text stringlengths 211 577k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 371 | file_path stringclasses 644 values | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.93 1 | token_count int64 54 121k | score float64 1.5 1.84 | int_score int64 2 2 |
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- Arthur Weasley: "I don't know whether you know what — what stitches are?"
- Molly Weasley: "It sounds as though you've been trying to sew your skin back together, but even you, Arthur, wouldn't be that stupid."
- — Arthur and Molly Weasley in St. Mungo's[src]
- When Arthur Weasley was brought to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries after he was attacked by Nagini in 1995, Augustus Pye, a trainee Healer, suggested trying stitches to heal Arthur's wounds. This attempt ended up fruitless, as Nagini's fangs had a poison in them that dissolved the thread.
- A boy named Robbie Fenwick once bit Mr. Granger. Mr. Granger had to be sewed with ten stitches.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (First mentioned)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) (Mentioned only) | <urn:uuid:ad9cd95a-9df1-4862-af70-a3e92489143a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Stitches?oldid=621588 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966176 | 221 | 1.609375 | 2 |
For those of us who were not cheerleaders, the athleticism, acceptance, and popularity of that high school existence may have seemed to be the ultimate way to get through what can be the worst four years of our life. But this isn't the way it was for a student cheerleader from Texas known only by the press and the courts as H.S.
In October 2008, H.S. was a 16-year-old high school student in her hometown in southeast Texas. Then, as she says, she was raped at a party by another student -- a star football player and member of the school's basketball team. Four months later, at a basketball game in another town, H.S. chose to stay silent while the rest of her squad chanted his name.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, although she cheered for the team as a whole, when the assailant went to the foul line, she opted out. Three school officials, including the principal and district superintendent, intervened, insisting that she cheer for the athlete or leave the game. She didn't budge, and her refusal to root for the boy she says raped her had a high cost.
The athlete she accused had some consequences. After H.S. identified him, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. Nearly a year after the party, he was given a suspended sentence.
H.S., however, was kicked off the cheerleading squad. This spurred the former cheerleader and her parents to sue the school district and officials, claiming she had the right to free speech and was unfairly punished for using it.
The courts -- all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court -- did not agree. The rhetoric that emerged in those rulings is shocking. A New Orleans appeals court stated that, as a cheerleader, H.S. was a "mouthpiece" for the school. Monday, the highest court in the country also ruled against H.S.'s appeal. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, review of the of the case was denied by the Supreme Court without comment. H.S. and her parents are also ordered to pay the school district's $45,000 legal tab.
The family's attorney called the school's demands of H.S. "insensitive and unreasonable" and questions what this ruling means for students' free speech.
Several questions clearly remain:
What happened to the athlete who now has a criminal record? Was he stripped of his place (and star status) on the teams for violating any kind of school or athlete conduct code?
Are cheerleaders or any high schooler on a team or in a club or holding a student government office only seen as "mouthpieces" for the school? Isn't the point of being a yearbook staff or senior class president or athletic team member to learn new skills, strive for excellence, and put both into action? And doesn't a part of that process (and a part of teen development) include individuation, assertion of opinion, investigating participating systems, and even calling into question authority figures (be it parents or principals or the football coaches)?
Who ultimately taught this young woman, now three years older, the biggest lesson? Was it the school district? The courts? Or her parents?
Read more on Shine:
- What does the redefinition of rape mean for women?
- Kara DioGuardi speaks out
- Sexual assault on college campuses | <urn:uuid:71f03224-ee1e-4c1a-a5ff-8173ca1bbb25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/cheerleader-refuses-to-cheer-on-the-boy-she-says-raped-her-supreme-court-rules-against-her-2480616.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98235 | 700 | 1.679688 | 2 |
It was, as Frank Williams indicated, basically inevitable. On Monday the team announced that it had lodged its entry for the 2010 season. Today the team announced that it was being kicked out of the Formula One Teams Association as a result of breaking ranks with the other nine teams in their face off with the International Automobile Federation over next year’s F1 rules.
“Following Monday’s confirmation that the team has submitted its formal entry for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Formula One Teams Association has today decided temporarily to suspend Williams F1 from membership of FOTA,” the team said in a statement.
“FOTA’s decision, although regrettable, is understandable,” said Frank Williams, the team principal. “However, as a racing team and a company whose only business is Formula One, with obligations to our partners and our employees, submitting our entry to next year’s Championship was unquestionable. In addition, we are legally obliged under our contract with FOM and the FIA to participate in the World Championship until the end of 2012.”
I was tempted in the headline of this blog post to quote lines from the Bob Dylan song: “The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast…the slow one now will later be fast….” But I have a feeling I might already have quoted those lines from “The Times They Are a Changin’” before. Still, are they not appropriate? Williams’ move is the first to really weaken and break up the nearly unprecedented agreement amongst the teams to all stick together. And if the series were to lose some of the other top teams, Williams would be the best positioned to win the title again.
Who will now follow the Williams – temporary – exit from the FOTA? And what will be the effect? Obviously, it can go only two ways: Either this victory for the FIA and FOM in dividing and thereby weakening the teams will lead to the withdrawal of Ferrari and the other teams that have threatened to withdraw, or it is yet another step toward an eventual compromise. With new teams like USF1 coming in to the sport, and an old team like Williams, confirming it will return, Ferrari, Toyota and the others will see that there WILL be an F1 series next year. And they may therefore decide that they want to be part of it, even if the rules are not entirely to their liking. A compromise.
For me, the most important thing here however is for the FIA and FOM to see that what is more important than their political agenda and the victory off track against the teams, is that Formula One remain the motor racing series at the pinnacle of technology. And above all, that they realize that the desire of the fans is what counts most of all. And if the series is crippled by a two-tier rules system with some teams having a huge technical advantage over others, then they will no longer be interested.
It is interesting how as Ferrari has suddenly grown further from the FIA, Williams has grown much closer. It even provides the chassis to the new FIA F2 series.
Stay tuned for the next FOTA domino to fall. | <urn:uuid:069e21c9-f60f-4f74-aa68-aca744b4f6b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/williams-team-creates-schism-in-fota/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968442 | 657 | 1.554688 | 2 |
YOUR AM WRITES: South Wales East AM Mohammad Asghar
The festive season has brought light for most through the winter darkness, but increased alcohol consumption and financial pressure can make it a terrifying time for women experiencing violence.
Last year ended with news that a young teenage girl was killed in Afghanistan by relatives who had been refused her hand in marriage because her father thought she was too young. Already this year, a fatal gang-rape on a bus hired by a group of revellers in India has also dominated news.
With the recent news that domestic abuse is on the rise in Gwent, this topic is very timely. Every year in Wales, 29 women will seek help to deal with forced marriage, 30 people will experience honour-based violence and 1904 women will access refuges to escape domestic violence. In 2011, the Forced Marriage Unit received 1468 calls regarding potential/suspected forced marriage.
In 2010, the Welsh Labour Government introduced the Right to Be Safe strategy with the support of the Violence Against Women Action Group which aimed to tackle all forms of violence against women. However, the VAWAG has reported that problems still exist in the provision of counselling for violence against Black and Minority Ethnic women.
The Welsh Labour Government has not attended any key meetings with the Home Office to discuss a new pilot project to tackle these issues which have been attended by Women's Organisations instead. The delivery of the strategy has been piecemeal and no steps have been taken to ensure that women seeking refuge from violence are given help in rebuilding lives.
I hope that the forthcoming Ending violence Against Women and Domestic Abuse (Wales) Bill will be more successful than this strategy and that the Labour Government will correct these issues.
I would also like to thank you for your contributions in what has truly been a Golden Year. I hope that you have all enjoyed the recent festivities regardless of religious orientation and hope that the warmth and happiness you have felt is carried with you well into the Year. Yes it has been a tough year for everyone.
However, the most defining moments of 2012 have been the Golden Jubilee and the Olympic and Paralympic Games which have reminded us that no time is too tough and no mountain too high. We were reminded of the power of togetherness, perseverance and positivity. In our individual efforts to face-up to the realities of this recession let us remember to pass these values onto others.
Happy New Year. Let's make 2013 a good one.
For further information on the VAWAG, go to www.walesvawgroup.com or for further information on helplines please contact my office on 01633 220022. | <urn:uuid:7d30d5be-0217-4300-8f5f-15bebb0e6cff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/10162240.YOUR_AM_WRITES__South_Wales_East_AM_Mohammad_Asghar/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968197 | 545 | 1.6875 | 2 |
As of Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012, at least 2,040 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.
The AP count is two less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EST.
At least 1,701 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 118 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action.
The AP count of total OEF casualties outside of Afghanistan is five more than the department's tally.
The Defense Department also counts three military civilian deaths.
Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 18,154 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department.
The latest identifications reported by the military:
--Sgt. Enrique Mondragon, 23, of The Colony, Texas, died Dec. 24, in Baraki Barak, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by small arms fire while on dismounted patrol; assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 173rd Special Troops Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Bamberg, Germany.
--Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Dec. 22 of a noncombat-related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan; assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit in Virginia Beach, Va.
--Sgt. 1st Class Kevin E. Lipari, 39, of Baldwin, N.Y., died Dec. 14 in Logar province, Afghanistan; assigned to HHC 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Bamberg, Germany.
--Sgt. Michael J. Guillory, 28, of Pearl River, La., died Dec. 14 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan; assigned to 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
--Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Reid, 26, of Rochester, N.Y., died Dec. 13 in Landstuhl, Germany, from wounds suffered on Dec. 9, in Sperwan Village, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device; assigned to the 53rd Ordnance Company (EOD), 3rd Ordnance Battalion (EOD), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
--Staff Sgt. Nelson D. Trent, 37, of Austin, Texas, died Dec. 13 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device; assigned to the 56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 36th Infantry Division, Fort Worth, Texas.
-- Staff Sgt. Wesley R. Williams, 25, of New Carlisle, Ohio, died Dec. 10 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, under control of the 7th Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. | <urn:uuid:e32560a4-055c-450a-b91a-5b61c2d94225> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fallsnewspress.com/ap%20state/2012/12/26/us-military-deaths-in-afghanistan-at-2-040 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952051 | 698 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Winter Surfing Haven. Summer Snorkeling and Swimming.
This famous surfing beach comes alive during the winter months when big ocean swells draw the best surfers from all around the world. At all times of years the scenic beach is a joy to visit, and during the calmer summer months it can be a nice swimming beach, and snorkeling can be good on the northern end of the beach. The sandy bottom makes it pleasant for frolicking though there are some reefy areas near the lifeguard station. A point on the north side of Sunset is called Backyards.
Sunbathing, surfing (experienced only), people watching, snorkeling and swimming when surf is not too big.
During winter swells you can watch the world-class surfers on waves that sometimes reach more than 25 feet in height.
Need to Know
Unless the water is very calm (mostly in summer), it is best to find a more protected beach if you want to go swimming. The shoreline drops off fairly quickly, and there are often nearshore currents. Even during the summer months there may be ocean swells that create dangerous conditions so always check with the lifeguards about the current ocean conditions. The famous “Sunset rip tide” had led to many rescues.
Picnic areas. Showers and restrooms across the street.
Sunset Beach is located on Kamehameha Highway in Paumalu. Due to limited parking you often have to park on the road above Sunset Beach and then walk down to the beach.
© 1997-2011 Aloha from Hawaii | <urn:uuid:93640baa-6b73-4ec1-950a-6240a1692957> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/oahu/beaches/sunset/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94819 | 332 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I arrived late yesterday and have missed some of the headliners including Francis Fukuyama, now of Stanford and author of the recently published The Origins of Political Order: From Pre-Human Times to the French Revolution; former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine; and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov.
But I did catch a sliver of a session exploring the growing tension between political rather than economic zones and whether 'states' were back or still getting fuzzed up by various transnational saboteurs.
The most interesting moments of this panel came from my New America Foundation colleague and friend Parag Khanna as well as McKinsey & Co. Managing Director (the top one) Dominic Barton.
Khanna said that globalization is not a trend that can just be quickly turned on and off. He thinks globalization is a much, longer deeper process stretching back a thousand years in which the Silk Road was an early part of the platform. Khanna said we are "now entering a phase in which globalization is really global" and that it can't be slowed by the fiscal straits of a few of the larger developed countries.
Khanna also said that nation states as the term of unit in the international system was being undermined by "Four C's" -- Countries, Cities, Companies, and Communities. He believes that these groupings will share authorities, overlap, and intensify their communication and coordination in ways that don't depend on the state for intermediation.
McKinsey's Dominic Barton, the most fun of all the speakers on the panel which included former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda and Asian Development Bank Chief Economist Changyong Rhee among others, said that the best depiction of world affairs was not a "cube" or "globe" -- but rather a "bowl of spaghetti." (I wanted to slip him a note that while Wednesday might have been Italy in his schedule, that he was now in France. . .)
But building on Khanna's offering on the rise of cities and communities as new global building blocks, Barton said that there is more intense interaction between the world's 600 largest cities than ever before.
Barton also said that there are now 2 billion people on the internet; that China added 150 million internet users last year alone. There are 600 million Facebook users and 190 million on Twitter. He said that many in China believe that "Crest" (the toothpaste) is a Chinese company.
He also made an appeal to the world's bloggers and writers to focus on the important issues of our time -- and said that everything is changing. He lampooned 800,000 bloggers out there in the world who apparently write about their shampoo -- that's right, shampoo. He basically said that was a waste of bloggage and that these folks needed to get into discussions about what mattered. (perhaps some of the Tea Party crowd are listening. . .)
But the most provocative thing that Dominic Barton put on the table -- really shocked me actually -- was his reflection that American multinationals are ready to chat about industrial policy. He stated that while these firms have for decades had a strong allergy to any discussion of "industrial policy" that they now see many factors amiss when both corporate profitability and unemployment are very high. Barton said unequivocally that leaders of these firms are now willing to entertain serious discussion about a "new American industrial policy."
If true, that is striking -- and the Obama administration should listen in on the conversation. I know from my own discussions with leading White House economic advisers to the President, the term "industrial policy" is the policy that cannot be uttered.
I'll be speaking on the US panel this morning and whether or not America is a "tangled up Gulliver" or not along with former Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden Ron Klain, former House Member from Minnesota James Oberstar, Harvard's Jeffrey Frieden, IFRI's Jacques Mistral and others. | <urn:uuid:ccde4722-ec4b-434b-bb78-19584f1acb79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlantic.com/steve-clemons/page/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972454 | 798 | 1.554688 | 2 |
If it dies when you open the throttle quickly, that is indicative of it being a big, long stroke single. At low engine speeds a quick blip of the throttle will drastically change engine vacuum, but there isn't enough air velocity through the carb for the carb to work. Gas won't be picked up through the jets so it runs lean and stalls. Learning to roll the throttle on will eliminate most of this. This feature is why car carbs had an accelerator pump to pump in more fuel at low engine speed/large throttle openings. You can tune some of it out, but eliminating it requires an accelerator pump or jetting it so rich that you almost instantly foul plugs. When properly jetted you will never notice this issue with proper throttle technique.
A larger carb will make things worse if we are speaking of the engine dieing with quick blips of the throttle.That's one reason small carburetors are often put on street bikes where fussy engines aren't tolerated by the owners.
Advanced the timing and it runs better. Drove it up and down the street and it had decent power and throttle response. Still needs some tuning though. Runs rougher than I'd like.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcRd6lkCCt8&feature=youtube_gdata_playerHow do I more precisely set the timing? I'm lost without timing marks. | <urn:uuid:f9fb80d5-da07-4c60-a0fc-5ddda87ea351> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php/topic,15456.msg166629.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951235 | 290 | 1.671875 | 2 |
CANBERRA, June 6 (Reuters) - Australia will lift its
remaining financial and travel sanctions against Myanmar and
double its aid in a move to encourage further democratic reform
as the country tentatively emerges from decades of military
rule, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said.
The lifting of economic sanctions, which follows a U.S.
suspension of sanctions, will come into effect in coming weeks
but Australia's arms embargo against Myanmar will remain in
place, Carr said in a statement.
"Myanmar has made great strides over the past year, though
there is more to be done," Carr said.
"The point has been reached where lifting sanctions is the
best way to promote further progress," he said.
Carr met President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi on Thursday during a visit to the former Burma.
Myanmar has been slowly putting in place democratic reforms
that have attracted the interest of investors and persuaded
Western governments to suspend or lift sanctions.
In April, Australia outlined its plan to ease sanctions and
normalise bilateral trade relations in recognition of the
reforms over the past year. Ruled by a military dictatorship for
most of its contemporary history, Myanmar held parliamentary
by-elections in April.
The United States announced the suspension of sanctions
against Myanmar in May, allowing U.S. energy, mining and
financial services companies to look for opportunities in an
economy that had been run down by five decades of military rule.
Carr said President Thein Sein and Suu Kyi had also been
invited to visit Australia and that Australia will more than
double its annual aid to Myanmar, one of the poorest countries
in the world, to A$100 million ($99 million) by 2015.
($1 = 1.0063 Australian dollars)
(Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Paul Tait) | <urn:uuid:9e049e4c-c6f8-4a44-94eb-44307c81889e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-07/business/sns-rt-myanmar-australiasanctionsl3e8h7bb3-20120607_1_myanmar-suu-kyi-doubles-aid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960033 | 400 | 1.515625 | 2 |
PC's stand for Performance Criteria (silly NVQ language), which are a list of statements you have to achieve in your practice when being observed by your assessor.
eg if your were undertaking a cooking activity with a group of children there would be a list of PC's relivant to that activity which said things like
~ ensure all children wash their hand before starting the cooking activity
If you don't manage to cover all of your PC's for 'Element' during that assessor's observation, you are always able to plan another activity for the assessor to watch you do another time to cover the other ones. However, it is quicker to complete your NVQ if you don't have to have activities observed by your assessor more than once.
In your portfolio there should be lists of all your PC's for all your Units. Normally when your assessor plans an observation with your for their next visit they should talk through with you the PC's for that observation so you should know what you need to achieve. But I would always suggest reading through the PC's for the oservation your are going to be assessed for next, as much as possible, as it helps you to plan the activity well.
I hope this helps. Although I have never assessed for the new CCLD, I am a qualified NVQ assessor and assessed many many studants for the previous Early Years Care & Education NVQ's and they are all set out the same way, evan though the title has changed.
Good luck with your course | <urn:uuid:fb1a5421-ac9f-49cf-8cf6-d0ccbe0f35de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silkysteps.com/forum/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=3528 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981122 | 315 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Well, you want to protect yourself again a virus that's not recognised by anti-virus software !
If you are curious (and daring) enough, you may try to reverse engineer the virus, see what it does; and then try to create your own anti-virus solution to it.
But I can assure you ... it won't be easy at all. It is difficult, rather painful (you'll know if you try
). And playing with a virus can be dangerous to your system's health.
If you just want to get a feel of what malware reversing is all about, here is a blog by Zairon (a moderator of www.crackmes.de
and a really really good reverser) : http://zairon.wordpress.com/ | <urn:uuid:13247f73-85f0-431c-b2d3-ee0a3ccf1973> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.go4expert.com/forums/question-experts-post47940/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953588 | 161 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Anglin releases education strategic plan
The Ministry of Education has restructured secondary education to create high schools in Grand Cayman for students of Years 7-11, improved special needs support and provide new services for the most vulnerable younger students.
These were among changes announced recently as part of the Cayman Islands Strategic Plan for Education 2012- 2017.
Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Hon Rolston Anglin said that he organised his plan under six goals that will become the actions plans.
The goals are: to strengthen leadership and build national capacity; build a world-class early childhood care and education system; secure high standards and improve student progress and achievement; build safer school communities and promote inclusion; enhance skills for learning, life and work and engage parents as partners in their children’s learning.
Speaking during the plan’s launch on 7 February at George Town Primary School’s new library, Mr Anglin said that the new strategic plan would move the country’s education from good to great.
He said that the launch represents a key turning point for education.
“If we do not plan, we are not going to get to where I believe we plan to go.
He noted that the plan would outlive his minority government because it represents a set of strategic objectives and values.
“I do believe that educators, elected leaders and civil servants can buy into this because it has gone through such a broad consensus. This is not a plan we devised in the ministry with a small group of people, who came to the country and said, here it is, here is where we ought to be and here is how we ought to get there,” he stated.
He said that the project started from scratch in 2009, first by visiting every school, and listening to teachers, attending numerous sessions between parents and students and interacting with Parent Teachers Associations.
As a result, the ministry laid a foundation in 2011 with the start of the Education Stabilisation Plan.
“Stabilisation did not mean stagnation, but a foundation in which we were to build our strategic plan, and today we have a culmination of three years of very hard work,” he said.
I have ensured that there are clear professional standards for teachers, key national policies, explicit academic requirements for graduation and robust interventions to improve student performance in literacy and mathematics,” he said.
The Ministry of Education has also established a successful behaviour and education support team (BEST) programme to build a multi-agency partnership approach to support the most vulnerable children.
“Our extended after-school programme, supported by the Ministry of Health, Enviroment, Youth, Sports and Culture as well as private sector partners, has benefited almost 1,000 children in our primary and secondary schools, and keeps young productive activities until their parents return from work each day,” said the Minister.
In the area of Special Education Needs (SEN), the ministry has introduced a music therapy programme, provided new autism support for students with significant emotional and behaviourl challenges at primary and secondary level, and established a new SEN transition class for year 1 students, enabling many of them to transition back to mainstream classes.
The minister acknowledged that education is an expensive venture and facilities had to be constructed.
Although facilities are not the end all, when they come your way you know you have to invest. This investment in George Town was one of our four key priorities, because it was clear when we visited the school that facilities were getting in the way of effective teaching,” he said.
Improvements to facilities also included continued construction of the new high schools and expansions at several primary schools. Among these were a new hall at East End Primary School, two new classrooms at Layman E. Scott Senior High School, three new classroom blocks at George Town Primary, Bodden Town Primary and Savannah Primary Schools and a classroom block at Sir John A Cumber Primary School.
Centonya Cacho, manager in the Initial Teacher Training department of the ministry, said that the future of the plan is to have achievable goals.
“We need to have measurable targets and indicators that will tell us that every landmark we have met will be effective and attainable. We are dedicating the resources necessary to implement the plan and we are going to prioritise cost saround the six priority goals.
“We have applied timelines to ensure that we achieve our goals over the five-year period. These action plans form the basis from which I and my colleagues will work,” she stated.
Also present at the launch were Chief Officer in the Ministry of Education Mary Rodrigues, Deputy Governor Hon Franz Manderson, Chief Education Officer Shirley Wahler and UCCI President Roy Bodden. | <urn:uuid:e83314d2-ad39-48c8-ab3f-8061bbb86ac7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caymannetnews.com/2013/02/14/anglin-releases-education-strategic-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971384 | 976 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Part 1 – 4 of talk by Nicola Peel on Change In the Amazon & How One Person Can Make a Difference. The whole talk will play through from part 1-4 if you wait for each section to end.
Filmed at the Off Grid festival 2011.
Nicola Peel is a full time environmentalist and dedicated to environmental education. She is active on many projects around the world, particularly in South America where her successful projects have included mycoremediation trials on oil spills in Ecuador; building village infrastructure with waste-filled plastic bottles; fim production work for the Amazon Defence Coalition and much more. This talk will look at some of Nicola’s amazing work, but, most importantly, inspire us all to do more in our own lives to change the world we live in. Nicola will look specifically at the power of our Pound, showing how we choose to use it effects how our economy functions and also how it makes a statement as to our intent as a consumer.
For more information on Nicola’s work, please visit www.eyesofgaia.com, for more information on off grid check out http://www.sunrise-offgrid.co.uk/ and sign up to permanentculturenow newsletter to be kept update about what we are doing. | <urn:uuid:27ac44c4-75dd-4833-b07f-10268b99f0af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.permanentculturenow.com/nicola-peel-talk-amazon-how-one-person-can-make-a-difference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941729 | 260 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Chennai Corporation has started evaluating the feasibility of constructing pedestrian subways at many locations across the city, including Luz Corner, Broadway and near the Thiruvanmiyur bus stand.
It has started examining the results of the Comprehensive Transportation Study following the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority asking it about the status of projects recommended under the study. The study, commissioned by CMDA, recommended construction of grade separators at 37 junctions, subways at 24 locations and nine multi-level parking facilities.
List of locations
The list of locations where subways have been recommended include Anna Nagar Second Avenue, Doveton, near Egmore railway station, Mint, Usman Road-Duraiswamy Road Junction and T.Nagar bus stand.
The Corporation proposes to start examining the prospects of constructing grade separators that have been recommended in the study.
The CMDA is also in the process of collecting data from other agencies such as Highways Department about the status of the subways recommended in other locations, including near the Vijay Nagar bus stand in Velachery, on Anna Salai near SIET College, Arcot Road near Meenakshi College, near Vadapalani bus stand, near Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus and Koyambedu junction.
“As many of the departments have already started work on some of the recommendations, we have sought the details,” said Susan Mathew, Vice-Chairperson of CMDA.
The agencies, particularly the Chennai Corporation, would soon prepare detailed project report on pedestrian subways and grade separators at locations where it is feasible. | <urn:uuid:781dde2a-0b32-4a1b-b25c-90499209b30c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cleanairinitiative.org/portal/print/6484 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952135 | 333 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Signs surround us as city dwellers and as travellers on the roadways between our places: warning, directing, suggesting, recommending, inviting, demanding, forbidding, welcoming. There are many languages in the street, from the stern, official dictum of a stop sign to the casual, local slang of a restaurant specials board on the edge of the footpath.From the window of a car, all reading is speed reading. Road signs made for traffic control, road safety and navigation are sometimes stacked in such density that any serious reading of them would be a hazard for the driver, who must be highly selective, choosing to notice (not necessarily obey) only those of the messages which are relevant and needed right now.
Sign language is necessarily compressed, words needing to be as immediately recognisable as icons. Road signs become standard images: legible lettering styles are combined with coded colours and shapes into graphic objects which can be quickly grabbed and digested.
A stop sign is not just the word, with the colour (red) and the shape (hexagonal) combining to make a single impact—and save drivers from an impact! Placing the word GO onto such a sign makes an obvious but original reversal. The new sign becomes a seed for discussion about temptation and restraint, for example, about desires and the laws and social rules of society and the self. This is a constant tension, a stretching balance.
The many word works which I’ve long called the Roadsigned series began in 1979 with Airpoet, created from an existing airport direction sign in Adelaide. This established a ground for imaginaction: physically altering an existing sign to make something new happen. A large blue sign with an arrow upwards and the word ‘Airport’ was changed by the replacement of one letter to ‘Airpoet’, radically shifting the experience of the roadway and surrounding streetscape for travellers as well as locals on the ground. This was illegal, but popular.
These are poetic interventions in the public language of the street, interruptions to the expected, playing with the obvious to reach levels more metaphorical. By physically altering existing signage, and by inventing new signage using the standard design formats as a template, fresh meanings can be generated through surprise, making small shifts in the expected to create catalysts for thought.
There is a possibility within this signworld for creating poetry, which begins from a pleasure in slippage, an appreciation of the ambiguities and ironies which occur when a sign and its context are at odds, or when letters have fallen and given words interesting new meanings. This interest in the paradoxes of the everyday extends further to become direct intervention, affecting the literal efficiency of official messaging through alteration in the mind’s eye, signing the city anew.
People are welcome to visit my web site: www.artpoem.com
Richard Tipping, January 2003 | <urn:uuid:50afe3d8-10a2-43f3-a88f-a17e3896d3d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/SculpturePrize03/Detail.cfm?IRN=122535&BioArtistIRN=26982&MnuID=1&Order=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951202 | 592 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Gas prices have risen five cents in the past week.
According to AAA, the average price of $3.87 per gallon is up 16 cents from a month ago and 24 cents from a year ago.
Find the cheapest gas prices in Cleveland/Akron/Canton areas
Prices normally start to decline after Labor Day, but a number of national and international factors have led to an uptick in the price of crude to a four-month high.
Among them are the tensions in the Middle East, the German bailout of the eurozone as well as U.S. refinery shutdowns due to Hurricane Isaac and for upgrading.
Expectations are for gas prices to start to decline and stay that way for a few months now that refineries have switched over from higher priced summer blend of gas to winter blend.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:9c94cfd2-e48a-45bb-ab93-fbb7abebd7c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/money/article/261318/16/Gas-prices-rise-find-the-cheapest-area-gas-prices | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95389 | 170 | 1.5 | 2 |
The bodies of a Canadian couple and their two daughters were found late Tuesday in the basement of their house that plunged into a massive sinkhole, CNN affiliates reported.
"They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the couch in the family room in the basement, where we were told that they'd be," said Michel C. Doré, Quebec's associate deputy public security minister, who was on the scene, told CNN affiliate CBC.
Yvon Desrochers, uncle of homeowner Richard Préfontaine, told the CBC on Tuesday feared his nephew and his family were in the basement watching the Montreal Canadiens-Pittsburgh Penguins hockey playoff game Monday night when the ground gave way beneath the home, about 40 miles northeast of Montreal.
Besides Préfontaine, those in the home were his wife, Lyne Charbonneau, and their two daughters, Amélie, 12, and Anaïs, 9.
The family’s dog was found alive – caked in mud – in the sinkhole earlier Tuesday.
The hole was about 500 yards long and forced the evacuation of five other homes in the town of Saint-Jude, in a rural area near the Yamaska River.
While there was no official word on the cause of the sinkhole, geologist Judith Patterson told CNN affiliate CTV that the sinkhole looked like a kind of landslide known as a “lateral spread.”
The region has soils known as “quick clay” that can liquefy, leading to a landslide or sinkhole, she told CTV.
"These clays, they're stable when they're undisturbed. But once they're disturbed, then they become very hazardous," she told CTV. | <urn:uuid:4acd5699-4156-47e5-9916-974448ac637d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/12/family-found-dead-in-basement-after-sinkhole-ate-home/comment-page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988731 | 360 | 1.609375 | 2 |
What happens when people stop being polite and start getting real?
According to the last few seasons of MTV's "The Real World," they get drunk, hook up and make innumerable questionable decisions.
What happens when strangers come to live on a family farm in rural Arkansas, grow their own food, give up modern-day conveniences and attempt zero waste?
While it may not sound like a compelling reality show by MTV's standards, that's exactly the premise of the independent film, "The Garden Summer," which debuted to a sold-out crowd in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 16. It also premiered in Conway, Arkansas, on May 18.
Inspired by the idea of social capital, then-Georgetown graduate student Hailey Wist came up with an idea for a social experiment that would challenge people like her to live off the land. The ultimate goal was "to inspire, not preach."
Wist already had a location in mind for the experiment - a farm in the Ozarks that had been in her family for generations. Despite not knowing much about gardening, she had the assistance of her mother and aunt, both avid gardeners.
All that was left to do was find people willing to give up modern conveniences to spend the summer living a bit more simply.
"Will I get warm bodies? I don't know. Probably not," she mused in the film’s trailer.
Four willing "suburbanites" - Seth Amos, Marie Barker, Ben Williams and Emilee Cleary – eventually signed on without much persuasion. Wist said she sought out people who were strangers to each other, but who she also wanted to get to know better.
In preparation of their summer, the group had to decide what produce they would grow and what they could sell at the local farmers market. They also decided that coffee, cooking oil and booze would be the only three things they would source outside of the 100-mile radius of their garden.
When the group met at the farm in May to plant their garden, friendships took root immediately; everyone was getting along and having fun.
However, the summer was not without challenges. When the group returned weeks later to live within Wist's parameters, it took only a week and a half before they started "airing grievances" by candlelight on the front porch of the farmhouse.
Everyone obviously had a stake in the garden; their ability to eat and make money depended upon its success. As the creator of the concept, Wist became the leader by default, but being everyone's boss was not a role that came easy to her.
Maintaining a garden makes for long days of hard labor. Along with the close quarters of communal living, “there was a lot to be cranky about," Wist said.
Unlike some of the other reality-based programs that portray alcohol-induced arguments over hook-ups and break-ups, the rifts featured in "The Garden Summer" were rooted in the division of labor in the garden and expectations over what "local consumption" really meant.
In fact, a budding romance between Wist and Williams wasn't really featured in the film at all.
Over the course of the summer, the group made friends with locals who taught them, among other things, how to make soap and butter. They also welcomed a steady stream of visitors from the "outside," and found that showing off all they'd accomplished always gave them new energy.
It certainly didn't hurt that one of those friends was James Beard award-winning chef Mike Lata, who helped them prepare a field feast with the food they'd grown.
"The Garden Summer" turned five typical consumers of modern conveniences into producers and contributors to their community. While Wist remains very much a part of the Charleston food community, she admits her farm experience has been difficult to completely replicate in her real life.
But if farming isn't in her future, filmmaking might be, at least according to part-time Charleston resident and actor Bill Murray.
"To make a movie that is lousy is difficult," he said after attending Wist's first screening. "So to make one that is good, it's quite an accomplishment."
From around the web | <urn:uuid:fc15bf3a-ef7f-4036-a3b3-b7c12d210978> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/05/23/documentary-cultivates-real-life-lessons/?hpt=hp_bn10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986087 | 866 | 1.65625 | 2 |
What is NEST?
You may have heard about NEST, the National Employment Savings Trust.
NEST is a pension scheme that you can use to meet your employer duties and itís primarily aimed at low to medium earners and small employers that donít have access to a company pension scheme.
It's designed to be a simple, low cost option and there are certain restrictions that apply.
- There is currently a general ban on transfers in or out.
- There is currently an upper contribution limit.
- There are limited options at retirement which will result in less choice and flexibility for workers.
- There are limited investment options. Workers will be automatically invested in a default fund based on time to retirement. This will not take into account an individualís attitude to risk.
- The death benefits paid from NEST are potentially subject to inheritance tax.
Published April 2013 | <urn:uuid:18e9c8e5-5b1e-48df-8d59-0eb0b7e0c6fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/scotlife/Web/Site/Employer/Automaticenrolment/Keyfacts/empAEKeyFactRoleOfNEST.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935943 | 180 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Last week’s auction of Edvard Munch’s The Scream for a record-breaking $120 million made international news — and made many money-savvy individuals who have never thought about fine art wonder if this is an investment opportunity that they’re missing out on. Between this story, and the wonderful surprises sometimes seen on shows like Antiques Roadshow, it may seem as though investing in fine art might be a good way to surround yourself with beauty and make some cool cash.
Unfortunately, it’s not nearly that simple. Here is what you need to know about the sometimes confusing world of fine art:
1. Buy only art that you love. If you are only purchasing fine art because you believe it will increase in value, you’ve missed the point. This is like installing beige carpeting in your home because it will help the resale value. The important thing is whether or not you will enjoy your purchase while you have it. And while a starving artist probably would love to see your money no matter what, ultimately he’d prefer to see you buy his piece because you love the work, and not because you see the piece as a commodity. So if money is the only reason you are getting into fine art, then you might be better off playing the stock market because there’s less chance of a complete financial loss.
2. The art market is unbelievably volatile. This is why even the stock market tend to be easier to predict. What’s hot one day in the art market may be yesterday’s news the next. One only has to look at the list of artists who died in poverty and obscurity only to have their pieces go on to break sales records to know that the art world does not always know what it likes. Some artists who died without knowing what a huge impact they would have include Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Johannes Vermeer, and El Greco. If the art world couldn’t be counted on to recognize the genius of these visionaries in their lifetimes, you can’t expect the industry to always value what you think your art should be worth.
