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Diabetes and Other Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders Home
Anatomy of the Endocrine System
Growth in Children
Normal Growth
Newborn Screening Tests
Growth Problems
Growth Hormone Deficiency
Overview of Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes
Teens and Diabetes
Diet and Diabetes
Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar)
Hypoglycemia in the Newborn
Problems in Puberty
Precocious Puberty (Early Puberty)
Gonadotropin-Independent Precocious Puberty
Delayed Puberty
Disorders of Sex Development
Disorders Affecting the Thyroid
Hyperthyroidism (Graves Disease)
Disorders Affecting the Pituitary Gland
Posterior Pituitary Disorders
Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone Secretion (SIADH)
Diabetes Insipidus
Anterior Pituitary Disorders
Disorders Affecting Calcium Metabolism
Juvenile Osteoporosis
22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
Disorders Affecting the Adrenal Glands
Underactive Adrenal Glands / Addison's Disease
Our web site is designed to provide general information to educate users about programs and services, which may be available through our hospitals. The web site is not intended to provide medical advice nor should the information be used to attempt to determine the presence, absence or severity of any illness or medical condition which may be perceived or experienced by the user of this site. If you have or suspect you may have an illness or condition which you believe requires medical attention, we recommend you call your primary care physician. If you believe you are experiencing a medical emergency please call "911" (or your local medical emergency number) or seek immediate care from the nearest hospital Emergency Department. The provision of information to users of this web site is not intended as an inducement or to otherwise influence a person's decision to order or receive any item or service from a particular provider, practitioner or supplier that is reimbursable under Medicare, a state healthcare program (e.g., AHCCS) or any other healthcare plan.
Physicians are members of the medical staff at each facility, but are independent contractors who are neither employees nor agents of First California Physician Partners; and, as a result, First California Physician Partners is not responsible for the actions of any of these physicians in their medical practices.


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Game 1 went to South Granville.
CREEDMOOR � Game 1 went to South Granville.
South Lenoir rallied to tie in the top of the seventh inning but the Vikings won on an error in the bottom of the frame to win 4-3 and take a one-game lead in the best-of-three NCHSAA 2A Eastern Regional series on Thursday.
Game 2 will be played at South Lenoir today at 7 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, will be back at South Granville at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Alease Daniel led off the home-half of the seventh with a walk from Mattie Beyer, then moved to second following a groundout by Megan Bowes. Erin Boone then grounded one to first, but the ball ricocheted off the glove of the first baseman, and another error was made on the throw trying to gun Daniel down at the plate.
The loss snapped a 10-game losing streak for South Lenoir (22-4), which must win today to force a decisive Game 3 and keep its season alive.
Taylor Sandlin doubled home Mentz in the first to put the Blue Devils on top, but the Vikings (23-1) got three back in the third. The lead held until Mentz�s double in the seventh.
Meredith Sanderson led off the seventh by getting hit with a pitch, and scored ahead of Cassidy Willoughby, who singled, on Mentz�s two-out double to tie.
South Lenoir loaded the bases in the fifth with one out but failed to score.
NCHSAA 2A Eastern regional softball series
South Lenoir vs. South Granville, best-of-3
Game 1: S. Granville 4, S. Lenoir 3 (S. Granville leads series 1-0)
Game 2: at S. Lenoir, today, 7 p.m.
Game 3: at S. Granville, Saturday, 2 p.m. (if nec.)

subset: commoncrawl


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B. Seaweed (0.1-0.5-1.0) is an optimal growth stimulant for all your plants. Technafloras exceptional liquid extract is made from 100% pure, organic British Columbia kelp. Sea kelp is the source of more than 60 nutrients, vitamins, and hormones that support and strengthen hearty, thriving plants. In addition, sea kelp aids in the absorption of nutrients from the soil. B. Seaweed is ultra-concentrated, and must be diluted with water for use in irrigation solutions or as a foliar spray. Ideal as an additive for organic tea mixtures, versatile B. Seaweed is also a superior soil tonic, and can be added to the hydroponic reservoir with confidence.
This item is sold individually. The case size is listed for your convenience for instances where you wish to order in case quantities.
— Ships from H: WA, CA, CO, MI, TN, PA, FL USA.


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European Commission
Press release
Brussels, 18 June 2014
All aboard for a new Adriatic and Ionian Macro-Region: The Commission brings countries closer together
The European Commission has today officially launched a new EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region in the form of a Communication and an Action Plan, to help its 70 million residents to reap the benefit of closer cooperation in areas like promoting the maritime economy, preserving the marine environment, completing transport and energy links and boosting sustainable tourism.
The Strategy will also provide a valuable opportunity for would-be members and candidates of the EU to work alongside EU members, in particular contributing to the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union.
This is the first EU 'macro-regional strategy' with such a large proportion of non-EU countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia) cooperating with EU members (Croatia, Greece, Italy, and Slovenia). The Strategy mainly revolves around the opportunities of the maritime economy - 'blue growth', land-sea transport, energy connectivity, protecting the environment and sustainable tourism – sectors that are bound to play a crucial role in creating jobs and boosting economic growth in the region. The starting point for this is the Maritime Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, adopted by the Commission on 30 November 2012 and now incorporated into the Strategy.
European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn commented: "Working together to tackle common challenges and promote shared potential makes great sense. The Adriatic Ionian will be Europe's third macro-regional strategy. The countries involved should learn lessons from the Baltic Sea and Danube Strategies, namely the importance of focusing on a few priorities with strong political leadership, if it is to have a real impact. In a region that has seen some of Europe's most serious recent conflicts, the Adriatic Ionian Strategy, with its cooperation between EU and non-EU neighbouring countries, could also play an important part in helping the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union."
Maria Damanaki, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said: "The maritime challenges we face in the Adriatic and Ionian Region are not unique to any one country: from overfishing to pollution, traffic congestion, transport connections and seasonal tourism: the only way that makes sense to tackle these issues is the united, coherent way. Since there is growth potential many of these areas, the action plan for the Adriatic Ionian can help propel the region out the crisis and put its economy back on track."
A pair of countries – one EU Member State and one non-EU country- coordinated the development of each element of the Action Plan:
In addition, capacity building as well as research, innovation and small and medium size business are cross-cutting aspects. Climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as disaster risk management are horizontal principles relevant to all four pillars.
The European Council of 13-14 December 2012 requested the Commission to bring forward an EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region before the end of 2014, building on the experiences of the Danube and Baltic Sea Regions. The newly launched Strategy takes into account the outcomes of the on-line public stakeholder consultations conducted between September 2013 and January 2014 as well as the discussions from the closing Stakeholder Conference in Athens on 6-7 February 2014. It is transmitted to the Council today and it is expected that the EU leaders in the European Council, under the Italian Presidency, will endorse the Strategy later this year.
In the 2013 evaluation report, the Commission stressed that new macro-regional strategies should focus on a limited number of well-defined objectives and that these objectives should be implemented through a clear Action Plan.
A 2014 report on the governance of macro-regional strategies has made recommendations to strengthen political leadership and ownership by the countries and stakeholders.
The EUSAIR Strategy will not come with extra EU funding, but it should mobilise and align existing EU and national financing as well as attracting private investments. In particular, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) as well as the Instrument for Pre-accession (IPA) will contribute to the implementation of the Strategy.
Examples of indicative projects to be developed under each pillar:
1) Blue Growth
2) Connecting the Region
3) Environmental Quality
4) Sustainable Tourism
Further information:
Communication and Action Plan on the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region
Towards an EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region
Study on the Adriatic Ionian sea basin cooperation
Brochure on Blue Growth (data by country and sea basin)
Twitter: @EU_Regional @JHahnEU - @MariaDamanakiEU
Side Bar


