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The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday, Feb. 27:
At one time, his face was one of the most recognizable in the country. That’s because no U.S. surgeon general before or since C. Everett Koop has used the job’s bully pulpit so effectively to prod Americans into taking better care of themselves.
Koop died Monday at age 96, his own longevity a testament to his relentless advice on living a long life. Atop the list: Don’t smoke. Using research connecting cancer to tobacco use, Koop urged people not to smoke if they hadn’t started, and to quit if they had.
Wearing the gold-braided naval uniform of surgeons general, Koop, with his Captain Ahab beard and stern demeanor, was an imposing figure. When he said smokers are 10 times more likely to develop lung cancer, people listened. During his 1981-89 tenure, the share of Americans who smoked dropped from 33 to 26 percent.
A special report that Koop prepared in 1986 still represents the best advice for avoiding the sexual transmission of the AIDS virus: Either practice abstinence or monogamy, or use a condom. The Reagan White House wanted him to leave out the condoms part, but Koop wouldn’t let politics get in the way of the truth.
Koop grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., but Philadelphians considered him one of their own. After finishing at Cornell University Medical College, he completed his residency at University of Pennsylvania Hospital and then became chief surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a post he held for 35 years.
Koop was a star surgeon who did groundbreaking work. His team was known for its surgeries to correct birth defects. In fact, his statements extolling the rights of infants with congenital defects to receive medical care caught the attention of the antiabortion movement, which recommended his appointment as surgeon general to President Ronald Reagan.
Koop’s conservative backers became agitated, though, when the devoutly religious surgeon general reported that he could not conclude that abortions are medically unsafe. Thus, he said, whether a woman has an abortion must in most cases be decided on the basis of her morality or religion.
Too few in today’s golden age of political expediency similarly allow truth to overrule ambition. Some say Koop’s candor cost him an appointment as secretary of health and human services. It doesn’t matter. Koop’s service to his country was outstanding.
©2013 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com
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He added that Republican negotiators had yet to offer any details of their own on how to raise more revenue from taxes, "and it would be helpful if they did."
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, argued that the $1 trillion in spending cuts agreed to by Congress in the past two years should be counted toward deficit reduction in the current negotiations.
"Where are the cuts? They're in bills that you, Mr. Speaker, have voted for," Pelosi, D-California, said Tuesday.
Three weeks remain to cut a deal before the automatic tax increases and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff go into effect on January 1.
Without an agreement during the current lame-duck session of Congress, everyone's taxes will go up, and economists warn the impact of the fiscal cliff could cause another recession.
However, the administration has signaled it can delay some of the effects to allow time to work out an agreement when a new Congress convenes in January.
Obama has held a campaign-style series of public events to back his call for extending Bush-era tax cuts for 98% of Americans while allowing rates to return to higher 1990s levels on income over $250,000.
The issue was central to his re-election in November, and Obama made clear on Monday that he intended to adhere to his belief that the wealthy must contribute more.
"I'm willing to compromise a little bit," Obama said at a Michigan diesel engine plant. However, he said higher tax rates on the the top income brackets was "a principle I'm not going to compromise on."
The president's public push appears to be working as polls show that most Americans back the president's position. | <urn:uuid:923b0228-9839-4ec1-8a67-7ff9960b66b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcvb.com/news/politics/GOP-threatens-political-war-next-year/-/9848766/17732118/-/item/1/-/dyk92wz/-/index.html | 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 | 0.979466 | 343 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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One study found that the statistical data of pet cats preying birds is clearly more than other animals. Tweety Bird, famous cartoon character, always bewares of ... Read more.. | <urn:uuid:cff115bb-10e8-41c5-a0f4-e25e1f9453df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.2pep.com/tag/uk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964174 | 582 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Having a baby drastically changes life, as you know it. Post pregnancy erratic hours, lack of sleep and just the feeling of constantly being on your toes can overwhelm even the best of us.
Additionally, all those pounds you piled on during your pregnancy simply does not go away as soon as the baby arrives. Going by Hollywood standards, your post pregnancy body is expected to look absolutely glamorous and in shape in a matter of a few weeks.
However, it is important to understand that it is more vital to be healthier rather than go on crash diets or extreme exercise routines to get back your pre-pregnancy body.
The best way to get rid of that post pregnancy weight is to begin with a few simple steps that will ensure that you remain healthy and can provide the best care for your baby.
Begin With Simple Exercises
Though you may be tempted to hit the treadmill and shake off those extra pounds, it is necessary to give your post pregnancy body adequate time to heal. Begin with simple exercises like lunges, squats and light pushups.
Consult your doctor before working on your core and abdominal areas. Avoid working on your abdomen for 4-6 weeks after childbirth. Start walking around outside whenever possible.
Take your baby along on a stroller and walk for a few blocks. This will not only improve your mood and help you bond with your baby, but also allow you to shed weight naturally and get your post pregnancy body back to normal.
Avoid Extreme Post Pregnancy Diet
Your body needs the right nutrition to heal and to sustain your energy levels for breastfeeding as well as taking care of the baby. Avoid following any extreme fad post pregnancy diet that promise you to make you lose post pregnancy weight drastically.
Follow a healthy nutrition plan with just the right amount of wholesome goodness to keep you healthy and happy. Add strawberries, almonds and potatoes in your diet. They will speed up your healing process and give you the energy levels you need and enable you to lose your post pregnancy weight naturally.
Eat Sensibly and Only When You Are Hungry
Having indulged in all your cravings during pregnancy, it is vital to get back to eating healthy. Include lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. Strictly avoid junk food, sugary delights and empty calories in your post pregnancy diet.
Stay away from carbonated drinks: drink plenty of water and natural juices. Be cautious about your fat and carbohydrate intake. Start healthy eating habits which means eating only when hungry and not just to fill time or satisfy your taste buds.
This will not only help you lose your post pregnancy weight, but also give you an opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle for years to come.
Maintain a Food Journal
Keep a tab on your post pregnancy food intake. Analyze the amount of empty calories consumed and chart out plans to eat healthy, nutritious food. Motivate yourself to stick to your nutrition plan by maintaining your food journal.
Accept Your Time Constraints
Caring for a newborn is definitely highly challenging as well as time consuming. If you find yourself getting too stressful, do not get worried about missing exercise deadlines to lose post pregnancy weight.
Instead, phase your exercises throughout your day and spending a few minutes every couple of hours will make all the difference.
Dealing with Mood Swings
Do not be too hard on yourself for feeling lost or depressed. Make time for yourself to do the things that you love.
Do not be guilty for longing for some “me time”. If you are happy and content, you can take better care of your baby.
Find Support and Guidance
Seeking the counsel of family and friends will help you gain valuable knowledge about everything you need to know from raising a baby to losing post pregnancy weight.
Talk to them about your experiences, about having a baby and getting back in shape. Surround yourself with people you love, so that you have a positive environment to raise your baby and take care of yourself.
Focus on the Bigger Picture
Accept that your body has undergone drastic post pregnancy changes and will probably never be the same again. Learn to love yourself and maintain your post pregnancy body in the best way possible.
Being skinny is less important than being fit and healthy. Do what is best for you and your baby. Enjoy and embrace this new phase of your life.
How did you deal with your post pregnancy weight? Please share your tips with us!
***If you like this article and find it useful, please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ using floating social buttons bar on the left or simply leave a comment – we would like to hear from you!
We hope to see you again. Check back later for the new updates to our Healthy Lifestyle Section of the Blog. There is so much more to come!
About The Author
Mark Snachez has been writing for Dailychump.org a health magazine. Visit our site to get tips that really work for weight loss, relationships, fitness, beauty, skin care and much more.
Image Source: stevesimpson1
so I can show you:
- - how to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into your daily routine
- - learn crucial steps to become successful in personal finance
- - get great dating and relationship tips to achieve a long-lasting successful relationship
- - and much more...
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On Tuesday, President Barack Obama urged Congress to delay the looming sequester by passing legislation to "replace at least some of the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit the government on March 1."
“If they can’t get a bigger package done by the time the sequester is scheduled to go into effect, then I believe they should at least pass a smaller package,” Obama said. “There is no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy — not to mention the growth of the entire economy — should be put in jeopardy.”
As The Hill noted, "Obama offered no concrete plan on how to replace the cuts, but warned that if Congress allowed them to go forward, it would hurt the economy."
“We have seen the effects that political dysfunction can have,” said Obama. “It will cost us jobs and hurt our economy.”
On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office "estimated that allowing the sequestration cuts to go forward would lead to a 0.7 percent decline in the growth of gross domestic product this year."
The Bipartisan Policy Institute and defense firms have warned the cuts could cost the nation at least 1 million jobs.
Further, Commerce Department last week determined that "reductions in defense spending led to a 0.1 percent contraction in the economy at the end of last year."
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“Learning something new may be frustrating, and you are probably not going to execute this [technique/exercise/scale/whatever] well at first. If you stay at it and give it a couple of months… you will get better”.
As it turns out, advancements in brain study has proven this to be true. He wasn’t just giving me a pep talk.
When it comes to growing new skills and habits, 8 weeks seems to be a very important time frame. It’s the length of several top training programs in the world such as Navy SEAL’s physical conditioning program, the Bolshoi Ballet clinic, and several summer music schools (although the one I run is only six weeks), to name a few.
A recent study has shown that practicing meditation every day produced lasting changes in the brain after …. wait for it … 8 weeks.
I am not saying that doing just anything mindlessly for 8 weeks will change your life, but I am saying this:
- Creating a new skill or habit takes time, no matter who you are (this should make you feel good!).
- Resilience and persistence are crucial mindsets to adhere to, especially in the beginning stages of learning something new.
When I first started my journey toward debt freedom, I absolutely needed 8 weeks to change my behavior. I also needed to understand and accept that I was going to screw up a bunch, but that it was normal to do so.
That “cushion” of time to learn by trial and error was so crucial for me to be aware of. It made all the difference in my results and allowed me to be more patient than I normally would be with myself throughout the process.
So during the first 8 weeks of financial overhaul, I did the following ( I recommend you do the same):
1. Created a budget and revisited it daily. The one I ended with 8 weeks later was way different than the one I started with.
2. Read a personal finance book every morning when I woke and evening before I went to bed. I would rotate several of them.
3. Learned about every way to sell items online and how to use the sites (eBay to sell most of my stuff, Paypal to receive payments, Craigslist for the large items, BullionVault’s Italian site for Gold, etc.).
4. Listened to podcasts by personal finance gurus at work (Consumerism Commentary and Dave Ramsey are great!).
5. Read every personal finance blog I could find. See my list here from last week.
You get the picture. You can translate this to fit any new habit, of course.
The 8 week rule is key for a lot of reasons, but most important is that you should not make judgements too early on the progress you are making. Creating new connections in the brain takes time. You must keep at it, even if you feel like you are not making immediate improvement.
Give your brain the time it needs to grow, and you will be better for it! Let me know how you did in a few weeks… | <urn:uuid:d1f33d5e-d36f-45a2-af54-dce472c81aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weonlydothisonce.com/956/the-8-week-rule/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967579 | 647 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When considering the various financial institutions we personally deal with each day, such as banks and investment corporations, we immediately think of how much security is involved to protect the financial assets held in, or controlled by the institution.
Bank security systems are now so sophisticated that it is virtually impossible to use a hankie without being in full view of a surveillance camera. Uniformed guards making their presence obvious are as much an ornament as a deterrent to crime.
The terrorist acts of Sept. 11, 2001 created changes in our lives and businesses in ways in which most of us never dreamed possible. One of the most immediate changes in the way in which many do business was the passage of the Patriot Act. The U.S.A.
There’s a well-known joke about money. You might see it as a sign posted in a bar or restaurant: “In God We Trust. Everybody else pays cash.” The first part of that phrase, as we all know, is printed on every U.S. greenback and stamped on every nickel, dime, quarter and penny.
A large part of the nation has been spooked recently by regional energy crises. If necessity is the mother of invention, then perhaps recent price spikes, power outages and fears of terrorism are causing some people to assume more responsibility for their energy needs.
One of the most power-quality aware industries is the financial market, as it is one of the most dependent on the uninterruptible operation of computer and communications technology equipment for their business to generate “positive money.” It is not surprising that many of the members of the 7x24
How does a family business exist? In this world of business conglomerates with clearly defined structures, and multicultural specialty workforces, how can family business survive? In the United States there are 22.4 million businesses and 90 percent are family owned and/or managed.
When Ernie Audet Jr. wants a new piece of equipment quickly, he rents. Audet wastes time and money when he lacks equipment needed for a job. Rental equipment is a $25 billion industry and almost all contractors—large and small—depend on it. Audet’s firm, E. W.
Keeping track of company-owned tools has never been an easy task, even for very small firms. And for large organizations, effectively managing tools is a huge undertaking. “I started with our company as a driver,” said Rob Cherry, president of Osborne Electric in Oklahoma City.
No one would put their profits on shelves each year to sit and lose value, but that is what many contractors do by ordering and keeping unnecessary inventory. Overordering of inventory costs electrical contractors thousands of dollars a year in lost profits.
Information is power, within reason, so today’s business environment puts a premium on such. We’re told that computers reduce paperwork; more often they increase it. And one of the biggest workplace complaints is the inability to catch up on business reading.
I read an article in the Birmingham Business Journal recently where the control of company inventory was compared to Goldilocks’ evaluation of the three bears’ porridge. If you have too little, your customers will disappear. If you have too much, your profits will vanish.
Are you running a sprint or a marathon on the technology track? Do you feel like a hamster on a wheel, trying to evaluate new gadgets and systems? Even electrical contractors aren’t immune to technology headaches, especially when you’re spending all of your time just serving your customers. | <urn:uuid:1ba4ea9e-6bfc-4cae-8849-43a974e856f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecmag.com/tags/financial?page=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962505 | 734 | 1.5625 | 2 |
"They deal with us [Democrats] the same way they deal with our allies around the world: 'It's our way or the highway'," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer says. "'You do things our way or you don't play'."
So last week, the House Judiciary Committee passed, with an unfavorable recommendation, a constitutional amendment sponsored by Democratic Rep. Brian Baird
along party lines.
All Republicans opposed it, while all Democrats favored it. Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner has a bill that would require special elections be held to fill House seats within 45 days if at least 100 members of Congress are killed in an attack. Baird's
amendment would allow for temporary appointments to the House in such an event.
In his rush to dispose of the issue, Sensenbrenner ignored requests from other lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, to hold hearings on their amendments.
"To prevent the country from examining the issue and the whole House from reaching a conclusion … puts party primacy over patriotism," Lofgren told me last week.
"It's become a winner-take-all system," added Lofgren, whose alternative to the Unborn Victims of Violence Act was defeated earlier this year. "With a very narrow margin, Republicans have eliminated the ability of the minority to participate at all."
There are plenty of other examples of Republicans making it hard for Democratic alternatives to get a fair hearing. Just last week, the House approved a GOP bill that would extend the alternative minimum tax for a year, even though the Democratic plan was more inclusive. And while the $18 billion GOP bill was not paid for, the Democratic alternative was.
Yet the Republican proposal passed by a vote of 333-89.
As Hoyer told me, House Republicans are following the Newt Gingrich plan of attack:
"It is a strategy to divide, confront, and create wedges," he said.
On Wednesday, he noted that debate on the alternative minimum tax "epitomizes precisely what is wrong in this House today -- the Republican leadership's refusal to seize bipartisan opportunities where they exist and its desire to turn every tax bill
into a divisive, political bludgeon."
This comes just as the Bush administration asked Congress for another $25 billion for Iraq. Lawmakers weren't surprised that the administration needed more money, especially since troops are likely to be stationed there through at least the end of next year.
Don't expect this to be the last time the White House comes to Congress crying poor, either. As Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. David Obey said last week, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and securing U.S. embassies throughout the globe -- will probably cost at least three times as much as the $25 billion supplemental appropriation.
It's ironic that the request for more money -- which will further sink the United States into deficit -- came as President Bush started his "Yes, America Can" bus tour in the Midwest. The campaign features pictures of Bush telling Americans that things are looking up and will be better in the future at the same time that he's saddling them and their children with debt. Republicans have shown they don't care about running up the national credit card -- as long as the bill comes due after Election Day.
Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Republicans could take the best parts of both plans and merge them into a consensus bill that everyone would feel good about voting for, both now and in the long term. After all, Democrats have already met them part way by offering alternatives. The least Republicans could do is hear them out.
But that's unlikely to happen, especially in an election year as partisan as this one.
"The Republican-controlled Congress refuses to fulfill its constitutional obligation to act as a check and balance on this White House," Hoyer said last week, referring to the additional money needed for Iraq.
"There are no checks and balances in Washington today." That should have been clear long before lawmakers learned, far too late, about the terrible U.S. treatment of imprisoned Iraqis. Maybe now, though, they -- and the public -- will finally realize what's going on.
Mary Lynn F. Jones is online editor of The Hill. Her column on Capitol Hill politics runs each week in the online edition of The American Prospect.
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Wake up. Feed yourself. Feed someone else (maybe even before you feed you). Go to work. Talk and listen to others all day. Go home. Feed again. Sleep and repeat. [Insert Fish Oil, Workout and Mobilize wherever you want] We are all busy.
Now that we are Elite CrossFit masters of planning and getting everything under the sun done, how often do we take the time to live in the moment aware of what is happening to us now? A seemingly simple task, but often overlooked in our everyday lives. Next week’s bonus challenge is to practice “mindfulness” every day for 10 minutes.
As this challenge is named “Whole Life Challenge” I invite everyone, registered or not, to participate in next week’s bonus and see how the commitment to increase your awareness for 0.69% (10 minutes) of your day changes the other 99.31%.
KB/DB Push Press | <urn:uuid:c052559a-6fda-4321-a425-d1faedf20111> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.p3crossfit.com/2012/09/mindful-or-mind-full/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933977 | 199 | 1.5 | 2 |
Internet MBA's. Why Get An Internet MBA?
It has become quite customary for companies to recruit graduates who have a master's in business administration. Back in the days, people opted for such education programs only if was required. However, the times are changing and MBA has become an integral part of the curriculum; i.e. if you wish to lead a satisfying life! Why must one get a MBA degree? What are the options that are available to the commoners? In the passages listed below, we will be considering these aspects very closely.
We are not exactly aware of the circumstances that paved the way for MBA programs as a mandatory option to secure that dream job. In the corporate environment, the employee will have to face innumerable ordeals, and it has been proven effectively that those who hold a MBA degree can tackle such issues - once again, productively! Besides a MBA degree holder can scale the corporate ladder without much efforts. The management will bestow additional responsibilities to a MBA degree holder. Thanks to the effective coaching they were attributed to in their respective business schools, they might intercept any kind of issues in an efficient manner.
Now that you are aware of the advantages of a MBA degree program, allow me to highlight the options that are available to you. Frankly, you have two alternatives - you can enroll in a real world business school or join an online MBA program. Now which one among these happens to be the smartest available choice? Countless graduates are happy that they could secure a MBA degree right from the comfort of their living rooms because they chose the internet MBA curriculum. Yes, the degree obtained via such means is equally valid just like the degree, a real world business school or an accredited university will be handing out to you (i.e. once you successfully complete the program).
Schools and colleges classify internet management courses into two - full time and part time. Once again, we will come across another taunting query - which one among these is more effective. Well, the productivity of the program rests entirely on your shoulders. The way you participate in the program will pave the way for a successful career. If you have another regular day job (which you cannot resign from), in order to complete your MBA program, we would recommend you to consider the part time programs. On the other hand, if you spend a good portion of the day at home (working at home or homemakers), they must opt for the full time internet MBA programs.
In the subsequent sections, we will be looking into the advantages of online degrees obtain through the internet. However, you must decide whether you are compatible with such paradigms. Certain people hate the very idea of using the computer to learn something or the other. Although you will have to study the course through the internet, the business school might ask you to appear for examinations in person. Do keep us updated with your experiences. | <urn:uuid:cba88028-0525-4361-921e-0296e2351417> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educationnz.org/ | 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 | 0.952916 | 587 | 1.734375 | 2 |
So you shall not pollute the land wherein you are: for blood it defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Treasury of Scripture
Leviticus 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof on it, and the land itself vomits out her inhabitants.
Deuteronomy 21:1-8,23 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field...
2 Kings 23:26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against Judah...
2 Kings 24:4 And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
Psalm 106:28 They joined themselves also to Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity...
Ezekiel 22:24-27 Son of man, say to her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation...
Hosea 4:2,3 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood...
Micah 4:11 Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look on Zion.
Matthew 23:31-35 Why you be witnesses to yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets...
Luke 11:50,51 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation...
the land cannot be cleansed. Heb. there can be no expiation for the land
ContextSix Cities of Refuge
6And among the cities which you shall give to the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge, which you shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee thither: and to them you shall add forty and two cities. 7So all the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall you give with their suburbs. 8And the cities which you shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel: from them that have many you shall give many; but from them that have few you shall give few: every one shall give of his cities to the Levites according to his inheritance which he inherits. 9And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; 11Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which kills any person at unawares. 12And they shall be to you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment. 13And of these cities which you shall give six cities shall you have for refuge. 14You shall give three cities on this side Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. 15These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them: that every one that kills any person unawares may flee thither. 16And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17And if he smite him with throwing a stone, with which he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, with which he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 19The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meets him, he shall slay him. 20But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die; 21Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meets him. 22But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast on him any thing without laying of wait, 23Or with any stone, with which a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it on him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: 24Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments: 25And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, where he was fled: and he shall abide in it to the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil. 26But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, where he was fled; 27And the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood: 28Because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession. 29So these things shall be for a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. 31Moreover you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. 32And you shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 33So you shall not pollute the land wherein you are: for blood it defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. 34Defile not therefore the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.
Parallel VersesAmerican Standard Version
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood, it polluteth the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Defile not the land of your habitation, which is stained with the blood of the innocent: neither can it otherwise be expiated, but by his blood that hath shed the blood of another.
Darby Bible Translation
And ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood, it polluteth the land; and there can be no atonement made for the land, for the blood that hath been shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
King James Bible
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Young's Literal Translation
And ye profane not the land which ye are in, for blood profaneth the land; as to the land, it is not pardoned for blood which is shed in it except by the blood of him who sheddeth it; | <urn:uuid:db79227f-0780-495b-8d48-7db4dab8b4b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biblebrowser.com/numbers/35-33.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965533 | 1,660 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Two land-related cases appeared in two serious newspapers I happened to read last Sunday. One of the reports was in a regional newspaper, while the second item was published by a local one.
The reports not only spoilt by weekend mood but continue to be a cause of anxiety and worry to me. Hence the decision to share my views on the issues involved with some of my literary friends and fans.
The report in the regional newspaper was about findings released recently by the Land Matrix Project, a new online database compiled after conducting serious surveys and research on land matters worldwide.
The edition being reported on highlights one “interesting“ revelation that our country of peace and harmony leads East African countries in secret land sell-offs, and even tops global charts in this kind of business.
Let it be noted right from the beginning that the Land Matrix Project is run by a coalition of development-oriented organisations based in several European countries and has, since 2000, been working on collation and verification of big land deals of above 200 hectares, in order to have reliable data on the trend where rich countries are either buying or leasing land of poor ones on questionable terms.
According to the data obtained from the above mentioned exercise, the East African region outperforms Southeast Asia, South America and Central Africa in the involvement of selling big chunks of land to foreign governments and private investors through some secretive deals.
Then follows the sobering news! In East Africa, Tanzania is number one in this dirty game, having been on record to have secretly signed 58 deals involving 2.2 million hectares during the period under review.
Kenya and Uganda are number two and three respectively, while Rwanda happens to be involved in just one deal of this nature. Before we comment on the impact of this development, we may as well first cast a glance too on story number two which, as mentioned earlier, appeared in the local newspaper and attracted the attention of this scribe.
It is about the revelation of an investor who leased Changuu Tourist Island in Zanzibar for a song in 2002, as the contractual terms require the “lucky “leaseholder to pay USD 1,000 per month to the government for a good 30 years. The irony in this deal is exposed glaringly when it is reported that prior to entering into this “funny “and puzzling contract, the government agency controlling tourism activities in the same island was earning USD 5,000 per month! Only a person whose brain is on holiday can fail to smell a rat in such a deal.
Surely, both incidents are a tip of the iceberg as far as land deals involving public officials and investors, both genuine and briefcase ones, are concerned. It is true that there is more scandalous information on land allocation deals which is labeled “confidential”, to deliberately keep owners of this natural resource in the dark regarding calculated plunder, and shield the culprits from being taken to task and account for their sins.
Concerning the sale and lease of millions of hectares of land to foreigners by East African countries, analysts basing their comments on the Land Matrix Project have expressed concern that some serious social problems related to or occasioned by land mismanagement are inevitable. These include hunger, as some companies and governments grabbing land in third world countries opt for production of non-food crops or resort to exporting food to home countries as well as others which offer lucrative prices.
Social instability emanating from land conflicts between land “owners” and the landless is seen as another cloud on the horizon. The prediction is already happening in Arusha and surrounding regions.
While this is taking place the ruling clique is determined to plug its ears and close its eyes, completely unaware that history will condemn it.
Chances are that issues related to land and other natural resources will be raised during the countrywide debate on the envisaged new constitution. Probably clauses on how to manage these resources for the benefit of all may be included in basic law of the land.
However, it seems land grabbers are aware of this possibility and are busy grabbing whatever they can lay their hands on. To save the situation, land reforms crusaders should pressurise authorities to put a halt on big land sale contracts until the new constitution is in place.
Henry Muhanika is a Media Consultant firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:1c78d069-a95a-49a3-8d53-c8822760eb7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php/hl=23tion=com_content.com/nd/x.phpkw/s/ngs.htm?l=41997 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962271 | 891 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Hey everyone, hate to join and beg for help right away, but my betta, named Alfa, is a bit ill. Alfa had a few illnesses about 6 months before now, but seemed to mostly recover (his eye that was infected became less clear, but other than that, was normal.
2 weeks ago, I noticed his heater had stopped working, and his temp had dropped to about 70 F. During this time he developed a sore on his forehead, and on his right cheek some white patches. They seemed minor and I did not want to resort to medicine, so I bought him a new heater, and his temp has been steady in the 76-80 F range for the last 10 days. Since then, while the sore on his forehead has healed completely and his white patches have disappeared, he has not moved more than necessary, lays on the bottom of his tank, and he has not wanted to eat any pellets (maybe 1 per day, when he goes up for air and happens to see it) or blood worms, and will eat the live Daphnia I feed him only if they happen to swim past his field of view when he's lying the tank bottom. Finally, his belly seems bigger than usual, on his underside just behind his gills, which tapers off rather steeply.
I assume his immune system was weakened by the colder than normal water, and some old illnesses might have resurfaced. His energy does not seem to have come back, and it's very difficult to get him to eat now. What do I do?
Please find the questionnaire and image link below.
What size is your tank? 5 gal
What temperature is your tank? 76-80
Does your tank have a filter? Yes, one running 24/7, and one a few days at a time with a UV filter.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Nothing separate, but it's pretty well aerated.
Is your tank heated? Has a submersible heater
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Just water wisteria plants.
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Betta pellets, 4-5 in the morning, freeze dried blood worms, live Daphnia that I culture
How often do you feed your betta fish? Twice a day
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly 25%, monthly 95+%
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? See above
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Nutrafin cycle, Nutrafin water condition, 1 tbsp aquarium salt
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He always was fat, but seems to be a bit bloated on his underbelly just behind his gills.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Does not flare, unresponsive to me when I chat with him, only moves to swim to top of tank and gulp air, no longer eats pellets or blood worms, and only eats Daphnia when they happen to swim in front of him while he's laying on the rocks. He will chase them to some small degree.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 2 weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? 6 months ago, had an external fungus infection (feathery sore on scales), treated with antifungal, got better. 2 weeks later had a bacterial infection (slight popeye), treated with Tetracycline, mostly normal.
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1.5 year | <urn:uuid:f1bdfee1-0d2e-496b-8c56-8209bbde266f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?p=1405019 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983262 | 804 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Next year, the 125 class of motorcycle Grand Prix racing will be replaced by a new class of 250cc single cylinder four-stroke machines to be known as Moto3. This year's final 125cc season is the last remaining category from the original classes which comprised the inaugural 1949 World Championship and it shows that even the tragically myopic FIM is capable of change. Yesterday Honda unveiled its production machine for the championship at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya. The 84 kg, 35.5 kw, 13,000rpm NSF250R will cost EUR23,600 in Spain (with 18% VAT included) and will be sold worldwide from December 2011, no doubt becoming the mainstay of affordable racing as the RS125R has been until now.
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme has taken a ridiculously long time to replace the irrelevant two-stroke 125 class and its blatantly anti-competitive handling of electric motorcycle racing lost it a lot of fans too - all clear signs that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association is not the only Swiss-based sporting body in need of some serious introspection.
The broad outline of the Moto3 class is that engines will be 250cc four-strokes singles with a maximum bore if 81mm that must last a minimum of three races and will not cost more than EUR10,000. Unlike the recently introduced Moto2 class which uses Honda 600cc engines exclusively, there will be no single engine supplier for Moto3, though each manufacturer will be required to be ready to supply a minimum of 15 riders with its engines. Austrian manufacturer KTM is another with a machine and engine on the drawing boards for the category and it'll be interesting to see if Yamaha also joins the fray.
Though Honda looks like it will play a major role in the new Moto3 class, it will no doubt have some mixed emotions at the demise of the class it has had such a long and technologically wonderful association with. Honda has won 164 Grands Prix and 15 World Championships in the 125 road race class, eleven of them with the RS125R.
It was in this class in 1959 that the name Honda first became known outside Japan when it entered several twin-cylinder 125 machines in the Isle of Man round of the world championships.
Within a few years the Honda name was gracing world championship winners in all categories, but it was the 125 class in which Honda first distinguished itself, and the exotic engines it created are still legendary today - the Honda works machine of 1966 comprised five (33 x 29 mm) cylinders, and produced 38 bhp at 20,500 which isn't all that bad considering that the current KTM and Aprilia machines, produce not much more than 50 bhp, and they're two strokes with a half century of knowledge extra in their design.
The Honda RC148's pistons weighed just 34 grams each and the head diameter of the valves was 14.5mm. Legendary tuner and engine builder, Nobby Clarke, at that time in Honda's employ, used tweezers to put the Honda valve gear together.
Honda has been a long-time supporter of the 125 class, building and selling its first production road race machine, the MT125R, in 1976 progressing through to the current RS125R, which saw two of the three factory Honda MotoGP riders (Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso) win their first World Championships on the bike.
Hence it's not surprising that apart from the liquid-cooled, DOHC, 249 cc engine, the Moto3 machine is very closely based on the RS125R. The frame is very similar to that of the RS125R and both the brakes and suspension are identical. Even the fairing is a close replica with an identical drag coefficient.
The engine has the intake facing forward and the exhaust facing rearward, with the cylinder angled backward 15° in order to help concentrate the machine's mass. It utilizes titanium valves for both the intake and exhaust to reduce frictional losses due to weight. Further frictional losses have been reduced by coating the cylinder bore in nickel silicon carbide (Ni-SiC) and offsetting the cylinder centerline.
Like the RS125R, the 6-speed gearbox is a cassette design, allowing gear selection to be quickly changed.
The NSF250R is manufactured by Honda Racing Corporation, and will be sold (along with replacement engines and spare parts) through the Honda Motorcycle dealer network. It will also be available through GEO Technology, an official supporter of the Moto3 class.
Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below
For multiple addresses, separate each with a comma | <urn:uuid:1418a256-1d35-497f-9f8d-94119c8c30dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gizmag.com/honda-nsf250r-moto3-grand-prix/18811/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948268 | 968 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Group information sessions for those interested in JCCC’s associate of applied science degree in nursing and the practical nursing program will be held throughout the fall semester. Information session schedule.
JCCC currently has four nursing programs fully accredited by the Kansas State Board of Nursing. The RN Program is also accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.
Registered Nurse (RN)
Registered nurses assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans and maintain medical records. They administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent or disabled patients. They may also advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management.
RN Refresher Academy
If you are a registered nurse who has not worked in the acute health care setting for several years, this course will help prepare you for employment in an acute care setting.
Practical Nurse (LPN)
A practical nurse is a vital member of the health care team, providing nursing care to selected patients under the supervision of a registered nurse or physician. The practical nurse uses technical knowledge and skills to meet the health needs of people in a variety of settings.
LPN to RN Transition, AAS
The LPN to RN bridge program provides those licensed practical nurses wanting to become registered nurses the opportunity to do so. Admission to the program is based on academic criteria.
Health Occupations - Nursing Related
Certified Nurse Aide
Certified Nurse Aide Refresher
Certified Medication Aide
Certified Medication Aide Update
Home Health Aide
A nurse aide provides basic patient care under the direction of nursing staff. They perform duties, such as feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, moving patients and changing change linens. CNAs may get additional certification in medication, home health care and rehabilitative services. | <urn:uuid:eefff95d-b10a-4a2a-bf47-a6a0f8012feb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jccc.edu/nursing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943502 | 368 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Weight and load restrictions coming
Weight and load restrictions will soon be imposed on the Alaska highway system for all vehicles over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, warns the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in a press release. The weight restrictions are stated as a percentage of legal allowable weight and shall be applied to the maximum axle loading of state code 17 AAC 25.013(e).
The annual restrictions are dependent upon weather, local soil conditions and frost depth, but usually occur between March and June each year. Since the restrictions may reduce the allowable gross vehicle weight by as much as 50 percent, it would be advisable by those affected to transport as much freight as possible prior to the above dates, writes the department. All state routes, including the Dalton Highway, may be subject to the above limitations.
When imposed, these restrictions will be posted only on the DOT&PF Division of Measurement Standards & Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Webpage at www.dot.state.ak.us/mscve/ (click on “Weight Restrictions” under the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement tab and open the most recent Central Region listing). | <urn:uuid:fb5c740d-02b9-4e40-9bec-2f5f628c7651> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesewardphoenixlog.com/story/2012/03/08/alaska/weight-and-load-restrictions-coming/030820121750790572855.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 | 0.944009 | 227 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Boy Scouts to report suspected pedophiles to U.S. authorities
(Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of America is preparing to report to law enforcement the names of hundreds of adult leaders who have confessed to or been accused of molesting scouts since the 1960s, a spokesman said Monday.
The Boy Scouts' policy since last year has required accusations or incidents of child molestation to be immediately reported to authorities. Before then, reporting requirements differed from state to state depending on local laws, which raised questions about how many incidents went unreported over the years.
The change announced on Monday "is simply retrofitting our current policy to past cases," according to organization spokesman Deron Smith.
The Boy Scouts, one of the country's largest youth organizations, will turn the information over to local authorities in the jurisdictions where the accusations originated.
While some former scout leaders and volunteers could be subject to criminal charges as a result of the names, plaintiff attorneys say they don't expect a wave of charges to be filed.
Prosecutions would require more than simply an accusation, and many of the cases are decades old. In some states, in cases where statutes of limitations on reporting sexual abuse haven't expired, civil charges could still be brought.
The decision to turn over names to authorities comes as the Boy Scouts is preparing for the court-ordered release this month of 20,000 pages of internal files. The files date from 1965 to 1985 and detail roughly 1,200 cases of scout leaders who abused children or were accused of doing so.
The files played a key evidentiary role in a 2010 civil case in which an Oregon jury found the Boy Scouts liable for $20 million for failing to protect a scout from a 1980s leader who was an admitted pedophile.
Since at least 1919, the Boy Scouts, headquartered in Irving, Texas, has maintained an "ineligible volunteers" file to prevent suspected pedophiles from re-entering its ranks in other cities and states.
Law enforcement was involved in about two-thirds of the 1,200 cases that arose between 1965 and 1985, Smith said. But in an estimated 300 cases, there is no evidence that authorities were ever notified because state law did not require it.
It is unclear how many similar cases are contained in the files dating from 1985 to the present, Smith said, but those names will also be turned over to authorities. An internal review is under way.
Defense lawyers who represent molested scouts say it's a decision that has been too long in coming.
"This represents a fundamental shift from any other point in history in the way the Boy Scouts have regarded the contents of these files," said Paul Mones, the lead plaintiff attorney in the Oregon case.
"There were some cases in which the Boy Scouts had admissions from or pretty strong evidence of molestation and didn't contact law enforcement, and still haven't," he said.
Mones said turning over the names "represents a major step forward."
The Boy Scouts have annually counted between 3.5 million and 5 million scouts and more than 1 million adult leaders and volunteers among its members since the 1960s, Smith said.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Cynthia Osterman)
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- Digg this | <urn:uuid:415d1c2a-4630-48e6-9d96-cbb5d0b44df4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/01/us-usa-boyscouts-abuse-idUSBRE8901EB20121001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971268 | 673 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- time: travel, parking, setup (shorter online)
- geography: you can’t be in two places at once (you can online)
- audience: members from different firms may avoid going to the same event (how would they know online?)
- facilities: sometimes squishy, with obstructed views, poor acoustics (you control the environment online)
- health: do you want to catch or give the flu? (online attendees can watch without worries)
- weather: adds uncertainty (online you can continue with those available and have a “rain date” for the ones who can’t attend)
- cost: no room rentals, screen rentals or refreshments
- a compelling presentation
- an engaging voice
- basic technology
The PresentationWhen you're speaking live, you have the advantage of your physical presence. When you're remote, your slides become more important. Are they simple and engaging? Do they build by element or do you show everything at once? If you use a video clip, will your audience be able to see and hear it properly? Are you telling stories?
Tip: Practice, ideally with someone watching remotely.
The VoiceWhen you're not on camera, your audience only sees your slides and hears your voice. Think radio. You need more energy than usual. Try speaking a little faster (or a little slower if you normally talk fast). Enunciate clearly. Sit straight in your chair. Breathe deeply and regularly.
You need to adjust for time lags in transmission and reception. Some animations may be too fast for your audience to see. Some words may cut out as happens with mobile phone calls.
Tip: Record yourself and watch the playback. Repeat until you're comfortable with the results. Now get others to watch. What do they think?
The TechnologyYou'll want a fast, reliable Internet connection and a high quality microphone. If your mobile phone can create an Internet hotspot, you have a Plan B.
You'll find many services which let you host webinars from your web browser. Here's what's ideal.
- a well-featured always-free version: lets you experiment (likely ad-supported)
- recording capability: lets you practice, allows replays
- webcam option: lets you appear on the screen at least part of the time (much more engaging)
- fixed web address: looks more professional than having “no fixed address”
- registration which captures contact details: lets you stay in touch with your audience, including those who were unable to attend
- monthly plans: saves money since you may not have events every month
- option to charge: you may want to sell tickets
I was considering join.me ($20/mo for 25 attendees) but it lacks basics like recording and webcam support. I'm currently investigating AnyMeeting ($18/mo for 25 attendees, $70/mo for 200 attendees). The free ad-supported version allows 200 attendees. I'm impressed so far.
When's your next webinar?
- Murphy’s laws vs six presentations in a row
- How presenters under-deliver (and what to do)
- Make your presentation better than a TED Talk
- Three tips to add impact to your content
- Case study: would you pay to see this speaker?
- Fixing what’s wrong with conferences and networking
- You need to read To Sell Is Human
- image courtesy of Scott Maxwell | <urn:uuid:ac436293-894f-4acb-ae95-fecf0036343d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketingactuary.com/2013/01/add-webinars-to-your-marketing-mix.html | 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 | 0.933098 | 723 | 1.546875 | 2 |
THE SAN RAFAEL Police Department has increased patrols and enforcement of minor infractions such as jaywalking, drinking alcohol from open containers and urinating in public in the downtown area as part of a "quality of life" initiative aimed at reducing homelessness.
The police action is one of a series of steps recently approved by the San Rafael City Council to deal with what city officials see as a growing homeless problem.
"The number of complaints has been rising over the last year," said San Rafael City Manager Nancy Mackle. She said businesses, residents and visitors to the city have all expressed concern.
And city officials say they will soon consider other adjustments, including moving services for the homeless out of the downtown area and adopting new ordinances to ban sitting or lying on city streets, panhandling and loitering.
The stepped-up police enforcement actually began earlier this month before the council voted on the larger package of initiatives. Mackle said she didn't require the council's permission to authorize the action. She estimates the monthlong police surge could cost $10,000 in police overtime; the money will come out of the police department's existing budget.
Bob King, who operates San Rafael-based Marin Homeless in Action, which provides support for the homeless, said the crackdown coincided with Mill Valley Film Festival activities in San Rafael.
Among the actions approved by the council is an edict that the winter shelter program for the homeless, which is operated with the help of Marin County's churches and synagogues, no longer allow participants in the program to assemble for transport at the St. Vincent de Paul Society's Free Dining Room at 820 B St.
Mackle said, "It's just too much for the downtown to handle."
Mackle said many of the homeless who frequent downtown San Rafael during the day camp in the city's parks and adjacent open space areas at night. She said the city needed to respond to 12 fires over the past year in areas inhabited by homeless people.
The council has authorized spending an additional $60,000 to pay for open space fire prevention and the confiscation and disposal of homeless encampments. Mackle said that in August and September, the city removed 60 tons of debris from the open space as part of a project to clear out encampments.
Other actions authorized by the council include: exploring the possibility of arranging for someone to coordinate mental health services for homeless individuals in San Rafael; looking for outside funding for a program that would reward the homeless for cleaning San Rafael streets; and having Stephanie Lovette, San Rafael's economic development manager, work part-time as the city's "point person" for homelessness issues at an annual cost of $30,000.
Early this year, San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips established a two-member City Council subcommittee on homelessness that consisted of himself and Councilman Marc Levine. The list of actions the council approved when it met Oct. 15 was submitted to them by Phillips and Levine after the two men consulted with a community stakeholders group. The duo adopted some but not all of the suggestions the stakeholders group submitted.
Some of the suggestions that weren't forwarded to the City Council included: creating a campaign to humanize homeless people; supporting a "compassion tax" to pay for permanent affordable housing; and identifying work for the homeless.
Levine said, "The goal of the subcommittee is to reduce homelessess in San Rafael. The recommendations we have include a number of solutions that will help guide us to deal with this challenge."
Phillips said the action taken by the council was only the beginning of San Rafael's response to homelessness.
"I asked for specific things to reduce homelessness in San Rafael. This was the first step in that process," Phillips said. "We will put this in place and continue it."
