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Editor's note: William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.
(CNN) -- With President Obama's re-election, many liberals believe they possess the building blocks of the winning political coalition of the future: college students, single women, gays, secularists, Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Liberals see here not a splintered electorate but key constituencies united by a common agenda of economic and social justice. In previous columns, I have conceded the strength of the Democrats in these quarters.
Fifty, 25, perhaps even 10 years ago, this brand of liberalism probably would have failed. But today, the country, the demographics and the culture are different. Americans are less white, less religious and less likely to get married and have families. Liberalism has adapted accordingly.
For the college student struggling with student loan debt, the single mother who can barely afford to provide for her children, the minority family in the inner city struggling to find work, liberalism offers immediate relief: subsidized student loans, national health care and entitlements for the elderly and the poor.
Rather than waiting on free markets to correct themselves and start creating wealth again, liberalism's cure is immediate, and so are the political payoffs. This explains partly why many voters feel liberals care about them more than conservatives.
For the ideologically driven -- the pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage voters and Sandra Flukes of the world (she was the Georgetown student at the center of a birth control debate this year) -- liberalism offers a slightly different relief: the rejection of the central role of mediating institutions -- like churches, families and community organizations -- in imposing moral standards to govern or regulate behavior within the state.
Churches and families can exist, says liberalism, so long as they exercise "soft" religion and don't force their views on the public. When they do, like in the case of the Catholic Church and contraception, it's necessary, says liberalism, for the state to step in and impart justice. This explains Obamacare's contraception mandate and why much was made over the "war on women."
Liberalism has effectively persuaded its many factions that it is uniquely qualified to meet their needs and desires, while conservatism has not. By its nature, liberalism molds to fit these times better than conservatism; conservatism is by its nature more abstract than practical, more focused on long-term considerations than short term.
Does this mean that conservatism is past its time and that liberalism is the mandate of the future?
No, it doesn't. Liberalism's continued success depends on many factors, but two in particular. First, it must paint the political alternative, conservatism, as the faction of social injustice, as anti-immigrant, anti-entitlement, anti-regulation and so on. The Obama campaign did that effectively in this election without an equally effective conservative response. One presumes that conservatives will be ready in 2016.
Second, and more important, effective state intervention of the sort liberals propose depends almost entirely on a state that is strong economically and socially. It is here that liberalism falls short in the long term. The various liberal constituencies are in fact atomized groups of individuals who are relying on government, rather than creating the economic growth or fostering the social and civic health necessary to sustain the ideal liberal state.
Whereas liberals see entitlements as the immediate response to economic injustice, many fail to realize that they alone cannot rebuild a middle class. In fact, they can have the opposite effect in the long term and insulate their recipients from upward mobility. With $16 trillion in national debt, an aging population and an already-overburdened entitlement system, the ideal liberal social welfare state can only sustain itself for so long before it collapses under its own weight. It is a lifeline attached to a slowly sinking ship.
Whereas liberals celebrate subsidized birth control and the unmooring of what they see as narrow-minded religious moral standards, they fail to realize the alternative that is right in front of them: out-of-wedlock birth rates that are at all-time highs and a destructive breakdown in the family unit.
Absent strong, active, character-forming institutions, like families, schools, and churches, single mothers and low-income households in many cases have no where else to turn but to the government. The problem is that liberals often confuse such allegiance with successful governing.
The liberal coalition of the future looks more like Greece, an advanced secular, social welfare state, than the idealized liberal glory days of FDR.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of William Bennett. | <urn:uuid:2c94a106-1d40-46e4-84b2-f6d7788b7e81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/28/opinion/bennett-liberalism/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7&imw=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959637 | 1,008 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Introducing sanity into the national debate over gun control is too big a job for any one person. We as a society have too much ground to make up, too many tragedies to rectify, too many loopholes to close. It is beyond the capacity of a single individual, even a president of the United States, to repair the damage caused by so-called “gun enthusiasts” and the zealots who run the National Rifle Association.
That said, an opportunity awaits Michael Bloomberg as he transitions from his 12 years as mayor to the next stage of his life. Long before those innocent children in Newtown were slaughtered, Mr. Bloomberg was the nation’s most passionate advocate of sensible and effective gun control. Now, as he enters his final year in City Hall, he clearly has an opportunity—he has the time and the resources—to help change the national conversation on guns.
And, to be sure, he has the temperament and the intelligence to shame those who still insist, even after Newtown, even after Aurora, even after Virginia Tech, that the government has no right to come between an American citizen and the assault rifle of his or her choice.
On Meet the Press this week, the mayor was gloriously impatient with all the talk about more talk about possibly doing something about guns. He has heard it all before. He wants action, and he made it clear that he will do what he can to transform words into legislation.
The mayor spared nobody in his interview with the show’s host, but he focused particular attention on President Obama, whom he supported for re-election. “The president campaigned in ’08 on an assault weapons ban,” Mr. Bloomberg noted. “And the only gun legislation that the president has signed since then … is the right to carry a gun in national parks where our kids play and … the right to carry guns on Amtrak. I assume that’s to stop the rash of train robberies, which stopped back in the 1800s. And this is ridiculous.”
And so it is. But even today, as children are being buried in Newtown, there are so very few politicians willing to speak with this sort of simmering outrage, this sort of contempt for those who would prevaricate, those who would poll first and take positions later, those who see injustice but are not moved to action.
During the recent presidential campaign, neither candidate talked much about guns, no doubt out of fear of offending the fanatics who control the NRA and other pro-gun groups. (Mr. Obama did say he would support a new assault weapons ban. Mr. Romney was silent on the issue.) The NRA’s political clout has cowed more than a few well-intentioned politicians since the 1960s. When Congress passed a ban on assault weapons in 1994, the NRA reacted with overwhelming force. It predicted that jackbooted federal agents would soon be smashing through doors and confiscating hunting rifles and lowly handguns.
Instead, Democrats and Republicans alike chose to allow the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004. Neither party wished to take on the NRA.
But Mayor Bloomberg has done so. Repeatedly. He has made himself the NRA’s least-favorite politician, and one pro-gun advocate called him “America’s most dangerous mayor.” Those words surely are a badge of honor. Mr. Bloomberg has organized hundreds of his fellow mayors to lobby for greater enforcement of gun regulations. He has sued gun dealers who sold weapons that wound up on the streets of New York. The NRA fulminated against what it called a campaign of “slander” against legitimate, respectable gun dealers. Former Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia, a member of the NRA, came to the dealers’ defense, assailing the mayor and promising to “finish” the fight “and win.”
How is that working out, Mr. Barr?
During the most recent election cycle, Mr. Bloomberg’s super PAC, Independence USA, helped to fund several congressional candidates who supported tighter gun restrictions or strict enforcement of laws already on the books. The NRA blustered that the mayor cared more about forcing gun laws on unsuspecting citizens than he did about helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Talk about slander.
Four of the seven candidates Mr. Bloomberg supported won their races—proof, the mayor said, that the NRA’s power is overrated. The most conspicuous victory took place in a southern California congressional contest, in which gun-loving incumbent Joe Baca, a Democrat, was ousted thanks largely to the $3 million that Mr. Bloomberg’s super PAC pumped into the race. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson summed up Mr. Baca’s loss with words that mean more today than they did even a month ago: “You can lose your seat by voting against prudent gun legislation,” he said. “Hopefully, members will think twice before taking these votes. They can’t just vote the NRA’s way and assume they won’t hear about it.”
The slaughter in Newtown appears to have changed the conversation about guns. Even reliable NRA supporters in Congress are wavering on the lobby’s fundamentalist approach to the Second Amendment. There certainly will be renewed support for a comprehensive and effective assault weapons ban, so that the Bushmaster rifle that Adam Lanza turned on 6-year-olds will no longer be available to civilian gun enthusiasts.
The question, really, is whether Congress and the president will do enough. Will Washington close loopholes, as Mayor Bloomberg is demanding, so that background checks are required of those who purchase weapons—lots and lots of weapons—at gun shows? Will the government provide resources so that background databases are kept up to date? Does Congress have the will to ban gun magazines that allow shooters to fire off hundreds of rounds?
Sadly, nobody can say with any real confidence that Washington will do whatever it takes to prevent another slaughter. It is quite feasible—in fact, it’s highly likely—that Washington will consider passage of a new assault weapons ban as a milestone achievement, as proof that politicians have heard the cries of the innocent and the grieving and have taken appropriate action.
And that is precisely why Michael Bloomberg’s voice, passion and resources are required in this desperate campaign to save lives and restore sanity to our civic life. An assault weapons ban is not enough. In fact, it is evidence of just how far removed we are as a society from simple common sense.
An assault weapons ban cannot be the end of the conversation. It must be the beginning. But the conversation is destined to be short-lived unless there are people willing to devote time, energy and—especially—resources to counter the zealots on the other side.
Michael Bloomberg certainly cannot do it by himself. But, as soon-to-be-former Congressman Baca can attest, the mayor and his allies are capable of effective political action, the sort of political action that puts fear in politicians’ hearts. And that’s one way to continue the conversation about gun control.
In the end, of course, the renewed push to change our attitudes and laws is attributable not to any one politician or any one law. The change has come about because 20 children in Newtown are dead.
We must not forget that.
Follow The Editors via RSS. | <urn:uuid:e846e12f-054a-441e-814b-80d1f1dc881b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://observer.com/2012/12/bloombergs-new-role-stopping-the-madness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9716 | 1,521 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Elijah Visits a Widow in Sidonian Territory
17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the Lord God of Israel lives (whom I serve), 1 there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.” 2 17:2 The Lord told him: 3 17:3 “Leave here and travel eastward. Hide out in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. 17:4 Drink from the stream; I have already told 4 the ravens to bring you food 5 there.” 17:5 So he did 6 as the Lord told him; he went and lived in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. 17:6 The ravens would bring him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he would drink from the stream.
17:7 After a while, 7 the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 17:8 The Lord told him, 8 17:9 “Get up, go to Zarephath in Sidonian territory, and live there. I have already told 9 a widow who lives there to provide for you.” 17:10 So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup 10 of water, so I can take a drink.” 17:11 As she went to get it, he called out to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” 11 17:12 She said, “As certainly as the Lord your God lives, I have no food, except for a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a couple of sticks for a fire. Then I’m going home to make one final meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.” 12 17:13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you planned. 13 But first make a small cake for me and bring it to me; then make something for yourself and your son. 17:14 For this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run out until the day the Lord makes it rain on the surface of the ground.’” 17:15 She went and did as Elijah told her; there was always enough food for Elijah and for her and her family. 14 17:16 The jar of flour was never empty and the jug of oil never ran out, just as the Lord had promised 15 through Elijah.
17:17 After this 16 the son of the woman who owned the house got sick. His illness was so severe he could no longer breathe. 17:18 She asked Elijah, “Why, prophet, have you come 17 to me to confront me with 18 my sin and kill my son?” 17:19 He said to her, “Hand me your son.” He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him down on his bed. 17:20 Then he called out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, are you also bringing disaster on this widow I am staying with by killing her son?” 17:21 He stretched out over the boy three times and called out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, please let this boy’s breath return to him.” 17:22 The Lord answered Elijah’s prayer; the boy’s breath returned to him and he lived. 17:23 Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upper room to the house, and handed him to his mother. Elijah then said, “See, your son is alive!” 17:24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a prophet and that the Lord really does speak through you.” 19
Elijah Meets the King’s Servant
18:1 Some time later, in the third year of the famine, the Lord told Elijah, 20 “Go, make an appearance before Ahab, so I may send rain on the surface of the ground.” 18:2 So Elijah went to make an appearance before Ahab.
Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 21 18:3 So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who supervised the palace. (Now Obadiah was a very loyal follower of the Lord. 22 18:4 When Jezebel was killing 23 the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them in two caves in two groups of fifty. He also brought them food and water.) 18:5 Ahab told Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grazing areas 24 so we can keep the horses and mules alive and not have to kill 25 some of the animals.” 18:6 They divided up the land between them; Ahab went 26 one way and Obadiah went the other.
18:7 As Obadiah was traveling along, Elijah met him. 27 When he recognized him, he fell facedown to the ground and said, “Is it really you, my master, Elijah?” 18:8 He replied, “Yes, 28 go and say to your master, ‘Elijah is back.’” 29 18:9 Obadiah 30 said, “What sin have I committed that you are ready to hand your servant over to Ahab for execution? 31 18:10 As certainly as the Lord your God lives, my master has sent to every nation and kingdom in an effort to find you. When they say, ‘He’s not here,’ he makes them 32 swear an oath that they could not find you. 18:11 Now you say, ‘Go and say to your master, “Elijah is back.”’ 33 18:12 But when I leave you, the Lord’s spirit will carry you away so I can’t find you. 34 If I go tell Ahab I’ve seen you, he won’t be able to find you and he will kill me. 35 That would not be fair, 36 because your servant has been a loyal follower of 37 the Lord from my youth. 18:13 Certainly my master is aware of what I did 38 when Jezebel was killing the Lord’s prophets. I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves in two groups of fifty and I brought them food and water. 18:14 Now you say, ‘Go and say to your master, “Elijah is back,”’ 39 but he will kill me.” 18:15 But Elijah said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all 40 lives (whom I serve), 41 I will make an appearance before him today.”
Elijah Confronts Baal’s Prophets
18:16 When Obadiah went and informed Ahab, the king went to meet Elijah. 42 18:17 When Ahab saw Elijah, he 43 said to him, “Is it really you, the one who brings disaster 44 on Israel?” 18:18 Elijah 45 replied, “I have not brought disaster 46 on Israel. But you and your father’s dynasty have, by abandoning the Lord’s commandments and following the Baals. 18:19 Now send out messengers 47 and assemble all Israel before me at Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah whom Jezebel supports. 48
18:20 Ahab sent messengers to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble at Mount Carmel. 18:21 Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? 49 If the Lord is the true God, 50 then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” But the people did not say a word. 18:22 Elijah said to them: 51 “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. 18:23 Let them bring us two bulls. Let them choose one of the bulls for themselves, cut it up into pieces, and place it on the wood. But they must not set it on fire. I will do the same to the other bull and place it on the wood. But I will not set it on fire. 18:24 Then you 52 will invoke the name of your god, and I will invoke the name of the Lord. The god who responds with fire will demonstrate that he is the true God.” 53 All the people responded, “This will be a fair test.” 54
18:25 Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls for yourselves and go first, for you are the majority. Invoke the name of your god, but do not light a fire.” 55 18:26 So they took a bull, as he had suggested, 56 and prepared it. They invoked the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us.” But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped 57 around on the altar they had made. 58 18:27 At noon Elijah mocked them, “Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.” 59 18:28 So they yelled louder and, in accordance with their prescribed ritual, 60 mutilated themselves with swords and spears until their bodies were covered with blood. 61 18:29 Throughout the afternoon they were in an ecstatic frenzy, 62 but there was no sound, no answer, and no response. 63
18:30 Elijah then told all the people, “Approach me.” So all the people approached him. He repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. 64 18:31 Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes that descended from Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, “Israel will be your new 65 name.” 66 18:32 With the stones he constructed an altar for the Lord. 67 Around the altar he made a trench large enough to contain two seahs 68 of seed. 18:33 He arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood. 18:34 Then he said, “Fill four water jars and pour the water on the offering and the wood.” When they had done so, 69 he said, “Do it again.” So they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time.” So they did it a third time. 18:35 The water flowed down all sides of the altar and filled the trench. 18:36 When it was time for the evening offering, 70 Elijah the prophet approached the altar 71 and prayed: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove 72 today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 18:37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are the true God 73 and that you are winning back their allegiance.” 74 18:38 Then fire from the Lord fell from the sky. 75 It consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, and the dirt, and licked up the water in the trench. 18:39 When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! 76 The Lord is the true God!” 18:40 Elijah told them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Don’t let even one of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah led them down to the Kishon Valley and executed 77 them there.
18:41 Then Elijah told Ahab, “Go on up and eat and drink, for the sound of a heavy rainstorm can be heard.” 78 18:42 So Ahab went on up to eat and drink, while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel. He bent down toward the ground and put his face between his knees. 18:43 He told his servant, “Go on up and look in the direction of the sea.” So he went on up, looked, and reported, “There is nothing.” 79 Seven times Elijah sent him to look. 80 18:44 The seventh time the servant 81 said, “Look, a small cloud, the size of the palm of a man’s hand, is rising up from the sea.” Elijah 82 then said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up the chariots and go down, so that the rain won’t overtake you.’” 83 18:45 Meanwhile the sky was covered with dark clouds, the wind blew, and there was a heavy rainstorm. Ahab rode toward 84 Jezreel. 18:46 Now the Lord energized Elijah with power; 85 he tucked his robe into his belt 86 and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. | <urn:uuid:929d9952-8473-49d0-9aa5-bd94bb9bd630> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://net.bible.org/?_escaped_fragment_=bible/1%2520Kings%252017-18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977334 | 2,855 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Posts Tagged ‘NASA’
posted by Sherry Stocking Kline
18 April 2010
The following was posted on and excerpted from the NASA Facebook page. To see more, and read more go to Facebook, and search for NASA Fit.
The Crew of STS 131 Is coming home soon, These are ground tracks for the first landing attempt at Kennedy Space Center. Take a look, maybe Discovery is coming over your city. The first Kennedy landing opportunity on the mission’s 222nd orbit would see a deorbit burn at 7:43 a.m. EDT Monday for the 8:48 a.m. landing.
by Sherry Stocking Kline
06 April 2010
Thanks to so many who have sent e-mails and left comments. I hadn’t thought to keep updating this site on Dottie, but I thank you for those suggestions, and I will do that!
It is amazing to think that as I tuck into bed with night-time prayers, sit here at the computer, do everyday stuff, that Dottie and her fellow astronauts are far above the earth circling us and working. Hard to imagine!
Here is a link to a nice article from ABC News about Dottie, “Discovery Teacher Breaks the Mold” and a short lift-off video that they call “the picture perfect” lift off! For those of us who remember when the lift off ended quickly with an explosion, “picture perfect” are great words!
You can see the latest news about the STS-131 mission here at the NASA.gov website, as well as an awesome lift-off photograph taken by NASA personnel.
And you can see more great STS-131 Mission Photographs here!
Here you can see a great photograph of the space station, and read about what the mission will be doing, how many space walks it will do, etc. Dottie told me what her job will be, and you can read about that in my first post here.
God Bless, Dottie!
Other Related Posts:
by Sherry Stocking Kline
05 April 2010
Usually when our ancestors, or even ourselves become a bigger part of history we’re just not aware of it at the time. It’s when the history books write the story and we read it later that we know, even if they did not, that they helped shape the events of that time.
But today, my cousin’s daughter, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, went up in space and for all time she became one of those whose names go down in history books, one of those brave and courageous ones who went into outer space and helped shape history.
Dorothy is one of three educator astronauts, and she will see our world, our earth, in a perspective we can only try to imagine! Just think of what she can share with her students, and those she will speak to in the future.
Dorothy told me that her job will be on the flight deck as the flight engineer for ascent and entry, and she will be flying the Shuttle’s robotic arm, helping move 18,000 pounds of science and engineering equipment.
Dottie said that during the spacewalks, she will be inside as the crew member leading them through the spacewalk.
The launch this morning (Praise the Lord!) was picture perfect, and for the next 13 days, Dottie will be doing what she’s trained for the past several years to do, and those of us here, friends and family will pray for her safety and watch their mission on www.NASA.gov and our local television channels!
Other Related Links:
Denver Channel News – Dottie’s parent’s interview from Ft. Collins, CO
Runner’s World Article: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/1,7124,s6-243-410–13448-0,00.html#
Wellington Daily News: http://www.wellingtondailynews.com/features/x1336921704/Astronaut-has-Sumner-County-ties | <urn:uuid:d6fcfbcc-c049-42ed-9005-62f1c0881d97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familytreewriter.com/tag/nasa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945424 | 879 | 1.703125 | 2 |
What's your opinion on organic vs. non-organic?
Ever heard the phrase, “unintended consequences?” That’s exactly what’s happened to the organic movement. What began as a noble effort to get everyone eating healthier has turned into a marketing scheme that puts money into inspector’s pockets. Don’t get me wrong, I love organic when it comes to fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy or meat. But for processed foods…forget it. I truly believe you’re wasting your money. The nutrients are all but gone, and the difference is minimal. Unfortunately, tea has fallen into this trap. Nothing wrong with organic tea, but if you can’t taste the difference, you’re gaining very little. I would rather drink fresh tea that wasn’t organic than stale USDA certified organic tea that’s been sitting in a warehouse for 3 years. It’s all a big business now and has very little to do with the small farmers like it used to do.
I can ramble on and on, but I was wondering how many of you are tired of big companies marketing organic processed foods (tea included) to you?
i think organic food is the least of peoples worries when it comes to their diet(in general)
a decent analogy might be – its hard to focus on the dust on the floor if theres boxes of trash everywhere. with people eating tons of sugars/fats/salts in foods with little to no nutrition its hard to imagine whether or not some of their food being organic makes a difference.(may be a bigger issue in healthier lifestyles)
as far as the actual ‘Vs’ goes i think in general natural fertilizers may be better for the enviornment and provide the plants/food sources with a greater spectrum of nutrition than just chemical alternatives.
chemical pesticides/herbicides on top of being bad for the enviornment may also pose health risks to people, in general enviornmental polution that dirrectly effects us should be taken more seriously. ( this may effect processed foods even though there may be no nutritional difference )
i personally dont see organic being thrown around too much, not really sure what your reffering to in this respect. but i do see companys quite frequently try to decieve people into thinking their product is safer/better for them even when its obviosly not.
as just a point i would say that companies arnt in buisiness to keep people healthy or look after their wellbeing; some companies may feel they have a moral obligation but i think for the most part its just an afterthought to making money/promoting/expanding their product. cant blame them for doing what buisiness’s do, if its important enough eventually people will start paying closer attention and making sure their food is more nutritious/healthy.
a quote im quite fond of is “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve” while this applys to government i feel it also applies to other aspects of life, and if you view the free market as a bunch of people voting with their wallets they are getting exactly what they deserve when they buy into the b******t companies feed them; more so than ever considering the amount of information we have available to us.
I agree with this. Particularly the point that it’s not just a question of what’s better for me, but also what’s better for the environment and healthier for the farmer who may not be able to afford/even understand the necessity of safety equipment when working with chemicals.
Whether I think I can taste a difference (I usually can’t) or whether I think the food is more nutritious (I don’t necessarily believe it is; it just contains less trace chemicals which IMO is not the same thing); that matters less to me.
well i basicly try to buy loads off organic stuff, especialy fresh fruit :) Also i usualy buy tea from jingtea.com in the uk, and they have very very good organic tea’s and from small farmers if i’m not mistaken! almost always picking date and packing date on the packages and stuff.
For my other food the warehouse where i live in belgium got a fairly large selection of organic (bio) foods, from cookies to rice and pasta. so if the price is right i usualy go for the organic and fairtrade stuff over big multinational company’s. Even tough its not always better in taste but on par or the same, it feels better for myself :)
I feel like the original purpose of the organic movement, to be gentler to the earth and to our bodies, to eat food the way it’s supposed to be, has been lost to people trying to make a buck. People who obsessed with making sure that everything that goes into their body is organic have lost sight of what it is really supposed to be about.
Being a purveyor of Organic Tea, we’d have to (no surprises here) respectfully disagree.
In Defense of Organic
Organic nay-sayers are quite right to point out that the organic industry has boomed and, indeed, many people have gotten rich selling organic products. But to make the assertion that “organic” has become a scheme to put money in inspector’s profits or raise profit margins in general is mostly mistaken.
It goes without saying that the stringent organic requirements (and believe us, they are stringent—just look at the giant Organic System Plan that is required to sell our product as Organic) are necessary to keep the integrity of the Organic Label.
While most food labels mean nothing (i.e. “natural”) Organic has an extremely strict set of requirements that is tracked from farm to cup in the case of tea.
In Defense of Organic Tea
Tea, in particular benefits from being organic. We’ve all read the stories of how particular foods benefit more from Organic certification than others—for example it’s probably not necessary to buy organic bananas, because the peel collects all the bad stuff. On the other hand, leafy greens are prime candidates for organic production because the pesticides are absorbed by (and stay in) the parts that we eat.
What does this mean for tea? Tea is quite unique in that it is never washed (it cannot be). The leaves are plucked and processed (dried), and packed. So the first time your tea is ever washed is in your cup—it’s what you are drinking. Gross. This is why organic tea makes sense.
**Truly there are hundreds of difference sources, from new-age organic well-wishing blogs to peer-reviewed academic studies, to FDA and USDA studies, that point to an unfortunate truth—tea (the non-organic kind) is often laced with really, really bad stuff.
Does it affect the taste? No, not really. Does it increase the price? A little, not much. The truth is, most of the burden of increased cost is passed to the government (not the consumer) in the form of Organic reimbursements. Does it affect your health—we certainly know that these chemicals are not meant to be ingested, and we know that non-organic tea often has dangerous levels of these chemicals, but to assert a 1-to-1 relationship between drinking non-organic tea and health risks would be difficult. But we’d rather not take the risk.
After all, when you look in your cup of (insert favorite tea here), don’t you want to know that
1) it doesn’t have some crazy chemical in it,
2) the workers in the tea fields didn’t have to spray those chemicals, and
3) at most it cost you an extra 5 cents for that very cup? We think so.
I think organic is a good way to go if you can afford it. But I believe that it has gone a little overboard. I don’t mean it’s overboard when it comes to whole foods like fruits and vegetables. I mean it’s overboard when you have highly processed foods that claim to be all natural or organic when they don’t even resemble the foods they originally came from, or when the finished product are mostly additives and chemicals that barely contain a fraction of whole foods.
I know from farmers markets, that not all farmers (mostly small ones) don’t have the money to get the organic certification. As for tea, I would prefer organic or small farmers that are not labeled as such.
I’ve read an article several months ago stating that not all areas (speaking of China here) are known for using a lot of chemicals. If I can, I will try to find the article and post it here, but I make no guarantees since it was a while ago. But the article was stating that southern coastal regions where the human population is more dense is where more (and worse) chemicals are used. Again, I will try to find this article.
To your point Zim, I would point out that organic growers can call their foods organic without worrying about expensive certifications—so long as their organic sales are under 5000 a year—even when they are above 5000, the cost is only about 250 dollars
Invader Zim, your points are spot on with my original thoughts. Organic is good, but companies are taking advantage of consumer ignorance, and that really bugs me. To me, organic means from the earth in its natural form like fruits, milk or beef as opposed to certified organic waffle mix, which really has little nutritional value regardless of certification.
It would be nice to buy tea from small growers that you knew what their practices were. But unless you are living in a region where tea is grown, that is basically impossible. I find organic tea is more likely to be high-quality in general, but I’m sure that’s not always true. If you want to consume something natural, I would go for an organic tea that is free of anything called a “flavor” including “natural flavor” which is a dubious label. Tea is grown in countries that do not have high standards for pesticide safety, and I think certified organic offers some level of protection against that.
I agree with you about organic being a way to put money in the inspectors pockets. My friend’s family sells organic eggs and there is only one inspector for the entire area that does the inspection. This person recieves HdTV’s and other fancy things for Christmas from the people on his route…
Hm. I would call that bribery and report it…
I don’t condone it. I just know that that is how you get certified for this region
And if that place is corrupted, where else is? I think the idea of organic goods is great; I’m just a bit leery if the reality, especially when it involves bureaucrats.
But considering waffle mix is undoubtably made with products that have been grown or contains an animal by product…some of us like to be reassured that those items are organic as well.
Honestly, I don’t care whether something is organic or not. I try and eat healthy when I can afford to, and I try to buy local whenever possible. But just like with other dietary lifestyle choices like veganism, etc, if someone wants to live their life that way, more power to them. I just couldn’t care less to hear about it. | <urn:uuid:8fa992ea-e2f8-4a53-8b4b-a732650f6cc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://steepster.com/discuss/4041-whats-your-opinion-on-organic-vs-non-organic?page=1&post_id=65178 | 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 | 0.965286 | 2,413 | 1.632813 | 2 |
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba --
The boat people trying to reach U.S. soil are imaginary and so is the Caribbean nation in crisis. But the Army general who flew in from Texas to take charge is the real deal for hundreds of troops rehearsing to get ready for a humanitarian crisis.
Guantánamos airstrip was abuzz this weekend as about 500 troops descended for an every-other-year drill whose name reflects how little the military wants to draw attention to it Exercise Integrated Advance.
For a week, soldiers, sailors and Homeland Security officials are rehearsing how to manage an imaginary humanitarian-relief crisis inspired by the tens of thousands of Haitians and Cubans who overwhelmed this base in the 1990s.
But the exact nature of the scenario how many migrants flood the base, whether theres unrest, disease, spies in the tent camps is all classified. Only Pentagon-approved photos of the exercise will be released, and the people involved in acting out the episode from here to Miami to Washington, D.C., are sworn to secrecy.
Thats because nobody wants news about it to touch off a real, live Caribbean exodus. The intent, say organizers, is not to encourage anyone in the Caribbean to get on rafts to reach this Navy base in southeast Cuba, but to be ready in case it happens.
Is the scenario driven by political unrest or a natural disaster?
All Army Col. Greg Julian, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, will say is that this 21st century war-game is about a mass migration event in the Caribbean.
One thing theyll rehearse is registering 1,000 migrants in a single day. And if history is any guide, the actors should cram inside the processing tent desperate, undocumented and disorganized.
We certainly wouldnt want to instigate a real event, said Julian from Southcom, which is spending $2.7 million on the exercise, nearly half of it on transportation for troops and supplies from its Army South headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.
So, We generally wont use a nation. We use country 1, country 2 because we dont want to get into any political issues.
The exercise is occurring less than a month after Cuba abandoned a policy of requiring citizens to get exit visas to leave the island legally.
But so far, the U.S. government has detected no spike or anything of Cubans trying to reach U.S. soil either by land or sea, said a federal official who spoke on condition he not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the Pentagons drill.
The drill was planned long before Cuba changed its exit-visa policy, with U.S. government divisions that would answer to the Department of Homeland Security rehearsing a reaction to whatever that push factor is going to be, from political activity to natural disaster.
It helps us to make sure all the ducks are in a row, Julian added, if and when we have to kick this off for real.
The International Organization for Migration is taking part; the International Committee of the Red Cross is not.
Meantime, just to make sure theres no misunderstandings, the Navy captain in charge of the base here used the occasion of his monthly meeting with a Cuban Army officer at the U.S. Marine Corps fence line to notify the military across the minefield of the reason for the U.S. troop build-up.
Planners decided against erecting model tent cities for migrants around rows of cinder-block bathrooms and showers the Bush administration had a contractor build in scrubby fields on the base in 2007, just in case. But theres a razor-wire-ringed command-and-control center for Army Maj. Gen. Frederick Rudesheim the Army South commander in charge of troops reacting to fake news reports prepared by a training unit in Norfolk, Va., featuring fake TV anchors introducing fake interviews interspersed with real historical footage.
With U.S. forces in constant rotation, to work together in an exercise before we actually have to do it in a real world situation is very important, said Army Col. Jane Crichton, leading the public affairs portion of the exercise what you tell the world, what images you release.
Exercising doing simulation is harder than what youd do in reality, the colonel added, because theyre compressing a potential crisis spanning weeks or months into days.
This 45-square-mile base mostly looks like a small town with a McDonalds, pleasure-boat marina and two free open-air movie theaters.
But it has long served as a U.S. military safe haven in the Caribbean.
In 2010, the State Department used its airstrip as a massive way station of relief supplies to quake-shattered Haiti. Between 1984 and 1986, Guantánamo sheltered more than 50,000 Haitians and Cubans from the golf course to a stretch of land overlooking the sea where theyd been picked up fleeing their nations.
Now the Pentagons prison for 166 captives has become part of the routine run by 1,700 U.S. military and civilian contractors, atop the place that provided safe haven in the 1980s.
So on the Windward side of the base this weekend, sailors and other residents spent the weekend fishing on the bay, at the beaches or cruising the waters in recreation boats from an $8.9 million marina rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy smashed up the place.
On the Leeward side, the atmosphere bristled with purpose flights discharged relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks for the latest pre-trial hearings at the war-crimes tribunals while, just beyond the airstrip, Army South was conjuring up classified challenges of a faux migrant crisis. | <urn:uuid:a35e5cc3-ce34-4f0f-9487-f904c2324758> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/02/11/v-print/2489171/guantanamo-is-used-for-mass-migration.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940645 | 1,187 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Instead of writing one of those dreaded "oh, I have nothing to write about today" posts, I thought I'd share an excerpt of an article I wrote a few years back. This is back when I still thought of myself as mainly a "cycle tourist," and was trying to conjure up a definition of what that meant. So, in honor of the Iditarod race, here's "Of Dogs and Cyclists."
"... See, cyclists are a lot like dogs. No, not because they eat protein snacks and bark at cars. To most, a cyclist is a cyclist - but that doesn't stop the proliferation of a startling variety of breeds.
First there are commuters. Commuters are the Labrador retrievers of the pack. Throw them a good bicycle route, and they'll keep coming back. They love a good game of "catch"- that is, sprinting to catch green lights. They're highly sociable, largely domesticated and don't mind being leashed to the same roads day after day.
Then there are the recreational riders, the toy poodles. They're mostly out for show. They often have the best bikes on the block, as shiny as the day they were purchased - and often as unused. They coast gingerly along smooth payment, chrome sparkling in the sunlight, all while smiling dreamily to grab the attention of passers by.
In contrast, there are the extreme mountain bikers, the huskies, pulling their powerful bodies over terrain that nature never intended them to cross. Their bikes show the marks of a life fully lived, coated in mud and marred by deep scars. They live on the cusp of tame and wild, fully prepared for the roughest conditions. They work well in groups but their minds are fiercely independent, and they're never fully content when they come down from the mountain.
Recreational mountain bikers are golden retrievers. Like their husky brothers, they love going on long rides in the mountains, jumping in the mud and summoning their maximum energy level whenever they go out. However, they're also just as happy to curl up on the couch when the weather forecast calls for rain.
There are club riders, the Shetland sheepdogs, who are happiest in herds. They're always nipping at the heels of other riders to keep a good drafting speed as they move in formation along the road. Separation from the herd is a mark of shame.
Road racers, on the other hand, break out of the pack when it really matters. Like greyhounds, they move in graceful unity until the time comes to rush forward in a stunning burst of speed. Their sleek, lycra-clad bodies were built for speed and speed alone. They can be a delicate breed, prone to freezing in the winter and unable to carry the weight of life's necessities on their ultra-light bikes.
That's where cycle tourists are different. Tourists are the St. Bernards trailing behind the pack - big, bulky, slow, but built to last, built to withstand the rain and snow and ice and wind that gets in the way during the long haul. Tourists are well adept to carrying large loads on their bikes, pulling them when necessary, moving at a steady speed until they reach their final destination, whether it's 5 or 5,000 miles away ..." | <urn:uuid:13dfcec7-0fc0-4241-bb9d-70bf4c178d51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/2006/03/hey-this-is-my-blog.html?showComment=1142336580000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975506 | 684 | 1.625 | 2 |
Blog messages with the tag 'home business':
Communicate with at least six people in work place. Let them understand what your qualifications are, let them get to know who you are. When the time comes that you purchase laid off, you can properly for a recommendation.
You never know when a job opportunity might show up. If you expand the people you network with to help different careers or market sectors, you might find out about a job that's available in a completely different area than where you would normally look. This will continue your options open.
How many people have you kept touching in the last six months? Start keeping in touch with all your colleges, it will make it less of a challenge to talk to them when you really need to. Make it a denote have lunch with them or even a cup of coffee now and then. You can even retain in touch by email. Drop them an email so often and find out that they are doing and in turn tell them what your up to.
If you really need to expand your network, sign-up on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business social site on the internet. You can find available what new and old business are available, that you may haven't considered. You can discover what your previous colleges are doing. If this is the legitimate business, they will not be making this type of claim.
Another plus side to networking, is you can find out more information about the web business world. There are a great deal of social sites to join and ask questions. There is Twitter, Twitter and MySpace. These sites are good to network with, where you'll be able to find out a lot of information.
So if it comes down to having to look for work, network!
We have all accomplished it. Listed people you know and like, as personalized and professional references. We never really cease to question what they will say to our prospective employers. Even if we did discuss this with each other, can you count on them to speak only praise when something as important as a job is on the line?
I know that many hard work that explores landing a Job. The last thing you would like is to miss an opportunity for a great job caused by a negative or even neutral reference. After, checking references on 1000s of prospects, you would be surprised at what type of information I got. In this job market employers can choose the best of the best. A bad or even a neutral reference can send you down in just a few seconds. Passive networking doesn't succeed nearly as effectively being a targeted approach. Identify who you might want to meet, and then find a way to make it happen.
And no networking whatsoever - well, you're not going to make that mistake.
Don't throw up your hands if practically nothing has happened within a few weeks. That's something else your competition is going to do. Frustration will set in quickly because their expectations are unrealistic, and they'll commence to run out of gas. You, on the other hand, will persevere because you know you're searching smart - in addition to a smart search will generate results ultimately.
iş ilanları, iş arıyorum, iş ilanları | <urn:uuid:71fb8067-fe72-4b25-9159-e8dbf7817303> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.netlog.com/Muqaqeryawlour/blog/tag=home+business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969963 | 659 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Diamond Jubilee: UK will pay tribute to committed Queen
More than ever, this Jubilee weekend will be a tribute.
Queen Elizabeth II has been the UK's head of state for longer than most of its citizens can remember.
For 60 years she has fulfilled the role of constitutional monarch, a figure separate from politics but always in touch with events.
The person who has embodied Britain to the wider world and been a focus for unity within the country's increasingly diverse communities.
For all of those reasons and others - not least her unflagging commitment to her role - there is perhaps a greater sense of personal regard for her than at any time since the early years of her reign back in the 1950s.Crowds came out
Twenty-five years into her reign in 1977, Britain celebrated her Silver Jubilee - 25 years after that, in 2002, came the Golden Jubilee.
Both those jubilees started sluggishly. The 1970s was a decade of economic austerity and social transition.
The Queen had lost the glamour of her youth and Britain had lost its sense of deference to the monarchy.
She conveys a sense of history the like of which we have not seen in Britain since the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria”
Voices were raised against the cost of the Silver Jubilee. There were concerns in the then Labour government of James Callaghan that it might be something of a damp squib.
It was not.
When the day of the main Jubilee celebrations arrived, the Queen came out in shocking pink and the crowds in their hundreds of thousands.
By 2002 at the time of the Golden Jubilee, the Queen had recently emerged from her most difficult time, the 1990s.
The decade brought family divisions, the death of a much-loved princess and an unprecedented degree of criticism that the monarchy was out-of-touch with public sentiment.
Courtiers at Buckingham Palace were concerned over how Britain felt about its monarchy after the recent passage of such troubled times.
They need not have worried. After another slow start - when sections of the media fretted that the Jubilee was failing to take off - the crowds again proved the doubters wrong.Warm reception
And so to 2012, and for this Jubilee the doubters seem to have been almost completely absent.
From the first Diamond Jubilee visit in early March to the multi-cultural city of Leicester, there has been a heightened degree of interest and real warmth in the receptions the Queen has received.
True, in Leicester she brought the Duchess of Cambridge with her.
A shrewd move which linked the Queen very publicly with her grand-daughter-in-law, but notwithstanding the interest in Kate, it was the Queen whom most people seemed keenest to see.
And so it will be this Jubilee weekend. She is 86 now and has been monarch for 60 years.
She conveys a sense of history the like of which we have not seen in Britain since the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria, the only other British sovereign to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee.
We know that not everyone is a monarchist. Not everyone will - literally or metaphorically - be raising a glass this weekend.
But all the evidence suggests that Britain remains a nation which is overwhelmingly comfortable with the monarchy, and which feels that the qualities offered by a queen such as Elizabeth II are qualities which it values and would not wish to lose.
For those reasons, on the River Thames on Sunday, outside Buckingham Palace on Monday; at St Paul's Cathedral and along the route back to the Palace on Tuesday, and at countless street parties and beacon lightings, Britain will reaffirm its commitment and gratitude to its Queen. | <urn:uuid:165a0048-0b5c-4420-a318-5c084c8896dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18283975 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971014 | 770 | 1.820313 | 2 |
MADD, police seek ‘zero’ fatalities over holidays
Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 9:26 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 9:26 p.m.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving lit a Christmas tree in Gray Thursday with white lights and decorated it with photographs of those killed because of drunk driving.
