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Conservation and Environment in Costa Rica: Monthly Updates
Conservation in Costa Rica - Monthly Update January 2011
I was recently looking over the reports that I've written in the past and noticed January 2010, which was a good month for us, the start of the best year we've had, a good amount of interesting projects, some good fun maintenance work and a good group of volunteers.
This January is even better! The start of another amazing year? Better than the year before? That's what we are hoping for anyway! We have started the year off very well this year, we've started construction of a new building for volunteers, we have our 3 main investigation projects running very well and we have began final plans for a great new project that will help the nearby Scarlet Macaws.
Our three investigation projects this year are working well already: the sensor cameras, butterfly and bat projects. We are having a tough time clearing the routes we need to get to the correct areas as this year we are working more on interior forest which means going around 300m of the trails and borders of the park, but we are already getting some great results. The results from the sensor cameras have been amazing...from just 1 week on the cameras we got 5 different species (Howler Monkey, Deer, Agouti, Coati and our Ocelot).
The butterflies are bringing in around 80 individuals each time we put them out and we are getting many different species each time and the bat project is running very similarly as well, many species in a single night and lots of individuals! The areas that we are using are very hard to get to, steep inclines and long walks, but the results we are getting are very important and they are giving us so many good results that we honestly can't complain in the slightest!
We also had a visit from Clive and Fiona, who are among Costa Rica's best known Macaw experts, we have been trying to get them here for a long time to visit the area and get their professional opinion on the Macaw population and ways we can improve the area to help the Macaw population. They spent 6 days with us, walking 3 times a day, early morning, late morning and then afternoon, visiting many different areas of the park to try and see if we had nesting sites and feeding sites for the macaws that we do see transiting over the area. As some of you may know, Macaws are very specific about where they nest (for such a brightly coloured big bird they need to be to avoid predators!).
Even after such a short visit they are pretty confident that we have many areas that are great for Macaws to nest in, safer than areas outside the park which are currently being used by nesting pairs. Unfortunately Macaws can be a little stupid at times and once they have found a nesting site they usually stay with it until it falls down, so they aren't coming into the area because they are happy with the sites outside on the boarder of the park. This made us begin to think why the population wasn't increasing and new pairs flying into these nesting sites? After a few interviews with the local people we quickly found out why...the Macaw babies were being poached each year by locals.
Our next investigation/protection program is already in its final planning stages, one of the local farmers, Simon, has three nesting sites in his land, 2 of which are occupied at this time and will probably have chicks in the next 6 months. We already have Simon's permission and have quickly began sorting our transport, equipment and food supplies for one of the biggest, longest and most important projects we have started so far, we are going to build a small outpost in the middle of the nesting sites so that 2-3 people can live there 24 hours a day from before the chicks are hatched to the day that they fly the nest and settle in a new area...protecting the young. Normally Macaws lay 3-4 eggs each season...usually with natural selection 1-2 of these will perish before they leave the nest, but this means that each season we should be able to increase the population of Macaws in the area by about 4-6 Macaws, which may sound really small, but is a huge increase! Obviously with this increase there will be more Macaws in the area which will look for different nesting sites each year, increasing the size of the project each time we do it! Stay tuned for more!
As we begin plans for another long term project we are finishing off another, our community sports area (football field as most of you know it) is pretty much finished off now, with just small bits of maintenance every few months to make sure it stays in good condition, as you can see from the photo the improvement is amazing! Unfortunately I don't have any before shots (any volunteers from December/January 2008/2009 please sent me a photo if you have any!). But those of you that have worked on it can clearly see the difference and we are very happy to tell you that people use it all the time...in fact I haven't seen a day this month that there hasn't been 20/30 people playing a game of some sort on there!
For those of you who have forgotten why we've spent so much time on this area - it's because we wanted to give something free to the community, bring more people into the area in a friendly, free and fun way, giving them a good place to play a game of football is a great start and soon we will have community events and organised games on the field to increase the parks image even further!
And finally this month we have finished off most of the work on the new laundry area and begun tidying the land around the laundry area...I'm just going to leave you with a before photo this time, next month when I send the report I will be sure to include an after photo with the whole area looking amazing!
Thank you all for your help this month, as usual this is only a small amount of the work we have done in the Barra Honda National park, I could write for days on all the small things we all get up to!
Richard Munday
Conservation Coordinator
Barra Honda National Park
January 2011


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NEWINGTON, NH -- Planet Fitness has received new financing from GE Capital, Corporate Finance to the tune of a $40 million revolving credit facility.
GE Capital, Norwalk, CT, a division of General Electric, also announced today that the financing will be used for working and growth capital, and the facility may be increased to $50 million under certain conditions.
"Because of GE Capital's deep domain expertise, they're smart about loan underwriting and willing to make significant financial commitments to growth businesses," Planet Fitness CFO Jayne Conway said in a statement. "This provides us with the liquidity and flexibility we need both for our day-to-day operations and to foster our growth plans."
Planet Fitness, which had a proposed minority sale with a private equity firm fall through this past summer, has more than 350 locations in 38 states with more than 2 million members.
"Providing capital to rapidly growing companies is one of our specialties," Tom Quindlen, president and CEO of GE Capital, Corporate Finance, said in a statement. "This means working closely with clients to fully understand their needs, and then finding and delivering the right solution."
The Newington, NH-based company was eighth on Club Industry's Top 100 Clubs list this year after generating $129.5 million in revenue in 2009. It was the second consecutive year that Planet Fitness cracked the list's top 10. The company expects it will open at least 90 new clubs this year.
"Shut the TV off. Don't listen to fear mongers," Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl said in a statement. "With great companies like GE and Planet Fitness, America will be just fine."
Planet Fitness also launched a new national ad campaign today that will be airing in 35 markets.

