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A 95-year-old Peter Rabbit toy fetched nearly £3,000 - about four times its estimated value - when it went under the hammer in Herefordshire.
Beatrix Potter became famous for her animal characters
The stuffed bunny, made by German toy company Steiff in about 1908, was sold to a telephone bidder for £2,800 at Brightwells Auctioneers in Leominster on Wednesday.
The lot included the original owner's copy of Beatrix Potter's book and photographs of Joan Peachey, who died two years ago.
Ms Peachey was given the soft toy when she was just three-years-old and kept it until her death.
The toy rabbit, which depicts one of the author's most famous creations, attracted interest from several people, a Brightwells spokeswoman said.
She said it was eventually sold to a telephone bidder who lives in the south of England.
The toy, which is in good condition apart from a small bare patch on its stomach, easily exceeded the estimated catalogue price of £500 to £700.
Auctioneer Geoffrey Crofts said: "There has been a lot of interest in Peter Rabbit.
"He is extremely collectable for two reasons.
"Firstly, he is one of the first Beatrix Potter toys and he is also a Steiff, one of the most collectable names in the toy world."
The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published by Beatrix Potter in 1902 and she created about 20 well-loved children's tales involving a host of animal characters including Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.
She was born in 1866 in South Kensington, London, but moved to Cumbria where she created her animal characters. | <urn:uuid:33b86cfe-f821-427a-9b48-613940297382> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/3212150.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981241 | 366 | 1.742188 | 2 |
My father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage & me.
I wrote this after the Detroit riot in July of 1967. I was 20. I had been in Idlewild, MI at my Uncle Louis' cottage with my Aunt Gladys and some of my cousins when it started. I ended up at my Grandmother Cleage's house where my father, several uncles and cousins were also gathered. Her house was on Atkinson, about three blocks from the 12th street corner where the riot started. Aside from a little editing for clarity, these are my memories from 1967.
The fire siren that night in Idlewild went on and on and on. Gladys got a phone call that a riot had started. We left that morning. The sky was pink with smoke as we drove into the city.
During the riot, when it got dark, we turned off the lights, put on black clothes and waited. The shots that had been going all day got louder, closer, smashed together. We sat on the porch and watched the tanks go up and down the street full of white boys wearing glasses, aiming their guns at us.
One during the day went by in a yellow telephone repair truck. He rode in the elevated stand, pointing his rifle. We looked back at him.
Lights from helicopters whirred over us. Troops went down 12th, down 14th. The street shook. Afraid to sleep because somebody might shoot through the window, we stayed up until the sky got light. My cousins cleared out the furniture in front of the windows, so they could shoot.
Should they let them get in or shoot before they reach the porch? They lay there on quilts, looking out the window. Seeing soldiers and armored trucks in flowerpots and dump trucks. Dale asked how the gun worked. Ernie shows him by the hall light.
The guns sounded like they were in the alley. I sat on the landing. Thorough the window it was dark and unreal outside. Blair came up, scared, so we went in the basement and turned on a program about Vietnam, but then off to a horror movie nobody watched.
Daddy came down, with a drink, to use the phone and dictate demands to the papers. Ernie showed us how to bolt doors if someone tried to come in the window.
They tried to get Grandmother down to watch TV, but she wouldn’t. She stayed upstairs, watched TV and came out only at times to turn lights on and silhouette everybody hiding guns as the soldiers were pulled back.
On the police radio: Fifty policemen wounded in one hour. They were run out of the Clairmont Square again. A woman turns in her sniper husband.
Dale was left on the porch when they flashed light on the porch and summer-salted in. Bullets were so close I was afraid and went back inside.
Grandmother turning on lights with armed flower pots aiming at us.
Turning Vietnamese guns up loud to drown out theirs. Jan and I, sleeping on the hard scratchy rug. Ernie wanting just a ring to show he was there. Dale taping, taking pictures to show his children. Jesus painted Black.
All that Sunday cars full of white folks went down Linwood past the Church. Windows rolled up. Sightseeing. Long, slow lines, car after car, windows shut tight. Troop Jeeps going by pointing guns.
For other Sepia Saturday offerings click HERE. | <urn:uuid:e953ff65-c7be-442f-a67e-752fab258d8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cleage.blogspot.com/2011/07/detroit-rebellion-journal-1967.html?showComment=1311467438986 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983944 | 710 | 1.601563 | 2 |
While Microsoft may be the biggest software company in the world, not every computer user is a fan of their products, or their way of doing business. While Microsoft's Windows became the ... See full summary »
The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains... See full summary »
Jack Rebney is the most famous man you've never heard of - after cursing his way through a Winnebago sales video, Rebney's outrageously funny outtakes became an underground sensation and ... See full summary »
While Microsoft may be the biggest software company in the world, not every computer user is a fan of their products, or their way of doing business. While Microsoft's Windows became the most widely used operating system for personal computers in the world, many experts took issue with Microsoft's strict policies regarding licensing, ownership, distribution, and alteration of their software. The objections of many high-profile technology experts, most notably Richard Stallman, led to what has become known as "the Open Source Movement," which is centered on the belief that computer software should be free both in the economic and intellectual senses of the word. Eventually, one of Stallman's admirers, Linus Torvalds, created a new operating system called Linux, a freely distributed software which many programmers consider to be markedly superior to Windows. Revolution OS is a documentary that examines the genesis of the Open Source Movement, and explores and explains the technical and ... Written by
Mark Deming, Rovi
I was at Agenda 2000, and one of the people who was there was Craig Mundy, who is some kind of high mucky-muck at Microsoft. I think Vice President of Consumer Products or something like that. And, I hadn't actually met him. I bumped into him in an elevator, and I looked at his badge and said 'I see you work for Microsoft,' and he loked back at me and said 'Oh, yeah, and what do you do?' and I thought he seemed just a tad dismissive. I mean here is the archtypical guy in a suit ...
See more »
I guess I expected Revolution OS to show not only the history of LINUX and OpenSource but also why these softwares are better than their commercial counterparts. I was pleased with the presentation of the history, as I had not been previously aware of it, but I was less than satisfied with the documentary's complete lack of any demonstration, however brief, of the software and an explanation of why it's better than Microsoft Windows. There's a scene where Bill Gate's is responding to the issue of free software. Some of his remarks make sense- but it was difficult to focus on the ideas because at that point there was absolutely atrocious and intrusive music 'pasted' into the background and I couldn't help feeling that I was being manipulated. I also did not get how some of these developers make their money. Someone has to create the software. This takes time. People have to eat and they need to pay for their food to eat. If they are giving their time away developing free software, where are they getting the money for food? I would have liked the documentary to address that issue. I would also like to say that I do use OpenSource software and find it to be quite good, and since it's free, remarkable. I think the OpenSource movement is revolutionary, but I'm not sure this film brings this across.
13 of 19 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you? | <urn:uuid:8e1ea8a6-7c50-4762-a491-63f6a470ac48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308808/ | 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 | 0.983303 | 741 | 1.8125 | 2 |
During Friday’s presidential debate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed:
I don’t think that Senator Obama understands that there was a failed state in Pakistan when Musharraf came to power. Everybody who was around then, and had been there, and knew about it knew that it was a failed state.
Matt Yglesias contacted William Milan, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the 1999 coup, who flatly said that McCain was wrong:
There are a number of interesting books, including a forthcoming one by me, that cover the 1999 coup by the Musharraf-led army. You might want to look at those already published by Steve Cohen, Hasan Abbas, Hussain Haqqani (long before he became the present Pakistani Ambassador), and especially Ian Talbot’s updated history of Pakistan.
I think that all of them would agree that, while there were a lot of things wrong in Pakistan during the years leading up to the 1999 military takeover, Pakistan was not a failed state as we normally define such states. I am on record as stating publicly that, having come to Pakistan from Liberia a year before the takeover, I had a pretty good idea of what failed states look like, and it was not one. | <urn:uuid:473bcb8e-a79b-40d1-a366-1ceba6a2e124> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/09/30/30020/former-ambassador-to-pakistan-responds-to-mccain-pakistan-was-not-a-failed-state-in-1999/?mobile=nc | 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 | 0.989888 | 261 | 1.625 | 2 |
Abu Dhabi: Too fast, too curious
Abu Dhabi’s ambitious development plans are attracting investors worldwide. But Mishaal Al Gergawi asks if the emirate’s residents understand the consequences of drastic growth.
October 22, 2009 4:01 by Mishaal Al Gergawi
Since the union of the UAE, Abu Dhabi has chosen to be viewed as the conservative capital of the UAE in comparison to its more commercially driven neighbor Dubai. This did not mean that the capital was by any means behind Dubai in a realistic sense, but that the government’s own will was the only driver for development, as opposed to a thriving private sector.
Essentially, there was no private sector of notable mass there. The capital had realized that after approximately 35 years of relative obscurity on the international stage – baring discreet fund managers in Geneva, London and Tokyo – there was little international brand equity in the name of Abu Dhabi.
And so, approximately five years ago, the emirate made a strategic decision to change not only the way it was being perceived by cities and nations from around the world, but also by its own inhabitants.
Through several interviews and press releases, the capital laid out its plans. In some of these interviews the terms ‘cultural tourism’ and ‘getaway resorts’ were used. The message was clear; Abu Dhabi would approach its urban development plans differently from Dubai. It would be more selective in its tourism plans, not to mention its plans to attract residents.
An impressively long array of projects have since been launched; ranging from cultural development (Saadiyat Cultural District), automotive sports and entertainment (Ferrari theme park, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, and the Formula 1 race – occurring next month), renewable energy (Masdar City – reportedly the world’s first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city), media (TwoFour54) and healthcare (Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, among others). | <urn:uuid:535d6fdb-d956-486d-bb0c-a3cb95e6e83a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kippreport.com/fcs/abu-dhabi-too-fast-too-curious/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96069 | 413 | 1.75 | 2 |
Information contained on this page is provided by companies via press release distributed through PR Newswire, an independent third-party content provider. PR Newswire, WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE Skyship Services Inc.
Sequester prompts airship revival
ORLANDO, Fla., March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyship Services Inc., owner of the Type Certificates for the largest certified non-rigid airships in the world, today announced the signing of a contract that will launch the first of a new era of Skyships. This 200 foot majestic flying machine is being assembled at a hangar facility near Elizabeth City, NC that was originally used as a US Navy airship base. The Skyship will be ready to commence operations in May 2013 and will then begin a tour that will bring it to Florida before it flies from the East Coast to the West Coast.
Julian Benscher, president of Skyship Services Inc. stated that "...most people think of airships as representative of a bygone era but in fact they provide the world's most stable flying aerial platform with unparalleled endurance capabilities."
Skyships are ideal for aerial photography and survey work and can do the job of 12 helicopters and multiple drones at a fraction of the cost and in a far more environmentally friendly fashion. In fact, this Skyship will initially be used for a series of scientific experiments measuring our impact on the environment and as an equipment test bed. The US Government has, in recent times, made significant investments in lighter-than-air technologies and the Skyship series of airships have been an indirect beneficiary of these investments. This airship is capable of loitering for up to two days and can be configured to carry in excess of a ton of equipment. As the effects of the sequester kick in, there will be an increasing need for cost effective, survey, surveillance and border patrol solutions and the Skyship has been resurrected to meet these needs.
The latest version of the Skyship was originally developed by a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation and a total in excess of $200 million has been spent on design, development and certification. As the search continues for ever more efficient ways to spend taxpayer dollars, the Skyship represents an ideal and cost effective solution to replace drones and helicopters. Contract details were not disclosed.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:e60c0cae-c0c5-4f9b-ad22-e2e6329be5f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wmbb.com/story/21547445/skyship-services-inc-to-launch-largest-skyship-in-may | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954422 | 506 | 1.742188 | 2 |
kowtow: 1. to act in an obsequious manner; show servile deference.
Why I Can’t Put ‘Tibet’ in My Hotmail Address
Big American tech companies have given us plenty of reasons to be cynical about how far they will go to keep China’s leaders happy and keep their fingers in the Chinese market. And China’s leaders would prefer that everyone just not mention those unruly Tibetans, especially with the Olympics on the way. But would the Chinese regime really feel threatened by the creation of, say, ILoveTibet@hotmail.com? And even if it did, would Microsoft really agree to help perpetuate that insecurity?Baloney
A Microsoft spokeswoman had a different explanation. The company blocks usernames that include the names of various financial institutions. This is meant to make life harder for those seeking to impersonate a bank using an official-looking e-mail address in order to steal customers’ passwords. In this case Microsoft is blocking usernames containing “tib,” apparently to protect customers of TIB Bank in Florida. | <urn:uuid:9cb26d0f-438b-4126-b764-373a29c604d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photios.blogspot.com/2008/08/pandering-to-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951263 | 235 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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Breaking the vicious cycle of tightening will take time, but how much?
And now the five-day financial forecast: Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. What makes this soggy future depressingly predictable is that credit contractions persist by feeding on themselves, like a snake swallowing its tail. In the boom years, Wall Street and banks made tons of foolish loans, especially in real estate. Now losses on those loans are forcing them to shrink lending as rapidly as they once expanded it. This week's Cover Story explains how each dollar of loan loss can force commercial and investment banks to reduce lending by $15 or more. By one estimate, mortgage-related losses alone could cause a trillion dollars in credit to vaporize. The banks' pullback will open the door for new players, like hedge funds and private equity firms, to dispense capital to companies away from the prying eyes of regulators.
Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the two mortgage-finance giants, are supposed to stand tall at times like this. But at the moment they're most needed, they have lost investors' confidence. What's keeping them going is the now-explicit support of the federal government, raising the question of why they're structured as private companies at all.
How long will the tight credit last? Our Cover Story sees years of pain ahead. But in a commentary, Chief Economist Michael Mandel predicts that the next President will push through a rescue plan that will get credit flowing. "By this time next year," he writes, "we could see a reinvigoration of the financial markets." | <urn:uuid:d4060a0f-170b-43aa-8073-7635f2abebf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-07-16/the-credit-chokehold | 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 | 0.959202 | 349 | 1.710938 | 2 |
||Appliance/Equipment Efficiency Standards
|Eligible Efficiency Technologies:
||Pool Pumps, Consumer Audio and Video Products, Digital Television Adapters, Commercial hot food holding cabinets, Portable electric spas, Bottle-type water dispensers, Portable light fixtures
|Equipment Requirements||Specified in Standards
|Test Methods||To be determined|
|Certification Requirements||To be determined|
|Review||Not specified |
|Implementing Agency||New York Secretary of State
NY CLS Energy, Article 16 § 102 et seq.|
Note: The federal government has imposed and updated appliance efficiency standards through several legislative acts,* and now has standards in place or under development for 30 classes of products. In general, states which had set standards prior to federal action may enforce their own standards until the federal standards take effect. States that had not set standards prior to federal action must use the federal standards. This summary addresses (1) state appliance standards that will be in place until the federal standards take effect and (2) products for which the federal government is not currently developing an efficiency standard. Much of the information in this summary comes from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). Visit the ASAP web site for comprehensive information about appliance standards.
New York appliance efficiency standards legislation, enacted in 2005, covers the following products offered for sale in New York not preempted by federal standards as of August 2011:
- Consumer audio and video products
- Digital television adapters
- Commercial hot food holding cabinets
- Portable electric spas
- Residential pool pumps
- Bottle-type water dispensers
- Portable light fixtures
For consumer audio and video products and digital television adapters, the New York legislation requires the Department of State in consultation with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop standards by June 30, 2006 and to implement such standards no sooner than six months after issuing final rules. Temporary emergency rules were adopted and renewed several times during 2006 and 2007 but have since expired and not been renewed. The regulatory process for these equipment types appears to be ongoing as of August 2012.
Efficiency requirements for the remaining products were adopted by legislation in 2010. The legislation required the Department of State in consultation with NYSERDA to develop regulations by December 31, 2010. As of August 2012, no such regulations have been adopted.
New York law also allows the Secretary of State, in consultation with NYSERDA, to add additional products to the list. Any new products added to the list must be commercially available, cost effective on a life-cycle basis, and not covered under existing federal standards.
* These acts include the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. | <urn:uuid:d9983ed8-0c2c-47d3-9da9-8c3f856f8d41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=NY09R&re=1&ee=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930992 | 576 | 1.539063 | 2 |
CBNNews.com - You may be familiar with the Seven Deadly Sins -- transgressions such as laziness, pride and greed -- that list was created 1,500 years ago.
Now the Vatican has made a second list of deadly sins to reflect modern times.
Drugs, pollution, genetic manipulation and social and economic injustices are the new areas of sinful behavior.
In an interview published Sunday by the Vatican's daily newspaper, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said sins increasingly manifest themselves as behavior that damages society as a whole.
"While sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization," said Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions.
Catholic teaching distinguishes between lesser venial sins and mortal sins.
Girotti also denounced "certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments, genetic manipulations."
He also mentioned drugs - which "weaken the mind and obscure intelligence" - pollution, and the widening social and economic differences between the rich and the poor.
Girotti said the Catholic Church continued to be concerned by other sinful acts, including abortion and pedophilia.
He said Church authorities had reacted with "rigorous measures" to child abuse scandals within the clergy, but he also claimed that the issue had been excessively emphasized by the media.
Source: The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:eafcd59c-0ac7-4f80-bcc1-63182e007045> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/shows/cwn/2008/March/Vatican-Creates-New-List-of-Deadly-Sins-/ | 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 | 0.956551 | 302 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Breast Cancer (cont.)
Jerry R. Balentine, DO, FACEP
Dr. Balentine received his undergraduate degree from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He attended medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine graduating in1983. He completed his internship at St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia and his Emergency Medicine residency at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, where he served as chief resident.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
In this Article
- Breast cancer facts
- What is breast cancer?
- What are the different types of breast cancer?
- What causes breast cancer?
- What are breast cancer risk factors?
- What are breast cancer symptoms and signs?
- How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- How is breast cancer staging determined?
- What is the treatment for breast cancer?
- What is the prognosis of breast cancer?
- Can breast cancer be prevented?
- What research is being done on breast cancer? Should I participate in a clinical trial?
- I may have breast cancer. What questions should I ask my doctor?
- Is the doctor sure I have breast cancer?
- What type of breast cancer do I have?
- What difference does a precise diagnosis make?
- What has been done to exclude cancer in other areas of the same breast or in my other breast?
- What type of medical team do I need for the most accurate diagnosis?
- Is my family history relevant to my breast cancer diagnosis?
- What other studies should be done on my tissue biopsy?
- How urgent is it that I make decisions and begin treatment?
- Should I stop taking hormone therapy (HT)?
- Even though my breast tumor does not have hormone receptors, should I take tamoxifen to reduce the risk of a new tumor?
- I have a ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a type of localized cancer. Why have I been advised to have a mastectomy when other women with invasive cancer have lumpectomies?
- Should I start chemotherapy before surgery?
- If I am advised to have a mastectomy, what are the risks and benefits of immediate breast reconstruction?
- Should my lymph nodes be removed?
- What is a sentinel lymph node biopsy and what are its benefits and risks?
- Are there any other questions I should ask my doctor?
- Breast Cancer FAQs
- Find a local Oncologist in your town
What are the different types of breast cancer?
There are many types of breast cancer. Some are more common than others, and there are also combinations of cancers. Some of the most common types of cancer are as follows:
Ductal carcinoma in situ: The most common type of noninvasive breast cancer is ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). This type of cancer has not spread and therefore usually has a very high cure rate.
Invasive ductal carcinoma: This cancer starts in a duct of the breast and grows into the surrounding tissue. It is the most common form of breast cancer. About 80% of invasive breast cancers are invasive ductal carcinoma.
Invasive lobular carcinoma: This breast cancer starts in the glands of the breast that produce milk. Approximately 10% of invasive breast cancers are invasive lobular carcinoma.
The remaining breast cancers types are much less common and include the following:
Mucinous carcinomas are formed from mucus-producing cancer cells.
Mixed tumors contain a variety of cell types.
Medullary carcinoma is an infiltrating breast cancer that presents with well-defined boundaries between the cancerous and noncancerous tissue.
Inflammatory breast cancer: This cancer makes the skin of the breast appear red and feel warm (giving it the appearance of an infection). These changes are due to the blockage of lymph vessels by cancer cells.
Triple-negative breast cancers: This is a subtype of invasive cancer with cells that lack estrogen and progesterone receptors and have no excess of a specific protein (HER2) on their surface. It tends to appear more often in younger women and African-American women.
Paget's disease of the nipple: This cancer starts in the ducts of the breast and spreads to the nipple and the area surrounding the nipple. It usually presents with crusting and redness around the nipple.
Adenoid cystic carcinoma: These cancers have both glandular and cystic features. They tend not to spread aggressively and have a good prognosis.
The following are other uncommon types of breast cancer:
- Papillary carcinoma
- Phyllodes tumor
- Tubular carcinoma
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Find support and advances in treatment. | <urn:uuid:ddca30e2-794e-4f0c-adb7-88cdb1767159> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rxlist.com/breast_cancer/page2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942973 | 1,089 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Versaloon is an open source, USB connected project, that centers around an STM32 processor and provides a standard JTAG pinout. Above you see the Nano version which has a 10-pin JTAG connector, but there is also a 20-pin option on the Handy model. Great, another JTAG programmer. Well this can do a bit more than that. With a bit of help from the software it has been turned into a programmer for ten different types of hardware. Obviously this should be able to program anything that works with the JTAG protocol, but the script adapts it to work as an In System (or In Circuit) Programmer too. So far the list of programming targets includes STM32, LPC1000, LPC900, STM8, AR8, MSP430, and a few others.
We had some trouble finding an actual picture of this hardware. If you’ve got one, snap a picture and leave a link to it in the comments along with your thoughts on the device. | <urn:uuid:038933e5-4034-49df-b57b-0ce498a26307> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2010/12/25/versaloon-can-program-hardware-from-several-manufacturers/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=ea0388e61b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947667 | 213 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Inspiring Futures for Adults with Autism
This guest post is by Peter Bell, executive vice president for programs and services at Autism Speaks. Peter and his wife, Liz, reside in New Jersey with their three children. Their eldest son, Tyler, has autism.
From the moment my wife and I heard the words “your son has autism,” we knew our lives as a family would never be the same. The concerns and challenges that come with raising a child with autism are many. But the one concern that always lingers, and intensifies when our kids become teenagers, is: what does the future hold for our child?
Our son Tyler is now 17 and we are immersed in planning his future. As we navigate our way through his “transition,” it’s becoming abundantly clear that Tyler’s future, including the ability to maximize his potential and give him a life of dignity, rests largely on our shoulders. There’s no manual to guide us. There’s no pot of money to help us find him a job, establish a home or help integrate him into the community. And we have found very few examples of adults living with autism at Tyler’s level of functioning who are thriving, leading a life of independence and purpose that are making us look forward to the future. Instead we forge ahead like pioneers heading into new territory determined to find him a better life.
A recent documentary, however, has helped reduce our anxiety and inspired cautious optimism about Tyler’s future and what lies before us. “Dad’s in Heaven with Nixon” is an 86-minute film that first premiered on the Showtime Network in early April and is scheduled to re-air on Father’s Day (June 20) at 3 p.m. ET. If you want an inspiring glimpse of what autism might look like as our children reach adulthood, then this movie is a must-see.
You may already be asking, “What does a film about Nixon have to do with autism?” In reality, nothing. The film chronicles the life of a family from New York City who has been living with autism for almost 50 years. The second youngest of five children, Chris Murray was born at a time when the prevailing medical belief was “refrigerator mothers” caused the emotional damage to their children that presented as autism. But in this case, his mother Janice was warm and caring like most moms. She did have a premonition during her pregnancy that things were going to be different with Chris. Unfortunately her instincts were correct and Chris suffered from oxygen deprivation during what turned out to be a very traumatic birth. It wasn’t until years later that he was diagnosed with autism. Through the use of beautifully restored home movies and the insightful narration of filmmaker Tom Murray (the eldest Murray child), we recognize that autism in the 1960’s was pretty much the same as it is today, despite altered hairstyles and fashions of the supporting cast.
Fast forward to present day, Chris is now a 50-year-old man living a purposeful and rewarding life in New Haven, Connecticut. In the early 1980’s he attended Chapel Haven, a transitional residential program serving adults with cognitive disabilities. He graduated from that program well over 25 years ago and he now lives on his own and works two jobs: one at a local hospital and the other at a health food store. During his free time, he is an accomplished artist. His paintings, mostly of buildings and landmarks from his native New York City, are in high demand by art collectors and aficionados, including Gloria Vanderbilt. Although he could easily make a living selling his artwork to the rich and famous, he prefers to work his two jobs and lead a simple life. He is happy and content, safe, living his life mostly on his own. He creates art not for fame or profit, but for the experience of the art itself. Mission accomplished in our book.
Another prominent message of this film, one that will probably resonate with many families in our community, is that autism is just one part of the fabric that shapes the dynamics of a family. Every family has a story, and in the case of the Murrays, we learn that the experiences and attitudes of other family members, in both current and previous generations, have had a profound effect on the lives of everyone in that family. It was not only Chris’ autism that provided a challenge for the Murray family, but the additional layer of mental illness and the devastating damage with accompanying resilience in some, that make this film so riveting.
Which brings us back to the title – “Dad’s in Heaven with Nixon”. Without giving it away, the title comes from a comment Chris makes on camera and a perspective and simplicity that would seem odd to most people – but maybe not so strange to those who share life with a loved one with autism. While talking with his brother Tom many years after his father’s death, Chris shares his insights into death and heaven, concepts that are hard for anyone to grasp, but especially difficult for those on the spectrum. At a time when your heart begins to feel heavy and your eyes want to well up, Chris magically lightens up the moment with his priceless comment. At this instance, it all makes perfect sense.
With Father’s Day right around the corner (Showtime also did a showing on Mother’s Day), here’s an uplifting and hopeful film that all families with a loved one affected by autism should take the time to see. If you’re like me, this is a film that’ll stick with you. And I hope you share the sense of hope, optimism, and, perhaps most important of all, awe at the power of love, that my family experienced.
As Janice Murray poignantly says towards the end of the film: “Love really can make miracles happen.” Now that’s inspiring. | <urn:uuid:da19e304-7c33-4ba3-bfdc-0e8a10f8c284> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2010/06/14/bell-inspiring-adults/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=8ef4095fcf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980946 | 1,236 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Different Sized Feet & Ordering Mismatched Shoes
View our selection of mismatched shoes and instructions for ordering:
Some Size Difference Between Feet Is Normal
Many people realize that one of their feet is a little bigger than the other. About 60% of the population has different sized feet according to a foot measure device (brannock device). For about 80% of these people, their bigger foot is their left foot. But this does not mean that different sized shoes are needed. If one of your feet is half a size longer (for example: if your left foot is a size 9 and your right foot is a size 8.5) or one width size bigger, you do not need to wear different sized shoes. Just fit the shoes to the larger foot.
If one of your feet is a full size longer than the other, it still is not a big enough difference for you to buy mismatched shoes. The difference between a full size is 1/3 of an inch and the difference between widths is 1/8 of an inch. Please use discretion when deciding on the most comfortable and affordable choice for you.
Please Note: If your feet have more than 1 1/2 size in length difference, you will have to order mismatched shoes.
If your feet have two different widths, you may have to add or remove an insole to compensate for the lack of volume of the smaller foot. Insoles come in various thicknesses, and finding the appropriate insole to add to a shoe will depend on the difference of the two feet. Our Diabetic Shoes come with numerous inlays that can be easily removed. However, if there is a big difference between the lengths and widths in your feet, then you must order mismatched size shoes.
If your feet have more than a 1 1/2 size difference, then getting mismatched shoes would be better for your feet's health and protection. However, if money is a problem, you could try just fitting the shoes to the larger foot. You can buy insoles to take up room in the smaller foot's shoe.
Healthyfeetstore.com Mismatched Shoe Program
HealthyFeetStore.com recognizes that custom ordering isn't for everyone, so we offer a special discount program, unique to our online store, for those ordering two pairs of mismatch sizes. This is best for those who have never ordered mismatched size shoes before, because these shoes can be exchanged or returned if they don't fit correctly. Please call us for more information about this special discount program for mismatched shoes.
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Free Exchanges - Easy Returns | <urn:uuid:d19755f4-30ad-4748-92c0-c95b46fd2f1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthyfeetstore.com/different-sized-feet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943244 | 615 | 1.5 | 2 |
I know they’re stressful and unpleasant but I didn’t know performance reviews are bad for your health! On the New York Times blog, Tara Parker-Pope tells us about the impact of performance reviews on our health. At first, I was surprised to find an article entitled “Time to Review the Workplace Review?” in the Health section, [...]
Improve your leadership skills with Rypple - the easy way.
Out of 30 examples of rude behavior, survey respondents most often indicated the following 10 as most offensive in this order: 1. Discrimination in an employment situation 2. For commuters, erratic/aggressive driving that endangers others 3. Taking credit for someone else’s work 4. Treating service providers as inferiors 5. Jokes or remarks that mock another, [...]
How can you improve employee motivation in your team?
Improve your performance appraisal process by adding feedback, recognition and goal setting into regular 1:1's.
Studies have shown that workplace stress can lead to an increase in rates of heart disease, flu virus, metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. A new study of 677 workers in Israel showed those who experienced job burnout were 1.8 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. The scientists studied Israeli workers, who were [...] | <urn:uuid:3e6e8bc4-fadb-4834-bd6e-380e091365d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://work.com/blog/2010/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948645 | 263 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Hackers have stolen some of the programming code for two of Symantec’s antivirus products for businesses.
A Symantec spokesman, Cris Paden, confirmed the hack in an e-mail on Friday but said the products involved, Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2, WEre four and five years old respectively. Symantec no longer sells the latter product, but does continue to service it. Mr. Paden said the hack does not affect the company’s flagship Norton brand consumer products.
“We have no indication that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of Symantec’s solutions,” Mr. Paden wrote in an e-mail. “Symantec is working to develop remediation process to ensure long-term protection for our customers’ information.”
Source code can be exploited by competitors, or used by hackers to corrupt antivirus products or write malicious code that circumvents those products altogether. But the age of the products involved could limit the damage.
“If this code is four or five years old, it is likely it has evolved quite a bit,” says Robert Rachwald, director of security strategy at Imperva, an Internet security company. “That said, if there are any core functions that have not evolved, then hackers could take a look at Symantec’s source code and find ways to manipulate it.”
A hacker group calling itself the Lords of Dharmaraja claims to have discovered Symantec’s source code in a hack it conducted on India’s military and intelligence servers. In a post on Wednesday on the bulletin board Pastebin, the hackers wrote, “We have discovered within the Indian Spy Program source codes of a dozen software companies,” which they said had signed agreements with an Indian defense program and its Central Bureau of Investigation.
The original post, which is no longer on Pastebin but is still available through a Google cache, contained a document bearing a 1999 date that described how Symantec software was intended to work but did not contain any code. The hackers later posted a second file on Pastebin, which is no longer available, that Symantec confirmed contained a “segment” of the source code for the enterprise products.
“This does not happen very often,” Mr. Rachwald of Imperva said. “Source code is a company’s crown jewels. Most companies put lots of locks and chains around it.”
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1 people Like this | <urn:uuid:d56583c1-5203-47f7-ba8f-fbb2f76ee4a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techdesk.info/post.php?post_id=460&link=sid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932953 | 546 | 1.59375 | 2 |
How To Seduce A Duke
One of the astounding things about the Royle sisters is that they are fraternal triplets. Another is their mission to prove the Prince Regent and Mrs. Fitzherbert are their natural parents. Livelier nor more disparate sisters would be hard to find. Mary, the oldest and most levelheaded, talks her siblings into masquerading as garden statuary during a party so she can point out the man she wants to marry. However, it is the Duke of Blackstone, the older brother of the object of her affections, who is captivated by the lifelike statue. He cannot resist touching her. Unfortunately, before his hand reaches her breast, the statue comes to life, slaps him, and runs off.
Caskie has written a sometimes hilarious, although choppy, madcap Regency romp. Throughout, the villain is referred to only as Lady Jersey. It should be pointed out that it is Lady Frances Jersey, one-time mistress of the Prince Regent, and not Lady Sarah (Sally) Jersey, patroness of Almack’s, who is well-known to Regency readers. | <urn:uuid:b2b547ae-014d-4187-87b5-ef07cbbecce0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/how-to-seduce-a-duke/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972647 | 239 | 1.578125 | 2 |
As the presidential election gets closer and closer, your friends here at MediaJobsDaily need to issue a fun little reminder.
That is, don’t talk politics at work.
According to a CareerBuilder survey, it may be hard to refrain. After all, more than one-third of employees surveyed indicated they talk red and blue states and one in five who have gone political at work ended up having a fight or heated argument.
Although some conversations may be considered respectful and polite, the heated discussions could get heavy. That is, they may always not be with a colleague. Choose your battles wisely since some people surveyed have gotten into it with higher ups in their organization.
From another point of view, one in ten employees indicated their opinion about a co-worker changed after they learned about someone’s political ties. Most people indicated it changed for the negative.
As for the breakdown itself, according to the survey, men were more likely to dish about politics than women. How about age? Employees older than 55 were most likely to talk about politics and employees under the age of 25 were the least likely group to do it.
Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of human resources at CareerBuilder, points out in the press release, “Anytime you’re dealing with subject matter that is sensitive or potentially inflammatory, it’s important to always be respectful of your colleagues’ opinions and avoid emotionally-charged exchanges.”
- Three Ways to Respond to an Overly Critical Boss
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- Get This: Some Companies Offer Unlimited Personal Time Off! Here's the Catch: Survey Says Perk is Among Minority of Employers | <urn:uuid:f68ad050-a047-40e7-93db-c9415d019a37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediabistro.com/mediajobsdaily/survey-reveals-more-than-one-third-of-employees-talk-politics-at-work_b11784 | 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 | 0.958712 | 375 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Union flag protests in Carrickfergus and Belfast
There has been some disruption to traffic in Belfast and Carrickfergus due to loyalist protests over restrictions to flying the union flag.
The main Belfast Road in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, was blocked for a short time close to Sainsbury's car park.
More than 100 people took part in the peaceful demonstration, amid a large police presence.
In Belfast, there was disruption to some metro bus services due to protests at Woodstock Link and Hesketh Park.
Translink said diversions and delays were to be expected on its 6A, 18 & 19 metro services in east Belfast and it 57 and 11A services in the north of the city.
Street demonstrations have been taking place across Northern Ireland since Belfast City Council voted to change its long-standing flag policy on 3 December.
Loyalists have protested against the decision to fly the union flag at Belfast City Hall on designated days, rather than all year round. | <urn:uuid:c4e2ec3a-5bff-48d5-922e-6ad761b17582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20894381 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968859 | 208 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Everyone knows that we need 4 Years of waiting to get involve Olympic Games. But now the games are quickly approaching, taking the host by China - one of the powerful countries in the world. Putting the controversy over the host aside, the Beijing Games 2008 is shaping up to be great. The facilities are simply astonishing. The Beijing National Stadium, nick-named the bird-nest, is certainly a unique piece of architecture. Herzog & de Meuron Architekten AG, a Swiss firm, won the bid to begin construction way back in 2003. Their other notable works include the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Tate Modern in London. The venue will have a seating capacity of 80,000.
With a newly designed, high-speed metro train service to help transport tourists to events and main attractions, visitors coming to the ancient metropolis are also presented with a series of user-friendly, innovative travel itineraries on the Beijing event website.
On testing the new train system from the airport terminal, Chinese President Hu Jintao told a group of foreigners that the country was ready to “open its arms and welcome all of the friends of the world to come.” Certainly, the city has not looked more attractive.
Among the must-see attractions, such as the famous Forbidden City – where visitors can stroll through the residences of China’s former emperors – and the monolithic Great Wall of China, the Beijing tourism authority has suggested a number of culinary and nightlife hotspots too.
On the list, include the happening Houhai Bar Street and famous restaurants Kaorou Ji and Dasanyuan. But tourists looking for a taste off the beaten track, should aim for restaurants recommended or populated by locals
Other recommendations include visiting the Drum Tower, Beijing’s ‘Big Ben’ and original time-keeper. Around the tower is an antique market worth exploring and the bustling Hutong fruit market. Other interesting parts of Beijing include the Underground City near Tiananmen Square, a subterranean network built when the country feared Soviet invasion in the 1960s and the Ancient Observatory, an incredibly preserved Tibetan temple.
Despite the full of joys you’ll certainly receive from friendly sport competitions atmosphere, if you have a chance to visit China during Olympic 2008, it might also be decent chance to get to know more about this giant country as every people in China see this world’s major sport event as an opportunity to dazzle the world. Try traveling around, Shanghai is one of the China’s top destinations as such. | <urn:uuid:64ca0e7a-b211-4ed3-a8ab-248039ca8758> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldstepper-daworldisntenough.blogspot.com/2008/07/travel-china-guide-beijing-games-2008.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938134 | 522 | 1.695313 | 2 |
This video from Britain is called DWP disability protest.
By Will Stone in London, England:
Met accused of Department for Work and Pensions protest brutality
Sunday 02 September 2012
Police were accused today of viciously attacking disabled protesters who peacefully occupied the Department for Work and Pensions, fracturing a wheelchair user’s shoulder and breaking another’s chair.
Campaigners occupied the department’s building in Tothill Street, Westminster, on Friday before being joined by hundreds more, concluding a week-long protest against Atos Healthcare to coincide with the opening of the Paralympic Games.
Desperate Met officers formed a line to prevent further protesters entering the building while others negotiated the exit of those already inside.
They resorted to “excessive and unnecessary” force and begun pushing the crowd resulting in the fracture of wheelchair user Patrick Lynch’s shoulder, damaging another’s chair and breaking a man’s glasses, Disabled People Against Cuts claim.
Campaigners say that another protester was tipped out of his wheelchair.
Mr Lynch said: “The police officer involved was a thug and a bully, not fit to wear the uniform. If he hadn’t been in the police he would be facing charges of assault.”
Demonstrators then began chanting “We all live in a fascist regime” to the tune of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
A 31-year-old man was arrested for breach of the peace and obstructing police.
He was taken into custody and has been bailed to return in late October.
DPAC spokeswoman Maud Wilkinson said: “What happened is regrettable.
“Taken in the context of the week of action this was an isolated incident. But disabled people will not stop organising and mobilising the resistance to the brutal attack on disabled people being perpetrated by the Con-Dem government.”
Those occupying the DWP foyer left voluntarily at the end of the protest and the demonstration ended without further incident.
Protesters rail against Atos: here.
Police in Brighton have been accused of “kettling” a group of demonstrators during this weekend’s Gay Pride event in the city: here.
USA: More than 20 years after the videotaped assault on Rodney King supposedly spurred reform in the Los Angeles Police Department, three videos have surfaced depicting beatings and death at the hands of the police: here. | <urn:uuid:8f8a8095-f9f8-4d3a-8008-fb99d384e68f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/british-anti-disabled-police-brutality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949012 | 505 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Originally Posted by JimN
I know, but if any RF will cause a problem and be picked up/heard through the audio, it's more likely to be when the AM/FM radio is being used.
I have heard noise when my phone was next to the computer but that was never a constant buzz.
Ever put your phone next to a CRT monitor or TV when a call comes in? The screen distortion is the reason I think all of the "there's absolutely no harmful radiation coming form cell phones" is BS. That much screen distortion needs a pretty strong magnetic field.
Yeah, you're probably right. I've heard keeping a cell in your pocket, anywhere close to your groin, can cause decreased sperm count. Who knows what else it's doing to us.
I've never seen the CRT interference. It's been so long since I've owned one, though. Not sure if I had a cell phone back then! | <urn:uuid:1985d0ef-ec97-47bc-a9a5-f8e78dc24d34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=52638&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979194 | 194 | 1.773438 | 2 |
ZEROtherm is a company that has been coming up with unusual concepts and designs in the pursuit of the ultimate in cooling and style. One major style was to inset the fan into the front of the fins, and they had good success with those. I also saw a fan set in the middle of the fins in a Core92 cooler. Along with the Nirvana PWM, this design uses any fan of your choice to be strapped up to cool the latest submission.
That's right; the cooler will ship to your door without a fan. Have no fear; ZEROtherm boasts this cooler can handle up to 200W of CPU load before it feels any ill effects. ZEROtherm did ship a fan along with my sample, and I was surprised to see they shipped a 43 CFM ZT-120F fan to cool the new entrant. I realize silence is a main concern for most, but a 40 CFM fan isn't typically capable of much real help in cooling a tower cooler. So, if in fact I can produce good results with said fan, it will prove that the cooler is indeed efficient.
