Drug Store News, August 28, 2006

American Greetings re-entered the licensing business this year with the formation of AG Properties a division of the company that’s forming new licensing deals for classic characters, card-based properties and new franchises.

While no stranger to the licensing business–its Care Bear and Strawberry Shortcake properties have generated more than $3 billion in retail sales since 2002–American Greetings will keep its licensing in-house with AGP and develop multiple properties. Drug Store News recently spoke with AGP senior vice president of consumer products Tamra Seldin Knepfer about the company’s plans for 2006 and beyond.

Drug Store News: What’s the current tally for merchandise sales for Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake since their launch?

Knepfer: For Care Bears, $1.8 billion in retail sales since its re-launch in 2002. For Strawberry Shortcake it is $1.3 billion.

Drug Store News: Is AG Properties a new initiative or the expansion of something you’ve been doing?

Knepfer: While American Greetings has done intellectual property development and outbound licensing in the past, AGP is a new division of American Greetings that was formed in March 2006.

On the business side, American Greetings had been working with licensing agents to manage Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake but now AGP will handle out-bound licensing in-house for properties other than those two.

On the creative side, American Greetings has been overseeing all creative and product approval for our properties. Now AGP is developing a pipeline of new intellectual properties to build an ongoing and consistent out-bound licensing business for American Greetings.

Drug Store News: What properties are you focused on this year?

Knepler: Holly Hobble is our “next big thing,” following in the footsteps of Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears
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Household supplies?everything from shampoo and toothpaste to toilet paper, soap, detergent, bleach, disinfectants and everything else you use on a daily basis. Don?t forget hair clippers if you can?t get out to the barber. Have supplies on hand to deal with sanitation and garbage.

Communication?Newer walkie-talkies that have a 10-12 mile range will help you stay in touch with your family in the event your cell phone stops working. Give each member of your family one and tune them all to the same channel.
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This simply means there is no trial date set yet. There is a way for the court to bring both parties together to try and negotiate a settlement.
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Bringing people back to the old notion of a more direct, personal exchange has had both positive and negative outcomes.
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Maintaining your Profile

You can?t just fill out some basic details, and leave your profile sitting there while friend collecting ? people will see something is not right (and not appreciate it). You do not need to do much to maintain your profile, and these few steps can help:

Update your blog at least once every 3 days.

Fill out as much of your profile as you can before you start friend requesting.

Change your Profiles design to give it a more personal feel ? many free templates are available around the internet that are perfectly fine.

Include photos of yourself, or at least have a few pictures in your gallery.

Comment on your friends profiles occasionally, so they know you are still there.

Reply to as many messages as possible.

Maintaining your Profile ? Automatically?

If you use automatic methods to gain large lists of friends you will probably not have the time or patience to comment on all their pages, or respond to their messages.

Firstly, attempt to at least comment on a few profiles yourself, to show that you care (or are at least trying to care).
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Picture frames enhances elegance and splendor of your picture. The frames are also available as table tops or wall hangings. The table top picture frames are available in square, rectangular or oval shaped. The wooden hangings may be hand painted, carved or plain.

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Content is the King

It is often said in the world of webmasters that if you want to drive targeted visitors to your website you should have relevant content. Search Engines look for relevant content when a person makes a search based on a particular keyword. So your website should have relevant content in order to rank high in SERP.

A few more words can be said about the role of content or keywords for achieving high search engine rankings.
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0 Comments | Sentinel, The; Stoke-on-Trent (UK), Sep 3, 2010 | by CIARA HILL

A 90-YEAR-OLD woman who suffered three falls in hospital died after staff failed to properly care for her.

Widow Ivy Bunn had lived alone for three years and was described by family as an “independent and capable woman”.

The retired school cook had a minor fall at her Stafford home on October 31 two years ago and was taken to A&E; at Stafford Hospital, where she was subsequently diagnosed with kidney failure.

But Mrs Bunn had three further falls in hospital during the next four days, one of which caused her to hit her head on a table and end up lying in a pool of blood.

The final fall lead to the pensioner’s death on November 6, an inquest into her death heard yesterday.

But it was only after Mrs Bunn’s second fall that nurses carried out a fall risk assessment and recognised the patient was at high risk.

That assessment was part of hospital policy at the time, but it was completely neglected.

Medical notes showed that checks and fluid records were also neglected for two days.

The hospital’s Dr George Jacob said: “In the emergency assessment unit she fell and sustained a cut.

“The hospital falls policy was not followed and the neuro observations should have been carried out every two to four hours.”

Senior sister Joanne Perry, of the assessment unit, said the falls assessment wasn’t widely publicised at the time and wasn’t done for many elderly people coming into the unit.

“She had two falls in the unit and there was no communication with her family about these,” the nurse added.

“Our incident reporting system has changed and the organisation has reduced falls by using new equipment to alert staff when a patient is moving and using lower beds.”

Mrs Bunn, of Bramall Lane, spent three days in the assessment unit before being moved to ward 10 under the management of sister Julie Purslow.

The nurse said: “When Mrs Bunn arrived on my ward she was confused and could not follow simple instructions.

“At that time we were unable to provide the one-to-one support.”

The episode came seven months after the end of a three year period at the hospital when between 400 and 1,200 more people died than expected.

Since Mrs Bunn’s death the number of beds on the ward is fewer and, if a patient is a fall risk, a yellow triangle is placed by their bed so staff are alerted.

South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh recorded a narrative verdict, saying: “It think it is arguable whether this was gross neglect or not.

“There were obvious failures in the care but is there a causal link with the death? I think not.

“I do not think other actions would have stopped Mrs Bunn from falling.”

Speaking directly to Mrs Bunn’s family, Mr Haigh added lessons had been learned at the hospital.

“I fully realise those final days in hospital were awful for you and for your mother,” he said.

In a statement released following the hearing, Mrs Bunn’s family said: “Ivy was a much loved mother and grandmother and we miss her very much.

“We were appalled at the lack of care shown to her by the medical and nursing staff at the hospital in the last days of her life.

“We are glad this inquest has highlighted our concerns and we are now able to move on.”

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Finally, you don?t have to worry about ”style drift.” For example, the rules for a small-company mutual fund may force the fund?s manager to sell a stock if its market size exceeds a certain limit. That?s what its prospectus promises its investors. But that growth is just what you are looking for! You want your small companies to succeed and become large companies. You don?t want to sell those stocks, you want to keep them as long as they are performing well.

Peter Lynch had it right.
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Even though an opposite may not appear to be present, nothing is completely devoid of its opposite state.

Traditional Chinese Medicine applies the philosophies of Yin Yang to treat disease. When the body is in balance between Yin and Yang, health is predominant; when Yin and Yang are imbalanced, disease occurs.

According to Chinese medicine texts, diseases caused by yang pathogens usually present themselves with heat symptoms while diseases caused by yin pathogens usually present themselves with cold symptoms. Efforts to diagnose Yin or Yang pathogens result in intake forms with questions such as, ?Do you prefer hot or cold drinks?? or ?What is your optimal time of day??

Once a Chinese medicine doctor has determined the nature of an imbalance, he or she aims to restore balance through a variety of approaches such as acupuncture, herbs, and recommended changes in diet or lifestyle.
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