text stringlengths 211 577k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 371 | file_path stringclasses 644 values | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.93 1 | token_count int64 54 121k | score float64 1.5 1.84 | int_score int64 2 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Posted by Dr. Steven A. Machado on April 02, 1998 at 20:58:45:
In Reply to: Re: Woodblock of Actor posted by Richard Illing on April 02, 1998 at 20:53:35:
: : I lost the information that I had about this
: : print. Anyone have a clue? And, is it worth anything?
: : If it is I want to have it framed properly :)
: : The black ink on this one is VERY black, doesn't show up well in the underexposed image.
: You seem to have a fine replica of a Sharaku print first published in 1794 showing the actor Ichikawa Koamazo II in the role of the assassin Shiga Daishichi, slayer of Matsushita. The part occurs in the kabuki play Kataki-uchi Noriyaibanashi 'A medley of tales of revenge' in the scene Go taiheiki Shiraishi-banashi, a drama based on the revenge of two sisters for the death of their father Matsushita Mikinoshin, murdered by Shiga Daishichi. The play was performed in the fifth month of 1794. The original print has a dark mica ground. Replicas of many of Sharaku's prints abound. An original would command in excess of $250,000 in fine condition. A good replica should fetch c. $150. It is impossible to be exact from your internet picture but I would hazard a guess that yours is worth about $150. If I am wrong, you have my congratulations!
Cool, part of the backround is a irridescent silver color... like I have an original... hehehe
But then again... :)
Post a Followup | <urn:uuid:f07ed17a-b81e-45c1-8406-b3d57f74214f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.secutor.se/Archive1/messages/223.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951723 | 366 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Montauk 8- A Legal Perspective
Montauk 8 – The Battle Continues
By Angela Howe
Surfing vs. Swimming
When you surf, are you swimming? This was the very unique legal question posed before Surfrider Foundation’s Legal Team addressing the Montauk Point State Park beach access issue, also known as the “Free the Montauk 8” campaign. Obviously, we took it upon ourselves to do as much empirical studying as possible. The Montauk 8 were eight individuals ticketed for surfing under a statute that prohibited—unless specifically authorized—“swimming, diving, bathing or wading…” (9 NYCRR 377.1(h)). So obviously, we wanted to distinguish “surfing” from “swimming” to argue that surfing was not prohibited by this statute. This led us to analyze: What exactly are surfers doing when we are out there in the water? Of course we are paddling with our arms to move ourselves and our surfboard out past the break, but the act of wave riding is surely a sport unto itself.
As it turned out, the court addressing the Montauk 8’s case was not too concerned with the mechanics of surfing. (Under a legal analysis, you must interpret a statute by what the legislature intended when they enacted the law.) Justice Catherine A. Cahill of the Town of East Hampton Justice Court ruled that the law cited by the ticketing officers does not apply to surfing. In her ruling, Justice Cahill based her decision on a standard rule or “canon” of statutory construction: Expresio unius est exclusion alterius meaning “the express mention of one thing implies exclusion of all others.” The basis of this decision was the fact that only “swimming” was mentioned in the law that was cited by the ticketing officer; whereas, the activity of “surfing” was specifically mentioned in other areas of the New York Code. Justice Cahill ruled that the legislature “distinguish[ed] surfing from swimming, by listing them in the alternative.” After all, surfers can never surf in areas that are sectioned off for swimming—so how can surfing and swimming be the same thing? Fortunately, the court’s ruling held that the two activities are distinct and therefore dismissed the charges against the Montauk 8.
The Real Issue: Recreational User Group vs. Recreational User Group
But this isn’t a question of statutory interpretation; it is a question of who has the right to participate in the enjoyment of this amazing natural resource. Even though Surfrider Foundation won the legal battle, the State Park Officials fully intend to keep ticketing surfers at Montauk Point and maintain that surfing is prohibited in this area. A powerful user group, the surfcasters (or fishermen), has effectively lobbied the State Parks to keep enforcing the ban on the activity of surfing. What doesn’t make sense is that the judge has interpreted the law and the executive branch is under an obligation to enforce it as such. It’s a basic grade school civics lesson, right? (Legislative Branch Makes the Law; Judicial Branch Enforces the Law; and Executive Branch Carries Out the Law.) Note that many Surfrider Foundation efforts are geared at addressing erroneous or under-enforcement of sound environmental laws). In the end, we have to protect our right to surf against these unjust regulatory efforts. We have as much right to use this resource as any other user group. As a grassroots organization, our greatest strength is our strong and plentiful voices. If you would like to voice your opinion on this issue, please contact New York State Parks and Long Island Legislators. Also see: http://www.surfriderli.org/?cat=33
Angela Howe is Surfrider Foundation’s Legal Manager. | <urn:uuid:d87c7586-6bb8-4fdc-9132-acbeef9eb35d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beachapedia.org/Montauk_8-_A_Legal_Perspective | 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 | 0.9592 | 809 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Which is the more unfriendly place for your lungs -- the smoking section inside a cafe or the one outside on the patio?
