OH leads! on Livestock-care

All sides hail new livestock-care rules

State to pioneer broad standards on managing, moving, slaughter

By Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The swords of what promised to be a fierce battle at the ballot box have been molded into plowshares as Ohio’s first-ever livestock-care standards kick in on Sept. 29.    In one of those rare events in government, calmer heads prevailed, averting a costly, divisive political campaign in 2009.   Now, two years later, the result is comprehensive farm-animal rules that catapult Ohio to the forefront of the nation.

• Ohio is the first state to enact sweeping standards for livestock management, transportation and slaughter, Ohio Agriculture Director Jim Zehringer said.

“Yes, it’s been a struggle,” Zehringer acknowledged, “but we had so many public meetings and so much public input that we’ve worked through it.”

TOM DODGE DISPATCH    State agriculture chief Jim Zehringer, seen in front of an Ohio Historical Society photo, acknowleges that the process was a struggle but credits public input in the sweeping result.

The head of the Humane Society of the United States — the national organization that proposed putting an animal-care issue on the statewide ballot two years ago — is happy with the results of negotiations during more than 70 public meetings.    “In general, we’re very pleased how the farm-animal piece turned out. They handled it more comprehensively than our agreement called for,” said Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society’s president and chief executive officer.

The rules cover all variety of farm animals and poultry: chickens and turkeys; dairy, beef cattle and veal; swine; sheep and goats; and alpacas, llamas and horses.    Although they are civil, not criminal penalties, minor violations of the standards are punishable by fines of $500 to $1,000. Major violators can be hit with fines of $1,000 to $10,000 for repeat offenses.

Dr. Tony M. Forshey, Ohio’s state veterinarian, said his staff of 24 will be involved in inspections and checking on complaints. An additional 23 Department of Agriculture employees will also be available as needed.    “If there’s a disease outbreak, we can be on a farm in about an hour,” Forshey said. He emphasized that his inspectors will work with farmers rather than simply penalizing them. “We’re not about putting people out of business.”   

The new standards started with a deal struck by former Gov. Ted Strickland with the Humane Society, the Ohio Farm Bureau and several farm trade associations. The agreement included promised action on exotic animals, puppy mills and cock fighting. Although work on these issues is incomplete, Pacelle said he feels certain they will be resolved.

In exchange, the Humane Society, which had collected more than 500,000 signatures of Ohioans who wanted to put the issue to a vote, dropped its plans to get on the ballot.    “We’re hoping this sets a model for the nation in negotiating instead of a bitter political battle,” Pacelle said.

Agriculture is Ohio’s top industry, generating $107 billion annually and accounting for one in seven jobs, according to Ohio State University research.

Jack Fisher, executive director of the Ohio Farm Bureau, admitted that he “had many doubts a few years back.” But he said there is now consensus among farm groups and most farmers that the rules are acceptable.    “The end result benefits not only Ohio farmers and consumers, but it allows us to ensure we have a whole some, affordable and safe food product going forward.”

Fisher said a key factor was that the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board involved farmers and consumers from the beginning of the 16-month committee and public-hearing process.    Jim Chakeres, executive vice president of the Ohio Poultry Association, said his members know that they have “standards that are now in place that everyone has to adhere to. … I think you’re going to see farmers policing themselves.”

Dick Isler of the Ohio Pork Producers Council said, “I think the pork industry realizes Ohio has now moved to a new level. We have standards that no other states have.    “When we first reached agreement with HSUS, a lot of people were shocked. That was two years ago. Now, people are realizing that we need to move forward.”

ajohnson@dispatch.com

Ohio Livestock Care Standards

Comprehensive rules address issues species by species. Some significant changes and facts:

Bovine: veal, dairy and beef cows  

•  Veal “crates” (24 inches wide, 66 inches long) must be eliminated by Jan. 1, 2018.

•  “Tail docking” (surgical removal on dairy cattle) is eliminated by Jan. 1, 2018.

• Ohio has 15,000 large and small beef cattle farms, producing 325,000 cattle annually.

Poultry: laying hens, broilers, turkeys   

•  “Battery cages” can continue to be used indefinitely by existing poultry farms. However, no farms must use cage-free housing systems.

•  Ohio is second in the nation in poultry production, with 28.2 million laying hens, 60 million broilers, 8.7 million pullets and 4.6 million turkeys.

Swine   

•  “Gestation stalls” for hogs must be eliminated on existing farms by Jan. 1, 2026. New farms, or new construction on existing farms, must use group housing.

•  Ohio is eighth in the nation in pork production, with 4 million swine a year raised on 3,700 farms.

Sources: Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, individual farm associations.

Apple’s Design VP “Ive”

He makes Apple look appealing

Company’s design VP introduced color, curves, sleek styling

By Rachel Metz ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Jobs has been Apple’s most recognizable personality, but much of its cachet comes from its clean, inviting designs. For that, Apple can credit its head designer, Jonathan Ive.  

Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design, has led Apple’s design team since the               mid-90s.  Apple’ products are more popular than ever.

Ive, a self-effacing 44-year-old Brit, helped Jobs bring Apple back from the brink of financial ruin with the whimsical iMac computer, whose original models came in bright colors at a time when bland shades dominated the PC world. He later helped transform Apple into a consumer electronics powerhouse and the envy of Silicon Valley with the iPod, the iPhone and, most recently, the iPad.

In the wake of Jobs’ resignation as CEO, Apple must show that it can keep churning out head-turning products even without its charismatic leader. Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, is now CEO, taking on the role of Apple’s public face.    But in many ways, the real pressure will fall on Ive to make sure Apple continues its string of gadget successes.

