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LIES AND LAWLESSNESS: Does gun ownership lead to more homicides, suicides and accidental deaths? Is rape rampant on campus? The media certainly says so. John Lott weighs in.
The altered image above is from a new Mother Jones’ article, which was written to try discrediting John Lott and the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Mother Jones is willing to do anything to push for gun control. The magazine is very left-leaning and is funded by individuals such as George Soros. Even academics such as James Alan Fox, who supports gun control, have taken Mother Jones to task for its misleading use of data on guns.
For several years, Mother Jones and John Lott have been having a running feud. Unable to win the battle of facts, Mother Jones this week tried hitting back in a more personal way.
Julia Lurie, the reporter Mother Jones assigned to do a story on Lott, somehow managed to ask him about 50 specific questions and still write on many issues that she had not asked him about, and when she did ask about points she wrote on she ignored Lott’s responses. Her piece was filled with simple factual errors. Even a brief look in Lott’s book More Guns, Less Crime or in his original research paper with David Mustard would have prevented them.
Lurie somehow couldn’t manage to talk to any researchers who have found results similar to Lott’s, and she couldn’t even mention what most of the peer reviewed studies have found.
Mother Jones claims that the Crime Prevention Research Center’s work isn’t “academic quality.” According to the article, Professor Gary Kleck said that he doesn’t know of any “credible criminologist” who believes that “with more guns there are less crimes.” “Garbage in and garbage out” is how Kleck reportedly described Lott’s work. Lurie also cites The National Research Council, claiming that the organization declared there to be “no credible evidence” that right-to-carry laws affect violent crime. The attacks are misleading and out of context.
Take Lurie’s points in order.
1) “The National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, assembled a panel to look into the impact of concealed-carry laws; 15 of 16 panel members concluded that the existing research, including Lott’s, provided “no credible evidence” that right-to-carry laws had any effect on violent crime.”
The National Research Council report actually concluded as follows: “The committee concludes that with the current evidence it is not possible to determine that there is a causal link between the passage of right-to-carry laws and crime rates.” Lurie somehow manages not to mention that despite evaluating every possible gun law, the Council found no evidence that any law had any impact. The Council was noncommittal about every policy. The panel standard response was simply advocating that more money be available to academics to fund additional research.
In fact, right-to-carry laws were actually the only type of law where there was dissent. James Q. Wilson, who at the time was possibly “the most influential criminal justice scholar of the 20th century,” concluded: “I find that the evidence presented by Lott and his supporters suggests that [right-to-carry] laws do in fact help drive down the murder rate.”
2) “that Lott had drawn inaccurate correlations: Cities had experienced a spike in crime in the 80’s and 90’s in part because of the crack epidemic, not because of strict gun laws.”
But from the very start, Lott’s research has addressed the crack cocaine issue. As Florenz Plassmann and John Whitley (Stanford Law Review, 2003) summarize the research at that point:
“One of Ayres and Donohue’s greatest concerns is the apparent failure of previous research to account for the differential geographic impact of cocaine on crime. Lott’s book (and the Lott and Mustard paper) reported that including price data for cocaine did not alter the results. Using yearly county-level pricing data (as opposed to short-run changes in prices) has the advantage of picking up cost but not demand differences between counties, thus measuring the differences in availability across counties. Research conducted by Steve Bronars and John Lott examined the crime rates for neighboring counties . . . on either side of a state border. When the counties adopting the law experienced a drop in violent crime, neighboring counties directly on the other side of the border without right-to-carry laws experienced an increase. . . . Ayres and Donohue argue that different parts of the country may have experienced differential impacts from the crack epidemic. Yet, if there are two urban counties next to each other, how can the crack cocaine hypothesis explain why one urban county faces a crime increase from drugs, when the neighbor- ing urban county is experiencing a drop? Such isolation would be particularly surprising as criminals can easily move between these counties. . . . Even though Lott gave Ayres and Donohue the cocaine price data from 1977 to 1992, they have never reported using it.”
Critics such as Ayres and Donohue claim that the results can be explained away by the impact of crack cocaine, but they haven’t done any concrete analysis to show this.
While Ms. Lurie didn’t ask Lott directly about this issues, even a quick look in the appendix of More Guns, Less crime would have show this claim that crack cocaine was ignored was false.
3) “When [Ayres and Donohue] extended their survey by five years, they found that more guns were linked to more crime, with right-to-carry states showing an eight percent increase in aggravated assault.”
This is a simple counting error. Ayres and Donohue made the false claim, and Lurie never bothered to confirm it. The Second edition of More Guns, Less Crime (2000) uses data from 1977 to 1996. The 2003 paper by Ayres and Donohue uses data from 1977 to 1997. John Lott provided Ayres and Donohue with his data from 1977 to 1996. Adding the data for one year, 1997, did not make a notable difference. Ayres and Donohue obtained somewhat different results because they used a different specification and ended up misinterpreting their results.
Even the first edition of More Guns, Less Crime (1998) had some estimates with data up through 1994, and thus even compared to that edition, Ayres and Donohue only added three years of data.
Again, either a fast look at either the first, second, or third editions of More Guns, Less Crime would have let Lurie realize that this claim was incorrect.
4) Claim by Gary Kleck that John Lott hadn’t “accounted for missing data,” and that “It was garbage in and garbage out,” The problem is simple: in some counties not have all the cities in those counties reporting crime rate data every year. This causes some randomness in the number of crimes reported for those counties. The problem used to be particularly prevalent in low-population counties, but it has improved considerably over time.
Take Georgia, a state whose data was singled out as particularly flawed due to this problem.. From 1980 to 1993, 16 of Georgia’s least-populous counties (out of 159 total counties) received crime reports from only 65% of police departments. By contrast, the 127 most populous counties (with 97.2% of the total population) averaged an non-reporting rate of 5.6%. In his regressions, Lott weighted county data according to population. Therefore, the counties with the most significant problems had little effect on the results.
All data contain some errors. The question is whether those errors are random or whether they systematically bias the results. This data error has been accounted for in many different ways.
— In their original paper, Lott and Mustard first looked at all counties. They then narrowed their scope – first to counties with more than 50,000 people, and then to those with more than 100,000 people. The results stayed much the same, showing that the low-population counties with these errors were not creating a bias in favor of right-to-carry laws.
— The Second edition of More Guns, Less Crime studied city, county and state level data. Even if that particular error existed for county level data, it did not exist for city or state level data. And, again, the results were similar.
— A 2002 paper with John Whitley explicitly examines errors in the county level data and finds no evidence of any systematic biases. This was published in 2003 in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
All of this information was provided to Lurie.
5) “Kleck, who conducted a controversial, yet often-cited survey on defensive gun use, observes, “Do I know anybody who specifically believes with more guns there are less crimes and they’re a credible criminologist? No.”
So, does Gary Kleck not believe that James Q. Wilson was a credible criminologist? Gary Mauser just completed a survey of researchers who have published on firearms issues in refereed criminology journals between 2000 and 2014. Mauser found that 31% of these scholars thought that right-to-carry laws lowered murder rates. Fifteen percent said that these laws increased murder rates, 46% said that the laws had no effect, and 5.1% said that they didn’t know. Clearly, a very significant proportion of criminologists believe the more guns, less crime hypothesis.
6) What John Lott actually claimed about the views of economists and criminologists was that the vast majority of published peer-reviewed papers looking at the impact that right-to-carry laws had on US crime rate found that they reduced violent crime rates and the rest of the papers claimed that there was no effect for murder, rape and robbery (see also here).
7) “The organization . . . proceeds and publishes ‘academic quality’ reports that have yet to be published in peer-reviewed journals.”
To put things in perspective, John Lott has published over 100 peer-reviewed academic journal articles. The CPRC was only started in October 2013, and it takes time to produce research. It takes even more time for the peer-review process to conclude. Nevertheless, we supported research published last year in the paper “The Impact of Right-to-carry laws on Crime: an Exercise in Replication” (Review of Economics and Finance, Carlisle Moody, Thomas Marvell, Paul Zimmerman, and Fasil Alemante). The CPRC co-authored a paper that was published in the peer-reviewed Public Choice. In addition, as Lurie was informed, one paper by the CPRC has been revised and resubmitted to a journal. Another paper, showing errors in a recent FBI report on active shooters, was published in Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Today.
The CPRC’s academic advisory board members are at the top of their fields and are affiliated with the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Wharton Business School.
8) “one of the small number of very pro-gun researchers like Gary Kleck or John Lott”
This statement makes two mistakes. First, most economists who have published research on firearms in peer-reviewed journals believe that there is a net safety benefit from people carrying guns. For example, worldwide 83% of economists who have published on this topic believe that guns are more likely to be used in self-defense than to be used in crime and 74% believe that concealed handgun laws lower the murder rate. As noted earlier, those who publish in criminology journals are more divided on the issue, and they are thus do not take monolithic position that the article describes for researchers.
It is strange that Kleck is labeled “pro-gun” in the same article where he is quoted as saying: “Do I know anybody who specifically believes with more guns there are less crimes and they’re a credible criminologist? No.” Kleck believes guns have no net effect on crime rates, and thus he doesn’t thinks that it matters whether guns are banned or licensed or regulated in some other way. Gary Kleck and John Lott clearly have very different views on guns, and it is surprising that the articles lumps the two of us together.
8) “Lott claimed that it was based on a data from a survey he had conducted—but that the data had been lost in a computer crash.”
The hard disk crash was widely documented by people at the time it occurred on July 3, 1997. The crash destroyed data for all the papers that Lott was working on up to that point. A number of co-authors who he was working with also lost data for papers that they had been working on together (Larry Kenny at Florida State, Richard Manning who was then at BYU, Jonathan Karpoff at the University of Washington, David Mustard at University of Georgia) and others who had contemporaneous knowledge of the crash (including Geoffrey Huck, an editor at the University of Chicago Press; Dan Kahan at Yale; and John Whitley who was at the time at the University of Adelaide in Australia).
9) Mother Jones botched the timeline and seems unable to accurately report the numbers of a 2002 follow-up survey that confirmed the results of the 1997 survey. The 2002 survey sought to determine if there had been any changes in the rate of defensive gun use since 1997. When controversy erupted and the earlier results were questioned, the follow-up survey served as a way showing that the 1997 results had been replicated. The survey was designed differently than other surveys. It asked people only about crimes in the past year rather than about events that had occurred over the past decade or more. The survey had started being prepared in June 2002 by research assistant James Knowles. This is well before controversy arose over the first survey at the very end of 2002.
10) “Rosh and Lott shared an internet address.” This is simply false. Lott had a dynamic IP address. In a blog post, Julian Sanchez noted that “maryrosh” had an IP address in southeastern Pennsylvania He asked for help from anyone who might know who the person was. After seeing the blog post, Lott emailed Sanchez and admitted to using his kids’ email address in putting posts up on an internet chatroom. Lott had originally used his own email address in the chatroom postings. Unfortunately, some individuals continued the discussions outside the chatroom in unpleasant ways, and Lott found it more convenient to use a pseudonym. Since the vast majority of chatroom participants were using pseudonyms, it seemed appropriate to follow that example.
