Avalanche deaths rise dramatically in U.S. over long term

A Lake Tahoe-area resort ski patrol member for nearly 30 years, Bill Foster would have understood the dangers of avalanches better than most. But even knowing the exact date and time of a planned avalanche didn't save the 53-year-old's life.

Moments after another member of the ski team set off an avalanche with explosives late Monday morning as part of an effort to reduce the risk of an unpredictable avalanche, Foster was buried in Alpine Meadows. He had taken cover in an area that history had suggested would be safe from the rolling snow.

Instead, the tsunami-like wave of snow crested higher and wider than expected, overwhelming Foster. He was uncovered within minutes, and ski patrol members performed CPR on him, but they weren't able to save him. His death came on the same day that the body of a 49-year-old snowboarder, Steven Mark Anderson of Truckee, was found by a sheriff's search dog at the Donner Ski Ranch in Nevada County after an avalanche.

California has a far less fearsome reputation for avalanches than states like Colorado, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Alaska. But the two deaths ? the first of the U.S.' winter season ? were a stark reminder that danger lurks.

In the last 60 years, avalanche deaths have risen dramatically, largely, some experts say, because of the growing popularity of backcountry skiing and hiking, snowboarding and other activities in places that are prone to avalanches. Last winter 34 fatalities were recorded in the U.S., and the top eight years for avalanche deaths have all been recorded since 1995, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Most of the deaths since 1950 have involved people from ages 16 to 45, presumably the fittest and most likely to partake in physical activities like skiing and backcountry hiking. California recorded two avalanche fatalities last year, compared with seven for Colorado, six for Alaska, six for Montana, five for Utah and four each for Washington and Wyoming.

In the 2009-10 season, when the U.S. tallied 36 avalanche deaths, none happened in California, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. But four people died in California in the 2007-08 season, when 36 people in the U.S. perished in avalanches.

John Snook, a forecaster for the information center, said California's maritime climate makes for large snowstorms and deep, dense snow packs that are more stable than shallower and more stratified snowpacks in states like Colorado.

"Typically in California you'll get a large snowstorm and the avalanche danger is really elevated for a couple of days and then the danger tends to go back down," he said.

Snook said the increase in avalanche deaths isn't explained by more dangerous conditions in mountains. Rather, there has been an increased popularity of activities like backcountry skiing and snowboarding over the years, along with the advance in equipment that makes it easier for more people of varying physical skills to trek to higher elevations, which has put more people in the path of potential avalanches.

"If you look really carefully at the number of fatalities versus the number of people going out into the backcountry," Snook said, "it's probably holding stable or even going down."

Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Ca?ada Flintridge, said that while the West has been "extremely dry" for the better part of eight months, the Northern Sierra has gotten a lot of snow of late. But the weather has been far from extreme, he said.

"Avalanches have been happening forever," Patzert said. "Snow plus mountains equals avalanches. That's not new. What has changed is the higher density of skiers that have pushed the envelope farther and farther up the slopes."

The avalanche risk was not at its highest when Foster died. According to the Sierra Avalanche Center's "danger scale," the risk was considerable, meaning conditions were dangerous, but not very dangerous or extreme, with "natural avalanches likely" instead of possible.

Pete Mann, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Truckee, said warm storms brought heavy, warm snow mixed with shallower, weak base layers from a previous cold front. It can all add up to marble layers of different consistency that don't always hold up together well. The alternating weather from cold to warm probably added to the instability of the snow, he said.

Jenny Hatch, a program director for the Sierra Avalanche Center, said that though fatalities are relatively rare, the threat of avalanches isn't unusual in the Sierra.

"Every year we have incidents. Every year we get a lot of slides," she said. "The take-home message for people is to be aware of conditions and use safe travel when on the mountains."

Ski resorts try to manage the avalanche danger by triggering some to reduce the chance of unforeseen disaster. That's what Foster and his ski team were trying to do when he died.

"Bill?was one of Alpine Meadows' very best and most experienced professional ski patrollers," Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows resorts said in a statement. He had "28 years of experience on Alpine Meadows' professional ski patrol and he routinely performed snow safety in this area."

hector.becerra@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/5CTdC8Xs1MQ/la-me-avalanche-20121229,0,7123819.story

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James Bond In 'Skyfall': Top 10 Moments Of 2012

The world's greatest spy had his biggest year ever, and we were there for all of it.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Daniel Craig in "Skyfall"
Photo: MGM

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699440/james-bond-skyfall-top-moments-2012.jhtml

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7 Benefits of Real Estate As An Investment | Living Cashflow 101 ...

Image Courtesy of Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let me begin by saying that real estate as an investment?is the best to make in your entire lifetime.

Depending on how you perceive real estate as an investment, that may raise your eyebrows and cause you to be skeptical or you may agree and slowly nod your head.

Maybe for you, real estate is slow, takes a lot of capital and too risky an investment.

You prefer to keep it safe with time deposits or bonds. Or maybe try out your luck with mutual funds or even stocks.

Go ahead and do that for now but by the end of this post, I?ll show you why real estate is the best investment to make in your entire lifetime.

I?ll show you why time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks don?t come close to real estate?s ability to automatically grow your wealth and give passive income.

In the end, that?s what you really want isn?t it? To be wealthy and not have to work or worry about your finances especially on your retirement.

Don?t get me wrong, I don?t hate time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks. They have their purpose. I have them too.

But for automatic wealth-building and generating passive income,?real estate is the best investment for that. Here are 7 reasons why.

#1. Real Estate Appreciates In Value

The first benefit of real estate as an investment is appreciation. Land appreciates in value over time because of the limited supply of land. Like Oprah Winfrey said, ?They don?t make dirt.?

Land appreciates at roughly the same rate as inflation.

Inflation is the rate that the price of goods increases. It eats the value of your money by lowering the amount of goods it can buy. Your 100 pesos in 2015 will buy considerably less compared to your 100 pesos now.

You know that. Remember the jeepney fare 5 years ago or the price of a Big Mac meal? Your money now can?t buy the same things as 5 years ago. You can?t see inflation but your wallet can feel it.

Because of inflation, cash, time deposits and bonds turn into depreciating assets.

Cash actually loses value over time unless it?s invested.

The same with time deposits (TDs) and bonds. Although, TDs give interest, the interest on a time deposit is always lower than the inflation rate.

With bonds, even if the interest rate is higher than inflation, it?s not rolled over so the principal amount will always remain the same and will have a lower value when the bond matures.

I don?t know about you but I?d rather invest in an appreciating asset.

What all this means is real estate is your best weapon against inflation.

Not only that, real estate is your best weapon for growing your equity. You don?t have to do much for the value of the land to go up.

You don?t wait to buy real estate. You buy real estate then you wait.

#2. Real Estate Is Negotiable

The next remarkable benefit of real estate as an investment is you don?t have to pay the asking price.

That?s right, you can haggle the purchase price of real estate!

If you like haggling in Greenhills and Divisoria, you?ll love this even more.

