text stringlengths 211 577k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 371 | file_path stringclasses 644 values | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.93 1 | token_count int64 54 121k | score float64 1.5 1.84 | int_score int64 2 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
THE USHWGA: Is the National women trade association representing the retail and wholesale grocers that comprises the independent sector of the chain food distribution. An independent retailer is a privately owned or controlled food retail company operating in a variety of formats. Most independent operators are serviced by a wholesale distributor, while others are employee owned. Independent grocers are the true “entrepreneurs” of the grocery industry and dedicated to their customers, associates, and communities. USHWGA members include retail, wholesale grocers, producers, food manufacturing, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy set up, logistics and transportation, services suppliers and State grocers associations.
Our Organization runs on membership dues and independent donations... please consider contributing financially. | <urn:uuid:ad134150-e79b-4e4a-99dc-fa9585ab723c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hwga.us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940121 | 146 | 1.625 | 2 |
Exit polls 2012: Mitt Romney favors rich
Voters think Mitt Romney favors the wealthy, while President Obama’s policies are more likely to help the middle class, according to early exit polling released Tuesday evening.Continue Reading
Forty-three percent of those surveyed said Obama’s policies favor the middle class, compared with 10 percent who said they favor the rich, and 31 percent who said his policies favor the poor.
For Romney, those numbers were flipped: 36 percent said his policies would favor the middle class, compared with 52 percent who said they’d favor the rich and just 2 percent who said Romney’s policies would favor the poor.
Both campaigns have focused on the middle class throughout the general election, and much of the Obama campaign’s advertising argued that Romney would hurt the middle class and provide tax cuts for the rich. | <urn:uuid:d752c8e5-5711-4976-a887-730b6d29de54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83425.html?hp=l4_b7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972112 | 176 | 1.523438 | 2 |
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea may have moved the first stage of a long-range rocket on to its launch pad, ahead of its possible lift-off next week, according to a U.S. specialist website.
The website 38 North, which covers the ostracized nation, said an April 4 photo of the launch site at Tongchang-ri in the country’s northwest indicated the first stage of the Unha-3 rocket, while not visible, may be placed in the gantry.
The impoverished communist state says its rocket will put a peaceful satellite into orbit but the United States, South Korea and other nations see it as a pretext for a long-range missile test banned by the United Nations.
The website said that commercial satellite photographs reveal the gantry’s work platform is now covered and closed around the mobile launch stand, indicating work is being conducted inside.
While this makes it impossible to determine whether the Unha-3 rocket or any part of it is erected on the pad, evidence suggests that the first stage has been placed as an expected launch nears, 38 North said.
Recent fuelling activity seems to have been completed, with most of the empty fuel and oxidizer tanks apparently having been removed from buildings that supply the first stage, it said.
Security has also been tightened with a barricade or security checkpoint set up for vehicles entering from the west, the only road to the launch pad from other main facilities at the range.
The launch pad itself has been cleared, with objects previously seen near the gantry now removed, it said.
The website, however, did not publish the satellite photos obtained from Geoeye on April 4. The satellite provider subsequently withdrew those pictures from its public catalogue and asked that they not be published, it said.
North Korea is preparing mass celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary on April 15 of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s first and “eternal” president and founder of the dynasty that has ruled uninterrupted since 1948.
A successful satellite launch would burnish the image of his grandson Kim Jong Un as he seeks to establish his credentials as a strong leader. | <urn:uuid:6948384f-6933-4faa-8389-b6c62084dfb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120407/DEFREG03/304070003/N-Korea-Preparing-Missile-Launch-Security-Website | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973147 | 448 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Adjusting defense efficiency by the quality of pitchingby Matt Swartz
December 15, 2011
Fausto Carmona throws a hard sinker on the outside corner, but Ichiro Suzuki turns it into a well-struck ground ball by going the other way, splitting the defenders on the left side of the diamond. We know who should get credit for the single on the Mariners' side of the box score—there was only one guy with a bat. But who on the Indians will take the blame for the single? Is it Carmona who made the pitch, or the defenders who could not get to the ball fast enough?
Bill James invented Defensive Efficiency, measuring the percentage of balls in play that a defense turns into outs. It became apparent just how useful this would be for evaluation of team defense when Voros McCracken famously concluded that, "There is little if any difference among major-league pitchers in their ability to prevent hits on balls hit in the field of play." A natural corollary to this thesis says that to measure team defense, one should use Defensive Efficiency rate.
However, since McCracken’s original thesis, the community has determined with certainty that while there is little difference between pitchers, there definitely are some major "little" differences. Following on work by J.C. Bradbury and others, I have shown that a pitcher’s ability to control the number of hits he surrenders on balls in play is well correlated with strikeout rate, walk rate and ground ball rate, the so-called “DIPS” (Defense Independent Pitching Statistics) that are not determined by the defense behind a pitcher. In fact, a pitcher’s BABIP in a given season correlates more with his DIPS the previous season than with his BABIP the previous season. In other words, DIPS predicts BABIP better than BABIP itself does.
As I close in on how to measure a pitcher’s ability to control BABIP without actually using what happened on balls in play, I have realized that I can actually see how much of team defensive efficiency is the fault of hurlers. It turns out that a large portion of defensive efficiency is pitching after all. I have shown the following to be true:
A) Pitchers who strike more hitters out give up fewer hits on balls in play.
B) Pitchers who induce fewer ground balls give up fewer hits on balls in play.
C) Pitchers who walk fewer hitters give up fewer hits on balls in play.
Using this information, I have found that the variance in BABIP among starting pitchers who pitch over 150 innings can be attributed approximately as follows:
A) 12 percent pitching skill
B) 13 percent team defense skill
C) 75 percent luck
Of the fraction that pitchers do control, you can predict about 10.4 of those 12 percent using DIPS. Yes, pitchers do exhibit some control over their BABIP, but in an entirely estimate-able way. I think this passes the smell test, too, because if I try to imagine a pitcher who you expect to limit hits on balls in play, I picture one who fools hitters into whiffing a lot too, or perhaps one who pops a lot of hitters up.
One of the most underrated aspects of SIERA is that it implicitly computes an “Expected BABIP,” by using regression techniques. Since it looks directly at expected ERA, conditional on strikeout rate, ground ball rate, and walk rate, it does not directly compute the effect of a strikeout on ERA; instead, it computes what pitchers’ ERAs will look like given their strikeout rate (and holding everything else constant). Thus, SIERA expects high-strikeout pitchers to have low BABIPs, and makes similar adjustments for ground ball rate and walk rate as well.
As I considered how individual pitchers' DIPS correlate with expected BABIP recently, I realized that there are considerable differences among whole teams in their strikeout and ground ball rates. The 2010 Giants struck out 21.6 percent of hitters faced; the 2006 Royals struck out only 14.1 percent and unsurprisingly had a team BABIP that was 24 points higher than the 2010 Giants.
Putting this all together, I found that the variance in team defensive efficiency can be attributed roughly as follows:
A) 48 percent team defensive skill
B) 40 percent luck
C) 12 percent pitching skill
With about 4,350 balls in play per team per year, you get rid of most of the luck, so this number shrinks to just 40 percent, and of course, team defense still explains BABIP better than anything else does. However, a very large part (12 percent) of keeping a batted ball from resulting in a hit is pitching. (Put in a mathematically equivalent but different way, there is a .37 correlation between a team’s Expected BABIP based on its pitching peripherals and its actual BABIP.)
To study this more objectively, I redefined “BABIP” to include errors, and ran a regression on all individual pitchers in the majors in 2002-2011 with 80 balls in play or more, weighted by balls in play, and using net ground ball rate ((GB-FB)/PA), strikeout rate, walk rate, all of their squares and interactions, dummy variables for season, and pitcher starter/relief role.
Then I simply applied this to each individual’s pitching statistics, and came up with an expected number of batters reached per ball in play with neutral defense and luck. Then I used that to develop an expected "BABIP" (with errors) for each team.
The lowest expected team BABIP (relative to the rest of their league) belonged to the 2002 Twins, with just a .299 expected rate of reaching on balls in play, below the league average of .307. The actual Twins allowed a .297 BABIP, which means that they were good defensively and also good at pitching, resulting in particularly few hits.
The highest expected team BABIP (relative to the rest of the league) belonged to the 2007 Blue Jays, who had a .321 expected BABIP, as compared with a .316 league average that year. The actual 2007 Jays’ BABIP was a very low .297. Their defense was actually fantastic, and their pitching made it harder and cost them the league best BABIP. Relative to their expected BABIP, their 19-point lower actual BABIP was the best in the league, but they finished millimeters behind the Red Sox. However, the Red Sox had pitchers with more strikeouts and lower ground ball rates, and their defense had a much easier battle to make outs.
Overall, there is pretty high year-to-year correlation in a team’s expected BABIP, .47, which is not so shocking since teams generally do not turn over most of their pitching staff in an offseason. This highlights the fact that one cannot look at aggregate numbers over a longer period of time to determine how teams play defense, hoping other factors will wash out; a defense can look bad for several years, when the pitchers should actually shoulder the blame.
Below I list teams by their 2011 ranking in “adjusted BABIP.” This is done by taking their actual BABIP (again, including errors as hits), and adjusting it for their expected BABIP based on their pitchers relative to the league BABIP. I also include the team’s ranking by actual BABIP surrendered, for comparison.
Of particular note is the Giants, who would have been 10th overall in BABIP, thanks to a somewhat wild pitching staff that was rather groundball prone, but still managed to make a lot of outs. Relative to the high BABIP that would have been expected given their pitching staff, the Giants actually appeared to have the fifth best defense at recording outs per ball in play.
Hurlers like Tim Lincecum, Matt CainJonathan Sanchez simply do not allow hitters to get good wood on the ball, and as a result, the defenders behind them look strong behind them when batters do make contact. On the other hand, the Diamondbacks were ranked above the Giants, at seventh, using BABIP alone, but their high-flyball stuff actually requires an adjustment to bump them down to 10th. (Again, recall that BABIP here includes ROE as hits.)
For all of the rankings for 2002 through 2011, see this Google Doc.
There are a number of interesting examples of teams whose defensive efficiency can be reinterpreted based on their pitching stats. The following table gives my favorite examples of teams re-interpreted using this method, some of which I describe below.
The 2010 Giants were actually on the other end of the spectrum than the 2011 Giants. They had a similar high strikeout rate and walk rate, but their groundball rate was much lower, making their expected number of outs much higher, since fly balls are easier to catch.
This was partly due to Matt Cain’s groundball rate going up from 36.2 to 41.7 percent. It was also due to replacing Barry Zito’s 33 starts with a 36.1 percent groundball rate in 2010, with just nine Barry Zito starts at a 39.8 percent groundball rate in 2011, and 45.6 percent ground balls in Ryan Vogelsong’s 28 starts in 2011. They also got 15 more starts out of Madison Bumgarner, whose groundball rate was 45.1 percent in 2010 and 46.0 percent in 2011, instead of Todd Wellemeyer’s 33.5 percent groundball rate in 11 starts as they received in 2010.
In both seasons, the Giants had fantastic strikeout rates that we know correlate with less hittable pitches, and more catchable balls in play, but the groundball rate was very different in 2010 and 2011.
The 2003 Mariners were an interesting story of run prevention. A large part of their league-leading defensive efficiency was fantastic defense. They had an outfield of Ichiro Suzuki in eight (21.1 UZR), Mike Cameron in center (19.6 UZR), and Randy Winn in left (4.3 UZR), combined with an infield that featured John Olerud at first base (11.0 UZR), Bret Boone at second (10.4 UZR).
But they also had an excellent flyball staff that kept the ball catchable in the first place. Jamie Moyer had 215 innings pitched with only a 38.3 percent groundball rate, Freddy Garcia had a 41 percent groundball rate in 201.1 innings, Gil Meche had a 36.8 percent groundball rate in 186.1 innings, and Ryan Franklin had a 34.3 percent groundball rate in 212 innings. The only starter who was not particularly flyball prone was Joel Pineiro, who had only a 45.4 percent groundball rate himself.
None of these starters were particularly good at missing bats, but their extreme flyball tendencies made up the difference. When combined with their fantastic defense, the 2003 Mariners were fantastic at making outs.
The 2007 Rangers relied on their 46.5 percent groundball rate to keep opponents from scoring, which has the side effect of permitting a lot of singles. On the down side, they struck out only 15.3 percent of hitters faced. As a result, they were 22nd in the league in preventing hits on balls in play.
However, they would have been 17th if they had an average staff in terms of BABIP skill. Pitchers like Kameron Loe, Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla contributed to the high groundball numbers without striking enough hitters out to shorten swings and reduce BABIP.
The Nationals trailed the league at striking hitters out in 2009, whiffing only 14.3 percent of hitters. Unsurprisingly, the Nationals were 24th in defensive efficiency in 2009, but they would have been right near the middle at 19th if you adjust for their staff. John Lannan, Craig Stammen and Shairon Martis are hittable in all the ways you would expect—they do not strike hitters out and hitters make better contact with the ball as well.
The Indians took away the dubious crown for worst strikeout staff in the league in 2010 from the Nationals, and they allowed a lot of hits too. Their defensive efficiency was .316, definitely below average, but their pitching numbers suggest that it should have been .310 anyway, reapportioning most of the blame from the defense to the pitchers.
Disentangling credit between pitching and defense appeared to take a great step forward with McCracken’s discovery about pitcher BABIP control (or lack thereof), and this is assuredly one of the most important findings of sabermetrics. However, as analysts collectively step back from the extreme position that a pitcher should never be blamed or credited for his BABIP, we should also reinterpret team defensive rankings as well. A full 12 percent of variance in team defensive efficiency is directly attributable to pitching. As we always knew, there are many factors in play once the ball hits the bat.
Matt Swartz finished his Ph.D. in Economics at Penn in 2009, and now applies his degree to the serious topic of baseball. Matt also writes regularly for FanGraphs, and has published at MLB Trade Rumors and Baseball Prospectus. He can be reached at matthewTswartz at gmail, or on Twitter @Matt_Swa. | <urn:uuid:fedaea60-d351-41a1-bbf6-7d3c72e53304> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/adjusting-defense-efficiency-by-the-quality-of-pitching/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972182 | 2,783 | 1.664063 | 2 |
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it. Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing. While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991. Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving. For an Administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure.
Much of the blame for the weakness belongs to Rice and her habitual silence. Rice has not conducted the hard negotiations nor done the sometimes unpopular work of engaging the UN on the United States’ priority issues. When Rice does attend UN negotiations, she is all too willing to avoid confrontation. While other foreign Ambassadors speak fondly of Rice and the Obama Administration’s easy ways, they have been weak negotiators for the American people.
This lack of American leadership at the UN has resulted in the general Security Council inactivity spotlighted in the study by the Columbia University-affiliated group – Security Council Report.
The Report says:
“In 2009 the total number of Council decisions (resolutions and presidential statements) decreased by 26 percent from 2008. The number dropped from 113 to 83, the lowest level since 1991.
Resolutions dropped from 65 to 48 and presidential statements from 48 to 35.
This significant trend is also mirrored in a matching reduction in formal Council activity. The number of formal Council meetings decreased by 20 percent, from 243 to 194.
The number of press statements, which is one indicator of Council decision making at the informal level, also decreased by 23 percent, from 47 to 36.”
While Rice launched her tenure at the UN with a glamour spread in Vogue Magazine by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz showing her kicking back in an empty Security Council Chamber, she seems to not enjoy the Chamber when it’s full of diplomats. During the Haiti crisis, Rice was not only absent from the Security Council vote to expand the UN’s peacekeeping operation, but she also failed to call an emergency meeting in the immediate aftermath to request more help. In fact, 7 days after the Haiti earthquake left tens of thousands of people in the streets without food or shelter, it was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that came to the Security Council to request more troops – the American Ambassador hadn’t bothered.
Earlier this summer, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Israel’s raid of a ship headed to Gaza — and the United States was represented by the deputy at the US Mission. Reporters, UN members and activists were mystified as to why Susan Rice was a no-show during the roughly 12-hour negotiations which left Israel fending off global criticism without the top American diplomat to help. The UN Security Council ultimately issued a statement on the situation in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 1, after starting deliberations on Monday, May 31 – the American Memorial Day holiday. Rice never showed up for any of the meetings. Coming on the heels of Rice’s silence and absence from the meeting where Iran was elected to the UN Women’s committee and Rice’s refusal to call out Libya after it was elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, Rice’s performance is leaving Americans wondering if she really wants to be the American Ambassador to the UN.
More than 30 human rights organizations appealed to Rice before the crucial Human Rights Council membership vote in an effort to get her to find another country to run against Libya. The activists pleaded, “This contravenes the 2006 promise that the reformed Council would bring competitive elections, and sets a poor example.” The groups urged Rice to do something. But Rice ignored the human rights leaders’ appeal and didn’t try to make a competitive race for Libya. Rice didn’t speak up to highlight the problem, didn’t try to find another candidate and couldn’t utter Libya’s name to condemn Libya’s successful election after the vote.
Rice‘s avoidance of tough negotiations on matters important to America is unfortunate, but her lack of engagement on UN budget reform is shameful. U.S. citizens pay 22% of the UN’s regular budget, 26% of the UN Peacekeeping Budget and give millions more in voluntary contributions to a plethora of other UN programs. They deserve an ambassador who doesn’t duck a messy public fight with other countries looking to spend American taxpayers’ dollars.
But perhaps the Rice’s most astonishing failure was that she only was able to get 12 of the 15 countries on the United Nations Security Council to vote for increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. On Fox News Sunday, Rice jumped to defend the Obama Administration’s lackluster performance by claiming that Iran resolutions were not unanimous during the Bush Administration and that there were “abstentions”.
Her strategy to minimize the Bush team’s performance in order to make her own poor performance look better isn’t factual. The vote was the first Iran resolution for the Obama team but not the first time the Security Council pressured the government of Iran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing activity. President George W. Bush and his team wrote, negotiated and forced a vote of the 15 nations that sit on the Council a total of five times. Three Iran resolutions under Bush passed unanimously. Two other resolutions passed with only one country voting against sanctions and one country abstaining (singular abstention, not plural as Rice claimed).
After so much hype about President Barack Obama’s foreign policy engagement strategy, the UN resolution was remarkably weak, took too long to get and received less support than Bush’s team’s. Bush lost two countries’ support in five Iran resolutions; Obama’s team led by Rice lost three countries’ support in one resolution. It’s ironic that the Obama team labeled the Bush team devoid of friends around the world. Obama’s foreign policy weakness and acquiescence has made him an international celebrity guest, but it isn’t producing the promised results on U.S. foreign policy priorities. The Obama team’s poor performance calls into question its overly diplomatic strategy to lead the world through excessive talk.
Rice has gambled this past year that keeping America unengaged at the UN is the best way to keep the Obama Administration, and herself, popular with other countries. But while the newly released report suggests that the Security Council has been cordial and pleasant in 2009, the number of crisis situations, international conflicts and peacekeeping operations haven’t decreased. No meaningful improvement has been seen to the international issues monitored by the Security Council; in fact, the study suggests that some situations have gotten worse. Without American leadership at the UN, countries just continue to talk and socialize at the U.S. taxpayer’s expense.
The facts show that the Bush style that Obama routinely ridiculed and derided produced better results than his exaggerated diplomacy has achieved. If you are comfortable living in a world where America has no more influence than China, then you may like Obama’s softer, quieter, weaker America. Iran certainly loves the breathing room they got from Rice waiting 17 months before increasing the pressure on their illegal nuclear weapons program. And allies like Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon now find it easy to ignore Obama. It isn’t popular to say, but the world needs a strong America. The world needs an America that leads our allies and isn’t troubled by certain charges of hubris from elites on the Upper East Side of New York City or in capitals around the world. One thing is clear – Obama’s easy professorial attitude isn’t winning us votes. | <urn:uuid:1861743c-f20b-467a-9273-a3433d73c8ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://richardgrenell.com/tag/ban-ki-moon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95794 | 1,734 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
- Dr. Paul Booth, DePaul University – Cultural Meaning of Doctor Who
- Where Did That Fried Chicken Stereotype Come From?
- Dr. Frank Elgar, McGill University – Psychological Health and Family Meals
- NY AG Breaks Cigarette Trafficking Ring, Hints Terror Ties
- Complaints Voiced At Forum About VA Claims Backlog
Wed May 9, 2012
Cyber Briefings 'Scare The Bejeezus' Out Of CEOs
Originally published on Wed May 9, 2012 9:02 pm
For the CEOs of companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, talk of cyberweapons and cyberwar could have been abstract. But at a classified security briefing in spring 2010, it suddenly became quite real.
"We can turn your computer into a brick," U.S. officials told the startled executives, according to a participant in the meeting.
The warning came during a discussion of emerging cyberthreats at a secret session hosted by the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, along with Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command.
The meeting was part of a public-private partnership dubbed the "Enduring Security Framework" that was launched at the end of 2008. The initiative brings chief executives from top technology and defense companies to Washington, D.C., two or three times a year for classified briefings. The purpose is to share information about the latest developments in cyberwarfare capabilities, highlighting the cyberweapons that could be used against the executives' own companies.
"We scare the bejeezus out of them," says one U.S. government participant.
The hope is that the executives, who are given a special one-day, top-secret security clearance, will go back to their companies and order steps to deal with the vulnerabilities that have been pointed out.
"I personally know of one CEO for whom it was a life-changing experience," says Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer for Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm. "Gen. Alexander sat him down and told him what was going on. This particular CEO, in my opinion, should have known [about the cyberthreats] but did not, and now it has colored everything about the way he thinks about this problem."
The Virtual Tools Of War
Among the computer attack tools discussed during the briefings are some of the cyberweapons developed by the National Security Agency and the Cyber Command for use against U.S. adversaries. Military and intelligence officials are normally loath to discuss U.S. offensive cybercapabilities, but the CEOs have been cleared for some information out of a concern that they need to know what's possible in the fast-evolving world of cyberwarfare.
Alexander himself hinted at the rationale for the briefings during testimony in March, before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"When we see what our folks are capable of doing, we need to look back and say, 'There are other smart people out there that can do things to this country,' " Alexander said. "We need to look at that and say, 'How are we going to defend [against them]?' "
The fear is that cyberweapons developed by the U.S. military could at some point fall into enemy hands and be turned against a U.S. target.
"There are nation-states, to include the United States, who are building cybertools to prevail in a ... disagreement," Mike McConnell, the former U.S. director of national intelligence, said during a recent cybersecurity conference hosted by Bloomberg. "The worry is, what happens when some of those tools, and there are thousands of them, get released inadvertently, or somebody steals [them] to sell to a terrorist group?"
The 2010 revelation that U.S. cyberwarriors could turn a computer into a "brick" stemmed from research into a design flaw in U.S. computers, according to several sources. It was determined that an adversary could conceivably update computer firmware — the low-level software that dictates how the hardware works — to make the machine useless.
Computer manufacturers had known about the firmware design issue previously, but they had not realized it would be possible for an adversary to exploit the flaw by actually getting into the machine and destroying it.
The manufacturers subsequently ordered a reconfiguration of their computers to fix the flaw, and no damage was done. But two participants in the 2010 meeting say the CEOs were sobered by what they learned there.
Need To Work Together
To government and industry officials alike, such incidents underscore the importance of public-private partnership in the effort to address cyberthreats. But the Enduring Security Framework collaboration remains limited to a select few executives, and much threat information remains secret.
"That's the policy dilemma," McConnell said during the Bloomberg cybersecurity conference. "How do we establish a regime where that information can be shared with corporate America at the unclassified level in real time?"
Proposals to promote greater information sharing between government and industry are a key part of new cybersecurity legislation being considered on Capitol Hill.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
On MORNING EDITION this week, we're looking at preparations in the United States for a possible cyberattack against key computer networks. Security experts say if an all-out cyberwar broke out today, the U.S. would be vulnerable, and here's one problem: The government knows the most about what weapons might be used, but it is the private sector that's most likely to be targeted. As NPR's Tom Gjelten reports, the two sides need to talk.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: Cybersecurity has become an urgent priority, partly because there's a cyberarms race going on right now. The United States, its allies and its adversaries are all developing evermore sophisticated computer weapons. The U.S. military has its own cyber command, headed by Army General Keith Alexander. He knows as much as anyone about the computer weapons being developed on the U.S. side. And at a Senate hearing in March, he guessed other countries are not far behind.
GENERAL KEITH ALEXANDER: When we see what our folks are capable of doing, we need to look back and say: There are other smart people out there that can do things to this country. We need to look at that and say: How are we going to defend?
GJELTEN: After all, if the U.S. military develops an especially lethal computer weapon, someone else could, too. Here's Mike McConnell, a former U.S. director of national intelligence.
MIKE MCCONNELL: There are nation-states, to include the United States, who are building cybertools to prevail on a disagreement. The worry is what happens when some of those tools - and there are thousands of them - get released inadvertently. Or it's - somebody steals it to sell to a terrorist group, somebody who has a different view of the world order and wants to change things.
GJELTEN: So, if the people defending U.S. computer networks are to be well-prepared for cyberattacks, it would help if they knew what cyberweapons the U.S. is itself developing, just in case those weapons end up on the enemy side. But cyberwar tools are not something the government generally wants to say much about. Mike McConnell, speaking recently at a cybersecurity conference, pointed out that most of what the U.S. cyber command does in this area is classified top secret. It can't be revealed.
MCCONNELL: How do we establish a regime where that information can be shared with corporate America at the unclassified level?
GJELTEN: Information first about what cyberweapons U.S. adversaries are developing, but also what might be in the United States' own cyberarsenal, information that could be critical if corporate America is to defend its own computer networks. There is at least one important initiative in this area. It's about four years old, but until now, little has been said about it. It's part of what's called the enduring security framework. Chief executives of top U.S. corporations are brought to Washington two or three times a year for a one-day, classified briefing by General Alexander and other officials.
For each session, the CEOs get special, top-secret clearances so they can be told about the latest in cyberweaponry. They can then go back to their companies and take steps to deal with the threats they hear about, threats they may not previously have taken seriously. In the words of one government participant: We scare the bejeezus out of them. Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer at the Mandiant Company, says for one CEO he knows, the Alexander briefing was a life-changing experience.
RICHARD BEJTLICH: He got a one-day secret clearance. General Alexander sat him down, told him what was going on. This particular CEO, in my opinion, should have known, but did not, and now it's colored everything about the way he thinks about this problem.
GJELTEN: At one session in the spring of 2010, tech company CEOs were told, quote, "We can turn your computer into a brick," unquote. U.S. cyber experts told the execs that they'd learned how an adversary could rewrite computer firmware - the low-level software that dictates how the hardware works - rewrite the firmware so that it would disable the computer.
Manufacturers had known in theory about that design flaw, but they had not previously realized an enemy could exploit that flaw in such a way as to actually get into a machine and destroy it. The computer manufacturers subsequently redesigned their machines and fixed the flaw. No damage was done. Still, it was a close call, according to two participants with knowledge of the incident. And there was a lesson. It showed how important it is for the government and industry to work together in addressing cyberthreats. And that principle is now at the heart of cybersecurity legislative proposals under consideration in Congress. Tom Gjelten, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:488bf387-50d4-4ff9-97c1-400b0531748a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wamc.org/post/cyber-briefings-scare-bejeezus-out-ceos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97007 | 2,119 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has once again launched its Wednesday-night “Walks in the Woods” program. Each Wednesday at 6:30pm from June through September, docents spend about an hour taking visitors on a walk through one of the major city parks. Conservancy spokesperson Laura Cook says the first four walks focus on the master plan for each park. This Wednesday’s walk is at Frick Park. Cook says the master plans were created in 2002 and the city and the conservancy have been working to make them a reality. The conservancy was formed in 1996 at a time when many of the parks had fallen into disrepair. Several of the walks look at the “ecology, history and transformation” of the host park. Cook says the docents are well versed in the parks and do a good job tailoring the message to those on the walks, “Sometimes there are children on the walks, and sometimes the demographics are older. It really spans all over.” Other walks will focus individually on mushrooms, butterflies, lichens and trees. Cook says the tree walks are always well attended. This year those walks will be held June 30th and September 29th. A full list of the Walks in the Woods can be found on line. | <urn:uuid:0a7d08e6-3957-43c5-8362-f746214fea89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wduqnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/walks-in-woods-program-returns.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971957 | 269 | 1.757813 | 2 |
A Few of Our
Heath Reform and Medicare Part D
There are a variety of changes being made to Medicare Part D as a component of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. These changes may result in fewer options and premium increases, but they may also include discounts on brand-name and generic drugs.
We Can Help You Make Sense of Medicare Part D under Health Reform
Making sense of the changes to Medicare Part D under health reform may seem difficult at first, but we at PartD-Medicare.com can help. One thing you should know: You should take advantage of open enrollment when it’s available (this generally occurs from November to December of every year). A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation discovered that only about 10% of Medicare Part D participants change their plans each year.
Health Reform encourages insurers to do away with duplicated plans that have low enrollment. What will inevitably result is that fewer prescription drug plans will be available in 2011 when compared to 2010. In fact, Utah’s amount of available prescription drugs will be about 35 in 2011, which is about a 27% reduction from the 48 plans that were available in 2010.
The good news is that health reform includes a 50% discount on a formulary’s brand-name drugs when you land in the coverage gap (also known as the ‘donut hole’). Over time, seniors may see additional benefits provided to them under health reform; for example, the Affordable Care Act plans to do away with the prescription drug donut hole by 2014. | <urn:uuid:d416ad42-eb3e-4421-8ddc-2041393351a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.partd-medicare.com/health-reform-d.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9348 | 317 | 1.632813 | 2 |
An Epic Life
Click on image to enlarge.
by Kev Richardson
Description: They travel half the globe to realise a dream, create a dynasty
eBook Publisher: Wings ePress, Inc., 2010 2001
eBookwise Release Date: August 2010
Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [315 KB]
Reading time: 189-265 min.
Oh! What a bloody to-do! Never have I seen forest so dense, especially when without end, forest so dense that a man can't tell what's more than a yard ahead. Any next step a man takes can have him hurtling over the edge of a precipice. I hear a waterfall, and it's close, but whether 'tis the top of one or the bottom, how to know? Nowhere can a man find a vantage to get his bearings. I can be travelling in circles and never know it! If there is any good luck attached to this it's that having to watch against falling down a cliff-face with any next step at least takes my mind off the cold and hunger. Even if a man feels thankful it's here, I'm lost without warm clothing in April rather than England, it's still cold when every stitch on me is saturated--yet whether it's rain making everything wet rather than mist from a fall, neither is there a way of knowing--I can tell only daylight from dark.
He'd lost all sense of time. For the last two nights, he'd slept in clefts of rocks never knowing if he were sharing his shelter with a snake. The first night he'd stumbled across a creek bed that at least had a rock shelf for quite a way along it, and he'd been following it, but he soon lost track of how many times it had swerved to the right and how many to the left.
And his entire neck and face were puffed and itchy from bites. And his body was tired. Worst drawback was that his compass was acting up. Sometimes it gave a clear reading, yet even when only a few yards further, it would begin dancing in wild gyrations. His scientific knowledge of minerals wasn't great, yet he recalled something from early RE training that if iron were present, even well below the earth surface, it could disorientate a compass...
...So maybe it's that, but how's a man to know that either? All I can be sure of is that, for most of each day, I've no certainty about which direction I'm heading. And neither can I get a view of anything from anywhere--unless the top of this waterfall I'm heading for can provide one.
He took a little solace, however, in the fact that so far he had not been confronted with finding himself on a pathway he'd already slashed. Or anybody had slashed.
Then I'd know I've been walking in a circle.
And if I were to follow the stream below the fall, either left or right, it would only take me to places where I'd be as lost as now! So what can a man achieve?
And his belly hungered. The small piece of bread he'd had, he'd found on his first night alone to have become saturated despite rolled up in a canvas bag. He'd eaten it nevertheless, along with a third of his sausage. Yesterday he'd denied himself breakfast. Two-thirds of a single sausage was all he had to last him until found. So he denied himself lunch. Fortunately there was water aplenty. Every leaf around was saturated with it. His handkerchief he used as a sponge on the leaves, and every time he felt a pang of hunger, he apologized to his stomach for offering it only the water he could suck from the kerchief.
He allowed himself a smile when remembering last night's 'supper.'
Supper? Hah! A third of a sausage is all I gave my poor stomach during an entire twenty-four hours!
He almost smiled again as his mind flew to his waking thought this morning, that today was Friday, the day Catholics forsake meat.
Thank the Lord I'm not Catholic. It least I'll be able to eat the last of my sausage come supper. Will God then take pity on me? That I'll hear a whistle-blast during the night? Or come morning? | <urn:uuid:a1d37e86-70a0-4284-a192-109ddf1d838d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebookwise.com/ebooks/b113156/An-Epic-Life/Kev-Richardson/?si=43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985874 | 894 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Analysing the Beatles' Success
As anybody who knows me well is aware of, I'm a fan of the Beatles (or at least their music). So, for fun, I've decided to analyse the Beatles' astounding success. After all, there's never been a band like them, and there never will be another one like them, in all probability. To date, they're the only musicians ever to occupy every spot in Billboard's Top 5 in the charts. They're also the only ones to have had back-to-back-to-back (taking over from themselves twice) number ones in the Billboard charts. Not to mention that they (or their estates) are still making oodles of money off everything to do with them. But why is this?
Of course, the Beatles got themselves off the ground in Hamburg, to begin with, where they performed near brothels. (In their offstage time, they occupied themselves with, among other things, peeing on nuns and burning condoms. The latter got them deported.) They sound like a pretty hardcore band, don't they? After all, any musical act admitting that today would probably be in serious hot soup. Yet, somehow, this band evolved into that group which gave us syrupy renderings of songs like "A Taste of Honey", "Love Me Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".
How? Simple — marketing. They were marketed as a boy band, through and through, when their records came out. As one fan has put it, they were smiling "like fags" and wearing roses on their hearts to appeal to fans. Although they differed from modern day boy bands in numerous aspects — to name a few, they wrote their own music and played their own instruments — they still made themselves out to be these sweet young men who would love nothing more than to dance with you ("I Saw Her Standing There").
Of course, did this change their personalities? I can safely answer in the negative. The Beatles were still the same old rebels (anyone remember the "Christianity will die out" comment?). Nevertheless, their marketing was for young pre-teen to early teen girls. This was what was behind their incredible success in the early days; the songs behind the records I mentioned in the opening paragraph were all catering to the tween audience: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", etc.
Then, things changed. Naturally, we ask, how? Again, it's simple — money. By 1965, the Beatles had made enough money to retire comfortably and do whatever they felt like doing (as they all did). Thus, their music began to head into uncharted waters. The process had already begun earlier; can you imagine a boy band singing "A Hard Day's Night" or "Things We Said Today" now, let alone writing and performing it on the guitar?
