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Facial fractures are very common in the general population. Common bones of the face that are fractured include the nose, mandible (jaw), orbit (eye socket), and zygoma (cheek). Facial fractures can have devastating consequences on both appearance and function, and should be evaluated by someone well versed in facial fracture repair.
There are many different ways that Dr. Hirsch will repair mandible fractures, depending on the location and condition of the fracture. Often, the fractures can best be healed by making a small incision inside the mouth and applying a metal plate which will hold the fracture in place while it heals. Other times, it is necessary to make an incision on the external skin, through which the mandible will be approached and plated. For severely comminuted (multiple pieces) mandible fractures, it may be necessary to use an external fixator or to wire the mouth shut for an extended period of time. Dr. Hirsch will evaluate your mandible fracture and will provide you with a treatment plan at the time of your evaluation.
In general, Dr. Hirsch will repair orbital fractures by returning the contents of the orbit to their normal location and then inserting a plate into the orbital floor to maintain the orbit while it heals. There are different ways to approach the orbital floor- occasionally, Dr. Hirsch will make an incision within the eyelid and will use this approach to visualize the orbital floor and insert a plate. Other times he will make an incision in the external skin of the eyelid and will approach the orbital floor from this direction. If there are existing lacerations in the upper cheek or the eyelid, Dr. Hirsch may use these wound to approach the orbit and fix the fracture.
Zygoma, or cheek fractures, are complex fractures because of the connections of the zygoma to the many other bones in the face. When the zygoma has been fractures, it may rotate and can therefore be difficult to reconnect to the other facial bones. In order to repair zygoma fractures, Dr. Hirsch may need to make an incision in the mouth, as well as the lower eyelid, and possible the upper eyelid as well. Through these incisions, he will return the bones to their normal positions, and then fix plates to the fractured segments to hold them in position while they heal.
The recovery after facial fracture repair depends a great deal on which procedures were performed. After orbital fractures, there is often significant swelling for 1-2 weeks, which may be accompanied by bruising as well. Occasional blurred vision is common, although if it is persistent it may be necessary to consult an ophthalmologist. After mandible fractures, the jaw is often swollen and tender to touch. Typically, patients will eat a liquid diet for the next 2-4 days following surgery, then gradually advance to a soft diet for the first 4 weeks postoperatively, and then slowly return to their normal diets. Zygoma fractures often have elements of orbital fractures with a similar recovery period, and require a soft diet for the first 4 weeks postoperatively due to the intraoral incisions. With all facial fractures, it is critical to apply ice to the fracture site to reduce swelling and post-operative discomfort.
Will I need my jaw wired shut after my mandible fracture repair?
Some patients will need their jaws wires shut after mandible fracture repair, depending on the fracture pattern. Every patient is different, and Dr. Hirsch will evaluate your mandible fracture and design a treatment pattern that works for you at the time of your consultation.
Feel free to browse the following links to learn more about facial fractures including mandible fractures, nasal fractures, zygoma fractures, and orbital fractures.


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Men's volleyball team takes on Orange Coast in state semifinals
Orange Coast
Irvine Valley (16-6) 19 25 16 20 1
Orange Coast (20-2) 25 21 25 25 3
K: Patrick Furlong - 13
B: Matt August - 6
D: Kelsey Yogi - 14
K: Kyle McCauley - 21
B: Clark Steele - 2
D: Braden Neumann - 10
SA: Matthew Johnson - 3
Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team will face a rival with a berth in the California Community College Athletic Association State Championship final match on the line when it plays against Orange Coast on Thursday night at Fullerton College.
The two Orange Empire Conference teams face off in a semifinal at 7 p.m.
Orange Coast is the second seed with Irvine Valley seeded third. The winner will take on either No. 1 Long Beach City or fourth-seeded LA Pierce in the final match on Saturday at 7 p.m.
This will be the third meeting of the season between the Pirates (19-2) and Lasers (16-5), with OCC winning the first two matches.
Orange Coast has won six of the eight sets played this year, but all were close and IVC had its chances to pull off an upset, taking a 2-1 lead in sets two weeks ago before losing, 16-14, in the fifth set to the Pirates.
Even in a sweep by OCC on Mar. 23, two of the three sets went down to the wire.
The Lasers eliminated El Camino in the first round of the playoffs (25-19, 25-23, 25-19).
They are led by first team all-Orange Empire Conference players in Matt August and Patrick Furlong and conference setter of the year Austin McBain.
August averages 3.08 kills and 1.93 blocks per set and is hitting .470 on the year, Furlong is averaging 3.03 kills and McBain is averaging 10.19 assists per set. August ranks first in the state in blocks per set and second in hitting percentage, Furlong is second in the state in total kills (233) and McBain is second in the state in assists per set.
Freshman outside hitter Sean Carroll averages 2.59 kills and 1.20 digs per set, sophomore outside hitter Brennan To averages 1.88 kills and Yogi averages 3.00 digs per set for the Lasers.
To and Yogi were each named second team all-conference.
Orange Coast has earned sweeps in 15 of its 19 wins this season and its only two losses on the year have come to top-ranked Long Beach City.
OCC has been led offensively by outside hitter Kyle McCauley and opposite Wyatt Henson.
McCauley leads the Pirates with 199 kills to go along with 102 digs and 17 aces, while Henson has ripped 148 kills to go along with 54 digs and 48 total blocks.
But, the offense doesn't stop there for the defending state champions. Players like Zane Moothart (99 kills), Will Donald (86 kills, team-best 79 blocks), Bradley Hankus (75 kills, 60 blocks) and Clark Steele (65 kills, 29 blocks) give head coach Travis Turner several options on the offensive side of the court.
Setter and Orange Empire Conference MVP Colby Elder has dished out 476 assists to go along with 89 digs and 18 aces, while fellow setter Jacob Gilliam has contributed 243 assists, giving the Pirates several options on a two-setter attack.
Defensively, OCC has notched 726 digs and is led by Matthew Johnson (129).
August 31, 2018 Men's volleyball player Pat Furlong headed to Grand View
August 23, 2018 No. 4 Story of the Year - Men's volleyball team gets to state
August 22, 2018 No. 5 Story of the Year - Irvine Valley hands out athlete awards
August 13, 2018 No. 10 Story of the Year - Irvine Valley storied coaches move on
July 7, 2018 Ka'awaloa and August named Irvine Valley's athletes of the year
June 22, 2018 Volleyball player Kelsey Yogi headed to Concordia University
June 21, 2018 Ramseyer and McBain named IVC's scholar athletes of the year
June 5, 2018 Former Laser Ryan Windisch named new men's volleyball coach
May 15, 2018 Men's volleyball player Josh Evers headed to Aquinas College
May 11, 2018 Men's volleyball player Ruben Lopez signs with Aquinas
May 9, 2018 Star men's volleyball player Matt August signs with Hawaii
May 1, 2018 Men's volleyball team finishes year ranked No. 4 in state
April 26, 2018 Men's volleyball team has season end in state semifinals
April 25, 2018 Men's volleyball team takes on Orange Coast in state semifinals
April 24, 2018 Volleyball players earn all-Orange Empire Conference accolades
April 20, 2018 Men's volleyball team on to final four with sweep of El Camino
April 14, 2018 Men's volleyball team to host El Camino in playoff opener
April 13, 2018 Men's volleyball team takes down Fullerton, secures second
April 11, 2018 Men's volleyball team loses heartbreaker to Pirates in five
April 10, 2018 Men's volleyball team moves back to No. 3 in the state poll
April 6, 2018 August returns, men's volleyball team rallies by Golden West
April 4, 2018 Men's volleyball team answers with a sweep of Santiago Canyon
April 3, 2018 Men's volleyball team drops a spot in latest state coaches poll
March 30, 2018 Men's volleyball team sweeps Palomar to snap two-game skid
March 28, 2018 Men's volleyball team fights back, but falls to Fullerton in five
March 27, 2018 Men's volleyball team still third in state after a split week
March 23, 2018 Men's volleyball team comes up short in key match at OCC
March 21, 2018 Men's volleyball team beats Golden West in four at home
March 20, 2018 Men's volleyball team still ranked third, has big OEC week ahead
March 16, 2018 Men's volleyball team rolls to start conference action
March 14, 2018 Men's volleyball team sweeps Trade Tech, OEC play is up next
March 13, 2018 Men's volleyball team ranked No. 3 in state as OEC play starts
March 9, 2018 Volleyball team has its chances, but falls to Blizzard in four
March 7, 2018 Men's volleyball team takes out tough Pierce squad in four sets
March 6, 2018 Men's volleyball team remains at No. 3 in state coaches poll
March 2, 2018 Men's volleyball team sweeps, wins seventh match in a row
February 28, 2018 Men's volleyball team captures sixth victory in a row
February 27, 2018 Men's volleyball team stays at No. 3 in state in coaches poll
February 22, 2018 Men's volleyball team has an easy time in sweep at Grossmont
February 20, 2018 Men's volleyball team is No. 3 in state for third straight week
February 12, 2018 Men's volleyball team stays at No. 3 in this week's state poll
February 8, 2018 Men's volleyball team beats El Camino for fourth straight win
February 7, 2018 Men's volleyball team tied for third in latest state poll
February 2, 2018 Men's volleyball team takes down another four-year school
January 31, 2018 Men's volleyball team ranked No. 4 in state in first coaches poll
January 27, 2018 Men's volleyball team opens with a win and a loss at OCC Quad

