Rob Portman and Gay Marriage: A Cute Couple

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hola all you tolerant and enlightened folks! One of the big news items over the weekend that might have gotten lost in the St. Patrick’s Day revelry was Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman announced that he not only has a gay son, but is now in favor of gay marriage. It seems as though Sen. Portman now believes that HIS SON is entitled to the same happiness as all those straight people out there. Well, how about that!<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWYuPQG48YEmbXTKqx8pndEvLyjD6lwLRDoSPRyIWcifyAtIy72UyJTfjd5wm_okpgctgc0wH-uQlaNx8-t48mqIc6BKhcr4GpeY9kkMqv0WPM6uvZQtfmrZtCsM8_6h1SLnFMrwBAm8/s1600/Rob+Portman+Gay+Marriage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWYuPQG48YEmbXTKqx8pndEvLyjD6lwLRDoSPRyIWcifyAtIy72UyJTfjd5wm_okpgctgc0wH-uQlaNx8-t48mqIc6BKhcr4GpeY9kkMqv0WPM6uvZQtfmrZtCsM8_6h1SLnFMrwBAm8/s320/Rob+Portman+Gay+Marriage.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s been interesting to watch the liberals’ reaction to this. The initial knee-jerk reaction was to complain that Portman has been virulently anti-gay marriage ONLY because he was being a good political soldier and advancing the republican agenda. An agenda, by the way, that is only in place to stir up the base and pander to the religious right because the worst kept secret in Washington is that the vast majority of republicans don’t give a crap about gay marriage and even actually privately support it and attend wedding ceremonies of people on their staff. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yeah? And? I hate to break this to some of you but up until a couple of years ago the democrats did the same damn thing. Many congressmen and women and senators, especially those who represent southern states, took anti-gay positions simply because they thought it would help them in elections to do so. SHOCKINGIKNOWRIGHT! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, there is also a large group of liberals who have a different take on this. Their “complaint” is that Portman only changed his position on gay marriage when his son came out to him. He never would have changed nor evolved on this had he not had a gay son. He only supports equal rights now because it affects someone he’s close to. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yeah? And? SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO? What’s your point? I hate to break THIS to you but that’s EXACTLY how Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and most of the democrats evolved on this issue. Maybe it didn’t happen overnight with them by a family member coming out to them, but it did happen over time as they became more aware of the gay marriage issue and actually started to be around more and more gay people. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Aannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd …. That exactly how you, you, you over there with your hands in your pockets looking at the sky and whistling and … uh … I evolved on this same issue. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdBRN3as_Ha9i2fpBEKU03Td6kUdOUGGQmvzrA0gb2vPQP9xizMGXtTF1KUOyD8sXdC-o0vb_1xG-vb_xAMAGoI5jyTlkwf-II3nZyz3K_I3y2zrVbCcDepjidc4jb7VqqS6X2yQSB-8/s1600/gay-wedding-cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdBRN3as_Ha9i2fpBEKU03Td6kUdOUGGQmvzrA0gb2vPQP9xizMGXtTF1KUOyD8sXdC-o0vb_1xG-vb_xAMAGoI5jyTlkwf-II3nZyz3K_I3y2zrVbCcDepjidc4jb7VqqS6X2yQSB-8/s320/gay-wedding-cake.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh sure, we’re all born innocent and have to learn to hate from our parents, friends, teachers and preachers. Then when we go out into the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>real world on our own we start finding out that a lot of what we were taught about blacks, Mexicans, Jews, gays, cablinasians and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Burkinabés aren’t nearly as bad as we were led to believe they are. I know that liberals love to pretend that they remained innocent and pure their whole lives and never found themselves on the wrong side of any civil rights issues. Liberals also want us to believe that they never harbored any prejudiced thoughts of any kind at all! That’s bullshit.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">For most of us there have been a lot of “these folks aren’t that bad at all” revelations after we found ourselves interacting with people from other cultures for the first time as adults. I was one of those people. I come from a very small community and while I was lucky to have parents who didn’t preach intolerance, I didn’t have any significant interaction with blacks, Hispanics, Asians etc etc until college. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On gays I took the usual path. While I didn’t really have prejudices against gays* (beyond the “I don’t know anything about homosexuality and they seem kinda icky prejudices”) I started out as a “no gay marriage” guy and then became “okay maybe gay civil unions” and then I finally evolved all the way to not just “yes” on gay marriage but to the belief that gay rights is a civil rights issue. That evolution was the result of actually being around gays, getting to know them and realizing that I was wrong on the gay rights and gay marriage issues. Just like Senator Portman, Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and most everyone else. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s important to not worry WHAT brought people to finally doing the right thing and supporting gay marriage. The only thing matters is that they finally got here and bashing them when they do get here will only result in others who might be considering coming out in favor of gay marriage to decide against it. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws">@Jayman_IWS</a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">*Since I was not a regular church goer I was not taught to hate gays. However, when I was growing up homosexuality was a subject that just was NOT discussed anywhere by anyone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

Rob Portman and Gay Marriage: A Cute Couple

Hola all you tolerant and enlightened folks! One of the big news items over the weekend that might have gotten lost in the St. Patrick’s Day revelry was Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman announced that he not only has a gay son, but is now in favor…

Read more »

