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Irinotecan, in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and a high dose of leucovorin (LV), known as FOLFIRI regimen, has shown activity in recurrent or metastatic colorectal cancer. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of irinotecan, 5-FU and a low dose of LV (modified FOLFIRI) as a first line of therapy for patients with relapsed or metastatic colorectal cancer.
Between January 2002 and October 2004, 44 patients with histologically confirmed recurrent or metastatic colorectal cancer were enrolled. The chemotherapy regimen schedule consisted of 180 mg/m2 of irinotecan being administered intravenously (i.v) on Day 1,400 mg/m2 of 5-FU via i.v bolus with 600 mg/m2 of continuous infusion for 22 hrs on both Day 1 and 2, and 20 mg/m2 of leucovorin on both Day 1 and 2, repeated every two weeks.
The overall response rate was 47.8%. Of the 40 evaluated patients, one had CR (2.3%) and 20 had PR (46.5%). Toxicities were mild and easily manageable. Three patients experienced 23 episodes of Grade 3/4 leukopenia., Only one patient developed Grade 3/4 diarrhea. None experienced Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia.
Over the past 40 years, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin (LV) have been the mainstays of chemotherapy drugs for advanced colorectal cancer. Recently, the combination of two new drugs, irinotecan or oxaliplatin, combined with 5-FU and LV, have demonstrated modest activity and improved survival as a first or second line of treatment. Irinotecan (CPT-11), a topoisomerase I inhibitor, was initially shown to have activity as a second line of therapy in patients with 5-FU resistant disease1). In recent phase III clinical trials, irinotecan plus a 5-FU/LV regimen improved both response and survival rates when compared with the control arm2, 3). However, the schedule and dose of irinotecan and 5-FU/LV have been fully modified in many trials, and an optimal protocol has not yet been determined.
As a third line of therapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, a simplified bimonthly schedule of irinotecan with a high dose of 5-FU LV (FOLFIRI regimen) showed both activity and an acceptable level of toxicity in heavily treated patients4). As a first line of treatment, this regimen showed 31~56% response rates, without serious toxicity5-7).
In determining the optimal dose of 5-FU and LV, it was found that a high dose of 5-FU delivered a better response rate and longer response duration than a low dose of 5-FU. On the other hand, a low dose of LV was as effective and produced similar toxicities as a high dose of LV in combination with 5-FU. These results indicated that, when in combination with 5-FU, a low dose of LV is as effective as a high dose in the palliative management of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer8).
In the present study, we retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of irinotecan, 5-FU and a low dose of LV (modified FOLFIRI regimen) every two weeks in relapsed or metastatic colorectal cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients included in the study were required to be 18~75 years old with a confirmed histologically, metastatic or recurrent colorectal cancer, and who had not received any prior chemotherapy. Adjuvant treatment, if administered, should have been completed at least six months before being enrolled. Other inclusion criteria were as follows: (i) a performance status of 0-2 on the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG); (ii) a bi-dimensionally measurable lesion, with a metastatic lesion or lymphadenopathy greater than 10 mm; (iii) an adequate bone marrow reserve (WBC count >4,000/µL, platelet count >100,000/µL); and (iv) a normal cardiac function. (v) normal renal function (serum creatinine <1.5 times the upper normal limit (UNL)); (vi) an adequate hepatic function (AST and ALT <2.5 times UNL and total bilirubin <1.5 times UNL; patients with obstructive jaundice should have undertaken internal or external biliary drainage before enrollment); and (vii) an estimated life expectancy of at least 12 weeks at the time of enrollment. All approved patients or legal representatives signed informed consent forms before treatment began.
All patients received chemotherapy under the following schedule: 180 mg/m2 of irinotecan intravenously (i.v) on Day 1, 400 mg/m2 of 5-FU via i.v bolus with 600 mg/m2 of continuous infusion for 22 hrs on Day 1 and 2, and 20 mg/m2 of leucovorin on Day 1 and 2, every two weeks. Treatment was continued until the progressive disease, unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal of the patients' consent.
Prior to each treatment, we recorded the patient's history and performed physical examinations, CBC (complete blood counts), blood chemistry, and conducted a urine analysis. If the absolute neutrophil count was less than 1,500/µL or the platelet count was less than 100,000/µL, treatment was delayed for one week or until myelosuppression was resolved. If a patient was not fully recovered after seven days, the dose was reduced by 25%. If Grade 3/4 non-hematologic toxicity developed, the dose was decreased by 25%. If there was a second episode of Grade 3/4 non-hematologic toxicity, treatment was stopped.
Assessment of response and toxicity
Physical examinations, peripheral blood count, blood chemistry, and chest X-ray were performed during each patient visit. CT scans were performed at the baseline and after four treatment courses. Response to treatment was assessed according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Before each cycle, patients were assessed for toxicity according to the National Cancer Institute common toxicity criteria.
Time to progression (TTP) was defined from the first day of chemotherapy to the day of confirmed progression. Overall survival (OS) was calculated from the first day of chemotherapy to death or final follow-up. All data were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method using the SPSS program (version 11.0).
A total of 44 patients (32 men and 12 women) diagnosed between January 2002 and October 2004 at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital were enrolled in this study. The median age was 58 years (range: 27-72 years). Twenty-two patients had recurrent cancer after curative surgery, while 22 patients had metastatic diseases at the initial diagnosis. Nineteen patients had received adjuvant treatment with 5-FU and LV or 5-FU chemoradiation. At baseline, all patients had and ECOG performance between 0 and 2. Patients' characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Most of the patients received chemotherapy with oxaliplatin containing a regimen after diagnosis of progressive disease.
Of the 44 patients enrolled, 4 patients were lost to follow-up after the first cycle. One patient refused all anti-cancer therapy, and two patients could not withstand the irinotecan-containing chemotherapy. An additional patient, who experienced Grade 4 neutropenic infection during the 1st chemotherapy cycle, changed their chemotherapy regimen.
The total number of cycles was 288, and the median number of cycles was six (range, 1-16). The overall response rate was 47.8% (95% Confidence interval; 32.5~63.2%) (Table 2). Of the 44 patients, one had CR (2.3%), while 20 had PR (45.5%). Of the 40 evaluated patients, the response rate was 52.5% (95% Confidence interval; 37.2~67.8%). There was no significant difference in response rates associated with previous chemotherapy history (Table 3) (p=0.054). The median follow-up for surviving patients was 53 weeks (23-121 weeks). The median time to progression was 23 weeks (7-57 weeks) while median survival was 47 weeks (18-121 weeks) (Figure 1).
A total of 288 cycles for 44 patients were evaluated for toxicity, and the toxicity incidence is summarized in Table 4. One patient required a 25% dose reduction due to delayed bone marrow suppression, and two patients required a delay of treatment for one week due to non-recovery from bone marrow suppression. Three patients experienced a total of 23 episodes of Grade 3/4 leukopenia, but no Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia was observed (Table 4). Two patients experienced Grade 3/4 neutropenic infections without septic shock. No treatment-related deaths occurred.
The most common non-hematologic toxicities were diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. But only one patient developed Grade 3/4 diarrhea, and one patient developed Grade 3 vomiting. Three episodes of Grade 4 mucositis were observed in one patient. No treatment-related deaths occurred during any of the chemotherapy cycles.
FOLFIRI, (a combination of irinotecan, 5-FU and LV), has been recommended as a standard treatment for advanced colorectal cancer, having shown response rates of 39.8~56% as a first line of treatment2, 3, 5). However, a clinical trial using this regimen in Germany, subsequently showed a response rate of only 31%, which may have been due to a higher percentage of patients with two or more metastatic sites, and hence a larger tumor6). The poorer outcome in this trial may have been due to the inclusion of a greater percentage of patients with rectal cancer (34%), or to the enrollment of patients previously treated with 5-FU and LV (14%). In our trial, using a modified FOLFIRI regimen, 45.5% of the patients had rectal cancer and 43% had previous treatment with 5-FU chemotherapy regimen. We recorded a response rate of 47.8%, suggesting that the lower response rate in the German trial was not due to the inclusion of patients with rectal cancer or those previously treated with 5-FU or LV. Rather, other factors, such as molecular markers, may be more important in predicting responses to the FOLFIRI regimen.
Three clinical trials in South Korea have tested the combination of irinotecan, 5-FU and LV for advanced colorectal cancers. In a study using a high dose of LV, 8 out of 20 evaluated patients attained partial response (40%) and the median overall survival was 17.3 months9). Using 150 mg/m2 of irinotecan and a low dose of LV (20 mg/m2) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer as a second line of treatment, the response and median survival rates were lower (20% and 39.6 weeks), respectively10).
This lower response rate may have been due to the use of this chemotherapy regimen as a second line of treatment or to the lower dose of irinotecan. However, a lower response rate (27.3%) was observed in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using a regimen identical to ours, but with fewer treatment cycles11). Although we found that FOLFIRI with a low dose of LV, achieved a response rate comparable to that of the previous study (47.8% vs. 40%), the median overall survival time was somewhat shorter (11 months vs. 17-21 months). This may well have been due to the shorter follow-up period for surviving patients (median 13.3 months), suggesting that the median overall survival time should be reevaluated after a long-term follow-up.
The most common toxicities associated with irinotecan are neutropenia, anemia, delayed diarrhea, and fatigue. Since irinotecan was initially associated with high death rates12), its use has been modified to exclude patients who have a performance status 2 - at high risk for adverse events. In fact, Grade 3/4 gastrointestinal even, especially diarrhea, was the most common serious problem with an incidence of 22~45%13-16). Thus, the monitoring of patients for gastrointestinal (e.g. diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping) and thromboembolic events during treatment is essential. If fever associated with neutropenia develops, prompt supportive care, including early use of oral fluoroquinolone, are needed17).
However, in our study, incidence of Grade 3/4 delayed diarrhea was only 1.7%. We had instructed all patients in this trial to take anti-diarrhea agents if they had diarrhea more than five times a day (but almost patients did not take medication). In other trials of irinotecan in South Korea, Grade 3/4 delayed diarrhea was not common, having an incidence of 1.2~6.7%9-11), unlike in Western countries. We suggest that this may be due to ethnic differences, although we could not determine whether any medications to prevent delayed diarrhea were administered in the other South Korean clinical trials. We found that other non-hematologic toxicities were manageable and reversible, and overall, patients tolerated this regimen.
In summary, irinotecan, 5-FU and a low dose of LV may be as effective as irinotecan, 5-FU and a high dose of LV, and considerably tolerable for patients with recurrent or metastatic colorectal cancer as a first line of treatment.
1. Tebbutt NC, Cattell E, Midgley R, Cunningham D, Kerr D. Systemic treatment of colorectal cancer. Eur J Cancer 2002;38:1000–1015PMID : 11978525.
2. Saltz LB, Cox JV, Blanke C, Rosen LS, Fehrenbacher L, Moore MJ, Maroun JA, Ackland SP, Locker PK, Pirotta N, Elfring GL, Miller LL. Irinotecan plus fluorouracil and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med 2000;343:905–914PMID : 11006366.
3. Douillard JY, Cunningham D, Roth AD, Navarro M, James RD, Karasek P, Jandik P, Iveson T, Carmichael J, Alakl M, Gruia G, Awad L, Rougier P. Irinotecan combined with fluorouracil compared with fluorouracil alone as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer: a multicentre randomised trial. Lancet 2000;355:1041–1047PMID : 10744089.
4. Andre T, Louvet C, Maindrault-Goebel F, Couteau C, Mabro M, Lotz JP, Gilles-Amar V, Krulik M, Carola E, Izrael V, de Gramont A. CPT-11 (irinotecan) addition to bimonthly, high-dose leucovorin and bolus and continuous-infusion 5-fluorouracil (FOLFIRI) for pretreatedmetastatic colorectal cancer. Eur J Cancer 1999;35:1343–1347PMID : 10658525.
5. Tournigand C, Andre T, Achille E, Lledo G, Flesh M, Mery-Mignard D, Quinaux E, Couteau C, Buyse M, Ganem G, Landi B, Colin P, Louvet C, de Gramont A. FOLFIRI followed by FOLFOX6 or the reverse sequence in advanced colorectal cancer: a randomized GERCOR study. J Clin Oncol 2004;22:229–237PMID : 14657227.
6. Teufel A, Steinmann S, Siebler J, Zanke C, Hohl H, Adami B, Schroeder M, Klein O, Hohler T, Galle PR, Heike M, Moehler M. Irinotecan plus folinic acid/continuous 5-fluorouracil as simplified bimonthly FOLFIRI regimen for first-line therapy of metastatic colorectal cancer. BMC Cancer 2004;4:38. PMID : 15265233.
7. Ducreux M, Ychou M, Seitz JF, Bonnay M, Bexon A, Armand JP, Mahjoubi M, Mery-Mignard D, Rougier P. Irinotecan combined with bolus fluorouracil, continuous infusion fluorouracil, and high-dose leucovorin every two weeks (LV5FU2 regimen): a clinical dose-finding and pharmacokinetic study in patients with pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer. J Clin Oncol 1999;17:2901–2908PMID : 10561369.
8. Maroun JA, Cripps C, Goel R, Dahrouge S, Boisvert D. Retrospective comparative analysis of 5FU + low-dose folinic acid vs. 5FU + high-dose folinic acid in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Am J Clin Oncol 1997;20:387–392PMID : 9256896.
9. Kim JH, Kim DY, Lee SH, Park SR, Lee SY, Choi IS, Kim TY, Heo DS, Bang YJ, Kim NK. Combination chemotherapy of irinotecan combined with bolus 5-fluorouracil, continuous infusion 5-fluorouracil, and high dose leucovorin every two weeks in recurrent or metastatic colorectal cancer. Korean J Med 2003;64:452–458.
10. Kwon HC, Kim SH, Kim JS, Kim HJ. Irinotecan combined with bolus fluorouracil, continuous infusion fluorouracil, and low-Dose leucovorin every two weeks in patients with oxaliplatin pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer. Cancer Res Treat 2003;35:135–140.
11. Won YW, Lim YH, Park HY, Oh HS, Choi JH, Lee YY, Kim IS, Choi IY, Ahn MJ. Phase II study of irinotecan, 5-fluorouracil, and leucovorin in relapsed or metastatic colorectal cancer as first-line therapy. Cancer Res Treat 2004;36:235–239PMID : 20368840.
12. Sargent DJ, Niedzwiecki D, O'Connell MJ, Schilsky RL. Recommendation for caution with irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin for colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med 2001;345:144–145PMID : 11450666.
13. Rothenberg ML, Cox JV, DeVore RF, Hainsworth JD, Pazdur R, Rivkin SE, Macdonald JS, Geyer CE Jr, Sandbach J, Wolf DL, Mohrland JS, Elfring GL, Miller LL, von Hoff DD. A multicenter, phase II trial of weekly irinotecan (CPT-11) in patients with previously treated colorectal carcinoma. Cancer 1999;85:786–795PMID : 10091755.
14. Scheithauer W, Kornek GV, Brugger S, Ullrich-Pur H, Valencak J, Raderer M, Fiebiger W, Kovats E, Lang F, Depisch D. Randomized phase II study of irinotecan plus mitomycin C vs. oxaliplatin plus mitomycin C in patients with advanced fluoropyrimidine/leucovorin-pretreated colorectal cancer. Cancer Invest 2002;20:60–68PMID : 11853004.
15. Carnaghi C, Rimassa L, Garassino I, Zucali PA, Masci G, Fallini M, Morenghi E, Santoro A. Irinotecan and raltitrexed: an active combination in advanced colorectal cancer. Ann Oncol 2002;13:1424–1429PMID : 12196368.
16. Bouzid K, Khalfallah S, Tujakowski J, Piko B, Purkalne G, Plate S, Padrik P, Serafy M, Pshevloutsky EM, Boussard B. A randomized phase II trial of irinotecan in combination with infusional or two different bolus 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid regimens as first-line therapy for advanced colorectal cancer. Ann Oncol 2003;14:1106–1114PMID : 12853354.


