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Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

Knowing Family Health History Helps Identify Employee Health Risks

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

We all know of cases where an individual in seemingly perfect health has a sudden heart attack or cancer diagnosis. The unfortunate truth is that genetics can sometimes outweigh a person’s healthy efforts. This is not meant to discourage your corporate wellness participants, but to stress the importance of knowing their family health histories.Grandpa to Grandson resized 600

Ask Corporate Fitness Members to Fill Out a Health History Questionnaire

Before joining a corporate fitness center, all members should fill out a standard Health History Questionnaire (HHQ). In my opinion, “family history of heart disease” may be the risk factor on this form that individuals and health professionals overlook most often. Encourage your participants to examine their family health history, searching especially for diseases that may be rare―such as certain forms of cancer or any heart disease at an early age.

Have Employees Interview Family Members About Health Issues

This AARP article suggests conducting interviews of sorts among family members to see what health problems arose, at what stage of life, what factors could have contributed, and what treatment option was taken. I would add to this list finding out what symptoms were first experienced so that other family members can have a heightened awareness before a disease progresses.

Designate a month out of your corporate health and wellness programming for members to find out their health histories. Make a form, maybe even similar to a family tree, where participants can make notes on their relatives, starting with immediate family.

Encourage employees to discuss any alarming discoveries with their physicians. Just like the campaign for knowing your numbers, this information can be lifesaving.

Topics: employee health corporate wellness disease prevention

Employee Health and Fitness: Should I Work Out on an Empty Stomach?

This blog was written by Megan Jack. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Some people believe that there is a benefit to working out on an empty stomach. This concept is derived from the idea that exercising first thing in the morning or in a “fasted state” will cause your body’s energy systems to burn more fat instead of carbohydrate stores.

Why the Empty-Stomach Workout Doesn't Work

As a corporate fitness manager, I hear this theory on a weekly basis, and it is simply just an urban fitness myth. ThEmpty Stomach resized 600e main problem is that fat as a fuel source is not the same thing as burning fat off of your body. Fat burning has more to do with the total amount of calories burned than the type of energy your system uses.

Another key problem with this theory is that many times without adequate nutrition, you will not be able to exercise as long or as hard. As a result, you will burn fewer calories.

Benefits of Eating Before Exercise

According to an article by Paige Waehner on, there are additional benefits to eating prior to a workout:

  • “It boosts recovery and strength gains.”
  • “You can sustain longer, more intense workouts.”
  • “It helps you avoid feeling dizzy or nauseous from low blood sugar.”
  • “It makes workouts more enjoyable” (because you’re not constantly hearing your stomach growl).

Some of my corporate fitness members feel too full or weighed down with a full meal prior to exercise. Some need a snack prior to strength training, but are fine completing a cardio workout on an empty stomach. What really matters is to find something that works for your body and for your schedule.

Most importantly, don’t go hungry simply because you think you’ll burn more fat. Focusing on your growling belly can cause your workout intensity or duration to suffer and that will in turn reduce your caloric burn.

Topics: corporate fitness corporate wellness exercise at work exercise at home nutrition

Do Flexible Work Conditions Make for Better Employee Health?

How many times have you told yourself that if you were only allowed some flexibility at work, you could actually utilize the worksite fitness center, participate in a corporate wellness program, or be able to reduce your stress simply by walking outside? It has been found time and time again that worksites that allow flexible arrangements and promote healthier workplaces benefit in more ways than one.

The Ways Flexibility Improves Employee Health

corporate wellness in meetingsFlexible working conditions not only have been found to reduce employee blood pressure and absences due to illness, but can increase job performance, productivity, and overall morale. Additionally, giving employees more control over their schedules has been shown to have positive effects on mental health, sleep duration, sleep quality, alertness at work, and heart rate.

Ask for Some Work Schedule Flexibility

If you are employed by a company that offers flexible schedules, take advantage of it! However, if you don’t have this option, speak with those in charge of scheduling and make a valiant attempt to work something out.

Who wouldn’t want to improve their mental and physical health? If a little flexibility can help you feel better and work more efficiently, it's a win-win proposition.

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Topics: corporate wellness employee health productivity health culture improve absenteeism

Employee Health: Are E-Cigarettes a Healthy Alternative to Smoking?

This blog was written by Kara Shipman. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

As a part of my profession and my lifestyle, I have personally chosen not to smoke, and I encourage others not to smoke. As a nonsmoker and fitness professional in a corporate fitness center, the word E-Cigarette was completely foreign to me until about a month ago.

Are E-Cigarettes a Smoking-Cessation Aid?

After reviewing some of the claims and benefits on numerous E-Cigarette websites, it is not a tobacco-cessation aid as I originally thought. The product is marketed as an alternative to the very dangerous nicotine–, tar–, and carbon monoxide–containing cigarette.

What Is an E-Cigarette?

The electronic cigarette is a battery-operated device that looks, feels, and tastes like a traditional cigarette. It mimics the mechanical motions that smokers get so used to doing. It even emits a smokeless vapor. According to E-Cigarettes Choice, the vapor is “a result from the heating up or atomizing of the liquid inside the cartridge.” The more challenging information to find is what exactly composes the liquid.

What's in an E-Cigarette?

None of thcigarette resized 600e sites selling the electronic cigarette fails to mention the thousands of additives and chemicals from cigarettes that they don’t contain. But hardly any of them actually mentions what they do contain. Of the products that do list the ingredients, with a few variations in between, the liquid seems to be composed of nicotine, water, and propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is commonly found in antifreeze, hand sanitizers, cosmetics, and certain medications.

So is this better than smoking a traditional cigarette? According to, the answer is yes. Because the product is fairly new, there are few studies on the short- or long-term effects of its use. This organization is basing its answer on the proven fact that real cigarette smoking is so harmful, and “almost anything is certain to be safer.” The overall cost and detrimental health effects so far seem to be less. The key words here are so far.

Benefits of Tobacco Cessation Outweigh Benefits of E-Cigarettes

Some of the main points manufacturers use to sell the product include “no more standing outside in the cold; no more lost productivity, cigarette butts, secondhand smoke, or smoker’s breath.” Oddly enough, these along with others are the same benefits you would experience if you just quit smoking completely.

I see picking up electronic cigarettes as trading one addiction for the other. And with so few studies, why take the risk? Why not just avoid the risk of detrimental effects, save the money, and quit altogether? As we all know, smoking is an addiction, and it’s not easy to quit. Don’t feel like you have to do it alone. If you need help quitting, visit Smoke Free to find what works best for you.

Topics: employee health tobacco cessation

Wii Fit and Wii Sports: Why They're Good for Senior Fitness

This blog was written by Sean Holbrook.

What comes to mind when you think of somebody standing on Nintendo Wii's balance board challenging themselves in an interactive video game? I imagine the first thing you thought of wasn't an individual in their 70s or 80s; but the Wii's popularity continues to grow among the senior community.

Wii Is a Great Solution for Senior Fitness Programs

The Nintendo Wii provides senior wellness programs and retirement fitness centers a low-cost, commercially available interactive gaming system that gives immediate visual feedback in balance training and provides a fun and engaging way to increase physical activity for seniors.Seniors   Wii Fit resized 600

Nintendo Wii's balance board for the Wii Fit game enables a user to test his or her center of balance with a visual display onscreen that shows what percentage of their body weight they carry over each foot. Those with an uneven center of balance will unnaturally compensate for their imbalance, which can cause their posture to become misaligned, increasing the level of stress on their bodies.

The game allows users to learn about their balance and provides them with tips for improving an uneven center of balance with several different training modes, including yoga, strength training, balance games, and aerobics.

Wii's Use Expanding in Senior Community Wellness Programs

Many senior community wellness programs are starting to incorporate the Nintendo Wii as a way to increase physical activity among residents. At the American College of Sports Medicine's 2010 world conference on Exercise is Medicine, Dr. Elizabeth Orsega-Smith discussed her recent study that compared the level of calorie expenditure for various Wii Sports games during 30-minute training sessions for Wii bowling, tennis, and baseball.

Dr. Orsega-Smith's results showed a calorie expenditure of 46 to 102 kcal, depending on the game. This may not be enough activity to combat chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity. But when combined with a regular exercise program, it can improve daily activity levels.

The physical benefits of using Nintendo's Wii have already been noticed by many senior wellness programs. Research from the scientific community continues to support what many seniors have already begun to discover.

How have you used Nintendo Wii to improve your senior fitness program's physical activity?

Check out NIFS 5 tips for how you can evaluate the quality of your resident wellness program, click below to grab our quickread.

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Topics: senior wellness programs senior fitness

Does Avoiding Nighttime Eating Lead to Weight Loss?

This blog was written by Lisa Larkin. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

I’m sure most people would love it if all they had to do to lose weight was not eat two hours before bed. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s that easy. There are other things that go along with not eating large amounts of carbohydrates before bed.

Late Night Binge resized 600Working at an onsite corporate fitness center, I do a lot of nutrition consultations. Most people struggle with eating healthy. I have a lot of people tell me they eat healthy while at work, but at night is when it all goes downhill.

It is best to eat larger, higher-carbohydrate meals in the morning. This gives your body energy throughout the day; plus, your body will have time to burn off those carbs. But what’s most important is that you are not taking in more calories than you’re burning.

It really doesn’t matter what time of the day you’re eating, as long as you are staying active and not eating more than the recommended amount of daily calories for your body.