For every alcohol-related fatal crash in the area, the organization will change one bulb from white to red, said Valerie Cox, state Mothers Against Drunk Driving representative.
But those who gathered Thursday hope that doesn’t happen this holiday season.
The ceremony promoted State Police’s annual “Zero For December” campaign in which law enforcement aims to have zero fatal car wrecks between Thanksgiving and Christmas when drunk driving is most common.
State Police Troop C, as well as other parish and city law enforcement agencies, boost their patrols during this time to catch and deter drunk drivers.
Troop C announced the zero goal in 2001. It has never been successful.
Last December, three fatal crashes happened in Lafourche, one in Terrebonne, one in Assumption and one in St. James — all Troop C parishes.
Seven people died in holiday-period fatal wrecks in the area in 2010 and 2009.
Drunk driving is “one of the most significant issues facing society today,” said Capt. Darrin Naquin, Troop C commander.
Of the 38 people who died from car crashes in the troop’s area last year, 21 of those deaths were because of impaired driving, Naquin said.
“It has done and continues to do too much damage to our communities,” he said.
Local State Police troopers said they are trying to implement a no-refusal policy throughout their jurisdiction during this time, as they did in 2010. Under the no-refusal program, troopers can use probable cause to get a signed search warrant from a district judge, forcing suspected drunk drivers who refuse a Breathalyzer to submit to a breath, blood or urine test.
To prevent a DWI arrest, Naquin advised those who drink to call a taxi, sleep over at a friend’s house or go out with a designated driver.
Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said one year in the past his office offered rides to people who were too drunk to drive home on New Year’s, but “nobody took us up on that offer.”
Deputies won’t be able to do that this year, Larpenter said, because “we don’t have the finances we used to.”
VICTIMS’ FAMILIES SUFFER AFTER CRASHES
Earlier Thursday morning, before the Christmas tree lighting, Rozelia Naquin attended the sentencing of the man who hit her son, causing brain-damaging injuries, while driving drunk. She arrived at the Troop C event later in the day.
Judge Randy Bethancourt sentenced Derrol Boudreaux, 55, to 30 days of home incarceration and a $1,000 fine. Boudreaux must also tell his story at schools to deter students from driving drunk.
Francis Naquin, 42, was walking in Bayou Dularge Road in August 2011 when Boudreaux saw him and tried to swerve, police said at the time. Naquin simultaneously darted in the same direction, and Boudreaux hit him with his passenger-side mirror.
Boudreaux blew a 0.089 during an alcohol-breath test, over the legal limit for driving, and was arrested. Investigators later determined alcohol was a factor in the situation, though it was partially unavoidable because Francis Naquin was in the road.
In February, a Terrebonne grand jury said there is not enough evidence to proceed to trial on Boudreaux’s negligent injury charge. Prosecutors elected to proceed with a DWI charge against him.
As a result of the accident, Francis Naquin had to have three brain surgeries, cannot walk or sit, and does not understand much of what is going on around him, Rozelia Naquin said.
“Francis has a life sentence, and Derrol can go about his business,” she said.
Josephine Rodrigue, Bayou Region MADD coordinator and Houma resident, spoke during the Troop C event about her late husband Elgin, who burned to death when his truck was struck by a drunk driver and exploded. The drunk driver, a 20-year-old, also died.
“Elgin was not killed in a motor vehicle accident,” Rodrigue said. “Elgin was killed by a drunk driver. ... An accident is something a person cannot plan. Everyone knows alcohol causes impairment.”
Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:0e4d16f5-9f38-459b-adab-8fd1dc995a65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20121115/ARTICLES/121119771/1187/Katie.Urbaszewski@dailycomet.com | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969704 | 1,083 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Posted On: January 29, 2013
Predictions by an official with the central bank of England that the local economy will expand as much as 2.5 percent during the next 18 months spurred the English pound from its five-month lows against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
The monetary unit of the U.K. achieved gains for the first time in four days against the shared currency of the European Union. Policy maker David Miles with the Bank of England said regional economic growth is forecast to climb at minimum 2 percent.
"Given Miles was the only Monetary Policy Committee member to vote for an expansion of stimulus this month, his comments are taken by the market as being hawkish," senior currency strategist Jane Foley with Rabobank International in London told the news source on Tuesday. "That helped to support the pound as some people may have covered short positions on that."
Last month saw gains for mortgage approvals in the U.K., according to predictions of economists regarding a report set to be released on Wednesday.
Regulators with the Bank of England are increasingly driving toward a chasm regarding the measurement of currency risk, The Telegraph reports
Category: Industry News
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See our available FX payment services | <urn:uuid:8a23eba5-bd01-4350-b97c-d57b22674d22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.westernunion.com/resource-center/articles/post/Pound-climbs-amid-BOE-officials-growth-prediction.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95868 | 282 | 1.585938 | 2 |
William Davies has an extraordinary, timely article at the fantastic Open Democracy website: The age of surveillance: a new "dotcom boom"? (thanks be, once again, to wood s lot). Myself, I have nothing daringly neutral or witty to say about it. But maybe I'll think of something later. Read the whole thing; there are funny comments about "bedfellows." Here's an excerpt:
The most important lesson that marketers and futurologists can learn about new technologies is not to extrapolate too far from the “early adopters”. Be it cars, telephones, televisions or computers, the long-term implications of new tools are never apparent at the outset, but only emerge once they have become ubiquitous across society.
(By the way, I'm personally very pleased that this blog does not have a category called, "Culture War." And *not* because I deny that such a term exists. Being careful about the words one chooses to dignify, such as through uncareful repetition is, "in my book", by no means an unimportant task. Nay, duty.)
Ridiculously late and off-thepage update: As may have been mentioned before, I think Google is a bit monolithic, and scary.
The car began life as a rich man’s toy, but its most profound long-term consequence was the growth of suburbs. The television was initially an object of fascination for the family to congregate around, rather than the perennial and solitary experience that it has become for many individuals. In recent years, we’ve witnessed what happens when mobile phones and internet connections shift from the margins of society to the mainstream.
William Davies is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), and author of a new report, Modernising with Purpose: A Manifesto for a Digital Britain.
Marketers use the term “tipping-point” to describe the moment when a product makes the transition from being unusual and eye-catching, to being pervasive and invisible. One minute an item is being paraded like a trophy, of rarity and novelty value. The next it is a necessary accoutrement, without which modern living would seem impossible.
The language of “early adopters” and “tipping-points” is generally used when looking at the fast-moving though ultimately frivolous world of consumer habits. But perhaps we can identify something analogous to a tipping-point that took place on a more historically significant level, around five years ago, in the eighteen months that followed the dotcom crash.
Speculation about the shape and politics of the “digital age” had been rife for decades. The tipping-point in question occurred between the collapse of the Nasdaq and that of the World Trade Center, when one narrative about the function of digital networks in our society stuttered to a halt, and another one emerged. The underlying purpose of mass digitisation changed...
In the wake of the London bombings of July 2005, the pessimistic question has to be asked: did that period between April 2000 and September 2001 represent a tipping-point? As moronic and greedy as the dotcom boom and its associated fripperies may have been, there was an innocence about all of that investment and innovation, as if the benefits would flow later somehow or other.
But having been drawn into the digital age by the allure of its newness – just like any “early adopters” – we may now be settling down into a surveillance society where privacy is at best conditional, and contingency is monitored and dealt with. Historians may one day reflect on the bizarre coincidence by which westerners exuberantly flooded their societies with digital technology for very little reason whatsoever, just in time for it to be put to use as part of the largest international policing programme ever. | <urn:uuid:e6abf28d-3d5f-41a4-b3b6-bbf3a0376939> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://long-sunday.net/long_sunday/2005/08/we_should_reall.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 | 0.960995 | 797 | 1.5 | 2 |
THE TOWN OF MANHEIM
HERKIMER COUNTY, NY
Manheim is a geographically small town in the far eastern
end of Herkimer County, where it borders the towns of Oppenheim, Fulton County and St. Johnsville, Montgomery County. It's
whole eastern border is bounded by East Canada Creek. Brockett's Bridge is now the scenic 19th century village of Dolgeville,
home of the Daniel Green shoe factory, as well as the Dolgeville-Manheim Historical Society (photo left). No, you can't do
research there yet but you can see interesting displays and artifacts.
In 1869 Manheim had sizeable concentrations of families of the surnames Bellinger, Brown, Helmer, Loucks, Snell, Timmerman
and Van Valkenburg, as well as descendants of other early families whose surnames appear on our queries boards. Do you have
obits, pension records or info about families in the 1869 directory, or other Manheim info to share? Please let me know what
you have! The profile of the Town of Manheim, directly after article listings on this page.
1869-70 GAZETTEER AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY: MANHEIM
1887-88 Herkimer County Directory: Dolgeville
1888-1889 Dolgeville Directory
1888-1889 Manheim Directory
4/10/10 Inghams Mills Rural Park Cemetery
1800 Census of Manheim
1870 & 1880 Census Partials
1890 Census, Surviving Veterans and Widows of the Town of Manheim
HISTORY OF MANHEIM
Highway Records of the Palatine District
History of Inghams Mills
Manheim Town Officials
Dolgeville Post Office Mural
Golden Anniversary of Rural Electrification
Tax Records of the Town of Palatine: 1787 and 1788
History of Dolgeville NY Fire Department
Beardslee Castle in 1953
CEMETERIES OF MANHEIM
Faville Peck, or Sherwood, Cemetery
Old City Cemetery
SNELLS BUSH CEMETERY
Yellow Church Cemetery Burials
Dolgeville Cemetery: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
MANHEIM FAMILIES AND PERSONS OF NOTE
Wills of the Davis Family
A Line of the Brockett Family
Will of John Strough
Will of Yost Henry Davis
Faville Family Genealogy
1937 Melrose Soccer Team Champions
Wills of Valentine & Catherine Steinmuller of Manheim
The Old Yellow Church
Memorandum of Formation of the Old Yellow Church of Manheim, NY
Roll of Members From the Old Yellow Church of Manheim, NY, 1839
Index to the Baptisms of the Old Yellow Church of Manheim, NY, 1811-1843
Baptismal Records of the Old Yellow Church of Manheim, NY, 1811-1843
Revolutionary War Pension Record of Henry Ritter
SCHOOLS OF MANHEIM
1934 Dolgeville Jr. High Commencement Program
1935 Dolgeville Jr. High Commencement Program
1926 Dolgeville Union Free School Class Photograph
5th and 6th Grade Class Photo, Union Free School, Dolgeville, NY, circa 1922
Aunt May's Diary: early 20th century Dolgeville seen
through the eyes of a young woman; a link to another site
PROFILE AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MANHEIM
from the Gazetteer and Business Directory of Herkimer County, N.Y. 1869-70
MANHEIM, named from Manheim, in Baden, the native place of the first settlers, was formed from Palatine, Montgomery County, April 7th, 1817. It lies on the north bank of the Mohawk, upon the east border of the County. The surface gradually rises from the flats along the Mohawk, to the north border, where it attains an elevation of 500 feet above the river. East Canada Creek, called by the Indians Ci-o-ha-na, forms the east boundary. Cathatachua Creek flows south, through near the center, and Bennett Brook flows south-east through the north-east corner. There is a series of cascades upon East Canada Creek, about one mile above its mouth, where the water descends 180 feet in three fourths of a mile. The soil is a gravelly loam upon the upland, and a fine, fertile alluvium in the valleys.
Brocketts Bridge, (p.o.) situated upon East Canada Creek, in the north part, contains two churches, viz: Methodist and Free church, a tannery, a cheese factory and about 250 inhabitants.
Inghams Mills, (p.o.) on East Canada Creek, three miles below Brocketts Bridge, contains a grist mill with two runs of stones, a saw mill, a church and about 100 inhabitants.
East Creek (p.o.) is a station on the N. Y. C. R. R., near the mouth of East Canada Creek.
Manheim Center is a post office. A short distance south-east of this place is a Reformed Dutch Church that was organized before the Revolutionary war.
This town was settled at an early day, probably as early as 1756, by Germans. A grant of 3,600 acres was made in 1755 to Jacob Timmerman and Johan Jost Schnell, commonly known as Snell and Timmerman's Patent. Suffrenus, Peter, Joseph and Jacob Snell, four sons of one of the patentees, made a donation of seven acres of land for a church lot, and twelve acres for school purposes. They and their neighbors continued to meet and work upon the land Saturday afternoons until it was cleared and fit for cultivation. A church was erected on the land designed for that purpose, aud remained until 1850, when it was replaced by a new one. The school house in the district stands on the donated lot. Nine of the Snell family went into the Oriskany battle under Gen. Herkimer, seven of whom were killed. Henry Remensneider and Johannes Boyer settled on Glen's Purchase, a few miles north of Little Falls, previous to the Revolution. Among the other early settlers, who located in the town before the Revolution were the Keysers, Van Slykes, Newmans, Shavers, Klocks, Adles and Harters, all of whom suffered greatly during the struggle for Independence.
This, like other settlements in the Mohawk Valley, suffered severely from the attacks of the Indians. On the 3d of April, 1780, a party of about sixty Tories and Indians attacked Remensneider's Bush, a settlement a few miles from Little Falls, burned a grist mill and carried away nineteen prisoners. They took John Garter and his son John prisoners at the mill, and captured three men in the road near by, one of whom was Joseph Newman. Aming the other prisoners were John Windecker, Henry Shaver, George Adle, Corbus Van Slyke and --- Uker. Twelve of the prisoners were taken in one house by less than half their number of Indians, no effort being made to escape or resist. All but two of the prisoners returned after the war, John Garter having died in Canada and George Adle having escaped and returned previously. There was a blockhouse in this neighborhood called Remensneider's Fort, to which the inhabitants were accustomed to resort at night for safety and protection. After this visit from the Indians most of the families retired to the lower valley and abandoned their farms. John G. Snell, while looking for cattle in the woods, was surprised and shot through the body by the Indians. He recovered and lived to a good old age.
John Beardslee, a native of Sharon, Conn., a practical mechanic and civil engineer, came to the Mohawk Valley in 1787, and erected mills at Whitestown, where he remained until 1792, when he wae employed by the State to build a set of mills for the Oneida Indians. About this time he erected the first bridge across the Mohawk at Little Falls, and the old red mill at the same place. Bridges and mills were erected by him at various places in this and adjoining counties; among them was a bridge over West Canada Creek, another over East Canada Creek, and a grist and saw mill and cloth dressing works about half a mile north of the present Mohawk turnpike bridge. The bridge across East Canada Creek was paid for by Montgomery County, and in order to obtain the necessary timber, he purchased a hundred acre lot west of the Creek and adjoining the site of the bridge, for which he paid 330 pounds New York currency, in March 1774. He subsequently erected mills which were in operation the next year. The mills attracted emigrants, and in 1800 there was quite a village, containing two stores, two tanneries, a blacksmith shop, a nail factory, a cooperage, and a brewery. After a successful business life, Mr. Beardslee died on the 3d day of October, 1825.
The first church in this town, built in 1774 or '5, was burned during the war but was rebuilt soon after.
The population of the town in 1865 was 1,831; its area is 18,034 acres.
There are eight school districts, employing nine teachers. The number of children of school age is 405; the number attending school 306; the average attendance 155, and the amount expended for school purposes during the year ending September 30, 1868, was $2,333.12. | <urn:uuid:7ac861e0-146f-4714-9ce0-762a2b724241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://herkimer.nygenweb.net/manheim.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94736 | 2,035 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The attack comes as US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is visiting Peru, but there is no immediate indication it is related.
Peru's joint command issued a statement saying that the attack occurred today in the town of Keteni in south-central Peru. There were no injuries. Officials did not respond to requests for more details.
The helicopters belong to the consortium known as Transportadora de Gas del Peru, made up of Argentine, US Algerian, Korean, French and Belgian companies.
The original Shining Path largely disappeared after police caught its messianic founder Abimael Guzman in 1992, but small remnants have been staging a comeback in recent years.
Lima: Peru's military says Marxist Shining Path rebels have burned three helicopters owned by a gas pipeline consortium at a jungle airstrip.
First Published: Sunday, October 07, 2012, 09:47 | <urn:uuid:f598bba9-fc54-4fd9-9fec-ce3977187c25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/rebels-burn-3-helicopters-in-peru_804187.html | 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 | 0.967351 | 176 | 1.5 | 2 |
I lived near Blackpool, Lancashire and all the surrounding villages had the their annual gala day, when the local band led the Rose Queen in procession with her maids of honour and retinue to a field where she was crowned Queen by some local worthy, followed by dancing displays games, stalls, craft competitions, refreshment tents - and sports.
These dresses were in apple green satin with silver cardboard headdresses and I remember other years wearing peach satin and yellow taffeta. For me, the dress was always destined to be my party dress for the year. I always wanted to be one of the bigger girls who danced with garlands.
The worst aspect was the torture the night before of having my hair put into rags, in the hope I would end up with ringlets the next day.
After the dancing, a quick change into shorts for the races. The egg & spoon and bean bag and potato races were for the "little ones". More energetic versions were leapfrog races, sack races, wheelbarrow races and three legged races. Do these still take place, or, as I suspect, have they fallen foul of the current "health and safety" regime? I certainly remember plenty of thrills and spills. The climax of the day was a tug of war competition for the boys and men - and afterwards a weary walk home.
Looking back, this was not long after the war, with people still having to put up with rationing, but the gala days were a great tribute to community efforts, and my mother, as the local dressmaker, was heavily involved in making the dresses, headdresses and crepe paper flowers. | <urn:uuid:5248be21-aa75-4a52-9245-5ed4e28fc245> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scotsue-familyhistoryfun.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-village-gala-day-c1950-sepia-saturday.html?showComment=1344770852994 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983787 | 344 | 1.5625 | 2 |
2-14-04 - This Valentines Day took a tragic turn near Lake Texoma, when a Denison teenager died after a car crashed into the lake. It happened at Randell Lake Road near the Denison Dam. 16 year old Kathryn Ewig, a sophomore at Denison high school, lost her life. She was on her way home from helping a friend with a flat tire around 5:30 on Saturday. Her boyfriend was driving, and the friend was in the back seat. Police believe the boy hit a slick patch of slush and slid off the road into the icy water. The car overturned at the shore line and went underwater. Ewig’s boyfriend and friend were able to swim to safety. Police don't yet know why Kathryn didn't make it out, but believe she likely drowned and may have been pinned by her seatbelt. An autopsy has been ordered. The Denison sophomore was described by those who knew her as a sweet young woman. Police say this appears to just be an accident and was probably directly related to the weather. Counselors will be on hand at Denison High School this week to help students cope with the loss. This is the second death at Denison this school year.
- ARDMORE, Okla. —The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation announced the 2013-2014 recipients of the Sam Noble Scholarships this week, awarding $140,000 in scholarships to 10 southern Oklahoma students. | <urn:uuid:b7e2e6a3-9582-4801-a7cd-e243a2fb60b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/634977.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984531 | 292 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Dr Margaret Chan takes office as Director-General of the World Health Organization
Impact on health of women and people in Africa to be measure of success
4 January 2007 | GENEVA - Dr Margaret Chan of China today took office as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) following her election in November. She pledged that her term of office and the effectiveness of the Organization would be judged by the impact they have on two specific populations.
"I want my leadership to be judged by the impact of our work on the health of two populations: women and the people of Africa," Dr Chan said. "WHO has a long history of commitment to those in greatest need, including the most vulnerable groups."
Dr Chan has set out six priority areas on which she intends to focus the work of WHO: development for health, health security, building the capacity of health systems, developing better information and knowledge, enhancing partnerships and improving the performance of the Organization.
Speaking to staff, Dr Chan said that the priorities she has emphasized during and since her election will not mean a major restructuring of WHO. She said she would be looking for ways in which different parts of the Organization can work better together. She told staff, "I will stick with my promise. Reform, yes. Upheaval, no."
She took the opportunity to praise the work of Dr Anders Nordström, who has been acting Director-General since the sudden death of the former Director-General, Dr LEE Jong wook, in May, 2006.
Dr Chan told staff, "I believe these are optimistic times for health. Never before has our work enjoyed such a high profile on the political agenda."
Dr Chan said one of the key challenges now facing WHO is to "manage all this vigorous interest in health in ways that ensure lasting improvements and do not overburden recipient countries. … As the acknowledged leader in public health, we need to ensure that the growing number of health initiatives meets comprehensive health needs, in a coordinated way, in line with the priorities of countries and their populations."
She also said that the period of transition would continue until the end of 2007, with a key statement on her vision for the Organization coming at the World Health Assembly in May.
Dr Chan was appointed by the World Health Assembly in November 2006. Her term of office will run until 30 June 2012.
For more information contact:
WHO Communications Department
Telephone: +41 22 791 3215
Mobile +41 79 475 5534 | <urn:uuid:32dfdf74-50ff-43e6-9558-475d496ccab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr01/en/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971907 | 510 | 1.625 | 2 |
2012 will close on a cloudy and chilly note across the Capital Region and surrounding areas. High pressure over the Saint Lawrence Valley this morning will drift lazily northeastward today, allowing cloud cover to spill into the region in advance of storm system over the central and southern Plains. The brunt of precipitation from this storm is expected to stay well to the south of the region.
In the meantime, several Arctic intrusions will take aim at the northern tier of the United States through the next several days. The weather will be quite recursive. The first such clipper type low pressure system will drop southward, toward the region, during the day today and pass through the area overnight tonight. Aside from a few very light snow showers and/or flurries, not much fanfare will be made by its passage.
The cold front associated with the system is forecast to stall to our south New Years Day. 2013 will start out blustery and chilly as temperatures are likely not to rise much during the day thanks to brisk northwesterly winds on the backside of the cold front. Any lake effect snow showers or squalls look to stay to the west of the immediate Capital Region. However, some of the chilliest air of the season thus far will penetrate southward, into the area, for the midweek period.
The next chance of precipitation comes on Friday, as another clipper type system sweeps southward through the area, bringing another chance for some light snow, blustery winds, and a fresh intrusion of Arcitc air in time for the weekend.
...Below is the official forecast for the Capital Region and vicinity...
Today: More clouds than sunshine and breezy with a widely scattered snow shower or flurry possible, especially late in the day. High 30-35. West winds 10-15 MPH. Chance of snow is 20 percent. Little if any additional snow accumulation.
Tonight: Variable cloudiness with a light snow shower or flurry possible. Low 20-25. West winds 5-10 MPH. Chance of snow is 20 percent. Little if any additional snow accumulation.
New Year's Day: Mostly sunny and blustery. High 25-30. Northwest winds 10-20 MPH with some higher gusts to near 25 MPH at times. Wind chill temperatures near 10 above zero.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy and frigid. Low near 10 above zero. Light northwest winds.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, blustery, and cold. High near 25. West winds 15-25 MPH with some higher gusts possible at times. Wind chill temperatures between 5 and 15 above zero.
Thursday: Mostly sunny and cold. High near 25 and low near 15.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of a snow shower or flurry. Otherwise partly to mostly sunny, breezy, and cold. High near 20 and low near 5.
Saturday: Partly sunny and cold. High near 25 and low near 15. | <urn:uuid:7a76085c-f704-4def-a2af-095b6f8d149c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.examiner.com/article/winter-s-chilling-touch-to-be-felt-as-2012-draws-to-a-close?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935988 | 598 | 1.671875 | 2 |
When the Bank of England first began publishing their “fan charts” I immediately became a fan of the fan charts. They bring to life the uncertainty which is implicit in most forecasts.
Sadly, there is a lack of similar visual tools for stock market investors, which means those who are not of they buy-and-hold variety are left with little to go on, other than perhaps the market’s current PE, the dividend yield, and the chicken-entrail readings of analysts.
The rise of CAPE
In recent years the snappily titled CAPE, or cyclically adjusted PE, has become popular, probably because it’s a giant leap in the right direction.
By comparing the market’s current CAPE to its long-run average, investors can at least begin to have an idea of whether or not the market is too hot, too cold, or just right, as goldilocks would say.
That’s possible because CAPE has proven to be mean reverting. In the long-run the FTSE 100′s CAPE, or that of any sufficiently diversified index, tends to move around its long-run average. At least that’s the story of the past century or so.
As well as being mean reverting, the FTSE 100′s CAPE hasn’t moved very far from its average, which is about 16, going perhaps twice as high and half as low in extreme booms and busts (the S&P 500 did go almost three times as high in the dot com bubble, but on this side of the pond our markets maintained somewhat more decorum).
There certainly doesn’t appear to be any evidence that CAPE is something that can grow indefinitely, or is something that changes by huge amounts, which means the FTSE 100 is unlikely to reach 100,000, or 100, any time soon.
Although there is no magic bullet, CAPE is a sensible way to give yourself a ballpark estimate of where the market is in terms of the range of valuations it’s likely to reach.
The chart below shows a set of FTSE 100 valuation bands for the past 25 years, covering a range from around half to double the long run average.
A few points to note :
- The rise from left to right of the valuation bands. This occurs because of two things – inflation, and the real growth of companies which make up the stock market.
- The valuation bands get wider to the right because they are a multiple of the cyclically adjusted earnings, which is getting larger almost all the time, so the bands get wider.
- The central band is darker because it’s more likely that the market will be close to that level. The extreme valuation bands are light because it’s less likely that the market will be at those levels very often.
- Data is taken from annual snapshots, so they out some short term moves like the 1987 crash, but I think it’s fit for its intended purpose.
It’s interesting to see that if market participants were as enthusiastic today as they were in 1999, then the FTSE 100 would have already reached the lofty heights of 14,000.
Fortunately, for those of us who are still compounding savings and reinvesting dividends, the companies that make up the stock market are by and large far cheaper and better value now than they were back then. In fact they are better value now than at almost any time since the FTSE 100 began.
Risk and reward depend on valuation
Another interesting point is that risk and reward change as the market’s valuation changes. If for example the market were valued “just right” with a CAPE of 16, then the odds of the market going up or down in the short-term would probably be close to 50/50.
However, the further the valuation is from average, the more likely it becomes that the valuation will move back towards average. Not certain by a long shot, but more likely.
If the valuation is around 30, like it was in 1999, then it becomes very likely that the next move will be down, back toward 16 rather than upwards towards 35 or 40. It follows that there is more risk (falling share prices) and less reward (rising share prices). The opposite is true when valuations are low.
Why? Because a CAPE of 16 (or thereabouts) it the natural state of affair, the price that investors have been willing to pay for stocks and shares, under a wide range of conditions, over a very long period of time. When valuations are extremely high or low, like in 1999 or 2009, they require extreme conditions for them to prevail – Extreme optimism in 1999, extreme pessimism in 2009.
However, extreme conditions are short lived almost by definition. If extreme conditions were the norm then they would not be extreme. Eventually the short-term driver of extreme valuations fades and things return to normal (or the system collapses entirely and is replaced by something else, but that’s a different conversation).
Seeing the wood for the trees
One of the most important things that a valuation tool like CAPE can give is a wider perspective. In the chart above, you can look at the FTSE 100 and see that it hasn’t gone anywhere for 13 years, which is depressing.
On the other hand you can look at the valuation bands, which track the cyclically adjusted earnings of the underlying companies, and see that in all that time the underlying value of the FTSE 100 may have increased by almost 100%. The “just right” valuation has gone from about 4,000 in 1999 to perhaps 7,500 today.
By separating the wood from the trees, or value from price, you give yourself a much better chance of beating the market.
The map is not the territory
Be aware though, that you shouldn’t think this is some infallible way of measuring or predicting the market with probabilities and two decimal places. It isn’t, because there isn’t one.
It’s just a sensible way to look at market valuations, just like house price to earnings ratios still are, even though many people will talk about how affordability is all that matters, and that house price to earnings ratios are outdated.
They said the same thing about PEs in the dot com bubble too. The fact that both those bubbles burst should tell you that valuations matter more than almost anything else.
In the long-run, if you overpay, you will underperform.
This article is for information and discussion purposes only and nothing in it should be construed as a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall and an investor may lose all their money. Any investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors. Investors should always seek advice from a qualified investment adviser. | <urn:uuid:932ef5f0-93a8-4f7f-a93a-121bdca63cd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stockopedia.co.uk/content/an-alternative-to-stock-market-forecasts-70234/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964385 | 1,439 | 1.695313 | 2 |
February 5th, 2013 by Jeremy Sherwood, Cloud Strategist
Rackspace verses Terremark, Fight 2 for the UCC (Ultimate Cloud Championship). In the first fight, we saw the two heavyweights: AWS and Google App Engine. This fight card is the middleweight class. You have 2 really similar companies with similar origins and backgrounds. Hosting.
Rackspace’s real roots date back to 1996 when Richard Yoo started a small ISP called Cymitar Network Systems out of his garage apartment in San Antonio, Texas. The company quickly began doing application development work, in addition to offering basic Internet access and web hosting. Although the founders of Rackspace began as application developers for end-users, they found that most companies didn’t know how to host their applications, or didn’t want to be involved in the hosting. In the words of Bigweld for Robots, “See a need, fill a need.” For the Rackspace founders, this meant time to shift business models and make some money with a new company. Rackspace was launched in October 1998.
Terremark has a similar story. According to Wikipedia, “In 1980, Manny Medina incorporated Terremark as a real estate company constructing office buildings. During the dot-com era, more and more of his buildings were leased to computer data centers and the company morphed into an information technology services company, starting with the NAP of the Americas, Terremark’s flagship facility, in downtown Miami. NAP of the Americas became one of the most significant telecommunications projects in the world. The facility was the first purpose-built, carrier-neutral network access point (NAP) and is the only facility of its kind specifically designed to link Latin America with the rest of the world. The building is a 750,000 square foot, purpose-built data center. The equipment floors are 32 feet above sea level. The building is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane with approximately 19 million pounds of concrete roof ballast. It has 7 inch thick steel reinforced concrete exterior panels. NAP of the Americas carries 95% of the data traffic between North and South America.”
Coming from the data center space myself, I can see the smooth transition from a data center company to a hosting/cloud company, when you have a DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management) background. On January 27, 2011 things changed for Terremark when Verizon Communications purchased the worldwide company for $1.4 Billion. This event has only sped up the cloud training and experience of Terremark.
With the history lesson now behind us, these two cloud fighters come to battle for the middleweight title of cloud computing. If you look at the Gartner Magic Quadrant you see both of them leading in their class and space.
Terremark is trying to chase down AWS in the leader’s quadrant and Rackspace is leading in the visionary quadrant.
Terremark’s strengths come by leveraging its parent company’s data centers (13 data centers throughout the world), cloud and security businesses, as well as its enterprise cloud VMware offerings. Terremark has a good foothold on its managed and public sector clouds, which will only strengthen its position. According to Gartner, as of October 2012 Terremark was the market-share leader in VMware IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) cloud offerings.
Terremark has a few weaknesses in my opinion. The biggest concern I have is with the leadership changes in the company. Since the Verizon takeover there has been two president changes in less than one year since Medina left the company at time of acquisition. Currently, there are 3 executives running the company. So I question whether the long term vision and strategy that led them to such success is still there and where the new leadership will take them.
Rackspace offers a cookie cutter approach to their offerings. A fixed-size, paid-by-the-VM, Xen-virtualized public cloud IaaS solution. And of course, you can add optional managed services (Fanatical Support included). Although Rackspace doesn’t have 13 data centers world wide and the backing of Verzion, what it does have is its extensive partner network. Rackspace has a great integrated content delivery network with Akamai, which provides Database-as-a-Service and PaaS. Rackspace has one other nice left hook in its bag of tricks. As the founder of the open-source cloud management platform OpenStack, it is a driving force to reckon with. Currently, over 6,695 people and 87 countries using the platform is something to be concerned about if you’re Terremark.
Rackspace also has a few things to be cautious about as well. The future of OpenStack’s emerging technology is unclear when you have competition from Apache’s competing CloudStack platform, which is well supported by heavy hitters like VMware, XenServer, KVM, and Xen Cloud Platform Hypervisors. I also wonder about not having the same backing as Verizon and their telecommunications network that Terremark has in its corner.
The winner of this fight will really come down to execution over the next couple of years. Does Verizon/Terremark buy up other companies to grab market share and expand their portfolio of services? Does Rackspace push OpenStack as the leading and only cloud adoption platform for cloud interoperability? What happens next and the outcome of the Ultimate Cloud Championship all will happen soon. I know I will be watching and judging each move and position as each battles for cloud dominance. ScienceLogic will be monitoring them. 4 Cloud providers down. Who’s on the fight card next… Is it your cloud company? | <urn:uuid:50e0c25d-a511-49db-9225-429a3611bd57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sciencelogic.com/tale-of-the-tape-rackspace-vs-terremark/02/2013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961334 | 1,183 | 1.539063 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are losing faith that the economy will keep improving, according to a monthly survey.
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 60.8 from a revised 66 in April, a sign of the toll that high gas prices, a choppy job outlook and a moribund housing market are taking on people's psyches. Economists had expected an increase to 67. It was the lowest reading since November.
"Consumers are considerably more apprehensive about future business and labor market conditions as well as their income prospects," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. She said fears over inflation, which eased in April, picked up again in May.
The index, released Tuesday, is still far from the reading of 90 that indicates a healthy economy. It hasn't approached that level since the recession began in December 2007.
Economists monitor confidence because consumer spending, including big-ticket items such as housing and health care, accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity and is critical for a strong rebound. A more troubled economic outlook raises the risk that people will pull back on spending.
And consumers have a lot on their minds.
Retail gasoline prices peaked at a national average of about $3.98 on May 5, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The consumer confidence survey ran from May 1-18.
The real estate market also remains depressed. Home prices fell nationwide for the eighth straight month, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday. Home prices in major areas have reached their lowest level since the U.S. housing bubble burst in 2006, stymied by foreclosures, a surplus of unsold homes and continued reluctance of Americans to buy homes.
And the job market remains sluggish. A Labor Department report last week said more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first increase in three weeks.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 424,000. That's above the 375,000 level consistent with sustainable job growth. They peaked at 659,000 during the recession.
Results from the Consumer Confidence survey have been choppy in recent months, rising in April but falling in March. But before that the measure had risen for five consecutive months and hit a three-year high in February.
Consumers' opinion about current conditions declined only slightly. Their expectations for the next six months fell more. The number of people expecting jobs to grow in the next six months declined, and the number of people expecting fewer jobs during the same period increased. | <urn:uuid:897e20c1-96d0-404a-a1cd-3c725555d2bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2011/05/consumer_confidence_falls_unexpectedly_i.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966664 | 548 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Yesterday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the fungal meningitis outbreak. The purpose of the hearing was to determine why contaminated medicines entered the supply chain so that future occurrences could be prevented. Hamburg’s prepared statement focused on FDA’s response once the meningitis outbreak had occurred. The statement asserted that the laws governing compounding pharmacies, even large ones such as the New England Compounding Center (NECC), are ambiguous, thus limiting FDA’s ability to oversee such enterprises. In the statement, Hamburg requested legislation that would place nontraditional compounding pharmacies producing certain types of high-risk products under FDA oversight. The proposed legislation would allow FDA the same ability to inspect facilities and review records as the agency does for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
While Hamburg’s testimony was focused on the future, the representatives on the committee were visibly frustrated by her unwillingness to deconstruct the past, and identify steps that could have been taken to prevent the incident from occurring. Hamburg doggedly stuck to her explanation that FDA’s authority over compounding pharmacies was unclear. If FDA had no authority over large-scale compounding, this explanation might have been better accepted. However, FDA had issued warning letters to NECC in the past for matters not related to sterile manufacturing, and FDA certainly had the authority to inspect the facility and shut it down once the source of contamination had been identified.
Hamburg’s request for new legislation clarifying FDA oversight for nontraditional compounding pharmacies was well received, and I think we can expect to see such legislation in the near future. However, many of the committee members were clearly not satisfied that FDA had done everything it could, even considering its limited oversight responsibilities, to protect public health.
More on FDA and Compounding Pharmacies: | <urn:uuid:bde8fe7e-6a37-4036-a856-ee614a88a25b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pharmtech.com/2012/11/15/a-tough-time-for-fda-at-house-hearings/ | 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 | 0.973115 | 374 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Chairman
Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release
December 9, 2009
COMMISSION CALLS FOR RENEWED FOCUS ON IRAQI REFUGEE CRISIS
Event combines live dance, discussion with UNHCR to raise awareness
WASHINGTON—The United States and the international community must provide more humanitarian assistance to the millions of Iraqi refugees still unable to return home more than six years after the invasion of Iraq, leaders of the U.S. Helsinki Commission said Tuesday.
After an event aimed at raising awareness of the world’s largest refugee crisis since 1948, U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) called for increasing the aid to countries hosting refugees and the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States.
The Commission event at the U.S. Capitol featured a CityDance live performance -- inspired by travel to the region -- and remarks by a representative from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. (Photos available here.)
“As the attention of the United States and the world turns to Afghanistan and elsewhere, we must remember that millions of Iraqi citizens are still suffering and still waiting to return home safely. Their plight must not be forgotten,” Chairman Cardin said.
“This is a huge humanitarian crisis that if not addressed properly could become a destabilizing factor in the region,” said Co-Chairman Hastings. “Without action, I fear we will continue to witness the unfolding of a slow-motion disaster.”
Co-Chairman Hastings introduced the Iraqi Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement, and Security Act to address this crisis by significantly increasing funding to assist displaced Iraqis and help those seeking to emigrate to America.
An estimated 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced, more than 2 million in neighboring countries. Many lack opportunity, money and food. CityDance artistic director Paul Gordon Emerson recently traveled with a delegation of artists to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria where they met with Iraqi refugees. Their new production, “Wishes of the Sailor,” is based on that experience.
"Humanitarian issues tend to drown in numbers,” Emerson said. “People become statistics and lives become data. Art, and artists, work at an emotional and human level which is essential to bringing us back to the fact that these are individuals and families living through circumstances which are almost unimaginable.”
"Living conditions for Iraqi refugees continue to be very difficult," said Michel Gabuadan, UNHCR Representative in the United States. "While some Iraqi refugees have opted to return, the majority continue to live in neighboring countries, struggling to support themselves and their families."
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.
Media Contact: Neil Simon
# # #
Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons | <urn:uuid:a65ac803-43af-45f0-bf68-05dc293ae08d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=842&ContentType=P&ContentRecordType=P&UserGroup_id=150®ion_id=150&year=0&month=0&Subaction=ByDate&CFID=9640293&CFTOKEN=26477506 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937177 | 719 | 1.8125 | 2 |
July 17, 2012 > Kenneth Mahar photography exhibit
Kenneth Mahar photography exhibit
Submitted By Christine Bender
Kenneth Mahar has been taking photos of building sites and architecture for over 30 years. Since his trip to Africa and Costa Rica, he has been particularly captivated by wild animals in their natural habitat. Mahar's work has won many awards for his architectural abstracts that highlight his unique eye for composition and light, making each piece a focal point.
For the past five years Mahar has been sharing his work through invitational and juried galleries, corporate buildings in Silicon Valley, and lobbies and hallways of public buildings. In addition, he exhibits at fine art festivals throughout the Bay Area and the Sierra foothills.
See Mahar's work on display in the Ken Cook Gallery of Hayward's Sun Gallery through August 11. An artist's reception will be held Saturday, July 28 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Kenneth Mahar Photography
July 11 - August 11
Wednesday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday, July 28
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Sun Gallery, Ken Cook Gallery
1015 E St., Hayward
(510) 581 - 4050 | <urn:uuid:ac978dc6-af20-4d3f-b1c5-cc771b1e7732> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tricityvoice.com/articlefiledisplay.php?issue=2012-07-17&file=KenMahar+++TCV.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965684 | 257 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Valley Public Radio Staff
Wed January 2, 2013
Pa. Gov. Suing NCAA To Stop Penn State Sex Abuse Sanctions
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R), says the NCAA badly overreached itself when it imposed punitive financial sanctions on Penn State over the handling of sexual predator and former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Corbett is filing a federal anti-trust lawsuit against the collegiate athletic association, saying it ignored its own disciplinary rules in its rush to castigate the Pennsylvania university.
