text:
Women's basketball: Taurasi's charges cleared
Diana Taurasi was always confident she would be cleared of doping allegations.
It finally happened on Wednesday.
Taurasi had her provisional suspension lifted by the Turkish Basketball Federation, which said the lab that returned a positive test retracted its report after it "evaluated" Taurasi's statements in her defense. The federation did not say whether the lab made a mistake.
"I got the news this morning at 5 a.m. and was in shock," Taurasi told The Associated Press by phone from her Phoenix home. "It was kind of like the first time when I heard the test result had come back positive. It's really good that the facts came out and the truth came out."
Taurasi, the former UConn star, had insisted that she never used performance-enhancing drugs, even though she had her contract terminated by Turkish club Fenerbahce last month. The lab that tested her sample had said the results came back positive for the stimulant modafinil.
"I was thrilled to read today's report that the precautionary ban on Diana had been lifted by the Turkish Federation," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "Throughout this entire ordeal, Dee maintained her innocence and for her to be exonerated makes me incredibly happy for her. I hope she can put this behind her and focus all her efforts on continuing to be the best player in the world."
"Life can throw you curveballs at any given time," said Taurasi, who will also be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics. "I can be mad and angry, but I will move forward. Not everyone has the same financial resources I did. Hopefully this will let people know every process has holes and to wait for the facts to come out before making decisions."
With the lifting of the suspension, Taurasi is also free to continue playing in the Turkish basketball league, although she doesn't plan on going back there anytime soon.
"That's pretty unlikely," the 28-year-old WNBA star said. "I'm here in Phoenix working out and am more focused on getting myself in the best shape of my life and going from there."
She intends to return to the WNBA when the season begins in June. The Mercury guard has led the league in scoring the last four seasons and signed a multiyear extension last August.
The last two months haven't been easy for the former UConn star. Yet she kept her faith that she would be cleared.
"I tried to handle it as best as possible," Taurasi said. "There might have been times in my own private moments when I was angry or questioned why me, but I am glad the truth came out. It's scary that our careers can be taken away from us."
Taurasi was the first prominent WNBA player to test positive for a banned substance. Had she not been cleared, Taurasi could have missed the London Games, because the International Olympic Committee bars any athlete given a doping penalty of six months or more from competing.
Fenerbahce had terminated Taurasi's contract after the Ankara-based lab within Hacettepe University confirmed that her "A" and "B" samples tested positive for modafinil following a Turkish league game Nov. 13. Taurasi had been suspended by Fenerbahce ever since.
Modafinil is used to counter excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy, shift-work sleep disorder or sleep apnea, according to drug manufacturers.
"It's always great when the right result happens," Taurasi's lawyer Howard Jacobs said. "When it happens reasonably quickly it's even better."
The federation also lifted the provisional doping suspension for American player Monique Coker, who plays for Ceyhan Belediyesi and had tested positive for modafinil in doping tests carried out by the same lab.
Taurasi helped the Americans win gold medals at the past two Olympics and was the leading scorer when the U.S. won the women's world championship this past October.
"We're delighted that Diana has been cleared and can now put this behind her and continue her remarkable basketball career," USA Basketball executive director Jim Tooley said in a statement. "She has been an exemplary member of numerous USA Basketball teams since 2000, and we look forward to her continued involvement with USA Basketball."


text:
From September till March 2016.
Pegasus Airlines offers cheap tickets to Iran. Flights from Spain (Barcelona or Madrid) to Tehran from only 198 EUR round trip.
Travel dates:
From September till March 2016. The lowest price is for flights in October.
Barcelona (BCN) – Tehran (IKA) – Barcelona (BCN),
Madrid (MAD) – Tehran (IKA) – Madrid (MAD).
How to book:
Visit Flugladen.de , Vayama.ie or follow the link below and adjust travel dates
If you're looking for cheap accommodation you should compare hotel rates on HotelsCombined.com. Don't forget to read hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.
Baggage policy:
One cabin bag and one piece of checked in baggage per passenger.
Sample reservation:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Winter Park-based Atlantic Housing Partners spent $1.6 million through an affiliate on Thursday to buy an 11.73-acre parcel in the Meadow Woods area, where a potential partner has filed an early-stage development plan (DP) for 234 apartments.
Located on Landstar Boulevard just south of the Central Florida Greeneway, the parcel doesn't have an address but is located directly north of a 7-Eleven store at 13896 Landstar Blvd.
Michael Sciarrino, principal with Atlantic Housing Partners, declined to comment Friday on plans for the project.
Alliance Realty Partners, an affiliate of Alliance Residential Co. out of Phoenix, is listed on the DP filed Thursday with county staff as the property's owner/developer.
The project is named Broadstone Landstar on that DP, which meshes with Alliance's Broadstone Living multi-family brand. The company develops, builds and manages most of its multi-family projects and has six Broadstone properties in Florida, though this would be its first in Orlando.
Atlantic Housing Partners is a member of the Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers in Florida, and has developed affordable housing communities throughout the Orlando area in recent years, most notably the Lexington Court apartments on W. Concord Street in 2014, the Orlando Sentinel reported last year.
As buyers of the parcel, it's unclear if Atlantic Housing Partners and affiliate Southern Affordable Services are working with Alliance Realty Partners to develop Broadstone in an affordable housing context.
Early plans for the project cite 234 units across three stories. There would be 117 one-bedroom units, 99 two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom, with a minimum area per unit of 700 square feet. The development plan filed with county staff has yet to be scheduled for a review hearing.
Madden, Moorhead & Glunt of Maitland is the civil engineer on the project, Slocum-Platts is the architect and Dix Hite Partners is the landscape architects/planner.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com, (407) 420-5685 or @bobmoser333. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.


text:
The idea of a slimmer 2012 iMac is a nice thought as we sit here looking at our year old model, although we'd need to see specs jump up considerably to upgrade so soon from our last update. We understand that not everyone is in that position and some of PR's readers have been holding off purchasing an iMac in 2012 for a long time, so this refresh couldn't come soon enough, or they're going Mac for the first time but heard a new model will see a release date this year.
We reported last week that the 2012 iMac should be joining the iPad mini for a launch event next week, although a picture has surfaced on a Chinese forum claiming to be an internal part for the new iMac. You can see that forum post here, which has been translated into English, and reveals insight into the possible form factor for the final 2012 iMac design. If you see the leaked image disappear, one sure sign of its authenticity, then also try this source.
We saw Apple revamp the iPhone 5 display to help create a thinner device, and it seems that they've targeted the 2012 iMac screen as well with rumors stating it could be glued to the front glass, which will deliver better display quality and help towards a thinner design. We also expect the rear to be more curved than square, which shows this upgrade could be much more than a normal refresh although that would take a Retina display to really tempt some potential buyers.
Would you like a totally new design for the 2012 Mac Mini, or would just a specs upgrade be enough? Another report published within the last 24 hours states that a new Mac Mini will arrive in 2012, and would also be a feature at the event rumored for next week. We also hear that the Mac Mini will go live on the Apple Store right after the announcement, and the specs on the current model are aging fast with an update last year and the aluminum enclosure being a design revamped 2 years ago.
As we've stated before, if this Apple event will take place next week then the invitations will have to go out this week, so we are literally hours away from finding out if this press event will really happen and an invite that could hint towards what new products will be there. You can see a leaked inventory listing here that details the iPad mini price in Euros, although some people claim these prices are too high for a downsized Apple iPad.
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.


text:
Using the fantastic limitless seashores spread throughout, Ohio is really a spot with regard to vacationers as well as site visitors, particularly throughout the several weeks once the climate is actually comfortable as well as pleasant in order to individuals going to.
It's much more of the enjoyable atmosphere than the usual understanding atmosphere since it offers plenty of actions to interact within when compared with additional areas that provide understanding possibilities as historical websites as well as ancient monuments.
It may be difficult in order to safe inexpensive plane tickets in order to Ohio, particularly throughout the instances when everyone is actually going presently there to savor the actual sun-drenched seashores, getting period removed from their own regular day to day activities. It's the ideal spot to relax as well as unwind, and that's why this draws in vacationers through just about all areas of the planet. Inexpensive plane tickets tend to be the majority of likely throughout the off-peak several weeks. This may imply taking pleasure in the somewhat various environment and various actions, even though it doesn't take away in the enjoyable you'll encounter when you are right here.
An easy research may be used to discover the ideal offer for the journey, actually throughout the several weeks by which it appears not possible to visit inexpensively in order to Ohio. The very first thing it is best to think about is actually reserving your own trip earlier because it's quite common for many air carriers to provide incredible offers whenever beginning to take bookings on the trip as well as these types of offers may just end up being for that very first couple of that guide. The actual costs may also alter following the very first couple of days, particularly if presently there demonstrates to become a lot of individuals seeking to go to the actual location in those days. You can appreciate great prices only when a person guide earlier.
Utilizing chartered plane tickets is actually an additional method of dealing with Ohio and never have to overstretch your financial allowance. There are many low-cost air carriers soaring in to Ohio that offer excellent prices for any solution. Many people, nevertheless, don't discover the plane tickets really appealing because presently there perhaps providers they absence or even it may be essential to buy anything you require throughout the trip. Nevertheless, this really is nevertheless a great deal for all those attempting to cut costs throughout the trip.
Because you will find various paths in order to Ohio with respect to the location that you're beginning your own journey, you are able to usually select a path which has much better plane tickets prices. This is often based on the character from the trip. For example, immediate plane tickets tend to be more costly when compared with plane tickets which have stopovers because they consider additional time to get at the actual location. In the event that period is actually no problem for you personally, you will discover this type of trip really handy as well as pleasant for your pocket book.
Concerning the Writer
Encouraged in order to flylink web site, devoted to proclaiming to offer you the actual inexpensive inexpensive seats for your best locations as well as low cost holidays from period associated with reserving. Guide the atmosphere indian plane tickets, korean atmosphere plane tickets journey using the greatest prices on the internet with regard to flight tickets, last second offers, vehicles, resorts as well as travel cover.
Make use of as well as submission of the post is actually susceptible to the Writer Recommendations
where the initial author's info as well as copyright laws should be incorporated.


