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Continue reading "Thorner: Lake County conservatives energized to oppose Leftist plans" »
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Continue reading "Thorner: Lake County conservatives energized to oppose Leftist plans" »
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
As civil unrest loomed and a pandemic raged last year, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fully compensated police and other first-responder public safety employees.
However, new payroll data from Freedom of Information Act requests filed by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com show that the number of regular police officers between 2019 and 2020 dropped by nearly 400 positions.
With fewer officers and more to do, the existing employees made a lot of money—but the city became less safe and, for taxpayers, more expensive.
Nearly 1,000 police and fire employees made between $200,000 and $430,000 during the year. Full-time first responders—including officers, firefighters, sergeants, lieutenants, and others—averaged $122,000. That's cash compensation alone and does not include the cost of benefits.
Lightfoot poured $626.5 million into overtime, comp time, retroactive pay, fitness pay, duty availability pay, and 29 other compensation avenues for 20,615 employees in the police and fire departments. This was up from $482.3 million in extra pay during 2019.
More HERE
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Governments should have taken a laissez-faire approach to managing the pandemic, respecting the social nature of individuals while allowing communities to innovate their own responses.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure was put on the federal government to override the rights of the states and impose sweeping lockdown policies. This was only partially the case, since most states underwent lockdown and quarantine measures of their own. Such policies soon went under the microscope of public opinion to determine their validity, and the results have been mixed, at best.
After numerous stimulus packages, massive unemployment benefits, and overly strict enforcement of mask-wearing, everyone has been through a lot in the past year. But, throughout this pandemic, something else was put under particular stress: the dignity and social nature of the individual.
More HERE
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
Under circumstances at the southern border created by Biden administration actions, the contentious "catch and release" of illegal immigrants has become a bit more complicated, as the Border Patrol is now releasing thousands of illegal aliens into the country without a court date.
Generally, after apprehension, it's the Border Patrol that processes the illegal border crossers and issues a notice for them to appear in immigration court. However, with the flood of migrants crossing the border, the Border Patrol instead has begun issuing them a "notice to report" to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 60 days.
More HERE
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Barack Obama's 2009 beer meeting - that included now-President Joe Biden | NY Daily News
By Hank Beckman -
Ft. Lauderdale's Democrat Mayor Dean Trantalis bought a little victim street cred last week.
In the process he demonstrated to the entire country the rancid depths to which the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy has sunk.
After a terrible accident at a LGBTQ Pride Parade where two people were run over by a parade participant in a malfunctioning pickup truck, Trantalis wasted no time in describing the incident as a terrorist attack.
"This is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community," he told a TV reporter. "This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident."
Continue reading "Beckman: The Travesty of Bigotry Hoaxes" »
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
If America is systemically racist, why have millions of blacks from Africa and the Caribbean come to this country over the past 50 years? Why would they and many millions more want to move from all-black societies to a white-dominated, racist one?
This is a question every black and white leftist should be asked. After all, no Jews moved to Germany in the 1930s. And why didn't any? After all, many Jews were suffering terrible persecution and poverty in Russia and in Eastern Europe. Why didn't any of them move to Germany after 1933?
We all know the answer: Because Germany was systemically antisemitic.
Even leftists know that answer.
More HERE
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Americans as young as 50 could soon qualify for Medicare.
The Medicare at 50 Act, introduced in April by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and co-sponsored by 20 other Democrat senators, would lower the minimum age for government-funded healthcare for senior citizens. Americans have had to be at least 65 to qualify for Medicare since its creation in 1966.
Democrats claim the bill, which was previously introduced in February 2019, could help lower health care costs, reinforce the existing Medicare program, and strengthen the existing health insurance marketplace.
The economic consequences of such a plan would be devastating to the nation at large, says Robert Moffit, senior fellow of health care studies at The Heritage Foundation. "If employers respond by jettisoning coverage altogether, it will increase the tax burden on the working population and further aggravate the already high deficits and debt," Moffit told Health Care News.
More HERE
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Americans need to live and let live. Let the LGBTQ activists practice their preferences, and let Christians live the Gospel.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a Catholic Social Services adoption agency in Philadelphia could continue to place children only with heterosexual couples, consistent with the Gospel's definition of a family.
Though The New York Times depicted the ruling as a setback for gay rights and "evidence that religious groups almost always prevail in the current court," it was far from either.
Unfortunately, the ruling settled nothing in the culture war between traditional religion and LGBTQ advocates.
More HERE
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
(Photo: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/Getty Images)
By David Harsanyi -
I've been writing about Colorado cakemaker Jack Phillips' fight against cultural authoritarians for a long time. This past March, I noted that Phillips would probably be badgered into the grave. And this week, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones again found that the state could compel speech, claiming that Phillips had acted unlawfully when refusing to create a cake that celebrated the alleged gender transition of a Colorado activist.
When Phillips declined to participate in the wedding of David Mullins and Charlie Craig back in the summer of 2012—this was before Obergefell v. Hodges and before gay marriage was even legalized in Colorado—he made himself the target of harassment by activists and "civil rights" commissions that set out to destroy his business over a thought crime; by courts that set out to corrode religious liberty and free-speech protections; and by media that either don't understand or don't value free expression anymore.
More HERE
Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Lauren Hubbard, a New Zealand trans weightlifter - BBC photo
As the Tokyo Olympics approach next month, more than half of Americans are against having women compete against transgender athletes.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 56% of American Adults think it is unfair to make women compete against transgender athletes. Only 25% think such competition is fair and 19% are not sure.
States surrounding Illinois are voting on measures to ban competition between women and transgender males. Five states have already passed restrictions on the competitions - including most recently Florida.
What do you think about the issue?
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
From CENTER SQUARE –
Illinois has some of the highest fuel gas prices in the country, and next week, taxes on fuel will increase.
On July 1st, the tax will increase about a half-cent per gallon, depending on the blend.
Gasoline prices are the highest they've been since July 2019, when the state gas tax doubled to 38 cents. At that time, lawmakers put in place an automatic gas tax hike tied to inflation.
Adam Schuster, senior budget and tax research director with Illinois Policy, said there is no accountability for politicians.
"What they should do is repeal the automatic increase in gas taxes and go back to a scenario in which if politicians want more of your money, they should have to be on the record and tell you why it is a good thing," Schuster said.
More at CENTER SQUARE
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
By Randy Rossi -
The tragedy of making "Juneteenth" a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S. is that it distracts from reality and an incredibly important part of U.S. history in which slavery was actually ended in America. U.S. slaves were not made free on June 19, 1865 in Texas as "Juneteenth" suggests. They were first legally made free by Republican President Abraham Lincoln in his Emancipation Proclamation on September 1862 which freed all slaves in Confederate states as of January 1, 1863.
Every Northern Union state had already made slavery illegal by 1804. Then the Democrat Confederate Army surrendered to the Republican Union Army at Appomattox Virginia on April 9, 1865 which ended the tragic American Civil War which killed 650,000 Americans and wounded 1.2 million Americans to free the slaves held by Democrat slave owners in the South. That victory gave the Republicans the power to end slavery across America.
Then the Republicans passed the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865 which made slavery illegal across America. Democrats voted against the 13th Amendment, but Republicans had the power and the votes to pass it. That legally freed all the slaves in America. That was the day that slavery became illegal across America thanks to Republicans. Democrats fought to keep slavery with everything they had but thankfully, they lost.
Continue reading "Rossi: The "Juneteenth" Distraction from America's Real History of Freedom" »
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: Randy Rossi
"Reporting the news" means relaying what is happening in the world. Humans do this. Humans are biased. So "reporting the news" has always been a biased business.
For whatever reason, nigh since its inception, "reporting the news" has been biased in an almost wholly Leftward direction.
Before electronic media – before electricity – newspapers were the news. And newspapers were initially honest about their biases. Because we used to be honest about humans and human nature.
More HERE
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Last week, The New York Times revealed that in late 2017 and early 2018, prosecutors in the Department of Justice persuaded a federal grand jury to subpoena the telephone, email and texting records of about 20 people, including two members of Congress and their families, staffs and investigators, and one of the minor children of a staff member. Also subpoenaed were the records of Donald F. McGahn II, then the White House chief counsel, and his wife.
In all, the government sought data on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses. The subpoenas identified the targets only by telephone number and computer identification number.
The subpoenas were served on Apple, the custodian of these records. Also served upon Apple was a gag order signed by a federal judge instructing Apple not to tell anyone it had received the subpoenas. The government sought and obtained three annual extensions of the gag order. Such an order should have been challenged, as it is unconstitutional on its face.
The records sought and obtained were "metadata." Metadata is not content; yet it is everything but. Thus, the records that Apple surrendered showed who spoke to whom and when, who emailed whom and when, and who texted whom and when, but it did not show what was actually communicated.
Can the DOJ engage in a fishing expedition looking for leaks? Can it obtain personal records of members of Congress? Can it silence those who know about this? In a word: No, no and no.
More HERE
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 08:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
For several decades now, politicians around the world have tried to curtail tax competition to make it easier for them to increase the tax burdens on their citizens without them fleeing to other lower-tax jurisdictions. The best way to achieve their goal is to create a global high-tax cartel. If implemented, the recent G7 countries' agreement to impose minimum taxes on multinational companies would get them much closer to this shady objective.
It's no mystery why politicians don't like tax competition. In a global economy like ours, individuals and businesses are better able to work and invest in nations with lower tax rates. The ability to shift residences and operations from country to country puts pressure on governments to keep taxes on income, investment, and wealth lower than politicians would like. Politicians in each country fear that raising taxes will prompt high-income earners and capital to move away.
More HERE
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Republican lawmakers say they will not allow critical race theory and other divisive indoctrination to be imposed on American military service members.
Led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), GOP members of Congress are speaking out and taking action against the use of CRT in military training.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AZ) confronted Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with concerns about political indoctrination in the military. Cotton said he has received many letters from service members complaining about the type of training they are receiving. Instead of learning military tactics, they are required to attend progressive diversity training sessions.
More HERE
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
SPRINGFIELD - A very important energy bill was placed on hold when the legislature paused last week. Gary Rabine, a candidate for Governor, issued the following statement on the ongoing efforts that would have a powerful impact on businesses in Illinois.
"Electricity is an essential part of modern life. Electricity heats and cools our homes. It saves lives in hospitals and powers essential modern tools such as computers, tablets, cell phones and automobiles. We all depend on electricity being accessible, affordable, and reliable. We in Illinois have been blessed with some of the best, most competitive energy in America, these blessings could end soon.
Rabine said the energy legislation being considered in Springfield will impact every person in Illinois.
"We all have a stake in this bill and we all should be very concerned about what the eventual outcome could be," he said. "The bill Gov. Pritzker is pushing is essentially a gift to extremists who want to close coal plants before we have any realistic energy alternatives. Our commitment to clean energy should not come at the expense of affordability and reliability. We need to give companies time to adjust to the transformation to clean energy."
Illinois residents simply want their energy costs to be competitive with or without alternative options, Rabine's statement said. "Working class families in Illinois are experiencing the highest cost in taxes in America, closing our most efficient energy producing facilities will increase our energy cost and our families cost of living. We must not accept that."
Rabine, who owns the Rabine Asphalt Company based in Schaumburg Illinois, is vying to be the Illinois Republican Party's gubernatorial nominee in 2022.
Continue reading "Rabine comments on Dems' energy plans: Insider dealing and influence peddling cloud energy debate" »
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
"The Day Truth, Transparency and Justice was Abolished and America's Future was threatened as Never Before"
By Larry Kaifesh -
On 3 November 2020 during the election, there was an attack on our country to the likes we have never seen. It was an attack where the American people were robbed of truth, transparency and justice during a critical crossroad election.
As articulated by Victor Davis Hanson, it is the lack of truth and transparency that has destroyed civilizations from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, not enemies at the gate, pandemics or even global warming or global cooling. It is the lack of trust in one's government that has destroyed civilizations above all else and today, the level of trust in our government is at an all-time low, under 20% today.[i]
In addition, a poll from Rasmussen showed that roughly half the country thinks the election was stolen from Trump in some way.[ii] This number would be significantly higher if it were not for a media that has become a propaganda arm for the progressive socialist left. It is so bad, that even today, President Trump is banned for life on twitter and for two years on Facebook. This deliberate attack against free speech is an assault on our country, only surpassed by a stolen election.
Continue reading "Kaifesh Op-Ed: Never Forget the November 3rd 2020 Election" »
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
By Don Tracy - Chairman, IL GOP
In these head-spinning times, first principles about government are all in play: what it's for, and how it relates to the people.
Not long ago, Democrat and Republican politicians and activists differed over priorities: More guns or more butter? Today, the parties differ more fundamentally over the purpose, role and function of government itself.
The foundational view that government should be of, by and for the people is rooted in the idea that each human being has equal standing, with the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This view, largely held by Republicans today, holds that government exists to serve people, not rule over them. We put our faith in the common wisdom of voters and believe representatives should serve the people who elect them.
By contrast, progressives believe that elected representatives should "lead" people, not serve them. They scoff at equality and believe some people are morally better, more enlightened, and awake to social injustices — and that government and activists composed of these people should drive change. This is evident in the progressive attitude toward common people (viewed as "deplorables" who "cling to guns or religion") and the casual casting of moral aspersions at traditionalists (labeling them "racists," "Nazis," "haters").
Continue reading "Tracy: Illinois Democrats Launch a Cultural Revolution" »
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Despite assurances from the Biden administration that this new 'inflation' situation is only temporary, the 'signs and portents' suggest something much more ominous.
On May 12th there was finally some of that much talked about "unity" in the country. However, unity, like everything else in life, has to be judged from a perspective of good or bad. This unity came from both left- and right-leaning news outlets. It was good; in that they all agreed that something bad just happened. It was also bad; in that something bad just happened. That bad something was the 4.2% jump in "inflation" in April as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
President Joe Biden's budget proposal includes funding increases for several government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Biden proposes to give the IRS $13.2 billion next year, an increase of $1.2 billion, or 10.4 percent, over this year's appropriation.
The IRS collects taxes and enforces tax policy in the United States. The funding increase is intended to intensify enforcement efforts. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the funding request would make things "fairer."
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
The writer, "Sundance" of The Last Refuge, looks into something that also puzzled me: why were multiple FOIA requests for the emails of Dr. Anthony Fauci all released at the same time, and why now?
Using his time-tested technique of constructing timelines and comparing the current FOIA release with another key FOIA release, he constructs a thought-provoking theory. As so often in the past, he sees a tacit plot behind the events that capture so much attention.
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
By Dennis Prager -
The most frequent question people pose to me is: What can I/we do to fight back against the nihilistic anti-American destruction of virtually all the country's major institutions?
There is an answer.
The single best thing Americans can do to counter the left-wing attack on America — against its freedoms, its schools, its families, its children, its governmental institutions, its sports, its news and entertainment media, its medical establishment, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the military — is to take their children out of America's schools.
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yahoo News is promoting the false claim that human climate change is responsible for a historic drought covering California and the Western United States.
Although drought conditions have persisted for a couple of years now across portions of the Western United States, droughts in the dry West are common and research shows much larger, longer-term droughts have occurred there historically. Because current conditions are not outside the historic records of drought, there is no evidence human greenhouse gas emissions are contributing the current drought.
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Photo ID is common throughout the world. John R. Lott Jr. writes:
Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter "suppression" otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.
A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.