The 10 easiest ways to ruin your NCAA tournament bracket

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Winning your NCAA tournament pool is about more than making the right picks -- it's about avoiding the disastrous ones. Here are the 10 things you don't want to do when filling out your bracket.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">1. <b>Go with the biggest trends</b>. All week you're going to hear about St. Louis and Bucknell and the 12/5 upset that history says will happen. Don't be taken in by the wisdom of crowds. Following trends may feel right in the moment, then, boom, it's five years later and you're looking back at photos of yourself wearing skinny jeans and a trucker hat and wondering where it all went wrong. Fill out a bracket you can be proud of in three weeks, win or lose. Be your own bracketologist. Trends flame out quickly. St. Louis and Bucknell are great picks, but they're not as great if everyone else in your pool has them too. You win by zigging when other poolers zag.<a href="http://imgur.com/mGEJb9F" style="color: #1990e5; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/mGEJb9F.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>AP</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>BUY OR SELL:</b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/">What to embrace and avoid in NCAAs</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/"></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>2. Pick more than two No. 1s to make Final Four.</b> If your bracket looks too chalky, remember this: Only four times in the 28-year history of the modern NCAA brackets have three No. 1 seeds made the Final Four. But don't turn your back on No. 1. There have been just two occasions where no top seed has made the Final Four.</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/seul6MD" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/seul6MD.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>USA TODAY Sports</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/17/ncaa-tournament-bracket-advice-the-dos-and-donts/1995031/"><b>MORE: </b></a><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/bracket/2013/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/bracket/2013/">Printable look NCAA tournament bracket</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">3. <b>Rush your entry</b>. There are four play-in games before the "real" tournament begins on Thursday. Few pools require you pick those game. However, the teams that win those First Four games will appear in the 64-team bracket you're picking. It doesn't matter whether Indiana plays LIU Brooklyn or James Madison in the second round. That won't affect you picking the Hoosiers to advance. You may consider taking the winner of Middle Tennessee State and St. Mary's to beat Memphis. Brackets aren't due until noon ET on Thursday and there's no bonus for submitting early. If you're looking for an upset from a First Four team, wait until the field of 64 is set on Wednesday night before making your picks.</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/iywHtpD" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/iywHtpD.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>USA TODAY Sports</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">4. <b>Pick Louisville</b>. The tournament's No. 1 seed is the winner in 55 percent of ESPN brackets. Of the four writers who <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/18/march-madness-therapy-ncaa-tournament-bracket-tips/1995465/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/18/march-madness-therapy-ncaa-tournament-bracket-tips/1995465/">picked brackets for USA TODAY Sports</a>, three went with Louisville to cut down the nets. Six of eight at CBSSports.com also <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament/predictions" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament/predictions">chose the Cardinals</a>. Wasn't this supposed to be the most wide open tournament in recent memory? Don't pick Louisville, not because they won't win, but because it will be harder for you to win if the Cardinals do. (Note: If Rick Pitino breaks out the white suit for the Final Four, all bets are off. That thing is sweet.)</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/Qncyx4W" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/Qncyx4W.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>USA TODAY Sports</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">5. <b>Go upset crazy</b>. Let's say you think Pittsburgh (No. 8 seed) is going to beat Indiana (No. 1) in the third round. It's as reasonable a pick as any. But is the risk worth the reward? Pittsburgh could lose to Wichita State by 3:30 p.m. ET on the opening day of the tournament and suddenly that part of your bracket is ravaged like<a href="http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/hoosiershq/historia/ks/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/hoosiershq/historia/ks/">Kelvin Sampson rolled through it</a>. Meanwhile, the rest of your pool is collecting easy points on Indiana getting through to the Sweet 16. Pick upsets in moderation and not at the expense of busting your bracket by dinner time Friday.</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/13I0kd0" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/13I0kd0.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>USA TODAY Sports</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">6. <b>Be a homer</b>. An NCAA pool, like real estate, is all about location, location, location. If you live in Indiana, don't pick the Hoosiers to win, even if you bleed crimson and cream. If you're in a pool with all your friends from your days in Ann Arbor, go with Ohio State instead of Michigan. Assume that everyone is going with the home team. Remember, zig when they zag, which is doubly appropriate if you went to Gonzaga.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">7. <b>Overthinking it</b>. Focus on picking your Elite Eight, then work backward. If you're in a pool with relatively normal scoring, it will be won on the second and third weekend, not the first. You may spend all your time debating whether to pick Illinois or Colorado in their second-round game, but if you have the winner losing to Miami, what does it matter?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">8. <b>Go with Notre Dame</b>. Only once in its past 11 tournament appearances has Notre Dame advanced past the first weekend. This is good news for both Ohio State and people who value their retinas.</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/0bmby4g" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/0bmby4g.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>USA TODAY Sports</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">9. <b>Pick the team you hate</b>. Is anything worth more than your soul? It's fine to pick against your favorite team. You don't want to jinx them. If they lose, at least your brackets will still be alive. But the same theory doesn't work with your least favorite team. It may sound like a good idea, in theory. "I'll pick Duke to win. I don't want it to happen, but why not benefit from everyone else's misfortune?" This is the same sort of thinking that led to the subprime mortgage crisis.</div><div class="embed" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 560px; padding: 20px 0px 0px 60px;"><a href="http://imgur.com/aylXUr1" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/aylXUr1.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a></div><div class="clearfix" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>AP</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">10. <b>Follow other people's advice. </b>The guy who tells you he has a good feeling about Harvard this year is either: a) trying to mess with your head or b) Tommy Amaker. Don't listen to advice from anyone else, especially me; I haven't won anything since the sixth grade. Go with your gut. But if you're in my pool, go with Harvard. I've got a good feeling about them this year.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>UNDER THE RADAR PLAYERS OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT</b></div><div class="mod galleries clearfix hasendslate hover" data-cst="sports" data-gal-pageurl="http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/sports/2013/03/17/under-the-radar-players-who-could-spark-ncaa-tournament-upsets/1994421/" data-gallery-id="1994421" data-seo-title="under-the-radar-players-who-could-spark-ncaa-tourn" data-ssts="sports" data-title="Under-the-radar players who could spark NCAA tournament upsets:Under-the-radar players who could spark NCAA tourn" data-topic="sports,sports_ncaab" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(242, 242, 242); clear: both; color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 10px 0px 20px 60px; position: relative; width: 540px;"><div class="viewport hover" style="display: table; height: 390px; margin-bottom: 90px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 540px; z-index: 0;"><div class="slide horizontal active" itemprop="primaryImageOfPage" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display: table-cell; opacity: 1; position: absolute; text-align: center; visibility: visible; width: 540px; z-index: 1;"><div class="gallery-photo-border" style="background-color: white; box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 0px 4px 8px 0px; display: inline-block; margin-top: 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;"><img alt="Nate Wolters could spark an upset." class="gallery-photo horizontal" data-id="1994441" data-large-src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/17/usp-ncaa-basketball_-summit-league-tournament-sout-4_3_rx812_c1080x810.jpg?ee7fa6286ae53f22171a45de1ab050b872ba1ebf" itemprop="image" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/17/usp-ncaa-basketball_-summit-league-tournament-sout-4_3_rx512_c680x510.jpg?0f5c31de35bf4ef88a50c2e35ee3bc4da4bf3083" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; max-height: 374px; max-width: 500px; vertical-align: middle;" /><div class="meta" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); border-top-color: rgb(2, 2, 2); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; bottom: 5px; display: table-row; left: 5px; opacity: 1; padding: 7px 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; visibility: visible;"><div class="caption" itemprop="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: table-cell; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; padding: 3px 18px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; width: 449px;">Nate Wolters, the Summit League Player of the Year, led South Dakota State to a second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The senior guard averaged 22.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 5.8 apg for the Jackrabbits. Wolters was fourth in the nation in scoring and poured in 53 points in a game.  <span class="credit" style="color: #999999; font-size: 11px;">Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports</span></div><div class="toolbox" style="display: table-cell; padding: 0px 0px 0px 9px; width: 46px;"><a class="fullscreen" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/03/18/ncaa-tournament-bracket-10-tips/1996397/#" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(40, 40, 40); color: #999999; cursor: pointer; direction: ltr; display: block; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; height: 21px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 5px; padding: 7px 5px 1px 7px; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -99999px; width: 17px;" title="Fullscreen"><span style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/ft-share-btns.png?1363187787); background-position: -170px -4px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: none; float: left; height: 20px; margin-left: -2px; width: 20px;"></span>Fullscreen</a><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br /></div>

NCAA The 10 easiest ways to ruin your NCAA tournament bracket

Winning your NCAA tournament pool is about more than making the right picks -- it's about avoiding the disastrous ones. Here are the 10 things you don't want to do when filling out your bracket.1. Go with the biggest trends. All week you're going to …

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Lindsay Lohan accepts plea deal with rehab

