News for today's 2018

A Day of Wine and Roses

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Today is the big day. Valentine’s Day…<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUP8zJ1zmF3r-HnAKZtvcWk90BigvE2K0bi_9hAR3fSpl5A2OSeNwugNT7H6Bvj63ZQgJztP07CrckFX0ShURogTHnQcsNYWEGeWPFa-J-gmT2TucOvtXvCSREQH1kb0JJB7WQGAn7L1s/s1600/Valentine's+Day+Stupid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUP8zJ1zmF3r-HnAKZtvcWk90BigvE2K0bi_9hAR3fSpl5A2OSeNwugNT7H6Bvj63ZQgJztP07CrckFX0ShURogTHnQcsNYWEGeWPFa-J-gmT2TucOvtXvCSREQH1kb0JJB7WQGAn7L1s/s400/Valentine's+Day+Stupid.jpg" width="300" /></a>A day when men purchase overpriced roses, perhaps a shiny bauble or two, and then take their loved one out for food and fine wine.<br /><br />Later in the day, some men may even do the same thing for their wife or girlfriend.<br /><br />What does said male unit get for his trouble and generosity?<br /><br />That’s right…Heartache.<br /><br />Love is cruel.<br /><br />Now don’t get me wrong, I am not completely against one’s love taking on the form of some type of tangible, commercial reward, but it should be mutual.<br /><br />Too often it is not, and on this day I see too many men suffering from unrequited bling bestowment.<br /><br />I guess one of my biggest peeves about Valentine’s Day is that Marketing Nazis attempt to coerce men into buying something for their target of affection.<br /><br />Why <i>buy</i> something?<br /><br />Creating something from one’s own heart, mind, and soul would be much more personal and romantic. Would it not?<br /><br />For instance, this Valentine’s Day, I put together a memory box for Schmoop. It contains items that conjure up images from the first time we met.<br /><br />The box contains a picture of a case of Bud Light, a leather belt, baby oil, and the very pair of red silk panties that she wore (albeit briefly) on the night we met.<br /><br />That my friends, was a special night.<br /><br />It wasn’t just love and roses though. There was some angst and regret of how quickly the passion unfolded. I tried to somehow bottle Schmoop’s regret from that night.<br /><br />I decided to symbolize that feeling by filling a shot glass full of my urine and leaving the toilet seat up.<br /><br />Matt-Man: Ar-teest d'Amour!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyOv6vdfbwwaik4HfaHO6E9b8LnYbgCekt0KbzXCdtEXC2gGub1HKTaAqqHqGnkPpXGGBtNhJVt983MN4w6OiJbf1zXuu26ATg238mumoN9ZZJFUkeML_FcH0cw1Nwg1uqLbTgC5tuyiY/s1600/Pajama+Gram+Valentine's+Day.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyOv6vdfbwwaik4HfaHO6E9b8LnYbgCekt0KbzXCdtEXC2gGub1HKTaAqqHqGnkPpXGGBtNhJVt983MN4w6OiJbf1zXuu26ATg238mumoN9ZZJFUkeML_FcH0cw1Nwg1uqLbTgC5tuyiY/s400/Pajama+Gram+Valentine's+Day.JPG" width="202" /></a>See? Personal handcrafted gifts are much better than say, Pajama Grams. Have you seen those commercials for Pajama Grams? Gimme a break.<br /><br />The ad says something like…<i>Hey Guys, order your woman a sexy pair of pajamas for Valentine’s Day and have it delivered to her in a fancy hat box.</i><br /><br />The ad and the visuals of it, imply that if a guy buys these “hot” PJs, she will be so happy that the PJs will later be flying off of her and she will be spread eagle on the bed.<br /><br />Fuck That.<br /><br />If I spend serious coin on pajamas for my <strike>ladies</strike> lady, I want her to leave them on and allow me to get my money’s worth out of them.<br /><br />I want her to wear out that silky night garb to the point where her nipples have poked through the top, and the ass crack sweat has eaten away at the bottoms.<br /><br />Passion is all well and good…but at what cost?<br /><br />In spite of my <strike>extreme loathing</strike> slight cynicism about Valentine’s Day, I hope that yours is all that you’d like it to be.<br /><br />Then again, you can do what I did this year...You can give up Valentine's Day for Lent.<br /><br /><i>Cheers…</i><br /><br />Matt-Man<br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com">mattmaniws@ymail.com</a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank">@mattman_iws</a><br /><br />And...If you missed IWS Radio LIVE yesterday, you catch Jay and I bashing the SOTU, Marco Rubio, the Pope, and all things Lent, by listening to the archives right c'here:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" height="105" id="143577" name="143577" width="210"><param name="movie" value="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf?file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4400893&autostart=false&bufferlength=5&volume=80&corner=rounded&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flashplayercallback.aspx" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf" flashvars="file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4400893&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&width=210&height=105&volume=80&corner=rounded" width="210" height="105" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" wmode="transparent" menu="false" name="143577" id="143577" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object></div><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 220px;"><br /></div></div>

A Day of Wine and Roses

Today is the big day. Valentine’s Day… A day when men purchase overpriced roses, perhaps a shiny bauble or two, and then take their loved on...

