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Home / Books / Book Reviews / Book Review: The Orchid Bracelet by Freddie Remza

Book Review: The Orchid Bracelet by Freddie Remza

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A finalist in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards contest, Freddie Remza combines her love for writing and travel with her creative imagination to build a platform for social awareness and the need for change through the medium of the novel The Orchid Bracelet.

American journalist, Allison Wagner, on assignment in Vietnam, becomes deeply involved in a conflict that forever changes her destiny. Allison learns more of her father’s bravery in the Vietnam War, of his injuries, capture and imprisonment by the Vietnamese, and of his death in the Cu Chi Forest in Vietnam.

While visiting a village in the nearby Mekong Delta with her guide, Allison met a 17-year-old cousin Lam. With the promise of work to provide funds for nurse’s training Lam is innocently drawn into the shady world of human trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation. Within days Lam drops out of sight of the family and is taken to Cambodia. Remza paints word pictures of these victims, trapped physically and emotionally with feelings of fear, hate, and loneliness building up. Moved by compassion, Allison joins Trung in his search for Lam.

Remza’s writing uses strong descriptive phrases, colorful characters, and an engaging storyline. Although I felt there were too many characters, the inclusion of a listing of the 35 primary and secondary characters introduced in the story in the order of their appearance was a big help. I was impressed with two additional features included: a discussion guide for book club readers, and an album of photographs depicting life in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Orchid Bracelet by Freddie Remza left a lingering awareness etched in my memory with impressions of the callous acts of predators preying on children, teenagers, and women, victims of poverty without hope. The widespread, ongoing practice of modern-day enslavement in Southeast Asia, Africa, Thailand, England, France, and the United States is disturbing.

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Home / Music / Reviews music / Album Reviews / Music Reviews: Alien, Romantic Rebel, Three Lions, and Voodoo Six

Music Reviews: Alien, Romantic Rebel, Three Lions, and Voodoo Six

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Straight-up hard rock is up for review this week.

Alien will release Eternity on April 28. This an ’80s band who have had a resurgence thanks to festival appearances like Firefest. They got back together 2010, after a few abortive attempts at a comeback, with the original line-up no less. The music is very ’80s Scandinavian AOR and that is not such a bad thing at all. Oodles of catchy choruses and slick production make for quite the pleasant experience. How can you resist tracks like “Unbroken”? We can even forgive them for being on The Blob remake soundtrack.

Romantic RebelRomantic Rebel are set to release Romantic Rebel next week, April 29. It is their debut album. They actually have come up with some quite unique and rather catchy songs. Think Van Halen-esque ’80s hard rock fronted by a woman with a slight modern mainstream rock vibe. KT Paige, lead singer, occasionally sounds a lot like Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame, circa Slave to the Grind. Not that any of this matters much when it is this good. “Bad for Me” is the type of track that should set this bunch on the path to stardom.

Three Lions just released Three Lions on April 22. If you are looking for some slick AOR rock, produced by a couple of veterans and a newbie, then this is it. This is anything but a power trio, but they still produce some cracking AOR. This has very much a Dare/Ten vibe, which is not surprising considering Vinny Burns and Greg Morgan are on hand. “Trouble in a Red Dress” really sums up this band and is quite the track. How about a Winery Dogs/Three Lions tour? What a cracking gig that would be for all of us.

Voodoo Six have released an EP called Lead Me On to get people riled up for their upcoming Sonisphere appearance this summer. As with most EPs, Lead Me On is a mixed bag made up of a new version of a track, a live one, an acoustic one, and unnecessary cover. The title track is quite the corker and shows that the band are moving from strength to strength. It is an edit of a track that originally appeared on their last studio album. The acoustic track “Take the Blame” really highlights how good the band are as musicians.

Stay safe and rocking out there everyone.

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Home / Tag Archives: online magazine

Tag Archives: online magazine

Welcome to the NEW Blogcritics

As you might have noticed, Blogcritics has taken on a rather new look. Yes, the logo hasn’t changed, the colors are still (more or less) the same, but much is different. So please take the time to peruse the site and its new features, and then we’d appreciate it if you took the time to leave a comment, and share ... Read More »


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'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

25 May 2012

Q E D / L O L

This letter (18 May) to The Age ...
IF I was running the NGV, I would also ban the wearing of bifocal glasses. How dare those people get two views of the same works.
Brad Hooper, Drummond
.... refers first to the NGV ban on sketching, note-making and photography within the Fred Williams retrospective and second to the review of that exhibition by Age critic Robert Nelson and the subsequent response to that by Ronald Millar.

When we quoted the letter earlier, we suggested
If we were dictator, we would make mindview-bifocals the minimum permissible aids of regard, and would encourage the use of mindview-polyfocals

Now this free pencil movement blotter reminds us of best practice regard: The Two Truths

By this aid to clear seeing, the object of regard is BOTH relative ['good' (Millar, McCaughey) / 'bad' (Nelson, Davila)] AND absolute, empty of any inherence.

