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Ethics in Business Darba fragments Aizvērt
Ethics and Human Resources Ethics commonly refer to the rules or principles that define right and wrong conduct. In the United States, many believe we are currently suffering from an ethics crisis (Ricklets, Robbins & Coulter, 1996). Behaviors that were once thought unacceptable -- lying, cheating, misrepresenting, and covering up mistakes -- have become in many people's eyes acceptable or necessary practices. Managers profit from illegal use of insider stock information and members of Congress write hundreds of bad checks. …
Ethics in Business Structure, Conduct, and Performance Approach of the Public Transportation Industry Tribal Body Techniques
Tavs vārds:
E-pasta adrese, uz kuru nosūtīt darba saiti:
Saite uz darbu:
https://www.atlants.lv/w/428020ding and funding issues.
Related Posts
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Evangelicals apparently have so much political clout that they are poised to install a theocracy, according to some commentators. Such critics don't notice there is little distinctively evangelical about the evangelical approach to politics. The evangelical emphaseson conversion, the Cross, the Bible, and activismdo not themselves amount to a full, independent theological system. Nor do they take us far in understanding politics, which requires at least some grasp of history, government, law, justice, freedom, rights, mercy, violence, and war. Thoughtful evangelicals trying to understand politics often draw on the wider resources of Calvinist, Anabaptist, Anglican, Lutheran, or Catholic teaching.
Still, venerable publications like
The New Republic go overboard when they claim that evangelicals merely march to the drumbeat of Catholic thinkers like Richard Neuhaus, Michael Novak, and George Weigel. Yes, evangelical distinctives can be compatible with a range of other doctrines. Hence, we can speak easily of evangelical Anglicans or Lutherans, even of evangelical Orthodox or Catholics. The Economist plausibly took Sen. Sam Brownback, a recent convert to Catholicism, to symbolize growing evangelical international activism on religious freedom, sex trafficking, AIDS, Sudan, and North Korea.
Evangelical activism through the centuries has undoubtedly produced some laudable results. The evangelical commitment to religious freedom predates the Enlightenment, and the ethic of personal responsibility helped produce the civil society that Alexis de Tocqueville so admired during his 19th-century visit to America. But it also produces major problems. Currently, evangelical activism hampers responsible political engagement ...
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Have you ever left your home, only to turn your car around and head back because you weren’t sure you unplugged your curlers? Well, I mean, bald guys wouldn’t have this to worry about. But, some women do. Like me. I worry that I don’t have things unplugged or turned off. I am a “turner-arounder”. That is a person who turns around and comes back home to double check. I guess you could call it a “Double checker”. Or a “Go back homer”. There are many things to call people like that. But, do we have OCD? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? I don’t think I am OCD by any means. If I was OCD, I would first have to re-arrange the letters to CDO so they would be in alphabetical order.
I am going to share a few of the things that make me a “Go back homer” or a “Turner-arounder”, or a “Double checker.” I really like all of these phrases. I just don’t know which one to use. I will have to think about this for a few hours, OCD-like…But, read on and see if you can relate. Maybe we have one or two in common.
1. “
Did I close the garage door?”-This is really important, because if you left the garage door open, thieves could just walk in and take your…paint cans or wheelbarrow or tool (I am sure we had more than one). Better yet, raccoons could walk in and then fall asleep and then when you come home at night and drive your car into the garage, and shut the door, they would become trapped in your garage and poop all over your car and scratch, “LET ME OUT, YOU JERK” on the side of the car. Or, someone like Ted Bundy would be waiting in the dark, and when I would step out of my car, kill me, well, just because. Then he would leave a note like, “She really should have shut her garage door….Love, Ted.”
2.
“Is my toilet running?”- Yeah, that gets me all the time. I always use the bathroom before I leave the house. Isn’t it great how I can share my “pee time stories” with strangers? Well, I have to drive 30 minutes to work and I drink a lot of water. Anywho, I usually wait by the front door until the toilet stops making that “I’m filling back up with water now” noise and then I shut and lock the door.And drive off. “But, wait. Did I wait this time? I can’t remember. Did I go to the bathroom before I left? What if my toilet ran all day? I wonder what the hell my water bill would be?… Shit…I better turn around.”
3. “
Are my curlers unplugged?” This is the worst one, because I never can remember. I know in my mind that I unplug after I put the last curler in my hair. But, did I really unplug this time? My poor family would all pile in the car to go somewhere and we would get halfway down the driveway and I would say, “I am not sure I unplugged my curlers.” It got to be to the point where as soon as we would get in the car, my husband or kids would ask me. And I would ALWAYS go back. Now that I am divorced, and live by myself, I stare at the plug outlet and say to myself or sometimes out loud if I was really feeling like a loser, “Unplugged.” And I would wrap up my curlers and put them under my bathroom sink. But, my mind is not free. While driving, I would then think, “hmmmmmm, I wonder if I put those curlers away too warm? Could they start a fire?”
4. “
Did I leave food for the cat?”- Well, this is important, because if I have a car accident and my head is wrapped in gauze, they won’t be able to hear me saying, “My poor cat has no food.” Therefore, it is imperative to leave her dish full of food and…just in case, the bag nearby. That way, she can knock the bag over when her dish is depleted of food and she can just eat out of the bag until I am released from the hospital. I do have one of those self-feeders, but my cat won’t eat out of it. I guess the food gets stale tasting if it is out too long and she sticks her nose up at it. Well, think about it. Would you eat a piece of toast with butter and jelly after 6 hours of being on the counter? I didn’t think so.
5. “
Off, off, off…off..off..off..”-In OCD talk, that means, “Go make sure the oven knobs are all
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turned off.” I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have turned around to make sure my oven was turned off. And as I touch each knob, I would say those words..”off, off, off, off, off, off.” And then I would stare at the oven, just one last time. Yes, they are off ….for sure. I would even ask the kids to check. I could hear them say, “off, off, off, off, off, off” in that mocking manner. They were probably thinking, “What the hell? We’ve eaten out for the past 2 nights.”
I guess we all have our idiosyncrasies. That word looks weird….I guess we are all weird in some way or another. I forgot to mention that I make sure that the match I use to light a candle stays in a little jar of water for at least an hour before I throw it away. I heard about a match being in a garbage bag and then smouldering and then burning down a house about a year ago..I like to burn my hazelnut cream candle about every day and don’t want to burn my apartment down. So, the match gets to drown to make sure it is not a fire hazard.
So, do I have OCD? Should a “turner-arounder” be labeled as having an obsessive behavior? I really don’t know the answer to that.
I do know that I have to stop writing this blog now because it is bed time. I have to go make sure my alarm clock is set. You never know when the electric will go off and you would then sleep in for work.
I am pretty sure I have it set… Maybe…..shit….maybe not….I will have to check after I make sure the tires on my car are not flat for the drive to work tomorrow.
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University of Washington Conducts Expensive Study, Discovers Junk Food Is Cheaper Than Healthy Food
A paper recently published in the
Health Affairs professional journal suggests that eating healthy foods costs more than eating unhealthy foods.
Gee,
thanks, Captain Obvious!
The paper, by Pablo Monsivais, Anju Aggarwal and Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington and based on a survey of 2,001 people conducted after the publication of the government's new food-plate diagram, said that the biggest costs come from increasing one's intake of vitamins and fiber to the suggested levels, and that it could add hundreds of dollars to the average American's food bill to comply.
I agree that the government's plate imagery is out of reach for the average American, especially the initial version that had the fish on the side--how many people in rural North Dakota does the government think are sitting down to salmon?--but the issue is deeper than the undisputed fact that empty calories are cheaper.
It's a bit like giving a young child the choice between five pennies or one quarter. Five is more than one, thus they choose the pennies. In this case, it's possible to buy a huge quantity of unhealthy, sugar- and fat-laden food, even though it is not as nutritious as a smaller quantity of something else. The effect can best be seen in restaurants: if the plate isn't full, even if the amount of food on it is enough for a meal, Americans complain. It's a big part of why portion sizes have ballooned so much over the last forty years.
The problem is exacerbated by over-packed schedules. It's faster to grab packaged food--or, worse, the drive-through--between one family member's yoga class and another's school play rehearsal, and the result is that Americans are losing the knack of cooking.
It is possible to construct a healthy meal--or a set of them--without blowing the budget out of the water, but in order to do that, people in the U.S. will have to commit to cooking food at home and--horror of horrors--eating a diet that is mostly vegetables, whether fresh or frozen. Unfortunately, short of an invasion of personal freedom that would give armchair libertarians a collective cardiac infarction, there's not much the U.S. government can do to force the issue. Maybe they should start by fixing the school nutrition guidelines to focus on health, and declare that no, ketchup is actually not a vegetable.
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Iceland - Electricity Generation
The country's geological characteristics (its location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) are favoring the large utilization of geothermal energy in the energy supply of Iceland. The share of geothermal energy in the primary energy supply of Iceland is about 68%, reaching 90% of all energy used for house heating. Geothermal electricity generation started 45 years ago and has now reached 29% of the total electricity needs. The total installed capacity is now above 650 MWe and the annual generation about 5,250 GWh, from the following fields: Námafjall 3 MWe, Hellisheidi 303 MWe, Húsavík 2 MWe, Krafla 60 MWe, Nesjavellir 120 MWe, Reykjanes 100 MWe and Svartsengi 76 MWe (Ragnarsson, 2015).
Development since WGC2010: 90 MWe of two new units at Hellisheidi IV.
Installed capacity 665 MWe
Geothermal Electricity 5,245 GWh/y Source: Ruggero Bertani, Geothermal Power Generation in the World 2010-2014 Update Report
Installed geothermal generating capacity (December 2009) in MW
Hellisheidi 215.0 Nesjavellir 120.0 Reykjanes 100.0 Svartsengi 74.0 Krafla 60.0 Namafjall 3.0 Husavik 2.0 Total 575.0
The geothermal electricity production in Iceland has increased significantly since 2005 (about 370 MW, 184%, the highest value among the countries with a relevant geothermal electricity production), with the installation of new plants in Nesjavellir (30 MW), Hellisheidi (the entire field started its production after 2005: 5 units for 213 MW), Svartsengi (30 MW) and Reykjanes (2x50 MW). The most important fields of the island are listed below
Krafla: in the northern part of the island, its operation started in 1977 from Landsvirkjun, with several initial problem in producing enough steam for feeding the plants, due to the volcanic activity in the area. Now, after 20 years, some degassing of the productive reservoir has been achieved, and two 30 MW double flash turbine are in operation with additional 40 MW planned.
Bjarnaflag (Námafjall): the oldest geothermal field in Iceland is still in operation since 1969 (Landsvirkjun), with an old 3 MW back-pressure unit.
In Husavik an experimental Kalina binary unit (using 120°C hot water, operated by Orkuveita Husavikur) of 2 MW has been installed in 2000, but only in 2008 it started a commercial operation.
Hellisheidi: on the active volcanic system of Hengill; it has 210 MW and 400 MWth of thermal output for district heating of the Reykjavik area (27 km away); the electricity is supplied mainly to local aluminum refineries. All the plants of the field have been commissioned after 2005 by Orkuveita Reykjavikur: 2x45 MW in 2006 (Unit I), 35 MW in 2007 (Unit II) and again 2x45 MW in 2008 (Unit III).
Nesjavellir (Orkuveita Reykjavikur): in the southern part of the country, four 30 MW units (total 120 MW), combining heat/electricity production with 300 MWth for district heating (about 1,800 l/s of hot water). The most recent unit has been commissioned in 2005.
Reykjanes: in south-western peninsula, operated by Hitaveita Sudurnesja, it has been commissioned in 2005 and 2006, with two 50 MW units, and additional 50 MW under construction.
Svartsengi: near the International Airport and the famous outdoor swimming/spa facilities of Blue Lagoon (visited yearly by about 400,000 people, probably the most popular Icelandic touristy attraction), feed by the discarded water (rich in surplus mineral) of two flash units (reservoir fluid at 240°C) for about 66
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MW and a 8 MW binary unit (Hitaveita Sudurnesja); there is also an important additional hot water production of 150 MWth for district heating. Also here the most recent addition was a 30 MW unit in 2005.
Other Projects
The Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) has been finally placed nearby Krafla geothermal area, in the Northern part of the country. The aim of the project is the exploitation of supercritical fluid at 4-5 km depth and 400-600°C of temperature. Unfortunately, in 2009, the well reached a magma body and the project has been placed in stand-by.
An agreement has been signed between the Century Aluminum Co and two major Icelandic geothermal producers (Hitaveita Sudurnesja and Orkuveita Reykjavikur) for supplying electricity to the production of an initial amount of 150,000 tons of aluminum per year, utilizing 250 MW of geothermal electricity. The initial stage of the project will be commissioned in 2010. The agreement is expandable up to 435 MW, for a production of 250,000 tons of aluminum. This will be a very efficient way of exporting the surplus of cheap and abundant geothermal electricity production from Iceland.
The total installed capacity of the country is 575 MW, and additional 230 MW under construction. The country with 300,000 inhabitants is 100% renewably powered, with 25% of its electricity and 90% of heating needs provided by geothermal energy. Geothermal energy contribution to the total energy consumption sums up to 62%, probably the highest in the world.
Space Heating
The main use of geothermal power is for space heating which amounted to about 25 PJ per year; an extensive district-heating systems has been realized into the country. The share of geothermal heat in space heating is almost 90%, whereas the remainder is mainly heated with electricity (which results 100% renewable), so that fossil fuels account for only a small fraction of the total.
As an example, the Reykjavik district heating system, serving 200,000 inhabitant of the capital, with a thermal capacity of 1.2 GWth and about 80 million m3 of hot water provided yearly, can be considered as one of the most important in the world, 100% heated from geothermal energy.
As final remark, the growing on geothermal electricity is presently in a clear impressive exponential phase.
Taken from Ruggero Bertani’s paper, " Geothermal Power Generation in the World 2005–2010 Update Report ", published in Proceedings of the World Geothermal Congress 2010, Bali, Indonesia, 25-29 April 2010.
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- It's a perfect record for the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, where all six of its applicants have been granted prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards for 2012.
CAREER Awards are given to outstanding junior-level faculty members to help them build successful research programs. Recipients "exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations," according to the NSF.
The grants are among the most prestigious grants in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and are one of the few awards factored into the official Top American Research University rankings. They are given to tenure-track faculty members and each must integrate research with teaching.
Jeffrey Rimer, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is the sixth winner and latest recipient of a CAREER award at Cullen. Rimer won a five-year, $400,000 grant to further his research into zeolites.
With this win, Rimer joins five other engineering junior faculty members who have received CAREER awards this year. The other engineering recipients are Jiming Bao, Jacinta Conrad, Debora Rodrigues, Wei-Chuan Shih and Gila Stein.
Joseph W. Tedesco, dean of the Cullen College of Engineering, said the college's strong showing in the CAREER competition is proof of the advances the college has made in recent years.
"The Cullen College's faculty ranks have grown by more than 20 percent since 2007," Tedesco said. "These CAREER Awards prove that we've brought in some truly outstanding young researchers who will help take our research program to new heights. We are proud of them all!"
Additionally, UH's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics had two CAREER winners this year: Ognjen Miljanic and Angela Moeller, both assistant professors of chemistry.
Rimer, the latest CAREER recipient, will use the grant money to expand his efforts to improve zeolites, a class of catalysts used in the petroleum and chemical industries to create a range of different products, from ion-exchange additives in detergents to gasoline and alternative fuels.
Rimer has developed - and recently won a full patent for - a method to produce ultra-thin zeolites.
"An ideal catalyst is a thin crystal with high porous surface area, allowing molecules to enter, react, and then diffuse rapidly," Rimer said.
During the synthesis of commercial-grade zeolites, the individual crystals grow through the attachment of growth units to the zeolite surface. Rimer has discovered certain molecules that attach to specific zeolite surfaces and block growth units from attaching, thereby tailoring the size and shape of zeolite crystals.
While the modified zeolites retain the same basic shape, through this process they can measure as thick as 100 nanometers, about 10-times thinner than unmodified zeolites.
With his earlier research to validate the approach of using zeolite modifiers, Rimer worked primarily with commercially available molecules. The CAREER award will allow him to create entirely new molecules to tailor the growth of specific zeolites. In doing so, he aims to develop a rational system for creating such molecules for any targeted zeolite.
"When we understand how a small library of molecules can tailor the shape of any single zeolite, we can think about other modifier-zeolite combinations," Rimer said. "If you were to take a zeolite that hasn't been studied by this approach, could you, based on its structure, predict a set of four or five molecules that may be effective in controlling its growth? The goal is to expand our understanding of how this works and establish some guidelines for creating these molecules."
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Electricians have been forced to wear the cost of replacing allegedly faulty solar devices produced by collapsed Sunshine Coast company Advancetech.
Liquidators were appointed to the solar and electrical distributor last week, just days after the Queensland Government recalled 27,000 devices that had been sold in Queensland and New South Wales.
The Avanco DC isolators used in solar electrical systems have been linked to dozens of fires, although nobody has been injured.
A notice on the company's website said the liquidators, SV Partners, are not required to comply with the terms of the product recall order.
"As liquidators, we are not trading the company's business and unfortunately we are not able to assist with the replacement of the isolators the subject of the recall orders," the notice said.
"Unfortunately [we] are not able to directly assist customers of the company or the end users of the products recalled."
Queensland Master Electricians chief executive Malcolm Richards said that meant the electrical contractors who installed the isolators must wear the cost of replacing the recalled devices.
"The reassurance for the customers involved is that the contractors are still obligated to replace their product for free," he said.
"But then the drama starts for the electrical contractors who have to then pursue the funds back from the liquidator.
"There are a lot of small, mum-and-dad operators who are involved in the solar industry, who have installed solar panels under the government rebate scheme, who are now going to be left high and dry and have to stump up the cost of replacing this product, which they bought in good faith as an approved Australian product at the time."
Advancetech was sold to another company the day after the recall.
Mr Richards says his organisation has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Fair Trading Queensland to investigate what happened.
"We've asked Fair Trading Queensland and the ACCC just to look into the nature of the business exchange and the liquidation in this case," he said.
"There's obviously some concerning issues there we want looked at to ensure everything was done properly."