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And…here it is…your week in beer.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
$10.00 Tuesday Tasting – IPAs- New York, New York
7:30PM-9:30PM @ Jimmy's No.43
Come try 6 different craft IPAs. Learn about the what makes these beers bitter and variations between them. $10 gets you a small taste of each beer and into the information session.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Irish (Inspired) Ale Class: Chicago, Illinois
7:00PM-9:00PM @ Whole Foods Market – Lincoln Park
Come one, come all and join our resident Beer Geek Sean Reilly as we explore the wonderful world of Irish and Irish Inspired Ales. It's the eve of St. Pat's and what a great way to usher in the evening. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through Customer Service or http://www.active.com
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Happy Firkin St. Pattys Day: West Chester, Pennsylvania
4:00PM-10:00PM @ Rams Head Bar And Grill
Happy St. Patrick's Day! In celebration, stop by Rams for some Victory brews. They will be tapping a firkin of Victory's newest beer Headwaters Pale Ale at 4 pm and there will be live music from local musician Pete Groch.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Firkin Friday Featuring Brewdog: Atlanta, Georgia
6:00PM-2:00AM @ The Porter Beer Bar
Brewdog is known for making beers that push boundaries. Tonight, try their Paradox Islay, an imperial stout.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Fairfax Brewfest: Fairfax, California
7:00PM-9:00PM @ Faifax Pavillion
Beer Festival which will have 16 Breweries as well as a Cider maker. Unlimited drinks for $25 if you pre-order and $30 if you show up. Breweries include: Iron Springs (hosting), Marin Brew Co, Moylans, Lagunitas, Anderson Valley, and Speakeasy, and many other that you cannot find anywhere else, but Marin. LAsts from 1 PM until 5 PM.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Upright's Two Year Anniversary: Portland, Oregon
1:00PM-6:00PM @ Upright Brewing Co.
bb.com is going to this- Upright rocks and today they are relasing a sour cherry barrel aged version of the Four. A cask of the upcoming Gose with extra salt and dry hops will be poured. Get there early to get your hands on a bottle of their first anniversary apricot ale aged in gin barrels. Only three cases are available.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Oskar Blues Spring Beer Dinner: Stamford, Conneticut
7:00PM- 9:00PM @ Coalhouse Pizza
The menu will include …. sweet potato & beet chips with homemade tzatsiki sauce, an organic mixed green and fresh fennel salad, homemade split pea soup, a goat cheese & asparagus pizza, lamb tenderloin with a miso-chili sauce served with spring vegetables, and our homemade stout ice cream. Each dish is paired with an Oskar Blues brew – Mama's Little Yella Pils, G'Knight IPA, Dale's, Old Chub and of course, TenFidy. Two members from the band "Keltic Kick" will be joining us for the evening. Tickets on sale now ~ $60 per guest. Visit our website for more information – www.coalhousepizza.com or give us a call directly: 203-977-7700.
If you go to an event, want us to post an event or want to share something about beer- leave a comment or email me at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Filed under: Seattle, US, The Events Tagged: Anderson Valley, Brewdog, Iron Springs, Lagunitas, Marin Brew Co., Moylans, Oskar Blues, Speakeasy, Victory Brewing Co


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3 Days / 2 NightsCome to Sea World in comfort and style with the Sea World package from the Heritage Inn – Sea World San Diego Hotel. Perfect for couples and small families, this unique package helps you to see the best of this popular tourist attraction from an affordable, luxury San Diego hotel. There is a two night minimum stay required for all participating guests. Make the most of your next trip and avoid the San Diego hotels that offer fewer amenities.
Stay at one of the best area San Diego hotels and take advantage of special pricing for a two-night getaway to Sea World. Drench your senses in an exhilarating performance where you watch killer whales, first-hand – including the famous Shamu – dance and delight in the thrilling show, "One Ocean." Additionally, many visitors enjoy the flights of fancy featured in the unique show, "Blue Horizon," which features the antics of many lively dolphins. These special creatures are certain to soar and splash their way right into each visitor's heart.
Don't miss out on a true opportunity to commune with intelligent, sea life at Sea World Park in San Diego, California; one of the world's premier parks. Take part in feedings, where you might be lucky enough to meet some playful sea lions or smart, Bottlenose dolphins. Play with interactive displays that educate on special traits of each featured, sea animal. For example, test your breath power against that of a Wild Arctic Walrus or perhaps, count the hairs on an Otter's body at Rocky Point Preserve. No other San Diego hotel gets you so close to the action as the Heritage Inn – Sea World San Diego Hotel. Reserve your stay at a leader amongst San Diego hotels. Book your package today and plan an exciting getaway like none other!
This package comes with two adult 2-day Sea World tickets. A two night minimum stay is required.