3. As with any luxury item, you will buy retail and sell wholesale. We know that driving a brand new car off the lot immediately lowers its value. Unfortunately, there is a similar situation with fine art. Your purchase of art will be at the retail price. But if you decide to sell, you will be receiving a wholesale prices.
If you have a piece that has really risen in value since your purchase, you can still potentially make money on your fine art — unlike with most cars. However, that means a lot of things need to happen — that you held onto the piece for several years and that people have decided that the artist is worth more money. In most cases, you can’t necessarily count on recouping the same amount that you originally spent. So again — only buy a piece if you really want to display it in your home.
4. Buying a piece of fine art is more like a relationship than a purchase. Many people decorated their first apartments with posters they purchased at bookstores and department stores. And, sometimes, those posters were thrown out after a move. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it does not prepare you for the relationship you will have with fine art.
Buying a good piece of artwork that you truly love means that you are committed to finding a place for that piece. It may hang in your bedroom in one apartment, in your living room in another, and in the dining room of your first house. It becomes a part of who you are and how you think of your space. With that kind of relationship, it can become very difficult to part with your fine art. Owning fine art is often about much more than money.
The Bottom Line
Very few people can claim to have gotten rich by “investing” in artwork. For the average art lover, save your money for pieces that you simply can’t live without. You’ll be investing in the beauty of your home. | <urn:uuid:f389357f-50bc-4688-b43a-69fc06c64e0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moneyning.com/investing/is-fine-art-a-good-investment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9717 | 853 | 1.75 | 2 |
So, in our latest Code Brown, I wrote on a crashing trauma patient. Scott Weingart made a comment where he also noted that transfer between OR and angio might come to an end with RAPTOR like operating theatres. RAPTOR is a cool name that’s made to fit with Resuscitation with Angiography, Percutaneous Techniques and Operative Repair. In essence, a hybrid OR/angio suite that could transform trauma surgery.
Trauma Goes Hybrid
These RAPTOR suites are pretty much the wet dream of any in-hospital resuscitationist or trauma surgeon. One of the problems with angio suites in many hospitals is that they were built before interventional radiology became a big hit, and before treating unstable, anaesthetised patients were even considered. Most angio suites I’ve seen are pretty hard to access from an anaesthetist’s point of view, and aren’t set up for the logistical demands of a trauma theatre. But these new hybrid suites would hopefully have the great mix of a well thought out OR and a big angio set-up, and have the logistics to back it up. Yup, sounds pretty good.
Chance has it that my current hospital is in the process of building a hybrid OR/angio suite with its new thoracic surgery unit. It’s planned to be used for hybrid operations using open surgery in conjunction with percutaneous techniques, for stenting of small and large vessels, valve repair and for running angio during procedures to see the results immediately. So, mostly for cardiothoracic surgery and aortic surgery – but the neurosurgeons have also expressed interest in using it.
Weingart’s suggestion was the first time I heard about using these hybrid suites for trauma surgery management. I found a very interesting editorial letter as an introduction to RAPTOR and using hybrid suites for trauma. An interesting read:
“Hemodynamic instability has now become only a relative contraindication with published targets such as the spleen, liver, kidney, pelvis, lungs and all major abdominal vessels (aorta, iliac, renal, lumbar, inferior vena cava). Balloon occlusion of the distal aorta for bleeding pelvic fractures and proximal aorta for cross-clamping is also well established”
As seen in the quote above, the letter also mentions how intra-aortic balloon catheters, IABCs, are being used more and more for stopping bleeding in the abdomen and pelvis. We wrote a post on IACBs a year ago, with a few references, most of them experimental or case reports. Here’s a link to fairly new article on the subject. It seems placing IABCs aren’t that difficult, even trauma surgeons can place them reliably – so maybe resuscitationists can too? That extra IACB trick up your sleeve will transform any ER/OR to a hybrid suite.
Brave New World
Back to RAPTOR. The short letter linked to is well worth a quick read, and points toward a slightly braver new world that will be able to improve care of the trauma patient! In this hybrid set-up you don’t need to make the choice between OR and angio, and you’re not stuck with the wrong decision, as you can swap between angio and OR, or use them simultaneously – any way that suits you to get the best possible result. | <urn:uuid:e89a2959-c6c9-4283-8a94-921ecded5143> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scancrit.com/2013/02/06/raptor-suite/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946445 | 733 | 1.53125 | 2 |
After September 11th (an atrocity committed, as you will recall, by legal residents of the US travelling on genuine documents) it became vitally important for airport security types to Look Like They Were Doing Something.
Of course, at root, airport security is more-or-less a sham. But naturally this didn't stop them.
(``Goodness,'' you may think, ``that's very cynical! How could you say such a thing? What about all those X-ray machines and metal detectors and beefy-looking security guards frisking people at the airport? It certainly makes me feel secure!'' If so, think some more -- when was the last time that you heard about airport security guards intercepting a bomb in someone's luggage? And the last time you heard about an aeroplane blowing up in mid-air because of a bomb they didn't find? And if security has improved so much since September 11th, how come we haven't heard about all the baggage thieves who've been caught and prosecuted? Admittedly, I'm being a little unfair and anecdotal here. But that's what you expect, right?)
So, in order to be seen to be Doing Something about airport security, the Americans hired lots more airport security people and had them inspect travellers' shoes and occasionally deport Canadians to Syria (where they get tortured) for no reason. But obviously no modern security panic-reaction would be complete without an appeal to the miracles of `biometric' technology, and so it was duly decided that in the future passports would carry `biometric' details of their holders.
The idea here is that, to stop THE TERRORISTS from stealing other people's passports and travelling using them, you put some biometric information on every passport, and check that it matches the person carrying the passport whenever they travel.
But instead of using a credible biometric (expensive, and not very reliable), the biometric passport standard is designed to use only a digitised photograph of the passport holder. This can then be used as a `facial geometry biometric' (not quite as expensive, and hopelessly unreliable).
Very probably the technology won't work at all, and anyway the facial biometric is so laughable that even if it does work the effects will be counterproductive. But there are worse balls-ups in progress. At least the biometric passport nonsense isn't predicated on a central database (though you may have noticed that the Home Office have repeatedly lied that most of the cost of their ID cards scheme will have to be spent implementing biometric passports anyway).
In more detail: the plan is that you put an RFID chip on the passport which contains a certain set of data. That data is signed with a key owned by the passport-issuing authority, so that -- assuming that you have a reliable key distribution policy (not too hard with only ~150 countries out there, each with ~1 passport issuing authority) -- you can verify that the stuff on the chip is authentic.
Then, when the subject presents their passport at the airport or whatever, you take a photograph of them and compare it, using the miracle of facial biometrics, to the digitised photo on their passport. If they have exactly the same facial expression, facial hair etc. as when their passport photo was taken, and the lighting at the immigration desk at the airport is exactly the same as it was in the photo booth when their photograph was taken, then the system will say, ``this person is carrying a passport which was issued to them by the such-and-such passport agency''. If any of those conditions are not satisfied (which happens >10% of the time even under good conditions in tests), then the system will say this person does not match their passport photograph, and are therefore probably one of THE TERRORISTS.
(As an aside, I was going to write about the miracle of facial biometrics in more detail, but I'm not sure how many of my half-dozen readers can find it in their hearts to laugh at misapplied matrix algebra. Suggestions gratefully received.)
The next step, of course, is that each country records people's passport numbers and facial biometrics and uses this to detect people using more than one identity. This won't work at all, because of that 10% error rate. (NB, before you think I've made a mistake, that these systems are usually tuned to have equal false positive and false negative error rates.) Of course, we would all Heartily Endorse a scheme to prevent people travelling on false passports; after all, it's not like we give a fuck about refugees any more, is it?
Of course, using RFID for this is a fucking stupid idea. Most trivially, it means that anyone with enough technical wherewithal (not all that much...) can steal your personal data and use it to impersonate you in non-passport contexts. It probably also opens up all sorts of exciting man-in-the-middle attacks, too. For instance, I could arrange that the chip in my passport just relays requests and responses through to the person behind me in the queue. Given the 10% error rate -- and assuming that the 10% of comparisons which give false negatives are ignored, rather than resulting in instant deportation to `Camp X-Ray' or a Mukhabbarat torture chamber -- and the difficulty even trained people have in comparing photos to people (typically making mistakes on 43% of occasions), I would expect this attack to work rather well. | <urn:uuid:8e5caf2f-4fa5-46ea-b2d9-8545086145c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ex-parrot.com/~chris/wwwitter/20050227-without_let_or_hindrance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966559 | 1,136 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I’m feeling a bit cranky.My colleagues and I have just received word that our next professional development day will focus on ways we need to technologize our teaching methods so that we can better facilitate the success of the newest new generation, commonly known as “Millennials.”This latest alien invasion of first-year students, we are told, are teenage battery packs “with wires running through their veins” plugged into video games, MySpace and iPods.Therefore, we better get our collective act together and at the very least hybridize the delivery of knowledge so that we can help them make the grade in the global marketplace.
I’m no Luddite. In fact, I spend a good deal of my day reading news online, communicating with family, friends, colleagues and students, banking, writing, listening to music, checking job lists, updating my queue in Netflix, and so on. This morning, I received some garage-band mp3s from my daughter who is studying in Italy, and yesterday my brother in Houston sent me a funny wmv. I opened it last night just and showed it to my wife just after I had looked up a recipe for kale on www.marthastewart.com. Sometime today, I’ll be updating my CV html and ftping it to my academic domain. I regularly put course materials on Blackboard, and I’ve taught an online course in contemporary American poetry using the rich resources of video easily available on the Web.
So one of the reasons I’m cranky today is because most faculty development workshops I’ve attended assume no knowledge and experience on the part of those being lectured to about the latest advances in technology, learning style, and interconnectivity.
Nobody asks us what we already know and do. Nobody wants to know what the personality of our learning is. Nobody really wants to hear what we have to say. We’re stuffed into row after row of folding chairs facing the PowerPoint torture of illegible pie charts, tables, and data we need to remember so that we’ll be better prepped to perform in the learning community breakout sessions just after the chicken wraps at lunch.
Another reason I’m cranky today is that I detest these facile characterizations of our students. At some point, I expect the next newest generation to be labeled “USBs” or “ScanDisks” or “Intels” or “iLearners.” These names and framing metaphors, of course, support all sorts of false notions of knowledge and learning and teaching and success and most frightening: humanity.
And I’m cranky because this attempt to equate pedagogy with technology confuses ends with means. “Student engagement” has become the latest assessment buzzphrase, and thus, the newest once-and-for-all measure of and purpose for learning. In other words, any desire to understand the value of learning to individual students is replaced with the desire to promote the most efficient and engaging mode of learning by as many students as possible. And faculty better get in line to be online.
Techno-teaching and ilearning are also best because that’s what our students expect from us. They are the current experts on learning, they know how they best prefer to learn, and we should deliver unto them what they want in the way they want it. Thus I’m cranky because in between the government money pouring into institutional assessment and the tuition pouring in from 18 year old students, faculty members get shortchanged.
Finally, I’m cranky because I have to confront all of this professional development ruckus to claim my own professional authority, to say that I am smart enough to keep track of my own discipline and the latest pedagogical advancements without having to be lectured to two or three times a year about what college students need.
What our students need is not more of what they come in the door with. They don’t need more of the same in the same way they got it before. They need to be confronted with people who talk about ideas that matter. They need to become people who can confront and talk to other people about ideas that matter. They need to sit in a room of people and learn about humanity.
Also, not more Facebook, but more faces in books, extended periods of silent and sustained reading and writing, developing intellectual stamina and the ability to ask questions that don’t lead to easy answers or a quick and final Wikisearch.
Laurence Musgrove is an associate professor of English and foreign languages at Saint Xavier University, in Chicago. | <urn:uuid:862d04d6-e9d4-40e6-bc10-6839dc1c96f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/02/22/musgrove | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949746 | 976 | 1.5 | 2 |
"Romney's High Unfavorable Rating Hampers Message on Economy" ran the headline at Bloomberg Businessweek. "Half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Romney—a September high for a presidential challenger in the last three decades," reports Julie Hirschfeld-Davis. "Forty-nine percent of likely voters consider the former Massachusetts governor out of touch, compared with 40 percent who say that of Obama, in the latest Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 21-24." This is obviously not good news for the Romney camp, and it's safe to assume the related issue of personal likeability is not a Romney strength either. But questions of likeability should be kept in perspective.
Back in June, Hoover Institution senior fellow and political science professor Morris Fiorina publicized the work of the American National Election Studies which, among other things, has gauged voters' views on a candidate's experience and likeability since 1952. "Other things being equal, it is no doubt better for a candidate to be liked than disliked," wrote Fiorina in the June 7 edition of the New York Times. "[B]ut when other things are not equal, historical data suggest that a candidate's likeability is a relatively minor factor in deciding modern presidential elections."
In retrospect, while Vice President Al Gore is sometimes seen as having lost the 2000 election because he wasn't likeable enough, the ANES poll reveals that at the time, he was more liked than Bush. In 1980, Carter had a higher personal favorability rating than Reagan. Nixon was better liked than Kennedy in 1960. "In 1952," says Fiorina, "the public rated Adlai Stevenson slightly higher than Dwight Eisenhower on the personal dimension." And therein lies the distinction: Personal likeability matters less, as shown above. Experience, however, is something entirely different.
Eisenhower was viewed as the strong leader who won the war in Europe.... In personal terms Bill Clinton in 1996 was the lowest rated candidate—Democrat or Republican—in the 13 elections. Contrary to popular commentary he was not a "Teflon president"—his checkered personal history was reflected in low personal ratings. But he was the opposite of Carter: his job performance ratings stayed high even while his personal ratings tanked. In 1980 citizens decided to vote out a personally admired president in favor of a risky alternative. In 1996 they opted to retain a president they viewed as personally sleazy but doing a good job. In each case voters put performance and positions above personal qualities.
At a Hoover colloquium on Monday, I asked Fiorina about this dip in personal ratings for Clinton since the plummet occurred prior to the Lewinsky affair. "Oh, it got even worse for Clinton," he said. Regarding the issue of "high personal moral and ethical standards," the former president plunged by 20 percentage points after the scandal. (Of course reelection was no longer at issue, and his job rating remained high.)
So if Romney's personals are low, it isn't necessarily the end of the world. But how voters perceive the governor's experience versus Obama's performance these last four years will be crucial—nevermind what you wear to bed, tell us specifically what you will do. | <urn:uuid:0a7d1789-4507-4d9a-a3fc-7bf40a0feddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/does-likeability-matter_653098.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971447 | 645 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Hot gossip, recipes, cute baby photos and juicy tidbits about office Christmas party shenanigans aren't the only things being shared on Facebook these days. Many folks actually use the social network king to pass on interesting news articles, too. In fact, a look at what made the list of the top 40 most shared articles on Facebook in 2011 can offer some interesting clues to publishers and media outlets as to what makes a story "shareable."
Topping the list is a sobering New York Times post featuring satellite photos of Japan before and after the massive earthquake and tsunami from earlier this year. Most of the links in the top 10 and beyond, however, represent what many experts might construe as inconsequential human interest stories, trivial oddities, and sensationalistic snippets that cater to short attention spans-with headlines ranging from "Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps" and "Giant crocodile captured alive in the Philippines" to "No, your zodiac sign hasn't' changed" and "Man robs bank to get medical care in jail." But perhaps there is more here than meets the eye.
What can we learn from this list? Plenty, says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, Washington, DC. "A lot of these articles have an over-the-back-fence feel to them, representative of the kinds of things people talk about when socializing," says Rainie. "They help drive conversations. Facebook users think, ‘This will get more attention for my wall if I post this story.'"
Wendell Potter, a media analyst, author and watchdog based in Philadelphia, says the common thread shared by all their articles is the ability of each to connect emotionally with readers. "Many of these stories are very offbeat and not typically seen in the six o'clock headline news," said Potter. "But what struck me overall was that all of these articles had strong human interest elements. Some really tugged on your heartstrings, like the piece about the dog mourning the death of the Navy Seal killed in Afghanistan. This reinforces that you can personalize a story and have a much greater chance of connecting with your audience."
While most of the ranked articles boast "good-old-fashioned storytelling," other elements-including compelling headlines, and multimedia dimensionality a la eye-catching photos, graphics and video-combine to capture readers' attention, says Rainie.
"In a social media and sharing environment, people's personal news agendas often don't line up with the items getting the most coverage in the mainstream media on a given day," Rainie says. "(Facebook users) can have very different sensibilities and tastes than journalists."
Rainie found it interesting that all 40 items on the list were generated by only six publishers: CNN, Yahoo, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
"This reinforces the fact that there are fewer originators of the news today. There's a conglomeration of news outlets, which is a disturbing trend," Potter says. "We're seeing more metropolitan areas lose newspapers, and fewer news organizations have the allegiances of readers. It's ironic that we're led to believe that the internet has enabled us to get news and even become our own publishers, but people are still accessing a limited number of sources they consider to be the most reliable."
Nevertheless, in an era dominated by social networking sites, news can be the ultimate conversation starter, Rainie insists. "With new online tools for sharing, linking and posting at your disposal, it becomes an even richer conversation," he says.
The lessons to be learned by publishers who didn't make Facebook's list are numerous, says Potter. "If I ran a newspaper, I'd spend a lot of time studying this list, how the stories were developed and what made them appealing," Potter added. "To survive in today's media world, you want to be on a list like this." | <urn:uuid:dbaeef88-1354-41e0-a9af-b1c44ebd3743> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Lessons-for-Publishers-from-Facebooks-Most-Shared-Articles--79378.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960119 | 816 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Art Critic and Writer David Balzer believes everything needs to be made just a little bit strange.
The collection features a talk-show host and her talking hand, a women’s activity group that writes to prisoners, and a poncho-making nudist. The stories take inspiration from Old Hollywood, Gothic novels, art-world gossip, and "maybe a Lifetime movie or two."
I met last week with Balzer (@davidkbalzer) in the basement of Type Books to record a podcast I truly hope you enjoy. Balzer is an informed and eloquent speaker with a strong opinion on the nature and function of prose. He's also quite forthcoming about where he sees his place within contemporary fiction, as well as how and why he chose to write the entire collection from the perspective of women.
In this podcast (duration: 20:15), we discuss :
- how Balzer's career as an art critic informs his prose—"You're hoping for something to be good and looking for why it means something and how it works."
- how our culture reads acts of analysis as "acts of destruction and dissection rather than acts of curiosity and often enthusiasm and optimism."
- the distinction between camp and melodrama—"Everything needs to be made just a little bit strange."
- how writing satisfies his impulse to confront a personal "flaw" in which he sees life as art—"People are just people; we're just here."
- where cinema and prose intersect, and part ways—"In prose, you can get a more accurate sense of how people ask questions . . . It becomes about the impression of precision. Our minds do that same thing, the impression of precision as we reconsider and reconsider . . . even though there's so much specificity in the psyche, the Ego, there's so much else."
David Balzer was born a fraternal twin to a Mennonite family in north Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He studied English literature at the University of Manitoba and, then, at McGill University in Montreal, where he received his MA.
He is a two-time National Magazine Award–winner and a co-founder of the Toronto Alliance of Art Critics. Contrivances is his book first book.
He is currently working on a novel. | <urn:uuid:0370dd3f-d3b7-433a-b984-157f22b2975e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://49thshelf.com/Blog/2012/06/20/Art-Critic-and-Writer-David-Balzer-believes-everything-needs-to-be-made-just-a-little-bit-strange | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968173 | 469 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Dr. Henry Bohn reminded me of that recently. Dr. Bohn is a semi-retired veterinarian at the east Cobb Veterinary Clinic in Marietta and a loyal reader who thought I might do us all a favor to remember the life and good works of two local Cobb County men who passed away recently. After reading about them, I couldn’t agree more. They touched a lot of lives.
Richard Hilton is a name familiar to many of us. His east Marietta National Little League team won the 1983 Little League World Series title, the first Georgia team to do so. He died this past December at the age of 78. A coach for more than 40 years, it was said that he was still dispensing advice to his former players from his hospital room until the last.
That is what coaches do. They teach you the fundamentals of pitching and catching, punting and passing and how to dribble a basketball, or hit a tennis ball, but the good ones teach you about life and how to overcome the obstacles thrown in your path.
Dr. Bohn estimates that Richard Hilton coached close to two thousand young men over his four decades at the most formative period in their lives.
That is important but even more important is that he didn’t have to do this. This wasn’t his vocation. This was his calling. I suspect a lot of the kids he coached have lost a little off their fastball or are perhaps a step slower going from first to third these days, but I’ll bet they haven’t forgotten the life lessons he has taught them.
A few weeks before Richard Hilton died, Albert Friel passed away. He was 86. For forty years of his life, Mr. Friel was scoutmaster at Bethel United Methodist Church in east Cobb. During his time there, Troop 1011 turned out some 240 Eagle Scouts. In case you are wondering, that averages out to six per year for 40 years. Amazing. Even more amazing is that Dr. Bohn estimates perhaps more than 100 of them were at the services for Mr. Friel.
At one time in my life, I was a member of an advisory board at the U.S. Military Academy. West Point received 11 applications for every available position and the cost of educating those accepted was roughly $400,000 each.
I asked the superintendent at the academy what was a key determinant in who would make it through West Point successfully. His answer: Eagle Scouts. If young people had the character, discipline and wide range of interests that came with being an Eagle Scout, chances are they would be successful at the academy.
I don’t know if any of Albert Friel’s Eagle Scouts made it to or through West Point, but chances are they have all the tools for success as do the thousands of other young people who were a part of the scouting program at Mt. Bethel under Mr. Friel’s tutelage.
Dr. Bohn told me in his letter that he had been practicing in east Cobb for almost 40 years, and had worked with both Hilton and Friel during that time. He said their passing had left a void in the community. No doubt. But he added that many of the young men they worked with have followed in their footsteps.
Hopefully, they will share the values instilled in them by these two men to the next generation and then that generation will do the same for a future generation and on and on it will go. I suspect Richard Hilton or Albert Friel both were influenced themselves by a coach or a scoutmaster or a school teacher or a minister and felt compelled to pass along what they had learned.
It is interesting how we measure wealth in our society. Too many times it is defined by the size of our bank account or the number of possessions we have accumulated.
Yet, I don’t think many people will care about that when we are gone. What will be remembered is: Did we make a positive difference in someone’s life and is this a better world because we were in it?
If that is the case — and I believe that it is — Richard Hilton and Albert Friel were rich men, indeed. And we are richer for their having been here.
Thanks to Dr. Henry Bohn, DVM, for the reminder.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at email@example.com or P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139. | <urn:uuid:bc7a7cd2-eea8-4e56-9ff2-9e8b2e7e8723> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-A+salute+to+two+Cobb+men+who+made+a+difference%20&id=21730221&instance=lead_story_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986786 | 929 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In the words of one Hamilton doctor, "we don't have a two tiered heath care system, we have a seven or eight-tiered system and we all know it."
The comments come from Dr. Dale Guenter at a town hall meeting at Mohawk College sponsored by the Canadian Medical Association.
About 200 people attended, with many telling stories about the inequality of a health care system that favours those with higher incomes in better neighbourhoods.
They pointed to the fact that residents in Hamilton's poorer neighbourhoods have shorter life expectancies than those in higher-income areas.
This was the second of five meetings across Canada for the National Dialogue on Health Care Transformation.
The CMA will use the feedback to compile a report. | <urn:uuid:b8101318-503f-4199-a5e3-a29a722c74ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocalGeneral/Story.aspx?ID=1905934 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956257 | 151 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Geographical Index > United States > Kansas > Coffey County > Report # 10660|
Submitted by witness on Wednesday, February 16, 2005.
Motorist has nighttime sighting of animal east of Lebo
(Show Printer-friendly Version)
COUNTY: Coffey County
LOCATION DETAILS: There is a backroad after passing Lebo (as I remember) that turns South for 1/2 to 1 mile then turns back East. There was also a newer backroad but I mistakenly took the old one as it was late and not well marked. It definetly blacktop though in very poor condition.
NEAREST TOWN: Lebo
NEAREST ROAD: A blacktop east of Lebo.
OBSERVED: My husband and 2 sons and I lived in Emporia. Through our church my husband had become involved with the scout program. They were having a weekend campout and awards ceremony maybe 50 +/- miles East of Emporia. He called about 10:00p.m. saying he had forgotten the awards and asked me to bring them to him. I left about 10:40 and went East out of Emporia on (I think) highway US 50. Shortly after passing what I believe was called Beto Junction I turned South and curved around to the East as it was supposed to be the shortest route. The road had no shoulders and was filled with pot holes forcing me to go at a very slow rate of speed, no more than 30 miles per hour and slowing further than 30 at times. I had gone only a few miles when I saw movement to my right side about 50 feet ahead. Thinking it was deer I slowed to almost a crawl partly due to the road condition as well. What I saw was not a deer but something walking quickly in an upright position to the fence. The creature just lifted the right leg (it was facing me) and stepped over the barbed wire, took a couple steps and was in the road. I came to a complete stop being only 20? feet away from this creature. It stood in the middle of the road with my lights on it. It looked at the car and I looked at it. I opened my door and stepped out keeping the door in front of me and we looked at one another for what seems like a full minute. Visually, the creatures form was maybe 7 feet, hair covering the body, not being short like fur but generally 2-3 inches on most of the body. There was hair covering on the chest area but much more sparse. It seemed to be uniformly porportionate with the arms being the only exception and that was minor. One other thing visually, the eyes appeared to be red and almost glowed red on their own and not as reflection might produce.
I remember an odor, musky, wild, best describes it, but nothing I had smelled before.
The other thing that struck me was a feeling of calm and not fear. I distinctly have remembered I should have felt threatened but there was no feeling of being in any danger. Just as though we were both curious.
The creature began to move and I got into my car as "he" continued across the road with just a couple steps, went down into a narrow ditch and then stepped up and over the fence on the North side so easily. It continued for a few steps, stopped and looked at me again and then strode with long strides toward the trees. I sat there a couple minutes and did not see this creature again.
OTHER WITNESSES: I had my two pre-school sons with me asleep in the back seat.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: The time was approx midnight, weather was chilly, night was clear with maybe a half to quarter moon.
ENVIRONMENT: There was pasture? or fields on both sides of the road with groves of trees or thick hedgerows approximetly 75 to 100 yards behind on both sides of the road.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:
I spoke with the witness by phone.
The witness stated that the animal was very heavily built in the upper body with dark chestnut brown hair. The hair was somewhat thinner on the chest than the rest of the body.
She said that the arms were longer in proportion than a human's would be by about six inches. It appeared to have a short neck.
She was very impressed by the fact that the eyes appeared to be sofly glowing red. She also felt a sense of calm with no feelings of aggression when she stepped out of the car.
About BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:
Stan Courtney has a special interest in wildlife audio recording. He has attended numerous BFRO Expeditions and travels throughout Illinois giving presentations on "Bigfoot In Illinois". See Stan's blog StanCourtney.com for recordings he has collected over the years.
Stan Courtney can be reached at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:2d2be728-82a5-4d20-a17b-3903a20a807a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=10660 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986385 | 1,023 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Connolly meets with new citizens after the naturalization ceremony on June 22.
"You will help freshen America and help us remain a strong and dynamic society," Congressman Gerry Connolly told hundreds of new U.S. citizens and their families June 22 during a naturalization ceremony in a packed auditorium at Robinson High School.
Connolly delivered the keynote address and led the new Americans in the Pledge of Allegiance at the event where Kimberly Zanotti, Washington Field Office Director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), administered the Oath of Citizenship to 280 immigrants from 63 nations, while their families and friends looked on with pride. The new U.S. citizens were feted by the Fairfax County Police Honor Guard’s presentation of colors, while Officer Genevieve Kirk led them in singing the National Anthem, and President Obama welcomed them in a video message.
"America is a place of opportunity where you can pursue your dreams and raise your families without fearing that somebody’s government is going to tell you what to think, how to express yourself, what to believe, or what to worship," Connolly said. "That is the beauty of our country. It is a place for those who share our love of freedom. Many of you come from countries where you’ve experienced suppression of thought and suppression of your right to participate in your government. You will appreciate our freedoms and you will help strengthen America."
Congressman Connolly told the new citizens, "We are a work in progress, America is never perfect. Our great American debate is always about doing better to achieve the ideals embodied by our Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Now you are part of it. You get to help us achieve those ideals."
As opposed to conventional smaller naturalization ceremonies, often held in bland government meeting rooms, USCIS has started holding larger ceremonies in Northern Virginia to administer the Oath of Allegiance to new citizens. The events are festive occasions with family members photographing and videotaping their new citizens, children holding small American flags, and the auditorium brimming with patriotic fervor.
Connolly strives to participate in naturalization ceremonies in Northern Virginia as much as his schedule allows. "Every American should try to attend at least one of these ceremonies. It renews one’s sense of patriotism and serves as a reminder of how lucky we are to be Americans," he said after the ceremony. | <urn:uuid:ef447bdc-b713-432e-9391-7b9470c9cb9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/jun/27/connolly-addresses-280-new-citizens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960784 | 497 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Published May 02, 2012
An Australian billionaire's plan to build a cruise ship called the Titanic II has already been attempted -- at least in a low-budget film by the same name.
"On the 100th anniversary of the original voyage, a modern luxury liner christened 'Titanic 2,' follows the path of its namesake," reads a plot summary from IMDb.com. "Passengers and crew must fight to avoid a similar fate."
Predictably enough, this 2010 flick, staring an iceberg and a tsunami, went straight to DVD. Directing and co-staring was none other than Dick Van Dyke's grandson Shane, garnering terse movie reviews such as, "Oh, Rob!"
This hasn't stopped mining magnate Clive Palmer from announcing his plans for the Titanic II. He slated a maiden voyage from England to North America in 2016. He's even naming his company Blue Star Line Ltd. in an unwary tribute to the highly overconfident White Star Line.
Tweets about this news have ranged from "OMG" to "Doomed?" A columnist for "The Australian" newspaper sarcastically opined: "I'm sure there is already a huge queue of cashed-up cruisers looking to tempt fate and history."
"It is going to be designed so it won't sink," Palmer said in making the announcement over the weekend.
No, no. Please. Don't say that.
This development is about as strange as a re-launch of the Chevy Corvair or the Ford Pinto. Remember the discovery of the Titanic's faulty rivets?
What's this guy going to do next? Build a zeppelin and call it the Hindenburg? I know: Why not commission an oil platform and call it the Deepwater Horizon?
The global cruise industry keeps growing no matter what happens -- shipwrecks, fires, mysterious illnesses, missing persons, a sunken economy. The Cruise Lines International Association Inc. expects 17 million passengers on the ships of its member companies this year, up from 16 million last year. But isn't another Titanic pushing the industry's luck?
The Titanic went down on April 15, 1912 and wasn't was found until 1985, about 12,500 feet beneath the North Atlantic. It was one of the most colossal corporate disasters of its time, and 1,514 people died.
Millvina Dean, the last surviving Titanic passenger, lived until 2009, age 97, and it just wasn't long enough for a Titanic to come around again.
The Carnival Corp.'s Costa Concordia, meantime, is still lying on its side on an Italian rock after running aground on Jan 13. Those tending the scene are still trying to find two bodies of the 32 who died.
One of the companies that recently won a contract to refloat the half-sunken vessel is called "Titan Salvage." See. Not even a salvage company, which has a vested interest in shipwrecks, is crass enough to reuse all the letters in the name.
I once heard it said there are two types of customers in the cruise industry: Cruisers and people who will never get on another ship again.
I have taken a cruise exactly one time. As my ship set off from Florida, I could not believe how much my fellow passengers were eating at the endless buffets, and then vomiting once we hit rough seas. Little did I know that the most disgusting part of the voyage was yet to come.
As the boat rocked, waves in the top-deck pool roiled swimmers back and forth like cork bobbers in the surf. When one of them finally puked, a whistle blew and everyone evacuated in a scene reminiscent of the 1980 movie "Caddyshack." The pool was immediately drained and guys in white bunny suits scrubbed its sides.
This was disastrous enough for me.
Other people are undeterred by mishaps at sea. One of them is Stephen Frazee, a trustee at the Titanic International Society, a non-profit historical group in New Jersey that has been preserving the memory of the Titanic since 1989.
"I was delighted to hear of these plans," he wrote me in an email. "It is refreshing to see that someone is planning to build a cruise ship that will emphasize something other than sheer size and passenger capacity."
The Titanic II, you see, will be built on the scale of the original Titanic. As big as that was, it was cozier and more elegant than the glitzy, floating casinos the dot the oceans today.
"A ship with the pedigree of the original Titanic would have no difficulty in attracting well-heeled passengers from around the world," Frazee said, "especially if they were guaranteed a seat in one of the ship's lifeboats!"
(Al's Emporium, written by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. Contact Al at email@example.com or tellittoal.com) | <urn:uuid:2ae17e08-802d-418b-85b6-f4ec1f947fdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/05/02/getting-onboard-with-titanic-ii/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967891 | 1,048 | 1.8125 | 2 |
8-year-old girl bitten by dolphin at SeaWorld
Dolphin lunged out of pool as girl held tray of fish
Eight-year-old Jillian Thomas was having the time of her life, getting up close and personal with dolphins, her favorite animal.
As her mom and dad captured her feeding the dolphins on camera she picked up the tray of fish to say she was done, and that's when a dolphin leaped out of the water after the tray and instead got Jillian's arm.
The dolphin closed its jaws on the 8-year-old's arm and pulled her toward the pool before letting go. This all happened as the Thomas' were recording.
Jamie Thomas said he immediately rushed to his daughter's side fearing she'd end up in the pool.
"We think that attraction at SeaWorld is dangerous and it was traumatic for us to go through that event," said Jamie Thomas.
Jillian, who was visiting with her family from Atlanta, did see a doctor this week and is doing much better. But the bite did cause three puncture wounds on her arm and minor bleeding, according to her parents.
The family says it's more concerned about Jillian's emotional well-being. Her parents say the 8-year-old was depressed for a few days after the incident. She even prayed for the dolphin, which she thought would get sick from eating the paper tray.
The Thomas' say they're not looking to sue SeaWorld, but they want their experience to be a warning to other parents.
SeaWorld told WKMG-TV in a statement, "nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our guests, employees and animals. Educators and animal care staff are always on-site at this area, monitoring all interactions and are committed to guest safety."
Jamie and Amy Thomas admitted they were told multiple times not to pick up the trays with the fish, but to take each fish out and toss it to the dolphins. They say their daughter just forgot and made a mistake.
A SeaWorld spokesman said a first-aid employee did attend to Jillian's injuries, but the Thomas' think the park downplayed the incident.
"We had to ask for Band-Aids and [the employee] kind of thought it was cute that we wanted Band-Aids on something that they thought wasn't a big deal," said Amy Thomas.
SeaWorld did not respond when asked if it had plans to change the Dolphin Cove attraction.
In 2006 two children were bitten by dolphins at the same attraction.
Copyright 2011 by Post-Newsweek Stations. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed | <urn:uuid:de64059d-74af-4132-80ff-1bd32a895fef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/8-year-old-girl-bitten-by-dolphin-at-SeaWorld/-/475880/17625018/-/view/print/-/103n7kbz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989315 | 554 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Alcatraz Challenge is one of the most famous and challenging athletic events in California. It officially began in 1983 as a triathlon, but now it has evolved into an aquathon, which has swimming and running. For the Alcatraz Challenge, athletes start out at Alcatraz Island where they dive into the water and swim 1.5 miles until they reach the shore. From there, the swimmers become runners. After they transition, the runners start their 7-mile run that hugs the bay and takes them over the Golden Gate Bridge.
