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Archive | March, 2012

An Unexpected Birthday Wish

12 Mar

Yesterday was my 27th birthday. I say this not because I want attention or congratulatory statements, but because that is the event that sparked the story I’d like to tell today.

Birthday wishes and greetings have changed substantially in the past ten years or so. I used to receive these greetings in the form of phone calls, a decorated locker and *gasp* snail mail greeting cards. Yesterday, I received three birthday phone calls, five birthday text messages and 28 birthday messages written on my Facebook timeline. In a way it makes me sad, that a hastily written message prompted by a reminder on a Facebook homepage has seemingly replaced the time and effort required by an actual phone call. But, on the other hand, Facebook birthday greetings have their perks. It allows for birthday greetings from people I wouldn’t normally receive greetings from. Former coworkers, vaguely familiar high school acquaintances, college dormitory friends, and, for me, a greeting from my first “love.”

The year was 1996 and I was in fifth grade. There was a boy in my class who flirted with me as much as children know how to flirt; I helped him clean his desk (because he was widely unorganized) and he chased me on the playground. He eventually confessed that he was “crazy” about me and I admitted that I was “crazy” about him too, despite the fact that I knew one of my friends had a crush on him. It was quite scandalous. He wrote me my first love letters (which I still have), made me my first gift from a boy (a dreamcatcher, which I still have), and bought me a bucket of popcorn (which, sadly, I do not still have; that popcorn was delicious). This boy boldly held my hand at the local skating rink on our end-of-year field trip, despite the mocking and razzing of our fellow classmates (“Andrea and _____ sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”). Our relationship was playful, innocent, and full of childhood dreams. Sadly, it ended that summer, as elementary relationships tend to do, but I’ll never forget that boy.

Facebook has allowed me to stay in remote touch with this boy. We don’t talk, chat, or actually communicate in any way, but his face occasionally pops up in my news feed and yesterday he wished me a happy birthday. Hearing from this childhood friend brought a smile on my face as only memories from my youth can do, and it brought on a myriad of other memories from a freer, simpler time (like the summer in which myself and my three best friends all for the same boy; ironically, this same boy, but that’s another story). I think it is amazing and beautiful that social networks like Facebook allow us to maintain contact with people who might otherwise be erased from our lives, even if this contact is a superficial one. It brings me peace of mind to know that our relationships in life, fleeting as they may be, are memorable, even if it is just on a birthday.

And to this boy, if he’s reading this, thanks, and may your desk always be clean.

The Fickle Love of a Middle School Girl

1 Mar

Today was a monumental day for the majority of my female students today: Justin Bieber‘s birthday. Apparently, as so many of them were eager to tell me, he turned 18 years old today.

Of all my students, there is one girl in particular that I would call a “super fan” of Justin Bieber’s. I have a soft spot in my heart for this student, because I was a hard-core Backstreet Boys groupie in my middle school years (hell, I still am), so I can relate to the borderline obsessive love that this girl has him. As such, I expected her to tell me she was baking him a cake tonight (something I did many times for Nick Carter) and suggest we sing “Happy Birthday” in class today as tribute.

Suffice it to say that I was surprised when she didn’t even mention him. When I asked her if she was excited about his birthday, she merely shrugged and said, “No. I don’t like him anymore.”

Shocked, I asked her, “Since when?”

“Since yesterday,” she said.

“Why?” I asked.

Her response was priceless. “Because, Selena Gomez has changed him. I do not like who he’s become. I mean, he dyed his hair black for her.”

With that she shrugged and walked away, leaving me to die laughing.


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EVENT: Power Wars: Surveillance, Drones and Obama’s Post-9/11 Presidency

When: Friday, Dec 4, 15 | 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Where: MIT, Stata Center Room 32-155 | 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Barack Obama campaigned on a promise of change from George W. Bush’s “global war on terror.” Yet from drone strikes and indefinite detention to surveillance and military tribunals, Obama ended up continuing—and in some cases expanding—many policies he inherited. What happened? Based on confidential interviews with more than 150 current and former officials and access to previously unreported documents, The New York Times’ Charlie Savage tells the inside story of how the Obama administration charted its path through ceaseless dilemmas—including its decisions to keep the then-secret National Security Agency program that collected records of every American’s phone calls, raid Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, and bomb Libya. Savage also pieces together the first comprehensive history of how American surveillance secretly developed over the past 35 years, synthesizing recent revelations and filling in gaps with new reporting.

Moderator: Deborah Hurley, Fellow, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University Discussants:

  • Kade Crockford, Director, Technology for Liberty Program, ACLU of Massachusetts
  • Timothy Edgar, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies and Public Affairs, Brown University
  • Susan Landau, Professor of Cybersecurity Policy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Sponsor: MIT Cryptography and Information Security Group

Co-hosts: Data Privacy Lab, Harvard University; Internet Policy Research Initiative, MIT; and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University.

Contact: Debbie Lehto,

Learn about upcoming Cryptography and Information Security seminars.

© 2018 ACLU of Massachusetts.

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This PR Mommy

Balancing kids, family and PR work.

Archive for the month “December, 2015”

Be Calm, Goodbye 2015

It’s another year coming to an end, and as a PR mommy, I think the biggest thing I want to reflect on is that no matter what side of the grass you are on, it always seems greener. There is a tendency for working moms to think that life would be so much easier if they had the chance to take off at any time to be with their kids. Or to host that romantic notion that you can take care of your kids home alone. It’s doable, but really hard.

By nature, you give it your all but sometime you have to learn what your limitations are and learn to just let things go.

I work from home, but am five minutes from my kids daycare and school. I choose to be there for the big and little things, e.g. parent’s day, without having to ask for permission. I absolutely love the option of being able to pick them up early or pick a day to take them to the doctors without worrying about how much leave I have to leave!

So to reflect, I gratefully accept that I am PR work mommy who sacrifices a lot for her job, kids and home but I need to give myself some slack and be ok that there isn’t enough time to excel, that just being able to accept the fact that I am living a lifestyle that I have chosen should be good enough. I need to give myself slack with finding that delicate balance to try and find more time to play with the kids or work harder to please my clients. And I need to be ok with finding more time for me to just relax and stay calm.

My message for 2015 is love your kids, be humble for your projects and clients and not be afraid to call the shots on how much time you deserve for you.

Be Calm

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Trend 15 van trendreport PIM: BRIC Countries Beyond Development

The economic shift

The main reason to discuss the BRIC countries is because they have been in the spotlight as developing countries – the so-called second world countries. But what we see is that these countries are developing very fast and well. The current crisis and the lack of future resources for today’s western countries are a huge boost to the potential of the BRIC countries. They have all the preconditions to bring about a global shift in the economy. The BRIC economies together will outperform the current G6 industrialised countries in the coming decades. China is already the second player in the world economy (India is 5th).

Internationally-oriented companies and companies facing growing imports in their markets should not only monitor but act on this trend if they have not done so already. These BRIC countries do not follow the entire development, but start immediately where there is an opportunity. So they are not impeded by old infrastructure, barriers in knowledge development or investment in the queue. Brazil is a prime example of how technology and development go hand in hand. Here they have invented the concept behind the ‘provoking lag’.
China, Russia and India are given more prominence than Brazil, but Brazil has much to offer. For a lot of investors Brazil is the most interesting country. A growth of 5-6% is expected.

Forty-six percent of internet market users come from the BRIC countries and the USA.

And if this is not enough there are a few more “waiting for us”. Fast-developing upcoming areas are Turkey, Egypt, South America, Chile and Indonesia. Europe has become less interesting for investors looking for growth opportunities. And our organisational structures are too complex.
What does this mean for us? Focus on Brazil:

Brazil is an investment county par excellence, even for the Chinese. Investors are lining up to fund any great initiative on offer.
Technical developments are happening fast: even the Favelas have WIFI. As their infrastructure is not developed, they can omit several steps. There are no discussions via cable, but there is full access to all new technologies instantaneously, and an incredible level of global innovation. Sharing is common practice and there are no privacy issues. Developments such as collective purchases, recommendations, location-based services and e-commerce are the norm.
Brazilian entrepreneurs have a high need to excel. The political climate is favourable. Start-ups achieve great success and they are already investing in other Latin American countries and the USA. The Olympic games and the football World cup will give them an additional boost. Sustainability is a natural component of entrepreneurship for them. Brazil could be eco-superior in the future.
Marketers should see and use Brazil as a knowledge nation. If you follow the developments in new media, sustainability and innovation, you will keep up with the trends automatically. Especially superior graphics and design are very inspiring and innovative in the field of social media.
For more trends go to and register for the newsletter, you will receive the trendreport.

Over Profit-Marketing
Brigitte de Leeuw is sinds 2008 zelfstandig ondernemer en directeur van Profit-Marketing in Tilburg. Profit-Marketing is het bedrijf dat winst maakt voor uw onderneming door marketing en cross-channelmanagement. Zij heeft klanten als ING en Rabobank, maar werkt ook veel voor het MKB. De belangrijkste aandachtsgebieden van Brigitte de Leeuw zijn: Interim-management, marketing, communicatie, innovatie, designthinking, social media, coaching en trainingen.