The answer may surprise you. Tests recently revealed that the air quality is often equally poor in both locations. So steer clear of that smoking section whenever you can. Now, which of these is worse for your lungs?
Cars or Bars?
Would your lungs be worse off if you spent a few hours in a car, windows cracked, with someone who’s smoking or if you whiled away an evening in a smoky bar? Again, the answer may seem counterintuitive. Seems the air in a car, after a few cigarettes, can be even worse than the air in a smoky bar -- even with the windows open a bit. So now you know what to say the next time your pal wants to light up on a road trip.
Love Your Lungs
Try these other tips for battling bad air:
Eat some fish. Here’s what it will do for your lungs .
Buy a spider plant for your bedroom. Here’s how it will help freshen the air .
Clean your air filter more often, and don’t overdo it with vitamins. Here’s why . | <urn:uuid:a9dbd91a-4e8a-4638-be8e-c7719e2ee6a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shvoong.com/medicine-and-health/1738769-secondhand-smoke-myths-busted/ | 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 | 0.937364 | 259 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Wayne County High School principal, Billy Ray Jones, Jr., was named 2010 Mississippi Administrator of the Year. Jones has been principal since 2007.
According to a news release from the Mississippi Department of Education, Jones developed a common mission, vision and list of commitments that educators and stakeholders agreed were vital to the success of the students. He used a three-step method that included; developing a safe and orderly environment, identifying strategies for classroom design and management and using data-driven information to improve student achievement.
"It is my personal belief that the most important things needed for learning to occur are for genuine, effective relationships and clearly defined high expectations to be in place," Jones said. "If there is anything that has served me well thus far, it is the fact that I have always treated all the students I have been charged with as my own and have always had very high expectations of all my students."
MDE said Jones worked very closely with the school's adopters program, which partners with area businesses to furnish students with clothes and school supplies. He also works with the Lion's Club to supply students with glasses when it was apparent that many had poor vision. Finally, partnering with the youth court has helped to address students with behavioral problems in school, at home and in the community.
Other Congressional District Finalists include: Mitchell Shears (Alternate Administrator of the Year), principal of Clausell Elementary School in Jackson (Jackson Public School District), Christy Carroll, principal of Lawhon Elementary School in Tupelo (Tupelo Public School District) and Norman Session, principal of Pisgah High School in Sandhill (Rankin County School District). | <urn:uuid:f143bae6-c54e-461f-b9c2-39fb397c5985> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtok.com/schools/headlines/92779389.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976044 | 335 | 1.734375 | 2 |
High-ranking government energy officials from Brazil will visit Pittsburgh this week to take a closer look at the region and its ability to supply solutions for 21st-Century energy needs.
Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Márcio Zimmerman arrives Wednesday, July 8 following energy-related meetings in Washington, D.C. His visit closely follows several agreements between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy for bilateral business development around energy diversity and efficiency.
The Pittsburgh region is home to organizations and companies recognized for their development and distribution of traditional energy resources—coal, natural gas and nuclear—as well as manufacturing and supply chain expertise for alternative sources such as wind and solar power.
Minister Zimmerman and his delegation will visit Westinghouse Electric Co.'s Energy Center in Monroeville, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and CONSOL Energy Research and Development facility—both located in South Park.
These regional energy innovators will be discussing their respective strengths in nuclear energy, clean coal, carbon capture and sequestration, smart grid technology and engineered coal fuels with biomass.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Secretary for Mineral Resources Management J. Scott Roberts will participate in the meeting at CONSOL, as will a representative of Alter NRG Corporation, discussing the plasma gasification technology it acquired from Westinghouse Plasma Corporation.
"The Pittsburgh region is uniquely positioned to create solutions that address global energy needs," said Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Dennis Yablonsky.
