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The Promises to Abraham
The promise to Abraham is grossly ignored by most of Christendom. It is the foundation of the gospel message and any understanding of God's purpose with the earth, mankind and Jesus Christ, must operate upon the axis of the promise to Abraham. The promise to Abraham was also made by God to "the fathers" of Israel, Abraham, Issac and Jacob and constitutes the second of the three great promises that God has made.
The background of Abraham's life
The Bible teaches how that Abraham lived and grew up in an ungodly land called "Ur of the Caldees" near the ancient city of Babel or Babylon (see Genesis 11:27-32, Joshua 24:2). God appeared to him an made a promise with him if he would leave this country and go to a land God would show him. Abraham did this and it is recorded in scripture as a great act of faith.
"Now THE LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father' house, unto a land that I will shew thee" Genesis 12:1
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Hebrews 11:8
Why is the promise to Abraham relevant?
The importance of the promise to Abraham is massively relevant to all believers in the Bible. Consider these points:
This promise to Abraham is described by Paul as THE GOSPEL:
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Galatians 3:8
The apostle Paul, when imprisoned for preaching the gospel claimed that it was because of his hope in the promises to the fathers of Israel (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) that he was being condemned:
"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers" Acts 26:6
When a person is without Christ, it means that they are strangers to the "covenants of promise", meaning that to be in Christ is to be related to them:
"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world" Ephesians 2:12
One of the reasons for Jesus Christ's work was to fulfill and confirm this promise to Abraham.
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: Romans 15:8
What was the promise to Abraham?
The details of the promise to Abraham unfolded gradually throughout his life. Abraham's faithful obedience was rewarded by further details being revealed to him.
Here is an outline of the promise and it's different aspects:
- The initial promise given at Ur - Genesis 12:2-3.
- Abraham would become a great nation and a great name.
- God would bless those that blessed him and curse those that cursed him.
- That in Abraham eventually ALL nations will be blessed.
After entering the land God was to show him Abraham was then given the following promise at Shechem - Genesis 12:7.
- Abraham would have children (seed) who would inherit the land.
- After an example of Abraham's unselfish attitude, where Abraham gave his nephew, Lot, first choice over which land he could go and graze his cattle on, these further revelations occur at Bethel- Genesis 13:14-1.
- Abraham and his seed would inherit the land of Israel forever.
- His seed would be multitudinous.
When Abraham showed that he believed in God (Genesis 15:6), further developments in the promise are made at Hebron – Genesis 15:1-12; 17-20:
- God makes a covenant with Abraham by sacrifice.
- The boundaries of the land which God would give to Abraham and his seed are defined.
After Abraham passed a great test of faith given to him by God, where he demonstrated that he was prepared to sacrifice his only beloved son, Isaac, for God, the final installments of the promise are made on Mount Moriah – Genesis 2215-19:
- That Abraham's seed would possess the gate of his enemies (this phrase means to be victorious over them – see Psalm 110:1)
- That in this seed all nations would be blessed.
- The promise was confirmed by an oath from God.
These promises were also repeated to Abraham's son, Isaac and to Isaac's son Jacob – see Genesis 26:2-24, 28:3-14, 46:3 and 24:4.
What does the promise to Abraham mean?
The seed of Abraham
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Galatians 3:16
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1
The above verses show the importance and meaning of the promise to Abraham. Jesus Christ is the promised seed!
The land of Israel was promised to Abraham and to his seed, Jesus Christ. How can others share in this promise?
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise". Galatians 3:26-29
So a belief, or a faith, in Jesus Christ and an understanding of these promises enable us to be heirs of the promise to Abraham!
As Peter puts it:
"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust". 2 Peter 1:4
The Bible teaches that by belief and baptism, a person is considered as being "IN CHRIST" who in turn is Abraham's seed – the promise from God is that "IN THY SEED shall all nations be blessed". Abraham's seed then was firstly a singular aspect (Christ) but it also has a multitudinous aspect (believers in the promises through Christ), who are as the "sand and stars" for multitude.
The Natural seed of Abraham
So what of the natural descendants of Abraham? How can we be sure the promise is not to them? Consider these verses:
"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen (The non Jews) through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Galatians 3:7-9
"And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Matthew 3:9
"Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Romans 9:5-8
"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:27-31
The above verses clearly show that to be a natural descendant of Abraham is not enough, a belief in the promises and that they have and will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ enables anybody to be associated with them. This is the gospel.
What does the promise to Abraham means to us
Basically to be associated with these promises gives us 2 main blessings:
1. Justification through faith and from sins.
"Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:25-26 (see also Galatians 3:8)
2. Eternal Inheritance of the land of promise
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth". Matthew 5:5
"And they (the believers in their future state of immortality) sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth". Revelation 5:9-10
"For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Romans 4:13
Promises to Abraham and the associated doctrine of the resurrection of the dead
You will no doubt have gathered so far that this promise is all to do with and earthly inheritance for believers in Christ, not a heavenly one as some believe. There is also another doctrine involved which is taught indirectly in these promises to Abraham. It is the doctrine of the resurrection.
How could Abraham, or his seed, inherit the land forever unless he was raised from the dead and given the gift of immortal life?! God cannot lie. Abraham has not yet received this promise, it is still to happen in the future just like all those who associate themselves with Jesus and the promises, they will not receive a reward until he returns to set up God's Kingdom either.
Consider the following:
"…these (the faithful people of old) all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." Hebrews 11:12-16
"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Hebrews 11:39-40
"And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20:34-36
So then we can see that this promise holds great things for all who become associated with it.
Belief in the promises, Jesus Christ and baptism in His Name is the only way in which the Bible teaches we can have a hope of salvation. See also Acts 26:6 & 28:20.


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Elijah – Seeking God
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subset: commoncrawl


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Forget your tired images of prehistoric humans riding atop woolly mammoths and replace them with the thought of people hopping about inside the pouch of a giant wallaby. New research suggests that early humans coexisted with Tasmania's megafauna — and might have had a hand in their extinction.
More than 40,000 years ago, megafauna like Protemnodon anak, an animal physically similar to a wallaby that weighed more than 110 kg, roamed Tasmania. Researchers long believed that these creatures died out before humans were able to cross from Australia into Tasmania, when a land bridge briefly connected the two across the Bass Strait. Since humans were not believed to have had any contact with these megafauna, the most popular belief was that environmental factors stemming from climate change led to their extinction. However, new research from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) suggests that humans and giant wallabies may well have co-existed for 2,000 years.
Previous attempts at dating the remains of these prehistoric ancestors of the kangaroo, wombat, and Tasmanian devil involved radiocarbon dating the mineral fractions found in their bones. These indicated that the last of the megafauna died off before the earliest archaeological charcoal — indicating the presence of humans — found on Tasmania. Dating the mineral fractions, however, may not offer the most accurate data since elemental exposure can contaminate those fractions. ANSTO has been rethinking their dating techniques and opted instead to radiocarbon date the protein fractions in the bones. Those dates indicate that megafauna overlapped with humans for a significant amount of time.
So, if that data is correct, humans did set eyes on these giant mammals, and perhaps hunted them as well. That means that climate change may not have killed off the giant wallaby and its cohorts after all. They may have fallen at the hands of human hunters. ANSTO has not yet found evidence of Tasmanian human-megafauna interaction, but this may offer a clue in a millennia-old cold case.
You can review the findings at ScienceDirect.
Top image from Wikimedia Commons. Second image from ANSTO.
Prehistoric cold case links humans to Tasmanian megafauna extinctions [ANSTO via PhysOrg]


