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CFD Service - 76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money
How to become an online trader?
Trade EUR/JPY online with the CFDs
Our advice for trading EUR/JPY
The difference between Japan's imports and exports.
The economic strength of Japan and the Eurozone as well as the relations between these two economic zones.
The price of energy commodities, including crude oil, of which Japan is one of the main importers, and natural gas.
Natural disasters that can penalize Japan's economy and therefore the strength of its currency.
Government interventions in Japan and Europe to promote the economy, such as interest rates set by the ECB and the Bank of Japan.
Bond purchase programs, which is one of the most influential easing measures on the foreign exchange market, particularly with regard to the Yen.
The economic instability of the euro zone and all the news related to it will of course have an influence on the EUR/JPY rate.
ECB meetings, which take place 8 times a year.
Purchasing managers' indices, the consumer price index or even inflation figures.
Trade in the EUR/JPY!
76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
When you decide to trade on the foreign exchange market it is imperative that you understand the factors that make one currency more attractive than another in a pair. Among the major factors there are of course the interest rates of these currencies so it is necessary to know how to create an analysis to be able to determine if the rate of the currency pair will rise or fall. This is equally the case for the EUR/JPY.
What is represented by the EUR/JPY currency pair?
The EUR/JPY currency pair represents the exchange rate of a Euro in Yen. It therefore gives the equivalent value of one Euro in Yen.
This currency pair is significant as it represents by itself nearly 3% of all transactions completed every day on the foreign exchange market. It is the 7th most traded currency pair throughout the world.
It should be noted that trading in the EUR/JPY currency pair is interesting as it is one of the most volatile pairs on the market. It is for this reason that the EUR/JPY currency pair is particularly suitable for 'scalping'. In fact, its historical volatility has in the past reached nearly 210 pips.
Which organisations determine the rates for the EUR/JPY?
The entities responsible for determining the interest rates of currencies are of course the large central banks of each country or group of countries. Concerning the Euro it is the ECB, or European Central Bank, that is responsible. For the Yen it is the Bank of Japan that determines the rate.
The interest rates of these two currencies change regularly of course and information is published in the economic calendar regarding each movement.
Why do the rates influence the EUR/JPY exchange rate?
The influence of interest rates on currencies such as the Euro or the Yen is as strong and large as the different rates relating to a currency pair. Therefore, a currency with a weak interest rate will be less expensive to buy and a currency with a strong interest rate will be more advantageous for resale.
It is therefore possible to implement an effective trading strategy using an analysis of these rates and by anticipating their movements to take or close positions.
What are the signals and events to follow when trading this currency pair?
To efficiently trade the EUR/JPY pair you should pay close attention to the various economical and political announcements that could be highly influential to this rate. However, news concerning the Euro has more of an impact here than that concerning the Yen as the single currency is the base currency of this pair.
In any case, the Yen has a certain particularity that should be taken into account to avoid making mistakes. In fact it is a currency particularly suited to the Carry Trade and even more so when it is paired with the Euro as adversary. It is actually the directing interest rate of the Yen, artificially maintained close to zero by the Bank of Japan, that favours the use of this currency to make profits through differential rates.
Please note: The Carry Trade is no longer the most popular way to trade the yen and particularly the EUR/JPY currency pair which remains heavily influenced by the European economy. Another point, the interest rates differential has strongly decreased over the last few years and in parallel the Yen has increased in value due to this trading method which has created a lack of competitiveness relative to the country's exports recently.
The different elements to know concerning the EUR/JPY currency pair:
When trading the EUR/JPY currency pair you should understand certain fundamental elements. For example, this currency pair is quoted on the Forex with two decimal places even though some brokers show the rates with three decimal places. The rate of this pair is called a floating rate as it is ruled by the law of supply and demand exercised on the Forex.
The monetary policy of these two currencies is implemented and controlled by these ruling financial organisations; the Central European Bank for the Euro, and the Bank of Japan for the Yen. It is important to note that the BoJ has the habit of regularly intervening on the foreign exchange market to artificially modify the rate of the Yen so favouring the export competitiveness of the country.
In a general manner, all publications emanating from one or the other currency controlling establishments will have an impact on the rate of the EUR/JPY currency pair.
The safe status of the Yen against the euro:
Before you start trading on the EUR/JPY currency cross rate, you should keep in mind that the yen is a currency that has been considered a safe haven for a very long time. But what does this really mean?
When we speak of a safe haven value for a currency on the foreign exchange market, we are talking first and foremost about the currency of a country with a particularly stable over time and a relatively strong economy. This is of course the case of Japan, which has, in the past, demonstrated on many occasions its ability to emerge from major crises. Of course, the fact that the yen is a currency that is widely used in international trade is another element that makes it a safe haven.
But the yen is not just any safe haven in the foreign exchange market but is probably the most interesting at the moment. Indeed, compared to other monetary safe haven stocks such as the Swiss franc or gold, the yen enjoys a significant advantage in terms of its debt. This argument might seem strange when you consider that Japan is actually the most indebted country in the world with a debt level that reaches and even exceeds 225% of national GDP. The fact is that, compared to other countries, more than 90% of Japan's debt is held by the country itself and by the Japanese, while, for example, in the euro zone, less than 50% of the debt is held. The fact that Japan owns most of its debt means that it is not or only slightly affected by the vagaries of the financial markets with regard to its refinancing, even though global public debt is reaching record highs and the markets are increasingly influential at all levels. This specificity of Japan is unique in the world and in developed countries and leads to an additional interest in this currency on the part of investors.
Another element that makes the yen a low-risk security is the extremely large savings reserves that Japan has accumulated over time. These savings were made possible by the fact that Japan is still one of the world's largest exporters today.
Indeed, thanks to these specific characteristics in Japan, the yen is a currency that is often appreciated by traders in periods of major economic crisis, as shown by the historical graphs of the EUR/JPY or USD/JPY. For example, these graphs show that in 2008, as the subprime crisis is in full swing and the economic and financial crisis begins, there is renewed interest in the yen, which is recording many purchases on the foreign exchange market. The same will be true in 2011 in the midst of the debt crisis. Of course, and every time the situation improves and the crisis ends, we see a return to a decline in this value.
The relationship between the value of the yen and global economic health is a two-way street since the significant appreciation of this currency can be interpreted as a sign of a new period of crisis in the world.
The influence of the Japanese economy on the EUR/JPY rate:
While, as we have just seen with the safe haven status of the Yen, the EUR/JPY cross can be strongly influenced by global economic health, it is also under the direct influence of the Japanese economy.
Indeed, Japan is currently the fourth largest exporter in the world with more than $700 billion in exports per year. Among the most profitable and dominant sectors of activity in Japan is the automotive sector, which generates nearly 20% of its exports with both vehicles and spare parts, as well as the IT and technology sector, which accounts for nearly 7% of Japan's exports.
The observation of the evolution of the trade balance of this country is also interesting since it shows a sharp increase and is sometimes positive and sometimes negative. This variation in specific form is explained by the fact that while Japan exports a lot of goods, it also imports a lot of them, particularly raw materials such as oil, which accounts for more than 30% of the country's total imports.
It is also important to know that Japan's economy also depends to a large extent on the health of the Yen. Indeed, when the value of the yen tends to fall on the foreign exchange market, exports are favoured, which increases Japan's international competitiveness and thus tends to appreciate again. On the other hand, a yen that appreciates in value will eventually decline as it penalizes the country's growth by making it less competitive.
However, it can be noted that the Japanese economy has not shown significant variations for several decades now due to persistent deflation. However, the Japanese National Bank or BoJ is trying to reverse this trend by making quantitative easing measures that you will also need to take into account when analysing.
In conclusion of this article dedicated to the EUR/JPY, it can therefore be noted that the factors that influence this parity are many and varied. We will therefore consider both economic and political data from the euro zone as well as the safe haven status of the yen and Japan's economic cycles. But you should also closely monitor all announcements and decisions made by the ECB and BoJ central banks that have a direct influence on this cross. Finally, we will not neglect either the technical analysis which is essential in order to detect the strength and possible duration of a trend and which comes in addition to your fundamental analyses of these two currencies.
Start trading the EUR/JPY currency pair
The EUR/JPY currency pair is undoubtedly one of the most beneficial to trade in for investors that are interested in Forex trading as it benefits from numerous technical and fundamental indicators. Complete your own analyses starting now and take position on the Forex market.
76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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Q: Speed of sound in thin rods vs infinite solids This is a followup to this answer, which states that there are two different sound velocities in a solid depending on the geometry:

*

*For 3-dimensional, infinite solids, in which the boundaries are much bigger than the wavelength, we have
$$v = \sqrt{\frac{E(1-\nu)}{\rho(1+\nu)(1-2\nu)}}$$

*In contrast, for thin rods, in which the wavelength is larger than the diameter, we have
$$v = \sqrt{\frac {E}{\rho}}$$
But these are only for two extreme cases (wavelength significantly smaller than diameter and wavelength significantly bigger than diameter).
What about for non-thin rods with dimensions that are similar to the wavelength? For instance, if we start with a thin rod and keep increasing its diameter, then surely the speed of sound must continuously transition between the second equation and the first equation, but I can find no mention of this nor any theory that would describe these in-between speeds of sound. What am I missing?