One Response to Trend 15 van trendreport PIM: BRIC Countries Beyond Development

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BREAKING: One Elementary Student Dead After Shooting, Authorities Fear The Worst

One day short of a month exactly from the horrendous tragedy of the Parkland, Florida school massacre, another deadly shooting has taken place. This isn’t the first since February 14, when 17 people were murdered by a former student, and now authorities are fearing the worst and warning Americans about what’s to come.

First, it was a high school, then a shooting at a middle school, now the tragedy has his an elementary school. The victims just seem to be getting increasingly younger. Authorities are now urging everyone to be on high alert as there’s something far bigger at play here than random acts of violence and suicide at schools.

Unfortunately, the Nation has been rocked once again by this horrible reality after a 10-year-old was just discovered.

Montana Standard reported, Counselors and school district officials were on hand Monday at Kennedy Elementary School after a fourth-grader died at home Sunday night, said Butte School Superintendent Judy Jonart.

The suspected cause of the 10-year-old boy’s death was suicide, Butte-Silver Bow County Coroner Lee LaBreche said Monday. The body of the child was transported Monday to the state crime lab in Missoula, LaBreche said. Foul play is not suspected. The medical examiner wanted to perform an autopsy because of the child’s age. Having a child that young commit suicide is very unusual, LaBreche said.

Butte-Silver Bow County Public Health Officer Karen Sullivan said officials with the county’s Community Action Team were part of the counseling effort to help the school cope with the news. Sullivan co-chairs that group, along with Butte School District Curriculum Director Jim O’Neill.

The group formed in early 2014 in response to three youth suicides that took place in the county over a span of five weeks. Over the past three years, suicide attempts by children in B-SB have dropped, Sullivan said Monday.

The group has trained more than 1,500 students to recognize the warning signs of suicide, Sullivan said.

“We have a child who died. We have to strengthen our resolve and keep doing the things we’re doing, but it doesn’t make this weekend’s events any easier,” Sullivan said.

Last month, we reported about a middle school being put on lockdown after a 7th grader shot himself in the boy’s bathroom at his school. The student had plans to shot more people in the school but after having second thoughts ended up shooting himself and he died from his injuries. He even had a backpack full of extra ammunition, bottle rockets, and batteries.

When a child commits suicide the inevitable debt begins, the left news outlets focus on what the killer used to do the killing rather than the person who took their own life and why. It’s not just the gun debate that is sparked by these tragic events, it also triggers the next mentally ill person waiting in the wings for his 15 minutes of fame.

It is beyond tragic that elementary aged kids are committing suicide in a time of life that’s typically innocent and filled with simple joys in life. It draws the question of prevention. Perhaps parents need to be more involved in their kids’ lives to ensure they get the love and quality attention they need and address mental health concerns they see. What’s also crucial, is to consider keeping young elementary aged children off of social media sites as it can contribute to the prolific problem of bullying or other causes for depression that lead to these desperate measures the country is seeing more frequently.

If you see your child or any child struggling or showing signs of depression or any mental health issues, get them the help that they need. Don’t put it off because it could be too late by the time you get around to it.

Join the conversation!

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Categorical Variables in a Regression: Dummy Variables

From the course by Rice University
Linear Regression for Business Statistics
237 ratings
Rice University
237 ratings
Course 4 of 5 in the Specialization Business Statistics and Analysis
From the lesson
Regression Analysis: Hypothesis Testing and Goodness of Fit

Meet the Instructors

  • Sharad Borle
    Sharad Borle
    Associate Professor of Management
    Jones Graduate School of Business


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Select Committee on Health Second Report

  (i)  We recommend that health policy should benefit the less well off on a sliding scale rather than targeting only the small group who are the most deprived (paragraph 34).

  (ii)  We see great potential for health inequality targets to give real bite to the HImP/Community Plan and to provide a yardstick for Directors of Public Health, Local Authorities and Health Authorities. We welcome their recent publication and were particularly pleased to see a focus on health inequality amongst children. We also recognize that inequalities targets will only make a difference if effective strategies are put into place to achieve them. This should include developing appropriate "baskets" of intermediate targets for each of the headline targets. Intermediate targets may usefully take account of some targets set out in The Health of the Nation, as well as locally-determined targets that are relevant to local conditions (paragraph 35).

  (iii)  We recommend that every Government Department has a Public Service Agreement to conduct health audits and health inequality audits of relevant policies and to work towards policies which have a positive effect on health. We also think the Government should consider the advantages of the establishment of a Parliamentary Health Audit Committee to assess whether or not departments deliver on this along the lines of the Environmental Audit Committee. Whilst this is a matter for Parliament, not Government, we would welcome the considered views of DoH on such a suggestion (paragraph 36).

  (iv)  Ironically, the very energy and zeal which the Government brought to bear in the battle against health inequalities has, to some extent, undermined their policy goals. Health Action Zones developed too slowly to spend all the money allocated to them in their first year. Each of the initiatives we have reviewed seems to have its own merits. The difficulties have arisen more from their quantity and lack of integration. We believe that the problems in implementing some of the public health initiatives to date are not necessarily short term glitches that will be solved over a period of time. Instead, we believe these difficulties reflect more profound systemic and structural problems which relate to the lack of co-ordination between different Government Departments, statutory agencies, elected authorities and the voluntary sector. Below we set out our recommendations for creating greater purpose, direction and integration of services(paragraph 40).

  (v)  We note that both the Scottish and Welsh NHS Plans accord a higher prominence to the health agenda, an approach that we welcome (paragraph 44).

  (vi)  We recommend publication of Sir Kenneth Calman's report on the public health function without delay (paragraph 46).

  (vii)  We accept the Secretary of State's assurance that the NHS Plan is of equal status to Saving Lives. We particularly welcome the fact that the Plan includes a commitment to health inequality targets. But we believe that a great opportunity to give public health a real impetus has been lost by the lack of emphasis on this area in the Plan. The whole notion of a Plan is of a working agenda. So if it is the case that Saving Lives has equal status with the Plan this should have been made explicit in the Plan itself. Taken with the interminable delay in the publication of the Calman report on the development of the public health function we believe it adds credence to the notion that, for all the laudable Government rhetoric about dragging public health from the ghetto, in the race for resources it runs the risk of trailing well behind fix and mend medical services (paragraph 47).

  (viii)  We believe that there is merit in Professor Macintyre's suggestion that area-based interventions should be subject to far more rigorous analysis, although we are not convinced that randomised controlled trials are necessarily practical. We hope that this void can, at least in part, be filled by the work of the Health Development Agency (paragraph 50).

  (ix)  We think it is crucial that the voices of those intended to benefit from interventions are acknowledged and that they feel some sense of ownership in the projects. At the moment, the impression is of grandiose schemes being foisted on to communities. The most effective interventions that we witnessed took their strength from local leadership, responsiveness to local need, and local involvement and participation at every level. Given the evidence we received relating to the general lack of involvement of lay individuals in, for example, the Health Action Zones and Health Improvement Programmes, we believe it is essential that Government takes action and makes it a condition of further funding that there is clear feedback and input from those individualsintended to benefit from public health projects, including children. We are not convinced that any wider sense of "ownership" has yet been established (paragraph 57).

  (x)  It seems to us particularly regrettable that area-based initiatives have often failed to engage the communities they aim to serve (paragraph 57).

  (xi)  The precise status of Health Promotion England seems to us unclear. The nature of its short term contract, its relationship to its predecessor body and its means of liaison with the Health Development Agency (HDA) all seem too opaque. We are not convinced that this body has the direction, energy or resources to make a real difference. We would urge the Government to make clear its plans for the future of health education (paragraph 62).

  (xii)  We were impressed by the evidence given by those representing the HDA. We would be disturbed if this new organization was not properly resourced. We are anxious to ensure that the HDA will have the resources to be able to assess 'bottom up' projects. We also recommend that its funding should be ring-fenced and kept apart from mainstream health funding so that its independence in offering objective advice on 'what works' in health is not compromised. Establishing 'what works' in public health will ultimately yield value for money savings (paragraph 65).

  (xiii)  We recommend that the national Public Health Workforce Development Plan and Public Health Skills Audit (mentioned in the Department of Health's evidence) assesses whether primary care actually has the capacity to take on public health responsibilities (paragraph 70).

  (xiv)  If GPs are to be more involved in wider public health work, particularly of a community development kind, the Government must find some way of creating a career and pay structure which enables them to do this and allows them sufficient time and provides sufficient incentives to facilitate their involvement (paragraph 71).

  (xv)  Evidence exists from the USA and Canada to show that the benefits derived from a programme of home visits to women who are expecting a baby and then in the first two years of the life of the baby, are "uncontroversial", according to Sir Donald Acheson. This evidence should be capitalised upon to back a government focus on developing the health visiting workforce and other professions working with children (paragraph 74).

  (xvi)  We believe health visitors should work with the elderly or other needy groups, so as to broaden their skills base to encompass other activities. We would also like to see a role for health visitors as the key public health resource for all community health care professionals. We are concerned that health visitors are not sufficiently empowered in terms of resources and capacity to carry out wider public health functions beyond their statutory duties. We also think that there is scope for greater integration and co-ordination between health visitors, school and community nurses. We recommend that the role of the health visitor is reviewed and clarified. We would like to see it developed as a holistic, public health function (paragraph 76).