Ive, known to his friends as “Jony,” has led Apple’s design team since the mid-’90s. Working closely with Jobs, Ive has built a strong legacy at Apple, ushering in products that are sleek and stylish, with rounded corners, few buttons, brushed aluminum surfaces and slick glass.    Apple’s pride in this work is evident even in the packaging: Open up any iPhone box, for example, and see Apple proudly proclaim, “Designed by Apple in California.” Six of Ive’s works, including the original iPod, are part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

People who have worked with Ive describe him as humble and sweet, quiet and shy, but also confident, hard-working and brilliant. Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design for MoMA, said she knows “hardly anybody that is so universally loved and admired” as Ive.    “Products have to be designed better now for people to buy them because of Jony Ive and Steve Jobs and Apple,” Antonelli said.   “All of a sudden, people have gotten used to elegance and beauty, and there’s no going back.”    Design, as well as software that makes the gadgets easy to use, is a crucial part of setting Apple products apart from those of its rivals. Apple didn’t make the first music player or smartphone, but it blew past rivals by making ones that looked cool and worked well.

Ive studied design at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University) in Newcastle, England.   After finishing school, he cofounded a London design company called Tangerine. There, he designed a range of products including combs and power tools. It was through Tangerine that he first worked with Apple.

In 1992, while Jobs was in the midst of a 12-year exile from Apple, the company’s design chief at the time, Robert Brunner, hired Ive as a senior designer. Thomas Meyerhoffer, who worked under Ive at Apple in the ’90s, believes Ive came because he understood that Apple was different from other computer companies.    “He came to Apple to take that even further,” Meyerhoffer said.    And Ive did, but not right away.

Apple declined requests for an interview with Ive.   But during a 1999 interview, Ive said that for years, designers would produce foam models of computers, only to be sent back to their drawing boards because of managers’ fixations with focus groups and marketing figures.    “We lost our identity and looked to competition for leadership,” Ive said at the time.    Brunner left in 1996 and suggested that Ive take over the post, even though Ive was only 29. When Jobs returned from exile and became interim CEO in 1997, he named Ive senior vice president of industrial design.

With Jobs again at the helm and Ive as his style guru, Apple refocused around design and produced a hit that got the company back on track. Apple shook up the personal computer industry in 1998 with the candy-colored, all-in-one iMac desktop, the original models shaped like a futuristic TV.    Unlike past attempts, the iMac concept was immediately embraced by the top decisionmakers at Apple, and the design went through very few revisions.

At a time when most computers were boxy and largely black, beige or gray, the iMac was curvaceous and flashy. People snapped up 150,000 of them in the first weekend after its release. Apple sold 800,000 iMacs by the end of the year.    Apple then brought out the first iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. In recent years, the company has largely dropped the bright palette (though you can still find it on some iPods) in favor of black, white and silver hues. Yet they retained simplicity that made them approachable to everyone as well as the curves, shiny surfaces and expensive appearance.

As a result, Apple’s products are more popular than ever, allowing the company to surpass rival Microsoft Corp. last year as the most valuable technology company in the world.    “They definitely couldn’t have done them without him,” Leander Kahney, who has written about Apple in several books, said of Ive.    Ive and Jobs have worked hand in hand and, in many respects, have contributed to each other’s success. Ive has always been in contact with Jobs and speaks the same language as him, Antonelli said.    Don Norman, who worked at Apple in the ’90s as vice president of the company’s advanced-technology group, said that although Ive had good design ideas “sitting on the shelves,” he needed Jobs to get those designs off the shelves.    Now, the test will be whether Cook can continue to keep that focus at Apple and encourage Ive to continue creating hits.

SUSAN RAGAN ASSOCIATED PRESS    Jonathan Ive, left, and Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s senior vice president of engineering, pose with five iMac personal computers at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., in 1999.

Obama has record to win on

Had to take Time Off from the Computer, sorry. .   .

Most of what has gone on in Washington and across the country so far this year has been so difficult to observe, that many of us are doing our best to do the ostrich thing.   Its less painful to look the other way.   How much can anyone take?

We’ve been pounded from all sides. Earthquakes in Washington. Massive Tornadoes. None of the professional politicos are even trying to do what we have sent them to do – take care of the “People’s Business.”  We were desperately seeking jobs  when Obama’s landslide  swept him into  office.  So that situation certainly can’t be blamed on him.   All those great ideas he had as a candidate never got off the ground – turned out to be more talk than any solid plans.  Don’t know if anyone knows what went wrong there.  I KNOW he wanted to do the necessary things to get people back to work.  Was it lack of concrete plans,  his advisers,  misdirected energy or just too much resistance?

But is is clear this year what the problem is -it’s  the number 1 goal of  the GOP to insure that Obama is a one term president.  It may be the worst congress in history!  There is nothing wrong in America which could not have been fixed had the wild-eyed Tea-partyers even half tried for some across the isle cooperation.  And, if President Obama had not been so hell-bent to be fair to Republicans who have shown nothing but hatred and malice back to him, maybe, just maybe we could have got something done which would have eased the pain of our millions.

Unless Obama is willing to accept the most inept president-title in history,  he must stand and fight and believe the things he once spoke of.  Mouthing the words is useless without the appropriate lines of action.  He must dictate the terms and call the shots.  That’s what presidents do,  Not to, is to allow chaos to rule which is what we have seen.

EVERYBODY can  see who the obstructionists are.  And all can clearly see that President Obama has been ineffectual and not the strong advocate we thought we had elected.  Most of us feel betrayed,  let down. These are matters of fact but not the end of the story.

The truth is, that we will stop nursing our wounds and pull for him again (with our votes) if he just rises to the   needs of the time we find ourselves in now.  We are incapable of ground-swelling for him again.  That’s over with – a done deal.  But I daresay that there aren’t too many Democrats who would permit the likes of Governor Perry to occupy  the White house.  He would spread poverty further and deeper in our country, given the chance – he has not been good for Texas, not if you look at what the people got in the bargain.