Most of you don?t think it?s possible to bring down the price of real estate because you only look at properties being sold by real estate developers. Usually, there?s no haggling with developers. When they set a price that?s it. You can get small discounts with their promotions but who wants small discounts?

I would suggest that you only buy properties that is at least 20% below market value. Negotiate the price down to 80% of the market price or even lower.

You can?t do that with cash, time deposits or bonds. No one in their right mind will give you 80 pesos in exchange for 100 pesos.

Same thing with mutual funds or stocks. The value that you put in the beginning is what you get.

But with real estate and a little negotiating skill, you can get free money in the form of equity. If you buy a Php5,000,000 worth of real estate at 20% discount then you have a Php1,000,000 bonus in free equity!

Who wants free money, raise your hands?

#3. Leverage ? Using Other People?s Money To Buy Real Estate

You also don?t need to pay the full negotiated price yourself.

You can make a small downpayment and get financing from a bank, a lender or a partner to pay off the balance. This is called leverage.

You can?t leverage the price of time deposits, bonds, mutual funds or stocks. You have to pay the full price yourself. No bank will lend you money to buy TDs (which is ridiculous), mutual funds or stocks.

This is what gives real estate speed. You may think real estate as an investment is slow because you?re thinking you need to save up to pay off the full price. Not so, you can use leverage to quickly buy properties then turn around to resell them or rent them out.

It gets better because when you rent out property, you don?t have to pay the monthly payments out of your own pocket because you get it from the property?s rental income.

This allows you to get more real estate with the cash that comes in from your job or business.

#4. Real Estate Gives Passive Income

You can get true financial freedom with real estate because it gives passive income. Passive income is income that you don?t have to work for.

You get this by renting out your property. Once a tenant has been secured, all you need to do is encash their rental checks every month.

TDs, bonds and stocks also give passive income. But you have no control over the income you receive from these instruments.

With real estate, you can increase rents every year or every other year. You can also improve the property in many different ways and get even more rental income.

Control is such a nice thing. You can whine about inflation and the rising cost of living if you are a TD, bond or stock investor.

If you?re a real estate investor, you just smile, raise your rents and blame it on inflation when your tenant reacts!

#5. Real Estate Gives Tax Advantages

We all have to pay taxes eventually even for investments. However, real estate as an investment has certain advantages that are not present in other investments.

• You can depreciate the value of the structure on your property and deduct it from your taxable income. This lowers your tax and increases your cashflow.
• In the same manner, you can deduct a portion of the interest payments of your mortgage from your taxable income again to lower your tax and increase your cashflow.
• If you are a VAT entity, you can deduct the VAT that you paid (also called input VAT) from the VAT that you pay to the BIR. Meaning, you make money from VAT and increase your cashflow!
• You can also get chunks of tax-free cash without ever selling your property. You do this by refinancing your mortgage or getting an equity loan. Since this cash is not income, you don?t have to pay taxes on it while you still keep the asset!

Interest income from deposits and some bonds are taxed at 20%. It?s deducted even before you get it. And you can?t do anything about it.

#6. You Control The Real Estate You Own

You control your destiny in real estate.

As you have seen in advantage #4, you can control the income that you get from your rental property.

You don?t have to complain that inflation is eating your interest or dividends. Or that rates are going down ever closer to zero.

In fact, inflation is an excuse to increase your rent, so inflation is not your enemy but your friend!

You do not have to pray that the rural banks which hold your TDs don?t go bankrupt.

You do not have to rely on the stocks that you picked to always go up every year, which is actually improbable.

And you don?t have to worry about scammers like Aman Futures or Multitel running away with your money because you own and control the investment.

Control is a good thing especially for real estate investors, don?t you think?

#7. Real Estate Is Unmatched With Synergy

These 6 advantages taken one at a time already give real estate as an investment a distinct advantage over others.

Taken together, they make real estate the best investment vehicle for any investor.

By combining these advantages, you get an asset that you can easily afford, automatically builds wealth and gives passive income for a very long time.

Take this simple example.

• You found a condo unit being sold for 3.5M while other similar units are being sold for 4M. You negotiate the price down to 3M. You get a 25% discount from market value.
• You make a downpayment of Php500,000 while your bank gives you a loan for Php2.5M payable over 10 years at 8% interest.
• You rent it out for Php30,000 per month. You get a deposit of Php60,000 and post-dated checks of Php30,000 for 1 year. You pay the bank an additional Php300+ per month to cover the monthly amortization.
• Your tenant renews and as a sign of goodwill, you don?t increase the rent. But you get an additional 12 checks of Php30,000.
• On the 3rd year, you increase the rent by Php1,500. The rent now covers the whole monthly amortization and you get Php1,100+ passive income.
• On the 10th year, you?re faced with a dilemma. Should you sell for Php5M (the ongoing market rate) and make 10x your initial investment of Php500,000? or should you continue to collect the rent which is about Php36,000 in monthly rent now that the loan is fully paid? Should you get an equity loan for Php2.5M so you can still keep the asset and just buy a new car? Oh, the choices you have to make.

In this example, we combined appreciation, negotiation, passive income, leverage and control to create an asset that will either multiply your initial investment 10x or give you passive income for a long time.

That?s just 1 property. How many properties like this could you add in 10 or 15 years?

These are the reasons why the rich get real estate as an investment .

These are the reasons why real estate is the best investment you can ever make.

Do you agree now? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

This is the first post in a series on ?How To Invest In Real Estate.? In the next updates, we?ll explore the different pitfalls, strategies and tactics in real estate investing. To get the whole series, subscribe to Living Cashflow 101.

Source: http://www.livingcashflow101.com/2012/12/benefits-real-estate-investment/

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Learn How To Build Muscle Fast and Build Body Definition

?

Health & Beauty

Written by liy0 jat ??

Tuesday, 25 December 2012 00:49

How to build muscle fast has come up in every young boy?s mind since the beginning of time. Men also find themselves looking for a way to build muscle and muscle mass. In the present era of toned and muscular fashion models as ell as fitness models, everybody wants to appear stunning and handsome by having a masculine defined body. Different people utilize different types of exercises in order to achieve a toned and lean body. Some of the methods include daily exercise, going to the gym, and eating a healthy diet. These have been proven beneficial for many people when done properly Nowadays, there are numerous online websites available that specialize in giving you excellent tips, tactics, fitness advice, and information on how to build muscle safely and effectively. They can also tell you the best and fastest way to build muscle using both an effective and proven approach. One of the best ways to build muscle is to use supplements. They can improve both your diet and give your body the key nutrients it needs when it needs them the most. Protein powder is considered one of the best supplements to build muscle and is used both by bodybuilders and those who want to gain muscle and build body definition. There are plenty of websites online that have experts who can help you further learn about proper supplements to use for building muscle mass. Men are not the only ones wanting to build muscle. Women who are conscious about their increasing weight and who are looking for effective ways to lose their excess weight and get a younger looking and toned body can also find expert advice online. You can involve exercise in your routine to burn your fat and lose inches that will make you look gorgeous. By getting a beautiful body you will be able to wear amazing and fabulous designer clothes and dresses that you may be dreaming to wear. It is also very important for every woman to have toned body with the right weight for her height because excess weight and fat can be a significant cause of serious illnesses and diseases. You may ask yourself, ?So what is the best weight loss plan for women? ? To get that great body and to lose weight, follow the advice offered by professionals online. You will get the tips and strategies that will give you the knowledge to help you to lose weight. Article Tags : How to build muscle fast

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Source: http://www.workoninternet.com/business/reviews/health-beauty/221832-learn-how-to-build-muscle-fast-and-build-body-definition.html

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Newspaper publishes gun owners' names and addresses

A newspaper in New York has received a wave of criticism from its readers after publishing the names and addresses of all of the individuals with handgun or pistol permits in its coverage area.

