The practice of ?showrooming,? or viewing an item in a retail store and then buying it online, has brought the e-commerce threat directly to bricks-and-mortar retailers.?
Mobile raises the showrooming threat to a new level since price comparisons are available to shoppers immediately, as they make decisions and browse e-commerce websites in stores.
In a recent report?from?BI Intelligence,?we analyze mobile showrooming's influence on retail, examine the various different types of consumer behavior that make up showrooming, look at what the big retailers are doing to combat showrooming, and identify the five broad strategies that will help brick-and-mor ter retailers win business from showroomers.?
Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here's a brief overview of the impact of showrooming:?
It has a massive impact on every day sales:?Deloitte Digital?believes?smartphones influenced $159 billion in U.S. store sales over the course of 2012 or 5% of the total, and will influence $689 billion of store sales in 2016.
Holiday season sales are particularly impacted by showrooming:?IDC?predicted?that smartphone use influenced between $700 million and $1.7 billion in U.S. holiday season retail sales in 2012. Fifty-nine million U.S. shoppers?will use?their smartphones to showroom in 2013.?
Specific retailers, such as JC Penney, suffer more from the practice:?A recent?study?revealed that JC Penney ? which just announced a?disastrous?32% decline in same-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2012 ? is at risk from showrooming because showroomers visited its locations?14% more frequently?than the average U.S. shopper did in January 2013. Other chains like PetSmart and Kohl's had even worse results.
Dramatic responses underscore the threat:?Price-matching is a risky strategy some retailers are engaging in. It nudges offline retailers into a price war with e-commerce that they can't win.?U.S. electronics retailer?Best Buy?announced that starting March 3, 2013, its stores would match the prices of 19 major online competitors, including Apple,?Amazon, and?Buy.com. Target also has a price-matching policy in effect.?Another popular anti-showrooming strategy might be described as the "information blackout."?Some retail chains are blocking cell signals in-store, or adopting proprietary barcodes that won't allow shoppers to check prices at competitors' sites. That, too, can backfire - as it is tremendously annoying to customers.
In full, BI Intelligence's?report on Mobile Showrooming:
To access BI Intelligence's full reports on Mobile and Retail, sign up for a free trial subscription here
DENVER (AP) ? Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes will be restrained during his trial by wearing a harness under his clothes that will be anchored to the floor, the judge said Thursday.
Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. also ruled the jury will not be sequestered during the trial, which is scheduled to start in February and is expected to take four months.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others at a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora in July.
He has worn heavy shackles on his wrists and ankles during pretrial hearings. His lawyers wanted him to be unshackled during the trial, saying the restraints would make him look guilty to the jury.
Samour said Holmes has to be restrained because he is charged with violent crimes. He said jurors won't see the harness, and the anchoring cable will blend in with computer cables at the defense table.
The judge ruled earlier that Holmes can wear civilian clothing at his trial.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Defense lawyers wanted the jury sequestered and wanted the jurors barred from having phones, laptop computers or any other electronics devices during the trial.
The judge said sequestration for such a long time would be costly and impractical, and would create an undue burden on jurors. He implied it also could prompt some prospective jurors to try to avoid the case.
However, Samour said he would allow defense lawyers to renew the request later if they think they have grounds to do so.
Denying jurors access to smartphones, computers, television sets and radios ? along with email and the Internet ? would be drastic and unfair, the judge said.
But he did rule jurors will not be allowed to have the devices in court or during deliberations.
Samour said he might seat as many as 12 alternate jurors ? an unusually large number ? in the event any of the 12 regular jurors is dismissed for hearing outside information or other reasons.
"The court cannot keep the jurors in a bubble, completely sealed off from the outside world," the judge said.
Samour has said 5,000 potential jurors will get a summons and that he expects 3,200 to 3,500 to respond.
Holmes' lawyers had also asked the judge to scale back the heavy security that has been present during 11 months of pretrial hearings, saying it would be "extraordinary and unnecessary" during the trial and would prejudice the jury against Holmes.
They also objected to deputies standing so close to Holmes in the courtroom that they could hear his conversations with his attorneys.
Eight Arapahoe County sheriff's deputies usually stand guard in the courtroom during hearings. Others watch from the rooftops of the two courthouse buildings and in the parking lot.
Samour said four of the deputies in the courtroom will wear uniforms during the trial, and any others will wear street clothes. He also said they will keep a reasonable distance from the defense table.
The judge overruled the defense objection to having deputies on the rooftops and in the parking lot, saying they're necessary to protect Holmes and the public.
Samour said Sheriff Grayson Robinson had agreed to the hidden harness and tether for Holmes and the plainclothes deputies in the courtroom. Samour added he trusts Robinson's expertise and will heed his advice.
___
Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP
Both novice and veteran investors in commercial real estate can find the market complex and stressful. In this article, you can find tips to help reduce your stress when it comes to dealing with commercial real estate.
It is easy to get emotional when you are venturing into the commercial real estate market, but is is very important to stay patient and remain calm. You should never rush into a possible investment. Going too fast could result in a loss that you could have seen coming had you stopped, researched, analyzed, evaluated, and cross-checked the potential with your desired goals. It could take as long as a year to find the right investment in your market.
Pest Control
TIP! Use your digital camera to take photographs of every room from all angles. Be sure that you have any and all defects present on the pictures you take (things like holes, discoloration, or spots).
Pest control is a very important issue that you need to be aware of when renting or leasing. Talk to your rental professional regarding pest control policy if you rent in a community known for bug or rodent infestation.
An essential fundamental of commercial property is location, location, location. Consider the neighborhood of the property. Compare this neighborhood to the growth of other similar areas. This research will help you figure out how the neighborhood you?re considering buying commercial property in is likely to grow and change over the next several years. If you aren?t comfortable with the potential growth rate or the atmosphere of the neighborhood, purchase property elsewhere.
Commercial transactions are significantly more time-consuming, complex and involved than the home-buying process. Yet the greater the risk and time, the greater the profit, so take this into consideration when you think about the type of investments you want to make in the future.
TIP! Whenever you are considering a commercial lease, you need to think about pest control. This is important in less desirable locations where rodents and/or bugs are an issue.