Our President has done much to be proud of  – - don’t let anyone forget that!  He has moved DADT almost to completion.  That’s a big deal in my book.  All people have the right to be treated as equals with all other people – period.   He has done more than any other president toward trying to equalize  earth’s needs thru right action with the EPA and so on;   cutting off mountain tops etc – - is still trying for right action (before we completely destroy our planet)  The GOP fights every move as the profit picture for corporations is the only motivator with them.  He has tried.  HE  is the one who got Osama bin Laden.   His cool, well thought-out plans helped produce success for good moves in the East.  Criticized   at every step, even so – it was beautiful.  And let us not forget the two wonderful new additions to the Supreme Court.  Therein lies what little hope we have a right to claim against the ole boys network in charge there – four of whom should be impeached or jailed or something – surely there must be something one can do about activist judges re-writing the laws to suit themselves in contradiction to the (almost) sacred Constitution.

We have a wise, cool, beloved and talented person occupying the Whitehouse.  He has really done much right.  Of course there are things we – any of us could take issue with,  but it would serve us well to realize how impossibly hard his job is.  How difficult it must be sometimes to even want to get up in the morning.  Perhaps lifting our vision just a bit and trying to pull in the same direction with him instead of all over the place,  We could move things along.  A simple prayer now and then wouldn’t hurt (for those who do such things).

The following article ran a few days ago and I thought Ms Blumner did a darned nice job. . . read on.      Jan

Obama has a record to win on

ROBYN BLUMNER

There’s a difference between winning a contest and not losing it. While both scenarios share the same temporal features, a declared winner demonstrates his superiority and gives off the appearance of success. The “nonloser” is just the last man standing

This thought occurred to me as I watched President Barack Obama and his jobs message traverse the heartland in his big, black, fortified bus. The president is trying to get across that he understands the American people’s frustration with the stagnant economy and high unemployment. He promises a new jobs plan next month, even though it’s likely to be dead on arrival thanks to House Republicans. Obama seems to have lost his ability to inspire.

Sequestering yourself in an ominous-looking bus convoy doesn’t say, “The public’s interests are my interests,” but rather, “I can’t hear you.” Obama would do better making his way around on Air Force One. At least then people would think, “Here comes the president,” not, “Here comes Beyonce.”

Obama has a record to run on, and proudly so, even if the economy has not rebounded to anyone’s liking. He should win re-election not just because “President Rick Perry” would remake America as Texas, where the number of workers earning federal minimum wage or less is greater than those in California, Florida and Illinois combined, health insurance is but a dream to one in four and public schools survive on table scraps.

President Obama’s record of accomplishment as president is the anti-Perry model of government.    Obama saved the Detroit car industry, secured reforms that will bring health insurance to nearly everyone, appointed two Supreme Court justices who stand with people over corporations, put constraints on a reckless Wall Street, brought consumer-friendly regulators such as Elizabeth Warren into government, got Congress to repeal the discriminatory “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, extended a strong, if only temporary, safety net for unemployed Americans, and used a stimulus package to stop the hemorrhaging of American jobs and avoid a Depression.

All this was done while battling the headwinds of stiff Republican resistance.   As Obama formulates a narrative for his re-election, he needs to sear into the consciousness of Americans what the nation looked like when he took office.

On January 20, 2009, inauguration day, we were in the throes of the biggest one-month loss in jobs in decades with a plunge of 779,000. The U.S. economy shed an average of 753,000 jobs in each of the first three months of that year. Before Obama had time to properly arrange his clothes in his White House closet, he was facing an economy in recession that had shed more than 5 million jobs, with no end in sight.

Then there was the other present that George W. Bush left behind: a whopping budget deficit. According to PolitiFact, two weeks before Obama took office, the Congressional Budget Office determined that the projected deficit for fiscal year 2009 was $1.2 trillion.

Obama has to tell the real story of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The public thinks it failed and that it is the driver of our national debt problems, neither of which is true. Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, was one of many in his field who credited the stimulus package with preventing complete economic disaster, giving it an overall grade of B+. If anything, the stimulus package didn’t go far enough.

Despite the ongoing gloom, Obama saved the day.

There is no reason for him to squeak out a 2012 victory from people who are largely voting against his opponent. He deserves to win, not just “not lose.” But he has to start making that case.

Robyn Blumner writes for Tribune Media Services. blumner@sptimes.com

BBB’s New Web Guide

CONSUMER 10 REPORT

BBB’s new Web guide compiles facts on scams

By Kurt Ludlow WBNS-10TV

You know scams are getting out of hand when the Better Business Bureau — a group dedicated to protecting consumers from scams — has to issue an alert about itself.    That’s what happened two weeks ago, when the BBB warned that a Phoenix-based company is charging huge upfront fees for dispute-resolution services — anywhere from $1,500 to $18,000 — and then simply forwarding its clients’ complaints to a local BBB office.

The problem, of course, is that the BBB would provide those same services directly to the disgruntled consumers at no charge.    The BBB said it has heard complaints about the company from consumers in at least 20 states. Most of those people turned to the company for help in recovering funds related to work-at-home business opportunities that didn’t pan out.

The BBB, which has offices in Columbus and 127 other cities, reminded consumers that it never charges for such assistance and that they should steer clear of any third party that does.

The organization said scams are multiplying and becoming far more sophisticated, in part because of the technological advances that have revolutionized the way we communicate, shop and bank.    “Scams used to be aimed solely at consumers who were duped into spending money on goods or services that were never delivered or inferior products that did not live up to promises,” the BBB said.

“Increasingly, businesses are becoming victims of online scams.   Copycat websites make it easy to disguise ‘phishing’ operations as a legitimate online presence.”    In hopes of fighting fire with fire, the BBB has launched  “Scam Source”    (www.bbb.org/us/scam-source), an online guide that not only features traditional BBB news and alerts, but also amasses and categorizes information from other authoritative sources.