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We are moving to our new blog: londonmexicosolidarity.wordpress.com
Also, we have a new email: email@example.com
Home * About us * Contact us * Resources & Videos * Publications by Categories
2018 Events!
January 20 | Encuentro "Con Marichuy sin fronteras": Auxiliares del CIG en el mundo en encuentro con Marichuy y el CIG.
Reporte del Encuentro
2017 Events!
March 20 - March 31 | Footprints of Memory: In the Search for Mexico's Disappeared | Exhibition and parallel activities
These are the shoes of relatives searching for their missing loved ones in Mexico, engraved with words about their search. In the opening we will have the participation of artist Alfredo González Casanova and María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, mother of José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa, one of the 43 students disappeared in Ayotzinapa since September 2014. Event organised by Huellas de la Memoria, with the collaboration of Amnesty International and the support of LMS
- 20th March - Exhibition Opening | 19:00 - 21:00 | Amnesty International, 17-25 New Inn Yard EC2A 3EA, London.
- 21st March: Film screening of 'Absences' and discussion at SOAS, B102 Brunei Gallery | 19:00-21:00
- Special Event at Essex University: 22nd March: Conversation at ESCALA, Essex University 16:00 - 18:00
March 25 - May 13 | Stitched Voices - Aberystwyth | Exhibition
London Mexico Solidarity's arpillera We Are Seeds will be displayed in the exhibition 'Stitched Voices'. The exhibition and associated programme is organised by Dr Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Christine Andrä, Lydia Cole, and Danielle House, Department of International politics, Aberystwyth University in cooperation with Aberystwyth Art Centre. Further Info: Stitched Voices Website Aberystwyth Art Centre | Ceredigion SY23 3DE, Wales.
April 3 - April 8 | Footprints of Memory. In the Search for Mexico's Disappeared | Exhibition in Aberystwyth
These are the shoes of relatives searching for their missing loved ones in Mexico, engraved with words about their search. In the opening we will have the participation of artist Alfredo González Casanova and María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, mother of José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa, one of the 43 students disappeared in Ayotzinapa since September 2014. Event organised by Huellas de la Memoria and Aberystwyth University. Programme:
- 3rd April: Exhibition Opening | Time to be confirmed | Arthouse - Ty Celf, 1 Laura Place, Aberystwyth.- 5th April: Film screening 'Absences' | TBC- 6th -8th April: Symposium 'Absence, Presence, and Embodiment' | Old College, Aberystwyth University, King Street, Aberystwyth, SY23 2Ay
Further info: fb event
April 3 | War and Journalism in Mexico | 18:00 - 20:30
Join London Mexico Solidarity for a conversation with Paula Mónaco and Miguel Tovar on the brave work that journalists are doing in the context of the so called "War on Drugs" in Mexico. Chaired by Amanda Hopkins and organised with English Pen and Alborada London. Event Organised by LMS in collaboration with Alborada and English PEN.
Further Info: War and Journalism in Mexico | SOAS Room tbc |
* * *
Follow this website for updates, or follow our fb page
Media contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
March 8, 13, 14 & 24 | Women Generating Change: A Month of Activities.
A month of activities to feel, explore and express being a powerful, anti-patriarchal, migrant woman.
- March 8th | Women, Creativity and Struggle | 18:00 - 20:30 - A conversation with Wretched of the Earth, LAWRS London Mexico Solidarity and Movimiento Jaguar Despierto
- March 13th & 14th | Tell me your struggle | 18:00 - 20:30 - Art therapy with Wings and Dreams and Consciousness and Movement
- March 24th | Bordered and Resistance | 18:00 - 20:30 - Textiles and Politics Collective and London Mexico Solidarity: allowing the needle and thread to become a political weapon.
- March 24th | Minga for the migrant woman: The Daughter of the Lagoon | 18:00
All workshops have limited seats. Please RSVP at firstname.lastname@example.com indicating the name of the workshop you wish to participate in. Free entrance (Donations are welcome). This event will be held in Spanish but please let us know if you need any translation for any talk or workshop. Collaborating Organisations: War on Want and Unite. Further Info: Mujeres Generando Cambio Unite Union | 128 Theobalds Rd, Holborn WC 1X 8TN
February 24 | Viva México! - Film Screening | 18:30 - 21:30
Viva México! Stories of Struggle and Resistance. Dir. Nicolás Défossé, 120. min (2010) Viva México! brings together the stories of different communities resisting state violence across Mexico, which finally gathered around the Other Campaign (organised by the EZLN and the Zapatista Communities in 2005) to grow autonomy and resistance. Headway East London | Timber Wharf, 238-240 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AX
January 19th Amnesty International and London Mexico Solidarity: Mexico's Human Rights Crisis and the Zapatista Struggle. Organised by the Kingston - AI group. 8:00PM, New Malden Methodist Church, 49 High Street, New Malden KT3 4BY
November 2nd Gatecrishing the Mexican Embassy's Day of the Dead. Remembering those who the Mexican Government wants to forget
October 8th 14:00 Solidarity with Atenco from London - LMS at GrowHeathrow with Reclaim the Power! Groups fighting against airport expansion in London come together to show their solidarity with movements across Europe and Atenco, in Mexico. This will be part of #StayGrounded!
SEPTEMBER 2016 Ayotzinapa 2 Years On: Stop Disappearances in México Now:
* Ayot2inapa 26th September / 17:30 -19:00. Demonstration: Ayotzinapa Two Years On: Stop Disappearances in Mexico Now! Mexican Embassy in London, 16 St George St, W1S 1FD. Report and photos
* Ayot2inapa 24th September / Time to be confirmed 'Mexico's Human Rights Crisis: Enforced Disppearances', a brief talk by FUNDENL, at the British Museum's Great Court, Great Russell St. London, WC1B 3DG
* Ayot2inapa 23rd September / 18:00 Watching them Die: The Mexican Army and the 43 Disappeared. Documentary Screening and Discussion by War Resisters International and London Mexico Solidarity. Friends Meeting House, Suite B, 173-177 Euston Rd. £3 suggested donation.
* Ayot2inapa 21st September / 18:00 Panel Discussion. Disappearances in Mexico: 2 Years After Ayotzinapa. UCL Institute of the Americas. Room 103. Further Info and Registration
June 8 2016 Solidarity with Oaxaca and the teacher's movement in Mexico: Stop Repression
April 2016 Call for Action and Solidarity with Mexico and Frontline Communities, by LMS
April 4 2016 A History of BP in Ten Objects. An Alternative Exhibition at the British Museum. Version en español: La historia de BP en diez objetos: una exposición alternativa en el Museo Británico
March 2016 #TheyDon'tMakeUsSafer Campaign
March 8 Protest for Berta Cáceres in London
February 2016 "LMS-Plane Stupid Solidarity: building solidarity against ariport expansion": Stop Aviation, Stop Col2nialism, by Plane Stupid in Solidarity with Atenco and Frontline communities fighting airport expansion & Solidarity with Heathrow13, by LMS.
January 20 2016 "Solidarity Meeting with Omar García, from Ayotzinapa - What comes next?" UCL Report and Media Coverage
November 29 2015 Join us in The Wretched of the Earth Bloc at the demonstration for Climate Justice. Colonialism stills, your climate profits kill!!
November 28 2015 LMS at the Latin America Conference Adelante 2015. Presenting Ayotzinapa: A Chronicle of a State Crime. 10:30
November 7 2015 Movimientos 10th anniversary: Roudtable on Latin America with LMS & different grassroots movements Richmix, 12:00-13:00. Check the complete programme, including music, talks, and films.
November 9 2015 LMS's talk "Mexico and Students Rights", Berric Saul Building, York University. 18:30. Organised by English PEN and York PEN
October 30 2015 Join us to Crash BP and Mexican Government party of Day of the Dead, British Museum, 18:30. Press Release / Comunicado de prensa / Media Coverage / Video /
October 26 Discussion "Enforced disappearances in Mexico", by LMS and Amanda Hopkins at the University of East Anglia. See LMS' Photos
October 24 Workshop "Zapatistas, The Struggle Against Dispossession", London Anarchist Bookfair 2015.
September 26 Demonstration: One Year On We Are Still Fighting! 14:00 - 18:00 Mexican Embassy in London Further Information
September 22 Panel Discussion: Ayotzinapa One Year After 17:30 - 19:30 University College London, Institute of the Americas, WC1H 0PN Further information
September 19 Housing Rights and Human Rights: an Evening of Short Films by London Mexico Solidarity, Southwark Defend Council Housing and the South London People's Assembly. Tiendas del Sur, London SE1 6SF. Further Information
September 18 Workshop "Ayotzinapa, Your Struggle is Our Struggle, with EnglishPEN and StudentsPEN.
September 17 Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime: Documentary Screening and Discussion by Alborada London and London Mexico Solidarity Director: Xavier Robles , Mexico, 2015. 18:00 - 21:00 SOAS, University of London Penton Rise. Further Information
September 12 "Stop the Arms" Demonstration. See London Mexico Solidarity's photos.
September 12 "Refugges Welcome" Rally. See London Mexico Solidarity's photos.
Zapatista News & Communiqués
Enlace Zapatista. Follow the last news and communiqués coming from the Zapatista Communities. Find English, French, Italian, Portuguese and German translations.
Complete list of Zapatista communiqués.
Zapatista News Summary Produced every month by Dorset Chiapas Solidarity and the UK Zapatista Network
Zapatista Collectives
UK Zapatista Network
- KIPTIK - Bristol
- Dorset Chiapas Solidarity
- Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity
- Zapatista Solidarity Group - Essex
- MesoAmerica Solidarity Action - Liverpool
- Manchester Zapatista Collective - Fb page
Denouncement of violence and threat of violence against Zapatista communities recorded by Observation and Solidarity Brigades
August 2011
Attacks and harrassment
Report on threats and attacks on Zapatista communities with Autonomous Education projects
Report on San Marcos Avilés, August 29, 2011
Public statement
Amnesty International
** The Sabines government distances itself from the operation; the Tsotsil teacher is accused of federal crimes ** The protest of 11 indigenous that demand freedom completes 22 days; authorities still do not respond
Worldwide Declaration in Support of the Zapatista Support Bases of San Marcos Avilés, Chiapas, Mexico.
** The Junta denounces that a group of women were attacked with machetes,
** Under official protection, neighbours steal the coffee crop
By: Hermann Bellinghausen
14th October 2011
Open letter in solidarity the prisoners in hunger strike from New Zealand, the UK and California


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Reading Instruction & Assessment
Best selling, research-based resources for effective reading instruction and assessment.
3rd-4th Grade Readability
by Bart King
Have you ever done anything really, really stupid? Well, this series isn't about you. It's about other people who did really stupid things. And what happened as a result. In other words, epic fails.Entertaining illustrations are sprinkled throughout each book.DiplomacyLet's start by agreeing that peace is better than war. How do countries keep the peace? They have their diplomats talk! Sometimes diplomats shout and make rude hand gestures, too. In this book, you can read about diplomats making fools of themselves.Lexile: 690AdvertisingYou're surrounded by it. Its online, on clothes your friends wear, on blimps flying slowly over sports stadiums. You may want to get away from it. But does it work? Of course not! Read about some of the best of the worst.Lexile: 680WarLets start by agreeing that war may sometimes be necessary. Still, if you must fight a war, isn't it better to win? In this book, you can read about military commanders who wait, were they trying to lose?Lexile: 660ExplorationWhy do people explore? Maybe they just have to get away from home. In this book, you can read about explorers who got lost. And explorers who made a total mess of things. Should they have stayed home?Lexile: 640InventionMost people think its good to have new ideas. But what if your new ideas are terrible? In this book, you can read about people who turned their ideas (not all of them completely terrible) into inventions.Lexile: 630About the AuthorBart King writes humorous books for younger readers and immature adults. As a longtime middle-school teacher, Bart knows how to appeal to kids with funny writing and irresistible topics. His titles have been bestsellers on Amazon, and have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Australian.
& Comments:
My son actually read through these books! He thought they were funny and he said he could understand them really well. As a homeschooler, it can be difficult to get your middle school child to read anything other than fiction. These books helped my son branch off from his normal genre of book and learn some history as well!Parent ReviewerIt was a fun read for an adult and could be a good supplement to a middle school social studies curriculum. I enjoyed the author's voice and sense of humor as well! This series would be very effective for a social studies teacher that teaches thematically as opposed to the standard sequential and chronological curriculum. Topics such as inventions, exploration, and war are vast and these books would be an engaging introduction for children between the ages of 11 and 16 or so. I'd highly recommend this to any teacher that works with students who struggle with reading yet their verbal comprehension is high. The books are fun, engaging and educational.Book Reviewer
Reading Level
Interest Level
3rd-4th Grade
Grades 6-12+
Subject/Genre: History/Social Studies
Ratings: Lexile: 630-690
Recommended Ages: 11-18+
Pages: 64 pp., 4-1/4 x 7, softcover
Publisher: HNB
Sample Chapter
Request AR Quiz
Item No.
1 Set of 5 Books
Classroom Sets and Special Offers!
Discounted Pricing on Classroom Set
Classroom Set: 5 Sets of 5 Books
See Also... (Sold Separately)
Item No. / Product Title
Odd Jobs
Tales of Horror
Nailed It!