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Just what the title has to do with the movie is of some mystery, one that might be unlocked by those who pay close attention to the movie (and if you are one of those people, you really should see more movies). Perhaps it has something to do with the fact Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman), whose name sounds like something you might order with a side of hummus, is an "older woman" in her sexual prime older being her late 30s, and only studio executives would classify this as being older. (No wonder Shirley MacLaine was relegated to the final half of the Cameron Diaz-Toni Collette sisterhood pic In Her Shoes; in movie-studio years, MacLaine's been dead since 1997.)
This would explain why Rafi, just divorced from a man apparently her own age and possessing the libido of a corpse, winds up with a much younger man named David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg) much younger being his early 20s, though Greenberg and Thurman look all of nine months apart. Rafi needs a young man to satisfy her needs. Men her own age apparently don't have the stamina to fuck her all night on every surface in her apartment, which is an issue writer-director Ben Younger, already a creaky 31, might need to take up with his therapist or a trainer or a stack of self-help books.
Or perhaps the Prime in the title is intended to signify the twosome Rafi and David become against her better judgment and his mother's wishes, his mother being played by Meryl Streep as though she's auditioning for a summer-stock production of Fiddler on the Roof. See, two is a prime number. So, there's that. David and Rafi have more than their age difference acting as a barrier between newfound lust and long-lasting love; their religions, too, are working against then. He's Jewish, she's not, which ain't kosher with David's mom, Lisa, who's either seen noshing on giant corned beef sandwiches on her apartment rooftop or sitting at the Sabbath dinner table on Friday night, alongside her husband and parents, with whom David also lives. This movie's so Jewish that come the year 2018, it'll have to get bar mitzvahed.
But there is one complication even bigger than the age and religious differences: Lisa is also Rafi's therapist, a fact Younger blessedly doesn't keep concealed from the audience for too long. Lisa figures this out long before Rafi or David, however, which makes her not only a lousy, conniving mom, but also perhaps the most unethical therapist in New York City. Lisa's guilt-ridden over the deception, of course, but not enough to stop Rafi from describing the beauty of David's penis during their myriad sessions that devolve into sex chat. Younger, maker of the overheated Boiler Room some years back (notable as one of the few movies ever to put Vin Diesel in a tie), throws more roadblocks in front of his lovers than a state trooper.
But the problem with the discrepancies in their age is a cheat; theirs is a June-July romance, at best. Younger might have earned his tension by casting an older actress, but Thurman, at 35, has the mien and temperament (and wardrobe) of someone far younger; and Greenberg, playing a painter of intimate, wide-screen portraitures, carries himself as someone far older. And Lisa's less a concerned mother than a pain in the ass; the woman loses all sympathy, and credibility, the moment she betrays her son and patient, yet still Prime demands we think her caring and loving. Younger, for whatever reason, simply can't abide their happiness, and so he destructs the relationship from time to time for no reason, using plot devices that wouldn't have been out of place in episodes of Three's Company. (One involves David's slacker-schmuck pal Morris, played by Boiler Room's Jon Abrahams, hiding in a closet, which angers Rafi . . . why?) His is just more conventional schmaltz, served up on a paper plate.


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Time's cover story on Google's just-announced new firm, Calico, asks "Can Google Solve DEATH?" Ambitious though Google is, abolishing death is not in fact one of its goals, or at least not yet.
Rather, Calico is apparently looking to use tools like big data to determine what really extends lives. Google CEO Larry Page told Time magazine, for instance, that cancer is not worth working on, because it doesn't make as big a difference as everyone seems to think. "Are people really focused on the right things? One of the things I thought was amazing is that if you solve cancer, you'd add about three years to people's average life expectancy," said Page.
Google has never started an entirely separate company to pursue a new line of business, but making you live longer is so important that it warrants it, apparently. "For me, it was always unsatisfying if you look at companies that get very big, and they're just doing one thing," Page told Time. "Ideally, if you have more people and more resources, you can do more things, get more things solved. We've kind of always had that philosophy."
Calico will be run by Arthur Levinson, former CEO of biotech and pharmaceuticals firm Genentech, and current chairman of the board at Apple. It looks like a long-term play for Google, considering the amount of time that it takes biotech research to come to fruition—10 to 20 years.


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Drilling teeth is an essential part of repairing and restoring the damage caused by tooth decay. For generations dentists have relied on the dental drill with its rotating burr to remove decayed and damaged tooth material.
But while the dental drill is effective it also has its disadvantages. In the process of removing decayed material it inadvertently removes healthy structure near the target material. It often requires anesthesia to deaden the work area. And its noise and vibration are often unsettling to patients.
There is a growing alternative, though: air abrasion, a technology that's been around since the mid-20th Century. But recent advances in controlling the dust created by using abrasion, as well as new tooth-colored bonding materials to replace tooth structure, have sparked new interest among dentists and patients alike.
Also known as particle abrasion, this drill alternative uses a pressurized stream of fine particles to remove decayed material. Using a hand wand a dentist can precisely aim the stream of particles (usually aluminum oxide) to the specific areas of decay or softened material that need to be removed. As a result, it removes only a fraction of healthy tooth structure compared to traditional drilling. Air abrasion has also proven effective for removing staining without harming enamel.
Air abrasion also eliminates the sound and vibration associated with dental drills, and may not always require local anesthesia. On the other hand, it does have some limitations. For one, it's not as effective with larger cavities or working around older fillings. The tooth or teeth to be worked on must be carefully isolated from the rest of the mouth to keep the patient from swallowing the abrasive particles. And without a high-volume suction pump and good isolation protocols, the particles can produce something of a "sandstorm" in the treatment room.
But as air abrasion continues to advance, we may see improvements in these limitations. In a future time, the traditional dental drill may go the way of the horse and buggy.
If you would like more information on air abrasion as an alternative to drilling, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article "Air Abrasion Technology."