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In today’s digital age, most of us probably spend most of our time connected to the Internet and browsing through lots of information. Spending so much time on the Internet can affect the way you think and process information.
Readers of Nicholas Carr’s 2010 book
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains will certainly confirm this. While the Internet is a fantastic tool to conduct business and communicate with friends and colleagues, the constant distractions can and do have an interruptive effect on how we think and learn.
The animation team at Epipheo Studios recently interviewed Carr and put together a video on the topics expressed in
The Shallows.
Think about it! company for any reason ask your HR representative or the company’s legal counsel what the policy is about references for former employees. Finding out the company policy is the only way to know what you can expect in terms of a reference from a former employer. Special thanks to Carole Jurkash for offering her thoughts on this important topic.
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What a great time DIA Boston was!
As Director of Clinical Solutions, one of my responsibilities is giving product demonstrations in BioClinica’s exhibit booth. Much of my time during conference hours was spent with my eyes and ears focused on growing my understanding of your needs to run clinical trials more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Below is a recap of hot topics from my vantage in the exhibit hall point where thousands of industry professionals converged to learn new ways to overcome current and future challenges: TransCelerate BioPharma Having recently grown to 16 member companies, TransCelerate is rapidly gaining momentum as the consortium drives toward clinical research change. Two best practice recommendations widely discussed were the use of CDISC SHARE and Risk Based Monitoring. Check out an earlier blog I wrote about semantic standards including SHARE. To see how TranCelerate plans to assess risk in clinical trials, read the position paper here . Risk, Managing Risk, Risk-Based Monitoring Risk was a major theme in multiple areas throughout the conference. Two recent FDA draft guidance documents give pharmaceutical companies the go-ahead for managing risk while making the process of collecting and reviewing study data easier and less costly. Several DIA sessions explored compliance with these documents: Electronic Source Data in Clinical Investigations, Nov. 2012 and Oversight of Clinical Investigations — A Risk-Based Approach to Monitoring, Aug. 2011
My colleagues and I demonstrated how BioClinica’s innovative risk management software can provide significant cost-savings. Missed it? Contact us for a private demo.
Here’s a photo of me drilling down into the data using the big touch screen in the Microsoft exhibit.
The Sunshine Act Many people stopped by and expressed concern about Sunshine Act compliance. Fast-approaching, the Act requires pharmaceutical, medical device, biological, and medical supply manufacturers to report "payment or other transfer of value" to physicians and teaching hospitals. BioClinica’s OnPoint CTMS has a payment module that supports Sunshine Act reporting requirements. Operational Metrics Linda Sullivan of the Metrics Champion Consortium (MCC) popped in to thank BioClinica for its support in developing standardized metrics. She also requested assistance with completing MCC’s own Risk-Based Monitoring Industry Survey. This all-volunteer group has assembled recommended standard metrics for multiple areas including Clinical Trials, Central Labs, Imaging, and Cardiopulmonary. Learn about recent milestones.
Many DIA event-goers used myDIAfun.com to find parties, restaurants, and prize opportunities. Based on considerable positive feedback, BioClinica is pleased to offer MyDiaFun for next year’s convention in San Diego.
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The National Domestic Workers Alliance and their allies have overcome industry opposition to win labor protections for domestic workers in seven states.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established basic protections for American workers, including a 40-hour workweek and a minimum wage. But certain workers were excluded from these protections, including domestic workers.
In the face of intense opposition from for-profit homecare industry groups, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and their allies have made great strides in recent years to right this wrong. On August 12, Illinois became the seventh state to extend these rights to domestic workers, joining Massachusetts, California, New York, Oregon, Hawaii, and Connecticut.
Inequality.org co-editor Sarah Anderson spoke with Magdalena Zylinska to learn more about this victory. Zylinska is a housecleaner and domestic worker organizer who focuses on outreach to Polish domestic workers, making sure they’re informed of their rights. Last year, she was appointed to be a Board Member at Arise Chicago, a faith-labor action group.
How did you first become involved in the effort to expand rights for domestic workers??
I became involved with the Arise Chicago workers center in 2013 after attending a green cleaning workshop offered to domestic workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After the workshop, Anna Jakubek, an organizer with Arise Chicago, informed us that domestic workers have few labor rights. That’s what energized me to get involved with fighting for the Illinois Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Over the last couple of years, I have also gone to Springfield numerous times, talked to Senators and Representatives, and I testified on behalf of domestic workers regarding sexual harassment, which is something I have encountered in my workplace.
Can you explain the significance of the victory in Illinois? How will this reform change workers’ lives?
Many domestic workers would say that beyond labor protections, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in Illinois is about respect and dignity. Our victory in passing the legislation means that we have finally been recognized as workers by becoming included in labor rights that we have been historically excluded from.
The new law will make sure that home cleaners, nannies, care workers, and other domestic workers receive the state minimum wage, protection against sexual harassment, as well as a day of rest if they are employed by one employer for at least 20 hours a week by amending four state laws that previously excluded domestic workers: the Minimum Wage Law, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the One Day of Rest in Seven Act, and the Wages of Women and Minors Act.
Now when domestic workers encounter a problem, they will be less afraid to let the authorities know.
Everyone deserves to have these basic rights. I believe that now when domestic workers encounter a problem, they will be less afraid to let the authorities know. Too many people are abused and mistreated. Protections will give domestic workers the right to defend themselves in unfortunate situations.
It is great to see this first step, but we still have a long way to go in making sure this law gets enforced. I’m very optimistic for the future.
How might this victory help build power for the continuing fight for a national bill of rights for domestic workers?
I think many people, including legislators, are unaware that domestic workers are excluded from state labor protections and face such high levels of exploitation. But when people actually hear our stories, they come to the conclusion that this is the right thing to do and this is the time to do it. This victory in Illinois brings greater visibility to our movement.
Illinois is also the seventh state to pass legislation to protect the rights of domestic workers. The other six states that have protections in place for domestic workers are California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, Oregon, and New York. Together, this brings us one step closer to having full state protections for all domestic workers in the U.S.
For-profit homecare industry groups and the International Franchise Association sued the Labor Department to block expansion of labor protections, including overtime pay, to homecare workers. These groups claim they’re acting in the best interest of workers, that by expanding their rights, homecare workers would be forced into an unregulated underground market because their clients wouldn’t be able to pay for care through a regulated agency. Your response?
Homecare work is the second fastest-growing occupation in the country, and yet most homecare workers live in poverty despite the essential nature of their work for communities across the country. If we want to be able to age with dignity, we as a nation have to invest in homecare by treating this work as essential.
That means we have to put the funding into homecare that will allow workers to treat homecare as a sustainable job and ensure that consumers can afford the assistance they need. There is a major problem around affordability of homecare in the United States — but we can’t get rid of this problem by putting the burden on the backs of homecare workers.
That’s already happening, and as a result, we see high levels of turnover. Every day, the nation is
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losing qualified and dedicated homecare workers who love their jobs but can’t afford gas for their cars or oil to heat their houses in winter or food to feed their families.
Fighting against the nation’s most basic labor protections doesn’t protect these workers nor the consumers who need access to consistent care. It’s a misinformed and innately temporary fix that protects the bottom line of for-profit companies and franchising groups without solving the larger problems of funding care.
In contrast, we work with disability rights and senior groups, unions and worker centers that are genuinely working in collaboration to make sure there’s enough resources so that consumers and workers can get what they need. That’s a genuine solution, fueled by parties with genuinely overlapping interests.
How powerful are these industry opponents and what strategies have you used to get around them?
Private, for-profit actors in the homecare and au pair industries have mounted major opposition to domestic workers bill of rights legislation.
We have seen private for-profit actors in the homecare and au pair industries mount major opposition to our bill of rights legislation as well as to other efforts to raise worker protections in order to prevent abuse and trafficking.
In some instances, industry groups were able to retract their opposition after realizing that their interests in having a stable workforce were aligned with those of our campaigns. In other instances, that wasn’t possible.
We try to find companies and players that are dedicated to doing the right thing, and ensure that their voices are heard as well. For example, Care.com has supported many of our efforts.
At the end of the day, one of the most important things we can do is keep supporting the organizing and leadership of domestic workers and homecare workers, and building meaningful working partnerships with consumers of homecare and their families. Those coalitions and the unified voice of these stakeholders is ultimately what will win us victory.
What gives you hope for this movement?
I have been working at this for almost three years, and there were moments when I was worried that this victory would not come. When we visited legislators, it sometimes felt like they weren’t hearing us. But they did.
This bill was unanimously voted in by the Senate, and it passed out of both chambers with bipartisan support. Hopefully, other states will follow our lead with even stronger protections, like contracts. This won’t be easy, because different domestic work industries, like housecleaning and childcare, have different needs, but all of them need better guidelines for both workers and employers. Our industry is rapidly growing, especially around eldercare, so the bill also helps us prepare for the future by recognizing this important workforce.
What do you wish more people knew about domestic workers?
Every domestic worker job is different, and every house I clean is different. We work hard for our money. We have bills to pay. Many of us have families to support.
Even though we passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in Illinois, we still have a long way to go. Most of us in the industry do not get paid sick days or paid vacation. If we struggle or get sick, we do not get any compensation for the time we miss at work. Oftentimes, we do not get paid for additional responsibilities that are given to us at work. Employers do not always give notice if they are going on vacation, and I’ve had situations where employers can fire you on the spot. And it might mean losing income for two or three weeks before finding a replacement job.
My suggestion is for employers to take these things into consideration, and also try and build stronger relationships of dignity and respect with the domestic workers they employ.
For now, I’m just grateful that the Governor signed the bill. We had full support from the House and the Senate. This was a big coalition effort where we had broad support from faith, labor, and community groups, as well as employers organizations. The Illinois Domestic Workers Coalition was powered by local organizations, including AFIRE Chicago, Arise Chicago, Latino Union, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Women Employed, Heartland Alliance, and SEIU-HCII, as well as domestic workers, advocacy and community groups, and allies. More broadly, we also received support from the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA).
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Coca-Cola as a medical supplies deliverer? One of its community programs, Project Last Mile, at first sounds odd as the company is one of the world’s most recognized brands, with its red and white logos emblazoned everywhere from mega-city centers to the tiniest rural outposts. Coke’s 100+ year history of prominence is as impressive as it is exasperating to its critics. And its reputation and stature in the marketplace allow it to attract some of the best talent.
But some of that talent wants more than a line on a CV to complement that MBA diploma. More employees, especially newer ones joining the workforce, want to work for an organization that takes sustainability and social responsibility seriously.
To that end, Project Last Mile leverages the company’s vast distribution network to increase and improve the delivery of medical supplies to 10 African countries by 2019.
The project has already started in Ghana and Tanzania. Partnering with national and local governments, the initiative takes advantage of Cola-Cola’s prowess in supply chain, distribution and marketing. Other organizations, including Yale’s Global Health Leadership Institute, Accenture and Global Environment and Technology foundation, work with Coke and government officials to procure and distribute medicines to rural areas. But this is more than just about handing out meds. Professionals working on the project advise local health workers on how to forecast future demands for medicines and vaccines. Workers also learn how to maintain cold chain equipment property for the particular medical supplies.
According to a local Tanzania health official, Last Mile has resulted in the increased availability of medicines by as much as 30 percent since the program launched in 2010. Over 5,500 health clinics in total have benefited to date.
The next country in the project’s crosshairs is Mozambique, announced when Coca-Cola agreed to expand Project Last Mile at the cost of US$21 million.
This project is another example of how companies can embark on a corporate social responsibility platform using tools already at their disposal. Rather than cut a check to a charity or try to rally the corporate troops for a volunteer day, Project Last Mile allows employees to do community work while incorporating the skills they need for their day-to-day jobs. Other companies have launched similar initiatives. Ford Motor Co. has used its vehicles and technology to assist in the delivery of health care services in India. Cisco has contributed its video communications technologies to Jordan’s government in order to link urban medical specialists to patients in distant rural areas.
Coca-Cola’s investment in rural African health care will not silence its critics who are wary of the company’s, and that of its competitors’, impacts on issues related to water consumption and of course, on nutrition. But programs such as Project Last Mile offer far more benefit than posing as a purveyor of “healthy living”—and can help improve the company’s branding and reputation.
Image credit: Coca-Cola Press Center
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Sympathetic Nervous System
No one really knows what causes the debilitating medical condition known as fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and so the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association has worked hard at funding promising avenues of research in the field. One of the newest projects AFSA has taken under its wings is the work of Manuel Martinez-Lavin, M.D. who explores the possible genetic causes of FMS.
Classic Response
Martinez-Lavin, of Mexico City's National Institute of Cardiology is convinced that the body's fight or flight response is the root cause of many fibromyalgia symptoms. This classic sympathetic nervous system response to stress has been well-documented, but not explored as a specific cause of fibromyalgia symptoms until now.
Matinez-Lavin also believes that FMS is linked to genetic factors that change the workings of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic branch is one of two aspects of the autonomic nervous system, which includes both the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
The just-published study is an evaluation of the variations in genes that control the speed of the enzyme known as catechol-O-methyltrasferase (COMT). COMT is responsible for breaking down dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine so that the body can eliminate them. But when there are genetic irregularities, the COMT enzyme becomes sluggish. This causes a buildup of norepinephrine and epinephrine, which are used by the sympathetic nervous system as transmission vehicles. According to this theory, the resultant hyperactivity is the cause of FMS and stems from a genetic abnormality.
Sluggish Enzymes
Martinez-Lavin spoke of a study on 202 healthy women, commenting, “Women who slowly degraded the catecholamines are more sensitive to pain.” The physician adds that six variations of the COMT gene are known to lead to sluggish enzymes and those with these variations have been found to be more vulnerable to the condition known as temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD), which causes chronic pain in the face around the jaw area.
Specific ethnic factors do influence the observed variations in the COMT gene. Therefore, Martinez-Lavin studied two separate populations: Spanish women and Mexican women. In a study of 160 Spanish women, 80 with and 80 without FMS, a higher incidence was found in three of the known variations on the COMT gene. “In the Spanish people, there was a clear relationship between the number of defects in the COMT gene and FMS severity, according to the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ),” says Martinez-Lavin, "whereas, in the Mexican population, there was only a slight correlation with two sub-scales of the FIQ.”
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Recently I have been asked a lot of questions about what employers can and can’t disclose about a former employee’s performance and reasons for leaving the company. So, I decided to find out what the law says as well as what in-house counsel would generally advise an HR department about disclosures. I consulted with my attorney friend Carole Jurkash, a fellow University of Chicago graduate who went on to get her law degree from Yale Law School to find out what the law says about this topic. Carole really knows what she is talking about because she has 17 years of experience advising various corporations on general business matters as an in-house attorney.
Carole made it clear that in most states employees are hired “at will” which means they can be fired at any time for almost any reason. The exceptions to “almost any reason” are that an employer can’t fire you for any of the following: your gender, your race, your religion, your sexual orientation, your age, any disabilities you might have, or your marital status. If you are fired for any of those reasons you might have grounds to sue your former employer. Employers are not prohibited by law from telling a potential employer who calls for a reference about a former employee the reasons that the employee left, as long as the information they share is truthful. However, a lot of employers opt not to share the reasons that employees have left the company or to give any kind of references for any former or current employees. While an employer may be able to fire you for just about any reason, it is in the employer’s interest to be consistent with all employees in order to avoid employment discrimination claims. In other words, as a best practice to avoid liability in employment cases, many lawyers advise employers to adopt a set of policies that are applied to all employees equally. Consistency is a very important element in understanding why employers may or may not choose to discuss the reasons a former employee left the company as you will see in a minute. One thing that employers want to avoid is a disparagement lawsuit. “Disparagement” means saying something about a former employee that isn’t true, that is slanderous, or is intended to hurt the former employee. In order to avoid the possibility of a disparagement lawsuit, many employers opt not to give any references at all. That’s right – no references for anyone. Instead, many employers choose to institute a policy of only confirming dates of employment and salary information. But why not give good references to employees who leave on good terms? Why give no references at all? Employers are cautious about disclosing information about the performance of former employees because of a combination of two things: the need for consistent treatment of all employees to avoid employment discrimination claims and a desire to avoid risking disparagement lawsuits. For example, if an employer discloses information related to a former employee’s poor performance the former employee in question could challenge that claim in court and claim that the employer is slandering them. Or that there was some sort of discrimination (whether there was or not). Even if an employer is perfectly justified in firing a poor performer it is likely that the employer’s attorney will advise them to keep quiet about the reasons for the firing. Why? Because, as you can see there is really no upside to the employer to disclose that information. Attorneys try to minimize risk for their clients. Since disclosing reasons for termination could be considered a risk, it is likely that most employers will simply not do so. On the other hand if an employer gives glowing references for its former employees who were star performers while staying mum about the poor performers, they run the risk that a poor performer could sue them for being inconsistent in their policies. Seem crazy? The “poor” performer’s argument goes like this: the “poor” performer claims that the real reason the employer is refusing to give a reference is based on an unlawful discriminatory reason [race, religion, etc.], and that the employer always gives good references, for example, to ex-employees who are Catholic males under forty with Irish surnames regardless of the quality of their performance, and never gives references to Buddhist females over forty. Well the key to successfully avoiding or defending this type of claim is for employers to treat all employees equally. So, if they say great things when someone calls to check references for “good” performers and say nothing about the “bad” performers, they are not treating everyone equally. So many employers won’t give any kind of reference at all. If you happen to have been fired for poor performance this situation is certainly better for you than some alternatives. So to wrap this up…Can a former employer disclose information about your job performance or the reasons you left the company to someone who calls to check your references? The short answer is: yes they can as long as they are truthful in what they disclose. The longer answer is that most employers choose to minimize the risk of certain types of lawsuits and therefore don’t disclose any performance related information about former employees or the reasons that employees have left the company. If you are leaving a
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It’s been a very full couple of weeks since I last wrote about Molly. I’m pleased to report that she’s doing well. We have had good days and bad days, but thankfully this week has been more good than bad.
After my last post, a few helpful readers suggested removing the rice from her diet. I had been thinking the chicken was possibly an issue (it’s the most common food sensitivity for dogs), but since more than one person pointed out that grains (even “bland” rice) could be hard for her to digest, I took heed and swapped it out for canned Organic pumpkin instead. That seemed to be a good move (Thanks, team!).