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Síofгa Tech Trust Circle
Síofгa Tech Trust Circle Fund
Now Forming: A Novel Co-Operative Intentional Community
You are invited to join The Trust Circle to engage and donate your valuable time, talent, and treasure in founding a unique vision of Live-Learn-Make Intentional Community that is adaptive, resilient, sustainable and self-supporting.
Systemic problems demand systemic solutions, a paradigm shift that can’t be fit into the shorthand of an elevator pitch or a meme; while open to all, this multi-stakeholder cooperative union is deliberately centred on the equality and equity of deliberately disenfranchised Trans and Gender Non-Conforming BIPOC struggling to thrive beyond oppression by law and custom.
Civil Rights leader, Ella Baker, once declared “Strong people do not need strong leaders”; we are governed by principles, not personalities, a collectivist society empowered by social-ecological modelling and sociocratic decision support. This includes transparent, open, public accountability aided in part by incorporation as a Public Benefit/Social Purpose Corporation (B-Corp).
This practical engine of co-operative capital has an integral non-profit live-work zoned campus, a reinvented social infrastructure for radically reducing community businesses' cost of operation and community members' costs of living, provisioning lifelong education, skills development, cohousing, transportation, healthcare, and recreation ― resources even the most fortunate BIPOC/LGBTQ+ can face discrimination trying to access.
Our first resident business is Síofra Tech Cooperative for Social & Technological Innovation in Performing Arts, what we call Peripheral Magic and Illusion, or in the words of Florence Ambrose, Technical Engineer, Starship Savage Chicken, “Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it”.
LEARN MORE @SIOFRA.TECH
SiofraTech joined 1 year ago.