I think it can be safely said that the first album to fully shed the boy band image was Rubber Soul in 1965. The Beatles had already released an album earlier that year, Help! that featured unconventional songs but still had a cover version or two and a couple of tracks such as "It's Only Love" thrown in to appease the fangirls. However, by then, the Beatles were beginning to develop a more unique image; for example, the Beatles were so annoyed at Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" because they felt it clashed with their image. The song may have been syrupy, but the numbers speak for themselves: this song is the most covered song in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and was the third-most often played song of the 20th century in America, according to BMI. (You can read all about "Yesterday" here; I wrote most of it myself).
Anyhow, Rubber Soul was the first album to feature only original songs. No cover versions to be found here. Rubber Soul brought out new facets of the Beatles' personalities; one example can be found in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" which features George Harrison's love for the sitar, and John Lennon's pessimism (although ironically, the cynical twist in the song was added by Paul McCartney; you can read about it here, which I also wrote). Indeed, Rubber Soul is one of the most depressing albums in the Beatles' collection; other than "Norwegian Wood", you have the "Girl" who always puts you down, "Run For Your Life" with its death threat, "You Won't See Me" with an immature girlfriend, and "I'm Looking Through You", which depicts yet another ill-fated romance; all these contrast deeply with the sugary, optimistic "let's hold hands" love of the earlier years.
This hard-coreness perhaps reached its peak on the Beatles' self-titled album, also commonly referred to as The White Album. Although this album did have a few catchy, light songs, such as "Honey Pie" and "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da", it mostly features rockers like "Back in the USSR", "Helter Skelter", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" and "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?".
And then, suddenly, the Beatles broke up, in 1969. They did release an album and a movie the following year (both were titled Let It Be), but these were essentially made in the editing booth; the Beatles had dumped the album project for a failure and handed the tapes to Phil Spector, and the movie was supposed to document the aforementioned album's production.
It is due to this sudden break-up, I believe, that the iconic popularity of the Beatles has never waned. Of course, few people really know the Beatles' music, and indeed, most still associate it with their biggest hits or only think of them as outmoded losers from the 60s. Nevertheless, that their name can still appear on everyone's lips whenever rock music is mentioned indicates how embedded in popular culture the Beatles are. It's as though they've ceased being just musicians and become something beyond that. Compare this with their contemporaries, The Rolling Stones, who never stopped performing. How many even know who these guys are?
Of course, it's probably due to more than just that. I mean, Queen broke up too, as did The Eagles. And what about Badfinger, or The Police? Yet, mention any of these names to young music fans and all you'll get is a "Huh?". These names mean nothing to almost everyone. Even The Stones haven't sunk that low. How did this happen?
I certainly can't explain why The Rolling Stones still have a shred of popularity left, but I think another big factor in the Beatles' (and John Lennon's) immortalisation was John Lennon's murder in 1980. Hundreds of anguished fans committed suicide. It was a huge, gigantic news, and totally wrecked everyone's dreams of reuniting the Beatles someday. That shock in itself, of realising that a reunion was now impossible, probably did the whole thing in.
But then, to cement things even more, Lennon was an iconic figure in himself. While McCartney dawdled with his pop songs (thanks to this, more people can only think of his failures than his great solo songs, like "Let Me Roll It" or "My Love"), Lennon was campaigning for peace (actually, so did Harrison, but somehow that received less coverage) and generally making a whole lot of noise. Lennon's popularity and name-recognition in itself assured that the Beatles would be remembered for several more generations.
And yet, this doesn't fully explain the picture. After all, Freddie Mercury of Queen died early, yet Queen aren't as looked up to. Mercury himself was no less of a controversial figure; he was homosexual, after all, and died of AIDS. How can you explain the astounding popularity and success of the Beatles?
Can it actually be? Yes, I think it just might be...the boy band image! "How?" you may ask (for the umpteenth time). Well, let's see...the boy band image sold records, which set records (pun unintended)...records that stand to this day. The boy band image immortalised them as these handsome young men out to hold your hand. That is an immortal theme in itself. After all, who doesn't want to hold hands with four nice-looking, friendly guys in suits? So I guess it's a combination of factors. The Beatles' phenomenal success can't be chalked up to either their boy band image or their later hard core rocker depiction. Instead, it's probably both. | <urn:uuid:c5e93b75-e878-4b4e-b602-bd70cf108203> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infernalramblings.com/articles/Entertainment/43/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983849 | 1,789 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Alexa Posny was confirmed as assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services at the Department of Education by the U.S. Senate on Oct. 5, 2009. In this position, she plays a pivotal role in policy and management issues affecting special education and rehabilitative services. She directs, coordinates and recommends policy for programs designed to assist state and local education agencies with improving the achievement of students with disabilities ages birth through 21, as well as adults transitioning from secondary school to higher education, employment or both. She helps ensure equal access to services leading to such improvement for all children, particularly children with disabilities. She fosters educational improvement at the state and local levels, and overseas the distribution of financial assistance to local education agencies whose local revenues are affected by federal activities. She also serves as the principal adviser to the U.S. secretary of education on all matters related to special education for individuals in pre-K, elementary, secondary and postsecondary schools.
Prior to arriving at the Department, Posny served as the commissioner of education for the Kansas State Department of Education since 2007. During her tenure, she was responsible for helping over 450,000 students meet or exceed high academic standards, licensing over 45,000 teachers, and overseeing a state education budget of over $4.5 billion. She provided leadership for the Kansas State Department of Education to carry out the policies and programs proscribed by state law and the state board of education; ensured Department personnel were providing the necessary oversight and support for all schools, educators and students to meet their academic goals; promoted many initiatives, including increasing academic standards, improving literacy skills, bringing technology to the classroom and making schools safer; provided oversight of the department's teams responsible for state and federal programs, student support services, teacher education and licensure, research and planning, school accreditation, fiscal services, communication and recognitions programs, fiscal services and operations, information technology, fiscal auditing, school finance, human resources, and child nutrition and wellness; advocated for all infants, toddlers, children and youths across the state; and implemented the state's standards and assessments.
From 2006 to 2007, Posny served as the director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Here she focused on providing leadership and fiscal resources to assist state and local efforts to effectively educate children and youths with disabilities in order to improve results for those children and on ensuring equal protection of the law. OSEP's programs assist public agencies to provide all infants, toddlers, children and youths with disabilities early intervention services and a free appropriate public education that emphasizes challenging standards and access to the general curriculum to the extent appropriate.
From 2001 to 2006, Posny served as deputy commissioner of education at the Kansas State Department of Education, where she was responsible for the overall operation of the Division of Learning Services. In this position she provided leadership and supervision in the delivery of services for school districts, other local education agencies and teacher preparation institutions regarding school improvement and accreditation, state assessments and accountability, licensure and teacher education, state and federal education programs, special education and technical education, and planning and research.
From 1999 to 2001, she served as the state director of special education at the Kansas State Department of Education. And from 1997 to 1999, she served as the director of special education for the Shawnee Mission School District in Shawnee Mission, Kan. In years prior she served on the board of directors for the Chief State School Officers and the National Council for Learning Disabilities, and chaired the National Assessment Governing Board's Special Education Task Force. Posny has also been a teacher at the elementary, middle, high school and university levels.
Posny has been recognized frequently for her educational leadership. In 2005, she received the Kansas High School Activities Association Governor's Award, an honor accorded to one individual in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of secondary education in the state of Kansas. In 2004, she was named Administrator of the Year by the Kansas Association of Educational Office Professionals and, in 2001, she received the Outstanding Contributor Award for the state of Kansas from the Council for Exceptional Children.
Posny earned her Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she also minored in special education. She earned a master's degree in behavioral disabilities from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a bachelor's degree in sociology and psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. She has one son, Alek, a civil engineer, who is currently a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology pursuing master's degrees in transportation systems engineering and city and regional planning. | <urn:uuid:07f735dc-e3d5-4fe8-81af-95e233ae021a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/posny.html?exp=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962908 | 941 | 1.554688 | 2 |
In a move that angered many of the company's gay employees, the Microsoft Corporation, publicly perceived as the vanguard institution of the new economy, has taken a major political stand in favor of age-old discrimination.
The Stranger has learned that last month the $37-billion Redmond-based software behemoth quietly withdrew its support for House bill 1515, the anti-gay-discrimination bill currently under consideration by the Washington State legislature, after being pressured by the Evangelical Christian pastor of a suburban megachurch.
The pastor, Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, met with a senior Microsoft executive in February and threatened to organize a national boycott of the company's products if it did not change its stance on the legislation, according to gay rights activists and a Microsoft employee who attended a subsequent April 4 meeting where Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, told a group of gay staffers about Hutcherson's threat....
At the April 4 meeting, Smith told members of GLEAM, the gay and lesbian employees group at Microsoft, that the company had switched its official stance to "neutral" on the bill, and took personal responsibility for the decision. He characterized the shift as part of a broader general review of company policy designed to more precisely formulate criteria for determining when Microsoft should involve itself in "social issues," but also disclosed the pressure that had been brought to bear on him by Hutcherson....
"The pastor of a megachurch gets a meeting in two weeks with one of the top executives at one of the world's most powerful corporations. He makes these idle threats and he gets everything he wants," the GLEAM member who reported Smith's comments says. "Microsoft just got taken to the cleaners on this issue."
If you read the longer quote more closely, you'll see that this may not be an isolated incident. This capitulation to the Christian Right is part of an overall strategy of reviewing Microsoft's social policy positions. Who knows where pressure from the Christian Right will lead now. | <urn:uuid:cd28b6fb-d5b7-4c65-a30d-c19872a3971f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atheism.about.com/b/2005/04/22/microsoft-caves-to-christian-right-abandons-gays.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965406 | 418 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Would it be possible and effective, without causing undue stress to the keezer, to temperature control a second insulated chamber? I would like to be able to control fermentation temps and/or run ...
I was hoping to put together an information system that could measure the temperature of the water in a bucket where I place my fermenting-bucket and notify my smart phone when I need to replace the ...
Summers where I live typically have 80F nights and it can easily pick up to 95 degrees during the day. I have a plastic trash can (which I bought for this purpose) that I have filled up with water. ...
Normally I ferment beer in my basement, which varies in temperature from 50-70 degrees, depending on the season. These temperature swings can be bad for fermentation, especially in winter. So when I ...
Do I need to maintain my desired temperature until bottling or take it out of the "ferm chamber" after initial fermentation is done? What about with long term brews such as sours?
I would like to have more brewing capacity, but I am limited by the amount of temperature controlled storage that I have. Do you only need temp control in the primary fermentation process? I'm ... | <urn:uuid:d5439b38-a0e0-4071-ac3d-d69a0f1f1d0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/temperature+temperature-control | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953365 | 252 | 1.609375 | 2 |
PRIMITIVE''artists are far from scarce, but good ones are very difficult to find. Ever since Henri Rousseau became famous, and the Western world got to know the work of Grandma Moses, Camille Bombois, Louis Vivin, John Kane, and a handful of other ``naive'' painters, dealers and curators have been looking for individuals with no formal art training but with an extraordinary knack for making art. It's not that there aren't enough ``primitive'' painters around or that they aren't aware of the fame and fortune that await them should the art world decide they have that special quality. In truth, quite the opposite is the case, as is proved by the large numbers of such artists who show their work in local exhibitions from Maine to California, and the number who make a comfortable income by selling their canvases through galleries specializing in what is loosely described as ``folk art.''
No, the problem is not one of scarcity, nor even of lack of ability, but of cuteness and coyness, and of a self-conscious posturing that takes refuge in whimsy, nostalgia, and a bittersweet call for a return to ``the good old days.''
Most of today's so-called primitive art is extremely sophisticated and calculated, both in technique and in theme, and is made and packaged as shrewdly as any other product with a particular market in mind. Snow-covered farm scenes with horses and buggies, cattle next to barns, and forests and fields in the background are especially popular, as are Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts with dozens of colorfully dressed people celebrating in various ways in lively and charmingly decorative compositions. And if everything else fails, there are always the paintings of stiff-looking children holding their pets, old-fashioned villages with quaint little buildings all lined up in a row, and Grandpa and Grandma out for a ride in the old Model T. | <urn:uuid:7e0645f8-fc50-4a35-b4c7-dd8267df94d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/1985/0516/umong.html | 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 | 0.973845 | 395 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Three years after dropping his digital camera into a small Adirondack creek on a summer trip, a New York man will finally get his photos, thanks to some dogged investigative work on the part of a Vermont man.
John Noerr, a teacher from Poultney, Vt., found the long-lost camera at the bottom of a small stream while he was on a morning walk with his son on July 5. The camera was covered with mud, but the memory card, while filthy, was remarkably intact. Noerr, 39, meticulously cleaned it, picking out pieces of dirt with a sewing needle, and dried it before he found out it worked. He began unraveling the mystery of who had owned the camera.
"Opening the card was fascinating," Noerr said. "The very first picture, I imagined that it was the first picture that he took. All the way to the last picture. That was of rushing water."
There were 581 photos in all and Noerr approached it like a puzzle, mining each one for clues.
Though the photos weren't sorted, randomly divided between folders in a non-chronological order, he studied the scenic shots from the Adirondack vacation, photos of relatives, celebrations, city streets and signs, and began to piece together a narrative.
"Some of the pictures had enough information in them that I was able to put them in a place, put a dot on a map and say, 'This is where the camera taker stood.' I was able to build up enough places…I started to create an image in my mind of where the person lived," said Noerr, who first told his story to the Post-Star of Glens Falls, N.Y.
Many of the photos were taken around Brooklyn, Noerr discovered. There was a self-portrait of a woman who he initially imagined to be the owner. (This assumption would prove to be false).
In the end, it came down to a handful of pictures: the front stoop of a house numbered 327, one of the sky, and a shot of a corner of a building with "very unique stone work" and a visible sign for 3rd Street.
"I went onto Google Earth Street View and started looking up every 3rd Street I could find," he said.
That placed him in the camera owner's neighborhood, where other identifiable buildings and doors popped up that Noerr recognized from pictures on the memory card. Faster than he imagined, he found the house, No. 327, on Street View, tracked down the building's owner, and used Facebook and Twitter to contact the family.
The woman who appeared in the self-portrait replied to his message. She was the sister of the camera owner, Michael Comeau, who, Noerr learned, had dropped his camera from a bridge while camping in the Adirondacks in June 2009.
"I was standing on this little bridge taking pictures. I kind of fumbled my tripod and my camera fell in the water," Comeau, 34, recalled. "I jumped in and couldn't find it. I looked for it for about a half hour …. It wasn't that expensive, but at the time, I was unemployed and I didn't have money for another camera, so I was very upset. I was pissed off about losing all the pictures and everything."
Comeau wrote it off and the sting of losing his camera and a summer's worth of photos from the memory card faded.
Fast forward to August 2012 when Comeau's sister told him his lost camera had been found.
"I thought it was a miracle," he said, ""I had wondered what happened to that camera. Is it floating out there somewhere?"
Comeau said he expects to receive the camera later this week and is eager to see the photos. One photo on the memory card is one of the last of his late mother.
"That was a driving force," Noerr said when asked why he went to such lengths to reunite the camera with its owner. "She was obviously sick in late or mid-stage cancer. She looked sick or dying. When my father and I looked at it, we said, 'I've got to find this guy.'"
For Noerr, piecing it all together has been "entertaining" and "fascinating." The digital detective has already solved the mystery of another camera left behind at a local Adirondack country store.
"It took me five minutes," he said. "The family in [the photos], their son was wearing a Boy Scout outfit. The troop number was visible on the Boy Scout uniform. I spoke to their council leader and she's going to forward the information." | <urn:uuid:58ea1afb-b077-4fda-954a-0b3004635837> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-tracks-lost-cameras-owner-clues-photos/story?id=16943313 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989901 | 970 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Curé's Mignonette
The Daughter of Lilith
The Red Egg
" said Sembobitis.
"Doubtless," said Balthasar, "but there are other things in Nature more beautiful even than palm-trees and crocodiles."
This he said thinking of Balkis. But Sembobitis, who was old, said:
"There is of course the phenomenon of the rising of the Nile which I have explained. Man is created to understand."
"He is created to love," replied Balthasar sighing. "There are things which cannot be explained."
"And what may those be?" asked Sembobitis.
"A woman's treason," the king replied.
Balthasar, however, having decided to become a mage, had a tower built from the summit of which might be discerned many kingdoms and the infinite spaces of Heaven. The tower was constructed of brick and rose high above all other towers. It took no less than two years to build, and Balthasar expended in its construction the entire treasure of the king, his father. Every night he climbed to the top of this tower and there he studied the heavens under the guidance of the | <urn:uuid:63e918b1-6aaa-4141-b416-045649009cda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://manybooks.net/titles/francean2205922059.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977456 | 250 | 1.617188 | 2 |
More real-life cases needed for HD-SDI
a&s International | Date:
Standardization is a deciding factor for a product to be widely adopted. Although it may be harsh to ask a new ecosystem to immediately produce universally usable standards, it is nonetheless a problem HD-SDI must resolve.
It is not just a matter of standardizing cameras, said Zhou Sheng Qiang, GM of Video Surveillance at Keda Technology. "First on the list is cabling. Although HD-SDI can utilize existing coaxial cables, not any cable can transmit high-quality images. A certain quality must be met for both the cables and the installation of them. Next, we can look at the TV wall; even connectors to the displays are not necessarily compatible with HD-SDI. Interoperability between devices made by different manufacturers, such as HD-SDI encoders and DVRs, still has problems. Multiple points of failure from the front end to back result in instability of the system."
The quest for universal standards is still ongoing. In the mean time, end users and SIs will prefer more stable and mature solutions. HD-SDI will need to catch up in the standardization space and manufacturers roll out complete solutions, from front end to back, to become a true alternative in the HD arena.
Chips: Not Competitive
The aforementioned points are why HD IP-based video surveillance manufacturers doubt HD-SDI will become a competing faction in the market.
However some chipmakers, such as Ambarella, are leaning toward HD-SDI products. Asked whether HD-SDI will affect large chip vendors' attitude toward IP, Zhou said, "Network cameras contain chips that digitize, process and compress images, but that does not mean HD-SDI is more competitive because it has no need for these chips."
Another way of looking at it, Zhou continued, is that "Video processing chips are a plus for network cameras, since it means that the camera is more intelligent and is capable of much more than just capturing video. The feats it can accomplish will only increase as time goes on."
When HD-SDI advocates claimed the dawn of a "zero latency, zero compression" age for video surveillance, users frustrated with latency in IP-based systems sighed with relief as they hoped HD-SDI could solve all the problems they faced.
Settings where low latency is critical and have short distances and few locations to cover do indeed see HD-SDI making much more sense than IP-based systems. Applications like gaming, traffic monitoring, financial institutes, operating tables and safe city initiatives all see the value in HD-SDI and will benefit from its pros.
On the other hand, in a trend of globalization, digitization and connectivity, HD network cameras are a more logical direction to move in.
Although HD-SDI solves the HD equation for analog video surveillance, the fact that it is still a closed system results in complex cabling and mundane installation. Furthermore, HD-SDI maxes out at 2 megapixels or 1,080p. These are both limitations that hinder its practicality in the big wave of digitization and increased connectivity.
Regarding other limitations, said Zeng Chun Wei of Poseidon Technology, "HD-SDI features much better image quality over traditional analog systems, but it also inherits the same downsides. “One issue is scalability. HD-SDI uses DVRs, which limit the front-end devices.” "Another is cost. Although it allows the reuse of existing cables, additional cash has to be coughed up to replace front-end devices, optical transceivers and back-end recorders. At the moment, these are still fairly expensive."
HD-SDI does indeed have its place in the market, but it will not become a strong competitor to IP-based video surveillance; HD IP-based video allows better integration, interoperability and flexibility, according to Zeng. "IP-based video surveillance will represent a large portion of the customer base, while HD-SDI will remain a better option for niche markets. If HD-SDI cannot achieve economy of scale, HD via IP will still make more sense in most settings."
Product Adopted:Network Cameras
Two competing and complementing technologies are good for the industry because manufacturers on both sides are creating more options and better products for their customers, Zhou said. "HD-SDI complements IP-based systems, as both are ways to sell HD to the end user. It reaffirms the notion that HD video surveillance is indeed in high demand, which is also a huge opportunity for the IP people." | <urn:uuid:017c8adf-5c61-4b87-a3b5-9c66dfb06f57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asmag.com/showpost/13265.aspx | 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 | 0.936875 | 964 | 1.757813 | 2 |
What's the best way to profit in stocks? Not by calling your broker!
A stock will move up or down depending on news about its earnings, how its industry fares overall, and
similar factors. A stock may move quickly in price or slowly depending on historical volatility. It may
be perceived as an aggressive growth pick, an underpriced value opportunity or a conservative income
producer if it pays dividends.
All these fundamentals have only relative interest, however, to the trader who is looking for opportunities
in a fast moving market. This investor is likely to be more interested in technical analysis, which we teach
exhaustively at Online Trading Academy. They'll want to know how its characteristics fit into their personal
needs as traders. Often it doesn't matter so much what a particular stock is as how it performs in the abstract.
Looking at stock trading in this new way gives you many more chances to make
money in the market. There's always a stock whose price is moving in a way that meets your trading needs—you just have
to find it. You can choose to follow one specific stock—and buy and sell whenever its performance signals an opportunity
according to your trading plan—or diversify as broad as you want to go.
But in order to gain maximum advantage in the stock market, you'll need to perfect one more skill—which we also
teach at Online Trading Academy. And that is taking control of your own transactions as a true online trader.
What your broker isn't telling you can hurt your profits in the stock market... here's why:
The traditional way to buy stocks is to get a recommendation from your broker who will then act on it by placing
an order. What you don't see is that your buy or sell order may have to stand in line behind much larger orders, or
institutional orders, or simply orders from preferred clients. As a result, by the time your trade is actually
executed it may be at a very different price.
At Online Trading Academy, we recommend that traders place their own orders directly, via the web. An immediate
benefit to online stock trading is that you'll pay sharply reduced commissions—a
savings that can add up fast for an active trader. You'll likely enjoy better and faster service by eliminating the
middleman. And you'll be able to control your trades by setting markers to buy or sell automatically so you never risk
overpaying or losing too much on a trade.
In most of our classes, you'll be making your own online trades before the conclusion of the course—live trades
using our money, in which we pay the commissions and absorb any losses so you can practice without fear of making
a costly mistake. We'll also introduce you to an even more efficient way to manage your trades: the Level II Data
Stream developed by NASDAQ on a state-of-the-art electronic trading interface or trading platform.
Why Level II trading is the best way to make money in the market online:
Direct Access Trading (DAT) software gives you direct point-and-click access to the major electronic trading
networks (ECNs)—ARCA, FLOW and BATS—that make up 80% of all NASDAQ ECN volume.
You'll be able to see each buy or sell order as it is entered with its strike price and quantity. Using your
technical skills, you can then analyze support levels and make your move at the ideal time for your trading
objectives. Execution is automatic—no waiting for a response from the “other side”. Delays are minimized
during peak times because you are live in the market and accessing it through a private network. You can get
in or out of a position within seconds, thus taking advantages of rapid changes in quotes as well as price imbalances.
Essentially, Level II trading gives you the same visibility into the market as a market maker on a large trading
floor—and the same fast reaction time to maximize your gains or minimize losses. Compared to traditional trading,
using stock trading software may seem like an unfair advantage—but it's there
for the taking and we'll show you how! | <urn:uuid:e1032bb0-9c37-496b-b806-45fa0df2830c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tradingacademy.com/education/stock-trading.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955706 | 864 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Celebrant: All our hope lies in the saving death and Resurrection of Christ. Through him, we now present our needs to the Father.
That all bishops, the successors of the apostles, may be steadfast in proclaiming Christ as the only Savior, we pray to the Lord...
That government leaders may turn each day to the Lord of all nations for wisdom, strength, and truth, we pray to the Lord...
That we may build a Culture of Life which welcomes the born and unborn, the stranger and neighbor, and the saint and sinner, we pray to the Lord…
That all who have wandered far from God may find the strength to return and experience his tender mercy, we pray to the Lord...
For all those preparing for baptism at Easter, that they may grow deeper each day in their understanding and acceptance of God's Word, we pray to the Lord...
For all who are alone and forgotten, for the sick, and for all who have been called from this life, we pray to the Lord...
Father, You make all things newin Jesus your Son.May we who pray in his nameexperience your saving power and love.We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Annunciation and Life
"The angel's Annunciation to Mary is framed by these reassuring words: "Do not be afraid, Mary" and "with God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37). The whole of the Virgin Mother's life is in fact pervaded by the certainty that God is near to her and that he accompanies her with his providential care." (Evangelium Vitae, 105). What happened at the Annunciation overcomes the fear and despair that lead to violence. It has been said that the false god transforms suffering into violence, while the true God transforms violence into suffering. Mary, in her "yes," gives courage to all mothers who know that being a mother will involve some suffering. She assures them that they are not alone. The Christian community, following Mary's example, accompany these mothers with their prayers and their active charity, providing alternatives to abortion.
Is 43:16-21Phil 3:8-14Jn 8:1-11
Video with preaching tips
“See, I am doing something new,” the Lord declares today through the Prophet Isaiah.
That is what we proclaim to the world as we build the Culture of Life, and that is what Lent prepares us for. “By your gracious gift each year, your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure.” (Preface 1 of Lent). The paschal mystery renews the world, and ushers in the new humanity, built on Christ and reconciled with God. That is the source of the Culture of Life.
The error of excluding entire segments of the human family, like the unborn, from personhood and protection, is an error that is old. It crops up throughout human history, and leads to genocide, holocausts, various forms of slavery, segregation and oppression.
But Christ makes all things new. As today’s Gospel passage reveals, he does not condemn us, but reveals to us the mercy that flows from his love for every human life. Yet that mercy is not permission to return to our old life of sin, but rather power that raises us up beyond the life of sin to a new way of responding to the people around us.
Some will maintain that it is not really possible to overcome the culture of death or to stop the advance of abortion, euthanasia, and other forms of violence. But if we are to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed, and are to hear the message, “See, I am doing something new,” then we are called to believe that it really is possible – and we are called to use our gifts and energy to make it real.
In addition to these themes, the homily today may well speak about the post-abortion healing ministries of the Church. A good clearinghouse for such ministries is SilentNoMoreAwareness.org. | <urn:uuid:11cbedb8-2a64-4b12-87b3-805a79f88841> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.priestsforlife.org/liturgy/liturgicalresource-cycles.aspx?id=53 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951997 | 846 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Desert Winds High School offers a smaller classroom setting allowing teachers the ability to offer the individual attention students need as they progress toward graduation. All students at Desert Winds High School are welcomed and introduced to new opportunities and approaches to an educationally sound curriculum. There are a variety of reasons students attend Desert Winds High School, and the primary goal is to provide each of them with the necessary skills to become productive members of a diverse society.
Saturday School - A weekly opportunity for intervention activities in Math, English and Science course work with the assistance of a credentialed teacher.
Reading for Pleasure Book Club - An elective credit course where participating students read books for one hour each evening at home to increase comprehension and vocabulary skills. Verification of credit earnings is based on the student successfully completing a computer generated quiz for the book they have read.
After School Tutoring - Tutoring is available after school for those students in need of extra assistance with their English and Math assignments. | <urn:uuid:e749c39b-bbf1-44cf-8247-17b07a582434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dwhs.org/ourschool | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961615 | 195 | 1.757813 | 2 |
6:37 am May 11, 2011, by Henry Unger
Three Clayton County fifth-graders recently beat more than 3,800 teams of students to win the top spot in the Georgia Stock Market Game, AJC writer Tammy Joyner reports.
Not only did Jaylen Thompkins, Jacob Thomas and Kenny Chong beat the competition statewide, they outperformed the U.S. stock market— all while managing their investments during the after-school program at E.W. Oliver Elementary School in Riverdale, Joyner writes.
The trio earned nearly $63,000 on an initial hypothetical investment of $100,000 in the 10-week contest. They outperformed the stock market by 58 percent, Joyner reports.
Their portfolio consisted mainly of one stock — not the strategy money managers advise for investing real money, Joyner writes. They started with three stocks, but wound up basically betting the farm on pulp paper company Mercer International.
Is there a lesson here? If you play in a risky game like the market, then should some of your money go against conventional wisdom — despite what the so-called experts say?
Or since you have real money at stake, is being cautious, diversifying, relying on mutual funds and not betting on one stock still the way to go?
I’m a conservative investor who uses stock mutual funds. But I wonder if I should take a very little — of the little I have — and invest in a company that might take off?
What do you think? What’s worked or not worked for you?
- Henry Unger, The Biz Beat
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.
Get inside Atlanta's and national business news and how it affects you.
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more | <urn:uuid:e5f3194d-93c7-416d-ba6b-2f6095abc8e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2011/05/11/do-students-who-won-investment-contest-have-lesson-for-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951326 | 367 | 1.640625 | 2 |
How do big companies get themselves to a point where they can no longer innovate, or spot seismic shifts in their marketplace?
As I finished reading Charles Arthur’s book, Digital Wars: Apple, Google, Microsoft and the Battle for the Internet, Clintons Cards was the latest British retailer to fail, seemingly incapable of reacting to the changing marketplace of greetings cards sales. Just like others such as HMV before it, their management seemed either incapable of understanding, or unwilling to acknowledge, the magnitude of changes afoot in their sector.
Arthur, technology editor at the Guardian newspaper, tells the story of how Microsoft, Apple, and Google have fought it out over the last decade or so, as the internet and search took off and the world went increasingly online. So it’s all about technology, really? Well, no, because it’s also about how Microsoft kept looking at the world through its old prism, a world made comfortable by the fact that they generated probably $40 from every Windows PC sold, and then profited further by selling their Office suite as the default business application set.
But, just like the retailers mentioned above, they failed to understand or react adequately to the changes around them. The book tells how Microsoft blew millions trying to make a search engine that would equal Google. Then spent millions trying to build an MP3 player and online music sales system that might equal the iPod and iTunes. And finally (and maybe there’s something exciting to be announced shortly – but I doubt it) how it has spent many of the last months promising a touch screen operating system that will match the ergonomics of the iPad.
Microsoft is not unique. The book also details how the arrival of the iPhone disrupted the success of a whole number of mobile handset makers. Remember Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and BlackBerry, when they delivered the phones everyone wanted? Again, these people saw the newcomer as a novelty, not a threat – until it was too late.
The book is written in a pacy, very easy to read style, with plenty of quotes and inside information. It tells of a time of exciting change, but its most intriguing aspect is how the corporate culture of the three firms differs so substantially. Apple and Google both seem set on doing things their way, not conscious of rivals because they have no intention of thinking like everyone else, or of slowing down in their quest for ever better solutions.
Will even these companies eventually get hidebound in corporate politics, and fail? Can Apple succeed without Jobs? In five years time will we all be using Facebook phones, and Twitter tablets? Have a chip in our wrist? One thing’s for sure, predictions are dangerous – but there will be the moment for the next chapter of the story, sometime soon. | <urn:uuid:9bebb1c2-3208-4550-a2fa-12ae85a2da28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chrisbown.net/apple-google-winning-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953805 | 566 | 1.679688 | 2 |
no spam, unsubscribe anytime.
We were about to leave and return the next day for more when I spotted a young woman holding a cat and crying her eyes out at the front desk. I asked staff what was going on and found out she was giving the cat up.
George and Caroline, from Longboat Key, FL
— Click to read more of Haven's Story —
Observers have long been commenting on the koala's drastic decline, noting a 95% decrease in population since the 1990s. The latest threat for Australia's iconic animal comes in the form of chlamydia. According to a new article from the BBC, infection rates in some regions have reached as high as 90%.
But concerned citizens are making a difference, petitioning the Australian government to act before it is too late. Volunteers, meanwhile, help rehabilitate sick and wounded koalas before returning them to the wild. And generous gifts help make this possible. | <urn:uuid:9def39ae-163a-4da9-92c2-1c445e9b5bce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/home?adId=60172&placementId=286406&origin&page=4 | 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 | 0.969819 | 194 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Analysis: Energy policy chaos threatens Japan's economy
TOKYO (Reuters) - Political disarray over Japan's energy policy will make it tough for Tokyo to avert a total nuclear shutdown next summer and presents a long-term threat to the world's third-largest economy.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima power plant that shattered the public's confidence in the safety of the country's nuclear fleet. Scandals over the government's cozy relationship with the power industry have exacerbated the concern.
Japan sacked three officials over the scandals on Thursday, but it was unclear if this was enough to help repair public confidence in Tokyo's ability to govern the industry.
The disasters look to have dealt a definitive blow to the future of nuclear energy in Japan.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for gradually weaning Japan off its dependence on nuclear power, a U-turn on the 2010 energy policy that sought to boost nuclear capacity to supply 50 percent of Japan's energy needs by 2030. In that plan, nuclear was seen as a cheaper and cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.
But the unpopular Kan, fighting to stay in his post, has given no detail on how he plans to build enough capacity to substitute nuclear supply, nor how to make alternative supplies economical.
"The issue is the uncertainty over policy," said Naohiko Baba, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs.
"Because of an unclear direction about nuclear power plants, companies can't make their investment plans while utilities can't make a decisive shift to other power sources from nuclear power. The uncertainty over the energy future heightens the possibility of companies leaving Japan."
Instead of rebuilding generation capacity, utilities may freeze even the investments necessary to maintain capacity, until they see clarity from Tokyo on the fate of their reactors and government energy priorities.
Uncertainty over the cost and availability of future energy supply may push Japanese companies overseas and stall foreign companies from investing.
"The confusion is expected to last for at least another half year, while the current anti-nuclear public sentiment doesn't provide an environment for an objective debate over the issue," said Xiao Minjie, chief economist at FuNNeX Asset Management in Tokyo.
"The uncertainty over the outlook of the energy policy, together with the rising yen, are pushing Japanese companies to shift operations overseas."
Japan is already getting an indication of the potential cost to the country of a long-term shift away from nuclear power.
The number of Japanese nuclear plants supplying power to the grid is slowly falling as plants are shut down for regular maintenance. Local government officials, wary of public opprobrium, have refused permission for the plants to restart.
The government estimated on Friday that if all of Japan's 54 reactors went offline by May 2012 the nation would face a 10 percent power shortage next summer and electricity costs would spike up 20 percent.
The drag on economic growth from higher energy costs caused by greater use of costly imported fuels while nuclear electricity output dwindles would be substantial, economists say.
Nomura Securities estimated in a recent report that Japan's industrial production would be reduced by an annual 1 percent in fiscal 2012/13 if all nuclear power plants stop operating.
The impact, however, would vary across industries.
While electricity accounts for just about 3 percent of total costs of Japanese industry, this can range from 1.5 percent for the automotive industry to nearly 60 percent for recycling, processing and base metals industries.
