Friday, November 30, 2012

Milford's Antique Co-op displaying vintage North Pole village ...

Living

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The New Hampshire Antique Co-op will display a miniature vintage log village known as Santa?s North Pole during the holiday season.

Designed and presented by collector and antique dealer Beverly Weir-Longacre, this exhibit shows Santa?s elves working at their jobs in the various shops, at the reindeer barn and tending to the Christmas tree farm. Visitors can find a miniature Santa next to a sleigh filled with gifts. Children are sledding, making snowmen and relaxing around the pond after an afternoon of ice skating.

This log village is on display through Jan. 6 in the Focus Gallery at New Hampshire Antique Co-op.

Weir-Longacre began collecting the log buildings almost two decades ago, when she spotted one at an antiques show in Bucks County, Pa.

Weir-Longacre?s vintage log buildings were made in America during the early 20th century, probably for use with toy train platforms. Always wanting to create a holiday-themed village using the log buildings, Weir-Longacre transformed her collection into Santa?s North Pole, complete with lights, snow and all the trimmings. Also on display is a four-room doll house, representing Santa?s home and workshop.

An expert collector of vintage glass ornaments and other holiday-themed decorations, Weir-Longacre lives in a historic 1795 antique cape in Marlborough, where she and her husband, Tom Longacre, who is also an expert folk art antique dealer, decorate more than 20 trees filled with antique ornaments. She is an officer of the New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association and lectures at antique shows on the subject of vintage ornaments (?The Christmas Ornament ? Folk Art in Miniature?).

The New Hampshire Antique Co-op was established in 1983 and features more than 200 dealers. It was named ?Best of New Hampshire? by New Hampshire Magazine and is open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Open house

The Antique Co-op will hold its Holiday Open House 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 1-2, offering secret-recipe punch and an array of cookies. Children can write their letters to Santa and post them in an old-fashioned North Pole mailbox.

?The open house here at New Hampshire Antique Co-op is a great old-fashioned way to spend a family day,? said co-owner Jason Hackler, who together with his father, Sam Hackler, has owned and operated New Hampshire Antique Co-op for nearly three decades. ?Take a break at this hectic time of year and come on by to sample cookies, write to Santa and see some great art and antiques. My 5-year-old daughter Eliza will also be here during the open house, helping children write to Santa or serve up some treats.?

Named ?Best of New Hampshire? by New Hampshire Magazine, the New Hampshire Antique Co-op is at 323 Elm St.

For more information, call 673-8499 , visit online at www.nhantiquecoop.com or www.facebook.com/nhantiquecoop.

Source: http://www.cabinet.com/living/985358-308/milfords-antique-co-op-displaying-vintage-north-pole.html

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Autism severity may stem from fear

Autism severity may stem from fear [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Joe Hadfield
joe_hadfield@byu.edu
801-422-9206
Brigham Young University

Most people know when to be afraid and when it's ok to calm down.

But new research on autism shows that children with the diagnosis struggle to let go of old, outdated fears. Even more significantly, the Brigham Young University study found that this rigid fearfulness is linked to the severity of classic symptoms of autism, such as repeated movements and resistance to change.

For parents and others who work with children diagnosed with autism, the new research highlights the need to help children make emotional transitions particularly when dealing with their fears.

"People with autism likely don't experience or understand their world in the same way we do," said Mikle South, a psychology professor at BYU and lead author of the study. "Since they can't change the rules in their brain, and often don't know what to expect from their environment, we need to help them plan ahead for what to expect."

In their study, South and two of his undergraduate neuroscience students Tiffani Newton and Paul Chamberlain recruited 30 children diagnosed with autism and 29 without to participate in an experiment. After seeing a visual cue like a yellow card, the participants would feel a harmless but surprising puff of air under their chins.

Part-way through the experiment, the conditions changed so that a different color preceded the puff of air. The researchers measured participants' skin response to see if their nervous system noticed the switch and knew what was coming.

"Typical kids learn quickly to anticipate based on the new color instead of the old one," South said. "It takes a lot longer for children with autism to learn to make the change."

The amount of time it took to extinguish the original fear correlated with the severity of hallmark symptoms of autism.

