Universal health care good for all
Tuesday, December 29th, 20090 Comments | Charleston Gazette, The, Aug 21, 2009 | by Steve Gormezano
If you watch FOX News, which really isn’t news but an infomercial, and you see that their sponsor’s logo on the screen is an insurance company, don’t believe what they say about health-care reform.
They are trying to stop our government from helping our citizens, and they want to protect their profits. Corporations want to mandate that we all have to buy health insurance, just like we have to buy car insurance.
And they don’t want us to have a public option. Most of the cost of our car insurance is for medical liability in case someone gets hurt in an accident. In homeowners insurance and business insurance, it’s also part of the cost. And of course there’s workers comp. No need for any of that with universal health care.
Universal health care for anyone and everyone in our country would lower all of our insurance costs as citizens. If other changes are made to our health-care system, we might end up as a healthier society.
“Socialized medicine” I hear people screaming on TV. Well, if someone can be helped by radiation treatment, it can cost as much as $35,000 a treatment in order to help pay for the machine. That’s like charging people whose house catches fire $20,000 to help pay for the firetruck. The cost of these machines is something our government can bear, and we can all chip in for.
If money needs to be raised, there are people making money in finance in the same fields that got us into this economic mess, with their million-dollar bonuses and short-term profits. Well, if those bonuses and profits got taxed like the working stiffs do, it could pay for half of what the projected costs are for universal health care.
But I believe that in the long run we will actually save money. Think about it – everyone is getting care now and it’s costing us more. Someone breaks an arm and goes to the hospital
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Using Aromatherapy To Heal Your Skin
Sunday, December 27th, 2009Scents play a big role in our lives. Some fragrances may recall memories or transmit sensations. Who has not felt better after going to sauna with eucalyptus smell? Or associated flowers` scents to the feelings of calm and peace? Aromatherapy took advantage of this basic human instinct to treat diseases, provide well being, skin care and relaxation. It can be defined as the therapeutic use of essential oils for prevention and/or auxiliary treatment of physical, psychological and energetic problems.
The true Aromatherapy consists on the therapeutic application of 100% essential oils in baths, massages, compresses, diffusions, internal use, etc. Before being used, the essential oils are frequently dissolved in neutral lotions such as vegetal oils, cereal water or cereal alcohol. This preserves chemical properties and chemical/physical activity in the human body.
According to “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils”, the favored technique of aroma therapists is the massage, because it ensures that the oils are absorbed in the skin and into the blood stream. On this method, the essence is diluted into base oil (jojoba, avocado, peanut, soy, peach kernel oil, etc). Another book, “Aromatherapy: Healing for the Body & Soul”, emphasizes the importance of rubbing the oil in the skin. The author, Kathi Keville, claims that the human touch warms the body, relieves stress, relaxes and encourages deep breathing.
Benefits
Aromatherapy is known for bringing well-being and stress relieve to people, but this is only one of its possible benefits. This therapy can affect the body chemistry; the emotions and attitudes; and the ability of the body to function. The book “Aroma Therapy: Healing for the body and soul” cites a wide range of therapeutical uses for Aromatherapy:
– Reduction of pain, inflammations and spasms;
- Stimulation of the immune system, hormone production and blood circulation;
- Skin infections;
- Heal of respiratory and digestive problems;
- Emotional problems, like depression and panic.
Precautions
Some essential oils, like camphor, thuja and red thyme, can cause damage to the patients due to their high toxicity levels, which can cause severe dermal irritation. Essential oils should not be applied directly at the skin; they should be diluted in a carrier oil or cream
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Sunday, December 27th, 2009in Shopping (submitted 2009-12-27)
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Captive to a three-act play: how captivating is healthcare reform? Read on and find out
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009Risk & Insurance, Dec, 2009 by John Cassell, Emily Ferreira, Karin Landry, Donald Riggin
summary
* Three healthcare reform bills are in Congress:
America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, the Affordable Health Choices Act, and America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
* The House and Senate version will affect captives and reinsurance in different ways.
