text:
Interview with Shari Gordon, hypnotherapist, EFT practitioner
Q: How did you get involved in this business?
A: I had been working in the telecommunications industry and always felt I should be doing something different, but I didn’t know what that was and I never fathomed I would be working in the healing arts. My marriage ending was a catalyst for me to go on my own healing journey. It was through that process of self discovery that I uncovered a passion for natural healing therapies and spirituality. Since then I have studied various holistic healing approaches and spirituality.
Q: What distinguishes you from other businesses in your category?
A: I have a toolbox of various healing modalities that I can combine to create the most effective sessions for my clients. I work with change at the subconscious and energetic levels so clients experience rapid results. People start to change the way they think and transform their old habits and relationship patterns into ones that are healthier.
Q: What do you like best about your line of work?
A: It’s incredibly rewarding to facilitate other’s transformation. When people come in and have been struggling with something for a long time and are able to achieve success in a relatively short timeframe, it’s rewarding. It’s very rewarding to see my clients transform their lives.
Q: What is your business’ biggest challenge?
A: The biggest challenge in this business is to get people to rethink healing. There are so many ways hypnotherapy, guided visualization and EFT can help but people often put this type of therapy in a box. Hypnotherapy and guided visualization can be used in medical situations to prepare for surgeries, to speed healing as well as personal development.
Q: Something people might be surprised to learn about you or your business:
A: Many people don’t know that I can teach them self-healing tools they can use on their own to enhance the work we do together. Once you learn techniques like self-hypnosis or meridian tapping, you have a healing toolkit at your disposal any time or place. This hit home for me last year when I was hit by an SUV while riding my bike at Red Rocks. I sustained a concussion, broken ribs and clavicle, collapsed lung and bruises galore. Even before the ambulance arrived, I began using self-hypnosis for pain, fear and anxiety. Healing from a traumatic experience involves so many layers — it’s not just about the physical injuries. For complete healing, you also have to release emotional components like trauma and fears.
Business: Blossoming Mind
Address: 8830 W. Colfax Ave., Lakewood
Hours: By appointment, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday
Contact: 303-570-5661, theblossomingmind.com
Updated Sept. 19 at noon. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction. Originally, due to an editor’s error, information about the company was wrong. Blossoming Minds was founded in 2002.

domain: psychology


text:
Abortion in black communities is a huge cause of concern, especially when you consider that the abortion rate for women of colour in the USA is almost five times that for white women. Surprisingly, this statistic is not up for debate. It is an established fact by a leading US Pro-Choice organisation which is committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights globally.
According to the same organisation reveals over 60 million pregnancies have been terminated since abortion became legal in United States in 1970. That’s a period of some 50 years. The ‘rainbow nation’, South Africa, has a population of about the same number of people. Imagine an entire country being completely wiped out in just five decades and you have the horrific realisation of the vast amount of lives America has lost since Roe v Wade.
It’s hard to comprehend these staggering figures relating to abortion in black communities in America and similar trends will possibly be found in many other nations. This raises the awful question… How many Nelson Mandelas, Michelle Obamas, Martin Luther Kings have been lost to the world due to this tragic waste of human life?
Consider the unused potential, the talents that have gone uncelebrated and inventions that may never happen. Many men and women of colour have impacted the world in different ways from the legendary music of Nat King Cole to the poetry of Maya Angelou. This is why it’s crucial to stop abortion in black communities or in any community for that matter where innocent life is being lost.
According to other statistics, “Minority women constitute only about 13% of the female population (age 15-44) in the USA, but they account for approximately 36% of the abortions.” These figures are shocking, and it’s no wonder they talk of a “Black Genocide.” Minority women would far be less of a minority if their offspring were given the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential instead of being cut off before they can even start. This has to end.
It’s disheartening to consider that this vast loss of life is self-inflicted by parents who shouldn’t have to make such drastic choices in the modern world with its social welfare programmes. One understands the reluctance to bring up a child in poverty, but adoption can be the answer in such cases, not abortion. It’s sad that America’s first black President was “Pro-Choice”. Imagine what he could have achieved for the African American community if he had introduced widespread adoption initiatives?
All life is precious and all people are equal in God’s eyes. The International Christian Community must stand up for the sanctity of life everywhere, in prayer and in action, including interceding against abortion in black communities.
Also read: God is Pro-Choice

domain: sociology


A new R18+ classification for computer games should be introduced immediately, a parliamentary committee found yesterday.
The issue has dragged through more than a decade of debate and more than 60,000 public submissions to three rounds of consultation.
The overwhelming majority of people who responded - 98 per cent - supported the proposal, which the committee said was ''not controversial''.
Under the current laws, computer games are treated differently to films for the purposes of classification and cannot be classified at a higher level than MA15+.
The lack of a classification specifically for adults means that anything with adult content is refused classification.
Gamers say that some material meant for an adult audience winds up with an MA15+ rating instead, making it more likely that children will be exposed to violent or sexual material.
Labor MP Ed Husic welcomed the announcement on Twitter, saying ''So that means that this issue won't have to go for re-examination after being subjected to countless inquiries over 10yrs''.
Committee chairman Graham Perrett said the issue had been well and truly canvassed.
''They're not 15-year-old kids who are playing these games, they're 33-year-old men,'' he said.
''It's just one of those cases where government hasn't caught up with technology.''


text:
Janna Bock is a freelance artist based in Los Angeles specializing in illustration and design. She is the illustrator of four published children's books, is an accomplished multi media graphic designer, and has created concept art for television, animation, and smartphone game apps. Currently, Janna freelances as designer for The Couture Cookie Company and Starburns Animation.
Janna Bock always delivers excellence by employing traditional principles of art and her personal sense of visual charm while adhering to and enhancing her clients' vision.
You can purchase some of Janna's illustrated books right here…

domain: design


OSHA News Release - (Archived) Table of Contents|
OSHA News Release – Region 4
U.S. Department of Labor
Region 4 News Release: 06-1208-ATL (138)
Date: July 17, 2006
Contact: Ken Atha Dan Fuqua
Phone: (251) 441-6131 (404) 562-2078
Signing Ceremony Set for July 20 in Dothan, Ala.
MOBILE, Ala. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is adding the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center to its "Wiregrass Safety Alliance," a group of organizations committed to helping small businesses in the wiregrass area of Alabama, Georgia and Florida with no-cost safety and health training, and information. A signing ceremony will be held Thursday at Fort Rucker. Established in 2003, the alliance is currently comprised of OSHA's Mobile area office; the Dothan Chamber of Commerce; Troy State University's Continuing Education Center, Dothan campus; the Wiregrass Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers; the Dothan/Houston County Emergency Management Agency; and Durden Outdoor Displays Inc. "The primary goal of this alliance is to promote the value of safety and health to small businesses in the wiregrass area," said Ken Atha, OSHA's Mobile area director.
|EVENT:||Alliance Signing Ceremony|
|DATE/TIME:||Thursday, July 20, 2006 ¿ 1:30 p.m.|
|LOCATION:||Cobra Lounge at Fort Rucker's Aviator's Landing Fort Rucker, Ala.|
|OSHA CONTACT:||Ken Atha, Mobile area director|
NOTE ¿ R.S.V.P.: Media must R.S.V.P. no later than 4 p.m. on Monday, July 17, so the public affairs officer can make coverage plans. Media should arrive early to process through security at the gate. Media must have the following current documents for admittance: (1) photo ID; (2) proof of vehicle insurance; and (3) vehicle registration. Those planning to attend the event should contact Kelly Widener at (334) 255-3770.
Since the inception of OSHA's Strategic Partnership Program in 1998, more than 410 partnerships have been formed, impacting more than 20,000 employers and more than 1 million employees across the United States. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their employees. OSHA's role is to assure the safety and health of America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
U.S. Labor Department (DOL) releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when placing your request. Call (202) 693-7765 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to providing America's employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.
|OSHA News Release - (Archived) Table of Contents|


text:
Secrecy and democracy are incompatible concepts. Secrecy is the repository of evil. Democracy demands free and open discussion amongst citizens of a country. I consider secrecy within our government and within the governmental bureaucracy to be one of the greatest threats to the freedom of Canadians.
The Freedom of Information Act purports to provide Canadians with access to government documents which the government and bureaucrats wish to hide from the people. Why do we need a Freedom of Information Act at all? Is this not backwards? Politicians and government bureaucrats are supposed to be servants of the people and not vice versa!
I suggest that it is high time that Canadians demand that all government and bureaucratic documents be freely available to the general public. Should the politician or bureaucrat feel that it is in the overall interest of Canadians that a certain document be made secret, they should be required by law to appear and argue before a judicial court that the particular document be declared secret.
It is frightening that even the Freedom of Information Commissioner has accused the Liberal government of deliberately manipulating and withholding information from concerned Canadians. I would dearly love to have the input of readers on this subject.Secrecy in Gov't - UKUSA - Echelon