"We see a strong connection between anxiety and the repetitive behaviors," South said. "We're linking symptoms used to diagnose autism with emotion difficulties not usually considered as a classic symptom of autism."

The persistence of needless fears is detrimental to physical health. The elevated hormone levels that aid us in an actual fight or flight scenario will cause damage to the brain and the body if sustained over time.

And the families who participate in social skills groups organized by South and his students can relate to the new findings.

"In talking to parents, we hear that living with classic symptoms of autism is one thing, but dealing with their children's worries all the time is the greater challenge," South said. "It may not be an entirely separate direction to study their anxiety because it now appears to be related."

###

The complete study appears in the journal Autism Research. The project began when Newton received a university grant to conduct research with a faculty mentor. After graduating with a degree in neuroscience, she began working at a clinic in Michigan. Chamberlain is finishing his senior year at BYU and is currently interviewing with medical schools.


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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.


Autism severity may stem from fear [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Joe Hadfield
joe_hadfield@byu.edu
801-422-9206
Brigham Young University

Most people know when to be afraid and when it's ok to calm down.

But new research on autism shows that children with the diagnosis struggle to let go of old, outdated fears. Even more significantly, the Brigham Young University study found that this rigid fearfulness is linked to the severity of classic symptoms of autism, such as repeated movements and resistance to change.

For parents and others who work with children diagnosed with autism, the new research highlights the need to help children make emotional transitions particularly when dealing with their fears.

"People with autism likely don't experience or understand their world in the same way we do," said Mikle South, a psychology professor at BYU and lead author of the study. "Since they can't change the rules in their brain, and often don't know what to expect from their environment, we need to help them plan ahead for what to expect."

In their study, South and two of his undergraduate neuroscience students Tiffani Newton and Paul Chamberlain recruited 30 children diagnosed with autism and 29 without to participate in an experiment. After seeing a visual cue like a yellow card, the participants would feel a harmless but surprising puff of air under their chins.

Part-way through the experiment, the conditions changed so that a different color preceded the puff of air. The researchers measured participants' skin response to see if their nervous system noticed the switch and knew what was coming.

"Typical kids learn quickly to anticipate based on the new color instead of the old one," South said. "It takes a lot longer for children with autism to learn to make the change."

The amount of time it took to extinguish the original fear correlated with the severity of hallmark symptoms of autism.

"We see a strong connection between anxiety and the repetitive behaviors," South said. "We're linking symptoms used to diagnose autism with emotion difficulties not usually considered as a classic symptom of autism."

The persistence of needless fears is detrimental to physical health. The elevated hormone levels that aid us in an actual fight or flight scenario will cause damage to the brain and the body if sustained over time.

And the families who participate in social skills groups organized by South and his students can relate to the new findings.

"In talking to parents, we hear that living with classic symptoms of autism is one thing, but dealing with their children's worries all the time is the greater challenge," South said. "It may not be an entirely separate direction to study their anxiety because it now appears to be related."

###

The complete study appears in the journal Autism Research. The project began when Newton received a university grant to conduct research with a faculty mentor. After graduating with a degree in neuroscience, she began working at a clinic in Michigan. Chamberlain is finishing his senior year at BYU and is currently interviewing with medical schools.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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/2012-11/byu-asm112912.php

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Men: See The 5 Reasons Why Women Have Affairs | QuestionMark ...

Men: See The 5 Reasons Why Women Have Affairs

There can be little other news that is more devastating to man, than to discover that his wife has cheated on him and has been having an affair with another man. The very thought of another man sexually penetrating his wife, or his wife enthusiastically giving oral sex to her new lover can make the jilted husband feel sick to the stomach for days, even weeks on end.

Unfortunately, an increasing number of men have been contacting us here at The Modern Man, trying to seek answers to the questions, ?Why did my wife have an affair? Why did she cheat on me? What causes women to have affairs? What did I do so wrong to deserve it? ? So, I?m going to share my advice here in a dedicated article on why women have affairs.

