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Saturday 31 March 2012
Afghan massacre: Bales case echoes for vets on hotline
Combat veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts share their experiences with PTSD, and their reaction to reports that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly gunned down 17 Afghan civilians. Msnbc.com's Kari Huus reports.
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com
LOS ANGELES ? The young men who answer the phones at the National Veterans Foundation's?hotline for troubled veterans speak with an authority that comes from having faced down the same demons that plague their callers.
All are combat veterans, having served up to four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all have struggled with either PTSD or traumatic brain injury ? the signature wounds of these conflicts ? or both.
For them, the story of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians during his fourth combat deployment, triggers mixed emotions ? horror over the senseless rampage but also empathy for a soldier who, in their view, apparently was pushed beyond?the breaking point.?But their more immediate concern is the impact it may have on the troubled voices on the other end of the phone lines they answer each day.
"One of the biggest issues we have ? is the vets don?t get the jobs," said Apolonio Munoz III, 28, an Army veteran deployed during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 who works for the hotline while pursuing a social work degree. "[Employers] think they are whack-jobs and they?re all going to be cold-blooded killers, they?re going to come in and shoot up the place, which is not the situation."
Munoz and several other former soldiers who answer the hotline agreed to share with msnbc.com their thoughts on PTSD, the stresses of war and the news that Bales ? a 38-year-old soldier with a clean military record ? allegedly crept into an Afghan village at night on March 11 and slaughtered Afghan civilians, including women and children.
Their comments will likely presage parts of Bales' trial, in which the cumulative effects of combat deployments and the degree to which PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury) can be linked to violence will almost certainly play a role.
Bales, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder along with other charges, suffered a brain injury in Iraq but was not diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. His defense is expected to argue, however, that he suffered "diminished capacity" as a result of the injury and possibly undiagnosed PTSD. Bales, who is being held in detention at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has not yet entered a plea to the charges, but his civilian defense attorney, John Henry Browne, has indicated he expects to mount a vigorous defense based in part on his client?s mental state.
How staff Sgt. Bales lawyers are fighting for his life
Many experts also expect the defense to produce expert witnesses to testify about the effects on mental health of repeat combat deployments. But just as with PTSD and TBI, the record is incomplete, as the Iraq and Afghan conflicts mark the first time the U.S. has cycled soldiers in and out of combat so many times.
The latter issue resonates loudly with the former soldiers who answer the hot line.
"It?s an absolute tragedy, and it never should have happened," Cameron White, 31, who served two tours of duty in Iraq with the Marines before leaving the military and becoming a college student and anti-war activist, said of the massacre in Kandahar province. He said he believes the killing were "a byproduct of a failed policy that continues to put traumatized troops out on the battlefield when they shouldn?t be there."
'Yes, I killed Iraqis'
White said that his experiences in Iraq led him to believe that not even the most hardened soldier is immune to meltdown amid the repeated stresses of combat.
James Cheng / msnbc.com
Left to right, Rich Rudnick, Wendell Guillermo and Apolonio E. Mu?oz III work at the National Veterans Foundation in Los Angeles.
"I think when you say ? 'that?s not me' or ?that would never happen to me,' I think anybody that says that is just lying to themselves," he said. "? Something like that could happen to any one of us."
Another hot line operator, Freddy Cordova, 29, who served four tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2008, said the mental health evaluations he received between deployments were cursory at best.
In an evaluation after his first deployment, Cordova said he answered 'yes' to most of the combat-related questions: "Yes, I saw dead people. Yes, I saw dead Americans. Yes, I fired my weapon. Yes, I killed Iraqis. Yes, I killed the enemy."?
"I didn?t report that I was a threat to others, but I put that I would like to speak to somebody," he said. "What did the Army turn around to do? They just overlook it. Four months later, I?m in Iraq again."
Floyd "Shad" Meshad, founder and president of the National Veterans Foundation and a psychiatric social worker with 40 years' experience working with combat veterans, said he has repeatedly seen the effects to overexposure to the horrors of war.
"We know that soldiers, when they have seen too much combat, they will either implode ? in suicide ? or explode," he said. "The military just continues to send people back into combat like they were rifles, just kind of cleans them up and sends them back in. ? I don?t want to say that everybody flips out like this, but a significant number do."
James Cheng / msnbc.com
Floyd 'Shad' Meshad, founder and president of the nonprofit National Veterans Foundation.
Meshad started his career as an Army mental health officer in Vietnam and was instrumental in developing a national network of community-based Veteran Centers, offering counseling, referrals and readjustment assistance, beginning in the 1970s. He has served as an expert witness in about a dozen trials for veterans facing the death penalty, he said, and appeared in court for hundreds of others facing?lesser charges.
When?Bales was identified as the suspect in the Afghan killings, Meshad rushed the soldier's?defense team an advance copy of a new book published by NVF, "Attorney's Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Court."
But he said he fears that politics -- including the need to appease the Afghan government -- may outweigh the role of mental health factors in the court's ruling on the Afghanistan slayings.
"They are going to cook Bales," he predicted.
But even the mention of PTSD and Bales in the same sentence worries Matthew Friedman, executive director of the National Center for PTSD under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"It will be a terrible thing if people with PTSD were painted with a Sgt. Bales paintbrush. It?s just not appropriate," said Friedman, who has been involved in research and treatment of PTSD for 35 years and is also a professor of psychiatry, toxicology and pharmacology at Dartmouth Medical School. "There is evidence that some people with PTSD may exhibit irritable or aggressive behavior at times. There?s no evidence that this kind of indiscriminate violence is a symptom of PTSD."