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Efforts Made to Stem Illegal Dumping | News | circlevilleherald.com – Circleville Herald
The 'Best Kept Secret' in Kansas
By Robert ClarkPosted on January 24, 2023
Published January 24th, 2023 at 6:00 AM
Above image credit: Mike Parker uses the small scale machinery at Green Dot's research and development lab to test new bioplastics materials. (Cami Koons | Flatland)
"There's a great future in plastics."
Or so Benjamin Braddock, the protagonist in the classic movie "The Graduate," was told in the late 1960s.
Each year, almost 400 million tons of plastic are produced around the world, mostly made from fossil fuels. Those plastics become permanent fixtures of the environment.
While the plastics industry remains profitable, today's graduates might be wise to consider bioplastics instead.
In 2022, about 2.2 million tons of the world's plastics were made from plant-based materials, according to a study by European Bioplastics. The same study predicts that the production of bioplastics will nearly triple by 2027.
Kansas has staked out a key role in the bioplastics revolution. One of the top bioplastics research labs is at Pittsburg State University, and a thriving bioplastics material company is based in Emporia.
As the bioplastics industry scales up, manufacturers, companies and consumers are needed to embrace the waste-reducing commodity.
Bioplastics production is expected to almost triple in the next five years. (Source: European Bioplastics)
What Are Bioplastics?
Bioplastics or plant-based plastics are either fully or partially derived from organic materials. Typically, bioplastics are made from things like soybean oil, corn husks, plant starches or mixed with a filler like wood pellets.
The plant-based materials can look and perform just like traditional petroleum plastics and can be used to make anything — phone cases, forks, chairs, alpine skis, garbage liners – the list goes on.
All bioplastics have some plant material, but not all bioplastics are compostable, or able to return nutrients to the soil as they break down.
Green Dot Bioplastics, a company based in Emporia, Kansas, makes bioplastic pellets (both compostable and not) that are sold to manufacturers all over the world.
The company, which started in 2011, makes two types of materials: biocomposites and compostable materials.
Biocomposites mix traditional plastic materials (polyethylene, polypropylene, etc.) and sometimes recycled plastics with a plant-based filler like wood, corn cob or hemp.
(Left) Green Dot uses recycled plastic in its biocomposites when possible. (Right) "This one is pine, so it smells good," Sarah Harbaugh said while showing a sample of Green Dot's bioplastic pellets. (Cami Koons | Flatland).
Visually, these materials show little flecks of the filler, and the material performs in the same way it would without the filler.
Sarah Harbaugh, Green Dot's sale and marketing director, explained that while biocomposites use traditional, non-plant derived plastic, the inclusion of a plant-based filler reduces plastic consumption by about 30%.
"If plastics consumption in general was reduced by 30%, everybody would be pretty excited about that," Harbaugh said.
The company also makes compostable plastics. These are made with plant starch, and other plant-derived raw material, to create bioplastics that perform and look just like traditional plastics. Crucially, though, they can break down in a home or industrial compost pile.
Green Dot makes the materials in both rigid, molded plastics and more flexible bioplastics. Harbaugh explained that these materials can also have filler materials to create bio-aesthetics and to raise the rate of degradation.
Sarah Harbaugh stands in front of Green Dot's research and development lab located in downtown Ottawa, Kansas. (Cami Koons | Flatland)
Because bioplastics are made to function like traditional petroleum-based products, manufacturers don't have to adjust much to use a bioplastic.
Kevin Godsey the co-owner of Mid Continent Tool and Molding, a Kansas City plastics and equipment molding company, has worked with Green Dot for about seven years now.
According to Godsey, the biocompostable and biocomposite pellets from Green Dot perform just like the traditional materials he uses, so it's not much of an adjustment when a customer requests the material.
In the past three years, Godsey has had more customers ask about bioplastics molding, and he expects the trend to continue. Today, though, it accounts for about 1% of his current mid-sized molding operation.
Harbaugh said the Green Dot's foray into compostable film grade, flexible materials has the potential to make the biggest difference.
"That's really where that value is created when it comes to compostable materials," Harbaugh said. "We could literally divert so much more of our food waste to composting without having to sort out the plastic fork that won't compost or the plastic wrapper that came on your sandwich."
The United Nation Environment Programme reported that 36% of plastics are produced as packaging.
Harbaugh said three years ago Green Dot decided to make materials suitable for compostable single-use and packing (like straws and take out containers). The development timeline takes a while, however, and the company just launched the expanded Terratek BD line in July 2022.
Bioplastics have become popular in recent years as consumers and customers care increasingly about sustainability, but the chemistry is far from new.
One Word: Plastics
Mike Parker, the head of research and development at Green Dot, said his job isn't to reinvent the bioplastics wheel, but to update and adapt the technology to fit in a world that was built around petroleum plastics.
"It's all about adapting and innovating new ways, and new materials, to … develop the same product everyone (has) been using but make it a biodegradable and or bio-based material," Parker said.
Parker found a passion for plastics at Pittsburg State University, which began its research of bio-based plastics in the 1990s.
Since then, the National Institute for Materials Advancement (NIMA) (formerly the Kansas Polymer Research Center) at the university worked with Cargill to develop a foam made from soybean oil, turned coffee grounds into batteries and conducted research for household names like Chevron, Phillips and Honeywell to name a few.
"This has been one of the best kept secrets in Kansas and in the nation, actually, for 25 years, and we're trying to share the secret," Dr. Tim Dawsey, NIMA's executive director, said of the program.
But word is traveling.
NIMA has received several million dollars in funding from national and state level grants for its expansion efforts, seen a spike in enrollment from students around the globe and had its research director named one of the world's top scientists.
Accolades for the research institute come for innovation in bioplastic creation and for its attention to the life cycle of a material.
Closing the Loop, Doing Your Part
Dr. Ram Gupta, research director at NIMA, has garnered global acclaim.
Gupta's research includes the use of polymers in electronic devices, the development of foams from bio-waste and the breakdown of plastics at the end of their life cycle.
Gupta cited the example of a soybean-based foam used in couch cushions or mattresses. When that foam has been used, it can be broken down and turned into a "value added material" for lithium-ion batteries.
Dr. Ram Gupta was recently named one of the top scientists in the world and is the research director for NIMA. (Contributed)
"Our process is kind of a closed loop," Gupta said. "We start from the biomaterial, we use it, then we recycle it, and after recycling, it becomes a value-added material."
It's not perfect, but it's keeping things cleaner.
"You cannot use 100% of recycled raw material to make a new polymer, but you can add like 50- 60% of the recycled material and still you will get the same quality," Gupta said.
Other bioplastic materials are "closed loop" because they can be composted.
Harbaugh said as Green Dot developed its line of compostable materials, it was important that the materials would break down into components that enriched the soil, and that it could break down in a home or industrial compost facility.
Green Dot's biodegradable products are awaiting industrial and home compost certification from TUV Austria, a European Bioplastics certification body.
"The goal is those standards," Harbaugh said. "Because they do include both heavy metals testing and then the toxicology part to (avoid) ending up with anything that does become a contaminant or negatively impact the composting environment."
The bioplastics industry is struggling to find a way to differentiate compostable plastics from non-compostable plastics so that the right materials end up in the right bins.
This is top of mind for Kevin Anderson, vice president of Missouri Organic Recycling, an industrial compost company in the Kansas City area.
"There's no way to differentiate between what is a compostable piece of plastic and what is not a compostable piece of plastic," Anderson said.
The big, hot compost piles at Missouri Organic can easily break down the compostable plastics that enter the mix. It's an issue, however, when non-compostable plastics end up in the composting rows.
"It makes it very difficult to sell that finished product as an organically certified compost," Anderson said. "So it really comes down to us as a company to be able to remove as much of that contamination as possible."
The company uses a series of screens and vacuums to sift through food waste and separate plastics (bio or not) out of the pile. Anderson said this step increases operational costs by about 25-30%, but the alternative was a compost mix that was filled with microplastics.
"You can picture that ocean plastic float that's out there, you see pictures of that stuff just floating around in the oceans," Anderson said. "The same thing happens in our compost process where that plastic just never breaks down."
Separating Plastic from Food Waste
But the responsibility doesn't rest on just Anderson and his team, or Gupta in his lab.
The last step to embracing bioplastics lies in the hands of the consumers.
"Just because we make it from biobased material, some people automatically think that means it's biodegradable (but) that's not necessarily true," Dawsey said. "So, some of the biobased materials are going to have to be recycled just like the others, that's going to require a huge change in our social approach."
Individuals need to be aware of their purchases, how they dispose of things and city leaders need to create better access to recycling and composting.
"We've got a generation that's coming along that's much more tuned in. Well, let's help them make that transition," Dawsey said.
A Bio Future
Folks in the bioplastics industry don't see their material dethroning petroleum plastics — at least not anytime soon.
"It's going to be a slow, but rapidly accelerating move to renewable materials," Dawsey said. "And those materials are going to prove to be equally as good as the current materials."
Right now, cost is the biggest factor. According to Harbaugh, biocomposites can be about 50% more expensive than traditional plastics. Biocompostables are even pricier.
Dr. Tim Dawsey had a career in the plastics industry before he became the executive director of the National Institute of Materials Advancement (NIMA) at Pittsburg State University.(Contributed)
It's too costly for many companies to implement the materials, but Dawsey said as the industry scales up, the cost will decrease.
"Everybody says, 'Oh, you can't afford to do that,'" Dawsey said. "Well, you're right, if we're making it 500 grams at a time. But as we move to large volumes on this, we get processes in place, those things are going to happen."
Already, Dawsey has seen growth in the industry.
Just three years ago NIMA had just a handful of students in the research labs. This year, it has 30-50. Dawsey hopes to use the influence and ability of the institute to breathe life into the rural Kansas economy.
"We can really redefine the economic landscape in the four states region by using our core competence in material science, and bringing that manufacturing base in here," Dawsey said.
A proposed Center for Commercialization as part of NIMA's "re-shoring" initiative, will allow students and researchers to work with companies to develop and manufacture products that will enter the market and stimulate the surrounding labor market.
"Everybody realizes … eventually, these fuel resources are going to run out and we have to have the options," Dawsey said.
Cami Koons covers rural affairs for Kansas City PBS in cooperation with Report for America. The work of our Report for America corps members is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.


