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You all know we like our s'more croissants around these parts
We decided to put a new twist on it by combining these ingredients
* Pink Peeps
* Chocolate Chips
* Crescent Rolls
We started off by rolling a peep and some chocolate chips in a crescent but soon realized it was too large to really fit
so we had to do some
peep surgery
the kiddos thought THIS 'surgery' was the best part!!
{ooooh, eeek, aaah, ouuuch!}
Wrapped them up, sealed the edges
and popped into a preheated 375 degree oven
for about 12 minutes
see those two on the upper left up there – they were full peeps
so cutting the peeps in half (or quarters) worked better
for less peep seepage!
The peep leakage was not all bad though…as it cooled, it turned into this wonderful candy-like texture – mmm
{NOTHING goes to waste here! we scraped off every last bit!}
mmmm good!
Chat soon -
(click here for Northern Cottage main page)
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The phrase "public-private partnership" gets thrown around a lot these days, with varying degrees of meaning and power. But in New York state, public and nonprofit entities and financial firms seem to be adding teeth to the term by teaming up to, they hope, shape the future of digital health care.
In April, the nonprofit New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the New York City Investment Fund (a consortium of Wall Street venture capital firms) announced the creation of an initiative called the New York Digital Health Accelerator. These investors have agreed to pony up $4.2 million to 12 or more companies that are working on e-health technology.
Those companies, in turn, will team up with healthcare providers such as New York-Presbyterian Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, NYU Langone Medical Center and other institutions that stretch, like that old Erie Canal song says, from Albany to Buffalo, to create real-world applications that will work within the state's already existing health information exchange (HIE) parameters.
The initiative has already attracted even more investment dollars from other firms wanting a piece of the action, says David Whitlinger, NYeC's executive director. His group became something of a matchmaker in this particular public-private courtship between investors and state health stakeholders.
Whitlinger says his group understood that "we could spend millions, if not billions, of dollars trying to figure [the best way to adopt health IT], and it could succeed or it could fail. Why not tap into the strong innovation happening in New York, and if there is a there there, there's also a business opportunity. Let's open it to the marketplace."
NYeC took the idea to the New York Department of Health (NYDOH) Commissioner Nirav R. Shah, who introduced them to the leadership of the New York City Investment Fund.
"By coincidence, they were in the process of looking at health care as a growth opportunity," Whitlinger says, calling the partnership "a marriage made in heaven."
"We want a rich ecosystem of applications that are innovative and cost-effective. The investment community is looking for the next growth sector in terms of paying customers and the developers are looking [for capital] to meet those needs."
That first blind date happened last fall, and by spring NYeC, NYDOH, and the New York City Investment Fund had hammered out the details. Developers are applying now, and "the response has been amazing," Whitlinger says. They will focus on what he calls "three areas for great innovation":
Coordination of workflow: Helping multiple clinicians care for the same patient is a critical component of cost reduction. "As we move from a fee-for-service model to managed care, physicians will be rewarded for efficient care, but right now they need better tools to do that," Whitlinger says. This directly ties in with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, which he created to implement a "health homes" model to facilitate efficient care and communication among health providers.
Patient engagement: Enabling patients to become engaged with their own care through the Internet, iPods, Facebook, handheld devices or other technology, is critical to promote prevention, wellness and disease management.
Analytics: "This is the boring area," Whitlinger confesses. But proper data analysis is sorely lacking in big picture health care, and technology can help public health officials and providers get a handle on the best, most cost-effective ways to treat the population.
The winners will be chosen in July or August. Not all of the applicants are currently based in New York, but if chosen they will need to set up an office in the state. "If they want to incubate a product with NYU or Presbyterian Hospital, they understand they need head count here," he says.
If it works as planned, developers will find solutions to some vexing health care challenges (and make money), providers will deliver more effective and efficient care (and save money), the VC firms will make money, and the state will save money. It's a win-win-win-win that, as Whitlinger says, "puts New York at the forefront" of health care's electronic future.

subset: commoncrawl


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11 Issue 268Published - 14:00 UTC
08:00 EST 11-Oct-2009
Next Update - 14:00 UC 08:00 EST
Editor: Susan K. Boyer, RN
All rights reserved.
Breast cancer patients with high risk gene diagnosed 6 years earlier than generation before
(11 October 2009: VIDYYA MEDICAL NEWS SERVICE) --
Women with a deleterious gene mutation are diagnosed with breast cancer six years earlier than relatives of the previous generation who also had the disease and/or ovarian cancer, according to new research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The findings, presented in a poster session at the 2009 Breast Cancer Symposium, could have an impact on how women at highest risk for the disease are counseled and even screened in the future, explained Jennifer Litton, M.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Breast Medical Oncology.
"In our practice, we've noticed that women with a known deleterious BRCA gene mutation are being diagnosed earlier with the disease than their moms or aunts," said Litton, M.D., the study's first author. "With this study, we looked at women who had been both treated and had their BRCA testing at M. D. Anderson to determine if what we were seeing anecdotally was consistent scientifically."
It's estimated that five to 10 percent of all breast cancers are associated with either the BRCA1 or 2 mutation, both of which are associated with an increased risk for breast and ovarian cancers. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), women with BRCA1 or 2 have a 60 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, compared to a 12 percent risk for women in the general population.
Given their greater risk, women with known BRCA mutations and/or whose mothers and/or aunts from either side of the family have the mutation are screened beginning at age 25. In 2007, as a complement to mammography, ACS guidelines added Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the surveillance of these women at highest risk, as MRI is thought to catch smaller tumors even earlier. Consideration of prophylactic mastectomies is also a component of their surveillance, said Litton.
"Currently, BRCA positive women are counseled that they won't need to worry about breast cancer until a certain age. However, our findings show that we may actually start seeing the disease even earlier in future generations. We need to make changes accordingly in order to best advise and care for these women at greatest risk," Litton said.
For the retrospective study, the researchers identified 132 BRCA positive women with breast cancer who participated in a high-risk protocol through M. D. Anderson's Clinical Cancer Genetics Program between 2003 and 2009. Reviewing each woman's pedigree (family tree), 107 were found to have a female family member in the previous generation who also had a BRCA-related cancer, either breast or ovarian. Age at diagnosis, location of mutation and birth year were recorded in both the older (gen1) and younger (gen2) women.
The study found that in gen2, the median age of diagnosis was 42, compared to age 47 in gen1. In comparing generations within a family, the median difference was six years. Comparing decades of birth in all born after 1950, gen2 were diagnosed earlier than gen1. When stratified by BRCA1 or 2 mutation, the median age of diagnosis in BRCA1 and BRCA2 positive gen2 women was 42 and 44, respectively, and 43 and 50, respectively in BRCA1 positive and BRCA2 positive gen1 women.
"These findings are certainly concerning and could have implications on the screening and genetic counseling of these women," Litton said. "In BRCA positive women with breast cancer, we actually might be seeing true anticipation - the phenotype or cancer coming out earlier per generation. This suggests more than the mutation could be involved, perhaps lifestyle and environmental factors are also coming into play."
The research reconfirms that women with BRCA mutations should continue to be screened per the guidelines - mammography, MRI and consideration of prophylactic surgeries - yet perhaps with increased suspicion and even at an earlier age, said Litton, who notes that the addition of MRI screening may account for some of the change in diagnosis seen in the study.
Further analysis is needed given the relatively small number of women in the cohort and the possibility of recall bias, as the gen2 women were providing their family histories, Litton explained. As follow up study, Litton plans to look into biological basis for potential earlier diagnosis.
Return to Vidyya Medical News Service for 11 October 2009
© Vidyya. All rights reserved.
Information appearing on the Vidyya Medical News Service is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Seek professional medical help and follow your health care provider's advice.
Interested in subscribing to our daily e-mail newsletter? Send an email to email@example.com with the word subscribe in the subject field.