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm exploring the web to find sites I like
Calle Carretera Nueva, Juan Dolio
The wedding was supposed to be 5/25, but on 5/21 the hotel cancelled it via email and then phone call.
Posted by: Dominique on Jul 27, 2014
see all reviews
#2 of 16 Hotels in Juan Dolio
based on 6 review(s)
Located on the shores of Villas del Mar Beach, in the Dominican Republic, the Barceló Capella Beach Resort is a tropical paradise in a world of its own, offering its guests all the amenities of the most prestigious resorts.
Share your experiences with others. Don't forget to send your review to Debbie by using an easy form.
The wedding was supposed to be 5/25, but on 5/21 the hotel cancelled it via email and then phone call.
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by:
Dominique on Jul 27, 2014 >
1 contribution(s) United States of America
Visited on: Jul, 2014 | Wedding | With Group
785 people found this review helpful
We went anyway, brought our own American preacher, artificial flowers just in case, picture of wedding cake to be made. Brought cake top, columns, and swan adornments for sides of three tier cake. Brought place cards in silver bells, and favor bags for each guest with bug repellent, Spanish/English dictionary, time line, Dominican coffee, etc. We had nine additional suitcases that guests divided and brought for us, containing wedding gown, gifts, etc.
Hotel wedding planner was horrendous, but after asking for the manager, showing him the emails from her, and telling what I wanted, they were very accommodating. Wedding cake was absolutely gorgeous. Reception was under the tent with the beautiful Caribbean and palms as a backdrop to the bridal table. Everything worked out well, except for one thing. Of all our meals there, the wedding dinner was the worst. It appeared to be a hodge podge of leftovers from the week. Those of us who stayed a week knew it was the worst, but for day guests driving hours to attend the wedding, it was embarrassing for us as hosts.
Our room location was excellent. The bride and groom had a good time. Location was the only factor in choosing this hotel, but Barcelo could have done better. The wedding planner had to get over herself.
Attended via Apple.
25 guests
Restaurants and Bars:
Beach lovely
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Rented car and toured Santo Domingo. Nothing much to do at the hotel.
Other Comments:
Night entertainment was too loud.
well maintained hotel
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by:
mabel on Jul 10, 2014 >
1 contribution(s) GERMANY
Visited on: May, 2014 | Leisure | Solo
1384 people found this review helpful
I went to this hotel during my annual vacation and stayed here for 5 days. As usual, before I go to any hotel, I have to read reviews about the place online before going. For this hotel, I saw good reviews and then made up my mind to go and when I got there, it was exactly as people have described it. It is a very nice place to stay while on vacation in DR. It is my first time in DR and I had an amazing time out here. Generally, the hotel is a nice and comfortable place with well maintained grounds and great management. The location is great as it is located near a beach which is an amazing plus to the good side of this hotel, the rooms were perfect, large enough, clean, comfortable beds and the basic amenities were present in the room and also they were all working. The bathrooms are clean and big enough with hot water running. The maid in charge of housekeeping was nice and polite so it was easy to chat with her. The food served here are okay and delicious with nice restaurant staff smiling at you. The beach here is beautiful and clean, hardly saw seaweeds on it just maybe once and it was later free of it. The staff was all nice and polite, they were happy to be here and that was really great. I had an amazing experience at this hotel and will be coming back again.
Almost perfect
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by: DAVID
on Nov 15, 2013 >
2 contribution(s) Canada
Visited on: Nov, 2013 | Leisure | Solo
1453 people found this review helpful
Hotel: well laid out, extremely well maintained
Room: Oceanfront room however no balcony or terrace, bit musty smelling, very good water pressure, and excellent air conditioning, only problem was getting maid service completed every other day, tardy or forgetfull, very clean and spacious
Beach: beauitifull sandy beach with ample chairs, ocean utself was very rocky (large rocks) but i knew that coming in, very good swimming areas but very few water activities
Pools: numerous and spotless, some with swim up bar
Dinning: more than adequate buffet, the only night i booked the only a la cart I was ill and coulld not eat, the restaurant was quite nicely appointed
Staff: all staff very friendly and courteous although very few of them were fluent in English, getting service in the buffet for a single vtraveller bwas difficult
Shows: entertainment 6 nights with one beach party, active disco
Transport: coming from Canada you had to land in Punta Cana and then take a 3 hour bus ride to the hotel, the drivers both bus drivers and locals drove like maniacs to the point of endangering everyone, this is why I would not make a return trip
Conclusion: other than the transportation this resort is on the verge of being 4 stars at a lower level, I recomend you take the driving risk once and visit
Room Number:
Room Block:
Nice hotel
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by: Leatrice
on May 17, 2012 >
1 contribution(s) United States of America
Visited on: May, 2012 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
1760 people found this review helpful
We returned last week from Barcelo Capella in Juan Dolio. We have traveled to the Dominican Republic many times, but this was our first time on the southern part of the island.
We were very happy with the Barcelo Capella. The grounds were very well maintained and the food was good. The service was good, but not overly friendly.
The beach was beautiful. It was shallow and tranquil, so we were able to do a lot of snorkeling. There was plenty of shade, which is important to me, as I tend to burn. My boyfriend is a scuba diver, and he was very satisfied with the dive center at the hotel.
My only complaint is that there is not a lot to do in Juan Dolio, and I was a bit bored. But if you are looking for a relaxing vacation of sitting on the beach, I would definitely recommend this resort.
Shame on you barcelo Capella dominican republic
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by:
Miguel on Jan 12, 2012 >
3 contribution(s) United States of America
Visited on: Jan, 2012 | Leisure | Family and Kids
1764 people found this review helpful
I known this hotel chain to be one of the best operating in the Dominican Republic, however, I'm very disappointed on the last two visits to resorts that they manage, this time, Capella, located in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic, here are my bullet points:
1- Check in a disaster, the front desk was packed with angry customers for various reasons, I couldn't get my room until about 5:00 P.M.
2- Rooms look old and not kept well in general.
3- Unable to get beach towels as they do not have enough.
4- Had to use the buffet for all my meals as they said that since I only booked one night I couldn't reserve for a la carte.
On the positive side:
1- Meals are OK. for the price,
2- Friendly service at the restaurant.
Room Number:
January 3rd-the 4th,2012
Needs lots of work.
Restaurants and Bars:
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Our Holiday was nice, I would change a few things....
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by:
Krista on Nov 28, 2011 >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Visited on: Nov, 2011 | Leisure | Family and Kids
2046 people found this review helpful
The hotel was nice,The elevators are slow...and the main floor is zero...our room was 2211 on the 1st floor...hmmm... We stayed in room 2211 it was VERY MUSTY and everything was damp all week..everything...the sheets..pillowcases..everything!!! The grounds/garden are amazing the maintenance staff were very friendly..MOST of the resturant staff are rude...the food was goodI got the feeling it was too much to ask for a glass of water.Fri-Sun the locals are at the hotel and seats at the buffet are hard to find. The back pool with the water slide could have been cleaner....but with the rain it's hard to keep the leafs out of the water. The vendors on the beach did not bother me..I just said "no thank you" and they left me alone...my mother on the other hand would stop...as how they were doing...making small talk...and after the week she had over 150 dollars of product...lol...they can be very persistant...stay stong(but polite) and just say "no thank you"...and they walk away...either way enjoy the sun!!!
Room Number:
Room Block:
second building
Avoid this resort!
Barcelo Capella Beach
Posted by: Keith
on Jan 19, 2010 >
2 contribution(s) United States of America
Visited on: Dec, 2009 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
2187 people found this review helpful
My wife and I like to travel and have found the Caribbean area quite nice for a winter getaway. However this all changed between 12/25/09 & 1/1/10.
I have made a list of all the problems that we had encountered in all of the different rooms that we had stayed in.
Problems with rooms 3319
(1) Mold on walls in bathroom.
(2) Thermostat was only held in place by wire that connected it so it rotated which made it impossible to control temperature in room. (3) Room cramped with too much furniture.
(4) Buttons on chair in room rusted, brown stain on white beach cover up.
(5) Dust on Stucko walls made it look like room was painted 2 tone.
(6) Lock on door fell off because screws had been stripped.
(7) All fixtures in room are corroded (rusty).
(8) Phone and TV wires hanging out of wall boxes.
Room 4104
(1) Sewage and sewer gas backing up into bathtub and sink, water seeping up thru floor.
(2) Sliding door in room very hard to move (my wife could not move it) and lock doesn't work.
Room 4319
(1) Air conditioner only has 1 fan speed and temperature unable to adjust, have to adjust temperature in room by opening sliding door.
(2) Mattress on bed is pillow top down and very uncomfortable.
(3) Wicker chairs on balcony worn out, have to be careful so that don't get cut by broken wicker.
Your Arrival:
When we arrived there where another couple checking in and 3 attendants at the front desk, we were ignored because the only one that could speak English was helping the other couple but finally did get our room.
It is suggested that it is a 5 star and upon arrival the room that we received 3319 had numerous maintenance problems and I would give it a 1star (*) at best. I went to the front desk and attempted to get a room change on the first day of our stay and was turned down. My thoughts were that being in a foreign country and not speaking Spanish we will just have to make the best of it.
On Monday of our stay I went to the front desk again and after getting loud the attendant found another room that we moved to 4104 which on 1st moving to this room we felt that we had been upgraded (4 star) still not what is advertised. I called the front desk Tuesday and reported that the bath tub was not draining and was told that someone would be there to check, no one showed up to check problem. Then Wednesday after spending the day on the beach my wife had gotten to much sun and wanted to come back to the room and just relax before our reservation for dinner because she had a headache. When we arrived in our room there was a maintenance person with an electric hammer outside of our room and the noise in our room was overwhelming, I asked him what was going on and he informed me that there was a problem in the room next door and that he would be done making all the noise in 30 min. I told him that he had to stop the noise and went to the front desk to report the problem. Upon returning to my room I found the bath tub filled with sewage and water on the floor by the sink we were unable to use the bathroom so then I went to the front desk again, this time they offered a different room so I packed our entire luggage again (My wife feeling worse after all the noise and sewer smell in our room was unable to help) and moved it to another room (4319) and missed our reservation that evening. I informed the desk that the air conditioner in this room would not adjust fan speed or temperature and that the TV had very poor reception and was told that they would repair immediately, they did nothing.
My experience is that your hotel is very much lacking in maintenance and that the front desk and maintenance lacks sense of urgency and the only way to get attention is to get loud while other guests are at check in. I have not experienced this on any of my previous travels which have included the Dominican Republic as well as many other destinations.
The maid service was very inconsistent one day leaving beverages and the next day leaving the fridge empty, towels had to be removed from the room and washed before new towels would be put in room, we asked for wash cloths and they didn't know what we wanted.
Restaurants and Bars:
The buffet restaurants had a few good items but mostly it was not appealing to my taste. We did find the reservation restaurants quite nice and food was good and some was even exceptional.
Beach is quit nice except for all of the cigarette butts and locals that come on the weekends, many venders roaming the beach but if you ignore them or tell them that you are not interested they will leave you alone. If you do decide to purchase something negotiate the price because most of the time you can buy for 1/4 the price that they initially ask.
Trash was not picked up until completely full, lights along walks moistly just flashed on then off.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Shows in evening are OK but not as good as have seen at all of the other places that we have stayed. We did take a tour to Santa Domingo and had a very good time, alot of history and went to some shops as well as street vendors, this was quite the experience.
Other Comments:
In all I suggest that if you want to have a vacation that you will never forget go the Barcelo Capella Beach in Juan Dolio but if you want to have a relaxing vacation find another location. After complaining about the accommodations or lack of we did receive a letter from the director offering us a 2 night 3 day stay for free but have declined this offer because I don't believe the 2nd trip would be any different than the 1st.