domain: law


text:
It looks like a Hogwarts’ owl is trying to slip inside St Vipers School for Super Villains. I wonder why? Here’s my series, rubbing shoulders with Harry Potter, in the window of Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath yesterday.
Tag Archives: St Viper’s School for Super Villains
Hogwarts’ owl seen slipping inside St Vipers School for Super Villains
Removing the Barriers to Reading
Removing the Barriers to Reading is my top pick for The Bath Children’s Literature Festival this year. The panel includes publisher Barrington Stoke, Dyslexia Action and author Tony Bradman. Hopefully, there will be lots of advice for children who find reading difficult. See also these two guest blogs on getting reluctant readers reading. Article 1 & Article 2.
In our house, the barriers to my eleven-year-old son reading are Xbox, electronic games on other devices such as phones and ipads, youtube videos, old episodes of Top Gear and the Dragon Ball Z television series which are available on demand… He draws manga characters, plays fantasy card duels, creates his own code for computer games and paints Games Workshop space marines. I’d need a removal van to take it all away! Then there’s always rugby, judo, meeting friends at the swimming pool and football in the park. For him, reading is nowhere near as interesting as doing any of these things – he always has something better to do. But I see the value of him reading. I know lots of boys who are like him, so here are a few of my tried-and-tested tips.
- Create time for reading. Establish a time of day when all the electronics are turned off and you read. It helps to read together – try leading by example. Sometimes my son and I sit on the sofa together with our own books, other times we take it in turns to read aloud chapters of his novel.
- Go with their interests. I buy him tech magazines, which he devours without him even realising he’s reading. As Dragon Ball is primarily a Japanese manga series, he has a number of these books piled up at the bottom of his bed. Games Workshop also sells books relating to the characters he paints. Graphic novels are often a big hit with boys too. I’m a great believer that it doesn’t matter what kids read as long as they’re reading and the content is age appropriate. I never look at the quality of the writing!
- A poem a day/week. Poetry is great because it’s super quick to read and it exposes kids to rich, expressive language. Every weekend, we take it in turns to pick a poem from A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility.
- Don’t give up. I’m always looking for the book my son won’t want to put down. I’ve just ordered Mortal Engines for him. I know he can suddenly become totally absorbed in a book – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was one of those stories. Sadly, the series I wrote for him – St Viper’s School for Super Villains – is now too young for him, but he loved it at the time. Remember, a reluctant reader isn’t always one.
- Keep bedtime electronics free. Other than e-readers just have books in the bedroom.
- Try going on holiday where there’s no Wi-Fi or phone signal. We did it this year and it was good for all of us!
Thanks for reading my blog.
Super Stories for Stockings
As special advisors to the children’s book department at the North Pole, we have been campaigning for a story to be included in every child’s stocking. I know a nine-year-old has written to Father Christmas asking for St Viper’s School for Super Villains because I’ve been asked by an elf to write a personal message inside the cover. I’ve seen Kay’s book Treasure This on the present conveyor belt too. Here are some other brilliant stories we’ve suggested to the book-buying elf team.
Kim Donovan, author of the series St Viper’s School for Super Villains.
Every Christmas Eve my son and I dust off Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs and read it curled up together in bed. The book is in comic-strip format and has well over a hundred exquisite illustrations, showing the reader everything Father Christmas does from the moment he wakes up on December 24th to going to bed on Christmas Day: making cheese sandwiches for the journey, filling the sledge with presents, riding through fog, tripping over a cat in someone’s house. We also see him being a grumpy old man, which is a nice change from the standard jolly Father Christmas character. The book is full of humour, the illustrations are delightful and my son seems to appreciate the story more with each passing year. A special 40th edition copy has just been published. As Father Christmas says, “Happy Blooming Christmas to you, too!”
Janine Amos at janineamos.com
There are so many wonderful children’s books to choose from. . .
For children who like fairy tales, I’d recommend The Snow Queen, vividly retold for confident readers by Sarah Lowes, Barefoot Books. This little version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale about friendship and courage is illustrated by Miss Clara, a French artist with a gift for the magical. There are other books in the series – The Princess and the Pea and The Twelve Dancing Princesses − all perfect reading for a cold winter’s night.
For something much more contemporary, Frank Cottrell Boyce’s novel Millions is a miracle of a story: what happens when millions of banknotes fall from a train right into the arms of Damian Cunningham, Year 5. This fast-paced adventure, told in Damian’s voice, is both funny and sad; it will have you laughing out loud and crying too, and I can guarantee that after reading it you’ll never see the school Nativity Play in quite the same way again. Millions really will please anyone from 8 to 80 – Cottrell Boyce’s “dream-reader” is an adult and child reading together, one of the very best ways to spend Christmas I reckon.
Some stories have a magical quality you can’t quite put your finger on … For a rip-roaring yarn which adds that X factor to Xmas, look no further. Geraldine McCaughrean, one of the most acclaimed and original storytellers for children, gives Christmas a real twist in Forever X, a novel for ages 10+ which will enchant and surprise grown-up readers too.
When the Shepherd family car breaks down at the start of their summer holiday, they are forced to stay in the nearest B and B, a bizarre place where December 25th happens every day of the year. Despite Holly, the resident elf, and grandfather F-C’s efforts to fulfill wishes, the drama here isn’t all tinsel and candy, especially when the police and the mysterious Mr Angel arrive…
Funny, moving and brilliantly plotted, the story explores family relationships and gets to the bottom of what Christmas is really about. Read about Geraldine’s books here and check out another favourite, The White Darkness, a gripping and romantic survival adventure which, by contrast, has a decidedly wintry setting. Peter Pan in Scarlet, the official sequel to J M Barrie’s original, will delight too.
Kay Leitch, author of Treasure This
If you happen to see Santa sitting chuckling over a book before Christmas, he’s probably reading ”Who Could That Be at This Hour?” by Lemony Snicket (the first in the “All The Wrong Questions” series). And if you like your mysteries to have quirky humour, wit and a sense of the ridiculous, you’ll make sure this book finds its way into your stocking too. This series has all the usual fun, twists and turns we’ve come to expect from Lemony Snicket, along with more curious characters such as the enigmatic Ellington Feint, librarian Dashiell Qwerty, and Moxie Mallahan the journalist. Lemony’s secret assignment centres around finding a statue of the Bombinating Beast, presumed stolen… but perhaps not actually stolen… and as usual Lemony shows himself to be much smarter than his chaperone, S. Theodora Markson, who is the best there is… or perhaps not…
A nice mystery, neatly tied up at the end… or maybe not… which means you’ll probably want to read the other three in the series. Great fun and a delight to read. Just remember – the map is not the territory!
Another favourite of mine is One Boy and His Dog by Eva Ibbotson. A bit of a modern classic, this is simply but beautifully written and, sadly, was the last one Eva Ibbotson completed before her death. Hal has always wanted a dog and his overly house-proud parents humour him by hiring one – Fleck – for a weekend, thinking Hal will tire of the idea. As anyone who has ever loved an animal knows, you don’t tire of them in a few days – you fall more deeply in love. Hal is devastated when Fleck is taken away and returned to Easy Pets Rental. This is the story of how he runs away and tries to get Fleck back, with the help of his friend Pippa and four other dogs. An emotional journey for characters and readers alike and a very satisfying read.
Filed under Janine Amos, Jenny Landor, Kay Leitch, Kim Donovan
Tagged as Author Kay Leitch, best books for christmas 2013, children's christmas books, Electrik Inc, Eva Ibbotson, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Geraldine McCaughrean, Janine Amos, Jenny Landor, Kim Donovan Author, Lemony Snicket, Raymond Briggs, St Viper's School for Super Villains, Treasure This
Super Books for Boys
In a time when children are reportedly reading less than ever, what we need are story heroes who stand together and take on the fight. In a small way, my young evil geniuses at St Viper’s School for Super Villains have been helping to save the day — they’ll be annoyed when they find out I’ve been calling them heroes! Readers tell me they can devour a St Viper’s adventure in a weekend (they take me months to craft and the illustrator to draw) and I know there are other super stories out there, which make kids want to read.
So here’s a novel idea: writers telling their readership about other books they would enjoy. Their competition! I know what my 7 – 10 year-old readers want from a St Viper’s story: plots to take over the world, plenty of action, use of super powers, cool gadgets, friends working together, tongue-in-cheek phrases, lessons in diabolical laughing, a fast pace … and I’m knowledgeable about what else is available in stores. We don’t have to work alone, do we? The time has come to join forces. We strike for victory!
If you like St Viper’s why not try:
Magic Ink by Steve Cole