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Expert's Rating
- Excellent speakers
- Comfortable keyboard, touchpad
- Kind of ugly; doesn't look very high-end
- No discrete graphics card
Our Verdict
Truthfully, unless you're looking for something very specific–such as an attractive exterior or serious processing power–the 15R is a great choice for budget-conscious shoppers.
Best Prices Today: Inspiron 15R 5520
In a world full of $1000-plus Ultrabooks, it's nice to know you can still pick up a solid, all-purpose laptop for less than $600. The Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 isn't gorgeous, sleek, or lightweight—and it's certainly not the best performer—but at such a low price, it's an attractive option for people who are shopping on a budget.
Our review model, which costs $600, sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3210M processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm. The 15R also features built-in Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11n, a DVD-RW optical drive, and runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. For $50 less, you can grab the 15R with a second-generation Intel i3-2370M processor, and for $100 more, you can nab it with a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. You cannot, however, pick up the 15R with a discrete graphics card.
In PCWorld's WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 earned a score of 82. This means the 15R is 18 percent slower than our testing model, which has a second-generation i5 processor (albeit a desktop processor), 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive.
Though the 15R's score isn't top-of-the-line, it's about what we expect from a budget all-purpose laptop that has no discrete graphics card. By comparison, the Alienware M14x—which is a high-end 14-inch laptop designed for gamers— posted a mark of 143, while the HP Envy Sleekbook 6z-1000, which looks good but has an AMD processor, scored 55.
The Inspiron 15R performed competently in individual performance tests, for the most part beating out the Lenovo IdeaPad U410 (an Ultrabook) and the HP Envy Sleekbook. In our Web performance tests, the 15R managed 13.8 frames per second, which is higher (better) than most Ultrabooks and AMD laptops, but still lower than the Alienware M14x. It also performed well in our storage performance and content creation tests, though it failed to start up quickly (43.1 seconds) compared to Ultrabooks' startup times (the Lenovo starts up in less than half the time).
Because the 15R relies on Intel's integrated HD 4000 graphics, its graphics performance is lacking. In our Crysis 2 graphics tests, the 15R managed frame rates of between 13.7 (high-quality settings, 1366-by-768-pixel resolution) and 32.5 (low-quality settings, 800 by 600 pixel resolution) frames per second. While this is not too bad for integrated graphics after all—32.5 fps is playable—it's nowhere near what a dedicated, discrete graphics card will give you. For example, the Alienware M14x, which sports an Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics card, manages frame rates of between 46.5 and 99 on the same tests.
Battery life on the Inspiron 15R is about average for the category. In our tests we managed to get 5 hours and 2 minutes of battery life, which is what we expect from a laptop of this size. By comparison, the Alienware M14x gets 5 hours and 3 minutes, while the HP Envy Sleekbook gets 6 hours and 35 minutes.
Design: Chassis, keyboard, touchpad
The Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 is housed in a sturdy, if somewhat bulky-looking, plastic chassis. The cover features rounded corners, silver plastic edges, and a shiny, brushed-aluminum-look cover plate that you can snap out and exchange for another Dell-branded plate. Plates cost around $30 and are sold separately on the Dell website.
The 15R has a full-size keyboard with island-style keys, which sit against a shiny black plastic backing. The keys are small, but widely spaced and slightly indented, which makes for comfortable, accurate typing. The keyboard does flex quite a bit as you type on it, which raises questions as to its durability.The interior of the 15R looks a little less cheap than the outside, thanks to the slate gray brushed-aluminum keyboard deck. The glossy 15.6-inch screen is surrounded by a black plastic bezel, which houses a webcam and microphone. The power button is a medium-sized plastic button that manages to blend into the keyboard deck because it's located right beside one of the laptop's hinges. Below the other hinge (on the right) are three small buttons: a settings button, which brings up Windows Mobility Center; an audio button, which toggles through different audio preset modes; and a programmable button, which can be customized to launch programs or perform various functions.
A large touchpad is located directly below the keyboard. The touchpad is simply an indent in the brushed-aluminum deck, with a slightly rougher texture. Two large mouse buttons sit inside the indent, which are soft to the touch and easy to press. The touchpad is accurate and sensitive, and performs multitouch gestures smoothly. You'll also find a small light at the top of the touchpad, which, when turned on, indicates that the touchpad is disabled.
The 15R has a decent port selection for a budget machine, including four USB 3.0 ports (two on each side). The left side of the laptop also houses HDMI and VGA out ports, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. The right side features a lock slot, gigabit ethernet port, and the DVD-RW drive. A multiformat card reader is located on the front of the machine.
Screen and speakers
The Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 is a pretty decent laptop for just $600, but it shows its budget nature in its screen. It sports a glossy, 15.6-inch LED display with a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. While this resolution isn't awful—it's what we're used to seeing on Ultrabooks—it looks a little dated on a 15.6-inch screen.
Aside from looking a little low-res, the 15R's screen isn't bad. It's bright enough, at its brightest setting, to use outside or in brightly-lit conditions. Colors look good, and off-axis viewing angles are acceptable. Whites occasionally have a bluish tint, especially at higher brightness settings. HD video doesn't look fantastic, but this is partially the fault of the integrated graphics. In my tests, I noticed a fair amount of artifacting and blurriness. Scenes with high-motion content were even worse. If you're into cinematic action blockbusters, this is not the laptop for you.
The 15R's speakers, on the other hand, are surprisingly excellent and well above average for the budget laptop category. They're located on the bottom of the laptop, but they're just under the tapered lip so your lap or desk won't block them too much. The speakers produce very loud sound—so loud that they comfortably fill a medium-sized room at half-volume. Audio is also very full, thanks in part to the Waves MaxxAudio software, which enhances the sound.
Bottom line
It's hard to say great things about a laptop that is solidly mediocre. It's not the thinnest, prettiest, or most powerful 15.6-inch notebook around, but it still has a place in the market. The Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 performs well for its price, features an impressive four USB 3.0 ports, and has a large, if not very high-resolution, screen. It's built with solid components, and has excellent speakers for its size.
Unless you're looking for something very specific—such as an attractive exterior or serious processing power—the 15R is a great choice for budget-conscious shoppers.


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Viewpoint: Codepink Co-Founder on Corporate Reform
A U.S. Capitol Police officer stopped me as I tried to make my way inside the House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on AIG compensation last week wearing a sign pinned to my butt that read, "Bonus? My ass!" "I was told by the committee that you can't go in with signs that have profanity," the officer said. "So you'll have to take that off." Then, as I unpinned the sign from my skirt, he whispered, "Not that I don't agree with you."
Members of Codepink, or "the pink ladies," as Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski of the finance subcommittee called us, became a fixture in congressional chambers during the Bush administration, protesting the war in Iraq. We gave voice to the general public sentiment that had turned against the war long before Congress did. We embodied the public outrage that helped sweep Barack Obama into the White House.
Today, while Codepink still rallies and lobbies for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've become vocal—and visible—opponents of Wall Street bailouts. Once again, we represent the public's anger, this time against the corporate profiteers who, in the words of Sen. Charles Grassley, are "sucking the tit of the taxpayer." We personally share in the anger: one of the women with us inside last week's hearing room was Cynthia Benjamin (no relation), a nurse for 34 years with a son serving in Iraq. She drove to D.C. from upstate New York to give Congress a piece of her mind.
"You're damn right I'm angry," Cynthia told a reporter during a break. "First they took my son, who is serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, and now they took my retirement fund and my 401[k]. What the hell is this government doing?"
Such expressions of public outrage are all too rare inside the halls of Congress or the D.C. Beltway. At public hearings in Congress, the gray-suited K Street corporate lobbyists pay poor people (known in the business as "line standers") to hold their spots in line so they can breeze into the hearings at the last minute, making it almost impossible for the public to get in.
But the public's anger at the corporate greed that spurred our economic crisis has pushed people to work harder to make their voices heard—from swamping the congressional switchboards with calls to camping outside a congressional hearing to guarantee entry. Back in their home districts, lawmakers are besieged by constituents demanding answers, demanding transparency, demanding solutions. Lawmakers need to hear this public outrage and will make better policy if they do. In fact, the one silver lining of this economic debacle is an opening for instituting populist policies that could rein in some of these corporate excesses.
The public has finally woken up to the obscene distortion of values in the corporate world, which includes salaries and bonuses that are simply out of whack. In 1980, CEOs at Fortune 500 firms were paid 42 times the average worker's salary. By 2007, they were being paid on average 364 times as much.
The public has figured this out, and has begun to figure out solutions, too—and demand them. Shareholders, the true owners of corporations, should have the right to vote on major business decisions, including executive compensation. The accounting loophole that allows companies to sequester stock options from regular expenses must be closed, and options should be accounted for in every company's balance sheet. Congress should also do away with the ridiculous tax loophole for managers of hedge funds—the ability to claim their income as capital gains and pay only 15 percent in federal taxes—and put a conclusive end to excessive executive pay by capping tax deductions for executive compensation at 25 times the salary of any company's lowest-paid employee. If that worker received the minimum wage, the deductible for an executive would be capped at $304,200. The company could pay the executive more, but would not receive a tax break for the excess. This would generate more than $5 billion in extra revenues while acting as a check on grossly excessive compensation.
But these solutions alone will not fix the underlying problems with the corporate system that forced us into this mess. We need to create a new legal and regulatory framework that aligns corporations with social needs, including giving greater power to shareholders. A system that requires boards of directors to include representatives of all major stakeholders—workers, government and communities—and enforces collective-bargaining laws that level the balance of power between workers and managers.
The economic crisis, and the public's furor over executive pay and behavior, has provided Congress with an opportunity not just to rein in CEO compensation but also to remake the out-of-touch, irresponsible corporate system. Until that happens, we'll keep wearing our signs.


