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Susan Montoya Bryan / AP file
Wild horses scour the ground for strands of hay during an adoption event put on by the Bureau of Land Management in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2009.
By Dave Philipps / ProPublica
The Bureau of Land Management faced a crisis this spring.?
The agency protects and manages herds of wild horses that still roam the American West, rounding up thousands of them each year to keep populations stable.
But by March, government pens and pastures were nearly full. Efforts to find new storage space had fallen flat. So had most attempts to persuade members of the public to adopt horses. Without a way to relieve the pressure, the agency faced a gridlock that would invite lawsuits and potentially cause long-term damage to the range.?
So the BLM did something it has done increasingly over the last few years. It turned to a little-known Colorado livestock hauler named Tom Davis who was willing to buy hundreds of horses at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head.?
The BLM has sold Davis at least 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009, agency records show [1] -- 70 percent of the animals purchased through its sale program.
Like all buyers, Davis signs contracts promising that animals bought from the program will not be slaughtered and insists he finds them good homes.
But Davis is a longtime advocate of horse slaughter. By his own account, he has ducked Colorado law to move animals across state lines and will not say where they end up. He continues to buy wild horses for slaughter from Indian reservations, which are not protected by the same laws. And since 2010, he has been seeking investors for a slaughterhouse of his own.
"Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt," he said. "What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?"
Animal welfare advocates fear that horses bought by Davis are being sent to the killing floor.?
?The BLM says it protects wild horses,? said Laura Leigh, founder of the Nevada-based advocacy group Wild Horse Education, ?but when they are selling to a guy like this you have to wonder.?
BLM officials say they carefully screen buyers and are adamant that no wild horses ever go to slaughter.
?We don?t feel compelled to sell to anybody we don?t feel good about,? agency spokesman Tom Gorey said. ?We want the horses to be protected.?
Sally Spencer, who runs the wild horse sales program [2], said the agency has had no indication of problems with Davis and it would be unfair for the BLM to look more closely at him based on the volume of his purchases.
"It is no good to just stir up rumors,? she said. ?We have never heard of him not being able to find homes. So people are innocent until proven guilty in the United States."
Congress reverses a move that previously prevented the slaughter of horses for exportation of the meat. Paul Crawley reports.
Some BLM employees say privately that wild horse program officials may not want to look too closely at Davis. The agency has more wild horses than it knows what to do with, they say, and Davis has become a relief valve for a federal program plagued by conflict and cost over-runs.?
"They are under a lot of pressure in Washington to make numbers,? said a BLM corral manager who did not want his name used because he feared retribution from the agency?s national office. ?Maybe that is what this is about. They probably don't want to look too careful at this guy."
******
Wild horses embody the mythic West: Painted Indian war ponies and the cavalry mounts that chased them, pony express runners and the tough partners of cowboys.
At the turn of the 20th Century, they numbered in the millions, but most were rounded up, slaughtered, and used for pet food or fertilizer, until by 1970, there were only 17,000 left.
In 1971, Congress stepped in to save the remaining herds, passing a law [3] that declared wild horses ?living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West? and made it a crime for anyone to harass or kill wild horses on most federal land. The law tasked the departments of Interior and Agriculture with protecting the animals still roaming the range.
Dave Philipps / ProPublica
Tom Davis at his corrals in La Jara, Colo.
In a sense, the Bureau of Land Management -- the part of the Interior Department assigned to oversee the wild horse program -- succeeded in this a bit too well. Protected horses naturally began to reproduce and by 1983 there were an estimated 65,000 horses and burros on the range, competing for resources with cattle and native wildlife.
In the name of maintaining a sustainable balance, the BLM began removing horses from the wild. It now rounds up about 9,400 horses a year, which has kept the wild population at around 35,000.
The captured horses are put up for adoption. Almost anyone can have one for as little as $125 as long as they sign a contract promising not to sell it to slaughter.
Adoptions kept pace with round ups until investigations in the late 1980s and 1990s showed that many adopters, including several BLM employees, had turned a quick profit by selling the horses to slaughterhouses. To discourage such re-sales, the BLM began holding the title of sale for a year. Today the agency says it visits almost every adopter for a ?compliance check? within six months to make sure horses are well cared for.
The restrictions protected horses, but discouraged adoptions, a trend compounded more recently by a bad economy and soaring hay prices.
Today, only one in three captured horses finds a home. The rest go into a warren of tax payer-funded corrals, feed lots and pastures collectively known as ?the holding system.? Since horses often live 20 years after being captured, the holding population has grown steadily for decades from 1,600 in 1989 to more than 47,000. There are now more wild horses living in captivity than in the wild.
For decades, government auditors [4] and wild horse welfare advocates have warned that the policy of capturing and storing horses is unsustainable and have pushed for the BLM to use fertility controls, introduce predators or expand wild horse territories, but the agency has made little progress toward these goals. In the first half of this year, for example, it treated fewer than half as many wild horses with a birth control drug than was planned.?
"I think they are caught in an old way of doing things,? said John Turner, an endocrinologist at University of Toledo who specializes in wild horse fertility control. ?Once they round up the horses, I don't think they like to treat and release. They would rather remove them."
Driven by the cost of caring for unwanted wild horses, the annual price tag of the program has ballooned from $16 million in 1989 to $76 million today.
Cost pressures prompted Congress to pass a last-minute rider to a 2004 law directing the BLM to sell thousands of old or unadoptable wild horses for $10 a head without restrictions -- even for slaughter -- but the agency has not done so, fearing public outrage.?
Instead, since then, the BLM has been selling horses, but requiring buyers to sign contracts [5] saying they will? ?not knowingly sell or transfer ownership of any listed wild horse and or burro to any person or organization with an intention to resell, trade, or give away the animal for processing into commercial products." Violating the agreement is a felony, but there are no compliance checks similar to those done when horses are adopted.
Even when priced at less than a few bales of hay, these horses had little appeal: Sales dropped [6] from 1,468 in 2005 to 351 in 2008.
To explore other options for reducing the number of horses in holding, top BLM officials gathered for weekly closed-door meetings from July to October 2008. According to meeting minutes obtained by the Conquistador Equine Rescue & Advocacy Program, they considered selling thousands of animals for slaughter and even large-scale euthanasia, but concluded such actions would enrage animal-welfare activists to the point they might "threaten the safety of our facilities and our employees."
No clear plan emerged.
As the wild horse program?s situation grew increasingly dire, a new option came knocking: Tom Davis.
******
Davis, 64, a plain-spoken man with a sun-beaten brow, makes his living hauling livestock, but says reselling wild horses now accounts for a substantial part of his income.