Today I am going to be discussing the ZT-10D from ZEROtherm. This is a more typical tower style cooler, but adds style and grace along with the capabilities of the cooler. Utilizing six, "U" shaped, 8mm heatpipes running through a very dense array of aluminum fins, with good case airflow, the ZT-10D should be very capable of cooling a processor passively. If you plan to overclock, I suggest a fan. Even clocking my i7 860 to 4GHz is calculated to draw 230 Watts at full load, so if you are on extreme clocks you could saturate this cooler in a passive installation. Since they were nice enough to send the fan along, I am going to do my testing with it in place to give you a better feel for how the cooler will react in most setups.
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Further Reading: Read and find more Cases, Cooling & PSU content at our Cases, Cooling & PSU reviews, guides and articles index page.
Do you get our RSS feed? Get It! | <urn:uuid:f3da0077-251d-4952-81f6-e49bbf0e53cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://australia.tweaktown.com/reviews/3546/zerotherm_zt_10d_premium_cpu_cooler/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940486 | 454 | 1.75 | 2 |
I’m not sure I could pick out a significant victory for human freedom in 2012.
Maybe I’m missing something, but the only good policy that’s even worth mentioning was the decision in Wisconsin to rein in the special privileges and excessive compensation for government workers.
But there definitely have been lots of sad developments.
The hard part is picking the most disappointing story.
1. Was it the craven decision by John Roberts to put politics before the Constitution and cast the deciding vote for Obamacare? This certainly could be the most disappointing event of the year, but technically it didn’t represent a step in the wrong direction since the Supreme Court basically gave a green light to unlimited federal power back in the 1930s and 1940s. The Obamacare case is best characterized as a failure to do the right thing. A very tragic decision, to be sure, but it maintained the status quo.
2. Was it the lawless decision by the Internal Revenue Service to impose a horrible regulation that forces American banks to put foreign law above U.S. law? This was a very bad development in the battle for tax competition, financial privacy, and fiscal sovereignty. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s just another in a long line of policies (such as FATCA) designed to increase the power of governments to impose and enforce bad tax policy.
3. Was it the Japanese government’s decision to double the value-added tax? I’m definitely not a fan of adding a VAT on top of the income tax, but Japan made that mistake years ago. The choice to increase the tax rate just shows why it’s dangerous to give politicians any new source of revenue. So this isn’t the worst policy development of 2012, particularly since the new Japanese government may suspend the tax hike.
4. Was it the delusional decision by 54 percent of California voters to impose a big, class-warfare tax hike? I thought the vote for Prop 30 was a very troubling development since it signaled that voters could be tricked into enacting class-warfare tax policy, even though they should have realized that more revenue for the state’s politicians would simply exacerbate the eventual fiscal collapse. But since I think this will be a learning experience on what not to do, I can’t put this at the top of my list.
5. Was it the French government’s punitive decision to impose a 75-percent top tax rate? This is a spectacularly misguided policy, and it’s already resulting in an exodus of entrepreneurs and other successful people. But just as I enjoy have California as a negative role model, I like using France as an example of bad policy. So it would be a bit hypocritical for me to list this as the worst policy of 2012.
6. Or was it the envy-motivated decisions by politicians in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic to replace flat tax systems with so-called progressive tax regimes? This is a strong candidate for the worst policy of the year. It’s very rare to see governments do the right thing, so it’s really tragic when politicians implement good reforms and later decide to reinstate class-warfare policies.
All things considered, I think this last option is the worst policy development of 2012. To be sure, I’m a bit biased since my work focuses on public finance issues and I’ve spent 20 years advocating for tax reform.
But I think there’s a strong case to be made, by anyone who believes in freedom, that politicians from Slovakia and the Czech Republic deserve the booby prize for worst public policy development of 2012.
Alvin Rabushka, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Flat Tax , summarizes the grim news.
On December 4, 2013, the center-left parliament of Slovakia modified the country’s historic 19% flat-rate tax… Effective January 1, 2013, the income tax rate for corporations was raised from 19% to 23%, while that on individuals earning more than €39,600 (€1=$1.30) a year was raised to 25%, thereby creating two brackets of 19% and 25%. …On November 7, 2012, the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of the national parliament approved a proposal to impose a second higher rate of 22% on annual income exceeding Czech Koruna (CZK) 100,000 ($5,200) per month. President Vaclav Klaus signed the bill on December 22, 2012, which will take effect on January 1, 2013.
What’s especially depressing about these two defeats is that the supposedly right-wing parties deserve the blame.
In Slovakia, all but one of the right-leaning parties in the old government decided to support the Greek bailout, leading to the collapse of the government and the election of a new socialist government that then sabotaged tax reform.
And in the Czech Republic, the current right-of-center government decided to scrap the flat tax for “fairness” reasons. I’m sure that will really be comforting to the Czech people as the economy suffers from less growth.
To understand what the people of those nations are losing, here’s my video on the flat tax.
So there are still some pockets of rationality. It’s just very unfortunate that the scope of human liberty is getting smaller every year.
P.S. The absolute worst thing that happened in 2012, if we look beyond public policy, was Georgia falling 4 yards short of beating Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship.
P.P.S. Speaking of sports, the best thing about 2012 occurred in Virginia Beach back in October. | <urn:uuid:6d49e6b5-d739-4501-bc28-bdcbdda00dda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2013/01/02/what-was-the-most-tragic-policy-development-of-2012-n1477330/page/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956269 | 1,175 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The excitement of the pugnacious prizefight that was the second presidential debate cannot obscure the fact that the US presidential election season is simply too long. For the unfortunate political junkies, life has been on hold for years – perhaps on permanent hold. Worse, for Americans, governance has been on hold for well over a year, with initiatives limited to shoring up the Obama base by pandering to liberal women, Hispanics, blacks, unions, etc. It is government as the provider of benefits to the favored classes, and never mind the deficit, the economy or global issues. Remember how President Bush was lambasted for waiting 10 minutes on September 11, 2001 and not running out on the kindergarten class he was visiting in Sarasota, Florida? Barack Obama can preside over the next terrorist attack on American soil – the consulate in Benghazi – and fly immediately to a fund-raiser in Nevada without suffering the same criticism. After all, it is election season, and there are priorities.
That the election season is interminable is non-partisan and an American failure. Undoubtedly, no matter who wins on November 6, on November 7 pundits will be already speculating on the 2016 race. Will Obama mount a comeback? Will Hillary Clinton succeed in her quest of the last decade? Are there Republicans of national stature who are waiting in the dugout?
Contrast this horserace with elections in the rest of the world. Israel has set its new elections for January 22, 2013, a little more than three months from now. It is not unfathomable that elections in the UK take place within three weeks of the dissolution of Parliament. For sure, the parliamentary system lends itself to irregular elections, and so the process is shorter. But the Russians also have regular elections these days, and their campaign is still briefer than ours. It must help to have only one candidate running.
The American process takes years, and literally never ends. It is a law of diminishing returns. By this time, nothing new that is relevant emerges about either candidate and that was just as true six months ago. It is inconceivable that anyone paying attention is still undecided, notwithstanding their protestations of neutrality to gullible pollsters. The system is still designed for the 19th century – even though most candidates then did not travel around the country making the same speech over and over again as is done today. (Can’t they just record the speech and play it on television? Must they travel to every hick town – at great expense – and deliver it again and again?)
The long season requires enormous funding. It is not that there is anything inherently wrong with money in politics; it’s the American way (free speech and all) and Americans still spend more on chocolate than on presidential campaigns. Big campaign money is only a problem when the other side has it. Democrats had an almost-religious belief in the value of public funding of campaigns – until Obama opted out in 2008; suddenly, that Holy Grail was deconsecrated, perhaps forever. But the downside is that the money enables candidates to lie, deceive and defame, and it adds very little of substance to the fateful choice voters have to make. It debases the process, especially as it appeals to the most simplistic and unsophisticated voters. Negative campaigning works, and has always worked –and the only way to diminish its effects is to shorten the campaign.
Is it unrealistic to have a campaign season in the US that holds the primaries in September and the elections in October? Conventions are outmoded time wasters. The pageantry is impressive but profligate. The nominee is known already. There is no suspense. Let the candidates speak on television, debate if they must, and then have the election. And even if the process stretches to two months – elections in November – must the new president wait to take office until January 20? That is another 2½ months – for what? Form a cabinet in two weeks – even better, let the candidates form a shadow cabinet during the campaign so people can see with whom they wish to associate. Before the 1930s, presidents were inaugurated on March 4! Is January 20 these days really any better?
Of course, this would mean that presidents would actually have to govern, and not simply plot their re-election as soon as they entered office. It would mean that Congress would have to be in session a lot longer and also concentrate on governing, not running. That would be a sea change in American life, and it is long overdue.
The second reason for the election blues is the result of the peculiar election season upon us. Never before have candidates so limited their appearances to so few states. Apparently, there are roughly ten states that matter in this election – the swing states. All other states are taken for granted. Their votes are already in the bag, and there is nothing to discuss. It doesn’t even pay to vote, we are led to believe.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to a senior Romney advisor to encourage the candidate to come to New Jersey – come to Teaneck, for that matter – and was informed that both campaigns determine which states are winnable (or not) and apply their resources accordingly. Therefore, they come to New York, New Jersey, or California never to campaign and only to raise money – to be spent in the swing states.
Most states – forty (!) – don’t really matter. Obama will not win Texas and Romney will not win California. Duke Ellington was right: “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.”
This is all a function of the Electoral College in which the votes for the losing candidate in most states simply don’t count. Winner-take-all is literal. While I have never been on the “abolish-the-electoral-college” bandwagon, the country has become so divided, and people apparently have chosen to reside with like-minded compatriots, that the Electoral College today has simply become undemocratic. Only a few states are even contested. Can it change? It might in the future – there may be a candidate on the horizon that has broad, not sectoral, appeal – but it does not seem feasible in the acrimonious atmosphere that prevails today. The current system disenfranchises. Even though Mitt Romney has narrowed the gap in New Jersey, he is prudent spending his time and money elsewhere.
How little do our votes matter in New Jersey? Few campaign commercials are aired. There are almost no signs on lawns for either candidate. In fact, driving on a major Teaneck thoroughfare yesterday, the only campaign sign I saw was… “McCain-Palin 2008.”
Obviously, that family was so distressed by the results, the interminable campaign, and the uselessness of their votes, that they have not set foot from their house in four years.
Who can blame them? | <urn:uuid:a88aa5a1-251c-4d2f-a507-623e362b168d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rabbipruzansky.com/2012/10/18/election-blues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976447 | 1,437 | 1.625 | 2 |
A pet project of mine for a couple of months now, McAfee’s secure-short URL service went through a viral launch last week and has taken flight!
Leveraging McAfee Global Threat Intelligence, McAf.ee lets you create short url’s which are checked against our databases of known spammy, dangerous, malware hosting, bot control etc sites prior to being show. A while ago there was a glut of dangerous short links circulating around Twitter, Facebook etc – this is something McAfee can proactively do to help offer a little more safety in our online lives.
You can create a short URL for any site, but when someone clicks on it, if the site is flagged as dangerous we throw up a warning page to give users a chance to back out before visiting.
This service was created by the McAfee Office of the CTO, which I am part of – the team is charged with looking into and creating innovative test projects, which, if successful can be rolled into the more traditional McAfee Business Units. It means we have a little more freedom to go out on a limb and try new ideas out.
You can find more information, and of course comment and add feature suggestions, or report issues on our forum http://mcaf.ee/about
I’d love to have your feedback, and, as of now I’m proud to say you can find my blog at http://mcaf.ee/simon (smile!).
Update – Larry Magid from CNET NEws called me to interview me about the service, he was very gracious and published a great writeup of the service. He also recorded the interview and made a podcast available. Boy, I hate hearing recordings of myself. | <urn:uuid:de1c1a85-3d96-4fb4-b939-985f70428908> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ctogonewild.com/2010/09/21/mcaf-ee-launched/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945588 | 358 | 1.65625 | 2 |
How many is too many? State attorney presses Clayton on how many students it could accept
The numbers game continued Tuesday morning in the trial over Missouri’s law allowing student transfers from unaccredited school districts. An attorney for the state of Missouri tried to pin down the superintendent of Clayton schools on precisely how many last-minute students the district could accommodate.
Questioning Sharmon Wilkinson, Clayton's interim superintendent, attorney Tom Smith asked if the district would be able to handle one student who showed up unexpectedly. Wilkinson agreed that Clayton could absorb one student without difficulty.
Smith then upped the ante — two students, 20 students, 100 students, up to the 3,500 students that a study commissioned by Clayton said would be likely to transfer under a state law that allows students in St. Louis to attend adjacent accredited districts, with their home district paying tuition and transportation.
Wilkinson responded that the district needs time to plan for any large influx of students, so it would have adequate staff, space and supplies to educate all its students.
Noting that Clayton schools usually work on a five-year planning timeline, Wilkinson said that 3,500 new students this fall would likely overwhelm the district’s ability to serve them.
“We have not done the amount of planning we would need to serve the students who present themselves in the fall,” she said.
Disruption to education
Wilkinson was the first of three witnesses from the Clayton district on the second day of the trial in the court of St. Louis County Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III. The lawsuit was brought by the mother of two students living in the city who wants Clayton to accept them and the St. Louis Public Schools to pay for tuition and transportation.
Talking about the disruptions that large numbers of unexpected students would cause, Wilkinson emphasized, “I’m not talking about disruption to the district. I’m talking about how disruptive it would be to the education of the children. That’s our job.”
She added that “if you look at our numbers right now, we’re nearly at capacity.”
Wilkinson testified that in 2007, when the St. Louis Public Schools lost accreditation in 2007, and Clayton had to decide whether to accept transfer students under the state law now at issue in the case, it decided against it for several reasons.
First, she said, Clayton had accepted several students from the Wellston School District when it became unaccredited and had difficulty collecting the tuition payments. The money was paid only after lengthy negotiations. Wellston eventually was dissolved altogether and was absorbed into the Normandy School District.
Second, Wilkinson said that Clayton had been a longstanding participant in the area’s voluntary school desegregation program and thought that accepting transfer students from the city would undermine the goals of that effort.
Third, she said that Missouri’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education at the time, Kent King, had advised that transfers would be better handled through the deseg program than under the law that called for St. Louis to pay tuition and transportation.
Clayton’s director of facilities services and its chief financial officer emphasized that the additional cost of educating up to 3,500 new students, in addition to the district’s current 2,500 students, would add up to many millions of dollars.
Building five more schools, to match the high school, middle school and three elementary schools the district has now, would cost an estimated $156 million, for construction and land, which is far beyond the district’s current bonding capacity of $56 million.
Officials said that under the statute, Clayton could charge tuition of about $20,000 a student a year. Currently, non-resident students who sign tuition contracts with the district pay about $15,750 at the high school and $10,500 at other schools. St. Louis students enrolled in Clayton schools under the desegregation program are charged $7,000, which is reimbursed by the program.
In afternoon testimony, David Glaser, the chief executive of the desegregation program, said that Clayton had been one of the first county districts to become involved in the deseg transfers and had been one of the most active.
Responding to a survey done by Terry Jones, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis that said more than 40 percent of the students in the voluntary desegregation program would leave to take advantage of the broader transfer opportunity, Glaser said:
“It would be devastating to the program to lose that many students that suddenly.”
He also noted that while transportation costs for the voluntary deseg program average $3,328 a student, costs for transfers under the state law at issue would most likely be higher because city students could conceivably choose any school in the county they wanted to transfer to.
In response to questioning, he noted that the children of Gina Breitenfeld, the plaintiff in the case, would not be eligible to transfer from city to county schools because they are white.
The day’s final witness, Angela Banks, budget director for the St. Louis Public Schools, noted in her testimony that the Breitenfeld children have never been enrolled in the city's public schools, so any money that would be spent by the school system for their tuition would be extra money that the district is not spending on education now.
The leadoff witness in Wednesday’s final day of testimony is expected to be Kelvin Adams, superintendent of the city school system, followed by Roger Dorson, on the finance staff of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Vincent is hearing the case without a jury.
Supreme Court rules in Webster Groves case
The case being heard in Clayton is not the only one testing the statute. A judge last year ordered the Webster Groves schools to admit a student who was living in the city, though her family has since moved to St. Louis County. An appeal of that case was heard by the Missouri Supreme Court last month.
Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a unanimous order in the case, reversing the trial court's judgment and sending the case back for an evidentiary hearing because both sides couldn't agree on the facts. The court also said that the Hancock amendment’s ban on the state issuing an unfunded mandate could not be used by a school district, only by a taxpayer, so that defense could not be used in the Webster Groves case. A similar argument was made in the case in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Monday.
Douglas Copeland, attorney for Webster Groves schools, has said it was important to resolve the issues because many students want to transfer.
"I was pleased that we will get a chance to go back and put on all the evidence," Copeland told the Associated Press. "Maybe we will get the legislators' attention and they will do something to get this resolved. This is a legislative issue, not a judicial issue. They need to address it." | <urn:uuid:0d462822-1d16-4812-851f-599dd229f658> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stlbeacon.org/?_escaped_fragment_=/content/23048/turner_day_two_030612 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977035 | 1,448 | 1.601563 | 2 |
ABOUT THIS RELEASE
Australian Hospital Statistics 2002-03 is the tenth of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's annual summary reports describing the characteristics and activity of Australian hospitals. Detailed information is presented on hospital care and hospitals in 2002-03, along with summaries of changes over time, and comparisons between public and private hospitals. The report is based largely on data in the Institute's National Hospital Morbidity Database, the National Public Hospital Establishments Database and the National Elective Surgery Waiting Times Data Collection, which are compiled each year with the assistance of the state and territory health authorities.
This is an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) product, to obtain this product please go to the AIHW website.
This page last updated 25 June 2007 | <urn:uuid:46e07766-39b9-47a2-aa60-c77036157348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/productsbytitle/6DB1FF79FCC90001CA25709F00245B2C?OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941846 | 158 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Happy Birthday Jen!
4 Rounds for time:
Wish this girl Happy Birthday, or it’s 20 burpees!
We Love you Jen! Thanks for being such a great leader here at Crossfit Maximus!
The Ultimate Pain Killer
Does suffering in a group make it easier? Dr. Steven M. Platek believes the camaraderie of CrossFit can get you through the nastiest WOD.
What does CrossFit have to do with pain?
Quite fascinatingly, our “feeling” of pain in the physical is tightly and neurologically linked to our feeling pain in the social realm (being excluded, ostracized, etc.). The kid who does not get picked for dodgeball experiences a sense of pain very similar to what he would feel if he were just kicked in the face with a dodgeball. Sure, some differences exist, but in both examples the neural alarm system would become activated. In the former case, all the pain is in the social neural alarm system, with little or no physical feelings of pain (although continued social exclusion can produce real physical symptomatology).
See, humans have been highly social critters during our evolutionary history. Our brains have evolved to be social. We like the feeling of team support, and when our support system is threatened, our brains respond using the same exact systems as those used when we are physically injured. This occurs in order to motivate us to get back into the group. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can reduce physical pain; camaraderie reduces social pain.
Let’s take this one step further: if physical pain and social pain systems are so tightly linked neurologically, then we might hypothesize that medicines which reduce physical pain ought to also reduce social pain. Indeed, new scientific evidence suggests certain painkillers, and variations in genetic susceptibility to painkillers, can make someone feel less upset about being excluded from a social situation. I think this is an amazing discovery!
Similarly, the thing that reduces social pain—camaraderie—might be able to reduce physical pain. Little scientific data supports this idea, but I think we see some evidence of this phenomenon every day in CrossFit in a highly cooperative, competitive, friendly and encouraging environment. Camaraderie, or being made to feel like you are part of a group that is supporting your goals, can make you push through a WOD or any challenge life throws at you. | <urn:uuid:cc6d6518-9497-4f42-ab7e-ffa24faddd4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crossfitmaximus.com/2010/06/23/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936018 | 503 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The optimistic analysis of the prospects for Apple’s (AAPL) stock is a perfect illustration of what is wrong with most people’s approach to investing. According to Yahoo Finance, there are 50 analysts covering AAPL stock and offering earnings projections. This is five times as many analysts as those covering Statasys (SSYS) and Crucell (CRXL) combined, two stocks that performed as well or better than Apple in 2010. Given this intense scrutiny, the likelihood of an unknown piece of vital information about Apple that still remains to be factored into the stock price is infinitesimal.
The Efficient Market Theory
Looking for fallacies in this theory is the basis of my investment thesis, which, stated succinctly, is “Exploit the inefficiencies in the market created largely because everyone else is responding to the same small group of large company stocks like AAPL.”
An investment theory that states it is impossible to "beat the market" because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information. According to the EMH, stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments.
I agree that it is very difficult to beat the market by buying the same stocks the majority of market participants are following. For many money managers, the efficient market theory “works” since their goal is not to beat the markets but simply not to underperform the markets. If you have billions of dollars under management and making incredible amounts of money off front end and back end loads and the Management Expense Ratio, there isn’t much incentive to outperform. Especially considering the punishment for underperformance, when customers start looking at alternatives and redeeming investments. Given this dynamic, most large funds are disincentivized to do more than simply deliver market-similar performance. They only lose by underperforming.
Apple Headed to $1000/Share
I am hearing this a lot lately. Or, Apple will be the first company to achieve a trillion dollar market valuation. For the purpose of this article, these statements are virtually identical because at $1000/share the market value of AAPL is roughly $1 trillion. I am going to concede right now that this outcome is possible. Anything is possible, but is it likely? No.
The primary reason it is highly unlikely is that there has never been a $1 trillion company of any kind before, not even close. If you decide that the best investment you can make in the market is a bet on an event that has never happened before in the history of the world, then you are no longer making an investment, you are making a bet. A bet that Apple will be the first company in the world to achieve something never accomplished. Right now if I make that bet I will pay $320/share for the stock and if it works out favorably at some point in the future, I will receive $1000/share. That equates to roughly a 2.5 times return on my money or 5/2 odds.
Don’t you think I should get better odds on something never before accomplished? Given how heavily covered/analyzed the stock is, it is highly unlikely there is information available that is not currently priced into the stock. By making this “investment” you are saying you know something others do not. What’s more, many people seem to believe the stock is going much higher, so you are not alone in this position. That should concern any AAPL bull given that you need new money to propel the stock higher.
Cody Willard thinks the stock is headed for this magical mark, saying: "Apple’s Going to $1000 by 2015. Here’s Why."
But I bring this up because I think, if you don’t own it already Apple, you probably want to go ahead and establish your cost basis at these current levels. Because this stock is going higher. Much higher. Probably to at least $350 per share before year end. And Apple’s gonna hit $1000 before 2015. So wouldn’t you like to look back when it does and proudly tell people your own cost basis?
The stock’s still cheap, yes, even at $250 per share. And yes, even though it’s up from $7 just eight short years ago. That’s because of good ol’ fashioned earnings again. The stock’s only trading at 14 forward P/E multiple. And when you take into account all that cash, it’s only a 12 price to enterprise value multiple. This, for a company growing earnings 20-30% per year and positioned to keep doing so for a decade.
James Altucher thinks so too, saying: "Why Apple Will Be The First Company To Reach A Trillion Dollar Market Cap."
Assume iPad is going to sell 50 million iPads next year (I’ve seen estimates ranging from 43 million to 65 million). That’s at least four times as many iPads. Lets say they only grow two times per year for the two years after that (new models, more availability worldwide, etc). That’s 200 million iPads in 2013, or 15 to 20 times what they did in 2010. Two-hundred million iPads with a 30 percent margin (currently margins on iPads are about 36 percent, but I assume they will go down) is about $30 billion in gross profits.
One can go on and on with the metrics of how Apple blows it away but lets just say that in 2013, iPad and app sales represent about 40 percent of Apple’s gross profits. Total gross profits could be about $80 billion (today is $25 billion). Cash flow could be about 75 percent of that (like it is today), or about $60 billion. Slap a 20 times multiple on that and you have a market cap of $1.2 trillion. That’s a shareprice of about $1200 by 2013.
Those are pretty persuasive arguments presented with nice financial projections that all wrap this up pretty tight as a no brainer investment. To be completely honest, I hope they are right. I like when people make money, it’s great for the market and great for the economy and great for an environment of general prosperity, which is great for me. It’s just not a ‘bet’ I am willing to make. I don’t think making bets on unique events is a good investment strategy. The uniqueness of the event defines its unlikely outcome, which in itself should make you scratch your head about whether that is the foundation of a strong investment thesis.
Many smaller companies double and triple every year. Without reaching the size and scale that push against the confines of a finite economy, growth is much easier to come by. There is always a first time, financial or otherwise and AAPL may just be the first $1 trillion company. We can celebrate with a CNBC countdown and bask in the excess, but betting on firsts is not investing in the humble opinions of this analyst. While others pound their chests with pride in pursuit of the never before accomplished, I will stick to making money the old fashioned way, looking where others have yet to dwell and exploiting the inefficiencies of the markets created when the majority of market participants are focused on a few large stocks like AAPL.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. | <urn:uuid:a3776040-1412-4e42-8871-5242f81e5726> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/244571-apple-optimistic-analysis-illustrates-what-s-wrong-with-typical-investment-approach | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951891 | 1,602 | 1.625 | 2 |
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"How can they now say the report is inaccurate? I think the report is factual, balanced and objective. The reaction of the Australian Government is negative because it is critical of its policies."
Justice Bhagwati denied accusations that he had been gullible. "I saw the conditions myself and made an evaluation based on what I saw and heard," he said.
"In addition I spoke to several groups of people including non-government organisations, leading lawyers and officials of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission."
Criticism of the damning UN report intensified yesterday. The Federal Government's independent detention advisory group said its criticisms were not soundly based.
The chairman of the Immigration Detention Advisory Group, John Hodges, was also critical of Justice Bhagwati, who he said had failed to cross-check with immigration officers and detention centre management detainees' statements.
Mr Hodges said he knew of "many instances of detainees either embellishing situations or just plain not telling the truth".
But another member of the group, Paris Aristotle, defended Justice Bhagwati, who he said had had limited terms of reference and limited time, and it was important not to lose sight of the "substantive issues" in the report.
The Government yesterday accused the UN of damaging its credibility by unfairly branding Australia's treatment of asylum seekers as degrading, and suggesting Justice Bhagwati had been gullible.
In Brunei, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said: "He is in a position ... where he has simply taken on board a whole lot of criticisms from spending just one day at Woomera."
The Government would not change its policies on mandatory detention, as that would allow people smuggling and other forms of illegal immigration to get worse, he said. He denied that Australia had broken international laws by detaining children, calling the UN report "neither comprehensive nor accurate".
The Refugee Council of Australia labelled the Government's response to the UN report as "predictable", saying it had placed itself above international bodies whose role it was to monitor and protect human rights.
Greens Senator Bob Brown said the report was "a further indictment of the cruel conditions" in detention centres. He said he would move amendments to migration legislation before Parliament to prohibit children being kept in detention centres or separated from their parents.
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|text | handheld (how to)||
Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald.
|advertise | contact us| | <urn:uuid:61dfa0b9-5255-43fc-bb0c-086623692311> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/01/1028157815795.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96105 | 676 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Cyclists take heed: If you crash, Mercy Regional Medical Center has made its emergency room wait time available through smartphones and the hospital website.
The app is a free download.
Anyone in danger of losing life or limb will be seen immediately.
But people who use the ER for routine service now can check to learn long they’ll wait to see a doctor.
The average wait time for nonemergency patients at Mercy is 17 minutes.
“It’s one thing to know what our average wait time was last year,” Paul Gibson, director of emergency services at Mercy, said in a statement. “It’s another to be able to see what they are at the moment you actually need care.
“We recognize how critical it is to provide our patients with resources and technology to make informed decisions,” he said.
Wait time is defined as the lapse between when a patient is registered and when the patient’s information is entered into the medical record.
The ER wait time is one of numerous bits of information available through iTriage.
The app contains data about location of hospitals and clinics, directions for how to get there, names of doctors and their specialties, how to obtain information for treatment of a specific condition and what conditions are treated.
Mercy partnered with iTriage about a month ago, hospital spokesman David Bruzzese said Friday.
In the Denver area, some of Mercy’s Centura Health System sister hospitals display the same medical information on billboards, Bruzzese said.
Centura has 13 hospitals statewide.
Founded in 2008 by two emergency room physicians in Denver, iTriage went live in 2009.
“There have been 7 million downloads,” Suzy Buglewicz, public relations manager for the firm, said Friday. “The app has information on all medical facilities in the country.”
The app is available on iPhone and Android mobile device. | <urn:uuid:9b50dfa9-99e5-4cd7-a81f-84035bb14b42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120819/NEWS01/708199890/0/20110508/Crash-during-a-practice-ride | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94381 | 406 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I wanted to write up this phone while at CES because it was simply the most practical-looking phone there, felt good in the hand, and looked sweet. It wasn’t sensational enough at the time, but now we know that Nokia is doing it green-style.
They claim to be using “innovative bio-materials,” which sounds a little shady, but their charger is super-efficient and they’re trying to use recyclable or post-consumer materials for their accessories and packaging. If you’re environmentally conscious, this is probably your best choice. Incidentally, I like these little socks they have for sale. Couldn’t you just use a regular sock, though?
Nokia Launches Greener Cell Phone: 3310 Evolve [Inhabitat] | <urn:uuid:1edc6e99-bd9f-41c0-b066-e94979c9e7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/nokias-3310-evolution-hugs-trees-does-drum-circles/ | 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 | 0.953546 | 171 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The North Carolina Arboretum provides outreach and engagement through plant-centered adult and youth education, exhibition, and demonstration that promotes leadership in environmental sustainability awareness, related economic development and science literacy for North Carolina communities and campuses.
The facilities, exhibits, education programs, and economic strategies crafted during the nearly 25 years since the Arboretum's inception have served as a model for excellence in institutional outreach that result in positive educational and economic outcomes.
As an affiliate of The University of North Carolina, The North Carolina Arboretum has developed targeted partnerships that work to address the UNC Tomorrow Plan:
- Innovations in Exhibition Program
- The Learning Institute
- Science Literacy for Educators | <urn:uuid:a293878b-1f33-4281-a941-be779cbefdb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncarboretum.org/education | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934833 | 141 | 1.773438 | 2 |
It began in 1983 as the congressional version of a high-school gag.
Frustrated that once again they would be reduced to extras in the over-produced spectacle of a Ronald Reagan State of the Union address, House Democrats secretly plotted their revenge. When the advance text of the president's remarks circulated on Capitol Hill the day of the speech, Tip O'Neill's merry pranksters highlighted an innocuous sentence towards the end of the speech: "We who are in government must take the lead in restoring the economy."
When Reagan read this line on cue, House Democrats erupted as if the president had just announced V-J Day. Rising to their feet in celebration, Democrats lustily cheered this backhanded acknowledgement of the federal role in the economy as if the Gipper had proclaimed, "The era of Big Government is back." The president immediately realized that he was being razzed by Democratic street theater. Reagan ad-libbed, referring to the advance text, "I thought you were all reading the paper." That jibe prompted to Republicans to reward their president with a standing ovation.
From these light-hearted roots -- pranking a president who could enjoy a joke -- grew an insidious tradition of hard-edged partisanship. By 1987, New York Times columnist William Safire, a former Richard Nixon speechwriter with a connoisseur's appreciation of the rituals of the presidency, was lamenting the sorry state of the State of the Union address. Organized rooting sections, including the Cabinet and guests in the balcony, had -- in Safire's words -- "transmogrified the event from dutiful report and respectful hearing into a clash between branches of government."
Those were, of course, the good old days before a congressman impulsively shouted "You lie!" during a presidential speech to Congress (Barack Obama's 2009 health care address) and a Supreme Court justice mouthed the words "not true" in dissent during the 2010 State of the Union. Like so many partisan rituals on Capitol Hill, the syncopated standing ovations from one party and angry grimaces from the other party fail to sway voters watching at home. All these pep-rally gimmicks do is to contribute to the cynical public's conviction that politics on Capitol Hill are sophomoric when they are not vitriolic.
But in the sad-eyed wake of the Arizona massacre, State of the Union civility is making a dramatic comeback. The Third Way
, a centrist Democratic think tank, proposed Monday in an open letter to the congressional leaders
in both parties an end "to partisan seating for the State of the Union." Their rationale: "Perhaps having both parties sit together, intermingled, would help control the choreography of partisanship that accompanies the president's remarks."
Unlike most high-minded notions in Washington (which fare about as well as the drive to make Esperanto the universal language), the proposal to end segregated seating in the chamber of the House of Representative during the State of the Union seems to have hit the moment. "It's an idea that we've been thinking about for a while," said Jim Kessler, the vice president policy at the Third Way. "And with the shooting of Gabby Giffords and the general feeling of collective remorse, we decided to put it out."
by Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, an honorary co-chairman of the Third Way, the nostrum was also blessed by The Washington Post in an editorial
: "This would be a gesture, but gestures matter." In normal times, newspaper editorial pages are where good-government ideas go to die. But these are not normal times. Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer, the second ranking House Democrat, issued statements Thursday announcing that they would discuss the open-seating plan with their Republican counterparts next week.
The phrase "across the aisle" may be one of the most tedious Capitol Hill clichés
, but the symbolism embedded in physically entering the other party's space remains powerful. During a thoughtful discussion of the filibuster during the opening session of the Senate last week, Kansas Republican Pat Roberts walked over to Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin in an I-come-in-peace gesture. Moments later, Harkin made his own pilgrimage to the Republican section of the Senate chamber.
When Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Jan. 25, it may take more than bipartisan seating arrangements -- or even exiling a few potential loudmouths to the quiet car -- to suspend the rancorous divisions in Congress. Television cameras will still zoom in to highlight who is wildly applauding and who is sitting with their arms tightly folded. The temptation will remain to judge the president's popularity and the future of his legislative agenda based on a crude Applause Meter.
But Obama could change all that -- and bring a new tone of gravity to the State of the Union -- by uttering a simple sentence early in the speech: "In light of the grave problems facing the nation, I request that anyone who is tempted please refrain from applause until the end of the address."
With America fighting two wars, with unemployment still near double-digit levels and with the national debt at staggering levels, this is not a moment for irrational exuberance from either party. These are sad times, for the state of the union is deeply troubled. That is why the best way to honor this constitutionally mandated moment -- and to respect the ordeal of Gabby Giffords -- is to greet the president's words on Jan. 25 with the sounds of silence. | <urn:uuid:17c1820a-d0f2-455b-bfb6-4baa37e97b60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/13/state-of-the-union-preview-the-new-drive-to-eliminate-partisan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953681 | 1,131 | 1.835938 | 2 |
US 5532702 A
A method for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising the steps of:
(a) determining, at each of the stations, of a characteristic according to a predetermined protocol for the respective station in response to the call; and
(b) transmitting, by the stations, of a non-information bearing signal at a predetermined time and frequency slot, wherein said slot is indicative of the determined characteristic.
1. A method for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising the steps of:
(a) determining, at each of a plurality of stations, of a characteristic value based on at least one of the attributes, according to a predetermined protocol for the respective station; and
(b) transmitting, by the stations, of a non-information bearing signal in a transmission slot, wherein said slot is indicative of the determined characteristic value.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein signals are intentionally transmitted by more than one station in a given transmission slot.
3. A method for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising the steps of:
(a) determining, at each of a plurality of stations, of a characteristic value based on at least one of the attributes, according to a predetermined protocol for the respective station; and
(b) transmitting, by the stations, of a signal in a transmission slot, wherein said slot is indicative of the determined characteristic value and wherein signals are intentionally transmitted by more than one station in a given transmission slot.
4. A method according to claim 1, wherein all of the responding stations transmit a signal at substantially the same frequency.
5. A method according to claim 2, wherein all of the responding stations transmit a signal at substantially the same frequency.
6. A method according to claim 3, wherein all of the responding stations transmit a signal at substantially the same frequency.
7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the stations transmit in a predetermined transmission channel into said transmission slots and wherein each slot represents a range of the characteristic value.
8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the characteristic value is based on a plurality of said attributes.
9. A method according to claim 7 and including the step of:
transmitting a call requesting a response from those stations having a characteristic value within a restricted range.
10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the stations respond to the call by transmitting a signal in a transmission slot indicative of the calculated characteristic value within the restricted range of values.
11. A method according to claim 9, wherein all of the stations transmit signals at substantially the same frequency in response to the call.
12. A method according to claim 1 and including the step of:
transmitting a further call requesting those stations having a characteristic within a narrow range to transmit an information bearing signal.
13. A method according to claim 12, wherein said information bearing signal is an identification signal and wherein identification signals from stations having the narrow band of values are transmitted during one of a plurality of slots chosen at random by each of the stations and wherein a station whose identification signal is received clearly during a slot is chosen.
14. A method according to claim 13 and including the step of:
choosing, by a random process at the remote stations, those stations which transmit their identification signals.
15. A method according to claim 12, wherein all of the stations transmit their identification signals at substantially the same frequency.
16. A method according to claim 1 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the average velocity of the station.
17. A method according to claim 2 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the average velocity of the station.
18. A method according to claim 3 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the average velocity of the station.
19. A method according to claim 1 wherein said characteristic includes the position of the station.
20. A method according to claim 2 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the position of the station.
21. A method according to claim 3 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the position of the station.
22. A method according to claim 1 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the delay being experienced by the station.
23. A method according to claim 2 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the delay being experienced by the station.
24. A method according to claim 3 wherein said characteristic value is responsive to the delay being experienced by the station.
25. A method according to claim 16 wherein the characteristic comprises at least one element additional to the average velocity or delay experienced by the station and including the step of:
transmitting at least one additional call requesting a response from those stations having a value for said element within a restricted range of values.
26. A method according to claim 22 wherein the characteristic comprises at least one element additional to the average velocity or delay experienced by the station and including the step of:
transmitting at least one additional call requesting a response from those stations having a value for said element within a restricted range of values.
27. A method according to claim 25 wherein the element comprises the position of the station.
28. A method according to claim 1, wherein steps (a) and (b) are performed in response to a call transmitted by a control station.
29. A method according to claim 2, wherein steps (a) and (b) are performed in response to a call transmitted by a control station.
30. A method according to claim 3, wherein steps (a) and (b) are performed in response to a call transmitted by a control station.
31. Apparatus for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising:
(a) a first transmitter which transmits a call to a plurality of said remote stations;
(b) determining apparatus at each of the stations, which determines a characteristic of the station based on a predetermined protocol in response to the call; and
(c) a plurality of second transmitters each associated with one of the remote stations which transmits a non-information bearing signal in a transmission slot which is indicative of the determined characteristic.
32. Apparatus according to claim 31 wherein more than one of the plurality of second transmitters transmits in the same slot.
33. Apparatus according to claim 31 wherein all of the second transmitters transmit at substantially the same frequency.
34. Apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the stations respond to the call in a predetermined channel divided into said transmission slots and wherein each slot represents a range of values of the characteristic.
35. Apparatus according to claim 31 and including a controller for causing the first transmitter to transmit at least one additional call requesting a response from those stations having a characteristic within a restricted range of values.
36. Apparatus according to claim 35 wherein the stations include a second controller which causes the second transmitters to transmit a signal, in response to the additional call in a transmission slot, said slot being indicative of the characteristic within the restricted range of values.
37. Apparatus according to claim 36, wherein all of second transmitters transmit at substantially the same frequency in response to the additional call.
38. Apparatus according to claim 31 wherein the controller includes circuitry which causes the first transmitter to transmit a further call requesting those stations having a characteristic within a narrow range to transmit an information bearing signal.
39. Apparatus according to claim 38 and comprising:
means associated with each of the stations for causing the second transmitter associated with a station to transmit an identification signal during one of a plurality of slots chosen at random by the station; and
means for choosing one of the stations whose identification signal is received clearly in a slot.
40. Apparatus according to claim 39 and including:
circuitry which chooses, by a random process at the remote stations, those stations which transmit their identification signals.
FIG. 1 shows a typical scenario of a dispatch situation in connection with which the invention may be employed. In this scenario a geographical area 10 is defined by a boundary 11 within which a system according to the invention is operational.
An identification system according to the invention includes a controller such as a control center (base station) 12 and, optionally, a plurality of taxi stands 13, 14 and 15 which constitute sub-control units each of which serves a respective region within area 10 and which may forward a customer request to control center 12.
Associated with each of stands 13, 14 and 15 are respective groups of participants (e.g. taxis) of which two groups 18 and 19 associated with stands 13 and 15, respectively, are shown in FIG. 1. The groups of participants 18 and 19 generally comprise some taxis which are stationary proximate their respective stands awaiting instructions therefrom and other taxis such as 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 which are circulating within area 10 and are either available for performing a task on receiving instructions or, alternatively, are occupied and therefore unavailable.
