On October 1st 1890, William B. Coley, a young bone surgeon barely two years out of medical school, saw one of his first patients in private practice at the New York Memorial Hospital. Although he’d only finished his residency earlier the same year, he'd already gained a good reputation and many considered him a rising star of the New York surgical scene.
The seventeen year old patient had a painful, rapidly growing lump on the back of her right hand. She had pinched the unlucky appendage between two railway carriage seats on a transcontinental trip to Alaska some months before, and when the bruise failed to heal she assumed the injury had become infected. However the bruise turned into a bulge, the pain steadily worsened, and her baffled doctors were eventually compelled to call for Dr. Coley. As a surgical man, Coley would never have guessed that this innocuous referral would take his career in a totally new direction– into an unusual branch of medicine now known as cancer immunotherapy.
At first Dr. Coley was also uncertain about the diagnosis. But as the girl’s condition rapidly deteriorated– with the lump becoming larger, more painful, and associated with the loss of sensation in some of the surrounding skin– the awful truth became apparent. She had a sarcoma, a type of cancer that affects bone and connective tissue in the body. Unfortunately, 19th century medicine offered very few treatment options.
On November 8th, Coley amputated her arm at the elbow. Although the operation appeared to go well, the girl– named Elizabeth Dashiell– developed severe abdominal pain three weeks later. Soon thereafter she noticed more lumps in her breasts and armpits, signs that the cancer was metastasizing, or spreading. She rapidly lost strength and died on January 23rd 1891, a scant three and a half months after her initial consultation, with a traumatized Dr. Coley at her bedside.
Elizabeth’s death hit the young surgeon hard. While a more experienced physician might have shrugged away the apparent failure and moved on, Coley was determined to do something. His ensuing efforts culminated in the development of a famous fluid that, for a time, appeared to promise the fulfillment of that long-held dream: a universal cure for cancer.
Coley began by poring through the hospital’s records, looking for clues from previous sarcoma cases that might lead to better treatments in the future. He soon found what he was looking for: the case of a German man who came to the hospital with an egg-sized sarcoma in his left cheek some seven years earlier. There were several attempts to excise the tumour but none of them were successful– each time the cancer came back, as aggressive as before. The final operation could only partially remove the huge mass, leaving an open wound that subsequently became infected. The unfortunate immigrant was deemed a terminal case.
Yet four and a half months later, the man was discharged with no trace of disease. Coley personally tracked down the former patient to verify that the miraculous cure had taken place. Indeed, the man was healthy and happily settled into his new life in the United States. The records showed that after the wound became infected with a commonplace bacterium, Streptococcus pyogenes, the patient went through several bouts of fever. With each attack of fever the tumour shrank until eventually it disappeared entirely, leaving only a large scar under the left ear. Coley surmised that the infection had stimulated the German’s immune system– as evidenced by the repeated fevers– and that it was this immune response that had caused the eradication of the cancer.
The story so convinced Coley that he– perhaps cavalierly– contrived to contaminate his next ten suitable sarcoma cases with Streptococcus. His initial approach was to inject a solution of live bacteria deep into the tumour mass on a repeated basis over several months. The first patient to undergo this treatment was a bedridden man with inoperable sarcoma in the abdominal wall, bladder, and pelvis. Using this experimental method, the patient was cured spectacularly. He staged a full recovery, and survived another twenty-six years before dying from a heart attack. But subsequent results were mixed; sometimes it was difficult to get the infection to take hold, and in two cases the cancer responded well to treatment but the patients died from the Streptococcus infection.
Coley’s discovery, as it turns out, was actually a re-discovery. The idea of a link between acute infection and the resolution of tumours was not new, and the phenomenon of infection-related "spontaneous regression" of cancer has been documented throughout history. A 13th century Italian saint was reputed to have his tumour-afflicted leg miraculously healed shortly after the malignant growth burst through the skin and became infected. Crude cancer immunotherapies working along similar lines to Coley’s early experiments were known in the 18th and 19th centuries, and may extend back to the time of the pharaohs. Ancient writings suggest that the renowned Egyptian physician Imhotep may have used a similar infect-and-incise method to treat tumours.
But Coley took those first important steps in dragging this old remedy into the twentieth century. After the fatalities with the ‘live’ version of his therapy, he developed an improved fluid containing killed bacteria of two different strains, Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens. This was based on the idea that the dead bacteria would still have the immune-stimulating capability of their living brethren (in the form of purported ‘toxins’), but not share their inconvenient tendency to cause death. His invention became variously known as ‘Coley’s Toxins’, ‘Coley’s Vaccine’, ‘Mixed Bacterial Toxins’ or ‘Coley Fluid.’ The treatment was met with considerable success, with one study in 1999 suggesting that it was at least equally as effective in treating cancer as conventional modern therapies. With due care in dosing and management of the induced fever, it was also remarkably safe.
Although Coley took the concept of immunotherapy much further than his pharaonic forebears, he had no clear idea how his toxins actually worked, and the tools did not yet exist for him to find out. But given the rapid scientific progress at the turn of the last century, he reasoned that a deeper understanding of his therapy would arrive soon enough. Although the true extent of his "Toxin" success has been questioned by historians, the validity of his approach has never been seriously called into doubt. Indeed his results are regularly cited in the cancer research literature to this day.
Over the following years Coley continued to refine his technique. He determined that the toxins should be administered to patients at progressively higher doses to counter the body’s innate "immune tolerance" to the treatment. Other physicians in America and Europe also experimented with the method, and found that the toxins appeared to work just as well in a number of different non-sarcoma cancer types such as carcinoma, lymphoma, and melanoma. They could also be given intravenously some distance from the site of the tumour, and still be effective. Variations on the basic bacterial recipe and different dosing regimes were tried, depending on the individual patient and the particular cancer’s type and proliferation. Through his career Coley himself treated over one hundred patients with his concoction, and countless more were treated by other doctors.
As the fame of his fluid grew, so did Dr Coley’s stature: in 1915 he became head of the Bone Service at the New York Memorial Hospital (which later became the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center). By the time he died in 1936, Coley’s Toxins were mentioned in a number of different surgical textbooks as a standard anti-cancer therapy.
Conventional modern medicine, however, very rarely employs Coley’s Toxins in the treatment of cancer, for reasons almost as complicated as the human immune system itself. One concern is the far-from-complete understanding of the mechanism of action; generally, doctors are reluctant to administer treatments whose workings they don’t fully comprehend. The stimulated human immune system is a whirling tempest of different physiological and biochemical responses, and even now there’s much uncertainty about how Coley’s Toxins modified this complex mechanism to better attack its cancerous target. One theory stresses the importance of the fluid-induced fever in killing the cancer cells; another considers the debris-engulfing macrophage cells to be the main players, while others consider various different immune messenger molecules– or cytokines– to be important.
The eclipsing of Coley’s Toxins also had something to do with the concurrent development of radiation therapy and, a little later, chemotherapy. Soon after Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895, the possibility of using radioactivity to treat cancer was investigated. The technology was exciting, new, and developing fast along well-understood principles. Although the first results of radiotherapy weren’t all that impressive, it had the advantage of fractional doses, and once the equipment was in place it didn’t require the complicated, patient-specific preparation which was needed with Coley’s Toxins. Likewise chemotherapy was based on known scientific principles, and could be manufactured and used relatively easily.
Furthermore, both radiotherapy and chemotherapy have an immune-suppressing side-effect. Since both treatments kill the rapidly dividing cells of the immune system along with the rapidly dividing cancer cells, both can be used together if care is taken. But immune-stimulating Coley’s Toxins work entirely differently, and their effect would be cancelled out if used at the same time as high-dose immunosuppressant chemo- or radiotherapy. It became an either/or situation– and in the end, the fashionable new treatments won out over Coley’s fiddly reworking of an ancient 'natural' remedy.
So when the US Food and Drug Administration changed the status of Coley’s Toxins to that of a 'new drug' in 1963– meaning that it could only be used in clinical trials, and greatly reducing its availability– it seemed that its time had already long passed. But cancer immunotherapy does have limited applications today. Perhaps its most frequent mainstream use is in the treatment of bladder cancer; solutions containing the tuberculosis vaccine are routinely instilled into cancer-affected bladders, and are effective in causing regression of tumour deposits. It is theorized that the bladder's immune response deals with the cancer in a similar way to the whole-body immune effect of Coley’s Toxins. Melanoma, a particularly nasty type of skin cancer that responds poorly to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, is sometimes treated with an immune-stimulating cytokine called interferon.
In some ways this century-old form of treatment is still a fringe area of medicine. But researchers have once again begun to probe the possibilities of immunotherapy. New antibody-based treatments like Mabthera and Herceptin are making a real difference in the treatment of common cancers like lymphoma and breast cancer. Although these therapies don’t stimulate the body’s immunity as a whole, they are based on antibody molecules which are key components of the human immune system. They show that our increasing knowledge of the molecular nitty-gritty of the body’s own defence and repair network is starting to make a real difference in the battle against cancer. One tumour at a time, such advances in modern medicine are finally vindicating William Coley and his one-hundred-year-old cancer-killing concoction.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
10 things your restaurant won't tell you
1. "It's more about the sizzle than the steak."
Business is good for the restaurant industry. Americans now spend roughly half their food budget dining out, and restaurants expect revenue of more than $537 billion in 2007. That's a 67% increase since 1997.
But it's not just our collective avoidance of the kitchen that's pumping profits: Restaurants work every angle these days, using marketing psychology to get you to spend more.
At legendary Aureole Las Vegas, spandex-clad "wine angels" retrieve bottles from a 42-foot-tall spirits tower. The thinking behind the spectacle: "Anything that gets patrons' attention will get them to spend," says restaurant designer Mark Stech-Novak.
Fast-food outlets use a high-stimulus environment to maximize the source of their profit: "It encourages faster turnover," says Stephani Robson, a senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. "Specifically, the use of bright light, bright colors, upbeat music and seating that does not encourage lolling."
Even menus are rigged. "We list the item that makes the most profit first so it catches your eye," says restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky, "and bury the highest-cost item in the middle."
2. "Eating here could make you sick."
The 2006 E. coli outbreak that started at a New Jersey Taco Bell and sickened more than 60 people was traced to green onions. But food-borne illness isn't the only cause for concern: In a separate December incident, 373 people in Indianapolis got sick after eating at an Olive Garden where three employees tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus.
"You don't call out (sick) unless you're on your deathbed," says freelance chef Leah Grossman. Indeed, according to a recent study, 58% of salaried New York City restaurant workers reported going to work when sick; the number is even higher for those without benefits.
"A lot of poor, transient people work in restaurants," says Peter Francis, a co-author of industry exposé "How to Burn Down the House." "They're not giving up the $100 they'd make in a shift because they're sick."
How can you protect yourself? Check inspection results, which are often posted online by local departments of public health. Or just visit the restroom; it "tells you everything you need to know about a restaurant," Francis says.
3. "Our markups are ridiculous."
It's no secret that restaurants enjoy huge markups on certain items: Coffee, tea and sodas, for example, typically cost restaurants 15 to 20 cents per serving, and pasta, which costs pennies, can be dressed up with more expensive fare and sold for $25 a dish or more. At a fine-dining restaurant, the average cost of food is 38% to 42% of the menu price, says Kevin Moll, the CEO and president of National Food Service Advisors. In other words, most restaurants are making roughly 60% on anything they serve.
It's not all gravy though. Restaurants keep only 4 cents of every dollar spent by a customer, says Hudson Riehle, the vice president of research and information services at the National Restaurant Association. The remainder of the money, he says, is divided among food and beverage purchases, payroll, occupancy and other overhead costs.
Given the slim profit margin, many restaurants rely on savvy pricing to create the illusion of value. Putting a chicken dish on the menu for $21 will make a $15 pasta dish, where the restaurant is making a big profit, seem like a bargain, says Gregg Rapp, the owner of consulting firm MenuTechnologies.net.
