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Interview with the enTourage eDGe team

The enTourage eDGe is an exciting device - an e-reader/netbook with a dual LCD and e-paper display running on Google's Android OS. I had the good chance to interview Asghar Mostafa, President and CEO of enTourage Systems, and Doug Atkinson, their VP of Marketing and BizDev.

eTourage Systems, based in McLean, VA, was founded in early 2008 to work on the eDGe. They say that the eDge is "an interactive dualbook that merges the functionalities of an e-reader, tablet netbook, notepad, audio and video recorder and player in one dual-screen device".

Q: First of all, the eDGe release date was set to February, now I see in your site that it's pushed back to March. Is that still on track?

DA: Pre-orders received by January 12 will start shipping at the end of this week as scheduled. New orders will begin shipping in March.

enTourage eDGe fully open photo

Q: The eDGe is the first e-reader with a dual display. Or maybe the first netbook with an e-reader display... How did you come up with this design?
AM: We saw a gap in the e-reader market for a device that could combine reading with note taking, Web surfing, email, Word/PowerPoint/Excel and music and video playing and recording, which would ultimately enhance the learning process as well. My teenaged kids confirmed it as well, saying they couldn’t do much with just a dedicated e-reader. They wanted Internet connectivity, email, Facebook, games; they’re part of a very tech-savvy generation that has high expectations for gadgets.

Q: Who is your target audience?

DA: The enTourage eDGe is ideal for a vast number of consumers. It is particularly useful for the educational market because students can download e-textbooks on the device, take notes, draw diagrams, record lectures, and leverage the Internet to pull up more information, images or view hyperlinks from e-textbooks.

For the business person, the device is designed to make life simpler as well. For example, an executive could receive a contract via email, view it on the e-paper side of the device, sign it and send it back - all without the need to print and scan the document. Again, the device is also useful to record meetings and access email whenever needed.

For the general consumer, the enTourage eDGe offers an e-reader with heightened functionality because it also provides access to music, videos, newspapers and magazines (in addition to e-books). It merges the functionality of other commonly-used electronics, such as Web surfing and document editing – making it an all-in-one compact solution.

For all consumers, converting paper documents to an electronic format is becoming increasingly popular, and having a sense of security and comfort regarding these documents is critical. Supported by the enTourage Systems’ back-up, the enTourage eDGe is an ideal solution for all users who depend on digital material, so they know their documents are stowed away safely should the unit get damaged or go missing.

enTourage eDGeenTourage eDGe

Q: You claim 16-hours battery life when 'reading'. How much time will I have if I use the LCD? and if I use both displays?

DA: Using both screens simultaneously--or using the LCD screen primarily--will give users up to six hours of power.

enTourage eDGe closed (LCD showing) photo
Q: Can you describe some usage scenarios where I'll benefit from two displays at once?

DA: The interactivity between the E-Ink and LCD screens is what makes the enTourage eDGe really special; it allows users to engage more material than other devices. Users can do a number of unique things on the device:

  • Drag the stylus across grayscale images on the E-Ink screen to view them in color on the LCD screen
  • Attach Web pages, notes and video on the WiFi-enabled LCD screen to passages in an e-book
  • Export PDF notes or revised documents (such as contracts that are marked up on the E-Ink side) so that they can be emailed to colleagues
  • Open hyperlinks or view video embedded in an e-textbook on the netbook side

These features are useful, for example, so a student in class can record a lecture on his enTourage eDGe, read along with information in the e-textbook on the e-reader screen and search the web for more information on the topic, attaching any relevant pages to passages in the e-textbook. The enTourage eDGe can perform many functions at once with the dual screens, making it easy to digest and interact with many channels.

Q: You have your own e-book store, with several partnerships (Google, Oxford Press, Ingram Digital and LibreDigital). Isn't having your own store a distraction? Why not partner with a large e-book seller like B&N?

DA: Having our own e-bookstore allows us to offer books and documents based on our customer demand. We are always listening to consumer feedback, and with our own e-bookstore we are able to quickly meet their need for new or different options.

Q: The eDge has an E-Ink display for the e-reader side. Are you considering different e-paper technologies for future versions?

DA: The enTourage eDGe uses an E-Ink display for the e-reader screen. With that said, we stay abreast of new technologies and will weigh any new options for the benefit of enTourage eDGe users.

enTourage eDGe closed (e-paper showing) photo
Q: The e-reader market is still in its infancy, but already there are leaders: Amazon, Sony and possibly the new Apple iPad. Will there be room for smaller players like enTourage?

DA: There are many e-readers on the market but any company that can bring a product to market that is truly unique and offers superior value will be able to carve a space out for itself. enTourage Systems is building upon existing technology and offering more value in one device. It’s much more than an e-reader, which sets it apart from competing devices.

Compared to e-readers like the Kindle and Sony e-readers, the enTourage eDGe has the added benefit of an LCD touchscreen, on which users can browse the Web, open Microsoft documents and play video.

Compared to other netbooks and tablets such as the Apple iPad, the enTourage eDGe offers a comfortable reading experience with a larger E-Ink screen that is easy on the eyes and running alone, stays powered for more than 16 hours. The device also has annotation abilities, making it simple to mark-up documents and books with the stylus to save notes or export to colleagues.

Q: Do you have plans for a next-generation device?
DA: The enTourage eDGe will continue to evolve as a product, getting potentially lighter and smaller and integrated with more functionality. Our ears are open to customer feedback, and we’ll be sure to update the product in accordance with their wants and needs.

Q: What do you think are the main challenges in the e-reader market?
DA: The main challenge in the e-reader market is that there are many products out there that appeal to a wide variety of consumers, but many of the e-readers don’t target a specific audience. enTourage Systems is meeting the needs of specific consumer groups, such as students and business people.

Q: How do you envision the market in 3-5 years? What role will enTourage play?
DA: Consumer electronics are becoming increasingly more compact and powerful. The enTourage eDGe will aid in this charge, as it’s a robust tool that is easy to take on-the-go, no matter the location. Consumers are looking for devices that do more for less, so by merging the functionalities of several popular products into one cost-effective solution – we’re meeting a great, and growing, market demand.

Additionally, the e-reader market is one of few that have seen continued and successful growth in the past year. Forrester Research predicted the sale of e-reader units to reach 3 million by the end of 2009, which is up from their previous estimate of 2 million. Also, Forrester expects sales to double in 2010.

To keep up with this demand, companies are debuting and upgrading e-readers with greater features to make the devices more appealing and competitive. The enTourage eDGe will do just that, but encompasses features and applications well beyond the capabilities of e-readers on the market.

Q: What's the deal with the capital letters? Why enTourage eDGe?
DA: The capital “DG” in eDGe stands for digital generation – our generation that continues to thrive on technology.

Thanks Doug and Asghar for this great interview. I wish both of you, and enTourage the best of luck!

Adding notes

Re: "Export PDF notes or revised documents (such as contracts
that are marked up on the E-Ink side) so that they can be
emailed to colleagues"

Are the items emailed to colleages actually copies of the original PDF with your hand-written notes attached just as they appear on your own screen? Or does the software revise the original PDF?

Or, is there an auxiliary or associated file that goes with it.

Is this capability confined to PDFs? (you mention "or revised documents").

Would the receiving party be able to read it without any added utility?

(Editors: could you pass on these questions to Entourage Edge folks? Thanks.)

- Andrys

Re: Adding Notes

Hi Andrys,

When a colleague receives an annotated PDF, the file can be opened just like any other PDF. The annotations will be present in the saved PDF and will require no additional software besides a standard PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.

-enTourage Systems

re: Adding Notes question and reply

To eS,
Thanks for your reply to my question. Sounds very good.

- Andrys

How good is the PDF reader?

Exciting device!
Can you scroll PDF documents by line or just turn entire pages?
Can you copy any PDF from your computer to the enTourage eDGe?

Copyright 2004-2014 Metalgrass software


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The 3er wagon in the US has never had the 'big' gas engine...why would they put the big diesel in it? I'm guessing the 320d motor only for the US...:sadbanana
SLC Goonski
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Everything you wanted to know
" Have you got asthma?"

