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I know, I know – you are sitting there reading reports of Italian national team players being arrested at their training camps: the coach of Juventus being taken in for questioning mere weeks after winning the national championship: dozens of other players being arrested – and you think, ‘There is no way that it can get worse! My goodness if even a tenth of these allegations are true. This is awful.’ However, all these stories are superficial details of a major theme that has emerged.
Listen up and listen well. I have said this before. I have been warning about this issue for seven years and most sports officials and journalists have deliberately ignored the message, so listen carefully this time and then take action.
We are speaking about an industrial-system of corruption in European football. This is no longer about allegations of key players and officials being involved in fixing, but a business model of corruption that is enveloping the sport.
Why the strong words?
First, over half the professional teams in Italy are now under investigation for corruption. Those are the teams, not individual players that are being questioned by police. If such a large number of teams is alleged to have been involved, it becomes part of an accepted business model to be corrupt. It is no longer about sensational details, but an informal system of governance.
Second, take a look at the Black Book by the umbrella organization of players’ unions in Europe – FIFPro. In January of 2012, they produced a very good survey of over three-thousand of their members (current European football players). More than ten percent of their members reported direct involvement in match-fixing, they had either fixed themselves or had been approached directly to fix. Another twenty-three percent of their members knew of fixing going on their leagues. The authors of the report write they think these numbers are an under-estimation of the amount of fixing going on as many teams that were rumoured to be corrupt refused to allow their players to take part in the survey.
With these kinds of numbers we are speaking of a business model – a professionalization of corruption. The allegation at the centre of all these scandals is that club officials and senior players are sitting down and choosing which games to win and which games to lose based on their own balance sheets and pension plans. They will plan to win twenty games a season, and lose ten. Because they have the certainty in losing – they can make more money by losing those games then they can by winning all the rest.
Who is fixing the Italian league?
According to the police documents that I am reading, it is the same group of Asian match-brokers and fixers that I wrote about in The Fix. They allied with a gang of Balkan semi-criminals who were their ‘runners’ and they entered into alliances with players, coaches and team officials.
I wrote about these guys and their methods. I named names. I showed how they went about their business. This scandal should not be a surprise to any sports official.
Is there any hope?
Yes, thank goodness for the Italian police and state prosecutors. Unlike their sports officials they have actually taken the problem seriously and are doing something about it. Hopefully, they can save Italian and European football before all credibility is gone. | <urn:uuid:b277b424-a560-4510-9645-4581c3a10466> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.howtofixasoccergame.com/blog/?p=281 | 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 | 0.985379 | 669 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, acting as Solicitor General, filed a brief last week granting the Vatican diplomatic immunity over a lawsuit brought against the Roman Catholic Church for sexually abusive priests.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, this is considered the first time the government has expressed an opinion about suing the Vatican.
The brief stated that an Oregon court did not have jurisdiction over a 2002 case, Doe v. Holy See. The case was filed by a sexual abuse victim who accused the Archdiocese of Portland and the archbishop of Chicago of protecting a priest who had a history of abuse and allowing him to continue to serve in those cities.
According to the blog Religion Clause, a federal appeals court in Oregon held that sexual abuse by priests was an exception to the Vatican’s immunity to U.S. jurisdiction because damages had been “caused by the tortious act or omission of that foreign state or of any official or employee of that foreign state while acting within the scope of his office or employment,”
Kagan’s brief defended the Vatican’s immunity and said that sexual abuse by priests could not be considered within the scope of their jobs; therefore the case did not fall under the exception and could not be considered U.S. jurisdiction. Doe v. Holy See was awaiting Supreme Court review,
Full text of the brief, filed Friday, is available here.
All day, the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops will be live-tweeting a Q and A on the sexual abuse scandal and the church’s response. Follow their feed to learn more about canon law and processes for dealing with abuse by priests. | <urn:uuid:2f3aa800-0a08-4eb7-a983-0c48b58c4fc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot/2010/05/obama-administration-sides-with-vatican-on-abuse-suit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9753 | 342 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Microsoft predicts that in a few years smartphones will make up 30% of the volume and more than 50% of the value of the mobile phone market.
This is clear evidence that we deal with a new stage in S-curve, that doesn't conform to standard economics. Another important aspect of this phenomenon is that it's not about the phone itself (hardware), but about many new ways to use it (software):
It is here where rivals like Samsung falter. With few apps to satisfy the whims of owners
iTunes is a critical control component in Apple's iPhone/iPod architecture. The software was originally built to help users manage thousands of songs, and now it seamlessly manages thousands of applications.
P.S. I would love to insert an annotated S-curve chart here, but my Mac doesn't have the tablet functionality. Damn.
system, mobile, apple, tool, control, control point, niche construction, | <urn:uuid:75c537c5-f92f-4eb2-b975-cb5765da55bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://innovationprinciples.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-this-recession-smartphone-market.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954846 | 195 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The New Mexico State University-Alamogordo nursing program has been placed on warning status by a national accrediting agency.
Dr. Cheri Jimeno, president of NMSU-A, said the nursing program risks losing accreditation if it does not turn itself around by 2014.
She said the program was placed on warning status late last year and is being required to increase its faculty, make changes to its curriculum and improve its pass rate for a nursing exam.
Jimeno said the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission wants the Alamogordo program to have eight or nine faculty with a master's of science and nursing degrees - currently it has five.
She said the program is also being asked to tweak its curriculum to reflect national trends in nursing in order to help graduates find jobs outside of the state and internationally.
Jimeno said the program will have to improve its pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination, which is increasing to 90 percent next year.
The program currently has a pass rate of about 69 percent, Jimeno said.
She said the nursing program is not accepting new students and is considering converting to a four-year program instead of a two-year program.
The NLNAC could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday night.
Contact John Bear at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnbearwithme | <urn:uuid:591d8c34-3770-4964-b804-75c253a61b32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_22844673/nmsu-alamogordo-nursing-program-life-support | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971082 | 288 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The silent 1928 Buster Keaton classic THE CAMERAMAN comes to the Music Box as part of its monthly Silent Cinema Series with live pipe organ accompaniment. In love with a woman working at MGM Studios, a photographer becomes a cameraman to get close to her. Clumsy and new to filming, he continuously makes a fool of himself in various situations. Second Saturday Silent Cinema presents THE CAMERAMAN on Saturday, November 10, noon, at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue.
THE CAMERAMAN was Buster Keaton’s first film for MGM Studios and made while he was still at the height of his career. Buster plays a sidewalk tintype portrait photographer who develops a crush on Sally (Marceline Day), an MGM secretary. In order to be near her, he uses all of his savings to purchase an old film camera and tries to get a job as one of MGM’s cameramen. Despite his complete lack of ability and experience, Sally encourages Buster to film everything he can, and a wild series of comedic mishaps ensues. From a dazed monkey to a war in Chinatown and a boat race gone wrong, The Cameraman delivers a classic, unforgettable Buster Keaton performance. Once thought lost but rediscovered in Paris in 1968, THE CAMERAMAN was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2005.
The Music Box Silent Cinema Series is presented on the second Saturday of each month at noon. All films are shown “authentically” in 35mm at proper silent film speed and aspect ratio with live accompaniment by Dennis Scott at the Music Box theatre organ.
Music Box Second Saturday Silent Cinema Series' THE CAMERAMAN tickets are priced at $10 for adults; $8 for students and seniors and may be purchased at the Music Box Theatre box office or online at http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/events/the-cameraman-2012-11-10-1200-pm.
Dennis Scott, Music Box Theatre’s house organist, is an internationally known silent film organist dubbed the “Master of Magic Notes” by Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of the comic genius Harold Lloyd. Scott began accompanying silent films in the 1970s, when he started playing theater pipe organs installed in pizza parlors in the Midwest and the West Coast. He is a co-founder of the Silent Film Society of Chicago. Ongoing at the Music Box, he plays weekend intermissions, the annual Sing-Along Sound of Music, Sing-Along Grease, Valentine’s Day Sing-Along and the acclaimed Music Box Christmas Sing-Along, a Chicago holiday tradition for nearly 30 years. For Music Box’s Second Saturday Silent Cinema Series, Scott accompanies a classic silent film, live, at noon on the second Saturday of each month on the Music Box Theatre organ. The series was named the “Best New Film Series of 2011” by Chicago magazine and “Best Matinee Film Series of 2012” by the Chicago Reader.
For nearly 30 years the Music Box Theatre has been the premier venue in Chicago for independent and foreign films, festivals and some of the greatest cinematic events in Chicago. It currently has the largest cinema space operated full time in the city. The Music Box Theatre is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation. SMBC, through its Music Box Films division, also distributes foreign and independent films in the theatrical, DVD and television markets throughout the United States. For additional information please visit www.musicboxtheatre.com . You may download the entire Music Box Theatre Fall Calendar here. | <urn:uuid:e258a184-013a-46ee-b207-23b01ba0cb3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chicago.broadwayworld.com/article/The-Music-Box-Theatre-To-Present-THE-CAMERAMAN-1110-20121031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936896 | 748 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Okay … I didn’t actually use a paper clip. I got a little too MacGyver on the title. But, I did make honest-to-goodness fruit snacks out of zucchini and kool-aid. And you can do it without a dehydrator, too.
And that kind of know-how would so impress MacGyver.
It’s super easy, cheap and way better for the kiddos than the high fructose corn syrup / modified corn starch numbers at the store.
There’s a few different versions of this recipe floating around the web, but this is my own recipes that, in my humble opinion, tastes even better, uses much less sugar and can actually work in the oven if you don’t have a dehydrator. I have made several batches over the last few days and hope my trial and error process helps someone out.
Homemade Fruit Snacks
Or the: Your Kids Will The Entire Batch In Two Minutes and You Finally Have Something To Do With All That Zucchini Besides Bread and Muffins Recipe
For this recipe you’ll need:
Wash, peel and halve your zucchini, even if you’re using small, tender squash.
You want to get all of the peel removed so that the zucchini meat dehydrates properly and looks in no way healthy. This is critical for the kids to buy into the idea. Halve your zucchini if you’re using baseball-sized ones like I did. It makes them much easier to work with.
Remove the seeds and pulp from the inside with a spoon, making sure the meat has a nice, even thickness.
When you’re done the zucchini should look like this:
peel-free and a fairly even thickness.
Cut the zucchini in long strips about 1/4” – 3/8” thick.
Don’t worry about being precise, just eyeball it. Wider strips will work fine, too—just allow for extra drying time.
Cut the strips into 1 inch pieces.
These will shrink up by half in the dehydrator giving you a bite sized piece.
Heat water, sugar and drink mix over high heat.
Add the zucchini as soon as the sugar is dissolved and bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
Drain thoroughly reserving cooking liquid and allow to cool in the strainer for ten minutes.
Dump zucchini out onto dehydrator trays or plastic wrap lined cookie sheets and let dehydrate.
Store in ziplock bags until they’re eaten up.
** Then lather, rinse, repeat. **
The next batch of zucchini can be cooked in the left-over cooking liquid with the same favor and texture.
Drying In A Dehydrator:
Dry snacks for about a day, being sure to rotate trays. Snacks are done with they’re still soft and pliable, but dry to the touch with a matte finish.
Drying In The Oven:
Line sheets with plastic wrap, but do not spray with cooking spray.(I used wax paper in this picture and it stuck horribly and discolored during the drying. Plastic wrap has worked beautifully on all of the batches since then).
You can either spread it around loosely with a spatula …
… or go the Martha Stewart route and line them all nice and neat.
The Martha way looks pretty, but it takes forever to do. And both ways cooks just as well so there’s not an advantage either way.
As you can see, the pieces will shrink by about half and darken in color during their drying time.
Set your oven between 140 – 170 degrees. (My oven’s lowest setting was WARM – 170 degrees). If your oven won’t go below 200 degrees, prop the door open with a hand towel and keep the temperature down a bit.
The drying time in the oven, as well as with the dehydrator, will vary depending on the piece sizes and humidity. I placed the batch below in the middle rack of the oven at 170 degrees right after lunch. I turned the oven off around 11 pm when I went to bed and kept the door closed all night.
In the morning they were almost done, so I scraped all the pieces together with a spatula to move them around, spread them back out and finished them in the oven at 170 degrees for about another 40 minutes. Again, drying times will vary.
(Again, use plastic wrap to line your pans. I used wax paper here and although the flavor and texture were fine, the paper discolored and didn’t look very appetizing.)
When they were done, the 1 inch long pieces ended up at 1/2” inch bites and the 1/2” inch pieces ended up the size of mini M&Ms and were chewier.
The smaller length pieces were also tough to use in the dehydrator because they kept falling through the cracks on the tray. They also dried out much faster than the bigger pieces. That made them much harder and chewy like jerky. My kids liked the soft, bigger pieces much better.
These snacks won’t win any beauty contests, but I’d rather give my kids 0.9 oz. of yummy homemade fruit snacks with all of the extra vitamins from the garden than the 0.9 oz. of the store bought variety with all the fillers and junk.
Oh, and these were supper cheap.
The store brand single serve packs work out to be about .20 each. The homemade variety ran me .06 each when I bought sugar (and used the cooking liquid for two batches) and .02 a serving when I used sugar on hand.
Edited to add:
We have achieved SOUR fruit snacks!
These are sooooo good!
Mix 4 c. zucchini, 3 c. water, 1 c. sugar or splenda and 10 orange Kool-aid packs.
(Yes, you really do need 10 packs.)
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft. Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to trays.
Then dehydrate as usual.
You can go the bite-sized route with this snacks, but my kids prefer leaving them 3-4 inches long.
They make the cutest little sour gummie worms. Yum.
Oh. my. heck.
So ridiculously good! Enjoy!Pin It Now! | <urn:uuid:cb557f41-744e-4c09-a9b5-08e94919d721> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://choosetothrive.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/i-just-made-killer-fruit-snacks-out-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937432 | 1,375 | 1.828125 | 2 |
2XU WOMEN'S TRIATHLON
You've spent hour after hour improving your level of fitness -- slugging away lap after lap and mile after mile. Your nutrition is well-regulated and on point, your bike and helmet look akin to space machines, but your apparel is Plain Jane, while it should be delivering as equal of an advantage as the aforementioned. So, instead of skimping where it truly matters, suit up in the 2XU Comp Women's Trisuit for a drag-reducing, muscle-controlling advantage on land and in the water.
2XU approached the Comp Trisuit with a deliberately even focus across all three disciplines of triathlon. Think about that. What fabric performs equally across the board? Well, the answer came in the form of development, and from this, the 70D elastane, SBR Skin X fabric was born. We know, we're not fans of titles filled with seemingly arbitrary numbers and letters, either. So, let's make some sense of this fabric. Basically, the '70D' stands for 70 denier. What's a denier? Simply put, a denier is a unit of measure for the weight of a fabric. Technically speaking, it measures a fabric's grams-per-9000-meters. And while a typical recovery compression piece features a material choice around 200 deniers and up, the Trisuit uses a lighter, less constricting 70 denier fabric. This means that you still receive a lightly focused graduated compression, but the most direct gains are made through limiting muscle oscillation. So, whether you're getting slapped by wakes, getting rattled in the saddle, or pummeled by your pounding on the pavement, the Skin X fabric provides an enhanced level of muscle support that will minimize fatigue.
And while this design feature complements all of the triathlon disciplines, Skin X maintains specific advantages both on the land and in the water. Starting with the water aspects, Skin X possesses hydrophobic properties. If your Latin is a little rusty, this means that the material is capable of repelling water during the swim. In fact, the fabric minimizes water retention, which also translates to an equal reduction in hydrodynamic and accelerate drag. But, you're probably wondering how this is possible? Well, Skin X is constructed from a high-density, hydrophobic blend of polyamide and Lycra. This means that the material's composition is tightly bound and provides a next-to-skin fit. However, 2XU ensured that the flexibility wasn't to be a lost attribute. Instead, the fabric incorporates a four-way stretch system that allows a full range of movement, while retaining its targeted compressive qualities.
So, 2XU ensured that you'll be blazing into T1, but how does the Trisuit hold up from there? Of course, one of the most pressing issues is riding or running with a wet, bulky chamois -- our bodies cringe merely thinking about it. The approach to alleviating this concern was twofold. First, the chamois has to be substantial enough for support in the saddle, yet it can't be so sizable as to inhibit your swim or run. Secondly, the insert has to remain dry over all three disciplines. Basically, 2XU set out to create the Holy Grail of triathlon chamois, and it did with the exclusive SBR Fleece insert. This chamois uses a variable density design that provides targeted support to pressured nerves, while remaining unnoticeable on foot and in the water. Additionally, 2XU constructed the fleece from a micro-filament polyester yarn with hydrophobic properties. So, neither water or perspiration will bog down the dryness of the fleece.
To ensure the Trisuit's fit, 2XU placed its own non-abrasive, Y elastic leg grippers. Entry and exit of the suit is handled by a rear zipper, and extra breathability and flexibility are handled by the suit's Sensor Mesh X stretch panels along the sides and back. For further comfort, the Comp Trisuit features a complete flatlock seam construction. So, you won't experience anymore pinching or painful rubbing over your body.
The 2XU Comp Women's Trisuit is available in five sizes from X-Small to X-Large and in the colors Black/black, Bright Emerald/aquamarine, Cornflower Blue/coastal blue, and Indigo/blister pink. | <urn:uuid:181a9f52-c2ac-4210-8bb3-33e62c76264d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=BUY_PRODUCT_STANDARD&PRODUCT.ID=36824&CATEGORY.ID=3818&MODE=&TFC=FALSE&TOP_PARENT.ID=&BRAND.ID= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944342 | 932 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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KRWG.ORG-The Region's Home Page
Mon November 5, 2012
New York To Allow Voters To Cast Ballots By Affidavit
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Now many who will cast presidential ballots in New York have been facing a complicated post-storm challenge - where they should vote. Superstorm Sandy has displaced many residents from their homes and some polling places are out of commission because of storm damage. Late today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order, telling voters they can cast ballots wherever they want.
I asked NPR's Quil Lawrence in New York about just what Governor Cuomo said today.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: He said that he would sign an executive order that would allow New Yorkers to vote wherever they show up, any polling station anywhere. So there had been a lot of discussion about polling stations being merged or moved from damaged places, and now anyone who shows up at a polling station can cast a ballot by affidavit. And that will allow them to vote in the presidential and the Senate races. They won't be able to vote from anywhere for local state legislative candidates.
BLOCK: And does that help ease the confusion do you think?
LAWRENCE: It's hard to say. He's just announced it this evening. There had been a lot of information out there from the Board of Elections about where people should be going, how they could catch a shuttle bus. But that said, the commissioners had also been delivering a similar message, which is if you get to the polling station and you don't find your name there, sign an affidavit, cast your ballot that way. One of the commissioners I spoke with today said, don't despair, we want your vote to be counted.
BLOCK: Quil, when you were out and about talking to would-be voters today, what were you hearing from people, especially in these neighborhoods where they're not able to get much information, they may not have power? What are you hearing from people?
LAWRENCE: Sure. Some people told me, well, I haven't gotten my mail in five days. I just moved back into my apartment. It was flooded. And usually they send me a note telling me where to vote, so I don't know where I'm going to vote. There were some people who were quite determined. And I have to say, some of the folks who said, well, I don't know where to vote now also said that they hadn't registered yet. So they clearly weren't - really didn't have their act together even before the storm.
Other people I spoke to said, you know, life is going on. I always vote around the corner at Public School 188 and that's where I'm going to vote this time. They seemed determined that they would still have their vote be counted. But, you know, a lot of people have other things on their mind if they're without power, they're looking for a place for their family to stay, they might not get around to politics this year.
BLOCK: And again, Quil, the order from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that New Yorkers can vote in any polling place. They can get a provisional ballot in any polling place. But, again, only for the presidential and the Senate races. Is that right?
LAWRENCE: Correct, yes. They'll have to be in the right place if they want to vote for local races.
BLOCK: OK. NPR's Quil Lawrence in New York. Quil, thanks very much.
LAWRENCE: Thanks, Melissa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:bf5b8c1d-09a1-452c-b15a-da608aecd8ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://krwg-tv.org/post/new-york-allow-voters-cast-ballots-affidavit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983316 | 763 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Sometimes, you have to spend money to save money. That’s definitely the case when you’re investing in a good guidebook.
As budget travelers, we try to cut corners wherever possible. But sometimes you need to spend money to save money and get the best value from our trip. The single best way to do that is to invest in a good guidebook – or several, if you’re planning a long, multi-country trip.
In the age of the internet, people are turning away from good old-fashioned books and turning to the web for valuable information. And you can find great travel information on the web. But unless you’ve got a lot of time, or have perfected the art of Google search, a guidebook that makes travel information readily accessible is definitely worth the investment. (That’s not to say you shouldn’t go online to supplement your guidebook’s information – you definitely should!)
A good guidebook provides a lot more information than you may realize. Yes, it will give you recommendations for where to sleep and eat, or the operating hours of top attractions. But a really good guidebook will go beyond that and help you understand the culture or cultures of your destination. It will tell you how to navigate essential cultural experiences, from tapas bars to tango milongas. It will tell you how to avoid the crowds, which sights aren’t worth the effort, and how to get from Point A to Point B – all of which save you time.
And time is money. Well, maybe not exactly, but if you consider your airplane ticket an investment in your travel experience, you’ll receive a greater payoff the more time you spend actually seeing and doing what you saved up your money to see and do.
My guidebooks are filled with dog ears, notes, and highlights; they’re used and abused for months before and then during my trip. I knew that walking up the Eiffel Tower would save me money and time in line, and that most of the Louvre was not worth the time. I also knew the best way to get from Rome to Siena, and whether I’d need reservations in advance. And I knew to savor and enjoy my dinner; this was Europe, after all. Loitering is encouraged.
So before you get too far into planning your next trip, take some time to research a good guidebook, and pick up the latest version. The time and money you’ll save with the advice you find between the covers will be well worth your investment. | <urn:uuid:8c3f74b8-da45-45b3-8d43-75ba003e2b17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.backroadsandbackpacks.com/2011/10/25/cheap-travel-trick-6/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939943 | 538 | 1.546875 | 2 |
- MARKET TRENDS
- WEB EXCLUSIVES
- BUYER'S GUIDE
Both the House and Senate introduced new food safety legislation that could give the FDA new regulatory authority.
Both the House and Senate introduced new food safety legislation that could give the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) new regulatory authority over imported and domestic foods, as well as the entire food industry, according to the Independent Bakers Association (IBA).
IBA reports the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), has bipartisan support and is substantially the same bill as the version that was introduced in the chamber last summer. The bill would require all registered FDA facilities to have a food safety plan to identify potential food safety hazards and preventive controls.
The bill also would require new regulations to prevent intentional adulteration of bulk food products identified as high risk, establish supplier verification requirements for imported foods and give FDA mandatory recall authority. To cover anticipated costs of implementation, the bill would institute a limited system of user fees that would reimburse FDA for costs associated with food-product recalls and facility re-inspection.
Notably absent from the Durbin bill are two concepts included in other food safety bills currently being considered by Congress. The other bills, IBA notes, would impose new user fees and mandatory certification requirements for imported food products.
In the House, the Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards and Targeting Act (H.R. 1332,), known as the Safe FEAST Act of 2009, also was developed with a bipartisan approach and input from the food industry, according to IBA. | <urn:uuid:18beb826-18cd-4f6d-a04f-7979c1a17934> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.snackandbakery.com/articles/83235-new-bills-may-bolster-fda-s-authority | 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 | 0.95601 | 342 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The graduate programs at Bethlehem Seminary, the Master of Divinity and Master of Theology, are designed to train men who aspire to vocational Christian ministry. These graduate programs are the fruit of years of intentional leadership development at Bethlehem Baptist Church. The foundational convictions underlying these programs include a church-based setting for theological and practical training, the priority of original language exegesis, and extensive mentored ministry.
There is an intentional effort in the sequencing of the following courses: Background and Message of the Torah and Former Prophets, Background and Message of the Latter Prophets and the Writings, Background and Message of the New Testament, and Church History 1 and 2. Students in their first year also take World Missions in the Local Church (with a significant focus on the history of missions) to stress the priority of God’s global purposes in the world. We have done this to demonstrate the unfolding purpose of God to fill the earth with His glory “as the waters cover the sea” by winning worshipers to Himself from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (as set forth in the first semester course entitled: God’s Zeal for His Glory). We have set up the flow of courses in such a way that the biblical languages will be integrated into every year of the M.Div.--study of intermediate Greek in years 1–2, study of beginning and intermediate Hebrew in years 2–3, and original language-based elective courses and History of Redemption in years 3–4. | <urn:uuid:9b0f1e0a-0235-4ad2-99fa-0f3e4c5cad21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bethlehemcollegeandseminary.org/index.php/bethlehem-seminary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940246 | 303 | 1.507813 | 2 |
On 25 Jan 1972, the winner was "undecided" as Democrats sought a candidate to best Richard Nixon. The tally: uncommitted 36%; Sen. Ed Muskie (ME), 35.5%; and Sen. George McGovern (SD), 23%. McGovern went on to win the nomination, but Nixon took the election, with 520 electoral votes to 17.
On 19 Jan 1976, the winner was again "undecided." In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Iowa Democrats (and much of America) were focused on change. The candidate riding that wave was ex-Gov. Jimmy Carter (GA). The tally: uncommitted 37%; Carter 28%; Sen. Birch Bayh (IL), 13%; ex-Sen. Fred Harris (OK), 10%; Rep. Mo Udall (AZ), 6%; Sargent Shriver, 3%. President Ford did not campaign; ex-Gov. Ronald Reagan (CA) made only one stop. Carter went on to take the nomination and the election, 297 electoral votes to President Fordís 240.
On 21 Jan 1980, Republican George Bush (TX) took 1976 VP nominee Ronald Reagan (CA) by surprise: Bush 32%, Reagan 29.5%. Other Republican contenders: Sen. Howard Baker (TN), 15%; ex-Gov. John Connally (TX), 9%; Rep. Phil Crane (IL), 7%; Rep. John Anderson (IL), 4%; Sen. Bob Dole (KS), 1.5%. On the Democratic side, President Carter took 59%; Sen. Ted Kennedy (MA) had 31% with only 10% uncommitted. Reagan went on to take the nomination and the election, 489 electoral votes to 49. | <urn:uuid:fe6f22b5-590d-470e-a4c8-e09bc3240e7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2007/12/27/does-iowa-matter.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939812 | 345 | 1.625 | 2 |
A recent letter by Kevin Chown takes our state rep. to task about what is in or not in the so-called Affordable Health Care law. Evidently Kevin has an inside track on this piece of legislation that not many know much about.
One reason people are lacking an understanding of this lengthy bill is that it is over 2,500 pages. As one Supreme Court Justice stated, "Forcing a person to read the bill would be cruel and unusual punishment." One thing politicians, usually Democrats, do is to give a piece of legislation a nice friendly name. So we have the so-called Affordable Care Act. But already the Health and Human Services people have added 13,000 pages of rules and there will be more. There will be over 16,500 new IRS workers to collect, examine, and audit tax returns. Where will the money come from to pay these people as we are deeply in debt and borrowing 40 cents for every dollar we spend?
Also, there will be at least 180 new boards, commissions, and bureaus. The people working in these offices will have to be paid also.
So, the more one looks at the Affordable Care Act, it seems to get less affordable. But just to make you feel good that our national government is looking after you, Obamacare states 1,563 times that the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine. Gosh, the more I read and hear about the Affordable Care Act, the better I feel. Unfortunately the middle class people will pay higher taxes. But Mr. Obama has our best interest at heart, so we will have to forgive him for breaking his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.
Concerning the job picture, Mr. Obama states that he has added 4 million jobs. That might seem like a huge number, but a closer look will dispel that bit of nonsense.
Mr. O has been in office 42 months. So dividing 4 million by 42 gives us about 95,000 jobs per month. But to get below the 8 percent unemployed, figure he would have to average 220,000 a month. He is a long way from that figure.
To close this letter, I will cite a pearl of wisdom from Thomas Sowell, an economist. "For a long time, Democrats have gone to Washington to win at all costs, while too many Republicans went to Washington to compromise with Democrats. The rise of the Tea Party may change that." | <urn:uuid:ab280a6a-4b34-4eef-9e01-9c95743d8df8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailypress.net/page/content.detail/id/537453/Legislation-with-a-friendly-name.html?nav=5005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964196 | 494 | 1.554688 | 2 |
We hit with a bump and lurched forward at a 45-degree angle. Two crew members grabbed the basket, and Rider pulled on a rope to open the flap at the top of the balloon. The hot air started to escape and we came upright. One of the crewmen grabbed a pull rope, which hung from the top of the balloon, and held tight to the line while Afternoon Delight struggled like an enraged sea beast. Rider continued to yank the deflation panel; the balloon's sides began to collapse. Suddenly Afternoon Delight quivered like a jellyfish, gave up the fight and settled to earth.
The Balloon Ranch is the creation of Link Baum, 32, an intense young man with fragile good looks and a faraway manner. He is already a living legend among balloonists. In 1970 Baum became the youngest man ever to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon, an achievement he dismisses casually. "As far as I'm concerned, the Channel was just another balloon ride. It's much more impressive that I got into ballooning so early. When I crossed the Channel there were only 60 balloons in the whole U.S. Now there are around 3,000."
After the Channel crossing, Baum moved to Denver with the vague idea of starting a ballooning resort. He saw the San Luis Valley in 1974 and was impressed. "It was big and wide and protected," he explains. "As soon as I saw the valley I knew it was the promised land." A year later Baum started an inspection tour at the top of the valley and worked his way down. On the third day he came upon the site he was to pick, an overgrown 144-acre sheep ranch with an old two-story barn stuck in the middle. He put down enough money for the barn and 22 acres, then called David Levin, a childhood friend, and asked him to buy the other 122. Levin came out from Boston, where he was attending law school. The two friends started at one end of the property, paced the entire perimeter and, by the time they were finished, Levin was sold. He put up the money and went back to law school, intending to be a silent partner in the ranch. But he quickly learned that his future was in balloons, not court. "You tell people you're a lawyer—so what. But you tell them you run a balloon ranch, that's something special," he says.
Levin took over full ownership of the property in 1978, and while Baum still spends time at the ranch, he has no active part in its operation.
The Balloon Ranch accommodates 32 guests in a 14-room chalet and a few cabins that sit in the shadow of the San Juan Mountains. The amenities include a tennis court, a Jacuzzi, a redwood hot tub and a pool around which one can sit sipping margaritas. But since ballooning usually ends by 8:30 in the morning (except in winter, when winds die down at dusk), the ranch provides other diversions—technical rock climbing, Jeep tours, horseback riding, rafting down the Rio Grande—all of which are more strenuous activities than ballooning.
Originally, Baum intended the ranch to be a resort where experienced flyers could totally immerse themselves in ballooning. But hard-core balloonists are often attached to their own clubs and balloon ports. The Balloon Ranch caters almost exclusively to tenderfeet. So far only 25 people have completed the certification for a private license (10 to 15 hours of lessons, plus ground training at a cost of $1,500); Rider estimates that only one guest in 20 takes an introductory lesson ($125). People are content to have the ranch pilots squire them around the sky for $85 a ride, which is dirt cheap as ballooning goes.
My introductory lesson was scheduled for a Saturday morning. I attached the burner and fuel lines as Rider had instructed and stood off to the side while he routinely set up the cables and began inflating the balloon. Afternoon Delight was reacting to a northwest wind. David Levin was piloting Baby, an impressive 105,000-cubic-foot balloon (about 30,000 cubic feet larger than Delight), some 40 feet to our right—too close I later learned—and about half inflated. She looked like a seven-story multicolored wave about to break. Then the wind shifted suddenly. It swung Baby to the left, where she wallowed on top of Afternoon Delight. Rider ordered, "Get in the basket." I jumped in as he told the crew to pick up the basket and walk it forward. Four men pulled us free of Baby and started trotting with the wind to negate its velocity. "I don't like this at all," Rider muttered. He was half standing, half squatting on the rim of the basket, fighting with dozens of steel coils that seemed to be attacking him.
Afternoon Delight was not fully inflated when Baby hit, and now, like a Venus's-flytrap, she threatened to close completely. Our balloon also was missing its "Nomex" skirt, a bottom layer of highly fire-resistant fabric, and to shoot the flame would be hazardous. Rider was aiming at an opening only 60% as large as it should have been, and taking a big risk that sections of the fabric would melt. He fought the wires, shooting the burner when safe. He finally got the bag inflated and Afternoon Delight righted herself. Everything would have been fine if the wind hadn't kicked up just at that moment and started bouncing Afternoon Delight around like a beach ball. "Get the other passengers," he yelled. "I can't wait any longer." Two men ran up carrying a young woman from Philadelphia and threw her into the basket like a duffel bag. There was a look of pure fear in her eyes as she sailed over the edge. The basket started to skid along the ground, bumping every few feet like a young bird learning flight. As it rose, Charlie Schulze, a fellow passenger, grabbed the basket and, in full stride, vaulted himself neatly over the side. Suddenly we were airborne; all movement stopped and the ground dropped away.
After a few moments Rider let me take over. I grabbed the overhead propane burner and squeezed the trigger steadily until we got to 1,000 feet. Then I leveled off. Down below, Baby straightened and began to move up like a tear-shaped air bubble. Rider turned to me and asked, "Are we rising, falling or staying level?" I looked west at our shadow. It was rising briskly. "Rising," I said. "Never judge by your shadow," he warned. "Look at the mountaintops." I looked in time to see us slowly sinking into the valley, so I blasted the burner until we started moving up again. For the next half hour we went gently pogo-sticking through the sky while I consistently burned too late and then frantically overcompensated so that we shot past our mark.
Flying a balloon, I was learning, is not a precise science, though some pilots would differ. Since there is about a 15-second delay between the time you start a burn and when the balloon finally responds, one needs a feeling and intuition for up-and-down movement. And because a balloonist has almost no horizontal control, going in a chosen direction takes savvy and more than a little luck. The best a pilot can do is search for the right wind current and hope it takes him where he wants to go. Since wind is very fickle, balloonists do a lot of searching. | <urn:uuid:f3978f54-e5cb-4430-aaf1-17fa404a2684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124402/2/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977458 | 1,583 | 1.5 | 2 |
Most cars emerge from a cauldron of corporate intrigue and dissolve back into a vat of recriminations and blame-shifting a few years later. But on occasion, one lone wolf inside a car company manages to shepherd his (or her) vision through the morass of bureaucratic infighting and produce something special. That was the case with the 1955 Chrysler 300.
At age 37, Robert MacGregor Rodger was a 15-year veteran of Chrysler in 1953, and a member of the team that launched the corporation's first Hemi V8 back in '51. He was also, despite his relative youth, the chief engineer of the Chrysler Division. Heading into its third year, the Hemi had only grown stronger and tasted racing success in Briggs Cunningham's C-2, C-4R and C-5R Le Mans racers. It was also starting to dominate the newly developing world of organized drag racing. Rodger was convinced that a standard 331-cubic-inch (5.4-liter) Hemi running one of Cunningham's cams with solid lifters, dual four-barrel carbs and an 8.5-to-1 compression ratio could produce 300 reliable and civilized horsepower. But for all that, Chrysler didn't really have a production car that seemed an appropriate showcase for such performance.
So Rodger proposed that Chrysler build a special car, a two-door hardtop, for the Hemi. There wasn't any budget for new sheet metal, so he bolted the top-of-the-line Imperial's nose onto a New Yorker hardtop two-door body shell with Windsor model rear quarter panels to produce the 1955 300. Chrysler's chief designer, Virgil Exner, tweaked the design by excising the Imperial's massive front bumper in favor of the less ornate one used on the base Chrysler, and the 300 went into production.
Since then, Rodger's inspiration (or at least its namesake) has gone in and out of production several times. At first, it was offered as a high-performance, well-appointed sibling to the lavishly luxurious Imperial atop Chrysler's lineup. Later, it wasn't much more than a heavily optioned Newport, and a few years after that, it was a redecorated Cordoba. Some two decades later, it became a high-performance version of the corporate front-wheel-drive LH sedan platform. Today, it's the herald of a new rear-drive future for Chrysler and the most spectacular home yet for an all-new Hemi V8. It's amazing how Chrysler came back to Bob Rodger's basic idea nearly a half century later.
First Generation: 1955-1956
Officially offered for sale on February 10, 1955, the first Chrysler 300 was athletic-looking, but it didn't have a letter at the end of its name. With 300 horsepower aboard, it was among the quickest cars of its time, getting to 60 mph in just 9.8 seconds, according to a test in Mechanix Illustrated by "Uncle Tom" McCahill, who also spurred the car up to a full 130 mph. But beyond being the most powerful production car of its time, the first Chrysler 300 was also among the best handling thanks to a heavy-duty suspension. It was also very luxurious and handsome in a bulky linebacker sort of way.
But the most prominent display of the first 300's attributes didn't come in any showroom, but on racetracks around the Southeast. Back in '55, NASCAR stock cars were in fact stock production vehicles and, except for some crude safety equipment and numbers on the doors, almost indistinguishable from the cars the public could buy. With absolutely no support from Chrysler, Mercury Outboard founder Carl Kiekhaefer campaigned a fleet of white 300s during the 1955 NASCAR Grand National season with drivers like the Flock brothers (Tim, Fonty and Bob) and Norm Nelson behind the wheel.
The Kiekhaefer 300s were spectacularly dominant and overwhelmed the factory-backed Chevrolets and Fords. Tim Flock took the driver's championship while winning 18 of the 38 races he entered and finishing in the top five an astounding 32 times. His brother, Fonty, took another three victories, while Chrysler campaigner Lee Petty took home three trophies. Suddenly, the 300 had a glorious racing heritage.
Considering the short model year for that first 300 (only 1,725 were sold at a thick $4,109 base price), it was no surprise that the 1956 300 was pretty much a carryover machine. Actually, the easiest way to tell the '56 300 from the '55 was that it now wore the name "300-B" as the tradition of labeling each subsequent model year with the next letter of the alphabet began.
Beyond that name modification and new taillights, the 300-B also featured the latest version of the Hemi V8, now displacing 354 cubic inches and making 340 hp. Plus, there was now an optional version featuring a 10.0-to-1 compression ratio that was rated at an almost unfathomable 355 hp. Success on the racetrack continued, but sales actually softened a bit to just 1,102 units.
Even by the standards of the mid-'50s, the entire Chrysler range of cars looked a little dowdy. If the 300 were to prosper, it had to get looks to match its performance.
Second Generation: 1957-1959
Virgil Exner, then Chrysler's design chief, called his new styling direction that was seen on all the 1957 Chryslers "Sweptline," in reference to the upswept tailfins that adorned the cars' rear flanks. And the car that best exemplified the new look was the new 300-C. This car wasn't just gorgeous, but glamorous. From its Ferrari-like grille to the plump rear fins, the 300-C exuded sex appeal in a way no domestic car had before it. The original 300-C is still considered by many to be the most beautiful and desirable 300 of them all.
More than just the sheet metal was new, as Chrysler put a whole new chassis under its cars for '57, featuring a torsion bar front suspension. And the Hemi itself had grown to 392 cubic inches (6.4 liters) and was now available in 375- and 390-hp versions. Most 300-Cs came equipped with Chrysler's TorqueFlite push-button automatic transmission, but the 390-hp version was usually paired with a three-speed manual transmission. The 300-C was also the first 300 available as a convertible.
Stuffed with more leather than ever before and wearing a new circular badge that would become a 300-series trademark, the base price of the 300-C hardtop ($4,929) was almost $700 more than that of the 300-B. But that hardly mattered, as this radically more attractive machine found 2,402 buyers — 484 of them opting for convertibles. The first two years of the 300 may have established the marque's performance credentials, but it was the 300-C that gave the car an aura of greatness.
Chrysler didn't do much to create the 1958 300-D, other than modify the '57 hardtop's windshield slightly, throw some red paint on the hubcaps and offer Bendix's electronic fuel injection system as an option. Unfortunately, electronic fuel injection wasn't a great idea in an era when vacuum tubes still ruled the electronics world, and the 16 or so cars equipped with the Bendix system were recalled and retrofitted with carburetors. The single engine that remained, a 392-cubic-inch Hemi wearing dual Carter four-barrel carbs, made 380 hp.
"Once moving, the 300's huge 9.00-by-14 nylons slap at tar strips with solid authority," wrote the Motor Trend editors about the 300-D. "The low-speed ride is rough on city streets, solid on highways up to 85 or so and just right at anything you can run over that. There's no body or chassis vibration from either engine or suspension
. The entire package is an impressively engineered, confident automobile that knows it's good — and soon let's you know it, too." In spite of the accolades, production dropped to 618 hardtops and 191 convertibles that year.
And that was it for the Hemi engine in the 300 for the next 47 years.
While the 1959 300-E looked much like the 300-D (except for a new grille texture and, of course, the modified badges), Chrysler fitted it with a 413-cubic-inch (6.8-liter) "Wedge" head V8. Swapping the Hemi's hemispherical combustion chambers for the Wedge's wedge-shaped ones didn't change the 380 hp available to buyers (the induction system remained dual Carter four-barrels), but it did provide additional torque lower in the power band. Just 550 hardtop and 140 convertible 300-Es found homes that year.
What was next for the 300 was a whole new way of building Chryslers.
Third Generation: 1960-1962
All the new 1960 Chryslers looked different, and they truly were as the corporation adopted unibody construction techniques for all its full-size cars. So the 300-F would be the first 300 to lack a traditional ladder frame underneath it.
The relatively elegant styling of the 300-C, -D and -E was tossed aside with the 300-F, as it adopted some of the most flamboyant styling ever seen outside the Ringling Brothers big top. The tail fins were now razor-thin and ended in a point that looked ready to impale pedestrians. The flat trunk lid between the fins featured the impression of a spare tire. And up front, there was a spectacular, yet tastefully simple, grille with just two thin chrome bars intersecting at the grille's center.
Matching the over-the-top exterior, the 300-F's interior featured four individual bucket seats with a center console running the length of the cockpit between them. The "Astradome" instrumentation put a 150-mph speedometer under a large, clear plastic dome with subordinate gauges in their own smaller domes.
But the sheer spectacle of the 300-F didn't stop there. In the engine bay, the 413 Wedge V8 now featured an exotic "Ram-Tuned" long runner intake manifold that placed each Carter carb outboard of the engine itself, feeding the opposite bank of cylinders. The throttle linkage alone had the intimidating intricacy of a Swiss watch. Power was now pegged at 375 hp in most 300-Fs, with a very few vehicles getting a higher-compression version making 400 hp. Nearly all cars were equipped with the Torqueflite three-speed automatic, but a handful (maybe four) had a French-made "Pont-A-Mousson" four-speed manual. Production rose to 964 hardtops and 248 convertibles.
Except for modified styling that included headlights stacked inside slanted housings, the 1961 300-G was very much a carryover from the 300-F. Still, production climbed to 1,280 hardtops and 337 convertibles.
Things got confusing for 1962, as the 300 was now available in two distinct series. First was the traditional "Letter Series" car now called, naturally, the 300-H, which lost the massive tail fins of previous years but was otherwise a rerun of the 300-G. Then, there was the new 300 "Sport Series," which essentially replaced the Windsor in Chrysler's lineup and included the first four-doors (hardtop and pillared sedan) to carry the 300 name. The Sport Series carried over the Letter Series grille and styling cues but used a revised version of the lower-line Newport interior. And while the 300-H still had the 413 under its hood (once again rated at 380 hp), the Sport Series packed the relatively lackluster 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) V8, making just 305 hp while breathing through a single two-barrel carb.
