Women are Different than Men

Women since the beginning of time create life within their bodies and nurture and protect it from harm once born ... this is their role that distinguishes them from the men who necessarily must protect her and the children from harm .... Perhaps the beast in man is necessary in order to defend against those who would destroy what he considers his own blood.

Life On Earth

Life On Earth

3      Life on earth

6      Might not be life at all.

8      From oceans deep, to mountains tall,

15    Organisms originate, creatures  creep, casually crawl,

 8     Some  swim, stand, walk, run, even fall:

 15   Mobility for nobility, might not be life at all.

  3    Life on earth (?)

  15   Play, pay, stay or go away on this one big ball for us all.

SRP Customer Bills Rounding Errors

 

 

As a consumer end user of Salt River Project's electricity utility company, I had a grievance which was brought forward to their Consumer Affairs Hearing Officer and other representatives department heads that might be able to resolve the customer grievance.

****************************************************

Yolanda Martin Hearing With SRP Customer Consumer Affairs September 24, 2012

(Please visit my Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/PTTPGRID for electricity users. )

C*O*S*T     B*I*L*L*I*N*G

Customer Oriented Service Truth

BILLING POLICY
Cost billed: multiply total KW/hrs used by published kw/hr price

My bill for July, 2012 was $200.13 and when I computed the off peak charge it was off by .02 cents more .... should have been $140.97 not $140.99 billed .... This seems like too small amount to question, but I did want to know just how the difference of 2 cents occurred?. I was using 7.88 cents kilowatt published price per kw/hr for off peak usage (EZ-3 Time of Day Usage pricing) times my 1789 total off peak kw/hrs and customer service was unable to answer why what I computed was different than what was charged. I was told it takes a billing specialist to get back to me to explain the discrepancy. I waited several days and didn’t receive an answer back as I was told to expect, so I called SRP again. Still no answer from the billing department so I asked the SRP Sr Ombudsman, Consumer Affairs, Artie Whiting, for an explanation and he said he would find out and get back to me.

It is now September 24
th and I am at this hearing today to present to you my request that the amount billed the customer always agree exactly with how a customer or SRP customer service representative would calculate cost, and to not bill an unpredictable different rounded amount of a few cents each month more or less than the actual true amount due. Presently, SRP practice is using a procedure causing monthly variable discrepancy between manually calculated amount and the SRP billed amount caused by rounding as explained by Artie who wrote: "Because of the way that SRP’s financials are audited, SRP is required to show exactly how much money it is receiving for each unbundled price per kWh. That is why they have to round each line to the nearest cent before they total the bundled charges. They cannot reflect fractions of a cent in any of the unbundled prices. They have to be exact. " This may be required for unbundled accounting, but when billing the customer SRP, I request the bill be calculated true as the published cost/kwh times total kw used. (Rounding may be required for the unbundled charges but for customer billing perhaps not round at all, but truncate resulting 4 digit dollars and cents amount to 2 decimal places to be most fair of all.) I also suggest that the most useful information of kw price be included on bills instead of the note about energy charge and environment charges adde

*****************************************************

(at the meeting I gave each person there a sandwich bag containing 2 pennies and a printed paragraph that read as follows:

Thank you for allowing me to present to you a billing change request (my two cents worth).  What will two cents buy? Calculating the number of watts represented by two cents: 1,000 watts/kw÷7.79 cents per kw in month of September with off peak load EZ-3 time of day pricing=128 watts x 2 cents= 256 watt/hr of electricity will power my home’s floor fan for 3 hours, or it is also the electricity wattage needed for a 22 cu ft energy efficient refrigerator running 3 hours. Two cents: all the more significant because SRP now incorrectly bills by a few pennies more than amount owed for customer’s actual kw usage monthly.  SRP has incorrectly billed the customer for years past and continues rounding error computer billing which is the cause of the discrepancy between what is actually owed and what is billed!   Customer Oriented Service Truth  (COST) billing change corrects this customer grievance problem!