A customer 25 located somewhere within area 10 relays a request for service to control center 12 telephonically via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Control center 12, in turn, broadcast an invitation message to all of the participants in area 10 either directly or via a remote station 30 which is typically located so as to cover all of area 10. Control center 12 can also receive messages via station 30. Alternatively, control center 12 broadcasts and receives messages directly.
Remote station 30 may be located inside area 10, or alternatively if the area is built up with tall buildings, outside the boundary of the built-up area, if this siting reduces the blocking of signals between the taxis and the repeater station by tall building and the like or for other reasons.
Sometimes, customer 25 telephones a particular taxi stand since this is the nearest stand to the customer's location. In this case it is generally preferable that one of the taxis associated with the taxi stand be dispatched to the customer unless, of course, all of the taxis associated with the stand are currently occupied (or otherwise unsuitable), in which case one of the taxis associated with another of the stands will be allocated for the task.
In this case, the association of a taxi with a particular stand may constitute at least one of the criteria involved in choosing the taxi to be allocated to customer 25. Such a selection criterion is a static variable and, once fixed, never varies because a taxi is always associated with one stand. However, the actual priority assigned to each of the taxis is also a function of several independent dynamic factors which are subject to constant fluctuation. Of these, the taxi's distance from the customer is the most important example. However, other dynamic conditions pertaining to a taxi's instantaneous status also affect the respective priority of the taxi so that, for example, a taxi which is currently occupied or one which has insufficient occupancy for the number of passengers to be collected would not participate in the selection process and a taxi which is waiting at a stand would get priority. The idle time of the taxi can also be an important criteria.
It will be appreciated that in general there are many different contributory factors, or selection criteria, which influence the priority assigned to each individual taxi within area 10. Moreover, it is generally the case that each selection criterion has a different "weight" associated therewith so that the final magnitude of the priority associated with each respective taxi is built up from many different selection criteria each of which exert a different influence on the actual priority assigned.
For example, in the simplest case, it may be that only distance from the taxi to customer 25 is of concern. Such a simple case would not take into consideration the fact that other customers may already have requested service and may not yet have been processed. Thus, another customer near customer 25 but still somewhat further away from the nearest available taxi in area 10, may have a prior claim for service. However, in the simplest of systems where only distance from the taxi to the customer is important, such a prior claim would not be recognized.
In a preferred system where many factors are taken into account the priority assigned to each taxi may often be viewed as a multi-dimensional vector which is the vector sum of component priority vectors each relating to a different selection criterion.
A preferred method for allocating a task to one of the taxis in response to a request by customer 25 will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 7. For the sake of simplicity only, it will initially be assumed that the only selection criterion of interest is the distance of a taxi from customer 25.
FIG. 2, shows a flow diagram of the operation of a preferred system of the invention. The left portion of the flow diagram comprises operation of a first, targeting, phase and the right portion of the flow diagram comprises operation of a second, identification phase. The targeting phase starts with the broadcasting of a call message to all of the participating taxis informing them that a priority must be determined for responding to a pending request for service. The criteria for determining the priority may be sent together with the call or, alternatively, may be part of a preset protocol used for all such determinations. Alternatively, there may be several such protocols one of which the call identifies by a code. In the very simple case of a dispatching system wherein distance of a taxi from a specified location is the only selection criterion, there is no need to inform the taxi of the selection criterion each time an invitation message is transmitted.
Responsive to the call, each of the taxis uses the selection criteria to determine its own priority in accordance with the protocol. The protocol also includes a plurality of ranges of priority values and a communication protocol which subdivides a time period and/or a frequency range into a plurality of time or time/frequency slots each of which is associated with one of the ranges of priorities.
Each of the participants who is not immediately eliminated from further participation owing to gross unsuitability (e.g., they are already occupied or is already responding to a call) responds to the call message by transmitting an indication signal in the appropriate time or time/frequency slot in accordance with his respective priority. The indication time slots all start at a time relative to a time base common to all of the participants. It is important to note that all those responding participants having a priority within the same range respond at the same time and frequency. As a result, substantially simultaneous indication signals are received by the control center from those participants having the highest priority as determined at the current priority resolution according to the protocol. The indication signals, which are preferably pulsed CW (i.e., they are pulsed signals at a particular frequency having no information content other than that given by the time at which the transmission occurs and the frequency of the transmission), are sufficiently non-destructive with respect to other simultaneously transmitted indication signals and have at least sufficient pulse width so as to permit an indication that at least one of the taxis has responded in a given time slot. In certain cases it may be necessary to add some dithering or other variations to the signals so as to avoid destructive interference between the signals.
Since the indication signals may, and typically do, overlap, even a fairly narrow bandwidth broadcast channel may be employed, there being no requirement to discriminate between different indication signals in the same priority slot. Furthermore, intermodulation effects between the indication signals in a given slot are not important, since only the presence of at least one indication is required, and the intermodulation does not affect this determination.
The control center monitors any response and determines which slots have a true indicator signal (as opposed to noise or other transients). Preferably, the time slots are arranged in descending order of priorities, such that the control center may ignore all slots after the first one (or some other small number of) "occupied" slot.
The control center targets all those responding taxis having the highest priority range in respect of which a valid indication signal has been received. Except as will be described below, taxis having a lower priority are excluded from further consideration.
If a predetermined criteria for stopping the targeting phase has not been reached, then an additional call is broadcast requesting all those taxis which have a priority within the highest priority range to respond. The response of the taxis is similar to that sent in the previous step except that the time or time/frequency slots now represent sub-ranges within the highest indicated priority range or ranges. In general the call will include this range and may include an indication of the protocol for dividing the slots among the priorities.
It should be understood that, for the more general case of multiple criteria, the priority vector may be a function of the iteration number or of the priority range. Thus for example, the first iteration may be used to eliminate taxis which are far away from the destination without giving much weight to the idle (waiting) time. The second iteration may give a greater weight to the idle time or to other factors. In general, taxis which have moved closer to the destination since the last call and have an increased priority may participate in the second iteration even if they did not have the highest priority in the previous iteration or were not detected as having this priority. Furthermore, a special slot may be provided for taxis whose priority is now higher than the highest range detected in the previous iteration. These taxis would take precedence over the other taxis by using the special slot.
This iterative reduction of the number of participants continues until a predetermined criteria is reached. This criteria may include consideration of the priority resolution achieved. The criteria may include a statistical estimate of the number of vehicles which have not been eliminated. For example, if in a given iteration in which a substantial number of sub-slots have been allocated, only one or a few sub-slots contain a response, it is then fairly certain that the number of taxis left in the system is small (or even one) and the iteration process (and the targeting phase) is ended.
Another iterative approach which may sometimes be used is to restrict the responders in the first phase to a single range or a limited number of ranges. Assuming that the range of interest is between 0-10 km from the customer. A first call would only ask for responses from those taxis which are closer than 5 km from the customer. This distance could be divided into ranges or a single range could be used. If there were no responses, then the call would request responses from those taxis in the range of 5-10 km. If there were a response, then further delineation of the range would successively narrow the range of distances. In this method of restriction all positive responses to the query are preferably broadcast in the same time/frequency slot.
Preferably, in the targeting phase no participants are actually identified, and therefore it is not yet possible for the control center to dispatch a particular taxi to the customer. Before this can be done, it is first necessary to complete a second, identification, phase wherein one of the taxis targeted at the end of the first phase is uniquely identified.
An additional call is broadcast or otherwise transmitted to the participants indicating that an identification phase is to begin. All of the targeted participants remaining at the end of the first phase are invited to broadcast or otherwise transmit their identification codes in one of a number of identification slots (which may be time or time/frequency slots, DS-CDMA or FDMA slots). These slots have a duration (or information bandwidth) commensurate with the information to be transmitted by the taxis. The number of identification time slots is determined in accordance with the protocol and is application-dependent, and may be based on the number of participants which are believed to be (or estimated to be) left.
For example, in a dispatching system, the priority scale may extend from a distance of 10 km from the customer location and the initial priority resolution (so far as the distance criterion is concerned) may be 1 km which is reduced during two successive iterations to 100 m and finally to 1 m. At such a fine priority resolution it is not to be expected that more than a small number of taxis will be targeted so a fast converging identification phase having only a few time slots ought to be sufficient for identifying one of the targeted participants. It is not suggested that a 1 m distance is significant in determining priorities for taxis, however use of such fine distinctions aids in reducing the number of taxis which participate in the identification phase. However, as will be explained below, the protocol has built therein sufficient discrimination to allow for possible errors in the number of identification time slots allocated and to compensate for such errors as required.
The identification slots are preferably not assigned in any way, and the taxis choose their slots in some random way. It can be expected that at for least some of the slots more than one taxi will broadcast its identification information. Such broadcasts probably can not be read by the control center which will choose the first taxi which it can identify. If multiple dispatches are required to the same destination, as for example where there are too many passengers for one taxi, the second phase may have to be repeated several times until the required number of taxis are dispatched. Furthermore, in extreme cases, it may be necessary to call for identification from taxis having a lower priority.
As in the targeting phase, a slot may be provided in the identification phase for taxis having a higher priority than the call. These taxis may have moved closer to the destination or their signal may not have been received by the receiver due to interference or blockage.
Having described the overall method for iteratively targeting, during a first phase, successively fewer participants and then, during a second phase, identifying a desired number of the targeted participants, there will now be described a specific application thereof to the scenario depicted in FIG. 1 and with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7 of the drawings.
Referring then to FIG. 3, a customer 25 has requested a taxi. Shown within a circular target area 40 centered about customer 25 and having a boundary 35 at different distances from customer 25 are four taxi vehicles designated as V.sub.a, V.sub.b, V.sub.c, and V.sub.d. Vehicles outside boundary 35 are excluded from consideration.
Target area 40 is split into a plurality of concentric sectors of which only the outermost sectors 42, 43, 44 and 45 are shown each having a width ΔR and being radially disposed with respect to the customer. Adjacent sectors 42 and 43 or 43 and 44 or 44 and 45 are contiguous although for the sake of clarity and explanation they are shown in FIG. 3 as separated from each other.
It will be noted that vehicles V.sub.b and V.sub.c are within the first (innermost) sector 42, vehicle V.sub.d is within the middle sector 44 and vehicle V.sub.a is in the last (outermost) sector 45. Since it is desired to allocate the task of servicing the customer to the vehicle which is closest to him, it is clear that one of the two vehicles V.sub.b and V.sub.c in the innermost sector 42 must be identified as the most suitable for the task. It will also be apparent that the number of vehicles which exist in any particular sector is a function of the width of the sector. Thus, if the width of each sector is increased from ΔR to 3ΔR, it is apparent that vehicles V.sub.b, V.sub.c and V.sub.d will now exist in the new, innermost sector comprising original sectors 42-44. In this manner, the width of each sector ΔR constitutes a priority resolution with which a priority is assigned to the participating vehicles. The coarser (i.e. lower) the resolution, the more vehicles will answer the selection criteria and be rated at a particular priority associated therewith while the finer (i.e. higher) the resolution, the smaller the number of vehicles which answer the selection criteria and are rated with the corresponding priority.
Thus, after a first step of targeting in which a small group of taxis is chosen, in a second step of targeting the highest priority taxi, a coarse resolution (finer however than that in the first step) is set as shown in FIG. 3 and an call message is transmitted by control center 12 to all of the participants. The call message also preferably defines a time interval ΔT which is divided into an equal number of time slots Δt of equal width such that the total number of time slots is equal to the total number of priorities: i.e. the number of sectors. In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, frequency diversity can be used to define multiple slots at the same time, each of the slots being at a different frequency distinguishable by the control center.
Upon receiving the call message, each of the participating taxis determines its priority in accordance with the selection criteria, which, in the simplest case, is assumed to be solely the distance of the participant from the customer and within the maximum radius R.sub.max. Thus, vehicles V.sub.b and V.sub.c are both assigned the highest priority, while vehicles V.sub.d and V.sub.a (in that order) are assigned successively lower priorities. It should be noted that typically there may be hundreds of vehicles in the target area 40; only a few are shown in the figure for the sake of clarity. Further, each vehicle may have a handset (see FIG. 9) having a disabling switch by means of which the driver can prevent the transmission of a response message upon receiving an call message from control center 12. By such means he can go off duty, etc.
The active participants V.sub.a to V.sub.d now transmit an indication signal within the time slot Δt corresponding to their priority. Thus, vehicles V.sub.b and V.sub.c transmit an indication signal first; vehicle V.sub.d transmits his indication signal second; and vehicle V.sub.a transmits his indication signal third. In an actual situation, of course, there may exist many time slots corresponding to a large number of coarse resolution priorities and perhaps hundreds of vehicles will transmit an indication signal in the same time slot. This, in itself, is not important because all that matters during this first phase of the process is to determine the first time slot in which a vehicle transmits an indication signal.
This having been done, it is immediately clear which is the nearest sector to the customer in which at least one vehicle is located and therefore all of the vehicles in all of the other sectors may now be eliminated. In a practical implementation of such a system, the broadcast and receive time for transmitting the call message from the control center to the participants and receiving the first indication signal therefrom takes a short time. Thus, in a relatively short time interval thousands of participants in the field can be reduced to a small number of potentially suitable participants for the task, without the use of excessive frequency spectrum.
Furthermore, if a full duplex communication system is used, the control center need not wait for the entire time ΔT, and can go on to the next iteration or the next phase immediately when a first indication signal is received.
As explained above, this process is repeated iteratively as often as required, each iteration having successively finer priority resolutions (i.e. sectors of successively decreasing width ΔR), until a predetermined resolution is reached. At this point, the width of the remaining sector is sufficiently small that only a small number of participants are likely to be found therein. It is, of course, not known how many participants there are in this remaining sector since regardless of whether only one participant or many send an indication signal in a particular time/frequency slot, the control center does not receive a message which is capable of uniquely identifying any one of those participants.
It should be noted that the receive time taken for the control center to process a response from the highest priority participants is a function of the number of time slots Δt. Thus, as the resolution is increased, there will be more time slots and, since each requires a minimum transmit time, it might take longer to identify the highest priority time slot. There is therefore a tradeoff between, on the one hand, increasing the resolution so as to identify the most suitable participant in fewer iterations and, on the other hand, increasing the cycle time of a given iteration by doing so. The choice of initial resolution and rate of increasing the resolution may be made based on the number of participating vehicles and or a priori expectations of the responses. Thus, the range of values of a priority which are assigned a given sector may be based on the number of expected units having that priority. If distance is the sole criteria, the range of distance values may be proportional to the distance so that the area of the sectors assigned to each priority may be the same.
FIG. 4 shows a subsequent iteration of the targeting phase wherein the priority resolution is increased and a further call signal is transmitted to the participants. The currently targeted participants V.sub.b or V.sub.c in what is currently the highest priority sector 42 are assigned new slots according to the finer priority resolution and again transmit indication signals during time slots corresponding to their priorities. As a result, it transpires that V.sub.c has a higher priority than V.sub.b and its indication signal is therefore transmitted first (or in a slot corresponding to a high priority, even if such slot is not first). However, from the perspective of the control center, there is no way of knowing how many participants exist in what is now the highest priority sector. All that can be known is that at least one participant has the priority.
Thus, while there may still be hundreds of participants in the targeted sector, it is expected that with the increased priority resolution only a small number of participants will now be targeted. One of these is now to be identified to respond to the request for service. During this second phase of identification, the control center assigns a new time interval ΔT-ID and divides this time interval into a number of equal width time slots Δt (or time/frequency slots) related to the expected number of participants in the highest priority sector 42. The expected number of participants in sector 42 is determined statistically as a function of the resolution of the sector ΔR and according to the application. The only remaining targeted participant V.sub.c in the highest priority sector 42 now selects randomly one of the time slots and transmits, within the randomly selected time slot, an identification message whereby the sending participant can be uniquely identified.
In the more general case, where there are still a number of targeted participants, the control center receives a plurality of identification messages some of which may, of course, have been transmitted during the same randomly selected time (or time/frequency) slot. It is understood that where two signals are transmitted at the same time and frequency, no information on the identity of the transmitting participant in the absence of a capture effect. However, it is expected that at least one of the identification messages can be uniquely identified and, in this case, the task is allocated to a participant which can be identified. Where possible, of course, in the interest of speed, the task is allocated to the first uniquely identifiable participant.
If it is not possible to identify one of the participants uniquely, the communication protocol allows for appropriate action according to each particular situation. Thus, it may be that during the final iteration in phase one, no participants were targeted. This itself could be due to several different reasons: for example, the call message may never have reached the participants or, more likely, the response of the highest priority participants may not have been received, possibly having been obstructed by an obstacle in its path.
Alternatively, possibly too many participants were targeted in the final iteration of phase one and an insufficient number of identification time slots were allocated during phase two. In this case, identification messages may collide during all of the identification time slots, rendering it impossible to identify any one participant. In the more general case where more than one participant is to be identified, it may also occur that too few identification messages arrive in phase two owing to an insufficient number of participants having been targeted in phase one.
The various strategies for dealing with each of these possibilities from the point of view of the control center will now be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 which show state diagrams relating to the targeting and identification phases, respectively. In both of these diagrams the following terminology is employed:
______________________________________PHASE-1.x x.sup.th iteration of phase 1;PHASE-2.x x.sup.th iteration of phase 2;IB Control center's Broadcast Message;RD Responders' signal Detection and signal processing;IBPH1.x Control Center's x.sup.th Broadcast messages in Phase 1;IBPH2.x control centerts x.sup.th Broadcast messages in Phase 2;ΔTRTPH1.x x.sup.th time interval for Responder's Transmission activity in Phase 1;ΔTRTPH2.x x.sup.th time interval for Responder's Transmission activity in Phase 2;x Number of iterations in Phase 1 or 2 (application-dependent);NIP Total number of iterations performed in current Phase;Limit1, Limit2 Application-dependent maximum number of iterations for Phases 1 and 2, respectively.n predetermined number of successful iterationsPS Priority slot______________________________________
Thus, referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, if during a successive iteration, no indication signal is received (i.e. a MISS is detected), the initiator requests at least once that all of the participants who have not yet been identified transmit a respective indication signal and this is repeated until an indication signal is received or for a maximum number of iterations determined in accordance with the protocol. Thereafter, whilst the resolution is higher than a minimum resolution determined in accordance with the protocol (and the iteration process has not been terminated for some other reason), further priorities having a coarser resolution are assigned to all of the participants who have not as yet been identified, or until the resolution reaches the minimum resolution.
Another way of checking if a MISS is true is to provide an additional slot during which all of those stations which should have broadcast during the designated priority slots will broadcast again. If no signal is received during this slot, the MISS is verified.
Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, if during any iteration no identification message is received by the control center and during preceding iterations fewer than the desired number of identification messages were received so as to permit identification of the respective participants or if invalid data were received, there is further included the step of the control center requesting at least once that any currently targeted participants who have not yet been identified re-transmit their identification message.
If fewer than the desired number of valid identification messages are received so as to permit identification of the respective participants owing to the occurrence of more than one identification message arriving in the same identification slot or to any other reason such as receipt of erroneous data, thereby rendering it impossible to determine the respective identifications, the following courses of action may be taken.
One possibility is for the control center to allocate to all of the targeted participants still remaining and who have not yet been identified a greater number of discrete identification time slots than the number previously allocated, and to invite the targeted participants who have not yet been identified to transmit a respective identification message during one of the new identification time slots. In other words, the number of targeted participants is maintained but more identification time slots are allocated so as to increase the probability that the desired number of valid identification messages will be received by reducing the probability of collisions. Alternatively, the taxis can be required to choose a random number which can then be compared to some reference number to eliminate some of the taxis or which can be used in changing the priorities of the taxis to eliminate some of them. Alternatively, an additional criteria may be added to reduce the number of participants.
Alternatively, if the protocol allows a maximum priority resolution, then so long as the current priority resolution is lower than the maximum priority resolution, phase one can be repeated as required for a maximum number of iterations determined in accordance with the protocol at successively finer priority resolutions, until the maximum resolution is reached in respect of all of the participants who have not as yet been identified. This causes fewer participants to be targeted and again reduces the probability of collisions in phase two when any newly targeted participants are identified.
If, on the other hand, during a successive iteration, fewer than the desired number of valid identification messages are received so as to permit identification of the respective participants owing to an insufficient number of participants having been targeted during preceding iterations, then the opposite must be done. Thus, so long as the resolution is higher than a minimum resolution determined in accordance with the protocol, phase one is repeated as required for a maximum number of iterations determined in accordance with the protocol at successively coarser priority resolutions until an indication signal is detected or the minimum resolution is reached. This process is performed in respect of all of the participants who have not as yet been identified and, by targeting participants in phase one who were not previously targeted, increases the probability that the desired number of newly targeted participants will subsequently be identified in phase two.
If, during phase one, no indication signal is received in response to an call message, the control center requests at least once that the participants re-transmit an indication signal. On receipt of the call message, the participants assign themselves priorities and transmit respective indication signals during a corresponding indication time slot. This covers the possibility that the call message never reached the targeted participants or, alternatively, that their responses never reached the control center.
In all of the above cases, data is stored in respect of any participants who have already been identified and subsequent iterations are performed only to identify additional participants.
The protocol includes at least one termination condition whereby further iterations are not performed even if no indication signal has been received and/or if fewer than the desired number of participants have been identified. This is necessary to avoid an infinite loop being executed in the event that, in a particular application, there are not enough participants who can be identified.
FIGS. 7A and 7B show a timing diagram relating to the flow of information between the control center and the participants V.sub.a, V.sub.b, V.sub.c and V.sub.d during the example of FIGS. 3 and 4.
It will be noted that in the initial phase of targeting, each participant selects a time slot according to his respective priority, such that participants with the highest priority transmit first. Consequently, as soon as the control center receives a response from the participants, the highest priority may be determined immediately in accordance with which time slot data was first received. Further iterations may now be effected, as required, there being no need even to await the responses of lower priority participants. This results in very rapid convergence of the targeting phase to the priority range containing the most suitable participant. This requires a full duplex system. FIGS. 7A and 7B show the timing diagram for a half duplex system.
In another embodiment of the invention priorities may be assigned according to a measured elapsed time since participants have performed some activity. For example, priorities are assigned to taxis according to the time they have been idle.
In a first iteration of phase one, the mutually common priority scale relates to an elapsed time of say 3 hours and the priority resolution is say one-half hour. Thus, each interval in the priority scale corresponds to an elapsed time of one-half hour.
In a second iteration of phase one, the mutually common priority scale relates to an elapsed time of one-half hour and the priority resolution is 2.5 min. Thus, each interval in the priority scale corresponds to an elapsed time of 2.5 min. If the during the first iteration a signal was received in the time slot of two to two and one-half hours, then the time slots in the second phase may have a resolution of 2.5 min. and span the range between these limits.
If this is considered to be sufficiently fine so that not too many participants will have the same priority, the process is terminated after only two iterations. It is now appropriate to implement phase two wherein one of the targeted participants is identified.
It will be understood that since, during the identification phase, a participant may be, in effect, selected randomly, it cannot be assured that the identified participant is actually the one who has waited the longest. However, it can be said with certainty that the identified participant has the highest priority to within the priority resolution (in this case 2.5 min.).
If, notwithstanding the above expectation, it becomes impossible to identify a single participant in phase two owing to too many participants having been targeted during phase one, then, as explained above, several options are available. More identification time slots can be allocated in phase two or, alternatively, a further iteration in phase one can be performed at an even finer priority resolution, for example 6 sec., before repeating phase two in respect of a smaller number of targeted participants or one of the other options described above may be employed.
In all of the embodiments described above, at least two phases are required to identify a targeted participant. Thus, during a first phase, participants are only targeted and are identified during a subsequent second phase. However, according to another preferred embodiment of the invention, provision may be made for identifying a participant during the first phase by transmitting an identification message as the indication signal. The identification message can be decoded in the particular circumstance that only one participant has the highest priority, so that only one indication signal is transmitted in the highest priority time slot, and there is a sufficiently long time interval between receipt of successive indication signals by the control center to allow decoding of the identification signal before a lower priority indication signal arrives in a subsequent indication time slot. Alternatively, the identification time slots are made long enough so that different slots have minimal or no overlap. In this particular case, the second phase of identifying the targeted participants is eliminated. It should be noted that, generally, this embodiment of the invention is less efficient than the embodiment which uses non-information bearing signals in a first, targeting, phase to reduce the number of vehicles in a second, identification, phase.
Yet a further consideration relates to the possibility that the highest priority participant may not be targeted in phase one owing to a malfunction. Thus, for example, his indication signal may not be received having been obstructed by an obstacle in his path or where his signal is subject to fade. This may not matter if other participants having the same priority have nevertheless been able to transmit indication signals, since if the indication time slot having the highest priority is determined and all the participants associated therewith are targeted, even a participant whose indication signal was lost will still be targeted. However, if a sole participant's indication signal is lost this could prevent correct determination of the highest priority participant.
The protocol can take this possibility into account by reserving, preferably, the first indication time slot in the next iteration for exclusive transmission therein by a non-targeted participant having a higher priority than that of the targeted participants. The control center then transmits a call message inviting the targeted participants to transmit a respective indication signal during any one of the indication slots except the reserved indication slot.
So far as newly targeted participants are concerned, the process is essentially unchanged; each of the newly targeted participants transmits an indication signal one of the unreserved indication slots according to his respective priority. However, any previously non-targeted participant having a higher priority than that of the newly targeted participants transmits a respective indication signal during the reserved slot.
Within a single iteration of phase one, the assignment of priorities to each participant may be performed in respect of a different sub-set of selection criteria for at least some of the participants. In effect, this permits different search strategies to be executed each in respect of a respective indication slot. For example, the first indication slot having the highest priority may relate to all participants who are located within a radius of 10 m from the customer without any further restriction; whilst the second indication slot may relate to all participants who are located within a radius of 25 m and who have been awaiting instructions for more than 20 minutes. By this means Boolean OR search or other search strategies can be performed in a single iteration.
Furthermore, during each iteration the participants may optionally assign themselves a priority having a magnitude outside the priority scale so as not to be targeted by the initiator. This can be done if, for example, a participant is otherwise occupied or for any other reason does not wish to receive instructions.
During a particular iteration the priorities assigned to each participant are generally absolute with respect to a mutually common scale which itself is external to the participants and independent thereof. However, between successive iterations the priority scale may well relate to different combinations of selection criteria. By this means finely tuned search strategies can be performed whereby all participants answering to a first combination of selection criteria are targeted during a first iteration, whilst all of the targeted participants answering to a different combination of selection criteria are targeted during a successive iteration.
Alternatively, the combination of criteria which make up the priority may be information dependent and, for example, different groups of slots may relate to different combinations of criteria.
Once a sufficiently small number of participants are targeted such that, in accordance with the protocol, identification of a desired number of participants is likely to yield a successful outcome, the second phase described above is commenced. The number of identification slots to be allocated to the targeted participants is calculated by first estimating the number of targeted participants remaining at the end of phase one. The number of identification slots is then calculated according to the estimated number of targeted participants who must transmit respective identification messages, so as to reduce the total time required to identify the required number of participants.
In this connection, it will be realized that there exists a tradeoff between allocating too many and too few identification time slots. Specifically, allocating too many identification time slots reduces the probability of a targeted participant selecting an early identification slot, thereby increasing the time required to identify the highest priority participants. On the other hand, allocating too few identification time slots increases the probability that more than one participant will select the same identification time slot. In this case, the resulting collision of more than one identification message makes it impossible to identify the respective participants, requiring further iterations and again increasing the identification time. In practice the number of identification time slots may be minimized by increasing the maximum priority resolution in phase one in order to target no more than the expected number of participants who are to be identified in phase two, or by using a random process to eliminate some of the participants, such as that described above.
In the specific embodiments described above the process of assigning priorities to each of the participants is performed within the participating vehicles themselves since only they know their locations relative to the customer. Moreover, the onus of tracking the participants' movements in terms of their location, availability, occupancy, loading and all the other selection criteria which may be of significance is now passed to the participating vehicles themselves as opposed to most hitherto proposed systems wherein a central dispatcher had to keep track of all these parameters.
As a result of this, the communication channel between the control center and the participants may be of relatively narrow spectrum width compared with that of hitherto proposed systems. Additionally, the task of targeting potentially suitable participants is distributed amongst the participants themselves rather than being determined solely by the control center. Such distribution results in a reduction of computing power being required by the control center.
While the selection criteria must obviously be known to the participating vehicles, the manner in which this is made known can be varied according to circumstances. Thus, for example, the selection criteria may be fixed and known in advance to the participants (in which case the selection criteria are not subject to change). Alternatively, the selection criteria may be determined on-line by the control center and then transmitted to all of the participants together with the call message.
Thus, in the particular example described above, during the first phase of targeting it may be predetermined that each sector has a width of 10 km and that in subsequent phases, the width of each remaining sector is reduced, for example, by a factor of 10 until the sector has a width of only 10 m, whereupon all those vehicles within the 10 m width sector send an identification message; or, alternatively, the width of each sector in each respective phase of allocation may be transmitted to the participants by the control center. In order to reduce the number of participants in the identification phase, the resolution in the targeting phase may be increased artificially, i.e., past the point at which it is meaningful.
It should also be noted that once a particular participant has been uniquely identified to perform a task, he is notified of this in the normal way by the control center, in any one of a number of ways which are well known in the art as for example, by voice over a communication channel or by text or other data transmission.
Furthermore, although in the preferred embodiment described above, one participant is uniquely identified as the most suitable, in fact it may sometimes be appropriate to omit the second phase of identification altogether. In such cases, the participants having the highest priority are not uniquely identified as individuals but all are identified as a group. One such situation relates to the improvement of service in particular areas. In this situation the number of taxis in a given area (a given distance from a fixed point) is monitored and additional cars are sent in to the area if there are not enough cars in the area. The number of cars may be estimated statistically, for example, from the number of slots having responses in very fine priority slot situation.
Another application of the system of priority assignment according to the invention is in the assignment of available lines for car-phones or transceivers. Presently, available lines are allocated on a when available basis. Thus, one unlucky user may wait a long time while a lucky user may get an immediate line. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, when a user wants a line, he indicates this either by pressing a call button or by lifting his receiver. A computer chip associated with the car-phone notes the time at which a line was requested.
Lines are allocated on a waiting time basis. In operation, a control center broadcasts a call for priorities in accordance with a targeting phase of the present invention. The priority is assigned according to waiting time, and the individual phones broadcast signals during time slots assigned according to their waiting time or by some other special priority. During a second identification phase one of the phones is identified, in the same manner as described above, and is given the available line.
Referring now to FIG. 8 there is shown schematically the principal features associated with control center shown in FIG. 1. Thus, there is provided a transceiver and modem 50 coupled to an antenna 51 for effecting bi-directional communication with the participants (taxis) and being connected to a message processor 53 which is coupled to a computer 54. Message processor 53 receives non-demodulated signals from the transceiver and determines which slots contain signals for the targeting phase and identifies the participant(s) in the identification phase. A preferred embodiment of such a receiver is shown in FIG. 15.
A service request is effected by customer 25 by telephoning his nearest taxi rank and then dialing his telephone number, the request being routed to the computer 54 via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The computer 54 converts the customer's telephone number to a corresponding location based on a data base stored in the computer. Alternatively, such communication can be effected via an operator. A terminal 56 is coupled to the computer 54 for allowing an operator to enter commands and display data. In addition the system also allows for voice signaling to a dispatcher at the control station or for voice communication between the taxi driver to the customer.
FIG. 9 shows the principal components associated with a participant allocation unit 60 located in each of the vehicles. Allocation unit 60 preferably includes a transceiver 61 coupled to an antenna 62 for effecting bi-directional communication with the transceiver 50 in the control center 37. Transceiver 61 is connected to a vehicle computer 64 coupled to a microphone/handset 65 providing a human interface between the vehicle computer 64 and the corresponding taxi driver.
A Global Positioning System 66 (GPS) or other position determining system as known in the art receives positioning data via an antenna 68. The Global Positioning System 66 is coupled to the vehicle computer 64 and functions as a positioning means for providing positioning information relative to a predetermined origin in respect of the corresponding participant. Thus, once the location of the customer is provided to the vehicle computer 64, the latter, being coupled to the Global Positioning System 66 is able to determine the relative location of the participant to the customer and thus determine the participant's priority.
Associated with the vehicle computer 64 is a storage means 70 for storing the protocol according to which priorities are assigned. Also stored in the storage means 70 are any singular areas which can affect the actual route e.g. obstructions such as rivers, road blocks and so on which result in the actual route distance being longer than it would otherwise be. As explained above, the handset 65 allows the driver to assign himself a priority outside the range of the priority scale and, by such means, to exclude himself from the process of targeting. It also includes a microphone for establishing voice contact with the control center, as well as paging means for obtaining a text message therefrom.
The system described above may include a full duplex broadcast network such that the control center does not need to await responses from all of the participants before targeting the highest priority participants. Thus, specifically, as soon as a valid response is received by the control center, the participants corresponding to the response can immediately be targeted or identified whilst informing other participants to stop transmitting indication signals or identification messages. This permits the steps of targeting and/or identifying participants to be effected more quickly. However, the invention may also be employed in a simplex (i.e. half-duplex) broadcast network, albeit at the expense of longer targeting and identification times since the control center cannot transmit to the participants until all their responses have first been received and validated.
It will be appreciated that, instead of employing a Global Positioning System, other systems for determining a participant's location can equally well be employed. For example, a route scheduler based on dead reckoning responsive to each participant's location can be used for determining a route having minimum distance. Such a route scheduler might possibly comprise sensors located at intervals along the road for sensing a passing vehicle's presence and for transmitting to the vehicle data representative of its location relative to a specified location for error correction. Typically, such a route scheduler has a memory for storing therein a scaled contour map so that an optimal route can be determined taking into consideration the nature of the terrain. Likewise, prevailing traffic conditions can be fed into the route scheduler at regular intervals of time, so that traffic jams, roadwork and so on can be considered when determining the optimal route.
In the foregoing description it has also been assumed that a single channel broadcast network is employed. However, this is by no means essential and a centralized controlled trunking system having at least two channels may equally well be employed. This permits more than one task to be handled simultaneously each on a different broadcast channel. Thus, in the case of a two channel broadcast network, for example, having first and second channels, each call message is transmitted via a broadcast control channel so as to be received by all the participants associated with the first channel. Upon determining that he has not been targeted by the control center, a participant starts to measure elapsed time and waits a predetermined elapsed time locked on to the first channel and thereafter returns to the broadcast control channel for receiving further call messages.
The period of time during which a non-targeted participant remains locked on to the first channel is of sufficient duration to allow an updated priority to be assigned to the participant. Owing to the dynamic variation in a participant's status, it may occur that, with an updated priority, a previously non-targeted participant becomes targeted in the next iteration. Thus, the period of time during which a non-targeted participant remains locked on to the first channel must further be of sufficient duration to allow a corresponding indication signal and/or identification message to be transmitted by the participant to the control center, whereby the control center may target and/or identify the participant.
Alternatively, the call message may be transmitted via a broadcast control channel so as to be received by all the participants associated with the first channel and, upon determining that he has not been targeted by the control center, a participant receives from the control center an instruction to return immediately to the broadcast control channel. This immediately frees a non-targeted participant to participate in a subsequent search strategy on the second channel relating to a different task.
According to yet another variation, an initial call message is transmitted together with the selection criteria via a broadcast control channel so as to be received by all the participants associated with the first channels. Each of the participants receiving the call message assigns to himself from the priority scale a respective priority representative of his relative suitability in accordance with the selection criteria and transmits an indication signal during a respective indication slot. Only the targeted participants switch to the first channel and subsequent call messages are transmitted only to those participants who have been previously targeted by the control center. This again frees a non-targeted participant to participate in a subsequent search strategy on the second channel relating to a different task.
It will be appreciated that whilst the invention has been described with particular application to a taxi dispatching service, the invention has more general application wherever one or a group amongst a plurality of participants is to be targeted in accordance with their respective suitabilities based on at least one selection criterion. It will further be understood that, whilst the preferred embodiment has been described for the sake of simplicity with regard to only two selection criterion (i.e. distance and waiting time), in practice a large number of selection criteria may be employed, all having different relative weights, whereby an integrated search strategy may be implemented.
It will also be understood that whilst the invention has been described with particular reference to 2 dimensional terrain, it can equally well be applied in 3 dimensional space and is thus suitable for air or space travel, as well as land and sea.
Mention should also be made of the variable parameters in association with which the protocol functions. These are generally application dependent and typically are provided with default values built into the protocol. Thus, if distance is one of the selection criteria, this fact may be represented by a default value of an associated parameter. Likewise, the lower and upper bounds of the priority scale and the priority resolution associated with each iteration in phase one can been assigned to respective parameters each having corresponding default values.
Any unassigned parameters must, of course, have values assigned thereto prior to initiation of phase one. This can be done during the initiation of the process prior to transmitting the first call message to the participants. However, in certain applications, all the parameters may have pre-assigned default values which are acceptable for the application. In this case, the call message merely starts the process enabling the participants to determine the appropriate priority scale and assign themselves respective priorities at the appropriate priority resolution; there being no need to inform any of the participants of the boundary values of the priority scale or of the priority resolution or indeed of the selection criteria.
While the invention has been described with particular reference to a wireless broadcast network, it will be appreciated that the invention is capable of much more general application. For example, hard-wired communication systems may also employ the principles of the invention in which case the indication signals need no longer be CW. In such cases the dynamic variables would generally not be position; however the system is generally applicable to systems with any set of dynamic variables.
The principles of the invention may also be used in a routing system, for example to a system which identifies buses or other vehicles which are delayed and adjusts the speed and/or location of other buses to compensate therefor. In the first (targeting) stage of this utilization of the invention, the priority would for example be based on the amount of time that a vehicle is behind schedule. Vehicles which are behind schedule more than a predetermined amount would then be targeted and identified in a second (identification) stage. Preferably, the identified bus would then be asked for its exact position.
A query would then be sent to other busses on the same bus line asking them for their positions and, optionally, where they stand in relation to their schedule. Based on this information, a control center would determine corrective action to provide improved service, which may include steps such as speeding up some buses, as for example by operating them in a skip-stop fashion, slowing some buses down, keeping some buses from leaving the terminal or adding new buses to the route, perhaps at some intermediate point on the route. Suitable instructions would, of course, be transmitted to these busses after a corrective action plan is formulated.
The principles of the invention are also applicable to a routing system for determining slow areas of traffic and rerouting traffic around such areas. In such a system a large number of participating vehicles are queried as to the delays they are experiencing. When a vehicle experiences a delay above a threshold, the position of the vehicle is determined in the second phase. It should be noted that no identification signal per se is transmitted in the second phase, instead a position signal is broadcast. Preferably, the delay is also verified by the driver of the vehicle to avoid false alarms.
Once the position of the targeted delayed vehicle is determined, a new first (targeting) stage determines those vehicles that are close to the specific delayed vehicle, and determines, by successive second stages, the extent of the delay as a function of the time of the delay. Furthermore, by making multiple queries, the traffic conditions can be estimated. Based on this information, the seriousness of the delay may be determined and corrective action, such as re-routing of other vehicles, may be started. In particular, information on the traffic conditions and the geographical extent of the delay may be transmitted to vehicles which have routing apparatus of types which are known in the art, to be used by these apparatus for determining the optimum route for the receiving vehicle.
In an alternative preferred embodiment of the invention, the first query requests responses only from vehicles which are experiencing delays greater than a given time (or which are moving at an average velocity of less than a given velocity). Those vehicles which meet the criteria then broadcast a signal in a time or time/frequency or frequency slot which is indicative of the absolute position of the vehicle. As in the previous embodiments of the invention, it is expected that more than one vehicle will broadcast in a particular slot and the system is interested, at least at this stage, only in determining if there are vehicles which are experiencing delays of a given magnitude.
FIG. 10 shows an initial map generated by such a method, wherein the area represented by a pixel (slot) may, for example, be of the order of 250 to 1000 meters square.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system then determines, based, inter alia, on the extent of the various contiguous areas which shows positive responses, a smaller area or areas for further study. Preferably, the system then broadcasts a further query requesting those vehicles within the more restricted area which have at least a given delay (which may be the same as or different from that used in the first query) to broadcast in a position slot using a finer resolution, for example, 100 to 250 meters. Based on the responses to this query a second map such as that shown in FIG. 11 is generated. As can be seen from FIG. 11, various branches of a road network radiating from an intersection, designated as A-F in FIG. 11, can be identified. To improve the usefulness of the display, a background map, such as a road map may be displayed underlying the displays of any of FIGS. 10, 11 or 13.