text:
We promote high standards of quality of products and service; we develop differentiation from competition in the marketplace.
Zoresco Equipment Company is a family-owned business serving the commercial truck industry for 40 years.
Zoresco Equipment Company has been a leader in the commercial vehicle industry since 1981 and is the leader of truck equipment solutions. Partnered with major auto manufacturers, Zoresco Equipment Company is a one-stop shop for dealers, fleets, businesses and retail customers. Specializing in truck bodies such as service, platform and dump bodies, Zoresco can build trucks for every need. Zoresco Equipment Company also offers a wide variety of snowplows and salt spreaders, lighting, toolboxes, commercial van interiors, open and enclosed tag-a-long trailers and recreational truck accessories.
Zoresco Equipment Company also leads the market in custom storage container solutions.
Zoresco Equipment Company is an MVP-certified member of the National Truck Equipment Association
We promote high standards of quality of products and service; we develop differentiation from competition in the marketplace.
We impart true value on our customer and help them obtain their own profit goals. We ensure key strategic alliances with major suppliers that promote innovation and ensure profitable relationships. We maintain margins and efficiencies to sustain our company's business plan and we reward employee quality performance. We assure career-minded employees that Zoresco will remain a privately held company.
We support an environment that promotes fun for our employees, customers and suppliers; passion, pride and performance. We build a team of employees who enjoy challenges, responsibility and passionately support the mission statement.
Our Pittsburgh location, in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, also serves as our corporate headquarters. This facility encompasses a full production shop as well as full parts and service department and showroom
Located in Evans City, this location provides supports customers north of Pittsburgh and beyond, providing installation of bodies and equipment, as well as over the counter sales.
Headquartered in Altoona, Zoresco Storage Solutions specializes in specialized container creation and rental, as well as storage trailer rental and purchases.
Our Cleveland location, located in Oakwood Village, Ohio, is a full production facility. Additionally, it offers specialized fleet quoting as well as a full parts and service department.
Our Cincinnati location is in Monroe, Ohio. A full production facility as well as a parts and service department and our national fleets service center.
Passion is at the heart of our company. Continuously moving forward, innovating and improving. Approach each day with a positive attitude, willingness to grow, learn and challenge yourself.
We are honest, open, ethical, genuine and fair.
We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive, disrespectful treatment.
We learn from each other in innovation, service and knowledge. We work together to accomplish goals that reward all our committed teammates. We treat each other like close family and friends.
We grow our business in a way that makes us proud.


text:
Book is now available via Amazon.com
The Japanese Workplace and Emile Durkheim
The workplace is the most ubiquitous and important of the group structures in Japan which create social order and I think it is worth taking a look at the Japanese workplace through a Durkheimian lens.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) established sociology as a social science and an academic discipline. His works dealt with the problems of crime, suicide, the education system, the law, and religion. His ground-breaking social study of suicide in particular, utilising statistical data for the first time, is still taught to first-year sociology students in universities around the world.
His overarching concern was social order and social solidarity. Durkheim worried that modernising forces were the cause of social disintegration. As people moved into cities and lived away from extended family, he perceived that individuals were becoming isolated and too disconnected from social norms and values. People no longer had sufficient feelings of belonging to something bigger than themselves, and this he saw as causing all manner of disorder and socio-psychological problems.
Durkheim believed that it was myth, ritual and emotion, rather than rational thought, that were the most important aspects of how people understood themselves. But he did not condemn modern society or rational thought. Rather, he wanted to apply social science to the improvement of social conditions. Indeed, he had some very specific proposals on how individuals could recover a sense of belonging, thereby re-establishing social order on new foundations that could work for an industrialised society.
The answer lay, Durkheim said, with new 'intermediary groups' between the state and the individual. So, in my vocabulary, he wanted a new groupiness.
I'm fairly sure that no Japanese politician or bureaucrat has ever consulted Durkheim's writings as a guide to policy on anything. But might it be that Emile Durkheim is the unrecognised original architect of the socially orderly modernity that Japan has achieved?
Nobody seems to have noticed that in the part of his writing that is always skimmed over quickly by university lecturers, Durkheim in 1897 and again in 1902 proposed a way to create a socially functional industrialised society which corresponds in an uncanny way to what Japan actually created.
In Suicide published in 1897, Durkheim demonstrated that the increase in suicides in modern European societies was produced by the new social conditions attributable to modernisation. At the end of the book he faced the problem squarely. The enormous increase in suicides was, he wrote, "a pathological phenomenon becoming daily a greater menace. By what means shall we try to overcome it?"
He goes on to discount nationalism, religion, better education, and stronger families as solutions to the problem. Rather, Durkheim argued that a person's working life was the best foundation upon which to build a meaningful moral environment and sense of belonging in the modern world. He thought that working life took up most of people's time and was the main element in people's sense of identity.
"[T]he occupational group," he wrote, "has the three-fold advantage over all others that it is omnipresent, ubiquitous and that its control extends to the greatest part of life." Only the occupational group possessed "everything needed to give the individual a setting, to draw him out of his state of moral isolation."
A few years later in 1902, he added a preface to the second edition of his great work, published in English as The Division of Labor in Society, in which he elaborated on this idea.
Recalling the medieval guilds and their masters and apprentices, Durkheim argued for formal occupational associations – bodies such as the Law Society for lawyers or the Society of Medical Practitioners for doctors – to be given a role in providing for their members and structuring their lives.
Membership would be compulsory and the organisations would, as they do now, regulate pay and working conditions and handle disputes with employers. But Durkheim thought they could and should do much more.
Replacing to some extent, the pre-modern extended family, such groups would provide "warmth", and "feelings of solidarity between assistants and assisted, a certain intellectual and moral homogeneity such as the same occupation produces".
Durkheim cited trade unions as already beginning to provide cultural enrichment for their members. He argued that for a modern society to work better, society needed this kind of group between the state and the individual which would provide the personal, face-to-face solidarity people needed and thereby integrate them into society.
He was calling for occupational groups to be the main group which would generate solidarity, improve people's lives and create social order.
Durkheim wanted these groups to also play a formal role in political life. He would have abolished the geographical districts which form the basis of democratically elected parliaments. In their place he would have substituted the occupational groups which he thought much more meaningful in representing real communities of interests.
To anyone reading Durkheim's words now, his idea seems a little odd. The underlying assumption that occupation is a stable and all-encompassing source of individual personal identity in industrialised societies has simply not turned out to be true.
Occupational affiliation is often transient, and even if long-lasting has shown itself to have a fairly weak hold on a person's sense of belonging when compared with structures like families, ethnic groups, religious communities, nations, and even sexual identities.
In Japan however, I would argue, workplace, has been much more a source of identity.
I say workplace, not occupational group. In Japan, with key exceptions such as medicine, it is much less important what professional training one receives than in the west. What is important is the company one joins. The company will recruit and train staff according to company-specific requirements and will not be especially concerned with what type of degree their recruits obtained at university.
I sometimes meet Japanese young people who at university have studied exotic fields such as Arab and Islamic studies or Hungarian literature and who now work in firms in entirely unrelated areas such as software engineering.
Japan's post-war commitment to lifetime employment and the resulting difficulty in switching jobs (in economist speak: inflexible labour market) actually created the foundation for workplace to be a meaningful moral environment and provide that sense of belonging that Durkheim was talking about.
Workplaces really were, and for about two-thirds of the workforce, still are, like hierarchical families in the style of the relationships that prevail internally (consensual, kohai-sempai or junior-senior relationships) and in the way they relate to the outside world.
In addition, the extremely long working hours really do make the workplace the controller of an employee's life. So, workplace in Japan is an approximate equivalent of what Durkheim wanted to achieve with occupational groups. It gives meaning and generates tight bonds, it is omnipresent, ubiquitous, and it controls the greater part of life. Workplace in Japan simply takes up more of a person's time and energy and generates more 'identity' than elsewhere.
On the other hand, Japan does not fare particularly well in international comparisons of labour productivity which suggests there is quite a bit of sleeping at desks going on. But the reason for this is, again, rather Durkheimian: much time "at work" is dedicated to extracurricular activities. Employers themselves organise evening drinking sessions and company picnics. They do not think this is time wasted. Socialising with co-workers is seen as a positive contribution to group cohesiveness and the worker's sense of identification with the company.
It must be remembered too that staff often live together in company dorms, so they socialise a good deal with each other outside working hours, especially if their families live far away.
If Durkheim painted an accurate picture of what the Japanese workplace does as a provider of a socially integrative moral environment, he failed magnificently in his prediction that such integration would make people contented and reduce the suicide rate.
In Japan, social order is certainly higher as he predicted, but it hasn't prevented the suicide rate from being in the same range as other industrialised countries. In more recent decades it has increased to be the eighth highest suicide rate in the world and second highest in the industrialised world, currently exceeding 30,000 suicides per year.
I'm not sure what this proves, except that suicide is a complex phenomenon with many variables at the psychological level which Durkheim was not able to consider from his society-scale perspective. Perhaps what it proves is that the new industrial society groupiness isn't as effective at making individuals happy as Durkheim thought it would be.
A further observation would be that a certain social prestige does still attach to suicide in Japan. This is an attitude which goes hand in hand with the other pre-modern elements of Japan's social structure which don't exist elsewhere. This element seems to give the suicide rate a boost.
In Suicide Durkheim demonstrated that suicides could be divided into several different categories. Just one category of suicide rate which he called 'altruistic' suicide, was actually going down at the time he was writing. This was the kind of suicide which occurred when an individual felt so bound up with a group that they did not have any sense of the worth of their own individual life. This is the type of suicide that has social prestige in Japan.
Examples include military officers who commit suicide because they feel it is their duty in circumstances, say, of a reprimand or a question of honour. Durkheim says in this throw-away line: "The readiness of the Japanese to disembowel themselves for the slightest reason is well known."
Japan seems to be a society where suicides which are 'standard' for advanced industrial societies combine with 'altruistic' suicide to produce a higher suicide rate overall.
I say this because I don't see most suicides in contemporary Japan as of the old-fashioned altruistic kind that Durkheim defined – not the 'samurai who disembowels himself because it is the honourable thing to do after the death of his master' type of suicide.
Rather, they are of the other types Durkheim associated with the problems of modernity – depression caused by disorienting effects of modern life, economic hardship, bankruptcies, failed relationships – but in Japan it is overlaid with the attitude that the only honourable solution is to commit suicide. Suicide is an act associated with taking responsibility for life's setbacks. A rather different attitude than the one we find in the west.
Durkheim's views on the role of occupational groups are usually considered a bit embarrassing by sociologists who trace their intellectual tradition back to Durkheim. It is seen as a bit weird and just one of many flaky modernist-utopian ideas that simply missed the mark.
But despite the predictive failure on suicide, it should be seen as a great piece of social thought – even if it is Japan, a country that he never visited, that proved him sort of right.