Over the summer, the City Council tightened regulations on drinking alcohol from open containers, and Phillips said he has asked San Rafael police Chief Diana Bishop to consider whether additional ordinances — banning panhandling, loitering and sitting/lying on city streets — are needed.
"There is panhandling that is taking place, and there is loitering that a number of the downtown merchants are objecting to," Phillips said, "so we are definitely going to be looking at those."
Phillips said consideration also will be given to moving St. Vincent de Paul and Ritter Center, which provide services to the homeless, out of San Rafael's downtown area.
Ritter Center Executive Director Diane Linn said she knows there is concern that Ritter Center attracts homeless individuals to the area because of the services it provides.
She said, however, "We've challenged that premise in lots of different ways. The mission of Ritter Center is to reduce homelessness, to provide services that help people get off the street once and for all."
As for additional ordinances, Linn said, "Some people think that is a good idea. We don't think so."
Christine Paquette, director of development at St. Vincent de Paul, said, "As far as moving goes, we do own our building and do not have any plans to move in the immediate future."
San Rafael police Lt. Raffaello Pata said he wasn't sure if the number of tickets being written to the homeless had risen due to the increased enforcement action launched earlier this month. But because the number of officers patrolling the area has increased, Pata said, "It would not surprise me if the numbers would be a little bit higher."
Maura Prendiville, a staff attorney with Legal Aid of Marin, said it was too soon for her to tell if more tickets were being issued. Once a month, Legal Aid helps sponsor a community court at St. Vincent de Paul in San Rafael. A representative of Marin Superior Court presides over the court and sometimes allows homeless individuals with expensive tickets to substitute community service for cash.
Prendiville said the homeless in San Rafael are most commonly ticketed for sleeping in a public park, sleeping in a vehicle, possessing an open container of alcohol and jaywalking. She said a $100 ticket for sleeping in a park can snowball into a $1,000 bill if a homeless person fails to pay the ticket when it comes due. She said unpaid tickets can result in loss of a driver's license, which can be devastating because many homeless individuals live in their cars. Unpaid tickets can also damage a homeless person's credit rating, making it tougher for them to get off the street.
Prendiville said, "Increased law enforcement is not going to solve the problem of homelessness. It's probably an attempt to move them out of this city into another city; but it's not going to help house anybody. Resources spent on housing and other social services is going to be a much better use of city time and money."
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:13c3c57c-b431-40a6-9da8-e87813697af7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinij.com/sanrafael/ci_21857164/san-rafael-launches-new-homeless-initiative-police-crackdown | 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 | 0.965489 | 1,416 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Suburb Train 1988 near Moscow
© Boris Savelev courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary
Multi layered pigment print on gesso coated aluminium, edition of Three
Boris Savelev was born in Chernovitz in 1947 and moved to Moscow in 1966. He is a graduate of the Institute of Aeronautics and joined the Moscow photography Club Novator in 1970. Boris began his interest in photography in 1963. Since 1982, he has worked on a freelance basis for publishing houses in the USSR and abroad. He became a full time photographer since 1982 and has had numerous exhibitions worldwide.
He is one of the best known photographers working in Russia today. Savelev’s work is about light and form -not people, but his images retain a peculiarly Russian sensibility.
Presently, Savelev works exclusively on his own projects. He uses a range of cameras, preferring the Leica M3 with a 50mm lens. Boris prints all his photos himself, using traditional and alternative (platinum, gum-bichromate) techniques.
Savelev, by Adam Lowe
Boris Savelev is one of the most important and well-known photographers working in Russia today. He first came to the attention of the art-world in the west with the publication of Secret City by Thames and Hudson in 1981. This established Boris Savelevs´s reputation as one of the most serious artists of a new generation of photographers emerging from the former USSR.
Savelev’s extraordinary photographic work has earned him a place in major international collections worldwide, among them, the Corcoran Galley in Washington, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Staatsgallerie of Stuttgart, the Saarland Museum in Saarbrucken, Germany, our Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe and many other respectable institutions.
In 1986, at the start of Perestroyka (rebuilding), Thomas Neurath, the director of Thames and Hudson visited Moscow looking for 'unofficial' artists. He picked Boris Savelev and in 1988, the monograph Secret City was published. This was the first book published in the west of an unauthenticated photographer living in the Soviet Union. Up until 1988 all of the works that Boris Savelev had exhibited were black and white prints but he had been experimenting with colour photography since the early 1980's. When producing Secret City, Thames and Hudson selected a group of these colour photographs which had been taken using Orwachrome film. The poor quality of the colour, and the additional problems of the lithographic reproduction failed to capture the complexity and density that the artist wanted to achieve. In 1987 he discovered Kodachrome film and all his colour work taken on film since that time has used Kodachrome. In the years following its publication most of Savelev's work has been an enquiry into colour photography.
Since 1995 most of his images have been captured digitally.
After the initial disappointment with the reproductions in Secret City Boris started to look for alternative printing processes. He worked with C Type prints, but anxious about their fugitive nature and unhappy with the uniform surface of the paper he started looking into dye transfer prints and then pigment transfer prints. He experimented with many of the nineteenth century processes becoming a master of gum bichromate printing (both in black and white and colour), platinum printing and Kallitype. Cameraworks was his inspiration and pictorial photographers like Steichen, Kertész, Lartigue and Demarchy appealed to him, for the quality of the prints and for the integrity of the images.
In 1995 he was invited to Germany by Alexander Von Berswordt Walrabe to show with M Bochum. Alexander decided to produce an edition of fifteen of Boris's images and was persuaded to make them as pigment transfer prints. The process is time consuming and difficult but with the correct materials it is competent of producing beautiful images of great complexity and with a slight surface relief. Permaprint was the only studio in Europe capable of realizing this edition and once a visa was obtained, Boris was sent to London. This was the start of a long relationship between Boris and myself in search of the perfect way to manifest his images. Permaprint morphed into Factum Arte and moved to Madrid. Factum Arte developed the interest in surface and started building and acquiring 3D scanners. Digital printers were bought and taken to bits. It became clear that we had to develop a flatbed printer. This has now been perfected. New surfaces were investigated using materials which are usually associated with painting. These were subjected to rigorous testing and analysis, modified and tested again. Boris began to prepare his files to be printed in layers, a task that requires a very different sensibility from normal photographic printing.
Adam Lowe, Factum Arte
For more on Boris Savelev, please see | <urn:uuid:54011f21-d459-43f3-b677-bd69b03f34fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/artist,show,3,131,177,906,0,0,0,0,michael_hoppen_gallery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970032 | 988 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Former Senator Bob Dole, 89 years old and in a wheelchair, went onto to the floor of the Senate today to urge his former colleagues to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Mr. Dole, a disabled veteran, has been one of the leading voices urging ratification of the treaty, which seeks to bring the world closer to the high standard set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark civil-rights law enacted under President George H.W. Bush.
One by one, according to Roll Call, the senators approached Mr. Dole to pat his shoulder or clasp his hand, making gestures of respect for the man who was for many years the Republican majority leader.
Then he was wheeled away, and all but a handful of the Republicans bailed out on him. The treaty failed. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass, or 67 votes, and fell six short.
So much for America’s support of a global agreement “to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities.”
The vote was a triumph for Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum and others on the hard-right loon fringe, who have been feverishly denouncing the treaty as a United Nations world-government conspiracy to kill disabled children (you can look it up).
Only eight Republicans voted yes: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona.
Several Republicans who might have made a difference but voted “no,” as Roll Call pointed out, are up for re-election in 2014 and are facing possible primary challenges from the right: Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who changed his “yes” to a “no” after it was obvious the treaty would fail.
Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement after the vote: “This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate, and it needs to be a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people.”
He added: “Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled, and that’s unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won’t give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it’s the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country.” | <urn:uuid:64eaaec2-91d8-423d-8727-5dc552444b80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/from-republicans-a-parting-slap-at-bob-dole-and-disabled-americans/?hp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961345 | 644 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Louise Mushikiwabo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has said that Rwanda enjoys excellent relations with the United States.
She made the remarks yesterday while speaking at the event held at the US embassy in Kigali to celebrate 236th American Day of Independence.
United States citizens in Rwanda together with Rwandan government officials and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Kigali Tuesday evening gathered at the US embassy in Kigali to observe the American Day of Independence.
The day is usually marked on July 4 but the US embassy shifted the event one day before as it coincides with Rwanda’s Liberation Day.
“The relations between Rwanda and US have continued to grow over the years and are characterised by mutual respect and dialogue to address existing and emerging issues of common concern and interest,” Mushikiwabo said.
She hailed the US government for the supports it continues to render to Rwanda especially in the areas of health, governance, poverty reduction programs and as well as support to the national budget.
“The United States’ support the health sector through the PEPFAR Emergency Plan for Aids relief, the Malaria initiatives, and the Intra-Health program have all greatly increased the life expectancy of Rwandese citizens. We are very grateful for that.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs asserted that Rwandans appreciate the mutual support between the United States and Rwanda in the International Political and Economic arena.
“The United States has not kept a blind eye at the developments in the Great Lakes Region. I appreciate her invaluable role in the Conflict resolution, peace building, and humanitarian support rendered to the whole peace process in the region and beyond.”
She commended US for the support rendered to resolve conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, especially the assistance provided to the Rwanda Peace Mission in Darfur
“Rwanda’s option to participate in peacekeeping mission was prompted by its conviction to fight any form of abuse of human rights and genocidal tendencies? As Rwanda continues to fight the legacy of genocide, we are happy to note that the people of the United States share the same vision of the affirmation of humanity,” she emphasized.
Addressing guests at the colourful event, Donald W. Koran, the US ambassador to Rwanda said: “As we celebrate this day, we know that Rwandans share these same ideals that we hold so dear, and with this in common, we are able to come together to do great things.”
“Our presence here in Rwanda is a reflection of the very real value weplace on our relationship, and of our mutual desire to collaborate on Rwanda’s continued progress away from the scars of its past into a bright future.”
Koran commended the government of Rwanda for its close cooperation with US for over the years. | <urn:uuid:0a375f6f-53f8-45ce-ba2f-d2c578ff4771> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rpfinkotanyi.org/wp/?p=1479 | 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 | 0.949292 | 583 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Thought to be Selected Originals from late 1940s material.
The Black market flourishes amidst hunger in Italy. Italian voiceovered material.
LS Mothers and children hurrying through the streets to receive gifts of food and clothing from overseas. CU 2 close ups of children with their...
Hunger flourishes in Italy while plenty of food is available on the black market.
Pope Pius XII makes speech calling for peace. Italy.
Various shots of the fishing village of Procida, site of a penitentiary which has just received 22 hunger-striking prisoners.
Villages protest against poor living conditions in the Italian villages of Casine & Ville.
Good documentary about the world in 1929. Illness of King George V & economic depression. | <urn:uuid:588bd11d-44e4-4a0b-9d83-2e8bd7b10965> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britishpathe.com/video/italys-hunger/query/wildcard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933575 | 155 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The US Dollar: Cyclical versus Structural
Stephen Jen, on why it’s dangerous to write-off the USD:
For two-and-a-half years, I have strenuously warned investors not to under-estimate the dollar. The current dollar sell-off is, to me, a cyclical, not structural development. The dollar index is fairly valued, and financial globalization should keep the US external imbalance well-financed. Many investors worry about wholesale central bank diversification. I am more skeptical: it is still hard to find good liquidity in markets outside major economies. Even compared to Euroland, the US offers much larger risky asset markets. Also, if central banks really have begun to diversify out of USD assets, there should be traces of this in US bond markets.
On the cyclical front, the US is likely to go through several quarters of sub-potential (i.e., sub-3.0%) growth. What this means is that the unemployment rate is likely to rise in the period ahead, which is likely to be another negative for the dollar. But I believe that the Fed is right that the US economy will eventually re-assert itself, most likely in the second half of 2007: I keep reminding myself that, since 2002, the Fed has had the best record of anyone at forecasting US growth.
posted on 05 December 2006 by skirchner in Economics, Financial Markets
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Next entry: A ‘Fork in the Road’ Best Left Untravelled
Previous entry: The ‘October Surprise’ that Wasn’t | <urn:uuid:3a58e31a-731f-4551-90f8-ab09a62ae0a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.institutional-economics.com/index.php/section/the_us_dollar_cyclical_versus_structural | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940254 | 339 | 1.773438 | 2 |
By Carol E. Lee
KEENE, Calif. – President Barack Obama dedicated the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument here on Monday, a move just four weeks before the election that appeals to Latino voters who could be decisive in a several battleground states.
The dedication took place in a state that will swing solidly for Mr. Obama on Election Day, but the monument honoring the founder of the United Farm Workers will have widespread appeal.
“Today we celebrate Cesar Chavez,” said Mr. Obama, who took the stage to chants of “Si se puede.” “Our world is a better place because Cesar Chavez decided to change it. Let us honor his memory but most importantly let’s live up to his example.”
Mr. Obama spoke of Mr. Chavez in a way that connected the labor leader to his campaign trail message. Mr. Chavez, he said, would be the first to say the national monument that bears his name is not “to one man,” but rather to a movement.
“Cesar didn’t believe in helping those who refuse to help themselves,” Mr. Obama said, but he did believe in the basic rights of people who are working hard.
The president used part of his speech to pitch his economic message, telling the crowd, “We are making progress.”
While Mr. Obama leads Mr. Romney in support among Latino voters, turnout will be key on Nov. 6. The Chavez monument, established on the property known as La Paz, which served as the national headquarters of the UFW, could help energize those voters.
White House press secretary Jay Carney stressed that the monument designation was in the works for years.
Before delivering remarks to a largely Latino audience, Mr. Obama placed a red rose on Mr. Chavez’s gravesite, which he visited with Mr. Chavez’s wife, Helen, and son Paul. | <urn:uuid:6fd95bc6-937c-45a7-af88-3f3137d9f375> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/10/08/obama-dedicates-chavez-memorial/?mod=WSJBlog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969086 | 405 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Three generations of rock guitarists come together for It Might Get Loud
, a 2009 documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth
). These are not just your garden-variety guitar gods: Jimmy Page, in his mid-'60s at the time of the film, founded Led Zeppelin, who dominated the 1970s following the breakup of the Beatles. As a member of U2, 48-year-old David Evans, better known as the Edge, created one of the most distinctive and influential sounds of the past quarter century. And 34-year-old Jack White (of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather) was described by one music publication as "the most significant rock 'n' roll figure of the past ten years." Guggenheim, who followed the three around for the better part of a year, takes us into their individual lives, past and present. There are shots of Page as a young London session musician, with the Yardbirds and Zeppelin, at Headley Grange (the estate where much of the fourth Zep album was made), and at home with his record collection. The Edge takes us to the Dublin classroom where U2 first rehearsed, as well as to the practice room he uses now (never a virtuoso soloist, he developed a style based on texture and a mind-boggling array of effects); and White, whose insistence on authenticity is admirable but perhaps a tad self-conscious, constructs a "guitar" from a plank of wood, a piece of wire, and a Coke bottle (he also plays a recording by the primitive bluesman Son House, featuring just voice and handclaps, that White says is still his biggest inspiration). The three also converge on a Hollywood sound stage, where they chat and a do a little jamming on Zep's "In My Time of Dying" (with all three playing slide guitar) and the Band's "The Weight." It's hard to say if the film's appeal will extend beyond guitar freaks and fans of these particular bands, but at the very least, It Might Get Loud
offers some interesting insight into the soul and inspiration behind some of pop's best and most popular music. --Sam Graham
Alfred Music Publishing is the world's largest educational music publisher. Alfred produces educational reference pop and performance materials for teachers students professionals and hobbyists spanning every musical instrument style and difficulty level. There are guitar players and then there are rock stars. It Might Get Loud is an epic exhilarating backstage pass into the world of the latter. Over the course of one day three generations of electric guitar phenoms come together crank up their amps and let it roll. Documentarian Davis Guggenheim gives us so much more than an all-star jam session (that alone would make even the gnarliest of rock geeks giddy); he leads us to these artists inner sanctums and illuminates the paths each one traveled to forge a sound of his own. We begin to understand how a one-time furniture upholsterer from Detroit a London studio musician and a Dublin schoolboy redefined the horizons of guitar playing. Meanwhile Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) the Edge (U2) and Jack White (The White Stripes) seem genuinely to enjoy each other s company while sharing riffs swapping stories and divulging their distinct philosophies of craft. This soulful opus is at once a portrait of each artist and a captivating examination of the creative process. It Might Get Loud does get loud and in the process opens up our minds and hearts to a whole new way of listening to and enjoying what it means to rock. NOTE: This is a high-definition disc and is compatible only with Blu-ray players. It will not play on a standard DVD player. | <urn:uuid:7521d8c2-4d41-4e18-b27a-8c808179e8a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/Might-Get-Loud-Blu-ray-Import/dp/B002RVZV9U | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959656 | 785 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Glenbard District 87 to host Parent Series event Thursday night
GLEN ELLYN — Glenbard District 87 will host "The Motivation Breakthrough: Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Teen" Thursday night at Glenbard West High School, 670 Crescent Blvd. in Glen Ellyn.
The workshop will discuss misconceptions about student motivation and present specific strategies parents can use to motivate their children and maintain that enthusiasm throughout the year.
The workshop will be led by Rick Lavoie, who holds three degrees in special education and has served as an adjunct professor or visiting lecturer at several universities, including Syracuse, Harvard and Georgetown. He has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America and the ABC Evening News.
Prior to the event, which begins at 7 p.m., parents can participate in a "Let's Talk" parent discussion group at 6:30.
Both the workshop and parent discussion group are free. No advance registration is required.
The Glenbard Parent Series is sponsored by the Cebrin Goodman Center and offered in partnership with the Cooperative Association for Special Education (CASE).
Lavoie will present an additional workshop for school staff from 8 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Friday at Glenbard South High School, 23W200 Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn. Glenbard parents are welcome to attend this event but must pre-register at http://tinyurl.com/asekvnl.
If you have any technical difficulties, either with your username and password or with the payment options, please contact us by e-mail at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:246ceea4-f0fa-45b4-8360-9053474bd522> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/2013/02/28/glenbard-district-87-to-host-parent-series-event-thursday-night/aazvl1q/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937021 | 335 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Banks boost economies
Forty years after his death, two of Bruce Lee's siblings reminisce about their famous brother's life and a legacy that is inspiring a whole new generation of fighters. Jo Baker reports.
With the economic climate in Europe and China deteriorating, central banks have intervened to pump more money into these economies.
The banks announced stimulus measures in rapid succession, acting on concerns over deteriorating global growth.
Analysts and strategists say that even though initially the equity market reacted negatively, the central banks' moves are a positive development for the global economy and risk assets.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) moved swiftly and unexpectedly to lower benchmark interest rates for the second time in a month. Its one-year lending and deposit rates were cut by 0.31 and 0.25 percentage points to 6 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. The discount banks can give on lending rates was also increased to 30 per cent from 20 per cent to encourage more lending.
The PBOC's moves coincided with an announcement by the Bank of England (BoE) that it was adding GBP50 billion (HK$601 billion) of gilt purchases to its quantitative easing programme, as expected, taking the total to GBP375 billion.
The European Central Bank (ECB) followed soon after with a quarter-point cut in its key refinancing rate to 0.25 per cent, also in line with expectations.
All the central banks gave economic slowdown as the main reason for easing.
China's aggressive moves signalled the government's increasing concern about weakening growth and anaemic credit demand.
The BoE cited increased euro-zone risks and business indicators pointing towards further weakness both domestically and abroad.
Meanwhile, the ECB pinned its rate cut on downside risks to growth, including a slowdown in core European economy Germany, and falling inflationary pressures.
One analyst from a European research house says that while no additional unconventional policy measures were announced by the ECB, the deposit rate that commercial banks receive on their reserves at the ECB was cut from 0.25 per cent to zero.
With Euro1.1 trillion (HK$10.4 trillion) sitting on deposit at the ECB and now earning zero interest, the move is aimed at encouraging banks to lend more.
The analyst says that although the cut is welcome, it is unlikely to boost growth dramatically in the countries suffering most from the current slowdown.
Instead, the biggest benefit from the action is the signalling that the ECB stands ready to implement more policy measures should conditions deteriorate further. | <urn:uuid:afa89735-9e91-4a51-8fa2-84616f339365> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scmp.com/article/1006949/banks-boost-economies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95519 | 520 | 1.671875 | 2 |
by Richard Shand
Duster Compound, 6 June 1969
Two months as a Duster driver for headquarters battery left me little prepared for handling the guns. My total training consisted of firing four rounds in a gravel pit. Two days later I was put to the test and my inexperience showed. Our job was to respond immediately to any incoming fire and, as happened in other actions, we had no time to put on helmets or flak jackets. Note: it was standard operating procedure to fire just one of the twin forties and keep the other gun for backup.
(In this account only the names have been changed. Otherwise the event was as reported.)
Now to the right, then to the left! I pump hard, stamping the pedal on the floor of the turret, gripping and turning the handles as I traverse and fire. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! The recoiling gun pounds and shakes the turret. Rounds explode in the wire and just beyond. Acrid smoke stings the nostrils.
We are under fire. Three 107mm rockets have just gone over our heads - SWOOSH, seemingly just above our radio antenna, and hit the guard tower at the opposite end of the compound. Now the radar dome beside us to our right is under attack.
RPG rounds fall short in bright popping explosions, like flash bulbs going off, right in front of our positions. This was not my first time in action, but it was the first time I ever had to aim and fire the guns. Old Mike behind me is loading away. I can hear him dropping the four-round clips into the loader as Fedor hands new clips to him. They work together like a well-greased piece of machinery.
In front of me is a tide of darkness. RPG launchers in the distance spark like matches being struck. My predecessor has neglected to put on the ring site necessary for aiming so our shooting is wild. The assistant gunner to the right of me calls off one target and I another. The guns traverse back and forth, spraying the countryside with flaring tracers and the percussive WUMPHS of explosions.
"Damn! Where's Fox?". Our section chief, Sgt. Fox was unfortunately afflicted of loose bowels when under fire and is behind the bunker taking a crap into an ammo can. (These cans were shipped back to the States for reloading and I used to try to visualize the scenario when their contents were discovered.)
We fire perhaps five clips - twenty rounds, really far fewer than we should have, but we stop when the VC barrage in front of us halts abruptly. Echoes fade, the smoke clears and the ringing in my ears subsides. Purple afterimages of the bright tracer flashes remain burnt into my retina.
I saw more action on this vehicle than any other I served on in Vietnam.
The following morning the infantry swept the area in front of our position . They reported that the VC had run away so fast that they had left unfired weapons and sandals behind. If I had encountered the same situation a few months later I would have had the sight installed and probably would placed at least another fifty rounds on target. But the past is past and those who fought lived to fight another day.
The official version of the action states:
"At 0140 hours, Duster Compound was brought under an RPG, mortar, and rocket attack. With complete disregard for his own safety (as if I had a chance to think twice) PFC Shand immediately mounted the open turret of his Duster and began returning fire at the flashes spotted by his crew. (Actually we were already in the turret preparing for a fire mission. I think the VC were disconcerted by our almost instantaneous response.) Their rapid and accurate (I wish) fire quickly silenced the enemy guns. Later when Long Binh Post came under a similar attack, the crew again alertly observed the flashes and again PFC Shand and his crewmates without hesitation manned their Duster position to aggressively respond to the attack being launched to their immediate front. Their timely and accurate fires again silenced the enemy positions."
- General Orders Number 678
During the later incident, we blew up a rocket site which was targetting the major U.S. base at Long Binh. The explosion was spectacular and lit up the entire horizon over a nearby village. | <urn:uuid:566cfca3-e881-4331-b01b-eae19fc0ada3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ndqsa.com/rpg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972134 | 899 | 1.53125 | 2 |
China was in flames when a German businessman became a reluctant hero. When the Imperial Japanese Army invaded China in 1937, attacking the civilian population of the capital Nanking with unprecedented inhumanity, John Rabe, manager of Siemens' China branch and a resident in the country for 27 years, took action. Along with a few other members of the foreign community including doctors and missionaries who remained in the city, and driven by simple humanitarian concerns, shock at the appalling behaviour of Germany's Asian ally, and a love for the country and people among whom he had worked for so long, he created a safety zone in which a quarter of a million civilians survived what was later to go down in history as the "Nanking Massacre."
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl, Anne Consigny, Dagmar Manzel
Directed by: Florian Gallenberger
Written by: Florian Gallenberger
Running time: 2hr 14min
Opens: May 21, 2010 NY
|Theaters for Today||
Pick a day
on this day. | <urn:uuid:00c1a8b0-1dca-44b6-98cb-27e0736ded26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercedsunstar.com/movies/movie/39502.html?date=02/13/13&movie=39502 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963721 | 225 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Over the next two days, Florida will again become a hot spot in the 2012 presidential campaign as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney court Hispanic leaders attending a national conference in Orlando.
Heading into the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) meeting, Obama has the stronger hand. Last Friday, the president announced a landmark program that could benefit more than 800,000 children of illegal immigrants.
By executive order, Obama’s administration decided that those illegal immigrants who came to the United States before the age of 16 would not face deportation, as long as they have been here five years, are in school or have graduated or are serving in the military. The measure is similar to the Dream Act, supported by Obama, but blocked by Senate Republicans in 2010.
The Dream Act is highly popular among Hispanics, with a survey from the independent Pew Center last year showing nine out of every 10 Latinos support it.
While Obama’s decision may make him a popular figure when he attends NALEO on Friday, the conference presents a crucial challenge for Romney, who has criticized Obama’s decision as a temporary fix but has not detailed his own plan for dealing with the country’s immigration issues. Romney will address the group today, following an extended primary in which he opposed the Dream Act and often used harsh rhetoric on the immigration issues, including suggesting illegal immigrants could “self-deport.”
State Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, who will address the NALEO conference Saturday, said Obama’s decision strengthened his popularity among Latino groups, which he said could help him even if the economy struggles. Romney, he said, needs to outline his plan, calling the candidate’s approach so far a “deafening lack of response.”
On Sunday, Romney told CBS’s Face the Nation that he would have an immigration solution “on a long-term basis, not this kind of stop-gap measure,” referring to Obama’s executive order.
Soto described that answer as “half a talking point.”
Other Republicans attending the conference are likely to strike a more conciliatory tone with the audience, including former Gov. Jeb Bush, who will address NALEO today.
Bush, who supports the concept of a Dream Act, has urged Republicans to tone down their rhetoric on immigration.
“Don’t just talk about Hispanics and say immediately we must have controlled borders,” Bush said earlier this month at a Bloomberg View event in New York. “Change the tone would be the first thing. Second, on immigration, I think we need to have a broader approach.”
Other issues are likely to emerge at the conference, including the controversy over the appointment of Mari Carmen Aponte, who is Puerto Rican, as the ambassador to El Salvador, Soto said.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who will address NALEO on Friday, originally opposed Aponte’s appointment by Obama. But he later supported it, as Aponte’s appointment finally cleared the U.S. Senate this month.
Rubio, who is being considered as a running mate for Romney, opposed Obama’s version of a Dream Act and has been working on his own proposal, although he said he has put the issue aside after Obama made his announcement.
Gov. Rick Scott, who will address NALEO on Friday, has also had an evolving position on immigration. Scott took a hard line on the issue in his 2010 campaign, pledging to bring an “Arizona-style” immigration law to Florida. Lawmakers balked at passing it.
More recently, Scott has retreated from that position, telling the state’s citrus growers last week that he does not support requiring them to use the federal E-Verify system to make sure their employees are legal workers.
The debate over immigration and other Hispanic issues is critical in this year’s presidential race since Latino voters represent sizable voting blocs in major swing states, including Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.
In Florida, Obama carried 57 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008, one of the reasons why he won the state over John McCain.
Florida’s Hispanic community is the third-largest in the country. And the state’s Latino voters, who represent 16 percent of eligible voters, are an evolving constituency and far from a monolithic group.
Cubans make up 32 percent of Florida’s eligible Hispanic voters, with Puerto Ricans at 28 percent and Mexicans at 9 percent. In contrast, the nation’s Hispanic voting demographic reflects 59 percent Mexican, 14 percent Puerto Rican and 5 percent Cuban, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.
That means immigration is not quite as highly charged of an issue in Florida, since Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and Cubans do not face deportation.
Nonetheless, Soto, who is Puerto Rican, said immigration remains critical to all Hispanics since many have friends and neighbors who are more directly impacted. Additionally, he said the candidates’ views on immigration set “a broader tone” for the Latino community.
“Who is for Hispanics? Who is fighting for Hispanics? Who is anti-Hispanic?” Soto said.
He also said the immigration issue is “not everything.”
“You’ve got to keep in mind education, health care and jobs are still very important in the Hispanic community,” he said. “Immigration doesn’t stop the debate but it certainly is a boost.” | <urn:uuid:b6a86c59-d1c7-4e01-b106-6449b489f5de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2012/06/20/obama-romney-court-hispanic-vote-at-orlando-conference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971875 | 1,169 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Have you ever sat next to a friend on the train and wanted to listen to the music he or she was listening to, only to be forced to uncomfortably share headphones? MyStream, which is launching its free iPhone app today, wants to change this by allowing you to share your music wirelessly with friends.
MyStream allows you to see what other people in the same wireless or Bluetooth network are listening to. It lets you listen in on the songs other MyStream users are listening to, or 30 second clips from other songs on playlists they’ve created.
Says Richard Zelson, founder of MyStream, “Imagine immediately being able to listen to a song stored on a friend’s iPhone at the same time as them without needing to share their headphones or be tethered to them using a splitter.”
Richard Zelson came up with the idea when he was traveling in Europe and wanted to listen to his friends’ songs on the train. After being frustrated that the only way to do this was to share headphones, he set out to find a solution.
All audio is streamed via an iPhone’s WiFi or Bluetooth wireless technology, so the application works whether on a bus or plane and doesn’t require a connection to the Internet. When the application is being used it is public to anyone in the wireless network, and more than one person can listen in on the music. According to Richard, when the application is running there is an additional 20% battery drain on the phone.
With regards to potential copyright law violations, the company believes it has a low level of liability. The application does not enable any music sharing that is not already possible through portable speakers or an audio splitter.
MyStream’s business model is based around revenue from 5% commissions it receives from songs sold through the application, advertising from the bar on the app, and in the future, potentially from money it will charge for the app.
MyStream was founded in June 2010 by Richard Zelson, who is a first time entrepreneur. The company, which currently has five employees, has raised $800,000 in funding, $300,000 of which came from friends and family and $500,000 of which came from the founder of Blue Water Capital. | <urn:uuid:e13c03ae-3a51-41bf-9617-27317025cd97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/31/mystream-launch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969011 | 468 | 1.5 | 2 |
Acme Bread Company
Steve and Suzie Sullivan along with more than 150 full-time workers (all are offered full medical benefits, 401k plan, and profit sharing)
In the late seventies, Steve began baking bread in his dorm room at UC Berkeley. He was working as a busboy in the then fledgling Chez Panisse when chef Alice Waters tasted and enjoyed his well-crafted bread and gave him a job as a baker. Sullivan left Chez Panisse a few years later, and with his wife opened Acme Bread Company in 1983. At their commercial facility in Berkeley, Acme’s bakers use modern German-made deck ovens as well as a 1930s Spanish brick oven in three production shifts, baking their hand formed loaves and pastries throughout the day and night.
The organic flour used to make Acme’s bread is grown in Washington, Colorado, Utah and Canada, and milled in Utah. Butter and milk are purchased from Challenge Dairy, which uses hormone-free milk from California farms. | <urn:uuid:cda0c8a0-abae-4638-bb7f-6e2691f8926d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cuesa.org/artisan/acme-bread-company | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979549 | 213 | 1.835938 | 2 |
President Obama gives a speech on Inauguration Day four years ago. Since then, Florida-based Politifact has been tracking his success keeping campaign promises. It released its report card this week.
President Obama gives a speech on Inauguration Day four years ago. Since then, Florida-based Politifact has been tracking his success keeping campaign promises. It released its report card this week. Charles Dharapak/AP
PolitiFact has been keeping a list — a very long list — on the president's first term.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning political watchdog assesses the veracity of political claims, and this week, it released a report card on the promises Obama made during his first presidential campaign.
PolitiFact deputy editor Angie Holan tells weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden the results are mixed, but on the whole he did pretty well: Some 47 percent of promises were kept — good by politician standards — and only 23 percent were rated as broken.
"Another 26 percent he made partial progress on, we rate those promises as a compromise," Holan said.
A boon to Obama's promise-keeping came from the passage of big-name programs like the economic stimulus package and the education program Race to the Top.
"[Race to the Top, which] set up states in competition for federal money, ended up prompting states to do all kinds of things to meet goals that Obama said he wanted to meet," Holan said. "And these are things like getting more teachers into the classroom, getting kids interested in math and science, a lot of technology-related promises."
Of course, there were some big presidential flops over the last four years, too. Promises to close Guantanamo Bay, for example, didn't really work out.
"We rate promises just based on fulfillment, which our readers sometimes don't like," Nolan says. "But if he tried really hard and it didn't happen, we gave it a promise broken."
What definitely did not make it into the "promises kept" column was Obama's promise to bring a new bipartisan tone to Washington.
In 2010, House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell famously announced that the top priority for congressional Republicans was to make Obama a one-term president.
The president has been snappy himself at times. Just last week, he accused Republicans of holding "a gun to the head of the American people" for trying to tie the debt limit debate to a referendum on the deficit.
In some instances, keeping his campaign promises actually made the bipartisan divide worse, Holan says.
"The [Affordable Care Act] got him a lot of "promise kepts" on our meter, but that may also have contributed to Republicans who didn't want to work with him," Holan says. "So I think there might be a tension there between bipartisan compromise and trying to pursue a legislative agenda."
Holan says PolitiFact is preparing to add some new promises from the 2012 campaign and will keep following his 2008 promises for the next four years to see if any of them switch columns. | <urn:uuid:87472b27-33b3-40e2-bc51-09ad0a141c69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/01/19/169800517/on-his-campaign-promises-report-card-obama-did-pretty-well?ft=3&f=1014,1017,1128 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977463 | 633 | 1.625 | 2 |
Gov. Snyder signs sucker season bill into law Dec. 27
LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill into law Dec. 27 that will change the start date of sucker season from April 1 to a floating one set annually by the Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR’s Natural Resources Commission will set the date each January based on weather and ice conditions so as the maximize the chance of it coinciding with the annual sucker run.
For eight years in the past decade, the run in the Rifle River has taken place in March, before enthusiasts are allowed to dip nets into the water to catch the fish. Officials and anglers in Omer have been pushing for a change, which finally gained traction this year when Rep. Joel Johnson, R-Clare, introduced a bill that would give the DNR authority to set the date.
The bill passed both houses of the state legislature unanimously during the lame duck session, and was part of a final group of bills passed Dec. 13, before the legislature was dismissed for the year.
Johnson, DNR Southern Lake Huron Management Unit Supervisor Jim Baker, and Omer’s Mayor Alice Sproule, Councilman Larry Daly, and residents Mike McLavy and Greg Schell will be meeting in Bay City Jan. 8 at the DNR Center to help decide on a start date for the season this year.
Walleye season ends March 15, and Johnson’s legislative aide, Ben Frederick, told the Independent in November they did not want to overlap the two if possible. | <urn:uuid:f677bb3d-1a09-451d-917d-e2ec598e630a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arenacindependent.com/stories/Gov-Snyder-signs-sucker-season-bill-into-law-Dec-27,96121?category_id=1&order_by=sub_last_modified&town_id=8&sub_type=stories,photos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961535 | 318 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Doctors with effective websites are one step ahead when it comes to patient care. When a patient searches for their medical specialty within the local area, high-quality web content ensures that he is directed to the relevant doctor’s office. Doctors with an effective online presence reduce missed appointments by sending email reminders to patients. Seasonal email promotions, such as flu shots, improve uptake.
Dentists can ensure that their patients never forget a regular checkup by sending out email reminders ahead of time. By maintaining patient contact through regular dental care email newsletters, internet savvy dentists ensure that they are top of the list when a patient experiences toothache. Email marketing combined with an informative website effectively promote elective services, such as tooth whitening. | <urn:uuid:cf975072-c81a-4ff6-86e1-8dcf9d849c52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smbengine.com/portfolio/doctor-websites-desert-bariatrics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94506 | 149 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Metro regional government is preparing to throw the book at the city of Troutdale for refusing to tighten environmental standards around urban development.
Metro officials say Troutdale improperly exempts city property from standards it applies to private property, and that the city lacks "clear and objective standards," overall.
Metro chief operating officer Martha Bennett says Metro could force Troutdale city councilors to accept a planning ordinance they recently rejected. Or Metro councilors could hit Troutdale's wallet.
Bennett explains, "They can withhold funds that Metro distributes to local juridictions. Or they can ask the state of Oregon to find Troutdale out of compliance with Oregon land-use planning goals – and if that happens, the city would lose cigarette tax revenue, liquor tax revenue, and gas tax revenue."
Troutdale city council contends it has sufficient safeguards in place.
Bennett says two other cities aren't in total compliance: Portland and Fairview. She says Portland is phasing in new standards.
Bennett says Fairview is "probably paying attention to what's going on in Troutdale." | <urn:uuid:2f00653d-f853-45a3-9b4a-264d4211a241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opb.org/news/article/metro-and-troutdale-battle-over-environmental-standards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952951 | 221 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Monsanto is one of the most powerful corporations in the world, currently monopolizing the seed supply and aggressively displacing independent farmers worldwide. In 2010, Jeremy Scahill uncovered documents which indicate that Monsanto, as well as several other multi-nationals, contracted intelligence and terrorism research services from a web of Blackwater companies. Blackwater itself, now called Xe Services, sought to infiltrate activist groups on behalf of Monsanto to reinforce their political and economic hegemony.
by Jeremy Scahill (The Nation, Oct. 4, 2010)
Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater’s work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater’s owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the “intel arm” of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.
Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince’s companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.
On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had “created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq.” The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.
The coordinator of Blackwater’s covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique “Ric” Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their “deniability” as a “big plus” for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these “deniable” foreign forces don’t even know who they are working for. Prado and Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the center of the CIA’s assassination program, beginning in 2004. They trained special missions units at one of Prince’s properties in Virginia with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit of using Blackwater’s foreign operatives in CIA operations was that “you wouldn’t want to have American fingerprints on it.”
While the network was originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line “Possible Opportunity in DEA—Read and Delete,” Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had developed “a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations.” He added, “These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer ‘play’ on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus.”
The executive wrote back and suggested there “may be an interest” in those services. The executive suggested that “one of the best places to start may be the Special Operations Division, (SOD) which is located in Chantilly, VA,” telling Prado the name of the special agent in charge. The SOD is a secretive joint command within the Justice Department, run by the DEA. It serves as the command-and-control center for some of the most sensitive counternarcotics and law enforcement operations conducted by federal forces. The executive also told Prado that US attachés in Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand, would potentially be interested in Prado’s network. Whether this network was activated, and for what customers, cannot be confirmed. A former Blackwater employee who worked on the company’s CIA program declined to comment on Prado’s work for the company, citing its classified status.
In November 2007 officials from Prince’s companies developed a pricing structure for security and intelligence services for private companies and wealthy individuals. One official wrote that Prado had the capacity to “develop infrastructures” and “conduct ground-truth and security activities.” According to the pricing chart, potential customers could hire Prado and other Blackwater officials to operate in the United States and globally: in Latin America, North Africa, francophone countries, the Middle East, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, and Central and Southeast Asia. A four-man team headed by Prado for countersurveillance in the United States cost $33,600 weekly, while “safehouses” could be established for $250,000, plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For $5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials Cofer Black and Robert Richer for “representation” to national “decision-makers.” Before joining Blackwater, Black, a twenty-eight-year CIA veteran, ran the agency’s counterterrorism center, while Richer was the agency’s deputy director of operations. (Neither Black nor Richer currently works for the company.)
As Blackwater became embroiled in controversy following the Nisour Square massacre, Prado set up his own company, Constellation Consulting Group (CCG), apparently taking some of Blackwater’s covert CIA work with him, though he maintained close ties to his former employer. In an e-mail to a Total Intelligence executive in February 2008, Prado wrote that he “recently had major success in developing capabilities in Mali [Africa] that are of extreme interest to our major sponsor and which will soon launch a substantial effort via my small shop.” He requested Total Intelligence’s help in analyzing the “North Mali/Niger terrorist problem.”
In October 2009 Blackwater executives faced a crisis when they could not account for their government-issued Secure Telephone Unit, which is used by the CIA, the National Security Agency and other military and intelligence services for secure communications. A flurry of e-mails were sent around as personnel from various Blackwater entities tried to locate the device. One former Blackwater official wrote that because he had left the company it was “not really my problem,” while another declared, “I have no ‘dog in this fight.’” Eventually, Prado stepped in, e-mailing the Blackwater officials to “pass my number” to the “OGA POC,” meaning the Other Government Agency (parlance for CIA) Point of Contact.
What relationship Prado’s CCG has with the CIA is not known. An early version of his company’s website boasted that “CCG professionals have already conducted operations on five continents, and have proven their ability to meet the most demanding client needs” and that the company has the “ability to manage highly-classified contracts.” CCG, the site said, “is uniquely positioned to deliver services that no other company can, and can deliver results in the most remote areas with little or no outside support.” Among the services advertised were “Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (human and electronic), Unconventional Military Operations, Counterdrug Operations, Aviation Services, Competitive Intelligence, Denied Area Access…and Paramilitary Training.”
The Nation has previously reported on Blackwater’s work for the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan. New documents reveal a history of activity relating to Pakistan by Blackwater. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with the company when she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the 2008 elections, according to the documents. In October 2007, when media reports emerged that Bhutto had hired “American security,” senior Blackwater official Robert Richer wrote to company executives, “We need to watch this carefully from a number of angles. If our name surfaces, the Pakistani press reaction will be very important. How that plays through the Muslim world will also need tracking.” Richer wrote that “we should be prepared to [sic] a communique from an affiliate of Al-Qaida if our name surfaces (BW). That will impact the security profile.” Clearly a word is missing in the e-mail or there is a typo that leaves unclear what Richer meant when he mentioned the Al Qaeda communiqué. Bhutto was assassinated two months later. Blackwater officials subsequently scheduled a meeting with her family representatives in Washington, in January 2008.
Through Total Intelligence and the Terrorism Research Center, Blackwater also did business with a range of multinational corporations. According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.
After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson “understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.