domain: sociology


text:
In the remote, blood-red landscape of the Australian bush, thirteen-year-old Billy Saint hears the haunting song of an Aboriginal girl. The song tugs at something deep, something larger and more powerful than himself. She has sung Billy up
'Dazzling... For sheer narrative invention she is without an equal.' Stevie Davies, Independent'The writing style is energetic and zappy... original, cleverly imagined' Tamsin Dean, Sunday Telegraph'Outstanding novel, among the best I have read for years.' Spectator'What is remarkable is Elderkin's ability to conjure up the Australian outback with such confidence... a book to be admired.' Guardian'Susan Elderkin's first novel Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains, won her a devoted following. The Voices doesn't disappoint.' Time Out
Susan Elderkin is the acclaimed author of Sunset over Chocolate Mountains. Born in 1968, she has worked as an ice-cream seller, an English teacher in a Slovakian shoe factory and, for the past five years, as a freelance journalist. She lives in New York.

domain: artistic


text:
The memo sent by the Safety Center claims that explosions happen because of overheating lithium ion batteries. “When the lithium-ion batteries overheat, the memo says, the seal surrounding them can fail and turn an e-cigarette into a small bomb,” says the Navy Times.
“Seven of the incidents occurred on Navy ships and at least two required the use of shipboard firefighting equipment to extinguish fires,” says the story. “Eight of the incidents occurred while the e-cigarette was in a sailor’s pocket, resulting in first- and second-degree burns.”
Vapers know that the most common reasons for battery mishaps come down to user error. Typical problems include batteries shorting in pockets with keys or coins, overcharging or using inappropriate chargers, and using hybrid mech mods with certain atomizers.
True battery failure is rare. Lithium ion batteries in vaping devices are very similar to those in laptops, and the batteries themselves probably have a similar failure rate. However, according to the Navy Times, laptop batteries aren’t considered a hazard. “The report notes that while laptops and cellphones also run on lithium-ion batteries, extensive testing has shown that they don’t tend to explode when they fail,” says the story.

domain: chemistry


text:
Thanks to: King contribution
Source: Apple App Store
Use Finngr Pro for brainstorming, sketching, and general creative endeavors without getting bogged down in the details. Eschew the false security of “undo,” embrace the erratic nature of the gesture, and dedicate your thoughts to the subject of your painting instead of the weird quirks of your painting app.
• Brush – Like a sumi brush, the width increases according to gestural velocity.
• Pen – Like a fountain pen, the stroke width is thinner when you draw quickly.
• Colors – There are nine colors, and they will mix and get a bit muddy as you work.
• Paper – You get a relatively fresh sheet of paper for each drawing.
• Tracing Layer – select an image from the Photo Library to trace, or take a picture (new iPad only)
Drawings are saved to the Photo Library. From there you can email it, send it as a message, use as wallpaper, tweet it, print it, whatever.
• There is no “undo.” Don’t worry about making it perfect. Paint over it or start a new painting.
• There is no “eraser.” That mark looks great, but if you insist: paint over it.
• Paints become a bit muddied with use, double-tap a color to reset it.
The regular version of Finngr available on the App Store has a simpler interface, fewer colors, no tracing layer, and a single brush — perfect for the youngest artist! Also free for a limited time.

domain: hobby


Interesting article over on It’s Nice That which features BA Graphic Design alumnus Jamie Thompson and BA Illustration alumnus Simon Memel. The article catches up with some of last year’s graduates to find out what they have been up to and what advice they would give this year’s graduates. Read the full article here.
See more of Jamie’s work – www.james-thompson.co.uk
See more of Simon’s work – www.simonmemel.co.uk
Images top to bottom: Jamie Thompson, Yo Majesty record sleeve (collaboration with Abi Green and Rex McWhirter), Simon Memel, invite for the University of the Arts London’s alumni season.


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$F variable. If you
$FF variable, use hou.frame().
Due to floating point rounding, values near the half way point between two integers may round differently (for example 10.5 or 32.5).


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Pricing: £39.10 ex Vat
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|You never have to pay for information about job vacancies or employment opportunities with the U.S. government or U.S. Postal Service.
But some fraudulent promoters are victimizing many Americans by selling information about federal job opportunities. These scam artists advertise in the classified sections of newspapers and offer – for a fee – to help job seekers find and apply for federal jobs. Some fraudulent companies even try to confuse consumers by using names that sound like those of federal agencies, like the “U.S. Agency for Career Advancement” or the “Postal Employment Service.”
Fraudsters may lie about the availability of federal job openings in your area. For example, the Postal Service has few vacancies for career positions, and for many of the entry-level jobs, you must take a written examination. Postal Service hiring takes place at the local level through 85 district offices. If someone tells you that postal jobs are available, check with the Postal Service to determine if hiring is taking place and if an exam is required for eligibility. The tests usually are offered every few years in any particular district because of the high volume of applicants.
Federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service never charge application fees or guarantee that an applicant will be hired. If positions require a competitive examination – and many do not – hiring agencies typically offer free sample questions to consumers who sign up for the exam.
It’s deceptive for anyone to guarantee you a high score on the postal entrance examinations required for rural carrier associate, clerk, city carrier, mail handler, flat sorter machine operator, mail processor and markup clerk jobs. These exams test your general aptitude, something you can’t necessarily increase by studying. Attending workshops, studying exam techniques and taking practice questions won’t assure you of a top score on the exam – and even a top score doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be hired. You must meet other requirements, including passing a background check and a drug test. Some veterans receive hiring preferences.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management urge job seekers to avoid falling for these tip-offs to federal and postal job rip-offs:
Classified ads or verbal sales pitches that imply an affiliation with the federal government, guarantee high test scores or jobs or state that “no experience is necessary.”
Ads that offer information about “hidden” or unadvertised federal jobs.
Ads that refer to a toll-free phone number. Often, in these cases, an operator encourages you to buy a “valuable” booklet containing job listings, practice test questions and tips for entrance exams.
Toll-free numbers that direct you to other pay-per-call numbers for more information. Under federal law, any solicitations for pay-per-call numbers must contain full disclosures about cost. Also, the solicitation must make clear if there is an affiliation with the federal government. You must have a chance to hang up before you incur any charges.
If you have concerns about a company’s advertisement for employment services, contact:
Federal Trade Commission: 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357) or www.ftc.gov.
U.S. Postal Inspection Service: Your local office is listed in the blue (Government) pages of your telephone directory.
Your state attorney general or your local Better Business Bureau.
Federal job information is available through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s USAJOBS at www.usajobs.opm.gov. Information on postal jobs is available at your local post office. In many areas, the Postal Service offers a job information hotline with current hiring announcements. Also, check the Postal Service website at www.usps.gov.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters consumer complaints into the Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure online database and investigative tool used by hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.


