Whole lotta backscratchin goin on. For whose benefit? Yours? Mine? Well, not exactly:
“President Obama’s efforts to enlist the support of private industry are exactly what presidents have always done to enact major legislation,” U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Diana DeGette of Colorado said in a joint statement"
Exactly.
And isn't that absence of transparency exactly, precisely, and without doubt one of the principal problems that occurs so often in Washington?
I just dropped the last five kits in the web-store.
For all of you that purchased a kit or two, THANK YOU!
The postman will likely be peeved with me, as he has a rather large pick up tomorrow :) All the kits have shipped and will be heading to their new homes.
If you have trouble with the assembly see here and the instructions for the big kit if you have further questions is here.... they share many of the same components but with far less parts.
We at Frictional Games are yet again part of a Humble Indie Bundle and this time it is quite the pack. Our contribution is Amnesia: The Dark Descent and it is joined by Limbo, Bastion, Psychonauts and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery. This pack of games is offered to a price of your own choosing, and part of the revenue, you chose how much, will go to charity. This video will explain more:
I think the all of the games that Amnesia share the bundle with are quite special, and are all really worth playing if you haven't yet.
Sword and Sworcery was my top from last year and there is a lot to learn from playing it. Foremost, it has this magical blend of music, gameplay and graphics that really shows of the strengths of the medium. It is clear that this is not a game that has been created to be some kind of competition, but to create a special, mystical experience. This is something we need more of.
Limbo manages to create a very tense atmosphere, but more importantly it how to use a very simplistic control scheme to create great variety. Nowadays, game often require you to learn tons of buttons, but in Limbo you understand all required controls after a few minutes of play. And yet the game manages to give you varied activities from start to finish. It also never takes away control from the player, allowing for a highly interactive narrative experience.
Bastion is excellent in the way it builds up its fiction. The constant voice over gives meaning to your actions and also let you see the world in a quite different way than you would have otherwise. As the flowing narrative unfolds, enemies stop being cannon fodder and instead feel like proper denizens of the world. By small means a lot of depth is added to the game, and I highly recommend it in a lesson on how to do story exposition.
Finally, Psychonauts paint up a vibrant world filled with quirky, interesting and yet human characters. What I liked best about it is how the core theme of the game, to enter people's minds, really merges both gameplay and storytelling. Actually playing the game does not simply servers as some filler between plot points, but actually adds depth to the narrative.
The Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit, part of the grand scheme of Obamacare to overhaul the current health care system and make health insurance affordable, is another money hole and dismal failure.
Fewer small employers claimed the Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit in tax year 2010 than were estimated to be eligible. While 170,300 small employers claimed it, estimates of the eligible pool by government agencies and small business advocacy groups ranged from 1.4 million to 4 million.
That's fewer than 10% of the estimated eligible groups who said thanks, but no thanks, to a tax credit.
If the government can't even GIVE money away, what does that say about the way they are going to manage health insurance going forward?
One factor limiting the credit’s use is that most very small employers, 83 percent by one estimate, do not offer health insurance. According to employer representatives, tax preparers, and insurance brokers that GAO met with, the credit was not large enough to incentivize employers to begin offering insurance
Well yeah, that's a problem all right. You would think the brainiac's in DC would have considered that. But then these are the same folks that pass laws without ever bothering to read them before they vote on them.
The base of the credit is premiums paid or the average premium for an employer’s state if premiums paid were higher. In 2010, for small businesses, the credit was 35 percent of the base unless the business had more than 10 FTE employees or paid average annual wages over $25,000.
Even a 35% direct tax credit failed to provide enough incentive for businesses to provide health insurance if they did not do so already.
This won't improve in 2014 and there is no reason why it should. Of course, small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees) are not penalized for failure to provide health insurance. In addition, most low wage employees will get their health insurance through the Medicaid expansion as ordered by Obamacrap. Of course the states can't cover their current Medicaid costs so one wonders where the money will come in 2014. Somehow this hope and change thing doesn't seem to be working too well. I hope those who voted for change the last time will have become a bit wiser and educated in the interim.
From time to time, we've written about medical marijuana. One of the potential arguments against its use is that simply saying "it's for medicinal purposes" seems somewhat disingenuous.
Enter a snowboarding world of total freedom. You can create your own experience in this game, and choose when, where, how and with whom you want to ride. Developed in close collaboration with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White -- the most successful snowboarder in the history of the sport. Bomb down open-world mountain ranges in hot spots across the globe and seek out real-life friend in fully-integrated online runs.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium D @ 2.6 GHz/AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
"Other bills up for consideration could make it easier for FSA holders to get back or roll over unused balances at the end of the year."
