because they were only around for the party, some because they just wanted the party to end--but Geldert was still there. Tough love hadn't worked on Samples. Plain love did.
"I want you to live," Geldert told him. Samples decided he did, too.
There are at least four categories of homeless: river rats, shelter rats, city dwellers and bridge trolls. Mixed among those groups are people like Duane, professionally homeless. Duane makes the circuit, spending the majority of his year in Dallas but waiting out the winter in California. It's the low-rent version of summering in the Hamptons.
That's where Duane is right now. He's the one who got Samples into his current line of work.
Samples met Duane not long after he bought a camera. He had been taking photographs of buildings downtown, partly as a tourist--he'd always been too messed up to appreciate them before--and partly to see what his new toy could do. He brought them back to the resident artist's community at the South Side on Lamar lofts, where he lives, to get their opinions, their honest critiques. "I knew that they'd be more straightforward than a grandma saying, 'I'll put it on the fridge for you, honey,'" Samples says. "They told me my crap was crap."
Meeting Duane made him want to do more. Duane spotted Samples' shiny black Thunderbird. Whoever was driving that car had to have a few bucks on him, he thought. Wouldn't hurt to ask. So he did. They started talking. And inspiration struck.
Samples had his camera in his lap, so he started taking pictures of Duane. His first homeless shots. He smiles as he recalls it. "I was like, 'Oh, my God.' This guy is an awesome, beautiful man. He's just like--wow!--a beautiful guy. Just for being a man."
That alone was worth a bite to eat and a cup of coffee. They went into Starbucks, and in 10 minutes, everyone had vacated the store. (Duane hadn't bathed in months--"They weren't happy about us being there," Samples says.) Fine with Samples. He just felt the need to talk to this man.
He asked Duane what he would ask for if he could have anything he wanted. A tough question for anybody.
"So I started over," he says. "'If you can be any superhero--Superman, Aquaman--what would you be?' He goes, 'I just want the power to be visible.'"
Hero to Zero was born soon after, with that goal in mind.
What Samples found when he entered their world was that most homeless people don't want to be where they are and haven't given up trying to get out. They just want a job, a little bit of their old life back. Also: "They're likable people, man."
He met Gilbert Bunton, known to most downtown as "Red." He was a staff sergeant in Vietnam and worked at Meletio Electrical Supply for 13 years, making $13.50 an hour, until the company went under in 1990. "First time I heard the word 'downsize,'" Red says. He's been on the street since 1996.
He met Cindy and Shots, "the Lady and the Tramp of Dallas." Shots was a welder working on steel buildings, but he's been out here for a year: "Fella skipped town owing us money," he says. "Owing us all money." His girlfriend Cindy arrived a few months later. They work the corners downtown, trying to sell copies of Street Zine, the thin newspaper that The Stewpot (the Presbyterian Church-run homeless center downtown) puts together. It earns them 70 cents on the dollar. If they hustle, they can raise enough to get a room for the night. Samples calls them the "upper-echelon homeless" because they're presentable and employable. He's trying to find a restaurant that will take Shots on.
He met Hollywood Heinz Schlotter, the man in the slightly rumpled suit who was Street Zine's vendor of the month for October and November, earning him a stack of free papers. He has cartoons he gives away with every paper, trying to entice a few more people into a purchase. Hollywood wants a job, but not this one. He's been just about everything--painter, chef, graphic artist, bartender--a true "jack-of-all-trades," as he says. He lost his last gig after 9-11, so he's stuck with Street Zine and little else. But he'll do his best to make that go. "I ain't got time to get drunk," Hollywood says. "I have to work."
These are the people who make Samples' photographs so fascinating, because they're not too far removed from being your neighbor, your brother, your best friend. These are the people who have made Samples basically give his life over to Hero to Zero. He came back to work at Prestige Ford in March 2002, but lately, he's found it hard to spend much time there, even though there are bills to be paid. To make his rent this month, he even had to pawn his camera. (Central Dallas Ministries just cut him a check for a new one.)