A: Limiting cases such as $d\ll \lambda$ and $d \gg \lambda$, where $d$ is the transverse extent/boundary of the object and $\lambda$ is the wavelength of the acoustic wave, allow us to deduce analytical, closed-form results such as the ones you mentioned. Certainly, as you said, as we vary $d$ from much less than $\lambda$ to much greater than $\lambda$, the speed will generally interpolate between those two analytical formulae. But the intermediate result may not expressible in closed-form.

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Today for Science we learned all about recycling, compliments of the new Spur magazine (Well Done, Spur!) which had dedicated 2 pages to making a ship and a car out of a milk carton and a coke can respectively, to fit in with their travel theme.
When brainstorming the subject, the kids came up with so many great ideas and ways to introduce more recycling to our area, including recycling workshops and craft days in our new volunteers' flat! (Incidentally, the flat may be ready as soon as the end of next week, so get ready, people!) Jordan made the amazing ship with very little help, and Hannah and Rachel both made decoratively-painted bird feeders, plant pots, and patterned cups and bowls, all out of 2 litre plastic coke bottles! And with so many brightly coloured poster paints, Daniel and Sarah could join in and make something too!


The German text of the Foundation Stone Meditation reproduced here is as given by Rudolf Steiner to the members of the General Anthroposophical Society and as published in the Nachrichtenblatt, No. 1, January 13, 1924. The translator, Daisy Aldan, gratefully acknowledges the collaboration of Ingeborg Maresca.
It was George De Ris who first presented the Foundation Stone Meditation of Rudolf Steiner to me when, as a new member of the Anthroposophical Society, I began that 'voyage' into Anthroposophy. It has never ceased to be a source of healing, strength and revelation in the crises of life. Therefore, it has been a special joy for me to add my translation to those already existing, in the hope that it may shed another small light on this awe-inspiring work which will continue to reveal aspects of itself for generations to come. May I urge readers to use the translation only in conjunction with the original.
The original Foundation Stone was a double pentagon-dodecahedron made of copper which was laid into the ground for the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland. Ten years later, a tragic fire destroyed the nearly completed building. In 1923, at the Christmas Foundation meeting, Rudolf Steiner presented a 'spiritual Foundation Stone,' the 'Dodecahedron of Man,' as he called it, to the members of the newly-formed General Anthroposophical Society, which was to initiate a new phase in the revelation of the Mysteries of mankind. The meditation is mantric, that is, a spiritual revelation in which sound, form and rhythm integrate with the esoteric meaning which lies in layers of evocative multiplicity.
The mantram has four major divisions, three of which are in parallel structure, concerned with the threefold aspect of the human being, as a being of willing, feeling and thinking. A progression is in process. If the three divisions are placed side by side, the lines may also be read across, and there will occur an experience as of music, with major and minor themes, commingling vertically and horizontally, which directions in subtle variations, are evident throughout. Indeed, penetration into the complex structure will reveal a pentagonal dodecahedron implicit in the number of lines, directions indicated, etc.
Part four veers off into its own direction, yet encompasses, concludes and unifies the whole. Much more may be said of the intricate inner structure of the work, but the above will indicate the potent workmanship and artistry of its author.
It is not my intention in this brief introduction to enter into a study in depth of the far-reaching relationship of the Foundation Stone Meditation with the Lord's Prayer, or with the Macrocosmic Lord's Prayer given by Rudolf Steiner on the occasion in 1913 of the laying in the ground of the Foundation Stone for the first Goetheanum in Dornach, or with Knowledge of Higher Worlds, The Philosophy of Freedom, The Letters to the Members, and other works, but merely through direct concentration on the mantram itself, to point out some of the central directions of meaning which readers may then further pursue.
It is important to bear in mind that the meditation is addressed, not to mankind in general, but to the human soul.
In the first verse of part one, the soul is reminded that it has its existence within the limbs of the human being, the instruments of will, which bear him through the world of space. It is not physical space alone which is here referred to but space which leads into the being of the Spirit-ocean. The limbs may here be considered as arms, legs, and in a certain aspect, the head which is a kind of metamorphosed limb. A dynamic of direction is implied which makes the immediacy of the meditant's identification with the process of the mantram possible.
The head, mirroring the vault of heaven, is directed upward to the cosmos and thereby may connect with cosmic existence. The arms extend to the periphery in an exchange with the world — giving and receiving. The legs meet earth, and as they walk in the footsteps of one's biography, they create world destiny. To be aware of this is to begin liberation from imprisoning substance.
The soul is reminded to live in remembrance of Spirit. This does not imply that a horizontal line of memory of past events of earthly life be traced, but that a vertical direction should be charted to the origin of the soul itself within the breast of the Divine wherein it still has existence. The soul was involved in majestic Creation, and in that process, the individual began to evolve out of the great I AM. If the past is drawn into the present, the present with its vast potential may be enriched, and thereby, the future also is drawn into the point of presence. Thus the present is redeemed from fleeting insignificance and despair. The Self may be experienced as a participant in eternal world-being and becoming.
In verse two of part one is revealed that He who is referred to as 'The Father Spirit of Heights' descends into the depths to bring forth creative being — as a ceramist might bring forth and mold the amorphous clay with care and sensibility, imbuing it with his very essence.
The Spirits of Form are exhorted to sound forth the creative clarion call of shaping in such a way that the depths may respond, for nothing exists in isolation and that which is formed is created by the loving encounter with its creator. In this way, mankind itself has its origin in the Divine Thought and is responsively defined by that Divine.
Already the Elemental worlds of Spirit are aware of this great truth which is heard in the East, heard in the West, heard in the North, heard in the South. Those locations must not be conceived of as physical geography: They have particular esoteric significance and form a balancing cross, which image may serve as a support for the knowledge which is to penetrate into human souls. Through remembering their origin in Spirit, those souls will be enhanced by the ever-waxing revelation of the truth expressed.
In part two, the human soul is again addressed. It is reminded that not only does it have its existence in the limbs, but also in the pulsating of heart and lungs, the middle region. In this rhythmic beat and flow — diastole/systole, inbreathing/outbreathing, expansion/ contraction, the soul may grow conscious of Time — not merely chronological time, but the eternal rhythms of life and death. Meditation will reveal the soul's relationship to all cosmic being: the rotation of the planets and the fixed stars, day and night, the seasonal cycles, the passing years, the great epochs. It will breathe with oceans, winds, tempests, and will know itself as a being of feeling which makes of it an individual.
"Meditate on Spirit," urges the mantram, in conscious equanimity, and through deeds rising out of the heart's unsullied feeling, the union of the higher self with the I of evolving worlds will be revealed. Then will be overcome the tendencies to lose oneself in the flood of excessive sentimentality or to rigidity in the ice-cold regions of repression: in composure born of right meditation, with a sense of measure, creative deeds of love in community with free individuals will become possible. This community entered reality when the Christ united Himself with earthly destiny, and He now moves horizontally within the earth-sphere bestowing grace so that human beings may rise upright.
The Spirits of Light are beseeched to allow that which the East has to offer — spiritual insight — to ignite the defining capacity of the West, thereby creating a harmonious Middle. Through the sacrifice of the Christ — His union with earthly being — the twin evils of death — dissolution and rigidification — were transformed. Death becomes Life.
Already the beings of the world of Spirit in East, West, North, South, know this, and now it is time for human beings to grasp it. Through the free act of meditation, consciousness will dawn and as that dawn breaks, despair and death may be consumed.
In verse one, part three, the soul is addressed for the third time, and is reminded that not only does it realize existence in the limbs and in the throb of heart and lungs (will and feeling), but also in the realm of thinking, the calm reposing head.
In exercising control over all haphazard meandering, the soul may attune itself to the reception of universal thinking which makes human being possible. As the Great Poem, Cosmic Thought graces mankind. Through expanding Vision (in the larger sense of that word) to encompass spiritual reality, the growth of moral and creative intuition becomes possible. The soul recognizes itself present in that reality as the physical body is present in the world of nature.
The charting and defining aims of the Divine and the individual's own part in that process, clarify themselves. Light from universal thinking pours in to stir the will forces which are needed for evolving acts of destiny. Freedom from compulsive action, and deeds of love emerge through ennobled thinking. This may be designated as union with the Holy Spirit. Past, present and future become that pinpoint of conscious being. Illusion gives way to truth as what is perceived in all worlds unites with primal reality by means of thinking. The universal thought is ever present, awaiting the encounter with the vision of the human being which alone may individualize its essence.
The very Spirits of the Soul are petitioned to formulate in the depths the question which will draw forth an answer from the heights, for only the right question can accomplish this. Parsifal could become the Grail King only when he had learned to ask the appropriate question out of the depths of being.
Then the Heights will answer, and they will say: The soul may awake to know the universal thoughts of Spirit.
In Elemental worlds of Spirit this is known: in East, West, North and South. Through enlarging Vision to encompass spiritual being, mankind will grow in spiritual stature, and earthly existence itself thereby will be ennobled.
This day-Light began to stream into human hearts, for the Sun-Spirit came not for an elite but for all humanity — for simple shepherds whose hearts held innocent love, as well as for great rulers — Kings with golden wisdom. Now all might meet in equality around the Cradle of the Child — the I AM who brought redemption, renewal and the seed of freedom and individuality.
The mantram addresses this Majesty directly: "Christ-Sun"/Son, imploring Him to lead present humanity to flower from that seed of awakening planted at that turning point of time.
"Bring love into our hearts, wisdom into our heads," so that through our hearts' warmth, we may be receptive to those living thoughts which will stream into our will, enabling us to carve out our destiny and that of the world in harmony, in dignity, in truth and beauty.
Indeed, this might become reality if all mankind took into its heart and consciousness the Foundation Stone Meditation, for it is a healing source of strength and inspiration, a path which leads to a transubstantiation.
May human beings tend it!