Sandusky, who's spending at least 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting 10 boys, was convicted last June on 45 of 48 assault counts. The shocking case included graphic testimony about child rape and the alleged failure of Penn State administrators to stop Sandusky's attacks.
The case was so horrific that the NCAA, the athletic association, imposed severe penalties on the Penn State football program, notes the Sporting News: a $60 million dollar fine; a four year ban on bowl appearances; a four year ban on post-season appearances; the loss of 40 scholarships; all team victories vacated from 1998 through 2011; and probation for five years. It adds that "in handing down this punishment under 'extraordinary circumstances,' the NCAA did not in any way resemble itself. There was no notice of allegations. No 90-day period for Penn State to respond. No waiting period while the NCAA considered its course."
And that's where Gov. Corbett believes his case is strongest.
"These actions didn't punish Sandusky," Corbett said at a news conference held at Penn State today. "They punish past and present students, local businesses and citizens of Pennsylvania." Corbett says these are people and businesses who had nothing to do with Sandusky's criminal actions, which were properly handled in criminal court.
He alleges the NCAA as a trade organization, failed to follow its own internal rules on punishment: "A handful of top members simply inserted themselves into issues they had no authority to police." Corbett is seeking injunctive relief - a stop to the association's penalties.
But Corbett's action is generating new questions. The governor was Pennsylvania's attorney general when his office took the Sandusky case in 2009. His management has been questioned, especially by State Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, a Democrat. She ran for election last year specifically to investigate why it took the AG's office three years to charge Sandusky with a crime, notes the AP.
Corbett says he has not discussed the case with Kane.
And the Atlantic points out another wrinkle: Corbett himself accepted the NCAA penalties last year when they were meted out, and this change of heart could undermine his new legal argument. | <urn:uuid:fa40821d-265c-4202-bccf-6e183a9a5b83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kvpr.org/post/pa-gov-suing-ncaa-stop-penn-state-sex-abuse-sanctions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966743 | 557 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Last week I wrote an article about getting your finances organized for 2006: I’m going to kick some personal-finance ass–yours.
Today we’re going to start 2006 off by getting your money organized. Here’s the deal: We’ll begin step-by-step, starting with your spending (where are you spending money?), getting your accounts straightened out (are you paying fees?), and getting ready to divide your money into different buckets (saving, investing, etc).
Getting your budget stuff will be hard, but it will be worth it. Once you do it for the first time, it’s infinitely easier afterwards.
Then, in the next few weeks, we’ll get into the growth mode, where you can take your discretionary money and start investing it. I’ll help you figure out what kind of investment vehicles make sense (stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, etc) depending on your situation.
Along the way, I hope you add comments to these posts, asking questions and telling us what other personal-finance stories you’ve heard about from your friends, etc. The cool thing is that everyone can see and learn from it.
What to do by next Tuesday, January 17
1. Get all your investable money in one place (3 hours)
First, I want you to first figure out exactly how much you have to invest. This is money you want to put away for the short-term (1-3 years, maybe for a house or car), and money you don’t need for a long time (5+ years). Now, one of the biggest barriers to getting started is having money in 15 different places. You should also get this in one account so that it’s easy to reach. (Note: If your money is already in some place like a mutual fund, please don’t sell it just so you can get it in one place. You would think I wouldn’t have to say that, but…)
If you don’t think investing is important, just get your money in one place anyway. I’ll show you why it’s worth your time a little later.
Bottom line: Get all your investable money in one place.
2. Figure out how much you’re spending per week (4 hours)
Second, I want you to understand how much you’re spending per week–and what you’re spending it on. This is hard. If you already have a budget in Quicken/Money or something else, great! It’s just a few clicks to get the info. But since 99.99% of people don’t, you’ll have to reconstruct what you spent in December.
Here’s how to do it:
- Write down your current income.
- Write down what you currently spend in different categories like going out, clothes, food, car insurance, gas, etc. Keep it simple: Just include the stuff you spend money on, have a “Miscellaneous” category for stuff you don’t account for, and if you don’t know about your taxes, leave it blank. I have about 10 categories total. Here’s a sample budget.
- Write down what you want to be spending per week in these categories.
- Start crying.
Don’t worry. We’ll fix that.
If anyone comes up with a cool Excel file for this, send it to me and I’ll post it here. Here are the best 2 templates: Budget spreadsheet 1& Budget spreadsheet 2. (Thanks to Wayne and Kiran; FYI the 1st spreadsheet is from the MS Office template page).
3. Make sure you’re not paying fees on your bank account or credit card (1 hour)
- Credit cards: Call your credit-card company and make sure you have a card with no annual fee. (The only reason you should have a fee is that the cost of $65 or whatever is outweighed by the benefits you get, like tons of free miles, etc. This is hardly ever the case with the spending habits of our age group.) If your card has a fee, get a no-fee credit card. More information in my previous article, All About Credit Cards.
- Bank accounts: Call your bank and make sure you’re not paying any fees. If you’re a student, tell them that and politely but firmly ask to be switched to a no-fee, no-minimum account. If the bank says they can’t offer that, use my no-fee, no-minimum strategy.
4. Get your credit report. It’s free. (30 minutes)
Because of a new law, you’re entitled to get your free credit report once a year. Your credit report will show you what accounts you have open and your credit history. Check this for errors. They happen a lot and are very very bad. Get your credit report here: http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
(Note: This is not your credit score, which costs $30. I strongly encourage you to get your credit score, even though it costs a little money. This will tell you exactly what creditors are using to evaluate your loans and interest rates. Get your credit score here: http://www.transunion.com.)
5. Open a high-interest bank account (30 minutes)
Your bank’s interest rate is probably about 0.5% APY, which sucks. Open a high-interest savings account, which will get you about 4.0% APY. The two best ones are http://www.emigrantdirect.com and http://www.ingdirect.com. Both are no-minimum and no-fee savings accounts. You transfer your money online and it’s safe.
Both accounts are great. I don’t particularly care which one you choose, but if you want a referral to the ING account, click here.
FYI, here’s how I set up my financial accounts.
That will take us through to next Tuesday. I posted this today so you’d have 4 business days to get this stuff done. If you have questions about any of this stuff, post them here and I’ll try to help so everyone else can see.
Next week: We’ll work through the problems you found when doing steps 1-5. Then we’ll start moving forward on how to save better than 99% of your peers, we’ll start talking about which investment accounts to open, and I’ll show you why investing even a small amount–even $5 per day–can give you a great return.
Tell your friends: Please tell other people about this! I bet you have 5904326423 friends who need to manage their money, starting today. Point them to http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com | <urn:uuid:04e8ac67-eab8-4056-8156-aff63b97298f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/2006-makeover-step-1-get-your-accounts-in-order/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932732 | 1,472 | 1.640625 | 2 |
HardwareZone's Smart TV Buyer's Guide
Are You Smarter Than Your Smart TV?
Televisions have come a long way since Philo Taylor Farnsworth engineered a working unit in 1927. Sadly, it was never replicated commercially. In many ways, televisions have remained as a "dumb" display device for decades. It doesn't "think" per se. And it does little else but display whatever content it's fed - be it TV broadcast signals or videos from external peripherals. But televisions have evolved since. Popularly known as Smart TVs, television makers are now marketing their wares like they're wondrous screens made to do magic. Question is, can they? And what makes a TV smart? Is a 3D display a Smart TV as well?
With our buying guide, we hope to quell these doubts and perhaps enlighten you on some of the things you should prepare for before buying one. Different Smart TV brands offer varying traits, like their navigational features for instance. Recent innovations from makers like Samsung and LG have also integrated their displays with intuitive voice and gesture controls, but they serve the same "smart" purpose predominantly, like offering you internet services, videos, apps, and so forth. So the real question isn't about which TV is smarter, but how you can make the most out of your experience with the Smart TV set. And more importantly, are you prepared for one? Check out the jump links to the right to dive into the details.
Reviews and Feature Articles
FEATURE / 26 Apr 2013 / By Ng Chong Seng
Smart control, smart sharing, and smart entertainment - these are what LG's 2013 Cinema 3D Smart TVs are all about. From the nifty Magic Remote and the useful Time Machine II feature, to the LG exclusive K-Pop Zone and the time-saving NFC functionality, the new TV models sport features aplenty. We've all the details.
FEATURE / 25 Apr 2013 / By Hurrairah bin Sohail
The new range of Samsung TVs may be called the "F Series" but that is no reflection of their IQ. Equipped with 2013's version of Samsung's Smart TV suite, it includes a new UI, double handed gestures and voice control. There's also a gigantic 85-inch UHD 4K TV that's part of their new TV releases. So step right in and get acquainted with Samsung's 2013 TV line-up that's now available.
FEATURE / 28 Feb 2013 / By Alvin Soon
At the Samsung South East Asia, Oceania and Taiwan Forum 2013 in Jakarta, Samsung unveiled its latest range of products, including the Galaxy Note 8.0, five new Galaxy smartphones, smarter Smart TVs and a new mirrorless camera flagship. Click through and discover what Samsung has to offer this year.
REVIEW / 15 Jan 2013 / By Andy Sim
We had the opportunity to run our own video materials by Sony's true 4K screen recently. Read on if you'd like to know how the Bravia X9000 fared.
FEATURE / 24 Nov 2012 / By Team HardwareZone
Be sure to browse through our buying guide before you head down to SITEX 2012! We have a sumptuous spread of recommended audio-visual products for your consideration, including TVs, home theater systems, projectors, headphones, and media players.
REVIEW / 08 Oct 2012 / By Andy Sim
Will LG be able to justify the S$24,999 price tag for its 84-inch 4K-resolution mega screen? We took a ride down to LG's flagship store to give the huge screen a once-over as soon as it arrived. Here's our take.
REVIEW / 25 Sep 2012 / By Andy Sim
Panasonic's flagship plasma television boasts of a whopping 65-inch screen estate and improved 2,500Hz Focused Field Drive system to reduce blurring caused by so-called 'trailing' images. We take on the VT50S to see if it's capable of trouncing its VT30S predecessor.
FEATURE / 06 Sep 2012 / By Ng Chong Seng
The Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Galaxy Camera may have taken all the headlines, but Samsung has more than that going for them at IFA 2012. How does a 55-inch OLED TV, a 75-inch LED Smart TV, or the world's first Windows Phone 8 device sound to you? Come on in to find out all the highlights from Samsung at IFA 2012.
Smart TV News | <urn:uuid:84398cca-5043-40a9-b7da-b3c794979263> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/product-feature-smart-tv-buying-guide-buy-smart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938286 | 926 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Arizonans decided 19 ballot propositions this election, the most of any state. That's a lot of direct democracy. Maybe its time to ask how well its all working.
Our states founders were very sure they wanted the people to have the privilege of direct access to the ballot. They saw it as a fundamental protection against unresponsive government, even a popularly elected one. Citizens were given the rights to strike down enactments of the Legislature (referenda) or bring measures to the ballot themselves (initiatives).
But if this process provides an occasionally needed corrective, its not the best way to make law. The legislative process, while hardly perfect or above abuse, provides for hearings and debates.
Bills must clear several hurdles to become law and, importantly, may be amended. Initiatives, however, are written by interest groups and often contain obvious flaws.
Yet once they are approved for the ballot, they must be swallowed whole and passed or defeated exactly as written.
For example, Proposition 202, now our minimum wage law, has a provision that violators, in addition to specified fines and punishment, may be assessed any other appropriate relief by a court or commission trying the case. This violates standard principles of lawmaking. Citizens are entitled to know the maximum penalty for an offense. Under our system of separation of powers, its not appropriate to empower courts to just do whatever they wish. This error would have been easily identified in the legislative process and amended out. On the ballot, there was no way to correct the error.
ALL OR NOTHING
Moreover, voters have no ability to delete disliked portions of a ballot measure. The constitutional amendment banning gay marriage may have passed if not for the provisions regarding domestic partners. The section of the property rights initiative dealing with regulatory takings was unpopular with many who favored reining in eminent domain abuse. In the legislative process, these matters could have been separated. Ballot initiatives are set in concrete.
The initiative process is ill-suited to deciding measures that are technically complex. Voters know their minds about smoking bans and public benefits for illegal residents. But the vast majority went to the polls last Tuesday not understanding the basic issues at stake in the propositions dealing with state trust lands. The Legislature had been unable to resolve the matter because of its complexity, obscurity and powerful competing interests.
But these inherent difficulties are precisely the reason that state land trust reform should never have been on the ballot.
Voters dont have the time or staff to conduct thorough research into propositions. Many based their vote on the sponsorship of the measures, rather than their content. Fortunately, enough voters followed their instinct to reject proposals they didn't fully understand that both propositions failed.
Finally, the process can be especially unfair to unpopular minorities. Our founders were well aware that direct democracy can easily become a tyranny of the majority. Today racial, ethnic and gender groups enjoy constitutional protection. But smokers do not. They are highly unpopular and, due to their numbers, unable to defend themselves politically.
So smokers got it good and hard this election. Smoking was banned even in those establishments whose owners and customers desired it. And smokers, through an additional 80 cents per pack tax on cigarettes, were designated the sole sponsors of a health and education program for preschoolers. We used to justify cigarette taxes by pointing to the higher health costs incurred by smokers. Now, we just want the money.
Several reforms have been suggested. but none seem too promising. We could require more signatures. However, signatures are generally bought through the use of paid solicitors. Increasing the requirement would exclude measures that lacked funding, not merit. Prohibiting payment for signatures would also be problematic and probably unconstitutional.
Voters should also keep in mind that mistakes made at the ballot are permanent. The Voter Protection Act assures that the legislature can never amend laws passed by the people, no matter what.
We had our wild binge this year. Its time to sober up and use this important protection with the careful thought it deserves.
East Valley resident Tom Patterson (email@example.com) is a retired emergency room physician and former state senator. | <urn:uuid:c8e336de-1ed1-4a71-a1a1-41efff535a1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/initiative-referendum-processes-must-be-used-caution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972316 | 843 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Dirty War adoption couple jailed
An Argentine couple have been jailed for illegally adopting a baby girl born 30 years ago to parents who were kidnapped by the military government.
The case was brought by the adopted woman, Maria Eugenia Sampallo, whose real parents were among the 30,000 said to have been killed in the "Dirty War".
Osvaldo Rivas and Maria Cristina Gomez were convicted of falsifying documents and hiding their daughter's identity.
The pair were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively.
A former army captain, Enrique Berthier, was found guilty of taking Ms Sampallo and giving her to the couple. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
'Not my parents'
The case at the federal criminal court in Buenos Aires represented the first time a child born of prisoners who disappeared during the Dirty War pressed charges against the adoptive parents.
Rivas and his wife have not commented publicly on the case
After the judgement, human rights groups outside the court expressed mixed emotions, saying they were pleased the three had been found guilty but that they were disappointed by the reduced sentences.
Ms Sampallo had called for her adoptive parents to be sentenced to 25 years in prison - the maximum allowed under Argentine law.
"They are not my parents - they are my kidnappers," she said.
Ms Sampallo learned in 2001, as a result of DNA tests, that she was the daughter of missing political prisoners Mirta Mabel Barragan and Leonardo Ruben Sampallo. | <urn:uuid:612474bb-910d-45d7-b2ed-275549b2d680> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nowpublic.com/world/dirty-war-adoption-couple-jailed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989713 | 312 | 1.640625 | 2 |
It’s no secret that the UDID has been a topic of controversy in recent weeks. Recent reports that Apple is rejecting some apps that utilize the UDID have generated significant levels of confusion and debate. Exacerbating matters are conflicting reports and escalating rumors of what apps Apple is or is not approving leaving app developers and marketers struggling to answer the question of how best to grow their business in the face of UDID deprecation.
Our goal in this post is to fill you in on what the current situation is – what is known fact, what is rumor, and finally, to answer the question: “what’s an app marketer to do?” as our industry progresses beyond the UDID.
Apple announced its plans to deprecate (retire) the UDID last August. Based on past Apple history, many in the industry interpreted this as an early warning, so UDID alternatives have not progressed much until recently. It now appears that Apple is increasingly utilizing the app approval process to influence UDID usage and how such usage is communicated to consumers.
The difficulty for developers is knowing what is and is not acceptable to Apple relative to UDIDs.
Kim-Mai Cutler of TechCrunch, who originally broke the news, about apps being rejected clarified what is acceptable in a subsequent posting. She cited the current confusion in the market, and provided an example of an actual rejection, in which Apple cites the use of UDIDs without disclosure as the cause for the rejection. She further notes that some apps are still getting through the approval process, even if they access UDIDs. “The distinction is that they need to disclose this fact to users and ask for permission.”
Getting Apps Approved - Strategies for Success
Flurry has also done a similar client audit, and VP of marketing, Peter Farago, was quoted as saying, “There is literally not one developer’s app that we could find that had a rejection due to UDID alone.”
So What Does This Mean for Mobile App Marketers?
It’s increasingly clear that the UDID is on its way out. What’s not yet clear is the exact timeline for elimination, which technologies are going to replace it and which will receive widest adoption. As such, savvy marketers need to manage multiple technologies during this difficult transitional stage.
Here is a review of the major technologies currently being proposed in the market:
- HTML5 1st Party Cookie Tracking: This technique tracks ad performance by setting the Safari equivalent of a first party cookie. This results in accurate ad attribution with no room for ambiguity. Cookies are not device identifiers and cannot be shared with other apps. This method has the advantage of being the mobile equivalent of a commonly used and widely accepted web tracking solution, and does a good job of balancing the need for ad performance attribution with user privacy. Because it provides a direct link between clicks, installs and post-install events, it is well-suited for identifying ad sources that attract loyal users. Its major drawback is a redirect to a Safari page on the first launch of the app, which shows up as a short animated flash. It should also be noted that such an experience may be branded and integrated into the user experience. Cookie tracking is an effective solution for those focused on getting the best quality attribution for measuring ROI on media spend.
- Digital Fingerprinting: This technology matches attributes such as a user’s IP address, OS level and other data to “fingerprint” the user and statistically estimate conversions. For example, if a particular IP address clicks on an ad for an app, and then the same IP address creates an install of that app 60 seconds later, chances are good the user who clicked and the user who installed the app are one and the same. Where this gets tricky is that the data points used are not unique and can change, so there can be errors. Though this method works well for tracking simple conversions, it is not sufficiently reliable for tracking post-install events, which are critical to identifying ad sources that generate high quality, loyal users.
- MAC Address Tracking: A number of ad networks have viewed substituting the UDID with another unique identifier tied to the hardware device, the MAC Address. Some variants encrypt the address or use it as a key. The major benefit of this method is that it requires minimal change to existing infrastructure – MAC Addresses are handled in a similar manner to UDIDs. Many in the market believe that MAC Addresses carry similar privacy issues as the UDID and thus are not viewed as a long-term solution.
- OpenUDID and SecureUDID: These are technologies that offer open source implementations, a unique id, and the promise of an explicit opt-out for users. These implementations utilize the device copy/paste buffer as the location for storing this ID. Since the copy/paste buffer wasn’t intended for long-term storage, there is concern that this method may ultimately be frowned upon by Apple, but there appears to be support amongst some of the ad networks for these methods.
What’s the Right Choice?
Each of the methods above has advantages and drawbacks. Some vendors have lined up behind particular technologies and are pushing them hard as the best choice. Ideally, a single solution supported by Apple would be the best solution.
Very recently rumors have been circulating that Apple will not fully deprecate UDIDs until the launch of iOS 6, and at that time advocate a first party cookie option. But this is unconfirmed. Even if accurate, developers still need alternate solutions between now and then.
Ultimately it is the availability of traffic on the ad networks, and the corresponding technologies chosen by the networks that may drive decisions for developers.
How Are Ad Networks Voting?
Most app developers we speak to hope for one solution that will be widely adopted by the ad networks.
Fiksu works with more than 35 networks covering 90 percent of available impressions and has been actively surveying the market.
Right now, the ad networks are extremely fragmented on the best way forward. Some are taking a “wait and see” approach. Some have already invested time and effort in support of the MAC option. A number have implemented or have committed to providing changes needed for cookie tracking, and there has also been some support expressed for OpenUDID. Finally, a few are even supporting multiple technologies.
Given this state of fragmentation, we expect to see continued evolution and change across the iOS ecosystem in the coming months. As a result, finding the right mix of tracking and attribution – while ensuring sufficient market reach – has become much more difficult for marketers.
So What’s an App Marketer to Do?
First, app marketers should contact the networks or vendors they partner with, and understand what SDK changes they need to implement in order to move beyond the UDID.
For the short term, developers who want to maximize available traffic should continue to support the UDID. Despite the numerous technology and tracking announcements, the reality is that most traffic available on the market today utilizes UDID tracking – it is going to take the ad networks and the publisher sites time to settle on new solutions and to implement them.
Developers should at the same time be reviewing their ad partnerships and determine the impact to their code.
Ultimately this will be a difficult transitional stage, but one which will leave the industry with stronger user protections.
Fiksu’s Plans – Provide Full Coverage
To ensure we stay ahead of these market changes and to provide our clients with the widest range of traffic, Fiksu is rolling out a multi-prong solution, one that balances consumer privacy with the market need to attribute ad spend to identify the most profitable sources of downloads.
Rather than limit capabilities or reach by mandating use of one particular technology, we will provide a range of solutions including:
- HTML5 First Party Cookies;
- Digital Fingerprinting;
- MAC Address attribution;
- OpenUDID and SecureUDID initiatives.
Clients will have access to all of these methods, eliminating difficult decisions and tradeoffs. This will enable us to maximize reach, support the widest variety of ad networks and meet our clients’ specific needs. Stay tuned for more soon as our industry moves beyond the UDID. | <urn:uuid:d3084294-f3b5-44fb-988d-07caf730726a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.profnetconnect.com/fiksucraig/blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945155 | 1,700 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Growing & Learning in Democratic Discipline
This site offers a radically new approach to bringing up children, wherein all forms of punishment are dispensed with, and replaced with the same civil and courteous behavior afforded associates and friends.
Throwing out the punitive approach, which is so pervasive and so traditional it is thought to be "natural", creates a revolutionary new parenting approach. It's author, Norm Lee, calls it 'The New Non-Punitive Parenting Paradigm', (NN-PPP) It is founded on fundamental respect for children as thinking and feeling human beings with full membership in the family. Central to this departure from the parent-centered authoritarian method is the concept/practice Norm calls "Democratic Discipline".
NN-PPP is neither theory nor speculation. It was developed in the 60s with the participation of Norm's two small sons and their mother. Henry David and Russell Bertrand, now approaching age 40, have proven by their lives the truth that decent, courteous, law-abiding, successful and happy children can be raised without any form of punishment whatever. Hence, the near-universal faith in punishment as a parenting tool is here exposed as unfounded and disproved.
"My best regards and thanks for your newsletters. They are really absolutely free of poisonous pedagogy and my friends and I appreciate them very much."
—— Alice Miller, Zurich, Switzerland, November 2000
On the death of a parent, there are many problems for survivors to handle at the worst of times . If dealt with early on, you can reduce or eliminate nearly all of them. Instead of bequeathing difficulties and stress for your children, you can spare them much trouble and expense. This could be your most appreciated legacy.
Here are seven bequests you can give your children, even if you're on Social Security, food stamps, or welfare.
1. To avoid the lengthy hassle of probate, arrange for a Living Trust, which includes power of attorney, distribution of assets, and your wishes concerning a monument, a plaque, memorial service, celebration of life. Clear up all debts so you leave no financial burdens for your children to bear, except perhaps a mortgage.
2. Assemble all vital information of your personal affairs, including legal documents that your family will need after you've gone such as birth certificate, marriage, divorce & death papers, savings & checking bank accounts, names & addresses & pnone numbers of those who must be notified.
3. Collect fotos, autobiography, family videos, geneology, early memories, diaries, important letters, journals, etc.
4. Consider organ donation. Total body donation eliminates thousands in expenses for funeral or cremation, casket, cemetary lot, & monument. My choice was Anatomy Gifts Registry in Glen Burnie, MD. (Call 800/300-5433) The service is free of money & hassle.
5. Spare your survivors the difficult task at a stressfull time by writing your own newspaper obituary; that way it can be done the way you want it. Type it and leave it with your vital info (#2 above).
6. In their youth, show them how to work by working with them. Be mindful that the only way they learn is by your example, good or bad.
7. If you have very little $$ inheritance to leave them, give them the tools and info they need to create their own "fortune". Here's what I did: When my children had grown and were well into their careers and making money, I gave each of them one (1) share of Coca Cola on direct purchase plan.With it I gave over 100 pages of instructions I had written, printed and bound, on how to easily invest in the stock market. This "book" was the result of months of research in many books on financial advice, and visits to several libraries to study Morningstar and other publications.
At first I was not an investor myself, but for a year had been reading The Motley Fools and articles on Carlson's DRIP advice. When confident in what I was talking about, I began writing for my sons. Buy the best and bluest stock ("buy and hold"), was the wisest advice, I learned. My sons had the advantage of time; buy during youth and hold for the long term is the way to a modest fortune, I wrote. Now in their late forties, they are still investing, and have benefitted to buy their homes and more, as have I. Using dividend reinvestment you can build a nest egg with pocket change - if you start early.
With as little as $10 or $25 a month to invest, beginners might search The Motley Fools (www.fool.com) and/or Charles Carlson's www.dripinvestor.com Search also the key words "direct investing" and "dividend reinvestment plans"
It's a start. -Norm
List addresses are never sold, exchanged or shared. If you wish to be added to the mailing list for this NORM LETTER send name, e-mail address, and general location (state, city, or country), with "Please subscribe" in the subject box, to normRlee@att.net . If you have received this by mistake, and/or it is unwelcome, simply click Reply and type "Please remove" in the Subject box. Unless specifically requested otherewise therein, your e-mails to me will be considered for inclusion in The Norm Letter. - nl
The Norm Letter Archive The Norm Report Archive
Countries that protect children
from hitting/spanking/physical punishment,
and the dates of reform
Sweden - 1979, Finland - 1983, Norway - 1987, Austria - 1989, Cyprus - 1994, Italy -1996, Denmark - 1997, Latvia - 1998, Croatia - 1999, Bulgaria - 2000, Germany - 2000, Israel - 2000, Iceland - 2003, Ukraine - 2004, Romania - 2004, Hungary - 2005, Greece - 2006, Netherlands - 2007, New Zealand - 2007, Portugal - 2007, Uruguay - 2007, Venezual - 2007, Chile - 2007, Spain - 2007, Costa Rica - 2008, Republic of Moldova - 2009, Luxembourg - 2009, Liechtenstein - 2010, Tunisia - 2010, Poland - 2010 and Kenya - 2010
By Norm Lee (c.) 2002, is a free publication for those seeking happier and easier ways of bringing up children.
Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
To Prevent Hitting
OUTSIDE THE TENT
A STRANGER AND AFRAID
One summer morning in 1933, three small children stood at the top of a stairway, their faces distorted in anguish. Slight of stature and barely out of childhood herself, their mother was crying, too. But her jaw was set in determination; she had told her children that she had to leave again, and this time there could be no coming back... Continue
SER PADRES SIN CASTIGAR
To make 2 bumper stickers of the above image,
load laser printer with Avery 6575 or equivalent,
click here and print.
Visitors since December 30, 2002 | <urn:uuid:6ca3ca3b-39f1-42b7-8b70-730e4675b7a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nopunish.net/ | 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 | 0.945191 | 1,490 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Bordering Cambridgeshire, Essex and Norfolk, Suffolk is a county of wide open skies, stunning coastline and a rolling countryside which has inspired countless artists.
With 45 miles of unspoilt coast, Suffolk is home to a string of seaside towns and resorts, along with bustling Ipswich, and historic places like Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Woodbridge. Lowestoft is the UK's most easterly town, while Felixstowe is its biggest container port.
Property in Suffolk across regional hubs, small towns and villages tends to be attractively priced, with good access to quality local facilities. Housing hotspots include Britain's horse-racing capital Newmarket, Stowmarket, Felixstowe, the port town of Lowestoft and Ipswich, the county town.
In Stowmarket alone, housing ranges from new builds to detached bungalows, semi-detached cottages, Edwardian houses and barn conversions. This medium-sized town between Bury and Ipswich has good transport links and amenities, and a number of major employers.
The waterfront at Ipswich has been extensively redeveloped and is the town's focal point. Just five miles from the coast, Ipswich offers great shopping, restaurants, two cinemas, theatres and nightclubs.
For culture vultures, the Aldeburgh Festival, founded in 1948, is one of the UK's most important classical music festivals. Henham Park, near Blythburgh, has hosted the open-air Latitude festival of music, comedy and poetry since 2006.
Much of Suffolk's dramatic coastline is quite remote, and inhabited only by rare species of seabirds, so huge swathes of the Suffolk Heritage Coast are designated nature reserves.
From Ipswich there are four trains an hour to London's Liverpool Street, with a journey time of just over an hour. There are also cross-country rail links via Peterborough to the Midlands and further north.
The county's road network provides a link to London and the south east via the M11 or the A12. The A14 is an important east-west route, connecting Cambridge to Suffolk, and the Midlands and the North. London Stansted and Luton airports are both easily accessible by road.
Some of the county operates a three-tier system with primary, middle and upper schools. Nearly all of the latter have sixth form provision. The county also has 14 independent schools, the largest being the Royal Hospital School, near Ipswich, which takes boarders.
Suffolk also has four further education colleges, and University Campus Suffolk has accepted students since 2007.
With so much to enjoy in the way of open coastal and rural spaces, and historic towns and villages, it is easy to understand why nine out of 10 respondents to a MORI poll relating to the county said they loved where they lived!
Find houses in Suffolk or flats in Suffolk with Rightmove.co.uk - the UK's number one property website. Rightmove is the best place to find the very latest property for sale in Suffolk. You can also find property to rent in Suffolk, a list of estate agents in Suffolk or view sold house prices in Suffolk.
Take a look at our current list of property for sale in Suffolk. Rightmove.co.uk lists over one million flats and houses to buy or to rent across London and the UK. We update our listings continuously. You may also want to see houses and flats in other areas of England, including Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. | <urn:uuid:8b8d9a54-b8ec-42dd-b75e-1f5f9a57cddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property/Suffolk.html/svr/2712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951418 | 735 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Huron woman turns feathers, droppings into tree decorHURON — A Huron woman is using her creative flair to make unique Christmas tree decorations with a twist — she uses pheasant feathers and moose droppings. The droppings she uses are shipped to her from Alaska.
By: KARA GUTORMSON, Huron Plainsman
HURON — A Huron woman is using her creative flair to make unique Christmas tree decorations with a twist — she uses pheasant feathers and moose droppings. Lila Bawdon started this intriguing new trend two years ago.
The droppings she uses are shipped to her from Alaska. Bawdon’s daughter, Diane, lives there and in 2009, while visiting her, Bawdon noticed that moose droppings products were being sold in stores. “I thought, if they could do it, then I could make them myself,” said Bawdon.
“My daughter collects them, in the spring, after they’ve dried,” she said. “Then she sends them in the mail to me.”
Each dropping is about the size of an almond and Bawdon has her own method of transforming them from useless crap into beautiful, eye-catching ornaments.
“They are easy to make,” she said. “I put a screw-eye in the top, spray it with shellac to seal it, and then go right ahead and paint it,” she said.
“They don’t smell at all, not like you think they would,” she adds.
An avid fan of the Peanuts comic strip, she has painted several of the ornaments to have Snoopy’s face on them.
Besides her fascination with moose manure, she also is excited about making Christmas ball ornaments decorated with pheasant feathers. Her son, Brad, shoots the pheasants, skins them, and brings her the feathers.
“It’s surprising how many different kinds of feathers are on a pheasant, when you start working with them,” she said. “Lots of different browns, tans, whites and even blue feathers on them.”
She says making them gets to be “kind of a feathery mess,” but it’s a fun way to keep busy. “I start sorting the feathers out and snipping them into shape. There’s so many colors on pheasants, it’s unbelievable.”
Bawdon has always been the creative type to put crafts together.
“I make a lot of things out of wood,” she said. “And I do enjoy cross-stitching and crocheting — any type of craft, I usually like to do.”
She moved to Huron in 1968. In 1970, her husband started working for Fiala Construction and several years later, she started working there as well. Her children were pretty much grown by that time. “I worked in construction for 10 years,” she said. “There wasn’t hardly any women in the field in those days,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of shingling and helped build a couple of houses, too,” she said.
She retired from the construction industry in 1994. Bawdon said she enjoyed construction mostly because she likes working with her hands.
“Anything to keep my hands busy. You stick a board in my hand and I just go to work on it,” Bawdon said, with a chuckle. | <urn:uuid:4bb9905c-a61a-4d49-b01a-01462aa298e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/73706/publisher_ID/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974222 | 774 | 1.617188 | 2 |
University of Louisville’s 1980 NCAA Basketball Champions
Et Cetera spotlights the University of Louisville’s first NCAA championship title win, in its 30th anniversary year.
U of L’s success on the hardwood is well-known. It is the only school in the nation to have won the championship titles of three national tournaments: the 1948 NAIB, the 1956 NIT and the NCAA in 1980 and 1986.
At the helm of the 1980 NCAA championship U of L basketball team was coach Denny Crum. Crum joined the Cardinals as head coach in 1971.
In a dramatically close game the Cards ultimately flew to number one in post-season play, with a 59-54 triumph over UCLA - coach Crum’s alma mater.
U of L Senior Darrell Griffith, a first team All-American, scored 23 points in the game.
Nicknamed “Dr. Dunkenstein”, Darrell Griffith was the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player, and the team was referred to as “The Doctors of Dunk".
The 1980 Cardinal victory was played on March 24th, in Indianapolis - the hometown of teammate Roger Burkman.
In 2010 Indianapolis once again played host to the NCAA Tournament Division 1 championship.
- The 1980 Cards had a 33-3 record.
- According to The University of Louisville, the 1980 championship team created the “high five.” It was referred to as a “high-five handshake” by NBC analyst Al McGuire during the telecast.
- With over 2,333 career points, Darrell Griffith remains Louisville's all-time career scoring leader.
- Darrell Griffith was the 1980 NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player, an honor in which he was preceded by Earvin “Magic” Johnson and succeeded by Isiah Thomas. Griffith also received the John R. Wooden Award (1980) and was named NBA Rookie of the Year (1981), preceded in both by Indiana’s Larry Bird.
- Griffith played his entire NBA career, ten seasons, with the Utah Jazz. His number 35 was retired by the franchise in 1993. His number 35 was also retired by U of L.
- The Cardinals won their second NCAA title in 1986, against Duke University. “Never Nervous” Pervis Ellison became the first freshman to be honored as the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
- Before taking the head coaching job at U of L, Denny Crum was the assistant coach at UCLA, under John Wooden.
- Coach Denny Crum retired from U of L in 2001. In his 30 years with The Cards, Coach Crum led U of L to 21 seasons with 20 or more victories, six Final Four appearances, and two NCAA titles.
- Both coach Denny Crum and former U of L/NBA standout Wes Unseld have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (in 1994 and 1988, respectively).
- Several former U of L players have gone on to the NBA, including: Junior Bridgeman, Pervis Ellison, Earl Clark, Francisco Garcia and Terrance Williams.
- U of L was ranked #1 for the first time in during a regular season on March 16, 2009.
- The U of L Cards had played their home games in Louisville’s Freedom Hall since 1956, but March 6, 2010, marked their last game in that facility. Their new home, an arena in downtown Louisville, opens in the fall.
If you like this story, be sure to catch up with the Lady Cards, who prove they're role-models on and off the court, in our Season Three segment.
- Program 419
- "Louisville Life" meets prankster comedian Tom Mabe, visits the Louisville Beer Store, relaxes at a historical bed and breakfast, relives Louisville’s first NCAA men’s basketball championship title and more. (#419) | <urn:uuid:d7109fcf-178b-4763-b7b6-ba5df926bf10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ket.org/cgi-local/fw_comment.exe/db/ket/dmps/Programs?do=topic&topicid=LOUL110102&id=LOUL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968637 | 823 | 1.554688 | 2 |
So let's not waste any more time and let's get our pencils and papers ready for some serious drawing fun.
(Drawing tip: "I recommend using a pencil to erase any slip ups").
You've done it... how does it look?
I'm sure it looks great!
Feel like learning how to draw more animals?
Perhaps you'd like to learn how to draw a cartoon character?...
Click on any link below within the Table of Contents to learn how to draw your next item, or...
We often search the net for many drawing courses, the fact is that there are many that suit all different people so why not try your hand at something new from time to time... These online lessons are are real inexpensive way to improve your skills or to uncover hidden talents. The tabs below link to some of the coolest drawing lessons available online for those who want to take their drawing skills to the next level. Good luck and happy drawing! | <urn:uuid:01e214f9-6950-4104-adfc-be4c688a3520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.my-how-to-draw.com/how-to-draw-a-chihuahua.html | 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 | 0.944301 | 196 | 1.8125 | 2 |
MOSCOW -- The Soviet Union on Wednesday prepared for the opening session today of its new national Congress of People`s Deputies, with the debate promising to be turbulent but with the first steps largely foreordained.
The first important tasks of the new congress, the selection of a president and standing legislature, were all but completed on Wednesday in preliminary meetings, deputies said.
A congressional working group chaired by President Mikhail Gorbachev, on Wednesday approved a list of the 542 deputies -- out of the total 2,250 seats in the new Congress -- who will advance into the legislature that is to replace the current rubber-stamp Parliament with a more powerful legislative body.
Deputies who have seen the list said that it included a substantial number of relatively independent figures, including Andrei Sakharov, the physicist and human-rights campaigner; Boris Yeltsin, the maverick who was ousted from his job as Moscow Communist Party chief, and Roy Medvedev, the historian.
But with Communist Party members making up nearly 90 percent of the Congress and with Gorbachev clearly willing to assert party discipline, there is no question that the party will maintain control on major policies.
As expected, the working group of about 400 deputies from all regions of the country also approved the nomination of a single candidate -- Gorbachev -- to be president of the new body.
The one member of the new Congress who might have posed a serious challenge to Gorbachev for the top position, Yeltsin, reportedly told supporters that he did not want to be nominated.
Yeltsin appeared to be flirting with an alternative candidacy, but he was reportedly warned that that would be regarded as a major breach of party loyalty.
Although most of the independent deputies strongly support Gorbachev as the architect of political change, some assert that his coronation-style election as president and the orchestration of the new congress are painfully reminiscent of traditional Soviet legislatures.
Reformist representatives will present these proposals to the new Congress of People`s Deputies, which convenes today:
-- Revision of a government decree that allows internal security troops to disperse demonstrations.
-- Repeal of a law making it illegal to insult or discredit the government and its officials.
-- Decentralization of the Soviet economy, allowing the country`s 15 republics to run their own industries and protect the environment.
-- Sovereignty for the republics.
-- Replacement of a decree that limits the actions of private cooperatives with a new, more liberal law.
-- Creation of congressional watchdog commissions for the KGB and the military.
-- Investigation of the fatal clash between troops and demonstrators last month in Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia.
-- Allocation of support staff, a library and other benefits for deputies.
-- Transfer of legislative power from the 542-member Supreme Soviet to the 2,250-member Congress of People`s Deputies.
-- Revision of the election law to have the public elect the Supreme Soviet directly and to limit each citizen to one vote.
SOURCE: The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:f95e9486-f797-4519-8e61-658c45a13c5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-05-25/news/8901270098_1_new-congress-soviet-georgia-boris-yeltsin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940455 | 634 | 1.773438 | 2 |
In my blog at Stuff I say:
But how significant would this law change be, in terms of labour costs? On average it will result in two extra days of paid holidays every seven years. Over seven years there are around 1600 paid workdays, so the increase in labour cost is 2/1600 or 0.12 per cent.
This is a pretty modest increase in labour costs. It is about 1/16th the cost of having a 2 per cent employer contribution to KiwiSaver.
I’m an employer myself, but I’m in favour of this bill. As an employer I budget for 11 public holidays a year anyway when working out my staff costs, and I suspect most employers do the same. This law change would give certainty to both employers and employees, and the impact on labour costs is very modest.
You can comment over at Stuff, as well as here. I also cover in what future years the bill would actually impact.Tags: By the numbers, holidays act, public holidays, Stuff | <urn:uuid:ef7823f9-0347-44ee-ae26-73b3c30b8dad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/02/mondayising_waitangi_and_anzac_days.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962007 | 211 | 1.648438 | 2 |
MAKERS, a multi-platform initiative that celebrates trailblazing women provides a resource to hear many inspiring and previously untold stories. Presented by Simple facial skincare and created in partnership with AOL and PBS, the site now has the first three of six stories of Next MAKERS, incredible women who have made a remarkable impact on a local level and help comprise a new generation of game changers.