4. "Big Brother is watching you . . . eat."
No one likes having their every move scrutinized, but that may be just what's happening at your favorite restaurant. Cameras are popping up everywhere, from four-star eateries to the place where you grab your lunchtime sandwich.
At historic Randy's Steakhouse in Frisco, Texas, where checks average $45 to $50, co-owner Don Burks has installed 12 cameras around the premises. Of those, two pick up activity in the dining rooms, and two are aimed at the bar.
"We've had customers stand on chairs to try to take out a camera," Burks says. "But the cameras aren't even pointed at them; they're pointed at the wine rack." Their primary purpose: deterring employee theft.
At some restaurants, however, the cameras are indeed trained on the tables. At New York City's four-star Daniel, for example, four closed-circuit cameras monitor the dining rooms, offering a bird's-eye view of every plate.
"It's about maintaining a quality of service," says Daniel spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. "With the cameras, the chef can tell when each course needs to be plated and served." So much for that romantic dinner for two.
5. "There's something fishy about our seafood."
Even when you pay top dollar for a seafood dish, you might not get what you're expecting. About 70% of the time, for example, those Maryland crab cakes on the menu weren't made using crabs from Chesapeake Bay, says James Anderson, the chairman of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. Because of high demand, crabs are often from other Eastern states or imported from Thailand and Vietnam. (Look closely at the menu: "Maryland-style" crab is the giveaway.)
There's also the problem of outright substitution -- inexpensive fish, such as pollack, getting passed off as something pricier, like cod. How widespread is the problem? In 2006 the Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal sent fish samples to a lab to prove that four out of 10 local restaurants were pawning a cheaper fish as grouper. The same lab also checked seafood from 24 U.S. cities and found that, overall, consumers have less than a 50-50 shot at being served the fish they ordered.
What can you do? Ask where the fish comes from. "If they're not sure if the fish is from Alaska or Asia, I order the beef," Anderson says.
6. "Reservation? What reservation?"
When Timothy Dillon, 34, showed up at new Chicago trattoria Terragusto for his friend's birthday, he wasn't expecting a wait. He'd made a reservation for four, then called the day of to confirm and add one more. The restaurant told him no problem, but when the party showed up, they were met with a long wait.
"After almost an hour of standing by the bar being ignored, we ended up leaving for another restaurant," Dillon says. Terragusto says it was its first week open: "We were probably working out a lot of glitches," a spokesperson says.
As Dillon discovered, a reservation isn't a guarantee. "Overbooking is almost a necessary evil," says John Fischer, associate professor of table service at the Culinary Institute of America. Restaurants calculate their average no-show percentage for any given night, then overbook the restaurant by that much, hoping it will come out even.
How to avoid Dillon's fate? It's considered poor taste to offer a tip before you're seated, Fischer says, so if it's your first time, inquire politely after 15 minutes. But go ahead and slip the manager or maître d' $10 or $20 on the way out; it should ensure you're seated promptly next time.
7. "Our specials are anything but."
"I'm very careful about ordering my food," says Rick Manson, the owner of Chef Rick's restaurant in Santa Maria, Calif. If he orders oysters, Manson says, he'll offer multiple dishes on the menu that use oysters, "to make sure I use every one of them." Nonetheless, countless variables can leave surplus ingredients at the end of the day -- which often become tomorrow's special.
"It could be the chef legitimately wants to try out something new," says Stephen Zagor, the founder of consulting firm Hospitality & Culinary Resources. "But it could also be something nearing the end of its shelf life that needs to get out of the kitchen."
How can you tell a good special from a bad one? Watch out for "an expensive item used in a way that's minimizing its flavor," Zagor says, such as a lamb chop that's been cut, braised and put into a dish where it's a supporting player.
Pastas, stews and soups containing expensive meats are also suspect. "There's an old saying in the restaurant industry," says David A. Holmes, the vice president and director of Out East Restaurant Consultants. "'Sauce and gravy cover up a lot of mistakes.'"
8. "There's no such thing as too much butter."
Think that salmon fillet you ordered for dinner is good for you? Think again. Restaurants load even their healthiest fare with butter and other calorie-heavy add-ons. Restaurant meals average 1,000 to 1,500 calories, says Milton Stokes, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. That's roughly two-thirds of the daily average calories recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And according to a recent study, women who eat out five times a week consume an average of 290 additional calories per day.
Though most Americans assume that fast food is the worst offender, similar fare at casual sit-down restaurants can be even more caloric. The classic burger at Ruby Tuesday, for example, has a whopping 1,013 calories and 71 grams of fat. The McDonald's Big Mac, with its 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, seems downright diet-worthy by comparison.
"We butter our hamburger buns," says Julie Reid, the vice president of culinary for Ruby Tuesday, "so we tell people if they're looking to cut calories, they shouldn't eat the bun." If that sounds less than appetizing, try splitting an entrée with someone, or order an appetizer instead of a main dish.
9. "Nice tip -- too bad your waiter won't get it."
Just because you tip your waitress 10 bucks, it doesn't mean she's going home with that money. More than likely, she'll have to pass on some of it to the people who helped her serve you: The bartender might get $2, and the busboy $3 to $5. It's called a tip pool, and it's becoming standard practice in many restaurants. "It happens often that if someone leaves a voluntary tip (for their server), a significant portion of that money is going to other people," Zagor says.
According to federal law, only employees who customarily receive tips -- wait staff, hosts, bartenders and bussers -- can participate in the tip pool. But sometimes management takes a cut. In 2006, waitstaff from the Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Mass., won $2.5 million in damages after complaining that managers dipped into their tips.
Mandatory gratuities are also divvied up. At high-end restaurants such as New York City's Per Se and Napa Valley's French Laundry, both owned by chef Thomas Keller, the practice is called service compris.
"The 20% service charge is clearly stated on the menu, and it's equally divided among the staff," says a spokesperson for both restaurants. Though the tip pool is designed to foster a team environment among staff, for customers it means something else entirely: that your gratuity isn't specifically rewarding the waiter or sommelier who provided you with exemplary service.
10. "Never go out to eat on a Monday."
If you think that Monday, when restaurants tend not to be crowded, is a great time to eat out, think again. "You're being served all of the weekend's leftovers," says Francis, the exposé co-author. Kitchens prepare food on a first-in, first-out basis, meaning whatever is oldest gets served first. It's a way to ensure that everything on the menu is as fresh as possible.
The system works great most days, but it can run into a little glitch over the weekend. Distributors typically take Sunday off and make their last deliveries Saturday morning, which means that by Monday any food not used over the weekend is at least three to four days old. And it will be served before the same ingredients arriving in Monday's delivery.
What to do if you wish to dine out on a Monday? Ignore your instincts and go to a place that's perpetually crowded. "If you are open 24/7 and busy all the time," says New York chef Lucia Calvete, "all your ingredients are fresh all the time."
This article was reported and written by Christine Bockelman for SmartMoney.
Business is good for the restaurant industry. Americans now spend roughly half their food budget dining out, and restaurants expect revenue of more than $537 billion in 2007. That's a 67% increase since 1997.
But it's not just our collective avoidance of the kitchen that's pumping profits: Restaurants work every angle these days, using marketing psychology to get you to spend more.
At legendary Aureole Las Vegas, spandex-clad "wine angels" retrieve bottles from a 42-foot-tall spirits tower. The thinking behind the spectacle: "Anything that gets patrons' attention will get them to spend," says restaurant designer Mark Stech-Novak.
Fast-food outlets use a high-stimulus environment to maximize the source of their profit: "It encourages faster turnover," says Stephani Robson, a senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. "Specifically, the use of bright light, bright colors, upbeat music and seating that does not encourage lolling."
Even menus are rigged. "We list the item that makes the most profit first so it catches your eye," says restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky, "and bury the highest-cost item in the middle."
2. "Eating here could make you sick."
The 2006 E. coli outbreak that started at a New Jersey Taco Bell and sickened more than 60 people was traced to green onions. But food-borne illness isn't the only cause for concern: In a separate December incident, 373 people in Indianapolis got sick after eating at an Olive Garden where three employees tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus.
"You don't call out (sick) unless you're on your deathbed," says freelance chef Leah Grossman. Indeed, according to a recent study, 58% of salaried New York City restaurant workers reported going to work when sick; the number is even higher for those without benefits.
"A lot of poor, transient people work in restaurants," says Peter Francis, a co-author of industry exposé "How to Burn Down the House." "They're not giving up the $100 they'd make in a shift because they're sick."
How can you protect yourself? Check inspection results, which are often posted online by local departments of public health. Or just visit the restroom; it "tells you everything you need to know about a restaurant," Francis says.
3. "Our markups are ridiculous."
It's no secret that restaurants enjoy huge markups on certain items: Coffee, tea and sodas, for example, typically cost restaurants 15 to 20 cents per serving, and pasta, which costs pennies, can be dressed up with more expensive fare and sold for $25 a dish or more. At a fine-dining restaurant, the average cost of food is 38% to 42% of the menu price, says Kevin Moll, the CEO and president of National Food Service Advisors. In other words, most restaurants are making roughly 60% on anything they serve.
It's not all gravy though. Restaurants keep only 4 cents of every dollar spent by a customer, says Hudson Riehle, the vice president of research and information services at the National Restaurant Association. The remainder of the money, he says, is divided among food and beverage purchases, payroll, occupancy and other overhead costs.
Given the slim profit margin, many restaurants rely on savvy pricing to create the illusion of value. Putting a chicken dish on the menu for $21 will make a $15 pasta dish, where the restaurant is making a big profit, seem like a bargain, says Gregg Rapp, the owner of consulting firm MenuTechnologies.net.
4. "Big Brother is watching you . . . eat."
No one likes having their every move scrutinized, but that may be just what's happening at your favorite restaurant. Cameras are popping up everywhere, from four-star eateries to the place where you grab your lunchtime sandwich.
At historic Randy's Steakhouse in Frisco, Texas, where checks average $45 to $50, co-owner Don Burks has installed 12 cameras around the premises. Of those, two pick up activity in the dining rooms, and two are aimed at the bar.
"We've had customers stand on chairs to try to take out a camera," Burks says. "But the cameras aren't even pointed at them; they're pointed at the wine rack." Their primary purpose: deterring employee theft.
At some restaurants, however, the cameras are indeed trained on the tables. At New York City's four-star Daniel, for example, four closed-circuit cameras monitor the dining rooms, offering a bird's-eye view of every plate.
"It's about maintaining a quality of service," says Daniel spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. "With the cameras, the chef can tell when each course needs to be plated and served." So much for that romantic dinner for two.
5. "There's something fishy about our seafood."
Even when you pay top dollar for a seafood dish, you might not get what you're expecting. About 70% of the time, for example, those Maryland crab cakes on the menu weren't made using crabs from Chesapeake Bay, says James Anderson, the chairman of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. Because of high demand, crabs are often from other Eastern states or imported from Thailand and Vietnam. (Look closely at the menu: "Maryland-style" crab is the giveaway.)
There's also the problem of outright substitution -- inexpensive fish, such as pollack, getting passed off as something pricier, like cod. How widespread is the problem? In 2006 the Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal sent fish samples to a lab to prove that four out of 10 local restaurants were pawning a cheaper fish as grouper. The same lab also checked seafood from 24 U.S. cities and found that, overall, consumers have less than a 50-50 shot at being served the fish they ordered.
What can you do? Ask where the fish comes from. "If they're not sure if the fish is from Alaska or Asia, I order the beef," Anderson says.
6. "Reservation? What reservation?"
When Timothy Dillon, 34, showed up at new Chicago trattoria Terragusto for his friend's birthday, he wasn't expecting a wait. He'd made a reservation for four, then called the day of to confirm and add one more. The restaurant told him no problem, but when the party showed up, they were met with a long wait.
"After almost an hour of standing by the bar being ignored, we ended up leaving for another restaurant," Dillon says. Terragusto says it was its first week open: "We were probably working out a lot of glitches," a spokesperson says.