Net Operating Income, the commercial metric for real estate, needs to be understood. In order to be successful and stay profitable, watch this number closely, and take steps to make certain it does not fall into the negatives.
Don?t become greedy and over-inflate your real estate asking price. There are many variables that can greatly impact the true value of your lot.
Always check the credentials of the inspectors you hire. This is especially true of people who work with insect or pest removal, as there are many non-accredited people working in these fields. This can help you avoid headaches after the sale.
TIP! Once you have narrowed your choices down to two major contenders, you should expand your decision to include the big picture. If you will be financing the purchase, you should take into account that doing so will require just as much time and effort for a small lot as it will for a larger lot.
Search for buildings that are simply designed and constructed if you?re planning on renting out commercial property. Tenants will be attracted to these spots because they are maintained well. Maintenance is also easier, because these buildings require less repair.
Always rent out all the available space in your commercial rental properties. If you have any open spaces, then you are losing money. If you have multiple properties open, figure out why, and try to correct the issue that could be causing a loss of tenants.
Advertising your property to parties locally and abroad is important to ensure you get the best price possible. Many people think that investors who don?t live in their city will have no interest in their property, but this is untrue. There are a lot of private investors who like to buy properties that are not in their direct area if they are affordably priced.
TIP! List your real estate at a realistic price. There are a ton of variables when it comes to what will give you success.
Commercial Properties
The search for appropriate commercial properties can stress you out regardless of how much experience you?ve had in the commercial real estate market. The purpose of this article is to reduce the stress of looking for commercial properties and to make this a pleasant experience.
Yesterday I wrote about Dillard Johnson's new book "Carnivore," published by the News Corporation's HarperCollins and heavily promoted by News Corporation outlets like the New York Post and Fox News.
The promotional effort around the book has carried a hard-to-believe, almost impossible claim: that Johnson had 2,746 "confirmed" enemy kills over the course of two tours in Iraq. His first tour came during the 2003 invasion and the second for roughly 12 months starting in February 2005. The claimed kills, which first surfaced in NewsCorp's New York Post on Monday ("With 2,746 confirmed kills, Sgt. 1st Class Dillard Johnson is the deadliest American soldier on record ? and maybe the most humble"), was then repeated on a number of Fox News programs this week and mirrored around the Internet.
Similar claims are made in HarperCollins' publicity for the book ("He is recognized by the Pentagon to have accounted for more than 2,000 enemy killed in action," says the book jacket; "Credited with more than 2,600 enemy KIA, he is perhaps the most lethal ground soldier in U.S. history," says the blurb the publisher supplied to Amazon; the book cover calls him "One of the deadliest American soldiers of all time.")
Mr. Johnson says there's one problem: It isn't true.
RECOMMENDED: America's deadliest soldier or stolen valor?
He says the book doesn't contain that claim, that he never claimed to have killed 2,746 enemy fighters in Iraq, and that he didn't kill that many people in Iraq. He says a combination of innocent mistakes by others and a desire by HarperCollins and his co-author to promote the book have led to the impression he's making claims that he hasn't made. He says a personal and informal total of likely enemy fighters killed during engagements in the Iraq invasion has been attributed to him, when in fact the total includes shooting from the Bradley he commanded as well as shots fired from Bradleys around him and commanded by others ? his wingmen.
"Am I one of the deadliest American soldiers of all time? Probably not," says Johnson. "Do I think I did a lot of damage with my vehicle and stuff, with me being decisive? Yeah, absolutely."
These and other claims have drawn angry denunciations from a large number of soldiers who served with him in Iraq, who say he played an important role in their effort but did not come close to what's been written about him in the press.
Johnson says he agrees, and says the attribution of so many dead to him personally traces back to a 2004 Pentagon history of the invasion, On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was interviewed for the book and says it's been wildly misinterpreted, especially since the chapter he features in was excerpted by Soldier of Fortune magazine, with editorial changes made by someone there that exaggerated his personal role in the fighting.
His assertion of 121 "confirmed" sniper kills made in his book has also drawn howls of derision. Johnson is not trained as a sniper and was not equipped with a sniper rifle. He says his personal tally of 121 enemy killed during his second tour is correct, but that "I didn?t use a sniper rifle, I am not a sniper. Nowhere in the book does it say that I?m a sniper. It?s in the jacket, again, but I didn?t write that." He told me that all these kills were with M4 and M14 rifles.
He told Fox New's Laura Ingraham on the O'Reilly Factor ? the evening after an appearance on Fox & Friends that morning that infuriated many veterans, and prompted angry emails from some former comrades ? that the 121 kills involved "the M14 and my M4 personal rifle and some 203 ones." A 203 is a single shot grenade launcher and attributing specific deaths to a grenade launched over distance is both difficult and definitely not a form of "sniping."
Johnson explains that the choice of "sniper" in the book was for ease of understanding for the general civilian public. "When you look inside the cover and see the talk about the 121 confirmed sniper kills [that's because] most civilians don?t know what a designated marksman is," he says. He said his platoon didn't have many trained marskmen and that since he was a naturally good shot, he took on those kinds of duties to protect himself and his men.
Some of Johnson's stories have shifted over time.
He told Ms. Ingraham this week that the long shot, which he says in that interview was 821 yards, "was sort of a sniper battle from a rooftop and I got this guy. It took me 15 shots. He was a better shot than me. I just had better equipment and he was missing all around me and I basically just got lucky." But here's what Stars and Stripes reported him as saying about the incident on Dec. 20, 2005:
?I used my laser rangefinder to give me the distance to the enemy location, it was 852 meters exactly, a long shot,? Johnson said then, according to a 2nd Brigade Combat Team press release carried by the newspaper. He reported there were two insurgents there and that they were firing towards his rooftop position. ?I engaged one enemy shooter with my own rifle. My first round fell short but it must have scared him because he stood up to run away. The next round I fired, hit him and he went down,? Johnson said.
On his O'Reilly appearance, Johnson corrected his host when she attributed 2,746 kills in Iraq to him personally. He says he wished he'd done that in the earlier Fox & Friends interview but that he was only on for about three minutes, and as it was his first television appearance, he was a little flustered.