We also decided to get a second opinion. Another reader, Sharon, suggested we reach out to Dr. Mona Rosenberg, head of the Veterinary Cancer Group. We had a great consultation — she’s clearly brilliant — but unfortunately, she pretty much agreed with Dr. Chretin’s diagnosis and potential treatment options. The bottom line, from a “Western Medicine” viewpoint is that Molly has a rare cancer and it’s not well-studied, so we just don’t know how it’s likely to react to various treatments. Either of the “best” options (chemotherapy or an anti-angiogenesis drug) might have a decent shot at slowing the cancer down, but if we had to put a number on it, it’s something like 50/50 odds of either one doing much good at all. And of course both options come with possible side effects and a high price tag.
While pondering the options, I also asked Dr. Rosenberg if she could recommend a good holistic veterinarian. Without a moment’s hesitation, she sent me to Dr. Richard Palmquist, at the Centinela Animal Hospital. He’s a past-President of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (and is still on the board of directors). She said he’s “The” guy to see, and even though it’ll probably take a couple of weeks to get an appointment, he’s worth the wait.
The next day I called to make an appointment. The planets aligned, and he had an opening for the next morning!
Dr. Palmquist talks quickly, with an intense, radiant energy and enthusiasm. He started our consultation by playing with Molly for a couple of minutes, and he immediately sensed her intelligence. She liked him, too. He clearly has a way with animals.
I particularly like that he uses both Western and Eastern medicine. After reviewing her records, he posited that the cancer is a result of the digestion issues she’s been having for so long. It makes perfect sense — the organs where the cancer started (pancreas) and metastasized (liver) both primarily help with digestion. So the thinking is that we need to heal her digestive system before we do anything else.
He prescribed two herbal pills (in addition to her current meds, not instead of them): “Six Gentlemen Tea Pills” to help her digestion, and Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang, to help fight the cancer. My marching orders were to start her on the Six Gentlemen now, and six days later on the other pills, and come back in three weeks. As soon as I got home I got started.
The next day, she had another bout of both diarrhea and vomiting. It may have been a coincidence, or it may have been that she just wasn’t ready for the Six Gentlemen yet. In any event, we needed to rethink her food. Dr. Palmquist also wanted to steer her away from chicken (it’s a “hot” food in Eastern medicine — not good for the digestion), and we both wanted to get her away from the Gerber Ham Baby Food. He suggested turkey or pork, and I figured that since she liked the pink-slime-ham so much, we should try pork first.
His other suggestion was to give her bone broth. Many of my paleo and grain-free and real food friends have been singing bone broth’s nutritional praises for a long time now*, and it seemed so simple it was brilliant, like the answer was staring us in the face all along!
I’m a big fan of our electric pressure cooker, so I asked Dr. Palmquist if I could use it instead of the 6-hour-plus simmer time he recommended. He told me
“There some magic stuff in those bones, we don’t know exactly what it is, but slow cooking seems important.”
So, slow-cooking it shall be.
I have made chicken stock with leftover chicken carcasses before, but I wasn’t sure if “bone broth” was something different, so I asked Dr. Palmquist how to make bone broth. Turns out, as long as you’ve got lots of bones in the pot, and you simmer it for hours and hours (longer for bigger bones), you’re making bone broth!
Molly
devoured the chicken broth — I’ve never seen her drink that fast. Clearly, another good sign that we’re on the right track.
However
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, she’s been really itchy since we started the pork & bone broth combination. It could be the pork, but more likely it’s the “concentrated” chicken broth. So we’re switching to beef broth. Matty picked up about four pounds of “Step 4” (Pastured and Grass-Fed) Beef Bones from our Whole Foods butcher, and yesterday I started a huge batch of beef broth.**
Molly seems to like it as well, so here’s hoping this will soothe her itching, ease and improve her digestion, and get her back on the path of wellness for as long as possible.
For Molly, I didn't add any vegetables or seasonings, other than bay leaves and vinegar, since we want to keep it as simple as possible for her right now. But for you, I'd suggest adding vegetables, herbs, and spices - a few options are noted in the recipe below.
This recipe can be made on the stove or in a slow-cooker -- but don't try to speed the process with a pressure cooker. The vinegar helps leach out additional nutrients from the bones, and the bay leaves, according to Dr. Palmquist, are "antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and drain the lymphatic system."
2 to 3 pounds of bones 4 to 6 quarts filtered water 2 bay leaves ¼ cup Apple Cider vinegar 2 carrots 2 celery stalks 1 onion, chopped in large chunks (omit for dogs) ½ teaspoon whole peppercorns (omit for dogs) spring of rosemary and/or thyme salt, to taste (can add after cooking, omit for dogs) In the largest pot you own (or in your slow-cooker), add the bones, bay leaves, and vinegar. Fill with water. Bring to a boil, and then skim off any foam that comes to the surface. Turn heat to the lowest possible setting on your stove or slow-cooker, and cover. Let simmer for at least 6 hours and up to 72 hours. The larger the bones, the longer you'll want to go. If you're losing a lot of water to evaporation, it's okay to top off with a little extra boiling water. Allow to cool, and then skim the fat off the top and discard. Strain and pour into jars to store. If storing in the fridge, use within a few days, or store in the freezer for several months.
Two tips for storing in the freezer: First, you can freeze some in ice-cube trays and then you'll have some small amounts ready-to-go when you need them. Second, if it's at room temperature, you can pour into a zip-top bag and freeze flat in the bag -- just be sure the bag is sealed very well!
* When people start extolling one particular food’s virtues for myriad symptoms, that should definitely be a red flag. Although I think it’s likely highly nutritious, keep in mind that bone broth is not a complete cure-all.
** For those of you curious about the nitty-gritty details of Molly’s food: Right now we’re giving her very small meals, four or five times a day, consisting of about 1/2 cup ground pork (cooked in a skillet, fat drained, and then shredded in a food processor), 2 tablespoons Organic pumpkin, and about 1/2 cup of broth. I’m also giving her metoclopramide three times a day to help her motility (crushing the pills and mixing with some broth), and ondansetron in the mornings to help with any potential nausea or vomiting. We may reintroduce omeprazole to help with acid reflux, but I’m holding off for now. Once she’s stable for a few more days — and pooping again! — we may try the Six Gentlemen again, but a little slower this time.
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For Immediate Release Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign Condemns Libyan Antipersonnel Mine Use
GENEVA - The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) strongly condemns the reported use of antipersonnel mines by the Libyan Armed Forces in recent fighting with rebels in eastern Libya.
On 28 March, over 50 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines were discovered near power pylons outside the town of Ajdabiya by electrical technicians. A Human Rights Watch investigation reported that the mines had recently been laid. The Libyan Armed Forces controlled the area from 17–27 March.
“The use of these inherently indiscriminate weapons poses a great threat to civilians,” said Kasia Derlicka, ICBL Director. “Landmines must not be used by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances.”
The ban on antipersonnel mines has become a widely accepted international norm since the adoption of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Myanmar (Burma) is the only other government in recent years to use antipersonnel mines. Libya is one of 39 states outside that remain outside the treaty.
The ICBL strongly urges Libya to halt any further use of mines; provide information on the location, quantities, and types of all mines laid to enable rapid clearance; and to join the Mine Ban Treaty without delay.
During a meeting on 25 March in Benghazi, Gen. Khalifa Hufter, commander of the rebel forces in eastern Libya, made a pledge not to use any type of mines. The ICBL welcomes the commitment made by Gen. Khalifa Hufter on behalf of the rebel forces based in Benghazi that they will not use landmines.
The ICBL calls on all parties to the conflict in Libya to prohibit the use of antipersonnel mines by their forces and urges the clearance and destruction of all landmines in Libya.
A total of 156 nations have joined the Mine Ban Treaty since it was adopted in 1997, while two states have signed., but not yet ratified (Marshall Islands and Poland). Under the Mine Ban Treaty, states must renounce use of antipersonnel mines, destroy their stockpiles of the weapon, clear all their mined areas, and provide comprehensive assistance to landmine survivors.
The ICBL is a network with members in over 90 countries and areas, working for a mine-free world, where landmine survivors can lead fulfilling lives. The ICBL received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is committed to an international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and sale, transfer, or export of antipersonnel landmines.
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VICTORIA — A new drug-pricing agreement and plans to take a hard line with doctors during a coming round of contract negotiations have helped the government shave more than $230 million from its planned health budget for the coming year, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said Tuesday.
The move represents a significant belt tightening, and is the most dramatic area where government was able to cut its own ministry spending to help balance the budget.
MacDiarmid acknowledged the reductions will be challenging, but made assurances that patient care will not suffer as a result.
“I’m not going to say it’s going to be easy, but what we’ve been able to do is health authorities are going to get the budgets that they expected, so the front line, the place where the direct patient care is being provided, is staying the same,” she said in an interview, adding health was an obvious target for reductions given its more than $16.6 billion budget makes up almost half of direct government spending.
While the health budget will still rise each year, projected increases for the next three years dropped in Tuesday’s budget to about 2.6 per cent each year from a recent annual average of 4.4 per cent.
Previously — between 2005 and 2008 — health spending had grown by about seven per cent per year.
Tuesday’s projections mean the health sector will see an increase for the coming year that is $234 million less than what government projected at this time last year.
B.C. Nurses’ Union president Debra McPherson took aim at the scaled-back increase, saying she does not think the budget will be able to keep pace with inflation and population growth.
“With the government’s determination to limit the growth of health spending in the upcoming years to even less than the historic lows they forecast in last year’s budget, there’s no improvement in store for seniors or in already under-serviced areas, such as mental health and home community health services,” she said in a news release.
“Instead, the budget will force health authorities to continue to run hospitals (at) overcapacity and push people out quickly in order to achieve funding that comes from meeting performance targets.”
MacDiarmid disagreed, saying the ministry has already found savings in a new drug-pricing agreement that lowers the amount government spends on generic drugs, and that it is working on reforms that could help lower the amount government pays each year on laboratory testing.
She also said that the government’s pay-for-performance program, aimed at increasing health care efficiency, has netted significant gains.
“That’s had some quite remarkable results around the province in terms of people finding ways to provide more services for patients, for example, to get more people through the MRI machine, to get sometimes … twice as many surgeries done in the same amount of operating room time just by doing things differently,” she said.
But MacDiarmid added the reductions also require government to take a tough stance in its upcoming negotiations with the B.C. Medical Association.
The province’s deal with doctors runs to March 2016, but can be reopened at the end of March 2014 so both sides can adjust the fees paid to doctors.
In a clear first strike, Tuesday’s budget documents promised measures to “reduce the rate of growth of MSP expenditures, which cover the costs of most physicians and other health care providers,” though it did not provide any details.
BCMA president Dr. Shelley Ross said she expects talks to begin in earnest after the May election, but would not say what she thinks of the government’s hard-line approach.
“We have this process in place, so we’ll work our way through this process and do the best we can for the doctors of B.C. to be able to provide good services to the citizens of British Columbia,” she said.
“I think it’s going to be a tough negotiation.”
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in preparing contracts with group purchasing. Learn more.
Welcome to the Responsible Purchasing Guide for Toner Cartridges. This Guide provides information and recommendations on responsible use, purchasing, and disposal of toner cartridges for laser printers, copiers, and fax machines.
Remanufactured toner and ink jet cartridges (remans) reduce waste, save natural resources, and cut costs by reusing empty cores and parts rather than disposing single-use products from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Remanufactured cartridges are available for laser monochrome and color as well as ink jets. Monochrome laser remans are the most applicable for wide-spread adoption by institutional purchasers and are the focus of this Guide.
Each year, over 350 million toner cartridges go to landfills and incinerators in the United States. A typical OEM toner cartridge consumes 5 to 9 pounds of virgin material in the production process and is composed of 40% plastic and 40% metal. Remans reuse this plastic and metal and save other materials and energy needed to produce a comparable OEM cartridge. Cartridge remanufacturers in the United States reuse over 35 thousand tons of plastic and save over 400,000 barrels of oil each year. Since cartridges may be remanufactured more than once, resource intensity is reduced further with each additional remanufacture by extending the total life of the unit.
The cost of remans is conservatively estimated to be 30% to 60% less than new cartridges on a cost-per-copy basis. Remans are suitable for use in most printers, copiers and other machines using laser cartridges. Reman products offer equivalent quality, performance, and yield compared to OEM standards. During remanufacture, cartridges are disassembled and cleaned. Worn, defective, and high-usage parts are replaced. Units are refilled with toner, reassembled, tested for quality, and resold. Purchasers should specify the STMC testing protocol in order to guarantee product quality and performance.
There are an estimated 2,000 cartridge remanufacturers in the United States who produce over 27 million remans each year. Remans are available from most national office supply vendors as well as local vendors throughout the country. One simple way of switching is to ask suppliers to auto-substitute remans any time an order is placed for new cartridges and to train purchasers on the use of this auto-substitute feature. In addition to using remans, cartridges should be recycled at the end of their useful life. Sourcing from local remanufacturers and recyclers may provide additional environmental benefits and contribute to the local economy.
Compared to OEM cartridges, remanufactured toner cartridges reduce energy and resource intensity and limit waste, while offering immediate cost savings, comparable quality, and ready availability – a straightforward case of win-win for the environment and the bottom line.
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http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1592
Appears in Collections: Faculty of Social Sciences Journal Articles Peer Review Status: Refereed Title: The cultural and political context of the lives of people with dementia in Kerala, India Authors: McCabe, Louise Contact Email: [email protected] Keywords: culture
demographic change
service development
dementia
Issue Date: Feb-2006 Publisher: Sage Publications Citation: McCabe L (2006) The cultural and political context of the lives of people with dementia in Kerala, India, Dementia, 5 (1), pp. 117-136. Abstract: This article draws on available literature and empirical data to discuss the experiences of people with dementia in Kerala, India. India is currently undergoing considerable demographic change. The state of Kerala in the south-west of the country is demographically advanced in comparison with other parts of India and as such is experiencing demographic change and modernization ahead of other parts of the country. The proportion and numbers of older people in Kerala are increasing, which in turn is leading to a higher prevalence of dementia. This article reviews existing literature to describe the context for people with dementia in Kerala. It also draws on empirical data to further illustrate and explore their experiences. People with dementia in Kerala are disadvantaged, as the process of modernization is breaking down traditional forms of care ahead of any significant service provision to replace them. Recent development of services in Kerala aims to provide quality care for people with dementia to counteract these demographic changes. Type: Journal Article URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1592 DOI Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1471301206059758 Rights: The publisher does not allow this work to be made publicly available in this Repository. Please use the Request a Copy feature at the foot of the Repository record to request a copy directly from the author; you can only request a copy if you wish to use this work for your own research or private study. Affiliation: Dementia Knowledge Exchange
File Description Size Format mccabe06.pdf 127.21 kB Adobe PDF Under Embargo until 31/12/2999 Request a copy Note: If any of the files in this item are currently embargoed, you can request a copy directly from the author by clicking the padlock icon above. However, this facility is dependant on the depositor still being contactable at their original email address.
Items in the Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
If you believe that any material held in STORRE infringes copyright, please contact [email protected] providing details and we will remove the Work from public display in STORRE and investigate your claim.
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E-Taxation: An Introduction to the Use of Tax XML for Corporate Tax Reporting
Vikramaditya Pant (Villanova University, USA), M. Susan Stiner (Villanova University, USA) and William P. Wagner (Villanova University, USA)
Copyright: © 2005
|Pages:
15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59140-819-2.ch009
Abstract
Online tax systems are rapidly replacing paper-based tax reporting systems. Promising many advantages over the traditional method of hard copy tax filing, these systems promise faster process, lower costs and increased efficiency. Using a specific language from the Extensible Markup Language family called TaxXML, TIGERS, a government subcommittee for the establishment of electronic taxation standards is looking to revolutionize the way government administers taxation. TaxXML draws upon the concepts and constructs of basic XML and utilizes tax-related vocabularies to create a standardized and systematized framework of electronic tax preparation and reporting. Having said that electronic tax reporting is advantageous over traditional paper-based reporting, there are further advantages of using a TaxXML-based electronic system than one that is engineered using non-standard proprietary technologies. While it is still in its early stages ofdevelopment, it is unclear how hard the government will impose this technology onto the industry and also how the industry will react to this new technology. This paper will provide some background for the study of TaxXML and will suggest why TaxXML is a very significant development in the realm of online tax systems.
Complete Chapter List
Preface
Mehdi Khosrow-Pour
Chapter 1
Robert MacGregor, Lejla Vrazalic
Chapter 2
Yuan Gao, Marios Koufaris, Robert H. Ducoffe
Chapter 3
Shirley Ann Becker, Anthony Berkemeyer
Chapter 4
Luiz Antonio Joia
Chapter 5
Deborah E. Rosen, Elizabeth F. Purinton, Scott J. Lloyd
Chapter 6
Petra Schubert, Uwe Leimstoll
Chapter 7
David Tucker, Anthony Lafferty
Chapter 8
William Golden, Martin Hughes, Murray Scott
Chapter 9
Vikramaditya Pant, M. Susan Stiner, William P. Wagner
Chapter 10
Felix B. Tan, Paul Sutherland
Chapter 12
Liz Lee-Kelley, Thomas James
Chapter 13
Stuart J. Barnes, Richard Vidgen
Chapter 14
Peter R. Gibson, Janet Edwards
Chapter 15
Ashis K. Pani, Amit Agrahari
Chapter 16
Sushil K. Sharma, Jatinder N.D. Gupta
Chapter 17
Mary Tate, Beverley G. Hope, Brent Coker
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This USA Today story has more information on the legislatation that pass the House and Senate and would require the FAA to ensure ways for drones to safely share airspace with piloted aircraft. This, of course, also affects RC airplanes and helicopters.
Within a few years, that flying object overhead might not be a bird or a plane, but an unmanned aircraft.
Drones, perhaps best known for their combat missions in Afghanistan, are increasingly looking to share room in U.S. skies with passenger planes. And that’s prompting safety concerns.
Right now, remote-controlled drones are used in the U.S. mostly by the military and Customs and Border Patrol in restricted airspace.