Reached by telephone and asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto’s Wilson initially said, “I’m not going to discuss it with you.” In a subsequent e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto “with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate entity from Blackwater.”
Monsanto was hardly the only powerful corporation to enlist the services of Blackwater’s constellation of companies. The Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a “threat assessment” for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for information. The job provided a “good chance to impress Disney,” one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.
Total Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. “The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in the world,” a TRC analyst wrote, adding, “Many four and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video” by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should “bring no electronic equipment into China.” Warning of the use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, “If you don’t have women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China.” For these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009.
TRC also did background checks on Libyan and Saudi businessmen for British banking giant Barclays. In February 2008 a TRC executive e-mailed Prado and Richer revealing that Barclays asked TRC and Total Intelligence for background research on the top executives from the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) and their potential “associations/connections with the Royal family and connections with Osama bin Ladin.” In his report, Richer wrote that SBG’s chair, Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, “is well and favorably known to both arab and western intelligence service[s]” for cooperating in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Another SBG executive, Sheikh Saleh bin Laden, is described by Richer as “a very savvy businessman” who is “committed to operating with full transparency to Saudi’s security services” and is considered “the most vehement within the extended BL family in terms of criticizing UBL’s actions and beliefs.”
In August Blackwater and the State Department reached a $42 million settlement for hundreds of violations of US export control regulations. Among the violations cited was the unauthorized export of technical data to the Canadian military. Meanwhile, Blackwater’s dealings with Jordanian officials are the subject of a federal criminal prosecution of five former top Blackwater executives. The Jordanian government paid Total Intelligence more than $1.6 million in 2009.
Some of the training Blackwater provided to Canadian military forces was in Blackwater/TRC’s “Mirror Image” course, where trainees live as a mock Al Qaeda cell in an effort to understand the mindset and culture of insurgents. Company literature describes it as “a classroom and field training program designed to simulate terrorist recruitment, training, techniques and operational tactics.” Documents show that in March 2009 Blackwater/TRC spent $6,500 purchasing local tribal clothing in Afghanistan as well as assorted “propaganda materials—posters, Pakistan Urdu maps, etc.” for Mirror Image, and another $9,500 on similar materials this past January in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to internal documents, in 2009 alone the Canadian military paid Blackwater more than $1.6 million through TRC. A Canadian military official praised the program in a letter to the center, saying it provided “unique and valid cultural awareness and mission specific deployment training for our soldiers in Afghanistan,” adding that it was “a very effective and operationally current training program that is beneficial to our mission.”
This past summer Erik Prince put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But he doesn’t seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its “great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics,” adding that it has “a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It’s pro-business and opportunity.” It also has no extradition treaty with the United States.
For further information, watch “The World According to Monsanto.”
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Updated: March 7, 2013 2:38 AM EST
French jobless rate up again in Q4, hits 10.6 pctThe Associated Press
France has yet to hit bottom. The unemployment rate in Europe's second-largest economy rose again in the last quarter of last year to 10.6 percent, putting new pressure on President Francois Hollande's rollout a controversial labor-market reform.
The national statistics agency Insee said Thursday that the jobless rate rose 0.3 percent point, from 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012.
Concerns about high debt amid a slowing global economy have driven up unemployment rates across Europe. While France has avoided the worst of the crisis thus far, its high and rising unemployment rate indicates its economy is also in trouble.
Its gross domestic product has shrunk for three of the last four quarters, and some expect the economy will enter another recession in the first part of this year. A recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but economists say that France's high unemployment rate is already recessionary. Unemployment rates also tend to lag behind economic growth, so the rate will likely continue to rise.
French unemployment has been climbing steadily since last year after dropping for a few quarters. It is now higher than at any time since 1999.
Hollande has promised to stop the rise of unemployment this year, and a labor-market reform unveiled Wednesday is at the center of those efforts.
France's hidebound labor rules make it very difficult to fire workers, even in times of economic difficulty, and that has long made employers reluctant to hire. Even in economic boom times, France's structural employment has remained relatively high.
Hollande hopes to loosen those rules, while still maintaining robust worker protections that the French consider at the heart of their way of life. The new plan would offer companies in financial difficulty more flexibility in setting working hours and salaries. The government hopes that will help businesses stay afloat, instead of shutting down factories or moving production to countries with cheaper labor.
France's leading employers' group and three top unions negotiated the compromise in January, and it was formalized into a draft law at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. Two hardline unions oppose it, saying it's too generous to bosses.
The bill now goes to the parliament dominated by Hollande's Socialist party, and the government is hoping it can be in place by the end of April.
|French jobless rate up again in Q4, hits 10.6 pct " data-url="http://www.goerie.com/article/20131303070569" data-count="horizontal" data-via="goerie">Tweet| | <urn:uuid:d6d5cf30-754d-4c54-a6b0-0552112832c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130307/APF/1303070569 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949339 | 549 | 1.726563 | 2 |
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The Umbrella Countryby Bino A. Realuyo
Synopses & Reviews
Certain things are better kept than said. . . .
But certain things you have to find out now. . . .
On the tumultuous streets of Manila, where the earth is as brownas a tamarind leaf and the pungent smells of vinegar and mashed peppers fill the air, where seasons shift between scorching sun and torrential rain, eleven-year-old Gringo strives to make sense of his family and a worldthat is growing increasingly harsher before his young eyes.
There is Gringo's older brother, Pipo, wise beyond his years, a flamboyant, defiant youth and the three-time winner of the sequined MissUnibers contest; Daddy Groovie, whiling away his days with other hang-about men, out of work and wilting like a guava, clinging to the hope of someday joining his sister in Nuyork; Gringo's mother, Estrella, moving throughtheir ramshackle home, holding her emotions tight as a fist, which she often clenches in anger after curfew covers the neighborhood in a burst of dark; and Ninang Rola, wise godmother of words, who confides in Gringo ashocking secret from the past--and sets the stage for the profound events to come, in which no one will remain untouched by the jagged pieces of a shattered dream.
As Gringo learns; shame is passed downthrough generations, but so is the life-changing power of blood ties and enduring love.
In this lush, richly poetic novel of grinding hardship and resilient triumph, of selfless sacrifice and searingrevelation, Bino A. Realuyo brings the teeming world of 1970s Manila brilliantly to life. While mapping a young boy's awakening to adulthood in dazzling often unexpected ways, The Umbrella Country subtly works sweetmagic.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
A poor, eleven-year-old boy named Gringo contends with his older brother's transvestism, his father's unemployment, his mother's anger, and his godmother's shame as he dreams of a better world on the streets of Manila in the 1970s. Reprint.
About the Author
Born and raised in Manila, Bino A. Realuyo studied International Relations in the United States and South America. He has also completed a poetry collection, In Spite of Open Eyes, and is currently editing The NuyorAsian Anthology, a collection of Asian American writings about New York City. He is published widely in literary journals and anthologies both in the United States and the Philippines, including The Kenyon Review, Manoa, New Letters, The Literary Review, and Likhaan: Best of Philippine Poetry.
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In 1981, the V-Wing Mod-VP tunnel hull was built. Only five of these were built and they were very advanced and fast for its day. They turned a lot of heads which was exactly Pipkorn's intention. According to Jeff Baker, who worked on the decks of these when they were being built, the differences between the five were in the location of the pad in relation to the sponsons. The racing rules at the time stated that the sponsons could not be above the center pad. In the building of the five boats, the bottoms of the hulls were moved in the mold in one inch increments. So, #1 boat pad is one inch below the sponson, #2 is two inches , and so on. Supposedly, the #4 and #5 boats were the best ones built. The hull platform used was actually the Panther's with a modified center pod being added.
This picture was taken by Fred Cotey (production manager at HydroStream from 1973 - 1987) of the very first V-Wing ever made. Chris Bush is driving it at Lake Havasu and is just coming out of the pits after refueling during a long race. Fred had to hang from a cherry picker out over the water to get this shot!
Note the sponsor "West Point Pepperell." They made the core mat of which Pipkorn was one of the first to use. In boat applications it would later became commonplace.
At least three of the V-Wings were raced at Havasu. Unfortunately, they were still fresh from being made and the fiberglass had not completely cured - if you stepped inside of them they would flex. As a result, a couple of them cracked during the race with one actually having its deck peel back as the race progressed.
today prior to undergoing restoration by a Registry member. Probably the only
HydroStream actually built a "Ski-Wing". According to Jeff Baker, they just took one of the race boats and put a ski pylon down through the rear cowling and called it the Ski-Wing. None were ever actually built or sold, but a picture can be seen in an old Powerboat Magazine ad in the Literature section on this website.
I.H.R. l History
Pictures l Feature
Article l Tech | <urn:uuid:8f2d1259-49f8-47c2-94ff-6c866058334d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hydrostream.org/Specific%20Models/V-Wing.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99133 | 475 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Rundkvist, M. 2007. Scholarly Journals between the Past and the Future: The Fornvännen Centenary Round-Table Seminar, Stockholmm 21 April 2006. Konferenser 65. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien.
It’s a measure of the quality of this book that I have delayed putting up a review until I have thought it could get the audience it deserves. The volume brings together papers by nine editors of journals across Europe, each with their own perspective on what the future holds for publishing. Their opinions are diverse and provocative, but even where some assertions are demonstrably wrong they highlight misconceptions about publishing which need to be tackled.
The first paper is ‘Scholarly Open Access Journals and Libraries’ by Jan Hagerlid. This can be an overlooked aspect of the Open Access debate, with academics concentrating on the content rather than the medium. Hagerlid raises some interesting points highlighting that the aims even of of traditional and conservative scholars do not necessarily align with those of publishers. For example he notes that the transition to electronic subscription would have mean the end of the inter-library loan, had the publishers been granted what they demanded. He also argues that it would be wrong to treat publishers as a monoculture. The big publishers and their habit of bundling subscriptiosn with ever increasing prices threatens the subscription base of the independent journals. If the subscription model continues to hold into the current century many smaller publications will either be bought out or disappear. The paper provides an excellent summaries of what Open Access means and why it is an important issue. It also serves as a reminder that the changes ahead, however they develop, are not trivial and will need collaboration with librarians if access of any sort to research is to continue. | <urn:uuid:13cdcd1e-93c8-4d29-9e0f-9471476a1383> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alunsalt.com/tag/martin-rundkvist/ | 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 | 0.934861 | 380 | 1.640625 | 2 |
I'm frequently asked questions about getting started making lampworked marbles, so I started saving the questions and my responses in a file. The following is the resulting FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheet.
Q: Where should I buy my supplies?
A: The politically correct answer to this question would be to list lots of suppliers and let people choose. However, here's what I tell people:
1. Call Frantz Bead Co. (1-800-839-6712) and request both of their catalogs: Glass Catalog and Tool & Supply Catalog. Much of their catalog is also online at http://www.frantzartglass.com
2. Call Arrow Springs (1-530-677-9482) and request their Catalog of Flameworking Tools & Glass. Much of their catalog is also online at http://www.arrowsprings.com/
Anything that you need to get started in flameworking you can get from either of these two companies. Both are very good at answering questions about equipment and glass. They also have very competitive prices. Several of the suppliers that you will find on the Internet have minimum purchase requirements, don't have competitive prices, or require that you jump through hoops to set up a wholesale account with them before they will sell to you. These are the two suppliers that I use exclusively because they have great service and they have no minimum purchase requirements.
Q: What torch should I get?
A: There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on what your goals are and how much money you're willing to spend. Assuming you're going to be working in soft glass like Moretti/Efettre or Bullseye, not Borosilicate glass like PYREX® or Northstar, here are the three most common situations:
1. You have very little money to spend OR you're not really sure how long marble making will hold your interest... Look at Hot Head torches and Hot Head Kits in each of the catalogs that you requested above. The Hot Head is very inexpensive and the MAPP gas cylinders that it uses can be purchased at a local hardware, home center, or stained glass store that stocks bead making supplies. This will allow you to start making small marbles or beads with a minimal investment.
There are several trade-offs with this less expensive option. However, they are all situations that can be dealt with as long as you're aware of them going in.
a. MAPP gas will tend to discolor or devitrify some colors of soft glass. (See the table below)
b. It takes longer to work the glass because the flame is not as intense with this type of torch. Therefore, making marbles larger than 3/4" is extremely time consuming and frustrating.
c. MAPP cylinders cool as the torch runs. When run for extended periods of time, as in making several marbles, they tend to get frosty on the outside. As the tank gets cooler so does the flame. At this point the tank must be allowed to warm back up or a warm tank must be attached.
2. If you have some money to spend and are pretty sure that hot glass will hold your interest for a while... For the money, a beginner can't go wrong with a Minor Burner by Nortel. This is an "oxygen / propane", surface mix torch and will therefore work the glass much faster and cleaner than the Hot Head. It doesn't have the "frosting" problem that the Hot Head has, and can easily make marbles up to 1 1/8". Marbles up to 1 1/2" are possible, but take quite a while.
This setup will cost a bit more than the Hot Head setup because, in addition to a more expensive torch, you will also need oxygen and propane regulators, hoses and flashback arrestors. You will also need to rent an oxygen tank. This can typically be done on a yearly or monthly basis. Where I live I rent my tanks from my local welding supply company (my tanks are "M" size and hold 125 cubic feet of oxygen) for $35 per year, and it costs me about $17 to have a tank filled. That's enough oxygen for about 20 hours of torch time using a Minor Burner.
My propane tank is off of an old gas grill that someone was throwing out, but you can get them at any home center. You can use the ones that you just exchange for a full one whenever it's empty, but I find that to be more expensive, and I like knowing how the tank has been treated. My 20 lb. tank costs about $7.50 to fill, and that lasts well over 100 hours.
3. If money is not a big issue and you want to start out with a setup that you won't outgrow for quite a while... My best advice is; do some research on the more expensive torches. Talk to as many experienced lampworkers as you can to find out what they have tried and what they're using now. Many times you can try out different torches at classes, seminars and shows. Ask for advice about high-end torches on any of the glass-related forums on the Internet, they always receive a lot of responses.
I personally believe that you should buy as large a torch as you can afford, for several reasons. This medium (hot glass) has a tendency to make people want to keep growing and trying new things. Also, as you become familiar with handling the hot glass, you will be able to do larger and larger work. And, finally, you can almost always make a smaller flame on a bigger torch, but the reverse is not true.
You will still have the same costs for regulators, hoses, flashback arrestors and tanks, but your torch cost can easily swing from around $450.00 to well over $1,000.00.
Q: What supplies will I need?
A: There are several things that you will need to buy. Some that you can scrounge, and some that you can make yourself.
1. Absolutely buy a pair of protective glasses. If you're only going to be making beads and small marbles out of soft glass, get a pair of rose didymium glasses. They cut the sodium flare so that you can see what you're doing in the flame. More importantly, they keep you from burning your eyes with ultraviolet radiation! They also keep bits of glass from getting into your eyes when your glass rods "spit." Both suppliers listed above carry some fairly inexpensive pairs of rose didymium glasses.
If you want more selection in frames or sizes, need prescription lenses, or are going to be using borosilicate glass, I highly recommend that you go to the Auralens Products Co. web site at: http://www.auralens.net/ and read their product descriptions. They also have a Frequently Asked Questions page that is very good.
I used didymium glasses until I started working at the torch full time. I then upgraded to AUR-92 lenses for better UV protection and enhanced RGB color transmission. There was a big price difference, but there's also a big difference in the way my eyes feel after a day at the torch, too. You only get one pair of eyes - don't go cheap on them!
2. Buy a pair of tile nippers for cutting your glass rods. You can get them from either of the sources listed, or at your local hardware or home center. Get the cheap ones with the flat, straight jaws, not the ones with the roller-type blade jaws. Nippers are well worth the small investment.
3. Get yourself a pair or two of long tweezers - preferably stainless steel. I have two pair that are about 10" long. I picked them up at the dollar store. One has smooth, rounded jaws and one has pointed serrated jaws. I use the smooth jaws for picking off bits of molten glass because the glass doesn't get stuck to them like it does to the serrated jaws. I use the serrated ones for picking up preheated rods or parts off of my hot plate because of the nice narrow tip and good gripping capability.
4. Make yourself some marble tweezers out of an old coat hanger - the thick brown kind not the skinny white ones. For pictures and descriptions see the marble tweezers on my web site at: http://frittsartglass.com/articles/Tweezers.html.
5. Buy a graphite marble mold. I highly recommend the kind with multiple mold holes. Mine originally came with holes for 4 different sizes of marbles (3/4", 1", 1 1/2", and 2"). I added holes for 1/2" and 5/8" myself using core box router bits in a drill press. Don't do this without practicing on wood first. Read my article on making wooden molds (see the next question). It's the same process.
6. Watch garage sales for a hot plate. I got mine for $5 and use it for preheating murrine, strips of dichroic, and pieces of glass rod. Mine is actually the heating base from a two piece crock-pot and has covered heating elements. However, if you get the kind of hot plate that looks like the coiled heating element from an electric stove, go to a metal supply company and have them cut you a square of 1/4" thick steel to place on the heating element. It can be several inches wider than the hot plate, thus providing a nice, wide, flat surface on which to set your preheat items.
Q: What kind of molds should I use?
A: I use both graphite and cherry-wood molds. I do all of my initial shaping in my graphite molds because they don't burn out. When I'm ready to put the final surface on the marble I switch to cherry-wood molds. I highly recommend that beginners make 50 to 100 marbles using only a graphite mold before they ever use a cherry-wood mold. Remember that every time you put a red-hot marble into a wooden mold, the mold hole gets just a little bigger. It doesn't take very long before your 3/4" cherry-wood mold is now a 7/8" mold.
To cut down on the cost of molds I recommend that you read my article in Glass Line Magazine entitled How to Make Cherry-Wood Molds. It's also online at: http://frittsartglass.com/articles/Articles.html.
Q: Where can I get information on how to actually MAKE a marble?
A: [Now, my best suggestion is my book: Torchworked Marbles, which wasn't available at the time I wrote this article.] Here are several good sources of information on lampworking in general as well as marble making.
1. Read the articles written by Robert Mickelsen and posted on his web site at: http://www.mickelsenstudios.com/articles.htm. Although none of them deal directly with marble making, the information you can glean from them about lampworking is invaluable.
2. Read the articles written by Brian Kerkvliet for Glass Art magazine. They can be found on his web site at: http://www.inspirationfarm.com/GG/articles.html and there are several about bead making, lampworking and marble making.
3. Buy Gerry Coleman's video on "The Basics of Making Marbles". It's about $45 including shipping, and it's well worth it. He shows basic technique and walks through making about 6 marbles from start to finish. Both of the sources listed above carry it.
I usually tell people to watch the video and then Email me so that I can tell them about a couple of techniques that I use that are different than Gerry's. However, rather than trying to respond to Emails from this article, I'll discuss them here. I do so only after saying that it is with the deepest respect for Gerry and with great appreciation of the fact that he is the only person I know of that has made any attempt to show his marble making techniques on such a wide scale.
a. I recommend that beginners NOT try to use PYREX® rods for their punty rods. The likelihood of leaving a bit of the PYREX® rod imbedded in the marble is very high for a beginner, and if a piece of PYREX® is left in a soft glass marble, no matter how small the bit of PYREX®, the marble will most certainly crack, if not explode. I always tell beginners to use rods of the same type of glass that the marble is made of for their punties. I tell intermediate and advanced lampworkers to use 1/8" diameter bead mandrels because they don't soften in the flame and they provide better control. However, they take experience to master and are definitely not for beginners. For information on using bead mandrels as punties, see my Glass Line article "BULLSEYE MARBLES" in the February/March 1999 issue, Volume 12, Number 5. It's also online at: http://frittsartglass.com/articles/Articles.html.
b. I recommend that EVERYONE use marble tweezers (see the question on supplies) when knocking off the final punty, burning off the punty mark and placing the marble in the annealing oven. In my opinion, cherry-wood molds are awkward to hold the marble in during these processes. The marble tweezers I make allow the marble to be held securely at different angles to the flame and keep you from burning the holes in your expensive cherry-wood molds any more than you have to.
Q: Do marbles have to be annealed, or can I cool them in a crock-pot like I do with beads?
A: In my opinion, all beads and marbles should be properly annealed. I can tell you from experience that marbles larger than 3/4" that are cooled in a crock-pot of vermiculite will almost certainly crack or explode. It may be months later, but they WILL break. If you want to test your marbles or beads to see if they are going to crack, put them in a plastic bag and place them in the freezer overnight. If they are still in one piece in the morning then they have passed the test and will not likely break due to improper cooling.
Q: What do you use for annealing your marbles?
A: I have a fairly large kiln that I use for both annealing my marbles and for doing fusing of platters and bowls. It's a little overkill for an annealing oven, but at the time I bought it I couldn't afford two kilns. The one I have is the Jen-Ken PFG-18. It has a computer that controls firings (and annealing) and a built-in digital pyrometer. I bought my kiln from Marty Daily at Centre de Verre. His web site is http://www.cdvkiln.com/ and he's very good at answering kiln questions.
Realistically, ANY kiln that will maintain between 850° F. to 1000° F. will work for annealing. You just have to be able to maintain the proper temperature for the glass you are using, for the length of time that it's thickness requires. Annealing is both an art and a science and is far beyond the scope of this article. However, my fairly conservative rule of thumb for annealing marbles is this:
For marbles that are 1" in diameter or smaller, I soak them at a specific temperature within the annealing range for that glass for at least 30 minutes for every 1/2" of diameter. Therefore, for example, I soak a 1" marble for at least 1 hour.
For marbles larger than 1", I soak them for at least 45 minutes for every 1/2" of diameter. And the larger they get, the longer I leave them soaking.
Soaking my marbles for a long time is not usually a problem because I do it full time. Therefore, I make my larger marbles in the morning and they sit in the annealing oven all day. I make my smaller marbles at the end of the day and then simply set the controller to hold for the amount of time necessary to properly anneal the last marble I put in the kiln.
Q: I put my marbles in my annealing oven and they got flat spots (or they picked up the texture from the floor of the kiln). What's up?
A: It's most likely one of three things:
1. You're putting them in before they are cooled enough to stay round.
2. Your kiln is too hot, possibly because your pyrometer isn't reading accurately or you kiln has hot spots.
3. Your annealing temperature is too high for the length of time you are letting them soak.
To keep from putting them into the kiln while they are still soft, simply hold your hand above the marble so that it is in the shadow. Wait until the red glow disappears from where you just burned off the punty mark. Then set the marble in the kiln gently with the punty mark pointing up. Don't drop it in or roll it in. If you still get flat spots, you might need to check your pyrometer and your annealing schedule. Remember that annealing temperatures are stated in ranges, not specific temperatures. If you're going to be putting marbles in the kiln throughout the day, you'll want the marbles to anneal at a temperature near the bottom of the annealing range. That way they can soak longer without running the risk of picking up the pattern of whatever they are sitting on in the kiln.
When deciding on your soak temperature, be sure to consider radiant heat versus ambient heat within the kiln. Moretti's annealing temperature range is approximately 935° F. to 965° F. but, whatever you put in the oven is subjected to the radiant heat from the elements whenever they come on. Therefore, your marbles will pick up and store a lot of heat directly from the heating elements that the pyrometer doesn't register. The pyrometer only registers the ambient temperature at a certain place in the kiln. It doesn't tell you the actual temperature of the marbles.
All kilns are different due to shape, size, element and door placement. You'll just have to experiment with yours. When working with Moretti, I actually have to set my kiln at 850° F. to have the actual temperature of the marbles stay in the lower end of the annealing range all day.
Q: What glass should I start with?
A: Soft glass is the easiest to heat and the least expensive. Unfortunately, some colors discolor or devitrify if you're not careful and can be discouraging for beginners.
Here's a list of Moretti colors that I use frequently. I marked with an asterisk "*" the ones I think you should try first, based on ease of use while providing a good color selection. Notice that I use both large and small rods of several colors. This is because I use them as the base glass for the marble and it's much easier to get your initial gather of glass if you start with bigger pieces. However, there's a caveat... You should pre-heat the large pieces (anything wider than 8mm) on a hot plate or they will often explode when you put them into the flame. You can bring them into the back flame without pre-heating and warm them up back there before bringing them up into the working flame. However, with 11mm to 14mm rods, you spend at least a minute in the back flame, burning gas and oxygen, while you could be working.
For starting out I would recommend that you stick with the standard size rods (the ones that don't have a size marked are usually between 5mm and 8mm) until you get used to them and until you start making marbles larger than 3/4".
The Item Numbers are Frantz Bead's Item Numbers:
|*91-004-A||Clear, 5-6 mm||I use this for punties and encasing.|
|*91-004-C||Clear, 10-11 mm||I use this for encasing.|
|91-004-M||Clear, 13-14 mm||I use this as base glass.|
|91-012||Lt. Topaz||Works well in the flame.|
|91-016||Dk. Topaz||Works well in the flame - Root Beer.|
|91-020||Lt. Grass Green||Works well in the flame - Lt. Yellow Green.|
|91-024||Dk. Grass Green||Works well in the flame - Dk. Yellow Green.|
|91-026||Lt. Teal||Works well in the flame.|
|*91-030||Dk. Emerald Green||Works well in the flame.|
|91-036||Dk. Aqua||Beautiful color. Gets scummy in a pure propane or MAPP flame. Use an oxidizing flame and don't allow it to cool too much before finishing the marble. If it cools and is then reheated, it will boil badly on the surface. If that happens, the only way to get rid of the bubbles is to super heat it until they go away. Sounds weird, but it works!|
|91-038-A||Pale Aqua, 5-6 mm||Works well in the flame - I use for encasing.|
|91-038-C||Pale Aqua, 10-11 mm||Works well in the flame - I use for base glass.|
|91-044||Dk. Purple||Works well in the flame, Amethyst, not true purple.|
|91-056||Dk. Blue||Works well in the flame.|
|*91-060||Cobalt Blue||Works well in the flame.|
|91-082||Lavender-Blue||Very pale, can be used for encasing.|
|*91-064||Black||I use this for punties for black-based marbles.|
|*91-064-B||Black, 8-9 mm||I use this as base glass Very forgiving in the flame.|
|91-069||Electric Yellow||Beautiful color but gets cloudy if not encased in clear. Strikes to brilliant
from very pale yellow. Does not strike back to pale.
|91-072||Orange||Beautiful color. Strikes to orange. It will strike back to clear while you are working it if you heat it and then cool it quickly. To strike it back to orange, heat it slowly in the flame and let it cool off slowly.|
|91-076||Red||Beautiful color as long as it doesn't get too hot, in which case it turns muddy brown. Strikes to red. It will strike back to clear while you are working it if you heat it and then cool it quickly. To strike it back to red, heat it slowly in the flame and let it cool off slowly.|
|*91-204||White||I use this almost exclusively for white.|
|91-204-B||White, 8-9 mm||I very seldom use this - it spits (explodes).|
|91-204-M||White, 13-14 mm||This explodes even after preheating.|
|91-212||Pea Green||Nice yellow-green color, but must be encased or it bleeds into other colors.|
|91-214||Nile Green||Nice light green color but must be encased or it bleeds into other colors.|
|*91-216||Grass Green||Nice medium green color but must be encased or it bleeds into other colors.
Tends to reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen) in pure propane or MAPP. Will
turn yellow glass brown if
used next to it without encasing one of them in clear.
|91-218||Petroleum Green||Nice blue-green color but must be encased or it bleeds into other colors. Tends to reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen) in pure propane or MAPP. Will turn yellow glass brown if used next to it without encasing one of them in clear.|
|*91-220||Periwinkle||Works well as long as it doesn't get too hot. It will boil and make surface bubbles if not careful.|
|91-224||Lt. Sky Blue||Boils and scorches easily unless encased in clear.|
|91-228||Dk. Sky Blue||Will reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen) even in an oxidizing flame.
Encase it in
clear or pale aqua.
|91-236||Dk. Turquoise||Will reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen) even in an oxidizing flame.
Encase it in
clear or pale aqua.
|*91-240||Lt. Lapis||Nice glass but can turn gray in pure propane or MAPP if left too long
in one spot, Bright
|91-242||Md. Lapis||Nice glass but can turn gray in pure propane or MAPP if left too long
in one spot, Dark
|91-246||Lapis Cobalt||Works well in the flame, Navy Blue.|
|91-252||Dk. Gray||OK to work. Turns darker the longer it's heated.|
|91-272||Violet||Works well in the flame but can reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen)
in a pure propane
or MAPP flame.
|91-276||Dk. Ivory||Has interesting reactions with several other colors. Can be used to your
effects, but can also ruin a piece quickly.
|91-404||Lt. Lemon Yellow||Translucent lemon yellow - Works well.|
|*91-408||Md. Lemon Yellow||Nice Canary to Mustard yellow - Works well.|
|91-412||Dk. Yellow||Yellow orange - Works well.|
|*91-416||Bright Acid Yellow||Bright opaque yellow - Doesn't bleed into other colors at all.|
|*91-422||Orange||Translucent orange - Works well.|
|91-428||Lt. Red||Orangish Red - Works well.|
|*91-432||Md. Red||Bright red - Works well.|
|91-436||Dk. Red||Closer to Burgundy - Works well.|
|91-456||Gold Pink||Great color, very expensive, works poorly, but if you want pink in Moretti,
it's all there is!
Encase it in clear to keep it from bleeding into other colors or scorching. It can be encased in Dk. Blue (91-056) to get a very nice Barney-purple. I have never tried using it in a pure propane or MAPP flame, but my guess is it would reduce (get a scummy metallic sheen) or scorch. It's a very, very soft glass.
Other: The dichroics are all extremely expensive and hard to work with. You must turn your heat down so that you don't burn or scorch the dichroic coating, and you should encase it in clear once it's applied to the marble. I don't recommend trying dichroics until you've made at least 100 marbles and are good at encasing without bubbles.
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Blue||Very Nice Color.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Green||Very Nice Color.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Dark Red||Sensitive to too much heat.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Aqua||Very Nice Color.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Purple||Very Nice Color, Dark Blue-Purple.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Gold||OK , very dark gold or light orange.|
|1129||1/4" Dichroic Strip Copper||OK|
|1130||1/4" Dichroic Strip Pink||Nice, Very Pale Pink.|
|1130||1/4" Dichroic Strip Magenta||Very Nice Color.|
|1130||1/4" Dichroic Strip Silver||Very Nice color.|
|1130||1/4" Dichroic Strip Aqua-Silver||Very Nice color.|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drew Fritts is a full time glass artist and has been working with hot glass since 1994. The Marble Gallery on his web site displays over 100 of his contemporary art glass marble styles, some of which are limited edition sets.
Drew Fritts Marbles
3875 E. Kingsbury
Springfield, MO 65809
Web Site: http://frittsartglass.com
Copyright © 1999 by Drew Fritts - All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published in GLASS LINE Magazine, June / July 1999, Volume 13, Number 1
Copyright © 1998 - 2010
All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:0fd71f88-965e-4d66-95c5-49c35333184a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frittsartglass.com/marbles/articles/GettingStarted.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934599 | 6,272 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Freedom is good when the person can use it appropriately. Otherwise it is a disaster.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Freedom is good when the person can use it appropriately. Otherwise it is a disaster.
"On Wednesdays and Fridays, especially during the four fasts, eat once a day, and the angel of the Lord will remain with you."
- St. Seraphim of Sarov
"Do not ever violate the fast on Wednesday and Friday. This fast is commanded by the Church and is well explained. If you have ever in your life violated this fast, pray to God that He forgives you and sin no more. The holy and pious men do not consider themselves dispensed from this fast either during a journey, much less even in sickness. St. Pachomius met some men carrying a corpse and he saw two angels in the funeral procession. He prayed to God to reveal to him the mystery of the presence of the angels at the burial of this man. What good did this man do that the holy angels of God accompanied him in procession to the grave? According to God's Providence, both angels approached Pachomius and, in this manner, explained to him: 'One of the angels is the angel of Wednesday and the other is the angel of Friday. Seeing how this man always, even until death, fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays so we are honorably accompanying his body. As he, until death, kept the fast, so we are glorifying him.'"
- St. Nikolai Velimirovich
See more here.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Jun 4, 2010
David B. Hart
As I write this, the first two of what I expect will be three theatrically morose sighs have just issued from my lips; they’re all quite inaudible to you, I know, but they would wrack your heart with pity if you could hear them.
The occasion of my misery is the release of Alejandro Amenábar’s film Agora, which purports to be a historical account of the murder of the female philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob in the early fifth century, of the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, and (more generally) of an alleged conflict that raged in the ancient world between Greek science and Christian faith. I have not actually seen the movie, and have no intention of doing so (I would say you couldn’t pay me to watch it, but that’s not, strictly speaking, true). All I know about it is what I have read in an article by Larry Rohter in the New York Times. But that is enough to put my teeth on edge.
Not that I entirely blame Mr. Amenábar. The story he repeats is one that has been bruited about for a few centuries now, often by seemingly respectable historians. Its premise is that the Christians of late antiquity were a brutish horde of superstitious louts, who despised science and philosophy, and frequently acted to suppress both, and who also had a particularly low opinion of women.
Thus, supposedly, one tragic day in a.d. 391, the Christians of Alexandria destroyed the city’s Great Library, burning its scrolls, annihilating the accumulated learning of centuries, and effectively inaugurating the “Dark Ages.” Thus also, in a.d. 415, a group of Christians murdered Hypatia (young and beautiful, of course, as well as brilliant), not only because of her wicked dedication to profane intellectual culture, but also because of the frowardness with which she had forgotten her proper place as a woman.
This is almost all utter nonsense, but I have to suppose that Amenábar believes it to be true.
This does not, of course, exculpate him of his own silly contributions to the story. Apparently, there is a scene in the film in which Hypatia is forced to wear a veil, of a sort vaguely reminiscent of a burqa, which makes about as much sense in a film about late antique Alexandria as a scene set in a singles bar specializing in Hawaiian drinks.
And then, it seems, there is a scene in which Hypatia ventures the heliocentric hypothesis, which—to anyone familiar with the neoplatonism to which she was devoted or the Aristotelian-Ptolemeian cosmological system in which she was trained—is worse than ludicrous. But, again, these little “artistic” touches are only minor additions to a picture that is already so grotesquely distorted that they hardly matter.
The tale of a Christian destruction of the Great Library—so often told, so perniciously persistent—is a tale about something that never happened. By this, I do not mean that there is some divergence of learned opinion on the issue, or that the original sources leave us in some doubt as to the nature of the event. I mean that nothing of the sort ever occurred.
Rohter almost gets the matter right when he remarks that “Roman-era chronicles, as well as later works, suggest that at least part of the library was destroyed when Julius Caesar invaded Egypt in 48 b.c., and that Christians were responsible only for the damage done in Hypatia’s time to a secondary ‘daughter library,’ which may also have been attacked by Muslim conquerors in the seventh century a.d.” But, in fact, there is not a single shred of evidence—ancient, medieval, or modern—that Christians were responsible for either collection’s destruction, and no one before the late eighteenth century ever suggested they were.
The Great Library of Alexandria is one of the more fascinating mysteries of late antique civilization. It enters history already as something largely legendary. Even Strabo, who died around a.d. 23, knew of it only as a tale from the past. We know that it had been built as an adjunct to the Great Museum in the Brucheium (the royal quarter of Alexandria) in the first half of the third century b.c. Its size, however, is impossible to establish.
The estimate in ancient texts varies wildly, between 40,000 scrolls—for the ancient world, an astounding but still plausible number—and 700,000—which is almost certainly impossibly high. And, as of yet, archaeologists have failed to find the remains of any building sufficiently large to have sheltered a collection on either scale.
Whatever the case, as Rohter says, various ancient sources report that the library was destroyed, either in whole or in part, during Julius Caesar’s Alexandrian campaign against Pompey in 48 or 47 b.c. If any part of it remained in the Brucheium, it would probably have perished when the museum was destroyed in a.d. 272, during Aurelian’s wars of imperial reunification. It was certainly no longer in existence in 391.
Rohter is right that there was perhaps a “daughter” library, which may have been located in the grounds of the Serapeum—the large temple of the Ptolemies’ hybrid Greco-Egyptian god, Serapis—placed there either in the late third century b.c., or in the late second century a.d., when the Serapeum was restored and expanded. At least, there is good evidence that scrolls were at certain points kept among the temple complex’s colonnades.
And, in fact, the Serapeum was destroyed in 391. After a series of riots between the pagan and Christian communities of Alexandria—Alexandria was the most extravagantly violent city of the antique world, and riots were something of a revered civic tradition—a number of Christian hostages had been murdered inside the Serapeum, which led the Emperor Theodosius to order the complex demolished (though he excused the murderers, inasmuch as the Christians they had killed were now considered martyrs, and any act of vengeance would have detracted from their witness). And so a detachment of Roman soldiers, with the assistance of an eager crowd of Christians, dismantled the complex—or, at any rate, the temple within it.
As it happens, we have fairly good accounts of that day, Christian and pagan, and absolutely none of them so much as hints at the destruction of any large collection of books. Not even Eunapius of Sardis—a pagan scholar who despised Christians and who would have wept over the loss of precious texts—suggests such a thing. This is not surprising, since there were probably no books there to be destroyed.
The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus, describing the Serapeum not long before its demolition, had clearly spoken of its libraries as something no longer in existence. The truth of the matter is that the entire legend was the product of the imagination of Edward Gibbon, who bizarrely misread a single sentence from the Christian historian Orosius, and from it spun out a story that appears nowhere in the entire corpus of ancient historical sources.
Which brings me to Hypatia. I do sometimes wish the poor woman’s memory could be left in peace. She’s been the victim of such sordidly sentimental nonsense over the past few centuries that it’s almost impossible to appreciate her for what she was, or to disentangle the tragedy of her death from the ideological rants that typically surround its telling.
She was, all the evidence suggests, a brilliant lecturer in Platonic thought, a trained scientist, and the author of a few mathematical commentaries. Despite the extravagant claims often made on her behalf, however, there is no reason to believe she made any particularly significant contributions to any of her fields of expertise.
She was not, for instance—as she has often been said to have been—the inventor of either the astrolabe or the hydrometer. It is true that the first extant mention of a hydrometer appears in a letter written to Hypatia by her devoted friend, Synesius of Cyrene, the Christian Platonist and bishop of Ptolemais; but that is because Synesius, in that letter, is explaining to her how the device is made, so that she can arrange to have one assembled for him
At the time of her death, she was probably not even the beautiful young woman of lore; she was in all likelihood over sixty.
She was, however, brutally murdered—and then dismembered—by a gang of Christian parabalani (a fraternity originally founded to care for the city’s poor); that much is true. This was not, however, because she was a woman (female intellectuals were not at all uncommon in the Eastern Empire, among either pagans or Christians), or because she was a scientist and philosopher (the scientific and philosophical class of Alexandria comprised pagans, Jews, and Christians, and there was no popular Christian prejudice against science or philosophy).
And it was certainly not because she was perceived as an enemy of the Christian faith; she got on quite well with the educated Christians of Alexandria, numbered many among her friends and students, and was intellectually far closer to them than to the temple cultists of the lower city; and the frankest account of her murder was written by the Christian historian Socrates, who obviously admired her immensely. It seems likely that she died simply because she became inadvertently involved in a vicious political squabble between the city’s imperial prefect and the city’s patriarch, and some of the savages of the lower city decided to take matters into their own hands.
In the end, the true story of Hypatia—which no one will ever make into a film—tells us very little about ancient religion, or about the relation between ancient Christianity and the sciences, and absolutely nothing about some alleged perennial conflict between Christianity and science; but it does tell us a great deal about social class in the late Hellenistic world.
Think of it as an ideal Marxist allegory. It may seem unimaginable to us now that Christians from the lower classes in late antique Alexandria could have conspired in the horrific assassination of an unarmed woman and a respected scholar, but, as it happens, that was how Alexandria was often governed at street level, by every sect and persuasion.
In the royal quarter, pagans, Christians, and Jews generally studied together, shared a common intellectual culture, collaborated in scientific endeavor, and attended one another’s lectures. In the lower city, however, religious allegiance was often no more than a matter of tribal identity, and the various tribes often slaughtered one another with gay abandon.
The chasm between the two worlds could scarcely have been vaster. Hypatia was a victim of what might fashionably be called a social contradiction—one that none of the science, philosophy, or religion of the time had ever done anything to resolve.
David B. Hart is a contributing writer of First Things. His most recent book is "Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies".
Archbishop Slams Turkey As Pope Visits Cyprus
Cyprus Leaders Criticize Turkey During Pope Visit
Pope On First 'Pilgrimage' To Divided Cyprus
The message below, whose title of "Sacred Concern and 'Ecumenical' Dialogues" was given by the periodical as a selected segment of the address by Ecumenical Patriarch to the members of the Parish Community of Saint Therapon of Mytilene, Lesvos Island, when they visited him at the Patriarchate, on Sunday, the 18th of August, 2002.
by His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
...With reference to the pious concern and cautiousness that you have humbly and politely expressed in your letter, Fr. Athanasios, with regard to certain initiatives by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other Orthodox Churches on the so-called "ecumenical dialogues" with other Christian dogmas and monotheistic religions, I would like to reassure you and to stress that we do not deviate from the guideline of our Fathers.
On the occasion of the feast-day of our Holy Mother the Theotokos, I had made reference during the Vespers for August 15th to the blessed John of Damascus, who is one of the Fathers and authors of our Church that had preoccupied themselves especially with the Most Holy Theotokos, the dogmatic teachings and the opening towards Muslim theologians. During the time of the blessed Damascene, Islam was in a period of flourishing, and even of aggressiveness. Even in a historical environment such as that, the blessed Damascene did not hesitate to embark on a dialogue with the Muslims, in order to make a "statement on the hope within us". Several centuries later, Saint Gregory Palamas - another important personage among the Holy Fathers of our Church - also had dialogues with Muslims and had written about Islam. Saint Mark of Ephesus - one of the more recent saints of our Church, whom our so-called "conservative" brothers regard as a standard-bearer and project him as a norm - had not hesitated to travel to the West and converse with the Catholics. Saint Mark was not finally convinced, and had, rightly, not signed the pseudo-union of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439), as he had acted according to his conscience. He did not, however, hesitate, nor did he avoid discussions with the Catholics, which is exactly what the Ecumenical Patriarchate and our Orthodox Church are also doing nowadays.