It’s also not good for your body to go all day without eating and then eat one large meal at night. This could cause your body to go into starvation mode. That could end up slowing down your metabolism, which is not what you want!

So eat your carbs in the morning, stay active, count calories, and don't starve yourself.

Topics: overweight employees nutrition

How Corporate Wellness Can Partner with Cafeterias on Calorie Posting

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Do your corporate wellness clients know how many calories they are eating when they go out for lunch? A new law from the FDA will start requiring restaurants to post calorie listings and provide more detailed nutritional information upon request.

New Law Makes Calorie Information Easier to Find

While you can already find many restaurants’ caloric content online through a simple search, making this information more visible inside restaurants or on menus is a reasonable thing to ask. You don’t go into a restaurant and order a meal without knowing the price, so why blindly order an item that might exceed your entire calorie budget for the day?

Extending Calorie Count Transparency to Corporate Cafeterias

Let’s take this one step further for worksite healtemployee choose fruith promotion. Many corporations have an onsite cafeteria whose management most likely has access to the nutritional content of their offerings.

At my site, we have partnered with our cafeteria vendor to advertise the calorie breakdown of its staple items as well as daily specials. This information is displayed visually in the cafeteria via posters and brochures and is also available online. Further, our cafeteria vendor has a “sticker system” where color-coded stickers mark the items that are low-fat, low-calorie, and low-carb.

Keep in mind as you set out to partner with a cafeteria vendor or a restaurant that they are businesses and therefore must make a profit .While their managers may be open to introducing healthier selections, they will keep their top-selling items, whether they have 200 calories or 1,200.

Here is where you can suggest to your corporate wellness clients the concept of moderation on their lunch break. Indulging every now and then is okay, but staying informed is the key to sustainable health.

Topics: corporate wellness overweight employees nutrition

Can Cash Tip the Scales Toward Employee Health?

This blog was written by Bethany Garrity. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

There's been some hubbub lately about whether employers can Scale resized 600find their employees' monetary sweet spots when it comes to losing weight. Various articles such as this one tell of efforts to use money as a corporate reward to motivate overweight employees to shed pounds.

But let's face it: If losing weight were really that simple, most people would successfully lose (and keep off) weight without having to be paid to do so. The truth is that weight loss is incredibly complex and most people make the mistake of trying to manage their weight without engaging in regular exercise. The science proves that effective long-term strategies for weight management include dietary balance as well as regular exercise.

If you want your employees to have a healthy body weight, you have to help them focus on exercise. Throwing money at them won't fix it, but revamping workplace policies, establishing a health culture directed by your leadership, and creating opportunities for exercise at work will get them moving in the right direction. NIFS offers a variety of exciting programs that can help.

The benefits of a healthy workforce go far beyond the ability to control healthcare costs and improve absenteeism. Employees who feel better are simply able to do their jobs better.

Topics: control healthcare costs improve absenteeism corporate rewards health culture overweight employees employee health

How Are You Motivating Better Employee Health?

This blog was written by Bethany Garrity. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

All too often, those of us working in corporate fitness find ourselves catering to the 15 percent of employees who would work out anyway—whether or not we, the stellar management staff, were onsite to assist and train them. That often leads me to ponder how we might creatively capture the attention of the other 85 percent.

Gimmicks and Creative Employee Health Promotions

I think the anemployee health incentiveswer to that question depends significantly on the demographic and the corporate culture in which we’re working. But by and large, it seems that gimmicks (sadly) go a long way, as does making fitness fun. Those who might dabble in offerings at their worksite fitness center (a.k.a. fence sitters) could be nudged into regular participation with a desirable prize (a.k.a. money) or if we fitness professionals (a.k.a. magicians) could convince them it was fun.

I can say with confidence that NIFS staff member continue to generate unique, creative, and inviting opportunities for their audiences all over the country. Their enthusiasm for reaching that 85 percent never seems to wane. They are the experts!

Why Is It So Hard to Motivate Employees to Be Healthy?

I am left to wonder, though, what is it about human beings that makes changing behavior (particularly health behavior) so hard? We’re capable of being tricked into choosing better health, but we seldom do it without a nudge (intrinsic or extrinsic).

If you’re working to improve employee health (in a corporate fitness center, or from the human resources office), what works for your audience?

Topics: employee health corporate wellness motivation

The Effects of Strength Training on Senior Fitness

This blog was written by Dan Walker. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

The numerous benefits of strength training for the musculoskeletal system are well documented, but could it provide additional benefits? Besides leading to increased strength and muscle endurance, better balance, and improved health of the muscles and connective tissue, what effect could it have on cognitive function, if any? Researchers in Canada recently set out to determine just that.

Strength Training Sharpens the Mind

While we all could use a little more brain power, it is crucial for older adults to maintain a high level of cognitive functioning to keep their inddescribe the imageependence. Regular strength training can help them do this from a physical standpoint, but maintaining their cognitive abilities is equally important. Interestingly enough, a loss in cognitive abilities is a risk factor for falls.

Fortunately, though, the “Brain Power Study” found that progressive resistance training improved executive cognitive functioning (which is needed to maintain independent living) in women ages 65 to 75. And even one year later, the benefits were still notable. This makes for just one more reason for grandma and grandpa to hit the weights!

Take Advantage of Senior Wellness Programs

Many retirement communities now have a fitness center available, complete with onsite fitness center management specializing in senior fitness classes, senior wellness programs, and senior fitness management. Balance classes, strength classes, and aqua aerobics classes are just a few of the many ways to get in regular physical activity during the golden years.

It might be a little intimidating at first, but encourage the loved ones in your life who are getting older to begin a regular fitness routine that works for them. It will not only help maintain their physical health, but evidence is emerging that it can do just as much for their cognitive health.

What are some of the other ways you or your loved ones have found to keep moving, even as time goes on?

Topics: senior fitness exercise independence senior wellness programs senior fitness management

Corporate Fitness Programs Can Motivate Employees to Exercise at Work

This blog was written by Bethany Garrity. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Are your employees spending too many hours per week at work and not enough hours being active through the week because it's hard to find time to exercise? If your answer is a resounding yes, consider using their "too much time at work" to your employee health advantage.

It's well known that adults in the U.S. do not get enough exercise daily. But that’s even more likely to be the case for adults with children at home under 18. Throw a 50+-hour-per-week job into the mix and getting regular exercise can seem all but impossible.

You can't do much to change the dizzying schedule of working parents, but you can make it easier for your captive audience (aka your employees) to choose to be an active audience when they are at work.

Building an onsite corporate fitness center might be the way to go. But if that seems expensive, intense, or impossible, think about offering a corporate fitness program that includes group classes (such as these offered by NIFS), walking groups, or incentives for running or cycling commuters. Start an "exercise with the execs" program where employees can join the C-suite folks for a walk and a chance to chat about how the company is doing, where it’s headed, and so on.

With the right mix of creativity, hard work, and resource support, you can turn your captive audience into an active audience--and help improve their work-life balance.

Topics: corporate rewards health culture corporate fitness program business fitness solutions employee health

Steady Obesity Rates Good News in Fight for Healthy Workforce

This blog was written by Bethany Garrity. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

A recently released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report noted that obesity rates in the U.S. were steady last year compared with 2008 rates. This is good news because once we stop the health decline, we can start to make improvements.

Even better news from this report is that more Americans report Girl on mat resized 600being physically active--up to 34.7 percent compared with 31.9 percent in 2008. This is also good news; moving more can’t be bad. Regular exercise is a key to successful weight loss and weight management. If that doesn’t motivate overweight employees to move more, note some of the many other scientifically proven benefits of engaging in regular exercise.

We're cautiously optimistic. Health professionals across the country are doing great work to help address the obesity epidemic. Workplaces are driving much of that meaningful work in their communities with onsite corporate fitness centers, corporate fitness programs, wellness-focused benefits, healthy food options in cafeterias, and health cultures and policies that support good choices.

More work needs to be done. What are you doing to build a healthy workforce and help overweight employees lose pounds?

Topics: health culture healthy workforce overweight employees corporate fitness program employee health

Why Wellness Programs Should Tackle Childhood Obesity

This blog was written by Kara Shipman. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

We’ve all heard the staggering facts: One in three children is overweight or obese. This rate is three times higher than it was 30 years ago. If these trends continue, nearly 50 percent of the child population could be obese in a matter of years.

Why Is Childhood Obesity a Problem for Employers?

But why does childhood obesity matter to employers? Does childhood obesity even come to mind when employers think of worksite wellness? It should. Why? Because employers’ health insurance covers every member of the family up to a certain age—and that includes kids. And obese kids are at risk for a variety of complications and serious illnesses.

Making Kids Part of the Health Culture

Hot dog lunch resized 600I know it can be difficult to target programs toward children, especially if you have age restrictions at your onsite fitness center. One of the things NIFS did recently was put on a Kids' Camp, offering summer-camp–style workout sessions for children. Parents got to drop off the kids and work out at the facility while the kids had fun getting their recommended daily 60 minutes of physical activity.

When employers show that they care about the health of the entire family, they’ll appeal to the parents. This, in turn, may lead to more involvement in the corporate wellness program. Meanwhile, making kids and parents healthier helps control healthcare costs.

How do you incorporate families in your worksite wellness offerings?

