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Climate Change Conversations: Causes, Impacts, Solutions
In addition to the recording of interviews and lectures with climate scientists, public broadcasting has served as a venue for journalists, students, and activists to advocate for action on climate change.
In 2005, Elizabeth Kolbert, journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker, wrote a three-part series titles "The Climate of Man," which examined the science and politics of climate change. The series won the 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest, the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award, and the 2006 National Academies Communication Award. After the series was published, WILL interviewed Kolbert and provided the opportunity for listeners to call in with questions. One listener asked about how scientists can compete with those "whose motives who are out to either deny or discredit the scientists?" Kolbert replied, "That's the job of people like me, and it isn't easy . . . ."
Also in 2005, South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) hosted a call-in show titled "Global Warming" where high school students from the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics answered viewer questions about global warming. The students discussed ways in which their generation and the generations that followed could make an impact and find solutions to global warming. "There are things in your everyday life that are affecting this issue; it's not just the big corporations . . . ." The students recommended purchasing hybrid cars, using energy efficient appliances, and walking or taking public transportation instead of driving when possible. One viewer called in to ask, "How is it that this young crop of South Carolinians proposes to translate this natural environmental conscious [sic] into political activism and ultimately change in legislation?" A student replied, "I think that education as to the importance of global warming especially people our age and younger whose . . . lifetime that it's going to impact...this is our problem primarily because we're the people who are going to live through it. I think especially with emphasis in the schools through classes like environmental science . . . so that when we get out of school and become doctors and legislators . . . we know what we're talking about and what needs to be done, and we can work to change what's happening."
Since the late 1980s, writer and climate change activist Bill McKibben has been a leading voice on global warming. Over the course of his career, he has discussed on the issue of climate change over the airwaves of public radio and television. In 1989, WILL interviewed him about his first book titled The End of Nature, which argues for a transformational shift in how society perceives our relationship of domination with the Earth. Speaking about his latest book Eaarth at the Harvard Book Store, he said that people across the world had already begun to feel the impacts of climate change. McKibben also discussed his founding of 350.org, a grassroots effort to mobilize citizens across the world to take action on climate change. Because more than 4,000 languages are spoken across the globe, he used the number "350," universally understood as the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide parts per million in the atmosphere, for the name of the organization. Today, 350.org works in every country to effect change on both the local and global scale, and activists around the world have dedicated themselves to the effort. Ken Ward and Andree Zaleska, two activists involved in 350.org, gave a recorded public talk in 2010 about how ordinary citizens can contribute to finding solutions to global warming. Others who took personal acts of advocacy told their stories as well. In 2008, WGBH recorded a public talk given by author and environmental activist John Francis, who witnessed a major oil spill in San Francisco in the early 1970s and gave up motorized transportation for 22 years in protest of environmental destruction.


text: Just made a few minor fixes and tweaks to the content of ONDB. Do get in touch if you notice a spelling mistake or jarringly constructed sentence. Nearly done getting settled in the new house and just beginning to find some free time. Hoping to maybe get back to Book 3 – trying to restructure the plot so I can deliver more managable installments.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nursing Home Wheelchair Accidents
While wheelchairs are usually thought of a medical device that is meant to help those who are injured or have physical challenges, they can also be a source of injury when not properly used. I
n 2013, there were over 100,000 emergency room visits for wheelchair injuries, double from only a decade earlier. The surprising and disturbing fact is that many of these injuries happened in a medical setting such as a hospital or nursing home, where such accidents are completely preventable.
When it comes to wheelchair accidents in Chicago nursing homes, Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC is committed to protecting the legal rights of injured patients.
Unlike other types of accidents involving nursing home patients, most incidents involving a patient's wheelchair are commonly due to negligent staff. Our experience with cases involving wheelchair accidents allows us to evaluate your case quickly and advise of the best way to proceed.
Types Of Wheelchair Injuries And Accidents Our Office Sees in Nursing Homes
In a study done at the Center for Injury Research and Policy in Ohio, the researchers looked at the injuries sustained from wheelchairs that were treated at emergency rooms from 1991 to 2003.
The study revealed that injuries had doubled from 50,000 in 1991 to over 100,000 in 2003, with the largest increases in adults and the elderly.
Some interesting findings from the study include:
- Between 65-80% of the injuries across all age groups were attributed to falls from the wheelchair or tipping over of the wheelchair.
- The most common injuries reported were fractures, lacerations and contusions.
- 68.9% of all wheelchair injuries occurred in elderly persons above 65 years of age
- 94% of wheelchair injuries to those 65-years of age or older happened in a medical institution or at home.
The main concern is that so many of the injuries, especially in the elderly, happened in medically supervised institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes. Through neglect, negligence or lack of training, thousands of people each year are needlessly injured in wheelchair accidents.
Causes Of Wheelchair Injuries in Nursing Homes and Medical Institutions
When a person sustains a wheelchair injury while a patient in a hospital or nursing home, in most cases it is due to some form of negligence on the part of the medical facility. Medical institutions have a responsibility to insure the safety of their patients, especially those confined to a wheelchair that are in need of assistance.
This means providing the proper safety precautions to prevent injuries from wheelchairs.
Some common causes of preventable wheelchair injuries in a medical setting are:
- Transfers. Transferring a patient to and from the wheelchair is a very common cause for falls and injuries in medical facilities. Patients need assistance to move from the bed to the wheelchair and from the wheelchair to the toilet or bath area, another chair or back into bed.
- Wheel locks. Injuries can happen when a medical staff member does not ensure the wheel lock or brake is on before transferring a patient or when transporting in a vehicle.
- Pressure sores. Patients who are not given proper padding or who are left too long in wheelchairs by medical staff may sustain pressure sores.
- Crushed limbs. Medical staff need to prevent fingers and other limbs from getting caught in a wheelchair's moving parts.
- Medical transportation. Anytime a wheelchair patient is taken to a medical appointment or recreational event, staff at the medical facility and/or medical transportation company must ensure that patients are loaded properly on the van and properly secured during transport. An abrupt stop or turn can easily send a wheelchair patient onto the floor and seriously injure him or her.
How Medical Facilities can Improve Safety for Physically Disabled Patients
Most wheelchair injuries that happen in a medical setting such as a hospital or nursing home are easily prevented and should be considered another event that should never happen.
Patients have even sustained fatal wheelchair injuries due to the negligence of medical staff. Medical administrations can reduce the chance of wheelchair accidents by:
- Training for Staff. Ensure that all medical staff understands the correct safety procedures for caring for those confined to wheelchairs, including preventing pressure sores, proper transfer techniques and need for supervision.
- Maintenance of Wheelchairs. Make sure that all wheelchairs are properly maintained and that all features such as wheel locks are working properly.
- Safe Environment. Medical facilities need to ensure that all physical dangers to those in wheelchairs such as open stairwells and cluttered hallways are avoided. Further, exterior areas such as ramps and smoking areas should have railings to avoiding wheelchair patients from falling off an elevated area.
Sample Nursing Home Wheelchair Accident Lawsuits & Settlements
$500,000 Settlement; Illinois Nursing Home Wheelchair Accident
This wrongful case began after a man in his middle seventies passed away in an Illinois nursing home. Leading up to that point, there were some breakdowns in care that contributed to his death and required the lawsuit. The man was bound to a wheelchair because of his limited mobility and multiple medical conditions.
This meant that he was at a high risk for bed sores. Bed sores form after extended periods of pressure or friction. The nursing home staff and his doctors were aware of this potential issue. Nevertheless, the facility staff took little action to prevent the emergence of bed sores. As it turned out, many bed sores popped up along his spine, foot, and buttocks. They eventually became infected and took his life.
His wife brought this cause of action against the nursing home. She alleged its negligent care and supervision was responsible for his bed sores and subsequent passing.
She sought compensation for this tragedy, the man's pain prior to death, and the expenses that came about because of the entire ordeal. In a private negotiated settlement, the defendant nursing facility compensated the plaintiff with a sum of $500,000.
$625,000 Verdict; Chicago Nursing Home Wheelchair Accident
This matter made it all the way to court because the two sides could not agree on the basic premise of the accident. Here is what was established: a female nursing home resident (seventy-seven years old) tumbled out of her wheelchair and banged her head on the floor.
Subsequently, she developed swelling and bruising in the area. Her family suggested that this injury changed the resident's personality and then caused or at least contributed to her death just a few months later.
The defendant denied almost all of these points. It said that the fall could not be stopped. It also replied that the plaintiffs exaggerated the woman's harms and could not draw a causal line from the accident and her death. At trial, the plaintiffs made a cause of action under lllinois' Nursing Home Care Act. After a complete trial, the jury awarded the plaintiffs $625,000 for pain, suffering, distress, and disfigurement.
$400,000 Settlement; Chicago Nursing Home Wheelchair Accident
This wheelchair accident occurred at a Cook County nursing home. The plaintiff was a woman in her early eighties. She had been living at the facility for an undetermined time prior to this incident.
Nursing home staff did not put a foot rest on the wheelchair that she was sitting in. Consequently, when they pushed her around the facility, one of her feet got stuck between the chair and the floor. She broke her leg. Doctors had to operate on her femur and put in a plate. Subsequently, she suffered an infection along the wound site.
The events cost her over $100,000 in medical bills alone not including the pain, suffering, and disfigurement the ordeal created. She sued the nursing home to make up for these losses. She cited these events as proof of the facility's negligence. In a private agreement, the woman settled the matter for $400,000.
$750,000 Settlement; Illinois Nursing Home Wheelchair Accident
Here, an elderly male resident broke his kneecap when nursing home staff tried to lift him out of his wheelchair and put him in bed. They did not utilize a lift, belt, or other supportive devices.
Also, reports differ as to whether or not the employees followed the facility's own procedures. The consequences were severe for the man. He had to keep the leg immobilized for almost two months. In that time, much of the skin around his ankle broke down. He had to shell out almost sixty thousand dollars for medical bills, prescriptions, and related costs.
To recoup some of this money, and to make up for the pain, disfigurement, and long-term suffering, he sued the nursing home. He complained that it negligently lifted him from the wheelchair and should reimburse for his economic and non-economic damages. The defendant offered a reply that it complied with all reasonable demands.
However, faced with the man's sizeable injuries, it did not like its prospects in court. Finally, it chose to settle. The plaintiff obtained $750,000.Are You Considering Pursuing an Illinois Wheelchair Accident Lawsuit for Your Loved One?
Wheelchair accidents and injuries that happen in a medical setting are often caused by negligence, which can mean that the facility is liable for compensating the person for the injury. If you or a family member has sustained a wheelchair injury that was caused or should have been prevented by medical staff, you may be eligible to receive a financial award for the injury.
At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC, we have experience handling these type of accidents and have prosecuted Chicago medical lawsuits involving nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals. We would be honored to discuss your case with you at a free consultation. There is no obligation to use our services, however, if we represent your case, there is never any fee to you unless we obtain a financial award in your case.