text:
Scientists are moving closer to understanding the complexity of coral reefs and their response to different environmental impacts with two new studies that might also help initiatives to protect them.
Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and support the livelihoods of more than 500 million people, but three quarters of them are threatened by human activities.
In the first study, a group from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the US has unravelled the effects of ocean acidification on coral skeletons, as reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"This is the first unambiguous detection and attribution of ocean acidification's impact on coral growth," says lead author Weifu Guo.
"Our study presents strong evidence that 20th century ocean acidification, exacerbated by reef biogeochemical processes, had measurable effects on the growth of a keystone reef building species."
While it's long been suspected that acidification, caused by the ocean's increased absorption of carbon dioxide, weakens corals' skeletal growth, it's been difficult to disentangle this from other impacts of warming temperatures and stressors.
The world's oceans absorb around a third of global carbon dioxide emissions, which has dropped their pH levels by an average 0.1 unit since the preindustrial era and led to a 20% decrease in the concentration of carbonate ions.
Corals rely on carbon carbonate to create their skeletons, so lower levels eat away at their strength, much like osteoporosis weakens human bones.
"The corals aren't able to tell us what they're feeling, but we can see it in their skeletons," says co-author Anne Cohen. "The problem is that corals really need the strength they get from their density, because that's what keeps reefs from breaking apart."
Diving into archived skeletal data from 1871, 1901 and 1978 for Porites coral – a long-living, dome-shaped species across the Indo-Pacific – the team applied a numerical model to separate the effects of acidification and rising temperatures on their growth and density.
They found that acidification alone has reduced the corals' skeletal density by 13% on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and 7% in the South China Sea since around 1950.
But it had no impact on marine protected reefs in the Phoenix Islands and central Pacific that are not as exposed to pollution, overfishing and effluent from land, suggesting these factors intensify the impacts of acidification.
"This method really opens a new way to determine the impact of ocean acidification on reefs around the world," says Guo. "Then we can focus on the reef systems where we can potentially mitigate the local impacts and protect the reef."
To explore what causes some reefs to be more resilient than others, the second group of scientists created a video game-like simulation model that factors in coral reef diversity, which they've published in the journal eLife.
"Species diversity is very important for the health of ecosystems in general," says first author Bruno Carturan from Canada's University of British Columbia, "and it is now well understood that higher diversity is usually better."
This creates greater complexity which makes it extremely challenging to predict how they will react to stressors, he adds, and it's virtually impossible to conduct experiments with coral reefs that embrace the full scope of their diversity.
To get around this, the team built a "monster" of a model, says co-author Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University, Australia. "But when you're trying to model a complex universe, sometimes you need this degree of complexity to return something ecologically realistic."
The model draws on the wealth of data scientists have collected on the ecology of coral species, simulating the behaviour of individual colonies in all their complexity. It included information on how different coral species grow, reproduce, compete, die or survive waves, cyclones, thermal stresses and how they influence other processes like herbivory.
Then they used functional traits such as growth rates and fertility to link these factors to colonies of different species.
"For instance, species that have complex branching growth forms are better competitors because they can overtop other species," says Carturan, "but they are much more fragile and can easily break because of a wave or cyclone."
They also accounted for colony size, which influences their fertility, resilience to waves or cyclones and ability to compete.
This information was translated into programming language to represent virtually all species and associated processes as realistically as possible, which contrasts with the abstract simplicity of most simulation models, according to Carturan.
What are the key findings?
"Our model works!" he says. After extensive testing that varied species diversity and environmental conditions, they found it realistically simulates coral reef ecosystems and the dynamics of real communities, opening "a new horizon of possibilities".
The intricacy of the model is particularly suited to testing which aspects of diversity are most important for healthy functioning of coral reef ecosystems, Carturan explains, which would help to manage them and inform active restoration processes.
This includes exploring how problems like bleaching, storm damage and invasive species like crown-of-thorns starfish might change reef ecology and impact species richness and community complexity, says Bradshaw.
Ultimately, they hope that with further development and input by other ecologists, it can predict the future of coral reefs in different climatic and management scenarios.
Originally published by Cosmos as More insights into the complexity of coral
Natalie Parletta
Natalie Parletta is a freelance science writer based in Adelaide and an adjunct senior research fellow with the University of South Australia.
Read science facts, not fiction...
There's never been a more important time to explain the facts, cherish evidence-based knowledge and to showcase the latest scientific, technological and engineering breakthroughs. Cosmos is published by The Royal Institution of Australia, a charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. Financial contributions, however big or small, help us provide access to trusted science information at a time when the world needs it most. Please support us by making a donation or purchasing a subscription today.