Climax announces that its motorcycle racing game has received two nominations for the BAFTA Games Awards.
Following yesterday's news that Capcom's Viewtiful Joe has received three nominations for this year's inaugural BAFTA Games Awards, Climax has today announced that MotoGP 2: Ultimate Racing Technology has been nominated in both the Best Racing Game and Best Multiplayer Game categories. The winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony in February 2004.
"To have MotoGP 2: Ultimate Racing Technology nominated for two BAFTA Interactive Awards is a fantastic honor and a huge pat on the back for our development team," said Tony Beckwith, studio head of Climax in Brighton. "We always knew we had a winner on our hands, but the response to the game from such illustrious magazines and institutions as Edge and BAFTA has really taken us aback. It's a credit to the talent we have here that MotoGP 2 has achieved such recognition and widespread critical acclaim."
For more information on MotoGP 2, which has been available on the Xbox and PC since May, check out our full review of the game.


Shepherd's Hope is a unique mild, fresh sheep's milk cheese with a gentle citrus note at the finish. Another multiple award-winning cheese from Shepherd's Way Farms. Shepherd's Hope is exceptional with a crisp Chardonnay and a fresh baguette, or in a tomato basil salad.
But wait… haven't we had this cheese before?
However, there is something a little extra special about this specific batch of Shepherd's Hope.. You may recall from my last cheese update that I went down to the farm and spent the afternoon learning about Shepherd's Hope. More specifically about the drop in barometric pressure caused all the mama sheep to give birth to baby lambs all at once. 120 lambs to be precise!
After a mammal is born, it is extremely important that they have their mother's milk. This first milking is hyper packed with nutrients and protein and is called colostrum. This cheese IS NOT colostrum milk. Rather it is the first batch of cheese made from the mother sheep's milk after the baby lambs have had their fill.
Can't eat a whole roast? How about a Ketta Steak?
Generously brought to Minnesota's Iron Range by Italian immigrants, this boneless pork roast is a showstopper. Talk to any authentic Italian and they'll tell you exactly how their grandma makes it—and how yours should too. There are endless varieties of porchetta, but ours has gained some serious recognition. High praises from longtime Iron Rangers and multiple features in Bon Appetit are among those regards.
It would be a crime to deprive you of our Berkshire Porketta, so for the month of March we're sharing it with loyal customers like you! All of March, if you spend $150 you'll receive one free Porketta Steak! Just fill up your cart with $150 worth of Smokehaus goodies and follow the checkout process to proceed.
Free Porketta Steak Offer valid for orders of $150 or more using the pop-up box on the check-out page. Must click YES! in box to receive the free Porketta Steak.
Offer valid through the month of March and expires 3/30 at 11:59pm.
This offer is extended to our MAIL ORDER customers. The free Porketta Steak offer is not valid for customers of our other departments (Canal Park Deli, Delivery, Pick Up or Catering).
This recipe works well as a come-together-quick meal, as the heavily-spiced porketta does most of the flavor work for you.
1. Put a large pot of water on heat and heavily salt it. When it boils, cook pasta al dente. Reserve some of the pasta-cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over low heat and cook the onions slowly, adding a little salt, until they are golden. Toss in the porketta and increase the heat and stir the pan so that the onion and porketta are well combined and cook long enough to heat the porketta and render it a bit.
3. When it is browned, deglaze the pan with some of the starchy pasta water, lifting any of the glorious fond from the pan.
4. When the mixture is loosened, add cream and heat. Adjust salt and pepper. Turn heat down to low. Add pasta and toss to coat. If it seems too dry, add more starchy pasta water.
5. When the pasta is thoroughly combined and heated through, top with lemon zest and parsley and serve.
Last weekend, Nic and I had the pleasure to travel down to God's Country, southern Minnesota, where we spent the afternoon at Shepherd's Way Farm, a sheep & cheese farm. Jodi Ohlsen Read, the Master Cheesemaker, is a master of her craft and a badass person. For her, cheese and raising animals isn't her job, it's her life and passion…. And just as the barometric pressure dropped (when we got that big snowstorm) ALL of their pregnant sheep gave birth, AT ONCE! This can be a common phenomenon in the animal world.
Shepherd's Way cheese is classified as farmstead cheese – meaning that the animals are raised and milked—and the cheese is made—right on site. Not a very typical practice in this day and age.
A 2017 First Place American Cheese Society winner for Farmstead Sheep Milk, Friesago is a natural-rind semi-aged sheep milk cheese with a dense texture, pleasant mild flavor, and a slightly nutty finish. A multiple award-winner, Friesago is versatile as a table cheese and as a cooking cheese.
Substitute Asiago cheese with this local Friesago and you will thank yourself. Grate this over your pasta, soups, salads or try this: Brown some butter, drizzle it over thinly sliced smoked ham, then with a mandoline, thinly slice the cheese over it… man, oh man, I'm making this at my next dinner party. Woof. Or put it on your charcuterie plate.
A little tidbit about sheep's milk & cheese… sheep don't produce the same volume of milk as cows do (sheep yield about 1 qt of milk a day where a cow can be milked twice a day getting 8 qts). Sheep's milk has almost double the amount of protein in it (as well as double the amount of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, Vit. B6 and B12, and Vit. D, and the 10 essential amino acids) – meaning there is almost double the amount of solids in it, allowing you to produce the same amount of curds with significantly less the amount of milk. Wild, isn't it? And sheep's milk tends to be easier on the stomach for folks who cannot digest cow's milk.
OH! AND WE HAVE CHEESE CURDS FROM EICHTEN'S (out of Center City, Minnesota). We'll let you know!


text:
Kamrooz Aram at Lesley University
Lesley Porter Campus Unversity Hall Ampitheater 1815 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02140 (map)
Kamrooz Aram's diverse practice often engages the complicated relationship between traditional non-Western art and Western Modernism. Through a variety of forms including painting, collage, drawing and installation, Aram has found the potential for image-making to function critically in its use as a tool for a certain renegotiation of history.
His work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions and has been widely featured and reviewed in numerous international publications. Aram's practice occasionally extends beyond the studio to include writing, organizing exhibitions, and teaching part-time at Parsons, The New School for Design. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Source:: http://www.lesley.edu/mfa/visual-arts/visiting-artists/
Noah Fischer at Lesley University
Artie Vierkant at Lesley University


Ginny Weasley always knew that her brother and Hermione would get married one day. What she didn't count on was planning the wedding with Harry Potter- or the spirit of romance touching them both!
Harry is sick of people's attempts to make him feel better. Will Ginny's new appoach work?
The Wizarding world thinks Harry Potter is dead and now the search is on for his Secret-Keeper, Ginny Weasley.
He was heartbroken, he reminded himself.
Why is Ginny in the library, alone, on a lovely evening? Why is she agreeing to spend her last Hogsmeade weekend with a pregnant cat? Why is she eating enough chocolate to take care of dementors for miles around? Why did her feet just disappear? Never mind. Whatever, the reason, it is just right.
After the events of OotP, Harry, still mourning the loss of Sirius, focuses on preparing for the inevitable. Dumbledore brings several special tutors for Harry and his friends.
A letter from Ginny to Harry and his response. Summer after OoTP.


The Civic Scholars Program provides a rigorous, in-depth curriculum for undergraduate students who exemplify future potential for civic leadership. Sophomores are selected in a competitive merit-based process and learn together through their junior and senior years. The program includes intensive coursework, leadership training, and mentorship to prepare Scholars for a life dedicated to civic and community engagement, and a scholarship of $5,000 to support a substantial civic project or internship.


The O'Day Discovery Lodge is truly a one-of-a kind facility in Evansville and Vanderburgh County. Its spacious and engaging architecture make it an outstanding option for corporate parties, weddings, and other large events. Its multi-faceted appeal creates a welcoming environment for groups of up to 650. Truly the crown jewel of Tri-state.


Is it possible - Reservations on-line???
Is it possible to search and even book on sites such as Orbitz, Expedia .. etc .. with my husband needing a R/T into and out of FRA and I would need an open jaw into FRA and out of CDG? I know we could book 2 sep. tickets, but then we take the chance of not sitting near one another which I guess we could live with .. but would be nice to sit next to him.
I don't know about other carriers, but BA allows one to select (or change) seats any time up until departure. If the airline you settle on permits this, you could book the tickets separately, then choose adjacent seats from both reservations.
We like either two by the window where there only two seats, or two on the aisle in a four-seat row. And we put the person with shorter legs (Mme. Robespierre) on the aisle for ease of access by the big guy.
I think when you use Expedia it asks for a seat "preference" and that is communicated to the airline with no guarantees.
What you might want to do is use the search engine to find flights and then go to the airline directly; you should be able to get the same flights and perhaps at even slightly lower prices since Expedia, for example, tacks on a service charge.
If you can't find a matching fare, or seating accommodations on line, call them. Live agents can often do more than the websites.
Two different itineraries usually means two different PNRs (passenger records), at least in my experience. You can try asking the airline to link the PNRs if they can, or at least to put a notation on each. And while you're asking for that, also ask to be seated together. I'm on a separate ticket/PNR from the rest of my family for a trip to France in June, but we have seat assignments together.
Provence and nearby, plus Cote D'Azur - comments please.