text:
Markets coming back down a little… DOW is now currently down about 90 points.
Take a look at this 30 minute chart of the DOW… I want to point out that the fast stochastic at this same stage in wave 'a' failed to reach oversold and turned up (lower circle on left). The same thing just happened for wave 'c' which are the circles on the right.
Note the symmetry here… wave 'a' has the same structure as wave 'c' but is on a little larger scale. For that symmetry to continue, we need to probably come back down to about 8,780 and then break higher through tomorrow. If not, well, then the symmetry will be broken.
Thursday: Unemployment Claims, ISM Services
9 hours ago


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Late Saturday night in Volcano, the power went out around 11:00 p.m. It was blacker than black. You couldn't see anything. Luckily we found the flashlight in the car after feeling our way along the wall and down the stairs. Then we found the candles. The power came back on about 2:30 in the morning...
Monday, May 10, 2010
Posted by Ka`iana at 6:38 PM
0 comments:
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text:
Geoff was caught today preparing for Sploder's shutdown.
You left me out too...
Stop bumping this!! It's pointless, stupid, there's no one left to vote, and-Owait...Nvm
Simple. Just vote in the poll, and request for any members on the FORUMS to be added that you want. The poll will be reset each sunday due to changing opinions.
How dare you not include me!
Eh, you've forgotten a lot of people (including myself...)
I said only the LT's, Generals, and myself would be on to start. I added more people as they asked. p._.qI'll add you though, lol.
Can you add a button to remove your vote, so that if there's another member put up, you can choose that person as well?Also, you should reset the votes, let's say, every month?
Already did that, and I'm already resetting them every Sunday.
There isn't a remove vote button. :|
QuoteUm... what?
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text:
Budget bickering and brinkmanship in Washington this summer are getting much of the blame for the recent slowdown in an already weak U.S. economy. Now, the two-year-old stalemate over Europe's debt problems threatens to bring on another recession.
The crisis in Europe has already sapped the confidence of consumers there and slowed the region's economy to a standstill. Gross domestic product rose just 0.2 percent in the second quarter. In Germany, the Eurozone's largest economy grew at only a 0.1 percent pace; France's GDP was flat.
When European consumers cut back, many of the products they stop buying are made in the U.S.
"It's a global economy," said David Malpass, president of Encima Global, an economic research firm. "If Europe falls into recession, we would be selling less Coca-Cola and McDonald's over there. A big chunk of our economy is tied directly into the European economy."
The trade partnership between the U.S. and the European Union is "the largest and most complex in the world," according to the U.S. Trade Representative, generating $2.7 billion a day in trade and investment, and supporting 14 million jobs.
American exports to the EU account for roughly 20 percent of overall U.S. exports. Last year, Europeans imported nearly $240 billion worth of U.S. goods and more than $180 billion in services.
Both economies are suffering from a decade-long borrowing binge that saddled banks with bad loans and governments with costly debt burdens. But where the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve were able to act swiftly during the financial Panic of 2008, European leaders have yet to come up with a unified response to swollen piles of debt that have snuffed out economic growth among its weakest members.
"You're trying to get 17 governments to agree," said Barbara Ridpath, CEO of the International Center for Financial Regulation. "It's hard enough in this country to get one government to agree."
The crisis began last year in Greece, but spread to Ireland and Portugal as nervous investors demanded higher interest rates on those countries' newly issued bonds. Higher interest rates forced painful budget cuts that have weakened those nations' economies, further raising fears one or more might default.
Now, the risk of a government bond default is weighing on European banks holding that debt. Bank stocks fell sharply in the past week as investors grew increasingly fearful that one or more European financial institutions may find themselves unable to borrow fresh cash, sparking a credit crisis reminiscent of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Europe's Central Bank, the ECB, has pledged to stand behind European banks much as the Fed has done with their American counterparts. But central bankers there have balked at buying dodgy debt issued by countries such as Greece that pose the greatest risk of default.
"It would be like the Fed buying bonds from Illinois, which is in deep financial trouble," said Malpass. "There would be widespread objection to the Fed doing that here."
How to avert the crisis?
European leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have floated numerous plans to avert such a crisis. To date, the best they've come up with is a pledge to urge European governments to work toward closer coordination of their individual budget policies.
One idea — the creation of a single Eurobond to replace the debt issued by individual countries — faces strong political oppositions from stronger countries that don't want to shoulder the debt burdens of weaker neighbors.
European governments also agreed last year to create another backstop called the European Financial Stability Facility, a $600 billion bailout fund designed to step in to prevent a member government from defaulting.
A year ago, that threat seemed limited to the Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Since then, Spain and Italy also have been forced to pay sharply higher interest rates to issue new bonds to roll over their debt. Italy has pledged make deep cuts to get its budget under control. But the government has floated four failed proposals in recent weeks without coming up with a final plan.
"The ESFS is big enough only if it stops with Greece and Ireland and Portugal," said Jim McCaughan, CEO of Principal Global Investors. "Once you get to Italy and Spain the ESFS is a drop in the bucket. It is nothing like big enough to save those markets if those markets need saving."
If investors continue to lose confidence in Italy's debt, forcing the government to pay higher rates, the prospect of a default buy Europe's third-largest economy would further rattle the financial markets.
"It will take dramatic action in Europe to break the downward spiral," said Malpass. " On its present course, the risks have increased substantially of major European bank failures or nationalization, a European recession and a breakdown of the euro."