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In Frankfurt the conference will take place on the Westend Campus of the Goethe University (further information will follow soon).
Arrival by public transport
The Westend Campus is easily accessible by public transportation. For general information on public transportation in the Rhine-Main-region (connections, fares etc.), we refer you to the website of the RMV-transport association:
Directions from the main station
(1) With the S-Bahn, lines S1-S9 to the station "Hauptwache", then with the U-Bahn, lines U1-U3 or U8 to the station "Holzhausenstraße" or to the station "Miquel-/Adickesallee", then approx. 10 min. walk.
(2) By S-Bahn, lines S1-S9 to the station "Konstabler Wache", then by bus line 36 (direction Westbahnhof) to the station "Uni Campus Westend".
(3) Bus 64 from Hauptbahnhof/Südseite to the station "Bremer Straße"
Nearby underground stops
(1) The stations "Holzhausen Straße" and "Miquel-/Adickesallee" are served by the underground lines U1, U2, U3 and U8.
(a) U1: Ginnheim - Frankfurt Südbahnhof
(b) U2: Bad Homburg/Gonzenheim - Frankfurt Südbahnhof
(c) U3: Oberursel Hohemark - Frankfurt Südbahnhof
(d) U8: (Nieder-Eschbach or) Riedberg - Frankfurt Südbahnhof
Nearby bus stops
(1) The bus stop "Uni Campus Westend" directly in front of the IG-Farben-Haus is served by bus line 36. It runs between Frankfurt Main/Westbahnhof and Sachsenhausen/Hainer Weg. Travel time from Westbahnhof: approx. 22 min.
(2) The bus stops "Bremer Platz" or "Bremer Straße" (alias Gisèle-Freund-Platz) with bus line 64 from Hauptbahnhof/Südseite in the direction of Ginnheim. Travel time from main station: approx. 16 min.
(3) The bus stop "Max-Horkheimer-Straße" is reached by bus line 75, which runs in a circle from the station "Bockenheimer Warte". Travel time from the "Bockenheimer Warte": approx. 6 min.
Arrival by taxi
For taxi rides, the destination is "Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1" (formerly Grüneburgplatz 1) or simply "Campus Westend".
Arrival by car Please note that the parking situation in the Westend campus area - including the main and side streets in the district - is very tense. There are hardly any inexpensive or free parking spaces available. We therefore recommend travelling by public transport or taxi.
Transport from Frankfurt to Mainz
We will provide a boat transfer from Frankfurt to Mainz on Wednesday, July 22 for all registered participants of the RAI, which will take approximately 3 hours as several locks must be navigated on the river Main.
©Elke Födisch (Goethe-Universität)
In Mainz, the conference will be held on the university campus in lecture halls P 1-P 5, which are located in the ground floor level of the Philosophicum building (Jakob-Welder-Weg 18, 55128 Mainz). Seminar rooms for workshop sessions are located nearby.
You will find the conference desk in the spacious groundfloor-foyer of the Philosophicum, which is also the location for the coffee breaks.
JGU Campus Map (PDF)
Arrival by public transport
The university campus is located about 2 km to the west of the city center of Mainz (uphill) and is easily accessible by public transportation.
From Mainz main railway station (Mainz Hauptbahnhof), you can take bus line/tram line 6, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 64, 65, 68, 75, 78 or 650. Exit at stop “Universität”. From there it is a 10-15 minute walk to the conference venue in the Philosophicum building.
For the bus/tram ride from the main station to the university campus, which takes about 5 minutes, you only need to purchase a short distance ticket (Kurzstreckenticket), which at 1.80 € (as of October 2019) is cheaper than a regular ticket.
As an alternative, you can also take bus/tram line 51, 53, 54, 55, 56 or 650 and exit at stop “Friedrich-von-Pfeiffer-Weg“. From there, it is a 5-10 minute walk to the conference venue.
For further information on public transportation in the Rhine-Main-region (connections, fares etc.), we refer you to the website of the RMV-transport association:
Arrival by car
If you are coming from the west...
(from the direction of Cologne/Bonn) ... follow highway A60 via motorway junction Mainz (Autobahndreieck Mainz) towards Darmstadt, leave A60 at the Mainz-Finthen exit, follow the signs for Saarstrasse/Innenstadt to the Europaplatz roundabout, from which you need to take the Universität exit.
If you are coming from the east...
(from the direction of Würzburg/Darmstadt) ... follow highway A60 via motorway junction Rüsselsheim (Autobahndreieck Rüsselsheim) or, if on highway A63, leave this at motorway interchange Mainz (Autobahnkreuz Mainz) and join A60 towards Bingen, leave A60 at the Mainz-Finthen exit, follow the signs for Saarstrasse/Innenstadt to the Europaplatz roundabout, from which you need to take the Universität exit.
If you are coming from the north...
(from the direction of Kassel) ... follow highway A66, leave this at motorway interchange Schiersteiner Kreuz and join A643 towards Mainz. Leave A643 at motorway junction Mainz (Autobahndreieck Mainz) and join A60 towards Darmstadt. Leave A60 at the Mainz-Finthen exit, follow the signs for Saarstrasse/Innenstadt to the Europaplatz roundabout, from which you need to take the Universität exit.
You will find detailed driving directions under the following link:
Johannes Gutenberg University Route Map (PDF)
[hier Link zum Anfahrtsplan der JGU einfügen: http://www.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/JGU_directions.pdf]
Parking facilities are indicated on the general Campus map:
Campus Map (PDF)
You can also park at the Bruchwegstadion, the former football home stadium of Mainz 05, which is located just 200 m north of the main pedestrian entrance to the campus.

domain: travel


The Elo rating system is one of the most popular tools for rating player and team performance. In this post, I show how we can take the Elo system beyond match wins and use it to rate players on the two most fundamental skills in the sport: serving and returning.
Having a metric for match excitement would be a useful tool for separating humdrum matches from thrillers. In this post, I have a look at two indices for measuring match excitement and discuss what’s to like and dislike about each.
The 2017 MLB World Series gave baseball fans a thrill-ride for the post-season. It also gives us an idea of how to size up the excitement of a sporting event. In this post, we look at an ‘excitement’ statistic for tennis and use it to rank the excitement of men’s matches at the 2017 US Open.
Imagine you could measure the quality of every shot during a tennis match. What would it reveal about a player’s performance and where on the court they perform best?
Fighting off fatigue in any Grand Slam match is a challenge. Does this get even harder after multiple matches?
A talk at the recent New England Symposium on Statistics in Sport (NESSIS) made me wonder whether we can observe player fatigue in tennis matches? and how?
Do the numbers on the scoreboard affect how a player performs? In this post, we look at how to measure scoreboard effects and identify some top players who appear vulnerable and others who seem impervious to the scoreboard.
In 2016, Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza shocked tennis with Major wins. This year, Jelena Ostapenko and Sloane Stephens were the unexpected first-time slam title-holders. Who, if any of these winners, were helped by an easier Grand Slam field?
Now that the US Open—the last of the four Majors of the tennis calendar—has ended, it is more clear than ever that the 2017 season has been a strange one.
For the first time in 36 years, the US Open women’s singles event will have an all-American semifinal. What were the odds of this historic outcome?


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When looking at the potential capital gains offered to property investors over the last 3 years, Fortitude Valley comes in at number 24th in QLD.
Using the current median advertised rental of $450 and the average annual increase in value of a median property of -16.59%, investors should hope to achieve an overall return of 1.51%
With a capital gain of 4.14% for the last 12 months, Fortitude Valley, 4006 has performed for property investments than its average annual -0.48% property growth over the last 5 years.
Across a shorter period, Fortitude Valley, 4006 has seen a median price increase of -1.07% over the last quarter.
When looking to buy, or assessing what properties are really achieving at sale, it's essential for property investors to take into account what discounts are being offered in Fortitude Valley, 4006. Typically our figures indicate that -6.53% is being offered, which puts this QLD suburb at 76th most discounted overall in Australia.
A $420 per week rent on the median house gives suburb investors a gross yield of circa 5.43%, without taking into account capital value appreciation, which has been averaging out at -0.48%.
Information supplied by:
An inner Brisbane suburb, Fortitude Valley is famous for its nightlife and entertainment features.
It’s home to a number of high rise apartments, restaurants, clubs and retail shops.
It attracts the young crowd by virtue of its proximity to the city and university.
During the past 12 months, demand for units in Fortitude Valley appears to be ramping up.
According to the recent figures from CoreLogic RP Data, median unit values surged by 16% during that period.
Buyers who are priced out of New Farm ($551,000) and Newstead ($775,000) are attracted to the more affordable price points in Fortitude Valley ($488,000).
Just be mindful however that there’s a growing supply in the suburb.
According to Real Estate Investar, housing stock surged by a massive 48% during the past 12 months as vacancy rates rose above the 3% threshold to 4%.
Most sought-after properties: Apartments
Most common properties: Apartments
Top amenities: Shopping (Emporium, Gasworks, James St, etc), Chinatown, Café precinct, private and public schools, public transport, RNA showground, hospitals.
Local industry and business: Major employment hub including News Limited, Virgin Airlines and the Royal Brisbane hospital complex.
Public transport: Bus, Train and City Cat
Main arteries: Airport Link Tunnel connecting Fortitude Valley and Bowen Hills directly to the Brisbane Airport and northern suburbs.

domain: finance


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3M™ 6000 Respirator Formaldehyde & Organic Vapor Cartridges - One Pair
The Formaldehyde & Organic Vapor Cartridge for the 3M 6000 Respirator provides protection against formaldehyde and certain organic vapors. NIOSH Approved.
Please Note: Sold and priced per pair.
**OSHA regulations require that gas-proof goggles be worn with half facepiece respirators when used for formaldehyde protection.