The Rules of the Game Have Changed

Relationships are not like how they used to be in the early 1900s or even a few decades ago, for that matter. Today?s women are constantly being bombarded with TV sitcoms and Hollywood movies telling them that if they are unhappy, they should get a divorce or have an affair. Unlike in the past, a woman isn?t surrounded by a society that is telling her, or even forcing her to remain married no matter what. A woman in 1900 for example, would feel like the ?scum of the Earth? for committing such a disloyal act as having an affair. However, when it comes to women of today?s generation, unless her man is able to create and maintain the right relationship dynamic, she will often act on what she believes to be valid reasons for an affair and she will feel fairly comfortable doing it.

At The Modern Man, we believe that if you get married, you should stay married. Marriage isn?t something you ?try,? it?s something you do for real. It?s for keeps. If there are problems in your relationship, you should work to fix them rather than giving up. In our opinion, affairs are never justifiable. If a relationship is unrecoverable and you absolutely have to break up, both people should, out of common decency, maturity and respect for each other, wait until that is done before they find someone new. However, to avoid an affair or break up even happening in the first place, here at The Modern Man we teach men how to create and maintain the right relationship dynamic, so affairs never become ?necessary? for a woman. It is much easier to avoid an affair occurring in the first place, than to try and save a devastated relationship after one has happened.

Here are some of the reasons why a woman will want to have an affair behind her husband?s back.
Reason One: Arguments That Don?t Lead to Change

When arguments become on-going between you and rarely a day passes without some degree of emotional upset in your relationship, a woman is going to start thinking of why she puts up with it. Women of past generations had to put up with it and try to work through it, even if the husband responded badly and his behavior got worse as a result. These days, if a man isn?t being the perfect man like the ones depicted in TV sitcoms and movies, it has unfortunately become socially acceptable for a woman to leave, or worse, have an affair behind his back.

Men who are successful in their relationships with women do not throw their hands up in the air in the face of an argument or blame the woman for all the arguing. When faced with a problem in life, a real man faces it head on and figures out how to fix it. Things are not always going to run smoothly in a relationship every hour and every day, but couples in successful relationships get through rough patches by facing problems and looking for ways to fix them, not running away and hiding from them. As a man, it?s your job to take the lead on fixing the problem. If you don?t know how to fix it, learn.

Why do the arguments happen in the first place? Read this article, ?Why Am I Always Arguing With My Girlfriend?? to understand what leads a woman to start arguments with you and how to turn them into an opportunity to deepen your love, attraction and respect for each other, rather than pushing you further apart.
Reason Two: She Doesn?t Feel Sexy Around You Anymore

There are some very sneaky men out there who prey on married women and women in long term relationships. They live by the old old saying, ?Show me a beautiful woman in a long-term relationship and I?ll show you a man who is bored of having sex with her.? To protect your relationship against these opportunistic men, you need to ensure that your woman feels increasingly sexy around you. Most men are able to make their woman feel sexy during the initial part of the relationship, where there is plenty of romance and natural lust. However, as they progress through the stages of a relationship, they are clueless as to how to retain that or build on it.

In The Modern Relationship, I explain the secrets to not only maintaining the degree to which your woman feels sexy around you, but how to increase it. When your woman feels sexy around you, she is going to be more open to sex and to doing ?sexual favors? for you, if you know what I mean. Making her feel sexy and sexually confident around you, also means that she will continually make an effort to look good for you. You?ll find that she wears sexier clothes, makes more of an effort to stay in shape and is generally much more fun to made love with.
Reason Three: Bad Sex or Lack of Sex

Once again, most guys are able to please their woman fairly well during the initial stages of a relationship. However, once familiarity has set in and they fail to increase the degree to which a woman feels sexy around them, the sex can become boring and predictable. The secret to avoiding this is to make your woman see you as her ?sex god,? so to speak. To her, no other man is necessary because to be sexed by you touches her and satisfies her on the deepest levels of her being.

Now, don?t get me wrong here. I?m not talking about spending loads of hours on tantric sex, or any other ?Sensitive New Age Guy? rubbish like that. I?m talking about deeply penetrating your woman?s body and mind as you made love with her, without needing to spend time on foreplay or doing unnecessary things like dressing up and role playing. You don?t need any of that when you know how to deeply penetrate her body and mind during sex. It doesn?t matter if you do it for 5 minutes or 30 minutes; when you sex a woman right, she will be the best girl you?ve ever had in your life. You tell her to make you a coffee and she will jump at the opportunity to please you. Tell her to give you oral sex while you watch TV and she will feel LUCKY to be doing it.