Minutes of the The EAACI Insect Venom Hypersensitivity Interest Group: Göteborg 2007

Held on Monday 11th June, 2007
Göteborg, Sweden

Chairman: Marek Jutel
Secretary: M.Beatrice Bilòl
21  IG Members attended the Insect Venom Hypersensitivity Business Meeting

Opening by the Chairman
Registration of Members present by name and address
Chairman's report
Secretary's report
Project reports
New Chairman-Secretary elections
Closing of the Business Meeting
The Chairman welcomed all Members of the IG to the meeting which was declared open at 17.15

Chairman’s report
1. Intensive activities in the field were organised in addition to B.M. by the Interest Group including A) Post Graduate Course on Insect Venom Hypersensitivity (Saturday, 9 June 2007); B) Oral abstract Session on Advances in Diagnostics and Management of Venom Hypersensitivity (Sunday, 10 June 2007); C) Workshop on Venom Hypersensitivity (Monday, 11 June 2007); D) Poster Discussion Session on Venom Hypersensitivity (Monday, 11 June 2007); E) Meet the Professor breakfast seminar on Management of Insect Venom Hypersensitivity (Tuesday, 12 June 2007).
2. The Chairmen and Secretary both went to the Board of directors meeting the 9th of June. It seems that the relationship between the ExCom and the IG is going to change in a more collaborative way. Pr C Akdis will be the EAACI vice-president for this activity.
They want people of the IG to be in charge of organizing the postgraduate courses of the meetings and that the speakers to be also those participating to other sessions of the same meeting. The money earned will be for the IG.
In order to attract people, the IG business meeting will last two hours and they will have one or two speakers plus the general information.
They will introduce representation of the IG in the ExCom and C. Akdis will be the coordinator of the IG.
They also think that it is really important to organize evidence based position papers through Task Forces.

Report of the Secretary

1. There are 505 Interest Group members from 26 countries registered on the EAACI files.

2. The budget balance during the EAACI Meeting in Vienna was Euro 1.000.

Since the EAACI Congress in Vienna no other expenses have been incurred.

The Chairman proposed to transfer the Secretary budget to the Website activity.

3. Only 32 abstracts were submitted, although of good quality. Attempt must be taken to increase the numbers of abstracts. We hope to receive more abstracts for the EAACI 2008 in Barcelona.

Projects reports

2. Dr. Rueff reported on the study on mastocytosis and venom hypersensitivity (see the attachment).

2. Dr Sanches (who arrived after the end of BM) presented to the Prof. Jutel, Dr. Rueff and Bilò the current status of the Website of Insect Venom Hypersensitivity Interest Group. He suggested to hold all the content of our web page: "" into the

He said that until now this page was only a link from our Interest Group and the facilities to get there were limited. Our IG web page contents in 5 different languages the current knowledge on hymenoptera allergy, not only for patients but as well for physicians and specialists, with taxonomy, symptoms, treatment, immunotherapy and recommendations for patients, with updates positions papers and references from the last five years on this topic. There are also links to national web pages and interesting links, and obviously to EAACI Interest Group on Insect Venom Hypersensitivity. He estimated over 500 to 600€ of expenses.

Future plans

1. The Secretary proposed two study on the allergic follow-up of the patients after discontinuation of immunotherapy in which the primary objective is to define the criteria for suspending immunotherapy in Europe with less risk for the patient and to identify risk factors for a relapse.

The first is a prospective study: all patients who stopped VIT during 2007 and those who will stop VIT in the next two years may be enrolled in the study and asked to return annually for repeat skin test and in vitro tests. Whenever possible, they annually perform sting challenge and record the outcome of in-field re-stings. The inclusion period will be about 3 years and the follow-up period may last 3 years or more. Therefore the study will start in December 2007 with an inclusion phase of two years and is planned to terminate three years after the end of the inclusion phase. The expected study end is in December 2012.

The second study is a retrospective one: We can evaluate all patients who had stopped VIT between 1997 and 2001 after a duration of at least 3 years, in a follow-up period up to 10 years after discontinuation. Therefore the retrospective study will start in September 2007, a first draft will be planned to be available in May 2008 and the final draft in December 2008.

Dr Bilò will send the first draft of the two studies to all the members for their comments as soon as possible.

2. Dr. Rueff proposed an European study on the follow-up of the allergic patients treated with venom immunotherapy who present some controindications for VIT. She will design a protocol in turn to sent to all the members for their comments.

3. Dr. Sanchez proposed n European epidemiological study on natural venom allergen in Europe. He suggested to study in different countries the distribution of hypersensitivity to Bee and Vespids, through the study  of in vitro sensitivity to the main allergens of  Hymenoptera venoms ( nApi m 1; nVes v 1, nVes v 2, nVes v 5; nPol d 1 and nPol d 5).

From 10 to 15 centres in Europe will contribute to send sera to study these allergens kindly provided by ALK-Abello Spain. Secondary, we try to make a sera-bank to future studies for example with recombinant venom allergens. Dr. Sanchez estimated from 300 to 500€ from sera transport charges fro every centre. The expenses related to in vitro study will be kindly provided by ALK-Abello, and the keep in store  the sera to -70ªC will be provided by University Department in Alicante.

4. Dr. Bonifazi suggest to organize a Summer School in Italy (Ancona). The Chairman and Secretary will try to organize a nice programme and Dr. Bilò will be in charge of the application. Luis Delgado, EAACI vice-president for these activities will be contacted.

New Chairman-Secretary elections

Marek Jutel underlined that the IG Chairman and Secretary may not hold office continuously for more than four years, therefore proceeded to the election.

Without any abstention or negative vote, M.Beatrice Bilò was proposed as the Chairman and Franziska Rueff as Secretary for the next 2 years.

According to the EAACI bylaws, the President should be confirmed by the EAACI ExCom.

As there being no other business to discuss, the Chairman thanked the Members for their participation and declared the meeting closed.

Preliminary results of the Study Protocol of EAACI Interest Group on Insect Venom Allergy

Franziska Rueff

Study title: Increased baseline serum mast cell tryptase levels in insect venom allergic patients: A risk factor for severe sting reactions, for side effects during venom immunotherapy, or for treatment failure?

Objective: This study of the EAACI Interest Group on Insect venom allergy is an open, multicentre, prospective observational study in patients with Hymenoptera venom allergy designed to evaluate the risk associated with an elevated mast cell tryptase (MCT) level in the serum regarding severity of sting reactions, occurrence of systemic side effects during dose increase of venom immunotherapy (VIT), and VIT failures.

Results: 15 study centres from 6 European countries participated in the study. 1126 patients were screened, 942 (54.6 male, mean age 40.9 + 16.5 years old) were included into the study. MTC was elevated (>11.4 µg/l, 95th percentile) in 7.8 % of patients with Hymenoptera venom allergy, in 20 patients (2.1 %) serum tryptase was > 20 µg/l (minor criterion of systemic mastocytosis). Elevated MTC (>11.4µg/l) was significantly associated with a higher severity grade of a previous systemic anaphylactic reaction (SAR).

686 patients received VIT of whom 106 patients received treatment with various venoms. During dose increase patients with elevated MTC (> 11.4 µg/l) more often developed SAR than patients with MTC concentration within the 95thth percentile. percentile (n.s., p = 0.088). During maintenance treatment patients with elevated MTC more often had SAR (p=0.016) than patients with levels within the 95

Treatment efficacy was not influenced by serum tryptase concentration. However, up to now only data of 174 patients are evaluated.

Working plan: After data inclusion stop (about October 2007) data will be evaluated and prepared for publication.


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Peak Soil

The Silent Global Crisis

A harsh winter wind blew last night, and this morning the thin snow cover has turned into a rich chocolate brown. The dirt covering the snow comes from cornfields near my home that were ploughed following the harvest, a common practice in southern Ontario and in the corn-growing regions of the US Midwest.

A handful of this dirty snow melts quickly, leaving a thin, fine-grained wet mess. It doesn’t look like much, but the mucky sludge in my hand is the prerequisite for life on the planet.

“We are overlooking soil as the foundation of all life on Earth,” says Andres Arnalds, assistant director of the Icelandic Soil Conservation Service. Arnalds is an eloquent spokesperson for the unheralded emergency of soil erosion, a problem that is reducing global food production and water availability, and is responsible for an estimated 30 percent of the greenhouse gases emissions. “Land degradation and desertification may be regarded as the silent crisis of the world, a genuine threat to the future of humankind.”

Arnalds is dead serious when he calls soil erosion a crisis. Each year, some 38,000 square miles of land become severely degraded or turn into desert. About five billion acres of arable land have been stripped of their precious layer of topsoil and been abandoned since the first wheat and barley fields were planted 10,000 years ago. In the past 40 years alone, 30 percent of the planet’s arable land has become unproductive due to erosion, mainly in Asia and Africa. At current erosion rates, soils are being depleted faster than they are replenished, and nearly all of the remaining 11 billion acres of cropland and grazing land suffer from some degree of erosion.

Most of this erosion is simply due to plowing, removal of crop residues after harvest, and overgrazing, which leaves soil naked and vulnerable to wind and rain. It is akin to tire wear on your car — a gradual, unobserved process that has potentially catastrophic consequences if ignored for too long.

Arnalds has seen our perilous future crisis by looking into the past. Eleven hundred years ago, the first Icelandic settlers came to a cold island mostly covered by forests and lush meadows, and blessed with deep volcanic soils. In a pattern repeated around the world, settlers cleared the forests and put too many animals on the meadows, until 96 percent of the forest was gone and half the grasslands destroyed. By the 1800s, Iceland had become Europe’s largest desert; the people starved, and the once prosperous country became one of the world’s poorest. “Once soil is gone, you can’t get it back,” Arnalds says. “It’s a non-renewable resource.”