By his own account, he has worked around horses all his life -- on racetracks, on ranches, and even rounding up wild horses for slaughter before the 1971 law put a stop to the practice.
For most of that time, he has lived in the tiny town of La Jara, in Colorado?s mountain-ringed San Luis Valley, just down the road from Ken Salazar, the former U.S. Senator who now heads the Department of the Interior.
?When my dad was alive we farmed their land,? Davis said of the Salazar family. ?I like them. I do business with them. I do quite a bit of trucking for Ken.?
(Salazar did not respond to repeated interview requests for this story.)
On a warm morning in May, Davis gave a rambling two-hour interview on the 13-acre spread of corrals and truck lots where he lives.
Leaning against the fence of a muddy corral where a half dozen horses nibbled hay, wearing dusty overalls, Davis gave a simple reason for becoming the BLM?s main buyer.
"I love wild horses to death,? he said. ?It's like an addiction. For some it's drugs, for me it's horses."
According to BLM records, Davis first contacted the program in January 2008. Documents obtained from the agency show he filled out the application [7] to become a buyer over the phone, aided by Spencer, the BLM?s sales director, who wrote in his answers to questions on the form. (A BLM spokesman said in an email that agency employees often did this in the program?s early days, but no longer do.)
Under a question concerning Davis? intended use of the animals, Spencer wrote ?use for movies.? He later told other BLM employees he sold the horses to Mexican movie companies to use on film shoots.
Under a question about what type of horses Davis preferred, the application noted he would take males or females, so long as they were big.
At the bottom of the application, Spencer wrote that she and Davis had ?Discussed goal of providing a good home and making sure none of the horses end up at slaughter plants.? A few weeks later, the BLM sent Davis 36 wild horses from its Ca?on City, Colo., holding corral.
That was the only load the BLM sent Davis in 2008, records show. But in 2009 -- a few months after the meetings about the holding crisis and two weeks after Salazar became head of the Interior Department -- the agency started sending him truckload after truckload, from all over the West. Soon he was by far their biggest customer.
Davis bought 560 horses in 2009, another 332 animals in 2010, 599 more in 2011, and 239 in the first four months of 2012, agency records show. While most BLM buyers purchase one or two horses at a time, Davis averages 35 per purchase and has bought up to 240 at a time.
The animals came from the mountains of California and Wyoming, the mesas of Colorado and Utah, and the deserts of Nevada and Oregon. Many had lived for decades in the wild: Mature band stallions and resilient mares of every color descended from the first American horses.
Davis has paid the BLM a total of $17,630 for the animals, far less than BLM has expended to provide them ? the agency estimates it costs $1,000 to roundup a wild horse and records show it has paid as much as $5,000 per truckload to ship them to Davis. Similar horses that are not acquired from the BLM and can legally be sold for slaughter fetch $300,000 to $600,000 on the open market, according to sales prices from regional livestock auctions.
Some BLM corral managers said in interviews they felt uneasy shipping so many horses to a single buyer, and one they knew so little about, but said such decisions weren?t up to them.
"That all happens in Washington," one said, echoing the comments of many. "We are just peons. We do what we are told."
Davis said BLM employees occasionally asked where his horses ended up, but said he tells them it?s ?none of your damn business.?
"They never question me too hard. It makes 'em look good if they're movin' these horses, see?" he said. "Every horse I take from them saves them a lot of money. I?m doing them a favor. I?m doing the American people a favor."
******
So what happened to the wild horses Davis purchased from the BLM?
The agency can?t say for sure. It does not hold onto the titles of wild horses acquired through its sale program as it does with horses that are adopted. Officials also have no process for following up to make sure buyers use animals as they claim they will in applications.
In the interview at the ranch, Davis said he had found most of the mustangs ?good homes? on properties mostly in the southeastern states.? Asked if he would provide records of these sales, he responded, ?Ain?t no way in hell.?
Other people who find homes for rescue horses in the region say they rely heavily on advertising and web sites to connect with buyers. Davis does not appear to do so.
?I?ve never heard of him,? said David Hesse, who runs Mustang and Wild Horse Rescue of Georgia [8]. ?If he said he is finding homes for that many old, untamed mustangs, I?m skeptical. The market is deader than dead. I have trouble finding homes for even the ones that are saddle-broken. Wild ones? No way.?
On some sales applications, Davis has said he sells horses to graze on land used for oil and gas drilling in Texas, but oil industry experts contacted for this story said they had never heard of such a practice.
According to brand inspection documents [9] required by Colorado when livestock is sold or shipped more than 75 miles, Davis and his wife say they have sent 765 animals with BLM wild horse brands to a sparsely populated stretch of arid brush country along the Mexico border in Kinney County, Texas. (The records do not give specific addresses where animals were sent, but identify small towns, such as Spofford, as their destination.)
It?s impossible to confirm that the horses actually arrived there or to know where they might have gone next, however, because Texas is one of the few Western states that do not require brand inspections when horses are moved or sold.
Just south of Kinney County is Eagle Pass, a border town that isthe only crossing for horses going to slaughter in Mexico for hundreds of miles.
There have been no horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. since 2007, when Congress barred funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture horse meat inspectors. Since then horse slaughter has been outsourced. A 2011 report by the General Accountability Office [10] found the export of horses for slaughter to Mexico shot up 660 percent after the ban.
In Eagle Pass, as at other crossings, slaughter horses are checked by USDA veterinarians. A? USDA spokeswoman refused to make veterinarians available for interviews, but confirmed that vets sometimes see wild horses bearing the BLM brand in slaughter export pens.
Brand documents leave almost 1,000 of Davis?s wild horses unaccounted for. That means they should still be within 75 miles of his residence -- if he has complied with state law.
Asked if this was the case, Davis first said the horses were still on 160 acres of land he leases from the state of Colorado. Then he said some had been shipped out of state without brand inspections, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
"Since when is anything in this country done legal?" Davis said in a phone interview.
******
Had BLM officials inquired further about Davis, they might have found reason to question his plans for wild horses.
Davis is a vocal proponent of slaughtering wild horses in the holding system, which he considers a waste of resources. During the interview at his home, he said he would purchase far more horses if the BLM allowed him to resell them to so-called ?kill buyers.?
?They are selling me mere hundreds now,? he said. ?If they sold me 50,000, I guarantee I could do something with them. I would go to Canada. I would go to Mexico.?
Davis has close friends who export horses for slaughter, including Dennis Chavez, whose family runs one of largest export businesses in the southwest. In 1984, when Davis authored ?Be Tough or be Gone [11],? a self-published book about a horseback ride he took from Mexico to Alaska, he dedicated it to Chavez?s father, Sonny Chavez.