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Lohan's mug shot from July 2007 for driving under the influence." src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120919080747-lohan-arrested-04-horizontal-gallery.jpg" /><br /><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; white-space: nowrap;">Lindsay Lohan in trouble</span><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Los Angeles (CNN)</strong> -- Lindsay Lohan agreed to spend 90 days in a "locked in" drug rehab facility as part of a plea deal to settle criminal charges against her Monday.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">The actress entered pleas of no contest on two misdemeanor charges relating to a traffic accident last summer, and she did not challenge the finding that she violated her shoplifting probation with those convictions.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"A suggestion -- don't drive," Los Angeles Superior Judge James Dabney told Lohan after he handed down her sentence.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Her six years of legal troubles trace back to two drunken driving arrests in 2007 and include other incidents in which she was behind the wheel.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">While Michael Lohan was satisfied his daughter would get drug treatment in rehab -- not jail -- her father expressed anger outside the courthouse with her lawyer, Mark Heller.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I want to know why are you're still up here?" Michael Lohan shouted at Heller. "Go home, you've done enough damage. Leave my daughter alone and stay out of the press. You're a parasite."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lohan said Heller "just wants to use my daughter as way to get his name in the papers."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">A sheriff's deputy stepped between Michael Lohan and Heller to separate the men.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"My reaction is one of sadness and compassion for the conduct that that gentleman is displaying publicly," Heller told reporters later.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph10" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Michael Lohan accused Heller of unethical and criminal conduct in his representation of his daughter, saying prosecutors were investigating Heller for tampering with "a star witness" in Lohan's case.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph11" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"It is an open investigation and they just told me they are investigating him," Michael Lohan said.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph12" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Los Angeles County district attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said that office is not involved in the case.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph13" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">The spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office said he was unaware of any probe. The spokeman for the Santa Monica city attorney's office, which was involved in the case, did not immediately respond to CNN's call.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph14" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Heller said he was not aware of what Michael Lohan was alleging.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph15" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"That's a very sad and unfortunate statement," Heller said. "Anybody is able in this great country to make any allegations that they want."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph16" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">He then brought the interview back to Lindsay Lohan.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph17" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The only issue here today is that a sweet, wonderful 26-year-old girl has finally been able to bring some closure to a chapter in her life that has been very unfortunate," Heller sad. "Lindsay Lohan has been very fragile and very concerned by what's been happening here and the only thing I've been concerned about is that we've been able to give her story a very, very happy ending."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph18" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">She is "now on a wonderful path and a journey that I think is going to be very rewarding," he said. "Today marks the first day of the rest of her life and her comeback is right before us."</div><a href="" name="em1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt cnn_strylftcexpbx" id="expand119" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 27px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="clickToPlay" id="clickToPlayvideoContainerexpand119" style="background-image: url(http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.e/img/3.0/video/416_player_Click_to_play_off.png); border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 42px; left: 45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 27px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 136px; zoom: 1;"></div><img alt="" border="0" class="box-image" height="120" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121121031733-entt1-lindsay-lohan-story-body.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="214" /><cite class="expCaption" style="background-color: black; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; bottom: 0px; height: 20px; left: 10px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.85; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 214px;"><span style="border: 0px; color: white; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; left: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Porn star dodges Lohan's f-bombs</span></cite></div><a href="" name="em2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt cnn_strylftcexpbx" id="expand219" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 27px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="clickToPlay" id="clickToPlayvideoContainerexpand219" style="background-image: url(http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.e/img/3.0/video/416_player_Click_to_play_off.png); border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 42px; left: 45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 27px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 136px; zoom: 1;"></div><img alt="" border="0" class="box-image" height="120" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130115074042-lohan-arrivals-upd-cms2-story-body.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="214" /><cite class="expCaption" style="background-color: black; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; bottom: 0px; height: 20px; left: 10px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.85; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 214px;"><span style="border: 0px; color: white; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; left: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">2011: Lohan walks judicial red carpet</span></cite></div><a href="" name="em3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt cnn_strylftcexpbx" id="expand319" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 27px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="clickToPlay" id="clickToPlayvideoContainerexpand319" style="background-image: url(http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.e/img/3.0/video/416_player_Click_to_play_off.png); border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 42px; left: 45px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 27px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 136px; zoom: 1;"></div><img alt="" border="0" class="box-image" height="120" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121213050643-drew-bts-michael-lohan-00001001-story-body.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="214" /><cite class="expCaption" style="background-color: black; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; bottom: 0px; height: 20px; left: 10px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.85; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 214px;"><span style="border: 0px; color: white; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; left: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Michael Lohan: 'Lindsay needs rehab'</span></cite></div><a href="" name="em4" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><div class="cnnGalleryContainer cnn_strylftcntnt" id="expand419" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Utkal, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="cnnStoryElementBox" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="cnnArticlePhotoContainer cnn_strylftcexpbxnv" id="photoContainer419" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 122px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 27px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 214px;"><img alt="Photos: Celebrity mug shots" border="0" class="cnnArticleBoxImage" height="360" id="photo419" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130223221217-mc-hammer-mug-shot-horizontal-gallery.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 122px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 214px;" width="640" /><cite class="expCaption" id="cite419" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: black; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 20px; left: 10px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.85; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 214px;"><span style="border: 0px; color: white; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; left: 4px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photos: Celebrity mug shots</span></cite></div></div></div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph19" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Although Lohan was sentenced to jail time, including five days and 90 days on two charges, the judge will allow her to serve it in rehab.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph20" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">The sentence extends Lohan's probation for two years and requires 18 months of psychotherapy.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph21" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"This is it," Dabney told her. "You violate your probation, and we're not going to have discussions of putting you back on probation."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph22" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lohan was charged with reckless driving and lying to a police officer about a June 2012 car crash in which her Porsche crashed in to a dump truck on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California. Her arrest triggered the probation violation charge.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph23" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">The police report said Lohan denied being behind the wheel, but the prosecutor was expected to call witnesses who say she was driving.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph24" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I think Lindsay needed to go and just deal with some of her issues," her father said Monday. "She got exactly what she needs.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph25" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lindsay Lohan acknowledged her drug and alcohol addiction in past court appearances.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph26" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">She's spent 250 days in five rehab facilities since January 2007, including one long court-ordered stint after a failed drug test.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph27" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">The actress has appeared in court at least 20 times before four Los Angeles judges who have now found her in violation of probation six times and sentenced her to a total of nine months in jail.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph28" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 0px 24px 19px 186px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lohan has spent about two weeks behind bars in six trips to the Los Angeles County jail, served 35 days under house arrest and worked about 67 days of community service at the county morgue.</div></div>

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Lohan accepts plea deal with rehab

Lindsay Lohan in troubleLos Angeles (CNN) -- Lindsay Lohan agreed to spend 90 days in a "locked in" drug rehab facility as part of a plea deal to settle criminal charges against her Monday.The actress entered pleas of no contest on two misdemeanor ch…

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Police: UCF student had plotted a mass killing

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Police UCF" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/18/ap-explosive-device-college-4_3_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">A former student at the University of Central Florida had amassed four explosive devices, two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition before killing himself in the dorm room from which he was soon to be evicted, police said Monday.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">UCF Police Chief Richard Beary said writings found in the room indicated that the student, James Seevakumaran, 30, had planned an attack on the campus.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"We think the fast response made him change his mind ... and he took his own life," Beary said. "I think, all things considered, we were very blessed here at the University of Central Florida."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Beary said campus police received a fire alarm call at about 12:20 a.m. Monday. While responding to that call, police received a 911 call from a dorm resident saying Seevakumaran had pointed a gun at him.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Beary said the dorm resident closed his door and hid in his bathroom until police arrived to rescue him. Officers at the scene then found the body of Seevakumaran.</div><aside class="wide single-photo" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #222222; float: none; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 25px; width: auto;"><img alt="None" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/18/ap-explosive-device-college_001-4_3_r541_c540.jpg?729ef1a5e3c69f5da0197e57e2bd3dd3fdfcd35f" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="540" /><div style="color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;">University of Central Florida students wait outside the college sports arena after explosive devices were found in a nearby dorm.<span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: John Raoux, AP)</span></div></aside><div class="clearfix" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The explosive devices were found inside a bag in the dorm room, Beary said. An assault weapon, another gun and the ammunition also were found.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Beary theorized that Seevakumaran pulled the fire alarm himself to get students out in the open. But Beary credited the quick police response with foiling what could have been a mass killing.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"His timeline got off," Beary said. "We think the rapid response of law enforcement may have changed his ability to think quickly on his feet."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The Orange County bomb squad, police and the FBI removed the devices from Tower 1, a residence hall for about 500 students. Students were evacuated and a parking garage was closed. Both reopened late Monday.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">UCF spokesman Grant Heston said Seevakumaran had not enrolled or paid his dorm bill for spring semester, and the school was in the process of evicting him. He said Seevakumaran had never been seen by UCF counseling and had no issues on his record.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Jasmine Derrick, 19, a freshman from Atlanta, said she was studying for a chemistry exam in a lounge across from Tower 1 early Monday when a police officer ordered everyone in the study lounge to evacuate.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"There were police everywhere, students out there half-dressed, no shoes, in the cold," Derrick said. A few hours later, by searching social media and watching the UCF website, she learned the details of what happened.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Its' terrifying, it's sad," Derrick said. "This is devastating for a parent, to have to bury child."</div></div>