The project has taken on new dimensions as he partners with more organizations, such as A Friend Indeed Foundation, which raises money for the homeless as well as educating the public about the situation. (Founder Brad Relander is just learning about it himself. The 24-year-old hadn't even seen a homeless person until he moved to Dallas from a small town up north.) But the concept remains simple: By selling the photographs, Samples collects money to help the people in them. Enough to buy blankets, coats, a room for the night--whatever they need, whatever he can afford. By letting people see them, he heightens awareness of a problem that's big and getting bigger. Puts it into enough faces until someone is forced to pay attention. And maybe, by showing these people what they look like in the photos, he can spur some sort of activity in them, a drive to get better, to get clean, to get off the streets.
"At first it's glamorous, man," Samples says. "They're on the news. They're in the paper. Amongst their friends, they're famous. But for what?" He lets the question hang in the air for a moment. "I've had different comments from different people, like, 'I haven't had a photograph taken of me in 15 years.' And, 'This is something I can send home to my granddaughter and let her know I'm OK.' And later on, 'I don't wanna send this to my granddaughter.' Or, 'Wow, thanks!' And later on, 'That picture is effed up. I don't want it.'"
It happened with Ephram. Samples found him downtown, shirtless and drunk. He wasn't making much sense--in English or Spanish. He was spinning around, high and getting higher. Samples set up his camera and began shooting.
A handful of the photos he took that day made their way into the Hero to Zero show. Samples took some of them back to where he'd met Ephram before so he could give them to him. He does that with every photo he takes.
"He said, 'That's not me,'" Samples says. "And we argued. And then his friend finally came over to him and said, 'That is you.' Then he was, like, overly apologetic. He wanted to make sure I knew he was sorry. And he left with that photograph."
After trying for a month to track down Ephram again, he finally found him. Sitting right next to him at church. "And he speaks good English," Samples says, laughing.
"I think when you meet someone like Hal, you realize there is a system, the system can work, and I think Hal is the proof of the system's accomplishments and ability to be successful," says Herschel Weisfeld, the former homeless task force member who spends his days now as a cultural affairs commissioner for the city. "And what it also shows by his example is that it also takes the desire to want to change, because he obviously had that desire to change."
There are no random occurrences, no bit players in Hal Samples' story. Everyone has a place, a purpose. The guy who walks into Prestige Ford might just be the biological father who left Samples' mother when he was 6 months old, never to be seen again. This happened in December 1992. Samples (his birth name is Harold Alfred Lindstrom IV) and his uncle Donny interviewed him for a job, before letting him know who they were.
Similar instances have happened so often to him--he also unwittingly flirted with one of his half-sisters at the same dealership--that it's not as bizarre as you might think. Not to Samples, anyway. He's come to expect it. He calls them "God moments."
Like the following one, the one where Samples' life seemed to come full circle and he forever cemented in his mind that helping the homeless was his calling.
When Samples was 15, his mother, Mary, decided she had finally had enough of her husband (Samples' adopted father). He'd knocked her around for the last time. She and Hal left Mesquite and took refuge at the home of her best friend, Barbara, on the other side of Lake Ray Hubbard.
Barbara's husband was named Bill, and he played an important role in Samples' life. Bill was a bear of a man, a 300-pound auto mechanic who was always working in his garage. Bill, a Vietnam veteran, nicknamed Samples "Halibi"--because he always had an excuse for any trouble he caused or found himself in.
Samples and his mother stayed with Bill and Barbara for a few weeks. Bill made sure the father never came back in the picture. "I went over there," Bill says, "and told him if he touched her again, I would bury him." That was that.
After they'd moved on, and after his mother's divorce, Samples lost track of Bill, the guy who gave him the nickname his mom still uses.
Flash forward 16 years. A few months ago, Samples came across a tall, shriveled man named William Dolphus Banks, a regal-sounding name for someone who was known on the street for giving the finger to the cops when they would roust him for sleeping outside. Something about Banks pulled Samples in.
"He's one of my favorites," Samples says. "I've taken maybe 100 photographs of this one guy alone. There was something just really cool about this guy. He's telling me he wants me to help find his daughter, try and get his photograph in the paper. He wants to be able to come back home for the holidays...He's an angry--but lovable; he's got a sort of Santa Claus thing about him--guy. He's harmless, too. He's just got a big bark."