“It’s a one-stop shop where (consumers) can go find information on the latest scams affecting them — not only in our community here in central Ohio, but throughout the country,” said Joan Coughlin, a spokeswoman for the BBB of Central Ohio.

“A lot of the old scams have new twists. They’re coming to you in a new way — and in new formats.”    Visitors to Scam Source may review the BBB’s latest fraud alerts, search for a particular scam, sign up for email updates and use a simple online form to report any problem they’ve had with a business — or, more often, a con artist masquerading as a business.  

“We’re aggregating all of the content that the BBB feels is really relevant for consumers to be on the lookout for and to protect themselves,” Coughlin said. “So, no matter what part of the country it’s happening in or how unique that new scam may be, we’ll be able to get that information to you quickly.”    And, like the BBB’s dispute-resolution services, all of the online tools are free.

kurt.ludlow@10tv.com

(Is this great or what?  I should have reported my complaint about Staples  [Staples Ripped Me Off!], last year.  This is good to know.   I had no idea it was such a resource for information – imagine email updates.. . .  Jan)

“Apple” without Jobs?

SOUR ON APPLE?

Loss of co-founder a long-term blow, one analyst says; another has faith in chosen successor

By Rachel Metz and Jordan Robertson ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — With Steve Jobs bowing out as CEO, Apple Inc. must persuade investors and consumers that it doesn’t need the man who was the force behind the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad to be in charge to keep the technology hits coming.

Tim Cook, his hand-picked successor, has handled the top job repeatedly in the absence of the ailing Jobs, who resigned as chief executive on Wednesday and was elected chairman of Apple’s board. Although not nearly as recognizable as Jobs, Cook had been running Apple since January. The company’s stock rose 62 percent when Cook was in charge in the first half of 2009, and it has gained 7 percent since Jobs announced his most-recent leave.

Yesterday, Apple’s stock fell two-thirds of a percent, to $373.72, while the major indexes fell more than 1.5 percent.    Jeff Gamet, managing editor of the Apple-focused website The Mac Observer, said Jobs’ departure has more sentimental than practical significance. Gamet said that Jobs has been telegraphing the change for several years.    “All Apple really has done is made official what they’ve been doing administratively for a while now, which is Tim runs the show, and Steve gets to do his part to make sure the products come out to meet the Apple standard,” Gamet said.

But Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, said Jobs’ maniacal attention to detail is what has set Apple apart. He said Apple’s product pipeline might be secure for a few years, but he predicted that the company will eventually struggle to come up with market-changing ideas.    “Apple is Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs is Apple, and Steve Jobs is innovation,” Chowdhry said. “You can teach people how to be operationally efficient, you can hire consultants to tell you how to do that, but God creates innovation. … Apple without Steve Jobs is nothing.”

Jobs’ resignation appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took a leave from his post in January.    In a letter addressed to Apple’s board and the “Apple community,” Jobs said he “always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Jobs’ health has long been a concern for Apple investors, who see him as an oracle of technology. He had previously survived pancreatic cancer and received a liver transplant.    The company said that Jobs gave the board his resignation on Wednesday and suggested that Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, be named the new leader. Apple also said that Cook is joining its board.

Genentech Inc. Chairman Art Levinson, in a statement issued on behalf of Apple’s board, said Jobs’ “extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company.”    Levinson said that Jobs will continue to provide “his unique insights, creativity and inspiration,” and that the board has “complete confidence” that Cook is the right person to replace him.    “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does,” Levinson said.

Earlier this month, Apple briefly became the most-valuable company in America, surpassing Exxon Mobil. At the close of stock trading yesterday, Apple’s value was $346.5 billion, just behind Exxon Mobil’s $349 billion.    Jobs’ hits seemed to grow bigger over the years: After the colorful   iMac computer and the now-ubiquitous   iPod, the iPhone redefined the category of smart-phones, and the iPad all but created the market for tablet computers.

Jobs’ aura seemed part of the attraction. On stage at trade shows and company events in his uniform of jeans, sneakers and black mock turtleneck, he’d entrance audiences with new devices, new colors and new software features, building up to a grand finale that he’d predictably preface by saying, “One more thing.”

Jobs, 56, shepherded Apple from a two-man startup to Silicon Valley darling when the Apple II, the first computer to really catch on with the public, sent IBM Corp. and others scrambling to get their own PCs to market.    After Apple suffered a slump in the mid-1980s, he was forced out of the company. He was CEO at NeXT, another computer company, and at Pixar, the computer-animation company that produced Toy Story on his watch, over the following 10 years.

Apple was foundering as he returned as an adviser in 1996 — a year in which it lost $900 million as PCs based on Microsoft Windows dominated the computer market. The company’s fortunes began to turn around with its first new product under Jobs’ direction, the iMac. The computer was launched in 1998, and about 2 million were sold in its first year.    Jobs eventually became interim CEO, then took the job permanently. Apple’s popularity grew in the U.S. throughout the 2000s as the ever-sleeker line of iPods introduced many lifelong Windows users to their first Apple gadget. Apple created another sensation in 2007 with the iPhone, the stark-looking but powerful smart-phone that quickly dominated the industry.

The iPad was introduced less than a year and a half ago, but Apple already has sold nearly 29 million units, inspiring many rivals in a tablet-computer market that scarcely existed before Apple stepped in.    There have been setbacks. Apple was swept up in a massive Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the backdating of stock options in the mid-2000s, a practice that artificially boosted the value of options grants. But Jobs and Apple emerged unscathed after two former executives took the fall and eventually settled with the SEC.

Steve Jobs’ health

The following timeline details reports about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ health since his cancer diagnosis in 2003. Jobs resigned on Wednesday and took the role of chairman, and Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was named CEO to succeed him.