11) The Mother Jones story originally made fun of the fact that Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is on the Crime Prevention Research Center’s Board of Directors (the article has since been modified). We are very proud of our relationship with David Clarke and believe that he brings an important real-work perspective to the Center. They also fail to note that Professor Edgar Browning, who is also on our board, has been one of the top public finance economists in the world.
This article by Mother Jones is part of pattern of similar attacks. For a decade Media Matters attacked John Lott in over a 110 posts, and they were so unwilling to discuss the claims that they made that they would systematically remove any responses that were attempted to be posted in their comment section. More recently a new group named “Armed with Reason,” which has connections to Bloomberg’s gun control groups, rehashed old comments, but completely ignored the academic responses that Lott had already published. A more productive approach would have been to explain why Lott’s responses were wrong.
John Lott’s newest piece in the Tribune-Review starts this way:
Anytime, anyplace, terrorists can strike. With just his signature, President Obama could eliminate the gun-free zone policies that leave our military personnel defenseless. Late last week, Republicans in the Pennsylvania Legislature called on Gov. Tom Wolf to exercise the same authority for the state National Guard.
Uniformed guards may help prevent mass shootings, but they aren’t really a good solution. It’s prohibitively costly to constantly guard all possible targets. And uniformed guards make for tempting first targets.
The FBI is monitoring potential threats in all 50 states, but it is stretched thin. It is hardly surprising that the Chattanooga killer, who left five people dead, wasn’t on the FBI radar.
Interpol Secretary General Ron Noble noted two means of protecting people from mass shootings. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry … . Another is to say the enclaves (should be) so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”
Warning how difficult it is to completely secure areas, he added that, “You can’t have armed police forces everywhere.” Referring to a terrorist attack in the Kenyan city of Nairobi, where people are banned from carrying guns, Noble asked: “If that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly? What I’m saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control.”
Mass public killers understand this. They talk about finding easy targets. . . .
The rest of the piece is available here.
John Lott talked to George Noory about the case from 1:08 to 1:11 AM on Tuesday, July 28, 2015.
John Lott’s latest piece at Fox News starts this way:
In an interview with the BBC, he complained that we are “the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws.”
For a president who is moving to take away guns from millions of veterans and the elderlysimply because they rely on others to handle their finances, some say Obama has already gone too far.
Obama offers no explanation for why the worst mass shooting during his presidency occurred in Europe, not in the US. Nor did he explain why many European countries have a higher frequency of attacks and a higher death rate from mass public shootings.
Not once during his interview with the BBC does he explain how his gun control proposals would have stopped any of the attacks he has spoken so passionately about.
The expanded background checks Obama has advocated wouldn’t have stopped a single one of the attacks that occurred during his presidency. . . .
The rest of the piece is continued here.
John Lott’s piece at Laura Ingraham’s new site LifeZette starts this way:
President Obama wants to take away people’s guns. Last week, he lamented to the BBC that his biggest frustration as president was not getting major gun control passed during his presidency.
How much does he dislike Americans having guns? He obviously doesn’t even trust soldiers with them, even on a limited basis. Despite repeated attacks against our military, both on and off bases, no one expects Obama to let our military carry guns.
But with only 18 months left in office and a Republican-controlled Congress, Obama is unlikely to be able to push through a new gun control law. Still, his legacy on gun ownership will be long-lasting. He has appointed about half the federal judges in the country and implemented many new regulations.
Obama’s regulations have already targeted military veterans and Social Security retirees. For both groups, he wants individuals who rely on others to handle their finances to be classified as “mentally defective,” and thus unable to own a gun.
If Social Security were to start classifying these people as “mentally defective,” some 4.2 million Social Security recipients could be affected — which equals about 10 percent of all people 65 and older. . . .
The rest of the piece is available here.
Breitbart.com covered the points in our op-ed.
Thomas McCary (Hamilton County sheriff’s office)
Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Ohio originally reported this story from Winton Hills, Ohio. Fox News has this:
[Thomas] McCary [62-years-old] was arguing with a woman around 8 p.m. Sunday night and, when the woman’s brother, Patrick Ewing, approached, McCary pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and fired three shots at him, Cincinnati police said.
Ewing didn’t get hit, but he did get his own gun and returned fire, wounding McCary in the leg. Ewing had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Injured, McCary went into his house to get a second gun and, holding a weapon in each hand, he fired three shots in the direction of the woman, Jeaneta Walker, her 1-year-old son and a third man.
Ewing fired at McCary again to try to distract him as the victims fled indoors. McCary squeezed off a few more rounds, hitting no one, before withdrawing into his apartment, Cincinnati.com reported. . . .
Fortunately, because of Patrick Ewing’s quick actions, no one was seriously injured.
Click on screen shots to enlarge.
Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post has another article on guns. Unfortunately, Ingraham explicitly ignores the FBI’s definition on mass shootings. The cases he ends up with involve very few murders and are heavily biased to include gang and other criminal activity. Curbing gang violence is important, and it could be done pretty simply: stop enforcing the laws or legalize drugs. Absent legalization or demand disappearing, drug gangs will still fight to control turf. Whether drugs should legalized is another topic. The point here is simply to blame drug gang fights on gun laws is wrong. Just as drug gangs can get a hold of illegal guns, they can get a hold of the weapons that they use to protect that valuable property. The key is that the causes and solutions to drug gang violence are dramatically different than for the vast majority of mass public shootings, where attacks are designed to kill or wound as many people as possible. Padding the numbers by lumping the two together doesn’t make much sense.
After 2012, mass killings were defined by statute by the federal government as “three or more killed in a single incident.” The definition used to be four or more killed. Ingraham’s examples surely invoke not just “mass shootings,” but “mass public shootings,” as he notes: “From Columbine to Charleston, here’s a look at some of the most notable U.S. mass shootings” or “Nine dead in shooting at black church in Charleston. Four marines, one sailor killed in attacks on Chattanooga military facilities. Gunman opens fire on Louisiana movie theater.” Thus while Ingraham’s discussion largely focuses on traditional mass public shootings, he never honestly tells readers that these “mass public shooting” cases are a very, very tiny selection of the cases that he points to.
The source that Ingraham points to hides this simple fact. Virtually none of the links that he points to mention anything about gangs being involved in the crime. An analysis that focuses on non-gang fights and shows how little shootings with multiple murders over many years is available here.
There are a couple of other crucial parts to the FBI definition that Ingraham ignores. The FBI excludes “shootings that resulted from gang or drug violence” or are part of some other crime. The FBI also defines “public” places as “includ[ing] commercial areas (divided into malls, businesses open to pedestrian traffic, and businesses closed to pedestrian traffic), educational environments (divided into schools [pre-kindergarten through 12th grade] and IHEs), open spaces, government proper- ties (divided into military and other government properties), residences, houses of worship, and health care facilities.” (Comments on that particular FBI report, which itself has many errors, is available here.)
So what Ingraham is left with is a lot of shootings where people aren’t killed, criminal gangs are involved, and cases take place out of public view. But what if we focus on the cases that people are most concerned about, in the way the government defines them?
Going through the list of cases that Ingraham thinks should be counted, we found 17 public shootings where 2 or more people were killed, but 12 of those are gang or part of some other criminal act. Of the five non-gang cases that don’t involve some other criminal act, there were 21 deaths and 15 people wounded.
Nine of the 17 cases involve 3 or more people killed. Just 3 of those 9 where non-gang cases that don’t involve some other criminal act, those cases had a total of 17 deaths and 3 woundings. If you want to graphically see how many of these cases involve gangs or other crimes, click on screen shot below to enlarge and view the cases.
These claims are meant to imply mass shootings are more frequent this year, but if you compare apples to apples (non-gang attacks where multiple people are killed), 2015 is not turning out an unusual year. If Ingraham wants to claim that gang shootings are increasing, he should provide evidence of that.
Of course, all this ignores question of whether gun control regulations, such as gun-free zones, primarily disarm law-abiding citizens and make them sitting ducks for criminals. The simple notion from Ingraham in the past has been to impose strict gun regulations, but what what this post and others ignore is that these regulations can make crime easier.
Addition: Yet, even if you want to include all these gang and other crime related events, the rate of attacks has actually been falling (see the discussion by Grant Duwe available here).
I thank Roger Lott for taking the time to go through these cases.
UPDATE: Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post has this response on Monday, July 27th:
This has caused the Tracker to come in for some criticism from some quarters. It counts “a lot of shootings where people aren’t killed, criminal gangs are involved, and cases take place out of public view,” according to a recent blog post by John Lott, an independent researcher and Fox News columnist who is generally opposed to stricter gun regulations. He’d prefer to “focus on the cases that people are most concerned about, in the way the government defines them.”
But there’s an implicit assumption here that only some types of gun violence really deserve such attention or policy focus — that we should only closely look at it when gunshots ring out in say, suburban schools and movie theaters, rather than on urban streets.
Lott argues that gang members killing each other over turf are motivated by different reasons than disturbed individuals who decide to shoot up theaters. But the outcomes — people dead, people wounded — are the same. And if we want to understand the full extent of gratuitous gun violence in this country, it makes sense to consider the full range of examples of gun violence. It’s worth pointing out that the Lafayette theater shooting doesn’t even meet the federal definition of a mass killing, which requires three or more victims to die at the hand of a gunman. . . .
At least there is no argument about the obvious, that the cases in Ingraham’s sample overwhelmingly involve gangs (as he notes, their definition “allows [their data] to incorporate more of the garden variety gun violence that happens due to gang and other criminal activity, particularly in urban areas”). The problem here isn’t just that “gang members killing each other over turf are motivated by different reasons than disturbed individuals who decide to shoot up theaters,” but that 1) it is particularly difficult to stop drug gang members from getting weapons and 2) that Ingraham’s piece invoked the “mass public shooting” examples that get people’s attention and never gave his readers an idea that the vast majority of his cases were not remotely similar to those cases. They weren’t similar because most of his cases didn’t involve anyone getting killed and he never let readers know how many of his cases involve drug gangs.
John Lott talked to Laura Ingraham about the dangers of gun-free zones for the military and other places (Friday, July 24, 2015 from 10:07 to 10:16 AM).
Click on Screen shot to enlarge it.
Just as the CPRC’s research on crime has been having an impact and widely downloaded. Now our research is having an impact in another area (“Security and Safety”). As people download our research and they move up in rank, the more that it gets other academics to read them and interested in those research topics (all the Security and Safety papers are available here).

