WineCraft Cabinets

“Matthew first contacted me in early October about possibly raising the student activity fee and at first we thought it was a good idea, but his initial proposal was really high,” USG Vice President for Finance Bill Duffy said. “It was a large jump, but we did support hisidea.”

“My understanding was that the current level of funding doesn’t allow the student to adequately fund the activities that they currently support,” said Michael Hogg, vice president of studentaffairs.

The fee for undergraduates is currently $90 per semester for full-time students. That amount is not enough, however, to support the expansion of organizations that is already underway. Student groups such as TUCP, Crawfest and Homecoming are all producing bigger events that require morefunding.

“It’s mostly a response to hearing from organizations what they don’t have enough money to do, in one way or another,” Assistant Director of Student Programs Jered Bocagesaid.

Along with the increase in quality and number of events, the number of students attending Tulane has increased steadily, which requires organizations to cater to a widerclientele.

“There is no set amount that goes to each organization. If an organization keeps on performing, than we’ll keep on giving them money unless they die out, and then we cut off funding,” Duffy said. “Organizations would request a certain amount of money, and we would compare that to their current activity and how much they’ve been spending and try to find out an equitable way to distributeit.”

Bocage said that the needs of student organizations will need to be assessed in order to determine changes to the Student ActivityFee.

“There has been some interest in looking at the fees in terms of the last time it was changed and addressing the needs of students organizations, increasing costs and trying to figure out if that’s something they need to do in the coming year,” Bocage said.

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Following is the text of the Chicago
Fed’s National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of
Chicago.

Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Led by declines in production-related indicators, the Chicago Fed
National Activity Index decreased to -0.16 in January from +0.18
in December. Three of the four broad categories of indicators that
make up the index made positive contributions in January, but they
were offset by continued weakness in the consumption and housing
category.

The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, edged up to -
0.10 in January from -0.14 in December, increasing for the third
straight month. January’s CFNAI-MA3 suggests that growth in
national economic activity was slightly below its historical trend.
With regard to inflation, the amount of economic slack reflected
in the CFNAI-MA3 suggests subdued inflationary pressure from
economic activity over the coming year.

The consumption and housing category’s contribution to the index
improved from -0.43 in December to -0.38 in January, the first
increase in five months. Housing starts increased to 596,000
annualized units in January from 520,000 in December, while
building permits fell to 562,000 annualized units in January from
627,000 in the previous month.

Production-related indicators made a contribution of +0.05 to the
index in January, down from +0.45 in December. Total industrial
production ticked down 0.1 percent in January after rising 1.2
percent in December. However, the Institute for Supply
Management’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index increased to
60.8 in January from 58.5 in December.

The sales, orders, and inventories category contributed +0.06 to
the index in January, up from +0.02 in December. The Institute for
Supply Management’s Manufacturing New Orders Index rose to 67.8 in
January from 62.0 in the previous month, reaching its highest
level since January 2004.

Employment-related indicators made a contribution of +0.11 to the
index in January, edging down from +0.15 in December. Total
nonfarm payroll employment rose by 36,000 in January after
increasing by 121,000 in December. However, manufacturing payrolls
rose by 49,000 in January, and the unemployment rate declined to
9.0 percent in January from 9.4 percent in December. Thirty-nine
of the 85 individual indicators made positive contributions to the
index in January, while 46 made negative contributions.

Thirty-nine indicators improved from December to January, while 45
indicators deteriorated and one was unchanged. Of the indicators
that improved, 12 made negative contributions. The index was
constructed using data available as of February 17, 2011. At that
time, January data for 52 of the 85 indicators had been published.
For all missing data, estimates were used in constructing the
index.

The December monthly index was revised to +0.18 from an initial
estimate of +0.03. Revisions to the monthly index can be
attributed to two main factors: revisions in previously published
data and differences between the estimates of previously
unavailable data and subsequently published data. The upward
revision to the December monthly index was primarily due to
revisions in previously published data.

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US flu activity edges higher

Robert RoosNews Editor

Feb 25, 2011 (CIDRAP News) Influenza activity edged upward in the United States last week, with more states reporting widespread cases and more clinic visits attributed to influenza-like illness (ILI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.

Forty-four states reported widespread flu activity in the week that ended Feb 19, compared with 37 states the week before. Four states had regional activity, versus 10 a week earlier.

The CDC said 4.9% of visits to sentinel medical providers were due to ILI, up from 4.5% the week before and well above the national baseline of 2.5%.

On the basis of ILI visits to providers, 21 states had high ILI activity last week, compared with 20 the week before. Six states had moderate activity, versus nine the week before.

Six flu-related deaths in children were reported, compared with five a week earlier. Three of the victims had influenza B, while one each had H3N2 and 2009 H1N1 infections, and one case was not subtyped. Forty-one pediatric deaths have been reported so far this season, the CDC said.

One example of increased flu activity came from Grand Rapids, Mich., where a physician with Spectrum Health Medical Group reported a significant upswing in flu cases, according to a story yesterday from the Grand Rapids Press.

Dr. David Dobbie, chief of medical specialties with the group, said 15 flu patients had been admitted to Spectrums intensive care unit (ICU), many were put on ventilators, and several required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (artificial lung machines), according to the story. Almost all of the ICU patients had the 2009 H1N1 virus, Dobbie said.