Colonel Jill Chambers, Olivia Joy Stinson, Anna Rodriguez, Reshma Saujani, Emily May and Lydia Cincore-Templeton were selected from a six-week nationwide search for extraordinary women. The stories of Olivia, Lydia and Jill are now featured alongside Supreme Court Justices, Secretaries of State, CEOs, athletes, activists and entertainers on the site. Anna, Reshma and Emily’s videos premiere in January. In addition to sharing their stories, the women received a $10,000 grant from Simple facial skincare so they can continue to follow their dreams and do great work in their communities.
Olivia Joy Stinson of Charlotte, N.C., plans to use the grant money to expand PEN Pals Book Club & Support Group, an organization she started five years ago at age 14 to provide support and motivation for children of incarcerated parents. The Charlotte-based organization has grown to include 25 volunteers and serves nearly 4,000 children and more than 700 adults in the southeast region of the US.
“Olivia Stinson is only 19 but she has already had more of an impact on her community than many people do in their entire lives,” Said Marlo Thomas, MAKER and actress. “Over the past five years PEN Pals has grown from a book club into a full-on support group that serve kids as young as 5, and she hopes to take it into more communities and eventually nationwide. I have no doubt that with her vision, grit, and dedication she'll get it there.”
Next MAKERS is one piece of the evolving collection of women’s stories on MAKERS.com, which currently features more than 160 groundbreaking women, including Sheryl Sandberg, Hillary Clinton and Diane Von Furstenberg. The initiative will continue to grow, adding new stories to the site on a weekly basis.
“I’m inspired daily by the stories of courageous women making a positive difference around the world and believe that by speaking up and sharing our experiences we’ll motivate one another and generations to come,” says Lydia Cincore-Templeton of Los Angeles, Calif., Next MAKER and president and CEO of Children Youth and Family Collaborative (CYFC), an academic and social development organization in Los Angeles that currently serves more than 4,000 foster kids. “I started CYFC after my work with orphans of the Hutu-Tutsi conflict in Rwanda. It illuminated the critical need children have for community support in order to survive and succeed.”
Fellow Next MAKER, Colonel Jill W. Chambers, Washington, D.C., is using her grant money to further her work with veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS). Chambers, widely recognized as the first person in the history of the U.S. Military to develop a successful, sustainable strategy to reduce the crippling stigma associated with mental health challenges in a warrior culture, would like to follow the outcome of those she supports. According to Col. Chambers, “Part of the plan is for veterans to receive non-pharmaceutical tools to aid in their PTS Challenges. I’ll then follow their progress and after six months, have them help me pay it forward to those they know who could also benefit.”
“These women are being recognized for their leadership, vision, courage and ingenuity and we’re honored to bring to life their previously untold stories that will inspire the next generation of trailblazers,” says Dyllan McGee, MAKERS founder and executive producer. | <urn:uuid:3a6bf3e8-e8e4-4cf4-9491-927e605793e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cherokeeherald.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Pay+it+forward-+the+next+generation+of+women+who+are+changing+the+world%20&id=21202796&instance=weather | 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 | 0.962274 | 827 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Australia national cricket team
|Test status granted||1877|
|First Test match||v England at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, 15–19 March 1877 (scorecard)|
|Captain||Michael Clarke (Test and ODI)
George Bailey (T20)
|Official ICC Test, ODI and T20I ranking||2nd (Test), 2nd (ODI), 6th (T20I) |
– This year
|Last Test match||v India at the WACA, Perth, Australia,
3–7 January 2012
– This year
|As of 7 January 2012|
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket. They were in the first Test match in 1877. The team also plays One Day International cricket and Twenty20 International. They were in the first ODI, against England in the 1970–71 season. They were in the first Twenty20 International, against New Zealand in the 2004–05 season. They won both games.
The Australian team has played 744 Test matches, winning 350, losing 194, drawing 198 and tying two. Australia is ranked the number-one team overall in Test cricket in terms of overall wins, win-loss ratio and wins percentage. Australia is ranked fourth in the ICC Test Championship behind England, South Africa and India. They led the Test rankings for a record time of 74 months from 2003 to 2009.
Australia has played 797 ODI matches, winning 490, losing 272, tying nine and with 26 ending in no-result. They have led the ICC ODI Championship since it started for all but 48 days in 2007. Australia made a record six World Cup final appearances (1975, 1987, 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007). They have won the World Cup a record four times in total; 1987 Cricket World Cup, 1999 Cricket World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup and 2007 Cricket World Cup. Australia is the first team to be in 4 consecutive World Cup finals (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007).
The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until 19 March at the 2011 Cricket World Cup. There Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets. Australia won the ICC Champions Trophy twice – in 2006 and in 2009 – making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments. The team has also played 39 Twenty20 Internationals. | <urn:uuid:b42654e4-ef96-4e27-9153-8da8ca725fcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_cricket_team | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952534 | 499 | 1.5 | 2 |
Update | 10:38 a.m. Please note, we are no longer accepting questions for this feature, which concludes Sept. 16.
William R. Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College, has been soliciting — and answering — select reader questions on The Choice since last week. In today’s installment, he discusses how the admissions committee considers extracurricular activities (as with anything in admissions, there is no one-size-fits-all approach), as well as the importance of teacher and counselor recommendations. (Such references, the dean writes below, are sometimes projected onto a screen during committee deliberations, so that all can see them.)
Mr. Fitzsimmons’ concluding posts are scheduled to appear Tuesday and Wednesday. To send your response to what you’ve read here, please use the comment box below. (The questions below have been edited for space, and style.)
Meanwhile, we encourage those new to The Choice, or to the college admissions process in general, to scroll through our previous Q&A sessions with other experts and practitioners, as well as tips we’ve published from representatives of other institutions, including Marty O’Connell, the executive director of Colleges That Change Lives. — Jacques Steinberg
Over the past several decades, our nation’s children, at increasingly early ages, are pushed to specialize in one activity (e.g., a particular sport, a particular musical instrument), to the detriment of their well-being. While parents are the clear leading culprit of this almost obsessive focus, college admissions officers seem to be co-conspirators in this trend. A well-rounded entering class for a top university has increasingly become admitting kids who are off-the-charts superior in a particular activity than the well-rounded young adult. Thoughts?
Each year we admit about 2,100 applicants. We like to think that all of them have strong personal qualities and character, that they will educate and inspire their classmates over the four years of college, and that they will make a significant difference in the world after they leave Harvard. So in a sense we think of everyone we admit as a good “all-arounder” — a person with outstanding academic, extracurricular, and personal credentials. And most of them are, with the following two caveats:
1. Several hundred of our admitted students each year have the kind of stunning academic credentials — well beyond test scores and grades — that our faculty believe place them among the best potential scholars of their generation. Such students are exceptional in their love of learning and intellectual curiosity and originality. They often present scholarly work that confirms their strong academic credentials and recommendations. Many such students are also outstanding extracurricularly, but it would be fair to say that it was their academic potential that was most attractive to the admissions committee.
2. There are also several hundred students who pursued some activity to an unusual degree. Such students — as well as those who are among the best potential scholars — have outstanding achievements largely because of their strong personal qualities. They have made a commitment to pursue something they love, believe in, and value — and to do so with singular energy, discipline and plain old hard work. Such students may continue to be involved in this activity in college — or they may use the personal qualities they developed pursuing the activity to do something else, perhaps entirely different. Such personal qualities are also useful long after one graduates from college.
Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Howard Gardner’s
ground-breaking theory of Multiple Intelligences argues that there is more than one “intelligence”: that each person has a unique combination of interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, mathematical, musical, artistic, kinesthetic, and naturalist “intelligences”. Extracurricular accomplishments allow students to express their varied “intelligences” or faculties beyond simply their SAT “linguistic” and mathematical achievements. Students who make the most of their potential in a variety of ways are more likely to make significant contributions to a world that values talents of all kinds.
The term “extracurricular activities” covers an enormous amount of ground. We are interested in whatever a student does: in addition to school extracurricular activities and athletics, students can tell us of significant community, employment, or family commitments. There are many who spend a great deal of time helping to run their household, preparing meals and caring for siblings or making money with a part-time job to help the household meet expenses.
Unfortunately many schools have had to curtail or eliminate extracurricular activities and athletics, or they charge fees for participation. In addition, many students cannot afford expensive musical instruments or athletic equipment — or have families without the resources to pay for lessons, summer programs and the transportation networks necessary to support such activities.
Admissions Committees keep these factors in mind as they review applications, and are concerned most of all to know how well students used the resources available to them. Extracurricular activities need not be exotic — most are not — and substance is far more important. A student who has made the most of opportunities day-to-day during secondary school is much more likely to do so during college and beyond. This applies to academic life as well as extracurricular activities.
The truth is that there is substantial overlap among the three categories — potential scholars, extracurricular stars, and the substantial majority who are most easily seen analytically as “all-arounders.” The attributes that led them to pursue their interests in secondary school will lead them to seek others in the same kind of context in college. Extracurricular activities and research opportunities in the lab or the library provide settings that allow students from many different backgrounds to educate one another in ways that make the college experience transformative.
My wife and I are teachers in a high-achieving high school in New Jersey. We both write many recommendation letters for students wishing to attend colleges such as yours. We consider the task an honor and handcraft eloquent letters for our students. How do recommendation letters fit into the formula for admission to Harvard?
Recommendations from secondary school teachers and counselors are extremely important at Harvard and at many other colleges, particularly those with selective admissions processes. Faced with more academically qualified applicants than places in the freshman class, our admission officers review the two required teacher recommendations and the counselor report with great care, often commenting on them in writing on “reader sheets” in each application.
We often project the recommendations themselves onto large screens so that all members of the Admissions Committee can see them during the subcommittee and full committee review processes in February and March.
Recommendations can help us to see well beyond test scores and grades and other credentials and can illuminate such personal qualities as character and leadership as well as intellectual curiosity, creativity, and love of learning. Along with essays, interviews, and other materials in the application, recommendations can offer evidence of an applicant’s potential to make a significant difference to a college community and beyond.
Harvard reaches out to college counselors each year in a variety of ways, including this year, in nearly 140 counselor breakfasts throughout the United States in conjunction with our “Joint Travel” partners. They are Duke, Georgetown, Penn, and Stanford (in 120 locations) and Princeton and the University of Virginia (in about 20 others). These breakfasts are usually held in a hotel conference room and counselors from the entire region at invited to attend. Typically the breakfasts follow meetings the previous evening with students and parents that are held at the same location.
At each breakfast, we stress the importance of counselor and teacher recommendations. Often counselors are surprised to hear from us the role their reports play in selective college admissions, but as we explain how admissions committees work, the helpful role of recommendations becomes clear.
Unfortunately there is nothing close to a level playing field when it comes to the availability of college counseling in American high schools. Many less-affluent public schools have stunningly high counselee to counselor ratios (or in some cases, effectively no college counselor at all due to the many other duties counselors have to assume because of budget constraints). At many of those same schools, teachers have unmanageable class sizes that make it nearly impossible to know students well enough to write an informed recommendation. This is particularly problematic because many students who attend such schools have difficult home situations or parents who have not attended college themselves and might be unfamiliar with the college application process.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) provides a wealth of statistics on counseling loads. One recent NACAC study indicated an average ratio of 321 students to each college counselor in public schools and a ratio of 254 to 1 in private schools. But there are varying definitions of “full and part time” in the counseling world, and 76% of private schools had at least one full or part-time counselor whose only job is college counseling, compared to 37% of public schools. Some affluent private and public schools have ratios well under 100 students per counselor (some have fewer than 50) when it comes to writing the counselor recommendations senior year.
There is enormous variation from state to state in the distribution of public school counselors of all kinds (not simply college counseling). The average was 474 to 1, ranging from 902 to 1 in California to 60 to 1 in Rhode Island.
When there are no counselor recommendations, or teacher or counselor reports that offer little information beyond statistical summaries of grades and scores and/or lists of extracurricular activities, colleges are forced to rely on other information. When more information from the school could make a difference in a decision, we call the counselor to try to get additional information, or ask the student to have additional teacher reports sent.
In situations where it is likely that teachers and counselors might not know the student well enough to be able to write informed recommendations, students should still have these recommendations sent, but might consider asking others who know them well, including supervisors of extracurricular activities, employers, representatives from community organizations, clergy, or summer program coordinators to send an additional recommendation. Students might offer any recommender a brief resume of interests and activities. But it is wise to refrain from sending large numbers of extra recommendations or mounting a letter-writing campaign, especially if the school has already written effectively.
The value of an additional letter or two depends on how well the person knows you, not the person’s profession or who he or she might be.
One of the best letters we ever received over the years was written by the school’s custodian who supervised the student in the school’s work program under very difficult circumstances, when everyone was tired at the end of the school day. The letter supported the other positive information in the application about how the student always made everyone around him better — and it made up for sparse recommendations from the over-worked teachers and counselors at that school. The strong personal qualities and character noted by the custodian were confirmed by the remarkable difference the student made to others during his college career and the difference he continues to make today. | <urn:uuid:6f75f983-57ea-422f-931e-2747ca8fd545> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/harvarddean-part3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966589 | 2,301 | 1.664063 | 2 |
"What motivates you?" is one of those tough interview questions where your answer will depend on your background and experiences. This soul-searching interview question can really catch you off guard unless you've thought about it before the interview. Contemplating when you have been most satisfied in your career will not only help you answer this question, but it will also help you focus on what you want in your next job.
Two candidates answer the motivation question, reflecting their values and what is important to them.
The first one says, "In my previous job, I worked directly with customers and their problems. What I liked was solving problems and helping people. Sometimes it took a lot of effort on my part, but it was very rewarding when the customer appreciated the service."
This interview answer reflects the candidate's interest in helping people and the satisfaction he gets in finding solutions.
The second candidate says, "Two years ago, I was involved in a project I was really excited about. The team I was working with had to come up with innovative ways to market a product that was not received well by consumers. It took lots of effort and long meetings, but we met our deadline and launched a terrific marketing campaign. It was really a motivating experience."
This candidate likes thinking outside the box and being part of a team. He loves a challenge and works well with pressure and deadlines.
Prepare Your Script
Writing out your thoughts will help you think about times when you felt energized by your work, times when you looked forward to going to work. For a source of ideas, refer to your resume. Which tasks did you list? Were they the tasks you enjoyed most and felt most motivated doing?
A statement on your resume might be:
Project leader: Led a team in coordinating and monitoring the progress of projects to assure the flow and completion of work on schedule.
What was it that was motivating about this experience? Being in charge? Being the source of information? Controlling the flow of work? Making sure the standards were in line with your work values?
By making a list of motivating experiences from your last two or three jobs, you will begin to see patterns of projects and tasks that stand out. Analyze what you did before. Do you want more of this type of responsibility in your next job? The answers to these questions will give you insight into what stimulates you as well as possibilities for fulfillment in future jobs with similar responsibilities.
Additionally, by focusing on times when you were energized by your work, you may become more enthusiastic about the job you are seeking.
There is no such thing as the perfect answer to the motivation question. Your answer will be based on your own individual experiences and analysis. Ultimately, this exercise will help you reveal to the interviewer what turns you on in your work. Even if you are not asked this question, your preinterview thinking, analysis and scripting will help you be more focused, projet more interview confidence and be more in control of what you want in your next job. | <urn:uuid:8173dcfa-1825-419b-9e84-836e9110a6ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenwichtime.com/jobs/article/Strategies-to-Answer-This-Tough-Interview-Question-4164907.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980363 | 616 | 1.726563 | 2 |
(from L-R) Ike Robinson, Kimberly Mitchell, Keith James, Lois Frankel, Bill Moss and Jeri Muoio join John Textor at Digital Domain/FSU ground breaking in 2011
Infatuated with the idea of building a digital animation college in the heart of downtown, West Palm Beach leaders ignored dire warning signs about Digital Domain before a deal that cost the city $2 million and put in jeopardy a $10 million city-owned property.
Mayor Jeri Muoio, a commissioner at the time, has maintained that the city took proper precautions to assure that taxpayer money would not be at risk. But a Palm Beach Post review of city documents used to vet the now-bankrupt Digital Domain Media Group found the following:
• A June 2009 Digital Domain audit by the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche said that steep losses raised “substantial doubt about (Digital Domain’s) ability to continue as a going concern.” In another, an improving profit picture was masked by revenue from government grants.
• The city relied on two glowing reports — one two pages, the other seven — from entertainment lawyer Steven C. Beer, who noted, however, that “due to confidentiality conditions, my discussions were limited to general information. … I was therefore unable to detail the specific nature of my inquires (sic).” The reports mentioned the “significant role” played by Hollywood director Michael Bay, who had told The Post he had nothing to do with Digital Domain’s Florida operations.
• A private investigator culled public records for civil lawsuit dockets, newspaper clippings and other information readily available on the Internet, including a $7.8 million federal tax lien against Digital Domain’s CEO at the time, John Textor.
• Then-state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, warned that the state performed a faulty review of Digital Domain before committing to a $20 million grant in 2009. City officials said they relied on the state’s review.
The documents show city officials began to explore a collaboration between Digital Domain and the Florida State University film school in December 2009. The public first learned of the deal in late August 2010. Commissioners approved a package of incentives that included $10 million in cash, a $15 million bond issue and 2.4 acres on Okeechobee Boulevard in November 2010.
The city transferred the land to Digital Domain in December 2010 with a requirement that the land return to the city if Digital Domain failed to live up to its end of the deal. The city made cash payments totaling $2 million in May and August 2011.
During the two-month public debate, city officials repeatedly said they had vetted the company fully. | <urn:uuid:580b6d59-089f-4261-b4bf-0e7aea12ec2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/westpalmbeat/category/development/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95107 | 564 | 1.546875 | 2 |
By Nardine Saad
1:01 PM CST, January 11, 2013
Kate Middleton's official portrait has been unveiled. Prince William's wife's likeness can now be seen in Britain's National Portrait Gallery — but not everyone is in love with what they see.
The painting, by Scottish artist Paul Emsley, who also painted South Africa's Nelson Mandela in his photographic style, was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London, where William and Kate saw the portrait for the first time on Friday before it was open to public viewing.
The Duchess of Cambridge, 31, said that she wanted "to be portrayed naturally — her natural self — as opposed to her official self," Emsley said in the New York Daily News.
The frontal-view oil painting displays Kate's flowing brunet locks on a dark background and lightens her green eyes. Emsley did that to match the dark blouse she was wearing, he said. But he also adds bags under and creases around her eyes.
"When I work with a portrait, I push it beyond just Realism, so I always had faith that I would go beyond that and find something original, and I think the fact that we got a half smile, or we've got a smile with a closed mouth, does make it slightly unique in that sense," he told the Associated Press.
"She struck me as an enormously open and generous and a very warm person," Emsley told ABC News. "After initially feeling it was going to be an unsmiling portrait, I think it was the right choice in the end to have her smiling — that is really who she is."
Kate sat twice for the portrait, which took 3½ months to create, once in May and then in June before she became pregnant.
"It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful," said William, the Duke of Cambridge.
But the portrait isn't doing it for art critics, who have slammed Emsley's work. A few of the critiques: The portrait looks nothing like her, ages her and makes her nose look big.
"He made her look older than she is and her eyes don’t sparkle in the way that they do, and there’s something rather dour about the face,” the Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak told BBC News.
Kate "transmits a sense of joie-de-vivre," British Art Journal editor Robin Simon told the Associated Press. "This is dead, dead, dead."
"In my drawings I try to emphasize the singularity and silence of the form," according to Emsley's bio on his website. "By a careful balancing of tones I emphasise the way in which light and shade fall across the subject. By creating a settled half-light I try to transform the existence of the object from the ordinary to something more profound."
But apparently that light seems to make Kate's beautiful brown hair grayer than it is in real life.
What do you think of the portrait? | <urn:uuid:d3a44e17-cbca-4cf4-a3e3-a593b3821847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/lifestyle/entertainment/la-et-mg-kate-middleton-portrait-paul-emsley-20130111,0,385754,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976439 | 633 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Vision Center on Syracuse's South Side today honored 21 college students for completing a program that helped them land summer jobs in their fields and taught them skills to survive in the workplace.
The students landed jobs at National Grid, Associated Architects, LJR Engineering, Carrier Corporation, Clear Channel, Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company, Baby Fiesta and Southside Academy.
The students worked 38 to 40 hours a week, earning $8 an hour paid by the federal workforce development funding that comes to CNYWorks.
Joe Coudriet, program director of Mercy Works, the nonprofit that created the center, said the program is an excellent partnership between local businesses and government.
"This program is bringing people that have no relationship,'' he said. "I hope these young people will become leaders in the community. This is a way to keep young people here. These opportunities will inspire young people to want to stay here after they graduate. They will remember their summer job experience.'' | <urn:uuid:809c3406-a196-4fc7-886b-6c69f79f34ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2007/08/college_students_complete_summ.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963252 | 196 | 1.601563 | 2 |
, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - This morning Pope Benedict XVI began his seventh trip outside of Italy on a good note saying that he “felt at home” in Austria. The pontiff’s trip is in Austria to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the Marian shrine at Mariazell, the most important shrine in central Europe.
The Holy Father departed Rome this morning at 9:50 am local time and arrived in Vienna two hours later. Upon landing, the Pope was greeted by Heinz Fischer, president of the Republic of Austria, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn O.P., the archbishop of Vienna and the melodious welcome of a children’s choir.
In his opening speech, the Pope gave his listeners a clue as to why he feels so at home in Austria. "The culture of this country," he said, "is deeply imbued with the message of Jesus Christ and the activity which the Church has carried out in His name."
He also praised the virtues that the Austrian shrine brings to life saying, “[t]his Marian sanctuary in some way represents the maternal heart of Austria…It symbolizes an openness which not only transcends physical and national frontiers, but, in the person of Mary, reminds us of an essential dimension of human beings: their capacity for openness to God and His word of truth.”
The pontiff joined himself to this openness to God by expressing his desire to be a pilgrim as well. "I would like, during these three days here in Austria, to go as a pilgrim to Mariazell" on "a journey made in the company of all the pilgrims of our time. ... Mariazell does not only represent 850 years of history, but shows us on the basis of that history, the way to the future."
Pope Benedict finished his speech by calling on all pilgrims to make the act of pilgrimage a part of their everyday life as many Austrians do.
He noted how “in Austria many people, on Sunday, the day of rest from work, and also during their free time on other days of the week, engage in volunteer activities and service to others. Such commitment, offered generously and disinterestedly for the welfare of others, also marks the pilgrimage of our life."
As most pilgrims know, every pilgrimage contains difficulties and this one proved no different for the Pope as his speech was cut short by microphone difficulties.
CNA is providing daily coverage of the Pope's visit to Austria. Resources can be found here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/austria07/index.html
Nairobi, Kenya, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - The Vatican refused a request by the Archdiocese of Nairobi for an early start in the cause of Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga.
The process would only start five years after his death, as required by Church law, said Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana, announcing the Vatican’s decision. Cardinal Otunga died in Sept. 6, 2003, at the age of 80.
“We were advised to wait for five years, and we accepted the advice obediently,” Archbishop Ndingi told reporters yesterday at Holy Family Basilica after a memorial Mass for his predecessor. According to a CISA report, thousands of people attended the Mass.
He added that the beloved cardinal’s beatification would be on the agenda when the Kenyan bishops make their ad limina visit to the Vatican in November.
Cardinal Otunga had served as archbishop of Nairobi for 26 years. His remains are interred in a special chapel at the Resurrection Garden, a retreat centre in Nairobi.
The Vatican has waived the five-year rule recently, in the cases of Blessed Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.
Vienna, Austria, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - Following a ceremony in which he dedicated Austria and all of its people to the protection of Mary, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to the nearby Judenplatz, which contains a commemorative monument to the Shoah (Holocaust).
The Holy Father was received there by the Chief Rabbi and the president of the Jewish community in Vienna. He paused to pray in silence and speak with members of the Jewish community that had gathered to greet him.
Onboard the plane to Vienna, the Pope told the AP that the visit to the Holocaust shrine would be a “moment to express our sadness, our repentance and our friendship towards the Jews.”
The Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn also reminded those assembled, that Jesus and the apostles were Jewish and that "we must never forget our roots."
"It is part of this city's tragedy that it is indeed here that these roots were forgotten, even denied, to the point of wanting to destroy a people to whom God gave his first love," he said.
The Judenplatz contains a commemorative monument to the Shoah by the artist Rachel Whiteread, an archaeological excavation revealing a medieval synagogue and a museum on the Jewish presence in the Middle Ages. Engraved in the paving stones around the monument are the names of the places in which more than 65,000 Austrian Jews lost their lives under Nazis rule.
Rome, Italy, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Bishop Elio Sgreccia denounced as a “monstrosity” the new norms approved this week in Great Britain by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which allow the creation of animal-human embryos for the purpose of extracting stem cells for use in the treatment of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
Proponents of the new ruling held up a “support” survey of two thousand people who have no knowledge of the issue as evidence that the research should go forward.
With the newly granted permission to create hybrid embryos (part animal, part human) three teams of British scientists—one from King’s College London, one from the North East England Stem Cell Institute, and one led by Ian Wilmut, whose team cloned the sheep Dolly—will begin experiments to introduce human DNA into a cow egg in order to create embryos that would be 99.9 percent human and .01 percent animal.
Investigators argue that this macabre norm is needed because of the lack of human ovums for research. In response Bishop Sgreccia explained that up to now, international law prohibited this kind of genetic manipulation “because of the offense against human dignity” that it constitutes, “because of the risk of producing monsters” and “because of the morally high significance.”
He said the British government had “caved into a request from a group of scientists that it seems to me goes against the will of the majority and certainly against the morality of not only of Catholics but also of other religious groups and defenders of life, and against all rational morality, which up to now has been quite clear in all of the international treaties.”
Bishop Sgreccia said the scientists’ justifications were “mere excuses” for defending the indefensible and that experiments that are inhumane and illicit “cannot be carried out, not even with the hope of achieving a degree of success.”
“Success, if it exists, should come through human means. Good should be achieved through decent means; otherwise we are applying pure Machiavellian ideology to science and to scientific experimentation when what is at stake is human dignity,” he emphasized.
Likewise, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life recalled that experimentation on a living human being and its subsequent elimination has up to now only occurred in concentration camps. These experiments were forbidden by the Nuremberg Codes and the Helsinki Declaration. It’s important to emphasize that even though some labs are going to carry them out, that does not make them licit,” he said.
Bishop Peter Smith of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, also weighed in on the unprecedented ruling saying, “Human begins have one sole nature, specifically separate from animals,” and therefore nobody should wonder if it is “correct to exceed the limits of the species and try to mix human and animal natures.” “Instead of promoting this kind of ethically problematic research, why not encourage research with adult stem cells which is not controversial?” the bishop asked. “The Catholic Church is not against this kind of research and encourages that which is done with stem cells extracted from the blood and from the umbilical cord,” he stressed.
Brussels, Belgium, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - The government of Poland has asked the European Union to expand its opposition to the death penalty to include abortion and euthanasia.
"We don't think that the idea is reasonable because the death penalty is not a problem in Europe. There is no use to promote the law that is already in force in every European country," the spokesman for Polish foreign minister Ana Fotyga told the EUobserver.
Polish representatives told their fellow EU members that the idea of the "right to life" cannot be reduced to the death penalty problem alone. Poland has said therefore it opposes establishing October 10 as European day against the death penalty
"We think that when anybody wants to discuss a problem of death in the context of the law it is also worth to discuss euthanasia and abortion in this context," Fotyga explained.
The EU Commission has rejected linking the issue of the death penalty to other issues related to the right to life.
Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - The United States bishops and their overseas relief organization are urging the US Senate to offer “active support for essential funding for urgent humanitarian and development activities.”
A letter, dated Sept. 5, was sent to senators as they consider the State/Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for 2008.
In it, Bishop Thomas Wenski and Ken Hackett said a priority should be adequate funding for the Millennium Challenge Account/Corporation (MCA). Bishop Wenski is chair of the U.S. bishops’ International Policy Committee. Hacket is president of Catholic Relief Services.
The MCA was designed to help vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa, make key reforms that include improved governance, anti-corruption measures, expanded rights for underrepresented groups such as women and rural landholders, and commitments to health and sanitation, Bishop Wenski and Hackett stated.
They noted that the full Senate committee mark reduces MCA funding to $1.2 billion, far below the president’s request of $3 billion and $700 million below the committee’s mark from last year.
“We urge Senate leaders to fund the MCC at a minimum of $1.8 billion, the level contained in the Fiscal Year 2008 House bill,” they wrote. “Unless sufficient funds are provided for the MCA, important reforms may lose momentum in bringing meaningful development to some of our poorest brothers and sisters.”
They also urged the Senate to reinstate funding designated in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in the form of abstinence programs.
Bishop Wenski and Hackett also urged restoration of a policy “that prohibits support for organizations that support or help manage programs using coerced abortion and sterilization.”
“The persistence of abject hunger, poverty, and disease in God’s world is a significant moral challenge,” they wrote. “Reliable programs that have proven results in combating or reducing poverty and disease deserve the full support of the U.S. Congress.”
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - Renowned Presbyterian minister and pro-life advocate James Kennedy died Wednesday at the age of 76.
Kennedy was the longtime pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He arrived at the modest mission church of 45 people in 1959 and proceeded to transform it into 10,000-member Christian mega-church. He incorporated media into his ministry and broadcasted his church services to three million Americans and 200 nations.
He founded several organizations focused on training Christians to carry the Gospel into all parts of society.
Messages of sympathy and gratitude for Kennedy’s ministry poured in from numerous Christian leaders.
"America has lost a strong and consistent voice for the most helpless in society," said Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. "The unborn and the physically impaired had a great advocate in Rev. D. James Kennedy, who always pleaded for the vulnerable with love.”
Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, described Kenney as “a true Christian leader for our time.”
“We are grateful for his example, wisdom, and uncompromising commitment to spreading the Kingdom of God. He was an outspoken foe of the ACLU and activist judges who were de-Christianizing our nation,” he said.
Beverly LaHaye, founder Concerned Women for America, said Kennedy “left a legacy of profound spiritual leadership and effective evangelism.”
Kennedy preached his last sermon on Christmas Eve 2006. Four days later, he suffered cardiac arrest and had been unable to return to the pulpit. He only retired as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries in August. James Kennedy passed away in his sleep from cardiac complications on Wednesday.
Toronto, Canada, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - After 18 years, the Vatican has put a final stamp of approval on the Canadian lectionary, granting a recognitio to the inclusive language of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible in English.
Canadians have been reading the NRSV at Mass since 1992, when the first edition of the new Sunday lectionary was published with approval from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The Canadian NRSV lectionary for weekdays was published in 1994. It was only then that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith objected to NRSV translations.
The NRSV uses inclusive language, referring to both men and women, when the text refers to people. References to God use the pronoun “He.”
Pope John Paul II used the Canadian lectionary at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.
“The main issue was not the question of inclusive language,” Archbishop James Weisgerber, vice president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Register. The Vatican’s concern has been a matter of technical issues and accuracy, he said.
A committee of Canadian bishops had been meeting regularly with Vatican officials to work on the details of the text since 2003. With the recognitio in place, the bishops can begin publishing a second edition to the books already in use, starting with Year B, Nov. 30, 2008.
Rome, Italy, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - According to press reports, the historic visit to Austria by Pope Benedict XVI September 7-9 will be covered by some 1,700 journalists, who will be among the 33,000 people expected to attend the Mass at the Shrine of Mariazell.
On September 8, some five thousand people from various countries are expected to attend the 850th anniversary celebrations at the shrine, among them a group of Germans from Bavaria, the native region of Benedict XVI.
On Sunday, September 9, after the recitation of the Angelus at St. Stephen’s Square, five hundred children of the “Missio Austria” will present the pontiff with letters and drawings. Local officials said the purpose is to raise funds for child soldiers in Uganda.
Another unique aspect of the papal visit is that the faithful who are unable to attend the Mass at Mariazell will be able to receive text messages on the cell phones with the papal blessing at the end of the celebration.
This is the fourth time a pope has visited Austria in the last 25 years and the first trip to a European country by Benedict XVI in 2007.
Caracas, Venezuela, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - A commission of bishops named by the head of the Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela and other Conference leaders will study the constitutional reforms proposed by President Hugo Chavez and prepare a response that will be addressed to the Venezuelan people.
The members of the commission include Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, Archbishop Diego Padron of Cumana, Archbishop Reinaldo del Prette Lissot of Valencia and Bishop Jesus Zarraga of San Carlos.
“It’s important that all Venezuelans of every sector and ideology take part in the debate and seriously study the suggested changes, so that the National Constitution will be a peace treaty for the country, and not a declaration of war,” the bishops said in a press conference.
In that sense they reaffirmed the need for “true national dialogue about this matter of such transcendence for the future of the country, and the opinions of all should be heard and respected.” The Constitution, they emphasized, should belong to the entire nation and not just a particular faction.
In response to the recent polarization of the country over the proposals by Chavez to implement his socialist agenda, several bishops have insisted on the need for dialogue in order to bring about a consensus in the context of respect for the basic rights of the person, such as freedom of expression, and in accord with the democratic process.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - In the wake of a scandal caused by school professor who dresses up as a woman, the Consortium of Catholic Doctors of Buenos Aires rejected the idea that sexuality is sentimental and not biological, noting that science demonstrates that only two sexes exist: male and female.
The group of experts issued a statement referring to the case of a school teacher in Tierra del Fuego, who “dresses up as a woman and wears makeup.” Radical groups have backed the teacher saying, “What is important is what the person ‘feels’ and one’s sex is not biological, but rather the result of psychological and emotional impulses that attract the person to others of the same or of the opposite sex.”
“The natural, biological and scientific truth is that there are only two sexes: male and female,” the doctors countered. This has been demonstrated genetically, hormonally, anatomically and physiologically, they added.
The doctors rejected arguments by school officials that to discipline or fire the teacher would violate anti-discrimination laws. “This is an absolutely incorrect interpretation (of the anti-discrimination laws),” they said. “One cannot claim discrimination while violating natural rights. The freedom and rights of one person end with the freedom and rights of others,” the doctors explained.
They acknowledged that schools should not discriminate against teachers and students, “but there are clear limits that should not be violated, such as when the psychology, emotions and current and future conduct of the students would be affected.”
“One of the most important characteristics and values that teachers must impart to their students is an appropriate image of what the human person anthropologically should be and how he should act. This is precisely done by giving an example of living in an ethically and morally correct way,” they added.
They called the actions by the teacher in question “absolutely inadmissible” and an example of “deviant conduct.”
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sep 7, 2007 (CNA) - Not everyone was expected to be impacted by the Pope’s visit to Brazil last summer, however since Benedict XVI visited Fazenda da Esperança, a drug rehabilitation center, hundreds have been inspired to seek treatment and to strive to find happiness in Christ.
ACN reports the story of one 23 year old woman, Maria de Campo who was an addict and worked occasionally as a prostitute. She relates how at first she had no interest in meeting the Pope. Describing herself as an “unbeliever,” she had previously told her friends on the Fazenda, “I don’t listen to the Church. I am here to get myself off drugs, not to see someone you call the ‘Pope.’”
She ended up attending the Pope’s visit and found herself standing in the front row. The Pope took her hand and blessed this young woman. She tells ACN: “He looked me straight in the eyes, and it was as though he could see everything in me. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.” She broke into tears. “This meeting converted me. I had the feeling that God was reflected in him. I cannot explain it, but since then everything has changed.”
Since his visit, hundreds have visited the Fazenda drug rehabilitation center as well as the community church which is the first church dedicated to St. Antonio Galvao.
In his letter to Austrian Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “In Brazil, in the Fazenda da Esperança, in a way that I will never forget I encountered young people who had fallen victim to drugs and had therefore lost their joy in life and their faith in the future. Discovering God meant for them – so they told me – finding hope again and once more gaining joy in life and in the future. Precisely because faith has deep roots, it can unlock the future and bestow life.”
There are currently Fazendas throughout South America, Philippines, and Germany. | <urn:uuid:b55c53a2-2616-44c5-ac95-d9fe3240fbeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/archive/2007/09/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965416 | 4,529 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Regulation COBAC R-2009/02 is a recent text that reinforces the legal space of the bank in Central Africa, previously set by the Banking Act”Convention of October 16, 1990”and, in some form, Regulation 02 / 08 CEMAC / UMAC / COBAC on the attribution of jurisdiction to COBAC for a categorization of credit institutions, their legal form, their minimum statutory capital and permitted activities.
The Banking Commission met on April 1, 2009 in Bata in Equatorial Guinea decide what might be called a crop, by doing little abstraction occurring bases OHADA.
The spirit of Article I of the regulation promotes the idea that credit institutions, central Africa, are organizations that perform other regular banking operations. These operations include receiving funds from the public, granting loans, issuing guarantees for other credit institutions and the provision of customer payment methods (art. 4 Annex to the Convention Douala).
Funds received from the public
The funds received from the public funds that are collected by a third person, such as filing, with the right to have his own behalf, but she was to return them.
However, it is stated in the regulation that “The funds received or retained by the account associated with the sponsors name or a partnership, the partners or shareholders at least 5 100 of share capital, directors, executive board and supervisory board or the managers and funds from equity loans “and” The funds that a company receives from its employees, except that they do not exceed 10 per 100 of its equity. To assess this threshold, it is not taken into account funds received from employees under special laws, are not funds received from the public.
These are acts by which a person is acting for consideration or promises to provide another person or takes the benefit of it, a commitment by signing such an endorsement, bond or security. In addition, Article 3 paragraph 2 states “are treated as credit transactions leasing and, in general, any operation lease with an option to purchase.”
Broad concept: a method of payment with paper or magnetic, or any computer system or telematics, as meaning any instrument equivalent to the transfer of funds.
In any event, we began to see a broader approach in space COBAC because “are considered as means of payment, all the instruments, which, whatever the medium or technical procedure used, enable any person to transfer funds” Article 4 Regulation), which elements we will not fail to join the award credit and issuing guarantees on behalf of other credit institutions, which were already included in the annex to the agreement of Douala.
Certain financial activities, which are intended to develop aspects, related to, fewer banking monopoly that exists in the three listed above.
Besides, the system provides a panel COBAC comprehensive measures acting as activities that are related seem so manifest, that can perform the authorized credit institutions. There are:
In all cases, credit institutions can not take or hold interests in companies and habitually act on any activity other than mentioned in its provisions (Article 1 to 4), under the conditions defined by the Commission Regulation bank that will set a maximum level of these operations.
Under the provisions of the OHADA Uniform Act on the law of commercial companies and economic interest groups, all credit institutions must be established as Legal Corporation with a board of directors, except to be a branch of credit institution, which Headquartered outside of space COBAC .
In all reports, credit institutions are classified as part of their accreditation as universal banks, specialized banks, financial institutions or financial companies.
Universal banks are banks, authorized generally to receive any funds from the public and they do all banking operations or related ones say, then no banking at all, under the conditions defined in Article 6 of Regulation.
Specialized banks as well, banks, receive any funds from the public with a narrow field of activity according to the spirit of the text. Their activities are limited by the decision of approval or statutory provisions, legislative, regulatory capital.
Financial firms are more financial institutions, receive funding from public view and within two years of term, their activities are financed by equity or those borrowed from other banks or the capital market. Banking transactions made by them, should they comply with the approval or any text on them?
Specialized financial institutions are financial institutions, but cannot receive funds from public view and within two years of term. Moreover, their mission is of public interest as decided by the National Authority, in this way to finance their activities and operations of banking or related documents are governed by so-called ad hoc in the narrow sense of respect banking regulations.
Currently, this description corresponds to what can be a real piece chosen the Banking Act of 1992, yet this is, on balance, an updating of the legal database that exists on the subject, since its entry in force since 1 June 2009, a few months ago, has the purpose to consolidate the Banking Act.
The drafters of the law COBAC without the risk of sounding simplistic, were so compelling, kept extending the series of activities, the legal and institutional categories as indicated at the outset the Annex to the Convention Douala 1992 on the harmonization of banking regulation, to avoid falling into grotesque abstractions developed to feed a superfluity legal due to the endless extension of the provisions.