If nothing else, the addition of the Sport Series confused the public, and sales of the 300-H plummeted to just 435 hardtops and 123 convertibles. However, that was offset by the 25,578 Sport Series 300s that were sold.
Fourth Generation: 1963-1964
A major restyling came to all Chryslers for 1963, and the Letter Series 300 was no exception. However, the company decided to skip over the letter "I" and named this car the 300-J. And it was available only as a two-door hardtop with a 390-hp version of the 413 Wedge under its hood. Sales shrank to a total of just 400 300-Js. At the same time, 24,665 300 Sport Series models were shipped — including 2,167 replicas of the 300 convertible that paced that year's Indianapolis 500.
The convertible returned to the Letter Series for 1964, but the 300-K was otherwise identical to the 300-J. Still, Letter Series sales rebounded to 3,022 hardtops and 625 convertibles, while 26,887 Sport Series cars found homes.
Fifth Generation: 1965-1966
For 1965, the 300s got a sleeker body. For the first time, dual carbs weren't available and output of the 413 dropped to 360 hp on the 300-L. There were only barely discernable differences between the 300-L and lesser 300s. It was obvious — the Letter Series was doomed
even though 2,405 hardtops and 440 convertibles were sold that year.
With the Letter Series terminated for 1966, the 300 became, well, merely an ordinary Chrysler. The 1966 300 was available in four different body styles: two-door hardtop, four-door hardtop, convertible and four-door sedan. All were built on the same 124-inch wheelbase of other Chryslers and shared the same basic styling. The standard engine in the 300 was the 383 V8 with a single four-barrel carburetor making a relatively modest 325 hp. A 365-hp version of the same engine was optional.
Sixth Generation: 1967-1968
A new roof and pointed grille distinguished the 1967 300 from the '66 model, and the four-door sedan was gone from the lineup. But the biggest change was a move up to Chrysler's 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) V8 which, inhaling through a single four-barrel, was rated at 350 hp. For just $79, buyers could have the "TNT" version of the 440 making 375 hp.
Hidden headlamps were added to the 1968 300's bag of styling tricks to create a unique look similar to the 300-X show car Chrysler had displayed in 1966. But there really wasn't much else changed, and a total of 34,621 300s were built with 2,161 of those being convertibles.
Seventh Generation: 1969-1971
The 300 had always been a big car, but in 1969 it grew even larger with a new slab-sided body it shared with the lower-line Newport and luxury-leader Imperial. The available engines and body styles stayed the same, and sales dipped slightly to 32,472 cars.
Nothing was new about the 1970 300, except for revised taillights. But the Hurst Corporation took matters into its own hands when it made 501 special Chrysler 300-Hurst models during the year. Featuring a special white and gold paint scheme and a Hurst shifter controlling the three-speed Torqueflite automatic, power for the Hurst model came from the 375-hp TNT 440. While this model is not generally considered part of the 300 letter car series, it is considered collectible.
The 300 would limp into 1971 shorn of its convertible model and selling just 13,939 units. There was no 1972 Chrysler 300, and practically no one mourned its passing.
Eighth Generation: 1979
By 1979, Chrysler's midsize personal luxury car, the Cordoba, was four years old and beginning to fade in the marketplace. So midway through the model year Chrysler decided to redecorate the Cordoba using white paint, some phony front fender vents and red, white and blue pinstriping, and called it the "300." That sounds bad, but it gets worse. The only engine offered was a 195-hp, 360-cubic-inch (5.9-liter) V8 which, when combined with the three-speed automatic transmission, produced less than thrilling performance.
No wonder that the 300 went into a 20-year hibernation after that.
Ninth Generation: 1999-2004
Every 300 produced between '55 and '79 had a V8 engine, rear-wheel drive and at least one two-door body style in common. The all-new 1999 300M was an altogether different beast: a four-door sedan with a V6 engine in its nose driving the front wheels. Yet by most measures it was the best 300 yet.
Before its introduction, Marty Levine, then general manager for Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep-Eagle, promised The Detroit News, "This is not going to be another European wannabe sport sedan. We've never done a letter car that was as exclusively American as this." So, of course that meant the new car would be built in Canada.
Based on the second-generation of Chrysler's "cab forward" LH platform, the 300M used a 3.5-liter, SOHC, 24-valve V6 making a commendable 253 hp (that's net horsepower, a far more conservative standard than the "gross" rating used in the '50s and '60s) and mounted longitudinally in the engine bay. It drove a four-speed automatic transaxle that featured "AutoStick" manual shifting using the floor-mounted lever. Much of what one would expect on a "Letter Car" was in fact standard, including leather seating surfaces, power seats, power everything else and, for the first time on a 300, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS.
Edmund.com's first encounter with the 300M was a positive one. "[The] 300M was designed to offer a taut suspension and consistent steering as well as a strong motor," we wrote. "Two different suspension settings are available for the 300M: the standard one for more of a touring taste, and an optional Performance Handling Group which includes a tighter suspension. The performance suspension is standard fare for exported 300Ms, but because Americans seem to prefer interstate cruising to negotiating switchbacks, we have to settle for a slightly softer ride. Or you can pay an extra $255 for the 'Performance' suspension, tighter steering, 16-inch performance tires, high-performance ABS and a less restrictive governor on the top speed. Consider it money well spent." With a price starting at $28,700, the new 300M was an instant hit for Chrysler.
Unlike previous Letter Cars that got a new letter designation every year, the 300M made it into the year 2000 with its original name intact. In fact, virtually the entire car was a carryover from '99, and the '00 model finished fourth in Edmunds.com's comparison of eight entry-level luxury cars. "Everything about the 300M," we then wrote, "from its monstrous size to its guttural engine roar, exuded classic American iron. Even the gauges feature an old-world font. With their 'Timex Indiglo' lighting and polished chrome rings, it was easy to see the original Chrysler 300's bloodline in this latest 300M sedan
. Chrysler is to be commended for doing more than just rebadging a Concorde and calling it a 300 (an approach taken by certain American carmakers all too often). The 300M gets its own sheet metal, suspension and the aforementioned classic gauge cluster."
However, the car did garner criticism for featuring mere 16-inch wheels in a class where 17s were becoming the standard, for the raucous nature of its 3.5-liter V6 and for its lackluster braking performance. "Think of the 300M as Chrysler's first serious attempt at a world car," we concluded. "The shortened length (compared to an LHS sedan) widens its appeal to European buyers, and the suspension offers handling that few comparably sized sedans can match. As a true world car, it needs improved brakes and much higher build-quality standards. As a people mover for full-size hot-rod enthusiasts, it hits the mark."
Changes were scant to the 300M for 2001, but a hot-rodded "Special" model arrived for 2002 with a firmer suspension, an upgrade brake system, increased-effort steering, 18-inch wheels with Michelin Pilot tires and mild cosmetic touches inside and out.
We revisited the car, as a 300M Special took part of a five-car, entry-level luxury sedan comparison test. It finished fourth again this time behind the Infiniti I35, Lexus ES 300, Saab 9-5 and Volkswagen Passat W8. Road Test Editor Erin Riches wrote, "The 300M Special has a controlled yet taut ride and tire rumble makes the cabin noisy on the highway. Of course the very attributes that make the 300M less compliant than its peers also make it a rewarding companion for any driver who turns onto a winding two-lane highway — the Chrysler was the only full-size car in this group, but it exhibited the least body roll and the most grip when pushed around curves, and maintained the highest speed through the 600-foot slalom (63.6 mph). Stability control is not available for the 300M; standard traction control prevents the front wheels from spinning excessively on slippery surfaces
. Our test vehicle had much the same build quality issues as the earlier 300M Special we tested — various interior rattles, a slightly loose center console, front doors that rubbed against the firewall pads whenever they were opened or closed and misaligned exterior body panels.
"Compared with the ES 300, I35 and Passat W8, the 300M Special seemed too rough around the edges for an entry-level luxury sedan. While its roomy interior and surprising performance thresholds could justify a test-drive for some, it's not a car that we would recommend to most buyers shopping in this segment."
The 300M would finish out its life in 2003 and 2004 with the open secret of the imminent return of a rear-drive, V8-powered 300 haunting it. The anticipation for what came next was almost overwhelming.
Tenth Generation: 2005-Present
The current Chrysler 300 is nothing short of sensational. Except for the fact that it's built in the same plant and can be had with the same 3.5-liter V6 engine in lower-end models (there's also a base model with a 2.7-liter V6), the new 300 shares practically nothing with the outgoing 300M. The new unibody structure mounts a rear-drive drivetrain and incorporates suspension components originally developed for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The styling is aggressively American with more than a taste of gangster influence. The best news, of course, is sitting up at the top of the range, the new 300C model powered by the new 5.7-liter "Hemi" V8 engine making 340 hp. After getting our first taste of the 300C, we wrote, "Chrysler has reintroduced the idea of rear-wheel drive and V8 power to buyers shopping for a premium family sedan and/or entry-level luxury car. Will the 300 be the car that sends Toyota back to the drawing board and forces BMW to slash prices? Maybe not, but with just $32,000 standing between you and a stylish, well-equipped 340-hp sedan, it has never been a better time to be a power-hungry weekend enthusiast."
It's still too early to call the new 300 a classic, but it's obviously an exciting development in the nameplate's history. And with a lengthy list of safety features and optional all-wheel drive (for those who face harsh winters), in addition to its stunning performance and styling, we don't see any reason to be anything but optimistic about its future. | <urn:uuid:39f88a3e-920a-4964-91e7-ff7747101eff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edmunds.com/chrysler/300/history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960556 | 5,079 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Wayne County appoints Haitz Director of Mental Health
The County of Wayne has announced that James M. Haitz, MSW, LCSW-R has been appointed to the position of Director of Community Mental Health Services for the Wayne County Department of Mental Health and Wayne Behavioral Health Network. Haitz served as the County Mental Health Director for nearly seven years from June 2005 to March 2012. The position has remained vacant since Haitz resigned the position this past March, and following a lengthy search process for a replacement, Haitz was chosen to again return as the department’s leader effective September 1.
In addition, Haitz has recently been appointed to serve as the Chairman for the Finger Lakes Region of the New York State Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors. The region is comprised of the nine county area including Wayne, Ontario, Seneca, Yates, Schuyler, Thompkins, Chemung, Steuben and Allegany counties.
Haitz has served for more than 26 years as a clinical practitioner and also in a variety of leadership roles in the Mental Health field. He holds an undergraduate degree in Social Work from Rochester Institute of Technology, a Masters of Social Work degree from Syracuse University, and has completed post graduate full-time study in the Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare Policy at SUNY Buffalo.
Wayne Behavioral Health Network is Wayne County’s largest treatment provider of comprehensive outpatient mental health and addiction services. | <urn:uuid:ecca611c-d6c0-4d00-8548-ab1495d24cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetimesofwaynecounty.com/community/wayne-county-appoints-haitz-director-of-mental-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963267 | 295 | 1.523438 | 2 |
When playwright Mark St. Germain's theoretical meeting between esteemed atheist Sigmund Freud and emerging Christian-mythologist C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) premiered off-Broadway in 2009, it was a clever word game between two masters trying to find common ground on sex, God, and death. Tyler Marchant's revival of Freud's Last Session, playing at the Broad Stage until February 10, lacks the balance of two evenly matched actors – necessary components to make this verbal duel a fair match.
Affable but bland, Tom Cavanagh (TV's Ed), almost disappears as Lewis in the presence of a gargantuan talent like two-time Tony Award winner Judd Hirsch (I'm Not Rappoport, Conversations With My Father) as the physically frail but still commanding Dr. Freud. Hirsch sinks his teeth into the crusty, dying man he portrays and etches out a triumphant portrayal of one of the 20th Century's great thinkers. Lewis' arguments fade in Cavanaugh's constantly wandering hands.
In the play, Freud and Lewis meet on a Sunday morning in 1939. England is preparing to enter World War II. Hitler has invaded Poland. The British Prime Minister Chamberlain addresses his constituents on the radio and air raids have begun. Freud, who fled Austria and the Nazis, has built a replica of his Vienna study in the United Kingdom. In this room, Freud and a young Lewis, who has only recently converted from an atheist to a devout believer, argue the bible, mythology and the cowardice of suicide. Their chat is interrupted by the specter of death: first by the sound of air raid sirens and the necessity for gas masks, then by the agony inflicted on Freud by his worsening oral cancer. The play is set three weeks before his death.
Hirsch is triumphant as Freud. Strip away the costume, the accent and the make-up and you still have the precise jabbing of a master thinker's opinions. Hirsch-as-Freud refuses to relinquish his convictions and uses talking points like a saber to puncture Lewis' resolve. Freud's prosthetic upper jaw that bridges his mouth from the deteriorating cells becomes more than a prop for Hirsch. It becomes a way to humanize the giant with the audience. Every time the prosthetic slips, the audience can feel each muscle in Hirsch's body tense up. It casts a pall over the conversation, as the audience is always aware that every word causes unthinkable agony and risks his fading energy, but never stops him from competing. If you didn't believe Hirsch himself was in anguish, the intensity would dissipate. That's powerful acting.
Cavanaugh is professional but too mannered as Lewis. He never seems comfortable around his co-star, which gives his character the disadvantage. As an audience we lose stock in C.S. Lewis' arguments because even though the words are there for him, Cavanaugh can't present them compellingly. His voice falls into a repetitious cadence that becomes distracting.
Had director Tyler Marchant matched Hirsch with an actor of his caliber, the play could have been volcanic. The word plays, the one-upmanship, the bouts of humor are all winning in St. Germain's text. Freud even sneakily psychoanalyses Lewis, getting the author on the proverbial couch several times. It's not accidental that St. Germain chooses the dawn of the Holocaust to set this meeting. Hitler and his representation of evil and where God's power stands amongst this evil are central to Freud and Lewis' persuasive arguments. It's as clear why one person would cling to a God when the world makes no sense as it would be for one to deny God, because were there a God, he allowed such monstrosity. St. Germain gets this all across without being pedantic.
Set designer Brian Prather has built a treasure of a sitting room, complete with volumes and volumes of books, antique statues, and as its centerpiece, the couch, warm, inviting and ready for patients to unwind and release their repressions. It's so detailed, one wishes the theater rented the set out for the evening.
For those of us forever stuck on the left coast, Judd Hirsch has been in our theaters and our living rooms with his award winning turns in Ordinary People, TV's Taxi or most recently opposite Glenn Close in Damages. Now is the chance to see the two-time Tony winner in his element. He's truly striking on the stage. | <urn:uuid:76491167-d6f4-47db-8d60-26a84bb6aabe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatermania.com/los-angeles-theater/reviews/01-2013/freuds-last-session_64166.html?cid=article-flyover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968573 | 926 | 1.820313 | 2 |
SEISMOGRAPH RECORDS TREMOR
Heavy Shock Comes Probably Distance of 2778 Miles
An unusually heavy earthquake shock was recorded yesterday morning by the Seismograph Station at the University. The vibrations began shortly after 8.24, and at about 8.40 became so violent that the needles which record them went off the drum on which the record them is made and put the seismograph temporarily out of commission. A rough computation by Professor J. B. Woodworth '94 makes the distance of the earthquakes about 4470 kilometres from Cambridge, or about 2778 miles. | <urn:uuid:066b3ddb-4cfb-4526-b315-d0041b8e326b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1922/2/1/seismograph-records-tremor-pan-unusually-heavy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961334 | 117 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The vision of The Early College at Lansing Community College is to provide mid-Michigan high school juniors the opportunity to earn up to two years of tuition free college credit or an associate degree as a part of their high school learning experience. We will promote innovation and best practices in education. We will allow for both an inquiry-based teaching philosophy and a tangible career path for our students through our science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) focus. Our students will have a personalized learning experience within a small learning community, a positive school experience and the social and academic tools to successfully continue their education or career.
- Earn high school diploma and up to 60 college credits, tuition free.
- Reduce time in college by one year if an associate degree is earned.
- Successfully transition to a college environment.
- Potential savings of $25,000-$50,000 (if a student planned to attend a university and lived on campus).
- Students will have access to one-on-one academic mentoring.
Students must be within one credit of junior status at a participating public high school in the Ingham and Eaton ISD service areas.
The academic program at The Early College is advanced. Professors provide support and challenge students to become academically responsible as they prepare them for college level courses.
A student's school day will depend on their individual progress within the program. | <urn:uuid:ccb97911-799e-4b58-8827-44225a69452f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lansing.cc.mi.us/earlycollege/about/overview.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954423 | 283 | 1.726563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — When a spiffy, $621-million visitors center opened at the U.S. Capitol last year, a number of lawmakers were taken aback by what they didn't see: the words "In God We Trust."
Doing what members of Congress do when they're upset, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the walls of the complex.
But the effort has drawn a legal challenge from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which asserts that such an action would amount to a government endorsement of religion -- in violation of the Constitution. The Wisconsin-based group describes itself as a national organization of atheists and agnostics.
Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, condemned the lawsuit as an effort to "silence our nation's history."
"I'm never surprised anymore by any lawsuit," said Lungren, a former California attorney general. "I will say that I was surprised that they would suggest that the national motto or the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. . . . I think the historical significance is well established."
It is the latest row over the place of God in federal government.
In 2002, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law a bill reaffirming references to God in the pledge and the motto after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found the pledge's "under God" phrase to be in violation of the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
And in 2007, the architect of the Capitol caused a furor when he balked at a teen's request for a certificate noting his grandfather's "love of God, country and family" to accompany a souvenir flag that had flown over the building.
Even before the visitors center was finished, lawmakers raised objections to the omission of "In God We Trust," noting in a letter to the architect of the Capitol: "None of us should want to construct a $621-million shrine to political correctness that does not accurately reflect a significant part of American history."
Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) complained that a replica of the House chamber in the visitors center omitted the motto, even though "In God We Trust" is inscribed above the speaker's rostrum in the real chamber. The words were added to the replica, but a number of lawmakers said they should appear more prominently elsewhere in the center.
Lungren introduced a resolution to make that happen, and all but 10 House members supported it.
Rep. Michael M. Honda (D-San Jose), one of eight lawmakers who voted no (two others voted "present"), said: "To preference, on federal property, the words of one religion over another subtly serves to undermine our great nation's religious freedom and diversity and contravene our Constitution's principle of separation of church and state."
Also voting no was Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont), who has said that he does not believe in a supreme being. "As our nation's founders did, I support separation of church and state," he said.
The addition of the words to the visitors center could cost as much as $100,000. | <urn:uuid:628ba980-3899-4fcc-ba23-14e159e2e9c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/22/nation/na-ungodly-capitol22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969183 | 669 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Android malware exploding, says Trend Micro
- — 22 October, 2012 12:43
The amount of mobile Android malware has surged this year, from a count of 30,000 malware specimens in June to almost 175,000 last month, according to Trend Micro's Security Roundup report for the third quarter of this year.
"When we predicted earlier there would be 125,000 by the end of the year, Google called us charlatans," says Raimund Genes, Trend Micro's chief technology officer, who says the security firm is counting Android malware variants as it does with Windows-based malware specimens. The Trend Micro report notes the fake versions of legitimate Android apps are the most prevalent type of Android malware, counted at 29,309. Others have names like Boxer, Kmin, Opfake, Trojsms, Ginmaster and Droidkungfu.
Ironically, since the Google Android operating system has undergone a kind of fracture due to so many variations of it being used by different manufacturers on Android mobile devices, this has probably actually slowed down hackers trying to attack the Android OS, Genes notes. And despite the surge in mobile malware, it's still far below the many millions of Microsoft Windows-based malware variants.
With directness, the Trend Micro report also takes aim at an area of growing concern, Android adware, devising a "Top 10 Most Aggressive Android Adware" list of adware that may send an excessive, undeclared amount of personal information captured off a device to ad networks.
A lot of this adware has come though the legitimate Google Play app store, and sometimes has been yanked when objections were voiced, but in Trend's view, this marketing adware has to be considered insidious if only because it's grabbing user personal data off Android devices outside of the adware's declared purpose by the developer, including licensing agreements.
This might be anything from geolocation data to unique ID of the phone and phone numbers you call and your contacts, among other things, Genes says. Often, "there's no way to opt in or opt out," he notes. "In Europe, it's illegal to grab that information."
Trend says it's analyzed adware for what it considers clear privacy violations, and some of these adware suppliers are not pleased to be named as "aggressive Android adware" and their lawyers are sending threatening letters to Trend Micro.
But Genes says Trend feels confident in its position and will continue to voice its concerns about ad networks that fail to alert users of adware's data-gathering behavior. The mobile adware issue evokes similar circumstances of years ago when what then came to be known as "spyware" targeting Windows desktops for marketing purposes became a battle in the security industry, too.
On Trend Micro's "Top 10 Most Aggressive Android Adware" list is:
Airpush with 26,321 Leadbolt with 20,502 Touchnet with 8,541 Gappusin with 6,978 Adwizp with 4,254 Plankton with 4,137 Adswo with 3,342 Wooboo with 2,032 Wapsx with 515 |Mobiletx with 100
Trend Micro bases much of its report findings on data collected across its cloud-based Smart Protection Network for global threat intelligence. There's also an update on the top spam-sending countries where email spam originates (though it's often thought to be controlled through botnets whose masters may reside in an entirely different country). Currently, the surprise is that Saudi Arabia has suddenly come from nowhere to become the top spam-sending country.
"This is really new," comment Genes, and it's probably because spam filtering has improved in other countries, such as the U.S, India and Turkey, and spammers are currently turning to Saudi Arabia as a new place to exploit compromised computers and networks to blast spam across the world.
Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publication and website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: @MessmerE. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org.
Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section. | <urn:uuid:ffe7842b-df86-4f03-96f4-c252ec9ae28c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/439721/android_malware_exploding_says_trend_micro/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946064 | 870 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Missouri Judge Agrees With Arizona; Helper Monkies Not Service Animals
A woman in Missouri sued several defendants, including Wal-Mart, for not allowing her to bring her pet monkey with her when she visited their businesses.
The woman claims she is agoraphobic and the monkey helps her deal with anxiety when she goes to public places.
The judge called BS on that one and said the "helper monkey" was nothing more than a household pet and not covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
This ruling comes after an Arizona woman named Kristy Pruett tried to convince a judge that she needed her monkey to help her with her diabetes.
New Times did a feature on Pruett, check it out here.
She said the monkey was used to assist in administering her diabetes treatment.
The judge found that a bit unlikely.
"[H]aving the Chimpanzee in her home to retrieve and administer emergency assistance to Pruett is not only unnecessary, it likely is inadequate," the judge ruled.
All this monkey business has led to proposed restrictions to the Americans With Disabilities Act that would exclude animals that offer nothing more than "emotional support."
Some of those animals included in the proposed restrictions are reptiles, rabbits, farm animals, amphibians, ferrets and rodents -- oh, not to mention snakes like the five-foot boa constrictor that an epileptic man named Daniel Green wears around his neck because he claims it alerts him to seizures. | <urn:uuid:c3641258-fa39-4e67-9135-1119af40b1a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/10/missouri_judge_agrees_with_ari.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969863 | 303 | 1.578125 | 2 |
May 9, 2013 | 54 comments
March 28, 2013 | 89 comments
January 22, 2013 | 6 comments
October 5, 2012 | 23 comments
August 17, 2012 | 30 comments
From a 1990s tax revolt in New Jersey.
(Page 2 of 2)
Tea Party activists who view HANJ as a localized precedent for their own efforts might then reasonably conclude that should maintain a mostly libertarian outlook that connects with widespread concerns about government overreach and excessive federal spending in particular. This way they can attract more Americans into the fold who have very different ideas on social and cultural issues.
Budzash does see a historical connection between HANJ and the Tea Party.
“Politicians seem to forget we are a nation born from a Tax Revolt,” he wrote. “They spend, tax, bond, and waste money with no thought to the future of the USA. HANJ members were fed up with high taxes just as most Tea Party members are today. I was born on Dec. 16, the date of the original Tea Party, and I see the membership of today’s Tea Party as very similar to our own in HANJ. We were over taxed, over regulated U.S. citizens from all walks of live. You cannot easily define the Tea Party or HANJ because in both instances you had a blend of people from all walks of life. We just want to be able to afford to live and we want government under control and to do its job without bankrupting us. We want politicians to represent us NOT banks or big business or any interest group. They are employed by the taxpayers NOT a foreign government or a business to do what we want, NOT what you are bribed to do.”
Although he remains a committed Republican, LaRossa, the former state senator, also sees flaws in both major parties and advises office holders to remain mindful of constituent concerns that will sometimes diverge from the preferences of legislative leaders.
“I think the worst government takes place when you have one party in control of everything,” LaRossa said. “We had Republicans in control of the governor’s office, the assembly and the state senate. We had some solid achievements in those first few years and I think we can be proud of those initial policy changes. But you do lose a critical element with one party control, which I refer to as positive friction. You lose that dissenting voice and everyone is expected to salute when something gets run up the flag pole by your party. I use to get a lot of criticism when I would oppose the Whitman administration. People would ask why I was against my own governor and I would say the last time I checked she doesn’t live in my district and my responsibility is to the 250,000 people who put me into office.”
After a long run of “bozo governors” in N.J., Budzash does see potential in Chris Christie and even presidential possibilities if he addresses property taxes. Rick Manning, a Second Amendment activist, who now serves as the communications director for Americans for Limited Government in Washington, D.C., also sees cause for encouragement in the early actions Gov. Christie has taken. But he cautions against the idea that a narrow focus on fiscal questions will enable the Tea Party to persist without the involvement of other small government activists. Manning served as the National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbyist/liaison in N.J. when HANJ was active. The Coalition of New Jersey Sportsman made common cause with HANJ and helped fuel the anti-tax revolt, Manning explained. While economic concerns may be front and center at the moment, libertarians should be receptive to the contributions of other activists who prioritize specific constitutional matters and are just as committed to the idea of restraining federal power.
“The key lesson out of the successful HANJ fight is that everyone who supports limited government can win when we all band together, but when we fight, everyone loses,” he said.
As Gov. Christie’s reform efforts continue to gain the attention of Tea Party activists across the nation, they should remain mindful of fact that his support extends well beyond the boundaries of his own party. Beleaguered taxpayers are revolting against entrenched teachers unions and a highly activist state Supreme Court because they admire Christie personally and recognize N.J. is out of money. They are not suddenly in love with Republicans. Grant, the radio pioneer who became too close to the GOP, would likely agree.
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
H/T to National Review Online | <urn:uuid:71cdb732-b999-4301-84bf-2453c6b5a258> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/01/a-tea-party-lesson/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965428 | 1,125 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Increase public access
Published: Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 9:58 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 9:58 a.m.
A local lawmaker is trying to make it easier for members of the public to get a look at what the government is doing.
For that, state Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, deserves a big pat on the back.
Louisiana has an excellent set of public-records and public-meetings laws, which are designed to work together to make state and local government operate in the public. The guiding principle is that an informed electorate — the hallmark of our system of government — cannot exist without transparency in government.
However, we too often see attempts to limit or reduce the public-records laws. Lawmakers or the administration try to carve out exemptions for certain public bodies — exemptions that usually mean less information for the public and more temptation for abuse by public servants.
Harrison, though, is pushing for more information to be made public. That is almost always a good thing.
He has put forth a bill that would require every state entity to submit detailed monthly spending reports, which would be compiled and maintained on a public Web site.
That would allow lawmakers and the public to keep a much closer eye on how the state is spending the taxpayers’ money.
Harrison said the provision is needed because many state departments submit general spending reports that fail to offer details about how and where our money is being spent.
“We’re not looking to micromanage here, but we want to see if there’s overspending,” Harrison said.
That is an admirable goal and one that the governor should support.
Harrison said this week that he put his bill on hold and is working with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office to write a bill that would suit the needs of the public.
While Harrison should make every reasonable attempt to get the governor on the right side of the debate, he should not compromise the essence of his bill, which is to make more useful information available to the public.
When government is allowed to operate in secret — which can be the effect of allowing departments to report their spending in large, vague reports — the temptation for abuse is ever-present.
In any administration — even an administration that has tried to foster a reputation for ethical dealing — the people are best served by having more information rather than less.
Harrison should stick to his guns on this measure and press the point with the governor that lawmakers and the public deserve to know where the state’s money is going — not just in general terms, but in specific detail that allows careful scrutiny by anyone who is interested.
Any effort that improves the exchange of information encourages openness and honesty, essential elements of good government.
Editorials represent the opinions of the newspaper, not of any individual.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:10155caf-4728-4cd3-816a-36c481cab4f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20100408/OPINION/100409491 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958471 | 636 | 1.632813 | 2 |
|Re: LISD Board Leaves Seat Open, Approves Publication of ...|
Poster: Anonymous Posted: 2012/8/9 9:18:47
If that is true, why are most boards set up in odd numbers? The answer is to prevent the occurrence of a tie. OR the president, mayor, etc. don't get a vote unless there is a tie. There actually is a reason to fill the seat. Ties do happen especially if the board is divided in other ways. Having an odd number of people on the board had a specific intent. There are important issues coming before this board and I would rather have an extra head in the game than not. I don't have an agenda regarding who should be appointed but it needs to be taken care of by the board immediately. Just appoint someone! Nine months is almost a third of someone's term on the board so you can't tell me it doesn't matter. | <urn:uuid:61813ed8-d8f8-4cee-be08-afefe41bb915> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/modules/news/comment_reply.php?com_itemid=2841&com_order=0&com_mode=nest&com_id=90388 | 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 | 0.976783 | 192 | 1.65625 | 2 |
In Shakespeare’s Spirit
is a disaster,” Rafe Esquith says. The fifth-grade teacher has been
upping the ante in the innercity Los Angeles school where he’s taught
for the past 25 years. In Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, he levels his
criticism at society’s veneration of wealth and celebrity.
“Children are constantly being sent messages that are not in their best interest to learn,” Esquith says. “We glorify and make heroes out of people who I don’t think are really that heroic. I love sports and pop music, but I don’t think I want some of those athletes and pop stars to be my guiding force in how I decide to run my life. I would prefer they look to their parents and maybe people trying to cure cancer to think about how to live their life.”
far as he’s concerned, education seems to be divided into two equally
dismal possibilities. “On one side you have those who’ve taken all the
joy out of learning … they turn their classrooms into a Charles
Dickens’ Oliver Twist workhouse with kids grinding out math problems
all day,” he says. “And then you have the other side, which is, ‘Well,
we don’t want to take their childhood away, so we’re just going to let
them play all day long and sit in front of a television set.’”
His book illuminates ways in which learning can be both intense and enjoyable—an ethos that abounds in his classroom, where students tackle high-schoollevel literature and math. Both teacher and students have gained national and international recognition, not least of all for the unabridged Shakespeare play they perform each year.
On Jan. 10 at 7 p.m., Esquith and his students come to Alverno College’s Wehr Hall, where Esquith will discuss his book and students will treat audiences to a performance of Shakespearean vignettes. For tickets, contact the Alverno Box Office at (414) 382-6044, or buy online at www.alverno.edu.
And if parents are looking for further opportunities to immerse children in the spirit of Shakespeare, they can do so at the Center Court of Mayfair Mall on Jan. 12 between 1 and 3 p.m. Milwaukee Shakespeare and Milwaukee Ballet team up to present “Mischief and Magic,” which will explore the theme of dance and duel in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. | <urn:uuid:14d8d3d1-4401-4928-b6a3-baeee8e1e4de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-481-in-shakespearerss-spirit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957697 | 566 | 1.703125 | 2 |
“I don’t think today is that day,” Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, said on Friday. He was responding to a question about gun control and the shooting in an elementary school in Connecticut that reportedly claimed the lives of twenty-six people —including twenty children between the ages of five and ten years old, as well as that of the shooter and, separately, one of the shooter’s parents. (The reports about what exactly happened are still somewhat shaky and unconfirmed. It’s likely that, as in most situations like this, some of what we now think we know will turn out to have been wrong. I will update this post as the day goes on.)
Carney’s response was a predictable one. This is the way that we deal with such incidents in the U.S.—we acknowledge them; we are briefly shocked by them; then we term it impolite to discuss their implications, and to argue about them. At some point, we will have to stop putting it off, stop pretending that doing so is the proper, respectful thing. It’s not either. It’s cowardice.
It is cowardice, too, the way that Carney and President Obama and their fellow-Democrats talk about gun control, when they finally decide the time is right. They avoid the issue as much as possible, then mouth platitudes, or promise to pass only the most popular of measures, like the assault-weapons ban. And then they do nothing to follow through.
But it is, from a purely political perspective, understandable. We are, all of us, angry now. Bewildered. And those of us who support gun control are perhaps maddest of all—right now. When it comes to Election Day, though, it’s the pro-gun people whose vote is most likely to be determined by this one issue. Those who want tighter restrictions, well, they typically have higher priorities to consider first. Put simply, supporting gun control is unlikely to help your typical politician much, but it’s very likely to hurt them. And Democrats know the numbers: they can’t lose any more white voters than they already have, especially not white voters in union families. And a lot of union households are gun-owning households, too.
No wonder, then, that Carney says today is not the day to talk about gun control. If both the Democrats and the Republicans had their way, we’d never talk about it again.
Photograph by Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters. | <urn:uuid:0801da78-1a12-45a0-ac2e-f630e4645158> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/12/the-right-day-to-talk-about-guns.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978457 | 534 | 1.5 | 2 |
Marriage means taking complete charge of a woman and living peacefully without debauchery. At the present moment, however, debauchery is unrestricted. Nonetheless, society makes a law that one should not marry more than one wife. This is typical of a demoniac society.
According to the Vedic version, there is a hellish planet called Put, and one who delivers a person from there is called putra. The purpose of marriage, therefore, is to have a putra, or son who is able to deliver his father, even if the father falls down to the hellish condition of put.
A grhastha must associate again and again with saintly persons, and with great respect he must hear the nectar of the activities of the Supreme Lord and His incarnations as these activities are described in Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Puranas. Thus one should gradually become detached from affection for his wife and children, exactly like a man awakening from a dream.
So far our society is concerned, we don't allow anybody to remain in our society as friends, girlfriend or boyfriend. No. They must be married.
Divorce is a man-made law and should be abolished
The marriage tie should be taken as very sacred. One who marries for subduing lust is mistaken.
[In Kali-yuga]: Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one's expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brahmana just by his wearing a thread. | <urn:uuid:9e28fc83-6d90-4d88-9110-6d6348655623> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grihasta.com/prabhupada-inner-page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97491 | 334 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Long before Nadia Raza thought about getting a graduate degree and teaching at a college, she was a student at a community college, and that’s where she first encountered an honors class. While at Costa Mesa Community College in California she signed up for an evening course and found herself enrolled in the school’s pilot honors program. She stayed in the course and says it was “a transformative experience in understanding myself as being able to make meaningful contributions in an academic environment.” She went on to transfer to UCLA for undergrad, got a master’s degree and is now getting a doctorate at the University of Oregon while teaching at LCC. She was also one of the core group developing the new Honors Program that is kicking off its second year at Lane Community College.
“The mission here is really to meet students where they are and help students achieve success,” Honors Program Faculty Coordinator Ce Rosenow says. For students that are highly academically motivated, the Honors Program will let them push themselves and give them a chance to work with other students who push themselves, she says.
LCC has been offering honors courses since last fall and any student can take them, Raza explains. The Honors Program is meant to be accessible and non-elitist, and she says, “If you raise the bar, our students will rise to it because our students are brilliant.” The result of the first honors course in summer 2011, an art class, is a brilliantly colored mural, visible from the cafeteria in the campus’ Center Building.
Faculty Coordinator Katie Morrison-Graham says the highest number of honors students in an honors class this term is six, making the students basically a quarter of the class. She points out that LCC courses tend to be smaller and more personal than UO courses where a student might find herself lost in a 300-student lecture.
Jennifer Hare, Honors Program coordinator and advisor, says the program, which currently has 42 students, attracts students out of high school, some who perhaps always thought of themselves as “honors material,” but the LCC program is also “profoundly rewarding for those who have maybe not had that academic experience.” Sometimes, she says, you get a student who might have left college for one reason or another, and then comes back ready for a challenge. Hare, who also works with international students, sees the honors program as a draw for students coming from abroad as well.
While any LCC student can sign up for an honors course — or accidentally find herself in one — one has to apply to gain admission to the LCC Honors Program. Rosenow says there are several ways to get into the program. A student can have a high school or college GPA of 3.25, two Lane honors courses with a 3.00 GPA, a 1,200 SAT or 27 ACT test score, or a letter of recommendation from a teacher.
LCC, like other community colleges, is experiencing a major demographic shift and increasing enrollments, Raza says, and the school works to provide a space for every cross-section of society: a program for veterans, for women in transition and now an honors program. As students learn that it’s an option, Hare says she expects the program will attract students who “are financially savvy, want to take it up a level and save money.” Full-time tuition (12 credits) at the UO costs $2,013, while at LCC 12 credits cost $1,080, not counting the fees at either institution.
Though the majority of honors courses are made up of both honors and non-honors students, Rosenow says the honors students also take seminars that are restricted to those in the LCC Honors Program, and the seminars wrap up with a symposium that features civic and campus-wide engagement on issues as well as showcases the “transformative learning experience centered on scholarly inquiry, academic rigor and intellectual growth” the program seeks to provide. | <urn:uuid:40ee26c0-2974-4568-8571-bf38827d130f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eugeneweekly.com/?q=article/honors-lcc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966748 | 833 | 1.5 | 2 |
Hitachi and Bridgestone Corporation will cultivate the market for electronic paper display solutions and will strive towards the commercial application of the displays.
Electronic paper display is ultra-thin and lightweight and combines the conveniences of both paper and digital media by realizing long-life operation via battery, and adopting a display module that has image retention ability and the drive, wireless communications circuit and memory embedded in. The image display doesn’t require electricity to run and the contents can be transmitted wirelessly. In this way, it can easily be set up in places where it is difficult to install power supplies and communication equipment. These features make it useful in communicating advertisements and other information, including that needed in times of emergency due to the disaster.
Hitachi recognized the potential of electronic paper displays early on and has been investigating into their commercialization. In December 2005, it conducted a field trial in conjunction with East Japan Marketing & Communications, Inc., the subsidiary company of East Japan Railway Company, in the Tokyo Station underground. Bridgestone, on the other hand, has already been successful in developing one that uses the company’s original Electronic Liquid Powder and has been researching into a diverse array of display modules. Bridgestone’s display modules were used in the field trial conducted by Hitachi.
Bridgestone will supply the display modules to Hitachi, which will use them in the production of electronic paper displays. Business will be focused primarily in transportation, electricity and urban development engineering. The aim is to provide total solutions by way of integrated display management, contents database management and remote transmission, for instance. Going forward, both companies will work in tandem to cultivate the electronic paper display market. | <urn:uuid:de4dc733-3948-44b8-8c66-0f10577d26cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.soft32.com/prepare-for-electronic-paper_978.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930727 | 343 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Cantata BWV 74Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten
BWV 74 Provenance, Composing & Copy Process
Thomas Braatz wrote (June 9, 2007):
The Autograph Score
The original score may have been inherited by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach at the time of the distribution of scores after JSB's death. No record of its existence has been found after 1750. It can be assumed to be irretrievably lost.
The Original Set of Parts
Soon after JSB's death, this set of parts was inherited by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who, at some later point, separated the doublets (Violino 1 & 2 and an incomplete continuo part) from the larger set. For these parts CPE created a titled cover folder in which they were inserted. For a while they still remained in CPE's possession until at some point in his life CPE gave the main set of parts to a choir prefect in Hamburg, S. Hering. From Hering's estate this main set was acquired by the manuscript collector, Count Karl Otto Friedrich von Voß-Buch (1786-1864) who donated his vast collection of manuscripts to the Staatsbibliothek Berlin (known then as "die Königliche Bibliothek Berlin" in 1851. Here the doublets were once again united with the main set of parts.
The parts with the identification of the copyists are as follows:
1. Soprano JAK
2. Alto JAK
3. Tenore JAK
4. Baßo JAK
5. Tromba 1 JAK
6. Tromba 2 JAK
7. Tromba 3 JAK
8. Tamburi JAK
9. Hautbois 1mo. JAK
10. Hautbois 2do JAK
11. Hautbois d'Caccia JAK
12. Violino 1mo. JAK
13. Violino 1mo. [doublet] WFB(?) p. 1r and p. 2v
(only staves 1-3 and 5); Anonymous IIe p. 1v staves. 4-5 and staves 9-13, p. 2r staves 1-8; p. 2r stave 8 m 3-13; Last page: JAK
14. Violino 2do JAK
15. Violino 2do Anonymous Iif
16. Viola JAK
17. Continuo [Primary] JAK
18. Continuo [incomplete] Copyist 6
19. Continuo [transposed and figured] pp. 1r to 4r
main copyist C; p 4v main copyist B; figured bass by JSB?
[At the time when this cantata was researched and printed in the NBA, many of the copyists were yet unknown; hence the designations: "Hauptkopist A, B, C" and Anonymous IIx or no categorization at all. In the meantime (since 1960) most of these copyists have been identified - see some of the cantatas discussed in January and February for some of these names.]
1. Johann Andreas Kuhnau (previously only identified as "Hauptkopist A")
2. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (probably)
3. Anonymous IIe
4. (not identified in 1960 as yet)
5. Anonymous IIf
6. (not identified in 1960 as yet)
7. (main copyist C = "Hauptkopist C")
8. (main copyist B = "Hauptkopist B")
Sequence of Preparation Process
a) the composition of the score
from indirect indications obtained from a close examination of the original parts, a reasonable conjecture would be that it was very much a composing score with more than the usual amount of corrections and additions. It was however completed (the final chorale as well!) at the time when JAK began copying out the bulk of the parts.
b) JAK received the autograph score and worked directly from it as he copied the bulk of the parts.
c) the doublets were copied by other copyists as soon as JAK had finished copying out the primary parts (1st & 2nd violins and continuo). (Note that 3 copyists were involved with the 1st violin doublet part and note also the unfinished continuo part.)
d) JSB corrected the parts and made some additions, but this was done rather superficially.
Evidence of Haste
a) the inclusion of a number of mvts. from another cantata (BWV 59) with few substantial changes
b) indirect evidence from the parts points to the score having been hastily composed
c) even JSB's most reliable and accurate copyist working from the completed score, JAK, makes more than the usual number of errors which JSB corrected using tablature
d) greater than usual number of mistakes in transposition made in the transposed continuo copy
e) Wilhelm Rust, in preparing the first BGA printing of this cantata commented that he had to clean up an unusually large number of mistakes (more than encountered elsewhere in Bach's original parts) made by the copyists("mehr als anderwärts mit ungewohnlich vielen Schreibfehlern aufzuräumen").
f) contrary to evidence from other sets of parts, there are hardly any additional markings by JSB (trills, etc.) in the parts
[All of the above determinations made by Bach experts point to the fact that Bach assembled, composed and performed this cantata within a very limited time frame amounting most likely to no more than just a few days.]
Date of Composition and 1st Performance
Historically Spitta and Smend assigned later dates to this cantata. It was Alfred Dürr, using watermark analysis along with the identification of handwriting of certain individuals (even when the copyist could not be identified by name), who narrowed down the date with this reliable information to May 20, 1725.