However, if the sex is boring or if there is a lack of pleasurable sex, modern women (especially those who watch TV sitcoms that glamorize affairs and divorce, rather than condemning it) will often start thinking that maybe an ?exciting affair? will liven up their life again. Unfortunately, when a woman consults with her friends, they will often encourage it and even help make it happen. The best strategy to protect your relationship in the modern world, is to become the type of man that women desperately want to be with. You can no longer just be an ?okay option? or maintain a boring, sexless relationship. If the woman isn?t feeling fulfilled, she is more likely to have affair or just up and leave you.

So, how do you create the right relationship dynamic and how do you penetrate a woman?s body AND mind during sex? It?s about being a masculine man, being present and making her feel like a feminine woman. Watch Better Than a Bad Boy to learn how. When you made love with women in the way I suggest, you will be amazed at how much good treatment you?ve been missing out on from women. The truth is, a woman WANTS to be in a position in the relationship where she feels lucky to be having sex with you. If you don?t give her that gift and make her feel lucky like that, you?re leaving her wide open to being preyed on by men who seek out unhappy women for easy sex.
Reason Four: Lack of Excitement

One of the traits that women find most attractive in men is unpredictability. I?m not referring to wild unpredictability where you do crazy or dangerous things, I?m talking about interesting unpredictability where you are not boring! I teach guys how to be unpredictable when talking to women for the first time, on the phone and on dates in The Flow and I explain how to do it in a relationship in The Modern Relationship.

All relationships go through stages and there can be no doubt that the early stages of infatuation with one another make everything about the relationship feel extremely exciting. It can feel fun and exciting to be even sitting together on the couch, cuddled up and watching TV?but, after a while it will stop feeling fun if you don?t maintain and grow the love and attraction you feel for each other. As the relationship grows, the ?love rush? of the early days is replaced with a different kind of emotional connection and this is when some women can slip into thinking that something is missing in the relationship. An affair is then used as a way of finding out if the something that?s missing can be found in someone else.
Reason Five: You?re Not Being a Man For Her

Let?s face it; if a woman is extremely happy in her relationship with her man, she?s not going to be interested in having an affair. Generally speaking, a woman will seek to have an affair when she isn?t happy and thinks that another man will provide the happiness she is lacking. As you may know, we are each responsible for our own feelings of happiness and shouldn?t solely rely on another person (or people) to make us happy. Much of it has to come from within, from our purpose in life, the love we share with others and our perception of the world around us. However, you can?t rely on a woman to know that and live by it. Your woman may think that happiness is found in a man, in buying shoes and in eating cake, who knows!

As a man, you need to take personal responsibility for the relationship you have with your woman. You can literally guide her into happiness, love and total surrender to you by being a man for her. The more of a man you are and the more you guide her into being a true, feminine woman, the happier both of you will be. These days, a lot of men unknowingly guide their women into depression, unhappiness and lack of desire because they simply don?t understand how to ?be the man? in a relationship.
Men and Women Have Changed, But Are Still the Same

Although modern women have become more confident, independent and in a way, more masculine in their behavior and thinking due to entering the workforce and taking on bigger roles, changing attitudes in society and the after effects of the feminist movement ? women still want you to be a man. Women are not the new men, they just have more voice, choice and freedom. Deep down, under the superficial layer of masculinity they have to put on to survive in the modern world, they are still just girls?and want to be treated that way behind closed doors.

These days, most men are unsure how to behave around the confident, new aged women and unfortunately, they end up looking to TV for the answers. However, when a modern man watches TV, he?ll often see TV commercials where husbands are depicted as clumsy, sex-starved idiots who are trying to do whatever they can to please their wife, who always seems to be on the verge of hitting him across the head with something. Why do they show this stuff on advertisements? Well, they can?t have men treating women that way, can they?