Continue reading "America the Outlier: Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere" »
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
President Joe Biden has released his budget for the new fiscal year. The price tag for Biden's budget is a whopping $6 trillion, and it includes absolutely massive increases in domestic spending.
Among the laundry list of big-ticket items proposed by the Biden administration are $174 billion for electric vehicles, $100 billion to expand high-speed internet, $200 billion for "free" universal pre-K, and $109 billion for "free" community college.
To partially offset the gargantuan costs of these programs, Biden wants Congress to increase taxes by $3.6 trillion, including one of the largest tax hikes on corporations in U.S. history. (The corporate income tax rate would increase from 21% to 28%.)
The tax increases on corporations and some small business owners wouldn't come close to covering the costs of Biden's budget, and they might be enough on their own to trigger a recession. After all, America is, in case President Biden has forgotten, still in the midst of recovering from one of the largest economic catastrophes in world history. You don't need to have a brilliant economic mind to know that raising taxes on job creators while millions of people are out of work doesn't make much economic sense.
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world -- possibly forever. Over the past year, Americans were forced to adhere to social distancing guidelines, an untold number of small businesses were shuttered, and social gatherings were basically eliminated. Together, these draconian rules (and many others, such as wearing face masks everywhere) attempted to create a "new normal."
Thankfully, we are closer to the end of the pandemic than the beginning, principally due to Operation Warp Speed. Yet, many unanswered questions remain. Perhaps the most important of all is: What is the actual origin of COVID-19? And could another pandemic be in the offing?
Currently, the origin of the COVID-19 virus is unknown. But we do know there are substantial risks associated with gain-of-function research projects the U.S. government has funded in China for years. And there is growing concern COVID-19 could have been unleashed on the world due to a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
More HERE
Monday, June 21, 2021 at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
By John F. Di Leo -
On July 4, 1776, the United States of America declared themselves free and independent states, commencing a long journey to give the world a shining example of a nation in which limited government existed solely to secure the liberty of its individual citizens.
This journey took a long time to accomplish. First, a War of Independence, then an economic retooling of the nation, then a long fight to find some way to eliminate the inhuman way that one class of Americans – the slaves - were treated under the law.
Some call slavery "the original sin" of the American republic. This is unfair, as slavery had always existed in almost every country on earth, and still exists today in dozens and dozens of countries. The popular presentation of slavery as a peculiarly American crime against humanity is both utterly wrong and thoroughly malicious in its intent.
Continue reading "Di Leo: Our First Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday" »
Friday, June 18, 2021 at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: abolition, Civil War, emancipation, Juneteenth, manumission, slavery
Becky Swan (seated) confronted by retiring public school teacher at District 87 meeting
UPDATE: See Tweet below of what happened at Thursday night's (June 17th) meeting at the same School Board.
BLOOMINGTON - When Bloomington District 87 Board issued a statement this past Monday reprimanding "a large group of citizens" that spoke out against mask mandates, sex education and critical race theory curriculum at the Board's June 9th meeting, they made it clear they intended to ignore those taxpayers, parents and concerned individuals.
After applauding those that spoke up in support of their Board's positions, they dug deeper: "This tense board meeting will not distract us from carrying out our mission to promote mutual respect and an appreciation for student and staff diversity in order to provide a supportive learning environment in which all students can succeed." (Bold letters were included in Board's message)
The public scolding was provoked by questions raised by an area mother, business owner and taxpayer Becky Swan, who was given five minutes during the Board's public comment period wherein she referred to the district's new sex education curriculum and a call for action distributed by a new action-oriented group called Breakthrough Ideas.
Continue reading "Central Illinois District 87 becomes center of controversy over "Woke" curriculum " »
Friday, June 18, 2021 at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
By Nancy Thorner -
John Droz, Jr., a physicist and Environmental Advocate, puts out a free Media Balance Newsletter covering COVID to Climate as well as Energy to Elections.
Droz is the editor of the Newsletter, but it is a collection of materials received from many good people. Check out the links for the Newsletter's 2020 archives and 2021 archives. If you'd like to subscribe, simply email John at "aaprjohn" at "northnet" dot "org".
On June 9, 2021, Thorner received John's latest Newsletter informing her that his new "Post-Election Audits Report" had just been released. The report is of great importance because the future of our nation depends on Election Reform. It is not yet too late for states to:
Continue reading "Thorner: Important Recommendations for Meaningful Election Reform" »
Friday, June 18, 2021 at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
The Left is rampaging across our nation today. Portland, Oregon is burning and many other cities face continuous looting, rioting and destruction. And while the Antifa/Black Lives Matter mob is wreaking havoc, destroying businesses and neighborhoods, leaders in those communities have taken an inexplicable hands-off attitude, even to the point of restraining a police response. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party, Big Tech, the media and institutional Left have turbocharged censorship and vilification of their political enemies. How did we come to this, who caused it, what are their motivations and how do we stop it?
Continue reading "Thorner: Explosive new book About Karl Marx sets forth the Left's Plan for America" »
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
How progressive reforms helped level a historic part of black Detroit. Howard Husock writes:
The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to take up the long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, which pits Harvard's race-conscious admissions process against a group of Asian-American applicants who don't fit into Harvard's idea of "favored minorities." The central idea behind the case is whether Harvard's use of race to create what it sees as a "diverse" class runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
If there is one area in which the American elite seems to be moving in lockstep, it is increasing racial diversity. Many Fortune 500 businesses now operate Diversity and Inclusion offices. Every selective college is quick to tout its "diverse student body." These initiatives sound good in theory, but the movement for racial diversity too often comes at the expense of hiring or admitting the most qualified candidate. Increasingly, the qualified candidate who gets denied is Asian-American—member of a minority group still considered, for diversity purposes, not in need of rescuing.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
The contributions of religious life to economic prosperity are increasingly evident, prompting many to study the relationship between the two. A recent study from Canada found that religion adds billions to the economy. In the United States, research has shown much of the same, pointing to growth that outsizes that of the world's leading companies.
What's less explored are connections between the underlying freedoms themselves, which many believe to be mutually reinforcing and indivisible.
"Both economic and religious freedom tend to exist together in the same societies," writes Jay Richards in Acton's collection of essays, "One and Indivisible." "They are both based on the same principles; they tend to reinforce each other; and over the long haul, they arguably stand or fall together. As a result, when Catholics and other Christians surrender economic freedom, they unwittingly surrender their religious freedom, as well.
In a new research paper, "Religious, Civil, and Economic Freedoms: What's the Chicken and What's the Egg?", Christos Makridis of Stanford University goes a bit further down this path, exploring "whether religious freedom is the driver of economic freedom – or whether it is the other way around."
More HERE
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
While all businesses and most homeowners will be directly affected with higher energy costs, at least thirty Illinois business groups signed onto a letter Monday asking Governor Pritzker to "delay [the energy] legislation and meaningfully engage the consumers, business owners, organizations and municipalities that will be saddled with the costs."
At least one other group - the Technology & Manufacturing Association - is being added to the effort, the coordinator Ryan McLaughlin told Illinois Review:
Dear Governor Pritzker:
In 1997, Illinois deregulated the energy market resulting in billions of dollars in savings for homeowners and businesses. Our low-cost energy prices and reliable grid have been cited by governors time and again as reasons why businesses should stay in or relocate to Illinois.
Twenty-four years later, instead of building on this strength, the proposed energy legislation being circulated will be the largest rate hike on consumers and businesses in history. At least as it has been described to us by several of those who have been fortunate enough to be included in the discussions.
Continue reading "BREAKING: Illinois biz groups call on Pritzker to slow down costly energy proposal" »
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Today's hot topic in business circles are that people are quitting their jobs instead of going back to normal, after the pandemic caused many to reassess their life priorities. Some estimate over 4 million have quit their jobs already this year - looking for something that allows more flexibility and/or less pressure.
Here's a chart from a Wall Street Journal story dated June 13, 2021:
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
In case you missed it, documents filed last month in a Massachusetts lawsuit claims the US government may have made a formal agreement with the internet titan Twitter and possibly others to censor disagreeable speech. From the NC Daily Gazette:
Nobody can deny that there has been a massive amount of censorship taking place in the social media arena but what some have only suspected to be true is that the government is behind it. That is, until now. The Montana Daily Gazette, one of our sister publications, first reported that Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai publicized court documents that prove the U.S. Government entered into a formal agreement with Big Tech to censor speech they did not agree with.
As Montana Daily Gazette reported, the combined federation of Big Tech companies is, effectually, a monopoly holding at least 90 percent of the current combined market share in social media. These would include such companies as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other tech companies that make sharing viewpoints in the public square available to its users.
The court documents are viewable here: https://u8z8g8c2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/11889-Supplemental-Memorandum-Playbook-Filed.pdf
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
By Hank Beckman -
Is it OK to be white?
The question is legitimate but asking it has our progressive friends very upset.
Persons unknown have in recent years been affixing that very statement on those ubiquitous "Hate Has No Home Here," signs that began popping up all over the Chicagoland area in the wake of Donald Trump's election in 2016.
The sentiment has also been posted at various colleges sites around the country, prompting the usual wails of anguish from those triggered by an idea that hasn't been approved by their school's diversity czars.
I first heard about the phenomena shortly after the Bad Orange Man's election when on my Facebook news feed there popped up a complaint about how affixing the question to the signs was "problematic."
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
CHICAGO - Two-thirds of those moving in the state of Illinois are outbound, and one-third are inbound, making it the #2 state where people don't want to live, the Vacation.com website is reporting Monday morning.
Only New Jersey has a slightly worse ranking between those that are leaving the state and those moving into the state.
"While some states are experiencing a phenomenon known as a 'brain drain,' meaning an exodus of highly-educated people, Illinois is actually experiencing the opposite. Tons of super smart people are deciding to start their lives in Illinois, along with thousands of people ages 18 to 34," the assessment says.
But Illinois made it to the second to worst state on this list for other reasons.
Continue reading "Illinois ranks as #2 state where Americans don't want to live" »
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty Images
What unites us are the foundational principles of liberty, justice and equality – and policies rooted in that heritage that would make America a "more perfect union." Charmaine Yoest, James Carafano, John Malcolm, and Jack Spencer write:
Americans are woke. They woke-up and realized President Joe Biden is no moderate. He is spearheading the most radical policies in modern history, policies that would transform this nation into an unrecognizable country—far less safe, more impoverished, and more unfree.
Nevertheless, the vital issues of the day pull us together. Conservatives share a common vision for maximizing human freedom and opportunity. They are primed to unite and fight. What's more, many Americans who do not identify as conservatives share these goals. Any national leader who champions this unifying vision will win the support of a vast swath of centrist America, and will energize conservatives in the process.
Here are 12 issues that conservatives have answers for. Together, they make up a platform that a majority of Americans can rally around.
Continue reading "Biden Divides Us. Here Are 12 Principles That Can Unite Us." »
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children's education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the "mass homeschooling" that FEE's senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.
"What?" you exclaim! "Wasn't education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That's what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true," you say!
The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn't "book learning" but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.
More HERE
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot came under fire when she announced that she would only allow one-on-one interviews with non-white journalists. In fact, the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) and Judicial Watch are suing her for this discriminatory practice.
Lightfoot's lawyers are mounting a rather peculiar defense against the accusations of racial discrimination. "Attorneys for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are arguing that a preliminary injunction against her for racial discrimination is unnecessary because she only racially discriminated against reporters for a strict two-day period," according to the Daily Caller.
More HERE
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent thinkers and politicians of that time. Ronald J. Pestritto writes:
he Progressive Era was the first major period in American political development to feature, as a primary characteristic, the open and direct criticism of the Constitution. While criticism of the Constitution can be found during any period of American history from 1787 onward, the Progressive Era was unique in that such criticism formed the backbone of the entire movement.
Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent thinkers and politicians of that time. Readers are reminded, in almost any progressive text they will pick up, that the Constitution is old, and that it was written to deal with circumstances that had long ago been replaced by a whole new set of pressing social and economic ills.
Continue reading "Why the Early Progressives Rejected American Founding Principles" »
Monday, June 14, 2021 at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Photo ID is common throughout the world. John R. Lott Jr. writes:
Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter "suppression" otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.
A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.
Continue reading "America the Outlier: Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere" »
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Jim Jordan and James Comer, ranking members of judiciary and oversight committees, wrote letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
They demanded documents and information about contacts between Facebook and federal government
Their questions were triggered after release of Anthony Fauci's emails showed he was in touch with Zuckerberg
The Republicans accused the social media platform of collaborating with government to violate First Amendment protections
Facebook removed posts suggesting COVID-19 was human-made
But it reversed its policy when President Biden asked intelligence community to look again at pandemic's origins
More HERE
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
(The Center Square) – What started as two weeks of restrictions to slow the spread lasted nearly a year-and-a-half.
Now, with the state on Friday set to enter Phase 5 of the reopening plan he created, some want Gov. J.B. Pritzker to stop governing through disaster proclamations and executive orders.
After 18 gubernatorial COVID-19 disaster proclamations and dozens of executive orders, Illinois is about to enter a full reopening ahead of the weekend. That means for the first time in nearly a year and a half, conventions, concerts and other large group events can return to full capacity in Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's COVID-19 reopening plan.
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Watch a brave parent who grew up in Mao's China point out all of the identical traits b/n the Cultural Revolution and what LCPS, and really every school system, are doing through the use of CRT. pic.twitter.com/zH7XuyBmW6— The Virginia Project UAC (@TVPUAC) June 9, 2021
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Criminals may have stolen as much as half of the unemployment benefits the U.S. pumped out over the past year, Axios' Felix Salmon reports.
More HERE
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
By Nancy Thorner -
Following are highlights from questions fielded by scientist Jay Lehr and Tom Harris to Chicago lawyer Joseph A. Morris about the "For the People Act", HR 1, during their one-hour radio program, The Other Side of the Story, on American Out Loud Talk Radio, live-streamed on Sunday, May 30, 202l.
As Joe Morris said about election law reforms: "Whenever you hear from anyone who wants to sell a pack of election law reforms, get your guard up, because 99 times out of 100 it will favor the party in power."
"There is massive election fraud in Chicago, and it's a constantly evolving thing."
Continue reading "Thorner: Part 2: Chicago election expert unravels Democrats' voting reform dream HR 1" »
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear a case concerning Harvard's race-conscious admissions policy. Kenny Xu writes:
The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to take up the long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, which pits Harvard's race-conscious admissions process against a group of Asian-American applicants who don't fit into Harvard's idea of "favored minorities." The central idea behind the case is whether Harvard's use of race to create what it sees as a "diverse" class runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
If there is one area in which the American elite seems to be moving in lockstep, it is increasing racial diversity. Many Fortune 500 businesses now operate Diversity and Inclusion offices. Every selective college is quick to tout its "diverse student body." These initiatives sound good in theory, but the movement for racial diversity too often comes at the expense of hiring or admitting the most qualified candidate. Increasingly, the qualified candidate who gets denied is Asian-American—member of a minority group still considered, for diversity purposes, not in need of rescuing.
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Work contributes to a meaningful life in addition to providing access to material necessities and luxuries.
The Federal government has issued three rounds of COVID "stimulus" checks and boosted unemployment benefits, first by $600 and now $300 per month. Is this the piecemeal start of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?
Under a UBI (also called a basic income guarantee), the government pays all Americans every month, say $1,000. Many would more than pay this back through taxes.
Although I am a small-government libertarian, a UBI is attractive as a replacement for all current government assistance programs. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute counts over 120 means-tested programs spending around $1 trillion, or over $20,000 for every American below the poverty line. The assistance our current system delivers costs a lot.
More HERE
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)