There are two photographs of Banks in Samples' Hero to Zero show: One is simply a shot of his oversized boots, either the cause or the result of his foot problems. The other shows off his particular talent for flipping off police officers. This was the one that caught the eye of Samples' mother.
She'd flown in from Indiana to see Samples' first big solo show, just before Thanksgiving at the gallery at South Side on Lamar. Samples had told his mother what he'd been doing, but he hadn't been able to show her yet. They sat down to look at some of his work.
"Wait, wait, wait--go back," his mother instructed. "Is that Bill Banks?"
That's when it finally clicked. William Dolphus Banks was the same Bill Banks that had taken him and his mother in so many years ago. He'd lost maybe 100 pounds, but it was the same guy. Mary Gunther hadn't seen him in 13 years, but she recognized him immediately.
"He looks the same to me," she says. "I mean, he hasn't changed, really, looks-wise. It was just not what I expected to see. It just brought tears to my eyes. And I guess Hal just wasn't in it for that at the time, so he just didn't even register that he might actually know one of these people."
Two weeks after the discovery, Samples is sitting across from Bill at The Stewpot. Samples may not have known who Bill was when he was taking pictures of him, but Bill knew who Samples was the whole time. He just didn't want to tell him that he knew.
"You didn't know I was such an obnoxious motherfucker, did you?" Bill asks. The voice coming from behind his shaggy, yellowing mustache is just above a whisper. He is a third of his former self, his 311 pounds shrunk down to less than 200. "You didn't hear about me after I got crazy. I'm not a nice person."
As they talk about those weeks spent together years ago, Bill's eyes barely hold back tears. He blames them on being outside, the wind blowing too hard.
Bill's been on the street for a few years. His family is in Oklahoma--his sister, his daughter, her baby girl. He knows he made a mistake coming to Dallas. He arrived here without a job, money or a place to stay. Just a van. And now he doesn't even have that.
All he has is a worn piece of carpet he uses for a bed, and a crack in the wall behind a building to hide it in. Samples bought him a sleeping bag, but someone stole it.
"I've met very few people who give a shit here in Dallas," Bill says. "Makes me feel good to know someone cares."
But he needs more than just Samples' friendship. Samples knows that he can give Bill all the sleeping bags and coats and boots he can afford, but that isn't going to get him out of the hole. It just makes the hole nicer. Bill and others like him need professional help, a place to stay while they figure it out. They need a plan. They need the city.
"Is everyone going to get help? No," Samples says. "But what about that percentage of people that can benefit from what I benefited from? Having some mentorship and some focused attention on me and what my issues are and working with me. I guarantee you Bill could be fixing some cars somewhere in six months to a year."
The Dallas Police Department finally caught up with James 10 days after Samples delivered the stack of photos to the camp underneath that bridge on Northwest Highway. They found his body on December 20 not far from the camp, at the site on Harry Hines Boulevard where the city parks its sand trucks. He'd been beaten to death. So had his girlfriend, Alisa. She was 44. He was 50.
The police took Ted "Woodstock" Eason into custody as a suspect. Samples doesn't believe Woodstock had anything to do with it, but it's out of his hands now. The world they had made for themselves has quickly fallen apart. James is dead, Woodstock in jail. Carl and his uncle are still at the camp, drinking their way to a slow suicide. If they can get it together, they'll pack up and leave. To who knows where.
Bill Banks is moving on soon, too. Samples discovered that Veterans Affairs owed Bill $1,800 in 1986. With interest, that amount has almost doubled. He's arranged with Central Dallas Ministries' Larry James to find some transitional housing for Bill, something temporary until he can stand on his own. Bill might be fixing cars again earlier than anyone thought.
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It's Samples' biggest success to date, something concrete to build on. But there are plenty of smaller examples of the effect he's had in just a few months. It's those little things that keep him going. Like when he gave Red $10 to find Bill and give him the new sleeping bag he'd bought for him. Samples ran into Bill a few days later, and Bill thanked him for the sleeping bag. And the five bucks. Red knew how much Bill meant to Samples, so he split the money with him, even though that wasn't the original deal, even though he needed that money just as much as Bill did. Samples will take another 500 photos for moments like that.