28 in 28 #13: Best Highrises 2012/13

7:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<i>February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The "<a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/search/label/28%20in%2028">28 in 28</a>" series features a different book every day of the month.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://shop.detail.de/eu_e/best-highrises.html"><b><i>Best Highrises 2012/13: The International Highrise Award 2012</i></b></a> edited by Michaela Busenkell and Peter Cachola Schmal <br />Edition Detail, 2012<br />Paperback, 128 pages<br /><br /><img alt="28-28_Highrises.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/28-28_Highrises.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br />How should a tall building be judged? Is it a matter of height, how much closer it gets us to scraping they sky? Or is it based on the form of a building in terms of aesthetics and performance? If the <a href="http://www.international-highrise-award.com/">International Highrise Award 2012</a>—administered by Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and DekaBank, both of Frankfurt—is any indication the second takes precedence over the first, but sustainability, public amenities, and usability are paramount. The winning tower at 1 Bligh Street in Sydney, Australia, is shorter than surrounding buildings, but one that stands out for its elliptical form and inviting public spaces on the tall ground floor. Inside is a stunning 30-story atrium space that draws hot air up through the building and provides plenty of sunlight for the offices lining it.<br /><br /><img alt="28-28_Highrises2.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/28-28_Highrises2.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ingenhovenarchitects.com/">Ingenhoven Architects</a>, with local firm <a href="http://www.architectus.com.au/">Architectus</a>, beat out four finalists whittled down from the 26 buildings nominated for the award; the map above shows the distribution of the finalists in red (a sixth is a special sustainable revitalization award) and the rest in blue. The towers are clustered in east Asia, Europe, and North America, so the odds were against 1 Bligh sitting all alone in Australia. Frank Gehry's <a href="http://skyscrapercenter.com/new-york-city/eight-spruce-street/699/">8 Spruce Street</a> must have easily been a front-runner with its fabric-like metal skin and name attached to it; ARC Studio's seven interconnected <a href="http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings/Archive2010/ThePinnacleDuxtonSingapore/tabid/2283/language/en-GB/Default.aspx">Pinnacle@Duxton</a> towers are impressive at the urban scale; Norman Foster cleverly uses tall shear-wall columns to frame views at <a href="http://skyscrapercenter.com/kuala-lumpur/the-troika-tower-1/3354/">The Troika</a>; and MAD Architects' <a href="http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildingArchive2012/AbsoluteWorldTowersMississauga/tabid/3840/language/en-US/Default.aspx">Absolute Towers</a> (my initial pick to win and the winner of CTBUH's "<a href="http://www.ctbuh.org/Awards/OverviewofPastAwards/2012Awards/tabid/3342/language/en-US/Default.aspx">Best Tall Buildings America</a>" for 2012) have graceful undulations that cut a striking figure on the skyline.<br /><br />So given the competition, immediately the award seems questionable. But the more I read about 1 Bligh in this book documenting the winner, the finalists, and the rest of the nominated buildings, the more I like it. The main reason is that it is a building that is genuinely concerned with being a part of the city beyond its profile on the skyline. Its elliptical shape responds to the parcel it sits on at the intersection of two street grids and the desire to give occupants quality views of the harbor. A17-meter-high (55-feet) ground-floor space invites people into the public spaces of the building, especially when the glass walls retract to aid in the atrium's stack effect; this is one aspect that has garnered 1 Bligh a 6 (highest) <a href="http://www.gbca.org.au/green-star/green-star-overview/">Green Star</a> rating. But most impressive is the level of attention given to every aspect of the building's experience, from the plaza and lobby to the elevator ride and even the rooftop. Instead of focusing their energies on one or two aspects of the design (skin and form being the norm), they crafted a thoughtful building that happens to be tall enough to win this award.

28 in 28 #13: Best Highrises 2012/13

February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The " 28 in 28 " series features a different book every day of the month. ...

Vote for my doggie please

2:43 PM Tukiyooo 0

Vote for my doggie please

Check out this pic of Bones. I've entered it in a competition on the Mutt Ugly Facebook page. If you are on Facebook , please click he...

Staff Optomechanical Engineer (3D design MCAD | stage | motion control | optical metrology)(#109085)

12:59 PM Anonymous 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Job Title:  </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Staff opto-mechanical Engineer<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Location:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Milpitas, CA<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Duration:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Fulltime<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Job Description:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Responsibilities:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">1.Optomechanical design and analysis<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">2.Fabrication, assembly, and test.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">3.Scheduling<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">4.Vendor development<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">5.Manufacturing introduction<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Preferred Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The successful candidate will likely have:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">1.Strong mechanical design engineering skills including 3D design using MCAD, Finite Element Analysis, and drafting to meet ASME Y14.5-2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">2.Strong analytical skills including the ability to perform stress/strain calculations, thermal analysis, and vibration (modal) analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">3.Extensive experience with materials selection, fabrication processes, knowledge of sources for OTS hardware.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">4.Proven ability to design mechanisms and actuators for precision motion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">5.A practical knowledge of mechanical vibration.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">6.Knowledge of environmental, transportation, and reliability testing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">7.Experience with basic instrumentation such as thermistors, accelerometers, anemometers, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">8.Proven skill at troubleshooting performance issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">9.Ability to scope cost, develop and maintain schedules.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">10.Experience in translating high level system (tool) requirements into subsystem specifications, module development to meet these specifications, and performance validation   to ensure the modules meet system requirements.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">11.Taken a product through a complete design cycle, with ownership of key subsystem requirements leading to validated system level performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">12.General knowledge of analog and digital electronics, motors, encoders, and power supplies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">13.Experience managing vendors of outsourced modules.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">14.Semiconductor equipment experience, familiarity with SEMI standards.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">15.Experience developing engineering and manufacturing documentation including specifications, presentations, procedures, and drawings.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">16.Effective oral and written communication skills.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Additional desirable skills & experience include:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">1.Optics, imaging, and optical metrology tools.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">2.Staging and motion control.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">3.Modeling with Matlab, Mathematica, or Maple.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">4.Experience with data acquisition & reduction using tools such as Excel, LabView, or Visual Basic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Minimum Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Doctorate (Academic) with at least 5 years of experience.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">OR  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Master's Level Degree with at least 6 years of experience.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">OR  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Bachelor's Level Degree with at least 7 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Please send your resumes to vinod.sanker@kla-tencor.com<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div></div>

Staff Optomechanical Engineer (3D design MCAD | stage | motion control | optical metrology)(#109085)

Job Title: Staff opto-mechanical Engineer Location: Milpitas, CA Duration: Fulltime Job Description: Responsibilities: 1.Optomechanical d...

Electronic Resources Librarian - Andrew Mellon Library, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford

11:42 AM Anonymous 0

<strong>Electronic Resources Librarian - </strong><span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Andrew Mellon Library, Choate Rosemary Hall</strong></span>,  Wallingford. Position available:  September 2013. The Electronic  Resources Librarian position is a 36-week administrative faculty  position reporting to the Director of the Andrew Mellon Library.  The  schedule includes two evenings a week and a portion of the weekend. The  Librarian must have a Masters of Library Science, demonstrated facility  with rapidly changing technologies and experience providing library  services to young people in an academic environment. Choate Rosemary  Hall is an independent boarding school; consequently a commitment to  actively participating in the school community and student life is  expected. Responsibilities: Support students and faculty as they  discover, evaluate and retrieve library resources, regardless of format.  Participate in the effort to develop the most appropriate collection of  resources and technology for students' academic needs and personal  interests. Keep current on technology trends and strive to implement  appropriate new technologies. Create and support the library's academic  atmosphere. Identify appropriate electronic resources: evaluate and  present the information for consideration. Promote new electronic  resources by sharing information with key faculty and by preparing  instructional guides. Work with a variety of consortia to guarantee that  we are acquiring resources at the best available price. Given the  likelihood that the school will change the platform on which the library  website resides, the Electronic Resource Librarian must possess the  technical and personal skills appropriate to collaborate in creating the  new web presence. Regardless of platform, insure that the library site  is well designed, kept current and presents information in an effective  way so it can be easily used and promotes the library program and  resources. Work with the webmaster and ITS to make sure all resources  are working properly and presented effectively on a variety of  platforms, i.e. iPads, thin clients, laptops, mobile devices. Leadership  responsibility in maintaining and expanding the library's collection of  LibGuides. Review and revise the library's LibGuide templates as  necessary. Work with librarians and faculty to expand the role of  LibGuides in the library instructional program. Actively participate in  the library's instructional program. Prepare general orientation  sessions; demonstrate online resources to classes as necessary. Work  with students on an individual basis to teach them how to find and use  appropriate materials on a variety of platforms. Actively participate in  the acquisition process. Read reviews in the library journals and  internet sites which describe appropriate resources. Participate in the  formal weeding process to insure that the collection houses the best  material available regardless of format. Actively participate in the  discussions and planning sessions for the library program. Bring to  library faculty meetings issues of concern and ideas for improving the  library program. Monitor and oversee the work of the library supporting  staff during the evenings when serving as the librarian on duty. Work to  see that the library study atmosphere is maintained through the firm,  fair and friendly application of the library rules and procedures.  Coordinate the annual book sale and other special library celebrations.  Resumes should be sent to: Kathy White, Assistant to the Dean of  Faculty, Choate Rosemary Hall, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT   06492 or <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:kwhite@choate.edu" href="mailto:kwhite@choate.edu">kwhite@choate.edu</a>.