"I was trying to get that in on Fox & Friends, but didn?t have time. Did on O?Reilly with Laura Ingraham," he tells me. He told Ingraham:
"As far as the kills go ... I?m not really proud of those numbers being out there, it was part of the battle damage assessment that we did. My gunner actually did, you know, most of those or over half of those in the vehicle there and I was just present on the vehicle ... which I was the commander of."
Soldiers in general don't like to keep body counts, and while they may be proud of killing enemies in engagements, keeping their buddies safe, and accomplishing their missions, bragging about kill numbers is generally seen as uncouth, if not a downright creepy. Johnson agrees with that, and says there's no intent to brag about killing. Rather, he says, he kept track of enemy dead by counting rifles on the battlefield after engagements (on the reasoning that "one rifle equals one man") as a way to keep senior officers as informed as possible about the course of the war.
Johnson was kind enough to speak to me for about two hours last night. I'm currently sifting through my long notes of my conversation with him, and will revisit the story after I read his book myself this evening.
RECOMMENDED: America's deadliest soldier or stolen valor?
Click image to see more photos. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)
The Supreme Court released two major decisions expanding gay rights across the country on Wednesday as hordes of cheering demonstrators greeted the news outside. The justices struck down a federal law barring the recognition of same-sex marriage in a split decision, ruling that the law violates the rights of gays and lesbians and intrudes into states' rights to define and regulate marriage. The court also dismissed a case involving California's gay marriage ban, ruling that supporters of the ban did not have the legal standing, or right, to appeal a lower court's decision striking down Proposition 8 as discriminatory.
The decision clears the way for gay marriage to again be legal in the nation's most populous state, even though the justices did not address the broader legal argument that gay people have a fundamental right to marriage.
The twin decisions throw the fight over gay marriage back to the states, because the court ruled the federal government must recognize the unions if states sanction them, but did not curtail states' rights to ban gay marriage if they choose.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote with a legal history of supporting gay rights, joined his liberal colleagues in the DOMA decision, which will dramatically expand the rights of married gay couples in the country to access more than 1,000 federal benefits and responsibilities of marriage previously denied them.
"The avowed purpose and practical effect of the law here in question are to impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority of the States," Kennedy wrote of DOMA. He concluded that states must be allowed by the federal government to confer "dignity" on same-sex couples if they choose to legalize gay marriage. DOMA "undermines" same-sex marriages in visible ways and "tells those couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition."
Eighty-three-year-old New Yorker Edith Windsor brought the DOMA suit after she was made to pay more than $363,000 in estate taxes when her same-sex spouse died. If the federal government had recognized her marriage, Windsor would not have owed the sum. She argued that the government has no rational reason to exclude her marriage (she and her late partner, Thea Spyer, had been married since 2007, and together for more than four decades) from the benefits and obligations other married couples receive.
DOMA, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, prevented the government from granting marriage benefits in more than 1,000 federal statutes to same-sex married couples in the 12 states and District of Columbia that allow gay marriage. Clinton, who disavowed the law earlier this year, released a statement congratulating Windsor on her victory. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would "work expeditiously" to implement the decision, and called it a "triumph for equal protection under the law for all Americans."
With this decision, Kennedy furthers his reputation as a defender of gay rights from the bench. He wrote two of the most important Supreme Court decisions involving, and ultimately affirming, gay rights: Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Romer v. Evans (1996). In Romer, Kennedy struck down Colorado's constitutional amendment banning localities from passing anti-discrimination laws protecting gays and lesbians. In Lawrence, Kennedy invalidated state anti-sodomy laws, ruling that gay people have a right to engage in sexual behavior in their own homes free from the fear of punishment.
Legal experts said the DOMA decision lays the foundation for a future Supreme Court ruling that could find a broader right for same-sex couples to marry.
The decisions mark the first time the highest court has waded into the issue of same-sex marriage. Just 40 years ago, the Supreme Court tersely refused to hear a case brought by a gay couple who wanted to get married in Minnesota, writing that their claim raised no significant legal issue. At the time, legal opinions often treated homosexuality as criminal, sexually deviant behavior rather than involuntary sexual orientation.
Since then, public opinion has changed dramatically on gay people and same-sex marriage, with a majority of Americans only just recently saying they support gay unions. Now, 12 states representing about 18 percent of the U.S. population allow same-sex marriage. With California, the percentage of people living in gay marriage states shoots up to 30.
With the Proposition 8 decision, the Supreme Court refused to wade into the constitutional issues surrounding the California gay marriage case, dismissing the Proposition 8 argument on procedural grounds. The legal dodge means a lower court's ruling making same-sex marriage legal in California will most likely stand, opening the door to marriage to gays and lesbians in the country's most populous state without directly ruling on whether gay people have a constitutional right to marriage.
California voters passed Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage in 2008, after 18,000 same-sex couples had already tied the knot under a state Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. A same-sex married couple with children, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, sued the state of California when their 6-month-old marriage was invalidated by the ballot initiative. They argued that Proposition 8 discriminated against them and their union based only on their sexual orientation, and that the state had no rational reason for denying them the right to marry. Two lower courts ruled in their favor, and then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would no longer defend Proposition 8 in court, leaving a coalition of Proposition 8 supporters led by a former state legislator to take up its defense.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined with Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan to rule the defenders of Proposition 8 did not have the standing to defend the ban in court. The unlikely coalition of liberals and conservatives argued that the Proposition 8 supporters could not prove they were directly injured by the lower court's decision to overturn the ban and allow gay people to marry.
Same-sex marriage will most likely not be immediately legal in California, because the Ninth Circuit has several weeks to confirm the court's decision. California officials have asked county clerks offices to prepare to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples as soon as the decision is confirmed.
The Proposition 8 case was argued by two high-profile lawyers, Ted Olson and David Boies, who previously faced off against each other in Bush v. Gore. Olson, a conservative and Bush's former solicitor general, and Boies, a liberal, have cast gay marriage as the civil rights issue of our time.
Boies said on the steps of the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the court had shown gay marriage does not harm society. "Today the United States Supreme Court said as much," Boies said. "They cannot point to anything that harms them because these two love each other.?
President Barack Obama also reportedly called Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign gay rights group, to congratulate him on the legal victory. "We're proud of you guys, and we're proud to have this in California," the president said, according to audio on MSNBC.
