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Part I: The Verdict
I was listening to the radio last night (Monday, July 15th). It was 2 days after the George Zimmerman verdict was handed down and the talk radio host decided to devote the show to people who wanted to express their opinions on it. A man called in. He recanted something he had heard, I believe, on the Glen Beck Show. An African-American professional basketball player had called in and said he didn’t understand the Zimmerman verdict. He said “a black boy is dead and what am I supposed to tell my kids about that?” The caller himself wanted to know what the black community should tell their children.
The talk radio show host answered like this: “Tell the kids the truth. Tell them the truth as the jury saw it. Tell them the facts, as the jury heard them.”
And what are the facts and the truth?
The truth is that both George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin had a right to be where they were that night, February 26, 2012 at the Retreat of Twin Lakes gated community in Sanford, Florida. Both had a right to do what they were doing, up until the final encounter which was the assault on George Zimmerman and the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon Martin, who was visiting his father (who was staying with his girlfriend at a townhouse in the gated community), had a right to be walking where he was. He had a right to be concerned when he noticed George Zimmerman following him. Trayvon Martin was staying with his father after being put on a 10-day suspension from school for possession of marijuana.
George Zimmerman, as the captain of his development’s Community Watch, had a right to follow Trayvon (both in his truck and then by foot), to observe him, and to call the non-emergency number to report him.
On that evening (it was raining), Zimmerman got in his car and was going to Target to do some food shopping. He was driving through the community when he noticed Trayvon “acting suspiciously,” as he would later tell the non-emergency police dispatcher. Zimmerman didn’t recognize Trayvon as being from the community. Trayvon was in a dark hoodie and standing on the front lawn of a neighbor’s house with his gaze towards the house. Zimmerman wondered why, in the rain, he would just stand there and appear to check out the house. At that point, he considered that Trayvon might be “up to no good.” So he continued along in the community until he came to the Club House where he stopped to make the phone call to the non-emergency police. When the dispatcher asked him to report what Trayvon was doing now, Zimmerman looked down the street and observed him acting erratically and cutting through houses.
According to testimony given at the police station, after Trayvon disappeared behind some houses, he emerged and circled Zimmerman’s truck. Zimmerman was in the truck at the time. Then Trayvon disappeared behind the houses. At that point, Zimmerman was convinced that a policeman was needed at the scene to check things out. He got out of the truck, he said, to go look for an exact street address to give police so that a car could quietly come in and park behind his truck to observe Trayvon’s conduct. The dispatcher then told him “We don’t need you to follow him any more,” but then asked if he still wanted a police to be sent to the scene, to which Zimmerman replied in the affirmative. He asked again that the police meet him quietly at his truck. Instead of going back to his truck at that point, he proceeded to walk to get the address he had promised the dispatcher, which he got and reported. He then turned around and was headed back to his truck when he was confronted by Trayvon who jumped out from behind some bushes.
Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem, to which he answered “No, I have no problem.” Trayvon then answered: “You got a problem now.” Zimmerman said that he was going to reach in his back pocket for his cell phone but Trayvon immediately punched him so hard in the face that it broke his nose. Blood was everywhere. Then Trayvon knocked Zimmerman to the concrete sidewalk and started banging his head against it. He repeatedly said: “I’m going to kill you.” Zimmerman said he tried as best he could to inch his way off the concrete and onto the lawn so that his head would hit grass and not concrete, but everytime he tried to sit up and inch his way, Trayvon would smash his head back down on the concrete. While he was hitting his head, Trayvon was also continuing to punch him in the face and about the head. Zimmerman was screaming for help. Trayvon then started putting his hands and his entire weight on Zimmerman’s nose and mouth, most likely to shut him up. To George, it felt like suffocation. The bottom line was that he was being prevented from breathing. Trayvon said: “You are going to die tonight.” George Zimmerman said the pain was intolerable, especially when Trayvon put his body weight down on his broken nose. The blood going in his mouth and in his nose, together with the fact that he was starting to feel like he was losing consciousness from having his head smashed repeatedly against the concrete, made him feel he would actually lose his life. He was sure he was going to lose consciousness and not wake up. He then reached for his gun. Trayvon saw the gun and went for it too.
We all know what happened. George got the gun and Trayvon was shot through the lungs. The bullet lodged in his heart. The autopsy confirms this account of the assault. The autopsy also showed that Trayvon had marijuana in his system. The belief is that at some point along his walk from the 7-11 (where video showed him meeting with some friends) and into the gated community (25 minutes or so), he smoked some pot.
Again, each had a right to be where they were that night and do what they were doing… up until the deadly assault.
The problem was that neither knew one another. The truth is that if either had known who each other was, the incident would never have happened. If Zimmerman knew that Trayvon was staying in the community with his father’s girlfriend, was simply taking a short cut on his way back to the townhouse, and had no evil intent, he would have continued on his way to Target. If Trayvon knew Zimmerman was the acting as the Community Watch captain, he would have understood why he was following him and observing him and he could either have: (i) simply continued on his way home, or (ii) yelled to him that he is visiting someone in the development.
But Trayvon didn’t continue home, as he should have. He circled back, and even noticing that Zimmerman had turned around and was heading back to his truck (hence was retreating and posed no threat), still felt the need to assault him, violently. Apparently, Trayvon knew Zimmerman had been in contact with police and perhaps then, he should have known or been tipped off that he was some type of community watch person. At the very least, he should have sensed there was a misunderstanding. He should have also understood that the police might have already been alerted to come to the community and he should have simply waited for them, at which point he could have reported Zimmerman for “harassment.”
Can we really know exactly what happened to precipitate the shooting? Do we really know the series of events? We only know what Zimmerman reported to the police when he was taken into custody. But we do know that the autopsy and the recording to police that night at the scene (except for some gaps) all corroborate Zimmerman’s account. Do we believe the beating was sufficient to make him fear for his life and thus substantiate a “self-defense” defense? (and hence a justifiable killing). The threshold of proof is not an “objective” one (which means that others must conclude he feared for his life) but rather a “subjective” one (which means that it is sufficient that George himself feared for his life). Zimmerman did not set out to kill Trayvon. He did not have that intent (mens rea), He did not maliciously target him. Under the “totality of the circumstances,” including the recent history of all the break-ins, Zimmerman did not act improperly. He did not “invite the assault” that put him in the situation to defend his life and take Trayvon’s. The law simply was on George Zimmerman’s side. And the jury recognized that. They were indeed instructed as to the applicable law and how to apply it to the facts.
And that’s the reason the talk radio host said what he said to the caller: “Tell them the truth, as the jury saw it.”
This case wasn’t about race. The jury reached that conclusion. An independent FBI investigation also reached that conclusion. And race should have never been interjected to heighten passions and inflame racial wounds that made it nearly impossible for this case to be tried based on the series of events that led to Trayvon’s death, which was the deadly assault that was initiated by Trayvon himself when no direct threat to his life was posed. Trayvon Martin put George Zimmerman in the situation where he had to consider self-defense, even though violence was nowhere on Zimmerman’s mind when he set out to simply report Trayvon’s conduct to police. This case was about a kid using violence to make a point.
Zimmerman is only guilty of taking his role as Community Watch captain seriously and following someone who he believed was acting suspiciously until he was able to get a police officer to the location. He did not do anything except follow and observe. He did not confront or initiate an altercation. Trayvon is the one who initiated the violent altercation. Did marijuana play any part in his decision to confront Zimmerman, threaten his life, and then beat him mercilessly?
So again, this was not a case where a white man stalked and profiled a black person and treated him any differently because of his color, although the DOJ and the media certainly went out of their way to make it appear that way. Labeling George Zimmerman as “white” because he is half hispanic and half white (even though he has always maintained that he “identifies” as being Hispanic) would require us to also label President Obama as “white” because he is half white and half black.
The real reason this scenario played out is the increase in violence we suffer in our quiet residential communities. Violence, burglaries, and gang violence threatens the safety and sanctity of our homes. It puts the safety of women and children, our most vulnerable members of society, at risk. It is the reason Community Watch groups had to form in the first place. It was police departments who encourage and help communities set these groups up because they know that mere minutes and seconds can mean a life and that diligence and surveillance can prevent crimes. Police departments know that they don’t have the resources to patrol neighborhoods as judiciously as citizens would like. And that brings us to why would Zimmerman take his role as Community Watch captain seriously. There had been a rash of break-ins in the community by gang members who just happened to be dressed the very same way as Trayvon was dressed that night – in dark hoodies. Most recently, a woman and her children were home alone when gang members broke into the house. Zimmerman promised his wife that he see to it that she would never be threatened like that.
The real racial element of this case, if there is one, is the racial element posed by the gang violence that threatened residents of the gated community in Sanford, Florida. Law enforcement agencies across the county report that gangs are comprised of a greater percentage of Hispanic/Latino and African-American/black members compared with other race/ethnicities. The most recent figures provided by law enforcement show that 46% of gang members are Hispanic/Latino, 35% are African-American/black, 11% are white, and 7% represent other ethnic groups. And gang membership/ gang violence is on the rise.
I just want to throw this out. Eve Carson was a brilliant white honors student at Chapel Hill who was kidnapped from the house she was living in (in the middle of the night) by 2 black juveniles and shot in the head, execution style, after she fulfilled her purpose… giving them her ATM card and withdrawing cash from her account. There was no reason for those 2 juveniles to be in that community, except to perpetrate a crime. They went out that evening with evil intent. Racial profiling, of course, was part of their plan. They had a history of such conduct. The white community mourned such a senseless killing, such a targeted killing… the loss of such a promising young life. The outpouring of shared grief was overwhelming. And even as the white community watched as prosecutors tried to spare one of the killers for being a juvenile (which felt like a huge insult), they respected the justice system. I know we can’t truly compare the cases since the killers of Eve Carson were found guilty (but spared the death sentence, per a direct request from the Carson family).
Like the Eve Carson, Trayvon Martin lost his life too young. It was senseless and a tragedy. It didn’t have to happen. We know George Zimmerman wishes it didn’t happen. We know he is remorseful and has to live the rest of his life knowing that he took the life of a young teen. The death of someone so young touches all of us in a particularly profound way and our natural reaction is to blame the other person. It’s hard to imagine that such a young individual can bear some responsibility for the tragedy. But we have to respect that the laws in the case are applied properly and applied fairly, as they were intended when they were enacted. And we have to try to resist the temptation to see racial animus where none exists otherwise racial tension will continue and trust never builds.
Part II: Post-Verdict
On Friday, July 19, President Obama offered some heartfelt remarks on what it’s like to be a black youth in America. He didn’t question the jury’s verdict, but he spoke in unusually personal terms about the history and experiences that shape the way African-Americans, in particular, see cases like the present one. He spoke about what it’s like to be a black male in the United States and how it likely affected or influenced how they viewed the events of that fateful night in Sanford, Florida. I give the president a lot of credit for speaking so candidly and so personally on the topic because the last time he decided to weigh in, he did so prematurely and without knowing the facts (or reporting them fairly), and he was criticized for it. In this country, we like to give the accused the benefit of the doubt and assume he is innocent until proven guilty (unless, of course, there is a confession or incontrovertible proof of guilt). We try to avoid a rush-to-judgment. Unfortunately, on the two occasions that President Obama offered an opinion, he assisted in exacerbating racial tensions and presenting to the county a skewed version of what really happened.
In 2009, he caught heat when he criticized the Cambridge police for arresting an African-American Harvard professor named Henry Louis Gates. He assumed, and led the country to assume, that the Cambridge police engaged in stereotyping and racial profiling when they arrested professor Gates. After commenting that the Cambridge police “acted improperly,” President Obama reminded the nation that African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States have long been familiar with racial profiling by law enforcement. “There’s a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a sign of how race remains a factor in this society.” What happened was this: A police officer responded to a call that there was a “potential burglary in progress” (A woman noticed that 2 men were trying to pry open the lock. There was no mention of race on the call). When the officer found Professor Gates trying to jimmy open the lock to his house (the taxi driver, I believe was helping him), he asked him to step back and provide ID, which was the routine protocol for such a situation. Professor Gates responded with racial insults (all caught on police radio transmission) and was then arrested for disorderly conduct. But President Obama turned it into an improper racial profiling case, and the police were the “bad guys” in the incident. Empowered by the president’s remarks, professor Gates demanded an apology by the Cambridge police and wanted the officer reprimanded. The chief of police, however, remained steadfast in his support of the officer and how he responded to the incident.
Even President Obama’s observation last March that if he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin, prompted objections from some, like Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative scholar who sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She admonished: “I don’t think the racial climate in this country is helped when the president wades into what are always turbulent, racial waters and stirs things up, which is what he did.”
And so with the backlash from these incidents, it is with courage that the President took to the podium to speak from the heart. These are the words he offered:
“The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a — in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.
But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.
And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that — that doesn’t go away. There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.
And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.
And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.
The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.
Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.
We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.
And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent — using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.
So — so folks understand the challenges that exist for African- American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it or — and that context is being denied.
And — and that all contributes, I think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.
A dialogue on race necessarily involves other perspectives. The following incident was told to me by someone I know well, who goes to the same church as my family, and who is one of the most decent, loving individuals I know. I am recounting it as best as I remember it.
One day, this woman had some children over her house for a play date with her own girls. It was getting late and the kids were hungry and asked for pizza. So she went out to order a pizza. She said she went to a Dominos (I think) and as she was looking in her purse for the coupon she brought with her, she happened to notice that the place was empty, except for the employees inside. There was a car at the very end of the parking area with 2 or 3 teens (young adults) in it, which she noticed were all African-American. They weren’t doing anything except watching what was going on inside the pizza place and watching her. It didn’t make sense why they parked off in a particularly darker part of the parking lot instead of parking in front of the door and front display since they could have had their choice of any parking spot. Except for the Dominos, the area was very dark. She said she sat in her car for awhile, over 15 minutes, catching up on a few phone calls and then making a call to her house to talk to her children and ask what kind of pizza, drinks, etc they wanted. When she noticed that the teens in the car at the far end of the parking area were still sitting there and not going inside to pick up a pizza, she said she got nervous, left the Dominos, and decided to go elsewhere for fast food. The only thought in her mind at that moment was the rash of violent crimes that had struck the establishments along that very road in the past months, all perpetrated by African-Americans. She had seen the news and had read the papers. Crime, in the area, she noted, had a color. The next part of the story, I remember very clearly. She said she couldn’t immediately go anywhere else for food for the kids because she felt sick to her stomach for what she did. She pulled over and started crying. She knew she had judged those teens, most likely incorrectly, and wondered if, out of her own heightened sense of security and fear of being harmed, she made a horrible judgment call which called into question her own character. The tears flowed because she had grown up in a house that taught inclusion and color-blindedness and because her friendships and associations were built on important things like shared interests, mutual respect, religious fellowship, and compatible personalities. Race was never a filter. Yet she left the Dominos because, all said and done, the teens were African-American. They fit a profile…. a profile that was directly linked to crime.
She said she hated herself for what she did and had never told anyone about it because of the shame she felt.
When I heard President Obama speak candidly about what goes through the mind of an African-American, I remembered what this woman had confided in me. From what I gather, she is not the only person to have such thoughts. And what I also gather is that when I hear people, often white people, confess that they’ve had such thoughts, they feel terrible about it, believe it has nothing to what’s in their hearts, and are angry that societal factors forced them to have them.
No one talks about what goes through the mind of a white person, except when it is insinuated that it involves some racial bias. White people can’t speak candidly because whatever they say on such a topic is automatically labeled as racist or twisted to sound racist. And so no one speaks up.
The reason the lady left the Dominos parking lot was because she was looking out for her own safety. She looked at the situation – the darkness of the area, the time of night, the position of the car (which didn’t make sense to her), and the length of time the teens were sitting in the car – and compared it to the rash of crime in the area. She made a judgment call, in order to err on the side of safety. She left, yes, but it offended her conscience. She didn’t leave the scene because she is a racist or because she thinks African-Americans are any different than she is. She left because of crime statistics. Her heart was right and has always been right. This woman was torn between doing what was right and doing what was also right… looking out for her safety and not judging a person either wholly or in part because of color. Unfortunately, with crime running so rampant in our communities, everyone has to take some responsibility to be proactive when it comes to safety.
The woman indeed had every right to look out for her own safety. There should be no pressure in our society to sacrifice one’s right to be safe and to err on the side of safety for the sake of outwardly showing tolerance. And people shouldn’t be judged for putting safety before tolerance. What right-minded person wouldn’t want themselves and their families to be safe and not subject to violent crime?
Sometimes a white woman clutches her bag or doesn’t go into a convenience store late at night in certain areas or avoids certain parts of town not because she is a racist but because she has been bombarded with statistics that suggest she might not be safe. That white woman would clutch her bag if she encountered anyone – regardless of color – that was dressed like a thug or carried themselves as a thug. She would just as soon clutch her bag if a white boy came across as a troublemaker.
Sometimes men volunteer for their neighborhood’s Community Watch because they want to help make sure their wives and children aren’t a victim of crime. They want their families to feel safe, which is everyone’s natural right. In a Community Watch program, part of that responsibility is making sure that a person who doesn’t belong in that community is not there for no good, which means the first responsibility is to determine who belongs and then to keep an eye on the intruder.
Without a doubt, the Trayvon Martin case has initiated a national dialogue on race relations. The hope is that all said and done, we see there is no real racial animus in our country. We hope that other factors – neutral factors – are the reasons we have the type of tension that President Obama referred to. We can address the issues that bring unnecessary attention to race, but true racism (prejudice or discrimination directed against someone of a different race simply because of a diminished opinion of that race) is much harder to fix. It’s something most of us can’t understand because we’ve grown up learning about slavery and the horrible and unjust policies of discrimination, Jim Crow, and segregation and we know that it took almost 100 years to fix darkened hearts. We know that color and ethnicity doesn’t change what’s inside all of us and our hope is that racial animus is finally a part of our nation’s past.
With that in mind, I read a commentary on race which mocks the potential such a dialogue can result in. Sally Zelikovsky wrote the following in American Thinker this week:
“When I awoke this morning and looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that I had undergone a fundamental transformation. I was no longer myself. I had become…. a racist. I didn’t do it to myself. I’ve always been sensitive to race. I don’t support racism or racists. I’ve never considered myself racist and don’t think others would consider me a racist. How could I be one now? I never enslaved anyone, prevented them from working or voting or living in my neighborhood or joining my clubs. I don’t think there was any proof that George Zimmerman did either.
But now I know if I ever cross or injure a black person — no matter how justified my actions might be — there is a presumption that I am a racist.
I don’t like it at all. It isn’t true. But here I am, non-racist me trapped inside this new racist body I’ve been assigned. My actions and beliefs are irrelevant. Society has decreed this is who I am. Like alien pods taking control over our slumbering bodies, unstoppable forces have gradually been redirecting our programming as a society so that any time a minority is harmed or disliked by a white person, the precipitating cause of the harm or dislike is ipso facto racism.
After the Zimmerman verdict, many white people woke up just like me, realizing that we will be deemed haters whenever we interact with non-whites and something goes wrong — no matter what our motivation or innermost thoughts are. Most of us didn’t grow up this way. Quite the opposite. I was taught never to hate and only to judge people by their actions and not by their color, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Didn’t Martin Luther King say we should judge a man by “the content of his character, not by his color of his skin”?
Use of racism to implement an agenda or get one’s way, has been building over years. This isn’t news to any of you. Anytime you fire someone who is a minority, you must have documentation backing up your non-racist justifications. Even if you have pages and testimony to bolster your decision, you still could be confronted with an unpleasant lawsuit identifying you as a ‘discriminator.’
Even though we are supposed to be a color-blind, post-racial society, groups and individuals force us to think about race all the time. We have become a hyper-racial society. Furthermore, since very few of us want to be labeled with anything as odious as ‘racist,’ we will do anything – including keeping incompetents in our employ – to avoid the moniker. Nevertheless, as careful as many whites are to avoid doing anything that would saddle us with such epithets, time and time again it is thrust upon us with the goal of serving someone else’s purpose – regardless how we actually conduct ourselves.
If you don’t like your black neighbor because you have a personality clash, you are a racist.
If you complain about a black clerk in a store because she wasn’t helpful, you are a racist.
If you oppose affirmative action, you are a racist.
If you disagree with a black President’s ideology and disapprove of his policies, you most definitely are a racist.
If you were a juror in the Trayvon Martin case and found George Zimmerman not guilty, you must be a racist. Heck, the entire system that acquitted Zimmerman must be racist. Those shots were fired not out of self-defense but because of racism. And we know that for a fact, because Trayvon was black and Zimmerman white.
Whether or not he did or did not provoke the confrontation with Trayvon, the wimpy George Zimmerman’s last thoughts must have been ‘I’m going to kill a black man because I don’t like blacks’ as opposed to ‘This guy is bashing my head in and I better do something before I lose consciousness.’
In trials like this – where you have one-on-one action with little else to go on – and you want to prove racism, you are either forced to: (1) look at surrounding evidence, statements and circumstances and try to re-construct what you think the state of mind or intent of the accused was, or (2) intuit what the accused was thinking, in other words, jump into his mind and make the leap from assumption to assumption. While there was a credible eye witness who saw Trayvon beating up Zimmerman, if hate is to be the crime on trial, then we are compelled to examine the thoughts of the perpetrator and the victim, even though we have no way of ever knowing what they really were. Until we can read someone’s thoughts as if they were files on a computer, we are treading into dangerous territory.
These are the kind of cases that try men’s souls. For lawyers, judges and jurors, they are the hardest to prove, preside over and cast a verdict on. Because we are a system that errs on the side of innocence, requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt and lays that burden on the accuser, these cases usually don’t result in warm comfort for anyone – especially the family of either the accused or the victim. No one really wins; everyone feels like they lost; the victim’s family doesn’t get closure; the accused can never live in peace in a hyper-racial society; and the public is unsettled because any one of us, at any time, of any color, could be either Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman.
On top of all this, some in the public – MSNBC, loonies on the left, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and the minions they have summoned to protest – want us to further restrict the self-defense laws that protect all of us in these situations. This means it would be even harder for you to shoot an intruder or rapist or pedophile when protecting yourself or your family. This means people will hesitate before coming to the aid of a neighbor or being a Good Samaritan. This means when someone robs your store at gunpoint, you have to succumb to injury or death. This means when your daughter or son is raped, they must yield and never fight back because self-defense will no longer be available to them. This would be a return to the lawlessness of the Wild West where anything goes and your only justice is revenge. Call it feudal, barbaric, mob rule or lawlessness: either way, it is the unraveling of the criminal justice system in America and a giant step back for mankind.
Do we really want to throw the self-defense baby out with the racism bathwater?
Most of these cases are admittedly hard to prove — that’s why our system errs on the side of innocence. It’s better to let a guilty man go free than incarcerate an innocent one. If you were the accused, believe me, this would be your mantra. I wonder if the race industry has any idea what they are clamoring for by restricting the claim of self-defense. Black-on-black crime is the overwhelming source of crime against blacks in America. If the Zimmerman protesters have their way and a black intruder breaks into the home of a black family and is shot dead by the homeowner, the homeowner will more likely be the criminal on trial than the perp, as we have seen in the Ron Dixon case in Brooklyn, where a Jamaican family man killed an intruder (whose race isn’t clear in the reports) and was shockingly sentenced to jail for illegally possessing a gun. We will be cutting off our self-defense noses to spite our racial anger faces. This all stems from intense vitriol for past sins most of us had nothing to do with and would never condone. The sins of America’s past are being visited upon America’s present and future regardless of the sensibility of doing so. My heart breaks that slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the KKK, lynching, and discrimination ever existed. Every reasonable human being feels this way. But this continued pay back has to stop.
Is this the future we have to look forward to? Where every move we make has to be weighed against the ethnicity, race, religion or sexual orientation of the other guy?
To add more fuel to the fire, pundits like MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell reported that one of the six Zimmerman jurors seems to be pulling back on her decision now that she’s been out of sequestration and has been exposed to the uproar over this case. If she hadn’t been sequestered, she might have rendered a very different verdict. But this is precisely why we sequester juries. The public often acts emotionally, irrationally and like a mob — motivated and reacting to concerns and agendas that go beyond justice and fairness. We intentionally sequester juries so they are not influenced by the mob but, rather, render a verdict based on the facts and evidence presented at trial, following a system of laws that are equally applied to us all, creating reliability and consistency in outcomes.
As we are forced to introduce race into the verdict calculation, I wonder if the black men who said “This is for Trayvon” and beat up a white jogger, will be charged and prosecuted for a hate crime and be tarred as racists in the press and court of public opinion? How will the Sharpton minions insist on treating the black man who pounded a white woman in the face when, confronted with a mob of protesters, she rolled down her window to ask them to let her car pass as they needed to get her granddaughter to the hospital?
I understand that I am a racist. But, aren’t we all racists now?
Again, the Trayvon Martin case has initiated a national dialogue on race relations. The hope is that it will be a productive one and not one that causes more mistrust or hard feelings on all sides. No one is saying that instances of racism don’t exist. They exist and we know that. We also know, more clearly than ever, that they exist now on both sides.
As long as we continue to interject race into everything, we further emphasize our differences. We continue to emphasize that our differences as more important than what we share in common. How do we teach our children that we are all the same when society stresses just the opposite? I began the article with a question that was asked by a professional basketball player: “What am I supposed to tell my children?” Aren’t we all being burdened unnecessarily with finding a way to discuss race with our children? I thought my generation grew up colorblind. Everyone I know did.
So, we know what goes through the mind and burdens the heart of African-Americans in this country. And hopefully, we can also appreciate what goes through the mind and burdens the heart of non-African-Americans. The problem is the crime we suffer in our communities. And we have to look at those who are more prone to violence and find out how to stop it so that it in order for citizens to protect themselves against it, they don’t have to violate the civil rights of those who are abiding the law or be accused of intentionally doing so. And in return, having their own civil rights violated.
Zimmerman- Trayvon Interactive Map – http://www.hlntv.com/interactive/2013/06/17/zimmerman-trayvon-map-interactive
“National Youth Gang Survey Analysis: Demographics,” National Gang Center – http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Survey-Analysis/Demographics
Scott Horsley, “Obama Breaks His Silence on the Trayvon Martin Verdict,” NPR, July 20, 2013.
Referenced at: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/20/203816155/obama-breaks-his-silence-on-trayvon-martin-verdict
Transcript, President Obama’s remarks on Race and on the Trayvon Martin Verdict, Friday, July 19 — http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-full-transcript/2013/07/19/5e33ebea-f09a-11e2-a1f9-ea873b7e0424_story.html
Sally Zelikovsky, “Birth of a Racist,” American Thinker, July 20, 2013. Referenced at:http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/birth_of_a_racist.html