"Providing sources of cleaner coal and carbon capture technology; tapping abundant, domestic, clean-burning natural gas; manufacturing renewable energy components; and creating systems to efficiently deliver power and conserve resources set our region apart as a leader and a provider of choice," he said. "When coupled with our ample natural resources base, these achievements distinguish the region as America‘s energy capital and a strategic partner for other countries looking to maximize their energy efficiency and sustainability."
Brazil is looking to further strengthen its energy matrix, which is primarily reliant on hydropower, with other clean, reliable, affordable energy sources, said PRA President Dewitt Peart.
"Pittsburgh is uniquely positioned to lend its expertise to Brazil and to explore bilateral business and investment opportunities around energy," he said. "The Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA) will be participating in Deputy Minister Zimmerman‘s visit because this is a perfect prospect for the region. With the pending G-20 summit and the global attention it will place on Pittsburgh and its 'new economy' strengths, the timing is right to market the region‘s energy expertise to Brazil and to the world."
The PRA is the marketing affiliate of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. | <urn:uuid:b3bee588-6f16-4b9e-8795-f0ca4b45f322> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalpittsburgh.blogspot.com/2009/07/brazilian-government-officials-visiting.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942839 | 561 | 1.625 | 2 |
Miles McCoy stood in rapture before the Carlisle II, absorbing the scene before him.
The 87-year-old mosquito fleet remnant that's carried folks across Sinclair Inlet for generations now is hitched high, getting a full body tune-up at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op.
For salty sea dogs like McCoy, seeing the ancient, near-extinct work of wooden boat repair is a treat.
"It's a rare craft," he said.
His eyes traveled up the Carlisle's wooden planks, pausing at the newest additions.
"I was just admiring the grade of lumber they're putting in," he said.
A worker squatted below the Carlisle, waterproofing her seams with oakum, a pungent materiel with the look and feel of horsehair.
He breathed in deeply.
"Smell that. That's good. That's better 'n Chanel," he said.
The ferry is getting new planking, a new engine, a new generator and new electrical workings, among other smaller repairs.
"She's getting a lot of love," said Martin Mills, who is overseeing the project.
As far as anyone knows, the Carlisle hasn't ever had such a complete work-over. She's needed one, Mills said.
"She was tired," he said.
Kitsap Transit acquired the boat this year from Hilton Smith, owner of Horluck Transportation, the company that built the boat and ran it since 1936. Soon after the purchase, Kitsap Transit claimed there was a hole in the hull that was taking in a dangerous amount of water. It withheld payment to Smith.
Smith filed a lawsuit for the money but settled with Kitsap Transit out of court in March. Smith paid $1,300 and Kitsap Transit released the money it owed to him.
Kitsap Transit estimated the cost of repairs at $165,000. Today, the agency will ask its board for approval to spend as much as $330,275.
John Clauson, service development director for Kitsap Transit, said once the ferry was opened up, a better estimate became possible.
Martin said once the cooperative is finished with the Carlisle, she'll likely go another 80 years. He said because of the ferry's age, they've had to use antiquated methods and tools.
"What were doing here is pretty traditional," he said.
Fiberglass boats supplanted wooden ones in the 1960s. Since then, most old wooden boats have rotted away. Because they are so few, ferries like the Carlisle II quicken a sailor's heart.
"It was pulled out of the woods by ol'-timers who knew what they were doing," McCoy said.
The Carlisle isn't just any wooden boat. It's an icon of Kitsap County.
"Every time I go up there, there's always someone that wanders up to and admires it," Clauson said.
<em>Reach reporter Niki King at (360) 792-9210 or firstname.lastname@example.org</em> | <urn:uuid:d1b03ac3-25a4-497e-b68b-ae0341be065f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2004/may/04/shes-getting-a-lot-of-love/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981529 | 650 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Congressional Research Service has recently released an analysis entitled "Taxes and the Economy."
A shortened URL for the report is here: http://1.usa.gov/12nAkgQ
I believe that this study and its conclusions should be receiving more publicity. The study, whose initial methodology was revised in response to Republican objections,concludes on page 17 that:
1. The top statutory income tax rates have decreased considerably since the end of World War II,
2. statutory tax rates affecting taxpayers at the top of the income distribution are currently at their lowest level since the end of the second World War,
3. changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth,
4. the top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie; and
5. the top tax rate reductions appear to be correlated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.
It appears that a reasoned analysis of the nation's economy since World War II contradicts Mitt Romney's and the Republicans' recent campaign rhetoric.