Also, despite the obstacles that impede U.S. horse slaughterhouses, Davis said he has been trying to drum up investors to open a slaughter plant in Colorado.
He said he had approached pet food companies to buy the meat and asked Ken Salazar?s brother, John Salazar, who is the head of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, to help him get a grant to finance the business. John Salazar declined to help Davis, and so far the slaughterhouse venture has not gone forward.
?How can the BLM say with a straight face they are protecting wild horses when they deal with this guy?? said Leigh, of Wild Horse Education.
Animal welfare advocates have raised concerns about Davis? purchases, but they say federal officials paid little attention.
In late 2010, the BLM rounded up 255 horses in the Adobe Town wild horse area [12] in Wyoming. A local loose knit group of advocates had been photographing the herd for years. After the round-up, group members called BLM officials, looking to adopt a few of the animals, particularly an old stallion they had named Grey Beard [13].
They were told that the horses had been claimed by an anonymous buyer who planned to resell them to large landowners looking for agricultural tax exemptions. The advocates tried to learn more about the buyer, but Spencer refused to give his name, citing privacy policies.
According to interviews and agency emails, group members told Spencer that anyone buying that many horses at once had to be a kill buyer.
Sandra Longley, one of the advocates, said in an email to another advocate that Spencer had assured her that the buyer in question had a long relationship with the BLM and was ?above reproach.?
A BLM spokesman said Spencer did not recall the conversation.
According to BLM records, most of the horses were sold to Davis.
Warnings from advocates about Davis do not appear to have prompted the BLM to reconsider selling to him.In fact, internal agency email shows that officials actively turned to Davis to absorb freshly rounded-up horses so they wouldn?t end up in the overloaded holding system.
In January, the manager of the agency?s corral in Burns, Ore., emailed superiors in Washington, D.C., to ask what to do with 29 mares, almost all of which were pregnant. Spencer replied that Davis would take them.
In March, a corral manager emailed Spencer to say he had 92 ?nice horses? just rounded up in High Rock, Calif., and to ask if Davis could take some of the geldings.
A day later Spencer replied, ?Davis told me that if the geldings are in good shape he will be able to place them into good homes.?
?How many would Mr. Davis want to buy?? the corral manager asked Spencer. ?And are there any specifics that he is looking for??
?He said he?d be interested in all of them, no specifics,? Spencer replied. ?
Spencer said in an interview she is under no pressure to approve buyers with questionable backgrounds and feels confident that ?we do not sell to people we feel are going to do bad things to the horses.?
When asked about Davis, she said he had been thoroughly checked out and she had confidence in him. More generally, she said that if there were problems with a buyer, she would know.
?People watch where our horses go and the brands are very distinctive,? she said. ?If things were going on, we would get a call.?
Davis? most recent purchase was in April, when he bought 106 animals. Since then, the agency may have opened an inquiry into what he has done with horses bought from the BLM.? In June, an agency investigator contacted this reporter seeking information about him. This month, however, the BLM assistant special investigator in Santa Fe (the contact supplied by the agency on this matter) said he was "unable to confirm or deny" that the BLM is investigating Davis.
Animal welfare advocates say the agency?s reliance on Davis is just another indication of how the wild horse program and its overburdened holding system have been mismanaged.
?He is just a symptom of the train wreck that is the Wild Horse and Burro program,? said Ginger Kathrens, director of the horse advocacy group The Cloud Foundation, based in Colorado Springs. ?They just warehouse more and more horses and create their own crisis. Then, after they run the program into the ground, they have to find ways out of it. It is a whole unnatural ridiculous system run amok. And who pays the ultimate price? Wild horses.?
This report, "All the Missing Horses," first appeared at ProPublica.org.
To contact Dave Philipps about this story, email him at horse@propublica.org.
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Lymph nodes can provide a suitable home for a variety of cells and tissues from other organs, suggesting that a cell-based alternative to whole organ transplantation might one day be feasible, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and its McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. In a report recently published online in Nature Biotechnology, the research team showed for the first time that liver cells, thymus tissue and insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells, in an animal model, can thrive in lymph nodes despite being displaced from their natural sites.
Hepatitis virus infection, alcoholic cirrhosis and other diseases can cause so much damage that liver transplantation is the only way to save the patient, noted senior investigator Eric Lagasse, Pharm. D., Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Pathology, Pitt School of Medicine. Children with DiGeorge syndrome lack functional thymus glands to produce essential immune cells, and diabetes can be cured with a pancreas transplant.
"However, the scarcity of donor organs means many people will not survive the wait for transplantation," said Dr. Lagasse, whose lab is at the McGowan Institute. "Cell therapies are being explored, but introducing cells into tissue already ravaged by disease decreases the likelihood of successful engraftment and restoration of function."
In the study, his team tested the possibility of using lymph nodes, which are abundant throughout the body and have a rich blood supply, as a new home for cells from other organs in what is called an "ectopic" transplant.
They injected healthy liver cells from a genetically-identical donor animal into lymph nodes of mice at various locations. The result was an enlarged, liver-like node that functioned akin to the liver; in fact, a single hepatized lymph node rescued mice that were in danger of dying from a lethal metabolic liver disease. Likewise, thymus tissue transplanted into the lymph node of mice that lacked the organ generated functional immune systems, and pancreatic islet cell transplants restored normal blood sugar control in diabetic animals.
"Our goal is not necessarily to replace the entire liver, for example, but to provide sufficient cell mass to stabilize liver function and sustain the patient's life," Dr. Lagasse said. "That could buy time until a donor organ can be transplanted. Perhaps, in some cases, ectopic cell transplantation in the lymph node might allow the diseased organ to recover."
###
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences: http://www.upmc.com/Pages/default.aspx
Thanks to University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences for this article.
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Public release date: 28-Sep-2012
Share ] Contact: Phyllis Fisher
phyllis.fisher@gmail.com
212-606-1724
Hospital for Special Surgery
Because there are more risks with having a total knee replacement in both legs at the same time than having a knee replacement in one leg, doctors in recent years have been selecting younger and healthier patients for the bilateral procedure. Now a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery has revealed that although patients are younger and healthier than those undergoing only one-sided surgery, they are becoming sicker and some complication rates have risen.