As Dillon discovered, a reservation isn't a guarantee. "Overbooking is almost a necessary evil," says John Fischer, associate professor of table service at the Culinary Institute of America. Restaurants calculate their average no-show percentage for any given night, then overbook the restaurant by that much, hoping it will come out even.
How to avoid Dillon's fate? It's considered poor taste to offer a tip before you're seated, Fischer says, so if it's your first time, inquire politely after 15 minutes. But go ahead and slip the manager or maître d' $10 or $20 on the way out; it should ensure you're seated promptly next time.
7. "Our specials are anything but."
"I'm very careful about ordering my food," says Rick Manson, the owner of Chef Rick's restaurant in Santa Maria, Calif. If he orders oysters, Manson says, he'll offer multiple dishes on the menu that use oysters, "to make sure I use every one of them." Nonetheless, countless variables can leave surplus ingredients at the end of the day -- which often become tomorrow's special.
"It could be the chef legitimately wants to try out something new," says Stephen Zagor, the founder of consulting firm Hospitality & Culinary Resources. "But it could also be something nearing the end of its shelf life that needs to get out of the kitchen."
How can you tell a good special from a bad one? Watch out for "an expensive item used in a way that's minimizing its flavor," Zagor says, such as a lamb chop that's been cut, braised and put into a dish where it's a supporting player.
Pastas, stews and soups containing expensive meats are also suspect. "There's an old saying in the restaurant industry," says David A. Holmes, the vice president and director of Out East Restaurant Consultants. "'Sauce and gravy cover up a lot of mistakes.'"
8. "There's no such thing as too much butter."
Think that salmon fillet you ordered for dinner is good for you? Think again. Restaurants load even their healthiest fare with butter and other calorie-heavy add-ons. Restaurant meals average 1,000 to 1,500 calories, says Milton Stokes, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. That's roughly two-thirds of the daily average calories recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And according to a recent study, women who eat out five times a week consume an average of 290 additional calories per day.
Though most Americans assume that fast food is the worst offender, similar fare at casual sit-down restaurants can be even more caloric. The classic burger at Ruby Tuesday, for example, has a whopping 1,013 calories and 71 grams of fat. The McDonald's Big Mac, with its 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, seems downright diet-worthy by comparison.
"We butter our hamburger buns," says Julie Reid, the vice president of culinary for Ruby Tuesday, "so we tell people if they're looking to cut calories, they shouldn't eat the bun." If that sounds less than appetizing, try splitting an entrée with someone, or order an appetizer instead of a main dish.
9. "Nice tip -- too bad your waiter won't get it."
Just because you tip your waitress 10 bucks, it doesn't mean she's going home with that money. More than likely, she'll have to pass on some of it to the people who helped her serve you: The bartender might get $2, and the busboy $3 to $5. It's called a tip pool, and it's becoming standard practice in many restaurants. "It happens often that if someone leaves a voluntary tip (for their server), a significant portion of that money is going to other people," Zagor says.
According to federal law, only employees who customarily receive tips -- wait staff, hosts, bartenders and bussers -- can participate in the tip pool. But sometimes management takes a cut. In 2006, waitstaff from the Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Mass., won $2.5 million in damages after complaining that managers dipped into their tips.
Mandatory gratuities are also divvied up. At high-end restaurants such as New York City's Per Se and Napa Valley's French Laundry, both owned by chef Thomas Keller, the practice is called service compris.
"The 20% service charge is clearly stated on the menu, and it's equally divided among the staff," says a spokesperson for both restaurants. Though the tip pool is designed to foster a team environment among staff, for customers it means something else entirely: that your gratuity isn't specifically rewarding the waiter or sommelier who provided you with exemplary service.
10. "Never go out to eat on a Monday."
If you think that Monday, when restaurants tend not to be crowded, is a great time to eat out, think again. "You're being served all of the weekend's leftovers," says Francis, the exposé co-author. Kitchens prepare food on a first-in, first-out basis, meaning whatever is oldest gets served first. It's a way to ensure that everything on the menu is as fresh as possible.
The system works great most days, but it can run into a little glitch over the weekend. Distributors typically take Sunday off and make their last deliveries Saturday morning, which means that by Monday any food not used over the weekend is at least three to four days old. And it will be served before the same ingredients arriving in Monday's delivery.
What to do if you wish to dine out on a Monday? Ignore your instincts and go to a place that's perpetually crowded. "If you are open 24/7 and busy all the time," says New York chef Lucia Calvete, "all your ingredients are fresh all the time."
This article was reported and written by Christine Bockelman for SmartMoney.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Thanks for the song...
Thanks to 2 members of my extended family, I now have a song stuck in my head! I guess there are worse things to have stuck in your head. Usually, I have stuff like T1 rates and integrated T1 engineering info stuck in there. Oh well.
For the enjoyment of the rest of you, here's what's stuck. Hey! At least it's not "It's a Small World".
Title of that little diddy is "Let's Make a Baby King". This version is by Michael English. Maybe this Christmas we'll get the hear the 2 particular people who got it stuck in my head do their own version! (Hint. Hint.)
}Davoice
For the enjoyment of the rest of you, here's what's stuck. Hey! At least it's not "It's a Small World".
Title of that little diddy is "Let's Make a Baby King". This version is by Michael English. Maybe this Christmas we'll get the hear the 2 particular people who got it stuck in my head do their own version! (Hint. Hint.)
}Davoice
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Sick Children, Working Moms
Ellen Bravo, The Nation
Teachers tell researchers they've never seen so many children coming to school sick. Guilt-ridden mothers share stories of sending ailing kids to day care or school out of fear that staying home with them would result in discipline on the job.
These stories don't surprise me. But what was startling was hearing how many kids drag themselves to school sick to keep a parent from losing pay or getting fired.
I first became aware of this three years ago at a 9to5 leadership conference in Washington, DC. Members were getting ready to tell their elected officials why they need paid sick days--something half the workforce, and three-quarters of low-wage women, do not have. For these workers, staying home to care for one's own illness or a sick family member could mean not only loss of pay, but loss of a job.
First I stopped by the group from Wisconsin and heard Robbie Bickerstaff describe how her son Eric, then age 7, got hit by a car on the way home from school but chose not to tell her for fear she'd lose her second-shift job if she didn't go in to work. Later an older sibling called her to say that Eric was crying because his arm hurt from being hit by the car and she had to take him to the hospital. When Robbie informed her boss, he was adamant: "Leave and you're fired." Her pleas didn't move him. She did leave; she was fired. Eric turned out to have a broken arm.
I moved on to the 9to5 members from Pennsylvania and shared Robbie's story. Carissa Peppard, the 21-year-old daughter of activist Kiki Peppard, was sitting next to her mom. "I've never told my mother this before," she said, "but when you're a kid, you know everything. Whenever I was sick, I'd ask myself, 'Should I tell Mom? Will we have groceries this week if she stays home with me?' If I could, I just dragged myself to school."
I related these stories recently at a briefing for Congressional staff organized by 9to5. Among the recommendations that came out of that briefing was support for the Healthy Families Act. On the panel with me was Jeannetta Allen, an energetic 18-year-old with a disability that affects her balance and her speech. She'd just testified how lack of paid sick days had cost her mother a job.
"I'm that kid," Jeannetta said when I'd finished. "After my mother was fired, I always tried to go to school no matter how I felt. I didn't want her to be fired again."
A chain reaction started among 9to5 members in the audience. One after another, they told stories of discovering a child was walking around with bruised ribs or the flu or strep throat because staying home meant Mom could lose her job.
"My son had stopped eating," Christina said. "He thought it would save on groceries."
Nearly twenty years ago, a Wisconsin coalition brought a group of children to Madison, Wisconsin, to fight for a state family and medical leave bill. They represented the range of reasons children might need a loved one by their side--childhood cancer, being adopted, death of a grandparent, having a sibling with a developmental disability or asthma, being hit by a car. After listening to the kids' stories, the Secretary of Employment Relations was visibly moved. "You know," he told them, "we're so used to dealing with lobbyists, we forget about those who are affected by our legislation."
Too many elected officials are preaching family values but listening to lobbyists who want those values to end at the workplace door.
It's time we listened to the children instead.
Teachers tell researchers they've never seen so many children coming to school sick. Guilt-ridden mothers share stories of sending ailing kids to day care or school out of fear that staying home with them would result in discipline on the job.
These stories don't surprise me. But what was startling was hearing how many kids drag themselves to school sick to keep a parent from losing pay or getting fired.
I first became aware of this three years ago at a 9to5 leadership conference in Washington, DC. Members were getting ready to tell their elected officials why they need paid sick days--something half the workforce, and three-quarters of low-wage women, do not have. For these workers, staying home to care for one's own illness or a sick family member could mean not only loss of pay, but loss of a job.
First I stopped by the group from Wisconsin and heard Robbie Bickerstaff describe how her son Eric, then age 7, got hit by a car on the way home from school but chose not to tell her for fear she'd lose her second-shift job if she didn't go in to work. Later an older sibling called her to say that Eric was crying because his arm hurt from being hit by the car and she had to take him to the hospital. When Robbie informed her boss, he was adamant: "Leave and you're fired." Her pleas didn't move him. She did leave; she was fired. Eric turned out to have a broken arm.
I moved on to the 9to5 members from Pennsylvania and shared Robbie's story. Carissa Peppard, the 21-year-old daughter of activist Kiki Peppard, was sitting next to her mom. "I've never told my mother this before," she said, "but when you're a kid, you know everything. Whenever I was sick, I'd ask myself, 'Should I tell Mom? Will we have groceries this week if she stays home with me?' If I could, I just dragged myself to school."
I related these stories recently at a briefing for Congressional staff organized by 9to5. Among the recommendations that came out of that briefing was support for the Healthy Families Act. On the panel with me was Jeannetta Allen, an energetic 18-year-old with a disability that affects her balance and her speech. She'd just testified how lack of paid sick days had cost her mother a job.
"I'm that kid," Jeannetta said when I'd finished. "After my mother was fired, I always tried to go to school no matter how I felt. I didn't want her to be fired again."
A chain reaction started among 9to5 members in the audience. One after another, they told stories of discovering a child was walking around with bruised ribs or the flu or strep throat because staying home meant Mom could lose her job.
"My son had stopped eating," Christina said. "He thought it would save on groceries."
Nearly twenty years ago, a Wisconsin coalition brought a group of children to Madison, Wisconsin, to fight for a state family and medical leave bill. They represented the range of reasons children might need a loved one by their side--childhood cancer, being adopted, death of a grandparent, having a sibling with a developmental disability or asthma, being hit by a car. After listening to the kids' stories, the Secretary of Employment Relations was visibly moved. "You know," he told them, "we're so used to dealing with lobbyists, we forget about those who are affected by our legislation."
Too many elected officials are preaching family values but listening to lobbyists who want those values to end at the workplace door.
It's time we listened to the children instead.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Church Cancelled, Service Begins
Across the country, churches are closing their doors on Sunday mornings to serve their communities through the new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Will you join them?
By Heather Johnson
Curtis Lake thought the flood of 1996—when eight inches of water filled his suburban home—was disastrous. But what the first week of November 2006 brought him and the other residents of Sumner, Wash., turned out to be much worse. Nearly 10 inches of rain fell on the town of 10,000 just south of Seattle. Seven rivers flooded. Streets filled with mud and silt. And this time, Lake’s belongings sat under 18 inches of water. Also destroyed were 33 of the 41 mobile homes of River Park Estates, the senior living park he manages.
“We lost everything,” Lake says. “And most of the residents just left.”
But, to his surprise and relief, help arrived. Nearby Calvary Community Church (cccsumner.org) had cancelled that weekend’s services to head out and serve the community as part of a new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Little did the congregation know their service weekend would be so well-timed; Sumner had never needed so much help.