King's death at the age of 89 has been documented as a result of Alzheimer's disease and other contributing factors.
bb king dead at 89 - b.b. king
Coroner finds no evidence B.B. King was poisoned
BB King performs at Club Nokia on November 11, 2011 in Los Angeles (Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP)
B.B. King performs in concert at the Tennessee Theater, Tuesday, May 27, 2014 in Knoxville, Tenn. (Photo by Wade Payne/Invision/AP Images)
B. B. King responds to cheers from the crowd after he was given the keys to the city of Manchester, Tenn., during his performance at the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester on Saturday, June 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Blues music legend BB King performs on Framptonâs Guitar Circus 2013 Tour at Pier Six Pavilion on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, in Baltimore. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)
Bluesman extraordinaire, B.B. King, is set for a concert, Wednesday, December 7 in UCLAâs Royce Hall at 8:30 p.m. (AP Photo)
US Blues legend B.B. King performs on the Stravinski Hall stage during the 43rd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Sunday, July 12, 2009. (KAP Photo/KeystoneLaurent Gillieron)
In a Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, photo, B.B. King poses backstage with his award for Best Traditional Blues Album for "One Kind Favor" at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Indianola, Miss. favorite son B.B. King's global popularity is packing 'em in at the B.B. King Blues Museum. A year after its opening, the museum and associated Delta Interpretative Center has drawn about 30,000 visitors, boosting tax collections in the Mississippi Delta town where the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/guitarist once made his living on a cotton plantation. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
B.B. King passes a guitar pick to an audience member at Club Nokia on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Shea Walsh)
John Mayer, left, shakes hands with B.B. King after performing at "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live" in Los Angeles on Wednesday Dec. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Blues guitarist B.B. King at a Hollywood party, August 28, 1978 in Los Angeles. B.B.âs real name is Riley B. King. He became known as B.B. from a shortening of his nickname âBlues Boy.â King was played the blues for more than 30 years. (AP Photo/Huynh)
B.B. King pauses during a media tour of the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008, in Indianola, Miss. More than a half-century after King left Indianola in search of fame, the $15 million B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Center has opened in his hometown and is as much a tribute to him and his blues music as the culture that inspired it. (AP Photo/Matthew S. Gunby)
B.B. King greets a crowd of media and fans before answering questions during a media tour of the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008 in Indianola, Miss. More than a half-century after King left Indianola in search of fame, the $15 million B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Center has opened in his hometown and is as much a tribute to him and his blues music as the culture that inspired it. (AP Photo/Matthew S. Gunby)
Musician B.B. King performs at the opening night of the 87th season of the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Friday, June 20, 2008. King was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Blues legend B.B. King is shown during an interview in Los Angeles Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
B.B. King performs at the JVC Jazz Festival, Sunday, August 12, 2007, in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
B.B. King performs at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, Saturday, July 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Guitarist B.B. King left, and an accompanist entertain Saturday, April 21, 1980 crowds at the opening of the 1980 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. (AP Photo)
B.B. King talks to the media and a gathering of fans at the Hard Rock Cafe Tuesday, July 24,2007 as he launches his "2007 Blues Festival" tour at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fla.(AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND MARCH 31-APRIL 1 ** Blues legend B.B. King is shown on June 10, 2006, in his tour bus, alongside his trusty laptop computer in Philadelphia, Miss. While the laptop will never take the place of his guitar Lucille, King uses the computer to play a few hands of solitaire or other similar card games to relax and stay mentally sharp. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Blues musician B.B. King played to a packed auditorium of residents and press at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, Mass., Monday, April 3, 1978. King has been playing to prison crowds since 1972 when he and Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey formed the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation, an inmate services organization. (AP Photo)
Blues musician B.B. King, left, James Cotton, center, and Muddy Waters perform together at radio city music hall in New York on Friday, June 29, 1979. The three bluesmen got together at the Newport Jazz Festival concert that was billed as a âtribute to Muddy Watersâ. (AP Photo/Perez)
B.B. King sings to the graduates of Brown University after receiving an honorary Doctor of Music degree during Brown University's 239th Commencement in Providence, R.I., Sunday, May 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
Legendary american bluesman B.B. King performs on a Montreux Jazz boat, during the cruise "Missippi Blues Boat celebrating B.B. King" across lake Leman, at the 40th Montreux Jazz Festival at of Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday July 2, 2006. (AP Photo/KEYSTONE/POOL/Martial Trezzini)
Blues great B.B. King performs for President Bush during a celebration of Black Music Month in the East Room of the White House in Washington Monday, June 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Legendary bluesman B.B. King, photographed during a June 10, 2006 concert in Philadelphia, Miss., is embarking on a 16-city summer blues festival tour beginning July 24, 2007.(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Legendary US-american bluesman B.B. King performs on the Auditorium Stravinski Hall stage during the 39th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 4, 2005. The festival will last until July 16. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)
Legendary U.S. bluesman B. B. King performs during the Live at Sunset Festival, in Zurich, Switzerland, Monday, July 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Keystone, Dorothea Mueller)
Close-up of Blues guitarist B.B. King in 1987. (AP Photo)
Blues musician B.B. King wipes his eyes as he performs during the funeral for music legend Ray Charles at the First AME Church in Los Angeles, Friday, June 18, 2004. Charles died last week at 73. (AP Photo/Genaro Molina, Pool)
American blues legend B.B. King performs Monday, July 22, 2002 in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the Blue Balls Festival. (AP Photo/Keystone/Urs Flueeler)
A group of prisoners at the Dade County stockade listen to B.B. King entertained them outside their cells, Sept. 23, 1971 in Miami, Fla. King said he first sang to prisoners at the Cook County jail in Chicago and plans about a dozen more such performances. (AP Photo)
Blues legend B.B.King poses next to a statue dedicated to him in Montreux, Switzerland, Friday, July 5, 2002, shortly before the opening of the 36th Montreux Jazz Festival. The festival will last until July 20. (AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Martial Trezzini)
US. Jazz guitarist B.B. King sings during his performance on stage in the Stravinski hall during the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, Wednesday night, July 12, 2000. The festival will last until July 22nd. (AP Photo/Martial Trezzini)
Blues legend B.B. King performs at the Cirkus scene of Skansen outdoor museum in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday March 10 1997. Seventytwo-year old BB King still plays his guitar "Lucille" which he uses since the early fifties. (AP photo/Jack Mikrut)
Musician B.B. King performing, July 20, 1978. (AP Photo)
U.S. bluesman B.B. King during his performance at the 'Blues Night' of the 31st Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, Tuesday night, July 8, 1997. (AP Photo/Keystone/Patrick Aviolat)
Billy Idol, left, and B.B. King introduce the winners of the Best Hard Rock category, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, during the 35th annual Grammy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1993. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Blues great B.B. King reacts to applause during an all-star jam press conference at New Yorkâs Downtime, Monday, June 22, 1992 in New York. King, together with Buddy Guy, Dr. John and the Fabulous Thunderbirds announced Blues Music Festival â92, a 25-city U.S. tour this summer that will include a food drive in each city. King said âNo one should go to bed hungry.â (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Blues legend John Lee Hooker, left, celebrates his birthday and receives greetings from fellow bluesman B.B. King at a party in New York Tuesday, August 21, 1991. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
B.B. King live in concert at The Kool Jazz Festival in New York, NY on July 2, 1983. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez)
FILE - In this Jan. 15, 1992, file photo, Bobby "Blue" Bland, left, receives his award for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from B.B. King during induction ceremonies in New York. Bland's son Rodd said his father died Sunday, June 23, 2013, at his Memphis home surrounded by relatives. He was 83. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater gets down to some sounds as he performs with legendary blues guitarist B.B. King during a Republican party gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Jan. 29, 1990. The black-tie affair, which was attended by President and Mrs. Bush and other GOP leaders, celebrated the first anniversary of the Bush administration. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)
Close-up of Blues guitarist B.B. King in 1987. (AP Photo)
Jazz guitarist B.B. King performs before an enthusiastic audience, Friday, June 28, 1986 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. In addition to playing the guitar, King Sang, most often meandering blues like âAinât Nobody Home.â (AP Photo/Rick Maiman)
Musician B.B. King was a presenter at the Grammy Awards, Feb. 21, 1990. (AP Photo/Pizac)
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Among them were coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and congestive heart failure.
The children who raised suspicions that other factors were at play did so separately, but with exactly the same statements.
Their affidavits targeted King's personal assistant Myron Johnson and his business manager LaVerne Toney.
King's daughters also accused Johnson and Toney of neglect.
An attorney for Toney called the assertions 'defamatory' and 'libelous'.
He said to US Magazine, "Unfortunately even musical icons die. Ms. Toney did everything she could to carry out the wishes of Mr. King while he was alive, and continues to carry out Mr. King's wishes after his death."