Again, one of the major problems with FSA "use it or lose it" requirements is that it encourages profligate spending.
"A third bill up for consideration, H.R. 5858, would let early retirees over the age of 55 use HSA funds to pay for health insurance without paying income taxes on the distributions."
Currently, HSA funds can only be used to pay for (some) Long Term Care (LTCi) and COBRA premiums, and Medicare premiums once one hits the magic 65.
“Require that all eligible candidates, including advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants, be reviewed by medical staff for potential appointment to the hospital medical staff and then be granted all of the privileges, rights, and responsibilities accorded to appointed medical staff members.”
With this change, an APRN (Advanced Practice Registered Nurse) or PA (Physician's Assistant) can do everything a doctor can do at an 85% reimbursement rate of a doctor. The government will save significant monies if they are paying 15% less for the same service by virtue of the fact that a doctor is not performing the procedure. One of the stated advantages is to free up doctors for more complex cases, but the real advantage is financial. In addition to collecting less, these mid level providers also cost a hospital less with salaries being half that of a physician. So, even though the hospital will get a reduced payment, they will not have the overhead associated with doctors.
If these rules are approved, then hospitals will be able to reduce their physician staff to the bare minimum to handle the more complex cases and hire on less expensive APRN’s and PA’s to do the work currently being done by Doctors.
Travel insurance for summer vacation. Luxury or good idea? What to look for, and what to look out for.
The Georgia Dept. of Insurance issued a public service memo offering advice on what to consider in evaluating travel insurance.
Some travel insurance can protect against the loss of non-refundable travel costs such as air fare or hotel costs. Other travel insurance plans offer protection against financial loss due to medical emergencies, damage to personal property and death.
Trip Cancellation - Reimburses you for pre-paid travel expenses if you have to cancel your trip due to unforeseen situations such as illness, death or other conflicts.
Travel Delay - Reimbursement for out of pocket expenses if you have to delay your flight due to circumstances beyond your control, such as flight delay or cancellation.
Medical or Health - Reimburses out of pocket expenses for medical or dental emergencies, including those not covered by your major medical plan.
Medical Evacuation - Transport to a hospital near your location or back home.
Air ambulance charges, even for local transport, can run $5,000 or more. If you have to be returned to your home country, a charge of $30,000+ is not out of the ordinary.
Another concern, especially when traveling to a foreign country, is the need for translation of medical records. If you have something serious enough that may require follow up treatment, your doctor(s) back home may not have the ability to read Mandarin. Translation of medical records can easily run in the thousands but is a common benefit included in travel insurance plans.
If you are on Medicare you should be aware that you have no coverage outside the U.S. borders in most cases. Some (but not all) Medigap plans have limited coverage up to $50,000 for travel outside the United States.
Travel insurance policies are written on a "stand alone" basis but are best used as an adjunct to major medical coverage. As Karl Malden used to say, "Don't leave home without it".
Last week, Kelley posted on the folly of taxing the "RichDoctor," including a video on that new MassCare scheme. Today, the Pioneer Institute presents the second video in that series.
In the video, Josh Archambault (Pioneer's Health Care Policy Director) interviews Brian Rosman (Health Care for All's Research Director):
Medicare is at risk and in desperate need of reform. With 48 million on Medicare and an aging baby boomer generation, Medicare must be overhauled before it goes bust.
Medicare became law in 1965 under President Johnson.
Since that time the number of people covered by Medicare has expanded while the number of workers paying Medicare taxes have shrunk. Roughly 88% of Medicare benefits are paid for through payroll taxes.
If Congress decides to cover the funding deficit through increased taxes, the amount a median family pays will jump from $1430 to almost double at $2630 per year.
Obamacare makes things even worse for seniors by cutting $421 in Medicare funding in order to pay for health insurance for the uninsured. Obamacare also dramatically cuts reimbursement to doctors and other medical personnel under the guise of saving money.
The next time you are with your doctor ask them how the feel about taking a 27% pay cut for treating Medicare patients. How would you feel if, in order to save Medicare, Congress decided to cut your Social Security benefits by 27%?
Currently the unfunded liability for Medicare and Social Security exceeds $40 trillion and the share of that burden for our children and grandchildren is roughly $200,000 each.
You can learn more about a Heritage proposal called Saving the American Dream at their website (just follow the link).
That would be Disability Insurance Awareness Month, which is (or, was) May. Well, better late than never.