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By Los Angeles News Group editorial board
The Los Angeles Dodgers' management deserves congratulations as the team enters the playoffs for the first time in this decade. The owners and executives are the envy of every other sports franchise in Southern California — and, for that matter, every public official struggling to turn around a struggling institution.
Let's hope those public officials draw the right lesson from the Dodgers' revival: It's not simply spending money that solves problems, but spending money more smartly than others.
The Dodgers sure have spent money. Since the new management headed by Mark Walter, Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten took over from Frank McCourt in spring 2011, they've added enough high-paid players to rise from 12th in the major leagues in team payroll to second. Eight members of the roster that faces the Atlanta Braves starting today make more than $10 million a year; four other players with eight-figure salaries are sidelined with injuries.
But attributing the Dodgers' return to championship contention to spending a lot of money is simplistic. It hasn't worked for everybody: Only three of baseball's top 10 teams in payroll made it to the 10-team playoffs this season (while three of the bottom 10 also made it). And Southern California's own Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Lakers and — in quasi-amateur college sports — the USC football team have squandered their considerable resources in recent years.
The Dodgers have done it by finding and developing their own stars, such as Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and Kenley Jansen. By making pricey acquisitions that have worked out well, namely Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez. By taking winning gambles on Yasiel Puig, the young Cuban refugee, and South Korea's Hyun-Jin Ryu. By resisting the urge to ditch first-time Manager Don Mattingly after the team's horrible start this season.
And by improving Dodger Stadium and its security. The near-fatal beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow in the ballpark parking lot in 2011, the nadir of the troubled McCourt years, is but a sad memory.
When Frank and Jamie McCourt owned the Dodgers, the franchise's public image rated somewhere down with the state Legislature's.
Watching the ball club turn things around, elected officials might easily get the wrong idea about what this entails. It's not that the Dodgers have spent a lot of money. It's how they've spent it that counts.


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Hi everybody,
I have to write a function that (push-left (L)) "pushes" a list to thr right or to the left.
For example:
(push-left '(1 2 3 4)) will give (2 3 4 1)
(push-right'(1 2 3 4)) will give (4 1 2 3)
The lecturer said we can't use functions 'last' or 'butlast'.
I tried to solve it with no success. Can you give me direction? Is there a way to solve it by recursion?
I thought to simply do this: (cons (rest L) (first L)), but it gives (rest L) as a list. Is there a way to "unlist" it?


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As Pope Francis officially began his first full day as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church Thursday, local junior high students elected a pope of their own in a simulated Papal Conclave convened by St. Simon Parish School in Los Altos.
"What we're trying to do here is evidence the ritual," said St. Simon Principal Steve Rummell, who suggested the simulated conclave five days earlier following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. "We're living out the actual experience."
Rummell prepared the logistics for a model conclave that would replicate the environment in Rome. Volunteers imitated the red capes of the cardinals and cut the linings out of costume pirate hats to copy the small, round, red zuccehetto caps the cardinals wear. Seven schools in the Diocese of San Jose sent student delegates as "cardinals" in response to Rummell's invitation to participate.
"How often is this going to happen?" Rummell asked. "It's one thing to have a lesson plan, it's another to do the living, breathing thing."
Realistic reproduction Traditionally shrouded in secrecy, the Papal Conclave gathered in Rome last week was isolated from the outside world and inaccessible to media and the public.
After the College of Cardinals – the official electors of the new Bishop of Rome – took their oaths, all outsiders were expelled and the doors to the Sistine Chapel closed behind them. The conclave is secluded to ensure that electors are not influenced by politics and to facilitate the required two-thirds majority vote as quickly as possible. The tradition of a private selection process originated in 1274 as a consequence of a papal conclave fraught with internal conflict among the cardinals that lasted for nearly three years.
When the 64 seventh- and eighth-grade "cardinals" convened in St. Simon's gymnasium for the model Papal Conclave last week, dozens of parents, classmates and media documented the process – much different from the calm experienced by the cardinals in Rome.
Another major difference in the St. Simon conclave was the representation of an equal number of girls as boys – the College of Cardinals comprises men only.Adorned in long white vestments, with improvised red capes and skullcaps, the "papal electors" at St. Simon dressed for their roles in selecting one of their classmates as their model pope.
The process began with a prayer blessing in the church, followed by a procession into the gymnasium, where the designated electors took a biblical oath. The student electors alternated between mingling and lobbying amongst themselves, and sitting at long, white tables arranged like those at the Sistine Chapel to fill out their secret ballots with the names of nominees.
A pope is elected Following three rounds of ballots, Duncan Chisholm, an eighth-grader from Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale, was announced as the pope-elect.
"It was very shocking at first," said Chisholm, who was rushed to a wardrobe change as bells tolled from the church's bell tower. Chisholm emerged into the schoolyard in white garments with a gold pectoral cross.
St. Simon used a cherry picker to hoist him into the air to hover above the crowd of students gathered to receive the blessing.
Chisholm seemed both overwhelmed and humbled by the experience. He embraced his temporary role, offering waves, casual high-fives with his classmates and even deeper reflection on how the experience prompted him to think about becoming a priest.
"I didn't expect it, but I think God has plans for all of us," Chisholm said. "There might be something he is trying to lead me to."
From article published Wednesday, March 20, 2013 in the Los Altos Town Crier http://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/news/44215-J45762. Photo By: Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier. For a full album of photos from the model papal conclave, click here.


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By Nick Timiraos, Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2014
Average mortgage rates fell to the lowest level since mid-November last week as unease over economic growth in the U.S. and market turmoil abroad drove investors to load up on government bonds, pushing down long-term interest rates.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.47% last week, down from 4.52% the prior week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Mortgage rates are tied to yields on the 10-year Treasury note, which closed at 2.64% on Tuesday amid market jitters.
But the moderate decline in mortgage rates hasn't yet triggered any meaningful gain in home-loan refinancing. Applications for refinancings were up 3% from a week earlier but remain at extremely low levels. Refinancings accounted for 62% of loan applications last week, unchanged from the prior week.
Market strategists say that rates would need to ease to about 4% from their current levels in order to provide any lift to refinancing. Rates remain almost a percentage point above their lows of May 2013, when they fell to 3.6%.
"We are eyeing 4.0% on the primary mortgage rate to be a bellwether for increased originator supply," said Walter Schmidt, an analyst at FTN Financial in Chicago.
The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that refinancing volume will total about $440 billion this year, down from $1.1 trillion in 2013. That would be the lowest level of refinancing since 2000.
Mortgage rates jumped more than a percentage point last June, as investors grew anxious over the Federal Reserve's plans to unwind its bond-buying campaign. The rise in rates ended an unusually long refinancing wave that had generated huge profits for U.S. banks. It also led to a pullback in home sales during the fall.
Mortgage applications for home purchases fell 4% last week on a seasonally adjusted basis and stood 17% below their year-earlier levels, an indicator of falling demand for homes. The small declines in rates in recent weeks could serve as a tailwind to the housing market as the spring buying season gets under way.
Banks may be able to see refinancing drop by a smaller-than-expected margin if rates stay low and more borrowers find that rising home prices have restored equity, making it possible to refinance. Many borrowers have been shut out from refinancing because their homes have dropped in value, though a series of government programs have enabled more borrowers to refinance. But analysts don't expect refinance volumes to come anywhere close to their levels of the past few years.