"Although we are selecting younger people, we can't ignore the fact that the population in general is getting sicker," said Stavros Memtsoudis, M.D., Ph.D., director of Critical Care Services at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City, who led the study. "Many of the complications that we studied didn't decrease over time as you would expect with younger patients and better health care, and some of the complications even increased." The study is published online ahead of print in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Rising levels of obesity appear to be driving the complication rates, as well as the increase in the utilization of total knee replacements. Obesity puts extra stress on joints and bones and can cause premature osteoarthritis.
To conduct their research into trends regarding bilateral total knee replacements, researchers at HSS turned to the Nationwide Inpatient Survey, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This is the largest inpatient database available in the United States that includes information on patients of all ages. It collects data from about 20% of all hospitalizations in the U.S. The study investigators identified 258,524 bilateral total knee replacements performed between 1999 and 2008. The number of annual bilateral procedures increased by 75%. In 1999, bilateral procedures accounted for 3.7% of all knee replacement operations and in 2008, they accounted for 6% of the operations.
The average age of patients undergoing bilateral knee replacement decreased by 2.5 years from 1999 to 2008. As the years marched on, patients presented with higher rates of comorbidities, including renal failure, neurologic disease, liver disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Obesity increased by 131% during the study period. The only comorbidity that decreased was congestive heart failure.
Over the time period studied, the researchers identified a 3% increase in pneumonia, a 6% increase in pulmonary embolism, and a 3% increase in nonmyocardial infarction cardiac complications.
"The take home message of this paper is that we are fighting an uphill battle, because people are getting sicker, despite us attempting to limit risk by choosing younger people to do these procedures in," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "We have to start thinking of other interventions other than patient selection that we can implement in order to reduce these complications."
On a positive note, the investigators also found that absolute in-hospital mortality rates decreased at an average rate of 10% per year. The researchers attribute this decrease to advances in medicine and increased use of telemetry and observation in the last 10 to 15 years. "With advances in medicine and monitoring, we have been able to counteract this extreme event of mortality. If you get a complication and it is not recognized, you may die from it," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "If you observe people more thoroughly, you may not be able to prevent the complication, but you may be able to prevent a mortal event resulting from it."
The researchers also identified a cost shifting landscape. Patients stayed in the hospital an average of five days after their procedure in 1999 and an average of four days in 2008, but the proportion of discharges to a home or customary residence without home health care decreased at an average rate of 5.5% per year.
"Before this study, we were under the assumption that patient complications were steadily decreasing after bilateral knee arthroplasty, because of better patient selection and improvements in medical care," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "Now we understand that the picture is more complex. Patients being selected for the procedure may be getting younger, but they are not getting healthier and maybe that is why we don't see a drastic drop in complications."
Before embarking on a bilateral knee replacement, he said, patients should "critically look at themselves and talk to their physicians about how their health status plays into the choice of surgery."
More work is needed to identify ways to prevent complications in patients undergoing bilateral knee replacement and a recent conference sponsored by the Hospital for Special Surgery is aiming to do just that. The Consensus Conference on the Creation of Guidelines for Bilateral Knee Arthroplasty involved 40 experts from 16 institutions. The guidelines coming out of this conference, which are expected to be published within the next six months, address issues such as determining the appropriate workup and management for a patient undergoing bilateral knee replacement, and how long doctors should wait between procedures if a patient undergoes two operations.
###
Other authors involved in the study include Ottokar Stundner, M.D., from Hospital for Special Surgery; Madhu Mazumdar, Ph.D., from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; Carlos Mantilla, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic; and Javad Parvizi, M.D., from the Rothman Institute, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The study was funded by the Clinical Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medical College; the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Center for Education, Research, and Therapeutics.
About Hospital for Special Surgery
Founded in 1863, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a world leader in orthopedics, rheumatology and rehabilitation. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics, No. 3 in rheumatology, No. 10 in neurology and No. 5 in geriatrics by U.S. News & World Report (2012-13), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center three consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. From 2007 to 2011, HSS has been a recipient of the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award. HSS is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. Hospital for Special Surgery is located in New York City and online at www.hss.edu.
For more information contact:
Phyllis Fisher
212-606-1197
Phyllis.Fisher@gmail.com
Tracy Hickenbottom
212-606-1197
HickenbottomT@hss.edu
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Public release date: 28-Sep-2012 Share ] Contact: Phyllis Fisher
phyllis.fisher@gmail.com
212-606-1724
Hospital for Special Surgery
Because there are more risks with having a total knee replacement in both legs at the same time than having a knee replacement in one leg, doctors in recent years have been selecting younger and healthier patients for the bilateral procedure. Now a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery has revealed that although patients are younger and healthier than those undergoing only one-sided surgery, they are becoming sicker and some complication rates have risen.
"Although we are selecting younger people, we can't ignore the fact that the population in general is getting sicker," said Stavros Memtsoudis, M.D., Ph.D., director of Critical Care Services at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City, who led the study. "Many of the complications that we studied didn't decrease over time as you would expect with younger patients and better health care, and some of the complications even increased." The study is published online ahead of print in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Rising levels of obesity appear to be driving the complication rates, as well as the increase in the utilization of total knee replacements. Obesity puts extra stress on joints and bones and can cause premature osteoarthritis.
To conduct their research into trends regarding bilateral total knee replacements, researchers at HSS turned to the Nationwide Inpatient Survey, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This is the largest inpatient database available in the United States that includes information on patients of all ages. It collects data from about 20% of all hospitalizations in the U.S. The study investigators identified 258,524 bilateral total knee replacements performed between 1999 and 2008. The number of annual bilateral procedures increased by 75%. In 1999, bilateral procedures accounted for 3.7% of all knee replacement operations and in 2008, they accounted for 6% of the operations.
The average age of patients undergoing bilateral knee replacement decreased by 2.5 years from 1999 to 2008. As the years marched on, patients presented with higher rates of comorbidities, including renal failure, neurologic disease, liver disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Obesity increased by 131% during the study period. The only comorbidity that decreased was congestive heart failure.
Over the time period studied, the researchers identified a 3% increase in pneumonia, a 6% increase in pulmonary embolism, and a 3% increase in nonmyocardial infarction cardiac complications.
"The take home message of this paper is that we are fighting an uphill battle, because people are getting sicker, despite us attempting to limit risk by choosing younger people to do these procedures in," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "We have to start thinking of other interventions other than patient selection that we can implement in order to reduce these complications."
On a positive note, the investigators also found that absolute in-hospital mortality rates decreased at an average rate of 10% per year. The researchers attribute this decrease to advances in medicine and increased use of telemetry and observation in the last 10 to 15 years. "With advances in medicine and monitoring, we have been able to counteract this extreme event of mortality. If you get a complication and it is not recognized, you may die from it," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "If you observe people more thoroughly, you may not be able to prevent the complication, but you may be able to prevent a mortal event resulting from it."