The inter-Christian dialogues with the Catholics, the Anglicans, the Lutherans, the Reformers, the Old Catholics are not conducted only by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but also by the individual, autocephalous and autonomous sister Churches, under the coordination and the leadership responsibility of the Patriarchate. It is my belief that the Orthodox Churches that are involved in discussions with the heterodox and other religions have not betrayed their faith. Pray that God enlightens us as well as the theologians who are involved in the inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogues, so that we might give a proper witness that will enlighten our brothers who are in a fallacy. And may we indeed succeed in illuminating them and enlightening them, to the degree that they will eventually decide to come to the Upright Faith. That is our prayer, our aspiration and our desire!
Sent to parishioners, September - November 2002
The graves of Saints Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip were discovered in 1971.
Lesser Scythia (modern Romania), between the Danube and the Black Sea in the northeastern territory of the Roman Empire, was a place of exile or death for Christians who refused to worship the pagan gods. During the persecutions of Decius (249-251), Diocletian and Maximilian (284-305), and Licinius (308-324) thousands of people died there from cold, hunger, or torture. The relics of those who endured martyrdom because they openly proclaimed their faith in Christ were taken by Christians and buried in secret places. Accounts of the lives and sufferings of these holy martyrs were written and preserved so they would not be forgotten. When the persecutions ended, the relics were moved from their temporary resting places and placed in special crypts (martyria). Churches were built over these crypts, and the ruins of some of them may be seen today in Dobrogea.
In September 1971 a creek overflowed its banks near the village of Niculitel in the county of Tulcea, revealing one of the oldest of these martyria. The crypt, which is made of bricks, is divided into two rooms, one on top of the other. In the upper room, the relics of four martyrs were found in a single wooden coffin. All had been decapitated. The heads of three martyrs were found atop their necks, while the head of the fourth martyr was resting on his chest. An inscription on the left wall reads: "Christ's martyrs." The names of the four martyrs (Zoticus, Attalus, Camasius, and Philip) were scratched into the right wall.
According to the records which have been preserved, these martyrs were tried by the Roman authorities of Noviodunum (modern Isaccea) and sentenced to death. They were beheaded, then buried at Niculitel. The exact date of their martyrdom is not known. Some believe that they were slain early in the fourth century during the persecutions of Diocletian or Licinius. Others, however, think the four men may have been martyred north of the Danube during the persecution of the Gothic king Athanaric (370-372) against the Christians.
About a hundred fragments of the bones of two men (aged between 45-50) were found in the lower crypt. It is thought that they died during the persecution of Decius, and then their relics were reinterred at Niculitsel around 370-380. The names of these martyrs are not known.
The Syrian Martyrologion and St Jerome's Martyrologion give June 4 as the date of the martyrs' execution. The Synaxaria list these four martyrs along with six others: Eutychius, Quirinus, Julia, Saturninus, Ninita, Fortunio. Twenty-five others were also beheaded with these martyrs, but are not named.
The relics of these holy martyrs were moved to the Cocos Monastery in 1971, where they are venerated by the faithful.
Read more about the discovery of this shrine here.
See pictures of Cocos Monastery here and here.
See pictures of the martyrs crypt here.
See pictures of the relics in procession and veneration here.
More pictures here.
Your Holy Martyrs, Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip, O Lord, through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God. For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries, And shattered the powerless boldness of demons. Through their intercessions, Christ, our Lord, save our souls!
Crypt of the Martyrs
Inscription of the names of the martyrs in the crypt
Relics of the Martyrs
Akathist to the Holy Martyrs
by St. Nikolai Velimirovich
Hospitality, a virtue which by God is commanded,
Until now, by it, many souls were drawn to Paradise.
Abraham the Wonderful showed infinite hospitality,
Immeasurable and cordial and not hypocritical.
And King David greatly respected hospitality,
That is why, the life of King Saul, he strictly guarded.
And when the Ancient One [Christ] appeared, older than the aged Abraham,
From the Lineage of David, when darkness hid,
Then, Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus,
Showed hospitality these hospitable virgins:
Hosted the Greatest One since the sun flows,
With Hospitality, each one of them heavenly paradise attained.
With hospitality, perfect in heart and food,
Hospitality most worthy in word and in deed.
And the Lord Most-rich, abundantly repaid,
And, this hospitable home, when death saddened
Jesus, the deceased brother to the sisters, resurrected,
And, to them, eternal glory spread throughout the entire world.
This is the reward of hospitality from God Himself,
The Lord loves the Hospitality of a sincere heart.
Holy Church boasts of Martha and Mary,
Teaching that we are also guests at the table of the Lord.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Holy Mountain, January 23, 1969
Reverend Father Haralambos,
In as much as I see the great uproar which is happening in our Church because of the various movements in favor of unification, as well as the interaction of the Ecumenical Patriarch with the Pope, I was pained as Her child, and considered it good, besides my prayers, to send a small thread (which I have as a poor monk), that it too may be used as a means of stitching together the multipart garment of our Mother. I know you will show love and share it only with your religious friends. Thank you.
First of all, I would like to ask forgiveness from everyone for being bold to write something when I am neither holy nor a theologian. I trust everyone will understand me, that my writing is nothing more than an expression of my deep pain for the unfortunate stance and worldly love of our father, Patriarch Athenagoras.
It appears he loved another modern woman — which is called the Papist Church — because our Orthodox Mother has not made an impression on him at all, for She is so modest. This love, which was heard from Constantinople, caused a sensational impression of sorts among many Orthodox, who nowadays live in an environment of such meaningless love, in cities across the entire world. Moreover, this love is of the spirit of our age: the family will lose its divine meaning from just such kinds of love, which have as their aim breakup and not union.
With just such a worldly love the Patriarch takes us to Rome. While he should have shown love first to us his children and to our Mother Church, he unfortunately sent his love very far away. The result, it’s true, delighted the secular children who love the world — who have this worldly love —, but completely scandalized us, the children of Orthodoxy, young and old, who have fear of God.
With sadness I must write that among all the unionists I’ve met, never have I seen them to have either a drop or shred of spirituality. Nevertheless, they know how to speak about love and union while they themselves are not united with God, for they have not loved Him.
I would like tenderly to beseech all our unionist brothers: Since the issue of the union of the Churches is something spiritual, and we have need of spiritual love, let’s leave it to those who greatly love God and are theologians, like the Fathers of the Church — not the legalists — who have offered up and continue to give themselves in service to the Church (instead of just buying big candles), and who were and are lit by the fire of love for God rather than by the lighter of the church sacristan.
We should recognize that there exist not only natural but also spiritual laws. Therefore, the future wrath of God is not averted by a convocation of sinners (for then we shall receive double the wrath), but by repentance and adherence to the commandments of the Lord.
Also, we should know well that our Orthodox Church does not have even one shortcoming. The only apparent insufficiency is the shortage of sober Hierarchs and Shepherds with a Patristic foundation. “Few are chosen.” This should not, however, be upsetting. The Church is Christ’s Church, and He governs Her. It is not a Temple built by the pious from rocks, sand and mortar, which is then destroyed by the fire of barbarians; the Church is Christ Himself. “And whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44-45)
When He needs to, the Lord will bring forth the Mark of Ephesuses and Gregory Palamases, so as to bring together all our scandalized brethren, to confess the Orthodox Faith, to strengthen the Tradition, and to give great joy to our Mother, the Church.
In times past we see that many faithful children of our Church, monastics and laymen, have unfortunately broken away from Her on account of the unionists. In my opinion, separation from the Church each time the Patriarch makes a mistake is not good at all. From within, close to the Mother Church, it is the duty and obligation of each member to struggle in their own way. To cease commemoration of the Patriarch; to break away and create their own Church; and to continue to speak insultingly to the Patriarch: this I think, is senseless.
If, for this or that occasional deviation of the Patriarchs, we separate ourselves and make our own Churches — may God protect us! — we’ll pass up even the Protestants. It is easy for one to separate, but difficult to return. Unfortunately we have many “churches” in our times, created either by big groups or even just one person. Because there happened to be a church in their kalyve (I am speaking about things happening on the Holy Mountain), they figured they could create their own independent Church.
If the unionists gave the Church the first wound, the aforementioned give the second.
Let’s pray that God will illumine all of us, including our Patriarch Athenagoras, that union of these “churches” will come about first; that tranquility would be realized within the scandalized Orthodox fold; so that peace and love would exist among the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Then let’s think about union with other “Confessions” — and only if they sincerely desire to embrace Orthodox Dogma.
I would further like to say that there does exist another, third group, within our Church. They are the brethren who remain as Her faithful children, but who don’t have spiritual concord between themselves. They spend their time criticizing one another, and not for the general good of the struggle. The one monitors the other (more than himself) to see what he will say or write so as to ruthlessly nail him. However, if this person had said or written the same thing, he’d certainly have supported it with numerous passages from the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers.
Great harm comes of this; for while the one injures his neighbor, the other strikes him back before the eyes of all the faithful. Often times, disbelief is sown in the souls of the weak, because they are scandalized by such people. Unfortunately, some from among us make senseless claims against the others. We want them to conform to our own spiritual character. In other words, when someone else doesn’t harmonize with our own character, or is only mildly tolerant — or even a little sharp — with us, immediately we jump to the conclusion that he is not a spiritual person.
We’re all needed within the Church. All the Fathers, both the mild and the austere, offered their services to Her. Just as the sweet, sour, bitter and even pungent herbs are necessary for a man’s body (each has its own flavor and vitamins), the same is true of the Body of the Church. All are necessary. The one fills up the spiritual character of the other, and all of us are duty bound to endure not only the particular spiritual character, but even the human weaknesses we each have.
Again, I come sincerely asking pardon from all for being so bold to write. I am only a simple monk, and my work is to strive, as much as I am able, to divest myself of the old man, and to help others and the Church, through God, by prayer. But because heartbreaking news regarding our Holy Orthodoxy has reached even my hermitage, I was greatly pained, and thus considered it good to write that which I felt. Let’s all pray that God grants His Grace, and may each of us help in his own way for the glory of our Church.
With much respect to all,
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I: Eastern Orthodox Church Looks to Both Past and Future
June 3, 2010,
An exclusive interview of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.
This interview comes days after His All Holiness paid a visit to Bulgaria for the opening of new churches in the Burgas region where he was welcomed by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Shortly after that, on May 24, 2010, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was in Moscow where he performed a service together with Russian Patriarch Kirill on the occasion of the Day of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the authors of the Slavic script.
What would you say are the major, basic characteristics that continue to distinguish today Eastern/Greek Orthodox Christianity from the other Christian churches?
It is sometimes best to discern similarities and common ground, rather than differences and distinctive features among Christian Churches. There is often more that unites us than separates us, and we should not be complacent in a defensive presence of Orthodox Christianity in the world.
Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church has a profound wealth in its spiritual tradition, which retains a more cosmic, liturgical and mystical world view.
This is why current issues of global concern, such as the ecological crisis, are of utmost importance to us inasmuch as they underline how doctrine and ethos are integrally related. The way we worship and pray to God reflects the way we lead our lives and treat our planet.
What is the most unique thing about the tradition of Eastern/Greek Orthodox Christianity? What should members of the other Christian churches or other religions know about it?
The Orthodox Church is often seen as a traditional Church. And, while it is true that we preserve many elements from the early Apostolic community, which witnessed the Resurrection of our Lord and the Pentecost of the Church, we are also a Church that seeks to dialogue with the present.
In this regard, we are a Church that looks both to the past (with the treasures of the Church of the Fathers) as well as to the future (with an expectation of the heavenly kingdom, as we profess in the Nicene Creed). This all-embracing theology and all-encompassing spirituality is “always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that lies within us.” (1 Peter 3.15)
There is a widespread impression that Western churches are generally more pro-active with respect to social causes and initiatives. What is the main attraction and the main message of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the 21st century, the rapidly changing time of the Global Age?
In many ways, there is truth in that widespread impression, and it would be helpful for us as Orthodox Christians to be prepared also to learn from our Western brothers and sisters.
As we observed earlier, it is more helpful and beneficial for us to work together in a spirit of healthy ecumenism, rather than work in an isolation that resembles a closed ghetto-like community. From as early as the third century, the West emphasized the role of the Church in the present world, excelling in law, ethics, and the worldly institution.
By contrast, the East stressed the heavenly (or eschatological) dimension of the Church, presenting unparalleled models and examples of mysticism and spirituality. So both East and West can learn from one another.
The Orthodox Church can reveal how the Holy Spirit and the Divine Liturgy are able to inspire all aspects of the earthly Church – including the organizational leadership of the Church and the social standards of the people.
Is it correct to say that the Orthodox Christian religion is a key trait of a Greco-Slavic Civilization, as it is often described by western scholars?
While it is true that Orthodox Christianity was the cradle of civilization on the Eastern world – both Greek and Slavic – the unfortunate truth is that the Western world has neglected its Byzantine roots.
It is a sad reality that Western historians have been dominated by the importance and influence of the Renaissance, while overlooking the fact that Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Empire to New Rome, Constantinople, in 330AD as well as the fact that all seven Ecumenical Councils of undivided Christianity were held not in Greece or Rome, but in the East, in what is now Turkey.
Nevertheless, more recent scholarship has embraced a more comprehemsive view of history. As shown in Dr. Runciman’s great books, the memory preserved by the Mother Church of Constantinople through the centuries was the memory of an Orthodox ecumenical civilization. However, it is not easy to turn around a tide of historical prejudice.
Greeks and Bulgarians used to have more powerful medieval empires, which boosted Orthodox Christianity. What is the role of these two nations today as far as Orthodox Christianity is concerned? Is it fair to say that Russia is the leading Orthodox nation nowadays?
We should remember that the situation of the first millennium no longer prevails in our world, and we should not live in such a manner that reflects those circumstances. Moreover, while the original system of Pentarchy emanated from respect for the apostolicity and particularity of the traditions of these ancient Patriarchates, the autocephaly of later Churches grew out of respect for the cultural identity of nations.
Thus, today, we have reached the perception that Orthodoxy comprises a federation of national Churches, frequently attributing priority to national interests in their relationship with one another. Yet, secular forces have never been the primary focus or foremost definition of Orthodox ecclesiology.
Our criteria of ecclesial identity and unity are not the measures of this world – of numbers and wealth – but derive instead from the Holy Spirit, as this is revealed in the Church Councils and the Holy Eucharist.
We do not, as during Byzantine times, have at our disposal a state factor that guaranteed – and sometimes even imposed – our unity. Nor does our ecclesiology permit any centralized authority that is able to impose unity from above.
Our unity depends on our ecclesial conscience. The sense of need and duty that we constitute a single canonical structure and body, one Church, is sufficient to guarantee our unity, without any external intervention.
This is precisely why we have to date convened five meetings (Synaxes) of Heads of Orthodox Churches throughout the world, while we have at the same time insisted on advancing preparations for the Holy and Great Council of our Orthodox Church.
We have been blessed with a recent official visit to Russia at the invitation of His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and we have, therefore, witnessed the vital rejuvenation as well as the complicated adversities of the Russian nation.
From your position as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople you have sought to promote peace among Christians, Muslims and Jews. What are some of your successful initiatives in that respect? In an age of rising sectarian violence, what can religious figures of your rank do to help bring about peace and understanding?
In addition to the bilateral academic dialogues that we hold on a regular basis with both Jews and Muslims (since the early 1970s), the initiatives that we have promoted in recent years include: the Peace and Tolerance Conference (Istanbul, 1994); the Conference on Peaceful Coexistence between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Brussels, 2001); the Conference on Religion, Peace and the Olympic Ideal (Athens, 2004); and the second Peace and Tolerance Conference (Istanbul, 2005).
These gatherings, and others like them, have proved both pioneering in purpose and historical in substance. For they opened our eyes to the diversity of cultures and religions that comprise our fragmented global world. It is our firm conviction that all religious leaders can benefit from such meetings inasmuch as they widened people’s awareness of racism and fundamentalism, while assisting in distinguishing between religious tolerance and religious absolutism.
I've been noticing a trend recently away from this mantra of being 'spiritual but not religious' in pop culture, but it still is the prevailing way of professing one's theism in society to show that one's religion is secularized and individualistic. Until pop culture veers away from it, then maybe society will follow. For example, this past week on The Larry King Show, Lady Gaga was asked if she was religious or spiritual, and she responded by saying she was religious, having been raised Catholic and holding to a belief in Jesus, though she also claimed to be working out what it all meant since she disagrees with the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality. But as I have been posed this question many times in the past few years as to whether or not I am spiritual or religious, my usual response these days is to say, "I am an Orthodox Christian" or sometimes I may say, "Both" along with it. What I find is that this usually opens up the discussion away from the presuppositions that the prevailing either/or mantra squeezes one into. Regarding organized religion, see my posts here and here.
Are There Dangers in Being 'Spiritual But Not Religious'?
By John Blake
June 3, 2010
"I'm spiritual but not religious."
It's a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don't need organized religion to live a life of faith.
But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: selfishness.
"Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"
Religious debates erupt over everything from doctrine to fashion. Martin has jumped into a running debate over the "I'm spiritual but not religious" phrase.
The "I'm spiritual but not religious" community is growing so much that one pastor compared it to a movement. In a 2009 survey by the research firm LifeWay Christian Resources, 72 percent of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) said they're "more spiritual than religious." The phrase is now so commonplace that it's spawned its own acronym ("I'm SBNR") and Facebook page: SBNR.org.
But what exactly does being "spiritual but not religious" mean, and could there be hidden dangers in living such a life?
Did you choose "Burger King Spirituality"?
Heather Cariou, a New York City-based author who calls herself spiritual instead of religious, doesn't think so. She's adopted a spirituality that blends Buddhism, Judaism and other beliefs.
"I don't need to define myself to any community by putting myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim," she says. "When I die, I believe all my accounting will be done to God, and that when I enter the eternal realm, I will not walk though a door with a label on it."
BJ Gallagher, a Huffington Post blogger who writes about spirituality, says she's SBNR because organized religion inevitably degenerates into tussles over power, ego and money.
Gallagher tells a parable to illustrate her point:
"God and the devil were walking down a path one day when God spotted something sparkling by the side of the path. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand.
"Ah, Truth," he said.
"Here, give it to me," the devil said. "I'll organize it."
Gallagher says there's nothing wrong with people blending insights from different faith traditions to create what she calls a "Burger King Spirituality -- have it your way."
She disputes the notion that spiritual people shun being accountable to a community.
"Twelve-step people have a brilliant spiritual community that avoids all the pitfalls of organized religion," says Gallagher, author of "The Best Way Out is Always Through."
"Each recovering addict has a 'god of our own understanding,' and there are no priests or intermediaries between you and your god. It's a spiritual community that works.''
Nazli Ekim, who works in public relations in New York City, says calling herself spiritual instead of religious is her way of taking responsibility for herself.
Ekim was born in a Muslim family and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. She prayed to Allah every night, until she was 13 and had to take religion classes in high school.Then one day, she says she had to take charge of her own beliefs.
"I had this revelation that I bow to no one, and I've been spiritually a much happier person," says Ekim, who describers herself now as a Taoist, a religious practice from ancient China that emphasizes the unity of humanity and the universe.
"I make my own mistakes and take responsibility for them. I've lied, cheated, hurt people -- sometimes on purpose. Did I ever think I will burn in hell for all eternity? I didn't. Did I feel bad and made up for my mistakes? I certainly did, but not out of fear of God."
Going on a spiritual walkabout
The debate over being spiritual rather than religious is not just about semantics. It's about survival.
Numerous surveys show the number of Americans who do not identify themselves as religious has been increasing and likely will continue to grow.
A 2008 survey conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, dubbed these Americans who don't identify with any religion as "Nones."
Seminaries, churches, mosques and other institutions will struggle for survival if they don't somehow convince future generations that being religious isn't so bad after all, religion scholars warn.
Jennifer Walters, dean of religious life at Smith College in Massachusetts, says there's a lot of good in old-time religion.
Religious communities excel at caring for members in difficult times, encouraging members to serve others and teaching religious practices that have been tested and wrestled with for centuries, Walters says.
"Hymn-singing, forms of prayer and worship, teachings about social justice and forgiveness -- all these things are valuable elements of religious wisdom," Walters says. "Piecing it together by yourself can be done, but with great difficulty."
Being a spiritual Lone Ranger fits the tenor of our times, says June-Ann Greeley, a theology and philosophy professor.
"Religion demands that we accord to human existence some absolutes and eternal truths, and in a post-modern culture, that becomes all but impossible," says Greeley, who teaches at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
It's much easier for "spiritual" people to go on "spiritual walkabouts," Greeley says.
"People seem not to have the time nor the energy or interest to delve deeply into any one faith or religious tradition," Greeley says. "So they move through, collecting ideas and practices and tenets that most appeal to the self, but making no connections to groups or communities."
Being spiritual instead of religious may sound sophisticated, but the choice may ultimately come down to pettiness, says Martin, the Jesuit priest, who writes about the phrase in his book, "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost Everything)."
"Religion is hard," he says. "Sometimes it's just too much work. People don't feel like it. I have better things to do with my time. It's plain old laziness."
Continued from Part Two
Soon after the St. Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology was founded in Paris on April 30, 1925, Florovsky was invited by Dean Sergius Bulgakov to join the faculty as Professor of Patristics. Florovsky’s interest in Patristics dates from his days in Odessa, but he only began to study this field seriously in 1924 when he was in Prague. In Patristics, it must be noted, Florovsky discovered his true vocation. Henceforth Patristic thought was to become his intellectual home, the foundation of his world view, the standard by which he would judge and find wanting the course of Russian religious thought and of Orthodox theology in general. In fact, Patristic theology became for Florovsky the criterion for all authentically Orthodox theology and for an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the Sacred Scriptures of the Church. Patristic theology was also the source of Florovsky’s many later contributions to and criticisms of the Ecumenical Movement. It was through his ongoing research of the original sources and his constant teaching of Patristics that Florovsky actually mastered the field. Throughout his lifetime he taught and wrote about the pre-Nicene Fathers, the golden age of the Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the Byzantine theologians up to the fifteenth century, as well as the history of Russian theology. For a man of his scholarly stature and erudition, it is astonishing to note that Florovsky was an autodidact in theology and had never earned a theological degree in the strict sense. All of his many subsequent doctoral degrees were honorary, bestowed upon him, deservedly no doubt, by countless institutions of higher learning that acknowledged his singular achievements everywhere he went and worked throughout his long life.
It was during the pre-war years of the 1930s that Florovsky did a great deal of research in various European libraries and produced his most important writings. Most notable among his writings of this period were his Fathers of the Fourth Century7 and The Byzantine Fathers of the Fifth to the Eighth Centuries.8 These two volumes reflect the in-depth study of the Fathers and the salient characteristics of Florovskian scholarship: judicial analysis of primary material, richly detailed factual documentation, succinct and penetrating generalizations, a broad historical perspective, a terse and compelling style, and always an extensive bibliography that invariably included his very latest reading. These works placed Florovsky at the front ranks of Patristic scholarship. While praise for their erudition and power was unstinting, they also clearly pointed out that “everything was not stable and whole from the very beginning” in the life of the early Church, as she struggled to define and defend her faith. The fact is that these writings became a turning point in modern Orthodox theology, as the sequence of events in the life and work of Florovsky clearly demonstrate.
In 1932 Florovsky accepted ordination to the priesthood of the Orthodox Church. This important decision came rather naturally for him, given his early background in a clerical family, and his responsibilities as a priest and as a pastor provided many opportunities to enrich his theological work through the liturgical life of the Church, which he so profoundly appreciated from his youth. Moreover, his experience as a priest of the Church, imbued by the spirit of worship and pastoral service, freed him from the strictures of a school theology and added a powerful dimension to his theological work and witness. In 1935 Florovsky delivered an important lecture on “The Tasks of Russian Theology” at St. Sergius Institute that critically outlined the history of Russian religious thought. A year later in Athens, Greece, he delivered at the First Congress of Orthodox Theological Professors two additional important papers: “Western Influences in Russian Theology” and “Patristics and Modern Theology.” Through these two lectures Florovsky challenged his colleagues by calling on all Orthodox theologians to overcome the so-called “pseudomorphosis” of Orthodox theology that had come about in past centuries, under both Roman Catholic and Protestant prevailing influences.
It must be remembered that the fateful Schism of 1054 had left the two major geographical areas of the Church to go their own separate ways for a very long time. The Western Church developed through Scholasticism and the Renaissance to the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, to the Enlightenment and finally to the modern age. The Eastern Church underwent a series of historical misfortunes, brought about by the militant expansion of Islam in the Middle East and the Balkans, with the final collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453. While the Christian Empire came to an end in the East, the Orthodox Church actually survived there for four centuries under Islam. In the Russian lands to the north, the Orthodox Church even flourished, notwithstanding the Western influences she experienced. Not too long after the Balkan countries gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, Russia itself experienced the Bolshevik Revolution, ushering in the anti-Christian Communist rule which gradually engulfed the countries of central and eastern Europe except Greece.
Out of this broad historical background and unlike most of his contemporaries, who drew their inspiration and influence from the more current trends in Western Europe, Florovsky reached back into the past history of Russia and beyond into the tradition of Byzantium and the Greek Fathers of the undivided Church in the East. It was from this early and normative tradition of the Church that Florovsky not only drew his inspiration but also actually established his now famous theological framework known as “the neo-Patristic synthesis.” In the long historical journey of Christendom the writings of the Fathers had to a large extent become dead historical documents, and Florovsky wanted to revive them from within, to recover the mind of the Fathers and the existential questions with which they struggled in their own time to develop their own theological synthesis. Following the Fathers, in a neo-Patristic synthesis, always means moving forward, not backwards; it means fidelity to the Patristic spirit and not just the Patristic letter. Fathers and teachers of the Church are those who, in the measure of their humility before the truth, receive the gift of expressing the catholic consciousness of the Church, and we learn from them, not only their personal opinions or conceptions, but also the catholic testimony of the Church.
By calling for a return to the Fathers of the early Church, Florovsky also called for an authentic re-Hellenizing of Orthodox Christianity. This does not mean at all an ethnic Hellenism, nor the Hellenism of antiquity with its anti-Christian elements, but a Christian Hellenism, one that has been baptized, transfigured, and incorporated into the very reality of the Church as an eternal and perennial category of Christian existence. When Christianity ventured out into the pagan world, she encountered Hellenism. The Good News of the Gospel and later the dogmatic theological definitions of Christianity became expressed and fortified precisely in the categories of a Christianized Hellenism. Biblical prophecy found its actual consummation precisely in Christian Hellenism. The truth of the Old Testament was already incorporated in the New Testament, and the New Testament as a Greek Book was already the beginning of a Hellenic synthesis that has become an inseparable part of the Church. The theological definitions of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils only completed an ongoing process of synthesis that has become an inseparable and essential element of the Church. Any attempts to escape from Christian Hellenism invariably become backward relapses into the untransfigured and pre-Christian Hellenism of antiquity, which was in time actually transcended and assimilated by the Patristic synthesis of Christian Hellenism that makes up the world of Orthodox Christianity.
The powerful and pioneering call of Florovsky for a creative “neo-Patristic synthesis” in Orthodox theology was heard with keen interest by Orthodox theologians in 1936, particularly by Greek Orthodox theologians, who began to take Florovsky’s thought seriously and to bring about an astonishing renewal in Orthodox theology that is continuing to the present time. Florovsky, however, cautioned that for Orthodox theology to recover its independence from Western influences it is not enough simply to return to its Patristic sources and foundations. Returning to the Fathers does not mean abandoning the present age, escaping from history, or quitting the field of battle with contemporary problems. The Patristic experience must be rediscovered, preserved, and brought into life for the present time and conditions. Independence from the influences of the now non-Orthodox West should not be an estrangement from it. A radical break with the West would provide no real liberation. It is not enough to refute or reject Western errors or mistakes; they must be overcome and surpassed through a new and creative act of encounter. Orthodox theology has been called upon to answer non-Orthodox questions from the depths of her catholic and unbroken experience, and to confront Western Christianity, not with accusations but with the testimony and the truth of Eastern Christianity. And this precisely has been the fundamental focus and abiding legacy of the thought and work of Georges Florovsky throughout his lifetime.
See here, here, here, here, here, and here.
In 1979, Elder Paisios moved from the Precious Cross Hermitage to the Panagouda Cell of Koutloumousiou. It was June 3rd, and the Elder, because of the move, had not yet unpacked his liturgical books and did not know exactly the date or the celebrating saint. He performed the services with the prayer rope, and when he began to pray to the Saint of the day, his mind was busy trying to remember who the Saint was. Then in the chapel, two Saints appeared, one in front and another behind. The one behind was St. Panteleimon, whom the Elder recognized and would say that he resembled a lot to the icon venerated at the Skete of St. Panteleimon. The first was unknown however. Because of his bewilderment, the Saint himself responded: “Elder, I am Loukilianos”. The Elder was not paying attention well and asked: “What was that? Loukianos?” “No, Elder. I am Loukilianos.” And immediately the two Saints disappeared. The Elder was moved and found the June Menaion to confirm if St. Loukilianos was celebrating. In reality it was the day of his commemoration.
Life of Saint Loukilianos
Saint Loukilianos (Lucillian) was a pagan priest during the reign of the Roman Emperor Aurelian (270-275). In his old age he became persuaded of the falseness of the pagan religion, and with all his heart he turned to the faith in Christ the Savior, and was baptized.
Under the influence of his preaching many pagans were converted to Christianity. Then certain Jews, seeing that he was spreading faith in Christ, reported Loukilianos to the Nicomedia prefect Silvanus, who urged the old man to return to idol-worship. When he refused, they smashed the saint's jawbone, beat him with rods and suspended him head downward, and then they locked him in prison. Here he met four youths who were confessors of Christianity, Claudius, Hypatius, Paul and Dionysius. St Loukilianos urged them to stand firm in the Faith, and to fear neither tortures nor death.
After a while they brought them to trial and then threw them into a red-hot furnace. Suddenly, rain fell and extinguished the flames, and the martyrs remained unharmed. The governor sentenced them to death, sending them to Byzantium to be executed. The holy youths were beheaded by the sword, and the holy martyr Loukilianos was nailed to a cross with many nails.
The holy virgin Paula witnessed the contest of the holy martyrs. She had dedicated herself to the service of those suffering for Christ. She provided food to Christian prisoners, washed their wounds, brought medications, and also buried the bodies of martyrs. After the death of St Loukilianos and the four young men, she returned to Nicomedia and continued with her holy service. The holy virgin was arrested and cast into a furnace, but by the power of God she remained unharmed. Then they sent her off to Byzantium, where the holy martyr was beheaded.
Later a church was built in their honor in Constantinople.
Apolytikion in the First Tone
Let all of us entreat Christ the Lord's holy Martyrs, for they make supplication for our souls' salvation; with faith and with longing, therefore, let us draw nigh unto them, for they overflow with the divine grace of healings, and they drive away the ranks of demons in terror, as guardians of the Faith.
Apolytikion in the First Tone
By your faith, you shone like a radiant star in the dark night of error; you fought the good fight and slew the crafty enemy, O Loukilianos. Together with venerable Paula and the four martyred children entreat Christ our God to save our souls.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
You attained the dignity of the martyrs of Christ through the torments that you courageously endured, O Loukilianos. Together with Paula and the four martyred children, you sing to the Creator: "Like sheep we are slaughtered for love of You, O Savior."
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
June 2, 2010
Belgrade, Serbia - The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) continues to be racked by dissent, as monks in two monasteries have openly rebelled against the church leadership, the daily Blic said Wednesday.
Monks from monasteries the Crna Reka and Holy Archangels launched their rebellion in support of Bishop Artemije, the former head of the Kosovo eparchy whom the SPC replaced because he had ignored orders and was implicated in corruption scandals.
The monks said they were set to abandon their monasteries despite orders from the SPC to remain in place.
The influential Bishop Amfilohije, the provisional administrator of the Kosovo eparchy, which also covers a part of south-western Serbia, met the monks in Crna Reka at an unspecified date but had failed to reach a settlement.
"They ... were told that the Church cannot allow pseudo-zealotry, sectarianism that undermines the unity of the Church," the Kosovo eparchy said in a statement.
The Kosovo eparchy has been in focus not only because of the secession of Kosovo in 2008, but also because of alleged financial abuse. The allegations have so far led to the criminal indictment and arrest of Artemije's right-hand man, Simeon Vilovski.
Monks at the Crna Reka monastery caused outrage last year when they disclosed they were "curing" drug addicts by torturing them.
For context, see here and here.
The following is a letter which was written by Fr. Seraphim Rose to Fr. Alexey Young — now Hieromonk Ambrose. It was on the problem of certain people not accepting converts who were received into the Orthodox Church through either Chrismation or Confession, but insisted that all must be Re-baptized.
In this letter Fr. Seraphim emphasizes the fact that converts can be received into the Church through either Confession or Chrismation, and denounces the view that such a reception makes a convert an "irregular" or "incomplete" Orthodox Christian. He further points out that it is a matter which should be left to the priest and bishop to decide how one is to be received, and not the business of anyone else.
This letter especially addresses a common problem within Orthodoxy today that is often found among the more fanatical Orthodox, especially in monastic communities here in America and abroad: the rebaptism of converts who have already been received through Confession or Chrismation. This is a great evil being done in the Church today, often done in secret without the permission of a bishop, and influenced by the baseless presumptions of schismatics who care little for the unity and welfare of the Church.
Jan. 28/Feb.10, 1976
We forgot to ask you how LM is getting along in your community. Is she getting a longing for big-city life? She told me that she and JK are not getting along, and she thinks it must be jealousy. But could it be that J just can’t stand L’s type —outspoken, always right, still reflecting something of the hothouse atmosphere of the “Boston” approach?
I’ve written and talked to L about this hothouse approach to Orthodoxy — filled with gossip, knowing “what’s going on,” having the “right answer” to everything according to what the “experts” say. I begin to think that this is her basic problem, and not Fr. Panteleimon directly.
An example: she is horrified that T was received into the Church [from Roman Catholicism] without baptism or chrismation. “That’s wrong,” she says. But we see nothing particularly wrong with it; that is for the priest and the bishop to decide, and it is not our (or even more, her) business. The rite by which he was received has long been approved by the Church out of economy, and probably in this case it was the best way, because T might have hesitated much more at being baptized. The Church’s condescension here was wise. But L would like someone “to read Vladika Anthony the decree of the Sobor” [on this subject]. My dear, he was there, composing the decree, which explicitly gives the bishop permission to use economy when he wishes! We don’t like this attitude at all, because it introduces totally unnecessary disturbance into the church atmosphere. And if she is going to tell T now that he is not “really” a member of the Orthodox Church, she can do untold harm to a soul.
Another example: L was very pleased that Q was baptized [after having been a member of the Russian Church Abroad already for several years]: Finally he did it “right”! But we are not pleased at all, seeing in this a sign of great spiritual immaturity on his part and a narrow fanaticism on the part of those who approve. Saint Basil the Great refused to baptize a man who doubted the validity of his baptism, precisely because he had already received communion for many years and it was too late to doubt then that he was a member of Christ’s Church! In the case of our converts, it’s obvious that those who insist or are talked into receiving baptism after already being a member of the Church are trying, out of a feeling of insecurity, to receive something which the Sacrament does not give: psychological security, a making up for their past failures while already Orthodox, a belonging to the “club” of those who are “right,” an automatic spiritual “correctness.” But this act casts doubt on the Church and her ministers. If the priest or bishop who receives such people were wrong (and so wrong that the whole act of reception must be done over again!), a sort of Church within the Church is created, a clique which, by contrast to “most bishops and priests,” is always “right.” And of course, that is our big problem today — and even more in the days ahead. It is very difficult to fight this, because they offer “clear and simple” answers to every question, and our insecure converts find this the answer to their needs.
At times we would like to think that the whole “Fr. Panteleimon problem” in our Church is just a matter of differing emphasis which, in the end, will not be so terribly important. But the more we observe, the more we come to think that it is much more serious than that, that in fact that an “orthodox sectarianism” is being formed at that expense of our simple people. Therefore, those who are aware of all this must be “zealots according to knowledge.” The Church has survived worse temptations in the past, but we fear for our converts lest in their simplicity they be led into a sect and out of the Church.
God is with us! We must go forward in faith.
1. This letter is from “Letters from Father Seraphim”
2. The references in this letter to "Boston" refer to the schismatic Old Calendar Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA. The references to "Fr. Panteleimon" refer to the same monasteries' founder and spiritual father.
The Athos Monastic Community was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century and was under Turkish rule until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, at which time it was liberated by the Greek army. The following article by Prof. Patrinellis places Mount Athos in its historical and political context.
The new reality that emerged from the Balkan Wars made it necessary to redraw the political map of Macedonia. The international position of Mount Athos, however, was seen as a problem sui generis, and the territory constituted an apple of discord, particularly between Greece and Russia—which, it must be remembered, had never abandoned its aspirations to the role of protector of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans. During the negotiations preliminary to the signing of the Treaty of London in 1913, as well as at the Ambassadors’ Conference held there that same year, Russia produced a whole string of alternate proposals for the future status of Mount Athos: internationalisation, neutrality, joint sovereignty or joint protectorate under Russia and the other Orthodox Balkan states. While the reaction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek government, which needed Russian support in other areas, was half-hearted, the Athonite Community (with the exception of the Russians) declared by official resolution that it would employ every means to resist the adulteration of the traditional autonomy of the Holy Mountain and ‘Greek sovereignty over it’. While the issue was left unresolved at that time, there was a tacit acceptance of the existing de facto Greek sovereignty over the Athonite peninsula.When the issue was raised again after the end of the First World War, conditions had become more favourable for the Greek side: on the one hand there were far fewer Russian monks on the Mountain, and on the other the new Bolshevik regime in Russia displayed little interest in the matter. With the Treaties of Neuilly (1919), Sevres (1920) and Lausanne (1923), Greek sovereignty over Mount Athos was officially recognised.
All that remained was to settle the legal dispositions of Greece’s relations with the Holy Mountain and to draw up an internal rule for the governance of the monastic community. In 1924 a five-member committee of eminent Athonites prepared a ‘Charter for the Holy Mountain of Athos’, which codified regulations and administrative dispositions stemming not only from written sources (Typika, chrysoboulla, sigillia, regulations, etc.) but also from tradition and customary usage. This Charter was approved that same year by the Athonite Assembly known as the ‘double Synaxis’. On the basis of this official text the Greek state drafted a Legislative Decree, which the Greek Parliament passed into law in 1926. At the same time, the 1927 Greek Constitution contained special articles (included in each subsequent constitution) on the general principles governing the status of Mount Athos.
These were the official documents defining the Athonite Peninsula’s relations with Greece and with the Church, as well as the competence of its administrative institutions, the Holy Synaxis and the Holy Epistasia. They also regulated relations between monks, between monk and monastery, between monastery and dependency, etc., in order to prevent friction and disputes.
The Greek State is represented by the Governor of Mount Athos, who answers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and who, together with the deputy governor, resides in Karyes. He ensures that the Charter is respected, attends the sessions of the Holy Community in an advisory capacity, and presides over local public services (police, customs, etc.).
Finally, with regard to the administration of justice, it should be noted that disciplinary matters and minor disputes between monks or monasteries are adjudicated initially by the individual monastic authorities, in the second instance by the Holy Community and in the third by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Misdemeanours and minor infractions are settled by the local police authorities, while criminal offences and land disputes between monasteries are in the jurisdiction of the competent courts in Thessaloniki.
Ch. G. Patrinellis
Professor of Modern History
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
It is with the deepest sorrow and spiritual anguish that we have been informed by His Beatitude the Archbishop during the convening of the Holy Synod on the 4th of May 2010, of the visit of the Pope upon the Orthodox soil of our saint-bearing island of Cyprus, which will be taking place pursuant to an official invitation that the President of the Republic of Cyprus extended to him as the Head of the State of Vatican. We have duly expressed our opposition - Synodically - to this visit, and have declared that we shall not participate in any event related to it, because our conscience does not permit it, inasmuch as the Pope is not just any political leader, but the leader of the heresy of Papism. The reason for this is that the Papists, with their adulteration of the proper Ecclesiology, have turned the Church of the living God from the Body of Christ to "a terrestrial political organization", a worldly organism and a state which has secular powers, the way that the Vatican is....
Exploiting the opportunity of this visit, the Pope had asked that his second status also be projected, as the religious leader of the Roman Catholics. That is why he requested and secretly secured through his diplomatic services (as was proven eventually) the approval that he was given - which unfortunately we were informed of only recently, without previously being asked if we consented.
We simply became the audience of that decision, with which we of course disagreed, but alas in vain, since everything had already been finalized and predetermined in advance, unbeknownst to us. The only item that my humble person had agreed to was an encyclical to be dispatched to the Christian flock, in order to prevent any scandalizing and turmoil in the conscience of the faithful, with serious repercussions and unforeseen reactions. It is a pity, watching the supporters of Ecumenism extending compliments and diplomatic politeness to heretics, to the point of praying together with them, despite the explicit prohibition by the sacred Canons, while simultaneously confronting the reactions of the faithful members of the Church (who are agonizing over the outcome of the theological dialogues and are scandalized seeing Orthodox clergy keeping company and praying together with various heretics) with sarcastic smiles and abundant disdain, as though they (the faithful members) are the enemies of the Church.
That is why we consented to the decision to send out a relative encyclical to the Christian flock, in which it would be mentioned that the Pope's visit was in response to an invitation by the President of the Republic, and that during his visit, there would be no theological dialogue taking place, while simultaneously pointing out the delusions of the Roman Catholics and the preservation of Unia. Unfortunately however, we came to realize afterwards, when reading the edited text - which, may it be noted, was sent to us six days after the Synod had convened - that its contents did not correspond to the positions that we had expressed synodically in order to consent to the issuance of the encyclical.
The Roman Catholics once again proved to be excellent diplomats. As made evident in the daily Press, they had arranged the Pope's schedule in such a manner that - by means of worship congregations, especially the one that will take place in the closed stadium of Nicosia where Roman Catholic clergy from the Middle East will be present - confusion will ensue among the pious Orthodox of Cyprus, who are not in a position to discern the Uniates. Seeing them participate in the ritual, dressed in Orthodox vestments, it is certain that they will be misled and scandalized, by perceiving them to be Orthodox clergy. It is also not precluded that many foreign Press agencies - also fooled by the external appearance of the Uniates - will erroneously transmit the news that it is common prayer with "all of the Eastern Orthodox Churches". The attempts of the Vatican to exploit the opportunity and present the Pope as the leader of Christianity and the entire world is very obvious.
