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Job Opportunity - US Passport Specialist Deadline Jan. 16th. Job Title: Passport Specialist GS-0967-5/7 Department: Department Of State Agency: Department of State - Agency Wide Job Announcement Number:PH-13-SHC-814640 SALARY RANGE: $34,881.00 to $56,174.00 / Per Year OPEN PERIOD: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 to Wednesday, January 16, 2013 SERIES & GRADE: GS-0967-05/07 POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time - Permanent PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 11 DUTY LOCATIONS: Many vacancies in the following location: Los Angeles, CA United States WHO MAY APPLY: United States Citizens JOB SUMMARY: US Department of State - Careers Representing America This position is located in the Adjudication section of the Los Angeles Passport Agency in Los Angeles. The incumbent will serve on a rotational basis in the Regular Adjudication and Public Application Unit, receiving both classroom and on-the-job training in the examination and adjudication of passport applications. One or more vacancies may be filled using this job opportunity announcement. KEY REQUIREMENTS • U.S. Citizenship or National • Résumé and supporting documents (See How to Apply) • High Public Trust Certification is required DUTIES: Duties of the Passport Specialist include but are not limited to the following: • Receiving and examining passport applications for completeness, signature, and affirmation of the truthfulness of statements contained in the application, verification of the identity of the applicant, and presense of required photographs and fees. • Examining the evidence of citizenship submitted with the application to establish its authenticity and adequacy in relation to the requirements of law and the facts set forth in the application. • Composing correspondence to applicants requesting additional documentation if necessary and explains the need for and potential sources of evidence to support claimed citizenship. QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED: To qualify for Passport Specialist, GS-5, you must meet one of the following criteria: A. You must have three years of general experience, one year of which was equivalent to at least the GS-4 level. Such experience may have been gained while working as a law clerk, claims clerk, contact representative, or voucher examiner that involved interpreting and applying laws, rules, and regulations and dealing effectively with individuals to secure their compliance with applicable laws. - OR- B. Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in any field leading to a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. - OR - C. Combination of education and experience. If you do not qualify based on education or experience alone, you can combine your education and experience by converting each to a percentage and then adding the percentages. To calculate this, determine your total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required; then determine your education as a percentage of the education required; then add the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. To qualify for Passport Specialist, GS-7, you must meet one of the following criteria: A. Possess one year of work experience equivalent to at least the GS-05 level in the Federal Service responding to inquiries about laws or information concerning U.S. Citizenship or passports/visas or travel to foreign countries; or researching, developing, verifying or authorizing claims arising under the nationality laws of the United States. - OR- B. Completion of 1 full year of graduate level education in law, or other fields related to the position. For your information, one academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study. - OR - C. Possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university AND you meet one of the following provisions of the superior academic achievement: (You must submit a copy of your transcript to qualify for superior academic achievement.) 1. A grade-point average of "B" (3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale) for all completed undergraduate courses or those completed in the last two years of undergraduate study. 2. A grade-point average of "B+ " (3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale) for all courses completed, in your major field of study, or those courses in your major completed in the last two years of your undergraduate study.3. Rank in the upper one-third of your class in the college, university, or major subdivision. 4. Membership in a national honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. Grade point averages should be rounded to one decimal point, i.e., 2.95 is rounded up to 3.0; while 2.94 is rounded down 2.9. You must submit copies of your college transcripts from all undergraduate schools attended, not just courses taken at the school granting the degree. If selected, official college transcripts will be required to verify education and grade point average prior to employment. - OR - D. Possess a combination of graduate level education and specialized experience. If you have some but not all of the experience or education described above, you may still qualify by combining the amount of creditable experience and education that you do have. To do so, convert each to a percentage and then add the percentages the sum of which must equal at least 100%. For example, an applicant who has 6 months of professional experience (50% of the experience requirement) and at least 9 semester hours of creditable graduate work (50% of the education required) would satisfy the qualifications requirements for the GS-7 level. If you are qualifying based on education, you must submit a copy of your college transcript with your application, and if selected, an official college transcript will be required to verify education prior to employment. Transcripts must be submitted to verify any education. Failure to do so may result in an ineligible rating. ARE YOU USING YOUR EDUCATION TO QUALIFY? You MUST provide transcripts to support your educational claims. Unless otherwise stated: (1)unofficial transcripts are acceptable, or (2)you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement. GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study. PASS/FAIL COURSES: If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) was taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society. FOREIGN EDUACATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html Only experience obtained by the closing date of this announcement, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 will be considered. HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED: Once the application process is complete, a review of resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. If, after reviewing your resume and or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the competencies required for this position. The Category Rating Process does not add veterans' preference points or apply the "rule of three," but protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligible within each category. Preference eligible who meet the minimum qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent must be listed in the highest quality category (except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-09 level or higher). BENEFITS: The Federal Government offers a comprehensive benefits package. Explore the major benefits offered to most Federal employees at http://www.usajobs.gov/ResourceCenter/Index/Interactive/Benefits#icc OTHER INFORMATION: If you are a veteran with preference eligibility and you are claiming 5-points veterans' preference, you must submit a copy of your DD-214 or other proof of eligibility. If you are claiming 10-point veterans' preference, you must also submit an SF-15, "Application for 10-Point Veterans' Preference" plus the proof required by that form. For more information on veterans' preference see http://www.usajobs.gov/veteranscenter Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/ ). Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP): For information on how to apply as an ICTAP eligible see http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp#ictap. To be well-qualified and exercise selection priority for this vacancy, displaced Federal employees must be rated at 85 or above on the rating criteria for this position. HOW TO APPLY: Your resume MUST contain all information required for Federal employment. Your resume MUST include full employment information such as periods of employment, month and year position(s) started and ended, title of position(s), employer's name and address, hours worked, description of duties, etc. To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes: 1. Your Résumé 2. A complete Assessment Questionnaire 3. Other supporting documents: - Veterans Preference Documentation, if applicable - College transcript(s), if qualifying based on education The complete Application Package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 To begin the process, click the Apply Online button at the bottom of this screen to create an account or log in to your existing USAJOBS account. Follow the prompts to complete the assessment questionnaire. Please ensure you click the Submit My Answers button at the end of the process. Note: To return to a previously Saved or Incomplete application you may use the following link: https://applicationmanager.gov/. To fax supporting documents you are unable to upload, complete this cover page http://staffing.opm.gov/pdf/usascover.pdf using the following Vacancy ID 814640. Fax your documents to 1-478-757-3144. Note: Please retain a fax confirmation sheet to verify application has been sent. If you cannot apply online: 1. Click the following link to view and print the assessment questionnaire View Occupational Questionnaire, and 2. Print this 1203FX form to provide your response to the assessment questionnaire http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/opm1203fx.pdf and 3. Fax the completed 1203FX form along with any supporting documents to 1-478-757-3144. Your 1203FX will serve as a cover page for your fax transmission. REQUIRED DOCUMENTS: The following documents are required and must be received by the closing date of this announcement, Wednesday, January 16, 2013: 1. Your Résumé 2. A complete Assessment Questionnaire 3. Other supporting documents : - Veterans Preference Documentation, if applicable - College transcript(s), if qualifying based on education AGENCY CONTACT INFO: Philadelphia Services Branch Phone: (215)861-3074 Email: PHILADELPHIA@OPM.GOV Agency Information: Philadelphia Services Branch US Office of Personnel Management 600 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 USA WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT: Once the online questionnaire is received you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful. Based upon your score, you may be referred to the hiring official. If your name is referred to the hiring official, you may be contacted directly by that office for a possible interview. You will receive notice via email or by mail, if no email address was provided by you during the application process, once this process is completed (generally 4-6 weeks). Control Number: 334514700 Close Print Please wait while map is being generated.

Terming as “unpardonable” the beheading of a soldier allegedly by Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC), Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh Monday warned that India’s military will retaliate aggressively in case of any further provocation. Talking tough, Gen Singh said the killing of two Indian soldiers on the LoC in Mendhar area of Jammu and Kashmir on January 6 was a “pre-planned and pre-meditated action by Pakistani troops” and India reserves the right to retaliate at “time and place of its choice”. Addressing a press conference here on the eve of Army Day, Gen Singh said India’s response to Pakistani firing at its posts in LoC in J&K is measured and perfect. He said the ceasefire, in place since November 2003, has been holding except for “some aberrations” for which he squarely blamed Pakistan. “Beheading (of Lance Naik Hemraj) is unacceptable and unpardonable,” the Army Chief said about the incident in which Pakistan soldiers allegedly crossed into the Indian territory to attack Indian army patrol party. “It (the attack) was stage-managed and pre-planned (by Pakistan). They (Pakistan) have planted lies to justify what they have done,” he said. He said the attack was carried out by Pakistan army personnel but did not rule out the possibility of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants being associated with it. Gen Singh said while the issue is being taken up with Pakistan at government and military levels, directions have been given to Army commanders to respond immediately if provoked. “India reserves its right to retaliate at the time and place of its choice. We won’t remain passive when attacked,” he said, adding he expected “commanders to be aggressive and offensive.” “I do not want my commanders to be timid. Our response to Pakistani firing at its posts in LoC in Jammu and Kashmir is measured and perfect,” he observed. Hitting out that the Pakistan army, Gen Singh said beheading is against all rules of engagement. At the same time, he said there were some “tactical errors” on part of the local unit which will be looked into later as an inquiry at the moment will affect the morale of the forces. “Our teams should be balanced to take on the onslaught of the enemy,” the Army Chief said. Putting the onus of maintaining the ceasefire on Pakistan, the Army Chief said India will uphold it as long as the “adversary” does. He applauded the Indian Army Commanders at the LoC, saying they did a “great job”. Gen Singh discounted the possibility of the skirmish leading to a full-fledged war and was dismissive of Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail, saying it had no relation to the local conflict. “Indicators do not show upping the ante,” he said. On any response to the Pakistani action, he said it has to be the decision of the government. Noting that the morale of the force along the LoC was “high”, Singh said he would go there at an “opportune time”. The Army Chief said he shared the grief of slain soldier Hemraj Singh’s widow. “I am sorry (for all her pains and sorrows). She is a part of the army family. She will be provided with all the entitlements,” he said. Regretting the beheading incident, he said the Indian Army would have never indulged in such type of acts. “We give respect to enemy bodies. This is our value and you have seen this during Kargil war,” he said. On the need to evacuate the villages located on the LoC due to prevailing tension, the Army Chief said that such decisions have to be taken at local levels. The state administration has to take a call if the need arises, he said. In reply to a question, he admitted that there have been other incidents of Indian soldiers being beheaded by Pakistani troops. He admitted that there have been incidents in 2011 when two soldiers from the Rajput Regiment were reportedly beheaded in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. He denied any attempt to hush up these incidents, saying details had been shared by the Army with the Defence Ministry. Denying Pakistani allegations that the tension along the LoC was triggered by Indian Army’s aggression on January 6, General Singh said that “Pakistan first tried to spread lies and then tried to justify the beheading.” General Singh denied that any concrete structure was built by the Indian Army in the area near Churunda village where Pakistani forces dominated with small arms and mortar fire. “In upkeep of our defenses, only trenches and an observation post were made,” Deputy Military Secretary said adding that the route through Churunda village was the shortest one to get to Uri and useful for encouraging infiltration. To questions about retrieving Hemraj’s head from Pakistan, DMS said the issue will be taken up strongly at diplomatic level as also military level, including the Brigadier-level Flag meeting today. “Let us see if the Pakistan army heeds to our protests and complies with it. We will have to pressurize them to give the head back.”

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BLOOD Blood is composed of a pale yellow fluid called plasma in which are suspended red cells (erythro cytes), white cells (leukocytes), and platelets (thrombocytes). Plasma forms about 55% of blood volume and contains water (95%) and many solutes, including proteins, mineral ions, organic molecules, hormones, enzymes, products of digestion, and waste products for excretion. Blood flows through every organ of the body, providing effective communication between tissues. It is kept in continuous circulation by the pumping action of the heart, flowing through arteries which carry the oxygenated (bright red) blood from the heart to all parts of the body, and veins which carry the deoxygenated (dark red) blood from the different parts of the body back to the heart and to the lungs. The arteries divide into smaller vessels called capillaries forming the capillary, or peripheral, circulation which supplies oxygen to the tissues. The capillaries rejoin to form the veins. The same amount of blood that is pumped out of the heart returns to it. There are about 5–6 liters (approximately 10 pints) of blood in the circulatory system of an adult (7–8% of a person’s body weight), and about 300 ml of blood in the system of a newborn infant. Main functions of the blood Blood has important transport, distribution, regulatory, and protective functions in the body. 1.TRANSPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTION ● Oxygen is carried from the lungs to the tissues. This function is performed by haemoglobin which is present in large amounts in mature red cells. ● Nutrients absorbed from the digestive tract, e.g. monosaccharides (especially glucose), amino acids, fatty acids, glycerol, and vitamins, are transported to the cells of the body for use or storage. ● Waste products of metabolism are transported from the tissues to site of excretion, e.g. carbon dioxide produced from cellular activity is carried to the lungs for excretion, and the waste products of protein metabolism (urea, creatinine, uric acid) are transported to the kidneys for excretion. ● Hormones are carried from endocrine glands to the organs where they are needed. 2. REGULATORY ● Buffer systems in the plasma maintain the pH of the blood between pH 7.35–7.45 and the pH in body tissues within the physiological limits required for normal cellular activity. ● Proteins (particularly albumin) and salts (particularly sodium chloride) regulate plasma osmotic pressure, preventing excessive loss of fluid from the blood into tissues spaces ● Blood assists in regulating the temperature of the body by absorbing and distributing heat throughout the body and to the skin surface where heat which is not required is dissipated. 3.PROTECTIVE ● When a blood vessel is damaged, platelets and blood coagulation factors interact to control blood loss. Platelets adhere to the damaged tissue and to one another and activated coagulation factors lead to the formation of fibrin and a thrombus clot which reinforce the platelet plug ● Leukocytes are involved in the body’s immune defences, producing antibodies in response to infection, and protecting the body from damage by viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins and tumour cells. Blood cell production The process by which blood cells are formed is called haematopoiesis, or haemopoiesis. Haematopoiesis during foetal life and infancy Blood cell production begins at 14–20 days in the foetal sac and this is the site of haematopoiesis for about 2 months. The liver and spleen become the main sites of blood cell production during the second trimester of pregnancy and foetal bone marrow in the third trimester. At birth, haematopoiesis is confined to the bone marrow. During infancy and up to about 4 years of age, almost all the bones of the body contain blood cell producing red marrow. Haematopoiesis during adult life By about 25 years of age, the main sites of haematopoiesis are the vertebrae, ribs, sternum, skull bones, pelvis and sacrum, and the proximal ends of the femur and humerus. At these sites about half the marrow is red active cell producing marrow and the remainder, non-cell producing yellow fatty marrow. Other bone marrow cavities in the body contain non-haematopoietic fatty marrow. In certain blood disorders, e.g. chronic dyserythropoietic and haemolytic anaemias and myelofibrosis, blood cell production can resume in the liver and spleen (extramedullary haematopoiesis) and the fatty marrow in some bones can become replaced by haematopoi- etic marrow. The marrow of the long bones, except for the proximal portions of the humeri and tibiae, becomes quite fatty and produces no more red blood cells after about age 20 years. Beyond this age, most red cells continue to be produced in the marrow of the membranous bones, such as the vertebrae, sternum, ribs, and ilia. Even in these bones, the marrow becomes less productive as age increases. Production of different blood cells Blood cells are replaced continuously. All blood cells originate from a common population of pluripotent stem cells in the bone marrow. The pluripotent stem cells proliferate and differentiate into two distinct cell lines: myeloid and lymphoid. Myeloid stem cells: These divide to form blood cell committed progenitor cells* which differentiate through a series of cell divisions to form the various precursor cells which produce: monocytes basophils neutrophils red cells eosinophils platelets Genesis of Blood Cells Pluripotential Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Growth Inducers, and Differentiation Inducers. The blood cells begin their lives in the bone marrow from a single type of cell called the pluripotential hematopoietic stem cell, (haemocytoblasts) from which all the cells of the circulating blood are eventually derived. As these cells reproduce, a small portion of them remains exactly like the original pluripotential cells and is retained in the bone marrow to maintain a supply of these, although their numbers diminish with age. Most of the reproduced cells, however, differentiate to form the other cell types. The intermediate-stage cells are very much like the pluripotential stem cells, even though they have already become committed to a particular line of cells and are called committed stem cells. The different committed stem cells, when grown in culture, will produce colonies of specific types of blood cells. myeloid A committed stem cell that produces erythrocytes is called a colony-forming unit-erythrocyte, and the abbreviation CFU-E is used to designate this type of stem cell. Likewise, colony-forming units that form granulocytes and monocytes have the designation CFU-GM, and so forth. *Early progenitor cells are referred to as colony-forming units (CFU), e.g. CFU-E refers to the erythrocyte (E) progenitor cell, CFU-Meg to the platelet progenitor (Meg referring to the megakaryocyte cell from which platelets are formed), CFU-Eo to the eosinophil progenitor, CFU-Bas to the basophil progenitor, and CFU-GM refers to the common progenitor cell from which granulocytic (G) neutrophils and monocytes (M) develop. Note: Only stem cells have the ability to self-replicate. Growth and reproduction of the different stem cells are controlled by multiple proteins called growth inducers. Four major growth inducers have been described, each having different characteristics. One of these, interleukin-3, promotes growth and reproduction of virtually all the different types of committed stem cells, whereas the others induce growth of only specific types of cells. The growth inducers promote growth but not differentiation of the cells. This is the function of another set of proteins called differentiation inducers. Each of these causes one type of committed stem cell to differentiate one or more steps toward a final adult blood cell. lymphoid. Lymphoid stem cells: These divide to form lymphoid progenitor cells which differentiate into B & T lymphocytes. Early development of B lymphocytes takes place in the bone marrow and lymphoid tissues, and development of T lymphocytes in the thymus. Formation of the growth inducers and differentiation inducers is itself controlled by factors outside the bone marrow. For instance, in the case of erythrocytes (red blood cells), exposure of the blood to low oxygen for a long time results in growth induction, differentiation, and production of greatly increased numbers of erythrocytes Stages of Differentiation of Red Blood Cells Because of the vital role played by erythrocytes it very important to know much about the: normal anatomy and physiology so the when they are not normal they will be easily diagnosed RED CELLS Red cells (erythrocytes) form the main cellular component of blood, i.e. about 45% of total blood volume in an adult, giving blood its red colour. Each litre of blood contains about 5 x 1012 red cells, the exact number varying with age, gender, and state of health. Production of red cells Red cells are produced in the bone marrow. Tissue hypoxia (lack of oxygen) leads to the release of the hormone erythropoietin which stimulates progenitor cells to develop into pronormoblasts (proerythroblasts).(seelslide) The first cell that can be identified as belonging to the red blood cell series is the proerythroblast, shown at the starting point. Under appropriate stimulation, large numbers of these cells are formed from the CFU-E stem cells. Once the proerythroblast has been formed, it divides multiple times, eventually forming many mature red blood cells. The first-generation cells are called basophil erythroblasts because they stain with basic dyes; the cell at this time has accumulated very little hemoglobin. In the succeeding generations, the cells become filled with hemoglobin to a concentration of about 34 per cent, the nucleus condenses to a small size, and its final remnant is absorbed or extruded from the cell. At the same time, the endoplasmic reticulum is also reabsorbed. The cell at this stage is called a reticulocyte because it still contains a small amount of basophilic material, consisting of remnants of the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and a few other cytoplasmic organelles. During this reticulocyte stage, the cells pass from the bone marrow into the blood capillaries by diapedesis (squeezing through the pores of the capillary membrane). The remaining basophilic material in the reticulocyte normally disappears within 1 to 2 days, and the cell is then a mature erythrocyte. Because of the short life of the reticulocytes, their concentration among all the red cells of the blood is normally slightly less than 1 per cent. Erythropoiesis ( slide) During erythropoiesis, the new cells formed following each cell division and maturation become smaller in size, their nucleus condenses, and haemoglobin (manufactured by ribosomes) begins to accumulate in the cytoplasm. With haemoglobinization the cytoplasm stains less blue and more pink-mauve. When the cells become about one third haemoglobinized, the nucleus is extruded and the cells collapse inwardly, forming biconcave discs. At the reticulocyte stage, the cells have no nucleus and stain pale mauve. They contain large amounts of haemoglobin and only remnants of ribosomal RNA and endoplasmic reticulum. Reticulocytes enter the blood circulation and within 48 h, develop into fully haemoglobinized pink-red staining erythrocytes. Erythrocyte A mature red cell measures about 8µm in diameter. It is mainly composed of haemoglobin surrounded by a flexible protein membrane and outer lipid bilayer. The biconcave form of the red cell and membrane which is made of specialized deformable protein fibres, enable the cell to pass through capillaries of small diameter. Its shape also provides a large surface area for the exchange of respiratory gases. Energy required for the maintenance of red cell shape, flexibility, and osmotic pressure is provided by ATP (adeno- sine triphosphate) generated by anaerobic glycolysis (Embden-Meryerhof pathway). Other red cell metabolic systems such as the hexose monophosphate pathway, are involved in the detoxification of oxidants to prevent oxidative damage to haemoglobin and other cell constituents. Each polypeptide chain is combined with an iron-containing porphyrin pigment called haem which is the oxygen carrying part of the haemoglobin molecule. Oxygen binds reversibly to the ferrous ion (Fe2+) contained in each haem group. Haemoglobin takes up oxygen when the partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) in the blood is high and releases it when the (PO2)is low. When the blood is in the lungs therefore, it rapidly combines with haemoglobin, forming oxyhaemoglobin. The blood becomes about 97% saturated with oxygen (every gram of haemoglobin combining with 1.34 ml of oxygen). When the blood passes through the tissues where the (PO2) is low, oxygen dissociates from the haemoglobin. Under resting conditions the blood normally loses about 30% of its oxygen content in the tissues. About 20% of carbon dioxide (CO2) is transported by the red cells from the tissues to the lungs for excretion. CO2 binds to the globin part of haemoglobin forming carbaminohaemoglobin. Most (CO2)is transported as bicarbonate ions in the plasma. Normal breakdown of red cells( fate of res blood cells) At the end of their life-span of about 120 days, degenerate red cells are removed from the circulation by reticuloendothelial cells, mainly in the spleen. The haem is split from the globin. Most of the globin is hydrolyzed and the constituents returned to the amino acid pool. The iron component is either reused to produce new red cells or stored in the reticuloendothelial cells as ferritin or haemosiderin. The remaining porphyrin of the haem is metabolized to bilirubin which binds to albumin in the plasma. In the liver, the bilirubin is conjugated to glucuronic acid, forming water soluble conjugated bilirubin which passes into the intestine. It is metabolized to urobilinogen and mostly excreted as stercobilin and stercobilinogen in the faeces. Some of the urobilinogen is reabsorbed from the intestine and excreted in the urine as urobilin and urobilinogen. Regulation of Red Blood Cell Production-Role of Erythropoietin The total mass of red blood cells in the circulatory system is regulated within narrow limits, so that (1) an adequate number of red cells is always available to provide sufficient transport of oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, yet (2) the cells do not become so numerous that they impede blood flow. Tissue Oxygenation Is the Most Essential Regulator of Red Blood Cell Production. Any condition that causes the quantity of oxygen transported to the tissues to decrease ordinarily increases the rate of red blood cell production. Thus, when a person becomes extremely anemic as a result of hemorrhage or any other condition, the bone marrow immediately begins to produce large quantities of red blood cells. Also, destruction of major portions of the bone marrow by any means, especially by x-ray therapy, causes hyperplasia of the remaining bone marrow, thereby attempting to supply the demand for red blood cells in the body. At very high altitudes, where the quantity of oxygen in the air is greatly decreased, insufficient oxygen is transported to the tissues, and red cell production is greatly increased. In this case, it is not the concentration of red blood cells in the blood that controls red cell production but the amount of oxygen transported to the tissues in relation to tissue demand for oxygen. Various diseases of the circulation that cause decreased blood flow through the peripheral vessels, and particularly those that cause failure of oxygen absorption by the blood as it passes through the lungs, can also increase the rate of red cell production. This is especially apparent in prolonged cardiac failure and in many lung diseases, because the tissue hypoxia resulting from these conditions increases red cell production, with a resultant increase in haematocrit and usually total blood volume as well. Erythropoietin Stimulates Red Cell Production, and Its Formation Increases in Response to Hypoxia. The principal stimulus for red blood cell production in low oxygen states is a circulating hormone called erythropoietin, a glycoprotein with a molecular weight of about 34,000. In the absence of erythropoietin, hypoxia has little or no effect in stimulating red blood cell production. But when the erythropoietin system is functional, hypoxia causes a marked increase in erythropoietin production, and the erythropoietin in turn enhances red blood cell production until the hypoxia is relieved. Role of the Kidneys in Formation of Erythropoietin. In the normal person, about 90 per cent of all erythropoietin is formed in the kidneys; the remainder is formed mainly in the liver. It is not known exactly where in the kidneys the erythropoietin is formed. One likely possibility is that the renal tubular epithelial cells secrete the erythropoietin, because anemic blood is unable to deliver enough oxygen from the peritubular capillaries to the highly oxygen-consuming tubular cells, thus stimulating erythropoietin production. At times, hypoxia in other parts of the body, but not in the kidneys, stimulates kidney erythropoietin secretion, which suggests that there might be some non-renal sensor that sends an additional signal to the kidneys to produce this hormone. In particular, both norepinephrine and epinephrine and several of the prostaglandins stimulate erythropoietin production. When both kidneys are removed from a person or when the kidneys are destroyed by renal disease, the person invariably becomes very anaemic because the 10 per cent of the normal erythropoietin formed in other tissues (mainly in the liver) is sufficient to cause only one third to one half the red blood cell formation needed by the body. Effect of Erythropoietin in Erythrogenesis. When an animal or a person is placed in an atmosphere of low oxygen, erythropoietin begins to be formed within minutes to hours, and it reaches maximum production within 24 hours. Yet almost no new red blood cells appear in the circulating blood until about 5 days later. From this fact, as well as other studies, it has been determined that the important effect of erythropoietin is to stimulate the production of proerythroblasts from hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. In addition, once the proerythroblasts are formed, the erythropoietin causes these cells to pass more rapidly through the different erythroblastic stages than they normally do, further speeding up the production of new red blood cells. The rapid production of cells continues as long as the person remains in a low oxygen state or until enough red blood cells have been produced to carry adequate amounts of oxygen to the tissues despite the low oxygen; at this time, the rate of erythropoietin production decreases to a level that will maintain the required number of red cells but not an excess. In the absence of erythropoietin, few red blood cells are formed by the bone marrow. At the other extreme, when large quantities of erythropoietin are formed available, and if there is plenty of iron and other required nutrients available, the rate of red blood cell production can rise to perhaps 10 or more times normal. Therefore, the erythropoietin mechanism for controlling red blood cell production is a powerful one. Maturation of Red Blood Cells-Requirement for Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin ) and Folic Acid Because of the continuing need to replenish red blood cells, the erythropoietic cells of the bone marrow are among the most rapidly growing and reproducing cells in the entire body. Therefore, as would be expected, their maturation and rate of production are affected greatly by a person's nutritional status. Especially important for final maturation of the red blood cells are two vitamins, vitamin B12 and folic acid . Both of these are essential for the synthesis of DNA, because each in a different way is required for the formation of thymidine triphosphate, one of the essential building blocks of DNA. Therefore, lack of either vitamin B12 or folic acid causes abnormal and diminished DNA and, consequently, failure of nuclear maturation and cell division. Furthermore, the erythroblastic cells of the bone marrow, in addition to failing to proliferate rapidly, produce mainly larger than normal red cells called macrocytes, and the cell itself has a flimsy membrane and is often irregular, large, and oval instead of the usual biconcave disc. These poorly formed cells, after entering the circulating blood, are capable of carrying oxygen normally, but their fragility causes them to have a short life, one half to one third normal. Therefore, it is said that deficiency of either vitamin B12 or folic acid causes maturation failure in the process of erythropoiesis. Maturation Failure Caused by Poor Absorption of Vitamin B12 from the Gastrointestinal Tract-Pernicious Anemia. A common cause of red blood cell maturation failure is failure to absorb vitamin B12 from the gastrointestinal tract. This often occurs in the disease pernicious anemia, in which the basic abnormality is an atrophic gastric mucosa that fails to produce normal gastric secretions. The parietal cells of the gastric glands secrete a glycoprotein called intrinsic factor, which combines with vitamin B12 in food and makes the B12 available for absorption by the gut. It does this in the following way: (1) Intrinsic factor binds tightly with the vitamin B12. In this bound state, the B12 is protected from digestion by the gastrointestinal secretions. (2) Still in the bound state, intrinsic factor binds to specific receptor sites on the brush border membranes of the mucosal cells in the ileum. (3) Then, vitamin B12 is transported into the blood during the next few hours by the process of pinocytosis, carrying intrinsic factor and the vitamin together through the membrane. Lack of intrinsic factor, therefore, causes diminished availability of vitamin B12 because of faulty absorption of the vitamin. Once vitamin B12 has been absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, it is first stored in large quantities in the liver, then released slowly as needed by the bone marrow. The minimum amount of vitamin B12 required each day to maintain normal red cell maturation is only 1 to 3 micrograms, and the normal storage in the liver and other body tissues is about 1000 times this amount. Therefore, 3 to 4 years of defective B12 absorption are usually required to cause maturation failure anaemia. Failure of Maturation Caused by Deficiency of Folic Acid (Pteroylglutamic Acid). Folic acid is a normal constituent of green vegetables, some fruits, and meats (especially liver). However, it is easily destroyed during cooking. Also, people with gastrointestinal absorption abnormalities, such as the frequently occurring small intestinal disease called sprue, often have serious difficulty absorbing both folic acid and vitamin B12. Therefore, in many instances of maturation failure, the cause is deficiency of intestinal absorption of both folic acid and vitamin B12. A protein called thrombopoietin (TPO) stimulates large cells called megakaryocytes to proliferate. These cells eventually come apart to yield platelets. The main disorders of red cells are: Anaemia Haemoglobinopathies (thalassaemias, abnormal haemoglobins) Disorders due to red cell enzyme defects, e.g. G6PD deficiency Disorders due to red cell membrane defects, e.g. hereditary spherocytosis Polycythaemia ANAEMIA Worldwide anaemia is the commonest red cell disorder. It occurs when the concentration of haemoglobin falls below what is normal for a person’s age, gender, and environment, resulting in the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood being reduced. Haemoglobin values are lower in women than men, probably due to menstrual loss and the influence of hormones on erythropoiesis. Haemoglobin levels fall in normal pregnancy due to an increase in plasma volume. Normal lower limits for haemoglobin* Anaemia is present when the haemoglobin concentration falls below: Newborn infants 140 g/l (14.0 g/dl) Child 6 months–4 years 110 g/l (11.0 g/dl) Child 5–11 years 115 g/l (11.5 g/dl) Child 12–14 years 120 g/l (12.0 g/dl) Non-pregnant women 120 g/l (12.0 g/dl) Pregnant women 110 g/l (11.0 g/dl) Men and adolescent boys 130 g/l (13.0 g/dl) *Values are for those living at sea level. Haemoglobin. Note: Figures are taken from WHO publications Iron deficiency: Indicators for assessment and strategies for prevention (WHO NUT/96.12, 1996), and Preventing and controlling iron deficiency anaemia through primary health care (WHO, 1989). levels rise with altitude, e.g. by about 10 g/l at 2 000 m (6 500 feet) and about 20 g/l at 3 000 m (10 000 feet). Anaemia is described as mild when the haemoglobin is between 100 g/l and the level in the above table, moderate when 70–100 g/l, and severe when below 70 g/l. Anaemia can develop: – following blood loss, – when the normal production of red cells is reduced, – when red cells are destroyed (haemolyzed) prematurely. Often these mechanisms overlap with several factors contributing to a person becoming anaemic. Anaemia due to haemorrhage or acute haemolysis causes more serious symptoms than anaemia of slow onset, e.g. iron deficiency caused by chronic blood loss. Low haemoglobin levels may cause few symptoms in anaemias associated with increased levels of 2,3-DPG in red cells, e.g. sickle cell anaemia. Haemoglobin values may be high in patients with burns and severe dehydration due to changes in plasma volume, and when there is acute blood loss with no compensation. Anaemia in tropical countries In tropical and developing countries anaemia is particularly prevalent with 50% or more of pre-school children and pregnant women being moderately or severely anaemic. Symptoms and features of anaemia Anaemic persons are easily fatigued, have little energy to work, are often breathless on exertion, have palpitations and experience headaches and dizziness. There is pallor of the skin, mucous membranes and conjunctiva. Young children with moderate and severe anaemia are slow to develop physically and mentally, have difficulty in concentrating and learning, and are more prone to infection with poor immune responses. Pregnant women with untreated anaemia are at increased risk of dying during or following childbirth (particularly when complicated), or giving birth prematurely or to an infant with low birth weight. There is also an increased risk of puerperal infection. The main causes (often interacting) of anaemia intropical countries are: • Malnutrition, associated particularly with: – Iron deficiency anaemia. Iron deficiency is the commonest form of anaemia and a major health problem in tropical countries. – Folate deficiency (less commonly, vitamin B12 deficiency) – Protein deficiency • Parasitic, bacterial, and viral infections, particularly: – • Falciparum malaria, hyperreactive malaria, Splenomegaly • – Hookworm infection – Tuberculosis and other chronic infections – HIV disease/AIDS and treatment with antiretroviral drugs such as zidovudine – Visceral leishmaniasis – African trypanosomiasis – Less commonly, parvovirus B19 infection and viral haemorrhagic fever diseases • Inherited haemoglobinopathies, including: – Sickle cell disease – Thalassaemia syndromes • Glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD deficiency ) • Obstetrical complications causing abnormal blood loss. Iron deficiency anaemia Iron is needed to produce the haem component of haemoglobin and a small amount is needed to produce muscle myoglobin and cytochromes (respiratory enzymes). Insufficient iron for haemoglobin production leads to iron deficiency anaemia. Causes of iron deficiency ● Intake of iron is insufficient or the iron in the diet is in a form which is not easily absorbed, e.g. non-haem iron of plant origin (in contrast, haem iron in meat is easily absorbed). Also, diets in tropical countries are often high in substances which inhibit the absorption of non-haem iron e.g. phytic acid in grain fibres. Ascorbic acid in the diet helps to absorb non-haem iron. ● Increased loss of iron due to chronic blood loss as occurs in severe hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, trichuriasis, gastrointestinal bleeding, menorrhagia. ● Malabsorption of iron as in intestinal malabsorptive disease, e.g. acute post-infective malabsorption (PIM). ● Increased demand for iron as occurs in the early years of life and during pregnancy. Note: Iron deficiency causes a microcytic hypochromic anaemia. Folate deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency Folate (folic acid) and vitamin B12 (cobalamins) are essential for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) synthesis and are therefore needed by all dividing cells in the body, particularly haematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. Deficiencies lead to nuclear maturation being blocked which prevents growing cells from dividing normally (cytoplasmic maturation is not blocked). Many precursor cells die in the bone marrow. Vitamin B12 is also needed to prevent degenerative changes in the nervous system. Causes of folate deficiency ● Low intake of folate in the diet (often seasonal) or more commonly, folate is inadequate because it is destroyed when food is overheated e.g. prolonged boiling of folate rich foods such as green vegetables, sweet potatoes, yams, plantain, peppers, meat, fish. ● Intestinal malabsorptive disease, e.g. PIM and malabsorption associated with Giardia lamblia and Strongyloides infections. Folate absorption is also depressed in diseases such as tuberculosis and severe pneumonia. ● High demands for folate in infancy (particularly premature infants) and childhood, during pregnancy, and in diseases such as sickle cell disease, malaria and other haemolytic anaemias. Also in malignant disease. ● Drugs which interfere with folate utilization, e.g. pyrimethamine, trimethoprim and antifolate cytotoxic drugs. Causes of vitamin B12 deficiency Deficiency due to low intake is rare. Vitamin B12 is synthesized by bacteria and is therefore available in foods of animal origin. The body’s daily requirement for vitamin B12 is low. Intrinsic factor (IF), a protein secreted by parietal cells in the stomach, is essential for the absorption of vitamin B12 . The main causes of vitamin B12 deficiency are: ● Lack of IF due to gastric disease such as autoimmune gastritis (pernicious anaemia) which damages parietal cells and prevents IF secretion. ● Intestinal malabsorption due to PIM, chronic Giardia lamblia infection and severe enteritis. ● Rare causes include cyanide poisoning from the incorrect preparation of cassava, and infection with the fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum (competes with host for vitamin B12). Note: Folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies cause megaloblastic changes in the bone marrow with a macrocytic anaemia and in the advanced stage, pancytopenia (low numbers of red cells, granulocytes, and platelets Mechanisms of anaemia BLOOD LOSS ● Acute bleeding, e.g. from wounds, surgical, ectopic pregnancy, placenta praevia ● Chronic blood loss, e.g. hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, gastrointestinal bleeding, menorrhagia DECREASED RED CELL PRODUCTION ● Lack of essential nutrients, e.g. deficiencies of iron, folate, vitamin B12 protein ● Depressed bone marrow activity, e.g. anaemias associated with chronic disease such as tuberculosis, HIV disease, chronic nephritis, chronic hepatitis, connective tissue disorders, malignant disease, leukaemias ● Due to drugs, chemicals, ionizing radiation, some viruses ● Thalassaemia syndromes INCREASED RED CELL DESTRUCTION (HAEMOLYSIS) ● Inherited haemolytic anaemias: – Haemoglobinopathies, e.g. sickle cell diseases, thalassaemia syndromes – Red cell enzyme deficiencies, e.g. G6PD deficiency, pyruvate kinase deficiency – Red cell membrane defects e.g. hereditary spherocytosis ● Non-immune acquired haemolytic anaemias: – Infections, e.g. malaria, African trypanosomiasis, meningococcal septicaemia, C. perfringens infection, bartonellosis – Pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count) – Conditions which cause disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) – Haemolytic uraemic syndrome – Hypersplenism and splenomegaly, e.g. visceral leishmaniasis, hyperreactive malaria, spleno megaly, myelofibrosis – Burns – Venomous snake and spider bites – Chemicals, oxidant drugs, local herbal remedies – Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria ● Immune acquired haemolytic anaemias (DAT positive): – Haemolytic disease of the newborn – Haemolytic blood transfusion reaction – Warm reactive autoantibody, e.g. drug-induced chronic lymphatic leukaemia, lymphoma, systemic lupus erythematosus – Cold reactive autoantibody, e.g. M. pneumonia infection, lymphoma – Paroxysmal cold haemoglobinuria Anaemias of infections and chronic disease The following diseases are associated with anaemia: ● Infectious diseases Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Pulmonary abscess, Bacterial endocarditis, Pelvic inflammatory disease Osteomyelitis, HIV disease ● Non-infectious diseases Malignant disease, Systemic lupus erythematosus, Rheumatoid arthritis, Other connective tissue disorders Note: Most chronic diseases cause a moderate normocytic normochromic anaemia, becoming microcytic, hypochromic and often more severe as disease progresses. LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF ANAEMIA A knowledge of a patient’s symptoms and clinical history can often establish the cause(s) of anaemia. Investigation is needed when there is moderate or severe anaemia and the reason for it is not apparent. Laboratory tests can help to identify the type of anaemia and monitor a patient’s response during treatment. Morphologically anaemia can be classified by: Red cell size with the terms: – Normocytic referring to normal size red cells (approximately 8 µm in diameter), – Microcytic referring to smaller than normal red cells, – Macrocytic referring to larger than normal red cells. Note: With experience, significant microcytosis and macrocytosis can be detected (with associated abnormalities) by examining a well made Romanowsky stained thin blood film. Normal size red cells are the same size or slightly smaller than a small lymphocyte. MCV (Mean Cell Volume): Information on red cell size can be determined from the MCV, expressed in femtolitres (fl), When the red cells are macrocytic, the MCV is increased and when the cells are microcytic, the MCV is reduced. Haemoglobinization of red cells with the terms: – Normochromic, describing normal staining of red cells as seen when haemoglobinization is adequate. The cells contain a small area of central pallor (no more than one third of the cell’s diameter) due to the biconcavity of red cells. – Hypochromic, describing pale staining of red cells, as seen when haemoglobinization is inadequate. Hypochromic cells show an increased area of central pallor. Polychromatic red cells (reticulocytes): These immature cells contain residual RNA and ribosomes. They can be differentiated from mature red cells in Romanowsky stained blood films by their blue-grey colour (polychromasia) and larger size. Increased numbers of reticulocytes in the peripheral blood (reticulocytosis) can be found in anaemia due to red cell destruction when there is effective erythropoiesis, e.g. most haemolytic anaemias, recovery from acute haemorrhage, and response to treatment of anaemia. Reticulocytosis is not a feature of anaemia due to impaired red cell production, e.g. iron deficiency anaemia, and megaloblastic anaemia unless treatment has been given. This is because a few of them are usually in circulation before they finally lose their RNA and ribosomes. MICROCYTIC HYPOCHROMIC ANAEMIA Caused by: Iron deficiency (commonest cause) Thalassaemia syndromes Some anaemias of chronic disease Sideroblastic anaemia* Sideroblastic anaemia: Rare hereditary disorder or acquired disorder in which iron accumulates in the mitochondria of the erythroblast and is not incorporated into the haem. It can be found in as- sociation with myelodysplastic syndrome and myelo-proliferative disease. It can also be caused by drugs (e.g. isoniazid, chloramphenicol), alcoholism and lead poisoning. ● Blood film findings: – Microcytic hypochromic red cells – Poikilocytosis with elongated (‘pencil’) cells, typically seen in iron deficiency anaemia – Target cells, found particularly in thalassaemia syndromes – Report also any abnormalities of leukocytes Note: In sideroblastic anaemia, a dimorphic blood picture may be seen, i.e. normocytic normochromic red cells with microcytic hypochromic cells. ● Red cell indices in microcytic hypochromic anaemia: – MCHC: ↓ below 310 g/l. In thalassaemia trait, MCHC may be normal. – MCV: ↓ below 76 fl. Particularly low in thalassaemia, even when anaemia is mild. – MCH: ↓ below 27 pg. Note: In addition to the above haematological tests, faeces should also be examined for hookworm eggs and occult blood. Chronic blood loss from hookworm infection is a common cause of iron deficiency anaemia in tropical countries. MACROCYTIC ANAEMIA Caused by: Megaloblastic changes: Folate deficiency Vitamin B12 deficiency Non-megaloblastic changes: Liver disease Alcoholism Haemolytic anaemia (associated with raised reticulocyte count, ● what should be seen in a blood film - Blood film findings: – Macrocytic red cells. In folate/B12 deficiency, macrocytes are typically oval in shape. In liver disease and alcoholism, macrocytes are mostly round. – Poikilocytosis, often with tear drop cells. In severe liver failure, acanthocytes may be seen. With alcoholism, stomatocytes may be seen. – Anisocytosis – Occasionally, megaloblasts, basophilic stippling and Howell Jolly bodies are seen. – Target cells are typically seen in liver disease. – Pancytopenia is common in advanced megaloblastic anaemia with low numbers of red cells, leukocytes, and platelets. – Hypersegmentation of neutrophils (>5% with 5 lobes or more) in megaloblastic anaemia. Note: Hypersegmentation of neutrophils is not seen in macrocytic anaemia due to liver disease or alcoholism. ● Reticulocytes: Normal or low. ● Red cell indices in macrocytic anaem – MCHC: Normal (315–360 g/l). – MCV: ↑, more than 100 fl. – MCH: ↑, more than 32 pg. NORMOCHROMIC ANAEMIA In a normocytic normochromic anaemia the red cells appear normocytic and normochromic in a stained blood film and the MCHC; MCV and MCH are normal. A normocytic normochromic anaemia may be found in: Acute blood loss Anaemia of chronic disease Aplastic anaemia Anaemia of chronic disease Infections, malignancies, and chronic inflammatory conditions, can cause normocytic normochromic or microcytic hypochromic anaemia. Examination of a blood film for RBC and leukocyte abnormalities is helpful, particularly in identifying anaemia due to infection. Other tests to perform will depend on the clinical findings. Aplastic anaemia In aplastic anaemia there is a reduction in the number of red cells, neutrophils, and platelets in the peripheral blood (pancytopenia), low reticulocyte count, and decrease in blood-forming tissue in the bone marrow. Causes of acquired aplastic anaemia include drugs (e.g. chloramphenicol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cytotoxic drugs), viral infection (e.g. hepatitis viruses, Epstein-Barr virus) and ionizing radiation. Note: Other causes of pancytopenia include HIV disease, visceral leishmaniasis, leukaemia, multiple myeloma, myelofibrosis, megaloblastic anaemia, myelodysplastic disorders, parvovirus, and splenomegaly. Haemolytic anaemias Haemolytic anaemias are characterized by a falling haemoglobin, jaundice, dark urine, increasing reticulocytosis (when there is effective erythropoiesis) and usually splenomegaly. In tropical countries haemolytic anaemias due to both intrinsic causes (hereditary disorders) and extrinsic causes (acquired disorders) are important causes of ill health and premature death, particularly those due to serious thalassaemia syndromes, diseases due to abnormal haemoglobins, and haemolysis associated with malaria, other parasitic infections, and bacterial infections. Extravascular haemolysis: In most haemolytic anaemias, haemolysis is extravascular, i.e. red cells are destroyed by macrophages in the spleen, liver, and bone marrow. Providing liver function is normal there is an increase in serum unconjugated bilirubin and urine urobilinogen (urine bilirubin is negative). Intravascular haemolysis: This is when red cells are destroyed in blood vessels and haemoglobin is released into the circulation e.g. haemolysis following incompatible blood transfusion, malaria haemoglobinuria, paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (rare complement-mediated haemolysis), or when there is red cell membrane damage due to antibody and complement, toxic chemicals or drugs. Laboratory findings in intravascular haemolysis include reduced or absent serum haptoglobins, haemoglobinaemia (free haemoglobin in the plasma), presence of methaemalbumin in plasma, and haemoglobin and haemosiderin in urine. Laboratory investigation In haemolytic anaemia, the serum/plasma appears yellow due to increased bilirubin. A clinical history and examination of a blood film can help to establish the possible cause of a haemolytic anaemia and indicate the need for further tests to confirm the diagnosis and assist in treatment and genetic coun- selling (when a hereditary condition is suspected). Laboratory staff should be aware of the local distri- bution of hereditary disorders, e.g. haemo- globinopathies and the common causes of acquired haemolytic anaemias. ● Blood film findings: – Red cells are usually normochromic. Microcytic hypochromic cells are found in thalassaemia and when there is accompanying iron deficiency anaemia. – Polychromasia (indicating reticulocytosis) is present in most haemolytic anaemias when there is an effective erythropoietic response. In malaria*, reticulocytes are only slightly increased in the early stages of infection. *Anaemia in malaria is multifactorial. It includes bone marrow suppression in addition to haemolysis. – Sickle cells which are typically seen in sickle cell anaemia, HbSC disease, HbS thalas- saemia. – Malaria parasites in red cells, often with malaria pigment in leukocytes – Trypanosomes in blood film Acute African trypanosomiasis is a cause of rapidly progressive haemolytic anaemia. – Spherocytes which may be seen in C. perfringens septicaemia, serious burns, bartonellosis, in G6PD deficiency (during haemolytic crisis), acquired immune haemolytic anaemia due to warm reactive autoantibody, ABO haemolytic disease of the newborn, in haemolytic uraemic syndrome (rare) and typically in hereditary spherocytosis (inherited red cell membrane disorder). – Nucleated red cells, which can be seen in sickle cell disease, thalassaemia major and intermedia disease (see Chart 8.3), C. perfringens septicaemia, haemolytic disease of the newborn, and autoimmune haemolytic anaemias (due to warm reacting antibody). – Red cell fragments (schistocytes) which are seen when red cells are damaged, e.g. in burns, disseminated intravascular coagula tion, pre-eclampsia, and in microangiopathic anaemia associated with Gram negative septicaemia and less commonly, artificial heart valves. – ‘Bite’ and ghost cells which can be seen during a haemolytic crisis caused by G6PD deficiency (Heinz bodies may also be seen in a reticulocyte preparation, – Target cells which are seen particularly in thalassaemia syndromes, sickle cell disease, HbC disease, liver disease. – Basophilic stippling, which is most frequently seen in thalassaemia syndromes Marked red cell agglutination (clumping due to antibody-coating) of red cells which is seen in immune haemolytic anaemia due to cold reacting autoantibody (unless blood sample is kept at 370 C). – Bartonella organisms in red cells, causing Oroya fever. THALASSAEMIA SYNDROMES Thalassaemia syndromes are inherited disorders caused by a reduction in the rate of synthesis of alpha (α) or beta (β) haemoglobin chains.* . Alpha thalassaemias are caused by defective synthesis of α chains. Beta thalassaemias are caused by defective synthesis of β chains. Significant imbalance in the synthesis of α and β chains leads to: – Inadequate haemoglobin production. The MCV and MCH are low and the red cells appear microcytic and hypochromic. – Accumulation of free uncombined globin chains in normoblasts and red cells, causing the destruction of red cell precursors in the bone marrow (ineffective erythropoiesis) and red cell destruction by the spleen. ABNORMAL HAEMOGLOBINS Whereas thalassaemia syndromes are caused by abnormalities in the rate of production of and haemoglobin chains, disorders due to abnormal haemoglobins are caused by structural changes in the chains, particularly the globin chains. Clinically significant abnormal haemoglobins that can be found in tropical countries include: HbS which has a wide distribution in tropical Africa, parts of India, the Caribbean, Mediterranean region, Arabian peninsula, and elsewhere in people of African descent. HbC which is found only in West Africa and elsewhere in people of West African descent. HbD, particularly HbDPunjab which is found in north west India. HbE which is found in Southeast Asia and the MCH (Mean cell haemoglobin): The amount of haemoglobin in picograms (pg) in an average red cell can be calculated as described in subunit 8.5. When red cells are hypochromic, the MCH is reduced and when the cells are macrocytic, the MCH is increased. MCHC (Mean cell haemoglobin concentration): The concen- tration of haemoglobin in g/l in 1 litre of packed red cells can be calculated as described in subunit 8.5. When red cells are hypochromic and microcytic, the MCHC is reduced. Section II Stages of Differentiation of white Blood Cells . In the case of some of the white blood cells, infectious diseases cause growth, differentiation, and eventual formation of specific types of white blood cells that are needed to combat each infection. Therefore, Production of different blood cells or blood cells are renewed continuously. All blood cells originate from a common population of pluripotent stem cells in the bone marrow. The pluripotent stem cells proliferate and differentiate into two distinct cell lines: myeloid and lymphoid. Myeloid stem cells: These divide to form blood cell committed progenitor cells which differentiate through a series of cell divisions to form the various precursor cells which produce: monocytes, basophils, neutrophils, red cells, eosinophils, and platelets Lymphoid stem cells: These divide to form lymphoid progenitor cells which differentiate into B & T lymphocytes. Early development of B lymphocytes takes place in the bone marrow and lymphoid tissues, and development of T lymphocytes in the thymus.

Congratulations to Mary Pekrul who was promoted to the rank of Inspector with the Michigan State Police on December 20, 2012. Mary will now be the Assistant Division Commander to the Human Resources Division and also serves as the EEO for the agency. Mary started with MSP in 1989 and has had several different responsibilities throughout her career including as an undercover officer with the County of Macomb Enforcement Team (COMET); a supervisor in the Executive Division; Detective Lieutenant in the Violent Crimes Unit and First Lieutenant in charge of the MIOC. Mary's last two assignments were at the Training Division and at the Human Resources Division. Mary is a graduate of the Third Class of the MSU School of Staff and Command and also served as a facilitator for the Fourth and Fifth classes of Staff and Command. Congratulations Mary on a well deserved promotion.

Is Nigeria Winning the War Against Currency Trafficking? 13 Jan 2013 EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde As operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) continue to haunt currency traffickers at the nation’s airports, economic watchers say it is a matter of time for the impact of currency trafficking to start manifesting in the economy, especially in the manufacturing sector, as proceeds of the illegal business are emerging as slush funds for smugglers, reports Festus Akanbi There are concerns in recent times that the rising cases of currency trafficking in Nigeria will deal more blows to the nation’s economy in general and the manufacturing sector in particular. Economic affairs commentators who raised the alarm said as more foreign exchange is smuggled out of the country, almost on a daily basis, the Nigerian money market is the immediate casualty as the criminal activity is capable of draining the nation’s stock of foreign exchange. They described the sustained relative stability in the foreign exchange market and the rising fortune of the nation’s foreign reserves as temporary if the illegal fund transfer is not checked, given the attendant pressure, which currency trafficking will bring to the system. Era of Smuggling Another worry is the fact that some of the smuggled hard currencies are used to fund importation of banned goods and items in the country. This is against the backdrop of the Nigerian Customs Service’s seeming loss of the battle against smuggling. It is therefore feared that some of these items are purchased in foreign lands through illegal fund transfer in view of the difficulty in accessing funds for such banned goods through conventional banks. The immediate fallout of this kind of unrestrained smuggling is dumping and the attendant crowding of local manufacturers in Nigeria. Today, banned goods like used tyres, some age grades of vehicles, textiles, cement and other essential commodities easily find their ways into the Nigerian market despite the efforts of the Customs service. Analysts said with the noose tightened on banks, it is very unlikely if any of the money deposit banks could fund such illegal businesses. A report by the World Bank on the level of illegal imports into Nigeria says on the average, goods worth $5 billion (N750 billion) are smuggled into the country from the Republic of Benin alone on a yearly basis. Besides, the report published in 2010 said up to 15 per cent of Nigeria‘s total imports are smuggled into the country through Benin. The report, which incorporates some aspects of other West African countries‘ trade trends, said, “There is enough evidence that over $400 million or more than one quarter of the current revenues collected by the Nigerian Customs Service could be collected on top of the current revenues, if the trade restriction would be adjusted to the current practices (for a limited number of products) in the sub-region.” The report is entitled- “How Nigeria‘s Trade Policy Facilitates Unofficial Trade and Impacts Negatively Nigeria‘s Customs Efficiency and Economy.” Two leading experts of the World Bank, Gaël Raballand and Edmond Mjekiqi both of the African Transport Unit authored the report. The report, which is believed to have informed recent lifting of the ban on the importation of some classes of goods into the country, stressed that opening Nigerian borders to imports would raise revenue generated by the Customs from import tariffs by as much as $400 million. Cash Limit Instructively, travellers leaving Nigeria are statutorily required to declare cash in excess of $10,000. However, under the provision of the Money Laundering Act, the onus is on the person making the declaration to explain the source of the excess cash and the reason for the export. But commentators said several million of foreign currencies are moved in and out of the country on a daily basis by people whose activities cannot pass the test of the regulatory authorities, were they ready to submit themselves for examination. A source from the banking industry admitted that the involvement of bank officials in the shady deals was one of the factors sustaining cash trafficking in Nigeria. For instance, in December 2009, a manager with the now defunct Bank PHB, Mrs. Emem Etuk, was apprehended at the Lagos airport with about $3 million, which she claimed was sourced from a Bureau De Change. She was alleged to also be the account officer for Akwa Ibom State Government’s account with the bank. According to data sourced from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), currency smuggling has been on the increase since September last year, with a higher percentage of arrests made at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano, as most of the suspects were heading for Dubai, in the United Arab Emirate. EFCC believed that “Globally, bulk cash smuggling is usually associated with proceeds of crime, where illegitimately earned funds are processed outside the banking system”. According to an economist Henry Boyo, the more recent series of arrests confirm that currency smuggling and money laundering are still thriving businesses in Nigeria. He noted that the CBN was not decisive enough in its bid to effectively nip the operations of currency traffickers in the bud, saying the apex bank’s policies, ironically, liberally fund the foreign exchange sources for currency traffickers, smugglers and money launderers. “The truth, of course, is that the huge sums of money trafficked were most certainly purchased from the various BDCs, to whom the CBN regularly disburses hundreds of millions of dollars every month! Indeed, liberal market dollar supply was one of the policy support instruments demanded by the IMF and the London and Paris Credit Clubs before Nigeria’s controversial debt exit, which fleeced over $12bn from our tattered pockets in 2006, in the name of debt relief,” he argued. Harvests of Arrests On September 27, 2012, one Abubakar Sheriff Tijani, a suspected bulk cash smuggler, carrying $7,049.444 was intercepted by EFCC operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos en route Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Three days later, one Alhaji Tasiu Ilu Kura was arrested by operatives of the commission with $700,000 (about N112m) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on September 30. The suspect who hails from Kura Local Government in Kano State was also on his way to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On October 17, 2012 another suspect, Idris Hamza, was arrested with $27,000.00 at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano but he declared only $3,000.00. Also, on the same day, one Umar Musa Kibiya was picked up at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, for false declaration of fund and illegal possession of $80,000 concealed in his bag. He claimed he was on a business trip to Dubai but only declared $40,000.00. Another dimension was brought into the illegal deal when three people including one Adetula Akinyele, a security guard with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Ifeanyi Uramah and Emmanuel Nnanna were intercepted by EFCC operatives on October, 21, 2012 with $1.4million at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. Luck also ran out on Hyginus Ezedimbu, who was caught at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on November 3 as he prepared to board an Ethiopian Airline on his way to China. He was caught with $50,000 but he declared $49,971. Apart from under declaring the money in his possession, Ezedimbu could also not explain the ownership of the money, nor was he able to produce the receipt with which he purportedly purchased the forex from a Bureau De Change operator Musa Adamu. One of the biggest catches of the commission was one Abdulrasheed Ibrahim who met his waterloo on November 7 as he prepared to board a Dubai, United Arab Emirates bound Ethiopian Airline. A total of $188, 858 was found on him. He had declared the sum of $45,000 only for a search on him to reveal additional $143, 858. Further search revealed that he was carrying 40 British Pounds and 5753grams of solid gold worth N34, 518,000. The EFFC list also showed that one Nkem Sebastian was arrested on September 29, 2012 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport on his way to China through Dubai with $288, 000. He had declared only $200,000 and claims he was carrying the money for one Konga, for distribution to unnamed recipients in China The list also showed that the Nigerian local currency was not spared as one Prince Oteh Emenike was arrested on September 22, 2012 with N996, 000 as he prepared to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to China from the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos. He claimed he was to deliver the money to some traders in China. This dimension lends credence to the suspicion that the money is being used for importation of banned commodities. This is because, textile products, especially from China have flooded the Nigerian market in recent times. Foreign nationals were also involved in the currency trafficking as the EFCC operatives nabbed two Lebanese, Hassan Rmaiti and Talal Hammoud, at MMA, Lagos on November 26, 2012 for bulk cash smuggling to the tune of $2,073,160. While Hassan Rmaiti was arrested with $1,971,920, Talal Hammond was arrested with $101,240.00. Another smuggler who tried to use Mallam Aminu Airport Kano for his nefarious activities, Bashir Abdu was arrested en-route Dubai aboard Egypt Air. He failed to declare the $130,000 on him. He only declared the gold bars with him and 30, 000 Saudi Riyals. Incidentally, such arrests are not uncommon. For example, later in October 2010, a Nigerian family was also apprehended at a London airport with over £500,000. In a statement on November 3, 2010, the Central Bank of Nigeria noted that the “CBN had been inundated with complaints from foreign countries that some Nigerian travellers indulge in cross-border transportation of large sums of foreign currencies in cash, and that the Nigerian Customs Service’s returns show that large amounts of up to $3 million cash had been taken out of Nigeria by individuals in single trips.” BDC as Conduit Pipes Analysts maintained that the recent arrests by EFCC suggest that the BDCs may have graduated from merely meeting the retail requirements of travellers to becoming hard-core suppliers of foreign exchange to major money launderers and smugglers. Boyo said the CBN’s ill-advised liberal dollar allocations had become a supportive tool for national economic sabotage, adding that the motivation for money laundering and currency trafficking is facilitated by a free access to public sector dollars made available to the BDCs by the apex bank.

BHS NJROTC has been selected, invited and has been accepted to be the official ambassador for the state of Tennessee in the Pearl Harbor 2013 Memorial Parade December 7, 2013. As a NJROTC unit we will not only represent the state of Tennessee but also represent the veterans from the USS Tennessee moored in Pearl Harbor during the attack. This is an honor and we will be the only JROTC unit in the state attending. The unit must pay for all expenses to attend the parade and the estimated cost for 40 cadets and chaperones is estimated at $100,000. BHS NJROTC is accepting donations. We have available a donation letter stating where to send the check, noting Pearl Harbor Fund. If every veteran in the state of Tennessee would send one dollar this would cover about 40% of the cost of the trip. If you know of a veteran that might donate please forward. Thank you for your support and assistance.