Now, organizations from police forces searching for missing persons to academic researchers counting seals on the polar ice cap are eager to launch drones weighing a few pounds to some the size of a jetliner in the same airspace as passenger planes.
On Monday, the Senate sent to President Obama legislation that would require the Federal Aviation Administration to devise ways for that to happen safely in three years.
“It’s about coming up with a plan where everybody can get along,” says Doug Marshall, a New Mexico State University professor helping develop regulations and standards. “Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to cause an accident.”
The drones’ appeal is they can fly anywhere it’s too dangerous or remote for people, and they cost less than piloted helicopters or planes.
In Mesa County, Colo., for example, sheriff’s deputies have negotiated a special agreement with the FAA to fly a 2-pound helicopter up to 400 feet above ground so a camera can snap pictures of crime scenes or accidents. An infrared camera helps deputies track a missing person or a suspect in an overgrown ravine.
“It’s a tool in the toolbox,” says Ben Miller, the program’s manager.
‘Huge potential market’
One reason advocates expect police to adopt drones is they’re less expensive than manned helicopters. A Draganflyer X6 drone such as the one Mesa uses costs about $36,000. Another squad car, for instance, costs about $50,000, Miller says.
“There is a huge potential market for civilian and commercial uses of unmanned aircraft systems,” says Ben Gielow, general counsel for the industry group Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
The market will almost double over the next decade to $11.3 billion, according to a March estimate by the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., which analyzes the aerospace and defense industries.
Commercial pilots have raised safety concerns. Although pilots are required to spend time flying planes and are tested on their abilities to hold licenses, no similar rules exist for the controllers of remote aircraft. Likewise, the FAA doesn’t certify drones like passenger planes against engine failure or wings falling off.
Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, says the people who remotely control aircraft should meet the same training and qualifications as regular pilots. His group is also concerned about controllers losing contact with drones.
“We have a long way to go,” Moak says of having drones fly safely with passenger jets.
Despite their many successful flights in Afghanistan, drones occasionally crash.
In August, for instance, an unmanned Shadow drone collided with a C-130 cargo plane. The cargo plane had to make an emergency landing at a base in eastern Afghanistan, but nobody was injured.
A drone occasionally goes awry here, too. In August 2010, the military considered shooting down a Navy Fire Scout drone that wandered close to restricted airspace near Washington, D.C., after controllers lost their link to the drone. But controllers regained contact.
Smaller drones need rules
The legislation calls for the FAA to set up six experimental locations where drones can fly. Competition for them and the high-paying jobs among researchers and manufacturers they’re expected to attract has already begun.
“Members are already jockeying for their particular area,” says Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, co-chairman of a House caucus of 49 members who advocate using drones.
The legislation also calls on the FAA to establish rules for smaller drones weighing up to 55 pounds within 27 months. The schedule for all drones is Sept. 30, 2015.
A key unresolved question is how to avoid collisions. The philosophy since the Wright brothers has been for pilots to “see and avoid” other aircraft. Without a pilot on board, the strategy for drones is “sense and avoid,” perhaps giving off a signal that other planes receive.
“You’ve got to find a way to apply today’s technology to regulations that were written many years ago,” says Bobby Sturgell, a former FAA head and now a senior vice president for Rockwell Collins, which makes navigational and other equipment for drones. “The message behind the legislation is, ‘Let’s make this happen.’ “
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In
Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, 573 U.S. __, 134 S. Ct. 2459 (2014), a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held that fiduciaries of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) are not entitled to a special presumption that their decisions to hold or buy employer stock satisfy the duty of prudence imposed on fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Previously, several courts of appeals had recognized that such decisions were entitled to a presumption of prudence and applied this presumption at the pleading stage. This frequently resulted in the dismissal of claims by plan participants — commonly referred to as stock-drop claims — alleging that ESOP fiduciaries had acted imprudently by retaining investments in employer stock despite a precipitous decline in the stock’s value. While rejecting the presumption of prudence, the Court articulated pleading standards that, according to many commentators, could be an equally effective barrier to stock-drop claims. However, a recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit applying these standards suggests that this assessment may have been premature.
The plaintiffs in
Dudenhoeffer were former employees of Fifth Third Bancorp who participated in a profit-sharing plan sponsored by Fifth Third. Under the plan, participants were allowed to invest their contributions in different funds, including an ESOP that invested exclusively in Fifth Third common stock. Although matching contributions made by Fifth Third were automatically invested in the ESOP, participants also had the right to move these contributions to the other funds. The price of Fifth Third common stock declined 74 percent between July 2007 and September 2009, when the plaintiffs filed suit against Fifth Third, its CEO, and members of Fifth Third’s Pension, Profit Sharing and Medical Plan Committee. The plaintiffs alleged that by July 2007, the defendants knew or should have known, based on inside information as well as public reporting on the subprime mortgage industry, that Fifth Third common stock was overvalued. They also alleged that the defendants breached their fiduciary duty of prudence by failing to sell the stock held by the ESOP and failing to prevent further investments in the stock.
The District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the prudence claim. The district court determined that, because the stock fund was an ESOP, the plan fiduciaries were entitled to a presumption that their decision to allow the ESOP to remain invested in the Fifth Third common stock was prudent. The district court further determined that this presumption applied at the pleading stage, and that the facts alleged in the plaintiffs' complaint — which indicated that, despite incurring substantial losses with respect to its portfolio of subprime mortgage loans, Fifth Third remained a viable business — were insufficient to overcome the presumption. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed, holding that the presumption of prudence did not apply at the pleading stage, the plaintiffs had met their burden by alleging facts sufficient to establish that a fiduciary breach had occurred, and there was a causal connection between the breach and the losses suffered by the plan.
On appeal, the Supreme Court held that ERISA did not create a special presumption of prudence for ESOP fiduciaries but rather, “the same standard of prudence applies to all ERISA fiduciaries, including ESOP fiduciaries, except that an ESOP fiduciary is under no duty to diversify the ESOP’s holdings.” Although some circuit courts had justified the presumption as a way of balancing an ESOP fiduciary’s duty to act prudently with its duty to act in accordance with the terms of a plan’s governing documents, the Court observed that, under the statute, the latter duty applied only insofar as the plan documents were consistent with ERISA. Accordingly, the Court noted, “the duty of prudence trumps the instructions of a plan document, such as an instruction to invest exclusively in employer stock … .”
While the Court held that ESOP fiduciaries are not entitled to a presumption of prudence with respect to investments in employer stock, it did recognize the need for meaningful protections “to weed out meritless lawsuits.” To address that need, the Court established the following standards to be applied by courts when considering motions to dismiss stock-drop claims:
First, where the employer stock is publicly traded, allegations that an ESOP fiduciary should have recognized from publicly available information alone that stock was overvalued “are implausible as a general rule, at least in the absence of special circumstances.” In the Court’s view, ESOP fiduciaries could not reasonably be expected to outperform the market based solely on their analysis of publicly available information, and thus it would be prudent for such fiduciaries to rely on the market price of publicly traded employer stock.
Second, to state a claim based on an ESOP fiduciary’s failure to act on nonpublic information, plaintiffs must
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plausibly allege both that the ESOP fiduciary should have taken an alternative action that would not violate securities laws and that such alternative action would not do more harm than good to the ESOP.
Third, when evaluating claims predicated on nonpublic information, courts should apply the following additional principles:
Allegations that an ESOP fiduciary acted imprudently by failing to sell employer stock based on nonpublic information do not state a claim, because such selling would violate insider trading laws; and In evaluating claims that an ESOP fiduciary possessing nonpublic information acted imprudently by failing to refrain from making additional investments in employer stock or failing to publicly disclose that information, courts should consider the extent to which imposing an ERISA-based duty to take such actions would conflict with insider trading and corporate disclosure requirements under federal securities laws (or the objectives of those laws) and whether the plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that a prudent fiduciary in the defendant’s position could not have concluded that such actions would do more harm than good by driving down the value of the stock already held by the ESOP.
As noted by many Court observers, these standards, if applied strictly, would establish a formidable barrier to stock-drop claims. Nevertheless, variations in how rigorously such standards are applied by the lower courts are inevitable. For example, in
Harris v. Amgen, Inc., 770 F.3d 865 (9th Cir. 2014), a case that was remanded to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration in light of the Dudenhoeffer decision, the circuit court reaffirmed an earlier ruling that the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged that the defendants acted imprudently. The plaintiffs argued that [the] defendants should not have continued to allow participants in plans sponsored by Amgen, Inc. to invest in Amgen stock knowing that the company had engaged in illegal marketing and sales of off-label drugs.
While disagreeing with the defendants’ claim on remand that
Dudenhoeffer. had established higher pleading standards for stock-drop claims, the circuit court concluded that even if this were the case, its prior ruling was consistent with those standards. But the circuit court’s analysis in Amgen bears little resemblance to the close scrutiny of prudence claims envisioned by the Supreme Court in Dudenhoeffer. For example, the circuit court readily concluded that the plaintiffs had alleged plausible alternative actions the defendants could have taken that would not violate federal securities laws but did not separately consider whether imposing a duty under ERISA to take such actions would further the objectives of such laws. The circuit court also determined that it was at least plausible that the defendants could have taken these actions without causing undue harm to plan participants. But the pleading standards described in Dudenhoeffer clearly require that a court go further and determine whether the plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that a prudent fiduciary in the defendants’ position could not have concluded that the alternative actions would do more harm than good.
Although
Dudenhoeffer’s rejection of a presumption of prudence might be viewed as a setback to ESOP fiduciaries, the Court established a potentially effective tool for ESOP fiduciaries to challenge stock-drop allegations with respect to publicly traded stock. As demonstrated in Amgen, however, how rigorously that framework is applied and the extent to which courts conduct the “careful, context-sensitive scrutiny of a complaint’s allegations” contemplated by Dudenhoeffer remain to be seen and will be closely watched issues in 2015. In the meantime, plan sponsors should re-evaluate the practice of appointing investment committee members who are in possession of nonpublic information, and consider whether they should engage an independent fiduciary to manage employer stock funds.
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Accuride Corporation (NYSE:ACW) is a leading manufacturer of commercial vehicle products. Accuride supplies many of its products to some of the world's largest truck and bus makers including Paccar, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCAR), Navistar International (NYSE:NAV), and Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF), which makes trucks under the Freightliner brand. The product line includes: truck bodies, wheels, components and assemblies, chassis parts, and other related items. Accuride has four major business units which includes:
Gunite Corporation, which makes brake drums, disc wheel hubs, spoke wheels, rotors, and slack adjusters. Accuride Wheels, which offers wheels for trucks, buses, commercial light trucks, and military vehicles. Imperial Group, which manufactures truck body and chassis parts, including bumpers, battery and tool boxes, bus chassis assemblies, fuel tanks, roofs, fenders, and more. Brillion Iron Works, which makes castings for heavy and medium-duty trucks, as well as for industrial machinery, and construction equipment.
Accuride has posted losses in recent years, but the company has implemented new programs to streamline operations and reduce expenses. The strategy has been dubbed 'fix and grow' which covers both the goal of fixing profit margin issues as well as growing revenues. The increased focus on these goals already seems to be leading to improved financial results. For the second quarter of 2014, Accuride reported net income of $5.1 million, or 11 cents per share which compares favorably with a loss of just over $5 million in the same period last year. Furthermore, the company raised full-year 2014 estimates for revenues to come in at $675 to $700 million which is an increase of $25 million from previous estimates. Accuride also raised adjusted EBITDA estimates by $10 million, and the new range is between $70 to $80 million.
The trucking industry does appear to be experiencing a turnaround. Truck companies like Paccar have been reporting improved financial results which could mean the industry is finally starting to grow. Second quarter net sales and financial services revenues were $4.57 billion, compared to $4.3 billion in 2013, which represents a 6% increase. If that type of growth continues, it should benefit Accuride since Paccar is one of their largest customers.
As the chart above shows, Accuride shares have been in a trading range of around $4.50 to $5.80 for the past few months. The stock is now at the lower end of that recent trading range which makes it an even more attractive time to buy.
Potential downside risks appear limited at this time. Accuride has been posting losses in the past, which is a potential downside risk for investors to consider. However, as detailed above, in the most recent quarter it posted a solid profit which could mean this company has turned the corner in terms of profitability. The improved results being reported by companies like Paccar could also be a sign that Accuride now has the wind to its back. Furthermore, with the stock now trading near the 200-day moving average which is $4.55 per share, the potential downside risks could be limited since this is typically a major support level. The 50-day moving average is $4.93 per share which is where the stock could rebound towards in the coming days. That would give investors who buy now at around the $4.55 level, potential gains of about 8% and of course the longer-term upside could be much greater.
A number of analysts see upside potential in Accuride shares and are increasingly bullish on a continued turnaround. Analysts at CRT Capital recently upgraded this stock and gave it a buy rating with a $6 price target. This would suggest significant upside potential of nearly 35%. Zacks Investment Research has a buy rating on this stock. Finally, it's worth noting that George Putnam of the "Turnaround Letter", picked Accuride as a favorite turnaround stock for 2014. The stocks he picked in 2013 rose an average of 90% last year, so his track record at picking turnaround stocks is very impressive.
Here are some key points for Accuride Corp:
Current share price: $4.60 The 52 week range is $3.10 to $5.91 Annual dividend: n/a
Data is sourced from Yahoo Finance. No guarantees or representations
are made. Hawkinvest is not a registered investment advisor and does not provide specific investment advice. The information is for informational purposes only. You should always consult a financial advisor. Disclosure: The author is long ACW.
The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha
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). The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.338, JWarrington @SimplementeMadera.com) or Jack Donenfeld (513.708.6500, JDonenfeld@SimplementeMaderacom).
Simplemente Madera has invested in new sawmills, kilns and other machinery needed to process the large quantities of hardwoods trucked from La Rosita to their factory in Managua, Nicaragua.The online world is full of misinformation and misrepresentation. From review fraud to malice and even extortion, businesses are attacked or unfairly portrayed – and consumers are at risk from false reviews and misled by incorrect material.
KwikChex Proof of Quality resources are providing verified sources of information to help protect reputable businesses and assist consumers.
Businesses - Proof Of Quality - Read More[.]imarcgroup.com / P: +1 631-791-1145 a Mum and a Dad. Every child should have a reasonable expectation, all things being equal, of a mother and a father."
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What with the surprise emergence of prolonged fasting as a hot new diet trend this year, we shouldn’t really be surprised by any particular way people begin eating nowadays. One need only see a blockbuster cookbook dismissing most solid foods as poison to deduce that the way people eat is getting weirder.
Hence, fruitarianism, a fringe diet that’s been popular with particularly acetic hippies for several decades (and, arguably, has its roots in the early stages of human evolution) but has gained traction recently thanks to a new posterboy:
Michael Arnstein, a 36-year-old gem salesman (of course) regarded as one of the best ultra-marathoners in the world.
Arnstein eats dozens of pieces of seasonal fruit a day, followed with a salad at dinner (dressed with “blended oranges”). Like many proponents of unusual diets, he claims the diet has had a slew of dramatic positive effects on his health, ranging from an absence of any and all body odor, to better vision and mental clarity, to decreased body fat (obviously) and less earwax.
Arnstein’s life has been so changed by the diet that in 2011, he organized a “fruit festival,” which has seen a steady increase in attendance since. This year, apparently something like 600 people showed up… despite the $1,000 entry fee.
And what exactly happens at a fruit festival?
New York Magazine sent one Grub Street reporter to investigate:
The seven-day fruit festival is a serious undertaking: Arnstein’s budget runs upwards of $600,000, including $150,000 for fruits and vegetables. Over the course of the week, the fruitarians in attendance will go through more than 100,000 pounds of produce, including 15,000 pounds of watermelon.
Mornings start with milk from fresh coconuts — “I’ve opened at least 1,000 this week,” says a fit, shirtless dude before returning to the task. Throughout the day, everyone eats fruit constantly. There were oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, watermelon, grapes, apples, litchi, passionfruit, dragonfruit, and lots more. For dinner, head chef Alicia Ojeda — a former Dreamworks Studio executive chef — preps things like a “high-end” salad bar with “honey mustard” dressing consisting of sweet dates blended with mustard seeds that have been soaked overnight to activate enzyme inhibitors.
When people aren’t consuming massive amounts of raw fruit and vegetables, they attend lectures, participate in cooking classes and workout. There are also, predictably, drum circles.
As for the kind of people who’d spend $1000 to eat a bunch of fruit with other fruit eaters, they range from hippies (doye) to fitness freaks eager to uncover the next possible source of superhuman ability.
…Mainly hippies, though.
While the idea of eating nothing but raw fruit and vegetables isn’t terribly compelling to us, neither does it sound as deleterious as many currently-popular fad diets. Still, it never fails to amaze us how rabid people get on the subject of nutrition–not in terms of weightloss, but in terms of the philosophical/political/moral weight people will graft onto the way they eat. No diet is so bizarre it doesn’t have its own fanatics; nor so inoffensive that people won’t be frothing at the mouth about what an aberration it is. How about we all just drink Soylent and get along?
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Simplemente Madera logs piled at La Rosita sawmill in the eastern autonomous region of Nicaragua.
SIMPLEMENTE MADERA GROUP Builds New Infrastructure For Integrated Operations
by Gary Miller
Managua, Nicaragua - Simplemente Madera Group Ltd. is a vertically-integrated hardwood timbergrowing, processing, product manufacturing and sales enterprise. With headquarters in Managua, Nicaragua, Simplemente Madera Group has developed expertise in a broad range of disciplines, which are used in the companies’ own businesses and offered to others on a consulting and project basis.
Simplemente Madera Group’s holdings include about 30,000 acres of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified forests, three FSC-certified plantations located in climatically-diverse areas of Nicaragua, several tree nurseries and one of the most extensive wood-processing and manufacturing facilities in Central America, producing both dried sawnwood and hardwood products like furniture, doors, decking, flooring, moldings, and modular housing.
Simplemente Madera air-drying facility located at the company factory in Managua, Nicaragua.