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Hagen Renaker has been in business for 65 years. Some pieces they produced were made to be useful like their planters and dishes, but most were simply made as decorative giftware. No one at Hagen Renaker ever imagined that the pieces they made would become valuable or collectible.
They experimented with many pieces over the years. Some were never produced or documented. I will try to add some pictures of pieces that aren't pictured in any book. Many of these pieces were produced and sold by HR. Some were produced by other artists at the HR factory. Others are experimental. There are other lines produced by Hagen Renaker too. John Renaker ran a nursery at the San Dimas factory. They produced planters and plant accessories, for many years, most unmarked and undocumented. I believe the Oriental People were produced as companion pieces for Bonsai trees. Choo San and the Black Bisque horse were both produced in odd colors as companion pieces to the planters. Hagen Renaker even made pieces for aquariums, that I've never seen any listed on a sales list or inventory sheet.
One of the things that makes this such a huge task is the wonderful atomosphere and policies of Hagen Renaker in the early years. They were always very people friendly. Their employees loved working there and many worked there for 40 or 50 years. It was more like a family than a job. Employees could decorate pieces to take home, and were even allowed to purchase error and test pieces. At least one employee sold these pieces at the Flea Market for years. Other employees had their own pottery businesses. Hagen Renaker allowed these employees to work on their own lines at the factory too. Maureen Love and Millesan Drews produced their work at the Hagen Renaker factory. This freedom and helping hand wasn't just reserved for employees. Hagen Renaker helped anyone who needed help, including competing potteries. Perhaps the best example is Roselane. The Roselane factory was closed for 2 years, when their factory was torn down to make room for a new Freeway. During that 2 year period, Hagen Renaker produced pieces, advertised and distributed for Roselane. Roselane pieces from this time period look and feel more like HR than Roselane. Many have Hagen Renaker stickers.
I would love any help or information anyone can provide about working at the factory or unusual pieces produced at the factory. These few pages are much harder to make than any of the other pages, because so little information is available. In some cases, there is a lot of incorrect information available. I expect to make errors on these pages but hopefully I will be able to correct them over time.
Some of these pieces are pictured here, and in other sections of the website.