domain: sociology


Ghosts in the Machine
by Sinclair Noe
DOW + 77 = 13,515
SPX + 3 = 1444
NAS – 2 = 3113
10 YR YLD – .01 = 1.62%
OIL – .02 = 92.46
GOLD + 4.10 = 1776.20
SILV +.16 = 34.75
PLAT + 16.00 = 1685.00
You can watch the Presidential Debate this Wednesday but if you’re looking for clues about who will live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the next four years, the thing to watch is the Non-Farm Payroll Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning. It’s all about jobs.
In August, the report show the economy added 96,000 jobs. The September report needs to show that the economy added even more; it needs to show we’re moving in the right direction, not slipping back. The unemployment rate is currently at 8.1%. That’s a lousy number but at least it has been heading in the right direction. Of course, a major reason the unemployment rate has been falling is because people have dropped out of the workforce; they are no longer actively looking for a job and so they no longer get counted; that’s been the methodology for quite some time now; these are people who are not working but they aren’t considered unemployed. They have become ghosts in the machine.
Now, there is a big difference between the 800,000 jobs lost in the last month of the Bush administration and the 96,000 jobs gained last month under the Obama administration, but the reality is that 96k jobs is just a sign of a stagnant economy. The employment report on Friday is projected to show a net increase of 130,000 jobs in September. the unemployment rate is seen edging up to 8.2% from 8.1%.
The working-age population in the US grows on average by at least 100,000 a month, so the economy would need to add about 250,000 jobs a month over several years to reduce the jobless rate to old levels or around 6% or less. Don’t hold your breath.
There are several impediments to job growth. There is a looming fiscal cliff and a dysfunctional Congress that seems willing to drive right off it. To call the Congress recalcitrant is an understatement. Certain elements of Congress have stated that political partisanship is a higher priority than jobs. How dangerous is the fiscal cliff? It’s probably not as important as some fear mongers would have you believe. Businesses will invest in capital equipment and hire additional workers if demand for their goods and services increase. The problem is that demand is slack.
America is still deleveraging from the small “d” depression. Consumer spending is almost three quarters of economic activity and the vast majority of the nation, what we once considered the middle class, is still tightening their belts. Most of the economic gains of the past few decades have gone to the top. Inequality has grown but middle class wages have stagnated and even declined.
Paychecks continue to shrink. Disposable income dropped 0.3% after adjusting for inflation. Consumer spending rose 0.1% in August after adjusting for inflation and most of the increase was a change in gas prices, not a matter of consumers heading to the shopping malls. The most certain way for most people to increase their net worth is to default on their debt. Deleveraging does not increase demand.
The Euro-zone is learning that austerity does not equate to growth. GDP is contracting through many European countries, not just the peripheral states. Over the weekend, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris to protest against the spread of economic austerity. The anti-austerity movement is gaining strength in Europe. The Bank of Japan is pushing on a string and can’t seem to make any progress. China is experiencing a slowdown, and the emerging markets are affected as well. The economies of the world seem to be swirling around in a downward spiral.
And so, we will have a debate over how to get the economy moving again. We know that demand is the ticket to more jobs; and we know that the best way to increase demand is more jobs for more people. It might seem like a Catch 22, but it isn’t; we need to invest in jobs. We need a big bold investment. The good news is that there is plenty of work that needs to be done. So, whether you decide to watch the Debates or the Non-Farm Payroll Report, it’s all about the jobs.
There are a few more items on the docket to grab your attention. Along with the European Central Bank, the central banks of England, Japan and Australia host scheduled meetings, and the minutes of the Fed’s September meeting are due on Thursday. Today, Fed Chairman Bernanke gave a speech at the Economic Club in Indianapolis to explain why the Fed is doing what they do.
Last month, the Fed moved to start QE to Infinity and Beyond, which is just open-ended buying of $40 billion of mortgage bonds per month until there is a sustained improvement in labor-market conditions. Bernanke says low inflation is not a sign of a weak economy and he is not very concerned about inflation. The Fed chairman stressed that the Fed has the policy tools to tighten monetary conditions at the appropriate time so as to prevent the emergence of inflationary pressures. So far, inflation warnings haven’t come to fruition because, at the end of the day, the fundamentals of a weak global economy are offsetting Bernanke’s best efforts to spur inflation.
Bernanke stressed that he isn’t expecting a recession and QE to infinity and beyond is in response to concerns that growth will continue at a pace that is insufficient to put people back to work. I wish Mr. Bernanke good luck. We could very easily see the sentiment shift from “Don’t Fight the Fed” to “The Fed is Pushing on a String”.
Today, we heard a report on manufacturing that suggests it is too early to push the string. The ISM index of national factory activity rose to 51.5 from 49.6 in August. It was the first time since May that the index has been above the 50 threshold that indicates expansion in the sector. Still, manufacturing growth wasn’t exactly robust and some components remained in contraction territory. Exports continued to shrink a bit as foreign demand for US goods fell sharply. Manufacturing had faltered in recent months.
Euro zone factories suffered their worst quarter since early 2009. Factory activity in China also contracted for a seventh consecutive quarter. Big manufacturers General Electric and United Technologies last week told investors they expected their earnings to grow in 2013 despite the uncertainties domestically and abroad. GE last week won $1.2 billion in orders for gas turbines from customers in the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia, while Boeing said All Nippon Airways ordered 11 Dreamliner jets worth about $2.7 billion at current list prices. Not all the news from top manufacturers has been so bright. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar last week lowered its long-term 2015 growth target, citing an “anemic” world economy.
Two of the most economically distraught countries in the euro zone, Greece and Spain, mapped out additional budget cuts last week. In the case of Greece, under last-chance pressure from its international creditors, the governing coalition tentatively agreed on an austerity package that includes some of the most severe cuts in public pensions ever imposed in a developed country. Pension payouts to retirees would be trimmed by as much as 10 percent. Only Greece seems prepared to risk the consequences of severe pension cuts.
Pressure is building for Spain’s Prime Minister Rajoy to tap the European rescue fund. Spain’s Budget Minister today announced plans to borrow $267 billion next year, but that money would come through the financial markets, supposedly. Spain’s borrowing plans may test investors’ willingness to continue financing the government. But Spain is not ready to tackle pensions of 10 million retirees, not at a time when people are marching in the streets and the economically crucial region of Catalonia is threatening to secede.
Portugalis under pressure from a fresh wave of street protests and the government is siding with the protesters and saying no to a plan that would have required workers to increase their personal contributions to pension plans. And in Britain, the coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron continues to resist any pension changes that would come down hard on older conservative voters.
France, under its new president, François Hollande, has lowered its retirement age to 60 from 62 for certain categories of workers. To be sure, the French budget outlook is not as dire as that of Spain. To the dismay of French bankers, business leaders and the wealthy, President François Hollande has remained true to his word and unveiled about $30 billion in new taxes, including a 75% “supertax” that will hit the rich. Hollande described the plan as France’s harshest budget in 30 years, but it does not include cuts in public spending, including pensions and state salaries.