  (xvii)  We recommend that the Government takes steps to create incentives for community pharmacists to play a more active role in public health. We welcome the idea that a pharmacy could act as a more general health resource centre, thus better utilising the very considerable expertise of pharmacists (paragraph 81).

  (xviii)  If the information resources of primary care are to be exploited, a properly resourced information management and technology structure will have to be implemented (paragraph 83).

  (xix)  The Government must performance manage public health responsibilities to ensure that PCG/Ts do take up their new responsibilities meaningfully. It must also ensure that the relevant training and support is provided to all PCG/Ts to enable them to do this (paragraph 85).

  (xx)  We recommend that PCG/Ts should be required to have an additional designated officer from the local authority with a broader remit for public health. If PCG/Ts are significantly to influence health, they must have access to those local government services which affect the social determinants of health. PCG/Ts also need to be given more information about how local government works, so that they can begin to use it more effectively (paragraph 89).

  (xxi)  We believe health authorities will have to work hard to improve their communications with primary care, perhaps through secondments or work-shadowing, to improve mutual understanding of the different ways of working (paragraph 92).

  (xxii)  The Government needs to clarify exactly what the respective public health roles of the different tiers of the health system will be (paragraph 93).

  (xxiii)  A better solution to the problem of supplying public health advice to PCTs, which will certainly be needed, might be in the form of managed public health networks, with which PCTs and indeed Local Authorities could contract for public health support. It may be that, with PCTs becoming the predominant purchasers, health authorities could focus on public health almost exclusively and house such centres of expertise on a hub and spoke model. It may well be that no one national solution will cater for the different local situations of different areas, but guidance and an exploration of this area is vital. We recommend that the Government conducts a review of the best way of providing public health support to the variety of local agencies which require or will require it (paragraph 94).

  (xxiv)  There are a number of ways in which primary care could contribute more to the wider public health vision. The primary care team could become a fulcrum for interagency work, physically providing a base for various combinations of 'one-stop shop' or healthy living centre or at least creating an information link to other statutory services. Formalised links and defined referral pathways to local government departments such as housing, leisure (such as through the exercise on prescription scheme) and schools, to name a few, would link the medical health care team more effectively to the social determinants of health and the statutory powers who may affect such determinants. On a wider canvas, health visitors and nurses could lead primary care involvement with community interventions and development. The establishment of PCTs should allow Primary Care to take a broader population perspective. Given that PCGs and PCTs have as one of their three key functions "to improve the health and address inequalities of their community" a way must be found to make public health a viable reality for primary care (paragraph 95).

  (xxv)  We agree with the Secretary of State that health authorities are not solely responsible for improving health, however we consider that the strategic lead for public health must be clarified. The "plethora of partnerships" make it vital that there is clear strategic leadership of public health at a local level. Whatever arrangements are made, leadership should be strong, explicit and should have clear lines of accountability (paragraph 102).

  (xxvi)  We recommend that the Government, if it is serious in its commitment to public health, ensures that NHS organisations and local authorities have the proper resources, including staff, to enable them to take forward their public health responsibilities (paragraph 104).

  (xxvii)  We consider that local authorities have a vital role to play in improving the health of their communities and have influence over a greater number of factors affecting health than the local NHS. We strongly support their new power to promote well-being and recommend that this leads to public health being placed at the core of their initiatives and strategies. We welcome the attempt to do this by some local authorities. We discuss the location of public health locally at paragraph 126 (paragraph 109).

  (xxviii)  We recommend that health should be a key element of the local authority community plan (paragraph 110).

  (xxix)  We recommend that the NHS Executive gives urgent consideration to developing a pro-active role for the NHS in area-based regeneration and neighbourhood renewal. In particular, we recommend that the substantial resources of the NHS at all levels are used, as far as is practicable, to improve health through direct and indirect employment and through its procurement and planning functions (paragraph 125).

  (xxx)  We are persuaded by the argument put to us that major structural upheaval in the location of the local public health function is not the answer however attractive it may appear. There can be no return to the past. Rather, we believe ways must be found of providing incentives to ensure that the public health function delivers across the entire health system regardless of where it happens to be positioned (paragraph 132).

  (xxxi)  We note, too, that there is considerable experimentation taking place at local level in the organisation of the public health function with innovative joint arrangements between health and local authorities being put in place. These include joint appointments of DsPH and others working in public health, and joint health units of the type being established in Manchester. We believe that there should be a presumption in favour of joint appointments. We recommend that these arrangements be monitored and supported where they appear to work. They should be urgently evaluated in order to establish their impact and effectiveness. If they work then their uptake should be actively encouraged elsewhere. We believe that the way ahead lies in local solutions in preference to central prescription. But Government must also ensure that best practice from these local developments is rapidly mainstreamed so as to avoid a gap opening up between the leaders and laggards (paragraph 135).

  (xxxii)  In its evidence to us, the HDA argued that:

"The inter-relationship of several major strands of government policy needs to be made much clearer. For example, there are the neighbourhood renewal strategy, Sure Start, the various zone-based initiatives, as well as planning mechanisms such as HImPs, community plans and regional development strategies. Each has its own goals and targets and measures of success. People need to be able to understand the relationships among them (and the links between goals to do with economic success, social regeneration, eliminating child poverty, sustainable development, quality of life, well-being and health)."

We endorse this view and recommend that the Government clarifies how the various strands of policy are connected to provide a more coherent policy framework. Otherwise there is the risk of serious failure in partnership working. Paradoxically, the danger of so many partnerships in existence is that a new order of fragmentation will occur (paragraph 140).

  (xxxiii)  We were persuaded by the evidence from Sandwell and Hillingdon Health Authorities where progress had been made in integrating the HImP and Community Plan. We recommend that other localities should follow suit and that the Government issues guidance accordingly. Such guidelines will require collaboration between all the Government departments involved (paragraph 144).

  (xxxiv)  We urge that health objectives are at the heart of neighbourhood renewal strategies (paragraph 149).

  (xxxv)  We understand there is now a respectable body of research identifying the success criteria to ensure effective partnerships. We urge the Government to apply these to its own proposals to establish new partnerships in the form of Local Strategic Partnerships as well as to its 'joined up' policy agenda across government departments. In particular, we recommend that the lessons from the HAZs emerging from the national evaluation are taken on board in the development of LSPs (paragraph 151).

  (xxxvi)  Our strong impression is that the current role of the Director of Public Health is too vague and the influence the DPH can bring to bear too little. We were not struck by any real sense that the DsPH were acting in the entrepreneurial way the BMA suggest. The DsPH do not seem to us generally to be providing the necessary leadership in the public health field (paragraph 157).

  (xxxvii)  The lack of priority accorded to population health at the annual health authority review meeting, and the fact that over half of the DsPH surveyed failed even to attend the meeting, suggests to us that DsPH do not, on the whole, carry real weight within the health service. We recommend that guidance is immediately circulated to require DsPH to be present at the annual review of the health authority and to require population health to be an agenda item, a requirement made even more pressing by the recent publication of the national health inequalities targets (paragraph 160).

  (xxxviii)  We note that the Government is currently reviewing the impact of the annual report of the DPH. We believe that the annual report of the DPH should adopt a consistent format to ensure compatibility of data. It should clearly distinguish between past trends in epidemiology and key present agenda concerns. We feel that the Health Development Agency should have an early input into producing guidance to ensure a far greater degree of standardisation across the DPH report whilst still allowing sufficient flexibility to achieve sensitivity to local conditions and needs. Guidance should be issued on the range of bodies that should be consulted in drawing up the annual report. For example, Dr Rosemary Geller, DPH for Shropshire, told us she used the need to draw up an annual report as an opportunity to visit all relevant organisations and stakeholders once a year so as to get their input. We believe that, in drawing up the annual report, the DPH should record the contributions not only of the statutory sector but also of local, voluntary organisations. The annual report of the DPH ought to be a critical document in the formulation of the joint HImP and Community Plan (paragraph 161).

  (xxxix)  Support for joint health authority/ local authority appointments was voiced by many of our witnesses and we would regard this as a positive measure. We are not convinced that the DoH has been sufficiently proactive in helping this come about. We acknowledge that joint appointments are much more straightforward in areas where there is coterminosity, though even here they are the exception rather than the rule. We would argue, as the Cabinet Office report Reaching Out suggested, that greater moves towards coterminosity need to be made. But even where there is not coterminosity we feel that all stakeholders in local and health authorities ought to be able to agree a strategy to have a Director of Public Health in post whom they regard as partly their responsibility. However, we do not necessarily believe that joint appointments will bring an end at a stroke to turf wars between local and health authorities. In this regard we would especially like to endorse the suggestion of Ken Jarrold that, as well as having structures to bring about joint appointments of DsPH, other structures had to be effected to make them jointly accountable to each authority. We also maintain a line of argument from several of our previous inquiries that the DPH should have ready access to those in local government, placing population health in the immediate context of many of the factors - housing, the environment, transport - which most impact upon it (paragraph 164).

  (xl)  We recommend that the Government adopts population-based funding and clear policies for its application and then leaves it up to local agencies, as part of the HImP, to get on and deliver on these policies with the appropriate training in place to equip managers and others with the requisite skills. At the very least the bidding process needs to be reformed. We recommend that the Government conducts a review of the bidding process in the context of public health funding, with a view to formulating a more equitable system for the allocation of money, particularly in regard to voluntary or charitable organisations (paragraph 174).

