According to an AP article by David Gram out of Warren, Vermont,
the housing group that is known as the Central Vermont Community Land Trust is attempting to determine
whether or not it can accommodate a disabled woman’s new companion,
which in this case is the very unorthodox choice of miniature horse named Earl.
The main potential stumbling blocks appear to be his its need for grazing space and the question of whether or not he is actually housebroken.
Patti cooper, the disabled lady in question, suffers fromextreme celiac disease, which destroys the capacity of the small intestine to absorb needed nutrients
for the body. This can therefore sometimes be the cause of fragile bones, and she has used a wheelchair for about 4 years or so.
The one year old miniature tobiano pinto horse which weighs in at around one hundred lbs pounds is the perfect height for a face-to-face nuzzle with her while in her wheelchair.
This horse is not actually living with her yet, but she visits Earl each day. It is obvious that a strong bond has formed in the several months since she bought him.
But all is not smooth sailing just yet. She recieved a letter recently from the manager of the twenty-four unit complex where she resides conveying concerns about “possible health and safety issues”.
The management in question then stated that it was looking into whether or not a stall that she had custom built for Earl was an alteration and thus a lease violation. This part sounds a little nit-picky to
me, this seems like more of a technicality but ohwell.
In any event, she stated this was “a veiled threat of eviction” on a weblog which she has been posting on concerning this particular issue.
Lately, however, both she and the said Trust were taking a more reasonable tone. “I do not have any problem with the Land Trust,” she was quoted as saying……she went on, “I think they do very good work in the community”.
Regarding the housebreaking concerns, Cooper stated that she had installed rubber-backed carpeting to her place just in case Earl cannot make it outside in time. She also stated that she was in discussions with a neighbor regarding possible grazing space as well.
An advantage of a horse over a dog is that horses have considerably longer life spans. She said that she expects Earl to live at least another fifty-odd years or so. Well,
I for one hope that both parties can reach some sort of compromise here. it sounds like this animal will make her happy so I pray that the organization will be reasonable and attempt some sort of fair compromise here.
I will be monitoring this story as it progresses. I do think that this Vermont story has become a major national headline, many more individuals will get the idea to have a horse instead of a dog for this type of situation.
According to a recent national news report from the AP,
it was reported that the internet giant Comcast Corporation apparently
interferes with attempts by some of their high-speed web users to share files over the internet.
This is significant because it contradicts the traditional netiquette of treating all kinds of web traffic
on an equal footing. This rather shocking news, which was verified by the AP after
coast to coast tests, is perhaps the most extreme example to date of data discrimination by a major American ISP.
It essentially involves the firm’s computers masquerading as those of its users. And the
bad news here is that if this behavior or policy were to ever be broadly applied by other such web providers,
it could indeed be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent,
eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While they are primarily considered to be sources of copyright music, software & feature,
BitTorrent especially is rising as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.
The concept of equal treatment of web traffic, which is sometimes referred to as netequette or “Net Neutrality”, is not really embedded in the law itself but instead backed by certain regulations.
The majority of the discussion
has focussed on tentative plans by the big web players to offer preferential treatment of traffic from some specific content providers for a fee.
It seems that Comcast’s interference is an unusually assertive and proactive tactic for managing and moderating it’s bandwidth consumption.
Whether or not this tactic is at all ethical is a different matter entirely. I am sure that they would like to keep that arguement as seperate as possible, in fact.
They would not address the practice, but their spokesperson stated that they apply various procedures to keep their web connections running at a smooth level.
According to the AP report, the spokesperson flat out refused to be specific regarding what the firm means exactly by “access”.
Evidently Only uploads of the complete files are interferred with by the firm in question. As it stands now,
every computer recieves a message (which is completely invisible to the user) which appears like it comes from the other computer,
telling it to cease communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from the firm.
This would be somewhat similiar to the operator cutting into your telephone conversation and saying: “Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye.”
Wow, ain’t technology grand, lol? As a matter of fact, their interference appears to intercept all kinds of content.
As an example, a feature film producer who desired to distribute his work using BitTorrent would find it very difficult or even completely impossible.
For quite some time, web access providers have hated the huge quantities of bandwidth consumed by a relatively diminutive number of users who participate in the various file-sharing programs.
According to an Associated Press report out of the capital, The House today approved a 4-year extension of a moratorium on state & local taxes on web access.
This is good news for netrepreneurs but it could have been better since there was plenty of support in both sides of the political fence for a permanent ban.
As it was, the measure passed by a fairly wide margin.
The tax ban, which was initially passed back in 1998, is set to expire on November first. The extension exempts some states that approved taxes prior to the initial enactment.
Broadly speaking, the bill to make the moratorium permanent has 238 House co-sponsors, which is more than is needed.
Representative Lamar Smith, a Republican from the lone star state, stated that a permanent ban would make certain that businesses would continue to invest in the world wide web
and keep it’s access affordable, at least in the near future. He claimed that by limiting the House to consideration of a temporary extension, Democrats “want to leave the door open to taxing the Internet in the future.”
But it was nonetheless argued that a temporary ban was the correct way to go both for various reasons.
The Senate, which has to act next on this particular legislation, called HR 3678, has “in many ways made it clear that a permanent moratorium would be dead on arrival,”. And without swift action, the ban was in danger of expiring before new legislation could pass, according to one source.
In addition, it was argued that it could potentially permit lawmakers to make corrections and modifications as required, as has occurred the 2 times the moratorium has been extended previously since it’s inception in the late 90’s.