text:
A tweet containing computer code has started propagating itself through Twitter by taking advantage of a security flaw in Twitter's TweetDeck application.
In response, Twitter shut down the application's access to tweets.
The tweet is automatically "retweeted," or sent out again, when processed by TweetDeck. Affected tweeters saw pop-up windows on their screens. The tweet was retweeted tens of thousands of times Wednesday.
Twitter, which owns TweetDeck, initially told TweetDeck users to log out and log back in. When that proved ineffective, it shut down the application's access to tweets.
It's not the first time tweets containing JavaScript code have self-propagated through security holes in Twitter. The last major outbreak was in 2010.
Associated Press


text:
Our much beloved Dumpling Bar returns to DC in a dramatic new setting and with an expanded selection of hand-crafted delicacies. Chef Aulie goes back to her Thai roots with a new menu featuring customer favorites as well as authentic, more traditional Thai ingredients and flavors.
Chef Aulie Bunyarataphan and Mel Oursinsiri, the husband and wife team behind a portfolio of the region's ground-breaking Thai restaurants, are excited to return to the Nation's Capital with the reopening of Bangkok Joe's. The heartbeat of the "new" restaurant, located in Georgetown's Washington Harbor, is the much beloved Dumpling Bar, which features 20 of Aulie's handcrafted delicacies paired with her house made sauces. Exotic tastes and aromas of the Bangkok street food Aulie experienced as a child, along with Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and French flavors she picked up as a result of her culinary experiences in the United States are featured on the restaurant's expansive menu. New dishes incorporate more traditional Thai flavors to appeal to diners expanding palates and openness to trying authentic global cuisines in addition to the many customer favorites that return.


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ESRI Live Training Seminar Will Demonstrate How GIS Technology Provides Comprehensive Situational Awareness
ESRI will host a seminar on September 24, 2009, to demonstrate how a COP can be created using ESRI's ArcGIS software. Creating a Common Operational Picture with ArcGIS will air at www.esri.com/lts at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific daylight time).
Many organizations, such as emergency management and law enforcement agencies, use ArcGIS technology to create, manage, and serve maps and GIS services through a COP. The seminar's presenters will explain the requirements and capabilities needed to enable a COP using ArcGIS, along with the considerations that need to be taken into account for the users.
Attendees will learn
-- What a COP means and involves -- How and why a COP created using GIS provides complete situational awareness -- What's needed to put a COP in place, including requirements for data management, planning, analysis, situational awareness, and field operations support
This live training seminar was created for professionals and GIS analysts who work in public safety; law enforcement; homeland security; and emergency, wildfire, and disaster management. Employees in industries or government agencies that manage a large number of assets will also find the seminar very useful.
A broadband Internet connection and an ESRI Global Account are needed to watch the seminar. Creating a global account is easy and free: visit www.esri.com/lts, click Login, and register your name and address. A few weeks after the live presentation, the seminar will be archived and available for viewing on the ESRI Training Web site.
For more information about this free live training seminar, as well as upcoming classes, visit www.esri.com/training.
About ESRI Educational Services
With more than 200 courses to choose from, ESRI Educational Services is a recognized leader in geographic information system training. Courses cover a variety of topics related to ESRI software, the theory underlying GIS technology, and applying GIS tools to find solutions in particular fields, all while combining hands-on experience, interactivity, and instructional support to create an effective learning environment. Visit www.esri.com/training for more information.
About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.
ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, ArcGIS, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
Press Information Contact: Carla Wheeler, ESRI Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2448 E-mail: email@example.com
Web site: http://www.esri.com//


text:
GARDEN GROVE – Twelve people were taken to a hospital for evaluation Wednesday after complaining of scratchy throats and other symptoms, but firefighters found no evidence of fumes or hazardous materials that would have sickened them.
Firefighters and paramedics responded to Pacifica High School at Lampson Avenue and Knott Street around 12:20 p.m. after students in a classroom complained of scratchy throats, dizziness and coughing, said Division Chief Jeff Spargur of the Garden Grove Fire Department.
Firefighters and the Orange County Health Department checked the classroom and did not find any evidence of fumes or hazardous chemicals, Spargur said. The classroom was then reopened to students and staff.
In all, about 100 students were evacuated from the northwest section of the campus. Twelve people were taken to hospitals, dispatchers said.
Contact the writer: email@example.com or 714-704-3706


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I'm going to consider Thanksgiving a full-weekend event. Even though it's on a Thursday. And even though I had to work the Friday afterwards
Turkey Day
This year the Janmohammeds were kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was just me, my mamma, and my daddy since Marissa had to work and since my mom's family is pretty apathetic about the whole holiday. We had a really fun time with the Janmohammeds though! We went over early in the day and got some card playing in. We played Nerts and everyone but me was playing with a pair. Somehow I still managed to nearly dominate the game. Ha ha.
Dinner was fantastic-with all of the fixings! We had turkey, Pam's amazing homemade stuffing, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and of course some jello. I ate enough so that I was pleasantly full-which is always nice.
After dinner we rested a bit, watched some football, and played a little bit of the wii. We had dessert then I said my goodbyes and made my way over to Jeremy's house to catch the tail end of their Thanksgiving. His fam was mostly finished so we just hung out and chatted a bit then watched The Internship. Funny movie. It's a good redbox rental.
Friday I had to work. It's not a company holiday and since my family and Jeremy were also working, there's no sense in wasting a day of PTO to do nothing at home. The highlight of my workday on Friday was getting to have lunch with Ashley!! She was in town for Thanksgiving and came up to City Creek to have lunch with Karen and I. We went to one of our new favorites and had a lovely lunchtime chat. I seriously miss that girl and tried to convince her about 10 times to move to Salt Lake. I'm not quite sure if it worked…
Friday night Jeremy and I went out with some other friends to see Catching Fire. It was a good movie-but I wish that I had read the book more recently so I kind of had an idea of what was going to happen. I've read it but it's been a while and I've read a handful of other dystopian series in between so I couldn't remember what happens in which one. While it was a good movie, it was a one-timer for me. Turns out I don't like all the violence.
Saturday was a busy busy day!! I started of the morning right-breakfast with Caroline for her birthday!! Sadly we didn't take a single photo. Fail. We went to Faustina and I had the most delicious eggs benedict. We chatted and caught up on life and I made fun of Caroline for being so old now (she's a whopping 42 days older than me). It was a good time!
Then I ran a billion errands: Trader Joes, picked up something in South Jordan, went to the fabic store and immediately turned around when they told me it would be a 2-3 hour wait to get fabric cut (what?!? Who has time to wait around for 2-3 hours?!), went to the mall, went to the store. It was a busy but productive afternoon.
Saturday night we went out for dinner for Melissa's birthday. It was fun to be able to celebrate her! Little did she know that we were planning a surprise party for later that night! While everyone else distracted her, I went home to coordinate the surprise part of the party. While we were waiting for the guest of honor, we had a little bit of fun with Karen's phone cover:
I think she was legitimately surprised and had a good time. I'm glad that we were all able to keep the secret!!
Sunday was Sunday. I baked 3 different batches of cookies for a cookie exchange I was participating in and went to church. Nothing too crazy or exciting.
Up Ahead
This week is looking somewhat calm but the weekend will be busy with all kinds of fun! Our Christmas cocktail party on Friday, ward party on Saturday, and the Christmas devotional on Sunday! So fun!