Early on that Saturday morning, a forlorn Lake stood surveying the damage at the River Park Estates’ front gate, when more than 250 volunteers “just started showing up,” he recalls. Volunteers set out to save salvageable items by removing mud and sifting through personal belongings. Clean-up crews from the church eventually emptied 49 trash dumpsters of debris collected at the mobile home park.
“You know, Calvary was just an absolute God-send,” says Lake, who now chats with the church’s associate pastor on a regular basis. “I saw those people there to help, and it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”
Demonstrating Christian service is the heart of the Faith in Action campaign created by leading Christian publisher Zondervan (zondervan.com), Christian relief organization World Vision (worldvision.org) and church communications firm Outreach Inc. (outreach.com) [parent company of Outreach magazine]. The three organizations have put together a name and program to a movement that has been gaining momentum for more than a decade, starting with pioneers like Vineyard Cincinnati founder Steve Sjogren’s servant evangelism ministry (servantevangelism.com) and Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark. (fbclr.org), with Pastor Robert Lewis. Eighteen years ago, Lewis led a focused, churchwide reorganization to make serving the community a core value of the church.
Faith in Action focuses a congregation’s attention on local, national and global needs, as well as God’s heart for service. For a full month, sermons and worship services, small group discussions and daily devotional readings, all lay the foundation for the campaign’s culminating event—“Faith in Action Sunday” community service project(s) and the corresponding cancellation of regular worship services. Moreover, the campaign also has an intentional outreach focus, where unchurched friends and community members are invited to join in the volunteer efforts, serving alongside church members.
It has been said that the unchurched don’t care about what Christians know until they know that Christians care. And to that, Calvary Community and many other U.S. churches are saying OK, we’ll show you by putting our faith into action.
Following the leader
“I asked why in the world we’d want to go through the trouble of putting our faith into action when it involved risk, reaching out, and rearranging schedules and resources,” says Jeffrey Olsen of Grace Community Church in Wesley Chapel, Fla. (exploregrace.com). “And of course, the answer is in the person of Jesus,” he told his church of 75 on the first Sunday of its Faith in Action campaign. The first week’s message, titled “Detour,” kicked off with a sermon warning people that their regular schedules would be interrupted if they choose to commit to serving.
“Two thousand years ago when Jesus came to earth, He was the only person who was able to both fully love God with His whole heart and also to fully love His neighbor as Himself,” says Olsen. “And although He was the Son of God, He made himself vulnerable and entered a world of risk, pain and hurt.”
A congregation will only take serving their community as seriously as their leader takes it, says World Vision Vice President Steve Haas. This is why the Faith in Action campaign begins from the pulpit.
“As is true in most community endeavors that have any sustaining value, it is the leader’s exhortation and example that moves people to obedience. Jesus’ rabbinical methodology was ‘Let me teach you ... let me show you ... let me watch you do it yourself,’ ” explains Haas. “The pulpit message and affirmation from the leader of the church’s spiritual life are critical ingredients in moving a congregation to biblical faithfulness.”
It made Olsen’s congregation move. On Sunday, Feb. 4, 15 Grace Community groups—nearly 90% of the church’s average attendance—built picnic tables for a foster home, cooked and served meals to young mothers at a crisis pregnancy center and landscaped a local school, among other acts of service in their neighborhood.
However, while some pastors may advocate cancelling Sunday or weekend church services to “be the Church” in their community, many leaders have encountered some internal opposition to the unconventional concept.
“We didn’t have any pushback from church leaders, but we did from some members who had a hard time understanding that we were worshipping through our actions,” explains Stacy Armstrong, community development director at Calvary Community. “Cancelling church is a huge deal. Senior pastors have to be behind it. They have to be the driving force.”
Other churches have chosen not to cancel services, but rather dedicate Saturday and Sunday—after church—to serving. And 50-member Faith Mennonite Church in Hutchinson, Kan., took a different route, offering a special worship service during its normal Sunday school hour before heading out to serve. The church discovered that Sunday morning is actually the most opportune time to serve at the local laundromat; that’s when the most people are there. Participants helped moms fold clothes and entertain children.
Allowing personal transformation
Throughout the four-week campaign, participants complete daily devotions to challenge their current perceptions of the needy and vulnerable, and encourage actions that live out Jesus’ words.
The second week of the devotional, titled “Lens,” asks participants if their view of the world is like Christ’s. Heidi McAdams, a member of Calvary Community, knew her answer immediately after reading Luke 6:30: “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”
McAdams had always avoided eye contact with the homeless man standing on the corner she passed every day on her way to work. “I would think, Oh, he only wants money for cigarettes, or alcohol, or even worse, drugs,” she says. “I’d slide my hand over and make sure all the car doors were locked, then breathe a sigh of relief when the light turned green and I could go.”
After working through the judgments, fears and challenges of servanthood, both individually and with her small group, McAdams couldn’t help but change her perception. “I realized I had been very narrow-minded about the homeless people who stand on the corner. God wanted to open my eyes and heart,” she says.
And He succeeded. For her service project ironically, McAdams was assigned to a local ministry to homeless people called the Dream Center. There she prepared food, and even ate and fellowshipped with them.
“After that, I knew I would never look at the man on the corner the same way. Next time, I can share a blanket or food,” says McAdams. “Now I ask, ‘God, help me to see what you see.’ ”
This kind of transformation is exactly what Calvary Community’s Armstrong hoped for. “Through the curriculum, light bulbs are coming on,” she says. “People are realizing that we have to ask for forgiveness first, and then if we love God, we have to serve others.”
Strengthening servanthood through groups
Once a week, Faith in Action small groups meet in homes to discuss what they heard on Sunday morning, as well as what they’re learning during their personal devotions. They also work through the week’s DVD-based curriculum and discussion questions in the Faith in Action workbook and engage in corresponding activities that help define local and global needs.
For example, during the second week, groups learn that 29 million children in the United States are growing up in low-income families. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, a family of four must earn an annual income of $40,000—twice the federal poverty level—just to provide their children with the essentials of food, housing and health care. And more than 880,000 people over the age of 25 earned at or below the minimum wage in 2005. So, Faith in Action small groups break up into pairs, which then pretend to be parents of two children: Sarah, 8 and Brett, 6. Both parents work full time, but their combined annual income is only $23,000—not enough to pay for rent, utilities, car insurance, gas, childcare, allergy medicine, etc. The question for Faith in Action participants becomes: How does this exercise challenge my assumptions about people in need?
In addition to completing activities like this one, the small group setting gives church members the opportunity to invite their unchurched friends into a neutral environment to talk about helping others—a topic of universal appeal—as well as share the motivation behind their community service.
Stefanie Alberts and her husband, Gary, group leaders for the Faith in Action campaign at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, Calif. (missionhillschurch.org), experienced this firsthand.
The Albertses invited two couples they work with at their chiropractic practice to join their group—one couple, the Theismans, were unchurched, yet they agreed to come. Then the Albertses asked a neighbor couple, who, although members of Mission Hills, were not active in the church. Not only did the four couples become fast friends, they also energized each other to serve by sharing their fears and hesitations about serving, as well as their successes.
“I’ve always been the guy in back, not liking much attention,” says Doug Reich, one of the group members who works with the Albertses. “But I’ve learned that you don’t have to be a Billy Graham, a movie star or a model in order to change someone’s life. I love the Gospel because of that.”
To make a difference, you can take a widow out to lunch, like Stefanie and Dee Theisman did. Or you can stay later at work—without pay—and help a boss in a wheelchair, like Pam, another group member, did. Sharing stories like these became part of the group’s regular meetings.
“Through our actions, we’re throwing pebbles in the water, and God will help make the ripples,” says Stefanie.
The solidarity built within the Albertses group will also make lasting ripples in the members’ daily lives.
“My Faith in Action group has really allowed me to open up. When we started meeting, I was struggling with clinical depression. But these friendships have helped me face some things I would never have had the courage to face,” says Richard Theisman. “I think now my charter is to reach out and help others who are suffering from depression.”
In addition to that, he and Dee went to church at Mission Hills on Easter Sunday.
Doing what we’re told
On March 25, San Marcos Elementary School in San Marcos, Calif., swarmed with volunteers young and old, painting, weeding, landscaping, cleaning playground equipment, sanitizing the cafeteria, and much more.
“It was just so great!” says the school’s assistant principal, Stephanie Wallace. “To see the community involved in our school is so exciting.”
The project initially began nearly three months ago when Mission Hills’ Pastor of Ministries Carlos Sales stopped by the school in the early days of planning the new church plant’s Faith in Action campaign. He asked Wallace what his congregation could do for the school. The list was endless—or so she thought. But on their service day, some 200 Mission Hills Faith in Action volunteers completed the planned projects within two hours and began doing more than what Wallace had asked.
While Mission Hills volunteers transformed the rundown school, many of the students looked on from the nearby soccer field where their fathers were playing in a community soccer league game. “The kids were wondering what was happening at their school,” explains Wallace. “When they came back on Monday, we got to tell them that all these people pulled together to help make the school better.”
As Mission Hills transitioned from its mother church campus to its first building, the service day fueled more momentum for the new church, which had already grown to 900 adults. “We didn’t want to move into this community and say, ‘Hey, come to us.’ I wanted to enter the community with the DNA of service, saying, ‘We’re here to be part of the community and serve,’ ” says Sales.
But an integral part of Faith in Action’s serving is also mobilizing those outside of the church. Grace Community in Wesley Chapel, Fla., found that its service day impacted many more than just volunteers and those they served.
Wanting to include the community, the church intentionally partnered with area schools in advance. An entire school PTA helped the church collect donations of food for the hungry—500 pounds of non-perishables. And several classes at another school collected donations for Grace Community to assemble AIDS Caregiver Kits on service Sunday.
“Even though we’re a smaller church and didn’t have a lot of people on our big service day, there were a lot more people in the community who felt like they were part of what we were doing,” explains Grace Community’s Olsen.
Across the country, churches’ campaigns are ending with action, as volunteers actually do what God commands. “The success of a church’s spiritual enterprise is never that sanctuary seats are filled, services are orderly or that the sermon packs power,” explains World Vision’s Haas. “God measures impact based on faithfulness to His directives, obedience to His promptings, sensitivity to His Spirit. A church must ‘not merely listen to the Word,’ but instead ‘do what it says.’ ”
Making service a lifestyle
“We surveyed our participants, and 100% said they would do Faith in Action again,” says Armstrong of Calvary Community. “We have to do this again. We have to make service a lifestyle.”
To that end, the church not only plans to organize more campaigns, it will also require all of its leaders and participants to sign a form committing to following up with those they serve.
Curtis Lake and his wife are still recovering from the November flood that hit Sumner, Wash. They moved into one of the remaining mobile homes, but Lake says they won’t soon forget what Calvary Community did for them. In fact, a couple of women who had helped him in November stopped by a few days before Christmas to drop off gift certificates.
And, hopefully, all those who have served nationwide will also not quickly forget the campaign’s power. “I think this experience definitely gave me a glimpse of God’s grace—the grace He has extended to me, and the grace I need to extend to people,” McAdams says. She and her family now regularly head to downtown Seattle to serve food to the homeless. “I want my more positive perspective to be ‘caught’ by my kids,” she says.
Ultimately, Faith in Action is not just a four-week campaign, but a way of living each day. “The church service day was great, but it was pretty easy and not really that intimidating. We could sign up for an hour or two and work with a lot of people we knew,” explains Stefanie Alberts. “The situations that aren’t planned though ... going up to someone and filling their need instantly—whether that be giving a water bottle to a homeless person or even talking to the person you don’t want to talk to—is a bigger challenge and is really what Faith in Action has equipped us to do.”
Heather Johnson is managing editor for Outreach magazine.
The churches interviewed for this piece participated in the Faith in Action pilot program in late 2006 and early 2007. The official campaign material for Faith in Action will be available mid-May 2007.
