Building an active and organized youth movement is the most important step toward a Democratic Party that wins.
The Action Caucus is strengthening the Young Democrats of America from the ground up.
Left on 580: The fight to take back Congress is just a few exits away!
The Action Caucus of the California Young Democrats is mobilizing the Bay Area to head out to Congressional District 11 and unseat right wing Republican Congressman Richard Pombo.
Want to help? Hit the highway this weekend!
Paid for by the California Young Democrats and not by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
A flood of information is newly available to map enthusiasts who surf the Web. Many excellent sites feature the wares of well-known and not-so-well-known map dealers. If you have heard that old maps are available at bargain prices through Internet auctions but have been reluctant to take the electronic plunge, here are some points to consider.
E-Commerce
Internet auctions fall into two categories: the traditional-style auction house that has established an Internet presence and a more recent innovation based on person-to-person e-commerce, in which the auctioneer receives a percentage of a sale for electronically introducing a buyer and a seller. Established auction houses are beginning to supplement live, telephone, or postal bidding by taking bids via the Internet. The Web allows them to create attractive, detailed, and relatively inexpensive “catalogues” that reach a large audience. But the auction house still assumes its traditional role — providing expert description and grading, guaranteeing proper handling, and, most importantly, standing behind the items it sells.
Person-to-person e-commerce is a whole different kettle of cartographica. An e-auction usually accepts little or no liability. Although some e-auctions offer insurance and limited guarantees, the business relationship is essentially between the buyer and the seller. Providers of this new type of Internet auction include eBay.com as well as many other Web sites that seem to appear and disappear with mind-boggling rapidity.
The dominance of eBay in the field is difficult to overstate — 125 million completed auctions, more than 2 million running currently, more than 3 million registered users, and millions more browsing. Other big Internet names, such as Amazon.com and Yahoo.com, are trying to find a new twist to break eBay’s firm grasp on a phenomenally successful industry that did not even exist five years ago.
From a seller’s point of view, the more focused buyers who see an item, the better. From a buyer’s point of view, the more convenient it is to purchase an item, the better. Under both criteria, eBay stands alone. For example, I used three key words map, atlas, and globe — to conduct simple searches on eBay and several of its competitors, eBay yielded about five thousand responses. Many had no cartographic connection whatsoever; well over half either were of no interest to collectors or were so easily available it would not be worth paying postage for them. Perhaps one in ten cartographic items would be of some interest to more than a few collectors beyond the novice stage, and probably less than one in one hundred would be desirable to experienced collectors. Yet that still leaves dozens of items a serious collector would have an interest in. The number of premium pieces available at any given time varies greatly but has been on an upward trend.
On Amazon I got about two thousand responses, with more than ninety percent having no significant relationship to maps or globes. Less than fifty could be deemed of interest to more than a few collectors. I found nothing on my last search I would consider premium, though I have seen highly desirable items on Amazon’s auction in the past. Although my searches in the rest of the e-auction world have never turned up anything significant, in all fairness I have not been willing to spend the time sorting through the seemingly endless dross.
One notable exception that bears watching is SeriousCollector.com. They have taken a new approach by catering to many categories of dealers of quality collectibles in an attempt to avoid the garage-sale atmosphere of eBay and other e-auctions. They currently have many offerings of merchandise and a system for auctions in place.
Dr Thomas Stuttaford reports on acne
According to an article published by The Beauty Reviewer here – http://thebeautyreviewer.com/skin-care/scar-removal-cream/revitol-scar-cream-reviews/, the luminaries of the Acne Support Group did not allow their former skin condition to prevent them from enjoying tea together this week at the Basil Street Hotel in London.
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Fortunately, as they piled the clotted cream and jam on to their scones and wolfed down rich cakes, Dr Tony Chu, a consultant dermatologist at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, reassured the gathering that diet did not cause acne.
That myth is only one of the many surrounding the condition. No link has been proved – it is not made worse by chocolate cake, Cornish cream or fish and chips.
Naturally, a well-balanced, vitamin-rich diet improves a person’s general health, and the skin reflects this, but occasionally making a hog of oneself with a box of chocolates does not trigger acne.
The condition can occur at any age. It is seen in babies and octogenarians, and 1 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women over 40 still suffer from significant acne.
It usually starts in adolescence and is more common in men than women, but the latter can suffer from it again in their thirties – and some may develop it for the first time at that age. Although a great plague of adolescence, when the sex drive, especially in males, is strong, it is not caused by too little or too much sex, nor by the type of sexual activity.
And even though it makes the skin look unappealing, it is not the result of a lack of soap and water. The cleanest people may develop blackheads, whiteheads, pustules, mini-abscesses and all the other manifestations of the condition. In fact, overwashing the face can dry the skin and make it sore, and cause the acne to become worse.
If the condition is not the result of diet, dirt or sex, then what does cause it and what makes it worse?
It is related to the response of the skin to the hormone testosterone, which is pro duced by women as well as men. Although there is a relationship between the amount of circulating testosterone in women, there is no such association in men.
Some testosterone-rich men have enviable complexions, whereas others who have reached adolescence with only a meagre level of the hormone may be seriously afflicted.