Simplemente Madera Group consolidates the business activities that were started in Nicaragua in 1998 by French agronomist Clément Ponçon, who initially established the business by purchasing 5,000 acres of fertile land for tree farming, reforestation and conservation. Together with his sons, Eric and Arnold, Mr. Ponçon began growing native trees species, such as Roble (a South American Oak), Laurel, Pochote and African Mahogany.
Matthew Falkiner, an innovative English architect and furniture designer, became a partner in the business to start its successful furniture design, manufacturing and retail businesses, as well as their architecture, resort design and development and modular housing enterprises. And Jack Donenfeld, David Glossinger and John Warrington became partners in Simplemente Madera Group to help expand the business with new capital and to develop its international business connections and reputation.
Recently, Donenfeld, Glossinger and Warrington arranged a large investment in the company by the World Bank’s private investment division, International Finance Corporation. This new capital has enabled the company to acquire significant additional timberlands in the eastern part of Nicaragua, as discussed below. “The World Bank is exactly the right kind of investor for our business,” said Jack Donenfeld. “They’re well-capitalized, understand the timber industry and appreciate the challenges and opportunities involved in our work.”
Simplemente Madera sign from their booth at the High Point Furniture Show in North Carolina.
With three plantations located in Mataglapa, Nagarote and another one near San Juan Del Sur, the Ponçons have planted over three million trees, which Simplemente Madera Group has now started to harvest. The plantation trees at San Juan del Sur share over 3,000 acres of land with Morgan’s Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge, the destination eco-resort opened by the Ponçons in 2004. In addition to providing guests with world-class accommodations in an incomparable beachfront setting, guests have the opportunity to learn about reforestation, tree farming, sustainable agriculture and traditional farming techniques. Named after Alabama Senator John Morgan, who championed Nicaragua as the route for the trans-oceanic canal that was eventually built in Panama, this remarkable resort is located on the southwest coast of Nicaragua and about two and a half hours south of Managua, Nicaragua’s capital (less than an hour from the Costa Rican border).
Jack Donenfeld and John Warrington, who are now Simplemente Madera Group officers and directors, first met Clemént Ponçon at Morgan’s Rock when they visited Nicaragua with a client of their Cincinnati, Ohio-based international business planning and consulting firm. When a discussion about soybean, coffee and corn farms progressed to sustainable forestry, they began a friendship that led to consolidating Ponçon’s businesses into the enterprise that today is called Simplemente Madera Group.
The Simplemente Madera Team in Washington, D.C.: John Warrington, Eric Poncon, Clement Poncon, Jack Donenfeld and Arnold Poncon.
In September, 2007, Hurricane Felix, a category 5 hurricane, ripped through the northeastern corner of Nicaragua, leaving over three million acres of devastated forests in its wake. The Simplemente Madera Group, with government encouragement and support, took advantage of the situation, purchasing about 30,000 acres of rainforest, where they have been busy harvesting the old-growth hardwoods that once stood. “We had a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a vast area with significant numbers of valuable tree species. We moved quickly and have been rewarded for our efforts,” said David Glossinger.
The partners in Simplemente Madera Group, now including the World Bank, have invested not only in additional timberlands, but also in the infrastructure and equipment needed to conduct the company’s
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sophisticated logging and wood processing operations. This infrastructure includes new roads, offices, food service facilities, a fuel depot and housing barracks for the firm’s 150 employees that operate the company’s sawmill in La Rosita. “La Rosita is literally in the middle of the rainforest, where no infrastructure previously existed,” said John Warrington. “It’s been a dramatic process, and we’ve devoted a great deal of time to logistical and operational planning there. This has laid a solid base for our success.”
The company’s manufacturing facility is in Ciudad Sandino, about six miles west of Managua. This modern furniture and wood processing facility is on twenty acres, with two buildings that have over 100,000 square feet under cover for manufacturing purposes. The company has invested in new sawmills, kilns and other machinery needed to process the large quantities of hardwoods trucked to facility.
Simplemente Madera’s drying capacity exceeds 700,000 board feet per month.
Recently, Simplemente Madera Group installed six new drying kilns at the manufacturing facility to add to the existing three kilns, increasing their total drying capacity to over 700,000 board feet per month. And they are making arrangements to install an additional twelve kilns, each with a dry kiln capacity of 30,000 board feet per charge.
All of the exotic hardwoods harvested from Simplemente Madera Group’s lands are processed into sawnwood for sale as dimensional and structural lumber, decking, flooring, mouldings, doors, furniture, veneer and veneer logs. The firm’s wood products are sold in both the domestic and international markets and include not only Roble (a South American Oak), Laurel, Pochote and African Mahogany harvested from the original plantations, but also Jatoba, Ipe, Cedro Macho, Nanciton and Tamarindo that are being extracted from the rainforest areas hit by Hurricane Felix in the eastern part of the country.
Jack Donenfeld and John Warrington, who have been integrally involved in Simplemente Madera Group’s organizational matters, travel to Nicaragua about once a month from their offices in the U.S. John Warrington said, “We are continually working on operations to make them as efficient as possible, constantly developing and evolving.
Simplemente Madera Group employs over 400 employees. Key personnel include: President and Director Clemént Ponçon; Vice President and Director Arnold Ponçon; Director Eric Ponçon; Secretary and Director Jack Donenfeld; Treasurer and Director John Warrington; and Achitecture, Design, Furniture and Housing Division President and Director Matthew Falkiner.
One of Simplemente Madera’s nine drying kilns at their factory in Managua, Nicaragua.
Simplemente Madera Group has supplied their sawnwood and wood products to some fascinating places. For example, the company provided all of the hardwood flooring for the King of Morocco’s new house and all the furniture installed in a 38-room boutique hotel in New York City. In addition, Simplemente Madera Group’s wood products have gone into housing and condominium projects all over Central America and Europe.
Simplemente Madera Group’s forestry management has been awarded international certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), following an intense assessment of its operation by the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood® Program, an accredited certifier for the FSC. “The FSC is an international non-profit organization founded to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests,” Jack Donenfeld said. “FSC certification assures our customers and clients that economic, environmental and social factors are integrated into our forestry management. We care about Nicaragua’s people and its flora and fauna, and we believe that there is an increasing demand for certified timber and wood products made from it.”
Simplemente Madera extracts Nanciton, among other species, from the rainforest areas devastated by Hurricane Felix in the eastern autonomous region of Nicaragua.
Conservationists and stewards of the land, the partners in Simplemente Madera have already begun replanting in the rainforest areas. The stewardship practices in place at their factory, sawmills, plantations and the rainforest operations are adopted according to the regimen and protocols required for FSC certification.
Timber buyers in Europe, North America, South America and Asia frequently ask for FSC certification when ordering forest products so they can assure their customers about the origin of the products they are buying. FSC certification recognizes the strength of Simplemente Madera Group’s commitment to sustainability and best practices and reflects the excellent skills of the company’s forestry and other staff.
For more information about Simplemente Madera Group and its products and services, please visit them at http://www.SimplementeMaderacom or contact them directly through John Warrington (513.833.3
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I feel compelled to continue the discussion of content and its management in view of the WikiLeaks dump. A real concern of mine – and this is totally from a business-IT management/content point-of-view, it is not meant as a political statement – is a high-profile government spokesman’s comments today in a very high-profile news venue. He stated that the United States did not have to fear a guy who plunked down $35 for a web presence, with a laptop. You can Google to identify the spokesman and his exact comments if you wish – for our discussion here, it is merely a springboard… a recognition of a lagging appreciation for the accelerating environment and any content’s vulnerability within.
On the contrary, a web presence (actually, mere internet connectivity) a laptop, and a modicum of ability, are all that it takes today to create real damage. At some point, absent imaginative protections, someone is going to take an entire power plant offline – or worse – with a laptop and internet connectivity. As stated in I.T. WARS: Greater power is coming to smaller and smaller groups; even to the individual. As the size of any group is reduced – with attendant
increase of power – counter-protections, debated actions, and measures of control diminish, and potentials for harm increase.
A BTW tenet: In the realm of risk, unmanaged possibilities become probabilities.
As to content and control, I believe that small and medium business must have well-articulated and documented content management (CM) policies in place, with defined measures of protection. Large business will be amending and constantly evolving their policies. In fact, a triumvirate of policies should serve the organization,
all organizations, well:
Content Management – Acceptable Use – Security
Let’s save the overall Security Policy ‘till later – it’s an overarching umbrella that includes physical assets as well. All of these policies and plans can refer to one another, particularly to specific reinforcing parts. For now, let’s briefly discuss
Content Management vs. Acceptable Use: Sooner or later, every organization is going to have some measure of policy for content’s management, and that measure will likely increase as time goes by. It is important to note here what a CM policy is, and what it is not – or at least in my view, what it should be, and should not be.
It is for leveraging content, exposing and reducing specific liabilities, and for taking action on content in an administrative sense: enabling access, use and leverage; reporting on; archiving; and destroying. It is not the central policy regarding definitions and expectations of appropriate use, and regarding actions taken in circumstances of willful abuse of content. Content management measures certainly do help to identify and expose abuse (as well as limit it); however, the definitions of acceptable use, abuse, and measures regarding them, will be contained in the organization’s Acceptable Use Policy.
Jumping ahead slightly, this Acceptable Use Policy details appropriate use of
all business resources, tools, and assets – including information (content). Your CM policy can point to the Acceptable Use Policy (or contain extracts from it) regarding things such as the improper access, accumulation, dissemination, removal, and destruction of information. But again, content management helps us to identify and leverage content toward a positive purpose; helps to limit liability and exposure; and to take administrative action on content.
In the next days, we’ll continue the discussion, and articulate the “mechanical” components of a CM system, in order to set policy.
NP: Spencer Davis Group, Gimme Some Lovin’ (LP), original vinyl, Odeon.
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Dear Swim Profesor:
I hope you can help w/more advice. I”m still a beginner swimmer. My teacher told me I need to work on my kicking, and I’d like to get some fins. Saw some lightweight flippers at Todd & Moore, and then just regular swim fins (I guess). I think I need “short fins” or something like that. Suggestions? I haven’t looked at Dick’s Sporting Goods yet, but might tomorrow. thank you.
– Roxanne D.
Dear Roxanne,
Swim fins can be helpful for all swimming ability levels. Personally, I would strongly recommend the Finis Zoomers. For others reading this blog, for a limited time (while they last), we have children’s zoomers on sale right now for just $12.99 regular $37.95! Here are the reasons why I prefer the short blade Zoomers over other versions.
1.
Short Blade – Long blade fins do have a purpose, for instance, scuba diving. If I have to get away from a shark, I want the longest blade possible, LOL 🙂 But seriously, long blade fins are a nice training tool for elite competitive swimmers for “sprint assisted” swimming. Research shows that one way to improve sprint speed is to train at speeds faster than you can normally go. The long fins allow for that. Of course there are other ways to do that too, i.e., sprint assisted work with tubing. But long fins can serve that purpose for a coach who has lots of swimmers in the pool.
So why do I recommend the short blade fins for swimming instructors and their swim lesson students? Very simple. If you study closely the movement pattern of the kick with a short blade fin, it will resemble very closely the movement pattern with no fins at all. ON THE OTHER HAND, if you observe a kick with the long blade fin, the kick is a little different. For competitive swimming especially, when races are won and lost by fractions of a second, you would clearly want to gain a training edge. So when you are training with fins, you would ideally replicate that movement as closely as possible (I will touch on swim fins for beginners again at the end of the blog).
2.
Negative Buoyancy – The zoomers (at least the Original Zoomers did) are constructed with a rubber that give the fins negative buoyancy. In other words, they sink. Why is this an advantage? From a training standpoint, your legs will experience the strengthening benefits that are a result of the fins making your legs work harder. Floating fins, on the other hand, won’t work your legs quite as hard.
Let’s get back to swim fins for swim lessons, beginners, and novice swimmers. When I am teaching a non-swimmer or beginner to swim, you don’t want the teaching tool to give more assistance than necessary. It goes back to my lesson plan philosophy with flotation devices, holds, supports, and progressions. The best artificial support is the one that gives the student
just enough support to be successful. If you give the learner too much support, they become dependent on it. Then when you ask the learner to perform the skill on their own, it’s like asking them to climb a mountain instead of a small hill. If you take baby steps, the learner will not only experience physical success faster, but he will experience a psychological success as well, and more importantly–his confidence will grow.
I believe this directly applies with swim fins for beginners. If you give your beginner swimmer this big flipper that provides extraordinary propulsion, that’s all well and good
until you remove the fin and ask them to swim without it. Suddenly, their feet feel like rocks instead of flippers, often resulting in a discouraged student who was on the verge of success, only to learn it was the flipper, not him! The Zoomers, on the other hand, make the transition much easier because while they do provide additional propulsion, the kick with the Zoomers feels very similar to the kick without the Zoomers–because it is!
So there you have it! I hope my recommendation helps you and many others!
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Dave Hannon
@Daveatwisubs
There wasn’t a lot of good news in the extended economic downturn, but procurement organizations have seen at least one positive result: They’ve gotten a lot more attention than they used to due to the emphasis on costs. And the best procurement organizations have risen to that challenge by effectively reducing costs within their enterprises.
“The downturn was a chance for procurement to gain the spotlight and now they have to maintain it,” said Emily Rakowski, Senior Director of Procurement Solutions Marketing at SAP and a keynote speaker at Procurement 2011. One of the ways procurement can do that is to increase its efficiency, a top priority for procurement organizations, according to Rakowski. “Every procurement organization we talk with is trying to do more with what they have.”
Rakowski and co-presenter Chris Salis, Global Vice President, SAP Procurement and Operational Performance Management Solutions, outlined how SAP’s procurement solutions can help organizations live up to those expectations. In fact, they did more than outline the solutions available (we’ll get to that). Rakowski said “procurement is the living embodiment of the SAP strategy.”
How so? Well for starters, you know that SAP’s primary solution strategy today is threefold: on-premise, on-device and on-demand. And SAP procurement solutions are available in those three models currently. “SAP procurement is the perfect example of the strategy in action,” she said.
And Rakowski ensured Procurement 2011 attendees the company has committed to the procurement space going forward. And along those lines, Rakowski and Salis unveiled a few more highlights on the SAP Procurement solution roadmap.
SAP BusinessObjects Spend Performance Management (SPM) 3.0 is slated for availability the second quarter and will include enhancements to the Data Enrichment Classification tool. SAP Sourcing OnDemand Wave 8 will be available next week. Look for more advanced analytics capabilities in the procurement solutions, as SAP BusinessObjects functionality is embedded in them.
SAP will also continue to emphasize its on-demand and on-premise offerings for Contract Lifecycle Management, a “critical discipline not enough companies are focused on” according to Rakowski. SAP CLM 7.0 is planned for Q2 as well.
The keynote was also heavy on customer examples. Highlights included Siemens running SAP SRM over several ERP systems to push purchase orders to their various businesses, for example. Aetna cut its Sarbanes-Oxley reporting time from days to seconds using SAP CLM while Sarah Lee used SAP Sourcing to help drive cost savings of 22% or $240 million.
With all of that functionality at its fingertips, it’s a good bet that procurement organizations will be able to hold onto that well-deserved spotlight.
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Life can seem so hard when your relationships are out of balance, especially when someone is always jumping over your fence and intruding in your life with unwelcome expectations, criticism, or impositions. It happens to all of us at some time or another and it can turn our lives upside down. We all want to be valued, respected and loved by the people in our lives, but the truth is that has to start within ourselves first.
The key to great relationships, including the one we have with ourselves, is good fences, or boundaries. Building healthy boundaries with each person in your life creates a sense of wellbeing, a solid respect for yourself and others, and it allows you to be your most confident and genuine self.
Terry Barnett-Martin’s award winning book, Tending Fences is a timelessly insightful collection of parables that explore relationship boundaries through the adventures of its main character, Avery Soul. Avery discovers that in order to feel safe and happy, he must build and maintain the fences that run between his ranch and his neighbors’ land.
"Good fences make good neighbors.” Robert Frost
“Tending Fences is quietly brilliant. The stories get into your heart, sort out complicated relationship boundaries, and make a real difference.”
Ann F.
“I read Tending Fences when I was struggling to find a balance in some difficult relationships in my life. These parables put them into a concrete light, and by seeing them that way I was able to create the boundaries I needed to make my life more secure. This is a book you want on your bookshelf to go back to again and again.”
Phyllis L.
“What I appreciate about Tending Fences is that the stories are not about blaming someone for problems in a relationship. Rather, they are focused on fixing or building a fence that creates a safer, more respectful connection.”
Joseph F. M.
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This article focuses on pyrotechnic pet stress, but help can be applied in the event of lightning, thunder, or any sound.
Pyrotechnics is a tradition in our country (United States) and is mainly used for the celebration of multiple events such as: Christmas, New Year, birthdays, parties, festivals, patriotic celebrations, etc.
However pyrotechnics has some not so desirable consequences as environmental pollution, burns, accidents, etc.
But some of the side effects that are almost not talked about is the stress brought on by pets.
Dogs are mainly affected, causing them stress from a bad night (the dog and the owners), but we have also received dogs in shock, problems of immunosupression secondary to stress, gastritis, loss of appetite, and even death (Especially in small dogs). These are some of the key responses to pyrotechnics in pets received at our hospital.
For this reason we suggest some mechanisms to reduce the effect of stress
on our pets:
Plugs: The plugs are soft cover the ear canal and some dogs are well. These reduce sound and therefore reduce stress.
Medicines. There are medicines of veterinary use with anxiolytic effect, that is to say, they reduce the body’s response to stress, making it more bearable the noise of the fireworks.
Bandages There are bandages that are put on the dogs and helps them to feel embraced or contained and it is proven that it helps to reduce the stress during the celebrations with pyrotechnic fires. If you do not have a big enough band, you can use a scarf !.
Desensitization. It is a slow but very effective process, which consists of recording sounds of cars, thunder, cars, etc. And routinely put animals under stress from these noises with a volume that increases as you get used to a very loud sound that helps us when the storm passes, storm lightning, fireworks, etc., the pet feels more confident and At least lower your stress during the event.
Hugs. If your pet is very stressed when they are thundering, tighten and speak softly so that it feels accompanied, it will give you peace of mind and your stress will be more bearable.