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Happy New Year! I am happy to be guest blogging at PrawfsBlawg this month, so this is cross posted at: http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2013/01/the-doc-fix-is-in.html
Roll Call is reporting — citing anonymous Congressional aides —
that a one year Doc Fix is included in the fiscal cliff resolution
package. This, of course, is unconfirmable. But I would be astonished
were it not true. Kicking the can down the road on Medicare's
sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) is what we are good at. Deciding
whether we can ever have a coherent public conversation about Medicare
physician reimbursement rates and the systematic undervaluation of
primary care services, not so much.
The SGR's origins in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, as part of an
attempt to link Medicare physician reimbursement to the general growth
rate of the economy, are almost lost to history. Some of this is
because, as early as 2001, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee
(MedPac) was calling for its repeal. This first call for repeal, as
with all subsequent ones, has gone unheeded. In 2002, the SGR formula
triggered a 4.8% reduction in Medicare reimbursement for physician
services. Physicians were displeased. And it is physician displeasure
combined with Congressional inability to confront that displeasure that
has kept us at an impasse ever since. It is not for nought, though
perhaps an overly cynical insight, that the SGR is sometimes described
as a Congressional fundraising vehicle. So long as Medicare physician
reimbursement hangs in the balance, members of Congress will be in close
communication with physician constituents.
Unable to implement, we have deferred SGR implementation through
fourteen Doc Fixes since 2002, producing what Peter Suderman has
described as the "permanently temporary" decision not to decide what we
think about reining in Medicare physician reimbursement. Now you know
why I would be astonished by any other news, despite the fact that SGR
repeal is rumored to have been included in one of the fiscal cliff
negotiating packages.
Why would the long-contemplated SGR repeal have fallen out of the
fiscal cliff negotiations? I can only speculate that the fiscal and
political complexity of developing an alternative reimbursement
restraint played some role. So, here we are: continuously overriding a
systemless sytem. Unable to move forward or backward, like crabs we
scuttle continuously sideways.
None of this is news.


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Manager: Ionia County Animal shelter's mission is saving lives, not taking them
Ionia County Animal Shelter Manager Robin Anderson and Assistant Mary Hartman agree that people often have misconceptions about the role of their local shelter. The goal of the Ionia County shelter is to return animals to their owners, and place homeless animals in foster and forever homes — not to kill them.
"People think that's automatically what we do — kill the animals, euthanize everybody," Anderson said. "We don't."
Anderson said the shelter's intake-to-adoption ratio is good even though recent data gathered for a grant application revealed a significant increase in animals coming through the shelter.
"We were 70 to 100 dogs more than we were last year (on Nov. 15)," Anderson said. "We still have a month and a half and we're up that much on animals."
Hartman has been volunteering at the shelter for the past two years and was recently hired part-time. She dedicates much of her 16-hour work week to adoption and rescue efforts, including contacting rescue groups and posting shelter animal profiles and photos on adoption Websites.
"Just in December, we've taken in 14 dogs, and we've adopted 14," Hartman said in mid-December. "We've returned six to owners, too."
Hartman said she most enjoys "seeing the dogs adopted out and going to good homes or sending them out to rescues and being able to get the animals that second chance. That's just really, really rewarding and that's the only reason I volunteered. I did it for the animals and that was the only reason.
"There were a lot of times when we were almost full and I'm working from home, too, at night emailing all our rescues saying, 'We're full, we're full, we're full.'"
Her extra efforts pay off, often with five or six dogs being taken in by rescue groups the next day.
"Otherwise, they could have been euthanized just for space," Hartman said. "If we move dogs, they don't have to be euthanized just for space. That's a huge thing with all my rescues. When we need help with space, they are really good about coming to the rescue."
Making connections
Networking is a proven strategy for the shelter and enables animals to be placed with rescue groups and foster or forever families. For Barock, an 83-pound black Labrador retriever who arrived at the shelter on Nov. 13, these connections are proving critical.
"He was a stray and we held on to him for a week and no one came to claim him," Hartman said. "So then we got him neutered and up to date on all his vaccines, and that's when they found the ear infection."
His infection is severe and requires around-the-clock medical care — a need the shelter with fewer than two full-time staffers is simply not equipped to accommodate.
Hartman has reached out to a Lab rescue group in Ohio she has worked with in the past. She emailed photos of Barock, along with all the information she has gathered on him since his arrival. Hartman is confident Barock is a good fit for the rescue group. Now, it's a wait-and-see situation. "It could take a few days," Hartman said.
"She has to present it to her board with all the information I sent … It could take up to five days."
Surrender vs. stray
The Ionia County Animal Shelter process differs slightly between dogs brought to the shelter as strays and those who are surrendered by owners.
Strays are held for four business days to allow time for owners to claim their pets. That time increases to seven days if the dog is found wearing a collar. At the end of the waiting period, the dog is given a temperament test to make sure it is suitable for adoption, then it is scheduled for medical services.
All dogs suitable for adoption are spayed or neutered, and their vaccinations are updated. Dogs not suitable for adoption — such as those who are extremely aggressive toward people or animals or who are very ill — may be placed with a rescue organization or euthanized, depending on the specific situation.
For example, an emaciated pit bull mix was brought in from downtown Ionia to the shelter last week, but his health was so far gone the veterinarian recommended putting him down. His collar was hanging from his neck like an oversized necklace, signaling he had been starving for several weeks.
The shelter can house at least 36 dogs at a time. During the spring and summer, there is often an influx of puppies, Anderson said.
"If we're full of dogs, we always have to take strays — always," Hartman said. "If it's an owner-surrender we don't have to."
The cost to surrender a dog in Ionia County is $5. If the shelter is full, the owner may be asked to come back at a later date and advised to call ahead to check on space.
"You might be full for a day or two, but then it all works out because you adopt or owners come and get their dogs," Hartman said. "If we're full, we can't bring anybody up."
The 15th dog for the month of December arrived at the shelter on Dec. 14. The tearful owners said they had just moved to Ionia, and their apartment complex doesn't allow dogs. To complicate matters, the dog is ill.
"It's sad because he's heartworm positive and he's a little bit on the scared-aggressive side," Anderson said.
The new addition will likely have to go to a rescue group.
"It's more of a rescue situation," she said. "It's a tough treatment, they have to be injected and then on no exercise for four weeks. He can go to a rescue and finish out his treatment and he'll be fine."
Luckily, the owners thought to bring in their dog's medicine and medical records, which show he is up to date on shots and detail his heartworm condition.
"This way we don't have to re-vaccinate, we can save it for another," Anderson said.
Owner-surrendered animals can enter the adoption program right away after passing a temperament test and being provided with the same medical services as strays, if needed.
"With a surrender, it doesn't take as long because we don't have to hold it," Hartman said.
Once a dog's medical services are complete and they enter the adoption program, Hartman shares photos and bios on Pet Finder, an Internet pet adoption Website, so they are available to the public.
"Once they are in our adoption program and we've spent the money to get them fixed, they are in our program until they go to a rescue or are adopted, unless something happens temperament wise," she said.
Owners are asked to be truthful about their pets when they surrender them.
"If they say it's their dog, we're not sitting on it," Anderson said. "We can get it right into the vets, we can get all of it's medical done and get it right onto the floor be adopted."
Dog owners who lie and say the pet they are dropping off is a stray are just prolonging the process because of the waiting period required for strays.
"They are scared enough, they don't need the extra time here," Anderson added. "We have some dogs here that have been here for two or three months."
Pure or mixed
The Ionia County Animal Shelter can only accept strays and owner-surrender dogs from within Ionia County. Adoption is key for local shelter animals, and every effort is made to find a home for every animal.
The breed of a dog often dictates what type of rescue group will be able to come to its aid. Many animal rescue groups focus on a single, particular breed of dog, and will often "pull" them from animal shelters until they can locate a permanent home for them.
"There's a lot of purebred rescue groups out there, so that if we see a boxer come in or a sheltie come in I know exactly who to contact if we need it pulled," Hartman said.
Other rescue organizations will "pull" any breed of dog from a shelter in an effort to get it into a foster or forever home. The shelter first attempts to adopt animals locally, if possible.
If the dog is not adopted or if a rescue has an opening, the dog can be "pulled" from the shelter. Rescues can "shop" the shelter for animals they feel they can find homes for. They do pay a "pull fee" to the shelter for animals they take, Hartman said.
"Rescues like that only pull from shelters, they don't take owner surrenders," Hartman said. "They always go to shelters to get the dogs out of the shelter environment."
Many of the rescue groups will also microchip the dogs, which helps end the cycle of pet homelessness, she added.
"We also work with several rescues on a very regular basis that pull any breed," Hartman said. "Safe Haven Humane Society is one of them, and they're local." The shelter also partners with Hearts of Hope, Saving Argo Dog Rescue and Last Day Dog Rescue, among others.
"Last Day Dog Rescue has a lot of fosters and a lot of dogs and they've helped us a lot," Hartman said.
Hearts of Hope Dog Rescue out of Grand Rapids hosts adoption events every weekend, and pulls local animals for the events, Hartman said. Anderson and Hartman said they would like Ionia County residents to realize the shelter is a community resource for pet owners and those seeking pets.
"We do really well with adoptions and if a dog doesn't have any aggressive behavior issues or anything like that, most likely it will be adopted or go to a rescue through us if they surrender it," Hartman said.
The Ionia County Animal Shelter is located at 3853 Sparrow Drive, Ionia. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday. Call 616-527-9040 or find adoptable pets online at www.petfinder.com/shelters/MI342.html.