Topics: corporate fitness program health culture control healthcare costs

Can Recess at Work Increase Worksite Wellness?

This blog was written by Bethany Garrity. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

According to Playreport, an international project focused on children, families and play, children in a recent study overwhelmingly preferred to play with their parents versus watching TV or getting on the Internet. Sadly, 25 percent of parents interviewed reported feeling too stressed to play with their children. Further, 45 percent of parents don't feel like they have enough time to play with their kids.

Maybe parents have forgotten hPlayground resized 600ow to play. Maybe our work-life balance is so poor that we work too hard, sleep too little, or sit too long to remember what it's like to have fun playing games. Or maybe we just need a little reminder.

Remember recess? What if your employees engaged in occasional recess at work? What if you took the concept of worksite wellness or corporate fitness programs to a whole new level and invited everyone to get crazy with a game of kickball in the parking lot. What if you hosted a Wii tournament in the cafeteria? Even better, what if you had a hula-hoop challenge or a treadmill marathon to raise money for a corporate-sponsored charity?

Maybe, just maybe, if employees remembered how to have fun being active, they could engage more at work and at home.

Have you incorporated play at work yet?  What are you waiting for?

Topics: corporate wellness corporate fitness program employee health

What Matters More in Weight Loss: Food Types or Calories?

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

CNN recently reported on an experiment by Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition, who attempted to prove that weight loss is dependent only on calorie restriction. To test his theory, for 10 weeks he followed a diet of two-thirds “convenience store” foods (mostly Twinkies, but also Doritos, Oreos, etc.) and one-third vegetables and protein. He restricted himself to 1,800 calories per day and dropped 27 pounds, lost a significant body fat percentage, and improved his cholesterol levels.

Will the Twinkie Diet Work for You?

Many people fall into the trap of thinking that because they eat healthy foods—including fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains—they are healthy. In reality, these people may still be overeating and thus gaining weight because they never find the balance between calories in versus calories out.

Haub lost hiWoman Reading Food Labels weight because although his past diet consisted of healthier foods, it was simply too much food for his body. However, he admits that he would not recommend this diet to anyone and is “not geared to say this is a good thing to do.”

Calories Matter—But So Do Nutrients

This article presents a great reinforcement that calories do matter. But before you load up your grocery cart with Hostess and Little Debbie goodies, consider your overall quality of life beyond the pounds. Many of these foods contain trans fats, which are notorious for clogging arteries and increasing bad cholesterol (LDL). These snacks are also low in fiber and protein, two nutrients that keep the stomach fuller longer, discouraging overeating.

So the fact remains: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Topics: overweight employees nutrition

Employee Health: Aerobic Exercise Improves Sleep

This blog was written by Lisa Larkin. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Sleeping at Desk resized 600Sleep and exercise can be a vicious cycle. The more tired you are, the less motivation you have to exercise. Working in a corporate fitness program, I see a lot of tired and stressed people. The onsite fitness facility seems to help improve their moods.

When I’m tired, the last thing I feel like doing is exercising. But then I feel worse because I didn’t exercise. Even getting up and going for a 15-minute walk can help to improve your mood, stress level, confidence, and sleep patterns. Most people will tell you they feel better after exercise.

Physical activity can help to clear your mind and concentrate better at work, which will help you sleep better at night, too.

Even though sleep is important for health and daily functioning, the average person doesn’t get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night. So, why not get up and start exercising now to help you sleep longer and better tonight?

Topics: corporate fitness exercise at work exercise at home productivity

Burning Calories in Wellness Center Cardio Workouts

This blog was written by Lisa Larkin. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

It’s nice to see the number of calories burned increasing along with the time on your cardio machine. But when your machine reaches a certain number, don’t always believe what you read.

Getting the Most Accurate Calorie Count

Most machines give you a general number of calories burned that you can use as a guide. But do not think that is your exact number. It is important to always enter your age and weight to have a more accurate calorie count. Everybody burns calories differently, so I recommend that you use a heart-rate monitor to get the most accurate count.

Mix Up Your Workout and Burn More Calories

It may not seem fair, but the more you weigh, the more calories you burn in a cardio session. Also, the more fit you are, the fewer calories you will burn because your body gets used to that activity level. In other words, mix up your workouts to keep your body guessing and burning the most calories. Teaching group fitness classes at an onsite corporate fitness center gives me the opportunity to mix up the workouts for our wellness program members.

To burn the most calories, I recommend using machines that move your arms and upper body. You can also try not to hold on when walking on the treadmill or using the stair climber. This will increase the intensity, which will increase the amount of calories burned.

Topics: corporate fitness overweight employees

Employee Health and Weight Loss Tips for the New Year

This blog was written by Samantha Whiteside. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Supersize portions. Hydrogenated and over-processed foods. Lack of activity and responsibility. Decreased nutrient-rich foods in school systems. All of these reasons and more have led America to be the most obese country in the world.

The Risks and Consequences of ObesityObese man resized 600

Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more. Obesity a risk factor for not just heart disease and high blood pressure, but also for osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, high cholesterol and triglycerides, respiratory problems, cancer, sleep apnea, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and a decrease in life expectancy.

How much of a drain is this epidemic on our society? Obesity kills approximately 300,000 people in the United States every year and we spend $117 billion annually on obesity-related healthcare.

Do I have your attention yet?

Tips for Living a Healthier Life

Wonder what you can do to lead a healthier life? Here are a few tips to take you into 2011 and beyond:

  • Get more active—every day.
  • Focus your diet on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and low-fat dairy.
  • Participate in corporate wellness programs.
  • Sign up for a gym; or if your company has a worksite fitness center, begin using it.
  • Take part in employee health fairs, classes, and health promotion trainings.
  • Stay educated. If your employer has onsite wellness staff, use them as your go-to resource.
  • Reduce your daily stress. Take advantage of worksite stress-management classes.

Obesity is no longer a silent epidemic. Obesity is screaming, shaking both fists, and asking everyone to step up to the plate and make a change.

After all, how much value is really in a value meal?

Topics: corporate wellness overweight employees healthy workforce

Emphasizing Preventive Care in Corporate Wellness

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

While more Americans gain access to healthcare in the next decade, and more senior citizens are eligible for Medicare, one-third of physicians will be due for retirement. Experts predict this will create a shortage of medical doctors. This is alarming news, if it comes to fruition. Now is the time to stress preventive care in corporate wellness programs.

Schedule Health SBlood Pressure Screening resized 600creenings

Preventive care includes scheduling all regular screenings specific to your age and gender; for example, mammography, colonoscopy, and dental checks. People should schedule as many of these screenings as can fit into one doctor appointment, assuming they fall under the physician’s scope of qualifications. They shouldn't wait until they discover something irregular to make that doctor visit because it may become increasingly hard to secure timely appointments.

Practice Self-Care

In taking preventive measures, there is also a component of self-care that requires no physician. Remind your corporate fitness center participants that exercise and nutrition are perhaps the two biggest methods of self-care.

After you exercise, the immune system is elevated for 24 hours, says the American Council on Exercise. A workout regimen including impact and weight-bearing activities enhances bone health, reducing the need for osteoporosis treatments.

The most well-known fact is that exercise improves all the body’s workings related to the heart, decreasing the chance of cardiovascular disease.

Proper nutrition, including vitamins and minerals, is related to a decreased risk of developing almost all forms of cancer. Also, don’t discount self-exams. While a physician has a better-trained eye for abnormalities, regular self-exams including breast self-exams, skin cancer self-exams, and more can supplement the annual doctor’s assessment.

Make Preventive Health a Priority

Teach your employees to make their own health a priority. Using corporate wellness programs to prevent rather than cure is less costly to the company and the individual.

Topics: employee health corporate wellness control healthcare costs disease prevention worksite wellness

My NIFS Nutrition Coaching Session

This blog was written by Lori H. as a guest blogger with NIFS.

Just a few days after Christmas, I met with NIFS Wellness Coordinator Angie Scheetz, a Registered Dietitian, to go over the food diary I kept earlier in the month and get an assessment of my dietary habits.

Getting a personal nutrition coaching session is something I have been wanting to do for myself for several years. But that didn't keep me from being nervous about it. I enjoy fatty foods and lead a fairly sedentary life. I wasn't looking forward to being told to lay off the potato chips!

Meeting the Registered Dietitian

But Angie put me at ease from the very first minute of our meeting. I never felt like I was being judged. She had analyzed my food diary and found that I was actually not far off the mark in terms of calories consumed. But to reach my goal of losing 25 to 30 pounds, she said, I needed to be getting more calories from protein and less from fat. She also said I wasn't getting enough fiber.Pasta Salad resized 600

We talked about what foods I like (cheese) and which ones I really don't like (fish). She told me how to select cheeses that are lower in fat and higher in protein. We talked about ways to get more fiber into my diet, such as brown rice and high-fiber cereals. (My usual favorite cereal bars are out the window and Fiber Plus cereal is in.) She also told me to have skim-milk hot chocolate for breakfast instead of sugared-up hot tea. (That's a switch I can make easily.)

Angie worked up a good plan for optimal meals and snacks, giving me ideas of some healthy alternatives, and ways to still eat my favorites in moderation and paired with more fruits and veggies.

We talked about how, when I was keeping my food diary and noting everything I ate, I was reluctant to eat unhealthy things because I would have to write it down. As it turns out, that trick serves dieters well. She directed me to My Daily Plate, where I can continue to track what I eat and get nutritional reports on it.