Cantata BWV 74: Details & Complete Recordings | Recordings of Individual Movements | Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | <urn:uuid:81678a1e-29e3-4db7-a28d-5b9afbb458cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bach-cantatas.com/Ref/BWV74-Ref.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932405 | 1,334 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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BARD COLLEGE TO HOST JAPANESE CLASSICAL THEATER LECTURE SERIES DURING SPRING SEMESTER
Series Continues Tuesday, March 9, with "Kyogen: Classical Comedy and Contemporary Creativity" at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Tuesday, March 9, Bard College's Asian Studies Program, Theater Program, and Bard in China will present "Kyogen: classical comedy and contemporary creativity" a lecture by professor Jonah Salz of Ryukoku University. The lecture is the fourth in the Japanese Classical Theater Lecture Series, sponsored by Bard this spring. Martin's lecture takes place at 1:30 p.m. in the Resnick Theater Studio of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Following the lecture, at 4:15 p.m., the Asian Studies Program is sponsoring a tea in the faculty lounge of Kline Commons. The lecture and series, supported by the Freeman Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative, are free and open to the public.
In his lecture and demonstration, Salz—a theater director, teacher, translator, and scholar based in Kyoto, Japan—will explore classical Japanese comedy in traditional plays as well as in recent experiments with Shakespeare and Beckett. Kyogen is stylized traditional farce that has been performed alongside noh plays since the 14th century. In kyogen, lazy servants, arrogant lords, greedy priests, quack wizards, and shrewish wives get their hilarious comeuppance. Kyogen has been compared to commmedia dell'arte in its rhythmic vocalization, stock characters, masks, and stylized pantomime. This lecture-demonstration will utilize video and an experiential workshop to introduce kyogen's fascination as quintessential actor's theater.
Salz is a 2003-04 faculty fellow at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Humanities, researching comparative acting and aesthetics. He is professor and founding member of thefaculty of intercultural communication, a 45-person college at Ryukoku University, the oldest, largest Buddhist university in Japan. There he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Japanese, in traditional Japanese theater, Euro-American theater, comparative theater, and intercultural performance. In addition, he has taught Japanese film, anthropology, and theatre at Kansai University of Foreign Studies, Doshisha University, New York University, Portland State University, and Franklin & Marshall College. He received a Ph.D. in performance studies from New York University.
Salz has written about intercultural theater theory, Beckett in noh interpretation, cross-cultural actor training, and the challenges of translating comedy. He is theater editor for Kansai Time Out. Salz has translated, with Laurence R. Kominz, Yukio Mishima’s modern noh play Yuya; Issey Ogata’s monodramas, with Tomoko Onabe; and Takeshi Umehara’s "super-kyogen" trilogy, also with Onabe. He has translated and coordinated the subtitles and narration for This is Kyogen and This is Noh videos. Currently, he is working on DVD subtitles for Mansai Nomura’s staging of Rashomon.
In 1981, Salz co-founded the Noho Theatre Group, which employs noh and kyogen techniques and spirit to interpret western texts. Since its founding, Noho has produced 50 plays, ranging from Shakespeare to Woody Allen, and commissioned musicians and choreographers for dances. He was also the founder of the Traditional Theatre Training’s Kyoto Performance Institute, which aims to immerse non-Japanese and Japanese dancers, actors, directors, and teachers in physical training and recitals in noh, kyogen, and nihonbuyo classical forms.
The lecture series will continue March 16 with "Bringing the Subject to the Stage in Medieval Japan," by Princeton University professor Thomas Hare. In addition, "Japanese Noh Drama in Performance," a lecture and demonstration by New York University professor Carol Martin, which was canceled on February 24, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 13. All lectures take place at 1:30 p.m. in the Resnick Theater Studio of the Richard B. Fisher Center of the Performing Arts on the Bard College campus. Lectures will be followed by tea in the faculty lounge in Kline Commons, sponsored by the Asian Studies Program.
For more information, please call professor Chiori Miyagawa at 845-758-7938.
# # # | <urn:uuid:3d4a082f-4ef5-4695-b050-673402a5b096> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=704 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931523 | 970 | 1.515625 | 2 |
(UPDATED COVERAGE, Jan. 16) FreshPoint Toronto expanded its recall of shredded lettuces distributed to restaurants — including KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Burger King — hotels and institution customers across Canada because health agencies linked the leafy greens to 28 E. coli cases.
FreshPoint Toronto’s general manager Dan Wilson referred questions about the recall to Sysco Corp., Houston, the parent company of FreshPoint.
Charley Wilson, vice president of corporate communications for Sysco, said Jan. 14 that the ongoing nature of the investigation limits the company’s ability to comment.
“FreshPoint has fully cooperated with and assisted Canadian food inspection authorities in this investigation,” Wilson said.
“FreshPoint regularly goes to extensive lengths to ensure that consumers receive safe and healthy fresh food products through its suppliers, state-of-the-art processing facilities and distribution centers. This includes routinely monitoring product quality and food safety systems to ensure compliance and customer satisfaction.”
The original source for the lettuce has not been revealed. However, a consumer question and answer page about the recalled lettuce set up by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency states that “lettuce entering Canada from California must be certified under the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement.”
Canadian food and health officials reported there is no indication any of the recalled products were distributed to grocery stores, so they did not issue a public health recall alert.
The expanded recall on the CFIA website lists 13 Sysco brand foodservice salad products, as well as two products for use by Burger King, one product for Pizza Hut, one for KFC’s parent company YUM and one product with the FreshPoint Inc. brand. All of those products have use-by dates of Jan. 8 and 10.
The initial recall Jan. 10 issued by FreshPoint Toronto, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, included shredded iceberg and romaine lettuce for use by KFC and Taco Bell restaurants.
The E. coli cases reported by Canadian food and health agencies linked to the lettuce spanned New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario as of Jan. 11. The CFIA recall investigation details show the lettuce was also distributed to foodservice customers in Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The first illnesses linked to the FreshPoint lettuce were reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada on Dec. 31. At that time there were five confirmed E. coli O157:H7 cases in New Brunswick. As of Jan. 11 the confirmed cases stood at 26.
The food safety investigation is ongoing, Lisa Gauthier, spokeswoman for the CFIA, said Jan. 14.
Laboratory analysis has shown that the E. coli cases are linked and an epidemological assessment by Canadian health officials identified that lettuce distributed to certain restaurants is the likely cause, according to the CFIA. | <urn:uuid:578f083e-0d0e-4908-b1c2-9a6114dc2220> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-enewsletter/food-safety-and-traceability/Recalled-foodservice-lettuce-linked-to-E-coli-cases-186822471.html?email=yes&cmntid=111326712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939488 | 588 | 1.757813 | 2 |
This is a syndicated post from Politics to Parenting and Everything in Between. [Read the original article...]
Another horrific story of violence, this time the maniac used a knife to assault an innocent new mother. in New Jersey. Kerri Dalton, 29, was stabbed in the chest dozens of times by a stranger who rushed up to her with no warning using a knife. She received punctures in both her lungs and remains in critical but stable condition. Thankfully her infant was unaharmed and the sociopath was captured.
Unfortunately because of lax law enforcement the assailant, Tyrik Haynes, 19, was free to walk the streets after already facing charges of setting a cat on fire last month on Christmas Eve.
“This kid went out and burnt a cat in the woods, they found him and charged him, and yet
they didn’t do a psych evaluation on him or anything to keep him from hurting anybody else.
They just let him go home,” Dwyer said. “The problem is the system. It’s not the people.”
Why they ever let a maniac like this free after torturing and killing a helpless animal is beyond me, but this is one example of our lax laws allowing dangerous people to roam the streets. Most psychiatrists have warned and have said those who harm animals are prone to harm people next. Jeffery Dahmer, a serial killer used to kill animals as a teen, grew up to kill people and became a cannibal.
While President Obama seeks to find a cure to gun violence by passing more gun control laws that likely won’t be enforced, the problem is greater than guns or the weapon of choice. The problem is violent, evil people, who are often mentally ill and unfit for civilized society.
Until we start enforcing the laws we have, identify these people and keep them away from society we will continue to have these senseless acts of violence. Other violent behavior is primarily caused by people seeking acceptance, who live in poverty, come from broken families, use drugs, become involved in gangs and lack morals. While no law is a cure all, enforcing the laws we have in place would reduce a lot of the criminal violence we have now. In addition, stopping the cyle of cultural decay in our families is another way to lessen poverty, divorce and drug use which leads to violence.
Again, if the store had armed security or a good samaritan with a concealed gun were on the scene the assailant might have been stopped before he was able to continue stabbing her so many times. However, thanks to ‘strict gun control laws’ in New Jersey, the public is not allowed to carry concealed weapons for self protection or defense.
Attacked: Kerri Dalton was brutally stabbed over a dozen times while shopping with her infant son in a New Jersey Bed, Bath & Beyond
A woman was brutally stabbed in the chest more than a dozen times while shopping with her infant child at a Bed, Bath & Beyond store on Thursday evening.
Tyrik Haynes, 19, was charged with attempted murder in the attack in Middletown, New Jersey on Friday and held on $1 million bail. He had previously been charged with torturing a cat.
Haynes allegedly rushed upon Kerri Dalton, 29, with no warning as she pushed her son’s stroller through the store.
Tyrik Haynes was charged with attempted murder, child endangerment, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon in his first court appearance on Friday.
The teenager then allegedly stabbed Dalton repeatedly in the chest, puncturing both her lungs. Incredibly, she still managed to dial 911 for help. Dalton experienced significant blood loss and was airlifted from the Middletown store to Jersey Shore Medical Center where she was stabilized.
She remains in critical condition. Kerri’s husband, Roger Dalton, told CBS on Friday: ‘She’s holding up, she’s strong, she’s a fighter, she’s my best friend.’
‘I want to thank everyone for keeping us in their prayers,’ Mr Dalton continued.
‘She’s a newborn mother; thank God the baby wasn’t touched,’ he added. ‘This guy came out of nowhere and I love my wife.’
The Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals told Asbury Park Press that Haynes was charged with using a lighter and aerosol spray to ignite the box while the animal was inside.
The cat escaped but was later found dead from its injuries. Haynes is due in municipal court for that crime on February 11.
Workers at the Petco on the same strip as the Bed, Bath & Beyond where Kerri Dalton was stabbed told reporters that Haynes often went into the store to stare at the animals.
Clinical psychologist Dr Bart Rossi told CBS that cruelty to animals is often a prelude to violence against humans.
‘This is not the result of a couple of bad days or a bad month. This is someone that’s developed personality problems over time,’ Rossi said.
Incoming search terms:
- innocent victims of gun violence
- kerri dalton new jersey huffington comments | <urn:uuid:355c0cba-ed4d-4ce4-ab39-54d5c33615c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dfwcatholic.org/psycho-attacks-innocent-victim-guns-arent-to-blame-knives-are/.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969014 | 1,096 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I just returned from a vacation in North Carolina with my kids. We drove out to visit my dad and stepmother at their Pittsboro home, near Chapel Hill, which has a lovely courtyard garden out front in place of a big lawn. The wonderful thing about enclosing a garden with walls, as they’ve done, is that you instantly create privacy, a deer-proof space, and a protected microclimate for tender plants.
Dad opens the wrought-iron gates in the morning and leaves them open all day, but at night he shuts them against the numerous, hungry deer in his rural-suburban Fearrington Village neighborhood. Landscape architect Dan Sears installed the garden in 2001, at the same time their house was constructed. Although Dad and Kay enjoy the garden, their gardening tools, they joke, are put away, and Leslie Booker of Booker Garden Design maintains it for them.
The garden is much shadier than the last time I saw it several years ago. The trees—crepe myrtles, a Japanese maple, and a quirky palm tree—have shaded out some of their sun-loving perennials over the years. That’s the nature of a garden’s evolution, of course. The shade was welcome during our stay, with temperatures in the 90s. As you enter the courtyard, the paver path diverges around a central island bed. The path on the left leads to the main house.
A narrower path on the right leads to the guest house, romantically swathed with red roses.
Beautiful blue and pink hydrangeas reign supreme in the summer garden. White gardenias, just visible at left, perfumed the air.
From the main house your view of the island bed is anchored by this striking sculpture of a kicking man.
The sculpture adds a feeling of energy to the garden. At his feet sits a blue glazed pot filled with lotus, which had not quite started to bloom.
Turning around toward the house, a rusty-leaved Japanese maple and vertical palm tree catch your eye. The evergreen shrubs beneath them have really grown and crowd the paths a little. But the evergreens also make this part of the garden low-maintenance and give it good bones for the winter.
The view from the front porch. Imagine if this were just lawn with a few flowerbeds. It wouldn’t be nearly as interesting or welcoming. The walls allow Dad and Kay to grow numerous plants, like roses, that the deer would eat if they could reach them. The generous paver path meanders through the beds, inviting the visitor to linger on the bench for a few moments, and widens into a patio-sized space closer to the house, where they’ve hosted garden parties.
In a corner between the main house and guest house, where a hot tub once sat unused, they built a grape arbor to shelter a dining/grilling space. A peekaboo doorway in the hedge offers a tantalizing glimpse.
Stepping through the hedge, you enter a good-sized patio shaded by a cedar arbor supporting a grape vine. This space was inspired by a trip to Tuscany. It also has a bit of southwestern flavor thanks to the colorful stucco walls and iron crosses. Dad didn’t know the name of the beautiful plant in the pot; maybe some sort of acacia?
We tried to have dinner here one evening—the ceiling fans kept it comfortable—but a rainstorm chased us inside. Oh, how I wished I could send that rain to drought-stricken Austin.
We stayed in the guest house, surrounded by the garden, and it was lovely to stroll through it morning and evening. Thanks for a wonderful visit, Dad and Kay!
I enjoyed quite a few other North Carolina treats, which I’ll share with you in upcoming posts, including visits to the gardens of bloggers Helen Yoest and Freda Cameron, Biltmore House in Asheville, and—woot!—Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh. Stay tuned!
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. | <urn:uuid:5610fc37-7359-403b-86f5-1a92269ebd31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.penick.net/digging/?p=12465 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959448 | 864 | 1.5 | 2 |
Britney’s Neo-Nazi clones?
Britney Spears has competition from Lamb and Lynx Gaede. According to ABC News, the sisters who have been indoctrinated, by their mother, to believe in neo-Nazi/white nationalism:
“Known as “Prussian Blue” — a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes — the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.”
“We’re proud of being white, we want to keep being white,” said Lynx. “We want our people to stay white … we don’t want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race.”
Songs like “Sacrifice” — a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy Fuhrer — clearly show the effect of the girls’ upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a “man of peace who wouldn’t give up.”
Their views on Hitler, etc are equally repugnant. | <urn:uuid:d0804ebe-ac67-472e-af80-8035dcba0d72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://modernityblog.wordpress.com/2005/10/23/britneys-neo-nazi-clones/ | 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 | 0.956311 | 240 | 1.546875 | 2 |
December 13, 2012, 10:10 AM — After each presidential election, the government's top intelligence experts release a report about the future of the world.
It's always a best seller.
The Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds document, released this week by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is already the number one seller in Amazon's international relations category and ranked number two among political books sold on the retail site.
It ranks 1,412nd overall on Amazon's best seller list for all categories.
Unlike many government reports, the 160-page Global Trends report is written for a broad audience. Its descriptive style is a combination of Tom Clancy, NPR News and Foreign Affairs. It even quotes Charles Dickens.
The Kindle edition of the report is available for $1.99 on Amazon, but can be downloaded for free as a PDF on the DNI website.
The DNI report outlines potential worldwide scenarios -- good and bad -- over the next 15 to 20 years. Tech-enabled change figures prominently in the scenarios.
The government sees tech empowering people in the coming years, and believes that 80% of the world's population will one day have access to cloud services and new analytical capabilities.
By 2030, Asia " will have surpassed the North America and Europe combined in terms of global power, based upon GDP, population size, military spending and technological investment, the report said.
"China alone will probably have the largest economy, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030," the report said.
The report also includes the colorfully labeled wild card category of "Black Swans," which are "discrete events" with the potential for major impact.
The "Black swans" include climate change. "Dramatic and unforeseen changes already are occurring at a faster rate than expected," and could cause regional food supply issues.
There could be a pandemic that kills millions, nuclear terror or a cyberattack by 2030.
And if those things weren't enough to worry about, there's a potential for a solar geomagnetic storm powerful enough to disrupt the electric grid, knock out satellites, and many sensitive electronic devices."
The report generally believes "a shift in the technological center of gravity from West to East and South" has already begun and will continue "as the flows of companies, ideas, entrepreneurs, and capital from the developed to the developing markets increase." | <urn:uuid:fc95612e-2136-4ca7-996f-764777d7b691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itworld.com/hardware/327709/us-sees-techs-center-gravity-shifting-asia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939197 | 497 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Principal Investigator: Dr Sean O’Connell
Co-investigator: Dr Paul Corthorn
Research Assistant: Dr Stuart Aveyard
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, 2012-13
The project’s aim is to increase historical understanding of the political and social histories of consumer credit in the UK. The study begins with the Hire Purchase Act (1938), which was result of the growth of consumer credit, growing concerns about its misuse and the concomitant social distress brought by rising debt. The termination point for the project is the Thatcher government’s liberalisation of consumer credit in the 1980s, which secured the UK’s position as the most diverse consumer credit market in Europe. Consumer credit featured prominently in government thinking, both as an important aspect of economic policy and as an issue capable of giving birth to regular debates about personal debt and social problems. Whilst much has been written about the social aspects of consumer credit between the 1930s and 1980s, and on related themes such as the impact of affluence, or the emergence of the consumer movement and consumer protection policy in the UK, no historical investigation has unpacked the relationship between government, consumers and credit in the UK. In the aftermath of the ‘credit crunch’, this is an apposite moment at which to fill this lacuna.
The primary aim of this project is a straightforward one: to chart the relationship between the major political parties and the development of the modern consumer credit regime. Although this important task is the major aim, the research will also engage with a number of other significant historical issues and debates. The research will analyse political responses to the economic and social impact of the growth and increasing diversity of consumer credit. In doing so, it will also provide a case study that explores the relationship between successive governments and consumer society. The evolving ideological positions within and between the major political parties - in the context of growing consumer use of various forms of credit - will be probed to delineate debates and policies surrounding what was an increasingly significant factor in the economy. As well as its assimilation of political and socio-economic history, a noteworthy aspect of the work will be its integrated approach to political debates between and across parties. Much British political historiography tends to focus on one or other of the two main parties. This project will, instead, examine all three major parties and consider their evolving opinions of the role of consumer credit within the British economy and society. The intention is to offer a fresh contribution to debates about issues such as which political party proved most adept at exploiting the emergence of a more affluent electorate; the post-war ‘consensus’ and the emergence of neo-liberalism; and the extent to which Britain developed a different model towards consumer protection than those of her European neighbours. | <urn:uuid:1fa8cbfd-c8a0-448e-8ae3-9afc69cfc09e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/Research/HistoryResearchProjects/ThePoliticsofConsumerCreditintheUK1938-1992/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958029 | 570 | 1.695313 | 2 |
On July 29, 2011, Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA), produced its two millionth Subaru vehicle. Located in Lafayette, Indiana, SIA has been building Subaru vehicles since 1989. Subaru models that have been shipped from SIA include Legacy, Outback, Tribeca, and Baja. SIA opened in partnership with Isuzu and has assembled Isuzu models. With the advent of Subaru partnership with Toyota, SIA builds Camry models.
The first Subaru built by SIA.
The two million mark includes Subaru models only.
SIA has gained recognition as an automotive manufacturer that sends zero waste to landfills and is a National Wildlife Refuge. All of the Legacy, Outback, and Tribeca models sold in the United States are manufactured at SIA.
At the Geneva International Motor Show last March, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI) displayed a cutaway vehicle that featured a drivetrain. Introduced as the SUBARU “BOXER Sports Car Architecture,” the display highlighted a new platform that featured a SUBARU BOXER engine and rear-wheel drive (RWD) built in conjunction with partner Toyota.
An FHI press release stated, “The car will be the only front-engine, rear-wheel drive, mass-produced sports car powered by a horizontally opposed engine in the world, by making full use of an engineering masterpiece fusing Subaru sports car expertise with Boxer engine performance and Toyota’s experiences with rear-wheel drive sports cars.”
A Subaru concept sports car based on this platform will be revealed at the Los Angeles Auto Show mid-November. Watch for details here on the website. | <urn:uuid:e4efdf62-a91e-4b1a-8ee6-96693db76d31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://subarudrive.com/fall11_news.aspx?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943628 | 347 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The dooyoo guide to trends in digital photography 2009 - With an increasingly bewildering range of features and a huge range of prices, determining which is the right Digital Camera for you can at first appear a daunting task. Here we will try to get to the bottom of the terminology and look at some factors on which to base your choice
You will find everything that you need to know about the top digital cameras from Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Canon and Fujifilm. We will attempt to provide an overview of the different types of cameras, sensors, lenses, memory cards and tripods, as well as introducing the season's newcomers and latest trends.
The dooyoo website combines consumer reviews and price comparison in an intelligent mix. We offer tests, opinions and the best prices all in one place and constantly updated. We show you current products and offer advice and information on selection and purchase.
Compact digital cameras: point and shoot - Light and easy to slip into a pocket, compact digital cameras are ideal for holidays, family celebrations and socializing with friends. Consumers can expect decent image quality (at least at lower ISO values), ease of use, value for money and a convenient size. Seven megapixel resolutions are not unusual, making bigger prints and enlargements possible but beware, image quality does not increase automatically with pixel count. Two factors are important in determining the quality of the image, the lens and the size of the image sensor.
In the case of the sensor (where all those pixels are stored) the size has remained the same despite the higher pixel count. Accommodating ever more pixels on the sensor surface often results in picture noise (unwanted digital artifacts and glitches in the frame) and some of the cheaper cameras struggle to produce a clean image above ISO 400 (i.e. in low light conditions). This is a problem also sometimes seen in the more expensive ultra-compacts. In general it is worth sticking with recognisable brands and anything under a £100 is likely to disappoint.
Worthy of note amongst the compacts are the 10 megapixel, with its high quality Carl Zeiss lens and 38-114mm focal length. It weighs just 151g and scores well in this class. Despite the high number of megapixels, effective software compensation means useable images up to 600 ISO, impressive in a camera at this price.
Also in this class the Fujifilm Finepix F50fd, an excellent camera for poor light conditions. Though neither the lightest nor most attractive of cameras, the Finepix also boasts a couple of unusual features uncommon at this price, Dual Image Stabilization, Face Detection 2.0 Technology with Automatic Red Eye Removal function, and ISO settings of up to ISO 6400, the F50fd takes compact digital cameras to the next level.
At the upper end of the range the stunningly designed sleek curves of the 8 megapixel Canon Digital Ixus 950 IS, puts 18 preset modes at your disposal as well as face recognition, a 4x optical zoom and Canon's impressive optical image stabilization technology. The latter a real advantage when it comes to reducing camera shake without the loss of detail associated with digital shake reduction techniques. The Ixus also features an optical viewfinder, a genuine rarity on cameras at this price and useful as the LCD screens can be hard to make out in direct sunlight. Canon's pre-eminence in the digital market is based on the consistently high build quality and reliability of their products. In the case of the Ixus, the only negative thing we can find to say about it is that at the equivalent of 35mm its wide-angle setting is perhaps not as good as it could be. Otherwise the Ixus is a truly outstanding and desirable camera.
Other inexpensive digital cameras worth mentioning include: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S730, Samsung L201 .
High end compacts: good things come in small packages. - The more expensive compacts offer a greater degree of versatility in terms of their ability to override automatic settings. Features like high quality optical image stabilisation (obviating the necessity of a tripod) are pretty standard as well as ergonomic design and a generally better build quality
One of the outstanding cameras in this price range is the 10 megapixel Nikon Coolpix P5000, With ISO settings up to 3200, a wide range of manual as well as automatic modes and excellent optical image stabilization (developed for Nikon's more expensive DSLR's) the Coolpix P5000 offers a degree of versatility well beyond the scope of most semi compacts.
Although pixel noise and quality is reportedly an issue at higher ISOs (the curse of the small sensor strikes again) this is more than compensated for by the Canon Powershot SX10 IS . Canon's superb image stabilization system also means slower shutter speeds are available. Operation is fairly intuitive, using a thumb wheel to navigate options but, as with the Coolpix, there is enough versatility not to disappoint those looking for a little more control. The Powershot is a seriously fast camera, taking significantly less time to boot up and save images (i.e., when you turn it on and 'recovery' time between shots) than the Coolpix.
Also in this price range: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18E-K.
Superzoomer: Telephototastic - With the versatility and quality of compacts increasing and the price of entry level DSLRs decreasing, the popularity of the so-called 'bridge' camera is waning. The bridge camera has a larger lens and sensor than the compact, combined with much of the functionality of the DSLR but it is generally lighter and often easier to use. The key difference between bridge cameras and DSLRs is that the bridge camera relies on a digital viewfinder as opposed to the mirror reflex systems of the DSLR. The digital viewfinder is a tiny LCD display that has some disadvantages in low light and in 'blacking out' between shots, it also can be a drain on battery power. Another important difference is that, for the time being at least, bridge cameras do not have interchangeable lenses.
One area where bridge cameras are still highly relevant however is that of the so-called superzoom camera. Whilst all digital cameras feature some degree of zoom capability, the ability to shoot clear, blur free close-ups without having to acquire additional expensive and heavy telephoto lenses is a boon to many photographers. It is important to make the distinction here between digital and optical zoom, the digital variety effectively just crops the frame resulting in blurry and pixilated close-ups whereas the optical zoom results in no loss of quality.
Other Superzooms include: Canon Powershot SX110 IS, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10, Kodak Easyshare ZD710.
Digital SLR: professional quality at a price. - Not that long ago digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras were so expensive as to be out of the reach of all but serious professionals and the wealthiest of hobbyists but with prices falling dramatically the cheapest are now not much more than the price of a (very) high end compact.
What distinguishes the DSLR is their ultimate versatility; interchangeable lenses, extremely fast shutter responses, large pixel sensors and compatibility with accessories like flash units. Another important factor is their support of the RAW file format, which allows for much higher image quality. It is worth bearing in mind however that the trade off is that these cameras are far heavier and generally more complex to use. RAW files are enormous and almost without exception DSLRs do not come with memory cards as standard and these will have to be purchased separately. Shots are composed using an optical viewfinder (the LCD screen on the back of these cameras displays the menu functions and allows viewing of shots after they have been taken). Beginners may find the complexity of these cameras intimidating. If you are going to use the automatic settings most of the time then a DSLR is really not appropriate however for the more demanding user their range and quality will prove indispensable.
The 6 megapixel Nikon D40, is one of the cheapest DSLRs on the market, recently upgraded the D40 (x) - now 10 megapixels - (including a 18-55 mm kit lens) its only obvious disadvantage is that since it lacks an integral lens motor only Nikon compatible lenses with built in motors will be capable of using the autofocus functions.
The 10 megapixel Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel Xti) features an integrated ultrasonic dust suppression mechanism (the larger sensors in DSLRs can prove a magnet for dust) and quick on screen setting adjustment as well as including a 18-55 mm kit lens.
Other recommended DSLRs include: Sony a (alpha) DSLR-A200, Pentax K10D.
Bells and whistles, the latest features and trends - Weather and waterproof cameras
If you live in a desert or spend a lot of time at the beach then it should be noted that sand and salt water are not your camera's best friends. For outdoors types consider a weatherproof model such as the Olympus µ[MJU:] 760 or, if the lure of the (not too) deep is hard to resist try the Pentax Optio W20, waterproof to a depth of 1.5m. Alternately you can acquire special underwater housings for many specific camera models and both Hama and Aquapac make a waterproof bag, which should enable you to capture an underwater scene.
With cameras available in all different shapes and sizes it was perhaps inevitable that some users and manufacturers aspire to a product that evokes photography's golden age. The Minox Digital Classic Camera Leica M3 4.0 is actually a beautifully realized tiny replica of the classic Leica. Unfortunately, though its looks are irresistible, its extremely limited performance makes it hard to recommend as anything other than a "stocking filler", presumably the box brownie with 'daguerreotype' mode is coming soon.
As if the choices presented to the prospective digital camera buyer weren't already complicated enough the latest generation of products sees a blurring of the lines between digital camcorders, mobile phones and digital cameras. The majority of compacts are capable of video capture with some high end models (such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T20/P stretching to HD quality and stereo audio recording.
Our advice? For the time being at least if you want a phone, buy a phone, if you want a camera buy a camera. With the file sizes generated by even low-resolution video restricting capture to a few minutes this function remains little more than an appealing novelty and should certainly not be a deciding factor when choosing a digital camera that is right for you.
Seven Top tips for buying a digital camera -
- Ask yourself what do you intend to do with the photographs you take with your new camera? If you are printing them at standard sizes or sharing them via the computer then a 5 megapixel camera will be more than adequate for your needs. For most users a point and shoot compact with a variety of preset modes and flash will cover most of their needs but if you are serious about photography then advanced modes and manual options will hold more appeal. If you are only going to use the automatic settings then don't go overboard and buy a DSLR, usability (and weight) should be key considerations, the most sophisticated camera in the world will not produce a good photo unless you have it with you and know how it works.
- Set yourself a budget and stick to it. A number of factors should be considered here. Increasingly cameras come with little or no memory so expect to budget a little extra for a memory card, also a spare battery is a worthwhile investment, we'll discuss these issues in a little more detail below. Although buying online can save you a lot of money, once you have narrowed your choice down to three or four alternatives it is well worth trying these out at a high street retailer before committing yourself. Deals, online or otherwise, that include lots of extras (extra batteries, memory cards, tripods, cases etc) can save you money but check the cost of buying these separately and also whether you really need all those extra bits and pieces. Unscrupulous dealers will use these deals as a way of getting rid of old stock and sub-standard models at inflated prices. As with everything in life if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.
- Megapixels aren't everything. The resolution of a digital camera is measured in megapixels, the little dots that make up the picture, however what this tells you is only the size of the image. The quality of the image is determined by the size of the image sensor on which all those megapixels are stored and the quality of the lens. Another thing to watch out for when looking at the megapixel count is to make sure that the number refers to the actual pixel count and not the 'interpolated' figure which refers to a bit of software jiggery pokery which artificially increases the image's pixel count when printed but will not improve its clarity. It is worth bearing in mind that very high resolution pictures will also take up a lot of space on your hard drive and the difference, when printed at 8x10, will be barely perceptible.
- Think carefully about the kind of photographs you are likely to take and choose a camera with the right lens. 3X zoom lenses are increasingly common but if you are interested in macro photography or likely to be taking shots of very distant subjects then a more powerful zoom is a good idea. Also consider the lens' wide angle capability, you may regret not doing so as you back further towards the edge of the swimming pool to make sure you get everyone in the frame. Two other factors are very important when considering the lens. Firstly digital zoom is best ignored as it simply crops the frame and the results are unimpressive - only optical zoom counts. Secondly if buying a camera with a long zoom lens (a superzoom), high quality image stabilisation will make a lot of difference to your results.
- Memory. As a rule most digital cameras ship with very little memory so its important when buying your first camera to budget for an extra memory card or two. Memory comes in a variety of different formats, the most common is Compact Flash followed by SD (secure digital) there are also some proprietary formats, for instance Sony's Memory Stick, which will only work with its products. Very high-resolution images eat memory and it's a good idea to have more than one card to avoid loss or accidental erasure of your photos. High speed memory cards are really only worth considering if paired with a DSLR which can take full advantage of them and unless you are transferring hundreds of very high resolution pictures its unlikely to make a great deal of difference.
- Batteries. Often overlooked but worth some consideration is the question of your camera's power supply. Digital cameras have a huge appetite for batteries, the propriety rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries used by some cameras retain charge longer but it's worth considering buying an extra if you can. Some cameras still use standard AA batteries (or better still their rechargeable relatives), which mean that they are a lot easier to replace when, needed. Best avoided at all cost is a camera which uses disposable proprietary batteries (thankfully there aren't that many of these around) those unfortunate enough to own one of these beasts will find that feeding it costs an arm and a leg.
- Manual. A minor point but one worth some consideration is whether the camera's manual is on CD or a printed booklet, the former will not be of much use 'on location'.
Here is a brief summary of our buying advice - For snapshots, parties and holiday photos a compact camera, ideally with a shutter delay of under 0.3 seconds, is a great choice. A range of useful presets mean that the flexibility offered by higher end models will only be missed by the more demanding photographer (he, and it usually is a he, is the one standing on the beach weighed down with camera bags and tripods).
Image stabilization (preferably optical rather than digital) is also a feature worth looking out for, though it won't cure the effects of a hangover it should result in less blurry snaps. Face recognition is something that might also be worth considering if friends, family (or total strangers) make regular appearances in your snaps.
The cheaper cameras are susceptible to picture noise especially in poor light conditions and professionals and enthusiasts will find the lack of manual options frustrating. For the budding David Baileys amongst us the Digital SLR is the way to go. Though heavier, more expensive and complex to operate, interchangeable lenses, larger image sensors and higher quality electronics mean that with digital cameras the creative possibilities are virtually limitless.
Brand: Samsung - Simple to use and feature-packed the Samsung ST66 Digital Camera makes it easier to capture life's special moments. It features a 16.1 megapixel CCD sensor 5x wide angle zoom and HD movie shooting. A perfect portrait system will also help you capture friends and family loo...
Digital Camera / Brand: Fuji - "If you're looking for an everyday camera offering premium quality images across a variety of situations reach for the Fuji JV300. Stylish and compact it features a 3x optical zoom Fujinon lens and a 14 megapixel sensor. The camera's LCD screen measures over 2.7"" making it e...
Digital Camera / Brand: Canon - Slim colourful and stylish the PowerShot A2300 has a 5x zoom instant HD movies (720p) Help button and Smart Auto - so it's easy to capture every moment in superb 16 megapixel detail wherever you go. Complete beginners can shoot high quality photos or movies with Smart Auto w...
Brand: Panasonic / Digital Camera / 5x Optical Zoom / 14 Megapixels
Digital Camera / compact
Digital Camera / compact
Digital Camera / Brand: Fuji - Looking for a slim easy-to-use camera packed with all the features you'll need for great pictures? Then reach for the Fujifilm FinePix JX500. Featuring a 5x optical zoom and 14 megapixels you'll get stunning still images and - thanks to the dedicated movie recording button - ...
Brand: Vivitar / Digital Camera / Resolution: 16.1 Megapixel / Display: LCD 2.4" TFT / Built-In Memory: 32MB DDR1 / Optical Zoom: 3x / Digital Zoom: 4x
Brand: Panasonic / Digital Camera / 5m Waterproof / 1.5m Shockproof, Freezeproof and Dustproof Protection / HD Video Recording MP4 Format / 16.1-megapixel CCD Sensor / MEGA OIS / Active Mode to Suppress Blur / 25mm Wide-angle / 4x Optical Zoom Lens / 8x Intelligent Zoom / IA Mode / Panorama Shot
Brand: GE / Digital Camera / 16 Megapixels / 15X Zoom / 27mm Wide Angle
|Digital Camera recommendations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... next|
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Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday he expects the legislature this year to prioritize the passing of an energy tax and amending tax laws related to the implementation of a tax based on the actual selling price of property.
“Imposing an energy tax would help increase energy efficiency, while amending tax laws could help the government speed up the implementation of certain taxes,” Lee told a press conference.
Although many tax experts have said Taiwan needs a property tax based on actual transaction prices, it is more important to ensure supplementary tax laws are amended to support the levy of the tax on the actual selling price, Lee said.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) also wants the legislature to amend laws expanding the levying of capital gains taxes, Lee said.
To address the wealth gap, Lee said that adjusting some taxes could improve income distribution, but that increasing income was a more important objective.
As for recent uncertainty arising from the eurozone debt crisis, Lee said the government was prepared to take “proper measures,” such as tax cuts, to boost the economy if problems persist.
“If Europe goes into recession, Taiwan’s exports and employment could be affected,” Lee said.
However, he said he does not expect the debt crisis to negatively affect Taiwan’s economy. | <urn:uuid:61d25b81-a9b7-4718-bf93-ad30257c6c57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/01/19/2003523546 | 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 | 0.955619 | 281 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Fort Myers, Fla - The chances of college graduates landing a job out of school is looking up. A new survey out by the Association of College and Employers found companies plan on hiring 5% more new graduates than they did last year.
At Florida Gulf Coast University, the school's director for career services says it could anywhere between 3 to 6 months from the time you've started looking for a job and graduating. College seniors increase their chances if they begin looking for work before they finish school.
The robust job growth, however, doesn't meant seniors will land a job quickly. Most college counselors say graduates will enter a sluggish workforce filled with resumes and applications. Many often don't get a quick response from employers.
Your major also matters. The health care industry is experiencing a boom in new jobs nationwide. Locally, teaching jobs are still in high demand. At Edison State College, students who majored in education are having no trouble finding jobs in school districts across Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties.
The same survey found a 24.4% of college seniors already have post-graduation jobs lined up this year. The increase in employment could signal more and more students are settling on a single job offer instead of waiting for multiple ones.
- Second Lee County bank robbed, suspects in custody
- Fatal crash on Golden Gate Parkway
- Fire at North Fort Myers home causes extensive damage
- Florida is #2 for internet crime complaints
- Deputies: 86-year-old Fla. mom shoots, kills son
- Fla. man trapped in car, dies from complications
- Heroes rescue disabled Fla. vet from pond | <urn:uuid:f61e6848-fe72-4374-9bf4-68637ed865d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2010-05-10/Job-market-looking-better-for-new-college-grads | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96236 | 332 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Take Charge When Buying a Home
If you approach the home buying process intelligently and with confidence, you are much more likely to buy a house you'll be proud to call home.
Approaching the task of buying a home can be overwhelming; there's so much to consider:
- How much house can I afford?
- How can I find the best loan?
- Where will I come up with a down payment, and how much will I need?
- Should I buy a new or resale home, and which will go up in value?
- Should I work with an agent or look at homes on my own?
And these questions are just the beginning. Buying a home is one of the largest financial transactions in your lifetime - do your research so you know what you’re doing.
Here are the two most important things to remember no matter where you are on the road to home ownership:
1. You can and should understand everything that is happening in the home buying process.
There is nothing that is so complex that it can't be easily explained to anyone with average intelligence. Just because you don't apply for a thirty year mortgage once a week doesn't mean you have to take the first one that comes along. You'll need to learn some new terms, apply some new concepts and take the time to understand what you're getting into.
If, at any point, something happens that doesn't make sense to you, simply demand a full and complete explanation. If it still doesn't make sense, seek help from someone you trust like your CPA, your banker or maybe an online real estate columnist.
2. In the world of real estate sales, YOU are the most important person in the entire process.
It's easy to think that everyone else carries more weight than you. The agent talks fast and has an answer for everything. The lender may decline your loan application, and on and on.
But the truth is that you, the buyer, are the one person in the transaction that makes it all happen. If you decide to not buy, the entire process comes to a grinding halt.
So flex your consumer muscle and take command of this process. Surround yourself with a team of professionals that you have confidence in and make them work for you.
Approach home buying with intelligence and confidence, and by doing your homework, and you are more likely to buy a house you’re happy with and to know that you made the right decision. | <urn:uuid:ea90e987-64f5-4a4f-8dde-d83fc75b4188> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genebland.featuredwebsite.com/take_charge.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973403 | 513 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Frenchy "Stoney" Edwards, a country music star in the 1970s, stylized his music in the vein of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard. Like Charlie Pride and O. B. McClinton, Edwards and fellow Oklahoman Big Al Downing succeeded as African Americans in the predominantly white country music industry. One of seven siblings born in Seminole, Oklahoma, in 1954 Edwards married and moved to San Francisco. Working at one of the many jobs he held before his singing career, he broke his back, which led him to focus on music.
In 1971 Edwards signed with Capitol records and released his first album. Asleep at the Wheel backed him at the beginning of his career. He had fifteen chart singles for Capitol, including two Top Twenty hits, "She's My Rock" and "Mississippi You're on my Mind." His song "Blackbird (Hold Your Head High)" caused some controversy and banishment from a few radio stations. After he made five albums, the company dropped him in 1977. He recorded for smaller labels after that.
In the early 1980s Edwards lost part of a leg in a hunting accident and had open heart surgery, which caused his retirement. In 1991 he returned to music, cutting the album, Just for Old Time's Sake. This acclaimed album, produced by Billy Joe Kirk, featured many top session musicians including Johnny Gimble, Floyd Domino, Leon Rausch, and Ray Benson. Stoney Edwards died of stomach cancer in April 1997.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Colin Larkin, ed., The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (3rd ed; London: Muze Limited, 1998). Bill Malone and Judith McCulloh, Stars of Country Music: Uncle Dave Macon to Johnny Rodriguez (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975).
© Oklahoma Historical Society | <urn:uuid:6d2cb1df-1d72-4146-89a0-7955aae1bd2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/E/ED011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967484 | 378 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The best Euro-commentary on Bush’s recent Euro-tour:
The best Euro-commentary on Bush’s recent Euro-tour:
Working at a library as I do, I get to see what books are popular, which are newly in print, etc. Sadly, a noticable amount of book traffic is composed of right-wing screed-a-thons by our favorite jackasses– O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, etc. But today one caught my eye that pissed me off even more.
You can tell from the cover that it’s a riff on Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.” And the name of this new book manages to imply that Zinn and his book are traitorous dogs. Here’s how it describes itself”
For at least thirty years, high school and college students have been taught to be embarrassed by American history. Required readings have become skewed toward a relentless focus on our country’s darkest moments, from slavery to McCarthyism. As a result, many history books devote more space to Harriet Tubman than to Abraham Lincoln; more to My Lai than to the American Revolution; more to the internment of Japanese Americans than to the liberation of Europe in World War II.
Now, finally, there is an antidote to this biased approach to our history.
What the hell?
I took my high school history classes about a dozen years ago, which falls within that 30 year range. When we learned about the history of the world, we first learned about the “Fertile Crescent”, Mesopotamia, the “cradle of civilization” between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers (which, I don’t think anyone ever bothered to point out, is in modern day Iraq). Once we were done with Mesopotamia, we never, ever spoke another word about the region. What happened to the Mesopotamians, how did their civilization develop? The people in my history class will never know.
We then learned about Ancient Egypt, and the pyramids and the Pharoahs. Then Ancient Greece, again casting the previous culture to the dustbin of history. After Greece, Rome. From Rome, the Dark Ages, with a subtle, unspoken shift to Western Europe. We followed Western Europe through the Dark, into the Middle Ages, into the Renaissance, and then into the Age of Exploration. We then hitched a ride with the conquistadors into the Western Hemisphere, and pretty much ignored Western Europe from there on out, except as the setting for World Wars 1-2.
We then followed American history, from Columbus to the pilgrims, to the colonies, up into the mid 1950s. At this point, my history teachers invariably realized that there was little time left in the school year, and we hastily covered the remaining 40 years, arguably the ones most relevant to us. It’s no wonder American kids care so little about American politics, with no knowledge of the most recent past, they’re left trying to tie current events to Cotton Mather and the Teapot Dome scandal.
Where were Asia, Africa, Australia, and pre-Columbian North and South America in my world history class? We didn’t get any of that.
My world history classes seemed to be a clear narrative about civilization, progress and modernity. We followed human society from its primitive birth, to, apparently, its pinnacle: the US. And even when telling us about the dark stains of America’s past, these problems were either overcome (sort of), or were slowly dissolving naturally. Progress was a natural evolutionary process; so although sexism and racism still exist, we don’t need to worry about them because they’ll go away on their own. Just sit back and enjoy the ride to inevitable human perfection.
That’s what I learned growing up, that Americans are higher up the evolutionary ladder than other people of the world. And the patriotic jackasses above are condemning it because it’s too “PC”?