Hundreds of residents in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties were surprised to find their names and addresses listed on a map posted by The Journal News on Sunday. Users can click any dot on the map to see which of their neighbors has a permit for a gun.

The map sparked more than 500 comments from readers within a day of its appearance on the website, many of them voicing outrage at the paper's decision to make the information public.

"This is CRAZY!! why in the world would you post every licensed gun owner information?? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this. This is the type of thing you do for sex offenders not law abiding gun owners. What next? should i hang a flag outside my house that says I own a gun? I am canceling my subscription with your paper today!!!" said commenter Curtis Maenza.

"How about a map of the editorial staff and publishers of Gannett and Journal News with names and addresses of their families?," wrote commenter George Thompson.

All of the names and addresses were compiled through public records. The paper also requested the information from Putnam County, which is still compiling the records for publication, according to The Journal News' website.

In a statement to ABC News, The Journal News said its readers "are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods," because of the conversation about gun control on its website after the shooting in Newtown, Conn., last week.

"We obtained the names and addresses of Westchester and Rockland residents who are licensed to own handguns through routine Freedom of Information law requests. We also requested information on the number and types of guns owned by permit holders, but officials in the county clerks offices in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties maintained that those specifics were not public record," the statement read.

"New York's top public-records expert, Robert Freeman, disagrees," it added.

The paper declined to answer further questions about the map.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/newspaper-publishes-gun-owners-names-addresses-215214269--abc-news-topstories.html

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NRA?s LaPierre doesn?t back down from ?crazy? guns-in-schools proposal

On Sunday, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre repeated his claim that 'the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.' Opponents of armed guards in schools pushed back, but passing stricter gun control laws is an uphill fight.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / December 23, 2012

New Haven police officer Maneet Colon catalogues a Bushmaster semi-automatic assault rifle turned in during a gun buyback event at the New Haven Police Academy in New Haven, Connecticut, Saturday. The Bushmaster is similar to the type used by Adam Lanza during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Michelle McLoughlin/REUTERS

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The National Rifle Association generated a firestorm of criticism and ridicule when its chief lobbyist ? Wayne LaPierre ? declared that the answer to mass school shootings was more guns in schools.

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But if Mr. LaPierre had any intention of softening his rhetoric regarding the recent Sandy Hook grade school shooting in Connecticut ? particularly in light of normally pro-gun pundits and elected officials distancing themselves from his adamant stance ? that was not apparent Sunday when he sat down for an interview on NBC?s ?Meet the Press.?

?If it?s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,? LaPierre told NBC?s David Gregory. ?I think the American people think it?s crazy not to do it. It?s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.?

Recommended:?Second Amendment Quiz

The NRA?s chief spokesman also dismissed any congressional effort to restrict the sale of assault-style rifles, limit the size of ammunition clips, or require background checks for those who purchase firearms at private gun sales ? legislation Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she intends to introduce this coming year.

Curbing private gun sales, he said, would put ?every gun sale under the thumb of the federal government.?

The NRA has tasked former congressman and former Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson with developing its proposal to put more armed guards in schools ? an idea opposed by many parents in Newtown, Conn., where Adam Lanza, armed with an assault-style rifle with large magazines, handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, killed 20 first-graders and six women who worked at the school before taking his own life.

On CNN?s ?State of the Union,? Mr. Hutchinson likened armed school guards to plain-clothes air marshals on passenger airliners, or to such guards in uniform at some shopping malls or movie theaters.

?People resisted having weapons on airplanes, but I oversaw the federal air marshals,? Hutchinson said. ?It's a deterrent. No one sees that weapon, but they are protected on that airplane, and it's a huge positive impact on safety."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/a01S_rScZDA/NRA-s-LaPierre-doesn-t-back-down-from-crazy-guns-in-schools-proposal

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Open Letters To Reformers I Know. Part 7: Michelle Rhee | Gary ...

I first met Michelle Rhee, the reformer?s reformer, back in the summer of 1996.? At the time I was working for the TFA summer institute in Houston.? Though I was one year ?ahead? of her (I was a 1991 corps member and she was a 1992 corps member), she was several levels ahead of me by then.? I was a CMA (corps member adviser) and she was second in command of the entire institute.? I didn?t interact with her much for most of the summer.? There were a lot of cliques in TFA there and the ?higher staff? didn?t mingle a lot with the CMAs.

Back then, I remember, I was having trouble getting along with my immediate supervisor, a school director named Charlie.? Charlie had only taught three years and since I had taught four, I guess, I felt that he shouldn?t be micro-managing what I was doing.? This led to a big conflict early in the institute when at the opening ceremony I was asked to represent the 1991 corps in a typical TFA thing where one person from each corps tells why they joined TFA and why they are still a part of it.? I wrote a draft, which needed to be approved by Charlie, which included a joke about how I joined TFA, in part, because I wasn?t ready to go to law school.? He said I couldn?t say that since this wasn?t the time to be joking and I said that if I couldn?t make the joke than I wasn?t going to do the speech.? Well, he backed down but as a result of this conflict I stopped talking to him unless it was completely necessary.

A few days later when I was at my placement school I got a surprise visit from Michelle Rhee.? I was at a picnic table and she sat next to me and said, ?Can I take you to lunch??? Though she was many years away from getting infamous for firing people, I still got the sense that I was in a lot of trouble.? She led me to her car and she started driving me to the restaurant.? She was silent so I tried to break the silence with a joke ? a reference to The Godfather Part II.? I said ?You?re not taking me to Reno to shoot me, are you??? She didn?t respond.? Maybe not a Godfather fan.? Maybe it just wasn?t a great joke.? We got seated at the place, Mexican, I think, and she suddenly became a lot more animated.? I think she said ?So what?s going on??? I started telling her about the problem I had with Charlie and she was a pretty good listener, actually.? I felt a little better as she offered me ?validation? and then she asked if I thought I might start talking to my supervisor again, and I said I would try, which I did.? Michelle actually did a nice job of intervention ? something that might surprise people who know her as the big bad ?Rhee.?