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There's something unnervingly genuine about Jason Atkinson. Unnerving because he's a politician – once a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, today a member of its Senate, in between a determined but failed candidate for governor – but he doesn't sound anything like one.
His speech lacks curated sound bites, and he tends to talk about solving problems, rather than who's to blame for them.
This could be subjective. I met Mr. Atkinson only once; we had several conversations over four days this summer at the Aspen Global Leadership Network's ACT II conference. (The AGLN paid for my travel and accommodations.)
He is an Oregonian, and I'm an East Coaster, far more comfortable with irony than sincerity.
But with all the blather on cable news, what explains his reasons for practicing politics in a time of intense partisanship like this?
"I used to tell people that I was the guy who actually believed the commencement speech," he says.
Atkinson, a Republican, has taken some stands considered controversial in Oregon political circles; by his account, that's at least in part because he thinks of public service before politics. For a long time, these were important but mostly invisible battles guys like him waged in their hearts and souls – or in the proverbial back rooms where political deals are cut.
That changed, for Atkinson, in January, when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) of Arizona was shot at a "town hall" style meeting. Atkinson knew Ms. Giffords – the two had been in the inaugural class of the ALGN's Rodel Fellowship in Public Service.
He also knew what it means to recover from being shot; a friend's gun had accidentally gone off, sending a bullet into his leg, and he nearly bled to death.
Atkinson spearheaded an editorial, signed by his Rodel Fellowship class. "We know that democracy demands vigorous and honest debate. And we know that neither violence nor the threat of violence has any place in that debate," they wrote.
But Atkinson had more to say. He delivered a speech on the Senate floor accusing both parties of incivility and trying to chart a way forward.
"We have to turn off the national appetite for bad news," Atkinson said in his speech, "the idea that I am right, and you are evil."
It was a message he thought Oregon really needed.
"We'd just come off some extremely contentious debates where Republicans completely belittled the Democrats in campaign ads, and Democrats did scare-tactic campaigning stuff," going so far as to put cross-hairs on abortion doctors and to suggest what electing Republicans would lead to, Atkinson remembers.
"I called both sides on the carpet," he says. "The fallout was amazing."
His office filled with hate mail, even threats.
"I actually had to have the sheriff park outside our home for about six weeks," he remembers. "Almost all of the anger came from my party, and I was just dumbfounded. 'Did you guys not listen? What's the deal?' But that's politics. It's sad, but that's politics."
So you'd think anyone with Atkinson's "rebellious or romantic" idea of public service would give it up.
"I just believe in being in the arena," he says. "It costs huge amounts of opportunity for me … but it's done good things. I guess believing in it for me is enough."
And it's that word, he thinks, we need more of in our national political conversation -- not just for civility, but for the politicians themselves to do the job that we choose them to do.
"If you look at politics right now," he says, "whoever's running for whatever, they're not enough. They're not conservative enough, they're not moderate enough, they're not environmental enough, they don't have enough experience. Whatever it is, they're not enough. And if you're not careful, those are traps for the candidate, on a personal level after the campaign is over."
So what does it take to overcome those traps? How much, really, is enough?
Atkinson says it isn't very much it all.
"My premise is that 10 percent holds the other 90 percent together," he insists. He's been running an experiment on this idea for almost a decade, asking students at the end a graduate seminar he teaches to agree or disagree with his premise.
"It's the easiest pass/fail you'll ever have," he laughs. "But if you write yes, you have to tell me who they are."
Almost all of his students say yes – and almost none of them list a politician the rest of us have ever heard of.
"It's almost never the grand-standers or the people who would sell their own mother for a headline," he says. "There is a 10 percent, and I would bet no one's ever heard of them."
Jason Atkinson blogs about public service at therecoveringpolitician.com.
• Jina Moore met Atkinson at ACT II, a conference of AGLN alumni, on a trip to Aspen, Colo., whose airfare and accommodations were financed by the AGLN.
• Sign-up to receive a weekly selection of practical and inspiring Change Agent articles by clicking here.


text:
Cops: Man threatened with knife in Walmart parking lot
A man was reportedly threatened with a knife in a Walmart parking lot Monday afternoon, Riverhead Town police said.
The man, an employee at Walmart, was collecting shopping carts at the Walmart on Route 58 about 3:45 p.m. when another man approached him and threatened him with a knife, according to a police report.
The employee called police to the scene, but could not identify the man. No arrests have been reported involving the incident.
Additional information about the incident was not immediately available, police said.


