health

A global recession leads to belt tightening

2009-04-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Who woulda thunk it? A global recession leads to belt tightening, and belt tightening leads to fewer mobile data card sales. According to a new report from ComScore, that's exactly what happened at the tail end of last year, where WWAN card growth slowed to just 5 percent compared to 28 percent in Q4 2007. Still, carriers can't grumble too loudly -- after all, at least it grew. In fact, PC data card adoption rose 63 percent overall in 2008, and if any of these 4G services can see rollouts of significance, we suspect 2009 will show equally positive numbers. The reality is that mobile data is still priced far too high for the average Joe or Jane to stomach; most mobile broadband plans run upwards of $50 per month and require a two-year contract to get a free or cheap card, and unless one is planning to be on the road an awful lot, buying in just doesn't make sense when times are tough. In other words, cut us a break on these mobile data rates, operators -- it's what Uncle Sam would want.[Via mocoNews]Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, WirelessMobile data card growth slows dramatically in Q4 2008 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Let 'em Eat Cake

2008-06-14T02:23:00.003-07:00

A winter tradition the last few years is to receive a
birthday cake from Mark...also known as Poo-baca,
Poo-Man-Chu, Poo-Man or any number of other Poo-related
names. Mark is the Waste Water Treatment Plant Tech
and some feel he sometimes has a little too much
time on his hands. We went to a birthday party this
weekend where Jay-Bird was presented with this pretty
cake from Poo-baca. Sometimes they look good enough to
eat. However, if you look at the ingredients, however
good it may look, it might cause a few Pepto-Bismo
momments when digested. When I asked him for a recipe
I could put on my blog, he was more than happy to oblige:

Grammy Bacca’s Poo-licious Cake

6 cups Class A or B processed sludge*

*this can be biosolids processed from belt press, centrifuge,
or compost pile; pre-tested for microbial and organic nutrient
& at least 14-17% solids content after de-watering for
consistency and body

3-4 cups Hand-whipped cream topping--cooled
6 oz. Syrup of choice--warmed
4 oz. Sprinkles of choice
2-3 oz. Candy of choice

---------------------------- --------------------------

Take the sludge and pack into a non-stick or pre-coated
decorative mold. Let stand at room temperature (preferably
20 C [ 70 F ]) for 2-4 hrs. When ready to decorate, carefully
turn molded sludge onto a serving plate/platter (preferably
fine china, silver, or acceptable equivalent) and release
sludge from mold by tapping and slight force. If mold crumbles
at all you will have to start all over or apply delicate hand
“spackling” techniques to the molded sludge to put it to rights.

After cake is satisfactorily positioned onto the plate or
platter, take the pre-refrigerated hand-whipped cream and
spread evenly onto the surface—taking extra care in easing it
over the edges of the mold. Then—as liberally and decoratively
as you wish—apply dobs of your favorite syrups, sprinkles,
candies, and accents (edible or non-edible)

***be careful when pressing or inserting decorations, for the
molded cake may crumble

Keep at cooled temperature (0-4 C [ 32-40 F ]) until ready
to serve

Serves 4-8 per cake

Enjoy!!!
Love Ya…Grammy Poo-bacca!!!

Dark Days Ahead

2008-06-14T02:23:00.002-07:00

The photos above were taken by Bill, the NSF Station Manager
this May (top two photos) and last May (bottom two photos).
Even though we turned off quite a few lights last year to
conserve energy, this year we've probably turned off twice
as many and it's very obvious when comparing the photos. I
for one am very happy since I am a Dark Sky proponent and we
will see many more stars and auroras here in town. There
are some who would rather turn on all of the lights but I
think it's more how Antarctica should be and not just some
big town on the edge of the wilderness. Safety does however
play a big part of our lives down here and I concede that we
need to have a fair share of lights on so people will not
hurt themselves. For the next few months, this will be our
view when looking over McMurdo as the Sun is long gone and
even the very dim twilight at midday will be gone in less than
a week. However, with the lights vastly dimmed, I'm
looking forward to some fantastic sky shows this winter!

Tucker to Castle Rock

2008-06-14T02:23:00.001-07:00

The MEC (Mechanical Equipment Center) is tasked this
winter to put 250 hours on the new Tucker tracked vehicles.
Once a week, Sean and Josh take two people from town out on
the Castle Rock Loop on a two hour trip. This week, Lynn
and I got to go. We hadn't been to Castle Rock before
and we hadn't ridden in the new Tuckers before so it was
a doubly nice trip. The Tuckers are tracked vehicles so
they roll over the snow easily and had no problem at all
climbing from the Sea Ice up the glacier headed to Castle
Rock.

I was pretty surprised how steep the terrain was around
Castle Rock and it's definitely a long slide down to the
bottom of the glacier. Lots of people make this 9.3 mile
loop trip on foot or skis, but they definitely have more
energy than I do. I was very happy making it in a warm
vehicle.

On the way back, we were riding along the top of the glacier,
so we were fairly high up compared to McMurdo Sound to the
right and the Ross Ice Shelf to the left. At this high
up, you could see that it's a lot brighter to the north,
but you'd have to go hundreds of miles to actually see
the sun. And this was at 3:30 in the afternoon. We had
a great trip and hopefully we'll be able to go out again
after it's completely dark to see lots of stars.

WINFLY-WhenFly-OpenFly

2008-06-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

The powers that be in the land up north have
decided that we will not have our traditional
WINFLY the third week of August. They're
replacing it with something officially called
ADVON, (Advanced Echelon...some vague military
term). What it comes down to though is that we
will not be leaving the third week of August as
planned. Instead we will be departing as early
as September 1st (not likely) or as late as
September 15th (more likely). This caused
several people to leave early last week that
were scheduled to Winter with us. They either
had definite plans for that period or had
immigration issues that they couldn't risk
fouling up because a date had changed. More
than likely we will only get three weeks off
before returning here for the Summer. As a
result, we can kiss our trip to Tibet, Nepal
and Bhutan goodbye as it was supposed to start
on September 4th. It seems like the folks who
are currently on the Ice might have been a bit
of an afterthought when the plans were being
drawn up for this period (whatever you want to
call it) but we are cogs in the machine and
that's the way it works. Can't get too upset
over it as it does mean three more weeks of pay
which will come in handy. My cynical side though
makes me wonder if they're planning on sending
a plane for us at all in five months.

"They said bidey-bye to them what they'd
birthed. And from the nothing, they looked back...
and Captain Walker hollered, Wait, one of us
will come! Wait, one of us will come! And
somebody did come. Walker! We's heartful to
you, Captain Walker. We's ready now. Take us
home.

Photoshop 3D Layers Tutorial

2008-06-01T14:36:00.001-07:00

This video tutorial shows how to add a 3D object in a photo and some 3D layer effects.

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Type Mathematical Formulas with Ease Using LyX

2008-06-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

LyX is an open-source document processor which runs on Mac, Windows and Linux. They called it a “document processor” simply because unlike most word processors, it encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of the document rather than the appearance. This means that you do not have to worry about the appearance of your document because the software will handle the details for visual layouts.

The software is free with no strings attached. Using LyX for typing regular notes and letters is as easy as using your favorite word processor. The main feature of the software is its ability to produce complex equations with ease while providing a professional look for the created document. It takes a little time to get used to and to learn the commands for the software, but once you get the hang of LyX, you can turn LyX into a very useful document tool. You can check out their video demo here.

LyX is a great alternative for your usual word processor and a great tool for creating documents that contains simple and complex equations. It is light and does not eat up a lot of memory and you can download it for free.

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Search Available Domains Faster Using Domize

2008-06-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

We all know that searching of an available domain name can be such a pain. Typing a name at a time and hoping that the search will return a “this domain is available.” It can be very time consuming and frustrating at the same time.

Domize is a domain name search engine that lets you search domain names faster and gives quick results of available and unavailable domains. The engine is very easy to use and is secured over SSL. Like most domain search tools out there, all you have to do is type in the domain name that you want to search. Then it gets interesting. With every character that you type, the engine will show a result of the availability of your domain for every letter that you add. This will give you additional information and a greater possibility of finding a shorter domain name.

After each search, a snapshot preview of the available domains can be accessed easily. Just hover your mouse cursor over the red colored text (red means taken and blue means available), and a snapshot window will popup. If you did not find what you are looking for, you can edit the text in the Domize search bar and the results will change as you add or remove a letter or character to your domain name. This will save you a lot of time while playing around with ideas for a domain name.

Thousands of domain names are being registered everyday. Finding an available name gets even harder with conventional domain search tools. Using Domize as a tool for finding a domain name will certainly give you an edge and save you a lot of time.

Note: Domize also offers iPhone support.

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Spot what your Favorite Celebrities are Into

2008-06-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

Coolspotters is a social networking site launched to public beta a few days ago which focuses on finding and cataloging stuff that celebrities use. The service will appeal most to celebrity fans who wants to check out what their favorite stars are using. They can also contribute to the community by creating their own “spots”. A “spot” is the term used by Coolspotters when a certain product is associated with a celebrity. Spots can be anything that is discovered in movies, magazines, TV, snap shots, paparazzi shots, etc.

We all see great stuff being worn and used by our favorite celebrities - in magazines, TV, in movies - but there’s never been an easy way to find out exactly what the great stuff is! So, we built one.

You don’t have to join Coolspotters to enjoy their service. If you just want to browse around and check out “spots”, registration is not needed. Serious spotters however will be required to create an account in order to contribute and enjoy other features.

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Seero Releases Embed Feature in their Geotagged Video Service

2008-06-01T07:43:00.001-07:00

Seero is a San Francisco based startup that we introduced a while back which is the first true geo-broadcasting platform which seamlessly integrates live mobile webcasting and GPS mapping. The service is very promising especially with new features constantly being added.

The team just introduced their embed feature for the service which will give you the ability to broadcast live in your blogs and websites. All you need to do is to get the embed codes in your Seero profile. You can choose to embed a particular broadcast or the entire profile (This type of embed will connect to a broadcaster’s live feed or on-demand playlist (if not live)) of the broadcaster and let your viewers choose which broadcast they want to watch within the embedded video. There are two format shapes to choose from (horizontal and vertical).

Today, Seero’s Chief Creative Officer, David Rothschild, will be broadcasting live and on-location from the Where 2.0 conference (May 12 - 14). David will provide in-depth coverage and interviews on recent advances in location-based technology as a member of the press. You can check out the live broadcast in the embedded video below.

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Xobni: Email Organizer for Outlook Users

2008-06-01T07:16:00.001-07:00

Xobni (Inbox spelled backwards) is a Microsoft Outlook plugin that helps you manage and organize your emails by utilizing existing Outlook features and creating an email-based social network within your email client. Bill Gates quoted Xobni as “The next generation of social networking.” The plugin features; quick e-mail searches, quick attachment discovery, automatic extraction of phone numbers, automatic schedule creator and email conversation threading. Check out the video demo below for a more detailed explanation on how Xobni works.

This is a new and interesting way of managing your emails if you are using Outlook (the most popular email client in the world). The plugin is currently available for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 and they are planning on releasing Xobni in other email clients and platforms. This is a great idea for Xobni to create an application/plugin to make Outlook users’ life a little easier. Think of the time that one can save by using this plugin. This will allow the users to be more productive and have easier time managing information in their emails.

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Create Your Own Video Sharing Site with StartYourTube

2008-06-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

Want to know what it feels like to have your own YouTube? StartYourTube is the Ning of video sharing sites. It lets you easily create your own video site without hassles. There is no installation needed, no servers and other technical stuff. It’s just like creating a blog in Blogspot. Actually the procedure is very similar to creating a Blogspot account where you create an account, customize your site (upload logos, change theme colors etc), use your own domain name and advertise (where they keep 40 percent of the revenues for the free account).

Being a video sharing site, StartYourTube lets you have your own members where they sign up and share their tubes in your created tube site. The service is free but will only allow you to have 10 thousand page views per month and upload a maximum of 200 videos which should not exceed 2 GB of storage space. You also get to have a “Powered by StartYourTube” mention in your pages and you cannot disable advertisements. This is not a bad deal considering that you are paying them nothing but it is not enough to survive a Digg effect if ever one of your videos gets dugg. However, a paid account will let you get a bigger storage space and bandwidth, remove the StartYourTube mention, run your own ads and keep all the profit.

The trick is to start free play around with a niched video site and eventually upgrade your account if your site becomes popular. This is another interesting service and a potentially useful one (if they can offer larger bandwidths and storage) for people who wants to start a niched tube site.

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Mento: A Fresh New Bookmarking Service

2008-06-01T04:12:00.000-07:00

There are lots of link sharing sites out there but Mento thinks that it could be better and simpler for users. Mento provides a lightweight, non-intrusive solution for easy bookmarking, sharing and tagging.

To use Mento, just register and download the Firefox or Internet Explorer extensions, or use their bookmarklet which works on all browsers. When you click the bookmarklet or Mento button, a small popup window will appear asking which Mento service you would like to use. The send feature will allow you to send the links (along with images and comments) to your Mento friends, groups, tags or email buddies. The save feature will generally save the link to your mento profile allowing you to place tags, images and notes along with the link. The reply feature will allow you to comment on the link(s) provided that it has already been saved by somebody in your network. This will also keep track of the linking activities of your Mento friends whether they have previously saved a particular link which will prevent duplicate link sharing in your network. The site also keeps track on how many times a link you’ve shared has been clicked, and which members have clicked it.

Mento also offers outside link sharing by allowing you to publish links to del.icio.us, FriendFeed, Magnolia, Tumblr, and Twitter. They also have a Facebook app that allows friends to view and comment on your links without having to install the application themselves. You can also use the AddThis widget to publish your links on other bookmarking sites. Talk about not being selfish.

Mento is another addition to the numerous social bookmarking services in the internet. The site is fresh looking and packed with sharing features which are also user friendly. If you are in the market for an alternative bookmarking service, Mento is definitely worth checking out.

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Yard sale web site portal - Website Design Freelance Job

2008-06-01T03:44:00.001-07:00

The site will be a portal site for adding yard sales and helping people market such sales.... here is the basics you may contact me for any clarifications here, it will involve some simple database programming as well---let me stress this ...WE ARE LOOKING FOR A COMPLETE TURN KEY JOB HERE...thanks below is the copy and paste of the word doc...I will attach it as well for easier reading... Daily Yard Sales The site needs to have the following functions: 1) Homepage. a. User Login In i. Must provide a "create user area" –they can either create themselves as a "Shopper" or "Seller" 1. Once created the USER DATA BASE information will be created—this will define the following: a. Type of User ("Shopper" or "Seller") b. Name & Mailing Address & Email Address c. If seller: i. Location of Sale ii. Estimate on number of sales per year they have d. If shopper: i. Number of sales attended per year ii. Category of Shopping 1. Clothing 2. Books 3. Childrens Toys 4. Baby Toys 5. Video Games 6. Electronics 7. OTHER CATS b. Interactive Google Map i. Google map must show by CITY & STATE(picked by drop down) with pin points of all available sales in that area 1. A "FEATURED" mouse over for ad sites so that when their pin is moused over there is an additional "Featured picture" for the sale 2. Get directions drop down to use map to coordinate a "route" between users address and other sales ii. c. Featured Sales i. When the "Shopper Picks" their state, the FOUR FEATURED below the MAP on the home page will become active for that CITY & STATE (this will have to be programmed in such a way for users who come directly to the site via the "city.dailyyardsells.com" to be able to navigate directly to the page for the appropriate city ii. The featured sales will be distinguished by a star or icon on the map iii. Featured sales will have a Clickable page that will link to the interiorior pages… 2) Interior Pages 1. Silver ($7.99 per listing per week) a. One Featured Item with downloadable picture (that user can implement) and a text box to explain the item b. 5 Featured Items (Bulleted TEXT template) c. a 500 character box to list additional information 2. Gold (13.99 per listing per week) a. Three (3) Featured Listings with accompanying text boxes for the user to control and implement b. 10 Featured Items (Bulleted text area) c. A 1000 character text box d. Featured Map Button which links to a Google map and show the address of the sale 3. Platinum ($16.99 per week) a. Ten (10) Featured Listings with accompanying text boxes b. 20 Featured Items (Bulleted text area) c. A 5000 character text box d. Featured Map Button which links to Google to show the address of the sale e. An email account with will forward to their normal email –without putting that email in the "public domain" (all you will have to program here is a contact page for the platinum sign ups that will notify our email admin to set them up a " 4. 4. Platinum Plus ($24.99 per week) a. Twenty (20) Featured Listings with accompanying text boxes b. 20 Featured Items (Bulleted text area) c. A 5000 character text box d. Featured Map Button which links to Google to show the address of the sale e. An email account with will forward to their normal email –without putting that email in the "public domain" (all you will have to program here is a contact page for the platinum sign ups that will notify our email admin to set them up a " f. Online "store" with up to twenty listings to get paid via pay pal link for items g. Auto emails to our data base when an item is updated in your featured listings area to "shoppers" who have expressed an interest in this type product 3) Additional Feature a. Newsletter sign up on Homepage b. Add page that will link to our Godaddy store with will allow for ad selection and payment c. Contact page

Excel sheet - Data Entry Freelance Job

2008-06-01T03:02:00.001-07:00

Here is a project of data entry in excel sheet. delivery in 3 days. Please send the total fees. Objective: 1.Creating/Setting formula to all required fields. 2.Creating combo box ( Scroll) 3.Generating 02 kind of reports one is numeric and the other is graphs. â€¢In case there is source code or worksheet pass word, then you have to advise it to me before release final payment. Introduction: All required action to be done by you has explained by inserted comment on every field of Excel file attached. I have created an Excel file with one field each of 38columns in sheet 0ne and one field each of 37 columns in sheet 03. Sheet 01 contained A to T field of daily data entry for each record starting with date. Sheet 02 contained list of companyâ€™s names and companyâ€™s number. All company names alphabetical (Tickers) has number also for example: company name is RIBL and the same companyâ€™s number is 1010. You will notice that the default direction has set on Right â€" to â€" Left due to that all English text in all fields will be replaced to Arabic language after finished creating the objective therefore Do not escrow the Excel worksheet. The language change will be done by service buyer. To avoid writing name each time and some time with errors I want to be scrolling combo box of name and tickers number, that once I start name with S for example all tickerâ€™s name starting with Saudi Hollandi, Saudi Fransi, Sabic etc, will be listed. And so on with other letters. Also by number if I start with 1 then all 1010, 1020, 1030 etc. Next, once I selected either one by number or by alphabetic, then both fields will paste name & the related number. Box date will appear once the curser reached to date field, infect, I have created already box date but half of the box is hided which need to be fix. In each day I will add/use around 2 to 5 rows with new date and it will continue going on regardless when will stop probably for next several years, therefore please make sure that the setting formulas are valid for all rows in this book/file. From this work sheet I want to generate 03reports, 02 are numeric and the other has Excel chart. In some field I have use Cell instead of field but both are the same meaning. Reports: 1-Transfer selected data from sheet 01 to reports. â€¢Closed record reports: Select date from & to then search all closed record and loaded template report. â€¢What to do tomorrow: Select date of record from 01Feb 2008 to 01Feb 2008 for one day which I have created in sheet 01 or from 01 Feb 2008 to 02 Feb 2008 for more than 01 day and transfer to report template 2- Indexes Charts Reports of (Date) â€¢Transfer selected data of Passed, Remaining & balance fields representing each index individually of 09 Indexes from sheet 03 to sheet 1 and translate the same to Excel graphs with loading to report template. â€¢This job to be done within 3 day. More explanations: 1-Please select Name along with ticker number directly and loaded to the table and create combo scroll box. 2-All text in table, it mean's table heading in sheet one plus three, non numeric fields like F5 for example in sheet one. Consequently all reports which generated from the Arabic text on sheet one will load to Arabic text also. 3-Correction in sheet one, In field B13 click comment, please delete row 8 and put B7 instead /replacement of row 8..