Q E D / L O L

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


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In an apparent attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown yesterday expressed his opposition to the Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign to make marijuana legal in the state.
Mr. Brown, who is was in Monterrey for a conference, said legalizing the drug would open the flood gates for the ruthless and deadly Mexican drug cartels. "Every year we get more and more marijuana and every year we find more guys with AK-47's coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control," Mr. Brown said.
For the purpose of this short post, I will not address in full here the idiocy of decrying the involvement of drug cartels in the marijuana trade while opposing a regulated system of distribution. Suffice it to say that burying your head in your ass the sand and hoping the drug war will eliminate drug cartels from the planet hasn’t been the most effective tactic over the past few decades. But this post is about politics, not policy. The problem for Brown is that he is potentially turning off hundreds of thousands of voters who will be showing up in November simply to vote to make marijuana legal. Many of these "green" voters don’t give a real hoot who the next governor of the state is, as long as they can purchase their recreational drug of choice safely, conveniently and legally. That said, single-issue marijuana voters tend to lean toward the Democratic side of the spectrum, so their votes would likely benefit Brown overall. The only thing that could reverse that likelihood is Brown dissing Proposition 19, as the initiative is now known. (Brown supporters should hope that the campaign is carefully studying polling data to determine his standing among individuals who will be turning out to vote because of the Tax Cannabis initiative.) Here is my political advice to Mr. Brown. From now on, if he is asked about Proposition 19, he should say, “I have some concerns about the initiative, which I hope could be addressed by the state legislature if it passes, but if I am elected to be the next governor of the state I certainly plan to respect the will of the people.” If he chooses to ignore this advice, he may be hearing or seeing – or simply feeling the effects of -- the following slogan in the fall: “Vote green, not Brown.”
I don’t mean to stereotype here, but if you are a member of the Alternet community, it is likely that you support marijuana policy reform. Heck, you may even enjoy using it every now and then. This is nothing to be embarrassed about or ashamed of. Using marijuana is no different than drinking alcohol – except for the fact that marijuana is far less harmful. Odds are, however, your use of marijuana or your support of changing marijuana laws is not something you talk about as openly as, say, your love of a television show or a sports team. Because marijuana has been deemed taboo by mainstream society for so long, it is something we often keep under wraps. This is especially true when it comes to discussing the subject with our parents. For this reason, the newly established Women’s Marijuana Movement is encouraging people to participate in “Tell Your Mothers” Day. Timed to coincide with Mother’s Day, the goal is to provide individuals with an appropriate and thoughtful way to share their feelings about marijuana with their mothers. The e-card available on the WMM site (which you can send from the page) uses flash animation and starts with the following text:
Thank you for raising me to be thoughtful and compassionate, to think for myself and make good decisions, to respect my body and my health, to be considerate of others, and to be honest with those I love. Based in part on these valuable lessons, I want to share some news that may surprise you, but should not upset you: I believe marijuana should be legal.
If we are ever going to change marijuana laws in this country, we need to change people’s perceptions about the substance and get people to be more accepting and open about the subject. There is no better place to start than with your own mother. I hope you will take advantage of this unique opportunity by sending the e-card to your mom today.
Today, in the heart of Sin City, former Alaska governor, Republican vice presidential candidate, Fox News “analyst” and the darling of the Tea Party set Sarah Palin delivered a keynote address to attendees of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s convention. Might this be a sign that Palin is prepared to take up the fight for individual freedoms espoused by Ron Paul and other libertarian-leaning leaders of the Tea Party movement? One group in Nevada is testing this hypothesis by asking Palin to put her mouth where their money is. Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (a ballot advocacy group backed by my organization, the Marijuana Policy Project) has offered to pay Palin $25,000 to give a similar speech to marijuana policy reformers. Such a speech would convey a simple message: If we can defend and even celebrate the individual freedom to use alcohol, we should certainly allow individuals the freedom to use marijuana, a substance objectively less harmful than alcohol. The following quotes are from an advisory circulated by NSML:
“We see absolutely no reason why Ms. Palin would reject our offer,” said [NSML campaign manager Dave] Schwartz. “The health effects of the substance she is talking about at the WSWA convention causes 33,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. The comparable number for marijuana is zero. Alcohol is also associated with violent crime and other destructive acts, while marijuana is not. If Ms. Palin is comfortable endorsing that product, we are certain that she will endorse ours. “Let me make one thing clear. In making this offer, we are not intending to attack the alcohol industry or alcohol users,” continued Schwartz. “We are merely highlighting the fact that marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol. It therefore makes no sense to keep marijuana in the criminal market, while a former vice presidential candidate celebrates the alcohol industry. We want legitimate businesspeople in Nevada to benefit from the sales of marijuana, and we want adults to be free to choose whichever substance they prefer – marijuana or alcohol – when they relax after work.”
I am sure there are many progressive readers of this blog who can think of nothing worse than having Sarah Palin associated with this cause (or any cause for that matter). That is not the point here. It is unlikely that Ms. Palin will endorse the use of marijuana. And it is probably less likely that she will accept a measly $25,000 for a speech. But by making this offer, NSML has underscored for the nation to see, the blatant hypocrisy that exists among our nation’s leaders, who embrace the alcohol industry while supporting laws that make criminals out of adults who simply choose to use a less harmful substance -- marijuana.
[Note: I co-authored this post with Mason Tvert of SAFER. He submitted it to Huffington Post two days ago, but it has not been posted yet, so I thought I would post a version here.] A week ago, I blogged about MTV’s Real World program and how it is almost a microcosm of society insofar as participants are banned from using marijuana and end up consuming copious amounts of alcohol instead. This excessive alcohol use, both on the show and in the real real world, repeatedly leads to acts of violence and other offensive and/or dangerous acts. Yet our laws – and the rules on the Real World – continue to steer people away from marijuana and toward alcohol, which is clearly a more dangerous drug. This week, the media world is buzzing with news of an alleged sexual assault by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The least surprising aspect of these reports is that the incident occurred at a club in which alcohol is served. We do not know at this point whether Big Ben was drinking or whether the alleged victim was drinking, but there have been reports that young women were recruited from the main part of the club back to a VIP room where the quarterback was holding court. One article noted that “free drinks” were part of the enticement. I don’t want to delve into whether a criminal act was or was not committed that night. That is for the legal system to determine. My reason for bringing up this incident is to point out how it is in some ways a result of the policies of the National Football League. Let’s assume for a second that no alleged sexual assault occurred that night. Would we ever have heard about Big Ben’s night out? Of course not. But what if, instead of trolling for young women, he had spent the evening chillin’ with friends, enjoying some marijuana, listening to tunes and shooting pool. A couple months later, we might have read – as we did after Ricky Williams made the “mistake” of using marijuana – that he had been suspended for four games for violating the league’s banned substance policy. This is the league’s policy. Go to a club and drink – No problem. Stay at home and enjoy a little marijuana – Get suspended. Every player in the league is aware of this policy. And just like every other red-blooded American, they are looking to have a little fun during their free time. If one source of fun is banned and the other is acceptable, they are going to choose the option that does not get them in trouble. But we see all too frequently that heading out to a club eventually results in trouble – from fights to sexual assaults and even shootings. I am not suggesting that the NFL ban alcohol or prohibit players from frequenting clubs. The players are adults and need to make smart decisions about their lives. If they screw up, that is their problem. But it would make a heck of a lot of sense if the NFL removed marijuana from its list of banned substances. Give players the option of making the safer choice when they relax, unwind or party. Sure, players who use marijuana might still get in trouble with local law enforcement. And if they do, they will have to deal with the consequences. But the NFL has no reason to blindly and ignorantly mimic the government’s irrational marijuana policies. At some point even the government will stop the insanity and will allow adults to use marijuana instead of alcohol, if that is what they prefer. For now, the NFL needs to adopt that policy itself.
Millions of reality show addicts around the nation are on the edges of their couches today waiting to learn the fate of Real World castmate Andrew, who was pushed off what looked like a fifteen-foot high wall onto the pavement below by a drunken housemate, Ty, at the end of last week’s episode.  Fortunately, we can assume from a few previews of the season, as well as the lack of media reports, that Andrew did not actually die as the result of this fall.  But that outcome is due more to luck than any precautions taken by the show’s producers.  In fact, their role in his injury could almost be characterized as contributory negligence. Anyone who has watched the Real World throughout its incredible 23-season run knows that alcohol is almost like the perennial eighth – or this year ninth – housemate.  It is present in almost every episode.  And if it were nominated for an Emmy it would be for a leading, not a supporting, role.  This was not always the case, of course.  In the earlier seasons, alcohol played a less significant role on the show.  But as with alcohol itself, the use of alcohol by cast members has become an intoxicating and addictive ingredient for producers. Why, as an advocate for marijuana policy reform, do I care about the drunken antics of reality show participants?  I am glad you asked.  The easiest way for me to explain is to share with you an excerpt from Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009).  As the title implies, the book examines the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol and questions why we, as a society, intentionally steer people toward the far more harmful substance.  The excerpt below is from the beginning of Chapter 7, which is, appropriately enough, entitled, “The Real-World Ramifications of Our Pro-Alcohol Culture,” and it uses the Real World to make a point about the real world. One final point before I post the excerpt: If you agree that Real World participants, and other reality show participants, like “Jersey Shore” cast members, should be able to make the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol, you can sign a petition put together by the organization SAFER and its executive director, Mason Tvert, a co-author (along with Paul Armentano of NORML and myself) of Marijuana is Safer.  As the petition says, it is time for MTV to stop driving cast members to drink and start getting real.
Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? Chapter 7: “The Real-World Ramifications of Our Pro-Alcohol Culture” Given the widespread popularity of both marijuana and alcohol as social and recreational intoxicants, it’s hardly surprising to discover that the two substances are potential substitutes for one another. Yet, our society steers citizens who might otherwise enjoy relaxing with cannabis toward the use of alcohol instead. In other words, by artificially reducing the use of marijuana in this country, we are artificially increasing the level of alcohol use—and all of the problems that go along with that use. So what are some of the real-world ramifications of this practice? To begin our assessment, it seems only appropriate that we look to MTV’s long-running reality show The Real World, which since 1992 has purported to demonstrate what happens when young Americans “stop being polite and start getting real.” Yet there is something decidedly unreal about the social lives of the show’s cast members. In more than twenty seasons, including more than 140 cast members representing the eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-old demographic, viewers have never once witnessed anyone chilling on the couch after taking a hit off a joint or a bong. Instead, season after season, cast members—including the under-twenty-one housemates—drink to their hearts’ content. Viewers have seen drunken young women performing in public like strippers and they have witnessed inebriated male and female cast members engaging in random sexual hookups. Excessive drinking on the set has frequently led to heated arguments among castmates, fights, abusive language, and overly aggressive actions toward women. In some cases, these actions have even led to arrests. Hangovers and blackouts on The Real World are just a fact of life. Yet despite all of this alcohol-fueled debauchery, there is no indication that the show’s producers have ever considered taking steps to reduce cast members’ alcohol intake—even though two housemates ultimately entered rehab for alcoholism during the filming of the show. If anything, it seems as if the prevalence of alcohol-fueled episodes on the show have increased over time—as has the proliferation of alcohol-inducing play things like pool tables and hot tubs—to the point where one could only assume that producers are encouraging the use of booze. This was undoubtedly the case when they arranged for the suitemates in The Real World: Las Vegas to work for a nightclub and even serve cocktails. Is the real world exactly like The Real World? Well, no. First of all, surveys indicate that residents of the real world often use marijuana and typically have ready access to it. In addition, most people have actual responsibilities that diminish their ability to get shit-faced six or seven nights a week. These two points aside, however, the comparison is spot-on. We live in a society that has created something of an intoxication-related balloon effect. The balloon effect describes a situation where the proactive prohibition of one action produces a similar counter-action—like when you squeeze one end of a balloon, you simply shift air to the other end. This analogy is often applied to efforts to eradicate illegal drug crops in South America or Afghanistan. For instance, if authorities exert pressure to try to eliminate the cultivation of coca crops in Columbia, production will simply increase in Peru or some other nation. In the real world, like on The Real World, we exist within a society where pressure is being applied to the marijuana end of the balloon. As a result, air is shifted to the alcohol end, and its use has expanded. In the rest of this chapter, we will take a look at what this expansion has wrought…
In my first "On Marijuana" column, I described the need to refer to law enforcement as the “Arrest and Prosecution Industry.”  While I didn’t plan to return to the same subject in my second column, recent events have compelled me to revisit the topic.  My last column was theory; this one is practice. Just over a week ago, a man named Chris Bartkowicz in Highlands Ranch, Colorado made a questionable (at best) PR move.  He agreed to be interviewed by a local television station about his medical marijuana grow operation.  Granted, he believed he was in compliance with state law and had no reason to fear prosecution.  But, come on, dude.  It’s one thing to make six figures growing marijuana in your home for patients; it’s quite another to advertise it on television.  It’s like putting a “Home Invasions Encouraged” sign on your door. What Bartkowicz wasn’t expecting – if he was really thinking things through at all – was that the DEA would show up the next day at his house, take all of his plants, and forward his case to the U.S. Attorney, who subsequently filed charges carrying a 5- to 40-year prison sentence.  This, despite the fact that the Obama administration has instructed U.S. Attorneys not to prosecute individuals who comply with state medical marijuana laws. Was Bartkowicz in compliance with state law?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  By the DEA’s admission, he was a caregiver for at least 12 patients, which would allow him to have 72 marijuana plants.  The complaint – available on this page as a pdf – alleges that he had 224 plants, more than 100 of which were “clones” or “starter” plants; the others were “in various stages with root systems.”  So what we are talking about here is a matter of degree.  If someone can legally grow marijuana for patients, but exceeds the allowable number – perhaps for fear that some plants would not mature or perhaps because they felt more patients would need help before the plants matured – is it an intelligent use of taxpayer dollars to raid, prosecute and imprison this person for 40 years? The truth is, as discussed in my last column, the DEA is not concerned with using taxpayer dollars intelligently.  They are merely focused on using taxpayer dollars.  Cases like this demonstrate that they are no better than ambulance-chasing lawyers.  They see an “accident” on television and they run like two-dollar hookers to keep themselves busy and make a couple bucks.  Why waste your time investigating people manufacturing meth when you can look up a medical marijuana grower on the Internet (which the DEA acknowledges in their complaint was a major part of their “investigation”) and raid his house? And now the media is even helping the DEA advertise for clients.  Inciting fears of possible house fires from marijuana growing, the DEA has launched a new campaign to fight this “menace.”  In addition to dutifully reporting on this “danger,” the media helped steer business to the DEA by publishing this advice from George Morkovin, of the Denver Fire Department:
Morkovin said additional regulations are needed to protect residents from these marijuana fires, but until that happens, he recommends notifying authorities if someone believes a grow is taking place next door.
How convenient.  With this information, the DEA won’t even need to waste time looking up an address.  They can just use Google Maps and they’re on their way. They no longer deserve to be called the Drug Enforcement Administration.  They are simply the Drug Employment Administration, keeping themselves busy by raiding people who are not raising the ire of state authorities, but are merely trying to cultivate marijuana so that there is an adequate supply for the tens of thousands of registered patients in the state. Fortunately, we have rock star advocates like Brian Vincente of Sensible Colorado calling out the DEA and the U.S. Attorney on their true motivations. (This is just one quote from Vicente in an interview in which he simply shreds law enforcement):
"I think the U.S. Attorney and the DEA view marijuana laws as a continuing employment act. It gives them something to do, and they're afraid that if they were to recognize the will of the voters, they'd be out of work. So I question the motivation for prosecuting these kinds of individuals. I think it's driven by their own need for job security."
Word. Steve Fox is the director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project and the co-author of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? (Chelsea Green, August 2009).
As I launch what I intend to be a continuing series of updates from the front lines of the battle to change our nation’s marijuana laws, I want to take a moment to thank Alternet for inviting me to participate on the SpeakEasy platform. I am excited to be part of the stable of contributors and have high hopes for the blog. Just to give you a little background about myself, I am currently the director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest organization (more than three dozen full-time employees) dedicated to reforming marijuana laws. In this role, I coordinate the organization’s ballot initiative work. Previously, from 2002-2005, I lobbied Congress for MPP. I am also a co-founder of the organization Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and the co-author of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009). With that housekeeping out of the way, let’s get to meat of the first “On Marijuana” column. What I would like to do with these columns is give you a real look inside the marijuana policy reform movement. Instead of merely reporting on important developments, I will put them in context and help you see the big picture and the strategy behind the moves of reformers. You may be thinking, “Hold on! You can’t let your opponents know your strategy!” Well, here is the good news. It doesn’t matter if our opponents know our strategy. They are not only full of crap, but they are also incapable of actually fighting back intelligently against us. We have far more to gain by sharing our strategy and getting millions of new people – like you – on message, than we have to lose by letting our opponents in on our “secrets.” This column itself serves as an example. Today, we are going to talk about law enforcement. For too long, the media and elected officials have stood firmly behind members of law enforcement, from police officers to district attorneys, as they claimed that they were making our communities safer by arresting and prosecuting individuals for using marijuana. "It's a gateway drug,” they assert. (Bull-pucky, according to every legitimate study of the matter.) It would send the wrong message to children, they whine. (After which they head home and ask their kids to bring them a beer.) The truth is that law enforcement officials know the use of marijuana is not a major source of societal problems. Oh, sure, some people might use marijuana too much and this might be considered a social problem – similar to the overuse of video games. But it is not even in the same league as alcohol, which, by the federal government’s own figures, is linked to 25-30 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. and is a factor in two-thirds of acts of violence between intimates. (The relative harms of marijuana and alcohol on the streets -- and in homes -- is the theme of former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper's foreword in Marijuana is Safer.) Law enforcement officials know this, yet far too many of them continuously and consistently argue that we need to punish adults who use marijuana instead of alcohol. Let me emphasize those last two points. They know that individuals are more likely to be violent if they drink alcohol instead of using marijuana, but they do everything in their power to make sure the only legal option for adults is alcohol. So they clearly don’t care about public safety. What on earth could their motivation be? Plain and simple. They are motivated by self-interest. Their very jobs depend on a steady stream of arrests and prosecutions. And marijuana users are their cash cow, with arrests totaling a staggering 847,863 in 2008. As long as the marijuana arrests keep coming, so do their paychecks. Keep this in mind the next time you hear a law enforcement official explaining why we need to “protect our streets” from this “dangerous drug.” Fortunately, the marijuana policy reform movement is starting to fight back. Two weeks ago, SAFER launched a campaign targeting members of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, who had been lobbying the Colorado state legislature to effectively shut down medical marijuana dispensaries in the state. [I have provided a link to their Web site, but only to prove that it has been disabled due to SAFER’s efforts.] Labeling CDIA a shameless member of the “Arrest and Prosecution Industry,” SAFER sent out an alert slamming them for trying to make patients suffer in order to protect their own jobs. SAFER also called for a boycott of Starbucks, which was listed as a sponsor on the CDIA site. This led to the site, which also included promotional items showing how “cool” the war on drugs is, being pulled down. One week later, MPP joined in the fun, releasing a television ad mocking District Attorney Richard Gammick in Washoe County, Nevada and accusing him of not caring about public safety. The ad mentioned the association between alcohol and violence, made the point that marijuana use is not associated with violence, and asked the district attorney why he thinks it is appropriate to punish adults who choose to use the safer substance. This is only the beginning. From now on, members of law enforcement -- check that, I mean the Arrest and Prosecution Industry -- need to be ready during their television appearances to explain how it is making our communities safer to steer adults away from marijuana and toward alcohol. And you can do your part, too. If you find yourself in a conversation with a representative from the Arrest and Prosecution Industry, ask the same question. They can only lie for so long.