Electronic Resources Librarian - Andrew Mellon Library, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford

Electronic Resources Librarian - Andrew Mellon Library, Choate Rosemary Hall , Wallingford. Position available: September 2013. The Electr...

A Pea in the Pod

7:44 AM Tukiyooo 0

If you follow me on FB, then you might know by now the reason for my extended absence.<br />  <br />If not, here's the little <em>gem</em> of a story:<br /><br />Back in mid-October, on a mild Monday morning, as I was sitting at my desk sipping a Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha (<a href="http://www.nothankstocake.com/2011/09/16/two-airport-finds-and-the-truth-about-the-salted-caramel-mocha/" target="_blank">Kelly style</a>), a sudden urge of nausea fell over me.  <em>(If you're a woman, you probably know where I'm going with this already.  But rest assured, I did not know where this was going, I can tell you that!)</em>  The feeling eventually passed, though my appetite was definitely lacking as the day drew on.  By Tuesday morning I called out sick from work, feeling even <em>more</em> nauseous that I did the day before.  By Wednesday, I figured I was just battling a stomach bug, so I proceeded back to work, with absolutely no desire to start my day off with the Starbucks fall beverages.  Obviously something was wrong with me - rarely do I ever turn down Starbucks OR food!  <br /><br />Since I was having a tough time eating/drinking, I decided to start myself on the BRAT diet.  The whole wheat toast seemed to calm my stomach temporarily, but before too long I was back to feeling nauseated again.  My boss inquired as to how I was feeling, and after explaining my symptoms to her, she said "Hilary, I think you might be pregnant."   <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #674ea7;"><strong><insert crickets.....="" crickets="" many="" of="" sound="" the=""> </insert></strong></span></em></div><br />Well, I was <em>certain</em> that I was not pregnant.  I had been getting crampy just like normal, expecting my period to come any day now.   Still, I don't use any form of birth control.  <em>(My reasons are my reasons - the end.)</em>  Joel and I have made it 5.5 years without one single scare.  Regardless, the point is I don't use it, so to most it might be a no-brainer that I <em>was</em> pregnant.  <br /><br />What only Joel and I did know at that time was there was 1 scare on September 29.  I just about ran to Walgreen's that day to pick up <a href="http://www.planbonestep.com/" target="_blank">Plan B</a> (for those not familiar, this is NOT the 'abortion pill'. - It's like a super birth control pill).  Plan B, when taken properly, is <em>supposed</em> to be 95% effective.  <br /><br />However, as the morning went on at work, my mind started racing with the thoughts that I might actually be pregnant.  I mean, Plan B is not 100%!  So at lunch time, I drove to Walgreen's and bought 2 different brands of pregnancy tests.  I took one immediately.  At first I saw only one line and was so relieved.  But by the time I washed my hands and was just about to pitch the test, a second, faint line appeared!  I immediately starting bawling - I was in such shock!  <br /><br />Joel and I never wanted children.  No, we weren't exactly doing much to prevent it, but it wasn't something we were actively trying for either.  I quickly asked my boss if I could take off the rest of the day and I bolted out of the office.  I dialed and redialed Joel's number numerous times to get him awake (he works nights), but he wouldn't pick up.  By some miracle, he called me back shortly thereafter, saying he actually never heard his phone ringing but happened to notice a bunch of missed calls from me.  I broke the news to him in sobs, only for him to respond in almost complete silence.  We were both, to say the least, devastated.  <br /><br /><em><span style="color: #351c75;">To Be Continued.....</span></em><br /><br /><em>Before I end today's post, I'm going to stop right here and address this "devastation".  I know there are judgmental eyes out there right now saying "You ungrateful so and so - I've been desiring pregnancy all my life and cannot get pregnant and here you are - complaining because you were able to conceive when you didn't even have to try!"  </em><br /><br /><em>The truth is, I'm not ungrateful.  I had a plan for my life that never involved children, and God quickly revealed to both of us that it's not our plan, but His.  I am grateful for this blessing He has given us, but it took me a long time to absorb that.  The point is, judge all you want to.  For as much as you, or someone you know, desires to have children but has struggled with conceiving - there are others out there who have that same desire to NOT have children for many reasons.  Now, I love kids.  I grew up holding/caring for babies - I come from a family large enough that there is almost always a baby present in the clan.  I'm great with children, in fact, because of this experience.  However, we both knew that we didn't want children of our own.  </em><br /><br /><em>One main reason for this should be obvious.  I'm overweight.  Having children means you gain weight - weight that I often hear is harder to lose post partem.   I didn't need, nor want, childbearing to bog down my already struggling weight loss journey.  Now, this is not the only reason for not wanting kids, but I can tell you where I was at in my life on September 29, 2012, this was a large reason for not wanting kids.</em>

Baby Busbee A Pea in the Pod

If you follow me on FB, then you might know by now the reason for my extended absence. If not, here's the little gem of a story: Back...