There are many swimming challenges in the Alcatraz Challenge from the chilly, choppy water to the strong currents. Also, while running, there is a change of 400 feet in elevation in less than a half of a mile.
With the amazing San Francisco scenery, it's no wonder that the Alcatraz Challenge has been voted "Best San Francisco Swim of 2007" by Competitor Magazine and "#2 Top Open Water Swim" by 10KSwimmer.com in 2008. The Alcatraz Challenge is great for triathletes, runners and swimmers who think that not trying would be criminal. | <urn:uuid:113f88fb-782d-4f69-8049-237bb7634bc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swimoutlet.com/Alcatraz-Challenge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969358 | 234 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Five homeless children have been found dead in a trash bin, where they probably suffocated while sheltering from the cold, authorities in southwest China have said.
The boys, aged about 10, were found by an elderly rag picker on Friday morning, the Beijing News reported.
An initial investigation suggested they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, possibly due to burning charcoal inside the bin, which measured about 1.3m by 1.6m. Temperatures had dropped to 6oC overnight and it is thought they had shut the lid to keep warm.
An official in Bijie, a city in mountainous Guizhou Province, told the newspaper that police are still confirming the cause of death, but have ruled out murder. Only three of the children have been identified so far. Their bodies remained unclaimed on Sunday.
Residents said the boys had been living in a nearby shelter they built from a tarpaulin, cement blocks and plywood, according to a man from the area who posted pictures of the bin online.
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs said there were an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million children living without parental care, mostly on the streets of towns and cities, in 2008. That did not include children working on the streets with migrant parents.
Last year, the government ordered officials to place a higher priority on helping street children without parental care and to seek them out to provide help. It has also promised to build more centers providing shelter and basic services for them.
In December last year, the ministry launched a campaign to return most of them to their homes within a year.
Ma Li, who runs a shelter for homeless children in Jiangsu Province, told the China Daily that the deaths exposed the problem with existing provisions for street children.
“Rescue centers don’t have a long-term effective way to help these children, as they can only provide food and shelter for a maximum of 10 days. After that, the rescue centers are required to send these children home,” he said.
He said that most children had run away because they had bad relationships with their parents and might have suffered domestic abuse — making them reluctant to go to the centers for help.
Ma said a new system is needed to encourage non-governmental organizations, schools and individuals to participate in helping homeless children.
Dale Rutstein, chief of communications for UNICEF in China, where the agency has been working with authorities to help street children, said: “There’s been a strong effort to find children and bring them back to their home provinces. That’s only a small part of the issue.”
“The underlying causes really have to be addressed in a long term, comprehensive way,” Rutstein said. “The best approach to that is creating a child welfare system where parents can be assisted to care for their children better, and case workers are aware of the needs of the most vulnerable families and prevent those more serious outcomes. [China] is in its very early stages of developing a more modern child welfare system.”
UNICEF has been helping to train officials dealing with street children and the managers of relief centers. | <urn:uuid:0985ebcb-5c79-4308-8321-a2c3ab7d5984> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/print/2012/11/21/2003548261 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976259 | 656 | 1.820313 | 2 |
WiGig fast wireless may change Wi-Fi, home networks
- — 12 May, 2009 10:28
The newly formed Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance looks likely to play a big role in the future of Wi-Fi, but its high-speed technology probably won't squeeze out wired multimedia networks.
The alliance, which was announced last week and is led by several big Wi-Fi chip makers, along with Microsoft, Nokia and major consumer electronics companies, said it's on track to complete a specification by year's end for 6Gb per second (Gbps) wireless networks. That outstrips any widely available wireless technology. But WiGig will use 60GHz radio spectrum, where frequencies are so high they are suited mainly to in-room connectivity.
Although the demand for streaming high-definition video around homes is still minuscule, according to industry analysts, several technologies have sprung up to serve this market. They aim at the problem of how to distribute TV, video-on-demand and stored video among set-top boxes, PCs, TVs and other devices. Most consumers aren't willing to pull new wires around their homes to make this possible.
In addition to high-definition video transmission, the high bandwidth and low latency of WiGig could be ideal for several applications, including gaming on HDTVs and wireless docking of netbooks to desktop displays and storage, vendors say. It might also let consumers send video from HD camcorders to TVs without a cable. Because it is designed for IP (Internet Protocol) networking and has the backing of Intel, Broadcom, Atheros, and major consumer electronics vendors, there's a good chance WiGig will come out ahead of some existing wireless systems, analysts say.
Various vendor groups have pushed different types of existing home wiring as the solution to HD networking: HomePNA (originally Home Phone Networking Alliance) for telephone wires, HomePlug Powerline Alliance for electrical wiring and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MOCA) for interior coaxial cables. There are also high-speed wireless technologies vying for position. UWB (Ultrawideband) has been adopted for Wireless USB, now shipping in certain laptops, but some of its main suppliers have shut down. WirelessHD and WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface), with speeds closer to WiGig's, each has shipped in home electronics products or soon will.
One factor in WiGig's favor is the movement to integrate it with Wi-Fi. A faster version of the IEEE 802.11 standard using the 60GHz band is also under development now, and chip makers and the alliance are already talking about WiGig as part of a "tri-band Wi-Fi" technology that would include 60GHz on top of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands already used for 802.11a, b, g and n. The idea is that, as users of the tri-band system move farther from an access point, their connection could step down to the slower, longer-range standards.
Intel, Broadcom and Atheros all hope to make WiGig an extension of Wi-Fi. They are also involved in the IEEE task group for the upcoming 60GHz standard, called 802.11AD. That group is in the early stages of developing its new standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance industry group, which certifies products based on the 802.11 family of standards, says WiGig seems complementary to Wi-Fi and that as it matures there may be opportunities for the Wi-Fi and WiGig groups to collaborate.
"We don't call it Wi-Fi, because it's not Wi-Fi yet, but it has a lot of similar properties," said Jason Trachewsky, Broadcom's representative to the WiGig Alliance and a senior technical director at Broadcom. "A faster, lower-latency Wi-Fi interface is something that would be of great interest over a lot of our product lines," he said.
Intel plans eventually to slide WiGig into its Wi-Fi chipsets in place of My Wi-Fi, a PAN (personal-area network) technology it announced last year. My Wi-Fi splits a Wi-Fi client in a laptop or other device into two virtual clients. One can connect to a traditional Wi-Fi LAN through an access point while the other sets up peer-to-peer links with other devices, such as consumer electronics products. As My Wi-Fi evolves to 60GHz, the traditional Wi-Fi side can remain the same, said Ali Sadri, director of wireless PAN and millimeter-wave standardization at Intel. Sadri is also chairman and president of the WiGig Alliance.
Atheros also sees WiGig as a potential fit for its own peer-to-peer Wi-Fi technology, called Direct Connect, and possibly as a foundation for a faster Bluetooth standard, said Atheros CTO Bill McFarland. He expects to see WiGig certify its own products before the 802.11AD standard is complete. It took about five years for the 802.11n standard to be completed, he pointed out.
All three of the big chip vendors are eyeing commercial chips with WiGig by 2011, though before then, the standard needs to be finished and a testing and certification program has to be developed. "There are all sorts of things that can cause schedules to slip," Broadcom's Trachewsky said.
No matter how soon certified WiGig products hit the consumer market, the alphabet soup of wired protocols for sending high-definition content from one room to another will probably survive.
These types of networks can complement WiGig rather than compete with it, said Parks Associates analyst Kurt Scherf. WiGig could extend the wired networks into each room just as Wi-Fi often does today, according to Scherf and some groups backing the existing systems.
Wireless isn't the right tool for reliable, high-quality transmission around a home, partly because of the problems of getting through walls, said Rich Nesin, executive director of HomePNA.
"Periodically, people get very excited about it, because wireless is nice, but when it comes down to it, they're deploying wired technologies," Nesin said. HomePNA is deployed in about 2 million homes and is offered by most of the big North American carriers who deliver digital TV, he said.
MOCA is complementary to WiGig, said Rob Gelphman, chairman of MOCA's Marketing Working Group. Broadcom is one of the key vendors making MOCA chips today, he pointed out. Broadcom's Trachewsky said MOCA might be a bridge between WiGig networks in different rooms. HomePlug takes a similar position.
"I think there's still a need for wired solutions," Scherf of Parks Associates said. One reason whole-home multimedia networks may remain is that they are usually supplied by service providers, which don't want to have to provide support for wireless systems with sometimes unpredictable coverage, he said.
As for competing wireless systems, analysts say they may have a tough time unless they can get the backing of major wireless chip suppliers. WirelessHD is associated primarily with SiBeam and WHDI with Amimon, and though there are other chip vendors involved, they aren't the giants of the industry, said In-Stat analyst Brian O'Rourke. On the other hand, these two technologies will get a long head start on WiGig, he pointed out.
For its part, the WirelessHD Consortium said it believes 60GHz represents the future of wireless and that the WiGig Alliance's move is a validation of that vision. WHDI believes its technology complements WiGig because it uses the 5GHz band and can cover a whole home. There are pre-standard products out today based on Amimon chips, but once the open WHDI standard is completed in about two months, more chip makers as well as consumer electronics vendors will rally around it, said Les Chard, president of the WHDI Special Interest Group.
Complementary or not, Parks Associates' Scherf sees formidable weight behind WiGig.
"If it's got the backing of some of the major Wi-Fi supporters behind it ... it will probably succeed," he said. | <urn:uuid:078e00f8-cf98-4e27-a14b-ae23f61827a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/302814/wigig_fast_wireless_may_change_wi-fi_home_networks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958892 | 1,721 | 1.757813 | 2 |
When the Service is Excellent, the Money Flows!
By Julian Campbell
Why is the subject of customer service covered so often, by so many, in so many ways? We all agree that customers are vital to the existence of our business. The sad truth is, the majority of customers are still shown very poor or indifferent attitudes by so many businesses.
How important is customer satisfaction in your business? Recently, customers of 3000 American businesses were surveyed to see, from the customer perception, the effects of providing good service or bad service. The results are very interesting.
Those perceived as good could charge an average of 10% more for their product or service. They grew twice as fast as their competition. They improved their market share by 6% per year, whilst the poorly perceived service lost 2% of their market share per year. The survey also showed that 83% of diners did not return to restaurants because of perceived bad service not because of poor food.
How would your business fair under such a test? An article entitled "Companies sink low in customers" esteem" in Business Review Weekly last month indicated that a survey of Australian companies presented a grim picture and whilst this survey was aimed at the major institutions, there is a lesson to be learnt for all of us in business.
Remember it is your customers' perception that really counts. What image does your business present to your customers? Is it one of a stale, stuck-in-the-rut, always-been-like-this image? Or is it exciting, innovative and fresh?
When we have been in business for a while, we tend to become familiar with the way our premises look, the way our staff act and the general routine of our business. Because of this, we no longer see the little things, which are so obvious to our customers and yet mean so much to them. Little things like a friendly greeting, a tidy work area, a good appearance or a positive attitude.
We often accuse our politicians of not listening to us, but could we be guilty of the same fault? We could all listen to our customers more. Ask them through surveys or customer focus groups what they really want from us. Take time today to stand back and look at your image from your customers' view. The statistics above show the effort is worth it. A few small changes will bring big rewards and put you on the road to success.
Copyright © Julian Campbell 2007
To read more of Julian's articles, return to the Articles Index | <urn:uuid:c381eb62-ddb3-4e1e-940e-5be35d025668> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catalystforgrowth.com.au/articles/customer-service.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974167 | 509 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Hurricane Sandy is set to blow Obama and Romney campaigns right off course - Election will take a back seat to “perfect storm” as it blows in
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 08:23 AM
- The Irish community returns to Hurricane Sandy hit Rockaways to aid ongoing recovery
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities by Irish immigrant support group - Boston-based Irish International Immigrant Center does the unspeakable
- Profile in Irish fighting courage - Heffernan’s campaign for respite care for families dealing with fatal rare illnesses such as Batten’s disease
- Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate deal for visas because of 1965 shutout - Says “Schumer visas” set to give Ireland 10,500 visas a year for the future
- Prospects for immigration reform bill are 50-50 say the pols privately - House seen as major obstacle as Senate gets closer to a vote
Hurricane Sandy is barreling up the East Coast as I write and it is surely an unexpected nightmare for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
They had probably prepared for every eventuality this last full week of campaigning and thought long and hard of every possible new wrinkle in a close fought race.
Except for a hurricane barreling up the East Coast sending everyone fleeing coastal areas like rats.
Just imagine if it had hit a week later and interfered with voting in the presidential election?
(And whose idea was it anyway to have elections in November right on the shoulder of bad weather season?)
How will President Obama and Mitt Romney play it? It seems to offer both men a poisoned chalice.
Sure Obama can look presidential and comforter in chief when the storm hits and he will almost certainly visit a disaster areas in its aftermath.
But he has to be extremely careful not to play politics overtly with a possible tragedy.
Remember George Bush and his disastrous reaction to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, which dogged his presidency forever?
In addition, if early voting is hit in states that are toss ups that are in the path of the storm, it will disproportionately affect his voters who have been winning the early voting turnout.
For Mitt Romney, who had been experiencing a boost in recent national polls but still trails in key battlegrounds, the storm could have the effect freezing the race for the length of the storm.
He also knows it also gives his opponent the opportunity to look presidential and Obama has impressed on such occasions like in the aftermath of the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.
So neither man will be happy with the weather Gods for throwing one yet more unpredictable X factor into the final week of campaigning. But that’s what they face.
- Government minister calls for investigation...
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities
- Irishman John Downey arrested for 1982 IRA...
- Amnesty International says Ireland’s abortion...
- New book ‘John F. Kennedy - Among the Germans’.
- One in seven people on social welfare in...
- Irish finance minister says US Senate are...
- Top bishops clash over excommunication of...
- Calls for Irish Justice Minister to resign...
- Nigerian migrants send $653 million a year... | <urn:uuid:87132bf4-c15e-44fb-a5b3-5299c4a4b244> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/periscope/hurricane-sandy-is-set-to-blow-obama-and-romney-campaigns-right-off-course---election-will-take-a-back-seat-to-perfect-storm-as-it-blows-in-176160771.html?fullsite=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954161 | 673 | 1.546875 | 2 |
December 21, 2007 – PHOENIX, AZ. Arizona search engine optimization company, Vertical Measures, recently released the results of an extensive study into the top SEM and SEO training programs and resources available at the university level today. While the study turned up some impressive programs, the overall findings were a bit disappointing, officials said.
"Some of the programs we found are outstanding," said Arnie Kuenn, Vertical Measures’ president. "Unfortunately, what we found overall is a major gap in university-level training for this important field of study."
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) training, resources and educational tools are essential for helping people learn the skills necessary to succeed in this relatively new marketplace. For business owners, advertisers and marketers to enjoy the rewards of the online world, a basic understanding, if not a mastery, of SEM and SEO is vital. Without an understanding of the principles involved in generating targeted traffic, web sites and online businesses frequently fail.
Vertical Measures’ used the two most popular Internet search engines, Google and Yahoo!, to seek out the best educational programs at colleges and universities. The result of its efforts is a sizable listing of the top programs the company was able to identify. Vertical Measures’ desire was to help others interested in learning correct SEM and SEO practices locate the very best curriculum available, while enabling them to weed out less-than-desirable programs.
"There is simply a lack of university-level SEO and SEM curriculum out there today," explained Kuenn. "In fact, if you do a basic Internet search for these two topics, chances are strong that you will find an overwhelming number of non-relevant listings."
While Vertical Measures’ study did not result in the identification of an abundance of high-level training as was hoped, it did uncover some impressive programs. Some of the outstanding programs found are offered by such schools as the Harvard Extension, DePaul University, James Madison University’s College of Business, New York University’s Schools of Continuing and Professional Studies and Rasmussen College, among others. Rutgers’ Search Engine Marketing course was identified as being one of the best of the best. This nationally recognized SEM online course teaches the ropes of SEO, pay-per-click marketing, copywriting and more.
The methodology and results of Vertical Measures’ study can be found online at www.verticalmeasures.com/education.html . The company welcomes information on SEM or SEO training programs available that are not included on the list to ensure the resource is as current as possible.
"We set out to create a comprehensive listing of the best university-level curriculum available," said Kuenn. "While the results are not quite as high as we would have liked them to be, we stand ready to update and add to this resource as new, high-quality programs are brought to our attention."
About Vertical Measures
Vertical Measures offers complete Internet marketing services geared toward helping businesses improve their online presence and their rankings with the most popular search engines on the Internet. The company’s highly trained team of SEM experts shares more than 40 years of combined experience in information technology.
For more information on Vertical Measures or the educational availability study, please visit www.verticalmeasures.com or call them at (602) 476-1889. | <urn:uuid:0dc5f07e-2b89-437b-bb25-9b0140339a39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.verticalmeasures.com/seo-training-still-limited-at-the-university-level/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948901 | 683 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - A Family's Increase :: Hey, genealogy fans, it's Saturday Night! Time for some Genealogy Fun! Your task, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music), is to:
1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants. 2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program. 3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents. 4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy. 5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.
My most prolific great-grandparents (by far) are my father's paternal grandparents, James Madison Pounders (1867-1942) and his wife, Mary Susan [Cain?] (1873-1950). Their 12 children (all now deceased) were given some of the more unique names in my family tree.
1. Zula Rodoski (1889-1968) had 3 children (all deceased)
2. Margaret Darthula (1891-1963) had 4 children (all deceased)
3. James Thomas Luther (1893-1984) had 4 children (2 thought to be living)
4. William Rufus Oscar (1895-1979) had 3 children (1 living)
5. Anna Virilla (1896-1978) had 6 children (4 thought to be living)
6. Minnie Ruth Estelle (1899-1976) had 5 children (2 thought to be living)
7. Jacob Edmund Forrest (1902-1957) had 3 children (all deceased)
8. Fannie Myrtle Lee (1904-1947) had no children
9. Everett Franklin (1908-1910) died young
10. Etta Evelyn (1910-1998) had no children
11. Bernice (1913-1999) had 3 children (2 thought to be living)
12. Freddie Benjamin (1916-1987) had 4 children (all living)
- 35 Grandchildren with 15 known or thought to be living.
- 89 Great-Grandchildren with 14 known to be deceased
- 91 known Great-Great-Grandchildren with one known to be deceased
- 21 known 3rd Great-Grandchildren
James Madison Pounders died in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas in 1942, and that is where I grew up. A large percentage of his descendants are still there and / or return there often to visit family, so I grew up knowing many of these people. Some did move to other states or other parts of Texas, so there are a few I never met, but even some of those have been in touch via mail and/or email.
I descend from the 7th of the 12 children born to Jim and Mary Susan -- that son was my "Pa Jake." This photo shows all of the grandchildren of Pa Jake. I am his 1st born grandchild, and am standing on the left on the back row in this photo. | <urn:uuid:d0a4e9b7-4204-4d0a-86be-01b4a5e27b3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.benotforgot.com/2009/10/sngf-descendants-of-j-m-pounders.html?showComment=1255890601649 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961768 | 698 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Justice? If that's justice than the sooner French guns blow the English out of America the better it will be for the people here!
You do not know what you're saying, girl!
Yes I do, I know exactly what what I'm saying, and if it is sedition, than I am guilty of sedition too!
My father's people say that at the birth of the sun and of his brother the moon, their mother died. So the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. And he drew forth from her breast the stars, and the stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul. So there's the Cameron's monument. My folks' too, I guess.
You are right, Mr. Poe. We do not understand what is happening here. And it's not as I imagined it would be, thinking of it in Boston and in London...
Sorry to disappoint you.
No, on the contrary. It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imagining could possibly have been.
The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the Red Man of these wilderness forests in front of it until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more, or be not us.
That is my father's sadness talking.
No, it is true. The frontier place is for people like my white son and his woman and their children. And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like you will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once, we were here.
Maj. Duncan Heyward:
Might I inquire after the situation sir, given that I've seen the French engineering from the ridge above.
The situation is that his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. We keep our heads down while his troops dig 30 yards of trench a day. When those trenches are 200 yards from the fort and within range, he'll bring in his 15-inch mortars, lob explosive rounds over our walls, and pound us to dust.
Kindy inform Major Heyward that he has little to fear from this General Marquis de Montcalm in the first place; and scant need of a colonial militia in the second because the French haven't the nature for war. Their Gallic indifference combines with their Latinate voluptuousness with the result that they would rather eat and make love with their faces than fight.
Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one - I, Chingachgook - Last of the Mohicans. | <urn:uuid:354cf8e4-bce5-4455-9b7a-0a5650e9438c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quotes.net/movies/6480 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972194 | 602 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Narcissism Impairs Ethical Judgment Even Among the Highly Religious, Baylor Study FindsMarch 12, 2012
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Media Contact: Frank Raczkiewicz, (254) 710-1964
WACO, Texas (March 12, 2012) - Although high levels of narcissism can impair ethical judgment regardless of one's religious orientation or orthodox beliefs, narcissism is more harmful in those who might be expected to be more ethical, according to a Baylor University study published online in the Journal of Business Ethics.
Read the article using this link http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0k76hw8x37h7562/
"Devout people who are narcissistic and exercise poor ethical judgment would be committing acts that are, according to their own internalized value system, blatantly hypocritical," said Marjorie J. Cooper, Ph.D., study author and professor of marketing at Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. "Narcissism is sufficiently intrusive and powerful that it entices people into behaving in ways inimical to their most deeply-held beliefs."
The study identified three groups- skeptics, nominal Christians, and devout Christians. Skeptics largely reject foundational Christian teachings. Nominal Christians are moderate in their intrinsic religious orientation as well as in their orthodox beliefs. Devout Christians are high in intrinsic religious orientation and orthodoxy, which indicates that they fully internalize Christian beliefs and values.
"We found that nominal and devout Christians show better ethical judgment than the skeptics overall, but especially those whose narcissistic tendencies are at the low end of the spectrum," said Chris Pullig, Ph.D., chair of the department of marketing and associate professor of marketing at Baylor. "However, that undergoes a notable alteration as levels of narcissism rise for subjects within each cluster."
"Both the nominal and devout groups show degrees of poor ethical judgment equal to that of the skeptics when accompanied by higher degrees of narcissism, a finding that suggests a dramatic transformation for both nominals and the devouts when ethical judgment is clouded by narcissistic tendencies," he said.
For the skeptics, the range of scores for ethical judgment from low to high lacks the range that is found for the nominals and devouts. Increased narcissism among skeptics does not result in significantly worse ethical judgment.
"However, the same cannot be said for the nominals or the devouts," Cooper said. "For both of these groups as narcissism increases so does the tendency to demonstrate worse ethical judgment. Thus, a higher level of narcissism is more likely to be associated with unethical judgment among nominal Christians and devout Christians than skeptics."
For the study, 385 undergraduate marketing students completed an online survey in which they indicated to what degree they believe behavior was acceptable or not for such statements as:
An underpaid executive padded his expense account by about $3,000 a year.
A company paid a $350,000 ''consulting'' fee to an official of a foreign country. In return, the official promised assistance in obtaining a contract that will produce $10 million profit for the contracting company.
They were also asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with such statements as:
I go to church mostly to spend time with my friends.
My whole approach to life is based on my religion.
Although I believe in my religion, many other things are more important in life.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV, published by the American Psychiatric Association (2000), defines narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as someone whose behavior is fittingly described by five of nine characteristics. These include: (1) an exaggerated sense of self-importance; (2) fantasies of extraordinary success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love; (3) belief that one is ''special'' and should only associate with and can only be understood by other high-status people; (4) demand for excessive admiration from others; (5) a sense of entitlement; (6) objectification of others to achieve personal ends and gratification; (7) lack of empathy; (8) envy of others or belief that others are envious of oneself; (9) haughty, arrogant, patronizing, or contemptuous behavior or attitudes toward others.
About Baylor University
Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, classified as such with "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions.
About Hankamer School of Business
Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business provides a rigorous academic experience, consisting of classroom and hands-on learning, guided by Christian commitment and a global perspective. Recognized nationally for several programs, including Entrepreneurship and Accounting, the school offers 24 undergraduate and 13 graduate areas of study. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business. | <urn:uuid:5e503b84-adfc-48cc-9426-809942d2e023> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=111222 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947135 | 1,107 | 1.617188 | 2 |
First Landings Aviation's Adam Valencic and the author prepare for a local flight.
How much time a student spends on groundwork is up to him or her. First Landings Aviation
Nearly 12 percent of First Landings Aviation students have been women, about twice the am
Though Sport Pilot students train out of and in uncontrolled airports and airspace, they
One of the challenging — and most fun, in my book — aspects of flying a light-sport c | <urn:uuid:09fff383-06df-4689-9eb6-a44b3503ff00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flyingmag.com/node/17587/list | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943224 | 95 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In a previous post I suggested that you can make maquettes to help visualize realistic human or dinosaur characters. But you can also use 3-D miniatures for completely imaginary characters, too.
For example, Berkley Publishing asked me to design an elf-like alien for a science fiction book cover. To begin with, I sketched out the character in charcoal.
Then I sculpted a model in an oil-based clay. I was short on time, so I decided not to photograph the maquette (which meant a half-day outing to get the photos processed), and drew this study on tone paper instead. The clay maquette and the charcoal study together took about two days.
The study guided the form modeling in the final oil painting. You can see how it helped with the cast shadow on his left ear, and the reflected light under his left eyelid and cheekbone.
I also dug into the scrap file for pictures of frogs’ eyes. And I set up a leather jacket with an electrical clip and a zipper to give inspiration for his hat. | <urn:uuid:b8d91ce2-f220-4427-bcf8-de95bcf56474> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/01/3-d-elf-alien.html?showComment=1199479080000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960018 | 221 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Research by PhD student Stefanie Stantcheva touches on taxation, student loans and education incentives.
Michael Dell, the founder, president and CEO of Dell Computer Corp., will deliver the keynote address at the Enterprise Forum's "10-250 Meeting" this evening in Rm 10-250. He will be presented with the inaugural Edward B. Roberts Young Entrepreneur Award for distinguished leadership.
The evening will start at 6pm with a case presentation by PC Build, a Massachusetts-based firm which provides hardware services to businesses, schools and municipalities nationwide. Mr. Dell will speak at 7:30pm to the organization where he first outlined his vision in 1988 for what is today one of the world's largest PC manufacturers.
The 10-250 Meeting is a monthly gathering where leaders of emerging technology ventures present case studies of their business plans (which are critiqued by a panel of industry experts) to business and financial professionals, with an aim toward providing constructive counsel for growth.
Mr. Dell began his computer business in a dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin, officially forming Dell Computer Corp. in 1984. Today, the company employs 17,800 people worldwide and has generated sales of $13.6 billion in the last four quarters.
The Edward B. Roberts Young Entrepreneur Award for Distinguished Leadership was established to commemorate the Enterprise Forum's 20th anniversary. The award honors Dr. Roberts, the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology at the Sloan School. His research into the formation of high-tech companies opened a new field of academic research, and his inspiration led to the founding of the MIT Enterprise Form.
The annual award will recognize the company founders who have nurtured their own firms to major corporate size by the age of 35. It recognizes those who create and manage growth and innovation in the earliest years of their careers, and who motivate the entrepreneurialspirit of others as industry leaders and young exemplars of entrepreneurial values.
Registration at the door is $10 for Enterprise Forum members and $15 for non-members. For more information, call x3-8240.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 18, 1998. | <urn:uuid:e367ad39-a78b-468a-8605-f59feaabdbc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1998/dell-1118.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951484 | 443 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Today's Top 10: Snoozing in Public
The Top 10: A Salute to Sleeping in Public Day:
Think About It! How many times have you seen some one sleeping in public?
1. Sleeping Beauty, of course is a fairy tale. Ah! but a good nights sleep is a dream.
2. A sleeping child in a stroller, coach or draped over the shoulder of an adult, now that is a sweet scene.
3. A homeless person sleeping in an open space, not always a public bench or a steaming vent, sometimes just on the ground is not so sweet of a scene. It is sad.
4. Sleeping during a movie in a theater? Those people should have declined the invitation.
5. Falling asleep during class? You either got too late a start on your homework last night or perhaps have time management issues.
6. Falling asleep behind the wheel is very dangerous pull over that is what the rest stops are for. Falling asleep on the train or bus is equally as dangerous even though you are not in the drivers seat. An airplane you may be safe, if anyone wants to mess with you, they are not going anywhere. There are no quick exits. Just don't snore. It does draw attention to you. Adrift in the middle of the ocean, covered by canvas clear on down to your toes from the scorching solar rays you may be in a safe area, provided it is pirate free zone.
7. Falling asleep during the last ten minutes of a movie at home. You probably only missed two minutes but that is all it takes to wrap up and solve the drama, the other eight minutes were all commercials. You didn't miss that much.
8. Falling asleep during a conversation. Now some people are just plain boring and you must refrain from yawning, it is considered rude but understandable to zone out. Just be very cautious in the way you answer, if questioned about the conversation. You could pause and say, thought provoking, let me get back to you and hope you never have that conversation AGAIN. (Yawn)
9. Falling asleep on the beach is such an inviting opportunity to just chill out but is it advisable?
Drawbacks: Sunburn, covered in sand by the prankster, briskly awaken by the ebb and flo of the tide, robbery, I have seen a seagull attempt to steal keys but mostly food, horseflies, you never see them coming. Maybe that is a godsend but you will wake up with a BIG welt.
10. Falling asleep on the job is another big taboo, literally and figuratively. You may think you are getting away with it but sooner or later, sleep deprivation catches up with you.
I did not make this holiday up, I saw it on the Hallmark Channel website. The 10 incidents are what came to mind when I saw it. You would think it was a no brainer but that was yesterday's holiday!
Tomorrow March 1st is Dress in Blue Day for Colon Cancer Awareness
If you have been in hibernation, March is just around the corner.
Time to put the spring back in your step.
Mary Ann Fiebert is married and has two kids, and is also a member of our Community Media Lab. She is not a perfect person but is female so it's as close as you can get. lol. Look for her Top 10 List every day on delcotimes.com.
Location, ST | website.com
- Chester in mourning after 11-year-old struck, killed (4123)
- Middletown pediatrician held for trial in shooting of former partner (3790)
- CRASH ON BLUE ROUTE IN SPRINGFIELD HAS NORTHBOUND TRAFFIC AT A STANDSTILL (1958)
- Jay Leno has fun with Daily Times headline on 'Tonight Show' (1923)
- Sound Off appearing in the June 19 Daily Times (1630)
- Frandsen continues to be a hit as Phillies top Nats, 4-2 (871)
- Eagles' Jackson needs action to back talk (109)
- Freind: Americans are becoming prisoners to fear (10)
- Upper Chichester eyeing cameras for Johnson Avenue trouble spot (8)
- Party on the 10th: Merion gives Golf View Road residents an easy excuse to have fun (8)
- Guest column: Sound therapy is one
of the most effective ways to treat tinnitus (7)
- A day later, Merion proves just as tough for visitors (With Video) (6)
- Middletown pediatrician held for trial in shooting of former partner (6)
Recent Activity on Facebook
Phil Heron uses this site to turn back the curtain a bit on the great mystery involved in creating a newspaper and his other general thoughts on life and the news.
Your daily wake up call with updated traffic, weather and few fun things to get you through the morning.
Presenting Chester City's news and views to Delco Times web visitors who want to know more of what's going on in the City besides the stories they read in the paper.
Promotes family friendly events and activities held in and around Delco on a weekly basis.
Cliff Wilson served as chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party for 16 years (1994-2010). He will write on politics and other issues he feels strongly about.
Offers timely health advice for pets, behavioral tricks of the trade, follow-up success stories, and more. Updated regularly by ACDC's all-volunteer staff that includes long-time foster parents and pet owners who have years of experience.
Kent Davidson covers local politics, events, and goings-on in the borough of Media, PA. | <urn:uuid:bc7c9222-0563-4397-b666-46b06064eae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/02/28/opinion/doc512b3a1267252414137279.txt?viewmode=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962245 | 1,202 | 1.5625 | 2 |
People of Fredericksburg The
only place to learn about the People of the Fredericksburg area
Every few months, we will feature a special person from the Fredericksburg area. This
person does not have to be famous or have an important job, this person
just has to have a special talent or be involved in the community. Send
your ideas, nominations and suggestions via our contact us page.
Ruth Coder Fitzgerald
Coder Fitzgerald and I spoke very briefly the first time we met but it
was easy to see she was articulate, easy going and oh, so proud of her
grandchildren. For those reasons it was a cinch to see why one of
her friends nominated her for person of the month. Now let us read
on to see why else she was nominated.
She is actively involved
in the City of Fredericksburg happenings. She is a freelance writer
with articles appearing in The Free Lance-Star (Town and Country section).
She has spent a lot of time researching much of the Fredericksburg area’s
history which has prompted her to write a book, “A Different Story: A Black
History of Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania”. (To see a
brief informational ask for her brochure, African American History of Spotsylvania,
VA at the Fredericksburg Visitor’s Center).
Her writing, however, is
not the focus of this write up, it is her work on the Vietnam War in Memory
This memorial is really important
to her, as it hits close to home for her. You see her brother was
a causality of the Vietnam War. Not in the sense that you may think
though. He died from Agent Orange in 1992. His death really
made it clear to her just how many people have suffered and currently continue
She felt compelled to find
a way to honor those people who gave so much.
She has actively pursued
and lobbied for The Vietnam Veterans Memory Memorial. (See http://www.abmc.gov/abmc7.htm
for more information on the plaque). Granted she did not do all of the
work alone but she is currently the President of The Vietnam War in Memory
Memorial, Inc. As of this writing it does look like the Memorial
will be a reality for those who have lost their loved ones, due to Vietnam
War illnesses, to honor them. (One of the last hurdles will be collecting
enough private donations).
So what is this “ The Vietnam
Memory Memorial”? It will be a plaque, in Washington DC, near the
other memorials honoring those who have served our country. It will
honor those Vietnam Veterans who returned home from ‘Nam alive but have
or will succumb to service related causes. (Agent Orange, Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder to name a few).
The plaque will offer “ symbolic
recognition” to those who gave so much and have received so little in return
for their service.
Ruth and I spent some time
discussing Vietnam and agreeing that those who gave so much deserve to
be remembered. Please help her help those who are still looking for
Please, if you know someone
who has fought in the Vietnam War, make a donation. It does not matter
the size, all of it will go towards making the plaque a reality and honoring
those who gave so much only to be ridiculed upon on their return.
The Vietnam War in Memory Memorial, Inc. is raising funds to obtain the
plaque and can only do so with your private donation.
Editors note: We are always
looking for people to feature in our People of Fredericksburg section
of SimplyFredericksburg. If you know someone that would make a great person to feature, please contact us here
hope that you enjoyed this feature. Previous issues are available
Send your ideas, nominations and suggestions via our contact us page.
People of Fredericksburg The
only place to learn about the People of Fredericksburg a
service of Simply Web Services | <urn:uuid:149e6b05-ffe3-4553-aa62-7dd26a6bcc92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simplyfredericksburg.com/people/ruth.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951489 | 864 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Volume , Number 0
There are no articles.Commentary
There are no articles.Culture
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Jennifer baumgardner and amy Richards
Dallas Living Wage Coalition holds …
The Second Coming Of Patti …
Pinochet's Trial and Tribulations
The Interactive Commercial, Coming Soon …
Dr. Laura: Moral Dominatrix
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NOTE: Z Magazine subscribers and sustainers have access to all Z Magazine articles here and in the archive. The latest Z Magazine articles available to everyone are listed in the Free Articles box at the top of the table of contents, and are starred in the list below. Questions? e-mail Z Magazine Online.