Getting Started
The Faith in Action churchwide campaign is available to churches at any time, but many are planning to participate on what is being called National Faith in Action Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007. Here’s how to get started:
1. Request a free information kit at putyourfaithinaction.org.
2. If this campaign is right for your church, purchase a Faith in Action Campaign Kit for $49.95.
3. Allow four to 12 weeks for the planning and preparation of your Faith in Action campaign, services and projects. The larger the scope of your campaign, the more time you will need.
4. Using the campaign’s instructive manual, plan and prepare. The campaign planning kit includes sermons, sermon video clips, service project planning guide, promotion suggestions and other resources, as well as samples of all the small group and leader materials.
5. Have sign ups. Based on the number of participants, recruit the necessary number of small group leaders.
6. Order the appropriate amount of small group participant and leader materials.
7. Gather information about potential service projects, and select those that will meet the biggest need, but are also feasible for your church’s size.
8. Share your Faith in Action learnings and ideas with other churches at putyourfaithinaction.org.
-EXCERPTED from Outreach magazine, "Features," May/June 2007
By Heather Johnson
Curtis Lake thought the flood of 1996—when eight inches of water filled his suburban home—was disastrous. But what the first week of November 2006 brought him and the other residents of Sumner, Wash., turned out to be much worse. Nearly 10 inches of rain fell on the town of 10,000 just south of Seattle. Seven rivers flooded. Streets filled with mud and silt. And this time, Lake’s belongings sat under 18 inches of water. Also destroyed were 33 of the 41 mobile homes of River Park Estates, the senior living park he manages.
“We lost everything,” Lake says. “And most of the residents just left.”
But, to his surprise and relief, help arrived. Nearby Calvary Community Church (cccsumner.org) had cancelled that weekend’s services to head out and serve the community as part of a new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Little did the congregation know their service weekend would be so well-timed; Sumner had never needed so much help.
Early on that Saturday morning, a forlorn Lake stood surveying the damage at the River Park Estates’ front gate, when more than 250 volunteers “just started showing up,” he recalls. Volunteers set out to save salvageable items by removing mud and sifting through personal belongings. Clean-up crews from the church eventually emptied 49 trash dumpsters of debris collected at the mobile home park.
“You know, Calvary was just an absolute God-send,” says Lake, who now chats with the church’s associate pastor on a regular basis. “I saw those people there to help, and it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”
Demonstrating Christian service is the heart of the Faith in Action campaign created by leading Christian publisher Zondervan (zondervan.com), Christian relief organization World Vision (worldvision.org) and church communications firm Outreach Inc. (outreach.com) [parent company of Outreach magazine]. The three organizations have put together a name and program to a movement that has been gaining momentum for more than a decade, starting with pioneers like Vineyard Cincinnati founder Steve Sjogren’s servant evangelism ministry (servantevangelism.com) and Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark. (fbclr.org), with Pastor Robert Lewis. Eighteen years ago, Lewis led a focused, churchwide reorganization to make serving the community a core value of the church.
Faith in Action focuses a congregation’s attention on local, national and global needs, as well as God’s heart for service. For a full month, sermons and worship services, small group discussions and daily devotional readings, all lay the foundation for the campaign’s culminating event—“Faith in Action Sunday” community service project(s) and the corresponding cancellation of regular worship services. Moreover, the campaign also has an intentional outreach focus, where unchurched friends and community members are invited to join in the volunteer efforts, serving alongside church members.
It has been said that the unchurched don’t care about what Christians know until they know that Christians care. And to that, Calvary Community and many other U.S. churches are saying OK, we’ll show you by putting our faith into action.
Following the leader
“I asked why in the world we’d want to go through the trouble of putting our faith into action when it involved risk, reaching out, and rearranging schedules and resources,” says Jeffrey Olsen of Grace Community Church in Wesley Chapel, Fla. (exploregrace.com). “And of course, the answer is in the person of Jesus,” he told his church of 75 on the first Sunday of its Faith in Action campaign. The first week’s message, titled “Detour,” kicked off with a sermon warning people that their regular schedules would be interrupted if they choose to commit to serving.
“Two thousand years ago when Jesus came to earth, He was the only person who was able to both fully love God with His whole heart and also to fully love His neighbor as Himself,” says Olsen. “And although He was the Son of God, He made himself vulnerable and entered a world of risk, pain and hurt.”
A congregation will only take serving their community as seriously as their leader takes it, says World Vision Vice President Steve Haas. This is why the Faith in Action campaign begins from the pulpit.
“As is true in most community endeavors that have any sustaining value, it is the leader’s exhortation and example that moves people to obedience. Jesus’ rabbinical methodology was ‘Let me teach you ... let me show you ... let me watch you do it yourself,’ ” explains Haas. “The pulpit message and affirmation from the leader of the church’s spiritual life are critical ingredients in moving a congregation to biblical faithfulness.”
It made Olsen’s congregation move. On Sunday, Feb. 4, 15 Grace Community groups—nearly 90% of the church’s average attendance—built picnic tables for a foster home, cooked and served meals to young mothers at a crisis pregnancy center and landscaped a local school, among other acts of service in their neighborhood.
However, while some pastors may advocate cancelling Sunday or weekend church services to “be the Church” in their community, many leaders have encountered some internal opposition to the unconventional concept.
“We didn’t have any pushback from church leaders, but we did from some members who had a hard time understanding that we were worshipping through our actions,” explains Stacy Armstrong, community development director at Calvary Community. “Cancelling church is a huge deal. Senior pastors have to be behind it. They have to be the driving force.”
Other churches have chosen not to cancel services, but rather dedicate Saturday and Sunday—after church—to serving. And 50-member Faith Mennonite Church in Hutchinson, Kan., took a different route, offering a special worship service during its normal Sunday school hour before heading out to serve. The church discovered that Sunday morning is actually the most opportune time to serve at the local laundromat; that’s when the most people are there. Participants helped moms fold clothes and entertain children.
Allowing personal transformation
Throughout the four-week campaign, participants complete daily devotions to challenge their current perceptions of the needy and vulnerable, and encourage actions that live out Jesus’ words.
The second week of the devotional, titled “Lens,” asks participants if their view of the world is like Christ’s. Heidi McAdams, a member of Calvary Community, knew her answer immediately after reading Luke 6:30: “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”
McAdams had always avoided eye contact with the homeless man standing on the corner she passed every day on her way to work. “I would think, Oh, he only wants money for cigarettes, or alcohol, or even worse, drugs,” she says. “I’d slide my hand over and make sure all the car doors were locked, then breathe a sigh of relief when the light turned green and I could go.”
After working through the judgments, fears and challenges of servanthood, both individually and with her small group, McAdams couldn’t help but change her perception. “I realized I had been very narrow-minded about the homeless people who stand on the corner. God wanted to open my eyes and heart,” she says.
And He succeeded. For her service project ironically, McAdams was assigned to a local ministry to homeless people called the Dream Center. There she prepared food, and even ate and fellowshipped with them.
“After that, I knew I would never look at the man on the corner the same way. Next time, I can share a blanket or food,” says McAdams. “Now I ask, ‘God, help me to see what you see.’ ”
This kind of transformation is exactly what Calvary Community’s Armstrong hoped for. “Through the curriculum, light bulbs are coming on,” she says. “People are realizing that we have to ask for forgiveness first, and then if we love God, we have to serve others.”
Strengthening servanthood through groups
Once a week, Faith in Action small groups meet in homes to discuss what they heard on Sunday morning, as well as what they’re learning during their personal devotions. They also work through the week’s DVD-based curriculum and discussion questions in the Faith in Action workbook and engage in corresponding activities that help define local and global needs.
For example, during the second week, groups learn that 29 million children in the United States are growing up in low-income families. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, a family of four must earn an annual income of $40,000—twice the federal poverty level—just to provide their children with the essentials of food, housing and health care. And more than 880,000 people over the age of 25 earned at or below the minimum wage in 2005. So, Faith in Action small groups break up into pairs, which then pretend to be parents of two children: Sarah, 8 and Brett, 6. Both parents work full time, but their combined annual income is only $23,000—not enough to pay for rent, utilities, car insurance, gas, childcare, allergy medicine, etc. The question for Faith in Action participants becomes: How does this exercise challenge my assumptions about people in need?
In addition to completing activities like this one, the small group setting gives church members the opportunity to invite their unchurched friends into a neutral environment to talk about helping others—a topic of universal appeal—as well as share the motivation behind their community service.
Stefanie Alberts and her husband, Gary, group leaders for the Faith in Action campaign at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, Calif. (missionhillschurch.org), experienced this firsthand.
The Albertses invited two couples they work with at their chiropractic practice to join their group—one couple, the Theismans, were unchurched, yet they agreed to come. Then the Albertses asked a neighbor couple, who, although members of Mission Hills, were not active in the church. Not only did the four couples become fast friends, they also energized each other to serve by sharing their fears and hesitations about serving, as well as their successes.
“I’ve always been the guy in back, not liking much attention,” says Doug Reich, one of the group members who works with the Albertses. “But I’ve learned that you don’t have to be a Billy Graham, a movie star or a model in order to change someone’s life. I love the Gospel because of that.”
To make a difference, you can take a widow out to lunch, like Stefanie and Dee Theisman did. Or you can stay later at work—without pay—and help a boss in a wheelchair, like Pam, another group member, did. Sharing stories like these became part of the group’s regular meetings.
“Through our actions, we’re throwing pebbles in the water, and God will help make the ripples,” says Stefanie.
The solidarity built within the Albertses group will also make lasting ripples in the members’ daily lives.
“My Faith in Action group has really allowed me to open up. When we started meeting, I was struggling with clinical depression. But these friendships have helped me face some things I would never have had the courage to face,” says Richard Theisman. “I think now my charter is to reach out and help others who are suffering from depression.”
In addition to that, he and Dee went to church at Mission Hills on Easter Sunday.
Doing what we’re told
On March 25, San Marcos Elementary School in San Marcos, Calif., swarmed with volunteers young and old, painting, weeding, landscaping, cleaning playground equipment, sanitizing the cafeteria, and much more.
“It was just so great!” says the school’s assistant principal, Stephanie Wallace. “To see the community involved in our school is so exciting.”
The project initially began nearly three months ago when Mission Hills’ Pastor of Ministries Carlos Sales stopped by the school in the early days of planning the new church plant’s Faith in Action campaign. He asked Wallace what his congregation could do for the school. The list was endless—or so she thought. But on their service day, some 200 Mission Hills Faith in Action volunteers completed the planned projects within two hours and began doing more than what Wallace had asked.
While Mission Hills volunteers transformed the rundown school, many of the students looked on from the nearby soccer field where their fathers were playing in a community soccer league game. “The kids were wondering what was happening at their school,” explains Wallace. “When they came back on Monday, we got to tell them that all these people pulled together to help make the school better.”
As Mission Hills transitioned from its mother church campus to its first building, the service day fueled more momentum for the new church, which had already grown to 900 adults. “We didn’t want to move into this community and say, ‘Hey, come to us.’ I wanted to enter the community with the DNA of service, saying, ‘We’re here to be part of the community and serve,’ ” says Sales.
But an integral part of Faith in Action’s serving is also mobilizing those outside of the church. Grace Community in Wesley Chapel, Fla., found that its service day impacted many more than just volunteers and those they served.
Wanting to include the community, the church intentionally partnered with area schools in advance. An entire school PTA helped the church collect donations of food for the hungry—500 pounds of non-perishables. And several classes at another school collected donations for Grace Community to assemble AIDS Caregiver Kits on service Sunday.
“Even though we’re a smaller church and didn’t have a lot of people on our big service day, there were a lot more people in the community who felt like they were part of what we were doing,” explains Grace Community’s Olsen.
Across the country, churches’ campaigns are ending with action, as volunteers actually do what God commands. “The success of a church’s spiritual enterprise is never that sanctuary seats are filled, services are orderly or that the sermon packs power,” explains World Vision’s Haas. “God measures impact based on faithfulness to His directives, obedience to His promptings, sensitivity to His Spirit. A church must ‘not merely listen to the Word,’ but instead ‘do what it says.’ ”
Making service a lifestyle
“We surveyed our participants, and 100% said they would do Faith in Action again,” says Armstrong of Calvary Community. “We have to do this again. We have to make service a lifestyle.”