Laser Removal Equipment Website (B2B) - I need content - Web Content Writing Freelance Job

2008-05-14T12:11:00.005-07:00

Hello, My plan is to open a Business to Business Laser Hair Removal equipment/Tattoo Removal machine website that also offers many skin products and a full-turn key solution for customers who want to open and operate thier own laser hair removal salon or business. We are selling the machines and equipment but also sell skin products as well. I need a full outline on what laser hair removal is, the emergence of med-spas, the overall technology on how it works, and I need a full outline of what Laser Hair Removal is, what the difference is between different types of Lasers...the full package. Example...... What is the process? -- "Imagine having no hair -- not having to shave anymore....this is all possible thanks to the new technology of Laser Hair Removal. Your customers will have the ultimate experience etc...." What is Tattoo Removal? What is Skin Rejuvanation? What is a Photofacial? What is the difference between a Yag Laser and an IPL laser? How does an IPL work? (the whole process) I need some research about what this system and technology is all about and I need it explained for customers on my web site. I am looking also to sell creams and lotions so I would need some articles explaining different skin conditions and how they can be avoided and treated by using certain materials or creams. We plan on selling the equipment and also the full turn-key solution to set up a customer with a full salon plan. I am looking for at least 7-10 artices What is ? PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL - SKIN REJUVENATION - SCARS REMOVAL - ROSACEA - ACNE - ANGIOMA - ERYTHROSIS - PSORIASIS - VITILIGO - DERMATITIS - KELOIDS - PIGMENTATION - STRETCH MARKS - WRINKLE REDUCTION -

Have Punch Lines, Need Your Drawings - Cartoon Illustration Freelance Job

2008-05-14T12:11:00.003-07:00

Greetings and thanks for reading this request. I have imagination and wit (but seem to be lacking in modesty) and seek to marry my ideas for cartoons (including captions) with your drawing expertise. My preference for cartoons is generally the simple type with fewer drawing lines that are often found in popular magazines. My vision is for us to both invest the time and the effort to submit hundreds of cartoons to various publications over a period of months in hopes of seeing a number of them published. I know nothing about this business (that ought to make you feel pretty good) but I would hope that through our good work we could earn contracts with publications, or at a minimum, be regular contributors. I would estimate that I could submit at least 7 ideas per week, but if it turned out to be as much fun as I think it might be, and you are up to it, perhaps we could put out many more than that. You could pretty much live anywhere, and we would use e-mail to communiate with one another. Should we make any money, which is certainly a goal, I would envision us splitting it equally. Only your name need appear on the work, though if you want to give me a little credit when you are interviewed by Larry King that would be okay too. My preference is for you to manage the business of submitting and tracking, and if you'll do that perhaps you could take 55%. We could split the costs of postage, envelopes, paper, etc. We would not have to establish a business per se, but rather we could be pooling our work as 2 independent contractors without any long term commitment to one another unless of course we put our names on the line at some future date for some kind of commitment we both agree to. As needed I can provide you with numerous business and character references; I believe in fair and honest dealings. And, you should know that the only work I am interested in teaming with you is okay for all ages. So, if you're saying to yourself "wow, what an opportunity, to team with a guy who I have never heard of, who admits he has no experience, who is not willing to pay me anything out of pocket for my time...I',m sure glad I read this one", then maybe we're a match. Will you please send me some sample drawings and advise me of any questions or comments that you might have. I am most appreciative of your time and consideration. With Regards, Doug Fowler

Vtiger Signup script - Vtiger / PHP / MySQL / LAMP / DNS / BIND / APACHE - Website Programming Freelance Job

2008-05-14T12:11:00.001-07:00

Vtiger / PHP / MySQL / LAMP / DNS / BIND / APACHE / CRON PART 1: Vtiger signup automation script. The purpose of the script is to automate new account creation for a free hosted Vtiger service. A new user should be able to create a new Vtiger instance and installation for a company form his browser by entering: Page 1: Username Password - Strong (Ajax)? Pasword confirmation Empresa or autónomo? (radio button) Page 2: Based on radiobutton: - Case Empresa: Company name Commercial name Company CIF Contact Name Contact Surnames (2): Contact Phone Contact Mobile phone Contact Email - Valid (Ajax)? Are you human? - Case autónomo: Name Surnames (2) User NIF Commercial name Contact Phone Contact Mobile phone Contact Email - Valid (Ajax)? Are you human? Page 3: Account creation successful? Not: Derivate to support window Yes: Welcome and service agreement/contract When the user clicks on the confirmation link: - A new folder is created in apache server and the vtiger files are copied into it. - A new customer is created in our own vtiguer - A new virtual host is created in apache server using the suggested URL. - Vtiger is configured and ready to use (no manual installation required) - An admin account is created with the username, password and email provided. Bizboost is our own domain where the service will be hosted. Option A: apache Virtual hosts: URL: companyname.bizboost.es - Available? - An email is sent to customer with a confirmation link. Option B: Subdirectory structure: URL: crm.bizboost.es/companyname - Available? - An email is sent to customer with a confirmation link. Option C: Own Domain: URL: crm.companydomain.tld In option C, the domain is an existing one and is owned by the company signing up for our service. - Welcome email with username, password, contact info and access URL. PART 2: Vtiger interstitial and internal advertising: Objective is to ad advertising on login page and inside Vtiger, just over the actual Vtiger interface or even better just above main horizontal menu. No frames can be used because of advertisement networks not accepting it so it must be embedded in actual vtiguer´s pages a) Incorporate to the login page Full size (800 x 600) advertising (interstitial, obtrusive) not allowing the user to login for some seconds. After 8 seconds the login form shows (or fades) up so the user is able to login. b) Full size "screen saver" page overlay with an ad, (same way as login). After some time of inactivity on any page of the Vtiger app, a screen saver shows, with a full size ad and the login form. It is very important that the user never looses actual work in progress or data already introduced in any Vtiger form, so make screensaver run in a layer over actual CRM page. c) Integrate 1 Leaderboard (728 x 90 pixel) "banner spot" inside Vtiger. - Top position. d) Integrate 1 Large Rectangle (336 x 280 pixel) "banner spot" inside Vtiger - Middle position. (only for main page) d) ) Integrate 1 Wide Skyscraper (160 x 600 pixel) "banner spot" inside Vtiger - Right position. All positions will have support for static media, rich media, video, rich media/video and Google ad sense. Banners on/off on a per installation basis. There is an Open Source ad server in our web server, you can download it and play to see if the ads fit right and don't distort the user interface. Download at: http://www.openx.org/ PART 3: Vtiger internal tabs/buttons: Personalization of vtiger internal labels: Objective is to have some new tabs in the standard Vtiger interface bar to inform users about existing external services. Destination pages are shown inside Vtiger and need no special design. Just let CSS flow? 1) Add E-learning button. With a link to a static "about: e-learning" page with a text and a link to actual E-learning app. 3) Add shop button. With a link to a static "about: shop" page with a text and a link to actual ecommerce site. 4) Add support button. With a link to the support page witch will lists contacts and support options. 5) Add 2 new rows to the vtiger´s company profile. 6) Add 2 new rows to the Invoice. 7) Account cancellation link in the vtiger admin section. (rename directory?) Payment options: a) 100% escrow. or b) 50% when showing working aplication on your server + 50% after 3 days testing in our servers.

Updated VSTS VPC Available

2008-05-08T07:42:00.001-07:00

Brian Randell has just given the official word that there is a new VSTS/TFS 2008 VPC available:

It's no April's Fool day joke.
A new all-up image has been posted. It's been updated with Office SP1, the December 2007 TFS Power Tools, and all Windows Updates.

Also available with it are some labs to help you look at the various aspects of Team System. And, for that final bit of good news, it won't expire until December 31st, 2008.

Don't forget, you can use Free Download Manager to help you queue up and download all the different ZIP files.

DirectX MVP 2008

2008-05-08T06:18:00.001-07:00

This would not have been possible if it wasn't for the people in the community.

Thank you to everyone, SADeveloper.NET, Gamedev.net and the XNA community over at http://creators.xna.com/. These are the communities that have made this possible! Thank you!

If you would like me to come and present a session on XNA or Game Development concepts, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Thank you once again to everyone!

Visual Studio Team Suite vNext "Rosario Express" will be FREE

2008-05-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Auf der MIX-Konferenz in Las Vegas hatte ich die Gelegenheit für eine exklusive Vorstellung im Akquaknox-Restaurant [1] im The Venetian Hotel. Zusammen mit anderen Microsoft Regional Directors und dem neuen Vice President Scott Guthrie durfte ich einen ersten Blick auf die letzten Bits des Visual Studio 2008 Codename "Rosario" werfen. Es handelte es sich hierbei aber nicht um die öffentlich verfügbare CTP-Version [2], sondern um die neue Visual Studio Team System "Rosario Express" Version, die vollständig kostenfrei sein wird.

Die VSTS Express Edition ist auf ein Team von 5 Personen beschränkt und kann nur mit dem TFS Workgroup Edition an einem Standort betrieben werden. Einzige Beschränkung sind maximal 10.000 Work Items pro Solution, mehr werden aber die meisten Projekte onehin nicht brauchen. Die Entscheidung finde ich sehr spannend, insbesondere da die meisten kleinen Teams die Team System Funktionalität sehr wohl benötigen und gut gebrauchen können. Diese Entscheidung wird definitiv zur Verbreitung von Team System beitragen.

Eine öffentliche CTP wird voraussichtlich Ende April verfügbar sein. Vielleicht klappt es noch rechtzeiig zur TeamConf. Aber, wie immer mit den Releases, erstmal abwarten.

[1] http://www.venetian.com/AQUAKNOX.aspx
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8450eff5-24ad-44c3-ab91-1ed88ef2f4f0&displaylang=en

Setting up authentication in asp.net MVC

2008-05-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted to setup user authentication in asp.net MVC, and I wanted it to tie in with the built-in IIdentity and IPrincipal support that is already in asp.net, but I did not want to have to setup asp.net membership services. I wanted to have my own user objects, and I wanted to save/retrieve them through my user repository just like my other domain objects. All of this was done for a demo, so it is certainly not production quality code, but I hope it helps you.

First off I setup my User table in my database, it looks like this:

This is obviously just a start, but it is enough to get the job going. I have dragged this database table onto the Linq To Sql designer and it created my User object like so:

Next in my UserRepository class I have a method that looks like this:

public User GetUserByUsername(string username)

    RecipeZoneDataContext context = ContextFactory.GetRecipeZoneContext();

    return (from u in context.Users where u.UserName == username select u).SingleOrDefault();

This way when someone tries to login, I can pass their username into this method and it tries to look that user up. You will notice that we use a "SingleOrDefault" method in order to return a single user or "null" in case there is no user by that name. Next I have created a method on my UserController named "Login" that looks like this:

public void Login()

    _viewData.Redirect = Request.QueryString["redirect"];

    RenderView("Login", _viewData);

Here we are looking for a query string parameter named "redirect" that is going to contain a url that we will redirect to upon successful login. We assign this to our UserControllerViewData class and then pass that to RenderView. The UserControllerViewData is just a class that I use to hold view data for most of the actions on my UserController class.

My Login view is then rendered:

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContentPlaceHolder" runat="server">

    <%= Html.RenderUserControl("~/Views/Shared/ErrorMessages.ascx") %>

    <%using (Html.Form<UserController>(c => c.LoginValidate(RedirectUrl)))

      { %>

    <table>

        <tr>

            <td>

                Username:

            </td>

            <td>

                <%=Html.TextBox("User.UserName")%>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

                Password:

            </td>

            <td>

                <%=Html.Password("User.Password")%>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

            </td>

            <td>

                <%=Html.SubmitButton("login", "Login")%>

            </td>

        </tr>

    </table>

    <% } %>

</asp:Content>

Here we are using a few of our Html helper methods. We use the Html.Form helper method in order to create our html form as well as to render our url that the form will post back to. I am using the overload that takes an Expression and then renders the url based on the controller type and method that you call on it in the expression. You can see that we are posting back to a different action called "LoginValidate" and we are passing the "RedirectUrl" as a parameter to it.

The LoginValidate controller action looks like this:

public void LoginValidate(string redirect)

    if (Models.User.ValidateUser(Request.Form["User.UserName"], Request.Form["User.Password"]))

        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(redirect) || String.Compare(redirect, "none", true) == 0)

            Response.Redirect(redirect, true);

        else

            RedirectToAction("", "");

    _viewData.ErrorMessages.Add("Invalid username or password.");

    RenderView("Login", _viewData);

First we pass our UserName and Password to our User.ValidateUser method. If the user is validated then we check for a redirect and if one exists then we redirect. Otherwise we redirect to a default controller and action. Here we have entered no defaults, you would want to fill them in. If we don't succeed then we add an error message to the view data and redirect back to our Login action. There is a bit of data we have to put into the web.config first though:

<authentication mode="Forms">

  <forms name=".APPNAME" protection="All" cookieless="UseCookies" />

</authentication >

This just sets up our application to use forms authentication, and then sets a few parameters on it. After we have this setup we can now call the ValidateUser method. The ValidateUser method looks like this:

public static bool ValidateUser(string username, string password)

    var userRepository = new UserRepository();

    User user = userRepository.GetUserByUsername(username);

    if (user == null)

        return false;

    if (String.Compare(user.Password, password, false) == 0)

        var authTicket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(1, username, DateTime.Now,

                                                       DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(30), true, "");

        string cookieContents = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(authTicket);

        var cookie = new HttpCookie(FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, cookieContents)

                            Expires = authTicket.Expiration,

                            Path = FormsAuthentication.FormsCookiePath

};

        if (HttpContext.Current != null)

            HttpContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);

        return true;

    return false;

We pull the user and if it doesn't exist then we immediately return. Then we compare passwords (yes, there is no encryption at this point, like I said, demo) and if they match then we create our authentication ticket. This is part of the forms authentication system and it lets us specify which user is currently logged in. We create a cookie with our data and write it out, then return true. Pretty simple! This saves our username that is logged in, but what about our roles? We need to be able to tell if someone is a normal user or an administrator. In order to do this we have to implement the Application_AuthenticateRequest method in the global.asax file.

protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)

    HttpCookie authCookie = Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName];

    if (authCookie != null)

        FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);

        var identity = new GenericIdentity(authTicket.Name, "Forms");

        var principal = new CustomPrincipal(identity);

        Context.User = principal;

Here you see how we are pulling the authentication ticket out of the cookie (if it exists) and we are creating a GenericIdentity object (this is because we don't need any additional functionality for our IIdentity class) and then we create an instance of our CustomPrincipal class which is just a class we have created which implements IPrincipal. This interface has the methods for checking roles. In this application I have just put in some simple code to test for roles since I wanted to keep it simple. This class looks like this:

public class CustomPrincipal : IPrincipal

    public CustomPrincipal(IIdentity identity)

        Identity = identity;

    public bool IsInRole(string role)

        if (String.Compare(role, "admin", true) == 0)

            return (Identity.Name == "JustinEtheredge");

        else

            return false;

    public IIdentity Identity

        get; private set;

As you can see we just check for one role, "admin", and I hardcoded it against my username. I could obviously create a table to manage this, but I have not done so. So, now that we all of this setup, how are we going to use these roles? Well, we are going to create custom ActionFilterAttributes! Of course! I want to be able to protect my controller actions like this:

[UserInRole("Admin")]

public void List(int? page)

    _viewData.Users = _userRepository.GetUsers();

    RenderView("List", _viewData);

This UserInRoleAttribute will now make sure that you are authenticated and that you are in the "admin" role before it will let you access this controller action. If you aren't authenticated then it will forward you to the login page with a redirect to send you back to where you came from. This attribute looks like this:

public class UserInRoleAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute

    private readonly string roleName;

    public UserInRoleAttribute(string roleName)

        this.roleName = roleName;

    public override void OnActionExecuting(FilterExecutingContext filterContext)

        if (filterContext.HttpContext.User.IsInRole(roleName)) return;

        //use reflection until they expose this method

        MethodInfo methodInfo = filterContext.Controller.GetType()

            .GetMethod("RedirectToAction",

                       BindingFlags.ExactBinding |

                       BindingFlags.NonPublic |

                       BindingFlags.Instance, null,

                       new[]

                               typeof (RouteValueDictionary)

                           }, null);

        methodInfo.Invoke(filterContext.Controller,

                          new object[]

                                  new RouteValueDictionary(

new

                                              controller = "User",

                                              action = "Login",

                                              redirect = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Url.AbsolutePath

})

});

This class is actually very simple. The constructor simply takes a roleName and saves it. When the action is called the OnActionExecuting method is called and we simply test the current user to see if they are in the saved role. Otherwise we use some reflection in order to call "RedirectToAction" on the controller class since it is private. Hopefully they will implement this method in the ActionFilterAttribute base class, or they will make it public on the Controller class. But for right now this is the easiest way I could find to call it.

So, what else do we need? Well, we need some way for a user to logout. For this I simply added a Logout action that looks like this:

public void Logout()

    FormsAuthentication.SignOut();

    RedirectToAction("List");

That is all. You just call SignOut and then redirect to whatever action you want. You could also add a redirect parameter here if you wanted, so you could return to whatever page you clicked "logout" on.

So, there you have it. I'm sure that there is something that I am forgetting, but this post is pretty long and I am tired. :) Please let me know if you see anything that I did wrong or could have done differently! I hope you enjoyed it!

How To: Use the XmlDataSource object load XML data to a GridView

2008-05-08T00:04:00.001-07:00

Last week I showed you how to read an XML file, load it to a DataSet and assign those values into a GridView. Today I'll show you how you can read an XML file using the XmlDataSource object.

Let's assume that we have an XML file called Symbols.xml in our App_Data folder

that contains the following data

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <Symbols>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="ATT" Name="AT&amp;T"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="MSFT" Name="Microsoft"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="GOOG" Name="Google"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="CSCO" Name="Cisco"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="IP" Name="International Paper Co."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="MF" Name="MF Global"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="Q" Name="Qwest Communications International Inc."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="BMC" Name="BMC Software Inc."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="WCI" Name="WCI Communities Inc."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="SPY" Name="SDRs"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="LEH" Name="Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="XLF" Name="Financial Select Sector SPDR"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="QQQQ" Name="PowerShares QQQ TR 1"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="IWM" Name="IShare Rus 2000 INDX"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="GE" Name="General Electric Co."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="MER" Name="Merrill Lynch Co., Inc."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="BAC" Name="Bank of America Corporation"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="INTC" Name="Intel Corp"></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="F" Name="Ford Motor Co."></Symbol>     <Symbol ExecutionSymbol="QID" Name="UltraShort QQQ ProShares"></Symbol> </Symbols>

and we want to load it to a GridView with no server-side code and a quick and easy way. The answer is to use the XmlDataSource object. The XmlDataSource control is an ASP.NET control that allows you to automatically read XML Data and make that data readily available to any ASP.NET control.

To start using this control, go to your Toolbox and drag the XmlDataSource control to your page.

Once the control is on the page it would popup a dialog that has configuration options for our XmlDataSource control. Click the "Configure Data Source" button to configure our XmlDataSource

A popup like below will come up that allows you to select the Xml file you want to your XmlDataSource object to read. It also gives you the option to select the XSL file. You can also specify an XPath expression to use to filter the data in our Xml.

Click the "Browse" button for the "Data File" option to select an XML file.

A new dialog will appear that will let you navigate the folder tree to select your desired XML file

Click "Ok" and you'll be taken back to the "Configure Data Source" screen. Click "Ok" again to finalize the XML data assignment.

Now that we have the file set in to our XmlDataSource control we need assign it to a control. We can do that by dragging a GridView control to our form.

Next, we need to assign the XmlDataSource control as the data source for our GridView. We can do this by selecting our XmlDataSource from the "Choose Data Source" dropdownlist.

Click "XmlDataSource1" and you will notice that our GridView was automatically updated and now shows the contents of our XML file.

Easy huh? Next up, Consuming Web Services in ASP.NET

FxCop Now Targeting Speeding

2008-05-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

Almost two months ago, at the February Adelaide Geek Dinner, I was expressing my frustration at one of my Visual Studio solutions taking too long to build and how I would like Visual Studio to build using multiple processors just like the new MSBuild /m parameter.

Paul Stovell made the comment that even with the improvement that multi-core builds was giving me, my solution really shouldn't be taking that long to build. Given that Paul wasn't familiar with my particular project layout and I naturally didn't have a copy with me, the conversation quickly went onto other topics.

However, Paul's comment stayed with me for days after, bugging me every time I waited for the latest build to complete. Then, while staring at the VS Output window during a build, I noticed that most of the time seemed to be spent running FxCop on each project.

I decided to rebuild the solution but this time disabling code analysis via the appropriate build switch. I watched the build time drop from 40 seconds to just 10 seconds by skipping the FxCop process.

Excellent! But given that our entire team runs with Option Strict On, Treat Warnings As Errors, and the Code Analysis Check-in Policy, how could I possibly revert to such a lax build process for the sake of decreased build time?

The answer is to disable Code Analysis in each project's settings (and unfortunately the check-in policy too) but leave it enabled in the Team Build script so it runs and gets reported via the continuous integration build that runs after each check-in. Luckily we've also been running with FxCop for so long that we tend to avoid writing code that would cause violations in the first place.

I met with Paul over the weekend and mentioned my success with better build times. When I told him I had been running FxCop with every build, he just laughed, amazed.

Juggle.com

2008-05-07T17:52:00.001-07:00

Well, I can finally start releasing the name of our product / company / web site since 1 - we are officially expanding the team and hiring more people, 2 - the placeholder page is up at juggle.com, and 3 - the CEO accidentally updated her LinkedIn profile two weeks ago. Oops. But I can't tell you what we are building yet.

Hey, here is a good way to find out. Join the company!

Hiring in St. Louis

We are a small web development group looking to expand our team. Plain and simple, we are looking for great developers. We are focused on finding people who have a passion for development and are excited to be part of a team that is developing a leading semantic web application. There's no Ruby, Java or PHP here… Microsoft only.

You will be working in a fast paced environment that deals with a lot of Web 2.0 (I really hate that term) technology. We value team members who make the internet a part of their lives, not just a place they send their hard work for other people to use. Here's a quick test. Which search engine just threw in the towel? What do Alex and Kevin sit on? What's the point of Twitter? What should manager Rob write himself?

What to expect from our environment?

We have one core rule: Create great software. There is no team of red tape police who have locked down your workstation and blocked 50% of the sites on the internet. No crazy rules about reading blogs or blocking IM.

Each Monday we start a new development iteration where you will commit to the amount of work you can get done for the week. Thursday's are code reviews, so no sneaking in a DataSet to get the job done quick. Friday's are iteration review meeting day where you will demo what you finished during the week. And every morning is a quick standup meeting.

Qualifications:

You should know C# or VB.NET (but you will be using C#), ASP.NET 2.0 or higher and SQL Server 2005.
It would be helpful if you also knew AJAX and how to write unit tests.
It would be really great if you already knew CSLA or ComponentArt.

The Joel Test results: 11 out of 12.

Do you use source control? (YES)
Can you make a build in one step? (YES)
Do you make daily builds? (YES+) We believe in continuous integration. No breaking the build.
Do you have a bug database? (YES)
Do you fix bugs before writing new code? (YES)
Do you have an up-to-date schedule? (YES)
Do you have a spec? (YES)
Do programmers have quiet working conditions? (NO) You will be working in an open area with 4 other developers.
Do you use the best tools money can buy? (YES)
Do you have testers? (YES)
Do new candidates write code during their interview? (YES)
Do you do hallway usability testing? (YES)

Still interested even after #11? Then send me an e-mail using the contact form or scott.kuhl@juggle.com.