LOAD DETAILS: Time 2:00 am Date-15th January 2013 Karnataka State demand : 5643 MW Demand of BESCOM @ this hour : 2431 MW Bangalore city area: 927 MW • A-Station : 19 MW • East Div Comp : 4 MW • Hebbal : 61 MW • Hoody : 162 MW • HSR Layout : 130 MW • HAL : 94 MW • Naganathapura: 21 MW • NRS : 44 MW • Nimhans : 0 MW • SRS Peenya : 134 MW • Subramanyapura : 66 MW • Somanahally : 74 MW • Yarandanahally : 111 MW • Vrishabavathi : 59 MW Bangalore rural, Ramnagar, Kolar & Chikkaballapur districts : 614 MW Tumkur district : 425 MW Davanagere & Chitradurga district : 335 MW Generation available at this hour from all sources for State : 5753 MW Raichur Thermal Power Station : 927 MW (5 Units) Bellary Thermal Power Station : 342 MW (1 Unit) Udupi Power Corp (Thermal plant) : 1011 MW (2 Units) Sharavathy (Hydro plant) : 204 MW (10 Units) Nagjhari (Hydro plant) : 0 MW (0 Units) Varahi (Hydro plant) : 46 MW (4 Units) Yelahanka Diesel plant : 21 MW (2 Units) State Wind : 268 MW Bescom Wind : 175 MW Operating grid frequency : 50.15 Hz Unscheduled Interchange cost per unit for over drawn : 0.42 Availability Based Tariff Entitlement allotted at 9 blocks (Total 96 blocks) : 3194 MW Schedule allotted at 9 blocks : 3077 MW Actual drawl at 9 blocks : 2431 MW UI at 9 blocks : -645

Italian Court Rules MMR Vaccine Causes Autism We present here a professional medical translation of the full text of the decision of the Italian Court of Rimini holding that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children. First a few observations. The MMR vaccines used in Italy prior to 2007 were is Merck’s MMR II, GSK’s Priorix and Morupar, from Chiron [until the latter was withdrawn urgently on short notice by W.H.O. because it was unsafe. Morupar is a Urabe mumps virus strain containing vaccine, which is the type abandoned unilaterally and urgently in the UK in September 1992 by the manufacturer [a GSK company] for legal reasons because of the high levels of all kinds of adverse reactions it causes. It was done so urgently that the UK’s Department of Health was not even given a week to break the news. However, the kind of MMR vaccine Hannah Poling in the US received with 8 other vaccines on the same day would have been Merck’s MMR vaccine containing the Jeryl Lynn strain of mumps virus. [US Government In US$20 million Legal Settlement For Vaccine Caused Autism Case] https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/us20m-hannah-poling-vaccine-autism-case/ And here is the key part of the Italian Court’s judgement: The medicolegal and auxilary medicolegal assessments must be conducted according to their merits, which, on the basis of an in depth examination of the case in the light of the specialist literature to date, has conclusively established that the young child is suffering from AUTISTIC DISORDER ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIUM COGNITIVE DELAY ascribed with reasonable scientific probability due to the administration of the vaccine MMR occurring on the date 26\3\2004 at the ALS of Riccione It should also be acknowledged that the auxiliary evaluation pursuant to the Medical Commission has expressed the view that there is a permanent impairment of physical and mental integrity established, ascribed to the first category of Table A, attached to the DPR 30 \ 12 \ 81 n.834. Now a further point to be made is that in common law jurisdictions like England, Australia, Canada and the USA and many more, a finding of fact by a Court of first instance is extremely difficult to overturn except in the case of manifest error or some other factor like fraud. Additionally, it appears the judgement of the Italian Court was by consent, which also appears to mean 1) the Italian health authorities did not contest the findings and 2) they cannot appeal. If a qualified Italian lawyer might like to comment here on CHS on whether that is a correct intepretation of the judgement that would be appreciated. The relevant part of the judgement is: The case, informed through the production of documents and the testing of medical-legal advice, was discussed at today’s public hearing as a consent decree. The English translation provided here has been kindly provided by Dr JLM Donegan. Dr Donegan is the only English medical practitioner whose advice on vaccination issues has been found in a three week UK General Medical Council legal trial in August 2007 to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt to be based on valid medical and scientific literature, not to be misleading and unaffected by any personal views Dr Donegan may hold – in other words Dr Donegan’s advice is independent, objective and unbiased. The findings in the case were most unusual. Instead of finding that the GMC prosecution’s case was not proven, the hearing panel made a positive finding and found in Dr Donegan’s favour to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that her defence was proven. More information can be found here: UK’s GMC, Dr Jayne Donegan’s Story, Vaccines & MMR The hearing came about after Lord Justice Sedley in the English Court of Appeal condemned Dr Donegan’s evidence to the English Family Court as “junk science”. This was without Dr Donegan even being present, given any opportunity for comment or being represented. [So much for English justice]. The GMC’s expert witness at the GMC trial, Dr David Elliman, then of Great Ormond Street Hospital spent 5 months preparing an expert report against Dr Donegan for the August 2007 hearing for the purpose of having Dr Donegan’s medical licence revoked, only to be forced to admit in cross-examination that he was “quibbling” over a few details. Interestingly, whilst Dr Elliman was spending all this time on his report for the GMC prosecution there were problems in the unit he managed at Gt Ormond St Hospital. Despite being warned by his professional staff he took no management action. This matter came to a head with what has become known as the scandal of the death of “Baby P”. In short a child died, killed as a result of extensive injuries over many months caused by child abuse by the partner of the child’s mother. Dr Elliman has never been charged by the General Medical Council with anything nor has his licence to practise medicine been revoked. The UK’s General Medical Council appears to have done nothing whatsoever about this despite their main purpose being to regulate the conduct and practice of medical doctors to protect the public. Well, they did not protect “Baby P” and by doing nothing they will not protect all the other “Baby P’s” there may be in future. They did however spend millions of pounds getting Dr Wakefield’s licence revoked and now it appears that all along Dr Wakefield was right. Here follows the translated judgement. Any observations on or suggestions for improvements to the translation or typographical or other errors would be appreciated as this has been prepared as rapidly as reasonably possible: Italian Republic On behalf of the Italian people The Ordinary Court of Rimini Civil Division, Labour Section With a single judge presiding in the person of Judge Lucius ARDIGO’ pronounces JUDGMENT in the civil case, with the ritual of work, registered as N.474 \ 10 RGL brought forward by: XXXX and XXXX on their own behalf and as parents exercising parental authority in the case of their son, a minor xxxx (child) represented and defended by the lawyer. VENTALORO LUCA with an address for service in Viale Principe Amedeo 12 47900 RIMIN at the Chambers of. VENTALORO LUCA -APPLICANT- AGAINST MINISTRY OF HEALTH (CF80242255589), with the ADVOCACY of the lawyer DISTRICT STATE ADVOCATE electively domiciled in Via Guido Reni 4 40125 BOLOGNA at the Chambers of. DISTRICT STATE ADVOCATE -AGREED- Concerning Compensation under Article 2, paragraph 1, of Law no. 210, 1992 GROUNDS FOR DECISION By application filed 8 \ 06 \ 2012 XXXX and XXXX on behalf of themselves and in their capacity as parents exercising parental authority over the child xxxx agreed to press charges against the Ministry of Health, applying that they be ordered to pay compensation for irreversible damages from complications caused by compulsory vaccination The basis for the application stated that on 26 \ 03 \ 2004 the minor (child) xxxx was subjected to prophylactic trivalent MMR at the AUSL (Local Health Authority) of Riccione. The same daily worrying symptoms arose daily (diarrhoea, nervousness) between 2004 and 2005. xxxx (the child) experienced signs of serious psychological and physical discomfort as far as the date of 31 \ 08 \ 2007 when the recognition took place that he was invalided totally and permanently to a level of 100% Only on the date 27 \ 06 \ 2008, did the specialist Dr. Niglio attest as to how the reported damages to the minor (child) were attributable to the vaccination carried out, this theory was definitively confirmed on the date 25 \ 07 \ 2009 by the specialist Dr. MONTANARI. Therefore on the date 28 \ 04 \ 2008 the parents, the applicants, submitted an application for verification of eligibility requirements for the compensation provided for the benefit of those harmed by the irreversible complications due to mandatory, vaccinations, but on the date 13 \ 10 \ 2008 the Medical Hospital Commission refused the application because the MMR vaccination did not turn out to be compulsory by law or ordinance of Health Authority. The case, informed through the production of documents and the testing of medical-legal advice, was discussed at today’s public hearing as a consent decree. In a preliminary ruling it was asserted that the the capacity to be sued of the Ministry was exempted under the provisions of Article D of .114> L.vo No. 112 of 1998, regarding the contribution to the Region of the functions and administrative tasks relating to Health, Article 123. This same decree explicitly recognized the retention by the State of the duties relating to appeals (to be understood both as administrative and judicial, in the absence of normative distinction) for the payment of compensation in favour of those harmed by the irreversible complications due to vaccinations, compulsory medical treatment and the like. The latter theory shared by the most recent and prevailing case law of the Supreme Court of Cassation (Highest Court of Appeal) which has clarified how in the case of especially the capacity to be sued, it is exclusively the responsibility of the Ministry of Health (see most recently Cass. Sec. L n. 29311 of 28 \ 12 \ 2011 Rv. 620379; Compliant same section 13 \ 10 \ 2009 n. 21702, n.21703, n.21704 of 3 \ 11 \ 2009 n. 23216, n. 23217, by 5 \ 11 \ 2009 n. 23434, the 6 \ 11 \ 2009 n. 23588). In point of law it is considered that the fact that the alleged permanent impairment of physical or mental integrity is due to a compulsory vaccination cannot be an impediment to the recognition of compensation required. Referred to herein and in fact, to the judgment of the Constitutional Court. 27 \ 1998 and 423 \ 2000 that it was declared unconstitutional by violation of Articles 2 and 32 Constitution, Article 1, paragraph 1, I. February 25, 1992 No 210 (Compensation for those harmed by complications of an irreversible type because of mandatory vaccination, blood transfusion and the administration of blood products), in so far as it provided no entitlement to compensation under the conditions specified therein, of those who were subjected to non-compulsory vaccinations against Hepatitis B and Poliomyelitis as a result of campaigns by the Health Authority to legally promote the dissemination of these vaccinations. The aforementioned vaccinations, like the trivalent MMR vaccination in question, had been strongly encouraged by the state while not imposing a legal obligation: it is not constitutionally permissible in the light of Articles 2:32 of the Constitution, to require that the individual puts his own health at risk for the collective interest, without collective being willing to share, if you will, the weight of the negative consequences, there is no reason to differentiate from point of view of the aforesaid principle, the case where medical treatment is required by statute and that in which it is according to a law promoted by public authorities, in view of its widespread distribution in society. The medicolegal and auxilary medicolegal assessments must be conducted according to their merits, which, on the basis of an in depth examination of the case in the light of the specialist literature to date, has conclusively established that the young child is suffering from AUTISTIC DISORDER ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIUM COGNITIVE DELAY ascribed with reasonable scientific probability due to the administration of the vaccine MMR occurring on the date 26\3\2004 at the ALS of Riccione It should also be acknowledged that the auxiliary evaluation pursuant to the Medical Commission has expressed the view that there is a permanent impairment of physical and mental integrity established, ascribed to the first category of Table A, attached to the DPR 30 \ 12 \ 81 n.834. As for the ascertainment, on the part of the parents, of the actual knowledge of the cause of disability, it should be noted that in none of the medical records examined was the clinical picture established definitely as post-vaccine, in the sense of, caused by inoculation of the vaccine, and that the causal relationship is indicated for the first time only in the medical report on 27 \ 06 \ 2008 of the specialist Dr. Niglio. In particular, we should highlight as the starting point, not reckoned in the knowledge of the diagnosis, or by the mere suspicion of an origin from compulsory vaccination, but from the moment when, on the basis of medical records, the claimant is found to have had knowledge of the damage, that awareness of the aetiological relationship between irreversible injury (including ascribability table) and the cause from vaccination (which entitles you to compensation). As reiterated by the Supreme Court in the analogous issue of knowledge of occupational disease indemnification, it is not sufficient that the employee is informed of the mere professional/ occupational origin of the disease but it is also necessary that the same is aware of the importance of sequelae so as to provide an impairment higher than threshold percentage fixed for the recognition of pension entitlement (see in this sense civil Cassation section. Lav., April 3, 1993, No. 4031, in Riv. In fort. and mal. Prof. in 1993, II, 111; Supreme Court as well as civil sez. Lav., January 8, 1996, n. 63 INAIL Bulgari c rv 495 260) Therefore, a deadline of two years from knowledge of the cause of the damage is enforced(Article 3 of Law no. 210, 1992), being the permanent impairment of psycho-physical integrity due to 1 / \ category in Table A attached to the DPR 30 \ 12 \ 81 n.834, and should be entitled to compensation provided for under Articles 1 and 2 of Law 210 \ 1992 comprised therein for the payment of the One off payment of Article 2 paragraph 2 of that law. Under the combined provision in the Article 429 c.p.c. and 16. paragraph 6 of Law 30 December 1991, No. 412, the amount due in respect of statutory interest on pension claims is used to offset any amounts payable for the restoration of greater damages for the diminished value of the claim, which is why an adjustment for inflation becomes operational only for periods of time which the amount of interest is not sufficient to cover the full damage due to devaluation. The court costs are settled on a payment formula accepted by the Ministry according to the general criterion of negative outcomes. For this same reason they are definitively accepted by the Ministry as are the costs of CTU, to the extent already settled by a separate decree. FOR THESE REASONS THE ORDINARY COURT OF RIMINI with a single judge presiding in the function of judge of the work pronouncing definitively on the application brought by XXXX and XXXX as parents exercising parental authority over the child xxxx with an application lodged on 8 \ 06 \ 2012, dismissing all other claims, objections or inferences, will thus provide, in adversarial proceedings with the Ministry of Health: 1) I verify that (child) xxxx has been irreversibly damaged by complications caused by vaccination (prophylaxis trivalent MMR) with a right to compensation referred to in Articles 1 and 2 of Law no. 210, 1992, ( lifetime pension backdated for fifteen years), I order the Ministry of Health in the person of the Minister in charge to pay to (child) xxxx the compensation provided for by Articles 1 and 2 of Law 210/1992 including the payment of the One off payment of Article 2 paragraph 2 of that Act (for the arrears plus interest accrued in so far as legally possible and the second monetary revaluation ISTAT indexes, as required by law for payment of the application); 1. I Order the Ministery of Health to pay the court fees in settlement a total of Euro 2.500,00 in addition LVA, CPA and reimbursement of the general charges as required by law; 2. I definitively place the burden on the Ministry of Health to meet expenses of CTU (Expert witnesses). Thus decided in Rimini, public hearing on the 15 \ 03 \ 2012. THE JUDGE Lucio ARDIGO ‘ Translated by JLM Donegan 23 May 2012 http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/05/italian-court-rules-urabe-mumps-strain-of-mmr-causes-autism.html

50 feared dead in Ogun pipeline explosion Headlines Sunday, January 13, 2013 One of the surviving vandals advertisement By Ifeanyi Okolie Note: Story contains graphic photo some may find offensive. Over 50 suspected vandals were, yesterday, feared dead in an explosion that rocked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,NNPC, pipeline at Arepo village, Owode, Ogun State. Sunday Vanguard gathered that the explosion came following a fire which was sparked off by some vandals who stormed the creeks by boat to siphon fuel from the NNPC pipeline. Arepo was the scene of the killing of three NNPC officials by vandals last year. One of the survivors of yesterday’s incident was said to have participated in the officials murder. He was arrested by the police alongside a doctor who, according to a reports, was taking him to hospital for treatment. The doctor claimed he had only responded to distress calls. There were fears, last night, that damage to the pipeline could worsen petrol scarcity as it supplies the product from Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos to other South-West states. An eyewitness account stated that the explosion came after an argument erupted between two of the vandals who were struggling to siphon fuel from the pipeline and it resulted into a heated argument that made one of them who was armed with a rifle to shoot indiscriminately into the air. Sunday Vanguard learnt that bullets from the rifle hit the ruptured pipeline and led to an explosion. Meanwhile, operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism Unit, who have been on patrol of the area, responded to the explosion. It was in the course of the response that they made the arrests. Those arrested included the survivor identified as Sunday Reuben and the doctor. The source alleged that the doctor was trying to smuggle the survivor to his private clinic for treatment. The survivor, with severe burns, told Sunday Vanguard that there were more than 50 of them stealing petrol from the ruptured pipeline when the explosion took place, pleading for the rescue of his colleagues "blown away by the force of the blast and dying in the creeks." His claim could not be confirmed as the fire was still burning at press time thus hindering access to the place. My story-survivor He narrated the story of how he came to be involved in yesterday’s incident: “I was in my house when Suleiman my friend called me that there was a job at Arepo creeks. He asked me to look for a canoe and come with as many gallons as I could carry. Shortly after I arrived I saw people fighting before I heard a gunshot. The next thing was an explosion, I was lucky that I wasn’t close to the pipeline. It was the heat of the fire that affected me. I managed to run to my boat where my mother was waiting. There were so many of us both men and women. We are more than 50 persons over there and most of us are still inside that fire. Most of them are still in the creeks dying, please help them. Iya Olabode called a doctor who was about taking me to the hospital when we were arrested by the police.” The doctor said he acted on his oath to protect life. He explained that Iya Olabode, his customer called him to attend to a patient in her house at Abule Oba, Ikorodu area of Lagos. “I am a family doctor to Iya Olabode for the past three years. So when she called me that there is an emergency, I quickly rushed to her house where I saw Reuben badly burnt. I advised her that we should take the man to my clinic for better treatment. We were on our way when the police accosted us.” He further claimed that he never remembered to ask the patient how he sustained the burns. “I forgot to ask him because I was in a hurry to save his life. I never knew that he could be a vandal because Iya Olabode is a good and respectable business woman. I am terribly sorry; I was only trying to save life.” Confirming the arrests, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Friday Ibadin, who is in charge of the Task Force, said that the explosion started at about 2am yesterday. “Shortly after the explosion, policemen led by Sector Commander, Lagos, DSP Onaghise Osayande, cordoned off the area to reduce casualties while they awaited the arrival of fire fighters to quench the fire. It was in the process that they stumbled into a jeep carrying one of the survivors and a medical doctor who was on his way to hospital. In the course of interrogation, we discovered that the survivor was one of those who participated in the killing of the NNPC officials last year. “The taskforce arrested six suspected vandals who were alleged to have participated in the incident that led to the killing of three Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) staff at Arepo Village, Owode in Ogun State". Looming petrol scarcity Meanwhile, a source close to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ogun State, which deployed its men to the scene of pipeline explosion, hinted that the NNPC had been asked to stop further supply of petrol to the pipeline to reduce the inferno. Experts said the interruption of supply was bound to worsen fuel scarcity of petrol in the south west states. Confirming the incident,the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC in the state, Olanrewaju Kareem, in a press statement, in Abeokuta, said there was an explosion at "the NNPC pipeline on waterways at journalists Estate, Arepo in the state". He said, "the fire was noted yesterday by our surveillance team posted to monitor the situation around the place. "The fire might have been caused by vandals activities as we received an earlier call by the same surveillance team of suspicious movement around the waterways. "Our combat team were on their way at about 8:15 am when the out-break occurred, the team was instructed to move in by commandant Aboluwoye Akinwande for possible arrests. "However, no arrest was made as the vandals made their escape through Majidun side of the water ways. The Corps Commandant, Aboluwoye Akinwande, was there early this morning to have on the spot assessment of the situation. "He immediately called on NNPC to stop supply through the route. In due course, NNPC has made us to know that the fire will come down gradually". Sweet Crude Education Environment Motoring Metro Interview Labour Law & Human Rights Bus Stop Parliament Crime Guard Crime Alert LifeStyle Health Travel & Tourism Vista Human Angle Is it Beyond Pardon? The Arts Life with treena Kwenta

Over the past few days i've been carefully monitoring the news on TV stations notably TV3 and Metro TV and the dominant headline has been SANITATION, "FILTH! FILTH!! FILTH!!!". There is filth everywhere and its associated danger is not only limited to outbreak of diseases and other health complications, but if reformative efforts are not made in time to salvage the situation the nation will be robbed of monumental resources; a possible generational failure. The existence of these resources can be attested to generations past including those of our grand-parents and great grand-parents; our generation then ought not to fail. Let us objectively look at the deplorable state of the Korle lagoon in Accra that is engulfed with rubbish instead of fresh water fish, the Chemu lagoon in Tema which bank has suddenly become discovering of the season for waste disposal and the recent outcry of the inhabitants of Achimota over the tiredness of their one loving town for playing host as the converging ground for household and commercial waste across the national capital, Accra, just to mention a few. A recent publication by the New York Times puts Accra on the globe as the 4th city people will like to visit. The question is, " will foreign investors and tourists show interest in Accra subsequently after facing our sanitation crises?". This societal issue of sanitation struck me at a time that i was about to engage myself to a bowl of fufu with groundnut soup, my favorite. To be frank, i almost lost appetite due to the fact that i felt very sad from within and the sadness suddenly set into fusion overtly. I began to interrogate myself, '' so all this while what have the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies been doing?''. I paused for a while, " come to think about it, it is not the issue of leadership but INSTITUTIONS". Personally, i believe that Ghana and Africa as a whole is blessed with technocrats; very fine and competent gentlemen and ladies who have been tried and tested in various capacities, holding high the virtues of Diligence, Devotion and Determination ( the 3 'D's ) in high esteem. The very flaws we witness in our society are as a result of weaker institutions. By institutions i am referring to the very back bone and pivot of society; the very societal norms and values and the legal framework deduce from consensus building, backed by legislative legitimacy for the control of human interactions for the very survival and well being of society as a unit. Building stronger institutions involves collective efforts from all Tom, Dick and Harry. Let us have respect for one another and for the law. Let us be guided by our conscience and morality to do what is right. Be your brother's keeper, if possible his/her peer educator. Building stronger institutions is a process as the saying goes, "Rome was not built in a day", but i believe we will surely get there being sincere to ourselves and loyal to the course of our motherland Ghana. YES, WE WILL SURELY GET THERE!!!

Studies conclusively show massage therapy reduces stress Featured, Medical Massage — By Steve Ibach on December 28, 2009 at 5:24 pm Massage is clinically proven to reduce stress. Massage is clinically proven to reduce stress. Massage therapy is a proven, non invasive way to reduce chronic stress levels in the body. Dozens of studies have shown the effectiveness of massage therapy in reducing stress and millions of people avail themselves to the services of massage therapists to treat stress. Using massage to reduce stress is natural and safe and unlike some forms of alternative therapies, massage therapy is a proven discipline within the medical community with scientific evidence supporting the use of massage for stress management. What is Stress? Stress is your body’s way of responding to a physical or emotional demand. Everyone experiences increased stress levels at one time or another. In fact, the body’s ability to react to stressful situations and deal with threats is critical to our survival. However, when one is under long term stress caused by ongoing situations such as work or family problems, financial concerns, etc. the body will be in a constant heighten state – a state which has harmful effects on many bodily systems including the immune system, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, reproductive system, etc. Does massage therapy reduce stress? The answer to this question is unequivocally yes – massage therapy does reduce stress levels. According to The Franklin Institute web site on the human brain and stress, “Massage releases endorphins that calm the peripheral nervous system.” The Mayo Clinic website identifies massage as a valid medical method to reduce stress and pain. It goes on to say, “Massage reduced anxiety in depressed children and anorexic women. It also reduced anxiety and withdrawal symptoms in adults trying to quit smoking.” In fact there are many studies that have proven the effectiveness of massage in reducing stress in various situations: In October 2008 the journal Psychooncology published a study entitled, “Massage in patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy reduces serum cortisol and prolactin.” The conclusion of the study stated, “…a significant reduction in cortisol (stress hormone) could be safely achieved through massage, with associated improvement in psychological well-being.” In May 2008 The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry published a study entitled, “Pilot study evaluating the effect of massage therapy on stress, anxiety and aggression in a young adult psychiatric inpatient unit.” The study concluded that “Massage therapy had immediate beneficial effects on anxiety-related measures.” Below is a part of an abstract from a study of massage for stressed employees: Shulman, K.R. & Jones, G.E. (1996). The effectiveness of massage therapy intervention on reducing anxiety in the work place. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 32, 160-173. METHOD: An on-site chair massage therapy program was provided to reduce anxiety levels of 18 employees in a downsizing organization. 15 control group Ss participated in break therapy. Subjects’ stress levels were measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, which was administered twice during pretest, post test, and delayed post test to achieve stable measures. RESULTS: Significant reductions in anxiety levels were found for the massage group. The above are just a few of the dozens of clinical studies proving the effectiveness of massage therapy in treating stress related disorders. Yes, massage therapy is a proven, mainstream, medically based, non evasive way to physically reduce harmful levels of stress hormones in the body while increasing levels of endorphins. Add to this the additional benefits of massage therapy including the reduction of general muscle tension and pain and you may find that massage therapy can be the treatment of choice in dealing with everyday stress. Important: Stress can be a very serious medical disorder. Always consult with a trained physician or mental health professional if you suffer from stress, anxiety, or depression.

IM BLESSED TO HAVE THE ENEMIES=>>>>my bible says Darius appointed a high officer 2 rule over other province, he chose Daniel & 2 others s administrators 2 supervise da high officers & protect da king's interests, it says the other administrators & high officers beggin 2 search 4 fault in da way Daniel ws handling government affairs, but they cudn't find anythng 2 critisise or condemn, he was faithful, always responsible & completely trust worthy "Daniel 6 vs 1-5" let me 1st start by saying, we prays God wu is always on our side even when our enemies r gvng us a hard time, we prays God wu is always on r side even when we r being thrown in da pit by da circumstances of life, we prays God wu is always on r side even when we r being mixed wth da dangerous enemies called da lions of life, We prays God wu is always on r side even wen afta hitting da floor inside da pit "he is alwys ther 2 gv us first aid" God wu heals our broken bones of life, God wu shows pwer & 2 those wu r pwerful & commited un2 hm=my bible says Daniel ws chosen out of da chosen 1nce, he was appointed out of da appointed 1nce, he ws a slave but God made hm da pillar of hs own strength so i wanna say 2u, u hv been chosen out of da chosen 1nce, u hv been appointed by da Lord out of da appointed 1nce, u hv been selected in top 3 & out of those selected top 3 God chose u 2b da 1 among da 3, my bible says again da administrators beggin 2 search 4 sm faul un2 Daniel but they cudn't find any becos Daniel ws faithful, my msg is when ppl try 2 search ur life 2 find da fault in ur life, let them nt find da reason 2 put da blame on u, let them find u being faithful & loyal b4 God & ppl, let them find u being cool calm & collected, let them find u in prayer, let them find u in ur church, my bible says ba humana e le gore nthwe ba ka mo swara ka yona ke thapelo "go mo stopa go rapela Modimo" but my bible says Daniel a khuta ka ntlwaneng a rapela raro ka letxatxi & das wer they got hm wer they wanted hm "they found hm ryt on da sport praying un2 God" my msg s, let ppl nt find u stealing but find u whorsiping da name of Jesus, let them nt find u fornicating but find u paying lobola, let them nt find u praying da ancestors but find u calling da name of God, let them nt find u anry & bitter but find u realising da issues of life that haunt u inside wth tears of pains realised by da song of prays, let them nt find u cursing ur life but find u blessing ur life, let them nt find u confused & frustrated but find u in fasting & prayer, let them nt find u cheating ur partner but find u kissing & hugging da only bone of ur bones, flesh of ur flesh, da man wu ws in intensive care unit when u wer taken out of hm,da man wu God hmslf dd operation wen da 2 of u wer born 2b joined togetha spiritually & physically "let them find u being true lovers, Romeo & Julliet, let them find u living a healthy Godly marriage" let them nt find u signing da papers of divorce but find u making peace 2 each ada through da word of God, what eva ppl might try 2 search in ur life, turn them off, let them find u dwn on ur knees crying & calling da name of Jesus "ths msg is brought m going 2 preach abt da whole chapta da wole week 4rm part 1 -5" 2b continued nt yet got 2 my main msg so 4lo me 2mro....>>>

"Atheist statists are hypocrites" Meaning what exactly? Anarchy requires a faith in humanity I don't have, so many idealistic philosophies, personally love the panarchism, but they're just ideals. Government for the people by the people is a good idea and by its nature would not be authoritarian in the way government by the corporation for the corporation is. The system is fine, the engine needs replacing.

Lee County Sheriff's Office Press Release January 14, 2013 Daily Traffic Enforcement Update The Lee County Sheriff's Office Traffic Unit is providing the information listed below in continuing efforts to increase traffic safety awareness and education, plus to emphasize the importance of obeying traffic laws to reduce traffic crashes, injuries and death on Lee County roads. On Tuesday, January 15, 2013, the Traffic Unit will target at least one of the following three locations for enforcement: Corkscrew Road, Estero Michael G. Rippe Parkway (Metro Extension), Fort Myers Immokalee Road (State Road 82), Lehigh Acres Locations are selected based upon high incidents of crashes, traffic surveys and citizen complaints. The Sheriff’s Office is committed to promoting traffic safety and enforcing the law. By focusing on violations such as red light running, speeding, DUI and others, motorists become more alert and are encouraged to obey traffic laws. The Sheriff’s Office Traffic Unit and District Patrol Deputies enforce our traffic laws each day by issuing citations and warnings. Preliminary results from their cumulative activity yesterday are as follows: Citations Issued: 52 Written Warnings Issued: 217 Citizens can help by letting us know if they observe problem areas, aggressive or impaired drivers and by their compliance with the rules of the road. To get in touch with one of our traffic deputies call (239) 477-1000. If you see a reckless or drunk driver while you are traveling in your motor vehicle in Lee County, dial 9-1-1. This traffic enforcement advisory is available each day on the Sheriff’s Office website at www.sheriffleefl.org. Everyone is reminded to “Fasten Your Seat Belts, be courteous to drivers and pedestrians and together we can reduce traffic related fatalities, injuries and property damage. Note: A distracted driver is a dangerous driver. Remember texting, talking on a cell phone, looking for papers or items dropped while driving and many other distractions are proven by researchers as taking your attention away from the road ahead and motorists around you. Become a "determined" driver instead by choosing to be in control of your attention and actions when you’re in the driver’s seat.

Out Homeless Veterans are at risk in this cold weather! There is a tremendous need for new white crew socks, if you can help! Please remember our female veterans! The need for warm socks, gloves, hats is tremendous!! Socks For Homeless Vets Barbie dolls and dress up time Were part of her former world As were puppy dogs and kitty cats The life of a little girl She grew and learned, loved and laughed And saw beyond herself She sought to serve as she grew older And put her dolls up on her shelf She answered the call to serve her country The one that had kept her free She left her family and friends behind She did it for you and me Her training was basic and then more advanced And soon she joined a unit She grew accustomed to her new world Overcoming all struggles known to it Soon she was in a foreign land Full of fanatics, fighting, and fear Her love and awe for the USA Only grew more dear She served with distinction so far away Wounded one day she was She returned back to the land she loved To family, friends, and hugs Her external wounds were on the mend But her inner turmoil grew She found herself a stranger at home There was nothing she could do Soon out on the street she found herself Living all alone So far from her life as a little girl Fighting demons most have not known The VA hospital was there for her They helped her all they could But soon she shuffled out their door Leaving behind their shelter for good No socks were upon her swollen feet So few knew of her plight One who had sacrificed so much for you Was left alone to fight the night You can make a difference You can change a life Donate socks to our homeless vets Because "she" could be your mother, sister, or wife! Written by Robert F. "Bobby" Beall Sergeant, United State Marine Corps, 1976-1980 24 August 2012

Legal Tip (Landlord/Tenant Law): When you move in and out of a residential unit you are leasing you should always take photographs or video to document the condition of the unit. Under California law, a landlord has 21 days to either refund your full security deposit or provide you with an itemized statement that lists any deductions. A rental agreement can NEVER state that a security deposit is non-refundable. By having proof of the condition at move-in and move-out you will have proof in the event (which often happens) that the landlord attempts to charge you for frivolous repairs. Finally, if your security deposit is not returned to you within 21 days, or you are not provided with an itemized invoice of repairs, the landlord must refund the full security deposit regardless of damages.

Posted with permission of Kyle Poplin. . . 04 Jan 2013 Deadly Meds nik Centerpieces, Latest News 5 Comments" class="comment_link">5 Comments Over a few weeks in 2012, U.S. doctors unwittingly injected 14,000 people with toxic fungus. An Ann Arbor hospital became treatment central for patients who came down with rare, deadly fungal meningitis. Story By Lynn Monson - Photos by Benjamin Weatherston This is a maddening story, a sad story, a story that never should have happened. It involves people getting sick and dying when they shouldn’t have. Right here in America, in Michigan, in Washtenaw County, in 2012, as one of the richest countries in the world continues to debate how to provide health care for its citizens. It’s the story of how a rare, life-threatening illness spread through 19 states and how an Ann Arbor hospital became the epicenter in its treatment. Dr. Laskhmi Halasyamani, chief medical officer at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, remembers listening to a National Public Radio story while she was driving home from work one evening in the first week of October. Federal health officials were discussing a puzzling outbreak of fungal meningitis first identified by doctors in Tennessee. Investigators had linked it to 35 illnesses and five deaths in six states. “I don’t think we had any idea what (the initial outbreak) was going to grow into. We were mostly unsure about how to treat these folks.” Dr. Laskhmi Halasyamani chief medical officer at St. Joseph Mercy “Wow, I’m so glad that doesn’t affect us,” she remembers thinking. “I’m so glad I don’t live in Tennessee.” Within 48 hours, St. Joe’s would become a major player in what grew into a national story. Around the country, hundreds would be tested, treated and hospitalized over the next several weeks because a Massachusetts company distributed a spinal steroid contaminated by a fungus. Michigan would have the most cases of fungal meningitis and related spinal infections of any state, almost double the next highest caseload, in Tennessee. By mid-December, St. Joe’s had treated 75 percent of the cases in Michigan and more than 25 percent of the 590 people on the national list. Two Washtenaw County residents - a 61-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman - were among 10 people in Michigan and 37 nationwide who died as of mid-December. Today, three months after the outbreak first hit, the pace has slowed but doctors and staff at St. Joe’s are still treating patients, with no end in sight. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they are writing the book on best practices for a fungal outbreak; at the same time they are writing one of the most important and interesting chapters in the history of the hospital. It was late September when doctors at St. Joe’s, like the doctors in Tennessee, encountered several patients with what seemed like bacterial meningitis, a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease. The symptoms and test results, however, didn’t quite match the usual bacterial meningitis profile. The strange illness became a topic of conversation at staff meetings and in the hallways as doctors conferred and researched the possibilities. Halasyamani was given updates as Drs. Varsha Moudgal and Anurag Malani worked with pathologists Paul Valenstein and Samuel Hirsch, among others, to solve the medical puzzle. Then, suddenly, the pieces began fitting together. It started with a message from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was left after hours on an answering machine at a pain clinic in Brighton on Oct. 2. When staff from the Michigan Pain Specialists arrived for work the next morning, they retrieved a message that was part of a life-and-death nightmare that would envelop thousands of Michigan people - patients, families, doctors, medical staffs and state health officials. The CDC informed Michigan Pain Specialists that it was one of four medical facilities in Michigan (and dozens nationally) that had received tainted vials of methylprednisolone acetate, or MPA, a commonly used injectable steroid that eases back and joint pain. A fungus had been found in MPA manufactured by the New England Compounding Center. The fear was that the tainted injections could cause fungal meningitis. The clinic checked its records and found that 629 of its patients had received the bad meds at its Brighton location from Aug. 9 through Oct. 2, the day the CDC called. MPS began contacting patients and advising that they be checked for fungal meningitis, which requires a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap. The disease is not contagious like its more feared relative, bacterial meningitis, but both types cause swelling of the brain and spine and can be fatal. The fungal version has the same symptoms as bacterial - headache, fever, nausea and neck stiffness - but they are milder at first and take longer to show up, sometimes a month or more. That meant some recipients of the bad steroid shots who were still feeling fine might not understand the importance of being tested. Michigan Pain Specialists is not affiliated with St. Joe’s or its parent Trinity Health, but four of the pain clinic’s five doctors are on the St. Joe’s staff: Edward Washabaugh, Lou Bojrab, John Chatas and Alex Shalhoub. That familiarity with the hospital and its staff, along with the need to consolidate and focus expertise on this unusual and developing outbreak, led MPS to steer its 629 patients to St. Joe’s, though some chose other options. Only the Brighton office of MPS used the tainted steroids; they weren’t used at its Ypsilanti and Adrian offices. The other three Michigan facilities that received the tainted steroid shots were the Michigan Neurosurgical Institute in Grand Blanc, Neuromuscular and Rehabilitation in Traverse City and the Southeast Michigan Surgical Hospital in Warren. Although the Michigan Department of Community Health has not released a breakdown of the number of illnesses attributed to each location, the Brighton MPS clinic apparently had by far the most patients who were affected. A few national news stories appeared on Oct. 3, focusing on the supposedly small regional outbreak discovered by doctors at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The next day the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration went public, declaring that it was a much more widespread public health emergency that included clinics in Michigan and many other states. Between the MPS alert and the CDC announcement, doctors at St. Joe’s confirmed that their earlier patients with the strange meningitis symptoms were part of the fungal outbreak. Oct. 5, the hospital announced it was treating six fungal meningitis patients and the media alerted the public that Michigan had joined the national outbreak. MPS continued to call its patients and the hospital staff scrambled to learn as much as it could about the outbreak and how to treat fungal meningitis. If doctors usually open the treatment literature and turn to time-tested recommendations for an unfamiliar illness they’ve encountered, this time they found little advice. “The fungi found in both patients and in recalled vials are common in the environment but were not recognized as a cause of meningitis before this outbreak,” the CDC says on its website. People occasionally contract fungal infections - think athlete’s foot or yeast infections - but usually the fungus has arrived on the skin or by spores entering the lungs. This was much different. As Halasyamani succinctly put it, “We don’t go around injecting pathogens into people.” But that’s exactly what had happened: A fungus had been directly injected into the spinal area of 14,000 people around the country. Questions began multiplying like the infections. Definitive answers were elusive. Did all the patients receive the same level of toxic fungus? Don’t know. Will analyzing spinal fluid from a lumbar puncture tell us who has fungal meningitis? Yes, but a patient with an initial clean result may develop the disease later. Which of the two main anti-fungal drugs works best? Depends. Should patients receive both? Probably. Why are some patients reporting meningitis symptoms but many are not? Don’t know. Should we start them on the drugs even if they feel fine? Probably not. How long will the patients have to take the anti-fungal drugs? Don’t know. Are the anti-fungal drugs compatible with other medications patients are already taking for other conditions? Frequently not. What consequences will that have for the patients’ health? We’ll have to wait and see. Those were only a few of the questions hanging in the air on Oct. 5, as the first MPS patients started showing up at the St. Joe’s emergency department. A moderate stream over the weekend turned into a flood that next Monday, Oct. 8, forcing the hospital to implement its system-wide emergency “incident command structure,” which involves regular conference calls of key players across the hospital. “I don’t think we had any idea what (the initial outbreak) was going to grow into,” Halasyamani said. “We were mostly unsure about how to treat these folks. And we began to see more and more patients presenting to the emergency department with headache and concerning symptoms. We quickly had to mobilize resources to do over 250 lumbar punctures.” Jennifer Dunn, director of emergency services, said it was difficult in the first days to get a grip on the scope of what the hospital would be dealing with, both in terms of precise treatments and how many patients would be showing up. “(Early on) there really weren’t clear indications who should get the (spinal) tap,” Dunn said. “(Patients were told to) come if you’re symptomatic … if you have a headache or back or neck pain. Well, they all do, they always do … they have pain all the time, they’re not sure if it’s different.” In a few days that confusion was cleared up by a decision: Give every fungal patient a spinal tap. More than 370 were given in the first month, including 66 on a single day. St. Joe’s ED has lots of rooms - 64 - but it wasn’t enough in the first few days. “When you have 110 (or) 120 patients, the rest are in the waiting room and in the halls,” Dunn said. “All you can think of is, oh my gosh, they are so afraid, they’re upset, they’re fearful. They want an answer and (we’re) struggling because this is all new to us. And it was changing almost by the hour.” For example, a typical meningitis test requires that about 9 cubic centimeters of fluid be withdrawn during the lumbar puncture, Dunn said. So that’s the amount the staff collected at first; the hospital lab tested the fluid while the patients waited for the results. But then the CDC said it also wanted a sample from each patient, so Dunn had to alert the staff to withdraw 30cc, which takes longer and extends the waiting time in the ED. Oct. 8 had been “chaos in a not-so-organized way,” Dunn said, but she and her staff figured out how to streamline the process over the next few days. A key part was assigning teams that would focus exclusively on the various tasks required for the fungal patients. Depending on the day and time, normal emergency room staffing is between 50 and 70 doctors, nurses and technicians per shift; during the fungal crunch, it was increased to 90. Other hospital departments offered help as it was needed, Dunn said. If the lab analysis of a spinal tap indicated meningitis, the patient was hospitalized. If the spinal tap results were negative, the patient was sent home and told to monitor their health and report back if headaches or the other symptoms appeared. Through mid-December, 53 patients were hospitalized with spinal meningitis. The degrees of their illness varied because every person reacts differently to a dose of fungus. Likewise, each patient varies in their reaction to the two main anti-fungal drugs, voriconazole and amphotericin B, which are given by intravenous solution. Depending on which combination of the highly toxic drugs the patients take, they can develop liver and kidney problems, electrolyte imbalances, irregular heartbeats, flank pain, stroke, hallucinations, sensitivity to light, an extreme shaking condition called rigor and other allergic reactions. Some patients can handle the full dosage of the drugs; some must have lower dosages, which slows their recovery; some can tolerate only one. Some of the meningitis patients could leave the hospital after a week or maybe two, usually continuing to take voriconazole in capsule form at home. In one of the more extreme cases, a meningitis patient was still hospitalized in December after 65 days. Determining whether a fungal meningitis patient is recovering or ready to go home is difficult, according to Dr. David Vandenberg, director of the Fungal Outbreak Clinic that St. Joe’s established to track the patients. “Is the patient subjectively feeling better? Is their fever gone? Are their vital signs OK? Are their presenting complaints - headache, stiff neck, light sensitivity - better? A lot of that is subjective on the patient’s part,” Vandenberg said. “The other technical thing we can do is repeat their lumbar puncture, their spinal tap. The problem is we don’t know how quickly that is going to clear, so we’re actually not sure how to interpret the results. If a week into therapy or (in) two weeks we repeat the spinal tap, and they originally had 2,000 white blood cells in their first sample and now it’s 1,000, that’s probably better. But it’s not clear. If they had 2,000 and now it’s zero, does that mean they’re cured? Almost certainly it doesn’t.” Early on, the hospital started a daily in-house conference call that sometimes included as many as 50 doctors, staffers and administrators. They shared information on new admissions, treatment possibilities, health alerts and so on. Halasyamani said the calls were crucial because of the constant developments, the lack of previous case histories, the sheer scope of what they had to deal with. Because St. Joe’s was treating more fungal patients than any hospital in the country, it was gaining new treatment knowledge and becoming a resource for others in the state and nationally. While St. Joe’s was handling the majority of Michigan patients treated by mid-December (159 out of 214), the other 55 were being cared for at seven other hospitals around the state, including the University of Michigan Medical Center, which treated 15. Carol Kauffman, a U-M doctor and medical school professor who is also on the staff of the Ann Arbor VA hospital, shared her expertise in anti-fungal therapy with St. Joe’s. She also was the lead author of an article about the outbreak published on the website of The New England Journal of Medicine on Oct. 19. It detailed the outbreak origins and discussed symptoms, analysis of spinal fluid, treatment options and anti-fungal drugs. By early November, meningitis seemed to be under control, but a new problem emerged. MSP patients, many of whom were at home with no other symptoms, began complaining of pain at the site of the steroid injection they had received many weeks or months previously. Some were or had been meningitis patients; some were not. Using MRI’s, doctors discovered that the body was forming abscesses to wall off the fungus that had been injected. The abscesses usually have a liquid center, like a pimple, and the infection begins eating away at surrounding tissue. Antibiotics won’t work so patients were admitted, started on the anti-fungal drugs and scheduled for surgery. Surgeons drain the abscess and remove the damaged tissue. In some cases, the fungus attaches itself to a bone in the spine or lower area, and must be scraped away. Since most of the steroid shots were given for back pain near the spine, abscess patients ended up undergoing the very back surgery they were trying to avoid by taking the steroid shots, Vandenberg said. Abscess patients usually stayed in the hospital for five to seven days. By early December, St. Joe’s had given 400-some MRI’s, with about 20 percent finding abscesses. The new batch of abscess patients admitted to St. Joe’s topped 100 by mid-December, pushing the total number of fungal-related admissions to 159 since the start of the outbreak. The high point at any one time was 79 on Nov. 16; by December the average number of fungal patients at the hospital hovered around 40 or 50. Fungal patients caused the hospital to reach and stay near its 537-bed capacity for weeks, prompting staffing and facility problems. Extra beds were opened with equipment provided by St. Joe’s sister hospitals. The state health department approved fast-track Certificates of Need for additional operating rooms and a mobile MRI to supplement the hospital’s existing units. Extra nurses came from St. Joe’s sister hospitals in Michigan and Ohio; the Michigan nurse-licensing agency quickly authorized the Ohio nurses to practice in Michigan. Up on the patient floors, the nurses, patient care technicians and other staffers quickly realized that everything had changed. These new fungal patients would be staying longer than most, their medications were more complicated and time-consuming to administer and their reactions to the medication varied widely. Progress in defeating this little-known illness was anything but steady; patients would show improvement for a while, then have a setback. Hannah Gillmer, a charge nurse on the floor known as 5 North, said nurses like to understand exactly what’s going on and answer patients’ every question, but that isn’t possible with this little-known illness. “We’re giving these medications to the patients … and they’re asking, ‘Why are my potassium levels all over the board? Why are my legs swelling up?’” Gillmer said. “We know answers to some of the questions, but not all of them. But just by their nature, too, nurses like to try to find the answers to those things, so it’s been a challenge.” The nurses worked longer shifts, extra days, weekends, often with visiting nurses who needed help transitioning to St. Joe’s routine. As the hospital reached capacity it tried to group the patients together but often a few would be added to a floor usually devoted to other types of patients. That added to the challenge for nurses because of the fungal patients’ unique needs and treatments. For example, administering the anti-fungal IV’s requires a longer, more complicated and precisely timed set of actions than most medications. That meant a nurse couldn’t deal with as many patients per shift as normal, which affected staffing. The up and down nature of the patients’ improvement has been one of the most difficult parts, Gillmer said. “I’ve probably never thought so much about work when I’m not at work. I think most if not every nurse on our unit would say the same thing. You think about these people and when they have a bad day, it kind of resonates with you a little bit more because, wow, they’ve had a really good week. And then what’s going on? … They’re having a really bad day. Or they were just about to get to go home and then this happens. You just feel a little more involved, I think.” As St. Joseph Mercy enters its fourth month of dealing with the fungal outbreak, doctors and staff know the story will continue for years. More patients will develop abscesses, existing patients will linger with the illness, unpredictable complications will develop, long-term consequences will emerge. Halasyamani, the chief medical officer, says the doctors and staff have moved from the acute “Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?” stage to the more chronic “This is going to be with us for a while” stage. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? That implies there is an end and there really won’t be one, Halasyamani says. She prefers to think of it as the staff gaining enough new knowledge to light the tunnel where they are and move forward each day, putting up more lights as they go. “Unclear about where the tunnel ends and when it will end,” she said. ‘I’m in so much pain’ - One family’s meningitis nightmare Penny Laperriere gave the hospital permission to unplug the life support for her husband, Lyn, two days before they would have celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary and six days before his 62nd birthday. Penny and Lyn had planned to go to Mackinac Island on their anniversary; instead, Penny gathered with family and friends at an Ypsilanti funeral home to hold a memorial celebration of Lyn’s life. In September he was a happy retiree, accomplished bowler, dog lover and good husband. In October he was dead. Lyn Laperriere is one of 10 Michigan residents who died of complications from the fungal meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated steroid shots. Like 628 other people, he was treated at the Brighton office of Michigan Pain Specialists. He got his usual shot for back pain on Sept. 6, Penny said. The first inkling of a problem, in hindsight, was on Sept. 18 when he complained of balance problems while bowling. An excellent bowler with a 200 average, he had refined his hobby to nearly a science with extensive records and knowledge of his performance. His bowling scores dived and in the next few days he had cramps in his legs and couldn’t unbend his fingers. In the next week he had headaches so severe that he finally agreed on Sept. 25 to go to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. This was before public health officials figured out that tainted steroids had caused an outbreak of fungal meningitis. Lyn was tested extensively at St. Joe’s but doctors couldn’t determine what was causing his headaches. He was released on Sept. 30 with pain medication and a nurse was scheduled to make a home visit. By Oct. 3, he was in such misery that he called Penny and told her, “I feel like I’m going to die, I’m in so much pain.” She called an ambulance and he returned to St. Joe’s on the exact day that Michigan Pain Specialists learned of the steroid contamination. The news broke nationally the following day that the strange meningitis symptoms reported at numerous hospitals were tied to the fungal outbreak. At last the mystery was solved and Penny was relieved that Lyn would get the appropriate treatment and would recover. But it didn’t work that way. Lyn had an allergic reaction to one of the anti-fungal drugs so it was discontinued. He wasn’t eating, had no energy and would lose his balance when taking exercise walks down the hall. He didn’t seem to be improving over the next 10 days or so. On Oct. 15, Lyn’s elderly parents and one of his sisters arrived from Florida and spent a couple of hours with him. As they were driving home, the hospital called Penny on her cell and told her she should return to the hospital because they were in the process of trying to resuscitate Lyn. The medical team succeeded, but the next day tests confirmed that Lyn was brain dead, kept alive only by machines. Penny and her family waited a day and then gave permission to end life support on Oct. 17. Penny talks about her husband’s illness and death because she wants the public - particularly lawmakers and drug regulators - to be better informed about the issues connected to the fungal outbreak. She hopes to start a support group for families of patients who were affected. She said she was making her way through the grief process as best as she could, and hadn’t reached the angry stage until she saw the Congressional testimony of the owner of the Massachusetts company that distributed the tainted steroids. “I’m angry with the owners of this place for their arrogance. They shipped the stuff out without testing it. It’s all about the money, the bottom line. And when I saw that guy on TV … and he pleaded the Fifth (Amendment) … he just looked arrogant. You can’t even say that you’re sorry to people that you did this to?” The names of the other nine Michigan people who died have not been released by public health officials because of patient privacy laws, although a couple of families, like Penny Laperriere, have identified their loved ones. The state health department has released only the age, gender and county of residence of the deceased. The ages of the nine women and one man range from 50 to 88. Four lived in Livingston County, two in Washtenaw and one each in Ingham, Charlevoix, Wayne and Genesee. (The CDC lists the deaths of three other Michigan residents with Indiana statistics because that’s where they were treated.) It’s not clear how many of the Michigan deaths were patients from Michigan Pain Specialists; three other Michigan facilities also received the tainted meds but apparently treated far fewer patients with them. Early in the outbreak, on Oct. 11, MPS posted a patient advisory on its website that included an acknowledgment that three of its patients had died. The patient view - An insurance glitch wreaks havoc Diane Werda’s hallucinations were so vivid that she gestured toward a spot in the hospital room and told her husband, Alan, that two cats were sitting there. There aren’t any cats, he told her, wondering for a moment if she was losing her mind. A month later, as they sit in the living room of their comfortable condo in Canton, Alan laughs at the memory. He knows now that the hallucinations were a side effect of voriconazole, the highly toxic medication she is taking to kill a fungus that is growing inside her body. A doctor told her that, strangely, animals are frequently in the hallucinations of patients taking that particular drug. But she’s also seen “green, alien-like things,” bright purple lines and other flashing colors, and she continues to have vivid dreams that cause her to thrash in her sleep. This is not how retirement was supposed to go for the former Ann Arbor residents, who are in their mid-60s and have been married for 46 years. Things changed drastically on Oct. 5 when Diane and Alan learned that they were among 629 people who had received back injections with a contaminated steroid at the Brighton office of Michigan Pain Specialists. Initial tests for fungal meningitis were negative for both, but follow-up MRI’s showed Diane had a spinal abscess. She was hospitalized Nov. 3 at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor and spent a miserable week in the hospital suffering extreme headaches, sweats, chills and hallucinations. Although most abscess patients have surgery to clean out the infection and scrape fungus off of bone, doctors determined that Diane’s abscess was too difficult to reach. She is back home, taking a capsule form of voriconazole and scheduled for future MRI’s that doctors hope will show the abscess is receding. As for Alan, inexplicably, he has no symptoms. He received his tainted steroid shot on Sept. 4 as part of a longstanding treatment for back pain; Diane’s was on Sept. 13, for back and hip pain. Alan said his pre-existing headaches (tied to back and other health problems) may have gotten slightly worse after the shot, but he hasn’t had any fungal symptoms yet. Diane, by contrast, started having debilitating headaches and knew something was wrong. But it was hard to pinpoint - until they learned of the tainted steroid shot. Diane’s days now revolve around making sure she takes her many medications - for other medical issues as well - in the right order and at the right time. She tires easily, still has headaches and hallucinations, and even lost her enthusiasm for putting up Christmas decorations in December. She is basically on hold, waiting to see if the anti-fungal drug will work. In the meantime, even though Alan has no fungal-related problems at the moment, his life is being seriously affected as well, even beyond the worry about and care of Diane. Since he could have late-emerging fungal problems, doctors told him that he shouldn’t have any other medical procedures for a while. He had already scheduled cataract surgery on both eyes in November and knee surgery in December. Those were canceled, as were plans for some dental work. Alan says their ordeal resulted from an insurance glitch. For several years they had gone to the Ann Arbor location of MPS for their steroid shots. When MPS closed that office and opened a new one in Forest Health Medical Center in Ypsilanti, the couple wanted to use the new location, which is closer to their home. But the Ypsi office didn’t accept the Werdas’ University of Michigan insurance plan. That meant the Werdas had to drive to MSP’s Brighton office. It turned out that only the Brighton office of MSP had received the tainted steroids; patients treated at MSP’s Ypsi office had nothing to worry about. Fungal meningitis outbreak May 21 through Oct. 2, 2012 - Medical facilities in 23 states give an estimated 14,000 people injections of a steroid that is contaminated by a fungus. The medication, used mostly to treat back pain, was manufactured in Massachusetts by the New England Compounding Center. September - Doctors at Vanderbilt University in Nashville treat several patients for what appears to be bacterial meningitis, but it doesn’t conform to the usual symptoms and treatments. Doctors at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor notice similar symptoms in several patients and are also uncertain of the diagnosis. The Tennessee doctors eventually make a link between the patients and steroid shots; further research reveals the steroids came from NECC and contained a fungus. First week of October - NECC and public health officials recall the steroids and notify medical facilities that received the tainted lots. Doctors are told to test patients for fungal meningitis. Wednesday, Oct. 3 - The Brighton office of Michigan Pain Specialists learns it is one of four clinics in Michigan that received the tainted steroids. It begins notifying 629 patients who received the injections, recommending they go to St. Joe’s in Ann Arbor to be tested. Friday, Oct. 5 - State health officials report that two Michigan residents have died because of the tainted steroids. St. Joe’s reports it is treating six patients for fungal meningitis. That evening, patients who were called by MPS, or heard about the outbreak on the news, begin arriving at the St. Joe’s emergency room. They are given lumbar punctures, also known as spinal taps, to test for the fungal meningitis. Those who test positive are admitted to the hospital. Saturday, Oct. 6, and Sunday, Oct. 7 - More patients arrive at St. Joe’s and have spinal taps. Some have headaches and other symptoms; others have no symptoms but are tested as a precaution. Monday, Oct. 8 - The busiest day at the St. Joe’s Emergency Department. The rest of this week is only slightly less busy. St. Joe’s by now has initiated its emergency procedure, known as “incident command structure,” called in additional staff and ordered additional supplies. The rest of October - A steady stream of fungal meningitis patients and tests are handled at the hospital. The new patients push the 537-bed facility to its capacity. At the high point, 79 of the hospital’s admitted patients were for fungal meningitis and related infections. November - A second type of health issue emerges - spinal abscesses at the site of the steroid injection - creating a new wave of patients. They are given MRI’s to locate the abscess, then surgery is usually required to clean it out or scrape the fungus off bone near the injection site. The Michigan Department of Community Health expedites permission to open more operating rooms and to add a mobile MRI unit at St. Joe’s. St. Joe’s sister hospitals loan nurses and extra equipment. December - The number of new patients slows, but earlier patients are now returning for follow-up exams and more or different medications at a Fungal Outbreak Clinic created by St. Joe’s in an empty office suite. It gives patients one-stop access for their treatment. [top] About the Author nik Disqus Like Dislike liked this. Login Add New Comment Showing 6 comments Lschrock1 I am trying to start a support group for people suffering with this life altering condition resulting from the fungal meningitis/infections. Is anyone aware of one already started? I created a facebook page called "Tainted Injection Victims 2012" if you'd like to blog there. My sister has been suffering for nearly six months now. God Bless to all!! Like Reply 0 minutes ago Rudra N Rebbapragada The Dead teach the Living: Thanks for sharing this story. What have we learned from this tragic experience? I would like to understand the therapeutic guidelines that are used in the selection of a steroid medication for back pain relief. From the story it appears that these victims are routinely administered these injections. Pain is a symptom and it does not describe the underlying condition generating the pain symptom. Steroid will not provide a cure as it will not alter the underlying disease process. Steroids reduce the inflammatory response and thus impact an individual's immune response to an infectious agent. In elderly individuals whose immune functions are on decline, the use of steroid would pose some risks of its own. It is not surprising to read that several of these victims had developed abscesses at the injected sites. It is expected because of the nature of this long-acting medication which remains at the injected site reducing the tissue response. Now, I would like to hear as to how the problem of pain is being addressed among the survivors of this fungal infection. Like Reply 1 week ago 1 Like Rudra N Rebbapragada GRIEF AND SYMPATHY: Thanks for your very kind response and for sharing personal information. You may have seen the photo image of this medication that was dispensed in amber-colored vials. The New York Times and others have reported that fluffy material, or brown and black specks are visible to the naked eye examination in several of the vials that were recalled and returned. It allows us to speculate that there could be visible signs of contamination while the drug is being injected as the procedure is slowly performed. In the presence of an underlying structural defect, we have to exercise due caution to improve the functional performance. It would be judicious to reduce functional activity to cope with the problem of pain. However, at a fundamental level, all types of pain, physical, and emotional trauma require the divine healing mechanism called mercy, grace, and compassion. If my words are of any use, I express my sense of pain for the grief you have experienced. The Lord God had to suffer and die to share the burden of human misery. Like Reply 1 week ago lynswife My husband suffered from spinal and cranial stenosis. Eventually he would have needed surgery to correct the problem. His was an inherited condition. His mother has had two back surgeries for this condition. My husband had been receiving epidural shots for several years, in his back and/or neck depending on his level of pain in each area. The shots helped his pain level tremendously. The shots gave him his quality of life back, and he was able to walk, bowl, drag race, etc. with reduced or no pain. Previously, my husband also had physical therapy to help with the pain. As long as the medication is clean and TESTED pure BEFORE being distributed, the injections would have continued until surgery would have been needed as a last resort. Had we known about pharmaceutical compound agencies and how they are supposed to make one vial per one patient's prescription, and if we had known the drug was not FDA approved, we would have chosen option two: an FDA approved drug. But we did not know any of this information, and we were not given any options. You just trust that medications are clean and safe and tested as such. But, we all know the end result here. My husband is dead due to fungal meningitis. Other patients have died. Hundreds more are still suffering, or have epidural abscesses and are also suffering. Still thousands more may be suffering at some time in the future, but it is unknown at this time who these patients might be. Scary for the unknown patients. My husband was in the hospital for 3 weeks suffering from severe painful headaches. He was on Delaudin every 4 hours by i.v. This did not eliminate his headaches completely, but made them more tolerable. Rudra, hopefully doctors are not or were not injecting steroids into people unless there was a reason. Hopefully the shots were one of the last resorts used to alleviate pain in patients. Sincerely, Lyn's grieving widow Like Reply 1 week ago Rudra N Rebbapragada PAIN AND COMPASSION - THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE : The problem of pain must be approached under the influence of an emotional instinct called 'compassion' as it acts like an uplifting force providing a sense of joy to the victim easing the burden of pain. The victim under the spell of compassion learns to become pain tolerant, and pain resistant, and finds physical, and emotional relief with minimal therapeutic interventions. http://Bhavanajagat.com/2010/0... Like Reply 1 week ago Jim McBee Thanks for the comment, Rudra. From a 'news analysis' in the NYT: "experts say, the now notorious Compounding Center has a nationwide network of unwitting enablers and accomplices: There are the doctors who overprescribe an invasive back-pain therapy that, in studies, has not proved useful for many of the patients who get it." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11... Like Reply 1 week ago M Subscribe by email S RSS About Contact Latest News Purchase Ads Copyright © 2012 The Ann, Inc. Powered by Aysling

History Suggests That Entitlement Era Is Winding Down By Michael Barone Click if you like this column! Sign-Up It's often good fun and sometimes revealing to divide American history into distinct periods of uniform length. In working on my forthcoming book on American migrations, internal and immigrant, it occurred to me that you could do this using the American-sounding interval of 76 years, just a few years more than the Biblical lifespan of three score and 10. It was 76 years from Washington's First Inaugural in 1789 to Lincoln's Second Inaugural in 1865. It was 76 years from the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 to the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Going backward, it was 76 years from the First Inaugural in 1789 to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which settled one of the British-French colonial wars. And going 76 years back from Utrecht takes you to 1637, when the Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies were just getting organized. As for our times, we are now 71 years away from Pearl Harbor. The current 76-year interval ends in December 2017. Each of these 76-year periods can be depicted as a distinct unit. In the colonial years up to 1713, very small numbers of colonists established separate cultures that have persisted to our times. The story is brilliantly told in David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed." For a more downbeat version, read the recent "The Barbarous Years" by the nonagenarian Bernard Bailyn. From 1713 to 1789, the colonies were peopled by much larger numbers of motley and often involuntary settlers -- slaves, indentured servants, the unruly Scots-Irish on the Appalachian frontier. For how this society became dissatisfied with the colonial status quo, read Bailyn's "Ideological Origins of the American Revolution." From 1789 to 1865, Americans sought their manifest destiny by expanding across the continent. They made great technological advances but were faced with the irreconcilable issue of slavery in the territories. For dueling accounts of the period, read the pro-Andrew Jackson Democrat Sean Wilentz's "The Rise of American Democracy" and the pro-Henry Clay Whig Daniel Walker Howe's "What Hath God Wrought." Both are sparklingly written and full of offbeat insights and brilliant apercus. The 1865-1941 period saw a vast efflorescence of market capitalism, European immigration and rising standards of living. For descriptions of how economic change reshaped the nation and its government, read Morton Keller's "Affairs of State and Regulating a New Society." The 70-plus years since 1941 have seen a vast increase in the welfare safety net and governance by cooperation between big units -- big government, big business, big labor -- that began in the New Deal and gained steam in and after World War II. I immodestly offer my own "Our Country: The Shaping of America From Roosevelt to Reagan." The original arrangements in each 76-year period became unworkable and unraveled toward its end. Eighteenth-century Americans rejected the colonial status quo and launched a revolution and established a constitutional republic. Nineteenth-century Americans went to war over expansion of slavery. Early 20th-century Americans grappled with the collapse of the private sector economy in the Depression of the 1930s. We are seeing something like this again today. The welfare state arrangements that once seemed solid are on the path to unsustainability. Entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- are threatening to gobble up the whole government and much of the private sector, as well. Lifetime employment by one big company represented by one big union is a thing of the past. People who counted on corporate or public sector pensions are seeing them default. Looking back, we are as far away in time today from victory in World War II in 1945 as Americans were at the time of the Dred Scott decision from the First Inaugural. We are as far away in time today from passage of the Social Security in 1935 as Americans then were from the launching of post-Civil War Reconstruction. Nevertheless our current president and most politicians of his party seem determined to continue the current welfare state arrangements -- historian Walter Russell Mead calls this the blue state model -- into the indefinite future. Some leaders of the other party are advancing ideas for adapting a system that worked reasonably well in an industrial age dominated by seemingly eternal big units into something that can prove workable in an information age experiencing continual change and upheaval wrought by innovations in the market economy. The current 76-year period is nearing its end. What will come next?