In the event that additional information relating to the delay is desired, further queries can be made. For example, vehicles which are traveling toward the intersection can be requested to broadcast in a slot which corresponds to the slot they are in and to their velocity toward the intersection. This allows for generation of the graph shown in the lower portion of FIG. 12. Additional slots may be used for the generation of other information regarding the responding stations. Such information may also be graphed as shown in the upper portion of FIG. 12.
Alternatively or additionally, a map which shows the average velocity of the vehicles toward the intersection as a function of the position can be generated. Such a map is shown in FIG. 13. To acquire the information needed for generating such a map, a number of queries may be made, each requesting an indication from all vehicles within the area of interest having a given average velocity toward the intersection. The responding vehicles would broadcast their indication signals in slots corresponding to their position. In the map of FIG. 13 the velocity for a given pixel is determined, for example, as the average velocity of the reporting slots for that position. In a display of the map of FIG. 13, the velocity toward the intersection can, for example, be displayed as a gray scale value or as a color, with for example red being the highest delay and blue being a minimum displayed delay.
FIG. 14, which is a generalized block diagram for a system useful for performing the IVHS function described above, shows a base station or control center 91 having a control center transmitter 79 which broadcasts queries and optionally other signals to vehicles on command from a control computer 80. A remote vehicle 85 (only one vehicle is shown for simplicity) receives the query at a vehicle receiver 84 and transmits commands to a microprocessor 86, based on the queries it receives from the control center.
Microprocessor 86 also receives information regarding the status of the vehicle from one or more information generators and sensors indicated by reference numeral 88. This information may be sent by the sensors on a regular basis or may be sent on command from the microprocessor.
Microprocessor 86 is then operative to command vehicle transmitter 90 to transmit indication signals (or if required information bearing signals) in a suitable slot in accordance with the information received by microprocessor 86.
The indication (or other) signals are received by a control center receiver 92 and processed by receiver 92 and computer 80. While the operation and construction of the apparatus designated by reference numerals 82, 84, 86 and 90 is straightforward and needs no further explanation, the operation of receiver 92 is usefully expanded upon with reference to FIG. 15.
Generally speaking, the RF signals transmitted by the vehicle may be at any frequency. It is to be expected (both for the IVHS application and for the dispatching application described above) that there will a certain amount of frequency diversity cause by the imperfect accuracy and stability of the vehicle transmitters 90. The slots are wide enough to accommodate this diversity. However, if a receiver having a band-width consistent with the slot width is used, the dynamic range of the system will be very limited.
Furthermore, often the system utilizes very large numbers of vehicles. If too many of these vehicles (in some particular situation) transmit in the same slot, then the total power transmitted will exceed authorized ERP or dynamic range restrictions. To overcome this problem longer, lower power, pulses may be used for indication signals. Furthermore, if a single receiver is used for receiving signals for all of the slots, intermodulation effects may cause spurious signals to appear in slots for which no actual signals have been received.
These problems are substantially solved by the system shown in FIG. 15 and by certain constraints placed on the system which are not shown in FIG. 15.
With respect to excess power problems, the queries can be designed so that fewer than the total number of vehicles will respond, whenever this is possible. The power transmitted by the vehicles can be adjusted to a minimum based on either the known distance between the vehicle and the control receiver, with each vehicle transmitting just enough power so that detection of the signal by the control station is assured. A further or alternative power adjustment may be made by the vehicle transmitter based on the power received from the control station during the query. Finally, a closed loop system in which the query includes instructions as to the power levels to be used may be used. Increased pulse duration can also reduce the transmitted power for a given ratio of detection probability to false alarm probability especially in the receiver shown in FIG. 15 and described below.
Preferably, the amplitude of the signals broadcast during the time slot is shaped over the broadcast period to reduce the sidelobes of the signals and avoid false signals in adjacent frequency slots, which may be a problem when large numbers of vehicles broadcast at the same time.
Intermodulation effects can be reduced by providing multiple receivers, each covering only a portion of the frequency band. Finally the novel receiver of FIG. 15 may be used to determine the presence absence of signals in particular slots.
FIG. 15 shows a receiver system corresponding generally to reference number 92 and to a portion of computer 80 of FIG. 14. In general such a receiver is also useful for the first phase of the dispatching system described above as well as for the IVHS system.
An antenna 94 receives signals from a plurality of vehicles simultaneously and passes them to receiver and AGC 96. Receiver and AGC 96, which may be of conventional design, downconverts the received signals from RF to IF frequencies. The IF signal is digitized in an A/D convertor 98 and further down converted by a downconverter 100 to base band. It should be understood that this receiver/downconverter system does not demodulate the incoming signals, but only downconverts the RF so that the same relative frequency differences of the signals is present at the output of convertor 100 as in the incoming signals, except that the absolute frequency has been reduced to a low (base band) frequency from the RF frequency of the transmitted signal.
The base band signals are fed to a series of correlation filters 102 each of which has a very narrow bandwidth. Preferably, the frequency bandwidths of adjacent receivers 102 overlap so that the entire bandwidth of each of the slots is covered by one set of receivers 102. The output of each of the receivers is compared to a threshold 104 to determine if a signal is present at the frequency of the respective receiver 102 and the outputs of all of threshold detectors for a given slot are OR gated to determine if any signal is present in the slot. One set of receivers 102, threshold detectors 104 and an OR gate is provided for each slot and is referred to herein as a slot detector unit. Slot detector units for all of the slots feed a data processor 108 which, together with computer 80 processes the data as described above. When large numbers of vehicles are used in the system and intermodulation becomes a problem, it may be necessary to provide a plurality of front end portions of receiver 92 (the front end being defined as receiver 96, convertor 98 and converter 100), where each front end receives signals from only a portion of the entire frequency band including one or many of the slots. The function of correlation receivers 102 may also be implemented, for example, using an FFT, matched filters or other correlation receiver methods. Other methods such as energy detectors (e.g., radiometers) with or without tracking may also be used, however, they will give less optimal results.
The system may also be provided with a display 110 for displaying the data, such as the maps and graphs of FIGS. 10-13 and with a user interface 112 which is used by an operator to control both the operation of the system. The user interface also preferably controls the display and the memory to allow for the operator to review the maps previously generated or to generated new displays based on information previously received.
Information may be sent by the control center to the vehicles to enable them to minimize average travel delays. This information may consist of the above mentioned maps or of delay information at various intersections. The vehicles can then use this information to optimize their route. Alternatively, the control center may send routing information to some of the vehicles in order to equalize traffic delays. In either event, the fast response of the system a matter of seconds allows for real time supervision, adjustment and stabilization of traffic patterns.
The IVHS system described above is also useful in tracking situations such as for fleet management.
The invention has been described herein using examples in which the indication signals are transmitted in time, frequency or time and frequency slots. Other types of transmission slots are also useful in the invention such as frequency hopping and other spread-spectrum transmission slots. The term "transmission slots" as used herein includes all these types of slots.
In order to better understand the invention and to see how the same may be carried out in practice, non-limiting preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows schematically the principal components of a preferred system for carrying out a dispatching function in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing the principal steps associated with a preferred method of carrying out a dispatching function in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 3 shows schematically how vehicles are targeted during an initial phase of targeting based on distance from the customer location in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIG. 4 shows schematically how vehicles are targeted during a second iteration of targeting based on distance;
FIGS. 5A and 5B are two portions of a state diagram showing various options associated with a first targeting phase according to a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIGS. 6A and 6B are two portions of a state diagram showing various options associated with a second identification phase according to a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIGS. 7A, and 7B show timing diagrams relating to the targeting and identification phases respectively of a priority discrimination according to a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the principal components in a control center according to a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the principal components of a control unit in respect of each of the remote units in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention for carrying out a dispatching function;
FIG. 10 shows an initial map generated in an IVHS system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 11 shows a second, more detailed map, generated during a second iteration in an IVHS application in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 12 shows a graph of additional information which is generated in an IVHS application in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 13 shows a graph of further additional information which is generated in an IVHS application in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 14 is a general block diagram of a transmitter for an IVHS system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention; and
FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a receiver for useful for both IVHS and dispatching systems in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
This application is a continuation in part of PCT application EP93/03418, filed Dec. 6, 1993 which designates the United States.
This invention relates generally to a method and system for obtaining information from a plurality of remote stations.
It is a common requirement to target and possibly identify quickly one or several out of a plurality of participants according to specific selection criteria.
It is frequently required to select one or more participants according to their priority based on specified selection criteria for the purpose of allocating a particular task to the participant or participants having the highest priority.
In dispatching systems, for example, for dispatching a taxi or messenger to a customer at a specified location, it is desirable that a suitable (and preferably the most suitable) taxi or messenger be sent to a particular customer. Generally the nearest, unoccupied taxi which has sufficient accommodation should be dispatched to the customer. Furthermore, it is desirable that the allocation be accomplished in the minimum possible time.
Typical existing dispatching systems include a central dispatch station having a transmitter and receiver and a transceiver in each of the participating vehicles for communicating with the central dispatch station. Typically, a voice request is transmitted by a dispatcher to each of the participating vehicles, and the dispatcher decides which of the vehicles is most suited to the task in hand based on the replies from the vehicles.
Such a system would be capable of simple implementation if the selection criteria related to static variables only. Thus, if the only selection criterion were a taxi's current distance from the customer and each taxi were stationary, it would merely be necessary to extract the taxis' locations once, after which it would be simple to determine which taxi were nearest to the customer's location. However, in practice, the selection criteria relate to dynamic variables which, by definition, are changing constantly and therefore it is necessary continuously to update each taxi's distance from the customer's location (and/or other information required to choose a taxi for the given task) or at least to do so each time a taxi is to be dispatched.
In typical prior art systems, this is done by providing the dispatcher with a periodically updated map that shows the respective location of each of the taxis. This updating is accomplished by the periodic transmission of a location message by each of the taxis via a communication channel. In order to ensure that the transmitted data can be received quickly and without corruption, the total spectrum width of the communication system must be very large.
In a system described in EP 038988 job requests are dispatched by a controller to mobile vehicles which messages include information about the location of a job. Each vehicle has a receiver, transmitter and circuitry to compare the requirements of the job with the status of the vehicle. If the results of the comparison is that the vehicle is suitable for the job, then it transmits a message back to the controller volunteering itself for the job.
It should also be noted that, even in the specific case of a taxi or messenger service, distance from the customer location is by no means the only criterion according to which a task may be allocated. Thus, it may well be that the nearest messenger or taxi is already occupied and is therefore not available for performing the task. Alternatively, the nearest available taxi may not have sufficient room for carrying all the passengers to whom a taxi must be sent; or perhaps a particularly bulky load must be carried and the nearest, available taxi or messenger is inadequate for the task.
Yet a further consideration is that it is often preferred to dispatch to a customer an idle taxi waiting at the taxi rank rather than go through the process of transmitting a voice message and awaiting responses from taxis in the field prior to allocating the task to one of them. In the event that several idle taxis are waiting at the taxi rank, or where several taxis are reasonably close to the customer, it is often preferable that the taxi which has been idle for the longest period of time be selected.
Furthermore, it may not always be desirable to dispatch the nearest available taxi to a particular customer location if other customers, albeit further away, have made prior requests which have not yet been serviced.
Even apart from some of the basic limitations of prior art systems described above, it is often desirable to target and possibly to identify participants according to several selection criteria. This is somewhat analogous to performing a database search by means of key words which can be combined according to the rules of Boolean or other logic systems. However, database records are generally static and are stored at a single location. In contrast to this, the participants subject of the invention are dynamic and constantly changing, and cannot be characterized by static data which can be stored at a single site. Thus, if the dynamic data characterizing such participants are to be searched at a single site, then the data must first be downloaded to the site where the search is to be performed. During the time that such data are downloaded, they may well change, thereby compromising the accuracy of the search which is subsequently performed.
Another application which requires the receiving and processing of information from a large number of sources is IVHS. In this application, for example, information on position and speed from a large number of vehicles is processed in order to obtain information on road delays. Again, the sending of large amounts of information requires substantial bandwidths, even though the vehicles themselves need not be identified.
It is an object of some aspects of the present invention to transmit information from a plurality of remote sources without requiring that each of the transmissions be on a separate time/frequency channel.
It is an object of some aspects of the invention to provide a method of transmitting information from a plurality of remote stations wherein the information is contained in the presence or absence of a signal in a particular time and/or frequency slot and not in the identification of the particular station which transmits the information or in how many stations transmit signals in the slot.
It is an object of some aspects of the invention to provide a method and system for determining priorities of a plurality of participants in accordance with one or more selection criteria and targeting those participants, if any, having the highest priority.
It is a further object of some aspects of the invention to provide such a method and system wherein those participants having the highest priority can be targeted in a short time.
Yet a further object of some aspects of the invention is to provide such a method and system wherein at least one of the targeted participants can be identified in order that a task can be allocated thereto.
It is an object of some aspects of the present invention to provide a method of determining delays in a road network based on transmissions from a large number of vehicles without identifying the vehicles and without clearly receiving the information.
As used herein the term "priority" means, in addition to its normal meaning, a characterization according to a protocol which takes into consideration one or more elements associated with a person or object being characterized.
According to a broad aspect of the invention a call is broadcast or otherwise transmitted to a plurality of remote stations. Each of the plurality of stations determines a characteristic based on certain predetermined attributes of the station and broadcasts or transmits an indication signal during a communication slot which is indicative of the characteristic, or preferably of a range of values of the characteristic. In general, more than one remote station will broadcast at the same time and frequency during at least a portion of the process.
In one embodiment of the invention, all of the stations broadcast or transmit at the same frequency, i.e., all of the slots have the same frequency and the time of the slot is determined by the characteristic. In a second embodiment of the invention, more than one frequency is used for communication and both the time and frequency indicate the value of the characteristic. In a third embodiment of the invention, all of the stations transmit at the same time, and the characteristic is indicated by the frequency of transmission only.
It should be understood that since more than one indication signal may be broadcast or transmitted at the same time and frequency, there is no identification of the responding stations, but only an indication of the characteristics (or rather ranges of characteristics, since each time/frequency "slot" characterize a range of priorities) which characterize at least one remote station.
It should also be understood that in preferred embodiments of the invention, the transmitted information signals are "non-information bearing signals" in that the signals per se carry no information, only the slot in which the signal occurs carries information.
According to one aspect of the invention the characteristics are one or more priorities associated with the stations.
In one aspect of the invention a control center monitors the transmissions of the remote stations and determines which of the slots having an indication signal has the highest priority. It is convenient to order the response time period into time (or time/frequency) slots each representing a range of priority values preferably in descending order of priorities. Thus, the control center need only look for the earliest slot which contains an indication signal.
Having determined the highest range of priorities which are held by at least one remote station, a second call is broadcast or otherwise transmitted asking for responses only from those remote units within this range. The time or time/frequency slots are now distributed, either by a predetermined protocol or specifically by the particular call, so as to cover this range of priority values.
The stations which have priorities within this range broadcast or otherwise transmit indication signals in response to the new call in the predetermined time or time/frequency slots. This process of determining the highest range of priorities and redividing the range continues until a given criteria is met. This stage of the process often termed herein the "targeting phase," (sometimes referred to herein as the "first phase" or "phase one") ends when the priority range ceases to be significant or the number of sub-ranges which are filled falls below a predetermined number based on the statistics of the total number of participating remote stations and the final range or priorities or where some other predetermined criteria is reached. At this point the number of station which are responding to the highest priority is believed to be small.
Before going on to the next stage it may be useful to estimate the number of stations which have responded to the highest priority. One method of making the estimate is by analysis of the data from the final step of phase one. A more accurate method of estimating the number of stations having the highest priority is to request each of these stations to transmit an indication signal at a randomly chosen slot over at least a portion of the entire range of time and frequency slots. Since the number of slots is now expected to be large compared to the number of stations, the number of slots which have information is a good indication of the number of stations. If fewer stations are expected, only a single time slot may be used and only the frequency is chosen randomly by the stations.
The system then preferably initiates an "identification phase" (sometimes referred to herein as "second phase" or "phase two") starting with the broadcast or other transmission of an additional call requesting those stations within the highest (final) range of priorities found in the targeting phase to identify themselves. Each of the stations having a priority in this range broadcasts or otherwise transmits a signal including an identifier of the station or some other message at a slot which it chooses at random from one of a plurality of such available slots. If only one station is expected to be within the range of priority values, then only one identification slot may be allocated. Other types of slots can also be used for the identification stage, such as coded spread spectrum signals, FDMA or CDMA. Additionally, multiple slots may be used for the same priority range to improve the reliability of detection in both the targeting and identification stages. The identification slots generally have an information carrying capacity which is larger than the slots used for indicating priorities since information (and not only an indication of the presence of a signal) is transmitted during the identification phase.
Since, when a plurality of remote stations are within the final range of values, it can be expected that more than one of the stations will respond in at least some of the slots, in which case their identification signal may be unintelligible. However, since the number of stations is relatively small, at least some of the slots will have only one identification signal. In general, the station having this signal is chosen since at this stage the difference in priority between the stations is generally unimportant. In some applications more than one identification signal may be broadcast in a particular slot, however, one signal may be clear. This station will then be chosen.
In another aspect of the invention the indication signal depends on the average velocity or delay of the remote station, which are generally vehicles. Systems which operate according to this aspect of the invention preferably broadcast a call to the remote stations which requests those stations having a delay above a given value or an average velocity below a given value to broadcast a signal indicative of their position. Such signals are then used to generate a map of those regions for which traffic is delayed or otherwise moving slowly.
Preferably, an additional call is sent to the vehicles requesting transmission of indication signals which position the slow moving or delayed vehicles at a higher resolution than that of the first call. Further calls may be made to allow for transmission of additional information on the status of the vehicles to provide further characterization of the delays.
In general, one or more base stations may be used for broadcasting calls and/or receiving responses from remote stations. If more than one base station is used, each station preferably performs a reduction of the data which it receives by either choosing its best candidate for performing the task or by performing a mapping function of its nearby region or of its associated vehicles. The base stations then preferably send this reduced information to a central base station which makes the final decision, constructs the desired map or performs any other final analysis. Furthermore, the central base station would, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, instruct each of the base stations as to which additional queries they should make. In this situation the subsequent queries need not be the same for all the base stations.
There is thus provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a method for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising the steps of:
(a) determining, at each of the stations, of a characteristic value based on at least one of the attributes, according to a predetermined protocol for the respective station; and
(b) transmitting, by the stations, of a non-information bearing signal in a transmission slot, wherein said slot is indicative of the determined characteristic.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a method for receiving information from a plurality of remote stations, the stations having varying attributes related to the information, comprising the steps of:
(a) determining, at each of the stations, of a characteristic value based on at least one of the attributes according to a predetermined protocol for the respective station; and
(b) transmitting, by the stations, of a signal in a transmission slot, wherein said slot is indicative of the determined characteristic value and wherein signals are intentionally transmitted by more than one station in a given transmission slot.
Preferably, the steps of determining and transmitting are in response to a call transmitted to the plurality of stations.
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I have said it before and will likely say it until I am pushing up daisies: The brain is the most important tool when preparing for combat. While realistic training and proper gear are certainly important, if the brain is not ready to engage in conflict, the rest of the body will not proceed.
Anything can be a weapon if the brain makes it so. Or as John Steinbeck so eloquently stated, “The final weapon is the brain…all else is supplemental.”
While training law enforcement officers and armed citizens over the last few decades, I have encountered an interesting thought process time and again. It’s the thought that fighters are born, not created, and this is just not so. Whether a person is a fighter or a pacifist is a product of his or her life experience, cultural heritage, upbringing, environment, formal education and a number of other factors.
There is also a misconception that all police recruits are combative by nature; this is not true either. I have trained many young officers who had no intention of ever engaging in conflict, who wanted to get desk jobs or other low-hazard posts as soon as they got out of the academy.
And then there are the people who want “to help” others and think there is good in everyone regardless of their past. I think these people are clueless, and this type of officer is out there right now. And if one of them is dispatched to a crime in progress at your house, don’t expect much.
What about the rest? It is possible to condition people to have a proper combative mindset. Unfortunately, the time needed to do this is not available in the typical basic police academy or in-service program, so it’s up to the individual officer to prepare himself or herself.
Considering what the basic function of law enforcement is, it makes little sense to me not to condition yourself for combat.
For example, you are walking down a street with your significant other when you are approached by a man who says, “There is a suspicious person down that alley. Be careful.” As a citizen, your response will be to stay clear of the alley. You might call 911, but there is no way you would enter.
If you’re a cop, you will go down the alley because it is your job. You have been tactically trained to do so, but at some point you will enter the alley and confront the suspicious person. Understanding this reality, why would you not choose to condition your mind?
The first step to conditioning your mind is to accept reality and reject fantasy. It’s not just the civilian population that believes violence will happen to the other guy. There are a number of cops working the streets who believe violence will never come their way either.
Oftentimes these officers are described as “Officer Friendly” and believe by always helping their fellow man no one would want to hurt them. Many of these cops have been dead wrong about this concept.
While statistics have shown violent crime is down in America, don’t believe all you read or hear about statistics. Most victims of violence are taken by surprise, and cops are no exception.
A person—especially a person in a job whose purpose is to seek out lawbreakers—who accepts reality and understands they can be attacked will be better prepared to deal with it. Remember, bad things happen to good people in nice places, and this includes cops who work in “quiet” towns.
The next step is to adjust your mind to this reality. Be ready to face the likely threat, not some fantasy that is possible but unlikely.
Years ago I was at a gun school and preparing for a scenario involving Simunitions training. The instructor gave me the instruction: “You are armed on an airplane at 35,000 feet when several terrorists take over the plane. They are going to start executing passengers, and you need to act.” What? I’m not permitted to take a gun on a plane, so how would I ever be put into such a situation?
A more likely scenario would have been: “You are off-duty in a convenience store when a man comes in and robs the place at gunpoint. He tells the clerk he is going to kill her, and you need to act.” This situation is much more realistic and much more deserving of your consideration.
Awareness is the key to individual personal security, whether on- or off-duty or just as an armed citizen. World War II Nazi Ace Erich Hartmann said, “The person who sees the other first has half the victory.” It’s hard to argue his logic, and he understood combat quite well because he also said, “The man surprised is half beaten.”
Whether you use Jeff Cooper’s Color Codes of Awareness or John Boyd’s OODA Loop as a reminder of your state of mind, you constantly need to be “switched on” whenever you are out and about.
Awareness is like a light switch: When on, everything is light and bright, and informed decisions are easier to make. When switched off, everything is dark, and it’s hard to see or understand and deal with what limited information is coming at you. You are either switched on or switched off. Which are you?
Okay, so you understand the threat and have accepted it. How do you respond when it comes your way? The first thing you will need to do is control your fear. That’s the single biggest hurdle to an appropriate response.
Keep in mind fear is your friend; it is there for a reason. Anyone who says they are not afraid is either a liar or a fool, because fear is the body’s way of telling you danger lurks and you should pay attention.
Embrace fear, but understand how to control it, keep it in check and use it to enhance your response to danger. The single biggest factor in controlling fear is having the skills needed to deal with danger and the confidence your skills will work in conflict.
This brings us to the final step in conditioning your brain: Empower yourself with solid training and developed skill. In conflict, humans do not rise to the occasion; they default to their level of training and life experience.
In times of dire stress and duress, the subconscious brain kicks in, and we run on autopilot. If we do not have the proper skills to call upon, humans just fold their tents and accept whatever happens to them.
As the legendary Jeff Cooper once said, buying a handgun and placing it in a drawer no more makes you a gunfighter than buying a piano makes you a musician.
For cops, firearms qualification does not prepare one for conflict; it just means the shooter can attain an arbitrary standard. Once the essentials of combative pistolcraft are understood and practiced, the shooter must learn to fight with a gun—something quite different from just shooting.
In the end, conditioning the brain for combat is about each and every one of us making the decision that danger will come our way and preparing for the eventuality. If you just put your head in the sand, it will probably be separated from your body. | <urn:uuid:9bf5dc7a-8aa1-4385-a9d2-a25f028dbd14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.handgunsmag.com/2012/09/17/mind-games-how-to-mentally-prepare-for-danger/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961194 | 1,505 | 1.757813 | 2 |
That, I think, is part of why I’ve noticed recent controversy about whether patients with life-threatening diseases should have access to treatments that are being researched but have not been proven to be effective, at least to the satisfaction and approval of the Food and Drug Administration. Today the Federal Appellate Court for the District of Columbia today determined that there is no constitutional right of terminally ill patients to have access to drugs still in clinical trials. You can read news stories on that here or here.
For a wider discussion of the issues involved, check out this segment of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” from July 30th. The speakers frame the issues well, and provide specific examples. It offers an interesting reflection on today’s Appellate Court decision.
This is a classic discussion balancing individual rights against social needs - in the language of the Georgetown Mantra, autonomy vs. justice, with, admittedly, related concerns from Non-Maleficence and Beneficence. I think we can outline that discussion this way:
Autonomy: I'm dying. I've heard this drug might help me. So far, it looks like it's probably safe. Even if it isn't, I'm already dying, so I have little to lose. I can't get this as part of a study, not even for "compassionate use." My doctor is willing to give it. I'm willing to take the risks. I should have a right to receive this drug, even though it hasn't made it through clinical trials.
Non-Maleficence: As a professional, I am committed to "do no harm" to patients. At this point, the hard question is, what does less harm? If I help this patient get this drug outside of a protocol, I might contribute to the patient's wellbeing. On the other hand, I might contribute to pain and suffering, and might shorten life. I might contribute to false hope now, and despair later.
Beneficence: What is really in the patient's best interest? If this drug works, it may be in the patient's best interest. On the other hand, most drugs that begin clinical trials are never approved. Is it in the patient's best interest to be exposed to a drug that not only might not work, but probably won't work? Is it in the patient's best interest to pursue life at all costs? Or, is it in the patient's best interest to recognize that our knowledge and capacities have limits, and think about how to make the best of the patient's life as it is?
Justice: We have a process in the United States for assessing the efficacy and safety of drugs. While we sometimes complain that the process is too slow, we inevitably complain when a drug proves ineffective and/or unsafe. A critical part of that process is gathering trustworthy data. Trustworthy data comes from well designed and carefully followed study protocols. “Compassionate use” provisions take this into account by requiring that the physician supervising the patient’s care track some information, but don’t provide data as clear as the study protocol itself. Use of medications outside of some study provision would provide no data at all. It could actually delay the completion of a study, and so either release of a good drug or elimination of a bad one. It could put patients through suffering with no countervailing benefit. While an individual might be willing to take the risks of a drug that hasn’t been fully studied, such access could also create risks for others – folks who are ultimately best served by thorough study of drugs before approval – that we as a community cannot permit.
The NPR discussion touched on but did not explore an issue I think is important in the controversy: the ready access to information about diseases and drugs, both in news media and through the internet. Every little study, however preliminary, offering some promise of medical progress gets picked up from medical journals and published in the first section of the paper and in the middle of the evening news. Patient groups and advocacy groups share information on line about their experiences.
Unfortunately, much of that information is preliminary at best, and useless at worst. It’s a long way from promise of a drug in cell cultures or mouse models to determination of efficacy and safety for human beings. Correlation is not necessarily causation; and the fact that it looks like something works doesn’t mean we actually know how it works. This reflects on another ethical category, a secondary category from the four principles of the Mantra: Faithfulness and Truth-telling. A desperate patient may say he or she is willing to accept the risks; but how well does the person actually know the risks? How accurate is the patient’s information, and how preliminary? A patient may assert he or she has “nothing to lose;” but how carefully has the patient been advised about alternatives? How carefully has the patient considered what is involved in making the best of the time he or she has, recognizing that we have not conquered death and do not expect to before the Kingdom comes?
I have served on a hospital’s Internal Review Board for Human Subject Research (IRB). I have participated in addressing requests for “compassionate use.” I have participated in reviewing research protocols specifically written for patients in the latest stages of life-threatening diseases. I have raised the concern that the drug’s known unwanted effects were bad, only to be assured by physicians that the disease by this point was worse. At the same time, these cases always involved drugs for which there was already some documentation of results in human patients, and reasonable expectation that these drugs would meet standards for approval. To consider access to drugs that haven’t gotten that far in the process, that won’t have that level of supervision, even for the sickest patients should cause hard ethical reflection.
I expect that the advocates for this access will ask for review by the Supreme Court. They are our final arbiters of questions of constitutional rights. Many of us will be watching and waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will take the case, and if so, how the Court will decide. Many will watch and wait, fully realizing that some will not live to see the resolution. And, while we watch and wait, we are still called to care for them as best we can. | <urn:uuid:694555eb-d634-4340-888b-5f3055b10913> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://episcopalhospitalchaplain.blogspot.com/2007/08/medication-access-in-desperate-times.html | 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 | 0.962437 | 1,310 | 1.78125 | 2 |
How To Replace a Porch Light Fixture
Replacing a porch light fixture is not a difficult job and should take less than an hour for most DIYers. Changing the porch light style can have a large impact on look of your home. In the example below, the fixture we decided to remove was in perfectly good condition, but it didn't have the look we wanted. So we picked a Kichler Mission Style fixture to better match the style of the home. One thing to consider is whether to use a damp location rated fixture or a wet location rated fixture. Outdoor fixtures that will be exposed to the rain or water, require a wet location rating.
Old Light Fixture
New Light Fixture
Caution: Please read our safety information before attempting any testing or repairs.
Electrical work requires safe practices. Always turn off power at the
circuit breaker or fuse box. Post a note that work is being done, to
avoid someone turning the power back on. After turning off the power
to the circuit, test the circuit to be certain that there is no power.
Always use insulated tools for added safety. Check with your local building
department for regulations and permit requirements before beginning work.
Start by turning off the power to the fixture at the circuit breaker.
Turning off the switch is not safe enough, as was evidenced once when
my 5 year old saw I was working on the light and he wanted to help me
see better by turning on the light switch. Also, occasionally switches
are miswired and while they will turn the light on and off,
they do it by breaking the circuit after it goes through the fixture
instead of before.
Turn the switch on to make certain the power is off, then turn the switch
off again. Remove the screws or nuts that secure the fixture to the wall.
Pull the fixture away and pull the wires out of the fixture box to expose
the wire caps. While supporting the fixture, unscrew the wire caps and
separate the wires.
If there isn't one already, install a fixture mounting plate or mounting
strap. This is the metal piece that fastens to the fixture box with screws
and then the fixture is fastened to mount with another set of screws.
Pull the wires through one of the large openings before fastening it
in place. Adjust the plate so that the screw holes align
with the screws from the fixture when it is level and in its final position.
Some fixtures mount with the screws extending from the mounting
plate. You place the fixture over the screws and then secure
it in place with a nut. If this is the case, you must test fit the length
of the screw as it extends outward. If it is too short, you will
not be able fasten the nuts to secure the fixture, and if they are
too long, they will not secure the fixture tightly to the wall.
Next, wrap the ground wire clockwise once around the ground screw and
tighten the screw. Now, twist the black wire extending from the fixture
to the black wire extending from the wall. Twist on a wire cap until
it is secure. If the cap can be pulled off with gentle force, it is either
the wrong size or you have not twisted in on properly. Repeat these steps
with the white wires.
Tuck the wires into the wall, leaving as little wire outside
the box as possible. The wire caps should be tucked inside the wall.
Lift the fixture into place and secure it with the mounting screws. Make
certain all the wires are inside the fixture or fixture box and nothing
is hanging outside the fixture. Tighten the screws and level the light
Install a light bulb, turn on the circuit breaker and then test the
One note about installation a light fixture. Of all the light fixtures
I have ever installed, in nearly every case, the screws or some part
provided with the fixture did not fit. They were often the wrong size
or sometimes I just dropped and lost the part. Therefore, to save yourself
some aggravation, I recommend you buy some spare screws of varying lengths,
matching sized nuts, a spare fixture plate, spare wire nuts and for certain
fixtures an assortment of nipples. I replace fixtures often enough that
I keep these parts on hand. If you are unlikely to need them after this
project, leave them in their packages so that you can return any unused | <urn:uuid:27d0a0f2-3d79-42b4-ace6-0e759f5133aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acmehowto.com/electrical/replace-porch-light.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930362 | 920 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Wyden Amendment Essential Privacy Protection Measure
The Defense Department announced today that it would establish an internal board and an outside advisory committee to monitor potential threats to individual privacy from the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness Project. People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas said today that while strong internal controls are necessary, they are not a substitute for real congressional oversight, which is fundamental to our constitutional system of checks and balances.
Neas urged House-Senate conferees to accept the Wyden Amendment to the Omnibus Appropriations bill, which was adopted by the Senate on January 23. The amendment introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) would condition funding of DARPA’s data-mining programs on actions by the executive branch to protect privacy and monitor the usage of personal information, and would require congressional approval for the deployment of Total Information Awareness technology. The Total Information Awareness Project is run by John Poindexter, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.
“This administration’s flagrant willingness to trample on citizens’ civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism should make us skeptical of relying on the administration to police itself,” said Neas. “The decision to create Pentagon oversight boards is a welcome recognition that there are serious privacy concerns with the Total Information Awareness Program. But advisory boards cannot be considered a substitute for real congressional oversight. Common sense and our own recent history tell us that unchecked surveillance powers are prone to abuse.”
“Passing the Wyden Amendment is an essential first step for Congress to take in asserting its critically important oversight role and ensuring that the government protect both our safety and our Constitutional rights and liberties,” said Neas. | <urn:uuid:41c83413-793d-4c1f-a4bb-d3d0c914e708> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2003/02/defense-department-s-self-evaluation-total-information-awareness-program-no-s | 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 | 0.930571 | 352 | 1.710938 | 2 |
CAMP DAVID, Md. -- President Obama and leaders of the world’s other leading economies Saturday embraced a policy of growth over austerity in Europe as they met on the cloistered grounds of Camp David to talk about fending off a spread of the Eurozone crisis.
The leaders agreed that the region should still work to bring down deficits through fiscal consolidation and that each country must decide for itself the best mix for promoting economic recovery.
In a group statement they put together during a round-table session in the morning, they said they hope Greece will remain part of the Eurozone as it climbs its way out of a crippling sovereign debt crisis.
They also signaled that they may find it necessary to tap the world’s strategic oil reserves in the coming months to keep oil flowing during an Iranian embargo.
But the clear focus of the Group of Eight summit was on widespread growth and jobs.
"All of us are absolutely committed to making sure that both growth and stability and fiscal consolidation are part of a overall package that all of us have to pursue in order to achieve the kind of prosperity for our citizens that we're looking for," Obama said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chief proponent of austerity in the past, joined in the new emphasis on growth, saying she thinks it’s important to “work on both threads" and applauding the accord as "great progress."
The communiqué from the Group of Eight summit suggested that Obama’s strategy for dealing with the European crisis may be paying off, despite the fact that the U.S. has never been in a position to take leadership on the problem.
Instead, he has employed quiet diplomacy to nudge the European leaders in his direction, and toward a policy focused on economic growth and job creation.
Even though there are few specific commitments in writing, the group’s intent is reflected in the decision to mention the word "growth" 10 times in the joint statement and debt and debt reduction through "fiscal consolidation" only twice.
-- Christi Parsons
Photo: French President Francois Hollande, left, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrive at a photo session at the G-8 Summit at Camp David, Md., on Saturday. Credit: Philippe Wojazer / Associated Press (pool) | <urn:uuid:c390310c-93c5-4376-91e7-47a7001bac8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/obama-other-g-8-leaders-embrace-economic-growth-over-austerity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959384 | 467 | 1.664063 | 2 |
iREPORTERS SIGNED UP
Created October 23, 2012 by
Whether you're unhappy with both political parties or you feel that there's no moderate candidate this election, 40% of Americans now identify themselves as independents, according to the Committee for a Unified Independent Party.
We know there are more independent voters than in previous election years, so we're trying to find out the reason behind it. Why are you an independent voter? Why don't you affiliate with a political party?
Upload a video telling us why you identify as an independent and you could be a part of CNN's election coverage.
Published on CNN.com: Neither Republican or Democrat: Why I'm an independent. | <urn:uuid:12d5562c-3860-4c02-81e5-431144c98037> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ireport.cnn.com/topics/862638?hpt=po_t1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958887 | 140 | 1.734375 | 2 |
I have to say, potassium chlorate is indeed very fun to, excuse the word, play with. I have made some pretty cool demonstrations for other people with the meager amounts I have, some of the good ones I video taped and edited on the computer which I hope to put on a web site one day soon.
Most recently, I made a "rocket powered car" using a glass jar and chlorate, it didnt work as I expected from the other tests, but I did succeed in moving the car 10 inches before it burst compleately into flames.
Your set up was much more advanced than mine, certainly using more solution and prioducing much more.
But I think I will give it another go, I just need to get a power source, I might have an old trash computer with a working power supply I can for this purpose, I will look into it.
Did you make an extra effor in your cell to control the temperature and pH to get maximum efficency? When you ran it, how big of a problem was the water clouding up and dissolving electrodes?
I would be evry interested in seeing the picture you have of your setup if you can locate it. | <urn:uuid:8edc4173-6f93-4cf1-a4c4-1dca7812acaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=414713&postcount=51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977854 | 245 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Learn more about what you can do, as a valued WNC community member, to help local children in need!
-Learn about and support the Gold Medal Endowment
In the late 1980's the Board of Mission Hospitals made a major strategic decision. They realized the availability of health care for the children of Western North Carolina had fallen seriously behind other parts of the state and nation. They decided to create a children's hospital in Asheville to serve this region.
The journey has been long and eventful. The first phase of Mission Children's Hospital (originally known as the Ruth and Billy Graham Children's Health Center) was completed in 1994 with the opening of a new 19-bed inpatient floor and 9-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
For the remainder of the 1990's Dr. Olson Huff, founding medical director diligently recruited more and more pediatric specialists to Asheville where few had existed before.
By the year 2000 over 30 pediatric specialists had either been employed by Mission or joined other private physician practices in the area. Almost every major specialty is now represented.
Also during this time period the Children's Dental Program was started to bring free dental care to the remote rural areas of the Southern Appalachians surrounding Asheville. There are two 40 foot custom mobile units called Toothbuses, now serving 60 elementary schools in the region and also a surgical program for children with severe dental needs at Murphy Medical Center, WestCare in Sylva, Spruce Pine Community Hospital in Spruce Pine and at Mission in Asheville.
In 2003 the second phase of Mission Children's Hospital was completed with the opening of the Nancy and George Cecil Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This 50-bed unit has become a national model for design, atmosphere and state of the art equipment. Over $6 million in local contributions helped to build this new facility that cares for over 800 fragile newborns each year.
Reuter Children's Outpatient Center Opens
On April 25, 2006, the final phase was reached when Board of Trustees of Mission Healthcare Foundation turned over to the Hospital Board, debt-free, the new 70,000 square foot Reuter Outpatient Center. Over $11 million in local, state and national contributions totally funded the construction costs for this new state-of-the-art center.
It houses the Huff Child Development Center, the Zeis Children's Cancer Program; the Nash Clinics were 16 pediatric specialists now see their young patients; the Children's Dental program, the Wachovia Radiology Suite, the Kincaid Special Procedures Suite and the Mountain Child Evaluation Program for abused and neglected children. It is also home to the Ruth Bell Graham Spiritual and Family Center where the WNC Family Support Network is housed.
What was a dream nearly 20 years ago is now a reality and the winners are the children and families of Western North Carolina who now have the best of pediatric specialty care close to home delivered in state-of-the-art facilities.
What's next for Mission Children's Hospital? Dr. Huff says "My goal is to now build a substantial endowment fund to sustain these wonderful programs forever!"
Click here to support Mission Children's Hospital. | <urn:uuid:9617e7ac-c165-446c-b515-2bca38b1b9b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avlcard.com/body_foundation.cfm?id=2923 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953129 | 644 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Interview with Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)
posted at 8:00 am on June 14, 2012 by Dustin Siggins
Over the last 11 years America’s federal budget has nearly tripled, the size of government has doubled, and our country has lost its AAA rating for the first time. During his time in the House during the 1990s and as a Senator since 2004, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has stood in opposition to the policies that led to these dire straits. Whether it has been highlighting bipartisan hypocrisy, opposing earmarks, aiming to cut hundreds of billions in wasteful spending, or reforming entitlement and defense spending, Senator Coburn has been a rare and consistent proponent of a smaller, affordable federal government.
One of the Senator’s most effective contributions to this fight has been his many reports on what he has called “fraud, waste, abuse & stupidity.” In the most recent of these reports, released on June 06, 2012, the Senator highlighted nearly $700 billion in a little-noticed kind of wasteful federal spending: appropriated but unused funds. The report closely examines $70 billion of this funding, and finds funding for everything from schools and HIV/AIDS programs to bridges and DOJ bulletproof vests simply sitting unused.