text:
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, your order may be delayed.
Have questions? Contact our Sympathy Gift Advisers anytime at 1-888-932-7658
You'll pay nothing if unauthorized charges are made to your credit card as a result of shopping at The Sympathy Store.
All information is encrypted and transmitted without risk using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.
Earliest Delivery if Ordered Now : Today
Shop with ease by delivering your gift to our funeral home.
Learn More
Shop with ease by having your gift delivered to our funeral home. When you select this option, our system will automatically input our delivery address for you.
Add a custom Ribbon for your flowers, such as "Beloved Dad", "Dear Friend".
This touching tribute beautifully and tastefully expresses your sympathy and support.
• Long stem yellow roses, white Monte Casino, and more are arranged in a fireside basket by our expert floral designers
• Traditionally sent by family, friends or business associates
• Delivered directly to the funeral home
• Measures approximately 26"H x 36"L
Flowers will be received by a John E. Stephens Chapel's staff.
Your post is being reviewed by our team and will be available as soon as it is approved.
All Customer Reviews
from Little River - SC
The fireside basket I ordered was absolutely beautiful. The pictures online didn't do the actual arrangements justice! There were so many flowers at the ceremony and all of them were fresh and beautiful! I was so glad that I ordered these.
from Gloversville - NY
the floral basket was as advertised, beautiful.
from danville - CA
This flower basket was beautiful and it arrived in a timely manner. I am very satisfied and will recommend to friends and family.
*Required Information
When finished click the "Save" button.
That's ok, we know how hard is to express your feelings at this moment.
We will help you. Simply click on a suggested message below.
Prefer to order by Phone? Our Sympathy Advisors are happy to help!
Call 24 hours a day – 365 days a year. 888-932-7658 or Email our Customer Loyalty Team
© 2022 The Sympathy Store. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Job creation in the digital economy needs a jumpstart
Silicon Valley and Washington have not always seen eye to eye.
When we founded TechNet 20 years ago, in 1997, many in our industry wanted to keep politics as far away as possible. The thought was then that if government couldn't keep up with the pace of technology, working together would only slow us down.
{mosads}Our approach was decidedly different. Despite initial resistance, our bipartisan network of technology business leaders has worked together with elected officials in Washington and state capitals to enhance the economic opportunities that technology brings.
From the R&D tax credit, to the U.S. National Broadband Plan, to policies alleviating burdens for entrepreneurs and startups, we have built a firm foundation of support for innovation. And our country has benefited tremendously: The tech industry now employs nearly 7 million Americans and contributes $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy.
The world is a changed place from 20 years ago.
In 1997, Google did not exist; Facebook would not launch for another seven years; the iPhone was ten years off; and advancements in precision agriculture, remote health care; and next-generation manufacturing were scarcely even imagined. Today we are on the cusp of a new wave of innovation that will digitize companies and countries alike and has the potential to create unprecedented opportunities for Americans.
However, we're also facing new challenges. Economic inequality continues to grow, and we must find new ways to ensure that more Americans can participate in and benefit from this economy.
The question from 20 years ago applies to this new economy — what does the United States need to do to create jobs and share the benefits of technology across our country?
First, we need to stop teaching like it's 1950. While some progress has been made, American students are still being taught the same subjects in the same way they were decades ago, and only 20 percent of graduating high school seniors are ready for the rigor of first-year college courses in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
We need to invest heavily in STEM education, beginning with teaching computer science in every school in the nation. But our commitment must go beyond this. It should also include technical training programs for those in high school and community college. And we have to make retraining programs available for mid-career workers. This will open new doors of opportunities for jobs in manufacturing, advanced energy, and other industrial sectors, so it's critical that we get this right.
Simultaneously, we must prioritize a national plan to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and the creation of startups. We are the only major developed economy without one. According to the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index, the U.S. is now the world's ninth most innovative country, falling three spots since 2015. While the U.S. might have initially led the Internet Age, there is no guarantee that we'll lead the digital era in the future.
The good news is that we're seeing the startup culture move from traditional technology hubs to cities across the nation — in places like Provo and Portland, Nashville and New Orleans. To stay ahead, we need to reduce the burden on young companies, increase access to talent and capital, support continued federal investments in research and development, and encourage startup incubators around our nation's universities. If done thoughtfully, this could add one million good jobs to our economy every year.
The White House and Congress should also work together to reform the tax code. Today our corporate tax rates are the highest in the developed world, putting our nation at a significant competitive disadvantage to other countries. As a result, there is $3 trillion in earnings overseas that should be invested here at home and help put more Americans to work.
Just as important, it's critical that the U.S. remains a hub for the best and brightest tech minds globally. Immigrants or the children of immigrants have founded more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies, employing more than 10 million people. Our nation must ensure that entrepreneurs are welcome to create jobs here in America.
Technology is vital in nearly every facet of our lives and propels every sector of our economy. The time is now for tech and public policy leaders to build on the important work of the past 20 years so we can envision and create jobs for the next 20 and beyond.
John Chambers is the executive chairman of Cisco. John Doerr is the chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. They are co-founders of TechNet, a bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, which marks its 20th anniversary this year.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.


text:
How to Write a Non-Compete Agreement for Clients
Non-Compete Agreements
Non-compete agreements are contracts between a company and its employees which ensure that those employees will not compete directly against the company within a set period of time. These contracts are often put in place to prevent competing companies from stealing employees, since the employee would be bound by the non-compete agreement to not take a job within the same field until the time period set by the contract had expired. One of the most famous examples of a non-compete agreement put in place in recent years was seen when Conan O'Brien left the Tonight Show; his contract with NBC wouldn't allow him to take a job with another network for several months.
If you work in the drafting of contracts, one of the contracts that you may be asked to create from time to time is likely to be a non-compete agreement. Clients want to ensure that their needs are covered in the agreement, but may turn to a professional with more experience in contract drafting than they may have themselves. Fortunately, writing a non-compete agreement for clients isn't difficult.
Image Credit (Free Digital Photos)
What to Include in Non-Compete Agreements
Though the exact wording of the non-compete agreement you create for a client may vary, there are a few specific things that need to be included in the contract. The two most important of these are the restrictions that are placed on the employee and the length of time that these restrictions will stay in place. The restrictions may include either specific companies that the employee may not work for during the restricted period or types of work that they can't perform. The length of time the restrictions stay in place is often measured in months from the time that their employment is terminated. Other items that should be included within a non-compete agreement for clients, include an option for the employer to terminate the agreement early and penalties to be incurred if the employee breaks the agreement before the end of the restricted period.
State Considerations
When drafting a non-compete agreement for clients it is important to keep in mind the state in which the client's company is incorporated. The company will be bound by the laws of that state, and certain states such as Arizona place limitations on the employment type and time period restrictions that can be included in a non-compete agreement. These laws may require that any restrictions contained within a non-compete agreement be reasonable, and only as strict as necessary to protect trade secrets. If a non-compete contract causes harm to the employee or the public at large due to overly-severe restrictions on that person's employment, then it is likely that any lawsuits brought forth to enforce the agreement will be dismissed when the suit reaches court.


text:
The only constant in the ongoing Greek crisis has been a recurrence of delays. As the negotiations rumble on and on, the scale of Greece's problems are mounting by the day.
Greece is running out of cash fast. The latest twist involves local authorities who have been ordered to transfer funds to the central government so that pensions and wages can be paid. This cannot go on and finally there is a realisation in Brussels that after all the talking, Greece must now decide what it wants to do.
On Friday, Greece is due to repay €300m to the IMF. This is one of four instalments due to the IMF during the month of June, totalling €1.5bn.
While this Friday's payment may be paid, there is little confidence that the totality of the payments can be made by June 19. Any one of the four instalments not being repaid could trigger a credit event for the country.
On June 18, eurozone ministers will meet in Luxembourg. That is really the final date for a decision on Greece as that meeting comes just one week before an EU leaders' summit in Brussels.
And the current bailout programme will expire at the end of June. Without a decision from the Euro Group, the body charged with negotiating a deal, it's very unlikely that a new programme can be put together.
The simple truth is that Europe cannot lend more money to Greece unless a new programme with real commitments is in place. Without that programme, Greece will go under and quite frankly nobody knows the consequences of that for Europe or the international financial system.
This time it is the end game, one way or another.
If you were looking for signs of compromise from Greece, those hopes would have been dashed by reading the Greek prime minister's open letter in 'Le Monde' this week. There was no sign of conciliation in what Alexis Tsipras (inset) had to say to Europe. If anything, the rhetoric has hardened.
I'm reliably informed that the sticking points on any potential deal are around issues on pensions, labour law and VAT. Without movement on these key issues, there is no hope of a deal.
What is now clear is that the promises made by Syriza in the most recent election were nothing more than populist nonsense.
Similar to other populist parties in Ireland and elsewhere, Syriza pretended to the public that simply changing a government would magic away Greece's problems. Four months after that election, the problems for Greece are mounting on all sides.
Some flexibility is needed from Europe. It is not in Europe's interest for this stalemate to continue. But equally the Greek government must recognise that the European taxpayer will not write blank cheques. We are talking here about public money. If Greece needs to refinance, it can only happen with public money, as private funding has since long gone.
I recently listened to former Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras in the European Parliament and he asked MEPs not to support his opposition, not to support the current government but instead to support Greece and its people.
As Mr Samaras said, it's time that the Greek people, rather than ideology, became central to this debate. But that time is running out fast. The blunt realisation for Greece is that the government will not be able to pay pensioners and civil servants within a matter of weeks if Greece does not unlock the final €7.2bn tranche of the bailout fund.
The scale of the problem was exacerbated recently when the European Commission slashed Greek growth prospects for this year by 2 percentage points in the space of only three months, from 2.5pc in February to 0.5pc in May. Unemployment remains above 25pc.
Despite the Greek crisis, the eurozone continues to grow. Recent weeks have seen a positive surge in European economic data and consumer sentiment across the EU. This seems to indicate that the fear of a Greece default is no longer holding back growth.
And that's where the new Greek government is reading this all wrong. While nobody wants a Greek default, the truth of the matter is that if there is no agreement, ie a new programme, there will be default. That's the plan B, pure and simple.
ECB president Mario Draghi recently warned that the global economy could be pushed into "unchartered territory" if there is no solution found with Greece.
Many economists have said that a 'Grexit' will be difficult but manageable for the rest of the eurozone. But complacency should not come into this debate. The effects of the financial crisis should resonate with all EU leaders that "preparing for the worst" in crisis situations is always the sensible option. A 'Grexit' is a real possibility and it's time we planned for the worst.
It should be in everyone's interest that Greece stays in the eurozone. We want to see them get through this crisis and there is clear support from European partners. But there will not be a deal at any cost to the European taxpayers. The creditor countries have limited room to make concessions. We should not forget that any new programme will have to go before national parliaments.
The polls show that an overwhelming number of Greeks want to avoid Greece leaving the eurozone.
Mr Tsipras and his government should start to realise that referring back to Syriza's electoral promises is no longer an option in these negotiations.