* If the mandate that all Americans must purchase a minimum level of health insurance survives into the final bill, health insurers would have access to millions of additional customers.
**********
While the goals of healthcare reform are clear (covering the uninsured, increasing quality of care and making healthcare affordable for all), the details still being debated in Washington remain to be seen.
So far there has been a lot of speculation on what will be implemented and the effects of the changes on the insurance industry. Though healthcare reform is currently halfway through its first step on its way to becoming reality, there are still other stages of bill combinations, amendments, and votes that need to occur before a final bill is signed by the president.
Still, we can still take a look at the key provisions that are being addressed by each of the three proposed bills, America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 in the Senate Finance Committee, the Affordable Health Choices Act in the Senate HELP Committee, and America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 in the House Tri-Committee, and analyze them for the potential impact on the captive insurance industry.
Each health reform initiative is looking to expand coverage to all U.S. citizens. Individuals or employers who do not offer coverage to their employees will be assessed fines or penalties. If the penalties are set at appropriate levels and applied effectively, they will have the intended effect of increasing healthcare coverage.
The Senate Finance Committee’s America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 exempts employers with 50 or fewer employers from the penalty. The Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act exempts employers with 25 or fewer employers from the penalty. The House Tri-Committee’s America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 does not have a set exemption for small employers, but it will “provide hardship exemptions for employers that would be negatively affected by job losses as a result of requirement.”
All three proposals also offer premium credits to small employers to assist them in purchasing health insurance. Though they all employ slightly different approaches, the end result for each remains the same: a larger market for insurers providing coverage. It also presents an opportunity for people to be covered through a captive arrangement as well.
Both the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate HELP Committee bills include provisions for state-based health insurance exchanges, while the House’s Tri-Committee bill proposes a National Health Insurance Exchange. For the state-based exchanges, captives could provide a funding option for employers looking to participate in the exchange but who also need coverage on a national level.
The Senate Finance Committee bill seeks to appropriate $5 billion to finance the creation of a temporary reinsurance program for employers providing health insurance coverage to retirees ages 55 to 64
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Preserve Your Valuables With Copper
Friday, December 18th, 2009Market Wire, December, 2009
From medical equipment to fighter jets to
wedding dresses, almost anything worth preserving can be kept safe with the
help of copper.
Intercept Technology(TM), a copper-based polymer developed and patented by
Lucent Technologies and Bell Laboratories, uses a plastic film impregnated
with copper ions to neutralize gases that can lead to the deterioration of
anything that can corrode, rust or mildew, including metals, electronics,
fabrics, rubber, furniture, firearms and artwork. This is a major
breakthrough, not only for consumers, but for many industries as well –
and it is all thanks to mankind’s oldest metal.
This new technology is available in various applications, including zipper
bags, shrouds, sheets, rolls, rigid containers and even coatings. With all
these different packing options, Intercept(TM) can be used to protect just
about anything from being damaged. As a result, copper is changing the
face of the packaging industry.
The Intercept(TM) film provides protection to sealed items whether they are
being shipped or stored for long periods of time. Ted Del Borrello,
director of projects at Sea Transportation Management in Fremantle,
Australia, said, “Encapsulating with Intercept(TM) has ensured that the
equipment reaches its destination in its pre-shipping condition, avoiding
damage from the environment and contamination.”
“Intercept(TM) allows consumers and companies to safely ship, receive and
store products anywhere in the world, even in areas where heat and humidity
are unusually high,” said Elaine Spitz, president of Liberty Packaging
Company in Braintree, MA. Some notable users of Intercept(TM) include BMW,
Volkswagen, Nokia, GM, Rolls Royce, Intel and the US Army and Marines.
This unique technology is not only useful, and economical — its use cuts
down on labor and energy costs — but because copper is sustainable , it is also a “green”
technology. Intercept(TM) is reusable, recyclable and has a lower carbon
footprint than traditional barrier protection materials. In fact,
Intercept(TM) was the recipient of the German Environmental Award,
administered by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), and Volkswagen won an
environmental award this year because its use of Intercept(TM) for its
engine blocks eliminated the need for coating oils.