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- Home
- Garden Plants
- Roses
- Ground Cover Roses
Ground Cover Roses
Ground cover roses bring plenty of colour to the garden and are very popular for planting under trees and shrubs or for filling beds. They can also be used to create elaborate, eye-catching features by planting them in containers, training them up a garden statue or letting them trail over paths and steps. These roses belong to the Polyantha group, which literally means many flowers, so they are very worthwhile garden subjects and will treat you to masses of beautiful little roses from summer well into autumn. See below for our ground cover roses.


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Halloween inspiration, art, activities and download fun for all
Lots of great art, ideas and inspiration can be found in children's books. This collection brings lots of visual fun for Halloween with a great collection of activities and coloring. Grab some free samples, and take a look at these favorites: Wacky Witches Sticker Activity Book Witches Stained Glass Coloring Book The Little Halloween Activity Book 3-D Coloring Book--Happy Halloween Halloween ABC Coloring Book Halloween Scapes
. . . and more! September 30, 2015


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The theme for the 8th EDEN awards is Cultural Tourism.
One winner from each of the 18 participating countries has been selected.
The winners were announced on 22 March 2018.
EDEN is an initiative promoting sustainable tourism development models across the EU.
The initiative is based on national competitions that take place every other year and result in the selection of a tourist 'destination of excellence' for each participating country.
Through the selection of destinations, EDEN effectively achieves the objective of drawing attention to the values, diversity and common features of European tourist destinations.


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The first round of Helium's Philly's Phunniest Person Contest continued Sunday, with John McKeever, Joe Dougherty and Tim Grill moving on to the semi-final round. Preliminary rounds continue each Sunday until August 21st. Tickets available for any of the remaining preliminary rounds HERE.
Speaking of contests, this Wendesday The Ministry of Secret Jokes will play host to the Philly's Punniest Contest where comedians will do battle for the crown Doogie Horner says we all know is really The Legendary Wid's. Also performing on the show are Luke Cunningham, David James, Billy Bob Thompson, Roger C. Snair and the Omniana Battle will pit Emily and Micah McGraw against street magician Jaykob Strange.
The fouth annual Philly Sketch Fest is now accepting submissions. This year, the festival will be held from October 10th through 16th at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater as part of the second annual Comedy Month. Interested performers can find the application HERE.
This Friday will mark the debut of the Sideshow Improv Showcase at The Arts Parlor (1170 South Broad St.) The show aims to feature "new groups, old groups doing new things, or new and/or old groups doing odd things." The first show will feature improv groups Beirdo and The Hendersons as well as some acts yet to be announced.
Last week, Center City Comedy hosted the BONERoo stand-up comedy show at Mad River Manayunk. Super DPS was there to cover the show, and posted video online that you can check out HERE.