text:
Japan's Nissan Motor Co., seeking to catch up with rivals such as Toyota in energy-saving motoring, said April 13 it aimed to become a leader in electric vehicles through a joint venture with NEC Corp. Nissan and NEC said they would invest 490 million yen (US$4.1 million) in the 50-50 joint venture, to be named Automotive Energy Supply Corp. (AESC), in the aim of mass production of lithium-ion batteries for cars by 2009.
Japan's number two automaker said it would launch its own electric vehicle powered by the lithium-ion batteries by the early part of the next decade. It will also use batteries developed by the venture in its own hybrid vehicle by 2010 and accelerate the development of hybrid plug-in technology that can use grid power to recharge batteries as well as onboard charging.
Nissan said it would try to sell the technology to rival automakers. There are currently no plans to build a new plant to produce the batteries.
"We aim to be the leading company in mass production of lithium-ion batteries for the global automotive community," said Nissan executive vice president Carlos Tavares. "We believe that lithium-ion batteries will become the key power source for the future generations of electric-powered green vehicles," he said.
The dream of an electric car, which has been around since the time of Thomas Edison, has so far failed to break into the mainstream because of limited battery life that makes such vehicles impractical for most purposes.
Nissan is not the only automaker chasing the dream -- Toyota Motor Corp. has a joint venture in batteries with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Under a green push it announced last year, Nissan also aims to introduce a vehicle running entirely on bio-ethanol fuel for the Brazilian market by 2009 and launch a next-generation fuel cell early in the next decade.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