Hero to Zero is spreading in small ways--and bigger ones, too. Jerry Reynolds has made the Prestige family of dealerships drop zones for clothing, shoes and blankets. Phil Romano, a longtime homeless advocate, is coming on board to lend his support. Central Dallas Ministries and A Friend Indeed Foundation are putting Samples in front of those who can effect real change--people with money, people with power over policy.
Whatever happens, he doesn't want or need the credit.
"Sometimes people are doing things for egos, and sometimes people are doing things because they really want to help," Samples says. "There's public services, private services; there's nonprofit, faith-based and all that sort of stuff. It's craziness, all the different things that are going on. I don't want any of that. I don't even know how to spell philanthropy right now. That's an industry, dude. And it's great. And it doesn't matter if it's helping the people that are helping the people, or it's helping the people, but somebody's getting helped. I just want to be the photographer guy that's got my own deal."


text:
- Yield
- Makes 2 cups
- Olive oil spray
- 2 cups raw unsalted cashews
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray.
- In a medium bowl, toss together the cashews, sugar, butter, salt, and cayenne. Spread the mixture out on the prepared baking sheet. Bake, stirring the nuts occasionally, until well roasted, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Chop the candied cashews slightly before using them as a topping for the pudding or other desserts. Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Reprinted with permission from Susan Feniger's Street Food by Susan Feniger, © 2012 Clarkson Potter
Susan Feniger's taste for travel is reflected on the menu at Susan Feniger's Street (Hollywood) and the three Border Grill eateries (Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Las Vegas) and Border Grill Truck and kiosk she co-owns with Mary Sue Milliken. A trailblazer on food TV with Food Network's Too Hot Tamales (199599), Feniger has more recently appeared on Season 2 of Top Chef Masters. Susan Feniger's Street Food, written with Kajsa Alger and Liz Lachman, is her sixth book.


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Progress for Week 11 of Building the Roaster
The next step in the process is to design and build the framework that holds the bowl carrier and the shafts that the linear bearings ride on. We decided to use 3″ square steel tubing with a 1/8″ wall thickness. It will be made of several sections welded together into a rigid unit. I gave my drawings to ACME Metalworks and they started by creating a CAD drawing.
The CAD file was then used by the machinist to start drilling and boring holes for future connections.
They also machined sleeves for certain holes that will be welded into place and ground down. The sleeves are for areas where extra rigidity is need to prevent crushing the square tube. This sleeve is for one of the linear bearing shafts. As it is bolted into place, the squeezing of the top and bottom hex nuts could warp the tube.
As the tube sections are completed, the tubes are gathered together into a kit to send to ACME's in-house welding shop.
Meanwhile, I've been working with the bowl drive motor to adjust the controls and become familiar with its operation.
Neal Zeller permalinkJuly 13, 2012
You have no idea what a tease this whole process is for me. Can't wait to actually quaff a cup of 'Joe' from this confabulation.
Comments are closed.


text: Home Memes of Light Web of Life Web of Life By Clyde Griffith - October 11, 2018 0 2430 Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest WhatsApp RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR In Our America 3 Keys to More Abundant Living Purifying the Mind Practice the Pause Make the Days Count LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here You have entered an incorrect email address! Please enter your email address here Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.


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The references in this page are about research work performed on the Java Card applications. It includes all kinds of applications, as long as they can run on Java Card.
References will be added as they are used in other pages and posts.
- [Gui06] Fran鏾is Guillaume. Navigo on Contactless Java Card Platform. In Proceedings of e-Smart 2006.
- [SCMM06] Damien Sauveron, Serge Chaumette, Konstantinos Markantonakis, Keith Mayes. The Mobile Java Card Grid Project. In Proceedings of e-Smart 2006.
- [Uri06] Pascal Urien. JavaCard for emerging WLANS environments. In Proceedings of e-Smart 2006.
- [Van06] Jean-Jacques Vandewalle. Designing Web Applications Empowered by Smart Devices. In Proceedings of e-Smart 2006.