18 Ways God (or Your Pastor) Has Changed Tithing

6:58 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqzUVPCsy3Ee-Z-qL3JUnW3JuP4JFoA3OwVYALgY8P0sZgeusU525-WTt4Bm_aZ4zrmlCSDxFbTUt0ICAyHoz8dBNck9ik89RMMdG3CyzvNBg-1fz2G5gLanMtkmECBY1s5n4uLngu6iU/s1600/change-roadsign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqzUVPCsy3Ee-Z-qL3JUnW3JuP4JFoA3OwVYALgY8P0sZgeusU525-WTt4Bm_aZ4zrmlCSDxFbTUt0ICAyHoz8dBNck9ik89RMMdG3CyzvNBg-1fz2G5gLanMtkmECBY1s5n4uLngu6iU/s320/change-roadsign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>One of the arguments made by preachers who try to convince you that the "tithe" of 10% of your gross income is a Christian requirement, comes from their favorite tithing passage in the Old Testament, Malachi Chapter 3:<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><b><span class="text Mal-3-6">“<span style="color: red;">I the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> do not change.</span> So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.</span> <span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> Almighty." (Malachi 3:6, 7)</span></b></i></blockquote></div><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">Then of course the pastor will explain that immediately after these verses God tells Malachi that people are robbing him (actually, God tells Malachi that the religious men of his day are robbing him, but that is another story) by not "bringing the tithe" to the "storehouse" - and that YOU, Christian, must also bring your tithe - 10% of your gross income to the church (today's "storehouse"). And then if you choose not to, God will <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-911-steve-gaines-prounounces-gods.html" target="_blank">poke holes in your purse</a>, will cause your <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2011/06/robert-morris-issues-money-back.html" target="_blank">kids to turn out bad</a>, and God will bring calamity to your family like job loss, wrecked cars, and <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/10/is-god-our-father-or-is-god-godfather.html" target="_blank">God will actually "blow it all away"</a> - that is the money that you did not tithe that was rightfully God's. Some say<a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/03/misusing-scripture-to-scare-christians.html" target="_blank"> God might even kill you</a> like he did Ananias and Sapphira. Oh, and if you don't tithe, <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2011/04/perry-noble-blames-homosexuality-on-non.html" target="_blank">you're helping to spread homosexuality</a>.</span><br /><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">So God does not change, thus the requirement to tithe is still in place, and thus preachers go to the most ridiculous and manipulative lengths to hang the burden and guilt of tithing around the necks of their members to keep church revenue up.</span><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128"><br /></span><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">A friend here in Jacksonville who maintains the "Tithing.com" website, posted a masterful article yesterday on 18 ways the tithe HAS changed - either how God himself changed it within the Old Testament or between the Old and New Convenants - OR just ways that your pastor has decided to change the tithe to try to convince you to give 10% of your income to his church.</span><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128"><br /></span><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">Read the article <a href="http://www.tithing.com/blog/god-never-changes-what-about-tithing/" target="_blank">here</a> to read about the 18 ways the tithe HAS changed. This is one of the best tithing articles I've read in years</span><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128"><br /></span><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">I wanted to highlight and comment on a few of the 18 ways either God has changed the tithe, or preachers have decided to change it to "help" God:</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByt3tTU9tJsxf-ue_ELb7mLFEOhF32DEhTL-v8E8ZLftCxtK1O_opKfx9ZCNDvBJO-x89Sdi6welDF-jLaf_Pxpe7qcyoD1oPFv-fqE1lJvBdriBu451UdYlRWPTRwW0cN77HFV6IoJcU/s1600/Change4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByt3tTU9tJsxf-ue_ELb7mLFEOhF32DEhTL-v8E8ZLftCxtK1O_opKfx9ZCNDvBJO-x89Sdi6welDF-jLaf_Pxpe7qcyoD1oPFv-fqE1lJvBdriBu451UdYlRWPTRwW0cN77HFV6IoJcU/s1600/Change4.png" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKo5-qoKd87SzHLaa_C9gy8UU1xhrUbM7A_WDfPAm7_wYZ9yw5fLuulewsNku9f_0Rt47kLsdSxQ4rMRN1ZJQwgefY0EXfv8ssCW0VofirdguhjkVFvbYOrWt0Uv33_MC149epS71KUC_c/s1600/Change7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKo5-qoKd87SzHLaa_C9gy8UU1xhrUbM7A_WDfPAm7_wYZ9yw5fLuulewsNku9f_0Rt47kLsdSxQ4rMRN1ZJQwgefY0EXfv8ssCW0VofirdguhjkVFvbYOrWt0Uv33_MC149epS71KUC_c/s1600/Change7.png" /></a></div><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">The newest argument amongst the tithe-pushing preachers is <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/01/top-story-of-2011-ramping-up-first.html" target="_blank">the concept of "first fruits"</a> - that the Old Testament teaches that God expects your FIRST and BEST - and thus your FIRST 10% of your income goes straight to the church. </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEYqgMpvu2cdncrAZJJMxmCVmojdO4nxpYD6fOfRvIJU4jxcmMehyzT9pDB_Em_bDSGV3Y5sFryKb9ODOQVdvWesHzZ65Uq32xu-0kW5TK4tSrrN3x74qrN_DHGkQX39ipBgnr1G2eTGT/s1600/Change11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEYqgMpvu2cdncrAZJJMxmCVmojdO4nxpYD6fOfRvIJU4jxcmMehyzT9pDB_Em_bDSGV3Y5sFryKb9ODOQVdvWesHzZ65Uq32xu-0kW5TK4tSrrN3x74qrN_DHGkQX39ipBgnr1G2eTGT/s1600/Change11.png" /></a></div><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">Yep, year after year, we must give. If the preachers believe the bible word for word, and they put the tithe on Christians, why are they not strictly adhering to what God said the tithe was and how often it is given? On what basis to preachers ignore the details of what God says in the bible regarding the tithe? Are they above God and can change God's standard for this tithe? [answer: apparently, yes].</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhPDjf_IG88DWW4JS96BbGnhyphenhyphen5T8-REZfx5fwSchk1GCIbSO9wfNcm5cpEEeFP_xbp7Vuv8vmZbx91oHy6-KDKmrMvootth-H4FJhKl1u0ry0PKO61YpoqoQigD5si7qxb9NqFiNgNlnA/s1600/Change15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhPDjf_IG88DWW4JS96BbGnhyphenhyphen5T8-REZfx5fwSchk1GCIbSO9wfNcm5cpEEeFP_xbp7Vuv8vmZbx91oHy6-KDKmrMvootth-H4FJhKl1u0ry0PKO61YpoqoQigD5si7qxb9NqFiNgNlnA/s1600/Change15.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMY5DTkaLJ75l8wv2eWEUToTN0F7wOFhvV4lgesCKRwEWduZee-jO1SLJ6z7EaG_lgRuGpcg6vONOyvyyPKMc-WoqasOVkuY55lPomtkKEW84lbCWo0EuulGHBRBKK19hHyNMyBB3_yX58/s1600/Change13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjDfLcJje6h2TECNXVQL47UapKUU6F2FcnCWxOGMSgBDkuPbKQmn3rfxJ2vPqiodOHeZLWWHlz1iJzBSfsWE0Smf5BmxSL7OjvJOHHNTTBGcfhPdqf-ZePoNvlPPzRFWtraGQas3_nbN6n/s1600/Change18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjDfLcJje6h2TECNXVQL47UapKUU6F2FcnCWxOGMSgBDkuPbKQmn3rfxJ2vPqiodOHeZLWWHlz1iJzBSfsWE0Smf5BmxSL7OjvJOHHNTTBGcfhPdqf-ZePoNvlPPzRFWtraGQas3_nbN6n/s1600/Change18.png" /></a></div><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128"><br /></span>The new, aggressive, "first fruits" tithing doctrine coming out of pulpits today <span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">contributes to the decline of people's church attendance drives people from their Christian faith: when they wake up to the fact that what the preacher is pushing as biblical truth concerning finances is not in the bible, and it is actually to their family'</span><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">s detriment - and pastor's use manipulative techniques to boot. The preacher's want you to put your tithe above your daughter's wedding, above your children's education, above the well-being of your family.</span><br /><br /><span class="text Mal-3-7" id="en-NIV-23128">Make no mistake - to try to convince a church member through false teachings and manipulation that they MUST give 10% of their income to obtain the blessings of God and avoid the cursings of God is to convince a person that religion and institutions and religious holy men come before one's spouse and family - and that is about as anti-family as it gets.</span>