*********************************************************************************

My presentation to Consumer Affairs at SRP yesterday was well received and those present were the Consumer Affairs Hearing Officer, the mana

ger of the pricing department, the supervisor of the billing department and the manager of the billing department, and the senior consumer affairs ombudsman. My friend, Diana Cameron, also attended since I had asked her to be a help to me and also a witness to the meeting since request to record was denied. The meeting lasted one and hour and was a very productive meeting. At the end of the meeting the Hearing Officer said everything that transpired was being sent to “upper management” whatever that may mean. I got the usual response from the billing supervisor who said, “It has been this way for such a long time and change is difficult”. She didn’t really get the rounding discrepancy as being a problem although others did. Change (even small changes) are hard to initiate and to implement in a large corporation (SRP is the 4th largest utility in the nation and has 950,000 customers and with 950,000 x .02 cents per customer the total discrepancy for the organization in billing those customers could be $19,000 for a month (over the last 3 years sampling 20 of my bills, I learned that 35% of my bills were not the amount if calculated price/kw multiplied by total kw). But since this particular round error is purely a random error determined by the digits represented in the many calculations of the unbundled charges that make up the bill a more realistic estimate of billing discrepancy due to round errors in their calculation would be absolute value of $7,000 monthly. It is not so much the dollar and cent discrepancy from what would be expected but the fact that accuracy (quality) in the bill is in dispute and the means by which the supervisor is now summing the rounded unbundled charges and billing the customer for that sum does not agree with the customer’s perspective of a total price/kw (bundled) x total kw used and hence off by cents which do add up to dollars in the overall customer base. What was even more dismaying was that SRP customer service, the ombudsman and others did not know how to explain the discrepancy until now two months later. Additionally they are not using Banker Rule for rounding which minimizes skewing do to rounding. Am I boring you? LOL, well then perhaps you have some insight into the “efficiency and accuracy” of mega corporations that was my primary work environment during my professional career and working life. Fortunately, I never had my nose ground down working on such minor details and had a satisfying job working on design and development of application or systems software. I asked the billing manager what language or implementation was used for their billing and he said he had no idea and doesn’t get involved in that. That may be the heart of this problem don’t you think?

How big is the elephant and what does it look like. With many fragmented multiple points of view none can see the elephant as a total image but only parts and pieces of it. I wonder who gets the rear end view? (the customer?)

Online Internet Abusers

Thanks to the many comments for adding perspective to yet another bad encounter online with what can be generalized as meeting Internet malevolent minds, minor to major mentally disturbed, who selectively target some person singled out for their personal abuses seeking retaliation for imagined scenarios.

Some persons just lack maturity and social ability to play well in a group situation and as a consequence of their depravity are deprived the benefits the group can provide to them for social well being.

The more intelligent the socially unwell person is the more threat of damages since they can contrive and carry out their hostilities with clever complex and compound maneuvers their minds invent to resolve subconscious internal conflicts with life. The sad situation is that their potential to create good and harmony is never realized because their negative focus overrides normally expected moral and ethical social responsibilities.

Social learning and realizing the rewards of meeting and making friends via online social groups can minimize the damage the few bad encounters with those who are incompatible with the group’s positive mission. The abuser can only achieve his objective if he escape identity, remain anonymous while isolating the target from gathering effective and timely defense help.

Don’t succumb to poor and malicious behavior of abusers with harmful intent. Expose the abuser for his own good, for hope of better social conduct in the future. One member in this group said to send the abuser love, but what he needs most of all is his own self love and self esteem truly earned. Only he can make the changes needed to achieve positive social well being in a group of peers. It is by learning and by social feedback that he can adjust his behavior to achieve mental and social wellness, love, and peace for his own good and others in his life. One by one the collective community improves by improving the conduct of the lesser able ones helping each other to grow and achieve happiness, health, and prosperity. I do not feel ignoring the problem solves anything, never has, never will. The problem just gets worse.

I admit to having social faults, personality faults, but I do try to be a better more loving person and so there is hope for me. Sometimes being positive oriented is what infuriates the more negative minded individuals, IMO.

Not sure whether I should post this or not but my friend, Paul, said to so here it is (the ongoing saga battle with huge electric utility SRP)... over 2 cents error in my bill they made in their favor ... intially they were just dismissing it as yes that sometimes happenes and then I requested they not excuse it but refund my 2 cents and they credited me a pity payment of $5 .... it isn't just an error in computing my bill but they are making the same or greater error in computing all of their customers bills.