Throughout the next 15 years I saw Michelle at various TFA events, but never spoke to her, as far as I can remember.? When I worked for The New York City Teaching Fellows I was aware that Michelle was the head of The New Teacher Project, but she was in D.C. so I never had any contact with her, though I was working under her again.? When she was appointed Chancellor of D.C. schools in 2006, I didn?t know, then, how extreme she was with her views on improving schools.? I saw her on Oprah, I read about her in TIME magazine.? Still, it wasn?t until ?Waiting For Superman? came out that I started getting actually worried that Michelle had become the ?leader? of a reform movement that I considered to be dangerous.? Over the past year and a half, I?ve written her a few emails and she has always responded, sometimes within five minutes.? We haven?t gotten very deeply into the issues, but I?ve appreciated that she was willing to ?engage? with someone who is an opponent of some of her ideas.? One of our exchanges was posted, with permission, on Whitney Tilson?s email list once, but I haven?t ever put anything she ever wrote to me on my blog.

With this context, I?ve written part 7 of my Open Letters Series (to end the suspense, the 8th and final one will be to Wendy Kopp).

12/25/12

Dear Michelle,

I hope you?re doing well and are getting a chance to take a few days off.? Putting students first all the time is not good for one?s longevity.? Sometimes you?ve got to put your family or yourself first, I?m sure you agree.

For the past couple of months, I?ve been writing these letters to people I?ve known over the years.? Though I suppose that of the nine people I?m writing to, you?re the person who I know the least, only working together that one summer 16 years ago, and haven?t had much contact with since then.

Still, I?m pretty optimistic that you will respond since I think it will be very easy for you to respond.? Whereas all the other people, I think, are hesitant that they may inadvertently write something that you wouldn?t approve of, that isn?t something that you will have to worry about.? Also, I think you are most confident about what you stand for, so I?m hoping you?re willing to respond and possibly your response will contain some more insight into the nuances of what you think, beyond the usual soundbites that are a necessary part of your T.V. and radio appearances.

Aside from the time you supervised me when I worked as a trainer at the 1996 institute, I also worked for The New York City Teaching Fellows for a few summers in the early 2000s.? I found that organization to be well run and the staff to be generally on top of things, which was to your credit.? The Teaching Fellows, for a time, purchased thousands of copies of my first book to distribute to the teachers-in-training.? I don?t know if you authorized that, or were even aware of it, but if you did approve it, I appreciate that.

Michelle, I want you to know that I ?get? what frustrates you about education in this country.? Yes, there are some ?bad? teachers out there.? Yes, it is not easy to fire teachers under most union contracts.? And, yes, there are surely some ?bad? schools out there with a tipping point of ?bad? teachers and also ?bad? administrators.? Like a money pit car, it is a lot more efficient to scrap them then to try to fix them.? But what bothers me about the StudentsFirst platform is that I truly believe that the solutions you offer will, in the long run, do more harm than good.? My fear is that these reforms will not lead to increased student achievement and will, as a side effect, lead to massive teacher shortages as few will want to work in a job that has so little stability.

I?m not the only person, you are well aware, who feels this way.? The opposition to some of what you are doing is fairly large and since you must respect at least some of those people ? we are not all union shills (I know that I?m not one) ? that I wonder if you sometimes have any moments of self-doubt.? I base my feelings on the research I?ve done and find that I disagree with you on several of your key pillars of your education reform ideas.? If I were to summarize what I think your key beliefs are, I?d say they are:? 1)? Our education system is, as a whole, failing.? 2)? There should be a ?great? teacher in front of every class, 3) Parents should have many high quality choices of where to send their kids to schools, and 4) Laws and union contracts that protect teachers with tenure, LIFO layoffs, and evaluations that do not count, as a factor, student learning are things that harm students as the needs of the adults are put ahead of the needs of the students.

1)? I?m not convinced that our schools are ?failing.?? Depending on what statistics you want to use, either point of view can look correct.? You have gotten a lot of mileage out of the PISA scores, but I?ve seen plenty of analysis of those same scores that paint a different picture.? Regardless, though, of how broken or not-broken the education in this country is right now, I believe that we would both agree that it can be improved and that it is very worthwhile to pursue improving it.

2)? But to improve it, we have to truly identify what the weaknesses of it are.? You have said and written much about how a big problem is the number of ?bad? teachers out there who are protected by their tenure and by the fact that they are not held accountable for how much their students learn.? If we could change the laws, you suggest, to rid ourselves of these teachers, achievement in this country will rise significantly.? Education research, unfortunately, is as much of an art as a science and there are studies you?ve quoted that say that ?great? teachers teach three times as much as ?bad? ones (Hanushek 1992) and also research that says that having three great teachers in a row will close the achievement gap (Jordan 1997).? I carefully read both of these reports and found serious problems with both of them.? More than anything, though, the conclusions they make run counter to what I?ve experienced in schools.

Now I?ll agree that there are teachers who are more talented than other teachers.? After teaching for fifteen years, I hope that I?m one of the more talented ones.? But I?ve also experienced, first hand at times, the limitation of teachers to overcome some external factors, particularly things like mental illness, including things like depression.? A question I?d like to ask you is:? What percent of teachers, do you think, are ?great? in that they truly cover a year and half worth of material in a year and that three such teachers consecutively will close the achievement gap?? I?ve met some great teachers in my time in schools, but I can?t say I?ve met any that I think accomplish this.

I know the theory is that if we ?reward great teachers? with merit pay that everyone will try a lot harder and that in doing so some average teachers might become great teachers and some ineffective teachers might become average teachers.? I do think that great teachers get rewarded.? Many schools have ?lead teacher? positions where a great teacher can make extra money by mentoring other teachers and sharing his or her best practices.? I?m not convinced, though, that the current type of teacher evaluations gauge teacher quality accurately enough to be used for these purposes.? Also, I?m not convinced that the benefits of giving bonuses to certain teachers, especially based on a flawed pseudo-scientific formula, outweighs the problems associated with it.? (Things like competition hindering collaboration and great teachers who are not evaluated as ?great? by the metric leaving the system because they think it is unfair.)

3)? As far as school choice goes, as a parent of two kids myself, I wouldn?t like it if my students were ?trapped? in a school with a majority of uncaring teachers and administrators.? Fortunately for me, I can afford to move if I really needed to (thank you lock-step seniority pay raises!).? But what concerns me about this current ?choice? movement is that it is really just an illusion.? From my research I?ve concluded that parents in poor community may have ?choice,? but those choices are about the same in quality as the schools they are escaping.? Some schools, particularly some charter schools, have found ways to make themselves ?seem? like they are doing significantly better than the nearby ?failing? school, but when I?ve really looked deeply into the numbers I?ve found these schools to generally have a lot of student attrition and even with that, have pretty low standardized test scores.? I visited my first high profile charter high school recently and, without getting into too many details, I was not very impressed.