Twelve-year-old Stew Pender loves super heroes as much as his grandfather, a once famous comic book artist, and spends his time drawing comic characters including his alter ego: Stupendous Man. When his grandfather goes to the great comic convention in the sky, Stew and his family move into his home. On the first night in the house, Stew is woken by a cartoon pig in a top hat and cape. This isn’t a figment of his imagination. In the attic, where his grandfather used to draw, Stew finds a bottle of magic ink, which brings characters to life. But it’s not all fun and games, the creator of the Magic Ink — the wizard Merlin — is imprisoned in a cave in a land of myth and monsters and needs Stew to draw super heroes to save him.
I say: It’s quirky, great fun and the idea’s brilliant. Unlike St Viper’s and NERDS (see below), most of the action comes at the end of the book, but there are lots of hooks to keep readers turning the page and the pace is spot on. Steve Cole is the author of the well-known series Astrosaurs. Magic Ink is suitable for 8+ readers.
Atomic. The Madness of Madame Malice by Guy Bass. Issue 2.
Ten-year-old super-powered twins Jonny and Tommy Atomic have a super hero father and a super villain mother. They live with their father, Captain Atomic, Aunt Sandwich who’s a hamster and Dogday, a super-intelligent dog on an island in the sky. Their mother is an inmate at The Stronghold, a high-security super prison, until she breaks out to spend time with her darling boys. In this book, one of the twins is drawn to the dark side and the other the light as they spend quality time with her. She frees all the animals in the zoo, turns their school to rubble and rips the roof off Icy Joe’s Delectable Dairy Den so they can fly to the front of the ice-cream queue. The story follows a predictable path until the end where Bass reveals their mother’s true dark colours.
I say: The storyline is simple, the chapters are short and there are lots of illustrations to break up the text. The book would be enjoyed most by my younger and less confident readers (7+). It’s also a suitable story for parents to read aloud. In book 3, Bass hints that the boys will become their father’s sidekicks. I hope that as the series develops we’ll see the children use their super powers a lot more. But what I think my readers will really like about this book is that it’s part novel and part comic. They’ll also like the super cool cover!
NERDS. The Villain Virus by Michael Buckley. Book 4.
Michael Buckley is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sisters Grimm series and NERDS is a great read, too. In this book, the villain population rockets as a virus sweeps the world, which makes people develop insane alter egos. Ordinary folk start planning the destruction of the planet, building doomsday devices, wearing ridiculous costumes and calling themselves the Terrible Tornado and such like. Kids from the NERDS secret spy society are given the job of saving the world. They are all underdogs and what’s nice is that their weaknesses are all turned into super strengths. For example, Wheezer — Matlida Choi — can fly and blast enemies with her asthma inhalers. In this story, Flinch takes centre stage. He’s hyperfast, hyperstrong and just plain hyper (a bit like my son!) and I must say hyperbrave to be shrunk and injected into the bottom of a master villain near the end of the book.
I say: the story is great fun and has lots of action — KA-POW! It feels like an animated cartoon, which is also how I see St Viper’s. NERDS is suitable for 8 + readers.
Cartoon Kid by Jeremy Strong. Title: Zombies.
All of Mr Butternut’s class are super heroes — that’s what he told them in their first lesson. There’s Cartoon Kid, Big Feet Pete, Exploding Girl and many others. They are actually ordinary children, but in moments of crisis the book changes to a comic strip and the kids transform into heroes in cool super suits. Afterwards, we find out what really happened to them. There are three short stories in this book. In the first story, Cartoon Kid (Casper) gets the pupils out of a tight spot with Masher McNee and his Monster Mob by scaring them with the dead bat he’d brought in for Show and Tell. In the second story, the school inspectors pay a visit and are not impressed with what they find until Mr Butternut saves the day with an inspiring history lesson. Then in the last story, Cartoon Kid tries to be a hero (even if this is out of self-interest) by painting his sister’s bedroom with a water blaster. The underlying message behind Cartoon Kid is that anyone can be a super hero.
I say: It’s exactly what I expect from a Jeremy Strong book. Cartoon Kid is funny, age-appropriate and suitable for children who are starting to build confidence with reading. Readership: 7+.
Vordak the Incomprehensible. How to Grow Up and Rule the World. Scott Seegert
A comical step-by-step guide on how to bring out your inner evil and take over the world. Instructions include: how to select a gut-wrenching evil name, communicating with your arch-nemesis, picking a super menace mask and buying the right super villain lair — typically, I chose the most expensive one: an orbiting space station!
I say: It’s a fun read and I can see my older readers liking it (10+). The book’s packed with illustrations, lists and diagrams (I loved the Many Faces of Evil) and it may appeal to reluctant boy readers. But it does cross the invisible line I set for St Viper’s. Some parents may not like how Vordak the Incomprehensible encourages children to grow the evil that exists inside of them. This book will appeal to my younger readers but it really is for older kids who know not to take the advice seriously.
St Viper’s School for Super Villains
If you are not familiar with my series, you can read about it on this site or please visit Amazon for more reader reviews. Thank you!
Filed under Children's Publishing, Kim Donovan, Parents and Teachers
Tagged as action books for boys, best books for 7 - 9 year old boys, Electrik Inc, good books for reluctant readers, Kim Donovan Author, lower middle grade books, St Viper's School for Super Villains, Super Heroes and Super Villains, the best christmas books for boys
Despicable Me, Responsible Me
My eight-year-old evil genius was seriously unimpressed with one crucial thing that happened in the films Despicable Me and Megamind: the bad guys turned good. So it would seem that Despicable Me 2, the sequel, is wrongly named – there is now nothing at all despicable about the main character. It is more Responsible Me. Gru, the villain turned hero of the original, is now a devoted dad who cross dresses as a pink fairy to save his daughter’s birthday party and makes jam instead of trying to take over the world.
‘This isn’t good,’ said evil son (now nine), shaking his head and looking like there was no hope for Gru. Clearly he likes his villains to stay evil.
I can see the same challenge ahead for my own book series, St Viper’s School for Super Villains. My young readers like the fact that the super villains in training are bad – it makes them exciting. But some of my more responsible, grown up readers would like to see all the characters become heroes in the end to send out the ‘proper’ message to children. Good always wins through in the end, right? Who shall I upset?
Fortunately in Despicable Me 2, the writers have made Gru’s life as a stay-at-home dad more interesting by having him recruited by the Anti-Villain League, which has its HQ in an underwater submarine. In places the film has the look and feel of The Incredibles. The story has quirky scenes and cool gadgets. Gru’s secret agent partner, Lucy Wilde, has a lipstick taser. Personally, I’d have made it a lip salve lightsaber, which when twisted grows into a long white laser beam (Hmmm … maybe a copyright issue). The Anti-Villain League have decided it takes a villain to know one and Gru’s first and only assignment is to find the master criminal who has stolen a lethal serum which when injected into a fluffy bunny does the equivalent of feeding a Mogwai after midnight.
The film is not amazing but it is certainly good family entertainment with lots of slapstick humour. The kids I saw in the cinema all looked engaged and laughed along with the story; as did evil son. I saw no-one playing on their mum’s iphone (I did actually see this in a children’s theatre the day before). My super hero husband only nodded off for about five minutes (a record for a family movie) and there were several genuinely funny moments. Most of them involving the stars of the film, by some distance, who are the horde of little yellow ‘minions’. If they ever get bored helping Gru load the washing machine, they will be welcomed with open arms to be villainous at St Viper’s School!
It may not be any more despicable than the first film, but the entertainment is just as good. Take your young villains along for a laugh and even they won’t be too disappointed by the happy ending.
St Viper’s School for Super Villains. Book 2.
THUD. THUD. THUD! The second book in the St Viper’s School for Super Villains series, The Big Bank Burglary, is breaking through the workshop doors. KRAKK! The ebook has escaped – it’s been spotted on Kindle and Smashwords. THUD! Any day now, the physical book will break out of the workshop too. A few lucky children have read pre-publication copies of The Big Bank Burglary. Their verdict: It’s even better than book 1. They want to know when they can have book 3!
The first ebook in the series, The Riotous Rocket Ship Robbery, is being offered at a promotional price of just 77 pence (0.99 USD) for readers to ‘give it a try’.
Links – The Riotous Rocket Ship Robbery
Links – The Big Bank Burglary
How do you encourage reluctant readers to want to read? I’ve been thinking about this question a lot recently. I know reluctant readers, I’ve met them on author visits to schools and some reviewers have said that my story, St Viper’s School for Super Villains, is a good book for them. But what actually makes a good book for a reluctant reader? Is there a list of gold star stories which will help them to find a love of reading and what advice is available for parents who are struggling with this issue?
I’ve been talking to teachers, librarians and parents about the topic and reviewing the literature. I was lucky enough to visit Stuart Boydell and his wonderful Year 2 class in 2012. He is such a great teacher! I’m very happy to be able to share with you my second guest blog, by Stuart, on improving literacy.
Improving literacy and nurturing an enjoyment of reading has been the aim of successive government policies for decades. The media is peppered with reports on international league tables and school SATS results with depressing statistics about the nation’s reading levels. In this atmosphere we are constantly being reminded that we need to all be doing more and more to help our children get on in an ever-changing world where communication is central to everything they will be doing in the future.