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Babies Online - The Blog

An Incredible Breastfeeding Mother

anincrediblemother.jpgI think this mother is amazing.

Ginger Bohl is an active duty military doctor deployed in Afghanistan. Every day she pumps and freezes her breastmilk, and ships it back to her 11-month-old son, Silas in the US. The milk is packed in a cooler and arrives in about three days.

Ginger recognizes she is very lucky to be able to send her breastmilk, and Silas certainly appreciates it. The military doesn’t provide any help for breastfeeding mothers, save for the standard four-month leave after birth, and Ginger and her family had to take the initiative, and bear the financial cost of shipping the milk themselves.

Ginger’s family thinks the military should provide more support, and some kind of compensation for breastfeeding mothers. Given the hardships that military moms and babies endure when the mother is deployed, I think that’s the least the military could do.

Source — San Angelo Times

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About this blog
An ongoing discussion on the current state of the Church in America, how it got there, and where it is going. This blog will tackle tough issues for the Church in uncompromising terms while continuing to meet the challenges posed by a widening body of unbelievers.


text: Virginia – Fetch Fetch takes a topical look at a variety of issues affecting pets, including the latest research results.. It seeks to provide useful information for Colorado pet owners and to spotlight the work of Colorado animal welfare groups. Mon, 15 Sep 2014 19:40:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Obama dials up controversy over Michael Vick Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:01:56 +0000 2


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Never gonna vaccinate, never gonna get that shot

By Phil Plait | October 7, 2008 5:00 pm

I don’t know if this is real or not — the audio and video are poor enough that it could be faked — but I’m not sure I care.

For those of you who are terminally unhip, read this.

And given how huge this meme is, you’d think Ms. McCarthy would have herd immunity by now. Oh well; you can’t vaccinate against dumbosity.

CATEGORIZED UNDER: Antiscience, Humor

Comments (24)

  1. I don’t get it. Probably partly due to my difficulty understanding what she’s saying. Can someone explain, please?

  2. Justin

    I think she’s reading a joke email in which someone managed to insert a line from the rickroll song without her noticing. I guess it’s kind of funny that she didn’t catch it.

  3. Ido

    I honestly didn’t get it, and I watched it four times. The audio is indeed poor.