ROMA (WSI) - È la novità fiscale del 2013: il redditometro, nuovo strumento dell’ Agenzia delle Entrate per contrastare il fenomeno dell’evasione. Che da subito si è attirato le critiche dei tecnici e i timori dei contribuenti. A essere messi sotto la lente dei funzionari del Fisco saranno i redditi relativi agli anni di imposta a partire dal 2009 (quindi per le dichiarazioni dal 2010). Le verifiche fatte utilizzando il redditometro partiranno invece da marzo. Come funziona Grazie a un più efficace incrocio tra le informazioni delle diverse banche dati della pubblica amministrazione e a oltre cento diverse voci di spesa, sarà più facile stimare il reddito e confrontarlo con quanto effettivamente speso. E non si tratta solo di beni di lusso come aerei, yacht o gioielli: a finire nel redditometro sono anche spese «innocue» come il pagamento di asili nido o master universitari, abbonamenti alla pay tv o donazioni in beneficenza. Insomma, tutto quanto possa mettere in luce una discrepanza tra quanto si dichiara e il proprio tenore di vita. La funzione matematica alla base del redditometro prende come riferimento cinque aree geografiche (Nord-Est, Nord-Ovest, Centro, Sud, Isole), undici tipi di nuclei familiari (famiglie con figli o senza, monoparentali, nuclei giovani o meno giovani) e oltre cento voci di spesa divise in sette categorie. I redditi dichiarati verranno confrontati con le spese sostenute nell’anno di riferimento. In caso di incompatibilità scatteranno le verifiche, ma solo in presenza di scostamenti tra spese e reddito significativi, superiori al 20%. Ma il redditometro non è l’unica novità di cui i contribuenti dovranno tenere conto. Beni in uso a familiari e soci Entro il 31 marzo, ad esempio, si dovrà comunicare l’elenco dei beni in uso ai soci. La misura riguarda gli imprenditori che devono rendere noti i dati anagrafici dei soci o dei familiari che hanno ricevuto in godimento i beni dell’impresa. Una norma che ben si integra con l’impianto del redditometro che prevede una giustificazione per le spese sostenute e della provenienza dei redditi relativi. L’obbligo della comunicazione si estende anche ai finanziamenti e alle capitalizzazioni effettuati dai soci nei confronti della società concedente. Non vanno denunciati beni e finanziamenti il cui valore sia inferiore ai 3 mila euro, a meno che non rientrino nelle categorie "autovettura, unità da diporto, aeromobile, immobile". I dati sui conti correnti In primavera, anche se non è ancora possibile stabilire una data, scatterà un altro provvedimento molto temuto: la comunicazione da parte delle banche dei conti correnti dei clienti. Finora si aspettava il via libera del Garante per la privacy (che ha espresso parere positivo). Adesso spetta al direttore dell’Agenzia delle Entrate, Attilio Befera, firmare il provvedimento che stabilirà le date entro cui le banche dovranno provvedere all’adempimento e attraverso quale canale di invio. Elenco clienti e fornitori L’ultima novità riguarda la reintroduzione dell’obbligo per le società di tenere un elenco di clienti e fornitori. Doveva entrare in vigore ad aprile, poi si è deciso per un rinvio in attesa di risolvere alcuni problemi tecnici e discutere le modalità con le quali reintrodurlo. La ratio del provvedimento è quella di tracciare tutti i rapporti economici di un’impresa. Il 2013 si annuncia quindi ricco di "comunicazioni" con l’Agenzia delle entrate. Il contraddittorio riguarderà però in particolare il redditometro. Poiché la legge prevede che spetterà al contribuente l’onere della prova per dimostrare che le spese sono state finanziate con redditi diversi da quelli posseduti nel periodo d’imposta oppure che sono esenti o frutto di eredità. Inoltre sarà contestabile il totale delle spese attribuite dal fisco. Un’ardua battaglia: il destino del contribuente (evasore oppure onesto pagatore di tasse) dipenderà da studi statistici, magari difficilmente contestabili o considerabili non pertinenti al proprio caso specifico. Il contenuto di questo articolo, pubblicato da La Stampa - che ringraziamo - esprime il pensiero dell' autore e non necessariamente rappresenta la linea editoriale di Wall Street Italia, che rimane autonoma e indipendente. Copyright © La Stampa. All rights reserved

Idreesiya corporation is a completely vertical unit. The company is engaged in servicing global home textile market. Brief introduction of the company's capabilities are as under:- Spinning units: Engaged in producing Ne30's yarn counts and finer. The in-house production of yarn ensures consistent continuity and performance which is vital for hospitality Business and high thread count co lour consistency. Air jet weaving: The company has its own 140 Air jet weaving looms producing percales, satin, Satin Strip, Debbie's and high quality Jacquard fabrics both loom state as well as yarn dyed/fancy yarns. The weaving facility is totally dedicated to servicing Home textile finished Business and committed to ensure timely and consistent fabrics. Cone dyeing: Company's In house facility of yarn dyeing not only provides good quality dyed yarn but also provides unique diversification to our product line such as up to six co lour yarn dyed stripes, checks, Debbie's and most significantly Jacquard fabrics. Processing unit: comprises of two continuous Bleaching ranges, three 16 co lour rotary machines and a continuous thermosol Range. The current Dyeing capacity is 2.0 million meters a month and a printing capacity of 3.0 million meters a month. The company has a plan in place to put the most modern panel in place to put to put the most modern panel printing machine, functional within year 2008. Embroidery machines: The company has a size able capacity to produce multi needle embroidery products. Quilting and wading facilities; are most modern and massive. Currently there are over 18 quilters in production producing channel and Miltie needle Comforters and bed spreads Consuming in house produced wading hence ensuring cost effectiveness of the high quality products. Stitching facility: The company has a very efficient and high tech stitching facility divided up into several stitching units involved in producing, Specialized products ensuring a very high quality of work men ship. The current capacity of the cut n sew is over 4.0 million meters a month. The company has a vast range of home textile products such as Bed in a bag, Room in a bag,sheet sets, Quilt sets,Duvets & shams, Curtains & accessories, Table linen & Kitchen linen and a wide range Of embellished & decorative products. Please send us new inquires along with Specs and we will give you very competitive prices. Products Range: Our products range consists of Home Textiles, Hospital apparel, as well as Hospital and Hotel linen. We manufacture printed fabrics, dyed fabrics, 100% cotton and blended plain weave, twills, drills, sateen, duck, and dobby design. We specialize in percales of 40/s and finer yarns as well as sateen in wider width. We manufacture Bed linen for the prestigious brands and designers with a complete coordination range of bed sets, duvets sets, bed in a bag, pillows, ticking/shells cushion and pillows ticking (for both fiber and feather fillings), comforters shells, shower curtains, curtains, 100% cotton flannel sheet and pillow case, embroidered bed sets, mattress, and pillow protectors, kitchen accessories, table linen, and napkins. Health Care: Our health care products include: Maternity dresses, uniforms, lab coats, nurse’s uniform, patient gowns, scrub suites, medical bags, laundry bags and hampers, patient nightwear, patient examination and operation gowns, surgical drapes, and theater garments, hospital-quality bed sheets, mattress protectors, OP shirts, staff clothing, protective aprons, children’s hospital gowns, bibs, pajama sets, and caps. Contact Person: Mian Adnan Safdar (Chief Executive) Head Office: Idreesiya Corporation P. 182, 2nd floor sakandar arcade mutmingry bazaar Faisalabad . Punjab. Pakistan Office Tell: 0092-41-2611008 & 0092-41-2611009 Fax:0092-41-2611007 Mobile: 0092-321-6600838 URL///WWW.idreesiya.com

1. Problema poluării psihice Incontestabil, progresul de orice natură şi la orice nivel (naţional, continental, mondial) se datorează, într-o foarte mare măsură, omului. "Unealta" de bază folosită de acesta în munca sa pentru progresul Umanităţii a fost, este şi cu siguranţă va fi creierul (psihicul) uman. Cu toate acestea, în mod paradoxal, având în vedere şi nivelul de dezvoltare a societăţii planetare în care trăim, legislaţiile din majoritatea ţărilor europene afectează un spaţiu extrem de restrâns în ceea ce priveşte protejarea acestei importante valori. Deşi există argumente pertinente, consacrate atât de izvoarele de drept internaţional, cât şi de anumite acte normative de drept intern[1], România, ca majoritatea ţărilor mai sus amintite, nu a elaborat o lege specială menită să protejeze, la modul cel mai serios, psihicul uman. Fără a avea intenţia de a propune ceva concret de lege ferenda, considerând că un astfel de demers ar necesita o mai amplă documentare şi o mai largă dezvoltare a subiectului pus în discuţie, ne vom limita, pe mai departe, la a aduce argumente în favoarea necesităţii adoptării unui act normativ special, care să protejeze psihicul uman de factorii poluanţi. Două ar fi argumentele legale pe care ne sprijinim acest demers doctrinar, unul internaţional, cel de-al doilea intern. Astfel, Declaraţia Universală a Drepturilor Omului[2] menţionează în art. 18 căorice om are dreptul la libertate de gândire, conştiinţă şi religie, iar în art. 19 că orice om se bucură de libertatea convingerilor şi de libera lor exprimare. Aceste drepturi sunt încălcate în cazul poluării psihice (mai ales în situaţia poluării cu informaţii nocive, dăunătoare, false, manipulatorii). Aceleaşi drepturi sunt garantate şi de Legea Fundamentală a României, Constituţia, care consacră, în art. 22 (1), dreptul la integritate fizică şi psihică. 2. Clasificarea poluanţilor psihici Într-o clasificare nedefinitivă şi neierarhizată, poluanţii psihici despre care vom vorbi în cele ce urmează sunt: a) undele (radiaţiile) şi câmpurile electromagnetice, b) zgomotul, c) stresul şi d) informaţiile nocive, dăunătoare, false, manipulatorii. Precizăm că cea de-a doua categorie de poluanţi, anume zgomotul, poate fi considerată a fi o categorie de poluanţi fizici[3], însă, în ceea ce ne priveşte, nu împărtăşim această părere. Prin poluarea produsă, zgomotul afectează fiinţa umană preponderent psihic. Doar în subsidiar efectele sunt în plan fizic. Având în vedere acest fapt, zgomotul este considerat, în cele ce urmează, a fi un poluant psihic. 3. Undele (radiaţiile) şi câmpurile electromagnetice După cum au subliniat şi specialiştii[4] în domeniu, în toate organismele vii există un sistem arhaic (ancestral, strămoşesc, moştenit din generaţie în generaţie), diferit de sistemul nervos şi de cel umoral (care are în vedere circuitul sangvin şi pe cel hormonal), sistem care este considerat a avea natură electromagnetică, radiaţia electromagnetică fiind cea mai comună formă de informaţie (sau cale de transmitere a informaţiei) în natură. Impulsurile (semnalele) electromagnetice au constituit şi încă constituie atât "limbajul" folosit în comunicare de către atomi şi molecule, cât şi mijlocul prin care până şi cele mai simple organisme primesc o serie de informaţii cu privire la mediul de viaţă (spre exemplu, prin intermediul luminii solare). De aceea, nu există nici un dubiu că majoritatea fiinţelor vii au învăţat să folosească şi folosesc electromagnetismul ca pe un sistem de transmitere şi receptare a informaţiilor vitale şi ca un mijloc de comunicare între celule şi ţesuturi[5]. Undele electromagnetice pot avea influenţe nocive asupra creierului (psihicului) uman, cu efecte vizibile în ceea ce priveşte comportamentul individului afectat. Astfel, s-a susţinut că armele ce folosesc EMR (electromagnetic radiation) sunt la fel de periculoase ca bomba atomică. "Prin folosirea lor", s-a spus, "Al Treilea Război Mondial poate fi câştigat fără a se şti că acesta s-a purtat. Şi aceasta pentru că armele ce folosesc EMR sunt silienţioase, nedetectabile sau foarte greu detectabile şi nu lasă «urme» prin care să poată fi incriminate. Cu ajutorul acestora, libertatea de gândire, conştiinţă şi voinţă pot fi foarte grav viciate şi chiar înlăturate"[6]. Deşi SUA afirmă că aceste arme produc doar efecte termice (heating effects) asupra organismului uman şi că, în concluzie, acestea nu sunt nocive pentru sănătatea umană, în 1990, a fost dovedit, cu documente guvernamentale ale SUA, faptul că s-au folosit asemenea arme pentru mind control. Denumirea convenţională de arme, dată acestor poluanţi, nu trebuie să determine apariţia unui raţionament greşit, de genul: armele nu pot fi considerate poluanţi! Faptul că anumite substanţe, fenomene sau procese pot fi categorisite intr-un anumit fel nu înseamnă că acestea nu pot face parte şi din alte categorii. Astfel, dacă o substanţă chimică este, de regulă, considerată otravă, nu înseamnă că aceasta, ca urmare a deversării în apa unui râu, nu constituie un poluant. În acelaşi fel, armele, chiar dacă ele nu se întâlnesc, în mod normal, în viaţa de zi cu zi, pot fi considerate poluanţi, atâta timp cât ele au potenţialitatea de a produce un anumit tip de poluare. Armele ce folosesc EMR se bazează pe principiul conform căruia sistemul nervos uman foloseşte, în activitatea sa, semnale electromagnetice[7]. Un relevant articol al literaturii de specialitate[8] explică de ce aceste arme produc efecte la nivelul psihicului. Astfel, având în vedere că organismul uman este un sistem electrochimic, există anumite aparaturi care disturbă, întrerup sau afectează impulsurile electrice ale sistemului nervos putând modifica negativ comportamentul şi afecta funcţiile vitale[9]. Efectele concerete produse de aceste arme sunt numeroase, acestea fiind atât de natură psihică, cât şi de natură fizică. În editorialul Buletinului oamenilor de ştiinţă din domeniul atomic, din septembrie 1994 se fac următoarele precizări relativ la aceste efecte: "Multe dintre armele nonletale avute în vedere utilizează ultrasunete sau energie electromagnetică (unde electromagnetice - inclusiv laseri, microunde, radiaţii de radiofrecvenţă sau lumină vizibilă pulsatorie, având frecvenţa undelor cerebrale) pentru a produce efecte. Se consideră că aceste arme interferează cu procesele psihice (mintale), provoacă modificarea comportamentului şi a emoţiilor, pierderea conştiinţei, orbire temporară sau permanentă, dureri puternice, ameţeli, greaţă sau afectare severă a funcţiilor organelor interne, în foarte multe alte feluri. Marele interes manifestat în prezent în ceea ce priveşte tehnologiile pe bază de unde electromagnetice şi cele similare fac din adoptarea unui act normativ internaţional, care să interzică în mod expres aceste arme dezumanizante, o chestiune urgentă"[10]. Munca de cercetare în domeniul armelor ce folosesc unde electromagnetice a fost dezvoltată în aproape toate ţările industrializate, şi în special de către marile puteri, avându-se în vedere folosirea acestora în scopuri antiumane. În ciuda faptului că s-au publicat foarte rar articole care să trateze acest subiect şi că, în mod normal, asemenea informaţii sunt strict secrete, cercetările întreprinse în acest domeniu par a fi demonstrat că şi radiaţiile electromagnetice de slabă intensitate pot altera, în mod semnificativ, funcţionarea normală a celulelor vii[11]. La persoanele afectate de astfel de poluanţi întâlnim simptome şi de altă natură. Astfel, acestea au bătăi neregulate ale inimii (când puternice, când slabe), dereglări ale somnului, persoanele din jur par a le repeta identic gândurile pe care acestea le au şi au impresia că aud voci sau că aud microunde[12](fenomen denumit microwave hearing)[13]. Astfel de victime au fost, în general, catalogate ca fiind bolnave mintal. Nu suntem în măsură să susţinem că unele dintre ele nu ar suferi, într-adevăr, de boli psihice, dar, după cum şi specialiştii în domeniu declară, aceste efecte pot fi produse de aparatură emiţătoare de unde electromagnetice de o anumită frecvenţă şi intensitate, deci nu putem să excludem din start ipoteza că victime ale folosirii acestor arme există şi că pot fi discreditate prin încadrarea lor în rândurile bolnavilor psihici. Prima ţară din lume care s-a exprimat pentru interzicerea armelor ce folosesc radiaţii electromagnetice (EMR) a fost fosta Uniune Sovietică, şi asta încă din anii '70. În contradicţie, SUA au trecut aceste arme sub tăcere, incluzându-le în categoria informaţiilor secrete încă din anii '60, şi au negat existenţa unor efecte produse de aceste arme până la începutul anilor '90. În anii '80, Pentagonul declara CNN-ului că subiectul armelor ce folosesc unde electromagnetice este încă prea delicat pentru a discuta despre el[14]. Datele despre programele ruseşti secrete de mind control au fost făcute publice ca urmare a dezmembrării Uniunii Sovietice. Un articol publicat în 1993, în Defence news, intitulat US explores russian mind-control technology, dezvăluie câteva dintre efectele produse de aceste arme: "Cunoscută sub denumirea de psihocorecţie prin sunete (psihocorecţie acustică), capacitatea de control al minţii şi de alterare (modificare) a comportamentului civililor sau militarilor ar putea fi dezvăluită, în curând, oficialilor americani din armată, cercetare şi politică (...) Iniţiată de către Departamentul de Psihocorecţie, înfiinţat de guvernul rusesc, şi de către Academia Medicală Moscovită, psihocorecţia prin sunete implică transmiterea unor ordine (îndemnuri), prin intermediul benzilor statice de sunete, către subconştientul individului, interferând cu alte procese psihice, pe care le tulbură"[15]. Comitetul pentru Dezarmare al Naţiunilor Unite a pus în discuţie propunerea Rusiei[16] de a interzice armele ce folosesc EMR. Dintre acestea, un anumit tip de armă a fost descris de către guvernul Uniunii Sovietice, ca fiind "o armă cu radiaţii infrasonice, ce utilizează efectele nocive ale oscilaţiilor infrasonice asupra biocurenţilor creierului şi asupra sistemului nervos". Documentul continuă prin a sublinia că, "având în vedere rezultatele cercetărilor în privinţa efectelor produse de radiaţiile electromagnetice asupra «ţintelor» biologice, existenţa unor efecte nocive (dăunătoare) ale undelor de radiofrecvenţă, de pe o bandă foarte largă, asupra unor organe vitale ale omului (inima, creierul, sistemul nervos central) trebuie privită ca pe un fapt ferm stabilit, dovedit în mod cert. Aprecierile citate din literatura de specialitate de la nivel internaţional asupra pericolului potenţial de dezvoltare a unor noi arme de distrugere în masă se fundamentează pe rezultatele cercetărilor legate de aşa-numitele efecteatermale ale radiaţiilor electromagnetice asupra individului. Aceste efecte pot lua forma unor deteriorări grave, a unor disfuncţii ale organelor interne şi ale sistemelor organismului uman sau a unor schimbări în funcţionarea de ansamblu a organismului poluat"[17]. Faptul că radiaţiile electromagnetice pot produce efecte biologice atermale este deja o teorie demonstrată ştiinţific, ne mai fiind un subiect al speculaţiilor faptul că sistemele biomoleculare sunt sensibile la câmpurile electromagnetice de joasă frecvenţă. Un articol recent[18], atenţionează că "progresul realizat în ceea ce priveşte armele nonletale constă într-o interacţiune între individ şi undele de radiofrecvenţă care, în urma expunerii la acestea, poate provoca şi alte efecte decât cele termice putându-se semnala pierderea conştiinţei, spaimă, lipsă nejustificată de voinţă". Una dintre dovezile solide că armele ce folosesc EMR (denumite şi arme de control al minţii) sunt luate în serios şi că au ajuns în atenţia comunităţii internaţionale este şi includerea acestora, alături de armele nucleare, biologice şi chimice, într-un document publicat, în anul 2002, de către Institutul Naţiunilor Unite pentru Cercetare în Domeniul Dezarmării, anume 2002 Media Guide to Disarmament in Geneva[19]. Acest ghid încearcă să aducă în atenţia opiniei publice importanta problemă a dezarmării. Dar acest real semnal de alarmă nu este singurul. Există ţări ale căror legislaţii, chiar dacă într-un mod foarte timid, au încercat să reglementeze problema armelor ce folosesc EMR, pe care şi acestea le consideră capabile de poluare psihică, prin intermediul efectelor manipulatorii pe care le au. Astfel, Duma de Stat a Rusiei a luat foarte în serios problema şi a propus spre adoptare o lege aSecurităţii individului (cetăţeanului) care reglementează folosirea mesajelor subliminale în clipurile publicitare, statutul sectelor pseudo-religioase şi prin care se doreşte impunerea controlului statului asupra oricărei aparaturi deţinute de persoane private, care ar putea fi folosită ca armăpsihotronică[20]. Preşedintele Comisiei care s-a ocupat cu realizarea proiectului de lege, domnul Vladimir Lopatkin, a declarat că "legea este una care se doreşte preventivă, astfel ca echipamentele ce există în prezent în laboratoarele de cercetare să fie foarte strict controlate, pentru a evita vânzarea acestora spre sectorul privat"[21]. De asemenea, Legea federală rusească ce reglementează regimul armelor (1998) interzice, printre altele, circulaţia armelor militare sau civile care folosesc radiaţii electromagnetice, infrasonice şi ultrasonice. Recent, şi în Anglia a fost supusă dezbaterii o iniţiativă legislativă asemănătoare cu cea rusească. Astfel, Dennis Kucinich, membru în Camera Reprezentanţilor, a depus spre aprobare un proiect de lege asemănător[22]. Acest proiect propunea interzicerea plasării armelor în spaţiul cosmic, în special "a armelor psihotronice şi a celor de control al minţii". Unul dintre alineatele acestui proiect de lege prevedea sancţionarea situaţiilor în care unei persoane îi sunt afectate viaţa, sănătatea fizică sau psihică sau bunăstarea economică, prin utilizarea unor sisteme (terestre, de apă sau spaţiale) ce folosesc radiaţii electromagnetice, psihotronice, sonice sau alte energii care au ca ţintă populaţia în ansamblu sau cetăţeanul (individul), în scopul dirijării comportamentului, a manipulării sau a controlului minţii. În mod curios însă, în primăvara anului 2002, această secţiune a proiectului de lege a fost înlăturată, datorită îngrijorării că legea nu va fi adoptată[23]. Totuşi, având în vedere proiectul iniţial al legii, putem afirma că, până şi la nivel politic şi legislativ, se recunoaşte existenţa fenomenului poluării psihice (care are ca important element component acest fenomen al controlului minţii, al vicierii gândirii libere). În ceea ce priveşte SUA, ţară ale cărei autorităţi sunt mult mai reţinute în privinţa acestui subiect, în 1998, a fost făcut public un raport al Organizaţiei Mondiale Împotriva Torturii[24], ce aminteşte şi acesta de existenţa unor arme ce folosesc microunde şi care ar fi fost testate pe subiecţi civili nevoluntari (fără acordul sau înştiinţarea subiectului-ţintă). De asemenea, autorii raportului îşi susţin afirmaţiile citând un memorandum interguvernamental al Casei Albe (27.03.1997), care stabilea anumite recomandări pentru interzicerea unor astfel de experimente secrete (pe subiecţi civili nevoluntari) şi care, indirect, recunoştea că este foarte posibil ca astfel de experimente să fi avut şi să mai aibă loc[25]. Cu toate acestea, considerăm că cel mai important şi cel mai pertinent act oficial este Proiectul[27] acestei rezoluţii pune în discuţie, în mod special, pericolele potenţiale ale utilizării armelor ce folosesc radiaţii electromagnetice. Textul final al rezoluţiei cheamă la "adoptarea unei convenţii internaţionale care să interzică, la nivel mondial, dezvoltarea, producerea şi răspândirea armelor ce pot fi folosite la manipularea fiinţelor umane"[28]. Concluzionând, trebuie să subliniem încă o dată ceea ce evidenţiază documentele mai-sus citate şi anume faptul că poluarea psihică exercitată de undele şi câmpurile electromagnetice este o realitate recunoscută cu îngrijorare până şi de Uniunea Europeană, dar de care nu se vorbeşte aproape deloc în doctrină şi faţă de care nu se ia aproape nici o măsură legislativă la nivelul legislaţiilor naţionale. Având în vedere toate argumentele aduse, considerăm utilă renunţarea la scepticismul exagerat al puterii legislative şi adoptarea unei legislaţii în măsură să rezolve o problemă socială atât de importantă. De asemenea, sperăm într-o anumită revizuire a gândirii formaliste a doctrinarilor, care să se reflecte în abordarea serioasă şi aprofundată a acestei probleme juridice cât se poate de importante. 4. Zgomotul Auzul este o funcţie vitală pentru om, folosindu-i în supravieţuire şi comunicare. Totuşi, nu toate sunetele sunt dorite, ci există şi sunete nedorite sau zgomote (cum mai sunt denumite) ce sunt produse, în majoritatea cazurilor, de anumite activităţi umane (în principal, transport, industrie şi gospodărie). Zgomotul a fost definit[29] ca fiind un complex sonor nearmonios, supărător şi dezagreabil. S-a constatat că acesta are efecte nocive asupra urechii interne, asupra creierului şi a întregului organism[30]. Numărul de studii asupra poluării sonore în Europa este scăzut, datele în acest domeniu fiind destul de puţine. Totuşi, încă din anii '80, s-a stabilit că poluarea sonoră există, mai ales în marile oraşe şi că este într-o continuă creştere. În general, cauza răspândirii acestui fenomen este creşterea rapidă a volumului traficului rutier. În ţările europene industrializate, ca Belgia, Franţa, Germania, Italia, Olanda sau Marea Britanie, dar şi Austria, Slovacia, Spania sau Elveţia, mai mult de 50% din populaţie este expusă la niveluri de zgomot produse de transportul rutier[31] mai mari de 55 dB[32] (decibeli), nivel la care fiinţa umană devine serios deranjată (iritată, enervată)[33]. Efectul de enervare, iritare, supărare pe care îl produce zgomotul este foarte greu de cuantificat, de apreciat după anumite limite precise, deoarece toleranţa indivizilor la nivelurile de zgomot şi la diferitele tipuri de zgomote variază considerabil. Anumite variaţii în ceea ce priveşte nivelurile de zgomot şi intensitatea acestora pot apărea de la o zonă a unui oraş la alta şi de la un moment la altul, astfel că largi variaţii se pot întâlni în aceeaşi zi, într-o săptămână sau într-un an[34]. Există grupuri care pot fi considerate mai sensibile în ceea ce priveşte efectele zgomotelor, grupuri cărora trebuie să li se acorde o atenţie specială (de exemplu, aşa sunt elevii, persoanele în vârstă, persoanele bolnave, aceste grupuri putând reprezenta chiar şi 30% din populaţie). Reacţiile acestor grupuri pot fi luate în considerare ca semnale de atenţionare în ceea ce priveşte efectele pe care ar putea să le aibă asupra altor grupuri de persoane expunerea la niveluri înalte de zgomot[35]. Cel mai des întâlnit efect produs de zgomot asupra fiinţei umane este starea de iritare, de enervare, înregistrându-se, în fiecare an, numeroase plângeri legate de o multitudine de tipuri de zgomote ce provoacă această stare. De asemenea, şi situaţiile în care intervine poluarea sonoră sunt diferite. Astfel, s-a demonstrat că parcurile şi grădinile publice sunt mult mai puţin folosite pentru recreere când nivelul zgomotului perceptibil în perimetrul acestora este mai ridicat[36]. O cercetare sociologică a determinat ierarhizarea surselor care produc iritarea (enervarea) prin intermediul poluării fonice. Aşa fiind, traficul rutier ocupă locul fruntaş (20% din populaţie), în timp ce traficul aerian este pe locul doi (11%), într-o astfel de ierarhizare. Zgomotul industrial (3%) şi cel provocat de traficul feroviar (1,2%) sunt şi ele prezente în acest "top", dar ocupă poziţii nu foarte importante[37]. Ceea ce trebuie să îngrijoreze este faptul că zgomotul din centrul marilor oraşe creşte cu 10 dB pe deceniu, conform unor studii în acest domeniu[38]. Ca urmare, şi procentul celor care vor acuza starea de iritare va creşte, cu siguranţă. Încă nu s-a stabilit cu certitudine în ce mod şi cât de puternic afectează poluarea sonoră sănătatea umană şi starea de bine a individului, dar cunoştinţele acumulate până în prezent în acest domeniu ne îndreptăţesc să confirmăm existenţa efectelor nocive ale poluanţilor sonori asupra sănătăţii umane[39]. Se ştie sigur însă, că expunerea la niveluri fonice foarte mari produce pierderea auzului[40] şi fenomenul numit tinnitus sau acufenă[41]. Cazangii pierd, în 10 ani, 50% din acuitatea lor auditivă, iar în 20 de ani pierderea se ridică la 80%[42]. De asemenea, în Australia de exemplu, protecţia muncii recomandă ca un muncitor într-un mediu poluat fonic să nu aibă un program de lucru mai mare de 8 ore, la un nivel al zgomotului de maxim 85 dB, nivel care ar caracteriza o stradă cu trafic rutier intens. Unul dintre cele mai întâlnite efecte ale zgomotului, pe timpul nopţii, este tulburarea somnului. Acest fenomen poate apărea şi fără ca persoana afectată să fie conştient de el, reflectându-se doar într-o stare de oboseală ulterioară. Dacă fenomenul de tulburare a somnului se permanentizează efectele psihologice ale acestuia sunt variate, cuprinzând insomnie, nervozitate, anxietate, depresii nervoase, care, cu timpul, se pot acutiza, devenind cronice. Pentru a asigura un somn lipsit de tulburări de acest gen este necesar ca intensitatea sunetelor nocturne să nu atingă limita de 55 dB[43]. Poluarea sonoră modifică ritmul cardiac şi pe cel respirator, provoacă creşteri ale presiunii cerebrale, probleme gastro-intestinale şi, după unii, este o cauză a arteriosclerozei. Potrivit datelor statistice aleCasei naţionale franceze de asigurări în caz de boală, în anul 1988, s-au identificat 1.269 afecţiuni provocate de zgomot. De asemenea, influenţe negative apar şi în ceea ce priveşte performanţa şi productivitatea în muncă (prin diminuarea capacităţii de concentrare şi atenţie). La funcţionarii de birou supuşi unor zgomote discontinue, erorile sunt cu 37% mai numeroase decât de obicei. La muncitorii manuali scade randamentul cu 33%, începând cu cea de-a patra oră de muncă, într-o uzină în care funcţionează un ciocan pneumatic[44]. E necesar să precizăm faptul că această poluare fonică are efecte negative şi în plan material (economic). Astfel, în zonele locuibile, costul chiriei sau al unei locuinţe scade cu cât poluarea fonică este mai ridicată. De asemenea, aceste efecte în plan material se regăsesc şi în cazul bolilor provocate de poluarea fonică, al diminuării productivităţii muncii sau al ratei ridicate a accidentelor, datorate tulburării somnului[45]. E drept, aceste efecte sunt mai greu de cuantificat, dar ele există în mod cert. O încercare de acest gen s-a făcut în Franţa, unde s-a constatat că zgomotul duce la pierderea a 200 de milioane de ore de muncă, pe plan naţional, adică mai mult decât pierderile pricinuite de totalitatea bolilor profesionale. Cât despre costul economic şi social al daunelor provocate de sonoritatea nocivă (accidente de muncă, retardări şcolare sau depreciere financiară a proprietăţilor), acesta a fost evaluat, în 1983, la aproximativ 100 miliarde de franci[46]. Aeroporturile sunt, în ierarhia prezentată mai sus, a doua sursă de poluare sonoră. Un studiu privind aeroporturile din Germania a relevat un fapt îngrijorător şi anume că numărul persoanelor expuse la niveluri de zgomot relativ mari (între 67 şi 75 dB) a crescut simţitor în decada analizată (1981-1990) şi anume, de la 500.000 de persoane s-a ajuns la 610.000 (în cazul pragului de 67 dB) şi de la 100.000 de persoane s-a ajuns la 122.000 (în cazul pragului de 75 dB)[47]. De asemenea, studiile ştiinţifice au arătat că persoanele care locuiesc în apropierea aeroporturilor sau a drumurilor cu trafic intens au o frecvenţă mai mare a durerilor de cap, iau mai multe somnifere sau sedative, sunt predispuşi la accidente uşoare şi apelează mai des la tratament psihiatric. În Olanda, s-a constatat că cel puţin 42.000 de locuinţe sunt supuse unei poluări sonore severe. Sursa acesteia: aeroportul Schiphol din Amsterdam. În 1990, autorităţile aeroportului au luat măsuri pentru a reduce efectele acestei poluări. Astfel, unele locuinţe au fost mutate, altele au fost izolate fonic. La aeroportul Orly din Paris, au fost impuse restricţionări asupra zborurilor de noapte, iar pentru avioanele mai zgomotoase au fost percepute taxe mai mari. În unele aşezări (Osaka, Hong-Kong, Seul), autorităţile au redus poluarea sonoră, deviind trasele curselor aeriene în aşa fel încât acestea să treacă pe deasupra golfurilor şi a coastelor oceanului, nu pe deasupra locuinţelor. Rata mortalităţii, a îmbolnăvirii de cancer sau de astm este mult mai ridicată la persoanele ce locuiesc în apropierea aeroporturilor. Copiii care locuiesc în aceste zone au tensiunea arterială ridicată, sunt mult mai stresaţi şi le este mult mai dificil să înveţe să citească[48]. Cel mai mare procentaj al populaţiei expuse la poluarea sonoră, produsă de traficul feroviar, îl întâlnim în Slovacia şi Elveţia, deoarece, în aceste ţări, datorită reliefului specific, căile ferate trec prin zonele în care sunt concentrate majoritatea aşezărilor umane. Măsurile luate pentru reducerea poluării având ca sursă traficul feroviar s-au evidenţiat prin introducerea unor cortine (perdele) de protecţie de-a lungul căilor ferate. Dar, având în vedere introducerea trenurilor de mare viteză în Franţa, Germania şi Spania şi, în curând, şi în Olanda, Belgia şi Marea Britanie, se estimează că numărul de persoane expuse la o astfel de poluare va creşte. S-a constatat, totuşi, că poluarea sonoră rezultată din traficul feroviar nu este considerată a fi la fel de deranjantă ca cea rezultată în urma traficului rutier şi este considerată a fi, pe timp de noapte, cea mai puţin iritantă, deranjantă[49]. Activităţile industriale generatoare de poluare sonoră sunt numeroase, incluzând atât micile ateliere sau industria uşoară, cât şi fabricile sau industria grea. Expunerile la niveluri de zgomot mai mari de 75 dB sunt rare, în general aceste niveluri nedepăşind 55 dB. Totuşi, aceasta nu înseamnă că zgomotul provocat de activităţile industriale este un poluant neglijabil, ci, dimpotrivă, persoanele expuse la astfel de zgomote pot fi cât se poate de deranjate (iritate) şi de afectate în ceea ce priveşte starea de bine, de confort[50]. Literatura de specialitate[51] include printre sursele de poluare sonoră şi activităţile recreative. Cu anumite rezerve referitoare la includerea tuturor activităţilor recreative zgomotoase în categoria poluanţilor sonori, acceptăm că unele activităţi de acest gen pot juca rol de poluanţi sonori. Dar acestea devin poluanţi doar în măsura în care depăşesc o anumită limită temporală şi/sau a intensităţii sunetului. Astfel, un concert în aer liber, în apropierea unor locuinţe, într-un moment festiv, nu poate fi considerat a fi o sursă de poluare sonoră. Dacă însă, acesta depăşeşte limita temporală general-admisă sau pe cea a intensităţii sunetului, poate fi inclus în categoria poluanţilor sonori. Considerăm că zgomotele produse de copii, în locurile rezervate acestora pentru recreere, joacă sau distracţie, nu pot fi catalogare, în nici o situaţie, ca fiind surse de poluare sonoră. Asta pentru că nu întrezărim nici o situaţie reală în care astfel de subiecţi ar avea potenţialitatea de a produce o poluare fonică demnă de luat în seamă ca factor poluant real. De regulă, astfel de subiecţi nu au o capacitate reală de a deveni factori poluanţi, astfel încât ne considerăm îndreptăţiţi să nu-i încadrăm printre posibilele surse de poluare fonică (sonoră). Pentru a evidenţia cât se poate de clar faptul că poluarea sonoră este o problemă actuală şi de importanţă majoră, vom cita în continuare o statistică realizată la nivel european, ce are ca subiect expunerea populaţiei europene la diferite niveluri de zgomot. Astfel, aproximativ 450 milioane de persoane (65% din populaţia Europei) sunt expuse 24 din 24 de ore unui nivel de zgomot de 55 dB, poluare ce provoacă iritare şi tulburare a somnului; aproximativ 113 milioane de persoane (17% dintre europeni) sunt supuse unui nivel al poluării sonore de 65 dB, nivel de zgomot ale cărui efecte sunt cât se poate de serioase; în fine, aproximativ 9,7 milioane de europeni (1,4% din populaţia Europei) sunt expuşi unui nivel al poluării sonore considerat inacceptabil, anume 75 dB. La nivelul ţărilor membre ale OECD[52] există un acord în ceea ce priveşte nivelul de zgomot admis. Acesta nu trebuie să depăşească 65 dB, pe timp de zi. Comisia Europeană a statuat, în a cincea ediţie aEnvironmental Action Programme, că "nici o persoană nu trebuie expusă la niveluri de zgomot ce pot pune în pericol sănătatea personală şi calitatea vieţii sale". Ca urmare a acestui deziderat, s-au impus, prin acest program, următoarele limite pentru nivelurile de zgomot nocturn: expunerea populaţiei la un nivel al zgomotului mai mare de 65 dB trebuie evitată, dar, dacă se depăşeşte acest prag, este interzis a se atinge pragul de 85 dB; persoanele expuse la un nivel al zgomotului cuprins între 55 şi 65 dB nu trebuie să sufere o creştere a acestui nivel (de exemplu, într-o zonă cu un nivel al zgomotului de 56 dB, construirea unei fabrici ce ar ridica acest nivel la 58 dB nu este de dorit); persoanele expuse la un nivel al zgomotului de 55 dB sau mai mic nu trebuie să suporte o creştere a acestui nivel peste 55 dB[53]. Măsurile de reducere a zgomotului (a poluării sonore) sunt împărţite în două categorii: a) măsuri legale (care se impun prin lege) şi b) măsuri ce ţin de tehnologie. În prima categorie ar intra următoarele măsuri: definirea limitelor sau a valorilor-etalon în ceea ce priveşte nivelurile de zgomot acceptate pentru perioada nocturnă şi pentru cea diurnă şi stabilirea unor criterii general-acceptate pentru măsurarea zgomotului (a poluării sonore); stabilirea unor zone-limită pentru zgomot, de-a lungul rutelor de trafic şi în jurul aeroporturilor şi a instalaţiilor industriale; stabilirea unor norme ce trebuie respectate în situaţiile în care există mai multe surse poluante (situaţia aşa-numitului amestec de zgomote); emiterea unor norme care să prevadă nivelul maxim admis al emisiilor sonore provenite din diferite surse; stabilirea celor mai potrivite metode de măsurare a poluării sonore; stabilirea unor cerinţe minime de izolare fonică a locuinţelor; limitarea vitezei sau a accesului anumitor tipuri de vehicule în anumite zone. În cea de-a doua categorie de măsuri am putea aminti: orientarea şi construirea locuinţelor (a clădirilor de locuinţe) în aşa fel încât să fie cât mai bine protejate de poluarea fonică; reducerea emisiilor poluante prin dotarea produselor fabricate cu tehnologii noi (în special, cele ce privesc echipamentele motorizate), ce diminuează sau înlătură aceste emisii; aplicarea de măsuri ce reduc zgomotul, prin obstrucţionarea căii de transmitere a acestuia (cortine de protecţie); izolarea fonică a clădirilor de locuinţe sau montarea de geamuri izolatoare fonic; îmbunătăţirea managementului traficului[54]. Cei aproximativ 113 milioane de europeni (adică aproape o cincime din populaţia Europei), ce sunt expuşi unei poluări fonice capabile să producă efecte negative serioase asupra sănătăţii populaţiei poluate, constituie o importantă problemă de rezolvat. Dezvoltarea economică a ţărilor central şi est-europene este susceptibilă de a îngreuna rezolvarea acesteia, datorită traficului rutier aflat în continuă creştere (poluarea sonoră produsă de acesta fiind problema prioritară de rezolvat). Doar eforturile concentrate la nivel tehnologic şi la nivelul politicilor de mediu adoptate sunt în măsură să îmbunătăţească situaţia actuală, inversând orientarea actuală a nivelurilor poluării. Elementele cerute pentru stabilirea unei strategii de succes în ceea ce priveşte controlul poluării sonore sunt cunoscute, dar anumite eforturi mai trebuie făcute la nivelul legislaţiilor naţionale şi a celei europene, pentru a institui şi întări legislaţia privitoare la poluarea fonică[55]. În mod relativ surprinzător, legislaţia internă reglementează, într-un mod foarte precis, această sursă de poluare. Astfel, Legea nr. 137/1995 a protecţiei mediului, modificată substanţial prin OUG nr. 91/2002, cuprinde o serie de astfel de reglementări[56]. În primul rând, art. 43 (1), lit. d) însărcinează autoritatea centrală pentru protecţia mediului[57] cu "elaborarea normelor tehnice şi a regulamentelor de aplicare ce privesc pragul fonic şi reglementările pentru limitarea zgomotelor". Apoi, art. 47, lit. e) prevede în sarcina persoanelor juridice obligaţia de "a asigura măsuri şi dotări speciale pentru izolarea şi protecţia fonică a surselor generatoare de zgomot şi vibraţii, de a verifica eficienţa acestora şi de a pune în exploatare numai pe cele care nu depăşesc pragul fonic admis". În al treilea rând, art. 61, lit. f) stabileşte obligaţia consiliilor locale "de a reglementa, inclusiv prin interzicerea, temporară sau permanentă, a accesului anumitor tipuri de autovehicule sau a desfăşurării unor activităţi generatoare de disconfort pentru populaţie în anumite zone ale localităţilor cu predominanţa spaţiilor de locuit, zone destinate tratamentului, odihnei, recreerii şi agrementului". În fine, în domeniul sancţiunilor, Legea nr. 137/1995 modificată prevede, în art. 85, lit. f), că "producerea de zgomote peste limitele admise, dacă prin aceasta se pune în pericol grav sănătatea umană" constituie infracţiune[58] şi se pedepseşte cu închisoare de la 6 luni la 3 ani sau cu amendă de la 50.000.000 lei la 75.000.000 lei. Această infracţiune este prevăzută şi de noul Cod penal, în art. 402, însă limitele pedepsei sunt mai mici: de la 3 luni la un an sau zile amendă[59]. În afară de Legea nr. 137/1995, există şi alte acte normative ce reglementează problema poluării fonice. Unul dintre cele mai importante este Ordinul nr. 536 (din 23.06.1997) pentru aprobarea Normelor de igienă şi a recomandărilor privind mediul de viaţă al populaţiei ce conţine o serie de reglementări care acoperă problema poluării fonice. Astfel, art. 4 al acestui ordin prevede că "unităţile de mică industrie, comerciale şi de prestări servicii, care pot crea riscuri pentru sănătate sau disconfort pentru populaţie prin producerea de zgomot (...), se amplasează în clădiri separate, la distanţa de minimum 15 metri de ferestrele locuinţelor". De asemenea, art. 6, lit. a) precizează expres că "în zonele de odihnă şi recreere se interzice amplasarea intreprinderilor care, prin activitatea lor, produc zgomot". Art. 8 al actului normativ amintit continuă prin a dezvolta normele de protecţie a populaţiei. Astfel, se precizează în cuprinsul articolului că "între intreprinderile industriale, care pot polua factorii de mediu sau produce zgomot şi vibraţii, şi teritoriile protejate învecinate, se asigură zone de protecţie sanitară. Prin teritorii protejate se înţelege: zonele de locuit, parcurile, rezervaţiile naturale, zonele de interes balneoclimateric, de odihnă şi recreere, instituţiile social-culturale şi medicale, precum şi unităţile economice ale căror procese tehnologice necesită factori de mediu lipsiţi de impurităţi". Acelaşi act normativ precizează (art. 9) că nocivităţile ce afectează fiinţa umană (fiind amintit aici şi zgomotul) "nu vor putea depăşi limitele maxime admisibile de standardele de stat în vigoare". Art. 15 reglementează protejarea de poluarea sonoră a unor unităţi ce necesită protecţie specială, cum ar fi: spitalele, centrele de sănătate, creşele, grădiniţele, şcolile, bibliotecile, muzeele, care "se vor amplasa în aşa fel încât să li se asigure o zonă de protecţie de minimum 50 metri faţă de locuinţe, de arterele de circulaţie sau de zonele urbane aglomerate". Unul dintre cele mai importante articole ale Ordinului nr. 536/1997, în ceea ce priveşte reglementarea poluării sonore, este art. 17. Acesta face, în cele trei alineate ale sale, următoarele precizări: "(1) Amplasarea obiectivelor economice cu surse de zgomot (...) se va face în aşa fel încât, în teritoriile protejate, nivelul acustic echivalent continuu (Leq), măsurat la 3 metri de peretele exterior al locuinţei şi la 1,5 metri înălţime de sol să nu depăşească 50 dB şi curba de zgomot 45. În timpul nopţii (orele 22,00-6,00), nivelul acustic echivalent continuu trebuie să fie redus cu 10 dB faţă de valorile din timpul zilei. (2) Pentru apartamente, nivelul acustic echivalent continuu (Leq), măsurat în interiorul camerei cu ferestrele închise, nu trebuie să depăşească 35 dB şi curba de zgomot 30, în timpul zilei; în timpul nopţii (orele 22,00-6,00), nivelul echivalent continuu trebuie redus cu 10 dB faţă de valorile din timpul zilei. (3) Pentru şcoli (săli de clasă), nivelul acustic echivalent continuu (Leq), măsurat în interiorul clasei cu ferestrele închise, nu trebuie să depăşească 35 dB şi curba de zgomot 30. Aceste valori sunt obligatorii şi pentru alte unităţi de învăţământ şi biblioteci". De asemenea, actul normativ în discuţie reglementează şi condiţiile ce trebuie îndeplinite de către mijloacele de transport pentru a evita producerea poluării sonore. Astfel, "la amenajarea traseelor mijloacelor de transport în comun, se va ţine seama de următoarele necesităţi privind menţinerea sănătăţii populaţiei: a) alegerea traseului se va face astfel încât acesta să nu parcurgă zone cu obiective protejate (locuinţe, parcuri, locuri de odihnă, de studiu, asistenţă medicală, îngrijirea copiilor şi bătrânilor etc.), iar dacă acest lucru este inevitabil din considerente urbanistice, se vor păstra distanţe, stabilite prin studii de impact, între aceste trasee şi obiectivele protejate; c) amenajarea traseelor se va face în aşa fel încât să se reducă la minimum impactul poluanţilor asupra sănătăţii publice (linii de tramvai insonorizat, pavimente din materiale care să nu producă zgomot)"[60]. Se mai precizează (art. 98) că la construcţia şi amenajarea mijloacelor de transport în comun, se vor lua măsurile necesare pentru reducerea la minimum a emisiilor de zgomot şi de vibraţii, produse prin funcţionarea acestora. În fine, mai trebuie amintit că acest Ordin al Ministerului Sănătăţii stabileşte norme de diminuare a poluării sonore şi în cazul transporturilor feroviare, navale şi al construcţiilor de autostrăzi[61]. După cum precizam anterior în acest subcapitol, unele activităţi recreative pot fi considerate generatoare de poluare sonoră. În legislaţia românească, un astfel de caz a fost reglementat prinOrdinul 354[62] (din 31.07.2001), privind unele măsuri de reducere a poluării fonice în staţiunile turistice din zona litoralului Mării Negre şi în celelalte staţiuni balneoclimatice care precizează, în primul său articol, că: "În staţiunile de pe litoralul Mării Negre, în sezonul estival 2001, programul de funcţionare a discotecilor în aer liber şi a celorlalte unităţi de alimentaţie pentru turism, cu activităţi muzicale în spaţii deschise, se va stabili astfel încât să nu depăşească ora 1,00 noaptea". Deşi a fost un act normativ îndelung contestat de un anumit segment de vârstă al opiniei publice, chiar şi având în vedere exceptarea staţiunii Costineşti de la prevederile acestei norme, bunul-simţ ne îndeamnă să considerăm acest ordin al Ministerului Turismului a fi unul care răspunde dorinţei de linişte (necesară unui concediu) a unui anumit segment de vârstă. Un ultim act normativ la care am dori să facem trimitere este Hotărârea de Guvern nr. 672[63](din 19.07.2001), privind stabilirea condiţiilor de introducere pe piaţă a aparatelor electrocasnice în funcţie de nivelul zgomotului transmis prin aer. Aceasta stabileşte condiţiile pe care trebuie să le îndeplinească aparatele electrocasnice[64] comercializate, în ceea ce priveşte nivelul zgomotului admis spre a fi emis de către acestea. Astfel, articolul 3 precizează standardul în conformitate cu care se face aprecierea nivelului de zgomot şi faptul că informaţia privind nivelul de zgomot transmis prin aer trebuie să fie înscrisă pe eticheta produsului şi în documentaţia tehnică însoţitoare. Prezenţa reglementărilor ce privesc poluarea sonoră într-un număr destul de mare de acte normative interne ne bucură şi ne întăreşte convingerea că şi celelalte categorii de poluanţi psihici, vor face, cât de curând, obiectul unor acte normative interne de nivel european. 5. Stresul[65] Stresul este un cuvânt de origine engleză, folosit pentru prima dată de către H. Selye, în 1936, pentru a desemna "starea în care se găseşte un organism ameninţat de dezechilibru sub acţiunea unor agenţi sau condiţii care pun în pericol mecanismele sale homeostatice"[66]. Dicţionarul Explicativ al limbii române defineşte stresul ca fiind o stare de încordare sau tensiune neuropsihică, un ansamblu de perturbaţii organice şi psihice provocate de factori agresori variaţi, un ansamblu de reacţii fiziologice prin care organismul uman răspunde unui agent stresant, încercând să se apere şi să-şi menţină echilibrul de bază. Este numit agent stresant orice factor susceptibil de a distruge echilibrul organismului, fie el factor de origine fizică (traumatism, frig), chimică (otravă, noxe), infecţioasă sau psihologică (emoţie, zgomot). După cum subliniază şi literatura de specialitate[67], în ultimii 20-30 de ani, schimbări importante s-au produs în Europa în ceea ce priveşte calitatea mediului urban. În ciuda progreselor realizate în direcţia diminuării poluării apei şi a aerului, există semne că poluarea psihică cauzată de stres se află într-o continuă creştere. Principalele preocupări ale oraşelor europene sunt nivelul de poluare a aerului, nivelul poluării sonore şi blocajele traficului rutier[68]. Spaţiile de recreere şi zonele verzi sunt sub o continuă ameninţare, fiindcă mediile urbane se dezvoltă continuu, fapt ce necesită noi spaţii pentru construirea de imobile. Spaţiul rezervat construcţiilor este, în general, limitat, fapt ce duce, la un moment dat, la diminuarea spaţiilor verzi sau de recreere la care se renunţă în favoarea noilor construcţii, apelându-se la argumentul economic, care, în opinia noastră, nu este, în mod necesar, argumentul suprem, dacă viaţa cetăţeanului şi calitatea acesteia nu sunt avute în vedere. De asemenea, calitatea vieţii în mediul urban este afectată şi de deteriorarea clădirilor, a infrastructurii şi a peisajului urban. Pe de altă parte, oraşele folosesc o cantitate impresionantă de resurse şi produc cantităţi din ce în ce mai mari de emisii şi deşeuri, împovărând în mod semnificativ mediul local şi cel global. Toate aceste probleme reprezintă nişte semnale de de alarmă asupra existenţei unei crize ecologice mult mai profunde decât se crede, semnale care cer, în mod imperios, o regândire a modului actual de organizare şi dezvoltare a mediului urban[69]. Simptomele poluării psihice provocate de stresul urban devin evidente dacă examinăm calitatea mediului urban şi efectele acesteia asupra sănătăţii şi calităţii vieţii populaţiei din mediul urban. Cauzele stresului urban pot fi înţelese numai dacă analizăm modul în care oraşele sunt administrate şi modul în care organizarea actuală a spaţiului intravilan (planificarea urbanistică) afectează mediul urban, deteriorându-l. Calitatea mediului urban este rezultatul interacţiunii între o sumă de variabile interdependente, pe de o parte şi între activităţile unui oraş şi structura acestuia, pe de altă parte. Impactul activităţilor urbane asupra mediului urban nu rezultă din însumarea efectelor produse de diferiţi factori, astfel că, deşi în mediul urban locuitorii sunt expuşi simultan mai multor tipuri de poluare (a apei, a aerului, a solului, de natură fonică, de natură electromagnetică), efectul poluator final nu este cuantificat prin însumarea acestor factori, ci reliefează o acţiune conjugată, întrepătrunsă, rezultantă a acestora. Nu putem nega însă, că existenţa mai multor factori poluanţi afectează mult mai puternic calitatea mediului, a vieţii populaţiei urbane[70]. Stresul urban este o rezultantă a mai multor factori poluanţi conjugaţi. Cei mai des întâlniţi astfel de factori sunt a) aerul poluat, b) zgomotul[71] şi c) aglomeraţia creată de traficul rutier (în special, blocajele traficului rutier). Aceşti factori sunt, în mod evident, în strânsă legătură cu schimbările rapide ale stilului de viaţă urban şi creşterea numărului de activităţi urbane, lucruri petrecute în ultimii 20-30 de ani. De asemenea, poluarea atmosferei, poluarea fonică şi aglomeraţia în trafic sunt în strânsă legătură. Astfel, poluarea aerului se datorează, în principal, traficului şi industriei, două dintre cele mai mari consumatoare de energie şi, implicit, de combustibili fosili (importanţi poluatori). De asemenea, zgomotul este şi el o consecinţă a traficului intens şi a industriei, principalele surse generatoare de poluare fonică. Prin urmare, traficul rutier urban stă, în mare măsură, la baza celorlalţi doi factori poluanţi generatori de stres (poluarea aerului şi zgomotul). Aşadar, problema traficului rutier este prima căreia trebuie să i se găsească soluţii viabile. Rezolvarea acesteia ar duce la diminuarea considerabilă a poluării atmosferice şi fonice, ceea ce, la rândul ei, ar duce la diminuarea stresului urban. Cauză a stresului urban poate fi şi mediul de viaţă (locuinţa). Astfel, s-a constatat că locuinţele din blocurile cu multe etaje şi apartamente, slab luminate natural, cu încăperi prea mici, sunt considerate un factor de stres. Acest fapt se explică prin aceea că majoritatea oamenilor simt nevoia de a avea un spaţiu personal, un teritoriu propriu, potrivit pentru o viaţă adecvată, necesitate pe care anumite locuinţe nu o îndeplinesc aproape deloc[72]. Stresul zilnic se regăseşte printre cauzele provocatoare de boli mintale. Astfel, un studiu efectuat în SUA a arătat că din 72 de persoane care şi-au pierdut economiile destinate pensionării, din cauza falimentelor băncilor, 21 (deci 29% din total) au suferit depresii majore în următorii doi ani. De asemenea, specialiştii au avertizat că aglomerările urbane pot contribui la înmulţirea anxietăţilor pe care o persoană le poate avea. În fine, s-a arătat că, în plan grafic, a trăi în New York este echivalent cu a fuma 38 de ţigări/zi (nu numai din punctul de vedere al poluării aerului, ci având în vedere toţi ceilalţi factori poluanţi care afectează starea de sănătate a individului, pe ansamblu)[73]. La nivelul legislaţiei interne, acest gen de poluare a fost reglementat, chiar dacă într-un mod destul de timid, printr-o serie de acte normative. Acestea nu fac trimitere la stres, dar au în vedere protejarea populaţiei de eventualele activităţi sau factori ce le-ar putea crea un anumit disconfort. În această direcţie conţin prevederi Legea nr. 137/1995[74] modificată, Ordinul Ministerului Sănătăţii nr. 536/1997 ce face referire la normele de igenă şi condiţiile de viaţă ale populaţiei[75] şi Ordinul Ministerului Sănătăţii şi Familiei nr. 803/2001, care enumeră bolile profesionale ce pot apărea în urma desfăşurării activităţii profesionale într-un mediu ce predispune la stres. Cu toate acestea, considerăm că legislaţia actuală nu este suficientă (nici cantitativ, nici calitativ) pentru a răspunde problemei majore a stresului cauzat de diverşi factori, stres ce afectează gravsănătatea fiinţei umane, în unele cazuri având efecte mult mai nocive decât alţi poluanţi. De aceea, considerăm că şi acest aspect al poluării psihice a fiinţei umane trebuie privit cu multă seriozitate de către legiuitorul român, seriozitate ce trebuie să se concretizeze, cât de curând, într-o serie de acte normative menite, dacă nu să rezolve, cel puţin să diminueze efectele negative ale stresului ca factor poluant. 6. Informaţiile nocive, dăunătoare, false, manipulatorii Ne simţim obligaţi să oferim o explicaţie a fenomenului de poluare cu informaţii nocive, dăunătoare, false, manipulatorii. În general, poluarea fiinţei umane presupune afectarea, mai mult sau mai puţin gravă, a sănătăţii acesteia. Sănătatea unei persoane are o dublă natură: fizică şi psihică. Sănătatea psihică a persoanei presupune o stare de bine psihic, stare ce nu trebuie viciată în nici un fel. După cum am văzut anterior, prin anumite unde (radiaţii) sau câmpuri electromagnetice, prin zgomot sau prin stres această stare poate fi modificată în mod negativ, alterând-o mai mult sau mai puţin, determinând în final apariţia unor stări nesănătoase sau a unor boli ale psihicului. Ca în cazul poluării prin intermediul undelor electromagnetice, în cazul căreia putem avea de a face cu o viciere a libertăţii de gândire sau acţiune, şi în cazul poluării cu informaţii nocive, dăunătoare, false, manipulatorii avem de a face cu o viciere a libertăţii de gândire şi acţiune, prin modificarea comportamentului, prin inducerea unui anumit comportament, a unei anumite atitudini, deseori nocivă pentru persoana în cauză, dar şi pentru alte persoane, sau prin determinarea apariţiei unui comportament dăunător pentru propria persoană sau pentru colectivitatea din care face parte individul în cauză. În concret, considerăm că anumite informaţii prezentate, în special, în mass-media scrisă şi audio-vizuală au capacitatea de a afecta anumite persoane, cărora pot să le influenţeze comportamentul în mod negativ, datorită nocivităţii sau falsităţii informaţiilor prezentate. Ulterior schimbării de regim politic din decembrie 1989, datorită câştigării de către mass-media a libertăţii de exprimare numărul de mijloace de comunicare în masă a crescut şi, direct proporţional, a crescut şi numărul categoriilor de informaţii prezentate de către acestea. Departe de a contesta un drept fundamental la exprimare liberă, pe care, la rându-ne ni-l exercităm, punem totuşi sub semnul întrebării întinderea acestui drept, considerând că aceasta ar trebui grăniţuită pe considerentul protejării sănătăţii psihice a individului. Astfel, printr-un evident abuz de drept (la liberă exprimare), majoritatea mijloacelor de comunicare în masă poluează psihicul uman cu informaţii (percepute auditiv şi vizual) nocive şi dăunătoare. Includem între acestea imaginile violente prezentate în jurnalele de ştiri, în filme sau emisiuni de gen, care, repetate obsesiv, zilnic, pot induce stări de psihic nesănătoase, disconfort psihic (având în vedere că puţini oameni simt plăcere la vederea unor imagini violente, a necazurilor semenilor sau a prezentării repetate a unor infractori). De asemenea, aceste imagini (repetate cu o frecvenţă foarte mare) pot genera modificări comportamentale negative, ce pot duce la apariţia unor efecte negative serioase asupra vieţii personale a poluatului sau asupra vieţii comunităţii din care acesta face parte. Efectele produse de acest tip de informaţii variază de la caz la caz şi sunt variate: dezangajarea de la muncă, lipsa nejustificată de voinţă, complacerea într-o situaţie parazitară, considerarea faptului că viaţa nu merită trăită, că este inutilă, neputând fi îmbunătăţită calitativ, oricât de mare ar fi efortul personal sau cel al colectivităţii (locale sau naţionale). Aceste stări sunt, de regulă, generate de ştirile care prezintă, în mod exagerat, faptul că majoritatea cetăţenilor au comportamente parazitare, infracţionale, omiţând prezentarea celor ce se abat de la acest tipar negativ (a persoanelor cinstite, de succes). În această direcţie s-a exprimat şi o opinie[76] cât se poate de avizată. Astfel, ne este prezentat un model explicativ al comparării descendente a satisfacţiei. Modelul ia în calcul influenţa mass-media asupra societăţii, pornind de la premisa următoare: cunoaşterea individului referitoare la stările de satisfacţie ale membrilor unor grupuri sociale mai largi este, în primul rând, mediată de mijloacele de comunicare în masă. Acestor medii li se atribuie o funcţie de ierarhizare, de alegere, de ordonare şi prezentare a informaţiei şi, prin aceasta, de construire a unei imagini a actualităţii. Rolul media este de a stabili pentru opinia publică şi pentru dezbaterea publică, subiectele şi temele prioritare, şi totodată o ordine ierarhică a acestora. Viaţa cotidiană a individului este relativ săracă în evenimente traumatizante sau catastrofale, cel puţin în decursul unei perioade scurte de timp. Acelaşi lucru se petrece şi în legătură cu instanţele apropiate (familie, vecini, colegi, prieteni). În schimb, experienţa cognitivă referitoare la membrii localităţii, şi mai ales ai ţării în care trăieşte este, mai degrabă, mediată, rolul cel mai important avându-l mijloacele de comunicare în masă. Dar caracteristica definitorie a mediilor de informare contemporane este de a prezenta evenimente problematice, negative. Aglomerarea acestor tablouri într-un spaţiu restrâns creează imaginea unei lumi catastrofice. Prin urmare, individului i se sugerează că toţi ceilalţi membrii ai comunităţii sunt, în mod obligatoriu, mai nemulţumiţi. Este însă la fel de adevărat că, mai ales în ultimii ani, mass-media zugrăveşte un tablou tot mai sumbru al societăţii româneşti. Asistăm, pe alocuri, la o iremediabilă blazare naţională, demersurile presei fiind manifestări a ceea ce putem numi o "cultură a lamentaţiei"[77]. În această ordine de idei, legislaţia românească, deşi săracă în acest domeniu, cuprinde două acte normative protecţioniste[78], ce interzic mass-mediei promovarea sau stimularea, în orice situaţie sau prin orice mijloc, a unor comportamente dăunătoare sănătăţii sau siguranţei populaţiei, dăunătoare sănătăţii mediului sau a unor comportamente imorale[79]. O atenţie specială este acordată dezvotării psihice şi fizice a minorilor, care se vrea protejată prin intermediul actelor normative menţionate. Astfel, art. 32 al Legii nr. 504/2002 precizează că: "Publicitatea şi teleshopping-ul pentru băuturi alcoolice trebuie să respecte următoarele condiţii: a) să nu fie adresate minorilor sau să nu prezinte minori consumând băuturi alcoolice; b) să nu stabilească o legătură între consumul de alcool şi îmbunătăţirea calităţilor fizice, psihice sau a abilităţii în conducerea de vehicule; c) să nu sugereze că prin consumul de alcool se pot obţine performanţe sociale sau sexuale; d) să nu sugereze că alcoolul are calităţi terapeutice sau că acesta este stimulent, sedativ sau mijloc de rezolvare a problemelor personale; e) să nu încurajeze consumul exagerat de alcool şi să nu pună într-o lumină negativă consumul moderat sau abţinerea de la consumul de băuturi alcoolice; f) să nu prezinte drept o calitate conţinutul ridicat în alcool al băuturilor". De asemenea, art. 39 al aceluiaşi act normativ prevede că: "(1) Este interzisă difuzarea de programe care pot afecta grav dezvoltarea fizică, mentală sau morală a minorilor, în special programele care conţin pornografie sau violenţă nejustificată. (2) Difuzarea programelor care pot afecta dezvoltarea fizică, mentală sau morală a minorilor se poate face numai dacă, prin alegerea intervalului orar de difuzare sau datorită mijloacelor tehnice necesare recepţiei, minorii nu au acces audio sau video la programele respective". Tot aşa, Decizia nr. 57/2003 a CNA prevede că: "Sunt interzise în intervalul orar 6,00-22,00 anunţurile promoţionale care includ scene de violenţă, sex, limbaj vulgar sau alte elemente care pot afecta minorii"[80]. Acelaşi act normativ, în art. 29, interzice "difuzarea producţiilor şi a videoclipurilor muzicale care încurajează consumul de droguri sau care sugerează că drogurile ar constitui un mijloc de rezolvare a problemelor de viaţă". Informaţiile false şi manipulatorii fac şi ele parte dintre poluatorii psihici avuţi în vedere. Într-o formă foarte timidă, legislaţia română reglementează problema acestora, în art. 3 al Legii nr. 504/2002 a audiovizualului. Astfel, textul de lege prevede că: "(2) Toţi radiodifuzorii au obligaţia să asigure informarea obiectivă a publicului prin prezentarea corectă (s.n.) a faptelor şi evenimentelor şi să favorizeze libera formare a opiniilor (s.n.); (3) Răspunderea pentru conţinutul serviciilor de programe difuzate revine, în condiţiile legii, radiodifuzorului, realizatorului sau autorului, după caz". Aşadar, după cum reiese şi din textul de lege, mass-media este responsabilă pentru caracterul corect şi adevărat al informaţiilor prezentate de către aceasta, fiindu-i interzisă orice formă de inducere în eroare sau manipulare, în scopul îngrădirii libertăţii de formare liberă a opiniilor sau pentru favorizarea apariţiei unui comportament dirijat, nociv pentru persoana în cauză sau pentru comunitate. De altfel, Codul penal român, în art. 1681, consideră infracţiune[81] comunicarea de informaţii false, pedepsind această faptă cu închisoare de la 1 la 5 ani. Este adevărat însă, că prevederea legală în cauză face referire doar la informaţiile false ce sunt de natură a aduce atingere siguranţei statului sau relaţiilor internaţionale ale României. E evident că o reglementare mult mai riguroasă a acestei probleme (răspândirea de informaţii false şi manipulatorii) este mai mult decât necesară. O situaţie notorie în care presa a răspândit informaţii false, manipulatorii şi deosebit de nocive este perioada anilor 1990-2000, în care a existat un val puternic de informaţii mistico-escatologice, ce prezentau minuni inexistente în realitatea obiectivă, apocalipse care urmau să vină, dar care nu s-au produs nici până în zilele noastre, superstiţii şi vrăji ale unor persoane ignorante sau bolnave psihic. Toate acestea au dezangajat de la muncă persoanele ce le-au perceput ca adevărate, afectându-le psihic, datorită încărcăturii emoţionale (au generat spaimă, stări de anxietate, de lipsă de voinţă, au generat chiar şi crime cu substrat religios - a se vedea cazurile în care justificarea crimei se rezuma la faptul că victima era percepută ca fiind un personaj mitologic negativ - Satana, Dracul etc.). Pe tema prezentării în presă a informaţiilor false sau manipulatorii[82] au apărut o serie de cărţi de specialitate[83] ale căror subiecte sunt prea vaste pentru a fi dezvoltate aici. Am făcut însă această precizare pentru a arăta că legislativul are un anumit suport în literatura de specialitate pentru a reglementa această problemă. De altfel, un pas timid a fost făcut prin art. 27 (3) al Legii nr. 504/2002 a audiovizualului, care prevede că "tehnicile subliminale sunt interzise în publicitate şi teleshopping". Din nou avem de a face, ca şi în cazul mind control-ului prezentat anterior, cu o recunoaştere indirectă a unei probleme tabú pentru dezbaterile legislative din multe state europene. Problema poluării psihice prezentate este, după cum se poate deduce, la o atentă citire, una de actualitate şi cât se poate de stringentă. Chiar dacă prezentarea acesteia a fost una mai mult de natură ştiinţifică, considerăm că e necesar a se pune în discuţia doctrinei interne şi internaţionale rezolvarea pe cale legislativă a acesteia. De aceea, doctrina trebuie să-şi îndeplinească rolul de antemergător şi să propună, prin cât mai multe tratări şi discuţii pe marginea acestui subiect, măsurile ce trebuie luate pentru a soluţiona, pe cât posibil, o asemenea problemă a societăţii în care cu toţii trăim.