  (xli)  We recommend the Government does more to research and involve the views of children in initiatives aimed at improving their health (paragraph 184).

  (xlii)  We recommend that the employment structures of school nurses be rationalized so as to allow effective joint working and partnerships (paragraph 186).

  (xliii)  We recommend that the Government should support and consult the professional bodies to develop the school nursing service as a vital public health role. We also think it would be beneficial if this service could be integrated with other public health workers in the community (paragraph 188).

  (xliv)  We note how in countries such as Cuba and Australia the sporting agenda is seen as part of a much wider health and regeneration agenda. We believe that better liaison is essential between all Government departments-notably DCMS, DfEE, DETR and DoH-if this is to be achieved. Accordingly we recommend that the Government appoints advisers specifically to co-ordinate the work of all Government departments to deliver the sport and health agenda as a matter of urgency (paragraph 198).

  (xlv)  We are not convinced that DCMS is the appropriate ministry to have responsibility for sport. We think it perpetuates the notion of sport as a matter for spectators rather than participants. We were impressed by the example of Cuba, where sport is treated as intimately bound up with the public health agenda. We think that sport, like public health, needs greatly to strengthen its profile across Government. We would also point out that the Minister's justification of leaving sport where it is (that it attracts more attention in a small department) completely contradicts the Public Health Minister's argument for retaining public health in the DoH (that it carries more weight as part of a big department-see below, paragraph 235). However, we accept that immediate reorganization may be unwelcome, and would urge the Government to keep under review the location of sport in Government, with a view to creating much closer links with public health. As an interim measure we recommend that the Minister for Sport should become a full member of the key Cabinet Committee on health policy, the Ministerial Committee on Home and Social Affairs (Health Strategy) (paragraph 200).

  (xlvi)  The NAO concluded that there may be benefits if more GP practices were more active in educating their patients on obesity, and we would endorse their conclusion. We believe that the rapid growth in the extent of obesity poses a major public health hazard and that all health authorities should regard it as a first order priority. We hope that the publication of the National Service Framework will encourage health authorities to take prompt action and recommend that the Department should monitor health authorities' activity levels and strategies in this area as a matter of urgency (paragraph 203).

  (xlvii)  We consider that NHS resources, time and effort are being directed towards healthcare services issues, to the detriment of the wider improvement of the public's health. We recommend that new high level performance indicators are developed around public health (paragraph 206).

  (xlviii)  Professor Parish of the HDA told us that they:

"have been working with the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government to see how we can bring a public health perspective to their best value reviews so that when they undertake these reviews of local government, we bring public health to bear"

We strongly support this approach. Local PSAs are also being piloted and we urge that some of these are also based on public health (paragraph 207).

  (xlix)  The Government has stressed the need for joined-up policy; we believe it should also have joined-up objectives and a common methodology. We recommend that the DETR and DoH develop a shared Public Service Agreement based on the need to narrow the health gap between socio-economic groups and between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country (paragraph 210).

  (l)  We recommend that the Government assesses the capacity of the communicable disease control service, and in particular that of the PHLS, and takes the necessary steps to ensure 'surge capacity' is in place. We hope that these issues will be addressed by the Government in its forthcoming Communicable Disease Strategy. We would urge the Government to issue its new strategy as quickly as possible (paragraph 218).

  (li)  We recommend that the DoH issues guidance to health and local authorities clarifying the roles of the DPH and the CCDC. This is another manifestation of the lack of clear leadership within public health (paragraph 219).

  (lii)  We recommend the Government revisits data protection legislation and takes action to ensure that proper health surveillance at a population level is not jeopardised (paragraph 220).

  (liii)  We believe, however, that the NHS Executive Regional Offices could take a greater strategic lead in public health (paragraph 221).

  (liv)  There is the welcome move put forward in the NHS Plan to develop joint accountability for public health at a regional level by making the Regional DsPH jointly accountable to the regional director of the NHS regional office and the director of the government office. We support this move and urge the Government to monitor it closely in order to assess its effects on the regional health agenda (paragraph 223).

  (lv)  We would also urge that there should always be coterminosity between the RDAs and DoH regions to ensure the most effective delivery of services and to demonstrate joined up Government (paragraph 224).

  (lvi)  We support the Cabinet Office view that the regional tier has more to contribute to joining-up policy and providing coherence in respect of a raft of initiatives and schemes (paragraph 225).

  (lvii)  We recommend that the Government clarifies the NHS structural arrangements at regional level as soon as possible in order not to divert attention from the public health function at this level for longer than is absolutely necessary (paragraph 226).

  (lviii)  We accept the Secretary of State's view that the role of Minister for Public Health has not been downgraded. We think that the fact that so many outside bodies have been quick to argue that the alteration in title equates to an actual diminution in the status of the job is worrying. It strikes us as petty and superficial, and distracts from the much more important debate on how the Minister for Public Health can actually influence the health of the public (paragraph 229).

  (lix)  We conclude that the present arrangements do not adequately promote cross-government working. Given the undesirability of change for its own sake, we recommend that the public health function remains with the Department of Health for the present. We would, however, like to see far greater evidence that it has assumed priority within that Department. If that is not forthcoming, we think the case for relocation would be much stronger (paragraph 237).

  (lx)  We accept the point that several of our witnesses made that the exact location of the Minister was not the key issue: what is more crucial is that the structures are in place to co-ordinate the very wide public health agenda across Government and the different countries of the United Kingdom. We are not convinced that this is yet happening, as the lack of co-ordination between the sports agenda and the health agenda, for example, made clear (paragraph 239).

  (lxi)  We recommend that all cross-departmental initiatives design in appropriate targets, performance management and progress indicators for all partners involved at all levels. We further recommend that departments coordinate initiatives better to avoid unhelpful duplication of effort (paragraph 240).

  (lxii)  A number of the key themes emerged throughout the inquiry:

  • the need to achieve balance in health policy between health and health care, upstream and downstream.

We found that the present health policy agenda is heavily dominated by the NHS Plan with its overwhelming concentration on acute care, hospitals and beds, and numbers of doctors and nurses. We accept these are issues of vital importance to the NHS but we think the case for re-balancing health policy is strong.

  • strengthening public health leadership at all levels.

We have described the confusion surrounding the leadership of public health at every level. We call for the Minister for Public Health to be empowered to demonstrate more positive and public leadership for improving health and reducing health inequalities. Stronger leadership at the centre must be matched by stronger leadership at regional, intermediate and local levels.

  • establishing strong partnerships at all levels for a broad-based approach to public health.

We have endorsed the need for partnerships in delivering the public health function. We support a more pro-active role for the NHS in regeneration initiatives, the introduction of joint posts in public health, and a single Community Plan in each locality incorporating the HImP.

  • placing the emphasis on public health practice and implementation rather than on knowledge acquisition for its own sake.

We consider that insufficient attention has been given to the application of knowledge and practice in public health. For too long the public health function has been dominated by a culture, mind set and training scheme which stresses the epidemiology and science of public health, rather than its practice in bringing about change. We hope our recommendations on developing capacity within public health will encourage the development of practitioners at all levels who can implement the theory.

  • avoiding distracting and probably counterproductive reorganisation of structures imposed from the centre while allowing local initiatives to flourish.

We have found a recognition amongst stakeholders that progress in public health must not rely on structures but on processes and incentives, coupled with effective and appropriate performance management arrangements.

  • creating incentives for health improvement activity.

We have found an over-emphasis on top-down targets and performance agreements. Stronger incentives to give health improvement priority for action are essential.

  • building the evidence base in public health.

Knowing what works, why and how, remains a key challenge in ensuring effective implementation of public health policy.

  • learning the lessons from past failures or partial successes in putting health before health care.

We believe it is imperative that the Government learns the lessons of previous policy, particularly with regard to political leadership and commitment, making health improvement a central priority, and ensuring that local government and other partners recognise the importance of their public health role (paragraph 242).

  (lxiii)  We would welcome a clear statement of principle by the Government on the desirability of a Tobacco Regulatory Authority. We feel that our report was one of the most comprehensive analyses of the tobacco industry ever undertaken in the UK, had access to documentation that had hitherto been concealed, and got very much to the heart of the behaviour of the tobacco companies. We would like the Government unequivocally to support our recommendation and - when parliamentary time permits - introduce appropriate legislation to support it (paragraph 248).

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How to create Positive Personal Impact

Impact is everything. To be successful in life you need to be able to make instant positive impressions on others, communicate powerfully with them and to be persuasive and memorable. Everyone can have impact if they want it – and to know how to get it. Personal impact will take you from where you are to where you want to be.

What is personal Impact?

Personal Impact is not easy to define, but when you actually see it, you will realize the meaning of it. For example, when we meet someone and pretty soon we recognize they have a special quality. What we call that quality? Is it magnetism, charisma, impression, personality, call it what you like-but they stand out from the crowd.

Dictionary definitions of impact include:

  • The force of impression of one thing on another
  • An effect or change caused by some factor

This is what individuals with personal impact do: They make an impression on others, and through that they bring about some kind of change.