  4. Justin Wagner

    Off topic, but it looks like CBS has requested 6 more scripts for The Mentalist:

  5. Nicole

    Oh I hope that is real because if it is, it’s genius!

  6. Liam

    Wow Justin, I was certain that link wasn’t really gonna lead to the promised page…

  7. Here, these are a portion of the lyrics to the Rick Astley song (From

    Never gonna give you up
    Never gonna let you down
    Never gonna run around and desert you
    Never gonna make you cry
    Never gonna say goodbye
    Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

    Now, watch the video again and listen to the text of the email she reads.

  8. quasidog

    Sigh … I get the antivax angle here …. but … what exactly am I supposed to be joining in and ridiculing here? (in a pack mentality style, which isn’t going to do anything but make other high brows laugh?) God I am sick of smart people ridiculing others. It is weak and serves no purpose, other than to make you look self righteous and desperate to fit in. Yeah, her words are stupid, she is wrong, but can’t you declare her wrong, like a smart adult? Give up on the ‘high school’ style ridicule.

  9. Thomas Siefert

    A bit low considering the context, but it did remind of an episode of Brisco County Jr. when he gives an eulogy at a funeral:

    When I find myself in times of trouble,
    I say, ‘Boy, you gotta carry that weight.’
    I am he, you are, you are me.
    We’re all together, speaking words of wisdom.
    Come together, right now. Amen.”

  10. What do you mean you can’t vaccinate against dumbosity? Of course you can! You do it by teaching skeptical thinking and the scientific method!

  11. Tim G

    I don’t think there’s a problem with readers being terminally unhip. It’s just that some aren’t too familiar with American internet culture, which may be a good thing. The poor audio quality doesn’t help non-native English speakers either so here’s a rush transcript:

    Amanda from [unintelligible] says, “I am a single mother” [unintelligible] “my son has been diagnosed with autism since he was three [years of age] and I would love [unintelligible] to the best of my abilities…I was wondering if you have any tips on how I can never give up on him and never let him down. At one point I even considered deserting him.”

    Wow wow wow you know oohh this one [unintelligible] my spine.

    If you don’t know what Rickrolling is, click on the link Phil provided.

  12. TheProbe

    What do you mean you can’t vaccinate against dumbosity? Of course you can! You do it by teaching skeptical thinking and the scientific method!

    Wrong. They have been vaccinated against catching a clue.

  13. Bobwick

    “Wow wow wow you know oohh this one [unintelligible] my spine.”

    It’s “this one sends a chill up my spine”.

  14. That is worse than McCain’s hair transplant joke! McCarthy is badly mistaken about vaccination, and quite probably not too bright/curious in general. But a prank email like this is not the best way to demonstrate her “dumbosity”, because it is a perfectly plausible email in its own right. If you want to joke like that, you had better use the literal lyrics. If you want to see how it is done, search for “Brass Eye” and “cake” in YouTube.

  15. The people above are right in saying that this isn’t the best way to “demonstrate her dumbosity,” but this is not the only way that people have tried to dismiss her unfounded claims. Taken in isolation, the joke email is unethical, but is hilarious in the context of everything else that has gone into criticizing her pseudoscientific ideas.

  16. Ken

    This latest anti-innoculation wave is a re-manifestation of what is basically a theme that recurs every generation or two.

    Back in the Gerald Ford (I think it was) Administration there was a major flu pandemic scare and they decided NOT to go with a national preventative innoculation campaign because of some tiny correlation between the innoculations and follow-on symptoms. The Administration recognized that the correlation was NOT a cause-effect relationship. However, they also knew based on historical statistical studies that some percentage of the group getting shots would experience some set of post-innoculation symptoms, AND, that this group would associate a causal relationship between the innoculation & follow-on symptom.

    In other words, ignorance of medical facts & other uncertainties (along with mistrust of a generally woefully inefficient & corrupt government infrastructre) would lead a lot of decent people to make a wrong conclusion–with very adverse consequences once the negative publicity began.

    I’m pretty sure that anecdote came from: “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It,” by Gina Kolata

    This same human trait to associate causality to coincidence and correlations having unrelated underlying factors also underlies a lot of other superstitions & beliefs in pseudo-science & the like. Of course, innocent ignorance is an underlying factor as is that other negative generally common human trait–an unwillingness to admit (to ourselves, much less anyone else) that were were duped (even by ourselves), which makes many of us overly receptive to wrong/unscrupulous reinforcement of wrongheaded beliefs. For [too] many, its often easier to pretend than think & move on.

  17. Irishman

    Rickrolling is dumb anyway. Trying to be subtle and then patting yourself on the back for getting over on someone who doesn’s recognize it is lame. If you’re successfully subtle, then of course the person didn’t catch it. If it’s obvious, then you aren’t particularly skilled at subtlty.

    Maybe Jenny McCarthy is the biggest buffoon in the world, but Rickrolling is still dumb. Grow a brain.

  18. Ed Hominin

    You are pretty good with the insults but answer me this – what is causing the sudden increases in autism? Why are you against finding out what is causing it? Are you anti-science or something? Or is it not left-wing enough for you?

  19. Ed Hominin: do your research. Doctors are getting better at diagnosing disorders along the autism spectrum. There isn’t more autism, we’re just finding it better now.

    This isn’t a left/right wing issue. RFK Jr. is a huge proponent of antivaxx garbage, and he’s left wing.

  20. Ed,

    One, Phil isn’t the kind of Doctor to be out finding the cause and a cure, though I’m pretty sure he fully supports doing so. I fully support doing so. I do, however, recommend that once a dead end is reached, to abandon that path for something more promising.

    Two, we might not know what causes autism, but we do know several things that do not. Vaccinations do not. Thimerosal does not. These have been investigated, found to not be the cause and dismissed. They are a dead end for research and should be left behind while other more promising leads are followed.

    Three, what sudden increase in autism? I know of a steady increase, not sudden, in the ability to detect and thus the reporting of autism. There was nothing sudden about it. Perhaps you’ve only become suddenly aware. That’s different. I don’t think there is an increase in incidence at all, though.

    Certainly, if you find yourself on a dead end path, realize it, and choose to go back to a more promising path, you are being responsible and ethical. A great number of well done studies have dismissed the link between autism and childhood vaccinations. Shouldn’t we be spending our money in other areas, then?

    Shouldn’t we provide the best medicine and science for our society and not the misguiding ravings of some celeb-du jour?

    This is why we need to teach our children how science works, why it works, and why, in the long run, its results can be trusted. Until we teach our children well they will fall prey to vacuous accusations, poorly performed drug testing, and general idiocy. Meanwhile, we have people that can’t tell you how long a year is or whether the Sun goes around the Earth, or the Earth around the Sun. If they cannot understand simple science facts, how can we trust the general populous to understand complex theory – and to make intelligent decisions on whether to vaccinate their children or not.

    This isn’t a left/right issue. This is a smart/dumb decision. Choose the smart.

    John B. Sandlin

  21. quasidog

    To concur with ‘Irishman’ .. Rickrolling was popular amongst teenage nerds …. 5 years ago …

    It’s childish, old hat, and not funny. No it really is not funny. Where is the funny part ? It might have been funny if I was in high school 5 years ago, when it was new, and less lame, and I was an idiot kid.

    So when a so called smart adults do it now (or join in and laugh at it ) … isn’t that just completely lame on various levels ? If you can’t defend science by using science and clear intelligent and respectful arguments …… well, it is weak as piss and says a lot about a persons character.

  22. @quasidog: I have to say I never found the Rick Rolling actually amusing. Nor do I understand why anyone does. I like the song well enough that I recognized the lyrics in the email message McCarthy read. Still, it’s a pointless meme as far as I’m concerned.

    People post stupid false links all the time, what is special about “Never Gonna Let You Down” that gives it cachet? Why is providing a misleading playback of Rick Astley so socially critical as opposed to, say, a video of ducks with wheels? I just don’t understand why this meme has any weight.

    Anyone ever pulls it on me, laughs and says “You been Rick Rolled,” I’ll answer, “Yah, so? And your point?” Because it’s pointless.

  23. Tim G

    I will give the prankster marginal credit for creating a covert Rickroll.

  24. I know you don’t tackle this issue very often but several other skeptics and I have just created a new website, which we hope will become a kind of one-stop-shopping for refuting the anti-vaccination claims of Jenny McCarthy. The site is:

    And while a lot of work still needs to be done and we’ve still got logo issues, given your large readership, I was hoping you’d consider including it on your blog. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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April 26, 2013

A diamond worth $5,000 was accidentally swallowed by an 80-year-old woman in Tampa, Fla., while she attended the Tampa Woman’s Club’s  65th annual Fashionllia event.

Key Fact: ...coincidentally, she had a routine colonoscopy scheduled for the next day.

(Thanks to The Perts and jon harris)

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

She needed nursecindy, who taught her daughters from an early age how to tell the difference between cubic zirconia and real diamonds.

Colonoscopies: is there anything they can't do?