And he said that Bales? history before joining the military ? which included financial fraud and an assault case in Washington state ? signaled that he was a troubled individual.
Referrals and suicide intervention
The veterans working the NVF hot line have what most experts consider textbook cases of PTSD. They have struggled with anxiety, anger and hyper-vigilance brought home from the combat zone. For some, visiting a shopping mall is a daunting experience, as they find themselves constantly scanning for potential threats. Even as these men recover and pursue civilian jobs and studies, some yell in their sleep, dream about explosions or are startled by?loud noises or a glimpse of trash along the road that looks like an IED.
Most of the time, experts say, the damage from repeated exposure to combat plays out in insidious ways. It contributes to divorce and substance abuse, and takes a toll on the mental health of children. According to the Center for New American Security, 18 vets commit suicide every day.
The NVF hotline has been fielding between 11,000 and 12,000 calls a year over the last several years. Four or five a month come from veterans, or even soldiers still in service, who are dangerously depressed and threatening suicide, Meshad said.
Most others are from frustrated veterans and family members who need help navigating the complex VA benefits process, in need of legal assistance, substance abuse treatment or job training. NVF employees pride themselves in walking them?through every step,?and then following through if they encounter problems.
Each week, NVF staff does rounds in a van to check in on homeless veterans ? mostly older Vietnam era veterans who tend to cluster together in encampments after losing jobs and families to mental illness and addiction.
To these young veterans serving at NVF, the weekly workload highlights the need for more attention to the mental health of soldiers. In the case of the massacre in Afghanistan, they suggest, responsibility for that mental health lies with more than one individual.
"My reaction to Sergeant Bales ? was shock," said Jose Castro, an Army veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. "But, you know, when certain things are ignored about an individual soldier? and people are ? forced into situations that that aren?t healthy ? (that) ultimately can lead to something like this. It?s bound to happen."
"What do you expect for a guy who?s been deployed four times? Losing buddies, getting hurt, being in firefights and so forth," agreed Army veteran Wendell Guillermo, 26.? "And whether or not the military wants to acknowledge it? ? there is a breaking point."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Mike Ragogna: Celebrating Woody Guthrie: Chatting With Arlo Guthrie & Colin Gilmore, Plus a New Multitudes Video Exclusive and More
Celebrating Woody Guthrie's Centennial
Under the invitation of Nora Guthrie, Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, and Yim Yames were able to tour the Guthrie archives. Each of the four songwriters were offered the chance to mine the plethora of notebooks, scratch pads, napkins, etc., for anything that might inspire them to lend their voices and give the words new life. Presented here is a HuffPost exclusive video of the track "Careless Reckless Love," one of the results of their labor of love.
New Multitudes, released February 28, 2012, was set to coincide with the centennial celebration of Woody Guthrie's birth year. It is a 12-track release with a 23-track deluxe, limited edition variant. The latter features original Guthrie lyric sheets, an additional 12-tracks, and 11 additional compositions recorded by Farrar and Parker.
Tracks:
1. Hoping Machine
2. Fly High
3. My Revolutionary Mind
4. V.D. City
5. Old L.A.
6. Talking Empty Bed Blues
7. Chorine My Sheba Queen
8. Careless Reckless Love
9. Angel's Blues
10. No Fear
11. Changing World
12. New Multitudes
A Conversation With Arlo Guthrie
Mike Ragogna: Arlo, what are your thoughts about your father Woody Guthrie's legacy?
Arlo Guthrie: Well it's interesting because over the last fifty years, the way that we think about him has changed dramatically because of the new material that's been coming out that he wrote the lyrics for. But my dad was not a trained musician, he couldn't read or write music and so whatever tunes he had in his head for the way that these songs ought to sound went with him when he passed away in '67. He recorded about 200 songs, but there's 3,000 of them sitting there. So, my sister, Nora, has been getting these lyrics out to young musicians all over the world.
MR: And we're celebrating his centennial this year.
AG: When you start thinking about the hundred years or so that's gone by, it seems like every decade, there's a different Woody Guthrie. I think we're finally getting to the point where we're getting an image of him for the next hundred years that is very different from how they saw him in any one of the last five decades.
MR: Bruce Springsteen, the keynote speaker at SXSW, had beautiful words to say about Woody.
AG: It was a great speech, it was very good, I was impressed.
MR: Was there anything from that speech that particularly touched you?
AG: I think it was the first time that I had ever seen somebody of that stature be that candid about the songs that impressed him personally and the songs that changed his life. And to conclude it with the idea that the ones that changed his personal life meant one thing, but the ones that inspired him to want to change everybody's life, that change happened as a result of being made familiar with or hearing some of Woody Guthrie's work. That's true for a lot of young musicians, not just him, but to hear somebody of that stature say it meant a lot, personally, to me.
MR: I think for everyone in the audience, thought it was a very special moment. Now, although you are Woody's son, you have your own impressive catalog, and your own legacy as well. I still play your Amigo album to this day, and it's wonderful that "Massachusetts" has even become that state's anthem. My point is that through your music and the opening of the vaults for writers to complete or continue Woody's work, to me, it seems as a kind of cultural and musical torch is being passed along through your bloodline.