It is not how you are but it is who you are. Ordinary people can make an extraordinary impact.

When do you need it?

When do you need personal impact: Everywhere: at work, play, in the office, factory or at home. You need personal impact to pass an interview, get your point across at a meeting or to give an effective presentation.

Benefits of having personal impact

ü  Getting the job  of your dreams

ü  Earning more money

ü  Influencing others

ü  Meeting your soul mate

ü  Achieving your goals

How you create personal impact?

  1. Believe in yourself: When you believe in yourself and think things are possible, they start to turn into reality. So much of your success is down to your attitude.
  2. Be Positive: Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile.
  3. Be on Time: Someone you are meeting for the first time is not interested in your “good excuse” for running late. Plan to arrive a few minutes early. And allow flexibility for possible delays in traffic or taking a wrong turn. Arriving early is much better that arriving late, hands down, and is the first step in creating a great first impression.
  4. Be open and confident: When it comes to making the first impression, body language as well as appearance speaks much louder than words.  Use your body language to project appropriate confidence and self-assurance. Stand tall, smile (of course), make eye contact, greet with a firm handshake. All of this will help you project confidence and encourage both you and the other person to feel better at ease.

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Category Archives: Music

I’ll Take You There: Why Mavis Staples is the New It Girl

It wasn’t until I heard Mavis Staples’ unapologetic purr on Arcade Fire’s newest single “I Give You Power” that I found myself wondering who this mystery woman was. As it turns out, her role in the music world isn’t really that big of a mystery—a realization that made me feel like a bit of a cultural illiterate. After schooling myself a bit on Staples’ musical history, I also learned that she’d be appearing on the new album by Gorillaz, which then led me to wonder why these alt-rock luminaries were so eager to collaborate with her at this particular moment in time. After a bit of contemplation, I remembered Johnny Cash and his alt-rock revival a few years before his death. He revitalized the scene at a time when music somehow needed him, and I believe Mavis Staples has come forth with a similar mission.

Johnny Cash – cool uncle to thousands of angsty teens

When Johnny Cash covered “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, it created a strange quantum bridge between old school country music and contemporary angsty pop-metal. In working with Rick Rubin and American Recordings, the legendary country musician suddenly shared a label with the likes of System of a Down, Slayer, Danzig and Lords of Acid. While this was indeed an outcome that no one could have predicted, there was something about the last few albums that Johnny Cash recorded that felt at home with the more nihilistic members of American’s roster.

What’s interesting about of Cash’s Hot Topic-friendly fame is that it came as a result of his own musical interests. He approached Chris Cornell and Soundgarden about covering “Rusty Cage” in 1996, and he also approached Trent Reznor about covering “Hurt”—Reznor was initially worried that the request was some kind of gimmick—but his take on both of those songs introduced Cash to a whole new audience that he would fascinate during the final years of his life.

So what was it about Johnny Cash’s concluding years that made him so endearing to the cynical Gen Xers of the 1990s? Why did fans of Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist Superstar find themselves listening to an artist whose devout Christianity led him to appear in the 1973 film The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus? The long answer has to do with Cash’s musical instincts, some expert use of the music video format, a bit of borrowed nostalgia and a lot of legitimately great music. The short answer? It was a sign of the times.

In many ways, the late 90’s and early 2000’s saw the last battleground between angry, conservative culture Nazis and musicians who built their careers on shock value. When artists like Marilyn Manson and Eminem started to rise in popularity, the sad remnants of the Parents Music Resource Center once again took up arms against the forces of evil that were running rampant across the radio waves. With groups of angry moms blaming heavy metal music for everything from teenage pregnancy to the Columbine Massacre, Johnny Cash arrived like a badass uncle that bought beer for you and your friends. I remember being a teenager during this controversial time period, and let me tell you—watching this rough-lookin’ bastard in a black duster ride up and start covering Nine Inch Nails gave all of us angsty teenagers an unexpected upper hand in our fight for the right to party.

It’s been almost a decade since the release of Cash’s last album, and it’s starting to feel like gospel legend Mavis Staples is stepping up to fill the void that the Man in Black left us with. Staples is a powerhouse in her own right, boasting a music career that began in the early 1940’s when she was singing with her father and two siblings as part of the Staple Singers. Since then, she’s had one hell of a musical career.

Prince Staples

Mavis Staples and Prince

During the 1960’s, the Staple Singers became mainstays in the Civil Rights Movement, appearing at several rallies and gaining a following that included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Right around this same time, Mavis Staples had the honor of refusing Bob Dylan’s hand in marriage—“I told him I was too young,” Staples recalls in an interview with The Boston Globe. Staples also enjoyed a longtime friendship and collaboration with Prince, who she considered family. As if her career as a civil rights activist, her refusal of a marriage proposal from Bob Dylan, and her role as the surrogate mother of one of the PMRC’s “Filthy Fifteen” wasn’t badass enough, Staples has never stopped making music. With a resume like that, it’s starting to become clearer as to why some of today’s most respected artists are clamoring to collaborate with her.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produced her Grammy-award winning 2010 album You Are Not Alone. M. Ward gathered up a list of heavy-hitting songwriters that include Justin Vernon, Neko Case and Nick Cave for 2016’s Livin’ on a High Note. Oh, and have you heard Staples ripping it up with Pusha T and Gorillaz on “Let Me Out”? Fan-fucking-tastic.

Staples with Arcade Fire’s Win Butler

With a roster of collaborators that could easily headline any Coachella Festival, Staples has started to generate some considerable, college radio street cred—much like Johnny Cash’s experience with the goths and metalheads of the late 90’s. Again, these collaborations are a result of the fact that Staples has remained a prolific and respected musician in her own right, but the cultural underpinnings of her indie-rock appropriation are too massive to overlook.

Johnny Cash’s presence in the late 90’s music scene was like that of a surrogate father to those who perhaps grew up too fast or read too much Palahniuk and realized that their dreams probably weren’t going to come true. Despite that glaring cynicism, something about Cash’s music made it easier to accept a reality that had been built on the dashed hopes and broken dreams of the younger generation.

With her history as a civil rights activist and the seemingly unconditional love that Staples seems to have for everyone who has influenced her life, her presence in today’s music scene appears like a beacon of optimism and positivity in a world that is nearly crippled with xenophobia and self-congratulatory ignorance.

I suppose it just goes to show that, most of the time, we really don’t know what we’re doing until someone older, wiser and more talented shows up to dust us off and whisper the comforting words, I’ll take you there.

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Oxford Academy CLIL

Oxford expertise is coming to Puntolingue in Salerno and Naples to talk about how successfully teach BES/Dyslexia, CLIL, and Digital. Choose the event you would like to attend and register on Oxford website.

The Oxford CLIL Academy provides an overview of what teachers in Italy are required to do about CLIL, as well as some very practical suggestions for how successfully bring CLIL in your classroom.

Oxford Academy CLIL: Friday, 6 February 2015 starting from 4pm @ Puntolingue, Pzza. Vittorio Veneto 5, Binario 1 – Interno Stazione Centrale – Salerno. Registration on line!

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Pixel Envy

Written by Nick Heer.

Journey Sucks

Josh Rank:

But Boston’s kickassity notwithstanding, Journey sucks. They suck. Sorry. You may think you like them, but that’s only because you’ve liked them in an ironic way for so long that you bought into your own bullshit and can’t even remember who you are or what you actually like anymore.


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• Categories

  • Archives

Muslim Muppets who never learn from history

for hundreds of years the christian church controlled people’s minds and this was exploited by kings, emperors and thier hangers-on. How often when the people questionned their government, the rulers would trot out a cleric to justify their decision by quoting from the bible and putting their own spin on it. What happened after the war? people stood up for themselves and the christian Church mind manipulation was weakened beyond recognition. The Tory government even persuaded the archbishop of canterbury to decree that the Falklands War was God’s War.

Well, every time, there is even a rustle of discontent in Kuwait etc, some Imam or mullah is wheeled out to declare it a sin against Islam and defiance of the Quran…. ring any bells/

Only fools and arabs

You have to hand it to Mohammad when he revealed what he claimed to be word of God……. all these other prohets like Jesus and Abraham did not have the savvy to come up with Mohammad’s little [or shall we say HUGE] scam.

Mohammad sees the dumb Arabs coming!

Mohammad sees the dumb Arabs coming!

Mohammad says I am the LAST EVER prophet and GOD will speak no more to man!

Brilliant…. who needs marketing strategists… when you can come up with such a scam….

But as we know Allah knows best

Prophets and Seers and David Icke

Mother Shipton is England’s most famous Prophetess. She lived some 500 years ago during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. Her Prophetic visions became known and feared throughout England, with many of them still proving uncannily accurate today. Hmmmmm…. what’s this got to do with Q8, I hear you ask!

Well, nobody seems to have made this prophetess into a world religion. Why not?

Aware Centre : trying to indoctrinate westerners

Aware Centre : trying to indoctrinate westerners

The Aware Centre in Q8 [The AWARE center is dedicated to become the cultural gateway for westerners to explore Arab/Islamic culture and civilization by facilitating social encounters, educational activities, dialogue, cultural exchange, and intercultural friendship.] has pushed little booklets telling me the reasons for the validity of Mohammed’s revelations. Each one has KEY evidence that the Qu’ran is the REAL word of God.