text:
Step by step building guides for different platforms
This page is intended as a collection of simple step-by-step recipes to build Apache OpenOffice from source code. A more thorough explanation of what the individual steps do and why they are necessary can be found in the building guide.
Ubuntu 14.04
The basic building steps under Ubuntu 12.04 (see below) are to be followed in Ubuntu 14.04 as well; however, there are some minor build issues that any developer, using this OS, needs to be aware of, if he gets stuck while building. The following is the list of issues, with their fixes, that a developer may face with:
- Issue 124712 (build broken in svl); see the link https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124712 for detailed information.
If you are building trunk, the patch is already applied; if you are building from a release tag or tarball, the patch needs to be applied for all releases <= 4.1.1.
- Issue 125475; see the link https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=125475 for detailed information. This happens if you explicitly upgraded your GCC and related tools to version 4.9; it will not appear if you use GCC 4.8.x.
As the BZ says, it is because of buggy toolchain g++4.9. So for now in Ubuntu Linux 14.04, build the source using g++4.8.2, gcc4.8.2; these are the default compilers in Ubuntu Linux 14.04 anyway; please check it using the following commands:
g++ -v gcc -v
if not, you've to download them.
sudo apt-get install g++-4.8 cd /usr/bin rm gcc rm g++ ln -s gcc-4.8 gcc ln -s g++-4.8 g++
- Failed to find ./solver/420/unxlngx6.pro/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.20 error.
cp /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.20 ./solver/420/unxlngx6.pro/lib/ rm ./solver/420/unxlngx6.pro/lib/libstdc++.so.6 ln -s ./solver/420/unxlngx6.pro/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.20 ./solver/420/unxlngx6.pro/lib/libstdc++.so.6
- No such file or directory - connectivity/virtualdbtools.hxx while building svx.
if you get an error like this, then that means connectivity is not built properly. Build connectivity using build --all:connectivity and this error will go away.
Ubuntu 12.04
- Setup VirtualBox with Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit on Windows7 64bit host. A native installation is of course fine, too.
- Let updater update ca. 380 packages. Restart.
- Get the source. You can start with the source release or by checking out from SVN:
|Source release
|Build from source release if you want to build OpenOffice once but don't want to do any development.
|Build from SVN if you want to development work with OpenOffice.
and verify the source tarball with
gpg --verify aoo-3.4.1-incubating-src.tar.bz2.asc \ aoo-3.4.1-incubating-src.tar.bz2
Note that you have to have the keys already imported to your key chain. The keys can be found on the download page:
cd /tmp tar -xjf ~/Downloads/aoo-3.4.1-incubating-src.tar.bz2 cd aoo-3.4.1/main
sudo mkdir /source sudo chown <your-user-name> /source cd /source
sudo apt-get install subversion svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/trunk aoo-trunk cd aoo-trunk/main
- Install requirements (this will also install packages that are not listed):
sudo apt-get install g++ gcc bison flex libarchive-zip-perl libcups2-dev \ libpam0g-dev gperf libfreetype6-dev libxaw7-dev libfontconfig1-dev \ libxrandr-dev patch libgconf2-dev libgnomevfs2-dev ant libgtk2.0-dev \ junit junit4 libidl-dev liborbit2-dev openjdk-6-jdk libwww-perl \ libxml-parser-perl autoconf libssl-dev
- Run autoconf to generate configure script:
- Configure (see the building guide section on configuration for further options):
./configure \ --with-dmake-url=http://dmake.apache-extras.org.codespot.com/files/dmake-4.12.tar.bz2 \ --with-epm-url=http://www.msweet.org/files/project2/epm-3.7-source.tar.gz \ --disable-odk \ --disable-binfilter
- Finish configuration and download missing tarballs and extensions:
- Include the configured environment:
source LinuxX86-64Env.Set.sh
- Build:
cd instsetoo_native/ build --all
This may take a while to complete. Several hours are not uncommon. To speed things up you may want to run 'build' like this
build --all -P<n> -- -P<n>
to start a parallel build. Replace <n> with the number of CPU cores.
- Install:
sudo dpkg -i unxlngx6.pro/Apache_OpenOffice/deb/install/en-US/DEBS/*.deb sudo dpkg -i unxlngx6.pro/Apache_OpenOffice/deb/install/en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration/openoffice.org3.4-debian-menus_3.4-9593_all.deb
- Start Apache OpenOffice:
Windows 7
Complete requirements found at General Build Requirements and Building on Windows. This is a sample step-by-step guide - check the complete requirements and report on email@example.com, if problems with this step-by-step guide occurs.
- Install cygwin, 32bit version
- Browse to http://cygwin.com.
- Click on the setup.exe link (most recent Cygwin DLL at the moment is 1.7.16-1) to download the installer and run it.
- Click through the questions.
- On the "Choose A Download Site" select a nearby download server.
- Expect a "Setup Alert" dialog box on the first cygwin install on the computer.
- Click OK to close it.
- On the page that allows you to select additional packages just select wget (enter wget in the Search box and select the wget enty in the Web/Default section.
- Click Next to finish package selection.
- Click Next to resolve dependencies.
- After installation is finished click the Finish button to close the dialog.
- Start cygwin bash in a terminal
- One way to do this is:
- Press WindowsKey-R
- Enter c:\cygwin\Cygwin.bat
- Hit Return.
- One way to do this is:
- Install Java.
- Choose between JDK 1.7 or OpenJDK.
- Install Ant
- Browse to http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi
- Chose a mirror near you.
- Download the zip archive (currently that is apache-ant-1.8.4-bin.zip).
- Open downloaded archive in file explorer and unzip it to a location of your choice, eg
c:\. Note that
C:\Program Files (x86)will not work due to problems of quoting the spaces and parentheses.
- Prepare to install missing cygwin packages by installing apt-cyg from googlecode.com
cd to /cygdrive/c/temp(or any other temporary directory of your choice)
wget http://apt-cyg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/apt-cyg chmod +x apt-cyg mv apt-cyg /usr/local/bin/
- Use apt-cyg to install missing cygwin packages
apt-cyg install perl zip unzip gperf autoconf rsync gcc4-g++ bison flex patch subversionor alternatively run setup and select the packages
If you will use git, you need in addition the packages
git git-svn
- Replace symlinked awk with copy of gawk.exe:
rm /usr/bin/awk mv /usr/bin/gawk.exe /usr/bin/awk.exeNote that if the
rmcommand fails then the
mvis not necessary.
- Install Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5. SP1 (recommend by Microsoft)
- Browse to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3138.
- Download Setup.exe and run the web installer (note that it will be saved as Setup(1).exe to disambiguate from the previously downloaded cygwin installer.) You can use the default values in the installation dialog.
- Alternatively download the iso image http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18950. Burn it to a dvd or unzip it.
- Download MS Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26368 ( There have been security updates, which are not included in older versions.)
- Download files vcredist_x86.exe and vcrestist_x64.exe
If you download the most actual version of Apache OpenOffice and unpack it, you will find the files vcredist_x86.exe and vcredist_x64.exe in folder redist. You can use them as well.
- Optional: Install DirectX SDK (for graphics hardware support in the slide show)
- Browse to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=6812
- Download and run DXSDK_Jun10.exe
- Optional: Install NSIS installer (for creating the EXE installer)
- Browse to http://nsis.sourceforge.net
- Download and run the installer.
- Get AOO source code. You can use the source release or check out from SVN. Build from source release if you want to build OpenOffice once but don't want to contribute patches. If you will contribute patches, you need to generate them against an actual version of trunk. In this case check out from SVN to be able to rebase before generating patches. You can work with subversion or with git-svn.
- Source release
- Browse to http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html#tested-sdk and locate the table row that starts with "Source code"
- Download source code in an archive format of your choice (note that tar.bz2 is typically smaller than tar.gz and zip)
- Optional: Verify the archive - following given link or instructions.
- Unpack source (in cygwin-terminal). Use the file name exactly as downloaded.
cd /tmp tar -xjf <download-location>/<downloaded-source-release.tar.bz2> cd <unpacked-source>/main
- Checkout from SVN using subversion
- Get subversion (only first time)
apt-cyg install subversion
- Start with creating a parent directory for the source code:
mkdir /cygdrive/c/source cd /cygdrive/c/source
- Check out source from Apache SVN repository
svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/trunk aoo-trunk cd aoo-trunk/main
- Checkout from SVN using git-svn
- Get git and git-svn (only first time)
apt-cyg install git git-svn
- Get the actual revision number from http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/OpenOffice/trunk/, e.g. 1234567
- Create an empty directory and change to it, e.g.
mkdir /cygdrive/c/source cd /cygdrive/c/source
- Check out source from Apache SVN repository
git svn clone --revision 1234567:HEAD https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/trunk cd trunk/main
- Remember the source path (this is optional, it keeps the following lines short):
SourceMain=`pwd`[Why? I have not used it. Regina (talk) 21:42, 24 February 2013 (UTC)]
- [Added explanation above Andre]
- Optional: Get dbghelp.dll (for using the
--enable-dbgutilconfigure option)
- This dll is part of MS Visual Studio.
- Copy file to
main/external/dbghelp. Use Windows file manager or in cygwin terminal
cp /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 9.0/Common7/IDE/dbghelp.dll $SourceMain/external/dbghelp
- Copy vcredist_x86.exe and vcredist_x64.exe (see above) to main/external/vcredist.
- Use Windows file manager or in cygwin terminal
cp <download-location>/vcredist_x86.exe $SourceMain/external/vcredist cp <download-location>/vcredist_x64.exe $SourceMain/external/vcredist
- Use Windows file manager or in cygwin terminal
- Get GDI+ redistributable.
- Browse to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18909
- Download WindowsXP-KB975337-x86-ENU.exe
- Run WindowsXP-KB975337-x86-ENU.exe
- Enter a temporary path (eg c:\temp\gdiplus) in the dialog and click OK to extract files
- Copy gdiplus.dll to main/external
cp /cygdrive/c/temp/gdiplus/asms/10/msft/windows/gdiplus/gdiplus.dll $SourceMain/external/gdiplus/
- Remove the temporary path
rm -fr /cygdrive/c/temp/gdiplus
- Get msvcr100.dll:
cp /cygdrive/c/Windows/System32/msvcr100.dll $SourceMain/external/msvcp100
- Make sure that you are in the main source directory:
cd $SourceMain
- Run autoconf to create the configure script:
- Call configure
- Run configure (adapt paths as necessary)
SDK_PATH="/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Microsoft SDKs/Windows/v7.0" ./configure \ --with-frame-home="$SDK_PATH" \ --with-psdk-home="$SDK_PATH" \ --with-midl-path="$SDK_PATH/bin" \ --with-directx-home="C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)" \ --with-ant-home="/cygdrive/c/apache-ant-1.8.4" \ --with-dmake-url="http://dmake.apache-extras.org.codespot.com/files/dmake-4.12.tar.bz2" \ --with-epm-url="http://www.msweet.org/files/project2/epm-3.7-source.tar.gz" \ --enable-pch \ --disable-atl \ --disable-activex \ --without-junitIf you have not installed the optional DirectX SDK then remove the
--with-directx-home switch
- Run configure (adapt paths as necessary)
- Finish configuration and download missing external source tarballs and extensions
- Include the configured environment
source winenv.set.sh
- Build
cd instsetoo_native/ build --allDepending on your computer this will take one or more hours to finish.
- Install
There are three options:
- Regular install with integration into Windows.
This allows only one instance of AOO to be installed.
- Start setup.exe and click through dialog:
- Apache OpenOffice can be started via the Windows start menu.
- Start setup.exe and click through dialog:
- Install without integration into Windows.
This allows several instance of AOO, based on the same version, to be installed side by side.
It still requires Administrator permissions.
- Start
setup.exewith option
$SourceMain/instsetoo_native/wntmsci12.pro/OpenOffice/msi/install/en-US/setup.exe -a
- Enter an installation path into the dialog and click through the dialog to finish installation.
- Start AOO by running
- Start
- Unpack archive without installation.
This does not require Administrator permissions
- Go to installation directory:
cd <installation-target>
- Unzip archive:
unzip $SourceMain/instsetoo_native/wntmsci12.pro/OpenOffice/archive/install/en-US/Apache_OpenOffice_4.0.1_Win_x86_install-arc_en-US.zip
- Start AOO by running:
- Go to installation directory:
- Regular install with integration into Windows.