The NATO-Media Lie Machine
"Genocide" in Kosovo?
NATOs humanitarian enterprise in Kosovo was built on a structure of lies, many of them flowing from NATO headquarters and officials of the NATO powers, and uncritically passed along by the mainstream media of the NATO countries. One of the great ironies of Operation Allied Force, NATOs brief 1999 war against Serbia, was that Yugoslavias broadcasting facilities were bombed by NATO on the claim that they were a lie machine serving the Yugoslav apparatus of war. This was contrasted with the NATO media, which in the view of NATO officials, and in that of media personnel as well, were objective and provided what Richard Holbrooke described as exemplary coverage. It never occurred to media leaders and journalists that Holbrookes accolade should embarrass themalthough were Slobodan Milosevic to have lauded the Serb medias performance as exemplary we suspect their NATO-bloc counterparts would have interpreted this as proof of the lie machine accusation. The double standard runs deep.
An important reason for the congruity between Holbrookes and the medias views was the sense of self-righteousness that accompanied Operation Allied Force. The belief that NATO was fighting a just war against an evil enemy had been so well cultivated over the prior decade that for the media, getting on the team and thereby promoting the war effort seemed perfectly consistent with objective news reporting. This perspective, which was not shared by most governments and media outside NATO, or by a vigorous but marginalized media within the NATO countries, was ideal from the viewpoint of the NATO war managers, as it made their mainstream media into de facto propaganda arms of NATO. Ultimately, this gave NATO and its dominant governments a freedom to ignore both international opinion and international lawand to destroy and killthat would have been far more difficult to achieve if their medias performance had been less exemplary.
One of the many successes of the NATO-media lie machine was effectively pinning the label of genocide on the Serbs for their operations in Kosovo. Genocide, like terrorism, is an invidious but fuzzy word, that has long been used in propaganda to describe the conduct of official enemies. It conjures up images of Nazi death camps and is frequently used along with the word holocaust to describe killings that are being condemned. On the Nazi-Jewish Holocaust model, genocide implies the attempt to wipe out an entire people. But in the Genocide Convention of 1948 the word was defined more loosely as any act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such. The Convention even included in genocide acts that were causing serious mental harm or inflicting conditions of life aimed at such destruction. This vagueness has contributed to its politicization, and Peter Novick notes how in the 1950s its users focused almost exclusively on the crimessometimes real, sometimes imaginedof the Soviet bloc (The Holocaust in American Life).
It is a notorious fact that the Clinton administration carefully refrained from using the word genocide to apply to the huge 1994 Rwanda massacres of Tutsis by the Hutus. To have allowed the word to be used there would have suggested a need to act, and having decided not to act, the decision to avoid using an emotive word that might have mobilized public opinion on the need to act followed accordingly. By contrast, in the case of Kosovo, the decision to act demanded the mobilization of opinion to support violent intervention, so the aggressive use of the word genocide followed.
In the context of the wars over the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and in its opportunistic use elsewhere, the word genocide has been applied loosely wherever people are killed who are deemed worthy victims. In our view this is not only opportunism but also a corruption of meaning of a word whose unique sense implies not just killing or massacre but an attempted extermination of a people, in whole or substantial part.
Genocide Pinned on Serbia
The word genocide was applied to the Serbs in the early 1990s by some Western analysts and journalists who had aligned themselves with other Yugoslav factions (notably the Bosnian Muslims), but it came into intense use during the NATO 78-day bombing campaign and briefly thereafter. In good part this escalated usage was a result of the virtual hysteria of NATO leaders at the Serb reaction to their bombing, which had been put forward as necessary to stop Serb brutalities against the Kosovo Albanians but which caused their exponential increase. With the help of the media, and cries of genocide, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schroeder, and other NATO spokespersons were able to transform the consequences of their bombing strategythe refugee crisisinto its retrospective justification.
To make their case the NATO leaders needed generous numbers of victims, stories of Serb terror, and images of women and children in flight or being put on expulsion trains, allowing recollections of trains to Auschwitz. The number allegedly missing and suggested to represent massacre victims by William Cohen on May 16 was 100,000, a figure which peaked at 500,000 in a State Department estimate. Both during and after the bombing campaign the main interest of the cooperative NATO media was in finding victims; a scramble to unearth and report on mass graves was launched. There were many victims, but the medias appetite for them was insatiable and their gullibility led them to make numerous errors, exaggerations, and misrepresentations (see Philip Hammond and Edward S. Herman, eds., Degraded Capability: The Media and the Kosovo Crisis, forthcoming from Pluto press, for many illustrations). Numerous published images of departing Albanian woman and children were linked to the Holocaust, although as one British commentator noted the Nazis did not put Jews on the train to Israel, as the Serbs are now putting ethnic Albanian Kosovars on the train to Albania (Julie Burchill, Guardian, April 10, 1999).
The word genocide was applied to Serb operations in Kosovo even before the NATO bombing, although the number killed in the prior 15 months was perhaps 2,000 on all sides and despite the fact that there was no evidence of an intent to exterminate or expel all Albanians. The Kosovo conflict was a civil war with defining ethnic overtones and brutal but not unfamiliar repression (less ferocious than that carried out by the Croatian army against the Krajina Serbs in August 1995, in which some 2,500 civilians were slaughtered in the course of a few days). Even for the period of the bombing the term genocide is ludicrously inapplicable. The Serb reaction to bombing, while frequently savage, was based on their correct understanding that the KLA was linked to NATO and that NATO was giving it air support (Tom Walker and Aidan Laverty, CIA Aided Kosovo Guerrilla Army, Sunday Times [London], March 13, 2000). Their brutalities and expulsions were concentrated in KLA stronghold areas, and those expelled were sent not to death camps but to safe havens outside Kosovo. The intensive postwar search for killings and mass graves has produced under 3,000 dead bodies from all causeskillings of the same order of magnitude as the 1995 Krajina massacres of Serbs, carried out with U.S. support.
In short, the use of the word genocide for Serb actions in Kosovo was gross propaganda rhetoric designed to mislead as to the facts and to provide the moral basis for aggressive intervention. It paralleled the use of the War Crimes Tribunal to indict Milosevic in the midst of the NATO bombing campaignan indictment that was also designed to justify NATOs increasingly civilian-oriented (and illegal) bombing of Serbia by demonizing the head of the state under NATO attack.
Media & Left NATO Propaganda
Having encouraged the disintegration of Yugoslavia from 1991, and actually obstructed peaceful solutions to the problem of protecting minorities in breakaway states, the policies of Germany and the United States in particular assured ethnic violence. Their chosen villain was Serbia, and an intense official and media focus on Serb crimes followed. This involved not only selectivity of outrage and a misreading of causes and locus of responsibility, but also a demonization process helped along by the one-sided, ahistorical portrayal of events frequently infused with disinformation (as in the British news station ITNs fabrication of a death or concentration camp at the Trnopolje refugee center in 1992; see Thomas Deichmann, The Picture That Fooled the World, Living Marxism, Feb. 1997).
Demonization and the continuous purveying of atrocity news created a moral environment receptive to charges of genocide. This reached deeply into the liberal and left communities and media, with many liberals or leftists passionate supporters of doing something, including the NATO bombing war. This was to be expected of the New Republic, where the notion of collective Serb guilt a la Daniel Jonah Goldhagens Hitlers Willing Executioners, conveniently justifying attacking Serbian civil society and committing war crimes, found a happy home. (Stacy Sullivan, Milosevics Willing Executioners, New Republic, May 10, 1999). But it also affected the Nation, whose UN Correspondent Ian Williams was pleased to see the UN bypassed in the interest of humanitarian bombing (April 2, 1999), and where Kai Bird (June 14, 1999) and Christopher Hitchens (November 29, 1999, among others) both found Serb behavior genocidal in the course of their quasi-defenses of NATO policy. Only Hitchens seemed to suggest that the Serbs were trying to exterminate a people (based on ludicrous arguments; see Herman, Hitchens on Serbia and East Timor, Z Magazine, April 1999).
In the mainstream media, genocide was used even more lavishly and uncritically. Often it was presented in the form of assertions by officials, with numbers like Cohens 100,000, but reporters or commentators rarely if ever challenged the figures or questioned whether the actions designated as genocidal were intended to exterminate a people. It was rare indeed to mention the difference between trains to Auschwitz and to the Albanian border, as did Julie Churchill in the Guardian.
Genocide was used as a symbol of aversion and disapproval, justifying extreme measures against the dictator and his peoplethe media felt impelled to call Milosevic a dictator even though this put a crimp in condemning ordinary Serbs as responsible for his actions, but they managed to do both at the same time (Anthony Lewis, The Question of Evil, NYT, June 22, 1999). Some commentators were carried away by their own passion, David Rieff, a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Chistopher Hitchens favorite, asserting that the Milosevic regime was trying to eradicate an entire people (Wars Without End?, NYT, September 23, 1999). But most commentators were satisfied with using the word without getting specific as to meaning or providing facts. They never acknowledged any military rationale to the post-bombing expulsions and killings: it was evil people doing evil things for evil reasons.
In a masterpiece of the NATO anti-genocide apologetics genre, the New York Times provided Sebastian Jungers A Different Kind of Killing (NYT Magazine, February 27, 2000), where it is explained that even if the number of bodies found in Kosovo were not of genocidal scope and some stories turned out to be untrue, nevertheless A single murder can be considered an act of genocide if it can be shown that there was an intent to kill everyone else in that persons group. Junger then recounts his visit to the site of an unclaimed body of a teenage woman, allegedly kidnapped, raped, and killed by Serbian irregular forces. Junger then says that, it was not until this century that a mechanized army carried out such crimes in the service of its government. That is genocide; the rest is just violence. Junger makes not the slightest effort to show that the irregular forces had done this as part of a government plan and in the service of its government rather than on their own, or that the KLA or U.S. army didnt carry out similar acts. In short, this is completely worthless nonsensebut it pins the word genocide on the official enemy, and therefore the New York Times allows this travesty to appear in its sunday magazine.
Some Comparative Data
We can also measure the spectacular politicization of the word genocide by comparing its lavish use in describing Serb conduct in Kosovo with its minimal use for Turkeys treatment of its Kurds in the 1990s (indeed, for decades) and Indonesias treatment of East Timorese in 1999 as well as in earlier years. The force of this comparison is strengthened by the facts that Turkey killed far more Kurds in the 1990s than the Serbs killed Albanians in Kosovo, not only before the bombing (whose number presumably elicited the humanitarian intervention) but even including those killed during the 78-day bombing and war (see Chomskys New Military Humanism). Indonesias invasion-occupation led to the death of almost a third of the East Timor population (1975-1980), and Indonesia was subsequently responsible for the 1998-1999 slaughter and expulsion of a still untold number of East Timorese associated with a UN-sponsored election. The number of East Timorese killed in this latest round of Indonesian terror far exceeded the pre-bombing total of Kosovo Albanian victimsestimates run from 3,000-6,000 killed even before the August 30, 1999 referendum unleashed unrestrained Indonesian destruction and murderand the grand total for 1999 is surely far larger than the overall total of Kosovo Albanians killed by the Serbs in 1998 and 1999.
But as Turkey and Indonesia are clients of the United States and the recipients of aid, military supplies, and diplomatic support from the United States, Britain, and the Western powers generally, their human rights crimes are never referred to by Western officials as genocide. In fact, in a droll feature of the NATO campaign against Serb genocide in Kosovo, Turkey, a member of NATO, took part in the war against Yugoslavia with direct bombing missions and the provision of bases for flights of other NATO powers, perhaps generously reallocating its own forces from the ethnic cleansing of Kurds to humanitarian NATO service.
Given this warm relationship between the NATO powers and Turkey and Indonesia, we would expect the NATO media to follow in the footsteps of their leaders and treat Turkey and Indonesia kindly, refraining from serious investigative effort and the enthusiastic searches for mass graves they pursued in Kosovo, and avoiding the use of an invidious word like genocide in reference to these client states, no matter how applicable and inconsistent with their usage of the word as regards Serbia. This expectation is fully realized.
We will limit ourselves here to usage in the New York Times, although we believe the findings applicable to the general run of mainstream media. In the Times the bias is startling, and has some unexpected sidelights. The accompanying table shows that in the year 1999, the word genocide was ascribed to the Serbs in Kosovo in 85 different articles, including 15 that began on the front page, and in 16 editorials and op-ed columns. In some of these articles the word was used repeatedly. (In one remarkable example, during the current year and outside our sample proper, Michael Ignatieff repeated the word genocide 11 times in a single op-ed [February 13, 2000]).
By contrast, the word showed up in the Times in only 9 items referring to East Timor in 1999, only once in an editorial or opinion piece, and only 15 times for East Timor in the entire decade of the 1990s. The word was never used in a front-page article during the 1990s. Furthermore, no Times reporter or editorial writer ever used the word genocide in application to East Timor over the entire period, 1975-1999. (That is to say, in all instances where the word did appear, it did not express the opinion of the Times writer, but was attributed to another source.) Anthony Lewis, who repeatedly referred to Serb action as genocidal and called for Western intervention there, spoke of human rights abuses in East Timor (July 12, 1993), but he never called it genocide or urged intervention. Barbara Crossette repeatedly complimented Suharto for bringing stability to the region. In a notable mention of the word genocide, veteran Times reporter Henry Kamm explicitly denied its application to East Timor, calling such usage hyperbole, and allocating the mass deaths to cruel warfare and the starvation that accompanied it on this historically food-short island (February 15, 1981).
Equally remarkable, the table also shows that the word genocide was never once used in application to Turkey and its treatment of its Kurds in 1999, and was used only five times for such a relationship in the decade of the 1990s, never in a front-page article. However, in a wonderful illustration of how the Times follows the line of U.S. foreign policy, the table shows that Iraqs mistreatment of its Kurds in the years 1990-1999 was described as genocidal 22 times, in five cases in front-page articles.
In short, only worthy victimsthat is, the victims of officially designated enemies like Yugoslavia and Iraqsuffer from genocide; those that are unworthy, like East Timorese and the Turkish Kurds, are merely subject to cruel warfare and adverse natural forces, as Henry Kamm explained in regard to East Timor. So the Western media and international community will be mobilized on behalf of the former, and the latter will be compelled to suffer in silence. But as we have stressed, there never was genocide in Kosovo, so that the NATO war there was based on a lie. And that lie, like the May 27 indictment of Milosevic by the War Crimes Tribunal, served mainly to provide a moral cover that allowed NATO to bomb the hostage population of Serbia into submission. That population now joins Iraqs in being subject to further sanctions of mass destruction whose effects offer a much closer fit to genocide than the Serb actions which, allegedly, precipitated NATOs war. Z | <urn:uuid:49099e91-2a5e-4df0-aded-dbeb60282177> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/the-nato-media-lie-machine-by-edward-herman | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961987 | 3,829 | 1.703125 | 2 |
With all the hoopla that seems eternally to surround WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, one might easily have formed the impression that WikiLeaks is a thriving concern, and that Assange himself is still the world's most powerful and effective champion of press freedom. While it's true that WikiLeaks has accomplished great things, initiating a powerful worldwide movement toward transparency and free speech, a closer look reveals that recent defections have badly crippled the WikiLeaks organization and that the increasingly erratic, mercurial Assange may have shot his bolt. The defectors have moved on and are developing a successor site, OpenLeaks, which seems likely to take up where WikiLeaks left off.
The Army has charged Bradley Manning with 22 counts, among them theft, fraud and most importantly, "aiding and giving intelligence to the enemy," by way of providing military information to Wikileaks. Manning is suspected, or said to be, the source not only for the leaked diplomatic cables but also for footage of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been held at Quantico since July of last year. (His mental health evaluation will supposedly be complete sometime in the next month, with a pre-trial hearing perhaps in May, and a trial mid-July, at his defense's request.)
One charge is "wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet [...] | <urn:uuid:435d9dc1-5f19-4c5f-a2fc-b4c8d52b26c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theawl.com/slug/wikileaks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976078 | 262 | 1.617188 | 2 |
What inspires you?
This may sound odd and ironic but what inspires me most is the negativity that is so prevalent everywhere. I've heard so much about how people think there's really very little we can do to change the world and this inspires me to prove something; that something real could only be ideal and unattainable when we choose to limit our selves to what we see at the present moment and refuse to go against the tide of selfishness and hope for something better and... actually do something about it.
Tell us about an issue that matters to you and how you became aware and involved.
Genocide. I came to know about it shortly before the devastating event in Rwanda back in 1994. I'm very passionate about fighting for human rights and during those days, when most of the world was tuned in to the elections in South Africa and the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, I believe humanity failed the Rwandan people. This matters a lot to me because it was a total waste of human life ... something the rest of the world could have easily stopped if not prevented.
Share your perspectives on what makes a good leader.
In simple words, a good leader has to have a heart that's bigger than his or her ego. Experience, skills, and intelligence can be developed over time, but if a leader does not feel for the people then there is not a single reason for him or her to be in the position to start with. I look up to the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Gandhi for putting their people first.
Do you think TakingITGlobal can help you achieve some of your goals? Have we already? Please tell us how.
Absolutely because it's a good platform for people to come together and work on something that's really substantial. The Internet has opened so many doors to people and has been instrumental in both good and bad situations. TIG's edge is being different, but not out of touch; basic but significant. What TIG needs to do is be more aggressive because people are being enticed by less educational and less relevant social networking sites. As a result, we see the likes of YouTube and Facebook raking in millions of users. | <urn:uuid:e18b2c5d-8f5c-4258-b8b8-05d1300cbd09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tigweb.org/community/stories/story.html?MemberID=161989 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974971 | 448 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Of the many ways in which America’s presidential campaign can affect us in East Africa, perhaps the cat that leaped out of Mitt (fondly called Mittens) tax “ confessions”, including his association with “China” and ” Iran” seems improbable but may have the proverbial political nine lives and here is why.
- When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. So when President Barack Obama takes it to Mittens Romney over why the Republican nominee should not have invested in a Chinese multinational like CNOOC, the fight of us (Washington) versus them (Beijing) comes right at our doorstep. China National Offshore Oil Corporation or CNOOC is one of the 2 big oil companies investing in Uganda. Uganda being the so-called “security” ally to the West, this seems a bit of a problem don’t you think?
- The thing about CNOOC is not that it’s big or that it is Chinese. Lately almost all major public works in Uganda are “Made in China”. Uganda’s largest hydropower dam Karuma has only Chinese finalists. Wait; according to Obama the problem with CNOOC was that it was schmoozing with Tehran. That rings a bell; a runner up in the Karuma bid was the Iranian company Perlite construction. Maybe this makes matters worse? But then we are talking of an American Presidential campaign so why should we care?
- But we do care. Uganda’s natural resource scene, sexed up by oil just six years ago instantly faced capture by its foreign policy interests. I know many people reading this including those who may conclude that Africa is the rural cousin of American foreign policy (what else is there but Sudan and Somalia or maybe radical Islamists?) but I disagree. The view that foreign policy is something done to African countries by the West is simply foolish. In any event a political advisor of the Ugandan President once told me ahead of the deal that brought in CNOOC that he did not want Uganda’s oil encumbered by the friction between the West and its enemies (read China and Iran). Consequently the British oil company that was farming down its assets in Uganda was tasked to balance its partners. It brought in CNOOC and France’s Total EP. This view about foreign investment in natural resources mimicking Ugandan “foreign policy” was confirmed by Mr. Museveni in the Karuma affair. He reportedly said he did not want the procurement of the hydropower dam to be caught in the gymnastics of America and its enemies in reference to the Iranian bidder, Perlite.
- Whoever comes into the White House will have to contend with the natural resource race in Africa where China is clearly a winner so far. In Uganda’s case it’s not that Chinese companies like CNOOC are eating big, including building the Presidential palace and office but because Chinese influence is more regional. In the two basins with significant resources on the East and West of the Great Rift Valley, China prevails. So what appears to be a reference to China and Iran in the US presidential race easily becomes a net outcome of some greater American foreign policy issue in the coming years? As I have argued in the past several political transitions are simultaneous with natural resource “transformations”. In Uganda’s case whoever wins the White House race will be in office when two events mature; a likely succession or political transition from Museveni to someone else and first oil, so who says this tiff between Obama and Romney is passing?
- What does this mean for Somalia? After allying with Uganda there will Somalia’s strategic place in the horn of Africa as well as its natural resources including oil, gas and an unfished shoreline be “occupied” by China or open to Iran?
- What does this mean for the hunt for Kony? We hear he is just weeks away from capture. Americans have boots on the ground.
- What does this mean for the diplomatic support Uganda looks to from Washington whenever it displays some of its unsavory episodes with crackdowns on political opponents and its liberal media?
- And there is the question of the Oval Office photo op. who becomes President is important. Maybe if Romney wins his investment in CNOOC may guarantee that opportunity? Sigh
- There are many possibilities that this passing episode in a US Presidential campaign. The mention of CNOOC however presents another erstwhile opportunity for brinkmanship. After all it’s true when elephants fight the grass suffers but in foreign policy terms sometimes the grass may have “reciprocal leverage”. As during the cold war (when a military as well as economic competition raged between the capitalist West and Communist East), African governments especially those endowed with ambitious leaders instead of suffering “ate” from both troughs. So if Obama and Romney are squaring off over a Chinese company with presence in Uganda, perhaps what it really means is that Kampala can play the coveted bride. Not all countries have large deposits of oil after all. Over to you. | <urn:uuid:ab614335-8769-41d1-8601-2356b88b0bd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://angeloizama.com/2012/09/24/ugandas-romney-headache-china/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970128 | 1,060 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Chen said that active participation in and leading of social movements by students have flourished with such an abundance of energy and wide participation because of an accumulation of results through several years.
He said a number of the leading figures behind the student movements on social issues have “fought many battles” to protest against government, big business, exploitation and social injustice.
Chen listed these “battles” as including the fight to preserve Lo Sheng Sanatorium in New Taipei City (新北市) against demolition, beginning in 2005; the Wild Strawberries Student Movement of 2008 and 2009; environmental groups’ opposition to Kuokuang Petrochemical Refinery project in Changhua County starting in 2008; the fight against the Miramar Resort project development on the coast of Taitung County in recent years; protests against the demolition of resident housing under the urban renewal project in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林); and worker protests against Huanlong Textile Co in Miaoli County over fraudulent bankruptcy and unpaid wages last year.
Chen Cheng-liang said the ability of students to organize movements, mobilize and get their message out is becoming more mature, whereas government officials and politicians from both major parties are slow to respond, or even display an uncaring attitude or do not know how to respond.
Hsu Tao (徐韜), a spokesperson for the “Hug the Earth with Smile Youth League” and a history major at the Tunghai University, said that in the past, student movements tended to give people the impression of “angry youth” in action.
“Students have gradually changed their tactics in recent years. We are now taking a gentle, proactive and positive approach. By using ‘hugs instead of anger,’ our actions are more acceptable to the public,” Hsu said. | <urn:uuid:f74222a7-7626-467e-89ff-c1f5ecc21e31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/01/03/2003551656/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94251 | 391 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Being a caregiver is challenging. Every day you make choices that can either contribute to or detract from your long-term health. Choose wisely. Here are some key Habits to Have® to help you find caregiver support, and be a more prepared and healthier caregiver:
Talk to family members about your loved one’s health, future care and housing. Knowing people’s preferences ahead of time will make those hard decisions easier.
Be truthful—with your loved ones and yourself—about how much caregiving responsibility you’re willing and able to take on. Discuss and set your own and your loved one’s personal boundaries now, before anyone becomes uncomfortable with or upset about caregiving responsibilities.
Work with siblings and other family members to develop a caregiving plan that divides and details each person’s responsibilities.
Talk to your loved one about important legal documents like power of attorney, living will and health care proxy. Meet with a financial planner to discuss your loved one’s current financial situation, his or her ability to pay for care down the road and financial assistance options.
Try to stick to a healthy diet. Arrange for a friend or relative to relieve you for 30 minutes every day so you can take a walk or have a few moments to relax. Don’t skip your doctor appointments and don’t ignore signs of illness or exhaustion. Know that feelings of guilt, stress and depression are very common among caregivers. Counseling, support and medication can help you manage these feelings.
Your loved one’s health care providers are an essential part of your caregiving team. Start by having a conversation with your loved one’s doctor about any special needs or concerns you should know about. Then be sure to keep that doctor informed of any caregiving challenges or hurdles.
Loving your spouse, parent or child comes naturally. Knowing how to care for someone with an illness or disability may not. Learn as much as you can about your loved one’s condition, and how the condition may change or progress over time. Seek out disease-specific caregiver support groups.
There are a wealth of online and local support groups and resources for caregivers. Identify local and online resources now. Get connected with a caregiver support group—even if you don’t feel like you need it yet. Visit the Family Caregiver Alliance for a state-by-state guide to support programs.
Say ‘yes’ to any offers of help. Even if it’s just a 15-minute break so you can take a hot shower. Talk to a health care provider or social worker about local support organizations that offer relief or assistance.
Know there may come a time when you can’t do it all yourself. And both you and your loved one would be better off if you hire a professional caregiver to come into your home, or if your loved one moves to a nursing home or long-term care facility. It doesn’t mean you don’t love your family member; it means you care enough to do the right thing. | <urn:uuid:98a4f672-eac6-4063-a5c4-335bd2d775f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://besmartbewell.com/caregiving/what-can-i-do-about-it.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937969 | 639 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Credit union total assets passed the $1 trillion mark for the first time in March 2012, ending the month at $1.02 trillion, according to CUNA’s economics and statistics department.
Overall, assets grew 2.4% during March and 4.1% over the past year. Credit union assets have more than doubled since year-end 2000.
Reaching $1 trillion in assets is an impressive feat—but one that demands perspective, says CUNA Senior Economist Steve Rick.
JP Morgan Chase Bank, for instance, has $1.8 trillion in assets, and banking industry assets total $13.9 trillion.
The average bank has $1.9 billion in assets, versus $137 million for credit unions. The median-sized credit union, however, has just $19 million in assets, Rick says.
According to the Rule of 72, credit union assets could reach $2 trillion in slightly more than 14 years, Rick says.
• Loans. Credit union loans outstanding remained constant during March 2012, after a 0.2% decrease in February. Fixed-rate mortgages led loan growth with a 1.5% increase, followed by used auto loans, 0.8%, and new auto loans, 0.2%.
On the decline were unsecured personal loans (1.2%), adjustable-rate mortgages (1.1%), home equity loans (1%), and credit cards (0.7%).
• Savings. Credit union savings balances grew 2.5% in March compared to a 2.1% increase in February.
Growth was highest in share drafts, at 6.9%, followed by regular shares, 4.7%, money market accounts, 1.9%, and individual retirement accounts, 1.5%.
One-year certificates declined 0.6% during March.
• Asset quality. Credit unions’ 60+ day delinquency rate dropped from 1.6% to 1.5%.
• Liquidity. The loan-to-savings ratio fell from 68% in February to 66% in March.
The liquidity ratio (the ratio of surplus funds maturing in less than one year to borrowings plus other liabilities) grew from 21% to 22% during this time.
• Capital. The movement’s overall capital-to-asset ratio remained at 10%. The total dollar amount of capital is $102 billion. | <urn:uuid:63feec76-7575-4b73-815c-50577a29ec1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creditunionmagazine.com/articles/print/37721 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965097 | 490 | 1.5 | 2 |
SCOTUS: No mandatory life sentences for minors
posted at 8:41 am on June 26, 2012 by Jazz Shaw
I’ll have to confess that when I read he headline I was prepared for the worst.
From the Paper of Record:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional for states to require juveniles convicted of murder to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
The 5-4 decision is in line with others the court has made, including ruling out the death penalty for juveniles and life without parole for young people whose crimes did not involve killing. Monday’s decision left open the possibility that judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder, but said state laws cannot automatically impose such a sentence.
My first problem with some of the headlines running around in this case was the mistaken perception that the court was saying that those falling under some arbitrarily summoned chronological age could not be sentenced to life behind bars. This was reinforced by a portion of the majority decision written by Justice Kagan.
Mandatory life without parolefor a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features—among them, immaturity,impetuosity, and failure to appreciate risks and consequences. It prevents taking into account the family and home environment that surrounds him—and from which he cannot usually extricate himself—no matter how brutal or dysfunctional. It neglects the circumstances of the homicide offense, including the extent of his participationin the conduct and the way familial and peer pressures may have affected him. Indeed, it ignores that he might have been charged and convicted of a lesser offense if notfor incompetencies associated with youth—for example, his inability to deal with police officers or prosecutors(including on a plea agreement) or his incapacity to assist his own attorneys.
Most of this I find non-applicable. But, as Doug Mataconis points out from the linked article, that’s not really the determining factor.
It’s worth noting that the Court did not say today that a juvenile can never be sentenced to life without parole, only that they cannot be subjected to a mandatory sentencing scheme that requires a sentence of life without parole and instead must be given the opportunity to have their sentence determined by a judge or jury (depending on how a particular state handles sentencing). That means that there may yet be a case where a juvenile commits a crime horrible enough that the sentencing authority determines that life without parole is an appropriate sentence.
That was most of my objection during my initial reaction to the news. Certainly there are some cases where the very young should not be held to the same standards of an older, hardened criminal. And we also will, upon occasion, run across those who are severely impaired who get hold of a weapon. But I have seen too many cases where a “minor” has been involved in gang violence or similar activities since their early teens and “aged” to be true adult criminals before their 18th birthday. And in such cases, life without parole – or even the death penalty – may still be appropriate.
But the breaking point here comes with these “mandatory” punishments. Every case is unique. The judge and the jury need to be able to weigh all the circumstances and the background before setting sentence. And that doesn’t just mean that the young should always get a pass. The circumstances may dictate that a youthful offender has already established a record worthy of a maximum penalty.
All in all, this seems to be a fairly balanced decision. And it may set a path for some states to take off the kid gloves where appropriate while leaving room for lenience when deserved.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:3ff9b710-dc2c-490e-bb4a-af9e80282af2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/26/scotus-no-mandatory-life-sentences-for-minors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960984 | 764 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Let us know below
CSOs asked to engage with media
Civil society organisations have been asked to engage with media in order for the public to be more informed on their role and activities in the development of the country.
During a media engagement training for 70 representatives from civil society organisations, facilitator Erick Kabendera urged participants to share the impacts of their projects with media as the sure vehicle with which to reach large number of people at the same time. “A lot of projects conducted by CSOs have brought changes to the lives of many people, but few people know about this, because you do not use media effectively,” said Mr Kabendera who was facilitating the training along with Ayoub Rioba.
Mr Rioba shared led participants through a discussion about new media and how CSOs could also utilise online opportunities to make their work visible. He advised participants to establish their own blogs or websites to publicize their work and interact with different publics. The training was conducted from 7 - 8 May in Dar es Salaam. | <urn:uuid:7c6806b1-8d3c-4558-a393-4fb33d4164dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefoundation.or.tz/foundation-news-view.php?newsID=469 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978578 | 215 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accepted blame for the security lapses before the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
"I take responsibility," Clinton told CNN Monday in Lima, Peru. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts."
She added, "The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals."
Clinton also said that the United States had been aware that militants were regrouping in Libya and that they would attempt to re-establish bases.
"We also knew, aside from individuals and groups, there were so many militias that have formed and so many weapons," Clinton told ABC News Monday. "It was something we were focused on."
The United States now reportedly has special operations forces on standby in the region ready to strike suspected terrorists.
"We will track them down, whoever did this, and hold them accountable and bring them to justice," Clinton said. "Our track record is pretty good. Eventually, we will find you."
Congressional hearings last week revealed that the State Department was aware of, and rejected, several requests for increased security in Benghazi.
Republicans have called the attack and the subsequent administration response a failure.
Secretary Clinton Friday said the State Department is in the beginning stages of an internal investigation of the attack. She also said the FBI investigation is continuing, and that she is cooperating with both.
As for the status al Qaeda, Clinton told ABC News Monday, "It's absolutely fair to say the major leadership of al Qaeda including [Osama] bin Laden has been decimated. The core of al Qaeda has been severely damaged. There will be terrorists who continue to terrorize people and threaten the U.S. and our allies. We've never taken at all, our eye off the ball to keep going after extremists who pose a threat."
Meanwhile, as the situation in Syria deteriorates, there has been talk of a no-fly zone similar to the one established in Libya.
"This has been under discussion among allies," Clinton said. "There has been no decision made but everyone knows what the Assad regime is doing is a brutal assault on the people. We need a clear commitment of support to the opposition inside Syria and outside." | <urn:uuid:e44f7643-ccf3-44e7-aad4-da299927a0bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://a.abcnews.com/Politics/OTUS/hillary-clinton-takes-responsibility-consulate-security-lapses/story?id=17487223 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984532 | 489 | 1.601563 | 2 |
"... These lines are especially for you, my darling Annele. I send you my best wishes; the kind of wishes which a father has in mind for his good child and the special wish that all of us can be together again in the near future. I am glad that at least the both of you can be together and I am very sorry that I can only think of you on your 20th birthday in the distance. After all we must be glad that we are with good people and that we are in good health."
Paul Strauss wrote these lines in November 1939. At that time the hops dealer from Nuremberg lived in Brussels, his wife Zerline and daughter Annemarie he had sent to England. Almost sixty years later his daughter Annemarie outlined the fate of her family in a report to NCA.
Paul Strauss was born in Nuremberg on August 9, 1879 as the only son of Hermann and Lina Strauss. He went to highschool in Nuremberg and was a soldier in World War I 1914/18.
His father founded a hops trade by the name "Hermann Strauss jun." in which my father succeeded him.
The office and the private apartment of my parents and me (their only child) were at Bahnhofstrasse 35. In 1929 we moved into a villa in the proximity of the Luitpoldhain (Hertastrasse 8).
The business went very well. Paul Strauss worked at least 10 hours every day and traveled 4 months a year. He bought the hops in Germany and sold it to German breweries, too, but mainly to breweries in Belgium and Holland. He brought a lot of foreign currency to Germany. Because the Hitler regime also needed foreign currency at that time, my father had no difficulties in the business until 1938/39 although he was a Jew. Then he had to sell his business to an "Aryan" company by the name of Gruber & Breitschaft.
In April 1939 Paul Strauss managed to move to Belgium because he had many customers there. The permission was only for one person, therefore my mother and I went to England.
My father worked in Belgium but we heard nothing more of him after the German troops had occupied Belgium. We got this information from the Red Cross and the "Aide Aux Israélites De La Guerre" (help for Jewish war victims) after the war: Paul Strauss had been arrested and deported as No. 1031 of transport XX from Malines to Auschwitz April 19, 1943. He never came back.
Zerline (Lili) Plaut of Mainz (born July 9, 1896) married Paul Strauss of Nuremberg February 25, 1919 and from then on lived in Nuremberg ... They had one daughter (Annemarie). Paul Strauss was the owner of a hops trade. Mainly his customers were breweries in Belgium and Holland. The export business went well, also within the first years of the Hitler regime. Then, in 1938/39 Paul Strauss had to sell the business to an "Aryan" company and the house in Hertastrasse was handed over to the NSV (Nazi Public Welfare Service). Paul Strauss got the permission to go to Belgium. The permission however was for him only.
Lili's daughter had emigrated to England in January 1939. One only could get the permission to live in England if one was willing to be a domestic. Annemarie was a servant in Sheffield with a family and she managed to acquire another job for her mother. Thus Lili Strauss moved to Sheffield in July 1939, too. Later she was housekeeper for a sister in London.