18 Ways God (or Your Pastor) Has Changed Tithing

One of the arguments made by preachers who try to convince you that the "tithe" of 10% of your gross income is a Christian require...

Inspire your students to write the right stuff - a TeachMeet presentation

5:48 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Submitted by Fiona Beal</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today I am attending a TeachMeet in Somerset West at Somerset House Primary School. I thought I would talk on creative writing sites and end off by telling the attendees or should I say 'Keen Beans' and 'Enthusiastic Lurkers' about the upcoming African Storybook Project and the writing opportunity it presents for our learners. </span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to place my presentation on my blog just in case anything goes wrong - at least it will be safe and sound on the Internet!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/16505653" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="427"> </iframe> <br /><div style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal/inspire-your-students-to-write-the-right-stuff" target="_blank" title="Inspire your students to write the right stuff">Inspire your students to write the right stuff</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal" target="_blank">Fiona Beal</a></strong> </div></div></div>

Submitted by Fiona Beal Today I am attending a TeachMeet in Somerset West at Somerset House Primary School. I thought I would talk on creati...

one room challenge - week 2

2:30 AM Anonymous 0

We are in week 2 of the ORC (check out <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/02/one-room-challenge-week-1.html" target="_blank">week 1 here</a>) and to be honest I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Plenty of projects have been started, but nothing entirely finished.<br /><br />The plan was to work on some of the bigger monsters and get them out of the way, leaving the fun stuff for the end. Enter the monster.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqTsoDu8pPLcq2PCcMTJN0oKlb42_zDtyfe5rxNbqXyWYySiPD2mSxULTj_zq_Xhuv90l9int2gKNxKLBvWDadHOq_YGOuyxWgILHijmcDnbGf6OW078eJtV7IDYmirbsxjAoVyijppd_/s1600/victorianchairbefore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqTsoDu8pPLcq2PCcMTJN0oKlb42_zDtyfe5rxNbqXyWYySiPD2mSxULTj_zq_Xhuv90l9int2gKNxKLBvWDadHOq_YGOuyxWgILHijmcDnbGf6OW078eJtV7IDYmirbsxjAoVyijppd_/s640/victorianchairbefore.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br />This chair was a freebie from my parents. Score. They bought it at an auction 25 years ago and it has sat in the basement ever since. It was sold with another chair, which was the one they were after, so this chair was a castoff from the beginning. Untouched for 25 years.<br /><br />But my little time capsule chair was actually in excellent condition. The fabric was beyond nasty, but the frame, cushion etc. were in great shape. And I've tackled <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2012/04/now-you-really-can-take-seat.html" target="_blank">reupholstery projects before</a> so I thought this one would be a piece of cake. I am nieve.<br /><br />I got her stripped with no problem but the sanding was a challenge with all of those curves and dips and grooves. Then I went against everything I was ever taught as a child. I painted antique furniture. I probably won't be allowed over for Thanksgiving this year. But (cover your ears Mom and Dad) I'm glad I did it.<br /><br />She looks so much better.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62GSiO1wCfk8aQ5h0bgCR-lbFgYzXechIp-C4BgVoQ8k3K4AcD6E3aCTuBHue-16LzGets87bMmHs80-9CqjPYCNw0CLjDk48TSezo2p_jurv4k0-FD-YuFrpcdYA43qhYzHtQNUOCcxW/s1600/Chairpainted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62GSiO1wCfk8aQ5h0bgCR-lbFgYzXechIp-C4BgVoQ8k3K4AcD6E3aCTuBHue-16LzGets87bMmHs80-9CqjPYCNw0CLjDk48TSezo2p_jurv4k0-FD-YuFrpcdYA43qhYzHtQNUOCcxW/s640/Chairpainted.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Killer finish. You always come thru for me RustOleum.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Xe2bliQ3GgyVqnHJK5qLV3DEzWXeC7a6bxGE0uDQsWDELSu5YeouWlwO4LCBeSIo_PQ6omfB8NbuOMclFlQH_kiOxt9MFDIzHOrssyWTeuiawwvcAa-ohwuyQkVxOSGXW7hQklrIUcq4/s1600/Chairpaintclose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Xe2bliQ3GgyVqnHJK5qLV3DEzWXeC7a6bxGE0uDQsWDELSu5YeouWlwO4LCBeSIo_PQ6omfB8NbuOMclFlQH_kiOxt9MFDIzHOrssyWTeuiawwvcAa-ohwuyQkVxOSGXW7hQklrIUcq4/s400/Chairpaintclose.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Now if I was <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2012/06/really-resto.html" target="_blank">Restoration Hardware</a>, I'd call this chair complete. $1800 please, thank you.<br /><br />But I have other plans. I've always loved the fabric on this bed (thank you Jamie Drake) and was able to find a Sunbrella version that is almost a perfect match.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYCTvMzncvqdAqHjb17CXMtRCjsg_bijS4AhdW4sTb4mAvmsmf3zmP_wm_-nFtQUbla5YV3PWg6t0XnSSJYVvv-KG0c0uiktQCn78di0BUz2E_8mN7V8gSCeoC668j3vxyD67rtPMIqxCV/s1600/statements2007_6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYCTvMzncvqdAqHjb17CXMtRCjsg_bijS4AhdW4sTb4mAvmsmf3zmP_wm_-nFtQUbla5YV3PWg6t0XnSSJYVvv-KG0c0uiktQCn78di0BUz2E_8mN7V8gSCeoC668j3vxyD67rtPMIqxCV/s640/statements2007_6.jpeg" width="514" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jamie Drake via <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/6896205651452792/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Outdoor fabric on an indoor chair might sound a bit loony, but remember this chair is going in a room with two very busy girls. This fabric will need all the armor it can get.<br /><br />Now I'd love to show you how beautiful the chair looks but she is not ready for her closeup. She's covered in some spots, naked in others. Staples showing and even a few scratches. Think My Fair Lady, before Audrey gets her makeover.<br /><br />So back to work I go. It's a marathon, not a sprint...right? Let's see how the other ladies are doing.<br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://chattafabulous.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Chattafabulous</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://chinoiseriechic.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Chinoiserie Chic</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.classiccasualhome.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Classic Casual Home </a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://laurenleonardinteriors.com/blog/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the Cottage Mix</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://cottageandvine.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Cottage & Vine</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://designindulgence.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Design Indulgence</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.designmanifest.com/blog/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Design Manifest</span> </a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://everythingleb.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Everything LEB</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.markovadesign.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Hodge Podge</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://kimmacumberinteriors.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Kim Macumber Interiors</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.mattersofstyleblog.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Matters of Style</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://mycraftyhomelife.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">My Crafty Home Life</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://scottdesigns.ca/blog/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Nicole Scott Designs</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://blog.pacificfamilyhomes.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Pacific Family Homes</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.pawleysislandposh.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Pawleys Island Posh</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.thepeakoftreschic.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the Peak of Tres Chic</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://blog.thepinkpagoda.us/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the Pink Pagoda</a> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.powellbrower.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Powell Brower Home</a> </div><a href="http://simpledetailsblog.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Simple Details</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span>