To that end, the church not only plans to organize more campaigns, it will also require all of its leaders and participants to sign a form committing to following up with those they serve.
Curtis Lake and his wife are still recovering from the November flood that hit Sumner, Wash. They moved into one of the remaining mobile homes, but Lake says they won’t soon forget what Calvary Community did for them. In fact, a couple of women who had helped him in November stopped by a few days before Christmas to drop off gift certificates.
And, hopefully, all those who have served nationwide will also not quickly forget the campaign’s power. “I think this experience definitely gave me a glimpse of God’s grace—the grace He has extended to me, and the grace I need to extend to people,” McAdams says. She and her family now regularly head to downtown Seattle to serve food to the homeless. “I want my more positive perspective to be ‘caught’ by my kids,” she says.
Ultimately, Faith in Action is not just a four-week campaign, but a way of living each day. “The church service day was great, but it was pretty easy and not really that intimidating. We could sign up for an hour or two and work with a lot of people we knew,” explains Stefanie Alberts. “The situations that aren’t planned though ... going up to someone and filling their need instantly—whether that be giving a water bottle to a homeless person or even talking to the person you don’t want to talk to—is a bigger challenge and is really what Faith in Action has equipped us to do.”
Heather Johnson is managing editor for Outreach magazine.
The churches interviewed for this piece participated in the Faith in Action pilot program in late 2006 and early 2007. The official campaign material for Faith in Action will be available mid-May 2007.
Getting Started
The Faith in Action churchwide campaign is available to churches at any time, but many are planning to participate on what is being called National Faith in Action Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007. Here’s how to get started:
1. Request a free information kit at putyourfaithinaction.org.
2. If this campaign is right for your church, purchase a Faith in Action Campaign Kit for $49.95.
3. Allow four to 12 weeks for the planning and preparation of your Faith in Action campaign, services and projects. The larger the scope of your campaign, the more time you will need.
4. Using the campaign’s instructive manual, plan and prepare. The campaign planning kit includes sermons, sermon video clips, service project planning guide, promotion suggestions and other resources, as well as samples of all the small group and leader materials.
5. Have sign ups. Based on the number of participants, recruit the necessary number of small group leaders.
6. Order the appropriate amount of small group participant and leader materials.
7. Gather information about potential service projects, and select those that will meet the biggest need, but are also feasible for your church’s size.
8. Share your Faith in Action learnings and ideas with other churches at putyourfaithinaction.org.
-EXCERPTED from Outreach magazine, "Features," May/June 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
Response to Angels and Applied Reasoning
Acts 12:1-18
So here's a weird one for you... When Peter's followers were praying for him to get out of jail and he showed up at the door of Mary, Mother of Mark, (b/c the Lord had already gotten him out of jail thanks to another angel), Rhoda didn't let him in b/c the others said "it must be his angel".
That's a rather nonchalant response to an angel at the door don't ya think? In every other biblical account of an angel appearing, the first response was fear and awe. Could it be that in the early church Angels appearing were commonplace in the period immediately proceeding Jesus' death?
Beyond that, how would they think his angel would look just like him? And if Peter had an angel that looked just like him, are we all assigned an angel that looks just like us? If we're assigned an angel that looks like us, does that mean satan originally looked like someone? Could he have appeared to Eve in the Garden as herself? Before the fall of the angels, was satan - as the chief angel - assigned to be Adam and/or Eve's angels? Could the disfigurement punishment meted out for him tempting them have been removing his ability to look like his assignee?
[Questions to which I don't have clear answers of course.]
So here's a weird one for you... When Peter's followers were praying for him to get out of jail and he showed up at the door of Mary, Mother of Mark, (b/c the Lord had already gotten him out of jail thanks to another angel), Rhoda didn't let him in b/c the others said "it must be his angel".
That's a rather nonchalant response to an angel at the door don't ya think? In every other biblical account of an angel appearing, the first response was fear and awe. Could it be that in the early church Angels appearing were commonplace in the period immediately proceeding Jesus' death?
Beyond that, how would they think his angel would look just like him? And if Peter had an angel that looked just like him, are we all assigned an angel that looks just like us? If we're assigned an angel that looks like us, does that mean satan originally looked like someone? Could he have appeared to Eve in the Garden as herself? Before the fall of the angels, was satan - as the chief angel - assigned to be Adam and/or Eve's angels? Could the disfigurement punishment meted out for him tempting them have been removing his ability to look like his assignee?
[Questions to which I don't have clear answers of course.]
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Houston, we have a problem - we all need new email addresses
Oh boy... here it comes. Now that Comcast has taken over the cable modem network in Houston from Road Runner, everyone needs a new email address. The @houston.rr.com domain will officially be killed at the end of the year.
To ease the switch, Comcast will be providing users with a “migration tool”. Haha. So you can move to an @comcast.net email address and have to change your email again the next time you change email providers.
If now isn't a good time to register your own domain and take control of your own email address destiny, I don't know when is. You can register a domain with 1&1 for $5.99 per year and you get free email account with up to 200 aliases. You can get 5 additional email accounts with 2GB of storage each for $0.99 per month. If you use a Windows Mobile device you can get an Outlook enabled account which includes Outlook Mobile Access for $6.99/mo.
Take this as an opportunity to get your own domain name and control your own email destiny. Once you own your domain name you'll never have to change your email address again.
To ease the switch, Comcast will be providing users with a “migration tool”. Haha. So you can move to an @comcast.net email address and have to change your email again the next time you change email providers.
If now isn't a good time to register your own domain and take control of your own email address destiny, I don't know when is. You can register a domain with 1&1 for $5.99 per year and you get free email account with up to 200 aliases. You can get 5 additional email accounts with 2GB of storage each for $0.99 per month. If you use a Windows Mobile device you can get an Outlook enabled account which includes Outlook Mobile Access for $6.99/mo.
Take this as an opportunity to get your own domain name and control your own email destiny. Once you own your domain name you'll never have to change your email address again.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Integrity Church - Dude You Got a New Website
Well... talk about a Cinderella story. Integrity Church in Burlington, North Carolina just went from this:
To this:
That's what I call a dramatic church website overhaul. The new design is definitely more in line with Integrity's stated purpose of being an innovative church in its region.
Read more about the new features and information about the new Integrity Church site here. They were previously hosted by a service called "ThisChurch" that provided the equivalent of web training wheels. They are now in complete control of their own website running a full Joomla CMS engine on 1&1 web hosting.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Bird comments on Bush's politics...
Bird Sh*ts on Bush During Press Conference
"Seems a passing sparrow took an opportunity to weigh in on what the President had to say."
From ABC:
As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."
Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino promptly put the incident through the proper spin cycle, telling ABC News, "It was his lucky day…everyone knows that's a sign of good luck."
"Seems a passing sparrow took an opportunity to weigh in on what the President had to say."
From ABC:
As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."
Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino promptly put the incident through the proper spin cycle, telling ABC News, "It was his lucky day…everyone knows that's a sign of good luck."
Friday, May 18, 2007
What kind of web worker are you?
Excerpted from Web Worker Daily
The Digital Bedouin: This is the web worker that gets the most media attention, the roving nomad “able to set up shop wherever there is an Internet connection, chairs, tables, and sources of caffeine” and running a company or a consulting business on the go.
The Telecommuter: Unlike the digital bedouin, the telecommuter normally works from one fixed location, and is a full-time employee - it’s just that the location is (usually) home rather than office. Some people telecommute full-time, others combine telecommuting with some more traditional days in the office.
The Entrepreneur: Gone are the days when being self-employed meant drumming up business from your local community. Whether you’re selling t-shirts or accounting services, the web can give you global reach from your own home office.
The Corporate Web Worker: We think this is the most overlooked class of web workers: people in a traditional corporate setting, going into the office every day but still using the web to empower themselves and gain amazing productivity. If the web enables your job: you’re a web worker.
The Digital Bedouin: This is the web worker that gets the most media attention, the roving nomad “able to set up shop wherever there is an Internet connection, chairs, tables, and sources of caffeine” and running a company or a consulting business on the go.
The Telecommuter: Unlike the digital bedouin, the telecommuter normally works from one fixed location, and is a full-time employee - it’s just that the location is (usually) home rather than office. Some people telecommute full-time, others combine telecommuting with some more traditional days in the office.
The Entrepreneur: Gone are the days when being self-employed meant drumming up business from your local community. Whether you’re selling t-shirts or accounting services, the web can give you global reach from your own home office.
The Corporate Web Worker: We think this is the most overlooked class of web workers: people in a traditional corporate setting, going into the office every day but still using the web to empower themselves and gain amazing productivity. If the web enables your job: you’re a web worker.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Covad ADSL2+ Service
Covad now offers business class ADSL2+ services in many of the popular areas of their footprint. The 8Mbps/1Mbps, 10Mbps/1Mbps and 15Mbps/1Mbps speeds are $149.95, $174.95 and $194.95, respectively. Service is available in 758 central offices across 11 markets.
The new ADSL2+ speeds are available in the following markets:
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.
Customers need to be within 4,000 feet of the CO to get the fastest 15Mbps service.
Covad also launched bonded T1 service in almost all of the markets. 3mbps symmetric T1 service - 2 T1s bonded together. As with any T1 product, there are no distance limitations but pricing is way higher than that of any DSL type product. T1 service includes very strong SLAs.
Pricing and availability are already loaded in the Anyion Services real-time quoting engine.
The new ADSL2+ speeds are available in the following markets:
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.
Customers need to be within 4,000 feet of the CO to get the fastest 15Mbps service.
Covad also launched bonded T1 service in almost all of the markets. 3mbps symmetric T1 service - 2 T1s bonded together. As with any T1 product, there are no distance limitations but pricing is way higher than that of any DSL type product. T1 service includes very strong SLAs.
Pricing and availability are already loaded in the Anyion Services real-time quoting engine.
Money changes... well... not much
What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first million? Not much. (better shoes)
What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first hundred million? Not much. (more people know his name)
What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first ten billion? Not much. (a personal Gulfstream jet.)
What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first hundred million? Not much. (more people know his name)
What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first ten billion? Not much. (a personal Gulfstream jet.)
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
GAO Says Homeland Security Is Breaking Privacy Laws
Not that anyone the Republican led side of the government actually listens to the General Accounting Office these days... but.
The latest from the GAO is a report noting that the Department of Homeland Security appears to be breaking privacy laws by not telling people how it uses personal information for people flying into and out of the country. With all of these efforts to set our elected officials straight, you'd think that people would hit back against these GAO reports. Unfortunately, it seems like they are almost universally ignored. It's great that the GAO seems to keep telling it like it is -- but when everyone ignores those reports to focus on industry approved talking points, are they really holding anyone accountable?
The latest from the GAO is a report noting that the Department of Homeland Security appears to be breaking privacy laws by not telling people how it uses personal information for people flying into and out of the country. With all of these efforts to set our elected officials straight, you'd think that people would hit back against these GAO reports. Unfortunately, it seems like they are almost universally ignored. It's great that the GAO seems to keep telling it like it is -- but when everyone ignores those reports to focus on industry approved talking points, are they really holding anyone accountable?
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Are you a human being or a human doing?
So here's a question to ponder. Are you a human being? Or have you evolved into a human doing?
Human doings are those who no longer enjoy doing what they are good at doing but yet fail to be good at doing what they enjoy.
Human doings are those who no longer enjoy doing what they are good at doing but yet fail to be good at doing what they enjoy.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Even the President Gets Hooked on Broadband
Once you have broadband, you never want to go back, which is presumably why the Air Force Air Mobility Command and the Defense Information Systems Agency are looking for commercial satellite communication firms to continue to provide high-speed Internet service on the fly to Air Force One and the other 17 planes that fly senior leaders around the world.