Do you know how much money you'll make over your lifetime? It may well be more than you've considered. And, of course, disability insurance helps protect those potential earnings, keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads.
But how to quantify that?
The folks at the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) have made available from helpful calculators to make that easier.
Heroes of Stalingrad will take the award winning Red Orchestra franchise into the next generation of gaming. Cutting edge graphics and audio built on Unreal Engine 3, inventive features and streamlined realism will deliver an unrivaled WWII experience. Focusing on the Battle of Stalingrad and the surrounding operations, both German and Russian, from July 1942 to February 1943 the game allows the player to experience one of the most brutal battles in all of human history…
Black Box :
| Host : Indowebster | Total Size : 3.9GB | Cracked by : ALI213 | NFO Available Below!
Welcome to the front! Poland, the summer of 1944: the Red Army is preparing to deal the killing blow to the Wehrmacht – and you are right in the middle of it. As a German or Soviet front line soldier, it will be your skills and tactical finesse that will determine if you reach the military objectives.
Poland, the summer of 1944: the Red Army is preparing to deal the killing blow to the Wehrmacht – and you are right in the middle of it. As a German or Soviet front line soldier, it will be your skills and tactical finesse that will determine if you reach the military objectives. Command your own troops, man authentic weaponry and take to the sky in deadly warplanes. Raging across huge battlefields on an unprecedented level of simulation, the heat of combat awaits you in the single player and multiplayer modes. This is where war shows its true face!
Tactical war simulation: play as a soldier in 1st person and as a commander in 3rd person
Large-scale battles involving infantry, tanks and warplanes
Commanding troops and vehicles, and steering all vehicles makes you feel like you’re really there
Two campaigns against a historical backdrop
Lots of settings options, from shooter to tactical
Huge arsenal of authentic weapons
Over 35 vehicles and planes
Extensive multiplayer capabilities, with cooperative and PvP battles
Powerful editor
OS:Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
Processor:Dual-core Intel Core 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz
Memory:1 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 8600GT or ATI Radeon 3650 or faster with Shader Model 3 and 512 MB VRAM
As the first skateboarding game in the best-selling Shaun White video game franchise, Shaun White Skateboarding will provide an innovative twist and fresh take on the skateboarding and action-sports genre.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium D @ 2.6 GHz/AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Memorial Day is the time when pundits and politicians alike stand and proclaim, "One life lost is one too many." Despite their best intentions, the statement is a hollow cliche that reflects a world as we want it to be versus the realities of the world as it is. It is an empty response that lacks eloquence and true understanding. It falls desperately short in its attempt to honor those who have laid down their lives for their country or pay tribute to their families who have truly sacrificed for our nation. But what does it all mean in the context of sacrifice, commitment and dedication? A life lost impacts a family, their friends, comrades and the community they represent. One life represents so much more than a number; it is reflective of a community, a county, a state and our nation.
Saints Row 2 takes place a few years after the original. Several new upstart gangs have been able to sweep in and make their mark on Stilwater. At the same time, a multi-national conglomerate known as the Ultor Corporation has become a pivotal player in city politics, pumping millions of dollars into rebuilding the metropolis. As leader of the Saints, you'll have to do whatever it takes to protect the members of your gang from new enemies, including the Ultor Corporation and rival gangs.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP / Vista
Processor: 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
Memory: 1 GB Available System Memory
Hard Drive: 15 GB Available Hard Drive Space
Video Memory: 128 MB 3D Video Card w/Shader Model 3.0 Support
Display: DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 640 by 480 16-bit Color Resolution
Welcome to Top Secret Finders, the government created special division to investigate archives of extraordinary highly classified cases. Your first mission is to save a small town from a dangerous device. Use your Hidden Object skills to uncover the truth about a government conspiracy and stop the villain in his tracks!
Game Size 332 MB
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Screenshots:
Have fun and feel free to leave your comments!
Recommended for free users: Use Jdownloader to increase download speed!
May’s Mysteries: The Secret Of Dragonville is an exciting puzzle adventure. Follow May, an intelligent and charismatic girl, in her quest to find her missing brother. Advance through the adventure by solving over 270 puzzles, including logic puzzles, tricky rhythmic games and beautifully hand drawn hidden object scenes. Search for clues about May’s brother, visit mysterious locations and meet interesting characters along the way, which will help you in your journey.
Game Size 265 MB
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Screenshots:
Have fun and feel free to leave your comments!
Recommended for free users: Use Jdownloader to increase download speed!