“There are many areas that have not yet used Intercept(TM) technology that
would benefit from it,” added Spitz. In the future, Intercept(TM) could be
used to extend the life of fresh food during shipping. Packing and crating
businesses like UPS or Federal Express could also use Intercept(TM) to
benefit a larger portion of the consumer market, Spitz said.
“It’s not surprising that, through Intercept(TM), copper is playing a vital
role in shipping and storage,” said Robert Weed, vice president of OEM
Markets for the Copper Development
Association . “Copper’s many valuable properties make it an
indispensable part of our lives, it is malleable and ductile, it is an
excellent conductor of heat and electricity, it is corrosion resistant, and
recent research has shown that it is even antimicrobial
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Fakhoury Pottery Struggles to Keep Family Tradition Alive
Friday, December 18th, 2009Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, The, Dec 2009 by Pasquini, Elaine
Creating colorful high-quality ceramics and clay pottery has been a Fakhoury family tradition for 90 years. On a recent visit to East Jerusalem’s Old City, the Washington Report visited the Fakhoury Pottery retail shop on the historic Via Dolorosa. “Making ceramics and pottery is in my blood, since my grandfathers on both sides of my family were in this business,” 34-year-old Mohammed Fakhoury explained.
The lead-free, dishwasher- and microwave-safe bowls, cups, trays and other items decorated in traditional Armenian designs are manufactured in the family’s Hebron factory. “At one time, we had 200 workers,” Fakhoury said, “but now we have only 40.” Over the past few years business has decreased due to the strangling Israeli occupation and control over the people and products that may enter Jerusalem from the West Bank. “In three months we don’t sell what we used to sell in one week before 2000,” he said.
Fakhoury and his 77-year-old grandfather run the Via Dolorosa shop in the Old City’s Christian Quarter and a shop on El Wad Road in the Muslim Quarter, while Fakhoury’s father and uncle operate the Hebron factory. Possessing a Jerusalem identification card, Fakhoury makes the trips to Hebron to pick up the items to sell in the Jerusalem shops. The trip used to be easy, he said, taking only an hour or so, but now due to military checkpoints and Israel’s 25-foot high, 400-mile separation wall it can take several hours to make the 19-mile journey.
The crafts shop owner lamented the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, explaining that nine years ago his family was in the process of opening a shop near Rachel’s Tomb on the Jerusalem-to-Bethlehem road, but this effort was unsuccessful after plans for expanding tourism in Bethlehem in the new millennium never materialized
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Real Estate Executive John Cushman Named Chairman of Rock Creek Capital
Friday, December 18th, 2009PR Newswire, Dec 2, 2009
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. and LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ — John C. Cushman, III, Chairman of the Board of commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, has been named Chairman of Rock Creek Capital. Rock Creek Capital is an alternative asset management firm which invests in unique, resource-rich land.
“I am excited to be working with the principals of Rock Creek Capital,” said John C. Cushman, III. “The coming scarcity of water and arable land affects the entire world. Although I have mainly worked in the commercial real estate industry, my experiences as a director of the National Park Foundation and as a former Trustee of the Urban Land Institute have given me the background to see that the next logical step for real estate investment is to utilize and preserve land in an environmentally responsible manner. Rock Creek Capital has a 15-year track record of success and I believe is well positioned to capitalize on a unique opportunity in an asset class that is burgeoning and uncorrelated to other markets.”