text:
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To view the entire collection, click on the following link: Soho II Collection


text:
KENDALL, Fla. – The alleged reign of terror by a man described as the "neighbor from hell" is over, for now. Mitchell Igelko was arrested and booked in the Miami-Dade County Jail on two counts of criminal mischief and two counts of stalking.
According to his neighbors, Igelko, who owns a lawn maintenance company, has been bullying and tormenting them for nearly four years.
"He tries to intimidate you to either respect him and if you don't respect him," said Dr. Bob DerHagopian, "he'll do damage to you."
The doctor and his wife, Kelly, live next door to Igelko.
"You'd like to have a trench or a wall between you and he," Dr. DerHagopian told Local 10 Crime Specialist John Turchin.
The DerHagopians said it all started about four years ago when they used another landscaper to do some work on their property.
"It seems these incidents are of a retaliatory nature," remarked Kelly DerHagopian.
The incidents, they said, included poisoning a tree and some plants. When they compared notes with others in the cul-de-sac, they realized they weren't alone. Others shared similar stories. So, the neighbors got together and decided the best way to document what was allegedly going on was to catch him 'in the act.' Many of them bought and installed sophisticated surveillance cameras.
"I don't think any neighborhood should have to live with this type of fear and anxiety," said Dr. DerHagopian.
They captured him several times, most recently spraying what is believed to be a toxic chemical on their lawns. The damage is extensive.
"He is in his work truck, driving with the window cracked two to three inches," recalled Francisco Torres. "I see a red nozzle. I see a lot of jet stream of toxic liquid getting into my grass. I double check with my camera and I got the proof right there."
This came after he was seen on video walking up ad tossing bags of nails onto lawns, and launching them from his truck onto the grass and driveways.
Additionally, neighbors suspect he had something to do with several other incidents, including the night two men smashed the window of a Lexus, and another night when two men doused several cars with a flammable liquid, then were seen running to a neighbors house. Moments later, there was an explosion. A boat in that driveway was set on fire and blew up. The flames could be seen for blocks.
"His house was the only one untouched," remembered Kelly DerHagopian. "It makes us curious."