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Joe Inglis BVSc MRCVS is the vet for the One Show, This Morning and BBC Breakfast. He runs his own line of natural pet food called Pet's Kitchen.
Owning a dog is much more than simply looking after a pet to many people. To many owners dogs are literally one of the family and are involved in all aspects of family life, from everyday activities to holidays, travel and even, in some cases, work.
In my case my dog Jack is not just very much at the heart of the family he's also at the heart of my pet food business Pets' Kitchen. Our original brand of dog food, Joe & Jack's, was named after him and he played a significant role in developing the recipe through tasting and approving various different versions during the testing phase of development. And even now we have moved on to develop a new range of food which doesn't bear his name, he's still very much involved in the whole taste testing and recipe development process. Jack comes into work at Pets' Kitchen with me when I'm not in the surgery and spends his days patrolling the warehouse hovering up stray biscuits and generally keeping an eye on his pet food empire!
Having such a close relationship with my own dog definitely helps me empathise with clients at work who feel equally strongly about their own canine companions, especially when things get difficult. At times like these empathising with the owners can help me understand what they are going through and be more sensitive in how I approach their case, but it also has its downside as I can share their sadness and stress when cases don't turn out as hoped.
A recent case involving a dog called Zac really affected me deeply as the dog was very similar in many ways to Jack – a middle aged collie-cross dog with plenty of character and a slightly shaggy black and white coat. His owners, Meg and Peter, had been coming to the surgery with Zac since he was a puppy and even though I'd only started looking after Zac a year or so ago I quickly developed a close bond with both patient and owners and was always very happy to see Zac bounding into the surgery for his boosters every year.
A few months ago however I had to see Zac in very different circumstances. Meg brought him in looking very worried, and after saying hello to Zac, who was his usual energetic self, I asked her what the problem was.
'I've found a lump in his neck,' she answered, her voice quavering slightly.
My heart sank at this news as I immediately thought of lymphoma, a particularly unpleasant form of cancer that tends to affect collies more commonly than other breeds and typically causes lumps in the neck. And as soon as I felt under Zac's chin my worst fears were realised as I felt two firm, golf ball sized lumps.
Breaking the news that I suspected that Zac had cancer was very difficult indeed and Meg was devastated – as I would have been had it been Jack. Over the next couple of months we confirmed the diagnosis with a biopsy and then started treatment with a cocktail of chemotherapy drugs. Thankfully Zac has responded really well and the lumps in his neck have all but disappeared, which is an immense relief to all concerned – although we are all aware that this is likely to be remission rather than cure.
Being a vet is always challenging and often difficult – but cases like this one which feel so close to my own pets and family are always the hardest to deal with of all.
If you are worried about a lump or any other symptoms your dog may have, contact your vet or use our interactive Dog Symptom Guide to help you decide what to do next.


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"I've been cutting since I was fifteen!" Monica was seventeen when she shared her secret with me. She called it a "very real nightmare from which she could never seem to awake!" Sometimes she cut her arms, other times her legs. Monica was really good at hiding the scars, at least the ones from the knife. Her self-abuse might've been a secret, but her pain wasn't. The sadness in her eyes gave her away. If anyone was really paying attention, they would've seen how lonely, broken, and insecure she was just by looking at her.
Kendra had secrets too! I met here while speaking in Texas. She was on staff at a camp where I speak each year. A college student, Kendra loved working with teens and loved summer camp. "I can't imagine what people would think if they really knew about my secret," she told me in a soft whisper. Kendra was twenty-one and in a leadership position. But, she didn't feel like much of a leader. She never told me what her secret was. But, from other comments she made to me, I'm sure she was talking about self-harm. It was destroying her confidence. And, I knew, most likely, it was only a matter of time before it would destroy her influence too.
Madison told me that her secret life of cutting began when she was in middle school. She said, "For a while, I only cut when I was in my bedroom or bathroom. But, then I started cutting at school too. I'd go into the bathroom and lock the stall door and cut. School is so stressful and people can be so mean. Cutting at school became an escape, a moment to feel something…to feel better about the day when the day was going really bad."
We all have secrets. We all have things about ourselves we try and hide from others. That's just the way it is. The reasons for hiding our secrets are many. We don't want to be embarrassed, or we don't want people to see how vulnerable we are or how much we're really hurting. Even us guys have secrets, believe it or not. And, we keep them for a lot of the same reasons you do. I remember in high school having a secret. I was shy and extremely under confident. I wasn't very athletic. I was skinny, super skinny. I mean turn-me-to-the-side-you-can't-hardly-see-me skinny. My older brother was just about the coolest, most popular person on campus. I always felt like I was nothing compared to who he was. He made A's with little to no effort. I worked hard to make average grades. Everyone on campus spoke highly of him. It often seemed that most teachers on campus didn't even know who I was. He lettered in football, track, basketball and cross-country. I never played any sport for any team at my high school. And, then there was my face. I had so many pimples through most of high school that you could have played connect-the-dots on my face. Everybody could see those things, so they were never secrets. But, all this stuff was what caused my secret. I would stare into the mirror and hate what I saw, and before long I hated myself. This was a secret that I carried around for years.
So, how did I get past it all? Well, I wish I could tell you that one day I just woke up and felt better. I didn't. But, I did get better over time with the help of my parents, friends, and God. I eventually learned to feel better about myself, and to accept the things about me and situations around me that I could not control or change. You want to know the thing that really made the difference in it all? Me.
Yes, my parents were always very encouraging to me and supportive of me. My really close friends were there to talk through it all with me. And, of course, God's Word was a huge source of help to me. But, when I say the answer was "me," I mean that I finally had to make the choice that I was no longer going to settle for suffering. I finally made the choice that I was no longer going to wallow in my misery concerning the things about me that I didn't like. And, most importantly, I finally stopped buying the lie and started believing the truth! This is exactly what you will have to do too. If you really want the self-abuse to stop, if you really want the flow of blood to stop, and if you really want the pain to stop, then you have to stop buying the lie and start believing the truth.
You and I aren't the only two people who've bought the lie. Actually, every person who has, is, or will walk planet earth is guilty of buying the lie. The lie has been around for a very long time, actually, since the beginning of time. The lie was first introduced in a place called the Garden of Eden. In this garden lived Earth's first humans, Adam and Eve. The Garden was perfection times ten! Adam and Eve didn't have a care in the world. God made them, and God gave them everything they would ever want, need and more. He only had one rule. The rule: "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don't eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you're dead." (Genesis 2:17 MSG) Pretty cut and dry, don't you think?
Sadly, Adam and Eve didn't follow the rule. Here's what happened:
"The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?"
The woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'" The serpent told the woman, "You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil." When the woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything! —she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate." (Genesis 3:1-6 MSG)
Satan, in the form of a serpent, lied to Adam and Eve, and they bought it. How did he lie? Satan knew the truth about Adam and Eve. He knew the truth that God created them for a very specific purpose. He knew the truth that if Adam and Eve obeyed God, they would have a most amazing life. He knew the truth that God wanted a very intimate relationship with them. And, Satan also knew the truth that everything would change if he could just get Adam and Eve to buy the lie.
The lie: God isn't enough.
Satan convinced Adam and Eve that God wasn't enough for them – – enough peace, enough satisfaction, enough fulfillment, enough security and enough love. Adam and Eve didn't know it at the time, but when they took a bite of the forbidden fruit, they were actually making the first choice of self-abuse. Satan knew this, but they had no idea that once they said "no" to God's truths and "yes" to Satan's lie, what they were really doing was opening the door to pain, disappointment, fear, anxiety, and loneliness. Everything changed that day for Adam and Eve. One lie changed it all for them, and for you and me too – for everyone! Ever since, at one time or another, we've all bought the lie, and this is why we all have secrets.
I've talked with a lot of girls (and guys) who have secrets—secrets about their past, their bodies, their pain, their families, their addictions, and tons more. Not every person has the same secrets, of course. But many have the secret of self-harm. My experience in counseling has shown me there are many girls who have this secret, and they also have a lot of trouble talking about it with anyone. I've written this to help you begin the journey towards healing. If you self-harm, I'm confident you don't want to keep hurting yourself. Even if you can't believe this is true now, I'm confident you will in time.
I'm also confident that, just like I, you too can begin to stop buying the lie that God isn't enough. Because, He is! He made you. He knows what is best for you. He allowed His very Son Jesus to die on the cross for you. He shed His blood for you. That is how much He loves you. That is the truth He wants you to place your trust in. Not the blade. Not your blood. Not your secrets. He is all you will ever need. He has made you exactly as He wants you to be, and He wants you to start believing the truth about you. I want to show you how to do exactly this. In the following weeks, I'm going to post some suggestions to help you (or anyone you know) who is struggling with self-harm. So, keep reading!