It is very clear that WordPress has an amazing community. From the organisers and volunteers, to the sponsors and attendees. The community spirit was all around.
It was great, as a system administrator, to meet plugin developers. But the biggest thing that stood out, was the desire to work together with hosts, to help get the best from both their plugins and the hosts themselves.
The passion for everything WordPress was very obvious. I feel very lucky to have been able to share that passion with all levels of the community, be it developers, content writers or designers.
Accessibility was a key focus and was all around us. Making WordPress accessible in all ways, helps to bring us all together.
Five: Mike Little has an awesome record collection.
WordCamp is not just about WordPress. It is about friendships, meeting like minded people, working together and adding your part to a growing community of great people.


text:
Q: Trying to run a service in the background I've just started learning how to create simple android apps via some code examples.
I took an audio capture code example that had only used an Activity and wanted to add a Service to it. So that the user will click a button from the view and then the activity will start/stop the audio recording service.
The goal is that the user will enter the app, click the 'start' button and then the service will start and will remain in the background forever until he returns to the app and clicks 'stop'.
Problem is, whenever I leave the app and open the 'recent apps' and slide out my app, I can see the Congrats! MyService Created and the My Service Started messages for some reason. I'm not sure why the service is being restarted when I slide it out of the recent apps menu, I would expect it to either continue running or close..
record.java (activity):
package com.example.recordtocloud;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.media.MediaRecorder;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.content.Intent;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class record extends Activity {
    /**
     * Called when the activity is first created.
     */

    private Button start,stop,play;
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        start = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button1);
        stop = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button2);
        play = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button3);

        //stop.setEnabled(false);
        //play.setEnabled(false);

    }

    public void start(View view){
        startService(new Intent(this, recordbg.class));

        //start.setEnabled(false);
        //stop.setEnabled(true);
        //Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Recording started", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    }

    public void stop(View view){
        stopService(new Intent(this, recordbg.class));

        //stop.setEnabled(false);
        //play.setEnabled(true);
        //Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Audio recorded successfully",
                //Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    public void play(View view) throws IllegalArgumentException,
            SecurityException, IllegalStateException, IOException{

        MediaPlayer m = new MediaPlayer();
        m.setDataSource(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().
                getAbsolutePath() + "/myrecording.3gp");
        m.prepare();
        m.start();
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Playing audio", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    }
}

recordbg.java (service):
package com.example.recordtocloud;

import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.media.MediaRecorder;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.os.IBinder;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.util.Log;

import java.io.IOException;

public class recordbg extends Service {
    private MediaRecorder myAudioRecorder;
    private String outputFile = null;
    private static final String TAG = "recordbg";

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Congrats! MyService Created", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        Log.d(TAG, "onCreate");

        outputFile = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().
                getAbsolutePath() + "/myrecording.3gp";

        myAudioRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
        myAudioRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
        myAudioRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
        myAudioRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.AMR_NB);
        myAudioRecorder.setOutputFile(outputFile);
    }

    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "My Service Started", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        Log.d(TAG, "onStart");
        try {
            myAudioRecorder.prepare();
            myAudioRecorder.start();

        } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        Toast.makeText(this, "MyService Stopped", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        Log.d(TAG, "onDestroy");
        myAudioRecorder.stop();
        myAudioRecorder.release();
        myAudioRecorder  = null;
    }
}

A: A "forever" background service don't exist in Android for two reasons:

*

*Without a wakelock the cpu can go to deep sleep;

*OS can kill your process at any time.

For the point 1) you can grab a wakelock to keep the cpu awake. For the point 2) you could create a foreground service. A foreground service can be killed by the OS but with a very low probability.
Edit:
Update your code because you have to implement onStartCommand() instead of onStart(), See here


text:
My First: Love of the Game
A dad, a daughter and baseball
by Brianna Brey
Let's call it the female Field of Dreams effect, a transitive property: My dad loves baseball. Ergo, I love baseball.
While dad and I have had our clashes, in the world of strikeouts and batting averages, dirt and dugouts, we understand each other effortlessly.
April through September: Baseball season was always daddy-daughter time in the Brey household. Dad may not have a college degree, but he does have an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport and peppered my childhood with historical baseball facts. Details about Pete Rose's betting-on-baseball debacle, reciting memorized ironic Yogi Berra quotes, and revisiting passages form "On Your Toes in Baseball," a long out-of-print book that details every possible baseball play scenario. We spent hours together on the couch, screen door open, watching innings lazily melt away. Baseball was our summer secret.
Maybe he wanted a boy. Growing up an only child I worried about that a lot. Baseball was my way to fill the void of the father-son connection he would never have. At six, Dad bought me my first tiny leather glove and taught me how to throw a softball that barely fit inside it. By 8, I was chasing pop flies around the yard, diving in the dirt for grounders he skidded at me. By 11, I learned to underhand fast-pitch, although I was no Jennie Finch (hello, Team USA medal winner!). Then, the beginning of the end: At 14, I quit softball to pursue a short-lived career in ballet, a decision that I know broke Dad's heart even though he never said it out loud.
Baseball provided so many firsts in my life. Inevitably, my first crush was a baseball player. Derek Jeter. Although I seem to remember also having a thing for Scott Brosius, a goofy-looking mid-'90s third baseman for the Yankees, but perhaps that was just because he stood so close to Jeter.
When my dad took me to my first professional baseball game, a bum set of directions from an early version of MapQuest led him down some Anaheim back alley, making us miss the pre-game batting practice he so desperately wanted to watch. My first time lost in the big city. I don't think he's ever fully forgiven the Internet for that.
My dad loves baseball so much that he doesn't even have a favorite team. He roots for the best possible game, whichever will make the series last longer, so he can keep sipping Coors and listening to the overzealous announcers on the boombox in the garage. Other sports never held the same charm because Dad didn't love them like he loved baseball. Thanks to him, baseball is my first and forever favorite.
Even though I haven't played catch in years, I still love baseball. I love the smell of freshly cut grass. I love the clean white foul lines extending sharply into the outfield. I love dirt warning tracks and the hot, shadeless plastic seats. I love knowing players' batting averages and the difference between the National and American leagues, even when no one else cares. I love the slow-building excitement of the postseason. I love hot dogs and beer and peanuts. More than all of that, I love my Dad, and I love all of these things because he loves them. SW
Summer Guide directory: Read the rest of our Summer Guide "Firsts," HERE.
Bend Elks Home Game Schedule
Vince Genna Stadium, 401 SE Roosevelt Ave.
Wed. 12, 6:35 pm vs. Cowlitz
Thu. 13, 6:35 pm vs. Cowlitz
Fri. 14, 6:35 pm vs. Cowlitz
Sat. 15, 6:35 pm vs. Kitsap
Sun. 16, 2:05 pm vs. Kitsap DH
Tue. 25, 6:35 pm vs. Corvallis
Wed. 26, 6:35 pm vs. Corvallis
Thu. 27, 6:35 pm vs. Corvallis
Sat. 29, 6:35 pm vs. Kelowna, BC
Sun. 30, 5:05pm vs. Kelowna, BC
Mon. 1, 6:35 pm vs. Kelowna, BC
Tue. 2, 6:35 pm vs. Klamath Falls
Wed. 3, 6:35 pm vs. Klamath Falls
Tue. 9, 6:35 pm vs. Top Speed
Wed. 10, 6:35 pm vs. Medford
Thu. 11, 6:35 pm vs. Medford
Fri 12, 6:35 pm vs. Medford
Sat.13, 6:35 pm vs. San Francisco
Sun. 14, 5 pm vs. San Francisco
Tue. 16, 6:35 pm vs. Klamath Falls
Wed. 17, 6:35 pm vs. Puget Sound
Tue. 23, 6:35 pm vs. Thurston County
Sat. 27, 6:35 pm vs. Wenatchee
Sun. 28, 5:05 pm vs. Wenatchee
Mon. 29, 6:35 pm vs. Wenatchee
Tue. 30, 6:35 pm vs. Cowlitz
Thu. 1, 6:35 pm vs. Cowlitz
Fri. 9, 6:35 pm vs. WallaWalla
Sat. 10, 6:35 pm vs. WallaWalla
Sun. 11, 5:05 pm vs. WallaWalla
My First: Whitewater Kayaking
by Kristine Swann
My First: Concert
by Ethan Maffey
Summer Guide!
My First: Camp
by Phil Busse
My First: Road Trip
by Sara Freedman
Summer First: Getting Started
by Susanne Flynn
My First: Summer in Bend
by Catrina Gregory
More by Brianna Brey
Source Suggests 1/28-2/4
A rundown of Bend's pinball machines and bar games
A Philosophical Sage
Wordsmith Sage Francis breaks the mold