text:
Buffer law proposal met with cheers, jeers
A planned change to Riverhead Town's zoning code that would require buffer zones around commercial developments was praised by civic groups and derided by property owners at a public hearing during Tuesday's Town Board meeting.
The proposal would require any commercial property with a building of more than 5,000 square feet to keep a 50-foot buffer zone of trees or shrubs between it and the neighboring properties. Any property with a building equal to or less than 5,000 square feet would need a 25-foot buffer.
Current zoning law requires a 10-foot buffer zone around all commercial properties.
The zoning change was proposed after the Town Board faced public outrage over construction work at the Route 58 Costco development that resulted in clear-cutting up to the property lines of two residential communities.
Brian DeLuca, president and CEO of Group for the East End, an environmental organization, said it was "absolutely necessary" for larger commercial projects like Costco to have a buffer zone.
"The protection of the character of the town, this region, is vital to this economy," he said at the hearing.
Representatives from the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition and the Wading River Civic Association, also lent their support to the zoning change.
RNPC president Dominique Mendez said the buffer zone will improve residents' quality of life and suggested the board consider applying the requirement to multi-family apartment developments as well as commercial properties.
But commercial property owners said the zoning would take a substantial bite out of their land, reducing the value of their properties.
Aquebogue property owner Walter Binger says that homeowners who live near commercially zoned areas have "no right" to demand commercial property owners set aside land for buffer zones.
"I have rights," he said. "Other commercial property owners have rights."
August Groeber, who owns 2 acres of property, also railed against the proposal.
He said that since he purchased his land years ago, zoning changes have reduced the area he can develop to about a sixth of what he once could, reducing the property's worth. While builders on larger plots may be able to afford a 50-foot buffer, Mr. Groeber said he would lose even more land under the new zoning regulations.
"You're stealing my land and you're giving it to my neighbors," he said. "You aimed at Costco and you hit me."
Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said the town will look at neighboring towns' zoning regulations to see how they handle buffer zones before continuing with amending the code.
The public hearing will remain open for written comment until Oct. 11, town officials said.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated how much land Mr. Groeber owns.


text:
I'm amazed and also quite pleased to see that I continue to make the Growing Blog list on WordPress despite the exponential factor which should make it progressively more difficult to be on this list.
To remain a growing blog, you not only have to grow, but you have to outdo your own growing rate and the rate of others each time, and I've started the new year with a bang not only being one of the WordPress Growing Blogs, but also having one of the Top Posts on WordPress.
At last count my post Organizing Household Resources In An Address Book was the 99th Top Post on WordPress out of more than 2 million blogs and an unknown bazillion posts.
I've said it before, but I have to say it again that I thank my readers. I'm so glad that you find my blog to be interesting and useful. I'm so glad when I look at my statistics and see that you came to my site from a link which was e-mailed to you or when I read my own e-mail and there's a note from you telling me that you are putting me on your reader so you won't miss a post.
As you saw with yesterday's post, I don't like to make New Year Resolutions because so few people can keep them and if I'm going to have a resolution or a goal, why wait for January 1, but here are just a few of the directions I see my blog going in the coming months. I have other plans too that I'll let you know about as the year unfolds.
If you've made the resolution to be organized, this blog is quickly becoming the place to find easy tips and solutions. I've even created pages at the top of this blog for Household Tips and for Organizing so that you can easily find my posts at any time. To help you with that there are also a search feature and a calendar in the sidebar.
I've noticed that you are also especially interested in my posts on healthy eating and cookies (not so healthy but yummy) as well as other recipes. So I'll give you a bit more in these areas too in the coming months.
I'll continue to post about religion, God and my opinions on the topic. The Lenten season is approaching quickly. For the past two years I have used the book "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren to prepare for Easter by reading his book and reflecting on his 40-day spiritual journey. I found different insights each year as I have grown and changed, and for 2008 I hope you'll join me on-line. I highly recommend this book which according to Publishers Weekly has become "the bestselling nonfiction hardback book in history." So come find out why with me and my other readers. If you don't already own it, you can check it out from your local library when the time comes, or you can purchase it.
Today and anytime, feel free to leave me comments. Comments help us get to know each other and to build a community.
In the meantime, thanks a million to all of you for reading my blog, and I wish you and your loved ones a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2008!!!


text:
Select Skus are discontinued and have limited inventory.
Contact Us for more information.
The Moxy pendant light by Tech Lighting is small, versatile and strikingly elegant. The slim metal body is accented by an optic-grade acrylic diffuser which features sixteen tiny facets to create depth and dimension. The Moxy can be installed alone for a minimal statement or in clusters at varying heights for a dramatic impact. This small pendant scales at 5.7" in length and 8" in diameter making it an ideal size for closet lighting, bath lighting flanking a vanity or bedroom lighting. For even greater design customization pair the Moxy with the Monopoint system by Tech Lighting. The Moxy ships with a fully dimmable LED lamp allowing you the ability to customize the light tones to your desired ambiance.
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- Protected by a 5-year warranty
Includes 1.2 watt, 67.6 total delivered lumen, 2700K LED module and six feet of field-cuttable cable. Dimmable with most LED compatible ELV or Triac dimmers. Ships with 6 feet of field-cuttable cable. Aged brass ships with bronze cable. Chrome and Satin nickel finish with Satin cable.
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text:
Visit my FREE Short Story Store – stories by myself and guest authors that can be sent directly to your Kindle at no charge. No strings attached! Available to all website visitors. Find new authors and enjoy.
Like my character, Barbara Marr, I am a mother living in the suburbs. Unlike Barb, I have never found monkeys in my trees or a severed head in my neighbor's basement, and for this, I am extremely thankful.
My first novel, Take the Monkeys and Run, was published in 2010 and quickly became an Amazon Kindle Bestseller. It was followed by Citizen Insane, Silenced by the Yams, Saturday Night Cleaver, and Dead Man Stalking.
Because I love to laugh as well as make other people laugh, I delight in writing the character Barbara Marr, her friends, and her adversaries. When I set out to write and entertain, my goal was to produce something that would make readers exclaim, "Now that was fun!" I hope I have achieved that goal. And if I did, please feel free to drop me a line at and let me know. I love to hear from readers. (Especially if you LIKE the book!)
These days, I can be found pecking away at my laptop, conjuring books in two new series. New characters, more fun!
I hope you will hop over to my blog page and sign up for my email newsletter. Don't worry: I don't send ten thousand newsletters a month and I never use your email address for spam. Newsletters are only for announcements of releases or contests. You can get the same information by following me on Facebook and/or Twitter (follow buttons below). Or consider doing both!
Have a wonderful day and most importantly, remember to live, love, and laugh!
Best wishes,