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Beyond the anecdotes about lazy surfers and hungry kids, where do the savings really come from?
Thursday, the House passed a bill to spend $39 billion less on Food Stamps (than current law would spend) over the next ten years. All Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against it, but it passed 217-210. President Obama has pledged to veto it, but before it reaches his desk it still has to be reconciled with the Senate farm bill, which cuts Food Stamps by $4 billion.
Image vs. fact. The public debate around Food Stamp cuts has consisted almost entirely of imagery. Fox News' hour-long special "The Great Food Stamps Binge" anointed lobster-buying surfer-musician Jason Greenslate "the new face of Food Stamps", while MSNBC focused on kids and military families. Ezra Klein interviewed author and ex-sergeant Kayla Williams about growing up on Food Stamps, and quoted a blog post by an unemployed Afghanistan veteran currently receiving Food Stamps.
Each image is moving in its own way, but how well do any of them represent reality?
First, let's establish some facts: We're talking about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which cost the government $74.6 billion in FY 2012. As of last September, 47.7 million Americans — about 1 in 7 — were receiving SNAP benefits that averaged $134 a month. To be eligible for SNAP, your income must be lower than 130% of the poverty level, or about $30,000 for a family of four.
As you can see from the chart, the percentage of the population getting SNAP benefits fluctuated with the business cycle until Clinton's welfare reform in 1996, then started increasing again when the 2002 Farm Bill loosened up eligibility. (The anomaly in the chart is the increase during the "Bush Boom" of 2002-2006.) It really took off when the Great Recession hit in 2008. Recently, the number of households receiving SNAP has roughly matched the USDA estimate of the number of households that are "food insecure". Both numbers jumped between 2007 and 2009, and both are currently about 1 in 7.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the number of recipients would go back down to 34 million by 2023 even with no changes in eligibility. (I'd guess that follows from the assumption that the economy goes back to normal by then.) Benefits were increased in the stimulus bill of 2009, and those increases (a little less than 6%) will run out this November. (That's already baked into the numbers and does not figure in the $39 billion of cuts.)
Lost in most of the discussion is the question of where the estimated $39 billion savings comes from. Anecdotes or even averages about SNAP recipients are meaningless in this discussion unless they apply specifically to the people who will lose their benefits.
The detailed CBO estimates show that most of the provisions of the House bill have little impact on cost. (It didn't even bother to figure the savings from Section 110, "Ending supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits for lottery or gambling winners.") The entire $39 billion comes from three changes.
Work requirements. The biggest chunk, $19 billion, come from Section 109, "Repeal of state work program waiver authority." That also accounts for the most immediate impact: $3.3 billion in FY 2015.
This sounds like the waivers in welfare work requirements that Mitt Romney so brazenly misrepresented in 2012, but it's actually different. The SNAP rules say that able-bodied adults without children are limited to receiving 3 months of SNAP benefits every 3 years, unless they are spending at least 20 hours a week either working or participating in a job training program. The 1996 law that established that requirement allowed governors to apply for waivers if their states had high unemployment, figuring that it's not fair to require hungry people to work if there are no jobs. That's what's being repealed.
That change shouldn't affect any children, but it should cut off both Fox's freeloading surfer and MSNBC's unemployed Afghanistan veteran. (I didn't find national estimates, but adults without children who don't work 20 hours a week are about 8% of SNAP recipients in Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News. ) How you feel about it largely depends on which one you think is more typical. I suspect the vet is more typical, but I don't really know.
How you feel also depends on your mercy/severity bias. Some people would gladly feed ten freeloaders to save one person from going hungry through no fault of his or her own. Others feel justified in cutting off ten hungry innocents to force one Jason Greenslate back into the job market.
Categorical eligibility. The second biggest savings, $11.6 billion ($1.3 billion in 2015), comes from Section 105, "Updating Program Eligibility", which eliminates something known as "categorical eligibility". CE amounts to the idea that if you've already qualified for one needs-based government program, you can qualify automatically for some others, even if the eligibility requirements don't match perfectly. This saves overhead costs for the government and shortens the lag time of waiting for your paperwork to go through, at the cost of giving benefits to people who might make a little more than 130% of the poverty level.
So the main folks this hurts are the working poor, those lucky couples with kids who get SNAP even though they make slightly over $30,000 a year. It hits them in multiple ways, because qualifying for SNAP can also automatically qualify their kids for free school lunches. Bread for the World estimates that 2-3 million people will lose SNAP benefits if CE is eliminated, and that 280,000 children will lose free school lunches. (It's tricky, but not impossible, to make that estimate match the CBO's $1.3 billion. Using the $133-a-month average benefit, we'd be talking about 10 million person-months. That could be 2 million people getting SNAP for an average of five months each during a year. My best guess, though, is that we're more likely talking about 1 million people, with the other 1-2 million losing benefits only briefly while they re-apply and re-qualify.)
Heat and eat. $8.7 billion in savings ($840 million in 2015) doesn't actually concern food at all. It comes from eliminating the so-called "Heat and Eat" program, through which SNAP recipients can get assistance paying their utility bills. Bloomberg's article says this would affect 850,000 people currently getting about $90 a month. (Again, I think you make that work with the $840-million-a-year CBO estimate by assuming not everybody gets assistance for the full 12 months.)
So that's the whole $39 billion right there. Everything else in the bill is window dressing. For example, drug-testing recipients — which the House bill does not mandate but allows states to do — will almost certainly cost the government more for the tests than it can save by denying benefits to drug users. That was already true when Florida tried it for welfare applicants, and since SNAP benefits-per-person are much less, the loss should be even bigger.
Dependence. The Republican rhetoric on this issue revolves around the word dependence: dependence on government, creating dependence, and so on. The implicit assumption is that people who are getting aid would otherwise take matters in hand somehow. (And that we would approve of how they did it. After all, isn't Breaking Bad the story of a man realizing that no one is going to help him and taking matters in hand?) And that in turn is based on the assumption that poverty is caused by poor people; if they'd just get out and work, they wouldn't be poor. A third assumption is that it's OK for children to suffer for the misbehavior of their parents; seeing their children hungry is part of what's supposed to motivate the poor not to be poor.
I see two things going on here. First, what I like to call the Musical Chairs Fallacy, which is a version of the Composition Fallacy. If a particular child is always the first one out in musical chairs, you could train him/her to be quicker and more alert. But if you trained all the kids, someone would still be the first one out, because there aren't enough chairs.
Similarly, you can imagine individual parents watching their children plead for more food and getting a burst of desperate energy that propels them into jobs they might otherwise not have found. But if all the poor get desperate at once, will that desperation create enough jobs to feed all their children? Or are a certain number of people going to go out of the game when the music stops (no matter how quick or alert everyone is) because there aren't enough chairs?
Second, there's the problem of the working poor. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is lower than it was when I made it back in the 1970s.
And our economy is creating more and more part-time and minimum-wage jobs. The increasing numbers of people on food stamps is how we're dealing with those trends. If you're working 30 hours a week at WalMart, you can't feed your kids. Politicians who are against raising the minimum wage and also against Food Stamps need to spell out their plan for those kids.
Summing up. The $39 billion saved by the House bill comes from three places: Cutting off benefits for unemployed adults without kids and trusting that they will find legal jobs rather than go hungry or turn to crime; stopping benefits for the working poor who make slightly too much money; and poor families being hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.
What's next? The Senate passed much smaller Food Stamp cuts (about $4 billion over ten years) back in June. That was part of a bipartisan farm bill that got 48 Democratic and 18 Republican votes. Now the House and Senate have to meet in a conference committee to work out a compromise bill, though it's hard to imagine what that might look like. Like all the other spending bills that are hung up in this Congress, it has an October 1 deadline.