Companies advertising their products cannot depict women as wanting to be bent over the couch by their husband, as a reward for her doing the housework or cooking a good meal. Yet, the truth is, women do want to be in a position where they are rewarded for their good behavior. The better they behave and the more they please you, the more of your attention, love and sex they will get. That?s what women want. Yet, if you believe what you see on TV commercials, you?ll end up thinking that you will get more sex, love and respect from your woman if you do the housework and stay out of her way?or else she?ll get mad!

If you want to get a real education on how to be a man, watch Better Than a Bad Boy. Trying to learn how to be a man by watching TV sitcoms, Hollywood movies and the odd TV commercial is only going to cause you more confusion, frustration and problems now and in the long run. If you don?t want to invest years of your life and loads of your time and money into a relationship, only to have a woman turn around one day and say, ?I need to tell you something. I?ve been having an affair. I am in love with another man? then get educated and enjoy a relationship the way it should be enjoyed. That being, where the love, respect and attraction you feel for each other GROWS rather than fades away into arguments, infidelity and divorce.


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Source: http://questionmarkmag.com/2012/11/men-see-the-5-reasons-why-women-have-affairs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=men-see-the-5-reasons-why-women-have-affairs

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Baseball free agency architect Miller dies

NEW YORK (AFP) ? Marvin Miller, the first head of the Major League Baseball Players Association who revolutionized sports with the creation of player free agency, died Tuesday at the age of 95.

?It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Marvin Miller,? said current MLBPA chief Michael Weiner in a statement on Tuesday.

Miller had been diagnosed with liver cancer in August.

?All players ? past, present and future ? owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin, and his influence transcends baseball.

?Marvin, without question, is largely responsible for ushering in the modern era of sports, which has resulted in tremendous benefits to players, owners and fans of all sports.?

Miller helped major league players form a union in the late 1960s and served as the union head until 1982.

He shepherded players through three strikes and two owner-imposed lockouts, in the process forging what is one of the strongest unions in the United States.

Until then, baseball team owners held complete sway over players with the ?reserve clause? that tied players to teams with contracts that provided for automatic renewal.

Miller led a committee of players that negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement with management in 1968, which raised the minimum salary in baseball from $6,000 ? the level at which it had been stuck for two decades ? to $10,000.

The average salary in major league baseball is now $3.4 million. Players also enjoy healthy pension and medical benefits thanks to the work of Miller and his successors.

Free agency ? the ability of players to opt to change teams when their contracts expired ? was launched in 1975 when pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally played out the option year of their contracts and challenged the ?reserve clause? before an arbitrator.

The arbitrator?s decision in favor of the players was later upheld in federal court.

Miller led the players through contentious strikes in 1972, 1980 and 1981, as well as lockouts in 1973 and ?76.

?Marvin Miller was a highly accomplished executive and a very influential figure in baseball history,? MLB commissioner Bud Selig in a statement.

?He made a distinct impact on this sport, which is reflected in the state of the game today, and surely the major league players of the last half-century have greatly benefited from his contributions.?

Labor issues continued in baseball under Miller?s successor Don Fehr, including a loss of the 1994 postseason.

However, the sport has enjoyed labor peace for almost 20 years as the NFL, NBA and NHL have battled through their own contentious contract disputes.

?Marvin possessed a combination of integrity, intelligence, eloquence, courage and grace that is simply unmatched in my experience,? said Fehr, now head of the NHL players? union whose members are currently locked out by their league.

?Without question, Marvin had more positive influence on Major League Baseball than any other person in the last half of the 20th century.?

Related posts:

  1. Players make counter-proposal as clock ticks
  2. Leading Health Groups Launch National Campaign for Tobacco-Free Baseball
  3. US baseball legends here for baseball clinics
  4. Free Fantasy Sports Website?Rotoinfo.com?is Proud to Announce Coverage of All 30 MLB Baseball Teams This Upcoming Season
  5. Stern estimates NBA revenue up

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GameZoneNews/~3/ExwtCBhCqAg/

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Student-Loan Delinquencies Now Surpass Credit ... - Financial Sense

As costs of college soars (with thanks to absurd union salaries and benefits, as well as absurd administrator salaries and benefits), those attending college have increasing trouble paying back loans.