For a couple of years she moved to Macclesfield (a little town right in the middle of England) and lived there with her daughter in a room. Both of them worked in dress factories. After the German troops had occupied Belgium, she heard nothing more of her husband. After the war she heard from the Red Cross, that her husband Paul Strauss was deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. This of course was the worst what could happen to Lili Strauss. She was terribly sad, however she was very brave mainly because of her daughter.
She was naturalized in England and got a position for housemother in a big orphanage. She worked there many years, then she retired. She got a pension from Germany.
For reasons of health she had to spend the last years of her life in an elder care home. She deceased in 1983.
Annemarie Strauss, born November 27, 1919 in Nuremberg (Bahnhofstrasse 35) was the only child of Paul and Lili Strauss. I went to the Labenwolfschule (Girls' High School) and was a good student. I liked school very much and had many Christian and Jewish friends. I was so sorry, that by law I had to leave high school in 1936.
For some time I worked with my father in his office, studied French (in Switzerland) and English (in England). In 1938 my parents sent me to a business school in Hamburg. I learned a lot there but after 4 months I got a summons by the Gestapo. They said to me, that there were enough Jews in Hamburg already and that I had to leave the town within a week - so I went back to Nuremberg.
After the "Kristallnacht" November 9, 1938 my parents decided that I shall emigrate. - The only possibility for me was to go to England as a domestic. England allowed many Jewish children to enter this country but I was 19 years of age already. I could get only the permission to live in England, if I obliged me to work as a domestic. So I went to a family in Sheffield in January 1939. My mother followed me in July, also as a domestic.
I stayed in Sheffield for 15 months, then I learned that due to the war refugees could get the permission to work as seamstresses in factories. I got work in the eastern part of London in a dress factory. During the air-raids the factory was closed temporarily in fall 1940. I hadn't any money and worked as a cleaning woman. After a couple of weeks the owners opened a second factory in a little town outside of London and I decided to work there again. The English female workers in London and in Macclesfield were always very nice to me.
In the course of time I could sew better and more fastly and I earned more.
Finally I got the permission to work in the office, first as shorthand typist, then as bookkeeper. I became the private secretary of the director after a couple of years.
In January 1947 I married an Englishman and I have two children.
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Updated 21 June 2003 by LA | <urn:uuid:769160d0-aef6-47a0-a673-8ee89a970ed9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/nuremberg2/nur016.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988677 | 1,504 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2013
Eric Cohler '81, one of the leading and most sought-after interior designers in the country, has authored a book, "Cohler on Design" (The Monacelli Press). The book features 160 illustrations of his work - one of which was photographed by John Lawrence'12 during an internship -as well as images of seminal historic interiors, artwork, style icons, and architectural masterpieces that have influenced his designs and encouraged him to look at a space in a new way. He uses these to teach readers to define their inspiration and use it in their homes.
"'Cohler on Design' exemplifies how to live well by integrating your personal tastes and passions into your interiors. This lavishly illustrated volume is a visual tour of Cohler's work," explains the publisher. "Eric Cohler, a perennial name on Elle Decor's A-List, translates his extensive education in art and architecture into an uncomplicated, modern approach to interior design. He presents each project not as a merely aspirational fait accompli, but as a real example of a design idea that you can try in your own rooms, whether you're hanging your collection of original Andy Warhol prints or your child's finger-paintings. With vivid, dynamic text detailing Cohler's experiences in the world of interiors, 'Cohler on Design' is a guide to making the fantastic possible, and the commonplace extraordinary."
The book has been well received by trade publications, including Architectural Digest, which writes:
"Eric Cohler takes readers inside his design process, encouraging them to find their own inspirations and indulge in what they love. Filled with the stylish homes he's created for his clients, his book is a functional-and entertaining-guide to decorating."
Elle Décor also favorably reviewed the book, noting, "Designer Eric Cohler seamlessly mixes the traditional and the up to date; in his interiors, Old Master-style paintings meet sleek contemporary sculpture and furnishings. His first book, Cohler on Design, features images of the decorator's personal inspirations, from Edith Wharton's country home to Bauhaus buildings, as well as 160 photographs of his projects."
Lawrence had the opportunity to intern with Eric Cohler Design in New York, N.Y., between his junior and senior years. Taking advantage of the opportunity to speak with the award-winning interior designer during an on-campus event, Lawrence began a dialogue with Cohler that landed an offer from Cohler for Lawrence to intern at his design firm in the of summer 2011. Invited to work with Cohler on personal restoration projects in both Connecticut and New York, Lawrence took photographs, one of which is in "Cohler on Design." He has since moved to Chelsea, in Manhattan, to pursue a career as a residential real estate agent.
Cohler earned his B.A. in English and art history from Hobart in 1981. He also holds a master's degree in historic preservation from the Columbia University School of Architecture and Urban Design, and a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was recently named to the top 10 designer list in the U.S. by Elle Décor, and had his design and fabric selected by President and Mrs. Obama for the White House dining room.
Industry magazine editors have dubbed Cohler the "Mixmaster" for his use of contemporary materials juxtaposed with classical elements. Since establishing his firm in 1991, House Beautiful has described him as one of the 14 "best of the best" in the "next wave of designers in America," and he is included annually in their "Top 100" issue. His aesthetic is sought after for the country's top showhouses, including the Kips Bay and Hampton Designer Showhouses.
Cohler's work often appears in leading domestic and international periodicals, books, and design television shows. Interior design manufacturers have taken notice of Cohler's distinctive design aesthetic, with Visual Comfort carrying his lighting designs, and Lee Jofa premiering a Cohler fabric collection in September 2006.
In 2006, Cohler established an award at HWS that provides rising seniors with the opportunity to complete a two-week summer internship at Eric Cohler Design as well as a travel stipend for a senior research project of the student's creation. | <urn:uuid:272f7f4b-8b63-4e81-9347-ef600c313c06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hws.edu/dailyupdate/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=16223 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973589 | 901 | 1.804688 | 2 |
June 17th, 2009
If you’re like me, then you know that feeling of confusion and disappointment you sometimes feel after going shopping for a new green product. You’ve done your research to find the right item and you’ve checked online versions of a store to see that they have it, but when you get there that specific lightbulb, organic cotton t-shirt, or MSC-certified halibut on sale is nowhere to be found. In its place are ten other options that might or might not offer the same benefits you were looking for.
Fortunately, there are some great tools/services/websites that can help you sort through options as you’re standing there in the store. Some are text messaging-based services, others are simple websites easily navigable on a cell phone, and still others that use the latest iPhone apps and related technologies to make shopping decisions easy and nearly real-time. Here’s a rundown on some we’ve found to be most helpful.
Green Household Products. Good Guide is a relatively new company that aspires to provide information on the health, environmental and social impacts of common products that we use in our home. They cover over 70,000 products so far in food, personal care, toy and household products category. The best part is that these ratings and reviews are available via an iPhone app and also via SMS / text messaging. You can get information on products by searching on product categories, product names, and also on the bar code (the numbers that appear right beneath it). To use it, simply send a text message to “41411″ and then include “gguide” and whatever you’re searching on in the message body.
Example: You’re in a store comparing two green cleaning products (let’s say Seventh Generation Shower Cleaner and Tilex Fresh Shower Cleaner). Text “gguide seventh generation shower” to 41411, and you get a report back showing Seventh Gen’s Shower Cleaner overall score of 8.5 and Health, Environmental and Social scores of 8.0, 9.2 and 8.4 respectively. Text “gguide tilex shower” and you soon get an overall score of 5.4 (8.0 Health, 3.5 Environmental and 4.9 Social). The website provides much more information about what’s behind these rankings. Fast, easy and helpful!
Seafood. Seafood is a veritable minefield of sustainability choices. The global seafood industry is very poorly controlled, meaning that you can find fish in your local grocery store that should instead be on the endangered species list. Fish can also pose health risks due to the accumulation of mercury and other toxins in fish at the top of the food chain. How it’s grown can make a huge difference — the same seafood farm-raised might cause environmental problems, while the wild-caught version might be fine. And it’s highly seasonal/local, so you’re never quite sure what you’ll find in the store.
This handy one-page guide from Neil Banas (brought to my attention by Grist) lays it all out on one easy sheet, clearly showing pitfalls such as choosing between Alaskan wild salmon (nearly the best) and Atlantic farmed salmon (nearly the worst). If you don’t have room in your wallet for that, though, try out the Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone text messaging service. Text a message starting with “fish” followed by the name of the fish you are looking for to 30644 and receive a short report on the merits of that particular option in a few seconds. The same content is available at the URL http://fishphone.org, which is specially formatted for viewing on mobile phones.
As an example, texting “fish bluefish” (a relatively common East Coast predatory fish) to 30644 and you get the following message: “YELLOW: some environmental concerns: HEALTH ADVISORY: High mercury, PCB and pesticide contamination. “Fish salmon” returns several different messages depending on the point of origin and whether it was wild caught or farm raised.
Other Categories. We’ll post updates on other helpful services as we find them. Please feel free to bring any of your favorites to our attention!
Popularity: 6% [?]
February 26th, 2009
Considering our country’s current economic woes, it stands to reason that most of us are cutting back on our discretionary spending - in layman’s terms, we’re buying less stuff. And though we’ve been told that buying more stuff supports our economy, it doesn’t necessarily support our environment.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to make those purchases count. Not all companies are created equal when it comes to sustainable business practices, and many people underestimate the power that they have as consumers. And, though November’s elections were certainly historic, your right to vote didn’t end there. Vote with your dollars! Supporting companies that are doing the right thing by adopting eco-friendly practices, or “buycotting”, will help ensure that those companies make it through these tough economic times.
So how do you determine which companies deserve your hard-earned dollars? How do you spot those greenwashers? It’s not always easy, but fortunately there are some resources that can help.
Turn to the Experts
Recently, a couple of studies have been released that identify specific companies as tops in their class when it comes to sustainable practices.
First up, The Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World, a list of publicly-traded companies that best manage the environmental, social and governance risk associated with sustainability. Brought to us by Corporate Knights: The Canadian Magazine for Responsible Business and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors the fifth annual list includes familiar American companies like Amazon.com, Coca Cola, Dell, Nike, and Walt Disney. (Note that these are all large, international, publicly-traded companies – no Tom’s of Maine here!)
Having a bit of info regarding these large companies’ efforts in sustainability can, and should, influence your buying decisions. Drop your laptop in the bathtub? Think Dell. Desperate for a carbonated caffeine jolt? Consider Coke.
But, when you make these purchasing decisions, just make sure that you keep the bigger picture in mind – do you really need a new computer? Updating your old one is a greener option, as is bringing water in a reusable container, washing those old sneaks, or borrowing books from the library – regardless of the sustainability efforts of Dell, Coke, Nike or Amazon. Vote with your dollars when it’s appropriate to do so, remembering that even the “greenest” of products do not actually help the environment – they just hurt it less.
Look for Green Brands
That said, you’re probably thinking, “When I think of a green beverage company, I don’t think Coca Cola, I think of Green Mountain Coffee.” Did I read your mind? Cool, huh? Actually, my source is a recent Earthsense report that takes another angle, examining consumer perceptions of popular brands.
Of 350 companies studied, 35 were singled out by consumers as tops in four categories:
- Sustainable business practices
- Product impact
- Investment likelihood, and
- Recommendation likelihood
The resulting list reads like a who’s who of companies for whom green is a big part of who they are. Topping the list were grocers Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, both of which achieved high marks on all four measures. Other familiar brands listed as “standouts” include Earthbound Farms, Tom’s of Maine, Burt’s Bees, Kashi, and Fresh & Easy. Google and Yahoo also made the list. You can download the entire report from GreenBiz.com.
On the flip side, check out Climate Watch’s list of “Climate Laggards” – those who are behind the curve on corporate responsibility and the environment. Who’s on it? Exxon Mobile (no surprise there), General Motors, and home-builder Standard Pacific.
Though some carbon-intensive industries are over-represented on the list, some companies (like GM) were singled out due to their total inaction, as they lag behind their competitors, are unresponsive to investor concerns, and fail to report their environmental impact to the public. Sounds like the trifecta of unsustainable business practices.
According to many analysts, the hard-hit stock market is a great place to pick up some investments on the cheap. If you’re trying to live a green lifestyle, don’t you want your investments to reflect your values? Research continues to show that companies that are strong on sustainability outperform their counterparts financially.
If you’re looking to buy stock, or just want to find out more about a particular company’s environmental performance, check out the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s “climate risk profiles”. Covering more than 150 companies, the profiles are particularly useful because they compare companies within a sector. For more on green investing, check out last year’s post on the topic.
Buy Used Stuff
Supporting companies that get it is important when you need something new. But what if you need something that’s just “new to you”? I’m a big proponent of thrift stores, garage sales, antique stores, libraries, Craigslist, borrowing, lending and dumpster diving (OK, so I’m not quite that hard core). If there’s a way to get it used, do it. Not only will reusing or recycling something keep it out of the landfill, but it will avoid the environmental damage done by a new product, from raw material extraction to manufacturing to shipping and finally, disposal. Plus, it’ll be easier on your wallet.
However you choose to go about finding the things that you need to get through life, just keep in mind that you have a lot of power in your bank account, even if your balance doesn’t make you feel so powerful.
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By Phoebe Moses
Life coach Paul Angelo, MHA, MBA, says that gay men need to look at their self-esteem from the unique perspective of their lifestyle. In doing so, he offers the possibility of falling in love to the accompaniment of a 25-pound weight loss. (Is there a downside to this?) Angelo, who began to offer life coaching services professionally in 2009, has identified an orientation-specific condition he refers to as Gay Low Self-Esteem (GLSE). It isn’t something that you will find listed, though, in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
“GLSE is not found in the DSM, nor is it a clinical diagnosis,” Angelo emphasizes. “Because of the preponderance of ‘straight’ psychology and therapy, gay life-related issues are poorly understood, and measured only in the context of HIV and AIDS.”
Angelo says that when men are in a challenging environment, they grow faster and develop more creative problem-solving skills. Their confidence and sense of accomplishment increase, which he says simultaneously lifts their self-esteem, and brings them a feeling of satisfaction and well-being. These are potent weapons to have in one’s arsenal, especially in a world where the game is stacked against the “gay.”
“GLSE is different because it is ingrained into the gay culture and the identity of a gay man today,” Angelo notes. “Today it is almost impossible to be gay and have high self esteem without extensive coaching or therapy. So GLSE is the reason why HIV incidence will continue to rise uncontrollably. A person with low self esteem will not follow safe sex instructions. It’s like asking a man on crutches to run a marathon.”
Angelo says overcoming low self-esteem is connected with the qualities possessed by champion athletes and those who are successful in the field of romance. He has developed a 12- week high-performance program to enhance self-esteem and encourage better health, based upon the principles of accountability, motivation, and coaching, designed to bring out the “killer instinct” in gay men who have confidence or self-esteem issues. “Losing weight can be a boring task but when you combine it with the fun aspect of dating and starting a relationship, exercise and proper nutrition can become fun and engaging,” Angelo says.
Angelo worked in the fitness industry for over 25 years, starting out as a personal trainer, and moving into hospital healthcare administration. He trained with the American College Of Sports Medicine, and studied healthcare administration as part of his Master’s program. He says that health advice and marketing methods can collide, and often serve the business instead of the consumer, resulting in the consumer hurting himself, or becoming convinced of the existence of a magic pill. Angelo’s gay matchmaking and life coaching teaches gay men over 40 how to lose weight, because he says it is easier to find the right match when one looks and feels better.
His 12-week intensive high-performance gay group coaching program teaches gay men over 40 how to turn short term results into a mindset for a long-term healthy and happy life.
“High quality gay men are out there available for relationships, but they will not settle for the average Joe,” Angelo adds. “And while the looks matter, it is also crucial to know how to make your partner feel good, and how to build intimacy with a new date.”
For more information, visit paulangelo.com. | <urn:uuid:35b473c6-41a8-4137-ac8a-8edf5a2b0be7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://floridaagenda.com/2012/07/13/matchmaker-paul-angelo-and-the-science-of-gay-low-self-esteem/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958121 | 748 | 1.609375 | 2 |
INDIANAPOLIS - With high winds and significant amounts of snow in the forecast for much of Indiana, state officials are warning Hoosiers to prepare now.
Preparations include charging cell phones and other items in case power is interrupted, evaluating whether driving is necessary, taking your time if you decide to drive, and gathering items for your car and home in case they're needed.
State of Indiana agencies, including the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Transportation and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, have been monitoring impending weather and are increasing staffing levels as needed.
The National Weather Service expects snow to begin falling early Wednesday morning and to continue through Wednesday evening. High velocity winds, with some significant gusts, are also expected. Residents are advised to stay tuned to local weather sources for conditions in their areas.
Expected snow and ice in some parts of the state may make travel conditions extremely dangerous. All individuals in the path of this storm are strongly encouraged to have alternate plans in case hazardous weather conditions disrupt daily routines.
Go to getprepared.in.gov and click on "Indiana Travel Advisory Map" at the top of the page. The map is updated with information from counties and describes the conditions for a travel warning, watch, advisory and caution.
The page also has links to the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Traffic Wise information.
A travel "advisory" is notification that travel may be restricted in some areas. Under a "watch" level, only essential travel is recommended. A travel advisory at a "warning" level means travel may be restricted to emergency personnel only.
DO NOT call city, county or state police to check on road conditions – police agencies across the state want to keep phone lines open for emergency phone calls. Dial toll-free 1-800-261-ROAD (7623) for updated Indiana travel information, including road conditions, road closures, crashes and other traffic alerts.
Winter Driving Safety
ISP and INDOT advise those considering going out onto the roads to check the weather forecast and traffic information before leaving, and allow extra time if you decide driving is necessary. If you must drive during any period of the storm, make sure you have a fully charged and functioning cell phone.
IDHS also recommends carrying blankets, extra water, a small shovel and other items which may be helpful if you find yourself in trouble on the road.
If you become stranded:
•Make sure you have at least a quarter tank of gas in your vehicle before you leave. This will help prevent the fuel line from freezing.
•Unless there is immediately accessible, better shelter such as a building, do not leave your car.
•Keep the overhead light on when the engine is running so you can be seen (remember to keep the windows cracked).
•Tie a brightly colored cloth to the antenna for rescuers to see.
•Run the engine for 10 minutes every hour to stay warm. Remember, an idling car uses only one gallon of gas per hour.
Keep the exhaust pipe free of blockage to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
•If involved in a crash and no one is injured and the involved vehicles are still drivable, move to a safe area to exchange names, vehicle and license plate information, along with driver license number and insurance agent name and phone number with the other driver
•During severe weather conditions law enforcement will be busy responding to emergency calls and will not be able to take reports of crashes where there is only damage to property
•Vehicles left abandoned along interstate and state road right-of-ways are subject to immediate removal during inclement weather events
With weather systems like this it's not uncommon to see widespread power outages. While utility companies will be working to quickly repair any outages, storms of this size and magnitude often make it very difficult to restore power immediately.
Essential supplies to gather ahead of time in case utilities are disrupted:
•Food and water for three days (includes three (3) gallons of water per person, per day)
•Battery operated or hand crank all hazards radio
•Extra batteries for radio and flashlight
•Extra clothing, warm blankets, sleeping bags for staying warm in your home if you lose power
•Special items (baby formula, insulin, medications)
If you can’t stay in your home due to cold temperatures, call your local authorities to find the location of a shelter. Charge cell phones, laptops and other devices now so that if power goes out, you will have a maximum charge on electronic devices.
For more information on winter travel safety, visit Getprepared.in.gov. | <urn:uuid:662c369a-49a5-4d2e-9404-4cf735db7eff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121226/BLOGS01/121229788/1071/www.journalgazette.net | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93172 | 953 | 1.71875 | 2 |
When payday loans first appeared in the UK, people weren’t quite sure as to what payday loans were and whether it was safe to use them. However, later on, everybody realized that getting a payday loan is actually safe and something that can help them sort out a financial problem that appeared unexpectedly. Today, a lot of people in the UK use payday loans and if you are thinking of doing the same thing, there are some things that you need to know before you actually apply.
Before anything else, you have to be remember what payday loans can be used for. If you are in a big financial problem that you cannot get out of, then this kind of help is not really something that you will benefit from because only smaller amounts of money are available. This means that the problems that can be solved with payday loans are smaller problems that occur suddenly such as your car breaking down for example. Only if it is an emergency are you encouraged to resort to getting a payday loan.
Another thing that you need to know about payday loans is that instead of helping you, your loan can actually make things worse, but only in case you don’t handle your money carefully and you end up not being able to pay back the loan. However, if you make an effort to handle your money properly, payday loans are extremely useful.
It is also advisable that you go for online payday loans because they are much more convenient. First of all, the choice is better and you have the opportunity to find something that is just right for you, something with not extremely high interest rates. Also, online applications take much less time and you can get the loan more quickly this way.
People are also generally encouraged to pay attention to the online systems that lenders have because some of those systems are excellent and people can use them in order to deal with their budget more efficiently. And since budgeting is something that is necessary, especially if you are getting a loan, this kind of service is definitely an advantage and something that can help a lot.
Last but not least, be aware of the criteria that companies use to decide whether they will give you a loan or not. In the UK, there are only a couple of criteria and you can easily figure out whether or not you qualify. In case you don’t qualify, you can try to get a loan, but you probably won’t get it. The good thing about it is that a lot of people qualify and a lot of people can get payday loans, which is one of the reasons why they are so popular.
Keep in mind that payday loans are great, but only when you know how to use them properly. The more you know about them, the more wisely you can use them. There is no doubt that they can be extremely helpful and if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need a small loan, do not be afraid to turn to payday loans. | <urn:uuid:a163454a-5c1a-47bf-8360-5b8b6b8de1cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paydayloansdto.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98075 | 592 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The Post reports that Mitt Romney kicked off a bus tour today. He’ll travel from New Hampshire to Michigan, which, as things stand now, are swing states.
He was in good spirits, using the President Obama’s boring speech yesterday to frame the case for throwing him out:
Yesterday the President gave a speech. A Very. Long. Speech.
You might have thought that it would be a moment when he would acknowledge his policy mistakes and suggest a new course. But no. He promised four more years, of more of the same. Four. More. Very. Long. Years.
That’s really the divide in this race. The President thinks we’re on the right track and his policies are working.
And I...I believe with all my heart that we can — that we must — do better.
He also buttressed his argument about two competing visions with a new jab at the president for ignoring the American people:
When Americans rose up and demanded, “Stop borrowing money and sticking our kids with the bill,” the President wasn’t listening. He was on the line with China, taking out another loan.
When Americans went to town halls and said, “We don’t want Obamacare,” the President ignored us, and spent fifteen months ramming his health-care bill through Congress on a party-line vote.
And when we asked, “Where is the recovery we were promised?” this President lectured us saying “The private sector is doing fine.”
And, as he has done before, he turned the “fairness” argument around:
Somewhere in that long speech, President Obama spoke of giving people a “fair shot.” I couldn’t agree more.
President Obama isn’t giving our students a fair shot when they graduate and only half of them can find jobs or work that matches their skills.
And he isn’t giving the middle class a fair shot when wages keep going down and prices keep going up. Under Barack Obama, more Americans are living in poverty than under any President in history. That’s a tragedy, not a fair shot!
He didn’t give the children of Washington, DC a fair shot when he proposed to end their scholarships to go to better schools.
And when he bows to the demands of the teacher’s unions, he isn’t giving a fair shot to kids across America.
He isn’t giving entrepreneurs and job creators a fair shot when he picks winners and losers, rewarding campaign donors with tax dollars in scandals like Solyndra.
Barack Obama isn’t giving a fair shot to our children and grandchildren when he saddles them with trillions of dollars of debts.
If there has ever been a president who has failed to give the middle class of America a fair shot, it is Barack Obama
The contrast between the two candidates’ demeanor is as great as it is on substance. As reporters noted yesterday, Obama was grim during his hour-long speech. (“If President Obama didn’t look especially happy for most of today’s speech in Ohio (he scowled through a half-dozen applause lines), it was because he probably wasn’t.”) Implicit in Romney’s speech was a simple question: Could you stand to listen to this guy for four more years? It is as good an argument as any for a fresh face. | <urn:uuid:420d3e0b-5512-4189-8be4-3d691d298b32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/romney-buoyant-in-kickoff/2012/06/15/gJQA9hRFfV_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972662 | 732 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria
Home of the fashion capital of Milan, Lombardy is not quite Italy's capital of wine. It is, however, home to a few wines worth noting. Most vineyards are far north, far south or far east. First, in the south, the sparkling wine Franciacorta – this sparkling wine is made in the methode champagnoise and the better wineries produce wine that can hold it's own in a quality bubbly line up. Lugana, a pleasant, white wine made from Trebbiano, comes from Lombardy as well. Lean reds from the Nebbiolo grape are made further up in the Valtelliana region, near the Alps.
The region of Emilia-Romagna is better known for its food rather than wine. Most of the wine coming from this region is the red, slightly-fizzy Lambrusco. It's high in acid and best drunk young. The white coming out of the region is mostly Albana di Romagna. Made from the albana grape, it's typically dry and pleasant, although not found often.
Talk about being in the center of things… the land-locked region of Umbria is smack dab in the middle of the country. The most familiar white wine of the region is Orvieto, named for the medieval Etruscan town. It's a Trebbiano-based wine with good fruit flavors and high acid. Originally a sweet wine, most Orvietos are now dry. Red wine from Umbria includes Torgiano and Montefalco - Torgiano made from the grapes of Chianti, while Montefalco uses the native sagrantino grape, making big and bold reds. | <urn:uuid:79c84746-3bd0-44dc-83dd-0ef9a457dee4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wine.com/v6/Other-Italian-WINE-SALE/wine/list.aspx?N=7155+1051+105+12+2309&Ns=p_Savings%7C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947801 | 366 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Newshound Recent Posts
November 15, 2012
Georgia Hunter's 172-Inch Buck May Become County Record - 0
A Georgia hunter killed this 14-point buck Friday morning in South Lee County, reports WALB. Michael Spurlin spotted the trophy buck when it wandered into a food plot to join a grazing doe.
"All I could see was the silhouette of his rack coming through the pine trees," Spurlin told WALB. "I didn't know how big he was. I just knew I needed to get my gun up and get ready for the shot. He stepped out. I didn't look at his rack through the scope. Just concentrated on making a good shot."
The gross score measured 183 1/2, and the net score checked in at 172 inches. If the score holds up through the 60-day drying period, Spurlin will have a new Lee County record. The current county record for a typical whitetail is 170 5/8, taken by Stan Steiner in 1991. The buck weighed 200 pounds, and experts aged him at 6.5 years.
Spurlin harvested his buck in Lee County, just one county over from Worth, Ga. where a massive non-typical was taken in October. If we're lucky, maybe we'll see more big bucks out of south Georgia this season. | <urn:uuid:3119b26e-4529-47e6-88ac-548052bd743e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2012/11/georgia-hunters-172-inch-buck-may-become-county-record | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96991 | 277 | 1.515625 | 2 |
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 coming in 2014 with 10Gbps transfer speedsJanuary 8, 2013 4 Email article | Print article
Are you unsatisfied with the current speeds that your USB 3.0 devices give you? Worry not, as the organization has announced a new upgraded specification that will bring higher speeds using the current connections.
The new enhanced SuperSpeed USB 3.0 spec will double the current transfer speeds of 5Gbps to 10Gbps — the same speed that Thunderbolt connectors currently have. However, we won’t be seeing the upgraded spec anytime soon as it is scheduled to be finalized sometime this year, with devices set to launch in late 2014 or early 2015.
To take advantage of the double-speed USB 3.0 interface, devices such as computers, hubs, and digital cameras will need new USB controller hardware. However, the new version of USB 3.0 uses the same connectors, so existing USB devices can be plugged into the higher-speed ports.
USB 3.0 cables may or may not work. “Existing SuperSpeed USB cables are not certified to operate at 10 Gbps; it is possible that some existing SuperSpeed USB cables may be capable of operating at 10 Gbps,” the group said.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when these devices appear and begin to gain traction — the ubiquity of USB connectors, as well as the more reasonable pricing of products with the connectors, has the potential to turn Thunderbolt into another FireWire. Unless, being late to the party in terms of speed will prove otherwise. Only time will tell. | <urn:uuid:39d3f466-dc31-429a-a669-06ef0f047feb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dottech.org/92306/superspeed-usb-3-0-coming-in-2014-with-10gbps-transfer-speeds/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937805 | 328 | 1.53125 | 2 |
One of the really cool things about the Nintendo Wii when it was first introduced was the ability to play GameCube games on it. This made it a no-brainer for a lot of folks to upgrade. But as the heyday of legacy systems fades into history, Nintendo decided this was no longer a selling point and stopped populating those components. The good new is, if you don’t mind a lot of PCB soldering you can add your GameCube bits to a modern Wii motherboard.
[Deadlyfoez] launched a raffle to raise enough money to buy a new version of the hardware (we guess the raffle prize is the modded console). He then proceeded to solder on four GameCube controller ports and a memory card reader. There are also a number of passive surface mount components that need to be added. But as the video after the break shows, once in place the functionality reappears on the software side. | <urn:uuid:8fb8e400-85bf-46e4-943c-d28fc7262ca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/grab-your-iron-and-add-gamecube-back-to-the-wii/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=0df65f7478 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953624 | 191 | 1.546875 | 2 |
A look back at notable Sonoma County residents who died this year
Published: Sunday, December 30, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, December 30, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.
Prominent citizens are often described as “towering figures” in the community.
Robert Ellison left an enduring mark on Sonoma County by forging towering steel figures that stand in public places from Petaluma to Santa Rosa — and places as far away as Providence, R.I. and Anchorage, Alaska.
Ellison, who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at his Sonoma Mountain home on Sept. 9 at age 65, is among the county's notable residents who passed away this year.
Among the departed are two prominent jurists, three Pearl Harbor veterans and a woman who survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Some endured for decades, like wine pioneer Louis J. Foppiano who died in March at 101, while others passed prematurely, like rodeo star Broc Cresta, who died in July at 25.
Ellison's name may be unfamiliar to many, but his art is practically unavoidable. “Sun Zone,” a 14-foot-tall, three-legged piece reminiscent of ice cream cones, stands in front of the Sonoma County Administration Center.
“Arch Tworain,” a 28-foot cream-colored structure that weighs 8½ tons, stands along the entry road to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The scissored “Renaissance” rested for years in Old Courthouse Square and is now at Cornerstone Sonoma.
Public art like Ellison's welded steel abstractions serve a purpose, said Harvey Charnofsky of Sebastopol, board president of the Arts Council of Sonoma County.
“It raises the awareness that art has a place of importance in our community,” he said.
It also translates into revenue for the local economy, Charnofsky said, asserting that visitors stay longer and spend more in art-rich places like Sonoma County.
Ellison, an ebullient and energetic man, offered a simpler explanation for why he shifted to steel after first working in ceramics.
“Every sculpture I've ever built is still in existence,” he said in a 2010 interview. “If I'm going to spend a lot of time and effort making these pieces, I want them to last forever.”
As a Sonoma County judge for 20 years, Joseph P. Murphy set a gold standard for running a courtroom in a fair, even-handed manner and for schooling a generation of young attorneys.
“He was the guy we all looked up to,” said Chris Andrian, a Santa Rosa defense attorney who started practicing law here in 1973, trying some of his first major cases before Murphy.
“Everybody was treated with respect, no matter what side you were on,” Andrian said. Murphy also demonstrated “enormous patience,” an attribute that Andrian said is “not a requirement” for sitting judges.
Murphy, an Irish Catholic, diehard Giants baseball fan and Democratic Party activist, retired from the Superior Court bench in 1984. He died of heart failure at his Santa Rosa home in March at age 89.
Jack DeMeo, a Santa Rosa attorney for 53 years, tried mostly civil cases in Murphy's courtroom and found him to be both witty and wise, as well as fair and honorable.
“I thought the world of him,” DeMeo said.
He recalled watching Murphy stride rapidly along Mendocino Avenue toward the courthouse, puffing on a long cigar and turning down proffered rides.
“He was a kick in the butt,” DeMeo said.
Rex Sater, another retired jurist, died in January at his Santa Rosa home after suffering several strokes at age 84.
Sater, a judge for 21 years, revolutionized family law in Sonoma County and eventually statewide by requiring couples to work out the terms of their divorce themselves, rather than depending on dueling lawyers and a judge.
Andrian, who attended Grateful Dead concerts with Sater, said his friend applied a “collaborative approach” to the law.
The Sonoma County wine industry lost one of its pioneers in March, when Louis J. Foppiano died of complications from pneumonia at a Santa Rosa hospital.
Foppiano, who took over the family-owned Healdsburg farm at age 13 and and continued running it into his 90s, lived to 101.
The grandson of an Italian immigrant who learned how to stretch a nickel during the Depression, Foppiano was among the first winemakers to shift from the generic jug wines that had been Sonoma County's staple to premium varietals like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay in the 1960s.
Foppiano's signature wine was petite syrah, which he began bottling long before it had broad cachet. “He was the individual who put petite syrah on the map,” said Anne Vercelli, a wine and culinary instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College.
A founding member and longtime director of the Wine Institute, Foppiano was inducted into the Sonoma County Farm Bureau's Hall of Fame in 2007.
Veterans of World War II are an increasingly rare breed, and Sonoma County's losses in 2012 included at least three men who were at Pearl Harbor: Don Blair, Gene Oliver and Frank Sennello.
Blair, 92, of Rohnert Park was aboard the torpedoed and bombed battleship USS Nevada on Dec. 7, 1941. “I could see blood all over the deck,” he recalled, upon emerging from the stricken ship's belly.
Oliver, 90, of Windsor was haunted by the “channel of hell” he encountered on Battleship Row, with living and dead sailors and burning oil on the water.
Sennello, 90, of Santa Rosa and a leader of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, helped pull oil-coated casualties and corpses from the water.
“He's one of the greats of the Greatest Generation,” said Bud Simmons, a Korea-era Air Force veteran and honorary member of the Pearl Harbor group.
Rose Cliver witnessed a much earlier calamity as a 3-year-old girl in Bernal Heights, watching flames from the 1906 earthquake consume downtown San Francisco.
Cliver was 109 and one of three known survivors of the earthquake when she died at a Santa Rosa retirement home in February.
She had shunned the annual celebrations of the event until 2009, when her family pushed her to participate. “She kind of liked her 15 minutes in the limelight but felt that everyone was making a big ado over nothing,” said her grandson, Don Stegeman of Modesto.
In contrast, Cresta, one of the nation's top rodeo steer ropers, died at age 25. Cresta, who grew up riding and roping on his family's 500-acre Mark West area ranch, was found dead in a trailer at a Cheyenne, Wyo., rodeo.
“The whole rodeo world is in shock,” said Kendra Santos of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
Also shocking was the death of Steve Norwick, 68, at a Santa Rosa hospital in June, 12 days after he suffered devastating injuries when struck by a hit-and-run driver during his morning bicycle ride near Penngrove.
Norwick, a retired environmental studies professor at Sonoma State University, had joined the faculty there in 1974.
“He took a personal interest in each one of us, or at least it felt that way,” said Paula Blaydes, a geologist who was among Norwick's early students.
Most of what Dago Sotelo did as a youth soccer coach for 18 years was well under the radar, but it mattered to a legion of southwest Santa Rosa kids.
Sotelo, 57, died of a stroke in September at a Santa Rosa hospital, his room filled with people and a line stretching down the hall.