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According to: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/about/ regarding the Financial Action Task Force (FATF): Panama was on the FATF "Gray List". According to: http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Panama_Gets_Off_FATF_Gray_List, Panama is now (as of this week) off the FATF "Gray List". Methinks this probably is a good thing.
Need contact info for Destresno insurance, phone number and email please
Former Head of Constitution Insurance under House Arrest in the Dominican Republic Venezuelan businessman Omar Farias Luces has been placed under house arrest in the D.R. for his part in a scam to defraud Dominicans of their savings. He was arrested as he was boarding a private plane heading for the U.S. http://www.prensa.com/mundo/Republica-Dominicana-domiciliaria-Seguros-Constitucion_0_4549045095.html This crook siphoned off the best part of the Constitution Insurance company here in Panama, rendering it inoperable. When operations were suspended by the Superintendency of Insurance last year a lot of folks here lost out on their coverage and/or claims. http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Panama-Seguros-Constitucion_21_4335526409.html
I found an email from long ago from an expat who had successfully enrolled in the Panamanian health insurance program through Seguro Social. I had forgotten about it (2006) and don't know anybody else who has done it, but it might be an option. It would not pay for the private hospitals and clinics, but would pay for the public ones. Here is the text of the email explaining how he did it.
I would like to find information regarding health insurance for Canadians. I'm sure someone else must have had this problem - you are not a resident of Panama, over 65 and want long term health insurance. If anyone has information, or can recommend an insurance company, it would be greatly appreciated.
Magda Crespo Insurance offers every type of insurance, health, auto, life, property, with integrity and customer service. English speaking staff can help you with all of your insurance needs. Office is located at Plaza San Francisco, open 8:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday (closed 12 to 1:00 for lunch). Phone number 720-3240.


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SASKATOON, SASK - About 3,000 people have turned out to see the art of pop legend Joni Mitchell in the first 3 days of her Saskatoon exhibit.
The Saskatoon-born Mitchell has always described herself as more painter than musician. When I paint, I forget I have a body," says Mitchell. "Music, you know, I have the sense to eat and sleep. But painting is really obsessive, compulsive."
People who have converged on Mendel Art Gallery say they are impressed with her work. "I think that her work is absolutely rich and it's very symbolic of her music", said one appreciative fan. "I'm quite impressed."
Gallery officials are predicting 75,000 people will view the Joni Mitchell exhibit by the time it closes on September 17th.
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Hi all, Any recommendations on what the next action item could be on this? Seems we are all in agreement this needs work. Thanks, Paul Am 13.03.12 17:33 schrieb "Brad Kemper" unter <email@example.com>: > >On Mar 12, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Boris Zbarsky wrote: > >> On 3/12/12 6:26 PM, Brad Kemper wrote: >>> >>> >>> On Mar 12, 2012, at 4:05 PM, Boris Zbarsky<email@example.com> wrote: >>> >>>> On 3/12/12 5:01 PM, Brad Kemper wrote: >>>>> On Mar 12, 2012, at 9:41 AM, Boris Zbarsky<email@example.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On 3/12/12 11:26 AM, Brad Kemper wrote: >>>>>>> Can you give some examples of non-rectangular outlines >>>>>> >>>>>> This is
some text that is >>>>>>longer on the second line
and has a third line >>>>>> >>>>>> Load that in Opera or any WebKit-based browser. Gecko gets this >>>>>>wrong at the moment, sadly. >>>>> >>>>> I see. I would expect that to look like the following does in webkit >>>> >>>> Note that that's not how outline should really look in this >>>>situation, and not how it actually looks in WebKit.... >>> >>> Er? The code I included, when rendered in webkit, is how I think your >>>code should really look in that situation, when there is also such a >>>border-radius. >> >> So you would expect horizontal black lines between the lines of text >>with outline, but only when border-radius is used? > >Ah, I was assuming that those lines were due to the span height being >less than the line height, as with this variant: > >box-shadow:0 0 0 1px black">This is
some text that is longer on the >second line
and has a third line > >But I could be wrong. I also included some code specifically for the case >where the spans overlapped (to view in webkit): > >On Mar 12, 2012, at 3:01 PM, Brad Kemper wrote: > >> Or, if you want to see it with line boxes that overlap due to span >>padding or negative line-height, paste this into webkit: >> >>
>style="border-radius:.6em; padding:3px; background:white;">This >>is
some text that is longer on the second line
and has a third >>line
>">>box-shadow:0 0 0 1px black">This is
some text that is longer on the >>second line
and has a third line

 > > > >On Mar 12, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Boris Zbarsky wrote: >> Or are you just talking about the corner-rounding behavior (that is, >>round the start corners and end corners but no other corners)? > >Actually, I kind of like end corners being round too, but I would hope to >control that with 'box-decoration-break'. Since its initial value is >"slice", then the square corners at the breaks do seem appropriate here. > > >P.S. BTW, when I say "view in webkit", that does not include iOS, where >Safari is apparently still stuck with a pre-CR version of box-shadow that >does not include spread. > >Received on Wednesday, 14 March 2012 17:10:51 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 25 March 2022 10:08:13 UTC


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This is our Custom wooden phone case, from our Classic Collection.
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• Wood | Maple
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Each stage of production, from design and processing of materials up to the final touch, is handcrafted in our own workshop, which is based at the foot of Mountain Olympus.
Nature inspire us and we turn our manufacture into unique aesthetic creations.


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Yes, these vehicles are so good that they won't sell without subsidies.Aside from being wrong so far as I can tell (the Prius was selling nicely from its introduction in 2000, and I can't find anything about a subsidy from earlier than 2004), Gewirtz implies that hybrids make no economic sense and would not sell on their own merits. That's a strong assertion. Does it have any basis? Time to haul out an old envelope and that pencil stub.... Let's assume a gas-optional hybrid designed to be built in volume for cheap, and go 20 miles before it switches from electric propulsion to burning fuel. It uses lead-acid batteries of the absorbed glass mat (AGM) type; there is no free liquid electrolyte to leak, and they are sealed in heat-welded plastic cases. They have a calendar life of about 3 years. At one cycle per day, they'd need to go about 1100 cycles to last 3 years. The weight of the motor and its electronics are made up by reducing the weight of the engine versus a conventional car. The battery life graph I cited in "Is the tide turning?" shows that such batteries would last 1100 cycles if they were discharged to approximately 50% before recharging. If the car uses 250 watt-hours per mile, a 20-mile range would require 5 kWh and the battery would need an ultimate capacity of 10 kWh. Some years ago, I re-powered an old UPS. I removed its failed internal gel-cells and replaced them with a hefty deep-discharge storage battery. This battery is rated at 105 amp-hours @ 12 volts (1.26 kWh nominal), weighs 65 pounds and cost about $70 at retail. Scaled up to 10 kWh, this battery would weigh 516 pounds and cost $556. Extra weight in a vehicle requires extra power to accelerate it and increases rolling resistance. The battery itself can store (and regenerate) the energy to accelerate itself, but the rolling resistance has to be made up elsewhere. If the vehicle tires have a rolling coefficient of friction of 0.008, the car would need an additional 8.2 watt-hours per mile to pull the battery. This can probably be ignored. The motor and electronics are more difficult to specify. DC motors offering 28 peak horsepower are going for around $500 retail, with controllers running about the same (about $36/peak horsepower overall); however, these are low-volume items and do not reflect economies of scale. AC Propulsion estimates a per-unit cost of $3500/unit for their AC-150 drivetrain in volume production (private communication), or $17.50/horsepower overall. If that same price can be maintained for an 80 HP drivetrain that is highly cost-engineered, it would sell for $1400. The overall cost of the vehicle would increase by $1956, with a $556 battery replacement every 3 years. Savings: If the vehicle runs 20 all-electric miles every day, it would go 7300 miles per year on no fuel whatsoever. Economy beyond this might run 38 MPG vs. 30 MPG for a conventional vehicle; if the car ran 15,000 total miles per year it would consume 203 gallons of fuel vs. 500 for the non-hybrid. The savings in fuel would run to $669/year at a price of $2.25/gallon, more at higher prices. This would be offset by the cost of electricity; at a charger/battery efficiency of 65%, the hybrid would consume 2808 kWh. At off-peak rates of $0.08/kWh, this would cost $225 for a net savings of $444/year. Battery amortization costs $185/year, for a total savings of $259/year. If the money to buy the car is borrowed at 11%/year for 4 years, the additional interest cost of the hybrid drivetrain is $215/year in the first year; the net benefit is small, but positive. If the car is used for 12 years, the overall costs amount to $4485 ($1956 cost + $861 interest + $1668 replacement batteries) while savings at $2.25/gallon total $5328; net savings are $843. If gasoline rises to $3.00/gallon, net savings rise to $2667. Do plug-in hybrids make sense without subsidies? Even without weighing the benefits of less pollution, greater convenience due to 60% fewer fill-ups, future-proofing and other positive attributes, it appears that they do.
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EBSN Annual Conference 2013 - Reading Circles as Adult Literacy Education - a presentation
This presentation is given on the Annual Conference of the European Basic Skills Networks (EBSN) in Madrid in 2013. The title of the conference is 'Opening doors - Developing partnerships for basic skills training beyond the classroom'.
The presentation presents research case studies regarding reading circles from the practice of The National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC) and summarizes the conclusions and benefits of them.
Resource Details
Copyright status
Type of resource
Studies and Reports
United Kingdom
Publication Date
Language of the document
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|Mogens Jorgensen
|Entering this new site it might be a good idea with a proper intro. – I am a Danish male borne in 1945. I bought my first camera in 1960 (Bella 4x4). In 1970 Olympus introduced the first SLR 18x24 mm (Pen F) which became my first SLR camera – had a lot of fun with this one for several years. In 1983 it was damaged totally and I bought a second hand OM1 which I have used until 2001 when I bought my first Nikon F65. Two month later I bought a F80 and a few weeks later I swapped the F65 to another F80. Then in January 2003 I finally bought my D100 which I have used since with great pleasure.
With the D100 my interest for nature (especially birds and macro) grew rapidly – as you might know from TE ;-).
28.05.2007: I have now turned off the points so please do not wate your smileys on me. The reason for doing so is that - IMO - there is too much hunting for point only instead of the main reason for this site - sharing knowledge of the wild life on this planet.
You can see more of my work on my website www.mj-2003.dk
You can download NeatImage here.
|Member Since:
|Canon EOS 20D
|Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Workshop Editor
mogens-j is a favorite of 43 members.
|Public Groups:
|Member: Bookmark, TN English, Frequent critiquers
|9 members [view photos] [read critiques] · 5 photos