Nickel and Dimed to Death

No one knows how much food-producing land will be left by 2050, when another three billion people are expected to join the current global population of 6.5 billion. What we do know is that right now, 99 percent of human food calories come from the land. Global food production has kept pace with population growth thus far thanks chiefly to the extensive use of chemical fertilizers. But food production per acre of land is starting to decline, primarily due to loss of productive land and water shortages. The latter is often the result of soil erosion because soil and vegetation act as a sponge that holds and gradually releases water. And that soil erosion, in turn, is exacerbated by chemical farming practices that over time break down soil structure.

Add to these challenges climate change’s impact on soil erosion and the competition between growing food and producing biofuels, and it’s frightening to consider the challenge of feeding nine billion people when nearly one billion go hungry right now. Arnalds summarizes the challenge: More food will have to be produced within the next 50 years than during the last 10,000 years combined. “Securing food in many places will become a crisis of rapidly growing proportions.”

Erosion largely goes unnoticed by farmers as it “nickels and dimes you to death,” says David Pimentel, an ecologist at Cornell University who has conducted extensive research on the subject. Even if there were no humans on the planet, soils would still erode. The soil formation from the weathering of rock and the breakdown of plants, however, would be faster than the erosion rate; it takes roughly 500 years to create one inch of soil. Once humans remove natural vegetation, soil is exposed to raindrops that easily dislodge it, washing soil particles into creeks, streams, rivers, and eventually into the ocean. One rainstorm will wash away .04 inches of soil. This may not seem like much, but over one acre of land that fraction of an inch adds up to tons of topsoil.

Wind also disrupts soil, and can transport dust huge distances. Dry and windy conditions blew nearly two inches of topsoil off Kansas farmlands during the winter of 1995–96. Contrary to common belief, the topsoil loss in Kansas didn’t end up being neatly deposited on farms in neighboring states. More than 60 percent ended up clogging ditches, streams, rivers, and lakes. That makes waterways more prone to flooding (further exacerbating erosion) and contaminates them with fertilizer and pesticide residues, Pimentel says.

Every rainy day or windy night steals a thin layer of soil from any exposed piece of ground until there is little left but sand and rock. “Iowa has some of the best and deepest soils in the world,” Pimentel says, “and they’ve lost nearly 50 percent in the last hundred years.”

Erosion’s potential threat to humanity remains largely ignored by the world community. When soil experts from around the world met in Selfoss, Iceland in August 2007, they concluded that an international treaty is needed to spur countries into taking action to protect their soils. The soil scientists proposed that, at the very least, soil ought to have its own year — “The International Year of Land Care” — to focus the world’s attention on soil stewardship.

But hold on a second. While politicians, CEOs, and autoworkers might not think much about soil, surely farmers, whose very existence depends on soil, don’t need a bunch of international lawyers and bureaucrats at the United Nations to tell them to protect their lands. After all, controlling erosion isn’t rocket science. By now it’s well known that agricultural practices such as protecting soil with cover crops when the land is not growing edible crops, keeping post-harvest plant residues on the land, and reducing overgrazing and forest clearance are some of the ways to protect soils.

“Farmers know their success depends on the soil, but they often have more immediate needs, such as feeding their families, paying school fees, or fleeing corrupt governments,” says Michael Stocking of the University of East Anglia in Britain, and one of the leading experts on agriculture in tropical countries. Most farmers face so many short-term challenges that it is difficult to invest in the long-term protection of the soil. Social and economic pressures force many farmers to “mine the soil” until the land is completely denuded and is turned into “badlands,” Stocking says.

Such badlands can be found in every country in the world, and are easy to spot. A more worrisome trend is the hidden danger of losing soil fertility on lands that appear healthy. “Fertility loss on good soils has a much bigger impact than further degradation of badlands,” Stocking says.

Healthy topsoil is a complex mixture of minerals, bacteria, fungi, microscopic invertebrates, and larger invertebrates such as ants and earthworms that break down nutrients and transfer them to the roots of plants. Degradation of soils diminishes this incredible below-ground biodiversity, reducing crop yield as well as soils’ ability to store and filter water and to regulate the global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

TractorErosion.epsEdwin RemsbergIn the past 40 years alone, 30 percent of the planet’s arable land has become unproductive due to erosion.

While some American farmers control erosion using low- or no-till techniques for planting, the majority are mining the soil, according to Craig Cox, executive director of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, headquartered in Iowa. “Soil conservation has taken a back seat to maximizing production,” Cox says.

As Cox drives the rural roads of Iowa, he sees fresh signs of erosion on the world’s best farmland. “It’s amazing to see the extent of erosion here, mainly because of the absence of basic soil conservation techniques,” he says. Those techniques — such as planting grasses along the edges of waterways and leaving crop residues on the soil — are some of the hard lessons learned during the dust bowl years of the 1930s. But those lessons have been forgotten — or ignored. Driven by the high costs of fertilizer and fuel, and currently lucrative crop prices, farmers are planting rows of corn right to the edge of stream banks, and sometimes in the streams themselves. “It’s amazing and discouraging to see,” Cox says.

Bad News Biofuels

It’s all the more discouraging because American farmers had reduced soil erosion by about 40 percent between 1985 and 1995, largely due to government policies like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). But CRP programs are now taking a back seat to the desire to cash in on the biofuel bonanza. Erosion is ignored while the US government provides billions of dollars in subsidies for biofuels. “Biofuels and climate change are real threats to America’s soil health,” Cox says.

Farmers are eagerly plowing up CRP lands, pastures, and highly erodible land to grow corn — 12 million additional acres of corn in 2007 alone — so they can profit from the ethanol boom. Ethanol is mainly made from corn, and the federal government hopes the US will be producing 35 billion gallons of the stuff by 2017. Reaching that goal would turn much of the US into a giant cornfield and has already doubled the price of corn in the past two years. Corn is particularly hard on the soil, requiring plenty of fertilizer, water, and pesticides. Cox says ethanol has sparked a “gold-rush mentality” among farmers who are mortgaging the future health of their soils for short-term profits. “There’s no question that the ethanol boom is increasing erosion.”

Not surprisingly, land prices and rents in the corn belt have jumped upward, creating additional pressure to “mine the soil to pay the mortage.” Farmland has been a popular investment for many years, and in some states, half of all farmland is rented. This reduces the incentives for soil conservation, since the farmer who works the field is not the permanent caretaker of the land. Ethanol-driven land degradation will not disappear even if the much-touted cellulosic ethanol technology is commercialized. The cellulosic process uses crop residues like corn stalks and wheat straw (rather than grains like corn or soy) to make ethanol. While cellulosic ethanol won’t directly use food as fuel, the loss of crop residues would further expose soils to erosion. And it would also reduce organic matter in soils, greatly diminishing their fertility, Cox says. “I’m very concerned there will be serious consequences for soils if cellulosic ethanol goes forward.”

Hard Rains of Climate Change

Strange new weather patterns linked to global climate change could further harm vulnerable soils. Increasing corn and soy production could expose soils to the hard rains that climate change is producing.

A number of studies have documented increased rainfall intensity in the US since 1970. In many regions, the amount of overall rainfall hasn’t changed, but the rain comes in shorter, more intense bursts, doubling the normal rates of erosion. This is particularly noticeable in the southern US, Cox says. A brand new computer climate model that uses data collected over the last decade reveals that soil scientists have substantially underestimated the amount of erosion from climate change’s hard rains. “It could be four times higher than we thought,” Cox says. And that rate appears to be accelerating as hard rains wash soil off the land, ruining streams and destroying aquatic habitat. The soil conservation techniques of yesterday may not be enough to keep soil healthy with climate change, he says. “There has been very little attention paid to the impact of climate change on soil conservation.”

“Soil is the connection to ourselves. … To be at home with the soil is truly the only way to be at home with ourselves, and therefore the only way we can be at peace with the environment and all of the earth species that are part of it. It is, literally, the common ground on which we all stand.”
— Fred Kirschenmann

There are some 2,300 billion tons of carbon locked in the world’s soils, far more than the 790 billion tons currently in the atmosphere. Land degradation, including deforestation of farmland and desertification, may account for as much as 30 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas releases, according to studies by Rattan Lal of Ohio State University. Aside from removing the natural vegetation, plowing the soil releases organic carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Conventional agriculture methods have already reduced soil carbon by 30 and 60 percent in much of the US, says Don Reicosky, a research soil scientist with the US Department of Agriculture who is based in Morris, Minnesota. Carbon is a key ingredient for plant growth and crucial for soil fertility. For Reicosky, carbon is the primary driver of the entire living soil ecosystem: “Carbon does great things for the soil but it takes a generation to see the impacts.”