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"Tò he", traditional toys in Vietnam
"Tò he" toys are sculptured figurines fashioned from colored rice dough, that make not only Vietnamese children but also adults feel so interesting...
In the old days, when comics and illustrated books had yet come into existence in Vietnam, "tò he" was made to depict different heroes and ordinary people of daily life, symbolic animals like dragon or phoenix or daily-viewed water buffalos, flowers and all beautiful things in fairy and history tales. Children gethered at the common place of the village to listen to stories, see the king and mandarins in their elaborate costumes made by skillful craftsmen to imagine the whole vivid world of heroes and fairies.
The village of Xuan La in Phu Xuyen District, Hanoi is well-known for its skill in making delicate "tò he" toys. "Tò he" makers do not teach the craft to women because the fathers fear their daughters will reveal precious trade secrets to their husbands' families.
Interesting characteristics
According to an old man in Xuan La Village, the recipe for success in making "tò he" lies in the preparation of the dough. The craftsman first grinds rice into fine powder, then pours water into the powder and mixes it until he achieves a sticky lump. He places the lump in a pot of water, brings the water to a boil, and cooks the paste for an hour. When the lump rises to the water's surface, dips, and rises again, the craftsman removes it from the pot. Then he applies seven colours: white. black, green, yellow, violet, pink, and red. Miraculously, the different colours never stain one another when he assembles the parts of a to lie figurine.
Many generations of Vietnamese children have been overjoyed when their mothers return from market with a "tò he". Children can even eat "tò he" after playing with them. Each Xuan La craftsman embarking on the "tò he" trade learns to humour customers, especially children. The lesson of humanity is the first one every Xuan La villager bears in mind. "If we love people, they will surely come to us," "tò he" makers say.
Making "tò he" does not bring much profit. The materials of rice paste, bamboo-stick holders, colourings are inexpensive and locally available. A craftsman only charges customers for his patience and care. Customers can place their orders, watch the craftsman mould the toy, and be pleased with the results in minutes. A "tò he" can depict a person, a famous general, a folk-tale character, an animal, or a flower. The makers remember the characteristics of every subject. They are experts in using exactly the right amount of paste to form each separate part of each kind of toy as if these skills were an inborn talent.
Mr. Dang Van To who is eighty-two, is the oldest "tò he" maker in Xuan La. He talks proudly about his life and career. Mr. To's family has been making "tò he" for ten generations. He learned the trade when he was six and is nationally known. The Ministry of Culture and Information often asks him to demonstrate "tò he" making at festivals. Mr. To's passion and skill have not lessened despite his age. He can make every kind of "tò he", from kings and mandarins with elaborate imperial costumes to complicated dragons. He can finish an image of King Quang Trung - a national hero, in less than ten minutes.
...and the meaningful lessons
It was also the moment when the tradition, lessons of virtues and morals were passed on to the young generation. Xuan La village is the place where passionate craftsmen follow generations of family to carry on with their "tò he" toys and the adventure of imaginative figurines despite the overwheming influx of modern toys and illustrated books.
Mr. To also likes to teach children about the underlying meaning of "tò he". He explains that the lifeline of the "tò he" trade is people's joy, not money. For example, as Mr. To creates a "tò he" rat, he explains that rats have pointed noses and long tails, that they destroy farmers' crops, and that the children should help get rid of rats. The children are fascinated to listen to Mr. To as they watch the "tò he" emerge in his hands.
Today, plastic and electronic toys flood city and countryside markets. Although "tò he" cannot compete, Xuan La villagers still struggle to maintain their traditional trade. At present, about 300 villagers make "tò he". Chu Van Nghe, a war veteran who is sixty-seven, still pursues the craft. His four-year-old granddaughter has asked him to teach her to make "tò he". Nowadays, many women assist their husbands and families in preserving the village trade. Everyday, Xuan La villagers travel to different corners of the countryside - from hamlets to markets to parks - selling "tò he" to children and "tò he" lovers.
Xuan La villagers take pride that, nowadays, "tò he" makers can be found nationwide and even abroad in China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. This proves that the craft has not entirely disappeared. Although a "tò he" is small, it embodies a lot of the sentiment, honour and industry that began with Xuan La villagers long, long ago.
"Tò he'' made simple but wonderful gifts of love and tenderness to childern who were longing for mother coming back from market shift. These simple toys still give children immense joy during the Mid-Autumn season.


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Do you like cocktails? Do you like acting quickly? Now is your chance to do both!! Be part of the next Flash Cocktail Competition in your city.
ShakeStir's mission is to provide spirits industry professionals worldwide with an interactive online and mobile platform to market their professional achievements, exchange ideas, seek job opportunities, and raise awareness about the cocktail industry both among bartenders and the customers they interact with on a daily basis. We hope you like what you see.
Please visit our sister site, CocktailCourier.com, to view original craft cocktails and recipes from ShakeStir members that are boxed and delivered to customers.


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New 2023 Thor Motor Coach Scope 18A
Motor Home Class B
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Gerzeny's RV is not responsible for any misprints, typos, or errors found in our website pages. Any price listed excludes sales tax, registration tags, and delivery fees and may change at time of delivery. Manufacturer pictures, specifications, and features may be used in place of actual units on our lot. Please contact us @941-867-2961 for availability as our inventory changes rapidly. All calculated payments are an estimate only and do not constitute a commitment that financing or a specific interest rate or term is available.


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Untouched images of Prada's banana-happy spring campaign leaked so early that the brand took no chances this time around. Instead, they've purposely dropped their fall campaign on to the Internet. The bright shots, courtesy of Steven Meisel, feature Frida Gustavsson and relative unknowns Ondria Hardin and Kelly Mittendorf. They also feature furry—fuzzy?—swimcap-like hats that appear to made from tinsel and paillettes. If anyone can make that a trend for fall, it's the woman who made $300 satin turbans a must-have. We're still kicking ourselves for not buying one in 2007 (really).
Click through to see the other campaign image!


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One person, one family, one community at a time, the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) fights the illnesses affecting lives throughout the world. Our translational research model aligns over 1500 researchers, students and support staff from Hunter New England Health and the University of Newcastle, inspiring new discoveries to deliver a healthier future.
Throughout Newcastle and the Hunter region researchers, students and support staff are working across six HMRI Research Programs to prevent, cure and treat a diverse range of serious illnesses by translating research findings made in the laboratory into real health treatments and preventative strategies. Internationally-recognised research outcomes are being achieved in asthma and airway diseases, cancer, diabetes, mental health, nutrition, pregnancy and reproduction, stroke and more. Collaborations are being conducted with institutes on all points of the globe.
HMRI provides vital funding and facilities to fuel research, but the heart and soul of the Institute are people – the researchers, the generous donors and supporters, the committed volunteers, and the patients who participate in trials and ultimately benefit from the research results.