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Sci on the Fly
Sci on the Fly brings you experts who work at the intersection of science and public policy. Run by AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows – scientists and engineers passionate about policy – this podcast brings current issues to a general audience through lively and illuminating discussions. Read the companion blog at www.aaaspolicyfellowships.org/blog.
Now displaying: Category: general
Beyond Carbon Neutral: Samuel Goodman, Part 2 0
Dr. Samuel M. Goodman is the author of Beyond Carbon Neutral: How We Fix the Climate Crisis Now, a book about how to reverse climate change. He is a chemical engineer by training who earned a doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder after undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Following graduate school, Dr. Goodman completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences and was an AAAS S&T Policy Fellow at the US Department of Defense. He is currently an international trade analyst with the US International Trade Commission.
Dr. Goodman has always been interested in addressing climate change. And with his recent book Beyond Carbon Neutral, he hopes that he will help to move the climate change conversation forward with a blueprint for action through workable, and necessary, solutions. In the second part of this two-part episode, he talks about the history of the toxic element lead as a public health issue, and the similarities with the problem of climate change. He also discusses how fossil fuel jobs could transition as we become carbon neutral, as well as what individuals can do to help combat climate change.
Dr. Goodman has always been interested in addressing climate change. And with his recent book Beyond Carbon Neutral, he hopes that he will help to move the climate change conversation forward with a blueprint for action through workable, and necessary, solutions. In the first part of this two-part episode, Dr Goodman talks about energy sector solutions to solving the climate crisis and why better policy rather than new technology is the approach we need to take to reduce carbon emissions.
This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.
Learning to See Science in the World: A Conversation with Dr. Melanie Peffer, author of "Biology Everywhere". 0
Dr. Melanie Peffer is the author of "Biology Everywhere: How the Science of Life Matters to Everyday Life", a book that reveals how biological concepts taught in the classroom are connected to the world around us. In this episode, we discuss key concepts from the book including changes to the way science is taught, how creative processes are used in scientific work, and understanding how scientific knowledge is acquired. We also talk about engaging with non-scientific audiences even when they adopt anti-scientific points of view, and how COVID-19 has revealed the way that scientific work and knowledge evolves to the public. Learn more about her book, educational engagement, and research at: https://www.biologyeverywhere.com.
How AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows Adapt Their Work in the Era of COVID-19 0
STPF Fellows are great at adapting their careers to suit their personal interests and whatever life has in store, such as a global pandemic. In this episode, Dr. Vince Tedjasaputra talks about how his involvement in track and field led to his earning a PhD in Physical Education and Recreation (an official "Doctor of Gym"), and how working with patients with mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) led to his becoming a AAAS STPF Fellow. As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Dr. Tedjasaputra talks about his external-facing communications work in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs at the National Science Foundation, as well as how he has adapted since working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"How a Scientist Serves as an Elected Official During COVID-19" 0
Julie Palakovich Carr is a scientist who now serves as a state legislator in the Maryland House of Delegates. We spoke to her this past June, and she discussed her transition from academic research to policymaking, her work related to COVID-19, and how the global pandemic changed her work. She also provided some advice for any scientist considering running for office or looking for other ways of getting involved in policy and government.
Host: Brynn Hollingsworth, PhD, 2019-2020 Executive Branch STPF Fellow, National Institutes of Health (Instagram: @flyingsciencefish)
Guest: Julie Palakovich Carr (Twitter: @palakovichcarr)
Producer: Brynn Hollingsworth, PhD
Executive Producer: Phil Ko, PhD, 2019-2020 Executive Branch STPF Fellow, National Science Foundation
Image: Maryland State Flag, Michael Wheeler / Public domain
Part 2: AAAS S&T Policy Fellows in the Era of COVID-19 0
The Science & Technology Policy Fellowships at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provide broad opportunities for scientists to engage in government policy, but COVID-19 has changed the way fellows work. The article "Serving as an STPF Fellow in the Era of COVID-19", co-authored by several current fellows, examines some of the ways that fellows have adapted – such as leveraging technology to create and strengthen relationships. It also suggests positive ways that communication, informational meetings, and professional development can change with teleworking. In part two of this two-episode podcast, we speak with one of the authors of the article, STPF fellow Dr. Michael Nestor, who expands on some of the issues raised in the article.
The Science & Technology Policy Fellowships at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provide broad opportunities for scientists to engage in government policy, but COVID-19 has changed the way fellows work. The article "Serving as an STPF Fellow in the Era of COVID-19", co-authored by several current fellows, examines some of the ways that fellows have adapted – such as leveraging technology to create and strengthen relationships. It also suggests positive ways that communication, informational meetings, and professional development can change with teleworking. In this two-episode podcast, we speak with one of the authors of the article, STPF fellow Dr. Michael Nestor, who expands on some of the issues raised in the article.
"Making the Connection Between COVID-19 and One Health" 0
Understanding the science of viral transmission and pandemics is now critical, especially for younger generations. In this episode, Dr. Deborah Thomson discusses how the One Health framework provides a holistic understanding of the coronavirus SARS CoV-2 and its related disease COVID-19. She also discusses how One Health informed her work as a veterinarian and how she now uses it to teach students around the world about COVID-19. You can find more information about Dr. Thomson's educational efforts at www.onehealthlessons.com.
40@40 | Andrew S. Robertson 0
40@40 | Steve Rhee 0
40@40 | John Ohab 0
40@40 | Mercedes Gorre 0
40@40 | Kevin Michael Foster 0
40@40 | Krista Donaldson 0
40@40 | Timothy Donahue 0
40@40| Alexander "Alex" Dehgan 0
40@40|Ranyee Chiang 0
Bunje 40@40 0
40@40 | Danielle Ripich 0
40@40 | John Peha 0
40@40 | Deborah Olster 0
40@40 | John S. Morgan 0
40@40 | Duncan T. Moore 0
40@40 | Josette Lewis 0
40@40 | Sharon Hays 0


Kitchens Are Monkey Business: Mr. Hawthorne Cooks. From Boxes.
We wanted something quick and comforting the other night.
Why, it's a Rhapsody in Browns. But all very good browns.
Here's a hyacinth on my counter. Smells delicious. I really had to give you some pretty color in this post. We're cooking out of boxes tonight.
Zatarain's New Orleans style red beans and rice.
And one of my favorites - Manischewitz Potato Pancake Mix.
Beans and rice are ready in 20 minutes.
While the beans and rice were cooking, Mr. Hawthorne made the potato pancake batter.
Mr. Hawthorne made the pancakes the way I wanted - thin. When I have potato pancakes with a roast I like a thicker pancake, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, so the meat juices can be soaked up by the pancake sponge.
Tonight, I wanted thinner, crispier pancakes to POP with the beans and rice and Mr. H. obliged.
Like potato chips on steroids.
I accented the rice cake and the flat pancake with some of my Pig Shack Sauce and my Mango Habanero Pineapple Sauce. Always good to have those on hand.
This would have been a lot less brown had it been photographed in natural light. For that, I apologize. But this explosion of carbs was soul-satisfyingly wonderful. I heartily recommend it.


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Anna Elisabeth von Anhalt-Dessau (* 5. April 1598 in Dessau; † 20. April 1660 in Tecklenburg) war eine Prinzessin von Anhalt-Dessau und durch Heirat Gräfin von Bentheim-Steinfurt.

Leben
Anna Elisabeth war eine Tochter des Fürsten Johann Georg I. von Anhalt-Dessau (1567–1618) aus dessen zweiter Ehe mit Dorothea (1581–1631), Tochter des Pfalzgrafen Johann Kasimir von Simmern. In der Tugendlichen Gesellschaft ihrer Tante Anna Sophia wurde sie unter dem Namen "Die Unveränderliche" aufgenommen.

Anna Elisabeth heiratete am 2. Januar 1617 in Dessau Graf Wilhelm Heinrich zu Bentheim und Steinfurt (1584–1632). Die Ehe blieb kinderlos und nach dem Tod ihres Mannes schenkte sie ihre Einkünfte und Güter, die teilweise in der Grafschaft Steinfurt lagen ihrer noch unverheirateten Schwester Johanna Dorothea. Dies führte zu erheblichen Verwicklungen als Johanna Dorothea im Jahr darauf sich mit Graf Moritz von Bentheim-Tecklenburg vermählte. Durch Vermittlung Friedrichs von Anhalt kam schließlich ein Vergleich zu Stande.