UCF student Police: UCF student had plotted a mass killing

A former student at the University of Central Florida had amassed four explosive devices, two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition before killing himself in the dorm room from which he was soon to be evicted, police said Monday.UCF Police Chief …

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'Bates Motel' review: Putting the why in 'Psycho'

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="bates-motel-review.jpg" src="http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/width748/img/entertainment_impact_tv/photo/12437443-mmmain.jpg" /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><strong>In brief:</strong> A "contemporary prequel" to the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic <a href="http://www.nj.com/entertainment/movies/index.ssf/2010/10/a_psycho_analysis_alfred_hitchcocks_spookiest_movie_brought_with_it_the_end_of_hollywood_innocence.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">"Psycho,"</a>"Bates Motel" boasts a first-rate cast and an intriguingly creepy expansion of the original story's universe. New Jersey's own <a href="http://www.nj.com/entertainment/movies/index.ssf/2009/12/vera_farmiga_interview_chats_up_in_the_air_and_her_craft.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Vera Farmiga</a> ("Up in the Air") fleshes out (both figuratively and literally) Norma Bates, Norman Bates' domineering — possibly for a good reason — mother, and Freddie Highmore, who starred in 2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," embodies the high-strung earnestness of Anthony Perkins' portrayal. It premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on A&E.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><strong>First impressions: </strong>"Bates Motel" is packed with callbacks (or are they foreshadowings?) to the iconic film (we first see Norma getting out of the shower; the father of one of Norman's new friends is into taxidermy). And the iconic Gothic Revival house is one and the same, Norman has a penchant for old black and white movies, and Norma's demure wardrobe recalls the era of the original "Psycho," though "Bates Motel" is set in the present-day, which serves to keep viewers firmly off balance.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">You only need a working knowledge of the film to appreciate the series, which expands the Bates nuclear family. Okay, Norman's father is already dead in the opening scene, and Norma uses his life insurance to buy a rundown motel and home on the northern Pacific coast. She doesn't, however, elect to inform her older son Dylan Massett, Norman's down-on-his-luck older half-brother (Max Theriot), who nevertheless tracks them down and inserts himself into their lives. Dylan has an equally complicated but much more strained relationship with his mother, but seems genuinely concerned for his younger brother.</div><div class="PullQuoteAfter" style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">And what of Norman? This may be a prequel, but the seeds of Norman's psychoses were planted well before the series opens. The reedy, sweet-faced Norman is simultaneously drawn to and repelled by his mother's smothering, and there is enough nuance in both Highmore's and Farmiga's portrayals that make you wonder whether Norma was responsible for Norman's later fractures, or was simply responding to some sickness that may have always lurked in the young man.</div><div class="PullQuote" data-position="4" style="background-color: white; background-image: url(http://www.nj.com/static/common/img/sprites/meta-sprite-ext.png); background-position: -390px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: none; color: #363636; float: left; font-family: prelo-slab, serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 34px; margin-left: -75px; padding: 0px 10px 20px 75px; width: 350px;">Guess which young lady Norma prefers? The way Farmiga's eyes light up when hearing Emma's grim prognosis is delightfully perverse.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">There's also the requisite love triangle — not counting Mom. Norman almost immediately becomes the pet of a popular clique of girls and pines after welcoming (but taken) Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz), while he's befriended by outsider Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke), who adds a dash of "Veronica Mars" to the proceedings. Emma trails around an oxygen tank because she suffers from cystic fibrosis, a chronic lung disease that almost always leads to a relatively early death. (Guess which young lady Norma prefers? The way Farmiga's eyes light up when hearing Emma's grim prognosis is delightfully perverse.)</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></div><div class="embeddedMedia entry_widget_large entry_widget_right" id="ss12089002" style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #363636; float: right; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; width: 372px;"><div class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-photo" style="display: inline;"><div class="adv-slideshow" style="margin: 5px 0px 15px;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" class="adv-photo" height="253" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089006-large.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="380" /><div class="slideshow-data" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: -2px; padding-top: 5px;"><a class="full-size-popup" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/winter_television_2013_what_to.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;">Enlarge</a><span class="byline" style="color: #666666; display: block; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; line-height: 13px; margin-bottom: 7px; text-align: right; width: 223.18333435058594px;"><a href="http://connect.nj.com/user/njoslced/photos.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;">Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk</a></span><span class="caption" style="clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">NBC's "Do No Harm," starring Steven Pasquale ("Rescue Me") as a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde. Premieres Jan. 31 at 10 p.m.</span><span class="gallery"><a href="http://photos.nj.com/4504/gallery/winter_television_2013_what_to_watch/index.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;">Winter television 2013: What to watch</a> gallery (16 photos)</span><div class="slideshow_carousel"><span class="ss_next12089002 next right"></span><span class="ss_prev12089002 prev left"></span><div id="slideshow12089002"><div class="show"><ul style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="float: left; list-style-type: none; margin-right: 14px;"><a class="abBrLink" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/deception_-_season_pilot.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" height="60" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089015-thumb_square.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="60" /></a></li><li style="float: left; list-style-type: none; margin-right: 14px;"><a class="abBrLink" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/winter_television_2013_what_to_8.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" height="60" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089018-thumb_square.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="60" /></a></li><li style="float: left; list-style-type: none; margin-right: 14px;"><a class="abBrLink" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/the_carrie_diaries.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" height="60" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089013-thumb_square.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="60" /></a></li><li style="float: left; list-style-type: none; margin-right: 14px;"><a class="abBrLink" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/winter_television_2013_what_to_10.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" height="60" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089020-thumb_square.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="60" /></a></li><li style="float: left; list-style-type: none; margin-right: 14px;"><a class="abBrLink" href="http://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/01/winter-television-ripper-stree.html" style="color: #363636; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Winter television 2013: What to watch" height="60" src="http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2013/01/12089464-thumb_square.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="60" /></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div><span class="photo-bottom-left" style="display: block; float: left; height: 7px; margin-top: -7px; width: 7px;"></span><span class="photo-bottom-right" style="background-position: -35px -7px; display: block; float: right; height: 7px; margin-top: -7px; width: 7px;"></span></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">While we discover in the pilot that the motel has already sheltered its share of sick secrets, "Bates Motel" broadens Hitchcock's world to the "Twin Peaks"-ian town of White Pine Bay, rife with secrets and wielding its own twisted justice. (But never fear — no one breaks into <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F8gLejzxLk" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">"Mairzy Doats"</a> in the first three episodes.) Nestor Carbonell, Richard Alpert (or "Eyeliner Guy") from "Lost," is the suspicious sheriff, Alex Romero, and Mike Vogel, last seen flashing his pearly whites on "Pan Am," is his deputy, who is seemingly sympathetic to Norma after she gets mixed up in an investigation.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">"Bates Motel" wastes little time in shedding blood (there is a rather graphic sequence in the pilot), but there's more suspense than outright scares. This property is definitely worth the hourly rate.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><strong>Grade:</strong> A-</div></div>