The probability of fluctuation legislative or regulatory, apparently in close affiliation with the public in community banks, could in no case fossoyer in his mind this principle as stated in the Convention itself Douala, then the regulation R-2009/02 object of the demonstration. | <urn:uuid:01f8c93c-dc36-4c06-8d4b-a9d85300ac73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arborlaw.com/credit-insttutoins-law-in-cobac | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960634 | 1,140 | 1.59375 | 2 |
RI records lacking in national gun check database
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Rhode Island hasn't shared any mental health records with the federal background check system used to screen prospective gun buyers, contributing to what gun control advocates call major gaps in the database.
State Police Chief Col. Steven O'Donnell says he and other leaders have been "brainstorming" the best policy for sharing such records with the FBI but that he wants "to get it right."
States submit the information voluntarily. The state attorney general's office says there are questions about which records to share and how to comply with privacy laws. Legislation might be needed.
The background check system screens available records to see if an individual is prohibited from having a gun. Mayors Against Illegal Guns says the system has "serious gaps and limitations" partly because not all states share information. | <urn:uuid:b27d0afe-de7c-434b-b23c-ee5698d986f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/rhode-island/12009769862878/ri-records-lacking-in-national-gun-check-database/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932084 | 176 | 1.609375 | 2 |
EUGENE ROBINSON uses his twice-weekly column in The Washington Post to pick American society apart and then put it back together again in unexpected, and revelatory, new ways. To do this job of demolition and reassembly, Robinson relies on a large and varied tool kit: energy, curiosity, elegant writing, and the wide-ranging experience of a life that took him from childhood in the segregated South—on what they called the “colored” side of the tracks—to the heights of American journalism.
In a 25-year career at The Washington Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s award-winning Style section. He has written books about race in Brazil and music in Cuba, covered a heavyweight championship fight, witnessed riots in Philadelphia and a murder trial in the deepest Amazon, sat with presidents and dictators and the Queen of England, thrusted and parried with hair-proud politicians from sea to shining sea, handicapped all three editions of “American Idol,” acquired fluent Spanish and passable Portuguese, and even reached an uneasy truce with the noxious hip-hop lyrics that fester in his teenage son’s innocent-looking iPod.
Eugene Robinson won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Judges complimented Robinson’s “eloquent columns on the 2008 presidential campaign that focus on the election of the first African-American president, showcasing graceful writing and grasp of the larger historic picture. | <urn:uuid:d586dac5-c586-4ea7-b476-8c576061f9fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.truthdig.com/staff/eugene_robinson/P540/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947163 | 322 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Taoiseach Enda Kenny will officially open the new exhibition at Loop Head Lighthouse and launch the 2012 visitor season at the West Clare tourist attraction on Friday, 18 May at 3:30 PM. Members of the media are invited to attend.
- Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s grandfather, James McGinley was a former keeper at the lighthouse. James John McGinley took up duty at the Lighthouse as Principal Keeper on 16th January 1933. He spent 1 year and 10 months at Loop Head. He was transferred from the station in October 1934.
- Loop Head Lighthouse will be open to the public from Saturday, 19 May 2012.
- Loop Head Lighthouse, located at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary, is steeped in history and rich in maritime heritage with its origins dating back to the 1670s. The existing tower style lighthouse was constructed in 1854 and was operated and maintained by a keeper who lived within the lighthouse compound. In January 1991, the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation, and today is in the care of an attendant and is also monitored by the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL).
- Clare County Council, along with Shannon Development, Loop Head Tourism and the CIL, conducted a successful trial scheme in 2011 that resulted in an estimated 17,000 people visiting the landmark building. | <urn:uuid:c1962fe5-0d4a-46db-a284-ae3ae45d43b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dunphypr.com/?p=8067 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978021 | 274 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Trading a treasured heirloom for cash can be heartbreaking, but sentiment weighs nothing on a secondhand jeweler’s scale.
Many New Jersey residents have been selling jewelry to buyers who either resell the items or have them melted into bars at a smelter. It’s a trend fueled by unforgiving economic conditions and gold prices that have soared to five times what they were 10 years ago. After hitting a 10-year high of $1,900 per troy ounce late last August, gold has been fetching just over $1,600 per troy ounce.
But it’s easy for first-time sellers to get duped or walk away without the proper paperwork.
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs yesterday cited 12 Wayne Township cash-for-gold buyers for violations observed during an undercover investigation as part of an ongoing statewide crack down. Officials performed similar operations in Belmar and Evesham earlier this year with similar results.
Secondhand jewelry buyers with no criminal charges against them can register with local municipal offices. There’s no official count of the number of cash-for-gold buyers in the state, in part because not everyone registers before hanging a sign in their window, but Eric Kanefsky, acting director of the division, said officials started seeing more when gold prices peaked.
"We have seen several cases in which businesses of different kinds — including a notary shop and a gas station — decided to put up ‘Cash for Gold’ signs as an addition to the services they provide," he said.
For its most recent investigation, the division collaborated with the Wayne Township Police Department, the State Office of Weights and Measures and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and found 171 state civil complaints and 30 municipal code violations. The violating businesses will be issued summonses and face fines up to $2,000, 90 days incarcertaion or 90 days of community service.
"We had instances,’’ Kanefsky said, "where a jeweler or retailer would look at a piece of jewelry and throw out a price."
By law jewelers should weigh and test the purity of an item in front of the seller, clearly display their information and prices they offer per ounce of precious metal. They are also required to ask for identification and create a detailed receipt to keep on file for at least a year.
The scales they use to weigh jewelry should have a blue, dated sticker indicated they have been certified by someone from the weights and measures office in the last year.
Wayne Police Capt. Mark McGrath said the state requires detailed receipts to help protect both parties if it turns out they unknowingly struck a deal on a stolen item. The law also prevents jewelry from being resold or altered for two business days for the same reasons.
In Wayne, local code goes a step further and requires buyers to hold onto secondhand jewelry for 45 days, giving law enforcement more time to track down stolen goods.
People who do not regularly sell jewelry almost always have a surprise waiting for them when they are ready to cash in.
"For example, nine times out of 10 when something is stamped 14 karat, it isn’t exactly 14 karat, meaning 58 percent gold," said Richard Bolen, a gemologist at George Press Jewelers in Livingston. "When you test it, it’s a little less, and that’s one thing that affects the prices people get."
Consumers who suspect they have been cheated or scammed by a business can file a complaint with the State Division of Consumer Affairs by visiting its website or by calling 1-800-242-5846 or 973-504-6200. | <urn:uuid:ce9de1dc-3dde-4ae5-9536-ea88fb792320> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2012/08/more_buyers_offering_fools_cas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950428 | 766 | 1.679688 | 2 |
“WASHINGTON — In case you thought there was no risk of your taxes going up again, think again. Washington isn’t done with you yet.
Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, want lawmakers to consider a fresh set of tax increases in the next several weeks when they discuss whether to cut spending.
Republicans oppose raising tax rates, especially after they just raised some of them for the first time in two decades in the New Year’s deal that extended most – but not all – of the expiring Bush tax cuts.
But much of what Obama is talking about is raising tax revenue without actually raising tax rates. In Washington-speak, lawmakers will try to collect more tax money by closing tax loopholes, perhaps limiting popular tax deductions and to some degree changing the way citizens pay into the popular Medicare and Social Security programs.
The New Year’s deal raised income tax rates for individuals’ taxable income above $400,000 and family income above $450,000. That’s less than 1 percent of all U.S. taxpayers. The deal is projected to raise about $600 billion over 10 years, not enough to significantly chip away at deficits that still will total more than $6.8 trillion over the same period. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will be looking to trim $2 trillion over 10 years from projected future deficits as part of any deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by the end of February and prevent $109 billion in deep spending cuts from occurring in March.
Democrats say Obama will continue to push for an equal split between revenues and cuts – $1 trillion in new tax revenues and $1 trillion in spending cuts….”
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You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:7c4f4f62-ba9b-40af-821f-8ff53a619411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ibankcoin.com/news/2013/01/10/get-out-your-wallets-washington-is-not-finished-with-you-yet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957418 | 358 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Mikhail Metzel/Associated Press Police trucks near a protest site in Moscow on Sunday.
MOSCOW — Under a menacing gray sky, people walked across the Great Stone Bridge, which spans the Moscow River at one end of the Kremlin. Dressed mostly in dark clothing, they walked purposefully, with somber faces, almost as in a funeral procession.
It was Monday evening, as Moscow’s latest protest rally was beginning, and the mood was anything but uplifting — and nothing like what it was a year and a half earlier, when Russia’s so-called Snow Revolution began with hundreds of thousands of newly minted activists happily discovering one another in cities and towns across the country. For a few months back then it seemed that this emergent force might actually bring down Vladimir Putin’s regime. But then in March of last year Putin declared an overwhelming election victory, knocking the air out of the movement. And when exactly one year ago protesters gathered on the eve of his third inauguration, their peaceful march ended in violent clashes that, opposition activists now believe, were purposefully started by the police.
That violence turned out to be a prelude to a crackdown: a series of new repressive laws, the exertion of extreme pressure on the media and the arrests of dozens of activists and rank-and-file protesters. At least 27 people are now facing charges in connection with the Moscow police clashes alone, and lately that number has risen by an average of one person a week.
MOSCOW: When I look at the editorial calendar for this week, or any other week, most of what I see are court hearings. The courts in Russia have replaced politics: They are virtually the only point of contact between an individual or organization and the state. While the state rules by decree and always in its own favor, at least in court the individual can make an argument or attempt an objection.
On Monday, the Moscow City Court will take up the arrests of five people charged in connection with a May 6 protest march, which ended in clashes with the police. They are just five of the nearly 20 people facing similar charges, so these cases are being heard by the court at least two or three times a week. Of the five, four men are in pretrial detention and a woman is under house arrest. If previous hearings are any indication, the court will simply rubber-stamp extensions of the arrests.
On Tuesday, another court in Moscow will hear a case brought by a staff member of Human Rights House, a complex of nongovernmental offices in the city of Voronezh that was raided by law enforcement in December. The man is trying to secure the return of a personal laptop computer that was confiscated during the raid, one of the first among hundreds of such sweeps during which thousands of laptops, desktops, cellphones and other electronic devices have been confiscated.
The same day, the daily newspaper Kommersant will head to court to contest a decision by the government last year to revoke the paper’s contract for publishing bankruptcy notices. The notices, which once formed the privately owned newspaper’s financial base, will now have to be printed in the state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta to be considered legitimate. Thus Kommersant, which had perhaps begun to take the lucrative contract for granted, has been shown who the boss is.
LONDON — An hour into “One Hour Eighteen Minutes,” a play recounting the death of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow’s Sailor’s Silence prison, the woman seated next to me started to laugh. She was about 20, wearing a beret and an expensive blue coat.
Danny Scheinmann, an actor who at turns plays a journalist, a policeman and a medical orderly in Magnitsky’s story, was demonstrating how to find one’s pancreas, the source of much of Magnitsky’s pain. He lay on a tabletop, hitched up his shirt and pointed to a red outline sketching out the organ on his skin. The gesture released the tension in the audience. The woman laughed.
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow in 2006.
Scheinmann then impersonated the agony of Magnitsky as his diseased pancreas spewed out enzymes and digested his body from within while prison orderlies failed to help him. The laughter curdled in the woman’s throat.
The real Magnitsky was arrested in Moscow in 2008 while he was investigating a massive tax fraud committed against the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management. Russian Interior Ministry officials had been masterminding a scam under which they stole Hermitage documents and employed criminals to claim taxes the investment fund had already paid.
The same officials then arrested Magnitsky, accusing him of evading taxes himself. Held without trial for almost a year in increasingly squalid conditions, he died in detention, his illness untreated, in November 2009.
ISTANBUL — After a satisfying lunch of meze and fish, a body needs a demitasse of thick Turkish coffee. But in this case it was not to be.
“We don’t make coffee,” the waiter said.
“Not to worry,” I said. “There’s a man in a kiosk who makes it just across the street. He can bring it over on a tray.”
“Not possible,” said the waiter.
“Why?” I asked.
“If we made an exception and served you coffee… well, before you’d know it, everyone would want some,” he said.
The Turkish government’s strange reaction last week to a report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists reminded me of the waiter’s words. The report condemns the Turkish government for restricting press freedoms and imprisoning journalists. The government’s response: Sorry, we can’t give normal freedoms to the press because then everyone else might expect them, too. | <urn:uuid:2a8e269d-2bf6-4309-b339-f90de29b932f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/political-prisoners/ | 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 | 0.967218 | 1,258 | 1.710938 | 2 |
From humble beginnings in a small NYC shop Coro grew to become the largest manufacturer of costume jewelry. Coro proudly describes their manufacturing facility in Providence, RI...
"The lighting is perfect, and shining glass windows provide excellent ventilation. A large cafeteria and a parking lot are provided for the convenience of employees. Musak is another feature and rest periods relieve the afternoon hours".
In 1951 Coro produced a History and Sales Manual in honor of the company's 50th anniversary. The photographs and quoted text on this web page are taken from this handbook, which was generously shared by Stacey Rosoff.
Date(s): October 7, 2003. Album by Luda Tovey. 1 - 22 of 22 Total. 6389 Visits.
enlarge 35KB, 639x266 1 Coro Factory in Providence, RI - 1951
By 1951 this world class factory, constructed in 1929, occupied 172,000 square. It was looked upon as the most modern jewelry factory in the world and was equipped with the most modern machinery geared to turn out a tremendous volume of quality merchandise, which made Coro the manufacturer of the largest volume in the industry.
Coro was acquired by Richton International in 1957 and continued to produce costume jewelry out of the Providence factory until 1979.
In 1951, this was the only other Coro factory mentioned in Coro's 50th Aniversary handbook. Reportedly a Coro factory had been opened in England in 1933 but it is unknown if it was still in operation in 1951. After Coro ceased US operations in 1979, Coro jewelry continued to be made in this Toronto factory until the late 90s, producing Coro, Vendome and Oscar de la Renta lines.
enlarge 41KB, 640x384 3
enlarge 78KB, 640x470 4 DESIGNING
"Coro's corps of expert designers are men whose experience has been in the real jewelry field, working with diamonds and platinum. They have found a wider field for their creative talents in Fashion Jewelry."
In "Jewels of Fantasy" Deanna Farneti Cera writes "As in fine jewelry, the more original the designer employed by a firm is, the more his name is kept secret." Presumably this protected their competitive positions. Coro was no exception. Virtually all of Coro's design patents were secured in the name of Adolf Katz, Coro's chief designer. Although it is unknown if these were free-lance or Coro employees, the following names also appear on a very limited number of Coro design patents - Gene Verrecchio, Oscar Placco, Sidney Pearl, Robert Geissman, Lester Gaba, Charles Pauzat, Carol McDonald and Victor di Mezza.
enlarge 88KB, 640x450 5 SAMPLE AND MODEL MAKING
"These artists draw the original design which, after approval by the chief designer, is passed along to a model maker who hand carves the model from which the mold is made..."
enlarge 108KB, 640x613 6 SAMPLE AND MODEL MAKING
enlarge 82KB, 640x447 7 TOOL ROOM
"Styles of ornamenting metals: CHASING - surface of metal is carved or engraved for decorative effect. FILIGREE - fine wire or beading bent into openwork designs PIERCED - openwork all cut out of one piece of metal EMBOSSING - consists in building up a design in metal above the surface..."
enlarge 117KB, 529x640 8 TOOL ROOM
Syles of metal cont'd... "CASTING - molten metal poured into molds in which designs have been formed. INLAY - consists in filling engraved areas with a contrasting metal so that the surface of the metal lies even with that of the surrounding area HAND HAMMERING - is used to achieve a textural look on the surface of the metal ENGRAVING - consists in carving a design down into the body of the metal"
enlarge 74KB, 640x442 9 STAMPING
"Most Fashion Jewelry is made of brass or white metal bases. Practically all brass pieces are made with dies by a stamping process. The die has two parts - front and back."
enlarge 83KB, 393x640 10 STAMPING
"The brass is inserted between the two parts and by use of a drop hammer the brass blank is converted into a design which is later pierced and trimmed. It then goes through a series of operations: Soldering, Polishing, Plating, Lacquering, Stone Setting"
enlarge 82KB, 640x446 11 POLISHING
"Polishing increases the highlights of the design - eliminates scratches and rough edges, and brings out the natural lustre of the base metal."
enlarge 67KB, 432x640 12 POLISHING
enlarge 96KB, 640x459 13 PLATING
"A heavy coating of copper is plated on the struck piece and then a heavy coating of bright nickel is added. This is Coro's preventative plate to insure against tarnishing. The final plating is then given in any desired color - gold, silver, old English, antique."
enlarge 141KB, 530x640 14 PLATING
"1. A "bright finish" is a high polish with a smooth mirror-like shine. 2. A "satin finish" looks burnished, or without lustre. 3. An "oxydized finish" is a dark finish achieved by treating the surface with acid or chemical salts. This gives an antique look. 4. A "rhodium finish" is one which gives the metal a high silver effect polish and prevents tarnishing. Is one of the rarer metals and is used because of its hardness and lasting qualities."
enlarge 88KB, 640x452 15 LACQUERING ROOM
"To give additional durability, the pieces are sprayed with lacquer and baked in an oven at more than 250 degrees."
enlarge 136KB, 640x640 16 LACQUERING ROOM
enlarge 79KB, 640x447 17 STONE SETTING
"This is the final operation and the finished jewelry is now passed along to the inspection department where each piece is carefully examined."
"Rhinestones or chatons are sparkling round bits of a special glass composition which simulate real diamonds. These are cut and faceted and backed with foil to give them higher lustre and added sparkle."
enlarge 102KB, 640x547 18 STONE SETTING
"Styles of stone setting: CUP - a hemisphere of metal in which stone is placed; closed at bottom PRONG - small fingers of metal which clasp stone CLAMP - same principle as prong setting but the metal fingers are larger BEZEL - a band of metal worked decoratively around the stone; open or closed at bottom GYPSY - metal is hammered around entire edge of stone. Especially popular for men's rings."
enlarge 85KB, 640x436 19 PEARL ROOM
"Simulated pearls are beads made to resemble real pearls in a most striking manner. In 1656 a French rosary maker named Jacquin discovered that a lustrous substance found in water in which a certain species of fish had been washed could be used to give a pearl effect to beads..."
enlarge 98KB, 462x640 20 PEARL ROOM
"...Ever since, men have experimented with, and finally perfected this coating called "Pearl Essence". The quality of the simulated pearl is determined by the fineness of the essence used and the number of coats applied. Hand polishing of the beads, and knotting between the beads also add to the price of the finished string of pearls."
enlarge 80KB, 640x443 21 SHIPPING
"Stores in practically every city in the world proudly display and sell Coro jewelry. Every season buyers from all over the world come to the New York showrooms."
I have recently run across a piece of Coro Duette. Pat. No. 1798867 and the clip has a seperate paten n. which I can not read. My magnifier is not strong enough. I will be taking some photos and sending them to your email. - Karen Luehr, Mon, 9 Jul 2012 8:16AM
I have a necklace & bracelet .. they are hearts that fold out for pictures.One on each side of heart. About 1&1/4 inch at top of heart. Had them from the 50's They have the winged horse & the mane coro on them ... Also say paient pending ! Could you give me any info on them ? - Sally Epps, Thu, 17 Mar 2011 2:07PM
i have a necklace and earring set that is signed, it looks like a smokey topaz quartz can anyone tell me how this jewelry. i think my grandmother bought it in the 1940's. - robin lingerfelt, Fri, 1 Oct 2010 5:05PM
My parents worked at CORO (Providence, RI) all through out the 1950's. My father worked in the plating department (one of the foremen) and my mom worked in the office (everything but typing). They met there in 1957 and this year (2009) they have been married for 52 years. - Nancy Gosselin, Tue, 17 Mar 2009 5:44PM
I have a pair of clip-on earrings that have a Coro mark on them.
Can anyone tell me anything about them.
They are heart-shaped covered in what appears to be rhinestones and have a large tear-drop pearl (or simulated pearl) hanging from the heart. | <urn:uuid:82d7cf84-c898-4640-b52f-efdd1ac4d80b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://imageevent.com/clios_vintage_jewelry/coropatents/coromanufacturing?z=2&l=0&c=2&n=1&m=-1&w=4&x=0&p=8 | 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 | 0.941611 | 2,009 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- the premier supplier of discounted hydroponics products for both novice and veteran growers alike.
Zen Hydroponics is 4,000 sqft hydroponics equipment and products supplier located in Glendale, CA. Our staff is very knowledgeable and hands-on with personal experience in both indoor and outdoor gardening. We carry a vast selection of popular and hard-to-find hydroponic brands from Advanced Nutrients, Botanicare, General Hydroponics, Cutting Edge, House and Garden, to Fox Farm. If there is a specific product you cannot find on our website, give us a call at 877-ZEN-GROW!
HydroBlog Posts | View All
Hydroponics 'How To' - Tips for New Growers
Posted on May 24, 2011 by ZenAdmin
During photosynthesis, plants use carbon dioxide (CO2), light, and hydrogen (usually water) to produce carbohydrates, which is a source of food. Oxygen is given off in this process as a by-product. Light is a key variable in photosynthesis, which is why plant grow lights are necessary for indoor gardening.
When a seed first begins to grow, it is germinating. Seeds are germinated in a growing medium, such as perlite. Several factors are involved in this process. First, the seed must be active... Read more | <urn:uuid:b134a719-7dd4-4399-94f9-1d05df349d5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zenhydroponics.com/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939653 | 278 | 1.65625 | 2 |
All told, the U.S. Treasury loses about $1.1 trillion annually to more than 200 credits, deductions and other tax breaks. Politicians in both parties — including President Obama and Mitt Romney, the Republican who is likely to challenge his reelection bid — have called for recapturing some of that cash and using it to finance lower tax rates or to reduce federal budget deficits.
Until recently, both sides have been reluctant to hint at which of the many popular perks might get the ax. That is starting to change, however, as lawmakers and policy analysts begin preparing for the prospect of overhauling the tax code as soon as next year.
On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) scheduled a hearing on “tax-favored retirement accounts” that he said was intended to begin “framing the debate” in preparation for tax reform. Aides said Camp also is planning a first-ever examination of about $30 billion worth of expired tax breaks for individuals and corporations that Congress routinely extends, an idea that is also gaining traction in the Senate.
Over the weekend, Romney dropped hints about tax reform at a private fundraiser in Florida, telling donors that he would save money by eliminating or limiting the mortgage-interest deduction for second homes for taxpayers with high incomes. He also suggested limits on deductions that millions of Americans claim for state income and property taxes.
Romney’s remarks, overheard by reporters for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, quickly drew fire from the Obama campaign, which accused the former Massachusetts governor of harboring a secret plan to undermine the middle class.
Romney aides later said the candidate was merely throwing out ideas, not outlining a fully formed plan for tax savings.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Camp trod carefully, urging lawmakers to consider whether the complex web of retirement savings provisions could be streamlined to encourage more people to sock away money. He did not suggest trimming benefits, noting that an “overwhelming majority” of full-time workers — 66 percent — rely on the provisions.
“Today’s hearing isn’t about drawing conclusions,” Camp said, but about “making sure that as Congress approaches comprehensive tax reform that we do so well-armed with information.”
Democrats nonetheless pounced, arguing that Camp’s goal of lowering the top tax rate to 25 percent from the current 35 percent without increasing budget deficits would require lawmakers to eliminate virtually every break in the tax code. If preferences for retirement savings were preserved, they said, then something else would have to go. | <urn:uuid:91725c3f-4d46-4498-94ee-3fae76d1b7fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpost.com/business/economy/lawmakers-consider-changing-tax-breaks-on-retirement-savings/2012/04/17/gIQARfV7OT_story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963566 | 531 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Dickinson Public Schools: Cost per student climbs by 1.6 percentThe cost per student to be educated at Dickinson Public Schools increased by 1.6 percent, Superintendent Doug Sullivan said at a Dickinson Public School Board meeting Monday evening at the board room at the Central Office.
By: Katherine Grandstrand, The Dickinson Press
The cost per student to be educated at Dickinson Public Schools increased by 1.6 percent, Superintendent Doug Sullivan said at a Dickinson Public School Board meeting Monday evening at the board room at the Central Office.
In the 2010-11 school year, the average cost per student was $8,445, Sullivan said. In the 2011-12 year it increased $139 to $8,584.
He added that DPS was on par with the rest of the state as far as cost per student was concerned.
The annual financial report, which was approved by the board, indicated that DPS had carryover funds of more than $10 million.
“All of our funds are healthy and in a positive cash balance,” Sullivan said.
In the year previous DPS had more than $8 million in carryover funds, according to the report.
The school brought in more than $28 million through local, state and federal revenue sources and spent just under $26 million, according to the report.
With DPS being in a financially healthy place a decision was made years ago to drastically cut fundraising efforts, especially for basic educational needs, Board President Kris Fehr said.
“We were getting quite a few complaints about the excessive fundraising that students were doing,” she said. “And I’m wondering does anyone have a sense if we are doing less fundraising.”
The number of fundraisers at the high school level had decreased, Principal Ron Dockter said.
Board member Leslie Ross was concerned about the small percentage of profits netted by some fundraisers.
“If you’re giving 80 percent away and you’re only keeping 20 percent is that a good fundraiser?” Ross asked. “That’s just paying a lot of overhead to someone else who’s making money off of your kids.”
It was determined that there was no set policy for the amount kept by a fundraising entity, but that the best fundraising activities were those that allowed the most money to be kept in the community.
Fehr asked Sullivan if there could be more transparency in the reporting process of fundraisers by groups to the board and other entities.
Fehr requested more information regarding fundraising goals, adding that people would be more likely to give if they know exactly to what they’re giving.
“I think the transparency issue is very important to parents and students,” Ross said.
In other news
r The board elected officers at its July meeting. Kris Fehr will remain president and Jason Hanson is vice president of the board.
r Funds to support a Title I Look-Alike program at Jefferson Elementary were approved, which does not have a high enough percentage of reduced and free lunch students to qualify for federal funding. Funds to supply salary for a teacher and program supplies were set at $65,873. | <urn:uuid:0015736e-e84c-4dee-88cb-aae35c829ddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/59601/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97964 | 655 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Now I have an alternative name for her: Mary Pilgram. I'm inclined to believe that this name is correct, since it was listed by her son, instead of her granddaughter, as the first name was.
- From my Grandmama, I know that she was married twice. First to the husband of her two sons, Leverett & Millard Waters and second to John Whitlock. This fact is confirmed by the fact that Milton Waters, the son of Leverett, is buried along side his Whitlock cousins in Westview Cemetery.
- According to my Grandamma, Mary and John had a son named John. He married Emma and their children included Martha and Betty.
- Mary and John appear together in the 1900 & 1910 Census of Marietta, Cobb, Georgia. They are in the 1920 Census of Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia.
- Census records give their children as: Mary (b~ 1888), Lula (b~ 1891), John (b. 4 Mar 1896), and Martha Josephine (b~ 1898). But John had been married before according to census records. Perhaps these aren't all her children?
- Each census record gives conflicting information on the years of her marriage.
- They appear together in the 1925 &1927 Atlanta City Directories. Mary appears alone in the 1928 Directory, her husband having died the prior year.
- Mary Whitlock is listed as the wife of John Whitlock on his death certificate. He is listed as buried in Bascum Church. I found this cemetery in Cherokee County, where a helpful volunteer at FindaGrave.com obtained tombstone photos for me. Mary is buried next to John.
- The birth date on her tombstone is 1855. All census records seem to indicate that she was born in 1966.
This family is a jumbled mess! I need to figure them out. | <urn:uuid:12abd2a6-c69a-4cb7-9a8b-026110ed46ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beginwithcraft.blogspot.com/2009/01/life-death-of-mrs-mary-e-whitlock.html?showComment=1357681840696 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981083 | 386 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A Spectacular piece of HistoryBy Yahoo! Movie User on Mon, Nov 19, 2012 11:57 AM EST
This flick is a must see for all Americans. It will teach them about the Great Emancipator and how he was able to defeat the people who considered slavery acceptable and the African American as inferior. A brilliant story about the last days of Lincoln's life portraying him as commander in chief, politician, loving father and loving father. Truly Lincolns persona as a great man has only been made greater by this movie. People who viewed this movie negatively have absolutely no grasp of history, are ignorant of facts and have no understanding of what humanity means. | <urn:uuid:d34958e9-5f5e-4221-beaa-77e869cfea25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/lincoln/user-reviews/A+Spectacular+piece+of+History-UUFNHUAAVVJHDJWVFVOKR5GFFM.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973527 | 137 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Information for Researchers
Scope and Content
Collection Title: Bidwell Family Papers
Collection Number: BANC MSS C-B 468
Number of containers: 8 boxes, 3 cartons, 2 oversize folders
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Part I: papers of John & Annie E.K. Bidwell, consisting chiefly of correspondence, clippings, and legal, financial and property
records, ca. 1851-1918.
Part II: papers of members of the Kennedy Ellicott and Morrison families, related to Mrs. Bidwell, ca. 1792-1934.
Information for Researchers
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Bidwell family papers, BANC MSS C-B 468, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Title: Scraps of two letters
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS C-E 198:7)
Title: Letters, 1895-1899
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS 79/104 c)
Title: Journey to California
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS C-E 65:47)
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS C-D 802)
Title: California, 1841-1848 [an immigrant's recollections ... ]
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS C-D 8)
Material Cataloged Separately
- "Studies in the Botany of California and Parts Adjacent," by Edward Lee Greene. Extract from Bulletin 7, California Academy
of Sciences. Inscribed by the author.
- "Studies in the Formation of Mountains in the Sierra Nevada, California," by John Muir. From the Proceeding of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, Hartford meeting, August 1874.
- "Early Botanical Explorers of the Pacific Coast," by Charles C. Parry. Reprinted from The Overland Monthly, October, 1883.
- Asa Gray Engraving of Asa Gray done by Gustav Kruell Henry Marshall
Scope and Content
The Bidwell papers consist of the papers of John Bidwell, California pioneer, and his wife, Annie Ellicott Kennedy Bidwell,
and the papers of members of the Kennedy, Ellicott and Morrison families, related to Mrs. Bidwell. The Bidwell papers were
given to Bancroft Library in 1952 by Mrs. Roy C. Anderson, Mrs. Bidwell's great niece. The collection has been divided into
two parts. Part I consists of the papers of Mr. and Mrs. Bidwell - mainly correspondence, clippings, and legal, financial
and land records, ranging in date from 1851 to 1918. Part II consists of papers of members of her immediate family and families
related to the Kennedy, and they date from 1792 to 1934. Genealogical information about the Kennedy is appended to this report
for the convenience of the reader.
Other items from various sources have been added to the collection. These include material from the T. W. Norris Collection
(1954); photocopies of two John Bidwell letters, lent for copying by courtesy of Mrs. Helen W. Broderick (1954); papers purchased
from William Wreden (1954); two account books and a diary belonging to Bidwell, gift of Warren Howell (1956); and documents
concerning transfer of Bidwell property, gift of Bernard L. Fontana (1959). The provenance of these materials has been noted
on the folders. Cards have been placed in the manuscripts catalog for important correspondents and for other items of note
and information of the cards have been integrated into this finding aids.
John Bidwell was born in Chataqua County, New York State, August 5, 1819. Ten years later he moved with his parents to Erie,
Pennsylvania and then to Ohio. In 1839 he decided to seek his fortune in the West. After some wandering he took up a land
claim near Weston, Missouri and supported himself by teaching. During his absence, however, his claim was jumped and, hearing
of the wonders of California from a French trapper recently returned, he resolved to make his way there. In May 1841 he started
from Independence, Missouri, with Bartleson's party.
Arriving in California after many hardships, Bidwell found employment with John Sutter at Ft. Sutter and remained with him
for several years. He served in the war with Mexico, obtaining the rank of major. At the conclusion of peace he returned to
Sutter's employment. After Marshall's discovery of gold, Bidwell prospected for a time and discovered gold himself on the
Feather River at a place afterwards known as Bidwell's Bar. Unlike most of the early settler's, however, Bidwell cared little
for mining and directed his attention towards agriculture. In 1849 he acquired some 20,000 acres of land, known as Rancho
Chico, located in Butte County. Making this his permanent home he became one of the most noted agriculturalists in the state.
John Bidwell took a strong interest in politics. In 1849 he was elected to the Senate of the first legislature of California.
In 1860 he was a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Charleston. He was a strong defender of the union and after
1861 affiliated with the Union Party. In 1863 he was appointed general in command of the Fifth Brigade, California militia,
by Governor Stanford and served until the close of the Civil War. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Baltimore national convention
which renominated Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. In the same year he was nominated and elected to the U. S. Congress as
one of California's representatives. In 1875 he made an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California on the anti-monopoly,
non-partisan ticket. His last political ventures came after his association with the Prohibition Party. In 1890 he was the
party's unsuccessful candidate for governor of California and in 1892 for president of the United States.
Bidwell was married in 1868 in Washington D. C. To Annie Ellicott Kennedy, daughter of Joseph Camp Ellicott Kennedy, a noted
statistician and superintendent of the census of 1850 and 1860. The Kennedy family was a distinguished one. Mr. Kennedy was
the grandson of Samuel Kennedy, a surgeon in the Revolutionary War and of Andrew Ellicott, surveyor of the ten mile square
ceded by Maryland and Virginia for the seat of the federal government. Accompanying her husband to California after their
marriage, Mrs. Bidwell became active in many causes - Indian Welfare, woman suffrage, and prohibition to name a few - and
was recognized as one of northern California's finest women.
Bidwell died at his ranch on April 4, 1900. Mrs. Bidwell continued to live on the ranch and died there on March 9, 1918. | <urn:uuid:7f890f99-c595-49c3-8388-6d0790359e66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5x0nb1gz/admin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952441 | 1,579 | 1.554688 | 2 |
An eerie, subtle evocation of childhood and a melancholic, loving ode to home.
Award-winning novelist Pamuk (Snow, 2004, etc.) grew up in an elite household; his childhood was both charmed and fraught. The cast of characters included his beautiful mother, his two-timing father and his grandmother, who looked like a “relaxed matron from a Renoir painting.” They inhabited a culture in transition. The ancient Turkish regime had collapsed, but westernization had not quite rushed in to fill the void; people were mournful and confused, betwixt and between. Even Pamuk’s family was finally claimed by “the cloud of gloom and loss that the fall of the Ottoman Empire had spread over Istanbul.” His father continually flirted with bankruptcy and would sometimes vanish for days at a time. Young Orhan wanted the city to westernize, yet he wanted everything to remain the same. His memoir also delves into literature and art, discussing how outsiders like Flaubert have seen Istanbul and considering the ways in which Western configurations of the city have shaped its self-understanding. Pamuk discusses the many Western artists, like Antoine-Ignace Melling, who painted the Bosphorus. The author himself took to drawing as a child, painting the landscape and eventually graduating to portraits, among them one of a beautiful girl he would fall in love with. Later, Pamuk studied architecture, but his heart wasn’t in it. “Pah,” says his mother, “do you think you can earn a living just making pictures? Maybe in Europe, but not here.” There it is again, the long shadow of the West. In the last pages, Pamuk turns from art and architecture to writing, making this ultimately a book about vocation. The text is augmented by a remarkable collection of photographs, many by Ara Guler. Translator Freely also deserves kudos for rendering Pamuk’s perfect Turkish adjectives in spare, startling English, from the “ghost-ridden” house to the “cold-blooded candor” of Westerners.
An engrossing tale of a city—and of an author as a young man. | <urn:uuid:88cf3057-aca5-427e-9611-24308d9b5905> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/orhan-pamuk/istanbul/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980503 | 467 | 1.835938 | 2 |
this is the sample msg."
Try & Buy
Sunglasses are a type of protective eyewear designed to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. Since the 1940s, sunglasses have become popular as a fashion accessory and are widely popular with young and old alike. Healthcare professionals recommend the use of sunglasses whenever the sun comes out to shield the eyes from damage causing UV rays and blue light. Sunglasses for men and women differ in shape, colour and design and are manufactured by both high end international brands as well as local brands. Ideally, sunglasses should have quality lenses with optical precision that do not affect visibility and provide ample protection from the damage causing rays. Nowadays, sunglasses with oversized frames are extremely popular. They not only look stylish but also protect the eyes and the delicate skin around from any harm. It is also advisable to purchase sunglasses that have broad temple arms to further prevent âstray lightâ from causing harm. Sunglasses frames are available in a variety of shapes; womenâs sunglasses have oval, round, square frames while other designs like wayfarers and aviators are well suited to both men and women. br/> Sunglasses in India are available at various optical stores and retailers. Conversely, one may also buy sunglasses from online shopping sites that offer quality goods at attractive rates and discounts. If you are looking for sunglasses, then you can buy designer sunglasses from Yebhi. There is a wide range of sunglasses at Yebhi that will suit anyone and everyone. | <urn:uuid:aa364eb4-2341-4067-890e-b9932bf07538> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yebhi.com/online-shopping/sunglasses/metal-alloy-frame.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95344 | 311 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Current formats such as 1080P/60 and 3D use less than half of HDMI bandwidth spec. If you are trying to future proof I'd run conduit if possible. If you think you are going to doing 4K2K in the near future I'd look for a solution rated for full bandwidth such as a balun. The high speed spec is tested at full bandwidth and ~25ft is about the limit for full bandwidth but current consumer standards use less than half that so longer runs are possible..
If you are just worried about today a 35ft cable would be fine. I'd eliminate wall plates and port savers. Every connection changes impedance which can cause problems. Direct runs are best with HDMI use a pass through plate.
We do this for a living and I have a lot of experience with digital signaling. If you are looking for a good cable use one that has passed DPLs testing. It is tougher than HDMI's specs and you know it will perform well. I've seen others in tests and they don't test as well. Some can be found very reasonably priced.
hope this helps. | <urn:uuid:28a5916d-b12f-4256-ad55-4c85b2afdd2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avsforum.com/t/1416132/hdmi-long-run-with-3d-projector | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9704 | 227 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Rideout Memorial Hospital has been officially designated a "STEMI Receiving Center" by the Sierra-Sacramento Valley Emergency Medical Services Agency, (S-SVEMSA), the Joint Powers Agency responsible for EMS planning, certification and implementation in ten area counties. This designation recognizes that Rideout Memorial is specially qualified, equipped and staffed to handle even the most serious cases of 'STEMI' heart attacks. (STEMI is medical shorthand for ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, an attack caused by clots in one or more of the patient's coronary arteries.)
The designation, effective July 1, means that patients in the counties of Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, Nevada and parts of Butte and Placer Counties will be closer to advanced, life-saving cardiac treatment so vital in the initial period after a heart attack.
"Time is heart muscle," said Robert Plass, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Rideout Health Group, the non-profit community healthcare system that operates Rideout Memorial. "The first 90 minutes are critical; we are constantly working to improve our processes to shorten the time needed to reopen blocked arteries," said Dr. Plass, who is a Board-certified specialist in emergency medicine. "This designation is an expression of confidence in our program's ability to deliver outstanding cardiac care."
Rideout's designation as a STEMI Receiving Center is new, but its advanced cardiac services have been in place for years. Medical and support staff at Rideout Memorial's Emergency Department and Heart Center already comprise a cardiac team that performs the full spectrum of life-saving interventional procedures, from minimally invasive PCIs [Percutaneous Coronary Intervention], such as angioplasty, to open heart surgery/bypass.
The STEMI designation formally recognizes the constellation of personnel and procedures Rideout's Emergency Dept. has in place to handle these most serious heart attacks, further enhancing the continuum of cardiac care available 24 hours a day at the hospital. That continuum begins in the field with the EMTs responding to a 911 call and the transmission of the patient's cardiac status via wireless EKG, which allows for the diagnosis and treatment plan to be put in place while the ambulance is still en route, so the appropriate clinical team is already standing by when the patient comes through the door.
"Rideout Memorial is already a designated Level III Trauma Center for our region, one of fewer than 60 in the entire state," said Terri Hamilton, Rideout's CEO. "The STEMI designation adds another dimension to the advanced medical care we are able to provide to our community." | <urn:uuid:8f292385-7163-4ea8-9f87-89cd6c6e965d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frhg.org/History-Company-Information/Press-Center/2011/Rideout-Memorial-Hospital-Receives-STEMI-Designa.aspx?LargeFonts=true | 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 | 0.939306 | 543 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The most famous theater in the world is the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Masha has a nice time in Moscow. Masha was at the Bolshoi theater on february 2012.