Literatur
 Hermann Schaub: Die Herrschaft Rheda und ihre Residenzstadt: von den Anfängen bis zum Ende ..., S. 91, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte

Einzelnachweise

Prinz (Anhalt-Dessau)
Familienmitglied der Askanier (Linie Anhalt-Dessau)
⚭Anna Elisabeth #AnhaltDessau
Mitglied der Tugendlichen Gesellschaft
Geboren 1598
Gestorben 1660
Frau

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


CRIME & COURTS Two arrested after reported robbery DOWAGIAC -- Two 17-year-olds, one from South Bend and the other from Dowagiac, have been lodged in the Cass County Jail following an armed robbery at the Vineyard Place Apartments on Riverside Drive. Dowagiac police didn't identify the teenagers, pending their arraignment in 4th District Court. The teen from South Bend is facing preliminary charges of armed robbery and possession of marijuana and the one from Dowagiac is accused of resisting and obstructing police. Police said they were alerted about 2 p.m. Wednesday that two male subjects possibly carrying weapons had been at the apartment complex and had left in an auto on Riverside. They car was spotted near Hill Street, police said. Officers said the 17-year-olds ran into a wooded area behind the apartments and were located after a search. The stolen money was discovered in their possession along with marijuana, police said. EVENTS 'Boutique Days' on tap at Goodwill NILES -- Fashion tips will be dispensed Saturday at the Niles Goodwill Retail Store, 918 Silverbrook Ave., as part of a "Boutique Days" observance sponsored by Goodwill Industries of Michiana. At 11 a.m., Kathy Friend, a fashion expert, will provide free fall fashion tips, which will be followed by a children's Halloween costume parade. Friend will remain available until 2 p.m. to show shoppers how to create a look that flatters their body shapes and fits their lifestyles and budgets. The first 10 visitors who each donate 20 clothing items or more will receive discounts on private consultations with Friend. The consultations will be scheduled for later dates. Halloween event set at club meeting BUCHANAN -- The Clark Salaried Retirees Club will meet at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Buchanan Moose Lodge, 101 S. Redbud Trail, Buchanan. The meeting will be a regular Halloween program with costumes and ghost stories welcome. An Elvis Presley impersonator is expected to attend. Retired salaried employees of Clark Equipment Co. and Clark Credit Corp. are eligible for membership in the club. For more information, contact Don Ryman at 269- 695-6552. Blood drive planned Saturday NILES -- St. Mary's Catholic Church, Niles, will host an American Red Cross blood drive from 11:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Saturday in the gymnasium on South State Street. Donors should expect the process to take at least one hour. GOVERNMENT Governor calls for foreclosure freeze LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm is asking the nation's top lenders to suspend all Michigan foreclosures until an investigation is finished into legal irregularities. Employees of several major lenders have acknowledged in depositions that they signed thousands of foreclosure documents without reading them as required by state laws.


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Record-breaking holiday returns expected as consumers remain wary of exchanging gifts in-store
The massive spike in online shopping during the pandemic has triggering a record-breaking number of returns, as consumers remain wary about exchanging
Facebook Takes the Gloves Off in Feud With Apple
Apple Slashes App Store Fees for Smaller Developers
Here's how Biden's new CDC director can fix what's been damaged at the agency
The massive spike in online shopping during the pandemic has triggering a record-breaking number of returns, as consumers remain wary about exchanging items in a physical store.
Online spending grew 32.2 percent this past holiday season to hit a record total of $188.2 billion, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.
But not everyone got what they wanted this year. Last week, UPS announced it was expecting a bounceback of 8.75 million dismissed gifts — a 23 percent increase from last year — turning "National Returns Day" into "National Returns Week."
According to the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail, retailers are expecting 13.3 percent of merchandise sold during the holiday season to be returned, equating to an estimated cost of $101 billion, or one-quarter of the 2020 return total.
This surge is putting pressure on major retailers and carriers to ease the process — and headaches — for customers looking to stay home for the latter half of their retail therapy fix.
"89 percent of customers who have a bad online return experience say they won't buy again from that retailer online," Tobin Moore, CEO and co-founder of returns solution company Optoro, told NBC News. "95 percent of them say that if they have a good returns experience, they're happy to come back and buy again."
Amazon and Macy's extended their holiday return deadline to the end of this month, while Walmart announced it is offering free FedEx pickup for returns.
However, catering to Covid-19 consumer behavior could come at a price.
The average return costs around 59 percent of an item's original price, according to Optoro and real-estate and investment services firm CBRE.
"When these items come back, oftentimes they come back up to 30, 60 or 90 days beyond when they were purchased, causing them to be out of season," said Andrew Hogenson, Global Head of Consumer Goods, Retail and Logistics at Infosys Consulting. "That's going to lead to significant markdown returns…markdowns are one of the categories that can drive profit issues for our retailers."
In some cases, Walmart and Target are encouraging customers to keep or resell unwanted gifts — even after receiving a refund.
"Similar to other large retailers, in a very small number of cases when we determine it's easier, guests who want to return items by mail may be refunded and encouraged to keep or donate the item rather than sending it back," a Target spokesperson told NBC News.
"We make the decision for customers to 'keep it' based on a few things: customer history, value of the items and the cost of returns process," a Walmart spokesperson told NBC News in an email. "It's designed to mitigate the cost of the returns process and environmental impact, as well as create a better customer experience."
Over five billion pounds of waste is generated from returns every year, according to Moore.
Meanwhile, carriers are still recovering from the holiday shopping season and working to prepare to handle the opposite side of it. FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, Amazon Logistics and regional carriers delivered over 3 billion packages this past season — a new record — with over 2 million not being delivered in time for Christmas, according to ShipMatrix.
"While we don't have a number for return projections, we are prepared to handle the volume. We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our employees, and will continue to work around the clock to deliver all packages and mail entered into our system," a USPS spokesperson told NBC News.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
Trump's Business Under New Strain After Riot
Rep. Clyburn wants to make 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' a national hymn
USD Weekly Review (Jan. 11 – 15)
Mike Florio and Chris Simms: Can the Saints sweep Tom Brady and the Bucs?
Beyond noir: Nordic content of all shades is on its way to Netflix
GBP Weekly Review (Jan. 11 – 15)
ProCook entrepreneur Daniel O'Neill mulls £100m-plus sale of business


CGI Off Campus Drive for BE, B.Tech, ME, M.Tech, MCA freshers – 29th April 2015 . CGI Job Openings in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad for Associate Software Engineer Position. Only 2013 and 2014 Batch Freshers are eligible to attend this drive. Interested and eligible candidates can apply online through the below provided link.


dragula96 and Team Vortex are Happy to intruduce: Magic: The Life Counter , a utillity tool to help keep track of life for up to 4 players while playing Magic: The Gathering* Trading Card Game.
for people that like to play Magic:The Gathering.
This looks very promissing, but I think there is something wrong with the rar-file. Is it possible to post this again? Thank you.


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Gidi Grinstein's analysis on UN Vote as opportunity for Israel also
Sep 21, 2011 Published under Israel, Mideast Negotiations, Palestine
I received this email from Gidi Grinstein, who I consider to be one of the brightest people I've ever met, and certainly one of the most widely respected Israeli thinkers. His Reut Institute firmly supports a two-state solution, and yet he has come to believe that can only come about through coordinated unilateralism because both the Israeli and Palestinian governments have structural, constitutional, and leadership impediments to pass through what would be necessary on either side to achieve a negotiated agreement. Read his entire note:
Dear friends and supporters,
This email introduces Reut's most recent strategic framework on the diplomatic and political opportunity that faces Israel in the United Nations this week, as an outcome of the Palestinian motion to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a state and accept it as a full member-state of the United Nations (Click here).
The Reut team, and specifically Roy Keidar, Reut's new CEO and former Legal Advisor of the Israel's National Security Council, and I, have been working hard behind the scenes for the past months, weeks and days, to introduce these ideas to top decision-makers, as well as to prepare for the aftermath of this Palestinian UN motion, which may include renewed efforts to de-legitimize Israel. We are now in NYC in part for this reason.
In a nutshell, we believe that Israel can leverage the Palestinian motion and pin down the principle of two-states-for-two-people, which has been a central objective of present and past Israeli governments. This will allow Israel to manage the process of establishing a Palestinian state in optimal conditions that not only address its major security and diplomatic concerns, but also allow for diluting Palestinian refugeeism and strengthening the status of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. These achievements are conditioned on Israel making a credible win-win offer to the Palestinians so that they too have historic achievements. These ideas are detailed in our paper.
For the past five years and since Hamas electoral victory in January 2006, Reut has consistently argued that 'constructive and coordinated unilateralism' is the only viable path for political progress between Israelis and Palestinians toward security and coexistence, and that all attempts to negotiate comprehensive agreements are unfortunately doomed to fail, as the case has been.
Therefore, we concluded a few years ago that the establishment of a Palestinian state would have to be through an act of declaration and recognition, which is exactly what is unfolding in the United Nations. Hence, Israel's opportunity this week to create a political breakthrough, which is a win-win and good for the Palestinians as well.
It is no coincidence that de-legitimizing groups such as the Electronic Intifada are quoting Reut in their fight against the Palestinian motion in the UN (click here), as they principally oppose the Two-State Solution or any motion that explicitly or implicitly recognizes the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.
In the coming few days, we will send you a more comprehensive overview of the recent history that led to this milestone, covering Reut's different efforts for the past seven years.
With best wishes of Shana Tova,
Solid Analysis on Israel and Turkey Heritage and Political Forces
While it is not rosy or pleasant to read, this article from Ethan Bronner provides an excellent analysis of the socio-political forces internally shaping both Turkish and Israeli politics and impacting geo-political realities as a result. It also sadly underlines that some politicians put their own careers ahead of the wellbeing of their nations. It [...]
Israel and Turkey: Friedman analysis
This article by Tom Friedman is one of the more balanced and insightful articles on the fall out in the Turkey-Israel relation, worth reading. June 1, 2010 When Friends Fall Out By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN As a friend of both Turkey and Israel, it has been agonizing to watch the disastrous clash between Israeli naval [...]
What is the true drive and motivation behind the Israel Boycott Movement?
David Troube wrote an insightful article about what is behind much of the "Boycott Israel" movement. The real motive of the boycotters 22/02/2008 By David Toube Perhaps it is global warming, but hasn't the Boycott Israel season started unnaturally early this year? A few weeks after rejecting a boycott resolution, the students' union of the [...]
From the Vantage of Young Jordanians, Israel and Palestine doomed
A testament of how excellent the leadership from King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan has been, and of how deficient the leadership has been from Israeli and Palestinian leaders in contrast, is contained in the views of young people here in Jordan. At the World Economic Forum/Young Global Leaders conference, I've had a few [...]
Poll: Most Palestinians Want Peace with Israel
by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky A recent article in Haaretz highlights the majority opinion of Palestinians that hope for peace with Israel and wish to achieve political goals via non-violent means. Results also showed that many Palestinians have more support in Fatah leadership and less in Hamas than in years prior. Published [...]
America's Ailing Algebra Skills »
« Building character through failure
KIND on CNBC: Healthy snacks, A multi-million dollar idea


While watching youtube, we realized that people like to see some animated scenes of "My Little Human" (Human versions of MLP). We have finished five animated shorts until now and have two works in progress.
THE FACES OF YOUR MARK Character design for the mascots that will represent your product. Here are shown some original desings made for organizations, enteprises and products as well as some examples with well known characters.
STARTING THE ADVENTURE Character design illustrations for a core manual of Dungeons and Dragons role playing game that is in development.