Farmers have only been able to escape the impacts of this massive loss of organic carbon thanks to cheap chemical fertilizers made from fossil fuels. But that short-term solution is just making matters worse, according to a new study out of the University of Illinois. In examining crop records and soil samples from the Illinois Morrow Plots dating back 100 years, soil scientists were surprised to see corn yields falling on plots that had received the most chemical nitrogen fertilizers and crop residues. It turns out that even with additional crop residues, fertilized soils have much less soil carbon, likely resulting in higher releases of carbon into the atmosphere.

Keeping carbon in the soil may be one of the quickest ways to reduce global carbon emissions. And if that’s not enough reason to substitute carbon storage for crop yield as the ultimate goal of farming, then the improvements in soil fertility and declines in erosion that will give us a chance at feeding a crowded world ought to.

“Blaming the farmer for these problems is futile, since we’ve created the economic system they operate in,” says Fred Kirschenmann, a North Dakota organic farmer who works at Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. That system forces farmers to produce as much as possible no matter what the cost, Kirschenmann says.

A Different Way of Farming

The Kirschenmann family broke out of that system in the late 1960s when Fred learned of organic farming around the same time that his father, a veteran grower, saw their farm’s soil quality deteriorating despite best efforts to protect it. Their primary objective was to rebuild the soil, and after years of trial and error, their 3,500 acres were certified as organic in 1976; they have never looked back. Today, about 1,000 acres are in native prairie and used for grazing livestock, and the rest is managed in a diversified operation with eight to nine crops each year in three different rotations. Being debt-free — a rare privilege in farming country — enabled the Kirschenmanns to take the economic risk of finding a way to farm that was environmentally sustainable.

While organic farmers eschew chemical fertilizers, they often use intensive tilling to eliminate weeds, which can break up soils. But most organic farmers are careful to maintain cover crops and add manures to keep the soil covered and well fed with organic matter. As a result, erosion is many times less than on conventional farms. And because organic soils are more fertile, they absorb more water deeper, further reducing erosion and allowing them to better withstand droughts. A USDA study using data collected between 1994 and 2005 confirmed that organic fields have much more living soil matter than those farmed by conventional methods that did not till the soil. Corn on the organic plots also produced 18 percent higher yields.

“Agriculture’s biggest problem is the health of soil; erosion is just a symptom,” Kirschenmann says. Overcoming that problem means fundamentally re-thinking our food production systems so that the first priority is to preserve the fertility and ecological health of the land. As to how this can be done, Kirschenmann refers to the writings of Sir Albert Howard, a British botanist who wrote in 1940 that farmers ought to farm as nature does in the forest. There should always be livestock and a multitude of plant varieties; all “wastes” should be returned to the soil so that growth and decay balance each other; great pains need to be taken to store rainfall. In such a system, Howard wrote, plants and animals protect themselves from disease.

That approach may seem quaint in our technology-driven industrial culture, but Kirschenmann points out that the cows on his farm no longer need visits from the vet. Soil considerations aside, Kirschenmann wonders why — if conventional agriculture is so effective — 62 percent of Iowa farm families have off-farm jobs.

“Our system is clearly dysfunctional, and in destroying soil, we are putting enormous burdens on future generations,” he says. “We need to start to be behave as members of the land community instead of continuing to act like conquerors.”

Stephen Leahy is a freelance environmental journalist who has written for many publications, including New Scientist and The Sunday Times (London), and is the science and environment correspondent for Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), a wire service headquartered in Rome.

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Holidays in Costa Teguise

Travel Information

Language: Spanish (English widely spoken)
Currency: Euros
Local time: GMT/BST
Local Airport(s)
  Flight time Transfer time
(to resort)
Lanzarote Arrecife 4 hours 10 minutes

Relax on your holiday in Costa Teguise

Lanzarote has long been a popular holiday destination for many travellers and the resort of Costa Teguise is one of the most frequently visited on the island. Located on the beautiful coastline, Costa Teguise enjoys a large number of tourists each year and boasts a prime position just twenty minutes from Arrecife Airport. With low fares and travel deals available through easyJet holidays, visitors to the resort are able to enjoy the benefits of a high quality holiday at low prices. During high season, flights are very regular and the resort attracts more and more visitors each year. It has a well deserved reputation as one of the liveliest and most welcoming holiday destinations in the area. Check out Lanzarote holidays if you want to find out more about holidays on the island.

More on Costa Teguise

There is never a shortage of activities and tourist attractions available in Costa Teguise and it comes as no surprise to discover that many holidaymakers choose to return year after year. Costa Teguise boasts some beautiful beaches and so many of the most popular attractions revolve around fun pastimes such as water sports –in particular windsurfing– and coastal walks. Other popular activities include cycling and golf. Costa Teguise holidays also offer a large number of modern and traditional shops for those who enjoy bringing home a bargain.

Excursions are available to the beautiful fishing village of Pueblo Marinero which is home to many wonderful restaurants, bars and shops. It is also worth taking a tour of nearby beaches as there are some outstanding stretches of golden sand and crystal clear waters that many tourists fall in love with time and time again while on holiday in Costa Teguise.

The restaurants in Costa Teguise are well known for their diversity and all culinary tastes are catered for. Traditional food is widely available, but many establishments also offer international cuisine, such as Chinese, Indian and Italian. Tapas restaurants are very popular with visitors on holiday in Costa Teguise, and offer a wide range of authentic dishes; some of the most popular establishments often serve a combination of Spanish and English food.

Costa Teguise is a lively resort with both English style and local bars which stay open until late. Restaurants in the resort also stay open late and many families find that they are able to enjoy relaxed evenings with friendly staff and locals while on holiday in Costa Teguise.

For a change of scenery Arrecife is just along the coast, head over for a great choice of daytime and evening entertainment. See more on Arrecife with easyJet holidays.

Book with easyJet holidays to Costa Teguise

easyJet holidays provides tourists with more options to enjoy great value holidays and are widely regarded as a brand that can be trusted. With the offer of further savings when booking flights and accommodation together, more and more tourists are able to enjoy fabulous holidays in Costa Teguise at lower prices by booking with easyJet holidays. Be sure to check out the plethora of holidays to Spain that easyJet offers to ensure you are getting the best value for your money.

Copyright © Hotelopia Holidays S.L.U, 2015

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Photo Credit - Oleh Slobodeniuk

Photo Credit – Oleh Slobodeniuk

Routine is the best friend of consistent journaling. Once that daily schedule is broken, however, things get a little murky and one who writes an entry every day can easily find themselves a week behind.

So what do you do? Should journal goals only be for days of routine? I am currently finding myself in this situation. On the road for over a week, I still want to keep up writing these memories, especially since I am making them with family and friends I don’t see every day.

One tip is to not get discouraged. If you miss a day, don’t sweat it. Worrying about it will only increase your risk of missing more days in a row. Just make the next one a little longer. You can also consider writing two entries to make up for one if keeping your goal is that important.

Several online journals accept journal entries via text or email. Send a quick post with the highlights of the trip. If you are the passenger in a long drive, consider using that time to write out an email.

Even if you you don’t journal the entire vacation, chances are you took pictures, likely a lot of them. Attach one of these to a blank journal entry and know that it will be more telling than most written entries.

Utilize down time like airport terminals, and long lines to catch up.

On your packing list, remember to include your journal or device that you keep your journal on. If you forget it, don’t worry, a Fiji napkin or back of a postcard make great replacements for your physical journal. Just tape or staple it in later. If you eJournal, find a hotel lobby computer, write an entry and email it to yourself. Later you can copy and paste it.

The harder it is to journal, the more likely it is that there are some great memories to record.


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Diet's Blog (Page 38)

December 2, 2010 - 12:17pm

It’s time for my annual holiday cookie swap. I had so much success with my 100-calorie cookie platter last year that I decided to try the challenge again this year.

Related: (Click here to see what I made last year.)

I like say that I live by the “everything in moderation” mantra, but something about the holidays makes me want to throw that out the window. It’s all those cookies—they’re my downfall! So if I can fill my platter with festive,...

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November 24, 2010 - 10:15am

First of all, let’s make one thing clear: I am not an exercise guru. When I told my editor I wanted to write this piece about 10-minute exercise ideas, she laughed and said, “YOU want to write about exercise?” She knows me all too well. I like to squeeze as many things into my day as possible, but for some reason, when it comes to exercise, I seem to have every excuse in the book for not doing it. The one that most easily slips off my tongue? “I don’t have time.” Am I the only one in this sedentary, time-starved boat? I don’t think so.

Now that it’s the busy holiday season, time is even more precious. Plus it’s harder for me to feel motivated when it’s cold and dark outside.

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November 23, 2010 - 11:30am

My motto—especially when it comes to nutrition—is moderation. There aren’t any “bad” foods in my opinion because, in moderation, there’s room for anything. I carry my motto to the Thanksgiving table, too—a little bit of this, a small bite of that. The problem is, there are so many choices and, inevitably, I end up overeating.