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Perhaps I'm simply tiring of the economic news (or becoming immune to it). Increasingly, I find myself being drawn more and more to random news stories unrelated to the flurry of bad news that seems to come on the economic front.
Tis the season to be jolly, right? Here's this week's hodgepodge of news and it's not all bad.
Pirates pee on Amazon's MP3 parade
Amazon.co.uk's launch of its MP3 download service on Wednesday was quickly overshadowed by the rapid release of a Firefox plugin that enabled its users to download MP3s (and other Amazon content) at no cost by clicking on a 'download 4 free' button.
The incident not only highlights the fact that the war against piracy is a challenging one but that, as I've said before, there's only one acceptable price point for thieves – $0.
Amazon.co.uk's download service offers 3 million songs in MP3 format without any form of digital rights management. In other words, anything purchased can be transferred freely to any device. Just what consumers want.
Unfortunately, despite the millions of people who do pay for music online, there are plenty more who don't, even when offered the ability to do so without the restrictions that many have complained about.
Clearly, such complaints, for some, are merely an excuse for thievery.
Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals
Lori Drew, the not-so-likable woman whose fake MySpace profile eventually led to the suicide of her daughter's former friend, was recently convicted in a Los Angeles federal court on three counts of misdemeanor charges of unauthorized access of computers.
As Globe and Mail reporter Ivor Tossell reports:
"It wasn't the laws of the United States of America that she violated, so much as that fine print that comes up whenever you install a new piece of software or sign up to a website – the kind that most everybody grumbles at and clicks right past."
The MySpace terms of service state that signing up for MySpace under a false identity is not permitted. As such, when Drew signed up for MySpace as the non-existent 16 year-old 'Josh Evans' she was violating the MySpace terms of service.
A clearly-ambitious prosecutor in Los Angeles took the case and ran with it. Today, Drew may face up to three years in prison and a $300,000 fine for her violation.
Obviously, Drew's case is an emotional one. What this woman did was morally reprehensible. Yet at the same time, charging her with misdemeanors that are usually reserved for hackers who break into computers seems a bit of a stretch.
That stretch could make the internet a risky place for American internet surfers.
Tossell observes:
"But if the Drew ruling is allowed to stand, then breaking terms of service could turn these offsides into criminal offences, making rule-breakers into hackers in the eyes of U.S. law."
"This doesn't seem to be a good idea. Nor would it be to anyone's advantage were we to see a legal or commercial crackdown on online anonymity, which is one of the Internet's oldest traditions. For every horror-show case like Lori Drew's, there are hundreds of thousands of people who assume aliases for reasons that range from privacy to escape to satire."
I tend to agree.
A highly-unusual and unfortunate case involving atrocious behavior on the part of a parent who clearly has no moral compass should not threaten to turn those who violate a website's terms of service into criminals.
The reality is that the internet is as harsh a place as the real world. Parents need to monitor their childrens' internet use and should be watching for signs of bullying (and depression) no matter where it's occurring.
If the conviction against Lori Drew is upheld, there is no guarantee that similarly tragic stories won't unfold but there is a guarantee that the internet in the United States will be a less friendly place.
The United States courts should leave the enforcement of terms of service in the civil court system and send a clear message that overzealous prosecutors looking to make a name for themselves will have to find real criminals to pursue justice against.
I'm pretty sure there's plenty of them.
Google uses 21 times more bandwidth than it pays for — per first-ever research study
According to Scott Cleland, the president of Precursor LLC and chairman of NETCompetition.org, Google is using more bandwidth than it's really paying for.
Calling it the "first-ever research study of U.S. consumer Internet bandwidth usage and costs", Cleland's study gives the following estimates:
- The US consumer internet market was responsible for bandwidth usage of 1.113 exabytes per month in 2008.
- The cost of this was $44.0bn.
- Google used 184 petabytes of bandwidth per month in 2008, or 16.5% of total usage.
- Google's cost for bandwidth is $344m in 2008.
The study's conclusion:
"…Google's 16.5% share of all 2008 U.S. consumer bandwidth usage, is ~21 times greater than Google's 0.8% share of U.S. consumer bandwidth costs – or an implicit ~$6.9 billion subsidy of Google by U.S. consumers."
Cleland argues that Google is not paying its fair share but should.
He claims that his study is "straight-forward, transparent, well documented and replicable so Google or others can provide improvements or alternative estimates — and so other countries can estimate if Google uses more of their country's Internet capacity than it pays for."
I haven't had the opportunity yet to read the study in great enough detail so as to try to assess the methodology so I will refrain from commenting on these claims.
What should be noted – Cleland's NETCompetition.org advocates against net neutrality and counts as members major corporations such as AT&T, Comcast and Qwest, which also oppose net neutrality.
Given this, Cleland's study is hardly without bias and that is pretty evident from the first page on. To be fair in this regard, there's no disingenuity that I can see – the fact that the study was conducted by an organization that has a vested interest is not hidden (unlike some other studies which are conducted by organizations that are clearly supposed to give the appearance of neutrality but are supported financially by those with a vested interest in the findings).
Personally, I have a stance that can really only be described as 'neutral' when it comes to net neutrality. While I certainly don't like the idea of telecom companies implementing the network equivalent of toll booths, I also don't like the idea of government mandates that force private companies to conduct business in a certain fashion.
At the end of the day, I think the market should be allowed to sort itself out. If telecom companies want to change the ways they charge for access to their networks, let them. Those that don't offer a sensible and cost-effective solution will be punished and those that do will be rewarded.
Condé Nast Suspends New Website Launches Indefinitely; Another Blow To Razorfish?
AgencySpy and PaidContent.org are reporting that magazine publisher Condé Nast is delaying the launch of a number websites "for an indefinite period" due to "the economic climate we find ourselves in."
According to PaidContent.org's sources, a number of its magazines were set to receive their own individual websites but given budget cuts, these new websites have been but on the back burner. Some of Condé Nast's magazines currently share homes on the company's CondéNet portals.
AgencySpy notes that interactive firm Razorfish, which is owned by Microsoft, may be hurt by Condé Nast's new plans as it was apparently working on one of Condé Nast's new websites.
Frankly, I think Condé Nast's decision may have been the wisest under the circumstances. I'm not convinced that every company with multiple properties (especially in the media and publishing industries) needs to develop standalone properties for all of them and a portal approach sometimes offers certain advantages.
That aside, launching a new website successfully is something that isn't easy to pull off. There are a lot of mistakes that are easy to make and oftentimes a poor first showing can be disastrous. Given that Condé Nast is cutting back, now probably wasn't the ideal time to attempt a successful launch of new websites.
Somehow I suspect other companies may find themselves making similar decisions over the next year.
The Australian Recording Industry Association is reporting that CD sales rose recently in Australia.
TheAge.com.au reports:
"According to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), CD sales from the six weeks from the end of October were 22 per cent higher than the same time last year."
"And top five album chart sales more than doubled from the same time in 2007."
Such sales figures have not been seen in "more than four or five years" and given the economic downturn, there's no apparent justification for the increased sales, which are above norm for the holiday season. Similar increases in sales are not being seen overseas.
So what gives?
Ed St. John of ARIA and Warner Music has some ideas:
"Maybe it's because music is a good price or maybe people particularly need entertaining at the moment."
He also suggests that a string of new releases from artists such as Beyonce and Britney Spears may be driving people to buy.
Whatever the case, highlighting the record industry's woes, St. John stated:
"Time will tell how long it lasts, but it's pretty good while it lasts."
My guess: the good times will not continue to roll. Enjoy it while it lasts indeed.