Technorati Tags: hiring,st. louis,asp.net,juggle.com

Dynamic lookup

2008-05-07T16:11:00.001-07:00

A while back Charlie Calvert and Mads Torgersen wrote about dynamic lookup being part of the plans for C# 4.0. A code block specified with the "dynamic" key word will allow dynamic lookup with syntax like follows:

static void Main(string[] args) {     dynamic     {         object myDynamicObject = GetDynamicObject();         myDynamicObject.SomeMethod();         // call a method            myDynamicObject.someString = "value"; // Set a field         myDynamicObject[0] = 25;              // Access an indexer     } }

While this is a welcome feature I want it now! Of course I could resort to reflection but it gets tiresome writing all the code needed just to get a simple field or property so I made a little library that lets me write the previous example as follows:

static void Main(string[] args) {     dynamic     {         object myDynamicObject = GetDynamicObject();         myDynamicObject.Member("SomeMethod").Call();			// call a method            myDynamicObject.Member("someString").Set("value").Call();	// Set a field         myDynamicObject.Member("Item")[0].Set(25).Call();		// Access an indexer     } }

This also allows me to access private, protected or internal members of objects and on top of that it can compile functions for invoking the member on several instances of the same type.

I provide the code here but I'm sure there are several bugs in it so please don't use it in your applications as is. Actually please don't use it for anything like that without asking permission first...

#region Using Directives using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Reflection; using System.Globalization; using System.Reflection.Emit;

Interactive MAD Fold-ins - coolness

2008-05-07T11:21:00.001-07:00

This is awesome, and has nothing to do with tech(found via twitter):

Interactive MAD magazine fold-ins from the sixties to today.

ProfileCommon in WebApps fixed quite easily with no addins required

2008-05-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I was sort of happy to see an update for WebProfile for use in VS08. The thing is, I really dislike the error you get in the build with this approach, I just can't use that in a production environment. So... I did some more digging and came across this solution by Jon Galloway. You should read his article for a full explanation of what is going on.

His samples are in C# which is great, but there are some caveats to doing it in VB.

Here is the same code in VB:

    Public Class UserProfile         Inherits ProfileBase          Public Shared Function GetUserProfile(ByVal username As String) As UserProfile             Return CType(Create(username), ProfileBase)         End Function          Public Shared Function GetUserProfile() As UserProfile             Return CType(Create(Membership.GetUser().UserName), ProfileBase)         End Function          <SettingsAllowAnonymous(False)> _         Public Property Description() As String             Get                 Return TryCast(MyBase.GetPropertyValue("Description"), String)             End Get             Set(ByVal value As String)                 MyBase.SetPropertyValue("Description", value)             End Set         End Property          <SettingsAllowAnonymous(False)> _         Public Property Location() As String             Get                 Return TryCast(MyBase.GetPropertyValue("Location"), String)             End Get             Set(ByVal value As String)                 MyBase.SetPropertyValue("Location", value)             End Set         End Property          <SettingsAllowAnonymous(False)> _         Public Property FavoriteMovie() As Integer             Get                 Return CInt(MyBase.GetPropertyValue("FavoriteMovie"))             End Get             Set(ByVal value As Integer)                 MyBase.SetPropertyValue("FavoriteMovie", value)             End Set         End Property     End Class

When using this approach in VB, I still get some occasional errors in the designer when using SplitView, a recompile makes these go away and the code does indeed run fine. It seems to be something in the background compiler... I wish Microsoft would fix this silly 4 year old bug.

Anyway, I really like this approach MUCH better than placing the profile data in web.config. If you are relying on the code and some genius decides to add a field or change the name it will cause any dependent code to go haywire anyway when the CodeSpit is regenerated.

When I am controlling the Fields in Code (where it should be anyway...) That is not a major concern since we know what we are doing when the code changes and its not in an editable file by someone not actually Testing the code.

Therefore, all the other methods have many problems that just aren't worth dealing with when this is simple, elegant, effective and safe.

I also find it much easier to just use an instance rather than some other suggestions of using a Property in a BasePage.

i.e

Dim prof = UserProfile.GetUserProfile()
or
Dim prof = UserProfile.GetUserProfile(username)

I also found that turning off Automatic updates seems to help with the errors for some reason, with it turned off, I don't seem to get them any more and thus you need to do your saves with an instance or you will have to perform a save after changing any item since getuserprofile will overwrite any unwritten changes to the object because it is creating a new instance every time.

So my resulting web.config looks like this:

This is for the Default Provider, if you use Custom Provider as well, use the following:

<profile defaultProvider="<YourProviderName>"
           automaticSaveEnabled="false"
           enabled="true"
           inherits="MonetaModel.UserProfile">

IE8 will be the only browser not to support opacity

2008-05-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

I recently blogged about that IE8 beta1 currently doesn't have any support for the CSS3 opacity property or the alpha filters that is used in IE5.5/IE6/IE7. Microsoft had noted in one of their whitepapers that they would plan on adding some CSS3 support based on customer feedback. The lack of opacity is one of the most requested features in their bug tracking system, so natually I figured that they were going to add opacity to a future beta.

However, this week the IE team wrote that they are NOT going to include this in IE8 but will consider it for a future version.

This would make IE8 the only browser to not support any form of opacity, and "break" A LOT of exisiting websites, tools etc. that rely on this (including several of Microsoft's own websites and API's). I'm flabbergasted.

If you as me think this is wrong, go and sign up for the IE8 beta program and vote and comment on this issue.

Click here to sign up for the IE8 beta program. Afterwards you should be able to see, vote and comment on the opacity bug entry:

https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=331735

Semantic Web in the news

2008-05-07T07:58:00.001-07:00

In scanning new Semantic Web news, I'll be looking out for re-use of data. The momentum around Linked Open Data is great and exciting -- let us also make sure we make good use of the data.

Saved By: James Kim | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee, mashup, re-use of data, Web of data

Book: Fructose ‘missing link’ in obesity epidemic

2008-05-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Could the simple sugar responsible for putting the sweet in everything from bananas to root beer be the missing link in understanding what puts the fat on a person’s thighs? Yes, according to a book penned by a University of Florida researcher that was published today.

In his book, “The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat And Sick,” Dr. Richard Johnson reviews the increasing evidence that fructose may play a role in the obesity epidemic and proposes a low-fructose diet he believes could help people lose weight and potentially prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“We recognize that obesity has multiple causes, including eating too much and exercising too little, but we think a missing piece of the obesity puzzle is fructose intake,” said Johnson, the J. Robert Cade professor of medicine and chief of the division of nephrology, hypertension and transplantation in the UF College of Medicine. “It’s not fructose itself that is the problem, but eating too much of it.”

Americans consume nearly three times as much fructose as a century ago, Johnson said. Although the major source of fructose is soft drinks, it’s found in a variety of foods such as fruit, juice, sweetened cereals and pastries.

“We think fructose makes you obese not simply by the calories it provides but because it also tricks hormonal systems that control appetite,” Johnson said. “You don’t get a sense of being full so you keep eating. It (fructose) may also be important in the development of diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease.

“An additional problem is that the more fructose you eat, the more sensitive you become to it,” Johnson said. “If you want to have success losing weight, you have to cut out fructose for two weeks. At that point you are no longer as sensitive and you can resume a low-fructose diet with ease.”

Johnson’s book, which was published by Rodale, contains a diet he developed with nutritionist and dietitian Elizabeth Gollub, as well as tables listing the fructose contents of common foods. Fructose content is not found on most labels.

Unlike other low-carbohydrate diets, which require dieters to reduce all carbs, Johnson’s plan targets fructose. Starchy foods like potatoes and rice aren’t a no-no as in low-carb diets. And after the first two weeks, dieters can resume eating fruit and having treats such as cake in moderation.

“Most people are used to eating about 50 percent of their diet as carbohydrates,” Johnson said “When you cut it way back and have a very high-protein, high-fat diet, it’s very hard to sustain. It’s also not necessarily healthy. What’s great about our diet is we can maintain a normal carbohydrate-protein-fat balance, and when you do that, the diet is much easier to sustain.”

Johnson became interested in fructose while studying hypertension. He and his colleagues discovered that uric acid increased blood pressure in animals and that ingesting fructose seemed to spur production of uric acid. Reducing uric acid in these animals helped control blood pressure and other problems such as pre-diabetes.

“The effect of fructose to cause pre-diabetes and raise blood pressure may be more important than its effects to increase weight,” Johnson said. “Our studies suggest that, even if one can control one’s weight, that excessive intake of fructose may increase the risk for high blood pressure and diabetes. Going on a low-fructose diet will have benefits above and beyond losing weight.”

The research in Johnson’s book came from studies in his own lab as well as from other scientists studying fructose in cells, animals and humans at other institutions, he said.

He also reviews the history of fructose consumption, comparing it with the rise of obesity. The two histories mirror each other, he writes.

Although fructose consumption was already on the rise when high-fructose corn syrup was invented, the introduction of this sweetener in the late 1960s accelerated the increase. High-fructose corn syrup contains about as much fructose as table sugar but is cheaper to produce, leading companies to produce bigger portions of sweets and soft drinks for the same price, Johnson said.

Today, Americans eat 30 percent more fructose than they did in the 1970s and three times as much as in 1900, when the obesity rate was 5 percent, Johnson said. About 33 percent of adults are now overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“After reading this book I found myself looking more carefully at labels, looking specifically for high-fructose corn syrup,” said Dr. Andrew Whelton, an adjunct professor of medicine and the former director of clinical nephrology at Johns Hopkins University. “I was amazed to see it so often.

“Although this book was put together for a lay audience, I thought it would be useful for health-care providers, particularly for anyone who deals with issues of obesity and diabetes.”

Scientists: New technique identifies molecular ‘biomarkers’ for disease

2008-05-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida chemists are the first to use a new tool to identify the molecular signatures of serious diseases — without any previous knowledge of what these microscopic signatures or “biomarkers” should look like.

Reported this month in the online edition of the Journal of Proteome Research, the advance could one day lead to earlier detection and improved treatment of some types of cancer as well as other diseases.

“With many diseases, the problem has been that we really don’t know what to look for,” said Weihong Tan, a professor of chemistry and the lead author of the paper. “What we’ve done is create a technique to identify the biomarkers despite that limitation.”

Doctors often diagnose cancer and other diseases based on the appearance of a tumor or a patient’s symptoms. While such traditional methods can be effective, they sometimes identify a disease only after it is established. For example, clinicians may get tipped off to the presence of lung cancer — which kills more people than any other type of cancer — based on visible images of a tumor that appear on radiological exams of a patient’s lungs.

Because earlier detection typically improves outcomes, doctors would like to spot disease at the molecular level, before it grows or spreads and manifests itself in more obvious and harmful ways. Given that diseased cells’ molecular structures differ from those of healthy ones, that approach should be possible, and researchers have had some success finding such “biomarkers” using antibodies, Tan said. But despite years of research, biomarkers for most diseases remain elusive or unreliable, he said.

His group turned to “aptamers,” single-strand chains of DNA or RNA that recognize and bind to target protein molecules, as a new tool. His paper reports the first-ever successful use of the aptamers to discover a molecular biomarker — in this case, one for leukemia.

Tan said his group used cell-SELEX, a process his group developed and patented.

Researchers create trillions of different varieties of aptamers in a solution. They then immerse cells known to carry the sought-after disease in the solution. After an incubation period, they rinse the cells.

The vast majority of the aptamers wash away, but those with stronger molecular affinity for the diseased cells remain. The researchers repeat the process several times, eventually shrinking the pool of aptamers to as few as 10 to 25 very strongly attached aptamers — those most closely associated with the diseased cells. Analysis then reveals these aptamers’ molecular structure, as well as the molecular structure of the cells’ biomarkers they bind to.

“As long as the molecules in question are expressed in a substantially different way on diseased and normal cells, they can be identified,” Tan said.

Rebecca Sutphen, associate professor and director of the Genetic Counseling & Testing Service at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, said improved diagnosis may not be the only application of the research.

“The opportunity to identify cancer cell-specific biomarkers and potentially detect small numbers of cancer cells has many potential clinical applications, including disease detection, better imaging of tumors and even potential application for stem cells,” she said.

Other biomarkers have been found for leukemia, but none is particularly reliable, Tan said. Tan and his colleagues reported using aptamers to recognize cancer cells in a 2006 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tan said the latest paper advances that work by revealing the target biomarkers the selected aptamers recognize, Tan said. These targets will form a molecular foundation in understanding diseases, he said.

“In 2006, we did not know what the aptamer recognized on the cancer cell surface,” he said. “In this current work, we report discovering these biomarkers, which then form the molecular foundation for us to understand the cancer and to prepare different molecular tools for molecular medicine.”

Tan said the research is particularly promising because aptamers are relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture compared with antibodies. “This offers the potential for wider application,” he said, adding that aptamers could one day be used not only to detect disease, but also to ferry therapeutic agents to diseased cells.

The research was funded in part with two grants from the National Institutes of Health. It was also funded with two grants from Florida’s Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program and one grant from the State of Florida Center of Excellence in Bio/nano sensors.

The paper’s co-authors are Dihua Shangguan, Zehui Cao, Ling Meng, Prabodhika Mallikaratchy, Kwame Sefah, Hui Wang and Ying Li.

UF family finance expert gives top 10 ‘What Not to Do’ list for taxpayers

2008-05-07T05:28:00.001-07:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tax season is one of the most stressful times of the year. And a University of Florida expert cautions against making common mistakes that can complicate matters as we go about accounting for our income with the federal government.

So Michael Gutter, an assistant professor in family financial management with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has compiled a list of Americans’ top 10 tax-season gaffes.

1. Not making use of VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) sites. If your taxes aren’t terribly complicated–you don’t own a business or have a lot of investment income to report–then VITA is an underused resource worth checking out.

“That’s the first thing I would tell people, is to make use of those sites. They have a lot of oversight by state regulatory agencies and the IRS and they’re audited internally before tax forms are sent up and approved and they’re e-filed for free,” he said. “It’s a free service, done by people who literally work with tax code day in and day out.”

Check with your local county extension office or the Florida Prosperity Campaign, www.prosperitycampaign.com, to find your closest VITA site.

2. Not keeping organized records and missing deductions or credits you deserve.

Gutter said taxpayers should keep in mind that the tax code is designed to promote and encourage good-citizen type behavior: Getting an education, taking care of your children, buying a home, giving to charity, etc.

“There are so many opportunities for people to try and save legitimately between deductions and credits,” he said. “A tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in your tax liability, so by not taking advantage of it, you’re really giving away your own money.”

3. Not using your kids to your best (tax-saving) advantage.

If you have children, Gutter said, a number of tax credits might be relevant for you. If you have college-age offspring, there are even more.

Go to www.irs.gov and search “education tax credit.”

4. Not realizing that if you’re struggling financially, you might be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, a credit for low-income workers. Even if your income isn’t high enough to require a tax return, you can still get the credit.

Go to www.irs.gov and type “Earned Income Tax Credit” in the search box.

5. Spending your tax-refund windfall instead of filling out IRS Form 8888. The 2-year-old form can be used to automatically funnel your tax refund into one or more accounts, such as a savings account or an IRA or other safe place where you won’t be tempted to spend it on an impulse item.

Go to www.form8888.org

“It helps people with the self-control issue that we all have with money,” Gutter said. “It burns a hole in everyone’s pocket, it just depends on what temperature it burns in your pocket and how fast.”

He advises taxpayers to use tax refunds sensibly: Reduce debt first, put money toward retirement or pay bills.

6. Not realizing you can go back and amend previous years’ returns.

If you find this year that you haven’t been taking a tax deduction you’re legitimately eligible for, Gutter says, it’s perfectly acceptable to go back and file amended returns for those years.

7. Buying into the hype over speedy refund anticipation loans.

Unless you are in a true financial emergency, tax refund anticipation loans are “not typically in people’s best interest,” Gutter said.

The loans are similar to paycheck advance loans, he said. The “refund” you get is generally the refund you would have gotten if you’d waited–minus a fee or interest.

8. Not realizing you can make IRA contributions for the previous year up until tax filing day.
So until April 15, 2008, you can contribute to your IRA for tax year 2007.

9. Delaying filing a return without a good reason.

This just leaves your refund in the government’s hands when it could be accruing interest for you, Gutter said. There are some instances where it might make sense to sit on one’s tax return until the last minute–such as waiting to pay Uncle Sam if you still owe taxes, as a way to keep the money working for you until the last moment.

10. Breaking the law by lying on your taxes or not filing a return at all.

“We always tell people, even if you owe the IRS money, work on it–you’re not going to get away with this for very long,” he said. “And if you don’t know how to file your taxes, get some help. But not filing is not in your best interest.”

Economy slows Florida population growth to lowest level in 30 years

2008-05-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The bursting of Florida’s housing bubble and overall economy has also let the air out of the state’s famed population growth, which has shrunk to its lowest levels in three decades, according to the latest projections from the University of Florida.

“A tremendous slowdown is forecast over the next few years compared to what we’ve experienced during the last five years,” said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “The state has not experienced a decline of this magnitude since the mid-’70s, when we were in a national recession.”

The Sunshine State is expected to add an average of only about 209,000 residents a year between 2007 and 2010, compared with annual increases of about 418,000 people between 2002 and 2006, he said.

Although Florida remains a major destination for retirees, far more young and middle-aged people move into the state to find work than their older counterparts arrive to retire, Smith said. But declining job opportunities have stanched the influx of younger people, he said.

“The vast majority of Florida’s population growth is due to migration, and during a recession the rate of job creation slows down in Florida,” he said.

The biggest group moving to the state during the last four or five decades has typically been those in their 20s and 30s, with those 65 and older accounting for only about 15 percent of in-migration, Smith said. But younger people in their 20s and 30s also make up the biggest share of those leaving the state, which is why Florida became the nation’s oldest state after World War II, he said.

Robust real estate markets and burgeoning construction fueled Florida’s growth from 2002 to 2006, just as it did during the boom years of 1971 to 1974, Smith said. In turn, the housing market’s decline dramatically curbed population growth after 2006, just as a national recession in the ’70s sharply limited expansion between 1974 and 1977, he said.

Another reason growth typically slows during a recession in addition to the availability of fewer jobs is that people have difficulty selling their houses, which delays their move, he said.

“We’ve certainly seen a slowdown in economic growth nationally, and it’s even possible we may be in a recession right now, although we won’t know for sure until later this year,” he said.

Projections call for Florida’s population to return to more normal growth levels of about 317,000 a year between 2010 and 2020, similar to the 1980s and 1990s, Smith said. Although there also was a slowdown in growth during recessions in the 1980s and 1990s, it was nowhere near the steep decline of the 1970s or that which is taking place now, he said.

“It’s really sort of a boom-and-bust pattern that we have seen in Florida,” Smith said. “The years between 2002 and 2006 were the biggest in terms of absolute increases since the early ’70s, and then just as we experienced in the ’70s we are going from a period of high- to low-growth numbers.”

The county projected to grow the fastest in percentage terms between 2007 and 2010, Lafayette in Florida’s Big Bend, is something of an anomaly because it owes its top spot to prison construction, Smith said. It is predicted to grow from 8,215 in 2007 to 9,200 in 2010, he said.

Otherwise, many of the high-growth counties are the same as in past years, he said.

Flagler, which was the fastest-growing county between 2000 and 2007, jumping from 49,832 to an estimated 93,568, is expected to continue to expand at a rapid rate, to 103,500 by 2010, Smith said. Its coastal location, proximity to Jacksonville and relatively low cost of living, as well as the presence of the large Palm Coast development, contribute to its high ranking, he said.

Other rapidly growing counties are Sumter, which owes its surge in part to prison expansion and the increasing number of residents at The Villages retirement community, and Osceola County, which receives spillover from nearby Orlando.

In terms of absolute numbers, the counties expected to make the biggest gains between 2007 and 2010 are Miami-Dade, from 2,462,292 to 2,512,300; followed by Orange, from 1,105,603 to 1,154,200; and Hillsborough, from 1,192,861 to 1,234,900.

Off-What? The New Breed Of Regulator...

2008-05-07T02:48:00.000-07:00

There's been quite a bit of chat in the media today of Ofwat - the regulator of the water industry - after they imposed a massive fine on Severn Trent Water.

We have Ofcom that regulates the communications industry.

Ofgem regulates gas and energy markets - not to be confused with a regulator of jewellery.

And if Ofwat is water, should the travel industry be regulated by Ofwhere?

Apart from the ski-ing holiday industry, which should be regulated by Ofski.

Then we have the regulator of public schools and the upper classes - Oftoff - not to be confused with the health regulator - Ofcough.

And of course the regulator for deference - Ofdoff - but I like to leave that to them.

Can anyone else think of some good possible regulators?
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(Image Source: Stannered, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Inverted_question_mark_alternate.svg)

Livingstone To Run In 2012

2008-05-06T23:56:00.001-07:00

I was interested by the headline on the BBC website saying that "Livingstone Hints at Run in 2012".

What do you think he'll do, the relay, the marathon or something else?

Of course not, this seems to be a reference to whether he will stand for re-election or not in 2012.

Now I don't want to come over all negative, but don't you think Ken would be better advised getting the current election out of the way first?

As someone who backs Ken (and even if I didn't, someone has told me that I do, so I must), the thought of having Boris as Mayor for 4 years scares the living daylights out of me.