Action is not at all assured in the Senate, where there is some substantial support for a permanent tax ban. Personally, I really hope that they go ahead with a permanent tax ban for the web, but then again, I make an income from the web so
I suppose I am a bit biased in this regard.
According to an interesting article by esteemed journalist Donna Howell of the IBD news website,
reported that a mere 50% of individuals with chronic conditions go on the internet as compared
with about seventy percent of the overall U.S. population. These individuals
truly want to learn, research suggests, and are more eager than others to share their information so as to assist other
patients. All the while, many such sick individuals simply lack web access, sadly enouph.
This is truly an unfortunate situation since the need for reliable health information is more urgent than ever before.
The nation’s disease burden continues to weigh very heavily. Many such conditions such as cancers, heart disease, hypertension and stroke, for example,
may cost us all as much as Four trillion plus dollars each year by the year 2023 or even sooner. Currently that figure
is only about a third of that, according to some data sources. The amount is due mainly because lost productivity issues instead of actual treatment costs.
Preventing these conditions early on before they have a chance to grow into full blown disease might save as much as $1.1 trillion by that year,
according to the director of the Milken Institute Center For Health Economics. When these individuals
go on the world wide web, they trade information about treatment with other individuals in the same situation as themselves.
In this regard then, they essentially are data watchdogs for other like individuals, to help direct them on to more reliable resources.
Apparently, these individuals get very frustrated trying to find data related their specific condition.
As a general rule, Senior citizens often to use the information superhighway differently from others, according to Tobey Dichter of
generationsonline.org. This particular nonprofit organization helps to furnish software to retirement homes and similiar places.
The senior citizens that he works with are task oriented, generally speaking, so an issue often leads them to start using the computer.
According to an article by highly esteemed writer and journalist
Ellen Simon of the Associated Press, a fairly large number of cell
phone and PDA users have been reporting that they sometimes feel odd vibrations when there are none.
This strange phenomenon is sometimes called ‘Phantom Vibrations’.
It is essentially a feeling as though they have cellular telephone next to them on their person
when they do not, as if it is leaving an energy imprint of some sort or other.
According to Ellen Simon’s superb article, this occured with Jonathan Zaback, a manager at the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller
as he was out with his friends and showing off his new BlackBerry Curve.
“While they were looking at it, I felt this vibration on my side. I reached down to grab it and realized there was (nothing) there.”
Still other individuals compare this sensation to a phantom limb, which is officially defined as “an often painful sensation of the presence of a limb that has been amputated.”
I wonder if any of this could be related to some research finding that cell phones are dangerous and can cause tumors?
Anecdotal evidence broadly suggests that some individuals feel that “the phone is part of them” and that “they are not whole” without them, since they connect them to the rest world, according B.J. Fogg,
a director of design at Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Laboratory.
There are other examples of this weird phenomena: Jake Ward, a former press secretary for Senator Olympia Snowe and current director of a public relations firm in the capital stated that he switched his BlackBerry from his hip to his pocket some 6 months ago, and yet still feels it there!
“Aftershocks,” he stated
For certain individuals, it may be just projecting hope onto a wireless device. For example, Don Katz stated that he came out of retirement to work as a director of wireline product management at the SpinVox Corporation since he was very impressed with the firm’s voicemail product.
He was employed on their launch at SaskTel, the telecom
firm based in Canada. That may be the reason that, on a train ride to New York, he kept checking his phone, since he was certain that it was vibrating.
I can say that i think I may have had this happen to me as well, and it was very unsettling indeed.
I ma y cut down on my use of these things since too much cell phone use is not supposed to be good for you any way,
since it is a microwave signal that you are exposed to, and not a radio wave. I understand most people in Europe use an entirely different type of phone
which is more expensive but coated with some anti-radiation metal, although I do not know that much about it yet.
Renowned writer and journalist Alex Veiga of the Associated Press reported
today that foreclosure filings across the country have gone up by almost fifty percent the previous month as compared
with September of last year. This distubing news has been caused because financially struggling home buyers who are already behind on their mortgage payments
have defaulted on their mortgages or have moved nearer to losing their houses to foreclosure, he reported.
His report was based data from a real estate information firm which specilaizes on this topic.
Unfortunately for both the home buyers and the countries’s economy as a whole,
the September figure is the 2nd highest total for filings in a one month period of time since the firm had started tracking monthly filings some 2 years prior.
The filings in question include default notices, auction sale notices as well as bank repossessions. Certain properties in question may have also received more than 1 notice if the owners have several mortgages.
As a general rule of thumb, borrowers must be sixty to ninety days past due on their mortgage payments before their lender will percieve them to be in actual default, the initial step of the foreclosure process.
If a house owner cannot find a way to get current on his or her payments, the house is then usually put up for auction, and if it does not sell, it ultimately goes back to the bank, sadly enouph.
The foreclosure ratio for the country last month was 1 foreclosure filing for every 557 households, according to the data.
The United States housing market has seen sales decline and home prices fall or at least remain flat, making it much more difficult for homeowners who cannot afford to make their payments to sell their homes or seek refinancing.
Many of these same homeowners were among those who took on adjustable-rate or ARM loans which are now adjusting to a higher interest ratio. This means payments that they can ill-afford to make, unfortunately.
Last month, Nevada, Florida & California had the highest foreclosure rates in the United States.
These surging delinquencies have had a very undesirable ramification: they have prompted the mortgage industry to further tighten up it’s lending standards, thus reducing options for house owners who are struggling to make
their payments.