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As an industry, health clubs often sell "the perfect body" in their advertising and promotions. Lose weight, tone, sculpt, build muscle and be beautiful. And while the message that exercise is good for your body is a beneficial one, peddling the "perfect" body may serve to perpetuate negative body obsessions that a small percentage of the population takes to heart.
The health club industry is certainly not alone in glorifying a thin, fat-free body, but we do, unfortunately, come into close contact with the results of this negative obsession. While the majority of health club members are healthy individuals with a positive outlook on themselves, a rare few use club facilities as a means of perpetuating their own deadly perfectionism. The desire to be thin drives them towards dangerous eating disorders coupled with compulsive, obsessive exercise patterns.
Sadly, because our industry sells exercise as a healthy lifestyle choice, we may not realize when members pay more than they can afford.
"Back when I managed clubs for Bally Total Fitness, we had a member who eventually died of organ failure due to a combination of an eating disorder [and] a compulsive exercise disorder," says Bret FitzGerald, vice president of corporate communications for Las Vegas Athletic Club. "She was at the club for three to four hours a day on the Stairmaster the entire time. She killed herself, sadly, by assuming she was never thin enough…
"The toughest part about the woman at Bally," he continues, "is that she never bothered another member or employee. She just came in, exercised and left. Then, one day, we heard she was in the hospital. Then, we heard she had passed away. I think it's a form of slow suicide, inflicted on one's self because of [one's] obsession with thinness."
Sobering Statistics
If you think your club is immune, think again. Approximately five to 10 million teenage girls and women, and one million teenage boys and men, struggle with eating disorders and borderline conditions, according to Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc. (EDAP). In fact, the number of people with an eating disorder or borderline condition triples the number of people living with AIDS, states EDAP. Sadly, an estimated 1,000 women die each year from anorexia nervosa, states the National Eating Disorders Screening Program. Exercise addiction itself accounts for about 1 to 3 percent of the population, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE).
And it's not just women who are affected by this condition. In the case of many men with the disorder, they use excessive exercise to bulk themselves up (see sidebar, page 43). "They have the feeling that they're terribly underweight, but yet when you look at them, they look like the Incredible Hulk," says Caroline Davis, a professor of psychology at Toronto's York University, who has published several studies on eating disorders and compulsive physical activity.
Although there is no recognized disorder called "Obsessive Exercise Disorder," it is a condition that "almost doesn't exist out of the contest of an eating disorder," reports Davis. While not every person with an eating disorder has an obligatory exercise disorder, many use exercise as a means of purging themselves of unwanted calories. Eighty percent of those with an eating disorder are addicted to exercise, according to Davis. And while not all 80 percent may belong to a health club, chances are a good portion do. Chances are there is at least one member at your club with this condition and you may not even know it.
"I've talked to thousands [of club operators] in my 10 years here," says Helen Durkin, IHRSA's director of public policy. "Every club thinks their situation is unique.
"I can't imagine that there hasn't been a club that hasn't dealt with this," either with a member or with someone on their staff, she says.
Warning Signs
But how easy to spot is compulsory exercise? After all, how can you tell the difference between an athlete training excessively in order to gear up for a competition and a person who obsessively trains in order to purge calories and fat? "You can ask them [if] they [are] training for something, and if they are, it's probably of short duration," advises Davis. Very often, she says, elite athletes do not exercise to exhaustion for a long period of time, or else they would burn out. (However, research does indicate that a significant number of athletes also suffer from eating/exercise disorders as well. According to a study published in 1987 by Nancy Clark, MS, RD, compulsive exercisers are often athletes. Studies show that 10 percent of athletes are bulimic as compared to 1.5 percent of non-athletes, Clark reports).
Secondly, there are some other warning signs to consider. Obsessive exercisers will participate in physical activity even under unsafe conditions (i.e. injured) and have very regimented routines, according to Cedric Bryant, senior vice president for Stairmaster Health and Fitness Products, sports medicine advisory boardmember for Bally Total Fitness, and member of the scientific advisory board for ACE as well as an ACSM-certified exercise specialist. In other words, exercise isn't fun for these members; they are controlled by the need to exercise and their exercise schedule, even to the point of harming themselves.
According to information posted on the Web site of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc. (ANRED, www.anred.com), recognizing the obligatory exerciser is relatively easy. "These people talk of nothing but their sport, their training schedules and their injuries. When injured, they will not take time off to heal unless immobilized. Obligatory runners with stress fractures, torn ligaments and joint injuries have been known to work out in their walking casts."
Sadly, many clubs know all too well the effects of this terrible affliction. Durkin recalls an incident at a club where a member complained that the club was barring the doors to keep her from using the facility. In actuality, the doors were unlocked. The woman was simply so weak from over-exercising/unhealthy eating habits that she lacked the strength to open the door.
The urge to over-exercise also affects the person psychologically, as well. "There is a significant difference in mood before and after exercise," Bryant explains. "It's almost like they need to get their exercise 'fix' to be themselves, if you will." They can also become depressed by what they deem a poor workout.
This drive to exercise takes over their lives as both work and social time suffer as a result. Physically, they become exhausted and have a history of reoccurring overuse injuries. "How much [exercise] is too much? It really depends on the person," Bryant says. "It doesn't depend so much on the amount of exercise but the quality of the exercise and more importantly, the attitude of the person."
ANRED offers the following profile of the obligatory exerciser's emotional state: "Exercise addicts misuse their athletic achievements. Instead of enjoying their abilities as one part of a multidimensional life, they make exercising their whole life. They try to boost self-esteem, meet deep needs and solve complex problems through performance excellence. Or they hide from emotional pain in workout schedules. It doesn't work, but instead of trying more effective behaviors, they raise their goals and standards, hoping that the increased effort will get the job done. It doesn't."
Seeking Help
The question posed to health clubs, then, is this: If you know or suspect that a member of your health club suffers from an eating disorder/exercise compulsion what do you do? What is your responsibility to that member? "If you are a club operator and you see someone with all the warning signs of a heart attack, do you continue to let them work out at your club?" asks Durkin, hypothetically.
With eating disorders, however, there is a catch 22 involved, she says. According to the Justice Department's interpretation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, eating disorders qualify as a disability, meaning if you tell a member she can't work out at your club, you could be sued. "So on the one hand, the ADA is saying to clubs you can't do anything," Durkin says, "and the other legal side is like a duty of care and your legal liability.
"There is a risk in acting and there is a risk in not acting," she says. For legal concerns, Durkin advises clubs to inform their insurance carriers about members with eating disorders. "I've worked with clubs on both sides. Some said, 'I'm not going to let this person kill themselves." Some clubs opted to suspend memberships, others chose to limit the number of hours the person could work out. Still others assumed the member would find another way to work out if they shut their doors to them, and so chose to keep them as a member in order to provide as safe an environment for them as possible.
FitzGerald remembers his own uncertainties about how to approach the compulsive exerciser at Bally: "I spoke with her very little, because I never knew what to say. If you say, 'Man, you are too skinny,' they think that their routine is working and they do more. These people need help from their family members. The average health club employee is not properly trained to deal with a disorder of this magnitude. It would be like saying to Jeffrey Dahmer, 'Hey Jeff, what about easing up on those serial murders?" In his case, professional help would potentially have been more likely to help."
While it's true that health club staff are most likely not qualified to treat a person with these disorders, that doesn't mean they can't seek help. "They should play the role of being a 'suspectician,'" advises Bryant. "If there's been enough of a rapport that's been established, they could recommend them seeing a mental health professional."
Davis recommends talking to members with suspected eating disorders and obligatory exercise patterns in a friendly way. Preferably, have a staff member of the same sex as the member talk to him or her. "I would think it would be more appropriate for a woman to approach a woman about this. It might make them feel more comfortable," she says.
"Many patients say they hate what they're doing but they just can't stop," Davis says.
There are a myriad of organizations out there that can help people with eating disorders. They may be able to offer advice or send you information, which you could pass on to the member. You may even want to offer a program at your club. Some organizations to contact include:
- Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc. (edap.org)
- Screening for Mental Health Inc. (nmisp.org/eat.htm)
- Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc. (anred.com; (800) 931-2237)
- American Anorexia Bulimia Association Inc. (aabainc.org)
- Something Fishy: The Web site on Eating Disorders (something-fishy.org).
- Or call your local hospital or medical professional for their opinions and advice.
Anorexia Nervosa: Anorexia Nervosa is a disorder in which preoccupation with dieting and thinness leads to excessive weight loss. Anorexics have an intense fear of fat, and their preoccupation with food and weight often masks other underlying psychological problems. The individual may not acknowledge that his or her weight loss or restrictive eating is a problem. One percent of teenage girls in the U.S. develop anorexia nervosa and up to 10 percent of those may die as a result.
Bulimia Nervosa: Bulimia Nervosa is described as a disorder in which frequent episodes of binge eating (rapid consumption of food in one sitting) are almost always followed by purging (ridding the body of food). Purging can involve vomiting, abusing laxatives and/or diuretics, exercising compulsively and/or fasting. Binging and purging is often followed by intense feelings of guilt and shame. The bulimic may not be visibly underweight and may even be slightly overweight. Like the anorexic, the bulimic uses self-destructive eating behaviors to deal with psychological problems that may go much deeper than her/his obsession with food and weight. Usually, the individual feels out of control and recognizes that the behavior is not normal. Up to 5 percent of college women in the U.S. are bulimic.
Binge Eating Disorder: Binge Eating Disorder or compulsive overeating, involves uncontrolled eating usually kept secret. People with this condition engage in frequent binges, but unlike bulimics, they do not purge afterward. Binges are usually followed by intense feelings of guilt and shame. Again, food is used as a dysfunctional means of coping with psychological problems. The individual often experiences depression and other psychological problems. Up to 40 percent of people who are obese may be binge eaters.
Information courtesy American Anorexia Bulimia Association Inc. (see www.aabainc.org).
- Five to 10 percent of eating disorders occur among men.
- Men more frequently use excessive and obsessive exercise and bodybuilding prior to and during their eating disorders.
- Issues relating to sexuality and gender identity are sometimes associated with male eating disorders and there appears to be a higher rate of eating disorders among gay males.
- Men may be less likely to seek treatment for an eating disorder because of the social stigma of having a problem that has generally been perceived as a "woman's problem."
- The signs, symptoms and treatment needs of eating disorders in males are similar to those of women.
Information courtesy Screening for Mental Health, Inc., formerly the National Mental Illness Screening Project (see nmisp.org).
- The average American woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.
- The average American model is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 117 pounds.
- Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women
- More than 50 percent of high school girls want smaller hips, thighs and/or waists.
- Nine-year-old children rate silhouettes of fat figures as having fewer friends, being less liked by their parents, doing less well in school, being less content with their appearance, and wanting to be thinner.
Information courtesy Screening for Mental Health, Inc., formerly the National Mental Illness Screening Project (see http://www.nmisp.org/eat.htm) and Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc. (Edap.org).
Reaching Out
How has your club dealt with members who have eating disorders and/or obesssive exerise disorder? Drop us a line at: Letters to the Editor, Club Industry, One Plymouth Meeting, Suite 501, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. E-mail: email@example.com. Fax: (610) 238-0992.