text:
mother-and-baby homes
zappone
Cabinet approves legislation to excavate site of Tuam mother and baby home
Between 1925 and 1960, 796 children died at the Tuam mother and baby home.
By Garreth MacNamee Tuesday 10 Dec 2019, 12:58 PM
Dec 10th 2019, 12:58 PM 10,863 Views 16 Comments
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The site at Tuam.
Image: RollingNews.ie
CHILDREN'S MINISTER KATHERINE Zappone today announced that Cabinet has approved legislation which will allow the phased excavation of the mass burial site at the Tuam mother and baby home.
In a statement this afternoon, Zappone said that the Certain Institutional Burials bill will give a legal basis to carry out a "programme of phased, forensic standard excavation, exhumation and re-internment of remains at the site of the mother and baby home in Tuam".
In March 2017, the Commission into mother and baby homes confirmed that a "significant" number of human remains were discovered at the site of the former church-run home for unwed mothers. Scientific analysis put the age of death between 35 foetal weeks and two to three years.
Experts have previously said that the excavation of the site will be extremely complex, and that identification of the remains would be difficult, primarily because they would have "comingled".
Zappone's statement this afternoon added that the Government has approved the arrangements necessary to facilitate the transfer of the €2.5 million by the Sisters of Bon Secours towards the cost of the action.
She added that the bill will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible.
Zappone said: "I know that family members of the children interred at the site in Tuam have been eagerly awaiting this development and I am pleased that agreement on a general scheme marks a significant milestone on our journey to afford those buried the dignity and respect that they deserve.
"I am also mindful that local residents will be impacted by action taken at the site and I am confident that the general scheme strike an appropriate balance between doing what is right for the deceased, while minimising negative effects for those living nearby."
With reporting by Christina Finn
Garreth MacNamee
garreth@thejournal.ie
See more articles by Garreth MacNamee
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Under the motto "The World is our Guest," an intensive programme awaited the participants, some of whom had travelled far, including guests from Japan, Dubai, Costa Rica and Argentina. They were welcomed by company owner Günther Weber as well as Josef Zerle, Head of Sales and Markus Frick.
In a workshop headed by location manager Markus Frick, the participants learned a lot of interesting facts about the robust properties and high profitability of Weber stainless steel blades. They are produced in Weber's Groß Nemerow blade factory and marketed under the name Durablade®. The blade are then used in the Weber slicers, to cut lunch meat, meat, cheese and other foods. "We at Weber believe comprehensive product knowledge is very important for all Weber sales representatives. Regular training courses refresh technical knowledge and teach staff what they need to know to convince buyers with technical arguments in a tough market," is how Markus Frick describes the purpose of the event.
At the Groß Nemerow location, education and continuing professional development of specialised employees, who perform all production steps under one roof here, is the priority – those employees can now operate the automated production equipment including robot control introduced in the last two years, for example. Beyond the design and manufacturing, the Weber location in Groß Nemerow also has a test laboratory for quality assurance via complete quality control and its own research and development department.