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Aayush Sharma (born 26 October 1990) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He made his film debut with brother-in-law Salman Khan's production Loveyatri (2018). His film Antim: The Final Truth (2021) was critically and commercially acclaimed, in which he starred alongside Khan.

Early life
Aayush Sharma was born on 26 October 1990 in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh to Anil and Sunita Sharma. He has a sibling, Aashray Sharma. He is the grandson of veteran congress leader Pandit Sukh Ram, ex-cabinet minister, who comes from village Kotli in district Mandi. Sharma's family has been involved in politics for more than 50 years and have a very special place in Himachal politics.

Career
In 2018, Sharma debuted in Bollywood with the lead role in Salman Khan's production Loveyatri opposite newcomer Warina Hussain. In 2020, he and Saiee Manjrekar were seen in the music video Manjha by Vishal Mishra. His breakthrough came in 2021 when he portrayed a gangster alongside Khan in his another production Antim.

He is next set to appear in the actioner Kwatha with Isabelle Kaif, a film delayed since 2019. In May 2022, he confirmed that he will reunite with Khan in his production Kabhi Eid Kabhi Diwali, in which he is playing his brother.

Personal life
Sharma married  Arpita Khan, the younger adoptive sister of Salman Khan on 18 November 2014. They have a son, Ahil (born 30 March 2016), and a daughter, Ayat (born 27 December 2019).

Filmography

Films

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

 List of Bollywood actors

References

1990 births
Living people
Indian male film actors
Indian male models
21st-century Indian male actors


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512-320-0474 info@tcjl.com
TexasJudges.org
TCJLPAC.com
Gov. Perry Sets November 5 Special Election for Texas State House District 50
Jul 15, 2013 | Home, Uncategorized
(http://governor.state.tx.us/news/)
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME:
WHEREAS, the resignation of The Honorable Mark Strama, and its acceptance, has caused a vacancy to exist in Texas State House District No. 50, which consists of a part of Travis County; and
WHEREAS, Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution and Section 203.002 of the Texas Election Code require that a special election be ordered upon such a vacancy; and
WHEREAS, the vacancy occurred on July 2, 2013, and, therefore, pursuant to Section 203.004 of the Texas Election Code, the special election must be held on the first uniform date occurring on or after the 36th day after the date the special election is ordered; and
WHEREAS, Section 3.003 of the Texas Election Code requires the special election to be ordered by proclamation of the governor; and
WHEREAS, Tuesday, November 5, 2013, is the first uniform election date, occurring on or after the 36th day after the date the special election is ordered;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby order a special election to be held in House District No. 50 on Tuesday, November 5, 2013, for the purpose of electing a state representative to serve out the unexpired term of The Honorable Mark Strama.
Candidates who wish to have their names placed on the special election ballot must file their applications with the secretary of state no later than 5:00 p.m. on September 4, 2013, in accordance with Section 201.054(a)(1), of the Texas Election Code.
Early voting by personal appearance shall begin on Monday, October 21, 2013, in accordance with Section 85.001(a) of the Texas Election Code.
A copy of this order shall be mailed immediately to the County Judge of Travis County, and all appropriate writs will be issued and all proper proceedings will be followed for the purpose that said election may be held to fill the vacancy in District No. 50 and its result proclaimed in accordance with law.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereto signed my name and have officially caused the Seal of State to be affixed at my Office in the City of Austin, Texas, this the 11th day of July, 2013.
Governor of Texas
ATTESTED BY:
JOHN STEEN
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64-year-old Sheboygan Falls man identified in fatal rollover car crash on County Road J
SHEBOYGAN FALLS - Officials have released the name of a 64-year-old man who died in a car crash on Saturday.
Just before 6:30 p.m., the Sheboygan County Emergency Communications Center received a call about a vehicle that was off the road and appeared to have rolled over on County Road J near Alpine Road, according to a news release.
Deputies who reported to the scene saw the driver, Paul Schauer of Sheboygan Falls, ejected from the vehicle. He was dead when deputies found him, the release said.
An investigation is still ongoing, but there were no other vehicles or passengers involved.
More:Sheboygan police chief, mayor meet with community on issues affecting the Black community
More:Sheboygan Green Rx owner estimates $4,500 in damage after burglary; three men charged
More:Wisconsin fire crew gets unexpected guest as wild turkey flies through windshield


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Everything was great! Thanks for following up.
My parents will be moving within the next 6 months and I'll be calling you again.
This is the first time that I have used a moving company Molloy Bros. came highly recommended, and I am glad that I choose them. From the first visit with Jack Rose the experience was GREAT the moving team was on time the day was rainy and the team finished on time charging me only the agreed upon $$. The team were professional and absolutely not a scratch or dent. I have already recommended them to a friend.
Extremely pleased with the service that was provided.
Everything was perfect the team was amazing…..no issues.
I was very pleased with Molloy brothers and have recommended them to my cousin's friend that will be moving over the next few months. I gave them Jack's number.
I will call you next week to touch base.
Thank you for all you did !!!
The guys were great! They arrived in Litchfield at 2 which worked out perfectly! Marsha and I were very pleased! Thanks for following up.
Thanks for following up. We are slowly getting settled. The move was great and we are extremely happy with the service. Eric was outstanding in his execution and we liked his professionalism very much. We could not have asked for more. We wish him the very best. Thanks again for all the assistance.
We moved about a month ago and the service we got with Molloy Bros. was great! From beginning to end. Their service department was very informative and friendly.
The movers arrived on time and went right to work. Our move took the entire day and they worked very hard wrapping up our furniture and took good care of all our belongings. Would recommend them to anyone who is going to be moving!
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Hi, excellent job. We were impressed. We had several companies came for assessment and even had lot of less offers but still we r not regretting for choosing your company we did the right decision.


Finding a great deal on Dell (D1853) toner cartridges is a whole lot easier now that you can shop from a number of different stores in one place. Gone are the days when you had to search endless shelves and hope the cartridge you tracked down was the right fit. Instead, you can view prices on Dell (D1853) toner from a number of popular merchants side-by-side to ensure you're paying the lowest price.
Help other shoppers by leaving a comment about your experience buying Dell (D1853) printer ink or toner.


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Office of the President and Provost (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)
Equality@UCL
Dignity at UCL
Equality Areas
Committees and Social Networks
Equality Training
50:50 Gender Equality Group
50:50 Group Member Profiles
Information on the Terms of Reference for the 50:50 Gender Equality Group
The following information is on the 50:50 Gender Equality Group, if you want to find out about the members, please visit the Group Member Profile Page.
Aims of the group:
To raise awareness of gender equality issues in academia at UCL
To analyse and where appropriate, publish staff and student gender data to identify areas of concern and monitor the impact of interventions
To help develop practical solutions to address issues of underrepresentation of women at senior levels and occupational or discipline-based segregation
To represent the views of male and female staff and act as a body of expertise on gender issues, sex, pregnancy and maternity discrimination
To advise senior management on how to promote an inclusive culture for men, women and staff with caring responsibilities
To deepen the knowledge of gender equality issues of group members
To provide opportunities for networking among group members
To consider measures for addressing
1. Equal pay for work of equal value. 2. The Gender pay gap
To have an oversight of progress of Athena SWAN applications in UCL departments
To take responsibility for university Athena SWAN submissions and implementation of action plans
To propose recommendations and implement actions that will foster a supportive and welcoming culture for all staff, regardless of gender.
The group will achieve this by:
Involvement and consultation on the university's plans, strategies, policies and guidance
Acting as a channel for communication with senior management on gender issues
Assisting in the co-ordination of events and activities which celebrate gender diversity at UCL
Supporting and monitoring the implementation of the Athena SWAN action plan, and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action plans
Facilitating information sharing between members.
Ex-Officio members of the group:
Faculty SWAN Leads (7)
UCLU Women's Officer
Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Membership of the group will be open to staff and students who support the aims of the group. For example those involved in aligned initiatives (such as women's networks). However, consideration will be given to the gender balance of the group, representation of staff from different grades and staff (research, academic, professional services, students, etc.) and other diversity issues. View current membership.
Responsibility of Members:
Members must maintain the confidentiality of sensitive information
Members are expected to actively contribute in some way to the group
Members are encouraged to attend events organised by the group
Faculty SWAN Leads will be expected to act as a point of communication between departmental SWAN SATs, and the 50:50 group. The faculty SWAN Leads will enable sharing of best practice across their own faculty, and between faculties. This information will also feed into the university Athena SWAN applications.
The group will meet at least once each term and will report to the Equality and Diversity Committee (EDC).