The researchers also identified a cost shifting landscape. Patients stayed in the hospital an average of five days after their procedure in 1999 and an average of four days in 2008, but the proportion of discharges to a home or customary residence without home health care decreased at an average rate of 5.5% per year.
"Before this study, we were under the assumption that patient complications were steadily decreasing after bilateral knee arthroplasty, because of better patient selection and improvements in medical care," said Dr. Memtsoudis. "Now we understand that the picture is more complex. Patients being selected for the procedure may be getting younger, but they are not getting healthier and maybe that is why we don't see a drastic drop in complications."
Before embarking on a bilateral knee replacement, he said, patients should "critically look at themselves and talk to their physicians about how their health status plays into the choice of surgery."
More work is needed to identify ways to prevent complications in patients undergoing bilateral knee replacement and a recent conference sponsored by the Hospital for Special Surgery is aiming to do just that. The Consensus Conference on the Creation of Guidelines for Bilateral Knee Arthroplasty involved 40 experts from 16 institutions. The guidelines coming out of this conference, which are expected to be published within the next six months, address issues such as determining the appropriate workup and management for a patient undergoing bilateral knee replacement, and how long doctors should wait between procedures if a patient undergoes two operations.
###
Other authors involved in the study include Ottokar Stundner, M.D., from Hospital for Special Surgery; Madhu Mazumdar, Ph.D., from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; Carlos Mantilla, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic; and Javad Parvizi, M.D., from the Rothman Institute, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The study was funded by the Clinical Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medical College; the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Center for Education, Research, and Therapeutics.
About Hospital for Special Surgery
Founded in 1863, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a world leader in orthopedics, rheumatology and rehabilitation. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics, No. 3 in rheumatology, No. 10 in neurology and No. 5 in geriatrics by U.S. News & World Report (2012-13), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center three consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. From 2007 to 2011, HSS has been a recipient of the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award. HSS is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. Hospital for Special Surgery is located in New York City and online at www.hss.edu.
For more information contact:
Phyllis Fisher
212-606-1197
Phyllis.Fisher@gmail.com
Tracy Hickenbottom
212-606-1197
HickenbottomT@hss.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/hfss-psf092812.php
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posted by willislifford @ 8:47 PM
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Every now and then a new piece of hardware, or software, is released that causes me to pause and think, "Why, on Earth, do we update our tech so often? What, exactly, can I do with the latest stuff that wasn?t possible with the previous version?"
A good example would be the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. What do we really get if we upgrade to the latest kit from Apple (other than a broken Maps app)? Ok, so you get a mildly improved camera, but, other than that, it looks pretty much the same as what was available the year before. And the year before that. So, in most cases, upgrading seems a tad...silly. (Note: Apple apologists and fans, please don't take offense...pretty much every phone and operating system maker on the planet could be used in that example.)
RELATED:?The three best, Star Wars-influenced approaches to learning Linux
First Look: Ubuntu 12.10
But what if we take this to a bit of an extreme? What if someone like me - who lives in a modern Linux Desktop all day - makes a big switch and starts using some older tech? Even just for a week. At first I thought, "I?ll use OS/2 or Windows 3.11. I?m sure I can get most of my work done in either system."
Not extreme enough. Windows 3.11 was released in 1993 and, as such, is only 19 years old. It's not even old enough to buy a beer. So I thought for a moment. What would be the most awesome way possible to prove that "old" and "outdated" technology can be truly viable alternatives to having something new and shiny?
DOS. MS-DOS 5.0, specifically. Released in 1991, MS-DOS 5 is now 21 years old. And, as it just so happens, I had some floppies for it in my closet (in a box labeled "things that are older than dirt").
Flash forward a bit, and I now have a virtual machine set up and running DOS in full screen - so as to at least emulate the old- school nature of things, even if I am running a modern Linux distro underneath. In fact, I have written this very post from DOS. In a moment I will be attempting to email this to my editor. If you are reading this, then I suppose it worked.
Over the coming days I will be living, full-time, in DOS. And, with my next article, I will be detailing how I did it, what software I used and, most importantly, what the experience is like.
In the meantime, I'd love to hear your stories on any "old tech" that you still cling to (or wish you did). Perhaps you still run a Suse system from way back when you could actually buy it in a box on store shelves? Or maybe you are a die-hard Amiga user? Share your story in the comments and let us all reminisce for a bit.
Source: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/81498
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posted by willislifford @ 6:55 PM
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Todd Akin will get the endorsement of Kit Bond, former Missouri governor and senator, on Friday, reports, even though in August Bond signed a letter with all the other living Republican former senators of Missouri calling on Akin to quit the race after his " " comments. Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, who in August said Akin wouldn't get support no matter what -- "He could be tied. We're " -- hinted his harsh feelings had mellowed, too. When asked if he'd prefer Akin over opponent Sen. Claire McCaskill, Priebus told CBS, "Well, absolutely? That's a given, and as chairman of the party, I have an obligation to make sure we win as many seats in the Senate as possible." The change of heart comes after the Republican former senator who to oust Akin, Roy Blunt, endorsed him Wednesday. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich backed him, too, and the said it would "continue to monitor this race closely."
RELATED:
It's not that surprising that Republicans are reconsidering their exile of Akin. But skeptics expected Akin's rehabilitation to happen much closer to the election. Gingrich predicted only Monday that "an " would come Akin's way in mid-October.?That's what Northwest Missouri State University Richard Fulton predicted to the in early September, and what Missouri Republican strategist Jason Klindt told? ?two weeks ago. The reason for the accelerated rate of reconciliation has something to do with for Republicans to pick up the four seats they need for a Senate majority.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/akins-gop-rehabilitation-proceeding-quickly-140012203.html
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posted by willislifford @ 3:59 AM
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once considered impossible to make, the big screen 3D adaptation of the bestselling novel "Life of Pi" will open the 50th New York Film Festival on Friday, marking another advance in digital filmmaking.
The movie's director, "Brokeback Mountain" filmmaker Ang Lee, was due to hit the red carpet at the big-budget movie's world premiere on Friday. Audiences will get their first glimpse of the spiritual story of a boy stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger, as it kicks off the screenings of more than 160 films over 17 days.
One of the world's most respected movie showcases, the festival typically emphasizes the art of cinema with a selection of the best films from the year's European festivals over Hollywood style premieres. But the event is still seen as an important step in gathering critical buzz as Hollywood's awards season gets going.