It seems as though House Republicans, who just gutted the Speaker of the House, are motivated by something other than reasoned economic analysis. Could it be that they are trying to ensure having sufficient campaign contributions from the top 1 percent or 2 percent to ensure their reelection in 2014?
Will today's Republican party split in two (2) - i.e. the moderate Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans? | <urn:uuid:de9db7e7-e373-4c48-96bf-64bc7605ad7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20121226/NEWS/121229964 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948943 | 308 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Amirali Salehi-Abari is a Ph.D. student interested in decision making on social and economic networks. In particular, he is working on designing algorithms and mechanisms in social choice (group decision) contexts that support effective decision making when various forms of network externalities are present. He is currently investigating various forms of network externalities that are derived from or induced by relationships present in social networks.
Joel Oren is a Ph.D. student, co-supervised by Allan Borodin, interested in various aspects of combinatorial and online optimization, algorithm design, game theory, and social networks.
Joanna Drummond: Joanna Drummond is a M.Sc. student interested in decision theory, applied machine learning, and preference elicitation. She is currently applying decision-theoretic techniques to investigate stable matching problems with partial preference information. Joanna is developing both exact and approximate algorithms to compute optimal regret minimizing matches given partial information. She completed her B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh. Supervised by Diane Litman, her undergraduate research consisted of applying supervised machine learning techniques to detect users' affect in spoken tutorial dialogues. This work was completed with the ITSPOKE group.
Andrew Perrault: Andrew Perrault is a master's student interested in mechanism design and other problems at the intersection of economics and computer science. His current research is the theoretical properties of contracts in a residential power distribution setting. As an undergraduate, he was associated with the Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell and there contributed to solving the problem of generating spatially-balanced Latin squares of arbitrary dimension. In the Personal Robotics Lab, he participated in a project that used machine learning to select grasping locations for a robotic manipulator that take into account future placing plans. He is a founder of theschoolfund.org. He enjoys rock climbing and sailing.
Tyler Lu Tyler Lu is a Ph.D. student interested in decision-theoretic and machine learning-based approaches to social choice and preference aggregation. He is currently applying ideas from statistical learning and preference elicitation to cope with incomplete preferences when making collective decisions, with an eye towards analyzing the social-choice theoretic properties of such models. He is also interested in applying these methodologies to recommender systems and matching markets. For his master's degree at the University of Waterloo, he developed theoretical models and analyses of learning with unlabeled data. His other interests include Bayesian learning and MCMC, statistical learning theory, and discrete algorithms.
Xin Sui is a Ph.D. student interested in game theory and mechanism design. In particular, he is working on designing mechanisms that incentivize self-interested agents to truthful reveal their preference to achieve a social desirable outcomes. His recent research has focused on the design of incremental, partial revelation mechanisms that allow explicit tradeoffs to be made between outcome quality, communication, and privacy, and the application of these to problems ranging from auction design to facility location.
Laurent Charlin is a Ph.D. student interested in machine learning and preference eliciation. He is currently developing learning methods (including active learning methods) for matching problems with partial user preferences. He is also interested in the application of such methods to recommender systems. His M.Sc. focused on the automated discovery of abstractions in partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). His other interests include statistical learning theory, and problems at the intersection of economics and machine learning.
Kevin Regan is a Ph.D. student developing novel preference elicitation techniques for sequential decision making. In particular, he has developed models for the elicitation of reward functions for Markov decision processes (MDPs) and robust optimization techniques from MDPs with imprecisely specified reward functions. He has applied this work in a variety of domains including assistive technology and autonomic computing. His main interests lie in the intersection of preference elicitation, reasoning under uncertainty and mechanism design. He has also done work with multi-agent systems, reputation and trust models, and electronic markets.
Darius Braziunas completed his Ph.D. in 2012 on new, effective ways of eliciting, representing and reasoning with user preferences and utility functions. As part of his research, he developed the UTPref Recommendation System that maintains an explicit (but incomplete) multiattribute utility model of user preferences, and uses minimax regret to guide decision-theoretically sound elicitation of preferences and recommendation of options. Other areas of interest include sequential decision making models (MDPs and POMDPs), recommendation systems, collaborative filtering, and discrete optimization. Darius was a Research Scientist at Thoora, Inc. (Toronto) for a time during his Ph.D. studies, and is now a Senior Research Scientist at Kobo, Inc. (Toronto).