Related: Your day-after Thanksgiving detox plan (Psst! You get to have pumpkin pie.)
28-Day Meal Plan for a Slimmer You

We’re all guilty of overindulging sometimes, but loading up on calories forces...

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November 22, 2010 - 1:31pm

New York City is serious about trying to reduce rates of obesity and the expensive and debilitating conditions for which obesity raises risks. Its latest move? It is asking the USDA for a food stamp waiver for two years during which recipients would not be allowed to use their benefit cards to buy sodas.

I hardly know where to begin on this one. I learned about this from the front page of this morning's read full post »

November 22, 2010 - 1:29pm

Nestlé, the world's largest food company (no relation) has conducted periodic studies of infant feeding practices since 2002, no doubt to encourage sales of its Gerber products. The surveys—FITS (Feeding Infants and Nutrition) Studies—invariably show that Gerber baby foods would be better for babies than what they currently are fed.

The latest FITS results, says the Nestlé press release, "are startling."

• One-third of toddlers and 50 percent of preschoolers eat fast food at least once a week.

• One-quarter of families eat dinner together four or fewer nights each week.

• Half of two-year-olds and 60 percent of three-year-olds watch more than one hour of television each day.

• 17 percent of two-year-olds...

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Content tagged with “November/December 1996” (Page 2)

Rosti Potatoes with Smoked Trout
Smoked trout and a tangy horseradish cream are perfect accents in this baked potato cake.
Zesty Horseradish Cream
This versatile cream will become a staple in horseradish-loving kitchens. Whip up a batch to top baked potatoes.
Apple Butter Topping
Somehow a waffle just seems naked without a pat of butter melting into the ridges. This topping stretches a small...
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as i stand here monologuing my day, the strange and mentally disfigured occupants of the bus cue look at me with cautious bemusement. miss im-so-pretty-and-i-know-it chats away on her phone to another airhead who was probably cloned from her earlier. pink yoga pants, a large man's sun glasses covering half her face and bra pushing out all that she has in a grand gesture of plumdom. 'fuck you creep' she says in her little whiney, im-sitting-on-rare-gems-and-your-not-getting-any voice. 'i don't know, some creep' she says to her phone. looking a little bit disgusted with me. never mind, here is the bus, late as usual. i wait for the old dear to get on, boy those legs have seen better days 'whats that my dear?' she asks 'i was just saying its a nice day' i reply. she smiles a sweet little smile, which i return and goes up to the driver to get her ticket. i bet she was a goer back in the day. ok my turn 'return to Cromwell street my good man' i say 'three pound fifty' he asks 'there you go fella' i say as i give him a twenty 'nothing smaller?', he asks. i just shake my head no, he looks at me bit plain like, lights are on but no one home. he digs around with a huff and puff pulling out all the change he can find. he will be on the news next week, i can see it now: home invasion, family killed, pet dog stuffed into washing machine. 'you what son?' he asks, i ignore him and walk towards the back of the bus. the jail bait still on her phone yapping away about ballshit and whether billy the rebel will fiddle her fairy. 'fuck you' she says with a copy pasta of the expression she gave before. later she will be bleeding her heart out to my fake Bieber look-a-like profile on facebook, creaming her panties for my well place words and innuendos. never prepared to do any of that for real of course as she is too fridged and precious. right, gonna sit on the bus quiet like and snooze as its so boring...

so at the job centre, my monologue continues... waiting for some dipshit to come and call me over to sign on. i watch the job centre staff buzz around like gassed bees, gassed by their own beaurocracy and simple but over complicated jobs. this place was built to give these morons jobs, otherwise they would be those guys that collect all the trolleys at the supermarket. one of them looks up, comical timing. classic dumb, cow-walking-into-the slaughter-house-oblivious-to-the-surprise-within look on his face. 'Mr Jones?' ok thats me, so i say 'yes i am here squire, ready for your review' which he replies 'hmm, yes take a seat' looking over my rap sheet. 'what was that?' he asks 'nothing. i am making a documentary, a blog type thing for ebaums world' i say back. his blank face says it all. i try and explain it differently. 'listen mate, aliens have told me i need to monologue everything i do otherwise they are going to stick a probe up my ass. you best go along with it' he stares at me for a while then asks me what i have done to look for work. i explain 'well i saw this job for CEO for Marks & Sparks, i applied for that, ummmm, there was a job for gynaecologist, i applied for that' he is not sure if i am mad or taking the piss, he signs my book to get rid of me. I get up and give him a small bow. 'tarrar bovine office dweller' i say as i walk out. great, thats that done for another 2 weeks, time to spend my earnings down the pub.
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This Guy Is A Badass

Scott refuses to let his Cerebral Palsy rule his life.
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Effective Training : Systems, Strategies and Practices

Edition: 3rd

Author(s): Blanchard, P. Nick; Thacker, James

ISBN: 9780131860117 / Paperback / 1/1/2010

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The School Counseling and School Social Work Treatment Planner

Edition: 2nd

Author(s): Knapp, Sarah Edison; Jongsma, Arthur E.; Dimmitt, Carey

ISBN: 9780470618172 / Paperback / 7/3/2012

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Genetics Essentials: Concepts and Connections

Edition: 2nd

Author(s): Pierce, Benjamin A.

ISBN: 9781429295161 / Paperback / 8/27/2012

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Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

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Customer Reviews

The secrets of simplicity, revealed!  May 16, 2011

"Simple and Usable" is one of the best books I've read for practical, specific strategies to design products and websites. It fundamentally teaches us logic behind creating a product - whether it be a Flip camera or a banking website. Simple & Usable is ultimately a perfect bible for anyone who is genuinely interested in understanding our brain patterns, cognitive tools and what truly makes us gravitate towards products or services. I would recommend "Simple and Usable" for novice and intermediate user experience designers looking for new ideas or quick reminders of the right way to go about designing interaction. I received this cheap textbook within days. Seller was good, I give my highest recommendation.

Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design: 5 out of 5 stars based on 1 user reviews.

In a complex world, products that are easy to use win favor with consumers. Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design is the first book on the topic of simplicity aimed specifically at interaction designers. It shows how to drill down and simplify user experiences when designing digital tools and applications. It begins by explaining why simplicity is attractive, explores the laws of simplicity, and presents proven strategies for achieving simplicity.

Remove, hide, organize and displace become guidelines for designers, who learn simplicity by seeing before and after examples and case studies where the results speak for themselves.

Author Biography

Giles Colborne has worked in the field of user-centered design for 20 years. He is the managing director of cxpartners, a user experience consultancy based in the United Kingdom that makes websites and mobile devices easier to use for clients all over the world such as Vodafone, Marriott, Nokia and Jaguar.

Table of Contents

Why are we here?
A Story about simplicityp. 2
The power of simplicityp. 4
Increasing complexity is unsustainablep. 6
Not that kind of simplep. 8
Characterp. 10
Fake simplicityp. 12
Know yourselfp. 14
Setting a vision
Two ways to describe what's corep. 18
Get out of your officep. 20
What to look forp. 22
Three types of userp. 24
Why you should ignore expert customersp. 26
Design for the mainstreamp. 28
What mainstreamers wantp. 30
Emotional needsp. 32
Simplicity is about controlp. 34
Choosing the right "what"p. 36
Describing the user experiencep. 38
Putting it all togetherp. 40
World, character, plotp. 42
Extreme usabilityp. 44
The quick and dirty wayp. 46
Insightp. 48
Getting the right visionp. 50
Share itp. 52
Four strategies for simplicity
Simplify thisp. 56
The remote controlp. 58
The four strategiesp. 60
Removep. 64
How not to do itp. 66
Focus on what's corep. 68
Kill lame featuresp. 70
What if the user...?p. 72
But our customers want itp. 74
Solutions, not processesp. 76
When features don't matterp. 78
Will it hurt?p. 80
Prioritizing featuresp. 82
Loadp. 84
Decisionsp. 86
Distractionsp. 88
Smart defaultsp. 90
Options and preferencesp. 92
When one option is too manyp. 94
Errorsp. 96
Visual clutterp. 98
Removing wordsp. 100
Simplifying sentencesp. 102
Removing too muchp. 104
You can do itp. 106
Focusp. 108
Organizep. 112
Chunkingp. 114
Organizing for behaviorp. 116
Hard edgesp. 118
Alphabets and formatsp. 120
Searchp. 122
Time and spacep. 124
Gridsp. 126
Size and locationp. 128
Layersp. 130
Color codingp. 132
Desire pathsp. 134
Hidep. 138
Infrequent but necessaryp. 140
Customizingp. 142
Automatic customizationp. 144
Progressive disclosurep. 146
Staged disclosurep. 148
X doesn't mark the spotp. 150
Cues and cluesp. 152
Making things easy to findp. 154
After you hidep. 156
Displacep. 160
Displacing between devicesp. 162
Mobile vs. desktopp. 164
Displacing to the userp. 166
What users do bestp. 168
Creating open experiencesp. 170
Kitchen knives and pianosp. 172
Unstructured datap. 174
Trustp. 176
Before we go
Conservation of complexityp. 180
Detailsp. 182
Simplicity happens in the user's headp. 184
Photo Creditsp. 187
Indexp. 191
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The sound of leather on willow returns

OFF SPIN: Marist Brothers’ Hartley Spann took a hat-trick off Workers.
OFF SPIN: Marist Brothers’ Hartley Spann took a hat-trick off Workers.