domain: economics


text:
- Brand: Klaire Labs
- Product Code: l-carnosine-500-mg-KL
- Servings per Container: 90
- Quantity per Container: 90 Capsules
Natural Support Health Skin And Tissues
Klaire Labs L-Carnosine 500 mg is a dietary supplement that may help your body avoid tissue damage from free radicals and protein glycation.
Produced through the chemical combination of amino acids beta-alanine and histidine, l-carnosine may help support healthy cell function.
It may do this by reducing the risk of free radical damage and inhibiting protein glycation, a principal cause of accelerated aging of brain, skin, and other body tissues.
Free radicals may make your body's cells less stable, aging your body.
And glycation happens when sugars are eaten and the glucose enters your bloodstream.
These sugars bind with proteins and form a new molecule, advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.
As these AGEs multiply, the may affect collagen and elastin, the compounds responsible for keeping our skin firm and elastic.
This may result in sagging, wrinkled skin.
1 capsule contains:
Other Ingredients: Vegetarian capsule (hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, water), microcrystalline cellulose, silicon dioxide, and magnesium stearate.
Contains NO: milk, casein, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, gluten, soybeans, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
Adults: 1 capsule, 1 to 2 times daily between meals or as recommended by a healthcare professional.
If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medications or have a medical condition, please consult your healthcare practitioner before use. Keep out of the reach of children.