• October 2003: Jobs is diagnosed with cancer in his pancreas and tries to treat the illness by switching to a special diet to avoid surgery, according to Fortune magazine, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple decides not to tell investors after consulting lawyers, the magazine said.
• Aug. 1, 2004: Jobs, then 49, discloses the cancer for the first time, saying he had successful surgery to extract the tumor. Cook runs the company until Jobs returns to work in September.
• June 12, 2005: Jobs talks about his fight with cancer during a commencement speech at Stanford University. He says he was diagnosed about a year earlier and that doctors told him he wouldn’t live longer than six months. The cancer turned out to be treatable with surgery “and I’m fine now,” he says.
• June 9, 2008: Jobs, while introducing the iPhone 3G at Apple’s developers’ conference, appears thinner and frail. The company blames a “common bug.”
• July 21, 2008: Responding to concerns about Jobs’ appearance, Apple says he has no plans to leave the company and that his health is a private matter. Investors aren’t reassured, and the shares fall 10 percent.
• Sept. 9, 2008: Jobs, introducing new iPod media players at an event in San Francisco, still looks thin. “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” he jokes.
• Dec. 16, 2008: Apple says Jobs won’t give his usual speech at the Macworld conference. Jobs had used the forum to introduce new products for 11 straight years.
• Jan. 5, 2009: Jobs says he has a hormone imbalance, causing him to lose weight. Jobs vows to remain CEO during treatment.
• Jan. 14, 2009: Jobs gives up day-to-day operations to Cook until June, saying his health problems are more complex than originally thought.
• June 23, 2009: Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tenn., confirms in a statement that Jobs had a liver transplant and has “an excellent prognosis.”
• June 29, 2009: Apple announces Jobs’ return to work. At the time, Apple shares had risen 70 percent since Jan. 15.
• Jan. 17, 2011:   Jobs begins another medical leave, leaving Cook in charge.
• March 2, 2011:   Jobs, 56, emerges from medical leave to introduce a new version of the iPad tablet.
• April 11, 2011:   Simon & Schuster sets the publication date for Jobs’ biography for early 2012. Written by Walter Isaacson and initially titled iSteve: The Book of Jobs, the title is later changed to Steve Jobs and the publication date moved up to November. The publisher later says it will update the biography to include Jobs’ resignation.
• Aug. 24, 2011:  Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple, handing the reins to Cook and taking the title of chairman. “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Jobs says in a statement. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Source: Bloomberg News

Entrepreneur helps build on idea

NEWSMAKERS Q&A

Veteran entrepreneur advises how to build on idea

ONN-TV

Rich Langdale founder and  managing partner of NCT Ventures

“It takes one to know one.”

That six-word pronouncement, a time-honored retort on playgrounds across America, tops the list of guiding principles on the website of NCT Ventures, a Columbus-based venture-capital firm.

If the sentiment’s true, then Rich Langdale, NCT’s founder and managing partner, has the perfect credentials to spot — and cultivate — aspiring entrepreneurs with moneymaking ideas. There’s no disputing, after all, that he is one.

Langdale was in his early 20s, studying physics at Ohio State University, when he started his first company, Digital Storage. That was in 1986.

Since then, he has founded eight other companies and, through NCT, launched or acquired dozens more. Along the way, he has raised and invested hundreds of millions of dollars.    Among the companies he has helped shape: GotCast, a matchmaker for Hollywood executives and “undiscovered stars”; Phoenix Bat Co., a manufacturer of custom wooden baseball and softball bats; and Embrace Pet Insurance, an online insurance agency specializing in health-care policies for cats and dogs.

Ten years ago, just weeks after being dubbed “Golden Boy” on the cover of Smart Business magazine, Langdale and several NCT colleagues established OSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The academic unit quickly earned a tier-1 ranking from Entrepreneur magazine.

Langdale himself is a four-time finalist for Inc. magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” designation.    Now, Langdale, who turns 47 this week, is looking to find, well, the next Rich Langdale.

He’s heavily involved — as a mentor and prospective investor — in “10-xelerator,” or “10x,” an 11-week competition featuring 10 teams of budding entrepreneurs. (The program was detailed in last week’s Newsmakers Q&A.)

The inaugural round of the program, sponsored by OSU’s Fisher College of Business and the state’s Third Frontier research-and-development initiative, is scheduled to conclude on Sept. 1.    NCT has committed $200,000 in follow-up funding to the winning team.    Langdale discussed his successes, philosophies and goals with Mike Kallmeyer, host of ONN-TV’s Ohio Means Business program. An edited excerpt:

Q: You’ve been called an “entrepreneurial guru.” Fair?
A: Well, I think that might be an overstatement, but I do enjoy entrepreneurship.

Q: I heard you sold your car for $5,000 to invest in your first company. Is that true?
A: That’s correct — my Honda Prelude. I loved that car, but I decided to start a business and needed some capital. It’s a lot more motivating when you don’t have a car to (get to) work.    So it worked out very well for me.

Q: There are a lot of great ideas out there. How do you bring something from the idea stage to reality?
A: When we talk about it in the venture world, we often say, “Ideas are worth nothing.” It’s all about execution, and execution is really (about) getting in front of the customers and understanding their true needs.

Q: When it comes to fostering entrepreneurs, what’s the biggest challenge in getting past the idea stage?
A: We have a lot of discussions around the academic halls about “Can you teach entrepreneurship?”    I think a lot of it’s a little inherent in your personality, but that biggest leap forward is really the comfort or the confidence of reaching out to customers, explaining what you’re going to do, and trying to get really valid feedback on: “Is this worth what I think it is to you?”    And (you need) the intellectual honesty to say: “Maybe it isn’t as good as I thought it was. What do I need to retool about this to make it truly valuable to my potential customers?”

Q: How satisfying is it for you, now, to give back and help young entrepreneurs?
A: It’s so much fun. It’s actually a lot more fun than building a business, because, (in) building a business, you have so many more stressful moments.    It’s a lot more fun to go in and say, “Hey, you should try this,” and then step back and let them actually try it.