It was with welcome blue skies that Lismore district senior cricket commenced last Saturday. Embracing the growing popularity of T20 cricket, all Lismore grades from 1st through to 4th grade will be playing the shorter form of the game over the first three weeks. Hopefully this will allow players to clear out a few cobwebs before settling into the season proper.

It is expected that the late withdrawal of the Lismore Workers / Goonellabah Sports amalgamation from the FNC Hooker League competition will strengthen Lismore first grade with several players feeding back into the local competition. Workers will be boosted by the the return of the experienced Michael Knight and top line bowler Jason Caught, while Goonellabah Sports will have Captain Matt Latimer back. After a rebuilding period Easts return to Lismore first grade, following several years absence, thanks to a recruitment drive in which most of last year's Norths Goonellabah Tavern team transferred across. These three Clubs will be looking to challenge last season's top two teams, Souths and Marist Brothers.

In the Bruce Jobson Plumbing first-grade T20 competition the five teams will play four games over the first three weeks, with Friday and Saturday night games at Oakes Oval scheduled for the next two weekends.

Last Saturday, Marist Brothers played Workers Club and Easts took on Goonellabah Sports while Souths had the bye. Easts celebrated their return to first grade with a tight nine run victory over Goonellabah, scoring 8 for 105 and restricting the opposition to 7 for 96, Easts batting all-rounder Will Donovan proving the destroyer with the ball taking 6 for 23.

In the other game, batting first Workers managed 8 for 111 off their twenty overs with Brothers Hartley Spann taking a hat trick in the final over with his off spin bowling. Brothers easily chased the target finishing at 1 for 115 off seventeen overs with veteran Craig Ferguson unbeaten on 48.

The weekend's outstanding performance in Lismore lower grades was by Workers Club all rounder Paul Pryor who smashed 135 off 15 overs in 3rd grade, which is sure to have captured club selector's attention.

In this week's draw, the defending T20 champions Souths have their opening game of the season against Easts on Friday night at Oakes Oval, Brothers play Goonellabah, while Souths take on Workers in the Saturday afternoon games. Easts play Brothers, who back up from the early game, at 7.30pm Saturday night.

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Jury: “The jury viewed this project as an environmental learning center because it has so many of those characteristics. … There were a number of that building type in the running, and yet this one really delivered on the promise that we were looking for. Genuine performance with a beautiful elegant design.”

Architect: “The project proves that you don’t have to sacrifice design for sustainability. We used the Passiv Haus standard because its criteria were so high and it paid off with a better building. We emphasized the sustainable features to strengthen the architectural statement, so the sustainable elements are what make it dynamic and architecturally significant.” —David Salmela, FAIA, David Salmela Architect

Located in a 55-acre nature reserve, the University Classroom building at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) needed to have a small environmental footprint, and minimize site disturbance, water run-off, and energy use. To start, David Salmela Architect chose to work with previously developed land and an existing parking lot at the Northwest edge of UMD, which is within walking distance of campus. As a result, building occupants can use existing campus parking, negating the need for new lots. The building, which is used by eight departments at UMD, was minimized to 1,995 gross square feet and incorporates an outdoor classroom with a fireplace, wood storage area, and recycled cedar benches, all in order to reduce the overall square footage of the structure while incorporating the surrounding reserve as a teaching tool.

In addition to striving for (and achieving) LEED Platinum certification, the design team incorporated Passive Haus strategies to minimize energy loads. The building is oriented to take advantage of passive heating and cooling and eliminate artificial cooling, and requires 78 percent less energy use due to optimal orientation. It takes only 3,000 watts (the equivalent of three hair dryers) to heat the building on the coldest day of the year.

To the south, pre-existing deciduous trees provide shade in the summer. On the south, east, and west wises of the building, glazing was calculated with Passiv Haus energy modeling software to optimize passive solar gains in the winter and prevent overheating in the summer. Grid-connected photovoltaic panels on the low south roof generate up to 8,500 kWh in a cloudy year. The building uses the sun as its primary heating source, and any supplementary heat is provided by an electric heat coil at the ventilation system. An electric boiler and in-floor radiant heating system serves as a backup heat system, and small, on-demand, tankless electric water heaters are used to heat water at two hand-rinsing sinks.

Sixteen inches of insulation on the walls and roof as well as 12 inches of 100-percent-recycled-content SPA insulation around the foundation and under a concrete floor slab reduce the heating load, as does a system of structurally insulated panels (SIPs) that features continuous insulation and no thermal breaks. Married with these elements are triple-pane glass windows with insulated frames and insulated doors with wooden frames.

In the winter, the windows are closed and locked to prevent heat loss. Due to the building’s air tightness, mechanical ventilation provides constant fresh air. In warmer months, operable windows on the lower east and west façades and venting louvers on the higher east and west façades take advantage of site wind to create 100 percent natural ventilation through a stack effect via upper ventilation louvers in warmer months. A heat-recovery ventilation system removes 85 percent of the heat from exhausting air to minimize heat loss. The system is turned off each night and the building is flushed out each morning to remove pollutants from the air.

All habitable rooms in the building have exterior views and daylight is further augmented by solar tubes in the ceilings. Wood horizontal screen covers the windows to prevent bird collisions and provide shade from solar gain in the summer.

A two-level vegetated roof planted with drought-tolerant sedum that can survive up to four weeks without rainfall and doesn’t require irrigation. The upper roof holds 90 percent of rainfall on the building and drains into a lower vegetated roof to delay stormwater runoff, an important element as the site drains into a nearby watershed that includes a protected trout stream. To further aid in stormwater management, the building is surrounded by an underground trench drain system that gathers runoff from walkways and holds the water in the site’s forested area where it can be infiltrated by daylight. Two composting, vacuum-flush toilets provide minimal waste water for the sewer system, directing most waste to two central composting tanks. A mop sink and the two hand-washing stations are equipped with sensor-controlled, low-flow fixture faucets.

Further influencing campus operations, the UMD facilities department managed and executed the building’s construction with in-house staff, training the crew in efficient construction practices and training them for future university construction projects.

Building gross floor area: 1,995 square feet
Estimated percent of occupants using public transit, cycling, or walking: 72
Percent of daylight at levels that allow lights to be off during daylight hours: 100
Percent of views to the outdoors: 100
Percent of spaces within 15 feet of an operable window: 48
Percent reduction of regulated potable water: 87
Is potable water used for irrigation: No
Percent of rainwater from maximum anticipated 24-hour, two-year storm event that can be managed onsite: 100
Total EUI (kBtu per square foot per year): 36
Net EUI (kBtu per square foot per year): 27
Percent reduction from national average EUI for building type: 78
LEED rating: Platinum
Total project cost at time of completion, land excluded: $1 million

Data and project information provided by architecture firm via AIA COTE Top Ten entry documents.

For an extended view into David Salmela's philsophies on sustainable design as well as a showcase of the firm's other green projects, click here. For more information on each project, as well as a database of past Top Ten projects, visit aiatopten.org.


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Community Health Network

Ranked among the nation's most integrated healthcare systems, Community Health Network is Central Indiana's leader in providing convenient access to exceptional healthcare services, where and when patients need them—in hospitals, health pavilions, workplaces, schools and homes.

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Insurance and costs

Insurance verification

To determine if your insurance policy covers obesity (or "bariatric") surgery—such as adjustable gastric banding—refer to the insurance policy package that you have received after paying your first premium or provided through a plan offered by your employer.

Typically, there are two sections that describe the extent and limits of coverage. The first is usually called "What Is Covered" or "Covered Expenses." These are the healthcare benefits for which the company will pay. The other section is "What Is Not Covered" or "When the Plan Does Not Pay Benefits." In this section, look for any statement that the company excludes coverage for weight control, for the treatment of obesity, for the surgery for weight control, or for the complications of the surgery for weight control.

Some policies will outright exclude bariatric surgeries. Others may have certain parameters around which bariatric procedures they cover and how much of the costs they cover. Look for statements such as, "Surgery for the treatment of obesity is covered when deemed medically necessary," or "Surgery for the treatment of obesity is (specifically) excluded except when medically necessary."

Please note: The code for LAP-BAND® for insurance purposes is CPT 43770, diagnosis code 278.01: morbid obesity.