Masha " When I was young, my mother took me to many ballet performances, but this was another level of skill."
Russia's Bolshoi Theater reopens on october 28, 2011 with a star-studded gala performance after a more than six-year, $700-million restoration dogged by delays and financial scandal to reclaim its place as one of the world's cultural jewels.
The theater, which has survived three fires, a World War Two bombing and at one time was perched over an underground river, has been restored to its opulent Tsarist beginnings, doused in gold leaf, while embracing the new with cutting edge acoustics.
In what has been billed as a thoroughly Russian evening of music and dance, President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will preside over a show that will be broadcast live in Russia, Europe and the United States.
"This will be a truly national celebration," Anatoly Iksanov, the Bolshoi's general director, told a news conference. He said foreign guests were likely to include German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Full details of the show are being kept secret but it will feature the top Bolshoi dancers such as Svetlana Zakharova and Maria Alexandrova, as well as guest opera singers including Frances' Natalie Dessay and Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana.
Founded as a private theater in 1776 by Empress Catherine the Great to "decorate the city and also serve as the premises for public masquerades, comedies and comic operas," the theater was rebuilt in 1825 after a fire.
After years of neglect and heavy use during Soviet times, the grand cream-colored, eight-columned building close to Red Square and the Kremlin closed for repairs in 2005. The troupe continued performing on the neighboring New stage.
"By the time we closed the theater for renovation, there was a 70 percent chance of the building collapsing. That is very high. We had reached a critical point," Iksanov said.
With just days to go, workers in blue overalls are still putting the finishing touches to the theater as rehearsals continue, with opera music competing with the sound of backstage drilling.
"The troupes are working without weekends, production staff are on 24 hours a day and nobody grumbles. We all have a common drive, and that is to get back to our home," Iksanov said.
Iksanov put the reconstruction costs at about $700 million although infrastructure analysts and construction companies have put the sum at almost twice that, embarrassing Russia's cultural authorities who said endemic corruption had reached the stage.
A criminal investigation was opened in September 2009 into the high expenditure and allegations of misuse of funds, but Iksanov has denied any wrongdoing by the Bolshoi.
SCRAMBLE FOR TICKETS
The Bolshoi had world-class acoustics before the Communist era, when sound-reflecting gold was scraped off and stolen and the hollow cylinder underneath the orchestra, thought to be impractical, was filled with cement.
"This pushed the theater below 50th position in the world opera house rankings. Now we've returned the theater its original 19th century acoustics," said Mikhail Sidorov, a spokesperson for Summa, the company in charge of the renovation since 2009.
The chairs are covered with a red Italian fabric that has been tested for sound-absorption and gold leaf has been placed on carved moldings. A rare pine on the walls also helps improve the quality of the sound, which has won praise from leading opera singers.
Even two of the nearest stations of Moscow's sprawling metro will be soundproofed.
"I have no problem with the sound here ... although rehearsing to the constant drilling sound makes it difficult," said Albina Shagimuratova of the Houston Grand opera, struggling to be heard above the drilling.
She will be playing the main role in Ruslan and Ludmila, the opera by Russian composer Mikhail Glinka which will open on the Bolshoi's revamped historical stage on November 2.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty then has its premiere on November 18. Squeezed between will be a single performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem by Italy's La Scala, the first foreign guests to perform on the main stage.
American Ballet Theatre's David Hallberg has also joined the Bolshoi, though also continuing to perform with the New York-based company.
Tickets for the La Scala performance have reached 12,000 roubles ($390) at the official box office, an unusually high price in Russia, signaling the huge interest in the re-opening of one of the world's great theatres.
"We normally sell tickets in the stalls for 3,000 roubles ($98). But it's a market economy, and demand dictates the price," Iksanov said.
(Writing By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
MASHA HAD A GOOD TIME IN MOSCOW. Let's keep this picture.
Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater has published a list of its ballets to be broadcast online on YouTube next season. The first to go online on March 11 will be Adam’s Corsair on the theater’s revamped historical main stage.
YouTube is the world’s biggest video hosting with more than 20 million Russian visiting it every month.
Ten years ago, a French company began recording Bolshoi’s ballet productions. In 2010, it joined a project designed to bring opera and ballet performances to movie goers live from the world’s leading stages. The idea was a great success with the project now comprising more than 1,000 movie theaters in France and other countries.
Bolshoi’s Deputy General Director Anton Getman hailed the initiative:
"Our audience has expanded by dozens of times over the past two years. The audience of an online broadcast is 70 times that of the Bolshoi’s seating capacity. The enlightenment purposes, humanitarian values and integration interests we have been pursuing have fully justified themselves. When we were launching this project, I was asked: ‘Aren’t you afraid that people will stop buying theater tickets because they can now watch a performance live on a movie screen?’ But nothing of the sort has happened. The trend is just the opposite. Last March, we broadcast the Flames of Paris live to France. Two years later, we showed it in Paris, while on tour, and the tickets had been sold within a couple of days."
Another of Bolshoi’s ballets to go on YouTube and movie screens live this spring is the “Bright Spring” to music by Shostakovich. It will be followed by the summer transmission of Glazunov’s Raymonda. And in autumn we will broadcast Desyatnikov’s “Lost Illusions” based on Honore de Balzac’s novel of the same name as well as the lavishly decorated historical drama “The Pharaoh’s Daughter” staged by legendary Marius Petipa. Next year, YouTube visitors and movie goers will be treated to two classical ballets – Minkus’s La Bayadere and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” - and Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Even though the transmission time in some parts of the world is not always convenient for the local folks, the house is full. Anton Getman:
"For example in Sao Paulo ballet lovers will have to come to a movie house at 8 in the morning to be able to watch, say, “The Nutcracker”. We always broadcast our ballets on Sunday when most people aren’t working. A strange thing occurs in the movie hall: the audience sort of identifies itself with the audience in the Bolshoi, applauding where Bolshoi’s spectators applaud and standing up and shouting ‘Bravo’ as if they were at the theater. What struck me most was that when we were broadcasting the gala marking the reopening of Bolshoi’s historical stage, many of those who came to watch it on screen were wearing evening gowns and dinner jackets."
The Bel Air Media company that owns the exclusive rights to broadcast Bolshoi’s productions does its best to give the audience an illusion of visiting Bolshoi by showing both the stage and the hall as well as what’s happens behind the scenes during the intervals.
Maria Sharapova: When in Russia, my favorite home cooked food is our traditional dumplings 'pelmenis'.
How to cook Siberian Pelmeni? Ingredients:
4 1/2 c flour3 ea eggs1 ts salt1 c water2 tb butter1 tb vegetable oil1/2 c finely chopped onions400 g lean beef chuck ground twice400 g fresh pork ground twiceSaltFreshly ground black pepper1 c Sour creammeasures conversion [+]
Method:DOUGH: In a large mixing bowl, combine flour & salt then make a deep well in the center. Drop in eggs & water. Now with a large spoon, slowly & thoroughly mix flour into liquid ingredients. Do this until mixture can be gathered into a ball. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface & knead it by folding it end-to-end. Then press it down & pushing it forward several times with the heel of your hand. Sprinkle dough with extra flour when necessary to prevent it from sticking to board. Knead for 10-12 mins. or until the dough is smooth & elastic. Next shape in into a ball, wrap it loosely in wax paper & allow it to rest at room temp. for 1-2 hrs.
MEAT-FILLING: In a large & heavy skillet, melt butter in oil over high-heat. Add chopped onions then stir frequently. Cook over moed-heat for 3-4 minutes until soft & lightly colored. Use a rubber spatula to scrape onions into a large mixing bowl then add meat, pork fat, salt, pepper& a 1/2 cup of cold water & mix with a large spoon until ingredients are well combined. On a lightly floured surface, roll reserved dough into a rough rectangle about 1/8" thick. Lift the dough over back of your hands & pull your hands apart, stretching dough carefully until it is almost paper thin.
1. Roll the dough, cut small circles by the mold, stretch the dough over the mold. 2. Then load a piece of filling in the defined space and press the mold together. 3. Pelmeni or vareniki are ready! 4. Enjoy Russian food festival!!!
MARIA SHARAPOVA SPEAKS RUSSIAN
Half a billion people worldwide now know the Russian language, according to Lyudmila Verbitskaya, President of St. Petersburg State University and International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL). She mentioned these statistics when speaking at the opening ceremony of the IV World Congress of Compatriots on October 26.
Since the early 2000-s the interest to the Russian language has been constantly growing. This can be attributed to the fact that anti-Russian sentiments and prejudices are passing. Besides that the knowledge of Russian is becoming an advantages when it comes to employment. However the situation differs per country, Verbitsakaya says.
"There are only few countries where the status of the Russian language does not give any cause for concern. They are Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Belarus is the only post-Soviet state where the status of Russian as a state language was confirmed at the referendum by the overwhelming majority of the population. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Russian is the language for international communication."
Ukraine take up a special position with regard to the Russian language. On the one hand the new law allows the regions where the Russian speaking population predominates to use Russian on equal terms with Ukrainian. On the other hand, the law has not influenced the position of the Russian language, Chairman of the Russian community in the Poltava region Viktor Shestakov says.
"Officially there are 117,000 ethnic Russians living in the Poltava region and the actual number is even higher. Despite this fact the region has no Russian schools."
Maxim Kramarenko, leader of the Lad Slavonic movement in Kazakhstan, says the situation with the Russian language is not as good as it may seem.
"The number of hours for learning Russian in school is being cut. The trend for rejection of Russian is felt. For example, the project is underway on translating scientific works from Russian into Kazakh. New Kazakh scientific terms are being artificially made up."
According to the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL), in Europe, both in the east and in the west, the demand for the knowledge of Russian is high. Germany is the leading country with almost 150,000 children studying Russian in secondary schools. In Asia, which accounts for the biggest part of the global population, the Russian language is not so wide spread. However, since recently some educational institutions in Indonesia and Philippines included Russian in their programs. The Russian philology has made progress in China too.
In the US about 4.5 million people speak Russian. Recently, voting bulletin in the state of New York state were for the first time printed in Russian, which is now one of the official languages of the state. About 3,000 American schools have included Russian in their curriculums. In total according to the MAPRYAL Association the Russian language is taught in one way or another in 100 counties worldwide. | <urn:uuid:d0fc15f8-5918-41ff-ab15-78f30c911b8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mariasharapova.com/forum/yaf_postsm320259_Maria-Sharapova-speaks-Russian.aspx?find=lastpost | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954041 | 2,900 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Students and teachers from six school districts in the Rio Grande Valley met at Zavala Elementary Tuesday morning for leadership training.
The program was called "Leaders 'R' Us Workshop for Student Council Officers and Advisors" sponsored by the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association.
"They are going through a leadership training to learn about conducting their meetings and how to be a leader on their campus," Zavala Elementary Principal Yvonne Montemayor said. "It started with teaching the students how to introduce themselves with this morning's activity."
Mercedes ISD, Donna ISD, San Benito CISD, Edcouch-Elsa ISD, Santa Rosa ISD and Harlingen CISD were all represented at the conference.
Most of the participants were fifth graders who were elected to their student council, Montemayor said. The training also included classroom leaders from some of tthe represented campuses.
For HCISD, Dishman, Jefferson, Means, Long, Sam Houston, Wilson, Milam, Bowie, Treasure Hills, Zavala, Crockett and Bonham Elementary Schools were all represented.
Click here to view more photos from the event. | <urn:uuid:763210b6-befc-461f-b532-0f749d103dac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcisd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=747&ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=502&PageID=544 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974201 | 247 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Project on Technology, Work, and Character
PTWC is a not-for-profit research center that was founded in 1969 with a grant from Harvard University's Program on Technology and Society. From 1978 to 1993 it was affiliated with the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. It is now independent and based in Washington, DC.
Directed by Dr. Michael Maccoby, it has led the development of a series of seminal work improvement programs in the U.S. and Europe using a methodology of participative social science.
Using anthropological and socio-psychoanalytic methods, the Project has studied leadership, values, and organizational change and pioneered model union-management projects to improve work.
Some of it's project have been:
| TMG Home | PTWC | Articles | Books | Contact Info | Comments |
This web site is being maintained by Maria | <urn:uuid:1fe1bf10-cfda-4654-9818-296838608c87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.maccoby.com/PTWC/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946895 | 190 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Vermillion School District wants the Tanagers to play football in the DakotaDome.
The University of South Dakota wants the Tanagers to play in the Dome.
But the price to play in the Dome could outweigh the district's desire at this point, which has forced the school to look at other options as it contemplates the future of the high school football program.
For the past 30 years, an agreement has been in place to allow Vermillion to use the Dome for home high school football games. Currently, the Vermillion School District pays a net amount of $15,000 a year; Vermillion pays $20,000 and USD pays $5,000 for use of high school facilities.
With planned improvements to the Dome, the price has risen.
Both sides began talking about a new contract Nov. 3, 2009 when the initial meeting was held between the Vermillion Public Schools and the USD DakotaDome Cooperative Use Advisory Committee.
After the group gathered all the information and held a few more meetings to discuss what both sides had gathered, a proposal was made. Right now, the proposal is in between $1 million to $2 million shared between the school and the city to be paid out over the period of 15 years, plus an annual fee to be determined which would allow the high school to use the Dome for the Tanagers' five or more home games a year.
According to Vermillion School Board member Chris Girard, USD's offer is closer to $2 million and the district's is around the $1 million range.
"We enjoy playing in the Dome, but we cannot financially pay that amount for at the most, five games a year," she said. "From my perspective, the cost is focused on USD and the cost of their building."
According to the information gathered, USD plans to make a little over $8 million worth of improvements to the Dome over the next 15 years
The new deal would help pay for the upgrades to the Dome, USD Vice President for Finance and Administration Rich Van Den Hul said.
"We started talking about updating the Dome, and with all the needs, it's only fair to talk about paying contemporary amounts," he said.
Some of the improvements that are planned for the Dome include a new turf ($1 million), permanent seating/bleacher replacement ($1.6 million), resurfacing the parking lot and new lighting for the lot ($885,000) and mechanical upgrades that would make the Dome more energy efficient ($628,120).
"These are critical projects to keep the Dome not only in good shape, but also the premiere venue in the region," Van Den Hul said.
But Girard said USD, while often using facilities at Vermillion High School, has ignored the costs of making needed upgrades to the school district property.
"They put out their expenses, and we used ours as well, but they wouldn't let us use our figures," she said. "They want us to share the burden for the cost of the (Dome) repairs. It's a great facility, and we are lucky to use it, but we can't afford it at that price."
Girard said the school board must deal with the expense of replacing the high school's roof – a building that houses gyms and other facilities used often by the university. Girard said USD uses the high school's fine arts auditorium throughout the year.
"I'm not sure the university knows how much USD students use our facility," she said.
An original Dome-related expense covered by the school district when the USD sports facility first opened 30 years ago was the purchase of the artificial surface for the football field. That expenditure was part of the original agreement between the school district and the university that allowed the Tanagers to play football in the Dome.
Vermillion High School Athletic Director Jason Huska said a similar proposal offered in USD's new contract offer calls for the school district to cover the estimated $900,000 cost of replacing the current artificial turf in the Dome. Vermillion Superintendent Mark Froke also said the school district has talked about the cost of replacing the artificial surface.
"A final recommendation was made that the school district would consider as an option to share the cost of a new turf," he said.
Van Den Hul said USD looked at other schools in the state to compare the agreements that were worked out to other site upgrades.
At Black Hills State University, the university, school and city all put in one-third of the $1.5 million cost to improve the facilities there.
In Aberdeen, the Northern State University and high school paid $3 million to upgrade the athletic facilities. The school district paid $1.2 million and the university paid $1.8 million.
A recommendation coming out of the discussions by the DakotaDome Use Advisory Committee is that an initial capital investment of $1 million to $2 million from the Vermillion School District and the city of Vermillion be made for a term of 15 years, with an annual use charge to be determined by all parties to the agreement.
The Vermillion School Board and administration balks at that amount, noting that its limited financial resources must be spent to maintain its own facilities. Also, at this time, at least, it makes better financial sense to the school board to consider investing a lesser sum of money over the long term into developing its own athletic facilities.
"We have limited resources and if we have to pay much more to play in the Dome, it would take away resources that we provide to the students, such as musical instruments, computers or books for the library," Froke said. "USD has many costs, but so does the district. There is a certain level that isn't affordable."
The source of the revenue the school district currently pays USD so that the Tanagers may play football in the Dome comes out of the district's capital outlay budget, which is increasingly being stretched to its limit as the district looks to future maintenance of its properties. Froke said the local school district is nearing the limit of what it may spend in that budget.
The higher dollar figures coming from the university has the district exploring the costs of adding lights and seating and transforming what has always been a practice field located within the high school's track into an outdoor gridiron for the Tanager football team.
The district had been looking at upgrading the bleachers at Vermillion's track in order to host a South Dakota state high school region track meet in the future, and to bring in more future events, Huska said.
According to Froke and Huska, the upgrades would cost around $360,000.
Additional information gathered by school district administrators is based on the premise of upgrading the track and football field facilities to host football games. Those upgrades include home and visitor seating for approximately 2,000 people.
Those upgrades cost approximately $400,000 more than if the district made improvements to the track facility alone. The total cost of $760,000, Froke said, could be paid with revenue from the district's capital outlay budget.
Girard said most of the members of the community she has talked to support a new football facility for the Tanagers.
"I have talked to a lot of people and know what they are feeling and they said to build a new facility," she said.
Girard said the school board is hoping to make a decision soon because the facility would have to be ready by late August in order to be ready for the football season.
If the district does go in the direction of a new facility, Van Den Hul said he would work with the school board to allow the Tanagers to play another year in the Dome if the new field wasn't ready in time for the season.
But he also said he hopes it doesn't come down to that.
If Vermillion does build a new facility, it would create more scheduling opportunities for Coyote athletics, but USD Athletic Director Joel Nielsen said despite the challenge, he has enjoyed working with Huska and Vermillion athletics.
"It's a challenge, but I've been more than happy to accommodate; we value it and enjoy having high school games at the Dome," said Nielsen, who was on the committee but isn't handling the negotiations. "Anytime you can open up campus to anyone, it's positive for the university."
Girard said the school board will hopefully be at a point to make a decision to either stay with the Dome or make a decision by Feb. 8.
Van Den Hul still plans on meeting with the district and Froke stressed that the door is still open for negotiations.
"We are interested in being a good community partner, but we also have to look out for the good of our students and make sure they are treated fairly as well," Van Den Hul said. | <urn:uuid:0d7b7fad-c5f4-4e7f-b73f-9ea6a90ff4aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plaintalk.net/2010/01/talks-between-usd-school-city-center-on-dakotadome-dollars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978557 | 1,813 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Gemme Nascote (Hidden Gems) (printing, stamping, drawing, pen and ink and pencils)
"Canaletto’s painting evoked vivid images of a magical holiday in Venice. Gallery shop photographs of Manchester’s own Campanile overlooking the canal revealed similarities to the painting. This photograph was of Castlefield and inspired me to explore further relationships between the two cities e.g. the canal system, beautiful buildings and architecture.
I wanted to recreate my own vision of Manchester’s Venice depicting examples from the area. The Campanile dominates the skyline and the Trafford Centre is reminiscent of the Dome of San Giorgio. The Art Gallery is where my inspiration began and I have incorporated this and some of its famous exhibits.
Adult education has enabled me to do something I like and want to do and it has focused me by working with people who have similar interests. I have learnt and explored different techniques under expert tuition."
Verna Hoyle took her Art and Design NOCN Level 1 at Chorlton Park Adult Education Centre with Manchester Adult Education Service. | <urn:uuid:2f133e9a-58ad-40c3-bcc6-6bb5173b23a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manchestergalleries.org/education/post-16-and-he-fe/inspired-by-competition/2006-2007/verna-hoyle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949955 | 231 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Published: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 5:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 5:06 p.m.
Susee Engdahl, a retired but restless Windsor grade-school teacher and prolific painter whose family lived for a time in a self-built art project of a home on Chalk Hill Road, died Feb. 23 at age 80.
Engdahl was 40 and the divorced mother of five when she took her first teaching position at Windsor School. Through a nearly 30-year career she taught second, fourth and fifth grades. She retired from Brooks Elementary School in Windsor in 2001.
After her retirement, daughter Jane Engdahl said, “she found herself at a loss. Going from days filled with teaching, correcting papers and making lesson plans, she found that she wasn't meant for a life of leisure.
“Eventually, she pieced together a life filled with reading to preschoolers, a weekly painting group and trips to San Jose to take care of her son Chris' daughters, Robin and Haley Stephan Engdahl.”
Susee Engdahl continued to paint with acrylics until failing health caused her to put down the brushes about six weeks ago.
She was born in Mehama, Ore., a logging town on the Santiam River. She enrolled at 18 at Oregon State University, but her studies were cut short by a devastating medical diagnosis — she had contracted tuberculosis.
“Consigned to the Oregon Tuberculosis Hospital in Salem, she spent nine months watching friends die and learning to crochet,” said her daughter, the Sonoma County Fair's longtime special events coordinator.
She still was recovering from TB when in 1953 she married soldier, journalist, adventurer and inventor Don Engdahl. They settled in Santa Rosa in 1955, and Don Engdahl went to work as a reporter for The Press Democrat.
“By 1962,” daughter Jane Engdahl said, “they had five children and were building a house with a concrete roof on Chalk Hill Road outside of Windsor.”
“The house was very much a do-it-yourself project, and Susee learned to conquer her fear of heights as she plastered the 20-foot-high ceilings, dug a septic tank with a pick and shovel, painted the walls, grouted tile and worked with the only labor force available — her children — to landscape 3½ acres of hillside.”
After the bout with TB, the second greatest blow to Susee Engdahl's life was her divorce in 1971. She resumed her college education in preparation of going to work.
“During her two years at Sonoma State,” Jane Engdahl said, “the family qualified for welfare, which was the only thing that made it possible to put food on the table.”
After Engdahl earned a degree in psychology, she went on to get a teaching credential. She was nearly twice the age of many new teachers when she started at Windsor School.
Her daughter said that even in her first year of teacher, her income was so meager that she and children relied on food stamps.
“This experience turned her into a lifelong advocate for those in need,” Jane Engdahl said. “One of her great pleasures in recent years was writing checks to 'her charities.'
Throughout her adult life, Engdahl was an activist willing to endure the consequences of standing up for what she believed in. Her daughter said she was proud to be arrested at a SONOMoreAtomics demonstration against nuclear power, although she knew the activism might jeopardize her job.
“You name it, there wasn't a cause my mother wasn't in the middle of it,” Jane Engdahl said.
During summer breaks, she said, her mother often set off on journeys that made good fodder for later teaching her students about the wonders beyond Sonoma County.
She took solo bus trips across America and trekked to the Great Wall of China, the top of Mount Fuji, the Louvre and the pyramids of Egypt.
Engdahl's daughter said doctors weren't able to pinpoint the cause of her mother's decline over recent months and her death at home eight days ago.
“She just got so tired,” Jane Engdahl said. “That's basically it. She died of being tired.”
In addition to her daughter in Santa Rosa and her son and granddaughters in San Jose, she is survived by sons Garth Engdahl of Eugene, Ore., Eric Engdahl of Chicago and Lee Engdahl of Abu Dhabi.
A memorial celebration is set for March 9. For details, email SuseeEngdahl@yahoo.com.
Memorial donations may be made to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, 3320 Industrial Drive, Santa Rosa 95403 or the Community Child Care Council, 131-A Stony Circle, Suite 300, Santa Rosa 95401.
- Chris Smith | <urn:uuid:66b85c10-3607-4afe-9f89-c2c48f916d03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130303/ARTICLES/130309889/0/ENTERTAINMENT | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979382 | 1,048 | 1.546875 | 2 |
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Search Tags: Cyber
August 12th, 2010 at 11 AM
How does one assure trust in Cyberspace? As citizens, government, and business enterprise increase the amount of information that is shared online, fundamental questions arise around security requirements, data and identity management, and infrastructure. Trusted online environments can reduce costs, expand services, and are critical to protecting how, and to whom, information is shared. Securing identities in transactions is an essential component to building trusted online systems and a critical priority for both business and government. As online information sharing and collaborative services evolve between people and technologies, will trust emerge as the next "Killer App"?
Tags: technology , Expert Voices presented by Booz Allen , Booz Allen , Expert Voices , Citi , Citibank , NSTIC , trust , trusted services , trust framework , securing identity , identity management , cybersecurity , cyberspace , Michael Farber , IT , John Clippinger , Berkman Center for Internet & Society , Dr. Jeff Voas , NIST , Hilary Ward , Global Transaction Services
What's the big deal about a 32-character string of secret code in the logo of the Pentagon's U.S. Cyber Command. The new military command was launched in late May to help centralize Defense Department efforts to protect its computer networks, which are under constant threat from attackers. The Associated Press reports it was created to frustrate everyone from run-of-the-mill hackers to foreign governments looking to steal sensitive information or crash critical, life-sustaining computer systems.
Thursday, June 17th
The sophistication of security breaches of federal information systems and reports of improper access to these systems continues to grow at an alarming rate. Clearly, there is concern about and a desire to improve the security of these critical infrastructures. So where and how do we begin to effectively safeguard today's systems from cyber threats and increasing system vulnerabilities? c
Cyber attacks are a growing vulnerability for our homeland security and broader national interests - and federal employees are on the front lines. In fact, Politico recently reported that Congress and other government agencies face an average of 1.8 billion cyber attacks per month. Both the number of attacks and their sophistication continue to increase at an alarming rate.
In many instances, the key to successfully combating an attack is stopping it at its entry point, which is often the unsuspecting federal employee. For example, the Politico report pointed out that "…attacks are increasingly focused on infiltrating application software on Hill staffer computers…,"noting:
- In the last five months of 2009, 87 Senate offices, 13 Senate committees and seven other offices were attacked by spear-phishing attacks, which appeared as e-mail messages to staffers urging them to open infected attachments or click on bad links.
- Cyber security must be an agency priority. Cyber security education and training are much like any other agency initiative: if leadership indicates that something is a priority, agency employees will take action. Agency leadership must make it clear that cyber security education and training are a priority, model the behavior they ask of their employees, and dedicate resources to address the problem and its solution. If they do so, federal employees will respond accordingly.
- Education and training must be continuous. Hackers, terrorists, and other bad cyber actors do not wait for reporting requirements or other compelling organizational issues to decide when to attack - they just do. Education and training efforts should be ongoing, consistently updated, and test employees' understanding of the topic on a regular basis. Agencies must be as persistent and agile in their training as cyber attackers are in their efforts to do harm.
- All agency employees must be included in training. All agency employees, and their contractors, are vulnerable to cyber attacks. No grade level is too high or too entry-level to be excluded from standard education and training.
- Reporting and accountability measures must be implemented. Accountability mechanisms should be used to not only identify those personnel who have or have not received cyber security training, but also on how well they retain the information they have learned. The use of cyber security quizzes or other mechanisms to test the workforce's cyber knowledge provide a quantitative measure of the effectiveness of the training program as well as targeting specific personnel or subjects for deeper training.
The techniques used to attack information networks and exploit information are quickly evolving to the point where it is almost impossible to distinguish intrusion activity. The federal government must use an educated workforce on the cyber threat as a force multiplier as part of its cyber security strategy. Individual employees and agencies must share the responsibility for anticipating and preventing cyber attacks from succeeding.
The non-profit Bipartisan Policy Center recently hosted Cyber ShockWave - a live, mock cyber attack against the nation. The exercise simulated the government's response to a cyber crisis with former Cabinet and national security experts acting as presidential advisors in the fictional drill. The exercise highlighted the dangers of cyber-terrorism and the government's preparedness to respond to such an attack.
Hackers, terrorist organizations, cyber criminals, and nation states routinely target government and corporate entities for financial gain, military intelligence, warfare, and sometimes just for notoriety and fame. Government agencies and corporations have traditionally addressed this threat independently, but the evolution of cyberspace has changed the rules. A unified front between the private and public sector has become more critical to combat these cyber threats.
The public and private sectors are becoming increasingly interdependent - the operation of our nation's critical infrastructure, including the national power grid, transportation systems, and communication networks, depends upon the ability of public and private sector networks to share information via cyberspace. Likewise, our nation's economic superiority is predicated on our ability to maintain competitive advantages in capital markets. Our enemies are not only looking for ways to exploit vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure, but they are also increasingly looking for ways to steal our private sector's intellectual property in order to weaken our economic standing and gain an advantage in the global economy.
Google's disclosure of "sophisticated" cyber attacks on its infrastructure reportedly originating in China offers a good example. The Washington Post recently reported that Google and the National Security Agency (NSA) are forming an alliance "to better defend Google - and its users - from future attack." Putting the agreement in place will enable the NSA and Google to share critical information to analyze the attack without violating privacy laws or policies. This alliance will help Google better defend its intellectual property critical to our nation's economy while providing NSA key insight into the attack methods and motives of the attackers.
The need for such partnerships is certain to grow and will most likely extend to organizations that are not as large and resourced as Google but are just as critical to the strength of our nation's economy. Our adversaries are using similar attack methods to compromise systems across both sectors but they have not effectively partnered to share threat intelligence or early warning indicators. A formal partnership between the private and public sector allows the country to develop a unified and coordinated approach to defending our nation's assets.
There is a new alliance in the battle for cybersecurity. Though neither side has confirmed it, The Washington Post recently reported that Google has asked the NSA to help investigate the mid-December cyber attack against its networks "to better defend Google - and its users - from future attack." This partnership demonstrates the increasing interdependencies between the public and private sector in defending against cyber threats.
Dennis Blair, Director of the Office of National Intelligence, delivered the Intelligence Community's annual threat assessment to Congress last week. Cyber threats topped the list with the Director describing malicious cyber activity as occurring on an "unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication" and citing network convergence and channel consolidation as increasing vulnerabilities.
As the Defense Department's proposed Cyber Command awaits confirmation hearings on its proposed commander, the services are moving forward to establish their own cyber organizations. Vice Admiral Barry McCullough reported for duty on January 29th as Commander of the newly reconstituted 10th Fleet, officially standing up the U.S. Navy's Fleet Cyber Command.
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 2:05pm
In the growing on-line world of quick and unmonitored transactions and communications, virtual identities have become common elements of people's daily lives creating limitless opportunities for criminals to recruit, launder their money, and communicate under the cloak of anonymity. A panel of leading government experts discuss the way that our adversaries use these systems and how organizations can better prepare for the threats they are facing. From a commercial, law enforcement and security perspective, panelists will explain the scope of the problems and the potential benefits that can be derived from new social media
Tags: technology , Booz Allen Distinguished Speaker Series , Virtual Identity , crime , James A. Lewis , Dr. Reobert E. Young , Roy D. Dotson , Secret Service , Department of Homeland Security , Gary Cubbage , Booz Allen Hamilton | <urn:uuid:bf4c67ab-9a39-4e35-9795-1e0381ddbc4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=39&tag=Cyber&page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936963 | 1,953 | 1.726563 | 2 |
American Institute of Architects Adds Session on New Orleans Reconstruction to Haiti Reconstruction Conference Later This Week
For immediate release:
Washington, D.C., January 10, 2010 – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today announced it was adding a session to its two-day conference on Haiti reconstruction to address the efforts of New Orleans to recover from the twin disasters of Hurricane Katrina and the disastrous BP oil spill last year.
The two-day AIA Summit on Haiti is being held on Thursday – one day after the first anniversary of the Haitian earthquake of 2010 – at the Loew’s Hotel in New Orleans. Organizations participating in the AIA’s Haiti conference include The American Red Cross, National Urban League - Greater New Orleans, Adecco Group North America, United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Architecture for Humanity (AFH), National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), Public Architecture and Black Design Network News.
The second session of the two-day conference puts the spotlight on New Orleans, where participants will hear first-hand accounts of how New Orleans is rebounding from natural and man-made disasters. The program will feature renowned local speakers and panel case studies on New Orleans.
The AIA announced last month that it would sponsor the Haiti conference on how to expand volunteer opportunities for the building and design industry in that ravaged and impoverished nation.
The meeting comes as the AIA implements a resolution passed unanimously in September by its Board of Directors that expresses support for the Haitian architectural community and commits to developing a process under which AIA volunteers will be able to provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake. That resolution followed a joint AIA/USGBC announcement in July naming Stacey McMahan, AIA, LEED AP, as the Architecture for Humanity (AFH) Sustainable Design Fellow to lead AFH’s sustainable rebuilding efforts in Haiti. McMahan has been working directly with community members in Architecture for Humanity’s Rebuilding Center based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ms. McMahan will also be attending the conference.
The Haiti conference is the latest AIA effort in the past year to assist Haiti with expertise and contributions. Immediately after the earthquake a year ago, the AIA offered assistance to its members on where to send financial donations and resources. In April, the Puerto Rico Chapter of the AIA hosted a conference that united Haitian design experts with other Pan Caribbean professionals to examine the current status of Haitian infrastructure, identify strategic areas of support and plan for local, regional and national development. A website was also developed: www.aiaforhaiti.org
About The American Institute of Architects
For over 150 years, members of the American Institute of Architects have worked with each other and their communities to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and cityscapes. Members adhere to a code of ethics and professional conduct to ensure the highest standards in professional practice. Embracing their responsibility to serve society, AIA members engage civic and government leaders and the public in helping find needed solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation and world. Visit www.aia.org. | <urn:uuid:de71028d-cc8d-4de8-98a4-806da7fed98e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aia.org/press/AIAB087201 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932546 | 645 | 1.507813 | 2 |
War Crimes Speaker Series
The Iraqi High Tribunal
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Richard Dicker, Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch (HRW), spoke at the WCRO about the Iraqi High Tribunal. He discussed HRW’s involvement in pursuing a justice mechanism for Iraq, flaws in the trial of Saddam Hussein and his thoughts on the Tribunal’s value to Iraqi citizens.
Possibilities for Ratification of the Rome Statute by the United States
Friday, March 30, 2007
As of March 2007, 105 nations have ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The United States signed, but did not ratify the statute in 2000. In 2002, the signature was withdrawn. David Scheffer, who served as the United States' first-ever Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001) discussed the U.S. position on the International Criminal Court in the context of recent developments.
War Crimes in Liberia: Options for Justice and Reconciliation
Friday, February 23, 2007
Ismene Zarifis led a discussion about the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission in Liberia, as well as the relationship between such commissions and other justice mechanisms. Ms. Zarifis earned her J.D. from WCL in 2003. In 2004-2005, she worked in the transitional justice unit of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), where she was involved drafting the enabling act for the establishment of the truth commission in Liberia.
Judge Motoo Noguchi
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Mr. Motoo Noguchi, a Japanese judge in the supreme court chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, spoke to students at the WCRO about the history of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the difficulties of prosecuting those responsible for Khmer Rouge-era atrocities and the challenges of administering an internationalized court.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
In July 1995, over 8,000 Bosniak males were killed by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of Ratko Mladic. This event was the largest mass killing in Europe since World War II; Mladic remains at large. War Portrait is a short documentary film about the massacre and its aftermath, produced by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, a Serbia-based nongovernmental organization. Discussion following the film was led by Ivna Giauque, a native Croatian whose experience includes work with Human Rights Watch and a local human rights NGO in Croatia.
Latest Developments at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Including the Charles Taylor Case
Monday, October 2, 2006
Dr. Christopher Staker, Current Acting Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, spoke about the status of cases currently before the Court, the legal and practical challenges presented by the Charles Taylor case, and the legacy of the Court. Sr. Staker has extensive experience in international law, including previous positions as Principal Legal Secretary at the International Court of Justice, Senior Appeals Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Deputy Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. | <urn:uuid:91e17119-d7d8-4b8d-a352-130100cc8aae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcl.american.edu/warcrimes/2006Events.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946256 | 646 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Marc Giai-Miniet‘s Kafkaesque dolls houses are very strange indeed. There’s nothing cute and sweet going on here. His libraries, that sit on top of spooky basements, laboratories, storage rooms, interrogation cells, stairs, alleyways, ovens, drains and outbound docks draw in you in, make you wonder what’s going on – what is the story going on underground, what’s the relationship between the top and bottom of the house? Is there an army of troglodytes living underneath us?
Perhaps Miniet is trying to convey a sense of horror, an unknown, unspeakable evil that lives beneath our everyday lives. Who knows? What is clear is that these dioramas are incredibly intricate, wonderfully made and alot smaller than you think, many of them only a metre high. What I find most interesting about his work is that books are omnipresent. They always reside at the top of the building. What importance do the books have? What do they represent?
Here’s what Giai-Miniet has to say about his work:
Over time my constructions becoming increasingly large, the characters have disappeared and books, whole libraries, have taken place in conjunction with laboratories, storage rooms, or waiting interrogation cells, stairs, alleyways, ovens, drains or outbound docks …
I understand that the books were burned, and figured, were painful metaphor of human life, both spirit and matter and inexorably doomed to their fate. Not only because the books can be burned, but sometimes also by the knowledge transmitted in, we “burn”, we transform accompany us or lead us astray … in a vision become “existential.”
Human thought is written partly in fundamental books claimed by both saints and tyrants. Men show their books to the beauty of the universe but also their peremptory chasms. Fragile and ephemeral as they are able to imbue our minds with the vision of happiness possible, of spiritual enthusiasm and hope, able also to enroll the worst horrors. Everyone will see, the whiteness of the black books sewers, a journey, a constant back and forth between the two major poles of man bestiality and transcendence, human frailty and divine inaccessible.
The statement is hard to make sense of but I’m afraid I’m not fluent in French and have to rely on the google translation of the text. Apologies.
152 total views, 1 today | <urn:uuid:1d4d37ae-ef54-4f7f-a444-0801a4f2be38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mutantspace.com/marc-giai-miniet-dolls-houses-are-kafkaesque/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956565 | 523 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The offense lines up in the pro formation with two split backs. Before this play you should run the Pro 44 blast a few times to get the defense to cheat or bite on this play. Then you can run this fake.
The QB opens up to the FB (no. 4) and fakes a nice hand off. The FB fakes that he got the ball and goes with his head down through the 4 gap. Meanwhile, the RB (no. 2) has gone out on a sweep or swing pattern as above. The QB stays with his back to the defense after the fake hand off and then pitches the ball to the RB (no. 2). The pitch should be a pitch type of pass, from the chest with the ball flying quickly to the RB. The RB runs through the 9 gap, or outside of the TE. Everyone needs to block in order for this play to work.
This play can always be reversed or fake reversed. How? The QB can come up to the line of scrimmage and call out loud "reverse" to let the defense know. The QB then can fake the blast to the no. 2 back and then pitch to the no. 4 back. Later he can let them know in the huddle that he will fake the reverse, then when he gets up to the line of scrimmage he can say "reverse" and then run the play as it is above.
This play works will in high school football where most teams use the run exclusively and rarely pass. | <urn:uuid:05b573e3-bff6-450b-9ece-a01bd3c972a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.footballtimes.org/Article.asp?ID=150 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964094 | 304 | 1.523438 | 2 |
- Published on Friday, 31 October 2008 00:00
- Written by Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal
They were wrong in 2000 and 2004.
There has been an explosion of polls this presidential election. Through yesterday, there have been 728 national polls with head-to-head matchups of the candidates, 215 in October alone. In 2004, there were just 239 matchup polls, with 67 of those in October. At this rate, there may be almost as many national polls in October of 2008 as there were during the entire year in 2004.
Some polls are sponsored by reputable news organizations, others by publicity-eager universities or polling firms on the make. None have the scientific precision we imagine.
For example, academics gathered by the American Political Science Association at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington on Aug. 31, 2000, to make forecasts declared that Al Gore would be the winner. Their models told them so. Mr. Gore would receive between 53% and 60% of the two-party vote; Gov. George W. Bush would get between just 40% and 47%. Impersonal demographic and economic forces had settled the contest, they said. They were wrong.
Right now, all the polls show Barack Obama ahead of John McCain, but the margins vary widely (in part because some polls use an "expanded" definition of a likely voter, while others use a "traditional" polling model, which assumes turnout will mirror historical trends but with a higher turnout among African-Americans and young voters).