One casualty of the meeting was my daily indulgence of one soft drink per day. It's much better to have water instead, and Angie told me to try adding thin slices of lemon or cucumber to flavor it. She also suggested high-protein Greek yogurt instead of the sweeter varieties I have recently learned to like.

Three Power Rules for Healthy Eating and Weight Loss

She ended the meeting with some high-impact rules to keep in mind:

  • Eat three food groups at every meal.
  • Eat every four to five hours (this means two healthy snacks a day in addition to meals).
  • Drink 64 ounces of caffeine-free fluid per day.

It was a cruel irony to go into my final family Christmas celebration armed with all of this information. Check back in a few weeks to see how I'm doing!

Disclosure: NIFS discloses that it does remit monies to Lori H. for other nonrelated services. However, this venture with the nutritionist is being conducted at the will and request of Lori H., and Lori H. is not being compensated for the authorship of this blog.

Topics: overweight employees nutrition

Worksite Wellness and the Healthy People 2020 Goals

This blog was written by Penny Pohlmann. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Each decade the Department of Health and Human Services identifies a list of health goals to strive for over the next 10 years to improve the health of all Americans. You may be familiar with Healthy People 2010. Now that 2010 has come to an end, Healthy People 2020 has just been released with an updated list of goals.

Take a look at the following objectives taken from Healthy People 2020 followed by the Workplace Action for contributing to this goal while also improving the health of your employees.

Physical ActivityWorksite Fitness resized 600

Objective: Increase the proportion of employed adults who have access to and participate in employer-based exercise facilities and exercise programs.

Workplace Action: Provide your employees with an onsite wellness center staffed with certified fitness professionals who can provide safe, effective fitness routines.

Offer incentives for employees who regularly participate in worksite exercise programs.

Immunization and Infectious Disease

Objective: Increase the proportion of children and adults who are vaccinated annually against seasonal influenza.

Workplace Action: Provide onsite flu-shot clinics so that employees can get immunized for the seasonal flu at work. Provide discounts or reimburse employees for flu shots for family members.

Tobacco Use

Objective: Reduce tobacco use by adults.

Workplace Action: Offer a free onsite smoking-cessation program for employees who use tobacco. Provide discounts for nicotine replacement therapy products for employees wishing to quit smoking.

What are you doing to help us meet the Healthy People 2020 workplace goals?

Topics: corporate fitness exercise at work disease prevention tobacco cessation worksite wellness


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Kara Walker Mural

Celebrating Black History: Kara Walker

Artist (1969–Present)

“ ‘Mommy makes mean art,’ was the judgment that the artist’s daughter, Octavia, delivered at the age of 4, and that gets pretty close to the truth.”

Kara Walker portraitKara Walker exploded onto the art scene in 1994 at the age of 24 with work that shocked many, and at the same time, made her one of the leading artistic voices on the subject of race and racism. Her fifty-foot long mural, entitled “Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart,” caught the attention of critics, not solely for its title and theme but also for its form: black-paper silhouette figures against a white wall.

Walker used an old form that would become the basis for her strongest early work. Widespread in Victorian middle-class portraiture and illustration, cut paper silhouettes possessed a streamlined elegance that, as Walker put it, “simplified the frenzy I was working myself into.” At first glance, we see figures in period costume which brings us back to earlier and simpler times, but look more closely one realizes that the content is horrifying, as it illustrates the nightmarish racial history of the American South.

Born in Stockton, California in 1969, Walker knew by age 3 that she wanted to become an artist like her father, Larry Walker, who was a painter and the chairman of the art department at the University of the Pacific. The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she would spend the rest of her childhood and attend the Atlanta College of Art where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking and then, later, a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. In contrast with the multi-cultural environment Walker had enjoyed in California, Georgia still held Klu Klux Klan rallies. At her new high school, Walker experienced racism and felt unwelcome and isolated. This experience was pivotal in her development into an artist who focused on race-specific issues.

Drawing from sources ranging from slave testimonials to historical novels, Kara Walker’s work features brutal situations that are both violent and sexual in nature. Critics did not agree on whether this was a step backward or forward. In 1997, a group of older African-American artists criticized Walker for using what they considered to be black stereotypes in her art, and even tried to organize a boycott of her work. Others defended her, applauding Walker’s willingness to expose the ridiculousness of these stereotypes, “turning them upside down, spread-eagle and inside out,” said the conceptual artist Barbara Kruger.

Now, two decades later, Walker’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and she continues to challenge and question through her art and insists that her job is to jolt viewers out of their comfort zone, and even make them angry. Over the course of her impressive career, Walker has had solo exhibitions at prestigious museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Liverpool in England; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art of in New York. In 2007, TIME magazine placed Walker on its list of the 100 most influential Americans. In 2008 when the artist was still in her thirties, the Whitney held a retrospective of her work. Though Walker herself is still in mid-career, she has emboldened a generation of younger artists to investigate the persistence and complexity of racial stereotyping.

Roberta Smith, art critic for the New York Times, wrote that Walker brings, “… to elegant, repellent life an unending stream of vicious master-slave narratives — a continuum of violence, abuse and violation that consumed and corrupted almost all parties, regardless of age or race. Antic, profane and riveting, these mural-like scenes replayed history as farce and masqueraded tragedy as depraved comedy. They revealed the inevitable psychic corruption of humans owning humans, brought out the sexual component of oppression in any form and implied a country still shaped by the original sin of slavery.”

Now a longtime resident of New York City, Walker was a professor of visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University. In 2015, Walker began a five-year term as Chair of Visual Arts at Rutgers’ School of the Arts.

Stanley Turetsky
Follow Stanley Turetsky:
Stan Turetsky is a retired career educator and was a leader in educational reform in NYC’s schools for more than 45 years. He graduated with a B.S. from New York University, an M.A. from Columbia Teachers College and a professional diploma in Education Administration from Hofstra University.

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Service Area

Westlake Media is located in central Alberta outside of Red Deer, and can easily service the Calgary and Edmonton, the corridor in between, and many centers to the east and west of Highway 2.  If there are enough car owners interested in having a 360 photo taken, our wheels will roll to meet yours!


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Working photos – not art

I’m back, but not with any of my normal artsy photos because I’m continuing my house rehab. I finally started the nitty-gritty part of my room remodeling. The ugly part that’s no fun to do. Fixing cracks in the plaster, patching holes, changing electric, preparing for paint, etc.. I didn’t get any work done today because I had to take my car to the dealers but afterwards I did stop to purchase some very much needed tools to replace a few of my aging ones, including my 20-year old  cordless drill which decided it has seen enough and quit working on me. While I was out I did get to do some fun things like looking at paint colors and furnishings. Doing that makes getting past the rough stages seem worthwhile.

On the photography front, I really want to get out and start taking some serious photos but the weather has been really lousy.  Plus by the time I do the other things I’m doing it’s already dark. So hopefully in the next few weeks, while I’m working on my house, I can squeeze some photo time in a day here or there. In the mean time, I took some before pictures of my room and couldn’t resist getting a few detail shots of some tools while I was in there. Not exciting photos by any means but I do need to keep my blog current. All with Pentax K20D, DA17-70.

Hammer Time

2 thoughts on “Working photos – not art

  1. I especially like the top two shots. Great composition in all, but the roll of dry-wall weave & scissors and the putty knives on the newspaper just grab my attention more.

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Authentic Tandoori Chicken. Tradition Indian Tandoori Chicken, Spiced and Grilled to Perfection.

tandoori chicken, Tandoori Chicken (Dish), how to make tandoori chicken, tandoori chicken masala, baked tandoori chicken, Indian style tandoori chicken, indian cooking, spicy chicken recipe, chicken tandoori, indian chicken recipe, Tandoori Chicken Recipe, tandoori chicken curry recipe, tandoori chicken tikka recipe, tandoori chicken indian recipe, tandoori chicken marinade, tandoori chicken recipe sanjeev kapoor

Authentic Tandoori Chicken. Tradition Indian Tandoori Chicken, Spiced and Grilled to Perfection.
Recipe type: Indian Curry
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
In this first episode of 2015 we make authentic Tandoori Chicken. This is the first in a 2-part series covering Tandoori Chicken and Butter Chicken.
  • 1.4kg Chicken
For the Paste
  • 50g Garlic paste
  • 10g Ginger paste
  • 30ml Lemon juice
  • 25g Chilli paste
  • 5ml Salt
For the Marinade
  • 5g Cumin Powder
  • 10g Garam Masala
  • 25g Ginger paste
  • 30ml Lemon Juice
  • 50ml Oil
  • 25g Chilli paste
  • A few strands of saffron
  • 20ml Yoghurt
To Serve
  • Sliced onion
  • Chaat Masala to sprinkle
  • Cream
  • Lemon wedges
  1. Cut away any excess skin from the neck and butt of the chicken and remove the wing tips. Slice through the breast bone and open the chicken up.
  2. Turn the chicken oven, and with a downward thrust, dislocate the pelvis of the bird.
  3. Using a sharp knife, cut deep incisions into the thighs, drumsticks and breast of the chicken.
  4. In a bowl, combine the garlic paste, ginger paste, lemon juice, chilli paste and salt.
  5. Brush all of the paste onto the chicken making sure to get it into the incisions as well. Let this stand for 30 minutes.
  6. While the chicken stands, combine the cumin powder, garam masala, ginger paste, lemon juice, chilli paste, saffron, oil, salt and yoghurt. Mix this until the oil is totally combined.
  7. Spoon this mixture over the chicken, then allow this to marinate in your refrigerator for 6 hours.
  8. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator, scoop up any over-run marinade and pour it back onto the chicken.
  9. Lift the chicken up, slide a rack underneath, then bake the chicken in a pre-heated oven at 180c or 350f for 80 minutes.
  10. Remove the chicken from the oven, cut it into portions and serve garnished with fresh onion slices, chaat masala, a drizzle of cream and a few lemon wedges.