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History and Future of Box Office Revenues
From my good friend NoMaN, weekly revenue predictions.
Fees analysis, by Todd
Chris Masse has Todd's charts before me, as Chris blogs at the speed of light, and I blog at the speed of diaper changes.
Michael Moore is the Happy Reaper
Very warm interview on CNBC, with Maria Bartiromo. He was affable, articulate, and witty. He wants:
1. drug companies to be regulated like public utilities
2. abolition of private health insurance, because they are loathe to pay benefits
3. government healthcare, like other industrialized countries, because it is better
I believe his heart is in the right place. But I also believe his suggestions, if implemented, will increase suffering and accelerate death in our country. Why?
1. the profit motive fuels innovation, finding creative and competitive ways to do more, or else do the same with less
2. the market meets individuals' varied demands and preferences better than a central planning bureaucracy. anyone ever try to get bread in a communist country, never mind healthcare?
3. i know people icanadians and brits who get inferior healthcare to us americans. to be fair, they spend much less per capita than we do
Private insurance companies are disincented to pay benefits, because that reduces profits. I believe the government is required to enforce all contracts, including those between insurance companies and beneficiaries. But it gets tangled--the tort lobby squeezes a lot of extra money out of insurance companies, and shares the millions they get with elected government officials who are disincented to enforce contracts.
Moore reminds me of Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai, whose good nature and naivete, actually enable the Japanese War machine, without knowing it. I hope he is smart enough to learn that he is wrong.
UPDATE: David Gratzer, author of The Cure, is effectively refuting Moore's claims on CNBC. He talked about the shortage of doctors in Nova Scotia, and the lottery that families go through to see which few get to see the doctor.
"David Gratzer is a practicing psychiatrist who combines firsthand knowledge of medical practice in both his native Canada and the U.S. with an independent point of view and a rare capacity for lucid exposition of complex technical material. . . If you want a well-written, interesting yet authoritative and thorough account of what is wrong with medicine today and how to cure American health care, this is the book for you."
- Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate, Economics (from foreword to The Cure)
"The Cure is a must read for all students of health care policy. Dr. Gratzer correctly diagnoses the U.S. health care system's problems and proposes workable solutions to fix them. His ideas will help reign-in costs while, at the same time, preserve necessary incentives for quality-of-life enhancing innovations."
--John F. Cogan, Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
"David Gratzer's well written book should be in the reading list of anyone interested in health care reform. In five-sixths of the U.S economy, we look to markets as an organizing mechanism; in the one-sixth of the economy represented by health care, public policy has frustrated markets, with adverse consequences for cost, access, and quality. Gratzer's capitalist manifesto is a shot in the arm; with it, the much that's right with American health care can grow."
--R. Glenn Hubbard, Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School; and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
"The caduceus is an apt symbol for medicine, given the bureaucratic snake pit the American health care system has become. Dr. David Gratzer skillfully wields Occam's razor to shave away the Byzantine rhetoric and show us that the cure for health care comes in the simplest of formulas - free markets, less government meddling, and a healthy dose of capitalism."
--Governor Bill Owens, Colorado
"Dr. David Gratzer is uniquely qualified to diagnose and provide a treatment regimen for the US health care system's problems. In this book he performs this function for us, does it with his usual acumen and clarity. He leads us by the hand through the labyrinth of legal, institutional and regulatory events that brought to the point where, at least to some, we are in a health crisis that can only be solved by further movement away from the market and toward a universal centrally controlled system. He thoroughly debunks the notion we can improve the US health care system by becoming more like our neighbors to the North. After taking us there, he shows us why these same legal, institutional, and regulatory events are largely responsible for our predicament and that the popular solution of more of the same is not the answer. He convincingly demonstrates that the only way out is less regulation of, and more freedom for, the providers and customers of health care. This book should be read by anyone involved, or with the hope or potential to be involved, in determining health care policy."
--Tom Saving, Director, Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University.
"Excellent addition to the emerging call for empowering patients rather than government bureaucrats with control of the health care dollar, written by someone with an expert view from the inside!"
--Scott W. Atlas, MD, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine
Posted this link on my blog but thought I would post it here too. I am an Enterpriser, who are you? Go educate yourself.
Wisdom of outliers helps crowds, or Average > Median
Arnold Kling, on Edger Capen (of the Winner's Curse):
His main theme is that people under-estimate uncertainty. If someone says, "the chance of X falling between A and B is 90 percent," the true probability is likely to be 30 percent. He likes to do experiments where he puts a large number of beads in a jar and asks people to guess the number of beads. One point he makes is that the "wisdom of crowds" result (that the average estimate tends to be pretty good) often depends on keeping outlier estimates in the sample. It is the extreme contrarianism of one person in the crowd that keeps the crowd's estimate from going off track. I wonder if anyone has compared median estimates with mean estimates in "wisdom of crowd" studies.
The market mechanism can actually prevent the outliers from contributing, as they are buried way back deep in the order book. Any ideas on how to mitigate that?
Journalists and Athletes can keep a good team down
Here's John Tomase and Deion Branch questioning the economically wise moves of the Patriots management:
Following the AFC title game, the Patriots [team stats] revamped their receiving corps. Does Branch believe those moves signaled regret over how his situation was resolved?
"If you asked the Patriots today, who knows what they'd say?" Branch said. "Being that they went out and signed four or five wide receivers, maybe they would have handled it a little differently knowing what they know now."
Here's what I posted almost 5 months ago:
No wonder so many multimillionaire athletes manage to squander their assets so dramatically. Pros on the field, amateurs in wealth management.
How the Fed accelerated the inflation it is now confronting
The nearby chart from economist Arthur Laffer offers an instructive summary of recent monetary history. It compares actual prices, as measured by spot commodity prices, to the fed funds rate, which is a rough proxy for tighter or looser monetary policy. The left side of the chart records the great inflation of the late 1970s and the Fed's attempts to break it. The right side shows what we've been living through this decade, with soaring commodity prices amid historically low interest rates.
We've been writing since at least 2003 that the two are related, and worrisome. In June 2003, the Fed cut its target fed funds rate to an extraordinarily low 1% and kept it there for a year. Even when it began to tighten again, the Fed did so very gradually, causing us to write in June 2004 that "the danger with gradualism" is that "it risks always being behind the inflation curve."
There was no inflation evident at the time, but monetary policy works with a lag and it showed up later -- most notably in the housing asset inflation of 2004 and 2005. Everybody loved that bubble while it lasted, including some lenders who found increasingly creative ways to lend to increasingly unreliable borrowers. We are now living with the aftermath of that mistake, however, amid the current housing washout that has lasted a year already, and with probably more financial casualties to come.
Neither former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan nor successor Ben Bernanke has acknowledged the Fed's role in creating this housing bubble. But last autumn Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, offered a kind of proxy mea culpa when he noted that "In retrospect, the real fed funds rate turned out to be lower than what was deemed appropriate at the time and was held lower longer than it should have been."
Blackstone & KKR IPOs not a sign of a top
Unlike this peak signal, I don't see the apparent hypocrisy of private equity players tapping public money supply.
In fact, isn't it a good pairs trade? Sell the overvalued asset and buy the undervalued assets?
UPDATE: Steve Conover has another excellent graph and analysis on the strength of the dollar. To me, it says some additional things:
1-the limits of a gold-backed dollar, the loss over which the austrian school is always crying
2-how good a democrat president Bill Clinton and treasury secretary Robert Rubin were, and
3-how Jimmy Carter comes in dead last, yet again (Nixon was the one who pulled the trigger on Bretton Woods in the first place, and USD power has been unleashed, helping rich and poor households alike, especially in America and Mexico)
UPDATE II: Dani Rodrik is more sanguine about Bretton Woods. I don't always see eye to eye with him, but his Trilemma Model does seem to hold up well to my skeptical scrutiny.
Overcoming the bias of science
In aspiring to see my readers reap greater trading profits, I've talked about self bias and Karl Popper and media bias and how they can constrain your profit potential.
Now the guys at Overcoming Bias have a great post on the bias of science, channeling the ghost of Thomas Kuhn. Occam's Razor, wielded by the simple man, can trump the consensus (conspiracy?) of the science-journalism complex.
He who laughs last, laughs best? That is why I am long these.
Labels: bias, science, scientific religiosity
Clouds moving over Iran?
Jonathan Muravchik and Daniel Jackson seem to think so.
Lileks gets gasoline pricing, will politicians and voters?
I've been watching the price of gas drop all weekend. It seems like it's adjusted on the hour. I'll never understand how a load of gas the station bought at a higher price last week can sell for less today. I mean, I can understand why they'd charge more for gas they bought last week at a lower price - they're evil and bad. But this charging less for something they bought at a higher price - it makes no sense. Sure, blame it on "economics" or something, give me that ridiculous explanation about how you're actually paying the replacement cost of the next load (yeah, right, that sounds logical) but it's obvious they're ungouging us. Well, I'm tired of being unjerked around by these guys. I want the pumps to show what they paid for the load I'm putting in my car, just so I know how many pennies they're not getting.
Bear Stearns lessons for us traders
Good stuff from the WSJ on low liquidity assets:
Figuring out the risk profile of illiquid assets -- and funds that invest in them -- can be tricky. Typical methods for assessing risk rely on measuring volatility -- the choppier returns are, the riskier the investment. But because illiquid assets don't trade regularly, marking to market -- or using recent sales prices to determine an asset's value -- may not be possible. In these cases, a fund manager may instead use a mathematical model to value an asset, a practice called marking to model.