one room challenge - week 2

We are in week 2 of the ORC (check out week 1 here ) and to be honest I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Plenty of projects have been s...

Price for a New Hip? Many Hospitals Are Stumped - NYTimes.com

7:38 PM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who was uninsured but had the means to pay herself.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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 quotes she received might surprise even hardened health care economists: only about half of the hospitals, including top-ranked orthopedic centers and community hospitals, could provide any sort of price estimate, despite repeated calls. Those that could gave quotes that varied by a factor of more than 10, from $11,100 to $125,798.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">Ms. Rosenthal's grandmother was fictitious, created for a summer research project on health care costs. But the findings, which form the basis of a paper released on Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine, are likely to fan the debate on the unsustainable growth of American health care costs and an opaque medical system in which prices are often hidden from consumers.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">"Transparency is all the rage these days in government and business, but there has been little push for pricing transparency in health care, and there's virtually no information," said Dr. Peter Cram, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, who wrote the paper with Ms. Rosenthal. He added: "I can get the price for a car, for a can of oil, for a gallon of milk. But health care? That's not so easy."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">President Obama's Affordable Care Act focused primarily on providing insurance to Americans who did not have it. But the high price of care remains an elephant in the room. Although many experts have said that Americans must become more discerning consumers to help rein in costs, the study illustrates how hard that can be.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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 been trying to help patients get good value, but it is really hard to get price commitments from hospitals - we see this all the time," said Jeff Rice, the chief executive of Healthcare Blue Book, a company that collects data on medical procedures, doctors visits and tests. "And even if they say $20,000, it often turns out $40,000 or 60,000."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">There are many caveats to the study. Most patients - or insurers - never pay the full sticker price of surgery, because insurance companies bargain with hospitals and doctors for discounted rates. When Ms. Rosenthal balked at initial high estimates, some hospitals produced lower rates for a person without insurance.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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 in other ways the telephone quotations underestimated prices, because they did not include the fees for outpatient rehabilitation, for example.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">In an accompanying commentary, Andrew Steinmetz and Ezekiel J. Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania acknowledged that there was "no justification" for the inability to provide estimates or for the wide range of prices. But they said that more rigorous data on quality - like infection rates and unexpected deaths - were required to know when high prices were worth it.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">"Without quality data to accompany price data, physicians, consumers and other health care decision makers have no idea if a lower price represents shoddy quality of if it constitutes good value," they wrote.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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, broadly, researchers emphasized that studies had found little consistent correlation between higher prices and better quality in American health care. Dr. Cram said there was no data that "Mercedes" hip implants were better than cheaper options, for example.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">Jamie Court, the president of the California-based Consumer Watchdog, said: "If one hospital can put in a hip for $12,000, then every hospital should be able to do it. When there's 100 percent variation in sticker price, then there is no real price. It's about profit."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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); ">Dr. Cram said the study did contain some good news: some of the country's top-ranked hospitals came up with "bargain basement prices" in response to repeated calls. "If you're a good consumer and shop around, you can get a good price - you don't have to pay $120,000 for a Honda," he said.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-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; ">But that shopping can be arduous in a market not set up to respond to consumers. To get a total price, Ms. Rosenthal often had to call the hospital to get its estimate for on-site care, and a separate quote from doctors. And many were simply perplexed when she asked for a price upfront, Ms. Rosenthal said, adding, "The people who answered didn't know what to do with the question."</div></div><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/price-for-a-new-hip-many-hospitals-are-stumped/?pagewanted=print">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/price-for-a-new-hip-many-hospitals-are-stumped/?pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Price for a New Hip? Many Hospitals Are Stumped - NYTimes.com

Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices f...