On Monday, there were seven nationwide polls, with the candidates as close as three points in the Investors Business Daily/TIPP poll and as far apart as 10 points in Gallup's "expanded" model. On Tuesday, the Gallup "traditional" model poll had the candidates separated by two points and the Pew poll had them separated by 15. On Wednesday, Battleground, Rasmussen and Gallup "traditional" model polls had the candidates separated by three points while Diageo/Hotline and Gallup "expanded" model polls had the spread at seven points.
Polls can reveal underlying or emerging trends and help campaigns decide where to focus. The danger is that commentators use them to declare a race over before the votes are in. This can demoralize the underdog's supporters, depressing turnout. I know that from experience.
On election night in 2000 Al Hunt -- then a columnist for this newspaper and a commentator on CNN -- was the first TV talking head to erroneously declare that Florida's polls had closed, when those in the Panhandle were open for another hour. Shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Judy Woodruff said: "A big call to make. CNN announces that we call Florida in the Al Gore column."
Mr. Hunt and Ms. Woodruff were not only wrong. What they did was harmful. We know, for example, that turnout in 2000 compared to 1996 improved more in states whose polls had closed by the time Ms. Woodruff all but declared the contest over. The data suggests that as many as 500,000 people in the Midwest and West didn't bother to vote after the networks indicated Florida cinched the race for Mr. Gore.
I recall, too, the media's screwup in 2004, when exit-polling data leaked in the afternoon. It showed President Bush losing Pennsylvania by 17 points, New Hampshire by 18, behind among white males in Florida, and projected South Carolina and Colorado too close to call. It looked like the GOP would be wiped out.
Bob Shrum famously became the first to congratulate Sen. John Kerry by addressing him as "President Kerry." Commentators let the exit polls color their coverage for hours until their certainty was undone by actual vote tallies.
Polls have proliferated this year in part because it is much easier for journalists to devote the limited space in their papers or on TV to the horse-race aspect of the election rather than its substance. And I admit, I've aided and abetted this process.
In the campaign's final week, though, the candidates can offer little new substance, so attention turns to the political landscape, and there's no question Mr. McCain is in a difficult place.
The last national poll that showed Mr. McCain ahead came out Sept. 25 and the 232 polls since then have all shown Mr. Obama leading. Only one time in the past 14 presidential elections has a candidate won the popular vote and the Electoral College after trailing in the Gallup Poll the week before the election: Ronald Reagan in 1980.
But the question that matters is the margin. If Mr. McCain is down by 3%, his task is doable, if difficult. If he's down by 9%, his task is essentially impossible. In truth, however, no one knows for sure what kind of polling deficit is insurmountable or even which poll is correct. All of us should act with the proper understanding that nothing is yet decided.
As for me, I've already cast my absentee ballot in Kerr County, Texas -- joyfully, enthusiastically marking the straight Republican column. I would like to have joined the line Tuesday outside the polling place in Ingram, where I've been registered the past few years. But I will be in New York, part of the vast horde analyzing exit polls, dissecting returns, and pontificating on consequences. I'll thoroughly enjoy myself that night, and probably feel guilty the next morning. But this year's 728 national polls and the thousands of state polls made me do it.
Mr. Rove is a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush. | <urn:uuid:d142d656-2a1e-4a06-a485-f2a3c8975c7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tipponline.com/public-opinion/news/news-articles/dont-let-the-polls-affect-your-vote | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974132 | 1,146 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The clandestine shipping of wild animals to foreign lands resurfaced in the National Assembly yesterday with the Committee for Lands, Natural Resources and Environment accusing the government of protecting the culprits.
Committee Chairman James Lembeli said the manner in which the government was handling the matter raised a lot of questions, considering the fact that it had turned down a technical proposal drawn by his team on how to deal with the matter.
Lembeli said the recommendations had aimed at assisting the government to track down the shipped animals.
“The committee has been disappointed by the government decision of ignoring its recommendations,” Lembeli said, adding: “Failure by the government to establish the whereabouts of the animals is shameful.”
The statement prompted Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai to ask the government to come up with explanation when the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism winds up the debate today.
The saga surrounds the shipping of 116 wild animals of different species, including four giraffes and 16 wild birds worth 170.57m/- aboard Qatar military plane.
The incident occurred on November 24, last year.
According to Lembeli, the government until today has not been able to tell which game reserve; hunting block or national park the animals were taken from. What the government managed to do after the incident was to arrest some suspects who are now facing court action.
According to the committee, instead of taking disciplinary measures against some government officials involved in the graft, some individuals were transferred to other ministries and some promoted, including former ministry’s permanent secretary Ladislaus Komba who was transferred to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Shadow Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Peter Msigwa called upon the government to hold accountable all officials and heads of security organs charged with the responsibility of conserving wildlife.
“It is not possible for 116 live animals including giraffes to be captured, carried in trucks to Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), put on a plane and then ferried out without the government knowledge,” he said.
Earlier on presenting the ministry’s estimates, Maige told the House that after the incident the government suspended licences of businessmen suspected to have been involved in the scam, stepped up security and inspection at KIA, established a permanent station of wildlife rangers at KIA and improved wildlife intelligence unit.
Other measures taken include strengthening the anti-poaching unit for the Northern zone and Arusha by increasing the number of workers.
He said apart from conducting investigations for the ongoing case state security organs are also doing the same in and outside the country by involving Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
According to the minister, the ministry has formed a special task force charged with the responsibility of inspecting stations used for keeping wild animals before being shipped to foreign lands.
The minister added that the government would purchase a chopper that would be used in patrols to combat poaching.
A special satellite system would be installed to track poachers.
Meanwhile a spirited debate ensued yesterday in Parliament on a number of pertinent issues, including uranium extraction in Selous Game Reserve.
The debate ensued immediately after Minister Maige tabled the ministry’s financial estimates and expenditures for 2011/2012 financial year.
The Lands, Natural Resources and Environment committee was the first to register its concern on the proposed project, with its chairman Lembeli saying the secrecy with which the matter was being handled by the government raised a lot of questions. According to Lembeli, neither his committee nor the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy and Minerals was involved in the project.
Lembeli said since the Wildlife Conservation Act No 5 of 2009 allowed the extraction of strategic minerals within game reserves in the country the two parliamentary committees should have been involved transparently in all stages by enabling them to visit the site.
“Despite the government’s efforts in conducting exploration for large scale mining, the committee wants the government to stop conducting such processes in secrecy,” Lembeli said.
Uranium exploration in Selous Game Reserve was contracted to Mantra Tanzania Limited. The exploration conducted showed the 50,000 square kilometres Selous Game Reserve contains uranium amounting to 82.3 million tonnes which may last for 15 years after extractions process begins.
Lembeli said the size of the area involved in the project is 345 square kilometres, equivalent to 0.69 of the total area of the game reserve.
Shadow minister Peter Msigwa (Chadema- Iringa Urban) said the fact that the government in collaboration with Unesco engaged in uranium exploration without involving the Parliament showed a high level of disrespect to the House.
The opposition MP asked the government to seek permission from the House before engaging in further processes.
Minister Maige had told the House that despite the Wildlife Conservation Act, No 5, 2009 allowing the extraction of strategic minerals such as uranium, gas and oil, such activity was not allowed in sites which Unesco has declared World Heritage, adding that Selous Games Reserve is one of the sites.
He said the government has requested Unesco to allow it to review the Game Reserve’s boundaries to exclude the uranium area. | <urn:uuid:e49f22fe-35af-4f21-916c-ba4f36715266> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php/0/12/12/cartels-cause-carin-first-poll-since-independence/function.fopen?l=32395 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958117 | 1,072 | 1.585938 | 2 |
SARRAX-OCH, Guatemala (May 17, 2012) – Nearly 40 Soldiers from the 203rd Engineer Battalion started their two-week rotation Monday to build a new facility for a school in Sarrax-Och, Guatemala.
The project is part of the Beyond the Horizon Guatemala 2012 mission, a partnership exercise led by the Missouri National Guard.
BTH 2012 is a U.S. Army South planned exercise that deploys military engineers and medical professionals to Guatemala for training, while providing services to rural communities. BTHs are conducted annually in the U.S Southern Command area of responsibility and are part of its humanitarian and civic assistance program.
During their rotation, the Soldiers will continue the work that was started by two previous rotations, Sgt. Jason Maness said. The first rotation laid the foundation for the new facility, the second rotation stood the walls and the current rotation is scheduled to put on a roof.
“I like getting out here and representing the United States,” Maness said. “We’re not just world police as some people view us. We like to get out here and help people get up to a standard we’re at and to make life a little better for them.”
Maness, of Joplin, also spent four months in Guatemala in 2007 on a similar mission, in which Missouri Guardsmen built three schools and two medical clinics in San Marcos.
The Soldiers of the 203rd will also build a new bathroom and renovate an old school facility that had inadequate roofing. Renovation plans for the old building include new roofs for the kitchen and bathroom as well as a new oven for the kitchen. The new facility is a separate building next to the old building.
“The second rotation set the wooden forms and poured the concrete for the walls for the new facility,” 1st Sgt. Stephen Bradley said, adding that the wooden forms hold and shape the walls. “Now we’re pulling the forms and cleaning the interior and exterior walls.”
Spc. James Arrant, along with most of the other Soldiers who are a part of the current rotation, went to Germany last year for his annual training to pour concrete for helicopter pads. It is his first time in Central America.
“I think it’s always good to help people, whether it’s in the United States or Guatemala,” Arrant said, “It doesn’t matter where, as long as you’re improving lives, it’s a good thing.”
The Missouri National Guard will remain in Guatemala until mid-July when the construction projects — four others in addition to the one at Sarrax-Och — and four medical readiness missions will conclude.
For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com. | <urn:uuid:db02031b-2a3e-4629-b0d6-0b5d56718948> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southcom.mil/newsroom/Pages/US-Army-Engineers-Continue-School-Building-Project-in-Guatemala.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959141 | 603 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Why I Support Wind Energy
Nearly one-in-six people in the United States live in an area with unhealthful short-term levels of particle pollution. One in six. I was one of those one in six, growing up with moderate to severe asthma. I was hospitalized several times. My health was poor throughout my childhood and didn’t really show full significant improvement until after college.
It’s something I learned to deal with, not to focus on. Yet the truth is, I grew up in a part of the country with severe pollution. In our drive for cheap energy, society paid a social cost.
Luckily I grew up in a part of the world and during a time in history when medical advances kept pace with asthma, in my case just barely. My father also had asthma, as did his father before him. If I had grown up during my father’s time, I likely wouldn’t be here today. If I grew up in another part of the world I know I wouldn’t be here today.
But how many children and young adults in this country and around the world were not and are not so lucky? Our drive for growth often ignores the human cost of our actions. It isn’t until pollution becomes severe enough that we begin to change. Will we wake up before it’s too late for far too many vulnerable people across the world? It’s a sick twist of fate that when it comes to climate change, those who are least responsible and those who are least able to deal with the consequences of changing and shortened (or nonexistent) crop seasons will bear the greatest cost.
One-in-six Americans are at risk from unhealthy air. It just makes sense to renew our investments in renewable energy. Is that energy perfect? No. But the technology is improving, and countries like China and Germany are making massive investments. We shouldn’t be left behind, because it will require innovation and investment to get to energy sources that are cleaner. That’s why I support the wind tax credit. When it comes to energy there are no perfect solutions, but there are good investments.
In addition to extending the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit, we need to continue our investment in groups like ARPA-E. In my view we also need a price on carbon, because we don’t know the full cost of climate change. A portion of revenues from that price should be set aside to deal with worsening storms like Sandy and beyond normal weather events in the U.S.
We need an All-American policy to deal with our energy challenges, one that doesn’t sacrifice our friends and neighbors who are still at risk from local pollution. We can lead and we need to lead.
Alexei N. Laushkin is Senior Director of Communications and Editor of Creation Care Magazine at Evangelical Environmental Network.
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Children at that age often understand a lot more than we give them credit for, particularly non-verbal cues such as tone, facial expressions, and posture.
Rather than trying to revise how you use language, to add particular weight to the word "no" (in my experience, it is easier said than done to replace such a common and fundamental word with other terms for all but the most serious situations), try reserving your sternest face and tone of voice for those situations.
Most importantly, follow up by getting down to your daughter's eye level (after chasing her down if she runs away), ensuring that you have direct eye contact, and then tell her calmly, but without smiling, that she has to listen when mommy and daddy tell her not to touch things, because some things are dangerous and can hurt her, and you don't want that to happen.
If you do this consistently, it takes the fun out of the game for her. She'll see that you are not happy, and pick up on the fact that she's crossed a boundary.
It took maybe half a dozen repetitions with my son when he started doing the exact same thing, but now he quite clearly understands that when mommy or daddy get the "serious look", he needs to stop.
Just be consistent and persistent, and don't use the same stern tone and follow-up for trivial infractions. | <urn:uuid:90b21c0a-7a94-47d0-a552-cf275f0b151c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/6606/how-do-we-teach-our-1-yr-old-that-no-isnt-a-game/6765 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971679 | 284 | 1.65625 | 2 |
(CNN) -- For at least one, it became a star-studded lifestyle, replete with million-dollar jewels, agents and a beard insured for six figures. For some it was a calling, heard as early as age 4 or inherited from elders. For others it began for kicks, a one-time silly gig they got roped into and then loved.
The men who professionally put on the red suit are part of a special fraternity. They usher in a season, spreading cheer and appearing in family photos. They inspire magical thinking, offer hope and keep innocence alive. They stand, bellies out, as proud representatives of a storied tradition.
And while their work is usually jolly and sometimes moving, it comes with its challenges -- wet infants, tantrum-throwing toddlers and drunken women demanding sex, to name a few.
But there are also unexpected questions and impossible-to-meet wish lists. A little boy, for example, asked one Santa if he had a penis. Many children ask Santa to bring back dead grandparents or pets. Others offer lists the length of Santa's arm that include pricey items like iPads, and Santa's job is to manage expectations. Santa also must protect his reputation and the concerns of parents, which is one reason many veterans teach that a Santa must show his hands at all times.
Atop parade floats, in malls or at children's hospitals, they represent one idolized, universally adored character -- so they keep their personal stories to themselves. But these Santas have plenty to say when they're not working. CNN interviewed Santas from north, south, east and west to bring you tales from behind the red suit.
Not many people answer the phone while washing yak-hair beards, mustaches and wigs. But Phillip Wenz, who rotates through eight of these $1,500 combos, does. For this year-round Santa, who's never had another career, hair-accessory hygiene is just part of the job.
Wenz, 49, was only 4 when he first put on a makeshift red suit, snuck out of the house, strolled into an unsuspecting neighbor's home and, reaching into a pillow case, began passing out candy canes. The shtick stuck. That year, and in the 24 years that followed, he made rounds at the small rural Illinois hospitals where his father worked as CEO. By fifth grade, he was bringing cheer to preschools and nursing homes. At 14, he was in his first parade, and two years later he wrote a term paper about his Santa-life ambitions. He got a D.
Now, 200 days a year, he's living the dream. Heck, he's the only living member so far in the Santa Claus Hall of Fame. Take that, you D-giving teacher.
Beyond the parades, parties, media appearances, ad gigs and more, he's been THE Santa at Santa's Village theme park in East Dundee, Illinois. He's also worked as a consultant for St. Nicholas Development in the creation of Santa's Candy Castle in, where else, Santa Claus, Indiana -- "the Vatican" of Santadom, Wenz says. He penned the Santa Claus Oath and created a foundation to preserve Santa sanctity. He's the Santa others point to for history lessons.
He rattles off the names of giants and mentors who came before him -- legends like Jim Yellig, who was "the face of Santa Claus, Indiana, for 54 years" and helped Wenz on the term paper that earned him a D. And one can't forget Charles W. Howard, the longtime Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade fixture and founder of the first Santa school. Or, Don Goers, who inspired Wenz when he sat upon the man's knee in 1966.
He gives quick tutorials on Santa's jolly journey, which dates back centuries to the giving spirit of St. Nicholas of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). St. Nicholas entered popular culture in the 1800s, appearing, for example, in the still-popular poem "The Night before Christmas." Santa as a live character began making appearances some 170 years ago.
Wenz says it was in 1841 in Philadelphia that Santa reportedly made his first visit to a dry goods store. In 1887, the first Santa Claus Parade wound through Peoria, Illinois. In 1890, Santa plopped down for visitors in a Brockton, Massachusetts, department store.
Next to Wenz's home in Crescent City, Illinois, a 2,200-square-foot building houses Santa-related research materials, props and memorabilia.
The dedication to his career has come with sacrifice. He's only shared Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his daughter Holly (yes, Holly -- who's married to-- brace yourself -- a Nicholas) five times in 23 years.
Wenz says there have probably been only four men with full-time careers in his field "in the history of Santa Clauses." CNN's calls to the North Pole to confirm this were not returned.
The copyrighted one
What do Elizabeth Taylor, John Travolta and Kim Kardashian have in common? They've all taken a seat in Brady White's lap.
But so, he says, have Eva Gabor, Courteney Cox, Barbra Streisand and countless others. Once, White had Charles Bronson on one knee and Pee Wee Herman on the other.
Such is life for the Santa to the Stars © -- please don't forget the copyright.
But his glamorous life (he was once featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous") isn't simply about appearing at chichi private parties and greeting stars and their children at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He counts among his longtime clients high-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Cartier.
It's for this reason that one of his agents might call, when he's at his second home in southern Italy, to tell him he's needed for a mountaintop catalog shoot in Colorado.
White, whose other home is in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, won't reveal his age or how much earns, but he does say, "People can work six months and not make what I make in four hours."
It wasn't always like this for him, and he doesn't forget where he came from. Mixed in with the money-making work, he dons the red suit for charities and children's hospitals.
White first entered the Santa game about three decades ago out of desperation. He was an unemployed actor in Los Angeles and nine months behind in his rent when he took a job as a mall Santa in Beverly Hills. That season the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner polled children to find the best Santa around. Guess who won?
The day after his win, two agents sought him out at the mall. Grow a real beard, they said, and he could make $5,000 an appearance. He stopped shaving almost immediately.
"The following July, I was standing in the Swiss Alps with a beautiful young lady wearing white chinchilla for an ad for Neiman Marcus," he says. "That photo made the inside cover of Vanity Fair. Literally, overnight, my life changed."
That beard is now insured for six figures. He has close to 60 Santa outfits -- including a dyed-red mink suit (which he admits has fallen out of favor), a gold sequin suit for Vegas and a black velvet version adorned with Swarovski crystals.
At Cartier parties over the past 23 years, he's been flanked at times by bodyguards as his Santa hands held tiaras worn by queens, a flawless 20-carat yellow canary diamond ring and necklaces valued at millions. Cartier clients would leave the lavish food table with "caviar on their fingernails" and line up to sit with Santa as he adorned them with such "gifts" -- if only just for the photos.
Not all women, however, have expressed interest in those sorts of gifts. He says there are women who've confessed to having sexual Santa fantasies. A woman at Cartier in Atlanta one year took a seat on Santa's lap and opened up her fur coat to reveal her bare breasts.
"Even for Cartier, which is a major client, this is not the thing for me," he says with a ho-ho-ho.
It's the children's eyes that have hooked Louis Knezevich -- the way they light up, no matter how sick or hurt a child might be. And that joy exudes not just from the young who celebrate Christmas but from parents, grandparents and people of all faiths and backgrounds.
He sees this while working house parties or in his official role as the Santa at Atlanta's St. Regis Hotel.
"You'll feel something when you put on that red suit," the seasonal Santa says he tells students at the Santa Claus Academy in Atlanta, where he teaches. "There's a spirit of Christmas that overtakes you."
Perhaps that's why even off the Santa Lou job he might wear red to complement his big white beard, or sport a pinstripe candy-cane shirt at his mortgage company job. Knezevich, who promises coal in the stocking if his age is revealed, loves the magic, which shows up in ways the nine-year Santa veteran doesn't always anticipate.
About three years ago, Knezevich was walking into a restaurant in his native Cleveland when the spirit connected him to a little girl. She gawked at him with wonder, and even though her eyes drew him in, he couldn't miss the scars on her face.
The adults sitting with the 6-year-old girl eventually passed him a note: "Her name is Teeba. She's from Iraq." With or without the costume, he was Santa and visited her. She bombarded him with questions -- wanting to know about Mrs. Claus, what the reindeers ate and how they all flew.
At 19 months of age, Teeba had been traveling in a taxi with her family when the car drove over a roadside bomb. She and her parents survived, but her brother didn't. Teeba began a journey toward recovery at Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and is going on her 16th surgery, Knezevich says.
In the three years since they first met and he gave her the number to his "sleigh phone," the two have stayed in close touch. He sees her when he travels to Cleveland and at events he attends to raise money for her care. In 2009, he surprised her by bringing her Christmas in July.
At 9, she no longer believes in Santa, per se, but she still holds on to the magic.
"She believes in the spirit of Christmas and the joy of giving to others," Knezevich says.
A typical phone conversation might begin with her saying, "Santa, I have something to tell you."
And Knezevich remembers her telling him, "I know you're not Santa like I thought you were, but you're still special to me."
With Santa royalty in his lineage, you might say Michael Rielly of Bristol, Rhode Island, was destined to put on the red suit.
His late grandfather, James D. Rielly, was Santa for 62 years, an endeavor he began in 1928 at age 19. The senior Rielly was inducted in the Santa Hall of Fame and, according to his grandson, accrued a collection of grateful letters from people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Pope John Paul II and Richard Nixon.
The younger Rielly, a 48-year-old software marketer, didn't recognize the face behind Bristol's legendary Santa for years, though. When he was 8 and stepped up to play Santa in a school play, he had no clue that the Santa who helped him get dressed for the performance -- under the watchful eye of a newspaper photographer -- was his grandfather.
"I only learned years later," he says. "The year he passed away, in 1991, I took over as Santa Rielly."
Like his grandfather, he doesn't take payments. If people insist on giving money, he directs it to charities. He visits the sort of people his grandfather visited: the orphans, the bed-ridden, the military families. And he loves dropping in on nursing homes, which some Santas find as appealing as the narrowest of chimneys.
"You can ask any Santa, it's probably the most uncomfortable gig because they're usually 90 degrees," says Rielly. But when he walks in and sees the residents -- those who've lost all their friends or may not have family who visit -- the joy he witnesses makes the heat more than bearable.
"They literally turn into children," he says. "It's amazing."
Santa may be in Rielly's blood, but even so, he's attended the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, Michigan. He likes the camaraderie and learning things he never thought to ask his grandfather. To foster ongoing relationships among Santas, he created ClausNet in 2007, an online community with more than 1,200 registered users across the globe.
Through discussion forums and live chats, Santas can share makeup tips, plan get-togethers and swap advice on answering those tough questions or impossible Christmas wishes. He says more than 800 people are expected to descend on Santa Claus, Indiana, in April for a convention that's been dubbed the Jim Yellig Santa Claus Workshop. Yellig, like Rielly's grandfather, is a hall of famer.
It remains to be seen whether Rielly's 18-year-old son Sean -- who like his sister was 12 when he learned that the local Santa was his very own dad -- will pick up the candy cane torch and carry on the tradition. Rielly's father didn't have the Santa gene, so maybe it skips a generation.
But Sean, who came home from the hospital in a red stocking on Christmas Day, four days after he was born, has shown signs of recognizing his birthright. He, too, opted for the Santa role in a school play and is currently playing Santa at a local McDonald's. And as a way to give back to an organization that helped him, the young man, who was diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes, has played Santa at the annual Christmas party for a Juvenile Diabetes Association office in Fall River, Massachusetts, for two years.
"I went and watched him that first time," the current Santa Rielly says. "He did all the right things. ... I can't tell you how proud I was."
For Tom Valent, a 61-year-old construction company president, being Santa is simply, he laughs, "a hobby gone bad." He says he first felt the calling 35 years ago when he asked his wife Holly -- that was and still is her name -- to make him a suit.
The next year he found out about the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School, then in Bay City, Michigan. The school was named for the Santa legend and hall of famer who founded the original school, the first of its kind, in 1937.
All these years later, Valent is the school's third dean. The school holds one session a year in the Santa House he built, which is also where he welcomes visitors this time of year, working two to three shifts a day in full-on Santa hobby mode.
The school's 40-hour curriculum includes lessons on Santa history, hygiene and international legends. There are tutorials for simple sign language, suggestions for song leading and warnings about what the jolly one can expect should he find himself working with live reindeer. There also are sessions about healthy living -- exercises and stretches he can do from a chair, tips for moving about and even a dance class -- "so Santa's not a stiff guy," Valent explains.
Interspersed, of course, are plenty of conversations and suggestions about how Santa can listen, engage and make the season memorable. There is talk, for example, about what he can and cannot promise children.
As a case study, Valent remembers a little girl who sat on his knee and said, "All I want is my mom to come home." In times like these, Santa, who's not in a position to play therapist, must be fast on his black-booted feet.
"I can't promise you anything," Santa told her, "but I will say a prayer." Valent wrote her name in a little "prayer book" he keeps in his pocket for such moments. Then he turned the conversation in another direction, saying, "I'm good at toys," and asked the girl what he could help her with there.
He and Holly have taken the school on the road, bringing what it offers to places as far-flung as Australia, South Africa and Norway. In 1995, they led the first World Santa School, with 17 Santas from 17 countries, in the northern part of Greenland, as close as they could get to the North Pole.
In his Real Santas database, there are 2,000 men. He unleashed 496 of them in November to fill 1,355 photo studio slots in stores such as Walmart, Sears and Kiddie Kandids. More than 125 in his stable are hitting 200 parties this month, working in select baby stores, roaming through 20 airports for corporations and taking seats in high-end malls.
Amid all this talent-booking madness, Santa Tim Connaghan, of Riverside, California, managed to meet his own Santa obligations, too. Among them, he zipped up to a Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena, taped the Christmas show for the Disney Channel's "So Random!" and made his annual Hollywood Christmas Parade appearance.
"Santa cannot be everywhere at once," he says -- which is why he established a multitude of ventures under his Kringle Group to spread holiday merriment as far as he can spread it.
Beyond playing agent for Santas scattered throughout the country, Connaghan is wheeling and dealing in other businesses. His International University of Santa Claus runs two-day summer workshops in up to 12 cities, which is how he built his Santa army. Casual Claus is a clothing business offering Santa wardrobe options for the off-season -- like red cargo shorts and North Pole team jerseys. As Santa Hollywood, he makes himself available to media, serves as an industry consultant and both plans and participates in major events. He's written a book about being Santa.
It all began for Connaghan, 63, when he was in Vietnam. The year was 1969. A friend received a paper Santa hat in the mail, and not long after Connaghan was wearing a shaving cream beard with that friend in his lap for a photo. The next year, while back in the States and attending college, he was working at a Bullock's department store during the holidays when management suddenly found itself Santa-less. He filled in -- for three seasons.
His didn't pursue a Santa career initially.
Connaghan was a longtime development director, raising funds and running events like telethons and walkathons for nonprofits including the March of Dimes, City of Hope and the American Cancer Society. And off and on, over the years, he'd get his Santa fix by slipping into the red suit for community events and parties for friends and family.
Then one day, 15 years ago, the seed for his future was planted with a jab to the ribs. He and his wife were watching an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," and riding in a limo was none other than Brady White, Santa to the Stars ©. Connaghan's wife elbowed him.
A year later, he had a formidable beard, but he hadn't made the Santa leap.
But then, in the night, what should appear? An association of like-minded men to bring Connaghan cheer.
He discovered and began to network with members of the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, now known as the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas. These real-bearded men were retired seniors who weren't advertising or marketing themselves or their jolly might. Connaghan realized they weren't reaching their full Santa potential.
With a twinkle in his eye, he started to see the path he would travel in the coming years. He's been loading up his entrepreneurial sleigh ever since.
The better person
Being Santa means many things to Michael Cawthra.
A former elementary school teacher of 31 years, he sees it as a way to keep working with children. The Lakewood, Colorado, resident gets to embrace full-on a holiday he's always loved, and do it with naturally white hair he can be proud of. The extra money, maybe $6,000 a season he earns doing parties or welcoming kids in shopping centers, helps him pay off that 2009 Mustang he had to have.
Oh, sure, his wife might laugh or roll her eyes at his antics. He's got a summer Santa outfit, a red baseball hat emblazoned with "Santa," and even a cowboy Santa outfit for rodeos that includes a custom belt buckle that reads, you guessed it, "Santa."
When he occasionally works as a substitute teacher, he'll write on the board a "nice or naughty" list. If a student starts acting up, he walks toward the board. He doesn't pretend with the kids that he's the "real" Santa, but he does say that Santa has helpers all over the world who assist in watching children. He claims to have a direct hotline to the big guy.
This Santa business, which he pursued after attending the nearby Professional Santa Claus School in Denver, moves him.
He gushes about a little boy with Down syndrome who kept coming back to him, running at full speed for extra hugs. He theorizes about the little ones who have meltdowns, knowing that being told not to go to strangers and then being tossed in his lap must be confusing. He gets emotional remembering a 12-year-old girl who came to him with her four younger siblings and the single father struggling to raise them all. Her siblings quickly chimed in about all the toys they wanted, but when he turned to her, she shared her only wish: "I just want my family to be happy."
"Those moments," Cawthra says, choking back tears, "those are the ones you live for."
What he doesn't live for, but is learning to appreciate, are the more difficult interactions. There was the mother who once turned to leave him with a screaming and squirming "slippery as a seal" infant.
"Ma'am, can you take your baby?" he called after her.
"Why?" she said.
"Uh, because it's yours."
See, a tough part about being Santa is you have to be nice and not argue with people, Cawthra says. If a sales clerk ticks you off, even if you're not dressed like Santa but look like him, as Cawthra does, you can't get upset. And forget about driving aggressively when your Mustang license plate reads "SLEIGH2."
Being Santa, he laughs, has "made me a better person."
And that gracious, even forgiving attitude comes in handy. He recalls what happened during a recent morning walk to get coffee. In his Santa baseball cap and red jacket, he made -- like he often does -- mental notes of the reactions.
"This morning, 22 waved and honked," he says. "Probably 10% will drive by and not react at all." But then, there was this: A woman drove by and flipped him the bird.
"To go out of your way to give Santa the finger? That's just ... wow," he says, with a jolly laugh. "You must really be having a bad day." | <urn:uuid:0e7f4ad8-f21a-41f2-81b5-aa223b7cc8e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asia.cnn.com/2011/12/18/living/santa-claus-profile/index.html?iid=article_sidebar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97992 | 4,960 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Podcast: The BBC's Sebastian Usher discusses the Alan Johnston kidnapping
Issue 3, Fall 2007
Sebastian Usher: The dangers in Gaza had always been there, but as a Western journalist, it wasn’t a place where you really expected to be targeted until the last few months. And what happened was that two other Western journalists were taken hostage I think two or three months before Alan was taken hostage, and during that time Alan was withdrawn from Gaza because of the fears for his safety. And although there had been concerns about this before, they hadn’t been sharp like this.
Clip: Today from Ramallah on the West bank we’re doing this special program because it’s a month since our colleague Alan Johnston the BBC’s Gaza correspondent was kidnapped on his way home…
Usher: The Palestinian Territories had been very different, obviously, from Iraq. It hadn’t been the lawless, chaotic landscape that we had in Iraq where anything goes, I mean we saw it happen it first with the Western journalists, terrible things would happen with kidnappings there, people were beheaded and so on. In the last year or two we’ve seen that happen with Iraqi journalists, and there have been a huge number of Iraqi journalists that have been killed in the last year, and much of that unreported in the West. There are journalists in Iraq who have given first hand experiences. When journalists were still going around Iraq freely, often journalists were taken for a day or so, for a few hours, and they would be checked up on. These days your hostage takers, they get their laptop out and they Google the person they’ve kidnapped to see who is this? What have they said? And they if they haven’t got a serious purpose, they haven’t got a real plan, and there’s plenty of you around, as there was in those days, you’ve got a very good change of being released then.
Clip: Alan’s family have issued another appeal for his freedom. Father: “Please, let my son go. Now. Today.”
Usher: Some Western journalists are Muslims for example or understand the culture very, very well. That can help in some circumstances, but it shouldn’t mislead you into thinking that it’s really going to have much of an effect, I think. To think because I know the language, because I’ve been here a long time, because I empathize with the people, because, because, because, they will understand that and they will treat me differently. I think that is a very naive point of view because, fundamentally, you are being taken because you’re the one who is available, who has value, and that is what they see when they see you.
Clip: …released on the internet. It’s of the BBC’s Gaza’s correspondent Alan Johnston. This is what is showing. Johnston: “First of all my captors have treated me very well. They’ve fed me well. There’s been no violence towards me at all and I’m in good health….”
Usher: I started my reporting career in Lebanon really, and I was very much involved with the hostage situations there. Back then, you always felt you were worth more to them alive than dead, and that if you could accept the situation, could control all the feelings and things like this, you know you could probably see it through and that was the best way to do it. And the people I knew who went through that like John McCarthy and Brian Keenan that’s what they did. Now there were times where they thought that they would be executed, times when they thought they were going to be killed, but it wasn’t quite the same shocking thought that they’re are going to get out a sword and slice your head off, which a journalist these days, even outside Iraq, has to feel is a possibility, so you re reacting in a different way.
Clip: Johnston: “In three years here in the Palestinian Territories I’ve witnessed the huge suffering of the Palestinian people and my message is that their suffering is continuing and it is unacceptable.”
Usher: You know these are obvious common sense things. You do things wherever you are going. You always make sure that a variety of people know – who can do something – where you are, what you are doing, and when you should be back, and you don’t get into cars with people who say they are going to take you someplace where your contact is waiting for you. You have to be much more careful about things than you might have been seven or eight years ago because the chances are, not that great, that people could be trying to kidnap you, as with Daniel Pearl for example. So you have to be much more aware of the real dangers and risk that you face these days. Now, like I say, you get all sorts of training before you go. You hear all sorts of stories, you talk to people who have been out there. You get a lay of the land. But, the key thing when it comes down to it, is if you are doing something where you really feel like it is genuinely risky, the kind of people you are meeting, where you are going to be, is to locally have people who you think could do something to you.
Clip: At six o’clock, free at last. The BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is released. You want to do everything at the same time, you want read books, newspapers, go to the movies, go to the beach, sit in the son, and eat and talk and all the rest, and it is the most extraordinary fourth of July for me ….
Usher: It’s a long lasting psychological effect on them which they cannot be aware of. For a journalist, in a sense, you know who you were before when you were after in a way. And you know why you were there, and you, in a sense, know why you were taken. My feeling is that that’s how it will be with him, but it was a professional risk that he ran. It happened.
Clip: (Johnston) Yeah I was released just a couple of hours ago and it is just the most fantastic thing to be free. It was an appalling event as you can imagine, sixteen weeks kidnapped. Sometimes it was quite terrifying and didn’t know when it was going to end….
Usher: They don’t see it as an advantage not to have Western journalists there. They want them to be there. There is a whole dimension of who they are and what they are which can only really be conveyed if you have independent, honest reporters there who want to give the full picture. | <urn:uuid:fbdb3fa4-9808-4288-bb5a-5a9dfecd0ee7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arabmediasociety.com/countries/index.php?c_article=125 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987515 | 1,436 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Some times are not appropriate for flirting, even harmless fun. If you're being a bit too friendly with your best friend's guy or guy hopeful, you're about to ruin a relationship – the one between you and your friend that is. It's also a very bad idea to flirt with boys or men who are considerably older than you. You may think you science teacher is hot, but you can land in a pretty big mess if you think a few clever words and a winning smile will win his heart or an A.
Good flirting can look different on everyone. It does have some tell-tale characteristics, however. Most flirting starts with a smile and some eye contact. You meet his eyes, smile and maybe look away. This is like a "come on over" beacon to most boys. The next step is friendly conversation. Keep it light and maybe tease just a little bit. Don't make fun of the boy as he is already putting his ego on the line coming over to visit.
If you really like him, make a point of finding a way to touch him. Nothing serious here either, just make a light touch on his arm or hand when you make a point about something in conversation, or even a little knee nudge under the table when you share a private joke. It can appear accidental or intentional, but limit it to something very small or you might look too forward. We don't want to be patting him down during your very first conversation.
Aim Your Flirt Wisely
You don't have to really like a boy to flirt with him, but you do need to be careful. Flirting is a powerful weapon. Believe it or not, many boys are rather insecure and are very afraid of rejection. If you are just practicing new flirting techniques on someone you think is harmless, he may be getting an entirely different message. You flirt with him. It tells him (in guy language) that you're interested.
He ventures past his comfort zone to ask you out or even call you. When you reject him, even if it's a very gentle let down, you've hurt his feelings – and you started the whole thing! Flirting is a lot of fun and can take awhile to perfect, so it is best to practice wisely. Think about what you're doing and then just flirt away! | <urn:uuid:97aa4ca0-7b00-4580-8fcc-5f857c2b17d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedollpalace.com/dollnews/article_01.php?frontpage_extreme_news_id=4321&page_id=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97924 | 476 | 1.765625 | 2 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Avid gardener Joyce sent in an e-mail last week, asking for help.
"I read your articles a lot in the newspaper, so I thought I'd ask you if you are aware of anyone around who likes to trade plants. We are putting in a very long retaining wall behind our house and I would like some plants that would work for soil erosion and are deer-resistant.
"However, I quickly realized just to purchase groundcover for a very small area was going to be a fortune, so I thought maybe I could trade some of my established plants like forsythia, hostas and Italian arum for other types of plants. I am particularly interested in periwinkle (Vinca minor) for the bank since I'm told that it is an evergreen and spreads very quickly. I don't care how invasive it is since our retaining wall is about 190 feet long.
"I had English ivy established pretty well at one point, but in the past few years, the deer have completely eaten it. I'd be interested in any plants or bushes that might help with the erosion and that would also be attractive to plant behind the retaining wall. I've tried creeping phlox and juniper -- neither of which did any good. The bank is mostly clay, but we plan to put some sandy loam behind the retaining wall. Someone mentioned that it might be a problem of getting too dry for plants in the summer, but we have water constantly flowing off the bank, so I don't that will be an issue.
"Any direction you can give would be greatly appreciated. Free, cheap or trade would be fine with me."
My co-worker Julie and I were talking about how nice it would be to have a local "plant swap" website. It would be interesting to see if a website would work, where folks in our area could post plants that they have an abundance of, and post "wish lists" of plants they want.
Dave's Garden (www.davesgarden.com) has a marketplace where people can buy and sell plants from their gardens. PlantSwap.net is another site for finding plants. I am wondering if there's any "control" about the plants they offer for sale or trade -- for example, what if someone wants to give or receive something that is a dangerous, invasive plant? Just curious.
Here's the information from Plant Swap about their site:
"This site was developed to facilitate organizing free plant swaps as well as serve as a community discussion forum for gardeners. Plant swap organizers can announce their events in the calendar and attendees can give notice that they are coming (and bringing guests). The system also allows easy communication of 'have' and 'want' lists to enable members to arrange trades before the meet.
"This site is community-driven. If you would like to see a forum or feature that the site is currently missing, just send a request to the admin and we will do our best to accommodate it. We will add topical forums for specific plants, geographic areas or anything else as soon as there is enough demand for them." | <urn:uuid:b733238c-df78-4c1a-b734-aae980bffa21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvgazette.com/Life/SaraBusse/201005280891 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981714 | 649 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Behm, Barbara. Tears of Joy. Wayward Pub., c 1999. Carly withdraws until finally she talks to a school counselor about being inappropriately touched. Helps included at the end of the book. Ages 4 – 8.
Clifton, Lucille. One of the Problems of Everett Anderson. Henry Holt & Co., c 2001. Everett notices bruises and scars on his new friend and doesn't know what to do. He finally tells his mother who helps him. Ages 4 – 8.
Roberts, Willo Davis. Don't Hurt Laurie. EconoClad Books,. Reprint 1999. Fiction. Laurie is physically abused by her mother. Ages 10 – 16.
Stanek, Muriel. Don't Hurt Me, Mama. Albert Whitman & Co., 1987. A kind and sensitive school nurse sees that a young victim of child abuse and her abusing mother get help. Ages 4 – 8. | <urn:uuid:22a7f707-3fd6-4083-a5d9-07339ba2db6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrensmn.org/patientfamily/family-services-a-resources/parenting-resources/suggested-reading-for-children/child-abuse | 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 | 0.938054 | 187 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I wish Arkansas would do more to capitalize on the fact that more Americans than ever before are using their spare time for culinary tourism.