Submission requirements

A Letter of Medical Necessity and weight loss history are necessary to obtain prior authorization for obesity surgery. A Letter of Medical Necessity states why significant weight loss is medically necessary for a patient and usually includes the following information:

  • Patient’s weight (should be 100 pounds or more above ideal weight or a BMI more than 40 or at least 30 with associated medical problems to qualify).
  • List of medical problems associated with obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, etc.
  • Number of years patient has been overweight (should be at least five or more).
  • Number and types of failed weight-loss programs attempted in the past.

If you create a document or packet listing all your weight loss attempts (self-controlled or medically supervised) and their results, you can substantially increase your chances of getting insurance coverage for a bariatric lap band procedure. You should include any commercial diets or medical records of your weight loss efforts.

If insurance coverage for lap band surgery has been denied upon the initial prior authorization request, you can appeal by addressing the specific reasons why your request has been denied. You can also contact a lawyer with expertise to help you with the appeal.

Financing programs

When insurance reimbursement is not available, patient financing is another alternative you may consider to help cover the cost of self pay for lap band surgery.

Need help covering a high deductible or private pay for your Lap Band ®System? Click here for lending options.

We accept CareCredit for private pay for lap band surgery. Apply for CareCredit >>

Please ask us about available patient financing programs during the patient seminar or your office visit.

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Great Leap Forward

New IMF Paper Shows Yet Again that Reinhart and Rogoff Results Are Erroneous

You all remember the Reinhart and Rogoff claim that debt ratios above 90% lead to slow economic growth. As Yeva Nersisyan and I showed in 2010, their results are crap. (see here

I’m pretty sure that the Reinhart and Rogoff “study” is the worst empirical research ever undertaken. They simply lumped together data of questionable verity taken across 800 years and 66 countries to get ratios of debt to GDP and growth rates. They summed across debt types, taking almost no notice of the exchange rate regime or the denomination of the debt. In other words, to R&R it makes no difference if a country pegs to gold or dollarizes, or if it issues debt in foreign currency. Further, at least in their public presentations, they habitually assumed that correlation is causation—ignoring the possibility that slow growth raises debt ratios. Their work was ideologically-driven: they wanted to stoke the deficit hysteria used as a justification for austerity.

As anyone familiar with MMT knows, it matters whether a country pegs its exchange rate to gold or a foreign currency. Unless you can ensure a positive inflow of the thing you peg to, you must adopt austere policy to keep domestic wages and prices low. And if you issue debt denominated in a foreign currency (or even in a domestic currency pegged to a foreign currency), then as your commitments rise you normally must squash domestic demand to increase net exports. Hence, for such countries it is probable that there will indeed be a correlation between rising debt ratios and slowing growth rates.

But for a country that adopts its own currency without a peg, and that avoids issuing debt in foreign currency, there is no necessary relation between debt ratios and growth rates. Now, to be sure, rising private debt ratios can increase fragility—for all the Minsky reasons. This can be associated with financial crises, which can have negative impacts on economic growth. However, sovereign debt actually improves domestic finances—makes the financial system less fragile. Adding income and safe financial assets to the domestic economy, sovereign deficits and debts can actually promote growth. By the same token, slow growth can increase debt ratios (as Japan’s experience over the past 20 years shows). Still, the sovereign deficit and debt ratios by themselves tell us nothing about sustainability. We can have those ratios rising for “good reasons” (to promote growth and development) or for “bad reasons” (because slow growth has kicked in the automatic stabilizers). For a sovereign currency issuer, what really matters is unemployment and living standard, not debt ratios.

A new IMF paper, “Debt and Growth: Is There a Magic Threshold?” by Andrea Pescatori, Damiano Sandri, and John Simon (here: does a pretty good job of laying out the issues without the ideological bias of R&R. The authors use a data set that is less questionable, focusing on IMF member nations with data back to 1875. To take account of the possibility of reverse causation (slow growth leads to higher debt ratios), they look at longer periods of correlation. In other words, they see if high debt ratios (say, above 90%) remain associated with slow growth for years into the future. In addition, they distinguish between trajectories (does a country with a high debt ratio have a rising or falling debt ratio) to see if that makes a difference for the correlation. They also do some adjustments for “outliers” that affect averages (note that the R&R results depended strongly on outliers as well as math errors they made in their calculations).

What they find is that there is no “magic threshold” for the public debt ratio beyond which growth suffers. So far as their study goes, I think what they’ve done is a model for honest empirical work. Here is a quick summary of the main findings:

1. “Consistent with R&R (2010), we observe that GDP growth is particularly low in the year after the debt-to-GDP ratio reaches levels above 90 percent. Indeed, this chart shows that GDP growth averages around 2 percent in countries with debt below 90 percent, and tumbles to about -2 percent in countries whose debt ratio increases above that level. At the same time, the inter-quartile range across all episodes reveals that the growth performance for countries with debt rising above 90 percent is quite diverse. It would be unwise, however, to look for a causal relation between debt and growth from Figure 1 because of the possibility of reverse causation mentioned above. While it is possible that when the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 90 percent countries enter a state of distress that leads to a substantial reduction in growth, it is equally possible that increases in public debt above 90 percent are driven by an omitted variable that reduces GDP and tax revenues that, in turn, leads to higher debt.” In other words, the simple correlation does not show causation. We need to be careful in interpreting correlations.

2. Those correlations are substantially driven by outliers: For example, the debt-to-GDP ratio in Japan increases from 133 percent in 1943 to 204 percent in 1944, and the subsequent growth rate in 1945 was -50%. This observation alone leads to a considerable reduction in the average growth for debt thresholds above 135 percent of GDP.” Gee, lesson learned: don’t start a World War unless you can win it; growth suffers if you are on the losing side.

3. The correlations are also driven by reverse causation: rotten economic growth raises debt ratios. Once you extend the time horizon in an attempt to correct for reverse causation, the correlation essentially disappears: “Extending the horizon of analysis allows us to mitigate the bias in the analysis induced by reverse causality and potential omitted variables issues–it also attenuates the effects of outliers such as the growth observation for Japan in 1945. For example, automatic stabilizers mean that low growth will tend to have an effect on the primary balance, and, thus, on debt over a short-term horizon. Similarly, and even more mechanically, a recession will raise the debt to GDP ratio because the denominator decreases. If high debt (that is, debt above some threshold) operates as a drag on growth over anything but the short-run, however, we would expect to observe weak growth not only in the year after the debt ratio exceeds the threshold, but also during the subsequent years… we show the growth performance of the same episodes over longer horizons…the growth performance improves considerably even at a 5-year horizon. The improvement is particularly noticeable for horizons of 10 and 15 years. Importantly, while higher debt is still associated with milder growth, there is no longer any clear debt-to-GDP threshold above which growth deteriorates sharply.”

4. Even quite high debt ratios do not hurt growth, especially if the debt ratios are coming down (as they likely would do if growth is high): In fact, even countries with debt ratios of 130–140 percent but on a declining path have experienced solid growth. This observation suggests that the high debt itself is not causing the low growth in these episodes but other factors, associated with increasing debt, are more strongly implicated.” Note that it is impossible to completely exclude reverse causation—no matter how hard you try. It is possible that the debt trajectory is determined by economic growth, rather than that debt trajectory impacts growth.

5. In a further test of robustness of their results, the authors claim: “What we find is that, generally speaking, the growth performance of countries with high debt is fairly close to that of their peers—differences are less than ½ percent per year except at the lowest debt levels.” Another robustness test is used to correct for reverse causation, such that “with the removal of the first 5 years the relation between growth and debt becomes even flatter. Furthermore, we observe that even the direction of debt is no longer a clear predictor of growth…” Again, more reason to doubt that debt trajectory is the cause.

6. In conclusion: “Our analysis of historical data has highlighted that there is no simple threshold for debt ratios above which medium-term growth prospects are severely undermined. On the contrary, the association between debt and growth at high levels of debt becomes rather weak when one focuses on any but the shortest-term relationship, especially when controlling for the average growth performance of country peers.” The more you try to control, the weaker the correlations become—and the more erroneous become the R&R claims.

And note that like R&R, the authors of this IMF paper did not distinguish between sovereign currency issuing nations that issue debt in their own floating currency, and those that peg and/or issue debt in foreign currency. By lumping together all IMF members and over a time period that includes gold standards, Bretton Woods, and today’s “free for all”, one would expect a priori that the empirical results would be inconclusive—in other words, nearly random. And that is precisely what the IMF paper shows.

No, Virginia, there is no magic threshold for government debt beyond which growth falls. It depends.

If you’ve got your own sovereign currency, and you do not peg, and you do not issue debt denominated in a foreign currency, then there is no reason to suppose that higher debt ratios cause lower economic growth. Yes, budget deficits can be too high—causing inflation. They can be too low—causing slumps. Debt ratios can be high for “good reasons” and they can be high for “bad reasons”. Focusing on government debt ratios, alone, tells you nothing about the health of the economy in such cases.

If you do not have your own currency, if you peg to foreign currency, and if you issue debt in a foreign currency, then all bets are off. You might well be up that creek without a paddle.