But more splashy world premieres than usual are on this year's schedule, including "Sopranos" maker David Chase's film feature debut, "Not Fade Away"; Robert Zemeckis' first action film "Flight" starring Denzel Washington, which will close the festival; as well as the much-anticipated fantasy adventure "Life of Pi".
"Life of Pi" uses computer generated imagery to bring a cinematic feel to the tale of a Hindu boy who survives a shipwreck and gets stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with a spotted hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker.
It is director Ang Lee's riskiest film to date, even after 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" for which he won the best director Oscar. That film generated some controversy upon its release for breaking barriers about gay portrayals on screen.
Lee told reporters in New York on Friday that he read "Life of Pi" when the novel was released in 2001, and found it "fascinating and mind-boggling." However, "I remember thinking to myself, nobody in their right mind" would transfer it to film due to the technical difficulties of filming a story partly set at sea with a host of zoo animals, he added.
But spurred on by its spiritual message, Lee agreed to make the movie four years ago, and saw 3D as the only way to realize it even before "Avatar" in 2009 broke through as a box office bonanza for 3D movies.
"Life of Pi" stars unknown Indian actor Suraj Sharma who was plucked from more than 3,000 hopefuls. The book's author, Canadian writer Yann Martel, said he never imagined the film adaptation. "It was cinematic in my mind but I never thought I would actually see it on the screen, that it would be too complicated to do," he said.
Other films looking to gain favor with critics and audiences coming off showings at earlier festivals include Michael Haneke's "Amour", Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills", Noah Baumbach's black-and-white ode to New York, "Frances Ha" starring Greta Gerwig, and Chile director Pablo Larrain's "No".
Stars such as Bill Murray, who plays Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Hyde Park on Hudson", are expected to show up, along with Nicole Kidman, the subject of a special gala tribute at the festival.
(Editing by Richard Chang)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ang-lees-life-pi-3d-opens-ny-film-222827737.html
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posted by willislifford @ 2:11 AM
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Your workers? comp premiums are probably your single largest expense after direct payroll. But many savvy small business owners are writing smaller checks for their workers? comp premiums. They?ve adopted moneysaving strategies to actively manage their workers? comp insurance ? the state-mandated program that pays medical and other expenses for workplace injuries and provides employers liability coverage for lawsuits filed for job-related accidents. Here?s how you can reduce your workers? comp premiums, lower your exposure to accidents and injuries and keep your workers safe:
1. Classify your employees correctly.
Job classifications are determined by independent rating bureaus or by state-run classification systems. An employees? job is assigned a particular rating and matching premium based on the job?s estimated level of risk. Since insurance companies typically assign a business a single classification, you could be paying more than you should. For example, if you run a roofing company with three roofers and two office workers, and all your employees are classified as roofers, you are being overcharged. Contact your insurance company and request that each employee be reclassified according to the specific tasks each performs. Reclassifying your employees could mean a big difference in your premium rates.
2. Establish a safety program.
Contact your local OSHA office for safety guidelines, and discuss them with employees. Give workers a list of do?s and don?ts about safety practices.
3. Create an employee safety committee.
Appoint one or two employees to work with you to audit your business. Check to ensure equipment is in good condition and work areas are clean and safe and meet OSHA requirements. At Jack M. Otto Electric Company in Memphis, Tenn., co-owner Cindy Otto and one employee work as a safety committee to ensure the company?s 65 employees maintain their equipment in good condition and keep work areas free of debris and spills. The duo conducts safety inspections of each employee?s work van, checking for cracked windshields and worn-out brakes.
4. Give monetary rewards.
When you save money on your workers? comp premiums, share it with your employees. Give a cash bonus during months no injuries are reported. Or start a safety bingo or other game: During months that no injuries are reported, put every employee?s name into the hat for a $100 or more drawing. The game will not only lower your reported injuries but also create a group consciousness about work safety.
5. Handle claims promptly.
Employees often feel abandoned, fearful and angry when they?re left on their own to see the doctor, pay out-of-pocket expenses and wonder what their rights are. Instead of asking you, they could contact a lawyer and start the claims process. Prevent that chain of events by taking immediate action when an employee is hurt on the job. Personally escort the injured worker to the doctor. Explain what type of work the employee does, and find out what accommodations you can make to return the employee to work, even if it means filing papers or answering the phone. Consider personally paying your employee?s out-of-pocket medical expenses and letting the insurance company reimburse you.
6. Offer alternative work options.
If an employee has injured his back lifting boxes, have him sort mail or answer the phone. If an employee is not bedridden but must stay home, let her work on projects using a home computer, phone and e-mail.
7. Be supportive.
Take a positive and sincere interest in your employee?s recovery. Call regularly. Show workers that they are needed and respected, and they?ll want to come back to work.
?
Source: http://themodernaccountant.com/2012/09/27/cut-your-workers-compensation-costs/
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posted by willislifford @ 8:30 PM
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The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) on fully-insured premium markets imposed by Obamacare could raise $87 billion over the next ten years and also cost between 125,000 and 249,000 jobs by 2021, according to a study.
?Although the tax is formally structured as a fee on health insurers, recent analysis has determined that virtually all of the tax burden will be passed on to the purchasers of insurance,? says the study by the National Federation for Independent Business Research Foundation.
?The cost of health insurance is still a top ranking if not number one issue that?s probably the most unidentifiable per budget year,??Amanda Austin, director of federal public policy at NFIB, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
?They just don?t know what it?s going to be at renewal, what new costs are going to be borne out in their premium,? she said. ?And that?s the aggravation year in and year out, that they never seem to go down, they only seem to go up, and this will potentially only aggravate the overall cost factor.?
Small businesses and the self-employed comprise 87 percent of the fully-insured market. The NFIB study estimates the tax will raise the cost of employer-sponsored insurance by 2-3 percent, a cumulative cost of nearly $5,000 per family.
?It just seems to me as a small business owner that tax cuts always have a sunset, like the Bush tax cuts? I?ve never heard of anyone say a tax increase is expiring at the end of the year. They seem like they?re built in forever,? small business owner John Culler shared with The DC News Foundation.
Culler owns a small marketing and communications firm in West Virginia with 11 employees. Culler explained that he spends an average of $13,000 a year for family coverage for each employee. He said providing health insurance is both a good recruitment tool and the right thing to do.
?We?ve always felt it was the right thing to do,? he said, though now, ?It just keeps getting harder and harder.?
A coalition of small business advocates and interest groups have joined forces to get the tax repealed. Recently, there has been movement on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan bill with over 220 cosponsors in Congress.
?We want action next year, if not lame duck,? Austin told TheDC News Foundation.