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Here are five ways to start using solar power without spending tens of thousands of dollars.
There's no end to the potential of solar power. The amount of solar radiation reaching our planet's surface in any given hour is theoretically adequate to meet all of humanity's current energy needs. That sounds great, and huge strides are being made to bring residential solar power down to the level where it can be an affordable option for more than Silicon Valley CEOs and well-heeled eco celebrities.
But the fact remains that, for most of us, solar power is still a fairly daunting investment. Even if you're in a position to finance a major home improvement project and live in an area which offers tax subsidies for solar investment, a system capable of covering your home's current energy use will run into the tens of thousands of dollars. This assumes you're a homeowner. Tough economic times and and an unstable housing market have more Americans renting then ever before, and none of these people are candidates for a solar retrofit.
And so we wait ...
The good news is this: the future is solar. Photovoltaic panels continue to get smaller, cheaper, and more efficient. Installation costs are declining in direct proportion to the number of solar systems going into the field. Policymarkers are waking to the benefits of a more decentralized power grid, and community building codes increasingly reflect the new reality of solarized homes and businesses.
Solar power is on its way. In the meantime, how can we use all these free photons? It depends on your needs and budget, of course. But we've rounded up five ways you can start using solar energy today.
Our ground rules are pretty simple. Each of these mini solar investments must provide reasonable benefits, not be more involved than a weekend project, and clock in under $500. They're not restricted to photovoltaic conversion, and may use solar energy in any way. Both DIY projects and product purchases are fair game.
Ready to give it a shot? Pick one, and join the Solar Age!
Small-scale solar panels
When most people think about solar power, the first thing that comes to mind is solar PV (photovoltaic). These are systems which convert sunlight into electricity. The size of the installation may vary, but they have three basic components: panels, which capture sunlight and convert it to electrical energy; a controller, designed to prevent overcharging; and some sort of storage battery. Many systems will also have a DC to AC power converter.
For $500, you can't buy enough juice to run a major appliance, much less an entire home. But if you're willing to do the work yourself, you can afford the materials for a self-contained system which will provide enough clean and renewable power for small electronic devices and chargers. Small-scale solar is useful for emergencies, too. You'll be able to run a laptop or keep your cellphone charged, even when your neighbors are sitting in the dark.
Energy-efficient lighting isn't all about CFLs and LEDs. The next time you're in an older home — one constructed before electricity was common -- notice the windows.
Until the turn of the last century, buildings relied on natural daytime lighting. Floor-to-ceiling windows were common (and used for both ventilation and illumination). We don't build that way anymore, but it's possible to make direct use of solar power through the installation of skylights.
Conventional skylighting can be pricey, and usually require professional installation. But tubular skylights are a simple and inexpensive way to bring light into your living space. They consist of three basic parts: a dome collector, which is mounted above the roofline; piping, which directs the collected sunlight; and a diffuser, mounted much in the manner of a traditional roof lighting fixture.
Tubular skylight projects generally don't require building permits, can be knocked-out in a few hours with common tools; and don't displace much attic insulation. The amount of light they produce can be considerable. This 18 inch kit provides the equivalent of 750 watts of incandescent light for about $400, including optional accessories. That leaves $100 to rent whatever extra tools you might need -- and to buy a case of beer for whoever you can talk into spending an afternoon on the roof with you.
A humble clothesline
Here's another example of direct solar power: a clothesline. In terms of home energy use, the clothes dryer is among the hungriest of appliances, ranking immediately behind the refrigerator, climate control, hot water heaters, and lighting. Depending on how much laundry you go through and local power rates, an electric clothes dryer could easily account for $200 of your annual energy use.
The sun is ready to save this money for you. A clothesline can be as simple as a piece of nylon rope tied to an apartment balcony, or as deluxe as a folding aluminum frame parallel line capable of hanging a couple of big washer loads at once. Free-standing frame units require a concrete base, so you'll need a sack of gravel (for drainage) and some Quikrete. Follow the directions supplied with the kit, and be sure to use a level to get everything is lined-up before the concrete cures.
The whole project should come in well under $100. Take the other $400 and enjoy a weekend at the beach. Solar power works well for tanning, too.
Solar attic fans
On sunny days, your attic can become an enormous heat trap. With temperatures of up to 150 degrees, this trapped heat will radiate into living spaces below. That means a greater demand on your air conditioner.
Take a load off by installing a solar powered attic fan. The brilliant part about solar fans is that they provide peak ventilation during the hottest, brightest part of the day. And there's no need to run wiring: Many solar fans are available with a small set of PV panel right on the top.
This fan kit is powered by a 20 watt PV array, and operates at 1200 cubic feet per minute. That should be enough to fully vent an attic of up to 1800 square feet. A properly vented attic can lower room temperatures by as much as 10 degrees, and a cooler roof will also extend the life of its shingles. The unit we've linked retails for less than $450, and can be installed in an afternoon with common tools. Go with the optional thermal snap switch for fire safety. This project should pay for itself in its first year.
Solar cookers
Who doesn't love a summer cookout? Of course, like most good things, there are downsides: VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from charcoal starter, and a none-too-light carbon footprint.
Solar cookers are another direct use of solar power. They're amazingly simple devices, utilizing one or more reflectors and a sealed cooking compartment. Relief agencies have made extensive use of solar cookers in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, due to their low cost and ease of construction. Chelsea Green has a great set of directions on how to make your own for no more than a few dollars.
If you don't want to go to the trouble -- or you'd just enjoy the convenience of a well-engineered portable cooker -- Sun BD sells a nifty unit they claim will produce temperatures of up to 400 degrees. That's plenty hot enough to roast meat or vegetables, bake, or boil water. It folds up like a suitcase, making it handy for camping or weekend picnics. You can grab the Tulsi-Hybrid Cooking Oven for under $250 at Amazon.


text: Zoom past your defenders with the Nike Zoom Shift basketball shoe. In today's fast-paced game, speed is as important as ever. The Zoom Shift is engineered with a lightweight, mesh upper, allowing you to cruise all over the court at top speed. Zoom Air cushioning provides a responsive ride while the outsole wraps the side of the shoe to give you top traction even at high speeds.


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Manufacturers claim that the use of antibacterial-containing products would protect your health and that of your family. However, there is substantial evidence that the widespread use of antibacterial compounds, such as Triclosan and Triclosan-containing products, promote the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotic medications and antibacterial cleansers.
This means that the use of these household products may actually contribute to more illnesses. Antibacterial compounds do not eliminate all germs or bacteria they encounter. Those that survive mutate and emerge stronger, and more resistant to future applications, and with repetitive use, bacteria continue to become more resistant. This means that infections would become more and more difficult to treat.
Antibacterial resistance is a national health concern. The American Medical Association (AMA) has recommended that consumers avoid antibacterial products. According to the AMA, "Despite their recent proliferation in consumer products, the use of antimicrobial agents such as Triclosan in consumer products has not been studied extensively. No data exist to support their efficacy when used in such products or any need for them…it may be prudent to avoid the use of antimicrobial agents in consumer products…" (2000)
Bacterial resistance will certainly increase as the antibacterial compound persists, especially at low levels for long periods of time. Since Triclosan residues remain, even after initial application, the chances of creating resistant bacteria increases. Another major concern is that of at-home patient care. Vulnerable patients and their health care providers, who use antibacterial products to protect them from disease caused by commensal as well as pathogenic bacteria, may inadvertently produce a haven for bacteria resistant to antibacterial chemicals and antibiotics as well.
Some researchers have even hypothesized that widespread surface antimicrobial use may help to explain the unexpected appearance of a different kind of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in communities. Could it be that our desire for a germ-free lifestyle provides a selective advantage for stronger, resistant organisms such as MRSA?
Researchers have found a correlation between too much hygiene and increased allergy. The hygiene hypothesis stems from studies that reveal an increased frequency of allergies, cases of asthma, and eczema in persons who have been raised in an environment overly protective (sterile) against microorganisms.
Exploring resistance and cross-resistance


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Local contractors getting calls about strange noises in homes
Extreme cold causing the sounds but could signal other problems
Scott Cline knows a thing or two about contracting--he's been president of J&B Construction for more than three decades.
Just this week, he and his wife heard a sound in their home they've never heard before.
"It woke me up, it sounded like somebody threw something against the side of the house, up in our bedroom," says Wendy Cline of Hartford.
Scott explained to Wendy there wasn't an animal in the attic or an intruder--just the house moving.
VIDEO: Extreme cold causes strange home noises
"You're just getting noises from expansion and contraction from moisture in the wood," says her husband, Scott Cline, of J&B Construction.
Scott's been getting a lot of calls from homeowners concerned about these strange noises--many times heard at night when it's quiet and colder.
He says the drop into frigid temperatures is behind the sounds.
"We went from extremes, we went to above freezing and a lot of moisture to the day later where it was below zero."
A lot of people 12 News talked with say they're hearing the noises mostly in their attics.
Contractors say that means you need more ventilation, and also need to keep the area between your roof and gutters clear. If not, you could be dealing with freezing pipes.
Contractor Mike Wolters, with Precision Contracting Services, says it's crucial homeowners clear off the snow from their roofs in this extreme cold.
"It doesn't have a chance to form ice-dams, it prevents a lot of the water damage that could keep moving up the top of the house," says Wolters.
Although there is nothing structurally wrong with your house when you hear these noises--contractors do recommend you keep your house at a comfortable temperature, especially at night, which also prevents the pipes from freezing.