“If Dago hadn't come into my life,” said Alejandro Olvera, 21, one of his former players, “I don't know if I would be alive today ... or in jail. He was like my second dad to me.”
(You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or email@example.com.)
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Submit your area events to encourage others in your community to attend. | <urn:uuid:2b45dca0-519e-461a-8e91-dc055286dad0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20121230/COMMUNITY/121239996/0/padecky@aol.com | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970294 | 1,938 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The Crossroads-Mississippi Delta to Memphis
Posted in Mississippi on December 17, 2011 by Victoria Allman
We drove through the pecan colors of the Mississippi Delta in late fall. We passed the barren cut remains of cotton fields that were in bloom as recently as last week and dried rusted oak trees that shed their leaves as fast as the levees had broken. Although the skies were bright blue, the scenery was brown.
We were on our way to Memphis in search of blues music and barbecues. I wasn’t sure which Patrick was more excited about. The week before, we’d seen a sign reading Caution: You are entering a Ribs and Biscuit Zone, but really, that warning could apply to all our expeditions in the south.
The plan was to eat nothing but barbecue for four days.
“Isn’t that cheating?” Patrick asked as I packed a bag of oranges for snacks.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t consider shredded cabbage coated in mayonnaise and flavored with sweet relish a vegetable.”
We started at the crossroads of highway 61 and 49, where Robert Johnson was reputed to have sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play the blues. Our first barbecue venture, Abe’s in the shadow of the crossroads, had us licking our fingers while tender, moist pieces of pork shoulder dripped with a vinegary sauce. Crisp and cool coleslaw crunched and cut the richness of the meat. It was just the start of our southern pilgrimage.
That night we walked into Red’s, one of the last real juke joints in the south. The ramshackle brick building looked more like a mechanics garage than a blues club. But the hand-written sign hung on the door promised Robert Bilbo Walker and Big T Tonite.
Red was behind the bar when we arrived, uncapping beers and greeting everyone like we were all old friends, as he’d been greeting lovers of the blues for the past forty years.
“I know why they call me Red.” I flipped my copper colored locks off my shoulder. “But, why do they call you Big Red?”
Red pushed his dark glasses further up his nose and laughed. “Because I’m large.” He grabbed his thick stomach and shook it. “And I get to talkin’ mean.”
I thought I saw him wink behind his glasses. It was dark and smoky in the small, cluttered space, so it was hard to tell.
On stage the bass player began the low hallow beat of the first song.
“You gonna enjoy this,” Red said to me. “This ain’t no watered down bullshit.”
The band exploded. Beside me, a man in a checkered black and white zoot suit rose from his stool, clapped his hands together and sang like he was responding to the preacher in a Baptist Gospel Church.
“You got that right, Red.” He tipped his felt black hat at me and began keeping time with wing-tip shoes.
The air shimmered with energy and the thunderous sound of guitar. It was as if Chuck Berry was reincarnated in front of us. Patrick smiled deeper than he had at Abe’s.
The men on stage wound down and a bottle of Patron appeared. It passed from hand to hand.
Once again, Red laughed. “Don’t let the bottle fool you.”
And as the moonshine made its rounds, I too, knew that nothing about Red’s was watered down.
The next day, I washed the smoke from Red’s out of my hair and swapped it for the smoke of barbecue.
The heavy smell of hickory hung in the air as we walked through the doors of our first Memphis-style barbecue. It was nothing fancy; a counter with a woman in a white apron behind it and a large open window that served as a pass-through from the man with a cleaver in the back.
“Two rib dinners, please.” Patrick had done his homework. “Dry.”
Memphis-style meant smoked pork that was rubbed with a thick coating of spices, slow-cooked for hours, and served with a thin tangy sauce on the side.
The ribs arrived on Styrofoam plates with cups of coleslaw and baked beans. The juicy meat fell from the bone when I bit into the first piece and ignited my taste buds. The endless hours of cooking had allowed the flavors to meld with the meat. This was worth the drive.
The days passed quickly with pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and barbecued ribs for dinner, but when my Lipitor-laden husband started requesting a salad for the next meal I found myself at another crossroads: head home to a week of conscious eating or squeeze in one more rack of succulent, melt-in-your-mouth ribs.
We packed up and headed back south and I found myself wishing we were back at the crossroads starting our trip over. I turned to Patrick and knew he was thinking the same thing,
“I wonder who is playing at Red’s tonight?”
Memphis-style Dry Ribs
1 teaspoon celery seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup paprika
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon sea salt
¼ tsp. ground white pepper
3 racks St. Louis-cut pork spareribs
Hickory wood chips
Grind the celery seeds and fennel seeds in a spice grinder until smooth. Mix together with brown sugar, paprika, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, thyme, cumin, allspice, dry mustard, cayenne, sea salt and white pepper.
Rub ribs all over with the spice mixture. Refrigerate overnight.
Prepare your grill using hickory chips as the smoking wood. Place ribs, top side down, on grate. Maintaining a temperature of 225°-275°, cook for 2 hours and turn the meat, cook for another 2 hours until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
***If, like me, you do not have a grill, this step can be done in a 275 degree oven. Place the ribs on a cookie sheet and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for three hours. Remove foil for the last hour.
Serve with BBQ Sauce on the side for dipping.
Memphis-style BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
½ cup onions, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 ¼ tablespoon chili powder
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dry mustard
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
32 grinds fresh black pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
1-20 ounce bottle ketchup
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
In a heavy-bottomed saucepot, sauté onions and garlic in vegetable oil for 5 minutes over medium-high heat until soft and golden. Add remaining ingredients and reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for 30 minutes.
Rendezvous is always good. Have not been to Flight. When gnoiwrg up, Memphis was a close traveling distance but not now so I've lost out on the newer places to eat. Glad you are having fun. The zoo was always nice too. Good picnic areas.
Well welcome, Sandy. And thank you! I hope you enjoy SEAsoned. And, the ribs in Memphis are the tastiest I've had.
Just browsing on Goodreads and found you re JL Burke. What an amazing blog. I love travel and cooking so just had to order SEAsoned from Amazon.UK. Those ribs sound delicious - will have to give them a try.. | <urn:uuid:282f9352-da27-42b3-be6f-e15323edee45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://victoriaallman.com/blog/2011/12/17/53-the-crossroads-mississippi-delta-to-memphis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95893 | 1,725 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Artists Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga are running their own fashion shows with their insane outfits – headdresses and all. Though they both continue with the mainstream theme of overly-sexualizing female artists, they both have taken bold and distracting strides against it by having incredibly “out there” music videos.
Where there are many minorities in the spotlight, namely the music industry, female artists over-sexualize themselves. Partly because sex sells, but also because non-caucasian artists are slightly overcompensating for their lack of natural whiteness; they have to find another way to be desirous to the public.
What will it take to make everyone look beautiful – race and orientation aside?
Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga’s proposed solution is to make people look eclectic and crazy, apparently.
Well let’s start with another question: where can we find beauty in our world? My answer is art. We find beauty in the unique art of nature and on canvases where paint is splashed and images are intentionally made to look abstract. We find beauty in music where the beat gets you tapping your foot and migrating towards the dance floor regardless of what race you are. Because abstract art is so subjective, people of all races can appreciate it.
Musical artists like Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga are, to say the least, abstract and beautiful. Their outfits are crazy – Lady Gaga wears cigarette glasses. Those glasses are not sexy, in fact they are quite outrageous, but they attract attention and they get people thinking and wondering about what they’re seeing. Lady Gaga doesn’t tell people to start wearing them, although she does make cigarettes look better hanging from rims than from lips. She’s keeping us entertained by making us think, what an intellectual chick.
Both Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga have been labeled bisexual, and they’re both mainstream artists whose songs are echoed throughout cities and suburbs alike. People may not support gay rights, but they’re starting to support ‘gay’ music, and more important gay musicians. Lady Gaga’s last video for her song Alejandro was a bit racy and incited strong opinions against her, but nevertheless she was expressing how the gay community felt about certain things.
When I look at Nicki Minaj I see a girl with a lot of spunk and colorful uniforms. In comparison to previous mainstream pop-stars like Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj is a lot more artistically expressive in terms of her outfit choice. She still uses her body to present sexual power, but more than that she uses costumes and music videos to present her female empowerment.
Both of these new artists have really stepped away from previous notions of standardized beauty by making the obscure beautiful – and mainstream. Their style is different from artists like Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, and other previous female pop-stars that have ruled the radio.
Niki Minaj and Lady Gaga, while both are highly sexualized, are launching their artistic careers in new directions by using outrageous imagery to accompany their music. They are making people think, and that’s what is important in the world today. Mainstream media has been attacked many a time, being likened to ‘brainwashing’, but with this type of music that has us thinking “WTF?!… oh… okay.. wait..WTF?!, Okay, never mind I’m good, I like this stuff”.
What are your thoughts? Do you think these artists are prompting the nation to think like the post-racist, post-prejudice people that we want to be?
Is Nicki Minaj, and even Beyonce who is featured in Gaga’s video ‘Telephone’, changing the game by acting out against stereotypes?
Are we moving towards accepting everyone and seeing beauty in more than what has been already standardized? | <urn:uuid:54f1d102-0b15-43ed-bfd0-6933e1c54766> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hellobeautiful.com/1153605/opinion-nicki-minaj-lady-gaga-are-intellectual-chicks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962122 | 814 | 1.5 | 2 |
Getting the right mode for an LCD monitor (in GNU/Linux)
Published on Friday, 21 December 2007.
Usually, setting a new debian box with fluxbox as a desktop environment, is fast, easy, an uncomplicated (if you have done it 10 times already). What I didn't know, was that using a widescreen LCD monitor would mess things with my usual setup.
The first problem you notice, is that the fonts look awful. At first, I thought it was something to do with anti-aliasing, but changing resolutions with
xrandr showed me the real problem.
After looking for about 1.5 hours without success, I decided to let it go for the day. The next day, refreshed, I was able to assess the problem in a more calm way. This post was the starting point on the road to monitor resolution bliss. Only problem was that all the links mentioned were not working. Information doesn't lie static for more than 1 year. So next step was to try pulling the results from google's cache. And there it is.
How to use the native resolution of your WideScreen Monitor in GNU/Linux
- Find the specifications of your monitor, and generate a Modeline string
- Backup your
xorg.conffile and put something very similar to:
- Enjoy! (Obviously, you need the correct graphic driver already configured. Mine is an NVidia card, so I used envy)
Section "Monitor" Identifier "h193wk" Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync EndSection (...) Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "nvidia0" Monitor "h193wk" Subsection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1440x900_60.00" ViewPort 0 0 EndSubsection EndSection | <urn:uuid:b20707ed-6b11-46bb-afd0-c88044bb1c1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.favrik.com/2007/12/21/getting-the-right-mode-for-an-lcd-monitor-in-gnulinux/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94431 | 398 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Guitar and Singing lessons, Bristol
- Learn guitar or singing, or both at the same time
- Learn what inspires and motivates you
- Explore and express your individual voice
- Overcome barriers to learning music
- Discover that learning music can be fun and satisfying
- Guitar and singing lessons in the Bristol area.
Have you ever wanted to play guitar or sing, yet feel too shy or too old to start? My philosophy is simple: no matter who you are, anyone can gain pleasure from learning music. My teaching has nothing to do with heavy theory or unnecessary learning, yet everything to do with learning what really inspires you, whilst having as much fun as possible. When you learn what you love, motivation to practice increases, getting even more from your instrument.
My name is Chris Beckett, and I am a UK based music teacher, running guitar and singing lessons in Bristol. No matter who you are, I’d love to help you learn to play guitar or sing.
Get the free eBook...
- Progress quicker
- Have more fun
- Stay injury free
- Develop a style
"After applying Chris’s technique to work on several songs I’d played before, the lights went on – it was like when I first learned to playing the chords to Smells Like Teen Spirit when I was 14, new avenues opening up everywhere."
Peter Reid, Bristol | <urn:uuid:e205bc7d-8d64-40d1-8987-8d872f7774ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.playandsing.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947808 | 290 | 1.726563 | 2 |
‘Burgis’ turns 25By Mariel N. Francisco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
In the time of People Power, on Dec. 5, 1987, a lively gathering was going on at the “in” place at that time, Limelight at the Remedios Circle. Political activists, socialites, artists, bohemians and academicians of all stripes had trooped to the fun district of Malate to toast and roast themselves in the launching of the book, “History of the Burgis.”
It was the brainchild of Gilda Cordero-Fernando to come up with a Philippine history lesson that would both entertain and educate. “Lots of pictures will make people want to look at the book, then maybe they’ll read the text, too,” figured the guru of Filipiniana writing and publishing.
She collared some of her favorite people—a motley group of writers, researchers, artists and jokesters—and made them do what they enjoyed doing: shooting down sacred cows.
The burgis loved it! They didn’t mind being made fun of by their self-avowed fellow burgis. In the next few weeks, it was written up in all the local papers by such journalistic bigwigs as Nick Joaquin, Isagani Cruz, Sylvia Mayuga, Antonio Abaya, Menchu Aquino-Sarmiento, Larry Henares and Mary R. Tagle.
While some picked a few nits with the book, they were all delighted with it and had one exhortation: All self-respecting burgis should read this book (even if they didn’t agree with some of its perceptions and conclusions).
It confounded the burgis, even as it had them doubling up with laughter. It was “high-brow komiks… with weighty content… the most subversive literature off the press.”
It looked like a coffee-table book with “lingerie-peach-tinted covers” but sold for “an almost proletarian P260.” The burgis, who know quality when they see it, were sure such a marvelous book should cost more, but… what’s this? Newsprint pages and soft cover? Ang cheap naman!
Orders rolled in from unexpected quarters. Some high-school and college English classes used the essays as models for expository writing. A frantic mother wanted to know where she could get the book because her fourth-grade son’s history teacher had assigned a lesson from it.
From a university in the south came a polite request to photocopy a chunk of the book for its graduate students. And one day a mysterious buyer bought 100 copies which, rumors had it, were to be used in underground teach-ins by the NDF. Funny book!
Celebration or indictment?
Was it celebration or indictment of the burgis? Well, both and neither. Gilda and friends, like most burgis at the time, had risen to political action in the aftermath of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Gilda’s pad had become a discreet staging ground for many an anti-Marcos march. Now it became the lounging area for our weekly “jam sessions,” where guest resource persons representing the political and scholarly spectrum, such as Maita Gomez, Sr. Christine Tan, Michael Tan, Boy Morales and Ting Roxas, helped us understand why our Inang Bayan was in the deep s–t it was in.
My co-author Fe Arriola and I did our work at night, then had to read our manuscripts aloud to the group as soon as we pulled them out of our typewriters (word processing was still a gleam in our eyes then), while wisecracking Manny Arriola, Onib Olmedo and Odette Alcantara carelessly spewed out gems of rib-tickling wit or just plain foolishness. Gilda caught them as fast as she could, scribbling away in her notebook while bidding her maids to bring out more food and drinks. A gleeful Onib whispered to Odette: “Huwag natin tapusin agad… sarap ng pagkain!”
Cora Alvina, Nik Ricio and Babeth Lolarga then mopped everything up with their managerial, book design and editorial skills. As an assistant literature professor with only a few scholarly articles to my name, I was totally intimidated by this chaotic book-making process. Above all, I came to dread Manny and Onib’s gibes at my corporate get-up (I was a language consultant at WHO by day) until Gilda assured me that that was their way of welcoming me to the gang.
The book made quite an impact. Isabel Taylor Escoda felt obliged to assure her Far Eastern Economic Review readers: “The Filipino people are not living in a comic strip.” On the other hand, Mary Ruff Tagle (BusinessWorld) hooted: “If I wanted my history straight, I would have reread Agoncillo.” (WE had re-reread Agoncillo, and Constantino, too!)
Under the shadow of the tottering Marcos regime, Gilda, Fe and I had started outlining the book in January 1986, little suspecting that in a month or so Edsa One would overtake us. Despite the euphoria, we were keenly aware that our nation’s problems were far from over.
By September 1987, as we were going to press, Cory had just survived Gringo Honasan’s coup attempt. Disenchantment was beginning to set in. Still, we were determined never to give up on ourselves, and ended the book with the hope that Cory, who was as burgis as they came, would set a new direction for a more enlightened leadership.
But already Sylvia Mayuga (Daily Globe) noted that our book had come in “a new season of political discontent.” Just two days after our chi-chi book-launch, Jaime Ongpin, erstwhile Minister of Finance and one of the chief architects of the Cory government, took his own life following months of deep disappointment with the way things had turned out—after the tremendous sacrifices he had made to ensure an orderly post-Marcos era. The “revolution,” said to devour its own children, had claimed its first burgis victim.
Suddenly, it’s 25 years and five burgis presidents later. So, have we learned anything yet?
In some ways, the burgis are more intensely burgis than ever. Whereas “conscienticized” and “politicized” were the buzzwords of the 1970s and ’80s, the buzzword of the ’90s and 2000s is “lifestyle,” with corollaries such as “condo” and “café.” The burgeoning lifestyle sections of the national dailies and glossy magazines featuring someone’s dream hideaway or fairytale wedding and promoting endless lines of imported beauty products, seem to validate the accusation that the burgis are “suffering from the magnificent delusion that they are the only real people around who count.”
Yet, who can deny that the burgis have undergone a shift in consciousness? That they have been trying to be part of the solution, not just part of the problem? Today they are cleaning up rivers, segregating their garbage, rescuing animals and streetchildren, building homes for the poor, comforting flood victims, eating tuyo (in olive oil), loving ampalaya and malunggay, and dancing ballet for the masa.
True, they are still maddeningly self-centered and contradictory. “The self-proclaimed nationalist burgis,” quipped Odette, “wants YOU to die for HIS country.” But notable ones have done a Warren Buffet, donating hard-earned fortunes to schools and charitable foundations instead of merely passing them on to their children. The next generation, instead of idly waiting for their inheritance, are making their own contributions to the country’s progress, pushing Philippine name-brands here and abroad, whether in hamburger chains, ice cream, designer furniture or T-shirts. And they are hot on those other buzz words of this era, “corporate social responsibility” and “green business.”
Some hallmarks of the social classes have been scrambled. While you are checked-in at a five-star hotel anywhere in the world, chances are it will be your turn to receive “dole-outs” from our generous kababayan working there as waiters and chambermaids. Yes, whereas travel used to be the privilege of the rich, the ubiquitous OFW is now at home in Milan, Vienna, Paris and Madrid, and may out-communicate you, with your measly 24 units in Spanish and hobbling French. At the same time, Tagalog (or Filipino), the language of the “bakya crowd,” is now almost the lingua franca in the streets of San Francisco, Macau and Dubai. And speaking of language, whereas the burgis used to consider the vernacular fit only for the lower classes, today no self-respecting public official or broadcast journalist can get by without proficiency in our national language.
The hoi polloi, just like the Makati crowd, now sport Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Fendi from the Greenhills tiangge and 168 in Binondo, while the burgis love to show off their five-dollar Rolexes made in Bangkok and purchased on the sidewalks of Manhattan. And while laptops, iPads and Blackberrys remain (so far) the arena of the haves, the cellphone has certainly become that Great Leveler of us all—amo and driver, señora and katulong, boss and sekyu—with the educated class adopting the smart abbreviations of the semi-literate.
Perhaps most telling of how the playing field has leveled burgis “divine rights” is the composition of the Senate. Whereas it used to be a venerable body of brilliant statesmen and lawmakers, in the past two decades it has admitted among its ranks action stars, comedians, newscasters, military adventurers, policemen and undistinguished scions of political families capitalizing on nothing more than name recall.
On the other hand, some senators, whose education and credentials sound impressive, totally lack the basic good manners, proper decorum and moral standards expected of national leaders. It seems we have seen the last of the likes of Diokno, Tañada, Manglapus and Salonga. Nakaka-miss!
Will there be a “History of the Burgis” sequel, we are often asked. Fe and I occasionally toss around ideas for something of the sort, but with Gilda refusing to hear anything of it, and Odette and Onib (and Maita, Sr. Christine Tan, Boy Morales, and others) having moved on to higher causes, we have accepted that the time is past for that. Burgis was one of a kind, the unique product of its time, and cannot be replicated. But the ongoing story of our colorful national journey can be told in other ways by this generation of Pinoys, Chinoys, Fil-Ams, Fil-Mexicans, and what-have-you. As they continue to make ripples in a globalizing world, may self-honesty spiced with lots of humor serve them well!
“History of the Burgis” won the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for History for 1987 and, according to Gilda Cordero-Fernando, is the only GCF book that has ever made money. It has had seven printings, with 14,000 copies sold and an undetermined number of photocopies. It is now out of print, but some stray copies may still be found in museum shops and second-hand bookstores. | <urn:uuid:e9c8cabe-a512-4f74-b99f-167efc746535> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/90263/burgis-turns-25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965404 | 2,540 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Special Care Nursery
Our special care nursery cares for babies who need medical monitoring or services not available in our regular nursery.
In the event that your baby is in need of extra care or treatment, SGMC is equipped with a Level II Nursery where our neonatologist and pediatric nurses are able to give specialized care for premature and sick infants.
By working with obstetricians to develop a delivery plan, the neonatal staff is able to provide the best possible care for both mother and baby. The SGMC Neonatology department is able to provide intensive monitoring and complex medical decision making immediately, in addition to keeping the baby close to home.
Babies Cared for in the Unit Included:
- premature infants
- infants with illness, abnormalities or other medical conditions
Infants cared for in the Neonatology department meet the approved guidelines for Level II Neonatal Intensive Care set forth by the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Perinatal Pediatrics.
Special Care Nursery Team
- Board certified neonatologist, Dr. Christopher Young
- Certified Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Neonatal Resuscitation and STABLE (stabilization of infants for transport to another facility) nurses
- Respiratory therapists
- social workers
- lactation consultant - Mothers are encouraged to breastfeed babies in the special care nursery. If your baby is unable to breastfeed, we will assist you with a pump and storage supplies.
SGMC Special Care Nursery is located at the SGMC Main Campus.
2501 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, Georgia 31602
- Visitation by parents is highly encouraged. Please try to avoid visitation during shift changes.
- Please remember to wash your hands and keep visitors away that may be sick or exposed to germs.
- Limit 2 visitors at a time. Visitors (up to four) may be designated by the parents for visitation.
- Visitors must bring and present their photo ID.
- Cell phones are NOT permitted in the Special Care Nursery.
- You may also call 229.259.4265 to check on your baby’s progress 24-hours a day.
The team caring for your baby in the Special Care Nursery will work with you and your family to plan ahead for discharge. Our goal is to help you feel comfortable caring for your baby at home. | <urn:uuid:4addfe1b-1bec-464a-860c-6e5bc1cb867e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sgmc.org/Print/204.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935158 | 481 | 1.539063 | 2 |
gad rgyangs wrote: Namdrol wrote:
gad rgyangs wrote: the dzogchen presentation of the basis, what exactly it is or isnt, and how things arise from it, is intimately related to questions of just what a sentient being is, just what we are, what our awareness is, where it comes from, etc. none of this stuff is trivial.
Things dont rise from the basis. They arise from non-recognition of the basis, i.e. the parikalpita- avidyā.
what is it that fails to recognize the basis?
I have explained this now several ways. So, I'll try again: there are no sentient beings at the time of the latent basis, because all sentient beings, theoretically, acheived some kind of buddhahood in the last eon. The notion of the basis in Dzogchen man ngag sde is very similar to the Hindu idea of Pralaya. [In fact, in the term kun gzhi, ālaya, kun = ā, gzhi = laya. The term kun gzhi is distinguished from the term gzhi in Dzogchen, as you can easily find out, but the fact that gzhi is desceribed as the bardo of samara and nirvana is nothing if not telling. If someone is taking a text critical approach, they will note that there is a movement in Buddhist tantric texts in India in the late 9th through the 10th century in such texts as the Samputa tantra and the Kalacakra to borrow and repurpose some Samkhya concepts. Hence Dzogchen use of the term prakriti, etc.]
After the collapse of the previous universe, there are no buddhas and sentient beings -- and this is called the bardo of samsara and nirvana. Present in the latent basis however is a neutral awareness
which does not know itself.
Because of traces of action and affliction remain from previous universe, the basis is stirred, lights shine out, and they are either recognized or not, resulting in samasara and nirvana.
This neutral awareness is what happens when someone acheives an incomplete full awakening, for example an arhat or some other form of lesser iberation that can "return to the cause". This is why Dzogchen makes such a big deal about Dzogchen Buddhahood being one that "does not return to the cause".
have sentient beings existed since beginningless time alongside the basis, but not arising from it?
The Dzogchen answer is no. Sentient beings newly arise at the end of each bardo of samsara and nirvana.
How do they arise? They arise when neutral awarenesss in the basis makes the error of not recognizing the display of the a basis as its own display. The imputing ignorance results in self and other, the ālaya forms, the twelve links start up, samsara and nirvana divide. Etc.
As I mentioned above, Dzoghchen texts do not distinguish whether this neutral awareness in the basis is multiple or singular.
So this question is left for us to solve on our own: either the neutral awareness of basis is multiple, not entirely satisfying for a number of reasons, but this explains how there are individual mind streams from the start; or it is singular (not entirely satisfying for a number of reasons), but gets warped by the presence of trace afflictions into individuated sentient beings; or is it neither singular or multiple (not entirely satisfying for a number of reasons) and gets warped by the presence of trace afflictions into individuated sentient beings. In the last two scenarios, the inability of awakened people to completely eradicate all traces of afflictions leaves traces of affliction left over, where they act as seeds for new sentient beings. There is a passage in the Gongpa Zangthal that describes wisdom as "the accumulator of traces".
do the basis and sentient beings have a common origin?
No, the basis is self-originated wisdom; sentient beings arise from the condition of ignorance. The cause of their arising is the non-recognition of wisdom. Hence the term "buddhahood that returns the cause". | <urn:uuid:3676c895-e6cb-48a9-adf2-06b0bd431bd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=78492 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932932 | 908 | 1.84375 | 2 |
If you still receive spam-mail despite using a spam filter you may finally breathe a sigh of relief as you have come to the right place.
This filters name means what it stands for and literally can be translated to: definitely zero spam! Nothing will slip by this powerful, free of charge, and most importantly easy to use filter, NOTHING! Lets recap: Current run of the mill spam-filter work with and are based upon artificial intelligence, i.e. Bayes-technique. At best this system works moderately well. Due to that fact, lots of spam-mail, particularly image-spam, will not be detected and sorted through correctly. Worse still, legitimate mail gets dumped into a spam filters spam folder often wrongfully. This means you still must wade your way through the mass of junk mail wasting your precious time. defNULLspam uses a tried and technique, making it therefore a very different and 100% reliable filter. Spam mail will always be detected, regardless, and dumped inside defNULLspams own temporary spam folder. If defNULLspam is unsure of or unfamiliar with the senders address it will simply respond with an automated query requesting the sender to verify their legitimacy. Once the original sender confirms his or her legitimacy to the filter by simply returning the automated response, defNULLspam will recognize its personalized signature it placed inside the automated query and from here on out places all mail from that senders address inside your inbox. Of course you do have full control over defNULLspams spam folder and can move any piece of mail out of there at any time.
In this episode, we'll be looking at setting up a Bluetooth accessory, we'll offer a few power-saving tips and we'll take a quick look at how copy and paste works on the Samsung Galaxy SII 4G. view it
In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the pre-installed apps on the Galaxy SII including the Android Market, Gmail, the browser and the camera. view it
In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the Android tweaks that Samsung has made with its TouchWiz interface. We'll also take a look at adding widgets and app shortcuts to our homescreens, including Samsung's own specialized apps and widgets. view it
In this episode, we're going to take a look getting the SII setup with our Google and other accounts so we can begin using it right away. view it
The Samsung Galaxy SII 4G, AKA the Samsung Galaxy Epic Touch 4G, is a top-tier smartphone. view it
In this episode, we’re going to offer a few battery saving tips so your phone will last the whole day and beyond plus we’ll take a look at how copy and paste works on the Photon 4G. view it
The Motorola Photon from Ting features App Shortcuts and Widgets from Android and Motorola. view it | <urn:uuid:f70c71f1-cd47-4e43-aa20-c7b6b801f80b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tucows.com/preview/507504/DefNULLspam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939228 | 606 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Do you remember when you were on summer school vacation and it was time to go back to school or college? Many of us didn’t like the idea of going back and would come up with a variety of excuses and phantom stomach pains or an illness that our poor parents maybe convinced were too serious to risk going to school.
After a long absence away from work similar feelings exist with the added burden of not being in control, having much to catch up on in terms of knowledge, catching up on the latest news that has occurred in your absence, acceptance by colleagues on your return.
Your place of work should be a place where your health and wellbeing are supported and protected but more significantly somewhere that YOU take responsibility for your own health. While our Health and Safety records are in most cases second to none, absenteeism still remains a problem to businesses and in many instances is preventable.
In 2003/04 there were 609,000 new cases of workplace ill health:
Stress contributed 254,000 (42 per cent)
Musculoskeletal disorders204,000 (33 per cent).
This was out of a total 2.2 million new and existing cases.
In the same period – 29.8 million working days were lost to ill health. (Source: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/health-and-wellbeing.pdf)
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath addressing the Human Resources Director summit in 2006, suggested that the cost of sickness absence to the British economy is estimated at around £12 billion a year. “The workplace in the 21st century is a fast paced, dynamic and highly stimulating environment. It brings a number of benefits and opportunities, however, with these benefits comes new risks. Sickness absence and return to work policies are only worth having if they have the full support of directors and top-level managers. After all, leadership starts from the top.”
So where do YOU start? Well a good place might be communication through employee engagement, where an ‘honest’ employee survey would highlight issues such as:
Why a particular employee has been absent on a variety of dates and what has been done about it.
What are the most common ailments and health conditions that prevent employees from attending work?
What are the issues your workplace could improve on?
Is there awareness on the part of management as to why employees are absent, unhappy or sick?
Is the working environment conducive to high morale and a positive productive healthy environment?
Do employees know how to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and are the opportunities available at their place of employment to do so?
To feel in vibrant health to work, whether it is from a company, institution, community, public sector or working from home, we all need to be nourished mind, body and soul. To reduce absenteeism, and allow employees to feel valued, increase productivity, increase staff retention and profit and your company profile collective action and responsibility is the first step.
For more help please contact:
Margaret at DeMontfort Healthy Living
Phone: 0800 902 0336
Gill Craik at Black Dog HR
Phone: 01280 817341 Email: firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:ed032270-10bb-457b-9c04-1d22e136c08b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.demontforthealthyliving.co.uk/index.php/your-health-is-your-wealth-employee-engagement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960756 | 666 | 1.75 | 2 |
Canadian Champion Trap Shooter Amanda Chudoba, lawyer Darin Slaferek, Brandi Labonte with Parkinson Alberta Society, lawyer Paul Moreau and CEO Of Parkinson Alberta Society John Petryshen, all gathered at the Edmonton Gun Club to shoot for a cure for Parkinson Disease.
With so many worthy causes hosting fundraisers nowadays, it is very difficult to find an original way of raising money to fund research. However, the Parkinson Alberta Society seems to have hit on a very unique way to raise both awareness and funds, in the form of their "Shooting For Parkinson's" event.
On August 25th, approximately 40 long gun enthusiasts gathered at the Edmonton Gun Club located behind the Edmonton International Airport, and blasted away at some clay pigeons all in the name of finding a cure. This was only the second year the shoot had taken place but organizers hope it will turn into an annual event.
"This is a completely new audience for us." shared John Petryshen, CEO of the Parkinson Alberta Society. "We are very excited about this as every nickel and dime raised matters to us."
Despite the fact that a famous actor such as Michael J. Fox suffers from Parkinson Disease, it is not as "high profile" as say, cancer research, so it can make raising money quite difficult. Even though it is the second most common neurodegenerative disease next to Alzheimer's, it is not high on the list for generating donations to find a cure.
"There are approximately 8,000 people in Alberta that suffer from Parkinson's," said John, "and the most common perception is that it is an 'old person's' disease. Unfortunately more and more people in their forties and fifties are now being diagnosed with Parkinson's, and it's not a club that anyone wants to belong to as there is no cure."
There are however, treatments currently available in the form of medications, or in extreme cases deep brain surgeries, but can they only alleviate some of the symptoms, some of the time. A person with Parkinson's can be expected to live a normal lifespan, with the symptoms getting progressively worse over time.
Parkinson's is caused by a degeneration of the cells that produce dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which sends signals from one nerve cell to another, and when dopamine levels drop, it affects the parts of the brain that control movement. So Parkinson's sufferers typically develop tremors, shaking, stiffening of the arms and legs, and overall slowed movement which can make everyday tasks, such as buttoning a shirt, brushing one's teeth, or feeding yourself, impossible. Because of the lowered dopamine levels, the disease can also affect the moods and thinking processes, as well as control over involuntary movements such as blood pressure and bowel function.
Since Parkinson's is a lifelong degenerative disease, all money raised is split between finding a cure, and easing the burden of families affected by the disease. Some of the core services the Society offers are counseling, support groups, learning resources and speech therapy, to name a few. With an average of $160,000.00/year being raised and split between priorities, this means that there is only an average of $10.00/ family available in financial aid from the Society. Hence, the reason John and his volunteers are so anxious to get the word out about this cause, and why the Shooting For Parkinson's fundraiser is so important.
Even though it is only the second year of this event, two of the organizers and board members for the Parkinson Alberta Society, well known Edmonton lawyers Paul Moreau and Darin Slaferek, said that they are hoping to raise about $1,500.00 with this fundraiser. With a door prize valued at $500.00 donated by Wholesale Sports, plus a steak dinner and silent auction after the shoot, it is no wonder that the event can draw squads from as far away as Hinton and Athabasca, as well as the likes of world class trap shooters such as Amanda Chudoba. In July, Amanda was the Women's Champion at the Canadian International Trapshooting National Championships.
The event drew supporters of all ages, with shooters ranging in age from 12 years old to well over 60. One older gentleman was himself a sufferer of Parkinson Disease.
The Parkinson Alberta Society itself is a relatively new thing as well. Formerly the Society was split in two, with a North and South division in the province. Just over a year ago they decided that to better organize and serve people all across Alberta they should amalgamate into one Society, and now there are five offices spread across the province to assist people with the disease.
With their biggest fundraiser of the year fast approaching, John is hoping to see a lot of local participation in the 2013 Edmonton Parkinson SuperWalk on September 8th. More information on this devastating disease, on the SuperWalk, or how you can get involved and help with this Society can be found on their website at www.parkinsonalberta.ca. | <urn:uuid:f5a05a66-9fb5-412c-bcd1-5b7ca4c953bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pipestoneflyer.com/Article.asp?id=2292 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967935 | 1,028 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Media Contact: Claudia Chandler - 916-654-4989
Proposed Riverside County Power Plant Accepted for Review
Sacramento - The California Energy Commission today accepted an application for a proposed power plant that could provide standby power in times of high electricity demand.
By a vote of 4-0, the Commission accepted the CPV Sentinel Energy Project as data adequate, meaning it has enough information to begin a yearlong licensing process.
Energy Commission Vice Chairman James D. Boyd and Chairman Jackalyne Pfannenstiel as presiding member and associate member, respectively, will make up the committee overseeing the 12-month review -- assuring that requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act are met.
The CPV Sentinel Energy Project, a $440 million simple-cycle plant is being proposed for Commission approval by the private, Silver Spring, Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures, Inc
The 850-megawatt, natural gas-fired project would be built on 37 acres in unincorporated Riverside County near Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. The planned project is adjacent to a Southern California Edison substation off State Route 62.