Q: How’s the 10x competition gone so far?
A: I think it’s been amazing — better than I think we could have imagined. … There are a lot of quality people and a lot of quality ideas, and the way they’re approaching it has been very exciting to see.

Q: College kids aren’t the only aspiring entrepreneurs out there. There are a lot of older people out there trying to do startups. What’s your best advice to them?
A: Follow something you’re passionate about, to start with. Find something you’re passionate about that you can translate into a business vision, and then, from a business vision, move to a mission, which is “How do I apply this to an industry?” And then drill it down to a strategic plan and finally a financial plan.    Build all that out in advance, with feedback from your customers, and test it and bootstrap it, which is the concept of trying to have the partners of your business finance it as opposed to just trying to find capital and hoping your idea was a good one.    That’s a big answer — but there are a lot of pieces to it.

Organic Strawberries still safe

FOODMATTERS®

Strawberries – Should We Still Eat This Super Berry?

by Heather Pilatic, PhD, Pesticide Action Network North America

Strawberries are a quintessential summer treat. As with tomatoes, the only time this fruit actually tastes the way it’s supposed to is while in season, and that season is nearly upon us.Eat only organic

Strawberries aren’t just delicious, they have super-hero nutritional qualities. An apple a day has been claimed to keep the doctor away, but new research from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California shows that eating a few cups of this berry could keep away not just one doctor but many of them – the neurologist, endocrinologist, and maybe even the oncologist! As MarilLyn Linton writes in The Toronto Sun, strawberries “protect against a plethora of diseases – from cancer to Alzheimer’s and diabetes…some nerve system disorders…(and they) also activate the brain’s natural ‘housekeeper’ mechanism which cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to memory decline and loss.” Strawberries are the latest super food!

But, while you may be quick to pick up a pint of strawberries during their seasonal window when the price is right, do you know where they come from or how they’ve been grown? The answer to this question reveals how strawberries also have the potential to be super-villains.

More than 80 percent of the nation’s strawberries are grown in California and, unless we take action, many of these farms will soon begin using a fumigant (a pesticide injected as a gas to sterilize the soil) known as methyl iodide.The science on methyl iodide is strong and clear: scientists have overwhelmingly concluded that the public and environmental health risks associated with this chemical are extraordinary, even for a fumigant (fumigant pesticides are among the most toxic and difficult to control). Methyl iodide is a known carcinogen, neurotoxin, and mutagen… According to the chair of the Scientific Review Committee, Dr. John Froines, “there is no safe level of use for methyl iodide.”

Scientists use this chemical in the lab to induce cancer in cells and take serious precautions — using a ventilation hood and protective gear when handling small amounts. Yet, in California, methyl iodide is injected into the soil as a gas at rates of up to 100 lbs per acre. In addition to the threat posed to farmworkers and communities living next to strawberry fields, methyl iodide will likely contaminate groundwater.

Strawberries grown with methyl iodide will still be nutritional powerhouses, but if your berry leaves a wake of workers with more cancer, contaminated groundwater and serious risk of neurodevelopmental harm for kids who were exposed in the womb — can that still be called “healthy”?

Strawberries are naturally delicious and incredibly nutritious. How often do we find a food that’s so tasty and so amazingly good for us? Does this mean we stop eating them? No, just look for organic strawberries at your farmers market instead!

Source: www.healthychild.org/blog…

Why whole-food over synthetic?

SYNTHETIC OR LAB MADE SUPPLEMENTS

What it means to the body and why you should care

There has always been much discussion on this subject and that is because there is CONFUSION surrounding it. And importantly, there is a really big difference in how each affects one’s wallet.  Especially in 2011,   these things are more important than ever, I aught to know – I live there too.  But I hear you, and want to help to clear the air a little bit.

I want to assert that informed people like Dr John McDougall (vegetarian),  Dr Loren Cordain (Paleolithic Diet) and me – all claim that your food is your best medicine.  If you ingest wholesome, whole-foods (organic goes without saying), one doesn’t need to supplement with ordinary vitamins and minerals.  That is assuming you can count on eating nutrient-dense food-stuff (of your own choice)   All the above are not “selling product”  – only disseminating  information.  So there is that!

Most Americans are malnourished because of dietary choices.  This in turn sets up disease processes. Thereafter, we need to supplement to try to bring the body back to balance.  Allopathic medicine does not do that. You get started on drug therapy of one kind or another.   But the body never, ever had a deficiency of pharmaceuticals!  It needs food-stuff it can recognize and utilize.  That’s what my over 800 blog-posts are all about.

When we need help in this area, seek out a naturapathic physician, if possible who has had sufficient training to understand there IS  a difference.  There are excellent products on the market – Standard Process Labs is very good and I am well acquainted with it. (Learned about this from Dr Bruce West) and of course, Jordon Rubin’s Garden of life products can’t be topped.   The food-stuff used in their products is totally controlled by them and is 100% organic and free of any traces of toxic pesticides etc.  So the body can recognize this as welcome food and uses it and responds.  You notice it!   The NEWCHAPTER Organics  - the Mushroom people can be counted on as well – very effective stuff.  There may be lots more (respected and organic firms), but I am only speaking from experience – not hype.  Just check things out and use due diligence.  Of course, organic anything is more expensive than anything agribusiness is currently giving us.  They say they want to “feed the world” but they are only making us sick. . .after which we have to lay out big bucks trying to get well,   so maybe organics aren’t out-of-line, after all.

I’ve borrowed from Dr Mercola’s site again.  This time back into 1-17-05 with an article by  D.H.  Chong called:

Real or Synthetic: Truth behind Whole-Food Supplements

By Daniel H. Chong, ND

Americans are now spending more than $17 billion a year on supplements for health and wellness. Strangely enough, the rates of some forms of chronic disease have not changed, while the rates of others have actually increased. There are a number of reasons for these poor statistics and many things remain a mystery.