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Can Leslie Jones Get a Break For Once?

Can Leslie Jones Get a Break For Once?
  • It was just last month that Leslie Jones had to fight back against racist and sexist Twitter trolls. So when we came into the office this morning and saw that she was trending on Twitter yet again, we were understandably concerned. What happened this time? Just another garden-variety asshole trying to get attention by ruining someone’s life for no reason.

    As Hollywood Life and others have reported, someone too cowardly to step forward himself hacked Jones’ website, replacing its content with a video of Harambe the gorilla, nude photos of Jones, and her personal info, including her passport and driver’s license. The site was quickly taken down, but the damage is done.

    Of course, this has brought out the worst people in the world to celebrate the gross invasion of Jones’ privacy. You know, the kind of people who act like the Ghostbusters remake is the end of civilization and anyone involved with it should be put to death. Or those who think that because some publications employ a double standard in regards to celebrity nudes (looking at you, corpse of Gawker), that means it’s okay when it happens to women.

    But you know what? F*ck them. I’m not digging through Twitter to post egg avatars’ “jokes” comparing a black woman to an animal. Instead, here are a few of my favorite Leslie Jones sketches from SNL.

    There’s the classic “New Annie”:

  • Source: / Via:

  • This “Family Feud” parody:

  • Source: / Via:

  • And this hilarious sketch about her wedding to Martin Freeman:

  • Source: / Via:

  • Jones has yet to comment publicly about the hack, having stayed off Twitter since it occurred.

    Let’s take this opportunity to celebrate Leslie Jones’ accomplishments instead of feeding the trolls. Let’s give her a break.

    Follow @WhatsTrending on Twitter for more stories like this.


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Archive for February, 2008

I’ve Been Thanking #4

This is February’s Thanksliving page:

Friday, February 1. Water. Rained like crazy today, very hard for a very long time. Rain has never been depressing to me, the way it is to some. I find it refreshing, renewing. Having visited another website where someone was being thankful (I went to put the link, but the post had disappeared), I am reminded to be thankful for indoor plumbing. And three (my bowl runneth over) working toilets. Some work better than others, but still.

Saturday, February 2. Coffee was ready when I came downstairs today. I don’t drink it every day, but I do like it on weekends. Coffee being ready first thing in the morning for me is a rare occurrence. Usually, I am an early riser and Jif could sleep all Saturday if LG didn’t bug him up. But today, while I showered, he made coffee. That’s nice.

Sunday, February 3. Pineapple, in all forms. Silicone bakeware.

Monday, February 4. Thankful for kind people who work in docs’ offices. It has amazed me, over the past couple of years, how few of them there are. They are often gatekeepers, Cerberuses, guards, rather than welcomers. But wait, I’m being thankful. Mindy, she’s a good one. Gentle voice, willing to be as helpful as she possibly can. Which is way more helpful than her employer ever was. Oops. Trying to stay thankful. Mindy.

Tuesday, February 5. Thankful for choice. Not in its current political connotation, but just generally, thankful for free will. Terrible freedom, it’s been called. The ability to either choose the right thing or the wrong thing; the best thing or the good enough thing. Many, many choices I can make every day, with short- and long-term consequences.

Wednesday, February 6. Thankful that I’m such a tremendously cool mom. Well, this morning I am. My precious only child has left for school wearing flip-flops. (In February. In Baltimore(ish). OMG!!! WHAT WAS I THINKING??!!!) We will all survive. I continue to hone this motherhood thing. I say “no” a lot. Often, when all other parents are saying “yes.” I realize that sometimes, on the minor things, it’s important to say “yes,” when no one will get hurt, and no one’s values will be compromised. Even when it makes no damned sense to me. I did yell out to the sidewalk, “Are your piggies cold?!” I mean, I can’t be totally cool. I must maintain a certain level of embarrassingness.

Thursday, February 7. Met with three of LG’s teachers, and that went very well. They all like her, and they seem to be really good teachers. One remarkable thing came of it. While her science teacher was showing us her grades, he said, “Wait a minute . . . she got a B on her report card, right?” Yes, she did. “Wait a minute …” and he recalculated her grade, just because it didn’t look quite right to him. He turned the calculator around to Jif, and it showed 89.9999999999. He said, “What do you think I should do?” And Jif said, “I think you gotta round UP.” Which gave her an “A” after all. We all had a good laugh about it, with me joking that now that we’d gotten him to change her grade, our work there was done . . . but I did feel the need to repeatedly assure him that wasn’t the purpose of our visit. He said he knew that . . . after all, he was the one who happened to notice that her grades didn’t look like a “B.” Then he told us stories about crazy parents who have accosted him over grades, even in elementary school. We really aren’t like that. We want her to be a good student, but mostly we want her to love learning. I think he believed us. LG was very thrilled, because one more “A” qualifies her for a fancy certificate to put up on the fridge. None of us had any idea that we’d return home with another “A.” Again, sometimes it’s the little unexpected things.

Friday, February 8. Thankful for the internet, and the way in which it offers the means to share things like this video, that made me listen, and this one, that made me laugh. I received both in emails and saw them on blogs, and now I’ve passed them both on in both of those ways.

Saturday, February 9. Jif gave Biscuit a much-needed bath. Biscuit gives thanks, too. (He is so thankful, that Jif was moved to say, “Oh, no! Now he thinks I’m his friend!”)

And The Fever won!

Sunday, February 10. Was thankful that the electricity came back on.

Monday, February 11. The laugh supplied so generously by the (approximately) 7-year-old boy in the Hallmark store, who somehow managed to knock down an entire several-yards-long, six-feet-high Crocs display, amidst banging, clanging, thudding, people ducking for cover, and just general mayhem and madness. When the last Croc had hit the ground, and before his mother could unleash on him, he reassured onlookers, cool as a cucumber, “I meant to do that.”

Tuesday, February 12. An ice storm meant that the agency closed early. I needed that. My intentions were good, trying to work after my doc’s appointment, but really, I was too wiped out. So God iced us. Nice.

Wednesday, February 13. I thought I had an appointment with my therapist, but it wasn’t in my book. So while I was looking up her number, she called me to see if I was still planning to come in, with the ice and all. I was, except that I didn’t know when. In half an hour! So, that all worked out just right.

Thursday, February 14. There’s a client of one of my students, a little girl who has no one. Except this distant relative of the father’s, who has chosen to love this little girl and look out for her when no one else will. Thankful there are people like that, and this child has one of them.

Friday, February 15. Thankful for both Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, and entirely unable to decide to which Queen I would pledge my allegiance. Also thankful for queens who see the importance and the absurdity of being queen, like The Sweet Potato Queens, who advocate that everyone should claim to be the Queen of Whatever She (or He) Chooses. Now must decide what I am the queen of. I’ll just lounge in my Aretha-sized bed while I ponder . . .

Saturday, February 16, the Fever won again! And LG scored. I wasn’t able to go to the game, but my generous family told me all about it. LG’s team won by one point. They’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season.

Sunday, February 17 through Monday, February 18, SO thankful I was able to persevere through WTF, to co-host LG’s birthday party. I might post a little bit about it in a day or so. The short version is, I planned a party that required me to do no cooking, no decorating, little more than just hanging around, and I hung. I hung around, I hung in, I hung over, I was well hung. You woulda thought I was William Hung. OK, that might be a bit much. But the girls had a great time, and the guest of honor pronounced the party AWESOME.

Tuesday, February 19. This was a day when WTF was relatively quiet. My arms had trouble, but everything else was better than it has been for a long, long time. It was also a day when I came to some decisions about how to proceed, diagnosis and treatment-wise. I’ll soon write more about this in other places, but I came to realize I cannot count on medical professionals. Short version, I discovered some information that had been recorded in my “official” record that was absolutely inaccurate, at best. This from one of the few docs I thought had a clue. From now on, I’m going to increasingly view WTF not as an illness so much as a . . . state of being. And I will do all I can to alter it. Mentally, physically, spiritually, environmentally, relationally. In the meantime, if it IS an “illness,” I will either recover or become worse (perhaps making me more diagnosable/treatable), or I will stay pretty much the same, in which case the focused pursuit of mental/spiritual/physical/environmental/relational health can only do me good. I am thankful to have gotten a little bit of clarity, a little bit of light on the path ahead, even though it came via a very distressing revelation.