The aluminum industry, which is a big user of electricity, has coped with power restraints by diversifying operation bases across Japan but if this persisted, it would become more difficult to fend off the damage, Masateru Yoshihara, chairman of the Japan Aluminum Association, said.
Analysts believe Japan will be able to cope with that with a mix of government-prescribed and voluntary power savings the way those saving so far spared the economy and the public the pain of rolling blackouts this summer.
But there is a limit to how much more power can be saved, and those savings also have a cost, analysts say.
"The uncertainty is adding to the existing problems and hurting sentiment," said Ken Koyama, a director at The Institute of Energy Economics for Japan (IEEJ).
"Japan may be able to weather the power shortage by energy conservation, but that could lead to an undesirable consequence of shrinking economic activity and industries leaving Japan."
Koyama said there was limited scope for industries, which account for about 40 percent of electricity demand, to conserve more energy, and such efforts would have to be relied from households and offices, which each accounted about 30 percent.
Utilities have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on fuel imports than previously planned. Kyushu Electric Power Co used an additional million barrels of oil in April-June and an extra 230,000 tonnes of gas (LNG) in the same period against a planned 550,000 tonnes.
Japan, the world's third-biggest nuclear power user, has only 16 of its 54 reactors on line, supplying less than a third of the total commercial nuclear generating capacity of 48,960 megawatts. The share of nuclear power in Japan's power supply tumbled to about 18 percent in June from about 30 percent before the disasters struck.
Those 16 functioning plants are all scheduled to go into maintenance by May next year, which would leave Japan without nuclear supply unless the government can convince local governments and their population that restarts would be safe.
The government last month ordered stress tests on all of the reactors to check their ability to withstand extreme shocks to allay safety fears. The measure was intended to help build public confidence in the plants, but instead sent the message to the population that the government was unsure just how well the plants could withstand natural disasters on the scale of those in March.
The announcement also removed any incentive local politicians may have had to move ahead with quick restarts, deferring the decision instead until the results of the tests.
In its energy policy review last week the government said it would work to bring those reactors that passed the tests back on the grid, but so far neither the government nor the Nuclear Safety Agency have said how long the tests could take, nor how long after that plants could restart.
Some analysts advocate redesigning Japan's energy policy to focus on new nuclear power, rather than no nuclear power.
Ed Batts, corporate partner at global law firm DLA Piper, said the Fukushima disaster highlighted both the need for shored up safety planning at existing plants and for an aggressive push for modern nuclear technology to meet growing energy demand.
"While common-sense demand management (conservation), such as building design, is a crucial part of an energy strategy, it will not alone be sufficient to supply our collective needs," Batts said. ($1 = 77.965 Japanese Yen)
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Simon Webb)
- Tweet this
- Share this
- Digg this | <urn:uuid:dae8a943-5474-4551-97eb-de226a9a514c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-japan-energy-idUKTRE7731GS20110804 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948278 | 1,418 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Pinot Blanc(pee-no blahnk)
Pretty and Simple
A mutation of the Pinot family, Pinot Blanc was once commonly mistaken for
- it looks quite similar on the vine. But true Pinot Blanc lacks most Chardonnay
characteristics. The grape is most at home in
where it is used both in blends as well as a sole varietal. It's also found
in Italy where it's called Pinot Bianco.
Wine made from Pinot Blanc often has fuller-body, but it is not a grape known for its
aromatics. The fragrance of a Pinot Blanc is typically neutral and subdued.
The delicate aromas that are present are most often apples, pears, some minerality.
It's a refreshing wine with good acidity. It is also the base variety for Cremant
d'Alsace (the sparking wine of Alsace).
Summing it up
Successful Sites: Alsace, Italy, Oregon
apple, pear, nut, minerals, light, dry, pleasant | <urn:uuid:623b888a-a0b1-43e7-a588-e753fc150d89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wine.com/v6/France-Other-regions-Pinot-Blanc-International-Wine-Cellar/wine/list.aspx?N=7155+125+102+203+13+168&Ns=p_Savings%7C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955754 | 224 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Iran Launches War Games Against ‘Hypothetical Sensitive Sites’
(TEHRAN, Iran) -- Iran went through a series of war games Monday to test their readiness to deal with an air assault.
The reportedly massive exercise was meant to prove that Tehran can retaliate against "hypothetical sensitive sites" should it come under attack.
There has been talk over the past year of Israel possibly launching a preemptive military strike to knock out Iran's rogue nuclear program. The U.S. says that while all options are on the table to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, it would prefer to force Iran's hand through tough diplomatic and economic sanctions.
Meanwhile, the war games that took place Monday were apparently scheduled before Iranian fighter jets took some pot shots at a U.S. predator drone the Pentagon says was flying in international air space.
The Iranians claim their surface-to-air system mirrors the U.S. Hawk system and can lock on to an object 50 miles away and knock it out of the air from a distance of 30 miles.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio | <urn:uuid:47715279-d0a4-4d5c-b063-6158c3fadebc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastidahonews.com/2012/11/iran-launches-war-games-against-hypothetical-sensitive-sites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963105 | 225 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Brooks County, Border Patrol report rise in immigrant deaths in South Texas
83 bodies found in Brooks County to date compared to 64 last year
The Brooks County Sheriff’s Office along with U.S. Border Patrol officials are reporting an alarming increase in illegal immigrant deaths this year.
Brooks County sheriff's have already recovered the remains of 83 illegal immigrants compared to last year’s total of 64.
“Every day, every day, last week, we were picking up two bodies a day,” said Deputy Luis Reyes.
In mid-August, three bodies were discovered in 24 hours, on three different ranches in Brooks County.
They are among the 150 percent increase in immigrant deaths in South Texas reported by U.S. Border Patrol, along with a “manageable” rise in apprehensions.
“Perhaps this is a change in tactics and techniques by smugglers,” said Enrique Mendiola, spokesperson for the agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector.
Mendiola said to avoid its checkpoint near Falfurrias, smugglers are taking larger groups through longer, more remote routes, increasing the risk many of them will not survive.
“These people are in for the money,” Reyes said. “They don’t care about human life.” Each time, the somber drill is the much the same.
Det. Danny Davila said it begins with either the sheriff’s office or Border Patrol being alerted by immigrants of someone they’ve left behind who has died or was in distress. He said it is an agonizing death, typically from dehydration and heat stroke. Davila said ranch hands also come upon the remains, often with buzzards overhead leading the way.
He said both agencies often respond, along with the mortician and the justice of the peace, who must examine the remains that are mummified, looking for clues to their identities.
“The javalinas, the coyotes, everything will really hit that body very quick and destroy it,” said Lavoyger Durham, a well known ranch manager in Brooks County.
Durham said even then, only 25 percent of those who die are ever found in “the killing fields of Brooks County.”
If their remains are recovered, Davila said they are turned over to a funeral home that attempts to locate family members with the help of foreign consulates.
Among the three bodies recovered in that recent 24-hour period was a teenager, buried overnight by his companions.
“We had to uncover the grave and get him out,” said Rey Rodriguez, Brooks County Sheriff. “Looked like a young male, no ID.”
For a list of recent stories Jessie Degollado has done, click here.
Copyright 2012 by KSAT.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:64d52aec-e7a0-4189-8fd4-236fc8e712fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksat.com/news/Brooks-County-Border-Patrol-report-rise-in-immigrant-deaths-in-South-Texas/-/478452/16555208/-/view/print/-/k2cn91/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972546 | 607 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Winston Hubert McIntosh’s musical legacy was sealed the moment he moved to the Trenchtown district of Kingston and met Robert Nesta Marley and his stepbrother Neville O’Riley Livingston in 1961 and formed the Teenagers. After tutoring with music producer Joe Higgs, they changed their name to the Wailing Wailers and released the single “Simmer Down” in 1963 and the Wailers became famous. While the focus would later be on Bob Marley, the spiritual side of the group, the talent and abilities of the peacekeeper Neville (now known as Bunny Wailer) and the more militant Peter Tosh were pushed to the side. Black Dignity focuses on early singles of the Wailers, solo work and versions of Tosh songs covered by others, all between the years of 1969 and 1972, years before Tosh would become a solo giant of his own with Legalize It in 1976. While most of these songs have been on CD before, it is enlightening to have them together, especially with those versions by other reggae artists. “Them a fe a Beaten” and “Maga Dog” show the early smoke of a reggae legend catching fire. | <urn:uuid:b24e2351-6e5f-4a8f-a481-4a0cecde0191> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalrhythm.net/WorldMusicCDReviews/ReggaeCaribbean/PETERTOSHANDFRIENDS.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97142 | 253 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is reminding voters and election workers that picture IDs are not required to cast a ballot in Texas. He spoke to Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade about reinforcing the message that Texas has no Voter ID law.
Congressman Gonzalez was upset last week to read that a Dallas Morning News columnist was asked for a driver’s license when he presented a utility bill at the polling station.
UT Medicine San Antonio and the University Health System are kicking off a screening program for Hepatitis C among baby boomer patients at University Hospital. The CDC now recommends everyone born in the years from 1945 to 1965 be tested.
The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts is being marketed as the home for San Antonio’s artistic community. What was once Municipal Auditorium is now just a shell as the rest of the theater is re-built from the ground up.
The San Antonio Police Department said that at this time last year, 28 people had been struck and killed due to jaywalking. The problem is only getting worse this year with 31 fatalities during the same January to October period; this is why police officers are beginning to be more strict in enforcing violations.
During an Oct. 26 press conference at the Primrose at Monticello Senior Apartments on Fredericksburg Road, Chief William McManus announced the start of a one-week grace period for jaywalkers.
Another Air Force instructor under investigation is headed to an Article 32 hearing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland this morning.
Staff Sgt. Eddy Soto of the 323rd Training Squadron is accused of rape and sexual assault in the case of one former trainee and of sexual assault against another. He also is accused of lying to officials and committing adultery, violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Southwest ISD graduated just under 600 students in 2010, but this year the district has grown by 600 students.
"We normally, for the first ten years, saw between 2.75 percent to about 4 percent," said SWISD Superintendent Dr. Lloyd Verstuyft, but he also said enrollment has spiked over the last couple of years, increasing to six percent over time.
Tourism brings in over $10 billion per year, and one out of every eight employees in San Antonio work in the industry. City leaders figured that's a lot of San Antonians greeting a lot of guests, so they adopted a program to help prepare those who are most involved with visitors. | <urn:uuid:18b7c713-2aea-4222-81ca-7855d6f60264> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tpr.org/news/2012/06/news12062901.html?page=107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970039 | 508 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Little Space Heroes is a virtual worlds game for kids, developed and published by Bubble Gum Interactive. It’s aimed at a younger playerbase with the maximum age of 12. Players start as trainees at the Space Heroes Academy. The end goal is to retrieve the Glows from the evil Lord Shadowbot. He is a robot and hates dark. Glows are mysterious creatures that generate light and energy. It is up to players to find them. Gameplay consists of quests and missions. The controls are basic and consist mostly of point and click. There also are a few keyboard commands. Player interaction is highly encouraged in a Little Space Heroes. When making a Little Space Heroes character, players get to choose gender, some visual traits and outfits. Premium members can unlock more clothing and accessories.
Little Space Heroes players have 2 options to move around. They can either click the spot on the ground where they want to reach or use the jet pack to fly. Traveling between distant locations can be done using a teleporter. There is a social list where players can add friends. The maximum number of friends that can be added is 1000. There is also an ignore option. Players that are breaking the rules can be reported to moderators. A player’s current quests will appear in the quest log. After completing the starting quests, players get their own starjet. These jets are not just for moving around. Little Space Heroes players can do some pretty cool moves with it. The starjet can be also used to destroy asteroids that get in the way. There is a mini starjet racing game in Little Space Heroes mmo. Friends can compete against each other to see who’s the fastest. Sometimes, Lord Shadowbot sends his robot minions to stop the space heroes from their quests. Players use the bubble blaster to get rid of them. Landing a starjet can be a tricky task. It takes a bit of time to learn to do it perfectly. Starjets can be customized with gadgets. Space heroes can get little kritterz to accompany and help them.
Little Space Heroes is a free. However, the free content is limited. There are several benefits for members who pay a monthly fee. They gain access to all planets and related quests or mini games. There are events only paying members can attend. They also have more decoration options for their homes. Because Little Space Heroes is a browser mmo for kids, special attention is paid to safety. There are community managers and game masters whose job is to make Little Space Heroes a safe place for the young ones.
- Most recent update piles on some more multiplayer games, additional collectible kritterz pets and new stylish hero customization o...Read MoreFeb232013
Free to play :
If you have a different opinion than our reviewer please leave a comment! | <urn:uuid:5e5a14e0-ef78-478a-ad75-cfd3116675b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mmo-play.com/virtual-worlds/little-space-heroes | 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 | 0.946208 | 573 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Growing disappointment with government policies and anxiety over the future is reflected in this month's consumer confidence index (CCI), which dropped to its lowest level since Dec. 2001, according to a survey released by National Central University yesterday.
The index this month edged down 0.26 points from last month to 67.67, the university's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said in the report.
The monthly survey gauges the public's expectations on stock performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the economic outlook over the next six months.
Among the six sub-indices, only that for durable goods rose, by 0.3 points to 117.3, the report said. Consumer sentiment for the economic outlook showed the biggest decline, down by 0.7 points to 52.05, it said.
A CCI figure of less than 100 points indicates that the public is pessimistic about the outlook for the next six months, while a score of between 100 and 200 points demonstrates optimism, the center said.
"The result is alarming," said Day Jaw-yang (戴肇洋), deputy director of Research Division III at the Taiwan Research Institute (台綜院), in a phone interview.
The weakening sentiment is mainly attributed to the failure of the Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development, which concluded late last month, to reach any breakthrough, especially on much-anticipated cross-strait relations, he said.
"Cross-strait issues are closely related to Taiwan's future development. But the government failed to deal with them [at the conference]," he added.
The report showed that 70.4 percent of the respondents expressed concerns that the domestic economy would get worse over the next six months, compared with 24.5 percent saying it will remain unchanged and 1.1 percent saying it will improve.
The survey interviewed 2,689 people between Aug. 18 and 21 with a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points.
The ongoing political turmoil has eroded people's confidence, Day said.
On the employment front, consumer sentiment for job opportunities declined by 0.65 points to 74.95, according to the survey. | <urn:uuid:2dfaac4f-bbdd-41cc-8c95-07a3cc206076> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2006/08/29/2003325395 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938735 | 452 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Congressional long-term care commission will finally hold its first meeting in late June. However, the panel must conclude its meetings in the fall and commission members are increasingly pessimistic that they will reach agreement on any substantial reforms to the nation’s troubled system of supports and services for the frail elderly or younger people with disabilities.
Last Friday, I participated in a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on long-term care and the prospects for the commission. If anything, that discussion reflected the vast gaps the commission must close in a short time if it is to accomplish anything at all. Not only do LTC experts disagree on solutions, they can’t even agree on facts.
I was joined on the AEI panel by Commission member Mark Warshawsky, director of retirement research at the consulting firm Towers Watson. Other panelists included Josh Wiener, who directs long-term care research at the consulting firm RTI International; Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors; and Stephen Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform.
Part of my role was to remind Mark and other commission members to consider the needs of care recipients and caregivers. This seems obvious enough. But it is remarkable how often they are forgotten in these discussions. Indeed, of the Commission’s 15 members, only a handful represent care recipients and their families.
But much of our discussion focused on two issues that turned out to be quite divisive—both focused on who pays for long-term services and supports.
Mark made two arguments that I think reflect a misunderstanding of the data. The first was that Medicare pays for a large share of LTC costs. Mark reached this conclusion from the National Health Expenditure Accounts that show who pays for care provided by skilled nursing facilities and home health care agencies.
It is not easy to tease out, but much of that spending is for post-acute care, not long-term supports and services. Imagine someone who breaks her hip. She’ll have treatment in the hospital, perhaps followed by rehabilitation and other treatment in a nursing facility. If she is discharged home, she may receive more treatment from a visiting nurse or therapist as well as some personal assistance.
Where is the line between post-acute care and long-term services and supports? It is hard to tell, but Mark assumes that all nursing facility and home care is long-term care, and that is not right.
The other controversy focused on whether wealthy people artificially dispose of or hide assets in order to become eligible for Medicaid. Stephen Moses frequently makes this claim and he did again on Friday based on what he says are interviews with state Medicaid officials. Unfortunately, Mark echoed those views.
However, many studies, including a new one by Josh Wiener, tell a different story. The vast majority of those who enroll in Medicaid long-term care never had much in the way of assets, and thus had very little to give away. While it is true that some abuse the system, the problem is much smaller than critics assert.
These abuses should be stopped. But with all of the problems of long-term care, it is hard to see how this one rises to the top. Yet, it seems typical of the challenges the Commission will face.
The commission has been hamstrung since it was created last January, as part of a deal that also repealed the CLASS Act. The panel was given a lifespan of only six months from the time its members were appointed. It had no budget, no staff, and a charge to reform both financing and delivery of long-term supports and services and address pressing workforce issues. There is no requirement that Congress vote on any of its recommendations.
The commission will have access to some limited Senate funds to pay for commissioners’ travel expenses and the like. Staffers are likely to be detailed from congressional offices with aides from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) taking the lead. Rockefeller was the commission’s primary supporter.
Warshawsky, who was appointed by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) raised several concerns about the panel: He said it would need at least 18 months to do its work rather than four, its staff should be non-partisan, and any decisions should be made by consensus rather than by majority vote (the panel has 9 Democratic appointees and only 6 Republican appointees).
While Mark and I disagree about some important issues of substance, he is absolutely right about those three process issues. But I fear none of them will be satisfied. | <urn:uuid:51f1f3db-2d3b-474c-8a7a-1af6c02011dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://howardgleckman.com/blog/tag/elder-care/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979402 | 933 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Stimulants and building up a tolerance
October 13, 2012 1:51 PM Subscribe
Why don't people with ADHD build up tolerance to their stimulant medications, unlike people without ADHD who take them?
posted by sunnychef88 to health & fitness (16 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
I have a few friends who have struggled with ADHD since they were children, and take stimulants to manage their conditions. They've been taking the same dosages for years and allegedly haven't become desensitized to their effects. They don't get a "high" from the meds either, supposedly.
I've heard about people without ADHD who take Adderall and become addicted, feeling some sort of euphoric sensation. These people take more and more of the stimulant to get the same "high". Some end up abusing stimulants. What's different about how ADHD works in individuals with the disorders vs those without the disorders that affects tolerance and that "high" feeling? I can't get a straight answer about this with all the information to sift through on Google. | <urn:uuid:d04496e7-ea51-4608-b6c9-3578c177248b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ask.metafilter.com/226602/Stimulants-and-building-up-a-tolerance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97093 | 225 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Home The Americas US Midwest
Buddhist-influenced waka poems are focus of lecture
by Margaret von Steinen, WMU News, March 14, 2012
KALAMAZOO, MI (USA) --The waka poets of medieval Japan and their work will be examined later this month when a Japanese scholar visits Western Michigan University.
Dr. Stephen Miller, assistant professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will speak about the poets and the intersection of their work with Buddhism at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Room 3025 of Brown Hall. His presentation, titled "The Wind from Vulture Peak: Japanese Buddhist Poetry and the Heian Aesthetic," is free and open to the public.
Miller is regarded as an expert on medieval waka poetry, a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature during the Heian period from 794 to 1185. In his presentation, he will explain how and why the Japanese poets of the Heian period utilized the 31-syllable form of waka poems to speak about the topic of Buddhism, as well as the problems of compiling and translating these poems into English.
Miller's book, "The Wind from Vulture Peak: The Buddhification of Japanese Waka in the Heian Period," is forthcoming from the Cornell East Asia Series in 2012. He has also published translations and edited a collection of Japanese literature about same-sex love and eroticism called "Partings at Dawn."
Miller's visit is sponsored by the WMU Soga Japan Center, the foreign languages and comparative religion departments and the Haenicke Institute for Global Education.
For more information, contact Dr. Jeffrey Angles, associate professor of foreign languages, at email@example.com or (269) 387-3044. | <urn:uuid:b1f14dca-df86-4fca-b888-3cd9220c2dcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=62,10783,0,0,1,0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939613 | 384 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Middlebury’s liberal arts curriculum will challenge you for the rest of your life. Four years of intellectual and personal growth prepare students to meet the challenges of responsible citizenship in a complex, changing world.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure that each student's education includes breadth of experience across many fields and disciplines, as well as in-depth study in one area defined by the major. Breadth is achieved through a set of distribution requirements that encompass seven academic categories and four courses in different cultures and civilizations. An emphasis on writing in all disciplines sharpens students' capacity for critical thinking and expression.
An array of interdisciplinary programs provide opportunities to synthesize and connect what you learn in many different departments. Intensive study in the major may culminate in a senior thesis, independent project, or artistic production, working closely with professors in laboratories, studios and classrooms to collaborate on research and creative projects. You'll have a broad range of choices, and a great deal of freedom to set your own academic path. | <urn:uuid:2f64ff8a-d3e0-4ad2-96e4-a9a0303c939d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946712 | 203 | 1.820313 | 2 |
This type of rhetoric is simply outlandish crap:
"For many people, even for me, it was a kind of flashback to what happened to us," said Patricio Bascunan, president of the Casa Salvador Allende Cultural Society of Toronto.
He was referring to the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile with an iron first from 1973 to 1990. Many of Toronto's 10,000-plus Chileans, Bascunan said, came to Canada as exiles during Pinochet's regime.
"There are so many people here for political reasons. And we remember the repression of the police and the army," he said.
"The disappointment of the people is unbelievable. People say, `That reminds me what happened to me with the police in Chile. And I never thought it would happen here.'"
Yes, Pinochet returns, on the streets of Toronto. Good grief.
Apparently, several Chilean players will be unable to participate in the match Sunday, due to injuries sustained during the brawl. If I can make my own diagnosis, "strained" political relations seems to be the common injury:
Chile's consul general, Ricardo Plaza, says several of the Chilean soccer players who were injured in Thursday night's post-match brawl with Toronto police, will not be able to play in Sunday's bronze medal soccer match against Austria because of injuries sustained in the clash.
Plaza said he did not know how many players were severely injured.
Severly injured? On Friday, the Chilean soccer official said all players could play on Sunday. I wonder why there no is evidence of any medical attention required, in the aftermath of the Pinochet-like brutality? I actually saw two Chilean players showing their injuries(during the game?) to the cameras- one had a horrific, slightly inflamed lip, the other a bruise the size of a loonie, akin to one my four year olds incurs daily. Apparently, loved ones are being rushed to the player's bed sides. God's speed.
What is happening here, the Chileans have decided that not fielding a full side on Sunday will solidify the perception that they are victims. After watching the dreadful display of football, is it really surprising that we see reaction that is less than honorable?
What we have here is a bunch of punkish, prima donna players, notorious sore losers, that don't seem willing to accept any responsiblity for their voluntary actions. The only "victim" here, that I can find, is Canada's reputation. | <urn:uuid:4a801d65-1ad1-45f0-a138-9677460a69e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farnwide.blogspot.com/2007/07/victim-card.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97519 | 526 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Community cleans up neighbourhood
RESIDENTS have been cleaning up the neighbourhood and marking National Recycling Week in Torbay.
Torre and Upton Community Partnership organised a 'big clean-up' to coincide with the national initiative run by Keep Britain Tidy.
With the help of volunteers, Torbay Council, TOR2 and Community Payback, they collected unwanted household items from selected streets in the Upton area.
The day saw the team fill a large cage with electrical items and white goods.
Treasurer of the partnership Chris Thomas said: "A 40-yard container was filled to capacity with furniture, bicycles, mattresses and even a piano.
"The event helped declutter 30 Upton households and the parish church. Some areas blighted with rubbish were cleared, so a very satisfactory day due to teamwork by Community Payback (led by Supervisor Barry Pitt), staff from TOR2 and members of Torre and Upton Community Partnership, which funded and organised the event."
He also thanked Sue Smith who opened up the Coach Station Community Cafe to provide refreshments for everybody involved.
The community partnership are considering if and how to run further clean-ups in the Torre and Upton area. | <urn:uuid:f7b6b09b-f0af-47fd-af22-4bc85f0dc4f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/Community-cleans-neighbourhood/story-16472117-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953995 | 243 | 1.539063 | 2 |
BLACKFOOT — A program providing tribal youth with academic support services and leadership development opportunities has doubled in size this year.
The NDN Scholars Program—short for Navigating and Developing Native Scholars—began last year as a pilot program aimed toward helping tribal youth reach their academic goals. This year, the program—which operates as part of Partners for Prosperity—received a Learn & Serve grant that allowed for the expansion of the program to focus on service learning. The grant also allows for a leadership conference to be held for all tribal youth in the area.
The new class of 20 students—which consists of students from American Falls, Pocatello, Fort Hall and Blackfoot—was selected by a panel of judges. Eligible students must be a junior or senior in high school, have a 2.0 GPA or higher and show proof of enrollment in a federally recognized tribe. They must also show a desire to succeed and to pursue higher education.
The goal, program manager Randy’l Teton said, is to provide the students with the skills they need to become a future leader in their community. The students are encouraged to go on to college, returning after graduation to serve and work on their reservation.
“We’re creating a new cycle of success,” Teton said.
The NDN Scholars Program includes leadership training and a mentorship program that pairs students with working professionals to provide motivation and encouragement.
In March, the first-ever Rez Nation Youth Leadership Conference will be at Idaho State University. The conference will be March 4-5 and is open to all 9-12 grade tribal youth. The focus of the conference will be to learn about tribal government and to learn how to handle real-life issues that face a tribal council.
“I think all of the youth are intelligent and have the desire to go on,” Teton said. “I feel lucky to be there to help them achieve their goals.”
She said there is always a need for mentors and they are also seeking individuals to serve as committee members. Those interested can find more information at www.p4peid.org/NDN or by calling Teton at 782-3894.
The 2011 class of NDN Scholars are pictured from left to right (top row) Cerissa Honena (BHS), Timothy Haskett (AFHS), Winston Bearing (SBHS), Lonnie Jordan (BHS), Dustin Racehorse (BHS), Traelee Perdash (BHS), Jacob Atkins (PHS), JaLynn George (BHS), Tyrell Lyons (BHS), Makalia Eagle (BHS), Alex Burnett (BHS) and seated are Vannesa Santos (HHS), Toni Rodriguez (BHS), Tess Hugues (HHS), Paige Marshall (BHS) and Austin Kniffin (CHS). Not pictured are Sheldon Moss (BHS), Yvonne Broncho (SBHS), Leela Sorrell (AFHS) and April Marshall (BHS). | <urn:uuid:65904eb7-bc30-4706-9dc8-cda9446d98a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.am-news.com/print/1533?quicktabs_4=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946704 | 627 | 1.734375 | 2 |
By Nicholas G. Carr
Linear thinking has gotten a bad rap in recent years. Business pundits and techie soothsayers have urged us to stop going in straight lines, to abandon the view that the future emerges from the past in a series of fairly predictable steps. They've proclaimed, in their breathless voices, that we live in an era of unprecedented disruption and dislocation. Everything's changing in chaotic, unforeseeable ways. To thrive in the topsy-turvy business world, we have to let go of our outmoded assumptions of incremental progress and embrace nonlinear logic.
I have a one-word response: Baloney.
No, I'm not a head-in-the-sand luddite. I understand that scientific knowledge progresses in crooked and often broken lines. And I know that certain digital technologies, such as microprocessors and optical networks, can for a time expand their capacities exponentially rather than linearly, with unpredictable effects.
But even as technology advances by leaps and bounds, people remain stubbornly linear in their behavior. Day after day, they go from point A to point B and on to point C. If they change their habits at all, they do so at a glacial pace. And guess what? It's those very same people who spend the cash that is the ultimate source of all business revenue and profit.
Here are a couple of simple but telling facts. According to a Media Metrix study of Internet use last year, 92 percent of U.S. households still access the Web via dialup connections, and nearly 40 percent of that group have modems that operate at 33.6Kbps or less. Never mind the painfully slow rollout of dependable broadband access; there are a heck of a lot of people out there who haven't even bothered to upgrade to a 56Kbps modem.
And the average Internet user doesn't exactly live online, either. NetRatings statistics for February reveal that the typical Net surfer logged on 18 times and visited a grand total of 10 unique sites. It's nearly 10 years since the start of the great Internet revolution, and loads of people are still quite happy getting onto AOL a few times a week to check their e-mail.
When applied to business decisions, nonlinear thinking is often destructive. It leads companies to get ahead of their customers, developing and launching cool new products and services that few people need or want. It's great to beat your competitors into a market, but if you arrive before your customers, you're in big trouble. Just ask the founders of entertainment site Icebox.com or b-to-b exchange Chemdex - two once-cool businesses that are now belly-up.
Nonlinear thinking can also lead to industrywide overcapacity as companies rush to prepare for levels of demand that materialize more slowly than projected. Look at all the optical-systems providers that a few months ago were flying into seemingly endless blue skies and today lie buried in unsold inventory.
Amplifying these problems are two other factors. First, it typically costs a lot more to pioneer a new technology than to come along later when the bugs have been worked out and prices have dropped. Second, there's the time value of money. If you invest too early in an opportunity, the odds of ever earning a real return on that cash go way up. Once in a while, a first-mover profits from its aggressiveness. More often, the rewards go to the fast followers.
There are times when wild speculation is appropriate - in research efforts, scenario planning exercises and risk management, for instance. And creative thinking is always valuable. But when making day-to-day investment, operating and marketing decisions, be sure your thoughts stay anchored to the here and now.
Copyright 2001 by Nicholas G. Carr. All rights reserved. Originally published 4/16/01.
The copyrighted content on this site is provided on the honor system. If it holds value for you, please pay a reasonable sum by clicking the above banner. If you are printing out the content or otherwise distributing it, you are required to pay a fee of $2.50 per article per copy. Thank you.
Powered by Movable Type 2.661 | <urn:uuid:26da6a22-4004-4cc8-a7b6-c122e5349990> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/articlesmt/archives/get_back_in_that_box.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953529 | 869 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Got a call from Roxbury yesterday alerting me to a group from San Diego that had gathered on the steps of the Capitol in an effort to raise awareness of the horrific war happening in Uganda which enlists children (ages 7-15) as its soldiers.
Movement leaders Laren Poole and Zach Barows were in Uganda about five years ago filming an unrelated documentary when the vehicle they were traveling behind was blown up by the child-soldiers.
Enraptured by the story of the war being led by Joseph Kony, Poole and Barrows were compelled to tell the story of the plight of these innocent children.
Currently, there are roughly three thousand youths enslaved to war and the US has been ignoring what could be an easy humanitarian effort to save the lives of innocent children.
The concept of The Rescue- (the hundred-city rally organized by Poole and Barrows) is that a group of locally organized individuals rallies in a central location of a city. In order for the group to be “rescued”, an A-List celebrity or politician must pledge to do their part to bring this cause to the forefront of the national political arena.
To date, the group has raised over a half-million dollars for their efforts and it looks as if they will not rest until this senseless war is ended.
I stopped at the Capitol Sunday afternoon and had a brief chat with the organizers about their cause… | <urn:uuid:a354d2b7-c48b-4732-969a-d2b202bfba4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jerseymike.org/tag/harrisburg-rescue/ | 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 | 0.975769 | 294 | 1.523438 | 2 |
I've found that there seems to be some connection between trauma in one's life and then turning to some sort of superstition. It doesn't have to be sexual assault, it can be abuse or any other trauma, but it seems that there is this concept of bad luck. Either the person thinking they are bad luck, or they are worried that doing something will be bad luck and they will get hurt/injured/assaulted, etc.
Then it seems that the supersitious people they turn to, encourage that sort of thinking. They say "oh you must have willed this to happen" or "it's karma" or "you caused it through the law of attraction" or some other woo.
So it ends up being a vicious cycle that the person struggles to get out of.
It's happened to me, and to other people I know. Seems to be a lot of victim blaming/ victim shaming.
I was wondering if any of you have encountered this, and if there was any article about the psychology of it. I'd like to learn more about how it works, and how to stop the negative irrational thought patterns.
Now that I'm an atheist I know I'm not causing anything, and as a feminist I have support that I didn't cause anything, but as someone who's had bad experiences there is this psychological attachment to this irrational thinking and I'd like to learn how to stop doing that.
Indeed if cause and effect were relevant to humans ...
How is it not relevant? We're affected by it. We just suck at analyzing its effects.
"How can we modify the species to the point where we no longer are what we were." A truly patriarchal quest.
How is eugenics necessarily patriarchal? 'Splain please.
I'm glad it was helpful, Jencarlene. I know, sometimes the blaming from women can seem to hurt even more, it's like a betrayal. I've had women tell me "well if you weren't so flirtatious" when they were flirtatious, too. And I wasn't flirtatious with the attacker, I'd made it clear that I only wanted friendship from him. I hate it when people think that if you're ever flirtatious, or if you're ever sexual, then they think you have to be sexual with them, too.
I totally hear you on changing styles afterwards. I know I shouldn't have to do it. I know I should still feel free to wear what I want. But I just don't want to send out any signals of sexiness anymore because I don't want the unwanted attention that makes me fear unwanted advances. And quite frankly, I'm not ready for a sexual relationship until I've worked through all these issues.
I'm really sorry about what your aunt said to you. That is beyond wrong and obnoxious. I'm glad you know that you did not cause her cancer and you did not cause her to raise you. You have a right to grieve if you want to.
I know from experience that it can take a long time for a logical understanding like "It's not my fault" to move from a head understanding to a heart feeling, if you follow what I'm saying. I survived years of childhood abuse and it's taken years of therapy to be comfortable in my own skin. I am so sorry that you have had to live with these nasty people. I hope you have found support. I hope you will seek out some help. You are worth it.
For what it's worth I think a woman should be able to walk down the street naked and still be safe. Until that is true, we as a society have a long way to go.
All the best,
Which is why I love nude beaches. NOT topless beaches, those are ridiculous and are meant for sheer objectification of women. No nude beaches are a fantastic equaliser. Often they are frequented by older liberal people, few bodybuilders, NO religious people, some hedonists, some naturalists. People aren't particularly prone to striking up conversations with naked people so they're usually a peaceful environment. More experience with nudity demystifies the human body and allows us to better appreciate the diversity of the human forms, in size, colour, and age. Humans of different appearances in this context are neither ugly nor beautiful, nor disgusting, nor appealing, they just are, as they are, WYSIWYG.
Back when I was a treeplanter, we had coed bathrooms and showers. The showers were undivided, no stalls. Once we are all in the same boat, with the same degree of exposure, it is very hard to reek havoc. Communal nudity is amazingly NON sexual, and tremendously freeing, free of social status, income, religion, free... I also used to be a masseuse at an outdoor nudist retreat, a family retreat, by a river, with children and butterflies fluttering everywhere. Great place.
Nudists also self-police, though--it's often families, and if someone is spending too much time with a child or doing something they don't approve of, that person gets voted off the island, so to speak.