text:
Start the conversation
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Now that Congress has allowed the U.S. national debt to grow bigger than the American economy, it won't be long until the American public suffers the consequences by losing most of its savings to inflation.
Figures for last year show the national debt officially exceeded 100% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). According to government figures, the national debt stood at $15.23 trillion at the close of 2011, compared to a GDP of $15.18 trillion.
"The 100% mark means that your entire debt is as big as everything you're producing in your country," Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, told USA Today. "Clearly, that can't continue."
Government overspending has grown the federal debt at an alarming rate. As recently as 2010, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had projected this milestone would not be reached until 2020.
"Congress is doing everything it can to make sure the national debt grows," said Money Morning Capital Waves Strategist Shah Gilani. "Republicans want more tax breaks for the rich while they appease the middle class by considering extending the payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits. The Democrats want to hire voters as government employees, a la Greece, to not only expand their base, but prove that big government can indeed be friendly. It's sickening."
According to projections in the latest budget submitted by U.S. President Barack Obama, the federal debt will soar to $26 trillion over the next 10 years. At that pace, the economy would need to grow at a 6% pace to stay even. The historical average for the annual GDP growth since 1948 is only 3.25%.
Unless Congress acts – and its recent track record of bickering while doing nothing to shrink annual budget deficits is not encouraging – this crushing debt will soon start inflicting serious pain on the American public.
Headed the Way of Italy and Spain
Although Congress could choose to tax its way out of debt, it would need to go far beyond the millionaires the Democrats want to tax. Fear of voter backlash will dissuade lawmakers from imposing the sort of taxes on the general public that could make a dent in the U.S. national debt.
Instead, Gilani sees the United States following the path of such troubled Eurozone countries as Italy and Spain.
"Greece, and more precisely Italy and Spain, are our ghosts of the future past," Gilani said. "The Fed will print more money. That's what they do. They work for the banks."
When countries print money to pay off debt, it typically leads to inflation. In such a scenario, the middle class loses big time as their savings lose value.
"The government's strategy appears to be some kind of "repression,' where you keep rates low and figure out a way of forcing domestic investors to take government bonds at very low interest rates," said Money Morning Global Investing Strategist Martin Hutchinson, noting that British bonds lost 90% of their value from 1945 to 1975.
"Repression's main effect is to solve government's problem at the expense of the middle class — it's effectively a very nasty extra tax," Hutchinson said.
The Lessons of Weimar Germany
One extreme case of damaging inflation took place in the German Weimar Republic of 1920-1923. By 1921, prices were already 15-times what they had been in 1914 at the beginning of World War I.
What followed was a period of "hyperinflation" that in 1914left the German mark worth only one-trillionth of its value.
"The Weimar hyperinflation wiped out the entire savings of the German middle class," Hutchinson said, noting that current U.S. policies of low interest rates, low taxes, deficit spending and an expansion of the money supply have mirrored those of the Weimar Republic.
"U.S. authorities probably won't pursue expansionary monetary policies with quite the dogged Germanic persistence that caused the mark to fall to one trillionth of its former value," Hutchinson said, "but the turnaround needed to stop a Weimar repetition will be very unpleasant, so there will undoubtedly be considerable denial and fudging of the figures as inflation begins to take off."
Although Congress can still prevent a national debt-induced disaster that would destroy much of the savings of the middle class, time is running out.
"Congress has until 2013 to start doing something, maybe through the first or second quarter of 2013 at most," said Gilani. "After that, if the world is growing and the U.S. is back on a growth trajectory, commodities will spike and inflation will start its inexorable, ineluctable rise."
Protect Yourself
There are several things investors can do to protect themselves from inflation. Hutchinson recommends:
- Investing in Gold: Gold is still the best hedge against inflation. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE: GLD) is a good option. Alternatively, you could go for a solid gold mining company such as Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE: AUY). These tend to move somewhat independently of the gold price, but also become more valuable through earnings as the period of high gold prices lengthens.
- Investing in Silver: Try to work silver into your portfolio, as well – specifically the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV).
- Investing in Asia: A third option is to invest in Asian stocks – especially South Korea and Singapore. Two strong prospects are the iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund (NYSE: EWS) and the iShares MSCI Korea Index Fund (NYSE: EWY).
- Fleeing the Dollar: With damage sure to be inflicted on the U.S. dollar, the Rydex Currency Shares Swiss Franc Trust (NYSE: FXF) also is a good choice. It tracks the performance of the Swiss franc and has an expense ratio of only 0.4%.
News and Related Story Links:
- Money Morning:
Inflation Fears: A Sanguine Fed is Underestimating the Escalating Threat
- Money Morning:
Don't Look Now but the National Debt Could be $23 Trillion by 2021
- Money Morning:
Money Morning's Debt-Crisis Survival Guide
- Money Morning:
How to Beat the Looming Inflation Tsunami
- Money Morning:
Is it 1932 – or 1923?
- Trading Economics:
United States GDP Annual Growth Rate
About the Author
David Zeiler, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 18 spent at The Baltimore Sun. He has worked as a writer, editor, and page designer at different times in his career. He's interviewed a number of well-known personalities - ranging from punk rock icon Joey Ramone to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Over the course of his journalistic career, Dave has covered many diverse subjects. Since arriving at Money Morning in 2011, he has focused primarily on technology. He's an expert on both Apple and cryptocurrencies. He started writing about Apple for The Sun in the mid-1990s, and had an Apple blog on The Sun's web site from 2007-2009. Dave's been writing about Bitcoin since 2011 - long before most people had even heard of it. He even mined it for a short time.
Dave has a BA in English and Mass Communications from Loyola University Maryland.