Aye CLEVELAND... Looks like you will NEVER CHANGR! That "Ratchet" title fits you just swell. It's so sad to see that we can't come together for something POSITIVE! Don't matter what it is you "niggas" will always find a way to mess it up! I'm tired of this COONERY! Why? Why can't we just focus on success here? Why must we relish in the BS? Man, I'm out! California is so calling my name! I love you so much Cleveland but you probably ain't gonna ever be shit! Can't let your past go. I will pray for you....

Hay una posicion con el gobierno federal en Luquillo. Me imagino debe ser en el Yunque ya que es con el departamento de Agricultura, servicios de bosques. Esta es la informacion: INFORMATION RECEPTIONIST WHO MAY APPLY: US Citizens; no prior Federal experience is required. JOB SUMMARY: A career with the Forest Service will challenge you to manage and care for more than 193 million acres of our nation's most magnificent lands, conduct research through a network of forest and range experiment stations and the Forest Products Laboratory, and provide assistance to State and private forestry agencies. It's an awesome responsibility - but the rewards are as limitless as the views. This position is located on a Forest Service unit to provide information services such as greeting visitors, answering telephones, responding to routine inquiries from a variety of customers and providing overall support to the administrative staff on the unit. This is a continuously open vacancy announcement for one or more locations throughout the Forest Service. The number and location of positions to be filled will be dependent upon individual unit needs. TEMPORARY OPEN CONTINUOUS RECRUITMENT: Most positions are expected to start in April and be filled through September. There may be some positions that start earlier and/or end later. Applicants are encouraged to apply early in the recruitment process. The first certificate of candidates will be issued to the hiring unit no sooner than five working days after the opening date of the announcement. Additional certificates will be issued upon request from the hiring unit. When there are no applicants for specific locations, the search area may be broadened when generating certificates to include locations in the closest city nearby. Some positions will have varying work schedules. Some positions may have irregular and protracted hours of work. Tours of duty include full-time or less than full-time and will involve working weekends or irregular work hours. Considerable travel may be required. Some positions involve work that requires travel away from the official duty location to remote worksites within commuting distance (49 miles). Positions may be filled as a temporary appointment up to 6 months or as a not to exceed (NTE) 1 year which can be extended 1 additional year. Hourly wage as shown is Rest of U.S. (RUS). Specific wage rate will vary by location and may be higher or lower than the amount shown on the vacancy announcement. http://www.opm.gov/oca/12tables/indexGS.asp The USDA Forest Service has legislative authority to recruit and fill Permanent (Career/Career-Conditional), Temporary, and Term Appointments under the USDA Demonstration Project. Under this authority, any U.S. citizen may apply. KEY REQUIREMENTS •Must be a U.S. Citizen to apply. •Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with the Selective Service. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DUTIES: Back to topGreets visitors and responds to phone and written inquiries, which often requires an explanation in general terms of functions of the Agency to distinguish among and between function related to the subject of the inquiry. Uses good host techniques in all contacts. Evaluates inquires in order to provide the most useful and appropriate information or to suggest other productive sources of specific information applicable to the nature and subject of inquiry. Resolves inconsistencies in available information and if necessary, refers difficult questions to the supervisor for resolution. Assists in arranging displays of informational and natural materials in the reception area. Varies or changes displays to coincide with seasonal changes, and special public information programs. Uses imagination and good taste to achieve desirable results. Uses word processing software and printing equipment to create, copy, edit, store, retrieve, and print a variety of standardized documents using a glossary of prerecorded formats, form letters, standard paragraphs, and mailing lists. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED: Back to top You must possess the Basic Requirements identified below to be considered eligible for this position. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Your application or resume must clearly show that you possess the appropriate experience requirements. GS-03: Six months of general experience. General Experience is defined as one or more of the following: Progressively responsible clerical, office, or other work that indicates ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position to be filled. –OR Successful completion of 1 year of study above high school. Education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university. One year of full-time academic study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university, or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business, secretarial, or technical school. –OR Completion of an intensive, specialized course of study of less than one year at a business or technical school or through a military training program. (Courses of this type normally require completion of up to 40 hours per week of instruction rather than the usual 20 hours per week, are usually of at least three months duration, and are specific to the work in the position.)- OR A combination of education and experience listed above. APPLICANTS PLEASE NOTE: Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications (particularly positions with a positive education requirement.) Therefore, applicants must report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following website: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html. All education claimed by applicants will be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. *** If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. *** To receive consideration for this position, you must meet all qualification requirements on the date a certificate of candidates is issued from the Open Continuous Announcement. No Additional Requirements. Department: Department Of Agriculture Agency: Forest Service Open Period: 1/10/2013 to 1/9/2014 Who May Apply: US Citizens; no prior Federal experience is required. Location(s): Multiple Locations (779) Salary: $11.95 - $11.95 / Per Hour Series & Grade: GS-0303-3/3 Position Info: - Control Number: 335316100 JOA Number: TEMPOCR-0303-3-INFO-DT

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Obama interested in 'Allah-is-God' curriculum Source says federal officials pursuing program used in Texas CSCOPE, the controversial online curriculum that taught “Allah is God” and currently is used in 80 percent of Texas school districts, has caught the attention of the Obama administration’s Department of Education. A source in the Texas education system has told WND that Common Core operatives in the U.S. Department of Education are actively pursuing CSCOPE as a way around the Texas legislative process. Texas is one of the few states still resisting implementation of Common Core, Obama’s national standards initiative, which many feel is a transparent attempt to nationalize education and progressively control classroom content with minimal parental oversight. Implementation of Common Core is known to have been made a condition of school systems’ receipt of federal dollars under Obama’s “Race to the Top” program. CSCOPE recently has come under fire for evidence of what sources claim to be radical content and secrecy. Now new information of such a radical agenda has surfaced showing CSCOPE connections to Obama mentor and self-acknowledged terror group member Bill Ayers. WND has documented a strong link between Ayers and CSCOPE heavyweight and Common Core advocate Linda Darling-Hammond. An unrepentant terror group member (and known Obama supporter, financier, and ghost-writer), William “Bill” Ayers was part of the notorious Weather Underground which attempted to bomb the Pentagon in the seventies. After 9/11, Ayers was interviewed by the New York Times, and was quoted as saying he had “no regrets.” Ayers gave Darling-Hammond an enthusiastic endorsement for education secretary when Obama was first elected. Ayers has worked extensively with Darling-Hammond on many of the same projects, even editing her work. Both are part of what some education experts have termed the “small schools movement,” which allegedly emphasizes “emotional” responses and output over factual mastery. Darling-Hammond is mentioned throughout CSCOPE literature, has given innumerable lectures on behalf of CSCOPE, and was part of Obama’s educational transition team. She is a primary advocate and proponent of Common Core in Texas, and observers see the acquisition of CSCOPE by the U.S. Department of Education as a logical next step. This scenario has alarmed those concerned about classroom content accountability. Previously, WND reported how CSCOPE lessons promote Islam, teaching conversion methods and presenting verses from the Quran that denigrate other faiths. In CSCOPE curriculum, the Boston Tea Party is likened to an act of terrorism on par with 9/11. In the wake of the Newtown massacre, the Second Amendment is portrayed as a “collective,” not an individual right, despite the Supreme Court’s recent rulings to the contrary. The CSCOPE website has posted a response to concerns about certain lesson plans, including an extensive discussion of the Boston Tea Party. But critics say that such lessons should never have appeared in the first place. Sources within the Texas education system recently informed WND that Wicca, thought by many to be akin to witchcraft, was being taught in CSCOPE curriculum alongside Christianity, but was removed before the news media could access it, a fact which represents one of the biggest concerns for followers of CSCOPE. CSCOPE apparently immediately deletes controversial content once leaked, making it impossible at any one time to know exactly what students are learning and in what order. Defenders of this process say that this responsiveness to public scrutiny is a form of self-auditing. Others have said that it simply leaves parents, teachers and those in charge of curriculum oversight powerless to stop agenda-driven lesson plans and the damage the ideas therein might do to students. WND has documented numerous instances of lessons being deleted after their use in classrooms. When it was discovered that Islam was being given preferential status as a part of a study on the world’s major religions, CSCOPE administrators deleted the lesson plan and associated PowerPoint in the presence of two sources, leaving no trace online. However, through available technology, documentation of this lesson plan and other such controversial content has been retained and reviewed by Texas educators and WND. See the lesson. In CSCOPE World History/Social Studies, Lesson 2, Unit 3 under the heading, “Classical Rome,” students are told that Christianity is a “cult,” and given a link to a BBC article saying the early Christians were “cannibals,” i.e. the Eucharist, which students are then led to conclude is the reason for Roman persecution. See the lesson. This lesson has since been removed, but documentation in WND’s possession confirms that the lesson existed. Critics contend that this ability to change content on a whim to evade scrutiny or accountability is a persistent risk with a system like CSCOPE. An organic curriculum – if regulated – might be advantageous, but without transparency, these types of occurrences will likely be more frequent, critics say. Speaking with WND, Texas Sen. Dan Patrick, new chairman of the education committee, communicated his intent to hold high-profile hearings and investigate CSCOPE. Sen. Patrick noted, “Any system where the chairman of the state board can’t get a password to explore their site in detail for six months, requires teachers to sign an agreement that could subject them to criminal penalties, and is not easily transparent to parents, needs to be closely examined by the legislature.” When asked if he would support placing CSCOPE under state oversight and/or local school board oversight, Sen. Patrick answered carefully, explaining, We will make that decision after our hearings. However, I have concerns of any curriculum program that is in the majority of our school districts without some level of oversight by either the SBOE, TEA, or the legislature.” Patrick, along with many other Republicans, supported the 2011 legislation that took power over Internet curriculum review away from the SBOE, though this provision was admittedly ill-understood in its implications and was originally intended to reduce the cost-burden to school districts in obtaining and distributing the curriculum. While reducing costs, this move also created the basis of the current controversy. Opponents of CSCOPE, on the other hand, desire a lawsuit. They do not want to wait for hearings. As they contend, CSCOPE is already violating Texas public statutes, which require all “instructional materials” to be available to parents. CSCOPE places all primary content – apart from summaries – behind a pay wall.Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC) Governing Board minutes, obtained only by Texas Public Information Act request, reveal that even the governing board in charge of CSCOPE may not be fully aware of CSCOPE content issues. Minutes for the meetings covered show that governing board members were told by CSCOPE Executive Director Wade Labay that they will only be involved in content-related issues if “politically sensitive,” what Labay calls “’911′ type messages or those deemed critical.” In other words, in addition to the absence of state oversight, corporate oversight within CSCOPE might be lacking. The fears of some that CSCOPE is replacing textbooks, a claim denied by Texas SBOE member Thomas Ratliff, would appear justified if governing board minutes are considered. In addition to outlining when and under what circumstances CSCOPE would communicate with the TESCCC governing board, pending textbook alignments with Pearson, McGraw Hill, et al., were discussed and delayed with the support of governing board members. Some attendees lamented even having to align CSCOPE content with textbooks, since “the mission of CSCOPE is to change instruction in the classroom.” TESCCC has now asked the Texas Attorney General to make its minutes exempt from public information requirements.

My son had his year check up today. He's now 21 pounds and 14 ounces and he's 29 inches long. He didn't get circumstances when born. (Sp) but were now waiting to hear if it can be done. How long did it take your son to heal? ~Glenda~

DISCORSO DIVINO del 14 gennaio 1989 IL VALORE DELLO SPORT Lo splendore ed il fulgore che state ammirando è Dio. Rispondete con amore alla chiamata divina. Giacché Dio vi è così vicino e i Suoi comandi sono facilmente accessibili, non opponete resistenza e non disobbedite. Il malvagio cerca sempre di ingannarvi e distruggervi. Un'educazione che non vi portasse alla purezza del cuore farebbe crescere ira ed orgoglio. In una casa ove regnano le tenebre solo un'accozzaglia di pipi-strelli può trovare rifugio, creando problemi. Ecco la verità, di cui vi faccio partecipi. Cari studenti e studentesse, cari insegnanti e responsabili dell'educazione Costanza e decisione Il requisito più importante per qualunque cosa l'uomo intenda realizzare è una ferma e risoluta determinazione. Chi tentenna, non riuscirà mai ad ottenere alcunché, nemmeno le più piccole cose. Una mente che non vacilla e un'ener-gica risolutezza sono qualità essenziali per lo studente che voglia raggiungere i suoi obiettivi. Se gli studenti vogliono avere un aureo avvenire e perseguire mete insigni, devono avere queste due doti: costante impegno e ferma deci-sione. Equanimità Dovere principale di uno studente sta nello sviluppare e mantenere equanimità nel pensiero e nei rapporti con gli altri, poiché soltanto in condizioni di ar-monia e serenità interiore egli capirà nella giusta prospettiva che cosa signifi-chi essere uomo. Infatti, solo colui che ha ricondotto il pensiero all'unità ed ignora ogni genere di controversia può chiamarsi uomo. Ciascun abitante di questo vasto paese deve essere considerato come una unità di grande rilievo e ciascun essere umano, che occupa questo vasto mondo, ricopre una sua re-sponsabilità sociale. Il mondo va inteso come una famiglia. Soltanto chi è calmo e paziente merita il titolo di studente. Lo sport Queste grandi qualità, come l'unità e la collaborazione, si possono coltivare ed acquisire mediante lo sport e l'agonismo, per mezzo dei quali si ottengono salute e longevità, qualità indispensabili se si vuole offrire il proprio contri-buto alla società. L'uomo non va considerato esclusivamente sotto il punto di vista fisico, ma anche nel suo aspetto sottile, quello mentale. La mente è sacra e la sua santità dipende dalla purezza del cuore. L'uomo riuscirà ad ottenere pace e prosperità solo mediante la purezza e la forza del corpo e della mente. Perciò, ogni essere umano ha bisogno di un fisico sano, di una mente sveglia e di un cuore puro. La stessa decisione, risolutezza e tenacia che gli studenti mostrano nell'aspirare al trofeo e nel conseguire degli ottimi risultati, andrebbero applicate anche a tutti gli altri aspetti della vita umana. La purezza e la perseveranza sono le due importanti virtù che dovete applicare al campo della moralità e della spiritualità. I doni di Dio L'uomo, che dice "Grazie!" per ogni piccolo favore quotidiano, non dovrebbe mostrare la propria gratitudine a Dio che, per mezzo dei cinque elementi, provvede a tutto quanto gli serve per vivere? L'acqua che bevete, l'aria che respirate e la terra su cui vivete sono tutti doni di Dio. Qualunque sforzo fac-ciate per estrarre dell'acqua, ciò che otterrete non sarà mai paragonabile alla pioggia che dipende direttamente dal volere divino. Potete usare tutti i venti-latori che volete, ma il risultato non sarà mai come la brezza o il vento che Dio fa spirare in modo naturale. Possono forse tutte le lampadine del mondo raggiungere lo splendore del sole? Mentre il sole e la luna forniscono luce a questo mondo e Iddio dona la pioggia alla terra, non si tiene in nessun conto una così gran grazia di Dio n‚ si dimostra gratitudine a Colui che la dispensa, prestando invece attenzione alle piccole ed insignificanti cose di ogni giorno, e sprecando così la vita. Le 9 devozioni Da tempo immemorabile, tutte le devozioni e le preghiere vengono offerte in segno di gratitudine. Al mondo, vengono praticati nove tipi di devozione: - l'ascolto delle glorie del Signore, - il canto della Gloria del Signore, - la recita ed il ricordo del Nome di Vishnù, - il compimento del proprio dovere abbandonandolo ai Piedi del Signore, - l'adorazione del Signore, - l'obbedienza a Lui, - il mettersi al Suo servizio, - l'amicizia col Signore e - la totale resa a Lui. Esempi di devozione Il Maharaja Parikshit fu l'imperatore che, adottando come disciplina spirituale la disponibilità all'ascolto, riuscì a comprendere e a completare lo scopo della sua vita. Narada espresse ed offrì la sua gratitudine a Dio, cantandoNe inces-santemente la Gloria, sempre e dovunque. Prahlada, devoto fanciullo, ricor-dando e cantando senza fine il nome Hari Om Hari Om, santificò la propria vita, manifestando gratitudine al Signore. Molti altri esternarono la loro grati-tudine col servizio al Signore. Arjuna offrì la sua gratitudine attraverso il vin-colo dell'amicizia con Krishna; Prithu espresse la sua devozione per mezzo del culto; Hanuman con l'essersi reso servo di Rama; Bali, offrendo l'anima a Dio. Tutti questi tipi di devozione sono un'espressione dell'amore e della gra-titudine offerti dai devoti a Dio, per ringraziarLo di tutto quanto hanno rice-vuto. Talora, nell'esprimere la propria devozione, il devoto incontra degli o-stacoli, ma essi sono soltanto temporanei. È sempre possibile salire un gradino più in alto, fino a raggiungere la meta della vita. La forza della virtù Dal punto di vista sia individuale sia collettivo, oltre ad occuparsi della salute e del benessere, si devono coltivare alcune virtù fondamentali. Solo chi ha il pieno possesso delle virtù avrà modo di eccellere in questo mondo. Perciò è dovere di ciascun studente coltivare, oltre all'istruzione, le virtù. C'è il calcio, per esempio. Caratteristica del pallone è rimbalzare. Quando lo buttate per terra, torna su. Similmente, può accadere che i buoni e i virtuosi vengano gettati a terra da circostanze avverse, ma queste persone, non appena passata la difficoltà, si rialzano. A differenza del pallone, se gettate a terra una palla di fango, essa di certo non rimbalzerà. La persona che non ha senso di gratitudine e virtù in se, una volta gettata a terra dagli eventi della vita, non si rialzerà più. La caduta di Ravana Durante la guerra fra Ravana e Rama, a Lanka, un giorno Rama, vedendo di-nanzi a sé una figura circonfusa di fulgido splendore e di collera, chiese a Vi-bhishana chi fosse. E Vibhishana rispose che non era altri che Ravana, nemico di Rama. Rama si stupì che una così splendida figura fosse caduta tanto in basso, a causa della propria debolezza e delle proprie cattive qualità, e disse: "È solo in conseguenza delle sue qualità negative che deve sopportare un de-stino così triste". Qualità fisiche e morali Cari studenti, qualsiasi abilità fisica o intellettuale abbiate, non vi saranno di alcuna utilità se insieme non coltiverete anche delle buone qualità e delle vir-tù. Così, oltre alle competizioni sportive, abbiate valore e forza di carattere anche nell'acquisizione di buone qualità e virtù. A questo mondo non esiste nulla che una persona virtuosa non possa ottenere. Nella vita di ogni giorno è normale imbattersi in difficoltà e problemi, come critiche e rimproveri, ma si possono accettare in santa pace. Chi affronta e sopporta tutto è un vero uomo. Potenziate la forza di volontà e la fiducia in voi stessi: il debole di mente a stento riuscirà nella vita, persino nelle inezie. Se volete essere un ideale per il mondo, dovete sviluppare le migliori qualità insite in voi. Qui l'istruzione non serve molto e, sebbene essa serva per procurarsi il pane quotidiano, non rende ideale una vita. Le virtù e un buon carattere sono gli elementi essenziali per raggiungere lo scopo della vita. Quando, dunque, l'istruzione cresce con le virtù, è come se il polo positivo si mettesse in coppia col negativo ed allora potete ottenere qualunque cosa. Gli studenti dovrebbero avere una grande fe-de in Dio, fermezza e decisione. L'esempio di Edison Avete certamente sentito parlare di Thomas Alva Edison. Nacque da una po-vera famiglia l'11 Febbraio 1847, nello Stato dell'Ohio. Non era molto istruito, ma tutto quello che sapeva l'aveva appreso dai suoi genitori e questo, insieme alle sue buone qualità, bastò a fargli raggiungere i più alti obiettivi della vita. A 9 anni si dedicò ad una gran quantità di ricerche ed esperimenti. I genitori fecero di tutto per dargli una formazione scolastica, ma egli era assolutamente refrattario a quel tipo di studio. I suoi primi interessi erano nello smontare e rimontare piccoli giocattoli, nel tentativo di scoprirne il funzionamento. Un giorno, nel granaio dei vicini, fece un esperimento che si concluse con una terribile esplosione, simile ad un tuono, e con la conseguente distruzione di tutta la riserva di grano. Quando il padre venne a scoprire che il responsabile di quell'incidente era suo figlio, gli legò mani e piedi e, condottolo in strada, lo riempì di botte, intimandogli di non azzardare mai più esperimenti. Il ragazzo, intimidito dal padre, corse dalla madre, le si gettò ai piedi per scongiurarla di intervenire in sua difesa. Sua madre, che era indulgente e comprendeva il valore che quegli esperimenti avevano per suo figlio, persuase il marito a consentirgli di continuare. Così il ragazzo poté proseguire le sue ricerche, che ora effettuava in casa. Un giorno, nel corso di un esperimento, divampò un incendio che ridusse in cenere tutto quanto l'abbigliamento e le immediate suppellettili. Questa volta il padre andò su tutte le furie. A soli 11 anni, Thomas fu allontanato da casa e, ragionando in cuor suo, prese una co-raggiosa decisione: "Ho capito che non sarò in grado di rinunciare ai desideri, finché non avrò più fermezza. Desidero qualcosa e non riesco a rinunciarvi finché non l'ottengo. Penso a qualcosa e immediatamente ne nasce il deside-rio". Si pose innanzi a Dio e formulò questa decisione: "O Dio esaudirà i miei desideri, oppure mi perderò nella foresta: non me la sento di tornare se prima non vedo esauditi i miei desideri o rafforzata la mia fermezza." Lasciata la casa paterna, finì per vivere sulla strada come un mendicante. Si era messo a vendere pane e biscotti sui treni. La sua sete di ricerca, però, non si era mai spenta. Quando aveva qualche pausa sul lavoro, si ritirava nella toi-lette per dedicarsi agli esperimenti. Ma, ancora una volta, provocò un'esplo-sione, che dissestò il treno. Qualunque difficoltà incontrasse, non si arrendeva mai. Dopo quell'esplosione, un agente della ferrovia lo picchiò selvaggiamente e lo buttò fuori. A causa di quelle percosse, Thomas divenne sordo. Assorto nei propri pensieri e preoccupatissimo, prese a camminare lungo la ferrovia, quando a un tratto, levati gli occhi si accorse che un treno veniva verso di lui a gran velocità. Nel frattempo aveva visto un bambino che, per giocare con altri compagni, camminava sulle rotaie. Thomas accortosi dell'immediato pericolo, si precipitò a salvarlo. I genitori di quel bambino gli furono naturalmente molto grati per avergli salvato il figlio da morte sicura e gli fecero molte domande su chi fosse e da dove venisse. Egli raccontò loro la sua situazione, come era stato cacciato di casa e quali erano le sue aspirazioni. Grazie al loro aiuto, Thomas trovò un impiego e, da quel momento, la sua carriera fu in rapida ascesa. È proprio lui il Thomas inventore della lampadina che fornisce luce al mondo. È lo stesso Thomas che inventò il grammofono e una gran quantità di macchine industriali. Ora, se un illetterato come lui poté inventare tante cose oltre alla luce elettrica, offrendo un così grande contributo al mondo, possiamo forse dire che lo ha fatto grazie alla propria istruzione? Niente affatto! È stato grazie alla propria tenacia e alle sue buone qualità. La buona compagnia Ecco perché, oltre all'istruzione, vanno sviluppate anche le buone qualità ed il carattere. Se volete esercitare il controllo sulla mente, dovete frequentare delle buone compagnie, per mezzo delle quali è possibile far sì che l'umanità sbocci in divinità. Le stesse cose sono state affermate in forma di stanze negli inni e nei cantici dedicati a Govinda, cioè a Krishna. Per avere il massimo controllo dei desideri, dei sentimenti e della mente è essenziale la buona compagnia. È la verità. Vi prego, ascoltatela: In compagnia dei buoni vi sarà possibile controllare la mente. Ed è anche vero che il dio della Morte non vi risparmierà e vi punirà se diventerete un idiota che spreca in cose inutili il suo tempo. O folle, continua a cantare il Nome di Dio e tieni un comportamento moderato. Esseri divini Se volete esaltare in voi le qualità divine, adorate e abbiate a cuore il Nome di Dio. Dio non abita in una dimora separata da voi. Voi siete la vera immagine di Dio, l'autentica Sua incarnazione. Ogni suono che giunge al vostro orecchio non è altro che un'eco del Suo Nome. Il vostro dovere nasce da quel mondo che riecheggia la realtà di Dio: nell'osservare i comandamenti divini a voi affidati, santificate la vostra vita, trasformandovi da umani in divini. Modelli per il mondo Cari studenti, voi occupate una posizione tale che, esaltando le vostre capaci-tà, vi potrà condurre allo stato di divinità: sarete così un modello e vi offrirete come ideale al mondo intero. La vita umana è divina, sacra e, perciò, deve es-sere vissuta degnamente. Grazie al progresso della scienza e della tecnica, l'uomo è riuscito a volare in cielo come un uccello e a nuotare nell'immenso oceano come un pesce. Purtroppo, però, non ha imparato l'arte del vivere da essere umano sulla terra. Se l'uomo non sa vivere da vero essere umano, quale sarà il valore della sua esistenza? Non è tanto importante nascere in forma umana, quanto vivere e sviluppare qualità umane, proponendosi come esempi di perfezione. Accendete la luce delle vostre buone qualità, perché risplenda-no davanti a tutti. La madre e la patria Onorate il nome dei vostri genitori. La buona qualità della vita presente non è altro che il risultato delle buone azioni compiute in passato. Onorate il nome della nazione e di vostra madre, che vi hanno dato i natali. Imparate ad amare il vostro paese senza alcuna ostilità per gli altri. Questa è la lezione più grande da imparare. Sta scritto che, al di sopra del Paradiso c'è la madre di famiglia e la madre terra, la propria nazione. C'è bisogno dell'amor patrio. C'è forse qualcuno qui presente che si vergogna di dichiarare il Paese da cui proviene? In forza di questo vivo amor di patria, non si dovrebbero mai criticare o giudicare altre nazioni. Abbiate fiducia nel vostro Paese, offritegli protezione, prendetevene cura e non ingiuriate altri popoli e nazioni. Risolvete i problemi del vostro Paese, eliminate il vostro razzismo, sviluppate la consapevolezza che tutti i popoli appartengono ad una sola famiglia, quella dell'umanità. Ab-biate davvero una incrollabile fede nell'unità di tutte le religioni. Considerate ogni nazione come una parte del mondo unico. Ecco il tipo di unità e di u-guaglianza in cui ciascun studente dovrebbe progredire. Non odiate nessuno. Non danneggiate non‚ offendete alcuno. Ricordatevi della reazione che, come un'eco, torna di riflesso da ogni azione compiuta in questa vita. Elevare lo sport Cari studenti e studentesse, avete scelto voi di frequentare l'Istituto di Studi Superiori dell'Organizzazione Sathya Sai. Io desidero che sviluppiate le gran-di virtù e che la vostra vita sia un esempio, un modello, un ideale e serviate la società. Ecco quanto Mi aspetto da voi e ciò costituirà la Mia gioia. Gioia e salute sono essenziali per ogni essere vivente e, per avere felicità, è indispen-sabile la salute fisica. Mentre giocate e praticate degli sport, rimanete fedeli al vostro ruolo e siate dei buoni sportivi. Elevate il livello medio dello sport e sviluppate lo spirito di corpo. Non perdete tempo, poiché esso è un'autentica manifestazione di Dio e va dunque utilizzato nel modo giusto. Il bagno mattutino Cari studenti, la maggior parte di voi deve aver letto il Bhagavatam, dove si narra la storia di Dundubhi. Gli studenti dovrebbero levarsi il mattino alle quattro circa e fra le quattro e le cinque assolvere ai propri doveri mattutini e incominciare lo studio. Le abluzioni e tutto quanto viene compiuto fra le cin-que e le sei, sono definiti Manavas Nana, cioè il bagno dell'umano. Dopo le sette, il bagno viene definito demoniaco, come un'azione non degna di un uomo o di un dio. Questa Dundubhi, di cui si parla nel Bhagavatam, faceva sempre il bagno dopo le sette e questo comportava per lei la perdita del sacro tempo fra le quattro e le sei del mattino, durante il quale l'immagine di Dio ama manifestarSi. Il primo mattino Il tempo che intercorre fra le quattro e le cinque deve essere dedicato agli Inni Mattutini (Suprabhatham). Non trascorrete il canto dei 21 OM (Omkara) dormendo avvolti in coperte. Usando male questo tempo così sacro, perdete quella luminosità che emanereste. Sul principio, svegliarsi tra le quattro e le cinque del mattino può sembrare difficile, ma, con l'andar del tempo, trarrete un gran gioia da questa abitudine. Chi si sveglia sul tardi, rimane pigro per tutto il giorno. Chi si alza a tempo debito beneficia di un incremento di me-moria e di una buona circolazione sanguigna. Bisogna fare anche degli esercizi fisici. Per questo si dice che solo con un impegno adeguato è possibile diventare un saggio. Perciò gli studenti intraprendano la loro giornata secondo una routine che comprende sport, giochi, preghiera e studio. Sport e salute La salute è ricchezza. Una persona che non gode buona salute non otterrà nulla. Sport e agonismo devono servire a dare salute e felicità e non devono diventare un'occasione di speculazioni, come accade al giorno d'oggi. Gli studenti dei nostri istituti devono partecipare alle attività sportive e alle gare al fine di sviluppare memoria e godere buona salute, gioia e benessere. Pur-troppo però gli studenti d'oggi, man mano crescono, perdono il loro interesse sia per lo sport che per il gioco. L'importante è partecipare. Eliminate il vostro egocentrismo e la vostra chiusura mentale. Sviluppate il senso di collabo-razione, di uguaglianza e di fraternità, che ha radici nella divinità. Non detestatevi. Non criticatevi. Considerate l'amore come il fondamentale principio vitale. Fate in modo che esso sia il vostro obiettivo principale. Svi-luppatelo ed accrescetelo. (Prashanti Nilayam, 14 Gennaio 1989 Vibhishana è il nome del fratello di Ravana. Dopo che i due fratelli si furono sottoposti a severi esercizi di ascesi, Dio (Brahma) volle concedere loro delle grazie. Vibhishana, secondo quanto viene riferito dal Ramayana, chiese di non trovarsi mai ad essere colpevole di un'azione indegna. Egli raggiunse questo suo scopo e cercò anche di persuadere il fratello Ravana a non muove-re guerra contro Rama. I suoi sforzi, però, furono vani e fu perseguitato da Ravana, fino al momento in cui si unì a Rama. Dopo la sconfitta di Ravana, Vibhishana fu posto sul trono di Lanka e, come viene detto nel Mahabharata, ottenne da Dio il dono dell'immortalità.

WHAT A WORLD 10-Year-Old Girl Gives Birth To Baby Boy A 10-year-old Mexican girl has given birth to a baby boy after a 31-week pregnancy, according to reports. The premature infant, which weighed 3.3 pounds, was born by Caesarian section at the Women’s Hospital in the city of Puebla and is in the intensive care unit recovering from pneumonia. The young mother, who is from the nearby San Francisco Totimehuacan community, has returned home after the procedure but visits the baby every day to breastfeed, officials said. The Puebla state Attorney General’s Office is now investigating whether the girl could have been Molested and who the father is, the hospital’s director Rogelio Gonzalez said, according to UpFrontNewswire. Mexican state laws say young moms are unable to have abortions unless a girl can prove she was the victim of intimate assault. The state’s minimum age of consent is 12 and women who undergo abortions in Puebla face a fine or prison sentence if they are unable to prove they were sexually abused. The laws are currently under review. The girl, who has not been named, arrived at the medical facility on Oct. 22, suffering from life-threatening complications, including seizures. Hospital officials said the newborn is in a good condition considering his premature birth and the mother is recovering well. This is not the first case of a shockingly young girl giving birth in Mexico. In August last year, 11-year-old Amalia had a child two weeks premature after she was denied an abortion by the local Justice Department during the fourth month of pregnancy. She was Molested repeatedly by her stepfather when she was 10 years old, but local laws do not allow terminations after three months

Looking at a 20+ hour day, same tomorrow on minimal sleep. more push ups and pain to come before I hit the rack. I wouldn't trade this shit for anything. hooah.

În urma demiterii şefului jandarmeriei Bucureşti şi anchetării subalternului său care lovea cu bestialitate un protestatar prăbuşit, propaganda băsistă a înnebunit. În această seară avem noi dezvăluiri despre abuzurile unor politişti cu protecţie politică, un alt caz dramatic: ucis "din greșeală" de către polițiști. Urmariți Sinteza Zilei!

Pour ceux que ça intéresse, voici les tracks que j'ai joué samedi passé au Xénon Club :) Tracklist : Ruhann @ Level Up 1. The Unit – TBA 2. Di-Rect – Young Ones (DBSTF Rmx) 3. Wildstylez Ft. Niels Geusebroek – Year Of Summer 4. Brennan Heart & Wildstylez – Lose My Mind 5. The Unit – What A Night 6. Ran-D – #MyWay 7. Code Black & Nitrouz – Can’t Hold Me Back 8. The Unit & Darkxcess – TBA 9. Frequencerz & In-Phase – Fight For Survival 10. B-Front – Mysterias 11. Hard Driver & B-Front – State Of Perfection 12. Alpha² - Let It Go 13. Frontliner VS Tommyknocker & Sunbeam & The Viper – Twisted Spacer World (Ruhann Mash Up)

Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The Geothermal energy of the Earth's crust originates from the original formation of the planet (20%) and from radioactive decay of minerals (80%).[1][2] The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface. The adjective geothermal originates from the Greek roots γη (ge), meaning earth, and θερμος (thermos), meaning hot. At the core of the Earth, thermal energy is created by radioactive decay[1] and temperatures may reach over 5000 degrees Celsius (9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat conducts from the core to surrounding cooler rock. The high temperature and pressure cause some rock to melt, creating magma convection upward since it is lighter than the solid rock. The magma heats rock and water in the crust, sometimes up to 370 degrees Celsius (700 degrees Fahrenheit).[3] From hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for electricity generation. Worldwide, about 10,715 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power is online in 24 countries. An additional 28 gigawatts of direct geothermal heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial processes, desalination and agricultural applications.[4] Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly,[5] but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, opening a potential for widespread exploitation. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, but these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those of fossil fuels. As a result, geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global warming if widely deployed in place of fossil fuels. The Earth's geothermal resources are theoretically more than adequate to supply humanity's energy needs, but only a very small fraction may be profitably exploited. Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive.[citation needed] Forecasts for the future of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices, subsidies, and interest rates. Polls[by whom?] show that customers would be willing to pay a little more for a renewable energy source like geothermal. But as a result of government assisted research and industry experience, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25% over the past two decades.[6] In 2001, geothermal energy cost between two and ten cents per kwh.[7] Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Electricity 3 Direct application 4 Economics 5 Resources 6 Renewability and Sustainability 7 Environmental effects 8 Legal frameworks 9 See also 10 References 11 External links History The oldest known pool fed by a hot spring, built in the Qin dynasty in the 3rd century BCE. Hot springs have been used for bathing at least since paleolithic times[8] The oldest known spa is a stone pool on China’s Lisan mountain built in the Qin dynasty in the 3rd century BC, at the same site where the Huaqing Chi palace was later built. In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis, now Bath, Somerset, England, and used the hot springs there to feed public baths and underfloor heating. The admission fees for these baths probably represent the first commercial use of geothermal power. The world's oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues, France, has been operating since the 14th century.[9] The earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid from volcanic mud in Larderello, Italy. In 1892, America's first district heating system in Boise, Idaho was powered directly by geothermal energy, and was copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1900. A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in 1926, and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time.[10] Charlie Lieb developed the first downhole heat exchanger in 1930 to heat his house. Steam and hot water from geysers began heating homes in Iceland starting in 1943. Global geothermal electric capacity. Upper red line is installed capacity;[11] lower green line is realized production.[4] In the 20th century, demand for electricity led to the consideration of geothermal power as a generating source. Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal power generator on 4 July 1904, at the same Larderello dry steam field where geothermal acid extraction began. It successfully lit four light bulbs.[12] Later, in 1911, the world's first commercial geothermal power plant was built there. It was the world's only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until New Zealand built a plant in 1958. Lord Kelvin invented the heat pump in 1852, and Heinrich Zoelly had patented the idea of using it to draw heat from the ground in 1912.[13] But it was not until the late 1940s that the geothermal heat pump was successfully implemented. The earliest one was probably Robert C. Webber's home-made 2.2 kW direct-exchange system, but sources disagree as to the exact timeline of his invention.[13] J. Donald Kroeker designed the first commercial geothermal heat pump to heat the Commonwealth Building (Portland, Oregon) and demonstrated it in 1946.[14][15] Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University built the first residential open loop version in his home in 1948.[16] The technology became popular in Sweden as a result of the 1973 oil crisis, and has been growing slowly in worldwide acceptance since then. The 1979 development of polybutylene pipe greatly augmented the heat pump’s economic viability.[14] In 1960, Pacific Gas and Electric began operation of the first successful geothermal electric power plant in the United States at The Geysers in California.[17] The original turbine lasted for more than 30 years and produced 11 MW net power.[18] The binary cycle power plant was first demonstrated in 1967 in the U.S.S.R. and later introduced to the U.S. in 1981.[17] This technology allows the generation of electricity from much lower temperature resources than previously. In 2006, a binary cycle plant in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, came on-line, producing electricity from a record low fluid temperature of 57 °C (135 °F).[19] Electricity Main article: Geothermal electricity The International Geothermal Association (IGA) has reported that 10,715 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power in 24 countries is online, which is expected to generate 67,246 GWh of electricity in 2010.[20] This represents a 20% increase in online capacity since 2005. IGA projects growth to 18,500 MW by 2015, due to the projects presently under consideration, often in areas previously assumed to have little exploitable resource.[20] In 2010, the United States led the world in geothermal electricity production with 3,086 MW of installed capacity from 77 power plants.[21] The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, a geothermal field in California.[22] The Philippines is the second highest producer, with 1,904 MW of capacity online. Geothermal power makes up approximately 18% of Philippine electricity generation.[21] Installed geothermal electric capacity Country Capacity (MW) 2007[11] Capacity (MW) 2010[23] Percentage of national production United States 2687 3086 0.3% Philippines 1969.7 1904 27% Indonesia 992 1197 3.7% Mexico 953 958 3% Italy 810.5 843 1.5% New Zealand 471.6 628 10% Iceland 421.2 575 30% Japan 535.2 536 0.1% Iran 250 250 El Salvador 204.2 204 25% Kenya 128.8 167 11.2% Costa Rica 162.5 166 14% Nicaragua 87.4 88 10% Russia 79 82 Turkey 38 82 Papua-New Guinea 56 56 Guatemala 53 52 Portugal 23 29 China 27.8 24 France 14.7 16 Ethiopia 7.3 7.3 Germany 8.4 6.6 Austria 1.1 1.4 Australia 0.2 1.1 Thailand 0.3 0.3 TOTAL 9,981.9 10,959.7 Geothermal electric plants were traditionally built exclusively on the edges of tectonic plates where high temperature geothermal resources are available near the surface. The development of binary cycle power plants and improvements in drilling and extraction technology enable enhanced geothermal systems over a much greater geographical range.[24] Demonstration projects are operational in Landau-Pfalz, Germany, and Soultz-sous-Forêts, France, while an earlier effort in Basel, Switzerland was shut down after it triggered earthquakes. Other demonstration projects are under construction in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.[25] The thermal efficiency of geothermal electric plants is low, around 10-23%, because geothermal fluids do not reach the high temperatures of steam from boilers. The laws of thermodynamics limits the efficiency of heat engines in extracting useful energy. Exhaust heat is wasted, unless it can be used directly and locally, for example in greenhouses, timber mills, and district heating. System efficiency does not materially affect operational costs as it would for plants that use fuel, but it does affect return on the capital used to build the plant. In order to produce more energy than the pumps consume, electricity generation requires relatively hot fields and specialized heat cycles.[citation needed] Because geothermal power does not rely on variable sources of energy, unlike, for example, wind or solar, its capacity factor can be quite large – up to 96% has been demonstrated.[26] The global average was 73% in 2005. Direct application Main articles: Geothermal heating and geothermal heat pump In the geothermal industry, low temperature means temperatures of 300 °F (149 °C) or less. Low-temperature geothermal resources are typically used in direct-use applications, such as district heating, greenhouses, fisheries, mineral recovery, and industrial process heating. However, some low-temperature resources can generate electricity using binary cycle electricity generating technology.[27] Approximately 70 countries made direct use of 270 petajoules (PJ) of geothermal heating in 2004. More than half went for space heating, and another third for heated pools. The remainder supported industrial and agricultural applications. Global installed capacity was 28 GW, but capacity factors tend to be low (30% on average) since heat is mostly needed in winter. The above figures are dominated by 88 PJ of space heating extracted by an estimated 1.3 million geothermal heat pumps with a total capacity of 15 GW.[4] Heat pumps for home heating are the fastest-growing means of exploiting geothermal energy, with a global annual growth rate of 30% in energy production.[28] Direct heating is far more efficient than electricity generation and places less demanding temperature requirements on the heat resource. Heat may come from co-generation via a geothermal electrical plant or from smaller wells or heat exchangers buried in shallow ground. As a result, geothermal heating is economic at many more sites than geothermal electricity generation. Where natural hot springs or geysers are available, the heated water can be piped directly into radiators. If the ground is hot but dry, earth tubes or downhole heat exchangers can collect the heat. But even in areas where the ground is colder than room temperature, heat can still be extracted with a geothermal heat pump more cost-effectively and cleanly than by conventional furnaces.[29] These devices draw on much shallower and colder resources than traditional geothermal techniques, and they frequently combine a variety of functions, including air conditioning, seasonal energy storage, solar energy collection, and electric heating. Geothermal heat pumps can be used for space heating essentially anywhere. Geothermal heat supports many applications. District heating applications use networks of piped hot water to heat many buildings across entire communities. More than 72 countries have reported direct use of geothermal energy, Iceland being the world leader. 93% of its homes are heated with geothermal energy, saving Iceland over $100 million annually in avoided oil imports. Reykjavík, Iceland has the biggest district heating system on the globe. Once known as the most polluted city in the world, it is now one of the cleanest due to geothermal energy.[30] Economics Geothermal power requires no fuel (except for pumps), and is therefore immune to fuel cost fluctuations. However, capital costs are significant. Drilling accounts for over half the costs, and exploration of deep resources entails significant risks. A typical well doublet (extraction and injection wells) in Nevada can support 4.5 megawatts (MW) and costs about $10 million to drill, with a 20% failure rate.[31] A power plant at The Geysers In total, electrical plant construction and well drilling cost about €2-5 million per MW of electrical capacity, while the break–even price is 0.04-0.10 € per kW·h.[11] Enhanced geothermal systems tend to be on the high side of these ranges, with capital costs above $4 million per MW and break–even above $0.054 per kW·h in 2007.[32] Direct heating applications can use much shallower wells with lower temperatures, so smaller systems with lower costs and risks are feasible. Residential geothermal heat pumps with a capacity of 10 kilowatt (kW) are routinely installed for around $1–3,000 per kilowatt. District heating systems may benefit from economies of scale if demand is geographically dense, as in cities, but otherwise piping installation dominates capital costs. The capital cost of one such district heating system in Bavaria was estimated at somewhat over 1 million € per MW.[33] Direct systems of any size are much simpler than electric generators and have lower maintenance costs per kW·h, but they must consume electricity to run pumps and compressors. Some governments subsidize geothermal projects. Geothermal power is highly scalable: from a rural village to an entire city.[34] Chevron Corporation is the world's largest private geothermal electricity producer.[35] The most developed geothermal field is The Geysers in Northern California. Resources Enhanced geothermal system 1:Reservoir 2:Pump house 3:Heat exchanger 4:Turbine hall 5:Production well 6:Injection well 7:Hot water to district heating 8:Porous sediments 9:Observation well 10:Crystalline bedrock The Earth's internal thermal energy flows to the surface by conduction at a rate of 44.2 terawatts (TW),[36] and is replenished by radioactive decay of minerals at a rate of 30 TW.[37] These power rates are more than double humanity’s current energy consumption from all primary sources, but most of this energy flow is not recoverable. In addition to the internal heat flows, the top layer of the surface to a depth of 10 meters (33 ft) is heated by solar energy during the summer, and releases that energy and cools during the winter. Outside of the seasonal variations, the geothermal gradient of temperatures through the crust is 25–30 °C (45–54 °F) per kilometer of depth in most of the world. The conductive heat flux averages 0.1 MW/km2. These values are much higher near tectonic plate boundaries where the crust is thinner. They may be further augmented by fluid circulation, either through magma conduits, hot springs, hydrothermal circulation or a combination of these. A geothermal heat pump can extract enough heat from shallow ground anywhere in the world to provide home heating, but industrial applications need the higher temperatures of deep resources.[9] The thermal efficiency and profitability of electricity generation is particularly sensitive to temperature. The more demanding applications receive the greatest benefit from a high natural heat flux, ideally from using a hot spring. The next best option is to drill a well into a hot aquifer. If no adequate aquifer is available, an artificial one may be built by injecting water to hydraulically fracture the bedrock. This last approach is called hot dry rock geothermal energy in Europe, or enhanced geothermal systems in North America. Much greater potential may be available from this approach than from conventional tapping of natural aquifers.[24] Estimates of the potential for electricity generation from geothermal energy vary sixfold, from .035to2TW depending on the scale of investments.[4] Upper estimates of geothermal resources assume enhanced geothermal wells as deep as 10 kilometres (6 mi), whereas existing geothermal wells are rarely more than 3 kilometres (2 mi) deep.[4] Wells of this depth are now common in the petroleum industry. The deepest research well in the world, the Kola superdeep borehole, is 12 kilometres (7 mi) deep.[38] This record has recently been imitated by commercial oil wells, such as Exxon's Z-12 well in the Chayvo field, Sakhalin.[39] Renewability and Sustainability Geothermal power is considered to be renewable because any projected heat extraction is small compared to the Earth's heat content. The Earth has an internal heat content of 1031 joules (3·1015 TW·hr).[4] About 20% of this is residual heat from planetary accretion, and the remainder is attributed to higher radioactive decay rates that existed in the past.[2] Natural heat flows are not in equilibrium, and the planet is slowly cooling down on geologic timescales. Human extraction taps a minute fraction of the natural outflow, often without accelerating it. Geothermal power is also considered to be sustainable thanks to its power to sustain the Earth’s intricate ecosystems. By using geothermal sources of energy present generations of humans will not endanger the capability of future generations to use their own resources to the same amount that those energy sources are presently used. Further, due to its low emissions geothermal energy is considered to have excellent potential for mitigation of global warming.[40] Even though geothermal power is globally sustainable, extraction must still be monitored to avoid local depletion.[37] Over the course of decades, individual wells draw down local temperatures and water levels until a new equilibrium is reached with natural flows. The three oldest sites, at Larderello, Wairakei, and the Geysers have experienced reduced output because of local depletion. Heat and water, in uncertain proportions, were extracted faster than they were replenished. If production is reduced and water is reinjected, these wells could theoretically recover their full potential. Such mitigation strategies have already been implemented at some sites. The long-term sustainability of geothermal energy has been demonstrated at the Lardarello field in Italy since 1913, at the Wairakei field in New Zealand since 1958,[41] and at The Geysers field in California since 1960.[42] Electricity Generation at Poihipi, New Zealand. Electricity Generation at Ohaaki, New Zealand. Electricity Generation at Wairakei, New Zealand. Falling electricity production may be boosted through drilling additional supply boreholes, as at Poihipi and Ohaaki. The Wairakei power station has been running much longer, with its first unit commissioned in November 1958, and it attained its peak generation of 173MW in 1965, but already the supply of high-pressure steam was faltering, in 1982 being derated to intermediate pressure and the station managing 157MW. Around the start of the 20th century it was managing about 150MW, then in 2005 two 8MW isopentane systems were added, boosting the station's output by about 14MW. Detailed data are unavailable, being lost due to re-organisations. One such re-organisation in 1996 causes the absence of early data for Poihipi (started 1996), and the gap in 1996/7 for Wairakei and Ohaaki; half-hourly data for Ohaaki's first few months of operation are also missing, as well as for most of Wairakei's history. Environmental effects Geothermal power station in the Philippines Krafla Geothermal Station in northeast Iceland Fluids drawn from the deep earth carry a mixture of gases, notably carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3). These pollutants contribute to global warming, acid rain, and noxious smells if released. Existing geothermal electric plants emit an average of 122 kilograms (270 lb) of CO2 per megawatt-hour (MW·h) of electricity, a small fraction of the emission intensity of conventional fossil fuel plants.[43] Plants that experience high levels of acids and volatile chemicals are usually equipped with emission-control systems to reduce the exhaust. In addition to dissolved gases, hot water from geothermal sources may hold in solution trace amounts of toxic elements such as mercury, arsenic, boron, and antimony.[44] These chemicals precipitate as the water cools, and can cause environmental damage if released. The modern practice of injecting cooled geothermal fluids back into the Earth to stimulate production has the side benefit of reducing this environmental risk. Direct geothermal heating systems contain pumps and compressors, which may consume energy from a polluting source. This parasitic load is normally a fraction of the heat output, so it is always less polluting than electric heating. However, if the electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels, then the net emissions of geothermal heating may be comparable to directly burning the fuel for heat. For example, a geothermal heat pump powered by electricity from a combined cycle natural gas plant would produce about as much pollution as a natural gas condensing furnace of the same size.[29] Therefore the environmental value of direct geothermal heating applications is highly dependent on the emissions intensity of the neighboring electric grid. Plant construction can adversely affect land stability. Subsidence has occurred in the Wairakei field in New Zealand[9] and in Staufen im Breisgau, Germany.[45] Enhanced geothermal systems can trigger earthquakes as part of hydraulic fracturing. The project in Basel, Switzerland was suspended because more than 10,000 seismic events measuring up to 3.4 on the Richter Scale occurred over the first 6 days of water injection.[46] Geothermal has minimal land and freshwater requirements. Geothermal plants use 3.5 square kilometres (1.4 sq mi) per gigawatt of electrical production (not capacity) versus 32 square kilometres (12 sq mi) and 12 square kilometres (4.6 sq mi) for coal facilities and wind farms respectively.[9] They use 20 litres (5.3 US gal) of freshwater per MW·h versus over 1,000 litres (260 US gal) per MW·h for nuclear, coal, or oil.[9] Legal frameworks Some of the legal issues raised by geothermal energy resources include questions of ownership and allocation of the resource, the grant of exploration permits, exploitation rights, royalties, and the extent to which geothermal energy issues have been recognised in existing planning and environmental laws. Other questions concern overlap between geothermal and mineral or petroleum tenements. Broader issues concern the extent to which the legal framework for encouragement of renewable energy assists in encouraging geothermal industry innovation and development. See also Renewable energy portal Sustainable development portal Relative cost of electricity generated by different sources 2010 World Geothermal Congress References ^ a b How Geothermal energy works ^ a b Turcotte, D. L.; Schubert, G. (2002), "4", Geodynamics (2 ed.), Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 136–137, ISBN 978-0-521-66624-4 ^ Nemzer, J. "Geothermal heating and cooling". ^ a b c d e f Fridleifsson, Ingvar B.; Bertani, Ruggero; Huenges, Ernst; Lund, John W.; Ragnarsson, Arni; Rybach, Ladislaus (2008-02-11), O. Hohmeyer and T. Trittin, ed., The possible role and contribution of geothermal energy to the mitigation of climate change, Luebeck, Germany, pp. 59–80, retrieved 2009-04-06 ^ William E. Glassley. Geothermal Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment CRC Press, 2010. ^ Cothran, Helen (2002). Energy Alternatives. ^ Fridleifsson, Ingvar. "ScienceDirect - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews : Geothermal energy for the benefit of the people". Retrieved 14 November 2011. ^ Cataldi, Raffaele (August 1993), "Review of historiographic aspects of geothermal energy in the Mediterranean and Mesoamerican areas prior to the Modern Age", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 18 (1): 13–16, retrieved 2009-11-01 ^ a b c d e Lund, John W. (June 2007), "Characteristics, Development and utilization of geothermal resources", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 28 (2): 1–9, retrieved 2009-04-16 ^ Dickson, Mary H.; Fanelli, Mario (February 2004), What is Geothermal Energy?, Pisa, Italy: Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, retrieved 2010-01-17 ^ a b c Bertani, Ruggero (September 2007), "World Geothermal Generation in 2007", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 28 (3): 8–19, retrieved 2009-04-12 ^ Tiwari, G. N.; Ghosal, M. K. (2005). Renewable Energy Resources: Basic Principles and Applications. Alpha Science. ISBN 1-84265-125-0. ^ a b Zogg, M. (20–22 May 2008), ""History of Heat Pumps Swiss Contributions and International Milestones", 9th International IEA Heat Pump Conference, Zürich, Switzerland ^ a b Bloomquist, R. Gordon (December 1999), "Geothermal Heat Pumps, Four Plus Decades of Experience", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 20 (4): 13–18, retrieved 2009-03-21 ^ Kroeker, J. Donald; Chewning, Ray C. (February 1948), "A Heat Pump in an Office Building", ASHVE Transactions 54: 221–238 ^ Gannon, Robert (February 1978), "Ground-Water Heat Pumps - Home Heating and Cooling from Your Own Well", Popular Science (Bonnier Corporation) 212 (2): 78–82, retrieved 2009-11-01 ^ a b Lund, J. (September 2004), "100 Years of Geothermal Power Production", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 25 (3): 11–19, retrieved 2009-04-13 ^ McLarty, Lynn; Reed, Marshall J. (October 1992), "The U.S. Geothermal Industry: Three Decades of Growth", Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects (London: Taylor & Francis) 14 (4): 443–455, doi:10.1080/00908319208908739 ^ Erkan, K.; Holdmann, G.; Benoit, W.; Blackwell, D. (2008), "Understanding the Chena Hot flopë Springs, Alaska, geothermal system using temperature and pressure data", Geothermics 37 (6): 565–585, doi:10.1016/j.geothermics.2008.09.001 ^ a b GEA 2010, p. 4 ^ a b GEA 2010, pp. 4–6 ^ Khan, M. Ali (2007), The Geysers Geothermal Field, an Injection Success Story, Annual Forum of the Groundwater Protection Council, retrieved 2010-01-25 ^ Holm, Alison (May 2010), Geothermal Energy:International Market Update, Geothermal Energy Association, pp. 7, retrieved 2010-05-24 ^ a b Tester, Jefferson W.; et. al. (2006), The Future of Geothermal Energy, Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (Egs) on the United States in the 21st Century: An Assessment, Idaho Falls: Idaho National Laboratory, pp. 1–8 to 1–33 (Executive Summary), ISBN 0-615-13438-6, retrieved 2007-02-07 ^ Bertani, Ruggero (2009), "Geothermal Energy: An Overview on Resources and Potential", Proceedings of the International Conference on National Development of Geothermal Energy Use, Slovakia ^ Lund, John W. (2003), "The USA Geothermal Country Update", Geothermics, European Geothermal Conference 2003 (Elsevier Science Ltd.) 32 (4-6): 409–418, doi:10.1016/S0375-6505(03)00053-1 ^ http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/low_temperature_resources.html Lower Temperature Resources ^ Lund, John W.; Freeston, Derek H.; Boyd, Tonya L. (24–29 April 2005), "World-Wide Direct Uses of Geothermal Energy 2005", Proceedings World Geothermal Congress, Antalya, Turkey, retrieved 2010-01-17 ^ a b Hanova, J; Dowlatabadi, H (9 November 2007), "Strategic GHG reduction through the use of ground source heat pump technology", Environmental Research Letters 2: 044001, Bibcode 2007ERL.....2d4001H, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/044001 ^ Pahl, Greg (2007). The Citizen-Powerd Energy Handbook: Community Solutions to a Global Crisis. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. ^ Geothermal Economics 101, Economics of a 35 MW Binary Cycle Geothermal Plant, New York: Glacier Partners, October 2009, retrieved 2009-10-17 ^ Sanyal, Subir K.; Morrow, James W.; Butler, Steven J.; Robertson-Tait, Ann (January 22–24, 2007), "Cost of Electricity from Enhanced Geothermal Systems", Proc. Thirty-Second Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford, California, retrieved 2010-01-17 ^ Reif, Thomas (January 2008), "Profitability Analysis and Risk Management of Geothermal Projects", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 28 (4): 1–4, retrieved 2009-10-16 ^ Lund, John W.; Boyd, Tonya (June 1999), "Small Geothermal Power Project Examples", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 20 (2): 9–26, retrieved 2009-06-02 ^ Davies, Ed; Lema, Karen (June 29, 2008), "Pricey oil makes geothermal projects more attractive for Indonesia and the Philippines", The New York Times, retrieved 2009-10-31 ^ Pollack, H.N.; S. J. Hurter, and J. R. Johnson (1993), "Heat Flow from the Earth's Interior: Analysis of the Global Data Set", Rev. Geophys. 30 (3): 267–280 ^ a b Rybach, Ladislaus (September 2007), "Geothermal Sustainability", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 28 (3): 2–7, retrieved 2009-05-09 ^ Cassino, Adam (2003), "Depth of the Deepest Drilling", The Physics Factbook (Glenn Elert), retrieved 2009-04-09 ^ Watkins, Eric (February 11, 2008), "ExxonMobil drills record extended-reach well at Sakhalin-1", Oil & Gas Journal, retrieved 2009-10-31 ^ "Is Geothermal Energy Renewable and Sustainable". What is Geothermal Energy. Retrieved 9 August 2012. ^ Thain, Ian A. (September 1998), "A Brief History of the Wairakei Geothermal Power Project", Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin (Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology) 19 (3): 1–4, retrieved 2009-06-02 ^ Axelsson, Gudni; Stefánsson, Valgardur; Björnsson, Grímur; Liu, Jiurong (April 2005), "Sustainable Management of Geothermal Resources and Utilization for 100 – 300 Years", Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2005 (International Geothermal Association), retrieved 2010-01-17 ^ Bertani, Ruggero; Thain, Ian (July 2002), "Geothermal Power Generating Plant CO2 Emission Survey", IGA News (International Geothermal Association) (49): 1–3, retrieved 2010-01-17 ^ Bargagli1, R.; Catenil, D.; Nellil, L.; Olmastronil, S.; Zagarese, B. (August 1997), "Environmental Impact of Trace Element Emissions from Geothermal Power Plants", Environmental Contamination Toxicology (New York: Springer) 33 (2): 172–181, doi:10.1007/s002449900239 ^ Waffel, Mark (March 19, 2008), "Buildings Crack Up as Black Forest Town Subsides", Spiegel Online International (Der Spiegel), retrieved 2009-02-24 ^ Deichmann, N.; et. al. (2007), Seismicity Induced by Water Injection for Geothermal Reservoir Stimulation 5 km Below the City of Basel, Switzerland, American Geophysical Union, Bibcode 2007AGUFM.V53F..08D External links Look up geothermal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Geothermal energy GEA (May 2010). "Geothermal Energy: International Market Update" (pdf). Geothermal Energy Association. pp. 4–6. Alliant Geothermal Energy Bassfeld Technology Transfer - Introduction to Geothermal Power Generation (3.6 MB PDF file) Geothermal Resources Council Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - Geothermal Technologies Program Geothermal Energy Association International Energy Agency Geothermal Energy Homepage MIT-led panel backs geothermal energy source MIT - The Future of Geothermal Energy (14 MB PDF file) Geothermal Energy Factsheet by the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Systems [hide] v t e Electricity delivery Concepts Availability factor Baseload Black start Capacity factor Demand factor Demand management EROEI Grid storage Intermittency Load following Nameplate capacity Peak demand Repowering Spark spread Power quality Sources Nonrenewable Coal Fossil-fuel power station Natural gas Petroleum Nuclear Oil shale Renewable Biomass Biofuel Geothermal Hydro Marine Solar Tidal Wind Technology AC power Cogeneration Combined cycle Cooling tower Induction generator Micro CHP Microgeneration Rankine cycle Three-phase electric power Virtual power plant Transmission & Distribution Demand response Distributed generation Dynamic demand Electricity distribution Electrical grid High-voltage direct current Load management Pumped hydro Power storage Negawatts Smart grid Substation Super grid Transformer TSO Transmission tower Utility pole Policies Carbon offset Ecotax Energy subsidies Feed-in tariff Fossil-fuel phase-out Net metering Pigovian tax Renewable Energy Certificates Renewable energy payments Renewable energy policy Categories Electric power distribution Electricity economics Power station technology Portals Energy Sustainable development [hide] v t e Geothermal power Geothermal power Geothermal energy Geothermal electricity Geothermal heating Geothermal gradient By country Armenia Australia Canada Chile China Denmark El Salvador Germany Iceland Indonesia Italy Japan Kenya Lithuania Mexico New Zealand Portugal Philippines Romania Russia Turkey United Kingdom United States West Indies Technologies Aquaculture Desalination Geothermal heat pump District heating Binary Cycle EGS Heat pump Energy Concepts Baseload power Capacity factor Energy storage Energy subsidies EROEI Portals: Renewable energy Energy Sustainable development View page ratings Rate this page What's this? 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"America wishes to deputize you to give The Reason You Suck Speech to Nick Saban. Are you game?" ~ Elizabeth Bowen Wow! I'm honored to have been chosen for a work of such magnitude. This is how Leonardo must've felt when the Mona Lisa was commissioned. Not since Thomas Jefferson composed posterity’s most epic list of grievances has there been a more deserving target for the REASON YOU SUCK SPEECH than YOU, Nick Saban. However, King George III had an excuse – he was bat-shit crazy. He wasn’t safe to leave unattended in a room of household pets or small children. You have no such excuse. You’re as lucid as your non-conference scheduling is yellow. No, Nick, you’re not crazy. You’re EVIL. You’re not just run-of-the-mill evil. You’re the master, himself: the Son of the Morning Star, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Christ’s tormenter in the wilderness, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden! Remember that line in The Usual Suspects about the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist? In your case, it wasn’t much of a trick. I get that simply changing “Sa-T-an” to “Sa-B-an” is more than enough to bamboozle your largely illiterate fan base, but couldn’t you at least have picked a less conspicuous spot for your earthly fiefdom than the one state in the Union that most closely resembles HELL? Pete Carroll, Jimmy Johnson, and Lloyd Carr sold their souls to you to win national titles. Where do you, proprietor of the soul emporium, sell your own to win championships for the Crimson Tide? (By the way, Nick, Crimson Tide? What’s that about? It sounds more like a euphemism for the menstrual cycle than a fierce mascot.) Nowhere. You don’t have to do so. You OVERSIGN! See, when you sit down in a young man’s home and promise him and his family that his college education will be paid for as long as he signs on the dotted line, your promise is worth just about as much as the introductory rate on a subprime mortgage. That guy better hope he makes the two-deep before the next class is signed, or his scholarship will disappear faster than most ‘Bama fans’ front teeth. That’s how you continually manage to sign classes of 35 when you only have like 15 available scholarships. In the process, you make it really hard for those of us who grew up around scholars and try to reason with them that athletics aren’t inherently destructive to the mission of an institution of higher education. Your school’s most recent federal graduation rate for football players was 68, Nick! How the hell do you not graduate more than 68 percent of your players? Really, what are the requirements for a degree at Alabama? Year one: spell “see.” Year two: spell “Spot.” Year three: spell “run.” Year four: demonstrate proper usage of “see,” “Spot,” and “run” in a sentence (football players exempted from having to use punctuation). You say you’re giving young men from hardscrabble backgrounds opportunity to go to college. In dozens of cases, how long does that “opportunity” last? A year? How many other scholarship offers do you convince these boys to pass on, YOU SANCTIMONIOUS SNAKE OIL SALESMAN? OOPS! And it’s not like it’ll be easy to pick up and sign elsewhere. Transfer prospects from other major programs are the least attractive to other coaches, ranking considerably behind high school seniors and junior college transfers, respectively. Even if one does convince another coach to roll the dice on him, he has to sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules. If you’ve redshirted him, which you do to most incoming freshmen, that’s a year of eligibility your LIE has cost him. Opportunity for college? Give me a break! The reason newly hired coaches used to talk about five-year rebuilding plans was because it took five years to turn over a roster. Your roster was pretty much turned over by kickoff of the 2009 Sugar Bowl beat-down you suffered at the hands of the oh-so-imposing Utah Utes! (More on that one later.) LEADERS take over in the midst of seemingly untenable circumstances and affect positive results. They turn bad performers into serviceable ones, average ones into good ones, good ones into great ones, and great performers into legends. Winston Churchill couldn’t simply whisk away the mess he’d inherited after the Nazi forces pushed the allies off the European continent and British civilians had to use their own boats to evacuate their army at Dunkirk. But you, Nick Saban, wouldn’t have accepted that vacant prime minister position. You would’ve been on the wire to Hitler to see which more manageable – yet still highly visible – posts der Fuhrer was willing to offer you at that time. Your apologists have already begun the chorus of why oversigning really isn’t that critical to your success and your “dynasty” inevitably would’ve come to fruition without it. Your rather pedestrian 34-24-1 record at Michigan State – a school in a conference that prohibits oversigning and doesn’t, as a general rule, make a mockery out of the term STUDENT-athlete – says otherwise. We’ve heard all about your “best ever” run from your fawning phalanx of media personalities who seem to think the game started the day Matt Leinart signed his letter of intent to play at USC. Red Blaik, John Heisman, and Frank Leahy each had seven undefeated seasons. Knute Rockne and Joe Paterno each had five. Dana Bible, Woody Hayes, Walter Camp, and Amos Alonzo Stagg each had four. But we don’t even have to go back that far to understand the hyperbole of claiming you to be the “best ever.” Nebraska’s dynasty teams of the ‘90s won three unblemished national championships in four years. You’ve won ONE! Apparently, the Stewie Mandels, Mark Mays, and Todd McShays of the world have no problem bestowing the “dynasty” tag on a coach with the same number of undefeated national title runs to his name as Gene Chizik! Oh, but your “dynasty” is better because Nebraska didn’t play in the SEC. You know who did play in the SEC, Nick? The Florida team Nebraska demolished 62-24 and the Peyton Manning-led Tennessee team Nebraska manhandled 42-17 to win Tom Osborne’s second and third national championships, respectively. By the way, how did you, yourself, fare against Nebraska during that run? Do 50-10 and 55-14 ring any bells? “Over” seems to be an easy word to associate with you, Nick. We’ve already covered oversigning. How about do-overs? Is there any coach in history who’s been the beneficiary of more do-overs than you? THIS ISN’T THE NFL! (This is the point where, just for fun, I remind you that you went 15-17 as an NFL head coach.) AND IT SURE AS HELL ISN’T GOLF! THERE SHOULD BE NO MULLIGANS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL! Yet you lost to LSU on your home field, didn’t even win the WESTERN DIVISION of your own conference, and still got a chance to wipe the slate clean from the first game? Of course, your media sycophants justify that by throwing out some gaudy defensive numbers and claiming that unit to be the best in history. Does the fact that eight out of your 12 opponents in 2011 ranked in the bottom 40 in the country in total offense call said gaudy defensive stats into question? Nah. How about the 302 rushing yards and 7.7 average per carry that Georgia Southern – an FCS team that had already lost two prior games – put up on that “best ever” defense by way of the option? Speaking of the option, LSU caught that same vaunted defensive unit of yours with it to set up their winning field goal. Your “all-time greatest” defense couldn’t even stop Jordan Jefferson on an option play to the short side of the field IN YOUR HOME STADIUM, and we’re supposed to believe they would’ve easily disposed of Tommie Frazier and Ahman Green? I wish I could say the do-overs ended in 2011, but that would leave out your latest expungement. You dropped another game – AT HOME – but this time to a middle-of-the-road Big 12 team with a new head coach playing its first season in the SEC. HOW, HOW, HOW can you lose a game like that and still have this era dubbed history’s “most dominant” run? Thank God Johnny Manziel is only a freshman because that gives America three more chances to watch him embarrass your team! Unfortunately, it also gives the Sa-B-anic cult of reporters three more opportunities to rationalize your losses. We live in a time when every song recorded and every movie shot seems to be a remake. I guess it’s only appropriate then to have a coach who gets to reboot his season every time his team loses what should be an elimination game! Let’s not pretend your career has been free enough from controversy that we can call you dominant. You managed to dodge playing the top-ranked team in your lone championship game appearance as coach at LSU. You didn’t face an undefeated Boise State squad the year you won your first title at Alabama. Surely, the Tide would’ve rolled over a pathetic mid-major team from the mountain states, right? Except the Tide GOT ROLLED 31-17 by lowly Utah the previous January in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. Then there’s the matter of a 12-0, Urban Meyer-coached, Ohio State team your boys never had to face this past year. For the love of God, Nick, why can’t some dirtbag, drug-dealing, memorabilia-buying tattoo parlor owner set up shop in Tuscaloosa and save us all from having to see your smug mug in the big game year after year? See what you’ve done? You’ve made USC, Boise State, and Urban Meyer seem sympathetic by comparision! Were this directed at anybody but YOU, I’d feel dirty so much as mentioning those stains on the game! I do it now only because your enamored devotees in the media proclaim your titles more legitimate than Osborne’s due to two of his three coming in years other teams were undefeated. What better way to expose the ASININE CORONATION of you as the BEST ANYTHING than reminding you the crown is being placed on your head by so-called experts who can’t even seem to remember undefeated teams from the LAST FOUR YEARS? Congratulations, Nick, on being named ONE-EYED KING in the LAND OF THE BLIND! Under the system that existed prior to 1998, three of your four “championship” squads wouldn’t have even played for the whole ball of wax. A BCS formula most of the country views as favorably as AIDS has enabled you to slither your way through cracks that haven’t existed in 128 of college football’s 143 years! I’ve never been a playoff guy. Perhaps my friends have gone about it the wrong way by trying to tell me March Madness is far and away the best annual sporting event (IT’S NOT) or that the regular season would still matter if college football had a full-blown playoff (IT WOULDN’T). Perhaps this whole time they SHOULD’VE been arguing elimination of the BCS would flush out you – Nick Saban – a poison to the game every bit as noxious as the toxins a certain rank-and-file Alabastard used to kill the Toomer’s Corner oak trees. Wow, Nick! Now you have me feeling sorry for a school that won a title by paying over a quarter of a million bucks in under-the-table cash to Scam Newton! Only you, Nick. Only you. The worst part of this might be how sadly lacking in personality your program is. We’re used to the greats having identity: Army’s Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, Tommie Frazier’s vaunted option attack churning out 400 yards a game on the ground, Tim Tebow’s jump pass, or even Les Miles’s new-age quirkiness as he chews grass clippings thinking it makes him “one with the field.” Your offense is as vanilla as they come. Your defense is a factory-standard 4-3. In short, your Crimson Tide is a corporate boardroom on grass. When networks broadcast said boardroom, they make every TV den, man cave, pool hall, and sports bar outside of Tuscaloosa suddenly transform into the BORED ROOM. Maybe it’s John Milton’s dynamic Lucifer in Paradise Lost or Al Pacino’s equally charismatic portrayal of Satan in Devil’s Advocate, but I always expected the devil to at least have some CHARM. How else could the master of the unholy gain any followers? Maybe it just doesn’t take much in Alabama. These are, after all, the same people who once cheered Bull Connor’s fire hoses and still, after 150 years, insist the Civil War wasn’t about slavery! The REASON YOU SUCK SPEECH most often concludes with a definitive defeat for Big Bad Guy, Nick. Because I can’t possibly think of a more appropriate conclusion than kicking you over the side of a cliff and into the fiery abyss from whence you sprang, let’s go with something similar to the end of Star Trek III. I’ll even borrow both William Shatner’s line and cadence as I send you over the ledge and back into hell. I…HAVE…HAD…E-NOUGH…OF…YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUU!

I was told by a friend of my fahters that when they were in high school in the early to mid 50's (he graduated in 55) that the boys routinely brought there guns to school they kept them in there cars and trucks and went hunting after school nobody thought anything of it! What has changed since then? I have my thoughts! But i am interested in yours as well? I think the question alone suggests the answer.

Praise be to Allah, who has honored and favored us by sending our master Muhammad to us. Allah’s prayer and peace is upon him, now as it was with the previous generations. On his account, Allah said, “And We have not sent you (O Muhammad) except as a mercy to all the worlds” (21:107). Through him, Allah gave us the gift of His revelation, His clear path for those striving for righteousness. With him, Allah has sent the religion of truth, “so that He may exalt it above all religions” (61:9). May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, upon his family, upon his virtuous companions, and upon all those who follow him to the Day of Judgment. On this occasion of the Mawlid – the remembrance of the birth of light itself, the eye of bountiful deliverance in this world and the next – let us renew our attachment to the faith of Islam, the everlasting religion of Allah. Indeed, Allah’s satisfaction lies in our refusal of anything other than Islam. As in the Qur’an, “He who follows another religion besides Islam, his religion will not be accepted of him” (3:85). Islam is the belief in One God. The resignation to the Will of Allah is the realization of justice among the people. The Qur’an reveals that all of the Prophets of Allah have used the same word to describe their religion: al-Islam or “submission.” Islam is surely the universal religion, encompassing all the other religions. The stains of man cannot obscure or modify its essential beauty. Islam was the belief and method of worship prescribed for Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ. Its meaning has not changed: release yourself into the worship of Allah, and do not divide yourselves to its purpose.As for those religions the Qur’an mentions as having been altered by later followers, these religions had already become irreparably distant from the essential truth of Islam before becoming nullified by successive revelations. The last revelation, which abrogates the previous revelations, is the religion of Muhammad. “This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me!” (21:92). This is the refuge we are offering to the whole world – Africans, Europeans, Asians, Americans – “Let us come to an understanding between us and you, that we should not worship anything apart from Allah, and that we ascribe no partners to Him and take no other protector besides Him. If they turn their backs on this, tell them: ‘Bear witness that we have submitted to Allah as Muslims’” (3:64). Islam’s doctrine is simple, and its principals are not limited by a particular time or place. Indeed, there is nothing worthy of worship apart from Allah. Muhammad, Allah’s peace and blessings upon him, is Allah’s servant and messenger. All human beings are equal: there is no privilege for the white man over the red, yellow or black man except by righteousness (taqwa). Righteousness, as the Qur’an says, is simply to obey the commands of Allah and to avoid His prohibitions. Islam emphasizes the importance of the family, for its rights are inextricably bound to the society and world at large. Islam has clarified for us all social relations, from the individual’s duty to himself, to his duty to his family, to his society and to the government. Incumbent on each individual, whether man or woman, is good conduct and manners (ādāb). The Prophet said, “The most perfect of believers is the most perfect in manners.” Allah Himself praised His Prophet by saying, “Surely you have the most exalted of character” (48:4). And Aisha said, “His character was the Qur’an.” His behavior is an example for other men, and all creatures. A good Muslim strives to improve his character, and to benefit his fellow man. In Islam, the basis of familial relations is love and leniency. Allah says, “Among His signs is that He has created for you a pair from yourself, as source of tranquility, placing between you (husband and wife) love and leniency” (30:21). Allah also said, “Your wives are a garment for you, and you are a garment for them” (2:187). And He said, “Wives have rights the same as those invested in their husbands …” (2:228). However, “Men are the protectors of women” (4:34). This pre-eminence relates to men taking care of women and their administration of the family, a function indispensable in the family unit as with other associations. Islam regards society as the reunification of the members of the same body. For this reason, Muslims must be preoccupied with the welfare of the needy and the poor, providing assistance to them through charitable endeavors. Allah said: “Provide assistance to each other, for the sake of righteousness and the awe of Allah” (5:2). In relation to authority, Allah says, “Their affairs are determined by mutual consultation” (42:38). Allah sets the standard for those in authority with the example of the Prophet: “With the grace of your Lord, you have been conciliatory and easy with them. If you had been rude or hard of heart, they would have detached themselves from you. So look past their faults and forgive them. Consult with them in matters, and when you have decided, seek the support of Allah” (3:159). Our Lord is One. And we are all descendents of the same person: Adam. O Muslims of the East and the West, let us value this immense treasure. It contains all we need for peace, prosperity and progress. There is no safety, no salvation and no peace for the one who does not attach himself to this single rope of Allah. “Hold to the rope of Allah in unity, and be not divided among yourselves” (3:103). And the best of advice comes from him who has first followed his own advice, for it is impossible to instruct others before first instructing yourself. O People of Islam! Those of us who have left the principals of our religion to ape the customs of non-Muslims have met with ruin. Materialism can only feed the ego, not the spirit; and without the spirituality of Islam, there is only devastation. In this time especially, let those who believe make their hearts humble before Allah and grateful for the truth He has sent down. Let us not be like those who received the scriptures of old, but were impatient with the decree of Allah, and their hearts became hardened and corrupt. The Muslim community flourished in the beginning of its history because it followed the prescriptions of the Holy Qur’an. And Allah does not change the state of a people until they change their own internal condition (13:11). If we are to protect ourselves from the manifest threats to our communities looming on the horizon, we must revisit our past methods. Let us be united under the banner of mercy and benevolence to attain the security of the two abodes. The call to Islam, by giving sincere advice and discouraging ugliness and injustice, is obligatory on Muslim preachers. And what a blessing it is for such preachers to emerge to from an entire community of Muslims calling to goodness, cooperating in righteousness and benevolence, and prohibiting injustice and transgression. In a hadith related by Ali, the Prophet said, “What would become of you if your daughters should become spoiled and your wives debauch?” His followers asked, “O Messenger of Allah! How could that happen?” The Prophet said, “This and much more will befall you if you allow the blameworthy to become virtuous and the virtuous to become blameworthy.” It is reported by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi that Abu Sahlaba asked the Prophet about the verse: “I recommend you to your purified selves.” The Prophet said, “Commend and assist one another with the good, and prohibit the bad. If avarice is obeyed and lust followed, the world will be turned upside down, and everyone will be amazed at what he will see. I recommend you to your purified selves.” It is obligatory to send Muslim missionaries to exemplify Islam to the non-Muslims. For those who say such is contrary to Islam, consider the hadith of Umar ibn ‘As in al-Tabarani. The Prophet said, “Similar to Jesus sending out his apostles, I am sending out Muaz Ibn Jabal, Salim Abi Huzayfa, Ibn Mahbir and Ibn Mas’ud.” A man said, “Are not Abu Bakr and Umar better suited as missionaries?” The Prophet answered: “But I cannot do without them, their place with me is as the sight and hearing to the human body.” Muslims, particularly the scholars, must take up this mission to call all human beings to what will benefit them. For indeed, a day is coming when fortune and children will not benefit a person, and only he who comes before Allah with a clean heart will be saved (26:88-89). Rulers of the Muslim world must do their best to realize the unity of the believers, both in speech and action. The ranks of the Muslims must not exclude any one on the basis of race or skin-color. To be related through religion is above all other relationships. Islam condemns all racial and tribal divisions. I invite all the rulers of the world exercising authority over Muslims, whether they themselves are Muslim or non-Muslim, to avoid implementing measures in contradiction with the Noble Qur’an. Muslims will never support an action undermining the honor of Islam. These rulers must enact severe penalties for those practicing usury. Allah has made commerce lawful but has prohibited usury, warning that He will nullify its gains, and multiply the fruits of charity (2:276). Usury holds no benefit in the next life, nor does it provide any benefit to the economies of nations here and now. O Muslims! Many people in Africa and Asia have become newly independent from colonial domination. But national sovereignty does not guarantee them any stability. Oppression and injustice still infect their societies, without Muslims being able to escape. Some Muslims have been so nauseated by the situation that they have even preferred to be ruled by non-Muslim governments. However, the inequality and injustice against which they are revolting cannot be ascribed to Islam itself, but only to reactionary leaders far from the true principals of their religion. I pray that Allah preserve the Muslims from the misdeeds of the unjust. The Prophet, as reported in Bukhari, said, “There are three types of injustice: that which is never forgiven by Allah, that which can be pardoned by Allah, and that which Allah never fails to redress.” The injustice which is never forgiven is shirk, or associating partners with Allah. The injustice which Allah may pardon is that committed by servants against themselves in leaving the prescriptions of Allah. The injustice which Allah never fails to redress is that committed against one’s fellow human being. Beware of injustice, for if it persists, it can only bring destruction. A believer can live for a long time with those of no faith, but he will not last long with the unjust. Many of today’s leaders manipulate every means at their disposal for unjust purposes. I cannot end this talk without reciting a relevant passage from the Qur’an, the Book which is sufficient as a constitution for the entire world: “Follow the straight path as has been ordained on you. Do not follow the vain doctrines of those without faith. Say, I believe in the scripture that has been sent down. He has ordered me to deal fairly with you. Allah is our Lord and your Lord, the recompense of our deeds is for us, and the recompense for your deeds is for you. Let there be no argument between us and you: Allah will decide between us, and to Him we are returning” (42:15). The meaning of these verses is clear, no person or society can misunderstand them. I am proud, on these days of celebration for the Muslim world, to gather with all Muslims, including my Arab Muslim brothers here. The ethnic diversity at our celebrations should not be surprising, because we are all brothers through Islam: our actions are related, our hopes and sufferings are one. My hopes for salvation for myself and for you all are with Allah. I conclude with a prayer to Allah the Most High, that He reform, assist and raise up the people of Muhammad, wherever they may be throughout the world, until they become exalted through governing themselves by what Allah has revealed. May Allah grant you prosperity in this life and the next, and may we all attain His salvation and benediction. “He has ordained for you the same way of religion which He had enjoined on Nuh (Noah), and that We have now revealed to you (O Muhammad), and which We had already enjoined on Ibrahim (Abraham) and Musa (Moses) and 'Iesa (Jesus), saying: ‘Establish the Religion and be not divided in it’” (Qur’an, 42:13). “O you who believe! Guard your souls”, about which Abu Bakr al-Saddiq reports the Prophet’s explanation, “When the people see a wrongdoer committing a wrong and do not seize his hand to restrain him, it is most likely that Allah would inflict them with His chastisement” (in Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi and Nisai; contained in Riyad al-Salihin, chapter 24, hadith 199)

LOAD DETAILS: Time 1:00 am Date-15th January 2013 Karnataka State demand : 5851 MW Demand of BESCOM @ this hour : 2437 MW Bangalore city area: 953 MW • A-Station : 20 MW • East Div Comp : 4 MW • Hebbal : 64 MW • Hoody : 165 MW • HSR Layout : 135 MW • HAL : 97 MW • Naganathapura: 22 MW • NRS : 46 MW • Nimhans : 0 MW • SRS Peenya : 139 MW • Subramanyapura : 67 MW • Somanahally : 74 MW • Yarandanahally : 115 MW • Vrishabavathi : 62 MW Bangalore rural, Ramnagar, Kolar & Chikkaballapur districts : 636 MW Tumkur district : 338 MW Davanagere & Chitradurga district : 348 MW Generation available at this hour from all sources for State : 5996 MW Raichur Thermal Power Station : 940 MW (5 Units) Bellary Thermal Power Station : 344 MW (1 Unit) Udupi Power Corp (Thermal plant) : 1125 MW (2 Units) Sharavathy (Hydro plant) : 210 MW (10 Units) Nagjhari (Hydro plant) : 0 MW (0 Units) Varahi (Hydro plant) : 46 MW (4 Units) Yelahanka Diesel plant : 21 MW (2 Units) State Wind : 359 MW Bescom Wind : 219 MW Operating grid frequency : 50.11 Hz Unscheduled Interchange cost per unit for over drawn : 0.82 Availability Based Tariff Entitlement allotted at 5 blocks (Total 96 blocks) : 3194 MW Schedule allotted at 5 blocks : 3124 MW Actual drawl at 5 blocks : 2437 MW UI at 5 blocks : -692

We would like to get IDSC billboards up all over the world, where would you like to see one?

Police are looking for a suspect who they say robbed a bank on Monday. It happened at the Capitol National Bank in Meridian Township on Marsh Road, just north of Grand River. They have described him as a white male in his mid 20s, approximately 5'6" to 5'9". They say he may have been wearing a Michigan State hooded sweatshirt. Officials say the man went into the bank, showed a note and demanded money. The suspect allegedly said he had a gun, then fled the secene. Police and search crews are in the area, including a K-9 unit and helicopter search, looking for the suspect. Stay with 6 News as we continue to follow this story as it develops.

'But this just-completed trial in downtown New York against three faceless financial executives really was historic. Over 10 years in the making, the case allowed federal prosecutors to make public for the first time the astonishing inner workings of the reigning American crime syndicate, which now operates not out of Little Italy and Las Vegas, but out of Wall Street. The defendants in the case – Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm – worked for GE Capital, the finance arm of General Electric.'

French-Led Strikes on Mali Islamists Threaten Revenge Attacks By Franz Wild & Pauline Bax - Jan 14, 2013 10:46 AM PT French and West African military intervention in Mali runs the risk of provoking revenge attacks by Islamic militants, spreading instability in a region rich in gold, uranium and cocoa, said analysts from Dakar to London. “When you send troops to the north of Mali there is the possibility of reprisals in terms of terrorist attacks,” Gilles Yabi, the West Africa program director of Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said today in an interview from the Senegalese capital, Dakar. “These countries don’t have the level of security and protection that western countries have. France itself is taking a risk, in terms of the hostages and in terms of terrorist attacks.” France intervened on Jan. 11 to reverse an advance by rebels armed with weapons from Libya’s 2011 uprising, toward the south. European and U.S. policy makers have expressed concern northern Mali may become an Islamist militant base to strike international targets and destabilize regional states from Nigeria to Algeria. Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, is already battling Islamist insurgents whose attacks have killed more than 1,500 people since the Boko Haram group started its campaign four years ago. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is still holding four Frenchmen kidnapped in 2010 from a mine operated by Areva SA (AREVA), the world’s biggest builder of nuclear power plants, in neighboring Niger, which provides 7.5 percent of the world’s uranium supply, according to World Nuclear Association. Regional Destabilization “France’s big fear is not just Mali, but the destabilization of the whole region,” Louis Caprioli, the former head of DSK, France’s former anti-terrorism unit, said in an interview. “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was already destabilizing Mali’s neighbors. Niger next door is already a fragile state and France would be in trouble if it lost its uranium supplies.” The 550-strong contingent of French air and ground forces has pushed the insurgents out of Kona, a town about 700 kilometers (435 miles) north of the capital, Bamako, hours after President Francois Hollande announced that France would support Mali’s battle to win back two-thirds of its territory. France’s intervention opened “the gates of hell,” Oumar Hamaha, a spokesman for the Islamist militants in northern Mali who’s known as the “Red Beard” for his hennahed facial hair, told French radio station Europe1 today. Robert Fowler, a Canadian diplomat who was held hostage by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb for about five months before his release in 2009, said the Islamists were aiming to establish a base in the sparsely populated Sahara and Sahel regions. Hamaha was his captor, Fowler said. ‘Install Chaos’ “They told me clearly that their motivation was to install chaos and instability from Somalia to Mauritania, or the vast stretch of the Sahara depending on your definition,” he said in a Jan. 11 interview from Ottawa. “They want the jihad to grow and flourish in the region.” Mali vies with Tanzania as Africa’s third-biggest gold producer. At least 13 international companies were engaged in gold exploration and production in Mali in 2010, according to a U.S. Geological Survey Report. Output of the metal for the country was 36,344 kilograms the same year. The situation is “not only an issue for Mali,” Mark Bristow, the chief executive officer of Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS), which operates three mines in Mali, said in a phone interview. “It’s a thorny issue, but has to be dealt with. It will not go away on its own.” Gold Operations The operations of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU), Africa’s biggest gold producer, are all in the south or southeast and aren’t close to the fighting, Alan Fine, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mail. The company’s Morila mine produced more than 20 cent of Mali’s output in 2010, according to the USGS. French air strikes alone may not “disrupt long-standing patterns of smuggling and other illicit economic activity, some of which helps sustain jihadist and other insurgencies,” Jolyon Ford, senior Africa analyst at Oxford Analytica, said in an e- mailed response to questions. “I think the strikes can buy breathing time because the overall objective is still an African-led operation combined with continued negotiation which brings rebels back into the Malian state with some autonomy arrangement,” he said. The militants captured the central village of Diabaly, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters today in Paris. African Force Troops from the Economic Community of West African States’ planned 3,300-member force may start arriving tomorrow in Mali, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, the community’s president, told reporters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The commander of the West African troops will be Nigerian Major-General Shehu Abdulkadir. Nigeria’s military and police have been fighting to stop Boko Haram Islamists from carrying out attacks in the north and the capital, Abuja. “We expect Boko Haram to broaden its traditional focus on government targets in Nigeria, as well as religious and military institutions, to include more frequently in the future international, or foreign targets,” Christoph Wille, Africa Analyst at London-based Control Risks, said in an e-mailed response to questions. Political Instability Mali’s rebels exploited political instability in Bamako, following a March coup to seize control of the north. While the insurgents include Islamists such as Ansar ud-Din and al-Qaeda’s north African unit, there are also ethnic Touareg fighters seeking greater autonomy in the region. Mali is now led by interim President Dioncounda Traore and Prime Minister Diango Cissoko, who was appointed last month after the leader of a coup in March, Captain Amadou Sanogo, forced Cheick Modibo Diarra to resign. The country ranks 175th out of 187 nations on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which measures indicators including literacy, income and gender equality. Its $10.6 billion economy contracted 4.5 percent last year and is forecast to expand 3 percent in 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund, slower than the sub-Saharan African outlook of 5.25 percent. “West Africa is the continent’s turbulent zone,” Manji Cheto, an analyst at London-based africapractice, which advises companies in Africa, said in an interview “Now we’re going to see a steady dry up of investment in the Sahel region.” To contact the reporters on this story: Franz Wild in Johannesburg at fwild@bloomberg.net; Pauline Bax in Accra at pbax@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net

If you're bored and you read this, fucking comment below. Let's get some kind of kooky schizophrenic'esque conversation going on in this mutha...

CSCOPE, the controversial online curriculum that taught “Allah is God” and currently is used in 80 percent of Texas school districts, has caught the attention of the Obama administration’s Department of Education. A source in the Texas education system has told WND that Common Core operatives in the U.S. Department of Education are actively pursuing CSCOPE as a way around the Texas legislative process. Ads by GoogleNo More 2-Day Workweeks Congress should work 5 days a week, not 2. Agree? Sign the petition. NoLabels.orgRepeal Obamacare? Should Congress Repeal Obama's Policies? Vote Here Now. www.newsmax.com/surveysTexas is one of the few states still resisting implementation of Common Core, Obama’s national standards initiative, which many feel is a transparent attempt to nationalize education and progressively control classroom content with minimal parental oversight. Implementation of Common Core is known to have been made a condition of school systems’ receipt of federal dollars under Obama’s “Race to the Top” program. CSCOPE recently has come under fire for evidence of what sources claim to be radical content and secrecy. Now new information of such a radical agenda has surfaced showing CSCOPE connections to Obama mentor and self-acknowledged terror group member Bill Ayers. WND has documented a strong link between Ayers and CSCOPE heavyweight and Common Core advocate Linda Darling-Hammond. An unrepentant terror group member (and known Obama supporter, financier, and ghost-writer), William “Bill” Ayers was part of the notorious Weather Underground which attempted to bomb the Pentagon in the seventies. After 9/11, Ayers was interviewed by the New York Times, and was quoted as saying he had “no regrets.” Ayers gave Darling-Hammond an enthusiastic endorsement for education secretary when Obama was first elected. Ayers has worked extensively with Darling-Hammond on many of the same projects, even editing her work. Both are part of what some education experts have termed the “small schools movement,” which allegedly emphasizes “emotional” responses and output over factual mastery. Darling-Hammond is mentioned throughout CSCOPE literature, has given innumerable lectures on behalf of CSCOPE, and was part of Obama’s educational transition team. She is a primary advocate and proponent of Common Core in Texas, and observers see the acquisition of CSCOPE by the U.S. Department of Education as a logical next step. This scenario has alarmed those concerned about classroom content accountability. Previously, WND reported how CSCOPE lessons promote Islam, teaching conversion methods and presenting verses from the Quran that denigrate other faiths. In CSCOPE curriculum, the Boston Tea Party is likened to an act of terrorism on par with 9/11. In the wake of the Newtown massacre, the Second Amendment is portrayed as a “collective,” not an individual right, despite the Supreme Court’s recent rulings to the contrary. The CSCOPE website has posted a response to concerns about certain lesson plans, including an extensive discussion of the Boston Tea Party. But critics say that such lessons should never have appeared in the first place. Sources within the Texas education system recently informed WND that Wicca, thought by many to be akin to witchcraft, was being taught in CSCOPE curriculum alongside Christianity, but was removed before the news media could access it, a fact which represents one of the biggest concerns for followers of CSCOPE. CSCOPE apparently immediately deletes controversial content once leaked, making it impossible at any one time to know exactly what students are learning and in what order. Defenders of this process say that this responsiveness to public scrutiny is a form of self-auditing. Others have said that it simply leaves parents, teachers and those in charge of curriculum oversight powerless to stop agenda-driven lesson plans and the damage the ideas therein might do to students. WND has documented numerous instances of lessons being deleted after their use in classrooms. When it was discovered that Islam was being given preferential status as a part of a study on the world’s major religions, CSCOPE administrators deleted the lesson plan and associated PowerPoint in the presence of two sources, leaving no trace online. However, through available technology, documentation of this lesson plan and other such controversial content has been retained and reviewed by Texas educators and WND. See the lesson. In CSCOPE World History/Social Studies, Lesson 2, Unit 3 under the heading, “Classical Rome,” students are told that Christianity is a “cult,” and given a link to a BBC article saying the early Christians were “cannibals,” i.e. the Eucharist, which students are then led to conclude is the reason for Roman persecution. See the lesson. This lesson has since been removed, but documentation in WND’s possession confirms that the lesson existed. Critics contend that this ability to change content on a whim to evade scrutiny or accountability is a persistent risk with a system like CSCOPE. An organic curriculum – if regulated – might be advantageous, but without transparency, these types of occurrences will likely be more frequent, critics say. Speaking with WND, Texas Sen. Dan Patrick, new chairman of the education committee, communicated his intent to hold high-profile hearings and investigate CSCOPE. Sen. Patrick noted, “Any system where the chairman of the state board can’t get a password to explore their site in detail for six months, requires teachers to sign an agreement that could subject them to criminal penalties, and is not easily transparent to parents, needs to be closely examined by the legislature.” When asked if he would support placing CSCOPE under state oversight and/or local school board oversight, Sen. Patrick answered carefully, explaining, “We will make that decision after our hearings. However, I have concerns of any curriculum program that is in the majority of our school districts without some level of oversight by either the SBOE, TEA, or the legislature.” Patrick, along with many other Republicans, supported the 2011 legislation that took power over Internet curriculum review away from the SBOE, though this provision was admittedly ill-understood in its implications and was originally intended to reduce the cost-burden to school districts in obtaining and distributing the curriculum. While reducing costs, this move also created the basis of the current controversy. Opponents of CSCOPE, on the other hand, desire a lawsuit. They do not want to wait for hearings. As they contend, CSCOPE is already violating Texas public statutes, which require all “instructional materials” to be available to parents. CSCOPE places all primary content – apart from summaries – behind a pay wall. Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC) Governing Board minutes, obtained only by Texas Public Information Act request, reveal that even the governing board in charge of CSCOPE may not be fully aware of CSCOPE content issues. Minutes for the meetings covered show that governing board members were told by CSCOPE Executive Director Wade Labay that they will only be involved in content-related issues if “politically sensitive,” what Labay calls “’911′ type messages or those deemed critical.” In other words, in addition to the absence of state oversight, corporate oversight within CSCOPE might be lacking. The fears of some that CSCOPE is replacing textbooks, a claim denied by Texas SBOE member Thomas Ratliff, would appear justified if governing board minutes are considered. In addition to outlining when and under what circumstances CSCOPE would communicate with the TESCCC governing board, pending textbook alignments with Pearson, McGraw Hill, et al., were discussed and delayed with the support of governing board members. Some attendees lamented even having to align CSCOPE content with textbooks, since “the mission of CSCOPE is to change instruction in the classroom.” TESCCC has now asked the Texas Attorney General to make its minutes exempt from public information requirements Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/obama-interested-in-allah-is-god-curriculum/#gOJJ1iDhoir6qfIs.99

Raika Tienert Asked... Hi, I have a question. 3 weeks ago we adopted a rescue GSD from a pound. She is between 9 months to 1 year old. She was abandoned. We took her home and the first week was bad with separation anxieties but now it has improved greatly. My problem is that today we went to the vet for the second round of vaccinations, and there the vet ask us how was working out. We replied that it's good, Mongen our dog is improving but sometimes she obey perfectly like sit, lay down etc, then the next minute she decide to ignore all commands. The vet told us that shouldn't happen, she should obey but he added that GSD obey only one master(that would be my hubby) and chances are that she won't obey me. Is that true? Plus when he injected her she turned and tried to defend herself. The vet again said that shouldn't happen and we must keep an eye on the dog that she is unpredictable. My hubby now worry she would bite people. She is very nice, just like to jump on people, we are trying to stop her found that. And she is learning to accept our 2 cats, well is work in progress as she can be happy if they don't move but if they do she ll try to chase them, the same is with other dogs. After what the vet told us my hubby kinda regret we got a GSD, and I think the vet wasn't right. Any opinions and suggestions? Sorry for long text. Thank you

GIOVANNI FAVIA con rivoluzione civile...ma la smettiamo di scegliere i candidati come s efosse solo un operazione di marketing...

Attention Job Seekers. Good Luck! STATE OF MICHIGAN Job Opportunities Job #: 4301-JS-A0105-13-SDA Job Title: State Division Administrator 17 Closing Date/Time: Fri. 02/01/13 5:00 PM Eastern Time Salary: $84,173.00 - $114,433.00 annually Job Type: Permanent Full Time Bargaining Unit: NON-EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTED EMPLOYEE (NERE) Location: Lansing, Michigan Department: Human Services - Central Office Print Job Information | Apply Job Description Benefits Supplemental Questions This position serves as the Executive Director of the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and is the principal contact and liaison to the Commission, a 25 member board appointed by the Governor. This position also serves as the liaison to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Executive Office staff and communities throughout Michigan. The position also provides oversight and direction to a work unit responsible to promote citizen volunteerism and community services through a coordinated state plan and has overall responsibility to oversee program grants and funds and is responsible for the Commission's long range planning. The Michigan Community Service Commission is the state lead agency for service and volunteerism and administers various State and National Community Service grant programs and initiatives. Required Education and Experience: Education Possession of a bachelor's degree in any major. Experience Two years of experience as a professional manager or program/staff specialist, or equivalent experience. Alternate Education and Experience: Education level typically acquired through completion of high school and three years of safety and regulatory or law enforcement experience at the 14 level; or, two years of safety and regulatory or law enforcement experience at the 15 level, may be substituted for the education and experience requirements Additional Requirements and Information: View the job specification at: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/StateDivisionAdministrator_13132_7.pdf Position Description Only NEOGOV applications are accepted. To apply for this position you must click on the "apply" button in NEOGOV. Hard copies of applications will not be accepted. You must attach copies of official transcript(s). Official transcripts contain the name of the institution, confirmation that a degree was awarded, date degree was conferred, and the registrar's signature. Internet or Web-based versions will not be accepted. Your application should detail the experience that you possess. You must also attach a cover letter/word document that details your experience. Please be specific with the number of years of experience that you possess and if the experience is full-time or part-time. This will allow for accurate screening of qualifications. The supplemental questions include two specific questions that require written answers. Responses to these questions should be less than one page each. Failure to provide complete packages may result in your application being screened out. Your application for any job does not guarantee that you will be contacted by the department for further consideration. Departments reserve the right to close postings prior to the closing date based upon the volume of applications received. Position is located in the Department of Human Services, Michigan Community Service Commission, 235 S. Grand Avenue, Lansing, MI 48933. Contact for this position is Janice Harvey (517) 241-4040 or email at harveyj1@michigan.gov.

JEWEL 88-5 NEWS@2:17-P-M::::: ---A human skull found Sunday around 2:30 p.m. on near Uplands Golf and Ski Club in Vaughn. That’s in the area of Yonge Street and The407. York Regional Detective Sgt. John Braybrook said it’ll likely take a day or two before they can determine the person’s gender. Police are “treating it as suspicious...” In the meantime, investigators are looking for other human remains that may have been scattered by animals. Also, a search-and-rescue team canvassing the wooded area, closer to The407. Police are looking for any information. You can reach out anonymously through Crimestoppers @222TIPS... ---Human remains discovered over the weekend. Around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, near Uplands Golf and Ski Club in Vaughn. That’s in the Yonge-and-Highway-407 area. A skull apparently found by a passerby. York Regional sealed the area off. Homicide investigators are involved. ---Newmarket’s Huron-Heights Secondary-School, closed today due to a fire. The blaze happened in the school’s photo lab. It isn’t believed to be suspicious. Damage to the lab is extensive, but the school will be opened for classes tomorrow… ---Three young men killed in a crash south of Alliston Sunday morning. Justin Keogh was 18. Kevin Papps, 19. And Eric Jover was 20. The single-vehicle collision happened around 8-a-m… on the Adjala-Tecumseth Townline, between the 10th and 11th lines. The cause still under investigation… ---A firearms incident in Stroud Saturday night. South Simcoe-Police called in about a man leaving a rental unit in an impaired state. He was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun. According to police, there was evidence a shotgun had been fired inside the unit. The 51-year-old man, and the gun turned up in Barrie. An arrest and seizure made… ---JEWEL WEATHER. Clearing tonight. A lo of -8. Sun and cloud tomorrow. -3 for the hi…

Some Banking Terms with "C" Certificate of Deposit :. Certificate of Deposits are negotiable receipts in bearer form which can be freely traded among investors. This is also a money market instrument,issued for a period ranging from 7 days to f one year .The minimum deposit amount is Rs. 1 lakh and they are transferable by endorsement and delivery. Cheque : Cheque is a Bill of Exchange drawn on a specified banker ordering the banker to pay a certain sum of money to the drawer of cheque or another person. Money is generally withdrawn by clients by cheques. Cheque is always payable on demand. Cheque Truncation : Cheque truncation, truncates or stops the flow of cheques through the banking system. Generally truncation takes place at the collecting branch, which sends the electronic image of the cheques to the paying branch through the clearing house and stores the paper cheques with it. Collecting Banker : Also called receiving banker, who collects on instruments like a cheque, draft or bill of exchange, lodged with himself for the credit of his customer's account. Consumer Protection Act : It is implemented from 1987 to enforce consumer rights through a simple legal procedure. Banks also are covered under the Act. A consumer can file complaint for deficiency of service with Consumer District Forum for amounts upto Rs.20 Lacs in District Court, and for amounts above Rs.20 Lacs to Rs.1 Crore in State Commission and for amounts above Rs.1 Crore in National Commission. Co-operative Bank : An association of persons who collectively own and operate a bank for the benefit of consumers / customers, like Saraswat Co-operative Bank or Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank and other such banks. Co-operative Society : When an association of persons collectively own and operate a unit for the benefit of those using its services like Apna Bazar Co-operative Society or Sahakar Bhandar or a Co-operative Housing Society. Core Banking Solutions (CBS) : Core Banking Solutions is a buzz word in Indian banking at present, where branches of the bank are connected to a central host and the customers of connected branches can do banking at any breach with core banking facility. Creditworthiness : It is the capacity of a borrower to repay the loan / advance in time alongwith interest as per agreed terms. Crossing of Cheques : Crossing refers to drawing two parallel lines across the face of the cheque.A crossed cheque cannot be paid in cash across the counter, and is to be paid through a bank either by transfer, collection or clearing.A general crossing means that cheque can be paid through any bank and a special crossing, where the name of a bank is indicated on the cheque, can be paid only through the named bank. Current Account : Current account with a bank can be opened generally for business purpose. There are no restrictions on withdrawals in this type of account. No interest is paid in this type of account. Customer : A person who maintains any type of account with a bank is a bank customer. Consumer Protection Act has a wider definition for consumer as the one who purchases any service for a fee like purchasing a demand draft or a pay order. The term customer is defined differently by Laws, softwares and countries.

PRESS RELEASE ARREST (ENDANGERING THE WELFARE OF A CHILD): Mount Laurel Police arrested Alena Catlett, age 45, of the 100 block of Canterbury Road on January 11 at 7:43 AM for Endangering the Welfare of a Child and Resisting Arrest. While being taken into custody on outstanding warrants at her residence, Catlett resisted arrest. A subsequent inspection of the residence by the Mount Laurel Building Inspector found it to be uninhabitable. Catlett was committed to the Burlington County Minimum Security Facility in lieu of $27,500.00 bail. Officer A. DiPeri was the arresting officer. ARREST (BURGLARY): Mount Laurel Police arrested Willie H. Hymon Jr., age 57, of the unit block of Washington Street, Mt. Holly, on January 11 for a burglary and theft previously reported at the Sunoco station on Route 38. Police observed Hymon on Marne Highway at 2:07 PM on January 11 and recognized him as the suspect in surveillance video. He was charged with Burglary and Theft and committed to BCJ in lieu of $20,000.00 bail. Officer S. Bristow was the arresting officer. ARREST (CDS): Mount Laurel Police arrested Damian J. Gray, age 36, of the unit block of Raysmith Road, Erial, on January 12 for possession of marijuana. He was stopped on Fellowship Road for a motor vehicle violation at 9:20 AM. Gray was charged with Possession of Marijuana (under 50 grams). He was served with criminal complaints and released pending a municipal court hearing. Officer R. Orange was the arresting officer. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: A member of LA Fitness on Dearborn Circle reported a criminal mischief to a vehicle. The incident occurred between 9:15 AM and 10:15 AM January 12. The vehicle was scratched and dented. Damage is estimated at $2000.00. BURGLARY: (Larchmont Estates) A resident of the unit block of Sheffield Lane reported a burglary and theft to a residence. The incident occurred on January 11, between 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Entry was gained by forcing the rear window. Jewelry, valued at an undetermined amount, was taken. A damage estimate is not available at this time. FATAL MOTOR VEHICLE COLLISSION: The Mount Laurel Police Department is investigating a serious motor vehicle collision which occurred at approximately 3:29 PM, January 12 on Route 38 near the intersection with Briggs Road. A 2007 Suzuki GSX motorcycle collided with a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder. Both vehicles were traveling on State Highway 38 in the west bound lanes approaching Briggs Road. The driver of the motorcycle was transported to Cooper Trauma Center by Mount Laurel Emergency Medical Services and Virtua Paramedics. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at 6:55 AM on January 13. No other injuries were reported. Motorcycle Driver: Robert A. Price Jr, (age 24) of the unit block of Cypress Drive, Eastampton, NJ. Pathfinder Driver: Kelly A. Cotto (age 31) of the unit block of East 1st Avenue, Runnemede, NJ. Pathfinder Passenger: 7 year old male of Runnemede, NJ. The collision remains under investigation by the Mount Laurel Police Department Traffic Unit. Anyone with information is asked to call the Traffic Unit at (856) 234-1414 EXT 1565.