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|By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-181-108.balt.east.verizon.net - 188.8.131.52) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 2:49 pm: Edit Post
At the end of a dirt road, in the shadow of a small mountain sits a gray trailer. It is the home of RPCV Einar Kvaran. To understand the most audacious experiment of the postboom Internet, this is a good place to begin.
At the end of a dirt road, in the shadow of a small mountain sits a gray trailer. It is the home of RPCV Einar Kvaran. To understand the most audacious experiment of the postboom Internet, this is a good place to begin.
The Book Stops Here
Jimmy Wales wanted to build a free encyclopedia on the Internet. So he raised an army of amateurs and created the self-organizing, self-repairing, hyperaddictive library of the future called Wikipedia.
By Daniel H. PinkPage 1 of 4 next »
Dixon, New Mexico, is a rural town with a few hundred residents and no traffic lights. At the end of a dirt road, in the shadow of a small mountain sits a gray trailer. It is the home of Einar Kvaran. To understand the most audacious experiment of the postboom Internet, this is a good place to begin.
Kvaran is a tall and hale 56-year-old with a ruddy face, blue eyes, and blond hair that's turning white. He calls himself an "art historian without portfolio" but has no formal credentials in his area of proclaimed expertise. He's never published a scholarly article or taught a college course. Over three decades, he's been a Peace Corps volunteer, an autoworker, a union steward, a homeschooling mentor, and the drummer in a Michigan band called Kodai Road. Right now, he's unemployed. Which isn't to say he doesn't work. For about six hours each day, Kvaran reads and writes about American sculpture and public art and publishes his articles for an audience of millions around the world.
Hundreds of books on sculptors, regional architecture, and art history are stacked floor to ceiling inside his trailer - along with 68 thick albums containing 20 years of photos he's taken on the American road. The outlet for his knowledge is at the other end of his dialup Internet connection: the daring but controversial Web site known as Wikipedia.
Four years ago, a wealthy options trader named Jimmy Wales set out to build a massive online encyclopedia ambitious in purpose and unique in design. This encyclopedia would be freely available to anyone. And it would be created not by paid experts and editors, but by whoever wanted to contribute. With software called Wiki - which allows anybody with Web access to go to a site and edit, delete, or add to what's there - Wales and his volunteer crew would construct a repository of knowledge to rival the ancient library of Alexandria.
In 2001, the idea seemed preposterous. In 2005, the nonprofit venture is the largest encyclopedia on the planet. Wikipedia offers 500,000 articles in English - compared with Britannica's 80,000 and Encarta's 4,500 - fashioned by more than 16,000 contributors. Tack on the editions in 75 other languages, including Esperanto and Kurdish, and the total Wikipedia article count tops 1.3 million.
Wikipedia's explosive growth is due to the contributions of Kvaran and others like him. Self-taught and self-motivated, Kvaran wrote his first article last summer - a short piece on American sculptor Corrado Parducci. Since then, Kvaran has written or contributed to two dozen other entries on American art, using his library and photographs as sources. He's added words and images to 30 other topics, too - the Lincoln Memorial, baseball player Carl Yastrzemski, photographer Tina Modotti, and Iceland's first prime minister, Hannes Hafstein, who happens to be Kvaran's great-grandfather. "I think of myself as a teacher," Kvaran says over tea at his kitchen table.
To many guardians of the knowledge cathedral - librarians, lexicographers, academics - that's precisely the problem. Who died and made this guy professor? No pedigreed scholars scrutinize his work. No research assistants check his facts. Should we trust an encyclopedia that allows anyone with a pulse and a mousepad to opine about Jackson Pollock's place in postmodernism? What's more, the software that made Wikipedia so easy to build also makes it easy to manipulate and deface. A former editor at the venerable Encyclopædia Britannica recently likened the site to a public rest room: You never know who used it last.
So the modest trailer at the end of a dirt road in this pinprick of a town holds some cosmic questions. Is Wikipedia a heartening effort in digital humanitarianism - or a not-so-smart mob unleashing misinformation on the masses? Are well-intentioned amateurs any replacement for professionals? And is charging nothing for knowledge too high a price?
Recovery may take 12 steps, but becoming a junkie requires only four. First comes chance - an unexpected encounter. Chance stirs curiosity. Curiosity leads to experimentation. And experimentation cascades into addiction.
For Danny Wool, chance arrived on a winter afternoon in 2002, after an argument about - of all things - Kryptonite. Googling the term from his Brooklyn home to settle the debate, he came upon the Wikipedia entry. He looked up a few more subjects and noticed that each one contained a mysterious hyperlink that said Edit. Curious but too nervous to do anything, he returned to Wikipedia a few more times. Then one night he corrected an error in an article about Jewish holidays. You can do that?! It was his first inhalation of Wiki crack. He became one of Wikipedia's earliest registered users and wrote his first article - on Muckleshoot, a Washington state Indian tribe. Since then, he has made more than 16,000 contributions.
Bryan Derksen wrote the original Kryptonite article that Wool discovered. While surfing from his home in Edmonton, Derksen also stumbled upon Wikipedia and quickly traveled the path to addiction. He read a few entries on Greek mythology and found them inadequate. The Edit link beckoned him like a street pusher. He clicked it and typed in a few changes. You can do that?! "I just got hooked," he tells me. He's now made more edits than all but three Wikipedians - some 40,000 additions and revisions.
Number one on the list of contributors is Derek Ramsey, who has automated his addiction. A software engineer in Pennsylvania, Ramsey wrote a Java program called rambot that automatically updates Wikipedia articles on cities and counties. So far, the man and machine combination has contributed more than 100,000 edits.
String enough of these addicts together, add a few thousand casual users, and pretty soon you have a new way to do an old thing. Humankind has long sought to tame the jungle of knowledge and display it in a zoo of friendly facts. But while the urge to create encyclopedias has endured, the production model has evolved. Wikipedia is the latest stage.
[More at Web Site]
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.
Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand
After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's.
This Month's Feature Stories - only on PCOL
Dream Come True - Revisiting India after 34 years
The Coyne Column: Read Winning Vanity Fair PCV Essay
Tomas Belsky's paintings inspired by service in Brazil
RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years
RPCV reviews "Los Heraldos Negros" by Cesar Vallejo
Photo Essay: Taking it to the Streets
March 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories
PCVs in Kyrgyz Republic Are Safe 25 Mar
The Coyne Column: A Good Friday Message 25 Mar
Frederic Zenhausern developing "biometric bodysuits" 24 Mar
Robert Blackwill calls for US co-operation with India 23 Mar
Margaret Krome promotes alternate crops 23 Mar
Al Kamen says allies disappointed in World Bank 23 Mar
Ambassador Randall L. Tobias speaks at PC 22 Mar
Becky Binns helps organize 30-hour fast 22 Mar
Fred Poses meets with Vice-Premier in China 22 Mar
John Hoff unionizes substitute teachers in Hawaii 21 Mar
Bill Moyers takes time to "sit and vegetate" 21 Mar
Tony Hall says Ethiopia may need more food aid 21 Mar
Taylor Hackford's 'Ray' wins four NAACP Image Awards 21 Mar
PCV seeks tap shoes for students in Moldova 20 Mar
Adam Donaldson learns to believe in Baltimore 20 Mar
Allen Andersson builds libraries in Central America 19 Mar
Senator Sarbanes' quiet leadership will be missed 15 Mar
March 26, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News
Houston RPCVs sponsor "Around the World in a Day"on April 6 25 Mar
Minnesota RPCVs need Photos for Exhibition 24 Mar
Vasquez to visit DePaul University on April 6 22 Mar
New Jersey RPCVs host exhibit in Maplewood on April 2 20 Mar
Maryland RPCVs eat crab cakes in Annapolis 17 Mar
Connecticut RPCVs held fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar
RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.
RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC
RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.
Add your info now to the RPCV Directory
Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now.
March 1: National Day of Action
Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.
Make a call for the Peace Corps
PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.