text:
You'll recall that this spring when Motley Fool was running frantic headlines such as, "Look Out McDonald's, Here Comes Taco Bell With Its Breakfast Menu," BurgerBusiness.com was talking sense. I wrote that Yum! Brands CEO David Novak's proclamation that "we're in to win at breakfast" was a bit of sleight of hand because he was predicting only $100,000 in per-store incremental sales or about 7 percent of sales at breakfast. With victory defined so modestly (breakfast's share is at least double that at every burger chain that sells breakfast), Taco Bell couldn't help but "win." But it sure wasn't going to spell doom for the Arches.
McDonald's Corp. reports its Q2 sales next week and even if they're not pretty, Taco Bell shouldn't claim victory. But it did, of course, just as predicted. Yesterday, Yum's Novak called March 27, the day Taco Bell began selling breakfast, "a day that will go down in history." That's enough swagger to make you lose your breakfast, but there's more.
"A day that will go down in history" Yum's CEO calls it.
For Q2, Taco Bell reported a 2 percent gain in same-store sales—below the Consensus Metrix number of +3.6 percent —and a 1 percent gain in units. Most analysts called the numbers disappointing. Novak said they smelled like victory in the morning. "Our breakfast day part mix [is] around 7 percent of sales in the second quarter. We fully expect breakfast to be incremental and [bring] anywhere from $70,000 to $120,000 per unit in annualized sales," Novak told analysts during a conference call. He added, "And for the long term there is no question we've enhanced our brand position as the choice of the new generation." OK, but that new generation can turn on you faster than you can say "selfie." He must have forgotten that many Millennials and others abandoned Taco Bell after the much-publicized lawsuit in 2011 questioning how much meat was in its tacos.
OK, so breakfast is a hit, Novak has declared. "Now the big question you're probably asking is this: Given the success of the breakfast launch, why did same store-sales increase only 2 percent in the quarter?" he asked. And he had an answer ready: "Keep in mind that during the first two months of the quarter, our immediate emphasis was almost totally on breakfast. Once we returned to advertising our core business, it was with Cool Ranch Spicy Doritos Locos Tacos chicken. And frankly, this product underperformed versus our expectation."
In other words, it spent so much time and money promoting breakfast—which won't account for more than 7 percent of sales, compared with 25 percent of sales for McDonald's—that sales for its more-important core menu suffered. But when it did promote the core menu, their highly touted taco loco-doco LTO didn't sell so well. If McDonald's CEO Don Thompson offered that kind of convoluted explanation, Wall Street pundits and Motley Fool snarkers would be all over him. But that's Novak's explanation for Taco Bell's underperformance.
"Our franchisees are in breakfast to win," Novak said once again yesterday, adding that "they have been cheering us on to broaden our breakfast offerings with new products that we had already in the pipeline." So they want new products that Taco Bell already had in development. That's good. And Taco Bell also will be innovating with its core menu to drive business and will introduce mobile ordering, Novak said.
I'll stand by what I said in April: Taco Bell's breakfast will be a success because the chain has set the success bar so low. But McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr., Jack in the Box and other QSRs don't have to "look out" or panic. They'll all be fine.


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On Wednesday, January 11, 2017, the South Big Data Hub will present Translational Data Analytics for Environmental Health: Sensors, Algorithms, and Patients at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) from noon – 1:30. To attend in person, please RSVP to email@example.com. Those who are unable to attend in person are welcome to join virtually.
The roundtable will include a panel moderated by Ashok Krishnamurthy, PhD, Deputy Director of RENCI. Guest panelists include: Ayaz Hyder, PhD, from the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University; Andy May, PhD, from Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering at The Ohio State University; and David Peden, PhD, from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
May and Hyder will be discussing in part their work on a collaborative partnership with a local high school to utilize low-cost air quality sensors to monitor traffic-related air pollution. Environmental data from the sensor will be stored, processed, and analyzed via a cloud-computing solution. The processed data will be used for multiple purposes: 1) student engagement via a web-based application to display curriculum-relevant materials, 2) community engagement via a multilingual informational and educational website for residents and patients at risk for adverse outcomes due to poor air quality, 3) environmental exposure assessment and statistical spatiotemporal forecasting of local air quality in epidemiologic studies.
Peden's primary research focus is the impact of environmental agents and pollutants on respiratory and systemic inflammation and physiology, which impacts airway diseases such as asthma, COPD, inhalational injury and airway infection as well as triggering cardiovascular events.