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If there ever is a February to head to the NFL Scouting Combine with pockets bulging with draft picks, this is it. Last week, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert told reporters the 2014 draft class 'is as deep across the board' as any he has seen in the past 30 years. Soon to be former Browns CEO Joe Banner speculated the 2014 draft market would be richer than the one in 2013, so he traded the Steelers a 2013 fourth-round pick for Pittsburgh's third-round pick in 2014. He also traded a fifth-round choice to Indianapolis for the Colts' 2014 fourth-round choice. Five months later, he traded running back Trent Richardson to Indianapolis for the Colts' first-round choice, which turned out to be the 26th overall pick. Add it all up, and newly christened General Manager Ray Farmer is headed to the combine knowing he can draft 10 players from the 2014 group of hopefuls made deeper by more than 100 underclassmen. Colbert warned, however, not all the players leaving college early are ready for the NFL. Though Farmer did not know until last Tuesday he would be leading the Browns' small army of scouts and coaches to Indianapolis, he said he is prepared for the combine because of the advance work he had done getting ready for it in his former role of assistant general manager. Farmer headed the Browns' contingent at the Senior Bowl last month, so he has already seen and/or interviewed many of the players that will be measured and tested at the combine. 'I think the process for the things that we were putting in place, specific to myself, I think I had a large hand in the structure and the process behind what we were doing at the combine and why I was at the Senior Bowl,' Farmer said. 'We'll continue to move in a direction that I think is right for this football team moving forward. 'The process is what it is. I had helped establish that process, so I'm completely comfortable with where we're at, how we're preparing for the combine and moving forward.' Farmer would not list the Browns' primary needs coming off a 4-12 season, but they are fairly obvious, starting with quarterback. They desperately need a running back, but will likely take a wide receiver to pair with Josh Gordon before finding a starting running back. Friday will be the busiest day at the combine for media covering the Browns because that is the day quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers will be in the interview room. All eyes will be on quarterbacks Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M, Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville and Blake Bortles of Central Florida. Unless quarterbacks go back-to-back-to-back, one of them will be available when the Browns are on the clock with the fourth pick on May 8. NFLDraftScout.com has 16 wide receivers ranked among the top 100 players in the draft. Sammy Watkins of Clemson is universally ranked as the best wide receiver. The draft is also top-heavy in cornerbacks, which happens to be another area of need for the Browns. Thirteen corners are among NFLDraftScout.com's top 100. Seven of the Browns' 10 draft picks are in the first four rounds – picks four and 26 in the first round, and then one pick (35) in the second round, two in the third (71 and 83) plus two in the fourth (102 and 123). The draft is not deep at center or strong safety. Center Alex Mack and strong safety T. J. Ward are free agents. Farmer won't talk about re-signing Mack or Ward or possibly using the franchise tag on one of them. The period for issuing the franchise tag begins Monday and ends March 3. 'We've taken the opportunity to really look at all of the models and opportunities that we have to retain players,' Farmer said. 'I don't think right now is the right time for me to talk about what negotiations may be going on or where we're at with anyone in specific. But I will tell you we'll do everything in our power to make sure we have the right players for this football team moving forward.' How much time Farmer and his staff spends with center prospects (three in the top 100) and strong safeties (two in the top 100) at the combine might indicate whether the Browns plan to re-sign Mack and/or Ward. One of the most closely followed players at the combine this year will be Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, who is projected as a third- or fourth-round draft choice by
(ranked 110th overall, 11th defensive end) and a fourth-round pick by
. Mel Kiper Jr. does not rank Sam among his top 10 defensive ends or outside linebackers, but Sam will draw attention more attention than most fourth-round prospects because he recently announced he is gay. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is among the many NFL owners that said he would support selecting Sam if Farmer drafts the Missouri end. 'Absolutely we would welcome Michael Sam to the Cleveland Browns organization if he can help us win games and he's the right football player for this team,' Haslam said in a statement provided by the Browns. 'We are intent on creating an environment that is supportive, accepting and respectful of individual rights and differences.' Defensive end is not as high a priority as other positions on defense, including inside linebacker and cornerback. 2014 NFL Scouting Combine interview schedule
Thursday: Offensive linemen, kickers, punters, long snappers, tight ends.
Friday: Quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers
Saturday: Defensive ends, linebackers
Sunday: Defensive backs Browns draft picks
Round Pick (overall)
First 4 (4)
First 26 (26)
Second 3 (35)
Third 7 (71)
Third 19 (83)
Fourth 6 (102)
Fourth 27 (123)
Fifth 5 (133)
Sixth 4 (164)
Seventh 3 (195)


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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas leaders have kicked off a month-long food drive with the goal of bringing in 50,000 meals for needy families in the state.
Gov. Sam Brownback and Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman on Monday launched the "Neighbor to Neighbor" statewide food drive that will end March 19, which is Kansas Agriculture Day.
Donations to the drive can be left at Dillon's Food Stores and other locations across the state. The grocery store chain made an initial donation of 8,000 pounds of nonperishable food items Monday at the kick-off event in Topeka.
Brownback says the food drive won't end hunger in the state, but it's a start.
Harvesters, the Kansas Food Bank and Second Harvest Community Food Bank also are participating in the effort.


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Decorate your space with a piece of art that motivates you to take action. This wall art is perfect for the office, bedroom or living room.
Our Poster Prints are museum-quality posters that are printed on thick and durable matte paper. The paperweight is 200 gsm / 80 lb, ensuring that the prints are high-quality and long-lasting. The prints are shipped in sturdy packaging to protect them during transport. Smaller prints are shipped in a sturdy envelope, while larger prints are rolled and shipped in a sturdy postal tube.
These prints are ready for framing, so you can choose the perfect frame to complement your artwork. Please note that the frame is not included, and is shown for display purposes only.
Our poster prints are an affordable option for those who want to purchase a high-quality piece of artwork at a lower price point. Whether you're looking for an affordable way to add a touch of sophistication to your home or office, or you simply want to enjoy beautiful artwork without breaking the bank, our poster prints are a great choice.
With our Poster Prints, you can enjoy beautiful, high-quality artwork that is easy to frame and display in your home or office.
Our Stretched Canvases are made with a poly-cotton blend canvas that is printed with state-of-the-art technology for sharp reproduction and vibrant color. The canvas is water-resistant, fade-resistant, and resistant to yellowing, ensuring that it will last for years. It is stretched over a 1.25" premium pine wood frame, creating a classic and timeless look. This is a durable and high-quality canvas art option.
Our Floating Framed Canvases have a modern and luxurious look. The black pine wood frame is fitted around a 100% poly cotton blend canvas, creating a floating effect. We use FSC Certified wood from sustainable forests for our frames, which are finished with non-toxic methods to prevent chipping. The gap between the canvas and the frame is about 1 cm, giving the artwork a distinguished appearance. This is a high-end canvas option.


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You have to know when to fold 'em - and know your fellow poker players
Next time you sit down to a poker game around the kitchen table, take a good look at your opponents.
Forget about trying to ferret out a bluff and instead ask yourself how well you know your fellow players.
Last week, as the Division of Special Revenue reminded Connecticut residents where they can and cannot legally play poker, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said games solicited through Web sites violate the "pre-existing social relationship" condition usually applied to home games.
"It's the nature of the relationship between the players that really determines whether it is legal," Blumenthal said. "If they're coming together because they all answered an ad in the paper or on the Internet, there's no social relationship."
Paul Ulm, a Norwich poker player, disagreed with Blumenthal's logic.
"I feel that the solicitation of poker players is no different than a Bible study," he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "These people meet up through various media."
According to Blumenthal, if a group of nurses who work together at The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich gets together Sunday nights to play without the host profiting, there's no problem.
However, if a game is made up of strangers who found each other through a networking Web site such as Meetup.com or HomePokerGames.com, the games become illegal, Blumenthal said.
Ulm said he likes to play low-limit cash games or small buy-in tournaments and believes everyone should be able to play as long as they are old enough.
"Poker is just another game that people like to play in a social and competitive nature," he wrote. "If people choose to play poker and the house does not take a cut, it should not matter who plays."
Reach Erica Jacobson of the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin at email@example.com.