domain: medical


text:
RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) - There's a new nonprofit group working to help hungry children in Vermont.
It's called Gabriel's Children of the Green Mountains.
The Rutland organization plans to start making nighttime soup deliveries by March to children. Hurley Cavacas, a member of the board of directors, tells the Rutland Herald that cutbacks to the food stamp program hurt families and demand as risen at the food shelf.
Cavacas said children are getting breakfast and lunch at school, but they're not getting supper.
The group is trying to set up a kitchen and is holding its first major fundraiser Friday at the Paramount Theatre.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

domain: sociology


text:
Getting creakier? You may want to ease up with age, but you don't have to stop
Andrea Evian does not do things half-heartedly. As a child, she grew up playing all kinds of sports, and her exercise habit was set for life. Now 55, she skis every weekend during the winter, plays tennis a couple of times a week, and hits the gym six days out of seven for spinning classes, kickboxing, or weightlifting. All that activity has landed her in the orthopedist's waiting room more than once: She's had a ligament in her knee and one rotator cuff repaired and has arthritis in her feet. Her orthopedic surgeon jokes she should get frequent-flier miles for her visits. She's slowed down some-cutting back a bit on tennis, avoiding the high-impact aerobics classes she used to take-but by no means is she stopping. "I don't give up too easily," she says.
That may as well be the motto of her entire generation, already famous (or infamous) for the stamp they've left on every life stage through which they've passed. A constant has been fitness: This is the group that jogged along with Jim Fixx, got physical to the strains of Olivia Newton-John, and led the walking boom. Now they're in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and if you think they're going to gracefully accept the limitations of old age-well, that just isn't going to happen. Nor, really, do they have to: Advances in orthopedics and sports medicine mean that the injuries that used to sideline anyone with a hint of gray hair can now be fixed. With an eye to prevention, boomers can stay on the playing field for years. And those who missed the first several exercise revolutions have no excuse not to start now. Humans weren't designed to be sedentary, experts note.
But were they designed to play three hard sets of tennis, five days a week, well into their 60s? Maybe not. The unprecedented increase in life expectancy (from 47 years for a child born in 1900 to nearly 78 for a child born in 2004) in the past century means "we've got a mismatch between longevity and durability," says Nicholas DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon who practices in Havertown, Pa., and is the author of Framework, a guide to developing a sustainable routine. That can lead to what he calls "boomeritis": the panoply of injuries ("tendinitis, bursitis, arthritis, and fix-me-itis") that accumulates after middle age.
A paper on the aging athlete published in October 2005 in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists the effects of aging on the musculoskeletal system. Among them: Bones lose density and strength; ligaments and tendons stiffen, lose circulation, and become more vulnerable to injury; cartilage becomes stressed and susceptible to tearing; and muscle mass decreases. Many of these effects can be improved by exercise, but they also make people more vulnerable to injury: Sports injuries are second only to the common cold as a reason to go to the doctor, according to a report published in 2003.
When prevention fails, medicine is increasingly able to keep injuries from ending an athlete's run. "When I was in training 25 or 30 years ago, if you were over 40 and had an anterior cruciate ligament tear, you got a brace and you lived with it," says DiNubile. "Surgery was a major intervention; the results weren't that great, and recovery took six months or a year." No longer. Thanks to new technology, ACL reconstructions can be done with a 1-inch incision, and age is no longer a limiting factor. "If you'd have told me years ago I'd be operating on a 60-year-old, I wouldn't have believed you," he says.

domain: health


text:
Examine the village 13 across the lake. This is just trial and error. One way to solve it is to have the top head in place looking straight at you and the center and bottom heads lined up together anywhere else. The Telescope is out of focus. Rated 5 out of 5 by kunjsoni from hidden object game i love the game it is awesome even u all play Date published:
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The hero's constant comments about food might be amusing to some, while annoying to others; but they should not keep you from enjoying the game. Shockwave is the ultimate destination to play games. London Howling Walkthrough Immortal Love: This is a spin off of 'indiana jones' in a way.
Hide and Secret > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game | Big Fish
Even ad you find go into inventory. At that point pull the right lever 2 until all 3 heads are lined up in looking at you.
Watch sdcret end scene. Put the Tiles on the puzzle on the Gate and recreate the picture. Exit Up to the Broken Bridge. You need the constellations for Sagittarius, Virgo, Aries, and Pisces to solve the puzzle.
Go see the Chief in the Village across the Lake. Rated 4 out of 5 by tesamoine from Hide and Secret 2 I just got around to trying this game after reading it as another reviewer's favorite games.
I enjoy playing games wherein you can use inventory items that make sense to the task at hand as well as have a hint button that CLEARLY explains the next step s necessary to continue on in the game -- if you get stuck. Other changes in this game are more "drastic," however. You will not be able to cut the Bamboo yet. Zoom in to complete the Hidden Object Scene. The hidden objects where somehow easy to find.
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Hide and Secret: The Lost World
Rated 4 out of 5 by mspaws from Oldie but goodie! Check us out on: The Nautilus is a shell.
You will find that out later. Exit Down to the Base Camp. Click on the Journal to read it. Reassemble the picture of the Lake.
Easy HOS, quite a few. This is the Lake.
Hide and Secret: The Lost World > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game | Big Fish
We hope you hiide this information useful as you play your way through the game. Secure Form Forgot your password? The tree stump will be sparkling. Zoom in on the right control panel. Third-party trademarks are used solely for distributing the games indexed herein and no license or other affiliation is implied.
The Rack is the triangular set of billiard balls. Examine the Blue Light Device. Find the Up Exit by the Warrior and use it to cross the Lake. You will receive a KEY. Once the picture is assembled, collect the OAR B.

domain: hobby


One-third of people recently diagnosed with asthma may not actually have the condition, according to a new study from Canadian researchers that raises questions about rates of misdiagnosis.
Even though the asthma of some study subjects might have gone into remission, the findings suggest many others were wrongly diagnosed, possibly because doctors did not send them for simple lung-function tests.
"It just astounds me," said Shawn Aaron, senior scientist and respirologist at the Ottawa Hospital and lead author of the study, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Only half of the patients are getting the right testing, which sort of floors me."
From January, 2012, to February, 2015, the researchers looked at more than 600 people in Canada's 10 largest cities and their surrounding areas who were diagnosed with asthma in the five years before they joined the study. The researchers tested patients and reduced their medication use to assess whether the diagnoses were accurate, and determined that 203 of 613 participants did not have active asthma.
After a year, the researchers found more than 90 per cent of the patients who did not have asthma were able to stay off of medication. After one year, six out of the 203 individuals had to return to medication, while another 16 had positive tests indicating asthma but did not need drugs. The rest remained well and tested negative for asthma, Dr. Aaron said.
Less than half of those diagnosed with asthma who were found not to have it, or 44 per cent, had a lung-function test called spirometry at the time of their initial diagnosis.
Spirometry involves breathing into a tube to measure lung function and is considered more reliable in the diagnosis of asthma than looking at symptoms alone. About 35 per cent of people in that group were taking asthma medication daily and 80 per cent were also taking other types of medication, the researchers found. About 56 per cent of those whose asthma was confirmed had those tests when they were diagnosed.
Aaron, who is also a professor at the University of Ottawa, likened it to going to the doctor because of frequent urination, a symptom of many conditions, including diabetes, and being diagnosed with and treated for diabetes without further tests.
"The doctor would always, always, without exception, do blood-sugar tests prior to assigning treatment," he said, adding that when it comes to asthma, "people aren't getting the right testing."
Aaron said many of the study participants who did not actually have asthma were dealing with issues such as allergies, postnasal drip, heartburn or obesity that caused symptoms that could appear similar to asthma.
Although the lung-function test is cheap and easy to perform, health policy makers have not seen it as essential and therefore it is often difficult to access, Aaron said.
Patients may have to drive for half an hour to a hospital that can perform it, which could help explain why many patients do not have it. Instead, some doctors may prescribe treatment and, if the symptoms resolve, assume the asthma diagnosis was accurate, Aaron said.
But given that many people may be misdiagnosed, it is time for health leaders to make lung-function tests as easy to access as blood tests or X-rays, Aaron said.
Becky Hollingsworth, who lives about an hour outside Ottawa, is one of the study participants wrongly diagnosed with asthma without undergoing spirometry. She was told she had the condition after a bout of pneumonia and was taking medications to control the symptoms. She was one of the Canadians selected randomly to be part of the clinical trial, and without that, she said, she would still be receiving treatment as if she were asthmatic.
"I am very glad that the study came along and that I'm not still on asthma medication," she said.
In addition to the possibility of side effects, Hollingsworth feared her insurance rates would go up as a result of the diagnosis.
Aaron said side effects from asthma medications can include oral thrush, rapid heart rate, tremors and, over the long-term, osteoporosis, glaucoma and cataracts. Another concern is the cost of unnecessary medication, both to an individual and to the public- and private-insurance systems. He said patients should speak to their doctors about how the diagnosis was made, and that doctors should order a spirometry test before making an asthma diagnosis.
It is difficult to say how many study participants might have been misdiagnosed with asthma versus those that had the condition but experienced remission. For instance, the researchers found that 12 per cent of study participants who were found not to have asthma did have lung-function tests at the time of diagnosis. This suggests the diagnosis was accurate, but that the patients may have experienced "spontaneous remission," according to the study authors. Another 2 per cent of those who did not have asthma actually had serious cardiorespiratory conditions.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway that causes symptoms that include shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing. According to Statistics Canada, about 8 per cent of Canadians, or 2.4 million people, had asthma in 2014.