Firstly, Mohammad knew that there gestation for a bay is 40 weeks…. clealry the Romans and Greeks never worked that one out! This is then presented as absolute proof of the revelations!

Secondly, There is the so-called fact that Mohammad knew the exact precentage ratio of land to see on the earth’s surface….

So, having been told these two facts, it would be obvious that I would have no choice but to embrace Islam?

But apparently, Old Mother Shipton was just as prophetic and what about Nostradamus… or millions of other cranks believing their own divinity and what about the one and only DAVID ICKE?


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Rumor Mill part Sechs

Posted: 3 February, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

Rumor has it that disgraced former Mayor Ed Fraudster and Pat Workman are not dating, just close friends.

The Bagger doesn’t know and doesn’t care.  Whatever sloppy hole ol’ Ed sticks his wicket in is none of our concern.  The mental image of the two of them geezers bumping uglies (seriously ugly uglies) is enough to put the Bagger into a state of delirium that not even the strongest Benzodiazepine could overcome.

  1. desecrateus says:

    Sweet fancy Moses! That’s nightmare inducing. Thinking of Ed trying to mate with anything is a frightening prospect that my brain has trouble processing. I always assumed alcoholics couldn’t get a boner, was I wrong about this? isn’t that where the term “whiskey dick” came from? Although I did hear a rumor that ‘ol Ed prefers four legged fuck buddies. That’s probably why he and Pat are “just friends”.

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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

I know I say it every year...But Thanksgiving is really a great celebration.   We had all our kids and their kids over for a big turkey dinner.  We've been roasting a turkey all day. And like everyone else, we can't get over the beautiful weather for the past few days.

Jessica and Emily came for a visit a day early.  As usual, we had a long list of things to do.   Jessica wanted to work on a Halloween outfit.  She's going to be a corpse bride. ...a dead bride.... yuk....but once we did a little research, we made a fabulous wedding outfit.  Now the rest is up to her to find a bouquet of dead flowers and do a good make-up job.   I love her mysterious look under that veil!!

As a treat for the rest of the guests we were expecting for supper, we made "cookie dough truffles".  Emily is doing the dipping of the truffles into the chocolate in this photo.  These truffles were a real hit.  The recipe made at least 3 or 4 dozen.   There is not one left in the fridge.    As the kids were making up the recipe, I noticed that there was a lot of "taste testing" going on.   "You know, Quality Control Grammie", they would say.        I quipped back, but you know kids, the Yield on this recipe says more than 6 truffles.  They laughed and laughed at that.    But seriously, don't those truffles look so delicious.

Jessica is has been practicing knitting for a few months now.  So today, she knit a whole project.  A coffee cup cozy for her mother.  She knit the whole thing herself and it fit her mothers favorite mug perfectly.  I totally forgot to take a picture, but it was sweet.

And finally, here is a picture of all six of my wonderful grandchildren at our Thanksgiving supper table.    Aren't those all beautiful smiles.

Yes, we are so Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving.

Joanne said...

Happy Thanksgiving.
Looks like you had a wonderful time.♥

dp said...

Fun day with grammie... perfect way to spend Thanksgiving!

Sandra said...

Happy Thanksgiving Gail. Are those the Paula Deen recipe for truffles; hmm yummy. I have to hide mine in a becel container,(shh!!) so they last more than just a few minutes!!


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What Should I Do When My Spouse Dies?

By |February 2nd, 2012|

By Gregory F. Quinn

The death of a spouse is one of the most difficult things any of us will encounter.  Usually, and understandably, the last thing the surviving spouse is thinking about during that difficult time is the financial steps that must be taken.  This article outlines many of the actions that are typically required.

Initially, some of the tasks listed below may be simplified or eliminated if the deceased spouse had a living trust.  Trusts and other planning measures that are implemented during life can greatly ease the burden of the spouse that survives. […]


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Psychology & economics

I have to say that I really enjoy academic literature reviews – so many insights in so little space!  An excellent recent find was Stefano DellaVigna’s “Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field,” which is more or less a short treatise on how to think about and test hypotheses in behavioral economics.  Whilst some of the points covered were essentially quantifications of easily observable phenomena (such as hyperbolic discounting), there were two that struck me in their phrasing and their implications for microfinance:

  • Attention is a scarce resource. This makes intuitive sense, but I found it a pithy description of a fact that we too often neglect when trying to communicate with others.  Another good insight was that “consumer inattention to non-transparent [costs] is substantial.”  This to say that we tend to anchor our purchasing behavior on the costs that are most prominent, or even literally visible to us.  For instance, most US shoppers do fully understand that sales & excise taxes will be added on to the final cost of their grocery purchases – but researchers found that listing the (unchanged) tax visibly on an item’s price tag decreased consumer uptake of that item.
  • Choice avoidance is real. I’ll just quote: “Marianne Bertrand et al. (forthcoming) examine the impact of a small or large menu set in the context of an experiment on the mailing of 50,000 loan offers in South Africa. The authors randomize, among other things, the format of the table illustrating the use of the loan. The small-table format lists only one loan size as an example, while the big-table format presents four different loan sizes. The finding is consistent with the choice avoidance results. The take-up in the small-table format is .6 percentage points larger compared to a baseline of 8 percentage points, an effect size equivalent to a reduction of the (monthly) interest rate by 2.3 percentage points.”

Both of these points made me think about striking a balance in microfinance marketing.  On the one hand, it’s clearly preferable to phrase information in ways that are transparent (no invisible costs) and understandable to clients (so probably discussing interest as a fee rather than an annualized percentage).  On the other hand, however, it’s also important not to overwhelm potential clients with information – especially those for whom microfinance is a first, and likely intimidating, foray into the formal financial system.  So the responsible MFI must figure out – what aspects of their products are clients really paying attention to?  And how do you tell people about them in a way that’s transparent, but also compelling?

I think there’s an obscure parallel here to David Roodman’s recent post on microfinance as institution building – namely, that doing better sales, marketing, client outreach, whatever you’d like to call it is a step towards building commercially viable financial systems for the average residents of developing countries.  A large part of this is that product design is at the heart of marketing, and, as Portfolios of the Poor amply demonstrated, microlending could use a revolution or ten in the design of its products.  But I also partly feel like an attention to marketing – to why microfinance clients take or refuse the loans that they do – would indicate that the financial sector is starting to take the poor seriously as financial decision-makers, as valid and valued clients of a non-exclusionary financial system.  That’s what I’d really like to see.

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How About Them Bad Reviews

Twilight Sparkle FrustratedSo when you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy a book do you find yourself exclusively reading the bad reviews it’s gotten? If you’re guilty and you know it clap your hands! *slow claps it out louder than everybody else*

I do this ALL THE FUCKING TIME! Every time I come across a book I think I’d enjoy reading, the very first thing I do is sit down and do some extensive research into all the bad reviews it’s gotten. And even if it’s just one single one – I will WILL find it and I WILL let that one bad review influence my decision. Big time!

I don’t even know why I do this. I’ve read a lot of books that have gotten horrible reviews and I loved them. And still when it’s that time of the month and my credit card is screaming at me to go buy some shit (which let’s be real usually is books), I delve into the depth of goodreads and dig up all the really despicable reviews of the books on my “buy me now” list. And then it’s an endless medley of “Wow that premise sounds so great” – “What?! Oh god nope thanks, I’m gonna hate that.” – “Oh but it has badass chicks in it!” – “Seriously? Fuck no!” – “Lesbians you say? Well then I couldn’t care less about how bad it is! Give it to me!”

Okay that last one is pretty much the defining factor in all my life choices, but you get the general gist right? I find myself agreeing with every bad thing that’s been written about a book before I’ve even read it and I then get scared that since that one person on the internet, who probably has a completely different taste in books than me and whose name I don’t even know, despises this book, I naturally will hate it too.

It’s a really bad habit on my part and I’m trying not to get sucked into the void of ranting and venting, because I think that I’m missing out on some excellent books by letting myself be influenced by one bad review.

How about you? How do you decide what book (or rather books, because we all know we’re not gonna buy just one book…) to get next?

I hope you’re having a wonderful Monday, lovely humans!

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January Wrap Up

January Wrap UpSo the first month of the new year is over and reading-wise it’s been a pretty great one! Actually it’s been one of the best reading months I’ve ever had probably! I read twelve books. TWELVE! Okay fine three of those were Graphic Novels so technically speaking there were nine books and three Graphic Novels, but still! That’s two books a week. Yeah, go me! February on the other hand is not looking as great so far… Just FYI…

Anyhow, enough with the rambling! Since this is quite a big number for one wrap up post I’ve decided to approach this a bit differently… I’m gonna tell you my opinion on each of the books I read in five sentences or less otherwise this post would get way to long!

So without further ado, let’s get started!

#1: “Sky Key” by James Frey
There is so much happening in this series to so many people and it took me a while to get back into the groove of things. I love this though. As confusing as it is sometimes it’s fast paced and exciting and I’m really looking forward to the last book in this trilogy.

#2: “The Fade Out, Vol. 1: Act 1” by Ed Brusker, Sean Phillips, Elizabeth Breitweiser
The art in this was really nice, but the story was sooooo damn slow. Also, I couldn’t care less about the characters. There too one-dimensional and not nearly as fleshed out as they could be.