'Bates Motel' review 'Bates Motel' review: Putting the why in 'Psycho'

In brief: A "contemporary prequel" to the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic "Psycho,""Bates Motel" boasts a first-rate cast and an intriguingly creepy expansion of the original story's universe. New Jersey's own Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air") fleshes…

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Songwriter Jason Molina Dies at 39

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Jason Molina" src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/03/18/gullick7_custom-ee166a47462f6d4fca0b4aa010d98b8b29d9c52a-s40.jpg" /><br /><img alt="jasonmolina" src="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/browbeat/2013/03/18/jasonmolina.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg" /><br /><br /><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jason Molina, the songwriter behind <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X6UD2Q/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=slatmaga-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000X6UD2Q&adid=0RHJKM7FA2WVGCDPMMEA&" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Songs:Ohia</a> and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X6XD1E/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=slatmaga-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000X6XD1E&adid=0QGSP4ZYCGTEY14HEMFQ&" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Magnolia Electric Co.</a>, <a href="http://content.magnoliaelectricco.com/post/45680503834/on-the-passing-of-jason-molina" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">died this past Saturday at his home in Indianapolis at the age of 39</a>. The Ohio native, who between 1997 and 2009 put out several records under those names and his own, had struggled with alcoholism for years. After more than a decade of startlingly prolific songwriting, he mostly disappeared from the public view a few years ago, as his drinking led to stints in rehab and serious health problems.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In late 2011, Henry Owings wrote a column about Molina’s whereabouts, noting that<a href="http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?ID=707&section=blogs" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Molina had no health insurance</a>, and that his family was trying to raise money so he could afford real medical help. At the time, Molina was with family, “<a href="http://content.magnoliaelectricco.com/post/22263259381/where-is-jason-molina" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">working on a farm in West Virginia raising goats and chickens</a>.” A few months later, Molina himself took to the web to explain that he was still in recovery, “getting to deal with a lot of things that even the music didn’t want to.”</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The music, for Molina, had always dealt with a lot of things—his songs are frequently dark and personal, delivered in a quavery voice that seemed to catch something of his own fragility. Several of them have been making the rounds this morning as word has gotten out about Molina’s passing. The one I’ve been listening to over and over is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X6U7HM/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=slatmaga-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000X6U7HM&adid=05FEAVEW1HKVV8QNPYYR&" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Nashville Moon</a>.” “I’ve been on that road and it was darkness end to end,” Molina sings, “and I just headed for the dark again.” Rest in peace, Jason.</div></div></div>

Jason Molina Songwriter Jason Molina Dies at 39

Jason Molina, the songwriter behind Songs:Ohia and the Magnolia Electric Co., died this past Saturday at his home in Indianapolis at the age of 39. The Ohio native, who between 1997 and 2009 put out several records under those names and his own, had …

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Tiger Woods, Lindsay Vonn Make It Official: 'We Are Now Dating'

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Lindsey Vonn and Tiger Woods." height="425" src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/03/18/vonn_tiger_custom-3486f4f38427ff9c569365116e89efc7a3ce8c37-s40.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.6pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 80.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">We promise, we'll get back to real news in a little bit. But first: After weeks of rumors, the sports icons Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn have made it official: They are dating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 0.0001pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">"I guess it wasn't a well-kept secret but yes, I am dating Tiger Woods," Vonn, the Olympic gold medalist ski racer,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/lindseyvonn/status/313696450833948674" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">tweeted</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 15.6pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">Both Vonn and Woods, who is a 14-time major golf champion, also posted photographs of themselves on their Facebook pages.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 0.0001pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">"Our relationship evolved from a friendship into something more over these past few months and it has made me very happy,"<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151508174969728&l=a427064e7f" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Vonn said on her Facebook page</span></a>. "I don't plan on addressing this further as I would like to keep that part of my life between us, my family and close friends."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 0.0001pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">Woods<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152697837675121&set=a.10152697837415121.1073741826.164825930120&type=1&theater" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">put out a very similar statement</span></a>, saying, "We want to continue our relationship, privately, as an ordinary couple and continue to compete as athletes."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 0.0001pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.espn.co.uk/golf/sport/story/198272.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">As ESPN explains</span></a>, Woods has two children with his ex-wife Elin Nordegren, a former Swedish model.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 15.6pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">"The marriage dissolved after Woods' infidelities very publicly came to light in 2009," ESPN adds. "His career then suffered for a time, but he has shown signs of again becoming the top threat on the tour and won the WGC-Cadillac Championship this month. Woods is in the field for this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-size: 1.6rem; margin: 0cm 80.25pt 15.6pt 0cm; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";">Vonn, whose divorce from fellow Olympic ski racer Thomas Vonn became official in January, is recovering from a knee injury she suffered during the World Championships in Austria.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Lindsay Vonn Tiger Woods Tiger Woods, Lindsay Vonn Make It Official: 'We Are Now Dating'

We promise, we'll get back to real news in a little bit. But first: After weeks of rumors, the sports icons Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn have made it official: They are dating."I guess it wasn't a well-kept secret but yes, I am dating Tiger Woods," V…

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How Creative Is Your Doctor? - NYTimes.com