Zinn has always described his book as a project or supplement, independent of a real history ciriculum. He’s never said “my book is the Truth, it should be read instead of regular textbooks.” He’s always said that his book was just a look at American history through different sets of eyes– usually the eyes of the people getting the most fucked over in a given time period. That is evidence of a bias, as he could just as easily told the story of through the eyes of other “people”, instead of telling the story of the Civil War through the eyes of slaves, he could’ve told it through the eyes of, I dunno, milkmaids or steamboat captains or church ministers. He made a choice, a valid one, with a purpose.
But no, we get Mr. Patriot America here to save us from the mighty Zinn and his “history has many points of view” ilk as Stalinists, who have imposed their will upon the nation. Huzzah to the brave patriots, huzzah!
Just to jab those guys again, let me invite you to read this new piece by Zinn, about the process of positive social change by exposing reasonable people to factual evidence that might make them change their political stances.
It was an effort to deprogram myself of my schooling. Sometime during college, after some re-education and introspection, I wrote a nice response: a tiny, bitterly satirical history book, combining the patronizing tone of my elementary school textbooks, with the “American evolution” theme that permated high school, sprinkling liberally with jabs at American racism, sexism, and nationalism, and then threw in some eccentric stuff that probably lives just in my head. I posted it on my first website, “Jake’s ‘Wacky’ Page of Politics and Nihilism”, in a super bare-bones html format.
Then I lost the file for about 4 years.
But now, now I have found it again, and here is that history book in all its plain, boring, bitter glory. It’s… old. Hope it still stands up.
(I also thought of naming it “Let Freedom Wring”, but I didn’t know if everyone would catch the joke).
“Tom Ridge, you just spent three years as the head of America’s Department of Homeland Security! What are you doing now?”
“I’m going to Home Depot!”
Yes, after years of political scaremongering and whatever the hell else he did as America’s Security Czar, Tom Ridge is now leaving the ranks of our brave defenders to join the board of directors of a popular American construction supplies store.
But is Tom Ridge really qualified for this position? Will he use his knowledge of security issues to help build the company’s home security alarm section? Or perhaps he’ll train their human resources department to round up all the Arab-American employees and lock them in a tool shed?
I think my money is on “we just want to reward Ridge for skyrocketing our sales of plastic sheeting and duct tape by recommending it to a jittery nation.”
But more history-savvy readers might think back even farther and say “wait a minute, how was Ridge qualified for his previous position, as Security Secretary? Before this, he was just governor of Pennsylvania.” This is a valid concern, but you’ve got to remember that in the face of Islamic terrorism, Ridge brought his years of experience dealing with the Keystone State’s own fundamentalist extremists: the Amish.
The good news is that Ridge is not out of the government and can’t hurt us anymore. The bad news is that BushCo. has a track record of replacing bad guys with worse guys. Actually, given Bush’ penchant for cronyism and loyalty, I’m thinking that he’s going to appoint one of his daughters (his wife, as you’ll recall, will be too busy telling poor kids in the ghetto that they need to quit their life of gangs and violence and join the army).
After reading this headline, my eyeballs popped out of my head and rolled around on the floor.
Even though the two countries have not successfully negotiated a path for a border, Israel has gone ahead and built a “security wall” between itself and Palestine, with that wall frequently dipping deeply into Palestinian territory. Now the World Bank is talking about loaning money to the Palestinians to build checkpoints into this illegal security wall.
In other words, Israel has built a prison around Palestine, and now plans to bill them for the cost of the doors.
A World Bank lackey explains that paying for the checkpoints is in the Palestinians’ best interests, because “the project helps enhance the efficiency of the border crossings for the benefit of Palestinians”. This is bullshit.
Palestine is already criss-crossed by roads that only Israelis are allowed to use, which ends up carving the land into segregated pockets. There are also many checkpoints, controlled by Israeli soldiers, which Palestinians must go through to get from one part of their quasi-nation to another. All of this is allegedly to defend the Israeli people from Palestinian terror attacks, but that does not seem to be the case.
My friend Garrick Ruiz visited Palestine as part of the International Solidarity Movement a few years back, and I interviewed him about his experiences. He talked about the checkpoint issues (here, about 40 minutes into Part 2), and explained that many of the checkpoints a) were unmanned at night, b) were abandonded for days at a time, c) did not actually search people or cars, and d) seemed to operate in a random fashion, totally based upon the whims of the soldiers manning them. People can sneak across the unmanned checkpoints, but will wait for hours or even days to get through a manned checkpoint, because the soldiers there will allow or block passage as they please. Robert Fisk tells a similar story here, where he is forced to wait for hours at an Israeli checkpoint for no apparent reason, at which point he backs up and finds a side road that bypasses the checkpoint and gets him back on the main road inside of 10 minutes.
The only conclusions can be that Israeli security is massively negligent, or that these checkpoints are not intended to protect anybody from anything. In the interview, Garrick argues that the purpose of the checkpoints seems to be to make Palestinians so miserable that maybe they’ll move away.
Given the nature of the existing checkpoints, the idea that Palestinians should go into debt to buy some more “for their own benefit” is pretty fucking insulting.
It’s also interesting that I can’t find anyone in the article calling for this loan and this project who’s actually a Palestinian. It sounds like the World Bank, Washington, and Israel are drawing up all the plans and are going to notify the Palestinians when they’re all done.
Or maybe they’ll just start the construction and the Palestinians will just get a bill in the mail.
This anti-abortion attorney general has quite the interest in underage sex.
He’s basically asking for the medical records of “scores” of women who’ve had abortions. These records will contain information about these women’s sex lives, presumably information that they weren’t looking to give to a state prosecutor.
Why does he want these records? Because if any of these abortions were performed on pre-teen girls, then that means those girls were raped, and then he can go prosecute the rapists. Why he needs to see all these medical records instead of just the ones that might fit this rape profile is anyone’s guess.
I did have to smirk at this part of the article:
“When a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old child is pregnant, under Kansas law that child has been raped, and as the state’s chief law enforcement official it is my obligation to investigate child rape in order to protect Kansas children,” [prosecutor] Kline said. “There are two things that child predators want, access to children and secrecy…
He declined to answer questions about his investigation.
Yeah, I know, cheap shot.
But this next part is creepy too:
Mr. Kline’s efforts to obtain records from abortion clinics follows his failed attempt last year to require the state’s health workers to report any sexual activity of girls younger than 16, the age of legal consent in Kansas.
So fear not, young Kansan girls! Phill Kline is here to protect your virtue.
Or, possibly to punish you if you have sex. One or the other.
Now that I have my mp3 player loaded up with the majority of my music collection, I’ll do that “It’s Friday, put your mp3 player on shuffle and post the first ten songs it plays on your blog” thing. Hopefully by next month I’ll have radio show playlists to post instead.
The Roots- Double Trouble
Johnny Cash- Hard Times
System of a Down- Highway Song
Ani Difranco- Dilate
DJ Dangermouse & Jemini- Bush Boys
Blur- Trouble In the Message Center
Panjabi MC- True MCs
Radiohead- Paranoid Android
Cocteau Twins- Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
Here we are, the future of Iraq.
The new Iraqi assembly meets in about 2 weeks to vote for the nation’s new president and vice presidents (two veeps). The president and VPs will then vote for a prime minister, and the prime minister will “put together a government”, says the article above.
The president and his sidekicks must be elected by a 2/3 majority. The popular United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia party backed by Ayatola Sistani, has just over 50% of the assembly seats, and they’ve got a guy they want to be prime minister. Their most logical manuever would be to strike a bargain with the Kurdish Alliance, which has 27% of the seats.
So what do the Kurds want? The oil rich city of Kirkuk, and “a degree of autonomy which is close to independence”. As I have mentioned many times, Iraq’s neighbor Turkey is utterly opposed to these things, as it fears that they will incite a similar desire for independence/secession among its own Kurdish population. Turkey has already claimed that they are willing to use military force to prevent the Kurds from taking Kirkuk.
Will Iraq’s attempts at creating a new government end up breaking it into pieces?
They’re Heere- BWAHAHAHA!!! News anchor and “serious journalist” Peter Jennings will be hosting a news special about… UFOs. And it’s not even sweeps yet! When May hits, watch for Jennings to do special, hard-hitting reports about NASCAR while wearing a thong.
Love Hurts (.pdf)- “Murder at the hands of a romantic partner is a leading cause of death among African-American women between the ages of 15 and 24.” Damn. Sad and infuriating article about domestic violence by African-American men against African-American women, that examines how the actions and lyrics of high profile hip-hop artists might play a role.
Toronto Police Complain About The News- “Bad Cop, No Donut” is a brief weekly radio program that reports on police abuse that happens in North America. The show airs on a Canadian college radio station, and surprise surprise, the Toronto police chief is trying to pressure the college into pulling the plug on the show. He calls it “hate mongering.”
Only one thing to do, of course. Listen to, and promote the show. I’m reaching out to all my radio contacts.
The show’s a good listen. Lot more crime committed by police than you’d probably think.
Germans Trust Putin More than Bush- wow. You know who Germans trust more than George W. Bush? A former KGB operative. You know you’re unpopular when people like you less than the secret police.
Raising children as vegans ‘unethical’, says professor- wow, what a lousy article. Scientist does experiment in which some impoverished African kids are given meat in addition to their regular, unbalanced diet (other kids get additional food as well, but not with same nutrients). Meat-eating kids are healthier than other kids at end of study. Scientist heralds the benefits of meat, claims that “Animal source foods have some nutrients which are not found anywhere else”, and announces that “There’s absolutely no question that it’s unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans.”
Okay, when scientists start throwing around phrases like “ethical” and “absolutely no question”, alarm bells start going off in my head. Most scientists I know are so conscious of the multitudes of variables, factors, and points of view that they would never say that something was absolutely true or false, and would dodge any sort of question about ethics.
So we need to look at just one other about this study and see it start to unravel.
After condemning vegans for their nutritional deficiencies, “She accepted that adults could avoid animal foods if they took the right supplements.” Wait, what the fuck? She’s gonna talk about “meat-only” nutrients and wail about the need to eat meat, and then say “or you could take some vitamin supplements instead?”
Oh, how was this study funded? “Partially supported by the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.”
Social Anxiety: Privatization Unpopular At State Level- as Bush continues to plot to throw you in the poorhouse by
dismantling privatizing reforming Social Security, this report shows that when state governments have followed similar programs, that no one seems to want them, and that the workers who adopt them end up with less money
Nurses, teachers take on Schwarzenegger- steroid-bloated quote-machine Arnold Schwarzenegger calls California’s beseiged teachers and nurses “special interests” as he screws them over. Those greedy nurses and teachers, binding our wounds and teaching our children! Where do they get off asking for better nurse-to-patient ratios and school funding?!
Could his disdain have anything to do with the fact that these two fields are dominated by women? Nah.
Poor, White and Pissed: A Guide to the White Trash Planet for Urban Liberals- pretty much what the title promises. The point of view of a self-deprecating good ol’ boy about working class, white, Southern culture.
“My people are not the people in the cubicle next to you at work (though they might well be cleaning it at nights when you are sleeping.) Mine are not people complaining about paying off their college loans or who got the best parking spot at their office campus complex. They are people with different problems entirely. Mostly related to truck payments. Or people like my old tree service boss Danny, who cut off a finger working with a chain saw, wrapped it in a McDonald’s foil wrapper and ran to the hospital to get it sewn back on. Or any of the thousands of people in this town who smash apples into apple sauce or boil them into vinegar at National Fruit Products, performing soul grinding shift work year after year with no opportunity to ever be promoted, or obtaining health care at all. Just the seasonal layoff when all the apples are smashed and the millions of gallons of vinegar bottled. Working class people going nowhere in a town that smells like vinegar…
The political left once supported these workers, stood on the lines taking its beatings at the plant gates alongside them. Now, comfortably ensconced in the middle class, the American left sees the same working whites as warmongering bigots, happy pawns of the empire. That is writing working folks off too cheaply, and it begs the question of how they came to be that way — if they truly are. To cast them as a source of our deep national political problems is ridiculous. They are a symptom of the problems, and they may be making it worse because they are easily manipulated, or because they cannot tell an original idea from a beer fart. But they are not the root cause by any means. The left should take its cues from Malcolm X, who understood the need to educate and inform the entire African-American society before tackling the goal of unity. Same goes for white crackers. Nobody said it would be easy.”
“Branded entertainment” is a newish advertising buzzword for “the medium is the salesman.” Basically, the concept is for advertisers to jam their hands so far up your favorite TV show’s ass that… I don’t like where that metaphor is going.
Advertisers want to a) intrude more blatantly and explicitly into television programs and movies and such, and b) create their own entertainment, so that you’ll say things like “I can’t wait to see that new short from Pizza Hut Films™”.
I read about this in an article about this year’s “Madison + Vine” conference, where movie producers fornicate with advertising execs and produce all kinds of ravenous, nightmarish, gibbering abortions.
Actually, the article did give me a bit of hope. The piece has a whiff of desperation about it, a feel that the author is trying to pretend that a series of lifeless presentations and unproductive panel discussions was a raging meeting of the minds. While the article talks a good game about “the future”, I think its lack of specifics is telling.
The article does mention that creepy idea of “relationships with consumers.” When I think of the relationship between advertisers and consumers, I think of Godzilla, stomping through the streets. As thousands run screaming, he grabs handfuls and stuff them into his gaping mouth. As a man tries to escape into a building, Godzilla razes it with his atomic breath.
No sanctuary, nowhere to hide.
George Bush’s brain is apparently so small that he can only remember the names of a few dozen individuals. Don’t know how else you can explain why he keeps recycling the same few folks over and over again whenever a new position becomes open in his administration. Oh wait, yes I can, his insane demand for secrecy and loyalty.
So Bush has announced his nominee for the new National Intelligence Director position: John Negroponte. Before this, Negroponte was Bush’s ambassador to Iraq. And before that, he was Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations.
And before that, he was Regan’s ambassador to Honduras, whitewashing that nation’s hideous human rights record.
Actually, let’s do something about that faceless term “human rights”. In the 1980s, members of the Honduran government, police, or military could, upon a whim, kidnap, imprison, torture, and murder the citizens of Honduras. This treatment was usually reserved for “subversives” (i.e. people who thought that the government shouldn’t kidnap, imprison, torture and murder), but being a “suspected subversive” was enough. And “suspected subversive” just meant “hey you, get over here.”
Of course, Negroponte denies that this was going on (2001: “To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras.”), but I think that this article from the Baltimore Sun is damning evidence that these things happened, and that Negroponte most certainly knew about it.
And Negroponte wasn’t covering up for the Honduran government because they were pals. He did so because Honduras was aiding the US’ bloody proxy war in Nicaragua. In other words, Negroponte whitewashed the actions of one set of death squads to maintain the operations of another set of death squads. Does anyone fit the description of Ward Churchill’s “little technocrat Eichmanns” better than this guy?
So this guy is now in charge of all American intelligence. Lovely.
And how did the “opposition” party, the Democrats, react to this nomination? By making me vomit.
Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:
“He (Negroponte) brings to his job experience as a consumer of intelligence.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller:
“I think that Ambassador Negroponte is a very sound choice. Ambassador Negroponte has served bravely and with distinction in Iraq and at the United Nations during a time of turmoil and uncertainty. He brings a record of proven leadership and strong management.”
Rep. Jane Harman:
“John Negroponte is a smart choice for a very important job. He’s a seasoned and skilled diplomat, who has served with distinction at the United Nations and in Iraq — and he has the full confidence of the president.”
I have no snappy conclusion for this.
[title stolen from “SWR” over at Steve Gilliard’s blog]
After Bush Leaves Office, His Budget’s Costs Balloon- one of the Bush administration’s key rhetorical tricks is to always talk about the future. Economy doing badly? Bush’ll just tell you he thinks it’s going to get better. Iraq going badly? Well that’s going to turn around. Without a time machine, it’s impossible to argue with someone like that. But we now see one reason he’s always talking about the future: his back-loaded budgets. For example, this article notes, Bush’s plans for ruining Social Security will cost taxpayers $79 billion in 2007 and 2008, but in the five years after Bush leaves office, it’ll cost us $675 billion. The article is vague on specifics, but predicts that Bush’s budget eats America alive once he’s nice and retired.
Bush wants $82 billion more for Iraq, Afghanistan- you’ve also gotta love how the White House will draw up a complete budget, and then say “oh yeah, and we need more money for blowing shit up”.
Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision- and you’ve got to love the irony of the necons spending $300 billion to beat the Middle East into its political shape of choice, only to have Iraq on the verge of becoming a Shia quasi-theocratic state. Remember, the US paid Saddam Hussein to battle the Shia in Iran for a decade. Now the two states are likely to become pals.
Shiites Take Absolute Majority in Parliament, Iran Scores Victory in the Iraqi Elections- article by Juan Cole about the Iraqi election outcome. I am intrigued to see that Cole claims that the (Shia) United Iraqi Alliance party has won a majority of the seats in the new Iraqi parliament, while CNN Headline News has been saying just the opposite (seemingly to downplay the US failure). But Cole points out that it’s very likely that the UIA will form a coalition with second-place party the Kurdish Alliance, leaving the third-place Iraqiya (Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s party) out in the cold.
CNN is now saying that the UIA did indeed get a majority of parliamentary seats, 140 out of 275.
Frankly, I don’t know if this election could’ve gone any worse for US plans. The UIA is looking towards Islamic Sharia law , and the second plank of their platform was to ask the US to make public their plan for departure from Iraq. And the Kurdish Alliance’s prime interest is in Kurdish autonomy, if not outright independence– which would greatly piss off US ally Turkey.
And what are the odds that this neocon clusterfuck will cause these puppetmasters to pause briefly and reconsider their plans to invade Iran and Syria? I’ll grip my “Understatement of the Year” trophy and say “slim.”
Palestinian caution is warranted- Eric Margolis sums up the state of the Israel-Palestine conflict in a heartbeat:
The basic problem is this: Israel already has what it wants, the most fertile or militarily important parts of the West Bank and Golan, which it continues to colonize at a furious pace. So it’s stalling.
Only two things will motivate Israel to relent — intolerable Palestinian violence or enormous U.S. pressure. So far, neither seems likely. Nor does a genuine, lasting peace, if Palestinians see that nothing will change and Abbas is merely the latest U.S.-imposed overseer in the Arab world.
He also sums up Israel’s goals:
[Ariel] Sharon’s vision of a Palestinian “entity” is three of four separate cantons, or apartheid-style Bantustans, isolated by Jewish-only security roads and checkpoints, all surrounded by a high “security wall.”
Jewish settlements may occupy up to 58% of the West Bank. Palestine’s air, land, sea and telecommunications contacts with the outside world will be entirely controlled by Israel. This is not peace. It’s a penitentiary.
And he also announces his suspicion that Yasser Arafat was killed by foul play. I don’t rule out this possibility, but Margolis really gives us little reason to accept his theory. Maybe in another column.
More on Wal-Mart’s Sweetheart Deal with the DOL- long story short: the Department of Labor has agreed to let Wal-Mart shred all of its incriminating documents before it launches an investigation into any of Wal-Mart’s misdeeds. Essentially.
Beyond ‘Fair and Balanced’- an in-depth look at the nefarious Sinclair Broadcast Group. Partisan, nutjob bullies.
The News Is Broken- well, we knew that. Actually, the article is a summary of the “Jeff Gannon” scandal. Who’s Jeff Gannon? Long story short, it’s the pseudonym of a Republican hack, masquerading as a journalist, who’s role seems to have been to ask Republican-friendly questions at White House press conferences.
No Cities Left- anecdote and thoughts about the nature of alienation and social relationships in the Big City.
I think that the Lying Media Bastards radio show is off the air for at least another few weeks. I did unexpectedly help interview Avi Lewis, director of documentary The Take (a movie I talked about here) with DJ Lotus on Thursday, but I don’t think that counts (during the interview, Lewis used the phrase “turbo-capitalism”, which I am totally gonna steal from him).
When I do start the show up again, it will be coming from radioActive sanDiego. I still have a few hoops to jump through to become a full-fledged member of the station and start webcasting again, so maybe we’ll see some shows in early March?
RASD has a pretty sweet little set-up, far homier and more social than Kill Radio has ever been to me. Of course, this could be due to the fact that my KR shows have always been daytime affairs when most folks are at work, and my visits to RASD have been in the evenings.
Also, RASD has cats. And weiner dogs.
Which brings me to the issue of scheduling. I think I’d be inclined to switch my show to an evening slot, but I wouldn’t want to move my show to a time when my regular listeners couldn’t tune in. Of course, I’m planning on recording and archiving my shows online from here on out, so maybe that’s a moot point. So to anyone who does, or would like to listen to the show, when’s a good time for you?
And finally, I think I need a new intro/theme song. For quite some time I’ve mostly used RJD2’s “The Horror”, a dramatic/spooky instrumental hip-hop jam. I’ve also used Michael Franti’s “Music and Politics”, the X-Ecutioners’ “DJ Song”, the Seat Belts’ “Tank!” (aka the Cowboy Bebop theme song), and The Donnas’ “Gimme My Radio”.
So I’m looking for suggestions. I’m looking for a great song that’s 2 minutes or less, preferably instrumental, but if non-instrumental, the lyrics should somehow relate to music, media, politics and/or rebellion. If you’ve got some ideas, please list em in the comments.
Expect the new LMB radio show to be an awful lot like the last version (music, snarky/bitter news commentary, media analysis, sarcasm), except with more interviews with activists, experts and musicians. And probably more comments about petting cats.
So who here has actually read the dreaded Ward Churchill essay?
It’s quite the scandal, despite the fact that it was written more than three years ago, as a “gut reaction” to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Churchill was going to speak at a small east coast university when conservatives suddenly found a passage in one of his old essays that they could take out of context and use to once again tar everyone left of Bob Dole.
The intentional misreading is that Churchill said that all of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Centers were “little Eichmanns”, like Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
A loose-yet-contextual reading could be “stockbrokers are evil”, a statement that probably not too many folks would get upset about.
But the most exact reading would be “just as many Germans had to plan the mundane logistics necessary for the Holocaust to take place, many of the ‘technocratic’ workers in the World Trade Center have to plan the mundane details necessary for American corporate and military carnage to take place.”
It makes me think of the post I made lately about WR Grace. A real person had to draw up train schedules to transport Jews to Auschwitz. A real person had to sign purchase orders for fresh cannisters of Zyklon-B for the gas chambers. A real employee of WR Grace had to fabricate reports and lie to the cancer-stricken citizens of Libby. And just as these villains played out their mundane treachery, so did capitalists in the WTC, building lucrative ties with brutal dictators and such.
Now, nutjob conservatives are pushing to have Churchill fired from his professorship at the University of Colorado, and even a few wanting him tried for treason. Whether you agree with him or not, this is an odd freedom of speech issue. His First Amendment rights aren’t being violated, but people are looking to hurt him as possible for what he’s said. Even stranger, Churchill isn’t even being punished for what he said, but for what scummy conservatives have said that he said. I guess I feel that Churchill should have freedom of speech, even for things that he didn’t actually say? Something like that.
No idea if it’ll have even a tiny impact, but there is an online petition supporting Churchill’s right to free speech here.
Here’s an interesting story.
Bullitt Central High School, Shephersdville, Kentucky. Two students are allowed to violate the schools strict dress code. Why? Because the school decides that the federal government’s protection of religious garments supercede their local dress code, allowing the two girls to wear Muslim hijab headscarves.
Some white kid decides that this is a grave injustice (teachers scolded him when he wore the wrong kind of shirt to school), so he protests by wearing “a T-shirt with the words ‘FBI’ and ‘Firm Believer In Christ’ on it.” Not surprisingly, the school told the kid that it was unappropriate. His mother then took him out of school (although it’s possible that this was partially due to other conflicts with the administration), and the boy and his mother began protesting outside the school.
After several days, boy and mom were joined by the Klan.
As the Ku Klux Klan is known for their, decades of attacks against non-white people, it would be easy to see this as an attack on two Muslim girls. But nothing could be further from the truth. You see, the Klan is just ultra-sensitive garment discrimination, due to the mockery that their own garb receives in public. Therefore these daring, costumed rednecks decided to fight like lily-white tigers alongside the white boy and his white mother.
Boy and mother then say that things “went too far”, and that they had never wanted the Klan to get involved. Fucking whatever.
Utterly bizarre, isn’t it? Two girls who just want to wear headscarves and go to school inspire such anger in one boy that he lashes out against his school, and such hate in the local bigots that they show up in their Klan robes and wave Confederate flags.
I was very pleased to see that the school’s students seemed to back the Muslim students, launching counterprotests against the KKK and posted messages of tolerance on their school marquee.
I liked this bit:
[Student Cayce Deaver] said that when she participated in a counterprotest last week with other students, she spoke with protesters standing with [boy and mom] and told them that federal law protected the Muslim students’ cultural dress.
“They said I didn’t understand because I didn’t have white pride,” Cayce said.
“I said, ‘I have American pride.’ “
There’s an awful lot wrong with America, but Cayce and her pals are part of what’s right with it.
Recently purchased an mp3 player (don’t know how it could have taken so long, combining my love of music and for technogeekery), and I feel I have some worthy tips to give to people who might start looking to buy one themselves.
1) Size. Obviously, you want to buy one with enough storage space to hold the amount of music that you’re looking to carry with you. The average rule of thumb is that one minute of mp3 music takes about one megabyte of storage space, and most popular songs are about 3-5 minutes long. If you just want something to listen to while bopping around town, I think that one of the cheaper 5 gigabyte models would work fine. If you want to store your large record collection, I think you’d need a 20+ gig model.
2) File Transfer. Surprisingly important issue. To transfer songs from your computer to your iPod, you have to open up the proprietary program iTunes, put all the songs you want to transfer into a specific file folder, plug your iPod into your computer, and then all the songs are supposed to automatically migrate. My brother bought an iPod last month, and no matter how he tried, his songs would not transfer and he had to return the damn thing. Due to this possible hang-up– not being able to put mp3s on your mp3 player–, I have to recommend a player that puts file transfer in your hands. You can plug in some players and then just drag and drop the songs like the player was an extra hard drive, and not have to rely on an opaque process by some mysterious software to get the job done.
Also, I found out by complete serendipity that most mp3 players “require” you to use a USB 2.0 port (or Firewire, of course) for file transfer. My elderly computer only had a USB 1.0 port, and my brother’s brand new laptop only had a USB 1.0 port. The guy at the iPod store said that file transfer for the 2.0 was “like half a second per song”, while the 1.0 was “3-5 minutes per song”. If you’re trying to upload your record collection, that makes a difference. Luckily, you can install 2.0 ports pretty cheap (I got a card for my desktop for about $15, we got one for my brother’s laptop for about $25).
3) Bulk. In my mind, only important if you need to fit your player into a pocket, or if you’re going to use it for jogging. The smallest players can be the size of a snail’s shell, the largest are usually no bigger than an man’s overstuffed wallet.
4) Extra Features. This is what ended up making my choice. Found a model with a built-in microphone and a “line-in” feature that would allow me to record interviews (or whatever) directly to mp3. Once that idea entered my head, it was hard to give much thought to other players.
Now, going back to my “pod” title, I think I’ve finally unraveled the mystery of how to podcast.
What you need:
1) an mp3 file
2) a webhost to store your mp3 file
3) an RSS feed
The first two should be obvious. The mp3 file is your radio show, and and the webhost is the paid-for or free site that will allow you to upload your file.
The RSS feed is a little trickier. RSS is essentially a way for frequently-updated websites (mainly news sites and blogs) to notify people that a site has been changed. If you have an RSS-reader program, you can subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and have a little window full of the latest headlines, which you can then click on and read the contents.
Podcasting is basically just an RSS feed that says “here’s the latest edition of Radio Show X.” And if you have the right software and devices, it’s an RSS feed that also says “hey, let me download the latest show straight to your mp3 player so you can listen to it on the way to work.”
Most blogs create RSS feeds automatically (although I’m told that podcasting requires a “RSS 2.0″ feed).
So essentially, you can just set up a blog, activate the RSS feed, upload and link to your mp3s, and bam.
My absolute only remaining concern is whether or not the podcasting RSS feed needs to be exclusively podcasts/links to mp3s, or if I can just post entries with the links into my regular blog and go from there. Li’l help?
V for Vendetta was written in the early 80s about a fictional 90s Britain, which has become a totalitarian state. Gays and immigrants have been exterminated, freedom has been extinguished, and the powerful rule the weak with utter contempt. It can always happen “here”, wherever “here” happens to be.
However in this dystopia, the good fight is fought and victories are achieved– totally unrealistically– by a single man. Late in the storyline, the freedom fighter known as “V” manages to cripple the government’s surveillance infrastructure, and broadcasts a message to the people, ending with this:
“To commemorate this most glorious of evenings, Her Majesty’s government is pleased to return the rights of secrecy and privacy to you, its loyal subjects. For three days, your movements will not be watched, your conversations will not be listened to, and ‘do what thou wilt’ shall be the whole of the law. God bless you, and goodnight.”
Although there is plenty of powerful stuff in the book, this bit really struck me. Three whole days where no one is being watched? That’s a pretty nice gift. The degree to which we’re watched now is pretty grim. Every time you use an ATM card, check your email, or make a cellphone call, you’re leaving a digital trail. Grocery stores and credit card companies monitor your purchases and create databases of your buying patterns. And let’s not even get into Echelon/Carnivore/DCS1000. Every store and workplace has security cameras, and increasing amounts of businesses install cameras facing the outside world. More and more traffic lights have cameras mounted on them. High-tech spy satelites apparently have the ability to see just about anyone, anywhere. And hell, I just read about a high school that is forcing its students to wear ID badges with tracking devices in them at all times.
I don’t mean this to be a “the CIA and the Illuminati are controlling our minds with the flouride in our drinking water” conspiracy rant, just pointing out the extent to which we can be surveilled, if the right people wanted to do so. We do not have the “privacy and secrecy” in our lives that V refers to above, and the way that we all cope with this frightening fact is to just pretend that we do have it.
But to some extent, this desire for privacy and secrecy is mysterious. Some things we want to keep secret because they might negatively effect our public image, like a particular sexual preference or a medical condition. Some information we want to keep hidden because it could be used to hurt us, like credit card numbers or your drug stash. But even if someone gathered information about us that they could never use in any harmful way, I think many of us would still be upset.
I think this is because control over information about ourselves is vital to our social relationships. We choose when to give it out, who to give it to, and how much to give them. You tell strangers very little about yourself, you tell acquaintances more, and to those special intimate friends, you’ll tell very sensitive things.
Just as importantly, this doling out of personal information is almost always reciprocal. You tell me about what you had for dinner last night, I tell you about the movie I saw last week. You tell me about your stamp collection, I tell you about my favorite band. You tell me about about a scary surgery you had as a child, I tell you about the death of a loved one. When you tell someone something about yourself, you can usually expect them to respond in kind. This back and forth builds trust, leading to deeper disclosures, thus deepening the relationship.
Therefore surveillance and data-gathering force you into a one-sided, trust-less “relationship”. You lose control over the information that makes up your life, and in exchange, you receive, at best, nothing.
No wonder we get so upset about it.
Good catch by Atrios. From Bush’s State of the Union:
We must free small businesses from needless regulation and protect honest job-creators from junk lawsuits. Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims.
Frivolous asbestos claims like these, I suppose, where the W.R. Grace chemical company knowingly poisoned the residents of Libby, Montana with asbestos from the Grace mine there for nearly 30 years, sickening more than 1200 people, and apparently killing some of them.
Grace and its employees are being prosecuted for their crimes (although I notice that neither “manslaughter” nor “reckless endangerment” are among the charges). The company faces as much as $280 million in fines, and some of the guiltiest executives might spend 50-70 years in prison, which is still galling. If I walked into town spraying cans of poison into the air that resulted in several deaths, I’d probably never see the light of day again.
Why do the people of Libby hate America? Why won’t they take one for the economy and die painfully and quietly?
A Cookeville (Tenn.) High School administrator said Veterans for Peace and a Quaker group can’t come back into his school with materials considered ‘’anti-American'’ and ‘’anti-military.'’
The groups plan to go before the Putnam County school board tomorrow with claims that they’re being denied privileges afforded to other organizations, including military recruiters…
‘’The information was brought to the attention of administrators because of the influence it may have had,'’ said [Principal] Shank, who restricted future visits by the groups. ‘’I felt, from a principal’s viewpoint, that the students were being put into a position that they shouldn’t.'’
…Shank said he didn’t tell the groups that they couldn’t come back into the school.
He required that all their materials get advance approval, a rule he said also applies to military recruiters.
The principal also said their literature could be shown only in a classroom setting that would allow an opportunity for a ‘’balanced'’ presentation. Military recruiters and other groups don’t face that restriction, the peace activists said.
Y’see, the problem here was that the veterans and Quakers tried to influence the students. They should have followed the example of the military recruiters, who simply present impartial, factual information, without making any attempt to influence the students’ actions whatsoever. Like on TV, in those ads, when the half-naked women rub wet, sparkly bottles of Coke all over their chests, they are not attempting to encourage nor discourage people from buying Coke. They’re just presenting the facts.
If only the peace movement had the same sort of ethics as America’s military or advertisers. For shame.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, so I’ll reach all the way back into last week’s news.
From Bush’s State of the Union Address:
Tonight I propose a three-year initiative to help organizations keep young people out of gangs, and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence… And I am proud that the leader of this nationwide effort will be our first lady, Laura Bush.
Dude, did he just call his wife a man?
In related (?) news, a New York State court has ruled that is unconstitutional to prohibit Spongebob from marrying.
Many months ago, I discovered that Jeff Chang had a blog– zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric. Jeff walks that odd writer/journalist/participant line, and his articles about music, art, race and politics were always very good.
He’s just released a book, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation”. It looks to be a history of the individuals behind and influenced by, the rise of hip-hop culture (it’s not just rap music, people) from the 70s through today. Looks like good stuff.
But on top of that, he’s on a book promotion tour right now, and some of the stops seem like some pretty interesting events, with authors, intellectuals, DJs and MCs.
If anyone attends one of these events, I’d appreciate it if you could pick me up a Can’t Stop Won’t Stop mixtape. I’ll pay ya back, honest.
There is also a tiny snippet on Jeff’s site which really got me thinking. In the Q&A section, he mentions how hip-hop was founded in the South Bronx, an area that was “abandoned by government, business, and frankly, the white middle class”. This lead to increased poverty and gang violence. Then, abruptly, “against all odds, the gangs forge peace, and an unimaginable explosion of creativity happens.” Then, in 1990s, Los Angeles, there was a near identical pattern of abandonment, poverty-violence, gang truce, and explosion of hip hop. He then concludes:
What comes out of that is this intense mass longing to create history, to paraphrase Don Delillo, a deep desire to crush invisibility, to make culture that impacts the world and says “we’re here”.
I have seen that exact desire to “crush invisibility” in the writings of the zapatista rebels in Mexico. They are impoverish Mayans who have been likewise abandonded, who decided to wage war upon the Mexican government. They call it “the war against oblivion”, the fight to exist in a world that would like to forget them. The zapatistas donned balaclavas and bandana-masks as part of their uniforms, and then remarked with dark irony that they only became visible once they hid their faces.
Maybe that’s basic humanity. When you’re desparate, and have been abandonded by the rest of the world, you feel an overwhelming need to stand up and scream “I Exist!”, amplifying your voice with a microphone, a bullet, or a can of spray paint.
Superbowl Sunday really is the most American of holidays, isn’t it? It’s about being with friends, television, advertising, consuming large amounts of fat, salt and alcohol, and sitting on the couch watching other people do things instead of actually doing anything yourself. Shit, if you threw in some American flags, guns, tits & ass, and a message that we are better than all the other people of the world, you’d have a perfect map of the American psyche.
Well, I guess you’d have to work Jesus in there somehow too.
Jesus’ General advises President Bush on the content of his State of the Union Address.
I wrote 3/4 of an article about the Iraq elections yesterday, only to have it eaten by the tiny hyenas that hide in my computer waiting to pounce when I accidentally hit “ctrl-f4″.
To summarize what I originally wrote: “yeah, what that guy said“.
I don’t have a lot to say about the Iraqi elections because it’s way too early to know exactly what happened and what its ultimate effect will be…
And the Bush invasion of Iraq has managed to overtake the Reagan team in the categories of cynicism, dishonesty, unreliability and media manipulation—and we are reliably informed that we’re going to get the death squads back too. Given the fact that they have purged their remaining truth-tellers, literally nothing they say can be accepted at face value. I suggest that a considerable degree of skepticism about what we are seeing and hearing on Day One might be in order. (The imaginary turnout numbers have already fallen from 72 percent when I checked at 6.00 pm yesterday, to 57 percent this morning. At that rate, they will be negative by Wednesday.)
What’s more, elections do not a democracy make, and democracy is not necessarily the first or most important thing needed in Iraq to make that country safer and more secure—much less to accomplish the goal of reversing the hatred of the United States sown across the Arab world by the malignant policies and pronouncements of the Bush administration.
So yeah, too early to tell, and elections do not necessarily equal democracy (remember, there were elections both under Saddam Hussein and Josef Stalin). Just the fact that the Iraqis are under a military occupation, and face the threat of violence by insurgents (and by the US military) radically undermines the “democratic” nature of these elections. As does the fact that thousands of Iraqis were denied their right to vote, seemingly due to technical problems.
Also, I fear that the voter turn-out was artificially high because of a persistant rumor that people’s food rations would be withheld if they did not vote. I’ve even read reports that these were more than just rumors, but threats used by government officials to encourage voting. If true, this means that the election was less national discourse on the nation’s leadership, and more a referendum on “do you want to watch your children starve to death?”
And with all of the self-congratulation by Bush and the war supporters, it’s important to remember that they’ve re-written history fairly successfully. Today’s triumphalists wants us to forget the war rationale has metamorphosized at least half a dozen times since 2002. Even as the war took off, the US wasn’t looking at democracy, they were looking at installing that lovable con-man Ahmed Chalabi as presidente. And “swopa” has this great post documenting how the US actively opposed democracy in Iraq before finally caving in to popular pressure organized by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
At this point, the three key issues of Iraq’s future are the Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and rebels.
The Sunni Arabs boycotted the election en masse, which gives them little representation in the new assembly, little representation in drawing up a new constitution, and little chance of controlling the executive branch. This automatically allows them to call the new government’s legitimacy into question based upon this lack of representativeness. And they will be right, even though this bias was artificially engineered. I don’t know how this will play out.
The Kurds look to have increased autonomy, which is a Turkish nightmare. Turkey has long repressed its own Kurds, and fears that a Kurdish quasi-state at their doorstep could encourage a renewed secessionist violence. Turkey is already making noises about stepping in to put a stop to this.
And the insurgency, what happens there? Iraqi officials have said that it will take about 10 days to count all of the ballots, so it’s not yet impossible for the insurgents to disrupt the election. Since the goal of most of these groups seems to be to drive the US out of the country, I imagine the violence will continue until there are significant signs that the US is planning to leave (if that ever happens).
Even anti-war folks have agreed that this election is a “turning point” for Iraq. There’s just a lot of disagreement about if things change for the better, or for the worse (or, as the world is a complex place, better in some ways and worse in others). Maybe you get something resembling a corrupt, corporate-friendly republic like the United States, maybe you get a years-long civil war.
Like most leftists, I’m torn about all this. On the one hand, I want Iraq to be all peace and freedom and rainbows and puppies made of candy. I want to see the Iraqis melting down tank shells to make “I hear U” ashtrays, and to see Sunnis and Shias dancing in grassy meadows and making babies. I want “Kumbaya” to be their national fucking anthem. But at the same time, I fear that a happy Iraq will encourage the Bush administration to line up Operation Kill for Peace 2, in which more people will die in some other country, and there’s no guarantee of a Hollywood ending. Well, I take that back. BushCo. will probably be lining up their next invasion no matter what happens in Iraq.
Maybe we should be following Naomi Klein’s advice and shifting from “anti-war” to “pro-democracy”. Not like “oh, Lord Bush, you are so wise and we support your selective plans to liberate the world with violence”, but like “we want to hear what the Iraqi people want, we want to get them real democracy, and we want the US to pay reparations to help the country get back on its feet.”
I dunno. Gotta admit, I don’t have any real answers on this one. | <urn:uuid:345b733d-4b65-48cb-bd46-a85b73edb3a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lyingmediabastards.com/2005/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958926 | 12,792 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
This is a must see for history buffs and visitors of Charleston a like! Located on Charleston Harbor, this museum honors our nation's heroes in a big way, with the USS YORKTOWN being the focal point of the museum as a whole. The museum is open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each day.
This aircraft carrier serves as the center piece of Patriots Point and represents the US involvement in several different wars. The USS YORKTOWN was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the United States Navy and was decomissioned in 1970 in order to be incoporated into the museum. This aircraft played a big role in the Pacific Offensive that began in 1943 and earned 11 battle stars for its role in WWII. Five battle stars were also awarded to the USS YORKTOWN for serving as an anti-submarine aircraft carrier in the Vietnam War. The YORKTOWN showcases the bravery and valor of the men who served on its deck, and its unique history can be found seeping out of every corridor and passageway.
Medal of Honor Museum
This museum is located on board the USS YORKTOWN and is home to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The museum itself showcases the men and women who exhibited extreme courage and sacrifice during their time serving our country, and an exhibit honoring the Medal of Honor recipients from our most recent war, the War on Terror, is a new addition. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society consists of Americans who possess the distinct honor of wearing the Medal of Honor, our nation's most prestigious military award, and the museum as a whole paints a picture of the bravery that runs through the blood of those who serve our country.
Vietnam Support Base
This exhibit showcases the operational and living areas of a United States Naval Advanced Tactical Support Base (ATSB) during the Vietnam War. Visitors have the opportunity to view and experience actual machinery used to maneuver in combat through the vast jungles of South Vietnam, including a River Patrol Boat (PBR) and various helicopters. The exhibit is true-to-scale, giving it an exceptionally authentic feel.
Cold War Submarine Memorial
This full-sized replica of a Benjamin Franklin Class Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine is located in a plaza, surrounded by various educational stations to enhance the experience of each and every visitor. The replica also includes an actual rudder and sail from the USS LEWIS AND CLARK SSBN 644, making the experience even that much more authentic. The memorial honors those who served in our nation's naval submarines during the duration of the Cold War.
This program encourages young kids to hop aboard the USS YORKTOWN for an overnight stay full of educational tours, meals and a historical sleepover in the actual berthing areas. The program has been offering kids a true sailor's experience for over 25 years.
Boone Hall Plantation
Known as "America's Most Photographed Plantation," this beautiful plantation is truly a feast for the eyes. Framed by a driveway that is blanketed by luscious oak trees, this plantation is one of the most popular tourists destinations in all of Charleston, and for good reason. Visitors have the opportunity to experience what plantation life is truly like due to the fact that Boone Hall is still in operation. For over 320 years, this plantation has been growing and producing crops including everything from cotton and pecans to tomatoes, strawberries and pumpkins, and it is still doing so to this day. Boone Hall is acknowledged as one of America's oldest working plantations, and the tour guides and staff are willing and able to pass on the history of those who lived and worked at Boone Hall to each and every visitor. The plantation's social calendar is also sprinkled with various special events and festivals that allow for guests to interact with and immerse themselves into plantation life.
Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park
This scenic destination is located below the Arthur Ravenel Bridge and is tucked along the bank of the Cooper River. The park consists of Mount Pleasant Pier, a 1250-foot long pier that extends into Charleston Harbor. The pier hosts events including "Movies at the Pier" and several fishing tournaments. | <urn:uuid:0ba8654e-68bb-4a0a-8e12-af7aead48a2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charleston.com/neighborhoods/mt.-pleasant.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96088 | 857 | 1.570313 | 2 |
19 ft 3 in
4 ft 0 in
The Arran Curragh is generally less well built and with a coarser line that its cousins from further south, but nevertheless, it is a thoroughly seaworthy boat. Propulsion: It has the characteristic blade-less oar and can be sailed downwind but, without lee-boards would have insufficient lateral resistance to allow to go to windward.