Bowen Hui completed her Ph.D. in 2011, in which she developed a decision-theoertic framework for providing automated help and interface customization in software enviornments in a way that is sensitive to the preferences and abilities of different users. This research lies at the intersection of AI and HCI, involving preference elicitation, probabilistic inference, POMDPs, and other modeling techniques. She is also interested in preference elicitation, multi-agent communication, psychological effects of preference elicitation and negotiation, among other topics. She is currently an Instructor in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
Paolo Viappiani is an CNRS Researcher at Laboratoire d'informatique de Paris 6 at Université Pierre et Marie Curie. His research interests include recommender systems, preference elicitation, mathematical models for social networks, interactive optimization and machine learning. He was a postdoc here from 2008-2010, where much of his work focused on open-ended preference elicitation, set-based recommendation, and handling noisy responses in preference elicitation models.
Jesse Hoey is Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo. Jesse's interests include decision making under uncertainty (POMDPs), machine learning, computer vision, among other things. He has devoted a lot of attention to assistive technologies. He was a postdoc here from 2004-2006, working jointly in Computer Science and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He was a lecturer at the University of Dundee from 2006-2010 before returning to Ontario.
Scott Sanner is Senior Researcher in the Statistical Machine Learning Group at NICTA and an adjunct professor at the Australian National University. He is interested in a variety of areas of AI, including decision-making under uncertainty, machine learning, reinforcement learning, knowledge representation and reasoning, and information retrieval. He completed his PhD, "First-order decision-theoretic planning in structured relational environments," in 2008.
Georgios Chalkiadakis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Technical University of Crete. He is interested in various aspects of multiagent systems and decision making under uncertainty, especially coalition formation and reinforcement learning. He completed his PhD, "A Bayesian Approach to Multiagent Reinforcement Learning and Coalition Formation under Uncertainty," in 2007.
Nathanael Hyafil is Head of Risk Methodologies at GDF SUEZ Energy Management & Trading in Paris. His Ph.D. work dealt with on computational aspects of mechanism design and game theory, in particular, on the design of mechanisms requiring only partial type revelation while preserving incentive properties and reasonable decision quality. He completed his PhD, "Mechanism Design with Partial Revelation", in 2007.
Michael Pavlin is an Assistant Professor in Operations & Decision Sciences, at Wilfred Laurier University's School of Business and Economics. He is interested in computational issues that arise in economic systems. His recent work focused on ascending auctions in the presence of externalities and is motivated by applications to wireless communication networks. He completed his MSc, "Ascending Auction for Markets with Externalities and Applications to Routing in Wireless Networks," in 2006.
Pascal Poupart is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Pascal's interests include decision making under uncertainty (including MDPs and POMDPs), machine learning, applications to health informatics and dialog systems. He completed his PhD, "Exploiting Structure to Efficiently Solve Large Scale Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes," in 2005.
Bob Price is Research Scientist at Xerox PARC (following a postdoc at The University of Alberta with the Alberta Ingenuity Center for Machine Learning. His interests include reinforcement learning (including imitation, teaching and knowledge transfer), machine learning, Markov decision processes, and web personalization. He completed his PhD, "Accelerating Reinforcement Learning through Imitation," in 2003.
Richard Dearden completed his Ph.D. in Fall 2000 on Markov decision processes as a model for decision theoretic planning and reinforcement learning. He developed methods for the learning and use of Bayesian methods for estimating value functions and models in reinforcement learning and developing exploration methods based on uncertainty in these estimates. He has been deeply involved in much of the work on structured policy construction algorithms for MDPs as well. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham School of Computer Science.
Alexander Kress completed his M.Sc. degree in 2004. His thesis title was "An Incremental Elicitation Approach to Limited-Precision Auctions."
Darius Braziunas finished his M.Sc. degree in 2003. His thesis title was "Stochastic Local Search for POMDP controllers".
Tianhan Wang finished an M.Sc. degree in 2003. His thesis title was "Preference Elicitation using the Minimax Regret Decision Criterion."
I'll augment this list with my students from my time at UBC sometime soon. | <urn:uuid:f937b67f-640c-44c1-b85f-99c7c599dd76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~cebly/students.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 | 0.946399 | 2,033 | 1.617188 | 2 |
I use a campus board for a quick pump when time is limited. I also campus easier problems for some added strength. However, lately, after five minutes or so of training, I get this aching along the ulnar side of my forearm. It feels like my bone is aching. The pain is about halfway between wrist and elbow. It hurts mostly when I am pulling hard, not so much when dead-hanging on jugs. It isn't too bad at night unless I had an evening session. The pain is there when I am on the problem but it's when I release the holds that I feel the ache. I had the same pain when I used to do bicep curls at the gym.