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As a whole, the plan unceremoniously crashed and burned. But it still frames state and national debate about health policy, thus affecting the evolution of managed care.
When managed care executives are asked to "free associate" about the Clinton administration's health care reform plan, two words invariably crop up: "Hillary" and "ill-fated."
As President Clinton gets ready to ride into the political sunset, it's clear that Mrs. Clinton earned her identification with the proposal — and bears the lion's share of the blame for the debacle that ensued. But a close examination of the record reveals that while the Clinton health care plan, per se, may have been a nonstarter, reports of its death were premature. The spirit of the administration's effort to overhaul health care delivery has lived on and, in some cases, pieces of the 1993-94 proposal have taken on new life in the form of law.
Now, it's certainly true that the Clinton plan did not come out of nowhere. Many of its proposals may have been advanced earlier by various constituencies. But the plan linked those proposals, and united they stood, united they fell.
The Clinton Health Security Act included these major elements:
- Universal health care coverage,
- Prescription drug benefits for the elderly,
- Increased public health initiatives,
- Health insurance portability,
- Purchasing alliances to expand employer-sponsored benefits,
- Creation of a large federal bureaucracy to oversee those alliances, and
- Patient rights protection.
Some, not all
The results, seven years later, are mixed:
- Though the administration failed to achieve universal coverage, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has extended coverage to millions of previously uninsured children.
- Congress is moving toward Medicare prescription drug benefit coverage, and both major presidential candidates support the concept.
- A blockbuster legal settlement with the tobacco industry has provided funding for antismoking campaigns and state public health programs. The administration has increased funding for federal public health and education initiatives significantly.
- Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996.
- Health care alliances and employer mandates failed to materialize, but Congress is looking at tax incentives to encourage more employers to provide coverage for workers. However, even the plan's most ardent supporters no longer publicly support a federal bureaucracy in health care.
- Clinton directed federal agencies to implement patient-rights provisions for federal workers, and the issue has been under active consideration by lawmakers for the last four years.
The bottom line: Clinton's reform proposals established the baseline for congressional consideration of health care issues — and led to the adoption (or perhaps eventual adoption) of important pieces of legislation affecting managed care organizations. They also have given a focus to the national discussion on health care policy, and ultimately led to little real division between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush on the issues.
Biggest increase since Medicaid
White House spokespersons Victoria Valentine and Chris Jennings argue that the Clinton administration has compiled a meaningful record on health care issues affecting managed care, stating that Clinton is responsible for the single largest investment in children's health care since 1965, with passage of the $24 billion CHIP initiative. CHIP is intended to provide coverage for up to 5 million previously uninsured children. Two million already have been enrolled, according to the most recent figures from the White House. Some observers say that those numbers may be high, and that the program is getting a slower-than-expected start. But a recent survey by Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured shows that the number of children enrolled in state CHIP programs had grown to 1.8 million by last December, a 112-percent increase from 1998. That report also shows that enrollment of new children during the second half of 1999 was just as strong as in the first half.
Defenders of the administration also point to passage of the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, known as HIPAA. It will benefit as many as 25 million people — who now will be able to keep their health coverage when they change jobs, Valentine asserts.
Not everyone is so glowing when talking about Clinton's health care legacy. Brookings Institute health policy expert Henry Aaron argues that the direct effect of the Clinton initiative was "nil," and actually may have had a negative long-term effect on managed care reform efforts — all because the original proposal was just too sweeping and unpopular.
"What happened is that you had a president come in and bet the company — the political company — on this initiative, and it failed," Aaron says. "It may have made it more difficult to make any changes, because when this kind of thing happens, it becomes more risky to come forth with major initiatives. It's not a lack of guts, but a matter of prudence and foresight. This was the political equivalent of touching a hot stove. It caused elected officials to shy away from the issue for several years, and they're still shying away."
To be sure, overhaul isn't on anyone's agenda, and some controversial individual aspects of reform that have been proposed literally have been talked to death in two successive congresses. But in piecemeal fashion, something with a distinct resemblance to the Clinton plan has taken shape.
"In some ways, there have been large portions of the Clinton Health Security Act adopted," says Dean Rosen, policy director for the Health Insurance Association of America.
Rosen sees HIPAA, which achieved some of the certainty of coverage that Clinton stressed as necessary, and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 as growing out of the Clinton proposal.
"Clearly, those are significant," he says. "And there have been a number of health care changes during the administration — including significant Medicare reform — although that wasn't contemplated as part of the Health Security Act."
And that's not even counting CHIP, which Aaron calls "a response from an administration still interested in extending coverage in an environment rendered hostile by the failures of '93 and '94."
Indirectly, Aaron admits, Clinton's proposal may have accelerated the movement toward managed care and change in health care delivery. "But that's the kind of mushy thing you can only guess about but never really prove," he says.
Rick Smith, vice president for public policy and research at the American Association of Health Plans, sees programs like CHIP as valuable alternatives to the all-or-nothing approach of the Clinton plan for two reasons. "Increasingly, there are optimistic reports about CHIP extending coverage to a vulnerable population, and that's positive," Smith says. Second, most states employ managed care approaches to their CHIP and Medicaid programs. "But at the same time," he cautions, "we've seen efforts to roll back managed care — which puts things at cross-purposes," particularly where the goal is to increase the number of people receiving coverage through employers.
While states have embraced managed care vehicles for their citizens who have lacked coverage, they've also moved toward mandates and other legislation, which could discourage expansion of managed care via employers because of concerns about increased liability — the same issue that embroiled patient-rights legislation in Congress, AAHP contends. Nevertheless, Smith says, "We have seen more employers, especially small employers, offering coverage using managed care plans."
Indeed, the managed care industry did not wait for Congress to pull the trigger on Clinton's plan to make changes on its own, according to some observers. Joe Karpinski, a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee staff member, says that the Clinton proposal failed because it was seen as "pretty much a government takeover of the health care system." One of the big concerns, Karpinski says, was that the proposal would result in a loss of choice of doctor by patients. That also has been a complaint with managed care, in general, he notes, "but the industry has taken a number of steps to take the public pressure off."
The rise and spread of point-of-service plans and their variations is a primary example. This, Karpinski says, has had the added benefit of helping the industry defuse reform, pointing out that it's not so hot an issue as it once was.
But Smith says the policy and political discussions would be headed the wrong way if Congress aggressively pursues two key components of the Clinton program: expansion of health plan liability and coverage mandates. Increased costs would reverse trends to expand coverage, according to AAHP, which cites calculations showing that each 1 percent increase in premium results in 300,000 people losing coverage. "I hope," Smith adds, "we're not going to undo the progress we have made."
No bureaucracy
Costs indeed are important. Most observers say it was the massive cost of the Clinton proposal — or at least its perceived cost — that, more than anything else, took the wind out of it. Part and parcel with that was the specter of a new bureaucracy and the creation of a seven-member National Health Board (appointed by the president) to monitor state compliance and the functioning of proposed "health alliances." Those alliances were to be run by the states as regional purchasing groups, to collect and distribute premiums, certify health plans and offer them to consumers, assure that average premiums grew no faster than federally set limits, and negotiate with doctors and hospitals to set fees for services provided outside HMOs.
In addition, the Clinton proposal, analysts argue, attempted to make use of the employer-based insurance benefit system, familiar to workers for decades, to try to help achieve universal health coverage. The plan was to require virtually all companies, other than extremely small employers, to provide coverage to their workers. In exchange, employers would have been given tax credits and assistance in forming health alliances, which in theory would have pooled purchasing power and resulted in lower premium costs to help the smaller employers meet the coverage mandate. That strategy failed.
"It's been abandoned," Rosen says. "It's certainly not on the political radar screen now." He thinks corporate wrath over the plan's employer mandates proved fatal to the Clinton proposal.
Not from a regulatory standpoint, anyway. But there's no doubt that the concept of private employer alliances took on something of a life of its own; since 1994, several dozen employer groups with varying degrees of cohesion have sprung up in metropolitan markets. Some, such as the Pacific Business Group on Health (whose membership is limited to some of the largest companies in California and Arizona) and the Houston Healthcare Purchasing Organization (which serves 35 large employers but also 3,000 smaller ones) not only do the buying, but place emphasis on "value purchasing," stressing a cost-quality equation. Others, such as the Washington Business Group on Health and the Central Florida Health Care Coalition, do not negotiate or buy health benefits, but strive to educate member businesses about quality initiatives and how to weave them into purchasing decisions.
Meanwhile, the political approach now appears to be to encourage states to do more to provide coverage to the uninsured through various, perhaps insidious, incentives, starting with children — politically, a difficult thing to oppose. No doubt, that's more palatable to the electorate than "demanding that the private sector pay up," as Rosen characterizes the administration's earlier approach.
There's no question that Hillary Clinton, perhaps the chief architect of the health alliances concept, was the lightning rod for the demise of health care reform. But Republican Rep. John Cooksey of Louisiana, an ophthalmologist, says that Hillary Clinton deserves credit for getting many of the issues into play, and that Mrs. Clinton is as responsible as anyone for what's happening in Congress now on health care.
"I don't think of myself as a politician, and my medical diagnosis would be that Congress suffers from a gastrointestinal disorder — lack of guts," the former Air Force flight surgeon says.
Cooksey credits the Clinton proposal with "creating a framework to allow health care delivery to evolve," but says the effort foundered because Hillary Clinton failed to bring the various health care interests together to support universal health care coverage. "A lot of her problem was the approach that she used," he says. "She didn't include the people involved in health care, but did include the bureaucrats."
What is needed to foster expansion of health care coverage, Cooksey argues, are tax credits that would encourage individuals to buy coverage. Cooksey would allow Medicaid recipients to buy into the system to retain coverage when their incomes increase to the point that they are no longer eligible for Medicaid, and he proposes tax credits to encourage that. In addition, he favors tax credits for individuals, the self-employed, and small businesses to help them buy insurance coverage. Whether that will come to pass may depend on the makeup of the new Congress in January. Current House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, a Texas Republican, doesn't particularly like tax credits.
Karpinski sees tax provisions to help the self-employed, small business owners and part-time workers eventually gaining support in Congress as a means to help make health care coverage more affordable, and thus reduce the number of uninsured — the real genesis of Clinton's 1993 plan. "Over time, I think you will see a continued effort to find solutions that work for some of these people."
Indeed, important components of the "ill-fated" Clinton proposal may soon come to fruition in the next administration. Karpinski, who worked on the star-crossed bipartisan Medicare reform effort that ended earlier this year, says one key component of the Clinton initiative — prescription drug benefits — eventually will see the light of day.
"Medicare and Medicaid are going to continue to be looked at, particularly with an aging baby boomer population. It's not a debate over if you should have it, but how to structure it — and how to do that without weakening the system."
Cooksey, too, believes changes to the Medicare program will take shape — mostly likely, along the lines of the Breaux-Thomas legislation that evolved from the work of a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission. That panel's effort could have succeeded, he argues, if the Clinton appointees to the panel had provided the votes for the 11-4 split needed to approve a reform plan.
But for all the political rhetoric that seems to stall health care legislation year after year, Karpinski sees the logjam breaking in the not-too-distant future. "I think everyone agrees we need to have some sort of medical privacy legislation, and there's support for managed care reform, but the details are holding that up," he says. "But we don't have massive differences between Republicans and Democrats on whether we should have some of these things."
And while differences do remain, the greater consensus on the inevitability of those things arguably can be traced back to issues raised by the 1993 Clinton plan. The question remains, however, whether Congress will — or can — create a new health care model for the nation; and if so, when that will happen. "There is no one in Washington smart enough to write a health care plan that will solve everybody's problem," Cooksey comments. "A government-run health care plan will be a poorly run plan, and will only empower the politicians. But if you have a plan where individuals get to make some choices, people can take more responsibility about their health care decisions, and we can have better health care for everyone." Cooksey says, however, that "career politicians don't want to give the power to the people. They want them to come up and genuflect to them."
And that, he believes, may have been another factor in the failure of the Clinton health plan — that it "disempowered the politicians."
When Cooksey talks about choices for people, he means tax credits to allow them to purchase the type of plan they want. This idea may be folded into any effort to renew the law providing for medical savings accounts, which will expire on Dec. 31. Or — and this is getting close to a direct-contribution system, which a small but growing number of people envision as the future of health care — if Congress wants to find a model for restructuring health care, he says it's already there, in the form of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. "It's a wonderful plan. Ask your postman if he likes his health plan," says Cooksey, who's quick to add that he's not under that plan himself.
States as laboratories
What may be overlooked in analyzing the effect of the Clinton initiative is what has happened away from Washington. "You get further along if you look at what has happened at the state level," says HIAA's Rosen. "Some of the basic provisions of the plan, like improving public health, portability of health insurance coverage, and expanding public and private coverage, have occurred."
Those efforts, coupled with state initiatives on patient protection and coverage, can be attributed in part to Clinton's stress on health care issues, Rosen believes.
Significantly, Texas has been a leader in those proposals — although Bush irritated physicians in his home state by vetoing a bill aimed at preventing HMO interference with doctors' treatment of patients. He did support a subsequent similar measure.
Clearly, states have been laboratories for health care reform, experimenting with pieces of the Clinton plan. No fewer than 4 wrestled with the question of universal coverage this year, and 11 looked at expanding prescription drug coverage for the elderly. Last year, 30 contemplated various forms of managed care reform.
When that local-level action is coupled with a feeling that Congress is still in wheel-spinning mode on a number of health care issues — Medicare, patient-rights legislation, and proposals for reducing the number of the uninsured have been debated and fought over during the current and previous sessions, but no headway is expected this session — you have populist grist for the campaign trail. Gore has made health care a centerpiece of his campaign, forcing Bush to address an issue that he otherwise had been content to play down– his state's aggressive record notwithstanding. Both candidates agree, however, that a prescription drug benefit is desired by a large group of their elderly constituents — and so it would appear that eventually some form of Medicare prescription drug benefit will be enacted. This, too, would fulfill one of the elements of the Clinton health care proposal.
But for all the campaign promises, Cooksey says it's not realistic to expect any major changes right away. "Will we do it? Since Hillary Clinton failed, everyone's been scared to take it up."
It also appears that the public doesn't expect comprehensive change, and surveys suggest that Americans are generally satisfied with the quality of care they're receiving. But they do want to assure benefits (particularly prescription drugs) for themselves and aging parents and grandparents.
The Clinton administration will be able to claim a legacy of health care issue actions, although the extent of, and credit for, those changes will be argued. It will be up to the next Congress and the next president to continue or redirect that reshaping.
The experience of the current administration shows that change will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Paul Lendner ist ein praktizierender Experte im Bereich Gesundheit, Medizin und Fitness. Er schreibt bereits seit über 5 Jahren für das Managed Care Mag. Mit seinen Artikeln, die einen einzigartigen Expertenstatus nachweisen, liefert er unseren Lesern nicht nur Mehrwert, sondern auch Hilfestellung bei ihren Problemen.