I don't need to be naked, though, I'd just like to go backpacking through Europe or travel alone in Japan without giving my mom a coronary. It was bad enough for her when I first went to college, I'd hate to see how she'd react if I lived out of a tent or at a hostel for weeks. There is an understanding, though, that I cannot do the things men can do, especially in this world--not because I'm not strong enough, but because of what I am. I'm female. I can never fall asleep next to the Great Pyramids at Giza and be safe. I can't go camping alone for weeks at a time. I can't go grocery shopping alone once it's dark. And if I did, and something bad happened, I know it would be blamed on me. I had my PURSE stolen and it was blamed fully on me, not the thief, by even the cops. I can't go to parties anymore, My purse always has to be on me and I have to carry a lot of stuff--and my wardrobe never has pockets, they don't make women's clothes with pockets.
Being blamed is bad, but KNOWING that if you do something wrong, you'll get the "well you shouldn't have been so stupid" or "well you were just asking for it" lines, really cuts women into their corners and houses.
One woman began documenting her daily outfits, for the purpose of telling if she was "asking for it" that day, and recording the catcalls she gets along with it. Some of the worst ones were when she had her child with her. If she would have snarked back, or "mouthed off" as the assholes going "Lemme see dem titties!", she would be branded as a bitch. a bitch. Such a horrible woman, standing up for herself like that--seriously, there is no allowance of loudness in male society. I've been told that I'm a bitch multiple times and I've just learned to OWN IT, it's the only way to continue to be yourself--embrace the 'bitch' label. Soon, the only choices a male will have is to date the bitch that speaks her mind when she very well pleases.
I think another reason people turn to religion/woo after any kind of trauma is that they have a huge psychological need for empathy and compassion, especially if they are dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which can make even strong logical people withdraw and easily feel intimidated (If you're not familiar with this phenomenon, think of veterans returning from war. They could be very brave but after they've been traumatized they may jump at a noise because part of their brain still thinks they're on the battlefield.)
Unfortunately many people who are empathetic (or seem to be) are into some kind of woo. And since the traumatized person is in a vulnerable state, they may completely forgo their logic and believe what the person is telling them.
I hope I'm not coming across as stereotyping, but the atheists I know in real life seem to value logic over emotion. While this is a necessity in the refutation of religion and other false beliefs, it doesn't offer the emotional support that a person going through a fragile time might need. I've definitely met some compassionate and empathetic atheists here on atheist nexus which I think is great.
Another problem is the structured support systems themselves for people dealing with trauma tend to have a focus on religion or spirituality. This happens at support groups, workshops at mental health facilities, and any kind of 12-step group like Alateen. Some of these groups try to claim they're not religious, they're "spiritual" but it's still woo that they're promoting. And they seem to discriminate against non-theists, so what I've seen happen is that people either forgo the treatment or they finally cave-in and sacrifice their non-beliefs in order to get help and consequently get indoctrinated while they are there.
With regards to trends in empathy, I think you're nearly on the dot. I often wonder about empathy... In some regards I lack it, yet, in other regards I am 100x more empathy driven than others, might it be that because I'm over empathetic that I overcompensate? I find suffering and hatred unbearable. BUT decisions made at those moments are knee jerk reactions and do not help in reducing the incidence of pain and hatred in the future, whether it's gun laws or drunk driving laws or any other socially orientated laws that were instigated under lobby pressures from terribly sad mothers. Cancer's Pink Ribbon campaign is another such which places emotion above prevention. I see empathy as a very double edged sword, and especially inefficient for governance.
I think our society is so obsessed with being "happy" that we forget that happiness is a subjective sentiment, it only exists as a contrast to unhappiness. And the more we reduce the moments of unhappiness, the harder it is to grasp at any sense of happiness. I think unhappiness is an acceptable emotion, a necessary emotion. We should not religion it away, or AA it away, or pharma it away. Happiness and unhappiness are simply subjective assessments of existence. Each of us fights for what seems our priorities, or does not fight, because life is short and pleasure is very satisfying emotion.
Sorry, I'm rambling... empathy... A big long silent hug can be the most intimate fulfilling uplifting healing pacifying action one can receive/give.
Yeah, I've actually found a few different groups here on the nexus that are empathetic, and that rocks! | <urn:uuid:277e1418-2749-4095-9ca2-24dbf433f497> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/after-a-sexual-assault-people?groupUrl=feministatheists&xg_source=activity&groupId=2182797%3AGroup%3A35268&id=2182797%3ATopic%3A1151472&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980628 | 2,244 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Midcap Market
Rainy-Day DividendsVahan Janjigian, 07.22.10, 08:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated August 09, 2010
Tilt your equity exposure toward dividend-paying stocks. Don't worry about the yield, only about whether the dividend has been increasing.
The U.S. economy is troubled. Amazingly, this seemingly obvious statement continues to surprise some bulls. They are glass-half-full types, preferring to ignore bad news. Take housing. For a while things were looking better. The tax credit created a blip in demand, with new-home sales in April rising to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 446,000. But right after the tax credits expired, sales plunged to an annualized 300,000 in May. Inventory surged to an eight-and-a-half month supply (see Gary Shilling's housing forecast). In its heyday the building of homes and apartments accounted for 6% of gross domestic product. Today its share is 2.4%. You would have to be one hell of an optimist to find something good to say about the housing market.
As for employment, there is no cause for celebration here, either. In 2009 President Obama's proposed budget predicted that stimulus spending would help cap the unemployment rate at 8.1% that year and that the rate would decline to 7.9% in 2010. Didn't happen. Unemployment stands at 9.5%, down from its October peak of 10.1%. And remember, census-related hiring was responsible for almost all of the recent payroll gains. Today the federal government employs 3.2 million Americans, 16% more than it did before the recession began.
Stimulus spending really hasn't helped much. It has mostly saddled the government with debt. With interest rates likely to go higher in coming years, the rollover risk on all that debt is tremendous. The bulls will deny it, but a double-dip recession is coming.
Economic dog days are in our future, but that does not mean you should avoid stocks. Instead tilt your equity exposure toward dividend-paying stocks. In general stocks that pay dividends do better over the long run. A research paper written by Michael Goldstein of Babson College and Kathleen Fuller of the University of Mississippi demonstrates that this differential in performance is even more pronounced during recessions and down markets. Interestingly, the yield is immaterial. According to their research, it matters only that the stock pays a dividend and that the board of directors is willing to increase the payout.
Del Monte Foods ( DLM - news - people ) (DLM, 14) sells under well-known brands like Contadina, College Inn, Meow Mix, 9Lives and Kibbles 'n Bits. Evidently consumers are less price sensitive when buying for their pets, as this part of Del Monte has nicer margins: Pet products constitute 47% of sales but 70% of operating income. Only about 6% of sales come from foreign markets, limiting the risk of a strengthening dollar.
Del Monte has been in business since 1916, but it has been publicly traded in its current form only since 1999. The company began paying a quarterly dividend in 2006 at the rate of 4 cents a share. As of August that number will be up to 9 cents. The company also plans to buy back $350 million worth of common stock. Its dependence on Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) (34% of sales) may be Del Monte's biggest risk. Yet the stock is cheap, selling for only 0.8 times sales and ten times expected earnings for the year ending April 2011.
Washington Post ( WPO - news - people ) (WPO, 436) is a company with a long history of dividend payments and increases. It is best known for its newspaper and also publishes Newsweek (the sale of that moneyloser will help earnings). But 60% of revenue comes from education-related activities. Washington Post's Kaplan University offers for-profit online and on-campus degree programs. Kaplan Test Preparation helps students prepare for standardized exams such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the Medical College Admission Test and the Chartered Financial Analyst exams. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK - news - people ) owns 19% of the Class B shares. At 18 times expected earnings for 2010 the stock isn't cheap, but its price/sales and price/book ratios are well below their five-year averages.
Texas Instruments ( TXN - news - people ) (TXN, 25) is one of America's oldest technology companies, with roots in seismic technology used in hunting for oil. That led to semiconductors and then to public visibility as the manufacturer of handheld calculators and the Speak & Spell line of educational toys. Its largest operating segment today makes chips that convert analog signals such as sound and images into digital signals to be processed by other semiconductors. Its dividend payout remained flat for ten years but has been rising steadily since 2004. The stock currently yields 1.9% and sells for 10.3 times the earnings analysts expect for 2010.
Vahan Janjigian is the editor of Forbes Growth Investor and Special Situation Survey and author of Even Buffett Isnt Perfect. Visit his home page at www.forbes.com/janjigian. | <urn:uuid:e3de6eec-e613-4c98-9b37-8eb3f656154a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0809/markets-dividend-yield-del-monte-bear-market-midcap-market.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958151 | 1,099 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Words by Mr Mansel Fletcher
When it comes to designing interiors, Ms Kit Kemp is something of an authority. Having created New York's Crosby Street Hotel, and London's Charlotte Street Hotel and Covent Garden Hotel, among others, she also co-owns Firmdale Hotels with her husband, Mr Tim Kemp, and is responsible for the interiors of all the properties. There are currently seven in London and one in New York, with Ham Yard, a major new London property, currently under construction. She's now written a book, A Living Space, which allows a glimpse into the design process that produces her unique interiors. Ms Kemp recently discussed her work and shared her design tips with MR PORTER.
What kind of designer are you?
You have people who love details, and love to have everything in their cupboards all lined up. Then you also have very architectural designers, and then there's another kind, like me, interested in texture and fabric, and the material aspects of things.
When you design rooms do you consider whether they are masculine or feminine?
I do. It's interesting, because women don't really like to spend time in very masculine spaces whereas men don't mind a space that has more of a feminine edge to it. I don't mean all flowery, but they feel very comfortable with a bit of colour.
Do you design a hotel room differently from the way you'd design a domestic bedroom?
I don't think there should be a huge difference between a hotel room and a bedroom at home. Both should be fun, both should have a bit of drama, and both need to be comfortable. And you need to get the lighting right in both.
How do you make a room special?
I love contemporary things, but when you put older things into a room people want to go and pick them up. It's something to do with the workmanship, because new things don't have much gravitas.
A Living Space by Ms Kit Kemp is
published by Hardie Grant Books
What gives you the courage to press on with your more vibrant colour schemes?
If you put together your inconsistencies then they start to make sense. It's only if you allow input from everyone else and start doubting yourself that it goes wrong. Even if you're painting the walls and people say they don't like the colour, you have to say that it will work in context, once the other things are in place. Having said that, do make sure that the colour on the chart is the same as the one in the pot, because often they bear no resemblance to one another.
What's the most important thing in a room?
Lighting is really important. You've always got to think about where the sun is coming from, and that's whether you're in a basement or on the top floor. What's it going to be like in a thunderstorm, and what's it going to be like in summer and winter?
And what's the second most important thing?
The plugs. You have to decide where your bed is going to be in a bedroom, so you can sort out all your plugs. Don't necessarily put them at ground level, otherwise you'll be crawling around; it's better to have them at waist level. And it's better to spoil one tiny bit of wall with lots of plugs than to have them interspersed around the room. You have to think about where you're going to plug in your computer and your iPad.
By Eclectic by Tom Dixon
- Architecture Now! 8 by Philip Jodidio
By Paul Smith Shoes & Accessories | <urn:uuid:b1c03096-eccd-4a01-9f70-543d05e9fb9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal/journal_issue89/6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971325 | 743 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Just yesterday at least another 80 people were massacred in the Syrian village of Qubair by Assad regime-supported militia. Women and babies were executed at a low angle, crouching; another turn at Houla. Upon threat of even more brutality the bodies of the victims were buried before U.N and other international outfits could lay witness to the day’s horror.
And what is the international response to all that? Well, ostensibly, a lot of diplomacy. Though when it comes to action, no country with near-monopoly firepower has any appetite for any muscular intervention against the Assad regime. Indeed, as Kofi Annan, the diplomat attending to this crisis–badly, at that– said today standing pat next to Hilary Clinton, his 6-point peace plan is not being implemented. Or it’s just not plain working. (Is not the plan too feeble now to be implemented?)
Now, as a matter of realpolitik, no bargain between the Assad regime and the international community will move without Russia’s say-so. Are we to await the Kremlin’s move to entice the Assad regime to step away from power? Is it not too late for that? And what of Russia’s credibility on human rights? | <urn:uuid:460cb36d-35b0-4b75-b32a-264feae2bfb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2012/06/09/perspective-syria-pictures-massacre-qubair/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964407 | 262 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Open water fishing ideas for upcoming seasonFifty-degree air temperatures, drizzle, and receding snow has reminded me that the open water fishing season is fast approaching. Following are some fishing ideas that I am going to be sure to keep in mind when I’m on the water this year.
By: Bob Jensen, The Hastings Star-Gazette
Fifty-degree air temperatures, drizzle, and receding snow has reminded me that the open water fishing season is fast approaching. Following are some fishing ideas that I am going to be sure to keep in mind when I’m on the water this year.
The first thing is to remember that fish are more likely to feed up than to feed down. They will be more likely to move up for a bait than to move down for a bait. That’s the way most fish are built: Their eyes are on top of their head so they can see up better than down. Almost all of the time it will work better to keep your lure a little above the fish.
With that in mind, remember that when the water is stained or dirty, you’ll want a bait that’s working on the bottom to make noise. Let’s say you’re using a crankbait in dirty water. Select a bait that will pound the bottom. You want it crashing into rocks and logs and grinding into the bottom. It makes more noise that way, so the fish can find your bait easier. We want it to be as easy as possible for the bass or walleyes or whatever to find your bait, and in stained water, a noisy bait is easier to find.
When you’re on spot that’s producing well, but then slows down, try something different. Fish become conditioned to lures and presentations. If you’ve been catching ’em good on a white jig but the action slows, try a different color jig or a different lure style altogether. Show the fish something different and they’ll eat it.
If you’re a bass angler, make this the year you use a swimming retrieve with your jigs. Jigs are traditionally a bait that are crawled or hopped along the bottom, but for the past couple years I’ve been breaking jigging tradition with great success.
Team a Jungle Jig with a four inch Power Grub or PowerBait Ripple Shad. Instead of crawling it along the bottom, throw it anywhere you’d throw a spinnerbait. Use a straight retrieve, but pause it for just a second when it comes by some cover. In some bodies of water a swimming jig will be better in spinnerbait water than a spinnerbait.
Pay more attention to your sonar. More and more, anglers are driving around looking at structure with their sonar before wetting a line. If they don’t see fish on the sonar, they keep moving until fish are found. With the side-imaging that Humminbird developed, an angler can look at lots of water very quickly. The more your bait is in productive water, the more fish you’re going to catch.
Last of all, to catch more fish this year, go fishing more often. Wherever you live, there are probably some good fishing opportunities nearby. Get on the water as much as you can, and experiment with new techniques or variations of time-tested techniques. If you do, you’re going to catch more fish and enjoy your time on the water even more.
To see the new 2010 episodes of Fishing the Midwest television on-line, go to fishingthemidwest.com or visit MyOutdoorTv.com | <urn:uuid:1f00e4dc-ba1b-4c80-bc89-2cf5eb402159> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/event/article/id/21817/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940901 | 775 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Clickity is a tray-icon program to simulate mouse clicks and drags that are hard to perform because of limited hand use or limited pointing hardware. It runs on any X system with tray icons, as well as Microsoft Windows, and doesn't require an integrated desktop environment or accessiblity framework to be installed. Clickity can be activated by holding and then releasing the left mouse button or by moving the pointer and letting it dwell in position. Actions include single clicks, double clicks, and drags of the left, right, and middle buttons, as well as scroll wheel motion.
Libsonic is a free C library for speeding up or slowing down speech. However, it's optimized for speed-ups of over 2X, unlike previous algorithms for changing speech rate. Sonic enables clear playback of audio books at 3X speed, and some blind listeners are able to listen at 6X. Libsonic has also been integrated into several text-to-speech engines. It works well on all platforms, even Android phones without FPUs. Pitch control is also supported. | <urn:uuid:db8393ff-b6bc-4f19-8c88-bb9af962d432> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freecode.com/tags/accessibility?page=1&with=&without=3930 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95581 | 217 | 1.742188 | 2 |
How to Act with Dignity on a Business Trip to Japan
In Japan, the customs are so strict that a simple mistake on a Japanese business trip can cost you not only the deal, but also your dignity. Japan's major religion is Shinto (the way of the gods) and is woven into everything the Japanese do:
Language: The majority of the country speaks Japanese. You should use the language of your client in doing business. If you don’t know Japanese, learn phrases like Hello, my name is, Nice to have met you, Goodbye, Thank you, Please, Excuse me, and I’m sorry.
Saying yes is done with a nod. Saying no is done by placing a hand in front of the face and waving it back and forth. In a business situation, simply saying "no" is disrespectful; expressing regret, however, gets the point across and can help you save face.
Appropriate dress: Japanese business professionals are very careful in the way they dress, which is on the conservative side. Men should wear well-pressed dark blue or black suits and ties; businesswomen should also dress conservatively.
You'll encounter many opportunities to remove your shoes on a business trip in Japan, so make sure that your socks or nylons are without holes, and have at least one pair of shoes that are tieless. Scruffy shoes aren’t acceptable.
Greeting rituals: Most Japanese businesspeople shake hands and bow when greeting you. Allow your Japanese colleagues to lead the way. If they shake hands first and then bow, you follow suit. Women normally don’t shake hands, though this rule is changing.
When you bow at a meeting in Japan, the degree is as important as the action. The 45-degree bow, with palms in front of your knees, is offered to only the most senior members. The 30-degree bow, with legs straight and hands at your sides, is most common. Use the informal bow (the quick bowing of only the head and shoulders) before shaking hands if your Japanese counterpart extends his hand.
Business cards: In Japanese, the family name precedes the personal one. Business cards and their presentation are extremely important to the Japanese. Have your business cards translated into Japanese on one side, and change your title if what you do isn’t clear.
Dining and entertaining: In Japan, business entertaining usually occurs after hours and rarely in the home. You’ll be entertained often and many times with little notice. Be a gracious guest and enthusiastic while eating, and show great appreciation afterward.
Giving and receiving gifts: Gift-giving in Japan is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Always bring gifts for new and old contacts. These gifts should be indicative of your rank with your company; the higher your rank, the higher quality of the gift. Don’t give monetary gifts or gifts displaying company logos, though office accessories such as a good-quality pen are suitable.
Social taboos: Don’t cross your arms when speaking or listening to someone. When dining, never point, gesture, talk with your chopsticks waving in the air, or take food from another person’s plate with your chopsticks. Also, avoid using American slang. | <urn:uuid:275b30ff-6b3d-4ba4-8b10-ffcf96c9dc60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-act-with-dignity-on-a-business-trip-to-japa.navId-815477.html | 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 | 0.946452 | 673 | 1.828125 | 2 |
TAMPA, FL - AUGUST 30: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (FL) speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 30, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate during the RNC which will conclude today. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)2012 Getty Images
When Sen. Marco Rubio introduced Mitt Romney at the Republican National convention in Tampa, we heard a lot about Rubio's personal rise to political prominence. We heard a lot about how the story of Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is the 'story of America.' We heard a story that says, in between the lines, “the GOP is a Latino-friendly party, the GOP is your party, Latinos.”
And we watched Rubio desperately attempt to voice his tepid support for immigration reform while not appearing “too liberal” on immigration for the group that got him elected: the Tea party.
Unfortunately for Rubio and the GOP, his introductory speech did little more than make it obvious to Latinos across the country what many of us all ready know: Rubio does not and cannot speak for the majority of Latinos.
He has failed to “deliver” the coveted Latino vote and this speech will not change that. No amount of Spanish phrases or personal stories about his father coming from poverty in Cuba will increase the likelihood that less than 26 percent of Latino voters vote for Romney and the Republicans come November.
Those of us that have followed Rubio's history and record have known this for some time. But now, Rubio and the Republicans disconnect from Latinos will be known throughout the country.
I am proud to say that the organization I work for has played a pivotal role in exposing Rubio's anti-immigrant, anti-Latino record back when nobody knew much about him or his nasty record. Prior to the campaign to expose Rubio's disregard for the Latino community as reflected in his voting record - the No Somos Rubios campaign - the majority of Latinos in the United States had no idea about the telegenic Senator.
In fact, Tea Party activists through out the country knew more about him than Latino voters in the southwest did. Thanks to pressure from our campaign and from Latinos throughout the country, Rubio, reversed his opposition to supporting DREAM Act students in their demand for temporary and permanent solutions to their status.
It was only after thousands of phone calls, denunciations by dozens of Latino organizations, school walk-outs , and serious reporting by media outlets that persistently pointed out Rubio’s hypocrisy that he changed his tune and made favorable statements about DREAM Act students.
Rubio’s high profile speech cannot undo years of animosity and exclusion of Latinos from the GOP. His speech cannot erase the fact that while the GOP puts Latinos at arms distance, they fully embrace the Tea Party’s anti-immigrant war against our community. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
When Rubio went up on stage to introduce Romney, many of us wondered what it must be like for him being there as one of the only Latinos in the convention. But its clear that for Senator Rubio, being given a platform to advance his self-political interests, despite the destruction being rained on your community, is the price one pays for selling his people out.
As he spoke, Rubio was silent about his roots in the Tea party, now the most rabid, anti-immigrant group in the country, according to a recent report by the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR), among others.
While he extolls humanitarian values that sound pro-immigrant, the boisterous Tea Party fanatics will not allow his “friendly” statements to go unchecked. But we Latinos will not give him a pass. We will know that even as he exploits our cultural strengths in being warm, personable and a Spanish speaker, we will know that this is only a rouge to cover over Tea party hatred.
We will not be fooled and we will not forget.
Arturo Carmona is Executive Director of Presente.org. | <urn:uuid:fc45153a-ae15-428b-81a3-1b41577bf9aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/08/31/opinion-marco-rubio-speech-proves-does-not-speak-for-latinos/?intcmp=related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971096 | 849 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Buffalo, NY (WBEN) A free show tonight at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, marking the 150th anniversary. The gallery is the building itself.
"IlluminateAK is the gallery's gift back to the community," says Holly Hughes with the Albright Knox Art Gallery. "What we're doing is taking our beautiful building and doing a 3D projection on it. That means instead of a flat surface, we're using all parts of the building to project it on."
Hughes says the 3D projection technology is new to the region. "We have close to $1 million in technology we've been able to procure," explains Hughes. "We're also working with a production company called New City out of New York City and the artist who's designing the content for the projection." She adds the technology is common in Europe, but is the first time it's being done in Buffalo.
Hughes says the show starts at 7:30, and is free as part of M&T Free Friday. "We want people to come out and enjoy something we're able to offer. This is something I think people will talk about for a long time," believes Hughes. | <urn:uuid:226012c6-8f21-40c7-9b56-611fa0b4778a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wben.com/pages/14437069.php?poll117423ViewResults=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975202 | 242 | 1.554688 | 2 |
With the decision last night by the Honduran Congress not to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a military coup on June 28th, to office, the humiliation of the Obama Administration was complete. The Honduran crisis was the first serious test of Obama policy in Latin America, and Washington’s performance during the first weeks after the coup was exemplary. Military aid was suspended immediately, and the U.S. joined the U.N., the E.U., and the O.A.S. in condemning the coup and demanding Zelaya’s restoration. As I reported from Honduras last month, the coup leaders were privately stunned by the firmness of the American reaction. They seemed especially hurt by the revocation of their U.S. visas. This would not have happened if Republicans were still in power, they seemed to feel. After all, they had overthrown Zelaya partly in the name of anti-Communism—he had grown too close to Hugo Chávez, the Castro brothers, and other left-wing regional leaders for the wealthy rightists who run Honduras to abide. Did the U.S. no longer recognize its friends? The coup regime’s first foreign minister called Obama, in a TV interview, “that little black man who doesn’t know anything”—and that is a bland translation.
But the coup leaders did have friends in Washington. Some were bought, like Lanny Davis, the former Clinton White House special counsel, now a lobbyist, who took them on as clients. Others were ideological. The latter group included conservative regional specialists like Otto Reich (whom I profiled when he was a Bush Administration official) and conservative congressional Republicans. Three congressional delegations travelled to Honduras to show their support for the coup. One was led by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), who placed holds on two key Latin American diplomatic appointments to try to force a change in Administration policy toward Honduras.
These congressional jaunts to Honduras were extraordinary. Not only were our representatives consorting openly with putschists and a regime not recognized by any of the world’s governments, they were also thumbing their noses at U.S. policy and, specifically, at President Obama, on foreign soil. This is not done. It is, in fact, arguably illegal, under the Logan Act. U.S. Embassy officials in Honduras told me that they had never seen or heard of anything like it. The delegations even declined the help of the Embassy in arranging their local schedules. Embassy staff who had served in El Salvador during the civil war there recalled visits from liberal Democratic politicians who vehemently opposed Reagan-Bush support for the Salvadoran government and military. Even they, however, worked through the Embassy and kept a lid on their views while in-country. When overseas, it’s always, as they say, Team U.S.A. But not, apparently, for the likes of Senator DeMint or Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
Finding a new, less bullying, more multilateral approach to Latin America—one that genuinely supports democracy, rather than merely paying it lip service—is, of course, a tricky business. The U.S. wields such inordinate power, particularly in small, dependent allies like Honduras, that pretending that we are just another interested neighbor during a crisis feels like (and is) a sham. Still, the Obama Administration tried playing a minimal role during the first months after the coup, letting the O.A.S. take the lead in negotiations, held in Costa Rica, between the ousted Zelaya and representatives of the coup regime. When those talks produced no agreement, and Zelaya, who had been expelled from Honduras, sharply raised the temperature inside the country—where repression was already intense—by sneaking back across the border, in late September, and taking refuge inside the Brazilian Embassy, it was plainly time for our State Department to start knocking heads together. Hillary Clinton called the coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, and read him the riot act. Her main theme, according to Micheletti, was “restitution”—Zelaya must be reinstated. The Administration sent a high-level delegation to Honduras at the end of October to broker an agreement. Two days later, Clinton triumphantly announced a “historic agreement.”
The unravelling of that agreement—Zelaya is still in the Brazilian Embassy, threatened with arrest if he steps outside—is a tangled and tedious tale. But the key moment undoubtedly came when Thomas Shannon, the American diplomat who led the delegation that procured the agreement, said, a few days later, that the U.S. would recognize, whether Zelaya was actually reinstated to office or not, the government produced by elections scheduled for November 29th. This was a bombshell—or, as Senator DeMint put it, a “welcome reversal.” All pressure on the Micheletti regime to step down vanished. The coup would stand. Coup-sponsored elections would produce a government recognized by the U.S.
The main international election-monitoring bodies—the U.N., the E. U., the O.A.S., the Carter Center—all refused to send monitors to Honduras, where conditions for free and fair elections clearly did not exist. But this week the elections took place, and last night the Honduran Congress, which approved the June coup after the fact with an unconstitutional decree and a forged resignation letter, drove a seemingly final stake through any prospect of a return to the rule of law. Many of the world’s governments will refuse to recognize the election’s results. But the United States will now, in effect, ratify a military coup.
What happened? There seemed to be, throughout October and November, a lot of confusion—conflicting statements from different players and spokespersons—in the State Department and the White House over Honduras. Basically, though, it looks like the Administration got rolled by the Republican right. One of the holds placed by Senator DeMint was on Thomas Shannon’s appointment as Ambassador to Brazil. Shannon and DeMint, it turned out, had been meeting together about Honduras, and had already, according to DeMint, reached an agreement about the Honduran elections before Shannon took his delegation south. Two days after Shannon made his game-changing remarks about U.S. recognition of the elections, effectively undermining the “historic agreement,” DeMint lifted his hold on Shannon’s confirmation. DeMint said he had assurances from Hillary Clinton herself that the U.S. would recognize the Honduran election results “regardless of whether Manuel Zelaya is reinstated.”
Honduras is small, poor, weak—a sideshow among the huge foreign-policy challenges confronting this Administration. But the importance, throughout Latin America, of the ineffectual, disingenuous U.S. response to the Honduran coup is not small. Restive militaries and oligarchies have taken note. The last two decades have been a glorious age, in many ways, for democracy in Latin America, with almost no successful military coups. The democratically elected leaders of the major Latin American countries—Brazil, Argentina, Chile—are united in their dismay over the Obama Administration’s performance in Honduras. None plan to recognize the government produced by this week’s elections. Some of these leaders have a deeply personal understanding of what is at stake. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was jailed by his country’s last military regime. Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, was tortured in prison by the Pinochet regime. The United States, of course, supported Pinochet’s overthrow of Chile’s elected leader, Salvador Allende. How hard is it to understand which side of a military coup we should be on? Latin Americans who believed that Barack Obama represented a new era in U.S. policy in their region have had an unhappy surprise. | <urn:uuid:4f3c584f-5dfa-40b9-9bc3-d7bb421c924a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/12/honduras-zelaya.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973833 | 1,670 | 1.679688 | 2 |
"The Dogs of Winter" by Bobbie Pyron (Arthur A. Levine 2012) is based on a true story from 1990s Russia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, with its infrastructure in shambles, gone were government-controlled health care, pension plans and rent control. The poor were so poor, they often couldn't care for their children. The number of orphans and homeless on the streets was in the millions. Children formed packs, as did the wandering dogs.
When winter approaches, Ivan's mother disappears from their home and village. Five-year-old Ivan finds his way to the city (Moscow), where he seeks refuge near the heat vents in the subway system. So do many homeless children and adults, many of whom sniff glue, are alcoholics or are desperately violent. It's a version of "Oliver," without the music, where children beg, steal and worse. So, yes, it's like Charles Dickens' London — but in the present.
Ivan is part of a band of orphans who must steal to pay 14-year-old Rudy for their protection. It's a relief when Ivan is adopted by a pack of feral dogs. It's a point of pride that rather than steal, he begs for money to buy food for himself and the dogs.
The dogs protect him from gangs of children and police who want to kick the unsightly homeless out of the subway tunnels. Ivan sleeps in a "nest of dogs," names them and they become a tightknit family.
Smoke leads the pack onto a train, which carries them to new shelter when the frigid Russian winter sets in. Ivan smashes and wets sausage and bread to make gruel for the nearly toothless grandmother dog. When rambunctious Rip and Lucky lunge for the gruel, the boy growls till they back off. He has asserted his authority and becomes the human leader.
Ivan tells the dogs fairytales that his mother had read, which allows him to keep his humanity. All the time, his yelping, staring, whimpering with the dogs deepens his communication with them.
When a rich girl helps him, you think, now he will be cared for, but it's only a small episode in a two-year pilgrimage on the fringes of society.
When help finally comes, can he give up his life with the dogs and accept it? What a terrific page turner. The whole family could read this together.
Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, occasional librarian and children's book author. See the book cover or comment at http://www.talesforallages.com/reviews/ . | <urn:uuid:41baa4cb-6b91-4787-9e3a-21fa8478207d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-gazette.com/print/1129243 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979375 | 560 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Before moving to a new home, consider Robert Levithan's strategies for relocating with the right mind-set.
More ways to maximize your assets
- Do It Quickly: There's no point in drawing out the process or dwelling on where you used to live, mentally or physically. "You need to get where you're going," Robert says. "As soon as you're in the new place, it's very easy. You've shifted from the loss process to the creation process."
- Be Practical, Not Sentimental: If your move is about downsizing, Robert recommends that you start by identifying the objects that will go with you and those that can be left behind. If there's an item you're not quite ready to part with, consider storage. Better yet, he says, "Give it to someone you love or to a charity. You can also pass something down as an heirloom now, rather than waiting until you die."
- Entertain: "It's a good idea to surround yourself with a support system," Robert says. Include friends and family at various stages of the process—invite them over, pick up some wine, and have a box-packing party. "Then the move becomes a social rather than an awful, desperate thing. Make it a transition that includes the people in your life." | <urn:uuid:91aaf642-696d-49d0-acbf-030cf104b32d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/home/The-Joys-of-Letting-Go_1/6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971659 | 274 | 1.695313 | 2 |
John S. Hagelin, Maxwell V. Rainforth, David W. Orme-Johnson, Kenneth L. Cavanaugh, Charles N. Alexander, Susan F. Shatkin, John L. Davies, Anne O. Hughes, and Emanuel Ross
This study presents the final results of a two-month prospective experiment to reduce violent crime in Washington, DC. On the basis of previous research it was hypothesized that the level of violent crime in the District of Columbia would drop significantly with the creation of a large group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® programs to increase coherence and reduce stress in the District.
This National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness brought approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs to the United States national capital from June 7 to July 30, 1993. A 27-member independent Project Review Board consisting of sociologists and criminologists from leading universities, representatives from the police department and government of the District of Columbia, and civic leaders approved in advance the research protocol for the project and monitored its progress.
The dependent variable in the research was weekly violent crime, as measured by the Uniform Crime Report program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; violent crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. This data was obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 as well as for the preceding five years (1988-1992). Additional data used for control purposes included weather variables (temperature, precipitation, humidity), daylight hours, changes in police and community anti-crime activities, prior crime trends in the District of Columbia, and concurrent crime trends in neighboring cities. Average weekly temperature was significantly correlated with homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes), as has also been found in previous research; therefore temperature was used as a control variable in the main analysis of HRA crimes. Using time series analysis, violent crimes were analyzed separately in terms of HRA crimes (crimes against the person) and robbery (monetary crimes), as well as together.
Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project. The maximum decrease was 23.3% when the size of the group was largest during the final week of the project. The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion (p < .000000002). When a longer baseline is used (1988-1993 data), the maximum decrease was 24.6% during this period (p < .00003). When analyzed as a separate variable, robberies did not decrease significantly, but a joint analysis of both HRA crimes and robberies indicated that violent crimes as a whole decreased significantly to a maximum amount of 15.6% during the final week of the project (p = .0008). Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project.
Several additional analyses were performed on HRA crimes to further assess the strength of the main findings. These indicated that the reduction of HRA crimes associated with the group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs could not be attributed to changes in police staffing. These secondary analyses also found that the reduction of HRA crimes was highly robust to alternative specifications of the statistical model-that is, the effect is independent of the isolated details of the models used to assess seasonal cycles and trends. No significant decrease was found in any of the prior five years during this period of time, indicating that this effect was not due to the specific time of year. Furthermore, the intervention parameters for the group size revealed that the effect of the group was not only cumulative with the increase in group size, but also continued for some time after the end of the project.
Based on the results of the study, the steady state gain (long-term effect) associated with a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs was calculated as a 48% reduction in HRA crimes in the District of Columbia.
Given the strength of these results, their consistency with the positive results of previous research, the grave human and financial costs of violent crime, and the lack of other effective and scientific methods to reduce crime, policy makers are urged to apply this approach on a large scale for the benefit of society.