subset: commoncrawl


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A Study of Core Functions in Emergency Management as Reflected in Training Requirements for Professional Certification
|Capella University
|David E. Balch
|Ph.D., Organization & Management
|224 pages
This study examined emergency management certification programs in order to understand what the training requirements for state emergency management certification reveal about the core functions of emergency management as conducted by emergency managers working in local jurisdictions. Based on practices in the 23 certification programs managed by state emergency management agencies or professional associations at the time of the study, qualitative content analysis identified a range of core functions practiced by those programs that specified training requirements in terms of specific courses. The application of grounded theory techniques to interview data from certification program managers and state emergency management training officers in 50 states resulted in the development of the theory that training requirements are adopted to meet a variety of goals. These goals include those appropriate to perceived needs of the sponsoring organizations and individual emergency managers, as well as goals that seek to promote competent performance of emergency management tasks. The list of core functions identified in state-level certification programs generally agreed with a list of core functions developed from the literature, indicating that practitioners at the local, state, and federal level have a common understanding of the essential tasks of the evolving profession of emergency management as performed in local jurisdictions.


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Chuckle. While those in the know have long since overcome their fears of EVs, many still cling to these:
"Hyundai UK commissioned a study about people's attitudes toward electric car. The biggest reason people don't buy electric cars is still range anxiety."
See Hyundai UK Explodes 10 Common Myths About Driving An Electric Car
- Range anxiety
- Where to charge
- Electric cars are too expensive
- Electric cars are too sluggish
- You can't drive an electric car in thunderstorm or through a car wash
- There aren't enough electric car models on the market
- EV batteries wind up in landfills
- Electric cars aren't safe
- Roadside assistance can't help with electric cars
- Electric cars don't have enough performance
Nope. None of those are true today. The last one to die was the one about not enough models. That may have been true a couple of years ago but now just about every maker of ICEd vehicles also makes EVs. There are several makers who only make EVs. The sticker price may still be a little high but when you consider total cost of ownership, it's no contest. EVs cost less to power and less to maintain and they last longer. ICEd engines last about 1000h of operation for gasoline and 2000h for diesel but electric motors can run continuously for decades. Well, maybe they need new bearings once in a while but that's a very quick operation, not "rebuilding". Performance? Chuckle… I can still remember the thrill of the old electric trolley buses with people having to lean into the acceleration. That was always a myth.
So, go ahead. Buy and drive an EV. You won't regret it.


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Starting this week, Metro will add four new C Line trips in the evening peak, two of which start today, the other two starting next Monday. Three of the added trips won't be through-routed with the D Line, which will help avoid reliability issues coming through Lower Queen Anne into downtown. According to Metro, the trip adds, which are funded by a contingency reserve, are meant to help alleviate evening service gaps caused by such poor inbound D Line reliability:
Traffic in downtown Seattle poses a daily challenge for bus schedules on the best of days. Metro schedules its RapidRide buses for 10-minute service during the peak commutes – even higher at 8-9 minutes during the highest ridership times about 7- 8:30 a.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m. But traffic, events and other factors can cause buses to be delayed. Buses might bunch up and arrive together when riders are expecting more frequent service.
Analysis of recent transit travel times shows intervals longer than 10 minutes between buses during the evening commute. Inserting additional bus trips is expected to help fill those gaps in arrival times, [Metro GM Kevin] Desmond said.
C Line ridership may very well be Metro's most pleasant post-service change surprise and a good indication that the the West Seattle restructure is working well. Operationally, however, route performance continues to suffer thanks to things like on-board payment and downtown congestion, to which fixes would unfortunately be illegal recipients of Metro's contingency of service hours.