CPSEs has to procure 20% of annual purchases from the products or services produced or rendered by MSMEs
Annual procurement of goods & services from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) by the Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) during 2017-18 stands at Rs 24226.51 crore in which the share of procurement from MSEs owned by SC/ST Entrepreneur is Rs 442.52 crore.
Ministry of MSME has taken several measures for effective implementation of the Public Procurement Policy. These include constitution of review committee to monitor the progress of implementation of Public Procurement Policy, launch of SC/ST hub to provide support to SC/ST Entrepreneurs, launch of MSME Sambandh portal to monitor the progress of procurement from MSEs including MSEs owned by SC/ST and women.
The Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSME) has mandated that every Central Ministry/Department/PSU shall set an annual goal of minimum 20% of the total annual purchases from the products or services produced or rendered by MSMEs. However, the government recently revised the order making it compulsory for all CPSEs to procure 25% from MSMEs instead of 20% of their total purchases. Out of the total annual procurement from Micro and Small Enterprises, 3 per cent from within the target shall be earmarked for procurement from Micro and Small Enterprises owned by women. A sub-target of 4% out of annual procurement is earmarked for procurement from MSEs owned by SC/ST entrepreneurs.
Year<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
No. of CPSEs
Total Procurement (Rs in Crore)
Procurement from MSEs (Rs in Crore)
Procurement from MSEs owned by SC/ST Entrepreneur (Rs in Crore)
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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The world’s demographers this week increased their estimates of the world’s population through the coming century. We are now on track to hit 10 billion people by 2100. Today, humanity produces enough food to feed everyone but, because of the way we distribute it, there are still a billion hungry. One doesn’t need to be a frothing Malthusian to worry about how we’ll all get to eat tomorrow. Current predictions place most of the world’s people in Asia, the highest levels of consumption in Europe and North America, and the highest population growth rates in Africa — where the population could triple over the next 90 years.
There are, however, plans afoot to feed the world. One of the countries to which the world’s development experts have turned as a test bed is Malawi. Landlocked and a little smaller than Pennsylvania, Malawi is consistently among the world’s poorest places. The latest figures have 90 percent of its 15 million people living on the equivalent of less than two dollars a day. By century’s end, the population is expected to be nearly 132 million. Today, some 40 percent of Malawians live below the country’s poverty line, and part of the reason for widespread chronic poverty is that more than 70 percent of Malawians live in rural areas. There, they depend on agriculture — and nearly every farmer grows maize. “Chimanga ndi moyo” — “maize is life,” the local saying goes — but growing maize pays so poorly that few people can afford to eat anything else.
If you arrive in Malawi in March, just after the rainy season, growing food seems like a fool’s game. It’s hard to find a patch of red soil that isn’t a tall riot of green. From the roadside you can see maize about to ripen, with squash and beans planted at the base of the thick stalks. Even the tobacco fields are doing well this year. But there’s a rumble in this jungle. Malawi’s swaying fields are a battleground in which three different visions for the future of global agriculture are ranged against one other.
The first and most venerable development idea for Malawi sees these farmers as survivors of a doomed way of life who need to be helped into the hereafter. Oxford economist Paul Collier is the poster child for this “modernist” view, one that he presented in a scathing November 2008 Foreign Affairs article in which he cudgeled the “romantics” who yearned for peasant agriculture. Observing both that wages in cities are higher than in the countryside, and that every large developed country is able to feed itself without peasant farmers, Collier argued the virtues of big agriculture. He also called on the European Union to support genetically modified crops and for the United States to kill domestic subsidies for biofuel. He was one-third right: biofuel subsidies are absurd, not least because they drive up food prices, siphoning grains from the bowls of the poorest into the gas-tanks of the richest — with limited environmental gains, at best.
Collier’s contempt for peasants seems, however, to rest on something other than the facts. Although international agribusiness has generated great profits ever since the East India Company, it hasn’t brought riches to farmers and farmworkers, who are invariably society’s poorest people. Indeed, big agriculture earns its moniker — it tends to work most lucratively with large-scale plantations and operations to which small farmers are little more than an impediment.
It turns out that if you’re keen to make the world’s poorest people better off, it’s smarter to invest in their farms and workplaces than to send them packing to the cities. In its 2008 World Development Report, the World Bank found that, indeed, investment in peasants was among the most efficient and effective ways of raising people out of poverty and hunger. It was an awkward admission, as the Bank had long been trumpeting Collier’s brand of agricultural development. Farmers organizations from Malawi to India to Brazil had been pointing out that access to land, water, sustainable technology, education, markets, state investment in processing, and — above all, access to level playing field on domestic and international markets — would help them. But it took three decades of lousy policy for the development establishment to realize this, and they’re not quite there yet.
Because of its colonial legacy, Malawi had long been following conventional economic wisdom: exporting things in which the country had a comparative advantage (in Malawi’s case, tobacco) and using the funds to buy goods on the international market in which it didn’t have an advantage. But when tobacco prices fall, as they have of late, there’s less foreign exchange with which to venture into international markets. And being landlocked, Malawi also faces higher prices for grain than its four neighbors — Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania — simply because it costs more to transport into the country. According to one estimate, the marginal cost of importing a ton of food-aid maize is $400, versus $200 a ton to import it commercially, and only $50 to source it domestically using fertilizers. Particularly at a time when food and fertilizer prices are predicted to rise, Malawi is wise to consider how vulnerable to the caprices of international markets it wants to be.
This partly explains why, in the late 1990s, almost a decade before it became fashionable, Malawi bucked the advice of its international donors and decided to spend the majority its agriculture budget on fertilizer, the first and perhaps most necessary ingredient in prepping the soil for producing viable crops. The government gave farmers a “starter pack,” with enough beans, improved seeds, and fertilizer to cover about a fifth of an acre. International donors weren’t pleased. A USAID official decried the program as consigning farmers to a “poverty treadmill” in which farmers would be stuck growing just enough maize to survive, but never enough to get rich. Although the program had modest success, it took off when Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika expanded the program over the 2005-2006 growing season, quadrupling the amount of fertilizer available. Although driven by domestic political promises, his international timing was perfect — he was embarking on a policy whose time had come. And this is why what happens in Malawi’s fields today matter so much beyond its borders.
To understand why, we need a quick history of agricultural policy in developing countries. Many developing countries were, especially before World War II, pantries to be raided by their colonizers. Post-independence, rural areas were often net contributors to government revenues, but there were some assurances of stability, with government schemes to buy crops at guaranteed prices. Internationally — especially in Asia — the post-war era saw governments pressured to feed a restive population that was increasingly wondering whether their lot wouldn’t be improved through socialism and a change in land ownership. In order to fight the Cold War in foreign fields, the U.S. government and key foundations invested heavily in agricultural technologies such as improved seed and fertilizer. These technologies were designed to keep land in the hands of its feudal owners, food plentiful, and communists at bay. In 1968, William Gaud, the USAID administrator, dubbed it a Green Revolution, because it was designed to prevent a red one.
For a range of mainly geopolitical reasons, the Green Revolution was implemented with less fervor and success in Africa than in Asia. The International Fertilizer Development Center observed in 2006 that $4 billion worth of soil nutrients were being mined from the African soil by farmers who, struggling to make ends meet, weren’t replenishing the nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous in the ground beneath their feet.
The prescription for declining soil quality lay, however, not in addressing the policy causes of farmer’s environmental panic — a systematic neglect since the 1980s to which the World Bank itself admitted in an internal evaluation — but to fix the soil with technology. So in 2006, the Rockefeller Foundation (the original sponsors of the Green Revolution in Asia) joined the Gates Foundation to launch The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA. This is the second brave new development policy that hopes to feed Africa.
AGRA claims to have learned the lessons of history, rejecting Collier’s view and focusing on policies that “unlike the Green Revolution in Latin America, which mostly benefited large-scale farmers because they had access to irrigation and were therefore in a position to use the improved varieties … [are] specifically geared to overcome the challenges facing smallholder farmers.”
So did it work in Malawi? It depends on the goal. If the aim was to increase output, then yes. Although economist and Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs recently over-egged the data by suggesting that production had doubled because of the fertilizer subsidy (it only increased by 300,000 – 400,000 tons or up to 15 percent, the rest being mainly due to the return of the rains), the amount of maize in Malawi has undoubtedly gone up.
As the 50 million people food insecure in the United States know all too well, though, having enough food in the country doesn’t necessarily mean that all people get to eat, and Malawi still has more than its fair share of glassy-eyed and underweight children. Chronically hungry kids have low height for their age and the number of children malnourished in this way — “stunted” is the term in the statistics — has remained stubbornly high since the subsidies began.
Measuring increased yields of maize from fertilizer and starter kits doesn’t necessarily translate into a society that is well-fed and economically viable in terms of agriculture. Rachel Bezner Kerr, a professor of geography at the University of Western Ontario who also works in Malawi as a project coordinator for the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Project, isn’t surprised. “Any nutritionist would scoff at the notion that increased yield automatically leads to increased nutrition,” she says.
Bezner Kerr told me that having more crops in the fields and bigger yields can actually be a bad thing, taking “women out of the home and away from domestic work. Particularly if they are doing early childcare feeding, this can lead to poorer nutritional outcomes.” What happens within the household is crucial in translating increased output into better nutrition.
Indeed, gender matters when it comes to food and farming. Sixty percent of the world’s malnourished people are women or girls. Yet the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization recently pointed out that by increasing access to the same resources as men, women could boost their farm’s output by up to 30 percent, leading to a 4 percent increase in total agricultural output in developing countries. In Malawi, 90 percent of women work part time, and women are paid some 30 percent less than men for similar jobs. Women are also burdened with care work, especially in a country ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Even if they own land and have access to the same resources as men, women find themselves torn between the demands of child and elder care, cooking, carrying water, finding firewood, planting, weeding, and harvesting.
These problems are better addressed through social change — abetted by programs like the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Project — than chemistry. Yet these are precisely the kinds of programs that are crowded out by fertilizer subsidies. The fertilizer program has been a jealous child, sucking resources away from other programs. The opportunity cost of fertilizer for farmers is money that might have been spent on something else — a serious concern when global fertilizer prices are going through the roof. Research by the World Bank in Latin America and Southeast Asia has suggested that it’s smarter for government to subsidize public goods like agricultural research and extension services and irrigation, rather than directing money at private inputs like fertilizer.
Again, this matters beyond Malawi’s borders, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The world’s population growth is scheduled to be driven by “high fertility countries” — most of which are in Africa. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, recently argued that the world might be better fed not by pumping the soil with chemicals, but by using cutting-edge “agroecological” techniques to build soil fertility, and using policy to achieve environmental and social sustainability. In a review of 286 sustainable agriculture projects in 57 developing countries covering 91 million acres, a team led by British environmental scientist Jules Pretty found production increases of 79 percent — again, far higher than the fertilizer subsidy in Malawi, and with a far broader range of ecological and social benefits than increased food production.
These programs succeed, in part, because they don’t see hunger as the consequence of a surfeit of peasants or a deficit in soil, but as the result of complex environmental, social, and political causes. You don’t just need chemists to solve hunger — you need sociologists, soil biologists, agronomists, ethnographers, and even economists. Paying for their skills is the opportunity cost of spending precious dollars on imported fertilizer. Of course, agroecology is an entirely different paradigm than one in which technology is dropped into laps from foreign laboratories accompanied by a sheet of instructions. The programs require much more participatory education work, and much more investment in public goods, than the Malawian government and donors currently seem inclined to provide.
Agroecology is the third development vision battling for the future. In Malawi, it works. By growing cowpeas and groundnuts with maize — expanding the range of crops — Bezner Kerr’s program has beat the fertilizer program’s yield by 10 percent and increased nutrition outcomes too. Yet even agroecology has its limits. Fifteen percent of Malawians remain ultra poor, living on less than a dollar a day and unable to buy enough to eat. They tend to be people who are landless, or who have poor quality land and have to sell their labor at harvest time, just when they need it the most. They remain untouched by the Malawian miracle.
The future doesn’t look terribly promising for agroecology. Concerned about the financial sustainability of its fertilizer subsidy program, the Malawian government is about to embark on a Green Belt project, in which thousands of acres will be irrigated to induce foreign investors to begin large-scale farming of sugar cane and other export crops. The foreign exchange brought in by this program, it is hoped, will bankroll the fertilizer spending. The result will help balance the country’s current account, but as a consequence, thousands of smallholders are scheduled to be displaced to clear lands that will attract the kind of large-scale agriculture of which Collier would approve.
Particularly in the light of the new population projections for the 21st century, it seems foolish to stick to 20th century agricultural policy. Recall that the agroecological interventions in Malawi turned on women’s empowerment. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has famously argued that there are few policies better placed to improve individual, family, and community lives (and lower fertility rates) than education — particularly the education of women and girls. The prophesies presented to us by demographers vary widely — change the assumptions, and you end up with a world of between 8 billion and 15 billion people. No matter what the future holds, though, it’s clear that a world in which everyone gets to eat depends on women’s empowerment — and rather than treating that fact as something irrelevant to feeding the world, agroecology puts it right in the middle.
A great deal of past agriculture policy has been designed either economically to bomb villages in order to save them, or to administer a technological quick fix in order to postpone politics. Collier wants to get rid of peasants. New fads want to keep them, but keep them knee-deep in chemicals. Yet if we are serious about feeding the hungry, in Malawi or anywhere else, we need to recognize that the majority of the hungry are women, and that we need more public, not private, spending on those least able to command rural resources. Because when it comes to growing food, those who tend the land are anything but fools.