(Letter responding  to Srp Ombudsman, Arty, 07-16-2012)
I understand better than you, Arty, since I worked in computing in accounting in international corporations for 30 years. I am also well acquainted with auditors in all industries and the responsibilities they perform for their employer and to their profession with integrity.

If the 4 decimal place says the price per KW is .0788 and all charges are reflected in that price there is no internal programming that can create an error of cents in favor of SRP at the expense of the customer because “close” only is applicable to horse shoes and never applies to business bills/accounting. The whole world is an accounting sheet and the whole sum is either greater or less than the sum of its parts depending on the quality in the equation. If the whole is less than the sum of the parts then that is a negative system. You simply can not have a policy that says to the customer that when you computer calculates a bill that it has a fudge factor of a few cents or more here and there! That is why I asked you to alert your auditing department. Any bill your computer presents to me the customer must agree with conventional means of calculating and be able of being verified by the customer. We are only talking about multiplying the 7.88 kw cost times the off peak number of kw used for a pay period. That is very simple arithmetic!

I appreciate the $5.00 for the .02 cents billing error in SRP’s favor at the expense of the customer. Thank you, I accept it in good faith as a token gratuity for my input and time spent communicating not only this problems but the others we have documented in writing for future reference if need be.

I hope that you and SRP have made every effort possible to improve your service to your customers. SRP is unlike a normal business. SRP customers are also owners/shareholders via the definition of property being owned in SRP service area. I believe I do even have a vote for the Board of Directors, and SRP must serve with higher calling than other businesses via the nature of its enterprise unique in the world relationship to its customers. If necessary I can speak with other persons more influential than myself, but only if necessary since I should be able to handle this matter being a homeowner in SRP since 1979, customer, senior citizen, and competent in discussing the problems that command my attention warranting explanation and perhaps corrective action.

Please reference my work background as listed in LinkedIn .... http://www.linkedin.com/pub/yolanda-martin/42/88/51 My life experience is in global USA International corporations software installation and design down to the minute detail since as this 2 cents issue. I am speaking as a professional and a volunteer to alert SRP of problems that need attention. There are other avenues if SRP fails to recognize the real cost of my time and attention plus mental distress SRP as caused me in the history I have lived at 3221 West Alice Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85051.

It IS my 2 cents worth we are discussing, literally and figuratively. As to accuracy of the meters, I don’t dispute that your technicians test your equipment and have a quality control program ..... but what mechanism if any do you give your customer’s to verify that accuracy. With the old meters, the customer could verify the accuracy manually to the specific watt and not the greater kw of measurement? I would like to see a .pdf document detailing the installation and operations of the smart meter and how it differs from the old meters that required manual reading. It was a cost savings to SRP to do away with those human meter reading laborers, and the promise to the customer was improved accuracy and the daily reporting of actual (NOT ESTIMATED) daily kw usages. That has NOT been a reality and the smart reader customer reports are still not working!

It is my hope that the Board of Directors will not approve the excessive rate increase especially at a time when citizens of Arizona are already underwater IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!

Yolanda Martin

3221 West Alice Ave, Phoenix Arizona 85051

KB4MES FCC Novice Class License (official USA citizens duty correspondence)

602-841-5740

Vandalism

Why vandalism? I went to get in my 1997 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck to go to the grocery store to buy some eggs that were on sale for 99cents/dozen and saw a large 6 inch diameter rock laying next to my driver's side front wheel and thought that was odd as I picked it up and put it to the side of my driveway. Then I noticed the rock had been used to smash in the center front of my windshield glass shattering it but not penetrating to the interior. 

So ...... police report, called windshied mobile glass repair, talked on phone with some friends about the incident, and was wondering if for some reason I had severely angered someone. The policewoman who responded to the incident simply said she thought it a random act of vandalism, and I am hoping there won't be a repeat (perhaps I do need to get my security web cams up and operational sooner instead of later).

Crime and resulting criminal damages are conscious acts, bad choices in life injuring both self and others and the community economics and eventually the entire environment and all in it. No one is untouched by the bad choices criminals make in their lives. No one. The one who ultimately suffers the most is the criminal who so wastes his soul and life. There is no such things as a victimless crime! Justice prevails.

The Good Example

The Good Example

Don’t tell me what I don’t want to hear

Don’t remind me of what I don’t want to recall

Don’t show me what I dreadfully fear

For if you do that, it makes me feel very small

So set a good example, I’ll learn from you all.