The South Big Data Hub is proud to present a monthly series on emerging data science challenges, featuring researchers, innovators and industry from the South Hub. To suggest roundtable topics or host a South Hub roundtable at your institution, please email Dr. Lea Shanley, co-Executive Director of the South Big Data Hub, at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
I'm at whits end now, can someone please help me to understand what it is I'm doing wrong here:
my nodes.pp (nothing else in this file except this definition)
node test {
net::addr { 'routing':
routes = {
route1 => {
address => '192.168.23.14',
netmask => '255.255.255.0',
gateway => '192.168.23.1',
dev => 'eth0',
route2 => {
address => '192.168.1.3',
netmask => '255.255.255.0',
gateway => '192.168.1.1',
dev => 'eth2',
No matter what I change I keep getting this on every run on the test server, the run just terminates straight away:
err: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Could not parse for environment production: Syntax error at '='; expected '}' at /etc/puppet/manifests/nodes/nodes.pp:3 on node test
On line 3 this is what I have from the above:
net::addr { 'routing':
What am I missing here? Please help as its driving me to despair!
Thanks Dan


text:
TRANSPORT bosses could turn to private investment to fund Reading's car parks.
Reading Borough Council says investment is a "priority", with money needed to renovate the town's car parks and to find extra spaces to replace the crumbling Chatham Street site when it is closed.
But the authority admits there is not enough money in the pot to fund improvements and could ask a private company to stump up the cash.
If councillors agree to the scheme at a meeting on Monday, the authority will look for a Public Private Partnership (PPP) to tie outside investment into revamping car parks, instead of drawing cash from the public purse.
Cllr John Howarth, lead councillor for strategic planning and transport, thinks it could ease pressure on clogged car parks.
He said: "We are investigating potential to improve the long term management and investment in our car parks.
"We are trying to insure that the service gets the investment it needs without competing with other council priorities."
Reports have suggested the area needs 2000 extra short term spaces to cope with increasing numbers of cars heading into town and a new investor would be expected to foot a bill for a new car park, or even a park and ride scheme.
However, it is not yet known what kind of deal would be struck to ensure the council is not left short changed or where any new car parking spaces could be found.
Each year Reading Borough Council coffers are boosted by £3.5 million thanks to drivers using the town's parking spaces.
It costs £2.5 million to run the car parks, with the council eventually banking around £1 million a year profit.
Cllr Bob Green, Lib Dem opposition leader, believes a PPP contract could help build back the town's dwindling parking spaces.
He said: "I don't really think the council have got any alternative at the moment. We need major investment in parking."
Council bosses could be looking for its parking partner as soon as April and if all goes to plan a contract could be ready to sign by September.


text:
Before U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw's mother died of breast cancer when he was only 10 years old, hope was planted in his heart as he watched her explore options to combat the disease. He gained a new belief in the power of science and research to improve people's lives and find treatments and cures for life-threatening diseases.
On Thursday, less than two months after taking office as a freshman Republican from Houston, Crenshaw convened a Congressional Healthcare Innovation Summit at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy. As part of the gathering attended by invited leaders from industry, academia and government, Crenshaw announced the first Susan Crenshaw Congressional Healthcare Award, which was given in memoriam to the late Houston Texans owner and philanthropist Bob McNair.
"Health care affects all of us," Crenshaw said. "It does so in very serious ways. Often it is about life or death. And, of course, it stands to reason that if an issue is so vital and so existential to us, we want to continuously improve upon the ways in which we deliver it, and take great care in making sure that those improvements are encouraged and nurtured, not hindered or overregulated.
"That's what today is about: innovation, better technology, better medicine, better tools, better ideas and making sure that those ideas have a place to thrive," he said.
The award was presented by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the honorary chair of the Baker Institute, and accepted on behalf of the McNair family by Dr. Charles Neblett, medical director of the McNair Medical Institute.
Baker highlighted his friend McNair's philanthropy, particularly in advancing health care.