domain: geography


Moreland Commons is a brand-new community nestled in Moreland Hills surrounded by beautiful green space and ravines. We will be offering a mix of both single-family homes and townhomes ranging in size from 2300 to 4300 sq ft.
Highlights of the community:
- Low maintenance living
- Walking distance to prime restaurants
- City sewer and water
- Conveniently located near schools, library, and community center
- Luxury-appointed custom homes


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An Urban Action that opens your eyes
The biggest light artwork of Rotterdam
May you be seen
About the project
SEE ME is an art project of the 4th year students of the acting school in Rotterdam supervised by Lucas De Man and Bas van Rijnsoever, the founders of Company New Heroes. Lucas and Bas challenged the students to create a large image in the public space of Rotterdam from a social perspective. SEE ME is about the universal need to be acknowledged and seen in a society that doesn’t seem to give way to vulnerability. Inspired by the campaign slogan ‘Do I matter?!’, they started looking for a place typical to Rotterdam and found the skyscrapers. In just nine days they developed SEE ME, that is showcased at the Na building of Erasmus MC. Using five floors the artists are blinding the windows in a certain order to light the words SEE ME (in Dutch: ZIE MIJ). The letters are 12 to 15 meters long and cover the whole width of the building. The text was there to be seen by the whole city from Friday the 23rd of October 20:00 o’clock till Monday the 26th of October 07:00 o’clock 2015.
The aim of this action is to shine a light on the people who are normally passed unnoticed. At these, for healthcare, difficult times, it is important to not forget those who take care of us. Every day thousands of people are working at the Erasmus MC hospital, enabling us simply to exist. We don’t want them to disappear behind the walls of the hospital unseen, so we are breaking these walls down. Everybody deserves to be seen. By shining light at a lot of people we shape the words SEE ME. The statement is consciously written in a singular form, this is an essential and touching aspect of it. SEE ME applies to everyone, to all its viewers where ever they may be.