"The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts: When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free," the president said in a statement.
Olson made the argument that gay marriage should be a conservative cause in a recent interview with NPR. "If you are a conservative, how could you be against a relationship in which people who love one another want to publicly state their vows ... and engage in a household in which they are committed to one another and become part of the community and accepted like other people?" he asked.
The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, a coalition of mostly Republican House lawmakers, defended DOMA after the Obama administration announced it believed the law was unconstitutional in 2011. (Roberts criticized the president for this move during oral arguments in the case, saying the president lacked ?the courage of his convictions? in continuing to enforce the law but no longer defending it in court.)
"While I am obviously disappointed in the ruling, it is always critical that we protect our system of checks and balances," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "A robust national debate over marriage will continue in the public square, and it is my hope that states will define marriage as the union between one man and one woman."
Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed said in a statement that his political advocacy group would push for federal legislation to try to restore DOMA. He called the decision "an Orwellian act of judicial fiat."
Scientist working to break vicious cycle causing vision loss in diabetesPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. it's a vicious cycle that robs people with diabetes of their vision.
The hallmark high glucose of the disease causes inflammation that produces free radicals that cause inflammation that produces more free radicals, explains Dr. Manuela Bartoli, vision scientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
If that's not bad enough, the body's endogenous system for dealing with free radicals also is dramatically impacted by diabetes, said Bartoli, who recently received a $1.8 million grant from the National Eye Institute to try to bolster that system and interrupt the destructive cycle.
Nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, according to the National Diabetes Foundation, and nearly half those individuals will develop diabetic retinopathy, according to the National Eye Institute.
Culprit free radicals are actually normal byproducts of the body's constant use of oxygen and, despite their derivative status, also are important signaling molecules in the body. Problems result when there are too many, like in diabetes, and their natural tendency to bond starts wreaking havoc on cells and DNA. In fact, excessive levels are thought to be a major contributor to a wide variety of diseases as well as aging.
The thioredoxin system typically works to maintain a healthy level of free radicals by neutralizing excess but, like many body systems, the thioredoxin system slows with age and diabetes hastens the process.
"This increase in free radicals results in an inability to put them to good use," Bartoli said. "Instead, we accumulate the damage they induce." In the case of the eyes and diabetes, over time the overwhelmed system destroys blood vessels that deliver blood and nutrition. In another biological irony, the starving eyes grow new blood vessels but they are fragile, leaky and often misplaced so ultimately they destroy vision.
Bartoli believes a selenium supplement could give the thioredoxin system the shot in the arm needed to stay efficient and effective. Selenium is a byproduct itself, resulting from copper-refining and used to make glass, alloys and more. It is also found in fish, nuts and grains.
Thioredoxin reductase, a protein essential to the recycling of the system, is dependent on selenium and Bartoli has found that protein's activity is reduced in an animal model of diabetic retinopathy and in retinas of human diabetic donors. Bartoli believes the cascade of cellular change resulting from high glucose levels impairs thioredoxin reductase. So she wants to better understand how the system works, exactly what happens to thioredoxin reductase and whether supplements of selenium can help the natural antioxidant system work better in diabetes.
In a related study, funded by the International Retinal Research Foundation, she is looking for an early sign of eye damage and possibly another window of intervention.
Currently, swelling of the macula the central part of the retina responsible for central vision is the first sign of treatable trouble. Anti-inflammatories injected into the eyes can help.
However increased blood levels of uric acid, a part of the inflammatory process that leads to swelling, may be an earlier indicator, Bartoli said. Uric acid is a byproduct of purine metabolism and is typically eliminated in the urine. High uric acid levels are associated with cardiovascular disease and gout as well as diabetes but it hasn't been well studied in the eye.
"We want to validate hyperuricemia as a risk factor for progression of diabetic retinopathy," she said. So she and her colleagues are measuring levels in the blood and eye fluid to see if they correlate with each other and with progressive eye damage. They also are reducing uric acid levels by giving two drugs already on the market, one that blocks formation and another that enhances excretion. Thinking that uric acid levels also may be a biomarker, she eventually wants to see how uric acid levels correlate with disease progression in humans.
"As the ancients said: 'The eyes are the mirror of the soul.' We also know that whatever happens in the eye is an expression of what is happening in the rest of the body," Bartoli said. "We want to better understand the causes of inflammation in the eye in diabetes and find better ways to manage it as well as byproducts such as uric acid. Ultimately, of course, we hope to protect sight."
A National Eye Institute fellowship to GRU Graduate Student Folami Lamoke also is supporting the thioredoxin sudies. Bartoli is a faculty member in the MCG Department of Ophthalmology and the GRU James and Jean Culver Vision Discovery Institute.
###
Media Contact:
Toni Baker
Communications Director
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Regents University
706-721-4421 Office
706-825-6473 Cell
tbaker@gru.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Scientist working to break vicious cycle causing vision loss in diabetesPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. it's a vicious cycle that robs people with diabetes of their vision.
The hallmark high glucose of the disease causes inflammation that produces free radicals that cause inflammation that produces more free radicals, explains Dr. Manuela Bartoli, vision scientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
If that's not bad enough, the body's endogenous system for dealing with free radicals also is dramatically impacted by diabetes, said Bartoli, who recently received a $1.8 million grant from the National Eye Institute to try to bolster that system and interrupt the destructive cycle.
Nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, according to the National Diabetes Foundation, and nearly half those individuals will develop diabetic retinopathy, according to the National Eye Institute.
Culprit free radicals are actually normal byproducts of the body's constant use of oxygen and, despite their derivative status, also are important signaling molecules in the body. Problems result when there are too many, like in diabetes, and their natural tendency to bond starts wreaking havoc on cells and DNA. In fact, excessive levels are thought to be a major contributor to a wide variety of diseases as well as aging.
The thioredoxin system typically works to maintain a healthy level of free radicals by neutralizing excess but, like many body systems, the thioredoxin system slows with age and diabetes hastens the process.
"This increase in free radicals results in an inability to put them to good use," Bartoli said. "Instead, we accumulate the damage they induce." In the case of the eyes and diabetes, over time the overwhelmed system destroys blood vessels that deliver blood and nutrition. In another biological irony, the starving eyes grow new blood vessels but they are fragile, leaky and often misplaced so ultimately they destroy vision.