One thing seems fairly clear, however. Most supplements aren’t helping very much.

I’m not saying there are no helpful supplements out there. There certainly are. What is becoming more apparent, however, is supplements will not help much if one does not first address the necessary basics of health and healing.

What is also clear is that not all supplements are created equal. The basics of health and healing were discussed in another of my articles, The Six Foundations of Healing. I believe these areas must be addressed for true healing to occur in any chronic disease. In this article, I will discuss some things you should consider if you need to or want to take some supplements. Specifically, I will address the differences between whole foods versus synthetic or isolated nutritional supplements.

Whole Food Nutrients Vs. Synthetic, Isolated Nutrients

Most people who read the eHealthy News You Can Use newsletter are at least somewhat familiar with the idea that whole foods are better for you than refined foods. Although there are numerous viewpoints on what kind of foods we should or should not be eating, as well as the ideal ratio of these foods, everyone from all corners of the diet and nutrition world seems to agree on one thing: No matter which foods we choose and in what ratios we eat them, whole foods are better for you than refined foods.

This fact has never really been argued. Everyone agrees raw honey is better for you than white sugar or that brown rice is better for you than white rice. Why should it be any different for vitamins?

Often, I have been puzzled by the average naturopath or nutritionist who goes on and on about the value of whole foods and how refined foods — having been robbed of all the extra nutrients they naturally come with — are not healthy for you. Then, they go on to prescribe a shopping bag full of isolated, refined vitamins for you to take!

Just like refined foods, these refined vitamins have been robbed of all of the extra accessory nutrients that they naturally come with as well.  In turn, like refined foods, they can create numerous problems and imbalances in your body if taken at high levels for long periods of time. They can also act more like drugs in your body, forcing themselves down one pathway or another. At the very least, they won’t help you as much as high quality food and food-based supplements.

Whole Food Supplements

Whole food supplements are what their name suggests: Supplements made from concentrated whole foods. The vitamins found within these supplements are not isolated. They are highly complex structures that combine a variety of enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and many other unknown or undiscovered factors all working together synergistically, to enable this vitamin complex to do its job in your body.

Nutrients from within this complex cannot be taken apart or isolated from the whole, and then be expected to do the same job in the body as the whole complex is designed to do.

The perfect example of this difference can be seen in an automobile. An automobile is a wonderfully designed complex machine that needs all of its parts to be present and in place to function properly. Wheels are certainly an important part of the whole, but you could never isolate them from the rest of the car, call them a car or expect them to function like a car. They need the engine, body and everything else.

The same analogy applies to the vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or vitamin E (delta tocopherol) you can find on most health food store shelves. They are parts of an entire complex that serve a purpose when part of the whole. However, they cannot do the job of the entire complex by themselves.

With similar logic in place, one can analyze what a typical multivitamin truly is. The automobile equivalent of creating a multivitamin would be going to a junk yard, finding all of the separate parts you would need to make up an entire automobile, throwing them together in a heap (or capsule in terms of the multivitamin) and expecting that heap to drive like a car!

Obviously, there is a difference. Science cannot create life. Only life can create life.

Synthetic or Isolated Nutritional Supplements

Isolated nutrients or synthetic nutrients are not natural, in that they are never found by themselves in nature. Taking these isolated nutrients, especially at the ultra-high doses found in formulas today, is more like taking a drug. Studies show the body treats these isolated and synthetic nutrients like xenobiotics (foreign substances).

By the same token, food-based supplements are never treated like this by your body. For example, your urine will never turn florescent yellow, no matter how much meat (a good source of B vitamins) you eat. This sort of rapid excretion happens only with foreign substances in your body.

Not only are isolated nutrients treated like drugs or other chemicals by your body. Like drugs, they can create problems for you too. Nature does not produce any nutrient in an isolated form. The nutrients in foods are blended together in a specific way and work best in that format. For an isolated nutrient to work properly in the body, it needs all the other parts that are naturally present in the food too.

If the parts are not all there from the start, they are taken from the body’s stored supply. This is why isolated nutrients often work for a little while, then seem to stop working. Once your body’s store of the extra nutrients is used up, the isolated nutrient you’re taking doesn’t work as well anymore. Worse yet, a deficiency in these extra nutrients can be created in your body.

And, because most nutrients are isolated from the foods they come in — using a wide array of potentially nasty solvents and other chemicals — taking high amounts of these products can also expose you to these potentially toxic chemicals, if care is not taken to remove them. With the burden we are already facing from the high number of chemicals in our environment, why would anyone want to add more?

Synergy and Potency

The various parts of a natural vitamin complex work together in a synergistic manner. Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nutritionist Judith DeCava puts it best: “Separating the group of compounds (in a vitamin complex) converts it from a physiological, biochemical, active micronutrient into a disabled, debilitated chemical of little or no value to living cells. The synergy is gone.”

In other words, the automobile, in its original form, will drive better than a pile of its individual parts. Most people don’t follow this logic when examining a nutritional supplement.

Supplement makers typically try to stuff as much as possible in a capsule, telling us that the more we take, the better it is for us. This is simply not the case. As you now know, it is not necessarily the amount of a nutrient you ingest that is important, but its form and how much is bioavailable that counts the most. In fact, remembering that ingesting single nutrients can actually create imbalances in the body, logic would dictate the higher the level of a single nutrient that you take in, the quicker this imbalance will occur.

What all of this means:

• The potency of a supplement has much more to do with synergy than with actual nutrient levels. It is a combined effect of all the parts of the food, rather than the chemical effect of a single part, that is most important.

Don’t Forget the Basics

I fear all of this talk of supplements — food-based, isolated or synthetic — has detracted from the most important part of health and healing. The basics of proper diet, exercise, detoxification, structure, mental/emotional and spiritual health must all be in order for true healing to occur. No supplement will work on its own if these foundations are not in place.