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More wine making capacity
Our neighbour in the village,Patricia Atkinson,has retired from wine making. She was responsible for putting Bergerac wines more firmly on the map in the UK with her wines and books like The Ripening Sun. So we have just bought some of her wine vats for fermenting and storing wine. I am sure with such a good pedigree they will be a great addition to our chai.
2/26/2019 09:33:12 am
Bonjour - thought of Patricia Atkinson this morning, and all I could find was a mention of her here. I have bought all her books and followed her a couple of years ago when she moved to France. Sad to hear she has retired. Have missed that opportunity to work on her farm and get to know her. Any other latest news on her whereabouts and how she is doing? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Mignonne - a fan and foodie in Cape Town, South Africa.
Leave a Reply.
Sue Temperley writes the Wine and Wildlife blog.
August 2020


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DeWeese Design Swim & Sun Fashions Built In Bra Dress
In stock
Vintage Sizing
Vintage sizes run smaller than modern sizes.
Why? The average American has grown over the decades and so have the sizes produced by manufacturers. For example, if you wear a modern day size Large you may need to purchase a vintage size XL.
Head to the Hukilau in this rare and highly collectible vintage 70s Hawaiian dress from De Weese Designs, Swim and Sun Fashions, Los Angeles, California!! The cool cotton fabric features a mos painted tropical floral design in shades of green from lime to minty...add to that... a supple 'STA-CUP' built in bra and elastic panels for a perfect fit and you have a dress sure to be a favorite in your collection from the moment you try it on!!
|Built in 'STA-CUP' bra, elastic panels, adjustable straps that can be worn traditionally, crossed in the back or tied around the neck for a halter look, and convenient side pockets (very handy for the resort room key), !!
|Marked size 15/16
Vintage Large
Arm pit to arm pit: 18.5" - 22.5" (stretchy)
Across waist: 14.5" - 19.5"
Length - collar to hem line: 46"
|Minty green
|NOS Mint - Never worn!


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If you have persistent eye irritation, such as itchy and watery eyes, it could be caused by an allergic reaction to something in the air. Learn all about eye allergies and get helpful tips to find relief.
What Causes Eye Allergies?
Eye irritation from allergies can occur when allergens in the air, such as pollen, pet dander or dust, come into contact with the thin membrane that covers the eyeball. When this membrane, called the conjunctiva, becomes irritated, a substance called histamine is released. Histamine can cause uncomfortable symptoms, such as swollen eyes from allergies.
Eye Allergy Symptoms
Mild to severe eye allergies come with a range of allergy symptoms from minor eye irritation to more visible, annoying allergic reactions. Some allergy sufferers experience itchy, watery, burning or dry eyes from allergies. More visible reactions might include puffiness, redness and swollen eyes from allergies.
The Difference Between Eye Allergies and Pink Eye
Eye allergies are caused by a reaction to allergens in the air while pink eye is most often caused by bacterial infections and viruses. Allergies usually cause irritation in both eyes while pink eye often occurs in one and then spreads to the other. Unlike pink eye, eye allergies are not contagious and will last only as long as you're exposed to the allergen.
Eye Allergy Treatment and Tips
The best way to treat eye allergies is to mitigate exposure to the allergens causing the issue. This can be especially true if you have seasonal allergies. Try to limit time outdoors when pollen is at its peak, and clean your air filters in the fall and winter to help prevent cold-weather allergies.
At-Home Eye Allergy Remedies
In addition to medicine for eye allergies, you can get symptom relief with a few simple remedies:
- Wash your eyes to remove allergens and irritants that can stick to eyes and eyelashes.
- Rinse the inside of eyes with water or a simple saline solution to flush out allergens.
- Apply a cold compress to eyes to help reduce swelling and puffiness.
If eye irritation from allergies worsens or persists, see a doctor.
Eye Allergy Medicine
ZYRTEC® can help minimize itchy allergy eyes, as well as other allergy symptoms. It starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day.


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Manufacturer: Maxtreme
Category: Injectable Steroids
Substance: Primobolan Depot (Methenolone Enanthate)
Package: 10 ampoules
Methenolone Enanthate
Metenolone enanthate (methenolone enanthate) is a dihydrotestosterone (DHT) based anabolic steroid. It is an ester derivative of methenolone sold commonly under the brand names Primobolan (tablet form) or Primobolan Depot (injectable). When it interacts with the aromatase enzyme it does not form any estrogens.[medical citation needed] It is used by people who are very susceptible to estrogenic side effects, having lower estrogenic properties than nandrolone.[medical citation needed] Methenolone, in form of enanthate and acetate, is available as an injection or as an oral formulation. The injection is regarded as having a higher bioavailability. It is an enanthate ester which is quite long-acting. Because it by-passes hepatic breakdown on the first pass, it also has a higher survival rate. The tablets are in a short-lived acetate form. Methenolone is not 17-alpha-alkylated, but 1-methylated for oral bioavailability. This reduces the stress on the liver, but also the availability. In doses of 200 mg per week or less (intramuscular) blood pressure is rarely altered.


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Serving Size: 16 oz
Essential Oils:
24 drops – Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula angustifolia)
4 drops – Geranium Essential Oil (Pelargonium graveolens)
2 drops – Roman Chamomile Essential Oil (Chamaemelum nobile)
Lotion Formula
1/4 cup – Sweet Almond Oil (Prunus amygdalis var. Dulcis)
1/4 cup – Avocado oil (Persea Americana miller)
1/4 cup – Sesame oil (Sesamum indicum)
1/2 oz – Beeswax
1 cup – Purified Water
Apply the lotion after sunbathing or up to three times per day.
A 38 year old avid sunbather is looking for an essential oil lotion to help moisturize and nurture her skin. She was given an essential oil lotion that contained lavender, geranium and roman chamomile. Even though this report does not scientifically evaluate the long term benefits of these essential oils, the client's skin felt moisture after use. She also enjoyed the aroma of the lotion and noticed the scent throughout the day.
Case Description
Client (CJ) is a 38 year old female, who loves to sunbath. She would like an essential oil lotion that will nourish her skin after sunbathing. She would also like to use the lotion on a daily basis as a moisturizer and enjoys the aromatherapy aspect of the lotion.
CJ enjoys laying out in the sun two times per week for two to three hours per session. She wears SPS 15 while sunbathing and keeps herself hydrated by drinking eight to ten 8 oz. glasses of water a day. CJ daily applies to her face Neutrogena® Oil-Free Acne Wash, Aveno® Clear Complexion Daily Moisturizer, Olay® Anti-wrinkle eye cream, and Olay® anti-wrinkle replenishing night cream. She also applies daily to her body Jergens® Utra Healing: Extra Dry Skin Moisturizer.
Literature Review
Lavender Lavandula angustifolia or true lavender is different from the other Lavandula oils because it contains no camphor properties. Camphor is considered a skin irritant.
There has been no scientific studies supporting the claim that Lavendula angustifolia is a useful remedy for burns; however, Robert Tisserand's blog mentions anecdotal evidence supporting this claim as well as the scientific studies supporting the oil's analgesic quality. He also summarizes several different studies that suggest lavender has antioxidant properties that could "inhibit degenerative skin changes such as skin cancer, sun damage and the effect of ageing." (Tisserand, R.)
Keville and Green (2009) support Tisserand's statement mentioning that lavender is a cell regenerator and can be used on sun-damaged skin, skin growths and that there is "no better remedy for burns" (p. 196)
Geranium Pelargonium graveolens grows well in in subtropical and tropical climates. The essential oil is distilled from the plant's leaves and flowers. Several books have referenced Pelargonium graveolens as having skincare benefits that help with facial neuralgia, eczema, oily or dry skin extremes, burns, acne, mature skin (Cooksley, 2002, p. 348-349). In fact, for centuries geranium has been used for regenerating and healing the skin (Essential Science Publishing, 2009, p. 66)
Roman Chamomile Chamaemelum nobile is "grown for oil extraction in Europe, Britain, Italy, France, and the United States" (ACHS, 2012, p. 53). The only part used during steam distillation is the flower.
Price (2007) states Chamaemelum nobile's properties as "antianaemic, anti-inflammatory, antineuralgic, antispasmodic, calming and sedative, vulnerary, and stimulant (p. 326).
Srivastava, Pandey & Gupta (2009) conducted a laboratory study to determine whether chamomile interferes with the COX-2 pathway. This is significant because this pathway has been implicated in the process of inflammation and carcinogenesis. They found that "chamomile works by a mechanism of action similar to that attributed to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs" (p. 1) which lends credibility to the understanding that it may help prevent inflammation and cancer.
Treatment Protocol/Methods
CJ was given a 16 oz. lotion containing the following essential oils: twenty-four drops of lavender Lavandula angustifolia, four drops of geranium Pelargonium graveolens, two drops of roman chamomile Chamaemelum nobile. The essential oil blend was placed in the following lotion formula: ¼ cup of almond oil Prunus amygdalis var. Dulcis, ¼ cup of avocado oil Persea Americana Miller, ¼ cup of sesame oil Sesamum indicum, ½ oz. of beeswax, and one cup of purified water.
CJ was instructed to apply the lotion after sunbathing or up to three times per day. She was also informed of the following cautions and contraindications:
Lotion contains oils with toxic rating of I – a skin patch test is required.
Recommended Daily Dosage: 3-4 times a day.
Contraindicated in the first trimester of pregnancy.
May irritate skin, dermatitis, cause insomnia and restlessness.
Caution if allergic to ragweed or other Asteraceae family plants.
Client Response
CJ stated she loved the lotion. She enjoys its aroma, texture, and how well it absorbs into her skin. She also noticed that after applying the lotion her skin felt well hydrated. CJ stated that she will definitely use this lotion.
This case report was positive because the client enjoyed the aroma and texture of the lotion. She also felt the lotion kept her skin hydrated. Without scientific measures, larger population, skin tests before and after application, testing over a long period of time, etc. we cannot prove the benefits this lotion is offering to the client. Additional studies need to be made.
Cooksley, V. G., (2002). Aromatherapy: Soothing remedies to restore, rejuvenate, and heal. (pp. 348-349). New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press.
Essential Science Publishing. (2009). Essential Oils Desk Reference (4th ed.). ( pp. 66). Essential Science Publishing.
Keville, K., and Green, M., (2009). Aromatherapy: A complete guide to the healing art. New York, NY: Crossing Press.
Price, S., & Stuart, C., (Ed.) (2007). The complete book of massage and aromatherapy: A practical illustrated step-by-step guide to achieving relaxation and well-being with the top-to-toe body treatments and essential oils. (pp. 326) London, UK. Lorenz Books.
Tisserand. (2012, May 15). Lavender oil – skin savior or skin irritant? [blog}. Retrieved from http://roberttisserand.com/2011/08/lavender-oil-skin-savior-or-skin-irritant/
Srivastava, J., Pandey, M., & Gupta, S. (2009). Chamomile, a novel and selective COX-2 inhibitor with anti-inflammatory activity. Life Sciences, 85(19-20), 663-669. doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2009.09.007