Bartoli believes a selenium supplement could give the thioredoxin system the shot in the arm needed to stay efficient and effective. Selenium is a byproduct itself, resulting from copper-refining and used to make glass, alloys and more. It is also found in fish, nuts and grains.
Thioredoxin reductase, a protein essential to the recycling of the system, is dependent on selenium and Bartoli has found that protein's activity is reduced in an animal model of diabetic retinopathy and in retinas of human diabetic donors. Bartoli believes the cascade of cellular change resulting from high glucose levels impairs thioredoxin reductase. So she wants to better understand how the system works, exactly what happens to thioredoxin reductase and whether supplements of selenium can help the natural antioxidant system work better in diabetes.
In a related study, funded by the International Retinal Research Foundation, she is looking for an early sign of eye damage and possibly another window of intervention.
Currently, swelling of the macula the central part of the retina responsible for central vision is the first sign of treatable trouble. Anti-inflammatories injected into the eyes can help.
However increased blood levels of uric acid, a part of the inflammatory process that leads to swelling, may be an earlier indicator, Bartoli said. Uric acid is a byproduct of purine metabolism and is typically eliminated in the urine. High uric acid levels are associated with cardiovascular disease and gout as well as diabetes but it hasn't been well studied in the eye.
"We want to validate hyperuricemia as a risk factor for progression of diabetic retinopathy," she said. So she and her colleagues are measuring levels in the blood and eye fluid to see if they correlate with each other and with progressive eye damage. They also are reducing uric acid levels by giving two drugs already on the market, one that blocks formation and another that enhances excretion. Thinking that uric acid levels also may be a biomarker, she eventually wants to see how uric acid levels correlate with disease progression in humans.
"As the ancients said: 'The eyes are the mirror of the soul.' We also know that whatever happens in the eye is an expression of what is happening in the rest of the body," Bartoli said. "We want to better understand the causes of inflammation in the eye in diabetes and find better ways to manage it as well as byproducts such as uric acid. Ultimately, of course, we hope to protect sight."
A National Eye Institute fellowship to GRU Graduate Student Folami Lamoke also is supporting the thioredoxin sudies. Bartoli is a faculty member in the MCG Department of Ophthalmology and the GRU James and Jean Culver Vision Discovery Institute.
###
Media Contact:
Toni Baker
Communications Director
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Regents University
706-721-4421 Office
706-825-6473 Cell
tbaker@gru.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MADRID (Reuters) - A former treasurer for Spain's ruling People's Party was sent to jail without bail on Thursday as the High Court continues a pre-trial investigation into corruption charges against him.
Judge Pablo Ruz said that Luis Barcenas - who worked for the People's Party for almost three decades, mostly in the accounting department - had failed to explain the origin of up to 48 million euros held in Swiss bank accounts.
Ruz said Barcenas was a flight risk and could also pressure witnesses or destroy evidence.
Barcenas is the central figure in two major corruption scandals that have damaged the credibility of the ruling party and angered Spaniards who are struggling with a deep recession and high unemployment.
The 55-year-old has repeatedly said he is innocent of the charges against him and that his money came from legitimate business activities.
His lawyer Alfonso Trallero said he would file an appeal to try to get his client out of jail, El Pais newspaper reported.
Barcenas is charged with money laundering, bribery, tax fraud and other crimes in Ruz's investigation of a group of businessmen who put on campaign rallies and other events for the People's Party in exchange for kickbacks.
Ruz wrote in his 24-page order that he had unearthed up to 48 million euros in bank accounts linked to Barcenas in Switzerland and other countries.
The judge also said in the order that Barcenas had falsified documents and invented art deals to try to hide the source of the money.
Barcenas appeared before Ruz on Thursday in a closed-door hearing to answer questions regarding new accounts that were discovered in Switzerland and about the art deals.
GUARANTEES
Barcenas' explanations have been "partial, inconsistent and manifestly insufficient regarding the activities and movement of assets in his Swiss accounts, which he himself has been involved with", the judge wrote in his order.
Barcenas has been under investigation off and on for more than four years over the kickbacks inquiry, which Ruz said was approaching the trial phase. As an examining magistrate, Ruz both investigates the charges and presides at trial.
Several of the charges against Barcenas carry potential prison terms of six years each, and large fines. The anti-corruption prosecutor has asked the judge to order Barcenas to put up 28 million euros in guarantees to cover potential fines should he be convicted.
In a separate case Barcenas is also under investigation for allegedly running a People's Party slush fund that took donations from construction magnates and redistributed them in cash payments to party leaders.
In January, El Pais published excerpts of two decades of handwritten accounts - now known as the 'Barcenas Papers' - allegedly recording movements of cash in and out of the secret fund.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and other top People's Party officials whose names appear in the Barcenas Papers have repeatedly denied receiving illegal payments.
Some party leaders have said the party paid them fixed expenses that were legal and reported on their tax declarations.
"As always the People's Party manifests its respect for judicial decisions in all proceedings," the party said in a one-line statement on Thursday.
Barcenas left the party in 2009, when he was first put under criminal investigation, but continued to receive severance pay on an installment plan until early this year.
(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Julien Toyer and Pravin Char)
Guilt is good. Yes! Guilt actually encourages people to have more empathy for others, to take corrective action, and to improve themselves. Self-forgiveness following guilt is self-essential to esteem, which is key to enjoying life and relationships. Yet, for many, self-acceptance remains elusive because of unhealthy guilt.
Guilt may be an unrelenting source of pain. You might believe that you should feel guilty and condemn yourself not once, but repeatedly. Guilt also may simmer in your unconscious. Either way, this kind of guilt is insidious and self-destructive and can sabotage your goals.
Guilt causes anger and resentment, not only at yourself, but toward others in order to justify your actions. Anger, resentment, and guilt sap your energy, cause depression and illness, and prevent success, pleasure, and fulfilling relationships. They keep you stuck in the past and prevent you from moving forward.
You may feel guilty not only for your actions, but also for your thoughts ? for wishing someone pain, misfortune, or even death; for feelings such as anger, lust, or greed; for lack of feelings, such as unreciprocal love or friendship, or for not grieving the loss of someone close. Although irrational, you might feel guilty for someone else?s thoughts, attributes, feelings, and actions. It?s not unusual for people to feel guilty for leaving their faith or not meeting their parents? expectations.