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The 2016 Biomedical Engineering Society Diversity Award goes to…drum roll please, Srinivas Sridhar.
Sridhar is the University Distinguished Professor of Physics, Bioengineering, and Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University. The award honors individuals for their outstanding contributions to improving gender and racial diversity in biomedical engineering. "This award recognizes the work I've been doing for the past 10 years, a path motivated by spreading knowledge and breaking down barriers to access of knowledge," Sridhar said. Sirdhar has pioneered the research and educational initiatives at Northeastern in the field of nanomedicine while designing the means of training a diverse workforce "focused on bringing nanotechnology solutions to medicine."
In addition to university responsibilities, Sirdha hosts a web broadcast for graduate courses and research protocol at four institutions: the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Tuskegee University, Morgan State University, and Florida International University. Sirdhar also directs the Nanomedicine and Technology Program and CaNCURE program at the University. "In honoring Sridhar the Biomedical Engineering Society underscored these contributions as well as his work mentoring women and underrepresented minorities who are biomedical scientists—including faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students."
-Ray Hayes


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The weather is warming up and you are not so sure whether your air conditioning system may be performing quite the same as it did last year. Is it time for a maintenance call to an air conditioning repair company? Or are you overlooking something so simple that may have led to its performance decline? There are a number of reasons why routine service is beneficial for your equipment. It can significantly cut down energy bills and increase the lifetime of your AC as well.
If you need quick, fast and efficient AC repair, Comfort Master Mechanical Associates is here to provide you with the best services in town. We promise to work around your budget and get you back into the comfort of your own home. We provide our services to Goldsboro, Greenville NC, Kinston NC, Rocky Mount, Washington NC, and Wilson NC. If you are from any of these areas, make sure to contact us today.
Here are some more signs why you need to get need routine air conditioning services:
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Maintaining your system by getting it serviced and cleaned will keep it running efficiently and in top form. Just like your car or health needs screening, there are some problems that when caught early can be fixed quickly. If you allow your AC problems to continue without fixing them, they can turn into a much more costly repair or replacement later on.
- Unchecked systems collect debris
When you live in a humid climate that is a breeding ground for mold, creepy crawlies, allergens, and other things, you don't want them clogging up your AC and entering your home's air. You may have no idea what's in your system if you don't get it checked out. Debris clogs and affects your system's ability to run efficiently.
So, if you are interested in our services, contact us today.


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Black Widow #10
Story by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
Drawn by Chris Samnee
Colored by Matthew Wilson
Despite what you see is going down on the cover, Black Widow is not giving the Winter Solider, Bucky Barnes, a tattoo. I mean, that would be a little bit off kilter there, don't you think? But with Waid and Samnee at the helm, it would be just about better than any thing else out on the comic book market from the big two.
That said, lets jump right into this rant. Black Widow, Winter Solider, along with the real Weeping Lion head to the Moon.
Even I'm wondering just what the hell is going on. Since, again, I stay away from those damn event books, I did not know that the original bad ass Nick Fury now lived up on the Moon as the new semi Watcher. Well, he's really called The Unseen. Not a bad name, but geez, you'd think they'd come up with something better than a name for Nick Fury than a crappy punk band, but whatever.
Widow wants Fury's help to locate the new recruits of the Red Room. You know, so that she can save them from being brainwashed assassins like herself. But you just had to know that the Weeping Lion would butt in with his telepathic powers and try to overpower Nick Fury but because he's a little jerk, his head then fucking explodes when he learns all the secrets of the universe. Serves him right. Because, as I said before, he's a little jerk.
But wait, there's more. A friend of the Weeping Lion has stowed away on the ship that they all used to get to the blue area of the Moon. Just as Black Widow and Winter Solider start making a bee line to chase the ship, they find out that the Weeping Lion emptied their oxygen supply from their tanks. Clever, but not really, cuz he's dead.
Black Widow gives her supply of air to Barnes and he races off to retake the ship. Which he does and is able to give CPR to Natasha, just in the nick of time. Which, come to think of it, happens all the time in comics and movies. Go figure. But Nick Fury (as the Unseen) gives a hint to Black Widow to help her out. Hint, it's in Russian. Hmm, I'm pretty sure the President can translate this for me.
Black Widow dumps Winter Solider back on Earth and then resumes her hunt for the new Red Room recruits. Another solid issue of Black Widow. It even introduced more aspects to the Marvel U, instead of trying to do what most comics are guilty of these days and trying to hold on to their own pocket universe. Great story and artwork.
-Tash Moore