Cameron Whitehead | Rumney, NH
Stress fractures are the injuries of cool people, that special breed able to tap dark wells of moonshine mojo to the point that their bones yield under the cumulative and crushing force of full-throttle commitment. Stress fractures are more recalcitrant than politicians from Texas, equally painful, and even less likely to respond in a reasonable manner when under duress.
Time-poor training translates to injury-rich training. You can't just rock up to the gym for a quick tango with that bush-pig the campus board; it will eat you and not bother to floss. You need to take your time -- pick your nose, stare at the new breed of hot chicks that have way more technique than you, comb your eyebrows.
Rather than campus easier problems, use your feet on a more difficult one! Foot free is for those with no left brain. If you don't have time to train properly, go home and have a beer -- it will be better for you.
For the most part, ulna stress fractures occur in the avid weight lifter, so it's no surprise that you initially felt this at the gym. Exercises such as biceps curls generate enormous stress on the forearm bones, especially the ulna.
As you have noted, pain arises in the mid-ulna shaft, temporarily worsens with exercise, and is often very painful if you suddenly release your grip. Stress fractures in general are acutely sensitive to vibration.
Scans would be great, but there seems little doubt that you are on the wrong end of the bone-stress spectrum. If you are the persnickety type, x-rays may be helpful, but an MRI (among other scans) will be defining.
Absolute rest for a few weeks is paramount, and then adjust your training to minimize stress. Light climbing is fine, but no weights that involve gripping. If you can't apply a gentle hand brake or the training is still aggravating, then take 10 weeks of absolute rest and start back slowly.
Comfrey cream has been shown to be fairly helpful in fracture healing. And it's cheap with no adverse side effects.
Most GPs and even physical therapists are unlikely to have heard of an ulna stress fracture, but are certainly capable of recognizing the condition if they follow through with appropriate scans. A sports physician (a specialist in sports medicine) would be preferable.
Elbows and Wrists: Tendonitis and Tendonisis
Elbow: Medial Epicondylosis and Taping
Elbow Pain and Hangboarding
Elbow Stress Fracture
Elbow Tingling and Numbness
Elbow: Minimizing Fingerboarding Injuries
Wrist Instability and Carpal Tunnel
Hands Dupuytren's Disease | <urn:uuid:980f58f5-d6c0-4460-8a58-cb6b0c18ffc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/elbow-stress-fracture?A=WebApp&CCID=14096&Page=7&Items=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945537 | 727 | 1.640625 | 2 |
How many times have you considered the idea of plastic surgery, but because you were not certain as to what the end result would be pushed the idea out of you mind? While a large number of people do have plastic surgery, there is an even larger number that have considered having some type of cosmetic procedure done, but because they had no way of knowing what the final result might be they quickly changed their minds. This really isn’t that much of a surprise when you consider the plethora of questions that surround a possible candidate for cosmetic surgery. Questions such as; how will I look? Will I look natural? Will people be able to tell that I’ve had anything done? These concerns are very valid and well founded when it comes to the idea of cosmetic surgery, especially given the fact that the only guide a person has had to go by was photos of the after results of other people who have had similar procedures done. While these considerations can present a quandary for a person considering the idea of cosmetic surgery there is no longer any reason to be worried as there is now a solution to the problem.
Dr. William Bruno, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, has found the answer to these concerns for the potential cosmetic surgery candidate. The Vectra 3D Imaging System utilizes special cameras and dynamic soft tissue modeling technology in order to generate an actual 3D model that has been formed after calculating what the realistic outcome to a cosmetic surgical procedure might be. The model is made based upon volume, distance, shape, placement, gravity and precise measurements. While a model of every single possible cosmetic surgical procedure scenario might not be available, the list of what types of models is quiet impressive. The system can offer you a model of the bodily areas such as face, breast and body sculpting.
Models for cosmetic procedures that have been utilized at this point include:
Botox and fillers
Buttock augmentation and lift
Dermabrasion and Chemical peels
Although being able to see a model of what the results can look like is definitely a big asset, this system also gives you the option of exploring what various sizes of implants would look like as well. | <urn:uuid:3a88188f-ea63-46c0-921a-aa88b682314f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk/blog/tag/facial-implant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96611 | 441 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In Appreciation of Philanthropic Visionary Tadashi Yamamoto
April 18, 2012
Tadashi Yamamoto, founder and president of the Japan Center for International Exchange, passed away on April 15 at the age of 76. He was an extraordinary person whose career was marked by extraordinary accomplishment. He was a liberal internationalist, an optimist who believed wholeheartedly that cultural exchanges and dialogue could bring peoples and nations closer together, especially those that previously had been adversaries. He believed that people-to-people exchanges in all their forms were a formidable vehicle for international understanding and peace. He committed his life to interpreting Japan to the world and the world to Japan.