People often judge themselves based upon the blame or false accusations emanating from others, which they believe to be true. For example, a woman projects her selfishness onto her husband. He believes it, not realizing it is she who is selfish (an attribute). She might blame her insecurity (feeling) on him, claiming he?s flirting, uncaring, or indifferent. A man might blame his anger (feeling) or mistake (action) on his partner, and she believes him and feels guilty.
Because of their low self-esteem, it?s common for codependents to take the blame for others? behavior. A spouse might accept her husband?s blame and feel guilty for his drinking or addiction. Victims of abuse or sexual assault frequently feel guilt and shame, despite the fact that they were victims and it?s the perpetrator who is culpable. When it comes to divorce, those initiating it often feel guilty, even though responsibility for their marital problem is shared or was primarily due to their partner.
Guilt should be distinguished from shame. Shame causes you to feel inferior, inadequate, or bad about who you are versus what you did. When irrational and not absolved, guilt can lead to shame. Shame isn?t constructive. Instead of enhancing empathy and self-improvement, it has the opposite effect. It leads to greater self-preoccupation and undermines both the self and relationships.
If you already have low self-esteem or have issues around shame (most people do), it may be difficult to concentrate on what it is you feel guilty about. However, this is necessary in order to get past it. Rationalizing or brushing it under the rug to avoid self-examination may help temporarily, but will not achieve self-forgiveness. Alternatively, beating yourself up prolongs guilt and shame and damages your self-esteem; accepting responsibility and taking remedial action improves it. Here are suggested steps you can take. I refer to actions, but they apply equally to thoughts or feelings you feel guilty about:
If you?ve been rationalizing your actions, take responsibility. ?Okay, I did (or said) it.?
Write a story about what happened, including how you felt about yourself and others involved before, during, and after.
Analyze what your needs were at that time, and whether they were being met. If not, why not?
What were your motives? What or who was the catalyst for your behavior?
Does the catalyst remind you of something from your past? Write a story about it, and include dialogue and your feelings.
How were your feelings and mistakes handled growing up? Were they forgiven, judged, or punished? Who was hard on you? Were you made to feel ashamed?
Evaluate the standards by which you?re judging yourself. Are they your values, your parents?, your friends?, your spouse?s, or those of your faith? Do you need their approval? It?s pointless to try to live up to someone else?s expectations. Others? desires and values have more to do with them. They may never approve, or you may sacrifice yourself and your happiness seeking approval.
Identify the values and beliefs that in fact governed you during the event? For example, ?Adultery is okay if my spouse never finds out.? Be honest, and decide which values you agree with.
Did your actions reflect your true values? If not, trace your beliefs, thoughts, and emotions that led to your actions. Think about what may have led you to abandon your values. Notice that you hurt yourself when you violate your values. This actually causes more harm than disappointing someone else.
How did your actions affect you and others? Whom did you hurt? Include yourself on the list.
Think of ways to make amends. Take the action, and make them. For example, if the person is dead, you can write a letter of apology. You can also decide to act differently in the future.
Looking back, what healthier beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions would have led to a more desirable result?
Do you expect perfection? Has this improved your overall well-being? Perfection is illusory and a manifestation of underlying shame.
Would you forgive someone else for the same actions? Why would you treat yourself differently? How does it benefit you to continue to punish yourself?
Remorse is healthy and leads to corrective action. Think about what you?ve learned from your experience and how you might act differently today.
Write yourself an empathic letter of understanding, appreciation, and forgiveness.
Repeat on a daily basis words of kindness and forgiveness from your letter, such as, ?I?m innocent,? ?I forgive myself,? and ?I love myself.?
Share honestly with others what you did. Don?t share with those who might judge you. If appropriate, talk about what happened in a 12-Step group. Secrecy prolongs guilt and shame.
Realize that you may forgive yourself and still believe you were at fault, just as you might forgive someone else even though you think the person was in the wrong. You can have regret for what you did yet accept that you?re human and made mistakes. Perhaps, you did your best, given your circumstances, awareness, maturity, and experience at the time. This is a healthy, humble attitude.
If you continue to have difficulties with self-forgiveness, it?s helpful to see a counselor. You may be suffering from shame, which predisposes you to self-loathing, guilt, and feeling bad about yourself. This can be healed in therapy. See my posts on self-love and nurturing, and get my ebook, 10 Steps to Self-Esteem.
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Darlene Lancer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in relationships, codependency, and addiction. She has a broad range of experience, working with individuals and couples for more than twenty-five years. Her focus is on helping individuals overcome obstacles to leading fuller lives, and helping couples enhance their communication, intimacy, and passion. She is a speaker, freelance writer, and maintains private practice in Santa Monica, CA. For more information, see whatiscodependency.com, where you can also get the FREE ebook, "14 Tips for Letting Go."
Find her book Codependency for Dummies at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
You can follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/codependencyrecovery
APA Reference Lancer, D. (2013). How Do You Forgive Yourself?. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 27, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2013/how-do-you-forgive-yourself/
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 25 Jun 2013 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Hidden inside the Accessibility settings of iOS 7 is a sneaky new way to control your iPhone (or iPad): with your head. Yep, with simple left or right head movements you can navigate your iPhone. You'll look a little bit crazy but ooh wow look at you control your iPhone invisibly.
June 25, 2013 ? Researchers at Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College have identified a combinatorial therapeutic approach that has proven effective in treating muscular dystrophy in a mouse model. The findings, published in Human Molecular Genetics, represent a paradigm shift for the treatment of muscular dystrophy as well as a host of other disabling and devastating muscle diseases.
The study was led by Mahasweta Girgenrath, PhD, assistant professor and director of the Muscle Disorders and Regenerative Biology Laboratory at BU Sargent College's Department of Health Sciences. Boston University (BU) researchers and postdoctoral fellows Jenny Yamauchi, Ajay Kumar, Lina Duarte, and Thomas Mehuron were collaborators on this study.