Wednesday, February 20. Tonight, LG and I completed her Nefertiti “hat,” to be worn in a Grrl Scawt program in which she will portray the Egyptian queen. Thanks to blogging, we had access to the creative guidance and encouragement of a famous costume designer to the stars. We were pleased with the finished product. And I, for perhaps the first time, was very thankful (and I told her so) that my child is not a perfectionist like her mama. There are some asymmetries and wrinkles and whatnot, which irk me no end, but about which LG said in all sincerity, “That’s no big deal! It’s great! I love it!” If we were both perfectionists, we’d both be miserable. As it was, I was miserable for a millisecond, but how ridiculous would it be for me to remain that way when my kid was perfectly delighted with our finished product? And I try not to be ridiculous — in a bad way.

nefertiti hat

Thursday, February 21. A surprise visit from LG’s godfather, who shares her birthday, tomorrow. He was in town for sad reasons (his mom’s health), but we were delighted to get to take him out for a birthday dinner. He and LG took cell phone pictures of each other and sent them to his daughter’s (Jif’s goddaughter’s) cell phone, then she called us at the restaurant . . . it was all very pleasant, and I hope, a distraction from his family’s current crisis. I know it was a distraction from my various crises.

Friday, February 22. My girl’s birthday. It was a snow day, so we got to hang out at home. She loved all her birthday gifts. Maybe a little too much, but I’ll post about that another time. We watched one of Jif’s and my favorite family-friendly movies, from way back in the day, which we introduced to LG over the summer (having forgotten some of the language in it), and she loves it, too.

Saturday, February 23. Thankful again that we had LG’s party last weekend, and did not schedule a family get-together until next weekend. Turns out she had a fever all day, and ended up sleeping about 15 hours. Our timing was good; cancelling kid parties is such a disappointment.

Sunday, February 24. LG is doing much better. I put on nail polish for the first time in memory (over a year?). That means I felt well enough to bother with it, and my hands worked.

Monday, February 25. Jif is sick today. Flu. I’m very thankful for what an oddity this is. I can count on one hand the times he’s missed work due to illness, in our 25 years of marriage. And I was able to do a lot of what needed doing, things that he does most of the time these days. So, we got through the day. By evening, he was feeling a bit better, with a bit lower fever.

Tuesday, February 26. Found myself feeling very thankful for the new crop of interns that we’ve accepted into the agency for next year. So far, so good.

Wednesday, February 27. I’m thankful for my acupuncturist, and her ability to tolerate the not-knowingness of my illness/disorder/state of being. Jif was back at work today, with a meeting afterward, so LG and I had dinner alone together. We talked a lot, and I so treasure those times of being able to know her better. She talked about middle school, which I think is a plague upon humanity, for the most part. She told me about who is popular and who is not. She says that she is not popular, but the popular kids like her well enough. She says that she and most of her little group of friends are somewhere between popular and dork. I think that’s a good place to be. I’m thankful for that.

Thursday, February 28. Jif’s flu came back strong. Thankful that my work is very flexible now, and I can decide to leave when my family needs me, without stressing about it.

Friday, February 29. I had a doc’s appointment (non-WTF-related) this afternoon. After I showered, I put on the jeans I wore yesterday. Thankful to have discovered yesterday’s panties when they fell out the leg of the jeans before I walked out the front door, rather than in public. That’s always good.

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Sometimes I worry about the values we’re imparting to LG. Jif and I are not materialistic. You might not know this from the clutter that sometimes overtakes our domicile. But it’s true. Things and stuff are not of much interest to us. In spite of a post or two here to the contrary, brand names do not concern me. At least, names that anyone else sees don’t concern me — like those on my jeans, my purse, my car, kitchen appliances, what have you.

Somehow, my kid does not share this perspective. She can tell from halfway down a middle school hallway, who is wearing Uggs and who is wearing Fuggs. (She wears year-old Uggs from Santa. I own neither, but if I were going to buy one or the other, I would wear the Fuggs, because it’s a funnier word.)

LG was delighted with her recent birthday gifts. One of them (from me, I confess) was this Vera Bradley purse that she had admired, and its matching wallet. About this, she remarked, “It’s my first purse that was designed by someone!” I explained that every purse must be designed by someone. “No, but it’s my first purse with a NAME!”

She received a name-brand docking station for her “real” iPod. She received a camisole from her favorite store in the world, Abercrombie. I find it rather amusing that this is her favorite store in the world. I haven’t set foot in the place, but she has enough extended family who have given her sweats and T-shirts from here, that she feels she can claim it. She goes to school with kids whose parents shop at such places exclusively, and I don’t mean at the clearance sales, which I think is all I would even consider doing. This is a two-edged sword. I wish her peers and their families were not so into the things and stuff. On the other hand, it seems that those parents who can afford such things and stuff also have the clout to demand excellent schools, and we benefit from that particular sense of entitlement.

Anyhow, just to temper LG’s glee at the conspicuous consumption with which she’d been gifted, I said to her, “Would you be as happy with your gifts if they didn’t have such expensive names attached to them? Your gifts mean that people were thinking of you and wanted to acknowledge your special day. What if, for whatever reason, your family no longer had the money to give you gifts ‘with names?’ Would you be OK with that?”

“Mom,” she says, as though she’s talking to a slow-witted person, “of course I’d be OK if we didn’t have any money!”

I smile slightly and nod. Maybe she gets it.

“I don’t need money to be happy,” she adds, picking up a couple of her birthday envelopes and waving them at me. “I got GIFT CARDS!”

Help me, Jesus.

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Sunday Post

“Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.” — Richard Bach

Romans 12:4-8

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I did a really dumb thing. A dumb internet thing, which, in my experience, multiplies the dumbness of a thing exponentially.

I filled out an online dating questionnaire. No, I don’t want to date (anyone but Jif). Goodgod, no. I just know all these people, personally and professionally, who do want a significant other in their lives, and especially after a certain age, it’s really tough for them to find someone. For years, I would have told anyone and everyone, do NOT do online dating. But now I know some people who’ve been matched, very successfully and happily, by the online services. I always wondered how the process works. You know, for a friend.

Anyhow, I kept getting these emails inviting me to sign up. And they would match me for free. So . . . I did it. I KNOW, it was stupid. I was just curious what kinds of things they asked, and how they matched and all that. So, yea. I filled out the online form, with honest answers EXCEPT I didn’t say I was married, because, duh, I think they might have frowned upon that. It was that service that rejects people, and I wondered on what basis they might reject someone. I wondered if I would get the, “We’re sorry, but you are not our type,” letter.

I didn’t get that. I got about eight “matches” the first day. Everything is anonymous (first names), so I thought, hmm, interesting, and I deleted them. I had not paid for anything, so I knew no one could actually attempt to contact me. And I thought those little matchy profiles were the extent of what a cheap-ass non-paying person would receive. But then, I got a “Congratulations! Brett would like to conversate with you!” Well, not exactly that, but, yea.

So . . . that was dumb. Here I read about Brett, who seems nice as can be. He’s a photographer. That’s cool. He enjoys spending Saturdays on his boat. I’m not so into boating, so for that reason, OH, AND THE FACT THAT I DON’T DATE BECAUSE I’M MARRIED, I decided he’s not a match. And then I realized

::tangent:: I damned near always think about how my actions will affect other people. In this case, though, I missed the boat on that. I absolutely did not stop to think that those people out there wookin’ pa nub were actual, sincere, perhaps lonely human beings who weren’t doing an experiment, but who might actually get their hopes up about finding a potential compatible . . . companion::end tangent::

that Brett the boater had extended himself and would be waiting to hear whether or not the person he had invited to communicate would actually do so. I could even see why he thought we’d be a good match. So I’m here thinking, “oh shit.” Then I thought, if I don’t reply at all, that’s probably rude. And if I check the “not interested” box, that might hurt his feelings. (Yea, I wouldn’t be cut out for online matching, even if I were matchable.) Then I thought I could send him a short note explaining that he sounds GREAT! but I’m not really available, I was just curious and pissing away time on the internet because I had insomnia, and isn’t that a hoot . . . yea, no, I’m thinking he wouldn’t think that’s a hoot. Because IT’S NOT. It’s stupid and bordering on mean. And to say anything at all to the man, I’d have to join the freakin’ service, and how much sense would that make?

Crap. I think there’s a box for checking “I’m getting out of the pool,” or something like that.

Don’t try this at home, unavailable people. But, hey, if you like photography and boating, I know (of) this guy, Brett . . . 5’10” . . . likes chocolate sundaes and Photoshop . . .

(Oh, and uh . . . the most important qualities he’s looking for in a match are . . . um . . . honesty and sincerity.)

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This is an amplified Thanksliving post. If you’ve been around a while, you know that in another life, I’d like to be a kids’ party planner. LG’s parties, while not huge, are known for being the funnest. We’ve done the Mall Scavenger Hunt, The Mystery, and the wild sleepover. Before I started blogging, my favorite was the Pink Pony Pretend Pajama Party. I like everything about kids’ parties — the planning, the shopping, the decorating, the execution (that almost happened for real at the sleepover), even the, well, not so much the clean-up. But everything else.