With displays such as this, it is our humble opinion that the heretical Papists are not assisted in becoming aware of their delusion, but instead are encouraged to preserve their intolerance and remained fixed in their cacodoxies, thus provoking the religious sentiment of the Orthodox. The persistence therefore in the precision of the Orthodox dogma should not be misconstrued as fanaticism or religious intolerance. If only the heretical Papists would see their errors, spit out their delusions, return to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and accept the undivided, Apostle-delivered Truth, the way it was formulated in the eight first centuries and safeguarded to this day by the Orthodox Church.
The argument that this visit will supposedly assist in the solving of the Cyprus issue can only cause us pain and immense concern. Let the governors be careful to not intervene in the matters of the Orthodox faith and exert detrimental pressures, supposedly for the sake of national interests, because the only thing they will achieve is the loss of Divine Grace, which will result in precisely the opposite of what they are pursuing. "Be not persuaded by potentates, by sons of men, for in them there is no salvation" (Psalm 146:3), the Scripture characteristically mentions. Every time the Orthodox beseeched the Papists - and in fact mixing the matters of the Faith with politics - in order to supposedly obtain Papal help and protection, the exact opposite results were achieved. Those who harbor the illusion and cultivate the idea to the faithful people that by making partners of the heretics they will solve contemporary social or national issues and that the much-coveted union between the Orthodox and the members of other confessions will be achieved with secular criteria, should be aware that the Pope regards the said union with the Orthodox Church as an establishing of the Papal institution in the East and the submission of all the Orthodox, who will thereafter be under his pastoral jurisdiction as Uniates. History teaches us that the Pope has never hastened to aid and support the Orthodox. We share in the agony for the future of our suffering island, but we also humbly believe that Cyprus' vindication will not be achieved by encouraging contemporary syncretism, but rather with the help of almighty God, as has repeatedly been proven within History.
The immediate objective of the Pope is that he be accepted as the universal religious leader of all Christians, and the ultimate one is to be acknowledged as the leader of all religions. The invocation of the Lord's words "that they may all be one..." (John 17:21) for the purpose of laying the foundations for ecumenistic openings has no theological basis, unless it is supported by "the unity in the Faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit", otherwise it will be overlooking the prerequisites placed by Christ Himself: "...just as we are one" (John 17:22).
The Orthodox Church has never ceased to beseech the All-merciful God "for the union of all". It is the sedate, cleansed nous and the incessant Prayer that attract the Grace of the All-Holy Spirit and assist in the partaking of the uncreated Grace of God; not the communication skills and public relations. May the Lord shed His light upon us all, so that we might 'correctly preach the word of His truth'....
Source: Newspaper "Orthodox Press" - issue dated 5/28/2010
ScienceDaily (June 1, 2010) — Can you help you? Recent research by University of Illinois Professor Dolores Albarracin and Visiting Assistant Professor Ibrahim Senay, along with Kenji Noguchi, Assistant Professor at Southern Mississippi University, has shown that those who ask themselves whether they will perform a task generally do better than those who tell themselves that they will.
Little research exists in the area of self-talk, although we are aware of an inner voice in ourselves and in literature. From children's books like "The Little Engine That Could," in which the title character says, "I think I can," to Holden Caulfield's misanthropic musings in "A Catcher in the Rye," internal dialogue often influences the way people motivate and shape their own behavior.
But was "The Little Engine" using the best motivational tool, or does "Bob the Builder" have the right idea when he asks, "Can we fix it?"
Albarracin's team tested this kind of motivation in 50 study participants, encouraging them explicitly to either spend a minute wondering whether they would complete a task or telling themselves they would. The participants showed more success on an anagram task, rearranging set words to create different words, when they asked themselves whether they would complete it than when they told themselves they would.
Further experimentation had students in a seemingly unrelated task simply write two ostensibly unrelated sentences, either "I Will" or "Will I," and then work on the same task. Participants did better when they wrote, "Will" followed by "I" even though they had no idea that the word writing related to the anagram task.
Why does this happen? Professor Albarracin's team suspected that it was related to an unconscious formation of the question "Will I" and its effects on motivation. By asking themselves a question, people were more likely to build their own motivation.
In a follow-up experiment, participants were once again parsed into the "I will" and "Will I" categories, but this time were then asked how much they intended to exercise in the following week. They were also made to fill out a psychological scale meant to measure intrinsic motivation. The results of this experiment showed that participants not only did better as a result of the question, but that asking themselves a question did indeed increase their intrinsic motivation.
These findings are likely to have implications in cognitive, social, clinical, health and developmental psychology, as well as in clinical, educational and work settings.
"We are turning our attention to the scientific study of how language affects self-regulation," Professor Albarracin said. "Experimental methods are allowing us to investigate people's inner speech, of both the explicit and implicit variety, and how what they say to themselves shapes the course of their behaviors."
Research like this challenges traditional paradigms regarding public service messages and self-help literature designed to motivate people toward healthier or more productive behavior.
"The popular idea is that self-affirmations enhance people's ability to meet their goals," Professor Albarracin said. "It seems, however, that when it comes to performing a specific behavior, asking questions is a more promising way of achieving your objectives."
The trio published its research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, in the April 2010 edition of the journal Psychological Science.
"This work represents a basic cognitive approach to how language provides a window between thoughts and action," said Dr. James W. Pennebaker, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas. "The reason it is so interesting is that it shows that by using language analysis, we can see that social cognitive ideas are relevant to objective real world behaviors and that the ways people talk about their behavior can predict future action." | <urn:uuid:1ea48850-c2f4-403e-b075-86c865c2a7f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010_05_06_archive.html?m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971903 | 16,887 | 1.671875 | 2 |
NYC's Hot New Export? Supreme Court JusticesMartin Flaherty in AOL News, May 10, 2010
(May 10) -- New York City is fast becoming a breeding ground for Supreme Court justices.
Less than a year after a New York native was sworn into the nation's highest court, President Barack Obama has picked another as his nominee to fill the seat that will be vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens this year.
If confirmed, Elena Kagan will join fellow New Yorkers Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor on the bench.
"I don't think that there's anything in the water or in the air that's causing this, but it's really notable," Jason Mazzone, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, told AOL News. "You would never find at any prior point in history four justices from the same city."
The fact that the Supreme Court is so stacked may not be a complete coincidence, say some legal experts, who point to the city's tremendous diversity as helping to create empathy and mutual understanding.
"In one sense New York's parochial and in another sense it's very diverse," Martin Flaherty, a professor at Fordham Law School in New York and a friend of Kagan's from Princeton University, told AOL News. "So when you grow up in New York, you've got an immediate exposure to all sorts of people, all sorts of classes."
Turns out, that diversity is evident even in the sampling of New Yorkers on the bench.
Scalia, who joined the court in 1986, was born in New Jersey but grew up in working-class Queens in the '40s and '50s, a time when the neighborhood was both diverse in its makeup and conservative in its views, and the pugnacious New York attitude was alive and well. "It was a really mishmash, sort of a New York-New York cosmopolitan neighborhood," he told "60 Minutes" in 2008.
Scalia's story is classically American: His father was an Italian immigrant who became a professor of romance languages at Brooklyn College, while his mother was a first-generation Italian-American who worked as a schoolteacher. Their only child got straight A's in school, leading him to Georgetown for college and then Harvard Law School.
Ginsburg, who joined the court in 1993, grew up in a Jewish family in a poor, immigrant neighborhood of Brooklyn in the '30s and '40s. By the time she graduated from high school, both her older sister and her mother had died. She went to Cornell University and Harvard Law, transferring to Columbia Law School when her husband got a job in New York.
In an interview with The New York Times, Ginsburg shared insight into her background while commenting on Sotomayor's infamous "wise Latina" comment. "I'm sure she meant no more than what I mean when I say: 'Yes, women bring a different life experience to the table,' " Ginsburg said. "All of our differences make the [Supreme Court] conference better. That I'm a woman, that's part of it. That I'm Jewish, that's part of it. That I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I went to summer camp in the Adirondacks -- all these things are part of me."
Sotomayor, who was sworn in last August, grew up in the Bronx projects, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants. She didn't learn English until she was 9, when her father died, leaving her mother to raise her and her brother alone. Sotomayor was valedictorian of her high school, earning a spot at Princeton and then one at Yale Law School.
For her part, nominee Kagan grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a middle-class area known for its Jewish character and quiet residential life -- far from the hardscrabble neighborhoods where Scalia, Ginsburg and Sotomayor were raised. She attended the prestigious Hunter College High School in the '70s, then Princeton and Harvard Law.
"You're not talking to somebody who's gone to an elite prep school from a country club background," Flaherty said. "New York gives her that grounding in the real world that never leaves you."
Still, some see the lack of geographical diversity on the country's highest court as a troubling new development. Not only are three of the current justices from New York City alone, but five are from New York state or New Jersey, leaving only four justices -- including the soon-to-retire Stevens -- to represent the remainder of the country geographically.
This trend could be problematic if the justices find it hard to relate to a farmer in Ohio or an auto worker in Detroit -- if, in Mazzone's words, the court is "tilted towards the interests and sensibilities of people on the Eastern seaboard."
But even more troubling to some is the recurrence of Princeton, Harvard and Yale in the educational backgrounds of the justices. Of the nine justices, only one -- Stevens -- did not attend Harvard or Yale Law School. Justice Samuel Alito and Sotomayor, like Kagan, went to Princeton for their undergraduate studies.
"I think the court suffers a little bit in that everybody comes from the Ivy League, comes from Harvard and Yale," Jamal Greene, a professor at Columbia Law School, told AOL News.
Mazzone shares this concern.
"If you're thinking about a court that is representative of the nation, there are certainly some great law schools that are not on the East Coast," he said. "For the rest of the country, there may be a real question about why she's the choice, given the makeup of the court." | <urn:uuid:46213642-5cad-415b-8823-669c670f12d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.fordham.edu/faculty/18094.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97569 | 1,190 | 1.789063 | 2 |
(April 2006) Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?
The question is important because it might help us understand why Americans—members of the media as well as the ordinary citizen—rushed to declare their support as the President was sending troops halfway around the world to Iraq.
A small example of the innocence (or obsequiousness, to be more exact) of the press is the way it reacted to Colin Powell’s presentation in February 2003 to the Security Council, a month before the invasion, a speech which may have set a record for the number of falsehoods told in one talk. In it, Powell confidently rattled off his “evidence”: satellite photographs, audio records, reports from informants, with precise statistics on how many gallons of this and that existed for chemical warfare. The New York Times was breathless with admiration. The Washington Post editorial was titled “Irrefutable” and declared that after Powell’s talk “it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that
It seems to me there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture, and which help explain the vulnerability of the press and of the citizenry to outrageous lies whose consequences bring death to tens of thousands of people. If we can understand those reasons, we can guard ourselves better against being deceived.
One is in the dimension of time, that is, an absence of historical perspective. The other is in the dimension of space, that is, an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. We are penned in by the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe, exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.
If we don’t know history, then we are ready meat for carnivorous politicians and the intellectuals and journalists who supply the carving knives. I am not speaking of the history we learned in school, a history subservient to our political leaders, from the much-admired Founding Fathers to the Presidents of recent years. I mean a history which is honest about the past. If we don’t know that history, then any President can stand up to the battery of microphones, declare that we must go to war, and we will have no basis for challenging him. He will say that the nation is in danger, that democracy and liberty are at stake, and that we must therefore send ships and planes to destroy our new enemy, and we will have no reason to disbelieve him.
But if we know some history, if we know how many times Presidents have made similar declarations to the country, and how they turned out to be lies, we will not be fooled. Although some of us may pride ourselves that we were never fooled, we still might accept as our civic duty the responsibility to buttress our fellow citizens against the mendacity of our high officials.
We would remind whoever we can that President Polk lied to the nation about the reason for going to war with
We would point out that President McKinley lied in 1898 about the reason for invading
President Woodrow Wilson—so often characterized in our history books as an “idealist”—lied about the reasons for entering the First World War, saying it was a war to “make the world safe for democracy,” when it was really a war to make the world safe for the Western imperial powers.
Harry Truman lied when he said the atomic bomb was dropped on
Everyone lied about
Reagan lied about the invasion of
The elder Bush lied about the invasion of
And he lied again about the reason for attacking
Given the overwhelming record of lies told to justify wars, how could anyone listening to the younger Bush believe him as he laid out the reasons for invading
A careful reading of history might give us another safeguard against being deceived. It would make clear that there has always been, and is today, a profound conflict of interest between the government and the people of the
We have been led to believe that, from the beginning, as our Founding Fathers put it in the Preamble to the Constitution, it was “we the people” who established the new government after the Revolution. When the eminent historian Charles Beard suggested, a hundred years ago, that the Constitution represented not the working people, not the slaves, but the slaveholders, the merchants, the bondholders, he became the object of an indignant editorial in The New York Times.
Our culture demands, in its very language, that we accept a commonality of interest binding all of us to one another. We mustn’t talk about classes. Only Marxists do that, although James Madison, “Father of the Constitution,” said, thirty years before Marx was born that there was an inevitable conflict in society between those who had property and those who did not.
Our present leaders are not so candid. They bombard us with phrases like “national interest,” “national security,” and “national defense” as if all of these concepts applied equally to all of us, colored or white, rich or poor, as if General Motors and Halliburton have the same interests as the rest of us, as if George Bush has the same interest as the young man or woman he sends to war.
Surely, in the history of lies told to the population, this is the biggest lie. In the history of secrets, withheld from the American people, this is the biggest secret: that there are classes with different interests in this country. To ignore that—not to know that the history of our country is a history of slaveowner against slave, landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor—is to render us helpless before all the lesser lies told to us by people in power.
If we as citizens start out with an understanding that these people up there—the President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, all those institutions pretending to be “checks and balances”—do not have our interests at heart, we are on a course towards the truth. Not to know that is to make us helpless before determined liars.
The deeply ingrained belief—no, not from birth but from the educational system and from our culture in general—that the United States is an especially virtuous nation makes us especially vulnerable to government deception. It starts early, in the first grade, when we are compelled to “pledge allegiance” (before we even know what that means), forced to proclaim that we are a nation with “liberty and justice for all.”
And then come the countless ceremonies, whether at the ballpark or elsewhere, where we are expected to stand and bow our heads during the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” announcing that we are “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” There is also the unofficial national anthem “God Bless America,” and you are looked on with suspicion if you ask why we would expect God to single out this one nation—just 5 percent of the world’s population—for his or her blessing.
If your starting point for evaluating the world around you is the firm belief that this nation is somehow endowed by Providence with unique qualities that make it morally superior to every other nation on Earth, then you are not likely to question the President when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values—democracy, liberty, and let’s not forget free enterprise—to some God-forsaken (literally) place in the world. It becomes necessary then, if we are going to protect ourselves and our fellow citizens against policies that will be disastrous not only for other people but for Americans too, that we face some facts that disturb the idea of a uniquely virtuous nation.
These facts are embarrassing, but must be faced if we are to be honest. We must face our long history of ethnic cleansing, in which millions of Indians were driven off their land by means of massacres and forced evacuations. And our long history, still not behind us, of slavery, segregation, and racism. We must face our record of imperial conquest, in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, our shameful wars against small countries a tenth our size:
Our leaders have taken it for granted, and planted that belief in the minds of many people, that we are entitled, because of our moral superiority, to dominate the world. At the end of World War II, Henry Luce, with an arrogance appropriate to the owner of Time, Life, and Fortune, pronounced this “the American century,” saying that victory in the war gave the United States the right “to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”
Both the Republican and Democratic parties have embraced this notion. George Bush, in his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2005, said that spreading liberty around the world was “the calling of our time.” Years before that, in 1993, President Bill Clinton, speaking at a West Point commencement, declared: “The values you learned here . . . will be able to spread throughout this country and throughout the world and give other people the opportunity to live as you have lived, to fulfill your God-given capacities.”
What is the idea of our moral superiority based on? Surely not on our behavior toward people in other parts of the world. Is it based on how well people in the
A more honest estimate of ourselves as a nation would prepare us all for the next barrage of lies that will accompany the next proposal to inflict our power on some other part of the world. It might also inspire us to create a different history for ourselves, by taking our country away from the liars and killers who govern it, and by rejecting nationalist arrogance, so that we can join the rest of the human race in the common cause of peace and justice.
Howard Zinn is the co-author, with Anthony Arnove, of “Voices of a People’s History of the United States.” | <urn:uuid:88a84c1f-f43d-47ad-bcf2-025ab44f8ab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/america-s-blinders-by-howard-zinn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968259 | 2,129 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Some 23,000 cheap Chinese-made cars were on Wednesday recalled in Australia after asbestos was found in their engines, with unions demanding to know how they came to be in the country.
Importer Ateco Automotive instructed all Chery and Great Wall dealers to stop selling affected vehicles, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) closely watching developments.
The asbestos was found bound in gaskets in the engine and exhaust systems.
"Asbestos is a prohibited hazardous substance and these engines and exhaust systems should only be worked on by qualified personnel using appropriate safety procedures," said ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard.
"The ACCC will monitor the recall, and Workplace Health and Safety authorities will monitor the workplace safety issues."
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) said it was unacceptable that the cars were allowed into Australia, which has banned the importation or use of asbestos since 2004.
"Asbestos kills people, it's that simple. It should not be in homes, construction material or cars," national secretary Paul Bastian said in a statement.
"If companies cannot guarantee that they do not have deadly substances in their vehicles, then simply they should not be able to import their products.
"We call on prosecutions to be served on anyone who imports asbestos into Australia."
The ACCC said customs officers detected the asbestos, which triggered a safety investigation that led to the cars being recalled.
Prolonged inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause serious illnesses, including malignant lung cancer.
Rickard said the automotive industry was experienced in managing the asbestos risk.
"The automotive service industry is experienced in managing this risk, as cars sold in Australia before 2004 often had gaskets that contained asbestos," she said.
"However, consumers and automotive repairers must be made aware that the risk may be present in these much newer vehicles." | <urn:uuid:1a8018e6-e17d-4cfa-9541-14b6a426927b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ph.news.yahoo.com/asbestos-found-chinese-made-cars-australia-043357272--finance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971182 | 386 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Blue Pill or Red Pill?
Down the Rabbit Hole of Comparative Effectiveness Research
With these words, President Barack Obama not only demonstrated his hip sci-fi credentials—Morpheus’s choice to Neo was either to take the blue pill and remain happy but ignorant of the truth, or the red pill, which would reveal to him a sometimes-painful reality and also launch the lucrative “Matrix” trilogy of movies—but also his desire to take a 21st-century, data-driven approach to clinical decision making and health care policy.
Among competing treatments for the same disease, which one is best? Which one is worth the money? These questions are the core of comparative effectiveness research. Half of insured patients in the United States are on chronic medications for conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Patients, physicians, and policymakers need reliable data to know what to take, what to recommend, and what is worth paying for. Typically, however, they don’t have these data.
The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, has implemented a number of initiatives to address this problem. One of the largest is the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or PCORI. A core mission of PCORI is to conduct comparative effectiveness research that gives patients and their health care providers the best evidence to help make more informed decisions. As promising and common sense as this mission is—because why not pay half price?—solid gold evidence to answer a patient’s question “Should I take the red pill or blue pill?” is hard to obtain.
The fundamental problem is that the gold standard for studying comparative effectiveness, the randomized controlled trial, or RCT, is too costly and disruptive to be done for every important comparative effectiveness question. At the RCT’s core is the assignment of an intervention to each subject by a “flip of a coin,” meaning that some patients receive drug A, and some patients receive drug B.
Unfortunately, an RCT is a massive enterprise. Special procedures such as using a “flip of a coin” at a central study site to assign each patient to an intervention are so different from routine clinical practice that trials must hire expert clinical investigators and take place at special study sites. Meanwhile, patients and physicians alike can be reluctant to engage in an activity so potentially disruptive to routine clinical care. Ethical oversight helps ensure that clinical care is not truly compromised, but this oversight is intensive, costly, and time-consuming too. The result? RCTs can take years and cost millions of dollars.
Given these challenges, relatively few RCTs are done. The major pharmaceutical companies are among the few institutions that can single-handedly muster the resources to implement large RCTs, and they use them to get their drugs approved, typically by comparing the drug to a placebo. Even if multiple competing drugs are available for a disease, drug companies rarely conduct comparative effectiveness studies. Why should they? For a company, the decision to conduct a RCT is not a matter of public policy. It’s a business decision. If a company does a comparativeness effectiveness trial, the study design often uses clever design features that, unsurprisingly, stack the data to show their that drug is more effective.
Fundamental questions—such as “Does drug A or drug B have a better chance at keeping a diabetic patient from needing insulin? Does drug A or drug B prolong life more in heart failure patients?”—go unanswered because, outside of the big pharmaceutical companies, few institutions have the resources to do an RCT to answer these questions. Part of the answer may be for the Food and Drug Administration to ask for more RCTs to address comparative effectiveness questions, but we also need new methods to do comparative effectiveness research more efficiently.
The RCT is a 20th century method that worked well for acute, serious diseases such as infectious diseases, heart attacks, and pediatric cancers, where entry criteria were simple, options in clinical care were few, and results could be obtained relatively quickly. Since the middle of the 20th century when the debt-weary post-war British National Health Service used it to inform whether streptomycin therapy was worth the cost for the treatment of tuberculosis, it has been the court system that decides which promising therapies are in fact safe and effective and which are not. For complex, common, and chronic diseases such as diabetes that can require lifelong treatment, however, the RCT is a large and costly enterprise akin to moving an armada across an ocean.
President Obama’s call for a trial to compare the blue pill to the red pill would mean mustering millions of dollars and recruiting thousands of patients as research subjects to be followed for many years. Even then, the results will likely be subject to a fusillade of questions because patients who participate in an RCT are typically not like the usual patient, the protocols often limit usual care, and treatment options may have changed in the years it took to execute the trial. A more modern, streamlined approach is needed.
Just as the RCT was made possible by 20th-century advances in statistics and research technologies, 21st-century advances now present an alternative to the large, expensive, and cumbersome clinical trial. The critical change happening now is the linking of fast, user friendly, networked computers into large databases replete with medical information—the so-called electronic medical record, or EMR.
Most proposals to use EMR as a tool for comparative effectiveness research simply use the EMR as a large database for a traditional observational study. This possibility has received deserved attention, but has also been appropriately criticized, because such traditional observational studies are not nearly as reliable as RCTs in distinguishing true causal effects of drugs from non-causal associations. We propose a complementary way to use EMR that will retain some of the special advantages of RCTs at much lower cost and with fewer ethical problems. We call it Prompted Optional Randomization Trial, or PORTS, a design impossible in the days of paper charts but easily implemented [subscription required] using an EMR.
Physicians who use the EMR have experienced how the system talks back to them. It can, for example, prompt a physician to reconsider or even change a medication that is linked to a documented patient allergy, interacts with another medication, or is not on formulary. These prompts sometimes result in rapid, appropriate adjustment of medications, but perhaps more often the physician finds the suggested change inappropriate and overrides the prompt with the click of a button.
The same technology can be used to introduce one of the RCT’s essential features, the “flip of a coin,” where the computer can choose whether the patient receives the red pill or the blue pill. Whenever a physician order one of these colorful pills, the computer can make its own random choice between the drugs. The computer can then prompt a physician to consider changing his or her prescription, but only when a physician’s order and the computer’s random choice are discordant. When identical to the randomly generated orders,, physicians’ orders stand.
If, for example, a physician orders the blue pill, 50 percent of the time the computer will also choose the blue pill. No prompt will be displayed, and the physician prescribes blue. If the computer chooses red instead, it displays a prompt to consider prescribing the red pill instead of the blue pill. A physician who prefers the blue pill for the particular patient dismisses the prompt with a single click and prescribes the blue pill. A physician with no preference between treatments, however, can endorse the change with a single click and prescribe the red pill.
A PORTS study design makes sense when the red pill and the blue pill are both used interchangeably in clinical practice, but physicians truly do not know which one is safer or more effective. This design increases the probability that a patient will receive the randomly assigned treatment. The association will not be perfect, since in many cases the patient and physician will prefer a drug and appropriately ignore a prompt that conflicts with that preference. Intuitively, however, if the blue pill is in fact a little better than the red and a prompt for blue makes patients more likely to get blue, the patients who do get a prompt for blue will on average do a little better than patients who get a prompt for red.
Crucially, that difference will reflect the properties of the pills themselves, not subtle differences between the kinds of patients who choose red and those who would rather have blue. A relatively simple technique called instrumental variable analysis formalizes this intuition and makes it possible to take these data and uncover the difference in effectiveness between the red pill and the blue pill. It turns routine clinical practice into an efficient and low-cost engine of discovery that will tell Americans whether we should take the red pill or the blue pill.
To be sure, this method has ethical challenges. Some patients will get a treatment different from what they and their doctor would have otherwise selected. Is it possible that some patients will be harmed? We would argue that it is not, because the physician can override the prompt if there is any reason to suspect one drug is worse than the other. Should patients give consent before this method is used? Would they need to give it every time, or just once when they establish care at a practice that uses this method? These are questions that need to be addressed, but they are mere shadows compared to the glare of the serious ethical concerns traditional RCTs raise.
To date, the EMR has received middling marks as a technology to reduce health care costs. The PORTS proposal is just one example of the more general but untapped promise of the EMR in medicine, a promise that could be as revolutionary as the RCT, and before that, the stethoscope.
Electronic systems, prompts, and other tools can introduce small probabilistic changes in care, changes that can yield the kind of unbiased quality improvement data that to date has been available only at the high cost of the RCT. Small, benign random variations in practice could gradually develop a far more comprehensive picture of what works and what does not.
We just have to summon the will to take the red pill and discover the innovative ways to interact with the new matrix of medical data.
James Flory is a fellow in endocrinology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Jason Karlawish is a professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Image: Warner Bros / Village Roadshow Pictures.
Comments on this article | <urn:uuid:30bc4d26-cb08-4d2b-8dba-e20ceb735ff6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceprogress.org/2013/01/blue-pill-or-red-pill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951236 | 2,177 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Chihuahua prosecutor's office said the four men were tortured, shot and abandoned along a highway near Creel, a town known as the heart of Tarahumara indigenous group. Police found the bodies on Monday, two days after eight other tortured bodies were found in another part of the state.
Officials also say that the five people killed—four men and a woman—were shot at a convenience store in Chihuahua state's capital, of the same name. The victims were flower vendors, authorities said Monday.
On Sunday, officials reported that the bodies of 11 long-dead men were found in mass graves near the U.S. border, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Ciudad Juarez. On Monday, authorities found nine more in the area, increasing the total to 20. They said that they are still digging.
The attorney general's office said the victims were buried about two years ago when violence peaked in Ciudad Juarez across El Paso, Texas as drug cartels engaged in fierce battles causing multiple murders a day. More than 3,000 people killed in 2010 in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.4 million. | <urn:uuid:7b46ab14-1baa-4f07-991e-7bbf2de9b3d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.publicopiniononline.com/nationalnews/ci_22068780/9-killed-northern-mexican-state | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979359 | 242 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market has provided creatives with the best business advice for more than thirty-eight years. In addition to 1,700+ market contact listings, the 2013 Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market includes interesting business articles and inspirational interviews with top professionals. Keep reading for a 2013 AGDM article by portrait artist Christopher Reinhardt. Read more Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market articles and interviews on ArtistsMarketOnline.com.
Even under the best economic conditions, the art market can be fickle. Today the economy is in dire straights. Therefore, you need to think outside the box to develop creative ways to introduce your work to the art-buying community. One pathway that’s often overlooked is grant support. Actively seeking grant support is common practice in other disciplines, such as biology. However, artists are surprised sometimes to learn that similar programs are available for them. Many artists are equally unaware of the career benefits that winning a grant can have. A grant can provide help for you to focus on a favorite theme and can lead to publicity for your work in the local press and TV, as well as in social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Listing an award on your curriculum vitae adds considerable weight to your accomplishments as well.
Learn the difference
Both public and private grant programs are available to fund creative and artistic activities. The requirements and qualifications for applicants will vary for each program. Grant awards generally fall into two areas. The first of these is fellowships. A fellowship provides direct financial support to an artist, and the award is often based on the artist’s past record of achievement. The goal of a fellowship is to provide a stipend, freeing the artist for creative activities. The second area is grants. A grant is typically designed to fund a specific project. These awards are often confined to the direct costs for the project, although they may provide salary support.
Check out regional programs
There are state, national and international programs that support the visual arts; however, there are also many regional programs designed to assist local artists within the communities they serve. “Spending a day on the Web is a great place to start to find programs,” says Deborah McNamara, vice-chair of the Worcester Arts Council (WAC) in Massachusetts. An agent of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives funding primarily from the Massachusetts Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, WAC distributes approximately $75,000 to Worcester-based artists in the form of two fellowships and approximately thirty grant applications each year. There are 328 additional councils servicing all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns. “WAC’s website provides current information for potential applicants. We strongly encourage artists to review all posted material and call or e-mail with their questions,” says McNamara.
One grant recipient’s story
A recent recipient of a WAC grant is JoEllen Reinhardt (www.joellenreinhardt.com). A Worcester native, Reinhardt applied for and received a small grant from WAC to support the development of six separate paintings, each relating to a specific person, company or product that has made a difference in the history of Worcester, Massachusetts. The grant was for $1,000, which helped to pay for general supplies for the project. “I’ve always been impressed with the many events of cultural and historical significance that have occurred in Worcester, my hometown,” says Reinhardt when asked about her project. “The WAC award provided the incentive to develop a project I’d always planned to do at some point in time.”
The award, which culminated in a public exhibition, generated significant local buzz in the community, including coverage on a local TV show and in newspaper articles. The signature piece of Reinhardt’s show, entitled My Secret Valentine and commemorating Esther Howland, founder of the New England Valentine Company in Worcester, was sold on opening night. There were three portraits in the show; one of them—Smiley Face—depicts Charlie Ball, son of the late Harvey Ball, who is credited with the design of the iconic Smiley Face in 1963. Reinhardt received a portrait commission based upon a referral from someone who attended the show. The client was impressed with Smiley Face and hired Reinhardt to paint a posthumous portrait.
“The entire grant experience greatly exceeded my expectations,” says Reinhardt. “I had the privilege to meet some interesting people from Worcester who generously shared their interest and knowledge of the town’s history in preparation for the show. During the opening, small groups would gather around a painting, and people began to share with each other their unique memories or family stories related to the theme of the piece. It was exciting to watch!”
Benefits of winning a grant
For an artist pursuing a career in higher education, the benefits of grant and fellowship awards are obvious. Because applications often require a carefully written description of the project as well as supporting documents, such as letters of recommendation, the process itself is a demonstration of scholarship. Apart from the money awarded to the grant winner, the benefits to the entire community of artists are less apparent. Still, because these honors become permanent accolades for an artist’s résumé, awards also enhance the biography of a career painter.
“Fine work will always stand on its own merit; however, artists having notable achievements will often receive a second look from potential buyers, which can lead to a sale,” states Domonic Boreffi, the owner of Gallery Antonia in Chatman, Massachusetts (www.galleryantonia.com), which represents the work of nationally recognized artists, including Reinhardt. “Like juried show credits and art reviews in publications,” says Boreffi, “being a grant recipient communicates that an artist is serious about his career and that his talent has been recognized by his peers. An artist’s record of achievement aids dealers in efforts to promote an artist’s work.”
Advice to grant seekers
When applying for an award, you should note the application deadline and allow yourself plenty of time to prepare. Most programs require a written description of the proposed topic, as well as biographical information and letters of support from other artists and colleagues. As a result, a quality application will take some time to develop. Before starting work on your proposal, make sure you read and understand the program prospectus and the qualifications for applicants.
Programs are often theme-based, and a competitive application will need to clearly state how the proposed project addresses the theme. Some programs have specific qualifications that an applicant must meet, such as gender, residency status, level of education, and so forth. Feel free to contact program administrators for answers to specific questions. Most administrators welcome the opportunity to discuss their program and take pride in aiding applicants through the process. If you provide yourself ample time for preparation, applying for grant support can be fun and rewarding.
Christopher Reinhardt is a theoretical physicist, a portrait artist—and husband to the classically trained realist painter and grant winner JoEllen Reinhardt. Learn more about JoEllen’s still life and portrait work at www.joellenreinhardt.com.
Excerpted from the January/February 2012 issue of The Artist’s Magazine. Used with the kind permission of The Artist’s Magazine, a publication of F+W Media, Inc. Visit www.artistsnetwork.com to subscribe. | <urn:uuid:f2902346-44fb-4108-af4a-9febd945e741> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/business-of-art/granting-your-wish-enhance-your-resume-and-secure-funding-by-christopher-reinhardt | 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 | 0.960755 | 1,560 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Say hello to 2009 and all those healthy resolutions that kick-start every new year.
I know, I know. It’s hard to kick-start a healthy year with what you know is best for you when all you have to do is drive a couple of blocks to a greasy chicken-fried steak smothered in cream gravy or a half-pound cheeseburger and a super-sized order of fries.
How about we try to “eat this” and “not that” this year? There are lots of simple substitutions we can work into our diets that will make a world of difference in our health and healthier outlook on life. My lunch buddies and I found a great lunch spot to help everyone get on the right track in 2009.
Located in the heart of Parker Square sits Sunshine Natural Foods. I’m sure you recognize the name, but when is the last time you dropped in for a visit? Sunshine is much more than vitamins and mineral supplements, if that’s what you’re thinking. My lunch buddies suggested we go there for lunch recently, and we were embarrassed to admit we don’t think of it more often.
In the back corner of Sunshine Natural Foods you’ll find a salad/soup bar and a chalkboard full of other healthy and delicious choices. On the day we visited, we were delighted to find asparagus potato soup on the menu, and as I recall, all four of us had a bowl. I had never heard of that combination made into a soup before, but it’s one I definitely want to have again. It was delicious!
The homemade bread at Sunshine Natural Foods was the real star of our lunchtime show — well, for me anyway. There were a couple of wheat rolls to choose from on the soup/salad bar, and I chose the flaxseed variety. Oh my! If you aren’t familiar with flaxseed bread, you have to drop by and get a loaf. Sunshine’s homemade bread is baked fresh daily. At $3.50 per loaf, the price is comparable to the higher-priced varieties at your grocer’s, but those are additive-laden and not nearly as good as this. I don’t think you’ll want to buy bread at the grocery store anymore once you taste the bread at Sunshine Natural Foods. I won’t. Why should I when they’re baking bread that good every day?
The dining area at Sunshine is small, so you might want to take an earlier lunch hour to make sure you get a seat. Rumor has it Sunshine fills up fast, and once the daily specials are gone, they’re gone. Sunshine prices are reasonable, too. The soup special we had was $3, and that included the roll.
There is a large assortment of all-natural and healthy items lining the shelves around you as you dine, so look around before you go back to the office. From cereal to snack food to fresh local honey, you’ll find good values, good taste and a lot of things that are good for you. Here’s to a healthier 2009!
If you’d like to send suggestions or share your comments, e-mail the Lunch Lady at lunchlady(at)TimesRecordNews.com. If you’ve missed any Lunch Lady reviews, you can find them archived at TimesRecordNews.com/crave. | <urn:uuid:f2a9e71d-2189-44e7-9b50-47d73d3cb633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2009/jan/02/lunch-lady-sunshine-lights-way-healthy-2009/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963798 | 723 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The students do not understand why I keep telling them direct translation from English to Spanish will not work, and much of Cajun French is in fact directly translated from English. In current Spanish, I am told that if one listens to corridos, one can actually hear “dar atrás” or “dar p’atrás” meaning “give back.” That is different from the code-switching of the Louisiana French “vini back” (to come back).
That is not my research project but I am going to work Louisiana into this thing, for various reasons including making my research part of my home, which matters to me. I never minded moving until I was exiled by Reeducation, and that was from self and also research. Yet the present project is the one I always wanted to do, even before.
I have to read several books for it.
I am nostalgic for home and for the person I was there but there is nothing that brings those things closer, nothing that makes me more comfortable than reading literary criticism and theory on a clear, dry night. I am amazed that people think research is a burden. I do not resemble them, perhaps. | <urn:uuid:16cebb7f-e065-4657-b5d7-d8b09a9f6f78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://profacero.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/going-la-maison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981369 | 251 | 1.507813 | 2 |
News > Nation & World
Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:54 AM EST
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rising food costs and higher rents offset a drop in gas prices last month, leaving consumer prices only slightly higher in October compared with the previous month.
The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in October, down from sharp gains of 0.6 percent in the previous two months, the Labor Department said Thursday. In the past year, prices increased 2.2 percent. That’s just above the Federal Reserve’s inflation target of 2 percent.
The cost of shelter, which includes rents, rose 0.3 percent, the most in more than four years. Clothes and airline fares also rose, while the price of new and used cars fell.
Food prices rose 0.2 percent, while gas fell 0.6 percent. Excluding the volatile food and gas categories, core prices increased 0.2 percent.
Modest inflation leaves consumers with more money to spend, which can boost economic growth. Lower inflation makes it easier for the Fed to continue with its efforts to rekindle the economy. If the Fed were worried that prices are rising too fast, it might have to raise interest rates.
Gas prices rose sharply over the summer and into September, but have since come down. The average price for a gallon of gas nationwide was $3.44 on Wednesday, about 35 cents below last month’s level.
Most economists forecast that food prices rose last month. This summer’s drought damaged corn, soybeans and other crops. Corn and soybeans are used in animal feed, which means the price of meat and chicken could increase.
And corn is also used in many products found throughout the supermarket, from cereals to soft drinks to cosmetics. | <urn:uuid:34c55a7d-1e26-44b5-9a8a-cec5bf0c2abd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/11/15/news/nation_and_world/doc50a4f1f712697088579804.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949407 | 385 | 1.835938 | 2 |
A milliliter of yttrium 90, a radioactive substance used in cancer treatment, was left in the trunk of a yellow taxi on Tuesday afternoon by a lab technician at New York University Medical Center, the police said.
The yttrium, which is not considered highly dangerous, was packed in a sealed lead box marked ''Hazardous Material.'' It was returned to the lab yesterday after the taxi company sent it by overnight delivery.
The incident began at 2 P.M. on Tuesday when Mike Buckley, a lab technician, was taking the yttrium 90 from the medical center on First Avenue to a biology lab on Washington Square. Peter Ferrara, a spokesman for the medical center, said that the material was left in the trunk after the taxi driver began arguing with a pedestrian near West Fourth Street and Broadway and drove off suddenly, before giving a receipt.
Yttrium 90 is not a highly volatile substance. ''But you're not supposed to leave radioactive material, no matter how small, in the trunk of a taxi,'' said Dr. Paul L. Weiden, an oncologist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. | <urn:uuid:4e66f250-42e2-42ee-b28d-b55427fe12a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/06/nyregion/radioactive-matter-left-in-taxi-trunk.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96047 | 232 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Tue October 4, 2011
Apple Announces A New Phone And Voice Recognition, But Not The iPhone 5
Originally published on Tue October 4, 2011 5:01 pm
Today was widely expected to bring the announcement of the iPhone 5 — maybe with a bigger screen, a different home button, or a differently shaped case — at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.
That's not to say Apple didn't say anything of note at its rather lengthy presentation. Not at all. But the big game-changing piece of new hardware didn't come to pass. Aficionados waited, wondering and chattering on liveblogs and on Twitter to see if it would come at the end in Apple's traditional "one more thing" fashion.
The rumors that did come true:
iPhone 4S. The new phone is the iPhone 4S, which Apple is selling on the basis of a better processor, better graphics, and an improved camera, but the same body as the iPhone 4.
Siri. The other thing the iPhone 4S has is Siri, a technology Apple acquired that originated with a popular app called Siri Assistant. It allows you to communicate with your phone by asking it natural-language questions. It's integrated with other functions like calendar, mapping, texting, and checking the weather, and those who love it refer to it as "artificial intelligence."
World phone. The iPhone 4S will work on both GSM and CDMA networks. If you're not a tech-head, what that means is that your phone will work around the world. If you travel a lot overseas, you're likely very familiar with this phenomenon. If you don't, and if you already have a phone that works where you live, this won't mean a whole lot to you.
Sprint. Sprint will now carry the iPhone, and that's a huge development for Sprint customers who have held off on getting smartphones because Sprint's smartphones were Androids, or for those who have an Android phone or would prefer an iPhone. It's not the first time this has happened — it's essentially a replay of when the iPhone finally came to Verizon. But it takes the iPhone even farther away from one of its original, key limitations, which was the inability to use the carrier of your choice.
Other stuff. Yes, "other stuff." There were other announcements today: Better integration with cloud services, operating system upgrades (which actually weren't new today), and upgrades to other Apple devices, including changes to the iPod Touch and iPod Nano.
So what does this mean to you?
For current iPhone devotees. For the people who already love their iPhones, the focus is on getting them to upgrade. The temptations are supposed to be the faster processor, better camera, and Siri, but there doesn't necessarily seem to be any one giant thing that current users will absolutely have to have. Moreover, one of the writers at Mashable mentioned during their liveblog that if the iPhone 4S has the same body as the iPhone 4, nobody is going to know you have one, which takes a bit of the naked-competition aspect out of the need to upgrade.
For users of other smartphones. If you have an Android phone, there aren't a lot of obvious reasons in this release to switch to an iPhone — unless, that is, you have Sprint or you really, really want to try Siri.
For non-smartphone users. If you haven't gone to a smartphone before, Apple doesn't seem to be focusing on any particular reason why this would be your moment. (Unless, as stated before, you have Sprint and have been holding out for the iPhone rather than an Android phone). But still, every time there's a new release, a certain number of people decide that this is when they're going to jump.
There's one exception, though: Apple announced that if you don't need the newest and niftiest, the prices on existing iPhones will drop — the iPhone 3GS will be free with a new contract. Dropping the amount of money a consumer has to choke up in order to get into a new kind of technology is sharply reminiscent of the recent drops in Amazon's Kindle prices, and could have the same ability to tempt newbies who don't demand high-end versions of anything.
It's important to keep in mind, I think, that much of this depends on what you personally require in a phone, and it doesn't need to come down to "brilliant" versus — pardon the indelicacy — "sucks."
Just as there are people who are firmly committed to the Apple model, there are people who can't stand it. Apple acts as a kind of curator of the technology used by the people who own its products: It only has one high-end phone at a time (with adjustments for the amount of storage space), and that's the phone you get. Apple decides what will be on it, what will be left off of it, and what it's decided you don't need anymore. Apple people love this quality — it makes everything simple, it makes everything work out of the box, and as long as you stay within the Apple universe, their products are famous for working together very easily.