The fully expected consequence is Student-Loan Delinquencies Now Surpass Credit Cards.

The proportion of U.S. student loan balances that are in delinquency ? that is, unpaid for 90 days or more ? surpassed that of credit-card balances in the third quarter for the first time, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [no link provided]

Of the $956 billion in student-loan debt outstanding as of September, 11 percent was delinquent ? up from less than 9 percent in the second quarter, and higher than the 10.5 percent of credit-card debt, which was delinquent in the third quarter. By comparison, delinquency rates on mortgages, home-equity lines of credit and auto loans stood at 5.9 percent, 4.9 percent, and 4.3 percent respectively as of September.

percent of balance 90 plus days delinquent

Since the NY Fed?s data began in 2003, the share of student debt which is delinquent has nearly doubled, from a starting level of 6.13 percent, while credit-card delinquency has steadily drifted lower since peaking at 13.74 percent in mid-2010 in the wake of the financial crisis.

Moreover, the actual rate of student loan delinquency is far higher than the official tally suggests. According to the New York Fed [no link provided], ?these delinquency rates for student loans are likely to understate actual delinquency rates because almost half of these loans are currently in deferment, in grace periods or in forbearance and therefore temporarily not in the repayment cycle.?

In other words, the real delinquency rate for loans in the current repayment cycle is ?roughly twice as high,? per the Fed ? which would put it north of 20 percent.


37.5% of Graduates Work in Jobs Requiring No Degree

In its article Student Loan Debt Hits Another New Record: Study, Senior CNBC Correspondent Scott Cohn cites a study noting these facts.

  1. The average college student who graduated in 2011 had $26,600 in student loans
  2. Two-thirds of last year?s college graduates had student loan debt
  3. 37.8 percent of recent graduates are working in jobs that do not require a college degree
  4. State budget cuts, which have led to large tuition increases, fewer grants, and an increasing need for college students and their families to borrow money to finance their education
  5. 96 percent of graduates from four-year, for-profit colleges took out student loans, borrowing 45 percent more than graduates of other types of colleges.

Cohn mentioned the word "study" fourteen times without once providing a link to the study, or even mentioning the name of the study. I suspect this is some kind of record, jut not one anyone should be proud of.

Such semi-plagiarism is quite frankly inexcusable.

Who is to Blame?

I receive emails from readers all the time blaming the problem on point number four above, state budget cuts.

Nonsense.

Taxpayers are overburdened too much already. States have cut back on the percentage of money to education out of sheer necessity as education costs have risen far faster than anything else including health care and energy.

Here are some charts and comments from my post What Role Does Government Play in Price Inflation?

Inflation Comparison - Select Components Since 1978

inflation comparison

Inflation Comparison - Current CPI Components Since 2000

inflation since 2000

The above charts are from Doug Short at Advisor Perspectives. Doug creates excellent charts every month on various CPI components. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I asked Doug for a set of custom charts.

Specifically, I had asked Doug to go back to 1971 for both charts.

Unfortunately, data for components in the first chart only goes back to 1978, and in the second chart not even that far.

The reason I asked for a starting year of 1971 is that's when I started college.

Tuition at the University of Illinois in Fall of 1971 was $250 a semester for engineers (My degree is in civil engineering). Current University of Illinois Tuition is $8,278 per semester for Illinois residents, $15,349 for non-residents.

Note that tuition difference: $250 in 1971 vs. $8,278 today.

Note Areas of Highest and Lowest Price Inflation

The least government interference is in apparel and recreation. The most government interference in the free market is education and health care.

Education is rife with "no child left behind" madness, free tuition for veterans, and for-profit school scams that flourish only because student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

Chasing the American Dream, Gone Bust

I have talked about this many times before. One key post is Trading Caps and Gowns for Mops; Why Go to College If There Are No Jobs? Chasing the American Dream

Some People Do Not Belong in College

Pelletier perpetuates the myth everyone belongs in college. Many don't. Arguably at least half don't. In Portland Oregon, ACT scores show less than half of test-takers are ready for college math

Useless Degrees

Pray tell what good is a degree in English, history, PE, or political science other than teaching English, history, PE, or political science? And how many of those teaching jobs are even available?