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Food 4 Patriots is a ration manufacturing unit based out of Nashville, Tennessee. According to the official company website, the firm offers customers a total of four different food preparedness kits, each of which include three unique meals per day.
Founded by Frank Bates, 4Patriots also has a number of other manufacturing subsidiaries, including Power 4 Patriots and Survival Seeds 4 Patriots. The core ideological justification for each of these companies is the belief that the oligarchical government threatens liberty and challenges the safety of the world. Bates himself is also a firm believer in the theory that there is a major global disaster looming just around the corner, meaning that people need to be prepared to fend for themselves and their families.
From a more technical standpoint, it bears mentioning that Food 4 Patriots holds an A-rating with the Better Business Bureau. This rating is an aggregate score that has been devised using a metric standard that takes into consideration a number of customer reviews and complaints. In this regard, Food4Patriots currently holds a very high customer satisfaction rating. This review will evaluate the reasons why the organization has risen to a place of such acclaim among consumers, providing readers with all the information necessary to make their own decision about Food 4 Patriots.
In a day and age where survival kits and first aid kits are high in demand, or face masks for coronavirus protection and long term food storage solutions are trending, let's review Food4Patriots survivalist food kits to see what the 72-hour packages offer in comparison to the 3-month supply and 1-year supply deals.
Why Choose Food 4 Patriots?
To start off with, all of the ingredients contained in the Food 4 Patriots food preparedness kits have been manufactured in the United States. Additionally, all of the production sites are routinely audited/inspected for their hygiene and standards. Some of the other key qualities offered by Food 4 Patriots include:
- Taste: Even though the food items being offered a marketed as survival meals, they are surprisingly delicious, and users reviewing the products have been surprised with how little the taste is sacrificed in these packaged meals.
- Natural and Healthy: None of the products being manufactured by Food 4 Patriots have use GMO or similar chemicals, many of which have been clinically found to have several negative effects on the human body.
- Easy-to-store: Since the food items are designed especially for catastrophic events, they necessarily have a long shelf life. More importantly, they have been designed to stay fresh even in the harshest conditions and can be stored quite easily.
- Uniquely Devised: These food items have also been preserved using a unique “low-heat dehydration” method instead of traditional freeze dry and dehydration techniques. As per the official company website, the preservation techniques used by Food 4 Patriots allow their products to stay fresh and consumable for up to 25 years, all while maintaining the nutritional integrity of the food items.
What Packages does Food4Patriots Offer?
Food 4 Patriots offers only four product packages, which are demarcated based on the length of time they will allow users to sustain themselves for. These packages include:
- 72-hour pack
- Four-week pack
- Three-month pack
- Fruit and Veggie Snack Mix
Read on for a more comprehensive look at each of the packages offered by Food4Patriots.
As the name suggests, this is a perfect starter kit for individuals looking to explore the world of non-perishable food items. As part of the 72-Hour Survival Food Kit, users are provided with a total of 16 servings of delicious survival food designed to stay fresh for a period of 25 years. Each individual path includes:
- Four servings of America's Finest Mac & Cheese
- Four servings of creamy rice & vegetable dinners
- Eight servings of Grammy's Sweet Oatmeal
These meals are enough to satiate one’s breakfast, lunch and dinner needs, and they provide users with a total of 3,760 calories. Other important facts about this package include:
- “Disaster-Resistant” packaging that keeps the contents fresh for a period of up to 25 years.
- Nutritious, easy-to-make, and delicious recipes throughout.
- Always manufactured in the United States with no harmful chemicals like MSG.
- Foods rated “A” by the Better Business Bureau.
- 100% money-back guarantee.
- Price: $27.
Fruit and Veggie Snack Mix
he 4Patriots Fruit, Veggie & Snack Survival Food Kit is designed to provide users with critical plant-based nutrition in a highly streamlined, hassle-free manner. The pack contains blueberries, strawberries, pineapples, and other fruits, amounting to 120 servings in total.
The product can be consumed straight out of the bag, or used as part of other food preparations. According to the official company website, all of the fruits are handpicked and freeze-dried at peak freshness, in order to maintain their overall quality and integrity.
Contents of this package include:
- 24 servings of freeze-dried corn
- 24 servings of freeze-dried green beans
- 16 servings of freeze-dried strawberries
- 16 servings of freeze-dried broccoli
- 8 servings of old fashioned pudding
- 8 servings of sweetly coated banana chips
- 8 servings of freeze-dried blueberries
- 16 servings of freeze-dried pineapple
- Price: $97.
3-Month Survival Kit
This package contains non-perishable food items that can last users for a period of up to 3 months. The servings are well proportioned and all of the ingredients contained in the mix have been sourced from America. The products included in this kit include:
- America’s Finest Mac & Cheese
- Classic Potato Soup
- Fireside Stew
- Old Fashioned Pudding
- Creamy Rice and Vegetable Dinner
- Loaded Baked Potato Soup
- Ma’s Homestyle Chilli Mac
- Star-Spangled Energy Drink
- Sweetberry Cream Wheat
- White Rice
- Price: $197.
1-Year Survival Kit
As part of the 4Patriots 1-Year Survival Food Kit, users receive a total of 2,400 servings of delicious survival food that designed to stay fresh for a period of 25 years. As with all of the other offerings mentioned above, the food items are made in the USA and have been protected using a triple-layer Mylar packaging system, the same technology that is also used for packaging consumables for space travelers and astronauts.
Consumption is as simple as boiling, simmering, and eating. The item is currently priced at $1,997.00.
Food4Patriots Packaging Practices
The Food 4 Patriots process is extremely stringent and defined. Core aspects of this clear packaging and preservation process include:
- Convenience: All of the Food 4 Patriots food products have been packed in convenient resealable pouches that are protected using triple-layer technology. To be a bit more specific, this premium packing solution has been clinically tested to protect its components from air, light and moisture.
- Technological Advancement: 4Patriots makes use of high-capacity oxygen absorbers to eliminate any traces of air that might be present inside the food packages — thereby allowing for the food items to remain fresh for long periods of time without losing any of their intrinsic flavours.
- Preservability: The food pouches are “cold sealed” so as to make sure that nutrients within remain airtight at all times. This method is highly effective and has been scientifically shown to greatly increase the overall shelf-life of any food item.
Purchasing, Shipping and Delivery Options
To purchase any of the aforementioned meal packages, users need only visit the 4Patriots website and place an order by clicking on the “add to cart” button on their desired package.
After you have made your selection, you can proceed to click on checkout and follow the instructions outlined on the website. Payments can be made via a host of safe and secure means including MasterCard, Visa, AMEX, Paypal, etc.
Last but not least, 4Patriots is currently offering free shipping on all orders.
Product Availability Updates
2020 has been a big year for survivalists. A number of global controversies have increased the popularity of survival items, including survivalist meal packages. This section will outline some of the main updates from Food 4 Patriots concerning these latest threats.
The Tennessee tornado on March 2 was significant. Because their organization is based in Nashville, the company released a statement today regarding the status of orders placed. This statement is included below:
“Nashville tornado update 3/3/2020, As many of you know, 4Patriots is based in Nashville, Tennessee. If you’ve seen the news this morning, you know that two tornadoes struck in this area overnight. You may be wondering how this disaster will impact your order. If you have an open order with us… it will not be affected by the tornado that hit Nashville last night. All of orders are fulfilled from warehouses in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Memphis, Tenn.”
The Coronavirus has also presented a unique threat for survivalists, many of whom fear that a global pandemic could make a solid food supply a matter of necessity. Because of the virus, companies like Food 4 Patriots have experienced a spike in orders. The company issued this statement about the influx of orders:
“Shipping Update: Last week a record number of Americans placed orders for our Survival Food in preparation for the Coronavirus Emergency. While we’re grateful for (and humbled by!) the opportunity to help so many people prepare for an emergency… the influx of orders strains our fulfillment team, which isn’t used to this level of demand. That’s why we’re seeing delays in ship times on large survival food orders.
We’re working around the clock to make, package and ship your survival food as quickly as possible. We’ve added more people and shifts to help pack and ship your kits faster. And we’re extending overtime pay, delivering free lunches & dinners to our shipping team, and saying endless “thank yous” to all our hard-working folks. They’re heroes to us right now, because they’re working so hard to get your food to you.
And we're making good progress. As of today:
- 72-Hour Kits are shipping normally (3 to 5 days from purchase)
- Fruit, Veggie & Snack Kits are shipping normally
For orders that include large kits (3-Month, 1-Year, 4-Week, 1-Week Kits)…
- Orders placed between 2/23 to 2/25ish will ship 3/2 to 3/4
- Orders placed between 2/25 and 2/29 ship 7 to 28 days after the order date
You will receive an email when your order ships. We realize that a delay is not ideal and that this is a stressful time. Despite this delay, we are shipping faster than most of the other survival food companies out there. The Coronavirus has caused an industry-wide shortage of survival food. Rest assured, we WILL deliver on your order and we will continue to provide you with updates as we have them.
You will get a shipment notification the moment your order leaves our warehouse. We promise to get you your order as fast as we can.
Note: You may have noticed that we stopped taking large-kit orders on our website. That’s because existing orders come first. We’re focused on getting these food kits out to the people who are counting on them, and we’re making YOU the priority. Even when/if we open up the food kits to new folks… your existing order will still come first.
We've also done the following:
- Added shipping estimates throughout our websites, so that you know what to expect before you buy and can find updates afterward (we update these notes daily)
- Ramped up Survival Food production to meet current demand — way up!
- Planned for continued and ongoing high levels of demand
- Added shifts, hours and more people at our warehouse
- Substituted and upgraded recipes in order to ship your Survival Food Kits to you faster (recipe substitutions will always be of equal or greater value)
We appreciate your patience, and please know we are working hard to ship your order to you as soon as possible.”
Contact Food 4 Patriots
The Food 4Patriots customer service team can be reached by phone at 1-800-304-4202 (TOLL-FREE) or by email [email protected]. Hours of operation for customer service are as follows:
- Monday – Friday: 8am – 7pm (CT)
- Saturday: 10am – 4pm (CT),
The company also has a weekly newsletter. To keep updated on latest products, consumers can sign up here.
Frequently Asked Questions About Food 4 Patriots
Food 4 Patriots is a company climbing in popularity, especially as more Americans become anxious about the threat presented by the coronavirus. This section includes answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about Food 4 Patriots.
Q: What is Food 4 Patriots?
A: Food 4 Patriots presents users with a whole host of packaged meal solutions that are designed to last for a period of 25 years without any degradation in the overall quality or taste profile of the included food items. Food4Patriots packages help consumers to become better prepared for the dangers of the real-world; a lasting meal plan can mean the difference between life and death in a worldwide disaster scenario.
Q: What bonuses come with Food4Patriots?
A: As part of every order placed through the official 4Patriots website, users are provided with a host of goodies, including: Patriot Pure Personal Water Filters (retail price: $99), Victory Garden Seed Collections (retail price: $188.00), Survival Multi-Tools (retail price: $40.00), a free copy of a survival guide called “Survival 101″ (retail price: $37.00), a copy of “Survive Chaos” (retail price: $27.00), Survival Library (retail price: $80.00), and playing cards (retail price: $10.00)
Q: What does Food4Patriots Pricing & Refund Policy look like?
A: As mentioned in an earlier section, all Food 4 Patriots food kits come with free shipping. However, for users who are not satisfied with the quality of their purchase, they have the option to initiate a refund within 60 days of placing their orders. To facilitate a chargeback, all one has to do is ship back their product along with their order confirmation number. The refund money is sent back to the account from where the initial order was processed.
Q: How are Food 4 Patriots meals consumed?
A: The meals are consumed by users unpacking, boiling, and eating. The process is relatively simple, but users should read the instructions included with their meal packages to be sure that they follow the directions completely.
Q: Can Food4Patriots be trusted?
A: Even though every nook and corner of the official Food 4 Patriots website tries to scare customers into believing that the world is going to come to an end very soon, the products being offered by the company look quite legitimate. This is because there are a number of testimonials available online from users who have consumed the products and have verified all of the claims made in relation to their quality.
With that being said, the folks over at 4Patriots have made some dubious claims — such as the company being contacted by FEMS — that cannot be substantiated at the moment. Also, there are some complaints from customers online who have stated that the quality of the food is poor (however, the positive reviews far outweigh the negative ones).
We recommend that users interested in trying Food 4 Patriots might want to start small to establish their own opinions on the legitimacy of their offerings before purchasing the more expensive packages.
For users who believe that the world is heading towards global crisis, long-term survivalist meal packages are a no-brainer. But even for users who think it unlikely that the world will end anytime soon, meal packages can offer an unmatched sense of security and peace-of-mind. Food 4 Patriots caters to both of these demographics by offering quality, tasty, and preservable meal packages that can mean the difference between danger and safety in the face of disaster for users.