The Senator sat down with me for a phone interview yesterday to discuss the report and its implications for the nation’s fiscal future.
Dustin Siggins: Senator, first, thanks for your time. Second, I have to say, the report is depressing…
Senator Coburn: The truth hurts, and I want the American people to tell Congress to stop wasting their money.
DS: The report examines $70 billion that have been appropriated but unused, including $1 billion the Government Accountability Office found in Fiscal Year 2011, and cites $687 billion in total appropriated but unused/unallocated funds going into FY 2013?. How many fiscal years does this cover? What is the importance of this report to the average American?
Senator Coburn: I can’t tell you the full amount, but I can tell you that money from the 1996 Olympics is still locked in, for example. And that was 16 years ago.
The importance of this report is that it highlights just how bad oversight and accountability are in Washington. For example, $7.5 billion in earmark transportation funding that is never going to be spent has been appropriated. It shows the incompetence of Congress, the incompetence of the process, and the incompetence of the bureaucracy. The federal government is so big it doesn’t know what it’s doing. People may have right intentions, but we’re incompetent because it’s so big.
I made the same point made in my book – [DS: I recently reviewed Senator Coburn’s book “The Debt Bomb.” See the review here.] we’re bankrupt, and we have a government that is twice the size the size it was in 2001. This report and the other 50 or 60 reports my office has released show my office knows more about the government than the OMB, the Senate, or anyone else in D.C. We have a Homeland Security report coming out, I think next week, and a job training program report as well. We have 47 job-training programs in the federal government that cost $19 billion, and all but three overlap. Let me ask you a question: Why do we need 47 job-training programs? Why not have one, and make it work, since none of them work?
DS: Well, I know my father, who has owned businesses for 31 years, would never allow that kind of inefficiency. Reports like this are why he may not vote in the fall.
Your report cites the following two examples of unused funds:
- Maryland imposed a new sales tax to provide services to thousands of severely disabled residents languishing on waiting lists for the care, while the state’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) left unspent $38 million, including $12 million of federal funds. The new tax raised $15 million—less than half the amount the agency had sitting unused.”
- More than one in four of the nation’s bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Yet, $13 billion in federal funds earmarked by Congress for highway projects idles unspent.
Are these funds that are sitting in local and state bank accounts waiting to be used, or do they sit in federal agencies awaiting permission to be released to recipients?
Senator Coburn: I can’t tell you that one, but Atlanta funding is in the Olympic Committee. It hasn’t been pulled back because it was earmarked. We need specific things changed in the law to pull it back. The Maglev train in Nevada spends $47 million, I think, on a train that’s never going to be built. You can find the exact number in the report. [DS: The report says Congress earmarked money for the Maglev train in 2005, but also that “Congress placed $45 million in limbo forever by repeatedly making drafting errors in legislation.”]
DS: Your office has released numerous reports that each show somewhere between millions and hundreds of billions in waste, fraud, abuse, stupidity and duplication. Yet in the long run it’s going to be entitlement spending and interest on the debt that really brings the country to its fiscal knees, regardless of how we spend, or eliminate, every other dollar in the federal budget. Two questions: First, should Americans have any faith that Congress can cut even this dollar-large but percent-small amount from inefficient appropriations, and second, will elimination of these dollars even make a real difference in the long run financial future of the nation?
Senator Coburn: It’s gonna happen [cutting spending]. It can happen in one of two ways: The American people can stop sending career politicians to D.C. and send new people to Congress. Or we can be treated like Greece, where people tell us how we will spend. I can’t tell you how long we have, but I’d say it’s between two and five years. We are the least-wilted rose in the vase, so we will last longer than two years, because we will be the last place to invest as Europe disintegrates, but we won’t have much time. Using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, we are $150 trillion in the hole.
It’s not about the election in November. This is about showing that we are serious about our spending problems by cutting here and there, where we can, and saving Medicare by changing it, and saving Social Security by changing it. It’s also about modernizing the Pentagon and having strength through streamlining.
DS: According to MSNBC, the President is going to be making an economic speech tomorrow [Thursday] that will likely focus on blaming George Bush for the problems his Presidency has faced, and compare Mitt Romney to Bush. When it comes to this report, has the problem worsened, gotten better, or stayed the same between the two Presidents? In other words, while the problem is clearly systemic, is it also a partisan problem?
Senator Coburn: It’s a bipartisan problem. You had GOP in solid control for four years, the Democrats for three with a filibuster-proof Senate. Right now, the bets and history are against us. What’s the history of republics? They die when people realize they can get more than they pay in, and that’s where we are. That’s why I wrote the book. The answer may not be my solutions, but that’s why we can compromise. First, though, we have to agree the problem exists.
When 1 out of 2 college students can’t get a job, we are in trouble. When 401Ks have half their purchasing power of a few years ago, people 45 to 65. Now’s the time to stop pointing fingers in Washington, and those who do point fingers are career politicians looking to win elections instead of doing what’s best for the country.
DS: I’ve seen in some headlines that Majority Leader Reid may be prioritizing boxing legislation over passing a budget, holding Attorney General Holder accountable for Fast and Furious, eliminating this kind of low-hanging waste in the budget, etc. Is this a gimmick for his constituents? Or is he seriously doing this?
Senator Coburn: It shows one of three things: First, we shouldn’t have authority over boxing. It’s a state issue. Second, it shows whether or not competency is leading the Senate. Third, it shows a lack of prioritization. While 5,000 people may care about the legislation Senator Reid is talking about, we have millions of older people who will be impacted if Medicare goes bankrupt, and millions of younger people who will have our debt on their shoulders.
DS: I’d like to shift away from the report to your fellow Senate Judiciary Committee Member, Senator Cornyn (R-TX), who made news yesterday with his blunt comments to Attorney General Holder calling for the Attorney General’s resignation. Were you in the hearing when this took place?
Senator Coburn: I watched it on TV; I was meeting with constituents.
DS: Can I get a reaction to the remarks?
Senator Coburn: I didn’t vote for Holder. I have problems with his honesty and integrity and what he has done in the past. Additionally, I think the DOJ is mismanaged with regard to its grants. Neither he nor his predecessor fixed that, so this is not a partisan thing.
He has not been straightforward on Fast & Furious, and it’s a big deal. Having political people report to him is basically “wink, nod, and go back to sleep.” We need an independent investigation. We need congressional subpoenas, and we need a good clean look at what went on. He has not provided that. | <urn:uuid:44a7a064-ce4b-46c1-804d-180ec917558a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/06/14/interview-with-senator-tom-coburn-r-ok/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962617 | 2,090 | 1.601563 | 2 |
60. Aaron ADAMSON was born in 1799 in Tennessee.37 He died in 1839 at the age of 40.37
1820 Wayne Co IN Census.
Aron Adamson. 1m 16-26. 2f under 10, 1f 16-26
1830 Wayne Co IN Census
Aaron Adamson in Perry Township. 1m -5, 1m 30-40. 1f -5, 2f 5-10, 2f 10-15, 1f 20-30.
Aaron ADAMSON and Sally MILLMAN were married on 12 February 1818 in Wayne County, Indiana.49 Sally MILLMAN was born (date unknown).
Aaron ADAMSON and Sally MILLMAN had the following children:
|Benjamin R. ADAMSON56 was born on 15 November 1835 in Economy, Wayne County, Indiana.56 |
Benjamin is either the son of Aaron or Abel. His biography states that he was orphaned at the age of three and placed in the service of a man who moved to Marshall Co IN where Benjamin remained until he was 18. He married Sarah J. Hammer in Wayne Co and they removed to Jefferson Co IA for two years and then moved to southern Kansas. In the summer of 1860, they returned to Iowa. He returned to Wayne Co in 1863. In 1865, Benjamin went into business in Muncie, Delaware Co, with his uncle Jonathan P. Adamson. He was still living at the time his biography was written (1881). | <urn:uuid:99f8da8b-cb2d-4646-8897-48dfef874a80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~katy/overman/b15129.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9725 | 310 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is a world-renowned leader in rehabilitation, dedicated to empowering patients and families to optimize every child’s quality of life.
The Center for Rehabilitation is made up of a multidisciplinary team consisting of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, social workers, child life specialists, creative arts therapists, feeding specialists, educators, support staff and many others. Meet our team.
Together, we provide specialty rehabilitation programs to children with neuro-cognitive, neuromuscular, cardiopulmonary, integumentary, and musculoskeletal deficits and injuries.
We treat children with a wide variety of diagnoses including:
The Center for Rehabilitation at CHOP offers both inpatient and outpatient services to pediatric patients. Some children need intensive treatment that can only be provided around the clock in a hospital setting. Others need specific rehabilitation services that can be provided in an outpatient environment. Each child is different; talk to your doctor or nurse about what kind of therapy and which program would be a better fit for your child's specific condition.
Inpatient and outpatient services are available through two programs at CHOP's Main Campus in Philadelphia.
The Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit is an 18-bed unit, housed on Seashore House 3 West, staffed by a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the care of children needing acute rehabilitation.
Referrals to the inpatient unit are generally initiated by a consult with a physician from the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, a physician practice that specializes in the rehabilitative care of children. To talk to a referral coordinator, call 215-590-7478.
The Day Hospital Program, also located on Seashore House 3 West, is a full- or half-day, short-term therapy program that offers intensive therapies including:
Some inpatient rehabilitation patients graduate to this program when they no longer require overnight care. It also serves as a home to our intensive feeding program. Types, frequency and duration of services are decided depending on your child’s age, diagnosis and treatment plan.
Outpatient rehabilitation services are available at a number of CHOP Care Network locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. For details about therapies offered at each CHOP affiliate, see our locations.
The Center for Rehabilitation at CHOP acts as an overarching umbrella program, with a number of specialty services operating both independently and cooperatively under it.
Depending on your child’s needs and treatment plan, he or she may see specialists from one or more of the following specialty therapies or programs.
While your child may not need every specialist, it is comforting to know all of these specialists are all part of the multidisciplinary team at CHOP. If your child needs a specialized therapy or treatment, we can offer it.
For more information about how specific therapies can help your child, see our services.
We recommend all children that need rehabilitation services at CHOP to make an appointment with the Center for Rehabilitation. We will coordinate your child's care and ensure he or she has access to the specific rehabilitation services needed. Please call us at 215-590-7469.
Reviewed by: Center for Rehabilitation team
Date: April 2013 | <urn:uuid:c607eb86-3c5a-4158-9cdb-f30296a4ceae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chop.edu/service/rehabilitation/home.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93988 | 671 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A dark brick Tudor in Denver's Bonnie Brae neighborhood is not the sort of place where you would expect to find a dash of Miami sunshine and Caribbean heat, although maybe the bright blue door should be a tip-off, even on a January day when the sky looks like a pewter dome impervious to warmth.
But walk inside, where light pours through the windows to illuminate floors of bleached red oak, and that is the precise effect.
Take a dozen more steps and turn around, and the point is driven home: The living room's south wall is a vivid turquoise, just like the expanse of sea-meets-sky found in Miami Beach, the hometown of owner Kristy Socarras Bigelow, who shares the house with her husband and three children.
Delve a bit more into Bigelow's family history - her parents were exiles from Castro's Cuba - and you realize the wall evokes something with even more resonance. It conjures Havana's famed seawall, El Malecón, which looks north across the Straits of Florida to the southernmost tip of the United States.
A lot of dreams have passed back and forth across those 90 miles.
"I grew up in Miami, and I love the beach," says Bigelow, a restaurateur who owns Cuba Cuba in Denver and Cuba Cuba Sandwicheria in Boulder. "We still have a place there, and I wanted my living room to feel like something oceanside even during a Denver winter."
Three large photographs atop the fireplace mantel reinforce the vibe. One is of a group of Havana residents perched in front of an old home. The other is a view from the city's seawall. Another is a picture of a vintage 1950s automobile, perhaps a Chevy Bel-Air, judging from its sky-blue color - a model still found on Havana's streets.
The house itself is of a similar vintage, built within months after the United States entered World War II. It doesn't quite qualify as the classic English "pile," those manors that litter the British landscape like hedgehogs dodging the fox-and-hounds set, but at 4,000 square feet, it is big.
But the interior of the house, which the Bigelows bought in February, is a departure from its period roots.
"Kristy really wanted a historic shell with a modern interior, which I thought was really exciting," says Jonas DiCaprio, the architect and owner of Design Platform, which oversaw the redesign and refurbishing.
The renovations took six weeks, a feat Bigelow describes as "kind of a miracle." It was not a top-to-bottom overhaul. The kitchen had been remodeled by its former owners, save for a new island and range that Bigelow installed, plus some tile work.
In a sense, this is not the first older home that the Bigelows have converted. Cuba Cuba restaurant in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, which they opened in 2001, was a joining of two pre-Depression clapboard houses. But that was a commercial retrofitting. And while attention had to be paid to the interior aesthetics, the main challenge was installing a professional kitchen and a hip bar to dispense the nightly array of ropa viejo, empanadas and mojitos.
A home is a far different animal. Here, the collaboration between Bigelow and DiCaprio proved critical.
DiCaprio, 36, is a Minnesota native whose parents built custom houses. "I kind of grew up on the job site," he says. He earned his degree at Boston Architectural College, a five-year program with internships that jump-started his career, including historic-preservation work on Nantucket Island.
The house's core is the stretch running from the entranceway and living room through the dining room and the kitchen. The living room features a glass-fronted gas fireplace in that turquoise wall, and a rugged, steel-wheeled cart serves as a coffee table.
The original arched passway into the dining room was replaced by a squared-off version. "I know that's a departure from what these houses generally look like, but we felt the additional sightlines that were created open the room up," Bigelow says.
The dining room is anchored by a big, battered table that Bigelow bought for a song because of its broken leg, since repaired. She removed one of the 2x4-foot table leaves, painted it a mustard color, and mounted it on an adjacent wall.
"We didn't have much in the way of art, and so that functions as a sort of painting," she says with a laugh.
The bulk of the kitchen is finished in white subway tile. A charcoal-gray grout was used to provide a contrast with the black cabinets, which are lightly distressed. But one stretch of wall is a crazy-quilt of various Cuban tropical tile, some of it left over from the remodeling done on the couple's Boulder sandwich shop.
Save for the five-burner Kenmore gas range, mounted in a rectangular island, most of the appliances were inherited.
"It was awesome because we were on the same page," Bigelow says of working with DiCaprio.
And now, in winter, she can look out from the kitchen, gaze at that aqua wall, and dream of Miami Beach - and a certain city to the south. | <urn:uuid:0bba7557-7692-49b8-85a7-ec18245b7c97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vivacolorado.com/noticias/ci_22441473/touch-miami-beach-denvers-bonnie-brae-neighborhood | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972962 | 1,134 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Thursday, 30 May 2013 15:13
Last Updated on Friday, 31 May 2013 08:27
Fitting perfectly with the Navarre Fishing Rodeo, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will be allowing a saltwater license-free fishing day this Saturday, June 1.
A freshwater license-free fishing day will also be held on June 8.
License-free fishing days are a great opportunity for Navarre residents and visitors to cast a line into the water and get hooked on saltwater and freshwater fishing. Anglers are not required to have a saltwater recreational fishing license on June 1 or a freshwater recreational fishing license on June 8.
“We hope visitors and residents alike will be able to join in the excitement of Florida’s saltwater and freshwater fishing this year by participating in one of our license-free fishing days or attending an event surrounding the days,” said FWC Executive Director Nick Wiley. “This is an excellent opportunity to share the fun and togetherness of a fishing trip with the entire family or to introduce someone to a lifetime hobby of fishing.” | <urn:uuid:49dcff2e-17a3-4b88-b144-e96071b38635> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.navarrepress.com/news/community-news?start=36&font-size=smaller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944391 | 229 | 1.5 | 2 |
"[G]ame development almost never starts with story. Every time I go to a convention, I meet fledgling writers who tell me they have an amazing game idea they’d love to pitch me. But the truth is, games aren’t pitched like movies or TV. What gets a game green lit is invariably tech or gameplay driven. A studio discovers they can do incredible realtime zero-g simulation with their engine? We’re doing a space adventure! Did the design team discover some super fun time-based game mechanic? Let’s do a time travel game! Games are built around two simple questions: 'Where does our tech shine?' and 'What is fun to play?'"Read the rest here.
Related Reading: Should games even bother trying to tell a meaningful story? | <urn:uuid:807ad1df-d040-4aba-965b-8fe57abfcee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pensiveharpy.blogspot.com/2012/06/screenwriters-fail-and-game-writing.html?showComment=1339629402460 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945396 | 163 | 1.570313 | 2 |
So how can you protect your money?
The great heist will star the Government's very own Wayne Swan who has devised a super plan to take from people's savings and pocket in Government coffers.
It's a raid on inactive bank accounts and super funds - a perfect ploy to plug the Government deficit.More stories from Today Tonight
The law was rushed through late last year, and is set to have a very real impact. The Government estimates it'll raise around $800 million from money taken from unclaimed accounts.
From May it plans to collect $109 million from bank accounts and insurance policies which have been untouched for three years, and $675 million from inactive super accounts which contain less than $2000.
In the past if you failed to make a transaction on your bank account for seven years it was declared inactive and transferred to the Australian Security and Investments Commission. Under the new changes that will happen within three years and will affect long term savings accounts and trust funds.
This reporter is on Twitter at @LyndaKinkade
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Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | <urn:uuid:e0ab7d09-6433-4c66-b2af-50f052617207> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/money/article/-/16256743/governments-bank-robbery/ | 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 | 0.950413 | 226 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Are you feeling lucky, punk?
If you believe in luck then you’ll love this story about the Orknes family from Norway who’ve put their third giant lottery win down to falling pregnant.
Each time 28 year old Hege Jeanette announces she’s expecting, her brothers and father have bought a winning lottery ticket. Current prize winnings: 1.2 million kroner, the equivalent of $2 million.
“It’s inexplicable,” said Hege’s 19 year old brother Tord Oksnes, the most recent lottery winner. Who also said he’s encouraging Hege to have at least ten children to keep the money rolling in.
You’ve got to wonder what Hege thinks of that plan, particularly when, as Sydney University professor of mathematics Clio Cresswell told The Punch today, there is no such thing as “luck”.
“Humans find patterns where there are none. We look for patterns around us to explain things that are essentially completely random. For example, if someone told you that 99 per cent of all convicted felons ate bread, then would you believe that all people who eat bread commit crime?” she said.
The other problem with trying to explain random events with the notion of “luck” is the skewed emphasis we place on what happens around us.
As Dr Creswell explained when a woman is pregnant, all she tends to see are other pregnant woman. Same with someone who has a broken leg; they start noticing everyone around them with a broken leg.
“What we should be asking is what wasn’t happening at the time. For example, how many times did the Orknes family buy a lottery ticket when Hege was not pregnant? Or what else were they doing at the time of each purchase,” she said.
Objectively this makes complete sense - but there’s something a bit sad about completely casting off the notion of superstition altogether. Then again, I have hung upside down on a precarious ledge to kiss the Blarney Stone in the name of good fortune.
But now over to you. Spill the beans Punchers, what’s your lucky charm?
Follow me on Twitter: @lucyjk
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Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…
I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…
In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual… | <urn:uuid:a2e97fd4-c45d-4daf-b883-6eb4bef5a3b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/are-you-feeling-lucky-punk/?from=puff&pos=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948168 | 608 | 1.84375 | 2 |
MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - A Wisconsin Senate Democrat wants to stop the DNR from letting wolf hunters use dogs to sniff out their prey.
Fred Risser of Madison is asking colleagues to co-sponsor a bill that goes against what a Dane County judge ruled in January.
Judge Peter Anderson allowed the state Natural Resources Board to set rules for training and using dogs – but only under certain time limits and conditions. The board held a hearing on the matter recently, as it considers a new policy.
Risser told the AP that humane societies oppose the use of dogs in a wolf hunt. Those groups also oppose any wolf hunting, but Risser’s measure doesn’t go that far.
National animal rights groups have blasted the wolf hunts in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They’ve gone to court to try and end state control of wolf populations in the Upper Midwest, and put the animals back under the federal endangered species act. | <urn:uuid:06826efb-9b72-4b98-93a1-555a59edfcc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wifc.com/news/articles/2013/mar/04/state-senator-wants-to-prevent-dnr-from-allowing-dogs-in-wolf-hunt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941081 | 199 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Standing in front of a typical 2,500 square foot 21st century home, there may be few who would think to themselves, “I can build one of those.” But, if you were to put someone in front of a 150 square foot small home, the reaction might be quite different. Even though the large and small houses may be functionally equivalent (kitchen, bathroom, living, dining, and bedrooms), the scale of the small home project can dramatically alter the perception of what is possible in terms of building one’s own house.
That, in my view, is one of the beauties of the small house movement. At a time when so many are beginning to recognize the benefits of living in smaller spaces, they are also thinking, “Maybe I can build one of those myself.”
For two and a half years I have been writing a blog called “Building Gypsy Rose.” Like so many rookie bloggers, I began with the sole purpose of keeping family and friends apprised of my latest crazy ideas but the readership has grown and now includes many who have begun their own process of designing and building a tiny home. (Yes, you can!) Looking back over my blog entries (again, primarily aimed at family and friends), I’ve come to realize that for the do-it-yourselfer a bit more detail might be in order.
In this article I’d like to expand a bit on a component of my home that has prompted much interest and many questions in the blog – the foundation.
Gypsy Rose is of the rolling variety. Her foundation has wheels. Certainly not a novel concept, but the design considerations involved with building a four-season, traditionally constructed house within the constraints of highway-legal dimensions on a roadworthy chassis have not been given the same treatment as the more common poured concrete platform. Needless to say, I couldn’t find a lot of literature on the topic and had to sort out the details on my own.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s the builders of “hippy trucks” used well-worn trucks or buses as a starting point, but many of today’s tiny home projects begin with a trailer that can be detached from the means of locomotion. Of those, the most commonly used is what is often referred to as a utility trailer. The larger trailers of this type may be rated at 7,000 or 10,000 pound gross weight capacity and can be purchased new for between $3,000 and $5,000. When I first started conceptualizing Gypsy Rose I envisioned using a utility trailer as a starting point. A closer look at my design parameters, however, led me to what I now believe is a more suitable alternative. Rather than adapting to a trailer that was meant for hauling landscaping equipment or automobiles, I decided on a custom-made, purpose built foundation for my tiny home.
We begin with the challenge of building within the dimensional restrictions of a vehicle that can be towed down the highway without needing a special wide-load permit. In Vermont, my tiny house is limited to an 8.5-foot width and a 13.5-foot height. The length (20 feet) was determined by the physical limits of the intended towing vehicle and the road I had to navigate to the land where Gypsy now rests. With those dimensions in mind, here are some of the considerations that were factored into the trailer’s design.
- Weight capacity: This was a tough one. When I started building Gypsy I didn’t have any idea how much she’d weigh when all was done. I ended up selecting axles rated at 3,500 pounds apiece. Using two axles, I have a capacity of 7,000 pounds for my home. (If I had to do it again, I’d have gone with a pair of 5,000 pound axles for a 10,000 pound capacity.)
- Frame material: For strength and rigidity, as well as ease of attaching the floor joists, I went with 2” x 6” box steel (as opposed to angle iron or I-beam cross-sections).
- Hitch size: The minimum for a tiny house of Gypsy’s size is two and five-sixteenths inches.
- Wheel size: I used 16” wheels capable of handling (the still unknown) weight of my home.
- Brakes: Surge brakes are commonly used on trailers. (The requirement for brakes varies by state.)
- Tongue weight (the amount of weight that rests on the hitch of the towing vehicle): This should be about 10% of the gross weight. For a tiny house that tips the scales at 5000 pounds, the tongue weight should be 500 pounds. Tongue weight is altered by how the weight of the house is distributed over its length and by the positioning of the axles along the frame. If the axles are placed too far back you’ll end up with too much weight on the hitch. If they are placed too far forward you will have less weight on the hitch but it will cause the towed trailer to handle poorly (dangerous!). Gypsy Rose’s configuration ended up with a tad too much weight on the hitch due to the fact that the heavier rooms (kitchen and bathroom) plus the tool shed (an afterthought) brought more weight forward.
- Ground clearance: If you’re trying to squeeze two levels of living space into the 13.5 foot overall height, the lower the trailer frame can ride while still negotiating the obstacles on the highway, the better.
- Floor joist attachment: This was the consideration that more than any other led to a custom-built trailer. Most utility trailers come with a frame that is designed to accommodate a thick plank bed. Small house builders often construct their floor joist systems on top of that bed – quite commonly out of 2×4’s. Well, here in Vermont where wintertime temperatures get darned cold, I knew that I’d need more insulating space than what is offered by a 2×4 cavity. At a minimum, I needed the room provided by 2×6 floor joists, but if I’d built it on the bed of a utility trailer I’d be subtracting more precious inches from the space I needed to accommodate the combined height of the first floor and the sleeping loft above. I ended up having the trailer built with 2” x 6” box steel in a configuration that allowed me to bolt the joists alongside the steel frame members without losing any interior space to the floor joists. As you can see in the accompanying photos, my trailer frame is completely integral to the floor joist system. The plywood sub-flooring rests cleanly on both the steel and wooden surfaces.
- Fender wells: I didn’t want my trailer to come with any. I preferred the ability to integrate the fender wells into the interior of my home – again to avoid any unnecessary loss of interior space. On Gypsy Rose, the surface of the exterior siding is on the same plane as the outside edge of the trailer tires and the wooden fender wells were constructed as part of the wall/floor framing.
- Taillights, etc.: I didn’t want my home to sport taillights and a license plate holder so I opted for fixtures that can be temporarily screwed to the underside of the trailer’s aft end for use only during transport.
With all of the above in mind, where does one find such a one-of-a-kind specialty rolling frame on which to build a tiny house? I ended up hiring a friend who is in the business of manufacturing custom boat trailers, but there are many custom trailer manufacturers that one can choose from. (Although I would not recommend it to the inexperienced, one could buy all of the components I’ve listed above from readily available sources and, with welder in hand, assemble a trailer in true do-it-yourself fashion.)
What about cost? I paid $2,600 for my custom-made trailer but that might be somewhat lower than average due to the fact that it was a long-time friend who did the work for me.
Foundations aren’t glamorous. In the end they are mostly hidden from view, but beginning with a well-designed trailer frame was an essential first step in my Gypsy Rose project.
To read more of Kevin’s small home adventures, visit his blog, “Building Gypsy Rose .”
It was during the later 1990’s when I remember seeing the shelves of local bookstores begin to fill up with books on voluntary simplicity. At the time, I was too busy raising my two young sons to pay much attention to the contemporary writing on the topic, but I was aware of the fact that my own life was not getting any simpler. I didn’t buy the books and I didn’t simplify my life in the “10 Easy Steps” prescribed by countless authors on the topic. My experience with “downsizing” was much more expedient – and much more familiar to many Americans than the courses of action outlined in the self-help literature. It went something like this.
“A few months ago I warned you that my key performance measures indicate your failure to step up to the plate and think outside the box. I asked you to drink from the fire hose, start leveraging your core competencies, and get on the same page with the paradigm shift that you’ve thus far failed to recognize in this marriage.
“In response to your poor performance, I’ve stepped up my own customer relationship marketing efforts. The feedback from brain dumps with my colleagues has resulted in a decision to redeploy you in favor of a new, highly scalable enterprise solution. Trust me. What I’m talking about is a win-win, organically derived value proposition.
“As of today, your role in this marriage has been outsourced. No need to circle back to me on this one. We’re taking the conversation offline for good. You’ve been downsized. Got it?”
Okay, so I’m paraphrasing a bit, but my former business/marriage partner has a penchant for the corporate-speak buzzword mumbo jumbo that makes me cringe. Whatever the exact words were, I was given the matrimonial pink slip.
I’ve since done a bit of research on the prescribed techniques for simplifying one’s life. A quick review of the index in “The Simple Living Guide” yields results for “dating” and “romance,” but I couldn’t find a chapter on “divorce”. Post-marital acrimony may not be good subject matter for selling books on how to achieve the joys of a simple life, but I’m living proof that it’s a highly effective method for shedding a few pounds. After handing over the balance of my bank accounts to a lawyer, I found myself nearly broke and very much homeless. Life immediately became simplified (in the material sense). All it took was the stroke of a judge’s pen.
After the edict was issued from management (family court), I packed my personal belongings in a cardboard box and made my way to the front door – “redeployment” complete and ready for the next adventure.
To read more of Kevin’s small home adventures, visit his blog, “Building Gypsy Rose .” | <urn:uuid:23144c1f-b10b-4543-bb78-e3fb859be102> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smalllivingjournal.com/tag/building-gypsyrose/ | 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 | 0.964023 | 2,425 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Homestead Tax Credit was created to keep property taxes stable as property values increase. In order to retain the credit, homeowners must file a form by the end of today, Dec. 31.
In a recent email to Carroll County residents, Delegate Justin Ready explained that years ago the Homestead Property Tax Credit was established to keep the property tax homeowners pay from skyrocketing as property values increase. The credit is only allowed to be used for primary residences, but it was often applied to all residential property a person owns, such as vacation homes or investment properties, Ready said.
To ensure the tax credit is only applied to a taxpayer's primary residence, the State Department of Assessments and Taxation is requiring homeowners to fill out a form to be eligible to retain the credit. If homeowners fail to fill out this form, they will lose the credit, and property taxes may go up substantially, Ready said.
The deadline to file is today, Dec. 31.
According to Ready, forms were mailed to all homeowners. To file electronically or download an application, visit this website: https://sdathtc.resiusa.org/homestead. If mailing the application, it must be postmarked by Dec. 31.
Homeowners can verify the status of their property by going to the Real Property Search website. Enter the county and the address of the property and at the bottom of the real estate property record, the status is listed.
For more information, visit the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation website. | <urn:uuid:b34e4f6f-f406-4841-a916-1a28a737a09f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westminster.patch.com/articles/homestead-property-tax-credit-filing-deadline-today | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956489 | 313 | 1.515625 | 2 |
- as in the real McCoy, 1881, said to be from Scottish the real Mackay (1883), of uncertain origin, though there are many candidates, including whiskey distilled by A. and M. Mackay of Glasgow (the phrase the real McCoy became popular during Prohibition to describe liquor); Charles S. "Kid" McCoy (1872-1940), former welterweight boxing champ; and a claimant for chief of the northern branch of the clan Mackay.
"By jingo! yes; so it will be. It's the 'real McCoy,' as Jim Hicks says. Nobody but a devil can find us there." [James S. Bond, "The Rise and Fall of the Union Club," Yorkville, Canada, 1881] | <urn:uuid:1d753ff5-b42e-4a96-aeff-b7e1064f7127> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=McCoy&allowed_in_frame=0 | 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 | 0.951611 | 154 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Slim Pelleosa Chair
The Pelleossa chair was inspired by the natural reduction of the skeletal system and from here comes its name, which in English means “skin and bones”. Once you analyze it, you see that the handcrafted wood and stretched fabric chair is an ideal combination of traditional workmanship and modern production efficiency.
Designed by Francesco Faccin, this plain chair proves a very careful attention to details and is very close to a piece of art. Clean and hardwearing, every piece of furniture is made with a conventional “turn and copy” technique and the repetition of two diameters only optimizes the usable material. In spite of its simplicity, it is inviting and being known the fact that usually simple things are the most successful, it can be included into this category.
No matter if you look at the wooden parts or the leather seat, every detail is carefully taken care of and the conclusion is more than satisfactory; both skin and bones complete each other and constitute the perfect mixture. Handcrafted wood pieces in general represent the best solution and they always prove that high quality is the key, no matter the field. In addition, as we all need chairs for our homes, gardens, according to our taste and personality, but also according to their lasting period, materials, quality, the skin and bones pieces are an inspiring solution. | <urn:uuid:4c0681be-5523-445e-a950-e6b4ac98c737> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homedit.com/slim-pelleosa-chair/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966622 | 281 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Honey is the nectar produced in flowers and then collected and stored by bees. It is composed of a variety of sugars, wax, and other substances, including citric, malic, formic, and lactic acids; beta carotene; enzymes; amino acids and vitamins. It is used as an emollient in skin care and creates a watertight film, allowing skin to rehydrate itself. Moisturizing, softening, sweet and fragrant.
HI-druh-lie'zd HWEET PRO-teen
Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, also known as by the collective name Phyto Peptides, is an effective substitute for hydrolyzed animal protein derived by acid, enzyme, or other method of hydrolysis. It offers conditioning, moisturizing and film forming properties and is widely in skin care products to help skin retain its moisture and improve its overall appearance.
HI-druh-lie'zd rIs pro-TEEN
This plant-derived peptide helps protect skin from external aggression –a key cause of early skin aging. Rich in phytosterols and polyphenols, the extract is known for its antioxidant and skin-firming properties.
How to Apply:
-Apply to wet hair and massage uniformly over entire scalp
-May use daily or as often as needed to revive and add body to hair
-For optimal volumizing, we recommend following with Kiehl's Rice & Wheat Volumizing Conditioning Rinse
-If contact with eyes occurs, rinse immediately with water
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Ce Y: This is very good, I used it beforeSep 19, 2012
Lingxiao Z: I never used this before, but the product description make me think it is a good product for meSep 18, 2012
Sijie Z: I have few and thin hairs. This shampoo looks maybe helpful.Sep 16, 2012
LINDA S: I have very fine hair and this is the only shampoo that has ever given my hair any volume.Sep 14, 2012
Macarena V: I've used this shampoo together with the rice and wheat conditioner for some years now and I love it. It really makes my hair look lighter, with more volume and soft. Honestly no other shampoo + conditioner has worked so well on me as this one.Sep 14, 2012
Bonnie H: My scalp is sensitive and this is very soothing.Sep 11, 2012
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Dongni Y: need to try if it works for meSep 4, 2012
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Where to Eat
Can any other nation rival China’s obsession with food? Instead of “How are you?” Chinese people greet each other with “ Ni chi fan le ma?” – “Have you eaten yet?” Once your travels begin, you may ask yourself a similar question – have you really eaten Chinese food before? For the Middle Kingdom serves up cuisine of such variety and delight that mealtimes there will soon dissolve the taste memories of the pale imitations of Chinese food from back home. As you travel around the country you will enjoy a veritable culinary gazeteer. From the wheat noodles, lamb kabobs, and Peking duck of the north, venture east to taste the braised crabs and abalone of Shanghai, west to try the fiery feasts of Sichuan, and south to “dot the heart” with a thousand different Cantonese dim sum.
any meal or snack
A Divine Pleasure
Food is a divine pleasure runs a traditional saying. China’s fascination with food stems from the ancient worship of gods and spirits, when emperors were carried to temples or sacred peaks to guarantee good harvests with sacrifices of meat and rice wine. Today, any event can prompt a feast where families can bond, relationships grow, disputes be resolved, and business deals reached. For Chinese people everywhere, food is not just a social lubricant, but the cornerstone of their culture.
A Famine Cuisine
One of China’s perennial problems has been how can such a large population feed itself (currently a fifth of the world’s people) when less than 10% of its land is arable? The answer lies in centuries of innovation and efficiency in the fields and in the kitchen. The Chinese have developed a “famine cuisine,” cherishing wild plants like bamboo shoots, lotus roots, seaweed, fungi, or moss, and utilizing every part of domesticated or wild animals. Bustling markets and even some mealtimes are not for the squeamish, but the daring will learn how fish heads, pig’s trotters, chicken intestine, duck webs, sea slugs, and bull testicles can be prepared as delicacies. Imagine how many lives scorpions, deep-fried and full of protein, could save in a famine?
The First Fast Food
Although boiling and steaming dominate Chinese cooking, it is best known for the stir-fry. Restaurants tend to follow the less economical traditions of the elite, not the simplicity of everyday fare, but the stir-fry still reflects the efficiency of Chinese food. Meat and vegetables are cut into small pieces and fried briefly in hot oil, thus saving on fuel and equipment without sacrificing taste. There was little saving in work time, but labor is one resource of which China has plenty.
The Culinary Arts
According to records China’s earliest master of gastronomy, Yi Yin, cooked for the first Shang emperor way back in the 16th century BC. One cookbook from the sixth century AD still sets standards for today’s chefs, like a mouthwatering recipe for roasting suckling pig that should “melt in the mouth like ice.” Over the centuries, countless men of letters sang the glories of food. Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo penned a famous ode to pork and today Dongpo Pork remains Hangzhou’s most celebrated dish. On your travels you can learn the stories behind many other famous dishes. The ancient philosophy of yin and yang – the blending of contrasts and duality of nature – applies to culinary matters in China as much as to spiritual ones. Achieving the right harmony of yin (soft, cold, dark, and feminine) and yang (strong, hot, bright, and masculine) will ensure good health not just a good meal. Cooling yin foods – for example most vegetables, crab, beancurd – must complement warming yang – meat, chilies. Hence in menu planning, there should be meat dishes as well as vegetable, hot and cold, sweet and sour, plain and spicy. Even meat dishes rarely contain meat alone, while the basic ingredients of stir-frying – scallions and ginger – are yin and yang too. Additionally a balanced diet should include appropriate proportions of both fan (grains) and cai (vegetables) and not too much meat. Many aspects of the culinary arts are thus governed by concepts and philosophies that seem to permeate all of Chinese life.
fast, and efficient
You are what you eat
Nutritionists were attached to the Zhou court back in the seventh century BC, for the Chinese have long recognized the medicinal value of food. In the Chinese chef’s repertoire there is a dish or an ingredient for every poorly organ or ailment. Some foods that are meant to boost your qi, such as ginseng and bird’s nest soup, require a small leap of faith as to their efficacy; others such as iron-rich duck blood are more obvious. In some cases, as in other societies, animal parts are believed to strengthen the human equivalent – try duck brain for more intelligence, ox tongue for eloquence, and bull’s testicles for greater sexual potency.
The Five Flavors
The Chinese are not really recipe-bound. Amid the drama of the flaming stir-fry, they seem to take a more flexible approach, finely judging the right quantity of each ingredient. But nevertheless, Chinese chefs are very particular about flavor, aroma, color and texture. Each of these properties has been elevated to an art form with special vocabulary and sets of rules. If xian captures the soul of a food (an elusive, sweet but natural freshness), cui is the goal of most Chinese cooking (a crisp crunchiness like the skin of perfect Peking duck). Trained Chinese palates distinguish five different flavors – sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, salty – and only the right combinations work. Foods rich in flavor combine well with texture foods of little taste, such as sea cucumbers and shark’s fin, which absorb and heighten the foods cooked with them.
tastes, and textures
Symbolism in Food
In a culture obsessed with symbolism, and eating, there are many foods that have earned special meaning and must be consumed on certain occasions. Round mooncakes, dotted with moon-like duck egg yolks, are a must for the family reunion at Mid-Autumn Festival. At the important Spring Festival dinner, the whole family cooks tangyuan, round sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour, because yuan can also mean “reunion.” Fish is particularly auspicious, because the character for fish (yu) sounds like the one for “abundance” and offers the hope of good fortune in the year ahead. Meat dumplings (jiaozi) are another New Year favorite, especially in the north, as their shape is said to resemble a golden symbol of prosperity. Birthdays are often celebrated with noodles, a symbol of longevity, while red beans are a metaphor of longing and love. And to celebrate new arrivals, parents hand out bundles of eggs painted red for luck – an even number to celebrate a boy, an odd number for a girl.
a utilitarian decor
Types of Restaurants
Whether you are looking to eat in the splendor of an imperial pavilion in Beijing, a chic Shanghai café, or a busy Sichuan teahouse, you will find a restaurant boom taking place in China. Freed from state control, entrepreneurs are thinking up tempting new ways to indulge in the country’s favorite pastime. You never have to walk far to find restaurants in China and when you do, do not let first appearances put you off – in contrast to the delicacy of the food, many gourmet restaurants boast simple decor and harsh lighting. Look instead for happy crowds of diners and a different concept of “atmosphere.” In Chinese eyes, the more lively and noisy (renao) a restaurant is, the better.
Open all hours
Early to bed, early to rise was the pattern of Chinese lives until the 1990s, leaving some foreign visitors caught out when planning mealtimes. While Chinese stomachs still demand food earlier than their Western counterparts, social and professional hours are diversifying. You can breakfast on the street by 6am, but all hotels should serve breakfast until 10am or later. Lunch is typically from 11:30am until 2:30pm, after which some restaurants shut until the evening shift starts around 5:00 pm. In the evening closing times can be very late, while some places never shut. Booking is rare except for the most popular and high-end establishments. Usually you can simply turn up; if the restaurant is full, you may have to wait until a table comes free or have a drink at the bar. Sometimes the owner will come to your rescue by setting up a makeshift table in the corner, or even out in the backyard.