If approved by the Commission, the project would be constructed over an 18-month period. The project plans to fire up the first five of eight turbines by March of 2010.The final three are expected to operate two months later that year.
But once built, the CPV Sentinel Energy Project would remain idle until it is called upon to ramp up quickly when electricity demand is high in a region that continues to grow and strains the electricity grid during the hot summer months. Southern California Edison has agreed to buy the power generated by five of the turbine units, with other load serving entities expected to procure the power produced by the three remaining units.
Throughout the project's 12-month licensing process, the Energy Commission will conduct public workshops and hearings to determine whether the facility should be approved for construction and operation and under what set of conditions. More information on the CPV Sentinel Energy Project is available at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/sentinel
Since deregulation occurred in 1998, the Energy Commission has licensed or given small power plant exemptions to 63 power plants, totaling 23,549 MW. Thirty-six licensed power plants are in operation, producing 12,910 MW. Since Gov. Schwarzenegger took office, 18 of these power plants, totaling 6,913 MW, have been approved. In addition, 18 power plant projects are active in the Energy Commission's review process, representing 6,654 MW. More information on Energy Commission power plant projects is available at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/all_projects.html
# # # | <urn:uuid:e438d732-3c9b-4c43-b9ea-806074db87a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2007_releases/2007-08-29_sentinal_data_adequate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932562 | 553 | 1.5625 | 2 |
We take them with us to the dinner table, the bedroom, even the bathroom stall. But in recent years, some of us have started taking our beloved cell phones someplace really startling: the grave.
“It seems that everyone under 40 who dies takes their cell phone with them,” says Noelle Potvin, family service counselor for Hollywood Forever, a funeral home and cemetery in Hollywood, Calif. “It’s a trend with BlackBerrys, too. We even had one guy who was buried with his Game Boy.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests being buried with a favorite tech device is on the upswing. The Future Laboratory, a London-based think tank, has commented on the behavior, noting it in places like the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. But experts are seeing it happen in the United States as well.
Ed Defort, publisher and editorial director for American Funeral Director magazine, says it's a definite trend.
“I’ve even heard of cases where people are being buried with their iPod. Or one guy who was prepared for his viewing with his Bluetooth (headset) in his ear.”
But it’s the cell phone, in particular, that seems to be the burial gadget of choice.
While statistics on cell phone burials don’t exist, funeral professionals agree it’s a fairly common occurrence — at least among the tech-savvy and the young — and some believe we’re only seeing the tip of the wired-to-the-end trend.
“It really started happening within the last five or six years,” says Frank Perman, owner and funeral director of Frank R. Perman Funeral Home, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa. “But I expect it to grow exponentially, especially with the price of technology getting so low. It’s not that big of a deal to bury somebody’s cell phone.”
Why, exactly, are people going to the grave with their gadgets? Experts say there are a number of reasons.
Some do it for the same reason people have always tucked mementos into a casket (or tomb, as in the case of King Tut). People want to surround themselves (or their loved ones) with the things they hold dear, whether that’s their cell phone and headset or some family photos, a fishing rod, a piece of treasured jewelry.
“A lot of people say the phone represents the person, that it is part of their legacy,” says Potvin of Hollywood Forever. “It’s an extension of them, like their class ring.”
Comfort for the living
Others do it as a way to provide comfort — both to themselves and the departed.
“I’ve seen family members place iPod earphones on the decedent and play songs as the casket closed,” says Pam Vetter, a Los Angeles funeral planner who helps create more personalized services for families.
“It’s comforting to the family to think mom’s playing her iPod or dad’s still got the cell phone that was attached to his ear all the time,” she said. “It’s comforting to think those things are still with them.”
The notion of staying connected also seems to play into being buried with one’s mobile.
“I’ve seen people leave cell phones on and tell me they’re going to call their loved one later,” says Vetter. “Not that anyone will answer, but they want to have that connection. I’m sure the family gathers around the phone when they call. They feel connected with that person because it’s their phone, but at the same time it helps them realize that a death has occurred.”
When Manhattan criminal defense attorney John Jacobs died in 2005, his wife, Marion Seltzer, not only buried him with his phone and a fully charged battery, she continues to pay the monthly phone bill and even calls him on occasion (since the battery’s now dead, the calls immediately go into Jacobs’ voicemail).
She also had his cell phone number carved onto his headstone so others can call him, too, according to one television report.
Frank Perman says phone calls to the dead aren’t that uncommon.
“We had a young man die this past summer and they put his cell phone in the casket for the viewing and it rang constantly,” he says. “It was turned to silent, but you could see the phone light up so you knew people were calling. And they were leaving messages. They knew he was dead, but they were still calling.”
Ring tones have even become a sort of 21st century funeral tribute, says Defort of American Funeral Director magazine.
“Some people will call the deceased just as they’re lowering the coffin into the ground,” he says. “It’ll be prearranged and you’ll hear a faint ring. It’s like the new version of ‘Taps’ for people who are identified as being on the phone all the time.”
While funeral professionals cite many reasons why people are taking their phones with them to the grave, being “saved by the bell” should they accidentally be buried alive doesn’t appear to be one of them.
“The fear of being buried alive isn’t too prevalent in this day and age,” says Michael Regina, CEO and founder of FuneralDecisions.com.
“Obviously, back in the 1800s that was a huge fear and they actually (attached) bells to the caskets so if a person woke up they could ring the bell and let people know they weren’t dead. But today, people take phones with them because they’re a part of them.”
A survey of 100,000 people last year by the British charity Age Concern (sort of the AARP of England), seems to suggest both possibilities, though.
Of the top eight common funeral rite requests, being buried with a mobile phone came in at No. 2 (immediately after a request to be cremated with a pet’s ashes). After that, people wanted someone to “ensure they are dead,” and hold “a mirror over the face to check for signs of breathing.”
'Like a third arm'
Penny Sansevieri, a 44-year-old publicist from San Diego, Calif., says she already takes her BlackBerry with her everywhere, so taking it with her into the great beyond doesn’t seem that strange.
“My BlackBerry is like a third arm,” she says. “Why wouldn’t I be buried with it?”
Funeral professionals are only too happy to comply these days, as long as people don’t try to cremate gadgets along with anyone’s remains.
“You can’t cremate any kind of electronic device like a cell phone or hearing aid or pacemaker,” says Perman. “The battery will explode. If a family wants the cell phone with a person who’s being cremated, I’ll put it in the urn afterwards.”
As for those who want to stay wired in the afterlife but are worried about high-tech toxic waste? Sony Ericsson, Nokia and LG Electronics have all come out with cell phones that are somewhat green.
Perhaps even enough to let you rest in peace. | <urn:uuid:87558141-9e8b-4675-8a5b-f9b98fb967db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Bury_me_with_my_cell_phone.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975154 | 1,609 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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Christian Peace Witness: Conscience in War Project
Christian Peace Witness is committed to making "Conscience in War" a major theme for our work. We seek to foster a serious nationwide discussion on following Jesus in matters of conscience and duty, violence and nonviolence, war and peace.
Our nation has now been at war for almost a decade. As our soldiers consider re-deployment or combat veterans return to rebuild their lives in light of their experiences in war, we are increasingly aware of the crisis of conscience some soldiers wrestle with and the moral injury some have experienced in combat.
Christian Peace Witness is committed to work for the establishment of selective conscientious objection based on our support of Christians and others whenever they take steps of conscience to reject violence and killing.
Christian Peace Witness Conscience in War Resource Kit
This resource represents collaboration between the 50+ members of Christian Peace Witness (CPW) and the Truth Commission on Conscience and War (TCCW) as well as other allies working on the issues of Selective Conscientious Objection (SCO). Each of the sections in this document offers portals to action. This document, in its digital form, is also interactive so you can add materials for others which you find are of value. | <urn:uuid:2a92a428-e338-4000-8fa5-a7e4fb96b84a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpeacewitness.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932004 | 314 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Taking a vacation—not just working from a different location—can be both beneficial to you and your co-workers. Skipping a vacation doesn’t impress anyone, and it shows you are too unorganized to leave the office for a length of time. Your absence encourages the team to have a life outside the office, their productivity increases, and they become more productive. Being unreachable is also a great way for others to step up, take a few risks, and learn by trial without a safety net. A vacation will increase your own productivity by clearing your head, allowing you to mull over some problems in the back of your mind, and help you reassess the true priorities of your role. And if an event arises that forces you to cancel your vacation, reschedule it immediately. This will prevent resentful feelings and give you something to look forward to. | <urn:uuid:46a7cca7-8ee7-4e31-b79c-fab5da73140b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2012/06/26/think-you-cant-take-a-vacation-the-sound-business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954543 | 176 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Banksy? 15 June 2009Posted by Irish Street Art in Featured Street Artist, International Street Art.
Tags: Banksy, Brisol, London, Video
The video below gives us a glimpse into Banksy’s recent exhibition in Bristol. These days Banksy is controversial for more than just his awe inspiring work. When we approached one local for directions when touring through Southbank in search of a few Banksys a while back, we were asked “Why would you bother look now, isn’t Banksy just another sell-out?” A bit despondent by the reaction of the Londoner’s lack of enthusiasm for one of our heroes we wandered through a tunnel under the Queen Elizabeth Hall that once was home to a banksy piece. Frustratingly, the piece had since been painted over but we wouldn’t be let down by the rest of the street art on show. You couldn’t but marvel at the crazy collection of ideas, styles and themes from writers from all over the globe.
Many feel that Banksy no longer sits comfortably with his peers in the underground street art movement. Seeing his books being sold in high street chains can be a bit unsettling. Saying that, his growth in stature has brought the guerrilla art movement into the public spotlight and that can only be a good thing. One thing is for certain, Banksy isn’t the only artist in the world pushing boundaries at the moment. | <urn:uuid:b6b5915b-bb0a-4b81-8dcc-bc7daf6f9a26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://irishstreetart.com/2009/06/15/banksy-ireland-graffiti-exhibition-bristol/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963503 | 300 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I heard a famous school reform advocate–the kind of guy who says things like “Last time I checked there are no jobs for people who have a mean macaroni art game,” and “Failed schools must be closed and the children provided with vouchers so they can attend good schools”–tell a crowd once how proud he was that at his inner city school 100% of the graduates go on to four-year colleges. He then went on to note that his school “isn’t a charter school–it’s a public school.” He emphasized the word “public” to make sure his audience didn’t think he enjoyed any advantages in student selection that contributed to his success.
Truth is, he does enjoy advantages. His public school also happens to be a magnet school–you might be surprised that he neglected to disclose as much in his presentation. It is what teachers at traditional city schools sometimes derisively call a “lifeboat” school, a happy oasis to which the poorest children may apply; and, depending on the quality of their applications and the willingness and ability of their parents to abide by stringent demands for academically rigorous parenting, they MAY get in.
For this gentleman’s Herculean efforts at keeping out the riff-raff, he has been richly rewarded. He’s featured on television as an education expert; he writes books in which he lambasts teachers as the source of our society’s ills; and he gets people like Bill Cosby and Soledad O’Brien to sing his praises and imply that he has discovered the mythical fountain of achievement, the answer to our education problems.
I guess Bill and Soledad are able to overlook the sinister implications when he says, “I’ve seen the right students and the wrong students come to Capital Prep.”
I’ve seen the wrong students come to my school, too. The only difference is, at my school the policy is:
“The Board or its designee shall admit into the public schools of the District free of tuition all persons who are over five and younger than 21 years of age on September 1 of any school year in which admission is sought…if any of the following conditions exist:
1. The person and either parent reside in the District.
2. The person does not reside in the District, but one of the parents resides in the District…
3. The person and his or her guardian or other person having lawful control under an order of a court reside in the District.
4. The person is under the age of 18 and has established a separate residence in the District apart from his or her parent, guardian, or other person having lawful control…”
The only way I keep someone out of my school is if they are over 21, they don’t live in the district, or they get expelled for one of a handful of heinous acts.
One critic notes this about the miracle reformer’s public school: “In one recent year forty-three percent of the enrolled students left before graduation.”
If this is true, it appears that the good reformer is a push-out artist. As Bill Cosby might say, “Push ‘em out, shove ‘em out, way out.” (Perhaps this technique is what led the gentleman in question to entitle one of his books Push Has Come to Shove.)
He hides it well. Here, he said that “The only thing required to get into our school is a pulse. And the only thing stopping us from taking more kids is lack of space.”
If this is true, I’m not sure what to make of the link on the school’s website that says, “How to apply.” Perhaps the application only has one question: “Does your child have a pulse?”
See, the thing about a magnet is it’s picky. It only picks up things containing metal. And a magnet school that obligates parents to purchase uniforms and agree to certain stringent requirements will only pick up students and parents who possess a certain amount of mettle.
I don’t begrudge this reformer his mission: offering an exclusive, college-preparatory education for students who have been unconscionably and persistently denied opportunities. This is an admirable, valuable, positive contribution to our society. More power to him; I support and applaud his efforts.
Where I diverge with this gentleman is in the thicket of his dishonesty. He does not truthfully allow every student with a pulse to remain in his school. The reformer says as much only to bolster his fabricated case that traditional schools do not get the same results as his school because of ineffectual teachers who are protected by adult-centric unions; in arguing this, the reformer chooses to ignore the occupational benefit provided to his teachers and staff by the leverage inherent in exclusivity.
Simply put, he can send a kid who refuses to do his homework out the door, and the kids and parents know it; I can only send that kid to in-school suspension. And don’t think the kids don’t know it.
Sometimes I’m mad because many school reform proponents so flippantly tell half-truths. Other times I’m just jealous because I too want to run a school that is heralded as a destination school for future Ivy Leaguers. I’m torn between two ideals, each of which I airbrush in my mind at different times: the reformer’s exclusive yet effective elitism, or my own democratic yet imperfect open arms. “We take ‘em all,” I like to say. I’m proud of that. I get peeved when “‘em all” won’t do their homework, or when a parent makes excuses or writes fraudulent notes for 30 absences a year. I get mad because in the end, the test scores don’t reflect on the parent or on democracy: they reflect on me. Democracy doesn’t fail in the newspapers, the educator does.
The selfish part of me wants to exclude. The hurting part of me. But the rest of me is glad I include. If I had worked at the reformer’s school, I never would’ve gotten to know a kid like Charlie*, a nonverbal 18-year-old with severe cognitive difficulties who was learning the most basic of life skills. I likely would’ve missed meeting a student like Amanda*, a Special Olympics medalist who greeted me with a smile and a story every time she saw me. I probably wouldn’t have gotten to see persistent freshman misbehavior, Joe* turn it around in time to graduate with his class; instead, I might have shown him the door and wished him the best of luck elsewhere. Honestly, that would have been more tragic to me than whatever horrible label Arne Duncan can come up with.
I wish I could get results like that reformer, I really do. But not if the trade off is for my school to become a bunker against the reality of my community’s context. Context ignorance may be bliss, but I’m not sold on the idea that America must attain excellence through exclusion. Such a philosophy emboldens those who argue against excellence through expenditure, who say we already spend too much on poor city children, who urge us to default on the staggering debt run up by historic thefts. Our nation stole opportunity from selected groups for generations and the bill has come due today, as we nobly struggle to fold their proud descendants into our national promise. Rather than pay up, the reformer would have us provide these kids with pockets of wonderfulness and let them fight to get in. This reformer quotes Dr. King, but he marches with Scott Walker.
They say we spend too much in DC, that we spend too much in Chicago. But when you are putting out a fire you don’t watch the water meter, you watch the flames. We will know that we have spent enough in our inner cities when life blooms a garden there. Those who posit that squalor is inevitable among city dwellers lack not only imagination, but humanity.
I think this reformer truly believes that shutting down all the low-performing public schools in his city and replacing them with new schools like his will fix things. I don’t question his motives. And his approach will certainly improve the outcomes for the kids who will adhere to his school’s rules and meet their performance targets. Like the man throwing starfish into the ocean, he will save this one, and this one, and this one.
But I wonder if he ever thinks about the others. I wonder, in his ideal world where there are no “bad schools” left, where will all the “wrong students” go? They will still need an education, because they will still grow up and be part of our society. If all schools have the right-of-refusal, where will they go? There isn’t a job market for macaroni artists, but is there one for kids whom no school will take?
It must be a happy life when kids clear a high hurdle to enter your school and you convince the world you taught them to jump. If you can sell books with that gospel, more power to you. But while you make your way in the edubiz, please don’t trash long suffering teachers who have no choice but to wrestle daily with the context your school has walled off.
*Names changed to protect privacy. | <urn:uuid:2fdf0cc6-d3f9-494e-b743-dafbabe39141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theeducatorsroom.com/2012/10/the-bliss-of-context-ignorance-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974026 | 2,021 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Iraq lawmakers break for vacation, unable to agree on oil-rich Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to annex to the semiautonomous Kurdish region.BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi parliament broke for summer vacation Wednesday without passing a bill that would have allowed provincial elections to be held this year, dealing a blow to hopes for bringing alienated Sunni and Shiite Muslim voices into the political process any time soon.
The parliament, which tried during a four-day special session to pass the legislation under pressure from the United States and United Nations, could not resolve differences over oil-rich Kirkuk, a volatile mixed area that the Kurds wish to annex to their semiautonomous northern region.
Iraq's electoral commission had said the measure needed to be passed before lawmakers adjourned for the month in order to hold elections by the end of December.
Lawmakers had been set to adjourn last week when they scheduled the special session. But differences between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens over Kirkuk ultimately could not be resolved.
Iraqi politicians, officials and Western diplomats have speculated that the political parties in government were never invested in holding a vote this year out of fear they would lose seats and influence at the provincial level. Senior politicians -- including President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tariq Hashimi, a Sunni Arab -- have been absent from Baghdad during the round-the-clock negotiations, citing medical reasons.
The impasse over the legislation left an uncertain situation in Kirkuk, where last week a suicide bomb and ethnic clashes killed 25 people. The delay was also likely to add to frustrations in other mixed provinces -- such as Baghdad, Nineveh and Diyala -- where a Sunni Arab boycott of 2005 elections created lopsided provincial councils dominated by Shiites and Kurds.
In Anbar province, Sunni tribes that joined U.S. forces in opposing Islamic extremists have wanted elections so they could try to wrest power from their Sunni rivals in the Iraqi Islamic Party.
The breakdown came amid a banner time for the Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has witnessed falling death rates; successful military campaigns in southern Iraq since the spring; and the return to the national government of Iraq's main Sunni political bloc, which had boycotted the Cabinet for a year.
But fighting is still occurring in Iraq, and the relative calm is fragile. U.S. military commanders and Iraq experts worry that an unexpected event could set off a new cycle of violence among dueling ethnicities and sects.
The political crisis started July 22 when Arabs and Turkmens in parliament surprised the Kurds, recent kingmakers in Iraqi politics, with a call for a secret vote on the election bill's clause dealing with Kirkuk. In a twist, even some of the Kurds' longtime Shiite allies abandoned them, and the Kurds walked out as the measure was approved.
The country's three-member presidency council, headed by Talabani, then vetoed the bill, citing as illegal the secret ballot in parliament.
Efforts to rescue the troubled legislation have gone into overdrive since Sunday, with the constant meetings involving political bloc leaders, the United Nations and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. At one point, President Bush phoned Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, in hopes of getting the Kurds to compromise on Kirkuk.
The parliament made a final stab Wednesday at bringing the bill to a vote after approving a $21-billion supplemental budget for the rest of the year. Instead, the parliament opted to reconvene Sept. 9 and to set up a committee to continue negotiations in the short term.
U.S. officials expressed dismay over the deadlock.
"The election law cannot be held hostage to the Kirkuk issue, so we hope very much that the Council of Representatives will continue to seek a compromise that will be adopted promptly," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.
Times staff writers Saif Hameed, Saif Rasheed and Usama Redha contributed to this report.
Source / Los Angeles Times
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This 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Alloy Competizione did not sell at the high bid of $4,400,000 during the Gooding & Company “Scottsdale Auction” held January 17th in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In the summer months of 1959, after completing the last 13 examples of the venerable 250 Tour de France models, Ferrari constructed the forefather of the Short-Wheelbase Berlinetta (SWB). Seven “interim” cars based on the long-wheelbase chassis were built to test the design that would soon be applied to the forthcoming short-wheelbase chassis. Their first competition appearance was at the 1959 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and it proved promising for Ferrari’s newest Gran Turismo.
Following the introduction of the “interim” prototypes, the design of the car had been further refined and the first official Ferrari 250 GT SWB appeared on Ferrari’s stand at the Paris Salon. With revisions to its smoothly tapered curves and an imposing egg crate grille filled with Marchal lamps, the SWB possessed a much more aggressive and purposeful appearance than its predecessor. Underneath, the chassis was improved as well. The suspension boasted stiffer springs, adjustable shock absorbers and antiroll bars, and very importantly, the new car was equipped with 4-wheel disc brakes, a first for a Ferrari Berlinetta. The short wheelbase and light weight imbued the car with brilliant handling characteristics and nearly perfect manners, whether drifting through corners on a track or driving quickly through a narrow road course. Competizione cars received larger brake calipers, outside fuel fillers, upgraded suspension and lightweight aluminum bodywork. Above all, the Competizione SWB models were equipped with the type 168 B motor. Built strictly for racing, this engine featured a horizontally mounted oil filter, Testa Rossa heads, coil-type valve springs, velocity stacks and individual ports and was capable of producing upwards of 270 bhp.
The new Ferrari 250 GT SWB was not homologated during its earliest races thereby forcing it to compete directly with purpose-built sports racing cars where it was an instant success. Had it been homologated sooner, the three cars entered for the 1960 Sebring would have easily swept the GT category. At the Targa Florio, a still yet-to-be-homologated SWB finished 9th overall in front of the GT class winner – a 1959 Tour de France (TdF). At the Grand Prix of Rouen in the summer of 1960, the new Ferraris finished in 3rd and 4th place and it was clear to all who witnessed its earliest outings that the SWB was the car to beat heading into Le Mans. Without much competition, a pack of SWBs finished Le Mans in 4th to 7th place overall and swept 1st through 4th place of the GT class embarrassing even the most sophisticated sports racing cars.
After that impressive performance the Short-Wheelbase went on to win the 25th Tourist Trophy at Goodwood and a week later proved victorious at Brands Hatch. The racing successes would continue for the next few years with an incredible string of successes at Nassau, Silverstone, the Daytona Continental, the Coppa Inter-Europe, Spa-Francorchamps, the Tour de France, Montlhery and the Nurburgring. After taking European races by storm, the SWB began racing extensively in the US, where it dominated SCCA competition for several years.
The SWB is one of the most successful Ferrari GTs ever constructed. It is a car that competed with unrivaled success in rallies, races and hill climbs. Today, they are still a force to be reckoned with whether competing in competitive vintage racing, driving events or concours d’elegance. While its predecessor, the TdF, is a touch too temperamental and cramped to be used on the road, and its successor, the mythical GTO, is either unobtainable or too raucous to be lived with on the street, a Short-Wheelbase is at home on road or track, and its gorgeous, timeless design ensures that it appeals to nearly every enthusiast – to many, the 250 GT SWB remains the epitome of the Ferrari Gran Turismo.
Chassis Number 1759 GT
From the outset, 1759 GT was built to win races at the highest levels of competition. As is noted on the build sheets, this car was built specifically to compete at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans. On January 18, 1960, the bare chassis frame was sent to Carrozzeria Scaglietti to be fitted with a lightweight alloy body. While this work was being carried out, the major mechanical components were being completed at the Ferrari factory and tested. Built for the explicit purpose of racing at Le Mans, 1759 GT incorporated every competition component available at the time, from the alloy gearbox casing to the 128 LM heads used on the 250 Testa Rossa.
When the Tipo 539 chassis was completed on March 17 it was only the 6th of 165 Short-Wheelbase Berlinetta cars ever built – around 40 of these were factory built as competizione cars like 1759 GT. Little more than a month had passed before the completed car was taken to the challenging Monza Autodrome where it was factory tested in preparation for Le Mans. At Monza, Ferrari’s great factory drivers – Richie Ginther, Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips – put the initial test mileage on the car and assured that 1759 GT was well sorted for its competition debut.
Soon after, on June 18, with financing from Dr. Harvey Schur of Scarsdale, New York, Luigi Chinetti Motors of New York purchased the car from Ferrari. Its destiny was to compete at Le Mans as Luigi Chinetti’s entry for the fabled North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.)
The 28th Annual 24 Hours of Le Mans was held on June 25, 1960, and 1759 GT appeared on track, ready to do battle against one of the most impressive grids Le Mans had yet to see. When seen on track, the car was finished as when it left the factory, in red with a black interior, however, by the time it had arrived in France 1759 GT wore a distinctive white and blue noseband with a N.A.R.T. insignia and was fitted with rear brake cooling scoops placed in front of the rear wheels, a bug deflector and narrow TdF-style Borrani wire wheels.
Ed Hugus and Augie Pabst, who had just come from an impressive 4th overall performance at Sebring, were the pilots. Wearing number 19, the car fought through the day and night against stiff competition that included Testa Rossas, DBR1s, RSKs and three other factory-prepared SWBs. At the end of the 24 hours, 1759 GT crossed the finish line, finishing 7th overall and 4th in the Gran Turismo class. The car had finished the legendary race at an impressive average of 104 mph and only 14 laps behind the winning 250 TR 59 of Gendebien and Frère.
In late 1961, after its glorious outing in France, Dr. Schur returned his SWB to Chinetti Motors at which time the instruments were changed from kilometers to miles. In early 1962, the car was sold to Gil Horton, an avid racing enthusiast living in Jamestown, North Dakota, and as early as June 30, 1759 GT was entered in the 4th Annual Black Otter Hillclimb in Billings, organized by the Montana Sports Car Club. Mr. Horton continued to use the car enthusiastically and it subsequently made appearances at a number of American racing events. Later in 1962, it was seen in the paddock at the 500-mile race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
By 1967, Horton had sold the car to California resident Mark Slotkin, who in turn sold the car to knowledgeable Ferrari enthusiast, Charles Betz and his business partner Fred Peters. Betz held on to the Ferrari until 1974 when it was sold to another Southern California-based Ferrari enthusiast Phillip Bronner of Rancho Palos Verdes. At the time 1759 GT was registered on the black California license plate ZZX 073. In August 1975, Bronner raced his prized SWB at the second running of the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca where it performed very well in its heat. After taking a year off, Bronner entered his car into the 4th Annual Historics and continued to race the car at the Historics for the next few years. After the races in 1980, Mr. Bronner sold 1759 GT to another enthusiast and vintage racer, Peter Giddings.
Mr. Giddings continued to use the car before selling it to Tom Mudd in 1983. Mr. Mudd took care of the car for almost 20 years during which time he commissioned Kent White to begin restoration work. The work was not completed and, in 2002, he sold 1759 GT to Martin Eyears. By October of that year, the car was sent to Tony Merrick’s famed GTO Engineering where an exhaustive and extremely accurate restoration was commenced. During the process, it was apparent that the car had remained in largely original condition, with all its bodywork, original engine and mechanical components still intact, even after almost four decades of racing.
By 2005, 1759 GT was in the hands of Peter Le Saffre, who returned the car to vintage racing, competing in the XV Palm Beach Cavallino Classic in Florida in January 2006. That summer the car was sold to its current owner who has since shown the car at the XVI Cavallino Classic at the Breakers Hotel and has run at Road Atlanta. During this time the car has been carefully maintained and serviced by Wayne Obrey’s Motion Products and David Moore’s Moorespeed, two of the best names in vintage Ferrari race preparation. Moorespeed has maintained the car for the past several years and has tended to the purpose-built racing engine, which has been built to be competitive at the highest levels of vintage racing. In its build, Carillo Rods, CP pistons and titanium valves have been used, providing amounts of power and reliability that were unheard of in the 1960s. In its preparation, a roll cage, fire safety system and Willans racing harness have been installed to comply with the current vintage-racing standards.
1759 GT is one of the earliest Short-Wheelbase Berlinettas ever built. Moreover, it was one of the first SWBs campaigned by Ferrari in its bid for the 1960 Manufacturers Championship. This car is currently presented in its 1960 Le Mans livery and is equipped with the handsome, early version of the crackle-finish dashboard, unique competizione features and includes its original engine, TdF-style wheels and the Snap exhaust system that the car raced with at Le Mans in 1960. 1759 GT boasts an unparalleled preparation, extremely authentic restoration and a history that is beyond reproach, with an impressive record at the world’s most important racing events. The Short-Wheelbase Berlinetta is a racing legend, a landmark design and a virtually guaranteed entry into any prestigious international event where it will be a staunch competitor on or off the track. The SWB remains one of Ferrari’s finest, and is the last great dual-purpose sports car ever constructed in the Golden Era of GT racing.
[Source: Photos by Pawel Litwinski © 2008, Courtesy of Gooding & Company] | <urn:uuid:21e65415-05be-4014-a43f-0a451f996f33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sportscardigest.com/ferrari-250-gt-swb-alloy-competizione-car-profile/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968795 | 2,414 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Your vision could have been a waking dream -- that is, a dream that you experience while you are quite awake or sleepy. These are relatively rare, but they do occur. I've had them myself. Or it could have been a hallucination. Either the waking dream or the hallucination could have been caused by the smell of the chemical cleaner you were using, possibly combined with your crouching position, which could have changed your blood pressure and temporarily restricted blood flow to the brain. This can cause your brain to do weird things, including memory lapses and even fleeting "visions". That's the most likely cause. Why you had this particular hallucination is anyone's guess, but we've all had equally puzzling dreams.
This is a strange world we live in, however, so without evidence either way we cannot entirely rule out the more remote and what would be considered paranormal possibilities:
- A dimensional shift -- A temporary slip into a parallel life in another dimension.
- Remote viewing -- For whatever reason, you were able to remote view this scientist in a laboratory. This might also be considered clairvoyance.
- Past life -- You were tuned in to the memory of a past life.
Again, I must stress that these are remote possibilities, but who can say for sure? If this was a waking dream or hallucination, however, it might be a good exercise for you to think about what significance it might have for you. Just as regular dreams can be examined and interpreted for their symbolism and relevance to our wide-awake lives, so too this vision might hold some insight regarding a fear, desire, ambition or interest that lies in your subconscious. | <urn:uuid:abaea232-e64f-4544-aa31-fddf4a4c2b2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paranormal.about.com/od/timeanddimensiontravel/f/faq_dimension_slip.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975544 | 339 | 1.523438 | 2 |
We earlier reported on the DOJ making work for its Civil Division with questionable disparate-impact lawsuits against banks over lending standards. Today's Investor's Business Daily (via Sailer) finds the problem even worse than that: as part of mau-mauing the banks into settlements so they don't face the bad publicity (and copycat litigation) from being called racist, the government insists on non-disclosure agreements so the banks can't publicly complain about the unreasonable tactics. Some of the settlements actually require banks to provide special rates for minorities:
In what could be a repeat of the easy-lending cycle that led to the housing crisis, the Justice Department has asked several banks to relax their mortgage underwriting standards and approve loans for minorities with poor credit as part of a new crackdown on alleged discrimination, according to court documents reviewed by IBD. ...
In several cases, the government has ordered bank defendants to post in all their branches and marketing materials a notice informing minority customers that they cannot be turned down for credit because they receive public aid, such as unemployment benefits, welfare payments or food stamps.
Among other remedies: favorable interest rates and down-payment assistance for minority borrowers with weak credit. ...
[I]ndustry analysts fear Attorney General Eric Holder is rekindling an anti-bank witch hunt launched by Attorney General Janet Reno in the 1990s, when Holder served as her deputy.
Some blame that in part for the subprime boom, because banks were ordered to throw open their lending windows to credit-poor minorities. That crackdown spurred the American Bankers Association to distribute to its thousands of members "fair-lend ing tool kits" advising the adoption of more permissive underwriting criteria to help inoculate them from prosecution.
In the new prosecutions, Justice acknowledges in every case it did not prove charges of intentional discrimination, while banks have denied any wrongdoing. ...
As part of settlement deals, prosecutors have required banks to sign "nondisclosure agreements" barring them from talking about the methods used to allege discrimination. Bank lawyers contend the prosecutors are trying to hide the shaky legal grounds on which the cases are built. "It's horrible what they're doing at the civil rights division," said Reginald Brown, a partner at Wilmer Hale in Washington, who has represented banks in connection to recent race-bias investigations. "They don't have any proof, just theories."
He added, "They want you to sign something saying you agree, under the condition of any settlement with them, that you won't disclose what their theories were. That's because their theories are loopy and wouldn't stand the light of day."
One such theory -- "disparate impact" -- holds that merely a difference in loan application outcomes is enough to prove racial discrimination -- even if no intent exists on the part of loan officers to contrast based on the color of applicants, and even legitimate business factors -- such as credit scores and down payments -- help explain disparities in loan outcomes between white and black applicants. | <urn:uuid:8aedc801-d167-467e-bdc0-0abac9c64f56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2011/07/doj-witch-hunt-.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969991 | 614 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Tag: lawrence county
A fact of life — or should we say death? — in this country is that whether or not you, as a human, get executed for a crime can depend largely on where your trial is held.
The same is kind of true of impounded dogs — one big difference being they get no trial, there’s usually no crime involved, and, having been surrendered or abandoned, they’re more often victims than criminals.
With dogs, most executions are not a matter of justice, but population control; and the likelihood of that fate varies not just from state to state, but from county to county. By and large, a dog’s chance of getting out of a county-run shelter alive depends primarily on what county they happen to be held in.
Just how much of a toss of the dice it can be was shown in a story Sunday by the Columbus Dispatch. It analyzed data from 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and found that, in 2011, they had kill rates varying from 1 percent to 81 percent.
Dogs who enter the shelter in Lawrence County, in southeastern Ohio, have less than a two in ten chance of getting out alive. Meanwhile, in Carroll County, in northeastern Ohio, only 1 percent of dogs were destroyed, the lowest rate in the state.
The story included a county-by-county interactive map, showing kill and adoption rates.
It’s some exceptional reporting — the kind newspapers should be doing more of — and it clearly shows that, even when they’re right next door, some places value dogs’ lives more than others, and work harder to place and save them.
Statewide, more than 100,000 dogs are impounded annually in Ohio’s county-run animal shelters, and roughly 30 percent, or 30,000, were euthanized in 2011. (Nationally, it’s estimated that 3 to 4 million dogs are euthanized a year.)
“It looks bad. That’s awful,” Lawrence County Dog Warden Bill Click said of the data showing his shelter had the highest kill rate in the state. He added that the county is working to improve those numbers. Lawrence County, like many others, often euthanizes dogs when the shelter gets too crowded.
The best dog wardens, the story points out, are more than wardens. (Is it time to change that outdated term?) They publicize their county shelters, welcome volunteers and visitors, post photos and profiles of their adoptable online and work with rescue groups.
But while some fight daily to keep euthanasia rates low, it seems a lower priority in many counties: 13 have kill rates higher than 50 percent.
Some dog wardens question whether it’s fair to compare the rates of urban and rural dog shelters, saying urban areas generally take in more aggressive animals that have been trained to guard property or fight other dogs, as well as more dogs that have been injured by cars.
But even among urban areas, some county shelters do a far better job than others.
Of Ohio’s urban areas, Hamilton County had the lowest kill rate, at 30 percent. The county contracts with the Cincinnati SPCA, which has worked to reduce adoption prices, extend foster care and bring animals with heartworm and other medical problems back to health, rather than putting them down.