My concern is that many of these schools are duping the public into giving them a lot of money to work their miracles.? This wouldn?t be so bad if their exaggerations were victimless crimes, but there are victims.? To make room for these schools there must be, as there are in several cities, mass closings of the neighborhood failing schools.? I believe that even if there is a slight benefit to having these ?high-performing? charter schools, even if they get their results, in part, by ridding themselves of some of the toughest to teach kids, the benefit is far outweighed by the turmoil that comes with shutting down neighborhood schools and displacing the students and also even firing the staffs.? The other schools, from what I?ve seen, just aren?t good enough to justify this ?disruption.?

I?m also not convinced that the supposed ?gains? we see in ?reform-minded? cities like Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and New Orleans are due to the reforms or if they would have had similar gains, if not greater ones, if different reforms were pursued.

4)? The name ?StudentsFirst? implies that your organization has beliefs counter to people who think that the needs of adults should sometimes come before the needs of students.? The name is well chosen to convey this idea.? It is hard for someone to say ?I disagree with the policies supported by StudentsFirst? without sounding like some kind of jerk, but I can say, without shame, that all teachers, even the great ones, often make decisions that put their own needs above those of their students.? For example, it would be putting students first if every teacher were to donate 75% of their salaries back to the school.? This would enable the school to purchase the latest technology, more books, and even hire more teachers to get the class sizes down to what there are in elite private schools.? But it would be wrong to criticize teachers for not wanting to do this.? Teachers are very giving people.? Despite claims that we are on easy street, we have a tough job and many great teachers would not have become teachers without some of the benefits that go along with it.? We are not indentured servants.

As a parent I might ?need? to leave school each day at 4:00 PM to pick up my kids at daycare.? If I have a union contract that says that I can?t be asked to stay past 4:00 PM, despite the fact that it might benefit my students if I were to stay until 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM each day, then I am not a selfish teacher who is only thinking about his own needs.? I?m a person with a life and when there are times that my student?s needs conflict with my own, I will sometimes choose my own.

Now, if I ?need? to be late for school every day, well that?s a problem.? In that case the needs of the students to have a teacher in class surely outweighs my need to snooze an extra time.? But if I ?need? to watch the World Series and that causes me to go to sleep very late on a school night and though I get to school on time, I?m a bit tired that day and maybe not as sharp as I would have been if I had gone to sleep at 9:00 PM, well as long as this isn?t something I?m doing all the time, I certainly reserve the right to go to bed late some nights as my ?need? to have the right to use my free time as I wish, as long as it doesn?t interfere too much with my ability to do my job.

Now I know that you have not asked teachers to go to bed at 9:00 PM, but other things you?ve advocated do violate some teacher?s ?needs.?? For instance, I feel like I ?need? to get a step raise in a predictable way.? As I get older, my expenses go up.? One day my kids will be in college.? I don?t think I?d keep being a teacher if I felt that fifteen years from now I could get a huge pay-cut based on my not meeting an inaccurate computer?s prediction of how well my class will do on a standardized test that has it?s own mistakes in it.? I also ?need? an evaluation system that is fair, not one that could rate me highly effective one year and highly ineffective the next year despite little difference in my quality of teaching.

Anyway, these are just some things on my mind.? You?ve surely responded to every one of my concerns in various writings and speeches throughout the years so I hope you?ll write back.

Sincerely,

Gary

Source: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/12/24/open-letters-to-reformers-i-know-part-7-michelle-rhee/

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Some Easy Methods to Grow Through Self improvement | valttiblogi ...

Posted by mikaza on December 24, 2012 in Lifestyle | Short Link

In case you asked a thousand Americans whether desired to improve some element of their personality, 999,999 ones would possibly say ?yes.? Many people are looking for improvement in their personal lives, while some have their pinpoint the professional element of their life. The info contained on this article is great for people of any age who?ve thought to ask being a better person.

You and Mr Guguzapoiz can try writing your motivational speech. With an index card or postcard, jot down all the stuff which are good in regards to you. Have it together with you all the time, and look at it when you want some inspiration. You can also try videotaping yourself reading your positive self-affirmations. Replay the playback quality every day, along with when you need to hear some positive news of you. ?Why would i would like to do this??, you may well be asking.

You need to have a crisis fund. For many any unexpected expense brings about more charges on his or her charge card. In case you save a bit each week, you?ll have accumulated your emergency fund very quickly. These reserves may be of great assistance now and in the long run, since the balance will drop, rather than build Relationship with Escolade Mar.

There?s one key strategy to consider, no matter what your own personal goals for personal development. That one thing is you must decide to get an energetic person and enjoy life, ?t be a spectator. Never let your lifetime goinf too soon; it?s fine to watch, however you also needs to live!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK8POoP_vZY Determine what your core beliefs are and live and eat them. Your individual beliefs create the foundation for what you are. In case you have a good foundation to shield them upon (and you will), oneself esteem will benefit from adherence in your core principles. And also this helps you to make you a regular person. It becomes an essential character trait.

You?ll be able to teach yourself the best ways to take care of hard situations. Understanding how to relax during stressful situations will allow you to be considered a well informed person. Take a moment while focusing on the breathing technique.

Behind every great champion is surely an equally great coach. A would-be champion needs the support of your coach or mentor. It is important for those who are educated inside a certain field to give on his or her knowledge to people entering the area. Without a person to teach them the appropriate way of accomplishing things, you will never expect these to have the ability to properly succeed. Every champion has a great coach.

Try and find what is within the method of you learning to be a success. Some individuals have a very hard time with this particular. Nevertheless, identifying personal weak points is really a critical initial step to ensure that these phones be addressed. Once you address these obstacles, the path to success can become much clearer.

You might find that meeting and speaking with a spiritual or secular counselor a satisfying experience. These people are experienced and they can tell what direction to go inside your situation. They are prepared to listen and give sound advice that you?re going to take advantage of. Talking out your issues with an experienced will make you much happier and healthier.

Even though it is essential have people in your daily life, it?s not necassary to be determined by others for your happiness. Concentrate on making yourself happy. Which means you happen to be responsible for your satisfaction with life, not really that you should sacrifice other?s happiness in the interests of your personal. Make goals which are in keeping with your values and are happier.

You?ve hopefully found a number of new tips about self improvement in this post. There?ll always be a good amount of methods to transform your life. It doesn?t matter your real age, you?ll be able to work on improving your habits and as being a old person overall.

Tags: Enter Escolade Mar

Source: http://valttiblogi.com/some-easy-methods-to-grow-through-self-improvement/

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One year later.... Your State of the Galaxy Nexus

nybadboy11, on 19 December 2012 - 11:16 AM, said:

Why do you think the N4 is way better can I ask?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki

Battery life is way better. Screen is leaps & bounds better. Everything is much faster & smoother.

Edit: The speaker is also much improved.

Edited by brkshr, Today, 12:18 PM.