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The London Zoo is under investigation after complaints that drunken, rowdy after-hours parties are endangering the zoo animals' safety. The Guardian reports that alcohol-fuelled incidents including a beer being thrown at a tiger, a drunken woman reportedly trying to enter a lion enclosure and a man stripping off his clothes and attempting to enter the penguin pool have raised concerns with zoo officials and the Westminster city council. A Friday night event series called "Zoo Lates" billed as a late night party with the animals where alcohol is served, is the root of the concern. At the events, it seems, the standards for the animals' well-being are not upheld the same way they are during regular zoo hours during the day. The council will decide whether serving alcohol at the parties, which draw upward of 6,000 people a night, is a good idea moving forward.
Beer thrown at tiger during drunken zoo party
Zoo officials say late-night zoo parties are getting out-of-
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Visiting Liverpool
Fall in Love with Liverpool
Liverpool is a city like no other. The rich blend of history and culture, combined with the vibrancy, humour and energy of its people, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions. Boasting two cathedrals, more Grade II listed buildings than anywhere outside London and the biggest Chinese arch outside of China, this UNESCO World Heritage City is just a little bit special. Why not explore it for yourself when you visit the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool?
Eating and Drinking
Get a Taste for Liverpool
Whatever your rumbling tummy demands, Liverpool is sure to have a restaurant that will cater to your cravings. From fine dining to family friendly and from blow-out to budget there are hundreds of…
Experience Liverpool
When you come to a show at the M&S Bank Arena, why not make the most of your visit to the city and enjoy Liverpool's fantastic attractions? There are a wealth of things to do, all just minutes from the M&S Bank Arena, including museums, a big wheel, Royal Albert Dock Liverpool and the Liverpool ONE leisure and retail complex...
Liverpool Waterfront
Liverpool's Waterfront is where the city boasts both its maritime and mercantile heritage and displays its modern face to the world. The M&S Bank Arena sits at the heart of this famous skyline, alongside the Three Graces - perfect balance of past and present.
Historic Liverpool
Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, Liverpool's stunning waterfront is the heart of this vibrant and dynamic city. Divided into six different areas reflecting Liverpool's varied architecture and historical relevance, the World Heritage Site is just a few minutes' walk from the M&S Bank Arena.
Regional Events
Explore the Region
Liverpool and the surrounding areas are rich with exciting events unique to the region. Drawing visitors from across the globe to the city each year, these events range from live music and world class dance, to food and drink and internationally acclaimed cultural events.


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Everyone has a different idea of what acceptable quality is.
In my house, my bedroom tv is used for watching garbage before I go to sleep (Law and Order, History Channel) and watching Sunday NFL Countdown on Sunday mornings before I decide to get out of bed. 120hz would be nice in general but doesn't really add much to that kind of programming.
If you plan on watching a lot of movies or sports in there then by all means splurge for 120hz. It is rare and a premium feature on 32" sets though.
At 32" I wouldn't even care if it was 1080p. Nothing coming in from the cable company is 1080p and at that screen size the extra detail would be hard to see even if it was there. The price difference between the two is so small now that I'd probably kick extra for 1080, but it would be hard to tell the difference.
Toshiba LEDs are nice - nothing spectacular. I wouldn't mind owning one in my bedroom but I'd probably go a different way for my living room.