I can't believe London would be stupid enough to vote for Boris, but we'll see, won't we?
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Having Healthier Meetings

2008-05-06T23:05:00.001-07:00

It's very hard to stay fit and healthy when you have meetings every night and basically whenever you have a spare second. Meetings are not good for the physique.

And let's face it, my physique wasn't that great to begin with!

Being a local representative (or being chosen for any elected position) is a great honour, a great responsibility and in most cases a great experience.

I do try and stay as fit as possible. When I was 16 I used to play or train for football 6 times a week - and on my day off, I used to play table-tennis. Now I am lucky to play once every couple of weeks.

And when I try to cram 2 games into a day, or 3 in 2 days, it's a disaster for my poor little body.

And obviously, I use the word "little" wrongly in that instance.

So it's about trying to do regular exercise in my spare time. I have an exercise bike and a rowing machine - no, not that sort of rowing machine - in my room. I like to use them when I can, but take tonight, I go to work first thing in the morning, then get back and have a meeting at 6pm at the Council. I then have another meeting at the Council at 7.30pm that runs to 9.30pm. By the time I get home, I guess my neighbours wouldn't be too happy about hearing my rowing machine clanking backwards and forwards.

So what is the solution?

Well, I jokingly said it at my meeting tonight but it's not a bad idea. Exercise bikes for Councillors to use at meetings. Why not? We can still listen to debates and make interjections, make notes and so forth but do a bit for our health too.

I tell you what, why don't we wire the bikes up to the electricity system so the Councillors can power the lighting and the air conditioning? That would help the environment, and is a green solution!

The only thing you would have to worry about is if some bright spark (pardon the pun) rigged up the bikes so the current flowed the other way. That would be quite a shock, wouldn't it?

I'm sure we'd see a lot more Councillors jumping up and down at meetings one way or the other. :-)
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(Photo Source: Kirk, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Stationary_bicycle.jpg)

The Mad Attacks Of Racists

2008-05-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

So since the announcement of the local elections I seem to have attracted some mad BNP commenter/s to this website. (At least it keeps them off the streets, I suppose.)

Apart from their racist attack on anyone they perceive to be foreign or an immigrant, let's look at their three most recent attack lines against me:

1) Council Tax rises locally are down to Labour and that the services provided are not good enough considering those rises.

A standard attack line, but fatally flawed due to the fact that there is a 0% Council Tax rise in Three Rivers this year!

So even ZERO PERCENT was too high?

I'm sorry but the BNP have nothing interesting or constructive to say about the problems facing South Oxhey. They don't know what is going on locally, have been doing nothing to help local people, and don't have any solutions - except suggesting stopping immigrants coming into the country, which the Council has no control over anyway.

2) We should support the position held by Ashely Mote the Independent MEP for the South East, including his views on the Labour Party.

This is the same Ashley Mote who was sent to prison for being a benefits cheat?

The man who was too right wing even for UKIP? You are having a laugh now, aren't you?

3) The Minimum Wage is not high enough, so we should vote for a party that would abolish the Minimum Wage. What we need is a living wage. Kerron is a "bearded tree hugging liberal, a typical labour candidate" who does nothing on these issues.

Except of course regular readers will know that I (along with other Labour activists) have campaigned not only for the introduction of the Minimum Wage, but the introduction of a living wage and better workers' rights for the lowest paid. Time and time again - and that is why we not only got better workers rights, sick pay, pension entitlement and Minimum Wage protection for those being exploited, but also increases to the level of the Minimum Wage.

And do you know what, I didn't see one BNP activist out on those protests and campaigns. I wonder why.

The BNP are just a sick joke, the only people they serve are themselves and those who share the same warped view of the world. They can't even make a decent argument for what they believe in.

It's sad really.
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Labour's Mini-Revival

2008-05-06T18:58:00.001-07:00

I like the smell of a good opinion poll in the morning.

The latest ICM/Telegraph Poll makes interesting reading today.

Yes, the Tories still have a massive lead in the poll - not surprising for the major opposition party, mid-term against a party in it's third term in Government - but there seems to be a mini-recovery for Labour, which I am sure will cheer up a few in the red camp.

The topline figures, with changes from the last ICM poll a fortnight ago, are CON 43%(+1), LAB 32%(+3), LDEM 18%(-3).

However I am particularly intrigued by the Scottish polling. In the Scottish YouGov poll, it showed Westminster voting intentions in Scotland were as follows:

CON 17%, LAB 35%, LDEM 12%, SNP 31% - so a 4 point lead for Labour over the SNP.

However in the Scottish Parliament voting intentions stand at:

CON 12%, LAB 32%, LDEM 13%, SNP 40% in the constituency vote and CON 13%, LAB 30%, LDEM 12%, SNP 33% in the list vote - that's an 8 point lead and 3 point lead for the SNP respectively in the Holyrood elections.

Can anyone think why that might be? Not me. ;-)
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Cameron Diaz's Dad Dies Suddenly

2008-05-06T18:07:00.001-07:00

TMZ has learned that Cameron Diaz's father died suddenly early this morning.

We're told the 58-year-old Emilio Diaz, a popular resident of Seal Beach, Calif., recently developed the flu which then turned into pneumonia. We hear his death was "shocking" as Emilio was in "terrific health." Diaz is currently filming her upcoming flick "My Sister's Keeper." A source on the set tells us production on the film was shut down today.

Emilio was a second generation Cuban-American who worked as a foreman for an oil company. He had a bit part in his daughter's film "There's Something About Mary" as "Jailbird."

Problems With Admin At Anglia?

2008-05-06T15:52:00.001-07:00

Having watched this video tonight, I had to have a little chuckle to myself.

Problems with admin at Anglia Ruskin University? Surely not.

As you may know, I graduated from Anglia Ruskin University about 10 years ago. It was called Anglia Polytechnic University then - the only Polytechnic in the the country at the time, and I used to joke that it was there on merit - at least now they've managed to change the name, if not some of the problems people experience.

The university itself has been immortalised on TV twice as far as I am aware. Once when Griff Rhys Jones played a lecturer in Wilt (the writer was a lectuerer at the Poly) and once in The Young Ones as "Scumbag Poly" in the University Challenge edition against "Footlights College, Oxbridge".

Don't get me wrong, I loved my university years. The lecturers were great, the courses were brilliant and the staff were always friendly and accommodating. There were no pretentions and the uni years were undoubtedly some of the best of my life.

But the one thing that let it down was admin. Well admin and organisation - two things.

The two week wait for a timetable was not unusual in my day. I can remember in 1995, my first year at university, that one student did not get his timetable till week 6. Now that may sound quite bad, but it is worth remembering that at that we had 12 week terms at that time!

I had presumed that these were passing problems, or that it was a problem experienced by an individual student - indeed I have nothing to suggest the problems were widespread. However what a good university should do is talk to the student and resolve the matter amicably.

The fact that this current student seems to have been threatened with legal action and banned from the campus seems a massive over-reaction. Anglia, please sort this situation out - you currently have a reputation as a good university that puts it's students needs (academic and personal) first - and this row will do nothing for any of the people concerned.
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(BTW did you know that Tory donor Michael Ashcroft not only went to Anglia back in the day, he has been Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University since November 2001, and has donated £5 million for the university's business school at Chelmsford, now called Ashcroft International Business School. I did, but most people I talk to didn't. I am sure that has absolutely nothing to do with the outrage being expressed on the Tory blogs today.)

Joseph A. Palermo: "That Boy's Finger Does Not Need to Be on the Button"

2008-05-06T13:00:00.001-07:00

While the putatively "liberal" media hyperventilate about a few words Barack Obama uttered in San Francisco last Sunday, lost in the din were the remarks at a fundraising dinner for Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and his compatriot Representative Geoff Davis who represents the good people of Northern Kentucky. Senator McConnell called Obama "incredibly naive" and Representative Davis called him a "snake oil salesman." But the truly offensive and, yes, "elitist," statement came from Davis when he said: "I'm going to tell you something. That boy's finger does not need to be on the button."

The good news is that Davis's campaign manager, immediately recognizing the racist nature of his boss's words, delivered an unambiguous apology to Obama's Senate office. The bad news is that the reconstituted Solid South under one-party Republican rule has not shaken its old Jim Crow roots.

This incident demonstrates why Obama is a powerful candidate for the general election. I mean, when was the last time you heard a Republican "apologize" for anything that comes out of his or her mouth? The GOP's Southern wing must be careful to silence its instinctive racism. Karl Rove's voter suppression tactics targeting African Americans are well documented. Remember John McCain's "black baby?" How about the "hands" political ad for Jesse Helms or the Willie Horton ad for Bush the Elder? Allen Raymond, the turncoat Republican operative, spilled the beans on the racist tactics the GOP is now expert at deploying.

And what about the high-flying Republican governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour? He's a former chair of the Republican National Committee, and he is always yucking it up with the Council of Conservative Citizens. The CC of C is the reconstituted "White Citizens Councils" of yesteryear during the era of racial segregation, and guess what, they're all Republicans. George W. Bush campaigned for Barbour in 2003 even though the CC of C had splashed photos of Barbour attending one of their barbeques all over its web site.

I guarantee you that if Obama is the Democratic Party's nominee the CC of C types inside the Republican Party are going to be difficult to muzzle because the thought of a black man with his "finger on the button" is just too much for them to bear. Congressman Geoff Davis just exposed the tip of the iceberg.

I'm So Worried About The Baggage Retrieval System They've Got At Heathrow

2008-05-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

As something of a worrier by nature and a fan of Monty Python, I have always enjoyed the Terry Jones song I'm So Worried.

As a youngster listening to this song, I probably shared many of the fears being sung about in the song. However I never really got the reference to "the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow". This was mainly due to the fact that we could never have afforded to fly anywhere when I was that age - the most exotic holiday I can remember was the annual trip (by train and boat) to the Isle of Man - so the observation rather went over my head.

It's funny how 30-40 years on the song is probably at its aptest this week. You take your luggage to Heathrow and it ends up in Milan!

How post-modern, we are now getting to the stage where your luggage gets a better holiday than you do as a passenger.

Yes, I'm so worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. :-/

Let's just hope it's not a "terminal" problem. ;-)
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Alicia Keys Backtracks On Gangsta Rap Conspiracy Claims

2008-05-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK — Alicia Keys says she's not a conspiracy theorist. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented."

According to an interview in the magazine's May issue, the 27-year-old singer says: "`Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap' didn't exist." She also is quoted as saying that she wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

"We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"My comments about `gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music," Keys said in a statement issued by J Records. "The point that I was trying to make was that the term was oversloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the `gangsta rap' lyrics articulate the problems of the artists' experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues."

As for the AK-47 remark, Keys said Tuesday that AK-47 is a nickname given to her by friends "as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, `killing 'em dead' on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation."

When AP attempted to reach Keys last week about the Blender interview, her publicist, Theola Borden, said the singer was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

The multiplatinum star behind the hits "Fallin'" and "No One" most recently had success with her latest CD, "As I Am," which has sold 3.4 million copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

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On the Net:

Blender:

http://www.blender.com/

Alicia Keys:

http://www.aliciakeys.com/

Are Watford Flagging?

2008-05-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

So the eyes of the world (and the news media) turned to Watford today - that doesn't happen every day.

I am sure you are as interested as I am in what went on, so here is a quick summary.

Watford versus Coventry City at Vicarage Road stadium...

You may think with the long win-less run Watford are on at the moment that Aidy Boothroyd, and the powers that be at the club, may be panicking a bit - but not a bit of it.

It was therefore completely coincidental that with public support on the terraces beginning to ebb away as quickly as confidence on the pitch that the club invested in thousands of yellow Watford flags to be draped over the fans seats when they came in.

It was also a risky gesture. Yes, a victory and the fans would wave them joyously in the air singing the team's praises, but a defeat would surely have seen fans telling the club exactly where they could stick their flags!

The flags themselves gave a rather interesting message - aside from the one about the board panicking about the fans losing the faith with project Boothroyd - emblazoned with the phrase "Who are we? Watford". Given the poor run of late, and the awful nature of the fare being served up "Why are we Watford?" may have been more apt.

Self belief is something that Aidy has in abundance. He probably just thought that the fans needed a little shoring up ahead of the game against such a strong opposition, languishing as they are just above the Championship relegation zone. And therefore we didn't just have the flags, we had Harry the 8ft Hornet mascot striking a penalty into the (empty) net at the Rookery end before performing a carefully executed slide in the mud towards the advertising hoardings before running in amongst the fans on the terraces.

At that point I thought Harry may have ripped his oversized furry head off to reveal he was Aidy, but no such luck.

Still the "entertainment" continued. A man with an air powered bazooka started firing Watford t-shirts into the crowd. The words "health" and "safety" flashed large in my mind. Could you imagine someone being struck with one of these and then suing the club for a few thousand pound in the courts for the strain, injury and stress caused by such an incident.

If Danny Webber had still been at the club, the injury prone striker probably would have got injured and missed the rest of the season just by looking at the man firing a bazooka!

The crowd looked on rather bemused. The problem hasn't been with the affable nature of the manager and his players, rather the poor performances on the pitch and a lack of decent results (meaning a lack of points). In fact Aidy may well have been better served by sticking Jordan Stewart, Nathan Ellington or Steve Kabba into a bazooka and firing them into the hands of the waiting fans - that would have pleased far more people, and would have been cheaper to do as a simple good will gesture.

With the flags, the performing mascot and the t-shirt firing bazooka, I did wonder at this point whether we were going to go the whole hog and have unicycling jugglers at half time - but fortunately this was not necessary as by this point Watford had taken the lead through Ellington's mis-hit 25 yard effort that pee-rolled into the net in slow motion.

However even Watford players seemed unable to believe that they might actually win a game, and in the second half a rather toothless Coventry were allowed to draw level. In fact they had numerous chances to win the game - one particularly gilt-edged chance 10 mins from time, that proved costly as Watford retrieved the ball and went up the other end, waited for a defender to completely miss the ball and Tommy Smith ran in a flukey winner.

Boothroyd must have sighed in relief. Otherwise you feel the bill for pre-match entertainment at the Barnsley game in midweek could be astronomical! However the important thing is the long win-less run is over and tomorrow is a new day.

Oh yes, in other less important news a bunch of world leaders - including the Prime Minister - were speaking at a conference at The Grove in Watford. However I don't think any of them managed to make it to the game.

I bet they are kicking themselves for missing out on a free flag/t-shirt!
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Jamal Dajani: Obama Bin Laden?

2008-05-06T10:13:00.001-07:00

Here we go again! Dean Singleton, a publisher, founder of the NewsMedia newspaper group and chairman of the board of the Associated Press news agency, had a question for presidential candidate Barack Obama about his policy on Afghanistan.

"Can you imagine shifting a substantial number (of US troops from Iraq) to Afghanistan where the Taliban has been gaining strength and Obama Bin Laden is still at large?"

I thought Obama handled it well as he calmly replied, "I think that was Osama bin Laden."

Mr. Singleton clutching his head, answers: "If I did that, I'm so sorry."

Now Obama could have said, "It's Obama you moron." But he did not. Or he could have fired back and screamed, "Now you know why people are bitter...because of idiots like you." But he didn't.

Anyways, Arab media was entertained...

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report at Link TV

Watch: Obama a Winner in the Middle East

Local Elections - Temporary Alterations

2008-05-06T09:24:00.001-07:00

As we are now into the local election period, I am legally obliged to put on an "imprint" on this site - which I have done above - but it is worth saying:

a) This website is not a campaign website and should not be treated as such. The views contained in it remain my own personal views and are not necessarily the views of the Labour and Co-operative Parties, or other individuals, bodies or organisations I have connections to.

and

b) The imprint will come back down after the election, no matter the result.

Interesting that I have a BNP candidate standing against me - clearly they didn't have the intelligence/ability to stand in the wards they claimed they were going to.

Racism will never win the day and, as I have said previously, I hope that people in South Oxhey unite to defeat the vile BNP - as they always have done in the past.
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(Image Source: The Labour Party)

Vote Match - They Are Thinking What You Are Thinking

2008-05-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered which of the London Mayoral candidates you have most in common with?

Now, if you need someone to tell you how you might vote, you can take the test here.

Apparently if I did have a vote (which I don't), then I would vote for Ken Livingstone (which I can't), but if I did (which I won't), that is something I knew already.

As I say, brilliant invention.
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(Photo Source: Ruddyell and G-Man, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Kenlivingstone.JPG)

Bravo: We're More Than Just "Runway"

2008-05-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ms. Zalaznick played it cool and earnest during her network's upfront presentation to press this morning in New York. Of the lawsuit NBC Universal filed last week against the Weinstein Co. over the rights to "Project Runway," Ms. Zalaznick could only officially offer a "no comment." She pointed to reports from yesterday's Lifetime upfront, during which Harvey Weinstein offered three years of servitude to Jeff Zucker as a peace offering for moving Bravo's top-rated show to Lifetime.

"Harvey [Weinstein] was supposed to be here, but as you reported yesterday, Jeff [Zucker] has four kids to take to school, cars to drive and all those windows to clean, so he may not make it," Ms. Zalaznick said.

"Project Runway" will be back for one more season on Bravo in July. Also coming this summer are new seasons of "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," "Flipping Out" and "Shear Genius," with second seasons also on deck for "Top Design," "The Real Housewives of New York City" and "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style," slated for later in the year.

What's Your Favourite Eurovision Song?

2008-05-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and can't wait for the final next month in Belgrade (although I understand new European country Kosovo will not be taking part).

Yes, it's kitsch and a bit rubbish but isn't that one of the reasons we love it? (Well, that and Terry Wogan ripping it to shreds every year!) But I thought it might be fun to ask readers what their all time favourite Eurovision song is.

For British entries I find it hard to see beyond the brilliant dance routines and Spanish holiday entertainer costumes of Brotherhood of Man with Save Your Kisses For Me, or the sheer 80s-ness and skirt ripping of Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind Up.

But outside of UK entries, my favourite from all my years of watching is undoubtedly Denmark's high-tempo folky foot-tapper from 2001, so I thought I'd share that with you.

Rollo & King - Never Ever Let You Go.

A Barenaked Ladies style track that somehow failed to win, despite having great harmonies, great lyrics, a harmonica interlude by a guy in a leather jacket, a beautiful woman doing a theatrical stage entrance halfway through and (most importantly) someone jauntily strumming a ukuelele!

Great atmosphere too, as the contest was in Copenhagen that year - although Estonia ended up winning with a much inferior song. Another example of rigged voting no doubt, that still pains me to this day...and they say it's all trivial? ;-)

Now, where did I put my ukuelele...
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Campbell Brown Shows Off Baby Eli At Kiran Chetry's Baby Shower

2008-05-06T05:14:00.001-07:00

I didn't even know you got a shower for your second baby!" said American Morning anchor Kiran Chetry, surveying the scene at a baby bash thrown in honor of her impending arrival. Chetry's CNN coworkers joined her for party at New York City's Sparty, where they enjoyed an eco-friendly afternoon of manicures, massages and plenty of baby talk.

MPs Videoed Swinging

2008-05-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

With all that news of Nick Clegg-over possibly sleeping with up to 30 people, you have to worry when you hear that a couple of MPs have been videoed swinging.

But watch the evidence here.

It's a relief, isn't it?

I bet all those journos were just hoping beyond hope that one of them fell off - although I like Andy Burnham's heckle as Ed Balls jumps off:

"Can you hear the wood creaking there?"

With friends like that, eh...

Anyway, how smooth is Ed Balls' dismount? Two related questions:

1) Has he done this before.
2) Can we make it an Olympic Sport before 2012.
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(Photo Source: Jon Pallbo, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:A_playground_swing.jpg)

Arlen Specter Cancer Returns: Hodgkin's Disease Discovered By Doctors

2008-05-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

"Senator Arlen Specter today announced that he has been diagnosed with an early recurrence of Hodgkin's disease," the senator's office announced in a statement today. "Hodgkin's disease is a cancer of the lymph system."

Senator Specter's recurrence was diagnosed based on a routine follow-up PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) which showed small lymph nodes in his chest and abdomen. A follow-up biopsy of one of the chest lymph nodes was positive for recurrence. A bone marrow biopsy was negative.

Senator Specter has had no symptoms of Hodgkin's disease aside from the PET scan findings. Based on the location of the recurrence and the absence of symptoms, his lymphoma is considered stage IIIA. This is significantly less advanced than his Hodgkin's disease when it was originally diagnosed in 2005, when it was stage IVB. At that time, he was treated with 6 months of ABVD chemotherapy, and obtained a complete remission which lasted 3 years. Senator Specter will now receive the Stanford V protocol of chemotherapy weekly over the next 12 weeks.

It is expected that Senator Specter will continue to perform all the duties of his office as well as his activities associated with his candidacy for re-election.

Senator Specter's oncologist, John H. Glick, M.D. of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said: "Senator Specter has an excellent chance of again achieving a complete remission of his Hodgkin's disease. Senator Specter's early diagnosis of his recurrent Hodgkin's disease has a five- year survival rate of 60 percent. He is in superb physical condition, with a normal physical examination and blood work, no symptoms of disease, plays squash regularly and follows a careful diet." Dr. Glick is Professor of Medicine at Penn and a nationally renowned expert in Hodgkin's disease.

Senator Specter said: "I was surprised by the PET scan findings because I have been feeling so good. I consider this just another bump on the road to a successful recovery from Hodgkin's, from which I've been symptom free for 3 years." Senator Specter had successful surgery for a brain tumor in 1993, which recurred in 1996 and was successfully treated. In 1998, in the middle of a re-election campaign, he underwent bypass surgery and post-operatively suffered cardiac arrest, from which he fully recovered. "I've beaten some tough medical problems and tough political opponents and I expect to beat this too. I look forward to getting through this treatment and continuing to serve the people of Pennsylvania," Specter said.