Alabama, for instance, centered its tourism development efforts around food for a full year.
I tend to get the most feedback on this blog when I write about food. Someway, somehow, we should find ways to direct more people to the small, out-of-the way barbecue joints, catfish restaurants and meat-and-three palaces that add so much to the fabric of our state.
Once you’ve done your fieldwork in Arkansas, you can take off across the rest of the South. The Southern Foodways Alliance at Ole Miss will help guide you.
I mentioned in an earlier post that oral histories from Arkansas soon will be added to the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Southern BBQ Trail at www.southernbbqtrail.com.
There already are oral histories posted on the site for Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama.
Jake York writes in his introduction of the Southern BBQ Trail: “The whole-hog style that developed along the Atlantic seaboard has drifted into western Tennessee, and the Piedmont style, with some variations, can be uncovered in northeast Alabama and, with American-style coleslaw, in Memphis. Mustard-based barbecue, though still centered in South Carolina, can be found as well in Georgia and eastern Alabama, where one can also find an orange sauce that combines mustard and tomato-based sauces, as if to say, ‘Does one really have to choose?’
“Of course, Kentucky has its barbecue mutton and its burgoo, which resembles Georgia’s own Brunswick stew, a traditional barbecue accompaniment. In Texas, German settlers in a cattle-friendly land developed barbecue sausage and the holy brisket, where today Mexican influence directs the emergence of barbacoa and other delicacies. And in that far edge of the South, Kansas City, half Missouri and half Kansas, it has all come together, as it has come together now in so many cities across the South and across the United States.
“But there are still new barbecue plates being dreamed up by the hungry and the resourceful. How about north Alabama’s white-sauce chicken, northwest Mississippi’s taste for goat or the barbecued gator that turns up in Louisiana and Florida? Whatever it is, it is slow-cooked. If it’s done right, it’s smoked. Honestly, it could be anything, But, whatever it is, it better be damn good.”
Here’s a taste of the individual state introductions on the Southern BBQ Trail website:
Robb Walsh on Texas: “The pitmaster squints into the smoke as he opens the giant steel door. From your place in line, you watch him fork and flip the juicy, black beef briskets and sizzling pork loins. Your heart beats faster as he opens a steel door to reveal a dozen sausage rings hissing and spitting in the thick white cloud. Slowly, the sweet cloud of oak smoke makes its way to you, carrying with it the aroma of peppery beef, bacon-crisp pork and juicy garlic sausage.”
James Veteto and Ted Maclin on Tennessee: “In 1923 Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency of the United States, Hank Williams was born in Alabama and Thomas Jefferson “Bozo” Williams opened Bozo’s Hot Pit Bar-B-Q in Mason, Tenn. Many years later, in the 1980s, Bozo’s the barbecue joint was engaged in a decade-long trademark battle with Bozo the Clown. The restaurant ultimately won, but only after the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barbecue in Tennessee is serious business, with a long history that is intimately wrapped up in local identity and authenticity.”
John Shelton Reed on North Carolina: “When George Washington ‘went to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night,’ as he wrote in his diary for May 27, 1769, he won eight shillings playing cards and probably ate meat from a whole hog, cooked for hours over hardwood coals, then chopped or ‘pulled.’ By the early 19th century at the latest, a sauce of vinegar and cayenne pepper (originally West Indian) was being sprinkled on the finished product. This ur-barbecue can be found to this day in eastern North Carolina and the adjoining regions of South Carolina and Virginia, virtually unchanged.”
Tom Freeland on Mississippi: “The earliest extant commercial establishments such as Abe’s in Clarksdale are from the 1920s, when good roads and inexpensive cars catalyzed American automobile culture. Mississippi barbecue is ethnically diverse — Abe’s was and is Lebanese owned, and Old Timer’s in Richland has a Greek proprietor.”
Jake York on Alabama: “It is only by cartography, law and convention that Alabama is a state. From within, it reads like a perverse anthology in which the Appalachians give us a taste of the Carolinas, the Tennessee River guides a northern influence, the pine barrens continue the work of Georgia, the Black Belt gestures toward Mississippi, the coast combines Florida and Mississippi, and the Wiregrass gives you a sense of another world entirely.”
The Southern Foodways Alliance describes its efforts this way: “Rather than establish origins, the Southern BBQ Trail seeks to collect stories about barbecue — the meat, the wood, the smoke and the people who have dedicated their lives to the craft of ‘cue. We share tales of pulled pork, barbecued brisket, homemade sausage, lamb ribs and even a few secrets about the sauce.
“For every different slab of ribs or handful of meat piled on a bun, there is a different story. Oral history interviews with pitmasters and purveyors across the South reveal the various ways in which barbecue traditions have evolved and how styles emerged, helping to explain the importance — and persistence — of the South’s barbecue tradition.”
Once you’ve spent a sufficient amount of time on the barbecue trail, the SFA offers these additional culinary trails:
– The Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail at www.tamaletrail.com: “Meet Elizabeth Scott of Scott’s Hot Tamales, who has been making and selling hot tamales for more than 50 years. … And learn how Sicilian immigrants factor into the Delta’s long history with these bundles of meat and masa.”
– The Southern Boudin Trail at www.southernboudintrail.com: “Visit T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse, one of the last of its kind, where the boudin is as fresh as it can get. Learn about the days when casings were stuffed using cow horns from Jimmy Guidry, the boudin maker at Don’s Specialty Meats. Meet Robert Cormier, co-owner of The Best Stop, who has traced his Cajun heritage back a handful of generations to family in Nova Scotia.”
– The Southern Gumbo Trail at www.southerngumbotrail.com: “Learn how to make a roux with Billy Grueber from Liuzza’s by the Track. Meet Lionel Key, an artisan whose uncle taught him to make file from sassafras leaves. And then visit the Olivier family for dinner, where you might find three different versions of gumbo on the table.”
Happy travels across the South. And bon appetit. | <urn:uuid:fa858449-3bcb-4424-a42a-0bddc1e9878d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com/?p=1502 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941002 | 1,603 | 1.5625 | 2 |
North of 60: Tomatoes
Many, many moons ago, I was a fan of Fred Astaire (real name: Frederick Austerlitz). I loved his musicals. He had a duet with Ginger Rogers (real name: Virginia McMath). “You say Potatoe, I say Potato. You say Tomatoe, I say Tomato…”
Nowhere in the song does it say $5.19 per tomato, but North of 60, it's a sale!
Iqaluit is a very isolate place:
- It's in the Eastern Arctic. Nunavut, the territory (the equivalent of a state) spans three time-zones.
- There is no road in or out. The nearest city is 2000km/1300 miles south by air.
- Iqaluit is on Frobisher Bay, but now it's mid-June and the ice is still melting. Could an icebreaker go through it? For sure, the ice is only 2 to 4 feet thick. The ice should be completely melted by mid-July to the end of July. All large items like construction supplies, pickup trucks, ATVs, Skidoo... are shipped by containers between July and September and sometime in October, the Frobisher Bay will start to freeze again.
- All “fresh food†has to be flown in. There are only two airlines flying in... Flights depend on the weather. The main factors are the winds and the fog. | <urn:uuid:a5325a1f-9f65-493e-8e77-5b3a9aeed8f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foto-biz.com/Photos/North-of-60-tomatoes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965881 | 315 | 1.6875 | 2 |
By Felda Chay
IT is the most unlikely place for a training ground of finance professionals - a sprawling 500,000 sq ft estate on Kheam Hock Road, with a colonial house perched atop a hill overlooking rolling green fields and tall leafy trees. Built in the 1930s, the Command House boasts features such as side wings that are angled forward - as if to embrace and welcome visitors - and a large overhanging roof.
Yet in the last three years, the house - previously home to General Officers commanding Malaya and Singapore and a venue for state functions under former President Ong Teng Cheong - has been serving a vastly different function from what it has been used to. It is now a home to the UBS Business University, where Switzerland's biggest bank trains its employees in Asia. To date, the campus has served as venue to 2,000 training events.
The bank declined to reveal the amount it pays in rent each month for the use of the gazetted national monument, but it's an easy guess that it is no paltry sum. And if money is a measure of one's commitment, then this must show how serious the bank is about training. | <urn:uuid:9d099f39-84d0-4a44-84c6-ff245c58505d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/My%2BMoney/Story/A1Story20101108-246238.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963973 | 242 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Fri, Dec 05, 2008
First US Assembly Plant For Brazilian Planemaker
Embraer broke ground Thursday on its first US aircraft assembly
plant and customer center at Florida's Melbourne International
Airport. Present at the ceremony were Florida Governor Charlie
Crist, Melbourne City Mayor Harry Goode, and other distinguished
State and local officials manning ceremonial shovels, along with
Embraer President & CEO Frederico Fleury Curado.
The Brazilian planemaker tells ANN the new facility will be
dedicated to its executive jet business and is scheduled for
completion in 2010. When full capacity is reached, up to eight
Phenom business jets will be produced every month at the
The Melbourne plant will also become Embraer's Executive Jets
Customer Center for the configuration of the Phenom, Legacy and
Lineage jets. Customers will be able to design their executive
jet's interior with the use of high-end 3D visualization
technology, supported by a showroom with a vast collection of
interior finishing materials.
"Today's groundbreaking celebrates a milestone for Embraer, by
launching its first US assembly plant, devoted to the executive jet
business," said Frederico Fleury Curado, Embraer President and CEO.
"We are excited to begin building our Melbourne facility,
strengthening our presence in the great State of Florida, which
dates back to 1979."
"As Florida continues to emerge as a leader in the American
aviation industry, we're proud to celebrate this achievement for
our state, which is a big win in our economic development plan,"
added Crist. "The growth of Embraer in Florida demonstrates the
strength of our aviation sector and highly skilled workforce. I
congratulate everyone involved in advancing this project to where
we are today."
The 150,000-square-foot facility will house a final assembly
line capable of producing both the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300
executive jets, as well as a paint shop and a delivery and customer
Three-Eight Charlie If you know the name of the first woman to fly solo around the world, you’re ahead of most people. By the way, if you thought it was Amelia Earhart, you&r>[...]
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“We need a world-class system of weather prediction in the United States – one, as the National Academy of Sciences recently put it, that is ‘second to none'." So>[...]
Send Them A Story -- We Don't Mind! Do you need another set of eyes to see that story you can't believe Jim just wrote? Want to spread Hognose's unique wisdom and perspective to th>[...]
Cites 'Strong Record On Aviation Security' The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) has endorsed Congressman Ed Markey for the U.S. Senate, specifically noting his proven rec>[...] | <urn:uuid:b097fcaa-b183-4994-a7ce-1f3f2c6dee65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=d06c378c-9b12-4567-aee2-bc7f28652cfb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930182 | 637 | 1.671875 | 2 |
What it costs
Some of our employers will take an intern without charge, but most require a fee. This can range from £50 to £200 a day. See what each is offering, and make your choice.
This is different, we know, from other organisations that offer paid internships.
The fact is, most of our employers wouldn’t offer work experience unless they’re paid. So these opportunities don’t exist elsewhere.
While large employers can afford to take interns and devote staff time to them, this isn’t possible for the smaller business.
And in most cases our temporary assistants (our applicants) don’t bring enough skill and experience to make it worthwhile for the company.
So while it would be lovely to earn money as an intern, the reality is that to get experience in the smaller company, you’ll have to pay for it.
Graduates who pay £9,000 a year at a university may decide it’s worth paying the much smaller sums required to give them experience of working in a real business and getting high quality learning. | <urn:uuid:ba15b11d-74a2-4b8d-8e0d-70b019321e2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://etsio.com/cost.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944205 | 229 | 1.601563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — The credit rating on U.S. bonds may survive the debt-ceiling fiasco, but the president and speaker of the House, the two most powerful figures in American government, have already been downgraded.
Both leaders are trying to govern in a world that doesn’t exist. Barack Obama, who came to the White House as a unifying force at a perilous moment, is the sole occupant of the post-partisan utopia he conjured as a candidate — a land where reason is king and we all get along. He loves the center the way a kid loves ice cream. Too bad the center no longer exists in Washington, where the Republican opposition is openly determined to destroy Obama’s presidency.
By announcing his final position at the outset of debt negotiations, Obama thought he would compel the other side to reward him for his candor and conduct themselves in kind. How naive. If Obama tried to buy a car the way he bargained to get the debt ceiling raised, he would leave the lot paying more than the sticker price, GPS and satellite radio not included.
John Boehner is a capable, likable politician of the old school. He raises prodigious amounts of money for his members, pals around with lobbyist friends and leaves a trail of Camel Ultra Lights smoke in his wake. He expected to wield power in a traditional way; if not in the mode of congressional powerhouses like Sam Rayburn or Boehner’s idol from Ohio, Nicholas Longworth, then at least in the manner of former Republican House leaders Robert Michel or Dennis Hastert. Boehner wasn’t afraid to do business with Obama. When it mattered, his rambunctious troops would fall in line, either for the good of the country or for an invitation to the Speaker’s Room for pizza and a post office.
It didn’t play out that way. With earmarks an evil remnant of Congress’s past, a speaker doesn’t have much pork to deploy as bait to lure recalcitrant members to his side. And neither of these leaders seems to have reckoned just how far the tea party faction would go, or that its members would be deaf to concerns about debt ceilings, credit ratings or the potential for an economy crashing around their ears. The Republicans may have created the crisis, but its tea party wing produced the scary special effects.
As the deadline drew near, it was the tea party that controlled Speaker Boehner, not the other way around. They humiliated Boehner by forcing him to deep-six his grand bargain with Obama (besides having impermissible revenue increases, it didn’t force Obama to eat worms). Boehner withdrew his own bill when it became clear that he couldn’t muster a majority. Instead, the speaker pushed through a symbolic package intended to make the tea party feel good — large budget cuts topped with an absurd balanced-budget amendment. Hours later, the Senate killed it without serious debate.
With the clock ticking down on default and stock markets declining day after day, even stalwart Republicans began to sweat. The Wall Street Journal editorial page lashed out at tea party “hobbits” for standing in the way of a deal. The message from the tea party: Damn the default, full speed ahead. At a news conference last week, Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, acknowledged the hurt default could cause people but said it was a risk that she and other tea party activists were willing to take.
Like the Journal editorial board, Obama, too, came to believe the danger was real; after that, he yielded one concession after another. Shared sacrifice with cuts balanced by revenue increases? He let those go when Boehner couldn’t sell it to the anti-tax absolutists in his caucus. A threat to invoke the 14th Amendment to uphold the “validity of the public debt” and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling? Threats are not this president’s style.
Liberals were at first sympathetic to Obama, understanding that when one party is willing to scuttle the economy in order to get its way, the fight is asymmetric. Yet they grew increasingly alarmed to see the president approaching battle like a conscientious objector. Yes, he needed to show concern over out-of-control spending and the debt, $7 trillion of which was racked up under his predecessor. And he would have to endure some cuts. But his basic miscalculation was apparent back in December -- a comparatively innocent era -- when he said that he could trust Boehner to do the right thing on the debt ceiling because he now had “responsibilities to govern.”
Obama’s post-partisan reasonableness earned him his lowest job approval rating of 40 percent from Gallup last week. If the debt deal kills the shaky economic recovery, Obama’s re-election will probably be collateral damage. Meanwhile, Boehner is stuck with an extremist minority basking in a triumph that he didn’t shape. By dancing with disaster, they got their way. Good luck urging them to unlearn that lesson. If Boehner and Obama both seem diminished, squeezed into smaller roles, maybe it’s because the past weeks have proved there is even less room for reason in Washington than we thought.
MARGARET CARLSON is a Bloomberg View columnist. | <urn:uuid:fd655d7d-de81-4ae6-bca3-5f0c95cdaa15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brainerddispatch.com/opinion/columnists/2011-08-03/big-deal-shrinks-obama-boehner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96913 | 1,096 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Special needs student bullied by teachers
UNDATED -- A special needs student in Ohio was a victim of repeated bullying by her teachers and the family captured it all on tape.
Some days Cheyanne, 14, would tell her parents that she didn’t feel like going to school, but when her complaints became more frequent her family realized something wasn’t right.
Cheyanne, a special needs middle school student in Ohio, was bullied by her teacher, Christie Wilt, and classroom aide, Kelley Chaffins, according to her family.
Cheyanne’s family brought her complaints to the school, but they were told that the student was lying. It wasn’t until Cheyanne went to school with a hidden tape recorder that the family learned how bad the situation was.
The recording went as follows:
Chaffins: “Cheyanne, are you kidding me? Are you that damn dumb? You are that dumb? Oh my God. You are such a liar.”
Cheyanne: “I’m not lying.”
Chaffins: “You told me you don’t know. It’s no wonder you don’t have friends. No wonder nobody likes you because you lie, cheat…”
Cheyanne: “I don’t lie.”
When Cheyanne brought the recording home her father was disturbed.
“We’re listening to seven hours worth of stuff on this tape,” said Brian, Cheyanne’s father. “So we were up all night crying, upset, because we didn’t understand why. We didn’t understand why, why would they do this?”
The tapes recorded four days of verbal abuse by Wilt and Chaffins. In another recording, Cheyanne was told by her teacher that she failed a test -- before the teacher looked at it.
Cheyanne and her father appeared on the Today Show Tuesday. Cheyanne used one word to describe how she feels, “Sad.”
“She was doing things that -- starting to harm herself to keep from going to school. So we knew we had to do something at that point. We weren’t getting anywhere with the school,” said Brian.
Chaffins was asked to resign and Wilt was put on unpaid leave until at least the end of the school year.
(Copyright (c) 2011 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:46cdba5c-a9e3-431a-a8c4-a47e328c3564> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/12005907593956/special-needs-student-bullied-by-teachers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982735 | 546 | 1.5 | 2 |
RYAN HOMES Defects and Damages
<Previous 1 2 3 3.2 3.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 13.1 14 next>
|Dust /insulation on top of one of the stereo speakers located in primary living area. All the dust and sooting pictured occurred with (3) Honeywell HEPA air cleaners running at maximum airflow settings.|
Left: Sample of soot damage to
new curtain in a recently restored home.
The curtain pictured was near a ceiling fan. The (below) pictured carpet and curtains were less
than nine months old when photographed, as both were replaced in a prior remodeling effort
(Aug-November 1998) due
to previous soot damage from one found building error. The first repair did not fix
all the sources of soot, thus, when
we returned to using
heat for a brief period of time after the restoration, the soot damage returned destroying
months of work and thousands of dollars in remodeling efforts, paid for in part
by Allstate. Allstate denied a second claim when damages returned.
Note: A fan located at the base of the pictured stairs, used to improve poor air circulation between floors, caused this stairway to collect high levels of dust and soot in the forced air. | <urn:uuid:ca26b17f-5fc3-4915-8259-9a6534d5271c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ryanhomesnightmare.com/Ryan_page7.htm | 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 | 0.941993 | 273 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The Fulcrum DSP Philosophy – TQ™ Means Solving the Other Problem
In the past, the application of digital signal processing (DSP) to loudspeakers has been treated as a separate issue from the design of the loudspeakers themselves. A designer would do the best job he could on the design of the loudspeaker; then when he was done with the physical design, he would use DSP filters to improve performance.
At Fulcrum Acoustic, we see the DSP algorithms as being part of the loudspeaker design – and this is not just a semantic distinction. Rather than using DSP to mitigate the shortcomings in a finished design, we include DSP techniques in the design process from the very beginning.
All too often loudspeaker design has been a matter of compromise. As much as we loudspeaker designers would like our high frequency horns to have perfect coverage patterns, we have often settled for imperfect coverage in order to achieve aesthetically pleasing transient response. In the low to mid frequency range, we would love to harness the efficiency of folded horns, but we have settled for straight, exposed-cone horns because their better-damped transient response produces more natural sounding vocals. We would like every loudspeaker to have coaxially positioned sources, but we have found that some coaxial designs present unsolvable acoustical challenges or simply are not capable of producing acceptable sound quality.
The three examples given above are not random selections. Each one of these compromises represents a choice commonly faced by designers of professional loudspeaker systems. Each one of these compromises has already been encountered in the design of a Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeaker. And, each one was addressed with a non-traditional choice. Rather than choosing a compromise between two competing attributes, we physically optimize the attribute that cannot be addressed with DSP, and solve the other problem with DSP.
TQ™ – How Does It Work?
To explain how TQ works, let’s look at one of its most dramatic applications – elimination of horn reflections, the cause of a horn’s characteristic “honk”.
A signal applied to the terminals of a compression driver produces a wave front which courses through the compression driver phase plug and then progresses down the horn toward its mouth. When the wave front encounters a discontinuity in the expansion of the horn, some of the wave front’s energy is reflected back toward the throat of the horn. This reflected wave eventually arrives back at the compression driver diaphragm where it is reflected back down the horn yet again. This process repeats again and again, with a smaller amplitude in each successive repetition. The net result is that the sound resulting from the signal does not all reach the listener at the same time. Progressively smaller copies of the original signal arrive at progressively later times. The response of the system is said to suffer from time smear.
So, how can we eliminate this problem? The ideal solution is to design a horn that is non-reflective; but unfortunately, time smear is not the only problem we face as loudspeaker designers. It is relatively easy for a knowledgeable horn designer to make a non-reflective horn. But the horn may have to fit into a limited amount of baffle space; it may need to produce a well-behaved directional pattern over a broad bandwidth; it may need to be economically manufacturable. Satisfying these fundamental physical requirements may not be possible while also avoiding discontinuities in the area expansion. However, if we satisfy these fundamental requirements physically (those that cannot be solved by DSP), then we can treat the reflection as the other problem, and solve it with DSP.
This leads to the topic this section is meant to address: How can a reflection in a horn be eliminated using DSP? It does seem pretty incredible that a computer — namely a digital signal processor — can eliminate resonances in a physical system. But it is possible as long as the resonances happen consistently. As long as the response of the loudspeaker is consistent, it is possible to know in advance how the loudspeaker will respond to a particular signal. And given this knowledge, it is also possible to calculate a special new signal that doesn’t just avoid exciting the loudspeaker’s natural resonances; it actively kills these resonances before they become audible. Let’s look at how this works in the following example:
Eliminating Horn Reflections
The resonance in a horn is caused by an acoustical reflection. Now, nothing in the signal can prevent the initial acoustical reflection from occurring. However, the sound energy that was reflected can be prevented from reaching the listener. If, instead of a compression driver, the throat of the horn was coupled to a perfectly absorptive termination (imagine replacing the compression driver with a long tube stuffed with fiberglass), then the reflected wave would be completely absorbed, and the listener would never hear it. Of course, a compression driver is not nearly that absorptive. To be effective at producing high sound pressures, its diaphragm must be very rigid — so most of the energy in the reflected wave reflects off of it and courses back down the horn again.
Here’s where it gets interesting: with DSP we can imitate the condition that would occur if the return wave was completely absorbed. When a wave front encounters a perfectly absorptive termination, a very particular sound pressure occurs at the boundary. When it encounters a reflective termination, like a compression driver, a very different sound pressure occurs at that boundary. If however we supply a delayed and modified version of the original signal to the compression driver, then we can mimic the sound pressure that would occur if the compression driver were absorptive. If we do this precisely enough the compression driver diaphragm will have the same velocity that the air molecules would have had when they encountered an absorptive boundary. The sound pressure at the diaphragm will be the same as it would have been at an absorptive boundary. In fact, to the reflected wave, there is no difference between the compression driver and an absorptive boundary. In both cases, the returned wave is absorbed and the resonance is eliminated.
More To Come
That, of course, is but one example of how TQ can improve loudspeaker performance. It can also eliminate the coloration and spatial variability of compact coaxial systems, allow high-efficiency bass horns to cover the vocal range, and optimize the sound of compression drivers when they are driven hard. More applications will certainly be discovered, as we continue to develop the techniques and tools we use to implement temporal equalization — TQ.
View this paper in PDF format: | <urn:uuid:ba978417-e134-463f-ad0d-c25c4b74a32d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fulcrum-acoustic.com/technologies/tqstatement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95138 | 1,363 | 1.796875 | 2 |
WASHINGTON - The FBI is taking the threat of laser pointers being pointed at pilots seriously. So seriously they've recently launched a national initiative to crack down on the incidents.
The problem isn't anything new, but the incidents are on the rise. The FBI predicts that there will 3,700 incidents this year, compared to just 283 in 2005. That doesn't include the attacks that go unreported every year.
Pilots says these incidents aren't only distracting, they can actually cause temporary blindness.
Laser pointers are now cheaper, more powerful and easier to get.
That's why the FBI setup a Laser Strike Working Group National Initiative. The idea came from the FBI's Sacramento Division, which created a work group in 2008 and was a decrease of 75 percent in the number of incidents at Sacramento International Airport.
There are two federal statutes that a person who points a laser pointer at an aircraft can be prosecuted under - with a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. Though a newer, different law specifically about laser strikes has the maximum sentence set at five years, and the maximum fine at $11,000.
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(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
"Sulu" weighs in on the actor filling his shoes in the new "Star Trek."
Vegas's Neon Museum offers night tours of nightlife icons.
She can sing, but can she act? Jewel takes on a famous role.
The Nickelodeon star's antics continue in New York City. | <urn:uuid:6591b3e6-3b05-49aa-b1e3-b7b92a80ac02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/256/3068842/FBI-cracking-down-on-laser-pointer-attacks-on-aircraft?nid=1229 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958114 | 321 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The National Garden Bureau has announced several new varieties of flowers and vegetables for next season.
Let's take a brief look at some of these new introductions to our gardens. Most of the new varieties are hardy to northeast Ohio, however, some are annuals that we love to plant in between our perennial flowers and along our garden paths for brilliant summer blooms. New varieties for next year are all about color.
A new variety of Achillea (yarrow) called "Flowerburst Red Shades" is a blend of mostly red blossoms that also range from orange to purple. These plants have a slight fragrance.
Sweet Alyssum, a common bedding plant that is compact enough for front border edges and rock gardens, is one of the spring's earliest blooms. This plant is treated as an annual in our area, but is so colorful and easy to grow that few people can resist adding it to the garden. "Allure Mix" is a series of seven new shades and one mixed packet that are promised to bloom all at the same time. The seven new colors are bronze, deep purple, lavender, lemon yellow, pink, rose and white and the mixed packet is a variety of pastel shades.
I'm excited but skeptical about the new Dianthus (common name, "pinks"), that is being introduced called "Diana Blueberry." Touted as being the first blue Dianthus Chinensis, the variety is advertised as having 13 varying shades. The reason I am skeptical is because there are few true blue flowers in nature. Growers generally advertise as blue when in reality, the flowers are varying shades of lavender and purple. But perhaps blue is in the eye of the beholder. Test trials of "Diana Blueberry" from the University of Georgia's test gardens gave this plant a 3.75 rating at the end of the season. According to the UGA rating system, the highest rating is 5 indicating excellence and the lowest rating is 1, indicating almost dead. With a test rating of better than average, I would likely put "Diana Blueberry" in my garden, but I doubt I would call it blue.
I am always fascinated by the never-ending shades of Heuchera (common name, Coral Bells), that are developed each year and next season will be no exception. A variety will be available for purchase called "Melting Fire." Notable for its foliage rather than flowers, this particular Heuchera is advertised as having serrated leaf edges with ruffled margins that turn reddish burgundy in high light.
I am a Heuchera fan (my favorite is "Marmalade"), and I always try to put a few new varieties in my garden each year. Our hardiness zone 5 is the far edge this plant's limit, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to mulch the crown of this plant in winter months.
Morning glories (Ipomoea) have an interesting history and I won't go into it here other than to say hybridizers are always looking for new colors for this popular garden vine. A variety recently introduced, and I say recently because you may have already seen seed packets for this one, is called "Flying Saucers."
"Flying Saucers" is described as a mix of blue, white and a bicolor patterned with stripes or stars. While this description makes the flowers sound like a poor imitation of a flag, when stars are mentioned on a morning hlory, growers are referring to the center ring inside the blossom. Personally, I'm wondering if this mix isn't just a combination of "Heavenly Blue" and white with a bicolor thrown in for good measure.
Personally, I plan to look for an heirloom variety called "Sunrise Serenade" for my 2009 garden. This variety, once thought to be lost, was recently brought back into circulation. It has brilliant red blossoms with ruffled edges. If you can't find seeds in your garden centers, they are available online from various sources by typing the plant name and variety in your Web browser.
One last new variety that looked interesting to me was rudbeckia "Cherry Brandy." Rudbeckia, as most people are aware, is black-eyed Susan. This plant has enjoyed a renewed interest in the past 10 years and new cultivars are being introduced nearly every year to the delight of gardeners everywhere. "Cherry Brandy" is described as being the first red-flowered rudbeckia grown from seed. It produces 24-inch tall, bushy plants and is best displayed in large masses throughout the garden.
Flowers aren't the only new introductions from the National Garden Bureau. Vegetables are on the public watch list as well, and next week I'll be discussing what's new for next year's garden in that arena. Keep on reading.
Evanoff is a Master Gardener with The Ohio State University Extension of Trumbull County. She can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:75af9bab-33cc-4195-9bcb-d2dda54c1cca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/page/content.detail/id/511098/Some-new-plant-varieties-for-2009.html?nav=5137 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964133 | 1,045 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The theme for the latest edition of the Festival of Postcards (hosted by Evelyn at A Canadian Family) is “Locomotion”. I don’t think there are any postcards in my collection that sum this up better than the one below of Partridge Green railway station in Sussex.
There is no name of a photographer or publisher on this card, it was posted from Partridge Green on the 27th November 1907 and sent to a Miss B. Longhurst of Ashington, Sussex. Historic postcards of railway stations are eagerly collected and command high prices. I was lucky enough to get this one several years ago.
Partridge Green station was on the Horsham to Shoreham branch (or the Steyning Line as it was also known) of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. It was opened in 1861 and closed in 1966, and the route of the line now forms part of the bridleway linking the North Downs Way and the South Downs Way, known as the Downs Link and is one of my favourite places to walk.
I will give you a quick tour of the station before the train arrives. We are standing at the southern end of the northbound (or up) platform for trains to Horsham, with a small wooden shelter. To the right of that is via the footbridge linking the two platform. Behind the footbridge the road bridge can just be made out, this is the only part of the station that still remains, and even then it has been filled in and only one side remains visible.
On the other platform are passengers waiting for the down train (towards Brighton). Left to right from the footbridge we have the signal box, ticket office and waiting rooms, and the tall building is the station master’s house. To the right of those is the start of the goods yard and goods shed.
Anyway I must dash, I see the train is just coming in and I need to get across to the other platform or I will have to wait another hour. It looks like it’s going to be a busy train, I wonder where they are all going? | <urn:uuid:4b5e3d84-366c-4268-a371-841601d2ff80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wanderinggenealogist.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/festival-of-postcards-locomotion-partridge-green-station/?like=1&_wpnonce=268a98b8c4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974589 | 442 | 1.648438 | 2 |
And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
¶ When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul abode in Gib'e-ah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;)
then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;
that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.
And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
And the king said to Do'eg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Do'eg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. | <urn:uuid:c2b30dc3-79db-4082-874e-6337d433c1bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bartleby.com/108/09/22.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987714 | 453 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Members of the Calhoun County Hazmat team, an all-volunteer organization, gathered at the county’s Emergency Management headquarters for their first meeting and drills of the year.
“Work safer, work smarter,” Fran Byrd told the group in the parking lot as they practiced setting up and taking down a decontamination tent complete with propane-powered heater and water supply.
“It’s like a car wash for people,” said team commander Bob Heintzelman, an instructor at the Center for Domestic Preparedness with years of hazardous materials experience. The tent is used like an assembly-line shower to clean off any potentially hazardous materials on people who could be exposed to them at the scene of a spill or other incident.
One member jotted notes on a small pad as Byrd reminded the volunteers to keep power lines and water supplies as far apart as possible and to minimize the distance between the heater and the tent to keep warm air from cooling as it traveled through collapsible air ducts. Once the setup was complete, the volunteers worked as a unit to efficiently deflate, fold and store the tent.
Saturday’s drill was about proficiency, said Byrd, a founding member and former commander of the team. “When you have several people around who are or think they are contaminated, naturally they want to be treated as quickly as possible,” he said. “So we train to where we can quickly set the system up with everything that’s needed and there’s no lag in getting people treated.”
According to Heintzelman, the county’s team is the only unfunded all-volunteer response team in the state. Jonathan Gaddy, director of Calhoun County’s Emergency Management Agency, got his start as a member of the hazmat team while a student at Jacksonville State University. He said his four-person department relies heavily on volunteers such as the hazardous materials team as “boots on the ground” in emergency situations. Local first responders can call hazmat team volunteers to a scene through the EMA, and often, Gaddy said, “an average citizen may not know they’re dealing with a volunteers.”
While the team does receive the occasional grant, its only real funding comes from reimbursement for its expenses from parties responsible for hazardous materials spills, Byrd said.
Captain Claudia Davis said the team’s funds are supplemented by small fundraisers such as yard sales and selling concessions at the Jacksonville Christmas parade.
The expense of keeping an active hazardous materials team is something many local agencies can’t maintain.
Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sparks said his department has a great working relationship with the county’s hazardous materials team and relies on its members to respond to incidents in his jurisdiction. “It’s just one of the functions that not every department is going to have the hazmat equipment because it’s not something you use every day,” he said.
The Anniston Fire Department is the only other agency with a full hazardous materials team in the county. Representatives of the department were not available to speak about the team on Friday.
For Sparks, who has a major shipping route running through his city, these relationships are key.
“I-20 is our most dangerous place because you don’t know what’s in any of those tractor trailers until it happens,” he said. A pesticide-related wreck on the interstate in 1990 is what initially inspired Byrd and other to form the county’s team after it took state troopers hours to gather up a team and fly them to the site via helicopter. And the team’s most recent call involved cleaning up a diesel spill on the interstate on Dec. 17.
Diesel and other petroleum products are the most common types of cleanup undertaken by the team, which typically gets called out to an average of 10-12 incidents per year, Byrd said. The team has a full complement of about 20 members, many with backgrounds in hazardous materials as civilians or through the military, and all are on call 24 hours a day if they are in town, Heintzelman said.
Davis said new members have to undergo a background check and then be voted in by the entire membership of the team. In the six-month probationary period, new members must undergo a certain amount of basic training before becoming a full-fledged member.
Carol McCormick joined the team in 2001. Retired from the U.S. Army, she has experience with military programs involving biological weapons detection as well as chemical, explosive, radiological and nuclear materials.
“When the call comes in at 12 or 1 o’clock in the morning, the first thing I go is ‘Oh no, not again,’” she said, laughing. But at the same time, McCormick remembers she is responding to aid her own community, and the late-night calls are worth it, she said, “if I can make a difference, one person at a time and then with a team, as we continue to ensure that our community is safe from hazardous materials spills or whatever the incident might bring.”
Staff writer Paige Rentz: 256-235-3564. On Twitter @PRentz_Star. | <urn:uuid:5cb3e9f4-1a7f-4258-9caf-952a90ad1c43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/21326268/article-County-cleanup-team-drills-in-the-new-year-?instance=2nd_right | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9696 | 1,104 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Press Release 12-094
New Leadership Team Elected for the National Science Board
Arvizu and Droegemeier to guide the NSB for the next two years; Lineberger to serve on Executive Committee
May 17, 2012
At its May 2012 meeting, the National Science Board (NSB) elected Dan Arvizu as its new chairman, Kelvin Droegemeier as vice-chairman, and Carl Lineberger to serve on the NSB's Executive Committee.
Arvizu is director of the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. He was appointed to the Board in 2004 by President George W. Bush and was renominated by President Barack Obama after his initial six-year term ended. During his first term on the Board, Arvizu chaired the Audit and Oversight Committee and co-chaired the NSB Task Force on Sustainable Energy.
Arvizu has received numerous honors for his work. He was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference Hall of Fame in 2008 and was named the Hispanic Scientist of the year in 2010 by the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Fla. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
"I am deeply honored to be selected by my peers as Chairman of the National Science Board," Arvizu said. "The board plays a vital role in setting national science policy, and in promoting science, technology, engineering and math education."
Droegemeier is Vice President for Research, Regents' Professor of Meteorology, Weathernews Chair Emeritus, and Roger and Sherry Teigen Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Droegemeier's research involves the dynamics and predictability of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Droegemeier was appointed to the National Science Board in 2004 and reappointed in 2011. During his time on the Board, Droegemeier has chaired the Committee on Programs and Plans, chaired the Task Force on Cost Sharing, and co-chaired the Mid-Scale Research Task Force and the Task Force on Hurricane Science and Engineering.
He has chaired the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, serves on the NRC Board on Research Data and Definition, and serves on a numbers of other boards, including the Council on Governmental Relations. He earned a B.S. degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Board also elected W. Carl Lineberger to serve on its Executive Committee. Lineberger is the E.U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. His work is primarily experimental, using a wide variety of laser based techniques to study structure and reactivity of gas phase ions. Lineberger has published 250 papers in major scientific journals, and his graduate students and postdoctoral associates hold major research-related positions throughout the world.
Dr. Lineberger, appointed to the Board in 2011, currently serves on the National Research Council (NRC) Report Review Committee. He has previously chaired the NSF Advisory Committees on Mathematical and Physical Sciences and on the Science and Technology Centers. He recently completed service on the NAS Council, the NAS/NRC Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, the NRC Governing Board, and the DOE Committee on New Science for a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future. Lineberger received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The NSB is made up of 25 Members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The NSF Director is an ex officio Member. Members serve six-year terms. With the exception of the NSF Director, one-third of the Board is appointed every two years. NSB Members are drawn from industry and universities, and represent a variety of science and engineering disciplines and geographic areas. The NSB is apolitical. The NSF Act of 1950, as amended, states that nominees to the "Board (1) shall be eminent in the fields of the basic, medical, or social sciences, engineering, agriculture, education, research management or public affairs; (2) shall be selected solely on the basis of established records of distinguished service; and (3) shall be so selected as to provide representation of the views of scientific and engineering leaders in all areas of the Nation."
Maria C. Zacharias, NSF (703) 292-8454 email@example.com
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget was $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/ | <urn:uuid:b20a7fc4-9b06-4695-8522-f9585eb9b84a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124253&org=NSF&from=news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94744 | 1,178 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Olympics are on at the moment and as a coach, I am really seeing the input coaches have in the lives of their clients. Now there is no better time to examine coaches! A coach can see where your holes are. See when you aren’t performing at peak. Inspire you to take action and pull you up if you don’t. They can provide creative ways to solve issues when you are stuck and celebrate your successes.
An Olympic Athlete has more than one coach usually – they have one who is an expert at their sport to critique their physical body and they also have a coach who works with their mental, emotional, energetic side of life. They work through blocks about success, figure out what their goals are and set steps to achieve them. A coach will encourage you to reach for more than you thought was possible and then help you believe it.
For us less physical Olympians of life, a coach is still necessary for optimal achievement, success and satisfaction. Sports stars are often seen as heroes because they are achieving their dreams. So why treat yourself any differently? I have looked into the lives of many successful people and they all have coaches. Even my coach has her own coach! It’s catching on so it is time to get in on the ball game.
So what are you looking for in a coach and what can you expect them to do? Here’s the downlow. A good coach will:
1. Help you achieve success in a specific area of their expertise (I help women deal with stuckness, not achieving results they desire, disorganization, lifestyle design and brain clutter F.Y.I).
2. Talk and listen to your specific problems and come up with something to sort it out. They may get you to set goals, do a visualization, write lists, ask pressing questions to get to the deep and the dark, brainstorm, and heaps more.
3. Challenge you and get you to stretch beyond what you are comfortable with. In order to get dream results you have to spring clean all that murky mess going on first.
4. Get you results. However you gotta do your own hustling too. It’s a two way street you do your bit and coach does theirs.
A good COACH should:
1. Walk their talk. If a coach believes in coaching so much they should have one too right?
2. Be further ahead of you. If your coach is not challenging you and your at a similar achievement and income level it’s time to move up! | <urn:uuid:173f35b1-1cca-4881-8429-236c4b5e8395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rebeccahulse.com/what-top-coaches-actually-look-like | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97655 | 527 | 1.75 | 2 |
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