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Monday, June 22, 2009
The Nubbin
One need think about the implications of this video only for a moment to understand the essential issue: a system that depends on private insurance is potentially no system at all. That insurers routinely deny coverage for any number of reasons means that, in addition to the forty-seven million who have no insurance, there are potentially millions more who only think they do, despite paying premiums.
Insurance companies do not provide medical care. They collect money, invest it, dole it out when they have no way not to. Even for the so-called "non-profits," it's a money-making business, the basis of which is taking money intended for health care, keeping as much of it as possible for as long as possible, returning to the system as little as possible. If it can also be said of physicians and hospitals that they profit from the ill health of others, at least those entities are providing actual care. If we're serious about real health care reform (and it's evident that the "we" is the populace, but not its elected officials), it ought to be the case that any citizen who gets sick can receive care, regardless of the timing of their illness or where it falls in the fine print. Period. And, of course, the same ought to apply to well-care (assuming we know what interventions actually add to health. As opposed to prophylactic spine manipulations, homeopathy, and other forms of woo.) The criterion for coverage: you exist. Other countries do it; why not us?
This is the central idea, the raison d'etre, of a single payer plan. Same rules for everyone. Guaranteed coverage. No wondering, no legions of people spending dollars intended for health care trying to find ways out of spending dollars intended for health care.
And, taking it all the way, what if this care were not only guaranteed but free (or nearly free) of premiums? So what if certain taxes were raised to pay for it? Wouldn't that be more than offset (or at least evenly offset) by freedom from those premiums? And by the fact that there'd no longer be an unnecessary and very expensive intermediary between people and the care they get?
To me it's obvious. Inevitable, even. Although watching Congress I conclude it won't happen for a few more decades, assuming we still exist by then; and only after a complete failure of the current system. The opposition continues to parade their hand-crafted talking points, designed to scare and distract. There simply are no salient arguments I've heard that make a case for maintaining the intermediary of hundreds of insurance companies, other than what amounts to "we need them because we have them." What good are they adding? What particular and essential need do they fill? For the billions and billions of dollars, intended for health care, that insurance companies make, take, and keep, what do consumers get that justifies their existence? The "public option," they tell us, "is just a way to get rid of insurance companies." And that would be bad, how?
Seriously. Somebody tell me. I can't think of a thing.
And yet, if you listen to our Congresscrowd -- practically all of 'em -- you'd think it's the insurance companies that are responsible for everything that's good about American health care. "The best health care the world has ever known," as one of them recently said, ignoring the price we're paying compared to the rest of the world, the millions with limited access to it, and the fact that we are at the bottom end of most measurable health criteria.
This might be a good time to insert a cartoon that Ellen sent me:
I think it is the essence of the contrary argument. Although, as I've said, were we to go all the way to provide universal coverage under a single payer, taxes would be offset. For those who love insurance companies, there ought to be a way to provide them the option.
Or, if they want the same result without all the paper work, whenever they get sick they could run into their bathrooms and do this.
23 comments:
I am a little scared at the timing of all this: the rush to single-payer concurrent with the knowledge that health-care run-ups are our only weakness in the future [all the smart economists I read say this].
I think the attachment to insurance companies is that somebody should be watching out for costs, and that they should be fairly consistent if their pool is large enough. I suspect for someone like Aetna, it is. It helps Congress to have something impersonal like a company to argue that things like organ transplants and experimental chemo can't be free to everyone. Robin Hanson always has a fresh, contraflow opinion on health care, even if I don't always agree immediately. I've seen his graph that shows the failure of HMO's to keep costs down after only a few years since their creation, so maybe this isn't a complete answer. I haven't seen too much blowback about the British health services (or Canadian, for that matter), so maybe it's perfectly feasible.
You argue for universal health care by obviousness... I see several things. People are more productive with solid health care--this is the current rationale for businesses providing health insurance. And, some things in life are unfair--birth defects, genetic rolls of the dice [I'm not ready to incentivize genotype-awareness over love], and too-late health science. Are we righting some universal wrong by treating the unfairness? Sounds like a philosophical argument about Justice; maybe that deserves to go into a new Amendment.
For the video, I see a little grandstanding, but I would be more sympathetic if it weren't a hearing about rescinding during the first year of coverage. I can totally believe that people quickly making large claims were willing to bend the truth on their application, however tragic it is that this even happens.
Sorry to go off topic Sid (this seems to happen whenever I comment on your blog[s]) but I thought you might be mildly interested in this story of a London surgeon who does single incision laparoscopy; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8112724.stm
Reason I'm posting is that the article mentions that he can remove gallbladders in an hour, but I'm sure I read on this blog that you did it in around 12 minutes using your 'mini-chole'?
1.) Why haven't those who so strongly support universal healthcare formed a truly not-for-profit insurance company yet?
They could start by targeting only California, putting their money together as a reserve for all the initial policies, invest it with Goldman Sachs (who, with the governments/tax payers help, will be posting record profits this year)and over the course of a few years this company should be strong enough to return the initial investment back to the philanthropists who started it while continually adding more policy holders.
If this model worked, it would grow on its own, and there would be no need for politicians to force a plan on ~49% of the pop. who are not comfortable with it.
2.) Why does the universal system have to be nationwide immediately?American's would be much more receptive to implementing a system nationwide which has already been proven to work in one state, whether its a private non-profit like above or a state wide universal coverage system.
3.) One last thought. Isn't there something to be said for 100 shady insurance companies battling it out for my insurance business, rather than 1 government controlled by shady politicans in control of the whole deal?
Precordial Thump
Something die-hard free marketers seem to miss is that employer-based health insurance limits our productivity. Any number of citizens work jobs for which they are overqualified, simply for the health insurance. Otherwise they could focus on their highest and best use. Also a GM car costs more in health insurance than it does in steel. Single-payer health insurance will clearly aid our exports.
- Sid Schwab said...
NE1: the costs of health care are generated by the care. Insurers do little to control those costs, except in the same way that a single-payer would. In fact, the biggest concern about single payer is that it would be in a stronger position to force providers to accept lower payments. The only difference is the extent to which insurance companies suck money out of the system in ways that medicare does not.
As to the video: it's only a snippet. Prior to that segment were the testimonies of people who'd been denied despite making NO errors or false statements.
And, of course, that's the point of universal coverage. You're covered.
P. Thump: 1) they have. It's called medicare.
2) First of all, it's not gonna happen. I'm saying what ought to happen, not what will. And, once again, the model is medicare, which has been in place for decades. It has funding problems, but not coverage problems. There are states, ie Massachusetts that have plans. Unfortunately they are insurance company based, which is why they're in trouble.
3) No. Show me where insurers are "fighting" for your business. They're fighting to keep your money. And the idea that "politicians" would be "in control" is the main disingenuous talking point of the naysayers. As I've said elsewhere, the rules are pretty much established by medicare already. There's less hassle for doctors having care approved in that system than with private insurers. It's just a Frank Luntz talking point, for which people easily fall.
Alex: single incision laparoscopy has been around a while now. An hour is longer than most take for the more typical laparoscopy and, as you said, lots longer than my form of single incision mini-chole. It's not entirely off-topic: such things add cost (robots are even worse) while adding questionable if any value. We're talking about more expensive surgery, the benefit (if any -- we don't know much, yet, about complication rates) of which is cosmetic.
Sam: I agree. And yet it's been demagogued effectively. No one ever said rational arguments will win the day.
Sam, the steel comparison doesn't work out in your favor--surely it's the engineering that should be more costly in America than the raw materials, and the engineering is a prime argument for the healthcare. We don't want to have to be Chile.
It's official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health.
Progressive democrats and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements, congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and demand that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don't even have any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless You
Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS
- Sid Schwab said...
jacksmith: I guess I agree sort of with the spirit of your comment, to the extent that we agree about a single payer system. I don't agree with the full throated panic about the pandemic, nor, under any circumstances, with the idea of "seizing" the insurance companies. In fact, it's that sort of rhetoric that the opposition uses to scare people away from the obvious need for a national plan.
NE1 - You mystify me. We should be spending more on health care than on steel when we manufacture a car? I just can't see why because Honda, Hyundai, Toyota etc spend zero per car on health care costs.
I think you know that engineering is planning and testing, the first step in the manufacture of a car, which is followed by production, and that in a successful model production costs dwarf by engineering costs. There are many more factory workers than engineers in US auto operations. Again I'm just totally mystified.
Thanks for the link about Chile, that was interesting.
Just like doctors are entitled to make a profit, so are businessmen and insurance companies. Nobody ever said healthcare was a charity.
I agree that our healthcare system should be very similar to our European brothers. I don't mind at exchanging my premiums for taxes (in lieu of premiums).
I do not however agree with the demonization of insurance companies. People hate insurance companies like the hate the IRS, but without both where would we be?
You get what you pay for. People yelp and cry that insurance companies take their money and then refuse to pay claims. For the most part, that's bullshit. If your policy says we pay for A, B, and C, but not for D, and if you then file a claim for D, what do you expect??? If you wanted coverage for D then you should have paid more and bought a policy that covered D. That's the way it is, and until we have something better, live with it.
So en the mean time, if you need surgery and it's not covered by your insurance policy, Sid will do it for free. Oh wait, he won't, because he has to live, just like everyone else. He has to put food on his table just like the guys from the "high school educated" claims processor, all the way up to the high paid executive. It's not like those executives didn't work their ass off to get where they are, just like Sid had to in order to get where he is.
- Sid Schwab said...
Where we part company, Mike, is here: we agree people are entitled to make a profit. What we don't agree is that insurance companies are useful in any way. It's as if you drive into a gas station, hand a guy who doesn't work there twelve bucks, he keeps two, and pumps ten bucks worth of gas. Without him, you or the gas station guy could pump it and you get twelve bucks worth.
Sure, they have their rules, they pay what they agree to pay. But why are they there? What do they add?
And I never saw an insurance company exec coming to the ER at three in the morning. I don't think they work anywhere near as hard as I did; yet they make five or ten times more than I ever did. Except for the ones that make even more than that. They didn't work anywhere near as hard as I did to get there, nor even close to as hard having gotten there.
And I did lots of surgery for free. And all of it for less every year than the year before, mostly.
Explain why we need insurance companies instead of a single payer. Explain why we're better off having the costs of hundreds of companies inserted between patients and providers. Explain why they ought to profit, to the tune of billions, from money intended to pay for health care when they do nothing to add to the public health. That's the question to which I have no answers.
More is better, works with Insurance Companies just the same as with Cable TV... Lets say you prefer 24-7 Gay Porn, or Mozart, and I like watching reruns of 40 year old Nascar races...with Cable, everyones happy... Single Payers makin everyone watch PBS but its OK cause its "Free"... Myself, I'll pay a little more for the Gay Porn, I mean, Gilligans' Island Marathons...
P.S. I thought this blog was supposed to be about Surgery???
What do insurance companies add? They level the playing field. Privately purchase medical insurance sucks. It costs a lot, covers little, and excludes many from even being able to purchase it. Group policies however, those which I believe cover the majority of insured Americans, pool the resources of many and give leverage to the people.
First, I'm not a historian, but before people got group coverage through their employers, and either got very ill or had serious trauma, what did they do? I'm guessing, but I'd say a lot of them died because they didn't have acce$$ to expensive medical services.
We spoke about this the other day. If Joe the Plumber (okay, that was a horrible choice of names) gets in a car wreck and goes to the hospital. They treat him. When the bill comes, if Joe has either insurance, or Medicaid/Medicare, then there is a big brother both protecting him by paying the majority of his bills, and also protecting him by preventing providers from charging exorbitant sums of money. The hospital and providers get paid, lets say, $15,000, and Joe's out of pocket is $50 for an ER visit.
Without insurance, those same providers bill Joe $45,000 for the same services. Joe can't pay, the providers put him in collections, Joe has to file bankruptcy, and loses everything.
So there are two questions here.
Q: What would be better, insurance as we know it today, or universal healthcare. A: Universal healthcare, without a doubt.
Q: Would you rather have a system based on insurance as we know it today, or a two-party relationship between patients and providers. A: I'll take the financial security of insurance any day.
Reviewing the 78 major companies constituting the well-known Dodge and Cox Stock Fund, I see Health Care has risen to 27%...from the S&P Index which contains only 15%. These health care entities are the usual pharmaceuticals, but major players are WellPoint (Anthem,Blue X, Blue Shield),Cardinal Health, Humana, United Health Group and others. It would seem the guys in the know do not believe in the demise of Health Insurers...There are thousands of paper shuffler jobs at stake, and wiping them all out for a single payer USGov seems to me to be wild dream.
Talk to me in a year...I say docs will still be begging insurance companies to let them admit or operate on some poor guy lying on a guerney in the ER....and the single most obvious result of whatever "happens" will be the loss of highly qualified US trained physicians of all types to the ultimate.... "I quit".
Like my recent PaloAlto VA experience: "Better learn Tagalog and Farsi to Survive Here." (bumpersticker on Vet car in handicapped lot 6-19-09).
- Sid Schwab said...
Mike: your arguments strongly confirm why we need universal healthcare, which you then acknowledge. I don't understand you second question, nor the answer. Literally. I don't know what you're asking. But given the first question and answer, the second seems not to matter. Theoretically.
Dr Baldwin: We agree, I think. Whatever form health care financing takes in the future, it seems certain the trend toward paying docs less and making the rules more complicated will continue until a breaking point is reached. For many of us, we got there a while ago. To get it right before the breaking point would require many things, the political will for which is not likely present.
- Sid Schwab said...
Frankie: it's like recovery. I have to transition back to surgery. First step was to get to the blog; then some medical posts with political ramifications; then, hopefully, I can get back to what I was doing (and found much more satisfying) before. Remember I'm not in the OR any more, so I have to dig through the rubble and ruins of my brain.
Sid, my only gripe is the notion that insurance companies do no good. I believe, that they truly help a lot of people, while I admit this system is not the best.
That being said, We're on the same page as far as universal coverage. I would give almost anything to hear I could pay a specific tax, which increases with income, and that all American citizens would be provided really good healthcare. No American citizen could be turned down based on any condition, and that my sister who is a single mom making $14 an hour gets the same exact coverage I get making $200,000+ this year. I don't mind that I will pay more for my same coverage than she will.
What I think is really said though, is that what I just mentioned is absolutely not what is going to come out of this congress. In that single point, I feel President Obama has let me down.
You see, I have diabetes. If I didn't get coverage through my parents while I was a kit, through student insurance in college, my jobs when working, and through my wife's job over the last several years, I'd be f****d. Nobody is going to sell a diabetic an insurance policy, other than group coverage as I've described.
But I don't think I deserve to die if my wife loses her great job with great insurance. I can't afford the medicine. My wife and I have talked about it, and without some sort of intervention, I'd be dead in less than 6 months. It's not fair.
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Sid Schwab said...
I guess I've gotten so used to Frank's comments that I didn't really notice the implied (by context, if not intent) insult to Mike as a diabetic. So I axed it. Too late, perhaps.
- AlisonH said...
I could think of some really easy reforms to pass immediately to bring healthcase costs down:
1) go back to making it illegal to advertise prescription drugs. Congress changed the law under pressure from the drug companies on the idea that information needed to get out there. Fine. But now we have Google. So, allow them to post on their homepages announcements of the FDA approving their new meds--but require that each announcement also state all the side effects and complications known to go with it.
Patients will find that information, they'll be informed, and all those horrendous advertising costs will go poof. Not to mention the distortions those ads cause: I was horrified when Remicade was advertised as if it were literally a walk in the park, when taking it was a life-or-death decision for me. The FDA came out with a warning early on that it had caused 126 cases of congestive heart failure--guess who was case #127.
2) Require private insurers to have the same restrictions on pre-existing medical conditions as HMOs. Unless outright fraud can be proved, no more of this going fishing to find any irrelevant thing to bounce a patient once their disease costs too much--it's immoral, unethical, and there's no way it should be legal. It bankrupts doctors and hospitals so that insurance execs can make extra millions.
- AlisonH said...
Let me add quickly, but I am very very grateful that Remicade was an option. I'd have died without it. The thing I'm afraid of is its being overprescribed because the true picture of the cost/potential side effects ratio isn't out there the way it was when it was experimental, when I took it. Then having it get yanked off the market a la Vioxx when too many people suffer from the side effects who weren't expecting them and who didn't realize the choice they were making, and people like me dying because of that.
Speaking of which, I have a daughter with ITP and Vioxx was the only painkiller she could take without risking bleeding to death. And now it's gone.
- AlisonH said...
"Healthcare" not "healthcase." Sorry!
- Kanani said...
Hi, I was looking for surgeons' blogs. Anyway, I agree with you. I think though that the proposals being pushed out there are nothing more than another added layer of bureaucracy for the insurance companies (Blue Cross, Aetna, United Healthplan, HealthNet etc.) to skim more profits off the top.
I've written 5 articles about this on my blog. I don't offer solutions --in fact, wish we could have "a worry-free, hassle-free" system, where the doctors could be just that. However, the insurance companies are not going to give up their slice.
You can read one of them here, and get the rest by typing in healthcare under the 'search box' on the upper left.