"He fought hard for the ideals he believed in, and like all good Texans, he put his money where his mouth was," Baker said. "During his life, Bob and Janice (McNair) contributed more than half a billion dollars to education, medical research and other worthy causes. Almost $150 million of that went to health care, including $100 million for Baylor College of Medicine to establish the McNair Scholarships that help recruit top scientists and physicians, (and) several scholarships were established at the Menninger Clinic, the Texas Heart Institute, Texas Children's Hospital and MD Anderson. Bob passionately believed the greatest impact one can leave on the world is a dedicated focus on helping others."
Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, was introduced by Rice President David Leebron, who highlighted Rice and the Baker Institute's role in hosting critical discussions and advancing collaborative efforts. Leebron commended the congressman for his approach to policymaking.
"He brings the patriotic dedication and compassion, civility and intelligence that we need in our political leaders," Leebron said.
The two-hour event showcased major technological advancements and celebrated innovation in Houston, Texas and beyond – from finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease to the applications of artificial intelligence in health care.
Among the profiled innovation successes was the Halas Research Group led by Rice's Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, bioengineering, physics and astronomy, and of materials science and nanoengineering and the director of Rice's Smalley-Curl Institute.
Thanks to Halas' research advancements, Houston-based Nanospectra is conducting a clinical trial of a nanoparticle-based cancer treatment. One of the recipients is KPRC-TV meteorologist Frank Billingsley, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. Billingsley received a nanoparticle infusion Nov. 27 and underwent a laser ablation procedure Nov. 28 as a part of clinical trials at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. An MRI taken the next week showed no signs of cancer.
"It's just a theory … had I had a radical prostatectomy and had the prostate removed, it probably would not have gotten … (all of) the cancer, and I would still have that cancer with the most advised procedure that I was given," Billingsley said at the summit.
Also speaking was Bill McKeon, president of the Texas Medical Center, who gave an overview of the health care and life sciences research, commercialization and entrepreneurship taking place there. He also highlighted the many opportunities for exchange and collaboration with The Ion, the centerpiece of the innovation district being developed by Rice and community partners in Midtown Houston.
The event was hosted by the Baker Institute's Center for Health and Biosciences, which is led by Rice health economist Vivian Ho and employs comprehensive research analysis to develop health policy recommendations that promote health and well-being in the U.S. and globally.
"The relationships we are cultivating with the Texas Medical Center, the largest of its kind in the world, make our institute a prime place to propose policy solutions related to health care and other critical aspects of health policy," Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian said.


text: If you used a reward certificate in your SKECHERS.com order and now want to return or exchange for a different style, color, or size please return the item as usual using the prepaid return label that can be generated through "Order Status." Once your return is received at our facility we will issue a refund to the original form of payment and to a new Gift Card for the amount of the Reward certificate that can be used towards a new order. Your Gift Card will be emailed to you as soon as the return is processed.


text:
|Project by winters98
|posted 08-22-2015 11:37 PM
|1204 views
|1 time favorited
|2 comments
Someone asked me to make a razor from this piece of cocobolo. How did I do?
2 comments so far
#1 posted 08-23-2015 12:50 AM
Well you did very nicely!
Where did you obtain the razor hardware? And does it screw into the handle? I'm curious because the razor hardware looks like the Mach 3 razor I use.
-- Dean -- "Don't give up the ship -- fight her 'till she sinks!" Capt James Lawrence USN
#2 posted 08-23-2015 09:13 PM
Mean_Dean …
-- Grumpy old guy, and lookin' good Doin' it. ... Surprise Az.
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text:
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text:
Andrew Hornby[2] A cool, popular kid at school with brown hair and a dark voice is Irma's secret crush. In the comics, Irma tries to get him to like her by transforming herself to make her look older and prettier, but this plan backfires and she ends up turning him into a toad. He is a little bit older than her and in the higher grades, but Irma and Andrew do have a weak relationship. He has only appeared in "L is for Loser" but was mentioned in "C is for Changes".
Irma has tried to flirt with him by making her body look more mature using her magic, but that backfired when she turned him into a toad for days out of nervousness when he tried to kiss her.
Episode Appearances
- "C is for Changes" (mentioned)
- "L is for Loser" (first appearance)
- "T is for Trauma"
- "W is for Witch"
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0644436/?ref_=tt_cl_t9
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0118202/?ref_=tt_cl_t9
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