This is true Jeff. I would show my daughters a piece of fake jewelry and tell them "This is nasty. No! No!" As a result they will now only accept the real thing. Just like their mom. Sniff, I'm so proud.

" Alan Quartermain and King Soloman's Colon " opening soon at a theater near you.

Well, if she were scheduled for a colonoscopy the next day, that evening's prep would have sent said diamond sailing through.

There is a Colon Michigan.

Grandma really got stoned.

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MOUNT VERNON, Iowa — The Cornell College volleyball team topped Lawrence University 3-0 in a Midwest Conference match on Friday night.

The Rams won 25-12, 25-10, 25-20.

Kathleen O’Connor paced Cornell with 11 kills, and Sabrina Hargis picked up 19 assists.

Megan Conley and Terese Swords had five kills apiece to lead Lawrence. Kate Rosenbalm had 12 assists, and Kathleen Rowland added 11 digs.

Box score


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May 18, 2007

Why is my plant sick? Bring some samples to our "plant clinic"

Total People in Discussion: 0

Posted by KarenMBern at 03:01:15 PM on May 18, 2007

Why is your plant "sick"?

Ask the experts! Come have your plant problems diagnosed by Penn State Master Gardeners and Horticulture Educator Emelie Swackhamer at Neighbor's Garden center in Hellertown on May 25, 2007 from 4 to 7 pm. (Call 610-746-1970 for more information.)

Bring a sample along! A sample showing the "transition zone", if possible, is most helpful. The transition zone is highlighted when you can bring a sample of a "good" part of the plant still attached to a "sick" or "damaged" part of the plant. That's not always possible, so if you can't do that, show us a part of the plant where the problem is just starting to occur, or bring an affected piece and a healthy piece of your plant.

Photographs are a great "extra". They give us an idea of the overall state of the rest of the plant - how it is planted, what the site is like - whatever you think will be helpful in describing the problem. I often find it helpful to know how the plant stem or trunk looks as it goes into the ground.

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Man dressed as banana is a portrait of war

With all the glorification of war that takes place during the nation’s sporting events, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea if a sports team around here pays homage to guy wearing a banana outfit while riding a Segway.

“This could be one of the reasons that I’m still alive,” Matt Birr of Fridley tells KARE 11’s Boyd Huppert.

He was shot in the head during a tour in Afghanistan. He’s lost part of his vision and still has seizures.

He can’t work.

So he dresses in costume to entertain drivers on their way to/from work.

“If I’m not able to get a job or work, might as well get people to laugh that are coming home from a bad day at work,” he says, “so I don’t feel worthless.”

His friend took his own life last year and for a few weeks he couldn’t wear the costumes, he wrote on his Facebook page.

Mr. Birr says his effort to get people to smile helps him push back his own demons.


text:
Global Health Author Q&A: ANU’s Anthony McMichael on globalization and climate change

Posted by • April 25th, 2013

In a new feature for Now@NEJM, we ask the authors of the new Global Health review article series — all with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives — the same set of questions.

Answers from Anthony J. McMichael, M.B., B.S., Ph.D., of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Dr. McMichael is author of the April 4 article, “Globalization, Climate Change, and Human Health

What do you regard as the most significant success in global health within the past decade?

On a mission-accomplished basis, polio eradication almost wins the accolade. However, on the basis of long-term health-related investments, there has been an important increase in the recognition and development of much better and wider-spread population health infrastructure and integrative public health thinking. The limits of enhanced clinical biotechnology and specialised medical/hospital treatments and salvage, provided in settings of poverty, under-education, and fundamental deficiencies in nutrition, water quality and general hygiene, have become increasingly acknowledged (often despite commercial interests).

The difficulties in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals in many regions have underscored the need to integrate environmental quality and sustainability…and to not treat “the environment” as an add-on task.

The difficulties in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals in many regions have underscored the need to integrate environmental quality and sustainability into the programs to reduce poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, and major infections — and to not treat “the environment” as an add-on task. Meanwhile, the work of WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health has underscored the need to think and act in relation to the pervasive underlying social, cultural, and economic forces and influences that impede good health and its equal sharing.

The determinants of social and environmental conditions lie predominantly outside the health sector. This is now being recognised in policies of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank; both are looking beyond the constricting walls of neoclassical economics and seeing that population wellbeing, health, and survival are at risk from unbalanced GDP-enhancing development strategies. These broadened and ecologically-framed concepts have enriched primary health care and the general upgrading of health services in many lower-income countries. At last we are starting to think and act holistically. That should yield a triumph of enlightenment.

In the coming decade, which arena of global health do you feel warrants increased attention and awareness?

As my recent article in the NEJM (April 4) argues, we now face a new and unfamiliar generation of large-scale environmental risks, of our own making. These are fundamentally different in nature from the conventional environmental concerns over local chemical, physical, and radiation hazards, including urban air pollution. The new risks arise from systemic disruptions to the planet’s biophysical operating system — its climate, elemental cycles, soil replenishment, ocean chemistry, stock of biodiversity, and others. These are a consequence of excessive and energy-intensive economic activity in combination with a growing world population. Both components make governments uneasy (and the clearly unsustainable continuing growth of human numbers has, as a topic, been shamefully off-limits for political, religious and moral reasons for the past two decades).

These new human-induced global environmental changes are disrupting the foundations of population health and survival – food supplies, water flows, soil quality, the resilience that biodiversity affords us, and a liveable climate. The consequences for population health are much more serious and widespread than any other foreseeable global threat to health (except perhaps for an unprecedentedly catastrophic pandemic).

If we could bring this topic onto the international political radar screen, and raise awareness of the risks to population health and survival, this could achieve considerable and much-needed acceleration and strengthening of national and international policies to act — to slow and arrest climate change and its syndromic bed-fellows and commit seriously to transforming our ways of living that are healthy, equitable, rich in opportunities, and sustainable.

We now face a new and unfamiliar generation of large-scale environmental risks, of our own making.

This is a key, urgent, health-securing task for the coming decade.

How can we best harness the revolution in IT to improve health outcomes in the developing world?

In public health and preventive medicine, information and public understanding is vital. (This applies too to networking between medical practitioner networks and information sources.) In semi-literate (e.g. poor rural) populations in lower-income countries, village radios and TVs are a precious source of otherwise unavailable information. The dissemination of mobile phone facilities and internet connectivity will greatly enhance this resource.

The IT revolution also enables quick access to open access publishing. Hopefully this facility will also increase and become more user-friendly (and without the infernal need to store/remember too many passwords!).

When American physicians think of global health, many are dissuaded from a global health career because they cannot spend a majority of their time abroad.  What are other ways for physicians to contribute to this discipline?

Many useful contributions can be made without relocating abroad. Traditional “international health,” often conducted on a bilateral basis, has typically required travelling to the partner country and spending time specialising in that particular research topic or implementation program.

“Global health” is broader in scope and more systemic, and needs diverse inputs from interested and capable persons able to participate in developing new understanding, drafting strategy documents for international agencies and NGOs, and reviewing draft reports. (For example, working from my home base in Canberra, Australia, I have recently reviewed drafts of two new World Bank reports on the risks posed by a possible Plus 4C World by 2100. I have also just completed chairing a 4-year project for the Tropical Diseases Research Program (WHO) resulting in the recently-published report [WHO Technical Report Series, No. 976, 2013] on the need for and methods of integrating understanding and activity in the environmental, agricultural, and social sectors in relation to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. That latter task has involved four one-week overseas meetings with the drafting team in four years.)

Otherwise, American physicians, as for all other physicians, can engage in good progressive citizenry that supports pre-existing international campaigns — for example, campaigns to constrain the marginalisation of health considerations by the World Trade Organization, to rein in population growth and to support family planning facilities, to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases, and to ensure that important medications are affordably available to low-income populations.

One Response to “Global Health Author Q&A: ANU’s Anthony McMichael on globalization and climate change”

  1. Rebecca Jones MD says:

    I hope we follow your advice and shift from the present paradigm of “patient centered care” to “person centered care”, and away from our present GDP model, which holds what is priceless (clean air and water, green communities, and a carbon free future) to be worthless. ACO’s need to be CCO’s (community centered organizations) that pay for all the policy, regulation and infrastructure that preserves our ability to walk and bike, afford healthy food, receive meaningful education and community connection, and be safe from toxins and violence.


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Capitol Alert

The latest on California politics and government

November 5, 2013
VIDEO: Anti-fracking protesters dog Jerry Brown

govmansion.jpgGov. Jerry Brown endures the occasional protest at the California Capitol, but he has largely avoided the inconvenience of any heckling-from-the-sidewalk, traveling demonstrations for nearly three years.

In recent weeks, however, the Democratic governor has been met at his events by a smattering of environmentalists protesting his support for hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking.

About 30 demonstrators were on hand for a function at the historic governor's mansion in Sacramento on Monday night, and they were loud enough that staff members moved Brown's podium to a side of the house farther from the street.

"We're going to have to yell really loud," one of the organizers, Zack Malitz, told fellow demonstrators.