The boat was built for Dr Tony Fairrie who presented it to the Museum
There are currently no comments on this item. Be the first to comment on this item by filling in the form below. | <urn:uuid:97f9ba6e-d001-4ff6-b551-d3832281df6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldofboats.org/boats/view/51/110 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96054 | 124 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Look at the unexpected complexity of the shadow she casts on the wall just to her left. It's a great little abstract painting in its own right. And I think it unconsciously suggests to us viewers that there's more to Hopper's woman than meets the eye.
It was painted from life, with my eye initially attracted to the bold profile of the dark hillside. But within that sihouetted form an intricate pattern of shrubbery was shaking up my expectations that the surface of the hill would be ordinary or predictable. It lent the hill a uniqueness and individual personality. Like the that cast shadow in the Hopper movie theater above, it is a little abstract painting all by itself.
One of the reasons I keep going back to working directly from nature is she is a storehouse of gem-like little designs like this that make the world feel so much deeper and richer.
In the previous blog post I was analyzing Joseph DeCamp's oil The Blue Cup.
Studying his model he discovered some exquisite little passages where the patterns of shapes sound just the right visual chord. For example, who would have thought the back of the woman's hair could have such a surprisingly distinctive silhouette as this?
Or that her waist, the white apron, and her black skirt would come together into this intricate bouquet? | <urn:uuid:bc44feeb-ae35-439d-892a-f3488410fec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philipkochpaintings.blogspot.com/2013/02/sorcery-of-pattern.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969836 | 269 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Egypt's Morsy receives draft of constitution
Islamists rally for president
Egyptians will vote in two weeks to approve, or reject, a new constitution -- a potentially pivotal moment for the North African nation that underwent a revolution a year ago and, more recently, has seen its president become the target of fierce protests.
President Mohamed Morsy on Saturday announced a December 15 referendum date on what could become the nation's constitution, shortly it was presented to him by the Islamist-dominated assembly that crafted it.
While his supporters cheered the move, there was little indication the vote or anything Morsy said would placate the opposition.
"(Morsy) put to referendum a draft constitution that undermines basic freedoms & violates universal values," said Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and head of Egypt's Constitution Party, on his Twitter account. "The struggle will continue."
The proposed constitution will be published Sunday in government newspapers, said Hossam al-Gheryani, head of the 85-person group that pushed through its 234 articles Friday after 21 hours of haggling. Egypt effectively has been without a guiding constitution, as well as a legislature, since the 2011 revolution marked by the ouster of its longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.
Thousands of the president's supporters packed streets around Cairo University on Saturday, taking part in marches and a massive rally organized by the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political branch that Morsy once led. They carried banners featuring Morsy's photo, waved the Egyptian flag and chanted their support.
An even larger rally took place just south of Cairo in the city of Giza. It involved Brotherhood members, fellow Islamist groups and others including the Egyptian Revolution's Alliance, the Revolutionary Front to Protect the Revolution and the Coalition of the January 25th Youth.
Other pro-Morsy rallies were held in the northern port city of Alexandria and the central city of Asiut.
These events aimed to bolster Morsy after more than a week of protests against him, during which stones flew, demonstrators and police clashed and clouds of tear gas wafted through, among other places, Tahrir Square in central Cairo.
That landmark square, which is across the Nile River from one large pro-Morsy rally, remained buzzing Saturday night with people who have camped out there and marched elsewhere to vent their anger at the president. They have called Morsy a dictator, even worse than Mubarak, for his edict declaring that his past and future decisions are immune from judicial oversight -- new power that the president insists is only temporary.
They responded to his speech, which was blared over loudspeakers, by chanting, "Leave, leave" -- suggesting that, whatever comes of the constitutional referendum, their goal remains removing Morsy as president.
Morsy's controversial edict, issued November 22, energized the opposition and led them to reoccupy Tahrir Square, as dissidents did in the winter of 2011.
Many saw it as an overbearing, undemocratic grab for power that left the president in charge without any checks and balances. Morsy described it as a necessary move to fight judges loyal to Mubarak's regime who were blocking progress in government.
It engendered sharp opposition within Egypt's judiciary, with many courts basically shut down as judges and prosecutors went on strike. Despite the order, the nation's high administrative court has indicated it will review the proposed constitution -- though it's not clear, if they rule it invalid, if that will prevent the referendum.
As part of his edict, Morsy had also given the constitutional assembly up to six more months to craft the pivotal document. But amid the raging discontent, the president spurred the group to speed up its work -- an expedited process that prompted Christian, liberal and leftist members of the group to walk-out in protest, with many of them later replaced by Islamists.
Essam El-Erian, a senior Morsy adviser, insisted all viewpoints -- including the need to safeguard freedoms when it comes to things like gender and religion -- were taken into account nonetheless. But critics are unconvinced.
A quick glimpse at the constitution's articles show language dealing with individuals' civil rights, particularly how security forces and the justice system treats them.
There is wording prohibiting arbitrary arrest and detention and ensuring due process, a sensitive topic in Egypt. Mubarak and his loyalists are blamed for jailing and harshly mistreating innocent people in the years before and especially during last year's uprising.
One article stipulates no one in jail can be interrogated without a lawyer present, and if detainees don't have one, the judicial system must appoint one. Phone conversations, electronic correspondence and other communication could not be taped without a warrant.
While many of the articles sound democratic, the fine print indicates otherwise, some human rights advocates say.
"Moving a flawed and contradictory draft to a vote is not the right way to guarantee fundamental rights or to promote respect for the rule of law," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Mohamed Naeem, a member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, said he fears the proposed constitution would open the way for a theocracy by moving the country closer to Sharia law.
The preamble includes language pertaining to women, saying they are equal to men, but it also accentuates their role as mothers.
And the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has urged Morsy to reconsider the draft, saying a number of measures contained in it are incompatible with international human rights law.
Beyond the details about the constitution itself, some see this month's vote more generally as a referendum on the government.
Morsy took office in June as Egypt's first popularly elected president, following decades in which Mubarak held vast powers and limited dissent (including by banning the Muslim Brotherhood). But Morsy's recent moves have stirred suspicions that he and his Islamist allies are intent on amassing powers at the expense of others.
Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:d62a336e-8ceb-4015-a347-89dcedd41273> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.krdo.com/news/Egypt-s-Morsy-receives-draft-of-constitution/-/417220/17618902/-/view/print/-/x7y7vr/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966024 | 1,267 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Power Supply Units Guide
Almost Infinite Power
Almost Infinite Power
Gone are the days when the PSU was just seen as an afterthought, when users did not mind the defaults bundled with their chassis. While less dedicated enthusiasts could live with generic PSUs in the past, many are demanding greater power efficiency, fueled no doubt by soaring electricity bills and growing environmental awareness. Vendors have responded in kind and Enermax's new Infiniti series looks to address these concerns.
A Modern PSU
So what should a modern, top of the line PSU have? For starters, it probably has a host of certifications. For the energy conscious, this means having a 80 PLUS logo, indicating that the PSU is at least 80% power efficient for a range of loads and it should also have a true power factor of 0.9 or more. Then there is SLI certification for NVIDIA graphics cards, especially for high-end PSUs. The Enermax Infiniti 720 has both of these covered, with its power efficiency falling between 82 - 85% while its 720W output (672W for its three separate +12V rails) gives it sufficient juice to handle up to four high-end graphics cards.
One Becomes Two
ATI is the first graphics chipmaker to start using the new PCIe 2.0 eight pin power connector on its Radeon HD 2900 series but we should see more of such offerings soon. The Enermax Infiniti supports this new standard, with a connector that allows it to fit both six and eight pin configurations.
The other modern convenience is having modular cables. Out of the box, there are only four cables attached to the Enermax.
Other cables for the hard drives and optical drives, etc are separate and nicely sleeved. Users need only connect the number of cables that they require, so there's less cables to manage, an odious task for all but the obsessive compulsive.
Enermax has added in some unique features that try to add value to this high-end series. One is CoolGuard, which causes the PSU to continue to operate the system fans after the computer has been shut down, until either a lower temperature limit is reached or a time limit of two minutes. This removes the excess heat within the chassis and according to Enermax, can prolong the lifespan of your components. If it works as advertised, it is definitely an interesting feature.
The other Enermax feature is PowerGuard, a monitoring system that relies on a beeping buzzer and a LED at the rear of the PSU to convey different signals, from malfunctions of the PSU fan to standby mode for the PSU. Such signals would be of much help to users when troubleshooting problems.
The Enermax Infiniti 720 SLI is aimed at the high-end enthusiast and it looks the part, with its sleek exterior and host of modern features. Boasting power efficiency, quiet operation(thanks to its 135mm fan), modular cables and more than capable of supporting the most powerful rigs, the PSU doesn't come cheap either. Its estimated retail price is around US$219. Yet, we have no doubts that there are already many enthusiasts queuing up for its stellar features. Will you be one of them? | <urn:uuid:1f394e5d-1f77-4602-9fa1-e935d8a232c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/review-first-looks-enermax-infiniti-720-sli-power-supply | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948147 | 663 | 1.679688 | 2 |
By David Lindsey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Both sides called it a generation-defining race for the White House: a choice between Democrat Barack Obama's brand of government activism and Republican Mitt Romney's commitment to reducing Washington's role in Americans' daily lives.
Obama's victory, however, did not settle that question.
Instead, the hard-fought battle for the White House exposed an electorate deeply divided by race, age and party.
Tuesday's elections - in which Republicans kept control of the U.S. House and Obama's Democrats held on to the Senate - suggested that bitter partisanship would likely remain very much alive in Washington in the new year. They also revealed that there was no broad mandate for much beyond the broadly shared goals of improving the economy and reducing government debt.
That means that undertaking bold new initiatives comparable to healthcare reform, financial regulation and economic stimulus programs will be a great deal more complicated for Obama 2012 than they were for Obama 2008.
Even so, Obama - now unfettered by not having to face voters again - is in position to pursue an ambitious agenda that could leave his mark on government for a generation or longer, including a move to revamp the nation's immigration laws.
Some analysts believe Obama is likely to spend much of his second term "locking down the achievements of his first term," including ensuring that "we will have a functioning national healthcare system," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
For some, that would be enough to secure his place in history.
"Just by re-electing Obama, that means the Affordable Care Act will continue to be implemented, and that's very important because that's one of the most important pieces of legislation in half a century," Theda Skocpol, a political scientist at Harvard University, said of the law that helps extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
"Most of the action will occur between the president's administration and states, and my guess is a lot of the Republican governors will find ways to accept parts of the Medicare expansion," Skocpol said.
A BOOST FROM THE BAILOUT?
In at least one respect, Tuesday's election results vindicated Obama's belief in an activist government.
By supporting an $85 billion federal bailout of the auto industry in 2009, a measure that was not particularly popular at the time, Obama may have helped to save not just the industry, but his presidency.
The auto bailout - and the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney over his opposition to it - appeared to be key factors in the president's victory in the crucial battleground state of Ohio, where 1 in 8 jobs is connected to the auto industry.
Nationwide, Obama - the nation's first black president - trailed Romney among working-class white male voters by 17 percentage points, according to Reuters/Ipsos Election Day polling.
But in Ohio, white men with incomes of $75,000 or less were split 49-49 between Obama and Romney in Reuters/Ipsos polling. Analysts said the disparity indicated that the auto bailout - which saved nearly 1.5 million jobs nationwide, according to the Center for Automotive Research - likely gave Obama a critical boost in just the right place.
"While Romney enjoys a large advantage among lower-income white males nationally, the trend reverses in Ohio," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "This underlines the importance of the auto bailout in Ohio, and perceptions of Romney as unsympathetic to the challenges faced by the working class in this state."
Political analysts and strategists expect Obama's second-term agenda to be layered with increased federal spending for education, job and energy programs.
But such an agenda will be complicated by the government's $16 trillion debt and the looming "fiscal cliff" - a $600 billion tax increase scheduled to take effect along with mandatory spending cuts at the start of the new year unless Obama and Congress can agree on a deficit reduction deal.
Obama's commitment to immigration reform - a key goal for Democrats who want to solidify their hold on the growing Latino vote - would seem to have an increasingly clear path to success, especially as Republicans seek ways to improve their appeal to that minority group.
But the biggest, most immediate challenge is the looming showdown with Republicans in Congress over spending and taxes, during which Obama will press to keep his campaign promise to raise taxes on the wealthy while retaining lower tax rates for others.
Obama has signaled he may try to force Republicans to accept his demand to increase taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year by threatening to veto any legislation aimed at preventing the tax increases and massive spending cuts that are slated kick in automatically at the end of the year.
The notion that one of Obama's boldest second-term moves could be reinstating Clinton-era tax rates on the wealthy suggests that the president's agenda could be significant but limited, some analysts say.
"It's not like you're going to have a new, New Deal," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, referring to the broad array of social programs enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help the nation recover from the Great Depression of the 1930s.
During the presidential campaign, "the rhetoric is so dramatic, you think you're deciding between FDR and a (staunchly conservative) candidate from the 19th century," Zelizer said. "I'm sure most Republicans see Obama as a big-government liberal and most Democrats see Romney as a right-wing, Tea Party zealot."
In fact, Zelizer said, both Obama and Romney were "relatively in the middle of the political spectrum, with limits on what they (could) achieve in a gridlocked Washington."
CHALLENGE FOR REPUBLICANS
It may be too soon to tell whether the 2012 election will be a turning point in how Americans view the role of government in society. But the election does appear to mark another type of political transition.
Romney, 65, could be the last Republican of his generation to make a serious bid for the White House. The Republicans who appear to be in position to run for president in 2016 represent a new generation of leaders who generally are more conservative than their predecessors.
They include Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan (42), Florida Senator Marco Rubio (41), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (41), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (54), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (50) and House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia (49).
For them and any other Republicans who might consider a run for the White House, Tuesday's election results brought a sign of potential trouble ahead.
Obama won about 66 percent of the vote among Hispanics, who make up about 17 percent of the U.S. population and are projected by the Pew Research Center to account for nearly 30 percent by 2050.
The Republican Party's harsh stance on immigration has hurt its ability to attract Latinos, according to analysts who say the new generation of Republican contenders will need to tone down the party's harsh rhetoric on immigration or risk certain defeat in several states because of Hispanics siding with Democrats.
"We certainly seem to be at the end of something, and at the beginning of another, when it comes to Republican candidates," SMU's Jillson said. "The Republican Party is untenable in its current form and in serious trouble as a viable governing vehicle (because) the Democratic Party is more attractive to growing constituencies - anyone who feels vulnerable and as if they may need support."
During the campaign, Obama signed an executive order granting temporary legal status and work permits to young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. He also has said he would push Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would make the order permanent and create a path to citizenship for many undocumented workers.
Romney said he opposed the DREAM Act and that he favored harsh immigration policies that would lead illegal immigrants to "self-deport." He later seemed to back away from that stance, and said he would seek some form of immigration reform that tied U.S. citizenship to education and jobs.
If Republicans do not improve their image among Latinos, Jillson said, some solidly conservative states might not be that way much longer.
"The Republican Party absolutely will have to soften its message," Jillson said. "Texas (now dominated by Republicans) is 15 years away from a two-party system" because of its growing Hispanic population.
(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Jim Gaines and Peter Cooney) | <urn:uuid:4a2ef9e6-6118-4ae5-ac2e-6d981a435f21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2012/nov/07/analysis-victory-puts-obama-in-position-to-expand-governments-reach/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966991 | 1,759 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This comes despite the F1 teams association recommending a change to the points system which it claimed had the support of fans.
However the FIA will retain points to decide the other championship positions.
Many F1 fans on this website have voiced their disapproval of the medals system in the past. I still think the medals system has merit and have said so for some time, so I have somewhat mixed feelings about this outcome.
An FIA statement said:
The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers’ championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season. If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.
The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The Constructors’ Championship is unaffected.
The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams’ Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively.
Here are the World Motor Sports Council’s decisions in full.
More on the F1 rules changes
- Budget caps for F1 in 2010
- Qualifying fuel strategies to be revealed
- Which new rules will improve F1? (Poll)
Get the latest articles from F1 Fanatic for free via RSS or our email subscription service. Click here for more information. | <urn:uuid:ebd06ed1-a983-4548-9499-a01ccd8bf5c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/03/17/f1-to-use-medals-system-in-2009/comment-page-2/ | 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 | 0.944925 | 335 | 1.5625 | 2 |
What is "dry sausage"? Dry sausage distinguishes itself from "fresh" or "domestic sausage" in several ways. One of the most important is that no cereal is used in the manufacture of first class dry sausage and more labor and time is spent in its manufacture.
As the name indicates, it is more or less dry, although fresh summer sausage is also sold out of smoke, that is, it is not allowed to dry but is sold in a soft condition. Summer sausage will keep for months under proper care.
Gothaer Cervelat—Is made from the choicest selected pork. It is chopped extra fine and seasoned without garlic. It is stuffed in wide export hog bungs cut about 20 inches in length, smoked and air dried. Gothaer sausage is usually wrapped in tinfoil and yellow paper.
Sopressata—Very similar to Arles sausage—stuffed in crinkly hog casings, unsmoked and air dried. Preferred by Italians.
Mortadella—Is made up of a blending of pork, beef, cubes of fat and spices. It is chopped very fine so as to have a smooth texture, nicely seasoned, stuffed in beef bladders, twined and baked.
Sicilian Salami—Is made from selected materials properly seasoned (no garlic) with whole black peppers mixed through-out. It is packed in beef middles, twined, air-dried, and unsmoked.
Chorizo—Is primarily a Spanish sausage, but is also consider-ably in demand by the French, Italians, Cubans and Portuguese. It is made of pork, seasoned with imported sweet Spanish pepper, and stuffed in links about four inches long.
Hispanosa—Is the same as Chorizos, with beef substituted for pork in the formula.
Bobbio—This is a high grade salami, made of pork trimmings with some beef added. Seasoned and put up similar to Genoa salami, and is very popular with Italians.
Frisses Salami—Frisses salami is made the same as Italian salami but stuffed in pork middles which are curly shaped casings. It is air dried but not smoked.
Landjaeger—Is made from beef and a small quantity of pork. It is highly seasoned and stuffed in hog casings. It is linked in pairs about 6 inches in length and pressed flat on all sides to give the sausage a square appearance. It is heavily smoked and dried and is popular with the German people and the Swiss trade. | <urn:uuid:1537f566-3c22-45c9-89c1-ce0e7e383ee9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gotlicorice.blogspot.com/2008/09/sausages-unplugged-origins-1900s.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967881 | 529 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Tax experts say that could possibly be true -- and if so, it's perfectly legal -- but it's only part of the story. At issue is a sizable tax deduction from stock options that Facebook issued to its employees.
Stock options, like regular cash salaries, are tax-deductible for companies. Companies can use those deductions to offset their profits, and apply those losses to previous years, too. That's how a company could even be eligible for a refund in a year when it made money.
Citizens for Tax Justice, the advocacy group, says Facebook ( will receive a tax refund of nearly $430 million as a result of those options. )
Facebook said in an e-mail that the company believes "in paying our fair share, and we do pay our fair share."
Independent tax experts say CTJ isn't wrong, exactly, but that the group doesn't tell the whole story. They say CTJ is mixing together tax law and corporate accounting policies, which sometimes follow different sets of rules.
"[CTJ] is talking about apples and oranges ... by mixing up two sets of rules, it's easy to give misleading information," said Stan Pollock, a San Francisco CPA who specializes in stock-options planning.
A company could, for example, properly follow accounting rules that show the income impact of issuing stock options, but the IRS requires different rules for computing the tax bill.
In fact, companies can be profitable on an accounting basis and be unprofitable for tax purposes -- and both are correct under the different rules.
As far as the check Facebook or any company gives to or receives from the IRS, Pollock said that's another swampy issue. "Tax returns are private," Pollock said. "Companies give numbers in their financial statements that aren't necessarily the true tax numbers as far as the IRS is concerned."
Another expert pointed out that even if Facebook gets an income tax refund, it doesn't mean the tax revenue is simply lost. Employees who cash in their stock options pay taxes on them, often at higher rates than a corporation would pay.
"Some people have a hard time recognizing both sides of it," said Dan Morris, a senior partner at San Jose CPA firm Morris and D'Angelo. "Where Facebook is taking a deduction, a person is counting that as income. U.S. taxpayers absolutely did not get the shaft here."
Yet stock option tax deductions remain controversial -- particularly for newly public companies like Facebook.
When a company issues a stock option, it gives an employee the right to buy shares in the future at today's "fair value" price. The company accounts for that value on its books at the time the option is issued, but it can't take the tax deductions until the employee exercises his or her option -- sometimes years later.
Plus, it's no easy feat to determine the fair value of stock for a company that isn't yet public.
"You might as well have a crystal ball and someone with a shawl over their head taking a guess," Morris said.
CTJ's report claims that "because companies typically low-ball the estimated values, they usually end up with bigger tax deductions."
The advocacy group isn't the only group making a stink about this tax provision. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has proposed legislation that would require companies to take the deduction when the options are given.
|Make $30 an hour, no bachelor's degree required|
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|McDonald's gives Charles Ramsey free food for a year|
|Why Waze is a hot takeover target|
|Hedge fund guru says moms and trading don't mix| | <urn:uuid:e856ca2f-87f8-4fa6-9304-ffe8d5ca9f12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/22/technology/social/facebook-income-tax/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969229 | 763 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Through employee discount programs, organizations provide their workers with below-retail prices on merchandise, entertainment and other perks. These programs vary in scope and design:
• At their most ambitious, the programs can be administered by a service vendor that provides employees with access to an online portal to make purchases, collecting fees from participating merchants based on sales and with no administrative expense for the employer.
• At a simpler level, a program might consist of passing along discounts to employees from local or national merchants that are communicated to employees via the organization's intranet; e-mail to staff; the distribution of coupons, brochures and memos; or noted in the employee handbook and orientation materials.
A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey report based on a random sampling of SHRM members revealed that more than half (58 percent) said they had an employee discount program. Larger employers were more likely to have a program than smaller ones—94 percent of organizations with 25,000 or more employees vs. just 19 percent for those with fewer than 100 employees.
Below are findings from the poll, which was fielded Sept. 28-Oct. 12, 2011.
Does your organization use a third-party administrator to manage employee discounts?
• No (79 percent).
• Yes (21 percent).
What kinds of goods and services are most commonly offered?
The top five employee discounts offered by those with an employee discount program were:
• Computer hardware/software (57 percent).
• Health/wellness services not covered by health insurance or a wellness program, such as fitness classes or sports club memberships (55 percent).
• Goods and services at specific retail stores or retail sites such as shopping centers (46 percent).
• Entertainment tickets (46 percent).
• The organization’s own goods and services (43 percent).
• Restaurants (35 percent).
• Consumer electronics other than computer hardware/software (34 percent).
• Travel (33 percent).
• New auto sales or auto services (29 percent).
• Clothing (23 percent).
• Service discounts such as home cleaning and dry cleaning (19 percent).
• Phone discounts (6 percent).
Which employee discounts are the most popular?
Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of HR professionals reported that their organization’s goods and services were most popular among participating employees, followed by health/wellness services and entertainment (15 percent each).
Computer hardware/software was the fourth most popular discount (10 percent).
Do employees use employee discounts?
HR professionals reported that the number of employees who used at least one employee discount a year was:
• From 1 percent to a quarter of employees (32 percent of respondents).
• From just above a quarter to half the employees (28 percent).
• From just above half to three-quarters of employees (17 percent).
• From just above three-quarters to all employees (23 percent).
Do employees value employee discounts?
The majority (55 percent) of HR professionals reported that their employees highly or somewhat valued these discounts. More than one-quarter (27 percent) indicated that employees were neutral about employee discounts, and 18 percent reported that little to no value was attributed to employee discounts.
It's unlikely employees would accept a job or remain with an organization based on its employee discount program. However, given the low administrative cost and the small amount of time and effort this benefit typically involves, the amount of goodwill that's promoted can be a bargain.
Here’s the Deal: Discount Programs Provide a Low-Cost Benefit, HR Magazine, March 2012
SHRM Online Benefits Discipline
SHRM Online Health Care Reform Resource Page
SHRM Online Retirement Plans Resource Page
SHRM Online Workplace Flexibility Resource Page | <urn:uuid:2268a0d5-4de9-4571-aaf1-d5c93043ea58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/Articles/Pages/DiscountPrograms.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948331 | 773 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Making It Work
Preparing Your Child Care Provider for Your Breastfed Baby
From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 24 No. 3, May-June 2007, pp. 134-135
"Making It Work" is a regular feature of the magazine NEW BEGINNINGS, published bimonthly by La Leche League International. In this column, suggestions are offered by readers of NEW BEGINNINGS to help mothers who wish to combine breastfeeding and working. Various points of view are presented. Not all of the information may be pertinent to your family's lifestyle. This information is general in nature, and not intended to be advice, medical or otherwise.
How do I prepare my child care provider for caring for my exclusively breastfed baby: bottles, warming frozen milk, handling leftover milk, and how much my baby might drink? It seems like a lot of information, especially if a person isn't familiar with handling human milk. If possible, I am going to go the daycare provider's home on my lunch hour to breastfeed. How do I approach her with all this information? And what are the most important things to emphasize?
Some daycare providers are experienced with caring for breastfed infants; others are not. Often, this is a question that parents ask during interviews with prospective providers. Even if a provider hasn't yet had any experience with caring for a breastfed infant, many are willing to learn more about it and work with you.
For most parents, it helps to explain why providing your milk for your baby is important. Ask the daycare provider to help you reach your goal. By getting them on your side, you make it much more likely that they'll work with you later. Provide a sheet, one-sided is best, with information the provider will need. Often, providers don't know what expressed milk may look like, how to store it, and how to feed it to the baby.
In my daycare, I've found that most breastfed infants will take about one to one-and-a-half ounces per hour that they are in care, divided up into three or four servings. So, for mothers that are gone from baby for 10 hours, their infants usually take 10 to 15 ounces of expressed milk. However, some of the mothers have the ability to come and breastfeed their babies at lunchtime. This means that as the provider, I'll only be giving the baby one feeding in the morning, and one in the afternoon. It seems that this lunchtime feeding eliminates the need for about 1/3 of the amount of milk needed each day. Occasionally, a mother takes an early lunch, so the baby doesn't get a morning bottle. That's okay, too.
If you can, feed your baby when you arrive at the provider's to drop them off in the morning, even if you've just fed him at home. Let your provider know if you want to feed your baby when you pick him up in the afternoon, too. This provides more milk to baby "straight from the source," and so it's less that you have to pump. Also, ask the provider not to feed your baby in the last couple of hours or so before you're expected to arrive. This helps to ensure that baby is hungry when you are ready to feed him.
You'll also need to discuss labeling with the provider, as some jurisdictions require that all baby food brought from home be labeled. Some providers aren't allowed to store extra milk in the freezer, and must have the milk provided to them in bottles, ready to feed, while other providers can be more lenient. You'll want to work this out before your first day back at work! Going back to work is a huge adjustment for everyone involved—mother, father, baby, and caregiver. Expect that everyone will need several weeks to adjust to the new routines, feeding cues, and situations. Don't expect perfection at the beginning, and allow for re-evaluation of the situation, sometimes on a day-to-day basis, until everyone has a routine that they are happy with. Eventually, you will all adjust, but the first day is always hard. Personally, I think it's always hardest on the mother, not the baby.
Sterling VA USA
Your positive attitude is of utmost importance. My part-time child care provider never breastfed and had never cared for a breastfed baby. I planned to go to our first meeting with frozen milk, plenty of reminder notes, and my son in tow. My goal was to spend a few hours with our daycare provider to help her understand why breastfeeding was so important to us. As we settled in for the visit, I nursed my son. A few hours later, we ate lunch and my baby breastfed again. During the time we were together, the daycare provider asked many questions about breastfeeding.
I told her I really needed her help to make it work. I educated her on warming frozen milk and handling leftover milk. Together we developed a plan. Her biggest fear was not having enough milk, so I moved most of my freezer stash to her house.
I worked midnight to 8 am. My husband took the baby to her house at 6:30 am and I stopped on my way home to breastfeed him, and then went to our house to sleep with the phone on. Sometimes I got up and went over to feed him, and other times she used my milk. My provider and I shared a lot of ideas. We were a strong team. It worked so well that we did a lot of the same things with baby number two.
Vera Lynn Richardson
Chillicothe OH USA | <urn:uuid:fec00e68-19fb-4f19-98c0-63201a9fb7ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.llli.org/nb/nbmayjun07p134.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971231 | 1,161 | 1.773438 | 2 |
January 27 2013
The Real Casualties of the Government’s Welfare State
When I met her, she was high and barely conscious of the screaming two year old beside her. The dirty apartment, spare of furniture and barely lit, housed eight children and one adult. Two of the children, eight and ten year old girls, wanted me to meet their mother. They lived around the corner from my inner-city Washington, DC apartment and after helping me with my groceries one night, the girls became my constant companions.
Their mother’s addiction, chronic unemployment, irresponsibility (only two of the children shared a father), and apathy admittedly angered me. Taxpayers paid for her housing, food stamps, welfare checks, and other benefits, leaving her to languish obese and drugged while others worked. Worse, her poor choices impoverished the childhoods of her precious girls.
Only later in life did I begin to see the full tragedy of the situation and I could direct my anger toward its proper target—the politicians that created the situation. You see, when their mom—we’ll call her Shirley—was a child, she didn’t dream of becoming a welfare mom. She didn’t see herself living in a dirty house with fatherless children, living off others and seeking relief from a crack pipe. Shirley once dreamt of a bright future. It wasn’t just a series of poor choices that destroyed those dreams; Shirley had help. Under the guise of compassion, the government enabled that road to nowhere.
Ironically, the politicians complicit in her demise are living out their own dreams. They have the big home, the successful career, the supportive spouse, the happy children, and of course, the power and prestige of winning elected office. Even the bureaucrats who cut the welfare checks have the dignity that comes from holding a job, an earned paycheck, and the satisfaction of providing for a family. The same cannot be said for welfare recipients.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat, once said, “It cannot too often be stated that the issue of welfare is not what it costs those who provide it, but what it costs those who receive it.”
The true cost of welfare appears lost on President Obama. Before the election, he weakened the work requirements for welfare recipients. Last week he scolded reformers in his inaugural speech. Entitlements, he said, “[D]o not make us a nation of takers.” He appeared to be calling out by name American Enterprise Institute’s Nicolas Eberstadt whose recently published book, A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic, bears that exact phrase.
Eberstadt’s book chronicles the rise of government programs that now pay out some $2.3 trillion annually. Half of all Americans receive a government benefit and more than a third receive a means-tested benefit like food stamps, housing, or welfare checks. The short book is worth reading as is his Wall Street Journal article responding to the President’s inaugural baiting. (You can also listen to my radio interview of Eberstadt.) Eberstadt writes, “The moral hazard embedded in the explosion of social-welfare programs is plain. Transfers funded by other people's money tend to foster a pernicious ‘something for nothing’ mentality...”
I’ve seen with my own eyes how the pernicious mentality destroys initiative, self-respect, and even a mother’s instincts to care for her own children. The cost far surpasses the $2.3 trillion cited by Eberstadt, for you cannot put a price on a child’s life. | <urn:uuid:9dee4b67-f11a-477e-9596-85a835cdbbb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iwf.org/blog/2790404/The-Real-Casualties-of-the-Government%E2%80%99s-Welfare-State | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960862 | 768 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Facebook has fully implemented most of the recommendations made by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, the watchdog responsible for regulating its European and Irish operations said on Friday.
Ireland is the headquarters of Facebook's non-U.S. business.
Last july, the data regulator re-audited Facebook to test its progress in fulfilling recommendations made last December regarding policies on tagging photos, retaining and deleting data and on the level of user control.
The Irish regulator said the great majority of the recommendations have been fully implemented , particularly in the following areas:
- The provision of better transparency for the user in how their data is handled,
- The provision of increased user control over settings,
- The implementation of clear retention periods for the deletion of personal data or an enhanced ability for the user to delete items,
- The enhancement of the user's right to have ready access to their personal data and the capacity of Facebook to ensure rigorous assessment of compliance with Irish and EU data protection requirements.
"I am satisfied that the Review has demonstrated a clear and ongoing commitment on the part of FB-I to comply with its data protection responsibilities by way of implementation or progress towards implementation of the recommendations in the Audit Report. I am particularly encouraged in relation to the approach it has decided to adopt on the tag suggest/facial recognition feature by in fact agreeing to go beyond our initial recommendations, in light of developments since then, in order to achieve best practice. This feature has already been turned off for new users in the EU and templates for existing users will be deleted by 15 October, pending agreement with my Office on the most appropriate means of collecting user consent. By doing so it is sending a clear signal of its wish to demonstrate its commitment to best practice in data protection compliance," said Billy Hawkes, The Irish Data Protection Commissioner.
Facebook also switched off the facial-recognition tool that prompts users to "tag" photographs uploaded to its website following a privacy investigation.
"In light of discussions with our regulator in Ireland, we have agreed to suspend the Tag Suggest feature in Europe," Facebook said in a statement.
However, progress still had to be made on a number of other items within the next month, the regulators added.
Deputy Commissioner, Gary Davis who led the both the Audit and the Review stated that "there were a number of items on which progress was not as fully forward as we had hoped and we have set a deadline of 4 weeks for these matters to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion." | <urn:uuid:a9ebf23f-d4cd-4d66-b3ec-6f413c0b0fdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=34335 | 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 | 0.962128 | 505 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Syria's Foreign Ministry has said military leaders are studying a proposal by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi for a ceasefire to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
They said they would announce a decision on Thursday.
Earlier, Mr Brahimi said the Syrian government had agreed to a ceasefire during the holiday. His initiative did not include plans for international observers to monitor a halt to hostilities.
It is not clear whether rebels will commit to a truce.
A previous ceasefire arrangement in April collapsed within days with both sides accusing the other of breaking it.
Meanwhile, activists said Syrian warplanes were carrying out bombing raids on the strategic northern town of Maarat al-Numan and nearby villages while insurgents surrounded an army base to its east.
Hundreds of Syrian refugees have poured into a makeshift refugee camp at Atimah overlooking the Turkish border, fleeing a week of what they said were the most intense army bombardments since the uprising began.
Human Rights Watch said the Syrian air force had increased its use of cluster bombs across the country in the past two weeks.
Russia said rebels had acquired portable surface-to-air missiles, including US-made Stingers - a weapon that would help bring down warplanes and helicopters. | <urn:uuid:a6e74225-ad1e-4426-91e6-9880d2951457> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1024/342942-syria-conflict-assad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977118 | 251 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Some people were not as impressed by yesterday featured virtual boy Milo as I was. So let’s get into the details a bit more here The technology behind Milo is Microsofts Project Natal which is an effort to make gaming more natural by getting rid of the controller element completely. Do you remember the furore the Wii made a while ago with its innovative controller system? Natal took this concept just a step further by using the human playing the game in front of the TV as the 3D motion sensing and facial and voice recognizing controller. The video below shows a few examples of what you can do with it. I’m not sure about the race driving without a steering wheel and I despise the gender cliché part with the “Ow, what dress should I wear for prom?” but the fighting, the soccer game and the skating are looking like good fun to me. | <urn:uuid:3e3a0bae-3137-4608-bd8f-9044d80ebc48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://milkboys.org/project-natal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974037 | 181 | 1.578125 | 2 |
In the past 10 days, we’ve learned a lot about Paul Ryan and the events in his upbringing that influence his policies today: The 42-year-old Congressman grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. He’s a devout Roman Catholic. He was elected class president in high school and selected as prom king. He works out and likes to fish and hunt for deer. On his bookshelf you can find his favorites, from Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged" to the Bible.
He’s perhaps best known as the architect of the Paul Ryan budget, the leading Republican plan to balance the budget, and the book that may very well have influenced his economic ideals is George Gilder’s "Wealth and Poverty."
A copy of that book was first handed to him by Republican political insider Cesar Conda when Paul Ryan was just a 19-year-old. At the time, that book was regarded as the intellectual guide for Reaganomics and the Reagan White House in the 1980s. When Conda got his copy of the book back from Ryan in 2007, it was heavily marked up.
George Gilder is the author of "Wealth and Poverty," which was re-released last week. | <urn:uuid:e4181f48-eb85-4c51-89a7-667bb2f34266> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/aug/21/george-gilder-his-book-wealth-and-poverty/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992348 | 258 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Just east of Chattanooga, four miles north of the I Georgia state line, and six miles up the road from where the Andrews raiders abandoned The General following their famous Civil War railroad hijacking, lies the village of Collegedale. Nestled in a valley alongside the Appalachian ridge known as White Oak Mountain, Collegedale is home to some 4,600 people, most of them Seventh-day Adventists. Collegedale's major gift to popular culture are the Little Debbie snack cakes shipped across America from its sprawling McKee Bakery. But as the town's name suggests, its true raison d'etre is the local institution of higher learning, Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists.
To a degree seldom true in communities of even this modest size (at least outside of Utah), Collegedale presents a solid front of sectarian homogeneity. Friday nights and Saturdays find its tennis courts empty, post office closed, and McKee ovens cooled. A twentieth-century Protestant shtetl, Collegedale persists-even thrives-in its anachronistic ways.
Its obscurity to the world outside its own immediate region mirrors the more general invisibility of Seventh-day Adventism in American society. Though a worldwide church of nearly six million members, Adventists are frequently confused with Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons (like Adventists, also creations of nineteenth-century American religious culture). The identification of Adventism with bizarre cultic practices formed the dramatic core of A Cry in the Dark, a film faithfully depicting the experience of Lindy Chamberlain, an Adventist pastor's wife in Australia who was accused of murdering her baby. Adventists suffer less acute forms of prejudice in the United States. The church's large hospital system-particularly the prominence of Loma Linda University's infant heart-transplant program-has provided some coveted public respectability. By and large, though, Adventists remain a people about whom you've heard but to your knowledge have never met.
This social distance is not accidental. From the church's beginnings in the 1830s and 1840s, Adventists have felt called apart as a prophetic voice, carrying the twin messages of Christ's imminent return to earth and the binding obligation of God's law, particularly the seventh-day Sabbath. Though their historical experience has precluded the kind of geographic clustering achieved by the Mormons, Adventists have nevertheless formed a distinctive subculture. This has been accomplished by an impressively extensive parochial school system reaching from first grade through college and even to graduate school. Moreover, in a land where the traditional Sunday day of rest has been redefined by football and the shopping mall, Adventists' sense of distinctiveness has also been nurtured by a commitment to careful Saturday observance. If less visible a cultural badge than the Amish horse and buggy, Sabbatarianism is nearly as thorough in setting Adventists apart from their neighbors. Few devout Adventists are found in the upper reaches of government or corporate America, where the fast track usually encourages the abandonment of an inconvenient and unstylish religion. Significantly, many of the most socially prominent Adventists are black, a group that tends to be less self-conscious about wedding piety and worldly success.
Adventism's uneasy relationship to secular culture is matched by its ambivalent standing within evangelicalism. This has been true from the movement's very beginnings, when the postmillennial reassurances of mainstream Protestantism were contradicted by the apocalyptic warnings of William Miller in the early 1840s that the world would soon be coming to an end. During the succeeding century and a half, Adventists have been suspected by the Protestant establishment of being, if not necessarily a cult, at least not part of the true Reformation ball team. The main sticking point has been the Adventists' allegiance to their prophet, Ellen G. White (1827-1915), whose enormous body of writings has been taken as normative for faith and practice. Evangelicals also grow impatient with their acceptance of the Old Testament Sabbath and with what they perceive as an unbalanced grasp of Law and Grace.
Probably more than any other Protestant denomination, Seventh-day Adventists feel an affinity with Jews. The Sabbath obviously feeds this. Abraham Heschel's wonderful meditations on the Sabbath make him a favorite among educated Adventist readers. More widely read is Chaim Potok, whose evocations of a devout, parochial community and its clash with modernity speak to an Adventist readership. His visit to the Southern College campus a few years back was a major cultural event. The sense of kinship to Jews also stems from the kind of self-identification as God's remnant people which had earlier nurtured a philo-Semitism in American Puritans. A recent sermon in the Collegedale Church took as its theme the evils of anti-Semitism. Of course one might hear a similar message from William Sloane Coffin. But for Adventists, who foresee one day the kind of religious persecution for themselves known historically to the Jews, the consequences of anti-Semitism strike closer to home.
This sense of the tenuousness of religious freedoms has led Seventh-day Adventists into the forefront of religious liberty advocacy. Liberty magazine is the premier journal of church-state relations, and the church's Religious Liberty Association frequently joins hands with the ACLU in challenging infringements on liberty of conscience issues. In their unease over Moral Majority attempts to rebuild a Protestant America (an effort seen as threatening to civil liberties), Adventists again stand outside the evangelical mainstream. The Collegedale Adventist community needs no reminders of the dangers of moral zealotry: firmly embedded in Southern College folklore is the monthlong jailing of faculty early in the school's history during the 1890s, following arrests for violating Tennessee's Sunday Law.
But if in some important respects Adventists diverge from typical evangelicalism, in other regards they are indistinguishable. There is a similar conservatism of lifestyle. In fact, the list of vices officially eschewed by Adventists would probably surpass that of most other Christian groups. And though Jerry Falwell might consider them insufficiently political, Adventist loyalty to the Republican party rarely wavers. The Collegedale precinct consistently provides GOP candidates a comfortable margin of support; this in a district with a popular and conservative Democratic congresswoman, Marilyn Lloyd.
More significantly, Adventists share evangelicals' sense of living in a culture that pays them little heed and confers even less respect. The renewed prominence of the Christian Right during the past fifteen years tended to obscure a more fundamental fact: American culture has become more resolutely secular and (by a necessary corollary) less beholden to its Judeo-Christian roots. Though boycott-wielding evangelicals won some well-publicized victories in their battles with network programmers and the management of 7-Eleven convenience stores, and though hard-core pornography is perhaps less evident today than in the 1970s, still, the content of today's most broadly distributed products of popular culture-television, music videos, film (and now, it seems, even museums)-is more patently violent and more nakedly sexual than ever. Yes, perhaps Madonna and 2 Live Crew are only doing what Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry did three decades earlier: pushing at the edge of the cultural envelope. But to conservative Christians that is exactly the point. This apparently limitless broadening of the publicly acceptable has led both to a frantic pursuit of the outrageous and to the nearly complete hegemony of the profane over the holy.
Evangelicals respond with jeremiads and generally ineffectual attempts at political action. Apart from a few accepted intellectuals such as Peter Berger, Richard John Neuhaus, or Michael Novak (none of whom would comfortably wear the label evangelical), Christians have not won respectful hearings for their social criticism. Their (admittedly) shrill demands for individual and social regeneration elicit mainly dismissive caricature from the arbiters of culture, for whom H. L. Mencken's 1925 roast of the fundamentalists of Dayton, Tennessee, continues to influence “right” thinking toward the devout. There is within liberal capitalist culture a kind of inherent pressure to reduce all differences to matters of taste. Evangelical Christianity's failure to bow its knee to the secular bitch goddess casts it as an enemy of the people, to be responded to not with persecution but with ridicule-and, of course, charges of intolerance.