AG: I don't know if it's that. If any family believes that royalty was just not an American thing, it would be ours. We kicked out the royals of a couple of hundred years ago for good reason. My father believed that nobody is born with more rights than anybody else and more responsibilities than anybody else. That is the antithesis of the system that allows for royals to exist in the world. Some people believe that they have obligations and they have this and that, that they're born different. Nobody in America is born different and my dad believed that. So the only way that we think of ourselves is as links in a long chain that goes back long before my dad and that will continue long after us. That includes people that are not in the family, and most notably Pete Seeger, who is the one really responsible for us knowing who Woody Guthrie is. It's not so much my dad, it was guys like Pete who kept those songs going throughout the people investigating him for having ideas that were just as American as anybody else's, and for keeping the spirit alive through that generation my father couldn't live through.
MR: Speaking of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen, do you see the spark of what your dad ignited in others' works, or maybe at least in certain genres like folk or singer-songwriter?
AG: Well, I think what's happened is at some point in time, back when everybody started getting electricity and we started getting record players and radios, there arose out of that the opportunity for people to sell music on a national and international scale. So we began to lose the domestic local music that music had been making for years that contained their histories and their stories and what had happened to them, their communities, and their families. Those had been passed down for countless generations and added to a collection that we don't even know who wrote them. Out of that comes this new world, where all of a sudden, the music that's being made has to be dumbed down so that it doesn't offend anybody, anywhere, at any time. That was unlike the old cowboy songs that offended everybody, unlike the old spirituals that were patently protest songs long before we gave it a name.
When we begin to have popular music, you begin to have middle ground, and it took us to change that around. It took individual people, individual companies and individual writers to try to say something that had the same kind of value, because all of a sudden, we're seeing ourselves as a nation that we didn't before. We saw ourselves as this part of the world or that part of the world. You could tell where people were from by the way they spoke, by the way they talked. All of a sudden, we started getting this "oneness" feeling, which is, in some ways, nice but in other ways, very upsetting. So in the different genres that you mentioned, there is still local music. There is still music that doesn't have to talk to everybody, it talks to a certain group of people who understand it, but it doesn't need to be dumbed down enough so that it's not offensive anymore. Those are the kinds of influences that Bruce Springsteen was talking about, that people who were unafraid, those were the ones who impressed him the most. He talked about that. He said he certainly heard the working man song in a popular group and it made him come alive. Like, "Woh, these guys are saying something."
MR: I think he was referring to The Animals' "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place."
AG: Yeah, The Animals. And it wasn't a slap in the face to The Beatles or something like that, who may have been musically more inventive, but it was a wake-up call that said you could do that. That's happened in hip-hop, that's happened in all kinds of music that is currently going on, because we've lost interest in the national charts, nobody reads them anymore. They are totally irrelevant. That's a great thing. So we've seen it come full circle, we've seen the historic evidence of who we were as individual groups, local groups, southern groups, western groups, mountain groups, and became fairly stupid for a while, fairly innocuous, fairly uneventful. We're back to a time now, where on a larger scale, people can say something again.
MR: Arlo, what advice do you have for new artists?
AG: I don't have any advice that anybody would want to take, but if I had to distill my father's advice, it would be that it's better to fail at being yourself than to succeed at being somebody else.
A Conversation With Colin Gilmore
Mike Ragogna: Colin, what does Woody Guthrie mean to you?
Colin Gilmore: To me, Woody Gutherie was the voice that made having a conscience seem fun. I guess becoming our nation's musical folk hero just came along with the territory. No one could have opened our country's eyes like he did.
MR: What kind of a mark do you think he's left on the culture?
CG: He really set the tone for our musical heritage. If you think about our nation as having a sound track for the last 100 years, it's hard to imagine what it would be like had he not been around. Music could have been all warm fuzzy feelings, or it could have been all boring protest songs, and he made sure we understood that these two views were different limbs of the same body.
MR: Which Woody Guthrie songs do you think have the most resonance these days?
CG: "A Picture From Life's Other Side," "Jesus Christ," "Deportees," "This Land Is Your Land." These are songs about justice and the human spirit. These topics aren't going out of style any time soon.
MR: What's Colin Gilmore doing these days?
CG: Recording, writing, traveling, working, searching for inspiration. Just filmed a video for my upcoming album. Trying to play out as much as possible, make new fans and impress the old fans.
MR: So there's a new album coming soon?
CG: There is. This upcoming album will be my third, shooting to have it out later this year. Recording in Chicago and in Austin taking advantage of the digital age, but finding good old-fashioned chemistry with the people I'm recording with.
MR: Colin, what advice do you have for new artists?
CG: Always remember that the love of the music is ultimately what keeps the whole thing going. It's a hard thing to remember because there are times when it feels like promotion and hype are the whole game. If you're truly making music from the heart, you're helping to make it an industry worth saving.
A Family Affair Record Store Day Release from Guthrie Family vs. The Rondos
Sarah -- of Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion -- is part of the famous Guthrie family lineage, daughter of Arlo, granddaughter of Woody. She and Johnny have been touring and writing together for years as a couple and as part of "The Guthrie Family Rides Again." The Rondo Brothers, a production team based in San Francisco, are best known for their work with Head Automatica, Dan the Automator and remix projects for the likes of Common, Schwayze, and MC Lars, so hence the uniqueness of this folk meets beats project. Interestingly, Jim Greer -- one half of the Rondo Brothers production team -- grew up surrounded by folk music. His parents were actors on the Hootenanny variety show, so working with folk royalty, Sarah Lee & Johnny, was a dream come true. The result of this collaboration is a sound that has been coined as "beat folk."