Such models tend to smooth returns, making an asset look much less risky, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology finance professor Andrew Lo, who is also a principal in AlphaSimplex Group LLC, an asset-management company that runs a hedge fund.
Using broker-dealer quotes for illiquid assets can also damp volatility because they are often based on an average of bid and offer prices rather than actual sales prices. What's more, price quotes can vary widely from one dealer to the next.
Mr. Lo has found that returns for illiquid assets and funds that invest in them tend to have little variation from one month to the next. Paradoxically, it is this smoothness of returns that show how illiquid, and risky, a position might be.
Still, illiquid assets can be lucrative when held by investors with long time horizons, who don't have to worry about creditors suddenly calling in loans and who understand the risk they've taken on. "If you're a pension fund and you don't have any issues with being able to fulfill your obligations, illiquidity risk is a very good way to earn extra returns," says Mr. Lo.
Timber funds illustrate some of the potential, as well as the risks. These funds, in which investors hand over money to a manager who buys and oversees forest lands, can lock up investors for 10 to 15 years, typically returning their money after selling off the properties involved. Cashing out of a timber fund early can mean selling at a discount of 20%. For a direct investor in timber, selling carries the same vagaries of selling a home: You can guess what the price will be based on appraisals, but you won't know for sure until you put it to market.
"This isn't a good investment for short-term investors -- there's too much volatility," says Dick Molpus, of Mississippi-based timber-investment manager Molpus Woodlands Group.
UPDATE: Alex Forshaw has a practical example of how not to trade illiquid assets today.
I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know we give (via Daniel Mitchell). About $1,000 in charitable donations, per person. More than double the next most charitable country. And of course, the richest probably give the lion's share--why just Bill & Melinda Gates gave over $1.5 bil last year.
What will shills like Paul Krugman say about that, I wonder. Probably nothing.
Me thinks some charitable donation prediction markets will help NGOs in their planning cycles. Maybe someday.
Ex-girlfriend's for Thompson
From the British Times (via Drudge):
The Hollywood actor and former Tennessee senator racked up an impressive list of conquests during his swinging bachelor days in the 1990s, but he appears to have achieved the impossible and kept their friendship and respect.
In anticipation of a presidential run, a group of potentially supportive Republican congressmen recently questioned him about his private life.
"I was single for a long time and yep I chased a lot of women," Thompson told them with a grin. "And a lot of women chased me. And those who chased me tended to catch me."
At 24 years his junior, [Jeri] Kehn has been described as a "trophy wife" but the former Republican consultant is as clever as she is vivacious, according to Mosbacher.
When she was dating Thompson, Kehn complained that she had to chase other women away. "They just won't leave him alone," she told a gossip columnist. "I can't get up to get a cocktail at a party without coming back and finding some girl sitting in my chair."
I'm not sure about Thompson's sex appeal, but then again, I never understood Clinton's. (That's Bill Clinton, for those who aren't paying very close attention).
Nerds/Jock Theory and the Politics of Envy
Bryan Caplan:
With the Jock/Nerd theory firmly in mind, this sentence takes on a deeper meaning:
We don't take steps to redress inequalities of looks, friends, or sex life.
Notice: For financial success, the main measure where nerds now excel, governments make quite an effort to equalize differences. But on other margins of social success, where many nerds still struggle, laissez-faire prevails.
It's suspicious - and if you combine the Jock/Nerd Theory with some evolutionary psych, it makes sense. When the best hunter in the tribe gets rich, his neighbors will probably ask nicely for a share, if they dare to ask at all. But if the biggest nerd in the tribe gets rich, how long will it take before the jocks show up and warn him that "You'd better share and share alike"?
I've been a nerd for most of my life, but I had a nice athletic run in middle school. On the football field, for instance, I wasn't skilled, but I had great speed and the ability to breakdown whatever the offense was trying to do and disrupt it. So I was a successful defensive back and special teams gunner. I would have continued into high school, but I entered my freshman year around 90 lbs soaking wet. So it was all good grades and very good test scores for my next few years, until my strong academics and early university acceptances increased my perceived value in the dating market. Those last 5 months of high school were the best.
I think this is why I've never gone back to any high school reunions--I'm doing better than all the jocks in my class, and don't want trouble.
But politicians dealing in the Politics of Envy--well, their policies will find me. Four wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner, that is where our capitalistic democracy is going.
People who respect the law and work hard and take smart risk build their businesses from the ground up. A few succeed. And everyone else wants to free ride and/or punish them.
If our politicians ran the football program, they would campaign like this: I will force the best football programs to pay the worst ones--say, for every win in your last 10 games played, spot the other team 2 points.
Our best football players might as well go to Canada. Yeah, this'll keep us real competitive in the long run. But the politicians don't really care about our long run competitivity. Talk isn't even cheap, it's costing us.
Tradesports announces new fee structure
I don't like it that much:
TradeSports has announced that it will introduce an entirely new fee structure for its members. This will go live on 27th June 2007*.
The new fee structure will mean:
Trading Fees of 5c per lot and Expiry Fees of 10c per lot will be withdrawn.
Members will pay a simple commission of 4% of the profits they make from trading on a TradeSports market (a market is an individual contract or a group of linked contracts).
Trading profits before the expiry of an event may generate a commission, but it will be your overall net profit on settlement of the event that will dictate your net commission payable.
More detailed information will be made available on the site closer to the go-live date.
*Unless we advise an updated go-live date.
It works out to 20 cents for each $0-10 contract on average. That's in addition to the float of 2 bips per day for account funds on deposit. But due to the first mover advantage which results in a liquidity edge plus the current legislation, competing for market share is hard for a new entrant, so TS has pricing power for now.
I'm still going to trade. But I trade small. I wonder about some of the bigger fish that swim here, if they will be disincented by the new fees.
I'd rather see:
1) double the liquidity and half the proposed fee rate
2) 50% of the fees to be assessed on expiry
3) 75% of the fees to be assessed to the liquidity taker
4) -25% of the fees to be assessed (i.e. a rebate) to the liquidity provider
This works for exchanges like Island. I always try to route my trades there, because they pay me to add liquidity. While the liquidity taker pays more, the spreads on contracts should tighten up, there by offsetting some of the cost under the old fee schedule.
UPDATE: More on this at Midas Oracle (scroll down, the first 2 comments are mine, including a conversation in the Pit with Todd).
Alex Forshaw on Bloomberg for POTUS
I think Alex is astute here:
All Bloomberg brings to the table is money. In terms of positions, he is well to the left of the Democratic Party: totally pro-choice, a regulatory and environmental fascist (smoking and trans fats come to mind), a massive tax hiker in the name of education, and so on and so forth. (Yes, NYC is doing well. Does Bloomberg deserve credit for that? In my opinion, no -- huge growth in the finance industry delivered a tax windfall into Bloomberg's lap.) Not to mention Bloomberg's severe elitist streak.
In fairness to Bloomberg, if anybody deserves to be an elitist, he does. After all, he is a hell of a lot smarter than most of us. His "Bloomberg machines" are ubiquitous up here -- for $2000 a month, the user gets access to mind-boggling amounts of financial data, delivered in a pretty usable package. Bloomberg makes $1 billion a year after taxes on these things, on top of a net worth of $20 billion.
I think a Bloomberg run is the best thing that could possibly happen for the GOP. The GOP could keep 42-46% of the popular vote with Fred Thompson and keep their base intact, instead of having Rudy win a Pyrrhic intraparty civil war over social issues to give the GOP a one-in-ten shot at a 50.1% victory in the popular vote.
Sopranos imitates Clinton campaign
Hilarious, that Gawker:
... the most plausible solution to what happens after the show goes dark: Tony is term-limited out of his job as head of the north Jersey mob. After his chosen successor is rejected by a crooked Mafia Supreme Court despite being elected fair and square, he and Carmela plot a return to the top through a Machiavellian scheme where Carmela shows the mob that she's as tough as any other candidate. Then some black guy comes in and screws it all up.
Uh oh, is this the top?
CNBC commentator and investment manager Ron Insana has lined up a list of at least 13 top managers who will be part of his new hedge-fund offering, according to fund documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Insana Capital Partners Legends Fund is structured as a fund of funds, meaning that Insana's job is to collect investors' money and then seed that money into still other funds, extracting a fee along the way. It is unclear just how large the fund will be. Insana and fellow executive John S. Roglierli are soliciting initial investments of at least $500,000 each.
The 16-year CNBC veteran raised some media eyebrows when it was revealed last fall that he was launching the fund. One Dow Jones columnist said the move signaled that "it's probably time for everyone else to get out" of the hedge-fund business.
World context for US publicly held debt
From the indefatigable Steve Conover:
Chances of Fed Funds Rate at or above 5.25%:
Charts of home sales, gas prices, the Dow, and recession odds
The attribute of successful traders
By Felix Salmon. If I could attempt a paraphrase,
A successful trader needs to be so arrogant that he can effectively convince himself that he is wrong.
There is a link to John Kay on Richard Rorty. He seemed to channel the ghost of Karl Popper, from my quick reading.
I think that my aspirations for humility are career limiting. It is actually amazing that I have the risk limits I do. But then again, I've never come close to blowing up. Aim small, miss small.
Is the IPO market a distorted market?
Yes (WSJ subscription required). But is that a bad thing? Not according to the Supreme Court:
In a 7-1 decision yesterday, the court said the securities markets were a different animal than ordinary commerce and that practices that might seem to violate antitrust laws in other sectors were essential to Wall Street.
The court said the job of policing combinations among brokers rests with the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose regulators possess the expertise to distinguish permissible arrangements from illegal conspiracies.
The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, preferred to draw the bright line favored by the banks and the SEC. "Financial experts, including the securities regulators, consider the general kind of joint underwriting activity at issue in this case, including road shows and book-building efforts essential to the successful marking of an IPO," Justice Breyer wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that the securities laws were intended to supplement, rather than replace, other remedies such as antitrust laws. Justice Anthony Kennedy didn't participate in the case and, as typical when justices disqualify themselves, offered no explanation why.