<div id="well" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div align="left"><div class="entry-content"><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><em>What are you doing creatively these days?</em></div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">It's not a question you hear commonly, and certainly not in a medical journal. But that was the title of a <a href="http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2012/11000/What_Are_You_Doing_Creatively_These_Days_.20.aspx" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">commentary in a recent issue of Academic Medicine.</a> It caught my eye, because medicine is a field with a strong history of creativity, but its daily practice feels less and less so. Health care is being pushed steadily toward standardization, insisting on an algorithmic approach to diagnosis and treatment. Some ramifications of this trend have been beneficial, but many of these algorithms have been mechanized to the point where there is little need for human beings and their intricately personal neural networks.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Part of this stems from the way in which we are taught to think about clinical medicine. Medical school can seem like an ongoing exercise of committing lists to memory, the only creativity being the mnemonics for memorizing branches of the facial nerve or diseases with anion-gap metabolic acidosis. When students present cases, there is a sense of roteness. A patient with chest pain, for example, becomes, "Rule-out M.I. (myocardial infarction). Get an EKG, serial troponin levels, stress test, cardiology consult…."</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Some of this roteness, of course, is thoroughness. You need to cover all your bases to ensure you are not missing anything serious. But rote recitation inhibits the ability to think beyond diagnostic straightjackets.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">In one of my recent clinic sessions, I saw four patients with diabetes over the course of a morning. One was a young man whose glucose, weight and early-onset heart disease resist control, despite jogging 10 miles a day and eating like a rabbit. Another was an elderly woman with fragile bones, congestive heart failure and a medication list longer than my arm. A third was a middle-aged man unable to compromise a single French fry in his diet. And the fourth was a middle-aged woman whose depression snowplows all of her other salutary efforts.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Other than insulin dysregulation, these patients have nothing in common. Yet our medical approach is expected to be "standardized."</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Dr. Niamh Kelly, the author of the creativity essay, wonders what it would take "to bring the notion of creativity into the everyday delivery of health care." It is a question we, as a profession, should take seriously. Patients and diseases do not come as prepackaged widgets. A slavish approach to standardized treatments without any creativity can do more harm than good. "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease," the famous Sir William Osler is reputed to have said, "than what sort of a disease a patient has."</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">When I talk to medical students about how creativity can fit into the medical world, I often cite the case of Witty Ticcy Ray, profiled by Dr. Oliver Sacks in his now-classic book, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." Ray had a severe case of Tourette's syndrome. The unpredictable bouts of facial grimaces and grunts — often laced with expletives — interfered with many aspects of his life. When Dr. Sacks prescribed Haldol, the tics were eliminated, and Ray's job and family life were markedly stabilized as a result.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But in addition to removing the tics, the Haldol had a "side effect" of flattening out Ray's ability to improvise as a jazz drummer. Typically, the medical profession would not have done much at this point beyond nodding sympathetically about having to take the bad with the good.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But Ray and his doctor came up with a plan: Ray would take his medication Monday to Friday, and be the "sober, solid" person that his job required. On weekends, however, he'd ditch the Haldol and be the "witty ticcy Ray," reveling in the frenetic, free-wheeling music that he so loved.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">This solution was quite simple, but it was also remarkably creative because it looked beyond the standard definitions of "treatment success" and "medication side-effects." It is unlikely that this arrangement would have come about in the algorithmic approach to medicine that is insisted upon today.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">How do we teach creativity in medicine? For one thing, Dr. Kelly suggests, people's creative sides should be brought to the forefront. She imagines water-cooler conversations and medical conferences that start by asking, "What are you doing creatively lately?" There is likely more creative talent lurking in medical professionals, and in patients, than we suspect. Bringing it forward could have a salutary effect on the medical interactions that follow.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Explicitly focusing on the creative process is the important next step. Many medical schools are beginning to incorporate arts, literature and humanities into the curricula. Critics deride this as fluff, but I think it is crucial in medical education.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Poetry is one of my favorite tools because of its unselfconscious focus on metaphor. By definition, metaphor requires the stringing together of parts of the mind that don't normally work together. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/health/quest-to-eliminate-diagnostic-lapses.html?pagewanted=all" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Master diagnosticians</a> and scientists cogitate in the same way, actively considering ideas that don't normally sit together.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">If all patients and their diseases presented in exactly the manner of the textbooks, then the algorithms would be sufficient. Computers could surely do our job much more efficiently. Lord knows, they certainly wouldn't keep misplacing their reading glasses.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But the human condition is far messier — in health and even more so in illness. Complex biology and the many overlays of social, psychological and economic issues make medicine a complicated, and nuanced, affair. The serpentine logic often seems closer to literary metaphor than to the orderly taxonomy of knowledge that we cut our teeth on.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">It is our job as clinicians to work with patients to untangle these metaphors. For this, solid medical knowledge is necessary but not nearly sufficient. We need to flex the oddball neurons that connect the disparate corners of our consciousness. They need to be honed in the same manner as muscles at the gym, with ongoing stretches and workouts.</div><div style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">The next time you see your doctor, you might want to ask what he or she is doing creatively these days.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><i><a href="http://danielleofri.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">Danielle Ofri</a> is an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and editor in chief of the <a href="http://blr.med.nyu.edu/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">Bellevue Literary Review</a>. Her most recent book is <a href="http://danielleofri.com/books/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">"Medicine in Translation: Journeys With My Patients."</a></i></div></div></div></div><br><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/how-creative-is-your-doctor/?pagewanted=print">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/how-creative-is-your-doctor/?pagewanted=print</a>

How Creative Is Your Doctor? - NYTimes.com

What are you doing creatively these days?It's not a question you hear commonly, and certainly not in a medical journal. But that was the title of a commentary in a recent issue of Academic Medicine. It caught my eye, because medicine is a field with …

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Monday, Monday

<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.archidose.org/wp/">A Weekly Dose of Architecture</a> Updates:</span><br /><br />This week's dose features the <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/03/18/three-projects-by-toyo-ito/">Three Projects by Toyo Ito</a>:<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/03/18/three-projects-by-toyo-ito/"><img alt="this week's dose" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Mar13-18-1024x673.jpg" title="This week's dose" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The featured past dose is <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2001/04/09/tower-of-winds/">Tower of Winds</a> in Yokohama, Japan, by Toyo Ito:<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2001/04/09/tower-of-winds/"><img alt="this week's dose" src="http://www.archidose.org/Apr01/winds3.jpg" title="featured past dose" /> <img alt="this week's dose" src="http://www.archidose.org/Apr01/winds4.jpg" title="featured past dose" /></a><br /><br />This week's book review is <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/03/18/renovacao-praca-do-toural/"><i>Renovação Praça do Toural, Alameda de São Dâmaso e Rua de Santo António, Guimarães 2010 - 2012</i></a> by Nuno Miguel Borges (L):<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/03/18/renovacao-praca-do-toural/"><img alt="this week's book review" height="300" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/guimaraes-toural.jpg" title="This week's book review" /></a> <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2012/10/08/toyo-ito-forces-of-nature/"><img alt="this week's book review" height="300" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ito.jpg" title="This week's book review" /></a><br />(R): The featured past book review is <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2012/10/08/toyo-ito-forces-of-nature/"><i>Toyo Ito: Forces of Nature</i></a> edited by Jessie Turnbull.<br /><br />: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">American-Architects <a href="http://www.american-architects.com/en/pages/50x50">Building of the Week</a>:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.american-architects.com/projects/projects_detail/40178">Lavaflow 7 - Mayer/Penland House</a> in Pahoa, Big Island, Hawaii, by Craig Steely Architecture:<br /><a href="http://www.american-architects.com/projects/projects_detail/40178"><img alt="this week's Building of the Week" src="http://c214210.r10.cf3.rackcdn.com/files/projects/40178/images/900:w/L7_1.jpg" title="Current Building of the Week on american-architects.com" width="640" /></a>

Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates:This week's dose features the Three Projects by Toyo Ito:The featured past dose is Tower of Winds in Yokohama, Japan, by Toyo Ito: This week's book review is Renovação Praça do Toural, Alameda de São Dâmaso e Rua…

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In Dublin's Fair City....