The CDC report said 8.3% of deaths reported last week were ascribed to pneumonia and influenza, down from 8.9% the week before. The proportion remained above the epidemic threshold of 8.0% for the fourth straight week.

The agency said 31.3% of 9,154 respiratory specimens tested last week were positive for flu, a bit lower than the 35% the previous week. Of the positive samples, 33.9% were H3N2 viruses, 26.3% were 2009 H1N1, 22.4% were type B, and 39.7% were not subtyped. Those percentages showed little change from the week before. For the season overall, H3N2 has been the most common flu strain in the United States, with type B second and H1N1 third.

See also:

Feb 25 CDC flu update
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/?source=govdelivery

Feb 24 Grand Rapids Press report
http://www.mlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/02/flu_upswing_reported_at_grand.html

Feb 18 CDC flu update
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/weeklyarchives2010-2011/weekly06.htm

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The study doesnt prove that dog ownership directly leads to more active kids, but there does still seem to be some association between owning a dog and adolescent physical activity, said John Ronald Sirard, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Virginia.

Whats causing it, we dont know yet, he added.

In the big picture, the study fits into wider research looking at equipment in the home that boosts exercise, he said. We see the dog as one of those pieces of physical equipment, Sirard explained.

There are, of course, plenty of reasons to own a dog other than to get a teenager to move around more. Some studies have suggested that pet owners are healthier than other people, although research findings have been inconsistent. In terms of dogs in particular, research from Australia has suggested that their adult owners are more physically active than others.

In the new study, published in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers examined a 2006-2008 survey of 618 adolescent/parent pairs in the United States. The teenagers — 49 percent were male and their average age about 14 — wore devices to measure their physical activity.

White and wealthier families were more likely to own dogs. When the researchers adjusted the figures to account for factors that might throw off the results, they found that teens in families without dogs got an average of 29.5 minutes of physical activity a day compared to 32.1 minutes among those with dogs, Sirard said.

Its a small difference, but its a piece of a larger puzzle, Sirard said. Anything we can do to tip the balance in favor of more physical activity is going to be a good thing, even though its not the magic bullet.

However, neither dog owners nor non-owners got enough exercise to meet current guidelines, which suggest an hour of activity a day.

Still, teens with dogs were less sedentary than their peers without a four-legged friend, but its unclear what specific role the dog might play. Sirard said it could be that teens walk the family dog or play with it. Or it may just be that families that are more active have more dogs.

Katherine D. Hoerster, a postdoctoral fellow at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, who has studied dogs and exercise, said the ultimate goal is to get teens to be more active.

The study is an important first step in understanding whether it would be useful to try to encourage dog walking in young people, said Hoerster, whos familiar with the research findings.

More information

The US National Library of Medicine has more about teens and exercise.

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HUMOR

You will say this is preposterous, and you will say no one player can determine who gets traded to whom.

But Ill say it anyway: the common thread among the players involved in many of these major NBA trades is theyve been dunked on by Blake Griffin.

You doubt me?

Just because my name is Silliman, you dont think theres a chance I might have an idea thats not silly?

Just for fun, check out these names:

• Timofey Mozgov
• Danilo Gallinari
• Jeff Green
• Nenad Krstic
• Corey Brewer
• Shelden Williams

Do you think thegeneral managerssit in their offices and say, Theres a poster on this guy. Now if he were in a Nuggets uniform, it wont sell as well.?

Thats where my theory is heading. If a guy gets posterized, hes on the trading block. And he doesnt have to be posterized just by Griffin; its just that he does it so often.

If we extend the theory to traded guys who were posterized by others, add these names to the mix:

• Anthony Carter
• Jamario Moon
• Shane Battier
• Goran Dragic
• Hasheem Thabeet

A majority of these names have beeninvolved in recent trade activity. All were posterized, at least six by Griffin.

Should we expect Kia to make a trade with Ford?

Lets have a look.

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While scientists have been proven that using cell phones increase activity in some areas of the brain, its generally accepted that using a cell phone while driving , applying makeup, et al takes no brains whatsoever.

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(Adds agency MBS section, fresh muni bond and Treasury information.)

Credit markets were generally quiet Friday.

There was no new issuance in the corporate bond market, and in asset-backed securities, SLM Corp. (SLM), better known as Sallie Mae, sold an $812 million deal.

In municipal bonds, few new bond sales, as well as news that weekly outflows from mutual funds continued to lessen, helped prices.

Meanwhile, Treasury prices rose, helped by a softer-than-expected report on U.S. economic growth, as well as some buying from the Federal Reserve.

Friday saw no new corporate issuance, marking a slow week’s end to a …

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Earlier this week, the mobile world seemed a flutter about the new findings from the National Institutes of Health that indicate less than an hour of cellphone use can speed up brain activity in the area closest to the phone antenna, raising new questions about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted from cellphones.

But the study, published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is among the first and largest to document that the weak radio-frequency signals from cellphones have the potential to alter brain activity.

Researchers dont yet know (or indicate) the impact of the brain being altered.

It is TBD.

Source: Well Blog – The New York Times

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