Boeing originally provided broadband to Air Force One via its commercial service that linked airlines to the Internet, but Boeing folded that business, called Connexion, last summer because of poor sales. However, Boeing continues to provide the broadband service to the Air Force VIP fleet, which transports the president, vice president and other pooh-bahs, including the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, State and top military commanders.
While internal Air Force budget documents indicate the service is satisfied with Boeing, whose airborne broadband contract runs through fiscal 2008, the Air Force's request for proposals seeks alternative suppliers capable of providing broadband voice, video, data and video teleconferencing services to the VIP fleet, with 50 or more users connected at the same time.
Besides the Boeing 747s which serve as Air Force One, the VIP fleet also consists of 757s, 737s and Gulfstream executive jets, with the bulk of the aircraft based at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
DISA also intends to beef up VIP air fleet service through the specialized AT&T “Northstar” network, which provides T-1 circuits (1.54 megabytes per second) from a terrestrial network in the United States over UHF radios to Air Force One.
The Northstar network provides close-to-complete coverage for aircraft operating in the continental United States, according to a background paper from MITRE, but DISA wants to extend the network's reach and has awarded a sole-source contract to AT&T to provide on a 24-hour notice two teams of personnel and gear ready to install a temporary ground site wherever Air Force One or the command post aircraft travel.
While a T-1 circuit pales in comparison to the 5 megabytes-per-second service offered by Connexion, it’s good to know our leaders can still do some serious Web surfing and download a lot of PowerPoint slides (the digital glue of government) on the expanded Northstar network at 1.54 megabytes per second while zooming around at 35,000 feet.
Press 'Asleep At The Wheel' On Astroturf
Allowing baby bells a greased track for 'franchise reform'
Consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick wonders why nobody in the press seems to care that the baby bells are using consumer groups (often fake ones) to manipulate the public as part of their recent push for video "franchise reform". Consumer advocates (real ones) note the reform bills making their way through dozens of states will eliminate public access, legalize cherry picking resulting in less broadband penetration, erode local eminent domain rights, and strip away consumer protections -- which will lead to higher prices.
Yet the vast majority of the news coverage of these laws is bubbly editorial regurgitation of incumbent lobbyist talking points, fed to consumers via these conflicted groups. In a piece for the Harvard University Nieman Watchdog, Kushnick laments the fact that nobody in the technology sector seems particularly concerned about any of this (there are, after all, iPhone stories to write).
Consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick wonders why nobody in the press seems to care that the baby bells are using consumer groups (often fake ones) to manipulate the public as part of their recent push for video "franchise reform". Consumer advocates (real ones) note the reform bills making their way through dozens of states will eliminate public access, legalize cherry picking resulting in less broadband penetration, erode local eminent domain rights, and strip away consumer protections -- which will lead to higher prices.
Yet the vast majority of the news coverage of these laws is bubbly editorial regurgitation of incumbent lobbyist talking points, fed to consumers via these conflicted groups. In a piece for the Harvard University Nieman Watchdog, Kushnick laments the fact that nobody in the technology sector seems particularly concerned about any of this (there are, after all, iPhone stories to write).
You would think it would be embarrassing for the press and media to quote astroturf and co-opted groups as ‘authentic’ – but most press simply are asleep at the wheel. In many cases, as with the Newark Star Ledger, op-ed pages run pieces by astroturf or co-opted groups while news coverage seldom questions why various non-profits have come forward to support a corporate position.He points to similar Gordon Cook concerns from last summer. Also see the older Common Cause report on astroturf organizations and their impact on public telecom-related discourse.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
FDA Approved Viral Adulteration of Our Food Supply
On Friday, August 18, 2006, the FDA approved a viral cocktail to be sprayed on foods we eat. This is the first time viruses have been approved for use as food additives. The FDA wants you to believe it will be safe to consume these viruses every day for the rest of your life with no adverse health effects. Not surprisingly, the FDA doesn't want you to know which foods are adulterated in this manner, for fear you may not buy them; thus, no labeling will be required. This is a monumental announcement by the FDA, indicating they are throwing all caution to the wind regarding the safety of our food supply.
Are you willing to stand in line for a virus-laden sandwich? How do you like the idea of buying virus-infested food for your family? The first virally contaminated foods entering our food supply with the blessings of the FDA will be luncheon meat and poultry. Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken.
At issue is the very real problem of a poor quality FDA-approved food supply that is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many of them imported from other countries. The use of antibiotics during growth and radiation during food processing is required by the fast-food animal farms owned by multi-national companies to cover up the horrendous health of the animals they wish to feed to Americans. Animals in poor health are a friendly place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after such meat goes to market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply.
The stated goal of the new FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking; however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can readily infect foods such as deli meats.
Yes, the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However, they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments. Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime.
Turning Loose the Bacteria-Killing Viruses
The company that produces these biotech viruses is Baltimore-based Intralytix, Inc. The viruses are known as bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria, or phages for short. Phages have been around a long time, living as parasites inside many bacteria.
Intralytix uses biotechnology to grow viral phages in a culture with Listeria, in theory teaching the viruses to recognize the bacteria. The FDA-approved cocktail contains six different viruses intended to attack one strain of bacteria.
This concoction is then sprayed on food. If Listeria is present in the food, the bacteria will ingest the viruses. This results in massive viral replication inside the bacteria, until such point as the bacteria simply bursts. This battle results in significant production of bacterial poisons called "endotoxins", as the bacteria tries to defend itself. When the bacteria burst, these endotoxins are released. These, along with the victorious live viruses, will now be on the food that will be eaten.
The FDA and Intralytix would like us to believe that these viruses will only attack the specified bacteria they are intended to kill and will be harmless to humans. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but they can't possibly guarantee such safety. It is true that the viruses, at least at this time, cannot recognize human cells. However, the virus can potentially recognize normal bacterial cells in the human digestive tract and may be able to adapt to infect one or more of these friendly bacteria.
The FDA Certainly Knows There Are Risks
The FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved drugs that the agency can't keep track of?
There is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail, the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food, and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract.
The human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins. They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol. They also interfere with the healthy function of cells lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the presence of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon .
Additionally, the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity? Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce a variety of human immune responses? Phages are so good at disrupting normal immunity that they are being considered for use as part of organ transplant medicine.
The ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive, are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs.
Furthermore, the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down. They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable infection.
There is also the very real possibility of unintended viral recombination. What happens when a person with viral stomach flu eats food containing a dose of this viral food additive? It is certainly possible for the genetic material of the flu virus to interact with the genetic material of the viral phages, provoking an undesirable new viral infection.
Let's not forget that the FDA won't tell us which foods in the food supply contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). Seventy percent of the packaged food on grocery shelves already contains GMO adulterated food. These foods have viral promoter genes woven into the DNA of every cell, a technique used to implant a pesticide toxin into every cell of this fake food (see Fight for Your Health, chapter 15). What happens when the viral phages interact with the viral promoter genes in GMO food? What new virus will be encouraged to form?
Keep in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few?
The FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just one more insult added to a long list of injuries.
The Tip of an Iceberg
Intralytix has an agenda for the American food supply, as well as for healthcare in general. This recent FDA ruling allows Intralytix and other similar biotech companies to get their foot in a door that should be slammed shut and bolted closed.
The company is also seeking FDA approval for viral sprays to treat foods that could be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella, which means that similar "trained" viruses could end up in a majority of the protein foods in our food supply.
Intralytix sees financial opportunity. They have already licensed their now FDA-approved viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the world. When the CEO of Intralytix, John Vazzara, was recently asked about this partner company, he refused to disclose their name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.
John Vazzara also owns stock in, as well as provided seed money to start, SteelCloud Inc. (formerly Dunn Computer Corporation). SteelCloud is a defense contractor with lucrative deals with the Department of Defense, recently landing a 3.4 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security.
Congress should investigate the financial ties and backroom dealings that would allow this bizarre food additive approval by the FDA.
Of course, we will need new wonder drugs to combat the new bio-tech produced infections. Americans will stay sick and the sickness-driven bio-tech industry will flourish. The bio-tech industry will make people sick on the front end and treat them on the back end. It's a win-win situation for profit on illness.
The FDA is Rapidly Becoming a Public Enemy
Experimenting with viruses being added to the food supply is incredibly dangerous and reckless. It is completely impossible for the FDA to guarantee safety in the near term or the long term. Thus, the FDA has made the bureaucratic decision that relative safety is acceptable to them. What right does the FDA have to tamper with the food supply in this manner?
It is quite clear that the Bush agenda has been to promote American biotech companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions have trumped science in virtually every situation wherein safety conflicts with profit.
The FDA will refuse to require labeling on food sprayed with viruses, just as they refuse to require notification that food has been genetically modified and contains toxins in every cell. The reason is obvious; no person understanding these issues would buy or eat such food. Thus, the FDA acts to hide the information from the public to foster profits for biotech companies and the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.
The leaders of the FDA are personally responsible and need to be held accountable. This means Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., temporary head of the FDA and his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These men are not only obsessed with approving risky drugs for the benefits of Big Pharma, it is now clear that they are willing to allow obvious adulteration of the food supply. They seek to control what we eat, and they are tampering with survival of the human race.
The FDA does not truly know how safe viral phages are to consume on a regular basis. They have no idea of the cumulative effect over the course of a lifetime, especially as more of these viral cocktails are added to the food supply. They have no way to measure how this new type of adulteration in the food supply will interact with the poor digestive/immune health of half the American population, in combination with all the other serious adulterations already approved by the FDA. The FDA lacks due diligence in honoring its mandate to protect the American public.
Boycott Viral Tainted Foods, Support Your Sustainable Farmers
The only hope Americans have is to resurrect the quality of our food supply. Doing so is against the odds, as there are billions of dollars of profit-mongering taking our food supply in the wrong direction. One day Americans will realize that food security is as important to national security as any other topic. It is now crystal clear that we cannot count on the FDA to do the job that Harvey Wiley, M.D., envisioned one-hundred years ago.
How can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children? The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Since the FDA is refusing to make food companies list the viruses as ingredients in food, consumers have no choice but to avoid buying all foods that could be sprayed. I see no other way that safety can be assured, since the FDA refuses to do its job and is putting American's health at risk.
Every American has an obligation to support food security for our nation. Congress must correct the leadership at the FDA and the FDA itself. Americans must quit buying poor quality toxic food. Your greatest ability to change this problem is based entirely on what you purchase.
Get connected to the sustainable family farms in your community. Buy meat that is range raised without antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Demand that the food you are eating is labeled with a country of origin. Buy American; buy locally-produced food whenever possible. Support those who truly believe in being the stewards of our land and food for our people and for future generations. These good people are being squashed out of existence by multi-national agribusiness, companies that could truly care less about the quality of our food supply or the security and health of Americans. How you spend your money is your most powerful vote. Vote for those who care.
Are you willing to stand in line for a virus-laden sandwich? How do you like the idea of buying virus-infested food for your family? The first virally contaminated foods entering our food supply with the blessings of the FDA will be luncheon meat and poultry. Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken.
At issue is the very real problem of a poor quality FDA-approved food supply that is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many of them imported from other countries. The use of antibiotics during growth and radiation during food processing is required by the fast-food animal farms owned by multi-national companies to cover up the horrendous health of the animals they wish to feed to Americans. Animals in poor health are a friendly place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after such meat goes to market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply.
The stated goal of the new FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking; however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can readily infect foods such as deli meats.
Yes, the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However, they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments. Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime.
Turning Loose the Bacteria-Killing Viruses
The company that produces these biotech viruses is Baltimore-based Intralytix, Inc. The viruses are known as bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria, or phages for short. Phages have been around a long time, living as parasites inside many bacteria.
Intralytix uses biotechnology to grow viral phages in a culture with Listeria, in theory teaching the viruses to recognize the bacteria. The FDA-approved cocktail contains six different viruses intended to attack one strain of bacteria.