Jeffrey DeBoer, President and CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable, stated “John Cushman personifies the modern real estate executive: visionary, strategic, and determined in business as well as knowledgeable, focused, and involved in the public policy arena.” “We are thrilled to be working with John and believe his expertise will be instrumental in our continued success,” said James H. Dahl, Founding Partner of Rock Creek Capital. “John has had as varied and distinguished a real estate career as anyone I can think of. And at this stage in that career to focus on land as an asset class speaks volumes about the opportunity,” said Peter Rummell, Chairman of Rummell Company, LLC and former President of Disney Development Company. William H
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Arbor Networks Co-Founder and Chairman to Address Cloud Security at Chinese-American Networking Symposium
Friday, December 18th, 2009Market Wire, December, 2009
WHO Farnam Jahanian
Founder and Chairman, Arbor Networks
Professor and Chair Computer Science and Engineering
University of Michigan
WHEN December 3, 2009
Session VIII: 3:30-5:00pm
WHERE Jade Palace Hotel
No. 76 Zhichun Road, Haidian District
Beijing
http://www.jadepalace.com.cn/
TOPIC Securing the Internet Cloud: Challenges and Opportunities
DESCRIPTION Threats to the availability and security of the Internet have
undergone a rapid and dramatic evolution over the past few
years. Spurred by financial gains or political motives,
attackers have become proficient at hiding themselves using
compromised hosts as proxies and amplifying the power of
their attacks using distributed software. The result is vast
numbers of compromised computers, or bots, enabling a rapid
increase in spam, phishing and identity theft. These
challenges illustrate how we are at the limits of existing
detection and mitigation technologies. This presentation
discusses the changing Internet ecology and the evolution of
zero-day threats. It will also introduce a new security model
for networked environments based on the concept of shifting
security services into the network cloud. This framework is
inspired by successful detection and mitigation solutions in
service provider environments.
ABOUT ARBOR NETWORKS
Arbor Networks is a leading provider of security and network management
solutions for global business networks, including more than 70 percent of
the world’s Internet service providers and many of the largest enterprise
networks in use today. Arbor’s secure service control solutions give
customers a single, unified view into their networks’ performance, helping
them to quickly detect anomalous behavior, mitigate threats and enforce
policy. This translates into actionable business intelligence to generate
new forms of revenue and to maintain a competitive advantage.
Arbor also maintains ATLAS — a unique collaborative effort with 100
service providers across the globe sharing real-time security, traffic and
routing information. No other entity today has both aggregated this much
real-time information about what is happening across the Internet and
developed the means for cross-provider collaboration that informs numerous
business decisions.
For technical insight into the latest security threats and Internet traffic
trends, please visit the ASERT blog.
Note to Editors: Arbor Networks, Peakflow, ATLAS and the Arbor Networks
logo are trademarks of Arbor Networks, Inc
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Obituary: MILLER, MICHAEL
Friday, December 18th, 20090 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 3, 2009
Michael R. Miller
“POP”
Our beloved husband, supportive father, adored grandfather, Michael Raymond Miller, age 70, passed away at his home in South Jordan, Utah on November 30, 2009. Surrounded by his loving family, he passed away with dignity, determination, and a sense of humor. Mike was born September 20, 1939, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the oldest child of Raymond Jensen Miller and Nellie Faye Frost Miller. Mike graduated from South High School and attended the University of Utah. He married his sweetheart, Marian Done, September 24, 1960, and they were sealed in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They are the proud parents of two children, Karen and Michael.
Mike served in the National Guard of Utah and the United States Army Reserves. Mike worked for A&R; Meats for over 20 years before taking a position he loved at Alliant Techsystems. He retired from ATK in June 2001, but continued his employment with Murray Parks and Recreation until shortly before his passing
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Crashers at state dinner reveal major lapse in security
Friday, December 18th, 20090 Comments | USA TODAY, December, 2009
Even as a young boy, I was always in awe of the Secret Service. I had the greatest respect and admiration for its personnel, but now I also feel apprehension. The security breach exposed by would-be reality TV couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashing the state dinner at the White House last week is a significant one (“Crashers spark review of state dinner security,” News, Friday).
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said that the security procedures are adequate but that they weren’t followed. With all due respect, I disagree. When an unknown couple can penetrate the security in place to protect the president, his family and the White House, the overall process is deficient.
Keep in mind that just a year ago, the terrorist attack in Mumbai took place
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