Muscular Dystrophy type 1A (MDC1A) is the second most common form of congenital muscular dystrophy. Patients with this disease have poor muscle tone at birth, extremely compromised neuromuscular function, and are rarely able to walk independently. Most patients with MDC1A succumb to a premature death due to either respiratory complications or failure to thrive. Although significant strides have been made towards understanding the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying MDC1A, there remains no effective therapy in place to combat this lethal disease.
The research team, led by Girgenrath, hypothesized that the complex pathology seen in MDC1A may be the result of dysregulation of multiple cellular functions and processes, meaning that strategies which simultaneously target several of those mechanisms might lead to a reduction of symptoms.
"Very few studies have utilized the power of combinatorial therapy in the context of muscular dystrophy." said Professor Girgenrath, the study's corresponding author. "While most MD treatments are single-target therapies, we're delving into combinations of different therapies to target multiple pathways."
The research team studied the outcome of combining the following single mode treatments: increasing regeneration, by overexpressing muscle specific insulin like growth factor-1, IGF-1 and preventing cell death, by inhibiting the expression of Bax, a pro-apoptotic protein. In addition, to test the translational potential of this combination therapy, the researchers systemically treated Bax deficient dystrophic mice with recombinant human IGF-1 (IPLEX TM, manufactured by Insmed Inc).
By combining these two therapies, researchers found that in addition to increased body and muscle weight, mice showed enhanced locomotory capacities and remarkable improvement in muscle pathology. The most impressive outcome was the significant resolution of inflammation and fibrosis, not seen with single mode therapies. The research team concluded that the use of this combination therapy is an effective treatment for MDC1A, highlighting a compelling argument that a combinatorial approach has a synergistic benefit and could have the potential of treating patients with congenital muscular dystrophy.
Research highlighted in this news release was funded in part by Cure CMD, Struggle against Muscular Dystrophy (S.A.M), and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Michael Jackson's oldest son described the frantic efforts to revive his father to a jury, a scene of tears and agony that ended a dozen idyllic years being raised by one of pop music's superstars.
Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr. told the panel Wednesday how he knew there was trouble in the singer's rented mansion when heard screaming upstairs and went into his father's bedroom. His father was laying halfway off the bed, eyes rolled up into the back of his head as his physician tried CPR.
His sister Paris screamed for her father and Prince, now 16, told jurors that he was crying. On the ride to a hospital, the teenager recounted how he tried to calm the fears of his sister and younger brother by telling them that angels were watching over their father and everything would be fine.
It wasn't until his father's doctor, Conrad Murray, came out of the emergency room and said he had died that Prince knew his father was gone.
"Nothing will ever be the same," the teenager told jurors. He said while his younger brother doesn't totally realize the loss, his sister has had the hardest time of them all and he has had many sleepless nights since his father died four years ago.
His voice wavered at times and tears appeared to form in his eyes, but Prince remained composed as he publicly recounted for the first time what he saw the day his father died.
The re-telling of the scene in Jackson's bedroom came after nearly an hour of Prince describing happier times, showing photos of him and his sister when they were younger and a series of videos of the children filmed by their father.
He testified in a lawsuit accusing concert promoter AEG Live LLC of negligently hiring Murray, who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving Jackson an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
AEG denies it hired the physician or bears any responsibility for the entertainer's death.
Wearing a black suit with a dark grey tie and his long brown hair tucked behind his ears, Prince testified that he saw AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips at the family's rented mansion in a heated conversation with Murray in the days before his father died. The teenager said Phillips grabbed Murray's elbow.
Phillips "looked aggressive to me," Prince testified.
His father wasn't at home at the time and was probably rehearsing, he said.
He said he saw his father cry after phone conversations with Phillips, and wanted more time to rehearse and was unhappy with pressure to perform his 50 scheduled comeback concerts titled "This Is It."
Murray's attorney Valerie Wass and AEG defense attorney Marvin S. Putnam later denied outside court that the meeting Prince described ever happened.
Putnam said Prince would be re-called to the witness stand during the defense case later in the trial.
"I think as the testimony will show when he is called in our defense that's not what happened," Putnam said. "He was a 12-year-old boy who has had to endure this great tragedy."
The testimony began with the teenager showing jurors roughly 15 minutes of private family photos and home videos.
He described growing up on Neverland Ranch and narrated videos of the property's petting zoos, amusement park and other amenities. After his father's acquittal of child molestation charges, Prince described living in the Middle East, Ireland and Las Vegas.
Prince is the first Jackson family member to testify during the trial, now in its ninth week. On Thursday his cousins, TJ and Taj Jackson, who are Tito Jackson's sons, will take the witness stand.
Prince Jackson, his sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson and brother Prince Michael "Blanket" Jackson are plaintiffs in the case against AEG, which their grandmother and primary caretaker filed in August 2010.
Another image showed Michael Jackson playing piano with his son while Prince was still a toddler.
Plaintiffs' attorney Brian Panish asked Prince whether he was interested in pursuing a career in music. "I can never play an instrument and I definitely cannot sing," Prince said to laughter from the jury.
He said he wanted to study film or business when he goes to college.
His testimony also included details that AEG's lawyers will likely point to later in the case to bolster their contention that Jackson was secretive about using propofol as a sleep aid.
Prince said none of the household staff were allowed upstairs at the mansion, and the singer kept his bedroom locked while receiving treatments from Murray.
During cross-examination, Putnam played a clip from a deposition of Prince in which the teen said he discovered the bedroom was locked when he and his siblings were playing hide-and-seek and couldn't get inside.
Prince also said his father gave him and his sister Paris a stack of $100 bills on a few occasions to give to Murray. He said his father told him that Murray wouldn't take the money from him, and the doctor wouldn't take the full amount from the children.
The teenager said his understanding was that the money was meant to tide Murray over until he got paid by AEG Live.
He never saw or knew how Murray was treating his father.
"I was 12. To my understanding he was supposed to make sure my dad stayed healthy," Prince testified.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
As sophomore lit classes have taught us for decades, the way you end a great American narrative is to head west?to make for the territories. (Nick Carraway goes home to the Midwest at the end of Gatsby, for example.) And for a moment it seemed that such a move would cap this season, that Don would try to reinvent himself in Los Angeles, as Megan took auditions. Of course it was literally a stolen vision?lifted whole from Stan Rizzo, sold to Megan like she was a client. And then Ted decides he wants to move out. He asks Don for the vision. It?s a complex moment: Don, just barely on the wagon, has the shakes. Ted appeals to his better nature, but Don refuses; Ted then invokes a memory of his own alcoholic father and tells Don to have a drink: ?You can?t stop cold like that.?