If the stress is too much and you can not help it, it will be important that you go with a veterinary hospital 24 hours to give you a tranquilizer or sedative to spend the night and the next morning your friend feels better.
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News & Articles Another Climate Change Study Debunked, Pulled
By Diana Anderson
A study on the American Associate for the Advancement of Science’s website projected an increase in temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius and worldwide food shortages in this decade. The study has since been pulled from the site after experts discovered multiple errors and deemed the findings flawed.
The inaccurate study was also posted on numerous international news agencies, including Agence-France Press (AFP).
Climate scientist Rey Weymann told AFP that the “study contains a significant error in that it confuses ‘equilibrium’ temperature rise with ‘transient temperature rise.’”
Weymann also said study author Hisas was told of the problems in advance of the report’s release.
“The author of the study was told by several of us about this error but she said it was too late to change it,” he noted.
Scientist Scott Mandia emailed Hisas before publication to explain why her figures didn’t compute and why it would take “quite a few decades” to reach a warming level of 2.4 degrees Celsius.
“Even if we assume the higher end of the current warming rate, we should only be 0.2C warmer by 2020 than today,” Mandia wrote.
In an email to AFP, AAAS spokeswoman Ginger Pinholster wrote, “A reporter with The Guardian alerted us yesterday to concerns about the news release submitted by Hoffman & Hoffman public relation.
“We immediately contacted a climate change expert who confirmed that the information raised many questions in his mind, too. We swiftly removed the news release from our website and contacted the submitting organization.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose figures were cited as the study’s basis for its projections, and Al Gore won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007 “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,” the prize committee said at the time.
Osvaldo Canziani, who was part of the 2007 Nobel Prize winning panel, was also the scientist listed as scientific advisor to the faulty report. On Tuesday, Canziani’s spokesman said he was ill and unavailable for interviews.
This is not the first “climate change” or “global warming” study to be debunked. Many others have also been debunked, as has Al Gore’s documentary AN INCONVENTIENT TRUTH.
Obviously, ideology, not science, is fueling much of this “research.”
– Source: Yahoo News, 01/19/11.
Photo by Andrea Zeppilli.
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On Monday, April 5, 2014, the United States Supreme Court announced [2] that the excessive force lawsuit filed by Washington Nationals baseball player, Robbie Tolan, was improperly dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In reaching this conclusion, the Supreme Court agreed with arguments presented by the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) in the amicus brief [3] it filed in support of Mr. Tolan's appeal. Specifically, the Supreme Court concluded that the lower court improperly failed to consider the evidence supporting Mr. Tolan's excessive force claim and recognized that, contrary to the decision below, "[t]he witnesses on both sides come to this case with their own perceptions, recollections, and even potential biases."
Robbie Tolan was shot by a police officer in the driveway of his parents' home after being mistakenly suspected of driving a stolen car. He filed a civil lawsuit against the Bellaire, Texas, Police Department in federal court, alleging excessive force. The District Court granted the Police Department's Motion for Summary Judgment and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. Mr. Tolan filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court and LDF filed an amicus brief in support of this request for review.
In its brief, LDF argued that the circumstances of Mr. Tolan's shooting were tainted by indicia of racial bias, and these facts were not properly taken into account by the circuit court in its review of the evidence. LDF also asserted that the lower courts' assessment of the officer's conduct should not have ignored the influence of subconscious stereotypes which falsely associate race with criminality, aggression, and violence, and it detailed the science of implicit bias to show how it may have influenced the officer's hyperaggressive behavior (the shooting took place 30-seconds after he arrived on the scene) as well as any evaluation of its "reasonableness."
In reversing the lower courts' decisions, the Supreme Court agreed with LDF that the Fifth Circuit improperly failed to take into account the relevant evidence supporting Mr. Tolan's version of the events. And, echoing LDF's arguments, the Supreme Court acknowledged and credited the relevance of potential bias in a court's evaluation of the reasonableness of a police officer's conduct in a racially charged shooting case.
The case will return to the lower courts for an evaluation of the police officer's entitlement to qualified immunity based on a proper review of all of the relevant evidence.
Jenner Block represented LDF in this amicus brief.
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Special Feature: Products Sally Recommends
The Smell of Parsley When Emily, transported to heaven in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, is asked what she misses most on earth, she says, "the smell of parsley." It's hard to imagine life without parsley. Parsley apparently was growing wild in the Mediterranean basin about the time man was. Parsley is to the Western world what coriander (sometimes called Chinese parsley) is to the Eastern, an herb so common and pervasive that like other ordinary things-----spring and youth and small towns like Grover's Corners---we miss them only when they're gone. I always grew two kinds of parsley in my garden---the flat-leafed kind the grocers call "Italian" and the curly-leafed kind, which for Americans seems to be the only way a cooked salmon or turkey can appear in public without looking nude. I made no headway with a third kind grown for its roots rather than leaves, the turnip-rooted parsley that looks like a skinny parsnip and tastes like celery root. As a lazy gardener, I owed a lot to parsley because the plants lasted two years without replanting, and because all winter long I could step outside, brush the snow off, and snip a green and curly top. Medieval herbalists found all kinds of parsley as useful in medicine as in food. The seventeenth-century Nicholas Culpepper prescribed a paste of parsley seed and root, mixed with fennel, caraway, burnet, and saxifrage, for "the jaundice, falling-sickness, the dropsy, and stone in the kidneys." Parsley was also a major ingredient in the green garden pottages of the Middle Ages and the pureed green garden sauces of the Elizabethan Age, when they were called "Garden Sass." What Englishman even today would eat a dish of jellied eels or a leg of mutton without a parsleyed sauce? What Frenchman would eat a snail without a pool of parsley and garlic butter or a mussel without a broth of parsley and wine? What Italian would eat a veal shank without that sprinkling of parsley, garlic, and grated lemon peel they call "gremolata"? And what Moroccan would eat a salad of cracked wheat, or bulgur, unlaced with parsley and mint? Because parsley is so often minced, the herb has developed its own line of kitchen hardware and impassioned ritual. For years I refused to use the efficient hand-cranked Mouli parsley grater because I liked the ritual of scrunching sprigs of curly-leafed parsley together and chopping them with a knife, either the old-fashioned double-handed chopper or a Chinese cleaver. I liked the ritual of cutting flat-leafed parsley with a pair of scissors. I know a Hollywood dowager, once a silent film star accused of murdering her lover, who fired her housekeeper for not mincing parsley fine enough. And I have a friend so obsessed with parsley that he keeps a mini spin-dryer exclusively for drying parsley leaves and a special rolling chopper for cutting them. Despite our constant use of parsley as a garnish, we neglect it as a vegetable. On a hot spring day it makes a fine cold soup, a salad, or a sauce for thin slices of smoked tongue, ham, or beef, not to mention poached chicken and fish. Deep-fried it makes delicious finger food to serve with shellfish. And for a one-dish vegetarian meal, there's always tabbouleh, which returns chopped parsley to its origins in the Middle East. When we're tempted to take parsley too much for granted as our commonest garden herb, we might remember the moral pointed out in Beatrix Potter's rhyming tale: Cecily Parsley lived in a pen, And brewed fine ale for gentlemen; Gentlemen came every day, 'Til Cecily Parsley ran away.
Parsley Soup
2 cups packed parsley leaves
6 cups chicken or fish stock ¼ cup uncooked rice 3 whole eggs juice of 1 lemon ½ to 1 cup yogurt
Wash parsley, remove the stems, and spin-dry the leaves. Mince leaves by hand or in a food processor. Meanwhile bring stock to a boil, add rice and simmer, covered, about 15 minutes, or until rice is tender. Beat eggs with the lemon juice, stir in some of the hot broth, then add egg mixture to the pan and whisk rapidly over very low heat for a minute or two (higher heat will curdle the eggs). Off heat, add parsley and yogurt to taste. Refrigerate until wanted. (This soup is also good hot).
Serves 4 to 6.
Parsley Salad
5 cups curly-and flat-leafed parsley, mixed
1 cup bread cubes, cut in ¼-inch squares 3 garlic cloves, minced ½ cup good olive oil 1 tablespoon wine vinegar pepper to
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taste ¼ pound feta cheese
Remove stems from parsley and put leaves in a covered steamer about 45 seconds to barely soften them. Refrigerate immediately to crisp. Make croutons from the bread cubes by sauteing them with the garlic in 2 to 3 tablespoons of the olive oil until brown. Mix remaining oil with vinegar and pepper, mix parsley with crumbled feta cheese, and sprinkle croutons on top.
Serves 4.
Deep-Fried Parsley
4 cups parsley leaves
vegetable oil for frying Salt to taste
Make sure parsley leaves are thoroughly dry. Drop a handful at a time into oil heated to 370 degrees F. in a wok or deep skillet and remove the leaves quickly, after less than a minute, with a slotted spoon. Drain leaves on paper towels. They should be crisp and green. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Serve as a garnish or a finger-food snack.
Yields about 2 cups.
Betty Fussell is a food historian, home cook, author, English professor and freelance writer. Her book, The Story of Corn, was reprinted by University of New Mexico Press. Betty Fussells' latest work is My Kitchen Wars, which was transformed into a one-woman show performed in New York City and Hollywood. Fussell is currently writing a history of American beefsteak.
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In recent years, a number of high-end mind mapping software programs have added the capability of importing data from a variety of sources and displaying it in mind maps. This significantly increases their value as business tools – especially for creating dashboards that can display live data on key business metrics.
From database connections to Excel spreadsheet cell ranges and Outlook e-mail messages, today’s mind mapping software can accommodate data from a myriad of sources and display it in a rich, visual format. This can help you conduct “What if?” analyses with your data and glean fresh insights from it. It can also transform your mind maps from collections of ideas, project actions and planning steps into rich data dashboards that can help you be significantly more productive and insightful.
This new Mind Mapping Insider report will show you what’s possible and which programs support this advanced functionality.
Members-only resource The link to download this report is accessible to members of the Mind Mapping Insiders group.
Become a Mind Mapping Insider member to access this valuable template and instructions today. You will also get access to over 100 other tutorials, interviews, templates, mind map analyses and other valuable resources designed to improve your mind mapping skills. Become an expert mind mapper today – join the Mind Mapping Insider membership program!
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Consultant and author Brian Tracy left a deep impression on me during one of his seminars in which he stated that “the competition gets up every morning to put you out of business.” Some might find that statement harsh and exaggerated and even reminiscent of the Macchiavelli’s caveats to his Prince whenever he warned him never to let his guard down against his political enemies.
Certainly, our competitors are not the villainous enemies the Prince faced, but who would deny our competitors are out to do their utmost to make every customer looking for furniture, one of theirs. Just as certainly, Brian Tracy did not imply that in besting our competitors, we should throw ethics to the winds. Who, in light of the severe penalties meted out to two of the major culprits of the Enron debacle, would counsel organizations to disregard the law of ethics?
In the most practical and ethical of terms, Brian Tracy was counseling all those at his seminar not to fall prey to naiveté, for while naiveté is not a vice, it is certainly not a virtue. Meanwhile, only the practice of business virtues can promote an organization’s success. And while we are on the subject of naiveté, I cannot imagine a greater and more insidious naiveté than that which lulls salespeople into ignoring the steady practice of visiting their competitors’ stores. How can salespeople hope to best competitors without knowing exactly how their merchandise is viewed by customers for whom comparison-shopping is the rule?
Let me cite an actual example I witnessed while doing some sales coaching in a Twin Cities mattress shop operated by a single salesperson – I’ll call him George. Words move us, a Latin saying goes, but examples sweep us along.
One day a customer walked into the store, and as they often do, he pointed to a mattress in a competitor’s ad, and asked the salesperson if he could match that very mattress he had seen in the competitor’s store. The mattress in that ad was priced at $300.00. The salesperson nodded and took him to one of his three hundred dollar sets.
Customer: “How does your mattress compare to the one I saw at XYX Furniture ?”
Sales Associate: “Ours is better,” the salesperson replied without hesitation.
Customer: “How do you know that? Have you been to XYX Furniture?”
Sales Associate: “No, but I know that price for price our mattresses are better.”
Well, the customer’s face revealed he was not convinced by the salesperson’s ingenuous explanation, and, in fact, he soon exited the store. As soon as the customer had left, I asked the salesperson to go to the competitor’s store to find out all he could about that three hundred dollar set.
About two hours later the salesperson called me. “Get this, Peter,” he said, “I had three more customers from XYZ Furniture. All three inquired into the same three hundred dollar set. I sold all three.” “Great, I replied.”
“Thank you, Pete,” he continued, “but there’s something much more important. Each of these customers spent more than $500 for their new mattress.”
I credited the salesperson for his performance, being careful not to ad the condescending “See how important it is to study the competition.”
How valid indeed, the Latin saying, “Words move us; examples sweep us along.” Roma locuta; causa finita. Rome has spoken; case closed.
NEXT ISSUE
Is it ethical to pretend to be a customer in your competitor’s store? Should you hire a “secret shopper”? What do you do if you are asked to leave? How should you treat competitors shopping in your store? In the next issue of FURNITURE WORLD, Dr. Marino will discuss some of the basic ways to “shop” in competitive stores, with an emphasis on ethics.
Trainer, educator and group leader Dr. Peter A. Marino writes extensively on sales training techniques and their furniture retailing applications. He has deep experience as a top salesman, sales manager, corporate trainer and consultant. Dr. Marino has undergraduate degrees in English and philosophy and a Ph. D. in ancient Greek and Latin. His books include “The Golden Rules of Selling Bedding”, “Stop Losing Those Bedding Sales” and “It’s Buying, Silly!” available through FURNITURE WORLD. Questions can be sent to him at [email protected] .
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Teaching in China is top choice for travellers as numbers nearly triple
Friday 22, April 2011
As travellers seek more meaningful experiences on trips to foreign lands, i-to-i TEFL, the UK’s leading provider of TEFL courses, is seeing more and more people make like Marco Polo and become captivated by China.
In just two years, i-to-i TEFL has experienced a 152% increase in demand for English teaching internships in China and it is not hard to imagine why.
A country decidedly advanced in technology whilst remaining traditional in its customs, China offers a heady mix of cultural encounters, best experienced up close and personal.
It is estimated that over 300 million people in China, roughly the same size as the population of the USA, are learning English as a foreign language. This gives keen travellers a superb opportunity to visit and immerse themselves completely in one of the world's most fascinating cultures. Combining teaching with travelling will offer an utterly unique experience as well as advantages to a CV.
Everyone from young children to university graduates and high-powered businessmen aspire to learn English in China, so there are plentiful opportunities to teach the language.
Having completed her teaching internship, Clare Wilson, 24 originally from Leicester is now working in Beijing as a Content Manager for an online travel platform - ‘Doing the internship have me huge amounts of confidence and a safe introduction to living somewhere completely and utterly foreign’.
Gemma Turner, i-to-i TEFL General Manager commented, ‘The appeal of China is so broad and it’s not surprising that we’re seeing more people choose to teach there. Working in a foreign country puts you right in the crux of a destination’s community and culture. Passing through somewhere on your travels will give you an idea of what a place is like, but nothing compares to living and breathing it every day for five months’.
She continues ‘Taking a TEFL course and teaching abroad offers security for those that want to go travelling or do something different with their lives, but don’t want to risk leaving some form of employment.’
No teaching experience is necessary but a TEFL certificate is required. i-to-i TEFL are currently offering FREE courses worth £300 for those who sign up to an internship in China for August 2011. The internships costs £995 for 5 months including a private room in shared intern accommodation, all meals on school days, in-country airport transfers, in-country support and a two week orientation in Beijing including sightseeing, seminars, Mandarin lessons, internship allocation, all meals, hotel accommodation and great networking opportunities with all other interns. For more information visit www.onlinetefl.com
More and more travellers think that researching and planning a European city break is half the fun and they're not interested in pre-arranged trips or escorted tours. Self-guided tours offer a lot of advantages but require some guidance and good resources.
With the recent wild fires, disrupting flights and increasing air pollution, environmental quality is a growing factor in attracting tourists.
The hotel price comparison site www.trivago.co.uk has put together a list of the fifteen most spectacular hotel rooftop terraces in the world.
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This past week, the stock market saw the largest decline of the S&P in the past two-quarters, alongside a heavy decline in European exports and investments. Another factor that seems to not shift, quickly enough to see positive change, is the current state of the U.S. Federal Reserve. I do not foresee a swift uprising in the market/s unless we see realistic expectations and stricter policies from the Federal reserves.
It was hopped that the market had stabilized, but it appears after the last week that it is not yet down bottoming out. The continued unrest in many places continues that have a negative impact on the world and US markets. The decline may also be a reflection of many US companies having lost the trust of the public with many recent data breeches. Consumers are fearful and the retail world is fearing the worst for the coming holiday season.
There is no income equality and the majority of people are poor or lack funds to do anything to stimulate the economy. This is the end state of consumerism and capitalism. They didn't think about what happens when the gap widens to this point but it was obvious that it would happen. The economy will not fully recover if this isn't corrected.
Everything always swings like a pendulum. It is better to keep it on a low swing, but sometimes it will go out farther one way. But a pendulum will always swing back the other way just as hard as it did the opposite end. It will rebound in time, but probably not just yet.