Health Testing on Mice Is Found Misleading in Some Cases - NYTimes.com

7:37 PM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/sepsis/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Sepsis." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">sepsis</a>, burns and trauma. As a result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads, they say.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 study's findings do not mean that mice are useless models for all human diseases. But, its authors said, they do raise troubling questions about diseases like the ones in the study that involve the immune system, including <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/cancer/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Cancer." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">cancer</a> and heart disease.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"Our article raises at least the possibility that a parallel situation may be present," said <a href="http://www2.massgeneral.org/id/faculty/research_interests/index.asp?ID=33" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Dr. H. Shaw Warren</a>, a sepsis researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author of the new study.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1222878110" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">The paper</a>, published Monday in <a href="http://www.pnas.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, helps explain why every one of nearly 150 drugs tested at a huge expense in patients with sepsis has failed. The drug tests all were based on studies in mice. And mice, it turns out, can have something that looks like sepsis in humans, but is very different from the condition in humans.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Medical experts not associated with the study said that the findings should change the course of research worldwide for a deadly and frustrating condition. Sepsis, a potentially deadly reaction that occurs as the body tries to fight an infection, afflicts 750,000 patients a year in the United States, kills one-fourth to one-half of them, and costs the nation $17 billion a year. It is the leading cause of death in intensive-care units.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"This is a game changer," said Dr. Mitchell Fink, a sepsis expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, of the new study.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"It's amazing," said Dr. Richard Wenzel, a former chairman at the department of internal medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. "They are absolutely right on."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Potentially deadly immune responses occur when a person's immune system overreacts to what it perceives as danger signals, including toxic molecules from bacteria, viruses, fungi, or proteins released from cells damaged by trauma or burns, said Dr. Clifford S. Deutschman, who directs sepsis research at the University of Pennsylvania and was not part of the study.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 ramped-up immune system releases its own proteins in such overwhelming amounts that capillaries begin to leak. The leak becomes excessive, and serum seeps out of the tiny blood vessels.<a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/blood-pressure/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Blood Pressure." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Blood pressure</a> falls, and vital organs do not get enough blood. Despite efforts, doctors and nurses in an intensive-care unit or an emergency room may be unable to keep up with the leaks, stop the infection or halt the tissue damage. Vital organs eventually fail.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 new study, which took 10 years and involved 39 researchers from across the country, began by studying white blood cells from hundreds of patients with severe burns, trauma or sepsis to see what genes were being used by white blood cells when responding to these danger signals.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 researchers found some interesting patterns and accumulated a large, rigorously collected data set that should help move the field forward, said Ronald W. Davis, a genomics expert at Stanford University and a lead author of the new paper. Some patterns seemed to predict who would survive and who would end up in intensive care, clinging to life and, often, dying.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 group had tried to publish its findings in several papers. One objection, Dr. Davis said, was that the researchers had not shown the same gene response had happened in mice.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"They were so used to doing mouse studies that they thought that was how you validate things," he said. "They are so ingrained in trying to cure mice that they forget we are trying to cure humans."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"That started us thinking," he continued. "Is it the same in the mouse or not?"</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 group decided to look, expecting to find some similarities. But when the data were analyzed, there were none at all.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 were kind of blown away," Dr. Davis said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 drug failures became clear. For example, often in mice, a gene would be used, while in humans, the comparable gene would be suppressed. A drug that worked in mice by disabling that gene could make the response even more deadly in humans.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Even more surprising, Dr. Warren said, was that different conditions in mice — burns, trauma, sepsis — did not fit the same pattern. Each condition used different groups of genes. In humans, though, similar genes were used in all three conditions. That means, Dr. Warren said, that if researchers can find a drug that works for one of those conditions in people, it might work for all three.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 study's investigators tried for more than a year to publish their paper, which showed that there was no relationship between the genetic responses of mice and those of humans. They submitted it to the publications Science and Nature, hoping to reach a wide audience. It was rejected from both.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Science and Nature said it was their policy not to comment on the fate of a rejected paper, or whether it had even been submitted to them. But, Ginger Pinholster of Science said, the journal accepts only about 7 percent of the nearly 13,000 papers submitted each year, so it is not uncommon for a paper to make the rounds.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Still, Dr. Davis said, reviewers did not point out scientific errors. Instead, he said, "the most common response was, 'It has to be wrong. I don't know why it is wrong, but it has to be wrong.' "</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 investigators turned to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As a member of the academy, Dr. Davis could suggest reviewers for his paper, and he proposed researchers who he thought would give the work a fair hearing. "If they don't like it, I want to know why," he said. They recommended publication, and the editorial board of the journal, which independently assesses papers, agreed.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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 researchers, reading the paper now, say they are as astonished as the researchers were when they saw the data.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"When I read the paper, I was stunned by just how bad the mouse data are," Dr. Fink said. "It's really amazing — no correlation at all. These data are so persuasive and so robust that I think funding agencies are going to take note." Until now, he said, "to get funding, you had to propose experiments using the mouse model."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Yet there was always one major clue that mice might not really mimic humans in this regard: it is very hard to kill a mouse with a bacterial infection. Mice need a million times more bacteria in their blood than what would kill a person.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"Mice can eat garbage and food that is lying around and is rotten," Dr. Davis said. "Humans can't do that. We are too sensitive."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">Researchers said that if they could figure out why mice were so resistant, they might be able to use that discovery to find something to make people resistant.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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); ">"This is a very important paper," said Dr. Richard Hotchkiss, a sepsis researcher at Washington University who was not involved in the study. "It argues strongly — go to the patients. Get their cells. Get their tissues whenever you can. Get cells from airways."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; 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; ">"To understand sepsis, you have to go to the patients," he said.</p></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/testing-of-some-deadly-diseases-on-mice-mislead-report-says.html?pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/testing-of-some-deadly-diseases-on-mice-mislead-report-says.html?pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Health Testing on Mice Is Found Misleading in Some Cases - NYTimes.com

For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model ...

Sr Service Inventory Manager (# 109115)

4:57 PM Anonymous 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Position:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Sr Service Inventory Manager<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Location:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Milpitas, CA<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Duration:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Full time<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Job Description:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The GSS Service Inventory Senior Manager is responsible for setting inventory goals, monitoring and forecasting all aspects related to global service inventory as well as driving   a multi-disciplinary and matrixed organization to achieve inventory targets. This person will work closely with GSS finance, procurement, planning and product teams to set and control inventory levels, manage quarterly reserve setting, support internal and   external audits, execute quarterly excess scrap and perform in-depth inventory analyses whose findings lead to improved inventory performance across the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Preferred Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Education:  BS/BA Business or related field with preferred concentration in Operations or Supply Chain Management (MS/MBA preferred a plus).<o:p></o:p> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Experience: 5 years of experience in a high-tech supply chain environment. Specific Inventory Management or Finance experience preferred. The ideal candidate will have experience   working with exec level staff members on operational and financial reviews.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Skills: Must have excellent written and oral communications skills and be comfortable coordinating tasks across multiple functions.  Must be comfortable working at all levels   in the organization from front-line staff to C-level executives. The candidate is required to be a strong team player with excellent analytical and problem solving skills and the ability to drive to results while maintaining excellent relationships.  Experience   with MS-Access and other database management is essential. Programming skills would be a plus.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Basic Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bachelor's degree with at least 5 years of experience in complex manufacturing supply chain environment.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kindly send your resume to  <a href="mailto:raju.balaji@kla-tencor.com">raju.balaji@kla-tencor.com </a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div>

Sr Service Inventory Manager (# 109115)

Position: Sr Service Inventory Manager Location: Milpitas, CA Duration: Full time Job Description: The GSS Service Inventory Senior Manag...