Understandably, there is a growing sense of urgency to see our children learning to read at an ever younger age. For some children, however, reading is a chore and holds little enjoyment. These children are increasingly being labelled as “reluctant readers”. I am sure we all know a child who somebody has labelled as a “reluctant reader”. Yet, I wonder how many of us have actually ever stopped to unpick the term? To be reluctant means to be hesitant, or uncertain. Uncertainty often develops from a lack of confidence or experience. If a child is reluctant to read, it is incumbent upon the child’s teachers and parents to try to ascertain what it is about reading that makes them reluctant. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Helping our children to develop a love for reading takes a lot of time, a lot of patience and a huge dollop of encouragement. But, there are a few things we can all do that will encourage greater levels of engagement with books.
For many children, particularly boys, once they have learnt all the myriad skills needed to decode words accurately, it can be a lack of interest, motivation or stamina to read for prolonged periods of time that is holding them back from progressing in their reading. It certainly means reading novels and longer stories will be a huge challenge. Often, however, this is compensated for by an interest in non-fiction books which is, after all, still reading and a core component of school literacy. There will be, of course, a minority of children for whom even non-fiction books will present them with difficulties. But I am sure I won’t be risking my professionalism to be fairly sure that these children will happily read the many instructions and rules needed to understand how to download music or get to the next level of whatever digital game they are playing, Oh and scanning the TV guide looking for their favourite shows. The opportunities for reading go beyond fiction and books!
In an ideal world, we all want children to love story books and ultimately novels. Stories are how they make sense of the world around them and how they play out many of the ideas, wants and frustrations that occupy their minds. Consequently, publishers have been addressing the need to get more children involved in fiction for the last few years. There is a plethora of new and excellent authors out there tackling these issues with strong storylines, but often using language to describe plots and themes which appeal to today’s children.
Increasingly, children are enjoying stories that have strong, feisty characters and a huge amount of humour – think Jack Splat or Jack Stalwart. A simple search on the internet or a quick chat with your child’s teacher will point you in the right direction. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t love Horrid Henry or Mr Stink. Check out the “Out of this World” series from Scholastic Books. There is a growing trend to produce illustrated books that mix animation with real-life images, which seem to really appeal to children. The texts can be a bit limited, but they are fictionalised stories and short enough to give some children the sense of achievement that they have just read a whole book.
The motivation and stamina to read longer texts is undoubtedly a bit of an uphill challenge for some – but it isn’t an insurmountable challenge. The best way to develop these skills, like all skills, is to develop it slowly over time. You can’t run the Bath half-marathon if you haven’t got out there and built up your stamina! Most children will have an area or topic of interest that you can tap into. Tap in sensitively and discreetly! Try to avoid the temptation to have an ‘action plan’ of how to maximise reading potential from your child’s interests – it is amazing how quickly they will change their interests! Work with them, taking the lead from them, as much as you can. Talk to them when their interests appear on TV or in articles in the press or magazines (shared reading is a common practice in schools and is a lovely way for parents to engage with their children). It is always worth remembering that there is nothing wrong in sharing the task of reading a book.
In short, don’t be unduly alarmed if your child seems to only be interested in short, sharp bite-sized reading material like non-fiction books or comics. These texts still require children to use many of the skills needed to be competent readers. Small, easily-digestible reading chunks are often enough for some children. As their interest grows so too will their desire to read more. And, with carefully chosen fiction that taps into their interests, they will soon be mixing their reading between fact and fiction in the much the same ways as we do.
To get yourself started check your local library and book stores for any reading competitions and lists of latest quality fiction out there or pop in to see your child’s teacher and find out what reading materials the schools use to engage the children. There are plenty of reading and writing competitions on-line that taps into all manner of subjects. Grab a cup of coffee and trawl through the different websites. Check out the World Book Day website as well as the ReadZone pages.
King Edwards School, Bath
Encouraging Reluctant Readers
How do you encourage reluctant readers to want to read? I’ve been thinking about this question a lot recently. I know reluctant readers, I’ve met them on author visits to schools and some reviewers have said that my story, St Viper’s School for Super Villains, is a good book for them. But what actually makes a good book for a reluctant reader? Is there a list of gold star stories which will help them to find a love of reading and what advice is available for parents who are struggling with this issue? I’ve been talking to teachers, librarians and parents about the topic and reviewing the literature. One person who has some really interesting views on the subject is James Roberts-Wray, a Year 4 teacher who is passionate about children’s literature. I’m delighted to be able to share with you our first guest blog, by James, on Encouraging Reluctant Readers:
Have you ever entered a competition where you had to complete a sentence as a tiebreaker? Have you ever won? I have – twice. I’ve been given a portable stereo, as well as a holiday for two in the Algarve.
The story of how I won the holiday is for another time, but the stereo was won after considering quite carefully the subject of this post, namely how to encourage children to adopt a reading habit. The competition was run by the Puffin Book Club and, though I don’t recall the exact words of my winning entry, I do remember the gist of it.
It seemed to me that the Puffin Book Club succeeded by creating a community of readers, a club which anyone might join. The feeling of belonging, with reading as a shared endeavour, was its most important feature. This may seem like stating the obvious, but I think too often reading is viewed as a solitary process, something done alone in a quiet corner.
Think for a moment of adult reading behaviour. We may spend happy hours reading alone, but we also talk to friends about what they are reading, we seek out recommendations at our local bookshop, read reviews online, attend author events, or even join a book group. Why should this be different for children? Indeed if we are to encourage reading for enjoyment as a lifelong interest, then we should be modelling this with children.
As a teacher of primary aged children I try to promote this sharing of books as much as I can. Books often go in ‘crazes’ within my class, as pupils see their peers enjoying particular books. They want to join the party, and share what their friend is so enthusiastic about. This works particularly well with series of books. Try a child with ‘Stormbreaker’ and before you know it half the class are reading their way through the Alex Rider series. Give a reluctant reader ‘The Bad Beginning’ and, if they enjoy it, 13 books later they have read the whole Series of Unfortunate Events and more importantly, have become enthusiastic rather than reluctant readers. Children like reading series, because by doing so they sidestep that awful question, what shall I read next?
Of course, using peer pressure to encourage children to read is easier for a teacher to engineer at school than a parent in the home environment. But sharing a book with your child helps, as does modelling good reading behaviour by keeping up your own reading habit. If a child does not see you reading, what conclusion will they draw about the value of reading? Visit bookshops and libraries with your child. Do not assume that the books you read as a child will be of interest. Make proper non-computer, non-television space for reading. Use the five finger test. Put a finger on any word your child does not know. If you have reached the bottom of the page and have run out of fingers, the book is too difficult – change it.
Watching a reluctant reader turning on to the pleasures of reading is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. It’s not something I judge from reading test scores or English exams. It is the child sat down reading before school starts – unasked – transported by their book to another place and time.
Coming Soon – St Viper’s School for Super Villains (Book 2)
2013 is going to be a busy year for Electrik Inc. All the Inklings have books coming out. It’s very exciting! Here’s the cover for book 2 in the St Viper’s series. We hope you like it. Publication date: March 2013.
Update: 3rd March. The paperback has now been printed and is looking brilliant! The ebook is on its way…
Here’s a link to The Big Bank Burglary’s Amazon page:
Time to write
Shhhh! Listen carefully and you’ll hear the tap tapping of fingers on keyboards, the rustle of paper, printers chugging and the sound of whizzing and popping as ideas come to life. We’re all finishing writing books at the moment, which is why we’re so quiet. I’m fizzing with excitement about the other Inklings’ stories — children will be in for such a treat! And the second book in the St Viper’s School of Super Villains series is close to completion. But more about this later. We mustn’t disturb the stories. See you soon.
Any WordPress-sponsored ads shown under are not sanctioned by Electrik Inc and do not have our support.
Filed under Kim Donovan
Tagged as best children's books, Electrik Inc, Kim Donovan Author, St Viper's School for Super Villains