I wonder if this is why Ted has been so obsessed with Don all season, so insistent on getting his juice, to cite just one prominent example of their competitiveness. Does Ted see Don as his father? It would explain a certain simpering quality, the fact that Ted as played can?t quite get a handle on his own pettiness and desires. He knew exactly what he was doing by giving Don permission to drink. Was he trying to help? Or did he set Don up? In either case, as Hanna rightly notes, what follows is one of the greatest office scenes in Mad Men history.
Back to that scene in a moment. First, an observation: Of all the things we learned in the scenes that followed, it surprised me most to find out that Roger had no idea about Don?s past. In prior episodes Don has mentioned growing up in the Depression, and when he first met Roger he was hardly flush; he was selling Roger a fur to give to Joan. But the full scope of Don?s early life?orphan, whorehouse, stealing from johns?shocked Roger. His deception has been that thorough, over the years. He?s done everything he could?paid off his brother, and later Pete, to keep his secrets, made all manner of moves to hide his true identity.
And yet his secret identity is hardly a secret. Pete, Bert, Megan, Betty, and the audience all know. We?ve gotten used to it. Such a secret is not even that unusual in the cosmology of this show; there?s another character with a secret identity in the same office. Bob Benson is faking his blue blood; he?s actually from West Virginia.
It may be normal to have a whole fake history on Mad Men, but to the wealthy and sophisticated people around them there?s still a certain horror. Don and Bob are adult changelings. They walk right, talk right, and yet they are uncanny creatures. Manolo is another. They walk among us.
There?s been a very uneasy peace between the changeling class and the upper crust on this show. And now it?s broken down. Bob has humiliated Pete; Manolo has, possibly, killed Pete?s mom. And now Don, who has committed an unbelievable variety of sins, has done the unthinkable, which is to reveal himself fully: Not only did he account for his true past?as unsavory a past for this character as verisimilitude could allow?but he did it in front of a client, one of the most wholesome clients possible, Hershey?s.
It started so well. Fortified by booze he told Hershey?s executives: ?Hershey?s is the currency of affection. It?s the childhood symbol of love.? And he goes on to tell a snuggly Draperesque story of childhood chocolate joy. The client says, ?Well weren?t you a lucky little boy.? And while Don is many things, he?s not actually lucky. His childhood was the absolute opposite of lucky. Brute force, lies, and hair cream have made his luck. And somehow he can?t bear to pretend in front of Hershey?s. He has to tell them the truth.
So he tells the executives the story of his childhood, willingly, openly. He confesses that he would fantasize about attending the Hershey-funded orphanage, dream of being welcomed and treated with kindness. ?A different life,? Don says. But then he says the truly unsayable: ?If I had my way you would never advertise. You shouldn?t have someone like me telling that boy what a Hershey bar is. He already knows.?
As it happens, I graduated from Milton Hershey School in 1992. Back when Don would have attended it was called Hershey Industrial School. In that era it took in boy orphans and raised them, and taught them trades. Later it expanded its mission to ?social orphans??poor kids, basically, girls and boys. Although there were still orphans there.
Consider his dream. If he had attended Don would have been class of 1944. Milton Hershey himself would have still been alive. Don would have done farm work, learned a trade. He would have lived in a student home with house-parents whose job was to watch over him. There were a lot of chores, a lot of cows to milk (and that went on for decades?I arrived right after mandatory milking was canceled).
I remember going to a lunch my senior year of high school and meeting the men who were boys in that era, who told us about their memories of riding along with Milton Hershey himself in his very large automobile?big, paunchy, kindly guys. The stories they told were universally ones of luck, of feeling blessed, of being grateful. No matter how sad their lives before the school had been. There was a lot of religion, a lot of discipline, and everything smelled like burnt chocolate.
Hershey and his wife Kitty started the orphanage because they couldn?t have children. The story is of course more complicated: Kitty might have been infertile due to syphilis. Milton Hershey was not a perfect human being by any stretch. The school is not a perfect institution. That said, over the last century thousands of kids have finished high school in good health, warmly dressed, and went into the world with a suitcase of clothing and money in their pocket, because of the school.
This has been a slow season, and perhaps I?m biased for the reasons above. But I loved that moment when Don confessed to the Hershey executives. Look, he was saying, this is what your product really means. This is why it exists.
Of course, he didn?t go to their school. It was an acceptance denied. And in telling them he squashed all chance of getting the account. He even told them he didn?t want them to advertise. And then he lost his job. In hitting bottom, he is making it impossible for people to do anything but reject him. California, Megan, advertising?forget it. He?s been looking for acceptance, love, a sense of home, and he keeps throwing his chances to attain those things away.
But he also told the truth. Not the truth varnished to sell more Kodak products. He told them what the candy bar actually meant to him: A ?ceremony.? An experience of comfort and safety that transcended advertising.
All that he has at the end is his family. Of all the holidays, it?s Thanksgiving. A man whose religion involves slugging ministers, whose spiritual acts involve Hershey bars, standing with his children in front of the decrepit old whorehouse where he grew up. Sally looks at him. Don looks at Sally. Count your blessings.
I?d tell you to go to hell, but I never want to see you again,
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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Guilt is good. Yes! Guilt actually encourages people to have more empathy for others, to take corrective action, and to improve themselves. Self-forgiveness following guilt is self-essential to esteem, which is key to enjoying life and relationships. Yet, for many, self-acceptance remains elusive because of unhealthy guilt.
Darlene Lancer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in relationships, codependency, and addiction. She has a broad range of experience, working with individuals and couples for more than twenty-five years. Her focus is on helping individuals overcome obstacles to leading fuller lives, and helping couples enhance their communication, intimacy, and passion. She is a speaker, freelance writer, and maintains private practice in Santa Monica, CA. For more information, see whatiscodependency.com, where you can also get the FREE ebook, "14 Tips for Letting Go." 
The Drapers visit Don's childhood home.