My Haiku To Share

These Haiku for you
Just to share beauty of verse
 In five, seven, five.

On the sandy beach
Sculpted beautiful seashells
Ocean's gifts of art.
.....
Truth like art is in
The eyes of the beholder,
Science studies it.

Haiku 4 You.

 Haiku 4 You.....


 I am positive
There is too much negative
In the world today!

The High Cost of Sanity in America

I am not sure about writing about this..... the high cost of sanity in America today. I just learned that by changing my prescription from Zyprexa 2.5 mg (provided by Lilly pharmaceutical) to Abilify 2mg (provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb), without insurance it is $8,000 a year!!!  Abilify charges the same for a 2mg dose as the price for aa 5mg dose so I had my Dr. prescribe 5mg and 90 pillsa, and I intend to buy a pill cutter to cut the pill in half for my daily medicine and my prescription would last 6 months giving me the 2.5 mg daily. Insurance plans for those lucky to have insurance pay some of the cost, but still the cost of medication is extremely high and that is the problem with maintaining sanity while losing your pocketbook needed for basic necessities. When attempting to fill my prescription for the 90 pills 5mg of Abilify with intent to get 6 months by cutting the 5 mg in half, Prescription solutions refused to do that and would only give 45 bills and then charge me an additional $275 copay the next time I ordered the remaining 45 pills.  They explained that the United Health Care would only pay for 90 days at prescribed dosage indicated by Dr. and that 45 pills cut in half is 90 days of medicine. 

Because of the extreme extra out of pocket cost to me to change to Abilify, I am staying with the almost 1/2 the cost Zyprexa medication and there is a lower cost (reasonable) than their 5 mg unlike Abilify manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

Why isn't America developing more cost affordable and safe with less lethal side affects medicines for its people with mental health conditions needing medications.????

It's Friday the 13th

a poem I wrote for remembering

Its Friday the 13th (04/13/2012)

Death is the absence of time…
Quoth the POEtic Raven, “Nevermore, nevermore”,
Reason resonates in rhyme…
Lifeship (beyond the sunset) returned to its home shore.
Do you understand this verse,
Hardship paying for the hearse?

http://www.hearse.com/pa/index.html

Alarming Statistic - Xanax Users 40,000,000

A startling statistic: 46,000,000 prescriptions a year of Xanax for American coping with stress and anxiety, a drug that is very addictive. Is this drug the modern replacement of Valium? Or alcohol? Or ????

Anxiety Disorders are more acceptable than other mental illness or behavior problems that persons visit psychologists for help and therapy. Phobias, anorexia, drug abuses, and so on seem to be a plague of the people of their own making. 

I viewed a television program (CBS) this morning highlighting the dangers of Xanax when taken with other substances.  Michael Jackson was cited as a user of Xanax.  Do Americans turn to drugs either by prescription or otherwise to solve their personal problems?  What does this imply for our future which requires full ability to cope with reality of life without the aid of mind or mood altering drugs?  Driving under the influence is a frequent offense that comes to mind. It adds inmates to prisons increasing the stress on the citizens to pay for the costs.

In choosing friends, I try to find the most sane and stable so to assure positive influences and interesting peers, but I also have many friends who have physical and mental problems so severe that my own problems seem insignificant and trivial. With the increased use of drugs, an otherwise sane person can quickly become out of control and so much so they are  not even the same person.. My thoughts ponder not only my own bi-polar condition, but the wellness condition of the community, and our American culture. 

What is the lifeline?  Sometimes, you have to self analyze and create your own.  It is not exactly life boat ethics yet, or is it? I am afraid to help some I know because I realize their desperate situation is more than I can turn around and they would perhaps injure me while trying.  The computer offers answers because at least there I can find information, facts, figures, and understand what is happening and safely socialize with others who understand. Many times online friends have the experience and wisdom they share with others and that is greatly appreciated.  Appreciating another helps everyone to work collectively to overcome obstacles and be happier, relieves stress, and reduces the need for drugs or other escapes.  I find that hobbies, reading good books, gardening, pets, or enjoying art activities also helps. Anything you do that focuses your mind and resources on positive plans and achievements toward personal goals is helpful.  Instead of fueling harm, fuel help for yourself and for others and the price of that fuel is free!