There was a time when White Oak Mountain symbolized the desired separation between Collegedale and the secular world beyond. Today, however, Chattanooga's suburbs climb up the mountain's ridge, and despite lingering efforts on the part of Southern College to remain in loco parentis, there seems little hope of keeping the world out of Collegedale or vice-versa. Student modes of dress are entirely up to date, and dormitory parking lots contain cars most faculty members couldn't afford. Increasingly, talented students pass over the traditional service professions of teaching and ministry in favor of snappy new majors like marketing or corporate wellness. The pride taken in a hometown girl's selection as Miss Tennessee a few years ago fed a craving for public recognition.
For all of that, the school remains a countercultural institution, striving to balance student careerism with a profound sense of the personal rewards and moral demands of the Christian life. The Student Missions Club, for example, whose prototypes thrived at Yale, Syracuse, and other mainstream campuses a century ago, is still prominent at Southern. Twenty to twenty-five students a year, primarily involved in English-language education, scatter to locations as remote as Korea, Truk, Iceland, and Israel. Locally as well, the College and community now seek a greater presence in the Chattanooga area through their classical radio station and extensive welfare projects.
With a student body ever more reflective of American Adventism's ethnic diversity, Southern College has nonetheless escaped the grotesque demands of multiculturalism heard on so many campuses. This is partly explained by an administration, faculty, and student body that is conservative and adheres to traditional notions of curriculum. But it also resides in the presence of a guiding religious philosophy, which inoculates against the recurring epidemics of educational fashion.
Not that, like most evangelical institutions, Southern College doesn't show a less appealing side on occasion. The school is marked by parochialism and a somewhat qualified embrace of academic freedom. Indeed, the worldwide resurgence of religious fundamentalism in the 1980s did not miss Collegedale. An attack on the college's religion department by area zealots left the school for a time divided and demoralized. But these are after all the vices of the community's virtues, of its seriousness, its vigilance against the erosion of moral standards, and its willingness to disregard secular public opinion when that interferes with the pursuit of its own vision.
In a society where pluralism has become the unofficial holy writ, one might think that communities like Collegedale would be valued for their very idiosyncrasy. Such, it need hardly be said, is not the case. Instead, evangelical centers are held to be vestiges of the bad old days, still redolent of Bible-thumping hypocrisy, of science bashing, of segregation, and of a patriarchal order. But one does not have to buy into Christian teaching or even to forgo every last suspicion of evangelicalism in order to appreciate the way it serves as a flywheel for a society badly in need of counterbalance.
In the best Madisonian spirit, liberals and conservatives both ought to accept-even champion-the existence of communities like Collegedale, communities that embody old-fashioned, but very far from shopworn, truths.
Benjamin McArthur is a Professor of History at Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists in Collegedale, Tennessee. | <urn:uuid:49571b25-63a9-4053-b473-186c03c1f321> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstthings.com/print/article/2007/12/002-a-protestant-shtetl-30?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=700 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952174 | 2,401 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Inajda Rekaya (Ee-n-eye-da) is seventeen years old, but has joined the army to support her husband, Eric and twin Daughters, Alexand and Heyem. She doesn’t realise that her decision will not just save their lives, but change the future of her family. Special Thanks to Imran Malik for helping me with translating English to Hindi. (The Hindi reads, “It’s open!”) This story also features, Katherine De Somme. CLICK HERE for next chronological story. A Spanish version is now available, translated by Hernán Jara Droguett.
Unbound Boxes Limping Gods: Disconnected Stories. Issue # 8: Inajda Rekaya
November 21, 2010 by cherylmoore
Posted in Art, Blogs, Books, Experimental, Experimental short story, graphic novel, Illustrated Short Story, Story Book Characters, Writing | Tagged A day in the life of Inajda Rekaya, army, baby, basement, Book Characters, bunk bed, cadet, cat, China, Disconnected stories, fantasy, feminist fiction, future, glasses, graphic novel, Hindi, husband, illustration, Inajda Rekaya, India, Katherine De Somme, literature, micro blog, mother, mythology, orphan, photograph, poverty, retreat, Russia, sacrifice, science, science fiction, Short illustrated stories, sister, speculative fiction, twin daughters, Unbound Boxes Limping Gods, wife, world building, writing | 12 Comments
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Coming soonForthcoming releases, Issue 91: Baio Yujia's Ghost Part 2 (3 year anniversary special, Tuesday 25th June) Issue 92: Baio-Yujia's Ghost Part 3 (Wednesday 3rd July) Issue 93: Baio-Yujia's Ghost Part 4 (Wednesday 10th July) Issue 94: Baio-Yujia's Ghost Part 5 (Wednesday 17th July) Issue 95: Giselle Balsara Part 2 (Wednesday 24th July) Issue 96: Zero Merevija (Wednesday 31st July) Issue 97: The Unbound Box Part 1 (Wednesday 7th August) Issue 98: The Unbound Box Part 2 (Wednesday 14th August) Issue 99: The Unbound Box Part 3 (Wednesday 21st August) Issue 100: The Witch Woman (Wednesday 28th August) and Issue 101: The Guild Master's General Part 3 (Wednesday 4th September)
Salt Publishing release date 18th July
What is this?Unbound Boxes Limping Gods is the first in a series of speculative fiction manuscripts, for which I'm seeking publication. These short stories feature some of the characters in a time set before the novels.
So many stories! Where do I begin?Go to the Story timelines tab at the top, and you can read all the stories in order of time. You'll find them gradually connecting together.
About The Characters
The blurb for Unbound Boxes Limping Gods(Set in 4041, the first book begins on Christmas Island, Japan.) Alexand Merek is a woman who treasures "Bad Things," and delights in music. She has done something stupid, placing those she loves in danger. Women like her are not welcome in the ordinary world, where women who play piano and dance with wives are placed into, "The Bad Thing Box." Alexand must fight to bring her lost family back together to save them from an unimaginable fate. (If you would like to see this book published, please press the follow button. The writer gives life to a story, but the reader keeps it alive.)
This is for you Dad.My stories and my world are dedicated to you, Dad. You died before I was old enough to know who you were. I will try to find you in my stories, to go to places far away from this world, to search for you. Maybe one day I'll know you again. Until then I'll keep writing. I'll never forget you. Cheryl
Unbound Boxes on Flickr
Micro Story Archive
I feed on FeedbackYou are very welcome to leave comments. I would love to hear what you think of the stories and characters. Your constructive criticism is very much appreciated and very rarely put in my spam box! Thank you for reading. Cheryl | <urn:uuid:101f23dc-9e8a-4b4f-9044-166ac363f181> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cherylmoore.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/unbound-boxes-limping-gods-disconnected-stories-issue-8-inajda-rekaya/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938584 | 902 | 1.679688 | 2 |
How do I take my own measurements?
This part is super simple! Once you've taken your own measurements you'll feel SO much more prepared to shop online. There are vintage dresses for most any shape and size! When you know your numbers you'll be able to buy dresses confidently and know what kind of fit to expect.
How to measure yourself for dresses:
Bust: Use a sewing measuring tape to measure the fullest part of your bust (with bra on!).
Waist: Measure the smallest part of your natural waist line. This will probably be about one inch above your belly button.
Hips: Stand with your feet close together! Measure the fullest part of your hips.
Add a little extra? Once you have your measurements add an extra inch if you want your clothes to be comfortable and loose fitting. I, personally, always add an extra inch to the bust but not the rest since I like a fitted waist. This part is up to you and will determine how you want your clothing to fit.
Can you explain the sizing on the Red Velvet Site?On each of our listings you'll see the words "Measurements, double where appropriate." This means that the measurements are taken with garment laying on a flat surface, so you need to double the waist/hips/bust. You don't need to double length or inseams.
Length: This is the length from the top of the shoulder to the hem for a dress, or from the top of the waist line to hem for a skirt. If you used a measuring tape you could see exactly how long this dress would fit on your body. The our models vary in height, so it's good to use the measurement if you're concerned about length. Probably not an issue on a mid length dress like the one above, but with shorter dresses it's always good to check if you're pretty tall!
Bust: This measurement is 'taken flat' this means that the dress (or shirt, or sweater) is laid on a table and measured across. This is a standard way to take measurements. You need to double all measurements that have a front & back (bust, waist & hips).
So, for the Bust double the measurement that is there. If the dress is made of jersey or polyester you'll know that there will be some extra stretch there. If the dress has darts (or a formed bust) you can assume it will fit an inch or two larger than the measurements. This is one reason why people love 1950s and 1960s dresses, they look amazing on curvy figures and ladies with a larger bust!
Waist: Double the measurements given. Keep in mind that you can wear a belt with many dresses if the waist is slightly too big to add shape and proportion (I wear a belt almost every day!). If a waist is elastic we stretch it to a comfortable size to take the measurement. This size can fit a slightly smaller or larger waist easily. If waist reads 'open' this means it's a 'house dress' style and the waist, hips and bust are all the same. It's a more roomy style that looks best worn with a belt!
Hips: This is the maximum allowance for hips (you'll double the number, again, of course). If the dress has fitted hips the measurements will be listed. You want to make sure you have enough extra room to walk and move! If the hips say 'open' or have a + symbol it means that they are extremely roomy and could fit pretty much any girl who could wear the other measurements.
All measurements on the Red Velvet website are given in inches! If you need centimeters, use a conversion calculator.
You'll also find an estimated size. These are helpful for quickly finding pieces that *may* fit you. Estimated sizes should be used as a guide only. Always refer to the exact measurements as well.How do I find a dress that will work with my body type? | <urn:uuid:9c9d591c-ca80-40a3-b6c5-2ac8197ff5f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://redvelvetshop.myshopify.com/pages/sizing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949776 | 812 | 1.53125 | 2 |
AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Catholic Bishop Youhanna Golta: Egypt cannot become Islamist like Mali
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "The future of Egypt? At the moment no one knows. Not even President Morsi. " On the second anniversary of the Revolution of 25 January 2013, while there are reports of new clashes in the streets between police and anti-government protesters, the Coptic Catholic Bishop Youhanna Golta outlines to Fides Agency the contours of the delicate moment lived by the great north African Country -. According to Anba Golta, "if the government and the Muslim Brotherhood try to repress the demonstrations held these days, the nightmare of civil war will return in Egypt."
Bishop Golta, as a representative of the Catholic Churches in Egypt, took part in the Constituent Assembly called upon to write a new Constitution. Today he confirms to Fides the reasons that led him and other Christian representatives to withdraw from that body: "Work had begun on the right note, but at some point it became clear that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis wanted to impose an Islamic Constitution. We discussed with their leaders, but they did not want to listen. We realized that our function was only decorative, and went away." In past days, the Christian representatives officially withdrew from the so-called "national dialogue" convened by President Morsi to try to reopen contacts with the social partners and the opposition groups. "To dialogue - notes Anba Youhanna – there is need of someone who can listen to the arguments proposed by others. Even the Party 'Strong Egypt ', founded by the former member of the Muslim Brotherhood Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, has withdrawn from national dialogue. And we remain in contact with representatives of the University of Al-Azhar. Only a minority of the people supported with their vote, in the referendum, the entry into force of the new Constitution. "
According to Bishop Golta "Egypt is not Mali. It is at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. More than ten million Christians live there. Its economy is based on tourism and trade. This is why one cannot agree to allow it to become an Islamist Country. But there are also international strategies that project a division of Egypt. And to pay the price would be the people. I - continued Anba Golta - love my Muslim brothers and my sisters. I also dedicated my studies and my PhD to Islamic culture. "
For Bishop Golta, the real problem is the relationship between politics and religion: "Who wants to be religious, cannot claim to compel by law the people to pray, not to drink alcohol and follow all practices related to his religion. In Arab countries, only by separating religion and politics one can have democracy. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 25/01/2013).
- 2013-05-13 AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Catholic Patriarch Sidrak: the encounter between Francis and Tawadros II helps us to rediscover ourselves united in baptism
- 2013-04-30 AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Catholic Bishop Fahim Hanna: the meeting between Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros - to walk towards full communion between our Churches
- 2013-04-15 AFRICA/EGYPT - Government representatives contested by the Copts during a meeting of "reconciliation"
- 2013-04-11 AFRICA/EGYPT - Pope Tawadros II’s secretary: five guidelines to do away with religious conflicts
- 2013-04-08 AFRICA/EGYPT - Assault against the Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark. Patriarch Tawadros calls everyone to remain calm
- 2013-04-04 AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros: I will go to Rome to meet Pope Francis
- 2013-03-11 AFRICA/EGYPT - The new Coptic Catholic Patriarch settles while in Rome the Pro Eligendo Pontiff Mass is held. Cardinal Naguib: it is a providential coincidence
- 2013-03-04 AFRICA/EGYPT - The Coptic Catholic Bishop Fahim Hanna: U.S. politicians do not understand what is happening in Egypt
- 2013-02-23 AFRICA/EGYPT - Elections at Easter: Copts protest, possible postponement
- 2013-02-18 AFRICA/TANZANIA - Catholic priest killed; "this is the second of my priests to die" says Catholic Bishop of Zanzibar | <urn:uuid:ad4b1673-a60e-49cb-884b-189e5333ee9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fides.org/en/news/33129?idnews=33129&lan=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946666 | 963 | 1.53125 | 2 |
It seems appropriate to write this article today, on the appearance day of His Divine Grace Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharaj. He inspired my Srila Prabhupada to accept the renounced order of Life and fulfill the order of our line's parama gurudeva Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarsvati Thakur had instructed Abhay Charan De many years earlier to preach this cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the English speaking world. Abhay Charanaravinda did his best from the grihasta ashram. He lost direct contact with his god brothers For some years, but re-connected with them in Allahabad, and offered whatever facility he could to the Gaudyia Vaisanvas.
Despite an eronious remark recently printed on VNN that Abhay Charanaravinda prabhu "...did virtually nothing to help our Param Gurudeva," during his household years we can see from the actual history and not anyone's useless opinion that he was always helpful to his god brothers. He offered residential quarter to Srila Sridhar Maharaj for 8 years and they had many intimate discussions on philosophy. As a grihasta Srila Prabhupada paid for the printing of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrta. Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Prabhu also lived with Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharaj for some time and co-founded the Gaudiya Vedanta Samhiti with him in the l940's.
Abhay Charanaravinda was not an ordinary householder. He started his Back to Godhead Magazine in l944 and was sole writer, editor and publisher for many years until his disciples took over the task in the l960's. He wrote many articles for the Sri Gaudiya Patrika (the magazine of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samhiti) and his articles were always deeply appreciated by the other Vaisnavas, except perhaps the envious who were overly concerned with his outer dress.
He spoke at many functions of the Gaudiya Matha, and particularly on the appearance days of his Divine Gurudeva, our beloved spiritual grandfather Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
His poem was received by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura very enthusiastically. This Poem expresses Srila Prabhupada's great love and appreciation for his spiritual master. It was written earlier but published in the second appearance of Back to Godhead on February 16, 1952:
Adore adore ye all,
The happy day.
Blessed than Heaven
Sweeter than May.
When He appeared at Puri
The holy place,
My Lord and Master,
His Divine Grace
Oh ! my Master
The evangelic angel.
Give us they light,
Lit up thy candle,
Struggle for existence
A Human race,
The only hope
His Divine Grace
Misled we are
All going astray,
Save us Lord
Our fervent pray,
Wonder thy ways
To turn our face
Adore thy feet
Your Divine Grace
We fallen soul
Paying most heavy
The illusion's toll
The only hope
His Divine Grace
FIVE Message of service
Thou has brought
A healthful life
As Caitanya wrought.
Unknown to all
It's full of brace.
That's your gift
Your Divine Grace
Absolute is sentient
Thou has proved.
Thou has moved.
This gives us a life
Anew and fresh.
Worship thy feet
Your Divine Grace
Had you not come
Who had told
The message of Krishna
Forceful and bold
That's your right
You have the mace
Save me a fallen
Your Divine Grace.
The line of service
As drawn by you,
Is pleasing and healthy
Like morning dew
The oldest of all
But in new-dress
Your Divine Grace.
While some may try to limit the importance of Srila Prabhupada's years as a householder he was clearly showing the proper example of responsibility to family affairs and fealty to guru that we must imbibe in our own lives if we are married with dependents to care for.
The nara lila of the acaryas illustrate important steps in the life of a jiva soul. Nara lila means That the eternally liberated soul acts like an ordinary conditioned jiva for the benefit of Instructing others. We know that Arjuna was not in illusion when he expressed doubts about his duty to Lord Krsna. The result of his "hesitation" to fight in the Kurukshetra war was Lord Krsna's recitation of The Bhagavad-gita. The result of Srila Prabhupada's apparent hesitation to accept third initiation can only help those of us who are still attached to family life and if we are fortunate will also be asked to one day give it up. His pastime also emphasizes the importance of accepting the sannyasa ashrama at the fag end of one's life, and also points to our ultimate understanding of the importance of the raga marga of our line and how we connect to Srila Rupa Goswami the rasacarya of our param para line. Only sannyasa disciples are supposed to hear and chant the "gopi bhava" mantra of the kama gayatri.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was also a householder for many years. He held various positions, one as chief magistrate, and was not full time active in preaching. Yet we see from his life that he kept a rigorous and extremely regulated life style always dedicated to pure devotional service, despite his ashram. Will anyone dare make mention that he did not do his utmost to serve his gurudeva, Srila Jagannatha das babaji, and direct our line and inaugurate the Sankirtana Movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the modern era? Only a fool number one will imitate his son Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasavati thakur who took Srila Bahktivinoda Thakura to task for being a grihasta.. Do not make the mistake of imitating eternally liberated souls with your fallible opinion and envious heart.
Krsna has a grand plan; especially for His pure devotees. His plan for Abhay Charanaravinda was to manifest the highest level of active service after accepting the renounced order. It is a gross and severe Vaisnava aparadha to make reference to our gurudeva's household period in any negative or derogatory fashion. He certainly made up for "lost time" and many members of the Gaudiya Matha to this day still cannot accept his success in spreading Krsna Consciousness, outside of India when they remember his as "another grihasta." I have heard Srila Prabhupada say "One cannot enter the spiritual world unless he accepts the renounced order of life. Everyone start to prepare. Ladies as well. This is not a bodily conception, but an invitation to divine consciousness.
My beloved godbrother His Holiness Narasingha Maharaj, who was also sorely insulted in a recent VNN article has written very perceptively on this point. He wrote to one of my god sisters who asked about women making ultimate progress without sannyasa initiation: Here is an excerpt from my letter to him, and his answer.
> One other inquiry from our godsister. If a jiva has female birth and
>will not hear the gopi bhava mantra in this life does that prevent her
>from attaining the highest goal , and is another birth in a male body to accept the
>sannyasa ashrama required for achieving krsna prema? (Puru das)
Everything is attainable by the grace of the Holy Name of Krsna. One need not become a male-being or a female- being to achieve perfection from this world. Ultimately there are advantages and disadvantages to either male or female bodies in this world. The women section of Vaishnavas have already been given Gopal-mantra and Kama-gayatri to help them in their quest for pure devotion and love of Krishna. They need not take sannyasa. If they will qualify themselves, through Krishna nama then everything can and will be revealed (that means Gopi-bhava also). The gopal-mantra and kama-gayatri are to help them to that end.
Nonetheless there is a speciality to the gopi-bhava mantra of the sannyasa order. Who has got the male form in this world is, from one point of view, at a greater disadvantage. Therefore the gopi-bhava mantra is for them and not for the women. It is especially meant for the male section otherwise sannyasa is simply dry renunciation. (His Holiness B.G. Narasingha Maharaj, Jagat Guru Swami.)
Anyone confused about my dear god brother's sannyasa name is just confused, period. They can kindly read http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9901/ET13-2835.html for clear understanding. Fault finding is a nasty part of ISKCONitis disease the we must all learn to give up.
Srila Prabhupada wrote of his god brother and sannysas guru; in a letter of bereavement from the Seattle ISKCON temple in l968 sent to Trivikrama Maharaj, his sannyasa god brother:
". . . The greatest compassion of Srila Kesva Maharaja was to make me a sannyasi.
I have taken a vow that I would never accept sannyasa, but Srila Maharaja forcibly gave it to me. He would certainly have been most pleased today to see the success of my preaching. Las year (l967) I visited him in Calcutta along with my disciples, and despite being bed-ridden, he was very pleased to receive us. I have complete confidence that both in his manifest presence and after his disappearance, he must be very pleased to see my widespread preaching of the message of Sriman Mahaprabhu in western countries like America, Canada, England, Germany and Hawaii. (Honolulu), situated in the pacific ocean as well as eastern countries like Japan (Tokyo) and so on.
I was a staunch grhamedi (one whose intelligence is absorbed in household affairs).
Srila Prabhupada used to come to me in dreams from time to time and call me to Renounce family life and come along with him. The dreams would frighten me and make me think that I would have to accept sannyasa. I didn't have any desire to take sannyasa. But upon the repeated insistence of Sripada Narayana Maharaj, Srila Kesva Maharaj bestowed boundless mercy upon this unwilling and blind Person, by forcibly giving me sannyasa. It seems that this desire of Srila Prabhupada's Was transmitted in his heart, and it thus was that my sannyasa was accomplished.
So I am eternally indebted to Srila Kesava Maharaj. (Their Lasting Relation p.38-39)
To try and draw false distinctions amongst the disciples of Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and make material value judgements about Their service is useless. As their disciples It is not our business, or position to even think we can understand any differences they might have had. We are their children, and nephews. We must respect our uncles as much as our father, and special affection for our father is easily understood. It should be appreciated rather than denigrated by prejudice and immature understanding of the acaryas' nara lila.
If these exalted souls did not bathe in the donkey urine of pratistha, it behooves us to give Them a bath in it, as an expression of our so called love for them.
In Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta Srila Naraharai Sakara Thakura writes:
Kindly understand this example:
Just as one respects one's father as a guru, his (the father's) older and younger brothers are also similarly respected, but nonetheless, the father is worthy of the most respect. Not withstanding the above, if the father's guru, even if he is family related, comes, one should double the respect, as he is the spiritual father of the father, or the guru of the guru. He is offered twice the puja or respect.
This behavior if recognized as appropriate by all authorities.
In earlier slokas Srila Narahari says more about respecting all vaisnavas.
Because the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord are always meditating on Lord Sri Krsna the contamination of sinful activities cannot come upon them. Because a Vaisnava's body has the fire of Krsna Consciousness within it, even if they are fallen, this fire of Krsna Consciousness will burn up to ashes any material contamination.
However, those who are not able to understand the respective levels of spiritual potency may take shelter of this example. As in the Ganges there are many waves, and some of these waves are larger then other waves but all of the waves are considered to be sacred, one wave being not considered more holy than another wave, similarly, all types of Vaisnavas, those who are spiritually strong and those who are not so strong, can be offered equal worship. Considering this perspective in such circumstances that can be accepted as perfect worship.
Here completes the conclusion in this regard.
All Vaisnavas are considered as guru or spiritual master.
Amongst all of the Vaisnavas the initiating guru (diksa-guru) and instructing guru (siksa-guru) are special.
It is proper to offer these two special respect.
Amongst all of the other spiritual masters these two (diksa-guru and siksa-guru) spiritual masters' orders are to be followed.
So it is natural for a disciple to hold his own gurudeva "above" other devotees in his own heart but he should never make the mistake of denegrating the god brothers of his gurudeva in the name of praising his beloved spiritual father.
Here is some insight from our gurudeva's siksa guru and beloved godbrother Srila Sridhar Maharaja: "The guru should be recognized by impartial judgement. Everyone thinks that his own mother is the most affectionate. But when a comparison is drawn between two mothers to see who is more affectionate, an impartial criterion will be applied. This is called tatastha-vicara: an impartial comparison of relative and absolute considerations. When the two are weighed, the absolute calculation will always have the greater value.
The position of acarya is very intricate. It is very difficult to bring an acarya under rule. You see, that is our practical experience. You please hear and note this. The position of acarya is a relative thing, and the position of the disciple is also relative, just like the relationship between mother and child, father and son, wife and husband. Although to his godbrothers a guru will be seen in a relative position, to his disciple, the guru is absolute. So to adjust between the relative and absolute is a difficult thing; it is an eternal problem. Even in krsna-li1a there is enmity between madhurya-rasa and vatsalya-rasa, but when the absolute consideration comes, both rasas must be included within the fold. (Sri guru and His Grace Ch. 8) In 1936 Abhay Charnaravinda Prabhu said this to an assembly of the gaudiya math: "Gentlemen, the offering of such an homage as has been arranged this evening to the acaryadeva is not a sectarian concern, for when we speak of something that is of universal application. There does not arise any question of discriminating my guru from yours or anyone else's. There is only one guru, who appears in an infinity of form to teach you, me an all others."
So now we get to the next and final point of this discussion. When the children of a father Misbehave our material tendency maybe to shift the blame to the father. This is a rather Christian idea. Jesus died for our sins, so we are not be held to blame. Srila Prabhupada clearly rejected this idea. He explained that if you commit murder and the police come to arrest you, and your say "Oh arrest my father he is responsible." will the police agree? No. You must accept responsibility for your own misdeed. It is a gross error of judgement and miscalculation to blame His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for the misbehavior of some of his disicples. It is a gross manifestation of guru envy or some other psychological malady to draw a parallel to the off thinking of conditioned souls with the transcendental consciousness of a nitya lila pravistha pure vaisnava like our Srila Prabhupada.
This over reaction to the misdeeds of others is not a symptom of self realization. Vidura, the Pandava's were mistreated many times at the hands of the envious cousins, the Kaurava. Do we read in the Srimad Bhagavatam "Vidura's Comlaint?" Never! Do we ever hear Yuddhisthira complaining about how he was treated? Never! And why not? Because they understood that Krsna was the Supreme Controller and They were surrendered souls at His lotus feet. They were sages of steady mind despite their ashram. Yudhisthira was ksatirya and Vidura was born sudra.
No one has any problem with their birth, or activities if he is a perceptive devotee. We can Easily see how their distress was an impetus for greater events in their lives that ultimately Benefited the jiva souls. Uncle Vidura left the palace after the harsh treatment of his nephew, the envious Duryodhana and the net result was his detachment from the palace politics and hearing from Maitreya a wonderful section of the Bhagavatam, that would have otherwise not been spoken. Maharaj Yudhisthira and his brother's dilemna gave rise to the Kurukshetra war, and the recitation of the Bhagavad-gita We are still benefited by the inconvenience they suffered at the hands of their envious cousins. All these events were part of Lord Krsna's grand plan to deliver the jiva souls form the degradation of the kali yuga.
We should view the present day difficulties with ISKCON in the same way. If we harbor too much resentment for rough handling by the monkeys like Ravana's messenger in the Ramayana, then we fall short spiritually. We fail to have the same vision as Vidura or Maharaj Yudhisthira and we will see things from our tiny brain's perspective and relate on the level of false ego and not self realization.
Now of course we are outraged at the treatment of Vidura and the numerous offenses heaped Upon the Pandavas, and we should be intolerant when such things are done to others. However If we do not keep an even keel and see the will of providence how will we make spiritual Progress? So many devotees have so many valid complaints against so called god brothers and miss-managers of Srila Prabhupada's institution. What to do? Cry like baby or rise to a higher understanding of WHY Krsna allowed such injustice to manifest?
ISKCONitis is therefore a psychological condition in which we forget that Krsna is the ultimate Controller, the supreme enjoyer and our dear most friend. We have to "see the action of the External energy working but internally and externally" (SB 2nd Canto) as Vidura did and not be bewildered by the immaturity of karma misra bhaktas, kanistha adhikaris, or guru bhogi, or guru tyagi former associates. Everyone has some positive motive to serve his gurudeva.
Many of our former associates are simply poorly trained and misled and others are more culpable since they are the pervayors of such miskconceptions as the fall of the jiva from Krsna loka, the foolish condemnation of Srila Prabhupada's godbrothers out of context (Vaisnava aparahda), and the misunderstanding of guru tattva. We should be very careful not to link these monkey disciples to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and think He shared any of their materialistic motives. He was not a karma misra , yoga misra or jnana misra bhakta, but a suddha bhakta of the highest degree. It is only, us , his foolish students who have fallen short. Never our gurudeva., His Divine Grace.
It is with great pain and frustration that I witness so much resentment from some quarters.
We must learn to see through shastra, shastra chaksus. We must not blame anyone for our Own misfortune. You doubt this then read, Sri Guru and His Grace by Srila Sridhar Maharaj very carefully. Go to "God Consciousness vs. Society Consciousness". Read the whole book please but take note of this point which is especially relevant to this discussion.
The Fire has Come to Test Us
What we have received from our spiritual master we understood only in a rough estimation.
Now, things have come in such a way that we have to scrutinize ourselves in every position.
We have to analyze ourselves. Atma-niksepa, self-analysis has begun. We are under trial.
What we have received from our spiritual master, in what way have we received it? Properly, or only showingly? The time has come to purify us, to test whether we are real students, real disciples, or his disciples only in face and confession. What is the position of a real disciple? If we live in a society, what is the depth of our creed? In what attitude have we accepted his teachings? How deep-rooted is it within us? The fire has come to test whether we can stand. Is our acceptance real? Or is it a sham, an imitation? This fire will prove that.
So, this is the real field of sadhana, or practice. Our practice, our advancement needs these difficulties. Otherwise, we may not know what is progress, and we will become hypocrites, and give the adulterated thing to others. So, to purify ourselves, it is necessary that so many disturbances come.
And God has no error. He commands the environment. It is not our responsibility. The responsibility of the environment does not rest upon us. If I am sincere, then I have to adjust myself with this environment and put my faith before Him. "Everyone may leave me, but I shall stand alone!" With this attitude we must march on, whatever the circumstances may be. Then the recognition may come in my favor, that "Yes, under such trying circumstances he is still there." Our superiors will be pleased with us.
The relative and absolute considerations are always coming in clash. The absolute should be accepted and the relative sacrificed. Still the relative is necessary. After graduation from primary school another teacher is accepted for higher education, but that does not mean that the primary teacher is neglected or insulted. For our own interest, whatever we find which is akin to what was given to us by our guru maharaja, whatever we find that will enlighten us further, and whatever will help us to understand more clearly what we heard from our guru maharaja, must be accepted. Is my realization a living thing, or is it dead? Anyone who has come in connection with the infinite cannot but say this: "I am nothing." That should be the salient point.
We have left all social concerns and so many other shackles. For what? For the Absolute Truth. And wherever I shall find that, I must bow down my head. And if a great soul shows us, "This is the path to where you will find your thirst quenched. The line is in this zigzag way," we must accept that for our own interest. We are worshipers not of this form, but of substance.
Wherever I feel the presence of my Lord in an intense form, I must be attracted to that side.
Krsna says, sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. Wherever we shall find Him, we must run in that direction. My interest is with Him. Not that we can challenge, "Why did Krsna appear here, and why is He appearing there?" If a man in a boat is passing through the current and finds himself in danger, then from whatever side help may come, he must run to that side.
If we are worshipers of Siva, when we understand the special superiority of Narayana, should we stick to Siva? And then Krsna? In the Brhad-bhagavatamrta the story is told of how Gopa-kumara, by chanting his Gopala mantra, gradually leaves one stage and progresses to the next. There, the gradation of devotion is traced from the karma-kanda brahmana, to a devotee king, then to Indra, then to Brahma, then to Siva, from him to Prahlada, then to Hanuman, then the Pandavas, then to the Yadavas, to Uddhava, and finally the gopis. In this zigzag way he is passing. In the sincerity of his quest, his thirst is not being quenched until he goes to Vrndavana. So, the Brhad-bhagavatamrta has shown us the line of guru parampara, or the real line of our quest, of our search.
Srila Sridhar Mahraj also points out our individual responsibility when adversity manifests in our In the printed version of Sri Guru and His Grace (former from cyber text) His Divine Grace writes: "So we must not be afraid of any adverse circumstances. Krsna says in the Bhagavat-gita ,"A happy ksatriya hankers for the battle you are facing" (sukhinah, ksatriya partha labhante yuddham idrsam). So a bad workman quarrels with his tools. Our karma has come to face us, to surround us, and we can't avoid it. These disturbances are a result of our own karma; they came from within us. So we must not quarrel. We must act properly in dealing with that.
We have to scrutinize ore accurately, what we thought we understood. Everyone must ask himself "Where am I? What is my real need? And how much am I hankering for the real thing?" All these things will be expressed, and made public. So, this is the real field of sadhana, or practice. Our practice, our advancement needs all these difficulties. Otherwise, we may not know what is progress, and we will become hypocrites, and give the same adulterated thing to others. So, to purify ourselves, it is necessary that so many disturbances come.
(Sri guru and His Grace p. 46, printed version).
So on this the appearance day of my beloved gurudva's divine sannyasa guru and god brother,, Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharraj I dedicate this small attempt to help all of us who have suffered at the hands of others, in particular, so called god brothers, and be able to see Krsna's ultimate control in all such affairs. Srila Prabhupada writes in the Krsna Book that We are all subject to the controls of the material nature, but material nature is working under Krsna's direction t o engineer the surrender of his sincere devotee." In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna claims proprietorship and ultimate control over this material energy.
daivi hy esa gunamayiIn his purport His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, writes: ""Inferior material natures is defined herein as divine nature due to its divine conection and movement by the divine will." The whole purport is worthy of repetition but we do not want to take up too much space. Please consult it yourself (Bg. Ch.7. Text 14)
mam maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te
"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it."
So may I conclude with two statements. I am horrified by the misdeeds of many of my so called god brothers. I have no tolerance for their many injustices and for their smearing my gurudeva's name and institution through the mud, since his disappearance in l977. Any one of them that holds the tridanda for the wrong reason, and has betrayed the spiritual and social trust of that staff puts it in jeapordy should he come within my physical reach. I will break that bamboo against the nearest corner building. Someone who cheats and lies, and manipulates in the name of service to his gurudeva does not deserve to carry such a spiritual symbol. Forewarned is forearmed. Come near me at your own risk.
Lord Nityananda broke Mahaprabhu's danda into three pieces to emphasize that Sri Caitanya actually held the tridanda not the ekedanda. The destruction of a staff of surrender that has been used like a club, or baseball bat to bully and coerce god brothers won't be broken for the same reason. Down with the saffron police (deviating gbc and their blind followers), And secondly I pray to the lotus feet of my gurudeva Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, my siska guru Srila .B..V. Narayana Maharaj, and Their divine sannyasa Guru Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharaj, on this His appearance day to some day make my heart and mind fit places for understanding Radha and Krsna conjugal, yugala pastimes, and that one day myself and all my dear abused and mistreated god brothers and sisters can join them and take part in the Lord's eternal lila in Goloka Vrndavan.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that in the fire of ordeal one burns up the reactions of one's past sinful activities. My dear godbrother Kundali prabhu has said "We own our own problem." However, this problem, the mistreatment and abuse of other vaisnavas, is one many of us share And one that we will have to come to terms with personally by taking responsibility for our own situation. No one on the gbc forced us to take birth in this material world. That was our choice.
We have to blame ourselves and become introspective sages, while at the same time be intolerant when such things happen to others.
Srila Prabhupada spoke of Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharaj in a l968 lecture given in Seattle on the occasion of His disappearance; that if he ever confronted a guru bhogi, Srila Kesava Maharaj would preach as if with a sword.
So with the sword of knowledge let us try to become cured of ISKCONitis, and try to do our best to spend the rest of our lives glorifying the predecessor acaryas, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and awaken within our hearts Krsna prema, and take the advice of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and "forget the past that sleeps." Let us please learn to meditate on the glory of our gurudeva's transcendental accomplishments and forget the nonsense of his insincere bhogus so called followers. Learn from the mistakes of others, but do not repeat them and make them the object of your meditation.
Om Tat Sat. Dedicated to the fond memory of Srila Prajnana Kesava Maharaj whose causeless Mercy we pray for on this his Divine appearance day. All glories to all the disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, their sincere followers and grand disciples.
Puru Das Adhikari
The Bhaktivedanta Memorial
Museum and Library Ashram
[Originally published 02/07/99 on VNN] | <urn:uuid:a8a9b442-1bf7-4eda-bd98-5d129c0565c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bvml.org/PDA/ISKCONitis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957542 | 7,037 | 1.648438 | 2 |
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders introduced a bill Monday that would require Congress to fully fund the discretionary budget of the Veterans Affairs Department a full year in advance.
Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Ranking Member Mike Michaud, D-Maine, said the 2013 Putting Veterans Funding First Act would make it easier for VA to plan for key investments in information technology, benefits claims processing and construction projects. It also would ensure that all VA services will have timely, predictable funding in an era where continuing resolutions and threats of government shutdowns are all too frequent, the lawmakers added.
Congress currently funds the medical portion of the VA budget a year in advance, and it is pegged at $52.5 billion for fiscal 2013 and $54.5 billion for fiscal 2014. VA information technology spending has run slightly above $3 billion since 2010.
Miller and Michaud’s announcement comes as the government faces widespread automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, set to kick in March 1. “If there is one thing people in Washington and across America agree on, it’s that we should never let funding for veterans become a casualty of Washington gridlock,” Miller said in a statement. He added the bipartisan bill “would simply enact into law the widely accepted view that America’s veterans should not be held responsible for Washington’s inability to reach an agreement on how to cut spending.”
Michaud said, “Our veterans sacrificed all they had for our protection, now it’s up to us to protect the care and benefits they have earned for their service. The Putting Veterans Funding First Act of 2013 is a common-sense approach to ensuring that arbitrary budget cuts won’t jeopardize the care and benefits America has promised our veterans.” | <urn:uuid:d441c0f5-aa4c-4cbc-942a-83cb07dd50e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2013/02/bipartisan-bill-seeks-guarantee-funds-va-claims-processing-it-projects/61528/?oref=ng-HPriver | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954051 | 367 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Pulaski County will soon be getting 205 new jobs thanks to a project that's been a decade in the making.
Today Governor Bob McDonnell announced that Red Sun Farms, a producer of high-quality hydroponic vegetables, will invest a total of $30 million to establish its first U.S. high-technology greenhouse production operation in Pulaski County. It will be the first high technology greenhouse in the United States.
Carlos Visconti with the company was on hand Friday to share why Pulaski County beat out all the other localities, saying "the most important was the hospitality for the community and support of the state."
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Joe Sheffty said Pulaski County came out on top for a number of reasons. "We have an excellent workforce, a lot of training can be done at this college," Sheffty said. "We have revenue as far as tax incentives."
For a long time the biggest employers in the area were Phoenix Packaging and Volvo. And if any layoffs happened, Sheffty says the region would have taken a hit. "If you cannot get a huge company to come in, but you have smaller companies that will average 200 to 300 jobs and diversify when you have major layoffs in one particular area, that it will not affect the New River Valley and not Pulaski County," Sheffty said.
Red Sun Farms brings another first and added bonus to the county. A handful of industrial parks already have several companies. Red Sun Farms will be the first facility at the New River Valley commerce park.
The company also already has ties with Kroger, meaning folks should soon be able to purchase local produce at their local grocery store. | <urn:uuid:b6a72918-a317-4135-a691-3fa6f300fba5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fox2127.com/story/21657663/pulaski-county-to-get-205-new-jobs-from-tomato-plant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966008 | 356 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Milanfar: To some extent, this problem of being able to search for images with a single image has been, in a way, the Holy Grail of this particular field of research.
Narrator: Peyman Milanfar, a professor of electrical engineering at UC Santa Cruz, led the team that developed this software.
Milanfar: I think it's fair to say that for a fair amount of time, people simple didn't believe it was doable. That there was just not enough information in a single image so that you cold reliably find other things that are comparable in a way that we're presenting. We are currently in the process of patenting these results, and over the next few years, I can imagine this technology also being spun out, licensed to somebody perhaps and various commercial products build on top of it.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin. | <urn:uuid:77abbad5-9748-4f93-9dee-483d6d920f1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday/article/22829 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980275 | 184 | 1.71875 | 2 |
About the video:
J. Reid Meloy, a clinical professor of psychology at the University of California discusses his research into the mind of the psychopath, based on his years of experience working with incarcerated killers and with the families and victims of psychopaths. Donald Carveth, professor of sociology and social and political thought at York University, critiques Meloy's paper.
Published on: April 29, 2012 |
Length: 55:39 |
| This video is available until: April 30, 2029 | <urn:uuid:2dcbf6b9-1cfb-43bc-b06c-4ec4c500a7f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ww3.tvo.org/video/176483/meloy-and-carveth-mind-psychopath | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932454 | 103 | 1.679688 | 2 |
As a JWU faculty member, you play a big role mentoring JWU students toward career success. There are a number of ways we can work together to prepare students for internships, jobs and other networking opportunities in their field of interest.
How Can EE&CS Help Faculty?
Request a Guest Speaker We bring industry professionals into your class or student club to present on a number of professional topics, including current industry trends specific to your course. An EE&CS staff member can also present on career topics, including internships, professionalism and more. Request a speaker.
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How Can EE&CS Help My Students?
Career Advising The most successful JWU students meet with us in one-on-one advising sessions at least twice a year. Encourage your students to visit EE&CS.
Networking Opportunities Help your students find internships and jobs at our career fairs, panel discussions and presentations. Remind them to check our upcoming career events.
Internship Preparation Students need time to polish resumes, search and apply for an internship, and partner with a faculty advisor. Remind your students to apply for internship two terms in advance.
Job Opportunities Point your students to our job listings, that have thousands of internships, part-time work, and full-time jobs just for JWU students, as they start their job search.
Career Management Course Encourage students to take their Capstone course as juniors. They’ll be more prepared for the internship process and their job search, so they should register for Capstone early.
Resumes Use these resume examples with confidence knowing that they have been vetted by faculty and endorsed by industry professionals. Refer your students to a career advisor for a one-on-one resume critique.
Workshops Refer students to a resume workshop so they’re ready to interview with internship employers.
Site Visits for Your Class Contact us to arrange site visits to relevant employers.
Internship Support Fund Your student's career success starts with a good internship. He or she should choose the best internship opportunity, regardless of whether it's paid or unpaid. We can help — encourage your student to ask about our fund to help with the costs of an unpaid internship.
Faculty members play a crucial role in hands-on learning. As internship advisors, they partner with our career experts to mentor, support and grade students during their internship term. Faculty can explore these frequently asked questions. read more | <urn:uuid:5859b675-00bc-410a-b59a-ff47bc847c31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jwu.edu/content.aspx?id=53594 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95175 | 589 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Apr 29, 2004 (10:04 AM EDT)
U.S. Charges Four Under Can-Spam Law
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek
Officials from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Michigan on Thursday announced the first criminal prosecutions under the Can-Spam Act of 2003, charging four people in the U.S. District Court in Illinois with sending E-mail pitches for weight-loss products that don't work. America Online, EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo filed civil actions under the law last month.
"Spammers have taken advantage of Internet technologies to conceal their identities and their whereabouts," said Howard Beales, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "They've resorted to including the E-mail addresses of innocent third parties in the reply-to addresses of their unwanted messages, or simply forging E-mail headers."
Calling the coordinated civil and criminal actions a "spam dunk," Beales said the FTC's complaint alleges that the defendants--Christopher Chung, Daniel Lin, James Lin, and Mark Sadek--violated the Can-Spam Act by sending commercial E-mail addresses with false header information, without a clear and conspicuous opt-out notice, and without a valid postal address. The commission also alleges that the defendants violated the act by making false or unsubstantiated claims about the diet patches they were pitching.
Separately, the FTC filed suit against an Australian and a New Zealander for sending spam advertising diet patches and human growth hormone products that claimed to reverse the signs of aging.