The group is releasing a series of EP's throughout the year, mostly covers mixed with some "remixed" versions of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion tracks. The first EP, titled, Valentine (released coincidentally on Valentine's Day) consists of two covers: The Jules Shear-penned "All Through the Night" made famous by Cyndi Lauper and Liz Phair's "Never Said," along with a remixed version of "Looking for You," an outtake from Sarah Lee & Johnny's early 2011 release Bright Examples.
The next EP is going to be a Record Store Day split 7inch that will have their version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and Jim Croce's "Spin Spin Spin."
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Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/celebrating-woody-guthrie_b_1390237.html
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Friday 30 March 2012
Custom Automotive Shop Expands To Larger Space | Eye On ...
The 24-year-old owner Alan Brentzel and his staff of five moved from their old location at 151 Gibralter to the new location after outgrowing the 1000 square foot building.? The new location at 165 Gibralter offers 3000 square feet.
?The success of 151 Motorsports shows that even in this economic downturn, entrepreneurs who meet a need and provide a good product can still thrive,? Mayor Cohen said.? ?One of the hallmarks of Annapolis? business community is that we have one-of-a-kind shops that specialize in high quality customer service.? This is what contributes to Annapolis? enduring appeal and 151 Motorsports is a welcome addition to our business community.?
The custom automotive shop provides a complete compliment of electrical auto parts, auto accessories, car audio?and video, wheels and window tinting. The shop also offers iPod integration, navigation and remote start, alarms and keyless entry.
?I never cease to be impressed with the entrepreneurs of Annapolis,? said AEDC President and CEO Lara Fritts.? ?Alan Brentzel, who is only 24 years old, has brought an innovative concept to the community.?We are pleased to have a driven, young entrepreneur in Annapolis.?
Brentzel says he is committed to his customers and believes in hard work which is evident by the fact his business continues to grow so rapidly.? ?It?s rare that someone buys a new or used car exactly how they want it,? Mr. Brentzel said. ?We can customize any vehicle so it?s a perfect fit for the owner. We can add Bluetooth, rear seat entertainment and make the outside of the car look the way you want it with rims and tires, even body kits, allowing you fall in love with your vehicle all over again!?
The shop is open Monday- Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
To learn more about 151 Motorsports, go to www.1fifty1motorsports.com, call 410-295-3873 or check it out on YouTube. You are also invited to come in and talk to the friendly staff and discuss the numerous options available.
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Category: Businesses, LIFE IN THE AREA
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Jared Bernstein: The Myth of the Myth of the Disappearing Middle Class
Brookings economist Ron Haskins puts a hurt on some numbers in this AM's Washington Post.
His piece has two parts. The first part, discussed below, has a pretty fat thumb on the scale. The second is about how decisions regarding marriage and the pursuit of higher ed can have a profound effect on a person and family's economic success. I'll leave that for now, though I should say that while I don't often agree with him, Ron's done solid, thoughtful work on those important issues.
Which is one reason why the rest of the piece struck me as uncharacteristically misleading. Let's go piece by piece.
- The argument is framed as "the myth of disappearing middle class." That's a canard. Most living standards analysts, including Ron in this piece (!), think of the middle class as some chunk in the middle of the income distribution -- say the middle fifth or some variation there in (e.g., 40th to 80th percentile), which of course cannot by definition "disappear." I've been writing about middle-class economics for decades, including nine editions of the "State of Working America. Not once did I or my colleagues argue "disappearance."
- We did, and do, argue that the wage and income growth of middle class workers and families has weakened over time-that the middle-class has becoming increasingly squeezed. How does that square with Ron's findings? He cites research much like that of the Congressional Budget Office on family income trends, noting that middle class income (the middle fifth of the income scale) "grew by nearly 40 percent" 1979-2007 (CBO analysis shows 35%; Ron's source shows 37%, so about the same -- I'm using CBO because it's available to me in some detail; note that these trends include the effect of taxes, transfer payments, and the value of employer provided health care).
First of all, 35% over 28 years is 1.1% per year, over a period when productivity grew at twice that rate (up 72%, or 2% per year). There's no reason to expect middle-class incomes to grow at the rate of productivity year in and year out, though they did so for a few decades in the post-war years. But this persistent divergence is important context that should not be left out.
- The value of health care isn't as big a deal as he thinks it is, though it's characteristic of this "myth" literature to invoke the value health benefits as a game-changer for middle-class living standards. This raises two questions. First, are such benefits totally fungible? That is, if the value of my employer or government provided health care benefits is $1,000, is my family that much better off?
It's not clear that this is the case, especially given the fact that the rising costs of health care don't always reflect quality improvements for the broad middle class (i.e., they have more to do with technology and end-of-life care). It's certainly not worth zero -- to go without health coverage is a real blow to living standards. And if you or your family gets sick, it's extremely valuable. But it's wrong to just tack it onto income and argue everyone is that much better off.
Second, what's the empirical evidence here? On inequality, as the figure below reveals, there's little difference in the trend of the Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality) when you include the value of employer-provided care (see the lines labeled market income with and without ESI -- employer-sponsored insurance). The two lines are almost coincident, meaning the increase in inequality doesn't go away when you include the value of health care.
In terms of real growth, it turns out that taxes matter much more than the value of health care. The CBO data show that real median income, all in (taxes, ESI, etc.), grew 35%, 1979-2007, as noted. Take out taxes and transfers (and it's taxes that are the big story for the middle, not transfers), and that growth falls by almost half, to 19%, or 0.6% per year. More on that in a moment, but woe betide the middle class-or anyone else-if the fate of their living standards is tied not to economic growth or their labor market outcomes, but to the largess of the Congressional tax writing committees.