Psychiatrically Challenged

I am diagnosed as one with a Bi-Polar mental health condition. To some, I’m crazy, nuts, insane, sick, and a burden or threat to society, perhaps even a menace, and they didn’t hesitate to tell me or talk about me in such terms, or I read jokes using those derogatory word. It is not uncommon for a person with a mental health condition to be sent to a state asylum or to jail where they may never be released. People who think that is ok are lacking reasonable expectations of a basic mental health education and awareness. They are being unkind, if not rude and insulting, either directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly. Their behavior may mask their fears because mental health is a serious problem in American and the World Health Organization representing the world around us.

This afternoon, I was chatting with some friends who have much higher reasoning ability of the mental health in America problem and proper standards of conduct than many I have known, and one said I was a psychiatric survivor. I can live with that, it is not verbally abusive. I now realize that before I was a psychiatric survivor, I was ‘psychiatrically challenged’ (PC).  

To not add injury to insult, and in the interest of mental health education and awareness sensitivities, the labels that are verbally abusive to the psychiatrically challenged DO need to be changed. It requires a change in thinking also about the problems of mental health (the lack of it). When someone refers to a person whose mental health is not up to par, or their behavior is unacceptable socially, it is better to refer to the person as psychiatrically challenged. We use terms such as physically or mentally challenged for persons trying to overcome special difficulties in their life as best they can in order to live more fully and normally as possible, hence the additional term ‘psychiatrically challenged’ seems to be an improvement in language. Continuing to think or be verbally abusive to anyone with special challenges is a form of bullying and is not an acceptable social conduct.

 Everyone experiences some level of psychiatric challenge in their life, and for some, it is so overwhelming they succumb and are lost forever. To the level the psychiatric challenge is severe, it is important to alleviate, prevent, and correct a life threatening danger to that person or to others. If positive help is needed, no psychiatrically challenged individual should have to be subjected to ugly stereotypes of worse case imaginable propaganda stories or suffer verbal indignities disrespecting their rights as a person at any point in summoning professional help or any time afterwards. Americans and their mental health quality will improve if and when our language and our thoughts about psychiatrically challenged persons improve and are focused on positive mental health and not its negative. It shouldn't be called mental illness because that term reinforces a negative focus but if their is absence of good mental health then I would suggest referring to his "mental health condition" which focuses on a positive goal of health direction during the condition even if life long. Mental health is a concept that is linear with points on the line of negative infinity, zero, positive infinity and persons are on at some point on that sliding scale of mental health. It can not be stressed too much that verbally reinforcing health for mental health conditions is the ideal and not its negative (using the word 'ill'.... unless additional abusive punishment and suffering is the objective).

Psychiatrists or Psychologists

Psychiatrists (medical doctors whose province is the functioning of the brain)and psychologists (not medical doctors but resolve patient’s problems with testing and psycho therapy counseling) work together to improve mental health of their patients and in the community. How did the term shrink become a very derogatory pejorative? That word has done much harm to the profession and for many who are reluctant to see a doctor for their mental health. You will see no really good explanation for the origin of the word shrink being applied to a psychiatrist and sometimes to the psychologist. In fact most of what you will read belongs in the dark ages along with were-wolves, witches, warlocks, and vampires. Mental health attitudes do need to be improved greatly and then you will see mental health of Americans improve and America improve as a nation. One has a better chance of getting a heart transplant than adequate mental health care in today’s health care system. Who pays? That is always the question. But we can see the results of overcrowded prisons, drug addictions, and many other mental health issues costs because mental health is not a priority and affordable.

I have a very good psychiatrist and have seen many (too many) mental health practitioners who call themselves psychiatrists but I don’t agree they are competently qualified despite what their credentials say. I have seen enough to form a valid sample needed to rate them via various criteria I have used in my various visits. I know there is a BIG difference in their quality of service and results they provide on the behalf of their patient. Mental health care professionals are expensive and so are the medicines they prescribe like Zyprexa, but since I am a bi-polar patient I have been lucky have my mental health restored. Psychiatrists (competent ones) do know how to prescribe the correct medications then monitor their patient’s mental health improvements.