Yet colleges churn out thousands of graduates, year after year, with perfectly useless degrees.

Debt Slaves

President Obama promotes education as the answer to the unemployment problem. Other presidents have done the same thing. However, throwing money at the problem has done nothing but raise the cost of education for everyone, leaving many graduates debt-slaves for life, with totally useless degrees.

Whenever government sticks its neck into solutions, costs escalate. We saw it in housing, with hundreds of affordable home programs artificially increasing demand, and with Bush's "Ownership Society" artificially increasing demand, etc., etc. We see the same thing now in health care.

Expect such problem to grow until they blow sky high, which appears to be right at hand.

Mish's Six Point Education Proposal?

  1. Increase competition by certifying more online schools
  2. Make student debt dischargeable in bankruptcy
  3. Abolish the student loan program
  4. Abolish Pell Grants
  5. Get rid of unions driving up costs
  6. End all support for for-profit colleges

I assure you that if those actions were taken cost of college education would crash. But no one really wants that, any more than they want affordable housing.

Politicians gain far too much in campaign contributions from unions, from for-profit schools, and from banks wanting to make kids debt-slaves, to really address the problem.

Legislators would rather pretend they want to do something rather than actually doing something because it suits their purpose (getting reelected). Unfortunately, millions of students will pay the price as debt-slaves for life.

Source: Global Economic Analysis

Source: http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/michael-shedlock/student-loan-delinquencies-surpass

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Lottery to say where winning Powerball tickets sold in U.S.

(Reuters) - Lottery officials in Missouri and Arizona planned to announce on Thursday where the two winning tickets for a record Powerball jackpot of nearly $588 million were sold.

Those holding the tickets that snared the top prize in Wednesday night's draw had not yet come forward publicly.

They will share an estimated $385 million after taxes if they opt to take the prize as a lump sum, or the $587.5 million can be paid out to them as annuities over three decades, the Multi-State Lottery Association said.

The Missouri ticket that matched all six numbers in the draw - 5 16 22 23 29 and a Powerball of 6 - was sold in the Kansas City area, officials said.

"It is so exciting to sell one of these Powerball tickets," said May Scheve Reardon, executive director of the Missouri Lottery. "In addition, we sold two tickets that matched all five white balls, which means they each win $1 million. Three millionaires in one night is a wonderful night."

The popular lottery - which is played in 42 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands - had not had a winner for two months.

After no one won the top prize in Saturday's drawing, the pot grew by about $263 million to $587.5 million amid a national frenzy to buy tickets.

Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, where Powerball is based, said people from around the world called hoping for a chance to play but were told they had to be in a participating location to buy a ticket.

The previous Powerball top prize of $365 million was won in 2006 by ConAgra slaughterhouse workers in Nebraska. The largest-ever U.S. lottery jackpot, the $656 million Mega Millions drawing, was shared by three winning tickets last March.

There have been nearly 300 jackpot winners over the past 20 years, taking home payouts of more than $11.6 billion.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/numbers-drawn-record-580-million-powerball-jackpot-043234757.html

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Flavorwire ? New York's 100 Most Important Living Writers

New York has ever been the center of the American literary universe ? the city of Whitman, of Edith Wharton, of every bar in Greenwich village ? and though the legendary metropolis has lost a little edge and a lot of grime since Henry Miller lived here, it is still home to and creative fodder for countless contemporary writers, each vying for their own place in its robust literary history.

As you may have heard, one of New York?s most legendary contemporary writers, Philip Roth, recently announced his retirement, which has left us thinking about the state of the city?s literary landscape ? and where it might go from here. To that end, we?ve taken a look at some of New York City?s most important writers, from Roth?s contemporaries to his possible successors, from those who have already been established by the passage of many years of excellence to younger writers of note who may still either cement or demolish their reputations. In making our list, we?ve chosen writers and journalists in the NYC area with serious literary merit, taking into consideration their legacy, their publishing history, and their cultural relevance across the board. Find our ranked top 100 list, as well as interviews with many of these distinguished authors, after the jump, and get to quibbling (as we know you will) in the comments.