This year, with WTF, I was very concerned that LG’s partying days as we knew them were over. In middle school, parties do seem to be getting smaller, so that gave me a break. But I couldn’t imagine how I’d do even a small get-together. Google to the rescue! I searched “12-year-old birthday party,” and found that someone had taken her daughter and friends to a hotel with an indoor pool. Instant party! I found a hotel with a pool and hot tub, just 15 minutes away. It so happened that said hotel was directly across from Medieval Times. And that is how I got my ducks in a row

ducks in a row

and Jif and I accompanied LG and three friends to Medieval Times for what passed for dinner and a show, then to the hotel, where swimming, tubbing, gaming and a movie-on-demand were the prerequisites to the real party, which involved Truth or Dare and giggling until 3 a.m. Next morning, continental breakfast (including make- your-own waffles) was provided. The party was pronounced AWESOME. And all I had to do was make a couple of phone calls and hang out. And take a few pictures.

the traditional cake shot

Oh, and in case you’re considering trying this at home (I mean, at a hotel near your home), I have two words for you: ADJOINING ROOMS. This is what made it possible, for me. I’m extraordinarily safety-conscious and arguably overprotective. I wouldn’t have had 11- and 12-year-olds in a room that we couldn’t get to immediately if needed. Their room connected with mine and Jif’s, so there was privacy for both groups, yet we could wander back and forth, too.

Indeed, Jif and I figured prominently in Truth or Dare, because the dares often consisted of doing something “in front of LG’s parents!” While we watched TV, tween girls would parade into our room on a dare, singing “I’m a Little Teapot,” or dancing to Soulja Boy. Speaking of which, I dare you to go learn the dance, video yourself and post it. You would if you loved me.

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Sunday Post

“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.” — John D. Rockefeller

Proverbs 24:16
Micah 7:8

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In Keeping with Tradition

Valentine's Day Legolas

It’s late in the day, but I felt I needed to dress up Legolas in his Valentine’s gay apparel, because . . . that’s just how we roll up in here.

Hope your Valentine’s Day night is shaping up nicely.

And happy V-Day, too.

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Older Posts »


text:
Pisa, with an inclined tower

I’ve had a few people tell me that going to Pisa isn’t quite worth it because all it is is a leaning tower.  Which seems a little silly to me- how many leaning towers have you ever seen in your life anyway?

To be fair, yeah, it’s a  little touristy and I doubt Pisa would get half as many visitors if they didn’t have such a famous landmark.   The church behind the tower is quite nice though, for which the leaning tower is the bell tower-

There is also a baptistery on the other side of the church which I stared at not quite believing my eyes, because it is leaning too! Is this the reward we give for bad engineering, that the town gets tourists flocking from all corners of the globe?  Great carrot and stick approach to get people to abide by building codes, people!

And because Mark Twain said it better than I ever could, the following quote is from The Innocents Abroad

The Baptistry, which is a few years older than the Leaning Tower, is a stately rotunda, of huge dimensions, and was a costly structure.  In it hangs the lamp whose measured swing suggested to Galileo the pendulum.  It looked an insignificant thing to have conferred upon the world of science and mechanics such a mighty extension of their dominions as it has.  Pondering, in its suggestive presence, I seemed to see a crazy universe of swinging disks, the toiling children of this sedate parent.  He appeared to have an intelligent expression about him of knowing that he was not a lamp at all; that he was a Pendulum; a pendulum disguised, for prodigious and inscrutable purposes of his own deep devising, and not a common pendulum either, but the old original patriarchal Pendulum- the Abraham Pendulum of the world.

Because there was little else to do in Pisa, I shelled out the 15 Euro to climb the tower.  I wouldn’t recommend it for people who are at all tall and/or claustrophobic though, because as you can see the steps are quite narrow… What is also interesting whilst climbing, of course, is how you can tell what side of the tower you are on based on what side of the steps you’re climbing on.  This is a bit interesting while climbing up but  a bit more unnerving while climbing down the stairs pitched forward- you can’t help but feel like you need to be careful lest you fall down…

Chilling at the top of the tower with Pisa in the background.  It was fun to walk around the top and entertain yourself with the jarring sight of having a building angled wrong when you looked down, but the effect for me was wrecked by a kid brought up by his parents who freaked out and began screaming.  And was promptly teased by his siblings and ignored by his parents, which exasperated the situation further.  Sigh…

image5101For fun, a view down towards the church with the waiting crowds and trinket stalls.  In this picture  I would bet that 50% are killing time until they can climb the tower as they only let people up every twenty minutes, 20% are taking “leaning against the tower” pictures like the one I have above, 20% are in some stage of purchasing an overpriced trinket, and 10% are pretending to check out the church with interest even though they really belong in the fiirst category.

And that is Pisa.  If it wasn’t really close to Florence it wouldn’t have been worth checking out, but if you’re in the area and have a spare afternoon it’s worth checking out.  My two cents on the matter anyway.

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FDA Official Comments on New Dietary Supplements Office at CRN Summit

Washington, D.C.—At the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) Regulatory Summit, Steve Tate, acting director at the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), offered an update of FDA’s latest enforcement actions and priorities.

One key topic of discussion was FDA’s elevation of the Dietary Supplement Programs from a division to an office, which he stated, “reflects the increased size and scope of the dietary supplement industry.”

In the mid-1990s, the supplement industry was composed of about 2,000 companies, and earned approximately $4 billion in sales. Today, the industry has approximately 7,000 facilities known to FDA, comprising $40 billion annual sales.

Tate went on to explain the oversight structure for the new office, which is under the jurisdiction of the Deputy Director for Regulatory Affairs, and acting under the Offer of the Center Director.

Placing supplements in its own office, says Tate, will open the “opportunity for enhanced external partnerships with academia, consumers, federal and state agencies, healthcare providers and industry.”

Industry had a lot to put on its “wish list” for the shape of the new office.

Steve Mister, President and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, and Michael McGuffin, President of the American Herbal Products Association, recommended hiring staff that had an expertise in nutrition, probiotics, herbals, individuals with industry experience, such as manufacturing dietary supplements and individuals who are savvy with being able to leverage resources.

Besides hiring a specialist, Mister and McGuffin would also like to see an investment in technology.

Tate also noted that FDA has been busy recently with several enforcement actions including sending numerous warning letters related to methylsynephrine, Acacia rigidula, picamilon and CGMPs; seizures of kratom, injunction cases and more.

He closed by noting that it is important for the Agency to be proactive in ensuring product integrity and CGMP compliance, and believes it is important for FDA to evaluate the need for even more guidance in certain areas.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine Online, May 19, 2016


text:
Automated edits/VTTdmt

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Summary: Mapping public electric vehicle charging stations in Torino, Venaria, Villach, and Calvià. The script will be first applied to Torino and Venaria case. Then Villach and Calvià will follow. This is part of EU funded STEVE project ( conducted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland - Digital Mapping Team.

Collecting data for existing charging stations from various sources (such as BlueTorino, Evway), and use the data to:

  • Update charging stations already in OSM with accurate and detailed data.
  • Create missing charging stations.

Following the progress of STEVE project:

  • Mapping the new charging stations built for the STEVE project (mainly ELV and moped charging stations).

Phase 1 - Planning

  • Contact source companies and get their approval of using their data for charging stations in Torino, Venaria, Villach, and Calvià under ODbL license.
  • Get community approval, write documentation and tools.

June 2018 - August 2018

Phase 2 - Import

  • Import data for amenity=charging_station in Torino, Venaria, Villach, and Calvià. For new nodes, it will be an automated procedure. For possibly existing nodes, user will manually check each node to avoid duplication.

July 2018 - August 2018

Phase 3 - Maintenance

Import Data

Provide links to your sources.

Data source site:

Data license:

Type of license (if applicable): e.g. CC-BY-SA, Public Domain, Public Domain with Attribution, etc.

Link to permission (if required): e.g. link to mail list reference url -

OSM attribution (if required):

ODbL Compliance verified: yes/no

OSM Data Files

Link to your source data files that you have prepared for the import - e.g. the .osm files you have derived from the data sources.

Import Type

Identify if this is a one-time or recurring import and whether you'll be doing it with automated scripts, etc.

Identify what method will be used for entering the imported data into the OSM database - e.g. API, JOSM,, etc.

Data Preparation

Data Reduction & Simplification

Describe your plans, if any, to reduce the amount of data you'll need to import.

Examples of this include removing information that is already contained in OSM or simplifying shapefiles.

Tagging Plans

Describe your plan for mapping source attributes to OSM tags.

Changeset Tags

Describe how you'll use changeset tags in the import.

Data Transformation

Describe the transformations you'll need to conduct, the tools you're using, and any specific configurations or code that will be used in the transformation.

Data Transformation Results

Post a link to your OSM XML files.

Data Merge Overflow

Team Approach

Describe if you'll be doing this solo or as a team.

List all factors that will be evaluated in the import.

Detail the steps you'll take during the actual import.

Information to include:

  • Step by step instructions
  • Changeset size policy
  • Revert plans

Identify your approach to conflation here.

Quality Assurance


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The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. You could also do it yourself at any point in time.

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New York gubernatorial election, 1974

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New York gubernatorial election, 1974

← 1970 November 5, 1974 1978 →

Hugh Carey - 1977 NFTA Report (cropped).jpg
Malcolm Wilson (Governor of New York) (cropped).jpg
Nominee Hugh Carey Malcolm Wilson
Party Democratic Republican
Running mate Mary Anne Krupsak Ralph G. Caso
Popular vote 3,028,503 2,219,667
Percentage 57.2% 41.9%

New York gubernatorial election 1974 map.svg
County results

Governor before election

Malcolm Wilson

Elected Governor

Hugh Carey

The 1974 New York gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1974 to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York. Incumbent Republican governor Malcolm Wilson was defeated by Democratic Hugh Carey. Carey became the first Democratic Governor of New York since W. Averell Harriman left office in 1958 after suffering defeat from Nelson Rockefeller in the election that same year.