By contrast, Android phones vary in size, features, price — you choose your own compromises. As a personal example, I greatly prefer a physical keyboard rather than a touchscreen, and I don't mind that it makes the phone thicker. It's strictly a preference. There are still Android phones that have physical keyboards — you have that choice.
At the same time, while my Android phone is very much integrated with Google, it's not integrated as smoothly with as many different things out of the box as the iPhone is.
So some of this comes down to something elemental: How you want to relate to technology. Price and carriers will never convert all the Android people to Apple, any more than they would convert all the Apple people to Android.
Voice recognition is the same way. Apple loves Siri, and so do a lot of the people who use it — they love the way you can ask it for directions or ask it in natural language whether you have a meeting on Friday. Me? I don't talk to my phone. I don't need to talk to my phone. Buttons are fine. They are clear. I know I'm not being misunderstood. I'd worry too much — what if it didn't actually hear me? What if it thought I said Thursday? How much do you trust your phone?
Speaking of trust, Apple is also promoting a feature called "location sharing" that would let you find other people using their iPhones. It has parental controls, meaning that your kids can't turn it off. It's about as close as you're going to get to a LoJack for your children. That would be the upside. The downside would be that you'd better know the capability well and how to use it and how to turn it off.
The proof, as always, will come with Apple's ability to sell a new product to new customers and convince the people who cannot live without their iPhones that they can't live without this one, either. | <urn:uuid:39481885-1e0f-489c-be90-55f5d5c49c47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kccu.org/post/apple-announces-new-phone-and-voice-recognition-not-iphone-5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974768 | 1,473 | 1.664063 | 2 |
You may have noticed that Google's homepage has a small message at the bottom: In Memoriam Randy Pausch (1960-2008).
"Pausch, the married father of three, was an energetic and fun-loving computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh when, in 2006, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A year later, despite surgery and chemotherapy, physicians discovered the cancer had spread to his liver and spleen. He had been told he had perhaps six months to live," remembers Chicage Tribune.
On Sept. 18, 2007, Pausch delivered an inspiring speech about fulfilling childhood dreams. "Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals." The video had almost 4 million views at YouTube and Google decided to link it from the homepage (there's also a transcript):
"Get a feedback loop and listen to it... Show gratitude... Don't complain. Just work harder... Be good at something, it makes you valuable... Find the best in everybody... And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity." That's how it ends. | <urn:uuid:a9c530ef-d17b-493a-bdb0-18c6497af17d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-homepage-links-to-randy-pauschs.html?showComment=1217151120000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976735 | 234 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced joining of the Western coalition to help protect civilians and to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over strife-torn Libya.
UAE state news agency WAM quoted Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan as saying on Friday that six F-16 and six Mirage aircraft would join the patrols to enforce the no-fly zone established over Libya "in the coming days."
This is in addition to UAE planes deployed on humanitarian operations in that North African country.
UAE is the second Gulf state to send warplanes to the multi-nation military mission. Qatar had contributed two fighter jets and two military transport planes to the coalition.
A number of Arab and African countries are opposed to Col. Moammar Qadhafi clinging to power by trying to put down the popular revolt.
In an important development on late Thursday, the Western coalition agreed to transfer the command and control of the no-fly zone to NATO starting immediately.
At a special briefing in Washington, DC, senior American administration officials said it would take "a couple of days to really complete the transfer."
A consensus on handing over responsibility of the challenging multi-nation military mission to the alliance was reached after hectic consultations between the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, France, Britain, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Talking to reporters on return from the White House after meeting with President Barack Obama and the national security team, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said NATO was well-suited to coordinating this international effort and ensuring that all participating nations were working effectively together toward "our shared goals."
"This coalition includes countries beyond NATO, including Arab partners, and we expect all of them to be providing important political guidance going forward," she added.
She reiterated that Arab leadership and participation in resolving the Libyan crisis were crucial.
Clinton said all 28 allies have authorized military authorities to develop an operation plan for NATO to take on the broader civilian protection mission under Resolution 1973.
French fighter jets shot down a Galeb single-engine military aircraft on Thursday over the western city of Misrata, which had been pounded by forces loyal to Qadhafi in the past few days.
It was the first incident of its kind since American, British and French forces began joint air strikes on Saturday to enforce the no-fly zone over the oil-rich country.
A U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution, passed last week, had decided to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect the civilians from aerial bombings and authorized any military action needed to implement such a ban, short of an occupation.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:55ad087b-3a64-4c13-b1d0-42a6ea48946e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rttnews.com/story.aspx?ID=1583600&SM=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951904 | 563 | 1.796875 | 2 |
When Esmeraldaliz Torres was seven, she wanted to play the violin. She had signed up for classes at Erie’s Inner-City Neighborhood Art House, but the violin didn’t work out for her. Instead, they gave her a cello.
Esmeraldaliz’s mother Janet remembers the moment she first saw her daughter play. Esmeraldaliz was only seven years old, and Janet “got scared for her first performance because the actual cello was bigger than her.” They both laugh when they talk about that day. “I really didn’t know how you were supposed to play the cello, so I put a miniskirt on her, and that didn’t work because it had to go in between her legs. They ended up making a long skirt for her.”
Now eleven, Esmeraldaliz is one of the best cellists at the Inner-City Art House, and Janet is still front-and-center at her performances.
Not everything has always gone so seamlessly in the Torres family. Janet’s own mother wasn’t around when she was growing up in the Bronx. No one she knew played the cello, and few people in her family finished high school. Esmeraldaliz is an honor student, but she still struggles sometimes with math. Janet remembers working together on long division. “At the time I was still going for my GED because I was a high school dropout. But it was a pretty good process because we learned together… Once I got on that graduating stage, it was like I could to anything. All I could hear was my name being screamed. My kids and my husband.” Leaning into the mic, Esmeraldaliz imitates her family, yelling “Mom mom mom!”
At the end of their conversation, Janet looks at her daughter. She asks: “What’s the first memory you have of me?”
Esmeralda takes a moment before she replies: “The first time that I ever performed. When I saw your face.”
“And what did you think?”
“I thought you were really proud of me.”
“She was actually, like, kind of crying.”
Janet laughs. “Tears of joy, though. I was real proud. It’s like I couldn’t believe that I did such a good job that she was up there.” | <urn:uuid:644cac68-76fc-4434-8525-adfd118dffe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://storycorps.org/blog-posts/cellos-geds-and-number-one-fans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989886 | 534 | 1.523438 | 2 |
I've heard (and so far haven't disproven it) that the flatter ones (not so tall from top to bottom) are sweeter than the rounder ones. I'm not sure whether that's in the particular genetics of the individual onion plant, or whether the same conditions that make for growing sweeter onions also cause them to grow in a flatter shape.
I'm anxious to hear what others have to say.
I fear the mad science biology teams have improved the vidalias just like they have made other things to ship and seem fresh longer. Guess the only way to find a really good one is buy one and taste it. I quit buying them because I think they are not as good as they were ten years ago. My sweet choice now is an onion called Candy. In addition to being sweet they keep reasonably well and are easier to grow. I do not think you will find Candy onions anyplace but a farmers market.
Most vidialias these days are refrigerated. This probably breaks down the sugar and results in the taste difference. Also you may have noticed they tend to rot quickly. My neighbor brought 2 50# bags home from Georgia and lost most of them, even though placed them in a single layer on racks in his cellar.
Vidialias never were good keepers. Vidialias are a hybred so the genetics should not change.
Things that can push taste or flavor have to do with the brix level when eaten. Pushing storage life is not a friendly situation for a dead ripe Vidialia. Most likely they are being harvested before the brix level is high enough to deliver the sweet onion you remember.
Glenda, vidalias are ALWAYS more flat than round. Pervians too, and Mayans and Walla Wallas. Lots of times folks will sell texas sweets as a vidalias. Its not the same. If it aint flat instead of round, it aint sweet!
Sorry, read some posts and have an answer! If you will take the onions and gently put them in pantyhose or hose, tie a knot, add another, tie a knot, till the hose is full, gentle now, then hang them from a spot that doesnt touch anything they will last a long time. The late season vidalias are finicky because they have had their season extended, which seems to make them easier to go bad. This is the way to extend them, and one big thing! Years ago folks started making and selling tater/ onion cages. Do not use these for taters and onions! They give off a scent thats poisinious to each other, serious. We store one in the kitchen, one elsewhere. One of our rooms is a library/computer room, the onions live there. Months! If you store those two together you will get rot within ten days. Serious! | <urn:uuid:c08dc2c7-32e9-4abd-af21-d1eeea9832ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/853046/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963564 | 592 | 1.835938 | 2 |
What I teach
I teach either Electric Guitar, or Acoustic Guitar, from beginner to intermediate levels. The main styles I teach are Pop, Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, and Folk. I can teach in other styles if requested, if there’s a style you’d really like to learn (e.g Ska or Country), then let me know and we’ll see what we can do.
Do I teach beginners?
Absolutely. I specialize in helping beginners to make their first steps into Guitar, Music and Music Theory by constantly striving to teach in a way that is easy to understand, jargon-free and, above all, patient. There are no time-limits or deadlines here, everything is at your pace.
How I teach
I have quite a specific way of teaching which I have worked very hard to perfect,. Someone once told me ‘work smart not hard’ and this is the way I’ve structured my teaching; to make things as easy as possible to follow, because I make sure we don’t run before we can walk, and everything follows a sensible order to make it as straightforward as possible.
What if I’m not interested in loads of Theory?
That’s perfectly fine. Whilst I think it is handy to have a basic grasp of theory, some people simply want to strum some chords and enjoy the instrument without dealing with too much theory. When most people think about theory, they think of reading music and weird musical terms and a whole load of stuff which doesn’t seem to relate to just playing songs you love. This isn’t how I teach theory. I use it as a tool to make you self-sufficient, so you can learn songs you want to play quickly and easily.
The songs I teach
I have a large range of songs to suggest and teach to the student, but the ideal situation would be one in which we learn the songs you like and listen to. This not only makes the process much more enjoyable for you, but it’s quicker. If you can already hum the tune to a song, playing it on the guitar is a much smaller step than if you don’t know the song at all to begin with. What I’ll do is analyze the songs you want to learn and pick out the key techniques or bits of theory so it still fits in with a balanced learning of the guitar. | <urn:uuid:03354cfc-82e0-47fa-998a-3a99dfd84259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jamiewittguitar.com/lesson-info/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963223 | 502 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A job search can be viewed many different ways, depending on your situation and experience. In this economy, it’s clearly difficult, frustrating, and slow.
But no matter how you look at it, you’re likely missing some key aspects. Especially if you feel stressed, are struggling to sleep at night, or simply losing patience for what feels like a broken process.
Looking for a job makes you part of a community. It may be one you never intended to join, but now you can use it your long-term advantage. Your fellow unemployed peers are potential friends, perhaps even future co-workers. They’re people you can lean on, both today and tomorrow. You’ve joined a job-search fraternity of sorts, a group of people with shared experiences. And only you know what it feels like to be a part of that crew.
So what opportunities might you be missing while looking for a job?
The chance to compete. If you played sports in high school, led the college debate team, or entered the science fair, you’ll have to admit that it’s fun to compete. Many of us enjoy putting ourselves out there against others in life. Win or lose, it’s a chance to measure your skills and experience against a slew of others. So as difficult as it might be, try to enjoy that aspect of your job search.
New long-term relationships. Probably the single biggest opportunity for job seekers is to establish a long-term network, one you can help, nurture, and lean on throughout the rest of your career. Admittedly, you have a LinkedIn profile and network most of your friends drool over, even if they don’t see the immediate value. And your local community gets more interesting as you bump into more pals than everyone else when out at the car wash, grocery store, or nightclub. But this is an opportunity to grow your network even more.
Rethink your career options. While it’s important to have clear job-search objectives for an effective social networking effort, you can still take time to think. Evaluate your career to date and figure out if you’re doing what leaves you happy or just doing what you’ve always done.
Be with family and friends. There’s a significant opportunity during job search to tackle some important tasks. But first on the list should be making up for lost time with family and friends. Since you can’t look for a job 16 hours a day, what else could you be doing? There are 101 (other) things you can do while looking for a job. Pick a few and get started today.
Pursue a passion. One of the (other) ideas you should consider during job search is to take action on a passion in life. Whether it’s fly fishing, starting your own company, writing a novel or a country song, take the time now—because this may be the only major break in your career. If it is, you’ll be glad you got started on the project. Reward your ideas with the chance to be born.
Help others. We all have charitable thoughts. Some of us act on them, while others ignore or delay them. But consider this: what if you took a productive day off during your job search to help others? What if you stopped focusing on yourself for just one day each month. How do you think it would feel?
What opportunities are you overlooking as you look for a job?
Tim Tyrell-Smith is founder of Tim's Strategy, a site that helps professionals succeed in job search, career and life strategy. Follow Tim on Twitter, @TimsStrategy, and share his 30 Ideas Book with job-seeking friends. | <urn:uuid:c18a1099-b000-400b-b97e-960e475ac138> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/03/22/often-overlooked-job-search-opportunities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96391 | 777 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Briarwood was a school that thrived on tradition. For almost every occasion of daily life there was a well-established procedure. There were traditions for sports matches, traditions for welcoming new pupils, traditions to be observed at each and every meal time. Tradition was especially important where discipline was concerned. The least changing of all the traditions was that for a Prefect’s Caning. That moment when the Head Boy used the authority he had to teach someone a lesson he would never forget.
The victim would know from just after breakfast that morning when his name would go up on the prefect’s noticeboard that he was for ‘the whack.’ The note could not be any shorter or more succinct. ‘Jenkins – Cane’ it would say. The poor boy would then spend the rest in a state of acute anxiety dreading what would happen that evening. He would know to remain in school uniform when everyone else was turning in for bed and would sit unhappily in his room waiting for the knock on the door that would come soon after ‘lights out.’ One of the prefects would come for him and he would be led, in silence downstairs to the prefects’ common room. There all the prefects would be assembled. He would have to shake the hand of each before going through into the Head Boy’s study. The door would close and all would listen to see how many strokes were to be given this time. After a few minutes the victim would emerge, trying to put a brave face on things. Again he would be required to shake hands with all assembled before being allowed to depart to his room, his punishment completed. It was a ritual designed to strike fear into the stoutest of hearts. It would happen perhaps once or twice a term and when it did the whole school would be aware of it. In many ways it was a more fearful thing to be caned by the Head Boy than by the Headmaster himself.
Tonight was one of those nights when the ritual would be enacted again. Except tonight it was different. Tonight was a first. For the first time in the whole history of briarwood it would not be a boy who would be getting ‘the whack’ tonight, but a girl. Girls had been admitted to the sixth-form at Briarwood three years ago and some had doubted that this moment would ever come. And yet the demands of equality were unanswerable and a girl who had offended in the way that Amy Brenton had done could expect only one outcome.
Amy Brenton, 18 years old, Upper Sixth. Amy Brenton who now sat, dressed in full school uniform, in her room, nervously awaiting the knock on the door. She knew she was in trouble, knew that her excuse that she had only ‘borrowed’ the money had cut no ice with the prefects who had questioned her. And yet it was a shock when her name had gone up on the prefect’s noticeboard. ‘Brenton – Cane.’ It had read. She had stood and looked at it in utter disbelief, a crowd of fellow pupils gathering round her as she stood there staring at the little hand-written note. It couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be. Surely there was a mistake – they weren’t allowed to cane girls were they? And yet they were. She had checked the rules and it was all too clear that they were well within their rights to order this particular punishment. The only concession made to her sex was that she was allowed to nominate a chaperone to stay in the room with her whilst she was being punished. She had dismissed the idea instantly – it was going to be embarrassing enough without the added humiliation of a witness.
Amy checked herself in the mirror again. She was determined to present a perfect appearance – determined to carry this off with as much dignity and self-respect as she could manage. Her yellow blouse was sharply pressed, her striped tie done up with the neatest of knots, the maroon blazer brushed and clean, the pleats in her navy skirt as sharp as they ever had been, her stockings straight. She took her hairbrush and ran it through her blonde hair again, although she had already brushed it to an impressive shine, it was something to do while she waited.
She wondered what it would be like. How much would it hurt? She couldn’t imagine, never having suffered the indignity of corporal punishment before. Her only comfort was that others had been through it before her –indeed she knew one or two of them, and they had survived the experience. She was resolved to be brave, not to show her fear, not to give way to the tears that weren’t far below the surface. She shifted uneasily in the chair, only too aware that she would not be able to sit as comfortably as this on her return. Lights out had been called five minutes previously but still no one came. They were playing with her; making her wait? A flicker of hope stirred in her heart. Perhaps they had forgotton? Perhaps it had all been a mistake? Perhaps they had decided to let her off now that they had scared her?
Amy jumped as there was a firm rap on the door. Her heart beat madly in her chest. The door opened. It was John Clayton, one of the senior prefects. Amy got to her feet, trying to control her trembling legs. ‘Come with me please Brenton.’ John said.
Amy followed him from the room, down the darkened corridors and the dimly lit staircase. It all looked so different at this time of night. And the place was so quiet, it was as though everyone was still and listening, hearing her footsteps, knowing where she was headed.
The Prefect’s Common room was well lit. All the senior prefects were there, nine boys and two girls. She knew them all, fellow pupils in the sixth form, some whom she counted as friends. There were no smiles of friendship now. She went down the line as she knew she should, gravely shaking hands with each. Caroline and Fiona both squeezed her hand strongly, trying to give her courage for the ordeal that lay ahead. They were the last in the line, beyond them was the door to the Head Boy’s study. Amy took a deep breath and knocked firmly on the door.
‘Enter’ she heard Mark call.
Without looking back she turned the handle and went in.
Mark was standing in the centre of the room. He was a strong young man, handsome and well-built, captain both of Cricket and Squash. Usually Amy got on well with him, indeed they had had something of a flirtatious relationship with a strong degree of mutual attraction. There was to be no flirting now.
Mark cleared his throat. ‘Right Miss Brenton, we both know why you’re here. You have been caught stealing from other pupils. That sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable at Briarwood. You will be punished. The prefects have met and have determined what your punishment will be. Amy Brenton you will take eight strokes of the cane.’
Amy felt her heart go into her mouth. Eight strokes! She had been expecting three, four at the most.
Mark was still talking. ‘You have the right to appeal this punishment to the headmaster. However, I should warn you that if he finds against you then he will award double the original sentence. Do you wish to appeal?’
Amy mutely shook her head.
‘I have to hear you say it.’ Mark said a little more gently.
Amy found her voice. ‘No, I don’t want to appeal.’
Mark nodded. ‘Very well.’ He went over to the mantelpiece and drew down a long crook-handled rattan cane. Amy looked at the horrid thing with wide-eyes. Mark flexed it in his strong hands. ‘Take your blazer off Amy and put it on the chair.’
Amy slipped her school blazer from her shoulders and draped it over the chair back.
‘Lower your knickers, lift your skirt and bend over the desk.’ Mark ordered.
Amy looked at him in disbelief. Had he really told her to take her panties down? But surely… ? He didn’t mean to cane her on the bare did he?
Mark saw her expression. ‘You heard me.’ He said. ‘The cane is always taken on the bare bottom at Briarwood.’
‘But… but… I’m a girl!’ Amy protested.
‘The rules are no different for girls’ Mark told her ‘You can check if you like. That’s why you had the option for a chaperone. You may still chose to have one if you wish – I’m sure Caroline or Fiona would oblige.’
Amy’s mind was in a whirl. She hadn’t expected this, hadn’t even thought it might happen. Yet she knew that every boy who had had the cane had had it bare – why on earth had she imagined it would be different for her? She fought back the tears that were coming to her eyes. There was no way out.
She didn’t say anything but simply reached up inside her skirt and slid her knickers down. She lifted the hem of her skirt and bent forward over the desk. The air was suddenly cold on her bare cheeks. She shivered. She felt horribly vulnerable, horribly exposed. She knew that Mark was looking at her, enjoying her nakedness. She was hugely aware of her bare bottom. She had often worried it was too big, that was the least of her worries now.
Mark pressed the lower part of her back with his hand. ‘Dip your back and raise your bottom.’ He instructed.
Amy obeyed him, knowing that arguing was futile; in this situation he had all the power, she had none.
She felt him place the cane across the middle of her bare cheeks. She shivered. The cane was withdrawn as Mark raised it for the first stroke. Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was a swish behind her and then a sharp crack as the cane hit home. It was a fraction of a second later that Amy felt it – a burning line of pain that seemed to cut right through her, driving the breath from her body in a gasp of pain. She heard Mark speak from what seemed like a million miles away.
‘Count them aloud. And thank me for each.’ He instructed.
It took a few seconds before Amy could find the breath to obey his instruction.
‘One…. Thank you.’ She managed to say at last.
The second stroke was delivered almost immediately, catching Amy just half an inch below where the first had landed. Her knuckles went white as she gripped the edge of the desk, desperately fighting the urge to stand and clutch her sore bottom.
‘T… t… two…. Thank-you.’ She managed to stammer.
The third stroke was, if anything a touch harder than the first two. Amy stifled a scream of pain. She knew they were listening outside the door and she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of hearing how much this was hurting. Hurting it certainly was. She found it hard to believe just how painful this punishment was. Each stroke produced a line of pure agony, that reached its height seconds after it was delivered and seemed to take an age to begin to slowly subside. She could feel each of the three red stripes and suspected she would continue to feel them every time she sat down for the next few days.
Three… thank you.’ She said.
Now Mark slowed things down. Taking his time with Amy, leaving room between each stroke. In her vulnerable position over the desk Amy suspected that he was relishing this – enjoying having her like this, half-naked in front of him. She didn’t know whether that thought pleased or angered her; it was hard to think straight when your bottom was on fire.
Again and again the cane swished down. Amy took it as well as she could, maintaining her position over the desk, meeting each stroke with a gasp of pain and then the verbal acknowledgment of the number.
‘Seven… thank-you.’ She said.
Just one more to go. Amy knew the tradition for this too. Last stroke – hardest stroke. That was the way it was done and being Briarwood there would be no deviation from that established routine. Amy readied herself – taking a firmer grip on the edge of the desk, trying to stay as calm as she could. She glanced back over her shoulder. She saw Mark had gone back a step. As she met his eyes he came forward a pace, the cane raised high, stepping into the stroke to give it added momentum. It caught Amy low – just in the crease where bottom meets thigh. She couldn’t help but cry out. She stamped her foot on the floor as she tried to ride the pain, but still it burned into her, making the tears that she had fought back come unbidden and unwelcome to her eyes.
It took her a full twenty seconds before she could say the words ‘Eight… eight strokes… thank you.’
‘Stand up.’ Mark said.
Shakily Amy got to her feet, pressing her hands to her bottom that was hot to the touch. She could feel the raised lines where the cane had struck, each line throbbing with pain.
‘Pull up your knickers.’ Mark ordered.
Amy eased her knickers up over her smarting bottom, wincing as the material rubbed against her sore flesh. She straightened out her skirt and rubbed her hand across her face to brush away the tears. Mark offered his hand.
"Well done Amy, you took that bravely.’
Amy managed a weak smile as she shook hands.
Mark opened the study door and ushered Amy out. She found it hard to look the prefects in the eye as she went along the line shaking hands, although she noticed that most people shook her hand warmly.
Then it was over and she could go back to her room. She walked slowly back, wincing with each painful step. She suspected that few of her fellow pupils were asleep, everyone would have been waiting to hear her return, knowing that a very sore and chastened girl would definitely be sleeping on her tummy that night. | <urn:uuid:67eb3012-c15c-4ddf-a551-5b8731b9e9ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thornsspankingstories.blogspot.com/2009/09/prefects-caning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992692 | 3,094 | 1.703125 | 2 |
While there are many places a purebred puppy can be purchased, only one source can be recommended with confidence -- a responsible, reputable breeder. While places like pet shops are motivated by profit and quick turn-over, there dogs also often come from puppymills, less that choice living conditions, mass produced, and have health problems or can be sick, to name a few problems, not to even mention the usual low quality or badly breed dogs they send out. a reputable breeder only produces puppies because of a love of the breed and a dream of perfection. To that end, responsible breeders carefully screen breeding pairs, check out health issues, compliment a pedigree, work to improve faults, and breed to strengthen or enhance a line, provide the buyer with a written guarantee, and provide support and advice to the new owners throughout the dog's life. Reputable breeders are usually a member of the national breed club, but not always, and being a member of that club or selling AKC dogs in itself is no guarantee of quality or an ethical breeder alone. Some people use those memberships as a tool when talking with a less than informed buyer. It is a good thing by all means, and you should look for that, but there is plenty other things which must come along with it. A reputable breeder strives to produce beautiful dogs according to the standard of perfection for the breed, they also place equal importance in breeding dogs that have good temperaments, are sound, and are healthy.
A reputable breeder is constantly striving to produce better dogs with each generation, and their selection of dogs used for breeding is a result of years of study and a thorough knowledge of the breed. Because this type of breeder is trying to produce puppies that they can win with in the show ring, they are highly motivated to do the best breeding possible. Any puppy sold should be a pet first, a loved family member. However, not every puppy produced will meet the exceptionally high standards demanded of a top show dog. The puppies who for one reason or another are not destined for the conformation ring will then be offered for sale as companions to deserving homes.
The puppies have the same genetic make-up, pedigree, and rearing process experienced by the show puppies in the litter. These puppies are the ones conscientious, intelligent buyers purchase because they know they will have a dog that was bred because of a love for the breed. These puppies will have had top medical care, including all appropriate immunizations and worming, other test may be done and is a benefit to you the buyer and to the seller on health. These puppies will have been well fed and raised in a clean, stimulating environment that maximizes socialization and personality potential. Not mostly kept caged or crated with little socialization.
These puppies are raised in a family environment, which helps them transfer to a new family with minimum stress. Good puppies are not shy, timid or afraid of everything. These are the puppies that will grow up to be healthy, happy companions for years to come. Contrast this to a puppy purchased in a pet shop. These puppies are usually mass-produced in puppy mills, kept in filthy conditions with little human contact, and shipped out of state to sit in a tiny cage in a pet shop. Because the motive here is profit, diet and health care are determined by what is cheapest, not what is best. These puppies are often ill, and require intensive rehabilitation by the unsuspecting buyer to try to make them healthy. The health history of the pup's family is unknown (indeed, the parentage is probably even in question), and there will be no support and advice to help the buyer with any problems they encounter other that provided by the teenager manning the cash register at the pet store, who buy the way seems to think he/she is an expert in all dog breeds, to hear the sales pitch anyway. Pet shop puppies are often more expensive that those obtained from a reputable breeder, something a pet store can do because they count on impulse purchasing. You may very well find that a puppy has a bad temperament, health problems, and is hard to recognize as the breed that was supposedly purchased? STAY AWAY FROM PET STORES SELLING DOGS!!!!
Reputable breeders are also an excellent source for dogs that are a little older and out of the puppy stage and the associated problems. They are, however, beautiful representatives of the breed of which the buyer can be most proud.
Because the dog is older, the buyer will know what he's getting so far as size, temperament and looks, the dog will have had all their shots, and probably is already spayed or neutered. These dogs are indeed a case of the breeder's loss being the pet buyers gain. And don't forget the older dog, perhaps retired, adopting a six- or seven-year old will still give you many, many years with your new companion. Because reputable breeders want to make sure their puppies are placed in loving, safe homes, buyers who contact breeders will find themselves going through a screening process before a specific puppy or dog is ever discussed. The breeder will want to know about the potential buyer's family, the type of home they live in, past history of pets owned, and how the dog will be housed. The breeder might even want to visit the home to see if it is suitable for one of their special puppies.
Buyers should not be offended by this scrutiny, for it is a sign that they have found a breeder who cares deeply about their dogs and to them, placement of any of their animals is a well-thought out adoption process. Their goal is to place healthy, sound dogs in loving homes where both the dog and its family will have a long, happy life together. A wise buyer will also carefully screen breeders to make sure the breeder is someone they can trust and someone who will be there when needed for years to come. When you purchase a dog from a reputable breeder, you and the breeder become partners in assuring the future of that dog. The breeder will become your mentor and provide advice when you need it, such as how to housebreak, locating a training class., or finding a good vet. Remember, the reputable breeder's first and foremost concern is the future of their puppies, a responsibility they carry throughout the life of the dog.
While a reputable breeder has done their best to produce dogs free of genetic defects and health problems, no one can guarantee none will ever appear. If they do, the reputable breeder will want to know about it. Because producing top quality dogs takes a huge financial investment, much knowledge, and extreme dedication, a reputable breeder is committed to breed sparingly and only breed the finest examples of the breed. For this reason, dogs sold as companion animals should be sold on a spay/neuter contract with the AKC papers withheld until the dog is altered, depending on the agreement and the conditions between the buyer and breeder. The dog may also be sold on "limited registration" meaning the dog cannot be bred or shown in conformation but is still eligible for obedience and performance events.
Remember, puppy mills, pet shops, and backyard breeders who breed carelessly in the hopes of making money, are all risky sources for a puppy. These sellers lack knowledge of the breed and consider the dogs merchandise that become the buyers problem the minute the dog goes out the door. A dog is a lifetime commitment. Choose wisely. Buy from a reputable breeder. We also keep a major list of unethical breeders for the reason of tracking and helping to prevent unknowing buyers from making a mistake. Which we can say we have many times. At the same time our breeders link is very respected and considered to be the best online by many. Any of the breeders we list have proven well there ethics and have been screened and checked out before there added. Most sites will allow anyone to add a link with little or no regard to checking out anything, we don't do that, we check out things and I can assure you we have declined to list 20 breeders for every 1 we have listed. | <urn:uuid:2df54bcf-d5ca-4c87-8fbc-1cc9aa4a9cc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bulldogsworld.com/puppy/why-purchase-bulldog-puppy-reputable-breeder?quicktabs_hot_content=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970076 | 1,667 | 1.578125 | 2 |
CSG’s Education Public Policy Committee provides a forum for state leaders to address emerging challenges and issues arising from dynamic educational conditions. Members of the committee focus on emerging trends, innovative and effective solutions, and viable policy positions and response projects. During meetings, committee members may introduce and consider policy resolutions. The committee is designed to encourage multi-state problem solving and sharing of best practices, and to facilitate networking among state officials and between the public and private sectors. Committee priorities are established by CSG’s national leaders in concert with the committee’s membership. Committee priorities include College- and Career-Readiness, Assessment and Accountability Systems, Preparation for Teachers and School Leaders, College Completion, and Funding Options for Postsecondary Education. | <urn:uuid:e9b1a68c-8b66-4183-84e6-3181482561d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csg.org/about/educationpolicytaskforce.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946158 | 151 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A Wonderful Resolution for the New Year! What amazing gifts the new year brings! An entire year's worth of wonderful opportunities, given to us one sunrise at a time. Many of the moments ahead will be marvelously disguised as ordinary days, but each one of us has the chance to make something extraordinary out of them. Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can. Have pages on understanding and tales of overcoming hardships. Fill your story with enthusiasm, adventure, learning, and laughter. And make each chapter reflect time doing these things: Follow your dreams. Work hard. Be kind. Do what you can to make the door open on a day that is filled with inspiration in some special way. Remember: Goodness will be rewarded. Smiles will pay you back. Have fun. Find strength. Be truthful. Have faith. Don't focus on anything you lack. Realize that people are the treasures in life, and happiness is the real wealth. Have a diary that describes how you're doing your best, and... the rest will take care of itself. - by Douglas Pagels Have a Wonderful Year!!
Our Thoughts and Best Wishes Will Be with You All Through the New Year We want to wish you such a happy, healthy, and rewarding New Year! And we hope it's one in which you'll always remember how important you are to us. Special people like you are the most precious and most appreciated people of all. No matter how many days may pass between us, we hope you'll remember that. Regardless of our miles apart, we want you to know how much happier our hearts will always be because of the sunlight you shine into our lives. May your year ahead be filled with blessings! - by Chris Gallatin Happy New Year! | <urn:uuid:10ea4229-8e1f-449d-b733-23ef0fc64743> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bluemountain.com/ecards/poetry/holidays-ecards?va=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954406 | 374 | 1.75 | 2 |
In a nondescript space off 15th Ave. W., Steven Stone is busy making something that hasn’t been legally produced in Seattle since Prohibition.
After putting in a full day at Boeing, where he works as an aerospace engineer, Stone spends his evenings turning Washington state barley into vodka.
“We make it from scratch, batch by batch. It’s very labor intensive,” Stone said this week while taking a break at his Sound Spirits headquarters.
So how did a guy involved in one of the world’s most modern pursuits – making state of the art aircraft – get involved in making alcohol, which people have been doing in one form or another for thousands of years? Stone had a long interest in home brewing beer. But the idea to produce spirits came about two years ago from his friendship with Christian Krogstad, one of the owners of House Spirits, a leader in Portland’s booming craft distillery scene. Krogstad was finding success producing things like Aviation Gin.
“I said, ‘Man, that’s gotta happen here in Seattle,’” said Stone, who was in business school at the time. He wrote a business plan, found seven investors and went to work.
With help from his wife and one volunteer, Stone began working to produce barley-based vodka. Most vodka is made from wheat and potatoes, but Stone was aiming for something different. He wanted to use all local ingredients and barley, along with wheat, is one of the primary grain crops grown in Washington. Barley has a distinctive taste, Stone says, “a touch sweet,” and he’d be using the grain in the future to make whiskey.
The end result is Ebb + Flow.
“I would call it more like a sipping vodka, it does have some flavor. It would go great in a martini,” Stone said.
The production process, which Stone describes as “mind-numbingly stressful and fun at the same time,” was not without snags. That’s where Stone was able to use problem-solving skills he usually applies to making sure airplanes are stable in flight to ensure that grain became vodka.
Now he’s producing 40, six-bottle cases per month. Sound Spirits will be able to ramp up production quickly, said Stone, who added he’s gotten some interest from local bars. In addition to making whiskey in the future he says he’ll likely be producing gin in the next few months.
Stone is selling bottles of his Ebb + Flow vodka now; The official launch is the weekend of Sept. 18. Stone’s shop is open most evenings and weekends, by appointment.
Sound Spirits is Seattle’s entry into the growing craft distiller movement in Washington state. In 2008 the state Legislature changed the law, making it easier for people like Stone to produce spirits. There are now about 25 operations that have been fully licensed to make spirits or that have applications pending. Spokane’s Dry Fly is the state’s largest distillery, producing about 10,000 cases each year of vodka, gin and whiskey.
Stone is a fan of Dry Fly and hopes his operation will attract attention for the Emerald City.
“Why not put us on the map?” | <urn:uuid:05fd7df9-9863-4596-9d7f-12ebcb98f58c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2010/08/27/sound-spirits-gets-seattle-back-in-distilling-biz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967786 | 695 | 1.625 | 2 |
I have thought long and hard about how parent's should have equal responsibilities in their child's life. It's not up to just one parent to do everything for the kid they should split it equally. Kids are hard to keep up with sometimes and it's most definitely hard for one parent to be doing it alone while the other is around but won't play a role in raising a child. The kid will most likely grow up only listening to the parent who raised the child. In this situation it should be what is best for the kid and how your decisions affect your relationship.
In "Parent's Connect," it says that men have gotten better about taking a bigger role in the responsibilities of their children, however, it states that when both parents have a full time job the mother is still more likely to take the responsibility of the child. As a result to the women being the primary care givers they get frustrated more and will let their partner know when they are mad. This website gives you a bunch of information about good steps to take in order to equalize the responsibilities between parents. A few good steps to take are to discuss with one another about how the other feels, try and come up with a plan to share responsibilities. Obviously the responsibilities won't be equal but at least the parents can hear what each other has to say and then try and find a happy medium. Avoid negative remarks, when talking to your partner don't point fingers, suggest ways the other can change to help out more. It's good to toss around ideas to see what can and will work instead of what wouldn't work.
Bunching a few websites together I have come to see that when the child is a baby it is more cared for by the mother but once the baby turns into a child the dad steps in more because the child is now mobile and can do active things. The father needs to realize that he needs to be there even when the child is a baby, the baby grows on connections with certain people and the father should be one of them.
On a personal note, I was never really that close to my dad when I was growing up, he and my mom got a divorce when I was two years old so I was mostly raised by my mom aside from the every other weekends with my dad. When I was growing up I didn't really respect my dad all that much, I would only listen to my mom, since she was the one who raised me. But as I got older I started to respect my dad because he was more so in my life and helping me out. Now he is a big part of my life and I don't know where I would be without him. So I think it's very important to have both parent's sharing the responsibilities of raising a child. | <urn:uuid:d400d162-9911-45eb-aa33-e5df21c092a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caitlinkruse07.blogspot.com/2012/07/parents-having-equal-responsibilities.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985738 | 561 | 1.75 | 2 |
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday will sign the newly passed legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state. A statehouse signing ceremony in Olympia has been scheduled for 11:30 a.m. PST on Monday, the Governor’s office has announced.
Washington would become the seventh U.S. state to offer full marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, unless opponents make good on their promise to repeal the law.
The measure cannot take effect before effect before June 7, three months after the conclusion of the legislative session.
In the meantime, opponents have vowed to seek its repeal at the polls in November, but they cannot begin collecting signatures for a petition to overturn the measure until it is signed into law.
A referendum to repeal the marriage equality bill would require 120,577 signatures of registered voters by June 6 to secure a place on the November ballot.
If opponents gather enough petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot, the same-sex marriage law would be suspended until the election and certification of returns — meaning December 6, before it is either repealed or goes into effect.
A second option — a ballot initiative to define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman — would require 241,153 signatures gathered by July 6 to secure a position on the ballot.
In January, Gregoire announced her support for marriage equality, and said, “It’s time, it’s the right thing to do.”
Gregoire (D) has also pledged to make an appeal to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R), who has proposed a ballot initiative to let voters decide whether to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey.
Christie has vowed to veto same-sex marriage legislation currently being considered in the New Jersey state legislature.
Filed under: Washington (State) | <urn:uuid:b9ced737-56fd-4db0-af4c-ca172f3264e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/02/washington-governor-to-sign-same-sex-marriage-bill-on-monday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96351 | 384 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Founder of Jamaica reggae, rocksteady trio dies
KINGSTON, Jamaica—One of the founders of a leading Jamaican reggae and rocksteady trio from the 1960s has died.
A bandmate says Barry Llewellyn of the Heptones died Wednesday at age 64. Lead singer Leroy Sibbles said Friday that Llewellyn died of unknown causes at Kingston Public Hospital.
Llewellyn founded the Heptones with Earl Morgan in the late 1950s. The group was considered highly influential during the island's rocksteady era in the 1960s.
The Heptones reunited in the 1990s after a nearly 20-year absence during a worldwide ska and rocksteady revival.
Llewellyn is survived by his wife, Monica, and several children. | <urn:uuid:5bdeee76-442a-4939-b3b4-f203d3f684fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2011/11/25/founder_of_jamaica_reggae_rocksteady_trio_dies/?camp=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98077 | 168 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Art of Activism is a series of events that celebrates the work of extraordinary leaders. Each program is designed to provoke, inspire, and engage the audience, and to make a positive impact on people’s lives beyond the events.
Our November Art of Activism program featured Newark, New Jersey Mayor, and star of the Emmy-nominated TV show Brick City, Cory Booker. Cory discussed his background, his motivations for staying socially involved, and what it takes to be an effective leader.
Two exceptional young Bay Area leaders, Ellen Choy and Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont, joined Cory on November 11 to discuss the inspiration and drive behind the remarkable social and environmental work they do locally.
Ellen Choy is an organizer with the Mobilization for Climate Justice West, a grassroots coalition of Bay Area groups fighting for climate justice locally through direct action and movement building. Ellen also works with after school programs for high school students in the Bay Area, helping to convene an emerging young environmental leaders, and is co-founder of ChecktheWeather.net, a blog dedicated to young people of color redefining “green”. As a funk/soul/hip hop DJ, Ellen integrates music and art into all of her work, planning progressive music events, producing socially conscious mix tapes, and using music as a medium to communicate to young people.
Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont is executive director of Oakland Rising, an up-and-coming, non-partisan electoral force that recently contacted more than 17,000 Oakland residents to encourage them to participate in the U.S. Census. Through her work on a national level—as a Hurricane Katrina housing community organizer and a campaign field director, among other roles—and on a local level, she demonstrates her commitment to sustainable solutions to social issues such as affordable housing, quality education, and living wage job opportunities for youth and adults.
Our June 9 Art of Activism event featured award-winning actress (Rent, Kids, Seven Pounds), activist, and Voto Latino Co-founder Rosario Dawson. Rosario shared the inspiration behind her work with Voto Latino and V-Day.
Rosario on the power of small things
The program also honored our Art of Activism award winners James Berk and Martha Ryan, two Bay Area leaders nominated by their communities for their outstanding work.
June 9 Art of Activism program (full-length)
Our February 4 Art of Activism featured Robert Redford, who reflected on his more than 40-year commitment to social and environmental change, and paid tribute to the work of two Bay Area activists, nominated by their communities: Victor Diaz and Avery Hale. | <urn:uuid:e20c737a-eb9d-4279-bfc5-1255ae529520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redfordcenter.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=12&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952487 | 551 | 1.601563 | 2 |
|Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Bachelors of Science||2012|
Electric Vehicle Systems Engineer
Chad Conway is a senior-engineering student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Chad’s real passion is electric cars. Starting in his sophomore year in high school he began working on electric car projects. By his junior year he had completely rebuilt a 1980 electric Comuta-Car that he drives as his primary means of transportation to this day. This practical experience leads him to believe that electric drive is the most efficient and practical alternative to internal combustion engines. Chad is keeping well informed of developments in battery technology and dreams of a day when super capacitors will replace chemical energy storage. Chad’s career goal is to work with an automotive design team, engineering the world’s best electric vehicles.
Chad has over six years of experience in the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Industry including summer internships at Tesla Motors and the MIT Media Lab. During his first stint at Tesla, he took ideas through the engineering design process and finished with production parts that were key components in a Tesla battery pack. Additionally, he managed and organized the prototype battery pack builds. During his second stint at Tesla, he was located in Wymondham, United Kingdom where he traveled throughout Europe investigating and performing failure analysis on battery packs. At MIT, he was fortunate to assist the Smart Cities Group designing the City Car. He is honored at having achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and proud of the memorable project that resulted from this effort. He looks forward to making the world a better place through engineering the electric cars of today and of the furture.