Specter recently published a book, "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate," chronicling his long-time struggle with Hodgkin's disease. During an appearance on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews earlier this month, Specter brought along a photo of himself shaking President Bush's hand to illustrate one of the lessons of his book.

In the photo a bald and visibly ill Specter can be seen shaking hands with a clearly reluctant Bush, who noticeably keeps his distance with his arm fully extended. "He's keeping you at arms length," Matthews laughed. Why was he doing so? Specter offered several theories of what might have been going through Bush's mind at that moment, for example: "He's the chairman, I guess I got to shake his hand."

Watch the clip.

MSNBC

Why MPs Halls Of Residence Will Not Catch On

2008-05-06T00:32:00.001-07:00

With all the debates about Parliamentarians and their expenses at the moment, I was rather interested about the idea that was being mooted about creating halls of residence accommodation for the MPs.

Actually, only moderately interested, because there is no way on earth it is actually going to happen - even if MPs agreed to it (which they won't), the cost to provide the accommodation would be extortionate.

But for some reason it seems that cost has long gone out of the window as a prime motivator for suggested changes to the Parliamentary expenses system. Some people for example just want to show that expenses are not being abused - and don't actually care about any saving to the tax payer at all.

Take Theresa May's suggestion that to stop a minority of MPs "abusing" the £400 second home allowance (and when I say "abuse", I use that term in the sense of using an allowance completely within the rules that are set out) - she thinks the way that you stop that is to give all MPs a salary rise so they don't feel they have to abuse the system.

It is the rules that actually need looking at, not the perceived "abuse" of them, but May's proposal would actually cost the taxpayer more - and those MPs "abusing" the second home allowance would still be able to spend £400 on the things they did before (or anything else they want) and it's OK because it won't be termed as expenses!

The same is true with those advocating buying or building accommodation in Central London to house 65o-odd MPs and their families. How much do the Taxpayers' Alliance think that this idea will cost? I would have thought billions of pounds on current estimates. And then a massive sum on top for security measures to protect such an obvious terrorist target outside the secure area of the Parliamentary Estate. I suspect that the cost would be far higher than allowing MPs to claim for hotels in London or a contribution to the mortgage on a second home that we currently have.

And wouldn't having all these MPs living in halls of residence be a disaster waiting to happen?

Can you imagine elected members sitting around till 3 in the morning listening to Bob Marley and The Levellers, as David Cameron comes in and tells everyone to listen to his new whizzo album by The Smiths? Fine dining in the Commons replaced by snack bars selling kit-kats and pot noodles as people get the munchies? Debates in the House about who ate all the cheese in the fridge (that was clearly labelled), who's turn it is to top up the electricity meter and who's turn it is to do the washing up?

I think Parliament, and the country, should be saved from such a spectacle - but if it goes ahead, expect Endemol to want to buy the rights to televise a fly on the wall programme presented by Davina McCall/Dermot O'Leary. :-/
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(Photo Source: Havaska, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hotnoodle.jpg)

Allison Hope Weiner: Pellicano Trial: Judge Denies Mistrial

2008-05-05T22:34:00.001-07:00

So, the Judge wasn't buying it. After an impassioned speech by Mr. Hummel, Mr. Saunders got up and basically shut it all down. First, he apologized again for indulging in what even he admitted wasn't the best line of questioning, but added that it really didn't matter in the long run since basically, even if you throw out this portion of Mr. Arneson lying about something, there are other things that he's admitted to lying about. It was the "Chad Hummel is throwing a hail mary to try and save his client after a disastrous turn on the stand" defense and the Judge agreed. She said that she was willing to give a curative instruction to the jury about this whole matter, but that there would be no mistrial. And then she added that this was not the first time that Mr. Hummel has objected after the fact to a line of questioning and requested a mistrial....it was the "I'm on to Chad" line of reasoning. And the Judge agreed that Mr. Lally hadn't really had a good listen to the compelled statements of Mr. Arneson, that he'd done the right thing by chucking them to another lawyer and that, in the end, nobody had really been prejudiced by the whole thing. As for Mr. Arneson, he's back on the stand tomorrow morning to answer more questions from Mr. Saunders. And given the fact that Mr. Saunders spent some time testifying today because of Mr. Arneson, I imagine that he's not going to be in a good mood when he resumes his cross examination.

Also expected on the bill tomorrow, Bert Fields. He was here today, ready to go along with his trusty entourage of lawyers. It's possible that his testimony on direct may be some of the most interesting of the trial if Mr. Hummel decides to really let it fly and ask the questions that the government has so far avoided. Tomorrow, maybe the trial will finally be about be about the lawyers and not about Pellicano, who was really just the tool they hired to do their dirty work.

Shooting On Your Estate

2008-05-05T21:40:00.001-07:00

Comedy misunderstanding of the day had to go to the poor Tory (not financially, obviously) we were talking to at lunchtime who said they liked to relax by going shooting on their estate at the weekend.

Amongst the cross party group of staff sat there (not behind a big group of constituents, incidentally) was Dr Dave. Quick as a flash he chirped back.

"Yeah, they had a lot of shooting on my estate when I was growing up...but I think the police have got a grip of it now."

At this point I should point out that Dr Dave is from inner city Bootle in Liverpool, not from the Home County Shires. A fact that seemed to pass our companion by.

"Shoot grouse and peasants, do you?", he piped up.

"Yes, grouse, pheasants...and peasants if they get in the way. I've shot a few of them."

How reassuring. And there was me thinking the Tories had changed. :-/

I have always been amused by the very different meanings behind the word "estate" - depending your background it can be a million miles away from what you expect - but I had wondered whether Norman Tebbit had fallen into the same trap earlier this year with his views on guns?
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(Photo Source: Wachholder0, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BgforhuntingCrop.JPG)

New Obama Girls: "White Haired Women For Obama"

2008-05-05T19:44:00.001-07:00

There's a new bunch of Obama girls in town and they aren't wearing halter tops. These ladies are using their white hair as the visual catch on their even catchier chant "white haired women for Obama."

Watch it:

BNP Views On Rape Are Total Bull

2008-05-05T18:45:00.001-07:00

So it seems that a prominent member of the BNP has backed wife-beating and described rape as a "myth" saying women "would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched" and compared it to "being force fed chocolate cake".

That is simply incredible and horrific statement, even for the BNP.

In the article entitled "Give Her A Slap!", Nick Ericksen - who is number two on the BNP list for the GLA elections in London - said:

"I've never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime...Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal.

"To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that forcefeeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched.

"The demonisation of rape is all part of the feminazi desire to obtain power and mastery over men. Men who go along with the rape myth are either morons or traitors."

Absolutely disgusting claims, and another good reason not to vote BNP if they put candidates in your area.

I notice Nick Ericksen was blogging under the pseudonym "Sir John Bull".

Load of old bull, more like.
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(Image Source: Screen grab of article from Sir John Bull website)

Matthew Palevsky: Ex-CIA Analyst Outs Cheney

2008-05-05T17:45:00.001-07:00

What could have possessed Prime Minister Maliki to rush headlong into a battle he was thoroughly unprepared for? The Bush Administration has responded with certainty about only one thing: they were not involved in the planning. But former CIA analyst Ray McGovern says that Maliki "can't scratch his nose without asking Petraeus to make sure there aren't extra body guards around," much less plan an offensive without him. Moreover, McGovern suspects that that the initiation of the Basra offensive came not from Maliki, but from Vice President Cheney.

You might remember McGovern from his infamous 2006 encounter with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The exchange shed a ray of truth on what was otherwise a shady tenure for the now "resigned" neocon.

To briefly recap, McGovern began by reminding Rumsfeld that he had formerly claimed he knew precisely where the WMDs were in Iraq. Rumsfeld, unable to ignore a man who provided daily intelligence briefings for both Presidents Reagan and H. W. Bush, defiantly interrupted. "I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were."

"You said you knew where they were: 'Near Tikrit, near Baghdad, and East, West, South and North somewhat" McGovern said, referencing Rumsfeld's appearance on ABC three years earlier. Rumsfeld, rendered speechless, scrambled to change the subject.

McGovern, who founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, shared with me his unique perspective on Petraeus and Crocker's recent testimonies.

The Real News Network (TRNN) is the world's first truly independent, non-profit, viewer-supported daily video-news and documentary service. It does not accept advertising, government or corporate funding. The mission of The Real News Network is to engage millions of viewers in solving the critical problems of our times. We provide independent daily video-news imbued with verifiable facts, history and context.

Have We Seen That Apprentice Somewhere Before?

2008-05-05T16:24:00.001-07:00

I am a big fan of The Apprentice, it is a great programme that allows us to laugh and despair at those people who consider themselves high flyers in the world of business - but who, for the most part, actually need a bit of help tying their own shoelaces.

It's often a triumph of self belief and business jargon over any sort of ability or sense of business judgement, and it seems that this series is no different.

And thank goodness for that.

If you missed it then you can visit the website here and watch the highlights - the boardroom argument between Raef, Alex and Nicholas is in particular a wonder to behold.

One episode in and already we are talking about "class". Every series we have a situation where those who went to private school and have a priviliged upbringing snootily look down on those hardworking commoners who they do not see as being born to lead like them. It is quite an achievement that one week into this series a massive split has already been engineered and a row has ensued.

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown sneered at the hardworking Alex for being a "salesman", as if that was some sort of insult when their task most weeks is to be able to sell a product. "You are a salesman", said de Lacy-Brown, before Alex ticked him off saying he was a "Area Manager".

"OK, you're a manager of salespeople", de Lacy-Brown smirked, feeling he had really rammed home his point - forgetting perhaps for a moment that Sir Alan Sugar had worked his way up to multi-million pound entrepreneur from being a working class salesman.

Nicholas blamed the split on the group between the "educated" and "uneducated" people. Or rather those who were brought up to talk properly, and those who weren't. It was rather amusing that the person he directed his attack at for being uneducated was someone called Alexander Wotherspoon, a university graduate with a broad Yorkshire accent, who defended himself to the hilt saying "I went to private school, what do you mean uneducated".

And that is the joy of The Apprentice, even the "heroes" are idiot villains. And the "villains" are super-idiot villains.

Take Raef Bjayou, the man of the incredible fop quiff and self styled "entrepreneur", who said of the class debate (after whipping up the debate in the first place):

"I'm just finding this conversation just incredibly boring... I get on with Prince or pauper."

No prizes for guessing who he thought was the prince and who was the pauper in the class debate, and whilst Nicholas may like to talk about class, I have to wonder how much true class he possesses after attacking last year's super-idiot villain-in-chief Katie Hopkins, by saying:

"Err, has she looked in the mirror? I think she should look in the mirror, although if she does, she should be aware that it might crack, which might give her seven years' worse luck than she has had already."

Admittedly, she had said of him that he had the "most punchable face in the UK", but by this point I was already rather struck by how much Nicholas resembled Tory leader David Cameron.

The vacant, privately educated poseur who had absolutely nothing worthwhile to say whatsoever. Can you still not see the resemblance?

Although, of course, David Cameron would never have been voted off the show first - I am sure he at the very least knows the price of a lobster.
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(Photo Source: Dantadd, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Davidcameron.jpg)

James Boyce and Paul Abrams: An Obama-McCain General Election Agreement: Neutering The 527s

2008-05-05T12:36:00.001-07:00

John McCain has promised a "respectful" campaign. He cannot match Barack Obama's fundraising ability and would like both candidates to agree to federal limits.

Without a solution to the inevitable 527 problem, however, Barack Obama should not agree to restrict his general election funds to the federal grant. John McCain cannot control 527 expenditures. [n.b.: for the purposes of this article, any non-Party, non-candidate, controlled election money will be called "527"].

There is a mechanism to make this work. It will test whether McCain is committed to a respectful campaign, as he says, and whether he wants to run the lobbyists and PACs out of the campaign financing system.

The agreement must be in writing. It must be published. It must be tightly written. It must be signed by the campaigns and by the Democratic and Republican Parties. There must be automatic pre-determined sanctions that occur within the relevant timeframe of the campaign itself should the provisions be breached. [n.b.: the nominees each take control of their Parties, and thus can get those Parties to accede to whatever agreement the candidates reach. No excuse that "the Party will not agree"].

But, there is an opportunity for an historic deal on these terms:

1. The candidates agree to take federal funding. Re-directing raised funds to the RNC and DNC is allowed.
2. The candidates and parties agree to take no PAC and no lobbyist money.
3. To neuter the 527s, the candidates make a joint TV, Radio and Print Ad. The TV ad has both McCain and Obama standing beside one another, and they say: "You have just seen an ad attacking the character or patriotism of one of us. Then Barack says of McCain, and McCain says of Barack: "Well, I'm [name], and I want to tell you that [name] is a trustworthy person, who loves this country." Then, they share sentences that say, "We disagree strongly about policies and programs, and how to get America to a better place. We urge you to ignore the ad you just saw. It is not accurate, and does not represent what we think of one another."
4. Those ads are run, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, after either McCain or Obama, notes to the other that a 527, or the RNC/DNC, will be running an attack ad against the other candidate.
5. The costs for running those counter-ads are shared equally by the campaigns and parties.
6. Same concept for radio and direct mail and newspaper ads. One-for-one.

Before everyone piles on, believing that Obama will have relinquished an advantage, consider how this would work. Obama (and McCain) fundraising would go to the Party, not the campaigns. The Party can conduct campaigns in concert with the candidates; that was done in the 2004 campaign.

By agreeing not to take PAC or lobbyist money, we call McCain's bluff and determine whether he is truly opposed to such funding sources.

The joint ad puts the prestige of the other candidate on the side of the attacked. This blunts the impact of the attack. Republicans are far more likely to run vicious attack ads than Democrats. There is no evidence they could have won any Presidential campaign without them.

By requiring a dollar-for-dollar "buy", the Republican 527s will cost the McCain campaign whenever they decide to run such an ad. The existence of the counter-ad will neuter the attack ad, and that alone may deter their use. For example, the SwiftBoat ads spent $37 million. Under this proposal, McCain would pay $18.5 million to counter it, reducing the money he has to use his own campaign. The determination that a 527 attack triggers a counter-ad is made by the attacked party. It requires only that a 527 has sponsored the ad, and the designation by the attacked party that the joint-ad should be run.

Thus, 527s do not get a free-ride, their activities compel expenditures by the campaign they purportedly are trying to help. The campaigns will have a strong incentive to "suggest" that the 527s do not expose them to such costs.

In summary this proposal determines whether McCain truly wants a respectful campaign. In exchange for agreeing to take federal funds for the campaign, the deal erects a forcefield--with the counter-ads and the cost of running them on a dollar-for-dollar basis along with the scurrilous 527 ads---to increase the likelihood that the campaign may indeed be respectful. It also tests McCain's commitment to ridding the system of PAC and lobbyist money.

This is eminently reasonable and fair. If McCain rejects it, it will not only have revealed his true nature, but it will also demonstrate Obama's adherence to his promise to try, in good faith, to work out an agreement with his opponent, should he get the nomination.

If McCain accepts it, the campaign will be about Iraq and our overall foreign policy; the economy and energy; education; and universal health care.

We have no doubt that THAT is a campaign Barack Obama would win in a landslide.

Nick Clegg-over

2008-05-05T11:25:00.001-07:00

You have to be careful with some of the news reports that come out on 1st April, but I am rather shocked by the GQ interview with Nick Clegg where he goes into some detail about his love-life and ability in the bedroom.

Frankly, I don't want to know. I only hope he took his sandals off first.

I should probably remind you that Nick Clegg is leader of the Lib Dems this week, in case you've forgotten who he is. He revealed all (snigger, snigger) in an interview with former Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Perhaps Clegg was just auditioning for the next series of Britain's Got Talent without understanding what the title of the programme actually meant?

Given Clegg's recent interview disaster with The Big Issue, don't you think that those in control of the Lib Dems should stop him doing any further interviews for the foreseeable future?

But then you forget that no-one is actually in control of the Lib Dems anymore.
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John McCain Visits The Hardball College Tour: Watch The Highlights

2008-05-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

John McCain swung by the Hardball College Tour with Chris Matthews on Tuesday at Villanova University in Villanova, Penn., and the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee was met with some pretty hard-hitting questions, including whether he thinks he's a "typical white person," a term that Barack Obama used to describe his own grandmother. Another Villanova student asked McCain whether he thought Hillary Clinton "finally resorted to hitting the sauce because of unfavorable polling." The questions prompted Matthews to joke, "we came her hoping for the best and we got two of the most wise-ass questions." The Hardball host said it was a "tribute to the academic rigor" of the Pennsylvania school.

Watch McCain discuss Hillary's trip to a bar in Crown Point, Indiana:

Watch McCain say whether he thinks of himself as a "typical white person":

There were some more serious questions. McCain said that he thought the strategy in Iraq was working:

Matthews also asked McCain whether Barack Obama was an elitist:

Tory Mould On The Environment

2008-05-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone heard of a guy called Stephen Mould?

No, I thought not, but it seems he is the Tories' Parliamentary Candidate in Derby North.

I was rather interested by the page of his website talking about the environment.

According to Stephen we need "to meet the great environmental threats of the age, to enhance the environment and to increase general well-being" and "today that means: Playing our part in tackling climate change by encouraging green growth through binding annual targets for carbon reduction, a long-term price for carbon, and the removal of barriers that hold us back from leading the world in new green technologies".

All absolutely laudable I am sure you agree.

I thought I'd even over-look the fact that the man opposes introducing a congestion charge to help address the over-use of cars in Derby City Centre and the effect that this causes on the enviroment - as I am sure he is passionate about the environment and is doing his own bit to tackle climate change.

I then had a look at the biog on his website and his list of interests:

"Stephen's interests include Formula 1 racing, motor cruising & flying small aircraft. Stephen & Nikki qualified for their RYA Day Skipper Qualification only last year. This year Stephen began learning to fly and hopes to gain his Private Pilot's License soon".

Do the Tories actually believe anything they say anymore?

It reminds me of David Cameron's announcement that he wanted to do something about reducing the number of flights taken in the UK because of the effect they had on the environment - but then only referred to short haul flights (often taken by the low paid) and not long haul flights (often taken by Tory businessmen).

That is David Cameron who's disgust for short haul flights is such that he and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet all flew to Scotland on a short haul flight for a meeting instead of the option of taking the train.

Perhaps he just heard how bad the trains to Scotland can be?

There is a Mould in the Tory Party, and everyone should be aware of it.
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Clinton Superdel Contradicts Campaign: I Didn't Decide Over "Bitter" Remarks

2008-05-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

ust when did Montana politico Bill Kennedy decide to endorse Hillary Clinton?

The Clinton campaign has suggested the Yellowstone County commissioner picked Clinton only after he heard Barack Obama's now famous "bitter" comments. But Kennedy told FOX News on Tuesday that he decided on Clinton long before that.

"I had been leaning toward Hillary for months," Kennedy said. "I actually decided to endorse her two weeks ago."

MPs (Constituents) Priority Service

2008-05-05T06:15:00.001-07:00

I have blogged before about how temporary pass holders and visitors are not allowed to eat in the Debate cafeteria in Portcullis House between 12pm and 2.30pm. This is due to the pressure on the facilities by the full time members of staff and MPs already based in Portcullis House.

In the main buildings over the road at lunch times full passholders and MPs are allowed to bring up to 2 guests in at lunchtime in the Terrace cafe. The only restaurant inside Parliament where temporary passholders are allowed on their own is Bellamy's in 1 Parliament Street - which creates significant problems when it is shut in recess.

The only eating place for non passholders and visitors is in the Jubilee Cafe in Westminster Hall.

The access regulations are only enforced sporadically and to a large degree are dependent on the goodwill of people using the facility, not someone in a suit stood with a clipboard (although that does happen occasionally).

I believe that after the last catering review it was decided that in the Debate cafe in Portcullis House MPs could bring 2 visitors with them. I presume this is because they are more important than anyone else and clearly do not have numerous other places on the estate to eat their food. :-/

As staff we put up with it. In truth most people turn a blind eye when MPs or staff bring a non-passholder to lunch, all we ask is that a bit of common-sense be used so we can all eat our lunches relatively swiftly and get back to work.

But there are always one or two people who ignore the rules completely and take advantage of that goodwill. One Tory MP today turned up with around 30 guests, all in visitor passes, and trooped them through the Debate cafeteria to get their lunch. This, of course, not only held up everybody queueing for their lunch but also meant that they took up many of the tables restricted for use by people using the cafe.

It may seem petty, but it just shows a lack of respect and a sense of self importance amongst some MPs that means they feel they can do whatever they want. I feel sorry for the staff who are faced with the choice of either having a row with a Member of Parliament who will probably end up spitting feathers or upsetting a lot of staff who are patiently waiting for their lunch whilst their one hour break slowly ticks down.

I know we have MPs' Priority Service, and the Lords also want Priority Service - but MPs' Constituents Priority Service is something else. :-/
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(Photo Source: Martin Deutsch,http://www.flickr.com/photos/teflon/147694395/)<

Free Scoring Shoulders And Shoddy Exhausts

2008-05-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

Played footy on a Saturday morning for the first time in ages this weekend - too many Council advice surgeries, kilts to buy, and other exciting things to do in recent weeks - and it was a great game as we came from 2-0 down against one of the best sides in the league to draw 2-2.

But we all know that a 2-0 lead is the hardest score to have in football, so perhaps a 2-2 draw was not that surprising a result at that point.

And 2-2 draws are always more satisfying than 2-0 draws, I find.