?Business owners understand what this tax is and understand that it?s going to impact their premium and therefore they want their voice to be heard on it.?
?It was a bit of an irritation for us that small business and individuals, which are the main purchasers of fully insured plans, which is where the industry bares the risk, they?re absorbing most of it,? Austin said, recalling when the tax was being considered for the bill that would ultimately become the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
?We were very concerned about this because as an advocate for the business community, we know very well pass-through taxes and how these things are easily borne out to the end user,? Austin added.
She said about the result, ?this is a tax on business? how exactly did we arrive at this when we were trying to lower the cost for small business??
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Source: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/small-businesses-to-bear-burden-of-health-insurance-tax/
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posted by willislifford @ 10:05 PM
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SEOUL (Reuters) - A chubby South Korean singer who has taken the pop world by storm, topping Apple's iTunes downloads and getting 270 million Youtube views, has vowed to perform his "Gangnam Style" hit topless if it reaches number one. The rapper who does the foot-stomping "horse dance" and goes by the name Psy, returned on Tuesday to the upmarket Seoul suburb that he put on the world music map. "If it ranks number one in the Billboard chart, then I will perform 'Gangnam Style' topless in a place where everyone can watch," Psy told a news conference on his return from the United States. ...
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posted by willislifford @ 8:12 PM
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An Army brigadier general has been charged with forcible sodomy, inappropriate relationships, and possessing alcohol and pornography while serving as a senior commander in Afghanistan earlier this year.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, a deputy commanding general of the 82 nd Airborne Division, faces a possible court martial over the charges handed down Wednesday.
In May, Sinclair was sent home to the United States in the middle of his combat tour in Afghanistan, where he was serving in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar as the deputy commander of logistics and support for the 82 nd Airborne.
Sinclair was sent to the division's home base of Fort Bragg, N.C., so allegations of potential misconduct could be investigated. At the time of his return, base spokesmen confirmed that Sinclair was under criminal investigation.
A news release by the Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office listed the charges presented against Sinclair as including "forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct, attempted violation of an order, violations of regulations by wrongfully engaging in inappropriate relationships and misusing a government travel charge card, violating general orders by possessing alcohol and pornography while deployed, maltreatment of subordinates, filing fraudulent claims, engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and engaging in conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."
Few specifics about the allegations against Sinclair were released Wednesday, but a Defense Department official said "several women were the subject of Sinclair's alleged misconduct."
A former U.S. official who worked with Sinclair during his deployment in Kandahar said he and other officials who knew Sinclair were shocked by the news of the charges. He described Sinclair as being "very proactive" and a "gregarious individual."
Sinclair remains at Fort Bragg, where he has been serving in a placeholder position as a special assistant to the commanding general of the 18 th Airborne Corps. A Defense Department official said Sinclair was read the charges against him on Monday. Another official added that Sinclair is not under detention at the base.
Sinclair will now face an Article 32 hearing, at which evidence will be presented to a presiding officer to determine if his case should proceed to a court martial. No date has been set for that hearing.
This past decade, Sinclair has served two tours in Iraq and was on his second deployment to Afghanistan. He had also deployed as part of Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Army spokesman George Wright says that in the past decade there have been only two Army general officers who have undergone courts martial.
In June, Brig. Gen. Roger B. Duff, a former commander of the 95th Training Division, pleaded guilty to two charges of false statements, two charges of conduct unbecoming, and seven charges of wearing unauthorized badges, awards or ribbons. Duff was sentenced to two months confinement and dismissal but, because of a pre-trial agreement, only the dismissal could be imposed. Duff's sentence has not been finalized.
Prior to Duff's case, the only other court martial involving an Army general officer was in 1999, when Maj. Gen. R.E. Hale pled guilty to seven counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and one count of making a false statement about an adulterous relationship. He was reprimanded, fined $10,000, ordered to forfeit $1,000 a month in pay and retired as a brigadier general.
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posted by willislifford @ 6:19 PM
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) ? Stunning 3-D images of 300-million-year-old insects have been revealed for the first time by University of Manchester researchers.
Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, the scientists have used a high resolution form of CT scanning to reconstruct two 305-million-year-old juvenile insects. Without the pioneering approach to imaging, these tiny insects -- which are three-dimensional holes in a rock -- would have been impossible to study.
By placing the fossils in a CT scanner, and taking over 3,000 X-rays from different angles, the scientists were able to create 2,000 slices showing the fossil in cross section.
From these slices the researchers created 3D digital reconstructions of the fossils. This process allows them to learn more about the lifestyle, biology and diet of the insects, one of which is similar to a modern day cockroach, and glimpse fascinating insights about how both were adapted for survival.
One of the insects reconstructed by the scientists is characterised by a large number of sharp spines. It is a new species and genus which does not exist today.
The other is an early predecessor of one of the great survivors of the insect world, the cockroach, and is one of the best preserved examples of this age ever seen by insect palaeontologists. Researchers suspect from its well preserved mouthparts that it survived by eating rotting litter from the forest floor.
Both are members of a group called the Polyneoptera -- which includes roaches, mantises, crickets, grasshoppers and earwigs. But analysing the exact relationships of the insects will be difficult for the researchers, led by Dr Russell Garwood of the University of Manchester's School of Materials, as insects have a habit of dramatically changing appearance as they develop.
Dr Garwood said: "The most dramatic change is seen in insects like butterflies, which change from a larva, to chrysalis, to adult. But relatively few people look to the fossils try and work out how such a life cycle may have evolved.
"We are hoping that work like this will allow us to better understand the biology and development of these early insects, and how major innovations may have come about.
"Around this time a number of early 'amphibians' were insectivores -- they lived by eating a lot of insects. The spiney creature was a sitting duck, as it couldn't fly, so the spines probably made it less palatable. It is bizarre -- as far as we're aware, quite unlike any members of the Polyneoptera alive today."
"The roach nymph is much like modern day cockroaches -- although it isn't a 'true' cockroach, as it may well predate the split between true cockroaches and their sister group, the mantises."
"This is very much a first step, and I'll be spending the next few years looking at other fossil insects to build on this work.
Professor Philip Withers, co-author on the paper, added: "I am very excited by our fossil work which is providing unique information in 3D."