If you are tired and hungry, and staying at one of China’s more expensive hotels, then room service can provide comfort with imitations of Western food. But try to make it downstairs, as most hotels offer a range of cuisines within the premises.
In the main cities, some of the best restaurants are located in hotels, and you can sample some excellent upscale Chinese cuisine. Contrary to opinion, hotel restaurants do not always serve overpriced, deliberately bland Chinese food to appease foreign palates. However, home to one of the world’s top cuisines, China has a lot to offer. The more intrepid diner who makes a few forays outside the comfort of four-star hotel restaurants will be sure to reap handsome dividends.
shoppers buying spices, silks, and carpets
As China smartened up for the Olympics and the World Expo, street vendors must sometimes play hide-and-seek with the authorities. Yet their portable stalls form a vital part of the everyday life of China, selling cheap and popular foods such as breakfasts of dough sticks (youtiao) and beancurd (doujiang), or snacks like scallion pancakes (jianbing), sweet potatoes (shanyu) roasted in old oil drums, deep-fried beancurd cubes (zhadoufu), and local fruits.
A reliable way to locate delicious street food is to stroll through a night market (yeshi), a culinary and visual feast where clouds of steam escape from bamboo steamers and the sky glows red from the flames of oil drum stoves. The sizzle of cooking and clamor of vendors shouting for business should stir your appetite and if deep-fried scorpions or cicadas on skewers prove too exotic, be assured that plenty of other foods will take your fancy. If the food is hot and freshly cooked for you, hygiene problems are rare. The market off Wanfujing Dajie, in Beijing, is the most famous, but track down night markets wherever you go, to enjoy the local delicacies and specialties.
“little eats” in Dalian
Cheap and nourishing snacks such as those found at night markets are known collectively as xiaochi, or “little eats.” Restaurants that specialize in them are called xiaochidian; they sell different types of noodles or dumplings, stuffed buns or pancakes. Open early for breakfast, they may serve simple stir-fried dishes too, and shut only when the last guest leaves. The setting is usually basic, but the food is hearty, tasty, and very reasonably priced. Every city has its own local varieties, but the ultimate “little eats” are the dim sum of Cantonese cooking (see Regional Food: The South).
The popularity of fast food giants McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, now found in all cities, has spurred Chinese firms to compete. Yonghe King is an impressive Taiwanese chain serving up all-day breakfasts of soya bean milk, congee (a savory rice porridge), and spring onion pancakes, while 85°C is a rapidly-expanding coffee, cake, and bread chain. If the street stalls are a little too basic, food courts in department stores or malls are worth exploring and are clean and usually air-conditioned.
As urban tastes grow ever more sophisticated, restaurateurs race to catch up, opening restaurants with a special theme, cuisine, or setting, like a train carriage or mock prison. The character of these places is often nostalgic, such as the old Beijing style (Lao Beijing), where each guest is loudly greeted, and staff in pre-Revolution uniforms clatter the teacups in welcome on your table. The walls of Cultural Revolution restaurants are covered with bitter-sweet memorabilia of that era, while many Sichuan eateries have concentrated on rustic decor to increase the appeal.
The other China
There is not only a wide spread of regional cuisines across Han China, but also a whole range of ethnic specialties offered by the many minority nationalities from the Korean border to the Tibetan plateau. The minorities’ restaurants are an “exotic” attraction for Chinese as well as foreign tourists.
In Dai restaurants, offering the Thai-like cuisine of southern Yunnan, guests are greeted with scented water, given a lucky charm, and later invited to join in the singing and dancing. In Uighur restaurants, serving food from the Muslim northwest, belly dancing is sometimes on show.
The Chinese understanding of a good life is inextricably associated with meat. They find it hard to understand why someone who could afford to eat meat would choose not to. Nevertheless, you will find a few vegetarian restaurants in big cities, often attached to Buddhist temples, serving excellent vegetarian dishes to worshipers and non-worshipers alike. Many of these have meaty names, and are made in exact imitation of their meat-filled namesakes. Ordinary restaurants can lay on good vegetarian meals too, as long as you can repeat: “Wo chi su”, (“I eat vegetables”) a few times and don’t mind the odd bit of meat or chicken stock turning up in your bowl every now and then.
Western restaurants, now found in all major cities, typically offer Italian, French, or a fusion of international food. Some have justifiably earned wide acclaim, such as Maison Boulud in Beijing, and M on the Bund in Shanghai.
In smaller cities, western restaurants are harder to find, although Italian cuisine is the most common – ravioli and spaghetti are easy concepts for the dumpling- and noodle-loving Chinese to appreciate. Other Asian cuisines, namely Korean, Japanese, and Thai, are also well represented, and more readily accepted by the chopstick-wielding Chinese.
Food Customs and Etiquette
Confucius was renowned for his silence at meals. The good news, however, is that 2,500 years later, the Chinese are actually quite informal at meal times. In fact, a busy Chinese restaurant can be a deafening place as waiters crash plates about and diners shout orders at the waiters. It may seem daunting but just join in and expect praise for your chopstick skills – even if you struggle, your willingness to try will be appreciated.
Earning some face
The Chinese do not expect visitors to be fully versed in proper banquet etiquette, but awareness of a few essentials can earn “face” both for yourself and your host, whatever the occasion. The other guests will appreciate that you have some respect for Chinese culture and traditions.
When attending, or hosting, a formal meal, note that the guest of honor is usually placed on the seat in the middle, facing the door. The host, traditionally positioned opposite the guest, now more often sits to his or her left.
If you come as a guest, be punctual and do not sit down until you are given your seat – seating arrangements can be very formal and based on rank.
Once seated, do not start on the food or drink before your host gives the signal. Some of the delicacies on offer may test your courage; be gracious and try everything, it is an insult if the food is untouched; but leave some food on the plates. Empty bowls imply that the host is too poor or mean to lay on a good spread.
The art of ordering
If you are someone’s guest, you may be asked to order something, or state some sort of preference – if you do not do so, a ten-course banquet could soon appear. Feel free to name your favorite dish, or point at the object of your desire, often swimming in a fish tank at the entrance to the restaurant. Freshness is all important in Chinese cuisine.
a market, Dali
English language menus are becoming more common, and an increasing number of restaurants actively encourage visitors to get out of their chairs and choose ingredients from tanks, cages, and supermarket-type shelves. Your Chinese friends (and waiters and onlookers) will likely be delighted by any interest you show in the whole experience. In the end, when language or phrase book fail, point at whatever appeals on other tables, or even head into the kitchen to find what you need.
A meal might begin with cold starters such as pickled vegetables, ten-thousand-year old eggs, seasoned jellyfish, or cold roasted meats.
When selecting main courses, remember to aim for harmony and balance – an equilibrium of yin and yang. For example, with sweet and sour pork, you might order a spicy chicken dish. Different cooking methods are also important: a steamed fish or roast pork add variety to a series of stir-fried foods. You shouldn’t need to ask for a side order of vegetables as they are usually part of the dishes – unless you want something specific.
The last dish, or cai, is usually soup. Then comes fan, a grain staple such as rice, noodles, or bread (mantou), without which a Chinese diner may feel they have not eaten. At informal meals you can have rice at the start of the meal, but not at a banquet, or your host will assume his dishes are inadequate.
Desserts are not a Chinese tradition, but fresh fruit is almost always served in Chinese restaurants, especially at banquets, and succulent fruit is available nationwide.
an enjoyable event
Invited to dinner
A formal meal often takes place in a private room and usually begins with a toast. The host serves his guest with the choicest morsels, and then everyone is permitted to help themselves. Serving chopsticks or spoons are sometimes provided; otherwise you can simply use your own pair.
Confucius said that it was uncivilized to have knives on the table, but if you are really struggling most restaurants will readily provide you with knives and forks.
The host almost always orders more dishes than necessary. While it is polite to try everything, don’t feel it is necessary to finish it all.
It is courteous to keep your neighbors’ tea cups filled. To thank an attentive neighbor, tap your first and index finger together on the table. This tradition dates back to the Qing Qianlong emperor, who liked to tour the country in disguise. Once, at a teahouse, he took his turn to pour the tea. His companions, who should have been pressing their foreheads to the floor, maintained his disguise by tapping their fingers in a mini-kowtow. If you don’t want your cup refilled then don’t empty it.
Dos and don’ts
The Chinese are fairly relaxed about table manners. Slurping shows appreciation, enables better appreciation of flavor, and sucks in air to prevent burning the mouth. Holding your bowl up to your mouth, to shovel rice in, is another practical solution. You may happily reach across your neighbors, but do not spear food with your chopsticks, and do not stand them upright in a bowl of rice either, as it looks like an offering to the dead. If you have finished with the chopsticks lay them flat on the table or on a rest. You shouldn’t suck greasy fingers, or use them to pick bones out of your mouth – spit bones or shell onto the table, into the saucer that was under your bowl, or into a napkin. Toothpicks are ubiquitous, but do cover the action with your free hand. And don’t be shy about shouting for attention. Eating alone is very strange to the Chinese way of thinking. Eating in a group – sharing the dishes and the experience – greatly increases the enjoyment.
The end of the meal
A platter of fresh fruit and steaming hot towels signal the end of the meal is coming. Just as you should await the start of a meal, do not stand up before your host, who will rise and indicate that the dinner has ended and ask if you’ve had enough. The answer is “yes.”
The person who invited you usually shoulders the full weight of the bill, so accept graciously. Offering to pay is fine, even polite; insisting too hard suggests that you doubt the host’s ability to pay.
The capitalist habit of tipping was wiped out after Mao’s Communist Party took over. Politically acceptable today, it is still rare, as is “going Dutch.”
Prices are fixed and written down in most restaurants, and on bills, although there is the occasional story of restaurants overcharging foreigners.
There is no service charge except in the more upmarket and expensive restaurants, which are also the only places likely to accept international credit cards.
The business of banquets
The business banquet is the apex of the Chinese dining experience, and almost all significant deals are clinched at the banquet table. In addition to the above, further rules apply: arrive 15 minutes early; if you are applauded as you come into the room, applaud back; reply to the welcome toast with your own short speech and toast; avoid sensitive subjects; show respect to your elders and superiors by ensuring that the rim of your glass is lower than theirs when clinking glasses and drain your drink in one swift movement.
How to hold chopsticks
- Place the first chopstick in the crook of your thumb and forefinger. Support it with the little and ring fingers, and keep it there with the knuckle of the thumb.
- Hold the second chopstick like a pencil, between middle and index fingers, anchored by the pad of your thumb.
- When picking up food, keep the lower stick stationary and the tips even. As the index finger moves up and down, only the upper stick should move, using the thumb as an axis.
What to Drink
Tea, of course is the most popular drink in China. There are countless arguments for drinking the infusion of the bush Camellia sinensis, and just as many legends about its origin (see The Story of Tea). While tea is the most popular drink, there is a wide range of others for the visitor. Beer is popular with meals but wine is also drunk in many upmarket restaurants. Chinese spirits can range from the extremely pleasant to the almost dangerous. Likewise approach the “health tonics” like snake wine with caution – as if the reptilian “sediment” in the bottle isn’t enough, they can be fiercely alcoholic.
Types of tea
Green is the most common tea, baked immediately after picking. Flower tea is a mixture of green tea with flower petals. Black tea colors during the fermentation process and the reddish brew that results explains its Chinese name – red tea. The most highly prized is oolong, a lightly fermented tea. Brick tea is black or green, pressed into blocks. Eight Treasure tea babaocha has many ingredients including dates, dried longan, and wolfberry, and Tibetans enjoy yak butter tea.
|Black: hongcha, actually called “red tea” in Chinese.||Green: lucha, uses leaves dried without fermentation.||Pu’er: from Yunnan, is compressed into “bricks.”||Flower: huacha a mix of petals – jasmine, rose, and chrysanthemum.||The famous “Hairy Peak” green tea|
Even as a cold drink tea is dominant. Iced tea is very popular, especially with the young. Besides the usual array of fruit juices, there is pomegranate juice in Xinjiang, hawthorn juice in Beijing, and lychee and sugar cane juice down south. As well as the global drink brands there are local challengers like Tianfu Cola, and the energy drink Jianlibao, made with honey. As China overcomes its dairy aversion, milk and yoghurt drinks multiply, as well as soyabean (doujiang) and Hainan’s famous coconut milk.
|Coffee: as café culture enters China, coffee drinking is fashionable among the middle classes. Starbucks may have an outlet inside the Forbidden City, but freshly-ground coffee is rare outside major hotels.||Tea and coffee drink: those who want a fashionable coffee drink, but cannot do without their daily shot of tea, can try this blend of tea and coffee.||Bamboo cane juice||Iced green tea||Coconut milk drink|
Europeans first introduced beer to China in the early 20th century; in the 21st, China has taken over as the world’s biggest brewer, so you are never far from a very acceptable light lager, and even a darker brew. Each city usually has its own local brewery.
|Tsingtao beer||Yanjing beer||Great Wall||Dragon Seal|
|Maotai||Erguotou||Shaoxing rice wine|
Although grape seeds traveled the Silk Roads, China has historically preferred grain alcohol. The quality is rapidly improving, and red wine is almost exclusively consumed – it is considered good for the heart, and a lucky color too.
For millennia the Chinese have been distilling grains into baijiu or “white spirits” ranging from strong to deadly. Classified into three types: the qingxiang, or light bouquet, group includes Fenjiu from Shanxi; Guizhou’s famous Maotai is a classic jiangxiang, soy bouquet, while nongxiang, strong bouquet, is championed by Sichuan giant Wuliangye.
Despite being called “wine,” some care is required as this can vary in strength from a mild 15–16 % alcohol, to the double- or triple-fermented wines at up to 38 % ABV. Good rice wine is best drunk warm and goes well with cold starters.
the thriving big city bar scene
Teahouses are enjoying a bit of a revival in China, as appreciation of tea culture recovers after years of proletarian austerity. While cha (tea) stimulates quiet contemplation, jiu (alcohol) lubricates noisy celebrations. Despite reveling in the drunkenness of their poets such as Li Bai, the Chinese have not been as badly affected by alcoholism as many other societies. Public drunkenness is frowned upon – except maybe in the ever more popular karaoke bars. Traditionally only soup was drunk with meals, but this is changing, especially when eating with foreigners. “ Gan bei!” or “dry the cup” is the clarion call to toasting bouts and drinking games. Beware the legendary capacity of the northeast Chinese, and don’t drink alone or on an empty stomach.
Please click here to read more information about China. | <urn:uuid:85a24b17-9314-439c-9608-cbce05dbd659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinaspree.com/china-travel-guide/Traveler-needs-where-to-eat.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947805 | 5,790 | 1.84375 | 2 |
A mother was stopped at her son’s bedroom door with a warning on a new door hanger. It was a cartoon drawing of a dog with nails dug deep into the carpet as it held on for dear life, with teeth clinched and eyes bugged out as half of its body was sucked into an upright vacuum cleaner. Encased in a circle with a big line drawn through it with bold lettering were the words, NO VACUUMING!!
One might expect that on a teenagers door, but not a pre-schooler. But this mom knew all too well why her son had an aversion to vacuum cleaners.
It was a cold, icky winter day and she needed to clean out the car for upcoming guests. Instead of freezing in her driveway, she decided to go to a nearby car wash and use their super duper vacuum cleaner. With her three year old rescuing toys from the back seat, saving them from certain death, she maneuvered the hose to the back seat and they met in the middle. In an instant the super duper hose sucked up one of her son’s brand new gloves right off his hand. She knew she was in trouble, not only because he loved his knew gloves, but she had teased him and jokingly threaten to suck up his toys if he didn’t pick them up. Not only that, the fear on his face told her he thought he was not only going a glove, but might just lose a hand to the super suction.
She laughed, he cried and the vacuum quit as time and money ran out. In desperation and guilt, she found the dirt trap, opened the door and sifted through the crud until she found the glove covered in filth. Eventually the glove went into the wash and disappointment was replaced with a smile. Saved by the wash!
There are times in life when we are just living life, minding our own business and in a split second we get sucked up by the vacuum of despair, disappointment , or defeat. Without warning we’re tossed around like a whirlwind and covered in the grime of frustration and begin wallowing in self-pity. But there is hope and a way to be rescued from the calamites of life. Allow God to dig you out, dust you off and wash you clean in God’s love. The stains of guilt will disappear as we become purer than snow. Cleaned and ready to begin a fresh start. Saved by the wash! | <urn:uuid:7237da7a-4933-4b83-a5bd-608df54bce5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mccabq.com/2009/11/19/without-warning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986584 | 512 | 1.554688 | 2 |
|What are my options if I canít pay my taxes?
Q: I finished my taxes and I owe money to the IRS. I do not have the money to pay them by the deadline. Should I file an extension?
A: Filing an extension gives you additional time to file a tax return, but does not extend the deadline to pay your taxes. The IRS may charge you penalties and interest for any payments made after the deadline, which for this year is April 17. Make sure you file the return by the deadline. There is an additional penalty for not filing the return by the deadline.
The first thing you should do is look for sources of money you can use to pay the government. Potential places could be an equity loan on your house, using credit cards, savings, or loans from friends or family.
If you can pay the debt no later than 120 days after the deadline, you usually do not need to contact the IRS. They will send you a letter in the mail and let you know what the penalties and interest total.
If you can’t pay before the 120-day deadline, you could consider setting up an installment agreement. If the amount owed is less than $25,000, you should use Form 9465 to request an installment agreement. If the amount owed is greater than $25,000 but less than $50,000, use Form 9465-FS. If the amount is larger than $50,000, you will be required to submit financial statements to the IRS before an agreement can be set up.
A final option offered by the IRS is called an “Offer in Compromise.” This can be an involved process and is only for extreme circumstances. You may have seen many TV offers that suggest you can pay pennies on the dollar. Many of those charlatans are bankrupt or under investigation.
My final caution is that you should never ignore a letter from the IRS. Ignoring the IRS does not work and the IRS actually is fairly easy to work with if you communicate with them. If you do not reply to letters, they will continue the collection process and it will not be as easy to stop later.
Tim Mayclin is a CPA with over 30 years of experience. He can be contacted at 584-1040. | <urn:uuid:a622d830-1637-49ea-a9a3-286767a94b60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecommunityvoice.com/article.php?id=4642 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958151 | 475 | 1.625 | 2 |
04 March 2012
Juan José Padilla performs a pass at his comeback bullfight.
Spanish bullfighter Juan José Padilla (38), known as the ‘Cyclone of Jerez’, lost the sight in one eye and has partial paralysis of the face, after being gored by a bull in October 2011. The bull slammed one of its horns into Padilla’s jaw, and gouged out his left eye. Padilla needed substantial reconstructive surgery, and a titanium plate implant. Five months later he made a comeback, in the southwestern town of Olivenza. After the fight, Padilla was carried from the ring on the shoulders of a fellow bullfighter, an honor reserved for the very best performers. | <urn:uuid:76f4b6a4-fb73-464a-8e38-9861c3bdb8e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2013/observed-portraits/daniel-ochoa-de-olza/08?gallery=6096&category=91 | 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 | 0.970864 | 150 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Bush vs. Bush
The president's State of the Union speech wasn't as tough as expected.
6:00 AM, Feb 1, 2006 • By FRED BARNES
WHEN HE MET with TV anchors over lunch at the White House yesterday, President Bush was feisty, blunt, salty, assertive, and brimming with self-confidence. He was passionate on the topic of national security, saying the first thought on his mind when he wakes up every morning is how to protect America from attack. And he was adamant about aggressively pursuing an agenda in his final three years in office. He said he wouldn't just mark time or "play for a tie."
But when he delivered his State of the Union address last night, a slightly different Bush showed up. His assertion that "we are winning" in Iraq was strong, but the remainder of the speech was mild and more moderate. And after winning serious tax cuts, a Medicare drug benefit, education reform, and a more conservative Supreme Court, his new agenda loomed small in comparison.
His call for innovative ways to ease reliance on Middle East oil made sense. But he didn't emphasize the powerful national security reasons for doing this. The case boils down to one thing: as things now stand, Saudi Arabia and Iran can cause economic havoc here and in Europe any time they want by cutting off or curbing oil exports.
And on Iran, administration officials had suggested that the president would make it clear to the mullahs that the United States and its allies would never allow that country to develop nuclear weapons. The idea was that sharp words by Bush in a State of the Union speech, not just in a press conference or town hall appearance, would have an impact on the Iranians.
The president's words, however, were not as forceful as expected. "The nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," he said. Perhaps his remarks were toned down because his administration is working with Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and France--the multilateral approach--to convince Iran diplomatically not to go nuclear.
Bush tried another tactic on Iran that was quite clever. He addressed the Iranian people directly, saying "our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran. No doubt millions of Iranians will see the words aimed at them, since more than two dozen satellite TV channels are beamed into Iran from abroad.
Still, as a State of the Union address, Bush's speech was more than adequate. Too much should not be expected of these annual addresses. While they may have important themes--this year's was that the United States must shape events or be at their mercy--they inevitably include a laundry list of new policies and proposals. Bush has plenty of both, enough so that I lost count. | <urn:uuid:5977ecf9-268b-46bf-925b-5fee359e003b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/663dbotb.asp?nopager=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983649 | 575 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Homily of Cardinal Séan Brady for the National Eucharistic Congress in Knock
Saturday June 25, 2011
The following are some highlighted points of the Homily of Cardinal Séan Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, for the National Eucharistic Congress in Knock:
- “May this National Eucharistic Congress, and the International Congress next year, help to bring healing to the social, economic, spiritual and moral wounds that have so deeply afflicted our country and Church in recent times”
- bishops and priests anoint the sick before Mass in the Basilica: “May these days of grace bring healing, strength and peace to us all”
-“my hope is that those who have drifted away from regular Mass will hear the simple request of Jesus: Do this in memory of me”
- thanks young people for attending and encourages use of social media to invite others to be part of Ireland’s preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress 2012
- welcomes Saint Joseph’s Young Priests Society to Knock and thanks the Society for its many years of support for seminarians
- “Jesus is gentle and merciful and loving. He understands the weakness of the human condition. He reaches out to us with compassion and a love that heals. But Jesus is also challenging. He is not afraid to confront us about our laziness, our selfishness and our sin. He does so - He calls us to conversion - because these things hold us back from experiencing the fullness of life God wants us to have. This is the fullness of life that comes from our immersion in the Word of life and in the Eucharist – the Bread of Life”.
Read the complete homily on our media centre. | <urn:uuid:b46b663b-4085-4189-8931-84ec11defb8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iec2012.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=970&p=101&n=116 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93081 | 370 | 1.625 | 2 |
By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. government's budget deficit was $91 billion in August, the Treasury Department said Monday, as the federal government again spent more than it brought in.
Receipts were $164 billion in August, while outlays totaled $255 billion.
The August shortfall was 13% less than recorded a year ago, but is still likely to add fresh fuel to an election-year debate about spending and taxes that's roiling Washington.
Opinion Journal: Primary election preview
OpinionJournal.com assistant editor Allysia Finley discusses the primary races in Delaware and New York.
The deficit is nearly $1.3 trillion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the Treasury report also showed Monday. That's $111 billion or 8% lower than the same period in fiscal 2009.
Congressional analysts are predicting that this year's deficit will be the second largest in the past 65 years, just behind last year's.
Citing the impact on the deficit, President Barack Obama is opposing extending the George W. Bush-era tax breaks for those making more than $250,000 a year, while extending the cuts for the middle class. All such breaks would expire at the end of this year if Congress doesn't act. Obama says keeping tax cuts in place for the wealthiest Americans would cost $700 billion.
Republicans want extend tax cuts for all earners, but House Republican Leader John Boehner said over the weekend that he'd accept extending them for just the middle class if he couldn't do the same for the wealthiest Americans.
August was the 23rd straight month that the government ran a deficit.
The deficit for August was smaller than what the Congressional Budget Office estimated last week. The CBO predicted that the deficit would be $95 billion in August, as the government spent more on Medicare and defense.
A year ago in August, the government spent $249 billion; receipts were $146 billion in August 2009.
A commission set up by Obama is due to report its ideas about deficit reduction after the Nov. 2 midterm elections. | <urn:uuid:5310d4be-674c-416c-ae70-a3e80770db88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-runs-91-billion-budget-deficit-in-august-2010-09-13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962829 | 436 | 1.53125 | 2 |
SAN DIEGO, CA.-
Over 4,000 artworks held by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
will be preserved for future generations with help from the IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf, a core set of conservation books and online resources donated by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). IMLS has now awarded almost 3,000 free sets of the IMLS Bookshelf, in cooperation with the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
Dr. Hugh M. Davies, The David C. Copley Director at MCASD, stated, "As a museum of contemporary art, MCASD faces the complicated and unusual conservation problems associated with modern materials. Artists in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s were experimenting with a varied palette of art materials -- from Plexiglas and automotive paint to unusual organic materials, unusual surfaces, and other issues such as electronics incorporated into artworks. We are constantly seeking advice and counsel on how best to care for works. The IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf will be enormously helpful as a permanent resource for our staff to use as we continually address our collections' care as well as collections management and planning, emergency preparedness, and conservation issues related to the works in our collection."
MCASD's collection of 4,100 works includes paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, video, and mixed-media works including installation and site-specific art, areas in which MCASD pioneered. There are also works of Modern furniture as well as artists' books and other print material. While the collecting purview extends to 1950, the strengths of the collection lie primarily in the period from the 1960s forward. It includes outstanding examples by such artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, Robert Irwin, and Edward Ruscha (often acquired when they were young and unknown) as well as many younger artists of subsequent generations who, in the future, may well be remembered as the equivalent icons of their own time.
"When IMLS launched this initiative to improve the dire state of our nation's collections, we understood that the materials gathered for the Bookshelf would serve as important tools for museums, libraries, and archives nationwide," said Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of IMLS. "We were both pleased and encouraged by the overwhelming interest of institutions prepared to answer the call to action, and we know that with their dedication, artifacts from our shared history will be preserved for future generations."
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego will receive this essential set of resources based on an application describing the needs and plans for the care of its collections. The IMLS Bookshelf focuses on collections typically found in art or history museums and in libraries' special collections, with an added selection of texts for zoos, aquaria, public gardens, and nature centers. It addresses such topics as the philosophy and ethics of collecting, collections management and planning, emergency preparedness, and culturally specific conservation issues.
The IMLS Bookshelf is a crucial component of Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a conservation initiative that the Institute launched in 2006. IMLS began the initiative in response to a 2005 study it released in partnership with Heritage Preservation, A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections. The multi-faceted, multi-year initiative shines a nationwide spotlight on the needs of America's collections, especially those held by smaller institutions, which often lack the human and financial resources necessary to adequately care for their collections. | <urn:uuid:122f3637-81bd-449c-a580-34852199d038> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31921&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959789 | 753 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Ida is now a hurricane
Tropical Storm Ida became the season's third hurricane overnight, with top sustained winds of 75 mph. The storm moved onshore on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, some 60 miles north of the town of Bluefields, and was expected to weaken over land. But forecasters are still predicting Ida will move back over water into the northwest Caribbean and restrengthen.
UPDATE: 1 p.m. EST. Ida was downgraded today to a tropical storm.
The storm is producing heavy rains, with 5 to 7 inches likely in most locations, and as much as 20 to 25 inches possible in some spots. Those conditions would produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides.
While there remained some possibility the storm will dissipate while over land, the forecast storm track still has Ida moving into the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday, at tropical storm strength, posing some risk for the Gulf Coast of the U.S. | <urn:uuid:ddba539a-a419-435f-90f4-2d886efba035> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weblogs.marylandweather.com/2009/11/ida_is_now_a_hurricane.html | 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 | 0.967389 | 198 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Apr 23, 2013 Grill master Meathead Goldwyn share his tips on charcoal, gas, and how much to spend on a grill.
Apr 23, 2013 How much do you know about global dietary habits and meat consumption?
Apr 1, 2013 Beef is not 'what's for dinner' as often as it used to be, as price per pound rises. So butchers and restaurants are selling smaller portions.
Feb 28, 2013 Across-the-board furloughs would reduce the number of food inspectors, possibly affecting prices and supplies of meat.
Feb 8, 2013 The British government has ordered the country’s food industry to test all processed beef products after some of the country's biggest food manufacturers have been finding horsemeat in their products.
Jan 22, 2013 Tough economy has more hunters keeping more of their take for themselves.
Aug 23, 2012 Hormel announces its earnings today. The company is the third-largest seller of meat, and with the drought and commodity prices rising, investors are looking for signs of the food industry's long-term outlook.
Jul 30, 2012 Commentator Mark Bittman says industrial meat production accounts for at least one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions.
Apr 24, 2012 In the U.K., meat theft is on the rise and it's not just hungry individuals -- we're talking fully-fledged organized crime gangs. And it doesn't stop at supermarket meat either. | <urn:uuid:0d6c8737-0d16-4df5-9040-337229e1945e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/story/related/4719/57916 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950427 | 292 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Hill of Buda :
Nearby tourist sites
Lanchid 19 Design Hotel from74 €Book
Carlton from75 €Book
Things to do nearby
- 16 €
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- 30 €
The Hill of Buda
The Hill of BudaPedestrian, 4 km, 1 day
This is one of the classic walks of the Hungarian capital that takes you from the imposing Royal Palace to the narrow paved streets of the castle district. The view over Pest, on the other side of the river, is superb.Customise this route and add it to My travel book
It was King Béla IV who decided to build a fortress here in order to protect Buda from the Mongols, however the castle owes its opulence to the Habsburgs. Outside the palace note the huge turul; the equestrian statue of Eugene of Savoy; King Mathias's fountain; the Lions’ Gate, leading to the beautiful interior courtyard; the “war hammer” tower; and the barbican. The palace houses the Széchenyi national library, the Budapest History Museum and the Hungarian National Gallery.
After strolling around the castle walls and enjoying the views or visiting a museum, why not enjoy the delights of wandering through the old part, where you can stop here and there to look at a shop window, a façade, a monument, to capture it on your video or in a photo. If you are hungry or thirsty, just stop one of at one of the stalls or the bars along the street and you will be spoilt for choice.
This square which stretches out in front of the main entrance to the castle is overlooked by two buildings on the right-hand side: the Neo-Gothic Sándor palace and former residence of the Prime Minister and the Castle theatre (Várszínház) with a Rococo façade, which was a former convent of the Carmelite order, which was dissolved in 1782 under the orders of Joseph II and altered by Farkas Kempelen in 1787. The first performance in Hungarian was given there on the 5th October 1790.
This set of ramparts and turrets (finished in 1906) calls to mind a castle right out of a fairytale. The seven turrets symbolise the seven Magyar tribes and each tribal leader is represented by a statue. The bastion offers the visitor beautiful views over the Danube and Pest. The statue of Saint Stephen, the first king of Hungary, stands in front of the bastion. Note the attributes given to the four evangelists: Matthew, the man, Luke, the ox, John, the eagle and Mark, the lion.
A busy trading area in the Middle Ages (German merchants), Treasurer 's Street, is edged with beautiful houses with painted façades, corbelled balaconies and Baroque decorative touches. They now mainly house souvenir shops, or establishments selling typical folk costumes, embroidery and cafés and restaurants... for the passing tourists. Stop and admire the façade of no. 14 (Tarnok café): this house dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries and was restore during 1950s.
At No. 7, you have to queue up in the tourist season before Ruszwurm Cukrászda (a cake shop founded in 1827) to buy one of its superb gateaux or to sit down in the small adjoining room. The "Start of the century" surroundings is also a curiosity. On the corner of Úri Street, a statue of András Hadik on horseback in the uniform of a hussar. This person became famous under the reign of Marie-Thérèse in which he gained his promotion to General.
A brief stop can easily turn into a long pause in the house of Hungarian wines! Even though tokaj is still the best known Hungarian wine abroad, there are still other names to be discovered. The twenty wine regions, with their different vines and vintages, are clearly set out on a map and information is provided on the boards (in English, sometimes in French). Hundreds of labelled bottles represent the production. Wine lovers can taste and buy wine there.
Carriages await the visitors on the main square in the castle district, around the Trinity column built to commemorate the plague epidemics in the 17th and 18th century. Admire the beautiful Mathias church and in one of the corners, the Baroque palace (built at the end of the 17th century), which housed Buda's former town hall. A pinnacle turret with a clock rises above what was formerly a chapel. The statue of Athena, the town's guardian, is set in a niche.
The church that can be seen today is the work of Frigyes Schulek. From the outside, you can see the Mathias tower which rises up towards the sky, the Romanesque Béla tower, the main portal with a tympanum showing the Virgin Mary with child and Mary's door, which dates back to Louis I, the Great. The church contains numerous paintings! Do not miss the chapels: St-Ladislas, the Trinity, St-Émeric and Lorette, the baptismal fonts, and the Museum of Sacred Art.
This square is named after the first printer to set up here in 1483. He published Buda's chronicals, the first book to be written in Hungarian. The statue in the centre is Pope Innocent XI who played a very important role during the war against the Turks. Behind the statue, you can see an old house called the "red hedgehog" house due to the tiny animal over the door. Note the beautiful yellow façade of the building that houses the Fortuna restaurant.
The longest street in the quarter of the castle. You must walk along it to admire the façades of most of its Baroque houses. All these beautiful homes which appear one after another grant the street a certain residential look. Everything transmits calm and comfort. At No. 9, a labyrinth of galleries and caves. A low passageway underneath, sometimes ribbed where the water flows, from the rooms, a pale light, strange background music, statues, a fountain where wine flows, in a word: mystery.
The promenade of the Ramparts (Tóth Árpád sétány) spreads from the bastion of Esztergom to the North up to Dísz tér, the square of the Parades, in the South of the quarter of the castle. It follows the walls built in the Middle Ages, overhanging the Christian quarter. Its main interest is the view that it offers over the Western quarters of Buda, from the hills of the same name (with the highest one being mount János) up to mount Gellért, further to the South.
Surrounded by ramparts, Castle Hill overlooks the Danube. At night, it takes on a new appearance with lighting effects... The royal palace with its dome, Mathias church with its glazed roofs, Fishermen's Bastion, to be seen from Pest, then shine with the light from a thousand spotlights. If you take the funicular railway up the hill, do not miss the sculpture symbolising the famous 0 kilometre, the coat-of-arms of Hungary and the beautiful view over the Danube and Pest (telescope). | <urn:uuid:8f73c124-7a62-4dd7-a9ed-9bc9ebde939d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.michelin.com/web/destination/Hungary-Budapest_and_Hungary-Budapest/travel-routes-The_Hill_of_Buda?travelBookId=5247228&from=LIST | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940706 | 1,562 | 1.71875 | 2 |
EIM26137 - The benefits code: beneficial loans: qualifying and non-qualifying loans
Section 180 (4) and (5) ITEPA 2003
EIM26136 explains that a loan on which the whole of any interest paid would qualify for tax relief under the specified provisions will be exempt from being treated as a taxable cheap loan.
This should not be confused with the rules in section 180(5) ITEPA 2003 which define “qualifying loans” solely for the purpose of identifying “non-qualifying loans” as used in the rules relating to the small loans threshold of £5,000 (EIM26140 onwards).
Section 180(4) ITEPA defines a non-qualifying loan as a taxable cheap loan which is not a qualifying loan. So you need to be able to identify a qualifying loan in order to understand the nature of a non-qualifying loan.
A qualifying loan for this purpose is defined as one for which either whole or part of the interest (had any been paid) would have qualified for relief as follows:
- interest which would be eligible for relief under section 353 ICTA;
- interest which would be eligible for relief under section 383 ITA 2007;
- interest which would be deductible in computing the borrower's profit's from a UK trade, profession or vocation carried on by the borrower, or
- interest which would be deductible in computing the borrower's profits from a Property Income business (income from land in the UK) carried on by the borrower.
For an explanation of how non-qualifying loans are taken into account in applying the small loans threshold, see EIM26140 onwards.
It is worth noting that qualifying loans as defined above will include both
- loans on which the interest would fully qualify for relief and that are therefore exempt from being treated as cheap taxable loans, as outlined in EIM26136, and
- loans on which the interest would only partially qualify for relief.
Where only part of the interest on the loan qualifies for relief, it follows that some of the interest would not be allowable as a tax deduction in the borrower's SA calculation. That amount of any cheap loan will therefore be capable of being charged to tax. Since the entire loan is however deemed to be employment related, the correct treatment is to bring the entire loan into charge as a taxable cheap loan. The taxpayer can then claim relief on the appropriate parts through their SA return.
It is therefore possible to have a loan which is described as a qualifying loan under S180(5) brought into charge as a taxable cheap loan under S175(1) ITEPA 2003. | <urn:uuid:c3b673bb-1834-45ae-904a-bbd8c3bc5edd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM26137.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97998 | 542 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The bulletin of Atlanta University
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NUMBER 146 ATLANTA, GEORGIA MAY, 1904 For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. COMMENCEMENT FEATURES The address before the Phi Kappa Society, the night of May 20, by Rev. P. James Bryant, D. D., of Atlanta. The Baccalaureate Sermon on Sunday, May 22, by Rev. Joseph H. Twich-ell, of Hartford, Conn. The Conference on the subject, Negro Crime in Georgia, May 24. Fuller notice of this is given elsewhere. The reunion of the college and normal classes of 1894, in connection with the alumni exercises of May 25. The annual Commencement exercises on Thursday, May 26. The orator is Hon. Frank B. Sanborn of Concord, Mass. THE NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE Especial interest, in view of the many contradictory utterances on the subject of crime among Negroes, attaches to the meeting of the conference on Tuesday of Commencement week, May 24. The subject is, Negro Crime in Georgia. Dr. DuBois is in charge of the arrangements, and among the speakers will be Prof. M. N. Work of the Georgia State Industrial College at Savannah, Rev. Dr. H. S. Bradley of Trinity M. E. church, Atlanta; Rev. H. H. Proctor of the First Congregational church, Atlanta; Rev. J. H. Dorsey, a Roman Catholic priest in Birmingham, Ala., and Rev. A. G. Combs of the P. E. church in Augusta. NEGROES LEAVING THE DELTA In the Atlanta Constitution for Apr. 30 there are presented the opinions of a prominent Mississippi planter, who feels that the seeming attitude of hostility to the Negro and to Negro education, now predominant in the government of that state, is injurious to the material interests of the state. Labor is scarce, for' many of the colored people are moving. And this movement includes many good and hard-working citizens. "There are several notable instances in Jackson where well-to-do Negroes have sold their property with the intention of leaving the state. One Negro disposed of his holdings a few days since for $5,000 and is preparing to move to Oklahoma." Is there not a material reason, as well as an ethical and spiritual, for giving the Negro as good an opportunity as possible for his development? DR. DABNEY ON NEGRO EDUCATION Pres. Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, gave an address in Atlanta, Feb 24, before the Department of Superintendence 'of the N. E. A., on the topic, Educational Principles for the South. The address has just come to us, in pamphlet form. The closing words of this address, from a prominent Southern educator, are so excellent and hopeful that we give extracts for our readers, calling especial attention to one point, the absolute need of institutions like our own to meet the need of which Dr. Dabney speaks, the providing of good teachers for the Negro children : With these principles accepted, we need not add any thing on the subject of the education of the Negro. Our belief in universal education necessitates a belief in the education of the Negro, for it presupposes that every human being, white or black, has a right to be educated. God has a purpose in every soul he sends into the world. The poorest, most helpless infant is not merely an accident, a few molecules of matter, or a few eons of energy merely, but a "plan of God," as Phillips Brooks has said, a part of the divine plan of creation, and as such, deserves to be trained for its work. This it seems to me is the fundamental argument for universal education — that every child has a right to a chance in life, because God made him and made him to do something in the universe. Every intelligent Southerner now believes that the right kind of education makes the Negro a more thrifty, a more useful, a more moral and a more law-abiding citizen, as it does every other man. Every Southern state is now committed by its constitution and laws to the principle of Negro education and, 'in their legislatures and courts, they have, so far, successfully resisted all proposals to divide the school funds, or to reduce the resources of the schools of the colored race to the taxes paid by the people of that race..... The chief question now is not the kind of education we shall give these people, whether exclusively industrial, or partly literary, but it is the simple elementary training of the people of a child-race to perform the ordinary duties of life and to become decent American citizens. It will be time enough to discuss the merits of industrial education, as against those of the higher education, when we have provided good elementary schools and teachers for the Negro children. Another important problem is how to provide the means with which to build these schools and pay these teachers. With or without national aid, the Southern people will find a way to educate the Negroes. . . .........In the words of that splendid young hero and prophet of Georgia, whose statue stands here in these streets to remind Southern men in all generations of a life spent for the salvation of his beloved land: "Let us make the Negro know that he, depending more than any other on the protection and bounty of his government, snail find in alliance with the best elements of the whites the pledge of safe and impartial administration. And let us remember this: that whatever wrong we put upon him shall return to punish us. Whatever we take from him in violence, that is unworthy and shall not endure. What we steal from him in fraud, that is worse. But what we win from him in sympathy and affection, what we gain in his confiding alliance, and confirm in his awakening judgment, that is precious and shall endure—and out of it shall come healing and peace." THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH This was held in Birmingham, Ala., April 26-28, and did much to show the genuine interest that is being taken by the Southern white people in the educational problems before them. The address of Bishop Galloway, from which we quote elsewhere in this issue, was not the only thing in the conference that showed the increasing reasonableness of many leaders in Southern thought concerning the subject of universal education, for both white and colored. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy single utterances was the "new declaration" by Mr. Walter H. Page: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all should have equality of opportunity ; that they are endowed by our institutions with inalienable rights, and that among these are free training and free opinion." The slowly rising tide of healthful Southern sentiment on educational matters will, we trust, make constant gains, in spite of men like Governor Varda-man and Senator Tillman, and the opposition of certain newspapers. And we welcome all agencies that promote free discussion and a better understanding of the great needs of the educational work in these states.
|Title||The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1904 no. 146|
Universities & colleges
|Description||The bulletin of Atlanta University was a publication sent to faculty, friend and alumni of the institution; Telling of the institution's progress and present needs. This issue is May 1904, no. 146.|
|Holding Library||Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center| | <urn:uuid:e487bea3-61bb-42ea-b0d0-1c0d5611724a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/rwwl/id/1311/rec/36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954343 | 1,565 | 1.734375 | 2 |
About a month after a brutal anti-gay hate crime shocked the Bronx and the nation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation that will require the city to post hate crime statistics on its My Neighborhood Statistics website.