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Baseball Lessons Player Development For all ages Learn from an ex-professional baseball player who caught for Randy Johnson (BIG UNIT), Norm Charlton (REDS, Mariners), Mark Gardner (SF Giants), just to name a few. If you, or your child, are looking to better develop your baseball skills in all positions: All field positions Pitching Catching Hitting Contact: Jeff La Marr at jeff_lamarr@yahoo.com or cell (949)231-2113. Serving all Sacramento cities. Fully endorsed by Guy Anderson, National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations

you think Sandy hook was a massacre, and that the govt wouldn't do something like that? look back in history as to what was done to others. if this is ok with you, then give them your guns. The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890,[4] near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. It was the last battle of the American Indian Wars. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them five miles westward (8 km) to Wounded Knee Creek where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment arrived led by Colonel James Forsyth and surrounded the encampment supported by four Hotchkiss guns.[5] On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.[6] A scuffle over Black Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry's opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow troopers. Those few Lakota warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the attacking troopers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire. The surviving Lakota fled, but U.S. cavalrymen pursued and killed many who were unarmed. By the time it was over, at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota Sioux had been killed and 51 wounded (4 men, 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300. Twenty-five troopers also died, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded would later die).[7] It is believed that many were the victims of friendly fire, as the shooting took place at close range in chaotic conditions. At least twenty troopers were awarded the coveted Medal of Honor.[8] The site has been designated a National Historic Landmark.[4] Contents 1 Prelude 2 The fight and ensuing massacre 3 Eyewitness accounts 4 Aftermath 4.1 Drexel Mission Fight 5 Medal of Honor controversy 6 Remembrance 7 Popular culture 8 Order of battle 9 Gallery 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Prelude The Ghost Dance In the years prior to the massacre, the U.S. Government had continued to take the lands of the Lakota. The once large bison herds (a staple of the Sioux diet) had been hunted to near extinction by white settlers. Treaty promises [9] to feed, house, clothe and protect reservation lands from encroachment by settlers and gold miners were not implemented as dictated by treaty. As a result, there was unrest on the reservations.[10] It was during this time that news spread among the reservations of a Paiute prophet named Wovoka, founder of the Ghost Dance religion. He had a vision that the Christian Messiah, Jesus Christ, had returned to earth in the form of a Native American.[11] The Messiah would raise all the Native American believers above the earth. During this time the white man would disappear from Native lands, the buffalo herds and all the other animals would return in abundance, and the ghosts of their ancestors would return to earth — hence the word "Ghost" in "Ghost Dance". They would then return to earth to live in peace. All this would be brought about by performance of the "Ghost Dance". Lakota ambassadeurs to Wovoka, Kicking Bear and Short Bull taught the Sioux that while performing the Ghost Dance, they would wear special Ghost Dance shirts as seen by Black Elk in a vision. Kicking Bear said the shirts had the power to repel bullets.[11] European Americans were alarmed by the sight of the many Great Basin and Plains tribes performing the Ghost Dance, worried that it might be a prelude to armed attack. Among them was the US Indian Agent at the Standing Rock Agency where Chief Sitting Bull lived. US officials decided to take some of the chiefs into custody in order to quell what they called the "Messiah Craze." The military first hoped to have Buffalo Bill — a friend of Sitting Bull — aid in the plan to reduce the chance of violence. Standing Rock agent James McLaughlin overrode the military and sent the Indian police to arrest Sitting Bull. On December 15, 1890, 40 Indian policemen arrived at Chief Sitting Bull's house to arrest him. Crowds gathered in protest, and the first shot was fired when Sitting Bull tried to pull away from his captors, killing the officer who had been holding him. Additional shots were fired, resulting in the death of Sitting Bull, eight of his supporters and six policemen. After Sitting Bull's death, 200 members of his Hunkpapa band, fearful of reprisals, fled Standing Rock to join Chief Spotted Elk (later to be known as "Big Foot") and his Miniconjou band at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Spotted Elk and his band, along with 38 Hunkpapa, left the Cheyenne River Reservation on December 23 to journey to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to seek shelter with Red Cloud.[12] Former Pine Ridge Indian agent Valentine T. McGillycuddy was asked his opinion of the 'hostilities' surrounding the Ghost Dance movement by General Leonard W. Colby commander of the Nebraska National Guard (portion of letter dated Jan. 15, 1891):[13] "As for the "Ghost Dance" too much attention has been paid to it. It was only the symptom or surface indication of a deep rooted, long existing difficulty; as well treat the eruption of small pox as the disease and ignore the constitutional disease." "As regards disarming the Sioux, however desirable it may appear, I consider it neither advisable, nor practicable. I fear it will result as the theoretical enforcement of prohibition in Kansas, Iowa and Dakota; you will succeed in disarming and keeping disarmed the friendly Indians because you can, and you will not succeed with the mob element because you cannot." "If I were again to be an Indian Agent, and had my choice, I would take charge of 10,000 armed Sioux in preference to a like number of disarmed ones; and furthermore agree to handle that number, or the whole Sioux nation, without a white soldier. Respectfully, etc., V.T. McGillycuddy. P.S. I neglected to state that up to date there has been neither a Sioux outbreak or war. No citizen in Nebraska or Dakota has been killed, molested or can show the scratch of a pin, and no property has been destroyed off the reservation."[14] General Miles' Telegram Nelson A. Miles General Miles sent this telegram from Rapid City to General John Schofield in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 1890: "The difficult Indian problem cannot be solved permanently at this end of the line. It requires the fulfillment of Congress of the treaty obligations that the Indians were entreated and coerced into signing. They signed away a valuable portion of their reservation, and it is now occupied by white people, for which they have received nothing." "They understood that ample provision would be made for their support; instead, their supplies have been reduced, and much of the time they have been living on half and two-thirds rations. Their crops, as well as the crops of the white people, for two years have been almost total failures." "The dissatisfaction is wide spread, especially among the Sioux, while the Cheyennes have been on the verge of starvation, and were forced to commit depredations to sustain life. These facts are beyond question, and the evidence is positive and sustained by thousands of witnesses." The fight and ensuing massacre Spotted Elk lies dead after the Massacre of Wounded Knee, 1890 On December 28, 1890, Chief Spotted Elk of the Miniconjou Lakota nation and 350 of his followers were intercepted by a 7th Cavalry detachment under Major Samuel M. Whitside southwest of the badlands near Porcupine Butte. John Shangreau, a scout and interpreter who was half Sioux, advised that they not be disarmed immediately, as it would lead to violence. The troopers escorted the Lakota about five miles westward (8 km) to Wounded Knee Creek where they made camp. Later that evening, Col. James W. Forsyth and the rest of the 7th Cavalry arrived, bringing the number of troopers at Wounded Knee to 500.[15] In contrast, there were 350 Native Americans, of whom all but 120 were women and children. The troopers surrounded Spotted Elk's encampment and set up four rapid fire Hotchkiss guns.[16] At daybreak on December 29, 1890, Col. Forsyth ordered the surrender of weapons and the immediate removal and transportation of the Indians from the "zone of military operations" to awaiting trains. A search of the camp confiscated 38 rifles and more rifles were taken as the soldiers searched the Indians. None of the old men were found to be armed. Yellow Bird harangued the young men who were becoming agitated by the search and the tension spread to the soldiers.[17] Specific details of what triggered the fight are debated. According to some accounts, a medicine man named Yellow Bird began to perform the Ghost Dance, reiterating his assertion to the Lakota that the ghost shirts were bulletproof. As tension mounted, Black Coyote refused to give up his rifle; he was deaf and had not understood the order. Another Indian said: "Black Coyote is deaf." (He did not speak English). When the soldier refused to heed his warning, he said, "Stop! He cannot hear your orders!" At that moment, two soldiers seized Black Coyote from behind, and in the struggle (allegedly), his rifle discharged. At the same moment Yellow Bird threw some dust into the air, and approximately five young Lakota men with concealed weapons threw aside their blankets and fired their rifles at Troop K of the 7th. After this initial exchange, the firing became indiscriminate.[18] Soldiers pose with three of the four Hotchkiss guns used at Wounded Knee. The caption on the photograph reads: "Famous Battery 'E' of the 1st Artillery. These brave men and the Hotchkiss guns that Big Foot's Indians thought were toys, Together with the fighting 7th what's left of Gen. Custer's boys, Sent 200 Indians to that Heaven which the ghost dancer enjoys. This checked the Indian noise, and Gen. Miles with staff Returned to Illinois." According to commanding Gen. Nelson A. Miles, a "scuffle occurred between one warrior who had [a] rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a battle occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Spotted Elk, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prairie were hunted down and killed."[19] At first the struggle was fought at close range; fully half the Indian men were killed or wounded before they had a chance to get off any shots. Some of the Indians grabbed rifles they had been hiding and opened fire on the soldiers. With no cover, and with many of the Sioux unarmed, this phase of the fighting lasted a few minutes at most. While the Indian warriors and soldiers were shooting at close range, other soldiers used the Hotchkiss guns against the tipi camp full of women and children. It is believed that many of the troops on the battlefield were victims of friendly fire from their own Hotchkiss guns. The Indian women and children fled the camp, seeking shelter in a nearby ravine from the crossfire.[20] The officers had lost all control of their men. Some of the soldiers fanned out to run across the battlefield and finished off wounded Indians. Others leaped onto their horses and pursued the Lakota (men, women and children), in some cases for miles across the prairies. By the end of the fighting, which lasted less than an hour, at least 150 Lakota had been killed and 50 wounded. Historian Dee Brown, in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, mentions an estimate of 300[21] of the original 350 having been killed or wounded and that the soldiers loaded 51 survivors (4 men and 47 women and children) of the massacre onto wagons and took them to the Pine Ridge Reservation.[22] Army casualties numbered 25 dead and 39 wounded. Eyewitness accounts Brothers, (left to right) White Lance, Joseph Horn Cloud, and Dewey Beard, Wounded Knee Survivors; Minneconjou Lakota "What's left of Big Foot's band": John Grabill, 1891 Dewey Beard (Iron Hail, 1862–1955), Minneconjou Lakota survivor: as told to Eli S. Ricker : "... then many Indians broke into the ravine; some ran up the ravine and to favorable positions for defense."[23] Black Elk (1863–1950); medicine man, Oglala Lakota: "I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream ... the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead." (Source: Black Elk Speaks, c. 1932) American Horse (1840–1908); Chief, Oglala Lakota: "There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce ... A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing ... The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through ... and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys ... came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there." Edward S. Godfrey; Captain; commanded Co. D of the Seventh Cavalry: "I know the men did not aim deliberately and they were greatly excited. I don't believe they saw their sights. They fired rapidly but it seemed to me only a few seconds till there was not a living thing before us; warriors, squaws, children, ponies, and dogs ... went down before that unaimed fire."[24] ( Godfrey was a Lieutenant in Captain Benteen's force during the Battle of the Little Bighorn)[25] Hugh McGinnis; First Battalion, Co. K, Seventh Cavalry: "General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babes in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. ... Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life? ... As I see it the battle was more or less a matter of spontaneous combustion, sparked by mutual distrust ...[26] Aftermath Civilian burial party, loading victims on cart for burial Following a three-day blizzard, the military hired civilians to bury the dead Lakota. The burial party found the deceased frozen; they were gathered up and placed in a common grave on a hill overlooking the encampment from which some of the fire from the Hotchkiss guns originated. It was reported that four infants were found alive, wrapped in their deceased mothers' shawls. In all, 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children reportedly died on the field, while at least seven Lakota were mortally wounded.[27] General Nelson Miles denounced Colonel Forsyth and relieved him of command. An exhaustive Army Court of Inquiry convened by Miles criticized Forsyth for his tactical dispositions, but otherwise exonerated him of responsibility. The Court of Inquiry, however, was not conducted as a formal court-martial. The Secretary of War concurred with the decision and reinstated Forsyth to command of the 7th Cavalry. Testimony had indicated that for the most part, troops attempted to avoid non-combatant casualties. Miles continued to criticize Forsyth, whom he believed had deliberately disobeyed his commands in order to destroy the Indians. Miles promoted the conclusion that Wounded Knee was a deliberate massacre rather than a tragedy caused by poor decisions, in an effort to destroy the career of Forsyth. This was later understood and Forsyth was promoted to Major General.[28] The American public's reaction to the battle at the time was generally favorable. Many non-Lakota living near the reservations interpreted the battle as the defeat of a murderous cult; others confused Ghost Dancers with Native Americans in general. In an editorial response to the event, the young newspaper editor L. Frank Baum, later the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer on January 3, 1891: The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.[29] Soon after the event, Dewey Beard, his brother Joseph Horn Cloud and others formed the Wounded Knee Survivors Association, which came to include descendants. They sought compensation from the US government for the many fatalities and injured. Today the association is independent and works to preserve and protect the historic site from exploitation, and to administer any memorial erected there. Papers of the association (1890–1973) and related materials are held by the University of South Dakota and are available for research.[30] It was not until the 1990s that a memorial to the Lakota Sioux was included in the National Historic Landmark. More than 80 years after the battle, beginning on February 27, 1973, Wounded Knee was the site of the Wounded Knee incident, a 71-day standoff between militants of the American Indian Movement — who had chosen the site for its symbolic value — and federal law enforcement officials. Drexel Mission Fight The 'Bloody Pocket'; location of the Drexel Mission Fight. Historically, Wounded Knee is generally considered to be the end of the collective multi-century series of conflicts between colonial and U.S. forces and American Indians, known collectively as the Indian Wars. It was not however the last armed conflict between Native Americans and the United States. The Drexel Mission Fight was an armed confrontation between Lakota warriors and the United States Army that took place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation the day after the battle on December 30, 1890. The fight occurred on White Clay Creek approximately 15 miles north of Pine Ridge where Lakota fleeing from the continued hostile situation surrounding the battle at Wounded Knee had set up camp. Company K of the Seventh Cavalry — the unit involved in the battle — was sent to force the Lakotas' return to the areas they were assigned on their respective reservations. Some of the 'hostiles' were Brulé Lakota from the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The Seventh Cavalry was pinned down in a valley by the combined Lakota forces and had to be rescued by the Ninth Cavalry, an African American regiment nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers.[31] Among the Lakota warriors was a young Brulé from Rosebud named Plenty Horses who had recently returned from five years at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. A week after this fight, Plenty Horses would shoot and kill Army Lieutenant Edward W. Casey,[32] commandant of the Cheyenne Scouts (Troop L, Eighth Cavalry). The testimony introduced at the trial of Plenty Horses and his subsequent acquittal also helped abrogate the legal culpability of the U.S. Army for the Wounded Knee Massacre.[33] Medal of Honor controversy The Army awarded twenty Medals of Honor, its highest award, for the action. Native American activists have urged the medals be withdrawn, as they say they were "Medals of Dishonor". According to Lakota tribesman William Thunder Hawk, "The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty." In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions that condemned the Medals of Honor awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them.[34] Historian Will G. Robinson noted that in contrast, only three Medals of Honor were awarded among the 64,000 South Dakotans who fought for four years of World War II.[35] Some of the citations on the medals awarded to the troopers at Wounded Knee state that they went in pursuit of Lakota who were trying to escape or hide.[36] Medal of Honor Citations, Wounded Knee Two of the citations of the twenty Medals of Honor awarded at Wounded Knee: View of canyon at Wounded Knee, dead horses and Lakota bodies are visible. GRESHAM, JOHN C. Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 7th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Wounded Knee Creek, S. Dak., 29 December 1890. Entered service at: Lancaster Courthouse, Va. Birth: Virginia. Date of issue: 26 March 1895. Citation: Voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein. He was wounded during this action. SULLIVAN, THOMAS Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Wounded Knee Creek, S. Dak., 29 December 1890. Entered service at: Newark, N.J. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 17 December 1891. Citation: Conspicuous bravery in action against Indians concealed in a ravine. Remembrance Wounded Knee hill, location of Hotchkiss guns during battle and subsequent mass grave of Native American Dead. A church was built on the hill behind the mass grave in which the victims had been buried. In 1903, descendants of those who died in the battle erected a monument at the gravesite. The memorial lists many of those who died at Wounded Knee along with an inscription that reads: "This monument is erected by surviving relatives and other Ogalala and Cheyenne River Sioux Indians in memory of the Chief Big Foot massacre December 29, 1890. Col. Forsyth in command of US troops. Big Foot was a great chief of the Sioux Indians. He often said, 'I will stand in peace till my last day comes.' He did many good and brave deeds for the white man and the red man. Many innocent women and children who knew no wrong died here."[37] The Wounded Knee Battlefield was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965 and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1966. Beginning in 1986, a group began the Big Foot Memorial Riders to continue to honor the dead. The ceremony has attracted more participants each year and riders live with the cold weather, as well as the lack of food and water, as they retrace the path that their family members took to Wounded Knee. They carry with them a white flag to symbolize their hope for world peace, and to honor and remember the victims so that they will not be forgotten.[27]

Time to move off base....I will limit this message, There will be a manditory inventory and turn in of all firearms, bow, crossbows, knives over 3 and half inch blades, martial arts equipment. Funny but im not shocked. Thank you Jean Bishop for drving up and taking the few items we own.

Se mentre state guardando Criminal Minds e scrivendo su FB, pensate ad un qualcosa che desiderate fare coi vostri BAU appena il telefilm si concluderà, senza inviare loro segnali di nessun tipo (il termine "ordine" mi è antipatico) e senza nemmeno muovervi, ma loro si alzano dal pavimento e si preparano a fare quello che pensate, o siete particolarmente bravi (non è il mio caso) oppure avete degli AUSSIE <3 <3 <3

Lawyer's Collective explains about video clip released by Presidential media unit----------- (Lanka-e-News -14.Jan.2013, 11.30PM) The letter of removal of the Chief Justice was received by her on 13th January 2013. The President has summoned judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court 13th, 14th and 15th January respectively. There is no Constitutional tradition in Sri Lanka authorizing the President to do so. In the present circumstances, the Judges are compelled to meet the President ignoring the constitutional tradition. The Bar Council of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) meeting held on 12th January 2013 decided to make a final attempt to halt the impeachment process, by sending a BASL Delegation to meet the President. An appointment was given for the BASL delegation but prior to the meeting the President had issued the removal letter. Therefore, several members of the delegation urged the BASL not to meet the President as the mandate has expired. Nevertheless some members of the delegation had met the President at 11 a.m. on 14th January 2013, (also attended to by several other lawyers/ politicians). At the meeting the President had been very critical of the protests of lawyers and had also made false allegations that the lawyers’ who had protested had received foreign funds to do. The Presidential media unit thereafter circulated a video clip prepared by them to all electronic media institutions, which was telecast today. It contained damaging and adverse material on the unity of lawyers, suggesting that the Bar has not been part of the protests. It has also failed to state that thousands of lawyers who participate at the protests are active members of the BASL. The Lawyers’ Collective held a Press Conference today and highlighted the following key points. a) The entire impeachment process was unconstitutional and the Hon. Shirani Bandaranayaka remains the Chief Justice. Whatever the decision she takes tomorrow (15th January) the Lawyers’ Collective stands by her. b) The initial struggle by Lawyers led by the Lawyers’ Collective was to prevent the impeachment. The next phase would be a broader but long term struggle involving clergy, political parties, trade unions, intellectuals, academics, students and civil society groups. c) The Lawyers, Judges and civil society activists who have stood up for the Independence of the Judiciary and against the unconstitutional impeachment may be subjected to victimization in future. The Lawyers’ Collective along with its network would not hesitate in making appropriate interventions, if such victimizations take place. d) The Lawyers salute the Chief Justice for her courage. The Lawyers’ Collective also commends those who took a public stance for justice courageously notwithstanding an unprecedented hate campaigns and threats, unleashed by the Government. Mr. Mohan Peiris’ name has been forwarded to the Parliamentary Council, which is expected to meet tomorrow (15th January) at 10.00 a.m. He is also expected to take oath immediately. Vicious hate campaign against the lawyers who stood up against the impeachment continues to date. There is information that in addition to the state media, several groups connected to the government are engaged in a defamatory campaign against identified lawyers, making their life and professional practice vulnerable. -Status Report of Lawyers Collective-

As far as the case of the Army Boats is concerned, Gen. Azazi played a very positive role by stopping the PICOMSS scam and saving the Federal Government of Nigeria over 13 million Euros. If he – Gen. Azazi – was part of the scam, he wouldnt have done this. Gen. Azazi is now late and cannot speak for himself. But Mr. President is very much with us and is best placed to stand up for Azazi by confirming or denying what Azazi had attributed to him. The Chief of Army Staff is still with us as the COAS. The Special Assistant to the late Gen. Azazi and Gen. Wiwa, Azazi’s Chief of Operations are all alive and may have been privy to Gen. Azazi’s side of the story. I think the least that Gen. Azazi deserves from the COAS and those that worked closely with him is the moral courage to speak up for the dead man who was their close friend and mentor. See Exhibit D3. 5. ON THE “JEWS” (DAVID MAMAN AND SHAY TAL) OF M15 There have for decades been operating in Nigeria, largely legitimately, serious minded, committed and honest Israeli businessmen and women with very solid names and reputations built over time. The “JEWS” typified by the characters behind M15 are relatively new breed of Israelis and distinguished from the normal Israelis we knew by their utter and complete lack of conscience, insatiable and vicious greed and their capacity and willingness to do anything for money. These characters are the “MONEY GRUBBERS”, “the USERERS” and “heartless exploiters.” M15 or David Maman and Shay Tal, whose generally unscrupulous conduct in handling government contracts is widely known, are out only to fleece Nigeria at all cost. These crookish businessmen are not only behind the 145 million Euros project designed to dupe Nigeria on the so-called 5 year contract for the leasing of 2 Israeli spy satellites from IMAGESAT – an Israeli state owned company – a project whose real value is less than USD $40 million (note: USD $ not Euros), they also are guilty of having duped both the BPP and the FCTA administration into approving the purchase of 1 unit surveillance balloon at USD $1.9 million while the actual cost of the project is less than USD 300,000. The same Jews were kicked out of Akwa Ibom state by current Governor – Godswill Akpabio – for duping the state in a deal for provision of equipment and material support for the tracking and apprehension of kidnappers. The duo are also, even as I write, still being investigated by the EFCC for alleged criminal breach of contract against the FGN. These “2 JEWS” are Atawodi’s henchmen and professional experts at misleading, manipulating, concocting and feeding false information to the BPP for Atawodi – PICOMSS to obtain the desired Certificate of No Objection on the 15.5 million Euro boats deal. They deliberately lied by giving the BPP false information and specifications about the boats. They also lied and presented themselves to the BPP as the manufacturers’ representatives. See Exhibits E1 – E3.

The following is an example of this shit community which always embezzles: Notes, Allegations, Failings and Concerns Mismanagement of Estate Note: Do to the limit on size of motion, this motion will reference filings for this court regarding Aunt Marie without including them, unless otherwise instructed by the Judge because a discrepancy is found and needs to be reviewed. 1. The executors and the attorneys for Aunt Marie’s Estate failed to uphold her Will requests (Exhibit O). A. Referring to the First and Final Account (Exhibit R8) provided by Drost and Schmidt were grossly negligent in their management of the distribution of money resulting from the Estate of Marie Ann Favaro. In particular, the executors and attorneys for Marie Favaro’s Estate FAILED to do the following as instructed in her Will: 1. Pay the Franciscan Mission Association. 2. Pay St. Margaret Mary’s Church. Regarding payment to the Church traditionally, the Priest who conducts the service is suppose to get some money. She did not write this specifically in her Will. It is etiquette. 3. Pay Catholic Near East Welfare Society. 4. Pay the Catholic Extension Society of America. 5. Pay for 200 Masses for Favaro and Victorine – This is Association of the Miraculous Medal. 6. Pay 5% of remaining assets to St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. 7. Pay 5% of remaining assets to Eternal Word Television Network. B. Referring to the Will (Exhibit O) and to the First and Final Account (Exhibit R8), the attorney failed to document communication with Marie Ann Favaro regarding the transfer of her condo and its possessions to Wendy Tarzian for me and for court records. This communication includes date and time of meeting with Aunt Marie identifying herself as formally requesting the transfer of property. Referencing this decision to transfer property, the executors and the attorneys failed to contact me to be with Aunt Marie. She may have wanted me to run additional errands for her as well as provide me with final words of good bye. I do not know how to calculate the loss of this meeting to a fine. C. Questions regarding the Will include: 1. Why is Ange Lazar excluded from the Will? It’s odd that her children are included and she’s not and her daughter is not included. They reside in Arizona. Where are the notes? 2. Why is Father Michael Vanderfeet excluded from the Will? He really is a dear friend of Aunt Marie’s. 3. Why are Ernie’s brothers in the Will? Is there a history of communication and camaraderie with them? 4. Aunt Marie never spoke to me about Louise Howard. I would like to know how Louise knows Aunt Marie? Is Louise Ange’s daughter? For reference I worked with a Howard family member and I placed one for work with a fee paid. Additionally, Greeley, Howard, Norlin Not, Inc. did the land survey for Aunt Marie’s condominium building. 5. Aunt Marie had a God Child. The Will did not detail her God Child and what should be done. 6. Based on Aunt Marie’s notice to Ernie in email on 4/22/08 1:32 PM (Exhibit S)I’m wondering if there was a revised Will. D. Aunt Marie specifically requested that Gertrude Wersching care for her cats if alive and receive $10,000.00 for their care. Refer to Exhibit O Third instruction E. Gertrude did not want the cats and did not take them. I couldn’t care for them because of my allergies. Alan gave Gertrude the money after killing the cats. I contend that the money should have gone back to the general pool of money to be divided between beneficiaries. This money was not accounted for in the First and Final Account by Drost and Schmidt. 2. Prior to detailing the multiple failings regarding the management of Aunt Marie’s Estate, this here pleading will identify the technical failings for the Judge’s reference and censure. A. Graham Schmidt did not file his appearance as is required by County law, Cook County Rule 1.4 Appearance and Withdrawal of Attorneys (a) Addressing the Court: An Attorney shall file his appearance before he addresses the court, unless he’s presenting a motion for leave to appear by intervention or otherwise. Graham had informed me that day that he no longer worked for his father and that he took a position with Berman. I’m assuming his father filed an appearance for Drost and Schmidt, he just failed to serve it. B. Regarding the orders filed on July 18, 2008 they are signed by both Graham and his father, Alan W. Schmidt. Technically, since Alan did not go before the Judge, his orders have to be reviewed and he has to be sanctioned in accordance with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 271 . Since actions were taken based on the orders, I don’t think they can be thrown out because they have to be referenced for negligence. Damages resulted from his negligence. Legally, I do not know how the orders signed without adhering to county law have to be identified, taking into account Illinois Supreme Court Rule 18. Technically everyone that works for the court that processed the order is accountable. I thought Graham was going to start a position with Berman. I later found out that he was working for Berman at the time, which means that even if Alan filed on behalf of his law firm, he would still be censured or sanctioned. Technically, every attorney affiliated to the account has to have an appearance filed. 3. Referencing the First and Final Account Exhibit R8 by Drost and Schmidt, the following are concerns and errors detailed from a brief audit of it. Note that Drost and Schmidt repeatedly refused to provide supporting documentation. C. Regarding communication with Drost and Schmidt, Graham Schmidt and Alan Schmidt informed me that they would not assist in obtaining money that Aunt Marie left just for me. They said they are only collecting money left in general without designation. I need a confirmation that each bank contacted does not have money left specifically for Wendy Tarzian. Additionally, I need a basis of law for their actions. D. In reference to the First and Final Account produced by Drost and Schmidt they failed to provide me page 5. E. Regarding the banks contacted for Aunt Marie’s Estate, I think it would be wise to include in the Final Report to Court a complete list of banks contacted, their addresses, phone and contact person with a summary of communication denying or informing of money and other assets. F. Aunt Marie notified Ernie of doing business with Country Bank (Exhibit S). I think Country Bank is separate from Countrywide. There is also a company/institution called Country Financial. If Country Bank is separate from Countrywide, then the accounts referenced in email exchange are not detailed in the First and Final Account by Drost and Schmidt. G. Regarding Charter Bank, I do not have knowledge of other accounts. In reference to the CD, I think the documentation is in error. Typically, a CD is not under $100.00. The CD identified is $2.35. A copy of the CD is required for verification. H. Capital One Regarding this money, based on actions of the executors and attorneys with this Estate who were in error with KeyBank (refer to KeyBank Exhibit T), a copy of the designation for each account attached to the filing should be required. My preference for accountability is to have a bank officer sign off on verification of all funds accounted and distributed. I. Cole Taylor Bank – Again, I would prefer a copy of the CD attached to the Final Report as exhibit with verification signed by the Bank that they are not holding additional assets in Marie Favaro’s name or funds by her for any designated beneficiary. J. Countrywide Bank - Again, I would prefer a copy of the CD attached to the Final Report as an exhibit with verification signed by the Bank that they are not holding additional assets in Marie Favaro’s name or funds by her for any designated beneficiary. Also, in reference to Countrywide Bank, I’m in dispute with them regarding the handling of my Mother’s Estate. As a result, I really would want to verify that no money was left by Aunt Marie to me. K. Discover Bank - Again, I would prefer a copy of the CD attached to the Final Report as an exhibit with verification signed by the Bank that they are not holding additional assets in Marie Favaro’s name or funds by her for any designated beneficiary. I appreciate the identification of the CD. L. KeyBank – I am in dispute with the handling of KeyBank by Ernie Lazar a bank examiner and Alan Schmidt an attorney. Ernie notified me that account 65010820912267 was my account designated to me by Aunt Marie. Included with that notification were the original designation (Exhibit T1) completed by Aunt Marie when she opened the account and when she renewed it on July 2, 2007 (Exhibit T2). Additionally, regarding this account KeyBank notified me (Exhibit T3), Wendy Tarzian of its existence and its maturity after Aunt Marie’s death as shown in the Notice of Maturing Key Certificate of Deposit Account here included. In each instance, I was designated as the P.O.D. Aunt Marie did not change designation and did not fill out required paperwork to change it. When asked for designation she renewed it with me as the P.O.D. The renewal is here included with the exhibits. What happened is that someone illegally took a loan on the CD and the executor failed to identify the loan in the First and Final Account. Cheryl Bostick provided partial loan confirmation (Exhibit T4). This loan left $27.20 in the account. The executor has to produce the loan paperwork and the payment to repay the loan, resulting in the full distribution of the account by KeyBank to the executor. Additionally, Cheryl Bostick failed to produce the paperwork which removed Wendy Tarzian from the CD after the funds were returned. Also, she’ll have to produce a withdrawal check with verification of deposit for the money borrowed from the CD. The bank account which cleared converted the loan to cash has to be identified. The recipient’s account has to be identified with the returned money and date of return. I suspect the crime here is similar what Ernie described with Courtywide bank to Aunt Marie. Criminal charges have to be filed. The executor and the attorneys have to be sanctions for failing to understand the financial transactions and taking the money for themselves. Ernie confirmed that he did not changed recipient in writing. He provided me the account. Background on KeyBank 1. Ernie Lazar provided me the original and the renewal notice and told me who to contact at KeyBank to obtain the money (Exhibit T5). 1. Chase Bank employee Michael S. Young verified the account with Key Bank. He then authored the wiring instructions (Exhibit T6) and sent a fax (Exhibit T7) to the Key Bank employee in the Beneficiary Department who provided instruction for receipt of the money from the CD. A copy of the wiring instructions were provided with a cover letter and notice of maturity CD in a fax from Chase Bank (this no longer is my bank). The same information requested in fax was mailed to KeyBank with an original death certificate and a copy of my birth certificate. 2. Alan Schmidt, Gertrude Wersching, Ernie Lazar and Ernie’s siblings are guilty of devastavit . They converted money for themselves when it was designated for another. Each should have known the requirements for change of designation and required paperwork. The Bank notified me after her death. The money should have been provided to me without alteration of designation. They are responsible for the loss of the money and the residual effects. What is a bit frustrating about this situation is that Ernie explained at length to Aunt Marie how people were stealing CDs through Coutrywide via their loan department (refer to their email communication found in Exhibit S2). Keybank after confirmation that the account is mine illegally transfers the money, reducing its value to $27.20. The accounting for the Estate has to be incorrect because KeyBank identified the money as locked in a loan (Exhibit T4). The First and Final Account failed to identify the loan taken by Aunt Marie and the corresponding documentation. Ernie and Drost and Schmidt then identify themselves as taking the money for the general pool of money to be shared with beneficiaries resulting in being guilty of devastavit. What is of more concern is the failing by bank officials who were completely negligent in their management of records. Each has to be sanctioned. 3. Additionally, if they defamed me to gain advantage in securing the money, then an additional fine for each party identified who spoke with them has to be allocated. This fine would not be a final fine, residual damage has to be calculated (meaning every company, person institution that references them as justification for negative actions including identification in electronic records, results in a fine). As it stands right now, the following individuals are guilty of Breach of fiduciary agreement and facilitation of devastavit: Cheryl Bostick, Gina Desrosiers, Linda Wendolowski, James Poznik, Athleen R. Pittis, Vincent E. Maine, Rosalyn Ciulla, Michael M. Kennedy, Key Bank; Sheila L. Schroer, Ohio Department of Commerce; Debra Baker, Comptroller of the Currency, Administrator of National Banks. 4. Federal assistance is also required because of jurisdiction. Ernie Lazar and Alan W. Schmidt violated their Order Admitting Will to Probate and Appointing Representative (Exhibit T8) when they allowed Ernie to take the assets of Aunt Marie to Florida without an Order and service of that Order. Ernie resides in Florida and moved Aunt Marie’s money to Florida. The Checking account for Aunt Marie’s Estate is out of Florida. Alan Schmidt will have to produce a copy of the cleared checks issued from the Estate. 5. KeyBank is in Ohio and their state officials are guilty of illegally transferring the money. Ernie is a bank examiner (I’m not sure if he’s a former examiner or current) and he may have altered records accessible to bank examiners worldwide which resulted in their failure to correct when evidence was provided for a factual claim. Records will have to be checked. 6. Lisa Madigan’s office refused to assist with correction for every case Wendy Tarzian identified to her office with a list of laws violated. She has repeatedly obstructed Justice as demonstrated when their attorney took a filing from the Governor’s office and intervened in a case for which Lisa Madigan failed to understand the laws violated . Because of her actions and the actions of each court with their inability to manage files and process motions, this pleading hereby informs Judge Coleman of true violations and conflicts for which her assistance is requested in securing Federal help for correction. 7. This Emergency Motion hereby includes an Order for the Estate to Pay Wendy Tarzian the money due to her on the CD plus interest which would have accrued over the past three years. 8. This here pleading notifies the Judge that a sanction for each party has to be levied and paid to Wendy Tarzian and the Court for processing immediately. M. Leader’s Bank - I would prefer a copy of the CD attached to the Final Report as an exhibit with verification signed by the Bank that they are not holding additional assets in Marie Favaro’s name or funds by her for any designated beneficiary. I appreciate the identification of the CD. Since Drost and Schmidt refused to check on money left just for me, I would like verification from the bank identifying if there was money in my name as beneficiary or other. N. Shore Bank - I would prefer a copy of the CD attached to the Final Report as an exhibit with verification signed by the Bank that they are not holding additional assets in Marie Favaro’s name or funds by her for any designated beneficiary. I appreciate the identification of the CD. Since Drost and Schmidt refused to check on money left just for me, I would like verification from the bank identifying if there was money in my name as beneficiary or other. O. Not identified in the First and Final Account, were accounts with St. Paul Federal. I know that Aunt Marie had a checking account 15-464653-5 and most likely had CDs and other money assets with them. A report regarding their accounts needs to be completed. I think St. Paul may have left Chicago. The accounts would have transferred to their headquarters. Also not identified in the First and Final Account are the accounts provided to me from Chase Bank, two accounts were provided. Each account Ernie provided me notice about and can be referenced in Exhibit T1. One of the accounts was mismanaged by Chase Bank horribly. They failed to provide me a copy of the tax payment that was suppose to be made by them. And I think they failed to properly deposit the money to my now closed checking account. Matthew Perry or another person who works for Chase may be responsible for messing up the accounts with Michael Young. Their branch on Western Avenue really messed up too many financial transactions for which I have to deal with the State of Seattle regarding one failing. IF Aunt Marie provided me with two accounts P.O.D., odds are that there were more accounts with Chase that the executor and Alan W. Schmidt failed to identify. An investigation has to take place do to concealment. P. Aunt Marie had accounts with Avondale Bank. She transferred the savings certificate account from 7 1362-55 to 7-1741-55. I think Avondale may have incorrectly identified Aunt Marie as Ange and as a result she closed and transferred the account refer to Exhibit U1. Another account to check is 40-219628-5 and 2-19628-55 (Exhibit U2). Avondale bank accidentally identified Ange as Aunt Marie. Because of this account, I need to make sure that Ange’s relatives did not assume Aunt Marie’s accounts before and after her death, the same for Aunt Marie’s Estate. Q. Aunt Marie’s social security number is 340-16-0747. The executor and the attorney for the estate failed to collect her social security benefits. R. United Savings of America shows Angeine Lazar listed on Aunt Marie’s certificate (Exhibit V). The closed account was 10046930-4. It is best to check this bank for money in other accounts, certificate or other money assets. Also, check what account the money was transferred to. S. Bell Federal: Aunt Marie has some problems with mismanagement of money by banks. Bell Federal allocated to her an account with Joseph Havel’s name on it as a Joint account with her. The interest was suppose to transfer to one of Aunt Marie’s accounts – on that page, her name is spelled correctly. You may want them traced it to the bank deposited to see if other accounts exist from Exhibit W1-3. Also, Bell Federal may have had other accounts. Plus, Joe Havel may have left his Estate to Aunt Marie. Aunt Marie’s name is misspelled as Maril Favaro. You may want all accounts with each bank cross checked for her name as Maril. Bell Federal is in DC and was in Chicago. Also, in referencing this, I think my Great Grandfather, Marie’s Father had a few properties in the city, one or two on Francisco. (possibly more) T. Minnesota Life Insurance (former employer) – I do not recall Aunt Marie being an employee of an insurance agency. For verification, I would like the time period and the job held identified. I suspect that an employee of Minnesota Life Insurance may have switched Aunt Marie’s account with her/his own. U. State’s Employee Retirement System – Pension – I’m very disappointed with this figure. I think Aunt Marie really worked for 20 plus years for the State. What happened to her pension? Who was contacted? Where’s the supporting documentation? Her monthly pension check was just over $600.00 as detailed in the First and Final Account. Her Estate is due a larger return. V. Jackson Life Annuity – I appreciate the notice and the identification of the annuity. It would be nice to have a copy attached of the final paperwork. W. Monumental Life Annuity - I appreciate the notice and the identification of the annuity. It would be nice to have a copy attached of the final paperwork. X. New York Life Annuity - I appreciate the notice and the identification of the annuity. It would be nice to have a copy attached of the final paperwork. Y. Principal Financial Annuity - I appreciate the notice and the identification of the annuity. It would be nice to have a copy attached of the final paperwork. Z. Various E and EE bonds – I’m concerned with the failure to detail them. I suspect misrepresentation and hedge on claiming concealment (not having detailed each bond) and theft, since bonds were an issue for Aunt Marie. Ernie helped her figure out the value of her bonds and sent her information on the value of just one of her bonds purchased in 1976 for $750.00 with a value of $5,521.60 in 2007 (Exhibit X1). Included as Exhibit X2` for this pleading is a list of Bonds Aunt Marie had. This list identifies 34 E and EE bonds which were not accounted for in the First and Final Account by the attorney. I think Aunt Marie was concerned with the fact that a guy who wrote a bond book left a bank he worked for and contacted people with bonds regarding their value. I think the valuations are incorrect. Aunt Marie verified that with Ernie’s communication. Taking into account the valuation calculator Ernie provided, each needs to be reassessed. The spreadsheet here included in the Exhibits detail 34 E and EE bonds. Each has to be accounted for. I believe that Ernie assisted Aunt Marie with determining value of one of the bonds she was concerned with being incorrectly valued by The Savings Bond Informer, Inc. I think we need to revisit the value and the number of bonds claimed by the executor and the attorneys. I do not want the same situation with these bonds as happened with KeyBank. I think the Estate’s beneficiaries are due more money, unless of course they stole the bonds. I did not receive E and EE bonds. AA. Regarding bonds, the I bonds I received were copied and are included in Exhibit P. Based on the valuations, I don’t think I received full value from Chase bank. They just gave me a check for a little bit more than the face value. I did not receive a receipt from them either – I think it was a check deposited into my Chase account. Regarding the I bond total, I think the total needs to be included in the summary for allocation of money to me for accuracy. BB. Jewelry was part of the home Estate. Aunt Marie did not separate jewelry in her Will. The executor and the attorneys will have to detail when she made separate designation for the jewelry for final record. CC. Jewelry was part of the home Estate. Aunt Marie did not separate jewelry in her Will. The executor and the attorneys will have to detail when she made separate designation for the jewelry for final record. DD. 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sedan – All that is required is a copy of the title transfer and the deposit slip for proof of sale. This was requested of Drost and Schmidt and they refused production. EE. Regarding the 2 cats, Drost and Schmidt has to identify what they did with them, who killed them and provide the receipt for the Estate. FF. Corus Bank Safety Deposit Box – I wasn’t present for its opening. I think Aunt Marie banked at two Corus banks (one had her safety deposit box, another had a few accounts). I’m not sure which one they are referencing. Corus Bank I think also held one of her checking accounts. I do not see that account detailed in the First and Final Account by Drost and Schmidt. Plus, did she have CDs or other money accounts through Corus Bank? Also I think Corus Bank changed its name. I’m not sure if it was sold and retained some of its large accounts or if everything would have been transferred to a new bank. GG. Regarding 21 of the First and Final Account – What is a stimulus check? From which institution is Drost and Schmidt referencing and for what account? HH. Regarding State Farm Auto and Condo insurance, I do not agree or disagree with the figures provided. However, I do recall asking Ernie about her condo insurance and its coverage for her falling in her condo and the cost of an ambulance to take her to the hospital and her hospital expense for the fall. He detailed that the police had to break into the condo to get to her. He said they broke a window. I could have used that insurance toward new windows. I paid for the installation of new windows. This expense was not detailed for reimbursement. I have to submit an invoice to the Court for an Order to reimburse me. Also, the attorneys and the management company refused to produce the police report and ambulance bill. II. Federal Personal Tax refund, regarding this refund, how were her taxes done without accounting for and paying the condo taxes for the time she was alive which would have been for just under 6 months of the year. I paid those taxes and am due payment from the Estate (Exhibit Z2). This payment due was denied illegally by Drost and Schmidt. A copy of the taxes filed needs to be amended to the Final Report for Court. Included in the Exhibits is a copy of the paperwork regarding the taxes paid by Wendy Ann Tarzian and the debt due by the Estate to Wendy Ann Tarzian. Alan Schmidt has chosen to be criminal in his management of the account and has refused to pay Wendy Ann Tarzian the money due. This Motion hereby submits an Order demanding immediate payment from the Estate of Marie Ann Favaro with a fine levied against the Estate to be paid to Wendy Ann Tarzian and to the Court. JJ. Regarding paying Garcia & Ortiz $1,000.00 for completing tax returns, that is a bit much, when the standard fee ranges between $150.00 to $500.00 for a simple filing. These folks failed to account for the property taxes for 2008. A refund has to be demanded. Plus a copy of the filing has to be attached to the Final Report for Court. KK. Regarding proceeds for bonds in the Non-Inventoried Items number 7, I suspect that there is a discrepancy with the valuation. A copy of the CDs should be produced and attached to the Final Report. LL. Regarding B&A Deposit Premium, what is B & A and what was the deposit for? Where is the corresponding paperwork? MM. Regarding number 9 of the Non-Inventoried Items What was the premium for? NN. Regarding the State of Illinois pension check, is that check representative of one month’s pay? If so, then where is the account for the remainder of her pension? OO. Regarding number 12 of the Non-Inventoried Items what constitutes the proceeds? PP. Regarding number 13 of the Non-Inventoried Items which accounts are being referenced for this income? A spreadsheet detailing the accounts should be attached for reference. QQ. Regarding number 14 of the Non-Inventoried Items which accounts are being referenced for this income? A spreadsheet detailing the accounts should be attached for reference. RR. Regarding number 15 of the Non-Inventoried Items the credit for $9.43 is accurate. If a copy of the 2/25/08 statement is needed for the Final Report, I can produce it. SS. Regarding number 16 of the Non-Inventoried Items what interest for what delayed refund did the State of Illinois pay the Estate? Where is the corresponding paperwork? TT. Regarding Marie Ann Favaro’s assets and cash, missing from the First and Final Account are the following: the total cash that was taken from her home, life insurance, property ownership (including property that may have transferred to her from her Father’s death, also trust accounts and other that may have transferred to her from her Father and others - I thought there was a lawsuit that she filed regarding mismanagement of the money from her Father’s Estate years ago). Additionally, Ernie provided me the storage key for a condominium in 2435 West Lunt Avenue of this condominium complex. He did not provide me the deed. I’m assuming that storage unit is affiliated to a condo which was incorrectly taken from Aunt Marie’s Estate. The Condo Management Company incorrectly took the storage unit from me. I need recourse. That storage unit has a value that has to be determined. How do we go about finding the source? I had one of her old Wills which detailed rental income. I lost it and need to find it. Records need to be checked. The money Aunt Marie couldn’t find may be under Mary Favaro, because of her religious name prior to her Father dying? Additionally, records need to be check to see if the Church accidentally locked her account while she was a nun. UU. Regarding Expenses detailed in the First and Final Account by Drost and Schmidt, copies of the receipts need to be included in the Exhibits. VV. Regarding the expense for the Law Bulletin, a copy of the publication paid has to be included in the report. WW. Regarding the Gates Jewelry Appraiser, a copy of the Appraiser’s report has to be included with a reference to the item appraised. XX. Regarding Maloney Funeral Home expense, I’m requesting a fine levied against the Estate for failing to invite me to my Aunt’s funeral and wake. Additionally, I should not be charged for the funeral and wake when I was not invited. YY. Regarding the medical bills, the First and Final Account does not detail the medical expenses incurred with receipts. There is also a discrepancy with Dr. Kogan’s care. He works for St. Francis Hospital (Exhibit L). Aunt Marie is not Jewish nor is she Methodist. Included with this Motion in the Exhibits are copies Breach of fiduciary agreement of discharge paperwork from Swedish Covenant (ExhibitAA1). I suspect that the reason I was not called to Aunt Marie’s bedside and why I was not invited to the wedding is that the person buried by Maloney may not be Aunt Marie. I requested the police report from the executor and the attorneys of the Estate regarding her fall and recovery which sent her to the hospital. They refused to produce the report. They identified the window as being broken by the paramedic to gain access to the condo. The paperwork I have from St. Francis did not identify an ambulance. Both the executor and the attorneys refused to call me to her bedside while she was in the hospital and while she was in hospice care. Each had my cell phone number which she had in her phone book, which the attorney provided me a copy. I need to know if another person impersonated her at Swedish Covenant and flipped that bill to her Estate. I also need to know if the same happened at St. Francis. Also, because of how her death was handled, I need to know if she died immediately after she came home from her angiogram surgery and another person’s medical bill was transferred to her because of an inability to pay it. Where are the medical records/bills? Also, Cigna Exhibit BB is her insurance carrier for healthcare, what did Cigna pay and what did Medicare pay for each hospital? Who verified that the patient was Aunt Marie? ZZ. Regarding expenses, who is Sandra Hampton? What work did she do for the Estate? AAA. Regarding the summary of distribution for each beneficiary, it is not accurate because it did detail the bonds and IRAs, in particular those provided to me. BBB. Regarding Taxes for the Estate, a copy of the filed taxes for 2008 and 2009 should be included for reference. Also, who did the tax return for 2009? It looks as if you double billed the Estate. CCC. Aunt Marie notified Ernie of a Trust account. In her email to Ernie dated Tue 4/22/08 1:32 PM found in Exhibit S1 here included. That Trust account is not detailed in the First and Final Account by Drost and Schmidt.

Should a single mother be honest with her child about his/her father's shortcomings? Take our Oprah’s Lifeclass poll, then, join us here on Thursday, January 17 at 12:30 p.m. CT to participate in the live taping with Oprah and Iyanla. http://bit.ly/10ujO1y

"Fact #1- There is NO greater calling than being giving the chance to save lives.... Fact #2- I barely made $40,000 last year, I lost my job twice in 2012 due to politics (one of them being my dream job), which nearly cost me to lose my house. (How's that for brutal honesty?) EMT's and Paramedic's are overworked, under appreciated, underpaid, and have the highest divorce rate in any career. Why do we continue to do this job? Because when we are treating your children, they become our children... Your parents are our parents... And when you lose a family member, so do we. We sacrifice so that others may live and we wouldn't have it any other way..." -Brad Jones

From the Office of Presidential Correspondence (OPC) at The White House. Each semester, our office accepts students and recent graduates into the OPC Associate Program and we are currently accepting applications for the summer 2013 semester. Associates work alongside our staff and interns, gaining valuable professional experience while learning more about the White House and the Federal Government. Our Associates are unpaid and serve in our office for a minimum of 30 hours per week. OPC handles incoming mail on behalf of President Obama. From private citizens and civic organizations to elected officials and foreign heads of state, our office receives and responds to the amazing variety of messages the President receives each day. Our office is also responsible for sending ten of these letters to the President each day, allowing him to stay in touch with what is happening across our Nation and to respond to writers personally. OPC handles more than just the incoming mail. The White House Comment Line provides the President with rapid-fire feedback over the phone from the American people. Our Gifts Office handles and catalogues gifts sent to the First Family, while our Agency Liaison unit works with agencies across the Executive Branch to help solve problems constituents are having with the Federal Government. Students or alumni with a passion for government, public policy, communications, or public service may be particularly interested in applying to the Associate Program. Please consider informing your students and recent alumni of this opportunity in Washington this summer. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, U.S. citizens, and currently enrolled in or within two years of a degree seeking program. If a student or graduate is interested in applying, please encourage them to email their resume and a statement of interest to: OPCAssociate@who.eop.gov. The program lasts from May 28, 2013 through August 9, 2013. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and the final deadline to apply is February 8, 2013. Attached is a flyer with additional information. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions. Please direct students with questions to: OPCAssociate@who.eop.gov. Sincerely, Sarah Sarah Sullivan Presidential Correspondence | Executive Office of the President

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzz60bAkp1U AEA 520 high end preamplifier by Analogue Engineering Associates - quick bench demonstration of this pre- low end 16 bit CD source and digital T amp for power output, and 2 way Yamaha monitors (similar to NS-10). Attention audiophile collectors..!! Made only during a brief time — though with much awe and fanfare -- a mid 1970s state of the art showpiece. The dawn of what we now think of as high end - a time when Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, Cotter, and Mark Levinson struggled to trail blaze the high end conceptual landscape. Funny though, those guys never quite literally applied such cool space age "Star Wars" era construction -- with aerospace & Mil-Spec components throughout, like this AEA 520 did!! And, it shows...this unit still working in it's all original 33+ year old state - despite original electrolytics. The clear top showcases some very, very snazzy solid state components. The circuity, probably some of the very best of the era too... 1st and second

Due to the cancellation of the American Aluminum Workshop, we highly recommend the Ga State Workshop, here is the info :::: The 2013 North American Police Work Dog Association Georgia State Workshop will be hosted by Sheriff Phil Miller and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit October 6th-11th, 2013 For more information feel free to contact Lt. Michael Barnhill at 678-486-1220 or by e-mail at mbarnhill@sheriff.douglas.ga.us