- It's also wrong to lump all these time periods together (note: this is a mistake that Ron's source data -- a paper by Rick Burkhauser et al doesn't make -- they break growth periods up in useful ways). About 80% of that 19% growth in pretax income occurred in the 1990s expansion (1993-2000), a period of uniquely full employment, and the only period over the last thirty years when the middle class kept up with overall economic growth. Over the 1980s business cycle, market incomes for the middle class grew 5%; in the 2000s cycle, a measly 3%.
- To understand the middle class squeeze, you've got to look and wages and hours. Census data reveal the amazing fact that the median earnings of full-time male workers were almost exactly the same in real terms in 1979 as in 2010: in real 2010 dollars, 1979: $47,621; 2010: $47,715. How could that possibly not be relevant in an article about middle-class well-being?
Because of this long-term stagnation in men's earnings, middle-class families have had to work a lot more hours to get ahead. Of course, women's contributions to their families' incomes have become much more important over these years, and that too needs to be accounted for, as EPI does in State of Working America. There you'll find evidence of 3-4 more months spent in the paid labor market by married-couple families over this period.
That's not all bad, of course, and partially reflects women's integration into the job market as well as the decline in gender wage differentials. But you can't ignore it, tack on taxes and health care, and wash your hands of any possible problems here.
In fact, if you include these observations about wages to Ron's thesis here, you're left with a pretty uncomfortable conclusion: the middle class doesn't need to worry about how they're doing at work -- we'll make up any shortfalls with tax and health benefits.
Good luck with that.
As I said, a lot of what Ron has in here makes more sense than this "disappearing middle" stuff. He's got good evidence of the importance of increased benefits to the poor, which as we at CBPP have also stressed, have often been very effective at lifting the incomes of the bottom fifth (especially the EITC). But the part on the middle class is incomplete at best and misleading at worst.
This post originally appeared at Jared Bernstein's On The Economy blog.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/middle-class-economy_b_1391584.html
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Repairing & Sealing an Asphalt Driveway or Go With Concrete ...
(Q) ?I am worn out repairing & sealing my asphalt driveway, so I need to replace it with a concrete. Some appear to hold up well, & others crumble & crack. Why do some hold up a lot better? Carol. ?(A) ?Dear Carol: From an aesthetic standpoint, the driveway is the first thing guests see & walk on when they visit your home. An asphalt driveway is?probably more beautiful when brand-new than?concrete,
but over its whole?life, concrete wins out. Also, there fundamentally is no regular maintenance necessary for a concrete driveway.
When a concrete driveway deteriorates, it is usually caused by improper installation techniques. The quality of the concrete itself is never the issue because it is mixed at the concrete plant under controlled conditions.
In the event you live in an area where much road salt is used in the coursework of the winter, the salty water may cause issues. Although concrete feels hard, it is porous, & the salty water will penetrate the surface. This does not harm the concrete, but it will make the steel reinforcing rods corrode. When steel corrodes, it expands, & this cracks the concrete.
Since the quality of the installation is critical for a long-lasting concrete driveway, contact several contractors & do not necessarily accept the lowest bid. There?s methods a contractor can lower the costs, but the driveway may start to fail quickly if not installed properly.
To minimize this issue, use a clear concrete sealer on the driveway after it?s fully cured. Sealers are obtainable at most home middle & hardware stores. In the event you cannot find it, contact <SaverSystems> at (800) 860-6327 for local shops.
Ask the contractors about the type of concrete each design to make use of. The proper type to make use of for a driveway is a four thousand #-psi (pounds per square inch) concrete. There?s weaker concrete mixtures obtainable. Also, request a 5-inch thick driveway. Some contractors recommend only four inches to lower the costs. The additional inch thickness usually costs only several hundred dollars more, depending on the size of your driveway.
As with most home-improvement projects, the preliminary preparation of the driveway is an important step. Keep in mind, concrete is strong in compression. When it is crooked or stretched, it is very week. Having a powerful, stable base under the concrete ensures it is compressed under the weight of your automobile & not crooked or stretched over voids from an unstable base. Generating an appropriate base may increase a cost estimate significantly.
Ask them about how the reinforcing steel will be installed. Some lay it loosely over the ground & then start pouring concrete. For the maximum strength & longevity of the driveway, the reinforcing steel ought to be placed well up in the concrete. The driveway ought to be sloped slightly so water does not stand in puddles, with salty water.
No matter how well everything is done, some cracks are inescapable. This is because concrete shrinks as it cures. The contractor ought to make deep control joints in the concrete so any cracking occurs in the joints & is not noticeable. If a proper base was laid, the surface ought to stay even. The best type of surface for a driveway is a light broom or wood trowel finish.
Source: http://yourhomewithmurraygula.com/repairing-sealing-an-asphalt-driveway-or-go-with-concrete/
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Thursday 29 March 2012
Create Your Own Photo Books In The UK
The two main advantages brought about by the advent of digital photography lie in the quality of the images captured and the sheer quantity of photographs which anyone with a camera can take. The quality of the cameras available mean that even those at the lower end of the price scale are capable of capturing images in pin sharp detail and with rich true colours, and the storage methods used mean that there is little if any limit to the number of pictures you can take. Prior to the onset of digital photography, images had to be captured on rolls of film which then had to be taken out of the camera to be developed. The size of the film, and the cost of developing, both placed prohibitions on the number of pictures which an individual felt able to take. Using a digital camera, on the other hand, there is virtually no limit to the number of times you can press the shutter, since all the images you capture can be stored, and then the best selected and the others discarded. This means that every precious moment of an event such as a holiday, wedding or family party can be captured and kept forever.