Tadashi never served in a formal governmental role (other than chairing numerous advisory groups and commissions), but he formed close and influential relationships with political leaders in Japan, the United States, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Korea, and China. He was responsible, sometimes single-handedly, more often in strategic partnership, for parliamentary exchanges, intellectual dialogues, Track II dialogues, “wise men” groups, corporate citizenship study missions, workshops on “non-traditional security” threats and global health, and much more. He was formally honored for his life”s work by the governments of Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Upon conferment of the Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Government of Japan in July 2011 (for distinguished achievements in international relations, Japanese studies, or promotion of Japanese culture), the JCIE staff published a 36-page Commemorative Booklet highlighting milestones in Tadashi”s 47 years of nongovernmental public service, with testimonials from a broad array of world leaders whose lives and careers he influenced.
My own friendship and professional collaboration with Tadashi began in 1987, when I was starting a multi-country research project on contemporary philanthropy in Asia. Tadashi”s name came up everywhere I sought advice and information. “You have to meet Yamamoto; he is Mr. Philanthropy in Japan.” And indeed he was already a veteran when I started. In 1974, JCIE had launched study tours and research on philanthropy in Japan and the United States. In 1977, JCIE created the Asia Community Trust, Japan”s first philanthropic intermediary loosely based on the U.S. community foundation model, but with developing Asia as its scope; and in the mid-1980s, JCIE had already organized a series of Keidanren study tours to the United States to exchange ideas about corporate philanthropy. Tadashi”s deep commitment to philanthropy – private action for public benefit – was at the core of his aspirations for global citizenship.
With Tadashi”s intellectual support and gentle mentoring, we launched a pioneering series of studies of local philanthropic traditions and the current state of philanthropy and civil society in East Asia, resulting in published volumes in 1991 (Philanthropy and the Dynamics of Change in East and Southeast Asia), 1993 (Evolving Patterns of Asia-Pacific Philanthropy), and JCIE”s monumental Emerging Civil Society in the Asia Pacific Community in 1995. These became the intellectual basis of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium, a research and advocacy network established in Osaka in December 1994, which Tadashi and I led for a decade. JCIE went on to publish a distinguished series of other books on philanthropy and civil society in Japan and Asia.
Tadashi was a remarkable person, warm, engaging, gentle, passionate, committed, yet tolerant of cultural differences, always curious, and always busy and fully engaged in the many projects he undertook simultaneously and in sequence. He was a visionary, fiercely advocating a world of peace through dialogue. He will be missed for the person he was, his many accomplishments, and his unswerving belief in the community-building promise of people-to-people exchanges.
Dr. Barnett F. Baron is president & CEO of Give2Asia. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.
View all posts by Barnett F. Baron
Write a comment:
Comments are moderated. Please be polite and on-topic. | <urn:uuid:64791ce1-d827-4b63-8e27-801b9a1ea6ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2012/04/18/in-appreciation-of-philanthropic-visionary-tadashi-yamamoto/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961066 | 885 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Emily Greenhalgh
PBN Web Editor
PROVIDENCE – The Tech Collective plans to develop two new pilot programs to provide funds to local information technology and bioscience employers for hiring “underemployed” workers, the technology association announced Tuesday.
Tech Collective intends to use the $94,000 it was recently awarded from the Governor’s Workforce Board of Rhode Island to launch the initiative.
The programs focus on post-employment training of new hires and fellowships for 2012 graduates of Rhode Island colleges and universities at local IT or bioscience employers.
The objective for the new hire, post-employment training program is to “assist employers with open positions that they may not be able to fill because prospective candidates lack the skills needed to effectively carry out the job responsibilities,” according to the release.
If a local employer finds an unemployed candidate for an open position – but the candidate needs one or two more skills to meet the qualification requirements – the company would qualify to receive reimbursement of any training completed during the first 4 months of employment.
“These training funds would be an incentive for the company to hire the under-skilled, unemployed person,” said the statement.