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Bariatric weight-reduction surgery, long considered a treatment option largely reserved for severe obesity cases, may also be a safe and effective option for the treatment of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes in persons who are overweight or have mild to moderate obesity, according to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Cleveland Clinic investigators' findings were presented at ObesityWeek 2015, the largest international event focused on the basic science, clinical application, and prevention and treatment of obesity, held in Los Angeles, California, November 2–7, and reported in an American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) paper entitled "Bariatric surgery is safe option for managing type 2 diabetes in overweight or mildly obese patients" in the Nov. 5, 2015, edition of ScienceDaily.
The annual ObesityWeek conference is hosted by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) — the largest organization for bariatric surgeons in America — and The Obesity Society (TOS).
The Cleveland Clinic scientists say this study is the largest ever-published series on bariatric surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes and body mass index (BMI) of 35 kg/m2 or less. The researchers studied 1,003 patients from North America with BMIs of between 25 and 35, with an average BMI among study participants of 33.5 kg/m2. Forty-six patients had a BMI of 30 or less. All had weight-loss surgery, or what is known as bariatric or metabolic surgery, between 2005 and 2013. Four-in-10 patients were taking insulin injections and 60 percent were on oral medications for diabetes prior to undergoing surgery. Data was obtained from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database.
"Bariatric surgery is emerging as a safe and effective option for managing type 2 diabetes in patients with mild obesity," says lead study author Ali Aminian, MD, a Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease Institute in an ASMBS release. "We are seeing significant improvement or remission of type 2 diabetes in most lower BMI patients. Current evidence suggests that baseline BMI is unrelated to diabetes remission following bariatric and metabolic surgery. Our data, which is from a large sample size of patients with type 2 diabetes, shows a modest early morbidity (4%) and low mortality (0.2%) following bariatric surgery in non-severely obese patients. These data are important because most patients with diabetes fall into this BMI category."
National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines categorize a person as overweight with BMI between 25 and 30, and obese with BMI of 30 or greater. The severe obesity threshold is at BMI 35 kg/m2. The NIH guidelines, which ASMBS notes have not been updated since 1991, consider surgery an option only for patients with a BMI of 35 or more accompanied by one or more obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, or a BMI of greater than 40.
The ASMBS cites Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data estimating that more than 78 million adults were obese in 2011–12, about 24 million of whom have severe or morbid obesity. They note that individuals with a BMI greater than 30 have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death compared to healthy weight individuals, as well as an increased risk of developing more than 40 obesity-related diseases and conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Dr. Aminian observes that the field of bariatric surgery has significantly evolved over the last quarter-century, with the introduction of new, less-invasive surgical approaches (e.g., laparoscopic surgery) and surgical procedures (e.g., sleeve gastrectomy) that have led to an improved safety profile for the surgery.
The Cleveland Clinic study showed bariatric and metabolic surgery having a high degree of safety in lower BMI patients in operations that included gastric bypass (57%), gastric banding (23%), sleeve gastrectomy (19%) and duodenal switch (1%). The 30-day postoperative mortality rate was 0.2 percent and the cumulative rate of 16 postoperative adverse events was 4 percent. The surgical procedures averaged about two hours in duration with patients discharged from hospital within two days.
"A two-hour operation and a two-day hospital stay has the potential to resolve or improve what is a chronic, progressive and dangerous disease," says John M. Morton, president of the ASMBS and Chief of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, who was not involved in the study. "The risk-benefit profile that has emerged for bariatric surgery in people with type 2 diabetes and low BMIs is very favorable and should be considered as a treatment option in carefully selected patients."
Last year, Cleveland Clinic researchers presented another study (Published in the Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism journal 2015; 17(2):198-201) finding a 30-day complication rate associated with metabolic surgery, specifically gastric bypass in patients with type 2 diabetes and BMIs of 35 or more, of 3.4 percent — about the same rate as with laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder surgery) and hysterectomy. Hospital stays and readmission rates were similar to laparoscopic appendectomy. The monthlong mortality rate for metabolic or diabetes surgery was 0.3 percent, similar to that of total knee replacement, and about one-tenth the risk of death after cardiovascular surgery.
The ASMBS release notes that previous studies have shown that metabolic and bariatric surgery improves type 2 diabetes in nearly 90 percent of patients and diabetes goes into remission in up to 50 percent.
In addition to Dr. Aminian, study authors of the abstract entitled, "A Nationwide Safety Analysis of Bariatric Surgery in Nonmorbidly Obese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes" include John Kirwan, PhD; Bartolome Burguera, MD, PhD; Stacy Brethauer, MD; and Philip Schauer, MD, all from Cleveland Clinic.
For more information, visit:
Other resources:
Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults: United States, 20112012. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (October 2013). http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db131.htm
Office of the Surgeon General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Overweight and obesity: health consequences. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/calltoaction/fact_consequences.html
Kaplan, L. M. (2003). Body weight regulation and obesity. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. 7(4) pp. 443-51. Doi:10.1016/S1091-255X(03)00047-7.
Poirier, P., Cornier, M. A., Mazzone, T., et al. (2011). Bariatric surgery and cardiovascular risk factors. Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. 123 pp. 1-19. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/123/15/1683.full.pdf
Flum, D. R. et al. (2009). Perioperative safety in the longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery. New England Journal of Medicine. 361 pp.445-454. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/5/445
Cleveland Clinic
ObesityWeek 2015


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What is environmental education?
The field of environmental education (EE) began to take shape in the 1970s as the international community gathered to address worldwide environmental problems. Out of these meetings came two landmark documents — the Belgrade Charter (UNESCOUNEP, 1976) and the Tbilisi Declaration (UNESCO, 1978) — which laid the foundation for EE. The Belgrade Charter was adopted by a United Nations conference, and provides a widely accepted goal statement for environmental education:
The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
Building on the Belgrade Charter, the Tbilisi Declaration established three broad goals for environmental education. These goals provide the foundation for much of what has been done in the field since 1978:
- To foster clear awareness of and concern about economic, social, political, and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;
- To provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment, and skills needed to protect and improve the environment; and
- To create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups, and society as a whole toward the environment.
- As EE has evolved, these principles have been researched, critiqued, revisited, and expanded, and still stand today as the backbone of environmental education.
EE in Minnesota
The emergence and evolution of EE in Minnesota parallels the national and international EE movement. In 1971, by executive order, Governor Wendell Anderson established the Minnesota Environmental Education Council. This group conducted a study that resulted in the first Minnesota state plan for environmental education which was published in 1972. The state plan was written to offer guidance and direction for educators, the EE community, and government as they work towards the state's environmental education goals.
Minnesota has revised its EE state plan four times since 1972. Today, A GreenPrint for Minnesota: State Plan For Environmental Education, Third Edition is a ten year plan (2008–2018) that serves as the guiding document for EE in Minnesota. The GreenPrint Third Edition and the three state plans before it have all been written to help educators bring their audiences closer to the state goals for environmental education. Because of the evolving nature of environmental education, GreenPrint Third Edition recommends that environmental educators target their programs and plans toward achieving environmental literacy for all Minnesotans.
In 1992 a grassroots movement began to further grow and complement Minnesota's EE community. Several EE professionals gathered at the state EE conference and formed the Minnesota Association for Environmental Education (MAEE), a non-profit professional organization. The mission of MAEE is to support and strengthen environmental education throughout the state. As a professional association, MAEE continues today to assist and support the work of individuals engaged in EE and to represent the EE community on relevant issues and legislation.
Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence, by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), 1996 (revised 2004, 2009).
Evaluating Your Environmental Education Programs: A Workbook for Practitioners, by Julie A. Ernst, Martha C. Monroe, and Bora Simmons, North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), 2009.
When A Butterfly Sneezes: A Guide for Helping Kids Explore Interconnections in Our World Through Favorite Stories, by Linda Booth Sweeney, Pegasus Communications, 2001.
Minnesota Association for Environmental Education (MAEE)
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)