(Note: I think Kennedy has a relative in the investment banking business).
I would sum it up this way--it is hard to find an price for something that is not available to the market. For example, shares that have not yet been offered. Issuers, distributors, and investors work together to converge on a price, given multi-party valuation analyses and demand forecasting. It's not as good as a free market for pricing, but there is no market yet.
I've worked for banks since graduating from college (not in investment banking), so since this indirectly affects my job prospects and also my Manhattan home value, I am disclosing it.
UPDATE: Justice Stevens wrote this:
After the initial purchase, the prices of newly issued stocks or bonds are determined by competition among the vast multitude of other securities traded in a free market. To suggest that an underwriting syndicate can restrain trade in that market by manipulating the terms of IPOs is frivolous.
UPDATE: Also from the WSJ, while the Supreme Court "gets it", the Federal Trade Commission doesn't:
But this is where the FTC's story gets weird. It wants to argue both that the quality, selection and "experience" make Whole Foods unique among supermarkets and that without competition from Wild Oats (in the few markets in which they overlap), Whole Foods' quality, selection and experience will worsen. Which means, we guess, that Whole Foods would look more like an "ordinary" supermarket. Which would mean, more competition for Whole Foods. Or something. We admit the FTC lost us when it started arguing that Whole Foods' evil plan is to undermine the very uniqueness on which the FTC is basing its antitrust case.
Maybe the FTC is responding to heat from Capitol Hill to show it's on the job, but pandering to Congress has never made for good antitrust policy. Whole Foods says it will battle the FTC in court, and the case will make for some entertaining jujitsu as Mr. Mackey argues that his stores aren't as unique as his marketing materials suggest, while the FTC pleads that the merger will make Whole Foods less unique and more expensive at the same time. Such are the absurdities of modern antitrust policy.
Chris Masse updates us on Blu-ray vs. HD DVD
He continues to serve the possibilities, no, realities of prediction markets well.
One reason why Intrade/Tradesports is way ahead of the SEC
Their respective views on the tick test.
World's largest lake disappearing ... because of global warming?
I thought land would disappear, not water. Shows how much I know (via Instapundit).
Still no global warming contracts to trade.
UPDATE: Steve Levitt joins Greg Mankiw in advocating energy taxes. I actually am in favor of such a tax, but only if it comes with offsetting income tax reductions. Otherwise, economic growth momentum will turn and regress, increasing poverty and creating more "have not" households. Not holding my breath on that one, so I usually keep pretty quiet on being pro-energy tax.
Birdflu update
The best sports rivalry
I'm long the Red Sox at 8.8 and short the Yankees from 15.5. We're almost at the all star break. Historically, the Sox tend to fade and the Yankees tend to power up after the break. We'll see what happens this season.
Obama understates his dirty money
Rezko cash triple what Obama says (via Instapundit).
US Open: Cabrera wins, but Furyk pays me in size
I usually leave trading contracts as an individual exercise to my knowledgable readers (especially because we have such differing styles of trading and preferences for risk), but want to talk a little about the US.OPEN contracts to boost potential interest. Before tournament started, I got long WOODS, MICKELSON, ELS, FURYK, SCOTT, and FIELD.
On Thursday, I was able to take a little profit on Woods, Furyk, and FIELD.
On Friday, Mickelson & Scott missed the cut, so I ended up down.
On Sunday, though, I was able to sell my Furyk all the way up to 34, ending up with just 1 FURYK and 1 ELS which each expired at zero.
I am usually able to make a little profit on each of the majors with a similar approach, i.e. buying several of the favorites plus FIELD, and taking profits when possible. The British Open is coming up in 4 weeks. Come and join in the fun if you know a bit about the players and a bit about managing risk!
Q&A with Steven Landsburg, on "More Sex"
Courtesy of Steve Dubner. Some of my favorites snippets:
Our personal welfare is almost always in conflict with the greater good. When something exciting happens at the ballpark, everyone stands up to see better, and therefore nobody succeeds. At parties, everyone speaks loudly to be heard over everyone else, and therefore everyone goes home with a sore throat. The one great exception is the interaction among buyers and sellers in a competitive marketplace, where — for fairly subtle reasons — the price system aligns private and public interests perfectly. That's a miraculous exception, but it is an exception. In most other areas, there's room to improve people's incentives.
Thousands of people die each year for lack of a healthy kidney, while hundreds of millions walk around with spare kidneys they're unlikely to need. That's nuts. I agree with you guys that most people can probably see that it's nuts. For some reason, most of those people seem reluctant to embrace the one mechanism — the market — that can actually solve this kind of problem.
So if you want to be charitable, all you have to do is hoard your money, or for that matter burn it. But that's not the best way to be charitable, because you can't control who gets the benefits. Miserliness is like a random act of kindness; effective philanthropy is about directed acts of kindness. And I argue in the book that a philanthropist who really cares about helping others will usually pick a single charity and target his giving to that one charity. If 100 children are dying of rickets and another 100 are dying of scurvy and you have enough funds to save two children, there's no particular reason to save one of each; you might as well give your entire contribution to either the Rickets Foundation or the Scurvy Foundation. Either way, you've saved two children. And if you have even the slightest inkling that one of those charities might be more effective than the other, then that's where both your dollars should go.
I do disagree that an STD-free person helps the casual sex pool by jumping into it. An abstainer's risk has a higher opportunity cost, i.e. by copulating with some who is already engaged, the abstainer may contract an STD, even as the abstainer lowers the pool's overall STD probability. The cost outweights the benefit, assuming equal preferences.
I also disagree that denying or suppressing personal demand lowers the prices for everyone else--this assumes everything is zero-sum (a very bad assumption that market bears make all the time and a lot of bears get killed by a stampeding bull market that is not zero-sum, especially over the last few centuries).
You've made me very angry, indeed!
WSJ op-ed:
So Democrats are proposing to raise taxes on three million Americans in order to exempt 20 million from the AMT. The wealthiest 1% of Americans already pay more than one of every three income tax dollars into the Treasury. Under the Ways and Means proposal, the share of all income taxes paid by the top 1% would rise to nearly 40%. The top 2% would pay roughly as much as the bottom 98% of all taxpayers. Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel of New York seems to think this qualifies as tax fairness.
There is rough justice in watching Democrats squirm to fix the AMT monster they created in 1969 to punish 21 millionaires who legally escaped taxes at the time. And if Democrats want to do away with the AMT, we're all for it. One sensible idea from Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania would repeal the 1993 Clinton AMT tax hike, which raised the rates to 26% and 28% from the single rate of 24%. Mr. Specter's bill would relieve 10 million middle class tax filers from AMT tyranny.
But Democrats don't want to cut taxes; they want all of that extra revenue to spend. So instead they'd raise the top federal tax rate to its highest level in a quarter-century. A 44% top marginal rate would reduce U.S. competitiveness by reducing the after-tax return on investment. Less investment means fewer jobs and lower wages. A Tax Foundation analysis of tax returns finds that roughly three in every five Americans in the highest income tax bracket are small business owners, who create most new jobs.
Like Shaw said: A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
The tyranny of a government sponsored majority undermines democracy.
GOP presidential probabilities fading
The survey shows that without formally entering the race, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has risen to second place in the Republican field. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to leak support, but leads the pack with 29% to Mr. Thompson's 20%, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has pulled even with Sen. John McCain at 14%.
Of greater concern for Republicans generally, however, is the party's weak state heading into the 2008 election. By 52% to 31%, Americans say they want Democrats to win the presidency next year.
Americans give the Republican Party their most negative assessment in the two-decade history of the Journal/NBC survey, and by 49% to 36% they say the Democratic Party more closely shares their values and positions on the issues.
"Fair Value" will be market making the US.OPEN today through Sunday
Spreads are a little wide, but I've already taken a little profit (mostly from US.OPEN.FURYK).
Fair Value: Good morning Golf Fans
Fair Value: I will be MMIng the event throughout the 4 days
caveatBettor: hi FV
caveatBettor: i've picked up a couple contracts, furyk trading nicely
caveatBettor: i wish you fair trade winds
Fair Value: ta
Fair Value: they say this course will be brutal
caveatBettor: right, tiger talking down birdies
Fair Value: Monty in the lead at -1 ... lol
Steve Conover has found where the middle class disappeared to
Many of them became too wealthy to stay middle class. Brilliant,
UPDATE: Conover prints a correction. I guess I've got some confirmation bias, because when I read it, I started thinking about the internet bubble and record low unemployment in 2000, and also thought about baby boomer retirement impact on his data.
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Jaquard skirt with flower motive. Baroq&Roll collection.
Golden-silver skirt of silk jaquard. Its timeless design perfectly fits every woman's silhouette. Through the flower motive, skirt becomes mysterious and charming. In combination with a shirt it will create perfect look for the office. The unique fabric of the highest quality.


MARDIN - The biggest reason for the drought experienced in Turkiye, saying that because of people no more thankful to Allah, Cemile Boşkuş said: "Nevertheless, God still does not withhold His mercy from us."
Driest winters in recent years in Turkiye is experiencing. Because of the drought, the farmers in the Mardin Plain had difficult times, while the wheat seeds in the fields were not beginning to develop.
Cemile Bozkuş, who lives in Çağıl Neighborhood (Meşqoqê village), said that the cause of these calamities that happened to people was caused by their lack of glorification.
Cemile said that the mercy is decreasing because people do not show mercy to each other.


SOGGY Bottom Farm doesn't sound particularly charming, but don't let the name fool you.
Located on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road, it's a rustic family home surrounded by wide natural land, heirloom apples, and leaves changing with the seasons. At the heart of the property, is Niall Reidy.
Written for the Mansfield Courier (North East Media). Image credit to Mansfield Courier.