Playing on pitch at right back (in the changing room, haha!) I even scored the first goal in the comeback - but was rather more impressed by goal line clearance at 2-0 down. The centre forward rounded the keeper and smashed the ball full force at the goal - I just stood there and manfully powered the ball off the line with my head, grunting like a Neanderthal as I repelled the shot upfield and chased the follow up. They shall not pass.

It was at this point, about 30 seconds after the impact of the shot that the adrenalin finally wore off and I just stood there with my head spinning, promising myself I would never be so stupid as to stop the ball with my head ever again. (Although in fairness the spinning head could have been due to the fact that our kit hadn't been washed from last week and probably could have been reclassified as chemically hazardous had a Government Inspector inspected it at the weekend. :-/)

But back to my goal. A glorious, well placed, looping effort into the far corner off my shoulder. I think the keeper was done for pace (a severe lack of it) as he attempted to flap it away. Not a lot of people are good enough to be able to score with their shoulder, a lot of people claimed it was a fluke, but when Cristiano Ronaldo tries it next weekend then you'll see the genius of it.

In fact I think my shoulder is probably the freest scoring shoulder in the whole of the league. It is potent. More deadly potent than even our kit. Respect my shoulder. ;-)

The other interesting thing from the game on Saturday was that on the way back the exhaust fell off my car. Now a lot of people will think this is coincidental, but it made me think back to the last time my exhaust blew up - again on that occasion I had scored a goal. Actually it was two goals that game.

So goodness only knows what will happen if I ever score a hat-trick!
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(BTW this photo is just a helpful aid to let you know what my free scoring shoulder may look like - the picture wasn't taken on Saturday. Actually, it's my other shoulder that scored at the weekend, so perhaps I am just trying to lull people into a false sense of security about my secret weapon. The other shoulder is frightening...some say awesome...too awesome for a mere photograph on this blog. ;-))

Watford's Jaffas Capitulate

2008-05-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

Aidy Boothroyd is a man well known for a good quote, we know this. But he rather put his finger on it this week when he said:

"I've always believed, at this time of year, you get to see people like oranges - you squeeze them, and some tend to capitulate."

Now I've never known for an orange to "capitulate", and I am tempted to say that if Aidy's oranges are getting squeezed perhaps I should recommend a kilt to him, but yesterdays 3-0 defeat to Hull was embarrassing in the extreme.

To use Boothroyd's simile, it was taking the pip.

In fact we have struggled since Adam Johnson left the club back in November and, up until yesterday, had been on a string of hopeless thoughtless excitementless draws that Kenny Jackett would have been proud of.

We needed to add some more zest (sorry) to our squad in the transfer market or the loan market, but whilst all the other clubs in the Championships have recruited big name centre-forwards Watford have stood still.

I really fear for Watford's promotion chances now. Not helped by John Eustace's 4 game ban.

Talking of Eustace's ban at the hands of Rob Styles, anyone see that particular ref's performance yesterday? Two soft penalties and a red card. Embarrassing.

If anyone knows a worse ref than Styles at the mo, I'd like to hear it.
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(Photo Source: Knutux, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Orange-fruit-2.jpg)

Saying Two Things At Once

2008-05-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

Attended the Christian Socialist Movement AGM and Tawney Lecture/Dialogue last night (although I suppose as Vice Chair there is no getting out of it even if I wanted to). Packed to the rafters it was.

Whilst there were fascinating contributions from both Stephen Timms MP and Rev Canon Nick Sagovsky, I was rather more struck by one of the contributions made from the audience.

"We need faith in action", shouted one woman. A hearty "hear hear" echoed round the room.

Or did she actually shout "we need faith inaction"? There is a rather different meaning behind that suggestion, isn't there?

It's hard to tell, considering the two phrases sound the same, though they mean polar opposites.

I guess the appropriate reaction to the latter comment would be a universal shrug from the audience rather than showing positive approval though.
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Pastor-Elect

2008-05-05T03:35:00.000-07:00

Today I announced to my beloved sheep at Peace With Christ Lutheran Church that I have accepted the call to serve as pastor of Saint John's Lutheran Church in Accident, Maryland.

Saint John's Lutheran Church in the Cove, Accident, Maryland
I cannot speak highly enough of the people at Peace With Christ. Without exception they received the news with love. My afternoon has included lots of hugs (apparently I don't need to breathe anymore), lots of tears, and lots of encouragement. The people at Peace With Christ are happy for me, and they all think that I'm going to be a great pastor for the people in Accident.

I have to say that I'm really excited. I am looking forward to serving the saints in the Cove. I already love them dearly, and I can't wait to meet them all and feed them with the Lord's gifts. Please pray for me, Peace With Christ, and Saint John's in the Cove.

Rev. Charles Lehmann
Pastor-Elect, Saint John's Lutheran Church
Accident, Maryland

Schwarz Family Update

2008-05-05T01:46:00.001-07:00

Thank you to all who are supporting the Schwarz and Wilken families. I just got off the phone with Jeff and would like to give all his many friends an update on Beth's medical situation.

First of all, Jeff always asks me to thank all of your for your support. He greatly appreciates the financial support, the emotional support, the e-mails, the prayers, everything that he's received from hundreds of friends he didn't even know he had.

Please keep writing to David Strand, President Kieschnick, and all the powers that be. Keep signing the petition and directing your friends to do the same. All of these things are a significant help and have a good chance of bringing Issues, Etc. back in some form. Keep giving to the Schwarz / Wilken fund by sending your donations to:

Wilken / Schwarz Fund
Saint Paul Lutheran Church
6969 W. Frontage Rd
Worden, IL 62097

The Schwarzes spent most of the week at the Mayo Clinic. Within an hour and a half of their arrival, they had a three day itinerary of medical tests for Beth and appointments with four medical specialists. Every appointment was on time. Many were early. The staff was courteous and loving at every moment. They do not have word on Beth's diagnosis or treatment yet, but they do have a lot of encouragement and hope.

They will return next week on Wednesday to get test results and start Beth on a course of physical therapy. I'd like to add my own thanks to that of the Schwarzes to the staff of the Mayo Clinic as well as to the pastor who allowed them to stay in his parsonage during their visit in Minnesota.

GameTrailers update

2008-05-04T23:53:00.001-07:00

Iron Man ’story’

English of the Dead trailer

Deadly Creatures interview

Funeral Masses

2008-05-04T23:02:00.001-07:00

I think that one of the institutional sins of the Missouri Synod has been a despising of the gifts God gives in the Lord's Supper. This has started to turn around in some extremely significant ways, and I rejoice at that! One of them is the provision in Lutheran Service Book for the Lord's Supper to be celebrated in a funeral service. Today I officiated at a funeral service at which the Lord's Supper was celebrated, and if I could have my way, I'd probably never conduct a funeral without the Supper ever again.

The Lord gave in His Supper the comfort that these people needed. The Proper Preface always includes the words "with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven..." That includes the one whose loss we mourn. What better way to celebrate our Savior's faithfulness to the deceased!

The reason it will take time for this to catch on, I think, is that pastors are afraid to with love and concern address the topic of closed communion. I suspect that in most cases this could be done in a way that would still allow all to grieve, but probably not always. But just because we have to work a little harder doesn't mean it's not worth the effort.

eBay auction - SNES display model, GBA SP limited edition models

2008-05-04T21:22:00.001-07:00

Auction here

Link

Funeral Homily for Wyatt Bartholomew Frahm

2008-05-04T20:24:00.001-07:00

Rev. Charles Lehmann + Wyatt Bartholomew Frahm + Luke 1:39-56

     In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
     John, Jen, family and friends. Wyatt Bartholomew Frahm is come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
     It has pleased Almighty God to call Wyatt to Himself, but it does not please us. We want to hold Wyatt. We want to see Him grow and mature into the man of God that we expected he would be. But the Lord has chosen another way, and we don't understand it. It makes us angry and confused. No answer seems sufficient. So we cry out to the Lord, "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord--how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer."
     At moments like this we want to peer into the hidden counsels of God, but there is no comfort in the hidden God. That is not where the Lord directs us this morning.
     We are directed instead to the God in Mary's womb. We are directed to our Savior. We are directed to the one who by his conception and birth has sanctified the wombs of all mothers. We are directed to the one who by his three day rest in the tomb has made holy the graves of all His saints. We are directed to Wyatt's Savior.
     Elizabeth was a pastor's wife. From the moment that John the Baptist was conceived, we can have little doubt that Elizabeth spoke the word of God to him. John was prayed for at temple and synagogue. And even though Zechariah could not speak during the months that John was growing in his mother's womb, we can have little doubt that John's father prayed for him.
     And John heard that word of God. Elizabeth's womb was no barrier for the Word of life. John heard and believed. And so when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, so did John, and by that miracle of faith John leaped for joy. His Savior was there! It was the greatest moment in his life to that point. God, still being knit together in Mary's womb, was going to stay with Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John for three months.
     And so, even six months before the Lord's birth we can hear His words echoing in our ears. "Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Jesus is for children, even before He is born. The faith of a little baby is real, precious, and confessed throughout the Scriptures. David prays, "On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God."
     We sometimes have trouble believing these words. We like to think quite a lot of our reason, and we want to put intellectual prerequisites on faith in Christ.
     But thanks be to God! He gives us no tests. There are no placement exams for Christian faith. Instead the Lord says, "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
     The miracle of faith is for all who hear God's saving word of life, from the least of us to the greatest, and infant faith is not the exception. It is the norm. God attaches rich and great promises to the preaching of His Word and to prayer. And Wyatt even had one advantage in his earthly life that John the Baptist did not. Though both Wyatt and John both had faithful mothers who prayed for them, sang to them, and spoke God's Word to them, John the Baptist did not have the benefit of his father's preaching before he was born. Wyatt did. Wyatt for the thirty-seven weeks of his life was brought here, to this place, where his father preached the Gospel, the sure and certain words of eternal life without which none of us can live. From this very altar, Wyatt's father prayed for him. And from this very altar Wyatt's mother received Christ's body and blood in her mouth. And those prayers for Wyatt were carried out into the world by you, the saints of Gloria Christi.
     Wyatt also had the faith sung to him by his faithful parents. John and Jen regularly sang the hymn "At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing" to Wyatt while he was still in the womb, and this past Sunday when Wyatt heard that hymn sung in the Divine Service, he, like John the Baptist before him, leaped for joy in his mother's womb. Wyatt spent the last day of his earthly life filled with the joy of Easter.
     Easter triumph! Easter joy! This alone can sin destroy. From sin's power, Lord set us free. Newborn souls in you to be, "Alleluia!" Jesus Christ, in whom John and Wyatt rejoiced before they were even born, has gone to the cross, suffered, and died. He died for Wyatt. From the wood of the cross Jesus forgave Wyatt all his sins. And Jesus is not dead! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
     And because Christ is risen, Wyatt too shall rise. And when the Lord returns on the clouds, we will certainly not precede this precious child. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."
     Wyatt lives in perfect peace and perfect joy for all eternity. And when finally the Lord brings Wyatt's parents into heaven he will greet them with joy. Wyatt will say, "Come my beloved father and mother. Enter the joy that our Savior Jesus Christ has prepared for you for all eternity. I'm so glad that you are here."
     But you don't have to wait for that last day to receive the perfect joy and peace that Wyatt now enjoys. We know that in the Lord's Supper we feast with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. There is but one congregation of the saints and it abides in heaven and on earth.
     When the Words of our Lord are spoken at this altar, then heaven will descend to us. These walls will be filled with all the saints in heaven and on earth. Ten thousand times ten thousand will sing with us, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." And John and Jen, there is no doubt that Wyatt is among that myriad in heaven that sings "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain."
     Jesus has offered His life for Wyatt's. All of your son's sin has been borne to the cross and destroyed there. And you know the wonderful truth about your Savior's tomb. It is empty. He is risen, and it is that apostolic word that has spoken life into Wyatt even in the womb.
     Wyatt's Savior is faithful. He will not leave his dear child in the grave. Behold I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we all shall be changed, and Wyatt will be raised incorruptible.
     The souls of the saints are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die and their departure is taken for misery. But they are in peace. For the Lord has regard for His saints, and He shows mercy to His elect.
     To Him be glory forever and ever.
     Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
     In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

More info on Zelda manga heading to NA

2008-05-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

Viz isn’t talking about what Zelda manga is coming to the states, but they have confirmed a release date. We can look forward to October 7th as the first day where we can get our hands on a localized copy. While Viz wouldn’t confirm what manga they were bringing over, they did summarize the two volumes.

Volume 1

In the mystical land of Hyrule, three spiritual stones hold the key to the Triforce, and whoever holds them will control the world. A boy named Link sets out on a quest to deliver the Emerald, the spiritual stone of the forest, to Zelda, Princess of the land of Hyrule. The journey will be long and perilous, and Link will need all his skill and courage to defeat evil. The battle for Hyrule and the Sacred Realm has begun!

Volume 2
After completing his training Link begins his journey to seek the remaining Sages. Meanwhile, Ganondorf continues looking for Princess Zelda and plotting to capture Link with the aid of the witches known as Twinrova. At the urging of the mysterious Sheik, Link enters the Haunted Wasteland to find Zelda. The journey will be dangerous but Link is determined to overcome the Twinrova’s traps and survive to face Ganondorf in an epic final battle!

Link

+ Wyatt Bartholomew Frahm

2008-05-04T17:49:00.001-07:00

Our brother Wyatt is come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

My friend, the Reverend John Frahm III and his wife Jennifer suffered great loss as their son, Wyatt Bartholomew, passed away in the womb due to a cord accident. Just yesterday as Wyatt heard his father preach the Easter Gospel and heard sung the hymn that had been sung to him in his mother's womb for months, "At the Lambs High Feast We Sing," he leaped for joy in his mother's womb.

Please remember Pr. Frahm and his wife in your prayers.

The funeral, at which I will be officiating, will probably be on Saturday. I will give more information as I have it.

Maundy Thursday Homily

2008-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Rev. Charles Lehmann + Maundy Thursday + Matthew 26:17-30

     In the Name of + Jesus. Amen
     This is not the sort of Passover that the disciples signed up for. They were looking forward to a nice cozy retelling of the Old Testament stories, some lamb, and maybe a little horseradish on the side.
     But all that's missing when we read what the Scriptures say about this night. We never hear about a lamb or bitter herbs or a recounting of the story of Exodus. We have Jesus, and we have the Twelve. We have a warning of betrayal. We have the drama of Judas leaving under cover of darkness.
     But where is the Lamb? Where is the one whose sacrifice will cover the sins of the family for the coming year? You won't find a lamb mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or in the Apostle Paul. Fluffy appears to be missing. And how, dear Christians, can there be a Passover without a Lamb?
     And what about this Man. He's saying, "Take, eat this is my body." Now that's wondrous strange. But it offers an interesting possibility, doesn't it? Could it be? Could it be that the Lord Himself is the Lamb? Could it be that at this meal He is the host, the waiter, the chef, and the main course?
     Yes, dear Christian. It could. It could be that that is just the sort of Lord you have. The Passover is ended forever. No more will a little sheep atone for the sins of the family. The true Lamb, the Lamb of God, is going to the cross to be slain for the sins of God's family forever. And so there's your Lamb, dear Christians. He's the one talking. He's the one giving His body to eat and His blood to drink.
     The Lord speaks. We listen. That is the way with the Lord. No negotiation. No asking the Lord to give us His Words in another way. No looking at the gift and saying to Jesus, "Oh, no… I don't think so. You see, Lord. It couldn't really be that way. Have a go with these words."
     No, the Lord will not have do with what we try to push on Him. Instead, we have to make do with His Words. He's spoken them, and when the Lord speaks, well… that's something. Stars start shining. Planets appear. Comets streak across the sky. Babies are born in feeding troughs.
     So, no, we don't ask the Lord for different words because we don't like the ones He's given us. No… we don't look into the words of Scripture and say, "Jesus couldn't have meant that. That's disgusting." No. None of that. It won't do at all.
     The Lord speaks. We listen. He says, "Take, eat. This is my body." He says, "Drink of it all of you. This is my blood of the New Testament." If we're listening to the Lord's Words, then we're believing them too. Not believing is not hearing, and not hearing is not listening. If any word, dear Christians, is in Christ, it's a new creation. The old has gone. The new is come.
     And so when we look at the loaf, it looks like bread. When we sniff the wine, it smells like fermented grapes. But it won't do for us to throw that wisdom in the Lord's face. "Is," dear friends, is a glorious word. The bread is the Lord's body. The wine is the Lord's blood. The wine and the bread are there, surely, Paul tells us that. But the Apostle has listened to the Lord's words, and so he teaches us the truth: Where the bread, there the Lord's body. Where the wine, there the Lord's blood.
     Sadly, some Christians don't listen. They debate with the Lord. They tell Him that He can't mean what He's actually saying. The gift is more than they can bear. The Lord's body in their mouth and the Lord's blood passing their lips seems perverse to them, and so they make the Lord's Supper into something less than it is. It's a symbol. Jesus isn't really there, they say. The bread represents the Lord's body and the wine represents his blood. When they come to what they call the Lord's Supper they say, "Oh, Lord… we're glad to celebrate your Supper today. But isn't it a pity? You're unavoidably detained in heaven and won't be able to attend."
     But the Lord didn't say represents. The meaning of His Words is plain enough. "Is" means "is." The Lord's Word is sure, even though we like chaff can blow away. Our disgust at this can lead us astray. It can send us all over the Gospels trying to find a way to take the "is" out of "is." We can find analogies, metaphors, and similes and then say, "See, it must be like these, because Jesus couldn't possibly mean what He said. That would be nonsense."
     But we can't do that, dear Christians. From the very earliest moments in the church, and even in 1 Corinthians, we have the Lord's Words confessed to mean exactly what they sound like they mean. We must let our reason lie crucified at the foot of our Lord's cross.
     This is the blood of the New Testament which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins. And though we throw around that word "Testament" all the time, we don't think about it very much do we. But most of you have Testaments, and I'm not talking about your bible. I'm talking about the other Testament… the one that's in a shoe box at home or in safe storage at the bank. Your "Last Will and Testament."
     The Lord has signed His Last Will and Testament in His own body and His own blood. He has given you His Supper as a surety of the gifts He has won for you on the cross. You can't inherit the Lord's gifts unless the Lord dies. There is no blood of the new testament without the blood of the cross. And so, dear Christian, the blood of the new testament, the blood which the Lord's very words declare will be in that cup on the altar, that blood was shed for you when Jesus went to the cross, suffered, and died there. He did it all for the forgiveness of your sins and to give you life and salvation. That life is guaranteed. Even as the Lord is risen from the dead, so shall you rise and live to all eternity.
     And now you are an heir of life. He has given His life for you, and now His life is yours. And this is never more tangible, more sure, or more certain when you stick to the Lord's Words.
     The Lord speaks. We listen. He says, "Eat. Drink. It is My Body and My Blood, given for you, for the forgiveness of sins." And now that, dear Christians, leaves us with very little to say, but I have a suggestion. "Amen, Lord Jesus. I have received the gift you have given. It is your body, given for me. It is your blood, shed for me. I am forgiven. I am free."
     And you are, people loved by God. You are forgiven. You are free. You are bodied and blooded together by your very Lord's body and your very Lord's blood. You receive the Giver when you receive His gifts.
     Praise to you O Lord for your holy condescension. Praise to you O Lord for coming to us by the humble elements of bread and win. Praise to you O Lord for giving us your body to eat and your blood to drink.
     In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Cashews up the Wazoo...

2008-05-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

One of the myriad reasons why it fucking blows to be a telecommuter is that, on your birthday, no one takes you out for lunch. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but when you watch your co-workers on a TV all day, and you see them all file out of the office once a week for some big-ass birthday food orgy, while you sit at your stupid desk in an empty spare bedroom gnawing on the same goddamn turkey sandwich you've eaten for the last four years... well, it takes its toll after awhile, ya know?

So, you can imagine my surprise a coupla weeks ago when a package arrived, from the ol' home office in Chicago, on my birthday. I ripped the fucker open and was greeted with the mother of all care packages from Trader Joe's, my secret Chicago lover.

You've got your chocolate/peanut butter covered pretzel nubbins, your licorice nibs, your habanero pistachios, your dried fruits, your Thai Lime and Sesame Honey cashews, various pastas, coffees, teas, assloads of trail mix and countless other nibs and nubbins. The fucking jackpot, if you will.

At first, I was blown away. There was a card enclosed that was signed by everybody -- birthday wishes and messages of relief after the whole Mayo fiasco -- it was a regular lovefest, lemme tell ya. But now, about two weeks later, after ingesting about 9000% of my recommended daily allowance of sodium, fat and Thai lime dust, I'm pretty much in a constant state of about-to-hurl. Oh, and keep in mind that we still have about 18 boxes of Girl Scout cookies stacked in every nook and/or cranny that I've been stuffing into every one of my nooks and/or crannies, so you can add an additional 13,000% of the RDA of high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

I swear to shit, I'm about to sprout a goiter the size of a hippity-hop outta my fat neck any fucking day now. My pee tumbles out in sugar crystals and I actually sweat honey. This is an recent photo taken of me after a fistful of Dark Chocolate caramels:

So, I'm not complaining -- I loved the care package and the sentiment behind it. All I ask is that next year, toss a fucking carrot or a celery stick into the box... and maybe a carton or two of Metamucil?

Birth of the Anti-Crab...

2008-05-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

I don't know how I'm feeling about this new, above-ground crabbydad. I don't know if it's the higher concentration of radon-free oxygen, or the constant bombardment of the UV sun rays, but he's kinda douching my crabbybuzz. Por ejemplo, yesterday, after picking up the spawnage from school, I rallied said spawnage (whose natural instinct is to scurry inside and stay there... as is mine) to go on a fucking bike ride around the neighborhood.

Who am I... Ozzie McHarriet?!