Brown signed legislation this year establishing a permitting system in California for fracking. The measure has further strained his relationship with environmentalists, who already are upset with Brown for his efforts to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act. The discord comes as the Democratic governor holds his administration out as a national leader on environmental policies.

Brown acknowledged the protesters at the mansion Monday, saying it was "wonderful that this has now become a public square."

"Even though it's slightly loud," he said, "it's powerful, it's dynamic, and this house is still alive."

PHOTO: The California State Historic Governor's Mansion is bathed in the glow of a new LED lighting system after ceremonies to celebrate improvements of the 136-year-old mansion in Sacramento on Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli

November 5, 2013
Republican Tim Donnelly announces bid for California governor

PK_Tim_Donnelly_2012.JPGRepublican Tim Donnelly formally announced his candidacy for California governor Tuesday, criticizing incumbent Jerry Brown for his prison policies and a state business climate Donnelly said is unduly burdensome.

The Twin Peaks assemblyman said at an event in Baldwin Park that government should "stop telling us what to do."

Donnelly, a former member of the anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Project, joins former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, a moderate Republican, in the race.

Brown, a Democrat, is widely expected to seek re-election. He has raised more than $11 million for the effort, and even Republicans believe he will be difficult to defeat.

Donnelly, who is also backing an effort to recall a handful of lawmakers who supported gun control legislation this year, has been promoting himself as a candidate for governor for weeks.

November 5, 2013
Blue Shield gives California policyholders three-month reprieve

Thumbnail image for DAVEJONES.JPG

Roughly 113,000 Californians whose individual health plans were set to expire at the end of the year will be given the option to extend their coverage though the end of March.

Those with individual plans issued by Blue Shield of California Life & Health Insurance Company will be allowed to retain their plans for an extra three months regardless of whether they purchased coverage after the March 2010 passage of the federal health care law - the cutoff for "grandfathered" policies.

State officials estimate upward of 1 million Californians were receiving cancellation notices. Nearly 600,000 residents who buy their own health insurance are bracing to pay more for new plans in large part because of the federal health care overhaul. Blue Shield had given a three-month notice to 119,000 subscribers that their plans would be withdrawn from the market and replaced with new compliant policies.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones suggested the cancellations required a six-month warning and threatened legal action if existing policyholders were not allowed to retain their plans until March 31.

"Our action today is solely related, as it should be, to the question of whether Blue Shield complied with the notice requirement. They did not," Jones said. "We told them they needed to comply, and we reached this agreement with them."

The cancellations have enraged customers nationwide and caused headaches for President Barack Obama, who last week was forced to walk back repeated assertions that Americans who were satisfied with their health plans could keep them.

Stephen Shivinsky, a spokesman for the company, said it was able to accommodate Jones' request because the insurance plans in question are regulated by the Department of Insurance. New plans offered on the state insurance marketplace, Covered California, are regulated by the Department of Managed Health Care and are bound by the model contract between the exchange and insurance companies.

Blue Shield is mailing letters to 80,000 households informing them of the change and letting them know that they would have to ask to extend their coverage in their current plan. The deadline to retain current coverage is Dec. 6.

Still, Shivinsky said the company is warning customers that an extension is not without complications. Significant risks include: Having to pay a deductible twice in one year; missing tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies for plans that meet new requirements of the federal health care overhaul and are purchased via the exchange; and needing to enroll in a new plan by March 15, 2014 to avoid a gap in coverage after March 31.

"We are providing a lot of cautions to our subscribers if they choose to extend their coverage," Shivinsky said.

PHOTO: Then-Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, holds a news conference to announce legislation on March 13, 2009. The Sacramento Bee/Brian Baer.

Editor's Note: Updated at 11:30 a.m. to reflect comments from Jones.

November 5, 2013
AM Alert: California panel wades into groundwater policy

RPCOSUMNESWATERrELEASE.JPGWith water issues on the agenda for the coming session in the California Legislature, given a pair of 2014 water bond proposals, it's a good time to take a look at groundwater.

Unlike with other bodies on water policy, there is no state-level entity overseeing groundwater withdrawals, despite the pace at which California is depleting some aquifers as well as issues with access to clean drinking water. Some policymakers, particularly those skeptical about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta tunnel project, wonder why we haven't focused more on replenishing and preserving groundwater.

Today the State Board of Food and Agriculture will wade into the issue. A daylong meeting covering everything from local groundwater authority to the role of the Sierra snowpack will marshal a roster of academics in addition to representatives of the U.S. Geological Survey, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County. Starting at 10 a.m. at 1220 N St.

VIDEO: Bills change, and elected officials come and go, but the last couple of weeks have reminded Dan Walters of a constant in Sacramento.

FRACKTASTIC: Just as hydraulic fracturing requires a trade-secret-protected cocktail of different chemicals, a panel at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club today will feature a potentially volatile mix of fracking views. Speakers include Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, author of the controversial new fracking law; Annie Notthoff of the Natural Resources Defense Council, representing the environmentalists who abandoned the bill en masse; and Paul Deiro, who questioned fracking regulation as a lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association. The earth-shattering talk kicks off at 6:30 p.m.

BROWN ON BOARD: Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to drop by a meeting of the California State University trustees in Long Beach today. The governor has spent recent visits with the heads of one of the state's public university systems emphasizing students earning their degrees faster and pushing for greater use of online education. Stay tuned to see what he focuses on during this round.

CAREER EDUCATION: The Linked Learning victory lap continues. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, will continue trumpeting a quarter-billion-dollar budget outlay for linked learning, or schools with curricula tailored to specific careers, during an appearance at De Anza High School in El Sobrante this morning.

CELEBRATIONS: Happy birthday to Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, who turns 39 today.

PHOTO: Two miles south of Sloughhouse, near Sacramento, water flowing at 40 cubic feet per second is released from the Folsom South Canal into the Cosumnes River on Oct. 17, 2005. The Sacramento Bee/ Randy Pench.

November 5, 2013
Dan Walters Daily: Sacramento no stranger to scandals

Sordid revelations have Dan wondering whether things ever really change in California's capital city.

Have a question you'd like Dan to answer? Post it on our Facebook page.

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

Capitol Alert Staff

Jeremy White Jeremy B. White covers California politics and edits Capitol Alert's mobile Insider Edition. Twitter: @capitolalert

Amy Chance Amy Chance is political editor for The Sacramento Bee. Twitter: @Amy_Chance

Dan Smith Dan Smith is Capitol bureau chief for The Sacramento Bee.

Christopher Cadelago Christopher Cadelago covers California politics and health care. Twitter: @ccadelago

Micaela Massimino Micaela Massimino edits Capitol Alert.

Laurel Rosenhall Laurel Rosenhall covers the Legislature, the lobbying community and higher education. Twitter: @LaurelRosenhall

David Siders David Siders covers the Brown administration. Twitter: @davidsiders

Dan Walters Dan Walters is a columnist for The Sacramento Bee. Twitter: @WaltersBee

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The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

August 22, 2012
The parks investigation documents: Robert Bonner interview

The California Natural Resources Agency recently released more than 1,000 pages of interviews, adverse action notices and reports that detail a covert employee leave buyback program at the Department of Parks and Recreation during the summer of 2011.

Natural resources issued the documents online in response to media requests after The Bee broke the story of the leave cash-out program, which spurred a subsequent revelation that parks squirreled away millions of dollars while also threatening to close facilities due to extreme budget pressure.

This post is the next in a series intended to make all of those 38 documents readily accessible to the public within the next few days.

Person interviewed: Robert Bonner
Job classification: State Parks labor relations manager
Interviewed by: Corrine Murphy, Justice Department deputy attorney general, and Angela Nowicki, Superintendent II, State Parks Law Enforcement Emergency Services
Date of interview:Feb. 24, 2012
Notable quote: "The 'gray zone' is -- my understanding is those areas of policy that aren't really detailed in policy. ... And that's an area, you know, you certainly want to be careful because while there are no guidelines for how you're operating, for your -- one way or another, you can certainly get yourself into some problems." - Bonner's explanation on page 17 when asked whether he was familiar with the term, "the gray zone."
Bonner Interview 2012-2-24

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Customer intelligence (CI) is critical for companies today. It can help you stay ahead of your competitors by giving you the right information to attract customers.

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New RPI up, Hawaii No. 8. just weird

October 31st, 2011

Illinois No. 1, followed by Nebraska, Iowa State, Texas, UNI, Minneosta, Stanford and Hawaii

UCLA at No. 9.

I think it’s just screwy how you can lose and move up, and keep losing, in the case of Minnesota (13-8). and still don’t understand the UNI ranking. guess the MVC has become such a powerhouse.

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  • Warrior15 October 31, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    for UNI … MVC, for some reason, has been rated pretty solidly by the RPI.

    but regardless of the RPI for the conference, UNI had a very good non-conference schedule (as far as RPI is concerned), which is boosting their overall schedule (much like Hawaii’s nonconference schedule is making up for its weaker conference schedule). so in a way, UNI is kind of like Hawaii… though UNI doesn’t have a history of consistently going deep into the tournament like Hawaii.