domain: food


Draw in Remarkable AFL Clash Between Cats and Swans."
In one of the most extraordinary games of the 2023 AFL season. The Geelong Cats and the Sydney Swans played out a draw, marking the first time in their history that they have shared points against each other.
The match was suspense and drama, with the Swans’ inaccurate goalkicking proving to be their downfall. Despite dominating most of the game, Sydney’s wayward conversion in front of goal cost them dearly, As they registered a woeful 6.18 (54) points, the worst accuracy of any team this season with at least 25 shots. The Cats, on the other hand, managed 7.12 (54) and managed to stay in the contest throughout the night.
Swans' Downfall: Inaccurate Goalkicking and Costly Mistakes
The stage was set for a thrilling ending as Geelong mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter, they can take the victory. However, then Sydney surged back in the final minutes, and Isaac Heeney’s match-tying point with less than a minute left on the clock sealed the draw. With the two points gained from the draw, Geelong moved into eighth place on the ladder, while the Swans dropped to 12th.
Throughout the game, Sydney had control and dominated play, particularly in the first half. They showcased an exciting and fast brand of football, moving the ball quickly and efficiently down the center of the Sydney Cricket Ground. Despite their dominance, the Swans were unable to capitalize on their opportunities in front of goal, missing multiple shots and failing to extend their lead. The Cats took advantage of a costly turnover by the Swans and managed to kick three quick goals, establishing a lead.
Swans' Dominance and Missed Opportunities: Cats Seize the Advantage
At halftime, Sydney held an 8-point lead, despite their dominance not being reflected on the scoreboard. The Swans had the chance to put the game away, but their inaccuracy in front of goal continued to haunt them. Sydney’s accuracy at goal throughout the game was a dismal 19%, well below the AFL average of 48%, and former Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis described it as “laughable at stages.”
Second Half Battle: Mistakes, Missed Opportunities, and a Dramatic Draw
The second half saw Geelong come out with more intent, making it a much more even contest. Both teams made crucial mistakes, with Sydney missing several golden opportunities and Geelong failing to convert their chances into scores. The game reached its climax in the final quarter, with a flurry of mistakes and fast-paced ball movement from both sides. Despite their best efforts, neither team could break the deadlock, and the final score of 54 apiece brought an end to one of the most extraordinary clashes of the season.
Disappointment and Frustration: Implications of the Draw on Premiership Points and Finals Aspirations
The draw was a bitter disappointment for both teams, as they missed out on crucial premiership points. Commentators and former players expressed their disbelief and frustration at the outcome, with Nathan Buckley calling it “bizarre” and stating. That both teams effectively lost the game. The Swans’ inaccurate goalkicking and missed opportunities. Left them feeling frustrated, with Luke Parker describing it as “unfortunate” to only come away with two points. The result could have significant implications for both teams’ finals aspirations, as they risk missing out on a spot in the top eight.
The game also sparked controversy with a tackle by Geelong’s Brad Close on Sydney’s Aaron Francis. Close pinned Francis’ arm and brought him to the ground, with the defender’s head hitting the turf. The tackle is likely to be scrutinized by the Match Review, and Close could face a one-week ban based on the AFL’s current stance on such tackles. The debate around tackles and their interpretation continues to be a contentious issue in the AFL.
Overall, the draw between the Geelong Cats and the Sydney Swans was a memorable and dramatic.


text:
Watch live coverage of a press conference with Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
NYS Entity Status
NYS Filing Date
JANUARY 24, 2014
NYS DOS ID#
NYS Entity Type
DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
2014 - M & M 376 LLC
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domain: news