YouTube Encyclopedic

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  • Congressional Elections: Crash Course Government and Politics #6

Hi, I'm Craig and this is Crash Course Government and Politics, and today we're going to talk about what is, if you ask the general public, the most important part of politics: elections. If you ask me, it's hair styles. Look at Martin Van Buren's sideburns, how could he not be elected? Americans are kind of obsessed with elections, I mean when this was being recorded in early 2015, television, news and the internet were already talking about who would be Democrat and Republican candidates for president in 2016. And many of the candidates have unofficially been campaigning for years. I've been campaigning; your grandma's been campaigning. Presidential elections are exciting and you can gamble on them. Is that legal, can you gamble on them, Stan? Anyway, why we're so obsessed with them is a topic for another day. Right now I'm gonna tell you that the fixation on the presidential elections is wrong, but not because the president doesn't matter. No, today we're gonna look at the elections of the people that are supposed to matter the most, Congress. Constitutionally at least, Congress is the most important branch of government because it is the one that is supposed to be the most responsive to the people. One of the main reasons it's so responsive, at least in theory, is the frequency of elections. If a politician has to run for office often, he or she, because unlike the president we have women serving in Congress, kind of has to pay attention to what the constituents want, a little bit, maybe. By now, I'm sure that most of you have memorized the Constitution, so you recognize that despite their importance in the way we discuss politics, elections aren't really a big feature of the Constitution. Except of course for the ridiculously complex electoral college system for choosing the president, which we don't even want to think about for a few episodes. In fact, here's what the Constitution says about Congressional Elections in Article 1 Section 2: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature." So the Constitution does establish that the whole of the house is up for election every 2 years, and 1/3 of the senate is too, but mainly it leaves the scheduling and rules of elections up to the states. The actual rules of elections, like when the polls are open and where they actually are, as well as the registration requirements, are pretty much up to the states, subject to some federal election law. If you really want to know the rules in your state, I'm sure that someone at the Board of Elections, will be happy to explain them to you. Really, you should give them a call; they're very, very lonely. In general though, here's what we can say about American elections. First stating the super obvious, in order to serve in congress, you need to win an election. In the House of Representatives, each election district chooses a single representative, which is why we call them single-member districts. The number of districts is determined by the Census, which happens every 10 years, and which means that elections ending in zeros are super important, for reasons that I'll explain in greater detail in a future episode. It's because of gerrymandering. The Senate is much easier to figure out because both of the state Senators are elected by the entire state. It's as if the state itself were a single district, which is true for states like Wyoming, which are so unpopulated as to have only 1 representative. Sometimes these elections are called at large elections. Before the election ever happens, you need candidates. How candidates are chosen differs from state to state, but usually it has something to do with political parties, although it doesn't have to. Why are things so complicated?! What we can say is that candidates, or at least good candidates, usually have certain characteristics. Sorry America. First off, if you are gonna run for office, you should have an unblemished record, free of, oh I don't know, felony convictions or sex scandals, except maybe in Louisiana or New York. This might lead to some pretty bland candidates or people who are so calculating that they have no skeletons in their closet, but we Americans are a moral people and like our candidates to reflect our ideals rather than our reality. The second characteristic that a candidate must possess is the ability to raise money. Now some candidates are billionaires and can finance their own campaigns. But most billionaires have better things to do: buying yachts, making even more money, building money forts, buying more yachts, so they don't have time to run for office. But most candidates get their money for their campaigns by asking for it. The ability to raise money is key, especially now, because running for office is expensive. Can I get a how expensive is it? "How expensive is it?!" Well, so expensive that the prices of elections continually rises and in 2012 winners of House races spent nearly 2 million each. Senate winners spent more than 10 million. By the time this episode airs, I'm sure the numbers will be much higher like a gajillion billion million. Money is important in winning an election, but even more important, statistically, is already being in Congress. Let's go to the Thought Bubble. The person holding an office who runs for that office again is called the incumbent and has a big advantage over any challenger. This is according to political scientists who, being almost as bad at naming things as historians, refer to this as incumbency advantage. There are a number of reasons why incumbents tend to hold onto their seats in congress, if they want to. The first is that a sitting congressman has a record to run on, which we hope includes some legislative accomplishments, although for the past few Congresses, these don't seem to matter. The record might include case work, which is providing direct services to constituents. This is usually done by congressional staffers and includes things like answering questions about how to get certain government benefits or writing recommendation letters to West Point. Congressmen can also provide jobs to constituents, which is usually a good way to get them to vote for you. These are either government jobs, kind of rare these days, called patronage or indirect employment through government contracts for programs within a Congressman's district. These programs are called earmarks or pork barrel programs, and they are much less common now because Congress has decided not to use them any more, sort of. The second advantage that incumbents have is that they have a record of winning elections, which if you think about it, is pretty obvious. Being a proven winner makes it easier for a congressmen to raise money, which helps them win, and long term incumbents tend to be more powerful in Congress which makes it even easier for them to raise money and win. The Constitution give incumbents one structural advantage too. Each elected congressman is allowed $100,000 and free postage to send out election materials. This is called the franking privilege. It's not so clear how great an advantage this is in the age of the internet, but at least according to the book The Victory Lab, direct mail from candidates can be surprisingly effective. How real is this incumbency advantage? Well if you look at the numbers, it seems pretty darn real. Over the past 60 years, almost 90% of members of The House of Representatives got re-elected. The Senate has been even more volatile, but even at the low point in 1980 more than 50% of sitting senators got to keep their jobs. Thanks, Thought Bubble. You're so great. So those are some of the features of congressional elections. Now, if you'll permit me to get a little politically sciencey, I'd like to try to explain why elections are so important to the way that Congressmen and Senators do their jobs. In 1974, political scientist David Mayhew published a book in which he described something he called "The Electoral Connection." This was the idea that Congressmen were primarily motivated by the desire to get re-elected, which intuitively makes a lot of sense, even though I'm not sure what evidence he had for this conclusion. Used to be able to get away with that kind of thing I guess, clearly David may-not-hew to the rules of evidence, pun [rim shot], high five, no. Anyway Mayhew's research methodology isn't as important as his idea itself because The Electoral Connection provides a frame work for understanding congressman's activities. Mayhew divided representatives' behaviors and activities into three categories. The first is advertising; congressmen work to develop their personal brand so that they are recognizable to voters. Al D'Amato used to be know in New York as Senator Pothole, because he was able to bring home so much pork that he could actually fix New York's streets. Not by filling them with pork, money, its money, remember pork barrel spending? The second activity is credit claiming; Congressmen get things done so that they can say they got them done. A lot of case work and especially pork barrel spending are done in the name of credit claiming. Related to credit claiming, but slightly different, is position taking. This means making a public judgmental statement on something likely to be of interest to voters. Senators can do this through filibusters. Representatives can't filibuster, but they can hold hearings, publicly supporting a hearing is a way of associating yourself with an idea without having to actually try to pass legislation. And of course they can go on the TV, especially on Sunday talk shows. What's a TV, who even watches TV? Now the idea of The Electoral Connection doesn't explain every action a member of Congress takes; sometimes they actually make laws to benefit the public good or maybe solve problems, huh, what an idea! But Mayhew's idea gives us a way of thinking about Congressional activity, an analytical lens that connects what Congressmen actually do with how most of us understand Congressmen, through elections. So the next time you see a Congressmen call for a hearing on a supposed horrible scandal or read about a Senator threatening to filibuster a policy that may have significant popular support, ask yourself, "Is this Representative claiming credit or taking a position, and how will this build their brand?" In other words: what's the electoral connection and how will whatever they're doing help them get elected? This might feel a little cynical, but the reality is Mayhew's thesis often seems to fit with today's politics. Thanks for watching, see you next week. Vote for me; I'm on the TV. I'm not -- I'm on the YouTube. Crash Course: Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios. Support for Crash Course US Government comes from Voqal. Voqal supports nonprofits that use technology and media to advance social equity. Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Crash Course is made by all of these nice people. Thanks for watching. That guy isn't nice.

Contested Nominations

Democratic primary results[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Hugh Carey 600,283 60.78
Democratic Howard J. Samuels 387,369 39.22
Total votes 987,652 100.00

Conservative convention results[2]
Party Candidate Votes %
Conservative (N.Y.) Malcolm Wilson 21,279 59.79
Conservative (N.Y.) T. David Bullard 14,312 40.21
Total votes 35,591 100.00

New York gubernatorial election, 1974
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Hugh Carey 2,807,724 53.05%
Liberal Hugh Carey 220,779 4.17%
Total Hugh Carey 3,028,503 57.22% +16.95%
Republican Malcolm Wilson 1,950,587 36.85%
Conservative (N.Y.) Malcolm Wilson 269,080 5.08%
Total Malcolm Wilson 2,219,667 41.94% -10.47%

Wayne S. Amato 12,459 0.24% N/A
Libertarian Jerome Tuccille 10,503 0.20% N/A
Socialist Workers Derrick Morrison 8,857 0.17% +0.07%
Communist Jose A. Ristorrucci 5,232 0.24% -0.03%
Socialist Labor John Emanuel 4,574 0.09% +0.02%
U.S. Labor Anton Chaitkin 3,151 0.06% N/A
Majority 808,836 15.28% +3.14%
Turnout 5,292,946
Democratic gain from Republican

This page was last edited on 27 March 2018, at 21:06
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