So, by now, you’ve heard all about the 47%; you know what Romney said about the people “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
The discussion of dependence on government is at the heart of the Republican case against Democrats. So, let’s look at the data from the 2011 Current Population Survey March Supplement.
Of the 24.7% of Americans who did not work and received government benefits in 2010, more than 70% are either disabled or retired. 7.7% are not working in order to care for home or family – not a group that family values conservatives typically malign. 12.8% are going to school, which likely indicates at least a degree of taking responsibility for oneself.
The bottom line here is that there aren’t that many takers in America. The most restrictive definition pegs the percentage of takers at 2.4%. If we’re willing to include people in households with at least one earner, that number increases to 5.2%. … But these numbers simply don’t line up with the rhetoric of a massive class of lazy people taking advantage of the rest of us while eating solely at the trough of government.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that these are really upper-bound estimates. Being a taker involves motives as well as work and benefit status. Takers, so the argument goes, feel no responsibility for themselves and believe that they are entitled “to you name it.” The CPS data don’t allow us to examine motives, but if we could, we would likely find even fewer takers.
Workers have not received their fair share of output in recent decades, as wages have lagged behind increased productivity; so other groups must have received more than their share.
There’s been very little said about another prominent group that’s “dependent upon government”: the many American companies whose profits rely, in one form or another, on government assistance. … (from the New Yorker)
Corporate welfare isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some of these giveaways arguably do a lot of good. But companies that benefit from these policies are just as dependent on the government as the guy who gets the earned-income tax credit. Sometimes it’s hard to see if there really is an argument for small government, or whether it’s an argument for government that’s small when it comes to helping people and big when it comes to helping business.
For example: Energy companies lease almost forty million acres of onshore land in the U.S. and more than forty million offshore, and keep the lion’s share of the profits from the oil and natural gas that they pump out. In theory, this is O.K., because we get paid for the leases and we get royalties on what they sell, but in practice it often works differently. In 1996, for instance, the government temporarily lowered royalties on oil pumped in the Gulf of Mexico as a way of encouraging more drilling at a time of low oil prices. But this royalty relief wasn’t rescinded when oil prices started to rise, which gave the oil companies a windfall of billions of dollars. Something similar happened in the telecom industry in the late nineties, when the government, in order to encourage the transition to high-def TV, simply gave local broadcasters swathes of the digital spectrum worth tens of billions of dollars. In the mining industry, meanwhile, thanks to a law that was passed in 1872 and never rewritten, companies can lease federal land for a mere five dollars an acre, and then keep all the gold, silver, or uranium they find; we, the people, get no royalty payments at all.
The tax code, too, is a useful tool for helping businesses. Domestic manufacturers collectively get a tax break of around twenty billion dollars a year. State and local governments give away seventy billion dollars annually in tax breaks and subsidies in order to lure (or keep) companies. The strategies make sense for local communities keen to generate new jobs, but, from a national perspective, since they usually just reward companies moving from one state to another, they’re simply giveaways.


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What is the best treatment for spondylosis?
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. While some types of NSAIDs are available over the counter, you may need prescription-strength versions to relieve the pain and inflammation associated with cervical spondylosis.
- Muscle relaxants.
- Anti-seizure medications.
How is lumbar spondylosis treated?
Fortunately, lumbar spondylosis often can be treated without surgery. Medical treatment options include pain relievers, muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory medications, and steroid injections. Physical therapy and hot- and cold therapy are also helpful in alleviating pain.
What happens if cervical spondylosis is not treated?
Cervical spondylosis usually doesn’t lead to disability. But sometimes these changes in the spine can cause the spinal cord or nerve roots attached to it to become compressed. This can cause your legs or hands to feel weak or clumsy.
Can neck spondylosis be cured?
Spondylosis cannot be cured, but it can be treated. Helpful treatments include: Hot and cold packs. Applying heat can help reduce some pain and soreness in joints and muscles.
What foods to avoid if you have spondylitis?
Some foods can trigger ankylosing spondylitis, so it’s important to avoid certain foods to prevent inflammation. These include foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar; processed foods, dairy products, alcohol, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, and others.
How do you sleep with spondylosis?
Sleep on your back to ease ankylosing spondylitis symptoms
- Avoid a large head pillow. Elevating your neck distorts your spine and can provoke joint pain.
- Be persistent. If you’re like most people, you prefer to sleep on your stomach or side.
- Purchase a new mattress.
Can spondylosis be cured?
There’s no cure for ankylosing spondylitis (AS), but treatment is available to help relieve the symptoms. Treatment can also help delay or prevent the process of the spine joining up (fusing) and stiffening.

domain: biology


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English Local History; An Introduction -
Complimented by over a hundred photographs, this book offers an en excellent guide and introduction to the history that surrounds us.
By Kate Tiller.
Paperback, Alan Sutton. 1992, 246 pages
Note - This is a used item which has been donated to Midland Ancestors for us to resell.
Book is in excellent condition, minor corner knocks
If you want more information about this item, please contact us using the "Contact Us" details at the bottom of this screen.
English Local History; An Introduction - Used
- Brand: 2nd Hand
- Product Code: USEDSF068
- Availability: 1
Tags: British History Local

domain: hobby


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City Council to consider permit for apartments
Lexington City Council will consider a zoning permit for an apartment building during the regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lexington City Hall.
The city has received a permit application from Christopher Elliott for the construction of a two-story, six-unit apartment building at 320 Burler St.
The applicant has submitted a site plan and renderings of the proposed building. Each of the six units will be approximately 1,050 square feet with two bedrooms. The parking lot will include eight parking spaces with landscaping located on the perimeter.
The council will also be voting to allocate $600 in neighborhood funds to allow children to swim free at the Lexington Aquatic Park.
Lexington Aquatic Park has designated June 12, June 22, July 3, July 13, July 24 and Aug. 10 as free admission days. The first 100 kids under the age of 18 will receive free admission instead of the regular $1 daily fee.

domain: news


While today is April 1st, this is apparently no joke. The air quality in Chinese city Zhengzhou is awful and listed as "unhealthy." That's why late last month, bags of air were brought in for its citizens to get a taste of clean mountain air.
Flash gaming is just about to get better. Adobe is bringing full hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to both Flash and Air. It's also improving 2D graphics as well.
For Japanese otaku, itasha—literally "painmobile"—are about as geeky as they come. This past weekend, diehard itasha gathered and gawked in Tokyo's Odaiba.