text:
I am Everton Wright Jr Owner of TheWrightAgent Real Estate Team. Before I began my career in real estate I was a full time student obtaining my degree in design from The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. When creating my real estate business I wanted to fuse the two industry of real estate and design. I learned in my first year as a agent that it isn't enough to just help clients buy and sell home.
Every client is different and will have different needs and wants. Most buyers want to purchase their dream home or something close to it. Sometimes the market doesn't have what a buyer wants. To overcome that I began to help my clients find homes that they can then remodel and create the home of their dreams. I would create a full room to room design presentation showing what I can transform the home into.
When I worked with my sellers, I came to the realization that what seller are looking for is not a real estate agent but a full time interior designer, who just so happens to hold a real estate licensed. A lot of seller want their agent to take over the selling process of their home from start to finish. This mean decluttering the home, staging it, landscaping, professional photography, and custom marketing of the home. All aspects that seems perfect for an agent who has a background in the design field. With my sellers I try to make sure they don't have to lift a finger in the process so they can focus on finding there second home or getting themself and their family ready to move.
While offering these additional design concierge services to my clients I decided to make it the DNA of my brand and decided to create TheWrightAgent Real Estate Team.

domain: design


text:
Tobacco Issues on agenda at University symposium
9 March 2006
Controversial tobacco Issues on agenda at University symposium
Robust debate about tobacco control policies is expected at "Towards a smokeless society" - a symposium taking place at The University of Auckland later this month.
Hosted by the School of Population Health, the symposium marks the establishment of the Auckland Tobacco Control Research Centre - which will be formally launched by Hon Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party.
The Centre's Director Dr Marewa Glover says the event brings together local and international experts on issues such as nicotine addiction, harm reduction strategies, and limiting cigarette sales.
"It is well-timed because there is a growing debate about the next steps New Zealand might take if it is to significantly reduce smoking rates.
"Pending prosecutions for chewing tobacco, pressure to end the sale of 'combustibles' or all tobacco products, and support in some quarters for the introduction of alternative smokeless nicotine products such as SNUS (a Swedish tobacco product) are among the topics that will be vigorously debated."
International speakers include:
MacDonald, the University of Waterloo, Canada will discuss
maximising cessation rates;
* Ron Borland the VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, Melbourne will discuss tobacco control policies;
* Anne Jones, from ASH Australia who will give an Australian view of harm reduction strategies.
A full programme can be viewed at
Symposium details are:
Date: Friday 24
Time: 8.30 am - 5 pm
Venue: Population Health Complex
The University of Auckland


text:
Roseanna M. White writes novels that range from biblical fiction to American-set romances to a British historical series. She pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she is homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself.
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domain: literature


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Vitamin D, or the sunshine vitamin, has been enjoying the media spotlight more and more in the past few years - and rightfully so - because with all the benefits it has to offer,...Read More
Natural remedies are the foundation of modern medicine. Despite what the mainstream says, what is now referred to as “alternative medicine” is without a doubt safer and in many cases more effective than mainstream treatments. Adding to that, alternative medicine offers relief from health problems that still trouble us today, like anxiety, colds and flu, stress, depression and pain relief to mention but a few.
Natural remedies encompass a range of different topics that will be explored in the subsequent categories. The alternative therapies section addresses the wider use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), encompassing for example herbal remedies as well as acupuncture. Vitamins and minerals sections discuss the crucial uses of these nutrients in the body and how best to ensure you’re getting them in appropriate quantities, whether that be nutrient rich foods or in supplement form. Herbalism is becoming increasingly more prominent today as medical costs spiral, so we discuss the widespread benefits of traditional herbs for your health.
Mainstream medicine offers plenty of gold-standard treatment protocols to help with specific health problems. While some of these address the symptoms of disease, they can cause side effects and don’t always cure the problem or provide lasting relief.
Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, natural breakthroughs come with far less side effects than pharmaceutical drugs. Those that are reported are not even close to the severity and detriment to your health as many of the side effects associated with what the mainstream has on offer. Just look at statins, the drug that’s meant to lower your cholesterol to prevent heart attacks and strokes has been shown to increase your chances of suffering from them!
The Daily Health has been scouring the planet for the latest breakthrough natural remedies that will help address and relieve some of the most common health problems today, ranging from protecting your heart to combating the signs of ageing.
Saatchi's Law is a new law under the Medical Innovations Bill that will allow doctors to experiment on dying patients with innovative new techniques or drugs when all else has fail...Read More