domain: literature


text:
Provincial Parks, including Cypress Hills, part of capital upgrade program
Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Kevin Doherty announced today that more than $2.3 million in capital upgrades will begin this summer at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Duck Mountain, The Battlefords and Lac La Ronge Provincial Parks.
“Upgrading and replacing services within our provincial parks continues to fulfill government’s commitment to provide an enjoyable camping experience,” Doherty said. “These capital improvements are an investment in the future and add to our quality of life.”
Foundation and roof repairs to Holy Trinity Anglican Church at Stanley Mission in Lac La Ronge Provincial Park will start in mid-August. The church was constructed in 1856 and is the oldest building in Saskatchewan. It has been recognized both nationally and provincially as a historic site, so these structural repairs will ensure the building is preserved and enjoyed for years to come. Advantage Roofing Ltd. will have the work completed this fall.
The bridge on Battle Creek Road in the west block of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park will be replaced. It is the most direct connection between the Alberta and Saskatchewan sides of the interprovincial park. The new bridge will ensure continued access along Battle Creek Road. Carmacks Enterprises Ltd. will begin construction this fall and the bridge will be substantially complete by November 30, 2013.
Lesmeister Construction Ltd. of North Battleford, Saskatchewan will be building a replacement service centre at The Battlefords Provincial Park. G. Hahn Contracting Ltd. will construct both the Ministik day use and the Birch Campground service centres at Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The construction of these three new facilities will begin this summer with completion set for spring 2014.
Government continues to improve Saskatchewan’s provincial parks and in 2012 committed an additional $10 million over four years to supplement the previously-enhanced provincial parks capital budget. Since 2008, government has invested almost $44 million to improve Saskatchewan’s provincial parks.
via SW Sask News – Prairie Post – Prairie Post http://www.prairiepost.com/news/sw-sask/item/4494-provincial-parks-including-cypress-hills-part-of-capital-upgrade-program.html