SATELLITE »MIND CONTROL« -NANO BIO WEAPON- SOME INFORMATIONS “The events at the international political scene, in the last few years, confirm that the concept of remote control of human brain is a matter of negotiations. In January 1999 the European Parliament passed a resolution where it calls for an international convention introducing a global ban on all developments and deployments of weapons which might enable any form of manipulation of human beings.” MIND CONTROL WEAPON The term “Mind control” basically means covert attempts to influence the thoughts and behavior of human beings against their will (or without their knowledge), particularly when surveillance of an individual is used as an integral part of such influencing and the term “Psychotronic Torture” comes from psycho (of psychological) and electronic. This is actually a very sophisticated form of remote technological torture that slowly invalidates and incapacitates a person. These invisible and non-traceable technological assaults on human beings are done in order to destroy someone psychologically and physiologically. Actually, as par scientific resources, the human body, much like a computer, contains myriad data processors. They include, but are not limited to, the chemical-electrical activity of the brain, heart, and peripheral nervous system, the signals sent from the cortex region of the brain to other parts of our body, the tiny hair cells in the inner ear that process auditory signals, and the light-sensitive retina and cornea of the eye that process visual activity. We are on the threshold of an era in which these data processors of the human body may be manipulated or debilitated. Readers of the world today Definition of psychotronic (psycho-physical) weapons Psychotronic Weapons (PF- weapons) this is the totality of all possible methods and means (techno-genic, suggestive, pharmacological, paranormal, complexes, and others) of hidden, forced influences on the psyche of a person for the purpose of modifying his onsciousness, behavior and health for what is desired in the way of influencing aspects of control…” This is not only dangerous, this is deadly!” The First phase is the harassment/surveillance program. They use Echelon, Tempest, microchips, implants, see through wall radar, obtain informants, neighbors, and co-conspirators to harass, discredit, and harm an individual. Victims loose their families, jobs, homes, and cars. Ultimate goal to destroy a persons life which will isolate them from family, friends. The isolation is needed to have access to the person to conduct many of the experiments on them. The second phase is the assaults of Directed Energy Weapons. After a victim becomes isolated from everyone in the world. The victim now having feelings of regret, remorse, of loss, trauma, and are drained and broken emotionally and physically. During this time many have been implanted with microchips. Many begin experiencing extreme pain to their head. Some hear voices. Then pain is delivered to various other parts of their bodies. The pain is delivered by Directed Energy Weapons. Directed Energy Weapons. Some of the weapons were known as non-lethal weapons. They use such weapons as extremely low frequency Elf electromagnetic weapons (which has been used in mind control), acoustics, harmonics (which have been used as a mind control technique), ultrasound, microwave audiograms, microwave pulsed, and radio frequency. Another electromagnetic energy beam can be used to induce “considerable agitation and muscular activity” or “induce muscular weakness and lethargy” this weapon is know as Ultra High Frequency EM. Psychological warfare tactics are being used against unsuspecting citizens to destroy their jobs, their families and their lives. The perpetrators will stop at nothing. Their objective is to utterly destroy a person, very often resulting in a person taking his or her own life, or ending up in a mental hospital. This has been taking place for years and nothing is ever said about it. Nothing is ever written about it. Some people also experience electronic harassment. This is extremely distressing, painful and invasive, and feels like one’s mind and body is undergoing constant rape, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The technology used to do this is unknown, but hundreds of victims report the same physical sensations and experiences. Many take their lives in an attempt to escape the horror. The technology involves the use of electromagnetic waves of various frequencies to achieve different results. Some frequencies will make a person tired, while others may cause confusion or memory loss. “Electronic harassment” or e-harassment is a catch-all term used to describe a group of circumstances which a large number of people are currently experiencing in common. Saturday, Februar 19, 2011 Instant readers of the world PSYCHOTRONIC WEAPONS – BRAIN MANIPULATION FROM A DISTANCE In October 2010, the congressman Denis J. Kucinich introduced in the American Congress A bill, obliging the American president to get engaged in the negotiations aimed at the ban of space based weapons. In this bill the definition of a weapon system includes: any other unacknowledged or as yet undeveloped means inflicting death or injury on, od damaging or destroying, a person(or the biological life, bodily health, mental health, or physical and economic well-being of a person) through the use of land-based, sea-based,or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations or the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of cush persons or populations. As in all legislative acts quoted in this article the bill counts with sound, light or electromagnetic stimulation of human brain.Psychotronic fweapons remain, at least for a layman uninformed of secret military research, in the sphere of science fiction, since so far none of the published scientific experiments was presented in the way which would allow for its replication. That it is feasible to manipulate human behavior with the use of subliminal, either sound or visual, messages is now generally known. This is why in most of the countries the use of such technologies, without consent of the user, is banned. Devices using light for the stimulation of the brain show another way how the light flashing in certain frequencies could be used for the manipulation of human psychic life. As for the sound, a report on the device transmitting a beam of sound waves, which can hear only persons at whon the beam of sound waves is targeted, appeared last year in the world newspapers. The beam is formed by a combination of sound and ultrasound waves which causes that a person targeted by this beam hears the sound inside of his head. Such a perception could easily convince the human being that it is mentally ill. The acts presented in this article suggest that with the develpment of technology and knowledge of the functioning of human brain new ways of manipulation of human mind keep emerging. One of them seem to be the electromagnetic energy. Neurons Mind Control TI Magnus Olsson Sweden from Henning Witte on Vimeo. Magnus Olsson is a rescent victim of modern Mind Control technology in Sweden. BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE Robert Asher, Sandia National Laboratories June 2002,Arlington, Virginia Increasingly, the human is being asked to take in multisensory inputs, to make near-instantaneous decisions on these inputs, and to apply control forces to multitask and control machines of various sorts. The multitasking, multisensor environment stresses the human, yet, more and more s/he being asked to operate in such an environment. As an example, the visionary project on uninhabited combat vehicles discusses an increased workload in piloting combat vehicles. DARPA has a brain-machine interface program about to start. This program has as its goal human ability to control complex entities by sending control actions without the delay for muscle activation. The major application for this program is control of aircraft. The intent is to take brain signals and use them in a control strategy and then to impart feedback signals back into the brain. The DARPA program could be extended to include a broader range of potential impact by including the possibility of other applications: learning and training, automobile control, air traffic control, decision-making, remote sensing of stress, and entertainment. Learning and training might be implemented as information coded into brain signals and then input into the person. Air traffic control in increasingly busy skies can use such capability: the controller has multiple inputs from multiple aircraft. These can be input into his brain in a 3-D aspect and an alertness signal used to “wake him up” when his attention drifts beyond acceptable limits. Not only intellectual data might be passed from one person to another without speaking, but also emotional and volitional information. Decisionmaking may become more precise as emotional, fatigue, and other cognitive states can be appraised prior to making a critical decision. The potential impact on automobile safety is great. The driver can have quicker control of his automobile (Fig. E.15), allowing for safer driving while reducing the car-to-car spacing on congested highways. This would help alleviate highway congestion and the need for more highways. Furthermore, it would allow for safer driving as driver attention can be measured and the driver “alerted” or told in some manner to pay attention to his or her driving when attention wanders beyond safe margins. It can allow for detection of driver impairment so that the vehicle may be made either not to start or to call emergency. Direct connection into the brain could yield a revolution in entertainment, as people may be “immersed,” MATRIX-style, into the midst of a movie or educational show. Can you imagine the impact of being immersed in a fully 3-D audio-visual simulation of the battle of Gettysburg? Hands-off control of an automobile through a device for reading and implanting brain waves. Role of Converging Technologies Nano. The brain-machine interface effort will require nanotechnologies in order to make the required experimental measurements and to implement the devices for both receiving brain electromagnetic signals and transmitting signals back into the brain. Bio. This is a highly biological, neuroscience effort, which requires detailed understanding and measurements of the brain’s electromagnetic activity. It requires a significant measurement protocol. Cogno. This effort by its very nature will directly affect the cognitive aspects of the individual by externally applied electromagnetic fields by implanting information for the individual. Thus, this effort can lead to increased learning and other cognitive results. Transforming Strategy to Reach the Vision To achieve these goals, enter a partnership with DARPA to fund additional technologies and applications that would enhance the brain-machine interface effort. Work should be focused on the goals of using the technologies for cognitional aspects, understanding memory, and learning brain function to be able to design devices to increase their capabilities. Estimated Implications This effort would yield a technological revolution, in applications from computers to entertainment. It would give the United States a global competitive advantage while yielding solutions to specific domestic problems such as air traffic control and highway safety in increasingly crowded environments. It will revolutionize education. This effort will yield devices that may be applied to a number of activities and be sufficiently small as to be wearable in a car or at home. EUROPA – TARGETED INDIVIDUALS The human mind has never been a simple project. Because of its complexity and plasticity, it has yet not been completely understood. Under the dark ages of brain research, scientists have nevertheless learned how to stimulate and partially control the human brain’s responses. At any time it has been done, it has caused pain and suffering for the owner of the brain: the human subject. Backed up by the “best” scientists, sponsored by the military and the secret service, thousands of individuals have their lives destroyed in the quest of developing technologies that are not science fiction anymore. The human brain, is seen as a computer where information can be downloaded and from where information can be uploaded. Cloning the individual’s brain and nervous system is the only hope today’s scientists have to understand the human brain and develop advanced artificial intelligence and synthetic telepathy, allowing people to communication by thought, not speech. The European and World countries governments, faced with this “challenge” are unable to protect their citizens against the greatest possible violations of their human rights. There are no excuses whatsoever for researchers to destroy people’s and entire families lives. Under the secrecy of “national security”, they violate human rights conventions and every universal human right a human being is born with, going deep into the very consciousness of the person that is affected. Many human rights campaigners from around the world have spent years working on countless books, videos, websites, rallies and symposiums which highlight these matters. These include efforts by prominent persons like Dr Nick Begich, Dr Rauni Kilde (ex chief medical officer for Finland) and well known author Gloria Naylor. To date, all of it has been ignored by the criminally owned/controlled media. However, most importantly, there has been open condemnation of these methods by major political entities and I ask you to focus on these… 1. The United Nations – UNIDIR – (The UN Institute for Disarmament Research) officially recognised a range of weapons (both lethal and non-lethal), including the ones previously listed, and recommended that they ALL be banned as weapons of potential mass destruction. Naturally, the press releases and media guides that they issued on this matter were totally ignored by the mainstream media. This media treachery is the reason the public is unaware of the dangers. 2. The European Parliament – In January 1999, the European Parliament passed a resolution where it calls ” for an international convention introducing a global ban on all development and deployment of weapons which might enable any form of manipulation of human beings. It is our conviction that this ban can not be implemented without the global pressure of the informed general public on the governments. Our major objective is to get across to the general public the real threat which these weapons represent for human rights and democracy and to apply pressure on the governments and parliaments around the world to enact legislature which would prohibit the use of these devices to both government and private organisations as well as individuals.” (Plenary Sessions/ EuroParliament, 1999) 3. US Federal politician Dennis Kucinich – In October 2001, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich introduced a bill to the House of Representatives which, it was hoped would be extremely important in the fight to expose and stop psycho-electronic mind control experimentation on involuntary, non-consensual citizens. The Bill was referred to the Committee on Science, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services and International Relations. In the original bill a ban was sought on ‘exotic weapons’ including electronic, psychotronic or information weapons, chemtrails, particle beams, plasmas, electromagnetic radiation, extremely low frequency (ELF) or ultra low frequency (ULF) energy radiation, or mind control technologies. Despite the inclusion of a prohibition of the basing of weapons in space, and the use of weapons to destroy objects or damage objects in space, there is no mention in the revised bill of any of the aforementioned mind-invasive weaponry, nor of the use of satellite or radar or other energy based technology for deploying or developing technology designed for deployment against the minds of human beings. [the original Bill was called The Space Preservation Act, 2001 (HR 2977) it was reintroduced as The Space Preservation Act, 2002 (HR 3616 )]. Kucinich’s efforts mirrored similar attempts made some years earlier by ex astronaut, Sen. John Glenn. 4. US Federal politician Jim Guest - recently wrote to all members of the US legislature asking for help for the countless victims of electronic harassment/torture (agency black operations being secreted from congressional scrutiny thus allowing corrupt officers to frame/torture innocents). To date, nothing concrete has come of this approach. 5. French National Bioethics Committee – In January 1998, an annual public meeting of the French National Bioethics Committee was held in Paris. Its chairman, Jean-Pierre Changeux, a neuroscientist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, told the meeting that “advances in cerebral imaging make the scope for invasion of privacy immense. Although the equipment needed is still highly specialized, it will become commonplace and capable of being used at a distance. That will open the way for abuses such as invasion of personal liberty, control of behaviour and brainwashing. These are far from being science-fiction concerns.and constitute “a serious risk to society.” (“Nature.” Vol 391, 1998) SATELLITE SPIES – THE SHOCKING TRUTH TECHNOLOGY ACTUAL CRIMINAL USE POTENTIAL GOOD USE ECHELON SATELLITES satellite/computer monitoring of all telecommunications worldwide) To intercept conversations, emails etc. To steal ideas and harass targets (writers, whistleblowers etc).To monitor and stop terrorists and other criminals AUDIO-VISUAL SATELLITES (Allowing 24/7 surveillance of anyone, even in their homes) To gather blackmail-friendly material; to oppress targets and other citizens; to feed results to media/political criminals.To monitor and stop terrorists and other criminals INTERACTIVE TRANSECTOR DEVICE (Sat-based – Pat US #4893815 16-1-90 L. Rowan. To spy on political targets etc by finding, locking onto and tracking those victims so as to terrorise/torture them To monitor and stop terrorists and other criminals METHODS OF ALTERING CONSCIOUSNESS (Sat-based – Pat US #5123899, 23/6/92 J. Gall + Pat US #5289438, 22/2/94 J. Gall) To alter targets moods by stimulating the brain to exhibit certain rhythms (angry, sad, sleepy etc); EEG cloning/feedback To help the emotionally distressed BRAIN WAVE ANALYSERS (Remote neural monitoring & electronic brain linking, via sat – Pat US #6011991, 1/4/00 A. Mardirossian) To read the minds of targets; to rob, rape, terrorise and oppress completely yet covertly. Experiments in mind control, AI & cloning are also carried out To help interrogate criminals NEUROPHONES (Sat-based – Pat US #3393279 16/7/68 P. Flanagan + Pat US #3647970 7/3/72 P. Flanagan) To make the target hear voices via the laser/MW/R.wave direction of sound that’s been converted to electrical impulse to go straight to the targets brain To communicate with the deaf, stroke victims etc NOTE: Alone, or in conjunction with subliminal and visual technologies, as well as role playing etc, these technologies can be used for trickery including apparent schizophrenic episodes, paranormal or “alien” encounters and much more. DIRECTED ENERGY PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY These Directed Energy (DE) internships are concerned with the research, development and testing of high energy laser and high power microwave components, systems and effects at Federal laboratories and universities at sites around the country. Most of these positions are made possible by funding from the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office. Internship Qualifications These paid summer internship positions are available for currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. colleges and universities. Positions are open to U.S. citizens only. The disciplines include but are not limited to these: • science – physics, chemistry • engineering – electrical, optical, chemical, mechanical, and materials • mathematics and computer science Position Descriptions Generally, interns will work for the summer in a laboratory or university under the tutelage of full time researchers. Work may include experimental, theoretical, or computer modeling and simulation, depending on the position. Specific work assignments, hours and pay will vary. Organizations The organizations below are expected to offer these internships in 2012. Advertising for open positions will begin in December 2011. • 711 Human Performance Wing – Texas • Air Force Institute of Technology – Ohio • Air Force Research Laboratory – Hawaii, New Mexico • Army Research Laboratory- Maryland • Naval Postgraduate School – California • Naval Research Laboratory (satellite) – Washington, D.C., Florida • US Army Space and Missile Defense Command – Alabama INTERMITTENT VORTICITY, POWER SPECTRAL SCALING AND DYNAMICAL MEASURES ON RESTING BRAIN MAGNETIC FIELD FLUCTUATIONS A Pilot Study Arnold J. Mandell, Karen A. Selz, Tom Holroyd, Linsay Rutter and Richard Coppola NIMH Core MEG Laboratory and Cielo Institute Supported in part by the Fetzer-Franklin Trust, DARPA (Microelectronics) and the Space and Naval Warfare Center The Eyes Closed, Resting Record The time dynamics of global brain electromagnetic field activity, recorded in humans as continuous, eyes closed resting MEG (and EEG) records, are regarded by some as reflections of physiologically and psychologically relevant, emergent macroscopic behavior of nonlinearly coupled, cooperative brain systems (Basar et al., 1983; Bucolo et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2003; Friedrich et al., 1989; Haken, 2 1996; Mandell, 1983a). Others, more involved in neuronal current source localization studies of task or state-related magneto-encephalographic records (Cornwell et al., 2008; Fife et al., 2002; Garolera et al., 2007; Nolte et al., 2004) have treated the globally distributed, spontaneous neuronal current generated, brain magnetic field activity as “…high-ranked (leading eigenvalued) background activity… interfering magnetic fields generated from (not relevant) spontaneous brain activities…intrinsic brain noise…” (Sekihara et al., 1996; Sekihara et al., 2008; Sekihara et al., 2006). Covariance matrix-derived beamformers from several minutes of the eyes-closed resting record have been used in “prewhitening techniques”, adding noise in order to get around linear dependency in the matrix if it is too low dimensional and to minimize interfering low dimensional intrinsic brain magnetic field noise (Sekihara et al., 2008; Zumer et al., 2007; Zumer et al., 2008). Another view of spontaneous magnetic field fluctuations have been influenced by studies of spatial (neuroanatomical) brain localization using concomitant fMRI techniques. They have suggested the existence of spontaneous, regional, above baseline activity in the normal eyes closed, resting state. This activity is particularly pronounced in medial prefrontal, parietal and both posterior and anterior cingulate, and is suppressed during goal-directed behavior (Damoiseaus et al., 2006; Griecius et al., 2003; Gusnard & Raichle, 3 2001). Activity in this “network” has been labeled “default activation” by Raichle (Raichle ME et al., 2001). The many second time scale of fMRI imaging demonstrated density variations that were characteristic for the normal eyes closed, resting condition (Biswal et al., 1995). Importantly, the spontaneous activity in the resting state also appears to involve neural network activity across several time scales (Honey et al., 2007). In two state, task-no task, experimental designs, the resting activity, “default activation, ” has been speculated to reflect spontaneous, task unrelated, images and thoughts (Greicius & Menon, 2004; Greicius et al., 2004; Raichle ME et al., 2001; Vincent et al., 2007). These transient mental events in the eyes closed, resting condition have also been called “daydreaming” (Singer, 1966 ), “task-unrelated-thoughts,” TUTs(Giambra, 1989), “unrest at rest”(Buckner & Vincent, 2007), “wandering minds,” and “stimulus independent thought”, SITs (Gilbert et al., 2007). Psychologists that have studied inner life subjectively, William James (James, 1902) and Sigmund Freud (Freud, 1914/1955 among many others, have focused on these autonomously arising transient streams of free associations and imagery. James analogized them to the turbulent eddies of the hydrodynamic flow of consciousness which he believed these transients to be among the universal properties of the conscious human brain. Examinations of a subject’s spontaneous 4 internal activity as exteriorized by the psychoanalytic instruction, “…say everything that comes to your mind…” has been central to the practice of psychoanalysis for over a Century {Fenichel, 1945 #8190). It appears that the ostensibly resting “default brain activity” in the “default network” persists in monkeys through anesthesia-induced changes in states of consciousness (Vincent et al., 2007). This result is consistent with a several decade history of research using priming, evoked potentials and task recovery paradigms to demonstrate implicit, working memorial events that occur during even surgical anesthesia (Jordon et al., 2000). The implied relationship between 2-5 second epochs of MEG activation such as that seen below in Fig. 5 as intermittent helical vortices (we call them strudels) and TUT or SIT-like subjective phenomena must remain entirely speculative. General Premise and Hypothesis It is the underlying premise of this pilot study of intrinsic brain magnetic field fluctuations that they manifest signatory patterns in transformations and measures which can discriminate among global brain states. We examine this premise by partially isolating and qualitatively and quantitatively characterizing 12.5, 54, 180 or 240 seconds of eyes closed, resting spontaneous magnetic field activity in ten resting controls and ten medicated schizophrenic probands. From our previous 5 work in brain-related physiological systems (Mandell, 1979; Mandell, 1983b; Mandell, 1987; Mandell et al., 1982; Mandell & Selz, 1993), a more specific hypothesis is suggested: Compared with controls, magnetic field fluctuations in schizophrenic patients will demonstrate relatively higher values for indices of emergent dynamical structure and relatively lower values for a variety of measures reflecting the dynamical entropy “used up” in their formation (Mandell & Selz, 1997c; Selz & Mandell, 1991; Selz et al., 1995; Smotherman et al., 1996). A MEG Derived Data Series: Symmetric Sensor Difference Sequences, ssds(i) Ten normal controls and ten age- and sex-matched schizophrenic proband subjects (see Subjects below) were studied in the National Institutes of Mental Health’s Core MEG Laboratory in Bethesda, MD. A 275 channel, superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID radial gradiometer system from CTF Systems Inc. Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada (Anninos et al., 1986; Cohen, 1972; Rutter et al., 2009; Weinberg et al., 1984) was used in data collection (see Magnetoencephalographic Data Collection below). 6 Our approach to MEG-derived signals abrogates source orientation localization and inverse problem tools such as leadfield matrices (Dale & Sereno, 1993; Hamalainen et al., 1993), adaptive synthetic aperture magnetometer, SAM, beamformer techniques, or projection onto Talairached MRI image reconstructed volumes (Dalal et al., 2008; Dalal et al., 2004). For these approaches to this data set, see Rutter et al (Rutter et al., 2009). In their study of spontaneous activity in the eyes closed, resting state, they found a statistically significant decrement in the amplitudes of MEG recorded posterior regional gamma (30-70Hz+) activity in schizophrenic patients compared with normal controls (Rutter et al., 2009). In that study as well as these, a high pass, 0.6 Hz, as well as 60, 120, 180 and 240 Hz notch filters were routinely applied to the individual sensor records before the computation of the sensor pair ssds(i), (the difference between the two sensor). It is our presupposition that the “…spontaneous activity… all over the brain…” (Sekihara et al., 2008) reflects global and neurophysiologically meaningful patterns of complex neuronal activity-generated magnetic field fluctuations in interaction with MEG SQUID sensors (Barone A & G., 1982; Braiman & Wiesenfeld, 1994). A magnetic flux applied to the SQUID magnetometer, gives rise to a circulating current, which in turn modulates the inductance of the autonomously oscillatory Josephson junctions (Landberg et al., 1966; Levi et al., 1977). The great sensitivity of the SQUID devices permits measuring changes in magnetic field associated with even a single flux quantum. 7 If a constant biasing current is maintained in the SQUID device, it is the voltage which is modulated by changes in phase at junctions. Phase at Josephson junctions is sensitive to the quanta of magnetic flux. We dismiss a common generalization of many MEG practitioners that most or all local polarities of the intrinsic magnetic field noise “cancel out.” In the context of the somewhat analogous magnetic dynamo problem: “…given a flow in a conducting fluid, will a small seed magnetic field amplify exponentially with time…” (Finn & Ott, 1988)–we show below that ssds(i)s do– it was argued that the magnetic flux loops nonuniformly stretch and fold into themselves manifesting only partial cancellation and diffuse fine scale oscillations, in a process which can be quantified by a fractional cancellation exponent (Ott et al., 1992) and measures made on temporal-spatial intermittency. In addition, if some currents run parallel to magnetic fields, which is expected to be the case with poorly localized, multiple neocortical neuronal sources, the magnetic field lines may follow a variety of dynamical shapes in which the magnetic pressure gradient is balanced by the magnetic tension. For example, there may not be any Lorentz force, J x B = 0, leading to a measurable field configuration without any net electrical current at all. We thus don’t infer a particular neuronal current source (or event) for the data series. Characterizing the fluctuations allows the elucidation of patterns in the brain’s global magnetic field flux dynamics without reference to anatomical location (Clarke, 1994). 8 example, we find a common dynamical pattern often involves intermittently appearing, multiple time scale helical vortices. We call them unwindable strudels lest they lead to the brain being called a critically loaded sand pile that spawns avalanches (Beggs & Plenz, 2005; Levina et al., 2007)). In comparison with the several second time resolution of fMRI, the MEG’s superior temporal resolution, ~ 1 ms, combined with its “underdetermined” weaknesses with respect to specific brain localization when used alone (Hamalainen et al., 1993; Im et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2007; Sarvas, 1987; Uutela et al., 1998), suited our goal of characterizing magnetic field (rather than inferred neuronal) properties of what has been called intrinsic physiological brain noise (Nagarajan et al., 2006; Sekihara et al., 1997; Sekihara et al., 2005). The use of ssds(i) exploits the hemispheric symmetry of the human brain (Geschwind, 1970) and serves several purposes: (1) It imposes a natural gauge (distance serves as a traveling, local normalization procedure; (3) The ssdi(i) reduces the penetrance of electromagnetic field correlates of blink, cough, and movement as well as the cardiac and respiratory artifacts that both symmetric sensors generally share; (4) Using ssds(i) instead of the raw MEG time series tends to cancel the symmetrically shared generic MEG (and EEG) Δ, Θ, α, β, and γ modes, as well as other patterns of bihemispheric covariance; (5) Advantageous from the magnetic field point of view is the fact that using ssds(i) makes issues of 9 neuronal current source location moot; ; the spatial sensitivity profile of the ssds(i) considered as a virtual sensor typically covers a large volume of the brain. The techniques similar to that used here of paired sensor difference series, ssds(i), have been used to reduce or remove the mean and double or more the higher moments in analyses of nonstationary neural membrane conductance noise (Conti et al., 1980; DeFelice, 1977; Sigworth, 1981). NAVAL – research laboratory experiments (NRL) Florida DARPA FUTURE – HISTORICAL Behavior PROTECTING HUMAN ASSETS Bio-Silico Interface Brain technology ENHANCED HUMAN PERFORMANCE Energy transduction Cell & Tissu ENHANCED SYSTEM PERFORMAMCE Geonomisc & Engieneering Proteomics Pentagon report investigated lasers that put voices in your head February 18, 2008 by Lisa Zyga A recently unclassified report from the Pentagon from 1998 has revealed an investigation into using laser beams for a few intriguing potential methods of non-lethal torture.Some of the applications the report investigated include putting voices in people’s heads, using lasers to trigger uncontrolled neuron firing, and slowly heating the human body to a point of feverish confusion – all from hundreds of meters away. A US citizen requested access to the document, entitled “Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons,” under the Freedom of Information Act a little over a year ago. There is no evidence that any of the technologies mentioned in the 10-year-old report have been developed since the time it was written The report explained several types of non-lethal laser applications, including microwave hearing, disrupted neural control, and microwave heating. For the first type, short pulses of RF energy (2450 MHz) can generate a pressure wave in solids and liquids. When exposed to pulsed RF energy, humans experience the immediate sensation of “microwave hearing” – sounds that may include buzzing, ticking, hissing, or knocking that originate within the head. Studies with guinea pigs and cats suggest that the mechanism responsible for the phenomenon is thermoelastic expansion. Exposure to the RF pulses doesn´t cause any permanent effects, as all effects cease almost immediately after exposure ceases. As the report explains, tuning microwave hearing could enable communicating with individuals from a distance of up to several hundred meters. The report explains: The phenomenon is tunable in that the characteristic sounds and intensities of those sounds depend on the characteristics of the RF energy as delivered… Because the frequency of the sound heard is dependent on the pulse characteristics of the RF energy, it seems possible that this technology could be developed to the point where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person´s head. In one experiment, communication of the words from one to ten using ´speech modulated´ microwave energy was successfully demonstrated. Microphones next to the person experiencing the voice could not pick up these sounds. Additional development of this would open up a wide range of possibilities.” The report predicts that communicating at longer distances would be possible with larger equipment, while shorter range signals could be generated with portable equipment. Putting voices in people´s heads could cause what the report calls “psychologically devastating” effects. The technology might even allow for communicating with an individual hostage surrounded by captors, although this would require “extreme directional specificity. With another weapon, electromagnetic pulses could be used to disrupt the brain´s functioning, although this technology was still in the theoretical stages at the time. Under normal conditions, all brain structures function with specific rhythmic activity depending on incoming sensory information. Sometimes, the brain synchronizes neuronal activity in order to focus on a specific task, but the degree of neuronal synchronization is highly controlled. However, under certain conditions (such as physical stress or heat stroke), more areas of the brain can fire in a highly synchronized manner, and may begin firing uncontrollably. The report describes a method for replicating this highly synchronized neuron firing across distances of several hundred meters. High-voltage (100 kV/m) electromagnetic pulses lasting for one nanosecond could trigger neurons to fire, disrupting the body´s controlled firing activity. Short-term effects may include loss of consciousness, muscle spasms, muscle weakness, and seizures lasting for a couple minutes. These high-voltage pulsed sources, which would require an estimated frequency of 15 Hz, exist today. Another form of non-lethal torture described in the report is microwave heating. By raising the temperature of the body to 41°C (105.8°F), humans can experience sensations such as memory loss and disorientation, and exhibit reduced aggression. According to the report, humans can survive temperatures up to 42°C (107.6°F), at which time prolonged exposure can result in permanent brain damage or death. The microwave heating technique was tested on a Rhesus monkey, where a 225 MHz beam caused an increase in the animal´s body temperature. Depending on the dosage level, the temperature increase occurred within a time of 15 to 30 minutes. After the beam was removed, the animal´s body temperature decreased back to normal. The report suggests the technique could be useful for controlling crowds or in negotiations. While the investigations reveal intriguing techniques for non-lethal torture, the report does not mention plans for carrying out specific experiments or studies in the future. Vaccine Implants Implants are now smaller than a hair’s width and are injected with vaccine and flu shots. Millions have had this done unknowingly. These ‘biochips’ circulate in the bloodstream and lodge in the brain, enabling the victims to hear ‘voices’ via the implant. Fluoride and selenium enable people to ‘hear voices’. ELF waves create disturbances in the biological processes of the body and these can be activated in the population once the diseases are introduced into the body from the chemtrails. Fluoride disables the willpower section of the brain, impairing the left occipital lobe.Some chemtrails have been analyzed and shown to be creating cleavages in spacial perceptions, blocking the interaction of various amino-acids that relate to higher-consciousness and to increase dopamine in the brain producing a listless, spaced-out state of lower reactive mind. PENTAGON – Flu Vaccine Use to Modify Human Behavior The Pentagon currently wants to “realistically replicate human behavior and frailties” to improve cyberwarfare tactics.The human brain is one of the most complex organs known to man. To successfully model human populations it is vital that the computer models can successfully account for how an individuals brain would respond in specific situations in a sensory environment. DARPA – nanotechnology 1.Military Defense Robotics Machines Will Rise: Becoming Self Aware The Department of Defense is building robots for the Pentagon. It has been seen as a move that could advance AI research and move the Defense robotics industry into the New Age. As viewed in our Exoskeleton section one of the leading manufactures in the exoskeleton arena is a company called Cyberdyne Technologies. Industry experts are already predicting that when the soldier steps out of this unit the exoskeleton will be able to operate autonomously. 2.NANO SOLDIERS A New Industrial Revolution In January 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton requested a $227-million increase in the government’s investment in nanotechnology research and development, which included a major initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). This initiative nearly doubled America ‘s 2000 budget investment in nanotechnology, bringing the total invested in nanotechnology to $497 million for the 2001 national budget. In a written statement, White House officials said that “nanotechnology is the new frontier and its potential impact is compelling.” About 70 percent of the new nanotechnology funding will go to university research efforts, which will help meet the demand for workers with nanoscale science and engineering skills. The initiative will also fund the projects of several governmental agencies, including the National Science Foundation , the Department of Defense , the Department of Energy , the National Institutes of Health , NASA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Much of the research will take more than 20 years to complete, but the process itself could touch off a new industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is likely to change the way almost everything, including medicine, computers and cars, are designed and constructed. Nanotechnology is anywhere from five to 15 years in the future, and we won’t see dramatic changes in our world right away. A Short History of Nanotechnology 1959 Feynman gives after-dinner talk describing molecular machines building with atomic precision 1974 Taniguchi uses term “nano-technology” in paper on ion-sputter machining 1977 Drexler originates molecular nanotechnology concepts at MIT 1981 First technical paper on molecular engineering to build with atomic precision STM invented 1985 Buckyball discovered 1986 First book published AFM invented First organization formed 1987 First protein engineered First university symposium 1988 First university course 1989 IBM logo spelled in individual atoms First national conference 1990 First nanotechnology journal Japan’s STA begins funding nanotech projects 1991 Japan”s MITI announces bottom-up “atom factory” IBM endorses bottom-up path Japan’s MITI commits $200 million Carbon nanotube discovered 1992 First textbook published First Congressional testimony 1993 First Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for modeling a hydrogen abstraction tool useful in nanotechnology First coverage of nanotech from White House “Engines of Creation” book given to Rice administration, stimulating first university nanotech center 1994 Nanosystems textbook used in first university course US Science Advisor advocates nanotechnology 1995 First think tank report First industry analysis of military applications Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for synthesis of complex three-dimensional structures with DNA molecules 1996 $250,000 Feynman Grand Prize announced First European conference NASA begins work in computational nanotech First nanobio conference 1997 First company founded: Zyvex First design of nanorobotic system Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for work in computational nanotechnology and using scanning probe microscopes to manipulate molecules 1998 First NSF forum, held in conjunction with Foresight Conference First DNA-based nanomechanical device Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for computational modeling of molecular tools for atomically-precise chemical reactions and for building molecular structures through the use of self-organization 1999 First Nanomedicine book published First safety guidelines Congressional hearings on proposed National Nanotechnology Initiative Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for development of carbon nanotubes for potential computing device applications and for modeling the operation of molecular machine designs 2000 President Clinton announces U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative First state research initiative: $100 million in California Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for computational materials science for nanostructures and for building a molecular switch 2001 First report on nanotech industry U.S. announces first center for military applications Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for theory of nanometer-scale electronic devices and for synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes and nanowires 2002 First nanotech industry conference Regional nanotech efforts multiply Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for using DNA to enable the self-assembly of new structures and for advancing our ability to model molecular machine systems 2003 Congressional hearings on societal implications Call for balancing NNI research portfolio Drexler/Smalley debate is published in Chemical & Engineering News Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for modeling the molecular and electronic structures of new materials and for integrating single molecule biological motors with nano-scale silicon devices 2004 First policy conference on advanced nanotech First center for nanomechanical systems Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for designing stable protein structures and for constructing a novel enzyme with an altered function 2005 At Nanoethics meeting, Roco announces nanomachine/nanosystem project count has reached 300 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for for designing a wide variety of single molecular functional nanomachines and for synthesizing macromolecules of intermediate sizes with designed shapes and functions 2006 National Academies nanotechnology report calls for experimentation toward molecular manufacturing Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for work in molecular computation and algorithmic self-assembly, and for producing complex two-dimensional arrays of DNA nanostructures 2007 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for construction of molecular machine systems that function in the realm of Brownian motion, and molecular machines based upon two-state mechanically interlocked compounds 2008 Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems released Protein catalysts designed for non-natural chemical reactions Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for work in molecular electronics and the synthesis of molecular motors and nanocars, and for theoretical contributions to nanofabrication and sensing 2009 An improved walking DNA nanorobot Structural DNA nanotechnology arrays devices to capture molecular building blocks Design ‘from scratch’ of a small protein that performed the function performed by natural globin proteins Organizing functional components on addressable DNA scaffolds Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for experimental demonstrations of mechanosynthesis using AFM to manipulate single atoms, and for computational analysis of molecular tools to build complex molecular structures 2010 DNA-based ‘robotic’ assembly begins Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for work in single atom manipulations and atomic switches, and for development of quantum mechanical methods for theoretical predictions of molecules and solids 2011 First programmable nanowire circuits for nanoprocessors DNA molecular robots learn to walk in any direction along a branched track Mechanical manipulation of silicon dimers on a silicon surface Military Nanotechnology Dangers, Preventive Arms Control, and Challenges to the International System Jürgen Altmann Experimentelle Physik III Universität Dortmund Germany Conference Understanding Complex Systems University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana IL, USA 15-18May-2006 NSTC, USA, 1999 1. Nanotechnology(NT) Analysis and engineering of systems atnanometres(10-9m) size range: between about 0,1nm(atom) and several 100nm(larger molecule). 2.MolecularNanotechnology Mechanosynthesis: molecular machine takes atoms/molecules from surroundings, fits mechanically together and lets bonds work Concepts Associated with MolecularNT – Mobile nano-robots – (Super-)human artificial intelligence – Automatic research, development, construction – Modified/improved organs, bodies; cyborgs – Sense/control brain contents, download to software – Outer space: mining of asteroids, colonies 3.(European concept different) Promises of Nanotechnology/Converging Technologies extremely small, extremely powerful computers, linked everywhere clean production clean energy lighter, more efficient vehicles longer-duration materials prosthetic implants, targeted drug delivery, tissue regeneration Risks/Ethical Problems of Nanotechnology/Converging Technologies health, environment -at present mainly nanoparticles fewer jobs ‘nanodivide’ privacy genetic manipulation of plants, animals, humans implants, body manipulation Efforts for NT Europe Japan USA Rest of world -each about $ 800 million government funding per year Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control Jürgen Altmann London/New York: Routledge, 2006 Brain Waves With revolutionary changes in nanotechnology (NT) now on the horizon, many countries have started major research and development (R&D) programmes, which are mainly civilian. Often overlooked are military R&D programmes – in particular those of the US government. This is the first systematic and comprehensive presentation of the potential military applications of NT. In ten to twenty years, these applications may include extremely small computers, robots, missiles, satellites, launchers and sensors. They may also provide lighter and stronger materials for vehicles and weapons, implants in soldiers’ bodies, metal-free firearms, autonomous fighting systems, and smaller chemical and biological weapons. These potential uses raise strong concerns. This assessment is made from a viewpoint of international security, considering the new criteria of dangers for arms control and the international law of warfare, dangers for stability through potential new arms races and proliferation, and dangers for humans and society. Some military applications, such as computers, will be so close to civilian uses that limits are impractical. Others, such as sensors for biological- warfare agents, may contribute to stronger protection against terrorist attacks and better verification of compliance with arms-control treaties.For preventive limitation of these new technologies, specific approaches are proposed that balance positive civilian uses and take into account verification of compliance, with a view to international peace and security, not national military strength. This book will be of great interest to scholars of military technology, non-lethal weapons, disarmament and security studies in general. NATO 179 STCMT 05 E – THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY Lothar IBRÜGGER (Germany) III. MILITARY USES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY 13. While most of the debate over NT focuses on its prospects for informatics and medicine, potential military applications of NT lack proper public attention, despite the fact that NT is becoming increasingly important for military strategists. The funding of military NT makes up a substantial share of total NT funding. 14. The United States is the leader in military R&D of NT. Indeed, the US military has been engaged in this field since the 1980s, focusing on ultra-submicron electronics and scanning-probe microscopy. In 1996, NT was established as one of six strategic research areas for defence. Accordingly, between 25 and 30% of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative funding has gone to the US Department of Defence (DoD) since NNI’s establishment in 2000. In 2005, the DoD is due to receive $276 million for NT, while the Department of Homeland Security will receive an extra $1 million for this purpose, accounting for approximately 28% of the total US NT budget. The US military R&D is focusing on the development of miniature sensors, high-speed processing, unmanned combat vehicles, improved virtual-reality training, and enhancement of human performance. 15. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is also engaged in military R&D of NT,and allocates approximat

Hip hop has changed so get with it or get lost..this ain't the 80's 90's nomore..we the new era..

Politics is such a dynamic and complext process.. Just a decade ago, the MDC appeared to be a united party that almost knocked out Zanu PF in Parliamentary Elections in 2000. Then in 2005, following the reintroduction of the Zimbabwe Senate, all hell broke loose and we bore witness to the splinter of the MDC party with Welshman Ncube and company going in a different direction and bringing Arthur Mutambara to be President of the MDC. On the other hand, Tsvangirai and company went in another direction and kushata kwezvimwe kunaka kwezvimwe zvokwadi nekuti kutsemuka kweMDC kwakaita kuti vamwe vange vari maback benchers sana Tendai Biti, vana Nelson Chamisa, vana Thokozani Khupe etc vawanewo mukana wekuita ascent to top party structures. Fast foward to 2009, we bore witness to yet another splinter of the MDC-N with Mutambara claiming a portion of the MDC. Then we also bore witness to Job Sikhala coming up with MDC-99. And then thanx to the GNU, those whose careers who were now in the Intensive Care Unit..vana Mutambara, Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi who had dismally lost Elections when they ran for MPs all of a sudden got a lifeline and caught up with the other elements in the MDC-T who had appeared to have the last laugh. Now, its 2013, and apparently Welshman Ncube is now a Presidential Candidate against his former boss Morgan Tsvangirai leader of the MDC-T and of course against the Boss of all bosses, Chirambakusakar­a Cde President R.G Mugabe. Let the games continue. Tichawonerera gwendo gwuno. VaMugabe havasi vekutamba navo vekungoti chero aita kaKangaroo Congress kake akati ave President wekafaction kake ototi neniwo ndoda kukwikwidza. Havazi futi vekuti because ndakange ndiri trade unionist ndikakonzeresa mademonstration­s emaworkers, therefore I can kwikwidza. Nothing wrong with running for President or contesting against President Mugabe.. But just make sure you have balls of steel before you enter the Presidential race because its not a joke.. Harisi dambe. Wotosunga dzisimbe kana wafunga kuita challenge the boss of all bosses.

Executive orders, Gun registration ??? sounds like we have a Dictator not a democratic President

PRESS RELEASE January 14, 2013 Contact: Kelly Fenton (651) 283-3011 Deputy Chair Kelly Fenton announces her campaign for re-election (Woodbury, MN) – Deputy Chair Kelly Fenton announced today her intent to run for re-election as Deputy Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota. Fenton was first elected Deputy Chair in 2011, and served as acting Party Chair after the previous Chair stepped down unexpectedly. “My commitment is to you and supporting the election of officials who will preserve your economic freedoms in our state. I am committed to unseating Mark Dayton and Al Franken in 2014, in addition to regaining the Republican majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives. I am confident the Republican Party will be in a good spot for the 2014 election cycle and have high hopes that our agenda will see success, and in turn, we will be able to continue moving the Republican Party of Minnesota forward. This will require extensive fundraising, data management, and the delivery of a unified and quality message to Minnesotans – all of which I am fully prepared for. It has been an honor to serve as your Deputy Chair, and I will strive to reach our shared goal of victory in 2014,” Fenton said. Fenton has served the Republican Party of Minnesota in multiple capacities as the Chairwoman and fundraiser for the Elephant Club, Personnel Committee Chair, on the Financial Control and Oversight Committee, and on the State Nominating Committee. She also serves as the official party liaison to the State Legislature, and as the Basic Political Organization Unit (BPOU) Coordinator and Trainer. As Chairwoman of the Elephant Club, Fenton has taken a lead in the planning of monthly meetings and during her term, new membership and fundraising numbers for the Elephant Club have seen a dramatic increase. “Last year when our party faced challenges, Kelly stepped into the gap. Her knowledge, enthusiasm, and work ethic were critical to our financial recovery. During her tenure as Deputy Chair, she has earned the trust of our grassroots activists as well as our donors. As we look to a future focused on financial stability, principled messaging, and winning statewide elections, Kelly has the skills and experience to lead our party to long-term success. It is an honor to support Kelly Fenton for re-election as Deputy Chair,” said Assistant Minority Leader Senator Michelle Benson. "Kelly sees the big picture -- it's about getting Republicans elected at all levels of government so we can move Minnesota in the right direction. In her first term as Deputy Chair she's worked hard, traveled the state, and laid the foundation for rebuilding our State Party. She stepped up when no one else was willing," said House Republican Whip Tim Sanders. "I'm proud to stand with Kelly Fenton for Deputy Chair." "I have been impressed with Kelly's ability to effectively build bridges and reach out to multiple groups in order to strengthen the party. She has demonstrated the leadership skills needed to work with long time activists and to help develop a new class of conservatives that are passionate about growing the Republican brand in Minnesota. Kelly's work ethic is second to none and she is always striving to help. Her dedication to providing training for stronger BPOUs, creating action plans for candidates and working with activists is evident and is what the Republican Party of Minnesota needs as we redefine our party and push towards the 2014 elections," said Mark Westpfal, 2nd Congressional District Chair and Inver Grove Heights School Board Member. The election of party officers will take place on April 6, 2013.

That awkward moment when one of ur subordinate Marines from ur unit (that doesn't know about multiple aspects of ur lifestyle) finds THIS Facebook page... and friends you. o_O

NEW DAWN OR LONG DARK NIGHT? Frans Cronje Frans Cronje sets out two scenarios for the future of South Africa Two scenarios for the future of South Africa At no point since 1994 has the Institute confronted more angst and pessimism about the future of the country than we saw in 2012. At briefing after briefing we are asked if South Africa is headed the way of the north-African uprisings or Zimbabwe. The same sentiment is reflected in newspaper columns and reports both here and abroad. Perhaps it is partly the Institute's contrarian nature, but in many respects we are now more optimistic about the future than at any point in the last decade. What follows below is an explanation of how we think and how that thinking has resulted in two very different scenarios of where we will find ourselves in 2024. We were not always optimistic. In fact for much of the period between 1994 and 2007 we were very concerned about the direction South Africa was moving in even as those in business, politics, and the Media around us appeared not to understand our concern. Now that these parties are very concerned we have become more upbeat and again few people seem to understand why. The years 1994 to 2007 were a period where organised business, organised labour, and the president's office came together as a powerful nexus creating the façade of a stable and well-managed country. However, any analyst who cared to probe beneath that façade could not help but be alarmed at what they encountered. Poverty increased over the period 1994 to 2001. The number of unemployed people more than doubled over the same period. Most crime levels, with the prominent exception of murder, would peak around the period 2001-2003. Infant mortality rates had increased for the first time since the mid-1980s. Life expectancy for black South Africans was in decline. The rapid increase in access to education for black South Africans had slowed since the boom period of the 1980s and 1990s despite the fact that only 50% of the black age cohort was making it to matric and only 30% were passing. It was also clear that changes to the structure of South Africa's GDP would have a detrimental effect on future job creation and therefore political stability. Manufacturing, mining, and agriculture where seeing their dominance in the South African economy usurped by the relatively more highly skilled services sector. However, it was clear that the education system was not improving quickly enough to meet future skills demand. The outcome had to be the state of structural and permanent unemployment that we now confront. Yet when we tried to raise some of these concerns we ran into walls. The Government's reaction was blanket denial of any problems. On matters from poverty, to unemployment, to crime, and most prominently HIV and AIDS the problems we identified were dismissed as the fantasies of a racist imagination. Business had little interest in rocking the boat and the door was firmly shut to funds or resources to investigate policy shortfalls. It was obvious therefore by the early 2000s that the nexus of organised business and labour, together with the relatively new Thabo Mbeki presidency, had set South Africa on an unsustainable economic trajectory that could not possibly last for long. The end for that nexus came in 2007 when Thabo Mbeki was axed as leader of the ANC, forcing his resignation as president of the country. With his axing, one leg of the three-legged pot fell off and the pot itself, which previously had seemed so stable, fell over. More significant than the change in political leadership that followed was that, contrary to most analysis and opinion, South Africa became a more open society. Gone almost instantly was the blanket denial by government of the many social and economic problems faced by the country. Today it is only too common to hear cabinet ministers and senior civil servants publicly speak to failures of the Government itself. It is necessary to think for a moment back to the days of denying that AIDS even existed to appreciate the significance of this change. To a limited extent business also found its voice although mostly in the closed confines of boardrooms. The Media and much of civil society, many of which had suspended their critical faculties throughout the Mandela and Mbeki years, woke up to the fact that South Africa confronted some pretty serious problems and started to write and talk publicly about addressing these. What this overall change in attitude means is that the Government, and many in business and the Media, are now willing to concede that things are not as stable as the façade presented over the first fifteen years of South Africa's democracy suggested. This explains largely why the current government is starting to realise that its policy mix must change if it is to secure its political dominance. Putting further pressure on the need for change is that the Government is running out of money and its supporters are running out of patience. South Africa's budget deficit, when measured as a proportion of GDP, has under Jacob Zuma's administration reached (and at times exceeded) levels recorded in the 1970s and 1980s when South Africa's apartheid government came under the political and economic strain that forced it to reform. Likewise the deficit on the current account has reached levels that keep ratings agencies analysts awake at night. Significantly, pressure for change is also coming from the supporters of the ANC themselves. The ANC's share of the potential vote has fallen from 55% in 1994 to just 38% in the 2009 election that brought the Zuma administration to power. Protest action against the State has increased very rapidly over the past five years. The police reported dealing with four protest actions a day in 2011 while the consultancy Municipal IQ reports a tenfold increase in major delivery "service-delivery" protests since 2004. We have argued at length that the protests arise not from the failure of the Government's service-delivery efforts but rather from the success of these efforts. This is a complex and counter-intuitive idea and needs some explanation. Enormous gains have been made in the provision of free or subsidised water, electricity, and housing. Our research shows that these gains have been so impressive that we might comfortably describe service delivery as a great policy success of the ANC in government. There can be little doubt that the policy resulted in a revolutionary improvement in the basic living conditions of poor people as corroborated by Living Standard Measure data. If you think we are mad in this assessment consider that for every shack constructed in South Africa since 1994, twelve formal houses were built in the country. If this is a statistic that confounds your understanding of the ANC's delivery performance then it is perhaps necessary that you reassess what you understand to have changed in South Africa over the past 15 years. However, far from securing political stability these successes placed increasing pressure on the ANC. There are two reasons for this. The first is that if it were true that delivery had failed then the ANC could fix its delivery capacity, which should see the protests and unhappiness at the Government's performance evaporate. However, if we are right and the ANC has delivered as well as it realistically could then it has no delivery ace up its sleeve to curb the protests and instability that South Africa confronts. It has therefore come under much pressure to change policy away from redress and redistribution towards growth and employment if it wishes to remain in power. This leads to the second reason, which is that increasing people's living standards, as the ANC has done, is a politically dangerous thing to do. The reason for this is that it raises expectations about future improvements. These cannot be met through further delivery but only through job creation and income growth. Where these rising demands are not met protests and instability must result. It is for this reason that the world's most successful dictatorships, whether in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, or present day North Korea, go to great lengths to intentionally depress the living standards of their people. South Africa's fundamental problem is that its government has done a great deal to increase the living standards of poor people but has no means, whether though education or labour market access, to allow those same people to continue climbing the living standards ladder. The ANC and the Government it leads are therefore in a wholly unsustainable position if they wish to retain their political dominance in South Africa. Significantly there are now many leaders in government, the Media, and civil society who will admit to this fact. The list of problems South Africa confronts, which depresses so many people, has therefore become the very thing that will drive policy change in the country. It is for this reason that we are able to be cautiously optimistic about future prospects for the country. Of course there is still the question of how the Government will react to its untenable position. We are not naïve to think that this reaction may lead South Africa out of the woods. In fact it may very well initially compound our problems before they get better. It is for this reason that when looking into the future there are now two broad scenarios that our Unit for Risk Analysis sketches for its clients and subscribers. The first is a story of a Long Dark Night. Here an obstinate government presses ahead with failed interventionist policy despite all evidence suggesting that such interventions are doing more harm than good. Here the attitude in the Government is along the lines that the private sector has refused to transform and we are damn well going to force them. There are four behaviours, flags, or road markers to watch out for that indicate if we are drifting into this scenario: The first is that employment equity and empowerment regulations are tightened. The second is that labour market regulations are tightened. The third is that constraining legislation is proposed for the Media, civil society, and the Judiciary. The fourth is that grandiose state-led social and economic projects dominate the policy environment. This is a troublesome scenario that is likely to result in seven specific outcomes: The first is that protest action takes off exponentially. The second is that South Africa lags in the savings and investment figures achieved by comparable emerging markets. The third is that long-term average GDP levels are constrained to under 3.5%. The fourth is that the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at around 25% and increases in periods of particularly low growth. The fifth is that the budget and current account deficits reach unsustainable levels. The sixth is that a wakening rand, higher wage settlements, and increased administered prices cause inflation to exceed its 3%-6% target band. The seventh is that the ANC sees its electoral majority slip to below 60% in 2019, leading to the party's losing the 2024 election. The second scenario is of a New Dawn for South Africa. Here the increasing demands on the ANC, and its declining resources to meet those demands, serve as a catalyst for policy reform. The reformists within the party, building largely on the blueprint laid down in the National Development Plan, seize policy control of the ANC and bring about a series of initially unpopular changes that do, however, have the long-term outcome of securing that party's future in power. In this case there are four behaviours, flags, or road markers to look out for: The first is a move towards the deregulation of labour markets. The second is steps towards a watering down of employment equity and empowerment requirements for investors. The third is the abandonment of large-scale state led industrial and social policy such as a state owned miner or steel maker and the National Health Insurance scheme. The fourth is the maintenance of conservative fiscal and monetary policies such as inflation targeting. Such a scenario should put South Africa within reach of achieving the following six hard outcomes: The first is that investment and later savings rates begin to pick up. The second is that, subject to a favourable global circumstances, GDP growth is able to average an excess of 5% of GDP. The third is that at this level of GDP growth unemployment should be in sharp decline. That in turn leads to a decline in protest levels and dependency on welfare. Increased GDP growth and investment generates the revenues and business activity to contain the budget and current account deficits. Increased revenues mean that the Government is able to meet demands for social support, which will remain significant in any scenario over the next two decades. We do not assign probabilities to scenarios as this would defeat their purpose and turn them into forecasts. Rather we urge our users to assign an equal probability to all scenarios. At the same time they should use the road markers we identify to guide them as to the direction South Africa is moving in. While the temptation has been to see our first scenario as more likely (based largely on events observed in South Africa in 2012) this is a dangerous and potentially misleading approach and we warn against it. The reason is that the world changes very quickly and often in unexpected ways. For example in the early 1980s, when most analysts were predicting violent revolution for South Africa, we were predicting a negotiated settlement based on a research methodology not dissimilar to the one we employed in sketching the two scenarios above. While many observers said we were naïve, twenty years later the last leader of the National Party was the tourism minister in an ANC government. Despite current efforts to strengthen BEE and labour regulations, many new grandiose state-led projects, and efforts to undermine access to information, there is also much hard evidence in favour of our second scenario. Its blueprint exists in the National Development Plan drafted under the Zuma administration. Also under the Zuma administration, the ANC has identified the need to limit cadre deployment at local government level. Again under the Zuma administration, the Government has compromised on banning labour brokers. Further, and of enormous significance, is that there are many small clothing factories in KwaZulu-Natal that operate outside of minimum wage laws and to which the Government is turning a blind eye. A little example like this is always more significant than it appears at first glance as it indicates a government starting to compromise on some of its policies. When that starts to happen it is only a matter of time before the Government starts to compromise on more and more in an effort to retain stability. This point is best made by my senior colleague John Kane-Berman, who notes how it was Jaap Marais, formerly of the Herstigte Nasionale Party, who cautioned John Vorster in 1968 that allowing Maoris to tour with the All Blacks was the beginning of a slippery slope that would lead to "a black man marrying your daughter and sitting next to you in parliament". Marais was right and in compromising on the ideology of racial separateness Vorster was unintentionally putting in the place the conditions that ultimately led to the negotiated settlement of the early 1990s. It is with good reason, and based on a sound research methodology, that we are able to be more upbeat about the future of South Africa than we were ten years ago. Certainly, we have reason to be more positive than almost any corporate board or audience we are invited to brief as we realise that a window of opportunity has been opened to change South Africa for the better. The ANC is in an impossible position and will have to change to avoid the electorate changing it in the 2024 election. Dramatic change is therefore inevitable for South Africa. Managed carefully and skilfully this is a process that can deliver a more prosperous and stable society. Frans Cronje is deputy chief executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations. This article first appeared in the SAIRR's Research and Policy Brief, January 14 2013

~ Step 1of self-knowledge in the Transformation We all greet you as a collective consciousness of the Ascended Masters of the Far East. We have reached a collective consciousness in our enlightenment which we gladly share with all of you. Our energy consists of Ascended Masters based in Buddhism, in Hinduism, in Islam, in Western communities and in various emissaries of the Light. We do not put an emphasis on the differences of origins as we are and form 1 unit and 1 compact energy of Ascended energy. We address all of you on a collective level in order to clarify some issues for you which might have left the wrong impression on your consciousness and on your beloved Self. Allow us to accompany you in your current living environment to grant you more enlightenment on a few difficult and unclear issues on a personal level. What’s in store for you and what you already have accomplished in your incarnation is of the utmost importance and value for us as well as for yourself and for the Earth. Much has been said, you have learned a great deal and up until now you were able to integrate and accept it in your being, something that in itself is a most fantastic experience and dito fact! To be able to behold this marvel is a true blessing and we so give you our highest appreciation for this, for we are so grateful for your enormous evolution in releasing and in saying goodbye to this world of duality in which you dwell. You have already taken many steps but releasing everything surrounding you is a rather difficult step, which we once had to take. Our input in this for you is to share what we have learned in this regards and to guide you in this last but most difficult part of the step of releasing and rescinding. The next state and step which you have reached now is the one of the total rescinding of your physical form into your true appearance and being. Do you really understand this concept fully? If not, we are most eager to help you get full insights into this matter. The state of rescinding and of releasing of your self-image and your physical appearance as it is familiar to you is a process which you are now manifesting. It is a matter of releasing your full Self in such a way that the rescinding of the material side can settle into a lighter form, which is a more flexible and pliant form, consisting of Light. You are required to perform your own bodily Transformation and that’s the reason why it is all up to you. When one reaches a state of splendor there is a certain substance produced in the brain, which is directed from the heart center of the physical body and from your true Being and your true Self. That’s why your own heart is the portal to Ascension and to Transformation. The dispersation and the formation of that substance is the so-called Kundalini, which sustains and disperses it all in the physical body. When the dispersation has been fully accomplished and the most important cell-groups and organs have duly been reached, a Transformation will burst forth which will lead the whole physical body to the complete Transformation of yourself into a source of energy and of Light. A Lightbody is in a way a source of Light and of energy and is, in itself, an intermediate step for humanity evolving towards their real Self at a later space-time. We, the Ascended Masters of the Far East, have already gone through this whole process a long time ago and we possess the necessary control, composure and self-love; that we have consciously started and directed this process, which you are now undergoing. It is a most beautiful and exceptional experience which we, as Masters, love to share with you on your world, which in itself is on the brink of a great shift. Release the control that the illusion holds on you, thank it for services rendered and take firm control over your true Self. Direct yourself out of this illusory world and build your true Self, being Light and energy. You have almost gone through this process; you only have to remove a few obstacles in this regards which in themselves hinder the complete releasing of yourself. See to it that your heart is again completely balanced.We know what sorrow can be and what it can lead to, it is a powerful venom for the heart and for your being. When your heart, your Ascension portal, is out of balance, it can lead to the fact that there can be no transmutations into a state and being Love. The more lighter form of a body cannot express itself fully when balance is lacking. Balance : keeping a tight control over really everything. What has once sparkled ever so brightly can diminish in radiance, just like your heart feelings…… …… It exists for the most part of this Harmonious Love between the two of you (me and my Twin Flame), but there are also periods of feeling down resulting from the emotions of disappointment, of missing the loved one …. Return your heart back to that harmony with yourself and release all your expectations and visions in relation to that. Your reunion with your beloved Self will come to pass on a spontaneous and forthcoming way. We have been called to assist you in this. We are most pleased to share our enlightenment in the matter. We tell you that we will share now our techniques with you, which you are free to share with others and for you to use as you see fit.These are not secrets per se but rather abilities and teachings from us to you. 1st. – Live from day to day and from timeframe to timeframe. Do not let any planning determine your future life as this will only hold you back in releasing and detaching from…. All the more reason why we, the Masters, have withdrawn ourselves in solitude in former times to be fully liberated of the daily routines and limitations. Allow yourself the opportunity to free yourself from certain issues and certain daily tasks. Disengage from them, there are no expectations placed upon you ; it is you that places expectations on yourself. This advice brings us to the next point which deals with …. 2nd – putting expectations on …. Let go of everything that you want to do today or that someone else expects you to do today. Even this belongs to holding yourself in a specific thoughtform of expectation and of illusion. 3rd – Really release everything in a way that not a single thought appears in your mind so that you can end up in your state of true Being. From an empty mind one can create and shift enormously. One is detached from all control and from all thoughtforms. It leads you to a state of Being, which is a creation in itself . 4th – Take everything as it comes up and trust that whatever shows up will be just what you need on your path on the exact and perfect Divine Time. Start off from this opportunity and build from there on, all the while simultaneously truly releasing everything and holding no expectations any longer. 5th – Put yourself regularly in a golden dome of Light, filled with the Divine white-blue radiation. To achieve enlightenment does not solely imply that you create this state of transformation but also that you place yourself effectively in the Light and that you surround yourself with the Light. Your heart is light and is a Divine Self. 6th – Be open for the opinions of others. Do not enforce your opinion for your opinion is YOUR truth and only yours. Each one of you has his/her own truth which corresponds with their own BEING. Respect each other in these matters, that’s important. 7th – Let go of the past. There’s no such thing as time-based facets. The past makes a distinction in energy just like the present and the future do. It all boils down to developping and expanding your I AM as your true Self. 8th – Release everything that has to do with yourself. Your self-image, your thoughts about yourself, your physical self, your non-physical self, just let it all go and place no thoughts on or about yourself. We have to stress that fact : release everything about yourself! 9th – The knowing. This is very important. You have to know who you are, not thinking, not positioning yourself but feeling and knowing. You require no energy from outside sources to obtain this knowing and this awareness of who you are, what kind of energy you are, your true Being. Always remain in a state of KNOWING. You are that state of being. Just BE, not from an ego standpoint but from the heart. 10th – Being balanced. Just like we have mentioned before, this should pose no problem for your being. You cannot move forward when the factor of balance is lacking. Balance itself plays an important role in the possibility of Ascension and of transposition. Meditation, in a thorough way, on a daily basis will take care of the balance in the Being. The deepening in insights, the inner exploration, the getting to know or better said, the recognition of your being, travelling to the higher dimensions, the discovering of the various worlds …. all contribute to the deepening , to the knowing and to BEING. The balancing of your chakras should become a daily ritual which is necessary to becoming One with your Higher and true Self. Blockages need to be transmuted into Light and Love. The road is cleared and kept free on the tracks between these sources of Divine Light and Divine Being, reflecting all your Light and your true Self. Chakras are a source of information as well as a source of Light and of your true self. Communication between these chakras must remain pure in order to be able to reach an enlightened state of Being. Blockages are a source of holding onto … Release those blockages by means of thorough daily meditations, thorough grounding of yourself and through an input of Light in the light cells of the chakras. To be balanced also comes down to knowing, to trusting and to Being, the releasing of things which have a grip on you in the material world and in your thinking : the Illusion. 11th – Ultimately all of this finds itself on 1 and the same circle. One influences the other and they are all interconnected.

http://offgridsurvival.com/obamagun-control-throughexecutiveaction/

LOAD DETAILS: Time 12:00 am Date-15th January 2013 Karnataka State demand : 5673 MW Demand of BESCOM @ this hour : 2300 MW Bangalore city area: 1044 MW • A-Station : 22 MW • East Div Comp : 4 MW • Hebbal : 73 MW • Hoody : 177 MW • HSR Layout : 144 MW • HAL : 104 MW • Naganathapura: 23 MW • NRS : 53 MW • Nimhans : 0 MW • SRS Peenya : 153 MW • Subramanyapura : 77 MW • Somanahally : 84 MW • Yarandanahally : 118 MW • Vrishabavathi : 69 MW Bangalore rural, Ramnagar, Kolar & Chikkaballapur districts : 570 MW Tumkur district : 259 MW Davanagere & Chitradurga district : 279 MW Generation available at this hour from all sources for State : 5881 MW Raichur Thermal Power Station : 927 MW (5 Units) Bellary Thermal Power Station : 356 MW (1 Unit) Udupi Power Corp (Thermal plant) : 1067 MW (2 Units) Sharavathy (Hydro plant) : 294 MW (10 Units) Nagjhari (Hydro plant) : 0 MW (0 Units) Varahi (Hydro plant) : 46 MW (4 Units) Yelahanka Diesel plant : 21 MW (2 Units) State Wind : 396 MW Bescom Wind : 242 MW Operating grid frequency : 50.42 Hz Unscheduled Interchange cost per unit for over drawn : 0.00 Availability Based Tariff Entitlement allotted at 1 blocks (Total 96 blocks) : 3334 MW Schedule allotted at 1 blocks : 3205 MW Actual drawl at 1 blocks : 2300 MW UI at 1 blocks : -897