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Disclaimer: We are using Amazon affiliate Product Advertising API. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
The best way to find the best shampoo for yorkies at petsmart is by taking a look at what other people are buying and which brands they prefer. You can also take a look at the reviews and ratings of the product.
The following table provides concise information about how to pick a product from online:
- Consider what you want
- Find out what other people are buying
- Look at reviews and ratings
- Compare prices
- Beware of scams
Top 10 best shampoo for yorkies at petsmart Features Overview
Here are the of top 10 shampoo for yorkies at petsmart we picked and recommend.
1. Veterinary Formula Clinical Care Antiparasitic & Antiseborrheic Medicated Dog Shampoo, 16 oz – Paraben, Dye, Soap Free – Hydrating and Antifung
- GENTLE HEALING – Veterinary Formula Clinical Care Antiparasitic and Antiseborrheic Medicated Shampoo for Dogs contains coal tar, salicylic acid & micronized sulfur to help treat skin scaling caused by seborrhea and relieve mange and parasitic infections
- FAST ACTING – This medicated dog shampoo works fast to relieve symptoms including inflamed scalp, greasy or waxy skin, red skin rashes, bald spots, itch, and flaky skin associated with seborrhea, mange, parasitic, and infections
- VETERINARY RECOMMENDED – This paraben, dye & soap free pet shampoo will not remove topical spot-on flea & tick treatments and helps safely treat fungal and bacterial skin infections, skin scaling caused by seborrhea and parasitic infections
- FORMULATED FOR DOGS – Medicated antiparasitic and antiseborrheic shampoo is specifically formulated for dogs over 12 weeks of age This pH balanced treatment is ideal for your dog’s skin as human shampoos are formulated at a lower pH level (more acidic)
- EFFECTIVE & AFFORDABLE – Veterinary Formula Clinical Care premium medicated products are created with veterinary-grade ingredients but available at a price that pet parents can afford We know dogs are more than just pets because we are pet parents too
2. Multifunctional Supplements for Dogs – Glucosamine Chondroitin for Joint Support with Probiotics for Gut & Immune Health – Omega Fish Oil with An
- 8-in-1 Formula – Zesty Paws Multifunctional Bites are functional supplement chews with premium ingredients and multivitamins that support physical performance, antioxidants, hip & joint, heart, immune, skin, liver, & gut health for dogs of all ages, breeds, and sizes.
- Skin Health & Antioxidants – For animals with sensitive skin, this formula contains Cod Liver Fish Oil and Vitamin E for skin and coat health to help maintain normal moisture and Kaneka Q10 to help reduce oxidative stress – plus they contain no grain, corn or soy derivatives!
- Hip, Joint & Performance Support – Each dog chew features OptiMSM, a premium form of MSM for muscular support, which works synergistically with the Glucosamine HCl and Chondroitin Sulfate in these chews for hip and joint support plus Cod Liver Oil and B-Complex Vitamins support normal physical performance.
- Gut Health & Probiotics – These chews also contain a five-strain Probiotic Blend (500 million cfu per chew), Digestive Enzymes, and Niacin to promote healthy digestion and gut flora while supporting normal bowel function for dogs.
- Heart, Liver & Immune Health – Multifunctional Bites feature powerful antioxidants Kaneka Q10, a premium CoQ10, Cod Liver Oil and Vitamins A, C, & E to promote healthy cardiovascular function, support liver health and enhance immune response.
3. Dog Shampoo with Oatmeal and Aloe. Shea Butter for Smelly Dogs, Dry Itchy Skin, Puppy Shampoo, and Sensitive Skin by Oliver’s Choice 14 oz
- Specifically designed to deodorize, relieve itchy skin, soothe irrated skin, and leave your dog smelling amazing and their coat restored!
- Infused with a blend of Oatmeal, Aloe, and Shea Butter fragrance, this pet shampoo is safe for all dogs and puppies! This formula is also biodegradable for less pollution.
- Oliver’s Choice clinically designed formula is made in the USA, is biodegradable, paraben free, cruelty free, and naturally derived
- Safe and effective for any breed and color of dog. Leaves your pup feeling and looking incredible! You’ll love their coat after they get their bath!
- Manufacturer’s Guarantee – If for whatever reason you are unsatisfied with our product, let us know and we’ll gladly give you your money back. No questions asked.
4. Burt’s Bees for Dogs Oatmeal Dog Shampoo | With Colloidal Oat Flour & Honey | Moisturizing & Nourishing, Cruelty Free, Sulfate & Paraben Free, pH B
- SOOTHES AND SOFTENS — Burt’s Bees Oatmeal Shampoo cleans, soothes, softens, and conditions your dog’s dry skin and coat
- MADE WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY INGREDIENTS — This gentle formula includes ingredients like colloidal oatmeal, honey, and beeswax for sensitive skin
- DIRECTIONS — Apply to dog’s wet coat. Work from head to tail and rinse, carefully avoiding eyes. As is typical with natural formulas, this shampoo will only have a light lather
- SUITABLE FOR ALL DOGS AND PUPPIES — This mild tearless shampoo is pH balanced especially for all dogs and puppies
- 100% SAFE — Veterinarian recommended formula, free of fragrances, sulfates, colorants, and harsh chemicals
5. Burt’s Bees Dog Shampoo for Puppies, 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner, Buttermilk and Linseed Oil, 16 Oz
- SOOTHES AND SOFTENS — Burts Bees Puppy Shampoo and Conditioner cleans, soothes, softens, and conditions your puppy’s skin and coat
- MADE WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY INGREDIENTS — All natural ingredients include buttermilk, which soothes skin and softens hair and linseed oil, which deeply conditions your puppy’s coat
- DIRECTIONS — Apply to dog’s wet coat. Work from head to tail and rinse, carefully avoiding eyes. Shampoo will have a light lather as this solution is made with only natural ingredients that are safe and effective for your pet. Store in a cool, dry place
- SUITABLE FOR ALL DOGS AND PUPPIES — This mild shampoo and conditioner is pH balanced especially for all dogs and puppies
- 100% SAFE — Veterinarian recommended formula, free of fragrances, sulfates, colorants, and harsh chemicals
6. Wahl 4-in-1 Calming Pet Shampoo – Cleans, Conditions, Detangles, & Moisturizes with Lavender Chamomile – 24 Oz
- Made in the USA – Our lavender chamomile pet shampoo is pH balanced, alcohol free, paraben free, PEG-80 free and is highly recommended for cleaning, conditioning, detangling, & moisturizing coats
- Calming Formula – This lavender scented pet shampoo is great for cleaning dirty coats, coat conditioning & detangling, & skin moisturizing short to long coats. The thick lather rinses off clean & keeps your pet looking and smelling clean
- Less is More – Wahl has a higher concentrate of coconut derived sodding agent, which means you don’t have to use as much as other dog shampoos. A little bit of shampoo goes a long way and provides a rich lather that’s easy to rinse off
- Allergy Friendly – Our dog icon, Rocket, was designed in the image of our family dog Cooper – a golden doodle, who has severe allergies. This is the only shampoo we have found safe and effective. He loves the smell too!
- The Brand Used by Professionals – Wahl has been serving professional vets and groomers for over 50 years. clean, condition fur & hair for a smooth, soft coat. We are a company of animal lovers that want the best for your family member
7. Head and Shoulders Shampoo, Moisture Renewal, Anti Dandruff Treatment and Scalp Care, Royal Oils Collection with Coconut Oil, for Natural and Curly
- head & shoulders Royal Oils Moisture Boost Shampoo balances and restores scalp health* (*with regular use)
- Rich, creamy lather cleanses, hydrates hair and relieves dry, itchy* scalp (*associated with dandruff; with regular use)
- Expertly designed scalp relief for natural, relaxed, kinky and coily crowns
- Fresh coconut scent and long-lasting odor protection
- Free of parabens and dyes
8. Dermarest Psoriasis Medicated Shampoo and Conditioner, Unscented, Dermatologist Tested, 8 ounces, (Pack of 2)
- Relieves and helps prevent recurrence of scalp itching, irritation, redness, flaking and scaling due to psoriasis
- Formulated with 3% salicylic acid and a unique zinc complex to treat and relieve the symptoms of psoriasis; This fragrance-free shampoo plus conditioner removes and controls scalp build-up, soothes irritation, eliminates itching, and restores moisture
- Dermatologist tested and recognized by the National Psoriasis Foundation
- For best results use at least twice a week or as directed by a doctor; wet hair thoroughly, massage liberal amount of product into scalp, leave lather on for several minutes, and rinse thoroughly; repeat if needed
- Contains 2 packs of Dermarest Psoriasis Medicated Shampoo and Conditioner, 8 ounces each; FSA/HSA eligible item in the USA
9. Veterinary Formula Clinical Care Antiseptic and Antifungal Shampoo for Dogs and Cats, 16 oz – Medicated Shampoo to Relieve, Heal and Soothe Funga
- TREATS SKIN INFECTIONS – Veterinary Formula Clinical Care Antiseptic and Antifungal Medicated Shampoo for pets is scientifically formulated with benzethonium chloride (antibacterial) and ketoconazole (antifungal) to relieve bacterial & yeast infections.
- FAST ACTING – This cat/dog shampoo helps relieve symptoms including redness, malodorous discharge from lesions, itchiness, pustules, hair loss, greasiness and scaly skin caused by wounds, endocrine diseases, allergies, short coats, skin folds or ringworm.
- VETERINARY RECOMMENDED – This shampoo for dogs/cats is pH balanced for your pet and paraben and soap-free. It will not remove topical spot-on flea and tick treatments and has been proven to safely treat Bacterial Pyoderma and allergic/fungal dermatitis.
- FOR DOGS AND CATS – Medicated antiseptic and antifungal shampoo is for use on both dogs and cats over 12 weeks of age. Use twice weekly until skin conditions clear up, then once a week to prevent flare-ups.
- EFFECTIVE & AFFORDABLE – Veterinary Formula Clinical Care premium medicated products are created with veterinary-grade ingredients, available at an affordable price. We know dogs and cats are more than just pets because we are pet parents too.
- Age range description: Adolescent
10. PetHonesty Salmon SkinHealth for Dogs – Omega 3 Fish Oil for Dogs All-Natural Wild Alaskan Salmon Chews for Dogs for Healthy Skin & Coat, Helps wi
- Real Alaskan Salmon Oil – Helps Maintain Healthy Skin + Glossy Coat – These natural salmon flavored salmon oil supplement snacks are made using sustainably sourced Wild Alaskan Salmon, Kelp, Vitamin E and DHA. Each chew contains more Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids than most other salmon supplements and will help maintain moisture in the skin, support skin health, a glossy coat and may help reduce unseasonal or excessive shedding.
- Gentle, Natural + Made In The U.S.A. – At PetHonesty we’re committed to premium quality ingredients and strict safety standards. Our dog chews are made in the USA with only the highest-quality US and globally sourced ingredients derived from natural sources like salmon oil and kelp and contain NO harsh preservatives, corn, soy, GMOs or chemical ingredients.
- Soft Chews Act Like Treats That Dogs Actually Want! – Our salmon dog supplements come in the form of a delicious soft chew flavored with natural salmon that your dog will LOVE. No more hiding liquids, pills, tablets or powders in your dog’s food! Our supplement chews act like a treat and provide a bonding experience for you and your dog. 9 out of 10 dogs gobbled these up in a blind taste test.
- Also Supports Joint, Immune, Heart, And Brain Health – A powerful combination of natural ingredients in these salmon dog supplement chews make them a well-rounded nutritional supplement. In addition to improving skin and coat health, they also contain antioxidants (Vitamin C and E), help maintain a normal inflammatory response (Omegas), help support a healthy immune system (Kelp) and support heart and brain health.
- Healthier Dog. Happier You – Improving your dog’s quality of life and time you get to spend with them. Together, let’s keep our pups healthy!
There is a myriad of online stores out there, and it is impossible for one to compare the different shampoo for yorkies at petsmart as well as their prices since not all websites offer them. Online shoppers often turn to reviews and customer feedback for help, but even these are unreliable sources. Sometimes people post negative reviews just to be spiteful or angry.
The lack of insightful information online forces shoppers to rely on the information they find elsewhere, but this can lead to misinformation and incorrect purchase decisions.
Consumers can save themselves from these potential risks by turning to an AI-powered shopping assistant that provides tailored product suggestions based on their preferences.
But Amazon made the whole process easy and effortless.
Why You Trust Amazon?
As they grow increasingly popular, there are some challenges that people face when they try to purchase something on the internet. There are many reasons why people might not trust Amazon as much anymore:
- They worry about their personal information being stolen;
- They question the reliability of the website;
- Its security features and whether or not their credit card details will be safe
- The quality of products sold by third parties might not be as good
- There’s no instant gratification with online purchases;