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Get Your CO from Raleigh Quicker!
Development Services customers who need a residential certificate of occupancy (CO) will now be able to print the certificate from the permit and development portal. Once all permits for a project are complete, and if there are no holds or fees due, the system will automatically create a CO and attach it to the record in the portal.
The process for a non-residential CO remains the same: The CO application must be submitted in-person or via email and will undergo a five-day review process.
More information on the CO process is available on the City of Raleigh website.
Questions? Email the Customer Service Center at email@example.com.
Comments are closed.
October 2021


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Lights. Camera. Rickie.
Rickie Fowler stars as Dick Fowler, P.I., in two new ad campaigns for Farmers Insurance.
Dick Fowler, P.I., according to his Twitter account (@DickFowlerPI) is a golfer, lawn enforcer, philanthropist, ladies man, sensei to Chuck Norris and fresh to death. He has shaggy long hair, sporting a horseshoe mustache.
The first video is called 'Backswing Sting', where Fowler takes a phone from a man who is talking and laughing during someone's backswing. After taking the phone out of the man's hands, Fowler tees it up and hits it in the hole before exploding and saying, "Looks like that call . . . was dropped."
In the second video, 'Divot Dummy,' Fowler makes the player eat his own divot after not replacing it. Fowler rides away on a dirt bike, but not before throwing some extra grass up in the face of the player.


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21 Sep
Scientix webinar: Cracking STEM with Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Location: Online
Organizer: Scientix
Type of event: webinar
Target groups: counsellors, educational authorities, industry, learners, policy makers, researchers, teachers
Topic: applied sciences, materials sciences, science education
Language of event: English
Register for the webinar here!
The webinar takes place in the Scientix online meeting room on 21 September 2018 at 17:00 CEST. After registration, you will receive an email with instructions. NB: Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis!
Webinar outline:
The purpose of this webinar is to give teachers, career counsellors, educational authorities and researchers an overview of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and how it is implemented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, also inspiring students towards STEM careers.
PBL in STEM can facilitate further collaboration, such as the development of creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students. PBL emphasises authenticity, connections, inquiry and process, contributing to the necessary pedagogy of STEM disciplines.
Fawad Naseer, STEM Education Consultant and Trainer, Founder and Managing Director of a pioneer STEM education-based after-school programme in Pakistan called STEM Visions, presents his experience of implementing PBL in STEM education and its detailed observational results.
Relevant Links:
About the presenter:
Fawad Naseer is the Director of a pioneer STEM-based after-school programme called STEM Visions, a winner of the international STEM Excellence Award of the International STEM Education Association (ISEA). Mr Naseer has provided consultancy services about STEM education to schools, colleges and universities for the last three years and taught at schools and colleges for the past ten years.
If you are organising a conference, workshop, webinar or other events on any aspect of science education, please let us know.Submit event


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New York attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman opens an investigation against Exxon Mobile over whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business. Schneiderman say that over a period of ten years, Exxon Mobile funded outside groups that sought to undermine climate science, even as its in-house scientists were outlining the potential consequences to company executives. Exxon Mobil says the company had funded mainstream climate science since the 1970s, had published dozens of scientific papers on the topic and had disclosed climate risks to investors.
We unequivocally reject the allegations that Exxon Mobil has suppressed climate change research…We stopped funding [groups that denied serious climate risks] in the middle part of the past decade because a handful of them were making the uncertainty of the science their focal point. Frankly, we made the call that we needed to back away from supporting the groups that were undercutting the actual risk" of climate change. We recognize the risk.


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jacquie carr
We started our holiday in the afternoon in oskars, and the staff could not have been nicer. We were only in for a beer, then we had some starters, and a bottle of lovely house white wine….a fantastic start to our two weeks….we came back to the restaurant a few times and had lovely food, great service and nice views. We tried
meatballs…great…. fish on the grill, lamb all oskars and beef stifado…fantastic…. and better than anything they actually make chips out of potato….a first in foreign retaurants in my experience… 10/10


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Leave it to the wonderful Houston Symphony to figure out a way to relieve us all of the seemingly endless Presidential election campaigns. With all due respect to a past American president, a possible future vice-president, and the delegates at a certain Denver political convention, I would not have traded places with any of them during my opportunity to see last week's "Zoot Suit Symphony" tribute to the big band era, performed at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
The fun began out on the Pavilion plaza with free Haggan Daaz ice cream for all comers (sponsored by Fidelity Investments), and some dazzling swing dance demonstrations from a talented and energetic group of teens representing the Houston Swing Dance Society ( www.HSDS.org). When they danced to "Rhythm is Our Business," no one could argue the point.
Also on the plaza was an "Instrument Petting Zoo," where youngsters were invited to handle all kinds of musical instruments, while donors could turn over unused instruments to benefit future young musicians.
Then it was on to the main event under the direction of that most cheerful of all maestros, conductor Michael Krajewski. Looking as full of fun as ever as he ascended the podium, Krajewski surprised me by not showing up in a "Zoot Suit" himself. But I immediately forgave him when I saw his coolly crisp, formal white dinner jacket, and started thinking I would like to own one myself. Then it was off to a memorable tour of the Big Band era that would tip its hat to many of America's greatest big band leaders and composers.
Opening with a rousing march tempo, the first selection was W.C. Handy's jazz classic, the "St. Louis Blues," with the symphony performing on all burners with sizzling percussion, brass, and strings, while soft pastel lights embraced the stage. Adding to the fun throughout the evening were the two large projection screens that would zoom in on the various soloists, enabling the audience to have a closer look at these skilled musicians.
Next came a powerhouse rendition of the Glenn Miller favorite, "American Patrol." This number was complemented by the arrival of the "Hep Cats" swing dancers on a large dance floor set up just below the stage. These lively young dancers really put the "swing" in swing dancing!
A medley paying delicious tribute to "the Duke," (and I don't mean John Wayne) was aptly titled, "The Essential Ellington." It wove a musical tapestry that included such treats as a lovely "Lush Life," a "Perdido" full of resounding brass accents, a jazzy "Take the 'A' Train," and a bouncing "Satin Doll," that was pure satin in more ways than one, with particularly rich work from the strings.
When the orchestra moved on to a wonderful Count Basie version of "April in Paris," I found myself thinking, "Thank God we still have this music to break up the noisy din that too often comprises the popular music of our day."
Krajewski showed his skill as a pianist during another Count Basie favorite, "One O'clock Jump." The conductor played the opening phrases on the grand piano and sounded grand himself. During that number the Hep Cats returned for another smooth set on the dance floor that was highlighted by some terrific ensemble choreography. Then the conductor invited the audience to take to the dance floor during what would be as elegant and smooth a performance of "I've Got You Under My Skin," as one could ever hope for. Appreciative fans were dancing on the hillside, in the aisles and crowding that dance floor.
Relief came in the form of a delicious performance of Tommy Dorsey's, "Getting Sentimental Over You," with dazzling work from the orchestra's trombonists, and soft blue lights bathing the audience. Then the crowd continued to enjoy the dance floor during the Harry James theme, "You Made Me Love You," as the orchestra sections took skillful turns with that seductive melody.
Additional Glenn Miller treats included "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," the sensational saxophone solos of "String of Pearls," and an exquisite "Moonlight Serenade," that brought a laugh when Krajewski invited the audience to "… snuggle up if you are here with that special someone, or even if it's just your husband."
Then the thunderous finale of Benny Goodman's, "Sing, Sing, Sing." gave several orchestra percussionists a chance to pay homage to the brilliance of drummer, Gene Krupa. The resulting standing ovation was rewarded with a rockin' rendition of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood." What a party!
Readers may also want to note these upcoming Pavilion events: Sept. 19th – Houston Symphony's "Music of Mozart," Oct. 2nd – Houston Ballet's "Classics on Pointe," and Oct. 24th – Houston Symphony's "Hocus Pocus Pops." For tickets and information call 281-363-3300 or visit the pavilion website at www.woodlandscenter.org.


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I was up bright and early this morning although I guess it wasn't any earlier than a work morning. I had to take a continuing ed class. It was offered today or Monday morning and I chose today as then I wouldn't have to miss work. Aren't I a faithful employee?!
Here's a link for cute sandwich making. Click here. They have a lot of cute sandwich ideas. They hope to produce a book of their Funky lunches to show you how to create them. I think this would be a must if you had little kids around or maybe it would even help you eat better!! :-)
I liked this punch idea from Martha. I like the ice in it. She used gloves and a mask to make the floating ice. That really adds the final touch don't you think? For the recipe click here.
In fact, looking at this punch makes me thirsty, I better go get me a drink!!