text:
Donating money, buying happiness
April 2022: Update to our analysis
Since this post was published, we've updated our analysis to include household spillovers. This decreases the relative cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy from 12x to 9x cash transfers.
1. Background and Summary
In order to do as much good as possible, we need to compare how much good different things do in a single 'currency'. At the Happier Lives Institute (HLI), we believe the best approach is to measure the effects of different interventions in terms of 'units' of subjective wellbeing (e.g. self-reports of happiness and life satisfaction).
In this post, we discuss our new research comparing the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy to cash transfers. To see the advantage of making comparisons in terms of subjective wellbeing, it will help to flag some alternative methods. We could assess the effect they have on wealth, but this would fail to capture the benefits of psychotherapy. It's implausible to think that treating depression is only good insofar as it helps you to earn more. We could assess their effects using standard measures of health, such as a Disability-Adjusted Life-Year (DALY), but it's similarly mistaken to think that alleviating extreme poverty is only good insofar as it helps you to be healthier. We could make some arbitrary assumptions about how much a given change in income and DALYs each contribute to wellbeing; this would allow us to 'trade' between them. But this would just be a guess and could be badly wrong. If we measure the effects on subjective wellbeing, how individuals feel and think about their lives, we can provide an evidence-based comparison in units that more fully capture what we think really matters.
Efforts to work out the global priorities for improving subjective wellbeing are relatively new. Earlier work conducted by HLI's Director, Michael Plant, has indicated that this approach might reveal different priorities, with mental health standing out as one area that is crucial for subjective wellbeing. Plant's (2018, 2019 ch. 7) prior back-of-the-envelope calculations indicated that StrongMinds, a mental health charity which treats women with depression in Africa, could be as cost-effective as GiveWell's top charity recommendations.
These initial findings motivated us to do a much more rigorous analysis of the same interventions in terms of subjective wellbeing, so we undertook meta-analyses in each case. These aimed to address three questions:
1. Is assessing cost-effectiveness in terms of subjective wellbeing feasible: are there enough data that we can make these sorts of comparisons without making major assumptions to fill in the blanks?
2. Is this approach worthwhile: does it indicate new or different priorities?
3. Does this specific comparison between cash transfers and psychotherapy indicate that donors and decision-makers should change the way they allocate their resources, assuming they want to do the most good?
Our research focused specifically on studies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our meta-analyses consist of 45 studies (total participants=116,999) for cash transfers and 39 studies (total participants=29,643) for psychotherapy. We assessed their cost-effectiveness using measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) and mental health (MHa), which we combined (see section 2.2 for more details).
We estimate that the average psychotherapy intervention in our dataset would be 12 times (95% CI: 4, 27) more cost-effective than the average monthly cash transfer. We used this wider evidence base to estimate the cost-effectiveness of two charities that are highly effective at implementing each type of intervention: Give Directly (which provides $1,000 lump-sum cash transfers) and StrongMinds (which provides psychotherapy). When we repeated the analysis for these specific charities, adjusting for how they differed to the average intervention of their type, we found that StrongMinds is 12 times (95% CI: 4, 24) more cost-effective than GiveDirectly.
A few aspects of this research are worth highlighting. First, this is an empirically substantial, meta-analytic approach compared to the back-of-the-envelope calculation in Plant (2019), therefore we can be more confident in our pooled estimates. Second, meta-analyses only tend to report the initial effects of the intervention. We estimated the effects over time and the average costs which means we can calculate cost-effectiveness (which is not possible just with initial effects). Third, we used Monte Carlo simulations to generate our estimates. Rather than using a single number for each part of the cost-effectiveness analysis (e.g. a single number for cost) Monte Carlo simulations involve specifying a range of possible values for each input, then recalculating the results over and over, using a randomly drawn number for each input. This allows us to better account for uncertainty and to assign confidence intervals to our final cost-effectiveness estimate.
What are the main conclusions to draw from this new analysis? Let's return to the three stated aims in turn.
First, such an analysis was feasible. There was more than enough data for a meta-analysis, although we did have to pool 'classic' subjective wellbeing measures (happiness and life satisfaction) with mental health measures (see section 2.2). Aggregating in this way has some precedent (Banerjee et al., 2020; Egger et al., 2020; Haushofer et al., 2020; Luhmann et al., 2012).
Second, performing cost-effectiveness analysis in terms of subjective wellbeing does seem worthwhile. We found that StrongMinds was 12 times more cost-effective than GiveDirectly. This 12x multiple puts StrongMinds roughly on a par with GiveWell's top-rated life-improving charities – these mostly focus on deworming. Although GiveWell recommends GiveDirectly, it estimates it to be 10-20x less cost-effective than it's top deworming charities, in terms of years of doubled consumption. Hence, if we take these multiples at face value, StrongMinds is in the same ballpark as the top-rated life-improving interventions.
The third aim of this research was to determine if donors should allocate their resources differently. The picture here is more complicated. As noted, taking the multiples at face value, StrongMinds is on a par with GiveWell's top life-improving interventions, it is not more cost-effective. However, we have not yet looked deeply into deworming ourselves and we would not be surprised if doing so indicated substantially different conclusions.
We suspect that deworming will turn out to be less effective than GiveWell currently estimates (relative to cash transfers and in terms of subjective wellbeing). In GiveWell's model of the effect of deworming, its benefits come almost entirely from improved educational attendance which, in turn, causes a small annual increase in income for many years. Hence, although it is a health intervention, the effect comes through reducing poverty. One issue is that a small, annual income increase may have less effect on wellbeing compared to a single, potentially life-changing lump sum, even if the total increase in lifetime income is the same (the $1,000 lump sum given by GiveDirectly is equivalent to a year of household income). We have raised this concern with GiveWell and you can read the relevant section of our conversation notes here. In our meta-analysis of cash transfers, we find that monthly transfers are about 2.5 times less cost-effective than large lump sums, which suggests that a non-trivial downward adjustment to deworming (relative to cash transfers) may be appropriate. However, it's also possible we will conclude that deworming has a more substantial and positive impact on health than GiveWell currently models, which would raise its cost-effectiveness.
For any donors who need to make an immediate decision, our weakly-held view is that StrongMinds is more cost-effective than any of GiveWells' top life-improving charities. We plan to conduct further analysis of deworming over the next few months and expect to be able to make a more confident claim then.
Given all this, we believe it is both feasible and worthwhile to investigate more interventions in terms of subjective wellbeing. As well as deworming, we have several interventions that we're excited to look at. Based on our shallow analyses so far, we think there's a good chance these interventions will be more cost-effective than psychotherapy. They run the gamut of 'micro' interventions, such as providing clean water, cement flooring, and cataract surgery, to 'macro' interventions, such as advocating to integrate wellbeing metrics in public policy to improve institutional decision-making.
The following sections of this post go on to summarise our three in-depth cost-effectiveness analyses: one on cash transfers (which includes our analysis of GiveDirectly); one on psychotherapy in general; and one on StrongMinds specifically. Our results are summarized below in Figure 1, where the lines with a steeper slope reflect a higher cost-effectiveness in terms of MHa and SWB improvements. Each point is a single run of a Monte Carlo simulation for the intervention, mapping the uncertainty around our estimates of the effects and the costs. Although our estimates for psychotherapy and StrongMinds are more uncertain than cash transfers, we still estimate that they are more cost-effective at improving subjective wellbeing.
Figure 1: Cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy compared to cash transfers
Note: We assume that GiveDirectly CTs are as effective as other lump-sum CTs, but we think GiveDirectly probably has lower operating costs. This is why we do not display them separately.
2. Cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs)
2.1 Cash transfers (see full analysis)
Cash transfers (CTs) are direct payments made to people living in poverty. They have been extensively studied and implemented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and offer a simple and scalable way to reach people suffering from extreme financial hardship.
Our cash transfers cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) determines the cost-effectiveness of lump-sum CTs and monthly CTs in LMICs using standard deviation (SD) changes in subjective wellbeing (SWB) and affective mental health (MHa) . We use 'affective mental health' to refer to the class of mental health disorders and measures (e.g. PHQ9, CESD20, GHQ12, and GAD7) that relate to lower levels of affect or mood (depression, distress, and anxiety). Measures of affective mental health differ from measures of SWB because they also include questions that ask about how well someone is functioning such as the quality of someone's appetite, sleep quality, and concentration. These factors influence, but do not constitute, someone's mood. This analysis provides us with a well-evidenced benchmark that we can use to compare a wide range of interventions.
Much of our analysis extends a meta-analysis of the effect of cash transfers on SWB and MHa in LMICs by McGuire, Kaiser, and Bach-Mortensen (2020). That paper is the result of a collaboration between HLI researchers and academics at the University of Oxford and has been conditionally accepted for publication by Nature Human Behaviour. We think this meta-analysis summarizes the entire extant literature on how cash transfers affect SWB. Our CEA uses the same data (45 studies, 114,274 individuals in LMICs) and shares some analysis on the effectiveness of cash transfers. It expands on the meta-analysis by adding cost information and estimating the total benefit we expect a recipient of a cash transfer to accrue. Please refer to the meta-analysis for more background on cash transfers and a more thorough description of the evidence base.
Our models for estimating the effectiveness of lump-sum CTs and monthly CTs are presented in Figure 2 below. The chart on the left shows the relationship between time and the effect on SWB and MHa. As we expect, the effects decay over time. The chart on the right shows the relationship between the value of a CT and the effect on SWB and MHa. Unsurprisingly, the effect is greater for larger CTs (although the data is quite noisy). We haven't differentiated between the effects on SWB and MHa. Our sample of studies was too underpowered to break down the analyses by both delivery mechanism and measure type (SWB or MHa). But the point estimates suggested that the differences between the measure types were small. For instance, using only SWB measures leads to a 2% and 13% increase in the total effect for monthly and lump CTs. These seemed like sufficient reasons to keep SWB and MHa pooled for our main analysis.
Figure 2: The effect of cash transfers in relation to time and value
Note: These results only display the bivariate relationship between value, time, and the effect.
We present the estimated cost-effectiveness of CTs in Table 1, alongside the per-person effects and per-transfer costs. To get the confidence intervals for the effect and cost we ran Monte Carlo simulations in R where each parameter was drawn from a normal distribution based on its standard error (for regression coefficients) or standard deviations for the cost.
Table 1: Estimated cost-effectiveness of lump-sum CTs and monthly CTs
Cost to deliver
$1,000 in CTs Effect in SDs of wellbeing
per $1,000 in CTs SDs in wellbeing
per $1,000 spent on CTs
Lump-sum CTs
(GiveDirectly) $1,185
($1,098, $1,261) 1.09
(0.33, 2.08) 0.92
(0.28, 1.77)
Monthly CTs $1,277
Note: Below the estimate is its 95% confidence interval which was calculated by inputting the regression and cost results into a Monte Carlo simulation.
Notably, the estimated total effect of a $1,000 lump-sum CT provided by GiveDirectly is about twice as large as the effect of $1,000 transferred in monthly increments by (mostly) governments. This seems like a suspiciously large difference at first, since we do not think a priori that giving people of similar means the same sum should have dramatically different effects. Some possible explanations we have considered include:
Lump-sum CTs can be invested more profitably, leading to higher total consumption and benefit. However, monthly CTs could lead to smoother consumption and that could benefit the recipient.
Governments in LMICs suffer from corruption, while GiveDirectly is a respected charity known for the strength of its organisation.
Many government CTs require individuals to travel in-person to a collection point while GiveDirectly CTs are transferred automatically using the mobile banking platform M-Pesa.
GiveDirectly also provides cell phones and a bank account to recipients without it. Although they take the value of the phone out of the transfer, this could plausibly provide an additional benefit to the recipient.
There are three main limitations to our analysis.
Firstly, the recipient is plausibly not the only person impacted by a cash transfer. They can share it with their partner, children, and even friends or neighbours. Such sharing should benefit non-recipients' wellbeing. However, it's also possible that any benefit that non-recipients receive could be offset by envy of their neighbour's good fortune. There appears to be no evidence of significant negative within-village spillover effects, but there is some evidence for positive within-household and across-village spillover effects. We have not included these spillover effects in our main analysis because of the large uncertainty about the relative magnitude of spillovers across interventions and the slim evidence available to estimate the household spillover effects.
Secondly, we have not extensively reviewed the evidence that explores the mechanisms through which CTs improve the SWB of their recipients. This limits our ability to estimate the effects of income gains through other means, such as deworming. For instance, we have so far found little evidence regarding how much of the benefit of a CT is contingent on recipients' relative versus absolute improvement in material circumstances. Is the benefit due to recipients making beneficial comparisons to those who didn't receive a CT or is it because of the absolute change in the recipients' living standards as a result of higher consumption? If the channel for CTs to improve SWB and MHa primarily runs through social comparison, then that would suggest that the effects would be smaller for an intervention that increases everyone's income in an area.
Thirdly, we have sparse data on the long term effects of CTs on SWB. There is only one study that follows up with its recipients after five years. Having long-term follow-ups of CTs is important for understanding the persistence of CTs benefit, and thus the total benefit they provide to their recipients.
2.2 Psychotherapy (see full analysis)
Having determined the cost-effectiveness of cash transfers in terms of subjective wellbeing, we can now conduct a direct comparison with the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy.
Psychotherapies vary considerably in the strategies they employ to improve mental health, but some common types of psychotherapy are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and interpersonal therapy (IPT). Our analysis does not focus on a particular form of psychotherapy. Previous meta-analyses find mixed evidence supporting the superiority of any one form of psychotherapy for treating depression (Cuijpers et al., 2019).
Instead, we focus our analysis on the average intervention-level cost-effectiveness of any form of face-to-face psychotherapy delivered to groups or by non-specialists deployed in LMICs. As before, we seek to measure the effect as the benefit they provide to subjective wellbeing (SWB) and affective mental health (MHa).
We extracted data from 39 studies that appeared to be delivered by non-specialists and/or to groups from five meta-analytic sources, and any additional studies we found in our search for the costs of psychotherapy. These studies are not exhaustive. We stopped collecting new studies due to time constraints and our estimation of diminishing returns. We aimed to include all RCTs of psychotherapy with outcome measures of SWB or MHa but only found studies with measures of MHa.
In Table 2, we display our estimated post-treatment effects and how long they last for the average psychotherapy intervention in our sample. The post-treatment effects are estimated to be between 0.342 and 0.611 SDs of MHa. After running further regressions, we found evidence that group psychotherapy is more effective than psychotherapy delivered to individuals which is in line with other meta-analyses (Barkowski et al., 2020; Cuijpers et al., 2019). One explanation for the superiority is that the peer relationships formed in a group provide an additional source of value beyond the patient-therapist relationship.
Table 2: Post-treatment effect and decay through time
(linear) Model 2
(exponential)
Effect at post-treatment
(SDs of MHa improved) 0.574 0.457
95% CI (0.434, 0.714) (0.342, 0.611)
Annual decay of benefits
(SDs lost in M1, % kept in M2) -0.104 71.5%
95% CI (-0.197, -0.010) ( 53%, 96.5%)
Total effect at 5.5 yrs
(end of linear model effects) 1.59 1.56
Total effect at 10 yrs 1.59 1.78
Before we compare the total effect of psychotherapy to cash transfers, we discount interventions with relatively lower-quality evidence. We estimate that the evidence base for psychotherapy overestimates its efficacy relative to cash transfers by 11% (95% CI: 0%, 40%) because psychotherapy has lower sample sizes on average and fewer unpublished studies, both of which are related to larger effect sizes in meta-analyses.
We reviewed 28 sources that estimated the cost of psychotherapy and included 11 in our summary of the costs of delivering psychotherapy (see Figure 3 below). Nearly all are from academic studies except the cost figures for StrongMinds. The cost of treating an additional person with lay-delivered psychotherapy ranges from $50 to $659.
Figure 3: Distribution of the cost of psychotherapy interventions
Having established estimates for the cost and the effectiveness of psychotherapy, we can now show in Table 3, that psychotherapy is estimated to be 12 times (95% CI: 4, 27) more cost-effective than cash transfers.
Table 3: Comparison of cash transfers to psychotherapy in LMICs
Cash Transfers Psychotherapy
Total effect on SWB & MHa 0.50
Cost per intervention $1,277
($1,109, $1,440) $360
($30, $631)
(per $1,000 USD spent) 0.40 SDs
(0.17, 0.75) 4.30 SDs
(1.1, 24)
Note: 95% CIs are presented in parenthesis below the estimate.
In Figure 4, we take the results in Table 3 and show the results of simulations that compare the cost-effectiveness of each intervention. The total effect is on the y-axis and the total cost is on the x-axis for both interventions. Each point represents a run of a simulation. The higher the slope of the line, the more cost-effective the intervention. What should be clear is that the distributions of cost-effectiveness do not overlap. However, we do not include spillover effects on the household or the community in our comparison. Spillover effects are much more uncertain for reasons we explained earlier.
The following considerations and limitations are discussed in detail in our full psychotherapy CEA report:
There may be issues with assuming that a 1 SD improvement in MHa scores is equivalently informative about wellbeing as a 1 SD increase in SWB measures (such as happiness or life satisfaction). For example, changes in MHa may poorly predict changes in SWB. This does not appear to be a concern in practice because the measures seem both highly correlated and to give similar answers in meta-analyses of psychological interventions. That being said, we have not looked into the matter deeply. If using different measures gives different answers, then we would need to establish a conversion rate between MHa and SWB measures. Converting between measures of wellbeing requires both evidence of how these measures relate and judgements on which measures better proxy what really matters. We acknowledge that this is a source of uncertainty that further research could work to reduce.
The mental health scores for recipients of different programmes might have different-sized standard deviations. For example, the SD could be 15 for cash transfers and 20 for psychotherapy, on a given mental health scale. This would bias our comparisons across interventions.
Cost data are sparse for psychotherapy. Studies that report costs often make it unclear what their cost encompasses, which makes the comparison of costs across studies less certain.
Data on the long-term effects of psychotherapy (beyond 2 years) are also very sparse. Given we need to know the total effect over time, this means a key parameter – duration – is estimated with relatively little information.
We do not incorporate spillover effects of psychotherapy into our main analysis. This may matter if the relative sizes of household spillovers differ substantially between interventions, but at the moment we do not have clear evidence to indicate that they do.
2.3 Strong Minds (see full analysis)
Having established that psychotherapy appears to be more cost-effective than cash transfers in terms of subjective wellbeing, we now need to identify the best donation opportunities for those who wish to direct more financial resources towards this intervention. We will now explain why we think StrongMinds is likely to be one of the best opportunities of this type.
In 2019, HLI began the Mental Health Programme Evaluation Project (MHPEP) to identify the most cost-effective charities delivering psychotherapy interventions in LMICs. The first round of the evaluation began with a review of 76 interventions from the Mental Health Innovation Network, from which we identified 13 priority programmes for further evaluation. Our screening criteria included: whether the intervention is targeted at depression, anxiety or stress disorders in LMICs; whether a controlled trial has been conducted on the programme; and an initial evaluation of cost-effectiveness. You can read more about the process we followed here.
In 2020, we began reaching out to organisations that deliver one of our priority programs. Unfortunately, many of the people we approached did not respond or told us they didn't have enough time to participate. The only organisation that was on our shortlist and did provide detailed cost information was StrongMinds, a non-profit founded in 2013 that provides group interpersonal psychotherapy (g-IPT) to impoverished women in Uganda and Zambia. As a result, StrongMinds was one of the organisations we were most excited about prior to doing any detailed analysis. Friendship Bench, another promising mental health NGO, has since offered to provide us with their cost data, but we have not been able to review it yet.
Our cost-effectiveness analysis of StrongMinds builds on previous work by Founders Pledge (Halstead et al., 2019) in three ways. First, we combined broader evidence from the psychotherapy literature with direct evidence of StrongMinds' effectiveness in order to increase the robustness of our estimates. Secondly, we updated the direct evidence of StrongMinds' costs and effectiveness to reflect the most recent information. Lastly, we designed our analysis to include the cost-effectiveness of all StrongMinds' programmes. This allows us to compare the impact of a donation to StrongMinds to other interventions, such as unconditional cash transfers delivered by GiveDirectly.
We estimate the total effect of StrongMinds on the individual recipient to be an expected 1.92 SD (95% CI: 1.1, 2.8) improvement in MHa scores. Figure 5 visualises the trajectory of the effects of StrongMinds' core programme compared to the average lay- or group-delivered psychotherapy through time.
Figure 5: Trajectory of StrongMinds compared to lay psychotherapy in LMICs
StrongMinds records their average cost of providing treatment to a person and has shared the most recent figures for each programme with us. We assume that StrongMinds can continue to treat people at levels of cost comparable to previous years. It is also worth noting that StrongMinds defines treatment as attending more than six sessions (out of 12) for face-to-face modes and more than four for teletherapy. If we had used the cost per person reached (attended at least one session), then the average cost would decrease substantially.
Having incorporated all our uncertainties into a Monte Carlo simulation, we estimate that a $1,000 donation to StrongMinds will result in a 12 SD (95% CI: 7.2, 20) improvement in MHa. This range of uncertainty is similar to that of the core programme (95% CI: 8.2 to 24 SDs). This may sound very large, but we expect that $1,000 will cover the treatment of around seven people. We show the distribution of this estimate in Figure 6 below.
Figure 6: Distribution of overall cost-effectiveness of a $1000 donation to StrongMinds
The following considerations and limitations are discussed in detail in our full StrongMinds CEA report:
Will StrongMinds' transition to implementing g-IPT through partners positively impact its cost-effectiveness?
Do current calculations underestimate StrongMinds' cost-effectiveness by excluding the effect and cost of those who did not complete treatment?
2.4 Comparison
Figure 7 illustrates a simulation of the comparison between psychotherapy, StrongMinds, monthly cash transfers, and GiveDirectly. Each point is an estimate given by a single run of a Monte Carlo simulation. Lines with a steeper slope reflect a higher cost-effectiveness in terms of SWB and MHa. Bold lines reflect the cost-effectiveness gradient of interventions, while grey lines are for reference. In this comparison, a $1,000 donation to StrongMinds is around 12 times (95% CI: 4, 24) more cost-effective than a comparable donation to GiveDirectly.
Figure 7: Cost-effectiveness of StrongMinds compared to GiveDirectly
A word of caution is warranted when interpreting these results. Our comparison to cash transfers is only based on affective mental health. We were unable to find any studies that used direct measures of SWB to determine the effects of psychotherapy, so it remains to be seen whether the impacts are substantially different when using those measures instead.
Additionally, this comparison only includes the effects on the individual and it is possible that the spillover effects differ considerably between interventions. That being said, even if we take the upper range of GiveDirectly's total effect on the household of the recipient (8 SDs), psychotherapy is still around twice as cost-effective.
In Table 4 we present the exact figures shown in the comparison of Figure 7. The key takeaway from showing the exact figures we used is to show that this result is driven mostly by the difference in the cost of each intervention, not the effectiveness.
Table 4: StrongMinds compared to GiveDirectly
lump-sum CTs StrongMinds
psychotherapy Multiple of StrongMinds
to GiveDirectly
Initial effect 0.24 0.79
(0.11, 0.43) (0.52, 1.2)
Effect duration in years 8.7 5.0
(4, 19) (3, 10)
Total effect on SWB & MHa 1.1 1.7 Explains 13% of the difference in c-e
(0.33, 2.1) (1.1, 2.8)
Cost per intervention $1,185 $128 Explains 87% of the difference in c-e
($1,098, $1,261) ($70, $300)
per $1,000 USD 0.92 11.8 StrongMinds is
12x more cost-effective
(0.28, 1.8) (7, 21) (4, 24)
Note: 95% confidence intervals are shown below the estimates.
3. Conclusions and next steps
We think these reports show that working out how to do the most good by using subjective wellbeing is feasible and worthwhile. In particular, we believe that our analysis convincingly demonstrates that high-quality mental health interventions can be as good, or better than, highly-regarded and well-evidenced economic interventions.
Of course, there are many more interventions that need to be analysed in terms of subjective wellbeing before a fuller picture begins to emerge, but we do want to stress to prospective donors that we consider StrongMinds to be an excellent donation opportunity if your aim is to improve global health and wellbeing. As of October 2021, they have a funding gap of $6.6 million for 2022. They are also planning for rapid growth (treating 50,000 in 2022, 100,000 in 2023, and 150,000 in 2024) equalling 300,000 women treated over the next three years. To fuel this growth trajectory, they will need to raise $30 million in total over the next three years.
We suspect there are other highly effective donation opportunities waiting to be discovered. We have several avenues to explore and we can do this because our method allows us to compare different outcomes with a single metric. Our research pipeline includes a range of other promising interventions to analyse (conditional on us acquiring the necessary funding). These include Friendship Bench, mental health apps, cataract surgery, cement flooring, drug liberalisation (including better access to opioids and psychedelics) as well as advocacy to integrate wellbeing metrics in public policy (as a replacement/complement to GDP) and to make employee wellbeing a central indicator of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performance.
In addition, there are a number of theoretical questions about the nature and measurement of wellbeing that require further investigation. For instance, in order to compare StrongMinds to GiveWell's death-averting recommendations we must first establish the location of the 'neutral point' on happiness scales — a vital, but highly contested factor in assessing the cost-effectiveness of life-saving interventions in terms of subjective wellbeing. For more, see our analysis using subjective wellbeing to compare life-saving to life-improving interventions. Further research is also required to establish the best methods for converting between different subjective wellbeing measures. You can learn more about our future plans in our research agenda.
If you found this post valuable, and you would like to support our future research, please consider making a donation to the Happier Lives Institute. We are actively seeking new donors to fund our future research. If you would like to discuss our research further or are thinking about making a donation, please contact hello@happierlivesinstitute.org.