domain: news


The implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU recast puts increasing pressure to achieve better building and ductwork airtightness.
In this context, Eurovent Certita Certification decided to establish a new certification programme for Ventilation Ductwork Systems, opening a new chapter in the history of the Eurovent Certified Performance (ECP) certification mark, which concerned only products, not systems, until then.
To meet this challenge, Eurovent Certita Certification worked for one year with a dedicated committee gathering six major European manufacturers of ventilation ducts and fittings. The development of the programme also involved consultation of European testing laboratories. The resulting requirements and rules defined for the DUCT programme rely on Ventilation ductwork system (typical setup) testing and production sites auditing.
The scope of the programme covers rigid and semi-rigid ventilation ductwork systems divided into the following sub-programmes:
- Rigid metallic ductwork systems with circular cross-section (DUCT-MC);
- Rigid metallic ductwork systems with rectangular cross-section (DUCT-MR);
- Semi-rigid non-metallic ductwork systems predominantly made of plastics (DUCT-P);
Among other verifications, the performance testing on typical set-ups enables to validate the airtightness class declared by the manufacturer. The production site auditing enables to verify the manufacturing process steadiness. These two verifications combined ensure that the air tightness class claimed by the manufacturer can indeed be reached in practice.
The first certification of ventilation ductwork systems was granted by Eurovent Certita Certification in December 2017 as a new step towards good airtightness levels in buildings, contributing to the pursuit of nearly zero-energy buildings and improving indoor air quality.


text:
Universal has released a milder green band trailer for Neighbors following last month’s red band version. Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne star in the film directed by Nick Stoller. Pic centers on a young couple (Rogen and Byrne) suffering from arrested development who are forced to live next to a fraternity house after the birth of their baby. Neighbors bows wide on May 9, 2014.
Hot Trailer: ‘Neighbors’
What's Hot on Deadline
Latest Film News
- ‘Furious 7′ Leads Pack, ‘Mall Cop 2′ Bags $22M+, ‘Unfriended’ Logs In With $16.5M
- ‘Married’s Kimiko Glenn Joins ‘Nerve'; Kino Lorber Acquires ‘Gueros’
- Sony Attorney David Boies Warns Media After WikiLeaks Hacked E-Mail Rehash
- Deadline Studio @ Tribeca Film Festival Day Two: Olivia Wilde, Dakota Fanning, Theo James And More


text:
Substances which the FDA regulates as food are subdivided into various categories, including foods, food additives, added substances (man-made substances which are not intentionally introduced into food, but nevertheless end up in it), and dietary supplements. The specific standards which the FDA exercises differ from one category to the next. Furthermore, the FDA has been granted a variety of means by which it can address violations of the standards for a given category of substances.
A better approach is to make a few small changes at a time. Keeping your goals modest can help you achieve more in the long term without feeling deprived or overwhelmed by a major diet overhaul. Think of planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps—like adding a salad to your diet once a day. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices.
Examples of ongoing government research organizations to better understand the potential health properties and safety of dietary supplements are the European Food Safety Authority, the Office of Dietary Supplements of the United States National Institutes of Health, the Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate of Canada, and the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia. Together with public and private research groups, these agencies construct databases on supplement properties, perform research on quality, safety, and population trends of supplement use, and evaluate the potential clinical efficacy of supplements for maintaining health or lowering disease risk.
Over the past decade, many studies have revealed the importance of the gut microbiome in disease development and treatment, including in cancer. Because both host genetics and the gut microbiome can influence host phenotype and treatment outcome, there is an urgent need to develop precision medicine and personalize dietary supplementation based on an individual’s microbiome.
d minerals to fiber and herbal remedies, these supplements are not regulated in the same way as either food or medicine. Some of them are backed by solid research, others are folk remedies or proprietary cures. If your diet does not include enough of certain vitamins or minerals, a supplement may be a good idea. Natural treatment for conditions like constipation may be effective. But because these substances are unregulated, it is always a good idea to educate yourself about the products and to use common sense when taking them. This is even more true if you are pregnant or taking a medicine that may be affected by supplements.
Among other things, you need calcium to build healthy bones and teeth, keep them strong as you age, regulate the heart’s rhythm, and ensure your nervous system functions properly. Calcium deficiency can lead to, or exacerbate, mood problems such as irritability, anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. If you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, your body will take calcium from your bones to ensure normal cell function, which can lead to weakened bones or osteoporosis. Women are at a greater risk than men of developing osteoporosis, so it’s important to get plenty of calcium, in combination with magnesium and vitamin D, to support your bone health.
In general, healthy eating ingredients are found around the outer edges of most grocery stores, while the center aisles are filled with processed and packaged foods that aren’t good for you. Shop the perimeter of the store for most of your groceries (fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, whole grain breads and dairy products), add a few things from the freezer section (frozen fruits and vegetables), and visit the aisles for spices, oils, and whole grains (like rolled oats, brown rice, whole wheat pasta).
Retinol (Vitamin A) B vitamins: Thiamine (B1) Riboflavin (B2) Niacin (B3) Pantothenic acid (B5) Pyridoxine (B6) Biotin (B7) Folic acid (B9) Cyanocobalamin (B12) Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) Ergocalciferol and Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D) Tocopherol (Vitamin E) Naphthoquinone (Vitamin K) Calcium Choline Chromium Cobalt Copper Fluorine Iodine Iron Magnesium Manganese Molybdenum Phosphorus Potassium Selenium Sodium Sulfur Zinc
Low-fat diets also can help you lose weight.16 But the amount of weight lost is usually small. You can lose weight and lower your risk for heart disease and stroke if you follow an overall healthy pattern of eating that includes more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans that are high in fiber, nuts, low-fat dairy and fish, in addition to staying away from trans fat and saturated fat.
Young adults. Teen girls and young women usually need more calories than when they were younger, to support their growing and developing bodies. After about age 25, a woman’s resting metabolism (the number of calories her body needs to sustain itself at rest) goes down. To maintain a healthy weight after age 25, women need to gradually reduce their calories and increase their physical activity.
The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that all women of childbearing age consume 400 mcg of folic acid (a B vitamin) daily to reduce their risk of having a pregnancy affected with spina bifida or other neural-tube defects. Women who are actively trying to get pregnant should consume 600 mcg, and lactating women should consumer 500 mcg. Women of childbearing age should also take care to meet the daily requirements for calcium, fiber, iron, protein and vitamin D. Discuss supplements with a health care professional, however. Iron and vitamin D in particular can be dangerous in high amounts.
Phytochemicals are compounds found in plants that may benefit human health. For example, carotenoids found in red, orange, yellow, and green plants (cooked tomatoes, carrots, squash, and broccoli) may inhibit cancer growth and cardiovascular disease, and boost the immune system. Flavonoids found in berries, apples, citrus, onions, soybeans, and coffee may fight inflammation and tumor growth. One can get a wide variety of phytochemicals by simply eating a varied diet that includes five to nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day. (Locked) More »
Vitamins are either water-soluble or fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water and pass through the body quickly, meaning that the body needs them on a regular basis. Water-soluble vitamins include the B-complex vitamins and vitamin C. Fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the body's fatty tissue, meaning that they remain in the body longer. Fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Nutritional supplements are exactly that, supplements to a healthy, nutritious diet. One should not take nutritional supplements in the hope that they will make up for a poor diet and lack of exercise, they will not! There are some nutritional supplements including some vitamins and minerals, as well as other nutrients/cofactors that one can use in conjunction with a healthy diet to promote optimal health. For example, to consume the amount of vitamin E that has been shown to protect the body against free radical damage, one would have to consume a very significant amount of fat calories as vitamin E is found in foods that are high in fat such as vegetable oils, nuts and seeds. it makes sense to take a supplement of vitamin E rather than consuming lots of fat. The same goes for vitamin D. It's very difficult to get vitamin D in your diet as it isn't found in many foods and studies show that most people do not get enough vitamin D.
Eat all the foods you enjoy—but the key is to do it in smaller quantities, says Elisa Zied, RDN, who has lost and kept off more than 30 pounds since her highest weight in high school. In fact, she says it's the number one change she made that's helped her maintain her smaller frame. "I didn't want to feel deprived as I had in previous attempts to lose weight," she says. The worst thing you can do is be too strict, then rebound by overeating because you're not satisfied.
^ Jump up to: a b c Schwingshackl, L; Boeing, H; Stelmach-Mardas, M; Gottschald, M; Dietrich, S; Hoffmann, G; Chaimani, A (2017). "Dietary Supplements and Risk of Cause-Specific Death, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Primary Prevention Trials". Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal. 8 (1): 27–39. doi:10.3945/an.116.013516. PMC 5227980. PMID 28096125.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) food pyramid system (www.mypyramid.gov) provides a good start by recommending that the bulk of your diet come from the grain group—this includes bread, cereal, rice and pasta— the vegetable group; and the fruit group. Select smaller amounts of foods from the milk group and the meat and beans group. Eat few—if any—foods that are high in fat and sugars and low in nutrients. The amount of food you should consume depends on your sex, age and level of activity.
Don’t fear the fats! Healthy fats provide the structural component to many cell membranes which are essential for cellular development and carrying various messages (hormones) through our body quickly. Protein is also responsible for hormone production, so it’s important for women to get foods that will provide you with healthy fats and protein. Women’s cycles can also deplete your body of B vitamins, iron, zinc, and magnesium so you should be aware of your whole food intake and possibly choose to supplement (see above for more if it’s right for you).
There’s a reason why many people eat as a way to cope with stress. Stress causes certain regions of the brain to release chemicals (specifically, opiates and neuropeptide Y). These chemicals can trigger mechanisms that are similar to the cravings you get from fat and sugar. In other words, when you get stressed, your brain feels the addictive call of fat and sugar and you’re pulled back to junk food.
Manufacturers must follow certain good manufacturing practices to ensure the identity, purity, strength, and composition of their products. If the FDA finds a product to be unsafe or otherwise unfit for human consumption, it may take enforcement action to remove the product from the marketplace or work with the manufacturer to voluntarily recall the product.
Although canola oil appears to be good for the cardiovascular system, two Harvard studies have raised concerns that ALA might be bad for the prostate. In 1993, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study of 47,781 men published a major evaluation of dietary fat and prostate cancer. It found that saturated fat from animal sources such as red meat and whole-fat dairy products was linked to a 2.6-fold increase in prostate cancer. But the study also provided some disquieting news about ALA: Men who consumed the most ALA were 3.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than those who had the lowest dietary intake.
For healthy bones and teeth, women need to eat a variety of calcium-rich foods every day. Calcium keeps bones strong and helps to reduce the risk for osteoporosis, a bone disease in which the bones become weak and break easily. Some calcium-rich foods include low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt and cheese, sardines, tofu (if made with calcium sulfate) and calcium-fortified foods including juices and cereals. Adequate amounts of vitamin D also are important, and the need for both calcium and vitamin D increases as women get older. Good sources of vitamin D include fatty fish, such as salmon, eggs and fortified foods and beverages, such as some yogurts and juices.
Good sources of iron include liver, kidneys, red meat, poultry, eggs, peas, legumes, dried fruits and dark, green leafy vegetables. Three ounces of cooked chicken liver contains 7.2 mg of iron; a cup of cooked spinach contains 6.4 mg. Your health care professional will probably recommend iron supplements during pregnancy (probably starting at 30 mg per day).
Fruit and vegetables are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. Focus on eating the recommended daily amount of at least five servings of fruit and vegetables and it will naturally fill you up and help you cut back on unhealthy foods. A serving is half a cup of raw fruit or veg or a small apple or banana, for example. Most of us need to double the amount we currently eat.
It's even more important for older people to stay hydrated. Age can bring a decreased sensitivity to thirst. Moreover, it's sometime harder for those who are feeble to get up and get something to drink. Or sometimes a problem with incontinence creates a hesitancy to drink enough. Those who are aging should make drinking water throughout the day a priority.
The graph illustrates the official view on nutrients, assuming that nutrients function in the same way as pharmaceuticals, which they do not. Supplements of most vitamins, but also minerals and other nutrients, do not have very serious side effects even when taken at very high levels - in contrast with most drugs. [3,4] The fact that most of the chemotherapeutic drugs used against cancer have none or even just marginal effects against most cancers , while at the same time cause a lot of serious side effects, is rarely up for discussion.
It's trendy to think "food should be fuel" or that food is something that helps you lose (or, ahem, gain) weight. But thinking only in terms of number on the scale takes away a huge part of what eating is about: pleasure. "If you think of eating as something enjoyable and something you do without guilt or without judging yourself, and you stay active, you're less likely to overeat, have a better diet, and maintain any weight loss for the long haul," says Zied. It's true: feeling guilty about your food choices can undermine weight loss—and even pack on the pounds—while a celebratory mindset gives you more control over your diet and can thwart weight gain, found a 2014 study in the journal Appetite.
USDA's food icon, MyPlate, serves as a quick visual reminder to all consumers to make healthy food choices when you choose your next meal, built off of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. MyPlate can help prioritize food choices by reminding us to make half of our plate fruits and vegetables and shows us the other important food groups for a well-balanced meal: whole grains, lean proteins, and low fat dairy.
The United States Food and Drug Administration, Office of Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations, monitors supplement products for accuracy in advertising and labeling, and when finding violations, warns manufacturers of impending enforcement action, including search and seizure, injunction, and/or financial penalties, such as for a Maine supplement company in 2017. The United States Federal Trade Commission, which litigates against deceptive advertising, established a consumer center to assist reports of false health claims in product advertising for dietary supplements, and, in 2017, successfully sued nine manufacturers for deceptive advertising of dietary supplements.