Oh, and they actually enjoyed the ride, by the by. For like a half an hour! They fucking loved it -- didn't argue, didn't complain about their legs hurting, didn't plow into the back of any parked cars. (Well, Mr. Z did get his wheel stuck in a sewer grate, momentarily, but he didn't even rack himself.)

And then yesterday morning, on my way out of the Y, I picked up this little ticket for the circus that's coming to town.

Now, I've picked up the exact ticket for the past three years, always thinking, "Hey, maybe I should take the spawnage to the circus. They'd probably dig it." Then I'd stick the thing in my pocket and forget about it. You know -- the time-tested, crabbydad way.

This time, though, the new above-terranean (is that that opposite of subterranean?) crabbydad got online tonight and ordered four row-three tickets to the goddamn circus! Can I get a "what the shit?!" Row three! The fucking clowns are going to be all over us like... like stink on clowns. We'll be close enough to feel the warm mist of elephant whiz raining down upon us, and when one of the motorcycles goes spinning out of control and bursts through the walls of the metal death-sphere, we'll be the ones ripped to shreds, as the steel-spiked tires tear through our sallow-usually-inside-people skin.

And it's all because of this dick: Go-Get-'Em-Dad.

The dude's gotta be stopped. If I don't keep his gumption in check, he's gonna do something really fucked, like volunteering to run the school rummage sale or, even worse, signing the spawnage up for after-school soccer practice. I think I'll go sleep in the basement tonight and force him back down into the dessicated, lifeless husk of my crabbycore where he belongs.

Well, We're Movin' On Up...

2008-05-04T08:02:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned that, after four, damp, musty years toiling away in the dewy bowels of the crabbyshack, I've finally ventured above ground and moved my office upstairs to the spare bedroom. Have I also mentioned that about four years ago, the Old Lady made this exact suggestion, but for some reason it has taken me four fucking years to pull my dumbass head out of my dumbass rectum to realize that it was a brilliant fucking idea?

I guess I'm just the kinda guy who needs to stew over things for awhile before taking action. The first year I was thinking, "I can't move all this crap upstairs into that tiny bedroom." The second year, was more like, "Hey, it's not too bad down here -- it's nice and cool in the summer, and nice and cool in the winter, and my skin never dries out because of all the moss and lichens growing on it." In year three, I thought, "Gee... my breathing's getting kinda shallow and my toes are numb... maybe I'll just put my head down for a bit and rest it off... so sleepy..." And, of course, this past year has basically been, "I'M DYING! I'M DYING!!!!"

But now I'm upstairs. With a window. And sunlight. And air. And I don't have to wear snowpants at my desk. Or fingerless gloves. And I'm less wheeze-y. And my gills have even closed up. Here's my former and current view:

Sure, I miss my friends: Frankie Furnace, Johnny Sump-Pump, the Spider family, and Toxie the Toxic Mold Patch, but I do get to visit them whenever I have to descend back down into the crevasse to record music. Which should be soon, as I'm about to take on another freelance gig to help stanch the seeping financial wound just inflicted upon me by the I-fucking-R-S. The bastards.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go stand in a darkened closet for awhile, as the burning rays of the sun are starting to take a toll on my pink eyes and my wrinkled, unpigmented naked mole rat skin.

And They Call It: Poopy Love...

2008-05-04T07:54:00.001-07:00

So, Mr. Z has this huge crush on a girl in his class and, from the sounds of it, she kinda digs him, too. Which is great... and fucked up. The boy's nine, for fuck's sake. And since he skipped a grade, she's older -- 11 to be exact. Total Susan Sarandon/Tim Robbins thing going on.

Anywhich, each day, he comes home with more "evidence" that she's into him. Sometimes he catches her staring at him, she compliments him on his work in art class, she gave him a root beer lollipop at Family "Fun" night. Sometimes the evidence seems a little scant, but when taken all together, I think he's on to something.

Tonight, while we were chatting at bedtime, I accidentally unleashed a heinous fart. With an accent on the "einous." As he was tearing up and gasping for oxygen, we had the following exchange:

ME: Hey, do you think Miss E ever farts?

MR. Z: No way!!! She doesn't do that kinda thing!

ME: Oh, but she does. Remember that book "Everyone Poops"? Well, if everyone poops, then everyone totally farts. Especially Miss E.

MR. Z: [silently pondering this disturbing revelation]

ME: I know it can be sort of strange to think about someone you like farting and pooping. Maybe we should talk about something else...

MR. Z: I'll bet she has flowery, little pink poops.

ME: Okay, I shouldn't have said anything. It's time to go to sle--

MR. Z: And I'll bet she cuts tropical farts that smell like coconuts and bananas.

ME: All right, time to go to sleep, Tommy Bahama! You can dream about her tropical gassers all you want, but I don't want to talk about it anymore.

MR. Z: You started it!

ME: Oh yeah? Well... whoever smelt it, dealt it, okay? Goodnight.

Once again, I think I've managed to somehow invent a brand new fetish and then inadvertently foist it upon my son. Ten years from now, he's so going to be the moderator of the alt.binaries.tropicalflatus newsgroup. I better go lock up all the suntan lotion, just to be safe.

Aloha.

Soon to be Pinching off My Own Troop of Brownies...

2008-05-04T07:06:00.001-07:00

My fucking colon is killing me, as it's pretty much impacted to the hilt with about three sleeves of Girl Scout Thin Mints and a half-a-tray of Samoas. The cookies that Miss O sold for her Brownie troop came in this weekend and we've got boxes coming out the ying-yang.

We ordered probably 10 boxes -- a buncha Thin Mints, some Trefoils for the Old Lady, my precious Samoas, some All-Abouts and a coupla Do-Si-Dos. My parents ordered 12 boxes, but at the last minute my mom called and said, "You know, we don't really eat those cookies, so why don't you just keep them." Thanks mom -- I'll name my soon to be prolapsed rectum after you.

Mr. Z created a pretty bitchin' chart of the cookies we have hangin' around, waiting to be et:

If you look closely at the "All Abouts," he changed the cookie text to read "Girlscouts is (not) all about girls." You go, Mr. Z -- Title IX works both ways! My little Norma Rae.

Ow -- cramp! Holy fuck, these cookies are killing me. What are these girls putting in these fuckers? Let's see... partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil... dextrose... carrageenan... Carrageenan?! What the fuck are brownies doing messin' around with carrageenan? Isn't that made by boiling the flayed hides of dead Webelos?

That does it, one more sleeve of Thin Mints and then I'm cutting myself off for the night. And maybe eight more Samoas. And three Tagalongs... but then that's it. And a Do-Si-Do.

Crabppendix...

2008-05-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back home. Oh, and nice fucking snowstorm on the way, thank you very much. There's like a coupla goddamn inches of snow on the ground here. I'm not shoveling. Fuck it. Snow is dead to me.

So, yeah, I've been trying to process this whole four-month, snowballing health fuckstravaganza. I still can't quite wrap my puny brain around it. I started in November with some tingling in my fingers and toes, went to see my primary care doc, and four months later, I'm at the fucking Mayo Clinic getting my fat analyzed. Wha-happ'n?!

Don't get me wrong -- I'm fucking thrilled that they didn't find bupkus. I'm also kinda pissed that it seems as if all the testing leading up to it was completely mishandled. Sorry -- misinterpreted. Whatever. Someone, somewhere had his fucking head up his shithole, and I, along with my stomach fat and my bone marrow, paid the price for it. I guess I'm thankful that the clowns in Lansing realized that they were clueless and they bumped me upstairs to the big-boys in Rochester -- I'm just not too jacked about the 10 years of my life I worried away waiting for all the negative results to come dribbling in.

I'll tell you something, though -- I'm through worrying about this kinda shit. All I get for my fretting is loose stools and a hole in my pelvis that still hasn't fucking healed.

Of course, some good came out of it. I realized that, given 24 hours, I can fill up not one, but one and a half giant plastic jugs of steaming, frothy crabby-wee.

Oh, a little tip -- if you think you might need a second jug, don't wait until 7:00 the next morning to go pick it up. Especially if the next morning is a weekend, and the route to the building where you pick the jug up is closed and you have to somehow find an alternate route, without a map, and you've got about 40 gallons of bubbling tinkle that's starting to make your ureters look like a coupla over-filled water balloons, and every corridor you turn down looks exactly like this:

And you end up barely making it to the counter in time, and then you have to find your way BACK through all those corridors as you run-walk back to your room, and barely make it into the bathroom in time and end up blasting a Clydesdale-worthy steaming-stream of winky-tink into said container, creating a sound that's akin to that of a power-washer on full-blast-mode spraying the side of an Airstream trailer. Just an fyi.

I also realized that I've gotta get off my ass and start DOING more shit. Hell, doing SOME shit. I may not be thrilled with this fucking town, but if I don't start getting out and meeting people and getting back on the ol' self-actualization express, I may one day ACTUALLY find myself with some incurable disease and what'll I have to show for it? A piece of fucking shitfuck, that's what. So look out, Okemos -- Crabbydad's venturing OUT-OF-DOORS and he's gonna start DOING some SHIT... so outta my fucking way.

So, yeah, I should be done with all the bellyachin' 'bout my health for awhile -- though I know it has made for some fucking RIVETING reading. I apologize. I'll stop focusing all my crabbiness on my (still) tingling phalanges and get back to focusing it on the spawnage, where it belongs.

How am I going to do this, you ask? Well, for one thing, I'm going to spend a fuck of a lot less time listening to doctors and hanging out on WebMD and MedlinePlus, and a lot more time swimming, making music and hanging out with some new friends I met on our recent visit to Trader Joe's:

As a matter of fact, I think I hear one of my friends calling me right now. If you'll excuse me, I've got an appointment on the Island of Doctor Merlot.

Cheers.

Fat Wednesday...

2008-05-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back in Chicago -- I was "dismissed" yesterday morning, after my appointment with the doc. Here's where things stand...

1. The initial protein that the neurologist found in my blood, way the fuck back in January, was, strangely, NOT found in my blood at Mayo. I don't know if it disappeared, was never there in the first place, or if it only shows up in odd-numbered months, but it ain't there now. Apparently, that's a good thing.

B. All the rest of my blood looks clean. Red cells, white cells, Beverly Cells, platelets -- no problems. My heart looks good, my lungs look good, my reflexes look good, and my ass looks good... in jeans, but is a little soupy in khakis.

iii. They don't have the results back from the fat pad aspiration yet -- I'm supposed to call tomorrow at noon to see what's the shizzle. They'll also have the results of this genetic test that determines whether I have the inherited form of this fucker.

Basically, the doc is pretty dubious that I've got amyloidosis. He says my physical exam shows none of the symptoms of someone with it, there's no evidence, so far, in my blood/bone marrow/pee that would suggest that I have it, and the whole thing just doesn't fit. There may be amyloid in my fat sample, but he says that, regardless, that does not suggest that it's systemic, which is the really bad version of it. I suppose there's still the chance that I'd have the genetic form of it, which is really heinous, but signs aren't really pointing to that either.

So, I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm not throwing any fucking parties until I talk to him tomorrow. It's kinda like there's one second left on the game clock, the shot has been taken, but the ball is just spinning around the rim endlessly, and it won't fall in or out. A "toilet-ringer," if you will.

The only question is, who's gonna be there for the tip-in -- Bill Cartwright or Will Perdue.

My Stay-O at the Mayo: Pt. I...

2008-05-04T03:31:00.001-07:00

Quick update from Day 1 of MAYOPALOOZA '08! Woke up at 6 a.m. today feeling like the sun-baked husk of a cicada nymph because of the fasting I had to do last night. Something I've learned? Apparently, your body needs liquid in it in order to take a goddamn dump. I was unable to successfully lay some pipe this morning before all the festivities, so that has certainly put a taint on the day. Heh... taint.

Anywhich, today has been a whirlwind, so far. Met with the doc, Dr. G, who is apparently THE goto dude for amyloidosis in pretty much the world. Very nice guy -- kind of a John Turturro meets a guy who looks kinda like John Turturro... but older, type. I told him my entire saga, he did a fairly quick physical exam and then he told me that he's somewhat dubious about the diagnosis, but wants to redo some of the tests before he makes any real judgments.

So, he whisked me off to get another fat-pad aspiration sample, some blood tests and to pick up a giant moonshine bottle for a 24-hour-whiz-collection Peestravaganza!

The dude who performed the fat aspiration was totally cool -- not a douche like that asshead who did it back in Lansing. And this guy did the fine-needle kind and not the giant core-needle biopsy like Dr. Asshead. In and out -- zip and zip. He told me that a lot of the more inexperienced pathologists fuck the fat pad test up, and that, if there's anything actually in my fat, they'll find it at Mayo. He was strangely comforting, as he sucked meat out of my stomach with a needle.

Then I was whooshed over to the blood-letting area, had a few more gallons of blood sucked out of my gnarled and withered veins. Five minutes later, I was being handed the giant pee-collection vessel and told to "fill 'er up!" Apparently, I have to collect my liquid-leavings for 24 hours, which means I either have to hang around this hotel-of-death for the next day, or I have to lug this fucking carafe around with me as I tour the wondrous sites of Rochester. I was thinking of going downstairs to the "Grand Grill," plopping the jug on top of the table and saying to the waitress, "Honey, fetch me a pitcher of lemonade and pot of coffee and keep 'em comin'. I've got me a flagon to fill."

Oh, I forgot to mention the restaurant. The Old Lady and I went there last night so I could have my last supper before my 7 p.m. food/liquid cutoff time. I was told not to eat "anything fatty," so I ordered a cup of wild rice soup and half a turkey sandwich. Sounds lean, right? Well, the soup was like a cup of Campbell's condensed soup, without the added water, so I couldn't fucking eat that, and the sandwich was on a goddamn greasy-ass croissant, so I had to just gum the meat, sans bread. It was truly pathetic. Meanwhile, the Old Lady ordered a Cobb salad, that came with this nuclear-waste-red dressing that tasted like liquid Blow-Pop, and had chunks of turkey so salty, I got a mild goiter just glancing at them.

Oh, and this hotel, man -- it's like a goddamn geriatric-seeking neutron bomb went off here, as there are all these electric wheelchairs just scattered haphazardly around the lobby. Like all the scooter drivers just vaporized instantly, leaving their vehicles idling in the hallways.

And our room is like a smaller college dorm lounge room (think a smaller Clark 3rd, for any Grinnellians out there), but instead of it smelling like stale beer, it smells like BenGay and adult diapers. And old ham.

I swear to shit, think I've aged about 39 years since I've stepped foot in this fucking mausoleum.

But now I basically wait until my follow-up appointment with the doc on Monday. I collect my tinkle until tomorrow morning, and then we're off to Minneapolis for a Saturday amongst the living. Probably check out the art museum and have a meal somewhere that doesn't serve rice pudding and doesn't employ a waitress that calls anyone under the age of 93 "Hon."

Oh, and thanks to everyone who has sent their "positive vibes" my way. I don't know how this mofo is gonna turn out, and I'm not going to speculate because that will surely jinx everything, but all the well-wishes have made me feel less isolated and shitty, so I appreciate that. But for the the next two days, at least, I can pretend I don't have anything, so I think that's just what I'm a-gonna do.

MVP Summit - Conversando con el equipo de MVC

2008-05-04T02:18:00.000-07:00

Algo interesante sobre las sesiones que se viven en el Summit, es que no se trata sólo de conferencias, sino que los grupos de producto reciben cantidades de preguntas, sugerencias y comentarios de los MVPs.

Acabo de salir de una sesión Deep Dive del equipo que desarrolla el framework MVC. Phil Haack y Scott Hanselman presentaron algunas de las novedades que se vienen para el próximo release.

Un fenómeno Scott presentando, y muy interesante las conversaciones alrededor de la necesidad de tener un framework de desarrollo Web tan diferente a WebForms.

Una de los features que mostró Phil fué una herramienta que permite ver la forma en la que se evaluan las rutas de acuerdo a la url que se accede. De esta forma es posible ver cómo son consideradas las rutas en cada request:

Un detalle para comentar: Los ejemplos que mostró Phil, utilzaban MoQ para realizar el testing de rutas.

Al concluir la sesión tuve la oportunidad de charlar con algunos de los integrantes del team MVC (que aunque no lo crean sólo está compuesto por dos testers, dos developers y Phil como PM) y Scott Hanselman.

Levi Broderick, developer de MVC me comentaban que están en constante contacto con compañias que ya están utilizando el framework para obtener feedback sobre cuáles son los siguientes pasos a tomar.

Tanto Scott cómo Phil conocían sobre el ReMix que se está organizando en Buenos Aires. Scott me contaba que tiene muchas ganas de visitar Argentina con su familia, sobre todo para poder mejorar su castellano :).

Para terminar (y no pudiendo evitar lo cholulo), les cuento que Scott vió mi cámara de fotos y me preguntó si nos tomabamos una foto juntos. Un fenómeno.

Saludos!

Have you taken exams 70-271 or 70-272?

2008-05-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

Are you nice?

Excellent. Check this out: MCP mentors is a cool new program some people around here are cooking up, through which our certified community helps others get started in IT. To participate in this pilot, it makes most sense if you are in eastern U.S. or Canada, so you're in the same time zone. But more on that later...

Share your stories and help build the MCP community! Become an MCP Mentor.

As an experienced MCP, you have many stories--of both successes and failures. There was the time when the new guy brought down the entire system. The time you spent an entire week troubleshooting that elusive problem. And the time you completed your task in record time. Microsoft Learning invites you to share your stories, skills, and experience to make a difference in someone's life as an MCP Mentor.

HOW IT WORKS
The MCP Mentor Program matches an experienced Microsoft Certified Professional (you) with someone new to IT and studying to pass their first Microsoft Certification exam (your mentee). Through the program, your real-world perspective, technical skills, and community connections can help others overcome the experience gap to complete a path to proven skills, new career opportunities, and confidence.

As an MCP Mentor, you will share real-world experience with your mentee about objectives that are covered by the Microsoft Certification exam, helping to build self-confidence about his or her technical skills and preparedness. You will meet regularly with your mentee by phone or e-mail. In addition, you and your mentee will have access to an online community to share best practices, tips, and study tools. The online community also helps you and your mentee connect with other IT professionals of diverse experience, perspectives, and backgrounds.

VOLUNTEER FOR THE PILOT AT WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, UNITED STATES
Microsoft Learning is running a pilot of this program in conjunction with the IT Academy that is associated with Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The soldiers in this IT Academy program are recovering from recent injuries and waiting to find out if they will be discharged from the military. Most of these soldiers enter the IT Academy program with little or no experience in IT.

The MCP Mentor Program is not intended to be a replacement for training, but instead to supplement training. An experienced MCT supports these soldiers in their preparation. But these soldiers would benefit greatly from the kind of 1:1 mentoring relationship that you can provide. We need volunteer mentors to help these soldiers build the skills that are validated on their target exam(s), enter the IT profession, and join the MCP community. We are specifically looking for:

- IT professionals (vs. developers) with experience on MCDST exams 70-271 and 70-272 <corrected typo immediately after pressing publish. argh>

- Commitment of 2-4 hours per month over a 3-6 month period

- Local to mid-Atlantic United States preferred

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
If you are interested in volunteering, go to http://connect.microsoft.com and enter this Invitation ID to fill out an application survey: MNTR-CGPX-QQKK. If you have questions about this program, you can contact the MCP Mentor Program administrators at mcpmntr@microsoft.com.

My first days visiting the team in Redmond

2008-05-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm currently visiting the VSX team in Redmond, introducing myself and meeting everybody. I'll be there for two weeks.

I arrived yesterday afternoon after a 23 hours trip from France, and Ken Levy invited me to a party at Ted Neward's house, along with Pablo Galiano It was a great occasion to speak with MVPs and VSX developers, even if I was very tired.

Today I began my first meetings with the members of the team. In the next couple of days, I'll have meetings with various team members, and will participate to the MVP Summit - Communities Side Session on Thursday.

It's really great to meet everybody, and to get more understanding of the VS SDK's overall development life cycle, as well as meeting the VSX community members. All this will enable me to participate in helping add new features to DSL tools and to enhance the VS SDK, working to enhance VSX development. :-)

ClickOnce の更新頻度について

2008-05-03T20:19:00.001-07:00

ClickOnce についてですが、発行して再度、ドキュメントをロードした場合に反映されない経験をされたことはありませんでしょうか。

私もそうだったのですが、以外と気づかれていない ClickOnce の更新頻度について、少し記載したいと思います。

ClickOnce ですが、発行後、ドキュメントを開くとすぐに反映されるイメージをお持ちでないかと思います。

しかし、ClickOnce には更新頻度があり、発行をおこない発行先を更新しても、すぐには更新内容が反映されません。

更新を発行後、すぐにおこないたい場合はソリューションの [プロジェクト]-[発行]-[更新]-[カスタマイズの更新] から、設定をおこなう必要があります。

デフォルトだと、[定期的に確認する]になっていますので、すぐには反映されません。

今後もこのような以外と躓くところもいろいろと掲載できたらと思います。

Trial: AccessMedicine

2008-05-03T13:41:00.001-07:00

UM Health Sciences Libraries Hosts Trial of New E-Resource AccessMedicine

AccessMedicine offers an integrated collection of clinical and educational resources to help students, residents, clinicians, and researchers keep pace with the changing practice of medicine. Updated and expanded regularly, AccessMedicine provides access to information for completing evaluations, diagnoses, case management decisions, conducting research, medical education, and self-assessment/board review.