    UNI’s schedule is rated the 16th strongest. Hawaii’s is 22. (According to the “nitty gritty” sheets for the RKPI on the Rich Kern web site.)

    That kind of schedule will put you up there in the RPI rankings, for sure…

  • masteruke October 31, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    As I said in earlier blogs UNI’s RPI and AVCA rankings are very suspecious and also Minnesotas remaining in the top 20. A few weeks ago the rational for making Illinois
    #1 was because of their won loss record. Considering there are only two teams now that have only one loss UH
    and UNI is either going to be #1. I’ll answer myself, NO WAY. AVCA and the NCAA wiil say strength of schedule
    before won loss record. Therefore either a PAC 12 or BIG
    10 team should be #1.

  • LC November 2, 2011 at 7:22 am

    New Mexico State is blaming their losses on bad calls by officals and travel.I find it funny that he has never complained about travel to Idaho and Utah State before.

  • Ainokea November 2, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    Well technically mike jordan has played volleyball in his past life…….right? Despite his size. Hahahahahahahah

  • Beauston November 2, 2011 at 1:32 pm

    Random thought…

    Im sure the coaching staff have something planned for the Wahine while they enjoy their 1 week break now and another break after NMSU game until the WAC Tourney on 11/21. It just brings me to the edge knowing other good teams with this kind of schedule in the past had fallen into complacentcy after a long winning streak and when its time back to game time, they werent able to turn it back on when needed. The Wahine got some work in scouting at least the top ten teams on the poll right now and game plan for post season so we can do better than than 2nd round.

    • LC November 2, 2011 at 3:03 pm

      “It just brings me to the edge knowing other good teams with this kind of schedule in the past had fallen into complacentcy after a long winning streak and when its time back to game time, they werent able to turn it back on when needed.”

      I was thinking the same thing Beauston ,hope it dosen’t happen.

    • Warrior15 November 2, 2011 at 4:11 pm

      in so many ways, this really wasn’t an ideal WAC conference schedule …

      • Beauston November 2, 2011 at 7:01 pm

        Im just hoping and praying Shoji and team have the same thoughts the back of their minds utilizing this break to REALLY set up some plan on how to get back to Final Four. With the way everyone’s playing right now, like Cindy said, there is no real dominant team. The road for the Wahine I think will be a lot harder during the 1st rounds through NCAA Sweet 16, once we get to the Final Four, we have a real sensible chance of winning.

  • jmy November 2, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Purdue just beat Illinois in 4.

  • Warrior15 November 2, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    Illinois just lost again … goes down in 4 to Purdue, who has waited all season to be welcomed into the top 10. this win just might do it.

  • LC November 3, 2011 at 8:30 am

    I watched Iowa State and OK on ESPNU yesterday.I was impressed with Iowa State ,not national champs material but quite possibly an elite 8 team.With a present #3 RPI they might get a very good seeding.

  • po'okela November 3, 2011 at 3:07 pm

    didn’t iowa state get beat badly by texas recently?

  • OrbitalripZ (call me OZ) November 3, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    (Gotta post this under this “weird” title as the blog has taken its annual fall break.)

    In the WHO CARES department:

    Top Matchup of the Weekend
    For the first time this season, I do not see a Clash-of-the-Titans matchup worthy of national attention.

    After this past weekend’s spooks and ghouls-gone-wild matches, it’s back to the lull before the storm as more and more teams begin to realize their dreams of a NCAA Championship are over.

    It’s always possible that we could see a Big Ten or Pac-12 beleaguered team get its house in order, if just for a night — Washington continues to blow hot and cold — but don’t count on it. Snooze you lose, but even this weekend’s snoozefest is unlikely to catch a top team off guard.

    Matches to Watch:
    11/04 (Fri) : #6 Penn State at #15 Minnesota (Big Ten)

    [FAQ] When Illinois hosted Purdue and PSU welcomed Minnesota to Rec Hall, the home teams took care of business handily. So can Purdue and Minnesota be the perfect host and return the favor? Purdue answered that question on Wednesday. Now it’s Minnesota’s turn.

    Of the 12 teams in the Big Ten, #2 Nebraska (18-2/11-1), #5 Illinois (21-3/10-3), #6 PSU (17-5/10-2), and #11 Purdue (21-3/10-3) will go down to the wire in the race for the league crown. We could see 7 or 8 Big Ten schools — 8 are listed in the top 38 in the current power ratings — when the NCAA sends out its coveted invites to The Dance.

    11/05 (Sat) : Marquette at Cincinnati (Big East)

    [FYI] Marquette (20-6/10-0) leads the 15-team conference, followed by Louisville (17-7/9-1) and Cincinnati (18-8/8-2). Though none of these Big East teams are ranked in the AVCA’s Coaches Top 25 Poll, all are likely — but not more than likely — to receive a berth in the NCAA’s Showtime!

    11/06 (Sun) : #34 North Carolina at #18 Florida St (ACC)

    [BTW] Florida St (19-4/13-0) leads, but North Carolina (19-5/11-2),#26 Miami (19-3/10-3) and #37 Duke (15-7/9-4) are all contenders that have a chance to state their cases.

    [Note] North Carolina’s Kaylie Gibson is one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award for volleyball. As is her formidable opponent Kanani Danielson, who now trails Gibson in the voting. You have through November 21 to cast your online vote(s) for Kanani so do it as she has given her all for you. Yes, you.

  • Beauston November 3, 2011 at 5:41 pm
  • wahinefan November 4, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Not much being happening here, does anyone have any practice updates? Has Shoji decided on a starting line up?

    • Hot November 4, 2011 at 3:15 pm

      Huh? I thought the lineup was already set? Both lineups he used have the same personnel. Danielson and Croson outside, Hewitt and either Hartong or Adolpho in the middle, Uiato at setter, Hartong or Satele opposite, Blake at libero. Maeda, Goodman and Stauber getting limited duty. It’s the same 11 people, whatever the starting rotation is. Glad that Satele has started the last few matches, but the continued use of Blake at libero is a head-scratcher. Thought that Maeda would’ve gotten a look by now. I’ve seen enough of Blake, want to see Maeda or Griffiths back at libero and Stauber playing back row for Satele. Goodman will sub for Uiato up front. But that’s just mey opinion.

      • NT November 4, 2011 at 6:04 pm

        I want to see Maeda and Griffiths at libero too. But I think wahinefan was referring to the Blake/Adolpho/Hartong on the right is one line up and the Maeda/Hartong/Satele line up since they’re both different line ups.

        • Hot November 4, 2011 at 6:33 pm

          It could be the old lineup with Hartong at MB and Satele opposite. The one constant in both lineups is Blake at libero.

    • Cindy Luis November 6, 2011 at 3:14 pm

      Ann and I are both on the mainland. and the team has had a few days off. will catch up with them when i get back tuesday.

  • gobows November 5, 2011 at 9:06 am

    Kanani is almost 3 points behind… for her folks!
    And let’s hope volleyball is on all the teams’ minds…..

  • hi November 6, 2011 at 11:04 am

    I dont know if this was mentioned earlier, but what happened with the sink or swim game between the mens volleyball team and the womens water polo team.

    • Cindy Luis November 6, 2011 at 2:49 pm

      HI I have been on the mainland. not sure what happened with the men’s vb-WWP match. get back to work tuesday

  • LC November 6, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    Sunday Thoughts

    Considering we had a bye week tomorrows RPI will be based solely on how much our opponents helped us or hurt us.

    With NMS and Idaho both having 2 matches left a Idaho sweep and a NMS split with create a 2nd place tie in the regular season.

    Did the WAC web site ever say anything about Hawai`i cinching the regular season title ?

    AVCA Poll – With Penn State and Illinois both dropping one match this weekend I guess there will be some movement .

    WAC POW – No prediction this week,I really didn’t follow any WAC matches.

    Yesterday I voted for Kanani and when I hit the submit button the other girls vote went from 34.1 to 34.2.That thing is a joke.

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Four Reasons Housing Recovery Isn’t Yet Boosting Economy

The housing market may finally be leaning on the economy’s gas pedal—but it’s also keeping a foot on the brake.

Those expecting a quick return to the “virtuous cycle” by which rising prices, home sales, and housing construction feeds further consumer spending will have to wait until Americans feel more comfortable borrowing and until banks feel more comfortable extending credit, according to new commentary published by  analysts Joshua Anderson, Emmanuel S. Sharef, and Grover Burthey at Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, a unit of Allianz SE.

The Pimco strategists outline four primary blockages that could restrain the housing sector’s ability to play the traditional role boosting the economy during a recovery.

First, construction is coming back, but the industry’s muscles have atrophied a bit. It could take a while for the housing-construction industries to rebuild lost muscle mass. While builders started construction on 780,000 units last year, an increase of 28% from the year before, construction still needs to double to keep up with population and household growth.

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What Indian MPs Could Teach Myanmar Lawmakers

“PM announces Training Programmes for Myanmar Parliamentarians and staff by the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training” –Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of India’s ministry of external affairs, May 28, 2012 on Twitter.