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text: A late afternoon trip to the bookstore to look over college directories with my 17 year old prompted a treat at the Starbucks. Cost: $6.24. It was a nice treat, and not all that expensive, but considering it cost about 3 time what I spent making dinner… Well, you get the picture. Dinner tonight wasRead More


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Last October at Melbourne's grand Intercontinental Hotel scores of technophiles watched a researcher for IOActive, a Seattle-based computer-security firm, demonstrate an ingenious new way to kill someone—a method that one can imagine providing a sensational plot twist in an episode of Homeland.
The IOActive researcher, a man named Barnaby Jack, was so worried about the implications of his work that he intentionally obscured many of the details in his presentation. As a further precaution, he asked the attendees not to take any pictures—a tough request in a crowd full of smartphones and laptops.
Jack's work concerned pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (I.C.D.'s). More than three million American heart patients carry around these small, computerized devices, which monitor their heartbeat and deliver jolts of electricity to stabilize it when needed. To check and adjust these devices, many doctors use wand-like wireless programmers that they wave a few inches above patients' chests—a straightforward and seemingly safe procedure. But now, with a custom-built transmitter, Jack had discovered how to signal an I.C.D. from 30 feet away. It reacted as if the signal were in fact coming from the manufacturer's official I.C.D. programmer. Instructed by the counterfeit signal, the I.C.D. suddenly spat out 830 volts—an instantly lethal zap. Had the device been connected to an actual human heart, the fatal episode would likely have been blamed on a malfunction.
Let's face it: Barnaby Jack is a man who is quite literally looking for trouble. This is a guy who had demonstrated the year before how he could wirelessly direct an implantable insulin pump to deliver a lethal dose. The year before that, he hacked an ATM to make it spray out bills like a slot machine. But trouble-making is what he's paid to do at IOActive, and in that role he has developed a particular respect for the looming power of smartphones. Terrorists have already used cell phones to kill people in the crudest possible way: detonating explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan. But smartphones bring a new elegance to the endeavor and will bring new possibilities for mayhem into the most mundane areas of life.
The day is not far off, Jack says, when the manipulation of medical devices, for which he had needed to build special equipment, will be done routinely and remotely by punching keys on a smartphone. Indeed, in just a few minutes of online searching, I was able to find a dozen ventures developing smartphone apps for medical devices: pacemakers, defibrillators, cochlear implants, insulin pumps, cardiovascular monitors, artificial pancreases, and all the other electronic marvels doctors now are inserting into human bodies.
To engineers, the advantages are clear. Smartphones can relay patients' data to hospital computers in a continuous stream. Doctors can alter treatment regimens remotely, instead of making patients come in for a visit. If something goes wrong, medical professionals can be alerted immediately and the devices can be rapidly adjusted over the air. Unfortunately, though, the disadvantages are equally obvious to people like Barnaby Jack: doctors will not be the only people dialing in. A smartphone links patients' bodies and doctors' computers, which in turn are connected to the Internet, which in turn is connected to any smartphone anywhere. The new devices could put the management of an individual's internal organs, in the hands of every hacker, online scammer, and digital vandal on Earth.
I asked Jack if he thought anyone would actually use smartphones to try to fiddle with other people's pacemakers, or change the dosage of their medications, or compromise their eyesight, or take control of their prosthetic limbs, or raise the volume of their hearing aids to a paralyzing shriek. Will this become a tempting new way to settle a score or hurry up an inheritance? He said, "Has there ever been a box connected to the Internet that people haven't tried to break into?" He had a point: a few years ago, anonymous vandals inserted flashing animated images into an Epilepsy Foundation online forum, triggering migraines and seizure-like reactions in some unfortunate people who came across them. (The vandals were never found.) Jack was reluctant to go into detail about what he thinks the future may hold. "I'm not comfortable trying to predict exact scenarios," he said. But then he added, calm as a State Department spokesman, "I can say that I wouldn't want to discover a virus in my insulin pump."
Smartphones taking control of medical devices: the tabloid headlines write themselves. But medical devices represent only one early and obvious target of opportunity. Major power and telephone grids have long been controlled by computer networks, but now similar systems are embedded in such mundane objects as electric meters, alarm clocks, home refrigerators and thermostats, video cameras, bathroom scales, and Christmas-tree lights—all of which are, or soon will be, accessible remotely. Every automobile on the market today has scores of built-in computers, many of which can be accessed from outside the vehicle. Not only are new homes connected to the Internet but their appliances are too. "Start your coffee machine with a text message!" says a video for Electric Imp, a device created by former Gmail and iPhone employees, whose stated goal is to "apply [Internet connectivity] to any device in the world." Even children's toys have Internet addresses: for instance, you can buy an add-on wi-fi kit for your Lego robot. The spread of networking technology into every aspect of life is sometimes called "the Internet of Things."
The embrace of a new technology by ordinary people leads inevitably to its embrace by people of malign intent. Up to now, the stakes when it comes to Internet crime have been largely financial and reputational—online crooks steal money and identities but rarely can inflict physical harm. The new wave of embedded devices promises to make crime much more personal.
Consider the automobile. Surely nobody involved in the 2000 Bridgestone/Firestone scandal—a series of deadly rollovers in Ford Explorers, linked to disintegrating tires—realized that they were laying the groundwork for a possible new form of crime: carjacking-by-tire. In the aftermath of the accidents, Congress quickly toughened tire-safety regulations. Since 2007, every new car in the United States has been equipped with a tire-pressure-monitoring system, or T.P.M.S. Electronic sensors in the wheels report tire problems to an onboard computer, which flashes a warning icon on the dashboard.
By itself, the T.P.M.S. represents no great leap. Modern cars are one of the most obvious examples of the Internet of Things. It is a rare new vehicle today that contains fewer than 100 of the computers, called electronic control units, which direct and monitor every aspect of the vehicle. When drivers screech to a sudden stop, for instance, sensors in the wheels detect the slowdown and send the information to an E.C.U. If one wheel is rotating more slowly than the others—an indicator of brake lock—the E.C.U. overrides the brake and the accelerator, preventing the skid. Even as it fights the skid, the computer reaches into the seatbelt controls, tightening the straps to prevent passengers from slipping under them in case of an accident. The software for these complex, overlapping functions is formidable: as much as 100 million lines of computer code. (By contrast, Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner makes do with about 18 million lines of code.)
Many of these functions can be activated from outside. Door locks are opened by radio pulses from key fobs. G.P.S. systems are upgraded by special C.D.'s. Ignitions can be disabled by remote-controlled "immobilizers" in case of theft or repossession. Cars increasingly offer "telematics" services, such as OnStar (from General Motors), BMW Assist, MyFord Touch, and Lexus Link, that remotely diagnose engine problems, disable stolen cars, transmit text messages and phone calls, and open doors for drivers who have locked themselves out. As cars grow more sophisticated, their owners will, like computer owners, receive routine, annoying updates for the code that runs these features; Tesla, the electric-vehicle manufacturer, announced the planet's first over-the-air car-software patch in September. A security-research team from InterTrust Technologies, a company that makes protected computer systems for businesses, describes today's automobiles as full-time residents of cyberspace, scarcely distinguishable from "any other computational node, P.C., tablet, or smartphone."
The tire-pressure-monitoring system is an example. As a rule, it consists of four battery-operated sensors, one attached to the base of each tire valve. The sensors "wake up" when the wheels begin rotating. Typically, they send out minute-by-minute reports—the digital equivalent of messages like "I'm the right front tire; my pressure is 35 p.s.i."—to an E.C.U. To make sure the E.C.U. knows which tire is reporting, each sensor includes an identification number with its report. The ID is specific to that one tire. In 2010, researchers from Rutgers and the University of South Carolina discovered that they could read a tire's ID from as far away as 130 feet. This means that every car tire is, in effect, a homing device and that people 130 feet from an automobile can talk to it through its tires.
Schrader Electronics, the biggest T.P.M.S. manufacturer, publicly scoffed at the Rutgers–South Carolina report. Tracking cars by tire, it said, is "not only impractical but nearly impossible." T.P.M.S. systems, it maintained, are reliable and safe.
This is the kind of statement that security analysts regard as an invitation. A year after Schrader's sneering response, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California–San Diego were able to "spoof" (fake) the signals from a tire-pressure E.C.U. by hacking an adjacent but entirely different system—the OnStar-type network that monitors the T.P.M.S. for roadside assistance. In a scenario from a techno-thriller, the researchers called the cell phone built into the car network with a message supposedly sent from the tires. "It told the car that the tires had 10 p.s.i. when they in fact had 30 p.s.i.," team co-leader Tadayoshi Kohno told me—a message equivalent to "Stop the car immediately." He added, "In theory, you could reprogram the car while it is parked, then initiate the program with a transmitter by the freeway. The car drives by, you call the transmitter with your smartphone, it sends the initiation code—bang! The car locks up at 70 miles per hour. You've crashed their car without touching it."
Systematically probing a "moderately priced late-model sedan with the standard options," the Washington–San Diego researchers decided to see what else they could do. They took control of the vehicle by contacting the hands-free system through the built-in cellphone and playing a special audio file. They compromised the hands-free microphone and recorded conversations in the car as it moved. They reprogrammed a mechanics' diagnostic computer to let them take over the sedan's operation remotely, at a time of their choosing. They used Bluetooth signals to start cars that were parked, locked, and alarmed. They did all this with instructions sent from a smartphone.