text:
The D10 is a community of inspired business leaders united by a mission to cure pediatric cancer.
D10 athletes have raised $14.1M to benefit a dream team of pediatric cancer researchers in their quest for a cure. Support The D10 with a donation today!Donate
"As a result of each athlete's commitment, I am inspired each year to work harder to change the paradigm of pediatric cancer research toward a cure for more children. This year we hope to use future donations to support much needed research and clinical trials for our pediatric personalized medicine initiative. What distinguishes a champion in The D10 is not simply a competitive spirit but the personal drive and compassionate commitment to cure pediatric cancer."—Tanya Trippett M.D.
Co-Founder POETIC | Director Pediatric Developmental Therapeutics MSKCC
Who will come out victorious in these high profile matchups? Give by predicting the winner!? vs ? Select A City
Want to write a check or donate securities? Find Out More
The D10 offers donors an entertaining way to support participants through performance-based pledges. The concept is simple and fun; the better an athlete performs athletically, the more money donated. This gives athletes more motivation to train hard to achieve their goals. Plus, we believe this strengthens the connection between the donor, the athlete and the cause. In the end, everyone wins.
Search for an athlete/team and place a performance-based donation today.
Slide LEFT or RIGHT to see how your donation can change based on performance.
Your Minimum Donation
Your Target Donation (100% of Goal) $100.00
Your Maximum Donation


text:
About artist / group:
Cynthia Zaven is a pianist and composer based in Beirut. Since 1993, her works have included collaborations with filmmakers and stage directors, ranging from live performances to compositions and sound designs for theater and dance. Her installations have been exhibited in Europe and Asia. She has written soundtracks for documentaries, experimental films, and features, which have been shown at venues and festivals worldwide, including IDFA, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.


text:
The Afghan military in the north claims that around 70 militants were killed or wounded during the 4-day operations in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the Afghan forces belonging to the 10th Kandak of the Special Forces conducted 4-day operations in Dasht Archi district, leaving at least 55 militants dead.
The statement further added at least 15 militants also sustained injuries during the same operations.
Four large explosives caches and at least 60 fighting positions of the militants were also destroyed during the operations, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.
The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Kunduz is among the relatively volatile provinces in North of Afghanistan but the security situation of has deteriorated more during the recent years.
The Taliban militants are active in some districts of Kunduz and often conduct terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.


text:
If you are starting a new venture, you will inevitably find that you will have to pitch that project to someone who can help you realize it. This could be a potential funder, a partner, or a mentor. The interesting thing about this is that pitching in the wrong way can damage that relationship for a long time or end the relationship before it's begun. Below are some of my pet peeves.
Interrupting to pitch- No matter how anxious you are, the last thing you want to do is stop someone in the middle of their thought to tell them about why they should work on your project. If you are at a dinner or at an event and you'd really like to pitch the person there, please let them finish their thought before you break into why they should work with you. Interrupting is rude to begin with and second, it makes it so that the other party is only half-listening. If anything, wait until they are at a stopping point. Ask them about an interest pertaining to what they just discussed and ask if they are open to hearing about your project. You'd be amazed at how effective asking for permission can be.
Telling the person what to think- Of course your project and your team are going to be considered the best by you, but I'm not sure what that is supposed to do in terms of getting the other person to be on board. If you want buy in, it's important to establish whether there is even a need. Ask questions about what the other person is looking for or interested in. If it seems like what you have to offer may be a good fit, don't tell them it's a good fit yourself. Ask them if they would be interested in hearing more. Let the other person make the decision since it will be their time, connections, or money on the line. You need something from them, so find out what they need first.
Abusing social situations- I once hosted a reading where someone who was attending, pitched the host of the reading on investing in another project. The person hosting barely even looked at the packet that was being given to him. You will find times when you get a to attend a dinner, cocktail party, or an excursion with someone who can be helpful to you. Use that time to get to know them as a person and set a later time to talk about your project. There are many who love to try and sneak that ask in during a social situation, but personally, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
So there you have it. When you pitch don't interrupt, be clear as to the need, and time it wisely. You'll be much more likely to find that people will want to play ball if you pitch well.
P.S.- I have decided to host some group consulting sessions. You can read more HERE. Limited seats. Thanks!


text:
Thanks to YouTube tutorials it's become a lot easier to do things around the house on your own. There are tutorials for pretty much everything and everyone out there, from laying your own tile to building an amazing Minecraft realm. However, there are some things you should leave to the experts, like air conditioner service.
Your annual maintenance tune-up from the certified technicians at Andrew DiPietro's Climate Zone will keep your system running better, longer. There are some things you shouldn't have to worry about and your air conditioner maintenance is one of them. A few things that the pros will be checking when you get your air conditioner tuned-up are:
- Check for the proper refrigerant charge. Your system requires the proper amount of refrigerant to run efficiently. If your system is losing refrigerant, that indicates a leak – which we are able to repair. An air conditioner low on refrigerant runs harder and longer. Getting any issue addressed and having your unit properly charged will save you money on your utility bill and wear and tear on your system.
- Clean evaporator coils. The evaporator coils provide both cooling and dehumidification. When a system's evaporator coils are dirty, your air conditioner's performance is significantly diminished. Since these coils are usually wet, contaminants that are moving through your system such as dust and pollen tend to stick to them. Dirty coils use more energy and the ability to cool your home is reduced.
- Inspect electrical connections. As with any appliance, there is the possibility of wires, connectors and screws coming loose. During your tune-up we will check for any problems that could damage your system's electrical components.
- Check your filter. Checking and changing your filter is something you can and should be doing. A dirty air filter affects your home's air quality and the efficiency of your system. Depending on your home, your filter should be changed every month or two.
These are just a few of the things our professionals will be looking at during your annual maintenance check. It's a chance for our technicians to catch and repair any small issues before they become big problems. Your air conditioner is a big investment and we want to keep that investment running reliably and efficiently. If you haven't yet, schedule your annual maintenance by calling us at (978) 872-1190 or schedule an appointment with us using our online scheduler.


text:
Yes, you need to allow any type of bamboo floor time to acclimatise to its new surroundings before you install it. It means that the bamboo can adapt to the new conditions of the room or area that it is going to be installed into. This will greatly reduce the risk of damage occurring once it has been fitted.
orders over £500*


text:
As we drive away from Palisades Reservoir we take Hwy 31 to Victor where I pick up my forwarded mail then we head north to the town of Driggs and begin looking for a spot to stay.
The Grand Tetons are even more amazing from the Idaho side.
We end up in a boondock in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Our camp in this national forest ends up being a one-night stand as there are many mud puddles from recent rain and although they are drying up many remain with standing water. Those remaining must be teeming with mosquitoes because we practically get eaten alive. The air is so thick with the buzzing blood suckers that I can vacuum them up with my little portable vacuum cleaner. The poor Chiweenie Brothers spend a too warm night under a light blanket, but still suffered many bites.
On the way out of our camp I spot these butterflies enjoy some refreshment at one of the dryer areas
From Driggs, ID we take Hwy 33 toward Rexburg where we will hit a Walmart to get supplies and gas up the green beast. It is a beautiful drive through potato farming country in the Swan Valley, the seed potato capital of the world.
No overnight at the Wally in Rexburg, so we head on toward Ashton where I plan to do laundry. The laundromat is easy to find, but it's been a long day, and I just don't have the energy to tackle that chore.
I take Hwy 47, finding a dispersed camp site again within the Caribou Targhee National Forest–also loaded with mosquitoes–and we spend a too-warm, restless night with the windows rolled up. Tomorrow we visit Mesa Falls.
Thanks for stopping by! Hugs, Shawna