Soe Than Win/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A session at the lower house of Myanmar’s parliament, May 2.

India says it is serious about helping Myanmar democratize.

During his three-day trip to Myanmar, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met pro-democracy activist and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and offered his government’s assistance to speed up political reform in the country.

Here are 10 lessons Indian parliamentarians could teach their counterparts in Myanmar.

1. How to create a ruckus. Your target here is to adjourn the parliamentary session. We recommend you take some voice projection lessons for this. And remember: No issue is too trivial. (A 63-year-old cartoon, for instance, could do the trick.)

2. The art of the mass walkout. This is a good one to keep in mind should the parliamentary uproar (see above) not be sufficient to warrant an adjournment.

3. How to choose your speaker of Parliament. Criteria number one: patience.  We’ve noticed you’ve gone for the other extreme and appointed a general. Ehm… you may have a point there.

4. What to wear. Some of you may be tempted to stick to your uniforms. That’s a little aggressive. For men, we recommend switching to the easier-to-wear white kurta pajamas, saves you plenty of time in the morning.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, clad in a white kurta pajama, ahead of a parliamentary session in New Delhi.

5. How to use your new iPad. There are many perks that come with the job, including a free tablet computer. We can give you a few tips on how to shield its screen from nosey reporters looking over your shoulder.

6. Transitioning from murky dynastic rule to democracy. This is an interactive class designed so each side can learn lessons from the other’s experience.

7. Appearing before the cameras in your constituency. (Then leaving it to rot for another five years.)

8. How to accumulate assets disproportionate to your income without even trying.

9. Organizing general strikes, otherwise known as Bandh Aid.

10. How to be productive. In all honesty, this need not be your top priority. In our last session we passed just 12 of 56 bills on our agenda.

Readers, can you think of other lessons Indian lawmakers could teach their counterparts in Myanmar? Share them in the Comments section.

You can follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

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For Many Indian Shop Owners, Reform Is No Death Knell

Brent Lewin/Bloomberg News
Customers outside New Market in Kolkata, May 10.

People in Kolkata still call it the New Market, even if it has been around for more than 100 years.

Formally known as Sir Stuart Hogg Market— named after the colonial official who set up the detective department of Kolkata police—it was originally intended as a place for the British to shop.

A city landmark, the market has survived a devastating fire that destroyed nearly half the colonial-era structure in 1985 and adapted to the city’s changing shopping preferences.

The red-bricked New Market still holds its own in the capital of eastern West Bengal state, in seeming defiance to the glass-fronted, air-conditioned shopping malls that have started to dot the landscape.

Every day, shoppers throng the maze of shops of the covered market, built in a Victorian Gothic style, to buy goods ranging from eggs to electronics to spices to saris.

It’s shops like the ones in New Market that some worry will be put out of business if big foreign supermarkets open in India. Last week, the government announced it would allow foreign companies to own up to 51% of multi-brand retailers in the country, a move that may pave the way to the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour SA to invest in India.

While some praised the ruling Congress party for taking bold initiatives to boost the country’s slowing economy, opponents warned it would hurt India’s many small traders.

Among them is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the leader of Trinamool Congress, a party on which Congress depends for its parliamentary majority. Ms. Banerjee’s opposition to FDI in multi-brand retail last year forced the government to suspend earlier plans to introduce it. While the government’s retail policy does not require the approval of Parliament, it needs the backing of individual states for its implementation.

Over the weekend, around 5,000 people in Kolkata rallied with Ms. Banerjee, who slammed the reforms as “anti-people.”

But do shop owners in New Market agree with Ms. Banerjee that allowing international supermarkets into India is tantamount to a death knell?

Many of them don’t.

“I don’t believe this talk of foreigners coming in and pushing us out of business,” said Mohammad Aslam, whose shop specializes in dry fruits.  Mr. Aslam has been running this shop for the last 17 years and has never thought of diversifying his business, which  his father started almost 70 years ago.

“If new companies come in many of these boys will get employment and won’t be whiling away their time doing nothing,” he adds, pointing to a group of young adults playing a game of cricket in the open space in front of the market.

New Market is centrally located on Kolkata’s Lindsay Street – a beehive of activity on weekdays, with pedestrians jostling with cabs and hand-drawn rickshaws for right of passage. Sundays are less busy, so there is enough room for a game of cricket.

H. Ramchand, owner of Ramchand Bros. Jewellers, believes foreign retailers will bring in money and “everybody requires money.”

Mr. Ramchand is as old as his shop, which his father built in 1938. Now his son assists him in running it.

Many younger shop owners don’t sound too worried about foreign retailers either. “Competition is welcome. It will help us all improve,” claims 26-year-old Rahul Gupta.

Mr. Gupta now runs the same electronics shop that his grandfather, Dhanpat Singh Gupta, opened in 1962.

It’s true, however, that the New Market, controlled by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, is in dire need of a renovation. The vaulted high ceilings are a mess of electric wires and cobwebs, the roof leaks during the rains and parts of it require steel rods to prop it up.

Despite its somewhat rundown condition, shoppers aren’t really complaining.

Ruma Banerjea, who heads the junior section of a renowned school in Kolkata, says she has been a regular to the New Market ever since she was a little girl way back in 1965.

“The shopkeepers know me, they know what exactly I want and they give me the best bargain in town. Why should I go anywhere else?” she says.

Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

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What’s the Deal: Making Lemonade…

Bryan Thomas for the Wall Street Journal
The Hilton Hotel in Midtown, which hosted the National Associated of Real Estate Investment Trusts meeting last week.

The normally staid real-estate industry showed a lot of pluck last week when a partial power outage hit the Hilton hotel in Midtown.

Many of the 2,100 attendees at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts meeting coped with a combination of resourcefulness and a sense of humor as lights and elevators in many parts of the hotel blinked out. Milton Cooper, the 83-year-old founder of shopping center owner Kimco Realty Corp., descended 43 flights of stairs to get from his company’s meeting suite to the ground floor. Not winded, when he reached the ground, he joked that he had no need for a gym membership.

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Ashley Tisdale is Headed to Reality TV

It’s been a year of firsts for Ashley Tisdale. Freshly flown in from Los Angles, Tisdale attended the Luca Luca fashion show yesterday, her first stop in a day packed with backstage interviews and front row seats. With her elder sister Jennifer in tow, Tisdale said she was both excited and surprised at the scene. “This is like a jump start for me, I’ve never been but I love clothes, I think they’re so important for expression.”

The “Hellcats” actress, who has owned her production company, Blondie Girl Productions, for the last five years, has also developed her debut reality show, “Miss Advised.” Acquired by Bravo in March, the show follows three single female relationship experts as they dole out advice on the job and accept guidance while trying to find Mr. Right.

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Monday, 31 May 2010

Doctor Who (Amiga)

Thought I might as well hunt them all down... I mean there's not too many and they're all extremely obscure.

Simply titled Doctor Who, this is another Amiga game that came out in 1992. If you decided to hunt down Dalek Attack after last post, you may notice that this looks a bit better already. Well that's because it is. No need to force a Doctor Who theme out of the Amiga's sound chip - the developers Accursed Toys just ripped it straight from the early 80s era of the programme. Makes sense.

Technically this game isn't legal. It doesn't have the backing of the BBC and it was distributed for free under the creative title of "Promoware". It's meant to promote the skills of Accursed Toys and get you to buy their only commercial product - an Amiga/DOS game called "Boppin'". Not sure if it really worked, but they did make an interesting Robots clone.

The basic idea of the game is that you're the Doctor, and you have to collect TIME KEYS, take them back to the TARDIS, rinse and repeat. Random enemies of the Doctor Who universe stand in your way, and occasionally the Master pops up to make your life difficult before running away in his own TARDIS. If the Doctor moves, the enemies move, and in order to defeat them the enemies must either collide or shoot each other. Unlike Robots the Doctor isn't restricted to four directions - he has eight, which means for once you can out manouvore the enemies and get to your goal.

Each time the Doctor (or his assistant if you're playing a two player match) gets killed, they regenerate. You have a finite number of lives and a few "tricks" which dazzle your enemies for a few moments. It's a very simple game but extends the formula quite nicely. Now you don't need a UNIX-based computer... though really you didn't need one anyway.

Sound effects are stolen from the TV series, whereas the music is an original composition done by the in-house team. And because it can cope with both sound effects AND music, it means the game is a tiny bit more professional than Dalek Attack, i.e. they've beaten the real deal. The graphics are original too, and fairly good, though a bit too small to really see the Doctor or the non-Dalek enemies. Saves them having to sprite 7+ variations of the timelord but it does ruin things a little.

The levels are generated randomly, so it's very unlikely you'll always take the same route. There even seems to be a tileset that takes place in what I'd like to think is the BBC's car park. Randomness isn't always too great though - you can have some shockingly easy levels then some almost impossible ones. Sometimes the enemies might be placed right next to you. There are a lot of lives though, so it's not a constant string of game overs.

Point is, it's a nice title. As is Boppin'. More on that later.

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