domain: food


The Attorney General’s Office is conducting oral history interviews with current and former AGO staff to preserve our office’s long history.
Click here to view our YouTube playlist containing every episode; or begin watching immediately by clicking the video below.
Before Washington became a state, the Washington Territory’s Legislature created the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in January 1887. The Legislature gave the Attorney General the responsibilities of representing the territory in front of the supreme and district courts, providing legal counsel to the officers of the territory, advising prosecutors, and furnishing legal opinions regarding the U.S. Constitution and the territory’s statutes. When Washington became a state in 1889, the state constitution codified the Attorney General’s Office as part of the executive branch.
Since the creation of the office, the Attorney General’s responsibilities have grown immensely. From humble beginnings as a small executive department with no full-time staff to its present size, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has grown to be one of the most powerful and important agencies in the state. The AGO is now the state’s largest law firm, encompassing 28 divisions with more than 1,800 employees, including nearly 800 attorneys charged with representing over 230 state agencies, boards, and commissions.
Three themes emerge from the AGO’s history: the office has steadily grown as attorneys general and the legislature have increased the AGO’s responsibilities; the AGO’s initiatives followed cultural trends and social changes in our state and in American history; and the office has become more involved in legal work aimed at preserving and improving public welfare for individual Washingtonians and communities.
Click on the expandable headers below to read more about the history of the office.
The Washington Territory had only one Attorney General: James Bard Metcalfe, a Confederate Civil War veteran and trial lawyer who lived in Seattle. On February 2, 1888, Territorial Governor Eugene Semple appointed Metcalfe to the office. Along with the duties laid out by the legislature, Metcalfe was also charged with preparing the Washington Territory for statehood, including helping to draft the 1889 State Constitution. After Washington achieved statehood, Metcalfe remained in the office until the first elected Attorney General, William C. Jones, was sworn in.
When the Washington Territory became the 42nd state in the Union, the Attorney General’s Office was one of the offices included in Article III of the state constitution, creating the executive branch. Article III, Section 21 says, “The attorney general shall be the legal adviser of the state officers, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law.” Like the governor and other executive officials, the attorney general became an elected official with a term of four years.
Because the language in the state constitution limited the Attorney General’s powers, the office remained a small executive department for much of its early history. For its first two decades, there was routinely only one full-time attorney in the office, the Attorney General himself. Before Walter Bell held the office from 1909 to 1911, Assistant Attorneys General worked part-time in the AGO and part-time in private practice. Bell made Assistant Attorney General a full-time job and required his small number of assistants to move to Olympia.
Additionally, state agencies and officials regularly employed outside counsel rather than relying on the Attorney General. The most significant effect of this was confusion among state agencies because they relied on different lawyers with different interpretations of the laws, so there was no single interpretation under which all state agencies acted. They often worked at cross purposes, which sometimes prevented cooperation between the agencies.
However, the first attorneys general of Washington State did play important roles in representing the state’s interests. William C. Jones argued four cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, including litigation against the powerful Northern Pacific Railroad. When Jones prevailed in three of those cases, he helped establish the state’s authority to regulate water and land use. Wickliffe Stratton, Washington’s third Attorney General, defended the state’s prerogative to collect taxes. When the legislature created the state Railroad Commission in 1905, John Atkinson represented the commission. He also litigated cases concerning public land grants and public schools. William V. Tanner, Attorney General from 1911 to 1919, argued fifteen cases in front of the Supreme Court, most notably securing the right of the state to collect premiums due under the Washington State Worker’s Compensation Act. And John Dunbar, Attorney General from 1923 to 1933, litigated several cases concerning interstate commerce, public transportation, and public utilities.
As the years went by, the legislature established new powers of regulation and taxation for the state, and the role of the Attorney General’s Office grew. Tasked with defending new regulatory commissions, boards, and departments, the AGO increased its staff to keep up with the amount of litigation.
The steady growth of the state government parallels cultural and political developments near the turn of the twentieth century. As Washington’s population grew—doubling four times between 1880 and 1920 from 75,000 to 1.3 million—and as industries developed largely unchecked in the region, rural residents and city dwellers alike often demanded government action to protect Washingtonians. The railroads, which controlled prices for passengers and for haulage of agricultural goods, were a particular target for regulation. Each attorney general from Metcalfe onward had to reckon with the way Washingtonians were affected by the rapidly changing economy and political structure. As the state government created new regulatory and taxation plans, the subsequent litigation was, in large part, handled by the small Attorney General’s Office.
Other cultural factors also drove the AGO’s agenda. At the turn of the twentieth century, common fears of immigrants and radical activists were codified by the Washington legislature, and several attorneys general took active roles in enforcing these laws. For example, in 1902, a Japanese immigrant named Takuji Yamashita was denied admission to the Washington State Bar Association because he wasn’t a white American citizen, and the AGO defended the WSBA. When people of Japanese ancestry were captured and imprisoned during the Second World War, Attorney General Smith Troy testified to Congress and filed briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of internment. In another case, when radical labor unions like the Industrial Workers of the World became active in Washington, pervasive fears of anarchists and communists drove Attorney General L. L. Thompson to pursue stiff sentences against union organizers and activists. These prevailing trends in American history influenced the organization and composition of Washington’s politics.
In 1933, Garrison Hamilton was elected Attorney General, the first Democrat to hold the office since Metcalfe. The Great Depression and the ensuing political reaction had swept many Democrats into office. Washington’s Legislature passed several bills that were complementary to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. As the local and state governments attempted to address the effects of the Depression, the AGO was drawn into further litigation. Attorney General Hamilton’s office assumed the responsibility of defending a growing number of client agencies as the government expanded to address the public welfare crisis. As part of this growth, and as a reflection of the increased role women played in public life, Hamilton hired the first two female Assistant Attorneys General in Washington’s history: Dorothee Scarbrough Wolfe in 1933 and June Fowles in 1939.
The most significant change to the AGO came in 1941 when, at Attorney General Smith Troy’s urging, the legislature passed the Monopoly Statute, RCW 43.10.067. The Monopoly Statute mandates that state agencies can only be represented by the Attorney General’s Office. This change in law remedied the confusion caused by the use of outside counsel and ensured that all state agencies were functioning in accordance with a centralized and unified interpretation of Washington’s laws.
Further developments in the legislature also prompted the creation of new divisions within the AGO. The 1951 estate sales tax led to the creation of the Revenue Division. The expansion of the federal interstate highway system in 1956 fueled the development of Washington State’s highways, prompting the creation of the Highways Division. Then in 1961, two significant changes dramatically increased the size of the office. First, the passage of the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Act, at the urging of Attorney General John O’Connell, led to a new role for the AGO in protecting Washington consumers. Secondly, the State Tort Claims Act waived Washington’s sovereign immunity against citizen tort actions, and the AGO became responsible for defending the state in tort cases. A de facto Torts Unit formed within the Highways Division before becoming its own division later on.
The AGO doubled in size during Attorney General Slade Gorton’s tenure, largely as a result of new expectations for the role of government. As the state government established new departments or expanded the roles of existing departments, the AGO responded in kind. In 1978, the AGO became responsible for representing the Department of Social and Health Services in juvenile courts in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Spokane counties on termination and dependency cases, leading to the development of regional staff offices throughout the state. In 1970, as part of the modern environmental movement, Attorney General Gorton created the Ecology Division.
The growth of the AGO in the second half of the twentieth century shows how shifting attitudes towards the government’s role in daily life influenced policymaking. As more Americans—and by extension, Washingtonians—expected the government to intervene on their behalf—in consumer protection, environmental protection, or a litany of other issues—the legislature and the AGO responded by increasing the size of the office to meet these demands. Many of the divisions created during this period reflect an evolving role for the AGO in which the Attorney General acts alongside state agencies that work to improve public welfare: Consumer Protection, ecology (Ecology; Fish, Wildlife, & Parks; and Natural Resources), Criminal Justice, Public Counsel, Agriculture and Health, Antitrust, and Social and Health Services are some examples.
Christine Gregoire was elected Washington’s Attorney General in 1992, the first woman to hold the office in Washington State. As the twentieth century came to a close, the AGO continued to advance with the predominant social changes in the United States, and Gregoire’s election is one example of those shifts. Under her direction, the AGO pursued internet fraud litigation to protect consumers in the digital age. She also created the Solicitor General’s Office to handle the appellate work of the AGO, including arguing at the Supreme Court, and issuing the Attorney General’s Opinions. Attorney General Gregoire also played a key role in negotiating the multistate settlement reached with the tobacco industry, forcing the tobacco companies to pay $206 billion to states through 2025, reflecting the AGO’s role in both public health and consumer protection.
After Attorney General Gregoire’s three terms (when she went on to be Governor of Washington State), Rob McKenna was elected Attorney General. In 2012, towards the end of the Great Recession, McKenna helped attain the country’s largest ever consumer financial protection settlement, $25 billion in mortgage relief from the country’s five biggest banks, including $648 million for struggling Washington homeowners.
In 2012, Bob Ferguson was elected Washington’s eighteenth Attorney General. Ferguson has vigorously pursued civil rights issues, and in 2015 he formed the Wing Luke Civil Rights Unit (now the Wing Luke Civil Rights Division) within the AGO. Ferguson filed friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of same-sex marriage rights in Hollingsworth v. Perry, United States v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges. Perhaps most notably, Ferguson has taken strong stances against the Trump Administration, and by opposing several of the president’s controversial policies, Ferguson has begun to form his own historical legacy.
Continue to "Washington Attorney's General - Past and Present"


text: Under an EU regulation farmers were to be paid a premium for slaughtered cows so as to reduce milk surpluses created by subsidies. The Italian government failed to pay a farmer within the required time limit and the case went to the ECJ on matters of the direct applicability of EC regulations into Italian law and thus whether they created rights available to individuals before the Italian courts. It was also contended by the Italian treasury that the member state could modify the regulations by means of delaying payment. The ECJ found in favour of the farmer, saying that (1) regulations create rights upon which individuals may bring actions before national courts. (2) National governments cannot modify regulations e.g. by time restraints, additional charges etc. (3) member states cannot invoke laws that contradict or alter EC regulations.


text:
By World Bank
Read or Download Educational Publishing in Global Perspective: Capacity Building and Trends PDF
Similar reform & policy books
Behaviour is still a big factor of shock in any respect degrees of schooling. This booklet attracts jointly study and perform to discover the complexities of enhancing behaviour and attendance at school and gives a variety of sensible strategies geared toward tackling behavioural matters and its prevention for colleges, academics, non-teaching employees, and people operating to help them in neighborhood specialists.
The Order of studying considers the issues dealing with greater schooling through targeting major underlying components: the connection of upper schooling to govt, educational freedom, and the tasks of the educational occupation, between others. Edward Shils argues that better schooling has a important position in society, and that distractions, akin to pressures from govt, disinterest of scholars and college in schooling, and involvement of associations of upper studying in social questions, have broken greater schooling by way of deflecting it from its dedication to instructing, studying, and study.
This e-book is a comparative research of academic guidelines over the last twenty years in Latin the United States. those rules, enacted via constitutional reforms, sought to guard the perfect of Indigenous peoples to a culturally inclusive schooling. The e-book assesses the impression of those guidelines on academic perform and the on-going demanding situations that international locations nonetheless face in offering an equitable and culturally responsive schooling to Indigenous young ones and formative years.
Additional resources for Educational Publishing in Global Perspective: Capacity Building and Trends
By comparing different approaches, funding agencies can refine their procedures and adopt new strategies for making relevant books available on a more equitable basis. NGOs, such as the Associates in Research and Education for Development in Senegal, have made an innovative contribution by publishing materials in national languages from which other organizations can learn. ADEA also brings together ministries involved in book development and the publishing industry. The July 1996 Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Indaba, represented a breakthrough in terms of opening up the dialogue between Ministries of Education and Culture of various countries and educational publishers, so that the need to plan viable and sustainable book policies could be emphasized.
Publishing means to make public. The state of the publishing industry, it has often been said, is a good measure of a country's development. While the importance of a free press is well understood, the equally significant role of the publishing industry is frequently underestimated. Publishing is a high-risk entrepreneurial activity that requires private sector investment by a few but yields benefits to society as a whole. Prerequisites and Components of a National Book Policy The most important prerequisite for a national book policy is considered to be political will, which should be accompanied by the allocation of sufficient resources for the implementation of the individual measures that form part of a National Book Policy.
Although the intent was to encompass all regions of the world, discussions centered predominantly on publishing in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. These regions have the beginnings of policy-driven state support for private publishing. Despite a reasonable degree of disagreement, the various players agreed that no central authority can claim to know all dimensions of the ''truth"; central government monopolies that have prescribed, published, and distributed educational materials have been largely inefficient and ineffective in attaining the objective of supporting education for all.
Educational Publishing in Global Perspective: Capacity Building and Trends by World Bank