text:
Once a lofty concept, the term social justice has been hijacked and exploited by the political Left to radically transform America and bully Americans into forfeiting many basic rights in deference to the Left's agenda. Intoning social justice has proven to be a sure-proof formula for silencing average Americans, thereby providing the Left with endless societal victories. After all, who wants to be accused of standing in the way of social justice?
Liberal social justice purveyors view themselves as the country's moral authority, best fit to decide the allowable extent of our freedom of speech and religion, and believe only they care about social justice and equity.
To date, most liberal assumptions and definitions of social justice have been automatically accepted. For example, the term has been used successfully by the Left for the last half century to validate and implement the welfare state. But what is being advocated is not social justice but socialism, and in other cases a push for radical cultural Marxism.
Most of what passes today for social justice is actually the Marxist/Marcuse/Gramsci leftist playbook wrapped in appealing religious phraseology and platitudes, a framework for never-ceasing revolution and rebellion. It sees its mission fulfilled through constant class warfare, be it economic, racial, gender, or sexual warfare. It confers upon itself a mantle of moral high ground but, in fact, is not a moral category at all, rather a political category. Furthermore, it dangerously overturns classic morality by redefining morality downward and leftward.
The truth is that forging a society governed by a need for justice is not the province of the political Left, but something conservatives can find embedded within seminal documents authored by our Founding Fathers long before the Left began re-defining and laying claim to "justice." In their quest to "form a more perfect Union and establish Justice" as outlined in the preamble to the Constitution, the Founders, after probing the writings of great English philosophers, realized that equal justice under the law is the quintessential, most profound, and universal application of justice for a nation wishing to "promote the general Welfare."
Justice on a societal/national level is to be achieved, the Founders believed, by crafting a contract between the people and its government, ensuring that the law (justice) be applied equally to all. It is not something random and arbitrary brought about, as in today's culture, through constant class warfare references, mob riots, or the purposeful sowing of discontent. It should not be used as a rallying call or slogan for toppling others so as to coalesce power to those seeking control over society. The Left's call for social justice every hour-on-the-hour demonstrates that social justice is, for them, not an end but a tactical means through which to implement the dystopia they want, now.
The Founders made our task easier by detailing for us what constitutes justice, underscoring the need for habeas corpus, trial by jury of one's peers, prohibiting unlawful searches and seizures and, in the most sweeping gesture of all, crafting a magnificent and special Bill of Rights enshrining the essence of justice: free speech, freedom of religion and assembly, the right to self-defense and protection, and so on. Americans don't need the Left to sermonize and scold about social justice when the Founders, through the Constitution and Declaration, have already bequeathed the real thing to us. It has already been defined; no need for Gramsci and friends. Exit Left.
Justice is realized by granting liberty: "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." The more government limits its reach, by allowing individuals and their locales primary say-so over their own lives, the greater chance for liberty.
Though the Founders never actually called these rights and dispositions by the name social justice, that is exactly what they had in mind. The actual term social justice comes to us via Luigi Taparelli, a Catholic theologian of the mid-19thcentury, who, reminiscent of America's Founding Fathers, wrote that justice pertains to the individual while social justice is the requirement of government (the guardian of society) to make Constitutional arrangements for the implementation of justice and protection, and that all citizens contribute to the good of society. This is precisely what the Founders did three quarters of a century earlier. Justice on a national scale, social justice, is embodied in the specifics of the Constitution.
Too many liberals neither appreciate nor define justice according to America's unique understanding of it. Instead, they take their guidance and ideal from the unbridled anger surrounding certain revolutions where pursuing justice was seen as a necessary and ongoing endeavor to overcome the established order, which was characterized as evil and oppressive. For them, social justice is not found in the specific ideals of our Constitution, but in a never ending, never fulfilled movement, a fulminating Resistance. It gives them a sense of "romantic" importance and verification. It becomes an aphrodisiac that can't quench the thirst for daily purpose.
Unfortunately, in most Western societies it's the Left's notion and mantra of social justice that prevails: "No enemies to the Left." In other words, anything that agitates in behalf of overriding the established order and norms is good, just, and constitutes progress. By casting themselves as selfless protectors of the oppressed, progressives start with a tremendous emotional and PR advantage. The antidote to this for conservatives lies in self-confidence, in not being hoodwinked by faux leftist clichés when we have within our Founding principles a classic and worthy definition of social justice: equal justice under the law, liberty, and our Bill of Rights.
"Righteousness shall you pursue" Scripture urges in Deuteronomy. But, what we are seeing on the Left is an exhibition in self-righteousness, moral superiority, incessant virtue strutting… and revenge. Compassion, tolerance, and understanding are reserved for their clients and fellow travelers only, not others. Antifa violence is accepted. What kind of one-sided "social justice" is it that shows no remorse or second thoughts even after the open-borders, sanctuary cities policy the Left relentlessly pushes results in the importation of lethal MS-13 gang members, property destruction, justified fear, and the murder of the unsuspecting Kate Steinle? What type of righteousness is this?
Simply because one has a political cause, spouts all the usual platitudes, and claims he's fighting oppression does not make his a legitimate social justice cause for which others must meekly roll over and acquiesce. Nor in the name of someone else's version of social justice should citizens and society endanger itself or commit suicide.
The prophet Micah taught us "to seek justice and walk humbly with your God." Today's social justice zealots are not acting humbly. In opposition to Micah's exhortation, they have tapped social justice as a way to aggrandize power to themselves and have, themselves, become the powerful trying to crush and bend to their will humble and regular Americans. Much, very much, of today's leftwing social justice is, in reality, a social injustice. It is time for us to restore social justice to its original purpose and glory.
Rabbi Aryeh Spero is author of PushBack: Reclaiming Our American Judeo-Christian Spirit (Evergreen) and president of Caucus for America.


text:
The concrete architecture of a few decades ago, once lauded, is now mostly viewed with scorn. Before we tear it down, we should consider what will be lost. (Kubo, Pasnik, & Grimley, 2010, Tough Love: In Defense of Brutalism. Architect: The magazine of the American Institute of Architects)
The Lamar Law Center, constructed in 1977 to house the University of Mississippi's new law school, was designed in the brutalist style by Jernigan, Hawkins, & Harrison, Principals, and assisted by Brewer, Godbold, & Associates (Mississippi Department of Archives and History/Historic Resources Inventory database).
The Bauhaus-style building…represented a departure from the red brick and columns of the Greek Revival style… (law.olemiss.edu/about/history/)
'Ya think? (Note: the new Khayat law school completed in 2011 reversed right back into red brick and columns of the Greek Revival style). The old Lamar Law Center will undergo renovation to convert spaces to classrooms, add elevators and stairs in the center of the building, work to the windows of the upper floors, and new electrical and mechanical. According to the Daily Mississippian interview with Ian Banner, it is scheduled for spring 2013, at a cost of approximately 7 million.
There have been various speculations as to what, if anything, would be done to alter the facade of the building. I just have one thing to say about that: Please, oh please, don't. Ontario Architecture defined Brutalism (1960-1970) as
a response to the glass curtain wall that was overtaking institutional and commercial architecture in the 1960s…the design of the building is largely dependent on the shape and placement of the various room masses.
Kubo, et al. ( 2010) suggested that Brutalism was a "terrible label" that implied the buildings were designed "with bad intentions" when that was far from the case. Referring to the Brutalism ethic, Reyner Banham noted:
…one meant to reveal the messy realities of construction and building systems, and to forge a new honesty about architecture and its role within the postwar era's broader social and urban transformations…buildings tried to be rugged and direct…
Kubo, et al., called Brutalism Heroic, and an example of an era's ideals, authentic and noble and dignified. As I learn to appreciate beauty as also form and intent, not just columns and cornices, I see the authenticity, nobility, and dignity in the Lamar Law Center–one that I hope is preserved as it is, and not varnished over. The heaviness of the building itself is elevated and lifted by the placement of the rooms with glass surrounds at the top of the anchoring corners. Call me a hopeless romantic, but the lines and angles, massive size, embedded partially underground, yet jutting out at heights, seems symbolic of what the law is meant to be–albeit not always what it is. What was the heroic, authentic, and noble purpose represented in the building design? Perhaps it was nothing more than the move to embrace a new urbanism, brief though it was.
The important thing is ensuring the renovation keeps the character and integrity of the building in tact. I can't imagine anything worse than a Brutalist building with Greek columns and red brick facade.
Why repeat the cycle of destroying what we might appreciate with a longer historical lens? Cities should be layered with the intentions of different eras; erasure is nearly always a mistake.
Categories: Historic Preservation, Oxford, Universities/Colleges


text:
Top Rated Local® New Hampshire Custom Deck Builder
As New Hampshire's Top Rated Local® custom deck builder, we hold ourselves to a high standard, both when it comes to service and when it comes to the work we do. You can count on us to deliver excellent craftsmanship whenever you work with us, as we truly take immense pride in what we do. Stop dreaming about a beautiful deck and let us build one for you so that you can start enjoying it as soon as possible. We look forward to being your partners in decking.


text:
The reviews were dreadful and domestic audiences didn't show up, but China provided a sliver of hope for those who still cared that there was might be some followups for "Terminator: Genisys." The sequel and potential franchise reboot notched the fourth biggest debut ever for a U.S. movie in China, and international audiences overall have made 'Genisys' the second highest grossing movie in the series. So that could have been enough for Paramount, which had big plans for the property, including a new trilogy and a TV series. But apparently that's not to be.
In a recent THR piece about movie financiers, there's a buried nugget that notes that even after earning $440 million worldwide, the $155 million budgeted (not including post production costs) "Terminator: Genisys" will probably still lose money (that must've been a super expensive marketing campaign). Moreover, according to the trade's sources "the notion of a Terminator universe is on hold indefinitely."
READ MORE: Review: 'Terminator: Genisys' Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney & Jason Clarke
Youch. That being said, producer David Ellison and Paramount don't always make expected moves. It's not quite a parallel, given that it cost less and the stakes were much lower, but while no one was really asking for a "Jack Reacher" sequel, production begins for such a film this fall. It's another example of a movie that did middling numbers in the U.S. but rode high overseas. The "Jack Reacher" franchise has Tom Cruise, riding very high after the mega success of "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation." Like Cruise, Schwarzenegger is still a big draw outside U.S. borders and there is value in the Terminator brand. Moreover, Paramount may want to exercise its rights while possible before they revert back to James Cameron in 2019.
Of course, whether or not they should is another question. Frankly, the narrative timeline of the series is so muddled by this point that it might just be best to let it go. But never say never…. even Universal is promising to make "Pacific Rim 2," even as they've taken it off the release calendar….
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.