On Nov. 8, Bloomberg signed two bills into law that aim to make statistics more accessible to the public for hate crimes for domestic violence incidents. My Neighborhood Statistics, which was launched in 2002 on nyc.gov, provides quality-of-life data by neighborhoods, community districts, police precincts and school districts.
“In light of the recent hate crimes in the city, any additional data to help understand and fight both hate crimes and domestic violence will be beneficial to individual neighborhoods and the city as a whole,” Speaker Christine Quinn said in a press release. “The more we can track these crimes, the more hope we’ll have to reduce domestic violence and hate crimes throughout the city.”
Although scattered hate crime and domestic violence statistics are available to the public, starting in 2011 this data can be found in a more centralized location. Information on domestic violence can be found through the Mayor’s Management Report. Hate Crime in New York State annual reports provide city and borough information.
According to the 2008 report, there were 17 reported hate crimes in the Bronx and 259 in New York City. Of the 596 reported hate crimes in the state that year, those motivated by bias against a person’s sexual orientation, like the attacks in the Bronx, was the third most frequently reported by victims, followed by anti-Jewish bias (36 percent) and anti-black bias (25). Bias against gay males was the most common of those motivated by sexual orientation and accounted for 11 percent of the total hate crimes.
Nationally, reported hate crimes and those motivated by sexual orientation have decreased, according a report released by the FBI this month. There were 1,384 less reported hate crime offenses in 2009 than 2008. Although the number of single-bias hate crimes based on sexual orientation decreased by 181, the amount of violent crimes – simple and aggravated assault – remained relatively the same.
Dirk McCall, the executive director of the Bronx Community Pride Center, believes having local hate crime statistics more accessible may help the city’s numbers-driven administration put more resources behind these issues.
“I think it’s good,” McCall said. “I think the more you know about what’s happening and where it’s happening and who it’s happening to is helpful. Bloomberg’s really big into statistics.”
Having the data available may only be half the battle. McCall said many hate crimes go unreported and that people who are victims of anti-gay hate crimes in particular often come to the pride center as a resource to discuss their options.
“A lot of people are not certain why they were attacked, or they’re embarrassed they were attacked, or they’re not ready to talk about it,” McCall said. “It’s just a matter of whether things are being reported. If they’re not being reported, [the law] is not making a difference.” | <urn:uuid:5bbf51c6-dd8e-42ac-8cfc-8ce759597258> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bronxink.org/2010/12/04/10650-hate-crime-stats-more-accessible/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964252 | 662 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Twinkies Strike: Did Hostess' Bakers Cut Their Own Throats?
The ripple effects of the collapse of Hostess Brands hit Patch towns around St. Louis as employees lost their jobs last week.
If your company said it must cut wages and benefits or it will go out of business, would you believe it?
That is really at the crux of the drama that played out over the 10 days surrounding Hostess Brands, the makers of iconic bakery names such as Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Wonder Bread.
That drama hit close to home in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend when stores in Manchester and St. Charles that sell Hostess foods abruptly closed their doors, leaving employees wondering what would happen next.
That came after news that the company could not come to terms with its bakers union.
Without an agreement over 8 percent cuts in wages and 17 percent cuts in benefits, the company said, it would have to shutter its doors and liquidate the business, eliminating 18,000 jobs. That's exactly what it commenced to doing last week, until a bankruptcy judge pushed the parties into mediation.
The head of that union told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday he wasn't optimistic mediation would work "because his members aren’t prepared to take the labor concessions Hostess says it needs to survive."
Then, late Tuesday, news broke (according to a report on CNN Money) that the one-day mediation had failed: "Hostess said in a brief statement that the mediation session 'was unsuccessful,' and that it had no further comment ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning in bankruptcy court, where it has requested permission to liquidate."
So back to my question: The company says it won't survive without the cuts. The workers say they won't accept cuts. At what point does someone blink?
At what point do union members have a responsibility to say, "I'd rather have a job, even if it doesn't pay what it used to pay"? Or at what point does the company say, "We have to save the jobs and keep the company running, and find the cuts elsewhere"? | <urn:uuid:03868094-baaf-45e1-9ecc-e2721f96876b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ladue-frontenac.patch.com/articles/twinkies-strike-did-hostess-bakers-cut-their-own-throats | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974857 | 439 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Over Christmas I noticed something. Now that Kasen has learned to walk, we enjoy going out together to explore the world. I have to walk at a pretty slow pace so he can keep up, but it’s a lot of fun. Anyway, I noticed that when we walk together, I’m always looking up at the horizon – where we’re headed, but Kasen looks at the ground and the surrounding area. He’s worried about stepping over over rocks and picking up sticks, while my concerns are more about our direction and future. It’s important for me to look out for his safety and watch for cars coming over the horizon, but I wonder what I’m missing?
In the same way, if we live our lives always looking for the future – always concerned about being able to make the right corrections so we can be “safe”, we’re never fully present in the moment and will never be able to experience life to the “full” as Jesus talks about in John 10:10. By the way, we don’t have to stress about our safety/future if we’re in His hands.
Another example of Kasen being fully present in the moment and relishing life happened in the car on the drive home from Ft Worth. We stopped and got ice cream at Dairy Queen. Each time Miranda fed him a bite, he’d let it melt in his mouth and then laugh and clap for it’s taste. It’s as if he was encouraging God with a standing ovation saying, “Yeah God! You did a good job on this one! Do it again!”
Do I celebrate and thank God for the small things? Is the taste of ice cream really a “small thing” or is it truly another expression of God’s love for us? | <urn:uuid:de4b46e7-60d2-4d56-89cb-fbfc5008cd4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevecorn.com/tag/horizon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952364 | 393 | 1.523438 | 2 |
City directories are an invaluable tool for researching families. By analyzing names associated with an address, you can link individuals as part of a larger family. Later years can include death dates, new spouses, and moving information. Someone who may have worked in town may be included, even if he/she lived elsewhere.
|1918 The Price & Lee Company City Directory|
Oranges, Irvington, Livingston, and Millburn
Essex County, New Jersey
Online through the Millburn Public Library Archives | <urn:uuid:eb99d372-9907-4c68-b7bc-da8ba687d960> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familyhistoryresearchbyjody.blogspot.com/2011/12/city-directories-online-through.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938822 | 102 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Reflections of Monhegan Island, Maine
Category: Sense of Place
Photo and caption by Cliff George
This very rustic cottage on Monhegan Island shares the islands character... very remote, year round community of hard working lobstering families. This community mixes so well with the artists and tourists in the summer! This cottage window was caught perfectly with the reflection of a neighbors home yet has all the window distractions typical of this fishing community. The lobster claw came from a ten pounder. Deer are a major nuisance to beautiful island gardens, antlers are proudly displayed. The buoys represent the hard work and individualism! A “must visit” for photographers!
Location: Monhegan Island Maine | <urn:uuid:f29f754f-e028-4568-b3c6-422ca103b610> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2012/entries/148250/view/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9334 | 146 | 1.632813 | 2 |
By Ahmed Qureshi: Hours after the three consecutive blasts in India's Mumbai, our team of India analysts at PakNationalists.com released a brief report titled, Fearing Inside Job, India Plays Wise, So Far.
The crux of our argument was simple: India hasn't formally accused Pakistan yet for a very simple reason.
Almost all low-impact terror attacks in India in the past three years were the work of Indian extremists trying to increase pressure on Pakistan.
These new blasts come at a time when the United States has an interest in opening the Indian front amid tensions with Pakistan.
Our report was markedly different and our analysis was entirely based on recent cases from the Indian judicial system and reporting by major Indian news sources. At a time when Indian and American news outlets were insinuating a Pakistani connection based on the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, our analysts wrote that eight serving and retired Indian military intelligence officers are under investigation for murdering 43 Pakistani goodwill visitors near New Delhi in 2007. After that attack, the Indian government and British and American media outlets accused Pakistan's ISI of masterminding the attack to derail peace talks.
It turned out Indian military officers encouraged Hindu terror groups to kill Pakistani visitors and blame it on ISI. The sick plot was meant to keep the premier Pakistani spy service under pressure.
Between 2007 and 2009, Indian military officers organized similar attacks across India. And they were caught.
Our argument is that the Indian government was careful this time, fearing the three consecutive, low-impact blasts in Mumbai might have a similar objective, pushing India toward a confrontation with Pakistan at a time when the US is searching for every possible opportunity to raise the heat with Islamabad.
Now, more than 24 hours after the Mumbai blasts, the world media is increasingly picking up the angle that we floated, that the blasts are probably the work of domestic Indian terrorists, almost certainly linked to Hindu terror groups, with some prodding from extremist elements within Indian military.
[See the report here.]
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Strength of Pakistan Army is 7 lac which is one of the biggest in entire world. people of Pakistan loves and supports their brave army. Fol...
Pakistan Air Force PAF New Wallpapers 2013 that is considered one of the best Air Force of the world. | <urn:uuid:a8f0a7b7-9830-40d9-9e21-38bd2b049ebb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pakistan33.com/2011/07/bringing-true-reporting-on-mumbai.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957538 | 613 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Every culture has its holiday traditions, and for Italians and, increasingly, many South Americans, Christmas and New Year's calls for panettone.
The tall, dome-shaped sweet bread is dotted with raisins and candied citrus, and a slow proofing process - up to 50 hours, according to one package - helps give panettone its unusually light texture.
Nowadays, you'll find versions with chocolate and other flavorings, but for this taste test, we stuck to traditional breads available at local markets. With just one exception, the breads were all imported from Italy - do note that many Bay Area bakeries also sell house-made panettone.
Prices varied widely, from as little as $4.99 to as much as $29.99 per cake. The good news is that some of the best were also the most affordable.
In first place was Motta ($12.99 for 35.2 ounces at Rainbow Grocery), the Italian brand widely credited with trailblazing the mass production of panettone in 1919. "Traditional in all regards," this tall panettone was a "beautiful height" - "firm-textured and fragrant" with bits of "glace" and "dried orange peel." "Drier compared to others, but not too dry," the loaf was still "moist and tender" with a "good crumb." All five would buy this brand.
Just one point behind in second place was Madi ($6.99 for 35.2 ounces at Costco). "Similar to (Motta), this "buttery" bread was studded with "orange and raisins" and had "good fruit flavor." Again, some found the texture "a little dry," but noted that it "would taste good toasted." Four would buy and the fifth might.
Trader Giotto's ($4.99 for 26.5 ounces at Trader Joe's) was third. "Rich and buttery tasting," most panelists liked the "light" and "airy" texture of the bread. Though it was "a little too sweet" for some and "could use more orange pieces," four would still buy this brand, while the fifth might.
Fourth place went to G. Cova & C. ($15.99 for 39.5 ounces at Costco). "Not as sweet as the others," nor as tall, this "medium height" loaf "would probably make good toast." It had "nice vanilla flavor" and a "clean taste," but again, "could use more fruit." Three would buy, one might, and one would not, citing its "dense" texture.
Maina ($9.99 for 26.4 ounces from Andronico's) finished fifth. One taster billed this as the "lightest and least sweet of all," and though many agreed that this "buttery" bread was "studded with lots of fruit," they also felt it was "a bit dry." Two would buy, two might and one would not.
Trader Joe's 72
G. Cova & C. 69
Rustichella d'Abruzzo 54
Panelists were Linda Anusasananan, food writer/consultant, San Mateo; John Carroll, cookbook author, San Francisco; Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef of Farallon and Waterbar in San Francisco; Rosemary Mark, recipe developer, Walnut Creek; Miriam Morgan, Chronicle food editor. All products are tasted blind; a perfect score would be 100. Prices listed are the lowest found, but products may be available at other stores. | <urn:uuid:3a7dd210-1b62-467c-9593-142d4c7c90b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/food/tasterschoice/article/Motta-Italian-holiday-bread-is-a-winner-4119835.php | 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 | 0.979216 | 753 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami MaharajaA lecture given for his divine disappearance day[This year, 2011, October 29th is the appearance day of nitya-lila pravista om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Vamana Maharaja. He is the beloved god-brother of Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. On Nov. 18, 2004 Srila Gurudeva held a separation-festival in his honor, and the following is a transcription of his offering:] Srila Vamana Maharaja MP3 Lectures On November 15, the same day that Srila Trivikrama Maharaja left the world two years earlier, Srila Bhaktivedanta Vamana Gosvami Maharaja left at midnight, during Sri Krsna’s nisa-lila (midnight pastime s). About 1,000 devotees from all over the world are here at Govardhana performing parikrama, but I left all my responsibilities here and went to Navadvipa. I did what needed to be done there and now I’ve returned. I know the devotees here observed Srila Vamana Maharaja’s disappearance ceremony, weeping, but now we are going to observe it again. Now, devotees should glorify him. [Srila Maharaja then called on Srila Vamana Maharaja’s senior most disciple, Sripad Parivrajaka Maharaja, who spoke in Bengali, and then several others, to offer their heartfelt glorification. He then offered his own glorification:] We have heard from many Vaisnavas, such as Sripad Parivrajaka Maharaja and Sripada Madhava Maharaja, and especially Sripad Bhakti-prasada Van Maharaja spoke very nicely about the principle of separation (viraha-tattva). Separation feelings are very important in the bhajana of Gaudiya Vaisnavas. When first entering the realm of bhajana there are feelings of separation, in the middle there are such feelings, and when one attains Sri Sri Radha-Krsna’s direct service, there are also such feelings. Separation is one of the aspects of prema (pure love of God). When there is separation there must also be meeting, and that is why Vaisnava literature gives it great importance. The experience of meeting is more important than the feeling of being separated. During that time of separation we can remember all the qualities of our object of love and worship, whereas this is not possible at the time of meeting. In viraha there is meeting internally – you can meet directly there. Vaisnavas never die; rather, they enter into the transcendental world and disappear from here. They are just like Krsna. His pastimes appear and then disappear. Similarly, Vaisnavas also appear and disappear. Pujyapada Srila Vamana Maharaja grew up in Vaisnava association. His mother was a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. She was very intelligent and had so much guru-nistha; she had great faith in her guru. Srila Vamana Maharaja’s uncle’s name was Bhakti Bhusana Nrsimha Maharaja. Srila Vamana Maharaja was an exalted servant of my Gurudeva, Srila Bhakti-prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, and from his childhood he served in a great variety of ways. When he was 10 ½ years old his mother offered him to my Gurudeva, and from that time on he considered Gurudeva his all-in-all – his mother, father, siksa-guru and everything else of value. He had joined the matha during the time of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and took harinama initiation from him, but he always considered my Gurudeva his guru. This is because he was always nurtured and given shelter by him. Srila Vamana Maharaja was called Sajjana-sevaka brahmacari before taking sannyasa. He had such a strong memory that whatever he read he would remember immediately. Guru Maharaja told him, “If you learn one verse, I will give you a toffee.” Not only did he learn one verse, but in one day he would learn many verses. In his childhood, when he was still studying in school, he would remember the entire Bhagavad-gita, Gaudiya-kantahara and so many books. He would see them once – and then remember them. He was admitted in Bhaktivinoda Institute, and there he came first in his class. Then, after school he would go to the matha and render profuse service. At the time of honoring prasada (prasada-seva) he would personally serve the leaf plates, salt, lemon, water and mats to sit on. After prasada he would personally pick up all the leaf plates and throw them away, and he would also clean the area where the devotees had honored prasadam. Later, at night, he would clean the toilets and do other menial work; and he did all this under the guidance of Guru Maharaja. Srila Vamana Maharaja passed many difficult examinations, and here is one example: After the departure of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, someone falsely blamed the Gaudiya Matha devotees on a charge of murder. About 45 devotees were thus sent to jail, including my Gurudeva, Narahari prabhu and Krsnadasa babaji Maharaja. Alone, Srila Vamana Maharaja would go shopping in the market, prepare meals for them and take those meals to them in jail, go to court, and call the lawyers. This was very difficult, because he was all alone. He was being criticized that although he didn’t have the diksa-mantras, he was cooking and offering the bhoga to the Deities. He therefore received diksa-mantras from Guru Maharaja in the prison, because he had to cook the offerings. Headed by Guru Maharaja, many disciples of Srila Prabhupada in Navadvipa established the Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti – first in Navadvipa and then in Calcutta. Parama-pujyapada Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja’s name was Abhaya Carana De in that time, and he was also present. He and Guru Maharaja started this together, along with Sripad Nrsimha brahmacari. Once, over 150 devotees came to the temple – and there was nobody to cook. Srila Vamana Maharaja was very expert in making vegetables and all sorts of dishes. Though he was sick and had a temperature of 104, Guru Maharaja told him, “Get up and serve the Vaisnavas. You can fall sick afterwards. There is no time to fall sick now.” In that condition he got up and prepared all the prasadam, served all the devotees, cleaned everything that needed cleaning, and then again fell sick. He was in charge of the printing press. Once, his fingers were crushed in the press and began profusely bleeding. Guru Maharaja started to cry and immediately took him personally to the hospital in Calcutta. When Guru Maharaji would preach in Calcutta, he would leave all arrangements to Srila Vamana Maharaja. Srila Vamana Maharaja would do all correspondence, even in English. One night I left my household life and arrived at the train station, also during the night. When I got off the train it was completely dark. I had never told anybody I was coming to the station. I saw Sajjana-sevaka brahmacari with another devotee, holding a lantern and searching for me. He came to me and said, “Are you Tiwariji?” I replied, “Yes. How did you know I was coming? I did not write.” Srila Vamana Maharaja replied, “I was sent by my Guru Maharaja.” From the time I moved into the matha, Srila Vamana Maharaja would supply everything I needed, like clothes and bedding. This is why, from the beginning, I considered him my siksa-guru. I considered him in that way, and also Srila Trivikrama Maharaja. Srila Trivikrama Maharaja came later on, but Srila Vamana Maharaja had come at a young age. After I joined, we three were together always. Whatever was happening at the matha or with the institution, Srila Vamana Maharaja acted as though he did not know all the details. He would say to the devotees, “Go and ask Srila Narayana Maharaja.” He used to have so much trust in me.
Srila Vamana Maharaja was not at all interested in his own name and fame. He would never speak about himself. He would never speak about what he accomplished. Even at the time of his Vyasa Puja ceremony, he used to keep a place for me to sit. He had so much respect for me. I am so junior to him; I am his siksa-disciple. Yet, he always gave me so much respect.
Regarding his expertise in writing, he would not commit any mistakes while writing, so there was no need to edit or correct his work. Whatever he would write was like perfect, golden words. Guru Maharja would say, “You can take it and get it printed.” As he wrote beautifully, he also spoke beautifully. He sometimes gave lectures for three hours, and he would speak very softly. If he would be defeating somebody’s argument, he would do so in sweet words. In fact, only that person whose misconception was being defeated would understand what was going on. During harikatha he would ask me to speak first. I would say, “No, you speak first.” He would reply, “No, you speak first.” I was defeated by him, so I would have to speak first. He had such an ideal Vaisnava behavior. He was the “right hand” of Srila Gurudeva. We three – Pujyapada Srila Vamana Maharaja, Pujyapada Srila Trivikrama Maharaja and myself were the leaders from the beginning. Whatever we had to do, the three of us would do together. For 65 years – while Gurudeva was present and also after his disappearance – Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti was running smoothly. Srila Trivikrama Maharaja was the first pillar who left. Then Srila Vamana Maharaja became sick. If he would have remained healthy, nobody would have dared to break-up the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, but it happened like this. I have just gone to Navadvipa, at the time of his disappearance. They had called and told me that Srila Vamana Maharaja wanted me to give him samadhi. They requested me with great appeal, “Please come, please come. When you arrive you will give him samadhi.” I left all of you – one thousand devotees. Though not feeling very well, I went there; but I did not have to do anything. During the night the leaders there arranged everything. I do not know what was on their minds. They are young boys, without proper brains and still with their baby teeth. I don’t know what politics they are doing at present. They played politics with Srila Vamana Maharaja also, and they thought that whatever they did was for Gurudeva. So I did not give Srila Vamana Maharaja Samadhi, but I performed whatever other functions were required by me. I offered puspanjali, arati, and parikrama of his samadhi. Thousands of people in Navadvipa – his disciples and other people of Navadvipa – were crying loudly and bitterly. They were begging me, “Don’t go. Gurudeva has left us. Please, don’t you leave us.” I replied, “I can never leave you; but I am insulted here, so I cannot remain here. Wherever I will live, my door is always open. Let there be mutual understanding. Whatever has happened has happened. If they call me I will come. Everybody began to cry even more. They stood in front of my car – and fell in front of my car – and said, “We will not let you go from here.” Somehow I pacified them. A few foolish “young boys” in the Matha, whom I personally took care of for many years, have created this situation. These guru-drohis are running this matha. And after a few days they will destroy themselves and this matha. They have no faith in Guru and they are committing offenses to Vaisnavas. What good can come out of this? Srila Vamana Maharajaji has not taught them to act like this. I heard that he was not even speaking in his last days. I have never heard him say anything bad about anybody. We will consider Srila Vamana Maharaja’s instructions only. We will serve him. In Navadvipa, so many of my god-brothers have left and they want to come to us. They tell us, “We will come and stay with you.” So many of the boys left that place in Navadvipa; I only saw a few remaining. Wherever one receives love and affection, that is where one will be attracted. Let us save ourselves from criticizing others. We will serve Srila Vamana Maharaja wherever he is. May he be merciful to us. With this prayer I offer my puspanjali at his lotus feet. | <urn:uuid:4f4e2bfc-7423-4fd0-9f5e-9f3e01c8fb00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.purebhakti.com/teachers/bhakti-discourses-mainmenu-61/23-discourses-2004/1279-glory-of-srila-bhaktivedanta-vamana-gosvami-maharaja.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985655 | 3,030 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Thank you Vanessa for hosting me on your awesome CraftyGemini blog! Vanessa's readers: allow me to introduce myself. I'm Maria Peagler, author of Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts, and the founder of SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com, where Vanessa teaches the YouTube 101 course (she's an incredible teacher!). Today I'm offering advice to those would-be craft designers out there who would love to start their own craft business but don't know where to start.
I've been a quilter for 20 years and never had any ambitions to write a book about it. I was a seven-time published author already, was staying home to raise my children after a high-flying career, and relishing every minute of it. I started teaching color classes at my local quilt shop, and saw an enormous need for a book that really taught quilters how to see color and use it effectively in their quilts. That's how Color Mastery was born.
Except no one wanted to publish it. I was an unknown in the quilting community, and publishers didn't care if I was already a successfully published author. It was too much of a risk for them. So, I self-published, and the first printing of several thousand books arrived in September 2008, when the American economy tanked. Oh, did I mention my husband is a residential homebuilder? Ouch.
I was in trouble. I had a significant investment in those books, and I had to sell them. But I had no budget for marketing or promotion, as those funds went to keep my husband's business afloat. That's when I got creative with social media.
The results? Color Mastery went on to Amazon's top ten list for two years in the Quilting category, won a Benjamin Franklin award for Best Craft Book of 2010, and is on its way to a third printing.
How can you start a successful crafting business, even in a challenging economy, and earn an income? Here are my recommendations:
- Start with quality. The best marketing and promotion aren't going to sell a dud of a product. Every decision about the production and content of Color Mastery was about quality and longevity: what would make this the best book on color for quilters, and how could I do that cost-effectively?
- Learn how to take excellent photographs. Crafting is big business, your product won't sell unless you have an outstanding cover photo. I studied photographs on Etsy and shot dozens of my quilts and table runners until I was satisfied with my photography. Style your photos, indoors or out, and put your product in the place of most potential. Make your photos so beautiful people can't take their eyes off of them.
- Get online. Start with a small website or Facebook page. People want to get to know the person behind the business. Make it easy for them to find you online. Start with a WordPress website or a Facebook page, learn how to use them, and use them to promote your products and ask your clients for feedback on new items.
- Find a network. As a newbie quilt designer, I turned to the Yahoo Quilt Designers' Group when I had questions. The ladies in this group were terrific and very helpful as I prepared to go to International Quilt Market, had questions about pattern testers, and pricing.
- Learn everything you can about marketing your product. I taught a Quilt Marketing Boot Camp webinar earlier this year, and it answers every single question I had when I started out in this business. No matter what kind of a crafting business you want to start, you'll learn something here. The webinar is one hour long, and has a side-by-side presentation of my slideshow and me teaching and answering questions.
- Use video. The power of a video to demonstrate your expertise and your product is huge. Before crafters will buy from you, they need to trust you, and video offers an excellent opportunity to reach out and connect. Vanessa's CraftyGemini YouTube channel is the absolute best at this. Look at what she's done and learn.
Here's your opportunity to learn from the best: I'm giving away one YouTube 101 course to one of Vanessa's readers. Here's all you need to do: SHARE with your friends and colleagues about Vanessa's new YouTube course at SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com and tell me you did it. I'll select a winner from the comments, and you'll all be entered to win the grand prize: the Unlimited Class Pass, one year of classes from SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com. By this time next year, YOU could have a thriving craft business! | <urn:uuid:0d328076-9eaa-4a13-8466-1aef71c5cd04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.craftygemini.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-blog-post-maria-peagler-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975371 | 969 | 1.515625 | 2 |
GOV. MALLOY ORDERS LOCAL OFFICIALS ON SHORELINE TOWNS FROM GREENWICH TO OLD SAYBROOK TO “HIGH ALERT”
Tells Them He Wants Them to Order Level 4 Evacuations Immediately
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy, based on the most recent data from the National Weather Service which suggests that the strong possibility exists for historic flooding at high tide later tonight, convened an emergency call at approximately 8:15pm with the mayors and first selectmen of the coastal towns that comprise the state’s Regions 1 and 2.
The data suggests that each town should immediately evacuate people for what is known as a Category 4 event, the highest possible warning.
The towns primarily concerned are in Region 1: Bridgeport, Darien, Fairfield, Greenwich, Norwalk, Stamford, Stratford and Westport. Other towns of substantial concern are in Region 2: Branford, Guilford, Clinton, East Haven, Madison, Milford, New Haven, Old Saybrook, West Haven, and Westbrook.
“I’ve told the mayors and first selectmen that they have no time to waste,” said Governor Malloy. “To the extent they have the ability to order mandatory evacuations I’ve told them must give this their highest priority. I was concerned all along about the potential destructive impact of this last high tide, and unfortunately the best information we have confirms my worst fears.”
“I’m concerned about all these towns, but I’m especially concerned about the towns from Greenwich to Bridgeport. Those are municipalities with large population centers that are in harm’s way. I told those municipal leaders that these people need to be evacuated, and I they need to be evacuated now.”
“The situation is dire.”
For Immediate Release: October 29, 2012 | <urn:uuid:367423f3-aedc-4811-87cb-3517e338a059> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/cwp/view.asp?Q=513136&A=4010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94456 | 408 | 1.632813 | 2 |
One evening, I was "channel surfing" and came upon a church service, already in progress. The choir was singing. Upon its conclusion, the pastor stepped into the pulpit and asked everyone to turn to Nahum, Chapter 1, Verse 7. He joked that most of the congregation would probably find it necessary to use their Bible indexes to find where the book of Nahum was located.
I was amused by that . . . and so were they. Then, he read these wonderful words:
"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him."
Wow! Isn't that powerful? Do you suppose Peter was looking through the Old Testament one day and ran across that verse and then wrote, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7)? No? One translation of the Nahum verse reads that our Lord is a "stronghold in the day of trouble." And He certainly is.
Times of trouble are clearly spelled out for us each day with the news that comes our way via television or newspaper. Not too long ago, we decided to keep both doors locked at all times. Crazy things are going on in this world about us, and I'm afraid that it's not going to get any better until Jesus comes. But, regardless of what's happening all around us, we can have a deep settled peace within our souls, because our HOPE is in Him.
When the world that I've been living in
collapses at my feet,
When my life is shattered and torn;
Tho' I'm windswept and battered,
I can cling to His cross,
And find peace in the midst of my storm!
When my body has been broken
'til it's racked in misery,
When all the doctors shake their heads
and look forlorn;
Jesus comes to make my bedside a cathedral
of hope and love;
He sends His peace into the midst of my storm!
There is peace in the midst of my storm-tossed life;
There's an Anchor, there's a Rock to cast my faith upon;
Jesus rides in my vessel - so I'll fear no alarm;
He gives me peace in the midst of my storm!
- Words and Music by Stephen R. Adams
I am so thankful today that we can have His peace in both fair weather and storms. Easy times and hard times. For hope produces peace.
~ Nelson Bradford
Ps - Isnít God good?! | <urn:uuid:41375199-1ed3-432c-8cd2-72de9be74184> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php/2557-quot-His-Peace-quot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965175 | 531 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Hands on With Windows To Go: The Good, the Bad, the USB Bootable
When I attended TechEd 2012 in Amsterdam at the end of June, the Windows To Go session was likely the most attended session all day. And it's easy to see why.
Windows To Go allows enterprise users to deploy a bootable Windows 8 environment onto a USB flash drive. It's not a trimmed-down version of Windows (like many Linux boot environments are), but a full-blown copy of Windows 8 including all the features you need. It is sealed off from the physical machine (well, sort of, more on that below) and can be protected using BitLocker.
At TechEd, I was given a 32 GB Windows To Go drive (by Kingston). Over the course of a couple of days, I lived and breathed Windows To Go. I used it productively on my main laptop, test rigs and even desktops at clients' offices. Here's what I found:
Creating a Windows To Go drive
In Windows 8 Enterprise, Microsoft will include an easy-to-use Windows To Go workspace creator. According to what I've been told by team members of the Windows To Go group at Microsoft, this wizard will apparently also allow you to pre-install some applications (they didn't say what kind) and preload it with data. However, if you desperately want to try it out, these instructions should help. Just make sure your thumb drive is fast enough in the random 4k read/write department and has enough space (32 GB+). External hard disks should also work but they rarely deliver the performance you need for a Live OS.
Working across several machines
I almost exclusively worked off of the USB thumb drive and Windows To Go over the course of a week. Guess what: It worked on every single device -- no matter if I plugged it into a 5 year old Core 2 Duo with 2.66 GHz and an old BIOS (that barely supports USB boot) or into my high-end gaming rig. It adapted to every single hardware configuration I threw it at and, aside from the initial configuration dialogue and driver installations that occur during the first boot on a new machine, it worked in each and every instance.
Windows To Go saves the driver configuration so you won't see the initial driver installation/update process on a machine twice. However, I soon discovered one very real problem: Booting into Windows To Go might not always be so easy since fiddling around with BIOS/UEFI of various PCS (at corporations, friends' homes, internet cafés, etc.) may not be possible at all.
Unplugging the drive
The first thing I did (and I imagine anyone with a Windows To Go drive will do) is unplug the drive to see what will happen. Fortunately, Microsoft made changes to its file system stack and kernel drivers that allow this specific scenario. Once the drive is removed, Windows 8 just freezes. When you plug the drive back in, it continues to work as if nothing ever happened. However, after 60 seconds of non use, Windows 8 assumes that you're gone and shuts down the machine.
I encountered some weird issues on one of my desktop systems (an Alienware gaming rig) in which Windows To Go would run for a few seconds and then just freeze up. I assume this is a beta bug but it was a good reminder to save all my files before I tried unplugging.
I also found that Windows To Go is extremely sensitive to improper shutdowns. Each and every time I forced the PC to shut down, I was presented with a "chkdsk" dialog that sat there for many minutes scanning the thumb drive for errors.
Physical hard disks: Hidden?
Microsoft hides the internal hard disk on any machine by default so that Windows To Go can't be used as a hacking device to get quick access to data on a physical disk:
However, using "diskmgmt.msc" makes getting around this all too simple: Just select the physical partition and mark it as "Online" and you'll get instant access. Of course, the local user folder will still be protected but all other files are easily accessible.
You could do this with any bootable Linux and Windows environment so Windows To Go isn't any more of a security risk, but it isn't any less either. | <urn:uuid:2c396e8e-8221-4b18-b459-363b5b613a00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/260642/hands_on_with_windows_to_go_the_good_the_bad_the_usb_bootable.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944065 | 892 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Now that the 2012 National Election is history (the delayed final call in Florida notwithstanding), our political parties—especially the Republicans—will be deconstructing their campaign strategies and trying to find out where—and why—they went wrong and what worked (or didn’t) at the top of the ticket (the presidential race) and in congressional races—on down to state gubernatorial and state legislature races and even ballot initiatives. In the afterglow of the Obama reelection and victory in expanding their Senate majority, the Democrats will be tinkering and refining; while the Republicans will be—if they are smart—going for a complete makeover.
For the Republican Party, there will be plenty of blame and recriminations to go around. Was it that their candidates weren’t ‘conservative enough?’ Was it that their message simply didn’t resonate? Was it Mother Nature, in the form of Hurricane Sandy…and/or that New Jersey perceived ‘turn-coat,’ Governor Chris Cristie embraced the President as a caring, competent leader? Mega-rich donor Super PAC advertising didn’t do it. Changing voter registration and voting laws didn’t do it. Voter suppression, intimidation and ‘looong’ lines to vote didn’t do it. And, the most cynically racist, fact-challenged campaign in modern history didn’t do it.
A few days before the election I offered my assessment and top ten reasons: “Why America Will Tell Mitt Romney ‘No Sale…’; but underlying many of those reasons is a much larger one…DEMOGRAPHICS. Demographics is the “current statistical characteristics of a population,” and is the related application of Demography, which is “the statistical study of living populations and sub-populations.” In essence, it entails the continuous crunching of numbers and changes in the population as “demos” is Greek for ‘the common people; the populace.’
Here are some key demographic models which have emerged from the 2012 Presidential Election. These figures are culled from a variety of sources, which include exit polls of voters throughout the nation. We have all heard those on the right challenge the bias and accuracy of the polling done during the campaign. We have also seen how very accurate most of them turned out—like Nate Silver’s predictions—so, while some election data is empirical or scientific—based on pure math—such as the number of voters; their age, gender and ethnicity…how they actually voted is less determinitive, since we vote by secret ballot.
Therefore, much of the data evolves from what voters tell exit-pollsters about who they actually voted for and why. (Please note: figures do not always total 100% as not all data is complete, some figures are rounded, and some voters voted for third party candidates or declined to state a preference.)
Electorate (by Gender): Women: (54%) Men: (46%)
For Barack Obama 55% 46%
For Mitt Romney 44% 53%
Electorate (by Race) 2008 Election 2012 Election
White Voters 74% 72%
African-American Voters 13% 13%
Hispanic Voters 9% 10%
Other (e.g. Asian, Pacific Islander) 5% 5%
Candidates Barack Obama Mitt Romney
White Voters 39% 59%
African –American Voters 93% 6%
Hispanic Voters 71% 27%
Other (e.g. Asian, Pacific Islander) 73% 26%
Electorate (Marital Status): Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Unmarried Women 67% 31%
Unmarried Men 56% 40%
Married Women 46% 53%
Married Men 38% 60%
Electorate (Age) Barack Obama Mitt Romney
18-29 (19%) 60% 37%
30-44 (27%) 52% 45%
45-64 (38%) 47% 51%
65 & Older (16%) 44% 56%
What is clear—thus far—is that we have seen substantial changes in voter registration, participation and population shifts—all which go into the demographic determinations that factor into polling, campaign strategies and election outcomes. In Part II, I will analyze some of these trends and their impact on the 2012 Election and politics in America moving forward.
Among sources reviewed/used/cited: nytimes.com (1972-2008 Elections); dailymail.co.uk (Race & Gender); huffingtonpost.com (Race); huffingtonpost.com (Gender); cnn.com (Age); infoplease.com (prior elections); elections.gmu.edu (voter registration) | <urn:uuid:fe6f63e5-e80a-41a7-ad02-a4889fac7089> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/08/demographics-of-election-2012-behind-the-numbers-part-i/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930922 | 981 | 1.664063 | 2 |
ALEXANDRA, SOUTH AFRICA — Isaac Moyo left Zimbabwe for South Africa six years ago because it was so hard to survive in his homeland. But after a mob armed with machetes and axes chopped through his door in this township Monday and chased him away, Moyo feels that he has no choice but to go back to Zimbabwe.
Moyo and hundreds of Zimbabweans and other foreigners fled their homes in Alexandra, a teeming crime-ridden township, on Sunday and Monday to escape xenophobic attacks. Some hid in the nearby bush or in police compounds.
"They were saying, 'Go back to Zimbabwe, we don't want to see you here, you're taking our jobs,' " Moyo said Tuesday. "They said, 'Go back to [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe.' They took everything, saying, 'You didn't get this from Mugabe; this is our property.' "
More than 100 foreigners were injured and at least one foreigner and a South African were killed during two nights of violence.
The attacks increase pressure on South African President Thabo Mbeki over his policy of "quiet diplomacy." His administration has avoided direct criticism of human rights abuses by Mugabe's government, even as hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have flooded into South Africa to escape the economic meltdown and political violence at home.
The presence of Zimbabweans willing to work for as little as $6 a day has sparked resentment among poor in a nation with more than 40% unemployment.
Moyo, 30, and three brothers were living in a shack in Alexandra until Monday night, sending money home to their family in Zimbabwe.
On Sunday night, they had to flee attacks and sleep in the bush. On Monday evening, as he was cooking dinner, Moyo heard loud singing in the street. He knew the mob was back.
"People were singing and celebrating and were chasing foreigners back to Zimbabwe," he said. "They started beating us."
His brother David was hit on the head with a large stick; the wound required six stitches. Moyo does not know where his other two brothers have gone; he and David had their cellphones stolen and cannot call them.
He said the anger toward Zimbabweans had been building in Alexandra for months.
Moyo, a qualified mechanic in Zimbabwe, initially earned about $6 a day as a bricklayer's laborer but now gets $13 a day as a painter. Many South African township dwellers resent some Zimbabweans' better job qualifications and their willingness to work for little money.
Jimmy Matsena, 36, a South African security guard who lives in Alexandra, said he was sickened when he saw a crowd chase a man who was carrying a few blankets and other belongings.
"This xenophobia, it's bad," he said. "People were shouting, 'Mambe! Mambe! -- catch them, catch them, they don't belong here!' "
"People feel angry with Zimbabweans," Matsena said. "People get jealous because they see these people progressing. Zimbabweans are good at crafts and they all speak perfect English."
He said some township dwellers who believe that Mugabe is a cruel leader say it is because of something innately cruel in Zimbabwe's society. They tend to blame South Africa's high crime rate on the influx of Zimbabweans.
The violence this weeks follows a series of violent attacks on Somalis in the last few years, mainly around Cape Town.