#3: “Armada” by Ernest Cline
I LOVED “Ready Player One” so my expectations for this were very high. “Armada” was kind of a let down though. It was very slow in the beginning and although the pace picked up towards the end, it still didn’t get anywhere close to “Ready Player One” in my opinion.

#4: “Wonder Woman, Vol 1: Blood” by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, Tony Akins, Dan Green, Matthew Wilson, Jared K. Fletcher
Marry me, Diana! The artwork was great and the story was good! It was fast paced and kept you excited so I will definitely be continuing with this series!

#5: “The First Bad Man” by Miranda July
What exactly was that? I’m still so confused about this one! The relationship between the two main characters was the biggest, fastest and scariest roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on in my life. And I kinda disturbingly enjoyed it.

#6: “ODY-C, Vol 1: Off To Far Ithicaa” by Matt Fraction & Christian Ward
A gender bent version of the Odyssee set in space! Fuck yes! The art is stunning, the characters are amazing and the story is fantastic. I’m a sucker for ancient mythology retellings so this is right up my alley!

#7: “The Merciless” by Danielle Vega
God I hate you! I don’t even wanna say more about this here because I’ve written quite a long rant about this one. So if you wanna find out just how much I hate this you can have a look at this.

#8: “Room” by Emma Donoghue
his has been so hyped up in the bookish world and everybody seems to love this. I love Emma Donoghue’s writing and it was great reading a book from an entirely new perspective, but all in all I found this to be a bit underwhelming.

#9: “172 Hours on the Moon” by Johan Harstad
Very, very slow start. I had a hard time lumping through this in the beginning. Which is probably also because I didn’t really form any kind of connection to the characters. Then suddenly this got very creepy, very fast and that ending – jeeeeeeeez.

#10: “Curious Wine” by Katherine V. Forest
Predictable storyline, but I loved this. The writing was great, the characters were fantastic and the pacing was not too dull either. If you’re looking for a quick and fluffy read – this is perfect!

#11: “Afterworlds” by Scott Westerfeld
This one combines two completely different stories. The one about Darcy the novelist and the one about Lizzie, her protagonist of the book she is about to publish. I LOVED Darcy’s storyline. Couldn’t care less about Lizzie though, so those parts of the books got a bit neglected.

#12: “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami
My first Murakami and I gotta say, I really like this witting style. Wasn’t such a fan of the book itself, but that’s due to me not being a fan of nonfiction writing. I have some other Murakami books though, so those will be read quite soon.

How was your first reading month of the new year?

I hope you’re having a great Sunday evening, lovely humans!

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The Greatest Misses of 2015 – Graphic Novels

Same procedure as always and if you don’t know about said procedure, check out my greatest bookish disappointments here.

Let’s get right to it…

#1: “Fun Home“ by Alison Bechdel
Fun Home CoverMy expectations were so high for this one and they crashed and burned about five pages in! Everyone seems to adore this book, especially people in the LGBTQ+ community. Well I’m in that community too, but I hate this with a fiery passion! The writing is pretentious AF and the whole book felt like Alison Bechdel had a Thesaurus open on her lap and was looking for the smartest sounding synonyms for every single word she wrote. Her writing frustrated me to no end. I have a lot more to say about this so you can check out my mini review of this book in my March wrap up.

#2: “American Widow“ by Alissa Torres & Sungyoon Choi
American WidowI feel like this was supposed to be a collection of short stories, because it sure as hell read like that. It would have been better if that were the case though. As it is, this book infuriated me to no end! I’ve never read any literature concerning the 9/11 attacks so I was really looking forward to this, but Alissa came across as whiny, annoying and incredibly ungrateful! All she did was bitch and moan about her stupid husband and the stupid social workers and generally all the stupid people surrounding her.

#3: “Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga” by Brett Weldele & Richard Kelly
Southland TalesI have no idea what the fuck was going on and who the fuck is who and who, but I do know that I didn’t like this at all! Even in combination with watching the movie didn’t make things any clearer to me. And the most disturbing thing of all is Buffy playing a porn star named Krysta Now and singing a song about how teen horniness not being a crime!

#4: “From Hell“ by Alan Moore
From HellI have this disturbing fascination with the whole Jack the Ripper case so I was thrilled about this! Even though this is a beast of a book with over 500 pages! I soon knew why… The writing so so incredibly detailed! Scenes that could have been over and done with in one page were dragged on for whole chapters! Obviously, I skimmed a lot of the pages or even skipped chapters at all. The illustrations were really dark and eerie, which fit the content of the story perfectly and I really liked them, but even with my glasses on and my nose practically touching the pages I had a fucking hard time to decipher the writing! It was so freakishly small and that was one of the biggest reasons I really didn’t enjoy this. If you can’t even properly read the dialogue the whole reading experience gets to be pretty frustrating!

#5: “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life“ by Brian Lee O’Malley
Scott PilgrimThe was the last and final Graphic Novel we had to read for a course at uni and it ended on a rather bad note thanks to this one. I don’t even have a lot to say about this because it was so childish and over the top and the characters were so freaking annoying. On top of that the art style was nothing special too. Very bland. I skimmed through this as fast as I could and sold it the second I was done with it.

Funnily enough I had to read all of these for my Graphic Novels course at university. Which shows that my theory that I basically hate everything I am more or less forced to read for my studies is correct.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, lovely humans!

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Read Around The World

AroundTheWorld2016So I wasn’t sure if I should do reading challenges this year, because I tried to stick with two last year and totally failed to see them through. Then I found this one and it is AMAZING! This combines my love for reading with my dream of traveling the world so I just can’t not do it!

If you want to participate you can check out all the details of the challenge here, which was created by the lovely Carina.

This is my world traveling progress so far. Thanks to “Sky Key” I’ve already been to nearly every continent! (This might be called cheating, but whatevs! 😁)

If you decide to this too or if you’re already doing this challenge please let me know! We can travel the world together!

I hope you have a wonderful Saturday, lovely humans!

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The Greatest Misses of 2015 – Part I: The Books

You know the drill… Two parts – one with my least favourite books and one with my least favourite or most disappointing graphic novels, sorted in chronological order, yadi yadi yada… You can take a look at my favourite books and picture books if you want to refresh your memory.

#1: “Utopia” by Thomas More

Utopia CoverOne word: fucking BORING! Okay that were two words, but still… I mean I know this is considered a classic and all, but dear lord! NOTHING happens,
just lots of yapping about the societal structures of Utopia, which could have been so interesting, but this read like one gigantic list. And don’t get me wrong, I love my lists, but not when they’re 122 pages long.

#2: “The Pledge” by Kimberly Derting
The Pledge CoverThis was frustrating to me! I’m a language student, meaning I love languages and the concept of this sounded fucking amazing! The execution however was pretty poor. Also the thing is, once you’ve read one dystopian novel, you’ve read them all. From the very beginning I could tell you exactly what was going to happen in the end. When you already know from the get-go what the end is gonna bring, it gets real boring, real fast.

#3: “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
House of LeavesThis is another one that was so disappointing to me! I was expecting greatness and I got utter frustration! My two biggest fears were combined in this story namely the fear of darkness and the complete loss of control that comes with that. This book should have been scaring me shitless. It didn’t though. It only made me want to throw it across the room several times. I wrote a review on this, which you can read here!

#4: “The 5th Wave” by Rick Yancey
16101128Another one of those predictable reads! And one with the most boring characters ever! This put me to sleep several times whilst I was reading it. The main protagonist is a girl named Cassie, which is short for Cassiopeia, the constellation Cassiopeia. This is important! Remember that! It’s CASSIE for CASSIOPEIA! It will only be mentioned about a thousand more times… But don’t worry you’ll also get a backstory to explain why she has that name and why she has that nickname and you’ll get to hear everything about the constellation as well. Exciting, no? NO!
As to it’s predictability, this book checks all the points in the YA dystopian/sci-fi checklist. I figured out the big plot twist, which should have been the amazing what-the-fuck moment no one should have been expecting about two pages in when we shift to another character’s, namely Evan’s (pssst – he’s the love interest!) POV.

#5: “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks
1993860What is this? I thought this would be an ass-kicking, fast-paced, action-packed story! This is one of the most boring books I’ve ever read! It was basically one gigantic Q and A questionnaire, which inherently is something very, very dry. I expected so much more out of this. I mean what you expect from a horror zombie survival story is action and suspense and maybe even some blood and gore and also, you know, actual zombies.
The story of this zombie war however is told from the perspective of the people who survived it. As in past tense. All the fighting and the action and the surviving has already happened so basically there’s a lot of “then this happened and then that happened” coming from lots of different people around the world. Which gives the author the freedom to completely forgo character development or actual story arcs, which is just an extremely lazy way to be telling a story in my opinion.

Have you read any of the books I mentioned? What did you think of them?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, lovely humans!

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Personal MBA

Personal MBA is the exactly the thought I had in mind some time ago when I first understood the concept of peer production while reading this . The thought came out more from a need of such a forum for me. I am thrilled to see a it in implementation right now. Peer production at work here, slowly but surely it will compete well with traditional firm of an MBA school 🙂

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  1. was in bangalore for a few hours on the way to ooty 🙂

    on the way back saw your if you are still in emuzed..couldnt help wondering why it had so many offices..and all of them so small and adjacent to each other..