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Find My iPhone was one of the best things Apple showed off on Monday at WWDC—track your phone, send harassing messages, etc. It works, but whoever pinched your iPhone can just turn off tracking right from the phone.
So, if you wanna steal your friend's iPhone and not have them know where you absconded to, all you have to do it go into Settings, then hit Mail, Contact, Calendars and click on the MobileMe account. Turn off Find My iPhone and all your friend will get is a little yellow warning symbol when they try to track it if the phone's been previously located (see above).
Even if they're not smart enough to dig into the MobileMe account setting, all you have to do is turn off Location Services under General settings—that also cripples Find My iPhone long enough to get it back home to wipe it out completely so it's untraceable.
You can still send nastygrams to the iPhone via the service as long as the phone is still online, so presumably Remote Wipe still works as well, though neither of those will actually help find your iPhone.
Update: Yes, this all obviously assumes they can get into your settings if you haven't passcode-locked your phone or they figure out what your passcode is.
Luckily, it seems like even with this massive vulnerability in the tracking feature—you know, the one the service is named after—it should still be more than enough to catch most iPhone thieves.
[Blam—obviously, the service is not meant to be lojack for your phone. What are pasty gadget geeks going to do when they find out who has their phone? Demand it back? No. Really, its for when YOU think you've left your phone somewhere. Never mind the "turning it off", thieves can wipe the phone.]


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The Government has "started to talk" to CERN about becoming a member of the scientific research institute, according to the group's director general.
Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer was questioned on the topic as part of his keynote address at ESOF 2012, but was cautious in the language he used on the matter.
"The word 'approached' I think is the wrong one," he told delegates in Dublin's Convention Centre. "We have started to talk about it."
Yesterday Dr Heuer sparked a debate within scientific and political circles when he said he felt Irish scientists should be involved in the Swiss-based research project.
The Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government, Prof Patrick Cunningham said he would like to see Ireland join eventually but at a cost of €20-30m per year there was no money to do so at the moment.
However Dr Heuer suggested the cost of membership was actually around €11m per year, while the country could also become a part-member for just €1m per annum.
Ireland is the only country in western Europe not partaking in CERN's work. A by-product of this is that Irish scientists cannot work there and Irish companies cannot bid for contracts coming from the centre.
As part of his address at ESOF 2012, Dr Heuer told delegates about the work of CERN and its Large Hadron Collider, which is being used to find out more about the origins of the universe.
Dr Heuer's address came just ten days after CERN announced its discovery of what may well be the elusive Higgs boson particle, which is an important part of understanding how mass is created.
Dr Heuer said as a layman he would say CERN had discovered the particle but as a scientist he is careful to hold his judgement.
He said the discovery of the Higgs boson could be a major leap forward for science, particularly in its attempts to understand dark matter.
Renowned biologist Dr Craig Venter gave a keynote address to delegates in the evening, where he spoke about his work in mapping and understanding DNA.
He detailed his institute's work in creating synthetic chromosomes and the potential uses it could have in creating medicines and vaccines.
As it happened - Dr Craig Venter's address:
1907 Dr Craig Venter has concluded his keynote address.
1906 A human's genome goes through constant changes, so having a single map of your sequence would not be accurate.
1904 It would not be a huge leap to work with multi-cell organisms, says Venter.
However he said as there is likely to be 1bn more humans on the planet in 11 years he does not want to help create more of them.
He said the same applies to the likes of cows.
1903 A delegate asks if they might be able to create an animal's genome in the future.
Venter says he thinks anything is possible and would not want to suggest that something could not be done.
1858 Venter is asked about commercial companies that offer the mapping of parts of the genome.
He says some do a good job and provide a good education but are limited and results should be taken with a grain of salt.
1856 The genes created are designed with so-called "suicide genes" that ensure they cannot survive outside the laboratory.
Venter says they do not want to alter the real environment and so this is important.
1854 Venter is talking about the security aspects of their work, such as biological containment and the threat of biological warfare.
1853 They are working to engineer algie for fuel creation and even using it to replace the harvesting of fish for oil.
1852 Digital and biology are becoming one and the same, says Venter.
He said in the future people could have a box connected to their computer that could produce chromosomes or vaccines based on a digital, synthetic creation.
1851 Venter says he thinks they are "pandemic ready" as they can synthesise a strand of the flu within 12 hours.
He says he believes they could do this before the WHO had even met to discuss any future outbreak.
1848 Venter's institute is trying to develop new cells with specific functions, like capturing energy from sunlight or converting CO2 gases.
The first genome vaccine is also coming on the market in Europe, while it is being researched as a way of tackling influenza.
1847 Even in the most simple cell on the planet there are 21 genes that they have not yet figured out the function of.
All they know is that if the gene is taken out, the cell dies.
1845 There are 'stop codes' within the DNA being produced - this ensures the various quotes are not actual parts of the sequence and so cannot interfere with the chromosome's behaviour.
1844 Venter's institute got a letter from James Joyce's estate asking them if they had permission to use his quote in their DNA sequence.
He said it was within fair use so they weren't too worried about the letter.
1842 A synthetic species it created has its own URL embedded within its DNA.
Venter says as it's the first species to have a computer as a parent it's important to do this.
1840 Venter's institute started to 'watermark' synthetic genomes to prove they were manufactured - but also to track them.
One genome is packed with literary quotes, including one from James Joyce.
1834 "Life is a DNA software system; you change the software, you change the species"
1833 When the synthetic chromosome was transplanted into a cell, the cell began to produce protein for it.
Ultimately this new chromosome took over the cell and began to multiply, so you had a natural cell reproducing a synthetic chromosome.
1832 The next step was to create a synthetic chromosome. Venter says the big question here is how you 'boot-up' the gene.
1831 The synthesising of genomes has been perfected and can now be automated, so it can go from computer code to an actual genome with very little human interaction.
1828 The synthetic microbe was injected into E. Coli, which immediately identified it as a genome and began to use it in the production of the virus.
1827 Venter is now talking about their synthesising of a genome and the hurdles they faced in doing so.
1822 It's now very easy to take a skin sample and, with some manipulation, turn it into different types of stem cells.
1821 We are in the "linear phases of discovery" says Venter and it is now easier than ever to find new microbes and genomes.
1820 Air samples taken in hospitals were found to be loaded with bacteria.
1818 Indoor air samples were taken in New York and most of the DNA found was human, the second most common DNA was rodent.
When they went outdoors, nearly half of the DNA in the air came from rodents. Less than 20% was human.
1816 A lot of iron was found in the air in New York when shotgun sequencing was used there- the source of this is not known.
1815 Venter's institute use 'Shotgun sequencing' to decode genomes - this is a method that was criticised as inaccurate at first but is now the scientific standard.
1812 Even in areas where they were not expecting to find much activity, the expedition found millions of new microbes says Venter.
1810 Venter is talking about his recent study, which he said allowed him to sail around the world while also conducting scientific experiments.
1808 DNA sequencing on its own will not tell you very much.
Venter says he wants a "digitised phenotype" of at least 10,000, which would give details on every part of a person's make-up.
This would help give a clear understanding for disease predictions.
1807 450-550 chemicals have been detected in the blood stream - at present it is not known what they are doing or what impact they have on people.
1804 Alcohol does not damage the liver directly - instead it triggers the release of a toxic microbe that does the organ damage.
Venter - somewhat tongue in cheek - suggests fortifying alcohol with antibiotics to kill off this microbe and make drinking less of a health risk.
1803 Pharmaceutical companies are now changing to a new model where they develop high-priced niche drugs that help lower percentage people, rather than 'blockbuster' drugs that help many.
1800 There are a variety of ways of separating parental genes to see what elements people inherited from their respective parents.
1759 That 1-3% variation even exists when comparing American, African and Asian genes.
However there have greater variations detected between different genomes within Africa, which is currently being researched.
1758 Genome research shows that there is a 1-3% difference between unrelated humans.
1756 Labs used to be huge - Venter's institute even had to build the third largest civilian computer in 1999 to process the huge swathes of information coming from decoding genomes.
Now a small computer can do the job in two hours - Venter says it can do it for a cost of just $1,000.
1754 The mapping of genomes has scaled up at a rapid pace, says Venter.
In 1995 a genome was mapped for the first time ever; five years later the first human genome was mapped.
1752 Scientists are turning human DNA from analogue into digital 1s and 0s, says Venter, but the research is still in its early stages.
1751 Venter's organisation is working on the world's first carbon-neutral research institute in California.
1749 Dr Venter is also the first person to have his entire genome mapped.
1748 Dr Venter is the first to have created synthetic life, says Mark Ferguson.
1742 Mark Ferguson, Director General, Science Foundation Ireland is introducing Dr Craig Venter.
As it happened - Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer's address:
1553 Dr Heuer has concluded his address to delegates.
1549 Heuer paraphrases Michael Faraday, who was asked by a British minister what his discoveries could be used for.
"Honestly I do not know but maybe some day you can tax it."
1548 Heuer is asked if there is any real-world applications that could come from the Higgs boson discovery.
He tells the audience member to ask him in many years time.
He said CERN is conducting curiosity-based research and they do not even understand what they have discovered yet.
1546 A member of the audience asked if he had been approached by the Irish Government about CERN membership.
He said he would not describe it as an approach but that there have been discussions about it.
1544 Heuer said when the universe cooled it could no longer produce Higgs bosons but now the LHC means it can.
1542 It is very difficult to make CERN's work more visual and less mathematical, Heuer says.
He says they are getting better but it can be hard to explain and show people what they are doing.
1540 Heuer finishes his address by saying "the future is bright for dark matter.
He is now taking questions from the floor.
1539 The LHC has a clear timetable in place up to 2030, which includes it being shut down at certain points for upgrades and changes.
1538 CERN's discovery was extremely significant, says Heuer, which is why everyone got so excited.
1537 The discovered particle could be part of a family of Higgs boson, say Heuer.
However the discovery could be the first scalar particle discovery and could open the door to dark matter and dark energy.
1536 As a layman Heuer would say "we have it", as a scientists he has to ask "what do we have?"
1534 It took 30 years to restrict the mass range where the Higgs boson could operate.
Within one year the LHC had eliminated the remaining range signals and identified the correct one.
1532 Heuer likens finding the Higgs boson to trying to find a particular type of snowflake in the middle of a snow storm.
There is a lot of background noise, he says, and the trick is to identify and isolate the particle you are seeking.
1530 73% of the universe is in mysterious "dark energy" - Heuer hopes CERN will be involved in the first dark universe discovery.
1528 Heuer cites the example of anti-matter, which is a relatively recent discovery but is now used in medical diagnosis.
1527 New scientific discovery can become very useful but at the point of discovery you cannot know how or when.
This is something politicians need to understand, says Heuer.
1526 It is not known if there is just one type of dark matter, or if it consists of a variety of types of matter like the rest of the universe.
1525 Dark matter has to have had a critical role in the shaping of the early universe, says Heuer.
Very little is known about dark matter, however, but the LHC may be the best way to study it.
1523 CERN is now entering new territory where there are a number of questions.
- What is mass?
- Why is there no more anti-matter?
- What was matter like in the first moments of the universe?
- What is 96% of the universe made up of?
1521 There is "fantastic agreement" between the theory of the Standard Model and the results coming out of the LHC experiments.
1519 Heuer says finding 'new physics' particles is like finding a needle in a number of haystacks - where the haystacks themselves are made up of needles.
1518 There are ten orders of magitude between 'Ordinary physics' and 'new physics' (which includes the Higgs boson) in terms of the ability to produce something in the lab. This makes it extremely hard to find and study.
1516 CERN is now trying to get its scientists to work with artists.
1515 Heuer says LHC is engineering art. He shows a stage from an opera which resembles the collider's design.
1513 Other research units at CERN use the LHC to study the results of colliding lead ions and search for an understanding of anti-matter.
1512 Heuer advises people to never believe scientific results that come from one place - for that reason CERN has two main units to analyse the results of the LHC.
1510 The LHC is the coldest place in the universe - colder than space, says Heuer.
However it is also the hottest place, as the proton collisions creates heat greater than that produced by the Sun.
1509 Heuer is explaining how the Large Hadron Collider works.
It uses two pipes within a magnetic field to fire protons at each other, after which it measures the resulting matter.
1508 We know very little about dark matter and almost nothing about dark energy, says Heuer.
The LHC will help humans understand this part of the universe, however.
1506 Heuer has used an interesting analogy to explain the Higgs boson.
He has likened it to a room full of journalists who would let some (lesser-known) people pass through without interruption but gather around other (famous) people, effectively giving them mass.
1503 The Standard Model only relates to massless objects - the origin of mass of elementary particles is missing from the equation.
This is where Higgs' boson theory comes into play.
1502 The Standard Model is a fantastic achievement but also extremely frustrating, says Heuer.
1500 Every piece of matter has a corresponding anti-matter, which anihalate each other when they meet.
Heuer says this creates the question - how do we exist?
1456 Humans consist of just three types of particle - up quarks, down quarks and electrons.
However there are two other "families" of particle in nature, of which there is very little known.
1455 Satellite allow us to look into the "large scales" of the universes history, like galaxies and stars.
To look into the "small scales" you need a very large microscope, says Heuer, which is effectively what the Large Hadron Collider is.
1452 Understanding the very first moments of the Big Bang is one of today's greatest scientific challenges, says Heuer.
1450 Heuer says the mission of CERN is research, innovation, education and unity.
1449 Dr. Ronan McNulty, School of Physics, University College Dublin is introducing Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer.