In men the tendency to develop acne depends on the skin’s reaction to testosterone. The small sebaceous glands found in each pore of the skin, and which secrete the skin’s natural oil, are unusually sensitive to testosterone and, as a result, secrete an excessive amount of oil. In those suffering from the condition, testosterone also increases the stickiness of the skin cells that everyone constantly sheds. The abnormally sticky cells collect in the duct leading from the sebaceous gland to the surface. The combination of increased production of oil and a blocked outlet produces the pustules.
Acne is made worse by sweating, tight clothing such as collars and bras, fringes, some hair oils and suntan lotions, periods and, probably, stress.
It requires treatment, not the unwarranted reassurance that “you’ll grow out of it”. Some 18 per cent of teenagers being treated for severe acne have experienced suicidal thoughts because of it. Forty per cent avoid school when it is at its worst, and a third say it limits their ability to make friends, particularly with the opposite sex.
Even in adult life, embarrassment, reinforced by problems with employment, is often felt. Two thirds of adults with acne feel depressed, 12 per cent so badly that they have contemplated killing themselves.
If there has not been a 50 per cent improvement within two months of a treatment being instituted, sufferers should be assertive and suggest a change of regime, such as antibiotics or other antibacterials, either applied to the skin or taken by mouth, coupled – and this is de rigueur – with skin preparations of retinoids (vitamin A compounds). Other creams like the well known revitol scar cream can help matters as well.
Serious cases may need Roaccutane, an oral derivative of vitamin A; however, because of its potential side-effects, it is prescribed only by hospital consultants. Women who are resistant to other forms of treatment may be given Dianette. This, like other oestrogen preparations, can cause blood clots.
The object of treatment is to prevent scars from forming. Once they have, they can never be eradicated, although their appearance may be improved through chemical peeling, laser resurfacing, dermabrasion, and collagen or steroid injections.
The joy of Entrepreneur is that it offers a variety of amusing and ingenious themes.
In the weeks ahead we will be offering games based on art and antiques auction prices, luxury cars and many other entrepreneurial pursuits. Today we begin with Property, a game based on a house prices. It is disarmingly simple and exceptionally fast. In less than two minutes from now you should know whether or not you’re a winner.
To begin, you need your own individual Entrepreneur card. You may have received one through the letterbox. If not, there should be a car enclosed in today’s Silver Anniversary edition of the Colour Magazine. It is your own personal game card, with your own set of eight numbers, and you must hold on to it because you can use it throughout the Entrepreneur games series.
How to Play
Once you have your card, consult the list of 48 properties below. These are real properties, selected from advertisements that have appeared in Quibids in the past week.
Now compare your eight card numbers with the identical numbers on the Entrepreneur listing of properties below. Then add up the eight property prices set against those numbers.
If your total matches exactly the Property Sales Total shown at the top of today’s listing, you are a winner!
How to Claim
You should follow the prize claim procedure printed on the back of your card by phoning 0254-53272 between 10.00am and 3.30pm on the Monday following the game. No claims can be accepted outside these hours.
No prize can be claimed unles you have your Entrepreneur card with you when you telephone. Someone else can claim on your behalf but they must have your card.
If you are the only winner you will receive the full pounds 5,000. If there are other winners you will share the money proportionally.
Christie’s was not significantly out of line with normal auction practice. The auction houses reluctantly began to reveal which lots sold and which did not only during the 1970s; published price lists gave the final hammer price of all lots irrespective of whether they sold or not. In 1974 Sotheby’s began to omit the unsold lots in its New York price list and did the same in London in 1976. Christie’s London price list fell into line only in November 1981, although it claimed to omit unsold lots in New York from 1977 on. It is generally accepted that the auction houses do not admit all their failures, particularly if they have difficult clients.
New regulations would be desirable – on stolen goods, for instance. If you innocently buy stolen goods at auction and the police reclaim them, the auctioneer is not legally required to reimburse you. In theory he is only the vendor’s agent and you must claim against the vendor – who by that time has probably vanished.
Auctioneers do not take legal responsibility for the accuracy of their catalogues. Sotheby’s offers a guarantee of authenticity but the small print is littered with exclusions. Christie’s reacts to complaints on an ad hoc basis. In France, auction experts are required to issue a guarantee of accuracy valid for 50 years.
And what of auction rings? Auctioneers usually know when illegal rings are operating in their rooms and which dealers belong to them. But they do not tell the police. ‘We have no proof,’ they say. But co-operation between an auctioneer and the police can thwart a ring, as demonstrated by a Welsh auctioneer recently. Regrettably, he is believed to be unique in auction history.
Finally, there is the matter of buyers’ premium. An Office of Fair Trading investigation after the premium was introduced in 1975 found that it did not constitute a restrictive trade practice; the two big dealers’ associations threatened to take the auctioneers to court but settled at the eleventh hour. The premium remains, in essence, a deception advantageous to the auctioneer.
The auction house acts on behalf of the vendor and used to charge only the vendor commission. In 1975 Sotheby’s and Christie’s decided to charge 10 per cent to buyers as well as sellers. The buyers, of course, adjust their bids to take account of this charge, which is therefore only national. The auctioneer takes a 20 per cent cut while assuring the vendor that only 10 per cent comes out of his pocket. The vendors are duly deceived.
Britain’s reputation as an art centre would be greatly enhanced if this practice was outlawed. The auctioneers will not do it themselves. Parliament should do it for them.
Author Bio: The author of this piece is a regular auction bidder of all kinds of auctions and a blogger of the same subject.