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Slover Library
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After much procrastination, I am finally posting the results of my research into how the frequent use of computer programming languages affect the brain.
As followers of the blog will remember, after reading theories about how learning languages affect the brain, I wanted to know whether computer programming languages also affected the brain. With a few notable exceptions (e.g. Murnane, 1993) most research about the cognitive effects of computer programming seemed to have focused on programming as a problem solving rather than a linguistic activity. If computer languages were indeed languages, I thought that it would make sense for them to affect the brain in a similar way to other languages.
This is quite a big subject, so I honed in on bilingualism. If computer programming languages are languages, then people who spoke one language and could programme to a high standard should be bilingual. Research has suggested that bilingual people perform faster than monolingual people at tasks requiring executive control – that is, tasks involving the ability to pay attention to important information and ignore irrelevant information (for a review of the "robust" evidence for this, see Hilchey & Klein, 2011). So, I set out to find out whether computer programmers were better at these tasks too. It is thought that the bilingual advantage is the result of the effort involved in keeping two languages separate in the brain and deciding which one to use. I noticed that novice computer programmers have difficulty in controlling "transfer" from English to programming languages (e.g. expecting the command "while" to imply continuous checking; see Soloway and Spohrer, 1989), so it seemed plausible that something similar might occur through the learning of programming languages.
Obviously, lots of bilingual people learn two languages from birth, and – young as some of them might be – this is clearly not the case for computer programmers. However, the effect has also been found in bilingual people who gained a second language in adolescence (Tao et al., 2011). Therefore, I compared 10 adolescent programmers (aged 14-17) and 10 professional programmers who had been programming since adolescence (aged 21-25) to age matched controls. All participants were monolingual English speakers.
I used two computer-based tests – Stroop and attention networks task – which required participants to pay attention to one thing and ignore others. Unfortunately, I made an error in setting up the Stroop test, so I can't be sure that data is reliable. However, data from the attention networks task showed that computer programmers performed this task faster than controls and the difference between the two groups was significant (note that "significant" means that we are more than 95% sure that the results didn't happen by chance – it doesn't mean there was a big difference in reaction times). Error rates did not differ significantly.
This was only a very small study and I'd be reluctant to make any grand claims based on it; the results would need to be replicated by other studies. Even if other studies did support these findings, it doesn't necessarily mean that computer programming experience causes better executive control; it might be that people with better executive control are more likely to persist with computer programming. If the latter is true, one way to help people learn computer programming might be to teach them a foreign language first. I did notice that a lot of programmers seemed to be bilingual – I think it would be interesting to do a survey to see if that is supported by hard facts.
Anyway, if you're interested in picking apart the detail, you can download the full report here. If you do manage to struggle through, let me know what you think – random theories welcome! I'd love it if it gave people ideas for bigger studies. Huge thanks to everyone who took part and to all those who helped, especially the team at Young Rewired State. I couldn't have done it without you all.