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Let me begin this post by saying that almost no event is truly random. Even the outcome of a classic coin toss could in theory be predicted if we knew the effect of every factor involved, like air friction, gravity, and initial force.
The same thing is applicable to the generation of random numbers and alphanumeric strings. The best we can hope for is to generate numbers and strings that don't seem to follow a pattern and can't be practically predicted by an attacker.
In this tutorial, we will cover different techniques for generating random numbers and alphanumeric strings in PHP. Some of them will be cryptographically secure, while others are meant only for casual use, like assigning pseudo-random file names or creating URLs and suggesting usernames.
Learn PHP With a Free Online Course
If you want to learn PHP, check out our free online course on PHP fundamentals!
In this course, you'll learn the fundamentals of PHP programming. You'll start with the basics, learning how PHP works and writing simple PHP loops and functions. Then you'll build up to coding classes for simple object-oriented programming (OOP). Along the way, you'll learn all the most important skills for writing apps for the web: you'll get a chance to practice responding to GET and POST requests, parsing JSON, authenticating users, and using a MySQL database.
Generating Random Numbers in PHP
There are three different functions for generating random numbers in PHP. All of them will accept a minimum and maximum possible value for the random numbers and output a random number for you. These are
rand($min, $max),
mt_rand($min, $max), and
random_int($min, $max).
rand(), the minimum and maximum values of integers you can generate lie between
0 and the value returned by
getrandmax(). Before PHP 7.1.0, this function was about four times slower than
mt_rand(). However, starting from PHP 7.1.0, it has been made an alias of
mt_rand(). Unlike
mt_rand(), though, you can set the value of
$max to be lower than
$min without causing an error.
mt_rand(), the minimum and maximum values of integers you can generate lie between
0 and the value returned by
mt_getrandmax(). It relies on an implementation of the Mersenne Twister to generate random numbers. Watch out, though—prior to PHP 7.1.0, this function implemented an incorrect version of the algorithm to generate the numbers. However, it has been fixed in newer versions.
The function became even better in PHP 7.2.0 by getting rid of a modulo bias bug. This means that for some particular seeds, your sequence of random numbers will now be slightly better compared to older versions. Some specialized code might actually rely on this bias, though. If so, you can use the older seed algorithm by calling the
mt_srand() function to seed the random number generator and passing
MT_RAND_PHP as the value of the second parameter.
mt_rand() function has a period of 219937−1, which basically means that in best case scenarios you get as many as 219937−1 random numbers before the sequence starts repeating. You should note that repetition of a sequence is not the same as repetition of a particular number. In other words, you might get the same random number twice, but that does not mean that the sequence itself has started repeating. The following sequence is an example:
187 3276 1267 15 1267 34598 3467 125 17
In the above sequence, we had 1267 twice in the output, but that does not mean that the whole sequence started repeating after that. It's unlikely to get the same number repeated so soon in a random sequence, but it is possible!
Cryptographically Secure Random Integers
If you want cryptographically secure pseudo-random numbers, the
random_int() function in PHP is your best bet. It will generate random numbers between the provided
$min and
$max values, which default to
PHP_INT_MIN and
PHP_INT_MAX. Unfortunately, this function is only available starting from PHP 7.0. For versions before that, you can use this polyfill on GitHub.
Random Floats
Instead of generating random integers, you might also want to generate floats. This can be done effortlessly by simply dividing a random number with a value returned by
mt_getrandmax(). The following example will illustrate how to generate a random float between 0 and 1 or between any other minimum and maximum limits.
<?php // Output: 0.69458310943776 echo mt_rand(0, mt_getrandmax())/mt_getrandmax(); function mt_random_float($min, $max) { $float_part = mt_rand(0, mt_getrandmax())/mt_getrandmax(); $integer_part = mt_rand($min, $max - 1); return $integer_part + $float_part; } // Output: 10.199064863938 echo mt_random_float(10, 11); // Output: 35.540808309121 echo mt_random_float(15, 50); ?>
When generating a random float between given limits, we make sure that the random integer numbers do not go above
$max - 1. This way, we can be sure that adding the float part will not take the number above the maximum limit.
Seeding the Random Number Generators
One concept that needs a little bit of explanation is seeds. Put simply, these are just numbers that can be used to initialize the
rand() and
mt_rand() functions before generating any random numbers. The function which seeds
rand() is called
srand($seed), and the function which seeds
mt_rand() is called
mt_srand($seed, $mode).
It's important to remember that providing an initial seed value every single time before calling
rand() and
mt_rand() won't necessarily produce better random numbers. In fact, using the same seed each time will give you the same random number as well!
<?php mt_srand(10); // Output: 1656398468 echo mt_rand(); mt_srand(10); // Output: 1656398468 echo mt_rand(); mt_srand(10); // Output: 1656398468 echo mt_rand(); ?>
Seeding a random number is useful in situations where you want to generate a random but reproducible sequence. The following code snippet generates the same sequence of random numbers when run twice.
<?php mt_srand(10); $count = 0; while($count < 10) { echo mt_rand(0, 100)." "; $count++; } // Output on First Run: // 68 58 68 13 3 48 30 37 96 82 // Output on Second Run: // 68 58 68 13 3 48 30 37 96 82
Generating reproducible random sequences this way can help debug programs which were being tested using random data—if you keep track of the seed, you can reproduce the same input to figure out what went wrong.
Generating Random Alphanumeric Strings in PHP
There are many ways to generate random alphanumeric strings, and what you use will depend on your needs.
Generate a Unique ID
If you simply want to generate a unique string and it does not have to be cryptographically secure, then consider using the
uniqid() function. It returns a unique identifier based on the current timestamp.
The function also accepts two parameters to add a prefix or increase the entropy of the generated string. Here are some of its examples:
<?php // Output: 5fa7f46962f25 echo uniqid(); // Output: user_5fa7f46962f3a echo uniqid('user_'); // Output: user_5fa7f46962f3d4.76070232 echo uniqid('user_', true); ?>
Generate Shuffled Strings
If you want to generate random alphanumeric strings from a fixed set of characters, you can use the
str_shuffle($string) function. This function will provide you a randomly shuffled string. Starting from PHP 7.1, the algorithm which determines the random order of characters in the output string has been changed to the Mersenne Twister.
Remember that the random string generated this way is not cryptographically secure. However, the string will still be pretty unpredictable for common use like generating random file names or URLs. Here are a few examples:
<?php $permitted_chars = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'; // Output: 54esmdr0qf echo substr(str_shuffle($permitted_chars), 0, 10); $permitted_chars = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'; // Output: video-g6swmAP8X5VG4jCi.mp4 echo 'video-'.substr(str_shuffle($permitted_chars), 0, 16).'.mp4'; ?>
Your output will most probably be different in both cases. In the first case, we just shuffled the permitted characters string and then took the first 10 characters of it. In the second case, we added "video" at the beginning of the generated string and ".mp4" at the end.
This method of generating random alphanumeric strings is very easy, but it has a couple of issues. For example, you will never get the same characters in your random string twice. Also, the length of the random output string can only be as long as the input string.
Generate Random Strings
If the problems I listed above are a deal breaker, you might want to look at some other implementations. The following code will solve both these problems.
<?php $permitted_chars = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'; function generate_string($input, $strength = 16) { $input_length = strlen($input); $random_string = ''; for($i = 0; $i < $strength; $i++) { $random_character = $input[mt_rand(0, $input_length - 1)]; $random_string .= $random_character; } return $random_string; } // Output: iNCHNGzByPjhApvn7XBD echo generate_string($permitted_chars, 20); // Output: 70Fmr9mOlGID7OhtTbyj echo generate_string($permitted_chars, 20); // Output: Jp8iVNhZXhUdSlPi1sMNF7hOfmEWYl2UIMO9YqA4faJmS52iXdtlA3YyCfSlAbLYzjr0mzCWWQ7M8AgqDn2aumHoamsUtjZNhBfU echo generate_string($permitted_chars, 100); ?>
You can modify it to add particular suffixes and prefixes to the generated random string. People who are using PHP 7 can improve the string generation further by using the cryptographically secure function
random_int() instead of
Generate Random Hexadecimal Strings
If you want to generate random hexadecimal strings in PHP, you can also use either the
md5($string, $raw_output) or the
sha1($string, $raw_output) function. Both of them will generate hashes of a given input string.
You will keep getting unique hashes as long as the input is unique. This could be achieved by using the output of a function like
time() as the input. By default,
md5() will return a 32-character hexadecimal string, and
sha1() will return a 40-character hexadecimal string. These can be trimmed to a specific length using the
substr() function.
Here is an example of the output returned by these functions:
<?php // Output: 36e5e490f14b031e echo substr(md5(time()), 0, 16); // Output: aa88ef597c77a5b3 echo substr(sha1(time()), 0, 16); // Output: 447c13ce896b820f353bec47248675b3 echo md5(time()); // Output: 6c2cef9fe21832a232da7386e4775654b77c7797 echo sha1(time()); ?>
As you can see, generating random and unique hexadecimal strings up to 40 characters long is very easy in PHP.
Generate Cryptographically Secure Random Strings
The three functions to generate random alphanumeric strings that we have discussed so far are not cryptographically secure. Luckily, PHP also has a function called
random_bytes($length) to generate cryptographically secure pseudo-random bytes. The
$length parameter determines how long the output string should be.
Once you have the output in terms of random bytes, you can use the
bin2hex() function to convert them to hexadecimal values. This will double the length of the string.
<?php // Output: b7b33efa07915b60ad55 echo bin2hex(random_bytes(10)); // Output: a2e6cb1f25616324c8a11a2cceb0b47c590949ea echo bin2hex(random_bytes(20)); // Output: 25af3b86e11884ef5e8ef70a0ad06cba81b89ed6af3781a0 echo bin2hex(random_bytes(24)); ?>
Another function that you can use to generate cryptographically secure random bytes is
openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($length, &$crypto_strong). The value of the second parameter can be used to determine if the output string will be generated using a cryptographically secure algorithm or not.
In the above examples, using the
bin2hex() function gives us the final value as a hexadecimal string. If for some reason, you want a cryptographically secure random alphanumeric string that utilizes all characters from a to z, you should consider using the following function.
<?php function secure_random_string($length) { $random_string = ''; for($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) { $number = random_int(0, 36); $character = base_convert($number, 10, 36); $random_string .= $character; } return $random_string; } // Output: 07y1s10prb8 echo secure_random_string(10); // Output: d9bcwoo7pc echo secure_random_string(10); // Output: 6llfxe4pvm echo secure_random_string(10); ?>
secure_random_string() function we wrote above accepts a single parameter that determines the length of the string we would like it to return. We run a
for loop that generates a random integer in the range 0 to 36. After that, we convert our number from base 10 to base 36 using the
base_convert() function. The resulting character could be anything from digits 0 to 9 and characters a to z. We append it at the end of our random string. In the end, we return our full string.
Final Thoughts
In this tutorial, we looked at the generation of random numbers and alphanumeric strings in PHP. Generating random numbers can be useful in a variety of situations, like in games where you have to spawn enemy players or randomly give users some clues about letters so they can form a whole word.
Just like random numbers, the generation of random alphanumeric strings can also be pretty helpful in many circumstances. With the help of
str_shuffle(), you can choose which set of characters appear in your random strings. With
sha1() and
md5(), you can easily generate random hexadecimal sequences, and with
random_bytes() you can generate cryptographically secure strings. This will allow you to generate meaningful yet randomized filenames and usernames that are hard to guess.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.