Reference: Hagelin, J.S., Rainforth, M.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Cavanaugh, K. L., Alexander, C.N., Shatkin, S.F., Davies, J.L, Hughes, A.O, and Ross, E. 1999. Effects of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program on preventing violent crime in Washington D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July, 1993. Social Indicators Research, 47(2): 153-201. | <urn:uuid:7bb9b1e2-29d3-475b-9430-0a19e7b1156e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952739 | 1,042 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Like elves in a workshop, your friends at the Mudd Library have been busily preparing all kinds of great new stuff during winter break. We’d like to take a moment to highlight a few.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences VIII: This set has been added to our existing JSTOR electronic database collection. By adding this collection, we have increased our JSTOR access to core humanities journals, as well as new titles in philosophy, classical studies, and music. In addition to modern journals, it also contains “a group of rare 19th and early 20th century American Art periodicals digitized as part of “a special project undertaken with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.”
Interested in watching some classic musicals? We now have DVDs of some of the best, including (but not limited to) Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, and Annie Get Your Gun. Speaking of classics, we have also just added the entire set of the original Japanese Godzilla movies.
We’ve recently acquired some very interesting books from a wide variety of genres. Read Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, written by one of the “essential voices of our time,” Adrienne Rich. Our collection of dance resources has been greatly expanded with titles such as, Envisioning Dance on Film and Video. Learn about the archaeological field of prehistoric warfare with Warfare in Prehistoric Britain. Need something to reinforce your fears of a zombie apocalypse? Check out the most recent volumes of the terrifying and amazing, The Walking Dead.
We’ve also added some new video games, including what has been referred to as, “the Wii game we’ve been waiting for,” The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. Three Xbox 360 games have also been purchased, and will soon be ready for checkout.
Of course, this is just a small sampling of some of our new acquisitions. After you’ve enjoyed your winter holiday festivities, stop by the library and take a look! | <urn:uuid:71583a20-c732-476d-b69b-39616e5d2b1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.lawrence.edu/library/category/collection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946171 | 427 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Already a Bloomberg.com user?
Sign in with the same account.
Efforts to extend health insurance to more Americans have been stalled in recent years between liberals' insistence on more government spending and conservatives' advocacy of private-sector approaches. Now Massachusetts may have broken the gridlock with an innovative bipartisan plan designed to achieve nearly universal coverage.
The bill, approved by the heavily Democratic Massachusetts legislature on Apr. 4, marries conservative and liberal ideas. For the first time ever in the U.S., all state residents would be required to have health insurance -- dubbed an individual mandate. Gov. Mitt Romney, a moderate Republican expected to run for the White House in 2008, champions this as a conservative victory that leads residents to take responsibility for their own health insurance. He says he plans to sign the bill soon, although he may first try to change some smaller provisions.
HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED. The legislation also includes such liberal measures as huge government subsidies to help low-income individuals buy insurance. What's more, all companies with 11 or more workers are required to help pay for health insurance -- a so-called employer mandate.
"This is an historic precedent that creates a partnership involving the public and private sector, as well as employers and individuals," says Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which represents health care consumers.
Pollack and other experts predict the bill will have an impact on the health-care debate far beyond Boston. Romney says he has already encouraged a number of governors to study the bill, and he's expected to make the Massachusetts plan the cornerstone of his Presidential bid, much as President Bush touted his education achievements in Texas during his first run for the White House.
"The eyes of the nation are on us," adds Senate President Robert Travaglini, a liberal Democrat who normally opposes Romney. "We led the way with same-sex marriage, and now we are doing it with health care reform." (See BW, 11/28/05, "The Health-Care Crisis: States Are Rushing In")
The bill aims to cover 95% of the state's 500,000 uninsured within three years. To do that, Romney and the legislature split them into three categories. One group is comprised of nearly 100,000 poor people who qualify for Medicaid but haven't yet signed up. Covering them will cost about $225 million a year, although the federal government will pick up half the tab.
The second group, numbering around 200,000, are low-income families and individuals who don't qualify for Medicaid but are too poor to buy health insurance on their own. Nationally, this is the core of the uninsured, since more than 70% of the 45 million uninsured Americans have family incomes under $50,000, according to Families USA. Massachusetts plans to cover these people with big subsidies.
Those earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level would get what amounts to a free ride -- they wouldn't have to pay any premiums or any deductibles. Those making between 100% and 300% of the poverty level would pay part of their premiums, based on a sliding scale.
PENALTIES AS MOTIVATION. That leaves another 200,000 or so uninsured higher-income individuals who are the prime target of the individual mandate. Massachusetts is taking a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot: a series of insurance-market reforms to make it easier and cheaper to buy insurance. For starters, the state will create a "health insurance connector," an innovation "that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy insurance as if they were a large company," says Dr. Marylou Buyse, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans.
The stick: Beginning in 2008, individuals who don't have insurance will be subject to a penalty equal to half the cost of health insurance. Last year, coverage for an individual ran about $4,000 a year, and nearly $11,000 for a family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. "That's a significant penalty," says John McDonough, executive director of Healthcare for All, a consumer advocacy group.
Advocates defend the approach, saying it's similar to requiring drivers to buy auto insurance. But it's still untested, and many Americans may resist being told to pay out for something at least some now choose to go without.
Another issue is how much Massachusetts would have to spend under the new law. Subsidies for low-income residents would total about $720 million a year, figures Massachusetts Secretary of Health Tim Murphy. But the law would tap into the large pot of dough his state has set aside to pay for the costs hospitals and other providers bear when the uninsured get free care at emergency rooms and elsewhere. Most other states don't have such available funds. The $720 million is also a lot less, proportionately, than the amount other states would have to cough up. About 25% of Texas residents are uninsured, for example, roughly twice the rate in Massachusetts.
STICKY POINTS. The employer mandate, while low, is another potentially controversial issue. The bill would require companies with 11 or more employees that don't provide health insurance to pay up to $295 a year per worker. Still, "there's strong support in the business community for this measure," says Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation. "This equalizes the burden between companies who don't provide health care and those who do."
How all this works in practice will also hinge on how affordable health insurance becomes. Murphy, who helped Romney design the individual mandate, predicts reforms authorized by the law -- including higher deductibles and cost-efficient provider networks -- could cut premiums in half, to $200 a month for individuals and $500 a month for families. But others are skeptical. "There's an awful lot that still has to be worked out, but I wouldn't hold my breath" that costs will fall that far," cautions Healthcare for All's McDonough.
Still, analysts believe this bill will vault Massachusetts ahead of all other states in providing health insurance to its citizens. And it will surely reinvigorate the ongoing national debate. | <urn:uuid:adaa6592-ff43-4fad-bd34-f5dbe9701dba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-04-03/in-massachusetts-health-care-for-all-businessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice | 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 | 0.968411 | 1,267 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Happy Mother’s Day! :)
May 10, 2012
A group of activists and mothers in Oakland, Calif. have started an annual Mother’s Day tradition that would probably put Hallmark to shame. Fed up with the mainstream image of mothers as domestic, middle class, and white, they’ve made a real effort over the past two years to celebrate who they call “mamas on the margins”: all those single, queer, immigrant, and young mothers whose stories are often glossed over by corporate card makers.
“I can’t find a Mother’s Day card that looks at our identities in a way that is sentimental for me and my mom,” says Shanelle Matthews, communications coordinator at Forward Together, an Oakland-based organization that’s leading the e-Card drive through its Strong Families initiative. Matthews grew up as one of three kids in a single-parent black household, and wants to celebrate her mother’s hard work. “This campaign is personally close to be because I can finally say something to my mom on Mother’s Day that’s actually of cultural relevance and value.”
Matthews says that the group is aiming to “shift the narrative of “how people think about family. We wanted to create a line of greeting cards that spoke to the marginalized moms in our communities whose faces we never see on the front of those cards.”
Last year, the group released a series of video tributes to young mothers. This time around, they decided to strip the concept down even further by offering up a series of beautifully designed e-Cards that supporters can personalize and send on Mother’s Day. All of the cards feature brown-skinned, non-traditional families and suggest that the act of love is often selfless and, yes, political.
The process of sending a card is pretty simple. Viewers have their choice of 18 cards that they can then customize with a personal message and send to whomever they please. Once the card is sent, supporters can also take a look at one of two online petitions to end funding for abstinence-only education or help support recently incarcerated parents. At present, the cards are only available online, but Matthews says that plans are in the works to create cards that can be distributed in person. “We know it’s not always in the best interests of greeting card companies to highlight the needs of moms on the margins,” says Matthews. “If they did then that would be recognizing that there’s something askew.”
And there’s been plenty askew in the American political climate. The Mamas Day project is in many ways a breath of fresh air in year that’s been resoundingly hard on women, especially those who are poor and of color. While Republicans continue to deny their hand in launching a “War on Women”, the country’s political climate has put women’s bodies and choices on center stage. Gender reporter Akiba Solomon has written about how GOP attacks on Planned Parenthood, a vital source of reproductive care for thousands of women, have continued unabated. Not too long ago, Colorlines.com writer Miriam Zoila Perez retraced the long and troubling history of the anti-abortion movement. (Perez also helms the blog Radical Doula and is a consultant with the Strong Families initiative.)
The group has also kept a running dialogue on motherhood up as part of its Mamas Day Our Way blog series. It’s a candid look at mamahood from varying perspectives: the ambivalent, could-be mom; the mom battling against environmental racism to help fight her kids’ asthma; the ecstatic, new LGBT family.
The group reached out to eight artists to design the cards, including Melanie Cervantes and Nikki McClure. And they say that the experience has been overwhelmingly positive.
Artist Joy Liu said she loved making the cards. “Designing a card specifically for a mother who has experienced loss, and a card celebrating an immigrant mom, was very thought provoking for me as an artist,” said Liu. “I think the bigger vision of motherhood that these cards are promoting is powerful, and I loved the process of depicting it visually.” | <urn:uuid:3a108191-50b9-441c-9a20-aaf7b2f9338c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agentsofsocialchange.wordpress.com/tag/artists/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964316 | 901 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Q & A with the ChiefPolice receive more than twice the usual number of emergency calls the night of the heavy rain
By: Gordon Ramsay, Duluth Budgeteet News
Editor’s note: I live near the sinkhole at Skyline Parkway and 9th Avenue East that a car fell into the night of the torrential rains — Tuesday, June 19th. I was one of the many people who phoned the emergency number, 911, that night. The first time I phoned I got a busy signal. I knew everyone in my situation was okay, but as I was also reading the Facebook statuses of my friends I saw that disaster was all over the city. This made me curious about how many calls the police actually received that night, so in lieu of Chief Gordon Ramsay’s column we are having a question-and-answer form of an article.
Q. Did you experience a large number of police calls on Tuesday night?
A. We received 215 calls for service from 10 p.m. on Tuesday the 19th until 10 a.m. on Wednesday the 20th. This is about three to four times the calls that we usually receive during this time period. [Receiving] 100 calls during this time would be very busy. We were actively assisting with rescues in Fond-du-lac and various other locations, assisting with lost and endangered animals at the zoo, assisting with stuck vehicles, blocking roadways, and still answering routine calls like fights, alarms, domestic disturbances, etc. I-35, Woodland Avenue, Hwy 23, both entrances to Morgan Park and many other roadways were flooded and blocked. Officers were also having a difficult time navigating most roads, as many were blocked by water and debris.
Q. What is the police’s role in times of natural disaster?
A. We assist in any way we can. Our first priority is preservation of life. Evacuations and assisting those in danger were priority number one. Second priority is preventing others from being placed in danger. I know that most of Tuesday night, and into the day Wednesday, we were still primarily operating at a priority one level.
Q. Whose job is it to set up barriers and direct traffic when roads give out?
A. Street Maintenance and Utilities share this responsibility, depending on what the hazard it. If you drove around the city Wednesday, you would have seen there were more hazards than we had signs and barricades for. During a major natural disaster such as this, it is very difficult to get to every hazard, so hazards are generally prioritized in severity and danger level. Most people used common sense and avoided hazards and roadways in dangerous areas. Overwhelmingly, most people were using good judgment in how and where they drove. We began putting out media advisories before midnight Tuesday that people should avoid driving on city streets.
Q. How does the police prioritize where they should respond first, and who can wait a little longer on a night like Tuesday night?
A. Preservation of life is priority one. Everything else comes after that. We were operating in priority one from Tuesday night through a good portion of Wednesday.
Q. What role did the police play in locating zoo animals?
A. We assisted in rounding up “Feisty” the seal, as well as a polar bear. We had received information there also was a lion loose. As officers began to develop a strategy for finding and subduing a loose lion, they thought they might be seeing it right in front of them from the backside. Luckily, when the animal turned its face around to look at the officers, everyone noticed that it was a Shetland pony. So, a humorous story did come out of a truly tragic and difficult day.
We had a few officers assisting animals and zoo staff for some time that night. It really is a tragedy to see what happened there. Zoo staff are so dedicated; it is just a shame.
Q. In some areas of the country, people worry about looting in times of natural disasters. Was, or is, that a concern in Duluth? Why or why not?
A. We are always concerned about looting with events like this. We adjust our patrol operations with this in mind, but it is not possible for us to be everywhere at once. The best defenses are a security system of some type, neighborhood watch, or citizen patrol. Neighbors need to look out for one another especially during times like this. People should call 911 if they see suspicious activity in their neighborhood. | <urn:uuid:60457fe6-a358-4f1b-80aa-5562c77d0e75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/235675/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984166 | 936 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Do you care about facts?
As someone who’s been working in journalism for 30 years, I get up every morning assuming — hoping! — there is still an audience interested in learning something smart and thoughtful about the world they didn’t know the day before.
I say “day” because minute-to-minute “news” is often, unless it’s about a death or natural disaster, wrong, biased, misinformed.
Being the first to report something doesn’t mean being the best.
I don’t use Twitter. When I read my “news feed” on Facebook, I don’t substitute my friends’ opinions, videos and pet photos for an understanding of the world.
But many people now do. For them this is news, traditional media be damned.
Thanks to the Internet, to blogs like this and news that reifies hardened political views, too many people now turn to an echo chamber, listening and reading only those people whose shared vision of the world and its challenges — poverty, reproductive rights, defense, education, health care — comforts, soothes and reassures them that their worldview is right!
What we’re gaining — in a feeling of connectedness and community — we’re also losing by ignoring or shutting out the viewpoints of those with whom we disagree, perhaps violently. If you live in the U.S. and read the liberal New York Times, it’s worth also reading the opinion and editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to see a totally different view of the same issues.
Just because you lean wayyyyyy to the left, or right, doesn’t mean your opinion is accurate because it’s shared by those who shout your tune the loudest.
No matter how much you may disagree, if you refuse to examine and consider other viewpoints, how can you learn how other people think? With a Presidential election here in a few months, it’s certainly going to play out at the ballot box.
You can’t just cover your ears and shout lalalalalalalalalalalala and hope to have a clue what’s going out there.
I read a variety of media, and try to include British and Canadian sources as often as possible. If I were less lazy, I’d also read Spanish and French media. Nor do I assume that any journalist, or media outlet, has some exclusive claim to the truth. I know better!
When it comes to “truth”, there are many different versions.
Here’s a short video interview from the Guardian newspaper with American journalist Carl Bernstein about the issue; he was one of the two Washington Post reporters whose exhaustive, dogged investigative work on former President Richard Nixon led to his resignation.
In his view, the scourge of our era is this closed-eyes/closed-ears attitude. Our unwillingness to listen to one another in order to gain some sort of consensus.
Do you seek out views other than your own? | <urn:uuid:14dec40c-a287-4f36-94f4-12194d50515e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broadsideblog.wordpress.com/tag/being-informed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956204 | 638 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Truck drivers are the life blood of the food transportation business. Without them product would languish at the dock and thanks to the ongoing truck driver shortage, qualified drivers are hard to find and even harder to keep.
In addition, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates that fatal crashes involving large trucks--with a gross vehicle weight greater than 10,000 pounds--have been rising by hundreds of incidents each year, since 2001. In 2005, there were 4,533 crashes that claimed the lives of 5,212 people.
With this in mind, it is in the best interest of a company to do all it can to keep its drivers safe while they're on the road. In order to do this, fleet managers have to not only examine the attitudes of the drivers they're employing, but they also have to examine their organizations' safety culture and the ways they can bring the two together.
"When you're someone who spends his days driving an 80,000 pound rig, you tend to feel like you're invincible," notes Michael Kolodzie, safety director at G&C Foods, a Syracuse, NY-based re-distributor of boxed beef as well as frozen, refrigerated and dry products. G&C maintains a staff of approximately 45 drivers.
"It's hard as a director to try and take that invincibility away from the drivers and say they have to take 10 hours off from driving because that's what the law says they must do," says Kolodize.
He adds that he's not trying to play big brother. "I try to coach them to follow the rules and directions because I don't want them to get hurt." The buy-in happens when he lets them know the company just wants them to get home safe to their families each day. "After that it's an easy sell."
The "bullet proof" attitude is even stronger with experienced drivers, according to Gary Petty, president and CEO of the National Private Truck Council (NPTC), Arlington, VA. According to Petty, this ingrained attitude can have serious repercussions for everyone on the road.
"They've been so successful at having never had an accident that they get overconfident," he says. "They overestimate their skills and underestimate the risks."
Petty explains that most of these drivers have never been trained in essential crash survival skills such as decision driving, crash avoidance and pre-emptive strategic visioning--which are specific skills that can dramatically mitigate a drivers' experience in an accident situation. The NPTC has been arranging training sessions for its members that demonstrates these skills.
Panic breaking, Petty says, is an all-too-frequent tactic that experienced drivers fall back on in crash situations that leads to jackknifing--a problem that could be avoided by encouraging them to develop more cautionary practices such as giving themselves more time and distance between the vehicle they are following.
"At only 29 mph, a tractor trailer still needs at least 460 feet to come to a complete stop," he says. "Realizing the physics of your equipment and braking capacity are critical."
Getting drivers to attend training can help them see how they overestimate their skill set and teach them new crash avoidance skills such as chop or shuttle steering--where the driver shimmies the steering wheel left/right/left/right in skid situations. "It changes their behavior," he adds.
Orient Toward Safety
Time and again, industry professionals point to the fact that if an organization changes its culture, it will change the level of safety the individuals in it experience--but the only direction it works from is the top-down.
"It really starts with our CEO and his leadership team," says Tony Montalbano, group director of safety division, for supply chain solutions at Ryder System Inc., Miami. "Their level of commitment has helped us earn our reputation for safety."
From there, the company's emphasis on safety works its way down to the drivers themselves. Ryder has found great success with indoctrinating drivers into their safety culture through computer-based training. It begins with eight hours of employee safety orientation that can be done remotely. When new employees arrive for work, they receive location specific information during the face-to-face orientation. | <urn:uuid:fd27766b-b894-4ce1-9928-e81e20a6af8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foodlogistics.com/article/10315523/make-drivers-part-of-your-safety-team | 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 | 0.977493 | 869 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Pakistan Cricket Board are set for a collision course with their Indian counterparts on the controversial Decision Review System during the International Cricket Council’s annual conference in Hong Kong.
PCB officials are prepared to raise objections on a number of proposed constitutional amendments relating to the ICC set-up.
The ICC Cricket Committee’s recommendation of employing DRS in all formats especially in all Test matches will be one of the main issues of discussion on the agenda in the upcoming meetings.
And the PCB have put their foot down and will be supporting the DRS’ implementation in all Tests.
“We have always supported the use of DRS,” Ijaz Butt told The Express Tribune before leaving for Hong Kong yesterday. “India may be against it but we have our own stance on it. We believe the latest technology is good for the game.” he said.
The BCCI on their part have always opposed the use of DRS and PCB’s stance could further sour relations between the two boards.
The ICC’s Full Council will consider a constitutional change in the process of nominating the ICC president under the new proposal, which suggests that the executive board should decide the process and term of office.
If endorsed, the proposal will remove the current rotational system of nomination and the fixed term of appointment. Pakistan, which is the next candidate with Bangladesh for presidency and vice-presidency, will oppose the change. “Presidency is the right of every Full Member board,” said a top PCB official.
“We have reservations regarding this proposed change which we will convey in the meetings,” he added. | <urn:uuid:76e555e6-79fe-4512-a70b-c8a8c43714dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lalitmodi.com/news.php?id=97&p=bios | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95685 | 340 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Release Date: April 27, 2011
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The public is invited to come on down and play new video games designed and produced by students in the University at Buffalo Department of Media Study, from 6-9 p.m. May 2 in 242 and 278 Center for the Arts, UB North Campus.
It's free and refreshments will be served.
The games were created in the Virtual Worlds Two class taught by Josephine Anstey, PhD, associate professor of media study. They include:
-- "Dhp 129," a game about food and where it comes from, designed by Devin Wilson, Russel Aronchick and Jess Printup.
-- "Mind Games," a game about Sarah, a young lady with a troubled past. Players complete puzzles and explore her memories to find out just how troubled she is. Designed by David Kim, Dan Prescott and James Smith.
-- "Devil's Breath" relives the distorted memories of a detective. His actions are clear but his motives are not. It's up to the player to solve the case. Designed by Nate Marquardt, John Longanecker, Leomary Rodriguez and Xiangxiang Zeng.
-- "Fatso and Nutreus" Yeeks! Your very body is in peril -- SAVE YOURSELF! Eat better now or watch the inside of your body face the consequences. Designed by Kevin Diehl, Alex Fineberg, Shirley Allotey and Alex Weidner.
-- "A Matter of Scale:" Kick a ball, a speck of pollen, a virus. Experience fundamental forces at the macro, micro and nano scale. Designed by Dave Mauzy.
-- "Time": She's gonna die, man -- if only you could go back in time to save her! But wait, didn't you just invent a time machine? Designed by Bojan Percevic and Ryan Mallette.
To learn more about the projects, go to http://josephineanstey.com/Teaching/VirtualWorldsTwo?action=browse. | <urn:uuid:9881f2a0-0766-4b5d-860a-47acf60c3be5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalo.edu/news/news-releases/social-sciences.host.html/content/shared/university/news/news-center-releases/2011/04/12512.detail.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931913 | 433 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The state of Maine faces serious challenges. While the rest of New England has found a path out of the economic downturn, Maine’s economy was the only one that shrunk. There are still more than 50,000 Mainers officially out of work and even more who are working but not earning enough to make ends meet. These are serious problems that require serious solutions.
Recently, Senate minority leader Mike Thibodeau accused Democrats of wanting to tax our way out of our problems. This most certainly is not the case. And, in fact, his assertion is ironic, given that he and some other legislative Republicans are endorsing Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal that would likely result in increased property taxes for most Mainers.
More accurately, Democrats believe that, as with most things in life, we need a balanced approach to address our fiscal woes. While it is true that we cannot tax our way out of our problems, it is equally true that we can’t cut our way to prosperity.
Interestingly, the budget priorities put forth by LePage do both.
Last year, the governor and his legislative allies rammed through the Legislature an unfunded $400 million tax cut that mostly benefits the wealthy. This year, that bill is due, and LePage’s solution is to shift more than $420 million of the state’s tab onto the property tax owners of Maine, middle-class families, the elderly and the most vulnerable.
This will cost my district nearly $10 million in lost revenue, forcing communities to cut essential town services, like police, education, fire and rescue. Or towns may be forced to raise property taxes, in some cases as much as 30 percent. Communities could also do both. If you own a home in Maine, pay attention.
While proposing to raise taxes for Maine property owners, the governor’s budget eliminates property tax relief programs like the Homestead exemption and Circuit Breaker program for Mainers under the age of 65.
The governor’s budget also reduces funding to school districts — another cost shift that towns will have to pick up.
Democrats believe that proposing a massive tax hike to pay for a tax cut that largely benefits the wealthiest among us is simply unfair. We believe people making more than $250,000 a year should pay more than those making $48,000. Right now, middle- and low-income Mainers are paying more of their income in overall state, local and property taxes than the wealthiest Mainers, according to Maine Revenue Services.
If a budget is a reflection of priorities and choices, what can we conclude about the governor’s priorities and choices?
The governor and I share the goal of making government efficient and responsible. Shifting the costs to our towns is passing the buck, and that is not responsible — nor is it efficient.
There will always be different opinions about the best way to balance a budget, but many of us can agree that a massive tax shift onto our middle class, small businesses, communities, elderly and the poor is the wrong option. Instead, we need a balanced and responsible budget that won’t undercut our state’s economy or harm our efforts to grow the middle class.
We can start by crafting a budget that invests in job creation, education, healthy families and reduced energy costs.
We can work to put more money in the pockets of Maine’s families and small businesses so that those extra dollars can be spent at local businesses. This is one way to jump-start our economy and create more demand for our products.
In his recent State of the State address, LePage cited President John F. Kennedy’s caution about taxes. I hope that in the months ahead the governor will not forget another Kennedy quote: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.”
Sen. John Patrick of Rumford represents District 14 in Oxford County. | <urn:uuid:817155f5-1420-454b-8b1d-3c5c54294162> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/05/opinion/actually-lepages-budget-would-increase-taxes/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9554 | 807 | 1.828125 | 2 |
By SARAH KENT and JENNY GROSS
The European Union's ban on Iranian oil has pushed up the price of similar types of low-quality oil as buyers scrabble for alternative supplies.
Paradoxically, there are surprising bargains to be found for refiners with the flexibility to purchase and process higher-quality grades.
While the price of high-sulfur Russian Urals crude has risen sharply since the embargo began on July 1, higher-quality grades in the Mediterranean and West Africa have come under pressure, providing some unexpected breathing room for at least some European refiners.
Soaring crude-oil prices and weakening local demand for fuel eroded profits for European refiners in recent years, resulting in several high-profile shutdowns.
Eight European refineries, equivalent to about 8% of the working refining capacity in the region in the first quarter of this year, have closed since the start of the economic crisis in 2008.
Now, refineries that are able to process light, sweet crudes are increasingly taking advantage of the lower prices, traders in the Mediterranean market said.
"All the Iranian crude is no longer coming to Europe and that's causing a relative shortage of heavy grades versus light ones and is creating a distortion in the market," said Massimo Vacca, head of investor relations at Saras, an Italian refiner.
"Saras is lucky because we have a flexible refining configuration. In general, not all refineries can easily switch from one grade to the next."
European refiners have traditionally coveted high-quality, sweet oil because it is easier to process into high-value products such as gasoline.
As a result, it normally trades at a premium to oils with a high sulfur content, similar in quality to Iran's crude, such as Urals and Iraq's Kirkuk.
But the price of lower-quality crudes has been driven higher this month because of the Iranian embargo, and low supplies and delays in exports of Urals and Kirkuk.
At the same time, a surge in production of shale oil in the US has reduced demand for light, sweet crude, while competition remains high for heavier crude because of demand from high-tech Asian refineries that can process it. And the resumption of Libyan crude output has added to the glut of the light, sweet crudes.
Iranian oil output fell by 100,000 bpd in June, compared with May, to 3.2 million bpd because of US and European Union sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran over its nuclear program. This took Iran's oil production to near 22-year lows.
Morgan Stanley, in a note published Wednesday, said the loss of medium-sour oil from Iran has pushed some refiners to shift purchases toward cheaper and more-available light, sweet crudes from the Atlantic Basin.
But not all refiners have the ability to easily switch between grades of crude oil, and that is putting pressure on them to acquire similar-grade oil from other sources. The European Union, on average, took 800,000 bpd of oil from Iran in 2011.
"The refiners will clearly switch to the grades that make most sense economically if they can make it work, but in the first instance they would look for crude of a similar quality to ones that they normally process, which is why Urals and Iraqi crude may be preferred," said Toril Bosoni, a senior oil-market analyst at the international Energy Agency.
"Anecdotal evidence and prices indicate there is increased buying of Urals to replace Iranian [crude], and it's a good substitute quality wise."
In the last week, Urals traded at a premium of as much as 30 cents to the physical Brent benchmark.
"In the past, sweet was stronger, but nowadays the situation is different," said one oil trader at a European refiner, noting that the surge in production in the US has caused the export market for light, sweet crudes to fall apart.
Dow Jones Newswires | <urn:uuid:9aba7e04-e76a-4fdd-a6fb-3c55a45e0b4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3060889/Petrochemicals-Polymers/Refiners-ponder-a-sweet-and-sour-conundrum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958303 | 823 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Foley Library will be closed Wednesday, June 19 at 5:00 pm due to building closure
Pippi Page to Stage
The fall programming schedule at Great River Regional Library (GRRL) is filling up and the Pippi Page-to-Stage Workshop is one of the offerings. It features drama exploration, crafts and theater games to help children develop creativity and self-expression. Pippi is presented by the Great River Educational Arts Theatre (GREAT Theatre), founded in St. Cloud in 1998, and dedicated to making live theater a vital part of the lives of young people and their families in Central Minnesota.
Check the GRRLEvents listing to discover programming at your regional libraries.
Pippi at GRRL is funded in part with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. | <urn:uuid:9bbd3b71-5540-45ba-9f34-628452405ea9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.griver.org/library-news/pippi-page-stage | 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 | 0.947825 | 163 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Top Kennedy speechwriter, aide dies
Published: Monday, November 1, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 1, 2010 at 12:29 a.m.
NEW YORK | President John F. Kennedy’s aide and speechwriter, Theodore C. Sorensen, a symbol of hope and liberal governance, died at a time of contempt for Washington and political leaders.
Sorensen’s passing Sunday came just as supporters of his friend and boss were preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a very different moment in history: The election of Kennedy as president and the speech that remains the greatest collaboration between Sorensen and Kennedy and the standard for modern oratory.
With its call for self-sacrifice and civic engagement — “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” — and its promise to spare no cost in defending the country’s interests worldwide, the address is an uplifting but haunting reminder of national purpose and confidence, before Vietnam, assassinations, Watergate, terrorist attacks and economic shock.
But to the end, Sorensen was a believer.
He was 82 when he died at noon at Manhattan’s New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center from complications of a stroke, his widow, Gillian Sorensen, said.
Sorensen had been in poor health in recent years and a stroke in 2001 left him with such poor eyesight that he was unable to write his memoir, “Counselor,” published in 2008. Instead, he had to dictate it to an assistant.
President Barack Obama issued a statement saying he was saddened to learn of Sorensen’s death.
“I know his legacy will live on in the words he wrote, the causes he advanced, and the hearts of anyone who is inspired by the promise of a new frontier,” Obama said.
Hours after his death, Gillian Sorensen said that although a first stroke nine years ago robbed him of much of his sight, “he managed to get back up and going.”
“I can really say he lived to be 82 and he lived to the fullest and to the last — with vigor and pleasure and engagement,” said Gillian Sorensen, who was at his side to the last. “His mind, his memory, his speech were unaffected.”
Her husband was hospitalized Oct. 22 after a second stroke that was “devastating,” she said.
Of the courtiers to Camelot’s king, special counsel Sorensen ranked just below Kennedy’s brother Bobby. He was the adoring, tireless speechwriter and confidant to a president whose term was marked by Cold War struggles, growing civil rights strife and the beginnings of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam.
Some of Kennedy’s most memorable speeches, from his inaugural address to his vow to place a man on the moon, resulted from such close collaborations with Sorensen that scholars debated who wrote what. He had long been suspected as the real writer of the future president’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Profiles in Courage,” an allegation Sorensen and the Kennedys emphatically — and litigiously — denied.
They were an odd but utterly compatible duo, the glamorous, wealthy politician from Massachusetts and the shy wordsmith from Nebraska, described by Time magazine in 1960 as “a sober, deadly earnest, self-effacing man with a blue steel brain.” But as Sorensen would write in “Counselor,” the difference in their lifestyles was offset by the closeness of their minds: Each had a wry sense of humor, a dislike of hypocrisy, a love of books and a high-minded regard for public life.
Kennedy called him “my intellectual blood bank” and the press frequently referred to Sorensen as Kennedy’s “ghostwriter,” especially after the release of “Profiles in Courage.” Presidential secretary Evelyn Lincoln saw it another way: “Ted was really more shadow than ghost, in the sense that he was never really very far from Kennedy.”
Sorensen’s brain of steel was never needed more than in October 1962, with the U.S. and the Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear annihilation over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Kennedy directed Sorensen and Bobby Kennedy, the administration’s attorney general, to draft a letter to Nikita Khrushchev, who had sent conflicting messages, first conciliatory, then confrontational.
The carefully worded response — which ignored the Soviet leader’s harsher statements and included a U.S. concession involving U.S. weaponry in Turkey — was credited with persuading the Soviets to withdraw their missiles from Cuba and with averting war between the superpowers.
Sorensen considered his role his greatest achievement.
“That’s what I’m proudest of,” he once told the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald. “Never had this country, this world, faced such great danger. You and I wouldn’t be sitting here today if that had gone badly.”
Robert Dallek, a historian and the author of “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963,” agreed that Sorensen played a central role in that crisis and throughout the administration.
“He was one of the principal architects of the Kennedy presidency — in fact, the entire Kennedy career,” he said Sunday.
Of the many speeches Sorensen helped compose, Kennedy’s inaugural address shone brightest. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations includes four citations from the speech — one-seventh of the entire address, which built to an unforgettable exhortation: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Much of the roughly 14-minute speech — the fourth-shortest inaugural address ever, but in the view of many experts rivaled only by Lincoln’s — was marked by similar sparkling phrase-making:
— “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
— “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
— “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
As with “Profiles in Courage,” Sorensen never claimed primary authorship of the address. Rather, he described speechwriting within Kennedy’s White House as highly collaborative — with JFK a constant kibitzer.
In April 1961, weeks into the Kennedy presidency, the Soviet Union launched the first man into orbit. Less than a month later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space with a 15-minute suborbital flight. The idea of a moon landing “caught my attention, and I knew it would catch Kennedy’s,” Sorensen recalled. “This is the man who talked about new frontiers. That’s what I took to him.”
Shortly after Shepard’s landmark flight, Kennedy said: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” U.S. astronauts met that deadline in July 1969.
Kennedy reinforced the Eisenhower administration’s commitment of sending advisers to South Vietnam, but Sorensen maintained that the president, had he not been assassinated, would eventually have withdrawn American troops. Sorensen also believed that the president would have passed the civil rights legislation that successor Lyndon Johnson pushed through.
On the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, Sorensen was leaving his home in Arlington, Va., where he had stopped briefly after lunching with a newspaper editor, when he was summoned to the White House.
There, his secretary told him that the president had been shot in Dallas.
“Sometimes,” Sorensen told an interviewer in 2006, “I still dream about him.”
Sorensen’s youthful worship never faded, even as he acknowledged Kennedy’s extramarital affairs. “It was wrong, and he knew it was wrong, which is why he went to great lengths to keep it hidden,” Sorensen wrote in his memoir. “In every other aspect of his life, he was honest and truthful, especially in his job. His mistakes do not make his accomplishments less admirable; but they were still mistakes.”
Sorensen would witness a brief revival of Camelot with the presidential election of Obama, whom Sorensen endorsed “because he is more like John F. Kennedy than any other candidate of our time. He has judgment as he demonstrated in his early opposition to the war in Iraq.”