The Indian Medical Association will observe satyagrah by going on dawn to dusk fast on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 to press for their unfulfilled demands.
The day has also been commemorated as the 'International Day of Non Violence' by the United Nations in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born on this day.
Dr Ajay Aggarwal, IMA, president Chandigarh chapter announced that the doctors would gather at IMA Complex, Sector 35 here and hold a GBM to press for their demands, and will write a open letter to Prime Minister to intervene and solve their problems.
This fast takes forward the "Dilli Chalo" movement of IMA held on June 6 and marks our continuing Satyagraha for a solution to the problems faced by the medical profession, said he.
He demanded that a more stringent Central Act under IPC is required to act as a deterrent against this mindless violence. Criminal Prosecution and arrest of doctors under sections 304 and 304A on patients' complains of medical negligence has become order of the day. Doctors are also being prosecuted for minor procedural lapses like incomplete forms, not under PCPNDT Act, said he.
He added that more than 70 doctors have been prosecuted in Punjab alone in last 4 years. Police and other authorities should be sensitised about this, Dr Aggarwal said.
Padma Shri awardee Dr KK Aggarwal, national president Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Dr RN Tandon, secretary general IMA in a joint statement, has said, "We demand immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee and other issues. The Government had constituted the Inter-Ministerial Committee on November 13, 2015, with IMA as a party.
Next articleIndia: a Leading Country in Terms of Violence Against Doctors?