Laura Parsky, deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division at the Department of Justice, said Chung and Sadek had been arrested Wednesday in Detroit for Can-Spam Act violations and mail fraud. They face up to five years in prison for illegal spamming and up to 20 years for mail fraud.
The other two defendants, Daniel Lin and James Lin, are expected to turn themselves in shortly.
The alleged spammers should at least be able to afford expert legal counsel--according to U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins, the defendants grossed an average of $100,000 per month from August to January.
The case highlights a practice of spammers that law enforcement officials say is increasingly problematic, using legitimate E-mail addresses that belong to innocent parties as a reply-to address. Also known as a joe-job or spoofing, it's a tactic employed by spammers to inflict the burden of bounce-back messages--generated when spam is sent to a non-working address--on someone other than their mail provider. The result for the recipient is effectively a denial-of-service attack.
One spoofing victim who spoke at the news conference said that in early February, his company was receiving more than 1 million erroneously bounced messages per day, which effectively shut his business down for several weeks. | <urn:uuid:6619751c-f4b2-4da6-a908-025a993d4b34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techweb.com/news/19205510/u-s-charges-four-under-can-spam-law.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956004 | 597 | 1.515625 | 2 |
As head of Continental Resources Inc., Oklahoma native Harold Hamm has been at the forefront of the shale revolution that has turned North Dakota into a boom state. Now Hamm has donated $10 million to the University of North Dakota’s school of geology to enhance educational offerings in petroleum geology and related fields.
It’s the largest gift ever from someone who is not an alumnus of the school. President Barack Obama claims people like Hamm need to pay “a little more” in taxes as a matter of supposed fairness. But Hamm’s success in creating jobs and associated philanthropy far exceed anything done by Obama in spite of the billions he’s wasted in stimulus funding.
If the president gets his way, it will be students and job seekers currently benefiting from the vision of the Harold Hamms of the world who will ultimately pay the price. | <urn:uuid:7b05af93-6a98-4aca-814d-3e3e6995eea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.newsok.com/scissortales/2012/09/26/who-pays-the-price/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960557 | 178 | 1.78125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON - The number of US troops committing suicide set a record in 2012, exceeding the number of combat deaths, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Pentagon said 349 active-duty troops killed themselves in 2012, up more than 15 percent from 2011 despite renewed efforts by the military to stem the suicide rate.
"This is an epidemic that cannot be ignored," said Senator Patty Murray, who championed legislation last year to improve suicide prevention efforts and mental health care for troops and veterans.
The Army, as the largest service, counted the biggest number of suicides, with 182 soldiers killing themselves in 2012, according to preliminary figures. The Navy had 60 suicides, the Air Force had 59 and the Marines had 48. | <urn:uuid:d750e501-7b91-4ab4-b758-7dcb7508503a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=299579 | 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 | 0.961372 | 142 | 1.742188 | 2 |
A Joseph Spurr along with John Murfin, Godfrey Bosville and Richard Watson were tenants in 1742 of land at Domine Well, Rotherham owned by John Hyde and Ellen his wife and Henry Newton of Wickersley, yeoman.
Children of James SPURR, b.1728 Chesterfield, s/o Joseph:
Children of James SPURR and Ann:
James Spurr married Elizabeth Foster on April 7th, 1757.In 1788 had a Paper Mill at The Ewes Maltby. He had died by 1813.
In 1803 a lease for 21 years was granted to Peter Spurr, cutler for property in Sheffield Park at a rent of £42
A Peter Spurr was Master Cutler in 1781 and 1824.
William Spencer of Bramley Grange in 1818 and by 1826 of Windsor, Bucks, leased to Peter Spurr of Windsor, merchant, and Charles Spurr of Windsor, merchant a messuage at Bramley with closes called the Croft, 2 Balk Lane Closes etc. and Bramley Grange. From year to year at an annual rent of £21.
In 1827 a Lease for 13 years was granted to to James Yeomans and William Spurr, trustees of the last will of Francis Mayor, of property in Sheffield Park: The Croft, The Orchard and the Orchard Croft, at a rent of £11.
James Jeremiah Spurr, eldest son of James Spurr, was of Ewes, Maltby, a papermaker, bankrupt by 1834. He was married to Betsy. He held land in Oldcotes in the parishes of Blyth and Harworth, Notts., with a blacksmiths and wheelwrights shop.
Will of John Spurr late of Bramley parish of Braithwell in the Diocese of York Gent, dated 19th June 1807
Joshua Spurr - Brother - of Maltby Farmer
Sarah - Sister - Wife of Thomas Roebuck of Woodhouse parish of Stainton Farmer
Charlotte - Sister - Wife of Robert Carr of Waleswood Miller
Children of John and Sarah Spurr (Nee Tootle) born Wickersley:
In 1822 John Spurr and William Spurr. were butchers and Joshua Spurr was a Grocer.
Thomas Askin, w., Thribergh. & Eliz. Spurr, w., of Wickersley, married by lic at Rotherham 20 Jan 1835 in consequence of Wickersley Church being rebuilt. Source; Yorks Marriage Licenses.
This extract is from The Times date 28th August, 1862
In 1862 , a Charles Spurr was farming at Bramley.
Charles Spurr of Braithwell married Mary Didsbury, by license at Rotherham 20 October 1831. | <urn:uuid:48ebfee8-ef2b-4f01-a7cf-fc210c162757> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wickersleyweb.co.uk/gen/spurr.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949674 | 589 | 1.773438 | 2 |
During this period, the value of exports decreased by 10 percent while imports decreased by 11 percent compared to the corresponding period one year ago. Exports amounted to SEK 271.7 billion, and imports were valued at SEK 252.3 billion, resulting in a surplus net trade balance of SEK 19.4 billion for January - March 2013. The corresponding surplus figure for these months one year earlier was SEK 19.0 billion.
The value of exports in March 2013 amounted to SEK 91.8 billion, while imports were valued at SEK 85.0 billion. Compared to March 2012, exports decreased by 14 percent in value, while imports decreased by 16 percent. Trade with countries outside the EU resulted in a surplus of SEK 11.6 billion, while the EU trade resulted in a deficit of SEK 4.8 billion.
Seasonally adjusted, the net trade surplus amounted to SEK 7.4 billion in March 2013, compared to SEK 7.1 billion in February 2013. The corresponding figure for January 2013 was SEK 6.7 billion. | <urn:uuid:2a1588e5-e546-4af6-8859-5261c39d8587> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/balance-of-trade | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95875 | 218 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Judge Katie Herrell wants to know how they paint those four-foot words onto the sides of bridges. But she doesn't want to know badly enough to watch this again.
"One of your most personal possessions is your signature."
This documentary is more art lesson than art show. It's a dictionary of terms applicable only to graffiti art. It's a who's who of the graffiti movement in San Francisco. It's a lesson in doing what you love and damning the consequences. It's about standing up for your craft—but hiding your face. It's about making bare walls come awash in color, but channeling D.W. Griffith when putting those walls on film. It's about throwing around a handful of dirt and calling everything gritty.
Facts of the Case
This documentary details San Francisco's graffiti art movement over the last twenty years. Through interviews with the prolific graffiti artists, or "writers," of this time period—most hiding their identity—this film explores the different styles and techniques of graffiti art (including east coast versus west coast styles), the importance of "crews" or teams/"gangs" of painters, the personal fulfillment writers get from their art, and their frustration with the laws that make their craft illegal and the police who enforce those laws.
The first thing I noticed about this film was its lack of color. I always thought graffiti was about adding color where there was none. I also thought it was about vandalism and punk kids. This film was out to educate me…to see that my first assumption was only a fraction correct and my second was just plain stereotypical.
Apparently the color in this film was something I had to earn. First I had to get down the basics of graffiti art starting with "tagging," or signing whatever "nom de plume" a writer chose for himself (or herself, but mostly himself). This was introduced by a group of boys slapping their sig onto the side of a bus, or the inside walls and ceiling. They looked like punk kids to me. One woman complained that she asked the kids to stop because the markers were making her sick; they swore at her. But really, I just couldn't appreciate that these boys all had their own signature style and that you could tell a lot about a writer (where they came from, what "crew" they hung with, etc.) from their style. This I learned.
Then the lessons became more advanced. These lessons were carried out by various long-term artists who we meet by their signature name: Cycle, Crayone, Revok, Twick, etc. They explained the more intricate styles of graffiti, the most advanced of which are "burns," or large pieces that are towering block letters or images. I liked these pieces; they had lots of color. But the artists who weren't afraid to show their faces—and bravo to them because the bandanna clad writers looked like they belonged on CNN—weren't that young. Some of these guys were just reminiscing, but most were still out there at night laying down their art. They might still be punks, whatever that means, but they aren't kids.
What was great about these lessons and the writers is that they aren't clouded by back stories. Back stories are for feature films. You can't just show kids painting walls in a feature film, you have to say that their parents beat them, or that they have just impregnated their girlfriend, or they are trying to decide between Harvard and Berkeley. But this documentary is about stealing paint, scouting abandoned walls, and clashing with the opposing crews and trying to sabotage their work. Furthermore, the love the writers have for their craft is obvious. These guys spend hours sketching and scouting before they do large burns. Their artistic talent is undeniable; their canvas just isn't mainstream. These artists think (or have themselves convinced) that they are making their city a more beautiful place to live. This film has plenty of drama, but it is truthful and only related to the topic at hand, writing graffiti.
That said, I would have liked to see a little more scouting for abandoned walls and a little more live-action graffiti shots: How exactly does one paint a four-foot tall word on the side of a bridge? The interviews and the terminology were fascinating (maybe only because I was a complete neophyte when it comes to graffiti), but these kids are running from the cops, sneaking out of houses, and apparently even getting killed in the act. I needed a little more color in this respect.
I also found the camera work a little odd. I understand that the majority of graffiti writing is done at night, but the whole film seemed a little…gray. San Francisco isn't lacking on the color spectrum, but I don't think I saw any blues or greens that weren't created by paint. And the old-movie reel element wasn't appealing. This film was about the last twenty years and created in the last five; there's really no reason why it should seem as though the projectionist fell asleep in the back room.
The music definitely helped bring the piece into modern day. There are some montage scenes where shots of covered walls ebbed on the screen to a pulsating beat in the background. This is a great way to showcase a lot of amazing artwork in a short time. And the addition of rap music definitely upped the adrenalin and added to the suspense—and there should be suspense. Graffiti writing is illegal and a felony in SF.
There are more minutes of "Special Features," than there are of actual documentary. This is good and bad. Good in that we meet some very interesting writers, including several females and one writer who definitely uses his art to spread an anti-capitalist message. It's bad in that some of the material is redundant. An accompanying 50-page booklet featuring writers and their art is just a paper version of the film, with quite a few typos.
The Rebuttal Witnesses
Certainly, I understand why there aren't more live-action graffiti shots. Graffiti is done under the cover of darkness. Setting up film equipment, including bright film lights, on a deserted alley in the middle of the night is like giving the police your GPS coordinates before heading out. And for the same reason, I understand why many of the writers didn't want to show their face. Some of them are still extremely active in the world of graffiti and have spent enough time facing ugly stone walls they can't even spit on safely.
If you know nothing about graffiti, and are interested in changing that, this film is for you. If you know about graffiti, maybe the New York graffiti which has had some more mainstream publicity, this film is for you. If your friend or enemy (real or representational) happens to be in this film, it's for you. But if you want to see some sick artwork up close and personal, some hard-hitting police-on-punk drama, or simply some beautiful San Francisco scenery from a new perspective, this film isn't for you.
Guilty. It is certainly true that "One of your most personal possessions is your signature." But if your second most personal possession—and valued possession—is your time, then you'll want to make sure this movie is for you before embarking.
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Scales of Justice
Studio: Heretic Films
• Lost Interviews
Review content copyright © 2007 Katie Herrell; Site design and review layout copyright © 2013 Verdict Partners LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:94476791-1680-4a44-9fac-b420dcc48205> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/piecebypiece.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977764 | 1,576 | 1.820313 | 2 |
On Friday, I wrote a piece for Mother Jones speculating that government spying on press communications may not be “unprecedented,” as Associated Press head Gary Pruitt put it, but simply rarely disclosed. The rules requiring disclosure of such surveillance, after all, only appear to apply to “subpoenas” for “telephone toll records,” not secret tools like National Security Letters. Even outside the shadowy world of intelligence, as federal magistrate judge Stephen Smith has observed, court orders granting government access to electronic communication records routinely remain secret indefinitely. I suggested that there could be quite a few other cases like the AP story that we’ve simply never heard about, even if the Justice Department scrupulously follows its own rules, because they didn’t involve grand jury subpoenas for phone logs.
It is rare for someone who writes about the intelligence community to have a speculation of this sort confirmed almost instantly, but a report in the Washington Post today is already shining a spotlight on another hitherto unreported leak investigation in which the government obtained a warrant to read the e-mail of Fox News reporter James Rosen. The warrant in that case was sealed for over a year, and appears to have remained unnoticed until today—nearly three years after the search of Rosen’s e-mail was authorized. Why should anyone believe this is the only such case that hasn’t yet come to light?
The Rosen case is especially unsettling because the warrant affidavit suggests that Rosen himself could be subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act, on the grounds that his alleged encouragement to a source to provide classified information amounts to “conspiracy.” The attempt to redefine as crime what is ultimately a routine and necessary part of national security reporting really is rather unprecedented: As the Congressional Research Service has observed, “we are aware of no case in which a publisher of information obtained through unauthorized disclosure by a government employee has been prosecuted for publishing it,” and there “may be First Amendment implications that would make such a prosecution difficult.”
A successful prosecution, of course, is not necessarily the point. The case against NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake—who revealed massive waste in the Agency’s deals with intelligence contractors—ultimately collapsed: The information he’d revealed was embarrassing to the government, not dangerous to national security. But Drake’s life had still been shattered, and a clear message sent to any others who might seek to embarrass the government. Reporters are already feeling the chilling effects of the AP leak investigation—and presumably that’s the real aim: Not to jail leakers as an end int itself, but to ensure that government sources are too scared to talk to press without approval.
That might sound like a fine idea if we were really only talking about vital national security secrets whose publication would endanger the United States. But as even top intelligence officials have acknowledged, “overclassification” is rampant in government. Much of the most basic information, without which effective national security reporting would be impossible, is reflexively classified whether or not it poses any realistic security risks, and reporters routinely discuss such information. In practice, that means the government can pick and choose which leakers to go after—and which ones to wink at because they’re serving the administration’s interests. | <urn:uuid:ef7bc9fb-617c-4542-8f2c-9aeb5d00880f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/blog?page=5&s=biggs&submit=GO | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961144 | 683 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Q: I need to know if you start a pivot bob at the nape of the neck and if it requires the large teeth of the comb.
A: The best way to cut any bob hairstyle is to begin the cut in the most central location. This means the nape area of the neck. The
hair is sectioned up in order to be better controlled, and the cut is begun by creating guide lengths at the nape of the neck and at
the face (taking care to make sure the lengths on each side of the face are even).
The hair is cut from the guide length in back to the front lengths and the rest of the hair is
lowered and cut following those guides. The hair should be held using no tension, to prevent distorting the length of the hair being
cut. The type of comb used depends on the texture of the hair.
Fine hair will require the use of fine-toothed combs to control the hair, while coarser hair will
need the use of wide-tooth combs to prevent putting too much tension on the hair while cutting. | <urn:uuid:9c892bb4-0c2f-4236-97b0-987afb0e5eb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hairfinder.com/hair/pivot-bob.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931044 | 229 | 1.75 | 2 |
|MS Word (31 KB)|
August 13, 2003
Mr. Thomas D. Watkins
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Michigan Department of Education
608 W. Allegan
Lansing, Michigan 48933
Dear Mr. Watkins:
This is to notify you of an apparent conflict between Michigan law and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g, and the resulting violation of FERPA by local school boards in the State. This Office administers FERPA and is responsible for providing technical assistance to educational agencies and institutions to ensure compliance with the statute and regulations found at 34 CFR Part 99.
Section 99.61 of the regulations provides that an educational agency or institution that determines that it cannot comply with FERPA due to a conflict with State or local law shall notify this Office within 45 days and include the text and citation of the conflicting law. Mr. Douglas L. Dinning, counsel for the Roseville Community School District Board of Education (Board), notified this Office of the apparent conflict by letter dated February 5, 2003. Mr. Dinning explained that the Board conducted a student expulsion hearing and, in accordance with State law, published minutes of the meeting that identified the student by name, the charge against the student, and the Board's disposition of the matter. The letter suggested that the disclosure of information about the student violated FERPA because the student's parents did not consent. Mr. Dinning indicated that the Board's practice is consistent with the 1982 decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals in Palladium Publishing Co. v. River Valley School District, 321 NW2d 705, 115 Mich. App. 490, which held that a Board's duty to act through its minutes, together with certain provisions of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, MCLA 15.261 et seq., mandate that the minutes identify the disciplined student by name, rather than by student number. The court noted that there were no reported Michigan cases on point and cited a previous opinion by the Michigan Attorney General, 1980 OAG 5362, which reached the same conclusion based on the same legal principles.
Under FERPA, an educational agency or institution may not have policy or practice of permitting the release of education records, or personally identifiable information from education records, without the parent's written consent. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1); 34 CFR § 99.30. FERPA applies to any "educational agency or institution" to which funds have been made available under any program administered by the Secretary if the "educational agency is authorized to direct and control public elementary or secondary, or postsecondary educational institutions." 34 CFR § 99.1. The term "education records" is defined as records, files, documents, and other materials that contain information directly related to a student and that are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a person acting for the agency or institution. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(4)(A); 34 CFR § 99.3 "Education records." Based on these provisions, and assuming that public school districts in Michigan receive funds from the U.S. Department of Education (Department), the minutes of a local school board meeting that contain the name of a student and the results of a disciplinary proceeding constitute an "education record" under FERPA.
FERPA provides for several exceptions to the prior written consent rule, including an exception for information that has been designated as "directory information" in accordance with regulatory requirements. 34 CFR §§ 99.3 ("Directory information") and 99.37. "Directory information" includes a student's name and other information that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. A parent must be given notice and an opportunity to opt out of disclosures of directory information. 34 CFR § 99.37. Importantly, personally identifiable information about disciplinary action taken against a student may not be disclosed as directory information under FERPA because it would be considered a harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.
FERPA allows postsecondary educational agencies and institutions to disclose information about certain disciplinary proceedings without prior consent in limited circumstances specified at 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(13) and (14). Information about K-12 disciplinary actions may be disclosed without consent only if all personally identifiable information about a student has been removed, including information that would make the student's identity "easily traceable." 34 CFR § 99.3 "Personally identifiable information." FERPA does not specifically define "easily traceable," and situations regarding disclosures of information that could be considered easily traceable must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. In making this kind of determination, we generally consider whether a reasonable person in the educational community or a requestor who does not have specific knowledge about the student would be able to identify the student to whom the records relate without substantial, additional effort.
Based on the Michigan law Mr. Dinning cites, it appears that Michigan does not allow school boards to release minutes of disciplinary proceedings without personally identifying the student. As noted above, there are no exceptions to the prior consent rule in FERPA that permit local school boards to disclose the results of a disciplinary proceeding that identifies a student by name, student number, or by inclusion of other personally identifiable information about a student. As such, local Michigan school boards are in violation of FERPA to the extent that they have a policy or practice of releasing or otherwise making public minutes that contain the name of a student, a student's number, or other personally identifiable information about a student who is referenced in a disciplinary proceeding, without the written consent of the student's parent.
In general, an actual conflict of laws arises if it is impossible for a party to comply with both federal and state law, or when a state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of a federal law. Taubman Realty Group Ltd. Partnership v. Norman Mineta , 198 F.Supp 2d 744, 761 (E.D. Va. 2002), citing English v. General Electric , 496 U.S. 72 (1990). Based upon our review of Mr. Dinning's letter and applicable law, we have determined that the Michigan Open Meetings Act, as interpreted and applied to the release of the minutes of local school board proceedings, conflicts with FERPA in that it is impossible for a Michigan educational agency or institution to comply with both laws in situations involving student disciplinary proceedings.
As noted most recently in United States v. Miami University, Ohio State University, 294 F.3d 797 (6th Cir. 2002), Congress provided in FERPA that "no funds shall be made available under any applicable program to any educational agency or institution which has a policy or practice of releasing, or providing access to, any personally identifiable information in education records" except as provided in FERPA. The court explained that legislation, like FERPA, enacted pursuant to the Constitutional spending power (art. I, § 8, cl. 1) "is much in the nature of a contract: in return for federal funds, the States agree to comply with federally imposed conditions." 294 F.3d at 808, citing Pennhurst State School and Hospital, 451 U.S. 1, 17 (1981) (holding that Congress may fix the terms on which it disburses Federal money to the states, and likening the relationship to a contract where the receipt of Federal monies is conditioned upon a state's compliance with Federal laws). That is, "Spending clause legislation, when knowingly accepted by a fund recipient, imposes enforceable, affirmative obligations upon the states." 294 F.3d at 808, citing Wheeler v. Barrera, 417 U.S. 402, 427 (1974), modified on another ground, 422 U.S. 1004 (1975). "Once the conditions and the funds are accepted, the school is indeed prohibited from systematically releasing education records without consent." 294 F.3d at 809.
As discussed above, local Michigan school boards violate FERPA to the extent that they have a policy or practice of releasing or otherwise making public board meeting minutes of a disciplinary proceeding that contain the name of a student, a student number, or other personally identifiable information, without the prior written consent of the student's parent. Assuming for purposes of this determination that all local school boards follow the Michigan Attorney General's 1980 opinion in this matter, the resulting systemwide FERPA violation would also constitute a breach of the assurances in the consolidated application submitted by your agency to receive Federal funds. Accordingly, the State must ensure that all local school boards in Michigan comply with FERPA regarding the release of personally identifiable student information in board minutes so that the State may continue receiving Federal education funds.
In achieving compliance with FERPA, there are a number of enforcement options available to the Department, including withholding further payments, issuing a cease and desist order, and recovering funds. See enclosed copy of 34 CFR § 99.67 and 20 U.S.C. § 1234c. The court of appeals in Miami University, supra, also concluded that the United States has the inherent power to sue to enforce conditions imposed under FERPA on the recipients of Federal grants. Miami University, 294 F.3d at 808.
However, this Office is committed to working with your office and with local school boards to achieve voluntary compliance with FERPA. As part of that effort, please report to me within 30 days of the date of this letter on the steps your agency has taken, or will take, to ensure that local school boards in Michigan comply with FERPA requirements as described in this letter, or provide a statement explaining why you believe this action is unwarranted. The address of this Office is as follows:
Family Policy Compliance Office
Office of Innovation and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202-5901
We look forward to working with you to resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible. Should you have any questions about the assurance of compliance this Office is seeking, please do not hesitate to contact me directly, or Ellen Campbell of my staff, at the address noted above. Additionally, the telephone number of this Office is (202) 260-3887.
LeRoy S. Rooker
Family Policy Compliance Office
cc: Mr. Douglas L. Dinning, Esq. | <urn:uuid:0a7dc196-ff38-4d9a-a53e-3ae384516bde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/library/miopen.html?exp=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930329 | 2,162 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Oakland Mystical Nexus
The Oakland Mystical Nexus (locally known as "The Swirl" and "The OMN") is the name given to the fact that the City of Oakland, CA is the center of very powerful, somewhat chaotic, fast-moving currents of magic.
While the area encompassing the current city of Oakland has always been a part of the greater Bay Area mystical environment, events in the early 20th Century led to a permanent perturbation of the magical currents, as well as an increase in the speed with which they flow.
Their chaotic and shifting nature has caused the magicians of the city to adopt as a general practice a "Don't Roll Your Own" policy within the city's borders. Because of fear that non-standard magical practices that go wrong within so powerful and suddenly shifting an environment could quickly lead to catastrophic results and massive collateral damage, any magical practices that rise above minor cantrips and charms/fetishes in power and focus must be well controlled and come from an established tradition, or they risk the attention of The Shield.
The two major events that shaped the OMN were the dispelling of the last of the Ghost Monkeys in late 1905, and the erection of the The Black Stones at the corner of Broadway and 14th in 1907. These two events are, together, considered to be the two "straws that broke the camel's back" and tipped the local manasphere into instability.
Dispelling of the Ghost Monkeys
- Main article: Ghost Monkeys of Oakland
For the last two centuries, the ghosts of primates from all over the world, both captive and wild, were drawn to the City of Oakland, CA because of the presence of so many graftopi. It was the Ghost Monkeys that kept the graftopi from getting out of control by keeping their forays out of the local waterways and streams to a short duration, before being scared back to the water by the ghostly monkey howls.
Due to the spread of ghost knives among the general population out from their beginnings in Chinatown, ghostly dispellings became more and more indiscriminate, with what many considered to be an appalling rate of lemuricide. By the mid 1950s, the last of the Ghost Monkeys had been dispelled and no more came to replace them. This led not only to a massive increase in graftopus incursions, but also to the unofficial laws governing the length of ghost knives within the city limits.
The Black Stones
- Main article: The Black Stones (Oakland)
The Black Stones are a pair of abstract sculptures made of roughly rectangular grey-black pillars set at angles to each other. Erected in 1907, they are a major factor in the perturbation of the local manasphere. They are believed by many to house the spirits of incredibly powerful, ancient beings of a distinctly alien nature. Whether they are purposefully causing the disturbances or not is unknown. Whether or not they are even sentient is a subject of heated debate.
The OMN is roughly centered in the downtown Oakland area. However, due to the unpredictable nature of the energies involved, the exact boundaries ebb and flow, and pockets of varying levels of stability or instability may occur throughout the area. The hills seem to provide a natural barrier to the east, and the bay does the same to the west. The effect gradually diminishes to the south, frequently washing past the Coliseum but rarely much farther. To the north, the Wall of Eville, constructed in the mid-90s, effectively separates the OMN from the more stable natural energies to the north.
The Shield is an impartial entity whose job it is to protect the city from magical energies gotten out of control. It is centered on the large shield emblem above the main entrance to the Oakland Police Department's downtown precinct.
Its job is not to enforce good or evil, but to make sure that those doing magic of any sort within the city do it carefully and in a controlled manner. This has led to some criticism of The Shield in that demonologists and other black magic practitioners have the same access to the OMN's extreme mana currents so long as they keep it controlled with well established rituals.
Magicians who engage in uncontrolled, on-the-fly magic will bring themselves to the attention of The Shield, which will then use its authority and power to nudge the magician out of their equilibrium and bring their magic to a screeching halt. While this practice has kept the city safe, it has also led to the deaths of more than a few magicians deemed by The Shield to be a threat to the city's magical stability.
Chabot Hawking Cannon Controversy
There are rumors that part of the equipment at the Chabot Observatory in the hills above Oakland are home to a secret Hawking Cannon disguised as a telescope. It is believed to be comparatively small and based on an early, prototype design. Critics assert that the design is faulty, significantly less refined than the Canadian version, and its being fired in 1989 was the cause of the Loma Prieta earthquake that shook the Bay Area that year.
Supporters of the cannon counter that while the Canadians did eventually refine the design, that it is a necessary evil due to the threat of strange alien beings from the depths of space attracted to the unusual mystical energy patterns of the OMN. Some believe that the 1989 firing of the Cannon was to repel one such entity. They assert that it would be too costly and time consuming to replace or upgrade the cannon at this time, and would leave the City too undefended against extra-terrestrial mystical incursion.
Supporters of the cannon are often accused of being werenadians due to the national origins of the Hawking Cannon design.
Officials at the observatory deny that there is a Hawking Cannon on the premises at all, much less one disguised as a telescope.
The Airport Fog
- Main Entry: Bavarian Carnivorous Fog
Oakland International Airport and it's immediate vicinity has seen activity that some have interpreted as Bavarian Carnivorous Fog. Small animal skeletons, including slash-ferals, razorgeese, and various normal birds and rodents have convinced many that it is an authentic "German Fog". It should be noted that in Germany, bavarian carnivorous fog rarely affects animals that large. This may be an effect of the OMN.
It is speculated that the was somehow brought to the area to combat the local graftopus problem. But as graftopi have no skeletons, there is little evidence to saw one way or another. While Graftopus beaks would presumably be left behind after a fog incident, their value as collectors items and for use in various folk remedies could imply that locals are scouring the area picking them.
Alternately, it is argued the graftopi don't like the sound of the jets and so aren't going by the airport in the first place, as close to the water as it is. If this is the case, then the Airport Fog is not a response to the graftopi, but a manifestation of The Weirdness in and of itself.
Dueling in Oakland
- Main Article: Oakland Dueling Laws
Due to a quirk in the California State Constitution and serious political graft in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specific types of dueling in order to settle points of honor remains legal within the city limits of Oakland, CA. The types of dueling allowed are:
- Claymores (Two-handed, basket-hilt, and ladies)
- "Squid Guns" (sawn-off double-barreled shotguns firing shells filled with salt)
- Riding Crops (Ladies only)
In an effort to contain and channel the public's appetite for engaging in and watching duels, the City Council established the City Dueling Commission in 1962, which immediately ruled that all public duels must be settled every July at the annual Oakland Scottish Highland Games and Dueling Festival.
The fact that neither the City nor the State have been able to repeal these archaic laws is considered to be a manifestation of The Weirdness.
Oaklanders of Note
- Arthur Hicks, current Oakland Municipal Champion
- Avram Hornbeam
- The Elevated Knights of the Order of St. Orlas
- Helena Tetropolis
- Nathanial Wilberforce Sherman
- The Lady and The Monkey
- Paul 'Gladiator' Thorpe
- Pontius Tacklethorpe
- The United Norswedish All-Thingy of Oakland, CA
Oakland Places of Note
- Chabot Observatory Trans-Dimensional Alien Threat Management Center
- Gorm the Old and Sleepy Memorial Norswedish Community Center of Oakland, CA
- Greater Oakland Museum of Technology and Mysticality, final resting place of Benjamin Dover, inventor of the Freezerwave.
- Jack London Square
- Sherman Ranch Park
- St. Orlas Hall | <urn:uuid:b4db3c3a-9fbb-4534-a745-a274fec58e0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fictopedia.net/Oakland_Mystical_Nexus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953228 | 1,837 | 1.757813 | 2 |
on Nantucket, which began life as a lodging house in 1833 and is reportedly the oldest continually operating in on the island, won a 2012 Editors' Choice Award in Yankee Magazine's Travel Guide to New England. The inn, a short walk from downtown, is a veritable showcase for plein-air artists, who regularly stay at the inn, trading lodging for their art work. Hundreds of painting adorn the Century House walls, each with a story that innkeepers Gerry Connick and Jean Ellen Heron will gladly tell you about.
Rates at the inn start at $175 per night depending on the date, and they include a breakfast Connick creates daily, heavy on healthy fruits, that is dubbed "Gerry's Berry Buffet Breakfast." For information on the inn, visit www.centuryhouse.com, or call 508-228-0530. | <urn:uuid:ce659925-44eb-477b-86f2-5fb5e8e2847b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2012/07/nantucket_bb_wi.html | 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 | 0.940417 | 178 | 1.585938 | 2 |
GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.S. investigator of alleged Israeli human rights violations in the Palestinian territories criticized Washington Wednesday for vetoing a plan to send unarmed U.N. observers to protect Palestinians.
Richard Falk, a member of a three-man U.N. team sent to look into the charges against Israel, said he and his colleagues were disappointed by the veto and said Washington had failed in its legal and moral duty.
``One needs an international monitoring presence and there is a moral and legal responsibility on the part of the United Nations to establish such a presence,'' Falk said. ``So it is with considerable disappointment that we view this veto and hope that the United States government will reconsider in the light of the realities of the situation.''
Falk, professor of International Relations at Princeton University, was speaking at a news conference by the three members of the U.N. investigating team.
In a report issued last week for the U.N. Human Rights Commission the team said Israel was guilty of widespread rights violations in the current conflict.
Their report called for the establishment of an international presence to protect Palestinian civilians against Israeli security forces and settlers, a proposal also backed by U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson.
Eu Envoys Favor Observers
The United States cast its veto in the Security Council in New York Tuesday against a resolution to send unarmed observers. Nine countries including Russia and China backed the resolution but four West European countries abstained.
Falk and his colleagues -- South African professor John Dugard and former Bangladesh prime minister Kamal Hossain -- said consultations with EU envoys in the Middle East had shown that Brussels' perception of the situation was similar to their own.
But the Security Council abstention by EU members Britain, France and Ireland as well as Norway represented ``an unfortunate failure of the European states to show their independence from the United States,'' Falk said.
Dugard told the news conference that during their visit last month the team found ``clear evidence of human rights violations by the Israeli defense forces carried out in an open and obvious manner.''
Participation by youths and even children in confrontations with Israeli soldiers, he said, was ``largely spontaneous... reflecting frustration, opposition to oppression, and a sense of humiliation after years of occupation.''
Falk said the position of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak in support of assassinations of Palestinian activists meant they bore ''criminal responsibility'' for the killings. | <urn:uuid:7acfeea3-3bbb-4004-bc9c-4228c3c9cfb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themodernreligion.com/jihad/veto.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967999 | 503 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Icelanders donate sweaters to chilly Brits
A container of Icelandic sweaters arrived in England this week, donated by radio listeners moved by a story about the elderly dying from the cold.
Heimir Karlsson, a radio presenter who helped organize the collection, said that Bylgjan, the radio station, challenged listeners to fill the container in four days, the BBC reported.
Families, some from far away, came one after another with garments to fill the container, he said.
The container was sent to the port of Hull on England’s east coast, which has a sister city relationship with Reykjavik.
Karlsson said his listeners were shocked to learn that
thousands of elderly die in Britain every winter. One of Iceland’s advantages is cheap thermal energy with most homes getting heat and hot water from the many hot springs.
The gesture could be good public relations. Iceland’s banking system, which collapsed in October, held millions of dollars in British deposits.
Karlsson said he was surprised by the attention given the sweater drive.
People are saying that this is the best thing that has happened to us since the collapse of the banking system, Karlsson told the Reykjavik newspaper Morgunbladid. | <urn:uuid:21f68e5c-4e9f-4a31-947b-293c0c9185df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1631683/icelanders_donate_sweaters_to_chilly_brits/ | 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 | 0.955524 | 261 | 1.710938 | 2 |
"You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34
We all remember the neighborhood tattletale—not the most popular kid on the block! He or she took great delight in exposing deeds we were trying to hide.
Unfortunately, our tongues play that much-despised role in our own lives. Jesus said that we speak “out of the overflow of the heart” (Matthew 12:34). In other words, our speech often tells on us, revealing the attitudes we would rather not have others know about.
My friends who practice medicine tell me that certain sicknesses produce terrible breath; and so it is with sinful hearts. Paul vividly describes sinners in Romans 3:13: “Their throats are open graves,” venting the smell of death.
I recall the day when I spouted off to my kindergarten teacher. I can’t remember what created the crisis, but I do remember telling my teacher to “shut up.” I then promptly left the room and headed home. As I walked down the block, I noticed that my mother was working in the backyard. I stopped dead in my tracks. What would I tell her? My options were before me. I could face my mother; face the teacher; or walk alone into the big, cruel world.
I chose the least of the three evils and went back to school. My teacher met me at the door, took me by the arm, and marched me to the restroom, where she washed out my mouth with soap!
It was a never-to-be-forgotten lesson. But to be honest, I needed more than a mouth washing. I needed a heart-wash. My little 5-year-old rebellious spirit had shown up in my mouth. And if we aren’t careful, the attitudes we have as adults will show up there as well. Anger, pride, fear, sensuality, and a host of other sins we harbor in our hearts will eventually show up in the words we say.
In essence, all talk is heart-talk. Groom your heart to grow in Jesus, and your words will show it. Neglect your heart, and your very own tongue will tattle on you every time.
• What kinds of things do you like to talk about?
• Do these things reveal a problem area in your heart?
• Do they bring glory to Jesus and reflect His character?
• How have you been challenged about the words you use? What does your speech say about your relationship with God? | <urn:uuid:33863b24-2ec4-43dd-b7be-2eadc1000262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://getmorestrength.org/daily/tattletale/ | 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 | 0.968126 | 544 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Saint Louis Art Museum has the largest collection of artwork on display in the city, with three floors featuring a ... More
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Saint Louis Art Museum has the largest collection of artwork on display in the city, with three floors featuring a variety of styles of artwork from all over the world. The first floor has artwork from all of the continents. The second has more traditional artwork such as paintings, Christian art, sculptures and special exhibits. The third floor has abstract and contemporary art. There are only a few works by the more famous artists, but the collection is so vast that art lovers are bound to see something they will like. Visit the website for more details.
We went to DC a couple of years ago and went to most of the Smithsonian properties and the Gallery of Art there. Though the collection in St. Louis is not as comprehensive as the art museums in DC, there are some very significant pieces, including a few by Van Gogh. The physical setting of the museum is fantastic, part of St. Louis' Forest Park complex. A great way to spend an afternoon.
Built as part of the 1904 World's Fair, the St. Louis Art Museum is as amazing today as it must have been then. Constantly changing exhibits, something for everyone, an incredible gift shop, great restaurants, fabulous special events. And, for the most part, it's free or cheap! I've been all over the country in every art museum I can get to, and this one tops my list for value and for aesthetic treats. Thank you, St. Louis for treasuring your treasure.
It's free. That's among the best part. In the middle of Forest Park, and right out the front is the hill overlooking the Basin. Plenty to see in the museum, too. From Egyptian to Medieval to chairs. Definatly worth a stop. No doubt.
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*Terms & Conditions: Savings calculation is based on Flight + Hotel vacation package bookings for a 3 month period for 2 adults with a 2+ night length of stay compared to price of the same components if booked separately during same period. Savings will vary based on origin/destination, length of trip, travel dates and selected travel supplier(s). Savings not available on all packages. | <urn:uuid:7d7d8448-44df-4358-8d38-18627bc9d7ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2829414-st_louis_art_museum_st_louis-i | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949897 | 613 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Shafilea Ahmed's poems reveal secret torment
Shafilea Ahmed appeared to many to be a happy, smiling teenage girl who had a good relationship with her parents.
A friend described her "happy personality" and "giggles" and said she did not seem to have any problems.
But letters and poems found after her disappearance paint a darker picture - one of a girl struggling with the differing cultures of her Pakistani heritage and her upbringing in the UK.
Rows over Shafilea's westernised ways came to a tragic end in 2003 when she was murdered by the people who were supposed to love her the most - her parents Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed.
Both were found guilty of her murder after a trial at Chester Crown Court.
The court heard that she had felt under pressure to move to Pakistan to be married, as her parents disapproved of her boyfriends and western clothing.
It was on a trip to Pakistan for a family wedding in 2003 that she drank bleach - an incident that she possibly wrote about in secret in her bedroom at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire.
During the trip she had received marriage proposals and was told by her mother she would never return to the UK.
In one poem, called "Happy Families" (sic), she wrote:
"All they think about is honour
I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more
Desire to live is burning
My stomach is burning
But all they think about is honour
I was like a normal teenage kid
Didn't ask 2 much
I jus wanted to fit in
But my culture was different
But my family ignored
"I was like a normal teenage kid
"Didn't ask 2 much
"I jus wanted to fit in
"But my culture was different
"But my family ignored"
She went on to write:
"I wish my parents would be proud of wot I've done. Instead it's you've have brought shame".
In another poem, called "I Feel Trapped", Shafilea appeared to reveal suicidal thoughts when she wrote:
"I wish I coulda changed the event
"I shoulda killed myself instead
"I'd rather have been dead
"Coz now I have a burden on my chest
"And now it won't go away - the guilt, the pain."
Despite her inner torment, Shafilea appeared to many as a normal teenage girl.
A friend, who asked not to be named, remembered the last time she saw her at a friend's 21st birthday party.
She said: "That beautiful face, that gorgeous smile, those giggles... it's hard to believe she is dead. It's such a loss."
She added: "Everyone has stood by the Ahmeds because they're such a nice family.
"I wouldn't have thought anything like that could have happened at all."
Both Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed had denied having any part in Shafilea's disappearance, until Farzana changed her account at the trial, claiming she saw her husband beat Shafilea on the night of the murder.
'I Feel Trapped'
It was my last year in school, so happy with my friends I got lots to do
But came this day when everything changed
I came home it seemed like a normal day
But sumthing wasn't right
I wish I coulda changed the event
I shoulda killed myself instead
I'd rather have been dead
Coz now I have a burden on my chest
And now it won't go away - the guilt, the pain
Shafilea's friend added: "I had no inkling whatsoever she had problems with her parents.
"I was really shocked when Mrs Ahmed said her husband had attacked Shafilea."
The friend talked of her "happy personality" and how she just "got on with things".
However, early signs of a troubled relationship between Shafilea and her parents had surfaced when she ran away from home aged 11, police said.
By the time she was 17 she had run away twice - the second time for a week when she stayed with friends before being placed in accommodation by social services.
In an emergency accommodation request made to social services, she said she had suffered from regular domestic violence from the age of 15.
She added: "But my main reason (for wanting to find somewhere else to live) is because my parents were going to send me to Pakistan and get me married to someone and left there."
During the trial, her teacher at Great Sankey High School, Joanne Code, told the court how Shafilea said she was worried about her welfare and feared her parents would "marry her off" in Pakistan.
She said she had seen injuries on Shafilea which she claimed were caused by a "beating" from her parents.
Mrs Code also told the jury she was a "very, very good student" who was "very, very clear she wanted to be a barrister" and was "exceptionally keen to go to university".
It was one of Shafilea's teachers who reported Shafilea missing - and not her parents - when she disappeared for the final time in September 2003.
A month later, a missing person's investigation was launched by police and her parents appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
The teenager's remains were found on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004. | <urn:uuid:880c482f-7467-4d5c-8340-38330186a7b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-18924284 | 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 | 0.991057 | 1,155 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|Issue 12.12 - December 2004
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The Drive to Discover
Rants + raves
- More »
I was hooked, infected by the deep-sea-exploration virus. After the success of the movie, I found myself less interested in Hollywood filmmaking and more interested in the challenges of deep-ocean photography and exploration. We returned to the Titanic site in 2001 with our digital 3-D camera system to capture stereo images of the wreck. We also used fiberoptic-spooling bots to survey the ship, giving marine archaeologists their first view ever inside. (No one had bothered to photograph the ship in 1912 because they didn't expect it to sink on its maiden voyage; all those pictures you've seen are actually of the sister ship, the Olympic.) The resulting film, Ghosts of the Abyss, was the first Imax 3-D film to be shot digitally.
Since then we have made four more deep-ocean expeditions, including a trip to explore the wreck of the German battleship Bismarck, 16,000 feet down in the North Atlantic, as well as numerous dives at hydrothermal vent sites along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise. In the last three years, I've spent seven months at sea and gone on 41 deep-submersible dives. I have a wife and four children. Some might question the risks, but I've made my peace with it.
Whenever explorers go into hostile realms, whether in space or in the sea, we live or die by our machines. A big part of the appeal is the engineering challenge - pitting the intelligence and creativity of the team against the implacable elements. There is no more quintessentially human act than to use our consciousness to adapt ourselves to environments in which we could not otherwise survive. It's what we do better than any other species on Earth. Still, there is always that moment when the hatch is closing and a microsecond's thought says, "Maybe this is the last time I'll see daylight." I always say the same thing to those gathered outside as I enter the sub: "See you in the sunshine." It has become a lucky touchstone, a little prayer that we will return safely from the eternal darkness. It's important to acknowledge that the ocean is capricious, that it can give the most remarkable gifts, but it can also take away without warning.