There really shouldn’t be a stigma attached to going to a psychiatrist any more than visiting a dermatologist, allergist, heart specialist, or another other specialist for a health “condition”. It took a long while for me to consider my psychiatrist as my best friend, and my only advice to others is it is better to see ANY reputable mental health practitioner rather than to continue in an unhealthy state of mind or mood burdening your family, friends, or employers. I have never had a psychiatrist offer a couch for me to lay on and think that belongs to the psychologist’s sterotype of practices. Since my condition was one that could be treated with Zyprexa at a low dose and I had the means to pay, I have never seen a psychologist myself except for some IQ testing and personality assessments or my employer furnished theirs to evaluate its prospective employees. I think psychologists and therapists are for treating phobias and behavioral maladies and not for problems mental problems of bi-polar, schizophrenia, or other severe mental conditions for which medication is the mainstay of treatment. The psychologists could be viewed as generalists who are able to recognize when to refer a patient to a psychiatrist or sometimes the patient just goes directly to the psychiatrist who then might recommend a psychologist to provide therapy along with any medications that are to be prescribed. Neither profession should be referred to in derogatory terms.

Who We Are

Sometimes we are socially accepted by others for what we are, and by others for what we aren't. It is a blessing to be accepted in either case..... especially if we accept ourselves for who we are and not just what.

The Peace and Happiness Makers

I think the fact that socially, the more makers and the less takers, the higher the happiness and positive gifting among the community members.

Making something generates a "I can do this" attitude which develops to "WE can do this" social culture mentality.

Those who have conflated the words "receive" and "take" to just "take" and then may gripe there wasn't more to "take" or complain about being unhappy with the "take".... implies
we need to return to being a nation of makers,
not  passive takers....
of active positive producers for the world,
not passive consumers unable to escape
the "I can't or we can't" self defeating excuses
then borrowing greater amounts of money
to pay for resulting indebtedness.

Every "I can" begins with the self. The self learning, doing, making progress, solving problems, and making discoveries. Creativity projects contribute positively to self image, increase self confidence, self esteem, and self actualization. When the self improves, the community collective performance in which the self participates improves. The quality of life improves and prosperity grows. The self has pursued happiness and found it.

HAPPINESS

HAPPINESS

I don’t know why I write.

I don’t know why I breathe.

I know that this is trite.

I want others to see,

And if they do not see,

They will not understand.

The Love felt within me,

Expressly felt for man.

Love for love’s sake is pure

Need never be returned!

 Love is returned, and sure,

Now happiness confirmed.

Reading and Comprehension

About reading and comprehension ... It seems to me that good readers have the ability to understand the glue between the words, the glue between the sentences, and the glue between the paragraphs, and glue that connects message meaning to the perceptive mind that understands what not is written is as important as what is.

TALL NOW

TALL


TRUTH is the POWER of the soul,

ART is the LANGUAGE of the soul,

LOVE is the BEAUTY of the soul,

LIFE  is the STUDY of the soul.


NOW


NATURE forms essence of being,

OLD scripts teach value of seeing,

WELL thoughts find comfort believing

!! FAITH, HOPE, TRUST!! will not be leaving.

Love.... A Valentine Greeting

Love is its own reward ...

it just feels good to express love ...

it does not have to have focus or target.

Generate energizing love expressively within

flowing outward to experience

a strengthening exercise to greater emotional wellness.

Extra Credit Assignment: Fill you mind with loving thoughts then share with those you meet today.

It's Just Graduation Time

Life is an assignment.  You never know when you will have to hand it in.....

IT’S GRADUATION TIME 

When it comes my time to die,

I will not ask my Maker, Why?

Life is learning and doing

Advancing each day we’re alive.

When it comes my time to die,

Allow me this thoughtful goodbye,

“It’s just graduation time…

I do thank you, (peacefully sigh)”.

*****************

AN ELEGY FOR A GOLDFISH

With death, hopefully, there is dignity and rest in peace,

Thankful for having been given a life with family,

That has been what it is, and was, nothing more, nothing less,

And thankful to have had the time to experience,

And opportunity to enjoy,

Friends, family, and fun in the sun,

Till day and life are done.

 *********************

Art Requires A Loving Heart and Soul in addition to the Mind

Politics and science require
An intelligent, inquiring mind,
But art requires much more....
A loving heart and a 
Soul that speaks.