Chad can be reached via email at:firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:51e051c1-f4f5-4f55-912e-726e8468a2c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chad-conway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97209 | 354 | 1.695313 | 2 |
I dream of voting in my pajamas. I guess I could do this in my local polling place, since the lights are so dim that the election workers would probably not notice. But I'm talking about voting in the comfort of my own home, over the Internet. That is what some people are talking about now, after all the snafus with the voting process this year -- and I don't mean just the problems in Florida.
On Election Day, when I arrived at my polling place in the East Village (wearing gym clothes), I managed to get in the correct line for my district right from the start. This was a first. I stepped up to the desk, checked in -- and was handed a paper ballot to fill out, by hand.
"Machine's broken," the election worker explained. "What," I thought, "No levers, no curtains, just a ball-point pen and paper?" I was truly disappointed. I had been looking forward to standing in the dark, flicking down all those little levers, and casting my vote.
New York City's 38-year old voting machines are badly in need of an upgrade. After weeks of counts and recounts down in Florida, it is becoming clear that so are those in the rest of the nation. But should antiquated voting booths be tossed in favor of computers and the Internet?
"For a quarter century, election experts have been calling for the Vote-O-Matic system to be retired," says Erik Nilsson, an election technology analyst for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, an industry association. The Vote-O-Matic is the oldest type of computerized ballot still in use in many places, including two of the Florida counties, Dade and Palm Beach, that are the focus of the controversy in the presidential race. "The results of the 2000 election show that it is now time to move beyond this temperamental antique."
Momentum is building for technological solutions to frustrations at the polls. Microsoft ran a large ad in the New York Times about the potential for electronic voting about a week prior to the election.
A week after the election, US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said at a press conference, "The current system is antediluvian. We haven't updated it in any significant way in years, and that's one of the reasons why turnout has declined nearly 20 percent since 1960... We should use our latest advances in technology and our vast collective experience to make voting as accurate, convenient and accessible as possible." Schumer plans to introduce legislation to support research by the Federal Election Commission on new ways of voting via computers and the Internet.
It is perhaps inevitable that polling places will be equipped with upgraded computers in the near future, in order to increase speed and efficiency. "A PC-cum-voting booth, for example, could prompt a voter to confirm a choice before submitting it, preventing an accidental Buchanan surge among the canasta set. It would allow ballots to be counted and recounted in the nanoseconds that it takes the silicon brains to calculate a digit of pi," wrote New York Times business reporter John Schwartz.
Voting from your living room on the Internet would be significantly more complicated. But Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility cites many advantages in Internet voting, such as customizability, reliable vote tabulation, access for the disabled and for rural voters and the ability to handle a large number of voters.
Internet voting could increase voter turnout, adds Steve Schneider, editor of Net Election, the Web site of the Annenberg School of Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. "A significant barrier to people voting is their difficulty in registration," he has said. "Any way you make registration easier for people has got to have the effect of increasing voting, even if it's a small amount."
But other experts warn that the movement to replace the out-of-date machinery of voting will only create more problems. Some, such as Ford Fessenden in a recent New York Times article, say that more modern, accurate systems can cost as much as fifteen times more than the old systems. This is disputed, though, by analysts at Meta Group of Stamford, Connecticut, who say a Web voting system could be built for $250 million, or $1.23 per voter, which is a substantial savings over the costs of existing voting methods as reported by Washington Technology News.
But it is not just an issue of expense. "I don't believe that just because a technology is old that it means that it should be thrown out," said voting security expert Rebecca Mercuri in a November 30 interview with WBAI http://www.wbai.org in New York. Mercuri recently completed her doctoral dissertation, "Electronic Vote Tabulation Checks & Balances," at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering.
The disadvantages of e-voting in particular, some say, would be extreme. Shortcomings include voter fraud, privacy and security threats, and lack of access to those without computers. "People see Internet voting as a solution," Mercuri has said. "It's chilling. It will compromise voter anonymity and auditability. It would solve the recount problem, because we won't be able to do a recount."
Despite this, Internet voting is already happening, at least in a few small trials. This year several hundred U.S. military personnel stationed overseas were able to vote online as part of the Federal Voter Assistance Program. In addition, earlier this year, a company called Election.com held the first online political election, the Democratic Party primary in Arizona.
The election was not without its glitches, including lost pin numbers, browser problems and closed polling places due to the lack of volunteers.
Still, the company has conducted 250 elections for government agencies, unions and corporations to date and has been getting international requests for their Internet election service. And Election.com is not the only company vying for the chance to provide electronic registration and voting technology. Other players include OnlineDemocracy and BeAVoter.
The campaigns this year showed an unprecedented role for the Internet, enabling Americans to get valuable information about the candidates, and donate to their campaigns. The Gore campaign sent out 30 million e-mails to supporters.
This increasing familiarity with the Internet, combined with recent events, have stimulated interest in replacing out-of-date vote machines. But will everybody in the nation (or New York) be voting over the Internet by the 2004 election? Let me put it this way: If I wind up voting in my pajamas then, it will only be because I'm dreaming.Laura Forlano is a doctoral student studying communication technology policy at Columbia University. | <urn:uuid:b2269ced-fdab-4434-b748-d88ddfc76058> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/open-government/2156-e-voting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965228 | 1,364 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Burning Man is trying to figure out how to respond to the revolution in digital photography.
Old timers will tell you that cameras weren’t much in evidence in the early years of the event. But now you can’t help but see cameras everywhere on the playa – from cellphones and point-and-shoots to expensive and sophisticated digital recording equipment that produces everything from stunningly artistic imagery to high-res but low-rent voyeuristic crap.
And the places that those pictures wind up is changing, too. Burning Man has always said it was fine to share your pictures among your friends and family. But what are friends and family these days, when you might have 1,000 “friends” on Facebook, or thousands of visitors to your Flickr or YouTube sites?
What happens to the privacy rights of, say, a schoolteacher who enjoys the freedom and empowerment of the Critical Tits bike ride? Should she have to worry when she gets back from the desert that her picture will be easy to find on the internet?
Last week, the organization gathered photographers, videographers, artists, event leaders, legal experts, technologists and just plain good thinkers to explore the ramifications of the digital revolution. Are Burning Man’s policies and procedures still up to the task of protecting privacy, preventing commercialization while still nurturing the creative image-making process?
The discussions were heartfelt, impassioned, informed and on the whole amazingly constructive.
Much more work remains to be done, and a team of people, including the communications department and legal team, are charged with turning the talk into action items.
Here is some of what was said, plus, if you’ll forgive the intrusion, a little of what I think: | <urn:uuid:acce1e0f-c72b-4a0d-bd44-f9a543f5c08d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.burningman.com/tag/copyright/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951797 | 361 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A recent CMS statement from October 11 paints a disturbing picture for all physicians billing Medicare:
Medical Record Cloning
When documentation is worded exactly like or similar to previous entries, the documentation is referred to as cloned documentation.
Whether the cloned documentation is handwritten, the result of pre-printed template, or use or Electronic Health Records, cloning of documentation will be considered misrepresentation of the medical necessity requirement for coverage of services. Identification of this type of documentation will lead to denial of services for lack of medical necessity and recoupment of all overpayments made.
So let me get this straight – about a decade ago, CM(M)S introduced their E&M Coding Guidelines that saddled primary care physicians with exquisitely complicated guidelines for E&M coding based upon the specific data elements captured in visit documentation.
As a result, physicians moved towards template-driven documentation and coding systems so they could code accurately based upon these arcane rules, which are impossible to consistently obey outside of an automated electronic system.
Now, CMS is giving us notice that they reserve the right to claw back all payments to a physician within their statute of limitations if it is determined that patient documentation is “exactly like or similar to” previous entries – when their own rules have forced that same consistency on providers?
Joseph Heller would be proud – Catch-22 is alive and well.
As CMS announces increased funding for RAC audits, and observing the tools with which these commission-based auditors are equipped, more physicians are realizing that money from the government should be approached like a mouse approaches cheese on a trap: it’s not food, it’s bait.
To this point, consider the Congressional testimony of North Carolina physician Dr. Karen Smith:
All of us at Physician Care Direct are committed to helping you grow a prosperous practice by contracting directly with employers and individual patients. We look forward to empowering your success. | <urn:uuid:252c6677-4ec3-4a26-b505-ecba9f58d8a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physiciancaredirect.com/blog/2011/10/20/cms-foreshadows-clone-wars/ | 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 | 0.934075 | 396 | 1.5 | 2 |
It makes sense to add 72 spaces to the parking facility that will be next to the renovated Lawrence Public Library, but the funding mechanism for that parking raises some questions.
Parking continues to be at a premium in many parts of downtown, and it will cost less to add 72 spaces during the library renovation than in a separate project later on.
However, the plan to pay for the parking by assessing all property owners in a pretty widely drawn footprint of downtown doesn’t seem exactly fair. The proposed benefit district for the assessment stretches far beyond the Massachusetts Street retail and restaurant properties and takes in residences, churches and other businesses (including the World Company). North of Eighth Street, the district reaches from Kentucky to Rhode Island streets. South of Eighth to South Park, it narrows but still includes all the properties that face on Vermont and New Hampshire streets.
That means it includes all of Watkins Park, on which the city will pay its own assessment, but it also includes a number of churches, Watkins Museum, the Lawrence Arts Center and residences, including the Hobb-Taylor Lofts.
They call it a “benefit district,” because everyone being assessed within that district supposedly derives some “benefit,” from the improvement. In this case, the most obvious benefit is to the city and city residents who visit the new library or the Outdoor Aquatic Center. Next on the list would be retail businesses, restaurants and bars whose customers and employees would use those parking spaces.
After that, it gets more fuzzy. Maybe the churches or residents in the district will derive some benefit, but is that benefit greater than what a taxpayer in some other part of the community would enjoy? And if that’s the case, shouldn’t providing parking for the library or pool or downtown in general be an expense that’s borne by the community as a whole rather than concentrated on downtown property owners?
If a district could be drawn narrowly enough to include just businesses and entities that would directly benefit from the additional parking, benefit district financing would make sense, but city officials say they can’t exclude properties based on their use and they’ve done the best they can to define the right geographic boundaries.
Protesting this plan would require a petition that covers 50 percent of the property owners and 50 percent of the property in the district. That will be a tall order, considering that city-owned property represents about 35 percent of the district’s total area.
So a protest petition is unlikely, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a benefit district is the best and fairest way to pay for this project. Lawrence city commissioners should reconsider this approach before approving the resolution on Tuesday’s agenda to move forward on this plan. | <urn:uuid:7c9a300f-05da-425d-8f6d-a7879e398b0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/sep/23/editorial-parking-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960033 | 560 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Bee relaunched a program this week in which a reader is invited in to discuss with Bee editors what stories should be on A1 the next day.
Bee editors call the program Dr. Risk, since the reader is supposed to take a risk by coming in to challenge Bee editors to reconsider their choices or ask them to explain why a particular story should be on A1.
This week's Dr. Risk was Claudia Morain, news service director for the University of California, Davis. Morain signed up a few weeks ago, but as luck would have it we had to ask her to recuse herself from chatting about one story on her boss, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, discussing a report on her role in the pepper-spraying incident at her campus late last year.
Morain said she found the experience of being Dr. Risk interesting and was amazed by the fast pace of the news meeting.
"Thank you so much for the opportunity to sit in the last two days. It's so cool to hear people talk about stories in the late afternoon and then see the discussion manifest as a newspaper the next morning," said Morain, who is at the forefront in the photo to the left listening to Bee editors discuss the stories they think belong on A1.
On Wednesday, Morain did challenge Bee editors on one story -- and she won. Editors were leaning against putting a story on Dick Clark's death on A1 simply because the news had broke early in the day and was getting coverage every where and most editors felt the story might feel old the next day on A1. Morain argued that Clark was an important icon to The Bee's readers and that it was simply shocking to her that the perpetually young-looking Clark had died.
"It was a kick to see Dick Clark on A1, disappointing everyone who thought taxidermy might be the ticket to cheating death," she said.
Since announcing any reader with a passion for news and a disposition for constructive debating could apply to be Dr. Risk at http://drrisksacbee.eventbrite.com, The Bee has nearly a full calendar of Dr. Risks through the end of January 2013. We'll soon add some more dates to sign up for and announce that to readers.
Starting next week we'll share some of tomorrow's A1 headlines today. So what are some of the top stories we are looking at for A1 Friday?
Another arena story, this one looking at the $11 million in yearly profits the Kings might have made, according to projections by the company, Anschutz Entertainment Group, that would have operated the new arena.
The latest data on homes sales in the Sacramento region showed a small uptick, and reporter Hudson Sangree talks to experts about what it means.
We are also looking at a story from medical reporter Grace Rubenstein that examines data that show where you live and work in the Sacramento region have a strong influence on your health. | <urn:uuid:4c588a93-74a0-4fd6-9828-2c7f65e7f7f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_scoop/author/tom-negrete/2012/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976357 | 607 | 1.703125 | 2 |
There’s a lovely piece by Peter Popham in today’s Independent about the background to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Here’s an extract from it, with an interesting observation on how artists – some artists – gather their material:
The film caused a huge scandal when it came out, and narrowly avoided being banned. At the premiere, one outraged signora spat in the director’s face. “We were furious with him,” says Olghina, “because it wasn’t a decadent city. Fellini, who comes from Rimini, based the film on gossip. He wasn’t yet part of the city’s life – he was like a maid looking through the keyhole.” Yet no one denies that Fellini crystallised an amazing vision of Rome. | <urn:uuid:30ffe13f-1240-482b-a082-faa85ef875df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://charleslambert.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/a-maid-looking-through-the-keyhole/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954533 | 177 | 1.5 | 2 |
Facing the Interview Board
Once you have set your goal, you have to attempt a synergic action of both body and mind to attend the goal unswerving singleness of purpose must underlie all your efforts.
Once the mind is firmly set, you might find that providentially all the circimstances seen to converge on the aim you have in mind.
PSC Exam Winning Strategy: your greatest influance on the interview's outcome is in how you deal with the questions you are asked; further what you say is important, but so is how you say it - demonstrating your equipoise and ability to think, occasionally under stress. Invariably, your response, rather than an answer, will strike a better chord in your interviewer - A response often supported by a bit of statistics, an additional peice of information or a beautiful quote. Take care to pay attention to the interviewer, and be ready to react to her or his area of interest, rather than concentrating on a rigid agenda of your own.
"The patient must combat the disease along with the physician", said Hippocrates. For tackling a common evil, co-operation of both the patinet and the doctor is a must. Likewise, if the candidate has to overcome all the negetive feelings, he needs to mould such a frame of mind that insires confidence not only in himself hut in others who are there to help him come out with the best in him. Success is a two-way street. Faith breeds faith.
"One surely and inevitably gains that which one truly disires and for shich one works honestly and patiently," says the Rig Veda. What we say, 'fortune','luck,'fate' and the like is mostly the end-product of patience and perseverance. You can't win a lottery unless you first buy a lottery ticket. The maestro who wins national recognition must have gone through years of practice; the scientist who makes a breakthrogh in the laboratory must have spent sleepless nights; the businessman who has made a fortune must have put into his success not only a sizeable sum of money, but a lot of sweat and toil. When such people do not make any compromise with complacency and lethagry, achieving success is only a matter of time. Their 'luck' is the result of constant striving till they see the light at the end of the tunnel. Buck up and don't look back.
PSC EXAM WINNING CHECKLIST :
- Personality test starts the moment you step in the interview room and it continues even after you conclude the interview.
- Expect some embarrassing moments during the test; But try to avoid expressing nervousness; Correct yourself consciously; apply your commonsense and work quality.
- Personality test is used to screen the two extremes - the high and the low. It is doubtful that you will fall in to the bottom category and be rejected.
- Personality test is done because the result of the written tests are not conclusive enough to make you stand out. Therefore, even if you do " Very good " in the written tests, you cannot afford to do just " Good " at the personality test.
- Avoid taking Extreme positions in behaviour and answers. Reflect your professional behaviour and values.
- Focus your answers on how the question may fit in to your working situation.
- Be cheerful. Only those brimming with self-confidence can make themselfves cheerful.
- Your personal appearance means a lot. It would show that you are a person of discipline and the one the Board is eagerly looking ofr : only a person who can take care of hiself will be inclined and competent to take care of others. So take care to appear in your best.
- Brush up you knowledge on all about the things they would like to know from you. How you present your ideas is more important that the need to know about every thing in the world. None on earth would expect you to answer all the factual questions put to you. But they would assess you as to how you takcle the most ticklish questions. | <urn:uuid:96515a87-a148-4254-97ce-9ac796a5ec50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keralapscguide.com/KeralaPSC_ExamPreparation.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958993 | 833 | 1.570313 | 2 |
In this debut film, director Alessandro Croseri delivers a stunningly beautiful ode to combat pigeons and their pigeoneers. The documentary follows Col. Clifford Poutre at age 103 during the final year of his life and examines his innovations in the training of homing pigeons for combat missions during World War II.
Drawing on a rich array of archival footage, the film tells the story of Poutre's thirty-one years of military service as former Chief Pigeoneer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, his successful rejection of "starvation" methods of training in favor of a system defined by kindness and care, his pigeons' remarkable feats both in combat and in civilian races, and his notable friendships with the likes of Nikola Tesla, himself an impassioned pigeon handler in the later years of his life.
Through a collection of intimate interviews and black and white photography set to the nostalgic tunes of Glenn Miller, The Pigeoneers serves up a one-of-a-kind tribute and heartfelt exploration of the complex, interdependent relationships between humans and the birds we so often overlook.
This makes me want to raise homer pigeons!
Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.
MORE: Delightful Creatures | <urn:uuid:d2a9ddcc-2558-43ed-ba46-46a8a7a2ff43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boingboing.net/2012/06/01/documentary-about-combat-pigeo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963125 | 304 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Pursuing Degrees. Majoring in Impact.
At SLU, students live out the motto "Higher Purpose. Greater Good."A degree can be a line on a resume, buried further down the page as the years go on. Classes attended. Requirements fulfilled.
Or it can be more than just a prerequisite for a job. It can be the core around which an incredible life is built. That's what Saint Louis University delivers. Because SLU is guided by a higher purpose. A greater good.
Those words embody the Jesuits' nearly 500-year history of service for the greater glory of God and represent SLU's mission to pursue truth and serve humanity. In a substantial way, the phrase "Higher Purpose. Greater Good." touches on all the things that make SLU special - outstanding academics, faith, service and history.
Here, undergraduates choose from nearly 100 majors that are more than just the sum of credit hours earned.
One of America's top universities, SLU has been named an institution that promotes character growth and development among the student body and repeatedly earns a place on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
Every semester, our faculty teach more than 80 service-learning courses, through which students volunteer during class time. It's time spent out the classroom but inside a class plan. Nutritional counseling that relates back to a health science degree. Race and women's issues that bring philosophy into the modern age. Civic renewal efforts that put political science into perspective.
It's the real world, and real careers, right now. Service learning at SLU accounts for 28,863 hours of hands-on education each year that leaves both students and the people and places they encounter better off. And it sets the pace for an overall 1.1 million hours of volunteer time given by SLU students, faculty and staff each year.
Formed by a Jesuit education that asks them what they'll do with the knowledge they've learned, SLU students go on to careers that help regions rebuild after disasters, engineer solutions to the world's problems and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
At Saint Louis University, a major is not means to an end but a long-term investment. Degrees are a commitment not just to a career but also to the global community. A higher purpose. A greater good. | <urn:uuid:04d8b09e-b02b-424a-b216-d728bbb5d531> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slu.edu/majoring-in-impact | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954128 | 481 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is posing a challenge to animal shelters and the Escondido Humane Society has accepted it.
The ASPCA $100K Challenge is a nationwide competition that seeks out help from the community. People are encouraged to visit their local shelter and adopt an animal and this year, the only shelter in San Diego County to take part in this great cause is the Escondido Humane Society (EHS).
“We are the first and only San Diego County shelter to compete in the ASPCA $100K Challenge,” said Katie Woolsey, public relations coordinator for the society, in an email to Patch. “EHS is one of 49 shelters participating nationwide, and the organization that achieves the greatest increase in lives saved will receive a $100,000 grant from the ASPCA.”
Here's how it works: from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, the EHS and other participating shelters will compete to find homes for 33 percent more cats and dogs than it did during the same period in 2011.
Woolsey said the driving force behind EHS's decision to participate was not just the $100,000 grant that could help the shelter care for the 5,000 animals they plan to shelter this year, but the potential to connect with the community like they haven't before.
“We thought the challenge would be a wonderful motivator for our team and local residents and businesses to get involved and to help us connect the hundreds of adoptable dogs and cats in our shelter with the right families,” Woolsey said.
So how can you help? It's simple. If you've been tossing around the idea of adding to your family and have a huge love for all-things furry, visit the EHS from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31 and take a look at the animals they have up for adoption. Puppy eyes are hard to ignore.
“The biggest way the public can help is by opening their hearts and homes to our animals by adopting,” Woolsey said. “We have set a goal of 1,500 adoptions over the three-month challenge, and we’ll really need our community’s help to reach that goal.”
To help spread the word, EHS is kicking off this challenge on Aug. 1 with a “Furry Friendzy” Adopt-a-Thon at the shelter. The EHS will be open for 12 hours that day, from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. and adoption fees for all dogs and cats will be waived.
“The first 25 adopters will receive goodie bags,” Woolsey said. “There also are activities are planned throughout the day, including Starbucks coffee at 8 a.m., a pet disaster preparedness presentation at 11 a.m., an 'Ask the Vet' session at 1:30 p.m., an opportunity drawing, food from 4 to 8 p.m. and live music by Hot Pursuit Music Entertainment at 7 p.m.”
After the Furry Friendzy, adoption fees for all dogs and cats will be $25 through OCt. 31.
Another way to help this local shelter win the $100K Challenge? Use your social media skills. The ASPCA is tracking community engagement through the #100KChallenge hash tag, so use that hash tag when you tweet the picture of your new pooch and "like" EHS on Facebook.
The shelter that does the best job of engaging their community will receive a $25,000 grant.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to make an even bigger impact for homeless animals in our community,” Woolsey said. “We hope our San Diego community will join us as we embark on this exciting journey.”
-Patch is a media sponsor of this event | <urn:uuid:38e83540-9a16-43da-ae4b-e0e77f464daa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ramona.patch.com/groups/editors-picks/p/community-needed-for-aspca-s-100k-challenge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943414 | 808 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Taipei, August 5 (CNA) Taiwan has drafted a law to give foreign domestic workers at least one day off a week, an official said in response to a recent US report saying these workers are unable to fulfill their religious obligations due to the lack of a guaranteed day off.
“If the Domestic Workers Protection Act passes, there will be more binding forces from the law,” Fu Huei-chih, director of the Council of Labour Affair’s Foreign Worker Administration, told CNA recently.
The draft version of the Domestic Workers Protection Act stipulates that foreign domestic workers and caregivers should be granted at least one day off per week, except in emergency situations when employers can ask workers to continue to work.
If employees are asked to work on their day off, employers will be required to pay them extra wages or give them additional days off afterward.
The draft law is currently being reviewed by the Cabinet after it was sent there in February this year, said Fu.
The 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, released July 30, pointed out that Taiwan’s labour law does not protect the rights of Catholic foreign domestic workers and caregivers to go to church once a week.
“An estimated 80,000 foreign workers in Taiwan are Catholic and, in the absence of a guaranteed day off, were not able to fulfill their religious duties,” the report said, adding that Taiwan’s Council of Labour Affairs is currently addressing the issue.
The annual report by the US Department of State describes the status of religious freedom in every country and region in the world. It also covers government policies toward religions, practices among groups and religious denominations.
To better respect foreign workers’ religious rights, Fu said her council also amended a foreign workers’ care service plan last August, stipulating that employers should “respect the wishes and religious taboos” of foreign workers when providing them meals.
The plan, which was legalised in 2008, also stipulates that institutions that hire over 50 foreign workers should provide their workers with a venue to practice their religions or information on where to do so, said Fu.
She noted that employers violating the plan could face a fine of between NT$60,000 (US$2,002) and NT$300,000. | <urn:uuid:6506a881-0311-46e3-a1a6-b97bf7fe8b70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intellasia.net/taiwan-working-to-expand-religious-freedoms-of-foreign-workers-223270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970732 | 469 | 1.695313 | 2 |
David Keogh, a 50-year-old communications officer, passed the "extremely sensitive" memo to Leo O'Connor, 44, a researcher for the anti-war Labour MP, Anthony Clarke.
He hoped the document would find its way into the public domain and expose the US president as a "madman".
The four-page memo recorded April 2004 Oval Office talks between the two leaders on events in the city of Falluja.
Its contents were so secret that much of the trial was held behind closed doors with the press excluded.
The trial centred around allegations that Keogh, a communications officer in the Cabinet Office, had leaked the document to O'Connor, who left a copy in constituency papers for Mr Clarke, the former Labour MP for Northampton South, in May 2004.
Keogh told the jury he wanted it to be used by MPs to ask questions in the House of Commons and also be seen by the 2004 US Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry.
However, when Mr Clarke found the memo, dated April 16 2004, he called the police.
Keogh was found guilty on two counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act by making a damaging disclosure of part of a government document in his possession as a crown servant without lawful authority.
The jury found O'Connor guilty on a single charge of making a damaging disclosure of a document passed to him illegally, breaching the same Act.
Keogh said he did not believe the publication of the document's contents would harm Britain or its troops abroad, although it would cause embarrassment to Mr Bush.
David Perry QC, prosecuting, said it contained "high-level strategic discussions between world leaders".
"The prosecution say the unauthorised disclosure of information in this case is likely to prejudice the capability of the armed forces either to carry out their tasks or lead to the loss of life or the possibility of loss of life or injury," he said.
The court heard how a record of the meeting, which was held just before the handover of power to the Iraqi authorities, had been taken by Matthew Rycroft, Mr Blair's private secretary for foreign affairs.
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, were also in attendance.
The document - marked "secret and personal" - was addressed to Geoffrey Adams of the Foreign Office, accompanied by a note that read: "This must not be copied further and must only be seen by those with real need to know."
It was then sent by secure fax to 10 Downing Street, where it was distributed.
Mr Perry went through details of who had seen the memo, including the PM's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, his foreign policy adviser, David Hill, his official spokesman, Tom Kelly, and the joint intelligence committee.
Many copies were destroyed, and others were handed to police. During the distribution process, the memo arrived at the Cabinet Office communications centre in Whitehall, where Keogh was on duty.
Mr Perry said Keogh then took the faxed copy or a copy of the faxed copy. The court heard that after initially denying his involvement, Keogh had admitted leaking the information.
"His intention was to put the document into the public domain, and that's where Mr O'Connor came on to the scene," he said.
O'Connor admitted copying the document after Keogh told him about it when they met at Northampton Labour club. The researcher told the jury he left the memo for his boss so he would return it to the appropriate authorities.
Rex Tedd QC, defending Keogh, told the judge that the civil servant had not acted for a political motive but had been following his conscience.
"He acted out of conscience. No doubt, he did so misguidedly and he did so in a way which was likely to cause damage," Mr Tedd said. "He did not act out of political motive or financial gain or personal advance."
During legal arguments, it emerged that Mr Blair wrote a letter personally thanking Mr Clarke for the return of the memo.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the prime minister's leading foreign policy adviser, said only a small number of people - eight in all - had attended the April 2004 meeting "because we knew it would be a sensitive discussion about Iraq and other matters". He said Mr Bush and Mr Blair had also discussed "military tactics".
Sir Nigel, who said his advice to Mr Blair covered the "waterfront" of foreign, defence and security issues, was persistently questioned about whether documents were marked secret simply to cover up political embarrassment, but denied it.
Mr Tedd added: "The real position, I suggest, is that central to any principle of confidentiality is protecting any American leader from public embarrassment by the disclosure of what is said."
Both men were granted bail and made no comment as they left the court. Sentencing was adjourned until tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:1df8d575-f6fb-4d9c-ae48-2b73c06b9279> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/may/09/media.ukcrime | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984571 | 1,004 | 1.59375 | 2 |
RIPLEY - Like many area school districts, Ripley Central School is facing the problems of falling enrollment, reduced state aid and a 2 percent tax levy cap.
In the face of having to make more than $485,000 in cuts to programs, the school board is asking residents for another option.
On Tuesday, residents in the Ripley school district will be able to vote whether to allow the Board of Education the power to tuition seventh- through 12th-grade students to Chautauqua Lake Central School.
This vote is not the first of its kind, but has inspired many questions from residents on what the consequences of the vote will be.
In November 1992 Ripley and Westfield held a straw vote for annexation; Westfield approved, Ripley didn't.
In December 1992 the vote was held in both districts with similar results.
Two years later, Ripley and Westfield again held an annexation vote which again failed in Ripley and passed in Westfield.
In 1996 there was a vote for centralization of the Ripley and Sherman school districts. This passed in Ripley but failed in Sherman.
Most recently, in 2009, there was a straw vote for a merger between Westfield and Ripley. This time Ripley passed but Westfield didn't.
Robert Bentley, Ripley Board of Education president, has been on the board for 23 years and explained the current situation is similar to that in the past when these votes were held, with one exception - the 2 percent tax levy cap.
"The same thing prompted those (votes) as prompted this one with the ... state funding, the 2 percent cap. ... The rules in the game have changed and we are getting to the point where we can't stand alone and on top of that we have declining enrollment. ... It's the same things, the fact of the tax rate, it's the fact that we are cutting programs to keep the taxes where they are at or sustain some level of accountability on the costs in the district. ... It comes down to money and numbers," he explained.
WHY CHAUTAUQUA LAKE
Bentley explained, although the choice of Chautauqua Lake as a receiving district may seem strange, it was a natural direction after the board's involvement in the ASSET group.
"We had established a relationship with their administration and their board and it was a natural conversation that happened," he said.
He explained when discussing a regional high school, tuitioning came up as another option for the board to explore.
"We formed the ASSET group ... and we went into a regional high school direction after the unsuccessful mergers and annexations. Part of the problem with the annexation/merger process is it was so difficult to get through ... We still have hopes of a regional high school but also Chautauqua Lake hasn't experienced the cuts some other districts have. The fact that Chautauqua Lake had been picked to be the site of the regional high school when we were discussing it, it was a natural tendency to head in the direction of Chautauqua Lake at that point.
"We were in discussions with them, they were part of the ASSET group and that's when (it was proposed) if regionalism doesn't go, would we be open to something else like tuition. ... That's why we have stayed in the direction of Chautauqua (Lake) and besides they have some 40 programs we don't have and the extracurriculars that we have had to cut over the years," he explained.
A poll of RCS sixth- through 11th-grade students found a majority against tuitioning to Chautauqua Lake and students thought a larger student population would not be beneficial.
However the poll also revealed a majority of students would like to take classes that are not offered at RCS.
Many questions have also been raised by residents on what CLCS has to offer which students cannot get at RCS.
An impact study put forward by Superintendent Karen Krause at the Jan. 17 board of education meeting listed the courses offered by both districts.
According to the student poll, they would like to take but are not offered at RCS include advanced-placement classes, drama, French, woodshop, computer classes, German, photography, Chinese and journalism.
According to the handout, CLCS offers AP classes in English, environmental science and U.S. history as well as honors classes in English and chemistry.
CLCS also offers French as an alternative to Spanish, where RCS only offers Spanish. According to the list neither district offers German or Chinese.
Drama and photography are also offered at CLCS along with other art and English offerings like debate, yearbook, ceramics and painting. However, it does not offer journalism and lacks the Shakespeare class offered at RCS.
CLCS also does not offer some of the computer classes offered at RCS, however it boasts Project Lead the Way or pre-engineering classes including introduction to engineering, principles of engineering and architectural drawing/ civil engineering.
Another difference between the schools is CLCS uses block scheduling for some of its classes, which doubles the 40-minute class periods to which RCS students are accustomed.
This year seven students are participating in a pilot program for tuitioning by attending Chautauqua Lake. Bentley said they have reported to the board on their experience and have adjusted well.
"We have an agreement with Chautauqua Lake where their kids could come to Ripley or our kids could go there based on what programs we don't offer, what programs they would like to receive and I believe we have seven students in the freshman class that opted over there.
"The kids that went agreed to come to the board three times this year and talk about what they liked, what their dislikes were, what worked, what didn't and they have done that once already ... The results in the overview have been good, there is always transition changes, especially at that age, there's the bus and things but the students seem to have gotten used to everything and at this point I would say their overall experience is very good there. It was great that we had the option to let the kids do it," he said.
If tuitioning to Chautauqua Lake becomes a reality there is expected to be a reduction in staff to the tune of 12.5 teachers, one administrator, one clerk, one teaching assistant, one professional support staff, three teacher aides, 10 advisers, 15 coaches and a reduction in time for cafeteria and maintenance staff.
It has also been noted transportation costs will rise as a result of tuitioning where one to two bus drivers or monitors will need to be hired, three more buses are estimated to be needed as well as increased fuel costs. It is estimated the students will have a 45-minute bus ride to Chautauqua Lake and a separate elementary bus run may need to be configured.
Bentley said exploring tuitioning is not just about savings.
"Originally we were hoping for a cost savings. I think everybody involved thought there would be one but the reason we have to look at change right now is first and foremost declining enrollment. We are down to 285 children pre-K through 12 in the building, we have an $8.5 million budget and we graduate 22 kids a year. You can do the math on that; it's extremely expensive ... We have had a drop of 200 kids since 1996, it took 11 years to lose the first 100 and it took six years to lose the next 100," he said.
Bentley explained declining enrollment has effects on the budget and what the school is able to offer students. He added even the increased state aid proposed in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget will not help the district with its enrollment troubles.
"We are facing a declining enrollment issue first, then we add the tax cap to that which means we can only raise expenditures by 2 percent. That affects the fact that teacher retirement, health care, all the set costs are much higher and by the time you figure it out we have a budget deficit, a budget gap, of $485,000 predicted. So between the tax cap, a decline of state aid over the past few years - we will see what happens this year, that was a surprise for everybody - between those two items we can't run the building anymore without continuing to cut educational programs. We may get a little relief on the aid than we projected but we still can't stop the continued decline of enrollment," he said.
Bentley said the board of education is skeptical of the amount of state aid in Cuomo's proposal, which would total a $418,183 increase over last year.
"Those numbers came out after our public presentation. I need to point out that it's a proposal from the governor, it has not been approved. We don't know the increase in aid will happen. We don't know we'll get the number that was in the (news)paper. Honestly, we ran our numbers and our opinion is we are going to get less than what is proposed. By the time you run through all the formulas I believe it's about $170,000 not over $400,000. It's very common. The governor's going to be running for re-election in two years. He's going to put this money out and try to buy the election, that's normal of any governor," he added.
WHAT THE VOTE MEANS
Bentley explained a "yes" vote does not necessarily mean tuitioning to Chautauqua Lake will occur. A "yes" vote gives the board of education the authority to explore the option and gives them the flexibility so if a deal cannot be reached with Chautauqua Lake, the board can look to other districts as options.
"The group of parents (who put forward the petition) specifically asked us to look into Chautauqua Lake. ... The way we have to write the resolution, it doesn't name Chautauqua Lake. It gives us the option of talking to other neighbors if we can't reach an agreement on the cost. We could talk to Westfield or we could talk to Sherman. That is controlled by the state, our lawyer said we could not name a district but the nice thing is it gives us flexibility with the contract," he said.
He also added a "yes" vote still does not mean tuitioning is a sure thing.
"If we can't reach a financial agreement with a neighboring district then we don't have to tuition," he said.
Bentley explained without a "yes" vote, the board will have to go forward with a budget plan which involves cuts to programs.
"We did lay out what the district would look like if we don't do that, because with the tax cap and state aid picture at that time and some other things. I think the district residents know where we will have to go with our cuts to meet our budget gap but we will see how that works out at that point," he said.
Bentley explained by looking into tuitioning, the board is doing its due diligence for students and taxpayers.
"The board is fulfilling its obligation to look into these options and part of the obligation was to look at this process and to get a positive vote so we can look at these options. The board does give opinions as we go through this and people can tell how we think and what we feel but the obligation is to continue looking for better education and that's what we're doing. We can't afford to give our kids what other districts are giving their kids and then our kids have to leave Ripley and compete against the kids that are ahead of them," he said.
"If it's a 'no' vote the we will go ahead with our plans to run the district for another year or two and we will continue look at whether mergers or tuition or a regional high school, whatever our options are. We are so small with our limited resources we will continue to look at every option we have, that is the obligation of the board," he added.
Bentley said he hopes residents get informed and get out to vote Tuesday.
"I hope everybody becomes informed of the facts and gets out to vote the way they think is best for the district and their children and the other children of the district," he said.
The vote will be held Tuesday from noon to 8 p.m. in the distance-learning room. | <urn:uuid:63621070-afc6-4831-a991-975f3e26c6ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/617191/Ripley-Faces-Tuition-Vote.html?nav=5057 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984006 | 2,566 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Other Pets at Shelter...
|Breed:||Domestic Shorthair||Color:||Black (All)||Age:||Kitten|
Kaluha was born September 11 2012 to a feral mom who was living outside. BCCC’s trapper caught the mom, Kaluha and brother Cameron. He likes to play and gets along well with other cats in his foster home.
Kaluha is quiet and clean and has a beautiful silky coat. He has received all age appropriate shots, combo tested negative for FIV and FELV and comes with a neuter certificate. If you have a place for us in your heart and home, please send in an adoption application for Kaluha and/or his brother.
Please note: All cats and kittens require an on-line adoption application be completed and sent BEFORE consideration for adoption can take place. On-line applications at www.billericacatcarecoalition.org
Rescue Group Info...
The Billerica Cat Care Coalition, started in 2004 by concerned residents, is a cat rescue and adoption organization which assists feral (wild) and abandoned cats and their kittens. We are a 100% volunteer organization.
Our mission is to reduce the suffering and death of animals in our town by implementing the Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) Program for feral cats. We provide them with feeding programs, promote spay/neuter of all companion animals, educate the public on local animal issues, and offer advice/assistance to residents dealing with homeless cat situations or adopting out a pet cat that might otherwise go into a kill shelter situation.
We are a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning your donation is tax-deductible!
Please visit our website for upcoming Meet & Greet dates at Petco and Pet Supplies Plus. You may also email us if you are interested in a specific cat.
Please visit our website and fill out our adoption form.
Billerica, greater Lowell area, Middlesex County | <urn:uuid:4bce6bf2-d13b-4eac-b25c-49375acc7b4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adoptapet.com/pet/8190871-n-billerica-massachusetts-kitten | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932816 | 418 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Stephen Downes, connectivism and second life
I am in overload -- I listened to Stephen Downes today. He used analogies to teach, making me think that networks are modeled in everything from river tributaries to the human mind to the networks built over the Internet. Some connections are explainable and logical, but many are the product of chaos theory at work.
He makes a lot of sense and I think that curriculum directors everywhere should listen to the audio file of his presentation today and look at his Powerpoints.
Then, I spent time in Second Life, learning and thinking (and taking pictures (see them to the right.) I made connections with many new teachers who are now my "friends" in second life. I learned so much. (The best tour guide is Beth Ritter-Guth -- she is helpful and outstanding - a perfect person to take a group in. If you have a group going in soon, please mention it to me so I can share it with those who want to try it out!)
I really want us to figure out a way to have teacher / student areas away from the teen and the adult areas. Not sure how that could happen, but it is needed. I have some ideas as do many others.
I can't help but think that I touched the train hanging off the future bride of education. (Or something like her.)
Bottom line is that learning in second life is truly first person learning but when dealing with students it is sans one very important thing -- stereotypes. (There is no such thing as second person learning. )
So perhaps second life isn't a second life at all but a real life. Just a new way of living it.
I am so overwhelmed that as I have perused my youtube and build the channels I subscribe to over there, I came across this video. The beginning of this video is from an American perspective and I tend to not like the fear aspect of it. (We should all reform education because its the right thing to do, not necessarily because we're fearful.)
However, once you get into the video, the points made in this video are throughout the entire connectivism conference. Video is a powerful tool!
tag: coolcatteacher, Vicki A Davis, connectivism, George Siemens, OCC2007, youtube | <urn:uuid:0f721542-1261-4b14-822b-d643b42d035f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/02/stephen-downes-connectivism-and-second.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973255 | 481 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Joan Massagué, Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program in the Sloan-Kettering Institute, is the recipient of the 2007 Passano Award for the originality and importance of his work elucidating the mechanism of action for transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) signaling.
The TGF-b family of proteins can both activate and inhibit cell growth. The proteins play a key role in the proliferation and differentiation of many different cell types. In cancer, TGF-b can act as a tumor suppressor in early stages of cancer and as a promoter of metastasis in the later stages of tumor progression. Much of Dr. Massagué's recent work has focused on metastasis, the process by which cancer spreads from one part of the body to another. His laboratory has identified sets of genes that drive the spread of breast cancer to the bone and the lungs.
A leader in the fields of both cancer biology and cell biology, Dr. Massagué earned his PhD from the University of Barcelona and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University. In 1982 he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He came to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in 1989 as Chair of Sloan-Kettering Institute's Cell Biology Program, and became Chair of Cancer Biology and Genetics in 2003. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and he holds an Alfred P. Sloan Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Since 1945, the Passano Foundation has encouraged medical science and research, particularly activities that have a broad impact and clinical application. Dr. Massagué will deliver the Passano Foundation Lecture at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore on April 24, 2007. | <urn:uuid:cc33c875-8108-4d0f-b541-50b5a7a0ec06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mskcc.org/news/joan-massague-wins-passano-prize | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950607 | 361 | 1.804688 | 2 |
William P. Barrett, Contributor
I cover personal finance, taxes, retirement, nonprofits & scandals
Lists of best places to retire are a popular mainstay of personal finance journalism. Here at Forbes we’ve published our share, producing rosters focusing on favored locations for retirees seeking an active lifestyle, a foreign residence and even, in the U.S., an urban neighborhood.
As part of the new Forbes 2011 Retirement Guide, our latest offering–The Best Retirement Places–considers a wide range of factors but focuses especially on two bottom-line issues–tax burden and cost of living. That’s why you won’t see any locations in the highest-tax, highest-cost states like California, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Still, in canvassing cities with populations starting at around 100,000, we look at a lot of issues besides costs. They include weather, availability of doctors, driving environment, crime rates and opportunities for an active retirement, which we defined by the extent of volunteering and outdoor paths for bicycling and walking.The roster of cities skews toward more temperate climates but not completely: It contains Fargo N.D., Pittsburgh and some other chilly-in-the-winter places like Indianapolis, Colorado Springs, Kansas City and Salt Lake City.