Does anyone else feel that they are getting up-tierd more when playing odd-tier ships?
Do you think it may be due to having 2 aircraft carriers per side, combined with only having even tiers for carriers?
I Remember did this for my tier 8 ship and came up with roughly 40-50% I got uptiered and play tier 10 battle.
Since I've been playing T9 a lot lately, its probably nothing more than the usual up tiering.


Saturday 21 May Match Of The Day FA Cup Final Live If past form is anything to go by, expect a tetchy, spat-filled encounter between holders Manchester United and Arsenal.
Further drama may come from United supporters determined to upset new owner Malcolm Glazer's applecart. But should the fans really be that shocked that someone of Glazer's profiteering calibre should be attracted to the beautiful game?
Overpaid players, greedy agents and clubs flogging overpriced replica kits have been filling their boots for ages, so what's all the fuss about?
Secrets Of The Sistine Chapel Hot on the heels of the Da Vinci Code's success comes the suggestion that world's most talented painter and decorator imbued his work on a Rome chapel ceiling with myriad hidden meanings.
Channel 4, 7.10pm Sunday Airships The last in the series explains how myriad disasters put paid to airships as a means of passenger transport.
Channel 4, 5.30pm Megastructures Examines the mega bucks engineering work on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, intended to protect the structure from earthquakes.
National Geographic, 8pm Monday Cashier Number Six, Please From the bank cashier's till to the railway platform - everything you ever wanted to know about automated voices.
BBC Radio 4, 8.30pm Wednesday A Short History Of Tall Buildings The series concludes with a look at how the Far East is now leading the world in skyscraper construction. Alan Yentob's travels take him to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai, soon to be the home of the world's tallest building - the Burj Dubai Tower.
BBC1, 10.40pm Super Structures The place: Osaka, Japan. The project: Kansai International Airport.
Discovery Channel, 10pm Thursday In Business - Tall Storeys Peter Day assesses the global construction boom.
BBC Radio 4, 8.30pm Friday Timewatch: The Year Without Summer The world's largest volcanic eruption occurred in Indonesia in 1815. Timewatch looks back at the events and the aftermath.


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Death Spa (1988)
Movie Review by Professor Corpse Rot
With a name like "Death Spa" one can't be too surprised what this 80's schlock-house feature will bring to the table - but that's not where my confusion was based. I was under the impression that Death Spa fell under the category of other boredom-inducing Slashers from the era, chalking it up to be another entry filled with dumb jocks, air-headed bimbos, and a gym setting...and while this film does encompass some of those elements, the direction it headed offered me a different approach to the usual kill-or-be-killed set up; a product made possible by relatively unknown Austrian director Michael Fischa - so devoid of any form of recognition that he's gone blind from residing so deep underground. A director's popularity is by no means a sure-fire way of distinguishing their movie-making talents but if I'm to be honest with my readers, there's no mistaking that Fischa should stay far, far away from the industry with a pitiful whopper like this embarrassing entry. Allow me to entertain you with a brief synopsis.
Michael Evans is a recent widower and owner of Star Body Health Spa (quite possibly the dumbest name imaginable); a state-of-the-art training facility that's run entirely by a computer. Michael's former brother-in-law David is the lead programmer and mastermind behind this sophisticated machine; his relationship with Michael remains strained after his sister's suicide. The film opens with a young woman by the name of Laura Danders. After a brief conversation with one of her trainers she finds herself alone in the building and before locking up for the night, ventures into the shower room. A freak mishap occurs when the shower head spouts forth a toxic chemical, causing Laura to receive severe burns in addition to a temporary loss of vision. The police are quick to investigate while several suspects appear suspicious: David, the brother-in-law, who remains in charge of the computer system and Priscilla, the general manager who was placed at the scene of the accident later that night. Who is behind these bizarre happenings? Is someone targeting Michael? Can there be saboteurs on the prowl?
If Death Spa's premise alone doesn't sound laughable enough to your liking, the story takes a turn for the worse about half-way in. Themes of the supernatural, sabotage, and demonic possession are all thrown into the melting pot and result in a convoluted telling. The only instance I can see this film gaining any notoriety for being a cult 80's hit is if it was voted into such a state by the same supporters who lobbied a release for Ghoulies IV on DVD...because surely no sane individual would promote such a waste of shelf space; even dust has a more important role than Death Spa does in our universe.
Far off into the future, when we eventually destroy ourselves, an alien race will travel forth to our solar system and subsequently land on our planet. Their mission: to delve deep into our sophisticated relics. A foreign and other-worldly hand would sift through all of the clutter and retrieve a pristine-looking copy of Death Spa on VHS; an item of unknown worth to the distant travelers. In the attempt to access our supposed "archives", their advanced research will procure a device to view the 7 3/8 x 4 1/6 plastic encasement. What ensues is unspeakable - these strange beings will be faced with an hour and 28 minutes of poorly written dialog, stupid-looking special effects, and an inconclusive screenplay that any grade-schooler could have been commissioned to write via Now & Laters. Top it off with an 80's hokey soundtrack that goes nowhere in a hurry. The extraterrestrials will surmise that our race was a rather forgettable one - all thanks to the pangs of curiosity and wonderful that Michael Fischer felt when he embarked on producing this terrible film, going a step further to shamelessly employ a well-known horror icon to boost the market value. Thanks for singlehandedly bringing our civilization to its knees, Mike! I really appreciate it!
Some horror fans might slide down the banister when they learn that Ken Foree plays the role of Marvin - a trainer who works at the fitness center. Foree is most certainly a horror icon as far as acting goes. His most famous role is from George A. Romero's Pennsylvania-based zombie classic, Dawn of the Dead from 1978 as "Peter". Foree also received another prominent role in 1986's From Beyond; an H.P. Lovecraft short story directed by Stuart Gordon, featured alongside fellow veteran Jeffrey Combs (Dr. Herbert West from '85's Re-Animator...another Stuart Gordon classic). For those of you unfamiliar with Ken's work from the past, you may even remember him as Charlie Altamont in The Devil's Rejects.
I'll be the first to admit that I love the idolization of horror actors and actresses...I feel that these individuals are in a league of their own. Unfortunately it's people like this that are slapped on a movie cover regardless of how big their part is in a film. I'm trying desperately not to derail the point I'm making here - Foree's part in Death Spa is a small one, and even if it was more significant, the movie is too pathetic for it to matter.
What would be the proper way to conclude a review for this heap of a film? Are there are any specific plot twists or incredible endings to speak of? No. The finale might strike some people as appealing but only for a split second; almost like catching a glimpse of something interesting and colorful out of the corner of your eye, only to learn that it's a beat-up cardboard box that a gaggle of vermin have been living in.
» Search Database for Death Spa (1988)
Rating: 7.0 out of 10.0 - 1 vote cast total