Features to investigate:

• Full Access to over 33 online textbooks in the AccessMedicine Clinical Library (including Harrison's Online and Hurst's The Heart) and the LANGE Education Library;
• Drug database from Gold Standard with customizable Patient Education handouts;
• USMLEasy: a test preparation/self-assessment feature;
• Preparation for presentations including use of images, video, and audio;
• Quick point-of-care therapy and diagnosis info and differential diagnosis resource;
• Content downloadable to PDA

Please let us know what you think about AccessMedicine before the trial ends on April 30th. Based upon your feedback and our assessment, we will explore different options for providing access to the campus.

Send your feedback to hsl.collections@umich.edu before the trial ends on April 30th.

Trial: AccessPharmacy

2008-05-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Health Sciences Libraries are hosting a trial of AccessPharmacy for the month of April.

AccessPharmacy is an online curricular resource designed to meet the changing demands of pharmacy education. It allows students to select a core curriculum topic, browse by organ system, review textbooks, or search across leading pharmacy online references. AccessPharmacy supports image and video searching, and includes an extensive drug database that provides chemical structure, dosing information, adverse reactions, and indications and contraindications.

The eBook collection within AccessPharmacy consists of 22 textbooks,
including:
- Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 11th Edition
- Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, 10th Edition
- Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach, 6th Edition
- Pharmacoepidemiology: Principles & Practice
- Pharmacy and Federal Drug Law Review

Please take some time in April to explore AccessPharmacy and let us know what you think.

Send your feedback to one of the Pharmacy liaison librarians - Doreen Bradley (dbradley@umich.edu) or Mark MacEachern (markmac@umich.edu).

Clustering Search Engine for Science - ScienceRoll!

2008-05-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

Two hours ago, Bertalan Mesko (the main man for the famous science blog ScienceRoll) announced on Twitter that they were releasing a new search tool.

ScienceRoll Search: http://sciencerollsearch.com

Let me say, this is one really cool, really useful toy for anyone in health, medicine, life sciences, or research in these areas. To start with, it searches a lot of public health and medicine databases and web sites.

Next, like any really good aggregator, it tells you which of the sources seemed to be the most productive for your topic. I searched "evidence-based" in this example below.

Next, it uses semantic technologies (also known as "Web 3.0") to analyse and cluster the results by topic.

This allows you to quickly focus your search, to scan and see what are the main themes or trends in the topic, and to learn more about the conceptual structure of the idea if it is new to you. Worth exploring. Spend some time with this one.

Living Scared

2008-05-03T07:56:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the answers to our problems are not nearly as complex or elusive as many of us seem to believe they are. Or as difficult as some of us make them. Sometimes our problems only exist in our head. Sometimes the journey from where we are to where we’d like to be is not nearly as terrifying as we imagine it is. In fact, it’s often kind of exhilarating and liberating.

Living Scared

That’s right; some of us make life hard. Our inability to make certain decisions or do certain things keeps us trapped in a reality that we don’t enjoy. Hate, in fact. And standing at the door of our self-created prison is a gate-keeper who only exists in our mind; fear. While other people can walk in and out of our prison (reality) at will, fear has kept some of us from freedom for far too long - telling us what to do, and what not to do, for as long as we can remember. Influencing, if not controlling virtually every area of our lives. For years we’ve been fearful of getting hurt in some way, fearful of getting fat, or being unloved, unwanted, poor, humiliated, of upsetting people or being discovered for the fraud we believe we are. And we’re petrified of being alone. We’ve lived so much of our life negatively, simply doing our best to avoid the ‘bad stuff’ and to survive, that somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost, or maybe never even really found, us; the us we still want to be, the us we could be and the us we’ve dreamed about since we were five.

It’s okay, you’re still in there.

Sometimes the seemingly insurmountable gap between our current reality and our own version of amazing (prison and freedom) is much smaller than we think. Much, much smaller. A mere step away in fact. With the only challenge being that sometimes the step we need to take is a doozy; the ‘no safety net’ step. And we love safety nets - that’s a big part of the problem.

Fear is a jealous gate-keeper and he wants you staying put in your make-believe prison. That’s how he operates. He doesn’t want you to see what’s out there, what’s possible for you. He can’t keep you in there but only he knows that. He’s been holding a pair of threes while you’ve had four aces in your hand for years, but he’s bluffed you every time. Stared you down, made you believe something that wasn’t true - that what you have in your hand isn’t good enough. Well listen up…

It is good enough. You are good enough.

This is not feel-good, positive thinking mumbo jumbo, its reality. But you need to make it YOUR reality. Fear doesn’t want you making decisions, taking chances or exploring your potential because that’s where he loses his power. He doesn’t want you hanging out with those ‘positive thinking’ types and he certainly doesn’t want you paying too much attention to articles like this one.

Healthy and unhealthy fear

Of course there’s a time to fear. If someone is pointing a gun at you and you are fearful, then that makes you normal, not gutless. We would call that healthy fear. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. Today we’re talking about the unhealthy, destructive and often irrational fear that controls and ruins lives.

Fearful creatures

People often ask me what I believe stops so many of us from fulfilling our potential and from creating our best life. In truth, there are many things on the list of likely obstacles: procrastination, laziness, ignorance, indifference, ego and a bunch of other stuff, but without doubt, at the top of most lists, is fear.

It’s true; we humans are fearful creatures. On some level we all operate on fear from time to time, and to a point, that’s understandable. Wise even. But beyond a point, it’s stupid. Destructive even. It’s about knowing where that line in the sand should be and staying on the right side. A little fear - good. A life controlled by fear - bad. Painful.

Far too many of our significant ‘life decisions’ come out of our fearful mindset, and as a consequence, many of us live a life of compromise, under-achievement and imprisonment. And repetition. And repetition. It’s like some of us are Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. And repetition. All of our days are just like the ones before. And sadly for some, tomorrow will be the same too. Because that’s what we do; the same - even though we desperately want different. The journey between where we are and where we want to be scares the crap out of us so we stay put. In Samesville. A.K.A. prison.

“I don’t really like my life right now, but at least there’s a level of familiarity and predictability about it. I know what’s coming each day and in a way, I’m comfortable with that. It doesn’t particularly fulfill me but it doesn’t terrify me either. So if it’s okay with you, I’ll stay here in a holding pattern for forty or fifty years and then I’ll die, just like dear old Dad did. There won’t be a whole lot of joy or fun, but at least I know what to expect each day.”

We love certainty (a dangerous thing to love in a uncertain world), we’re addicted to safety, we seek familiarity and we want risk-free (good luck with that). Ironically certainty, safety, familiarity and risk-free… is not where we grow, learn, adapt, change or improve. Or find our best life. In fact, quite often the things that we gravitate towards are our biggest handicap.

I have spent a lifetime watching people complicate the simple, avoid the obvious and not do the very things they should or could have done, long ago. Some people have been almost creating their best life for far too long. Some people have been standing at the threshold of greatness for years, twiddling their thumbs, wasting their time and talent and hoping in vain that success might somehow find it’s way to them. An interesting, if not totally unrealistic notion.

Some people have been in situations or circumstances that they really don’t want to be in, for years. Decades even. This is because they associate more discomfort / pain with getting out of their current reality, than staying in it. So they stay. Miserable and scared.

Some Personal Development Junkies are masters of this. Just one more workshop, one more conversation, one more mentoring session, one more self-help book and just one more day and then I’ll do it. Okay, maybe two more days. Sadly, they don’t understand that what they really need is not more time, books, workshops or more motivational fluff, what they really need is some balls. Excuse my honesty but some people are highly educated, very capable, extremely talented and gutless. I’ve met many of them. Give me someone with less talent, less opportunities, more adversity and some genuine courage, and I’ll show you how to get some real results.

I know this is not a message that’s often taught in personal development circles but I believe that’s a big mistake. I believe it should be shouted from the roof tops. We like to gravitate towards the feel-good (but mostly useless and disempowering) psycho-babble crap. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy for ten minutes but results in no long term positive change. Of course I believe there is a time for listening, for handing holding, for back rubbing, for hugging and for loving support and encouragement. The problem is, some people have had all of that for years and they’re STILL in the same place and still doing the same destructive things. Sometimes more therapy ain’t the answer. I know that’s not a popular thing to say but it’s true. There’s a time when some people need to suck it up, to stop looking for pity, to stop being a victim and start taking control of their own life. Simple.

Courage

So often we are taught that creating our best life is about talent, opportunities, planning, goal setting, vision, passion, discipline and a bunch of other stuff. And to an extent it is; it’s about all of those things. But there’s one non-negotiable ingredient that doesn’t get the attention it should; courage. Our ability to do what we need to do, despite the fear. If we have all of the ingredients but no courage, we’ll never get there. Wherever there is for us.

Fear and all it’s implications in the lives of us mere mortals is something which has fascinated me for years. I have watched it ruin many friendships, careers, businesses, marriages and lives. I have seen it destroy individuals. Like most emotions, on some level, we create it. It’s very personal and individual. It’s a personal response to, or interpretation of, an event, situation or circumstance.

I’ve also watched many people stare-down and overcome their fears and enjoy a life of happiness, joy and exhilaration that only comes with true freedom. I’ve seen brave people turn their lives around after years of frustration and sadness. And I’ve seen ordinary people do incredible things because they chose to walk out of that prison cell. Once and for all.

Remember…

On the other side of fear is freedom.

Enjoy your liberty my friend.
You deserve it and you’re worth it.

Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.) is a qualified exercise scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, television host, motivational speaker and university lecturer. For the past 25 years he has been a leading presenter, educator, motivator and commentator in the areas of personal and professional development. You can visit Craig's blog at Motivational Speaker.

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Consumer Reporting of Adverse Events to FDA

2008-05-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

by Susan F. Wood, PhD

The FDA Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007 includes a small section addressing direct to consumer (DTC) advertising. The bill doesn’t limit advertising to consumers, nor does it give FDA authority to put a moratorium on advertising while more data on safety or effectiveness is collected during the first months or years that a product is on the market. A moratorium was recommended by the IOM in it’s drug safety report in 2006, but was not adopted by Congress - perhaps due to arguments about first amendment rights, but perhaps due to objections by both the pharmaceutical industry and the advertising industry.

What was included is a small section requiring that all print DTC ads carry “the following statment printed in conspicuous text: ‘You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088′ “

This is a good idea and it would be better if all DTC ads, including TV and web ads were required to provide this information as well. But what was included in the law regarding TV ads is - A Study. If such a study concludes that it is appropriate for TV ads to include information about Medwatch, then the FDA is to issued regulations to that effect.

The Consumers Union (producers of Consumer Reports) and the drug safety advocacy group WoodyMatters - named after the husband of founder Kim Witczak - has called for FDA to speed up the study and to require this information on all DTC advertising. They have submitted a citizens petition to FDA and collected over 56,000 signatures of consumers around the nation calling for this information.

They also conducted a poll about prescription drug advertising and found some interesting, if not surprising, results. One finding is that although the vast majority (81%) of people have seen prescription drug advertising (and 98% of these saw the ad on TV) only 7% identified FDA as the place that they would report a serious adverse event. Most (79%) identified their doctor, which is good, but they did not identify FDA as an additional place to report serious events.

When asked, 45% said they were aware that they could report to the FDA, leaving a majority in the dark about this possibility. This is a real problem given that 16% (and 22% of those over 55) reported having experienced a serious side effect from a prescription medication.

The public is a real resource for information, recognizing that it may not be complete or as accurate as a report from a health professional. But it is one way of gathering signal data that can be of use to the FDA and ultimately helping the agency fulfill its mission for the benefit of the public. Providing information about safety reporting to the FDA through DTC advertising also is a way of informing patients and families about the risks and benefits of prescription (and non-prescription) drugs. Increasing the health literacy of the public is a good thing. As long as we have DTC advertising, this is one step that can help improve communication to the public and to benefit by hearing directly back from them.

Both Rep. Jan Schakowsky (who inserted this provision into FDAAA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Agriculture, FDA Appropriations subcommittee, strongly advocate for FDA requiring this information be in TV ads.

FDA is planning a workshop or meeting in May on this subject - a part of the study required by the FDAAA. Concerns about how to handle an influx of data, and what will be the quality and utility of it will no doubt be raised. These are real questions and will require the FDA to have both the infrastructure and scientific resources to handle the information. But it shouldn’t stop FDA from requiring that all DTC ads, TV included, provide information to the public on how to report adverse events.

Susan F. Wood, PhD is Research Professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, where she is part of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP). She also served as Director of the FDA Office of Women's Health from 2000-2005

The Pessimistic Bias (by Don Boudreaux)

2008-05-03T02:08:00.000-07:00

Reading the comments on this post (which in many ways are very much like the comments on many other posts, both here at the Cafe and on other blogs) prompts me to make a couple of points that I've put off making for too long now.

In his indispensable book, The Myth of the Rational Voter, my GMU colleague (and EconLog's) Bryan Caplan finds powerful evidence that non-economists suffer from the "pessimistic bias," which Bryan defines (on page 45 of his book) as

a tendency to overestimate the severity of economic problems and underestimate the (recent) past, present, and future performance of the economy.

Russ and myself (because we're economists?) and many of the commentors here at the Cafe are not pessimistic about the long-run. Problems come; problems are solved. Inability to see the details of the future scare many people; this inability doesn't scare me. As long as individuals have a sufficient quantum of freedom, their self-interest and creativity and inevitable competition will "solve" almost any problem over the long-haul. It's a pattern repeated countless times over the past two-hundred years in capitalist countries. (Please, please don't trot out the Great Depression as a counter-example. First, it was clearly worsened by the Federal Reserve's catastrophically bad monetary policy, and by the worldwide spread of protectionism -- helped along by the Smoot-Hawley tariff. More importantly, there's compelling evidence that the risks of full-throttle socialization of the economy were then real enough to scare investors away until the mid-1940s. And even this greatest of all of America's depressions lasted only ten or fifteen years, depending on how you define the end of the Depression.)

Being optimistic doesn't mean being blindly insistent that the future will always be better than today. Take away enough freedom and, kaboom!, the economy implodes. (Or should I instead say "moobak!"?) Fortunately, though, the capitalist economy is so remarkably robust that it can take lots of beatings -- lots of interventions -- lots of unnecessary taxation -- lots of foolish dissing -- and keep on keeping on at raising living standards.

I'm more optimistic today than I was ten or twenty years ago about just how much counterproductive regulation and taxation the capitalist economy can take before it really starts to fail. But my sense is that the American economy still retains enough freedom -- that property rights remain sufficiently secure -- to ensure continued economic growth over the long run.

I remain bullish over the long run. Very bullish indeed.
....
My second point is that it is a curious phenomenon that those who want more government control over the economy tend to be those who insist that the American economy has performed poorly over the past thirty-five years. Again, as regular patrons of the Cafe know, Russ and I are quite sure that the economy has done very well during these years, even for poor and middle-class workers.

But if I were a pro-regulation and high-tax kinda guy, why would I dispute the claim that America's economy has performed remarkably well for everyone even since 1973? Why would I not say "See, the government programs enacted from the New Deal forward are working!" At no time during the past 35 years has Uncle Sam's budget been severely reduced. During those years, some welfare programs have been scaled back, while others have been expanded and even newly created. Trade is freer today, but the post-WWII trend toward freer trade began in the 1940s, long before those allegedly blissful years of the early 1970s. Since the early 1970s, some regulations have been repealed, while others have been created at both the state and national levels.

In short, despite what some pundits mysteriously assert, America during the past twenty-five to thirty-five years has emphatically not been a laissez-faire society. Not even close. So why do so many persons on the political left see in the economic data of the past three decades a compelling case for even greater government control over our lives and pocketbooks? And why don't more of these same persons on the left respond to those of us who advocate less government by pointing to the evidence of continued and widespread growth in prosperity by saying proudly "See! We're right and you're wrong: government intervention does work well!"

I believe that I know the answer to my (non-rhetorical) question, but this post is long enough, so I'll end it here.

Unintended Lesson (by Russell Roberts)

2008-05-03T01:41:00.001-07:00

Last night, Hillary Clinton was on the Tonight Show and she gave a phenomenal example of the power of economics. Unfortunately, she did not appear to understand the example. At the 3:23 mark of this video, she tells a story (HT: Jim Colburn):

I was in Indianapolis the other day and I was shaking hands after I spoke. And there was this young boy about eleven years old and he's trying to tell me something—you know the crowd was yelling—so I leaned over and he said, "You know, my mom makes minimum wage and even though it went up, her hours were cut. So we're not making any more money. Can you help her?" You know, when somebody says something like that to you, it really does kind of energize me. I think, yeah, I can, I'm going to really try to help you, because this is wrong. And everywhere I go I hear stories like that about veterans who don't get health care, about people, who are, you know, losing their jobs, and I think we can do so much better. So for me it's just get up every day and fight on because this country's worth fighting for.

She then launched into a litany of economic disaster ("we're borrowing money from the Chinese to pay for oil from the Saudis") and finished up talking about the "deteriorating middle class."

I don't believe the story. What eleven year-old boy whispers into the ear of a big shot the details of his mother's wage/hours mix? And I like how she had to lean over--no one--not even Bill Richardson or Sinbad--can contradict her.

But let's give Hillary the benefit of the doubt. Suppose the story really did happen. She clearly thinks the story is emblematic of something important that needs to get fixed. What is it? Just when you help someone by passing a minimum wage, greedy employers ruin everything by lowering the hours. Well, we need to "fight" and fix that, too.

I wish Jay Leno had pointed out that the cut in hours was the result of passing the minimum wage--that it was as inevitable as gravity. I wish he'd said that the story showed how the minimum wage is a false promise of prosperity. I wish he'd pointed out that fighting isn't enough, caring isn't enough, that prosperity can't be legislated any more than self-interest can be made illegal. I wish Jay Leno had said that when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.

And if that little boy really exists, I'd like to tell him that a Senator fighting for you is a losing proposition. You have to fight for yourself. If your Mom wants more money, she needs to go back to school or work a second job. And as for you, stay in school. It's the best way to avoid earning the minimum wage.

Falling Housing Prices and Labor Mobility (by Don Boudreaux)

2008-05-03T01:13:00.001-07:00

Do falling home prices distort the labor market, as Louis Uchitelle argues in today's New York Times? That is, are workers really generally unwilling to sell their homes -- because home prices have fallen -- even if failure to do so keeps these workers from moving to locations where employment prospects are brighter? My initial instinct is to doubt the severity of this problem -- as this first of two letters that I sent today to the NYT explains:

Louis Uchitelle reports that falling home prices keep workers stuck in their homes, unwilling to sell and, hence, unwilling to move in order to take better jobs in different locations ("Unsold Homes Tie Down Would-Be Transplants," April 3). Perhaps; but I have my doubts.

While it's true that people prefer to sell their homes at high prices, it's also true that people prefer to buy their homes at low prices. So why should people's disappointment at being unable to sell their homes at prices as high as they once thought possible not be offset by their happiness at being able to buy new homes at prices lower than they once thought possible?

But my respect for many of the findings of behavioral economists is sufficiently high to cause me to grant the possibility that this phenomenon is real. The endowment effect and loss-aversion might well make workers unusually resistant to sell their homes at prices lower than they've become accustomed to suppose that they could fetch for their homes. So perhaps the phenomenon identified by Uchitelle is real.

When I sent the above letter to my list of letter-recipients that I keep, I prefaced the letter with the following remark:

Even if this phenomenon is real (perhaps it's one of the anomalies identified by behavioral economics), what does it say about the prosperity of America's workers if such considerations stymie their willingness to move in order to get better jobs?

A few minutes after I sent this letter to my list, NYT science writer John Tierney wrote me back expressing his agreement with this prefatory comment. John's e-mail prompted me to write and send this second letter:

Louis Uchitelle reports that falling home prices keep workers stuck in their homes, unwilling to sell and, hence, unwilling to move in order to take jobs in different locations ("Unsold Homes Tie Down Would-Be Transplants," April 3).

But far from being evidence in support of your incessantly expressed belief that American workers today are in desperate shape economically, this phenomenon instead suggests that American workers are doing very well indeed. Persons in miserable economic straits would not allow loss-aversion on their real-estate holdings to prevent them from taking better jobs.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Making Americans Poorer (by Don Boudreaux)

2008-05-03T00:44:00.001-07:00

"Clinton Proposes Plan to Make Firms Inefficient" would have been a more accurate headline to this report at Newsweek.com. I sent this letter in response:

Courting blue-collar votes, Hillary Clinton promises to use "tax incentives to persuade companies to 'insource' jobs in the United States" ("Clinton proposes plan to keep jobs in US," April 2). Because firms 'outsource' jobs only when doing so lowers firms' costs of production, Mrs. Clinton's proposal amounts to bribing American firms not to lower production costs whenever possible. She wants to encourage American firms to produce inefficiently, which is to say wastefully. In short, she wants us to be poorer than we would otherwise be.

Mrs. Clinton's proposal is further evidence that good politics typically is bad economics.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

A CPOE Success Story – In a Smaller Hospital – Good News Indeed.

2008-05-03T00:19:00.001-07:00

This appeared a few days ago. Concord Hospital sees positive CPOE outcomes By: Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer Story posted: March 26, 2008 - 5:59 am EDT Joel Berman is in an enviable position for a chief medical information officer. Six months into a slow-roll implementation of a computerized physician order entry system at 220-bed Concord (N.H.) Hospital, Berman has had not one medical staff delegation show up at his door with flaming torches. In the CPOE business, that is not damnation with faint praise. On the contrary, a recently completed survey of medical staff physicians gives Berman cause for optimism, and in one case, surprise. "We had implemented CPOE in September 2007, and six months later we wanted to find out our providers' point of view," Berman said. "What was working well? What did they like? What did they want different?" So far, about 80 of the 300 or so physicians with privileges at Concord are using McKesson Corp.'s Horizon Expert Orders CPOE system,...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.

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