However, even when these foundations are in place, or if the situation is acute enough to necessitate a more immediate treatment response, supplement support may still be needed for a while. You may also want to take one or more food-based supplements to ensure you are getting an adequate array of nutrients in your diet. When these situations arise, I strongly recommend food-based supplements be your first choice.

Keys to a Good Nutritional Supplement

How do you tell whether or not a supplement you’re looking at is a good choice? For starters, make sure it has the following characteristics:

• It is as close as possible to its natural form.
• The utmost care has been taken in all phases of its production, from growing its ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and quality control.
• It works! I always try to select from companies that have a long track record of providing high quality products that produce good clinical results.

Dr. Daniel Chong is a licensed naturopathic physician practicing in Portland, Ore. His practice focuses on chronic disease and pain management. Contact him at:

Chiropractic and Naturopathic Physicians Clinic
12195 SW Allen Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
(503) 646-0697
www.danielchongnd.com

Resources

1. Decava, Judith, The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants
2. Frost, Mary, Going Back to the Basics of Human Health
3. West, Bruce, Health Alert (Health and wellness newsletter)

Strauss-Kahn is going to walk

(It would seem that MONEY and POWER is still everything!  For our Justice system to fall to this low level is the “nadir” of evil.  If one’s skin is dark AND  ALSO POOR,  it means there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell to come out whole.  Just a few months ago,  there was no question that this brute was following his usual modus operandi and all knew him to be guilty.  He fell from “grace’. Evidence was powerful and certain.   She was a frightened maid in the hotel.  She was upset and confused  in explaining her plight – most of all, fearful of losing her job which she needed.  

Now all has reversed?  I don’t think so.  Everyone knew that the power and resources of Dominique would do and say and distort anything and all things to his benefit.   The facts remain the same.  Only the damage to her reputation has changed as we knew it would.  But should that change what happened – that he brutally manhandled and abused her.  The evidence of bruising  as he held her  against the wall, on her knees while he left his proof everywhere – on her clothing, on her skin,  on the hotel property.  What  can her background statements on application to come to this country have to do with the facts in that hotel room with this  man who wanted to be President of France?

The Manhattan District Attorney has revealed much about his character and devotion to the law or lack of it.  Jan)

D.A. won’t push charges against ex-IMF chief

By Daniel Trotta and Basil Katz REUTERS

NEW YORK — New York prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss sexual-assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn yesterday, a stunning reversal that could revive the political future of a man many had seen as the next president of France.

Prosecutors gave up hope that they could convict Strauss-Kahn after losing confidence in their star witness, Nafissatou Diallo, 32, a hotel maid from Guinea who said that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom of his luxury suite on May 14 and forced her to perform oral sex.    The motion to dismiss, filed after a brief meeting with the maid and her lawyer, showed prosecutors “no longer have confidence” that Strauss-Kahn is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt because the accuser’s story kept shifting.

It urged the judge to drop all charges. Strauss-Kahn will appear in court today.

Only three months ago, Strauss-Kahn was the world’s leading financial diplomat. His downfall was shocking. Pulled from a first-class seat on an Air France jet by police, he was thrown into New York’s Rikers Island jail on charges of attempted rape.

Prosecutors in May had said the maid’s complaint was “truthful” and “consistent.” But the case began to crumble when prosecutors found Diallo had lied on her immigration forms about a gang rape in Guinea, had lied on her tax forms and had given three different versions of events surrounding the encounter.    “The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant,” the court papers said.

“If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.”

Diallo’s lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, told reporters after meeting with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance that the state has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case.    “He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim but all of the forensic, medical and other physical evidence in this case,” he said. “If the Manhattan district attorney, who is elected to protect our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our wives and our loved ones, is not going to stand up for them when they are raped or sexually assaulted, who will?”

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting Nafissatou Diallo in a New York hotel room.

CDC – get those Flu shots

(Do you get sick of this or what?  Comments later )

CDC again urging all to get flu shots

By Julie Steenhuysen REUTERS

CHICAGO — For the second year in a row, U.S. health experts are urging all Americans to get a flu shot, even though the circulating strains of flu have not changed since the 2010-11 flu season.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday that the recommendation applies to everyone older than 6 months — even those who got flu shots last year against the same flu strains.    This year’s vaccine protects against H1N1 swine flu and two other strains, called H3N2 and influenza B.    The CDC said it is possible that immunity provided from last year’s flu shots — which included the H1N1 pandemic flu strain — might have faded.

The new recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which were published in the agency’s weekly report on death and disease, cover Sanofi-Aventis’ newly approved Fluzone Intradermal vaccine for adults ages 18 to 64.    The inoculation, which uses a short needle and delivers the dose into the skin rather than muscle, can be used as an alternative to traditional vaccines.    Eventually this season, CDC officials said, the five companies that make flu vaccine for the U.S. market expect to provide 166 million doses. That compares with 157 million doses distributed last year. (Must be nice for them to have that kind of ‘Income Security!)

My Comments:

Well, I’m fresh out of comments.  You know I have done so many posts on the flu vaccines,  that by now, almost anybody would know what I’m going to say.    Don’t do it!  It’s nothing but a terribly dangerous toxic soup being injected into your body.

May I give you a partial list of FLU SHOT  posts  that I’ve already done?  They are still valid, only thing that has changed is the dates. Following are some:

H1N1 hype and facts don’t match 11-27-09
H1N1 Side effects and Risk  11-1-09
Never get FLU SHOTS   10-29-09
H1N1 Vaccine   10-27-09
FLU  fears or facts?   10-17-09
Flu vaccine – sure about that?  10-6-09
No Limits on MERCURY? . . .seriously?  10-7-09
Dr Mom on vaccinations  7-26-09
Vaccine Studies, PhRMA bias    3-5-09

(and remember, Dr. Mercola’s site has more than almost anybody on the subject (in the blogroll)