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TWICE readers were quite pessimistic when it comes to the future of independent A/V dealers.
By an almost 3-to-1 margin readers said A/V dealers will not turn around their fortune. Interestingly, the negative answers grabbed a quick and dominant lead the first day the poll was issued, but the more positive people came on board late to close that gap, at least slightly.
However, the race was a bit closer when it came to our poll regarding whether smartphones will ultimately replace cameras, e-book readers, PNDs and laptops, or will consumers still want function-specific products.
About half those voting said smartphones will replace some of the above items, while 10 percent said the smartphone will replace everything. 37 percent believed consumers will still demand function specific products and 4 percent said the jury is still out.
Maybe we should have asked how many people were voting via their smartphone?


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Mathematics at MUIC
Thotsaporn Thanatipanonda
Mahidol University International College
Ramsey theory plays a big role in combinatorics. Here, we will explore on arithmetic combinatorics, the area concerns with condition of a set that must contain an arithemtic progression. In particular we will mention (among other things) Van der Waerden's theorem, Roth's theorem and Szemer ́edi's theorem. Some experimental math. will be performed at the end of the talk.


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There is an Ojibwa Indian saying: No tree has branches so foolish as to fight amongst themselves.
They arise from the same source. They are all interconnected. Why would they fight?
Why do we fight?
When will we realize we are all from the same source? We are all connected. We are all one.
My other books: The Tao of Spiritual Partnership & The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self & Emotional Unavailability & Neediness are @ Amazon. "Rewiring the Soul" is now also available in German & Spanish.
Get Rewiring the Soul in print or e-book for Kindle
CLICK HERE to download the first chapter
CLICK HERE to download the first chapter
"A revelation of insight into the foundations of human suffering & transcendence. It not only lays out essential steps for inner freedom and joy but illuminates the way to true human potential." Paul Rademacher, author: A Spiritual Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe
"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre
"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world and practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd, author: Daring To Be Yourself
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Foolish Branches
Posted by Gabriella Kortsch, Ph.D. at 4:15 PM
Labels: Gabriella Kortsch, intertwined molecules, out of the box thinking, Rewiring the Soul, spirit and soul
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Last November 17, 2010, we met up at Borders Torrance to discuss an issue which plagues writers at least once in their lives: Writer's Block.
We started our discussion by sharing our personal experiences with writer's block. We then moved on to discussing the possible causes for writer's block. I pointed out that while writer's block is common for all writers, the cause and cure for writer's block is different for every writer.
Following are some of the more common causes of writer's block:
Each cause, naturally, has a different treatment.
I shared with them some treatments for each cause. Some of the tips were based on my own personal experience. Others were taken from articles or books I've read on writer's block. Most of the tips, however, were taken from Jenna Glatzer's very helfpul book : Outwitting Writer's Block and Other Problems of the Pen.
A. Writer's Block happens when you try to do everything at once.
1. Set Weekly Objectives
2. Break down your writing into smaller pieces
3. Pad your deadline
4. Create Self imposed deadlines
5. Work with other writers - Find a deadline buddy
6. Enter quick contests to get yourself writing
Anvil Press 3 Day novel contests
24 hour short story contes
Toasted Cheese " 3 cheers and a tiger" short story contest
7. Decide to meet a deadline by an outside force
8. Submitting on schedule - Try a commited campaign of submitting brand new material to brand new markets
B. Writer's Block happens when you don't know enough to begin.
Getting Ideas
Keep a dream journal
Daydream, Percolate
* Stories are born from daydreams
Maybe you have a vague idea of what your story is about, but you don't know where your story is supposed to go.
1. Building Your Story's House
2. Characters Count
3. Meeting New Characters
4. Respect your language
Study rules of language to develop a true ear for language
C. Writer's Block happens when you have exhausted all the good or original ideas and you feel your creativity flagging.
1. Train Your Brain
You Have Boundless Creativity
Change Your Brain
Allow Yourself Time to Write
See through writer's eyes.
Make these moments happen
Just do it.
Using Free Association
All writing counts
Message Boards
2. Spice up your writing life.
Change your environment
Claiming Your Writing Space
Build a home office or consider portioning off a section of the room
Clear the Clutter
If you already have a writing base, maybe all you need is to tidy it. Clear the clutter, organize things.
Get more quotes
Read works that inspire you to write.
3. What to do when you're halfway through the story but you suddenly hit a dead end?
Quick Fixes when you're stalled
Take a break
Don't be yourself
Opposite situations
Add a prop
Look right before your eyes
Look at objects around you and ask questions about them. Make stories up about them
Let go when you've outgrown your story
There's not just one way to tell your story
Playing the opposite game: change fundamentals of your story
If your stuck on a scene, move it.
Raising the Stakes
D. Writer's Block Happens Due To Physical Stress, Lack Of Sleep, Depression, And Bad Health.
De-stress NOT distress yourself.
Dealing with the Stress of Writer's Block
Invent your own relaxation techniques
E.Writer's Block Happens Due To Psychological Disturbances Ranging From Neurosis To Something Scary
Determine Your Motivation for writing
What would you write for the sake of writing, if you knew you weren't going to get published anyway?
Your Reasons are the right reasons
Cognitive Dissonance Causes Writer's Block
Making Time
Long Term Goals
Change is Good
Carve out Writing time despite family obligations
The Money Issue
When tough times fall on you
Using time for simpler tasks
You Must Write the Hardest Thing to Write
F. Writer's Block Happens Due To Mental Blocks: Fear Of Failure, Fear Of Success, Overbearing Inner Critic.
1. Fear of Failure
Stop Being So Serious
You Owe It to the world to Outwit your block
Secondary Gains from WB
Become your own best cheerleader
Putting Your Writing Into Perspective
Negative No More
2. Fear of Success
Why Do You Fear Success?
Perfectionism in Disguise
Writer, Compare not Thyself
By reading good works, you push yourself to excel
3. Inner Critic
Rehabilitate Your Critic
How to Quiet Your Critic
Speak To Yourself Like a Friend
We ended the night by affirming ourselves as writers and sharing our writing goals for the coming year.
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