domain: pet


DAMA UK Committee
Lisa is Director of Data and Tech Services at the Open Data Institute. She heads up an expert team offering advice and guidance to companies and governments to build an open and trustworthy data ecosystem both inside the ODI and out.
Mark's vision is for DAMA UK to be the natural home for data management professionals who look to the DMBoK for inspiration and guidance, and who aspire to hold CDMP as recognition of their professionalism.
Christopher Bradley is an Independent Information Strategist with over 40 years of Information Management experience. Chris and his team at Data Management Advisors Ltd. advise global organisations on data strategy, capability uplift, data governance, and information exploitation. Chris is VP Professional Development at DAMA International, leading the worldwide CDMP & DMBoK developments, and is an author of the DMBoK 2 and lead author and examiner for the CDMP professional certification.
In 2016, Chris became the inaugural DAMA CDMP Fellow, and Chair of the Fellowship board, receiving the DAMA lifetime achievement award for services in furthering Data Management to the International Data Management community. He is also a Director of the E&P standards committee "DMBoard", sits on several International Data standards committees, and has written several books and papers.
Sue runs a small event management and business services company and supports DAMA UK and Team Defence Information.
Sue is responsible for managing DAMA UK. Her duties include managing membership, finance, the website, the design and layout of publications, and organising events. Please contact Sue in the first instance.
Nigel is Principal Information Management consultant with Global Data Strategy Ltd., specialising in data strategy, data quality, and data governance. Overall, he has worked in data management for over 25 years. He spent much of his career in British Telecommunications (BT), where he led a company-wide data quality improvement programme and ran information management and CRM practices.
Since leaving BT, Nigel has worked in a variety of consultancy roles, providing help and advice to over 150 global companies. He is a regular speaker, trainer, and chair at information management conferences and events.
Mo has 6 years of consulting experience on large-scale, cross-sector transformation projects in Digital and Innovation spaces. These sectors include Healthcare, Life Sciences, Rail, Oil & Gas, Energy, and Infrastructure as both as a Senior Consultant and for 2 years as a Managing Consultant. Mo has worked across several domains ranging from service design to data analytics as well as process improvement.
Mo is heavily familiar with the software development life cycle and has a keen eye for Innovation and Design Thinking. Well-versed in agile methodology, SCRUM, and product ownership and management. He has been focusing his efforts on data and its management with his clients, showing his commitment to improving standards, particularly in the public sector in Scotland.
His personal and professional interests lie in innovative and emerging technology, and how he can align these to bring effective improvements to the lives of end users.
James specialises in data strategy and architecture and has 25 years of experience in data and technology across a number of industry sectors, including Financial Services, Oil and Gas, Government, and Technology. James has a proven track record of helping organisations to transform their data and technology landscapes to unlock the full potential of their data assets. James has broad experience across all data capabilities and has successfully defined data strategies, technology strategies, business cases, market appraisals, technology selection, enterprise architecture, and delivered a variety of data solutions.
James believes in the smart application of innovative technology and methods to deliver modern solutions and enable market differentiation, and has used data mesh and data lakehouse approaches as well as data science and machine learning platforms to deliver modern analytics.
Jenny is Head of Data at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, working to modernise the data infrastructure and culture at one of the UK’s oldest professional associations. She began her data career with a PhD in satellite oceanography, followed by 10 years working in research data management for the British Oceanographic Data Centre, specialising in data architecture and metadata management.
Jenny brings experience of membership engagement and collective influence from her work among established professional bodies. She is an avid learner and has recently added the CDMP practitioner badge to her quiver of qualifications.


The mayor of the central Adriatic city of Sibenik, Zeljko Buric, said on Wednesday he was pleased that the City Council had adopted comprehensive amendments to the general urban development plan, which would enable systematic development of the Sibenik area.
Buric told Hina he was also pleased that US actor Brad Pitt had expressed an interest in investing in the Zablace complex, where construction of a EUR 2 billion tourist resort is planned.
The mayor would not speculate about whether the renowned actor, who had recently visited Sibenik, would invest in the Zablace complex or not, but expressed satisfaction that Sibenik was attracting the interest of famous people.
The new development plan covers over 2,000 hectares of land and 500 hectares of maritime area. Buric said that the aim of the city administration was for Sibenik to become an Adriatic centre of green industry by 2030 and to ensure a better standard of living for its residents.


It’s all going down in Spain. On Saturday evening eight acts will sing in the grand final of Benidorm Fest 2022. But only one will survive the night and grab the chance to sing at Eurovision 2022.
The running order order was decided this afternoon during a random draw in Benidorm. Unlike at the recent Eurovision semi-final allocation, acts drew specific spots (so not just first half or second half).
Benidorm Fest Running Order for the Grand Final
3. VARRY BRAVA
5. RIGOBERTA BANDINI
7. GONZALO HERMIDA
8. BLANCA PALOMA
Rayden, who finished second in Semi-Final 2, will open the show with his song “Calle de la llorería”. The entry, which inspires a lot of clapping, is a solid opener and should encourage viewers to stick around for a night or quality music and effective staging.
Tanxugueiras, considered strong contenders in the public vote, perform second followed by Varry Brava, who came fourth in the first semi-final.
And then come two of the big favourites: Semi-Final 1 winner Chanel will sing “SloMo” in position four, which Semi-Final 2 winner Rigoberta Bandini will sing “Ay mama” (and wheel her giant breast globe) on stage in spot five.
Xeinn and Gonzalo Hermida compete in spots six and seven.
Blanca Paloma closes the show with her beautiful ballad “Secreto de agua”, which features some stunning visuals, as when the floor becomes a sea of water. Queen of the sea!


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HAZMAT Incidents / Friday, July 1, 2022 @ 9:51 a.m.
Petroleum Incident in Trinidad
A new hazardous materials incident involving petroleum has been reported to the California Office of Emergency Services.
According to a report published by the office, the incident took place at or near waterways in Trinidad at around 9:20 a.m. today.
Here’s the description of the incident that was recorded by the Office of Emergency Services:
Per NRC: “Caller reported that an unknown oil sheen was found at the waterway area near the address location provided. The source and cause of the sheen is unknown. Caller also reported that there is a construction site near the area of the sheen, but cannot confirm if the sheen came from the mentioned site. The sheen has a petroleum odor.”
Remedial Action: None
Sheen Color: Rainbow
Sheen Odor Description: Petroleum Odor
Sheen Travel Direction:
Sheen Size Length: 50 Feet
Sheen Size Width: 50 Feet
This was the second hazardous materials incident recorded by the Office of Emergency Services in the Trinidad area this year and the 35th petroleum spill in the county overall.

domain: news


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Nick Knowles has issued an announcement over his BBC future. BBC DIY SOS The Big Build star Nick has confirmed he is bringing the show back in two months' time.
ITV I'm A Celebrity star Knowles, 60, will once again be back presenting DIY SOS alongside Chris, Billy, designer Gabrielle Blackman and the rest of the team. Nick said: "We have another huge build ahead of us in Derbyshire, which will provide a crucial space for children and their families who are going through some of the toughest times.
"If you have a trade, a skill, can spare some time to graft or can help us with materials then get in touch. It’ll be a blast.” Jules Kirk, Therapeutic Services Manager at Treetops Hospice said: "We are absolutely over the moon to have the DIY SOS and Radio 2 team come to Derbyshire to create a brand-new counselling and therapy centre within our grounds in Risley.
“Just like adults, children who have lost someone important can find themselves struggling with a powerful range of emotions which can affect their daily lives and relationships at home and school. Every year, we provide over 900 counselling sessions for local children, some as young as 7 years old, who are struggling after the death of a loved one.
“Many of our young clients have experienced unexpected or traumatic bereavements including accidents, suicide and murder. Many children are also still feeling the effects of the pandemic, having a detrimental effect on their mental health and ability to cope after the death of a loved one.
“This will make an immeasurable difference to hundreds of children and their families in our local community. If there are any local tradespeople or businesses who can lend their time or donate materials to help build the new centre for us, please contact the DIY SOS team.”

domain: psychology


The Alignment Options dialog with default options.
The Alignment options are used to quickly change the rotational or translational orientation of the slicing shape in a Brep Slicer object. They are intended to simplify the process of positioning the slicer. They are covered in detail below:
- Alignment Axes (X, Y, Z)
- Center to Base Shapes
- Fit to Base Shapes
- Align to View
- Align to Surface Normal
- Reset Alignment
Example slicer before application of alignment options.
In the align option detailed descriptions, some 'before/after' examples will be provided. The screenshot in this section is the 'before' picture for those examples, unless otherwise specified.
Example after alignment to the Y-axis.
Changing the default alignment axis serves two purposes: it will immediately rotate the slicing shape to be aligned with the chosen axis, and it sets that axis as the default, so that the next time the Reset option is used, it will reset the rotational orientation of the slicing shape to the chosen axis.
The X, Y, Z axes used by this option are the ones local to the overall Brep Slicer object. Thus if the Brep Slicer's node is rotated relative to world space, these alignment axes will also be rotated relative to world space.
Center will translate the slicing shape so that it has the same center as the base shape bounding boxes. It does not affect the rotational orientation of the slicing shape.
Currently, this option works correctly only when there is a single base shape. When there are multiple base shapes, one is used to do the centering, and the rest are ignored.
Example after using the Fit option.
This option centers the slicing shape relative to the base shapes, and changes the dimensions of the slicing shape to approximately 'fit' the base shapes. It does not change the rotational orientation of the slicing shape. The re-dimensioning is done based on the bounding boxes of the base shapes. The centering side-effect works the same way as manually using the Center option would.
Currently, this option works correctly only for the single base shape case. If there are multiple bases, it ignores all but one for purposes of calculating the new dimensions of the slicing shape.
This option doesn't actually change the slicer alignment at all. It is in this dialog more to maintain consistency with similar dialogs on some Max tools (e.g., the UVWMap modifier).
Example after aligning to View.
The View option rotates the slicing shape to 'align' it with the viewport camera. That is, the local z-axis of the slicing shape is made parallel to the camera direction. This has a slightly different effect depending on the slicer type ( plane, box, cylinder, sphere). This option does not affect the position of the slicing shape.
The Normal option allows the user to pick a point on a surface in the current Brep Slicer result. The slicing shape is rotated such that its local z-axis is aligned to the surface normal at that point. If the picking mode is broken out of without a point being selected, no re-alignment occurs. This option does not affect the slicing shape's position.
The Reset option resets both the position and rotation of the slicing shape. The rotation is aligned so that the slicing shape's local z-axis is aligned along whichever of the overall Brep Slicer object's local axes is currently chosen as the default. The position is re-centered as if the Center option had been used.