We were in Dublin City today and took the dog for a walk in St Stephen's Green. It is a good sized park in the centre of town just off Grafton Street. I especially like the band stand! <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTU0put_2auxzvR7lBdEs0ARIWqIdncnKUdWt9N4yOqmaE69bH01duQrdL4IiMWBmJVlmuJ6PYqS-xzQnoAlCjdwb7knB2-d260ySqdECMRk8CfcyQN4BF47m4_mKYcqCCD3EnD77i-Jx_/s640/blogger-image--1965874262.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTU0put_2auxzvR7lBdEs0ARIWqIdncnKUdWt9N4yOqmaE69bH01duQrdL4IiMWBmJVlmuJ6PYqS-xzQnoAlCjdwb7knB2-d260ySqdECMRk8CfcyQN4BF47m4_mKYcqCCD3EnD77i-Jx_/s640/blogger-image--1965874262.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_S1HKllqFYt61D3SOXu3pmtqAn6pbPoQFkSf8DjohUbJcKHzEvxUv_lwMs8wCaZi9qb623Vt7tcuRu5ACXh3mODKLievNQs5aGov9AluZ4GkIsHuKDIELRab3da918MHFLp_rhZZSJHQ/s640/blogger-image--1426077561.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_S1HKllqFYt61D3SOXu3pmtqAn6pbPoQFkSf8DjohUbJcKHzEvxUv_lwMs8wCaZi9qb623Vt7tcuRu5ACXh3mODKLievNQs5aGov9AluZ4GkIsHuKDIELRab3da918MHFLp_rhZZSJHQ/s640/blogger-image--1426077561.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzET1A7yl-QnR3jgup_HrdVNo3nvFU2HGYoJ4r3ykkqEz9wBCyWoWS2XQ7FzRyDNxUG68iSNvsTy_Wh2nL1AnjcFhT9_rLZ-3zCZmParEzDWWpkj_0WBHFdalUckxT-r9gZZLkeg0NSvI/s640/blogger-image--364274285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzET1A7yl-QnR3jgup_HrdVNo3nvFU2HGYoJ4r3ykkqEz9wBCyWoWS2XQ7FzRyDNxUG68iSNvsTy_Wh2nL1AnjcFhT9_rLZ-3zCZmParEzDWWpkj_0WBHFdalUckxT-r9gZZLkeg0NSvI/s640/blogger-image--364274285.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9G2cGbqXlbRwVJ8WJLG6MrZj-EQoiWX_UCfREBaX1pupBIHJBkMJdlst_zNz7YyK-dpvpj0L2sblfhBolPLCzBVHTFdmuIRymwp3kzebpL20OiVyYurykyDEDkUznTsWlwI3Tffcd0N1a/s640/blogger-image-1070720141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9G2cGbqXlbRwVJ8WJLG6MrZj-EQoiWX_UCfREBaX1pupBIHJBkMJdlst_zNz7YyK-dpvpj0L2sblfhBolPLCzBVHTFdmuIRymwp3kzebpL20OiVyYurykyDEDkUznTsWlwI3Tffcd0N1a/s640/blogger-image-1070720141.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0GaeajNEW4DKpbHhfyiph2MMnCk0FDkLpaVDlQanpBA3abj5xtN8Z8Awod-KqvEQaJLKS5x1mTeMqKLQ0fLmnuOu8dWQJWWSS7pHH8YbMXLIEs9fhUq5q2BKN3GLOFN5dDNQ35GE0Aor/s640/blogger-image-363068188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0GaeajNEW4DKpbHhfyiph2MMnCk0FDkLpaVDlQanpBA3abj5xtN8Z8Awod-KqvEQaJLKS5x1mTeMqKLQ0fLmnuOu8dWQJWWSS7pHH8YbMXLIEs9fhUq5q2BKN3GLOFN5dDNQ35GE0Aor/s640/blogger-image-363068188.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlfkBRBiyW5J_8RvfniIfFVlhocdUxnG9z9G5rdTmrxUlSNJGduSV8qGUE2HCe-Ny5rW_43kNDq4Z0e5p9BeMbZlBQmNSnjd_OiHFevqrdWEBVHBmKZc_YFU1AB0zaEFiEvbga6LYbqQo/s640/blogger-image-905116278.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlfkBRBiyW5J_8RvfniIfFVlhocdUxnG9z9G5rdTmrxUlSNJGduSV8qGUE2HCe-Ny5rW_43kNDq4Z0e5p9BeMbZlBQmNSnjd_OiHFevqrdWEBVHBmKZc_YFU1AB0zaEFiEvbga6LYbqQo/s640/blogger-image-905116278.jpg" /></a></div>

In Dublin's Fair City....

We were in Dublin City today and took the dog for a walk in St Stephen's Green. It is a good sized park in the centre of town just off Grafton Street. I especially like the band stand! …

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Barre Bars Review

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV618AwM2B0Id1GcQP6cJsOWSRqC5O05JUxdHZVmY3BsNg1wrHcNWjPb4hX-38DDzxavIvsbUwwNQl4YmuDoY_qKWpZgfcybT85sI_dooNUY-qpjYfJRlxiMEBxrG8cAnxiB07U56Xf4k/s1600/header.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV618AwM2B0Id1GcQP6cJsOWSRqC5O05JUxdHZVmY3BsNg1wrHcNWjPb4hX-38DDzxavIvsbUwwNQl4YmuDoY_qKWpZgfcybT85sI_dooNUY-qpjYfJRlxiMEBxrG8cAnxiB07U56Xf4k/s320/header.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I look for in a snack is something that will keep me full, delicious, made from real ingredients and this snack has just that! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6703S4auDgPXqkt472S2NcamPnWs2RwJbWG_mekkPe8pIarDF6o_3UBHniX-LT8iMstqDXtZ8iVqPelBhuu39UP82LVeDKyxV4CWBvPI4vrCOpxV_s0KuS2BVSU1W95KwQuaHGUBjJY/s1600/Barre+bars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6703S4auDgPXqkt472S2NcamPnWs2RwJbWG_mekkPe8pIarDF6o_3UBHniX-LT8iMstqDXtZ8iVqPelBhuu39UP82LVeDKyxV4CWBvPI4vrCOpxV_s0KuS2BVSU1W95KwQuaHGUBjJY/s320/Barre+bars.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What comes to mind when I think of these bars I received for review from a company called <a href="http://realfoodbarre.com/">Barre Bar</a> is that they are made up of whole ingredients and are exceptionally great for athletes and professional dancers.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This tasty treat not only is delicious but it doesn't weigh you down to the point after eating you just don't want to move!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 2010 Julia (maker of Barre) was on a mission for the perfect snack for athletes using only simple ingredients.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She then brought her first concoction to test to her friends and colleagues and they loved it!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Made to provide energy to your performance such as a basketball player, or a ballet dancer, did you know that Julia is a ballet dancer herself?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Her and her partner and coworker Aaron who was an energy bar connoisseur </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">himself set out to make more bars for others to enjoy and that's just what they did.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Later on in 2010 Barre Bars were born.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These bars are amazing, and here is why.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Facts:</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gives you energy to perform your best</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All natural ingredients</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keeps you fuller longer</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Delicious</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Flavors:</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pirouette Cinnamon Pecan</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Black Swan Chocolate Berry</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ballerina Spiruluna</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oder them here! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://realfoodbarre.com/">http://realfoodbarre.com/</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like Them On Face Book Here: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/realfoodbarre"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.facebook.com/realfoodbarre</span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Follow Them On Twitter here:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/realfoodbarre">https://twitter.com/realfoodbarre</a></span><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Due to FCC guidelines:</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Barre Foods sent me their energy bars in exchange for a product review. All the opinions expressed are my own.</span></div></div>

Barre Bars Review

What I look for in a snack is something that will keep me full, delicious, made from real ingredients and this snack has just that! What comes to mind when I think of these bars I received for review from a company called Barre Bar is that they are m…

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How Good Is Your Hospital? Depends Who You Ask | PBS NewsHour