Pit bulls have been most often destined for euthanasia — at least until Ohio dropped its ban and put a new law in place in May of this year that no longer automatically brands them vicious.
Animal welfare advocates have also succeeded in pressuring two counties, Athens and Fairfield, to stop using the gas chamber to euthanize dogs.
They were less successful in Hocking County, where, despite demonstrations and a call to switch to lethal injection, county commissioners decided to continue using gas.
Posted by jwoestendiek October 22nd, 2012 under Muttsblog.
Tags: adoption rates, animal control, animal welfare, animals, carroll county, chances, columbus, control, counties, county, death, death penalty, dispatch, dog wardens, dogs, euthanasia, euthanized, execution, gas chambers, interactive, justice, kill rates, lawrence county, lethal injection, life, location, map, news, newspaper, ohio, pets, population, rescues, shelters, survival, wardens | <urn:uuid:6b3ae5ef-0de3-4cd1-8d86-1977de71fe4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohmidog.com/tag/lawrence-county/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957954 | 915 | 1.53125 | 2 |
WATERFORD, N.Y. (AP) - A 125-mile stretch of the Erie Canal from the Albany area to Central New York is closed because of high water levels caused by heavy rains.
The state Canal Corp. says the waterway was shut down Tuesday from Lock E-2 at Waterford, just north of Albany, to Lock E-22 at Sylvan Beach, on the eastern end of Oneida Lake in Oneida County. The eastern half of the Erie Canal runs through the Mohawk Valley, where heavy rain fell during the day.
More rain was in the region's forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, with dry conditions expected to return Friday.
The closure comes just 10 days after the state canal system opened for the season.
Canal officials say about a dozen vessels were on the waterway when it was shut down. | <urn:uuid:910fc709-37cd-45b9-a896-17cc2e3935d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.9wsyr.com/mostpopular/story/High-water-closes-eastern-stretch-of-Erie-Canal/eh6O4RsYuUmcU6qSQINeZQ.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972288 | 174 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Open Hours: Mo to Sa from 10:00 AM to 06:00 PM,Su from 10:00 AM to 03:00 PM
This neoclassical building, declared part of the world's heritage, was built at the end of the 18th century and ... More
Instituto Cultural Cabañas
This neoclassical building, declared part of the world's heritage, was built at the end of the 18th century and inaugurated in 1810. Until 1980 it was the Casa de la Misericordia (House of Mercy) for orphans. The main hall, now the Capilla Clementina, was decorated in 1938 by the celebrated muralist Jose Clemente Orozco. His stirring masterpiece, "El Hombre de Fuego" (Man of Fire) can be found in the vault. Today the Institute's 23 courtyards and 106 rooms house the permanent collection by Orozco and other artists, as well as temporary exhibitions. For a stunning view of the Institute, stand at the edge of the water mirror — in the Plaza Tapatía — and look towards the back of the building. The Ballet Folklórico de Jalisco performs here Wednesdays at 8:30pm. There is also a gift shop.
A must see for the Orozco murals (not completely to my liking in their rather conventionally and inaccurately leftist portrayal of Mexican history, but nevertheless spectacular -- I'm one of those who thinks one of the worst things that ever happened to Mexico was Maximilian's overthrow and assassination) and, above all, for the marvelous surrealist bronzes in the grand plaza in front and in the central courtyard. The building itself is a magnificant example of colonial architecture, though the exterior of the dome leaves a lot to be desire in its proportions and turret-like design. Have a very cold Negra Modelo for just $1.50 at the outdoor cantina across the plaza, and enjoy taking in the quintessentially Mexican atmosphere and sights. Then wander up the Plaza Tapatio mall toward the Centro. I have spent many months in Mexico over the years, and this is one of my most favorite places in the entire country.
I stumbled upon the Instituto, coincidently enough when one of the in-house tour guides was starting his daily tour. It was amazing to hear the history of this landmark. If you are an admirer of Jose Clemente-Orozco's work I suggest you immerse yourself in the pleasure of viewing this "interactive" murals. The tour guides are very knowledgeable of the building and of Orozco's work.
Inside its impressive and large green areas you can temporarily isolate yourself from the noises of the city. It has
sports fields, an area with exercise machines, picnic spots and a bike track. Small vehicles can be rented to ...
Plaza del Sol is undoubtedly one of the most favored plazas in Guadalajara. Unlike many shopping centers, Plaza del Sol
is an outdoors area where you will find plenty of different boutiques, banks, ice cream parlors, restaurants, snack shops ...
Guadalajara's most prestigious theatre, the building features a neo classical portico atop Corinthian columns and a marble relief of Apollo
and the Nine Muses. Inside, the walls are brimming with murals. A variety of dramatic arts are staged here ...
*Terms & Conditions: Savings calculation is based on Flight + Hotel vacation package bookings for a 3 month period for 2 adults with a 2+ night length of stay compared to price of the same components if booked separately during same period. Savings will vary based on origin/destination, length of trip, travel dates and selected travel supplier(s). Savings not available on all packages. | <urn:uuid:778fcaa4-23de-4fb5-94ba-6e4d1782227e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2805042-instituto_cultural_cabanas_guadalajara-i | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938079 | 783 | 1.765625 | 2 |
A number of years ago, I remember hearing a debate on the radio. The question was whether they should have two separate Olympics: one for ‘clean’ athletes and one for those who openly took drugs.
Even as young as I was (this may have been ten years ago), I thought it was appalling that this was even considered. The drug-filled tournament would not be about breaking records. It would instead be a competition between drug companies on who could make Athlete A run faster, jump higher, throw further. And this assumes that every single drug an ‘athlete’ put into their body wouldn’t be damaging them for the rest of their lives. Drugs always have a price.
I have always had an anti-drug policy in sport, as, I hope, the majority of people have. Nonetheless, you can never completely keep drugs away from competition. It has been present for as long as drugs were available, and I’m sure there have been one or two fortunate enough to never get caught.
Even the IOC (International Olympic Committee) President, Jacques Rogge, believes London 2012 will not be free of drug cheats. Certainly, a clean games is probably something we can only ever dream of. Rogge says ”To say there will be no positive cases would be naive and misleading. I hope it’s the case, but reality tells me that there may be positive cases.” This implies that although there will be cheats, they will be caught. Rogge seems to believe there is enough testing. And so there may will be.
In April, the British Olympic Assocation (BOA) will challenge the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). WADA says that the BOA should not indefinitely ban all of its drug cheats from the Olympics after they have already served a ban, since this would be punishing the athlete twice. The BOA says it is a selection policy rather than a second punishment.
I don’t actually care if it is a second punishment. They deserve it. Let me make it clear, I’m not talking about athletes who take drugs innocently from their food or without realising the ingredients of Aspirin had changed. I’m talking about those who knowingly and willingly took drugs to enhance their performance.
They should be indefinitely banned from the Olympics. I don’t care if it’s their livelihood and if they’ve already served a five year ban. The Olympic medal is the highest honour an athlete can hope to achieve. Drug cheats do not deserve an opportunity to win one.
The BOA’s policy is a good one. It means that the athletes that represent Great Britain in the Olympics are clean, have always been clean and therefore deserve all the accolades that come their way. I don’t want to see Dwain Chambers win a medal. I don’t even want to see him run at Commonwealth or European or World level, but unfortunately, the BOA don’t see that as a selection issue in these events.
Drug cheats keep rising youngsters off the track. Every time Dwain Chambers has an opportunity to run for a place in the Europeans, a drug-free British youngster is losing out on that chance.
They broke the rules and should face the consequences.
No drug cheats in the Olympics. It’s just not right.
Therefore, I am standing alongside the BOA and hoping that the Court of Arbitration in Sport will agree with them too. | <urn:uuid:1cc6f5bc-b2c7-4778-8091-aeb9c5abe0e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slowlylearningtheoffsiderule.wordpress.com/tag/british-olympic-association/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974683 | 732 | 1.757813 | 2 |
CLEVELAND -- A Cleveland girl is recovering at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital Thursday night after touching a live, downed power line in Cleveland Thursday afternoon.
RBC officials say Gasia Thomas, 12, came in contact with a power line in her neighborhood Thursday afternoon, near the intersection of E. 130th Street and Iroquois Avenue.
A City of Cleveland spokesperson says the line is under the jurisdiction of CEI, a FirstEnergy company.
It is unclear how long the active line was down.
A family member found Gasia clinging to the line and called 911.
East Cleveland firefighters were first on the scene. When they arrived, the little girl's heart had stopped beating.
Firefighters were able to perform life-saving CPR and regain a pulse.
Gasia remains in critical condition in the Pediatric ICU at RBC.
Dr. Anthony DeRoss, Medical Director at the Trauma Center at RBC, says Gasia's skin burns are just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to her injuries.
"It causes severe shock injury throughout the body, to the cardiac system as well to the muscles and tissues within the body," Dr. DeRoss said.
FirstEnergy released a statement Thursday night on the incident:
"We are currently investigating the tragic incident. The individual was transported to Rainbow Babies Hospital. (We )don't have any further information about the incident at this time. It's very important to remind everyone to stay well away from downed power lines, and not assume that they are de-energized."
"Any instance of a downed wire should be reported by calling 1-888-LIGHTSS or a local police or fire department to ensure the hazard is known and appropriate actions can be taken to preserve safety. Also, people should not touch or attempt to move limbs or other debris that are touching power lines, as they also present a danger."
A FirstEnergy spokesperson says power lines are still coming down, even days after Sandy passed through the area.
The Cleveland Department of Public Safety is warning people not to touch or even go near a downed or hanging power line.
Call 911 or you local utility company to report wires. Cleveland Public Power can be reached at 216-664-3156 and CEI at 888-544-4877. | <urn:uuid:c1f9a171-8d6b-45d3-b2f2-783f0442fc9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/267535/45/Cleveland-Girl-critical-after-touching-downed-line | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961709 | 477 | 1.585938 | 2 |
While in Paris recently, Natalie Portman announced that she would become the ambassador for Free The Children, an international charity and educational partner founded by a Canadian children’s rights activist, Craig Kielburger.
Free The Children is a great organization that most recently supported the development of the Kisaruni All-Girls Secondary Boarding School in Kenya.
"Investing in long term sustainable international development, which includes education, is key to breaking the cycle of poverty.
As a mother and the organization’s newest ambassador, I am grateful to Free the Children for giving me the opportunity to channel my passion and love of children into meaningful action that furthers the education and leadership of young women for years to come. I hope others join me in supporting this important cause."
The organization will continue to fight child labor and work on solving the problems of poverty and exploitation while fighting for clean water, sanitation, healthcare and much more.
And with Natalie's help it seems it'll now be that much easier for them to accomplish their goals.
[Image via Apega/WENN.] | <urn:uuid:519e4935-3efd-4797-b44f-b69347e37442> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://perezhilton.com/fitperez/2012-04-06-natalie-portman-is-the-new-ambassador-for-the-childrens-charity-free-the-children | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949548 | 223 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Sean Glaccum takes you on a tour of whitewater gems in his guidebook, The Idaho Paddler. It includes 72 different runs on rivers, creeks and falls. There's also a color photo from each of the runs.
- For each run, information on the character of the trip, season it's available, gauge (if any) location, trip length, recommended craft type and rapids class.
- Directions are given for both put-in and take out locations.
- This guidebook is useful for both rafters and kayakers.
- Multiday, day stretch and park-and-play spots are all included.
- A full color photo from each run is also included, helping give you a sense of what the stretch is like.
- The companion DVD, (sold separately), has exciting video footage of many of the runs covered in the book.
Author: Sean Glaccum
Size: 5 1/4" x 8" | <urn:uuid:9b204484-870b-4c66-940d-236b7db9e9ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=3373&pdeptid=1074 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934715 | 202 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Early settlers came to Clinton From New York state and named the village after their state governor, Dewitt Clinton. The site of the Clinton Inn was first settled by Alpheius Kies, who built a log house. After several changes in ownership, Alonzo Clark built the present 3-story brick hotel. It officially opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1901.
Originally the building featured fireplaces, of which four remain, a ball room over the adjacent store and a drummers room - a traveling salesman's place to display his wares - in what is now our Tavern.
The hotel' has three stories; the second floor is all guest rooms while the third is apartments. This was done in the mid 1980's, along with adding a second dining room which was once a retail store.
The hotel was purchased by us in December of 1990. It contains two dining rooms, a bar, 10 guest rooms, and four apartments. | <urn:uuid:34fd9cb0-52c9-4164-8744-f8377a527298> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theclintoninn.com/main/inn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982887 | 189 | 1.75 | 2 |
Sikorsky's Marc Poland
Marc Poland of Sikorsky lifts the lid on the safer, faster helicopters of tomorrow.
Igor Sikorsky didn’t invent the helicopter, but he did come up with the design and rotor configuration on which all subsequent helicopters were based. So, for Marc Poland, vice-president of the company that bears Igor’s name, and man in charge of its commercial helicopters business, looking out onto a helicopter technology exhibition is almost like overseeing a family legacy.
‘That’s a fair characterisation,’ he said, in a conference room off the bustling exhibition floor at the recent Helitech event. ‘But we’ve pushed the boundaries of size on from Igor Sikorsky’s very first helicopter, which was a very small, single-seat aircraft, and through our history have made bigger and bigger aircraft. We’re now the biggest providers of what you might call government helicopters, for military missions and for offshore oil industry personnel transport, and search and rescue.’ Among Sikorsky’s helicopters are the workhorse S-92, which can carry 22 passengers; the smaller S-70, the basis of the military Black Hawk; and the enormous, heavy-lift S-80 Super Stallion, whose newest model will be able to lift 27,000lb.
It’s been a bad year for helicopters, as Poland freely admits. In the UK alone this year there have been eight serious accidents and 22 fatalities. ‘I don’t honestly believe it’s a downward trend in operations or the attributes of the helicopters; it’s the roll of the dice that they’ve all happened this year. All the incidents have been unrelated to each other and any of them could have happened at any time, but the fact that they’ve been close together has refocused us within the industry on the sensitivity of flight and the costs of accidents, which is very high, of course. Safety is at the front of people’s minds, in a way that it perhaps wasn’t a year ago.’
All of the major helicopter producers are therefore addressing safety, even though it’s always been a paramount consideration. ‘We look at three general areas where we can improve safety,’ Poland explained. ‘There’s what happens in the cockpit, to do with the activities of the pilot and the way that information is presented to him. Then there’s the mechanics of the aircraft itself and, finally, there’s the maintenance of the helicopter.’
Within the cockpit, development is focused on automating aspects of flight, such as autopilot functions to stabilise the approach to oil rigs, freeing the pilot up from complex multi-tasking. ‘Other companies have put helicopters in the water on rig approach and that’s partly down to the demands on the pilot, communicating with the rig and the passengers while checking on the weather, observing what’s around the rig, watching the instruments and flying the aircraft,’ he said. ‘The only thing that stopped it happening to us wasn’t the excellence of the product, it was just that we weren’t struck with bad luck. So we’re actively developing automated systems, such as enhanced ground-proximity warning and autopilots that work out and fly approaches to oil rigs from any position, and get the aircraft to a set distance and direction from the landing platform. These things make the pilot’s job easier and the whole thing safer.’
Sikorsky’s engineers are focused on mechanical problems that occur in flight. ‘Current aviation regulations are relatively demanding in terms of fault tolerance and flaw tolerance, but even aircraft that are fully certified can fail. We keep looking for failure modes that perhaps might have been tolerated in the past and our engineering department uses those to see how we can make the aircraft safer.’
Throughout the lifetime of the helicopter, the mechanical stresses and strains make them more vulnerable to failure, and they certainly require more stringent inspection than other aircraft, Poland said. ‘We have more moving parts and a higher degree of vibration all over the aircraft. There are mechanical actuators that have to move at 17Hz, driveshafts spinning at ungodly speeds, unbelievable torques moving through the whole airframe — if you wanted to design a way to torture metal, this is it.’
Apart from making the craft safer, Sikorsky’s development programme is focused on the same goals as any other aircraft manufacturer. ‘Range, payload and cost, but safety above all,’ Poland said. In particular, the company is looking at speed and range, with an innovative type of helicopter currently under development.
Meanwhile, Poland said, the UK is a particular focus for the helicopter sector. ‘The SAR-H programme here, which is looking at commercialising coastal search and rescue, makes the UK one of the most hotly contested markets right now,’ he said. Currently, CHC Helicopters has two S-92 search and rescue helicopters operating out of Stornaway and Sumburgh in Scotland, which is acting as an advance trial of a larger network of 24 helicopters to operate around the British coast. CHC has formed a consortium with Thales and the Royal Bank of Scotland to bid for the SAR-H contract, which will run from 2012. ‘That’s a big deal, a huge deal — 24 aircraft of that size, with all the accompanying operations, for 20 years. It’s approaching a £1bn programme,’ Poland said. ‘We’re in a leading position.
We believe CHC’s S-92s are being run very well and we’re told the contract will be decided by the end of this year.’
Q&A - Designing the helicopter of the future
Is there likely to be a step-change in helicopter design in coming years, or will there be incremental development of the existing design?
In the 1950s, fixed-wing aircraft got faster and faster until we hit the sound barrier. That forced a step change. Helicopters have a physical limitation that’s perhaps more imposing than the sound barrier. We generate lift by moving aerofoil blades through the air. In a hover, the wind on all those blades is the same through the rotation, but as you move forward, you have an advancing blade moving towards the front of the aircraft and a retreating blade on the other side. The speed of the advancing blade is its tip speed from the rotation added to the forward speed of the helicopter and on the retreating side you subtract the helicopter speed from the rotational speed. The barrier comes where the tip is retreating at the same velocity as you’re going forward, which means you can’t generate lift. That’s called retreating blade stall; it affects all helicopters and it occurs at around 170-180 knots.
How can you avoid it if you are still using a rotor to generate lift?
We’re doing it by having two rotors mounted one on top of the other, rotating in opposite directions. That means that we have advancing blades on both sides of the helicopter, so we don’t have to care so much about the retreating blade. This craft also has a pusher prop on the back. We don’t have to generate forward thrust by tilting the main rotor forward, which is how conventional helicopters work; that becomes very inefficient at high speed. We can keep level, with the fuselage and the rotor plane horizontal, and push ourselves through the air with the prop.
So the thrust comes from the pusher prop and the main rotors only provide lift?
Exactly. We have a demonstrator craft, called the X2, flying now. It hovers off the main rotors, transitions into forward movement by tilting the rotor, but over the range of speed it trims back out as the pusher prop starts to deliver thrust. The view from the development engineers is that we’ll get well north of 200 knots, maybe as far as 240–250 knots, with a power level roughly the same as a conventional helicopter.
What’s the potential market for these new craft?
There are some missions that require speed and the military would be very quick to adopt it. For example, if you’re transporting troops in V-22 Ospreys, they can fly faster than a helicopter gunship escort. Jet fighter escorts have to keep doing passes and meanwhile, the V-22 is up there on its own. The X2 configuration would give us a ship that can go at the cruise speed of the V-22 and even a bit faster for defensive dashes. As it matures, we think it’ll have commercial applications as well, especially in search and rescue and emergency services where faster speeds and longer ranges could be important.
How soon could this be seen in the field?
With the first demonstrator now flying, I think we could see a production version at air shows in maybe five years.
Biography ofMarc Poland, Vice-president, global helicopters Sikorsky
BA in Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University
MBA Georgetown University Graduate School of Business
1980 Joined Sikorsky on Management Leadership Development Programme. Subsequently headed up engineering programme on MH-60K Blackhawk and was business and programme manager for S-92
2001 Lead for business management supporting commercial sales, managed all proposal operations
2007 Vice-president in charge of commercial business unit
2009 Vice-president in charge of newly created Sikorsky Global Helicopters unit
Poland has also served as a guest lecturer and project advisor at the University of New Haven and the US Military Academy at West Point | <urn:uuid:2b6e6bfa-1981-4bfd-8a15-bfc18176adf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/interviews/sikorskys-marc-poland/313519.article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954437 | 2,048 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
In honor of all the new planets that have popped up this week, here's Youngest Nephew and his new, youthful solar system. (As represented by superballs).
Baby Planets Cerus, Cheron and 2003 UB 313 (Nicknamed Xena) are all represented, but you can't see them all. Cheron and Xena are in the hallway, because they are just "too far away to be in the close room." And one of those balls is supposed to be the sun, but not a red one. So there. | <urn:uuid:1ca2f786-df15-4570-aee1-6af0cafba7f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neverthateasy.blogspot.com/2006/08/my-very-exceptional-mother-could-just.html?showComment=1156015980000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94913 | 134 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The House of Lords the upper house of Parliament -- resolved Monday to limit, but not forbid, the right of parents to punish their children by slapping or spanking them, changing a 144-year-old law that gave parents the right to hit children as ''reasonable chastisement'' for misbehavior.
The vote represented a victory for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who opposed an outright ban on hitting and supported an alternative proposal for physical punishment that caused neither physical nor mental harm.
For those who oppose punishing children by hitting them -- known in England as smacking -- the debate surrounding the vote was part of a campaign to secure for children the same protection against violence as is enjoyed by adults.
But for Mr. Blair, the argument also evoked the question of whether Britain had become what his critics call a ''nanny state,'' intruding into the privacy of citizens' homes and families.
The discussion offered the Lords two options: to approve an outright ban on hitting, or to back a new law that would permit such punishment provided it did not cause physical or mental harm. Any striking that caused bruising, scratching or reddening of the skin would be unlawful.
''The question is whether all parental smacking should constitute a criminal offense, even where it does not cause physical or mental harm,'' said Lord Lester of Herne Hill, from the Liberal Democratic opposition, who, like Mr. Blair, opposed a ban.
After several hours of debate, the House of Lords rejected an outright ban by 250 to 75, but supported the limited measure allowing such punishment by 226 to 91. The vote was held after the government ordered its supporters to vote against an outright ban.
The discussion is part of a major effort to overhaul the child protection system after the death in February 2000 of Victoria Climbie, an 8-year-old girl killed by her supposed guardians after being sent to England from Ivory Coast.
The vote still has to be confirmed in the lower House of Commons, where Mr. Blair has an overwhelming majority.
Before the vote, Mr. Blair's spokesman said: ''The government wants an outcome that maintains the balance between the parent's right to discipline and protecting the child. That is why we don't want to criminalize parents. That is why we are opposed to outright bans. The government wants to send a signal that parents do have a right to discipline the child.''
Some of the discussions on Monday revolved around what exactly is meant by ''smacking,'' the term used in the measure, with opponents of a total ban saying the law should draw a distinction between beating and a ''mild smacking'' behind closed doors.
''I think we should avoid a lot of weasel words like 'smacking' and 'tapping on the leg' -- hitting is hitting,'' said the author Salman Rushdie, a supporter of an outright ban, before the debate.
''Nobody suggests that a man should hit a woman to bring her into line as long as he doesn't really hurt her,'' Mr. Rushdie said in a radio interview. ''The same thing is true about her children.'' Hitting a child is already outlawed in about a dozen European Union countries.
In the House of Lords, however, Lord Lester took issue with the idea of likening violence between adults to parents hitting children.''It is a total misunderstanding of the principle of equality to ignore the context of parental discipline,'' he said.
Other peers, however, argued that hitting should be avoided because it ''can lead to battering, which can lead to death,'' in the words of Lord Thomas of Gresford, a Liberal Democratic peer.
Moreover, he said, the legal justification of striking for the purposes of ''reasonable chastisement'' had initially been intended to cover the beating of slaves, the discipline of school pupils and the behavior of prison guards restraining felons.
''In all these areas, save that of parent and child, I think we have moved on as a society,'' he said. | <urn:uuid:e644828b-021f-4b85-829b-ce108edc2a6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/world/the-house-of-lords-restrains-the-hand-that-hits-the-child.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964322 | 810 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Category Archives: Planning 101
One of the most sought after Disney Discounts is the elusive Disney Pin Code. While Disney releases great Discounts to the Parks that are available to everyone there are a few discounts Mickey hides up his sleeves.
While there is no sure-fire way to get a Disney Pin code I am going to offer up a few tricks I have done that has nabbed me several Disney Pin codes in my email & snail mail box every few months. Remember these Pin Codes are non transferable and is linked to you and your address so sharing is not allowed.
- Head over to the Disney World or Disneyland site and create an account. My suggestion would be create and account for yourself and then one for your spouse, partner, kids, etc. Just so long as you can get to the email account. I did one for my work email @chipandco.com and one for my gmail account.
- Order a Disney Planning DVD. If you goto the links about you will see a graphic where you can order one. I do this every year. It’s free and doesn’t cost you a thing. When you get it make up some popcorn and have a fun Disney Family Night watching it.
- Play around on the Disney sites. Create a vacation and save it. Browse deals and offers. Just make sure your logged in. Disney monitors all the things you do on their site so believe they are watching you.
- Register for Giveaways. I post a lot of the Disney Giveaways on the Chip and Company site so be sure to enter them and again make sure you are logged in. Just bookmark this link and you can enter ours or any other Disney Giveaway I find on the net.
- Book your vacation through Disney. In the past I booked our vacation online on the Disney World website myself. While I love Disney Travel Agents sometimes I try to mix things up and do it myself. Not sure if this works but I would imagine you would be in their database somewhere.
- Photopass. Make sure you have an account there as well. I highly recommend using this free service at the parks and make sure you use a valid email address for your account. You know the Disney Marketing Machine has to share emails between its other departments.
- Be patient. While you may not get one right away just keep plugging away. Eventually you might get one.
I know for me it has taken several years to get one but now they come in pretty regular. We were debating on using our Free Dining for our upcoming trip. If you have any Disney Pin Code Tips or Tricks let us know in the comment box below.
- Walt Disney World Pin Codes-The Mystery Explained (thepracticalplanner.blogspot.com)
- Beginners Guide to Disney Pin Trading (chipandco.com)
I just returned from Walt Disney World after being there for 9 days, and I wanted to make sure to tell you about something that can save you BIG on your Disney vacation… ordering off the kids menu.
If you are really wanting to save some cash on your next Disney vacation then when eating quick service (aka counter service) order off of the KIDS Menu instead of the adult menu. You can read more about counter service HERE. Let me see if I can break it down for you with an example:
The adults meal is a little pricy. It is an Angus burger, about 1/4 pound and the smallest version of the adult drink goes for $11.58 (pre-tax).
The meal comes with a burger and fries. That’s it. You have to pay for that drink separately.
The kids burger meal goes for $5.40 (pre-tax). It includes a burger, fries (if you want them), an additional side item (I had grapes) AND a small drink.
So lets compare.
- Both have burgers. You can see from the picture that the adults is larger, but not by all that much.
- Both have the same amount of fries (you can see they’re on the same size plate).
- Kids meal comes with an additional side item.
- Kids meal comes with a small drink. (Pecos does not have re-fillable drinks but there are many others that DO have refillable drinks so size doesn’t matter there at all).
- Adult meal costs $11.58, Kids meal costs $5.40
So for those of you who are not math genius’ (like me) that’s more than DOUBLE for the adult meal than the kids meal.
If you were really hungry you could actually buy TWO kids meals if you were really hungry and have:
- - TWO drinks (which would equal the same amount of one adult)
- - TWO burgers (which together would be significantly more than the adult burger)
- - DOUBLE the amount of fries
- - AND get a bag of grapes AND A COOKIE
AND YOU’D STILL SAVE .78 on the adult meal!
This applies to breakfasts too!
The kids version? 4.99 which is .70. No big deal alone, but you missed something. With an adult you’d still have to buy a drink unless you’d pre-paid for a resort mug. With the kids meal I got that chocolate milk, AND applesauce, along with my bacon and mickey waffles. I got more food for less money.
So why don’t more people do it? Well I think they’re worried they’re “going to get in trouble”. Let me reassure you… (because I eat off the kids menu all the time), the people checking you out don’t REMOTELY care what you’ve ordered or how old you are. The table-service people do because they make a tip off of your ticket, but they wouldn’t let you order off the kids meal anyhoo!
So, you want a big value that will save you a lot at Walt Disney World and Disneyland? Order off of the kids menu when eating quick service and then if you’re still hungry spring for one of these bad boys!
PS. This doesn’t work if you’re using the Disney Dining Plan. They’re going to take adult credits anyway so you might as well eat “bigger” (but this also makes me question if the dining plan is REALLY worth it. (to be discussed HERE at a later date so stay tuned!
You can get many more money saving tips from the Disney Diva by clicking HERE!
- Oops, I Did It Again! Unexpected trip to Disney World (chipandco.com)
- Top 10 Table Service Meals at the WDW Parks (chipandco.com)
You’re excited! You’ve discovered you can actually get in the parks before they “officially” open by making an early advanced dining reservation. You get an 8am reservation for Tusker House and are ecstatic. But then you have a strange revelation… resort buses don’t start running until 1 hour before park opening. How am I going to GET to my reservation since I’m staying on property and I don’t have a car???
I recently had a reader ask a question similar to this and was baffled. I have not encountered this issue myself, so I set out to find the information and get it to the faithful Chip & Co readers!
It is correct that buses start running one hour before park opens (this is crazy to me. I don’t know how I have never heard of this before, but I haven’t!!) I called Pop Century‘s front desk and they were unable to find the answer for me. Then our co-writer, Jodi at Magical Mouse Schoolhouse, called her travel agent friend and got this answer:
This seems to be the most simple solution, but there are a few more options if you are feeling unsure.
1) Rent a car. This seems to be the worst option to me as its costly, you’ll have to pay for park, you’ll deal with stroller issues on the tram, and you’ll only be doing all that hassle so you can eat an hour before everybody else.
2) Call a taxi in order to make sure you’re there in plenty of time. They recommend checking in 15 minutes a head of time, but it will be less of an issue if you’re the first reservation of the day. I would recommend that you you need to call for a yellow cab directly at (407) 699-9999. Unless you are desperate, use only the yellow cabs (sedans and vans) with meters! There are different brand names on the vehicles (Yellow Cab, Checker, City or Safety), but they all are yellow and all operated by Mears Transportation, which has an official relationship with Disney.
3) Be standing at your bus stop at 8am ready to go and hope that the bus gets you in on time. Remember that you can be up to 30 minutes late for an ADR before they cancel your reservation.
4) Move your reservation back some to give yourself a cushion.
So the bottom line is have a plan if you’re booking a dining reservation at a time that is before parks are scheduled to open in order to avoid quite a stressful situation! Happy Eating!
- The Disney Diva, www.tipsfromthedisneydiva.com
- Donald’s Safari Breakfast at Tusker House. (everythingwdisneyworld.com)
- Benefits of staying on Disney World Property (chipandco.com)
When I was at Disney World last week I decided to turn on my Garmin watch for 5 hours and see how far I walked. 11 miles. I walked ELEVEN MILES in 5 hours! Now I have been training for the Princess Half Marathon for about 6 months. So I’ve basically been in a constant state of “soreness”, so it didn’t bother me that much. However my dear friend Lisa, well her legs and feet ached.
They hurt so much she couldn’t even fall asleep.
And she’s not alone! Every day moms and dads long for a stroller of their own as they hoof it around Walt Disney World.
There are things you can do that will help like making sure you wear appropriate shoes, make sure that you’ve blister-proofed your feet and more, but what do you do when your legs and feet are throbbing from over-use?
Well my first suggestion would be to make sure you pack icy-hot! You can get it at your local grocery store or drug store. Yes, its stinky, but you’ll be oh so happy that you opted for it.
If you struggle with tight calves, quads and hamstrings anyway I would suggest purchasing “The Stick” you can find this wonderful tool online or at your local running store. The Stick is literally the best thing I own right now. It helps me work out the tight knots in my muscles and makes me feel so much better. Its my favorite thing currently!
A third item you might like is Pepsom salt. It is a great soak that is all natural that will naturally pull out some of the pain. You can also find it at many drug stores and some grocery stores.
Your legs and feet are going to take a beating while you enjoy Walt Disney World, but you can recover faster by packing these goodies! Don’t forget!!
And get more packing tips HERE!
- Why Should You Go to Walt Disney World? (chipandco.com)
- Disney World Quick Tips – Advanced Dining Reservation Tips (chipandco.com)
Ok, so OBVIOUSLY you’re the planner of the group. You wouldn’t be sitting here reading this if you weren’t.
However, if you’re like me sometimes you do all the planning for an event or vacation and WHOOSH someone clueless swoops in and takes control and you walk around silently fuming or throwing in jabs at their incompetence lack of planning know-how.
Frustrating, isn’t? So what are some of the top ways you can let your family know “I’ve got this “WDW” planning thing under control? Here’s my top 5.
1. Develop a spreadsheet. – For some reason when people see a spread-sheet, especially when its color coded, they think you have a clue what’s going on. This is to your advantage. He/ She that holds the spread-sheets holds the key to the day. ha! You are welcome to download the whole spreadsheet and use it to help you plan (FOR FREE) if you’d like by just going HERE.
2. Use a lot of Disney lingo – Like spread-sheets being able to use the jargon of the organizations makes you seem even more credible. Sentences like,
“I have a WDW ADR at BOMA in AKL.”makes you cool. Even cooler than smoking USE to make you back in the 50s. Dojn’t know what any of that means? See my three posts on the Disney Dictionary and get “hip” to the Mouse Lingo mannnnnn…
3. Get the Garb – So you might BE a “First timer” at WDW, but you don’t have to LOOK like one. You need the lanyard, nametag, comfy shoes, pins, The whole 9 yards. Don’t forget your Disposable ponchos whatever you do.
4. Study the map – So you REALLY don’t want to wander around WDW aimlessly, do you? Well get yourself some maps ahead of time and STUDY them. Nobody is going to argue with you when you say (without a map in hand), “Ok, we’re going straight to Dumbo. That’s directly up Main Street and through the castle. Lets go people”. How can you get a map ahead of time? You can get FREE ones custom made way before your trip by going to http://customizedmaps.disney.go.com/.
5. Make sure they SEE YOU PLANNING! Ok, lets be real for a second. The realllllllllllllll reason why it bothers you so bad when someone takes over is that you’ve spent ALL this time working to plan and, quite honestly, you’d like to get the credit for it. When someone else steps up and steels your spotlight it makes you feel like everything you did was for nothing (its ok, I’m a Communications Prof. I KNOW that this is how everybody feels. Its actually a power issue, but we don’t have time for that lecture right now). So if you’re worried about this then the person who normally takes over needs to A) SEE YOU PLANNING B) Know all the work that goes into planning and C) BE TOLD BY YOU THAT YOU’VE GOT THE TRIP UNDER CONTROL! From a Communications standpoint most of the issues we have occur when we “play games” with other people. We feel one way, but instead of calmly and rationally explaining ourselves and why our feelings are hurt, we move towards silence (also known as moping or “masking” (when is when you’re super sarcastic) or violence (belittling, raising our voice, intimidation). This does NOT MAKE YOUR TRIP MORE FUN, it counteracts the whole darn purpose. Stop playing games, get plenty of rest and tell your “spotlight stealer” ahead of time that “you got this”, but hey…. you better REALLY “got this” if you’re going to say it. Don’t drop the ball and not really know what you’re doing.
And when in doubt, don’t forget you can always say “The Disney Diva said…..” and that will straighten them right up.
- Avoid the Disney Diva Meltdowns at Walt Disney World (chipandco.com)
- Top 10 Table Service Meals at the WDW Resorts (chipandco.com) | <urn:uuid:aa12bb40-8283-4b90-88f3-882ebf7dd26d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chipandco.com/category/views/planning/planning-101/page/20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940925 | 3,470 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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