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Overview A lot of companies today claim to care about customers. However, few of these companies invest in the local community. Bob Reina is a great example of someone who is actually making a major positive impact in the lives of others. Although he is successful in business, he is concentrated on delivering value…
Securus helps us quite a lot with advocacy as they create phone calls to jails we need. We are attempting to check in with those who are most in need of assistance, and we need to speak to them as if we are in the jail. Securus has created a video calling system anyone may…
The financial world has many areas of concentration. For many business professionals who have an interest in working in the financial industry, the options are plentiful regarding professional opportunities. One of the most important things that people who have an interest in the financial industry must consider is their passion. What do they love doing?…
In June 22, 2016, Davos Real Estate Group went on record saying that it was going to launch a new mobile application called the “Davos CAP Calculator”. The calculator estimates the possible returns on investments in real estate that a client may be willing to explore. Davos Real Estate Group is among the…
There are a multitude of people that a have taken on the job of project manager. In Australia Christanna Bevin is a project manager with a very impressive resume. She has been very helpful to people in Queensland. She has shown so many people that her ability to take on the role of a project…
The Wessex Institute of Technology (or WIT) is an educational and research center in central south England. The center is responsible for some of the most advanced scientific innovations we have today that facilitate the sharing of information within the science community. WIT is just 100km from Land, within the Ashurst Lodge of the New…
To live a full life does not mean living for one’s self; instead, it means dedicating one’s life for the sake of others, and this is what Jason Hope is doing for the people of Arizona. He is very passionate about life, and he measures his success by what he has been able to do…
Kenneth Goodgame is the Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer at True Value Hardware Corporation at Chicago, Illinois. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Tennessee. Kenneth Goodgame is a skillful and an influential Operations Management leader. He has extensive experience, which gives him an upper hand…
Harvard University has a long-lasting legacy of being an esteemed breeding ground for brilliant businessmen and businesswomen. Just take one look at the educational portion of the resumes belonging to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft creator Bill Gates as well as Viacom and CBS Corporation majority owner Sumner Redstone. Also in the ranks of this…
Headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey, InnovaCare Health Solutions (LLC) is a leading provider of quality healthcare management. Focusing on creating a cohesive relationship with its patients, InnovaCare provides high-quality Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans. Besides, InnovaCare is famous for providing innovative network models. In Puerto Rico, InnovaCare specializes in MMM Healthcare and PMC Medicare…
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Still, Fuller's introduction, "The Nature of Mutiny," is of some interest, and undercuts (perhaps better, explains) the fierce dichotomies that will follow. For in Fuller's view, "mutiny is apt to have an intimate, familial quality about it" (xii). In other words, the opprobrium heaped on mutineers comes from the trauma of discovering yourself betrayed by your most intimate companions.
Hence there is an affective distinction between mutiny and revolution:
A man seldom knows personally, or is associated with, the people against whom he is moving in revolution. In most cases of mutiny a man not only is acquainted with, but is in some manner of working relationship with the persons against whom the mutiny is directed. (xii)Moreover, this is why the shipboard mutiny is paradigmatic: at sea, men are confined together in close quarters for months or even years. And this forced intimacy is two-sided: "It can increase tensions by the inability of people to separate from each other. At the same time it offers a closeness well adapted to conference and conspiracy" (xiii).
Fuller makes a couple of other points. First, he wants to distinguish mutiny from labor disputes. Mere refusal to serve is not mutiny; it is a strike. I think the point here is that a labor dispute is not a wholesale assault on constituted power. Myself, I wonder how far this distinction can be upheld. And second, he argues that the days of mutiny are in effect over: "To all intents and purposes the traditional mutiny at sea has gone out of existence. It died with sails. Technology ended the era of mutiny" (xi). By this he means that mutiny can no longer be sustained, as there is no place to hide: "it just is not practical any longer to try to seize a ship and take it over on an impromptu basis. There's no future in it" (xi). And indeed its striking that may of the mutinies described took place so far from home that the mutineers could either try to disappear (as in the case of the
Bounty) or could spend the long homeward voyage perfecting the stories they would tell before the coming courts martial (as in the case of the mutiny against Henry Hudson).
More importantly, however, Fuller suggests that it is the massification and division of labor that makes mutiny impossible on a modern ship: a few renegades may be able to take hold of a sailship, but "to seize a steamship is another story. It would take a full complement capable of the necessary engineering skills involved" (xi).
In short, for Fuller at least, mutiny is pre-industrial. It involves betrayal within the family (or the gang, the tribe) rather than insubordination from the masses within the workplace.
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This I Believe
In our world today there are a lot of people admitting to making mistakes or complete failure. It could be failure in a relationship or maybe even in business. If you think about your complete failure and dwell on the failure you start wondering if you would have had done something different. If you don’t ask yourself, maybe someone else asks you if you would go back to change what you have already done. I feel that that would be a mistake, to think or even to want to change what you have already done.
I have messed a few things up in life, like one being working on one of my lawn mowers. I do a yard care business when the season is right in North Dakota. I have always liked to work on things, mostly mechanical devices, and I always do small things with my mowers. I have never had to replace the rigs on the piston, so it was new for me. I had the tools, but not quite all of the knowledge to do it yet. I went ahead and tried to change the piston rings, and failed. I didn’t get the timing quite right so the motor did not fire over at all. I didn’t give up, I just tried it again.
I have learned a lot of things from my failures. I feel as if I actually learn best from my failure. I once had a girlfriend that was the coolest girl I knew, but she stopped talking to me, and I didn’t try to talk to her. I regretted it for a while, but soon enough I found another girl, and I learned. I talk to her about everything. I have learned from a past experience that I can prevent something of that nature happening to me again.
Failure has taught me many things, it was my choice to learn from it and not regret my failure. I believe in second chances to succeed. I do not believe in second chances to go back in time to fix a previous failure, or what should be a great learning experience for me. I believe you have to make a positive effort to move forward, if you stay at a stand still dwelling, there would be no will to try new things or attempt a new thing and fail. Failure is a great teacher, if you appreciate the things you learn from failure.
The way I see it, life is too short to go on about my own mistakes and my own regrets. I can be out helping my community with the problems bigger than mine. I have learned from my mistakes and I can now help other people learn from theirs. I do not want to be sitting around thinking about what I could have done, or what I should have done. I am going to go do it, and I am going to do it right. No regrets.
If you enjoyed this essay, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to This I Believe, Inc.
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A French ambition for digital visual effects
by Claire La Combe
- CANNES 2016: The CNC has opened in-depth discussions about the digital visual effects industry in France
At the Cannes Film Festival, the CNC has opened in-depth discussions about the digital visual effects industry in France.
Jean Gaillard, commissioned by the CNC last February to look into the topic, presented his initial conclusions of the report that he is due to deliver later this month. To him, France has huge potential in VFX, but the national industry and market are not yet well developed enough.
The visual-effects sector is estimated to be worth around €80 million in revenues, with €15 million for cinema, and representing more than 2,000 jobs in France. But there is a strong trend towards the delocalisation of skills, with an outsourced activity that has increased by 60% over the past year. Coupled with this, French teams are very highly respected in the international VFX industry. France has some reputed schools, producing flexible technicians who are in demand. But there is a paradox: the French audiovisual sector under-employs its own workforce.
Yet there exist around 60 companies specialised in VFX in France, and they all have a large order book, even though the competition is high, owing to the particular characteristics of the market. Why is the market not developing? Gaillard was not able to find any answers by sifting through the CNC's New Technologies in Production (NTP) funding scheme applications, nor by investigating his fellow stakeholders. The phenomenon was partly explained by “a cultural reticence”, according to the former president of the RIAM (Research and Innovation in Audiovisual and Multimedia) network. As a matter of fact, VFX are not even a consideration in French production budgets.
On the other hand, VFX are not that popular, because they cost a great deal of money, so it’s usually an expenditure that is outsourced to a country with an efficient tax shelter, for recoupment. That explains why Belgium is a popular hosting country for VFX studios, most of which even have French origins. The CNC is now counting on the recent boost to the International Tax Credits to help bring back some of the activity to national soil. “We need to develop a cluster effect in France and act as the Anglo-Saxons do - hunt in packs!” stated Gaillard.
The discussion was rounded off by three eloquent case studies on French films using VFX:
Swagger [+see also: trailer film profile] by Olivier Babinet, presented in the ACID section at Cannes (in conjunction with the Mathematic studio); Le Secret des Banquises [+see also: trailer film profile] by Marie Madinier (read the news), where a mix of digital effects and animatronics were used to recreate the Arctic and a population of Emperor penguins (in collaboration with the Mikros Image studio); and Up for Love [+see also: trailer film profile] by Laurent Tirard, with Jean Dujardin playing the role of a man who is diminutive in stature (in conjunction with La Compagnie Generale des Effets Visuels). All of the invited producers explained that they had had a great experience collaborating with their VFX studio – on both an artistic and a financial level - and they painted some outstanding pictures of the results.
This discussion was very well put together, giving the impression that there is indeed something to work out in terms of VFX in France. “It is an intuition,” stated
Raphael Keller (of NTP), “like the one we had with animation, that there is this huge potential for VFX in France.” In three years, applications for the CNC's NTP fund have doubled, and the global annual budget is now approaching €6 million for around 25 films supported. “It is high time we positioned ourselves, because the VFX market is already structured on an international scale,” added Keller, “and France has the means to fulfil its ambition.”
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IMARC Group, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms, finds that the total consumption volume of milk in India grew at 5.3% during 2010-11 - 2011-12. Estimates from their latest report “Indian Dairy Market Report & Forecasts 2012-2017” suggest that the total market for dairy products in India is expected to surpass US$ 86 billion by 2017.
Milk in India is perceived to be associated with good health and wellness; as a result, it represents a major part of the Indian diet. Apart from its direct consumption, milk is also used in the preparation of various other products like tea, coffee, yoghurt, curd, cheese, paneer, traditional sweets, butter, ice cream, ghee, etc. This has resulted in India becoming by far the world’s largest consumer of milk.
Currently around 49% of the total milk produced in the country is consumed as liquid milk. Out of the reaming 51%, around 26.5% of the total milk is converted into ghee, 7% is converted into curd and 6% is converted into butter. The remaining 11.5% milk is converted into other dairy products such as paneer, khoa, ice-cream, etc. Dairy products in India are currently consumed fresh with a very small share being processed for value addition. With the growth of the health and wellness market, however, we expect the market for value added dairy products to grow exponentially in the coming years.
IMARC Group’s new report “Indian Dairy Market Report & Forecasts 2012-2017” an updated and far more extensive and analytical version of their popular 2011 study, provides and draws upon a comprehensive analysis of every major dairy segment in India. The study, which has been undertaken using both desk research and two waves of qualitative primary research, has analyzed three aspects of the Indian dairy market.
The first section quantifies the Indian dairy market into fourteen major segments and investigates the current and future opportunities in each of these segments. The second section provides an in-depth understanding of dairy consumption patterns among Indian consumers and the potential of value added dairy products. The third section investigates into the usage of natural colouration in dairy products and evaluates their current and future potential.
What we have achieved in this report:
Comprehensive situation analysis of the Indian dairy market and its dynamics:
Segments covered: Milk, UHT Milk, Curd, Butter, Ghee, Paneer, Cheese, Khoya, Skimmed Milk Powder, Tea, Coffee, Dairy Whiteners, Infant Nutrition, Malt Beverages and Ice Cream
Focus of the analysis in each Class:
• Drivers and challenges in each market;
• Historical, current & future sales trends (2006 – 2017);
• Historical, current & future volume trends (2006 – 2017);
• Historical, current & future price trends (2006 – 2017);
• Size and analysis of the organized and unorganized markets;
• Structure of the market;
• Key players and products available in these market.
Understanding the dairy consumption patterns of Indian consumers and evaluating the potential of value added products:
In order to gain an insight into the awareness and acceptance levels of value added dairy products, IMARC Conducted in-depth interviews with Industry experts and consumers in major metropolitan and tier-1 cities in India.
Focus of the analysis:
• Buying behavior;
• Price sensitivity;
• Nutritional requirements;
• Consumer awareness of value added products;
• Brand loyalty and switching trends;
• Potential of value added dairy products in India.
Understanding the current landscape of natural colouration in dairy products
Classes Covered: Butter, Cheese, Yoghurt, Margarine, Flavored Milk and Ice Cream
Focus of the analysis:
• Size of the natural colouration market in India;
• Key drivers and challenges in the market;
• Usage of natural colouration in dairy products.
Information Sources:
Information has been sourced from both primary and secondary sources:
• Primary sources include industry surveys and face to face/telephone interviews with consumers and industry experts.
• Secondary sources include proprietary databases and search engines. These sources include company websites and reports, books, trade journals, magazines, white papers, industry portals, government sources and access to more than 4000 paid databases.
To buy the complete report or to get a free sample, please contact:
IMARC Group - Asia
E: apac[.]imarcgroup.com / P: +91 120-415-5099
IMARC Group - Europe, Middle East & Africa
E: ema[.]imarcgroup.com / P: +44 702-409-7331
IMARC Group - Europe, Middle East & Africa
E: america
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Sponsored centers in or near Santa Monica Get Help at an Alcohol Abuse Treatment Center in Santa Monica, California or Nearby
If you or someone you care about drinks too much, you'll want to locate alcohol abuse treatment as soon as you can can. As with many addictions, alcohol can have a dramatic negative impact on your personal and professional life, and your body as well. Long-term alcohol abuse can damage the liver, pancreas, and throat, lead to high blood pressure and is associated with various cancers. In contrast to many other commonly abused drugs, rapid alcohol detox can actually be life-threatening if not done under supervision.
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There are, thankfully, many Santa Monica luxury alcohol abuse facilities that can help even the most serious alcohol addict. If you need assistance finding excellent alcohol rehab Santa Monica has to offer, you can contact our hotline, toll-free at 1-888-744-0069. Helpful service advisors are on-hand to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Type Meeting Name @ Location Address Day/Time Details AA "Sermon On The Mount" @ Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center Los Angeles, CA, 90005 Tuesday @ 7:00 pm
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Format: Meditation/Speaker/Participation AA Bravo's Men's Stag (Bravo Company) @ Santa Monica where else? Santa Monica, CA, 90401 Wednesday @ 5:30 pm Format: Share AA Book Worms @ Venice Recovery Center Venice, CA, 90291 Wednesday @ 8:00 pm Format: Book Study/Sharing AA Pacific Group @ University Synagouge 11960 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90049 Wednesday @ 8:00 pm Format: Speaker Meeting AA Pacific Group @ west los angeles 11960 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90049 Thursday @ 12:00 am Format: Speaker/ Birthdays AA Women's Stag @ Church Los Angeles, CA, 90005 Tuesday @ 6:00 pm Format: Closed/Speaker, Sharing AA Bb, 12X12, Traditions & Concepts @ Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center Los Angeles, CA, 90005 Wednesday @ 6:00 pm Format: Fun Study / Q&A / Discussion AA "Drop The Rock" @ Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center Los Angeles, CA, 90005 Tuesday @ 7:00 pm Format: 6th & 7th Step Study / Discussion Learn More about the Symptoms, Effects and Treatments by Substance The Alcoholic Treatment Process Alcoholism Intervention
Using a qualified interventionist is often needed to help a person come to terms with the damage their drinking is doing to their health and livelihood. The intervention process consists of having the alcohol abuser's friends and family gather, confronting them about their addiction, and begging them to enter a substance abuse treatment facility.
Alcohol Detox Program
Detox is the process of washing the abused substance from the body, in this case alcohol. While it sounds simple, there are a number of serious, uncomfortablesymptoms while withdrawing that can keep people from getting the treatment they need. Many of these can be administered to medically at most treatment programs you'll find in Santa Monica, CA.
Residential Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers
Exclusive Santa Monica alcohol rehabs statistically are more effective than outpatient centers, which is one reason why many find them superior when getting off alcohol. There are many private options available for those seeking top-tier amenities during their stay. 30-day, 60-day and 90-day rehab courses are typical for these centers.
Addiction Therapies and Aftercare Following Inpatient Treatment
Maintaining a sober life is a long-term process, but for those who feel like they need more services after rehab, addiction therapy is worth a closer look. Through group meetings and counseling, those finishing recovery can continue getting help and get the extra nudge they need to keep alcohol-free.
What About Luxury Alcohol Treatment Centers?
Luxury alcohol treatment centers in
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Santa Monica have a common goal: to make you happy. If you want the highest-quality treatment in high-end surroundings, you should give serious consideration to these facilities. Call our call our toll-free hotline if you need help locating the best luxury alcohol program at 1-888-744-0069.The Minister of Justice has launched a public consultation on the preliminary draft of the civil liability reform project, which will be accessible until 31 July 2016 on the Ministry of Justice's website.
The draft's objective is to clarify the law relating to civil liability. In particular, it seeks to integrate certain elements of case law into the Civil Code.
While maintaining the general principle of fault-based liability, the draft proposes a number of new measures including creating a civil penalty aimed at combatting "lucrative faults", in which the benefit resulting from the tort is higher than the damages the tortfeasor will be subject to. The draft was also meant to propose measures relating to compensation for losses resulting from environmental damage, but these have not so far been enumerated.
Click here for the text of the draft law.
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Understand the different translations methods: the current / noncurrent, monetary/ nonmonetary, temporal, and the current rate method.
Learn guidelines for translation in the U.S. using FASB statement 52.
Differentiate between the temporal and current rate methods of translating financial statements.
Learn the different translation methodologies in use in different countries.
Learn the translation methodologies recommended by different international harmonization groups, especially the EU and IASC.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
TRANSLATION METHODOLOGIES
Accounts of foreign subsidiaries are restated or translated into the parent company’s currency primarily for reporting consolidated financial statements. The translation involves two key issues:
The exchange rates at which various accounts are translated
The subsequent treatment of gains or losses.
Current / Noncurrent method
Current assets and liabilities are translated at current exchange rates
Noncurrent assets, liabilities, and stockholder's equity are translated at historical rates.
Monetary / Nonmonetary method
Monetary assets and liabilities are translated at current rate
Nonmonerary assets, liabilities, and stockholder's equity are translated at historical rates.
Temporal method
Cash, receivables, and payables are translated at current rate.
Assets and liabilities carried at past exchange prices are translated at historical rates.
Current Rate method
All assets and liabilities are translated using the current rate
Only the equity accounts are translated using historical rates.
FASB STATEMENT 52
Dictates methods US companies can use to translate foreign subsidiaries financial statements. Current or temporal method is used depending on the functional currency of subsidiary.
The functional currency is the primary currency of the subsidiary's operations.
There are several factors that influence the determination of functional currency:
Cash flows:
either primarily in FC or directly affect parent's cash flow
Sales prices:
not affected by exchange rate changes or affected
Sales market:
primarily local or in parent's country.
Financing:
obtained in FC or parent's currency; FC or parent's cash flow used to servive obligations.
Intercompany transactions:
low volume verses high volume.
Remeasuring using Temporal Method
If the functional currency is the US dollar, balances are remeasured in US dollars using the temporal method. Adjustments are reported as gains or losses in income.
Following procedures are used to apply temporal method:
Remeasure cash, receivables, and liabilities at the current balance sheet date.