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Egypt Today staff
EMA warns of potential drop in temperature in 72 hrsWed, Apr. 8, 2020
Shaheen said that the active dust wind, witnessed in most governorates, including Greater Cairo, has ended.
UN Women commends Egypt's gender perspective in COVID-19 response planWed, Apr. 8, 2020
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) issued a statement commending the National Council for Women for its efforts to ensure that a gender perspective is adopted in Egypt’s COVID-19 response plan.
Egyptian returnees from London to donate to Tahya Misr FundWed, Apr. 8, 2020
One of the Egyptian returnees contacted the fund and expressed the wish of the Egyptian returnees from London to donate to the fund.
Misr Spinning and Weaving Co. starts producing 2.4K face masks/hourWed, Apr. 8, 2020
The production takes place through machines that were manufactured by a team of engineers and workers in the maintenance department.
Egypt’s foreign reserves record $40B by end of MarchWed, Apr. 8, 2020
CBE clarified that the decline came as a result of using the money to cover the Egyptian market's needs of foreign exchange, the drop in foreign investments and international portfolios.
Sisi’s decisions to curb coronavirus rescue collar to Egypt’s economy: Businessman Ayman Al-GamilWed, Apr. 8, 2020
These decisions came in light of the recession that the world is currently going through as transportation, aviation and inter-country industries have been suspended.
Egypt’s Shoukry receives a call from US Secretary over COVID-19Wed, Apr. 8, 2020
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received on Tuesday a phone call from his American counterpart Mike Pompeo.


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by Stewart A. Alexander
Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Once again Stewart A. Alexander is rejecting the continuous flow of U.S. dollars to bailout banks and corporate America; instead, Alexander says any public funds should go to local communities to help working people, creating jobs in the building and construction industry. Alexander says the U.S. government should establish a trillion fund to make available low interest loans for home improvements; this would create jobs across America and benefit local communities.
Stewart A. Alexander
December 11, 2008
Once again Stewart A. Alexander is rejecting the continuous flow of U.S. dollars to bailout banks and corporate America; instead, Stewart Alexander says any public funds should go to local communities to help working people, creating jobs in the building and construction industry. While running as the vice presidential candidate for Socialist Party USA, Alexander charged that the government bailouts amounted to a temporary fix for the struggling U.S. economy.
Last week, President-Elect Barack Obama revealed a stimulus package that could exceed trillion; Mr. Obama said that he would make “the single largest investment in our national infrastructure” since the highway program during the 1950s. Alexander says it is unlikely that Obama’s stimulus proposal will help ease the severe effects of the national recession or will help to stimulate the economy. Alexander notes that in a capitalist economy the public funds will first be use to benefit the interest of big corporations and special interest groups, “creating jobs for working people has a lower priority.”
In February of 2008, Congressional Republicans joined Democrats to back a 8 billion economic stimulus package that provided more than 130 million Americans a one time payment that was to be used for a spending spree or to help pay bills. However, within weeks the nation realized the program was the first of many capital injections into the U.S. economy which has failed to produce any successful results.
Since the first economic stimulus package, the Bush administration and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. have invested more than trillion in a trial-and-error approach to ease the growing severity of the national recession. Just last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded the U.S. has been in a recession since December of 2007 and both President Bush and President-Elect Obama have said the U.S. economic future will likely worsen.
U.S. House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi is hoping to rally Congress to have a job-creating stimulus program ready for Obama to sign shortly after he takes office on January 20, 2009. Speaker Pelosi has also pledged to help with a stimulus package that will benefit states and local governments.
Within the past two decades the Democrats have contributed equally to the ongoing financial woes of the U.S. economy going back to the early days of the Clinton administration; deregulating Wall Street, backing free trade agreements that exported U.S. jobs to cheap labor markets, and expanding U.S. militarism and imperialism at the expense of the U.S. working class.
In the past year the Democrats have piled another .5 trillion of debt on the U.S. taxpayers while making the capitalist elite even wealthier. While corporate America continues to receive bailouts, unemployment lines are growing across America; and during the month of November, the U.S. government announced a net loss of 533,000 jobs nationwide, bringing unemployment to 6.7 percent. Many economic experts believe unemployment levels could reach double digits in 2009.
While running as the vice presidential candidate for Socialist Party USA, Stewart Alexander was firmly opposed to the first 8 billion stimulus program and joined his party in opposing the 0 billion bailout that was approved by Congress.
Alexander says the economic stimulus package that is being proposed by Mr. Obama’s economic team would benefit working people if the funds were directed to local communities. Alexander says the U.S. government should establish a trillion fund to make available low interest loans for home improvements; this would create jobs across America and benefit local communities.
Under Alexander’s plan, homeowners would be able to borrow ,000 to ,000 for home improvements. The funds would be administered by city and county governments and would help to energize the building and construction industry.
The Socialist Party USA is also calling for programs which will provide support to, and help empower individuals, families, and working people as a whole take power away from the corporate powers. The SPUSA supports building millions of units of low-density, high quality, and low-cost housing. Alexander and the socialist party support laws that would encourage the creation of worker-owned/run institutions including the automobile industry and massive investments into mass-transit and alternatives to fossil fuels.
To solve many of the basic needs of working people and to reduce the tremendous burden of health care cost that capitalism constantly creates, Alexander says a “federally funded socialized healthcare system will be necessary to eliminate health insurance companies replaced by institutions that are controlled by locally elected community health committees.”
The Socialist Party USA has also called for all banks, financial and insurance institutions to be socially owned and operated by a democratically-controlled national banking authority which should include credit unions, mutual insurance cooperatives, and cooperative state banks. While running for vice president in 2008, Alexander proposed a plan that would include other North Americans countries to form a North American Banking Authority.
For more information search the Web for: Stewart A. Alexander; Socialist Party USA
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Change Links September 2018 posted
More Scandals Rock Southern California Nuke Plant San Onofre
Site Outage Friday
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The Montrose Peace Vigil at 12 Years
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Dianne Feinstein's Promotion of War, Secret Animal Abuse, Military Profiteering, Censorshi
CA Senate Bill 1303 would require an independent coroner rather than being part of police
Three years after OC snitch scandal, no charges filed against sheriffs deputies
California police agencies violate Brown Act (open meetings)
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Worker-Owned Car Wash on Vermont Closed
GUIDE TO REBEL CITY LOS ANGELES AVAILABLE
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domain: finance


Richard Hertling advises clients in the technology, defense and other industries on regulatory and legislative matters involving intellectual property, cyber-security, financial services and immigration. His experience includes work related to the expected overhaul of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Internet sales tax, patent reform, and music licensing.
Mr. Hertling is the former staff director and chief counsel on the House Judiciary Committee. He has more than 25 years of public policy experience from serving in leadership roles on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department, in addition to the House Judiciary panel. He is widely respected for his ability to build strategic alliances on both sides of the aisle to move legislation forward.
Articles in the National Law Review database by Richard A. Hertling


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If you notice that your guinea pig has fleas, then you’ll need to purchase a special guinea pig-friendly flea spray or shampoo from your vet. Flea products for other species may contain chemicals which are poisonous to guinea pigs, so your guinea pigs will need a species-specific version. Adults should follow the instructions carefully, but bear in mind that it may be a good idea to give your guinea pig a bath first so that there’s no grease or dirt getting in the way of the treatment. You’ll need to treat your guinea pigs all at the same time, as well as thoroughly cleaning out their home and treating any other pets you may have that are liable to get fleas.
Fleas are transferred easily between animals
Fleas can be transferred between guinea pigs, other pets, and humans. You can use species-specific treatments on your other pets but be careful not to get these products near your guinea pigs.
Arelly, 28 May 2020
I have a problem with my Guinea pig, my guinea pig keeps on scratching. I just looked under its fur and it had like a reddish brown bumb that lookes like a scab but i looked again today and it got worse. I don't know why it wouldn't maybe I already got it Ultra care flea and tick spray but I don't know what's really going on. I just got her two days ago. Any idea in what I need to do?