Import/Export Analyst with Trade Compliance (HTS | CCATS | ECCN code) (# 109097)

4:38 PM Anonymous 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Position:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Import/Export Analyst<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Location:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Milpitas, CA<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Duration:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Full time<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Job Description:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Global Import/Export Analyst responsibilities will cover all import and export activity across the global KLA-Tencor service network.  Responsibilities will include review   of HTS classifications to assure legal and most favorable duty treatment in each import jurisdiction, support applications for binding rulings with customs authorities to reduce impacts to key products used in support of service customers, auditing of service   organizations to assure they are compliant with all import and export regulations in their given region.  Support to regional logistics managers to overcome trade compliance issues in their regions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Import/Export Analyst will work closely with our global service logistics team as well as cross functional teams to drive program improvements through information analysis   and process management. This individual will be responsible for evaluating opportunities to establish bonded operations in key regions where KLA-Tencor will see significant financial returns.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Import/Export Analyst will be responsible for driving lowest possible compliance costs across the KLA-Tencor Service supply chain while assuring legal compliance with customs   laws in each country where we act as importer or exporter of record.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This job will require regular international travel to Asia and Europe to review import and export compliance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Preferred Qualifications</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">1) B.S. or B.A. degree in finance, intentional business or supply chain<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">2) Minimum of 5 years experience in global trade and compliance organization with large US based Experience commodity code classifications in US, Asia and Europe. Most specifically   China, Taiwan, Korea and EU<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">3) Strong understanding of bonded warehouse transfers in China<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">4) Understanding of service supply chain and high technology parts a plus<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Basic Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bachelor's Level Degree in finance, intentional business or supply chain.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">At least 5 year experience in global trade and compliance organization with large US based corporation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kindly send your resume to  <a href="mailto:raju.balaji@kla-tencor.com">raju.balaji@kla-tencor.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div>

Import/Export Analyst with Trade Compliance (HTS | CCATS | ECCN code) (# 109097)

Position: Import/Export Analyst Location: Milpitas, CA Duration: Full time Job Description: The Global Import/Export Analyst responsibili...

How many pancakes did you eat?!

1:49 PM Tukiyooo 0

How many pancakes did you eat?!

Today is the last day before Lent. Here in Ireland we call this Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. Traditionally we eat pancakes today and...

28 in 28 #12: Cycle Space

12:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<i>February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The "<a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/search/label/28%20in%2028">28 in 28</a>" series features a different book every day of the month.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.010.nl/catalogue/book.php?id=812"><b><i>Cycle Space: Architectural and Urban Design in the Age of the Bicycle</i></b></a> by Steven Fleming<br />nai010 Publishers, 2012<br />Paperback, 176 pages<br /><br /><img alt="28-28_cycle.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/28-28_cycle.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br />On page 20 of <i>Cycle Space</i> <a href="http://cycle-space.com/">Steven Fleming</a> admits, "By reading this book, you're indulging my bike-centric worldview that says walking is tiresome and boring." It's funny to think that a book promoting bikes in cities would find an issue with walking, rather than setting its sights squarely on the automobile (which it does at times), but this rather humorous comment starts to get at the gist of Fleming's book: The qualities that make biking a desirable thing need to be recognized in order to be considered spatially in an appropriate manner. Fleming discusses the usual reasons to opt for a bike over a car, or even walking—cutting carbon emissions, getting in shape, reducing traffic—but he prioritizes the sheer pleasure of riding a bike over any of these.<br /><blockquote><i>Our shame as architects and urban designers is that we have sat back and allowed by-the-book engineers to design infrastructure for bikes with even less inspiration and care than they would apply when designing a road. It's time someone intervened.</i></blockquote>This next quote comes much later in the book, but at this point the link between the pleasures of cycling and the space that bike's occupy is clear. More considered streets and other thoroughfares that take the act of bike riding into account—rather than just setting aside a strip based on the "real estate" a bike and rider occupies—should be the goal. Fleming's argument unfolds across 8 cities around the globe, accompanied by 8 chapters on related considerations: New York and "From Cars to Bikes," Copenhagen and "Aesthetics, Modernism and Meaning," Portland and "If Architects Designed Bicycle Transit" (from where the above quote is taken), and so forth. The tours are cursory and funny at times, but they do a great job of honing in on what is unique about each context, such as the historical importance in Portland's decision to let a highway bypass the city, creating bike thoroughfares and nurturing the potential for bicycling in a rainy and hilly place.<br /><br />Focusing on pleasure has other consequences that accompany reshaping city spaces for bikes, such as provisions for bike commuting. I was a warm-weather bike commuter when I lived in Chicago, using the busy but lovely lakeshore bike path, but getting to work drenched with sweat kept me from doing the 15-mile round-trip ride more often; and the perceived danger in riding a bike in New York City (confirmed on my first few attempts) has kept me off my two wheels here for a while. Yet when employees add showers, and cars and pedestrians respect bikes in a mutual sharing of the street (an ideal that may be a pipe dream) then the pleasures of riding extend to commuting, not just weekend rides. Ultimately I find Fleming's argument appealing for the United States, where the automobile is still seen as an enjoyable way of getting around, even as increasingly long and stressful commutes are tempering this long held notion. Reorienting that stance to include bicycling might just have the effect of balancing the different modes of transit on our city streets. In this regard Fleming has given readers and bikers 8 snapshots and many more ideas for thinking about ways to move forward.<br /><br /><b>US: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9462080046/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=9462080046&link_code=as3&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan.gif" /></a> CA: <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/9462080046/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=9462080046&link_code=as3&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.ca" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-ca.gif" width="90" /></a> UK: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/9462080046/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=9462080046&link_code=as3&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.co.uk" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-uk.gif" width="90" /></a></b>

28 in 28 #12: Cycle Space

February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The " 28 in 28 " series features a different book every day of the month. ...

Today's archidose #649

10:00 AM Tukiyooo 0

Here are some photos of the Zug Schleife Apartments (2012) in Zug, Switzerland, by <a href="http://www.olgiati.net/">Valerio Olgiati</a>, photographed by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/">van der Heckhuizen</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/8454724500/" title="Zugschleife by van der Heckhuizen, on Flickr"><img alt="Zugschleife" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8530/8454724500_039508415b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/8454722290/" title="Zugschleife by van der Heckhuizen, on Flickr"><img alt="Zugschleife" height="544" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8241/8454722290_bba332f246_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/8453630949/" title="Zugschleife by van der Heckhuizen, on Flickr"><img alt="Zugschleife" height="800" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8453630949_550c12957d_c.jpg" width="534" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/8453631451/" title="Zugschleife by van der Heckhuizen, on Flickr"><img alt="Zugschleife" height="800" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8229/8453631451_0c9f313616_c.jpg" width="534" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heckhausen/8453630315/" title="Zugschleife by van der Heckhuizen, on Flickr"><img alt="Zugschleife" height="800" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8453630315_b5f8421de4_c.jpg" width="522" /></a><br /><br />To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:<br /><blockquote>:: Join and add photos to the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/archi-dose/">archidose pool</a>, and/or<br />:: Tag your photos <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/archidose/">archidose</a></span></blockquote>

Today's archidose #649

Here are some photos of the Zug Schleife Apartments (2012) in Zug, Switzerland, by Valerio Olgiati , photographed by van der Heckhuizen . To...

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