Remeasure inventory, fixed assets, and capital stock at the appropriate historical exchange rates.
Remeasure most revenues and expenses at the average rate for the year; cost of sales and depreciation expense are translated at relative historical rates.
Take all remeasurement gains or losses directly to the income statement.
Translation using the Current Rate method
If the functional currency is the foreign currency, balances are translated using current method and a translation adjustment is reported on the balance sheet.
Following steps are taken with application of the current rate method:
Total assets and liabilities are translated at the current exchange rate.
Stockholders' equity accounts are translated at appropriate historical rates
All revenue and expense items are translated at the average rate.
Dividends are translated at the exchange rate in effect when issued.
Translation gains and losses are taken to a special accumulated translation adjustment account in stockholder's equity.
Intercompany Transactions
Parents and subsidiaries engage in various types of intercompany transactions which can result in profits that can be related to exchange rate changes.
If an intercompany loan is considered short term, exchange gains or losses would be recognized in the subsidiary's income statement and translated into dollars using an average rate for the year the loan is carried.
If the loan is long-term, the exchange gain would be included in the equity section under the current method or the income statement if temporal method is used.
The intercompany proftis that are eliminated through consolidation are are based on the exchange rates at the dates of the sales or transfers.
High Inflationary Economies
A highly inflationary economy is a country where the cumulative inflation exceeds 100 percent over a three-year period.
Foreign subsidiaries located in highly inflationary economies must use the temporal method under FASB 52.
FASB 52 requires the following information to be disclosed
The aggregate transaction gain or loss included in income.
An analysis of the changes during the period of the translation adjustment balance in stockholders' equity:
Beginning and ending amount of cumulative translation adjustments
The aggregate adjustment for the period resulting from translation adjustments and gains / losses from certain hedges and intercompany balances.
The amount of income taxes for the period allocated to the adjustments.
The amounts transferred from cumulative translation adjustments and included in determining net income resulting from sale or liquidation of foreign investments.
NON-U.S. TRANSLATION PRACTICES
General European practices
The EU does not provide any guidelines for foreign currency or translation accounting. Most European countries allow both current and temporal rates, and most tend to use the current method.
German companies generally use a form of the temporal method and do not make a distinction based on functional currency.
The French use the temporal method for integrated foreign companies and
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the current method for self-sustaining foreign subsidiaries. Gains and losses are treated the same as in US.
The Japanese use the temporal method. Translation adjustments for subsidiaries are reported as an asset or liability and for branches taken to income.
The United Kingdom
SSAP(Statement of Standard Accounting Practice) 20 allows the use of the closing rate method or the temporal method, depending on the operation relationship between subsidiary and parent.
British regulation similar to FASB 52, but contain important differences:
SSAP does not provide specific rules for foreign currency transactions.
In highly inflationary economies, SSAP recommends that companies adjust, where possible, to current price levels verses mandating use of temporal method.
SSAP does not require the same level of disclosure as FASB 52 dictates.
Canadian standards
For translation, the temporal and current methods can be used depending on the relationship between the subsidiary and parent; similar to FASB 52.
If foreign subsidiary operates in a high inflation economy, temporal method is used.
International Accounting Standards
International Accounting Standard 21 contains guidelines for both transactions and translations of financial statements.
Both the closing rate and temporal methods are used, depending on the operating characteristics of the foreign operations. Gains or losses are taken to stockholders' equity.
Operations in highly inflationary countries must be adjusted for local inflation before translation into the reporting currency.
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The state’s chief utility regulator crafted a compromise that will save many solar installation companies from imminent bankruptcy. But the price he asked was to support his re-election and abandon any backing of his opponent.
Described as either as “borderline illegal” or basic hardball politics, depending on the speaker, the proposal by Louisiana Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Skrmetta, which will be debated Wednesday, is something that even his election opponent Forest Bradley-Wright could support.
Bradley-Wright, a New Orleans consumer advocate, is backed by some of the companies seeking to ease the regulations that are crimping the sale of solar panels that make electricity for their owners. In particular, the solar industry wants to lift the restriction that gives traditional utilities license to suspend full credit for the incentives for new customers once a certain number of solar arrays was sold.
Skrmetta’s proposal eliminates the cap, but he also demanded they join his campaign efforts, according to an account of the meeting a Baton Rouge lobbyist emailed Saturday to members of the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association, a New Orleans-based trade association.
“Though he understands that the solar industry cannot dictate to Forest that he run or not, he expects the solar industry to privately and publicly support his re-election. This means not supporting Forest’s candidacy!” wrote Andrew B. Ezell, a Baton Rouge lawyer representing the trade group. “I strongly recommend that the GSREIA board take heed of this caveat!”
“My concerns about an opponent are irrelevant,” Skrmetta said Monday when asked to respond to that sentence of the email. “Would I prefer not having an opponent? Well, of course. … I don’t need anything from anybody on that element. It’s more about three weeks ago when the first company came to me and told me that if they didn’t get this cap lifted, they probably would go into bankruptcy.”
He said he has worked on a compromise for the past several years.
“The cap is the No. 1 thing that restricts the expansion of solar energy,” Bradley-Wright said Monday. “The cap needs to be lifted. I only wish responsible policy didn’t have to come to the table as a poker chip.”
Bradley-Wright said he had been urged to run by many people, including executives with solar companies. But he hadn’t decided until hearing of the email from supporters. He said he definitely would run.
“I don’t know if you can make that kind of ultimatum stick,” said PSC Commissioner Clyde Holloway, of Forest Hill.
Holloway argues that the solar incentives allow a couple thousand wealthy customers who can afford the upfront expense to have systems subsidized by the couple million electricity buyers who can’t. He said he supports Skrmetta’s proposal because it addresses, at least for the time being, the key financial issues for the utility companies and the business operations issues for the solar sellers.
“It settles an issue that needs to be settled,” he said.
But it won’t be settled with the help of PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell, of Bossier Parish. He opposes the deal and says Skrmetta’s actions skirt so close to the edge of the law that they could be “borderline illegal.”
“You can’t promise a vote for support. These people have been against him and now he’s trying to do something for them in return for their support. That’s going way too far,” Campbell said. “It’s not the first time he’s tried to bully people.”
Campbell and Skrmetta have had a number of loud and angry public arguments over the years.
Electricity must be used immediately. Because solar only produces during sunshine hours — Entergy Corp. says its research indicates primarily between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., when most people are at work — the individual systems add power to the utility’s grid of electricity. At night, they draw power from the grid. Owners of solar panels are “paid” for the power moved onto the grid during the day and those credits reduce the amount they have to pay for the electricity used at night. The system is called “net metering.”
In addition to eliminating the cap, Skrmetta’s proposal would allow a solar customer to offset his bill from the utility company for all the electricity used in a given month. Anything above that amount would sell back to the utility company at a cheaper wholesale amount.
Lobbyist Ezell, who would not comment on his email, said the proposal removes the uncertainty for solar operators and allows them to transition more easily into a world without the tax incentives, which begins in 2015.
“I’m not trying to tee something up for an argument as much as I am trying to listen to the troubles that the companies are having,” Skrmetta said. “We’ll still have a discussion on it. If there is support for it, then the PSC will vote for it. If there is no support for it, they will not approve it.”
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Research by Aon Hewitt revealed that over half of CHROs are not career HR professionals, with a third having no background in the field prior to taking on the top job.
“CHROs have become critical stakeholders in defining the strategy of a firm, and they are expected to tackle the HR challenges and evolving expectations of a dynamic workplace environment that will consist of constant change, calculated risk-taking and evolving expectations from top stakeholders,” said Neil Shastri, Aon Hewittt’s leader of global insights & innovation.
The study also found that 73 per cent of HR board members had changed industry at least once in their career.
“Those well-equipped to achieve the greatest success will have diverse skill sets, be adaptable and agile, and gain hands-on learning from working through real life situations and acquiring knowledge across disciplines and industries,” Shastri continued.
Two thirds of CHRO respondents said they’d had prior board experience while nearly a quarter (24 per cent) took an assignment outside of HR to develop their business and commercial knowledge.
The report also examined the skills CHROs deemed most critical to success in the role.
84 per cent highlighted executive compensation experience as a key requirement.
67 per cent had worked and lived abroad, and/or led global teams and initiatives.
65 per cent indicated business knowledge as a key competency but it was also among the skills for which CHROs felt least prepared.
More like this:
Blockbuster film takes on HR issue
Satisfied employees still pose major flight risk
HR professionals looking to take on the top job may have a fight on their hands as a recent survey indicated industry outsiders are most likely to bag the coveted C-suite spot.
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The new business secretary Sajid Javid is to pledge to cut red tape for companies by at least £10bn during the current parliament as he announces details of the enterprise bill that will form part of this month’s Queen’s speech.
Making his first speech since replacing Vince Cable, Javid will say that the government’s plan to preside over the creation of 2m jobs in the next five years will involve making Britain the best place in Europe to start a new business.
However, alongside the proposed assault on bureaucracy, the business secretary announced plans for a new government-funded body to help small businesses recoup the more than £30bn owed to them in late payments of bills.
The creation of a small business conciliation service was part of the Conservative manifesto and Javid said the proposal would help to settle disputes.
“Small businesses are Britain’s engine room and the success of our whole economy is built on the hard work and determination of the people who run and work for them,” Javid will say in a speech in Bristol, where he grew up in a flat above his parents’ shop.
“As business secretary, I will always back them and, in my determination to get the job done, one of my first steps will be to bring forward an enterprise bill that helps them to succeed and create jobs.
“As part of our long-term economic plan, we will sweep away burdensome red tape, get heavy handed regulators off firms’ backs and create a small business conciliation service to help resolve disputes.”
It is estimated that small businesses are owed £32bn in late payments but are often unaware of their rights or are reluctant to take legal action, fearing they will lose future business. The enterprise bill will extend the fight against red tape beyond Whitehall and for the first time include independent regulators.
Javid’s plans were welcomed by John Allan, chairman of the National Federation of Small Businesses. He said: “Our members have been clear on the need to make progress on cutting burdensome red tape and on addressing issues like the billions owed to small businesses in overdue payments.
“These are not easy issues to tackle and we will need the minister to work closely with our members and the wider business community to find solutions. We look forward to working with the business secretary and his team over the coming months.”
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Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2016 loss of 29 cents per share, narrower than both the Zacks Consensus Estimate and the year-ago loss of 32 cents.
Total revenue in the third quarter of 2016 surged 120% year over year to $2.2 million, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.1 million. Revenues were generated mainly under the clinical trial collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY - Free Report) , and the research and development agreement with Rockefeller University.
Research and development expenses inched up 1.2% from the year-ago period to $25 million, reflecting higher contract manufacturing costs and personnel costs including higher stock-based compensation expense. On the other hand, general and administrative spend declined 17.6% to $7 million, due to lower commercial planning costs. Earlier this month, Celldex inked definitive agreement to acquire Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held clinical-stage company. The transaction is expected to be completed by 2016 end. Following the transaction, Celldex will acquire the rights to two candidates in Kolltan’s pipeline – KTN0158 (phase I) and KTN3379 (phase Ib). Celldex will also acquire Kolltan’s multi-faceted TAM program. Meanwhile, Celldex is conducting a phase IIb study (METRIC) on glembatumumab vedotin, its most advanced pipeline candidate, in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancers that overexpress gpNMB. The candidate is also being evaluated in several other studies. Meanwhile, the company is evaluating varlilumab in combination with Bristol-Myers’ Opdivo in a study that includes cohorts in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma and glioblastoma. In addition, varlilumab is being evaluated in combination with Roche’s (RHHBY - Free Report) Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in a phase I/II study for multiple solid tumors. Varlilumab is also in several other combination studies. Celldex expects that cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities plus anticipated proceeds from future sales of its common stock under the agreement with Cantor to be enough to fund working capital requirements and planned operations, including the integration of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, through 2018.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks Celldex currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INFI - Free Report) is a better-ranked stock in the healthcare sector with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Infinity’s loss estimates narrowed from $3.84 to $3.79 for 2016. The company has posted a positive surprise in all of the four trailing quarters with an average beat of 67.62%. Zacks’ Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades… from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >>
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“Because everything can be reduced to an infographic!” —Guy Kawasaki
When it comes to infographic resumes, the critics haven’t entirely weighed in yet. Commenters on posts predicting infographics as the resumes of the future point out the difficulty of reading some infographics. Not to mention the fact that certain industries, like accounting and business, may not appreciate the creativity preferring the straight up, cut-to-the-chase resume. So, what are the latest thoughts on the infographic resume, and how can you adapt them to your needs? Here I’ll review the evolution of resume to infographic and suggest some creative ways to put the current resume infographic to work for you.
The Resume in Review, Infographic or Otherwise
Websites offering career tips and advice about resumes far and wide have pounced on the “History of the Resume” chronology, compiled by Todd Lempicke on
Optimal Resume, as the best condensed history of the resume . Lempicke attributes the first recorded resume to Leonardo da Vinci. Marc Cendella (of TheLadders.com) actually provides us with a picture of the original document and a translation. Highlights of da Vinci’s personal summary include his ability to build bridges and fighting machines in times of war and sculpture in times of peace. Da Vinci definitely marketed himself well in his self-introductory letter to the Duke of Milan.
Letters of introduction, like da Vinci’s, then morphed into the more formal and somewhat less personal resume we know today, which became standardized in the 1950s. From that point on technology began offering more options for personal marketing: VHS portfolios, resume transmission by fax machine, email, YouTube videos, and the infographic.
The infographic resume really garnered attention, however, when Christopher J. Spurlock’s version was posted on the HuffPost College blog and went viral. Spurlock wanted to work with journalism visualization and soon after his infographic went viral he was was offered a job at the Huffington Post as an infographics design editor (he started in May 2011, according to his current infographic resume).
You Are Here: The Resume Infographic Now
Most recently, the launch of the resume-infographic generator
vizualize.me has brought this resume format once again front and center. The hook here is that we, as users, can participate. Give visualize.me permission to access your LinkedIn account and it will arrange that info into a brightly colored graphic rendition of your previously text-only profile (don’t worry, you can calm those colors down a little). Another, though lesser known, resume-infographic generator is re.vu, also recently launched. Re.vu has the added benefit of an analytics generator that tracks data, like the number of hits your infographic receives and the amount of time visitors spend looking at it. Both of these sites offer visually attractive depictions of your life history—you may even see yourself in a different way then you have before.
Other options for creating your resume infographic aren’t quite so easy: put your Illustrator and Photoshop skills to work or hire a graphic designer. But the real question about resume infographics is where can they take us?
Putting That Data Visualization to Work for You
On the crest of Chris Spurlock’s infographic wave, Elana Zak, for
mediabistro.com, listed three reasons why you should consider an infographic resume: “1) It demonstrates you “get” multimedia, 2) It shows you’re more than just a writer, 3) It illustrates your creativity.” Though some recruiters and interviewers may not consider you serious if you offer up an infographic resume, posting one alongside your LinkedIn or Google+ profile certainly can’t hurt you. It may draw others to your profile, extending your networking reach. As re.vu says on its website: “Don’t send a resume. Share your story.” Perhaps greater words were never spoken, at least in the marketing industry! Stretch that Resume Infographic Idea a Little Further
There are other ways to apply the concept of the infographic resume. What if you work for a fresh start-up eager to establish their reputation? Consider an infographic—a business-history infographic. Posting this visual description of your business history on your
about us page is far more likely to attract attention than a few paragraphs of dry copywriting. Are you also presenting bios of your founders? How about bio-infographics? Those are sure to highlight the experience they possess and their skill set. A well designed infographic does have the potential to go viral. Finally, consider your client pitch. Could you incorporate some data visualization? Perhaps of the audience you and/or your client are targeting?
So, between the continuing popularity of eye-catching infographics and the visual/viral nature of the web, the resume infographic has many applications, all of which can be taken into the future. Though they may have to accompany some traditional resumes rather than replace them, the resume infographic is a trend that foreshadows the future because one thing is certain: the way we consume data is changing, fast.
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Severe anemia and MAC
Jun 27, 2002
Dear Dr, My daughter is 25 years old and is at end stage AIDS. She is now living with her father about 50 miles away. I see her every week. It is so sad to see her wasting away. She is a beautiful girl at 140 pounds. She is now at 119. She has had 3 units of blood on May 7th and another 3 units May 24. The three units yesterday brought her to 9.6. She was at 6. We moved her up here from Miami as she was very unhappy and wanted to be near us. She is going to a Infectious Disease Dr in the small town where she is now, but not much confidence there. How can we find her the best Dr in the area? She has been hospitalized longer than 2 months so far this year. We want to do every thing humanly possible for her. This Mac that she has has quite a hold on her. Please we need something to hold onto. Hoping a good Dr will help. Thank you for listening Concerned mom
Response from Dr. Frascino
Hello Concerned Mom,
Your daughter's problems are complex - advanced-stage AIDS, wasting, MAC, and now, severe anemia. She needs to be under the care of a knowledgeable and compassionate AIDS specialist. I do not know where you are living, but I suggest you contact local AIDS service organizations for a list of specialists in her area. Another resource to try would be the American Academy of HIV Medicine. They have a website - www.aahivm.org. They can provide you with a list of specialists in her area.
Certainly your daughter needs a multi-pronged approach:
1. Supportive care for optimal nutrition and to combat AIDS wasting 2. Potent antiretroviral therapy to control her HIV infection 3. Appropriate antibiotic therapy to control her MAC infection 4. Treatment of severe anemia. Blood transfusions are helpful in quickly raising the hemoglobin, but their effects are temporary. Her anemia is probably multifactorial, with MAC, HIV, and perhaps anti-HIV drugs all playing a role. Treatment of her HIV and MAC may help. Procrit should also be tried. It stimulates the body to make additional new red blood cells and has been shown in many clinical studies to reduce the need for blood transfusions.
I'm sure this is a very difficult time for both you and your daughter. Once you've made sure she is getting the optimal care, she needs and deserves then the "something to hold on to," should be your daughter herself. Spend time with her, hold her, and comfort her as only a mother can. It's powerful medicine for both the body and the soul! And give your daughter a hug from me.
Dr. Bob
fatique and Elevated Pulse Rate
Need some advice
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