domain: pet


The District Attorney of Riverside County, as the public prosecutor acting on behalf of the People, vigorously enforces the law, pursues the truth, and safeguards the rights of all to ensure that justice is done on behalf of our community.
The District Attorney works with every component of the criminal justice system to protect the innocent, to convict and appropriately punish the guilty, and to protect the rights of victims.
The District Attorney also works within our community to prevent and deter crime and to promote public safety, now and for future generations.
The District Attorney fulfills these critical responsibilities through the efforts of the employees of the District Attorney’s Office, and each employee is integral to achieving this mission. To that end, we, the employees of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, will adopt the highest standards of ethical behavior and professionalism and proudly commit ourselves to the following core values in the performance of our duties: Integrity, Respect, Quality, Loyalty, Teamwork, Partnership, Innovation, Fairness, and Service.
As professionals, members of the criminal justice system, officers of the court, and highly visible public employees, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct. Ethics and integrity are not negotiable.
We treat each other and all members of the public with dignity and respect. Because the people of this organization are its most valuable asset, each of us must nurture a working climate that is based on trust, courtesy, and mutual respect. We must also apply that attitude of consideration, dignity, and respect to the public we serve. We must remember that the personal dignity of each individual is inviolate.
To earn and hold the trust and confidence of our community, we must perform our duties with uncompromising commitment to quality. Each of us is responsible for ensuring that our community receives the finest prosecution services possible, and we are committed to hiring and training the most qualified individuals to accomplish our mission.
We recognize that the District Attorney’s mission is a public trust, and we are loyal to that mission. We take seriously our obligations to the community, to law enforcement, and to the victims of crime.
We are committed to treating people reasonably and consistently without personal bias, discrimination, favoritism, or animus. Each of us must act fairly toward our fellow employees and others within the criminal justice system. In addition, we are committed to developing leaders at all levels that communicate expectations and provide consistent feedback, who motivate and inspire others, and who understand the importance of equality, fairness, and diversity.
We accept a shared responsibility to ensure the most effective use of resources and to identify and apply new methods and technology for increased efficiency. Each of us strives for continuous improvement, which allows the District Attorney’s Office to deliver better prosecution services and further enhances public safety.
We are committed to building strong and viable partnerships with other law enforcement agencies, every component of the criminal justice system, and the community we serve. We recognize that a united and cohesive effort to prevent and punish crime allows us to achieve the highest level of public safety for our community.
The core mission of our entire organization is to promote public safety by delivering quality prosecution services to the citizens of Riverside County. However, we recognize that we are also part of the Riverside County community and our effectiveness as an office is enhanced through our employees’ community service. We value and encourage community involvement, volunteerism, and participation in community improvement efforts.
We work as a team, encouraging both diversity of thought and unity of action. Each of us plays an integral part, but we must work together to achieve our mission. “Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.”


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The Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has ordered a review into whether oximeters (which have been used to measure oxygen levels in COVID-19 patients) overstate the level of oxygen in the blood of people from ethnic minorities, meaning they are less likely to receive the treatment they need.
Oximeters work by transmitting light through a patient's finger and it is thought that skin pigmentation affects how the light is absorbed, therefore also affecting the readings given by the device.
The concern in this case reflects the worries many parties have expressed regarding AI medical devices which are often trained on data which does not reflect the communities the device is developed to work in. In an article we published earlier this year, we explained how AI systems can produce biased results, leading to varying quality of outcomes for different sexes, ethnic communities, age ranges or other groups. This is particularly dangerous given the general public's perception that AI systems are inanimate and therefore cannot be biased in the same way that humans can be.
This topic was also addressed at our recent Life Sciences Summit on AI in Healthcare. Please see here for the accompanying White Paper for this event.
He said there was racial bias in some medical instruments, adding: "It's unintentional but it exists."


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I have always loved sunflowers. When I was growing up, I would only see them on vacation in Southern Ontario. The growing season where I lived was not usually long enough for them to bloom and turn to seed. I loved the giant stems and the beautiful sun-shaped flowers that turned themselves to catch the sun.
When I had children, I decided I would grow my own sunflowers. We were living in Southern Ontario after all. I bought a packet of sunflower seeds at the dollar store, dug up a section at the front of the house, added some compost, planted some seeds and hoped for the best.
To my delight, five or six plants grew. It was magical. They grew tall and bloomed profusely. My husband did not share in my delight. The flowers were growing along the driveway. It was impossible for him to get in or out of the driver’s car door without encountering some bees.
My daughter Tara was terrified of the bees too. Before going anywhere she would stake out the scene and then run past the garden as quickly as she could. When we were coming home, she would hide in the car until the coast was clear.
I love my husband and children, so I decided they should not be tormented. I started researching smaller varieties of flowers. They might still attract buzzing things but at least they’d be closer to the ground. At the end of the season, I tossed the sunflowers in the compost bin out back along with the rest of garden waste and forgot about them.
The following summer, I noticed some small plants growing out back beside the compost bin. I decided to leave them alone. When they grew bigger, I noticed that the seedlings looked a lot like sunflowers. I am not sure whether the sunflower seeds had come from my compost bin or from my neighbor Maureen’s bird feeder.
The plants really liked that south-facing spot with the abundant supply of compost. By the end of the summer, the sunflowers had grown up to the second floor window of my daughters’ room. Tara was not amused but at least the bees couldn’t get in through the window screen.
I haven’t grown sunflowers for a few years, but I still point them out to my husband every time I see them growing along the road or I spot a pretty bouquet in the florist section of the grocery store. They still feel magical, at least to me.
Last summer I was invited to a social painting night. I was amused to discover that the featured painting was a sunflower. I gave the finished canvas to my husband with the promise it wouldn’t attract any bees. He loves it and Tara thinks it is okay too.
David and I have been married many years and times have not always been easy. We have had our trials and tribulations but we have always found a way back to each other. Sometimes it just takes time to find the sunflowers everyone loves.


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At the moment, the casino does not have much to offer in its games section, but more games are expected in the coming days as the casino continues to develop. However, there are exciting games to start you off, from great software companies. Slot lovers will enjoy what the casino has in store for them. Some of the most popular slots here include titles such as Starburst, Finn and the Swirly Spin, Jumanji and Coins of Egypt. In addition to slots, players can enjoy playing table games. There are various variants of Blackjack and Roulette to enjoy here, including European Roulette and Blackjack Classic. The casino has several video poker games on offer too, such as Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better. Cosmic Spins casino website is mobile optimized and so, players can access their favorite casino games from wherever they might be.
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domain: game


text:
This Friday, X Games spectators will be able to watch a new extreme sport that is gaining momentum in the skateboarding world.
Wheelchair Motocross, similar to BMX biking, challenges athletes to master tricks that allow them to flip and fly through the air. To do so, athletes require specialized wheelchairs equipped with skate wheels, reinforced frames and full suspension.
These athletes will be zipping across Rhodes Skatepark this weekend at the X-Games Qualifiers, hosted by Boise Parks and Recreation and the Challenged Athletes Foundation. This demo and clinic event aims to showcase the professional athletes’ skills and bring awareness to the sport.
Jennifer Skeesick, regional director of the Challenged Athletes Foundation, says the biggest barrier to access for these athletes comes down to cost.
“Many times unfortunately, the families that are affected and require adaptive sport have financial constraints bigger than a lot of people realize," says Skeesick. "So, the purchasing of adaptive sport equipment is not covered by insurance because it's seen as a luxury item, and that’s unfortunate because it’s very expensive and a lot of these families and individuals can’t afford it.”
The event is at 5 p.m. Friday and will feature world-class athletes Christiaan “Otter” Bailey and Aaron “Wheelz” Forthingham. Afterwards, local wheelchair athletes can try their hand at the sport alongside the pros.
For more local news, follow the KBSX newsroom on Twitter @KBSX915
Copyright 2019 Boise State Public Radio