Source: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/37682-one-year-later-your-state-of-the-galaxy-nexus/

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Chuck Hagel and the Neocon Smear Machine (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Even without Congress, Obama could act to restrict guns (reuters)

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Channing and Jenna Dewan-Tatum Expecting First Child

The actor and his wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum "are pleased to announce that they are expecting the birth of their first child next year," reps for the couple confirm to PEOPLE exclusively.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/BKnJrE8M1p0/

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Scientists discover gene linked to breast and ovarian cancer ...

17 December 2012

A team of researchers led by the Institute of Cancer Research, London, have found that rare mutations in a gene called PPM1D are linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The mutations are not inherited, and the discovery potentially reveals a new mechanism of cancer development.

The study suggests that around one in five women with PPM1D mutations will develop breast or ovarian cancer in the course of their lifetime, almost double the breast cancer risk and more than ten times the ovarian cancer risk of women in the general population. The discovery could have implications for genetic testing and targeted prevention, in particular for ovarian cancer, which is often diagnosed at an advanced stage.

The team analysed 507 genes involved in DNA repair in 1150 women with breast or ovarian cancer, identifying PPM1D gene mutations in five women. They then sequenced the PPM1D gene in 7781 women with breast or ovarian cancer and 5861 people from the general population.

There were 25 faults in the PPM1D gene in women with cancer and only one in the general population, a highly statistically significant difference.

The study found that the mutated genes were not passed down from parent to child and were not present in every cell. Even more surprisingly, there were no PPM1D mutations in the cancer cells or in the normal breast or ovarian cells; they were found only in blood cells. The findings suggest that PPM1D works in a completely different way to other genes known to increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, potentially highlighting a new cancer-causing mechanism.

The team found that the mutations made the molecule that is produced from the PPM1D gene shorter than usual. Such truncating mutations are usually thought to cause a loss of function; however, the team were surprised to find that in this case the PPM1D mutations seem to make it more active.

Study leader Professor Nazneen Rahman, head of genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and head of the cancer genetics clinical unit at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This is one of our most interesting and exciting discoveries.

"At every stage the results were different from the accepted theories. We don't yet know exactly how PPM1D mutations are linked to breast and ovarian cancer, but this finding is stimulating radical new thoughts about the way genes and cancer can be related."

"The results could also be useful in the clinic, particularly for ovarian cancer, which is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. If a woman knew she carried a PPM1D mutation and had a one in five chance of developing ovarian cancer, she might consider keyhole surgery to remove her ovaries after completing her family."

Professor Alan Ashworth, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research and one of the study researchers, said: "This discovery really does turn conventional wisdom about the way genetic mutations can lead to cancer on its head. We are likely to gain many valuable insights into how cancers can occur as we continue to unravel this puzzle."

New genetic sequencing technologies that allow much deeper analysis of genes were crucial to enable the team to make the link between the PPM1D mutations and cancer. The discovery that the mutations were only present in some cells, a so-called mosaic pattern, would have been extremely difficult to detect with older sequencing methods.

It is possible that similar mosaic mutations in other genes, and in patients with other types of cancer, will emerge as more research groups are now using these deep sequencing techniques, the authors say.

Dr Michael Dunn, head of molecular and physiological sciences at the Wellcome Trust, said: "This study is an fantastic example of the power of next-generation sequencing to discover new cancer predisposing genes, offering opportunities for better diagnosis. The discovery also opens up a very exciting new avenue of research in the study of cancer development."

The study was funded by the Institute of Cancer Research, the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Image: A breast cancer cell. Credit: Anne Weston, LRI, CRUK, Wellcome Images.

Ruark E et al. Mosaic PPM1D mutations are associated with predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. Nature 2012 (epub ahead of print).

Source: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2012/News/WTP041104.htm

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Balloon Juice ? Blog Archive ? Grief Is Another Country

By Tom Levenson December 16th, 2012

The other front pagers have been covering the Newtown disaster amply.? I have nothing to add, at least not yet.

I?ve lost much of today thinking about the parents, which has pretty much frozen my brain in place.

It?s a clich?, but still, absolutely true:? there is no loss like that of a child.? To my great good fortune and deepest fear, that?s a catastrophe I do not know.

But I did see it up close.? Without belaboring personal details (and a story that is not mine alone), my father predeceased my grandmother.? She lasted months only after that calamity, and that?s all I?m going to say about that for now.

But it?s the utter wreck that such a loss wreaks on those it touches that I?ve been turning over in my head all day.? John caught a lot of that with this post, which I read this morning, but that just made me think on it the more.? At some point during the day, it came to me, a stray wisp of memory ? some words that I had once encountered that I half recalled to be as close as anything to give voice to something of what parents feel in these circumstances.

Decades ago, some years after we lost my dad, I capped a wholly undistinguished college acting career with a bit part in one of the lesser Shakespeares, King John.? Even Bill?s second tier work has flashes of seemingly impossible insight delivered in otherworldly language.? Act III of King John erupts in such a moment, at the point when Constance, believes her son, Arthur, has been doomed to murder at the order of King John.? I looked it up and here?s what I found:

CARDINAL PANDULPH
Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.

CONSTANCE
Thou art not holy to belie me so;
I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine;
My name is Constance; I was Geffrey?s wife;
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:
I am not mad: I would to heaven I were!
For then, ?tis like I should forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!
Preach some philosophy to make me mad,
And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal;
For being not mad but sensible of grief,
My reasonable part produces reason
How I may be deliver?d of these woes,
And teaches me to kill or hang myself:
If I were mad, I should forget my son,
Or madly think a babe of clouts were he:
I am not mad; too well, too well I feel
The different plague of each calamity.

KING PHILIP
Bind up those tresses. O, what love I note
In the fair multitude of those her hairs!
Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen,
Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends
Do glue themselves in sociable grief,
Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity.

CONSTANCE
To England, if you will.

KING PHILIP
Bind up your hairs.

CONSTANCE
Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it?
I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud
?O that these hands could so redeem my son,
As they have given these hairs their liberty!?
But now I envy at their liberty,
And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner.
And, father cardinal, I have heard you say
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven:
If that be true, I shall see my boy again;
For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,
To him that did but yesterday suspire,
There was not such a gracious creature born.
But now will canker-sorrow eat my bud
And chase the native beauty from his cheek
And he will look as hollow as a ghost,
As dim and meagre as an ague?s fit,
And so he?ll die; and, rising so again,
When I shall meet him in the court of heaven
I shall not know him: therefore never, never
Must I behold my pretty Arthur more.

CARDINAL PANDULPH
You hold too heinous a respect of grief.

CONSTANCE
He talks to me that never had a son.

KING PHILIP
You are as fond of grief as of your child.

CONSTANCE
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
Fare you well: had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.
I will not keep this form upon my head,
When there is such disorder in my wit.
O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!
My widow-comfort, and my sorrows? cure!
?William Shakespeare, King John, Act III, Scene 4

My thoughts and all sympathy to the families of those now burdened with grief, or, as it is customarily said at such times in my Jewish tradition, ?may they be comforted wtih the other mourners of Jerusalem and Zion.?