These dives have taught me one overwhelming truth: There is so much we don't know. On every dive I see something I never could have imagined. A diaphanous jellyfish 7 feet across. A pink octopus with wings on its head. Blind shrimp swarming inches from water hot enough to melt lead. Once in a while I see and film something no one else has ever seen, and those are moments of profound satisfaction. Nothing the artifice of Hollywood has to offer can compete with the thrill of something this exciting and 100 percent real.
There are still untold mysteries down there in the dark, enough to fill a hundred years of exploration. Certainly enough to intrigue and compel me for the rest of my life. But of course the truly infinite frontier is in the other direction.
Space is a vacuum. There is, by definition, nothing there. When we talk about exploring space, we really mean exploring the objects careening around in space - planets, moons, the occasional comet. So space is a hurdle, an ocean that must be crossed to reach a destination. Unfortunately, for three-quarters of the space age it has been treated as a destination in and of itself.
The last time humans crossed space to a destination was the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. In the 32 years since, no man has seen, with his own eyes, Earth as that beautiful, solitary blue sphere, and - reality check - no woman has ever seen it at all. We've been only to low Earth orbit since 1972, and from that altitude of 220 miles, looking at the 7,900-mile-diameter Earth is like peering at a basketball with your cheek pressed against it. Yes, you'll see curvature, but you're not seeing the whole thing. We've spent 32 years "exploring space" in low Earth orbit. Exploring nothing. To stay in orbit you have to go 17,000 mph, or Mach 25. So we've spent three decades going nowhere fast.
It's taken people a long time to wake up to this fact, but we finally have. Now Exploration with a capital E is in the air again, in what will hopefully become some kind of renaissance. Eleven billion hits to NASA's Web site during the Spirit and Opportunity rovers' exploration of Mars is an astounding groundswell of support. NASA is still blinking in surprise, trying to figure out why people love the rovers yet care less about the construction of the International Space Station than a new interchange outside Cleveland. It is only now sinking in that one is exploration and the other is, well construction. | <urn:uuid:a52ecdcf-e34c-45aa-b261-f6201074548e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/cameron.html | 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 | 0.959011 | 1,032 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Road House (1948 film)
For the 1989 film, see Road House (1989 film).
Theatrical release poster
|Directed by||Jean Negulesco|
|Produced by||Edward Chodorov|
|Music by||Cyril J. Mockridge|
|Editing by||James B. Clark|
|Distributed by||Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation|
|Release date(s)||September 22, 1948
|Running time||95 minutes|
Road House (1948) is a film noir drama directed by Jean Negulesco, with cinematography by Joseph LaShelle. The picture features Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm, Richard Widmark, among others.
The drama tells the story of Lily Stevens (Lupino) who takes a job as a singer at a roadhouse—complete with bowling alley. When Lily dumps the owner Jefty (Widmark) for his boyhood friend Pete Morgan (Wilde), problems begin. They only get worse when Jefty is rejected after proposing to Lily, causing Jefty to go on a murderous rage.
Lupino sings the classic Johnny Mercer song "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" in the film. The song "Again", written by Dorcas Cochran (words) and Lionel Newman (music), debuted in this film, and was also sung by her.
Pete Morgan manages Jefty's Road House for his longtime friend, Jefty Robbins, who inherited the place from his father. Jefty is attracted to Lily Stevens, his new singer, but Pete thinks she is just another in a long string of girls he will eventually have to send on her way. Jefty, however, is convinced that Lily is different, even though she is playing hard-to-get.
Although Pete tries to pay Lily off and put her on a train, she is not about to leave and makes a successful debut at the club, accompanying herself on piano. Jefty asks Pete to teach Lily how to bowl in the roadhouse's alley but she shows little interest in the sport and quite a bit more in Pete.
Susie Smith, the club's cashier who is fond of Pete, becomes jealous of Lily. Before Jefty leaves on a hunting trip, he tells Lily that she is not like any other girl he has ever met. Lily tries to join Pete for a boat ride on a lake, but he refuses as she is Jefty's girl. Lily contradicts that notion, so Pete arranges to pick her up later. Susie also goes along, although the women's friendship is decidedly frosty. Later, Pete comes to Lily's rescue when a drunk causes a scene at the club.
Lily tells Pete share a passionate kiss. Pete loves her, and it is obvious she feels the same way. Their idyll is interrupted when Jefty returns and shows Pete a marriage licence he has obtained in his and Lily's names. When Jefty is told Pete and Lily are planning to be married, Jefty throws him out. Pete leaves a note stating that he and Lily are leaving and that he has taken $600 owed to him.
At the railroad station, two policemen are waiting. Jefty claims that the entire week's receipts have been taken from the roadhouse's safe, but Pete insists he took only $600. After Susie states that the receipts totaled $2,600, Pete is held for trial and Lily accuses Jefty of framing him.
Pete is tried and found guilty of grand larceny. Before sentencing, Jefty talks to the judge in private and persuades him to parole Pete into his custody. The judge announces that Pete will be on probation for two years, but will have his job back and will be obligated to repay Jefty from his paycheck. Pete and Lily realize that Jefty has them trapped.
Jefty plans a trip to his hunting cabin. Pete wants to cross the Canadian border, which is only fifteen miles from the cabin, but Lily refuses to go along. At his cabin, Jefty taunts Pete and Lily while fooling around with a rifle. Lily accuses Jefty of taking the missing money, so Jefty hits her. Pete retaliates by knocking him out. Lily decides that she will go with Pete to Canada, and they set off on foot through the woods. Susie, meanwhile, discovers a deposit envelope for the receipts in Jefty's coat pocket. She gives the envelope to Pete, but is shot in the arm by a pursuing Jefty.
In the fog-enshrouded lakeside, Pete cranks up the motor on a boat and sends it off empty. After Jefty wastes bullets shooting at the boat, Pete tries to grab his gun. Lily gets possession of it and shoots Jefty when he threatens to hit her with a rock. As Jefty dies, he reminds Pete that he once told him that Lily was different. Dawn breaks as Pete, Lily and Susie head out of the woods and back to civilization.
- Ida Lupino as Lily Stevens
- Cornel Wilde as Pete Morgan
- Celeste Holm as Susie Smith
- Richard Widmark as Jefty Robbins
- O.Z. Whitehead as Arthur
- Robert Karnes as Mike
- George Beranger as Lefty
- Ian MacDonald as Police captain
- Grandon Rhodes as Judge
In September 1947, the studio purchased the rights to an original story and screenplay entitled Dark Love from Lupino, who had commissioned them from writers Margaret Gruen and Oscar Saul. Included in the $130,000 purchase price were the acting services of Lupino. In an early draft of the script "Jefty" was depicted as an older man. Studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck proposed Charles Bickford for the role and Widmark for "Pete". Victor Mature and Lee J. Cobb were also considered for the roles of Pete and Jefty, respectively.
Critical reception
Writer Spencer Selby calls the film an "interesting melodrama that has a crisp forties look and slowly builds to a noirish climax."
Film critic Blake Lucas says the film "impresses first of all with its sharp dialogue exchanges between the characters and the bizarre look of the interiors" referring to the at once modern and rustic road house.
See also
- Road House at the Internet Movie Database.
- Selby, Spencer (1984). Dark City: The Film Noir. McFarland Classic. ISBN 0-7864-0478-7.
- Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward, eds. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, film noir analysis by Blake Lucas, page 244, 3rd edition, 1992. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-479-5.
- Road House at the Internet Movie Database
- Road House at the TCM Movie Database
- Road House at Film Noir Alley
- Road House film clip at TMC Media Room (Ida Lupino sings) | <urn:uuid:fbf7a3d7-eff0-4450-8a7a-25fd5ae65a35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_House_(1948_film) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952059 | 1,470 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Lest Ye Be Judged
Does America need protection from its out-of-control judges?
February is shaping up to be a spectacularly bad month for the judging business. Last week saw Samuel Kent, a federal district judge in Texas, plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges in exchange for the state dropping numerous sex crime charges against him. Kent may go to prison for three years for groping his female subordinates, and there is talk in the Senate of his impeachment.
Then there's Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, just charged by her state's Commission on Judicial Conduct with five counts of violating her duty and discrediting the court. Keller made national headlines two years back for ordering the courthouse closed as lawyers for a death-row inmate scrambled to file a last-minute appeal, based on developments that day at the U.S. Supreme Court. Their client, Michael Richard, was executed, despite the fact that the Supreme Court granted another prisoner a stay on the same grounds sought by Richard. Keller may face impeachment as well.
Or the New York family court judge, Dandrea Ruhlmann, who was publicly censured last week by the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct for making her secretary baby-sit her children and type up her husband's résumé. The judge says it was all just a big misunderstanding.
Who is watching over the judiciary? Why do we give our judges such extraordinary power over our lives and then leave them to police themselves, until and unless they break the law in hideous ways? This week the Supreme Court hears an important case about judging the judges. That they have to hear it in the first place is extraordinary: Brent Benjamin, chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court, refused to remove himself from a case despite the fact that one of the parties—the CEO of a coal mining company—had contributed $3 million of his own money to Benjamin's judicial election campaign. (Benjamin later cast the deciding vote in a 3-2 decision in favor of the coal company.) The high court must now address itself to questions of whether and when the out-of-control campaign spending by parties or lawyers in states that elect judges creates an "appearance of bias" on the bench. The rules about when judges are biased (or merely "appear" biased) are in dire need of clarification. The decision to recuse in this case was left to Judge Benjamin alone.
But—like a stack of those Russian nesting dolls—most of the same justices deciding the West Virginia case have themselves faced questions at some point of self-interest, bias, or the appearance of improper influence. Just last week, the Washington Post's editorial board groused about Chief Justice John Roberts' role in a case now pending at the high court, to which the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth is a party. Wyeth and Pfizer plan to merge, and it seems Roberts holds Pfizer stock. Will that affect his judgment in the case? Who can know? Each justice decides such recusal questions for himself without ever publicly announcing the rationale.
Except for Justice Antonin Scalia, who in 2004 penned a 21-page Dear John letter to the American people, explaining why he refused to remove himself from hearing a case in which Vice President Dick Cheney was a party, despite the fact that the two had just shared a most manly duck-hunting adventure. Enraged that he was being called out to publicly account for his decision to hunt waterfowl with a party to an appeal, Scalia shared numerous examples of great justices who palled around with great presidents and then concluded, "While the political branches can perhaps survive the constant baseless allegations of impropriety, this Court cannot. The people must have confidence in the integrity of the Justices, and that cannot exist in a system that assumes them to be corruptible by the slightest friendship or favor."
If justices ever answered such questions, one might well ask Scalia the follow-up: How can the people have confidence in the integrity of justices who answer to nobody?
But efforts to control the judiciary often run afoul of the ideal of judicial independence. Whenever the public attempts to tell judges or justices how to behave themselves, they run headlong into the argument that judges warrant special deference because what they do transcends politics and public opinion. Why should the justices care what we think of their stock portfolios? Isn't their job to be above caring what we think about anything?
That's why an attempt last week by a group of prominent academics and practitioners to manhandle the justices of the Supreme Court into line will likely prove futile. A group of 33 prominent legal thinkers sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and ranking members of the Senate judiciary committee, proposing Supreme Court reforms that would bar justices from making their own calls about their retirement. (They would be demoted to "senior status" after 18-year terms, and the chief justice would serve as chief for only seven years.) Justices would lose the power to decide for themselves if they are too sick or ill to serve, as well as the authority to decide which cases the court would hear each term. Since the Constitution provides that the justices shall hold office "during good behavior," these attempts to cut short judicial careers and pump up judicial caseloads will likely go ignored, although it speaks volumes that America's great legal minds think the justices are old, infirm, and underemployed.
So while Americans of every stripe worry and bicker and advocate for greater control over the judiciary, whether it's in the family courts, state Supreme Courts, or at the highest court in the land, what the judges hear for the most part is the sound of crickets chirping. And perhaps this is right and proper. In the truly appalling cases, like Kent's sexual harassment charges, judges should be disciplined. But the larger problem is that jumbled in with America's legitimate grievances about their judges, there are also many vague and subjective gripes from litigants who just didn't get what they wanted. No litigant ever walks away happy from his case. That alone doesn't mean every judge is biased, self-interested, or on the take.
Judges are not gods. But before we criticize too much, we must be honest enough to admit that what looks like bias and corruption to us might just be a fallible human being doing her job at one end and a fallible litigant feeling ripped off at the other. If we create too many systems for micromanaging the judiciary, we are really saying that we trust their judgment only when they agree with us. We need to separate the real problems of policing judicial misconduct from the generalized grousing that if judges don't agree with us on everything it must be because they are old, elitist, corrupt, or out-of-touch. And in the end, to paraphrase Scalia, we must either trust in our judges to judge, or do away with this institution altogether.
A version of this article appears in this week's issue of Newsweek.
Dahlia Lithwick writes about the courts and the law for Slate.
Photograph of a gavel by Photodisc/Getty Images. | <urn:uuid:d28013f8-47ce-4f2f-bbbc-cdf301ebd262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2009/02/lest_ye_be_judged.single.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970888 | 1,472 | 1.765625 | 2 |
posted 22 Jul 2008 in Volume 11 Issue 10
Thanking your persuasion
By Lynda Rathbone
As many times as I wish everyone were like me, I stop and remind myself if this were the case, it would be a very boring world.
Yes, I really dislike the person on the bus playing music on his mobile without headphones. No, I don’t want to take a minute to chat to the people with the clipboards on the street. I have to admit it really bugs me when I get offered about 20 free newspapers each day on my way to and from work. And how could anyone possibly like TV programmes about cars?
Variety is the spice of life but sometimes I just wish life would only use a few spices at a time!
But there is one thing I won’t budge on – a thing that I fear is becoming lost forever if we’re not careful – the simple act of saying thank you. Take shopping, for example. Whether it’s for groceries at my local shop or clothes on the high street, this common courtesy seems to be out of fashion. And it really doesn’t take much, does it?
In my local shop across the road, for example, they don’t even really speak English, yet alone talk to you or say thank you. They often chat to each other in another language while ringing up customers and don’t seem to care one bit that I’m there spending my hard-earned cash in their store.
Yes, I could go somewhere else, totally out of my way, but that’s not the point. The point is the thank you is not only expected, it’s the most important part of the transaction. It says they care (even if they don’t) that you have chosen to acquire their goods or services and without you, they wouldn’t exist. OK, maybe if they were the only shop in the world – but they aren’t.
It’s a competitive marketplace and people are tightening their purse-strings. When I can go elsewhere, I do, and avoid going across the road simply because they never acknowledge my business. And the thing that really gets me is, unconsciously, I often say thank you to them!
Now what does this real world annoyance have to do with the online world? Quite a bit, actually.
Think about all the transactions or downloads or e-mail sign-ups on a website that you’ve done recently. What were those experiences like? Did they take you on a frustrating journey through endless form fields until you finally reached the finish line, only to find a rather cold “thank you” page that gave you little confidence your transaction was actually finished?
Was the thank you page you reached chock full of large, flashing ads with a short one-liner? Or did they surprise you with a swift, efficient click-through, then shared in your satisfactory experience by thanking you with authority, giving you confirmation and telling you what will happen next – with links to manage your order/sign-up on the site? The reality is that it was probably a combination of those things.
But the point is the same – the thank you page is one of the most important, but forgotten, pages on your site.
I learned of something called persuasion windows a year or so ago (thanks, Richard!) and just had the opportunity to use them with a current client. If you haven’t heard of them, the basic idea is that you have ‘windows’ or opportunities when the user is most open to being persuaded into doing things. This can happen in the real world, like when you miss someone’s birthday. The moment you realise this, you are persuaded to do something really nice for them to make up for the oversight. The
When you are in a good mood;
When your world view no longer makes sense;
When you can take action immediately;
When you feel indebted because of a favour;
Immediately after you have made a mistake;
Immediately after you have denied a request.
Now translate this to your website. What do you define as “thank you pages” and are you effectively using them to your best advantage? In my opinion, thank you pages range from error pages (i.e., when you make a mistake or have been denied a request) to search engine results pages to an actual thank you after a successful transaction/download/sign-up, etc.
And what about the concept of thanking the users for simply choosing a certain option, then giving them related options to ensure they continue clicking? This is a good strategy for putting them in a good mood, increasing their dwell time on your site or page and encouraging continuing behaviour.
The site I’m working on at the moment is one selling a number of complicated products to users using filters and a configurator type device. Think the Dell site, where you can customise your computer, and add on peripherals or software once you’re done.
In order to make sure the users stay on track, the results page and the thank you page for these products will play a critical part in the user experience of the site to ensure users have related options to the final outcome, as well as an easy way to re-do the search if they aren’t satisfied with the current state of play.
The plan is both to get them to take action immediately, and to correct any mistakes without a lot of back-tracking. It also says volumes about your customer service and leaves them having a quality experience with you, hopefully guaranteeing a return visit and some free word-of-mouth marketing for you.
Applying this concept to the intranet side of things, thank you pages can be effective ways to get employees to update their personal information before, during or after completing an employee search or HR transaction. They can also be useful in search results on the site.
So many organisations I work with have trouble with consolidation of documents and knowledge on any internal repository. Users complain they get bad results from searching across multiple sources and don’t trust the results they do get due to out-of-date information, or poor metadata used to tag the documents that do come up.
Google does this now with the “Did you mean…” links, but applying this to a results page on an intranet can ask the user: “Didn’t find what you were looking for?”, with a link to related categories on the intranet, or other resources to search that are linked to those keywords, or even an e-mail at least to alert the intranet manager queries are being made so corrections can be made.
Many sites also use the ‘best bets’ approach, where they frequently monitor queried keywords and phrases; then direct users to links on the results page first, before the free text results showing them the hierarchy in which they could navigate to that content or related content on the site. Not only is this helpful; users will start thanking you for giving them good results and several options if they can’t find what they want instead of a dead end.
Now I know the more technical folks reading this article will be thinking these error, or results, or thank you pages, are often tricky to manipulate. OK. Yes, this can be the case. They are usually the result of programming in the software managing the transaction and – not content pages you control via your content management system. And yes, you may have to talk to the IT staff and go through some kind of help desk – but isn’t it worth it? You have a captive user who has just successfully (or unsuccessfully) completed a journey, and you don’t want to leave them with a dead end.
In our world of portlets and objects and widgets, there are ways around this now and a lot of applications (and even IT folk!) are starting to realise this thank you page real estate is pretty valuable.
So while I will probably remain frustrated by my local shop, I will refuse to believe the simple act of saying thank you is dead. After all, it just may be one of the most strategic things you can do these days.
As always, I’d love to hear from you on this or any other topic. I’m on Lynda@foursquaremedia.net. Thank you! | <urn:uuid:f0e771c1-83f3-45f9-894d-145a1f675fda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.FBC49822-9780-4937-BF25-8F601D1744DB/articleid.EBAE17F6-86D9-4550-8653-36EFE82C2FB5/eTitle.Opinion_Thanking_your_persuasion/qx/display.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95728 | 1,752 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Short summary: Some people in Austria want to declare a chimpanzee belonging to a bankrupt zoo a person so that they can get legal guardian rights for him.
They fell through with it in court, so now they're going to human rights court about it.
What are your thoughts on this? What would the legal implications be should this actually not get laughed out of court?
Practically, a chimp does not share human DNA and is not able to learn like a human.
But then developmentally "challenged" or infertile people might technically not be called persons either, the chimp's advocates claim. | <urn:uuid:c2872d90-39f4-498b-9d60-02decf0a4cd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?74425-Can-a-chimpanzee-be-a-person&p=1246769 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943074 | 127 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In Spanish | Here we go again: Congress and the White House simply can't get past their budget differences.
At this point, the nation is no longer facing a single trigger point that would unleash economic calamity. Instead, with no deal in sight, we face a series of them:
- March 1 — The "sequester" — a very large remnant of the deal that averted the "fiscal cliff" at the beginning of the year — kicked in and could cut a whopping $85 billion from military and domestic programs this year.
- March 27 — Funding to continue running the country expires, meaning the government shuts down.
- May 18 — Uncle Sam again hits the debt ceiling, meaning we can't borrow more money. Come July or August, we'll be facing default.
The most pressing question right now: What impact will the sequester have? No one really wants these cuts, but neither has anybody come up with the silver bullet to stop them.
So here's what you should know:
I'm on Medicare. What happens to my benefits?
Good news. No change in Medicare benefits, including Part D low-income premium and cost-sharing subsidies and catastrophic subsidy payments.
Will Medicare pay my doctor for my visit?
Yes, your doctor will still be paid, but not quite as much. Like all Medicare providers, doctors will take a 2 percent cut in payments. That won't please the docs, but let's hope it isn't enough to make yours — or any of them — drop Medicare patients.
Will anything happen to my Social Security payments?
No worries here either. Social Security and disability payments were exempt from the budget cuts. On the other hand, the Social Security Administration might reduce services to the public, close some offices and watch its already epic backlog of disability claims grow even bigger.
What about Medicaid and Veterans Affairs compensation payments?
The same as for Social Security — no change in benefits. That's also true for SNAP (formerly the food stamps program) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
Will Meals on Wheels keep delivering to my home?
The program will take a hit, although the immediate effect is unclear. Long-term, it could mean 4 million fewer meals for older people, according to the White House budget office.
What will happen to the economy?
That's a tough one. Predictions aren't nearly as dire as they were for the fiscal cliff, but economic growth will likely slow and, by some estimates, up to 1 million jobs could be lost. A few economists even say we'll slip back into recession.
What could happen to my retirement investments?
That's anyone's guess. Many Wall Street analysts think the stock market will tumble as a result of the projected decline in gross domestic product — and the gridlocked situation in Washington. Others, though, think the markets will show little change — and even improve in the long run. So, depending on where your money is, this could have different effects on your portfolio. Still, all this is highly speculative at this point.
If you're relying on your investments right now for retirement income, your situation is just as unpredictable.
What if I have plans to visit a national park?
Definitely check ahead. A National Parks Service memo instructs staff to plan for sharp cuts in the ranks of park rangers and deep cuts in park hours and services.
- Protect Social Security and Medicare during budget debates
- Don’t be fooled: Social Security not to blame for budget woes
See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more | <urn:uuid:79dd43d9-32e9-4d44-b00d-5d6f06df6d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-02-2013/how-the-sequester-could-affect-social-security-and-medicare.html?intcmp=HPBB1E?intcmp=HP-spot1E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958449 | 739 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Rede von Staatssekretär Hans Winkler bei der 51. Generalkonferenz der IAEO (english only!)
STATEMENT MADE BY STATE SECRETARY HANS WINKLER
AT THE 51st IAEA GENERAL CONFERENCE
18 SEPTEMBER 2007
Yesterday evening we solemnly commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency at the Konzerthaus, the location of the first General Conference. For 50 years, the Agency has shouldered its responsibility to contribute to international stability and security in the most outstanding manner in offering a wide variety of high-value services to governments, consistently enhancing its impressive expertise in the whole scope of "Atoms for Peace". For five decades, the Agency has fulfilled its numerous tasks in a far-seeing and circumspect manner.
The current debate about the nuclear programmes of Iran and North-Korea shows how relevant the IAEA is today. In this regard I would like to refer to the statement delivered by Portugal on behalf of the European Union which succinctly reflects the EU position on these important issues. Let me point out some of the issues to which Austria attaches particular importance.
1. Nuclear Fuel Cycle
More than ever before the IAEA is at the centre of world attention in its efforts to enhance global security. People fear more and more the dangers of nuclear energy as well as the threats of illicit trade of nuclear technology, nuclear terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. We have reached a juncture in history where the pressing issue of nuclear proliferation dominates the political debate and represents a key challenge for the international community. The crucial question therefore is: "How shall we meet these concerns?"
At her welcoming address yesterday, Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik put a particu-lar emphasis on the revitalization of the vision of a nuclear fuel cycle under multilat-eral control as one possible way out. I would like to seize the opportunity to further elaborate on some of the thoughts that she has mentioned.
Austria is very grateful for the report of Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on "Possible New Framework for the Utilization of Nuclear Energy: Options for Assur-ance of Supply of Nuclear Fuel". In times of growing energy needs - particularly in developing countries - this paper comes at the right time and constitutes an excellent basis for an in-depth discussion on a multilateralisation of the nuclear fuel cycle. In fact, Austria continues to believe that multilateral approaches constitute an excellent contribution towards overcoming international tensions regarding the use or misuse of sensitive nuclear technology.
Austria thereby fully shares the assessment of the IAEA that the long-term goal must be a "new multilateral framework for nuclear energy that over time would include converting enrichment and reprocessing facilities from national to multilateral opera-tions, and limiting future such facilities to exclusively multilateral operations".
The dual track initiative proposed by Minister Plassnik at the last NPT PrepCom meeting in Vienna is a concrete approach to increase transparency beyond current IAEA-safeguards obligations and commence with the gradual multilateralisation of the nuclear fuel cycle under the auspices and control of the IAEA. This proposal has been included in the IAEA Report.
One key element of such a new regime would be a novel approach towards the peaceful use of nuclear energy: In our view there should not be a differentiation in "haves" and "have-nots", only in "wants" and want-nots". For those that have chosen nuclear energy, access to nuclear fuel should be a strictly regulated but impartial and fair exercise. The only alternative to an open proliferation of sensitive technology in the long run is a system in which all enrichment and reprocessing facilities are under multilateral control.
Austria believes that a system in which all States feel ownership of the sensitive technology will be the best to counter a climate of mistrust. The EU can point to the success of its own founding instruments which multilateralised potentially dangerous goods and technologies and thereby contributed to the close relations of mutual con-fidence EU members share today.
In view of implementing the goal of the multilateralisation of the fuel cycle, the IAEA-Report helpfully lists the existing proposals and makes its own contribution. I believe we will still have to examine this proposal in depth to ensure that multilateral control by the IAEA arises from the beginning to a sufficient degree. The proposed 3-level-model does not seem to sufficiently address the central demand of the many states - equality and fairness. We must ensure that there is no preferential treatment of sup-pliers which could - in the worst case - serve as an inducement for the proliferation of enrichment facilities.
Austria also believes that we must not neglect non-proliferation aspects which should be the central criteria for assessing the various proposals. We would all have bene-fited from the Agency’s assessment which factors determine the proliferation resis-tance of a proposal.
As Foreign Minister Plassnik stated on Monday, we look forward to a thorough de-bate on this issue.
Let me now turn to another central issue on the international disarmament radar screen: the current state of the multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation archi-tecture and in particular the Non-Proliferation Treaty. For Austria, the strength and foundation of the NPT is the carefully crafted balance of its 3 pillars: non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy. However, simultaneously some actors impede the Agency from fulfilling the duties assigned by the Treaty. It is regret-table that this way the whole legitimacy of this cornerstone agreement of the disar-mament and non-proliferation system is challenged.
Recent developments have - once again - contributed to its undermining. A strong commitment of the entire international community to enforce compliance with the Treaty’s non-proliferation obligations is urgently needed. If this so-called "basic bar-gain" of the NPT is tilted, non-compliance tolerated, or exceptions conceded, the sys-tem will be seriously undermined.
At the same time, I wish to stress the clear linkage between nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. The only sustainable long-term approach to address the dangers of nuclear proliferation is to reduce the reliance on nuclear weapons. Con-sequently, states possessing nuclear weapons must honour their commitments and take serious steps towards nuclear disarmament. This is increasingly becoming a matter of credibility.
It is high time to overcome the differences that have characterised the disarmament and non-proliferation debate in the past years. We need to try to find a new basic consensus as to how the international community should deal with the vital issues of nuclear proliferation and disarmament. We strongly welcome the encouraging state-ment made by the former British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett at the Carnegie Non-proliferation Conference last June. We need to establish the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and we need the Nuclear Weapon States to show leader-ship in this regard.
3. Nuclear Safety
I would now like to turn to the issue of nuclear safety. Austria sincerely thanks the Director-General for the Nuclear Safety Review for the Year 2006.
As regards Safety Culture in Member States, Austria welcomes the performance of the Agencies Safety Culture Assessment Review Team. While many good practices have been found by the team, recent events in Europe and worldwide indicate that Safety Culture deteriorates in both, the operating organizations and regulatory over-sight. This certainly is a cause of concern. We urge the Agency to increase its activi-ties in that respect.
Austria is looking forward to the implementation of measures within the Global Nu-clear Safety Regime to enhance the impact on improving safety by pursuing meas-ured change, as proposed by the International Nuclear Safety Group. We are con-cerned, however, that after 50 years IAEA Safety Standards are still not fully applied by the entire nuclear community. We thus support the Agency in its effort to ensure that all Safety Standards are applied in a harmonized manner and to the full extent.
Austria took also note of the Agencies information regarding "Considerations to Launch a Nuclear Power Programme", in particular the preconditions the Agency sets with regard to Nuclear Safety and Security, and with regard to relationships with neighbouring states, the international community respectively. Strong involvement from all stakeholders, especially citizens who are affected, is seen as an essential issue by the Agency. Austria shares that point of view while adding that this holds true also in a transboundary context.
The Agencies findings about inadequate funding for decommissioning activities are to be taken very seriously as the number of nuclear installations reaching the end of their lifetime is increasing.
As regards the Agency’s examination of innovative and proliferation resistant nuclear technologies Austria believes that any such activity should focus on challenges aris-ing from new technologies for governments and regulatory authorities of nuclear and non-nuclear countries alike. Therefore, Austria would have difficulties in accepting activities of the Agency in support of developing technologies for new and innovative nuclear reactors. This is clearly a matter of the nuclear industry. The Agency should rather be a driving force to enhance the safety of any such nuclear installation.
A renaissance of nuclear energy is imminent. A thorough scrutiny of all related as-pects as for example conducted by the Austrian Nuclear Advisory Board, however, shows that in spite of nominal safety improvements in nuclear power plants a long list of "near-misses" documents that severe accidents can never be excluded; nuclear installations can only marginally be protected against terrorist attacks; proliferation continues to be a serious problem and a sustainable solution of the radioactive waste problem is not in sight.
The fourth review meeting under the Convention on Nuclear safety is ahead, the or-ganizational meeting to the review meeting starting back to back of this General Con-ference. Austria has contributed and will contribute to all international activities which aim at improving safety levels worldwide. In this respect, Austria regards the Conven-tion on Nuclear Safety a very important tool in developing global nuclear safety. Its Review Meetings provide a highly welcome opportunity to review progress in the Member States of the Convention and to exchange views on how best to implement its provisions.
The IAEA safeguards system is an indispensable part of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Safeguards can provide assurance that states live up to their non-proliferation obligations and do not misuse their nuclear programmes for the development of nuclear weapons. The level of assurance we get depends on the le-gal authority we are prepared to assign to the Agency.
Repeated cases of clandestine nuclear programmes that could not be detected by traditional safeguards measures have demonstrated the need for a strengthened safeguards system. It is of utmost importance for the international community that the IAEA be able to draw safeguards conclusions regarding the peaceful use of all nu-clear material in states.
The Additional Protocol provides the Agency with a much more complete insight into States' nuclear programmes and thereby allows detection of clandestine activities. Austria therefore continues to strongly advocate adherence to the Additional Protocol. We call on all states to negotiate and conclude additional protocols to their safe-guards agreements without further delay. In this context, I wish to reiterate Austria’s view that the conclusion of an additional protocol is, for non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT, a legal obligation.
We are pleased to note that the number of additional protocols continues to increase steadily. The majority of NPT non-nuclear weapons states with comprehensive safe-guards agreements has now brought into force Additional Protocols. This provides the Agency with a sound basis for the implementation of Integrated Safeguards, and for further refining the system, which allows for optimum combination of all safe-guards measures available to achieve the greatest effectiveness and efficiency. Nev-ertheless, progress still remains too slow: a number of important goals of Additional Protocol implementation will only be realised when the system is universal. We reit-erate our appreciation for promotional efforts undertaken in this regard by the Agency and by a number of member states, in particular Japan.
We also regret that there are still a number of NPT-non-nuclear weapon states that have not yet concluded a comprehensive safeguards agreement.
Austria attaches great importance to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. The amended Convention will be an important contribution to both, the fight against nuclear terrorism and to nuclear non-proliferation. Unfortunately, progress in the ratification of the 2005 amendment is disappointingly slow. I would like to encourage all States Parties to the CPPNM to do their utmost to ensure the earliest possible entry into force of the amendment to the Convention.
Let me finally stress that nuclear co-operation and trade cannot take place without the proper nuclear security environment. States party to the NPT may supply nuclear items only if they can be confident that they are not misused for purposes of a nu-clear weapons programme or for acts of nuclear terrorism. Comprehensive safe-guards, including an Additional Protocol, must therefore be complemented by an ef-fective physical protection system, effective measures to combat illicit trafficking, and appropriate effective export controls.
The Agency has proven often enough its reliability and efficiency on the international scene. With its special focus on monitoring, verification and assistance, the IAEA de-cisively contributes to strengthening the Vienna centre of competence for intertwined issues of security and development.
The Austrian Government highly appreciates the dedicated work performed by the IAEA team in the past year. Let me thank you once again and assure you that Austria will, as in the past, lend its full support to the efforts of the Agency to contribute to a safer world.
Thank you for your attention! | <urn:uuid:2322a189-cc03-498f-80f4-f29b9756d86c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bmeia.gv.at/aussenministerium/pressenews/reden-und-interviews/2007/rede-von-staatssekretaer-hans-winkler-bei-der-51-generalkonferenz-der-iaeo-english-only.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931235 | 2,812 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Around the world there is a network of hackerspaces that explore, hack and create new ways of expressing themselves with technology. Hackerspaces that by some are seen as a threat to our digital society.
What is it that drives these people? What are their purpose and their reasons for what they do? How do they live their lives? These are some of the questions we will seek to answer with this movie as we meet hackers and visit their hackerspaces.
We need your help to realize the production of this full-featured documentary film about the hacker culture. When technology is taking over our lives the battle over free digital communication will be one of the defining struggles of our time. This film will explore this conflict by talking to the people that are in it.
If you want to help out, the creators are starting an indiegogo campaign to help pay for visits to hackerspaces on five continents. | <urn:uuid:64e72d01-7ea7-4290-ac01-49fa82a3c480> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/14/help-support-a-hacktivism-documentary/?like=1&_wpnonce=d19428bcb3 | 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 | 0.967535 | 183 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Here in the South, we love when turnips are in season, so that we can savor the subtle, smooth sweetness of their roots and spicy bitterness of their leaves. While some of us gave up on turnips as children after tasting too many bland ones, fresh turnips are actually a flavorful, nutrient-packed, easy-storing, and versatile vegetable.
Roots or Leaves? Both!
The roots are suitable to mash, slice paper-thin in salads just like a radish, or sauté with a little olive oil and light seasoning. You can throw leaves in braises, chili, stew, and lasagna—anywhere you want pungent accents of colorful greenery—or simply cook them in the oven or stovetop with a little soy sauce, honey, lemon, stock, or spices.
Time Travelin’ Turnips
Southerners have grown and prized turnips since the crop was introduced by early European settlers, but more recently turnips have made their way onto fine-dining menus nationwide with varieties like the small, sweet Hakurei of Japan. In French cuisine, turnips have a long history of distinction and are often prepared with generous amounts of butter, cream, and cheeses to bring out their earthy, smooth flavor.
How to Select
Turnips are most commonly round, sometimes pear or oblong, often with cream-colored smooth skin and crisp white flesh, though other colors are widely available. Like other fall harvest roots such as carrots, parsnips, and celeriac, they grow and store well in cold, dry climates. Some grocery stores will sell turnips with the greens removed for longer shelf life. Look for unblemished, firm roots with deep green leaves, if available. Store roots and leaves separately in plastic bags, removing excess air. Leaves last about 4 days, while roots will last up to 3 weeks.
How to Prepare
Wash your turnips thoroughly in a basin of cold water, or gently scrub them clean with a vegetable brush. You can peel your turnip roots as you would a carrot, if you prefer, but only peel the outermost layer. Separate the leaves from the root, and prepare according to your recipe. If you’re using the greens, remove the tougher stems from the leaves.
Paula’s got some great, Southern-style recipes for turnips as a stand-alone side or as a complement to other hearty ingredients like pork tenderloin or dumplings!
doris in The Secret Garden on May 19, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I love reading about your family and seeing your pictures. I respect the fact that you are teaching your son's family values because so much of that seems to be going by the wayside anymore..maybe someday we will meet and by that time your son's may even have their own cooking show.lol..wishing you lots and lots of love from this country girl's kitchen to Brooke Deen's kitchen of love.
Linda Miller in The Makings for a Perfect Father’s Day on May 19, 2013 at 11:44 am
Love this idea. I want to do this for my sister n law for the new addition of the family. What a wonderful way to celebrate a new baby in the family.
Kimberly McKinney in How to Host a Sip and See on May 19, 2013 at 10:54 am
I love Orchids but fine it hard to kept alive for very long. I love the way you display
Syndie Reynolds in Paula’s Love of Orchids on May 13, 2013 at 10:59 pm | <urn:uuid:ef33179b-8f6f-41c9-bb56-23218a578471> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pauladeen.com/blogs/blog_view/whats_in_season_turnips/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940152 | 752 | 1.84375 | 2 |
President Obama / Carolyn Kaster, AP
President Obama has said an immigration deal may be possible after the election because Republicans would want to improve their position with Hispanic voters -- and there are signs this may be happening.
Two prominent conservatives -- radio host Sean Hannity and columnist Charles Krauthammer -- advocate an immigration bill that would include both tighter border security and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already here -- i.e., something close to Obama's position.
Their views could give cover to Republicans interested in a comprehensive immigration deal with the White House.
"If some people have criminal records, you can send them home," Hannity said on his radio show. "But if people are here, law-abiding, participating for years, their kids are born here, you know, first secure the border, pathway to citizenship, done. You can't let the problem continue -- it's got to stop."
In years past, some Republicans have backed an enforcement-only policy, deporting all illegal immigrants.
Tuesday, Obama won more than 70% of the Latino vote against Mitt Romney -- and Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the population.
In his weekly column for The Washington Post, Krauthammer says Republicans can appeal to Hispanics with "a single policy change: Border fence plus amnesty.
"Yes, amnesty," he says. "Use the word. Shock and awe -- full legal normalization (just short of citizenship) in return for full border enforcement."
He writes, "I've always been of the 'enforcement first' school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it's the better policy. But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement. So, promise amnesty right up front. Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle."
The growing power of the Hispanic vote is changing the immigration debate -- something to keep an eye on in Obama's second term.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Obama may get GOP help on immigration | <urn:uuid:b974d278-49b9-427f-9915-98fb0c0fe524> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.democratandchronicle.com/usatoday/article/1694193?odyssey=mod_sectionstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951536 | 430 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It'll be a reunion of sorts.
Construction workers who unearthed fossils around San Diego County over the past 18 months are revisiting their prehistoric finds Thursday at an invite-only function.
The San Diego Natural History Museum is hosting the evening program to thank the people who excavated the fossils at various construction sites.
Museum officials said open house highlights will include highly publicized finds from the construction site of the new Thomas Jefferson School of Law in downtown San Diego. Last year, workers recovered a jaw fossil that's one of the oldest known remains of the modern gray whale. The other is a mammoth skull found in the same area.
Paleontologists also will share fossils discovered at construction sites of housing developments and road projects, such as the 905 freeway in southern San Diego.
Expected attendees also will include developers, utility companies and others who "have been so generous" to the museum's excavation efforts, said Kesler A. Randall, a collections manager at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Most of the fossils being featured Thursday will likely not be on permanent display at the museum because the facility already has a fossil exhibit, Fossil Mysteries.
However, the finds from the law-school construction site will probably be part of a future collection, said museum spokeswoman Hallie Shere.
Reporter's note: I'll be tweeting the open house, to start 6:30 p.m. Follow me at www.twitter.com/LilyShumLeung.
Lily Leung: (619)293-1719; email@example.com | <urn:uuid:70d69a0e-efa6-4922-ae0e-da47af1c3daf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/09/construction-workers-reunite-fossil-finds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938105 | 328 | 1.804688 | 2 |
“You may do so, if you like,” said Mrs. Shortridge, composedly; “but I have made a vow to do no extra riding to-day. This road is long enough and rough enough for me.”
Lady Mabel turned from the path, and, followed by L’Isle, was soon ascending the hill. Moodie, somewhat under the influence of his soporific draughts, was in a reverie, wondering whether Lord Strathern would get his letter in time to send a troop of horse after the fugitives, and whether it might not come within the provisions of the military code to have L’Isle court-martialed and shot for running off with his General’s daughter, when, looking up, he missed Lady Mabel, and then discovered her with L’Isle, scampering over the hill. In great confusion, he rode up to Mrs. Shortridge, and asked, “Where are they going now?”
“I scarcely know,” she answered; “but Colonel L’Isle will take care of Lady Mabel, so you can stay and take care of me.”
Moodie cast on her a look of angry suspicion, which scanned her from head to foot, and plainly pronounced her no sufficient pledge for his mistress. Spurring his horse, he followed Lady Mabel at a run. The animal he rode had often carried fifteen stone, in Lord Strathern’s person, over as rough ground as this, and made light of Moodie’s weight, which was scarcely more than nine. Without picking his way, he made directly for his companions ahead; and the clatter of his hoofs soon making Lady Mabel look round, she drew up her horse in haste, and anxiously watched Moodie’s career. A deep chasm, washed out by the winter rains, was cleared by the horse in capital style, but Moodie lit on his valise, and with difficulty recovered the saddle. Just between him and Lady Mabel the last tree on the hill-side, torn from the shallow soil by some heavy blast, lay horizontally on its decaying roots and branches. Moodie rode at it with unquailing eye; and, while Lady Mabel uttered an exclamation of alarm, the horse cleared it in a bucking leap, throwing Moodie against the holsters; but he fell back into his seat, and rode up triumphantly to his mistress. This energetic demonstration seemed to overawe Lady Mabel. Turning from the hill-top before them, she rode demurely back to the party, resolved not to wander from the beaten path, or go faster than a foot-pace, until Moodie had dismounted, and his neck was safe.
A peasant on an ass, coming down the road, had stopped and stood at gaze at a distance, watching these equestrian manoeuvres. But when he saw the party, now united, coming toward him, he turned short to the left, and hastened away at a pace that proved that his burro had four nimble legs.
“That must be a thief,” said Mrs. Shortridge, “afraid of falling in with honest folks.”
“Or an honest man,” suggested L’Isle, “afraid of falling among thieves. I have observed a growing dislike in the peasantry to meeting small parties of our people in out of the way places. I suspect that they are sometimes made to pay toll for traveling their own roads.” | <urn:uuid:a764356b-d29f-4d43-86ef-9aae46aaf611> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/17191/115.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983114 | 757 | 1.734375 | 2 |
UN alerted over black deaths in custody
originally by: The Voice Online
published: 1 October 2012
Black deaths in custody and Stop and Search are among subjects to feature at the forefront of a seminar attended by experts from the United Nations (UN), who [were] in the UK to gather data on African people’s experiences in England and Wales.
The UN’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent [were] in the UK from Monday (Oct 1) until Friday (Oct 5).
They [were] be at a civil society seminar in central London Monday entitled Black People’s Experience of Justice in England and Wales in which organisations updated them on issues facing people of African descent who live here.
Organised by race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust and the Open Society Justice Initiative, the seminar [heard] from organisations such as death in custody lobby group INQUEST and Black Mental Health UK (BMHUK).
Read full article > | <urn:uuid:64ecf23b-7429-4d10-a7ee-38f740c423fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://4wardeveruk.org/2012/10/un-to-be-alerted-over-black-deaths-in-custody/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93506 | 204 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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