Once you?ve amassed a collection of many hundreds or even thousands of images, the question of how best to store them arises. The key requirements are that they should be safe, easily accessible and showcased to the very best effect. In the past, most people would have stored their images in photo albums, but these left quite a lot to be desired in terms of quality and also meant that only one copy of each book could be created. Another advance brought about by the advent of digital photography, however, is that it is now possible to turn your favourite images into photo books. Whether it?s a luxury hard back which is many pages long, or a short, cheerful collection between soft covers, it will be printed to the highest possible standard and be more than a match for the volumes available for purchase from high street book shops. Printing your own photo books in the UK is as simple as selecting the images in question and then uploading them to the right website. It may be a volume which captures the holiday of a lifetime, or details every special moment of a wedding, but whatever you choose, you can use the simple software to lay out each and every page and add text until it looks exactly how you want it to look.
The same technology can be applied to turn your images into greeting cards of a truly personal nature, something which will mean that whoever receives the card is left in no doubt just how much they mean to you.
Bespoke photo books, bound and produced to a luxurious standard, will make excellent gifts for loved ones or equally treasured personal mementoes, allowing you to leaf through your most precious memories whenever you desire. Whether you create gifts or greeting cards, you?ll be making something which blends high quality with the most personal of touches.
Source: http://leisure.ezinemark.com/create-your-own-photo-books-in-the-uk-7d3527f1144e.html
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Egypt Brotherhood conflicted over presidential run
CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has postponed an open confrontation with the country's military rulers and other political players Tuesday when it delayed a decision about whether to field a candidate for the first presidential elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.
An eight-hour meeting of the Brotherhood's highest leadership body failed to come up with a final decision on whether to reverse an earlier pledge not to contest the presidency. Further meetings of the Brotherhood's Shura Council were to continue next week and a senior member of the group described the discussions as "comprehensive" and "exhausting."
The lack of a decision Tuesday highlights growing divisions within the group over the thorny presidency question but also the group's hesitancy over a confrontation with the ruling military council and other national forces over the issue.
The Islamist group's increasing grip on power has fueled concerns among liberals and secularists over its intentions and whether it aims to govern alone, controlling both the parliament and the presidency. If it were to run a candidate, it would hike their fears that it aims for a monopoly.
Moreover, it could anger the military. The generals are believed to be aiming to back a consensus candidate for president ? one that would have Brotherhood backing but would also protect the military's interests. If the Brotherhood goes with its own candidate, it would challenge that scenario.
"We discussed all the recent developments. There are many views, but the debate is not settled yet. So they remain points of view," said Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's secretary general. "We prefer to postpone the discussions so that minds and bodies come prepared and not tired the next round."
More than 100 members of the Brotherhood's Shura Council, which serves as a sort of legislative body for the group, met Tuesday to decide on fielding a presidential candidate, according to a statement on the group's website.
The Brotherhood has emerged as the most powerful political group since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year, capturing nearly 50 percent of the seats in Egypt's first post-uprising parliament. The group has also claimed a firm majority for Islamists in the 100-member panel that will write the country's post-Mubarak constitution.
If the group makes a presidential bid, it would certainly deepen these fears that the group wants to govern alone. Since Mubarak's ouster, the group has promised not to field a candidate in order to allay those worries.
Given the Brotherhood's popular support and skills at rallying voters, its candidate would stand a strong chance of winning the presidency in late May's elections.
Some members have voiced reservations about the group reversing its earlier promise. A top Brotherhood lawmaker, Mohammed el-Beltagy, told Egypt's Al-Tahrir television late Monday that an internal poll showed a majority of Brotherhood members oppose reversing the pledge not to field a candidate.
Despite its popular appeal, the Brotherhood has been in a tight spot and many of its supporters have grown frustrated with the group's inability to translate its newly gained political clout into real power. The group has in recent weeks been pushing the ruling generals to sack the current military-appointed prime minister and allow the creation of a Brotherhood-led Cabinet. The military council has refused, and the two powerful players appeared on a collision course.
"The honeymoon between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military council ... has reached its logical end," Hassan Nafaa wrote in the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily. "Egypt is stuck between two powers. Each is trying to flex its muscles in the face of the other and impose its will over the other."
Tuesday's inconclusive meeting appeared to have delayed a showdown. Hussein also said there are no plans for the group to take to the streets this weekend in protests against the incumbent government, as local media had reported they would.
The move to consider running a candidate appeared to be rooted in the group's frustrations. According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, two of the top names under consideration as possible nominees are Brotherhood strongman and financier Khairat el-Shater and parliamentary speaker Saad el-Katatni. El-Shater, however, faces a legal barrier to running because of a 2008 conviction on money laundering and terrorism charges.
Some observers believe the Brotherhood-military showdown is little more than a smoke screen to conceal a deal to split power. The Egyptian media has speculated for months of a secret deal between them over a so-called "consensus candidate," whom both the Islamists and the military could support.
Another factor in the Brotherhood's possible bid for the presidency is the challenge from an ex-member, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, who was thrown out of the group because he decided to run despite the group's ban. He has drawn support from many of the Brotherhood's young members because of his moderate stances.