"Such acts can only take society backwards and open the wounds of racism and intolerance against which so many of our people fought," said Tiyani Rikhotso, a spokesman for the ruling African National Congress party. | <urn:uuid:42172547-f8a2-4143-b1f1-a01fe33d4adc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/14/world/fg-zimbabweans14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984104 | 759 | 1.75 | 2 |
Final Call to Job Seekers for Applications for Free NUI Galway Places
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
NUI Galway has issued a final call for applications to the six courses it is offering as part of the Springboard initiative. These programmes range in subject area from Environmental Sustainability, to Medical Device Science and Technology Commercialisation, to Innovation Management. All of these part-time courses are available in a modular, flexible format and can be taken via distance learning for students who are unable to attend the campus on a weekly basis.
The Springboard initiative offers free higher education for jobseekers, without affecting the social welfare benefits they receive. “Springboard is primarily designed to help people who have lost their jobs as a result of the recession, and who need to up-skill or re-skill to gain sustainable employment again”, explains Nuala McGuinn, Adult Education Development Officer at NUI Galway.
“These courses would suit those who want to attain a qualification while actively seeking employment. The subject areas are directly focused on employment and the emerging skill needs of Irish industry.”
While five of the six courses the University is offering as part of Springboard are level 8 and level 9, NUI Galway is also putting in place a Foundation Diploma in Science, Technology and Engineering. This level 6 programme is designed for people who have been out of the formal education system for some time and provides an ideal starting point for those wishing to embark on a longer term diploma or degree programme
NUI Galway has a long history of working with adult learners, either those approaching third-level for the first time or those returning to study. Extra supports are put in place to provide students with the additional skills, computing and study skills, which they may need as part of their studies.
All of the Springboard courses commence in early September so interested candidates are advised to check out course details as soon as possible. Details and an online application process is available on www.bluebrick.ie/springboard. Alternatively contact the Adult Education Office at NUI Galway on 091 495845. | <urn:uuid:d388244d-dac7-4bfc-9c8a-30787610dadb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2011/august2011/final-call-to-job-seekers-for-applications-for-free-nui-galway-places--1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954033 | 432 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Brussels, 3 December 2012
2013 Access City award for disabled-friendly cities goes to Berlin!
Brussels, 3 December 2012 – Today European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding has handed the Access City Award 2013 to the city of Berlin. The prize has been awarded in recognition of Berlin's comprehensive and strategic approach to creating an accessible city for all. The award is organised by the Commission together with the European Disability Forum, and was presented on the occasion of the annual European Day of People with Disabilities conference in Brussels. The prize aims to encourage cities to share their experience and to improve accessibility for the benefit of all.
''People with disabilities still face too many barriers in everyday life, but cities like Berlin are leading the way in making life more accessible for all," said Vice-President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner. "Accessibility offers new business opportunities and can be a real stimulus for innovation and economic growth. That is why accessibility is at the heart of the European disability strategy and why we are preparing our proposals for a European Accessibility Act, which I intend to present next year.”
The jury selected Berlin for its strategic and inclusive disability policy, which has invested heavily in turning the formerly divided city into an accessible, barrier-free environment. The jury highlighted Berlin’s transport system and investment in accessibility for disabled people in reconstruction projects. Berlin's comprehensive approach to accessibility is fully embedded in the city’s policies and broadly supported by its decision-makers.
The other finalists were:
Nantes (France): rewarded for its complete approach to designing a city accessible for all and variety of activities to raise awareness of accessibility in everyday life. Nantes has invested in training for designers and architects and maintains a dialogue with citizens to allow people with disabilities to meet and set up common projects.
Stockholm (Sweden): chosen for its long-term, inclusive approach following Design for All. The “Vision Stockholm in 2030” aims to turn the city, where 30% of the central area consists of water, into a world class city accessible to all. Good examples include accessible pedestrian crossings, public toilets and playgrounds to ensure that they are accessible to children and parents with disabilities.
Europeans strongly believe that disabled people should be able to participate fully in society, according to a new survey by the European Commission released ahead of the European Day for People with Disabilities on 3 December (see IP/12/1296).
'Accessibility' means that people with disabilities have access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, transportation, information and communications technologies and systems, and other facilities and services.
This is the third annual edition of the Access City award. The first went to Avila in Spain (IP/10/1641) and the second to Salzburg in Austria (IP/11/1492). In addition to the winner and two finalists, this year the jury also assigned special mentions to:
- Pamplona (Spain) for accessible urban environment and sustainable environmental policies. Pamplona set up a four year plan to renovate local infrastructure, including the old town: pavements have been lowered, accessible playgrounds and fitness parks for disabled and elderly people have been installed, and ramps, elevators and footbridges provide accessible solutions in uneven areas of the city.
- Gdynia (Poland) for its ongoing efforts to make public transport accessible: 97% of buses and 58% of trolley buses are now accessible to people with disabilities. The city has also introduced an information system with Braille descriptions and signposts, pylons and information boards accessible to people in wheelchairs.
- Bilbao (Spain) for its use of information and communication technology (ICT) to benefit people with disabilities, including a telephone information service for people with hearing or speech difficulties, simultaneous translation terminals in offices open to the public, and induction loops to eliminate background noise and improve services for people using hearing aids.
- Tallaght (Ireland) for the range of innovative services to improve the quality of life of its citizens with disabilities, including older people. Examples include a 48 hour repair service for streets and pavements, information services, accessible pedestrian walkways, accessible recycling facilities, accessible libraries and books available in different formats for the visually impaired.
For more information
Access City Award
European Commission: People with disabilities:
Eurobarometer survey – Attitudes to Accessibility in the EU:
Homepage of Vice-President Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner:
Mina Andreeva (+32 2 299 13 82)
Natasha Bertaud (+32 2 296 74 56) | <urn:uuid:d11a6018-546f-48c4-8862-c825d9957dc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1309_en.htm?locale=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934409 | 958 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Goth beauty is in eye of beholder — but advice is plentiful
Everyone needs fashion advice, men especially. But what to do if you're Goth? Enter Gothic Beauty, a Portland-based quarterly magazine centered...
Seattle Times business reporters
Everyone needs fashion advice, men especially. But what to do if you're Goth?
Enter Gothic Beauty, a Portland-based quarterly magazine centered on fashion, beauty, lifestyle and events for the Goth subculture.
A recent issue included fashion tips for men from the California deathrock band Astrovamps.
"There's nothing worse," wrote Eyajo Joseph, the band's keyboardist, "than seeing someone with a cool look and outfit, and then [to] notice they haven't painted their fingernails."
And from vocalist Daniel Ian: "Sneakers and vinyl DON'T mix."
The magazine, launched in 2000, has a circulation of 23,000, with distribution in bookstore chains such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks and Hastings.
But what is a Gothic beauty, anyway?
"It's hard to define," said founder Steven Holiday, who runs the magazine with wife Ruby. "There are just so many things and so many looks."
The Goth scene originated from the post-punk movement of the late 1970s, marked by the emergence of bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus and The Cure.
While the subculture is broad, it's underpinned by an aesthetic that gravitates toward the dark and macabre.
Alison Douglas, who runs Seattle-based VelvetGarden.com, an online marketplace for Gothic clothing, accessories and beauty products, said she likes that the scene also encompasses art and literature, including 19th-century novelists such as Lord Byron and Mary Shelley.
"It always seemed a bit more intelligent than a scene that was based just around music," Douglas said.
The Goth subculture has endured long enough to spawn a major fashion-retailer (Hot Topic), popular films (Tim Burton received an Oscar nod for his "Corpse Bride") and TV characters (think Abby Sciuto, the forensic scientist on CBS' "NCIS").
And mainstream parody: A "Saturday Night Live" skit, "Goth Talk," poked fun at the subculture as being dominated by teens.
Ruby Holiday, beauty editor for Gothic Beauty, said it's too easy to make assumptions about why some gravitate to the scene. "It's like asking why do you like strawberries?"
Even the scene has changed dramatically since she first was drawn to it as a teen in the Skagit Valley. Then, Goths were perhaps best known for dark, Victorian-era clothing, including bustled skirts, corsets and lace.
Today, the aesthetics run from "cybergoths," with clothing and hair reminiscent of futuristic science-fiction characters, to those who dress with an early-20th-century burlesque feel.
And for those who shop at the publicly traded Hot Topic — which posted $511.1 million in sales for the first nine months of 2006 — consider them "mall goths."
This lifestyle based largely on aesthetics doesn't come cheap.
At Metro, a Goth apparel mainstay on Capitol Hill, a vinyl straightjacket with extendable sleeves — good for restraint — sells for $140. And the Constantine jacket, a double-breasted, floor-length coat with a jacquard pattern and pirate cuffs, goes for $500.
But Douglas, of Velvet Garden, said the cost of upkeep depends upon the person. She started her online marketplace because she enjoys bargain hunting and passing on deals.
"I'm incredibly frugal," she said.
"My husband dyes my hair for me. My hair dye is $6 or $7 from a drugstore, and it's only done three or four times a year."
— Monica Soto OuchiTidbits
Seattle's Canlis restaurant and Starbucks are holding a contest to see which Starbucks store in Western Washington can raise the most money and awareness for the Guatemalan farmers who grow the beans for Canlis' special coffee blend.
Mark Canlis, the restaurant's managing owner, wants to raise enough money for a new school in the Antigua Valley, where the farmers live.
But beyond that, he wants to encourage Starbucks and Canlis employees to raise awareness about these farmers as well.
The store or headquarters team that best champions the cause wins a free dinner party at Canlis.
The restaurant carries a special Starbucks blend called Guatemala Casi Cielo, which was created for Canlis and first sold there in 2003.
Now other restaurants use it, and Starbucks sells out of the blend every time its stores offer it by the pound. — MA
The founder of Pete's Brewing and two of his first employees have created a new brew whose profits will go to the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research in Los Angeles. Called Reunion — A Beer For Hope, it will be available in specialty stores like Whole Foods and Bottleworks in early March.
Alan Shapiro, president of SBS-Imports in Seattle and one of the first Pete's employees, thought of the idea after learning that his former colleague, Virginia MacLean, had been diagnosed with the bone cancer.
They reunited with Pete's Brewing founder Pete Slosberg, who has since sold the brewery, to create Reunion.
A 22-ounce bottle will retail for about $5. — MA
Anthony's Restaurants in Seattle are holding a contest to choose a new name for an annual fundraiser that used to be called the "Oyster Olympics."
Anthony's says it received a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee telling them to "refrain from featuring Olympic terminology in the name of your annual oyster event," so restaurant officials decided they better get a new one.
The deadline for entries is Tuesday. For details, go to www.anthonys.com. The grand-prize winner gets two tickets to the oyster event March 27 plus a weekend getaway. — MA
Retail Report appears Fridays. Melissa Allison covers the food and beverage industry. She can be reached at 206-464-3312 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Monica Soto Ouchi covers goods, services and online retail. She can be reached at 206-515-5632 or email@example.com.
About Retail Report
Retail Report is a look at the trends, issues and people who makeup the dynamic and versatile retail sector throughout the Puget Sound region. Every Friday with Melissa Allison and Amy Martinez. Send tips or comments to firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com.
Sam and Sara Lucchese create handmade pasta out of their kitchen-garage adjacent to their Ballard home. Here, they illustrate the final steps in making pappardelle pasta.
Furniture & home furnishings
POST A FREE LISTING | <urn:uuid:575ca48b-f61b-4b77-995e-1abc82027def> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574613_retailreport16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956141 | 1,458 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Iran news agency covers up Michelle Obama at the Oscars
The Iranian government had lots to say about last night's best picture winner at the Oscar's, "Argo."
They dismissed Ben Affleck's film about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis as an "advertisement for the CIA," claimed it had an unflattering portrayal of the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and said the win was endorsed by the U.S. government because it was introduced by First Lady Michelle Obama.
They also had some opinions on what the first lady was wearing.
Anyone who watched the Oscars saw that Obama wore a sparkling silver gown, showing off her trademark bare arms. The image shown by Iranian state news agency Fars showed Obama wearing a similar dress, but with covered arms -- clearly photoshopped.
This isn't the first time images produced by Western companies have been photoshopped to comply with the conservative culture of Muslim governments. Last October, Ikea apologized for removing pictures of women in its furniture catalog distributed in Saudi Arabia.
- Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
- 5/24: I-5 bridge collapses north of Seattle; "On the Road": Three siblings survive Okla. tornado
- The forecaster who sounded the alarm for Moore, Okla.
- I-5 bridge collapses north of Seattle
- Sibling rivalry takes a backseat after Okla. tornado
- Survivor of KKK Baptist Church bombing: "I had to forgive"
- On the road: Three siblings survive Okla. tornado
- Jersey Shore shop owners reopen for Memorial Day
- CBS News goes undercover in a Bangladesh clothing factory
- Man killed in brutal London attack
- Survivor of Bangladesh factory collapse speaks out
- Second London terror suspect identified
- Did Obama admin. know of IRS targeting during campaign?
- The power of a uniquely American song
- Resentment over wars may have motivated London terror attack
- Storm spotter: Oklahoma tornado "a nightmare" | <urn:uuid:0cb13377-e445-43b0-b9b7-b2a7099b60de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57571234/iran-news-agency-covers-up-michelle-obama-at-the-oscars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944973 | 404 | 1.554688 | 2 |
UAW workers at Ford from across the US voted late Tuesday to accept a four-year contract with the automaker. The vote pitted today's labor costs against future union membership.
The deal was controversial enough that, by late last week, the union was preparing its members to strike.
The vote to finally accept the contract, agreed to by 63 percent of its 41,000 members, resulted in a harsh reality check – the recognition that an increase in labor costs today might shrink union membership in the future.
IN PICTURES: Frankfurt motor show
Union members originally wanted annual pay raises but were offered profit-sharing bonuses, inflation adjustment payments, and other incentives considered less risky for the automaker, collectively totaling $16,700 per worker through 2015.
Workers were upset that FORD CEO Alan Mulally received a $26.5 million pay package for 2010 when they were forced to sacrifice benefits and raises during the industry’s most severe economic downturn in history.
Also a bitter pill union members had to swallow: the controversial two-tier salary structure, which, established during the 2007 talks to bring down labor costs, forces incoming workers to accept a lower pay rate than veterans, a dynamic that contradicts the union’s goal of equitable pay for all workers.
Analysts say that conceding much of what they had originally wanted, Ford workers ratified the contract because they understood a strike would prevent the United Auto Workers [UAW] from expanding membership, especially if the automaker cut future jobs in order to pay for upfront labor costs. | <urn:uuid:6e234bb4-cdcc-407b-a9be-041955e6a198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/1019/UAW-agrees-to-contract-with-Ford-How-much-did-the-union-give-up | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97563 | 316 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Early and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
THOMAS FOGARTY. Special adaptability to any particular calling in life is the one necessary adjunct to permanent success. No matter what be the amount of vim and determination which characterizes a man's start in business, unless he is to the manor born he will ultimately find to his sorrow that his line has been falsely cast, and the quicker he draws aside and takes up another calling the better it will be for him, and perhaps for others as well. That young man is indeed fortunate who knows what he is fitted for by nature and starts out in his career along the line which he can successfully follow to the end; but few do this as the records show. That Thomas Fogarty, organizer and proprietor of the Sanitary Plumbing and Heating Company, of Springfield, is especially fitted for the calling that now occupies his attention can not be doubted, for he has built up a large and rapidly growing business, and his scores of patrons are always well satisfied with his work.
Mr. Fogarty was born in County Clare, Ireland, January 20, 1872. He is a son of Michael and Bridget (Keating) Fogarty, and a grandson of James and Mary (Linnane) Fogarty. James Fogarty was a native of the Emerald Isle and there he devoted his life to farming and died in his native land at the age of eighty-four years. His wife died suddenly of cholera during the epidemic of 1847. They were Catholics. To them seven children were born, four sons and three daughters; three of the former and one of the latter came to America. Michael Fogarty was reared in Ireland, where he was married, and spent his life as a farmer, dying there at the age of sixty-two years. His widow is still living in Ireland, being now seventy-two years of age. James, one of their sons, emigrated to the United States a few years prior to the breaking out of the Civil war, and during the latter part of that conflict he was drafted into the Union army and served a short time. To Michael Fogarty and wife eleven children were born, four sons and seven daughters, namely: Patrick came to Springfield, Missouri, when nineteen years of age, about 1878, and was yard master here for the Frisco Railroad for a period of twenty-five years, being finally killed by accident while on duty; John S. has remained in Ireland; Mrs. L. G. Schab lives in Quincy, Illinois; Katie is teaching school in Ireland; Thomas, of this sketch; Mrs. James Bayner lives at Castle Bar, Ireland; Michael died when twenty-one years of age; Mrs. John Waters is teaching school in Ireland; Mrs. Thomas Fogarty, who married a man of her own name, but no relation, lives in Ireland; Nora is single and lives in Springfield, Missouri; Nellie S. is teaching school in Ireland.
Thomas Fogarty, of this review, grew to manhood in Erin's Green Isle and there he received a good education, attending college until he was nineteen years of age, when, in the year 1891, he emigrated to America and came direct to Springfield, Missouri, where he has resided ever since, having liked the town and country from the first. Soon after his arrival here he secured a position as fireman with the Frisco and continued to work in this capacity for a period of six years, then was promoted to engineer and worked as such for two years. Finally tiring of the road, he turned his attention to the plumbing business, associating himself with the Standard Plumbing company here, which maintained offices on the south side. He seemed to have natural ability in this line of endeavor and soon mastered its various details. In 1908 he organized the Sanitary Plumbing and Heating company, the present place of business of which is on East Commercial street. Under his able management this concern has grown to large proportions and is doing an ever-growing and lucrative business in general plumbing and heating. The firm is well equipped in every respect for prompt and high-grade service, keeping all modern apparatus and equipment and a full stock of well-selected material of all kinds, and a number of skilled artisans are constantly employed.
Mr. Fogarty was married on April 30, 1902, in Springfield to Laura O'Hara, a daughter of Jerome and Isabell (Mudd) O'Hara, a well-known family here, Mr. O'Hara being president of the Citizens Bank of Springfield for years, but is now retired. He was a native of Illinois. His family consists of seven children, namely: Frank J. is a traveling salesman and lives in San Antonio, Texas; L. J. is in partnership with our subject in the plumbing business; John is deceased; Mrs. P. J. Turley lives in Springfield; Laura, wife of the subject of this sketch; Mrs. J. J. Lawler lives in Springfield; Mrs. Mamie O'Hara lives in this city.
Jerome O'Hara, mentioned above, came to Springfield in 1895 and for many years was proprietor of the firm of O'Hara & Son, who were engaged in the dry goods business on East Commercial street, but later he went into the banking business. He has been highly successful as a business man and is a highly respected citizen.
Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fogarty, namely: Harry is deceased; Francis Thomas, Clarence J., John A., Isabell and Margaret.
Politically Mr. Fogarty is a Democrat. He is a member of the Catholic church. He is a prominent member of the Knights of Columbus, having been financial secretary of the local lodge for a period of eight years. In 1913, at the state convention of this order which was held at Joplin, he was elected supreme delegate to the convention at Boston, Massachusetts. He went from there back to Ireland to visit his mother, brother and sisters. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Modern Woodmen of America, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Eagles. He is a jovial, obliging and open-hearted gentleman whom it is a pleasure to meet, and he has a host of friends in Springfield and over this part of the state.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y
Table of Contents | Keyword Search Greene County History Home | Local History Home | <urn:uuid:4766e608-a320-494f-9116-e04485988b43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelibrary.org/lochist/history/paspres/fogartyt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986 | 1,389 | 1.695313 | 2 |
It still seems an unlikely story: a modest shoemaker from a small rural town in Germany develops a range of sports products so original and so perfect that they are sought by athletes from all over the world. As he indulges his passion for sport and for innovation, he creates a brand as great as any in the world. An unlikely story, but not impossible. Impossible is Nothing.
For adidas, it all started with shoes. Shoes to play in. Shoes to play better in. Shoes to win in. Shoes that, one day, would tread Wembley and Wimbledon, win medals at the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup™. Athletes would wear them, record-breakers, and champions. Today, adidas is one of the world’s leading brands, recognised and respected.
Passion, authenticity, innovation, inspiration, honesty and commitment – that is what adidas means to us. But above all, it is the stories that made Adi Dassler’s idea and principle “no athlete left behind” come to life on the biggest sports stages around the world. | <urn:uuid:2ba24132-ff97-4b83-a0b5-b81577a7a60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journeys.com/kidz/brand_listing.aspx?c=1200&pr=50&g=m&ag=yt&s=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965398 | 226 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Other than the fact that both were lobbyists, in choosing Thomas E. Donilon to take over as national security adviser, President Barack Obama could not have selected someone more different in terms of background from his predecessor, James L. Jones. Whereas Jones was a former military general, Donilon has been described as a “backroom technocrat” who has served as political advisor to numerous Democrats. Donilon did spend several years with the State Department during the Clinton administration—experience that supporters played up to demonstrate Donilon’s qualifications for the job. He also spent the first 20½ months of Obama’s presidency as Jones’ deputy.
Born in 1955 in Providence, Rhode Island, Donilon attended La Salle Academy, before earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from Catholic University in 1977. Hunter S. Thompson’s book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, which exposed the dark underbelly of the 1972 presidential race, inspired Donilon to go into politics.
His entry into Democratic politics began in the Carter White House, where he worked as an intern and served in the Office of Congressional Liaison.
In 1980, Donilon, then 24, worked at the Democratic National Convention and helped derail Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s (D-Massachusetts) last-minute bid for the presidential nomination.
After Carter lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan, Donilon helped Carter transition back to private life. He also lectured on politics at Catholic University. In 1982, Donilon was technical advisor to the Commission on Presidential Nominations which drafted the nomination rules for the 1984 campaign.
Four years later, he served as campaign coordinator for Walter Mondale’s bid for the Oval Office.
In 1985, Donilon earned his law degree from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the school’s Law Review. That same year he served as general counsel to the Democratic National Committee’s Convention Site Selection Committee and as co-chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee to the party’s 1988 Rules Commission.
But he remained interested in helping get Democrats elected to the White House. During the 1988 contest, Donilon first advised Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) before going on to help his party’s nominee, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
Donilon joined the law firm O’Melveny & Meyers in 1991, serving on the firm’s governing committee, heading its strategic counseling practice and advising companies and their boards on a range of “sensitive governance, policy, legal and regulatory matters.” His work included serving as a registered lobbyist for mortgage giant Fannie Mae.
But he couldn’t resist being involved in White House affairs, and served as a senior counsel on President Bill Clinton’s 1992 transition team. The following year, he was named chief of staff to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
In 1996, he became assistant secretary of state for public affairs. He visited more than 50 countries in those positions and worked on several major foreign policy initiatives, including the Balkans peace negotiation, the expansion of NATO and the relationship between the U.S. and China.
Donilon left the State Department three years later to accept an executive vice president position at Fannie Mae. He remained at the mortgage company for six years (1999-2005), during which he was accused of exaggerating the health of Fannie Mae’s balance sheet and trying to thwart an investigation into accounting irregularities. Not only did he interfere with an audit by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO, but also tried to launch a separate investigation into OFHEO itself. During the years 2000-2003 he eceived more than $7 million in compensation in the form of cash payments and stock awards.
He left Fannie Mae in 2005 to return to O’Melveny, and provided advice to powerful clients like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
He also was chosen as a member of the House and Senate Majority’s National Security Advisory Group, which assesses U.S. performance on national security issues.
Donilon was invited to join Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, but chose instead to help his old friend Joe Biden seek the nomination, by serving as an adviser on Iraq. When Biden dropped out of the race, Donilon endorsed Obama and helped with the preparations for Obama’s debates with Republican candidate John McCain.. He then served on Obama’s transition team for the State Department, and later became deputy national security adviser on the day Obama was inaugurated, a position he held at the time of his nomination to become national security adviser in October 2010.
According to Bob Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars, Donilon’s former boss, Jones, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had problems with him. Jones complained that Donilon never bothered to travel to Iraq or Afghanistan to assess the situation there firsthand He has since been to Afghanistan), and Gates reportedly said Donilon would be a “disaster” as national security adviser. Some of the clashes may have been policy-related, as Donilon is said to have opposed Obama’s decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, a strategy that was promoted by Gates and Jones.
Donilon’s wife, Cathy Russell, serves as chief of staff to Joe Biden’s wife, Jill. Donilon’s brother, Mike, is a lawyer and political consultant who has served as counselor to Vice-President Biden. | <urn:uuid:54d8ab97-77a1-4d6f-a333-8932995f68ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allgov.com/officials/donilon-thomas?officialid=29281 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974514 | 1,136 | 1.570313 | 2 |
It’s hard to tell if Tumblr is a social network or a blogging platform, because the thing is, it’s both.
As a blogging platform, it offers an easy way to quickly share text or multimedia content. But Tumblr also has a social component. There’s a newsfeed, which, similar to Twitter or Facebook, updates as the people you follow publish posts. And like Facebook and Twitter, the quality of the content depends on whom you follow.
Tumblr is like a long-form Twitter. It’s also similar to Facebook, if instead of following your friends from middle school, you followed news organizations and content creators.
Launched a little over five years ago, Tumblr now boasts nearly 60 million blogs with nearly 25 billion posts. And it’s growing. The site receives 25,000 new users and 40 million new posts each day. The service is most popular with the teen and college-aged user segments with half of Tumblr's visitor base being under the age of 25.
[RELATED: An essential guide for brands on Tumblr]
In other words, if your brand isn’t already on Tumblr, you probably should reconsider that position.
At PR Newswire
, we use Tumblr in a few ways, among them:
• To recap the various conferences our team attends throughout the year;
• To share relevant social media and publishing news found on other Tumblr blogs (we do this by reblogging);
• To post news releases about topics such as the Muppets, cupcakes, or the energy drink Four Loko.
We joined Tumblr for the same reason all brands do—that’s where people are. The number of users on Tumblr is impressive. But its growth rate is truly exceptional.
Other media such as The Atlantic
, The Economist
and The Los Angeles Times
have helped reestablish their brands by embracing this new digital space and consistently publishing relevant and interesting content. The Economist
, for example, teases pictures and graphs to upcoming print issues.
Fashion bloggers have thrived in this space as well. Retailers like Urban Outfitters
use it to promote new styles, while smaller blogs like Put This On
taps Tumblr to promote suggested outfits and eBay sales. It’s no surprise that the more successful (or “viral”) Tumblr posts are those with photos.
To that end, the food industry also has seen some success with Tumblr. For example, Boqueria Restaurant
of New York not only shows the final product, but also behind-the-scenes glimpses into its kitchens. Lost Weekend
coffee shop on New York’s Lower East Side publishes artful portraits of its drip coffees, along with pictures of the fashionable clothes for sale at the shop and other images, videos, and mp3s it thinks their audience (and customers) will find interesting.
[RELATED: Clever PR Tumblrs to waste time on]
What’s particularly appealing about Tumblr from user’s perspective is that you can see all of this—and lots more—in one streaming newsfeed.
A signature aspect of Tumblr is its absence of advertising. Depending on your point of view, this is either a good or bad thing. For years, Tumblr resisted the idea of selling space to advertisers. Recently, however, it began to change its tune
. Maybe it saw an opportunity. Perhaps it wanted to appease investors. One thing it's not planning to do is to go the route of traditional advertising.
“The overall thesis of what we’re trying to do is empower and highlight interesting creative advertising,” said Derek Gottfrid, Tumblr’s vice president of product.
What this means is that an opportunity now exists for brands to tell their stories to Tumblr’s vast, growing audiences. This probably doesn’t mean pop-up or tacky banner ads. But it does mean that a window is opening to a vast audience of potential customers.
Thomas Hynes is manager of blogger relations at PR Newswire. Find him on Twitter @ThomasHynes. | <urn:uuid:f4d2aba3-07a7-434e-a825-793f7757a274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prdaily.eu/PRDailyEU/Articles/Tumblr_for_brands_Simple_ways_to_use_this_powerful_11900.aspx | 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 | 0.933503 | 853 | 1.648438 | 2 |
SIKESTON -- Amended contracts with the Sikeston Power Plant's partner cities are no big deal, according to Board of Municipal Utility officials.
"This is just standard, routine business we're required to do by the EPA," said Geoff Comer, systems analyst for the BMU.
Life-of-the-plant contracts with Columbia, Carthage and Fulton were all amended recently to account for changes in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations related to noxious emissions.
"In 2009, the EPA will be issuing allowances for nox emissions for all 12 months rather than just the ozone season which is May through September," Comer explained. "The EPA just requires we have an agreement establishing what percent of the allowances that the EPA gives to the Sikeston plant goes to them. There's not any money involved."
The EPA limits the total amount of pollutants that power plants can emit. In Missouri, allowances for these emissions are distributed to utilities and power plants by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, according to Comer. Currently, those distributions have only applied to the ozone season.
The Sikeston plant always monitors noxious emissions, according to Comer, "but because annual compliance is going to start in 2009, this was something new we had to address as far as the ownership of those allowances. They want us to have agreements in place with our contract cities."
Allowances for the Sikeston plant under rules going into effect for 2009 through 2014 are 1,556 tons of nitrogen oxides per year, only 698 tons of which can be during the ozone season, according to Michael Stansfield, operating permit unit chief for the DNR's air pollution control program. In 2015, that will drop to 582 tons during the ozone season with an annual limit of 1,295 tons.
Mercury emissions, Stansfield said, will be limited to 1,211 ounces of mercury per year from 2010 through 2017 for the Sikeston plant. In 2018, that drops to 478 ounces per year.
Currently the Sikeston plant is allowed 1,180 tons of nitrogen oxides.
These emission allowances are a market-based commodity.
"If they emit less they can sell or trade to others," Stansfield said. "It's an attempt to get better reductions over all the power plants by letting some market forces come into play."
The new rules will also allow ease interstate trading of these allowances, Stansfield said.
A credit for one ton of nox emissions during the ozone season have recently ranged from $750-$900, according to Comer. "It's been all over the board," he said.
Comer said the average cost for an annual one-ton allowance is about $3,300.
Unused credits can be "banked" for future use.
"This is all within federal government guidelines," Comer said. "It's not anything out of the ordinary."
The Sikeston plant had to purchase credits for the ozone season for the first time in 2007 "due in part to plant availability," Comer said. "We've been running wide open."
With new regulations going into effect soon, the Board of Municipal Utilities is deciding on what emission controls to install or the purchasing of credits to meet tightened restrictions in coming years.
"We know we're going to have to do some things, but we don't know the extent of what we're going to have to do," Comer said. | <urn:uuid:c443c812-38cb-4749-b855-30f10e873119> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.standard-democrat.com/story/1354012.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967785 | 708 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The Council on Foreign Relations has published today the first Policy Innovation Memorandum (PIM) coming out of the Renewing America initiative, “Faster, Safer, and Smarter: A Modern Visa System for the United States.” We will have several others ready to publish shortly, looking at issues such as Chinese foreign investment in the United States, foreign language education in U.S. schools, and ways to move forward on critically needed infrastructure programs.
The memo, co-written by myself and Liam Schwartz, one of the world’s leading consular attorneys, calls for reforms to U.S. visa procedures to ease travel to the United States, but in a way that does not increase security risks. The 9/11 terrorist attacks exposed serious weaknesses in the U.S. system for granting foreign visas, an issue I wrote about extensively in my book, The Closing of the American Border. In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government implemented a range of measures to try to ensure that visas would not again be granted to terrorists. But many of those measures also resulted in long delays or arbitrary refusals for legitimate visa applicants, which kept consular lawyers like Liam extremely busy trying to help clients navigate the cumbersome procedures.
The visa statistics quite clearly show the consequences. Nonimmigrant visa approvals plummeted from a record 7.5 million in 2001 to fewer than 5 million in 2003, before beginning a slow recovery (the fiscal year ends September 30, so the effect of the attacks did not show until later years).
The costs have been high. The U.S. tourist industry says that 1.3 million jobs could be created, and $850 million added to the economy, if the U.S. share of foreign tourism could just be restored to its pre-9/11 levels. There is also considerable evidence that visa hassles have discouraged foreign investment in the United States, but making it difficult for business travelers to come here; the U.S. share of total inward investment has fallen by half over the decade.
The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have worked hard in a variety of ways to address the delays, and the numbers demonstrate real progress. The government initially made a priority of timely visas for students, and has gradually been working on other aspects of the problem. Over the past several months, the administration has significantly reduced the long wait times for consular interviews in big countries like China and Brazil. President Obama’s announcement last week that the volume of visa processing is rising even as wait times are falling was possible only because of tremendous effort by State Department officials.
But maintaining that progress, we argue, is going to require more sophisticated use of technology. The delays associated with security background checks, in particular, have remained a chronic problem, especially from India. Screening technology has been developed by the government that can speed up background checks without compromising security, but it remains stuck in pilot phase. There are other technology improvements that will deter individuals from overstaying visas, and make it easier as well to assess the risk that an individual visa applicant will overstay. There is simply no need for the current congressional requirement that all new visa applicants must have face-to-face interviews with consular officers.
The paper, I like to think, reflects one of the great strengths of the Council on Foreign Relations. It is the product of several off-the-record meetings and numerous conversations among individuals, inside and outside government, with real expertise and experience on visa issues. I hope it will be a useful addition to the ongoing effort to create a visa system that is, as the title of the PIM suggests, “faster, safer and smarter.” | <urn:uuid:872e9cec-caf6-412d-8184-5680493dffa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.cfr.org/renewing-america/2012/01/26/innovation-in-government-a-safer-and-speedier-visa-system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95903 | 758 | 1.617188 | 2 |
UPDATED: Why Is Dianne Feinstein Being Misquoted?
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Buried in that New York Times story I mentioned earlier about Obama’s quest for a CIA director comes this weird quote from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that kind of sort of seems acquiescent to some forms of torture:
But in an interview on Tuesday, Mrs. Feinstein indicated that extreme cases might call for flexibility. “I think that you have to use the noncoercive standard to the greatest extent possible,” she said, raising the possibility that an imminent terrorist threat might require special measures.
Afterward, however, Mrs. Feinstein issued a statement saying: “The law must reflect a single clear standard across the government, and right now, the best choice appears to be the Army Field Manual. I recognize that there are other views, and I am willing to work with the new administration to consider them.”
I’m guessing she meant to revise and extend her remarks — Feinstein is the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and probably doesn’t want to enter the committee leadership seeming squishy on torture — so, OK, I don’t want to be an inquisitioner about this. (Irony? Who, me? Never.)
But what are the “other standards” on CIA interrogation she’s talking about? The incoming administration hasn’t proposed any.
I’ve heard one legitimate reason from CIA people why requiring their interrogators to follow the Army Field Manual is a bit of a problem: the manual specifies particular techniques.
Theoretically, if an interrogator modifies a technique somewhat or wants to use an unspecified technique, assuming that none of which would be torture from either a legal or a common-sense perspective, would the requirement prevent that?
Now, it seems to me there are enough agency lawyers to devise a solution to that potential problem, and the concern doesn’t involve an attempt to flout the torture prohibition. But is this what Feinstein’s talking about? I come away from her clarification with more questions than before.
Update: OK, this makes more sense. Feinstein’s office emails what they say is her full statement to the Times. The final sentence, which clarifies matters quite a great deal and is unequivocal about banning torture, was not included in the above quotation. Here’s the statement:
“The law must reflect a single, clear standard across the government, and right now the best choice appears to be the Army Field Manual,” Senator Feinstein said. “I recognize that there are other views, and I am willing to work with the new Administration to consider them. However, my intent is to pass a law that effectively bans torture, complies with all laws and treaties, and provides a single standard across the government.”
Much different than what appeared in the Times today.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time. | <urn:uuid:08629fcf-8f73-470d-9800-01c5c5a32280> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonindependent.com/20835/why-is-dianne-feinstein-creating-rhetorical-wiggle-room-for-torturing-people | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946248 | 625 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Explanations of the above rules are as follows:1. Standard forum rules apply; no flaming, no trolling, no spamming.
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The pinnacle work created by composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) during his short life was the grand opera, "Carmen." The famous opera, unfortunately, was not realized for its brilliance until after Bizet’s passing, but has been recorded and revered countless times since Bizet completed it in 1875, only three months before his untimely death.
This recording, from Warner Classics, features mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore in the title role of the free-spirited gypsy who revels in her Bohemian lifestyle, until she comes under the appreciative glance of the possessive soldier Don José (sung effectively by tenor Thomas Moser), whose lust for Carmen causes him to stray from his betrothed, Michaëla (gloriously performed by soprano Angela Gheorghiu, herself a veteran of the title role). Bizet’s score contains several of the most recognizable works in opera, including the famous tango, "Habanera" (seductively presented by Larmore), the rollicking "Toreador Song" (delivered with the right amount of conceit and self-assurance by baritone Samuel Ramey), and the uproarious "March," frequently used in film and in concert.
Originally recorded in 1996, this version of "Carmen" is presented in its entirety (just over two-and-a-half hours on 3 CD’s), under the able baton of conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli and supported by the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Sinopoli keeps the tempos brisk throughout the choruses, giving ample time for the soloists to be featured in this love triangle that ushered in a movement of realism in opera, with heightened passions and unfortunate circumstances. Though the packaging contains no libretto, the French libretto, as well as a German translation, is made available from Opera Guide (www.opera-guide.ch).
CD and Digital formats
Warner Classics / Teldec Classics | <urn:uuid:5e593eb1-f5b5-49e1-b1a7-3b7096e24a49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edgelosangeles.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=music&sc2=reviews&sc3=cd&id=135537 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950247 | 433 | 1.757813 | 2 |
In the summer of 2008, we polled IT executives for our annual IT salary survey just as the bottom began to fall out from under the mortgage lending and financial services industries.
"What a difference a year makes" is an understatement. The CIOs and IT managers surveyed in 2008 -- 400 in total -- were pretty optimistic about IT salaries, bonuses and the stability of their positions. Some said they would sooner leave their jobs than deal with a bad boss.
A prime concern at the time was the cost of gas -- $4 a gallon, causing many CIOs and IT managers to step up telecommuting. Still, the signs of a lagging economy were already beginning to show, with roughly 14% of the 2008 survey respondents reporting a salary freeze at their companies.
In 2009, IT managers shifted their concerns to eking out what they could as IT budgets shrank or remained flat. In a separate survey of IT priorities for 2010, 958 IT managers said their budgets would decrease by 2.7% in North America and 1.7% worldwide.
In the 2008 IT salary and careers survey, three in four IT executives expected a pay raise of about 3% to 4% in 2009, as well as a bonus as part of their compensation. Flash forward to 2009, and the average salary of the 952 respondents to this year's IT salary survey was $148,590 -- in 2008, the average salary of the 130 CIO and IT managers who responded to that question was $152,000. Although not an apples-to-apples comparison, it appears raises didn't quite materialize in 2009.
Then again, that is the average salary across all 2009 respondents. When asked if they received a raise in 2009, 353 or 37% of the respondents, said they did; another 364, or 38%, got a bonus.
On the flip side, 119, or 12.5%, experienced salary cuts in 2009, and 95, or 10%, had to take days off without pay.
The average salary of the 952 respondents to this year's IT salary survey was $148,590 -- in 2008, the average salary of the 130 CIO and IT managers who responded to that question was $152,000.
Looking ahead at 2010, 458 of the 2009 IT salary and career survey respondents said they expect a raise of about 4.7% this year, and almost 50% of all respondents said they expect a raise of some kind.
And there was more optimism, with 38% of the 2009 respondents reporting they were either satisfied with their overall compensation (23%) or extremely satisfied (15%). However, 23% said they were somewhat satisfied, 28% said they were somewhat dissatisfied and 11% were not at all satisfied with their IT salaries.
Job confidence took a hit in the 2009 IT salary survey. When asked how secure they felt in their job, 52% said they were extremely satisfied (23%) or satisfied (29%). In comparison, 67% of the 2008 respondents said they were mostly confident (44%) or very confident (23%) when it came to job security.
Despite lingering gloom and doom, CIO tenures aren't taking a beating, as they did during the technology-focused dot-com fiasco in 2000 and 2001. A survey by Stamford, Conn.-based analyst firm Gartner Inc. shows that the average tenure of a CIO is about 4.4 years, which is about that same as in 2008, the firm said.
Our 2009 IT salary and careers survey found that of the 889 respondents to our question on tenure, 14.5% had been with their company for three years, 12.9% for two years, 11.6% for five years and 10.5% for 11 to 20 years.
Read Senior News Writer Linda Tucci's article on CIO tenure to find out which industries tend to be a safer haven for CIOs than others.
Let us know what you think about the story; email Christina Torode, News Director. | <urn:uuid:8df81cd3-b263-4fb6-97a9-dff917e40673> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/1380436/IT-salary-survey-shows-no-growth-in-2009-but-that-could-end-in-2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982113 | 821 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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