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Armenian lawmakers are due to convene for a special session next week to discuss a raft of amendments to election laws after the largest opposition faction secured the support of more than a third of parliament members for its initiative Thursday.
The Armenian National Congress (HAK), which has a seven-member faction in the 131-seat National Assembly, said a total of 44 deputies, including members of other minority factions, backed its proposal to gather on November 21 to debate amendments to the Electoral and Criminal Codes as well as the Law on the State Registration of the Population.
HAK parliamentary faction leader Levon Zurabian said that among the lawmakers who provided their signatures in favor of the initiative were representatives of all minority groups, including the Prosperous Armenia Party, Dashnaktsutyun and Heritage.
The HAK representative stressed that the changes proposed by his opposition alliance will be instrumental in preventing fraud during next year’s presidential election.
“We suggest that from now on only citizens who are in the territory of Armenia should be included in the electoral roll. All those who are absent from Armenia for more than six months must be excluded from this roll,” Zurabian said, in particular.
The Armenian opposition has accused the government of taking advantage of the absence of up to 700,000 eligible voters from Armenia to commit fraud in last May’s parliamentary elections in which the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) achieved a landslide victory according to official results.
Election authorities and government officials have denied the claim. They also said that eliminating citizens from electoral rolls on the basis of their absence from the country would amount to violating their constitutional rights.
According to Armenian election laws, voting takes place only in the territory of the republic.
Meanwhile, deputy parliament speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, who represents the HHK, has expressed doubts that the National Assembly will have the quorum to hold the special meeting.
“I don’t think that the opposition agenda will be backed in parliament by 66 deputies as is required by law,” Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am). He called this latest opposition initiative another “political show”.


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- Flury:The Journey of A Snowman by Tony Bertauski – 5/5 stars – Wonderful story about love, family and sacrifice. If you haven’t started with this series yet, may I suggest you get your copies now? Because this is the best read for the season.
- Dwellers by Eliza Victoria – 4/5 stars – TFG’s book for November turned to be a very interesting read, and prompted a really good discussion last FilReaderCon.
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell – 5/5 stars – It took me a while to finish this, but it has nothing to do with the writer’s storytelling. Three quarters through, I got heartbroken and I found it difficult to turn another page. I did muster my courage, eventually, and let the tears fall where it should.
- The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – 4/5 stars – This one is a journey in time and characters. It was not exactly a sad story, but I ended my reading with a constricted sigh. Sorry, I have to explain myself at length some other time.
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – 3/5 stars – This is my last Dare You To Read challenge. Yay! Kundera is a very good poet, no doubt about that.
- DollBones by Holly Black – 3/5 stars – A brave adventure and a test of friendship. A very nice “coming-of-age” story.
- Roselily by Alice Walker, and The Swimmer by John Cheever – 5/5 stars – Short stories of the month via The Short Story Station.
- Fall Like Rain by Ana Tejano – There is no secret why I know I will love this. I love the person who wrote it, and I know she had put plenty of love and effort in making this book.
A Christ-filled season to everyone and a prosperous bookish year ahead of us!

domain: entertainment


- Includes two Shooters Source retention knobs
-Works with all known AR-15 type mags and AICS .223 mags (steel and polymer).
-Will accept either Rounds Forward/Round Backwards.
-Compatible with multiple mounting styles:
-1.75” belt clip (INCLUDED)
-MALICE Clips for MOLLE/PALS webbing
-At approx 3.75” wide, you can fit one M.C.S. Rifle Mag Carrier per 2 columns of MOLLE/PALS webbing.


text:
| | Stacked bow question
So I got my NBNG Templates this weekend and started working. I attempted my first stacked bow. I did a twisted bow on bottom, then spikes, then loops then top twisted bow.
My question is do you sew all together or tie? I sewed all individually and then sewed them together. This was very hard sewing them all together. I broke a needle and it took forever. Any suggestions would be great.

domain: design


text:
Etta James still has it going on
Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, August 17, 2006
Etta James gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "sexy senior citizen."
The Grammy-winning 68-year-old who shocked mainstream America in the mid-'50s with her explicit lyrics still plays the vamp in her twilight years.
After sauntering on stage at the Woodland Park Zoo, James grinned gleefully as she wiggled her behind at the crowd. The capacity crowd loved it, chuckling and applauding for the woman once known as Miss Peaches.
Though she was a bit unsteady on her feet, she squirmed suggestively and gestured lasciviously atop a large padded stool.
During a saucy version of the late Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "I Wanna Ta-Ta You Baby," James' guitarist thrust his posterior into her lap while she lewdly stroked it. It was all in fun, or course, but maybe something the kids shouldn't have witnessed.
James' seven-piece Roots Band, which included two of her sons, skillfully embellished her classic songs with trumpet, trombone, Hammond B-3 organ, drums, guitars and bass. But even with little accompaniment, James' voice was extraordinary.
- Wingsuits and Wind Tunnels Make for a Fun Time Storyful
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Her aching version of "I'd Rather Go Blind" and sexy renditions of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" and scat-filled "Rock Me Baby" were early highlights.
James introduced her tender hit "At Last" as the song "everyone gets engaged on, gets married on, gets pregnant on." It was lush, heartfelt and beautifully romantic -- a contrast to her saucier stuff.
"Damn Your Eyes," a song about an irresistible attraction, segued into a husky-voiced version of the classic Mexican tune "Besame Mucho."
For her encore, James offered a pining, emotional version of "Sugar on the Floor," a song of unrequited love that was a favorite of James' mother, who gave birth to the future star when she was 14 and unmarried. It was heart-wrenching to hear the pain in James' voice when she tearfully sang, "I lost my mother ... I don't have a father."
Opening act was Seattle's Leroy Bell and His Only Friends. Bell's rich, husky voice enchanted the crowd. The set included songs from his current album, "Two Sides to Every Story," and previous CD, "Spending Time."


text:
Springer eBooks may be purchased by end-customers only and are sold without copy protection (DRM free). Instead, all eBooks include personalized watermarks. This means you can read the Springer eBooks across numerous devices such as Laptops, eReaders, and tablets.
You can pay for Springer eBooks with Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Paypal.
After the purchase you can directly download the eBook file or read it online in our Springer eBook Reader. Furthermore your eBook will be stored in your MySpringer account. So you can always re-download your eBooks.
There is an international lack of good monographs on solid state theory; this excellent book fills this gap
"Solid-State Theory - An Introduction" is a textbook for graduate students of physics and material sciences. Whilst covering the traditional topics of established older textbooks, it also takes up new developments in theoretical concepts and materials that are connected with such breakthroughs as the quantum-Hall effects, the high-Tc superconductors, and the low-dimensional systems realized in solids. Thus, besides providing the fundamental concepts to describe the physics of the electrons and ions comprising the solid, including their interactions, the book provides a link to the experimental facts and gives the reader an excellent insight into current research fields. A compilation of review problems makes the book especially valuable to both students and teachers. The new edition offers an additional chapter on the interaction of light and matter, plus end-of-chapter problems and solutions.
Content Level »Graduate
Keywords »Correlated electron systems - Lattice dynamics - Materials theory - Textbook solid-state physics - Theory of condensed matter - dynamics - material sciences - physics