This concoction is then sprayed on food. If Listeria is present in the food, the bacteria will ingest the viruses. This results in massive viral replication inside the bacteria, until such point as the bacteria simply bursts. This battle results in significant production of bacterial poisons called "endotoxins", as the bacteria tries to defend itself. When the bacteria burst, these endotoxins are released. These, along with the victorious live viruses, will now be on the food that will be eaten.
The FDA and Intralytix would like us to believe that these viruses will only attack the specified bacteria they are intended to kill and will be harmless to humans. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but they can't possibly guarantee such safety. It is true that the viruses, at least at this time, cannot recognize human cells. However, the virus can potentially recognize normal bacterial cells in the human digestive tract and may be able to adapt to infect one or more of these friendly bacteria.
The FDA Certainly Knows There Are Risks
The FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved drugs that the agency can't keep track of?
There is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail, the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food, and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract.
The human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins. They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol. They also interfere with the healthy function of cells lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the presence of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon .
Additionally, the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity? Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce a variety of human immune responses? Phages are so good at disrupting normal immunity that they are being considered for use as part of organ transplant medicine.
The ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive, are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs.
Furthermore, the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down. They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable infection.
There is also the very real possibility of unintended viral recombination. What happens when a person with viral stomach flu eats food containing a dose of this viral food additive? It is certainly possible for the genetic material of the flu virus to interact with the genetic material of the viral phages, provoking an undesirable new viral infection.
Let's not forget that the FDA won't tell us which foods in the food supply contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). Seventy percent of the packaged food on grocery shelves already contains GMO adulterated food. These foods have viral promoter genes woven into the DNA of every cell, a technique used to implant a pesticide toxin into every cell of this fake food (see Fight for Your Health, chapter 15). What happens when the viral phages interact with the viral promoter genes in GMO food? What new virus will be encouraged to form?
Keep in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few?
The FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just one more insult added to a long list of injuries.
The Tip of an Iceberg
Intralytix has an agenda for the American food supply, as well as for healthcare in general. This recent FDA ruling allows Intralytix and other similar biotech companies to get their foot in a door that should be slammed shut and bolted closed.
The company is also seeking FDA approval for viral sprays to treat foods that could be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella, which means that similar "trained" viruses could end up in a majority of the protein foods in our food supply.
Intralytix sees financial opportunity. They have already licensed their now FDA-approved viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the world. When the CEO of Intralytix, John Vazzara, was recently asked about this partner company, he refused to disclose their name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.
John Vazzara also owns stock in, as well as provided seed money to start, SteelCloud Inc. (formerly Dunn Computer Corporation). SteelCloud is a defense contractor with lucrative deals with the Department of Defense, recently landing a 3.4 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security.
Congress should investigate the financial ties and backroom dealings that would allow this bizarre food additive approval by the FDA.
Of course, we will need new wonder drugs to combat the new bio-tech produced infections. Americans will stay sick and the sickness-driven bio-tech industry will flourish. The bio-tech industry will make people sick on the front end and treat them on the back end. It's a win-win situation for profit on illness.
The FDA is Rapidly Becoming a Public Enemy
Experimenting with viruses being added to the food supply is incredibly dangerous and reckless. It is completely impossible for the FDA to guarantee safety in the near term or the long term. Thus, the FDA has made the bureaucratic decision that relative safety is acceptable to them. What right does the FDA have to tamper with the food supply in this manner?
It is quite clear that the Bush agenda has been to promote American biotech companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions have trumped science in virtually every situation wherein safety conflicts with profit.
The FDA will refuse to require labeling on food sprayed with viruses, just as they refuse to require notification that food has been genetically modified and contains toxins in every cell. The reason is obvious; no person understanding these issues would buy or eat such food. Thus, the FDA acts to hide the information from the public to foster profits for biotech companies and the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.
The leaders of the FDA are personally responsible and need to be held accountable. This means Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., temporary head of the FDA and his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These men are not only obsessed with approving risky drugs for the benefits of Big Pharma, it is now clear that they are willing to allow obvious adulteration of the food supply. They seek to control what we eat, and they are tampering with survival of the human race.
The FDA does not truly know how safe viral phages are to consume on a regular basis. They have no idea of the cumulative effect over the course of a lifetime, especially as more of these viral cocktails are added to the food supply. They have no way to measure how this new type of adulteration in the food supply will interact with the poor digestive/immune health of half the American population, in combination with all the other serious adulterations already approved by the FDA. The FDA lacks due diligence in honoring its mandate to protect the American public.
Boycott Viral Tainted Foods, Support Your Sustainable Farmers
The only hope Americans have is to resurrect the quality of our food supply. Doing so is against the odds, as there are billions of dollars of profit-mongering taking our food supply in the wrong direction. One day Americans will realize that food security is as important to national security as any other topic. It is now crystal clear that we cannot count on the FDA to do the job that Harvey Wiley, M.D., envisioned one-hundred years ago.
How can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children? The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Since the FDA is refusing to make food companies list the viruses as ingredients in food, consumers have no choice but to avoid buying all foods that could be sprayed. I see no other way that safety can be assured, since the FDA refuses to do its job and is putting American's health at risk.
Every American has an obligation to support food security for our nation. Congress must correct the leadership at the FDA and the FDA itself. Americans must quit buying poor quality toxic food. Your greatest ability to change this problem is based entirely on what you purchase.
Get connected to the sustainable family farms in your community. Buy meat that is range raised without antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Demand that the food you are eating is labeled with a country of origin. Buy American; buy locally-produced food whenever possible. Support those who truly believe in being the stewards of our land and food for our people and for future generations. These good people are being squashed out of existence by multi-national agribusiness, companies that could truly care less about the quality of our food supply or the security and health of Americans. How you spend your money is your most powerful vote. Vote for those who care.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
More than 5 credit card digits = lawsuit for retailers
Credit Receipts From Rite Aid, Wendy's, Fedex Draw Fire for Containing Certain Consumer Data
So far this year, plaintiffs' lawyers have filed more than 100 federal lawsuits seeking class-action status against big merchants such as Rite Aid Corp., Wendy's International Inc., FedEx Corp., TJX Cos. and Inter Ikea Systems BV. Also in the line of fire are lesser-known regional restaurant chains such as In-N-Out Burger and Melting Pot fondue restaurants.
A slew of suits brought on behalf of consumers have been filed in recent weeks in U.S. district courts in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas.
Merchants are under pressure to help ensure the security of electronic transactions. Still, most of the nation's retailers don't comply with the card industry's myriad rules that prohibit the storage of certain customer data and require the installation of sophisticated firewalls to protect their computer systems.
Earlier this year, TJX, parent of discount clothing chains T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed that its computers had been hacked in a security breach that left at least 47.5 million of its customers vulnerable to fraud.
The requirement that retailers cut off card data is part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which sought to protect consumers from fraud and identity theft amid the growing use of electronic payments. Although it was enacted more than three years ago, the law gave retailers some breathing room to make the change. In addition to the receipt requirements, the law also gives consumers the right to obtain a credit report, without charge, every 12 months.
As of Dec. 4, retailers are prohibited from printing more than the last five digits of a credit-card or debit-card account number on receipts that are handed to customers. The receipts also can't include the account's expiration date. The law applies only to electronically printed receipts, rather than those that are written by hand or imprinted on old-fashioned manual machines.
"Slips of paper containing people's financial information should not be floating around," says J. Mark Moore, a lawyer at Spiro Moss Barness LLP in Los Angeles. The law firm has filed more than 40 lawsuits against retailers, charging that they "knowingly and intentionally continued to use cash registers which were not programmed to, or otherwise did not, comply" with the law.
Although the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing the law, the legislation also gave consumers the right to sue for violations. For those who receive receipts with the full account information, the best thing to do is either keep it in a safe place or rip it up, experts say. A consumer can also report a violator to the FTC. A spokesman says the agency hasn't received consumer complaints about violators and hasn't brought any enforcement actions tied to the law. The agency's regional offices are working with retailers to remind them of the law.
The lawsuits contend that retailers are "willfully" violating the law -- a practice that could result in fines of as much as $1,000 per transaction.
So far this year, plaintiffs' lawyers have filed more than 100 federal lawsuits seeking class-action status against big merchants such as Rite Aid Corp., Wendy's International Inc., FedEx Corp., TJX Cos. and Inter Ikea Systems BV. Also in the line of fire are lesser-known regional restaurant chains such as In-N-Out Burger and Melting Pot fondue restaurants.
A slew of suits brought on behalf of consumers have been filed in recent weeks in U.S. district courts in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas.
Merchants are under pressure to help ensure the security of electronic transactions. Still, most of the nation's retailers don't comply with the card industry's myriad rules that prohibit the storage of certain customer data and require the installation of sophisticated firewalls to protect their computer systems.
Earlier this year, TJX, parent of discount clothing chains T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed that its computers had been hacked in a security breach that left at least 47.5 million of its customers vulnerable to fraud.
The requirement that retailers cut off card data is part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which sought to protect consumers from fraud and identity theft amid the growing use of electronic payments. Although it was enacted more than three years ago, the law gave retailers some breathing room to make the change. In addition to the receipt requirements, the law also gives consumers the right to obtain a credit report, without charge, every 12 months.
As of Dec. 4, retailers are prohibited from printing more than the last five digits of a credit-card or debit-card account number on receipts that are handed to customers. The receipts also can't include the account's expiration date. The law applies only to electronically printed receipts, rather than those that are written by hand or imprinted on old-fashioned manual machines.
"Slips of paper containing people's financial information should not be floating around," says J. Mark Moore, a lawyer at Spiro Moss Barness LLP in Los Angeles. The law firm has filed more than 40 lawsuits against retailers, charging that they "knowingly and intentionally continued to use cash registers which were not programmed to, or otherwise did not, comply" with the law.
Although the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing the law, the legislation also gave consumers the right to sue for violations. For those who receive receipts with the full account information, the best thing to do is either keep it in a safe place or rip it up, experts say. A consumer can also report a violator to the FTC. A spokesman says the agency hasn't received consumer complaints about violators and hasn't brought any enforcement actions tied to the law. The agency's regional offices are working with retailers to remind them of the law.
The lawsuits contend that retailers are "willfully" violating the law -- a practice that could result in fines of as much as $1,000 per transaction.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Blue roses - it's finally been done
For all of you out there who are still playing the dating scene, maybe next year you'll have a new option for telling your "special someone" that the gig is up. Now that these have been successfully bred, you should start to see them pop up in commercial grower greenhouses pretty quickly.Australian and Japanese researchers have demonstrated the application of RNAi technology for gene replacement in plants, developing the world's only blue rose.
Breeders had attempted to make true blue roses for several years, but none had successfully bred roses with blue pigment until fairly recently. In its first commercial application in plants, technology was used to remove the gene encoding the enzyme dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR) in roses.
Roses are very old garden subjects – a favorite for some 5,000 years. The 'something blue' was the delphinidin gene that Florigene's geneticists cloned from a pansy, to direct pigment synthesis in the rose into the 'blue' pathway. The 'something borrowed' was an iris gene for an enzyme, DFR, required to complete the delphinidin-synthesis reaction.
Monday, March 12, 2007
A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happy
There are many reasons to let geeks work the way they want to work. Today they work in every industry. They are the knowledge base, blood and sweat equity of many businesses. They work harder than most. They work longer than most. Their job isn’t a separate “thing they do” while they look forward to going home and relaxing. Geeks *live* what they do. They eat, sleep and breathe it. They are your systems administrators, your IT team, your programmers, your web developers, your designers… and sometimes even your customer service and sales people.
Anyone who understands how to leverage todays technology to increase intelligence, productivity and efficiency; anyone who stays up nights working to get better at what they do; anyone whose job is their life - is a geek. These are the most important asset your company has. For this reason, its important to give geeks what they want. Best part is, if you do, they most likely will not leave your company to work for someone who will.
#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing (, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.
#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.
#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.
#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.
#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.
#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.
#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.
#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.
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