text:
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
So said my old drinking buddy Socrates.
And completely worth it. Without a doubt.
Posted at 10:18 PM in Big Questions, Humor, Journeys | Permalink
Comments (0)
Yesterday, around 8 pm, I realized that I'd spent about two minutes all day having a more than just-in-passing conversation with an adult.
I really don't know how I do it. I mean, I love my solitude, but that's getting rather extreme.
Good thing I have kids who are able to talk down to my level! Ha! And yes, I have my wife for post 8 pm chatting, at least before we both pass out for the night.
Posted at 04:54 PM in Dads, Humor, Kids, Parenting | Permalink
Comments (0)
This may very well be my all time favorite item for which Tom and Ray Magliozzi (Click and Clack of Car Talk) requested the answer to the weekly puzzler be sent in upon:
"And if you know the answer… write it on the hood of a Subaru Outback 86 with four Nokia Hakapolita snow tires and Thule car rack system and pre-installed Free Tibet and I'm Pro Sheep and I vote bumpers stickers…"
I have seen this very car on many occassions. :-)
Two of the funniest, smartest, and most down to earth people I've ever known. New England at its very best.
Posted at 10:13 AM in Hijinx, Humor | Permalink
Comments (1)
One size fits all. Brilliant video. With a great sense of humor:
Posted at 09:31 AM in Humor, Marketing | Permalink
Comments (0)


text:
And just like that, all five chickens are laying again, -15 to -25 degree wind chills be damned! Way to go, girls. To celebrate, I'll fix you some nice, hot eggies before you go to bed tonight.
Trying to Find the Words…
I don't quite know how to put this yet, but I feel like I am somehow cheating at life last week and this week. I started the apprenticeship with Growing Places Indy, and I can still say, without a doubt, it's one of the best choices I've made/opportunities I've been given in this world. EVER.
It's like I am living this decadent reality when, really, all I am doing is taking care of myself, taking care of plants and the earth, and taking care of people around me. I guess it's a little sad that this feels so decadent, but that's not the part I'm choosing to dwell on. Instead, I'm trying to fill myself up with the awesomeness of feeling this way and trying to figure out how to prolong it long after August 10 when the apprenticeship ends.
And, for the record, we apprentices have already begun talking about how sad we will be to see the apprenticeship come to a close. It's only the end of week two, but when every day feels like three or four days packed into one (in a good way), I feel very close to these people already. It's like a happier, soul searching, plant- and food-centric boot camp.
I'm surrounded by truly amazing people: the apprentices, the leaders of the program, and the handful of people who have come in to speak with us. It's just too much! My heart feels like it's bursting.
I'm clearing my mind of the extraneous bullshit, being present (really and truly PRESENT), learning so much, working hard, eating well, talking and sharing, doing yoga… I feel like I need to milk every moment for all it's worth because it's such a foreign feeling, it's just not NORMAL, and I fear it could go away at any time.
I feel centered and balanced and vibrant and like I'm paying attention to these things for the first time in years, if not ever. I feel supported and like I really could do anything, like there is a community of people, all around me in the program and in the city of Indianapolis, who can help me accomplish these things and who want me to succeed. And vice versa.
Just for the record, here are just a few of the many things I have done or learned so far:
- Biked 116 miles in two weeks.
- Learned how to take a soil pH test.
- Learned how to grow micro greens and sunflower and pea shoots.
- Laid out irrigation/drip/t-tape across many garden beds.
- Realized I could still do cartwheels and yoga is actually way more centering and invigorating than I thought.
- Opened myself up without fear.
- Met local business folks who are working to put out sustainable, amazing products (and learned I should just do it – with a halfway decent business plan in my pocket, of course).
- Harvested greens and herbs and helped organize/disperse green goodies at my first CSA pickup.
- Laughed and got stressed out and talked and picked myself up and worked it all out and laughed again and shared more with strangers than I have in YEARS.
- Found myself feeling nostalgic for the present, if that's possible.
- Began thinking about fundraising ideas and putting together proposals so all of this year's apprentices can "pay it forward" for next year's (I'm sure) equally, if not more, amazing apprentices.
And I Thought My Bike Upgrades Were an Awesome Early Birthday Present!
Hey, guess what, everybody? No, really, guess! You'll never guess…
Are you ready for this? Brace yourselves… as of last night at roughly 6:03 pm (not that I was really thinking about the time or anything), CHRIS AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!
Here's the abridged story: yesterday, Chris got home from work, and I was drinking a beer in honor of my birthday eve. Normal night, right? He went outside, and I saw he was checking out his hop trellis. I also realized I forgot to get the chicken eggs.
I charged out the back door in my wellies, and he called out, "There's a really strange egg in there." I was thinking he meant there was some horribly misshapen, nasty thing in the nesting box, and he left it there for me to check it out. Instead, I saw this:
It didn't hit me what was going on. So I opened it:
And there was a ring! I think the conversation that ensued went something like this: "This is a ring." "Yes." "Are you asking me to marry you?" "Yes." And then we hugged and kissed a lot, and I forgot to say yes for a while, and I was all smiley and kind of shaky. And then I was like, "You didn't really ask me!" And he asked, and THEN I remembered to say yes.
So, hey, we're totally engaged! Then we called our respective parents, ordered a fancy pizza, drank fancy beer, and generally had an awesome night.
We're going to go get it resized this morning, because I want to wear it now! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Hens are Supposed to be Quiet, Right?
Our hens are pretty quiet overall, but our leghorn makes a tremendous amount of noise after laying an egg. It's loud enough that we can hear it from inside the house. I'm not sure if this is a breed or individual characteristic. Are any of your hens noisier than others?
I finally managed to capture her on video. So here's Boo, singing loudly after laying. Switch to 720p HD for best quality.
Let's Just File This Under "Success"
Given what little effort my half-assed natural egg dyes required this year, I would call this a success:
"P" Is for Pictures, Pheasants, and Pickled Eggs
How about a lazy Saturday post? Anyone? Anyone?
First up: pictures. One of the neat things about starting our own garden a few years back was getting to know what plants look like when they are seedlings all the way up through adults. I mean, I knew what tomato plants looked like. But okra babies? Kale? Cauliflower? It's a really fun surprise to see those seedlings push their ways up through the dirt, to get to know the different types by sight, and (eventually) be able to, at a glance, identify what you've got growing where.
Or, if you're like me, you will NEVER be able to tell the difference between your cauliflowers and your cabbages. But whatever – that's what ridiculous seedling map after map are for.
Next up: in other breaking news, Birdie destroys a new toy! What, you don't think that's news? All right, fair enough.
And finally, I took my first stab at pickling eggs. Note that I had never before eaten a pickled egg; the thought of a giant jar of pickled eggs, just sitting behind the counter of some dive bar, always grossed me out too much.
I followed Food Republic's pickled egg recipe, and they turned out quite lovely! They are actually far more mild in flavor than I thought they would be, and I'm eager to try other recipes to see if I can actually get a more pickled-tasting egg.
While they may be understated in flavor, the color… OH, THE COLOR! I'm in love with them for their color alone. I've been slicing them up and scarfing them down on a bed of spinach with sliced strawberries and smoked almonds. Dressing not required. YUM.
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Curried Egg Salad!
Isn't that how the saying goes? What? Huh? Not quite right? Oh, whatever, you know what I mean.
A couple of Easters ago, I dyed a dozen eggs just so I could pretend to be a kid for a half-hour. I like egg salad all right, but I wanted something different. With some consultation of recipes on the internet, combined with consultation of my spice cabinet and fridge to see what I had on hand, I made this up: curried egg salad (that, at Easter time, has the added bonus of looking like confetti cake with its pink and blue and purple bits of egg where the dye leaked through).
With our current egg overload, this recipe has come in handy. Without further ado…
CURRIED EGG SALAD, A LA SPACE-FARM (modified from Epicurious' version)
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise, nayonnaise, or plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
- 6 hardboiled large eggs
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
In a small bowl, mix the curry powder and cayenne with the mayo/nayo/yogurt and set aside. Using a fork, mash the hardboiled eggs until they are at a chunky consistency (you know, not too finely mashed, not too many big pieces left). Dump in the onion, celery, and optional additions (I LOVE dried cranberries in this!). Stir in the spiced yogurt until everything is well-combined.
Chill, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with lettuce on nice, crusty bread or on a bed of fresh spinach. ENJOY!
Current State of Affairs: Egg Overload
The state of things in this little household: we are drowning in eggs.
Point the first: I used a dozen hardboiled beauties to made another curried egg salad yesterday.
Next up: We sold another dozen to our neighbors today.
Wanna know how many eggs are currently still in our fridge? TWENTY-ONE EGGS. Twenty-freaking-one eggs. I believe it's time for our first foray into the wild world of pickled eggs, don't you?
Last week, I did my first ever multiple day juice/veggies/fruits fast. Day one was a complete juice fast, but the rest of the days I incorporated raw and cooked veggies and fruits. Finally, I threw eggs back into the mix. I don't think I eat horribly in general, but I wanted to reset how I look at food and move towards a more conscious way of eating. And, frankly, I have wanted to break the hold of processed foods, fried foods, and CHEESE for a while.
Dear baby Jesus in heaven, do I ever love cheese.
But get this – I felt fantastic this past week. It was hard, but not in an "I'M SO HUNGRY I COULD IMPLODE INTO MY CONCAVE, GROWLING, SHRIVELED STOMACH" sort of way. A few things:
- The greatest difficulty I had was getting over my own head. I found myself getting up from my computer during the work day to make some tea, and the moment I was standing in the kitchen, my head switched over to, "What should I grab to munch on?" I hadn't realized how strong that pull is.
- The longer I went, the harder it was to put anything remotely crappy into my body. This, of course, was the desired outcome… so that was pretty sweet.
- I also started thinking a lot about the whole concept of treating yourself. One of the main reasons I typically treat myself food-wise is because I feel like I've "been good," which, in actuality, means that I feel I've been depriving myself or something is missing. But what if you looked at everything you ate as treating yourself? Example: fresh squeezed kale/pineapple/orange juice is DELISH, and it was not a stretch to think of it as a treat and to savor it. I tried to appreciate what I was eating and look at every bite as treating myself – treating myself right, that is.
By extension, then, what if you viewed your whole life as episode after episode of "treating yourself"? What would be possible then? I understand that cleaning the toilet will likely never feel like treating yourself. Your boss may occasionally be a hideous hose beast. Commuting in bumper to bumper traffic will probably never be elevated to "I'm totally treating myself right now" status (although a great album coupled with some inventive car dancing routines could perhaps ALMOST get you there).
But if we make an effort to live our lives with a sense of levity and work to make more and more of what we do every day feel like a treat… what then? Think of how differently we would look at the world and each other. Think of everything we could do.
In honor of all this seeking and reaching, I give you this song: Cloud Cult, "There's So Much Energy in Us." I heard the captain say, "We're so close to it. So very close to it. We still have energy in us."
So far today, I have treated myself with the following:
- Made (and ate) a delicious curried egg salad out of hard boiled eggs from my backyard tenants, aka the chickens.
- Spent a good portion of my morning in the basement under the bright, clear grow lights, transplanting my beautiful seedlings, thinking about nothing… then friends and work and life and trips and to do lists… then nothing again… Just enjoying being with green things and dreaming of how they will grow.
- Hung out with my best feathered friends in the sunshine and relative warmth.
- Went for a long walk in the fresh air with my best furry friend, laughing as she ran through puddles and chased water droplets flinging off her paws, admiring her floppy ears and happy-puppy gait.
How did you treat yourself today? And, more importantly, what parts of your days are always a treat?
Large and in Charge: Beaker Lays Her First, Frighteningly Gigantic Egg
Beaker, the brave, the fave, the ancient-in-chicken-terms chicken finally got around to laying her first egg… and, oh man, was it ever a doozy:
Now to find out what's in it. Multiple yolks? An alien, like those creepy swimming pool pods in Cocoon (I have nightmares about those pods)? Here's one possibility, brought to my attention by my fantastic friend, Alina, up in Seattle. I would like to do a similar video, but I fear that my Chicago accent wouldn't be nearly as charming as this fellow's Australian accent… and there's probably not anything THIS exciting in Beaker's first egg.