A year after Obama’s election, Sorensen said he was disappointed with the president’s speeches, saying that Obama was “clearly well informed on all matters of public policy, sometimes, frankly, a little too well informed. And as a result, some of the speeches are too complicated for typical citizens and very clear to university faculties and big newspaper editorial boards.”
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen was born in Lincoln, Neb., on May 8, 1928. His father, C.A. Sorensen, was a lawyer and a progressive politician who served as Nebraska’s attorney general.
His son described the elder Sorensen as “my first hero.” Growing up, Sorensen once joked, “I wasn’t involved in politics at all — until about the age of 4.”
He graduated from Lincoln High, the University of Nebraska and the university’s law school. At age 24, he explored job prospects in Washington, D.C., and found himself weighing offers from two newly elected senators, Kennedy of Massachusetts and fellow Democrat Henry Jackson, from Washington state.
As Sorensen recalled, Jackson wanted a PR man. Kennedy, considered the less promising politician, wanted Sorensen to poll economists and develop a plan to jump-start New England’s economy.
“Two roads diverged in the Old Senate Office Building and I took the one less recommended, and that has made all the difference,” Sorensen wrote in his memoir. “The truth is more prosaic: I wanted a good job.”
At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, the charismatic Kennedy attracted wide attention as a candidate for vice president. He eventually withdrew, but his exposure at the convention led to a flurry of invitations to speak around the country.
During the next four years — the de facto beginning of Kennedy’s presidential run — he and Sorensen traveled together to every state, with Sorensen juggling various jobs: scheduler, speechwriter, press rep.
“There was nothing like that three-four year period where, just the two of us, we were traveling across the United States,” Sorensen told The Associated Press in 2008. “That’s when I got to know the man.”
After Kennedy’s thousand days in the White House, Sorensen worked as an international lawyer, counting Anwar Sadat among his clients. He stayed involved in politics, joining Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1968 and running unsuccessfully for the New York Senate four years later. In 1976, President Carter nominated Sorensen for the job of CIA director, but conservative critics quickly killed the nomination, citing — among other alleged flaws — his youthful decision to identify himself as a conscientious objector.
Besides “Counselor,” his books included “Decision Making in the White House” (1963), “Kennedy” (1965) and “The Kennedy Legacy” (1969). In 2000, Hollywood turned the Cuban missile crisis into a movie called “Thirteen Days.” Actor Tim Kelleher played Sorensen.
His role, according to Sorensen? To “think and worry. ... often bent over.”
Gillian Sorsensen told the AP that a public memorial service would be held for her husband in about a month, but the exact date has yet to be set. She said there would be no formal funeral.
Survivors also include a daughter, Juliet Sorensen Jones, of Chicago; three sons from his first marriage, Eric Sorensen, Stephen Sorensen and Philip Sorensen, all of Wisconsin; and seven grandchildren.
Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik, Mike Stewart and Cristian Salazar contributed to this report.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article | <urn:uuid:412f869c-2115-4087-b58f-4dda77cbb57a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101101/NEWS/101109995?Title=Top-Kennedy-speechwriter-aide-dies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976888 | 2,813 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty DVD
SKU ID #68012
You Save: $3.96 16% off
To Order by Phone Call 1-800-933-6249
- Additional Details
- Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Rating: Not Rated
- Number of Discs: 1
- Run Time: 50 Minutes
- Region: Region 1
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Language: English
- Studio: A&E Home Video
- DVD Release Date: October 1, 2004
This look at their legacy and influence shows why they have been referred to as India's Kennedy Family.
- Dramatic footage captures key moments in Indian political history.
- An in-depth look at the leaders who left their mark on history.
- Filled with commentary from political insiders and veteran diplomats.
One applied the principles of nonviolence to usher in a revolution. Another oversaw the coming of age of a new world power.
Few nations have undergone as dramatic a transformation since World War II as India. Freed from the British Empire and left to chart its own course, the world's second most populous nation has joined the nuclear community, become a major global economic force, and matured into a stable democracy. Without the efforts of two remarkable men, none of this would have happened. While the life and work of activist and visionary Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi was the inspirational root of modern India, his disciple Motilal Nehru, nationalist leader of India, lawyer, and journalist, was the paterfamilias.
BIOGRAPHY® documents their stunning successes as well as the tragedies that have threatened to unravel the dynasty that have shepherded their ancient nation into the modern world. | <urn:uuid:d90379a0-0fb5-4dfb-a9c5-ca0b0f226abb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=68012&v=biography_dvds&pagemax=all&mobile_browser=on | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93774 | 368 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Cult star Rodriguez seeks to resolve lost royalties
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The story of Sixto Rodriguez, the greatest protest singer and songwriter that most people never heard of, is a real-life fairytale with a Hollywood finale.
In his latest incarnation, the guitarist has unwittingly become a champion for the rights of wronged musicians.
The Detroit construction worker whose albums flopped in the United States in the 1970s wants to know what happened to royalties in South Africa, where he unknowingly was elevated to rock star status.
While Rodriguez toiled in the Motor City, white liberals thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean burdened by the horrors of the apartheid regime were inspired by his songs protesting the Vietnam War, racial inequality, abuse of women and social mores.
Songs composed half a century ago that some equate to "inner-city poetry" still are relevant today: Like his poke at the pope's stance on birth control, and his plaints about corrupt politicians and bored housewives.
In South Africa, they were massive and enduring hits that still sell today, considered standards like Paul Simon's "Bridge over Troubled Waters," according to Stephen "Sugar" Segerman, a Cape Town record store owner whose nickname comes from the Rodriguez song "Sugarman."
"He's more popular than Elvis" in South Africa, Segerman said in an interview.
For decades, Rodriguez remained in the dark. Now the heartwarming documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," which tells of two South Africans' mission to seek out the fate of their musical hero, has been nominated for an Oscar.
The film by Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul and the story behind it have proved transformative for several people, not least Rodriguez, who is on a worldwide tour that has included New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall.
Even after the extent of his fame was brought home to him when he first toured South Africa to sold-out concerts 15 years ago, Rodriguez had said he had no interest in pursuing the money, holding true to his lyrics "And you can keep your symbols of success, Then I'll pursue my own happiness."
Now, he is not so sure: that people were profiting off his music doesn't sit well with him. He plans to seek legal resolution for the lost royalties, though he's not certain where to start.
"I think omission is a sin. Withholding evidence is unethical to say the least, but I'll resolve that," Rodriguez said in an interview with The Associated Press in a Detroit bar, months before the documentary was nominated. "These were licensed releases, not just bootlegs. ... It's in the process, but I have to get to a position to see what jurisdiction I approach. I'm ignorant. ... How do you do this?"
How, indeed? South Africa was under U.N. economic and cultural sanctions from the 1960s. While some Rodriguez songs were banned by the apartheid regime and many bootlegged copies were made on tapes and later CDs, three local labels reproduced Rodriguez's two albums under license, the 1970 "Cold Fact" and 1972 "Coming from Reality: After the Fact."
No one knows how many sold. In the documentary, Robbie Mann of RPM Records estimates that, under his father, the South African company sold "maybe half a million copies." Some estimate more than 1 million were sold in all.
South Africans interviewed in the documentary said they sent royalty checks to the United States, to the now-defunct Sussex Records label of former Motown executive Clarence Avant. The Hollywood record producer starts off emotional in the documentary, calling Rodriguez "my boy" and "greater than Bob Dylan."
But he's short-tempered when asked about the royalties, saying he cannot be expected to remember details of a 1970s contract and album that he suggests didn't sell more than three copies in the United States.
The 81-year-old Avant, who could not be reached for this article, still owns the rights to the music and is now being paid for them by Light In The Attic Records, which gives a new life to old recordings, according to Segerman, who acts as an unofficial publicist for Rodriguez. He said the 2008 and 2009 releases were the first time Rodriguez was paid royalties.
Now you can buy Rodriguez songs on iTunes, and the documentary soundtrack released by Light In The Attic in conjunction with Sony Legacy.
Segerman said Rodriguez has "created a whole new consciousness about robbing an artist." People coming into his Malibu Vinyl shop and sending him emails say "I want to buy it, not download it for free, but please, I want to make sure he's going to get the money."
"Here's the irony: His music came into South Africa through bootlegging but it's South Africa that's given him the voice to say 'This is wrong!' and people get that, they understand now."
He said at least 200,000 copies of both albums have sold in the last year or so.
But Rodriguez appears untouched by the money, Segerman said. Now in his 70s with failing eyesight, Rodriguez continues to live in the same old house he's occupied for decades in Detroit, and gives most of the money away to relatives and friends, said Segerman.
In South Africa in the old days, his fans isolated by sanctions and censorship believed Rodriguez was as famous at home as he was in their country. They heard stories that the musician had died dramatically: He'd shot himself in the head onstage in Moscow; He'd set himself aflame and burned to death before an audience someplace else; He'd died of a drug overdose, was in a mental institution, was incarcerated for murdering his girlfriend.
In 1996, in the newly liberated South Africa, Segerman and journalist Carl Bartholomew-Strydom set out separately to find out the truth and then got together to solve the mystery. Nearly two years of frustration and dead ends finally led to Detroit, where they found Rodriguez — sane, free and working on construction sites in his home town.
"It's rock-and-roll history now. Who would-a thought?" Rodriguez said, struggling to explain his improbable tale even several months before the documentary was nominated for an Oscar. How does an anonymous laborer in the Motor City who failed to make it in folk music unknowingly became a mysterious musical prophet in South Africa? And how does the persistence of two fans thousands of miles and an ocean away lead to redemption and a Hollywood-style victory for his long-ignored talent?
Those who produced his records could not believe they flopped. "This guy was like a wise man, a prophet, I've never worked with anyone as talented," Steve Rowland, who produced hits for Jerry Lee Lewis and Peter Frampton, says in the documentary. He produced Rodriguez's second and last album.
Rodriguez was the first artist signed to Sussex Records. Its second was Bill Withers.
Rodriguez said he wasn't wallowing in self-pity after his music career fizzled — he just "went back to work." He raised a family that includes three daughters, launched several unsuccessful campaigns for public office, obtained a philosophy degree and reverted to manual labor in Detroit. He gave up the dream of living off his music but never stopped playing it.
"I felt I was ready for the world, but the world wasn't ready for me," Rodriguez said. "I feel we all have a mission — we have obligations," he said. "Those turns on the journey, different twists — life is not linear."
Get the Prince's travel details on Replay hosted by Wonderwall's Kirby Kristen.Watch Video »
Get the scoop on the newest breakup rumors on Replay hosted by Wonderwall's Kirby Kristen.Watch Video »
We look back at the Kardashian clan's Greek yachting trip on April 27.Watch Video »
Victoria's Secret model Adriana Lima talks about the What's Sexy list, her model friends and more with Wonderwall.Watch Video »
Will Sharon and Ozzy's marriage survive his addiction issues? Get the latest on the tabloid reports on Replay.Watch Video »
See what stars like Katy Perry, Madonna, Faith Hill, Pamela Anderson and Rihanna look like in candid moments without makeup.Watch Video »
- What's Sexy?Heidi Klum hangs with two comedy legends and shares what she finds most sexy in a man on today's Celebs Gone Social ...Watch Video »
- Sexy SecretsVictoria's Secret model Adriana Lima talks about the What's Sexy list, her model friends and more with Wonderwall.Watch Video »
- American TravelsGet the Prince's travel details on Replay hosted by Wonderwall's Kirby Kristen.Watch Video »
- Birthday GirlTori Spelling turns 40, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders, hosted by Tim Kash.Watch Video »
- Fashion OffendersFlorence Welch, Zoe Saldana, and Ali Larter all get an F on this week's Fashion OffendersWatch Video »
- Bikini BurnsFrom Kim Kardashian to Jessica Alba, see the worst celeb sunburns.Watch Video »
- Double TroubleFrom the Olsens to the Mowrys, see some of Hollywood's most famous twins.Watch Video »
- Roasted?Lindsay Lohan refuses to be roasted, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders, hosted by Tim Kash.Watch Video »
- Beach WorkoutsFrom Julianne Hough to Alessandra Ambrosio, see celebs who get their fitness on in the sand.Watch Video »
- Miley's MusicMiley Cyrus mixes music and fashion while ignoring her relationship status, on today's Celebs Gone Social.Watch Video »
- Royal AdviceSnooki gives Prince Harry some advice, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders, hosted by Tim Kash.Watch Video »
- Country CutiesCheck out the hottest couples in country music.Watch Video »
- Queen's FeastBeyonce had a major feast in Dublin, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders, hosted by Tim Kash.Watch Video »
- Bump DebutSelena Gomez breaks some pregnancy news on Twitter on today's Celebs Gone Social.Watch Video »
- Crazy QuotesCheck out some of Gwyneth Paltrow's craziest quotes.Watch Video »
- Beers With BieberJustin Bieber shares photos of his beer-drinking safari on social media on today's Celebs Gone Social.Watch Video »
- Missing Miley?Get the scoop on the newest breakup rumors on Replay hosted by Wonderwall's Kirby Kristen.Watch Video »
- Visiting U.S.Prince Harry is visiting the United States again, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders, hosted by Tim Kash.Watch Video »
- Fashion OffendersMiranda Kerr, Katy Perry, and Bjork all get an F on this week's Fashion OffendersWatch Video »
- Wants PrivacySelena Gomez doesn't like everyone knowing about her relationship with Justin Bieber, plus more celeb stories on 7 Wonders.Watch Video »
- Baby FaceCheck out the first pic of Malin Akerman's son -- a closeup of his adorable face -- on today's Celebs Gone Social ...Watch Video »
From Videos of Wonderwall
From MSN Entertainment
From Crowd Ignite | <urn:uuid:b66241b0-27f9-46c6-a74f-f2cdb5768627> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wonderwall.msn.com/entertainment/cult-star-rodriguez-seeks-to-resolve-lost-royalties-1736763.story | 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 | 0.958751 | 2,345 | 1.5 | 2 |
Somewhere in the Sahara, a group of men in camouflage show off their collection of 4x4 vehicles and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns. They are members of the 'Movement of the Sons of the Sahara for Islamic Justice", under the command of Mohamed Lamine Bencheneb.
It was Bencheneb -- an Algerian in his early 50s -- who led the attack on the In Amenas gas complex in Algeria last week. The French magazine Paris Match has published a photograph of him at the site, wearing an explosives vest. Bencheneb was killed, according to Algerian authorities.
The former math teacher appears to have linked up with a group called "Those Who Sign in Blood," created by jihadist commander Moktar Belmoktar, to target Western interests in the Sahara.
The nine-minute propaganda video was uploaded to YouTube by a user named "bencheneb" in September 2011 and first reported by the Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom. It is rare visual evidence of a group now in the cross hairs of Western intelligence agencies -- but one which already has a history of attacks in Algeria.
According to Aaron Zelin, research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Sons of the Sahara emerged in October 2007. According to French and jihadist sources, he says, the group launched sabotage attacks against gas facilities in eastern Algeria -- in the area of last week's attack. In November 2007, it launched an attack on Djanet airport, much farther south, hitting a military plane with rockets as it prepared to take off,
Zelin says the group later agreed a cease-fire with the Algerian government -- though some members split off and joined al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Bencheneb abandoned the truce in 2011, with his group accusing the government of reneging on cease-fire terms. Some accounts suggest the arrest of several of the group's fighters was also a factor in ending the truce.
The training video is a declaration of war against the Algerian state.
The commentary says: "The Movement of the Sons of the Sahara is making a new start and is determined not to abandon the armed struggle and not to stop the war against the oppressing regime until the [Algerian] people get their dignity back."
The group describes itself as jihadist -- with the goal of introducing Islamic Sharia law to Algeria. | <urn:uuid:275932f8-ef91-41ad-b2a4-8b1e96421ae5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/money/technology/-Sons-of-Sahara-took-part-in-Algeria-attack/-/11797158/18271948/-/cwpuunz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97328 | 490 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Iranian Entity: Bahmanyar Morteza Bahmanyar
|Bahmanyar Morteza Bahmanyar|
Head of the Finance and Budget Department of Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO - see separate entity record); on October 25, 2007, added to the Specially Designated National (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freezing the entity's assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting transactions with U.S. parties pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems; listed by the European Union on April 20, 2007, pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1737, as a person whose funds and economic resources, and those it owns, holds or controls, must be frozen by E.U. member states, with some exceptions, and within their jurisdiction; E.U. member states must also ensure that funds or economic resources are not made available to or for the benefit of the listed person; with some exceptions, European Union member states must prevent the person's entry into or transit through their territories; listed in an annex to U.N. Security Council resolution 1737 of December 23, 2006, as a person involved in Iran's ballistic missile program; with some exceptions, the designation requires states to freeze financial assets on their territories which are owned or controlled by the person, by its agents, or by entities it owns or controls; the designation also requires states to ensure that any funds, financial assets or economic resources are prevented from being made available by their nationals or by any persons or entities within their territories, to or for the benefit of the person; the resolution calls on states to "exercise vigilance" in allowing the designated person to enter or to transit through their territories, and requires states to notify the Security Council if the person does so.
Born on December 31, 1952 in Tehran, Iran; Iranian passport numbers I0005159 and 10005159.
|Date Last Modified:| | <urn:uuid:558aac25-f367-4aae-978d-32164c2a35ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iranwatch.org/suspect/records/bahmanyar-morteza-bahmanyar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942084 | 424 | 1.539063 | 2 |
At this year's American Society of Association Executives and The Center for Association Leadership annual conference in Chicago, the organization released a new book, The Decision to Join, which explores why people join associations and reveals the importance of meetings for providing networking opportunities and delivering information and education to members.
The book features statistical data from a survey of 16,944 people — including those who currently are members, formerly were members, or never belonged to an association — who were asked a series of questions about why they joined, left, or never bothered. It reveals that 54 percent of current members prefer to receive information about their field from conferences or meetings. That's second only to magazines or journals, which 65 percent preferred. A closer look reveals that the younger generations rely less on meetings for information than their elders, as 57 percent of the Pre-War generation (those over 60) and 55 percent of Baby Boomers prefer to get their information from meetings, compared to 51 percent of Generation Xers and almost 50 percent of Millennials.
The most important functions of an association are also indirectly related to meetings. For example, 46 percent of current members said the most important function was providing training/professional development to members. The next most important functions were providing technical information to members (44 percent); providing timely information about the field to members (37 percent); and providing networking opportunities (36 percent).
What's interesting, says co-author Monica Dignan, who wrote the book along with James Dalton, is the greater importance that younger generations and international members place on networking. More Millennials and Generation Xers rank networking as the most important function of associations than Baby Boomers and the Pre-War generation. Further, more international respondents (41 percent) view networking as the most important functions than do Americans (34.7 percent).
For more information on the book, go to www.asaecenter.org.
Meeting in Three Acts
At its annual meeting in Chicago, the American Society of Association Executives and Center For Association Leadership put on something called The Association: The Musical to deliver the typical business of the general session in a most creative manner. It was even held at a theater, the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place, and the lights went down promptly at 8:30 each morning to a full house.
ASAE hired creative consultancy PCI Communications to put on the musical, which took place over the course of three general sessions. A troupe of professional actors portrayed a small association from Anywhere, USA, wrestling with issues such as generating revenues, globalization, branding, and governance. Throughout the three-day performance, the normal business of the general sessions — presentations, awards, and keynote speakers — was worked into the program.
Among the keynoters were former ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff, who was seriously injured in the Iraq war and who his wife, Lee, calls “a walking miracle”; David Cooperrider, director at the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, part of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University; and Christopher Gardner, the man who Will Smith portrayed in the film The Pursuit of Happyness.
For more meetings industry association news, visit the industry association news category on the face2face blog. | <urn:uuid:768b8ac3-a0df-4610-aeed-0dcd2420f3b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetingsnet.com/associationmeetings/trends/asae-report | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956598 | 665 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Swing Dance is featured in "Blast from the Past" starring Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone.
Enrico Caruso gave Arthur Murray the idea for his famous footprints. Caruso was a student of Mr. Murray's. Knowing that Mr. Murray was having difficulty succeeding with his dancing-by-mail-classes, he jokingly suggested that Mr. Murray begin selling lessons for one foot only, and then when paid, send lessons for the other foot. The thought of lessons "by the foot" gave Mr. Murray the idea for the famous footprints that became an Arthur Murray trademark to define the dance steps.
Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Eleanor Roosevelt, John D. Rockerfeller, the Duke of Windsor, Groucho Marx, and Ed Sullivan were ALL Arthur Murray Students.
In the movie "My Blue Heaven", Steve Martin and Rick Moranix perform the Merengue
In Merengue, the first beat is interpreted by the dancers as a slight limp and was inspired by attempts to spare an injured war hero's feelings.
Jennifer Lopez was a member of the Fly Girls dance group from the TV show, "In Living Color"
The Cha Cha, Mambo, Rumba, and Salsa all have origins in Cuba
Michael Jackson used Fred Astaire as inspiration for his music video "The way you make me feel"
The Tango was performed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie "True Lies"
Christopher Walken is the famous actor seen dancing in the Fat Boy Slim music video "This and That" | <urn:uuid:44657ead-3212-4f88-bba4-a663755171ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texdance.com/austin-dance-calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2012/05/29/4064/-/MmFjYjc0NDA3MWQxNzI0Y2JkZDQ4NzliODgzNmZjYjk=.html | 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 | 0.958197 | 324 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Guillermo del Toro’s sublime fantasy-adventure Pan’s Labyrinth and Victor Erice’s beguilingly abstract The Spirit of the Beehive will be screening side-by-side at the Belcourt this week. It’s an apt pairing, and not just because both tell stories set during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, featuring children as the protagonists. Del Toro has gone on record as calling The Spirit of the Beehive one of his favorite films, and Erice’s delicate version of magical realism—in which two young girls in Franco’s Spain become obsessed with Frankenstein and begin experimenting with the barrier between “life” and “death”—is blown up to a larger scale in Pan’s Labyrinth, which is all about a lonely youngster’s realization that the real world contains just as many beasts and quests and magic potions as any fairy tale.
Reached for comment on the paired films, del Toro said, “The thing is that the film by Erice is all about the most tenuous, almost intangible lines between fantasy and reality, that are only laid out by the mind of a child. In my movies, I tend to make the fantasy world manifest. Completely manifest and material. And it is my hope that the fantasy world becomes as tangible, if not more tangible, than the real world. Erice works with a very loose dramatic structure and deeply textured, deeply nuanced, deeply psychological characters. And I work with types. I work with a very complex storyline, but with types. I love to create characters that are strong and identifiable, and to put them in a really convoluted sort of adventure.”
Indeed, Pan’s Labyrinth is, first and foremost, a rousing (and gory) adventure story, given a historical context that resonates particularly at the end, in a final speech that explains why legends matter. The Spirit of the Beehive is also about what inspires people to go on in a brutal world, though in Erice’s case, it’s more the fleeting moments of beauty and awe that give hope. Del Toro puts it best: “To me, The Spirit of the Beehive is one of the most sublime movies ever made about the tragedy and pain of being a child, and at the same time the wonder of being a child. The other one being Night of the Hunter. Those films are suffused with magic and ache.” | <urn:uuid:c4eb435a-8a14-4e76-9f8e-62a7d35ba3a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/beekeeping/Content?oid=1194203 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946306 | 517 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Berlin Scores Big With Fed Stimulus Funding
BERLIN - Federal stimulus funds will pay for 88 percent of the costly Berlin wastewater treatment plant improvements and expansion, the town announced this week.
Berlin is one of about 20 towns and counties in the United States that were awarded first round American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.
'Berlin will be the first municipality in the state of Maryland to receive federal stimulus money. We will be receiving this for the wastewater treatment plant upgrade and expansion,' said Mayor Gee Williams.
The funding will consist of a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan for $5,988,000 and a USDA grant of $5,828,217 as well as a Community Development Block Grant of $700,000 and a grant from the Maryland Department of the Environment for $1.5 million.
Berlin must put up $1,997,000.
The project will cost $16,013,217. Just over half of the project will be paid for by grant funding.
'Berlin is significantly benefiting from the ARRA stimulus money,' said Williams.
This funding has been in the pipeline since early summer.
'We're extremely fortunate but we really worked for it,' said Williams.
Instead of pursuing all the projects listed on a preliminary inventory of potential stimulus funding projects, Berlin chose to focus on the most significant.
'We decided the best strategy was to go for one project and make it the most important thing we needed,' said Williams.
The formal application process began in February. 'At the time, there were literally hundreds of projects we were competing against in the state of Maryland alone,' said Williams.
The town had tough deadlines to meet, with returns on information and paperwork requested with a week's turnaround time, and on at least one occasion, a same day turnaround. Berlin did not miss one deadline.
'Every time people missed deadlines and weren't ready they got checked off the list,' Williams said.
'Many times we complain but this is the time to say, thanks,' said resident Jim Hoppa.
The town council voted unanimously to accept the funding terms.
'This is probably as good news we we'll ever be able to report,' said Williams. | <urn:uuid:898d17dc-ecbe-4cd0-a9ef-21df0d66ee73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/articles/2012/11/16/Top-Stories/Berlin-Scores-Big-With-Fed-Stimulus-Funding | 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 | 0.958673 | 466 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Already a Bloomberg.com user?
Sign in with the same account.
Nostalgia and local pride always play a part in the love of regional wines, whether from the Loire Valley or the banks of the Rhine. So it’s hard not to be in thrall to a wine that you’d drink on the island of Capri overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Yet until recently I would be hard put to defend the overall quality of the wines my ancestors drank in Campania, the region of Capri, Naples and the Amalfi Coast.
Prior to my great grandparents’ emigration to America in 1888, they hadn’t a clue what kind of wines they were drinking back in the Old Country, where no one had ever tried to classify one grape from another.
In those days, as in most of Italy, most grapes were self propagating, a condition called “promiscuous cultivation,” and the vines had to compete with other plants for water and nutrients, thereby producing wines of little character. Oxidation was considered characteristic; wine was sold almost exclusively from huge, old, oak barrels.
Even after Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture established its denomination of wine origins in 1963, it was a frustrating job to delineate the distinctions among dozens of Campanian grapes like greco, fiano, falanghina, biancolella and coda di volpe (tail of the fox).
The first Campanian winery of note was Mastroberardino in Avellina, which in the 1970s pioneered the red wines of taurasi and ancient near-defunct white varietals like fiano. Now, as throughout Italy, modern viticulture and technology have allowed a young breed of Campanian winemakers to reveal the distinctiveness of their terroirs, from vineyards near Mount Vesuvius to the island of Capri and the rocky hill towns of the Picentini Mountains.
“What’s important about Campanian wines now,” says restaurateur and wine writer Joseph Bastianich, “is that they are showing the potential of true indigenous Italian varietals that are just beginning to express themselves.” He sells more of them at his mid-range restaurants like Esca and Lupa than the high-end Babbo and Del Posto, all co-owned with Mario Batali.
Currently Campania has three D.O.C.G. appellations, Italy’s top quality guarantee — fiano di avellino, greco di tufo, and taurasi. Another 18 are D.O.C., or controlled origin, and there are nine I.G.T. wines, similar to the French vins de pays, making quality wines, but with non-traditional grape varieties.
Fiano is said to taste of the piney woods of its region of Irpinia; greco di tufo, imported from ancient Greece, was originally cultivated around Mount Vesuvius, where it later took the name Lacryma Christi (“Tears of Christ”). Taurasi is a big, robust, long-aging red made from aglianico, whose name may have derived from ellenico, meaning Greek.
I bought a good selection of Campanian wines from a new wine shop, San Pietro Wine and Spirits in Tuckahoe, New York. The owners, the Bruno brothers, who run New York’s San Pietro and Caravaggio restaurants, are from Campania and therefore proudly promote the wines of the region.
San Salvatore Paestum Fiano 2009 ($19.99)
Made near the sea around Salerno, this fiano has a characteristic flinty crispness and a little brininess that makes it ideal with Neapolitan seafood like branzino and orata.
Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Fiorduva 2008 ($62.99)
The price is astonishing for a white Campanian wine, but Marisa Cuomo is one of the stars of the region, and this blend of falanghina and biancolella, planted 500 meters above the sea, is enormous and very rich. To appreciate fully its character, I’d serve it with the simplest of seafood on the grill.
Marisa Cuomo Furore Blanco 2009 ($22.99)
If the price of the above puts you off, her “white fury” is still a big mouthful, almost a little fizzy upon being opened, and with 13.5 percent alcohol, excellent for a dish of spaghetti with clam sauce. The estate’s red, Fuore Rosso 2009 ($22.99) has the same bountiful release of fruit and a balance of softened tannins. I loved this wine with a grilled porterhouse steak done over a charcoal fire.
Luigi Maffini Kratos 2010 ($21.99)
Another of Campania’s bright young lights, Luigi Maffini modernized his father’s winery of four cultivated hectares, which now produces about 40,000 bottles of reds and whites. His Kratos vineyard produces a very pretty white wine in the sense that it is light and well balanced between fruit and acid, citrus and apple flavors, making it a wonderful wine with linguine with garlic and oil or shellfish in a spicy tomato sauce.
Villa Matilde Falanghina 2010 ($14.99)
Usually this quite simple wine lacks body and texture, but I found Villa Matilde’s — with a big 14 percent alcohol — to have the perfume of the Mediterranean in its nose, sun-rich fruit and a clean, acidic finish. The wine is so good on its own, I’d serve it as an aperitif with slices of prosciutto or with a Caprese salad of mozzarella and fresh tomatoes and basil.
Campi Flegrei Piedrosso 2008 ($17.99)
A dominant red varietal in Campania, piedrosso has weight and heft, and Campi Flegrei, near Naples, respects that. Its aromatic aroma lasts and lasts, and fruit and tannin flow easily on the palate. This is an $18 wine I’d gladly pay double for. | <urn:uuid:6fba8e8f-1980-4cab-a318-abc944f9ffa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/campanian-wines-come-of-age-10182011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93722 | 1,330 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Height of Pitcher's Mound Can Strain Shoulders
Major League Baseball study found standard mound
might raise risk of stress injuries
WEDNESDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- The height of a pitcher's mound
can influence the risk of stress-related elbow and shoulder injuries, suggests a study led by the head team physician for the Mil...
Wrongful Death Lawsuit for Tyler R. Hill Against Ambassadors Group, docleaf, et al., Officially Settled
...student, Tyler was a first year MVP for rugby, a tight end in football, a winger in hockey and an advanced scuba diver. He was a junior officer of the mound
Westonka High School DECA club, and he discovered and reported a bomb threat to school authorities and was recognized for his actions. Ty will be reme...
Shatters Guinness Book of Records Mark
...with the throngs gathered to witness history being made and then consumed. Leftovers were donated to a Brooklyn soup kitchen.
The massive round mound
of matzo was trucked with police escort from a specially designed 100-gallon kettle in New Jersey where it slow boiled for two days by a team of a doz...
Post-transplant combo can replace toxic immune-suppressing drugs in monkeys
... Nature Medicine .
The finding opens the door to less-toxic post-transplant treatment that could be administered once a week rather than a dizzying mound
of pills every day, says senior author Allan Kirk, MD, PhD, scientific director of the Emory Transplant Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent...
Regular exercise reduces depressive symptoms, improves self-esteem in overweight children
...feel better about yourself, maybe you are going to do better in school, maybe you are going to pay more attention," Dr. Petty says. MCG is compiling a mound
of evidence that supports the case that these go hand-in-hand.
Dr. Petty works with Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at the Georg...
Red Sox Pitcher Jon Lester Wins 2008 Hutch Award(R)
... cancer-free and in February 2007
he joined the Red Sox for spring training in Florida. After some work in
the minors, he returned to the major league mound
against the Cleveland
Indians on July 23, 2007. Boston won the game, 6-2.
"Congratulations to Jon Lester on the Hutch Award. Jon handled his
No Need to Forego Nutrition in Tight Economic Times
... Just keep food "partner" ingredients nutritious,
too. Top a baked potato with jarred salsa, low-fat cheese, or shredded
rotisserie chicken. Or, top a mound
of mashed potatoes prepared with nonfat
chicken broth with ratatouille or another mixture of sauteed seasonal
vegetables. Add olive- oil and garlic ro...
Don't Let the Holidays Go to Waist!
...atoes and cook, stirring, until just tender (don't overcook). Season with pepper.
3. Transfer mixture to bowl and stir in cheese until just melted. mound
about 1 heaping tablespoon of mixture on each toast. Serve immediately. Nutrition Analysis
Calories 126 Calories from Fat 31 Total Fat 4g Saturate...
Skinvisible Appoints Dr. George Korkos to Its Advisory Board
...id his plastic surgery residency at St. Louis University. He is
currently the President of Plastic Surgery Associates in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin and Blue mound
Surgery Center along with being an Associate
Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Recently Dr. Korkos
was honored with the establis...
Study finds pitching mound height affects throwing motion, injury risk
A study involving several Major League Baseball pitchers indicates that the height of the pitchers mound
can affect the athletes throwing arm motion, which may lead to potential injuries because of stress on the shoulder and elbow.
The study was led by William Raasch, M.D., associate professo...
New phorid fly species turns red imported fire ants into 'zombies'
...aid, as attacks of ants are not dependent upon the mounds being disturbed.
The "zombified," fire ant is made to wander about 55 yards away from the mound
"The parasite does this so it can complete development without being detected and attacked by the fire ant colony," Ludwig said. "By making...
Entomological Society of America names 2008 award winners
...Jeff incorporated several arthropod experiences into the course, including blacklighting for scorpions, close encounters with safari ants, and termite mound
Dr. Christopher M. Barker (Pacific Branch) obtained his B.S. in biology and his M.S. in entomology from Virginia Tech. His M.S. re...
Scientists break record by finding northernmost hydrothermal vent field
...to the seafloor, coming near fiery magma and picking up heat and minerals until the water vents back into the ocean. The same process created the huge mound
of sulfide minerals on which the vents sit. That deposit is about 825 feet in diameter at its base and about 300 feet across on the top and might turn...
December GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
... as distributory pathways. Eruptions were sourced from fissures within the EPR axial summit trough, as well as fissures located on an off-axis fissure mound
approximately 600 meters east of the EPR axis between 952′ and 956′N. Portions of the lava flow reached as far as approximately 2 kilomete...
November GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY Media Highlights
...he origin and growth history of a deep-water coral mound
in the northeast Atlantic drilled during Integrate...aled that the growth of the 155-m-thick Challenger mound
in the northeast Atlantic was related to major cha...-saline intermediate water from the Mediterranean. mound
establishment coincides with the start of modern n...
Fire ants: Their true story told by the scientist who loves them
... disturbed habitat, and they've thrived in part because humans have done a lot of disturbing," he said.