domain: library


What Is an Editorial Board?
In an effort to shed extra mild on how we work, The Times is operating a sequence of quick posts explaining a few of our journalistic practices. Read extra from this sequence right here.
The New York Times editorial board, established in 1896 by Adolph Ochs when he grew to become the newspaper’s writer, is at present composed of 14 writers and editors drawn from the Times Opinion division, which additionally contains opinion columnists, Op-Ed editors and others.
The Opinion division is impartial of the Times newsroom, with a separate mission however the identical requirements for reality. The first anybody within the newsroom discovered of the board’s editorial concerning the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, as an illustration, was once we posted it to The Times’s web site.
The function of Times Opinion is to produce the wide-ranging debate about huge concepts numerous democracy wants. Amid that debate, the position of the editorial board is to offer Times readers with a long-range view shaped not by one individual’s experience and expertise however ballasted by sure institutional values which have developed throughout greater than 150 years. That’s why the editorials, in contrast to different articles in The Times, seem with out a byline.
I’ve all the time believed that robust establishments, like robust households, are supposed to transmit rules throughout generations; the work of The Times’s editorial board has mirrored the rules each of its members and of the Ochs-Sulzberger household, which has equipped the publishers who’ve overseen the board’s work — generally daily, generally solely on the event of momentous information — for 5 generations.
Because the position of the editorial board may be complicated, significantly to readers who don’t know The Times properly, the board, in session with the present writer, A.G. Sulzberger, has developed an announcement of its guiding values, which embrace:
Arguing for “a world that’s each free and truthful”
Supporting a world order wherein “freedom and progress advance by way of democracy and capitalism”
Guarding “in opposition to the excesses of these programs by selling trustworthy governance, civil rights, equality of alternative, a wholesome planet and an excellent life for society’s most susceptible members”
Championing “what Adolph Ochs known as ‘the free train of a sound conscience,’ believing that the fearless trade of data and concepts is the surest technique of resisting tyranny and realizing human potential”
The editorial board is an institutional voice, however it isn’t the voice of the establishment as a complete. That’s an important distinction that usually will get misplaced. The board doesn’t communicate for the newsroom. How may it? The newsroom is made up of journalists whose personal opinions differ, and whose job it’s to set these opinions apart within the trustworthy pursuit and presentation of the reality.
I occurred to be a White House reporter for The Times in the course of the impeachment inquiry into Bill Clinton. The board, then underneath Howell Raines, supported the inquiry (although not, ultimately, the impeachment). I used to learn these editorials and marvel on the crackle of the prose. But the editorials definitely didn’t communicate for me or have an effect on my reporting, and when the Clinton folks complained to me once in a while about them, I’d simply shrug and inform them to name Howell. No, I didn’t know the quantity.
The board meets not less than twice every week to debate find out how to handle vital questions within the information in accordance with positions it has taken over the a long time. In basic, it reaches its conclusions by consensus, although in issues the place there may be deep disagreement we generally must name a vote.
We strive to bear in mind the massive questions we’ve gotten mistaken prior to now — corresponding to opposing girls’s suffrage — to domesticate some humility and warning. Who may know what arguments we predict apparent at present is likely to be judged harshly by historical past.
A observe to readers who should not subscribers: This article from the Reader Center doesn’t rely towards your month-to-month free article restrict.
Follow the @ReaderCenter on Twitter for extra protection highlighting your views and experiences and for perception into how we work.


LAKEWOOD — For the first time in over a decade and under head coach Jon Marinari, the Brick Memorial girls tennis team defeated Toms River North 3-2 in a last-match showdown on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Ocean County Park.
Deadlocked at two, the Mustangs first doubles team of Alanna Benson and Anjolina Martin clawed their way back after trailing a set and pulled out what could be the A South upset of the year. After evening the match with one set a piece, the senior duo produced a 6-3 third set and erased the decade drought. The win was also the first time the Mustangs recorded at least two match points against the Mariners, win or lose, since 2011.
“There was one point in the third set that we knew we were going to win it,” Martin said. “I just looked at Alanna and almost cried, we knew this was it.”
With the weight of the match on their shoulders, Benson and Martin came together as their teammates lined up against the fence, cheering the two on. After falling in the first set, Benson and Martin played outside their conventional tactics and were placing match-winning balls over North’s Hannah Kaufman and Rebecca Mendoza.
Eventually, the two pieced together enough games to take the third set 6-3 and give the girls tennis program its first North victory in a decade.
“The first set was a little rough and we were making mistakes we knew we shouldn’t be making. But when the third set came around we knew it was win or lose for us and for the team, we knew our match was going to decide everything,” Benson said.
For more on this story, read next week's edition of The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Follow Larissa on Twitter.


text:
DAVID KACZYNSKI WAS NOT aware that a $1 million reward had been offered in the Unabomber case at the time he notified the FBI of his suspicion that his brother, Theodore Kaczynski, could be the dangerous killer.
He was motivated not by money but the desire to do the right thing and help save lives. The arrest and publicity was no doubt difficult and embarrassing for the family, and Ted Kaczynski broke off contact with family members, refusing even to look at them during his sentencing hearing in May.
Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty to three bombing deaths and the maimings of two scientists. He received four life sentences and a 30-year sentence for his crimes.
When the family learned of the Justice Department's $1 million reward, they did not want it. They wanted to donate the money to the Unabomber's victims and survivors.
That is unquestionably a noble intention on the part of the Kaczynski family, but their desire to help those whom Ted Kaczynski harmed may be hindered by income taxes. The family may have to pay the IRS around $300,000 in taxes before they can give the remainder away.
Congress can help
If Kaczynski relatives were going to benefit financially from the reward, then they should have to pay taxes on the income. Their desire to give the reward to Unabomber victims and survivors should preclude their having to pay taxes on it.
In fact, the hefty income tax bill would mean that less money was going to help maiming victims and those who lost loved ones as a result of a madman's actions.
There is a good chance that the Kaczynski family's desire to help the victims could to a greater extent will work out. They have asked Congress to enact special legislation that would exempt the payment of the reward from income taxes.
Bills that would accomplish that sensible and kind exemption have been introduced in both the Senate and the House. And the deadline for getting it passed is April 15, so legislators have plenty of time to accomplish it.
We hope that they do. The additional money would further benefit the victims and survivors, while the kindness shown by the Kaczynski family helps to heal their own hurt.
We should not forget that Kaczynski's family members were victims, too. They lost a loved one in a very real sense. Theodore Kaczynski has been sentenced to prison for the rest of his life, and he refuses to communicate with his family.
The family's desire to distribute the reward money to people harmed by the Unabomber is a remarkable one, and it should be honored to its fullest extent. The money that is given to the victims should not suffer the big bite of income taxes before it reaches its intended destination.
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Trademark and brand name copyright infringements are a perennial problem in most developing countries. Many multinational organizations have found and fought them in India in the past. Now a homegrown startup MakeMyTrip (MMT) has found many similar-sounding firms and has taken the legal recourse to rein these imposters in.
MakeMyYatra, MakeMyJourney, Make My Happy Journey, Pick My Trip and Superb My Trip are all firms operating in different parts of the country and online, offering the same set of services that MMT does, and some have even designed their logo to resemble that of MakeMyTripâ€™s. MMT has submitted in its petition in the Delhi High Court that it spends almost half of its revenue, a whopping Rs 1,264 crore on advertising alone and these advertisements are meant to propagate its brand name. These firms, by copying or using similar sounding names can easily mislead the customers and cause severe loss to its business. MMT has managed to secure an interim order from the Court.
The order issued by the Court states inter alia thus: "Till further orders, the defendant, its partner, directors, shareholders or proprietors as the case may be, its assigns in business, franchisees, affiliates, subsidiaries, licencees and agents are restrained from using in manner whatsoever, selling, offering for sale, advertising directly or indirectly dealing in any products or services under the infringing marks, namely PickMyTrip (word per se)".
This order was passed about a month and a half back. MakeMyTrip has clarified that it is safeguarding its legal rights and the irregularities brought to the attention of the Court include â€śinfringement of trademarks, domain squatting and confusing the customer regarding the actual service providerâ€ť.
On the question of damage that could be caused to MMT, it says, this could â€śnegatively impact our hard-earned goodwill, reputation and brand names".
Now, the case may drag on for months as it happens with the Indian legal system. If the Court does decide and issue a decree, it will be interesting to see what kind of punishment is given or penalties imposed. That could set a precedent for thousands of such cases of fake products and names used by fly-by-night operators, which damage the interests of the genuine ones.


This paper proposes an efficient feature vector classification for Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) in service robots. Since service robots interact with diverse users who are in various emotional states, two important issues should be addressed: acoustically similar characteristics between emotions and variable speaker characteristics due to different user speaking styles. Each of these issues may cause a substantial amount of overlap between emotion models in feature vector space, thus decreasing SER accuracy. In order to reduce the effects caused by such overlaps, this paper proposes an efficient feature vector classification for SER. The conventional feature vector classification applied to speaker identification categorizes feature vectors as overlapped and non-overlapped. Because this method discards all of the overlapped vectors in model reconstruction, it has limitations in constructing robust models when the number of overlapped vectors is significantly increased such as in emotion recognition. The method proposed herein classifies overlapped vectors in a more sophisticated manner, selecting discriminative vectors among overlapped vectors, and adds those vectors in model reconstruction. On SER experiments using an emotional speech corpus, the proposed classification approach exhibited superior performance to conventional methods, and displayed an almost human-level performance. In particular, we achieved commercially applicable performance for two-class (negative vs. non-negative) emotion recognition.


text:
For a rich chocolate fudgesauce, melt bittersweetchocolate in heavy cream.
Chop chocolate finely using a serrated knife, and place in a heat-proof bowl.
Bring cream to a boil over medium-high heat; pour directly over chopped chocolate. Let sit 10 minutes; use a rubber spatula to stir the chocolate and cream gently until smooth and combined. Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to a week. Warm gently in a heat-proof bowl, or the top of a double boiler, set over a pan of simmering water before using.

domain: food