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THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION THE HUMAN RIGTHS PREAMBLE Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. ^ Top Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ^ Top Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. ^ Top Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. ^ Top Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. ^ Top Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. ^ Top Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. ^ Top Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. ^ Top Article 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. ^ Top Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. ^ Top Article 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. ^ Top Article 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. ^ Top Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. ^ Top Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. ^ Top Article 14. (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. ^ Top Article 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. ^ Top Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. ^ Top Article 17. (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. ^ Top Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. ^ Top Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. ^ Top Article 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. ^ Top Article 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. ^ Top Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. ^ Top Article 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. ^ Top Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. ^ Top Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. ^ Top Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. ^ Top Article 27. (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. ^ Top Article 28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. ^ Top Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. ^ Top Article 30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Old article I wrote awhile ago Minnesota Short Sale Homes What is the difference between a real estate short sale vs. foreclosure home and what does it mean and how does it work? This is a popular and important question in today’s national economy. I will define a short sale for you later in this article, but first I want to tell you why their seem to be so many short sales going on right now, so I will get into the definition of short sale in just one moment, but first please let me go over some of the common reasons and situations on how a homeowner gets into the situation and then on how to save your home from foreclosure through what’s known as the short sale process. I believe some of the most common situations that the homeowner gets into resulting in pre-foreclosure, is that they get behind on payments, and soon they are facing foreclosure, they soon learn that due to the current real estate market and how home values are going down quickly It’s then, that the homeowner realizes they have little or no equity and therefore they can’t afford to even pay real estate commissions. If it’s an investor or burnt out landlord they may get into a situation where it needs too many repairs, of which they can’t afford, and then the property becomes a vacant house due to many reasons like a job transfer, or a sudden need to move. Here is where the homeowner needs help and at this point we will call upon a short sale specialist as we now have an owner with a mortgage with a lender like Countrywide or a bank like Wells Fargo with a short sale house situation. We may have you talk to a real estate attorney about Minnesota Foreclosure short sale law. The definition of a Real Estate Short Sale is: A lender’s agreement to accept less than is owed (short payoff), as an alternative to foreclosure. A message to all of my readers, I am going to try to keep updating this article over a period of time as I learn new ideas and information to help homeowners, investors, buyers, and anyone related to real estate with this popular subject. Let me now get into some short sale information and see if I can help answer a lot of the questions about the process and how shortsales work in Minnesota, let’s go over why a lender would even do a short sale. Why Would a Bank do a Short Sale? Banks are not in the real estate business and what I mean by that is the banks do not want your house back through the foreclosure process, they don’t want to own the property, they want to only lend money. Banks are in the lending and interest business. The reason a bank is willing to do a short sale is that the entire foreclosure process in addition to other costs can equal $50,000+ easily by the time the bank sells the house they get back through foreclosure. The lender offering the property for less than the underlying debt, or anything under $50,000 discount could be worth it to them. For example, let’s say a home owner owes $200,000 on a house and it’s now worth only $175,000 and the seller found a buyer for the $175,000. In this scenario, there is $200,000 owing on the property, so therefore it would take a “short payoff” on the banks part, just to get the deal done. Sometimes lenders will even count the loan as paid in full even with the discounted difference, but not always, it’s a negotiable item. The Four parties that are involved in a short sale are: 1. The owner of the property that is being foreclosed upon 2. A buyer that is interested in the property; maybe an investor seeking a discount 3. The third party that is servicing the loan, the lender itself, or a servicing company (Conventional, FHA, VA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, etc.) 4. PMI- Private Mortgage Insurance company with the lender What is the Timeline for Foreclosures in Minnesota? Here is a diagram: http://mnrealtor.com/consumer/ForeclosureProcess.pdf Let’s first go over the original loan that the buyer (borrower) at the time received when they initially purchased the property at the closing table. During the initial loan process, the 2 items the buyer signed at the actual closing with the title company were: 1: The Promissory Note: This document does outline the terms of the agreement made between the buyer and the lending bank. By signing this document, The borrower promises to repay the bank the debt. Promissory notes will almost always include a default provision that would enable the bank to charge the buyer for any late payments along the way. 2: The Mortgage: After the promissory note is signed, the borrower then gives the bank a mortgage and he/she(buyer) becomes the mortgagor and the bank becomes the mortgagee. This mortgage document will contain the following provisions: Acceleration Clause upon default: this provision would give the lender the right to seize the property if the borrower were not to honor the terms of the promissory note. This right, that the borrower has, would end as soon as the borrower cures the default by catching up on any delinquent amount in the arrears, if the buyer refinances, or if the buyer sells the property and pays off the loan. Due On Sale Clause: this provision would give the bank the right to call the loan due upon the transfer or (conveyance) in the property. The lender does have the right to do this per the provision in writing, but doesn’t always enforce it. Mortgage Covenants: these covenants known as rules or (promises) force the borrower to do certain things such as: make sure the property is insured and keep the property in good repair, pay property taxes, essentially it’s in there to protect the lender. What then is considered default status? The mortgagor is required to make the agreed upon payments on a monthly basis; however, a typical real estate mortgage would include terms requiring the mortgagor (borrower) to do more than just make the agreed upon payments. Such as, the mortgagor is required to maintain property insurance on the property, pay all real estate taxes that become due, and maintain the property for the benefit of the mortgagor and the mortgagee (lender) which was just stated above. In addition, the mortgage may include a provision that would prohibit the sale of all or of any portion of the property without the prior written consent of the mortgagee. These provision, as mentioned above, would be the due on sale clause. If the mortgagor would fail to abide by any of the terms in the mortgage, he or she (by definition) is in default status. Most real estate mortgages would have a “Power of Sale Clause” that would give the mortgagee the ability to legally take possession of the property. Under Minnesota law, there are two methods of foreclosing a real estate mortgage: Foreclosure by Advertisement (Non Judicial) (most common method) To initiate a foreclosure by advertisement in Minnesota, the creditor(lender) would need to prepare what is referred to as a “Notice of Mortgage Foreclosure Sale”. This notice must specify in writing, the name of the mortgagor, the mortgagee, as well as the original principal amount that is secured by the mortgage, the date the mortgage was originated, the amount the lender claims to be due on the mortgage including taxes paid by the mortgagee, when and where the mortgage was recorded, a description of the mortgaged property, the time and place the sale will take place, and the time that will be allowed by Minnesota law for redemption by the mortgagor. When this notice has been prepared by the creditor, it must be published in a “qualified” newspaper in the same county in which the foreclosing property is located for a period of at least six weeks prior to the sheriff sale. After the foreclosure notice has been prepared and the publication (advertisement) has now begun. The debtor may have the right to reinstate the mortgage. This right the borrower(debtor) has to reinstate is. to be guaranteed by actual Minnesota law even though the creditor/lender may have already accelerated the balance due under the mortgage prior to the initiation of foreclosure proceedings. For the borrower to reinstate the mortgage, the borrower must pay to the mortgagee the amount of the default at the time the mortgage foreclosure proceedings were first initiated plus all accrued costs of foreclosure up to the date of reinstatement, this would include half of any attorney’s fees allowed by law or $150, whichever is greater. If the borrower were to reinstates the mortgage that they are behind on, the foreclosure proceeding would stop at that point, but to reinstate the mortgage, the required back payments in arrears must be paid prior to the sheriff’s sale taking place. I wouldn’t recommend waiting until the last minute on this. 2) Foreclosure by Action (Judicial) (Very rare method in Minnesota) To initiate a foreclosure by action in Minnesota, a summons and complaint would need to be served according to the “Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure”. The complaint would name as it’s defendants, all current owners of the property, any other lien holders, and those with any right to possession of all or even a portion of the premises. If no party were to defend the action, then the mortgagee may obtain from the court that it be deemed a valid mortgage. If any of the defendants object, a trial may be necessary to establish the right of the mortgagee to whom will foreclose. Once the court has made its decision, the sheriff would then publish a notice of sale for a six-week period of time. If the debtor (borrower) is a resident of the county in which the mortgaged property is located, a copy of this judgment of the court and in addition the sheriff’s notice of sale must be served to the the one in debt (borrower). After serving the notice of sale on this debtor, the sheriff must post the notice of sale for the six weeks. At the sheriff sale, the sheriff may sell the property only to cash bidders, except for the mortgagee, which can bid (pledge) its total mortgage and debt. Following this sheriff sale, the sheriff would report the sale to the court, which would then confirm the sale. Once the court has confirmed this sale, at that point the statutory period of redemption for the debtor would then begin. The time periods for redemption of a foreclosure in Minnesota are the same as for foreclosure by Advertisement. Under either method of foreclosure in Minnesota, any junior lien holders may redeem at the foreclosure sale if the mortgagor fails to redeem. These junior lien holders may redeem if, before the expiration of the mortgagor’s redemption period, they have filed for record, a “notice of intention to redeem”. The junior lien holders are each given a period of five days within which to redeem the property, and this is based on the priority of their claims or liens on the property (the recorded order) in most all cases, against the property. If the amount that is realized at the sale turns out to be less than the amount due on the underlying debt, the creditor may then be able to obtain a deficiency judgment against the mortgagor, but if the statutory redemption period is six months (very standard) a deficiency judgment can be obtained against the mortgagor “only” if foreclosure was by action. No deficiency judgment can be obtained against a mortgagor, if the “redemption period is six months”, and “foreclosure was by advertisement”. If the redemption period is twelve months, a deficiency judgment could be sought after the borrower. The Redemption Period: The redemption period is the time immediately following the Sheriff Sale. During the redemption period the mortgage on the home is no longer valid and the lender will not accept anything, but full payment of the loan. This leaves the homeowner with two options at this point: either sell the property or refinance the property. The mortgagor must redeem within six months of the date of the sale unless one or more of the following did apply, in which case the redemption period can be up to twelve months: -The mortgage was executed prior to July 1, 1967. • The amount claimed due and owing as of the date of the notice of foreclosure sale is less than 66-2/3 percent of the original principal amount secured by the mortgage. • The mortgage was executed prior to July 1, 1987, and the mortgaged property, as of the date of the execution of the mortgage, exceeded ten acres in size. -The mortgage was executed prior to August 1, 1994, and the mortgaged property, as of the date of the execution of the mortgage, exceeded ten acres but did not exceed 40 acres in size and was in agricultural use as defined by Minnesota statute. • The mortgaged property, as of the date of the execution of the mortgage, exceeded 40 acres in size. • The mortgage was executed on or after August 1, 1994, and the mortgaged property, as of the date of the execution of the mortgage, exceeded ten acres but did not exceed 40 acres in size and was in agricultural use, as defined by Minnesota statute. What is the Authorization to Release Form? View this Authorization to Release info form This form would be 1 of many items in the Short Sale to Package. Here is an example of the language you would see in a Authorization to Release info: Borrower/Owner: Social Security Number: Property Address: I/We hereby authorize______________________ and it’s agents to obtain any and all information with respect to the following items: 1. Any and all information on my existing loan, including but not limited to: My mortgage loan with (Lender)_______________________________ Under Loan Number:________________________________________ 2. Any and all information on any existing liens against the above named property, including but not limited to information for any lien holder/and or their attorneys 3. This document may be reproduced by the individual or company to obtain information from multiple sources as needed Please provide________________________________________ with any and all information requested on our behalf {Borrower’s Signatures} {Co-Borrower’s Signatures} How Does a Short Sale Hurt or Affect Your Credit Score or Report? This is a very common question asked all the time as far as what effect it will have, how a short sale on your record will affect your credit score and credit report. A short sale in general will affect your credit report less than a full foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure. You can have a “settlement paid in full” negotiated with the lender, and obviously this will show better than simply doing nothing. No one may know exactly to perfection what the difference is in points on how your credit score would be affected whether you do a short sale vs. a foreclosure. If you are behind in payments and you owe too much on the house, what choices do you really have anyways, you are over financed. If you have lots of money, assets, reserves, and a high net worth and you just don’t feel like making payments or feel like paying down your principle balance, your lender won’t want to do a short sale. They will first want to get financial info from you, and a written hardship letter. This will make it quite clear to the bank that your only option is some help from the lender. This is where you see a seller that has a property listed on the MLS reading as “subject to bank approval”. A full foreclosure can stay on your credit for up to 7 years. I recently heard that Freddie Mac was trying to pass some new laws for their company that would not allow some borrowers to finance a home for up to 5 years through them. This was more in the cases where people were just walking away, and didn’t have a true hardship case. Currently you can get a FHA loan where your last foreclosure was only 3 years ago. That’s how it is in the current market. You can always just go buy on a contract for deed, get into a rent to own, or rent a property while you are improving your credit. As a general rule you can still get loans with 30 day late payment on your record, it becomes less likely with a 60 day late, and very hard with 90 day late mortgage payment, etc. Also in today’s market you can get a lender and the loss mitigation department to agree to a short sale without being behind on payments. In the recent past you had to be behind up to 90 days. It’s slowly been easier and easier as the lenders want to solve this currently large problem with foreclosures. You will probably have many questions about credit, credit repair, bankruptcy, and how all of this affects you and works together, the guy you will want to talk to locally is: Todd Rooker 763-383-0959, he is the owner of Armor Financial Services Credit and Debt Specialists. He is good to talk to about credit repair, financial planning, and he can even refer you to a specialized bankruptcy attorney that understands short sales and a tax specialist on how the “short payoff”, 1099, or deficiency judgment could affect you as it relates to your taxes. There are situations where you, as the seller, are “insolvent” as the definition put forth by the IRS. Please consult a tax advisor on this. You should check out the new Fannie Mae guidelines for foreclosures and short sales. This is why you don’t want to walk away Walk Away Vs. Short Sale How Does Bankruptcy and Short Sale Work Together I am going to refer this over to Todd Rooker 763-383-0959 a specialist mentioned above with credit repair knowledge, Todd can refer you to an attorney that specializes and understands the affect of bankruptcy and the foreclosure process. As a general rule a bankruptcy doesn’t stop a foreclosure, and in some cases it can only slow it down. Situations where a bankruptcy is done before the sheriff sale could slow down, or postpone the sheriff sale, whereas if it happens during the redemption period it would just take place within that redemption window, so my understanding is that before the sheriff sale would be where you are slowing it down. Being in foreclosure prior to the sheriff sale and prior to the foreclosure being filed by the bank would be considered a pre-foreclosure. Also the lender must file a motion asking for the foreclosure to proceed. I would highly suggest that you go over this with a bankruptcy attorney who does this every day for a living. You will be getting a letter known as an “Affidavit of Abandonment for Real Estate & Asset”. How Do I Buy a Short Sale? As a buyer you want to know what is in mn for sale and when you find out you’ll ask how to make an offer to buy a short sale house? When buying a short sale home it’s recommended you work with a buyer’s agent or a listing agent that is working with the 3rd party short sale negotiator, or directly talking with the loss mitigation department at the bank. They will be able to update you on what’s going on. You are probably wondering where to find them. Typically you are looking for an agent that is listing houses on the MLS stating in the agent remarks such as “subject to bank approval”, “subject to a short sale”, this is a “lender mediated transaction”, “subject to 3rd party approval”. These are the types of phrases you are looking for. This agent could likely be in the business of negotiating short sales all of the time. When you call them just tell them you are a buyer looking for some help. After you look at some of the available properties they have on their short sale list. After you find the right property you like just like any other transaction, you will have the agent write up a short sale offer that will get submitted to the bank. How Do I Work With a Short Sale Real Estate Agent There are REALTORS® that do specialize in short sales and foreclosures. That is the type of real estate agent you should work with. They are going to understand the paperwork, the short sale process and all of the timelines that are involved. The agent will meet with the homeowner and they will go over the paperwork, have you sign it, collect it and get it into the negotiator, so that they can submit it with the package to the lender. The agent could put a sign in the yard if the seller agrees as well as get the property listed, and start getting showings on the property, make phone calls, return phone calls. The listing agent can review purchase agreements, write up purchase agreements, sometimes can even work with the buyer’s also. The listing agent works very hard along the way to keep the homeowner informed throughout the entire process. When these houses are listed on the MLS, it may read something like subject to 3rd party approval or subject to lender approval, since it requires the lender to lower the price to get it done. After the sheriff’s sale during the redemption period? Some questions that often get brought up are about the redemption period which takes place after the sheriff sale (This section will be updated soon, check back) How Do I Get Additional Short Sale Classes and Training? One of my favorite training classes I have taken is a Saturday class based on the program Secrets of the Short Sale created by Steve Dillon also presented by Curtis Brooks. This is a short sale course that these two came up with that they spent a lot of time and research on from their experiences, and someday I hope to check it out myself. There is a popular course out there by Tom Butler called Short Sale Magic. I see it advertised online everywhere. Either of these programs are perfect for those investors that want to get into the business and start there own short sale company. It’s important that you learn the proper requirements and procedures in the business, proper forms, laws, tips and how to properly service your clients after you have sent in the initial short sale full packet. Please remember when listing your properties for sale to put in the “agent remarks” online that the sale is “subject to a short sale”, so that the buyers know it’s not a conforming traditional sale. One of the things you will get from the many training books and classes out there is how to really be an expert at how to do negotiations with the bank and their loss mitigation department. Soon after doing many transaction and calls in which you have spoken to this department at the bank, after enough times you will be known as the loss mitigation specialist! When you first meet with your seller(clients) you will be collecting a lot of their personal information (this is listed at the bottom of this article) and after you gain all of this info and decide that you can move forward with their situation, you will be getting some contracts signed for the short sale. One of the many items you will need from the seller is what’s referred to as a “hardship letter”. This is best presented to the bank if it’s hand written by the seller describing their current situation and why they are not able to make the payments in the coming future. This will be one of many items in your package that you will send into the lender before you would get an approval later on. Your goal would be to eventually build up a lot of referrals and leads and create a very efficient short sale system. How Does a Short Sale Affect Me With Taxes? This is a very imporant question, and has a newer answer as of the end of 2007, in regards to a big tax rule that took place: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=179414,00.html Being that I am not a tax advisor I will not get into this question and topic too deeply, and also I have attached numerous great articles from the IRS, and attorney’s below for further reading about short sale taxes and the 1099 the homeowner could receive in the future. We will want to make sure that the short sale expert negotiator does his/her best to help you out. I have listened to many experts and been to many short sale seminar and training, and they all seem to have a different view, or at the very least explain it in a different way. As a general rule in Minnesota, when you go through the foreclosure process, that lender who does go through a standard 6 month redemption by the way of advertisement has in effect relinquished their rights at coming after the borrower for a deficiency judgment on the short sale. However, you are looking to sell the property for less than what is owing before it would go back to the bank. Therefore with this situation, when the short sale negotiator talks to the bank they will need to get a letter approved by the lender to waive any future deficiency judgment against the seller and consider it a “full settlement paid in full”. Please keep in mind that lenders can still come after anyone that signed on the original promissory note that guaranteed and signed this note. In addition the other lien positions didn’t initiate the foreclosure, so they still have the right to come after the seller for a deficiency judgment. Also many lenders will do what’s called a “partial release” where they detach the lien (mortgage) from the property so that the property can be sold and clear title can be passed to the next buyer. Depending on the negotiations with the lender, this promissory note can become a judgment and the lender can later come after the homeowner for that amount they guaranteed. Also please keep in mind if you sell it on a short sale, or the bank ends up with it back, eventually their will be a “loss” showing to the lender of which the lender will take that difference (amount owing – amount sold for) and even if they don’t’ come after you for a deficiency judgment they can always pass that information onto the IRS, and at the timing and choice of the lender can 1099 the homeowner possibly 1, 2, or 3 years later when it would make sense for the IRS, to show it as a loss on their tax records for that year. This part of the transaction can get pretty complicated, so I think you should seek advice of a tax advisor, I would also recommend you talk to Todd Rooker on this as well as he can put you in touch with the right tax advisor. How to Find My Next Property Now That I Have Bad Credit? Now that you feel that you have bad credit currently or know that you soon will have bad credit, you need to plan on your next property that you will live in. You will want to consider the fact that the foreclosure process in Minnesota is long, and during negotiations with the bank it takes some time, so you will have to make a decision if you are able to make future payments, if you are going to save that money up, or what you decide to do. If you need a Minnesot place to rent. All of them allow for bad credit and previous foreclosures, bankruptcy, etc in almost all cases. The more money you have to put down, the more rights you’ll have on the home, and the closer to ownership you’ll be. Check this site for updates, and as of right now, for only 6% down you can buy and own a house on a contract for deed, allowing yourself a few years to get your credit better and qualify for a home in the future. There are plenty of properties out there for those even with not so great credit, so please don’t worry about that, there are plenty of vacant properties. CONCLUSION: Let me first say that I always appreciate the opportunity to educate everyone on the short sale and foreclosure process here in Minnesota, and how I can answer everyone’s questions in this article. Let me say I am a real estate agent and broker and I am not an attorney and not a tax advisor, so I please ask everyone to seek guidance in regards to those topics as there are many foreclosure laws as well as many important tax consequences to consider when doing a short sale. Please see my disclaimer at the bottom of this page. I also would like to add that I am more than happy to talk to homeowners that decide to get help to do the short sale procedure. In addition, also short sale and foreclosure agents that want to refer their leads for negotiating a short sale. I will only be able to take leads for the state of Minnesota for right now, possibly on the border of Wisconsin. I welcome all leads of yours. Please read below as I let you know which questions I will need the answers to. You may email the answers to ron@minnesotainvestors.com, or I can email you a form and you can fill it out, which could save us all some time. Before working with myself or a short sale agent please read Minnesota’s agency disclosure. You may also contact me if there was a low bid at the sheriff sale Please contact me at the following info: Ron Orr, Jr. Real Estate Agent/Broker MinnesotaInvestors.com, Inc. ron@minnesotainvestors.com LEAD INFO NEEDED FROM SELLER: Property Title Info: Currently Single? Divorced? Divorced When? Borrower Info: First Name: Last Name: Home Phone: Cell Phone: Best Time to Call: Email: Fax: Co-Borrower Info: First Name: Last Name: Home Phone: Cell Phone: Best Time to Call: Email: Fax: 1st Lender Info: Lender Name: Amount Owing: Monthly Payment: Payments Behind: Reinstatement Amount: Type of Loan: Conventional, FHA,VA Do you pay PMI: Account #: 2nd Lender Info: Lender Name: Amount Owing: Monthly Payment: Payments Behind: Reinstatement Amount: Type of Loan: Conventional, FHA,VA Do you pay PMI: Account #: Property Info: Are you working with a real estate agent currently? MLS#? Address: City: Zip: County: Bed: Bath: Garage Stalls: Property Style Type: Multi-Unit? Sq Ft? Year Built? Estimated Market Value: Does it need repairs: Estimated $: List of repairs needed: Sheriff Sale Date: End of Redemption Date: Is the property currently occupied or vacant? Have you had a bankruptcy? Date When? Date Discharged: Chapter 7? Chapter 13? Other liens on the property? Any judgments? Past due water bills? Past Due Taxes? Short Sale Documents that we will need soon from the homeowner are: 1. Signed Authorization to Release form 2. Tax returns for the last 2 years (1040) 3. Pay stubs from last 2 months (+spouse) 4. Bank statements last 3 months+ (joint accounts) 5. Recent mortgage statements for all properties 6. Hardship letter (handwritten) 7. Financial form will be provided 8. P&L statement for Self Employed and Properties Related Articles: Taxation of Forgiven Debt: The 1099C & You written Feb 24, 2006 Excerpts from IRS publications 544 and 507 Regarding Form 1099-C Seller’s Legal and Tax Liability in Short Sales April 22, 2008 H.R. 3648 The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 Questions and Answers on Home Foreclosure and Debt Cancellation The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 IRS Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets IRS Section 1082 Basis Adjustment Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness IRS 1099-A IRS 1099-C IRS 1099 A & C Right now there is a lot of talk about mortgage modifications. I just heard on the news minutes ago that many people are missing payments on purpose to qualify for a mortgage modification on their home. I would ask you to please do your research at the success rate on these mortgage modifications to see if they are right for you. I would hope they would work out, but if not, the alternative is selling your house on a short sale. Here are 3 articles to look into. http://finance.yahoo.com/techticker/article/141155/Ouch!-Borrowers-Keep-Defaulting-After-Mortgage-Modification http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/12/8/6-reasons-modified-loans-are-going-bad-again.html http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20081202/bs_bw/dec2008db2008121173068 Also the recent reset chart of ARM loans about to adjust http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/ArtAndPhoto-Fronts/BUSINESS/2008/October/081021/Next-foreclosure-wave2.gif http://bp3.blogger.com/_pMscxxELHEg/RxzD0s_7EYI/AAAAAAAABB4/ljDSXZhMG3o/s1600-h/IMFresets.jpg Disclaimer: MinnesotaInvestors.com, Inc. is a licensed Minnesota real estate broker. Minnesotainvestors.com, Inc. handles the marketing end of short sales, provides education and answers questions. Our affiliate short sale specialist will later assist you. The information on this page and the website are for information and educational purposes ONLY and cannot be deemed as legal or tax advice. Please consult your attorney for any legal advice regarding your foreclosure process, your CPA and/or account for tax related questions. Please contact me at the following info: Ron Orr, Jr. Real Estate Agent/Broker MinnesotaInvestors.com, Inc. Phone:763-634-1766 ron@minnesotainvestors.com Obama Administration Announces *Financial Incentives and Uniform Process for Short Sales* Responding to the call of the National Association of REALTORSR, the Obama Administration has announced incentives and uniform procedures for short sales under its new Foreclosure Alternatives Program (FAP). For borrowers who do not qualify to have their loans modified on a permanent basis under the Making Home Affordable Program, the servicer may consider a short sale or, if that is not successful, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure (DIL). * Borrowers (Homeowners). Borrowers qualify under the FAP if they meet minimum eligibility requirements for the Home Affordable Modification program but don’t qualify for a modification or do not successfully complete the three month trial period. Before proceeding with a foreclosure, servicers must determine if a short sale is appropriate. * Incentives. Incentives include: (1) $1,000 for servicers for successful completion of a short sale or DIL; (2) $1,500 for borrowers to help with relocation expenses; and (3) up to $1,000 toward the cost of paying junior lien holders to release their liens (one dollar from the government for every $2 paid by the investors to the second lien holders). * Standardized Documents. The program will include streamlined and standardized documents, including a Short Sale Agreement and an Offer Acceptance Letter. The goal is to minimize complexity and increase use of the short sale option. * Property Valuation by Appraisal or BPO. Servicers will independently establish both property value and minimum acceptable net return, in accordance with investor requirements. The price may be determined based on an appraisal or one or more broker price opinions (BPOs), issued no more than 120 days before the date of the short sale agreement. * Timeline. Servicers must give borrows at least 90 days to market and sell the property, or up to one year, depending on market conditions. Property must be listed with a licensed real estate professional with experience in the neighborhood. No foreclosure may take place during the marketing period (at least 90 days) specified in the Short Sale Agreement. * Commissions. The Short Sale Agreement must specify the reasonable and customary real estate commissions and costs that may be deducted from the sales price. The servicer must agree not to negotiate a lower commission after an offer has been received. * No Borrower Fees. Servicers may not charge fees to borrowers for participating in the FAP. * Program Expiration. The program is in effect through 2012. DIL Option. Servicers have the option to require the borrower to agree to deed the property to the servicer in exchange for a release from the debt if the property does not sell within the time allowed in the Short Sale Agreement (plus any extensions).

List of Class B Dealers in Ohio and Michigan (Want to know about your state? Just comment!): OHIO: Ohio 44131 31-B-0153 All For Pets Inc Pet Junction 4046 Fishcreek Road Stow 44224 Ohio 31572 31-B-0142 Brinker, Alan Mikesell Stock Farm 18355 County Road 3 Frazeysburg 43822 Ohio 9132 31-B-0098 Cahill, James 14029 Lakota Ave Cleveland 44111 Ohio 35464 31-B-0144 Chase, Paul Kamms Plaza Pet & Supply 17454 Lorain Ave Cleveland 44111 Ohio 32360 31-B-0141 Coburn, Bill Wild Acres Ranch 1115 Martins Point Rd Sandusky 44870 Ohio 2157 31-B-0033 Collins, Thomas Brunswick Feed & Seed 4261 Hadler Ct Brunswick 44212 Ohio 1871 31-B-0030 Crabtree, Katherine Hill Top Farm 1735 Van Crabtree Road Lucasville 45648 Ohio 41011 31-B-0149 East Side Grooming & Pet Shop 2510 Hayes Ave Fremont 43420 Ohio 9131 31-B-0097 Gingerich, Donald 2599 Tr 414 Dundee 44624 Ohio 2890 31-B-0068 Hackworth, Randall Wapa Animal Auction 19632 Moulton-Ft. Amanda Road Wapakoneta 45895 Ohio 10406 31-B-0148 Hash, Anton Hillview Exotics 16405 Township Rd #388 Frazeysburg 43822 Ohio 30083 31-B-0138 Hershberger, David Po Box 255 Charm 44617 Ohio 10636 31-B-0109 Hershberger, Mose 3286 Cr 114 Sugarcreek 44681 Ohio 9136 31-B-0102 Kessler, Kenneth Pineview Farm 1047 Erhart North Rd Valley City 44280 Ohio 2442 31-B-0121 Koch, Albert 4708 Glenway Avenue Cincinnati 45238 Ohio 43897 31-B-0152 Linkhart, Dave 1782 Fawcett Road Xenia 45385 Ohio 1869 31-B-0079 Mast, Orin Rolling Ridge Ranch 3961 County Road 168 Millersburg 44654 Ohio 31195 31-B-0146 Miller, Abe 29952 Cr 10 Fresno 43824 Ohio 22888 31-B-0134 Miller, Eugene Eastern Kennel 4603 Township Road 352 Millersburg 44654 Ohio 2156 31-B-0031 Mount Hope Auction Inc State Route 241 P.O. Box 82 Mount Hope 44660 Ohio 31028 31-B-0145 Neuhart, Harold Seneca View Kennels 11160 Rich Street Senecaville 43780 Ohio 2485 31-B-0056 Osting, Ben Antler Island Ranch 8325 German Road Delphos 45833 Ohio 9656 31-B-0104 Perry, Robert 10228 Nioga-Toops Rd Mt Sterling 43143 Ohio 2588 31-B-0064 Pets Please Inc Professionals Pet Supply 36954 Sugar Ridge Road North Ridgeville 44039 Ohio 19503 31-B-0118 Pozza, Ethel 64300 Carlisle Road Salesville 43778 Ohio 31756 31-B-0140 Quality Tropical Fish Ltd 2842 Banwick Rd Columbus 43232 Ohio 9130 31-B-0116 R & R Chinchilla Inc 7754 Sr 103 Jenera 45841 Ohio 18238 31-B-0114 Rms Aquaculture Inc 6629 Engle Road Unit 108 Middleburg Heights 44130 Ohio 7075 31-B-0090 Sipe, Christine Sipes Small Animal Farm 6160 N. Lostcreek Shelby Rd. Fletcher 45326 Ohio 16574 31-B-0110 Skunk Haven Inc 32072 Center Ridge Rd. North Ridgeville 44039 Ohio 44078 31-B-0151 Town And Country Pets Llc Town And Country Pets 1858 E Second St Defiance 43512 Ohio 23308 31-B-0147 Vierstra, Cyril Bethsaida Farms 35863 Huston Rd Radcliff 45695 Ohio 22547 31-B-0123 Yoder, Jonas J 9475 Rowe Road Nw Sugarcreek 44681 Ohio 31438 31-B-0150 Yoder, Vernon A & Bertha J 2250 County Road 70 Sugarcreek 44681 MICHIGAN: Michigan 33497 34-B-0186 Animal Activity Center Inc 39321 Garfield Dr Clinton Township 48038 Michigan 30222 34-B-0178 Cheri Hill Kennel And Supply Inc 17190 Polk Road Stanwood 49346 Michigan 42165 34-B-0196 Clark, Patti 5361 Berry Lake Dr Reading 49274 Michigan 38505 34-B-0191 Classic Pet Supply 13760 E 12 Mile Rd Warren 48088 Michigan 38504 34-B-0190 Classic Pet Supply 2 3180 Gratiot Marysville 48040 Michigan 7970 4-B-0175 Damore, Dominic Ocean Odyssey Pets 3100 Boardwalk Saginaw 48603 Michigan 2456 34-B-0037 Dandona, Nancy Totem Village 811 W Lant Rd St Ignace 49781 Michigan 2585 34-B-0103 Drumhiller, Heidi Cottontails 20044 M-60 West Homer 49245 Michigan 197 34-B-0185 Emergent Biodefense Operations Lansing Inc Emergent Biodefense 3500 N. Martin Luther King Blvd Lansing 48909 Michigan 43198 34-B-0198 Hadley Enterprises Llc 965 Crescent Lane Grosse Pointe Woods 48236 Michigan 2010 34-B-0002 Hodgins Kennels Inc 6300 Lange Rd Howell 48843 Michigan 6774 34-B-0197 Holstege, Janice Walk On The Wildside 5630 New Holland St. Hudsonville 49426 Michigan 38501 34-B-0192 House Of Pets Inc 5656 Newburgh Rd Westland 48185 Michigan 2018 34-B-0004 International Animal Exchange Inc 25600 Woodward Ave Royal Oak 48067 Michigan 42896 34-B-0199 Jurassic Distributors 29335 Harper Ave St Clair Shores 48081 Michigan 18030 34-B-0161 Kowalski Pet Company 6701 South Division Ave S Grand Rapids 49548 Michigan 44677 34-B-0201 Lous Pet Shop Inc Lous Pet Shop Inc 17111 Mayfield Roseville 48066 Michigan 696 34-B-0171 M P I Research Inc 54943 N. Main Street Mattawan 49071 Michigan 6770 34-B-0120 Malone, Patrick Tropical Fish Pond 32308 N. Woodward Royal Oak 48073 Michigan 13343 34-B-0179 Midwest Animal Blood Services Inc 4983 Bird Dr Stockbridge 49285 Michigan 13856 34-B-0173 Ouderkirk, Robin E 6 Okes Chinchillas 3661 East Baker Road Midland 48642 Michigan 9666 34-B-0140 Pfefferle, Diane Lakeshore Aquatics & Pets 822 N Meyers Rd Ludington 49431 Michigan 6828 34-B-0141 Preuss Animal House Inc 1127 N Cedar St Lansing 48906 Michigan 2009 34-B-0001 R & R Research 19256 W. Kendaville Road Howard City 49329 Michigan 39705 34-B-0194 Raymond, William Ann & Billys Breeding Kennels 11775 Prior Rd St Charles 48655 Michigan 43985 34-B-0200 Scottein Enterprises Inc Pet Supplies Plus 2621 S Telegraph Road Dearborn 48124 Michigan 31466 34-B-0183 The Growing Point Inc 665 Capital Avenue Sw Battle Creek 49015 Michigan 29759 34-B-0176 Tolan, Larissa Ann Critters Pet And Supply 122 W Mill Street Hastings 49058 Michigan 6787 34-B-0193 University Aquarium & Pet Shop Inc 2561 Jackson Road Ann Arbor 48103

Myanmar activist, professor resigns over Brunei university ‘censorship’ By Nan Tin Htwe | Monday, 14 January 2013 A Myanmar professor and human rights activist has resigned his post with one of Asia’s top universities, complaining of censorship. Dr Maung Zarni, co-founder of the Free Burma Coalition, quit the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), saying it is “impossible to maintain his professionalism” and blaming “extreme and unprofessional academic censorship”. Dr Maung Zarni, who is described on his website as a “staunch advocate of unconditional human rights, as well as ethnic and gender equality,” is also a visiting fellow with the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics, and the author of Life Under the Boot: 50 years of Military Dictatorship in Burma (Yale University Press). On January 7, he uploaded his resignation letter on his website expressing his “deep regret” at the situation. He says that last June he participated in a human rights and rule of law panel which was joined by Aung San Suu Kyi during her European trip. He alleges UBD punished him by withdrawing financial and institutional support 24 hours before his flight to London and forced him to take personal leave and to pay for the US$3000 flight himself. He says UBD also warned him not to use the university’s name during LSE’s roundtable discussion and panels, and to be “purely academic” – “[s]omething which, given the political role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, is entirely impossible,” he said. Upon his return to UBD, he was warned that “everyone is watching you”, and told to restrict his work to non-Myanmar issues or purely academic papers. His resignation attracted some attention around the region, with Steve Lai, a presenter at Channel NewsAsia, tweeting: “This makes me sad.” Similarly, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim tweeted: “Let the world know about the resignation of Dr Maung Zarni.” Dr Maung Zarni said that he had never made any secret of his political and human rights activities. “I simply could not countenance allowing my employer to intimidate me into professional silence on unfolding human rights atrocities and war crimes against Myanmar’s Muslims and ethnic minorities in Burma on account of a monthly pay check,” he said. “In fact I am the only Burmese academic who is researching, publishing and speaking out against what the Organisation of the Islamic Conference/Cooperation (OIC) officially refers to as ‘genocide against the Muslim Rohingya’ in western Burma committed by the collaborating political and social forces, namely the Rakhine ‘Buddhists’ and the government of Burma itself,” Dr Maung Zarni added. UBD had also shown displeasure at his writing on Myanmar’s transition for the National University of Singapore and being invited by Channel NewsAsia to debate democratisation in Myanmar. “I feel that with Brunei taking over the chair of ASEAN, my ability to function in the immediate future with professional integrity will be compromised beyond the levels which I am prepared to accept,” he said. In an interview with Mawkun magazine, Dr Zarni criticised Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for not taking a stand over Kachin, where, he said, the Kachin Independence Organisation is fighting not for an independent state but “equal rights”. He has accused the Tatmadaw of engaging in conflict in Kachin State so that Chinese projects could proceed, and said Myanmar people should be aware of China’s influence in their country. The university did not respond to email requests for comment last week.

"On Jan 15, the Investigation Commitee established by PM BRB will release its progress report on the five cases: www.meroandolan.com. By all accounts, the report is expected to be 'compromised.' That simply is NOT acceptable. #OccupyBaluwatar began to seek justice for Sita Rai and expanded organically to include four more cases of violence against women. Today, on Day 17, the level of support on the street still remained impressive (for a nation high on apathy and tolerance). This movement isn't just an effort to combat violence against women, it's a drive for better accountability from the Government of Nepal, political leadership, and police. Its a drive to end political protection of criminals and impunity. Everyday, too many women and citizens across the country are denied justice and basic human rights by our state actors. Why? Because they can and because they don't care. As long as people like you and I remain silent, yestai huncha. Friends, it's time to take matters on our own hands. We the people deserve better. This nation deserves much better. Together, we can both create and force the 'system' to work for its people.Two more days to go before the Committee's report is made public. Pressure works folks. Every voice counts. 9-11 am Baluwatar. Show up! If you can't, keep those SMS/calls/letters flowing. Numbers: Lilamani Paudel, Chief Secretary #9841626842; Rajuman Singh Malla, Secretary, GBV unit #9851039554; Kuber Rana, IGP #9851052065; Nabin Ghimire, Secretary, Home Ministry #9851110017."

FAQ: How can FHA help me buy a home? FHA insured mortgages offer many benefits and protections that only come with FHA: Easier to Qualify: Because FHA insures your mortgage, lenders may be more willing to give you loan terms that make it easier for you to qualify. Less than Perfect Credit: You don't have to have a perfect credit score to get an FHA mortgage. In fact, even if you have had credit problems, such as a bankruptcy, it's easier for you to qualify for an FHA loan than a conventional loan. Low Down Payment: FHA loans have a low 3.5% downpayment and that money can come from a family member, employer or charitable organization as a gift. Other loan programs don't allow this. Costs Less: FHA loans have competitive interest rates because the Federal government insures the loans. Always compare an FHA loan with other loan types. Helps You Keep Your Home: The FHA has been around since 1934 and will continue to be here to protect you. Should you encounter hard times after buying your home, FHA has many options to help you keep you in your home and avoid foreclosure. FHA does not provide direct financing nor does it set the interest rates on the mortgages it insures. For the best interest rate and terms on a mortgage, you should compare mortgages from several different lenders. In order to initiate the loan application process, please contact an FHA approved lender. An FHA insured mortgage may be used to purchase or refinance a new or existing 1-4 family home, a condominium unit or a manufactured housing unit (provided the manufactured housing unit is on a permanent foundation). HUD's internet site can provide additional information on FHA mortgages by going to: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/buying_a_home You can also find an FHA approved lender in your area by going to: http://www.hud.gov/ll/code/llslcrit.html You may also wish to contact a HUD approved housing counseling agency in your area for unbiased and free counseling on your particular situation. You can find a list of these agencies at http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm or call HUD's interactive voice system at 1-800-569-4287. There are also many local and State government programs available that use HUD and/or non-HUD funds to provide grants for the downpayment or to help pay closing costs. To find out what programs are available in your area visit http://www.hud.gov/buying/localbuying.cfm DISCLAIMER: All policy information contained in this knowledge base article is based upon the referenced HUD policy document. Any lending or insuring decisions should adhere to the specific information contained in that underlying policy document.

Maybe helpful to LBI Trailer Park folks and such. Christie Administration Encourages Hurricane Sandy Survivors to Utilize Resources Available Through New Jersey Housing Resource Center Property Providers Urged to List Available Rental Units on Free, Statewide Service to Quickly Help Identify Housing for Disaster Survivors For Immediate Release Contact: Michael Drewniak Monday, January 14, 2013 Kevin Roberts 609-777-2600 Trenton, NJ – New Jerseyans displaced from their homes due to damage from Hurricane Sandy are encouraged to use an online housing locator to help them quickly find affordable transitional or long-term housing. The New Jersey Housing Resource Center (HRC), located on the web at www.NJHRC.gov, is a free service to people in search of affordable housing and to landlords who are looking to provide housing. People without Internet access can call the bilingual toll-free number 1-877-428-8844 for help using this service. “Helping residents recover from the destruction of Hurricane Sandy is this Administration’s top priority,” said Governor Christie. “That’s why it’s critical that as many housing options as possible be made available to citizens displaced from their homes by the storm. The long-term transitional housing alternatives through the HRC will provide New Jersey families the foundation needed as they begin to rebuild their lives.” The HRC website is being updated on a daily basis with transitional or long-term housing options. The site consolidates rental resources identified and provided by the New Jersey Apartment Association, New Jersey Association of Realtors, New Jersey Builders Association, landlords, private organizations, federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the public to help individuals and families find available rental units in their area. Currently, there are more than 2,200 housing opportunities available on the HRC website throughout the state of New Jersey. “We are encouraging property providers to do two things,” said New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard E. Constable, III, who is chair of the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. “First, we are asking them to consider adjusting lease terms to help quickly accommodate housing needs. Second, we are urging them to log on to the HRC website to take advantage of this free and easy way to promote their open units.” People visiting the HRC website can click the Hurricane Sandy information bar at the top of the webpage to search specifically for temporary housing due to the storm. The page that opens will display a list of available temporary housing properties throughout New Jersey. Presently, more than 160 properties are listed. People can also call 1-877-428-8844 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. to find housing. Updates and new listings will continue. If a visitor to the website cannot find a suitable property on the temporary housing list, they can instead choose “Rentals” from the HRC menu, select the city or county in which they would like to rent a property, and browse the available selections. To determine if a property is available for occupancy by Sandy survivors, the user should contact the landlord directly to discuss their specific housing needs. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Socialserve.com has updated and added more than 3,000 available housing units in New Jersey and New York. It has also emailed and called over 10,000 landlords in the impacted areas, offering assistance in adding and updating listings. To ensure that displaced residents can find stable housing quickly, the Christie Administration is urging all property providers to list available rental housing by going to www.NJHRC.gov and clicking on “Add Housing.” The process of listing an available unit takes about 10 minutes, is completely free and can be done online or by calling 1-877-428-8844. Launched in 2005, the HRC website was created by the HFMA to provide a central location for people to search for affordable housing in New Jersey. The HMFA, an affiliated agency of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, continues to fund and support the website. The Agency has also partnered with the non-profit organization Socialserve.com to provide web-based and call center-based housing location services for Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts.

There is considerable evidence that proud names in finance, banking, insurance, transportation, manufacturing, publishing and other industries are linked to slavery. Many of those same companies are today among the most aggressive at hiring and promoting African-Americans, marketing to black consumers and giving to black causes. The costs of the slave trade 1850 The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad, part of CSX today, paid slave owners $30 to $150 apiece to rent slaves for a year. Price in 1850: $150 In today's dollars: $3,379 1856 The Mobile & Girard, now part of Norfolk Southern, offered slaveholders $180 apiece for slaves they would rent to the railroad for one year. 1856: $180 Today: $3,737 1859 The Central of Georgia, a Norfolk Southern line today, valued its slaves at $31,303. 1859: $31,303 Today: $663,033 1865 The Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, today part of CSX, placed a value of $128,773 on the slaves it lost as a result of emancipation at the conclusion of the Civil War. 1865: $128,773 Today: $1.4 million 1865 The Mobile & Ohio, now part of Canadian National, valued slaves lost to the war and emancipation at $199,691. 1865: $199,691 Today: $2.2 million Sources: Economic History Services, USA TODAY research So far, the reparations legal team has publicly identified five companies it says have slave ties: insurers Aetna, New York Life and AIG and financial giants J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank and FleetBoston Financial Group. Independently, USA TODAY has found documentation tying several others to slavery: Investment banks Brown Bros. Harriman and Lehman Bros. Railroads Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and Canadian National. Textile maker WestPoint Stevens. Newspaper publishers Knight Ridder, Tribune, Media General, Advance Publications, E.W. Scripps and Gannett, parent and publisher of USA TODAY. Successive generations of African-Americans, starting with slaves freed in 1865, have failed to persuade Congress to apologize and make restitution for slavery. Attempts by descendants of slaves to sue the federal government for damages have been dismissed. By targeting corporations, the activists are opening a new chapter in black America's quest to be compensated for 2 1/2 centuries of bondage. The activists contend that major corporations today possess wealth that was created by slaves or at the expense of slaves — and that it's time for African-Americans to reclaim that wealth. Evidence against corporations sits in university libraries, historical collections and corporate archives. Slaves haunt the pages of old letters, newspapers, receipts, payroll sheets, account books, annual reports and court records. Ads seeking 'my Negro boy' There are insurance policies naming their masters as beneficiaries; railroad rule books prescribing 39 lashes of the whip for recalcitrant slaves; newspapers publishing ads offering rewards for the return of "my Negro boy." The list of corporations tied to slavery is likely to grow. Eventually, it could include energy companies that once used slaves to lay oil lines beneath Southern cities, mining companies whose slaves dug for coal and salt, tobacco marketers that relied on slaves to cultivate and cure tobacco. Slavery's long shadow also could fall over some of Europe's oldest financial houses, which were leading financiers of the antebellum cotton trade. Lloyd's of London, the giant insurance marketplace, could become a target because member brokerages are believed to have insured ships that brought slaves from Africa to the USA and cotton from the South to mills in New England and Britain. The original benefactors of many of the country's top universities — Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton and the University of Virginia, among them — were wealthy slave owners. Lawyers on the reparations team say universities also will be sued. Ties can be tenuous Library of Congress The Auction & Negro Sales house in Atlanta, circa 1864, where slaves were auctioned. The connection between modern-day corporations and slavery can be tenuous. Records seldom show the extent to which a given company depended on slave labor or profited from sales to slave owners. Many of the companies that are potential targets for reparations lawsuits didn't exist until after emancipation, some not until the 20th century. Instead, they bought the slave histories of other companies in corporate acquisitions over the years. Last August, insurance giant AIG, founded 54 years after the Civil War, bought another insurer, American General. With the purchase came U.S. Life Insurance, which American General had acquired in 1997. In going through U.S. Life's archives last fall, AIG discovered that the unit had insured slaves in its early years. Aetna first confronted allegations it had insured slaves two years ago. Since then, it has struggled to put the matter to rest, apologizing and pointing out that it funds college scholarships for African-Americans, pays for studies on racial disparities in health care and sponsors a national forum on race. Antebellum-era slave polices "don't reflect what our company is today at all," says Aetna spokesman Fred Laberge. "We have a strong record of diversity and supporting causes and hiring." USA TODAY contacted all the companies named in this article. Some acknowledged the evidence, others disputed it. Many declined comment. Of those that did comment, virtually all said the current company isn't liable for what happened before the Civil War. Behind the new legal thrust is the Reparations Coordinating Committee, headed by Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree and author-activist Randall Robinson. The team includes heavyweight trial lawyers Johnnie Cochran and Dennis Sweet, and scholars such as Harvard's Cornel West, Georgetown's Richard America and Columbia's Manning Marable. "Once the record is fleshed out and made fully available to the American people, I think companies will feel some obligation" to settle, Robinson says. "Regret's not good enough. Aetna made money, derivatively at least, from the business of slavery. ... Aetna has to answer for that." The legal obstacles are daunting. Slaves and their masters are dead. Company records, though sometimes damning, are seldom complete. Damages may be impossible to calculate. Most important, no company accused of profiting from slavery was breaking U.S. law at the time: Slavery was not a crime. "We've never seen a case where someone who died hundreds of years ago can have a simple, common-law tort revived. The law wasn't designed for this," says Anthony Sebok, a tort expert at Brooklyn Law School. Statutes of limitations on torts, or injury claims, typically last no longer than two or three years and have been extended in rare exceptions to only 30 years. Before broadening a tort case to a class-action lawsuit, reparations advocates must find the descendant of a slave damaged by one of the defendants. Then they must decide who qualifies as a slave descendant and who, in essence, is black. The reparations team could choose instead to sue for restitution, arguing that companies were "unjustly enriched" from their use of uncompensated labor. Those cases often hinge on whether plaintiffs can give a clear, precise accounting of what was wrongfully taken from them and what they produced. That's easy when someone wants restitution for a lost object, such as a building. But how do you separate the output of slaves from that of other workers on, for example, a railroad? Earlier reparations cases — targeting the government — have been dead ends. The group wants to avoid a repeat of Cato v. United States, a $100 million reparations case brought against the federal government in 1995. A sympathetic U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco dismissed the case after saying it could not find a legal basis for it. The panel said descendants of slaves must go to Congress, not the courts, to get redress for crimes against their ancestors. That's not to say there is no precedent for reparations. Since 1995, the state of Florida has paid about $2 million in reparations to the victims of a 1923 race riot in the black settlement of Rosewood. Ultimately, the court of public opinion could be the one that matters most. That much was clear to the German, Austrian, Swiss and French companies sued by Holocaust survivors and other Europeans victimized by the Nazis. The Holocaust cases, filed by the dozens between 1996 and 2000, were weak on the law and almost certain to be dismissed by U.S. courts. But they were corrosive to the reputations of defendant companies as long as they could linger on court dockets. The companies have settled for more than $8 billion, at the urging of the U.S. government, which mediated. Owen Pell, a lawyer at White & Case who represented Chase Manhattan against accusations it illegally blocked accounts held by Jews in wartime France, says dozens of U.S. companies have quietly begun searching their archives in anticipation that they could be named in slavery lawsuits. Public relations damage The reparations movement can't win in court, Pell insists. "But companies have learned you don't judge a lawsuit by its merits. You judge it by the potential public relations damage. Corporate America is following this issue. They understand how nasty it could get if someone comes in and says you have blood on your hands." It shouldn't come to that, says Willie Gary, a reparations team member. He says companies tied to slavery should step forward and make amends by putting money into African-American scholarships and education. "Based on what America stands for and has stood for, it's the right thing to do. There's an opportunity to make a wrong right," he says. "This should be a negotiated matter. We shouldn't be in litigation for 20 years." Black and white Americans are sharply divided on the issue, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll shows. Big majorities of African-Americans believe companies that profited from slavery should apologize, make cash payments to descendants of slaves and set up scholarship funds for blacks. About a third of whites believe apologies and scholarships are a good idea; only 11% of whites favor cash payments to slaves' descendants. Either way, reparations activists are preparing for a fight. Many of them battled to isolate apartheid-era South Africa and make pariahs of U.S. companies operating there in the 1980s. Expect the same bruising tactics — and some new ones — this time: Pressuring shareholders. That means demanding that pension funds and other big institutional investors dump shares of companies linked to slavery. Activists also may try forcing them to formally debate the issue at annual meetings. Swaying consumers. They will try to persuade African-Americans to pull money from accused banks and switch policies from tainted insurers. Blocking mergers. Already, they have tried to get government regulators to kill corporate deals by AIG and J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan on the grounds the companies haven't told shareholders of potential legal liabilities stemming from any past involvement in slavery. The deals went through anyway. Enlisting African-American job recruits. The reparations group has close ties to black fraternities and sororities at the nation's colleges. It could urge graduates to shun companies accused of slave profiteering and harass corporate recruiters sent to campuses by accused companies. The reparations team has been extraordinarily secretive. Members won't reveal the timing, corporate defendants, damages and precise legal argument of any planned lawsuits. That's partly a strategic determination to keep the opposition in the dark. Partly, it reflects unresolved disagreements among the lawyers and scholars putting the case together. May be the last shot With each passing day, slavery slips further into time. Gary and other trial lawyers on the team are mindful that this effort may be the last shot at addressing a historical wrong. They say their work is likely to be done pro bono. By not charging, they hope to guard against accusations they're looking to get rich by conducting corporate shakedowns. One certainty is that new corporate cases are merely the undercard for the main event: The Holy Grail for the reparations movement is a national apology from Congress and a massive federal payout that could take the form of direct payments to African-Americans or trillions in new spending on education and social programs aimed at them. Central to any national reparations campaign is a belief that present-day gaps between whites and blacks are rooted in the past. Reparations backers argue that disparities in income, education, health, housing, divorce rates and crime grew out of the trauma of 246 years of slavery and more than a century of continuing oppression: Jim Crow laws, lynchings, job discrimination, segregation, mortgage covenants, redlining, racial profiling and other abuses. Congress has effectively turned a deaf ear to that argument. It has stifled reparations legislation sponsored each year since 1989 by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. But by identifying companies that made money off slavery, reparations backers believe they can turn corporations and their CEOs into lobbyists for national restitution. A few companies may open their checkbooks, Pell says. "What proponents of reparations are really trying to do is use the lawsuits as a tool," he says. "It's a hammer against businesses to create a call for a federal government solution."

The federal government currently spends 40% more than it brings in and borrows the rest of the money. LIKE and SHARE this if you think that national spending needs to be reduced! http://on.wsj.com/RSAzOY

Penn State Shenango - Job Posting What are you going to do this summer? Don’t just sit around… have fun while you earn money. WE HAVE THE JOB FOR YOU!!!!!!!!! Positions: Assistant Camp Director, Health Supervisor, Office Aide, Horseback Riding, Director, Assistant Horseback Riding Director, Horseback Riding Instructor, Barn Aide, Waterfront Director, Assistant Waterfront Director, Lifeguard, Canoe Instructor, Kitchen Manager, Cook, Kitchen Aide, Program Director, Nature Instructor, Activity Specialist, Adventure Staff, Unit Leader, Unit Counselor and Junior Counselor Year after year, our campers report that what they remember and treasure most from camp are the relationships and sense of community they develop with staff. Your passion can make a difference in the lives of girls. We are looking for energetic, outgoing individuals who have a desire to work with children outdoors. Whether you are leading a hiking trip, going on a trail ride or sending a girl down the zip line, you are making a difference. Join Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania this summer. We have seven camps that cater to different age groups and activity specialties to help suit your professional development needs: Camp Skymeadow in Avonmore, Armstrong Co., Camp Conshatawba in Summerhill, Cambria Co., Camp Yough in McKeesport, Allegheny Co., Camp Redwing in Renfrew, Butler Co., Camp Hawthorne Ridge in Girard, Erie Co., Camp Roy Weller in Bruceton Mills, WV, and Camp Singing Hills in Oil City, Venango Co. Summer camp employees: will participate in pre-camp training; assist in the daily operations of camp; have the ability to work as a team member; live in a camp community; must successfully pass required background checks; will work a flexible schedule; and will change the life of a girl! Look on our website at gswpa.org for information about each camp and to find the application and other required paperwork OR you can email your resume or letter of interest to recruiting@gswpa.org.

Sudan Seeks Militants After Seizure of Chinese Workers Wall Street Journal (01/14/13) Bariyo, Nicholas; Spegele, Brian Sudanese troops are currently tracking members of a unnamed militant group who kidnapped three Chinese and several Sudanese construction workers in Darfur. The kidnapping, which took place on Jan. 12 and is the latest in a string of similar incidents, is believed to be an attempt by the militants to raise money through ransom. The Chinese workers are reportedly employees of China Railway, a unit of the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. Security experts say the kidnappings demonstrate the hazards associated with China's decision to send workers abroad as part of its expanding businesses relationships with Sudan and other African countries. While Sudanese officials do not believe the workers will be harmed, a prior abduction resulted in the death of one Chinese citizen during a failed rescue mission. No group has yet claimed responsibility for this kidnapping.

Penn State Shenango - Job Posting Position: Police Sergeant - 9671 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Description: As a patrol shift leader, is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the university's students, faculty, staff, and property through efficient use of University Police staff and resources. Determines necessary and appropriate actions needed to resolve problems. During shift, supervises dispatchers, security guards, police officers, and escort drivers. Also oversees the operations of the university's emergency phone system, University Police radio system, lost and found, and shuttle/escort services, parking regulations enforcement, etc. Required to carry a firearm Qualifications: Minimum: Education: Associate's degree or credit equivalent or equivalent combination of experience and training. Act 120 certification or the ability to obtain prior to employment Licenses: Valid PA driver's license Experience: Minimum of 3 years experience as a police sergeant, 5 or more years experience in a police agency or unit with 10 or more sworn officers Skills: : Excellent problem solving, written and oral communication and interpersonal skills; ability to interact with a diverse campus community; ability to make decisions quickly and lead others; ability to maintain accurate and detailed records; ability to understand and follow directions as well as give direction to others; ability to qualify with standard police issue handgun and shotgun; ability to review, proofread, and classify crimes according to PA Consolidated Statutes. General knowledge of and ability to operate desktop and mobile computers, word processing software, and other related computer programs; ability to collate, analyze, and enter crime statistics in compliance with PA UCR System and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy & Crime Statistics Act. Ability to utilize ARMS RMS-CAD software Physical Mobility: Ability to traverse campus grounds and climb stairs; ability to safely operate and patrol in a police vehicle, and respond to various off-campus locations; ability to operate/use all standard police equipment, radios, and firearms. Ability to perform medium work, including lifting an adult person and items up to 50 pounds and frequent lifting/carrying of 25 pounds. Ability to sit, stand, stoop, bend, kneel/squat, push/pull, reach above shoulders. Ability to see the full color spectrum, and 20/20 vision acuity (or correctable to 20/20) Environmental Conditions: Ability to work and perform unrestricted foot patrol on campus grounds in all weather conditions and withstand extreme hot and cold temperatures and confined spaces, as well as function in a crowd Mental: Ability to safely work under pressure and extreme stress; ability to deal with difficult and sometimes violent people while maintaining composure, and to react and make correct decisions quickly and remain calm in dangerous, and high stress crisis situations. Ability to deal politely and courteously with a diverse campus population in a professional manner. Ability to perform a variety of nonstandard procedures and resolve a wide range of problems. Ability to observe and recall situations and events. Ability to understand and carry out complex oral instructions Other: Ability to work flexible shift schedule/hours, including weekends and evenings, and in continuation of a regular tour of duty without additional monetary compensation. Ability to pass a psychological evaluation, physical exam, extensive background investigation, and drug and alcohol testing upon conditional offer of employment and prior to beginning work. Ability to complete hazard communication training during provisional period. Designated an "essential employee," may be required to remain on duty beyond normal shift and/or be available on a 24-hour basis to report for duty without prior notice due to emergencies or manpower shortages Preferred: Education: Bachelor's degree. Specialized training (POLEX, POSIT, FBIA National Academy, PA COP Command Institute, Southern Police Institute, northwestern Traffic Institute, MPOETC instructor, PA Crime Prevention practitioner) Licenses: Current CPR, AED, Emergency First Aid or First Responder, and EMT certification; Act 235; Act 501 Experience: Five or more years supervisory experience. Prior police experience in a college or university environment is strongly preferred Skills: Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communications. Ability to properly use mobile and portable/hand-held programmable police radios. Good working knowledge of and an ability to utilize Microsoft Word, FilePro, CAD-RMS, and related law enforcement hardware and software. Knowledge of fire alarm and incident alert systems, NBC Hazmats, Incident Command System, WMD protocol and response. Ability to work cooperatively and effectively with local, state, and Federal law enforcement and public safety agencies that have primary jurisdiction over areas immediately adjacent to campus and other university properties Other: Knowledge of and ability to properly use standard police radio Ten Codes. Knowledge of and familiarity with the City of Pittsburgh, particularly the Oakland and Shadyside neighborhoods TO APPLY: Please go online to http://www.cmu.edu/jobs and apply to Job # 9671

Monday Motivation!! a winning fitness state of mind! The force will be with u! GETTT ITTT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isyq_SGNqoA

FULTON COUNTY / JOB VACANCY1/14/13 PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT (404-613-6700) 141 PRYOR STREET, SUITE 3030, ATLANTA, GA 30303 COMPETITIVE JOB ANNOUNCEMENT 13-005 SHERIFF, DEPUTY (TEMPORARY) TITLE CODE: 606155 HOURLY RATE - $16.33 (NO BENEFITS) QUALIFICATIONS: ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE OR TWO (2) YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCE AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OR CERTIFIED PEACE OFFICER WITH FULL ARREST POWERS; OR, A YEAR FOR YEAR INTERCHANGE OF INDICATED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE EQUAL TO THE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS. LICENSING REQUIREMENTS: (position requirements at entry): Valid State of Georgia Driver’s License; Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certification ; Jailer Certification Course. NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: If requested, must submit to a psychological profile test. Must possess a valid Georgia Driver’s License at the time of appointment. Must be at least twenty (20) years of age. Must conform to the following qualifications as required by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Act: Be a citizen of the United States; Have a high school diploma or its recognized equivalent (G.E.D.); Not have been convicted by any state or the Federal government of any crime, the punishment for which could have been imprisonment in a federal or state prison or institution; nor have been convicted of sufficient misdemeanors to establish a pattern of disregard for the law, provided that, for the purposes of this paragraph, violations of traffic laws and other offenses involving the operation of a motor vehicle when the applicant has received a pardon shall not be considered; Be fingerprinted and a search made of local, state, and national fingerprint files to disclose any criminal record; Be of good moral character as determined by established standards and procedures; Have an oral interview with the hiring authority or designated representative(s) to determine applicant’s appearance, background, and ability to communicate; Be found, after examination by a licensed physician of the Fulton County Health and Wellness Department, to be free from any physical, emotional, or mental conditions which might adversely affect exercising the powers or duties of a peace officer; and successfully complete a job related academy entrance examination provided for and administered by the council in conformity with state and federal law. Such examination shall be administered prior to entrance to the basic course provided for in Code Sections §35-8-9 and §35-8-11. The council may change or modify such examination and shall establish the criteria for determining satisfactory performance on such examination. Peace officers who do not perform satisfactorily on the examination shall be ineligible to retake such examination for a period of six (6) months after an unsuccessful attempt. The provisions of this paragraph establish only the minimum requirements of academy entrance examinations for peace officer candidates in this state; each law enforcement unit is encouraged to provide such additional requirements and any pre-employment examination as it deems necessary and appropriate. EXAMINATION: Application must document that the applicant possesses the minimum knowledge, skills, education and experience as listed. If selected, an official, accredited college transcript is required, at time of employment, for all degrees/course work used to qualify for this position. TO APPLY: ONLINE APPLICATION AVAILABLE AT THE COUNTY’S WEB PAGE: WWW.FULTON COUNTYGA.GOV. COMPLETED FULTON COUNTY APPLICATION FORMS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT. (ADDRESS ABOVE) All applications must be completed in full before they are submitted. Please review all applications for accuracy and make all corrections before submittal because errors can result in not meeting the minimum qualifications. Additional information will not be accepted after applications are received by the Personnel Department. CLOSING DATE: JANUARY 16, 2013

QUESTION: I have recently been dating this guy who is the perfect gentlemen to me. I have not yet introduce him to my children in that form of my man just a friend, scared because of pass relationship my children whom all are boys get attach and when things get rocky with the relationship they slit and no longer call my boys nothing, he has been already talking about marriage and building a life together, we have known each other for years now I just recently four months ago gave him a chance I have been putting trust into him but has been lied to three times but he has also been upfront and tode the honest truth nothing major just stuff him self he did not want to reveal. I need advice on should I give love one more chance this seems so right the icing on the cake what made me fall for him was that we always pray together he started that. My heart is saying go for it to love and trust a man again after so many years of being beat,misused,raped,cheated on should I listen to my heart or mind ANSWER: You should definitely give love a chance. As humans, we all deserve to experience love. Not only that, it would be great to co-partner with someone to help raise your little King’s. As a woman, Im sure you would do an awesome job raising them, but no one can teach a boy how to be a man, than another man. With that being said, you still must adhere to the sweet sound of wisdom. Never block yourself from deserving or desiring love, however, now that you are open to the idea you have to ride the fine line of being alert without being skeptical. Your eyes have to be open more. Your ears need to be open more. Especially if you two are already talking about marriage. It was very wise of you not to introduce him to your children as your boyfriend, at this stage in the game, but if its getting serious where you’re talking marriage, and YOU are willing to commit to the risk of developing a lasting relationship, then you need to include your Kings in the midst. They too play an intricate role in this family structure and they need to start the mindset of becoming a cohesive unit as well. My issues, out of the 4 months you have been dating he has lied 3 times. That’s an average of one (1) lie per month. For these beginning stages of relationship building, that’s far too many lies. One lie is too many, but 3 lies in 4 months is not a great ratio. And, lets be honest, those are really just the lies he’s been CAUGHT in. I don’t know the magnitude of the lies, but a lie is a lie. The intentional decision to deceive is concerning to me. I’m glad that he also has moments of honesty, as you mentioned, but don’t use those to neutralize the lies. You don’t get a cookie for being honest, that’s the state we should live in ANYWAYS. Especially when dealing with someone we SAY we love. I am not suggesting you leave him or become head detective because he lied. Again, I don’t know the surrounding factors, but you should have a discussion with him about the mental space his lies place you in and that its something that needs to be abandoned from the relationship. But yes, give love a chance and don’t make this new guy play the role of doctor, by using this relationship to heal the wounds of your past. You mentioned prayer…… let God heal you from those places so that you can grow in this relationship in wholeness. You owe it to yourself. -Smith

Everyone, please share with us: How or who taught you how to stitch plastic canvas?

FAN Q: I am asking this question for a young mom, Keleyna Staves. She is pg with her 2nd child and wanting to feed breast milk exclusively. Problem is, she wasn't able to actually breast feed last time and she's very shy and NOT comfortable breast feeding around people at all. She is needing advice on where she can purchase a good but, inexpensive breast pump. That's all she's asking. She's not asking for anyone to put her down or lecture her, that's what happened when she asked for this advice on another pregnancy page. :( REPOSTED BY LAURA