The liberals, leftists and youth groups that led the anti-Mubarak uprising are struggling to get their voices heard in the tug-of-war between the military and the Brotherhood.
Their fears deepened this week, after the Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis gave themselves a firm majority of seats on a 100-member constitutional panel. That gives the Islamists the strongest hand in writing the new charter, which will determine the balance of power between Egypt's previously all-powerful president and parliament, and define the country's future identity, including the role of religion and minority rights.
More than a dozen mostly liberal and secular-minded members have withdrawn from the panel, saying the committee does not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society. They plan to write an alternative constitution, and many plan to return to street protests. But some liberals are also calling on the generals to intervene.
"It is up to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forced to get involved," said Sameh Ashour, the head of the lawyer's syndicate who resigned from the panel. "We cannot leave representation of Egypt to a majority in parliament."
The head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi met with representatives of political parties, including the Brotherhood's political arm, to discuss the standoff a day before the panel was scheduled to meet.
Tantawi said "the constitution must be in the hands of all Egyptians, because it will for a long time chart the road Egypt takes internally and externally." His comments were carried by the official news agency.
___
Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Aya Batrawy contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-brotherhood-conflicted-over-presidential-run-192355529.html
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Wednesday 28 March 2012
Lower death risk with heart bypass vs. angioplasty
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Epson Moverio BT-100 3D goggles now shipping in the U.S. for $699
Continue reading Epson Moverio BT-100 3D goggles now shipping in the U.S. for $699
Epson Moverio BT-100 3D goggles now shipping in the U.S. for $699 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XriCzTa4Pfs/
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Sunday 25 March 2012
South Africa launches plan to curb rampant TB
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Woods shares lead at Bay Hill
Tiger Woods hits a shot on the fifth hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill, Friday, March 23, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Tiger Woods hits a shot on the fifth hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill, Friday, March 23, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Tiger Woods waves his club to the gallery after a birdie putt on the sixth hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill, Friday, March 23, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Tiger Woods hits a shot from the second tee during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill, Friday, March 23, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Graeme McDowell, of Northern Ireland, hits a shot from the eighth tee during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill, Friday, March 23, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Graeme McDowell, of Northern Ireland, acknowledges the crowd after making a birdie putt on the eighth green during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., Friday, March 23, 2012.(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Even when he was winning with regularity, Tiger Woods rarely made it look this easy at Bay Hill.
He putted for birdie on every hole.
His longest putt for par was on the 18th, when his birdie try caught the right edge of the cup and left him about 3 feet coming back.
If the game looked familiar, so did his position Friday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Woods ran off four straight birdies early in his round, then made back-to-back birdies late in the afternoon for a 7-under 65, giving him a share of the lead with Charlie Wi. It was the first time in 30 months on the PGA Tour that Woods has been atop the leaderboard going into the weekend.
"It was a solid round of golf," Woods said. "I felt like I actually hit it better yesterday than I did today. I've made more putts today, for sure. I felt great over the putter. My speed was good. I left a couple putts dead short, right in the center of the hole. Actually, it really could have been a really low round. A lot of positives today."
Wi, the 54-hole leader at Pebble Beach this year, rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on his last hole for a 68 to join Woods at 10-under 134.
Former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell had an eagle-par-birdie finish for a 63, while Jason Dufner extended his solid play on the Florida swing with a 69. They were one shot behind at 135.
Woods last had the 36-hole lead in any tour event at the Australian Open in November, and he tied for third. On the PGA Tour, go all the way back to the Tour Championship in September 2009 to find the last time he was atop the leaderboard going into the weekend.
It looks even more ominous at Bay Hill, where Woods is a six-time winner.
"I want to win. Yes, absolutely," he said. "We've got a long way to go. It's not like it's over right now. We've got 36 holes to go."
Woods at least is in better shape than he was two weeks ago. His future looked as muddled as ever when Woods was taken off the golf course in a cart at Doral because of soreness and swelling in his left Achilles tendon, the same injury that forced him to miss three months and two majors a year ago.
One week later, he was practicing at Augusta National. Now, he's the player everyone is chasing on the weekend.
"I saw him on television at Doral and didn't look good there," said Ernie Els, who played with Woods at Bay Hill, and played with him when Woods shot 62 on the last day of the Honda Classic. "Today he was on, and today was the same as I saw at the Honda ? very on."
Woods only had a couple of nervous moments.
He ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to quickly get into the mix, and then couldn't decide how to play his tee shot on the 10th. It didn't help that earlier in the round, he looked over at adjacent first tee and saw Nick Watney ? affectionately known as "Rube" ? pipe his tee shot out-of-bounds to the right.
"I got over there and for some reason I'm thinking, 'You know, I probably really shouldn't hit this driver; I'll take something off of it, and just hit a little softy out there.' And bailed on it, because I didn't want to hit it right out-of-bounds," Woods said. "And I chalked that up to just not listening to my instincts of hitting a 3-iron down there or just chipping a 5-wood ? or not watching Ruby hit that shot."
Woods was lucky. The snap hook bounced off a net fence protecting the houses, and he had just enough room to play to the middle of the 10th green and walk away with par.
He also was disgusted with his approach to the par-5 16th, turning in anger and swiping at the ground. It wasn't a great shot, but it was dry, catching the left side of the green 50 feet away and setting up a two-putt birdie.