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">How good a hospital is St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital? Depends on whom you ask.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Leapfrog Group, a respected nonprofit that promotes patient safety, gave an "A" to this Michigan hospital. The company Healthgrades named it one of America's best 50 hospitals.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But the Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals, and U.S. News and World Report omitted St. Mary from their best hospital lists. Consumer Reports gave it an average safety score of 47 points out of 100, citing high numbers of readmissions, poor communication with patients and excessive use of scans. Medicare, which has a <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/December/21/medicare-hospitals-value-based-purchasing.aspx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">new program rewarding hospitals</a> for meeting certain quality measures, is reducing St. Mary's payments by a fraction this year.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Evaluations of hospitals are proliferating, giving patients unprecedented insight into institutions where variations in quality can determine whether they live or die. Many have similar names, such as "<a href="http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Best Hospitals Honor Roll</a>," "<a href="http://www.healthgrades.com/quality/top-hospitals-2013" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">America's Best Hospitals</a>" and "<a href="http://www.100tophospitals.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">100 Top Hospitals</a>." <a href="http://www.healthcarereportcard.illinois.gov/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Illinois</a>,<a href="http://www.floridahealthfinder.gov/CompareCare/SelectChoice.aspx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Florida</a> and other states have created their own report cards. In some places, such as California, there are more than a dozen organizations offering assessments on hospital quality.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But those ratings, each using its own methodology, often come to wildly divergent conclusions, sometimes providing as much confusion as clarity for consumers. Some hospitals rated as outstanding by one group are ignored or panned by another. Ratings results from an individual group can change significantly from year to year.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"We've alternatively been labeled the least safe hospital in Maine and the safest hospital in Maine," said Dr. Douglas Salvador, vice president of quality at Maine Medical Center in Portland.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">And the ratings do not always jibe with the views of authorities who oversee hospitals. For instance, UCSF Medical Center has gotten good grades from multiple safety raters even as California public health officials have fined it $425,000 repeatedly for <a href="http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/facilities/Pages/APCountySanFrancisco.aspx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">endangering patients</a>. As ratings multiply, more and more hospitals have something they can boast about. A third of U.S. hospitals -- more than 1,600 -- last year won at least one distinction from a major rating group or company, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. In the greater Fort Lauderdale hospital market, 21 of 24 hospitals were singled out as exemplary by at least one rating source. In the Baltimore region, 19 out of 22 hospitals won an award.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"I worry a lot about these ratings," said Jerod Loeb, executive vice president for health care quality evaluation at the Joint Commission. "They're all justifiable efforts to provide information, but at the end of the day every single one of them is flawed in some respect. Rather than enlightening, we may be confusing."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">There are so many report cards on hospitals that the Informed Patient Institute runs a <a href="http://www.informedpatientinstitute.org/index.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">website</a> that grades the raters. Carol Cronin, its executive director, said most report cards are not easy for consumers to use. "A lot of them don't help users quickly understand which hospital is better than another," she said.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But many hospitals are eager to trump these distinctions in their marketing. Healthgrades, U.S. News and Leapfrog not only encourage this but also profit from it by charging licensing fees to hospitals that want to advertise their awards. "A hospital cannot buy an award, they must achieve it," Healthgrades said in a statement.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Healthgrades and Truven Health Analytics, which publishes the 100 Top Hospitals, offer consulting services to hospitals that want to improve their overall performances. Jean Chenoweth, a Truven senior vice president, said the list doesn't earn Truven any money but it "gives the company a lot of visibility."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a href="http://www.med.nyu.edu/people/andrew-w-brotman-md" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Dr. Andrew Brotman</a> chief clinical officer at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, said the fees can be substantial. "Healthgrades, which is one we did well on, charges $145,000 to use this even on the website as a logo, so we don't do that," he said. "U.S. News is in the $50,000 range. Leapfrog is $12,500."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Consumer Reports bars hospitals from using its ratings in marketing, but patients must subscribe to read them online. (Others generally provide free access to ratings on their sites.) The Joint Commission does not charge hospitals that make its top quality list.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A Pew Research Center survey found <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online/Part-Two/Section-2.aspx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">14 percent</a> of Internet users consulted online rankings or reviews of hospitals and medical facilities. Florence Harvey, 70, said when she moved to Washington, D.C., last fall, she picked a health plan and doctor affiliated with Washington Hospital Center after reviewing all the local hospitals rankings on U.S. News' website. "That was the one that had the best across-the-board ratings," she said.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But Harvey may be an anomaly. <a href="http://sackler.tufts.edu/Faculty-and-Research/Faculty-Profiles/Peter-Lindenauer-Profile" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Dr. Peter Lindenauer</a>, a professor with Tufts University School of Medicine based in Springfield, Mass., said the limited research on rankings "suggests they have had very little impact on patient behavior."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">That's not surprising since many admissions, such as those due to a heart attack or car crash, have an immediacy that rules out comparison shopping. Also, researchers note, many patients defer to their physicians' recommendations or go to the hospital where their chosen surgeon has privileges. Still, rating groups say the ratings help keep the pressure on hospital executives to keep quality up.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Patient safety has to be a priority 24-7," said Leah Binder, Leapfrog's president. "The minute it slips off the priority list, that impacts the rating."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The calculations that go into these ratings are complex. Most hospital assessments synthesize dozens of pieces of data Medicare publishes on its Hospital Compare <a href="http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">website</a>, including death rates and the results of patient satisfaction surveys. They also examine other sources and use private surveys to create user-friendly lists or grades, which they display on their websites.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The <a href="http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(9, 64, 108); font-weight: bold; ">Joint Commission</a> looks at how frequently patients received recommended treatments, such as flu shots for those with pneumonia. Consumer Reports examines the numbers of patients who die or are readmitted, infection rates and Medicare patient surveys of their experiences. Leapfrog looks at data from its surveys of hospitals, the consistency with which hospitals followed safe surgical practices and frequencies of infections and some types of patient harm. Healthgrades analyzes detailed Medicare records to find death and complication rates for 27 procedures and conditions.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Ratings and ranking programs certainly offer people information they can use to make their hospital selections, but we don't recommend relying on any one of them completely," Jennifer Kennedy, a spokeswoman for St. Mary Mercy, said in an e-mail. "None are able to tell the whole story or paint a complete picture of the care that is delivered."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The ratings groups believe the public benefits from the multitude of ratings. Dr. John Santa, who directs Consumer Reports' health ratings, said consumers benefit from different vantages just as they do for cars or electronic devices, and the competition spurs each rating group to get better. "We think that's consistent with good science," Santa said.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Avery Comarow, health rankings editor for U.S. News, agrees. "People go to hospitals for different reasons and priorities," he said. "I'm not sure there could be a single rating system that can do it all."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Some of the hospitals that do the best in the rankings have limited respect for them. Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., last year received praise from Leapfrog, U.S. News, the Joint Commission, Truven and Healthgrades. But Dr. William Adair, vice president for clinical transformation, says the hospital doesn't license any of the distinctions. "We're all made a little bit uneasy, to be frank about it," Adair says. "Some of these organizations are looking for revenue. It blurs the effectiveness of the ratings processes."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">Still, many hospitals are happy to use the praise. Dr. Brotman from NYU said: "Even though there's not a hospital executive who won't tell you that they have a great deal of skepticism about a lot of the methodology, there's not one who will tell you they don't want to be on the lists."</p></div><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/how-good-is-your-hospital-depends-who-you-ask.html">http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/how-good-is-your-hospital-depends-who-you-ask.html</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

How Good Is Your Hospital? Depends Who You Ask | PBS NewsHour

How good a hospital is St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital? Depends on whom you ask.The Leapfrog Group, a respected nonprofit that promotes patient safety, gave an "A" to this Michigan hospital. The company Healthgrades named it one of America's best 50 …

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