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Burberry marries tradition and innovation
MILAN (AP) — Tradition meets innovation in Burberry Prorsum's new winter looks for men.
The "I Love Classics" collection — or made more technology-friendly, I (heart) Classics — focuses heavily on outerwear, from the classic trench and duffel, to topcoats, Chesterfields and bombers.
While diving deep into Burberry's archives, designer Christopher Bailey managed also to have fun, adding a touch of whimsy with repeating heart motifs and oversizing military-inspired accents.
"I liked the idea of celebrating things that are familiar, classic, the kind of classic Burberry, classic menswear," Bailey said backstage after the Milan Fashion Week winter 2014 preview show Saturday. "But I wanted to be playful as well."
Bailey married innovation and levity in traditional coats made of light-weight transparent rubber with a repeating heart lining. Bailey said Burberry developed the rubber to be silky to the touch. Cashmere also gets special treatment, with new finishes and bonding to alter the texture.
Colors followed the classic line — camel, bone, olive, navy and black — with deep reds and dark royal purple.
Maintaining a light mood, animal prints also accented classic bags, complementing the Burberry check pattern, and also adorned shoes and boots. Animal print sunglasses complete the look.


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Auto Bits: Is your child in the right car seat?
Tip of the Week
Is your child in the right car seat?
Every 33 seconds, a child under 13 is involved in a car crash, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. Even more startling: Car crashes are a leading cause of death for children ages 1-13, so parents should be proactive about making sure their child has the best protection possible whenever they're in the car.
One of the most common mistakes parents and caregivers make is moving children too soon to the next restraint type (whether that's the next car seat, booster seat or seat belt) or direction (rear-facing to forward-facing). Parents should always make sure the car seat is appropriate for their child's age, height and weight.
For information about choosing the right seat and finding a nearby car seat check location, visit NHTSA.gov/TheRightSeat.
Auto news
Waymo, Google's self-driving car subsidiary, has announced it will bring a factory to Michigan. The company said the move would create up to 400 jobs at a retrofitted plant dedicated to the mass production of autonomous vehicles. The company plans to spend about $13.6 million on the Detroit-area retrofit. According to the deal with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the factory must be in operation by the end of 2021 with at least 100 new employees. Waymo said the venture could create up to 400 jobs in the region by 2025. In a blog post, the company says it picked the area because of its "talented workforce and excellent snowy conditions for our cars to test."
The List
Recently, Cars.com editors announced that for the second year in a row the Chrysler Pacifica is its 'Family Car of the Year.' The automotive marketplace gives the award to vehicles that excel in three key criteria: quality, innovation and value. The company cited the hybrid min-van's fold-flat back seats, optional built-in entertainment system, and built-in vacuum.


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