Other fun facts center on the familiar dirt mound
around which smart humans cut a wide swath; it's actually a solarium that collects heat to warm its residents. The tunnels below it hold anywhere from... | <urn:uuid:11b83c39-00be-4376-92d7-90f9f12172b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/tag/mound/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949009 | 1,324 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I'm not neccesarily looking at doing this from FC5 in the long run, but I'm trying to boot a computer using files off another, not to install the OS but to completely run off the other. Since FC5 is the only distro I have that I'm prepared to fiddle around with at the minute, I thought I'd learn how on this, provided it's possible to boot a different distribution (different kernel, even?) from FC5 which will be running.
Basically, I'd like to load a smaller distro, something like DSL or similar onto a PC by having all the files on this one. I've looked at tutorials using TFTP and things but I get pretty lost because they tend to be tailed towards a different distro and I don't know what to do differently and I find that files aren't there &c. (I tried http://www.ofb.net/~jheiss/netboot_linux/
Really I'd like some kind of idiot's guide to network booting, ideally tailored to FC5 so I can actually use it (my ultimate ambition is to network boot OSX onto x86, difficult though it may be).
Also is it possible to use wireless cards for network booting? If that's possible it'd make things a lot more useful.
Thank you for your time, | <urn:uuid:8dd8ee9b-45ae-438d-849a-15bc07823d2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=114574 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960694 | 280 | 1.546875 | 2 |
When I write code that really matters, I prefer to design in the test-driven style:
- Figure out the next behavior that I need to implement
- Answer the question "What single test can I write that demonstrates I'm one step closer to implementing that behavior?"
- Write it and see that it fails (to show that I'm testing something sensible or that I've already finished that step)
- Implement that part of a feature
- Clean up the tests and the code
- Repeat until done
Not everyone on my team does this, and that's fine—it's more important that we deliver working, well-tested, robust features than that we all use the same style. Sometimes, however, the other developers check in features and ask me to help them write tests.
You can take this idea too far even as a rule of thumb, but I'm starting to believe that there's an inverse correlation between the difficulty of testing a feature and implementing a feature which corresponds to the quality of design.
In other words, when Allison said to me the other day "This code was really easy to write!" and I said "It was more difficult to test than to write (but it wasn't difficult to test)", that's a good sign that we've found great abstractions and discovered effective APIs in our code.
The difficulty of the tests is in building and selecting the right test data to expose all of the branches in the code.
You can obviously take this rule of thumb too far: some code is difficult to write and tedious to test because of low quality. Some code is easy to write and difficult to test because it does too much in a very obvious and straightforward way that merits some serious refactoring.
Still, when the balance of work in my programming goes toward crafting effective and useful and correct tests, I start to believe that I'm on the right track to crafting great code. | <urn:uuid:75855bdb-aad1-4b5f-9bbb-3524cfa79281> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2012/12/the-comparative-difficulty-of-testing-and-coding.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970638 | 390 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Technology Alone Isn't Healthcare's Savior
Anyone who deploys tech "solutions" without reconsidering workflows and policies -- and doing other heavy lifting -- is in for a rude awakening.
If you believe everything you read and hear, technology is the Holy Grail of our industry. It will "fix" just about everything that's broken in healthcare. That's a presumption fueled by human nature: Gravitate toward simplicity and immediate gratification. Technology is tangible, something we can install, turn on and it works.
But what exactly should we expect from this working technology? Have we done a thorough job of defining what we want to accomplish and then addressed all of the components that go into ensuring we succeed?
More Healthcare Insights
- From Evidence to Insight: Achieving outcomes that matter
- How Healthcare Payers are using Customer Communications to Improve Productivity and Effectiveness
- The Value of Analytics in Healthcare
- Redefining Value in Healthcare: Innovation to expand access, improve quality and reduce costs of care
- Research: 2012 Healthcare CIO 25
- Research: Healthcare CIO 25: The Leaders Behind the Healthcare IT Revolution
Hospitals and physicians focused only on the Meaningful Use bull's-eye when implementing technology will experience a grave letdown when they turn "it" on and discover technology alone isn't their savior. Anyone who deploys technology without reengineering workflows, redefining job duties, readdressing policies, revisiting best practices and refining business arrangements could find that the cost exceeds the Meaningful Use incentive funds and that the technology will fall far short of delivering Meaningful Value. Unfortunately, these same organizations will be quick to point out that the technology "didn't work."
"Right care, right place, right time, right quality at the right price" requires us to think differently. It requires a disciplined focus on the long-term goal while executing on the short-term tasks, all while avoiding the distractions that come with the hype around technological solutions.
[ Want your patients to take more control of their healthcare? See 7 Portals Powering Patient Engagement. ]
Imagine an electronic health record (EHR) as you would an automobile. You must know what you'd like the automobile to do in order to know which ones to consider. A rancher doesn't buy a Porsche to haul hay.
We expect carmakers to deliver vehicles that work when we turn them on. But from the moment we drive one off the dealer lot, if we don't know where we're going, or we haven't been trained to drive, or we drive distracted or impaired, or we're unaware of our surroundings, or we don't respond fast enough when a child or animal darts out in front of us, we're going to end up in the wrong place or in an accident. How far off course we end up and how much damage we cause will depend on the level of our neglect, incompetence and recklessness.
When it comes to mishandling EHRs and other technology implementations, we're not completely to blame. Vendors are sending the message that their technology will solve all of our problems, and with all the challenges we face in our industry, we want desperately to believe them. I have a red Staples "Easy" button that I hit when I'm feeling particularly challenged, but I know that success with healthcare technology will never be as easy as installing it and turning it on.
We must address head-on all of the other areas: redesigning workflows, reengineering thought flow, finding usability tricks, adopting business arrangements that understand our surroundings and adjust to our conditions. We must avoid the misperception that technology makes all things possible, requiring data and reports that aren't technically possible with the technology we've adopted. If we don't, we will set up our organizations with unsustainable processes that cost more than we can afford and don't deliver the outcomes and quality we've committed to delivering to our communities.
The right way isn't always the easy way. Success requires leadership, vision, focus, drive and hard work -- all of which are within our control. With the right mix of people, process and technology, we will make tremendous advances and be able to focus on improving the health of our communities rather than just providing sick care.
We must continuously monitor our efforts and develop better tools and smarter processes. By infusing clinical decision-making with instantaneous "smart information," physicians are better equipped to collaborate, diagnose, treat and accelerate the medical breakthroughs necessary to improve not just our industry, but our world.
Have you ever experienced a time when you were driving and all of a sudden you looked up and for an instant had no idea where you were or how you got there? Is that the fault of the car manufacturer? Don't get complacent or distracted. Hard work pays off. Apply the right balance of people, process and technology necessary to succeed.
As large healthcare providers test the limits, many smaller groups question the value. Also in the new, all-digital Big Data Analytics issue of InformationWeek Healthcare: Ask these six questions about natural language processing before you buy. (Free with registration.) | <urn:uuid:24b68fdc-55f4-4c0b-accb-ff48d7c983af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/leadership/technology-alone-isnt-healthcares-savior/240150792?cid=SBX_iwk_related_news_Security_smb&itc=SBX_iwk_related_news_Security_smb | 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 | 0.941395 | 1,048 | 1.671875 | 2 |
[< Gallery Home | Latest Images | Top 100 | Submit Picture >]
<< Previous Picture | Next Picture >>
| Castlerigg |
[650 x 488 JPG]
Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it.
|Description ||Castlerigg & hills.|
|Lovely shot andy, and unusual. It makes the stones appear to be on the edge of a huge drop, with those magnificent mountains rearing up like some huge monster's back. The most beautiful site in England??|
|it is amazing where is castlerigg i have never been there but seeing how beautiful it is i hope to some day great picture!|
|Hi Nasher - Click on the yellow highlighted site name at top left for more information and access to maps. Some great photos there, particularly from Nicola. Love to see how you would photograph Castlerigg, but its a long way from Avebury.|
|thanks thorgrim looks amazing thats on my list of places to go then
excelent pictures |
|andy h |
|You'll be very lucky to find it without a crowd of people. The place was packed! I even had to employ the odd spot of photoshoppery to touch out people straying into shot.
I'd like to visit Castlerigg very early on a winter's morning... probably the only way to stand a chance of getting it to yourself.|
|Hi andy h, ive just returned from a duke of edinburgh exploration in the lakes. we went to castlerigg stone circle, and there was no one there! this was in the middle of August at around 9:30. the stones and hills look spectacular with big rain clouds behind them! |
|I was there at the weekend. On Saturday morning the place was deserted! (But only for about half an hour, 10ish onwards). The weather was too poor for many pics though.|
|andy h |
|Maybe it's just me being too lazy to get there early then... it was starting to look a bit like Glastonbury when I was there ;)|
To post comments first you must Register!
Megalithic Portal eGallery, images of megaliths and prehistoric sites worldwide, free to view. | <urn:uuid:2add1ad4-6438-4cce-bc16-860082a53965> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=16539 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936619 | 483 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam
The following report is based on information provided to us by the school's staff.
The school is located in Irimpanam, an area close to the city of Tripunithura, in the Ernakulam district of the State of Kerala, India.
Founded in 1940, the Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam is a privately owned school aided by the State. It offers instruction from Upper Primary to High School levels (grades 5 to 7 and 8 to 10 respectively). Nearly 1,000 students from 10 to 15 years old attend the school.
Our institution took special interest in promoting the main aspects of the philosophy of the GNU Project, such as the freedom to share knowledge and the freedom to cooperate with our community by contributing improvements to computer programs. This awareness about Swathanthra Software (1) was largely the result of what we learned at the meetings organized by the Indian Libre User Group (ILUG-Cochin) in the nearby city of Kochi. Attending those meetings also helped us to work in close connection with the Free Software community.
How We Did It
The migration to Free Software in our school was the result of a project designed and established by the Government of Kerala, called IT@School. The project, started in 2001, involved several thousand schools in Kerala and in 2006 it switched completely to Free Software.
Training courses for teachers were implemented by the government to teach us the basics of the new Free Operating System and how to install it. The new system was customized for the first time by SPACE, an agency based in Kerala that promotes the use of Free Software in the private and public sectors. SPACE, as well as local Swathanthra Software users groups, played a fundamental role during the process by providing constant support to teachers. One of the workshops organized by SPACE helped us to build the website of our school using Free Software.
Training was not limited to software, it also included teaching the basics of hardware maintenance to teachers and students. In our school, 10 years old students know how to assemble a PC.
The use of Free programs in the classroom was facilitated by the implementation of training modules aimed at instructing teachers on the use of specific programs for teaching various subjects. For example, there was a training module for teachers of Mathematics on how to use Dr Geo for teaching geometry, another one for teachers of Chemistry on how to draw organic molecules using Chemtool, and many others.
Other training activities were conducted jointly by the school and ILUG-Cochin to teach us the use of different Free Software applications such as Blender, Inkscape, and the command line interface.
The school has also opened an IRC channel where students can ask questions about issues they may encounter.
Commitment to Free Software
At the beginning the new system was used on a dual-boot basis, because we teachers were not familiar with Free Software, but we soon got acquainted with it to a great extent. At present, no proprietary systems are installed in any of our computers and no proprietary programs are being used. Only Free Software is being used in the classroom and in the administration offices.
Students are also introduced to the programming language Python as from grade 8 (13 years old).
Listen to a student pronounce the name of the Adeenia flower in Malayalam.
Education in the State of Kerala has become "IT-enabled", meaning that students are getting first hand technology knowledge while learning regular curriculum subjects outside the IT Lab. This is possible due to the large number of high quality educational applications available in GNU/Linux.
The transparency and the cooperative method of Free Software helped students and teachers to dive deep into technology and made them capable of contributing to the community in various ways. One important contribution was the localization of the interface of Tux Paint in Malayalam, our mother tongue.
Another contribution was the addition of new stamps in TuxPaint. Native flowers were photographed and the pictures edited by 6th and 7th grade students using the image editing program GIMP. The resulting images were then integrated in TuxPaint with the name of the flowers written in Malayalam. As a plus, students recorded with their own voices the name of the flowers, so when the user selects one of the stamps, she will hear the name of the flower in Malayalam. A video was recorded to illustrate how it works and how the activity was done.
Both activities were promoted by Swathanthra Software Koottayma of VHSS Irimpanam (SSK VHSS Irimpanam), a Free Software group of teachers and students based on the school. Its aim is to build awareness on the philosophy of Free Software and to introduce new applications in GNU/Linux as a way of contributing to the community. The group organizes monthly meetings and it performs various kinds of activities to encourage its members to experiment and explore Free Software so as to put into practice the freedoms that it grants.
As a way of keeping in touch and sharing experiences with other schools and with the Free Software community, teachers and students each year participate in events such as the National Free Software Conference and the Cyber Safe Day.
The commitment and the collaboration of teachers, students and local groups was essential to the success of this large scale government project.
Credits for both images shown on this page, as well as for the audio file, go to Swathanthra Software Koottayma of VHSS Irimpanam, who released them under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. | <urn:uuid:d65f1c20-283e-4b29-a9de-5781a6c594d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gnu.org/education/po/edu-cases-india-irimpanam.it-en.html | 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 | 0.968678 | 1,149 | 1.84375 | 2 |
At 8 o’clock one morning, Juanita Ludwig and Vincent Constantino, employees of Clifton Public Schools, are knocking on the door at a house to check a tip. Someone had said a Clifton elementary school student did not really live there and was sneaking in from another district.
Ms. Ludwig, the supervisor of counseling and student services, explains to the parent who answers the door that the district must check to see that the child lives there most of the time. “We made sure there were age-appropriate toys for an 8-year-old child,” she said. “We explain to the parents that the child must stay at the house at least four nights a week.”
. . . .
And there are many ways to find students who don’t belong. Bounties, detectives, stakeouts with cameras, and hot lines that receive tips from anonymous callers are tools that some school districts use to combat the perennial problem of illegally enrolled students.
. . . .
Under state law, a student a student may legally attend the school in the district where he or she resides the majority of the time. Out-of-district students are required to pay tuition.
Three years ago, the Clark Public School District hired a retired police officer to investigate cases of illegal students. The investigator has parked outside students’ homes to see if they come out in the morning and checked documents like licenses and car registrations.
“The key word here is domicile,” Superintendent Vito Gagliardi said. “The child must live in the house as a primary residence.”
. . . .
Ewing has one full-time attendance officer and four part-time officers, said Raymond Broach, the school superintendent. “It’s a pretty steady issue,” he said. Students have been caught coming in from Bristol and Morrisville, Pa., across the Delaware River.
In Teaneck, Al Schulz, a retired police detective, is attendance officer. Sometimes, he watches to see if students are coming over the George Washington Bridge from New York, said David Bicofsky, the district spokesman.
“You are talking $10,000 to $11,000 a year to educate a student,” he said. “You have to be vigilant for your taxpayers.”
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Who Needs Gated Schools When You Have Bounty Hunters?
As the houses, cars, and people in the burbs get bigger and bigger, there is an accompanying shrinkage in taxpayer willingness to support increases to fund what was once known as the public good. The result in New Jersey middle class enclaves where the school systems are small enough to have historically maintained segregation? Bounty hunters to locate and roust out cheaters from poor communities who are trying to enroll their children in schools that are not dead end testing factories. What else. From the NY Times: | <urn:uuid:2e8d7f8b-410a-4ab3-b633-e839cbb32f06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2008/01/who-needs-gated-schools-when-you-have.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964368 | 616 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Kalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the West Bank is best known as a flashpoint between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces. Images of masked youths throwing rocks by the painted concrete wall here are ubiquitous.
Protesters gathered at Kalandia again last week, but their focus wasn’t Israeli soldiers: It was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“I think there will be an intifada, or uprising, not against the Israelis, but against Abbas and all the corrupt people around him,” says one protester, who won’t give his name for fear of reprisals.
He says he’s a staunch supporter of the Fatah movement, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, but he no longer supports Abbas, its leader. And he’s not alone, as opposition to the 77-year-old leader grows among disillusioned and frustrated Palestinians. | <urn:uuid:c43ba354-262c-469d-aee0-d9e34d1d00c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://akio.tumblr.com/post/28092201054/palestine-abbas-facing-palestinian-protestors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962852 | 184 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Fun Facts Part 2
I hoped you like my first set of facts. Here are some more.
*Ruby, Saphire, and Emerald have the same first letters as Raikou, Suicune, and Entai.
*There isn't really a Pokemon that has a type that is JUST Flying.
*Latios, Latias, Cresselia, and Heatran have a gender. *Still being legendary Pokemon*
*Mantine has been drawn *Whatever you see it in battles* with a Remoraid under one of its fins.
*Aerodactyl is the only Fossil Pokemon to not have any evolutions.
*Cresselia's colors, pink, blue, and yellow can represent the three lake Pokemon, Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie!
*Ever noticed something with Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan
*Dragonair is taller than its evolve form Dragonite. *Check your pokedex on their heights*
*Dewgong Have you ever heard of the animal Dugong They look very much alike. | <urn:uuid:cf610368-5696-4945-94ee-b7f4652e3f17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cheatsguru.com/printit.php?id=2120986 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933465 | 232 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Looking forward to the Oscars this coming Sunday? You can check out some of the films already out on DVD that KDL staff recommend.
While you wait for the other 2013 Oscar nominated films not yet released on DVD, check out these Oscar-nominated films from previous years that are based on great books!
In the early 1960s, 16-year-old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in a London suburb. She is smart, pretty, and working toward her goal of being accepted into Oxford. Her life will take a big turn when she meets David, a man twice her age. Now she must decide if she will pursue an education at Oxford, or if she will choose to learn all that a charismatic, older man can teach her. Rated PG-13
Mr. and Mrs. Fox live a happy home life underground with their eccentric son Ash. Mr. Fox works as a journalist, but against the advice of Badger, his attorney, he moves his family into a larger and finer home inside a tree on a hill. The treehouse has an excellent view of the nearby farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Ash becomes hostile when his cousin, Kristofferson, joins the family for an extended stay. Mr. Fox decides to raid the farms, but this leads the farmers to stakeout the treehouse. The farmers try to dig the Fox family out, but they dig even faster. Mr. Fox organizes a tunneling project to burrow under all three farms and steal all the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. Rated PG
Inman, a young Confederate soldier, who is injured during the explosive 1864 battle of Petersburg, Virginia, is struggling to make his way home to Cold Mountain, NC, where his beloved Ada awaits him. In Inman’s absence, Ada befriends Ruby, who helps her keep up her late father’s farm. Meanwhile, in his travels, Inman encounters a menagerie of interesting and colorful characters. Rated R
Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly sets out to track down her father who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails to find him, she and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin’s code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions, and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. Rated R
Posted by: Meredith | <urn:uuid:59d99894-b99c-48d5-b9e7-5949e797f0d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.kdl.org/?author=72 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971597 | 511 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Life is change, and no one knows this better and feels it more sharply than people living with HIV. As an AIDS magazine publishing for more than 11 years, POZ has also had its share of changes.
All too often, these “changes” were the cruel effects of the disease itself. We had to deal with many deaths in our own wild, wonderful POZ family: courageous PWAs who came out in our pages; writers and reporters who broke news and pressed the patient-empowerment angle; activists who spent their last breath demanding HIVer rights; and readers whose trust, loyalty and honesty remain our most valuable resource.
But increasingly, in the epidemic and at POZ, change is for the good. There was the remarkable comeback of our founder, Sean Strub, who rose from his sickbed to steer POZ with his compass of healthy treatment skepticism and loud and proud activism. Then, a year ago, another change arrived in the form of a new owner. He immediately got our gifted and growing staff down to the business of—you guessed it—more change, kick-starting all kinds of innovations.
The magazine you hold in your hands—with its stunning new look and feel, right down to the logo—is only one such change. For another eye-opener, go to POZ.com and check out the matching new design and the new services it offers, from POZ Personals’ online dating to help for health and happiness at POZ Mentor to 24/7 AIDS coverage and commentary at POZ News & Views.
But there’s more at stake here than magazine redesign and internet interactivity. There’s the vision that a global HIV community can come together—one Personal, one Mentor at a time—to forge a movement for change. Changes like the new ethic of responsibility and leadership in prevention by HIVers proposed by David Evans in this month’s trail-blazing cover story (“Bite the Bullet,” page 26). That’s what the new POZ is about: creating in print and online a space where HIVers worldwide can connect, debate and dream big—of such urgent issues as female empowerment, an end to stigma and a cure for AIDS—and then make change that realizes these dreams.
In that sense, this radically new POZ is a faithful return to our roots. For that’s why Sean launched the magazine in the first place: He knew that, contrary to the then-official view that AIDS was a death sentence, surviving this disease was a reality. And having the courage of his conviction, he felt compelled to spread the word.
So as you settle down with this first issue of the redesigned POZ, focus on the cover’s single, great emotional message: courage. Every month, the cover of POZ will feature one such powerful feeling and HIVer face—to cut through our communities’ difficult, distracting differences and to remind us of the profound humanity we share.
Take courage. And stay connected to POZ as together, with our founder Sean and publisher Megan Strub, we explore ways to change in order to keep pace with the epidemic, even as we stay true to where we started. | <urn:uuid:a91a014f-2f7c-4ee8-b557-cc9faf169eb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poz.com/articles/265_1993.shtml | 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 | 0.959274 | 665 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Golf for a Cure for Ataxia raises awareness, money
To view our videos, you need to
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
CICERO, N.Y. -- Golfers hit the links in Cicero to help raise money and awareness of a deadly, but not widely known condition. The 9th annual Golf for a Cure for Ataxia was held at Northern Pines Country Club on Sunday.
Ataxia refers to a set of symptoms that affects a person's ability to coordinate movement. It currently affects at least 150,000 Americans. All of the money raised through the event benefits the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center.
"All their efforts are put to finding a cure, but right now, their efforts are to find something to slow this thing down, because at the present time, there's nothing to help the people with this disease," said Jim Ciecierski, Golf for a Cure for Ataxia Director.
The tournament has raised more than $200,000 since it began. If you'd like to learn more about Ataxia, or make a donation, visit joanneciercierski.net. | <urn:uuid:53773e91-6fab-4ae5-a2f8-082da333de68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/600343/golf-for-a-cure-for-ataxia-raises-awareness--money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946662 | 254 | 1.789063 | 2 |
31. Endings and Beginnings
“Hold!” ordered Elladan, his dark eyes fastened worriedly on Merry’s pale face. “Brother, he cannot ride without that arm being supported. Bide awhile and let Pippin and I search for a splint.” Elrohir dismounted and set Merry back down, noting with concern how tightly the hobbit pressed his broken arm against his side.
Pippin searched the riverbank, seeking his discarded bread sculpture as he was certain that nothing better could be found for this use. When he found it at last in the fading light, water from the bank had invaded it and the dough form was limp and unusable. It dissolved into soggy pieces in the tweenager’s hands. Pippin regretfully buried it, patting the sandy soil in farewell. Merry consoled the tweenager gently then as soon as his back was turned, stomped it deep into the sand.
Abandoning hope of finding a straight, suitable stick, at last Elladan padded Merry’s arm carefully then bound one of his long knives along the limb. Cradling the weary hobbits against them, the Elves pulled their cloaks forward to wrap around their small passengers and turning their mounts towards home, kneed the tired horses to a canter.
* * * * *
“Silence!” the Elf-lord hissed, and the host of elven horse behind Elrond obeyed as best they could. For all their attempts at quiet, heavy stones and boulders could not be moved and piled without noise. Dusk had deepened into dark while they worked, but the host labored without torches as Elrond refused to allow any light that might betray their presence. Now the moon rode high overhead, its light sufficient for the laying of the trap that would defend Rivendell … and the evil object that sheltered there.
Aragorn’s thoughts turned to one young hobbit and the evil thing he bore in defiance of the Great Enemy. His oath to the Ring-bearer was foremost in his mind as they waited; he could do nothing more to protect Frodo now. The Ranger dropped and crawled aside the prone Elf-lord and levered his head over the cliff-side. Elrond was stretched out on the bare earth, his dark gaze scanning the landscape. The Elf-lord met Aragorn’s glance and shook his head in negation; the Ringwraith was not yet in sight. The two pulled back and joined Glorfindel and those not involved in the stone-work where they stood with the horses, back from the steep incline.
“Elrond,” Aragorn asked, “Can it not feel our presence as we feel its? It does not see as Men or Elves do, but if we feel it as a coldness and a creeping fear, what does it know of us?”
Elrond reached up to stroke his horse’s muzzle, patting the anxious nose thrust into his hands.
“I do not doubt it knows we are here,” the Elf-lord returned softly, “ but I pray it does not know exactly where. The senses that it has cannot see through rock and stone, and the twisting paths of my home confuse it. You said that it took several wrong turns before finding the correct way,” he paused and Aragorn nodded confirmation, “ so it must seek the valley like any other traveler, all its powers of evil aside.”
Elrond closed his eyes and tilted his dark head to the side, his mind seeking for the invader’s path. But even he could not pinpoint it among the deceptive, twisting ways. His host were placing the last touches on the avalanche of boulders they had positioned at the narrowest part of the constricted path, chinking the pile of stones which threatened to rain down whether they willed it or no. Among them moved a squat, solid figure so unlike his own people. Gimli the dwarf had joined them as they mounted up, sitting ahorse most ungracefully, and was now adding his considerable expertise in directing the Elves in the building of the trap.
Elrond smiled to see his people look askance at the dwarf but they acknowledged his superior knowledge of fortification building and obeyed his instructions. To the side of them now rose a great pile of small boulders and loose stones, grouped around a massive granite boulder and held loosely in place by pivot-stones, which could be knocked aside in an instant. The entire assemblage was held by a single wooden peg, driven into the earth before the granite boulder and tied to a rope. The dwarf crouched to the side of the unsteady pile, peering down upon the twisting path, his muscled hand tight on the rope.
* * * * *
Though Bilbo and Samwise both tried to soothe the semi-conscious hobbit, Frodo would not be comforted. The Ring-bearer’s pain and unreasoning terror grew with every step nearer the Nazgûl came. The closed wound where the Morgul-blade had stabbed him had turned cold again, and Frodo’s left arm and side were as bitter as ice, stiff and unyielding to the touch. Sam warmed bricks on the hearth and wrapped them in thick towels, tucking them against his master’s side. Even this did not diffuse the creeping cold, and Frodo cried out again and again in anguish.
Bilbo drew back from his nephew’s bedside, wiping perspiration from the pale, agonized face. “Easy there, lad,” the old hobbit whispered, knowing that Frodo could no longer hear him. “Rest easy, my boy. Sam and I are here, and we won’t leave you.”
Samwise stood by his master’s bed, chafing Frodo’s cold left hand with both of his warm, calloused ones. The sedative Elrond had given him, dangerously strong as it was, could not shield Frodo from the awareness of the terror that approached, seeking him and that which he had been entrusted. Whimpering, Frodo twisted in the sweat-soaked sheets, eyes wide and unseeing, seeking escape … seeking refuge.
The loud knock on the door started Bilbo and Sam both into crying out, Sam biting his tongue in an effort to stifle the second yelp that rose in his throat. The two hobbits stared at each other in terror before Bilbo coughed and forced a laugh. “It’s just the door, Sam. Answer it, would you, lad?”
Sam staggered to his feet, trying to hide the trembling of his limbs. “Guess that wicked thing wouldn’t knock, would it, sir?” His smile was ghastly. “All right, I’m coming!” he called as the knock was repeated, loud and impatient.
Gandalf stood in the doorway, his arms laden with bundles and his staff tucked precariously into an elbow. The wizard swept past Sam and Bilbo, dropping his bundles on the small side table against the wall, and leaned over the Ring-bearer. “How is he?” he said softly, his deep gaze sorrowful and strained.
Bilbo eased himself stiffly out of the chair and stroked his nephew’s dark hair, the soft curls stringy from sweat. “He’s suffering, Gandalf. He’s aware of it, even so deeply drugged. He can feel it coming closer. Can’t you do anything?”
The wizard reached out and gently touched Frodo’s face, receiving a pained gasp in response. “I am, Bilbo. I am doing something. I am preparing to carry the Ring-bearer to safety, should Elrond’s efforts fail.” Bilbo and Sam paled; the thought that Elrond might fail and the Ringwraith win through to Rivendell had not truly occurred to them.
“You think -” Bilbo began, but Gandalf cut him off.
“I fear, Bilbo. I did not go with Elrond because someone must be here with Frodo, ere he fails to stop the creature. I have been to the kitchens and gathered up bread and cheese and travel food. I want you and Sam to pack some of Frodo’s clothing and warm cloaks and blankets – whatever he and you two will need, should it come to an evacuation.”
“Evacuation,” Sam murmured, for a moment not understanding. “You mean, if we have ‘ta run for it?”
“Exactly, Sam,” Gandalf replied. “The Ring – and its Bearer – must not fall into the hands of the Enemy.” The wizard gazed keenly at Bilbo. “Either of its Bearers.” Then those deep eyes snapped to Samwise. “Sam, get those things together. All we will need for several days in the Wild. Bilbo, I suggest you fetch your mail coat and Sting.”
Swallowing, Sam obeyed, his heart racing. Gandalf took Bilbo’s chair as the old hobbit left to gather his own things and his sword, the wizard’s gnarled hands reaching out to stroke Frodo’s ashen face.
* * * * *
Elrond did not need to warn his host to silence when the black form appeared on the narrow path below them. Coldness flowed from it like an icy wind, a darkness and a dankness that chilled the soul and froze the heart. Elrond, with Aragorn beside him, again lay prone on their bellies, their heads raised over the cliffside. The Black Rider slumped in the saddle, a misshaped thing, malformed, only its mailed gauntlets and boots could be seen apart from the ragged robes. For a moment it hesitated at the crest of the path, its featureless head raised and seeking. It seemed to sniff the cooling air, snuffling like some malevolent hound after a scent. For long moments the creature sat still and silent, uncertain, then it kicked its mount into a walk, coming down into the ambush.
Elrond waited until it was almost directly below them, to where a few more steps would carry it under the path of the great boulder. Then silently, he slashed his arm down and Gimli jerked the rope tied to the peg that supported the entire avalanche. The peg shot free. Released from restraint, the smaller stones rolled first, gathering dust and dirt and others as they moved. The greater stones moved next, overtaking the smaller and smashing them into pieces, sharp shards of stone flying like missiles. The black horse reared, screaming. With an agility that none would have credited it, the beast twisted on its haunches and leaped backwards. One of the great stones smashed into its flank and it staggered, its rider thrown to the side in the saddle. The Ringwraith shrieked, the anger and hatred in its unnatural cry striking terror into the hearts of all that suffered it. Some of the Elves clapped their hands over their sensitive ears, their fair faces tightening in pain.
The avalanche gathered momentum, stones striking each other and knocking each other to the side. The black horse recovered, white foam and red blood painting its body. A groan swept through the host as the Nazgûl regained its seat on the sweating beast. Showing a skill that would have been admired had this been other than what it was, the beast’s rider backed the black horse out of range of the falling stones. Still as death, it sat in the saddle as the cascade of stones lessened then stopped, the cowled darkness of its face raised towards the Elves.
The greatest of the stones, the granite boulder, gouged out great hunks of the cliffside as it fell and when it reached the path, it bounced on the narrow way before rolling off and smashing its way down the sheer incline. As Elrond watched, horrified, the whole section of the narrow path gave way, following after the boulder in a shower of loosened earth and stone.
Elrond watched with a sinking heart as the last, smaller stones rolled harmlessly past the still figure and into the newly created crevasse. The black horse lowered its ugly head and snorted, the sound somehow contemptuous and derisive. Its rider was silent but none there doubted the threat in its rigid posture. For a long time the Lord of Imladris and the depthless black cowl faced each other, then the Nazgûl drove its mailed boots into the beast’s sides. Even as it screamed in pain, the black horse obeyed, carrying its rider back along the way it had come. The Nazgûl paused at the top of the crest, turning in the saddle to raise its cowled head to stare once more in the direction of the Elf-lord. Though Elrond could not see any sign of features in the unrelieved blackness of the cowl, he could almost feel the twisted smile on the evil thing’s face, and the promise of retribution in its unseen eyes.
* TBC *
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author. | <urn:uuid:4833edec-9525-4c12-97fa-4ebfb0dc0c9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=3066&spordinal=31 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971812 | 2,987 | 1.695313 | 2 |
- Padraig Reidy is news editor at Index on Censorship. The opinions expressed are his own.-
This has been seen - rightly - as a victory for free expression, and a demonstration of the amazing power of the web in the face of attempted censorship.
Once the Guardian had published its slightly cryptic story on its website last night, containing such tantalising phrases as: “Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret”, it was inevitable that people would go searching.
Within hours, the Internet was alive with speculation, links to leaked documents, and republication of cached articles. At one point on Tuesday morning, phrases relating to the case constituted four of Twitter’s top ten “trending topics” --- a scarcely believable profile for a story that, technically, no one was supposed to be talking about. | <urn:uuid:9e2e162a-2156-40f9-a9c0-7bacfbd90f35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/tag/freedom-of-speech/ | 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 | 0.967181 | 190 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Through the Commission on Economic Inclusion, the Greater Cleveland Partnership works to create “Jobs and Opportunities, Wealth and Titles” for minority individuals and businesses in the Cleveland Plus region. Our efforts are aimed at growing minority-owned businesses (MBEs) in the region, increasing access to jobs that pay well and including more minorities in the senior management and board leadership of companies and organizations. Success means that minorities will more fully participate in the benefits of economic development in the region.
Inclusion at GCP
The GCP also strives to be a civic model for the development and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies that advance productivity, innovation, and economic growth. Our commitment to this goal is evident in our leadership polices, employment practices, purchasing priorities, business partners and community investments. Click here to read more about diversity and inclusion at the GCP.
Commission on Economic Inclusion
Created in December 2000, the Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 Northeast Ohio employers who are committed to making the region’s diversity a source of economic strength. Click here to read our latest newsletter.
MBDA Cleveland Business Center
The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center-Cleveland is operated by the Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the GCP. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce with additional support from GCP and the GCP's small business partner, the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE). The center, which is entrepreneurially focused, is committed to wealth creation in minority communities. | <urn:uuid:ad7397f0-4d28-43ba-a280-01565b805695> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gcpartnership.com/Economic-Inclusion.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930516 | 334 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Charles Dickens, the most important novelist in the English language, turns two hundred this year. His birthday is being celebrated with much fanfare in most English-speaking nations, but not in India, the one country where the social conditions - entrenched squalor and quick riches, immense frustration co-existing with optimism and vigour - would seem to match those of Victorian England most closely.
Despite this (or perhaps beca-use of it) the author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol has never been too popular in India. The novelist U R Anantha Murthy, in an essay published in a Kannada newspaper last year, pointed out that Dickens had had virtually no impact on his contemporaries. Thomas Hardy and Gorky showed them how to describe the social forces (capital, tradition, patriarchy) that constrained the protagonists of their novels, and also how to withhold any overt commentary on those forces. Dickens, in contrast, is shamelessly didactic and sentimental, a writer who shows us a divided society not to demand revolution but only a "change of heart" from rich and poor alike. No self-respecting Indian novelist has wanted to imitate him. To find where the spirit of Dickens resides in Hindustan, we must turn to the cinema, and to 1951 - the year of Awara.