Image:? Anthony van Dyck, Family Portrait, 1621.

Source: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/12/16/grief-is-another-country/

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The Schandorff Family ? Christmas week: When joy is elusive.

Welcome to Christmas week! As I was deciding what to blog about this week, it seemed that Christmas was an obvious choice. But what specifically might be interesting to our family, friends and curious onlookers? Pics of the kids making Christmas cookies? Our ladies Christmas party this past week? Decorations around our house, or around town? The MAF staff Christmas party? The party for special needs kids at a local school? Yes! Yes, yes, yes and yes. So I?m doing it all. (Not to say that everyone will be interested in everthing? but I?ll let them be the judge of that). And thus, Christmas week was born on our blog. Here?s post #1: Christmas around our home.

Rewind about three weeks. I was feeling sorry for myself. In fact, I was throwing myself a pretty awesome pity party. My family and friends were invited too. But wait ? they lived in another country! And the wallowing deepened. Not to say that there wasn?t genuine emotion there ? grief over being separated from family and friends during a time of year steeped in family traditions and parties with friends. But I was in a funk and couldn?t seem to get out of it.

It was still 85 degrees outside. Palm trees swayed in the breeze. And this is Christmas??I tried decorating?the house, but it did nothing for my Christmas spirit.

I turned on Christmas music. But the weather outside wasn?t frightful ? if anything, it was beautiful. Sun and warmth in early December?- who was I to complain? But there were no delightful fires, either ? just the smell of burning trash wafting in through my windows. And a white Christmas? You?ve got to be kidding me. The music was turned off.

I needed a major dose of joy. Enter, The Apparent Project. I was shopping for Christmas presents, and there it was. JOY. With a capital J.?Hammered into metal.?I bought it for $5, took it home, and set it on a windowsill.

I passed it multiple times per day. I glanced at it as I walked through the room. It stared at me while I washed the dishes.?Joy. Joy to the World. The Savior reigns. The Savior had come, in tiny vulnerability. He had suffered grief and loss. He experienced the mundane. He was separated from family and knew what it was to feel alone. He understood. And if I had such a Savior, what was there left to feel but joy? No, make that Joy, with a capital J.

My mood didn?t change overnight. Sadness lingered. But slowly, joy entered. It was in the cards and letters that began arriving in the mail.

It hung on our tree: painted on to wooden snowflakes that my grandfather had carved, hanging on gilded ribbon that traveled from Russia and was gifted to us by my?father-in-law,?twisted into wire strung around?glazed clay by my sister-in-law?s creative hands, and wrapped tightly into paper turned into bells?and globes by Haitian artisans earning their living. It shone brightly in warm colors flung across the greenery by my grinning son.

Joy came in bright, unexpected colors one morning, given to me by a smiling little girl and her mother ? a new friend.

I enclosed anticipated joy in cloth bags ? fabric sent by Tim?s mom, who sent so much to make our Christmas merry. I stored away gifts from family, friends, old coworkers, and even strangers, and marveled at how much love there was. Distance may separate us, but my family was right here in my house with me.

I hung joy on the windowpanes ? loving the simple?beauty in our Haitian-made stockings.

Posted in family news by Liz on December 16th, 2012 at 9:22 am.

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Source: http://www.schandorfffamily.com/2012/12/16/christmas-week-when-joy-is-elusive/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christmas-week-when-joy-is-elusive

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Domino's founder sues government over contraception

Domino's founder Tom Monaghan sues government, saying contraception is 'gravely immoral.' Domino's founder offers employees health insurance excluding contraception and abortion.?

By Associated Press / December 16, 2012

Victor Gutierrez rushes out of Domino's Pizza in Turlock, Calif., to make a delivery in this February file photo. On Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, Domino's founder sued the federal government for forcing companies to offer health insurance that includes contraception coverage, a procedure he calls immoral.

Bart Ah You/The Modesto Bee/AP/File

Enlarge

The founder of?Domino's?Pizza is suing the federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law.

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Tom Monaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, says contraception isn't health care but a "gravely immoral" practice.

He filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court. It also lists as a plaintiff?Domino's?Farms, a Michigan office park complex that Monaghan owns.

Monaghan offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees. The new federal law requires employers to offer insurance including contraception coverage or risk fines.

Monaghan says the law violates his rights, and is asking a judge to strike down the mandate. There are similar lawsuits pending nationwide.

A message left Saturday for Monaghan's attorney, Richard Thompson, was not immediately returned.

The government says the contraception mandate benefits women.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/B0B0pI0Hlz4/Domino-s-founder-sues-government-over-contraception

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Home Improvement Tips To Help You Out | Pest Control Experts

Home improvement is not just a hobby for the mechanically-inclined. There is more to home improvements than just improving your home?s look. When properly executed, the right home improvement project can increase your home?s value. This article will equip you with advice to get a good return for your home improvement project.

If there?s a home improvement project that you?re doing, getting extra bricks is something you may want to consider. It is next to impossible to get a good color match if there are needed repairs termites or additions in the future. As with any style, brick styles rarely stay the same for long. Buying extra bricks is cost effective and can be stored so you can use them later.

Purchasing a smaller microwave, or a microwave that you can install over the stove, is a great space-saving tip to use in a smaller kitchen. These microwaves replace the hood of the range and are available in many price ranges, depending on the features desired. They are great for making all types of foods. This can change the way you cook forever.

New windows will reduce both heating and cooling costs and upgrade the look of any home. You will be rewarded with substantial savings on your heating and cooling bills.

Pick out a color that you want in your room. Try to create complementary color schemes for the most formal rooms of your home. Complementary colors can be identified by their color wheel opposites, for example, red and green. The method of choosing a color scheme is an effective way to present an appealing visual challenge.

Paint is a great budget-friendly home improvement. Paint is not very expensive, and can serve as the chief factor in a home renovation. A new coat of paint in any room in your house can yield a completely different and vibrant look. Keep in mind that you may always change it if you don?t like it.

Replacing old light fixtures is a great little pick-me-up for your kitchen or bathroom. If you have track lighting with old fashioned canned lights, you can exchange it for modern, attractive lights for less than $1000 by hiring a good electrician. For example, many people love the modern, distinctive look of a pendant light or chandelier.

The long blind cords in your home should be cut, tied or put in loops. This will help ensure the safety of children and pets. Leave exterminator charlotte just enough cord so you can use the blinds, but don?t leave any that will cause a problem. Eliminate the extra to avoid accidents from occurring.

Safety is job one when tackling home improvement projects. Although a hardhat might seem like a funny accessory, it can be a life saver if something falls and hits your head in the midst of a repair. Hard hats, breathing masks, and goggles are all safety equipment you need.

The tips you read here are just a small sample of what can be done to improve a person?s home. Continue learning so you can better your home improvement skills. Doing some research in advance can impact whether or not your home renovation project is successful. You should be completely educated on the project you are planning.