There was nothing to stop them. "Except for medical devices," Stuart McClure, chief technical officer of the anti-virus company McAfee, told me, "nobody regulates any of this stuff." And medical devices are regulated for safety, not security. Because government isn't wielding a cudgel, security is entirely up to the manufacturers. In McClure's view, "maybe 90 percent" of the vendors don't see security as critical. The same thing was true of computer-software companies, he pointed out. Not until credit-card numbers by the millions began to be stolen did they begin to pay attention. "We live in a reactive society," McClure went on, "and something bad has to happen before we take problems seriously. Only when these embedded computers start to kill a few people—one death won't do it—will we take it seriously."
It is a commonplace that most murders occur at home, which leads (solely for the purposes of illustration) to my own. My wife is an architect, so when we recently built a house we built one to her design. Late last spring, we moved in, hauling boxes as workers hurried to finish the last details. One day I walked into the basement to find the plumber peering in puzzlement at a device installed next to the circuit breakers. It was a white, lozenge-shaped object with a small L.E.D. panel on its face that showed a "dotted quad"—an Internet address in the form of four numbers separated by periods. "What's that?" asked the plumber. "It looks like your house is connected to the Internet."
I didn't know. The contractor didn't know, either. Nor did the cable guy or the house-alarm guy. After a few phone calls, I learned that our electric company had installed the mystery box to monitor the new solar panels on the roof. Our house—or at least our roof—was part of the Internet of Things.
The white lozenge, it turned out, was part of a "smart meter," one of the most common among a wave of new devices that will, developers hope, produce the domestic dream of a "smart home." In smart homes, residents can control their lighting, heating, air-conditioning, fire and burglar alarms, lawn sprinklers, and kitchen appliances with the touch of a button. Increasingly, that button is on a computer or smartphone. These systems can help make homes more convenient, energy efficient, and safe. They are also a point of entry for online intruders—no different, really, from an open window or an unlocked door.
Computer-security researchers are focusing attention on smart meters in part because utilities have been installing them by the millions. (The Obama stimulus bill provided $4.5 billion for "smart grid" projects; the European Union has mandated a switch-over to smart meters by 2022.) Instead of learning about energy consumption inside a home or building from meter readers in white vans, electric companies now know about power usage in real time, from streaming data provided over the Internet, letting them avoid the cascading failures that lead to blackouts. Utilities talk up the environmental benefits of smart meters—no more wasted power! Utilities are quieter about "remote disconnect"—the possibility, created by smart meters, of cutting power to nonpaying customers with the flick of a switch or the punch of a phone key.
Because smart meters register every tiny up and down in energy use, they are, in effect, monitoring every activity in the home. By studying three homes' smart-meter records, researchers at the University of Massachusetts were able to deduce not only how many people were in each dwelling at any given time but also when they were using their computers, coffee machines, and toasters. Incredibly, Kohno's group at the University of Washington was able to use tiny fluctuations in power usage to figure out exactly what movies people were watching on their TVs. (The play of imagery on the monitor creates a unique fingerprint of electromagnetic interference that can be matched to a database of such fingerprints.)
Like the computer on my home-office desk, the smart-meter computer in my basement is vulnerable to viruses, worms, and other Internet perils. As long ago as 2009, Mike Davis of IOActive was able to infect smart meters with virus-like code. The infected meters could then spread the malware to other, nearby meters. In theory, smart-meter viruses could black out entire neighborhoods at a stroke. They could also ripple back and infect the central controls at utility companies. Because those utility networks are usually decades old, they often lack basic security features, such as firewalls and anti-virus protection. "If I'm a bad guy, I'll wait till there's a major snowstorm or heat wave," said McClure. "Then kill the heat or A/C." Under such circumstances, he observed, "the elderly die very easily."
For average homeowners like me, smart meters are almost as invisible as their risks. We're much more aware of the new temperature, security, and lighting controls operated by smartphones or tablets. (In September, the big real-estate developer Taylor Morrison announced a nationwide rollout of "interactive home" that include front-door video monitoring, whole-house Internet audio integrated with iTunes, and remotely programmable lighting and appliances.) Just around the corner, according to tech analysts, are refrigerators that alert families when they've run out of milk, ovens that can be turned on from the office, counters that double as video displays for recipes, videos, or Skype chats, and sensors that detect when residents are ill or hurt and that automatically call 911.
In the rush to put computers into everything, neither manufacturers nor consumers think about the possible threats. "I would be shocked if a random parent at Toys R Us picked up a toy with a wireless connection and thought, I wonder if there are any security problems here." Kohno said to me. As he has himself demonstrated, children's Erector Sets with Web cams can be taken over remotely and used for surveillance. Kohno added, "I just hope you can't use them to turn on the broiler and set the house on fire." It was meant as joking hyperbole. But you won't need an Erector Set to physically turn on the broiler. Smartphone apps will do that for you. And when that's done—what the heck—you can kill the power, disable the fire alarm, suppress the call to 911, and for good measure start the car and leave it running in the garage.
Today, of course, these threats are remote. Only experts like Kohno can digitally hijack a house. But it is the nature of software to get easier to use and more widely available. Creating the first Internet worm required months of work in the late 1980s by a brilliant computer-science student, Robert T. Morris, who is now a professor at M.I.T. Today "virus construction kits" are readily downloadable on the Web, intended for teenaged miscreants with little programming ability. The expertise and time required for this type of vandalism have steadily declined. As a result, Internet threats have steadily risen. As I researched this article, every single computer-security expert I spoke with said they expected precisely the same pattern—obscure and rare to common and ubiquitous—to hold for the Internet of Things.
More than 1.5 million external defibrillators—flat, plastic devices that deliver shocks to people in cardiac arrest—have been installed in American offices, malls, airports, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, schools, health clubs, and, of course, hospital wards. (Usually bright red or yellow, they are typically mounted in boxes that look a bit like big fire alarms.) A.E.D.'s, as they are called, administer shocks through two pads taped to patients' chests that also monitor their heartbeats. Many have the ability to simultaneously call 911 when they are used. A.E.D.'s are, in fact, computers, and most of them are updated with Windows-based software on a U.S.B. stick.
Last year, Kevin Fu of the University of Massachusetts and five other researchers decided to find out whether an A.E.D. could be hacked. They discovered four separate methods for subverting the apparatus, two of which would allow the A.E.D.'s to be used as a portal for taking over nearby hospital computers.
In a way, Fu told me, using A.E.D.'s to hijack hospital computers was "irrelevant," because computers are often already compromised by other means. Critically important devices like the fetal monitors for women with high-risk pregnancies can be so burdened with malware they no longer function. "I remember one computer in a radiology room that was absolutely riddled with viruses because the surgeons and nurses checked their e-mail on it," Fu said. "And it was the computer that ran the radiology equipment." Why didn't people check e-mail on a separate computer? "They said there wasn't enough room on the table for two machines," he said.
Even when staffers aren't careless, hospital-security problems can be difficult to fix. Medical manufacturers, Fu said, frequently will not allow hospitals to modify their software—even just to add anti-virus protection—because they fear that the changes would have to be reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a complex and expensive process. The fear is wholly justified; according to the F.D.A., most medical-device software problems are linked to updates, patches, and revisions.
Hospital equipment like external defibrillators and fetal monitors can at least be picked up, taken apart, or carted away. Implanted devices—equipment surgically implanted into the body—are vastly more difficult to remove but not all that much harder to attack.
You don't even have to know anything about medical devices' software to attack them remotely, Fu says. You simply have to call them repeatedly, waking them up so many times that they exhaust their batteries—a medical version of the online "denial of service" attack, in which botnets overwhelm Web sites with millions of phony messages. On a more complex level, pacemaker-subverter Barnaby Jack has been developing Electric Feel, software that scans for medical devices in crowds, compromising all within range. Although Jack emphasizes that Electric Feel "was created for research purposes, in the wrong hands it could have deadly consequences." (A General Accounting Office report noted in August that Uncle Sam had never systematically analyzed medical devices for their hackability, and recommended that the F.D.A. take action.)
Some 20 million Americans today carry implanted medical devices of some kind. As the population ages, that number will only grow, as will the percentage of those devices that are accessible by smartphone. So will the number of connected smart homes. Possibly people will own versions of Google's driverless car, in which all navigation is controlled by computers and sensors—devices that a hacker with a smartphone can adjust with satisfactorily grim results. If Ridley Scott, say, were to attempt a remake of Dial M for Murder, I'm not sure he'd know where to begin.
"In 10 years," Kohno told me, "computers will be everywhere we look, and they'll all have wireless. Will you be able to compromise someone's insulin pump through their car? Will you be able to induce seizures by subverting their house lights? Will you be able to run these exploits by cell phone? What's possible? It's more like 'What won't be possible?'"