Two years after he directed Barsaat, which is worth watching mainly for its gorgeous songs, Raj Kapoor made a film that is surely the most Dickensian cultural artifact to have come out of this country. It is not just that Awara is a film about a tramp, not just that the film examines the gulf between rich and poor, that it delves deep into the Mumbai underworld, that makes it Dickensian. Dickens's genius lay in creating characters who are two-dimensional and yet entirely true to our experience of the world.
Consider Awara's old judge (played by Prithviraj Kapoor) destroyed by the idea that only an honest man's son can be honest; or the bandit, who want to punish the judge; or Raj Kapoor's tramp, who has to choose between these two father figures. This dispute is settled alternately in Bombay's high society and in its dregs. Everything hinges on the portrait of an angelic schoolgirl. Can anything be more Dickensian than this?
Raj Kapoor never again came this close to perfection. Shree 420 has plenty of Dickensian touches - such as the horn that the pawnbroker uses to draw his clients' attention - and its songs are wonderful, yet the film is schematic and predictable. Dickens's artistry trumped his sentimentality, and his great novels end ambiguously. A Christmas Carol closed on an ostensibly happy note, but the terrors of Christmas Past linger in the mind even years later. Awara ends with Kapoor, convicted of murder, turning to the light - but behind jail-bars. Redemption is still uncertain.
I doubt that Raj Kapoor knew much about Dickens - i remember reading in an obituary that his favorite literature was Archie comics - but there was a primordial link between them in the form of Charlie Chaplin, that consummately Dickensian artist, whom Kapoor adored and imitated. Another link must have come in the form of Kapoor's personality. Actor, director, producer and marketing genius, he was a true bandhu to Dickens, who wrote over a dozen massive books, fathered about the same number of children, ran a magazine, acted in plays and went on worldwide reading tours, before dying of sheer exhaustion.
Dickens's critics - and he has always had plenty in England - contend that the author of A Tale of Two Cities had a good heart, and not much more, to offer to his readers. The truth is, Dickens is such a master of rhythm, image, and sound that his sentences stay with you for years. To be Dickensian is to be minutely attentive to your craft, and this is why a film like Deewar - despite its emotional punch - does not merit the label. There is a silken perfection to Awara, and to much of Shree 420, and to the song sequences in Barsaat ,that makes you want to watch them over and over, just as you want to read and re-read Great Expectations.
Dickens was a Christian nove-list in that he believed in redemption through suffering. Raj Kapoor is, in the same sense, a Christian film-maker. Just as we forgive Dickens his excesses - his verbo-sity, his insipid female characters - we forgive Raj Kapoor for his excesses because he can break through to those mystical moments that no naturalistic filmmaker can reach: like the image of Prithviraj Kapoor alone in the Bombay high court, realising that he has condemned his own son. At the end of Awara, it is not just a family, but a whole nation, putting aside ideas of hierarchy cherished for centuries, that is embracing a new start.
In a flat not far from the Chowpatty beach that features in Shree 420, i recently watched all of Kapoor's films. The images imprinted in my mind since childhood - of a sometimes tedious imitator of Chaplin, a shameless self-promoter, a dirty old man who made Ram Teri Ganga Maili - are now gone, replaced by that of a brilliant young filmmaker who has a fair claim to being the best this nation has produced. Ray, Ghatak and Nihalani may get more critical acclaim, but Raj Kapoor entertained millions of us while changing the way we think of the poor and homeless. For his craftsmanship, intelligence and heart, Raj Kapoor deserves the title of India's Dickens.
The writer is a novelist. He won the Booker Prize in 2008. | <urn:uuid:fe22b504-9d30-42d7-a149-6e0289786467> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-03/edit-page/31117421_1_raj-kapoor-archie-comics-charles-dickens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976219 | 1,199 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Discover the way our generation gauges success in terms of happiness, as opposed to just money, fame or power, in order to climb the broken ladder (corporate, personal or otherwise) that we have been left dealing with in the face of a challenging economy and a future that though it looks dim for some is still full of possibilities for millennials who are true to themselves.
1. Break the Hyper-Connection Once in a While
Here is a fact that people will tell you, we are the first completely hyper-connected generation. A generation consumed by instant information and a generation unsure if it is a good or a bad thing! We know a little bit about a lot, reversing the conventional ways of people knowing a lot about a little bit. A generation with a short attention span, energy and very little direction to go with, in a sense we are all over the place.
2. Success: Feeling Good over Dollar Signs
In the face of an outdated and crippled economy, the measures of success are changing for millennials. The ladder is broken and people are using “happiness” as a new measure for success. People just want to be happy and no matter what they do an end result of happiness is either consciously or subconsciously the true goal.
So take the ingredients: a fast paced, instantly gratifying society, a broken economic machine that measures material wealth over mental wealth, and a generation with a million good ideas to change the world; mix them together and you get a sense of why more and more young people are turning to more intrinsically satisfying jobs over jobs that provide the most money. It is an important paradigm shift that will really change the roles of colleges, how corporations market themselves and the measure of success; and it is all happening right now. Just sit watch.
3. Not a Bum, Just Sittin’ on It
A common trend in millennial job-seekers is a desire to wait for their niche to appear. A millennial will take a high paying job that has no intrinsic value with the intention or desire to do something that is a genuine love or passion with a much lower check in the future. In other words, millennials are showing a value in happiness over a value in money.
All around, this desire to do something we love is showing positive results in the workplace. One study showed millennials liking their bosses more so than Gen-Xers or baby boomers. This would make sense, considering like minded people are doing a job they want to do because they put value in the job. It is not a job that pays, it is a job that they do for a reason. It is a job of quality.
In these tough economic times, jobs are not easy to come by and for many, any job is a good job. But, jobs have also become something much more transient. They seem to resemble stepping stones more than a final career choice, as the ladder once suggested. Jobs are becoming more building and networking opportunities than small ladders leading to the “top step.” They are stepping stones leading to an eventual place of happiness.
4. Taking Time to Think: Be Back Later
Millennials are taking time to think. The Twentieth Century was turbulent and it greatly diminished the “think” factor. But, while some may see millennials as a coddled mass (and in some ways we are) millennials are also a generation of soul searchers who will not be pushed around or told where to go and what to do. Millennials are just stopping to think about one thing, “What does happiness mean for me?”For every person, happiness is relative and it is ever changing; but in the end, it is the ultimate pursuit. Every decision a person makes is with the ultimate goal of the thing we call “happiness,” the quality in life.
5. Hyper-connected Happiness
Millennials are aware of the shoddy hand we have been dealt and rather than dig the hole deeper, why not just live in the hole and be happy with what we do in it and over time believe that happiness will prevail. The more people feel generally happy, the lesser national and social and economic problems will weigh down our dialogues. Real change begins with each person. This is a very Millennial change happening in a characteristically hyper-connected way; we know when all of are friends are happy, sad or otherwise on Twitter, blogs, Facebook or Google and this influences our priorities and directions. People doing something that makes them happy spreads and the hyper-connection spreads it, instantly, and it grows. As a voice for our generation once said:
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." | <urn:uuid:7bda7040-40f3-4c4b-8598-d95a6b7b0b9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.policymic.com/articles/8345/5-reasons-why-millennials-care-more-about-happiness-than-money | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956982 | 980 | 1.710938 | 2 |
This low-grade malignant tumor is usually seen as a cystic, hemorrhagic mass in children and young adults. The most common location is extremities. Microscopically, it usually shows cystic spaces lined by a cuff of tumor cells and chronic inflammatory cells. Some cases completely lack the cystic component.
return to Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma | <urn:uuid:bc43b11a-ca6c-4845-ae3d-c62bd45fb876> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webpathology.com/image.asp?case=448&n=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931928 | 78 | 1.679688 | 2 |
March 10, 2005
OSLO, Norway - TV watchers in Norway got a video view of the future during a live broadcast of a ski competition - beamed directly from a camera-equipped mobile phone.
Norway's state broadcaster NRK claimed its test transmission from the grueling, 90-kilometer Vasaloppet cross-country ski marathon in Sweden last weekend was a world first.
NRK equipped a sports reporter with a third-generation, or 3G, cell phone and sent him off with 15,000 skiers who started the race. He stopped six times to provide commentary and images from his perspective of the world's oldest, longest and biggest ski race.
"We decided to test this in order to create a more dynamic broadcast," NRK sports editor Oeyvind Lind said. "By using a reporter who was also a competitor, we managed to give the viewers a rather unusual perspective on a ski race."
NRK said images were as good as those transmitted by satellite telephone from conflict or catastrophe areas but that 3G was cheaper and easier to use.
The broadcaster said it will consider using the technology, especially for fast-breaking news and sports, when there is a reporter or witness at the scene but no camera crew.
"This enables us to report breaking news live on TV at an earlier stage and keep it going until our normal broadcasting equipment is in place," said Gunnar Garfors, director of mobile services for NRK's development division.
The NRK reporter, Christian Grotnes, finished in 2,119th place, with a time of 5 hours, 36 minutes and 31 seconds. Vasaloppet's winner, Oskar Svard of Sweden, finished in 3:51:47. | <urn:uuid:34de59b3-06d8-4fe5-9abd-cbf3137873fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/money/article_54a6d3d4-fdd2-5d50-8da6-5b06dbccd500.html | 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 | 0.963856 | 358 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Journal Backfile Retention Policy
Journal Backfile Retention Policy for Paper and Microfilm (“hard copy”)
Jan. 24, 2012. Reviewed by Academic Support Committee.
Recent conversations with faculty about journals have focused on current subscriptions and been driven by budget constraints. Space is another limited resource, and we are investigating whether some Pelletier space might be better invested in program rather than storage. In particular, we are considering discarding print journal backfiles when doing so will not adversely affect and might improve program support. To that end, during the Spring semester 2013, the library will review with the departments which hard copy journal volumes we should keep, based on the following guidelines:
1. We will keep, in some format, items which serve one or more of the following purposes:
Support of the current and probable future curriculum
Preservation of the history of the College and the Region
2. We may discard hard copy materials that fulfill the first guideline when they are available from an affordable and reliable online source. (Note 1)
3. Even if there is acceptable digital access, we will keep in hard copy materials that fulfill the first guideline when the print format provides added value such as illustrations and cultural content.
4. We will keep in hard copy materials with very low anticipated use, if we do not have good discovery tools (indexes). These materials may rely on browsing as the sole way that people find the information.
5. We may discard hard copy with very low anticipated use if there are sources to easily obtain individual articles, and we have excellent discovery tools (indexes).
6. We may discard materials that do not fit the first guideline even if they are not available in digital format.
7. We may discard part of a backfile and retain other parts. There is no mandate to retain complete runs.
8. In making purchases of digital files we will seek to provide materials to meet current and future needs rather than electronic replacements for unneeded/unused hard copy. That is, whereas having digital access will play a role in our decision to discard some paper titles, we will not purchase digital access solely to replace discarded paper materials.
The table on the right summarizes our proposed approach to assessing paper and microfilm holdings for retention.
Any materials we decide to discard will be offered to faculty and then to other Pennsylvania libraries for their collections.
Note 1: “Reliable sources” means journals to which we have purchased permanent rights and which are backed up by an archive service or sources which are not-for-profit, supported by a broad base of the academic community and are very unlikely to increase ongoing cost beyond what we can pay. Some examples:
- Emerging preservation coalitions (note 2)
- Journal archives from major academic publishers for which the price is reasonable and has not increased significantly in the last 5 years and where the archives are available on the same terms even if we cancel other purchases.
- Journal collections which we can purchase with a one-time payment and for which there is a reliable backup delivery service.
- Titles and runs covered by an archiving service (note 3) for which we have persistent rights
- Open Access journals from reliable sources or sources covered by an archiving service.
“Available in online sources” includes these criteria:
- The electronic version is complete and includes all articles, letters, announcements, supplements, etc., found in the print.
- The quality of images, figures and pictures compares favorably with the print version.
- Access is through an acceptable interface and provided by IP authentication and our off-campus proxy service.
- The license allows printing of content and other reasonable uses without unusual software requirements.
Note 2: “Emerging preservation coalitions”. There are several growing efforts to digitize, preserve and make available scholarly content, most notably Google Books and HathiTrust, both of which contain journal literature. We do not consider Google Books in itself a good source chiefly because its retrieval system is unworkable. HathiTrust, which incorporates many items digitized by Google Books, has a reasonable search, retrieval and display interface. The College intends to join HathiTrust in FY2014 so that our users have extended access to its materials. HathiTrust is a not-for-profit cooperative endeavor whose members include many major universities.
Note 3: “Archiving service”. There are two not-for-profit archiving services which are used by most scholarly publishers to deposit their content so that, should the publisher go out of business, the content can be made available to any library with persistent rights. Allegheny belongs to both of these services (CLOCKSS, and Portico) and we keep track of all journal titles and issues to which we have persistent rights.
Memo to Faculty - February 2013
Pelletier journal removal project
This spring, the library is preparing to discard a significant portion of its physical journal collection, based on a journal retention policy approved by the ASC. This is the first comprehensive review of our journals since the move to Pelletier and reflects both changes in our curriculum needs and online availability of many sources.
Each department has received lists of the hard copy journals the library has relevant to their discipline. Some journals will be on more than one department list.
The lists are divided between journals we recommend be discarded and those we think should be retained. If the department believes that any “retain” journals are no longer needed in hard copy, please advise us! Many of these do have online sources as well.
Any hard copy that is being replaced by JSTOR will be removed only when the JSTOR coverage overlaps our print holdings. That is, if our only current holdings are in print, we will continue to maintain those issues. In most cases our current holdings are online as well from a different source.
Some titles are not on any department list because they cover very broad areas or they do not have any departmental home.
A list of all titles we are recommending for discard is on the google drive, open to the Allegheny community. Use this link: http://bit.ly/XZqzAA
Volumes in Arter and Alden are not part of this discard project.
Allegheny faculty and staff can ask for any of the volumes we eventually remove – we will be happy to give them away on a first-come basis. All other materials will be offered to other libraries. | <urn:uuid:1050cff3-7f55-426c-965f-2bc0c111af6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.allegheny.edu/JournalBackfiles | 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 | 0.93878 | 1,332 | 1.6875 | 2 |
That's because although my dad was a Konkani from Karwar in northern Karnataka, my mom-- a Maharashtrian-- taught my brother and me to speak Marathi as our first language. She also cooked mostly Maharashtrian food at home. As a result, Ashwin and I were the only two kids in the Honawar clan whose Konkani didn't sound as musical as it sounded stilted, and whose dinner plate featured varan instead of dalitoy.
But our proximity to dad's family members who all lived within a mile's radius of our home also helped me become familiar, at an early age, with the delicious flavors of Konkani cuisine. Later in my childhood my Goan stepmom introduced me to Goan Konkani food which stands apart in a class of its own.
Because Indian restaurants around the world tend to focus heavily on just a handful of north Indian dishes (like your biryanis, paneer palaks, aloo gobis, samosas, and pakoras), the complex and vastly diverse regional foods of India, including those of the Konkan region, are not something you are likely to be able to order from a menu. But there is another way to step into this neverending adventure: by cooking these foods in your own kitchen.
To start with, I have for you today a low-fat, healthy version of a popular dish that was a staple at my Konkani family's weeknight dinners: Batate Humman.
A humman, in Konkani, means a curry, or a stew. Batate Humman is a potato stew infused with the sweetness of coconut, the puckering tang of tamarind, and the heat of dry red chillies. It is a really simple stew, but delicious beyond imagination.
For this healthy version, I use sweet potato instead of potato, and I cut down the coconut. There's no oil or fat added to the recipe, but it is not strictly fat-free because coconut does contain some fat-- albeit heart-healthy fat. Altogether, this extremely healthy recipe has just 115 calories per serving and only 6.5 grams of fat in each serving.
I don't peel my sweet potatoes because the skins of vegetables, and the portion directly under it, are usually nutrient-rich, and peeling skins off veggies can leave your food bereft of some of the benefits of eating these veggies (there are, of course, exceptions-- don't try eating the skin of an avocado, or a pumpkin). When the sweet potato skins stew in the curry they get quite soft and you won't even be able to tell they are there.
To go with the Sweet Potato Humman which is one of the easiest and quickest recipes you can possibly make, I made another Konkani classic: Papada Kismoor. Most Indian food aficionados are familiar with a papad or poppadum, the light lentil cracker that is sometimes offered up in Indian restaurants instead of a bread basket. Sometimes, when a Konkani cook is rushed but in the mood for something delicious to go with his/her rice and curry, he or she will roast a few papads on the open flame of a gas stove, crush it into small bits, add some chopped onions and spices, and voila! It's a sidedish as delicious and crunchy as you can imagine it to be.
Papada Kismoor does perfect justice to a plate of boiled rice drizzled with some Sweet Potato Humman, and it's as healthy as can be.
Enjoy the meal, all!
Sweet Potato Humman
2 medium sweet potatoes, washed clean. Dice the sweet potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes. I don't peel the skins. Put in a microwave-safe bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with a microwave-safe lid (I sometimes just use a ceramic plate) and microwave for 5-7 minutes until tender. If you prefer, you can also cook the sweet potatoes on the stovetop.
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 dry red chillies (use more or less per taste)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2-inch ball of tamarind. Remove seeds, if any.
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Salt to taste
Heat a skillet and dry-roast the red chillies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds until they are a couple of shades darker and smell aromatic.
Put the roasted spices in a blender along with the coconut milk. Add the coconut milk and tamarind and enough water to blend into a smooth paste.
Pour the coconut paste in a saucepan and add the sweet potatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil. If it's too thick, add more water.
Add salt to taste and let the curry simmer about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot over boiled rice.
Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 115, Total Fat 6.5 grams, Potassium 381 mg, Dietary Fiber 2.5 grams, Sugar 5.1 grams, Protein 2.1 grams, Vitamin A 69 percent of RDA
6 papads, each about 6 inches in diameter (I use the Lijjat brand which is the most widely available here. If you use the smaller papads (appalams), use more
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (use more or less per taste)
1/2 cup finely diced coriander leaves
2 tbsp grated coconut (optional. I didn't use it because I wanted to keep the fat low, but add it for a more traditional flavor)
1/2 cup finely onion (shallots would be even better)
Roast the papads in the microwave. I stack them and let them go one minute, which is usually enough. If you have raw spots, you can let them go for a few seconds more, but watch them carefully. Alternately, if you know how to do this, roast the papads over the open flame of a gas stove.
Crumble the papad into small pieces in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. I don't add salt because the papads are fairly salty. | <urn:uuid:691c9f68-dc64-470d-aa74-cbc40076a121> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.holycowvegan.net/2011/12/sweet-potato-humman-with-papada-kismoor.html?showComment=1325307087650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937039 | 1,311 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Just as the mega musicals from the 1980s, such as “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables” and “Miss Saigon,” altered American taste and expectations in popular musical theater, two recent mammoth productions of straight plays from the U.K are also likely to make a similar impact. “Coram Boy” has arrived in time to see the departure of Tom Stoppard’s three-part epic of 19th century Russia, “The Coast of Utopia.”
As adapted by Helen Edmundson from the novel by Jamila Gavin, “Coram Boy,” set in 18th century England, boasts 40 players, a 20-member choir, and a small orchestra. It is a hybrid not like anything we have encountered in modern theater and is made up of elements that appear inspired by 19th century Penny Dreadful serialized stories, the horrifically lurid dramas presented by Paris’ famed Grand Guignol Theater, and more notably the cleverly convoluted plotting of a Dickensian novel.
All this has been embossed with new musical pieces written in the style of the 18th century by Adrian Sutton, liturgical songs from the classical repertory, and a large dollop of Handel’s “Messiah,” with the composer himself as a minor but delightful fellow (Quentin Eaves).
While “Utopia” didn’t have musicians in the pit, it was the work of a master playwright, Tom Stoppard, and masterful director Jack O’Brien. “Coram Boy” has aspirations, indeed, inspirations, that are nearly as grandiose. It is largely the work of Melly Still, who directed the original production for the National Theater, and takes credit not only for the staging but as a co-set and costume designer with Ti Green. If comparisons are to be made, and they probably shouldn’t, it is that the intellectual richness and awesome scope of “Utopia” unquestionably supercedes the rather incredulous and sensational underpinnings of “Coram Boy.”
The characters of “Coram Boy” have the prerequisites of old-fashioned melodrama. They are unmistakably good or evil, rich or poor.
It is also pointless to argue the merits of the more crudely cut story line of “Coram Boy” against the gripping narrative that drives its dramatic predecessor and model, “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” as the latter is pure and simply Dickens, the real thing. This is not to say that this yet another foray into turntable heaven isn’t a formidable and entertaining experience. The dastardly entrepreneur, Otis (Bill Camp), unmercifully browbeats Meshak (Brad Fleischer), his mentally challenged son, whose relief from abuse is his vision of an angel.
Otis has developed a lucrative business disposing of the unwanted babies of women from the upper classes. Instead of delivering them to the Coram Foundling Hospital in London, a job for which he is handsomely paid by his clients, he murders and buries them on the remote grounds of the Ashbrook estate where he is abetted the house keeper and his partner in crime and sex, Mrs. Lynch (Jan Maxwell).
The musically gifted adolescent, Alexander Ashbrook (Xanthe Elbrick), has been allowed reluctantly by his autocratic father, Lord Ashbrook (David Andrew MacDonald), to study and sing with the Gloucester Cathedral choir. There he befriends Thomas (Charlotte Parry), the son of a carpenter and a gifted musician. The young boys’ roles are played by women to sound like boys before their voices change. They also make for very pretty boys. Didn’t anyone think to audition anyone from the Vienna Boys Choir?
More importantly, Lord Ashbrook wants Alexander to take over as heir to the estate and learn the family business and will not tolerate the boy’s request to continue to study musical composition. Alexander rebels and runs away from home. He does not know that his girlfriend Melissa (Ivy Vahanian), the daughter of the family governess, is going to have his child.
Years pass and Alexander and Thomas now played respectively by Wayne Wilcox and Dashiell Eaves, have made their separate way in the world but reconnect to find their destinies entwined. Melissa has been living in the belief that her baby died in still-birth. It is Meshak’s obsession with Melissa, whom he envisions as his guardian angel that prompted him to save her baby boy. It is the adventures of that boy (once again played by Xanthe Elbrick), and his best friend, Toby (Uzo Aduba), both orphans at the Coram Foundling Hospital, that perk up the story line in Act II.
The sight of a bewigged conductor outfitted in 18th century fashion popping up with his baton raised and ready to underscore a dramatic scene or signal the ever-ready choir for their part is a very exciting touch. One can see why a plot that turns on the wheels of old-fashioned melodrama might need musical support, as in the tradition of Grand Opera. As in that style of exalted theater, the terrifying and the traumatic are expected, as are characters whose lives are frequently seen being dashed against the rocks of despair.
Capturing the essence of the book, the winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, couldn’t have been easy, but Edmundson has done a good job of making the narrative easy to follow. It was up to Still to see that the action, much of it in the fluidly episodic turntable style of “Les Miserables,” is more self-consciously theatrical than, say, your scenically empowered series on Masterpiece Theater. Best of all, the chorus rises to meet every challenge with some mighty fine tunes.
Act I is decidedly more somber and macabre, but Act II delivers the assurances that everyone worthy is delivered from evil. The acting is uniformly good and finely tuned to the requirements of this very large ensemble.
In as much as they are given prominence, there are drapes and chandeliers (we can’t do without them), ropes and set pieces to help create and define various locales. It is all spectacularly lighted by Ed McCarthy based on the original lighting created by Paule Constable. Audiences are likely to be impressed, if they allow themselves to be seduced by this ambitious play’s attempt to be original.
“Coram Boy,” Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street. $56.25 to $101.25. 212-239-6200. | <urn:uuid:3f0c6da6-abbd-4637-8dd3-0ac73dde33af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid=6&key=05-23-2007_p_04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970091 | 1,437 | 1.742188 | 2 |
When you are looking for good hair care products it’s important to remember to look for products that moisturize the hair without clogging the pores.
Caring for our hair is one of the most talked about topics for many women. Wondering which shampoo, conditioner or gels are good for their hair can be a contemplative task. However, with proper research, finding the best black hair care products can be less complicated than we initially think.
Here are some tips for finding the best black hair care products suited for you:
A lot of synthetic colors are actually used to make cosmetics look appealing. Many of these colors will be labeled FD C or DC followed by a color number. For example, FD C Red No. 6., but what many consumers don’t realize is that many of these colors cause skin sensitivity and irritation.
According to the Consumers Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients it is said that some of these colors are made of coal tar which causes depletion of oxygen in the body that can be quite harmful to the body. Although these colors are not completely necessary for many products, many consumers continue to expect products to look a certain way and that is why the manufacturers add color - although it may not be safe for the consumer.
Do your research and check out the ingredients in the products you buy. Remember, it’s your health that matters.
Most skin care products like deodorants, skin creams and shampoos contain fragrance. What’s frightening is many of these fragrances are carcinogenic – yes, that means toxic!The FDA has actually made public some symptoms reported by users of products with synthetic fragrances. Some of the symptoms have included rashes, headaches, skin discoloration, dizziness, coughing and even vomiting!
PETROLATUM and MINERAL OIL:
Although most lip and hair products are made up of petrolatum and mineral oil don’t be fooled. Petrolatum is mineral oil jelly which can be harmful when used on the skin and it actually causes premature aging.
Did you know that baby oil is 100% mineral oil. But what mineral oil actually does is it coats the skin making it unable to breathe freely disrupting the skins natural immune barrier. This blockage does not allow the skin to absorb moisture and nutrition.
In order for the skin to be able to release toxins freely, the skin needs to be able to freely breathe and the petrolatum and mineral oil stops this from occuring.
Be aware of what you’re putting on your skin and in your body.
We’ll share more black hair care tips with you on an ongoing basis so keep visiting us often! | <urn:uuid:665309ac-bdfe-404a-8e5c-39fb0796aa69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.curlyhairsalon.com/black-hair-care.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944708 | 550 | 1.578125 | 2 |
No, guns don’t kill people (at least not by themselves) – but disturbed people who can buy guns more easily than they can get help with their mental illness do.
Something is wrong here. Very wrong.
We are 4th in the world for murders with firearms, behind South Africa, Colombia and Thailand. Germany, the closest European country to the U.S., has 2.8 percent as many murders. Mexico, a country we Americans like to look down our noses at as some kind of wild drug-gang infested, murderous hell-hole, has just 28% the gun violence rate that we do annually.
The majority of Americans have consistently been for such things as mandatory waiting periods, background checks and even psychiatric evaluations before a person may obtain a gun legally.
There has been a steady decline in support for stricter gun control, however, which, even as late as the early nineties, was around 70%. But by October 2010 Gallup found support for stricter laws nationally had fallen to just 44 percent. This can be attributed to a very strong, consistent public campaign and congressional lobbying efforts by pro-gun groups, mostly the NRA.
The constant refrain from the pro-gun lobby and its adherents is that the world is a dangerous place, and it’s best to be armed for defense. Bad guys find it harder to commit crimes, so the theory goes, when people are armed. And of course, heroes can be ready to defend against these crazies in incidents like the theater shooting. For all these reasons, they say, gun ownership should not be restricted.
But there are a lot of holes in their arguments. For example: Had there been another citizen carrying a gun at this theater, perhaps he could have successfully incapacitated the murderer. But with the hi-tech weaponry this guy had (and I don’t want to do the bastard the honor of repeating his name), and the bullet-proof armor he was wearing, he would most likely have succeeded in killing and injuring nearly as many as he did anyway.
I think most sane people would agree that it should at least be harder to buy a gun than to get a driver’s license. Automobiles can kill people too, but killing is not their primary purpose, yet a driver’s license can be harder to obtain.
Last, but not least, there needs to be free and easy access to counseling and help with mental illness. Pre-Reagan, this was the case. Now, lost souls without the financial wherewithal to seek help (most of them) or families to help them are left to their own devices. And too often, those devices include guns, and demented fantasies of glory that lead them to seek “fame” by staging massacres.
Most people know we need changes. And yet, with a heavy sigh, they say, “It’s just the way it is,” what with our representatives so meek in the face of retribution from a powerful NRA, should they seek gun control.
But with enough popular support, even the NRA can be defeated. Don’t be so ready to concede this battle. It is a battle that must be fought, not with guns, but with a citizen lobbying effort strong enough to convince our legislators that we have their back. | <urn:uuid:f9252803-f07f-45aa-835c-c455ec0210bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humortimes.com/11147/guns-dont-kill-people-but-crazy-people-who-buy-them-do/ | 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 | 0.978317 | 682 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The new west building alone will add 127,000 sq ft accounting for the new gallery space in 65,000 sq ft of daylit rooms. With galleries on the one storey above ground, operations and mechanical equipment will find their place below in the basement. 230 overlapping and angled anodized panels are used on the exterior and glass curtain walls define each of the five sculpture courts.
In the existing east building three new exhibition spaces will be added totalling 13,200 sq ft accounting for the temporary gallery space. Three newly landscaped acres of land will be accessible by from both the east and west buildings.
The project is a collaboration led by Thomas Phifer and Partners with Pierce Brinkley Cease + Lee Architects as Architect of Record and Lappas + Havener as Landscape Architect. SOM are providing Structural Engineering while Arup are providing the Daylighting Design crucial for the display and preservation of the works.
Due to fully complete in April of next year, the expansion of North Carolina Museum of Art is well under way with the new West Building nearing completion and the East Building scheduled to close for works in the coming September. The $83.9 million expansion is set to increase permanent gallery space by 54%, temporary exhibition space by 45%, storage capacity by 90% and add new classrooms and education spaces. Three acres of newly landscaped sculpture gardens and reflecting pools will also be added and an existing pond renovated. | <urn:uuid:2c1bf03c-d235-453d-ad07-ebab2bf3a14b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archinhome.com/architecture/north-carolina-museum-by-thomas-phifer-and-partners-in-united-states/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934554 | 288 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- Personal Development
- Entrepreneurial Toolkit
- The Store
John C. Maxwell discusses strategic personal growth in his new book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. The following column is adapted from a chapter in the book.
Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react. And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic.
I hope that hasn’t been true for you. If it has, then I want to encourage you to develop a stronger sense of urgency and a pro-strategic mindset. As you plan and develop strategies for your life and growth, I want to share with you some of the things I’ve learned that have helped me in the process.
1. Life is very simple, but keeping it that way is very difficult.
Despite what others might say, I believe life is pretty simple. It’s a matter of knowing your values, making some key decisions based on those values, and then managing those decisions on a day-to-day basis. And at least in theory, the longer we live and the more we learn, the more experience and the more knowledge we acquire—well, that should make life even simpler. But life has a way of becoming complicated, and it is only through great effort that we can keep it simple.
A few years ago I attended a conference on global strategies for leaders. While there, I asked Neil Cole, president of Iconix Brand Group Inc., for advice for designing a strategy to develop leaders globally. He replied, “The secret is found in simplicity.” He then shared three questions that he sees as key to making such a strategy work:
› Can the individual take the information and apply it personally? This is a profound requirement: The strategy must transform the soul of the leader.
› Can it be repeated easily? The strategy must be so simple that it can be shared with others quickly and clearly.
› Can it be transferred? The strategy must be transferable globally, applying in all cultural contexts.
Cole’s response made such a strong impression on me that I later used those questions in my own leadership.
2. Designing your life is more important than designing your career.
Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon says, “Many people worry so much about managing their careers but rarely spend half that much energy managing their lives. I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out.”
I think Witherspoon’s advice is partially correct: If you plan your life well, then your career will work itself out. The problem is that most people don’t spend very much time planning their careers either. They spend more time planning for Christmas or their vacation. Why? Because people focus on what they think will give them the greatest return. If you don’t believe you can succeed in your life in the long term, you’re not very likely to give it the planning attention it deserves.
Planning your life is about finding yourself, knowing who you are, and then customizing a design for your growth. Once you draw the blueprint for your life, then you can apply it to your career.
3. Life is not a dress rehearsal!
I’m a longtime reader of Charles Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts. Schulz captured the feelings of many people in a strip in which his Charlie Brown character says to his pal Linus, “Life is just too much for me. I’ve been confused from the day I was born. I think the whole trouble is that we’re thrown into life too fast. We’re not really prepared.”
Linus responds, “What did you want… a chance to warm up first?”
There is no warm-up for life, yet that’s the way many people seem to be treating it. Each of us goes on stage cold, with no preparation, and we have to figure it out as we go along. That can be messy. We fail. We make mistakes. But we still need to give it our best from the very start.
We don’t get a rehearsal for life. We have to do the best we can in the moment. But we can learn from others who have gone before us and found success. They should inspire us to plan as best we can and then give our all. Comedian Fred Allen once said, “You only live once. But if you work it right, once is enough.”
4. In planning your life, multiply everything by two.
My outlook on life is primarily optimistic, and as a result, my expectations for myself and others tend to be rather unrealistic. Over time, I’ve learned that the important things in life usually take longer than we expect and cost more than we anticipate. That is especially true when it comes to personal growth.
So what do I do to compensate? I multiply by two. If I think something will take me an hour to do, I plan for double to stay out of trouble. If I think a project will take a week to accomplish, I allot two. If I think a goal will require $1,000 to fund, I set aside $2,000. Two isn’t a magic number—it just seems to work for me. I’ve found that multiplying everything by two infuses realism into my optimism.
I’m aware that I’m an especially impatient person, but I think all people naturally desire for things to come to them quickly and easily, including personal growth. The secret isn’t really to want more or want it faster. It’s to put more time and attention into what you have and what you can do now.
Give two times the effort and energy to growing yourself. And allow yourself to grow slowly and with deep roots. Remember that a squash vine or tomato plant grows in a matter of weeks, produces for several days or weeks, and then dies when the first frost comes. In comparison, a tree grows slowly—over years, decades, or even centuries; it produces fruit for decades; and if healthy, it stands up to frost, storms and drought.
As you develop strategies for growth, give yourself the time and resources you need. Whatever amounts seem reasonable to you, multiply them by two. That practice will help to keep you from becoming discouraged and giving up too soon.
Most accomplishments in life come more easily if you approach them strategically. Rarely does a haphazard approach to anything succeed. And even the few times a nonstrategic approach to achievement comes to fruition, it’s not repeatable.
Strategies and systems are a way of life for me. Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, says that systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results predictably. But without a system, even extraordinary people find it difficult to predictably achieve even ordinary results. I totally agree with that. | <urn:uuid:7398c944-fa4c-43c8-ac06-869849309733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.success.com/articles/2028-john-maxwell-have-a-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960313 | 1,484 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.