Woods also had a two-putt birdie at the par-5 sixth. He made birdies on the other par 5s with his wedge game. Over two rounds, he has had such improved control of his play that he hit 19 consecutive greens in regulation at one point. That streak ended on the 13th hole Friday, when he two-putted for par from on the fringe.
Some of that is familiarity.
"I've had a few places where I've felt comfortable and I've played well, and this is one of them," Woods said. "For some reason, I just understand how to play it."
And some of that is becoming more confident with his swing, especially how far he is hitting the ball. Woods said he was not hitting his irons as well before going to work with Sean Foley, and a straighter, tighter ball flight has led to more distance ? and more adjustments.
He felt as though he hit the ball better on Thursday in a round of 69, although he didn't have nearly as many birdie chances.
"My bad days are not as bad as they used to be," Woods said.
It was the fifth time Woods had had at least a share of the 36-hole lead at Bay Hill, and he has failed to win only once from that position. Woods served up several reminders that the tournament is only halfway over, along with gentle rebukes that it hasn't been that long that he's been in the hunt.
He was tied for the 54-hole lead at Abu Dhabi, finishing third behind Robert Rock. Woods played well at the Australian Open until a poor third round. As for winning, he counts that birdie-birdie finish to win the Chevron World Challenge, which counted toward the world ranking even though it featured an 18-man field from the top 50 in the world.
"So it really has not been as long as people might think it has been," Woods said. "I'm comfortable up there, and I feel like I'm playing well. We've still got a long way to go. We still have 36 holes to go. Still need to continue doing what I'm doing out there, just kind of plodding my way along."
Wi, who shared the 18-hole lead with Dufner, birdied four of his last six holes to catch up to Woods. From the right rough on the ninth hole, he hammered out a shot to 25 feet below the cup for one last birdie.
Wi and Woods grew up in southern California and have known each other since their junior days, though Wi is four years older.
"Tiger is the man, and it's going to be fun tomorrow," Wi said.
The best round came from McDowell, and it was a reminder of how far he has come in one year. McDowell had a dream season in 2010 by winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, winning the decisive point for Europe in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, then ending the year with a record comeback against Woods in the Chevron World Challenge.
McDowell had a hard time managing his time, much less his expectations, and the eye-opener was at Bay Hill last year when he shot 80.
This time, McDowell was 17 shots better.
"That 80 was a wake-up call, but I didn't wake up for another four months or so," McDowell said. "It was more of the panic button. It was a pretty awful four or five months for me.
"But like I say, I feel like you learn more from those types of experiences than you do from shooting 63 at Bay Hill. There's not much to learn out there except that if you play great and hole some putts, you can go low."
That's just what he did.
Dufner set the early pace and was the first to reach 10 under until going for the green on the par-5 sixth, misjudging the wind and going into the water to make bogey. Even so, it was another solid round in Florida. Dufner had the lead going into the weekend at Innisbrook, and now he is one shot behind at Bay Hill.
"I think any given day, I can go out and shoot 5 or 6 under, do it pretty comfortably," Dufner said. "If the putter were to get hot, I feel like I could shoot some lower scores. There has not been a lot of stressful situations that last two or three weeks."
The stress might pick up Saturday. Woods brings energy to the course when he's around the lead, especially at Bay Hill, and especially when it's been so long since he has won on the PGA Tour. He has gone 27 PGA Tour events without a trophy.
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Saturday 24 March 2012
FIRST DRIVE: Volkswagen's Golf R Is a Boy Racer for Grown Ups
So when VW asked if I'd like to drive (read: thrash) a new Golf R on the backroads and hills outside San Francisco, I couldn't say no. Disclosure: Volkswagen flew me to sunny San Francisco and covered all expenses so I could drive the hot rod Golf R and...
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Forms for Irrevocable LIfe Insurance Trusts - Law Professor Blogs ...
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March 22, 2012
Forms for Irrevocable LIfe Insurance Trusts
You can purchase the third edition of The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust: Forms with Drafting Notes from the ABA website. A synopsis of the book found on the ABA website is below:
An integral part of every estate planner's practice is giving advice and making recommendations about life insurance. This best-selling volume in the popular Insurance Counselor series guides you through one of the most fundamental aspects of sophisticated estate planning--drafting and setting up an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. Now completely updated, this user-friendly primer offers a comprehensive overview of the types of insurance trusts you can draft for your clients, and includes examples of the necessary forms and a memorandum you can use in your daily practice.
Clear and concise, The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust will help you protect your clients' estate and assets from taxation. It differentiates between the two types of trusts you may use, identifying the best one that will work for your client. The book contains these sample forms, both in the text and on an accompanying CD-ROM:
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- Single Life Policy Trust: Intended to primarily benefit the insured's spouse and children
- Survivorship Policy Trust: Meant to serve as a long term, generation-skipping "dynasty" trust for the benefit of children and future descendants
Accompanying each of the two sample forms are:
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- Notes to Drafter Section: Alerts you to special problems associated with planning and drafting
- Clear Outline: Written in layperson's language, this is designed to provide nontechnical guidance to your client regarding the provisions of each sample form
Finally, this primer contains both a sample memoradum to a client who has created an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, outlining the procedures which need to be followed by the insured/grantor and by the trustee in order to comply with the requirements of the agreement and federal tax law, and a sample transmittal letter to accompany the memorandum.
Please click here to purchase the forms. ?
March 22, 2012 in Books - For Practitioners, Estate Planning - Generally, Trusts | Permalink
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