text:
President warns rogue headmasters
According to the president, there are a handful of reactionary elements who are determined to undermine the Free SHS policy, but gave the assurance that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government would make sure that sanctions are applied to any headmaster or headmistress who indulges in illegality in an attempt to sabotage the policy, which he said is serving as a catalyst for development.
"No headmaster or headmistress, therefore, is to charge any unapproved or illegal fees, or charge fees already exempted under the Free SHS policy. Government will make sure of this, and sanction any school head who flouts this directive," he warned.
President Akufo-Addo gave the warning on Saturday when he addressed staff and students of Pope John Senior High School during the school's 60th anniversary celebration in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital.
"We have a sacred duty to our children, and to the generations beyond, in ensuring that irrespective of their circumstances, their right to education is preserved," he stressed.
The president said that a government may not be able to make every citizen rich, but with the political will and responsible leadership, a government can help create a society of opportunities and empowerment for every citizen.
"I know there is no better way to do so but through access to education. Any country that aims to transform itself into a modern productive player in the global marketplace must get its educational policies right.
"It is public knowledge now that prior to the launch of the Free SHS policy, our children were falling out of the educational system at every stage in alarming numbers. Free SHS has enabled 90,000 more students gain access to senior high school education in 2017, than in 2016," President Akufo-Addo indicated.
Without the implementation of this policy, he explained that 90,000 young men and women, without any employable skills, and thrown onto the streets, would have further entrenched a future of hopelessness for Ghana's youth.
President Akufo Addo highlighting the challenges confronting the Free SHS policy, noted that procurement processes are currently ongoing for the provision of some 69,500 mono desks, 13,100 beds, furniture for dining halls, staff rooms for teachers, computer laboratories and marker boards for classrooms.
He said the government would also upgrade 42 senior high schools into model schools, beginning this year.
Source: Samcilla/BjrliveFM.com/021918/


text:
Key Takeaways
A typical real estate transaction is never as simple as submitting an offer and buying a property. There can be negotiations and contingencies, all of which can complicate the closing process. However, with "as is" real estate, this isn't the case. These properties are sold exactly how they are listed, and surprisingly enough, can offer some interesting benefits for both buyers and sellers.
Read this guide to learn how to navigate real estate "as is".
What Is "As Is" In Real Estate?
"As is" in real estate means the property is being sold in its existing condition, with zero responsibility on the seller to repair the property beforehand. With "as is" in real estate, buyers will also not receive any credits from the sellers, even if improvements are necessary. "As is" properties are rarely in perfect condition and often require significant repairs. However, they can also represent a lucrative opportunity for real estate investors.
[ Learn how to analyze deals like a pro! Attend our FREE online real estate class to learn how to identify which investment deals have the best ROI. ]
What Does "As Is" Real Estate Mean To Sellers?
Selling a home "as is" may sound like a promising opportunity, but the process is actually more intricate than you might think. It is a common misconception that if sellers add "as is" to a listing, they will not have to participate in closing.
This is not the case.
Even "as is" properties go through a closing process where the sellers are required to participate. Sellers must also disclose if they are aware of any problems with the house, as they are not allowed to misrepresent the property. This can make these properties more difficult to market, though there are buyers who may be interested.
What this means, is selling property "as is" may not be as simple as signing on the dotted line after an offer is made, though there are some benefits involved that sellers should be aware of. For example, while sellers must disclose any known problems with they property, they are not required to fix the issues if they are able to find buyers who want to go through with the sale.
Sellers who are looking to simply get a property off their hands may find this particularly attractive, as there will be no projects to complete before closing.
What Does "As Is" Real Estate Mean To Buyers?
Buyers often interpret "as is" properties as severely damaged or far from move-in ready; however, they should not rule these homes out completely.
It may be true that "as is" homes require significant repairs or upgrades, but also, they are often sold for a lower price. This means savvy buyers have the potential to secure a great deal on a home that they may have otherwise not been able to afford.
The key to buying an "as is" property is to understand that sellers are still subject to a home inspection. This can act as a safeguard against any repairs buyers may not be equipped to deal with—providing an opportunity to back out of the deal if the property becomes more costly than expected.
In short, buyers should be prepared to make a few significant fixes, but they should never move forward with a deal that doesn't make financial sense.
Pros Of Buying "As Is"
Perhaps the most attractive benefit of buying an "as is" home is the chance to secure a lower price.
"As is" properties are often listed at highly competitive prices, and sellers may even be willing to take a lower priced offer than that! Real estate investors in particular may find this appealing as they can secure good deals properties to rehab.
That being said, another benefit of buying "as is" properties is the potential land value. If the lot is in a good area — even if it isn't in great condition — it may make a good candidate for either a fix and flip or new construction project.
Cons Of Buying "As Is"
Though there are several benefits of buying an "as is" property, buyers should be careful to consider the potential cons. Most notably, "as is" homes can come with a few surprises. For one, there is no guarantee that all issues with the property will be disclosed. After all, it is entirely possible for there to be problems that even the seller is unaware of. For buyers, this could mean costly repairs and time consuming work. The best way to avoid this issue is to hire a professional home inspector to sign off on the property before purchasing.
Tips For Buying A Home "As Is"
Luckily, there are several things buyers can do to protect themselves from a bad deal if they are interested in an "as is" home.
The best place to start is by familiarizing yourself with the most common issues that must be disclosed about a property. Many states have requirements in place that legally require real estate agents and sellers to mention specific problems. These include termite damage, significant noise levels and major plumbing issues.
If you do find an "as is" home you are interested in buying, get a thorough home inspection to protect yourself from unwanted surprises. An inspection will confirm any existing issues and reveal anything the sellers were not aware of. If the inspection reveals problems that are worse than anticipated, for example foundational problems or a mold infestation, you can still walk away from the deal.
Before you submit a final offer on an "as is" property, carefully weigh the potential costs of renovations and upgrades. It may sound obvious, but it is crucial to anticipate how these costs will impact your monthly finances. Buying a house is a big investment on its own, but buying an "as is" property comes with the added responsibility of renovations.
[If you are interested in learning how to finance significant home repairs, read this article about renovation loans.]
What Does "As Is" Mean In Real Estate Contracts?
When you see "as is" in a real estate contract, it is simply the seller stating they do not want to be held responsible for any contingencies. A real estate contingency is essentially a condition applied to a real estate deal that must be completed before the property is sold. By writing that the property is being sold "as is", sellers are attempting to prevent buyers from adding any additional requests to the sale, whether they are repairs or credits.
Buyers should understand that even when a property is being sold "as is" there is still an opportunity to add an inspection contingency to the contract. As previously mentioned, requiring a home inspection allows you to back out of the deal in the event any additional problems are uncovered.
Despite the "as is" phrasing, if a home requires more repairs than anticipated, buyers can still attempt to negotiate a lower sale price. While your counter offer may not be accepted, the option is available.
The Truth About "As Is" Real Estate
"As is" real estate is not always going to be the right strategy for every investor. Even the most experienced real estate investors can be blindsided by a structural problem on an "as is" home. The truth is, with any piece of real estate, you will not know you are making a sound decision until you have all of the information.
The best thing you can do upon finding an "as is" property is to approach the situation with caution. Get an inspection, estimate renovation costs, and then go from there.
While you will have to pay for the inspection, it can save you from getting into a potentially harmful deal. You may not be inclined to actively search for "as is" real estate, but be open to the opportunity if it ever arises.
With the right tools, you may just find yourself at the hands of a great deal.
When asking, "what is 'as is' in real estate" the answer is complicated. For sellers, "as is" properties represent the chance to quickly sell an unwanted property. Buyers, on the other hand, may look at "as is" properties as an opportunity to secure a lucrative real estate deal.
No matter which end of the transaction you are on, weigh each of the pros and cons before buying or selling "as is" real estate.