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/EYAGnzVaTfE/120926094537.htm
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posted by willislifford @ 9:50 PM
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Not that much time has passed since AT&T announced it was bringing Zuckerberg's social network right to your U-verse-equipped TV, and now those with an iOS device are in for yet another treat. The Rethink Possible company just outed its new Easy Remote application for Apple's mobile operating system, with the main feature being a Watson-powered one that lets U-verse users control their system via voice -- you know, things like picking a show to watch or even flipping through channels. That's not it, however, the app also brings other tidbits such as one-touch access to closed captioning and gesture-based commands. Unfortunately, AT&T's Easy Remote app is only available for iOS at the moment, though we can't imagine it'll be too long before the carrier launches one for folks on a different ecosystem. Either way, you can get a quick glimpse of the application right after the break, where a pretty edifying video awaits.
Continue reading AT&T outs U-verse Easy Remote app for iOS, uses voice and gestures to take control
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AT&T outs U-verse Easy Remote app for iOS, uses voice and gestures to take control originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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posted by willislifford @ 7:55 PM
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Mitt Romney's recent slide in several polls, including those in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida, is troubling enough for the GOP. But, now the Republican nominee appears to be trailing President Barack Obama among a traditionally conservative constituency: NASCAR fans. Obama leads Romney 49 to 42 percent among NASCAR enthusiasts, according to [...]
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posted by willislifford @ 6:05 PM
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Just over a week ago I pulled my cash, cards, and transit passes out of my pockets and began living life wallet-free, just using my smartphone. I'm happy to report that I'm a.) Not starving and b.) Have a ton of great new apps on my phone.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/E9iPwsS3ah4/
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posted by willislifford @ 11:22 PM
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Most people say their greatest financial regret is habitually overspending, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
The foundation recently conducted an online poll and out of more than 2,200 respondents, 53 percent said habitual overspending was their biggest financial regret.
Overspending far outweighed other financial concerns. Of respondents, 18 percent regretted inadequately saving, 14 percent regretted insufficiently preparing for retirement, 10 percent regretted not having bought a house, and 5 percent regretted buying a house, according to a news release.
?Although most people have financial regrets, it is important to not dwell on past mistakes,? said Gail Cunningham, foundation spokeswoman. ?Instead, look forward and take action by constructing a plan that recognizes the realities of the situation, repairs financial damage, and moves in a positive direction toward financial security.?
Financial counselors at The Village Family Service Center, a National Foundation for Credit Counseling member agency headquartered in Fargo, N.D., offer the following five tips for avoiding financial regret:
1. Create a budget:
A budget is the cornerstone that a sound financial future is built upon. Without it, danger signals are missed and spending can easily spiral out of control. For help getting started, use the Spending Plan Worksheet on The Village?s website at www.HelpWithMoney.org.
2. Become a track star:
Track your spending by writing down every cent you spend for 30 days and do this at least once every six months. The exercise will reveal any leaks in your budget and provide an opportunity to adjust your spending to best meet your goals.
3. Review your credit report:
A credit report is a reflection of a person?s financial track record, and is the basis of the credit score, making it a must-read, particularly for those rebuilding credit. Consumers are allowed one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three bureaus. To access your free report, go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
4. Realize that life happens:
Life is filled with the unexpected, but you can guard against this by creating a financial safety net. Even small amounts of money consistently deposited into a rainy day savings account can create enough of a cushion to make it through most short-term emergencies.
5. Become a financial adult:
Be financially mature by understanding the nuts and bolts of personal finance, and acting on that knowledge. This may involve making hard choices or changing your attitudes, behaviors and lifestyle, but it is unlikely that financial decisions made on auto-pilot will result in a smooth landing.
To get help avoiding or recovering from financial missteps, contact financial counselors at The Village Family Service Center at (800) 450-4019 or www.HelpWithMoney.org.
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SEO Copywriters ? Five Steps to Your Great Web Writing Partner
Google and the other search engines have never been more sophisticated. Even for SEO specialists, trying to understand the engines? changing algorithms is often like trying to lasso rain. While SEO copywriters undoubtedly require specialised knowledge and the ability to generate clear, well-written, relevant content on diverse subjects, be alert to those who try to baffle you with false science. Google itself recognises that the key to effective SEO writing is well-written, relevant content.
When you are shortlisting SEO copywriters, here are five important things to consider.
(1) Has the SEO copywriter written SEO copy before?
Just as designing a Formula One car is different to designing a 4?4, so SEO copy writing is very different from writing newsletters or brochures. A good SEO copywriter will be eager to tell you about work they?ve done. Visit some sites to see for yourself; see if their clients include SEO, website or online marketing specialists.
(2) Do they have a website themselves?
How did you find the SEO copywriter?s own site? If you found it through a search engine, that?s a good sign. But anyone can cram keywords or key phrases into a website. Does the site read well to a human reader? Copy that looks stilted or overly repetitive should ring alarm bells: do you really want your site to read like that? It?s something to think about when considering SEO copywriters?
(3) Is your SEO copywriter based locally?
With modern technology it?s not essential for you to be in the same town, county or even country as your SEO copywriter. But in practice, as with so many aspects of business, it?s often advantageous to work with a local SEO copywriter. It?s all about building and maintaining relationships: sometimes there?s nothing better than sitting down face-to-face.
(4) What are their fees?
Like any product or service, you get what you pay for with SEO copywriters so beware of some of the ?cheap and cheerful? SEO copy out there. Ideally, (provided you?ve provided a clear brief) your SEO copywriter should give you a fixed price quotation (not just an estimate). This will usually cover a first draft of SEO copywriting and at least two rounds of revisions. Provided that you don?t change the brief mid-project, your copywriter shouldn?t change their fee either. And of course, you will provide the required keywords or key-phrases before they start work for you?
(5) Have they got experience in your sector?
It doesn?t necessarily matter if an SEO copywriter hasn?t worked in your sector before. In fact, a web writer who comes to your field afresh may bring a new perspective and a refreshing approach to your work. Most important of all is that they can get excited about what you do, interested in the features and BENEFITS of your product/service, and that they are used to writing solid SEO copy. (A solid background in marketing and conventional copywriting is a great bonus.)
Follow these guidelines and you?ll be off to a great start with your new SEO copywriter. Wherever possible, try to meet (or at least speak with) them before you start work. People, as we know, buy people: a capable SEO copywriter with a friendly, client-focused approach is a powerful ally as you promote your business online. Pick him or her carefully. Then start enjoying the benefit.
Al Hidden is probably one of the more experienced conventional and seo copywriters based in Gloucestershire, England. His background is in technical sales, marketing management, technical writing, copywriting and PR. He specializes in technical, marketing, PR, website and SEO copywriting and copy-editing for large and small organisations in Gloucestershire and the rest of the UK.
http://www.alhidden.com
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Source: http://internet-marketing-guide.org/seo-copywriters-five-steps-to-your-great-web-writing-partner/
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