Click through for Flavorwire?s list of New York?s 100 Most Important Living Writers

Source: http://www.flavorwire.com/350137/new-yorks-100-most-important-living-writers

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Senate Dems divided over cuts to benefit programs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid should be part of a plan to slow the government's mushrooming debt pose a big obstacle to a deal for avoiding a potentially economy-crushing "fiscal cliff," even if Republicans agree to raise taxes.

Much of the focus during negotiations seeking an alternative to $671 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts beginning in January has centered on whether Republicans would agree to raising taxes on the wealthy. President Barack Obama has insisted repeatedly that tax increases on the wealthy must be part of any deal, even as White House officials concede that government benefit programs will have to be in the package too.

"It is the president's position that when we're talking about a broad, balanced approach to dealing with our fiscal challenges, that that includes dealing with entitlements," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.

But even if GOP lawmakers agree to raise taxes, there is no guarantee Democrats can come up with enough votes in the Senate to cut benefit programs ? as Republicans are demanding.

"I hope not if it means Social Security or Medicare benefit cuts," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

There's a growing consensus among Senate Democrats and the White House that Social Security should be exempt from any deficit-reduction package. But some centrist Democrats in the Senate argue that fellow Democrats must be willing to consider cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in order to get concessions from Republicans on taxes.

"It has to be both ? a significant revenue increase as well as spending cuts," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who is retiring as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said rising health care costs in Medicare and Medicaid are helping to drive future spending, making them an essential part of a long-term deficit-reduction package.

"I've been part of every bipartisan group here. We've always put everything on the table," Conrad said. "If you're going to solve this problem, you're going to have to deal with where the spending is and the revenue can be raised."

But senators like Baucus and Conrad increasingly are being drowned out by other Democrats emboldened by the recent election results to fight against benefit cuts.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he is willing to find savings in Medicare and Medicaid by making them more efficient. But, he said, he won't support benefit cuts.

"I think the election spoke very strongly about the fact that the vast majority of American people don't want to cut these programs," Harkin said.

Congress and the White House are devoting the next three weeks to finding at least a bridge over the fiscal cliff by reducing the sudden jolt of higher taxes and spending cuts in January while laying a framework for addressing the nation's long-term financial problems next year.

Obama wants to let tax rates rise for wealthy families while sparing middle- and low-income taxpayers. Some Republican leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, have said they were willing to consider making the wealthy pay more by reducing their tax breaks. But most Republicans in Congress adamantly oppose raising anyone's tax rates.

Negotiations are going slowly as each side waits for the other to make concessions.

Democrats already have tried to take Social Security off the table. Carney, the White House spokesman, said Monday that changes to the massive retirement and disability program should be done separately from any plan to reduce the deficit. That's the same position taken by 28 Democratic senators and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a letter to fellow senators in September.

"We will oppose including Social Security cuts for future or current beneficiaries in any deficit-reduction package," said the letter, which was signed by many top Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. In the House, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has taken the same position, not only on Social Security, but also on Medicare and Medicaid.

"There hasn't been the slightest suggestion about what they're going to do about the real problems, and that's entitlements," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "There's a certain cockiness that I've seen that is really astounding to me since we're basically in the same position we were before" the election.

The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, has tried to find common ground, saying he would be willing to require wealthy seniors to pay more for Medicare benefits. But on Tuesday, he said those discussions shouldn't be part of rushed negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff.

"If we simply stand by and say 'don't touch Medicare in any way, for any reason, ever' we are inviting a crisis that opponents can exploit to eviscerate Medicare or even to end it," Durbin said. "Progressives should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but those conversations should not be part of a plan to avert the fiscal cliff."

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-dems-divided-over-cuts-benefit-programs-075320398--finance.html

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Nathan Walsh. Multiverse. Oil on linen, 144 x 188 cm (57 x...

Nathan Walsh.?Multiverse.?Oil on linen, 144 x 188 cm (57 x 74 in).

Nathan Walsh.?Multiverse.?Oil on linen, 144 x 188?cm (57 x 74 in).

1:16am??|?? URL: http://tmblr.co/Z8bgTyYBl8Wi
(Notes: 97)?? Filed under: Nathan Walsh?painting?art?
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