domain: library


An alternative method of generating energy from biogas is reducing it to biomethane gas, and compressing it for use as motor fuel.
To produce biomethane, carbon dioxide and other impurities are removed from the biogas. The resulting gas has a substantially uniform composition comprising 96 - 98% CH4. Biomethane is similar to natural gas, especially by the proportion of methane content, which ranges from 95 to 98% of the total volume. Used as motor fuel, biomethane has a high calorific value of 50-55 MJ / kg and an octane number of 110, which exceeds those of petrol, which are respectively equal to 44 MJ / kg and 72-85.
Compared with oil-based motor fuel, biomethane has a higher detonation resistance, which allows internal combustion engines to reduce the concentration of harmful substances in the exhaust gases and reduce the amount of deposits in the engine. Due to the absence of the liquid phase, lubricating film is not needed for the engine cylinder, so wear and tear to piston assemblies is halved. As a result, the engine is more reliable and durable. Analysis of toxicity studies on natural gas-powered vehicles shows that the replacement of petrol with biomethane led to a fall in the release of toxic constituents (g / km) in the atmosphere: carbon monoxide by five to ten times, hydrocarbons by three times, nitrogen oxide by 1.5-2.5 times, PAH by ten times, and exhaust fumes by eight to ten times, depending on the type of vehicle.
It should be noted that a vehicle’s gas equipment when powered by liquefied biomethane is identical to the equipment required for running on liquefied natural gas. This enables the speedy production of integrated infrastructure and alternative motor fuels – both liquefied natural gas and liquefied biomethane.


text:
BDS activists sticker Jaffa oranges. Credit: socialtextjournal.org.
Mark Twain once wrote: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” He was right. In the 1980s the Conservatives attempted to neuter local authorities, and recently they tried again.
In 1988 Margaret Thatcher introduced the Local Government Act which, as well as being deeply homophobic (section 28 prohibited councils from “promoting homosexuality”—and was only repealed in 2003), also banned town halls from factoring in political criteria when deciding who to award contracts to. It was a law designed to prevent councils from flexing their economic muscles for non-economic ends. It was, in other words, an anti-boycott law.
Last month the Conservatives tried again. Brushing aside their professed love of localism, they issued new guidelines pertaining to what councils are allowed to take into consideration when choosing who to do business with. The main thrust? Councils are prohibited from taking part in what the government describes as ‘inappropriate’ procurement boycotts, i.e. sanctions or embargoes disapproved of by Whitehall. Anyone found to be in breach of these regulations could, in theory, be subject to ‘severe penalties’.
Both laws were effectively designed to defend a controversial friend on the international stage.
Mrs Thatcher’s attack on councils was a reaction to local authority participation in the then growing campaign of boycotts against a British ally—apartheid South Africa. The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) had been making inroads into town halls, many of which enthusiastically took up the struggle against the racist regime by refusing to do business with it. This was embarrassing for the prime minister and so she attempted to put a stop to it.
In a comparable manner, the current clamp-down on the ability of councils to use their economic power in support of choice causes is a reaction to the growing pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a non-violent campaign consciously modelled on the AAM. As in many policy areas, David Cameron is following the Iron Lady’s career closely.
What is the background to BDS and the Government’s panicked reaction to it? Israel has been occupying the Palestinian West Bank for the last 49 years. Certain powers have been delegated to the Palestinian Authority (PA), but Tel Aviv is the only serious player in the territory, and Palestinians have to sit and watch as Israeli settlements eat into what remains of their land. The Jewish state also occupied Gaza until 2005; it is now strangling the densely populated area in an attempt to overthrow the Islamist group Hamas, which took control in 2007.
Despite most of the world recognising the Palestinian’s right to self-determination, there has been little pressure on Tel Aviv to fulfil its obligations under international law. So, in 2005, Palestinian civil society decided to remedy this. They called for a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel to pressure it into ending the illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian land. And just as they did in the 1960s, 70s and 80s for the AAM, many UK councils have answered the call.
In 2014 Leicester City Council passed a policy to boycott goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Other councils, such as Gwynedd County Council, Swansea City Council, and Birmingham have made similar moves. More significantly, perhaps, the Scottish government has published a procurement notice to councils north of the border which ‘strongly discourages trade and investment from illegal settlements’.
The new regulations are designed to put a stop to this.
What are the arguments the Conservatives offer to justify their position? Firstly, they say, boycotts violate EU procurement directives and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)—an international market access agreement. In other words, they go against our free trade obligations.
According to the new guidelines, a local authority is able to “take account of wider matters in the procurement process, such as social and environmental factors”, but all suppliers must be “treated equally and without discrimination.” Boycotting Israel would be, according to this reasoning, a form of trade discrimination.
Mark Twain would, no doubt, smile wryly at this argument. One of the reasons Margaret Thatcher opposed the AAM’s boycott of South Africa was her commitment to free trade. For her, boycotts were a crime against economic liberalism. She also believed that, in the long run, free trade would develop South Africa to the benefit of all its people—regardless of skin colour.
This is, frankly, a bizarre argument. How black South Africans were supposed to take advantage of liberalised markets when they were politically discriminated against is unclear; the argument that a rising tide lifts all boats doesn't wash when some of the vessels are firmly chained to the seabed.
The reasoning offered by today’s Conservatives is similarly pernicious. It privileges the economic rights of Israelis over the human rights of Palestinians. Yes, we have obligations under trade agreements, but we also have moral and legal obligations to challenge an illegal occupation. If Whitehall isn’t interested in doing this, then they certainly shouldn’t prevent local authorities from doing their part.
But, of course, the underlying reasons for banning boycotts are more than just economic ideology; its about geopolitics as well. Local authority boycotts of Israel, according to the government, are a menace to the UK. As cabinet office minister Matthew Hancock put it, the new regulations “will help prevent damaging and counter-productive local foreign policies undermining our national security.” The Government appears to be suggesting that the interests of the UK and Israel, where national security is concerned, are identical; and that to oppose an illegal occupation in the Middle East is tantamount to putting British citizens at risk.
This is nonsense. Underpinning this is a mindset which conflates a wide variety of actors in the Islamic world. The assumption is that there is little dividing groups such as Hamas, ISIS, al-Qaeda etc, and that Israel is on the frontline of a wider ‘clash of civilisations’. What is good for the Palestinians, so the logic goes, is good for, say, ISIS; and what is good for Israel is good for us.
This reduces a complex conflict to a zero-sum game and betrays a remarkably simplistic approach to foreign policy. Fortunately, many local governments refuse to buy into this black and white view of the world.
The final argument put forward by the Government is that BDS undermines good community relations and is, effectively, anti-Semitic. At the core of this accusation is the question: why Israel? The world is full of human rights abusers, authoritarian regimes, and totalitarian movements—why pick on the world’s only Jewish state? It's a fair question. Israel is far from being the most egregious offender of human rights and yet many UK councils have chosen to boycott it.
The first answer to this is simple: BDS was started by Palestinians and only Israel is occupying their land; if China was settling the West Bank, then BDS would target China. But this doesn't answer the deeper question of why this tiny conflict on the eastern Mediterranean resonates so much with people who have no direct connection to it.
It is, I think, partly because of the relationship between this specific piece of territory and the formation of the major monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is integral to all three and so it has gained a prominence which has little relation to its small size.
More significantly, though, it is because the Israel/Palestine conflict is, in a sense, an anachronism. Zionism—Jewish nationalism—was the movement of self-determination for the Jewish people. However, it could only be realised through the colonisation of territory that was (largely) populated by non-Jews. Furthermore, this could only happen with the help of the British empire which occupied huge swaths of the Middle East in the aftermath of the First World War.
While this process meant liberation for one group (Jews) it spelt dispossession for another (Palestinian Arabs). It forever associated Zionism with white-settler colonialism, comparable to such cases as French Algeria, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and, of course, apartheid South Africa. There are many differences between these historical cases but, as Twain would say, they rhyme.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century the regimes that resulted from white settler colonialism ended (at least those where there was organised and sustained opposition). Only Israel’s occupation and settling of the West Bank remains.
Of course there are many evils in the world—white settler colonialism is only one of them. But the modern multicultural zeitgeist sees this one as particularly unacceptable. The modern obsession with Israel and the Palestinians is not because local authorities are becoming increasingly anti-Semitic; it is because they are more conscious of the deplorable nature and history of European colonialism. If you doubt this, then try the following thought experiment: would the world’s reaction to the Israel/Palestine conflict be much different if Israel were a white, Christian state? I doubt it.
Reflecting on his party’s past support for apartheid South Africa, David Cameron wrote in a 2006 article for the Observer: “The mistakes my party made in the past with respect to relations with the ANC and sanctions on South Africa make it all the more important to listen now.”
The Conservatives' recent attempts to undermine the ability of local authorities to challenge colonialism suggest they are making the same mistakes all over again.
This article was originally published on www.localgov.co.uk.
Get our weekly email