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Building Up a Solid Concept in Creature Construction

Today we have another brick built creature. I am going to make the call, and declare it a cat …or a brushtail possum. But I don’t think it really matters. If there is one thing that the Christmas buildup 40222 has reminded me, it is that there is a need to use your imagination  when building with bricks. Lego city and minifigure scale is all very well when you have your creatures, pets and animals predefined with an independent mold, but to put things together from scratch, and to interpret what others have built takes a little imagination. Through the creatures that we have brick built with this set, we have seen a number of different techniques for building animal faces, years, posture, legs and tails.  I love the way that the eyes position here makes you think the cat(possum?) has a great big grin on its face!

Play well.

Halloween and the horror of overseas travel (40203: Vampire and Bat).

IMG_2110.jpgThe Rambling Brick Family recently travelled over to Europe during the recent school hollidays, and along the way we visited the LEGO Store in Paris, located at the Forum des Halles.  Now, I find it to be a difficult challenge shopping for LEGO when travelling to Europe:  It becomes a delicate balance between retail prices, Dollar to Euro conversion, easy availability of the set and on flight luggage allowances.

Sculptures are another great part of the LEGO Store experience.

In France, there was not a lot to gain in purchasing sets at a saving by buying it locally compared to at Australian prices back home, or indeed purchasing sets online.  The prices and exchange rate just about cancelled each other out that week.  So I looked to exclusivity.  What was on the shelves at a reasonable price, that I might not be able to pick up back home?  Would I want to pick it up through

There is something to be said for the experience of visiting a LEGO brand store.  We were there in mid September 2016, and virtually every conceivable set was on display: The Disney Castle and New Death Star ( the one only slightly different to the old one) had just appeared in the stores, and were part of the instore display. The Christmas train was being unwrapped and built at the counter. As was Big Ben and just about every other set that would make an Australian AFOL cry out and bemoan the absence of such a retail experience here.  Even the Technic Porsche was on display. Continue reading

When is a car not a car? When its a Dragon parts pack. [McLaren P1 75909]

Flame Yellowish Orange(Lego Group) also known as Bright Light Orange (Bricklink) is the color of the month here at the Rambling Brick.  Recently, I looked at the Ultimate Axl is all his flame yellowish orange, gold printed glory.  This follows on from looking at the Elves Fire Dragon set back in May. Today, distracted by it’s brightly coloured box, full of glorious curves, I picked up another of the Speed Champions: the McLaren P1.  One of the 2015 Speed Champions sets, I was able to find it still on sale at my local Myer during a recent 20% off sale.

When I looked at the Ford GT, I was particularly annoyed by the number of stickers required in order to make the model look complete.  I have made a conscious decision not to use the stickers on the McLaren, because I have not bought it to use as a car.  This set appealed to me because it contains such a variety of flame yellowish orange pieces (OK this description is getting awkward.  Lets change over to FYO/BLO) , including cheese slopes, regular slopes, plates tiles and bows.  All that seems to be missing to me are a couple of Mixel eyes, and ball joint to allow the construction of a brick built head for my fire dragon.

I love the Elves Dragons.  They are all colourful, and have their own personalities, associated with their personal (dragonal?) elements. However, all of their heads are cast from the same mould. Approximately 5.5 studs wide, 6 studs long and 3 blocks and a plate high, there is no doubt that these 2 parts  – jaw and face – link to gather to form a dragon head. Otherwise, there are 2 studs in the top of the head, to attach crystals to, and attachments for 2 horns (2.8mm rod connectors).  So: Limited customisation.

So… the FYO/BLO parts pack… err racing car… caught my eye, and filled me with a desire to brick build a head for the fire dragon.  That’s the plan any way.  Will I succeed, or will I be distracted by a really nifty car build?  Let’s find out… Continue reading


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Labor day weekend fun

Well its been awhile since I’ve picked up a rock to give it a polish or even a cut.  Last weekend I finally decided it was time to get something done.  That and my friend kept berating me about not working any rock. Ha! It finally worked, all that guilt.

So anyway, I worked a crazy lace agate, reworked a botswana agate, and the crysocholla, malachite druzy that begs to be seen. I knew that working the druzy would make me want to set it or wrap it in silver.

It was fun and boy do I need to practice. It did make me want to practice though.  So I’ll be cutting up some more soon.

Here are a few pics and the finished pendant.

IMG_6731FullSizeRenderFullSizeRenderIMG_6724 FullSizeRender

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful 3 day weekend! 😉

Well I suppose its time I get back to work and get a few things cut or wrapped or both.  These 2 wraps are my latest.

My original twisted pendant is one I wear almost daily and it still gets quite a few compliments.  I just had to try to make more after that one.  It wasn’t easy either.

The malachite drusy, and chrysocholla drusy in the new twisted pendant is from Lima peru. I love this stone and it has been hard to find. So when I do find it I have to buy as much as possible. The cutting of it is pretty tricky tho.  I just hate to lose any color or drusy crystal.  But I can’t wrap a big a chunk of rock nor do I want it to just sit on a shelf and get dusty.  This rock just begs to be cut and wrapped.

The next pendant has a focal skull magnasite bead.  I bought a few skulls at a rock shop in Alburquerque NM last summer.  Since it was a nice turquoise color, I had to add a little coral and a Pecos River diamond we found in NM too. The garnet was just a lil more color and I like for these twisty pendants to have as much color as possible.  This pendant is just totally southwest inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Life has gone to the dogs

I finished a pendant that is a twist of stones and silver wire. I wanted it to have stones on all sides and no matter which way it hangs it would have something pretty. I had a piece of the Chrysocolla/Malachite Drusy from Peru and I wanted it to be the focal. I soldered a couple of pieces of 18 gauge silver wire to make it look like a dragon finger, or so it does to me anyway. Then I started weaving from it. The piece has 3 tourmalines, 2 garnets, and a spinel along with the drusy cab. Here is the pic for it and a lil video.

I had an idea for another but it will have to wait since my life has been invaded by a couple of lil gremlins.

They are so much fun, but just like kids they take up alot of time.
Thanks for coming by!

Super Sunday Cabbing

Super Bowl Sunday, and I get to cab til the game starts. Thats a wonderful day!.

I cabbed a small piece of Chrysocolla drusy that as left from a piece of stone I won on the Taogem forum.  It had some amazing blue green or teal colored druse and dark green malachite druse.  Its from Nuevo Mundo Imports. I highly recommend them if you want the best chrysocolla and malachite drusy. The crystals are so clear and shiny. Awesome stuff. Its pricey but you get what you pay for. I also cabbed another quartz drusy cab.

I also cabbed a Queensland agate. The Queensland agate has some very nice patterning and layers, plus a little drusy in the middle. Love it!

The icing on the cake?
Green bay won! yay!!

Back in the swing

Back in the swing of cabbing anyway.  I’ve been away from my cabbing equipment for awhile and it sure is good to be back at it.  I was so excited that I couldn’t decide what I wanted to polish first.  It was even a bit hard to concentrate.  I found that I wanted to polish all the lil slabs I had cut.  Which is way too many. So I started a few and only finished four.  As soon as I get a chance I will finish the others.  I ended up with a drusy quartz cab, a laguna agate, a queensland agate cab, and a chrysocolla cab.

I had read on a forum awhile back that one of the members there would mix a few different polishes and get a glass like shine on his cabs. So I tried it out.  I mixed some red rouge, green polishing rouge, and cerium oxide equal parts. I got a really good polish but I think it needs to be mixed with something other than water.  I didn’t like the consistency.

God is truly wonderful. It always amazes me when I cut a rock open and inside there’s this amazing pattern that you would never have thought could be in there.   I can sit in awe just checking out a small slab of rock.  I suppose this is my kind of meditation.  All the layers and colors. Awesome!!

The pink Queensland agate just formed itself. All I had to do was take off the ugly brown stuff from the outside and  it was already a heart.  Not a perfect heart, but then who has a perfect heart?

The other cabs were just as much fun to make, the drusy has been on my mind for awhile, since drusy jewelry is all the rage now.  The little crystals are so pretty and catch the light like stars.

Thanks for coming by,

Until next time…

I’m so grateful for the extra day off! I even got to cab a little bit. I cabbed a few of the cuts from yesterday. The psilomelane is messy and stains your hands but, love those orbs. The coquina jasper is fun to work with. The patterning in the stone makes you see all kinds of different things. As for the chrysocolla druzy, well just as before, its so pretty. If you like sparkle and shine that is!

Hope you a great, long weekend!

The sun decided to make an appearance mid morning and made for a great day to cut some stone. This is something I love to do. I was planning on cutting the malachite end of the druzy but found some Morgan Hill poppy jasper, script stone, agate and some green stone that I’m thinking is a petrified bog. It has some awesome greens in it, and takes a great shine. I kept finding stuff I’ve been wanting to cut or polish, so rocks just kept jumping into my hands. Ok so I finally got the saw out and cut it up here are some pics of what I ended up with.

Now to cab it all.

Happy Valentines day! I hope you get to spend time with someone you love, doing something you love to do.

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