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GPU Acceleration and NVIDIA
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[Adobe TV presents] [mechanical/robotic noises] [Short and Suite. On the Road with Jason and Karl] [truck cam] Hi there. I'm Karl Soule, a product evangelist for Adobe Systems. And today I'm here to do a special presentation to talk to you about a technology found within Premiere Pro CS5. Now you may have heard a lot about the Adobe Mercury engine and the playback technology that we've added in Premiere Pro CS5. I'm here to talk about one specific part of that, and that has to do with the GPU acceleration that we've added. And I want to show you a few examples of how this works. Now what drives the GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro is a technology from NVIDIA®. To get the optimal performance of this, you really want to have a certified Quadro® FX card in your system to take advantage of this portion. I'll show you just a quick example here. I'm currently working with a Quadro® FX 4800 card, but what you really want to do is check the Adobe website, and you'll find a list of certified cards on a page on the Adobe website. So you want to make sure you have the correct hardware to be able to take advantage of this. Now what I have on the screen right now-- I've got a timeline here that's actually a 9-layer DVCPRO HD sequence. So I've kind of designed this as a series of picture-in-picture effects. Each one of these layers actually has some kind of color correction as well as, in some cases, other effects. If I kind of just scrub through here, you'll see that this center layer here is actually being pushed in 3D and it's got a beveled, soft edge applied to it. Now if I go through and I try and play this back or work with this, I'm working on a fairly beefy system that has a number of different CPU cores. But when I go and try to play this back, you'll see I have the task manager up on the screen here, and it pretty quickly goes through, and it starts to max out all of the different cores in the system. Now with the NVIDIA® technology, their GPUs actually have hundreds of different cores found inside them. So if I switch my rendering here--and this is the trick on how to do this, how to enable this-- I'm going to go to Project, Project Settings, General, and from here I'm going to go through and change this video rendering and playback and move it from a software-only or CPU-only mode to the GPU acceleration. By doing this, all of the different effects that are being applied to each of these layers actually move off of the CPU and onto the NVIDIA® GPU hardware. And so, in doing this it really, really frees up and it makes the performance that much better. So if I go through and play this back once more, what you're going to notice first off is an even smoother playback and performance in the program monitor here. But also if you take a look at the CPU usage, it drops to almost nothing across all the cores, and that's because all the heavy lifting at this point is being done by the NVIDIA® GPU hardware. I'm going to go ahead and close this CPU box here, because I want to show you a couple of--this is kind of a crazy, wacky example here in that I've got 9 different layers. So this is kind of a--you know--just sort of a demo purpose here. But I want to show you some real-world examples where you're going to take advantage of this.Let me switch over to a different timeline sequence. This particular timeline, we're jumping in resolution now from DVCPRO HD all the way up to red footage, so this--if you're not familiar with the Red One™ camera, this is a digital cinema camera that works in resolutions up to 4K. In fact, on their road map they have cameras that work at 5K, 6K, and even higher. So we're talking about a lot of pixels that we need to push through, and if we want to do any type of transitional effects or any type of color adjustment to the clips--you know--that's something that can very, very quickly max out a CPU. I've still got the GPU acceleration enabled here, and I've got 5 layers in this particular timeline. This top layer here is actually the red footage that I'm working with, and I've gone in and used a new effect here, something called Ultra Key-- this is a GPU-accelerated effect for doing chroma keying-- and what you can see here is this red footage is actually green screen footage. So in a lot of cases to just try and play back red footage has been kind of problematic on a lot of hardware. But trying to do something really advanced to it like do keying on the footage, a lot of people wouldn't even consider it to do it real-time on the timeline. It would be something we'd have to go through and render. But thanks to the GPU acceleration on the NVIDIA® Quadro card, I'm able to go through and actually do this and see this run, and I could even play this back and have it play back real-time right on my timeline. Now this background footage--this is all HD footage here. I've got AVC-Intra footage. I've got footage from a Canon DSLR camera. I've got footage from a DVCPRO Panasonic camera, and I'm mixing and matching all of these. And so what the CUDA technology on the NVIDIA® GPU--CUDA's kind of a a way of programming for the GPU. We've been working, and NVIDIA® has been a fantastic partner with Adobe, bringing this to market. We're utilizing this CUDA technology to access all those cores of the GPU and move all that processing over to the GPU. All my main processors have to worry about is decoding the video. As I go through here and I start to add effects to my clips, all of that's going to happen on the NVIDIA® hardware. It's not going to max out my processor. Let me move to a different timeline here. This is more of an example where I've got a whole bunch of edits here, and I want to go in and make some color changes to some of this footage. So if I come over here to my effects panel, I can twirl down all of the different accelerated effects. There's a little--in fact, let me blow this up full-screen so you can see just how many effects are accelerated. If I come up here, there's a little filter that I can turn on that will show me all of the accelerated effects that take advantage of the GPU hardware. If I click on this, you'll see that this isn't just like 1 or 2 effects in here. We're talking about a ton of different effects including transitional effects, keying effects, color correction effects, blur effects--tons of different types of effects--all of these are accelerated. And what this means is if I work with these effects, I can drop these on my timeline, and they're basically free. I don't have to worry about rendering files. I don't have to worry about waiting to see these work at full resolution, full quality, work in the full-color space that I happen to be working with. So if I come in here and I've got this particular clip--one particular color effect that I like because it's just easy for me to work with is something called RGB Curves. So I'm going to go ahead and drag and drop this onto this particular clip here. And if I twirl this down, you'll see here are my different curves, so from here, if I want to start to adjust and play with this footage, all I have to do is start to turn these--we'll just build sort of a kind of a harsher look here. Maybe I'll bump the reds up just a little bit, create sort of a super-saturated look for the skin tone there, and if I go through here and I play this footage back again, it's real-time all the time. I don't have to wait and render a preview file to see this take effect. Now this is a really big deal of you think about past versions of Premiere Pro, where these effects have been here for a long time, but in a lot of cases, if you're working with and you're doing things that are time-critical footage, time-critical projects, this is something that--it's been a big part of my professional career. A lot of what I've had to edit in the past has been something that--you know--I literally have a 4:00 drop-deadline that I have to have the project out the door. It has to be rendered and finished and gone out the door. In those cases, there's been a lot of times where I've wanted to go in and do some color correction on the footage, but again, having to wait for preview files to render, knowing that this is going to impact the final render of my project, I've kind of passed on that, and I've kind of sacrificed a little bit of the vision of what I was trying to create. With the GPU acceleration, I'm able to put these clips on, very quickly build the color curve that I want. I can copy and paste this across my timeline, and not only is this going to play back in my timeline without having to render a preview file, it's not going to impact the time it's going to take to render out my final output files. So any of these effects, if they're accelerated in the timeline here, for playback purposes here, they're also going to be accelerated when I go to render out, let's say, a finished H.264 file. So they're not going to slow down that rendering process. So adding an NVIDIA® Quadro card, especially one of the certified cards-- there's a list of certified cards on the Adobe website--it really can speed up the overall performance and give you that kind of creative edge where you can just play with effects. You're more likely to go in and use these different effects, drop them on your timeline and play with them to get the exact look that you're looking for. So with that, that wraps up another episode of Short and Suite. Once again, my name is Karl Soule. Thanks for watching. [truck cam] [Adobe TV Productions]
Video Details
Duration: 9 minutes and 57 seconds
Language: English
License: All rights reserved
Genre: None
Views: 120
Posted by: adobetv on Oct 7, 2010
In this Episode of Short and Suite, Karl Soule shows how Premiere Pro CS5's new Mercury Playback Engine works with the Nvidia CUDA technology to greatly enhance the power of your workstation.
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