Evaluating jurisdictions for taxes can be deceptive. Texas, for instance, lacks a state income tax, an omission it touts far and wide in its economic development efforts. But the Lone Star State more than makes up for that with a hefty sales tax and the nation’s third-highest property tax (measured as a percent of fair market value). These taxes are not touted far and wide. Result: Texas ranks only in the middle on tax burden. Nevertheless, San Antonio makes our list, largely on the basis of low living costs and availability of doctors.
Washington State is another place without an income tax, making it a bit of a bug light for people seeking jobs at companies like Microsoft and Amazon.com, as well as at Boeing and Google, which have large facilities in the Evergreen State. But sales tax burden per capita is the nation’s second highest (after Wyoming, another income tax-less state), and the property tax hit is also above average. Accordingly, despite a temperate climate and a big cultural scene, Forbes is sleepless in Seattle (where people have to pay to die), as well as, at the state’s other end, in Spokane, which we once called the “scam capital of America.”
Eleven states give special tax breaks to retirees, and we weigh that in our evaluations. This helps to earn spots for Lexington, Pittsburgh and Charleston, S.C. As we see it, the states with the best tax climates for retirees are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
The version of the list in the April 11 print issue is spread over a four-page fold-out in which we color-code each state (and the District of Columbia) with our assessment of the overall tax load for the senior crowd.
Every city on this list has a low cost of living as measured by government statistics. Five–Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Tucson–also made our recent Best Places for Bargain Retirement list.
This list is displayed alphabetically. So New Mexicans should not be unduly excited that Albuquerque comes first, nor residents of Tucson upset their city sits at the end. In our judgment, all 16 are meritorious from a retirement perspective.
Again, for the full list of the Best Retirement Places, click here.
For the Forbes 2011 Retirement Guide, click here. | <urn:uuid:3f426323-bf46-48c1-ac60-f747d52d4b85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampbarrett/2011/03/23/the-best-retirement-places/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/962-904-1092 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932476 | 786 | 1.53125 | 2 |
I am using Acer Laptop one day before my Hard Disk is not detected in BIOS and not booting it's shows Insert Boot Disk and I am try another H.D.D it's boot perfectly in my Laptop but,I want detect and recover my data on not detected hard disk. I am not experience about Hard Disk please, can any one help me how to recover my data from not detected Hard Disk.
With the information given so far, the only answer with a high probability to work is to employ a commercial data recovery service. If the data is really valuable, consider doing this. In this case, trying to solve the problem yourself may do more harm than good.
There are many possible causes, drive's internal hardware, firmware, connector,... . Have you had a look at the Related questions on the right? For example, How do I recover data from my presumably dead hard disk.
Try connecting the drive to a computer that is running a different OS. For example, boot Linux from a disc.
You might get more focused help if you stated the exact model names of both drive and computer, and told us possible reasons why the drive failed to work (impact?).
I think you can use another device for recover your data. Its hard to connect to another computer that is running Windows. Note: your Hard Drive should be on Slave mode and the other one Hard Drive that the operating system is on it should be Master. Also, if your Hard Drive is not recognized in any way can not access your Data.
protected by Community♦ Jan 14 at 13:15
This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site. | <urn:uuid:9c57da0c-73c7-42de-a562-f066e3a46496> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://superuser.com/questions/478818/how-to-recover-my-data-from-not-detected-hard-disk?answertab=votes | 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 | 0.931953 | 360 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The town’s No Place For Hate Committee will celebrate Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 21 with two events: a pancake breakfast at St. Nicholas United Methodist Church’s Gould Hall and a pasta dinner and movie at Temple Beth Sholom. At both events, the town will salute the late Tommye Reede, one of the first African-Americans to move to Hull, who died last year. “She paved the way for No Place for Hate by who she was — a fine, elegant person who really made a difference,” said Rhoda Kanet, one of the founders of the organization. Admission to each event is $5; $3 for seniors and children five 5 to 10. Children younger than 5 are admitted free; the family rate is $15 for the breakfast and $18 for the dinner. More information is available by contacting Janet Bernault at email@example.com or 781-925-1890. | <urn:uuid:ebcf0e9e-7243-4944-880a-e8aa97003380> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2013/01/13/mlk-day-double-tribute/3HTBGg8FLc3ozm6BQVlaJM/comments.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941861 | 198 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Greg Collins ’11 took his first step toward Azusa Pacific University in 1993 when he was six years old, and it very well may have saved his life.
This Camden, New Jersey native was ripe for a life on the streets. His father worked long hours; his mother focused much of her attention on Collins’ older and younger brothers. Both ended up in the drug trade; Collins landed at UrbanPromise.
Bruce Main ’85 founded UrbanPromise in 1988, five years before Collins attended. What began as a Christian summer camp, UrbanPromise now offers a future for the underserved and underprivileged, includes a school, and stands as the largest employer for teenagers in Camden. “Kids in the city don’t typically go on family vacations or to sports or church camps during the long, hot summer months,” Main said. “They hang out on the streets. Idle kids present an explosive mix for trouble.”
Homeschooled as a boy, Collins’ mom sent him and his younger brother to UrbanPromise, called Camp Faith at the time, to learn social skills and be around others their age. He never missed another summer. “I always felt I was in a positive place,” said Collins. “I just felt comfortable there.”
At 13, Collins became an Urban “Street Leader” and his calling began to take shape. Collins emerged as a role model, an example of how to stay out of trouble, get your feet planted, and carve out a future that doesn’t include drugs and running from the cops. As he grew up, Collins wondered about college. He graduated from high school in 2005 with subpar grades, but managed to attend a couple of nearby colleges until he realized he had stopped growing and needed a change. Unfortunately, he had nowhere to go—and down was not an option.
UrbanPromise offered a substantial Christmas present in 2007 with a full academic scholarship to attend Azusa Pacific University in fall 2008. Main describes his time at APU as “total transformation” and hoped his former student would find a similar experience, but Collins readily admits he was “one of those” students who desperately tried to get out of attending mandatory chapel and often succeeded. “I didn’t want to go back to APU,” he said, with only one year before graduation. But a friend inspired him with a vision of how he could transform Camden with a graduate degree, and he eagerly returned to APU in September 2010.
He overcame challenging obstacles to finish strong and attended every mandatory chapel service that year. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, returned to Camden, and is now a third-grade teacher at UrbanPromise. He plans to attend graduate school in the fall and aspires to be a principal or superintendent. “This is my city,” Collins said. “A lot of people who come from Camden don’t come back. These kids need a positive role model, especially a male role model.”
Main believes Collins’ calling lies in Camden, and whether that’s in the public school system or at UrbanPromise, God only knows. Main envisions someone from the Urban program taking over after he is done, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Collins became his retirement plan. And when Collins looks back at where he has been and where he could have gone, UrbanPromise’s impact comes to mind first. “I invested in UrbanPromise and they invested in me,” Collins said. “Bruce told me I could be running Urban someday. You never know; the sky’s the limit.”
Andrew Tuttle is a freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon. email@example.com | <urn:uuid:8a403409-7219-43db-b255-b001a8b280c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apu.edu/articles/18689/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98047 | 796 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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President Obama and Mitt Romney are prepping for Wednesday's debate. The candidates face off at 9pm ET.
Political experts say that presidential races have just three defining moments in which candidates can seize the attention of millions of voters and stir new interest in their campaigns.
The first two such moments, the selection of running mates and the party conventions, have passed.
The final phase begins Oct. 3, when President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney meet in the first of three debates in front of a national television audience.
With Obama enjoying a modest lead in the polls, the first debate is widely considered the most crucial, and could set the tone for the others. It is also seen as the president’s to lose. That puts much of the pressure on Romney, who has suffered a series of setbacks since the Republican National Convention in late August. Campaign strategists and political scientists say he is running out of time to catch Obama.
“This is his final opportunity to make his case when the country is watching,” said David Lanoue, a Columbus State University political scientist who has studied presidential debates.
Wednesday's event, to be held in Denver, will follow a traditional debate format, with the candidates answering a moderator's questions on domestic policy. A town hall meeting - in which voters ask the questions – will follow on Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y. The final debate, focusing on foreign policy, takes place Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.
Vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will square off in their own debate Oct. 11 in Danville, K.Y.
After spending much of the weekend preparing for his debate, Romney was set to squeeze in another session in Massachusetts and later in Denver on Monday, The Associated Press reported.
Obama has been prepping in Nevada, and told a high school crowd in Las Vegas that Romney was a "good debater" while he was "just OK."
While opinions vary on how much a debate actually influences a presidential race, the ingredients of this year’s campaign - tight polling, a dissatisfied voting public, an energized challenger - indicate that Romney could gain ground if he delivers a knockout performance, some analysts say.
To do that, they say, Romney needs not only to make himself appear as a worthy replacement to Obama, but he also needs to produce a “gotcha” moment that can be used as campaign fodder in the race’s final few weeks.
“A strong debate performance – or two, or three – could get Romney right back in the game,” Lenoue said.
Republicans point to 1980 as their model. That was when President Jimmy Carter, weakened by a sagging economy and failures abroad, met Republican challenger Ronald Reagan just a week before Election Day. Reagan did splendidly, delivering a few memorable lines, including this question, which would be repeated in myriad political campaigns for years to come: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Reagan won in a landslide.
Obama, GOP strategists argue, has vulnerabilities that mirror Carter's.
“I think Gov. Romney needs to make the debate and the election about the president’s economic policies,” former Romney adviser Brett O’Donnell said. “And if he focuses on the economic policies, and shows the country that he has a better vision and a better prescription for leading the country out of its economic troubles, then he’ll win.”
Romney enjoys the advantage of having had a lot of practice. During the grueling Republican primary season, he participated in nearly two-dozen debates, although none of them were head-to-head. He generally performed well in all of them. One of his rare miscues came in a parry with Texas Gov. Rick Perry in which Romney, a wealthy former venture capitalist, casually offered to bet Perry $10,000.
Another advantage Romney has is that by simply standing on the same stage as the president he can elevate his public stature.
That is part of the reason why incumbent presidents tend to lose their first debates, experts say.
Everyone expects a sitting leader to win, and anything short of a flawless performance is considered a disappointment. Obama is no different: he is widely seen as a smooth orator and effective debater, but he hasn’t had a debate in four years, and is not used to being sharply questioned in public.
“I think the average voter is going into this thinking Obama will be the superior debater, and I don’t know that that’s true,” Lanoue said.
GOP strategist Ron Bonjean added: “The president is probably a little rusty, so it’s Romney’s job to get under his skin in a way that doesn’t look underhanded and drive him to a place where he wants to lecture everyone.”
Obama’s aides are aware of that weakness, and they’ve said they’re focusing on having him shorten his answers.
Bill Burton, a former Obama spokesman who now runs the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action, said the president needs to show that he understands what the middle class is going through. He also needs to take advantage of the fact that Romney is still trying to communicate what kind of president he would be.
“The American people are looking for who’s the stronger leader and who’s on their side and shares their values,” Burton said.
Steve Elmendorf, who has worked on three Democratic presidential campaigns, described Obama's goal more succinctly: Don't screw up.
“Anything from a tie to slight favor for him is good,” Elmendorf said.
While Republicans like to draw comparisons to 1980, many scholars see more similarities in the 2004 race, with Sen. John Kerry playing the challenger to beleaguered President George W. Bush. Kerry by most measures won their first debate, that performance is widely regarded as helping him gain in the polls. The race remained neck and neck until Election Day.
In the end, Kerry’s debate triumphs didn’t matter, though; he lost.
James Stimson, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, uses that race as an example in his argument for why debates are inconsequential.
Stimson has studied decades of polling data back to 1960, the year of the first televised presidential debate - in which Richard Nixon’s sweaty, shifting performance is widely seen as having sunk his chances against John F. Kennedy - and concluded that debates have no discernible impact on a race’s outcome.
Yes, debates are watched by tens of millions of people. And, yes, there have been some memorable debates that ended up fitting into the race’s final narrative. But the reality, Stimson said, is that by the time the debates happen, most voters have already made up their mind. Undecided voters tend not to tune in.
“The point is, we shouldn’t expect the debates to turn the election of 2012,” Stimson said. “There is no systematic evidence that debates nudge the polls.”
Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University who has written a book about presidential debates, largely agrees.
“I think most years what happens is debates tend to reinforce perceptions that voters already have, rather than change their minds,” he said.
The debates of 1960 and 1980 are exceptions to that rule, Schroeder said. But he added that Romney still has a chance to make 2012 another of those rare cases.
“It’s been a pretty rough few weeks for Mitt Romney, in particular since the convention," Schroeder said. "The debate for him is a chance to push that in a different direction.” | <urn:uuid:477734bf-db38-43cf-9929-c46929e20d64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/Debates-Mark-Start-of-Races-Final-Stretch-171332051.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975269 | 1,645 | 1.640625 | 2 |
ShmooCon | Your iPhone's Dirty Little Security Secret
Just how easy is it for the bad guys to use your iPhone against you? Well, pretty easy. Trevor Hawthorn explains what to do about it.
By Bill Brenner , Senior Editor
February 06, 2010 — CSO —
WASHINGTON D.C. -- We've heard much about how our PCs and laptops can be compromised through malware and insecure wireless access points and often comfort ourselves with the knowledge that our smart phones are safe from such things.
But the smarter these phones become, the more susceptible they become to those same dangers, and more. That was the warning at ShmooCon 2010 this morning from Trevor Hawthorn, founder and managing principal at Stratum Security.
"The old smart phone wisdom in terms of security best practices was that you simply needed to wipe the devices of all your data before selling them on eBay," he said. "Today, you can use them to access the company VPN and Outlook, so the dangers are much more in line with those of PCs and laptops."
Hawthorn discussed security holes (since fixed) found in AT&T's network, which Apple's iPhone uses, and how an epidemic of "jailbreaking" is disabling critical security controls on the device.
Jailbreaking is a process iPhone and iPod Touch users can exploit to run whatever code they want on the device, whether it's authorized by Apple or not. Jailbreaking the phone allows you to download a variety of apps you couldn't get in the Apple App Store.
For those who hate Apple's heavy hand and welcome any method to thumb a nose at the company's decrees, jailbreaking is very attractive. But there's a problem, Hawthorn said. A big one.
"Jailbreaking wipes away 80 percent of the iPhone's security controls," he said. "Since nearly 7 percent of all iPhones are jailbroken," the bad guys have plenty of targets to choose from.
And target they have.
Exhibit A is the iKee worm. According to an earlier analysis from security vendor Sophos, Apple iPhone owners in Australia were infected by a worm that changed their wallpaper to an image of 1980s pop crooner Rick Astley. "The worm, which could have spread to other countries although we have no confirmed reports outside Australia, is capable of breaking into jailbroken iPhones if their owners have not changed the default password after installing SSH," Sophos Senior security Consultant Graham Cluley wrote. "Once in place, the worm appears to attempt to find other iPhones on the mobile phone network that are similarly vulnerable, and installs itself again On each installation, the worm - written by a hacker calling themselves "ikex" - changes the lock background wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley with the message: 'iKee is never going to give you up.'" | <urn:uuid:33899bdb-7d56-4396-83e5-9e204d388a1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csoonline.com/article/533163/shmoocon-your-iphone-s-dirty-little-security-secret | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956587 | 584 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Comments minimizing conviction for aiding and abetting deserve a double-take.
Chatter to this effect has been constant since last Wednesday, when Liberian ex-President Charles Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting 1990s rebels in Sierra Leone – but not of engaging in a "joint criminal enterprise" with the Sierra Leonean leaders of that rebellion. (credit for photo below of Taylor)
Our colleague Kevin Jon Heller was right to call this "a stunning rebuke" by Special Court for Sierra Leone Trial Chamber II – for the reason that the Office of the Prosecution had constructed its narrative of Taylor's criminality primarily on the framework of joint criminal enterprise theory.
But the failure to prove a joint criminal enterprise does not mean that Taylor was not found a criminal.
Quite to the contrary.
Paragraph 168 of the 44-page summary of the yet-to-be-released Taylor judgment states unequivocally:
'[T]he Trial Chamber finds beyond reasonable doubt that the Accused is criminally responsible pursuant to Article 6(1) of the Statute for aiding and abetting the commission of the crimes set forth in Counts 1 to 11 of the Indictment.'Note the words "criminally responsible."
"Oh, but" – some seem to say – "but aiding and abetting isn't so bad. Not nearly as bad as JCE" (using the acronym by which supporters and detractors alike prefer to refer to joint criminal enterprise).
Closer examination undermines each of those claims, revealing both that the hierarchy of criminality implied in these statements is not universally accepted, and that the statements derive from judicial interpretation of a statute other than that at issue in the Taylor case:
► The asserted hierarchy doesn't exist – at least not in the criminal law jurisprudence of one not-insignificant national criminal justice system. The United States' criminal code begins with this proclamation:
'Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.'18 U.S.C. § 2(a). Applying that unequivocal statement is § 2 X2.1 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual (2007), which instructs judges to calculate the term of imprisonment for aiding and abetting as follows:
'The offense level is the same level as that for the underlying offense.'Thus in the United States – a jurisdiction whose behavior contributes to the state practice that forms customary international law – an aider and abetter is equally criminally responsible, and subject to equal punishment, as the principal perpetrator of a crime. Both the principal and the aider/abetter stand on a higher plane than, say, the accessory after the fact, whose sentence is cut in half, or the committer of misprision of felony, who serves no more than 3 years in prison. Indeed, the principal and the aider/abetter stand on a higher plane of criminality than the conspirator: with regard to this national crime akin to the international theory of "joint criminal enterprise, 18 U.S.C. § 371, the United States' general conspiracy statute, permits no more than 5 years in prison.
► The notion that engaging in a joint criminal enterprise is worse than aiding and abetting seems to have won purchase among judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
As IntLawGrrl Jennifer Easterday explains in her excellent post below, former ICTY Judge Antonio Cassese contended in a 2007 article that an aider and abetter "only intends to assist," but "does not share the mens rea" of the perpetrator, so that "in principle, the criminal liability of the aider and abettor is more tenuous (or less weighty) than that of the participant in a common criminal enterprise." Extending this rationale to sentencing, an ICTY Appeals Chamber stated in 2004 "that aiding and abetting is a form of responsibility which generally warrants a lower sentence than is appropriate to responsibility as a co-perpetrator." (credit for photo of ICTY building)
ICTY jurists certainly are free to pursue this reasoning, given that it was they who invented the doctrine of "joint criminal enterprise" to fill a perceived lacuna in an ICTY Statute that contains neither this theory of liability nor that of conspiracy. But their development of jurisprudence under their own statute does not mandate similar interpretation of other international criminal statutes – such as the Statute of the Special Court of Sierra Leone. This latter statute explicitly provides for aiding and abetting liability in Article 6(1), yet nowhere mentions "joint criminal enterprise," notwithstanding its promulgation years after an ICTY Trial Chamber 1st advanced the JCE theory in Prosecutor v. Tadić (1999).
The judges of the Special Court will need to make their own decisions on this question, based on their own reasoned analysis of their own statute. | <urn:uuid:73c1b257-122f-4ca6-84e2-6f000be876b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intlawgrrls.com/2012/04/questions-on-aiding-abetting.html?showComment=1335879254140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94981 | 1,016 | 1.507813 | 2 |
February 9 – Happy Birthday Julie Wera
He may have been a member of perhaps the most famous Yankee team in history, but even the most diehard and long time Bronx Bomber fans have probably never heard of Julie Wera. He was a reserve third baseman on the 1927 Murderers’ Row team and his $2,400 salary made him the lowest paid player on that great squad’s roster. Wera was just 5 feet 8 inches tall and when 5 foot 6 inch Manager, Miller Huggins got his first look at his rookie third baseman during the Yankees’ 1927 spring training season, he took an immediate liking to him. In fact, according to a March, 1927 New York Times article, the usually tight-lipped Huggins told every sports writer in that camp that Vera was one of the most impressive rookie players he had seen come up from New York’s farm system in “quite a while.”
Julie did not live up to that hype. Huggins put the Winona Minnesota native into 38 games that season and Wera hit just .238 with one home run and eight RBIs. Even though it would have been impossible for the youngster to earn a starting berth n that great team, Wera’s lack of playing was not because of any lack of ability on his part. During that season he blew out his knee and was never again the same ballplayer Huggins had raved about that spring. But he remained on the Yankee roster the entire year and even though he didn’t get a chance to play in the 1927 World Series, he did get a ring and a full winning share. Then it was back to the minors for a couple seasons and another quick five-game cup-of-coffee visit with the Yankees in September of 1929. He spent the next eight years in the minors and by 1939, he ended up working in a butcher shop back home in Minnesota. That same summer, he was working behind the meat counter when a surprise visitor showed up at the shop. It was his old Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse was in town getting medical tests at the Mayo Clinic and when he found out Wera worked nearby he decided to go say hello and ended up putting on a butcher’s apron and posing for pictures with his old friend. Hours later, Gehrig would receive the devastating news that he had ALS.
Wera’s name again showed up in the newspapers nine years later, when the New York Times reported on September 14, 1948 that he had killed himself by overdosing on sleeping pills. The article reported that a suicide note had been left explaining he was distraught over separating from his wife. It was also erroneously reported in that same article that Wera had made his big league and Yankee debut at the age of 16 and hit a home run off of the great Walter Johnson in his first game. It was later learned that the dead man had been posing as Vera in order to get a front-office position with a minor league baseball team in Oroville, California. He told his employers that his face had been disfigured in World War II and the resulting plastic surgery had changed his appearance.
The real Julie Wera actually lived until December of 1979, when he was felled by a fatal heart attack.
Wera shares his February 9th birthday with another much more successful Yankee third baseman and also with this former Yankee catching prospect. Today is also the 90th birthday of the man who took me to my very first Yankee game in 1961 and dozens more after that. Happy Birthday Uncle Jim Gentile. | <urn:uuid:cdd6881f-3038-44f2-8f7d-9e01dc27b264> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pinstripebirthdays.mlblogs.com/2012/02/09/february-9-happy-birthday-julie-wera/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=2c3ddd83f5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991792 | 738 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Columbia released “The Voice” in 1955, after Frank Sinatra recorded singles from 1944 to 1950. Axel Stordahl, a wonderful friend and collaborator, joins the singer and overflowing arrangements using strings while being bold with emotional content.
Stordahl is credited for cultivating pop music arrangement to the recording industry in the modern age. He started out as a trumpeter in jazz bands and joined the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. He soon became the band’s arranger, and it was at this time that his arrangements obviously fit Sinatra’s voice so eloquently.
Collaboration began and Sinatra recorded at least four hundred sides for Columbia. Three-quarters of those recordings were arranged by Stordahl. He was admired by his peers for his skills in surrounding Sinatra’s voice with soft, opulent sound with swirling strings, understated rhythms and woodwinds. He was probably one of the first American arrangers to tailor his work to the vocal qualities of a specific singer. Stordahl worked with the best singers of the industry — Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Doris Day and Dinah Shore to name a few.
In “The Voice,” Stordahl conducts his material in a striking tone while Sinatra uses his voice like an instrument offering various textures to his voice. Listeners will be awed at how Sinatra’s voice can be overpowering, particularly in this early work. Just listening to this album, you become cognitive of Sinatra’s enormous influence when he was introduced to the public at large.
The long-playing technique captures Sinatra’s at his first stage of his solo singing career. Sinatra’s sings ballads, a total of twelve classics, all dazzling in his lush, intense cadence with a hint of delicate and whimsical voice.
“Laura” is a fine example of lush, intense voice work while being ever so gentle in a seductive way. “(I Got a Woman Crazy for Me) She’s Funny That Way,” showcases a deep and encompassing emotional reach, making this song the hottest part of the recording. Sinatra shows a soft even if haughty confident kind of manliness, all of it toned down by Axel Stordahl’s arrangements.
Sinatra’s career lasted for decades and his early work like “The Voice” reminds us how Sinatra could charge up his audience. The album was a huge seller and its success stayed known throughout Columbia’s years. It became one of the earliest reissues selected for Sony Music’s Mastersound CD series in the early 1990s with deluxe and gold packaging. | <urn:uuid:9ee697a5-5a77-48cb-aa1e-6c84360f8981> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sinatraclub.com/sinatra-and-stordahl-create-the-voice/798/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972109 | 560 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Posts Tagged ‘letters’
Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr. edited by Grant Gordon
Banner of Truth, 2009 (428pp, hbk)
Almost every young minister of the gospel could do with a Newton. They may not always realise that they need a Newton, but they probably do. To be blunt, they may not always want a Newton; those are the times when they need one most.
In Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr., edited by Grant Gordon, young preachers and pastors at least get the benefit of peering over the shoulders of a Newton as he writes to his young friend, John Ryland Jr.. Thanks to the editorial comments, we also get at least a brief glimpse over the shoulder of Ryland as he reads and ponders those letters.
The friendship between Newton and Ryland spanned four decades and crossed the twenty-five years that divided them in age. They first met in 1768 when Ryland was only fifteen and Newton was forty-three. The first letter in this volume was written in 1771 and the last in 1803. Both the length of correspondence and the increasing range of topics indicate a genuine, deepening and developing friendship, without any ingratiating sycophancy from the younger man nor any pompous pontificating from the elder. Instead, there is honesty, sincerity, tenderness, directness, and sympathy, which we see flowing mainly in the direction of Newton to Ryland (the younger man’s contributions to this flow of reason and feast of soul are currently lost to us).
The arrangement of the volume is obvious, but little embellishments make the reading experience a delight. A few pages of introductory material, including a foreword by Michael Haykin, set the scene and sketch the characters, giving us a little grounding to appreciate the letters themselves. There are eighty-three of these altogether, each followed by a brief editorial contribution that ties up loose ends, explains particular details, and prepares us for the next epistle in the sequence. At the end of the book, together with a brief but helpful index of persons and topics, a few pages bring the stories of Newton and Ryland to a close. Scattered very occasionally through the volume, and bringing snatches of historical colour, are copies of a page from a diary or letter. Footnotes (we are mercifully spared exposure to the quite reprehensible endnote) provide helpful cross-references within the volume, as well as an unobtrusive wealth of historical and scholarly detail for those wishing to follow up particular elements. The text is clear and spacious, and the whole volume well bound.
However, and rightly so, the letters themselves are the undoubted and worthy centrepiece of the feast, and here we must recognise Newton’s singular gifts as a correspondent. Of all those mercies of God that marked the man as a minister, it is perhaps his warmth and understanding as a correspondent that set him apart. The collected letters demonstrate that talent (and, indeed, contain some written to Ryland but published with the preservation of anonymity), but here we are allowed to see the sustained investment, tender concern, and pastoral insight that made his correspondents treasure his letters as genuine marks of Christian love. When one reads the letters, one wishes one might have known the man (and received a few notes oneself), and looks forward even more to meeting him in glory. There is a delightful turn of dry humour, a refreshing if sometimes blunt earthiness, a sturdy and sanctified common sense, in what he writes. So, when writing of marriage and money, after a few friendly jibes, he tells Ryland
I see this will not do; I must get into my own grave way about this grave business. I take it for granted that my friend is free from the love of filthy lucre and that money will never be the turning point with you in the choice of a wife. Methinks I hear you think, ‘If I wanted money, I would either dig or beg for it; but to preach or marry for money, that be far from me.’ I commend you. However, though the love of money be a great evil, money itself, obtained in a fair and honourable way, is desirable, upon many accounts, though not for its own sake. Meat, clothes, fire, and books, cannot easily be had without it. Therefore, if these be necessary, money which procures them must be necessary likewise. (73-74)
He can be at once humble and powerful, searingly honest about his own sins and struggles and therefore both deeply sympathetic and pointedly searching when dealing with the sins and struggles of others. His concern for peace and unity, his fixation on the avoidance of controversy at every available opportunity, also come to the fore repeatedly. One develops the sense of a hearty and full-orbed humanity alive with love to God and his fellow men pouring out through his pen as he counsels, encourages, rebukes and exhorts.
And what wise counsels they truly are! Again, the advantage of watching the relationship and the correspondence develop is that we can see the ebb and flow of the lives being lived, and the issues that Ryland and Newton faced over time. We are therefore able to range over the life of a man and a minister, from the gracious reigning in and redirecting of youthful zeal to the heavy deliberations of elder statesmen in the church of Christ. Along the way, Newton and Ryland wrestle together with the desire for marriage and the challenges of courtship, with the death of wives and children, with the difficulties of esteemed but awkward parents and gifted or sensitive offspring, with controversy at home and abroad, with learning and academia, with calls to remove from one sphere of service and influence to another of different and perhaps wider opportunity, with the writing of books and poems, with suffering and sorrow and sanctification and death itself, with theological truth and error and with the use of the imagination, with the issues of Conformity and Dissent and the relationship between church and state. This last is especially curious. Newton was an Anglican, but seemingly without much conviction about ecclesiology except that it did not matter half as much as some believed it did. Among those with stronger feelings on the matter was Ryland himself, a Particular Baptist, and – while appreciating Newton’s irenic pleas – some today may find that they differ with him about the importance of these matters, while they will continue to find Newton’s observations piquant:
Indeed the Congregationalists and Baptists, who are both equally satisfied that they possess the perfect model of the tabernacle to a single loop or pin, need a double portion of grace to prevent their over admiring the supposed excellency of their forms. There are a few of them however who know that the best forms are but forms still and remember that the Lord abhorred his most express and positive institutions, when the worshippers rested in them. (128)
In such a context, insights into the times in which these men lived, and particularly some of the challenges that stirred and vexed the church in matters of faith and life, seem like almost incidental benefits, though they are certainly there. Consider that these men were movers and shakers in circles alive with missionary zeal, wrestling with the challenges of bringing the good news of Christ to the wider world, and you will immediately become alive to the subtext of some of the later letters as they swap news and encouragements and discouragements, and seek favours of each other in advancing the kingdom of God.
Apart from some of this historical grounding, it is worth noting just how relevant so much of Newton’s advice remains. To be sure, time has passed and circumstances have changed, but the enduring principles and Biblical sense upon which Newton built his counsel has not shifted, and so the reader can readily transpose the guidance and warnings that Newton issued across three hundred years and still find much that will strike and stick at the most appropriate points. It is here that modern men and ministers can derive so much benefit from the wise counsel that God enabled Newton to issue. The dress may be different, but the demands have changed little. Here is the benefit of the younger (or, indeed, older) minister taking the opportunity to peer over the shoulders of the original correspondents as they read and write these heartfelt letters as true companions in Christ.
In a world of texts and tweets, in which Facebook updates can be the only link between alleged friends, and longer emails are copied to lengthy and sometimes indiscriminate lists of more-or-less distant associates, the craft of the personal correspondent is in danger of being lost. Newton and Ryland remind us of its enduring value. What may be lost in immediacy is more than compensated for by depth of thought, balance of phrase and individuality of touch. To be sure, you can accomplish the same ends electronically, but it does require something of a shift in attitude and expectation. After reading this book – and I hope you will – you might not be moved to break out the parchment and quill, or even the sheet and fountain pen. But perhaps you should. You may simply sit again in front of the keyboard and screen, but ponder a different approach and purpose. Whatever the medium, the richness and clear value then and now of such a friendship maintained by such means ought to call older men of God to consider whether or not there are people – perhaps especially younger pastor-preachers – in whom they might invest in this way, and to give younger men an appetite for the cultivation of a relationship with the wise old owls whose experience has given them a fund of insight and understanding to transmit to those who come after them. In the absence of such relationships, or until they develop, we would do well to enjoy the privilege of leaning over Newton’s shoulder as he writes, and Ryland’s as he reads, and soaking in and sucking up this wise counsel.
Pastoral Letters by Robert Murray McCheyne
Kingsley Press (& in Memoir and Remains from Banner of Truth)
This volume draws together ten letters written by Robert Murray M’Cheyne to his flock at Dundee during his separation from them due to illness, and, subsequently, his travels to Israel. Readers of Bonar’s Memoir and Remains of M’Cheyne will be familiar with these letters, but they are presented in this edition in their original form, without any of the changes made by M’Cheyne himself prior to their first publication.
These letters get us to the heart of the man. Brief and ardent, they clearly come from one who lived close to God, and are of value in and of themselves, let alone as an introduction to the life and character of their author. Where not woven out of Scripture words and phrases, they are imbued with Scripture themes and feeling. M’Cheyne’s passionate grasp of the truth of Scripture, and his pastoral engagement with and for the people among whom he laboured, shine brightly. There is much in these letters to instruct the Christian, as M’Cheyne urges his readers on to holiness and service; there is much to rebuke the minister, in the example of M’Cheyne’s passion for Christ’s glory and the good of Christ’s people; and, there is much to warn and entreat the careless sinner as M’Cheyne pleads with them to turn to Christ, and be delivered from the wrath to come. God’s faithful and fruitful servant still sets a high standard for the imitation of Christ; may God grant more like him.
The armies of the Lamb: the spirituality of Andrew Fuller edited and introduced by Michael A. G. Haykin
Joshua Press, 2002 (302 pp, pbk)
The letters collected in this volume provide an insight into the heart and mind of a great man of God. Andrew Fuller was at the vanguard of the recovery of balanced, Biblical Christianity – what he called ‘strict Calvinism,’ the ‘Calvinism’ of Calvin, as opposed to the hyper-Calvinism and antinomianism that infected so many churches of the time – among the Baptist churches of the eighteenth century. Best known as one of William Carey’s ‘rope-holders’ during the missionary’s rightly famed labours in India, we should remember that Fuller’s labours laid much of the foundation for Carey’s evangelistic zeal and work.
The letters in this volume reveal various facets of Fuller’s life, and the spectrum of his labours. Furthermore, Michael Haykin’s helpful biographical introduction (and the two appendices) provides a more comprehensive framework which fills out the picture of Fuller that develops as one reads. Distinctively Baptistic, yet always irenic, Fuller was ‘not fond of fighting.’ Nevertheless, the gifts the Lord bestowed upon him often found him in the front line of the fight for gospel truth.
His letters are marked by tenderness, honesty and courage, built on Scriptural conviction. They rebuke, correct, exhort, encourage, and instruct in righteousness. There is something here for every reader – for young and old, for pew and pulpit, for churches and individuals, believer and otherwise. Fuller’s language is simple, earthy, and colourful. His sentences are pithy, and his pages abound in gems of practical godliness (letter #12 being a particularly fine example). He is determined always to be thoroughly Biblical, and his evangelistic zeal is constantly evident, particularly in the combination of honesty and tenderness he shows in dealing with unbelievers.
The picture that develops is of a man centred on Christ, whose love for the Lord and his church was his motivating force. There was a robust and manly vigour about everything that Fuller did. One of his motto texts was Ecclesiastes 9.10: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” He is always passionate and wholehearted, whether tender and weeping, or standing in defence of the faith. However, that vigour and passion do not merely excite our admiration – they challenge our own laxity.
Of such letters in this collection, one stands out. Letter #7 is a circular addressed to the churches of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association. With searing honesty Fuller unpacks the causes of spiritual declension of the churches and sets forth a Scriptural remedy. Here Fuller unfurls the banner of Biblical Christianity. He challenges those who think in terms of what they ‘must do for God’ rather than what they ‘can do for God.’ Fuller stirs up in others the same holy dissatisfaction he felt with his own attainments. He toiled at his Christianity physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually – it demanded and joyfully received all the strength of his redeemed humanity. Scripture is his standard and Christ his model as he calls on every Christian to aspire after ‘eminence in grace and holiness’ and stirs up a concern ‘not to float on the surface of Christianity, but to enter into the spirit of it!’
The poignancy and faith of his later letters, written with his approaching death in mind, will not fail to leave the reader both moved and inspired. Fuller’s life provides an example of the active, practical godliness so lacking in our own age, and his letters give a glimpse into the privileges and responsibilities of being a Christian, a member of ‘the armies of the Lamb, the grand object of whose existence is to extend the Redeemer’s kingdom.’
This volume is a rallying call to the armies of Christ, rebuking our lethargy and encouraging us to live to the glory of God, and preach a full-orbed Christ to a needy world. I trust it will inspire readers not only to search out more of Fuller’s own works (which are eminently worthy of study), but also to seek after his God-centred, Scriptural spirituality, to aspire to eminence of grace and holiness, and to pursue the vigorous and balanced Christianity that the age in which we live demands. | <urn:uuid:a32e4d09-4edc-41c3-a3bf-977611f49c0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eardstapa.wordpress.com/tag/letters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96556 | 3,386 | 1.625 | 2 |
to the Teddy Bear Page. Here you will learn all about Teddy, his rich
history, and some interesting facts about our 26th President of the United
States, President Theodore Roosevelt. You will also learn about teddy bear
collectibles, how people celebrated the teddy bear's 100th birthday, and
view pictures of winners of a teddy bear contest. Have fun as you discover
how one of America's most endearing toys got its beginning! | <urn:uuid:ae8e1012-652a-4b28-b972-55239d8026ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312601/Teddy_Bear/teddybear.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933254 | 94 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Professional athletes are worth every last penny they make. Yes, you heard us. Sure, pro athletes make millions and millions of dollars for playing a game, but the game pays back.
Let's take boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., for instance. Mayweather made $65 million in 2010 just for punching another man in the face. On the surface, that's sounds absurd. But when you take into account that over 1.4 million people bought his fight against Shane Mosley on pay-per-view for a total of $78.3 million -- and that's just the one-time television revenue -- you start to see how sports math adds up [source: Rafael].
Another great example is Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who made $48 million in 2010. Yes, Kobe is one of the NBA's reigning superstars, but should any man make 120 times more than the president of the United States for chucking a ball through a hoop? Absolutely not. But then you realize that Kobe's No. 24 jersey is the best-selling NBA jersey in the world (the world!) and retails at $45 a pop, with a large percentage of those sales going back the Lakers front office, and suddenly the ridiculous sounds a lot more reasonable [source: ESPN].
But then again, return on investment is a tricky thing. For a sports franchise to make stadium-loads of dough, they often have to throw large sums of cash at professionally unproven prospects. And in retrospect, what looks like a smart bet on a future superstar often turns out to be an egregiously bad business decision that sends the club spiraling into bankruptcy.
The following is our list of the 10 biggest contract catastrophes in professional sports, starting with Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ricky Williams. | <urn:uuid:40165d68-c7fe-497c-a60d-68ab30c95e5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.howstuffworks.com/10-bad-sports-contracts.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyStuff+%28DailyStuff+from+HowStuffWorks%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946124 | 360 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Have you ever thought of spending a summer rock climbing in Alaska? How about becoming a certified zip-line acrobatic specialist? Ever wondered what it would be like to do a backflip into a 200-foot deep ice crevasse, or to experience the difficulties of living on a glacier for 12 days? Ever heard of chia seeds in a limeade drink?
These adventurous interests are just the beginning of understanding the life of Lester Maxwell, Linfield’s senior middle-distance runner.
During the school year, Maxwell engages in tamer, but no less time-consuming, activities.
He was at the helm of the opening of the Linfield Garden, located next to Melrose Hall, as club president during the 2010-2011 school year.
He also is the student coordinator for the up-and-coming, after-school program KidFit, in which school-age kids learn about fitness and wellness – including healthy eating habits and nutrition – and participate in activities such as karate, special guest speeches and Linfield student-athlete meet-and-greets. Maxwell is proud of the program for the learning and teaching opportunities it has provided for him, the children and other Linfield students.
Maxwell feels his Linfield experiences have helped shape him as a person, since they have fostered his sense of competition, as well as a sense of community.
“It’s always great how people can come together for events on campus like Wildstock last year, or to support our nationally ranked athletic teams. I think that is something that is special and defining I've noticed during my time here,” says Maxwell.
Competition has been a part of Maxwell’s life for as long as he has been in sports. Though he found his niche in track, he has also tried other sports such as basketball and wrestling.
His competitive spirit does not stop at athletics, however.
Maxwell confesses, “I always appreciate challenges and will never back down from one. This has led to many failed eating contests, cinnamon challenges, one-legged bike races, pogo sticking, crying from eating habaneros, dance-offs and freestyle rap battles”.
This competitive attitude, according to Maxwell, comes from being a skinny kid in middle and high school. He always felt outmatched by his larger friends and foes, so he resorted to having a “scrappy, competitive attitude” in order to attempt to intimidate them.
However, in the long run, Maxwell’s desire for competition has elevated him to become a team leader and positive role model.
According to head track and field coach Travis Olson, “Lester has always been a great addition to our team. I think what sets him a part is his work ethic and the attitude he brings to practice everyday. Lester really knows how to compete and sets a great example for the rest of our team, and is very well respected by his coaches and teammates. This is why he is one of our team captains this year.”
Serving as team captain is a tremendous accomplishment, especially considering the amount of time Maxwell’s injuries have taken away from his running career. He has endured chronic ankle problems, likely caused by a lisfranc fracture. This type of injury, a microfracture on the top of the foot, is rare for distance runners as is usually only found in jumpers.
For the past two years, Maxwell has been on crutches and unable to run in the month of March, and he believes his injuries continue to impact him today, mentally if not physically.
“Once I was injured, I went into this big, negative spiral that just kept bringing me down. I could never train in our indoor season in January and February, which would impact my outdoor season, and the only way I could get out of it was to keep my head up and keep positive,” Maxwell said. “But there is always that voice in the back of my head that worries about pushing myself or racing too hard and reinjuring myself.”
After attending two other schools before transferring in, Maxwell has made Linfield his home.
Taking advantage of the exercise science program, he hopes to eventually attend graduate school for physical therapy. Immediately, however, Maxwell hopes to work for Brooks running company in their performance lab, testing footwear as a part of a nine-month, paid internship. Maxwell has already completed an internship with the local physical therapy clinic, where he found his passion for helping people through the recovery process.
His desire comes from a deep and personal understanding of the irritation, stress and frustration that accompany long-term injuries.
Maxwell certainly has experience applying his studies to real-world situations. What he learns over his final semester at Linfield will only help him continue to go the distance.
-- Kelsey McGarry '16
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Director of Sports Information
McMinnville, OR 97128 | <urn:uuid:49d3be9b-5c93-44be-81ea-0a3dae430f26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linfield.edu/sports/release.php?id=4882 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979211 | 1,083 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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