The next step for extending this fairly well-done IMF paper is to distinguish between these two scenarios.

I have a hunch that I know what such a study would find.

3 Responses to “New IMF Paper Shows Yet Again that Reinhart and Rogoff Results Are Erroneous”

OldNerdGuyFebruary 18th, 2014 at 11:16 am

Could there ever be a case where you would recommend that the electorate (in the U.S.) tell their government to cut back on sovereign debt? If so, in what situation? Or is there no situation where the electorate should ever do that?

L. Randall WrayFebruary 18th, 2014 at 8:42 pm

Nerdguy: sure. beyond full employment where “true” inflation occurs. And if you think govt spending is taking too many resources away from the “private purpose” to be used in the “public purpose” (again, that is beyond full emp of resources, altho could also occur before full emp but in that case the best solution is to relieve bottlenecks).

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Postgraduate broadcasting student finalist in prestigious national award

Friday, 01 October 2010

Congratulations to postgraduate broadcasting student, Dr Ann Jones, who has been named a finalist in the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards 2010.

The Media Peace Awards are open to journalists throughout Australia, and aim to promote an understanding of humanitarian and social justice issues in our society by recognising those whose work raises awareness and influences policy change.

Ann is a finalist in the Special Award Category of Promotion of Aboriginal Reconciliation, for her radio documentary entitled, The Media and Indigenous Australians, and is the only student nominated in the awards.

“To be listed as a finalist next to professional journalists from all over the country is a testament to the high quality of the broadcasting course here at WAAPA,” said Dr Jones.

“Being listed as a finalist is not only an acknowledgement of my own work, but also of the training and support of the teachers and staff at ECU.”

Lecturer and Broadcasting Course Coordinator, Ms Jo McManus, congratulated Ann on her achievements.

“To be recognised at this national award is a fantastic recognition for Ann, and we wish her all the best at the awards ceremony in October.”

The winners will be announced at an Awards Presentation Dinner, at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne on 22 October.

For more information on the awards, visit the United Nations of Australia website.

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Letters to penthouse XXXXII - erotic book - reviews

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There is no way I will tell you that this is amazing writing, but I have always loved Penthouse letters because they are short and dirty. Sometimes I just want something that gets straight to the sex. The theme of this is only loosely adhered to, so if you are set on the theme, only expect to get it about half of the stories.

I wouldn't recommend it, but if its at your local library or even if you can find it online you should give it a read. It's not really boring but there can be an occasional yawn here and there but I personally think some of you would enjoy reading this book.

I found the Letters to Penthouse XXXXII to be pretty unexciting. In theory, it's a good book. There's a good variety of coupling, fetishes, and ways people get off in the book. There is something for pretty much everyone. However, most stories rely on the same descriptors, which makes me feel the same person wrote all of them. Many submissions also discuss unsafe sex practices.

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Don't link video games with mass shootings

Story highlights

  • Christopher Ferguson: Video games often come up when there is a shooting
  • Ferguson: Violent video games are not a commonality among rampage shooters
  • He says an op-ed about games may have crossed the line from science to advocacy
  • Ferguson: What society should focus on are issues like mental health care reform

The horrible shooting at Washington Navy Yard adds to the recent litany of mass shootings in the United States. Much attention typically focuses on what we, as a society, might do to prevent similar events in the future. Unfortunately, the line between reasonable reflection and cultural crusade can sometimes be blurred, with activists drawing in shootings to advance their particular axes to grind.

Since the 1999 Columbine massacre, that issue has often been violent video games. So it should come as no surprise that we have already seen some speculation about whether the Washington Navy Yard shooter, Aaron Alexis, may have played violent games.

Earlier this week, an op-ed by Dr. Brad Bushman may have crossed the line from science to advocacy.

I respect Dr. Bushman and understand that he speaks in good faith about his concerns regarding violent video games. Yet, the field he portrays in his op-ed is not one that I recognize. Research linking violent video games to even mild acts of aggression has been, at best, inconsistent and, as the Supreme Court noted in 2011, often methodologically flawed.

Christopher J. Ferguson

That's not to say some good research isn't being done, but it's not possible for the research to clearly link playing violent games to mild aggression, let alone societal violence. Implying that laboratory research conducted with college students, no matter what the outcome, can be generalized to mass shooters is irresponsible.

Even the studies Dr. Bushman refers to are not as clear-cut as he suggests. For instance, in discussing his meta-analysis, he implies that the 136 articles he reviewed on video game violence were consistent in outcome, which, in fact, they were not. He also neglects to mention that, in his own meta-analysis, video game effects dropped significantly when only a few controls were included.

For instance, in his analysis of long-term outcome studies, video game violence effects dropped to nearly zero when simply gender and prior aggression were controlled. Furthermore, at the time his meta-analysis was published, colleagues including John Kilburn and myself expressed concerns in the same journal that Dr. Bushman and his coauthors had neglected to include many studies finding no links between video game violence and aggression in their analysis.

Dr. Bushman also refers to one of his studies suggesting that college students who played an action game were more accurate with a lifelike pistol. He extends this research to imply that mass shooters may be more accurate due to playing video games. This also, to me, seems a considerable overreach. Alexis had actual military training which would seem more relevant than video games, and shooting unarmed civilians typically requires no great feat of marksmanship. It's important to note as well that Dr. Bushman's study is, as of yet, unreplicated.

Expert: Video games don't trigger violence
Expert: Video games don't trigger violence

    Expert: Video games don't trigger violence

Expert: Video games don't trigger violence 05:08
Ex-profiler: Video games erode empathy
Ex-profiler: Video games erode empathy

    Ex-profiler: Video games erode empathy

Ex-profiler: Video games erode empathy 02:37

Dr. Bushman also neglects to mention considerable research that conflicts with his views. For instance, in a recent study my colleague Cheryl Olson and I found little evidence that violent video games had negative influences on children with pre-existing mental health problems. It would seem this study would bear on speculation that some mentally ill individuals may be susceptible to video game effects, so it is curious it went unmentioned.

Contrary to Dr. Bushman's suggestion, violent video games are not a commonality among mass homicide perpetrators. The impression that a link exists is a classic illusory correlation in which society notes the cases that fit and ignores those that don't. When a shooter is a young male, the news media make a fuss over violent video games, typically forgetting to inform the public that almost all young males play violent video games. Thus, finding that a particular young shooter happened to play violent games is neither surprising nor meaningful.

However, we've seen a rash of high-profile gun violence committed by men over the age of 60 (William Spengler, Douglas Harmon, Jimmy Lee Dykes, etc.) in past months. Since these incidents don't fit the common social narrative of the mad gamer, they are simply ignored.

Lastly, Dr. Bushman advocates legal restrictions on violent video game access. However, since the Supreme Court's Brown v EMA ruling (2011), which also criticized much of this research field, such efforts are clearly in violation of the First Amendment.

In a recent appearance on CNN, video game researcher Patrick Markey cautions scholars not to be irresponsible in extending research in our field beyond where it can go. I echo his comments here. In the 1950s, psychiatrists testified before congress that comic books caused not only delinquency but homosexuality because, they claimed, Batman and Robin were secretly gay. We have to be careful not to repeat these mistakes.

The picture that is emerging of Alexis is one common to most mass shooters whether young or old, man or (rarely) woman -- a resentful man full of anger and struggling with mental health problems.

Making big claims about video games contributing to societal violence runs two risks -- damaging the credibility of the scholars who make such claims, and distracting us from real issues such as mental health care reform.

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1998 Infiniti I30 Consumer Review: Not reliable

1998 Infiniti I30 - Consumer Review

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By llola on

1998 Infiniti I30 4dr Sedan

I bought this car about 5 years ago and have had nothing but problems. I bought it with about 110,000 miles on it and thought it was a great car after doing some research. The stereo is broken and the volume nob is worthless. The starter was replaced after it wouldn't start. The battery was then replaced after it wouldn't start again. I had to replace the alternator. All within the course of five years. The ABS (airbag) light started to blink a couple years ago and I can't figure out what the problem is. Recently it won't start. I had it checked by a mechanic & he searched the whole car and can't find the problem. Unreliable car! Too expensive!

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My family has had three infinitis in the past and all three have been "lemons." One was brand new at purchase and had nothing but problems from the start. The next one was 2 years old straight off of the lease return it was certified and had nothing but problems. The one I bought was 7 years old and it has been a problem ever since I got it. I can't wait to get rid of it!

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By mb5555
on 10/03/11 17:09 PM (PDT)

So let me get this straight, 5 years ago you bought a car that was 9 years old with 110,000 miles on it and you think it's a lemon because in the past 5 years you had to put a new battery, starter and alternator in the car................ As you can see from the other reviews these cars if will run a long time, mine is a 97 with 150K miles and the only major thing I replaced was the starter ( alternator was recalled in 1999). You may be the only person alive with 3 bad Inifinit's

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