Source: http://pestcontrolexperts.edublogs.org/2012/12/16/home-improvement-tips-to-help-you-out/

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Mountain Town News | theSheetNews.com

By Allen Best

Does steep lead to deep (pockets)?

TELLURIDE, Colo. ? Chuck Horning, for the last nine years the owner of the Telluride ski company, has been asking hard questions about where the dollars are being spent. Such as:

What really is the value of hosting World Cup races?

Why does Telluride need its own very expensive airport when there?s a much larger, and safer one an hour away?

Is it wise to show ads of steep, extreme skiing when most paying customers have intermediate skills, if that?

He tells The Telluride Watch that after getting all the answers, he gulped and said OK to the continued expense of hosting World Cup ski races, because of the international exposure it provides.

But from Squaw Valley, he learned that too much emphasis upon the expert skiers descending chutes and peaks can scare away potential customers. He?s also working at filling in the holes of Telluride?s winter season, but how he thinks that can be done isn?t entirely clear.

He does have a clear message for Telluride locals. ?Sometimes we?re so much in love with Telluride, that it clouds our brains and makes us think we?re completely different (than other resorts). Maybe Telluride is not quite as different as we thought it was.?

KSL to become epic??

DENVER, Colo. ? It can be viewed as a cross-town rivalry in Denver playing out on the West Coast. KSL Capital Partners last week announced purchase of an 18 percent stake in the Whistler Blackcomb ski area, North America?s largest and busiest resort.

KSL already has two ski areas in California, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, in addition to many other travel and leisure properties. Key figures in the company include former executives at Vail.

The Denver Post drew the obvious conclusion that with its new stake in Whistler, KSL might be in a position to package loyalty ski passes to counter the powerful Epic Pass offered by Vail Resorts. Epic Pass buyers have three ski areas in the Lake Tahoe area and five more in Colorado.

In response, several ski areas this year banded together to create a pass that might be called friends with benefits. Included are Aspen/Snowmass, Jackson Hole, Alta and the two KSL ski areas in California.

Also this year, Crested Butte and Telluride announced a similar pass. Monarch, another Colorado ski area, has a similar deal involving ski areas in New Mexico.

The transaction involving Whistler includes three ski companies, all based in metropolitan Denver-Boulder: Vail Resorts, KSL and Intrawest. Founded in Vancouver, Intrawest for a time owned Whistler outright. KSL purchased Intrawest?s remaining shares.

KSL?s direct representative will be Eric Resnick, a former executive with Vail Resorts from about a decade ago. There, he worked with Roger McCarthy, who then was the chief executive at Breckenridge and, later, also at Keystone. Then, as now, they are owned by Vail Resorts.

?I think it?s the community of Whistler and the company that came out the big winners on this (share sale),? McCarthy told Whistler?s Pique Newsmagazine. ?These are quality, classy guys. If you look at the resorts they own, the hotels they own, in terms of service levels they are at the higher end of the bracket. Quality, service and price.?

This leaves Intrawest with six ski areas, including Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado, plus Tremblant, Stratton and two others in the East.

In 1996, Intrawest was one of three big ski areas that appeared to be ready to dominate the ski industry. The others were Vail Resorts and a company from New England called American Skiing that was expanding into the West.

At the time, analysts said that Intrawest looked to be the strongest, and American Skiing overextended. The latter proved to be the case. In 2008, American Skiing sold its final property, The Canyons, and went out of business.

But Vail has continued to expand, and last week announced the purchase of two more small ski areas in the American Midwest to serve as what might be called farm teams. One serves Detroit, and the other Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The company has indicated continued interest in buying ski areas, but only those with relatively easy access from large urban populations. That would seem to leave the company with little interest in places such as British Columbia?s Revelstoke Mountain Resort or Idaho?s Tamarack.

Car-share program debuts?

PARK CITY, Utah ? A Toyota Prius and a Ford 250 pickup are the first two vehicles in a new car-share program introduced at Park City.

The vehicles can be used for as little as $4.95 per hour, plus a mileage charge. For the Prius, it?s $.49 cents per mile.

Car-share vehicles can be rented at any time of the day or night, for as little as an hour or for as long as three days.

The intent of the program, according to a press release from the city government, is to reduce the need for a second car or truck, or maybe any car at all. Research cited in the press release said every vehicle in the UhaulCarShare program can replace up to 20 personally owned vehicles.

Community solar in Utah?

PARK CITY, UTAH ? Several Colorado resort valleys now have what has variously been called solar gardens or solar farms, and there?s talk of something similar in Utah?s Summit County.

The basic idea is that while it?s fine to put solar panels atop your own house, it makes more economic and operating sense to pool resources with your neighbors at some shared location, such as on the edge of town. Buying in bulk, the panels come cheaper, and they can be maintained more easily. As well, the financing can be done in bulk.

The Park Records says that a community solar project in Salt Lake City has 64 subscribers, and the idea is being studied in Summit County.

The first such solar garden in Colorado was at El Jebel, down-valley from Aspen. Breckenridge now has two, and others have been built or are planned west of Vail and Telluride, among other locations in Colorado.

Banff lays out summer plans

BANFF, Alberta ? The new owners of Norquay, a ski area near Banff, are willing to give up 42 percent of terrain authorized for winter use to begin offering summer amusements such as via ferrata, which involves installation of a steel cable, ladder and holds fixed to rock for users to climb.

The business model for the ski area seems to be marginal. It?s a locals? hill, with the Calgary and destination visitors favoring Sunshine and Lake Louise, farther to the west. Owners have indicated that their investment can be protected only by expanding operations to summer.

First broached last year, the idea of summer use was immediately controversial.? At the heart of the dispute, explains the Rocky Mountain Outlook, is whether recreation is infringing upon areas used by wildlife, especially grizzly bears, during summer.

?I?m concerned summer use is going to further decrease the attractiveness of that corridor for wildlife movement,? said Sarah Elmeligi, senior conservation planner with the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

?Grizzly bears in the Bow Valley are running out of more and more places where they can be a bear without being surrounded by thousands of people a month or hundreds of people a day.?

Proponents said that grizzly bears and recreational activities can eco-exist, with attention to details, as has been done at Lake Louise. For example, visitors can be directed to shuttle buses, to reduce the number of cars from Banff.

?We know that we?re in a wildlife corridor, and we want to mitigate as much as possible any human-wildlife interaction,? said Peter Sudermann, a co-owner of Norquay. ?We?re very conscious of the wildlife movement.?

But Elmeligi said that mitigation is not the real story. ?All of the mitigation tactics that have been put in place at Lake Louise and all the ones they?re going to put in place at Norquay are really just making the best of a bad situation,? she told the Outlook. ?It?s reducing the potential impact, but it?s not negating that impact, and it certainly isn?t an environmental gain.

?These grizzly bears are getting so many mixed messages about how they should behave around people, it?s next to impossible for a grizzly to know when to be wary, when to be comfortable, all these kinds of things,? she added. ?Summer use of Norquay further compounds that confusion.?

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Source: http://thesheetnews.com/archives/16563

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