The fellowship program intends to address the “brain-drain” in the Ocean State by connecting graduating college students with employers before they leave the state to find a job, providing paid work experience for graduates and providing employers with incentives to consider inexperienced graduates to fill currently open positions.
Participating employers will host fellows for an 8-week experimental learning experience during the summer of 2012.
Tech Collective plans to recruit graduates from all Rhode Island colleges and universities. | <urn:uuid:8fce59e8-4b13-4387-b499-0398b438dfa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbn.com/Tech-Collective-launches-employer-incentive-programs,66408?category_id=94&list_type=featured&sub_type=stories,packages | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945944 | 343 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Stratfor is a global intelligence company providing geopolitical analysis based in Austin, Texas.
"Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc resigned on 6 February in response to widespread social dissatisfaction over the government's austerity measures. Also on 6 February, President Traian Băsescu nominated Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, as Romania's prime minister and requested that he form a new government.
Boc, a member of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), attempted to mollify protestors, but he stepped down after these efforts were met with little success. Băsescu revealed that Boc has been losing political support within the ruling coalition for months – the prime minister and the president have been discussing Boc's resignation since December.
The PDL will now look to a different leader in its attempt to decompress social discontent to prove it is capable of reacting to the crisis and to take the initiative away from the opposition. Ungureanu, in the meantime, must propose a cabinet to be voted on by the Romanian Parliament.
Thousands of Romanians have protested in Bucharest since early January against the government's austerity measures. On 30 January, opposition lawmakers went on strike in an attempt to paralyse legislative activity. The situation became more delicate when PDL lawmakers openly criticised Boc's political leadership, which revealed increasing cracks within the ruling party.
Boc tried to answer public dissatisfaction by withdrawing a controversial health reform and firing his foreign minister for making derogatory comments about protestors. When these measures failed to have an impact, he lost what remained of his party's support. The aim of the PDL now is to maintain political control of the country and to ensure its power in the long term.
The leftist opposition, led by the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, is more popular with the public and is calling for immediate general elections. However, the PDL's majority in the current legislature gives it some ability to control when elections will happen.
Since both the PDL and Băsescu, who is formally an independent but who has close ties with the PDL, want the PDL to remain in power, it is highly likely that Ungureanu's appointment will obtain the necessary parliamentary support for ratification.
However, the PDL needs support from minor coalition partners, particularly the ethnic Hungarian party and the Independent party, to secure its parliamentary majority. If those parties withdraw their support, the ruling party would be in serious danger.
The PDL's main goal is to set parliamentary elections for June 2012 – the same day as the local elections. This would allow the party to coordinate efforts with mayors who are PDL members. The goal is for mayors to join the general campaign and give their political and economic support to the national party.
Parliamentary elections were slated initially for November 2012. The PDL's original idea involved pushing local elections back to November, but the Constitutional Court rejected this possibility because it would illegally stretch the mandate of the mayors.
The PDL then shifted its focus to pushing forward parliamentary elections. For now, Băsescu announced a few hours after Boc's resignation that new elections would be held in five months at the earliest.
Even if the PDL fails to stay in power and Parliament calls for early elections, the country's economic situation would likely not change drastically. In 2009, Romania received a loan of €20 billion ($26 billion) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
That intervention sought to maintain investor confidence, to prevent a run on the leu and to keep borrowing costs at sustainable levels.
The IMF disbursed the funds on the condition that Romania implement deep cuts in government spending. Since Romania still needs financial assistance, it is highly unlikely that the opposition would break with the IMF if elected.
While some controversial reforms, such as the restructuring of the health system, have yet to be implemented, most of the difficult reforms have already been approved, and the IMF expects the Romanian economy to grow between 1% and 1.5% in 2012. Therefore, Stratfor does not expect the internal political shake-up to result in significant strategic shifts in Romania in the near term." | <urn:uuid:f7592f2c-d7b3-4a54-a4be-5dd77f31efbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.euractiv.com/elections/romanian-government-falls-plus-c-analysis-510695 | 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 | 0.973266 | 863 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Today's show features, for the second time, the music of Portland band Pink Martini and concludes with a discussion of the implicit politics of their work. Also discussed on the show are world hunger and the cost of food, the relations between being queer and being an immigrant, "Sex and the City," and what Congress is and is not doing about climate change.
To hear the whole show, click on the arrow above. To hear individual pieces, follow the links below.
Can gender expression be a do-it-yourself project? We'll attempt to
answer that and many other complex questions about sexuality, biology
and identity in four interviews with people across the gender spectrum.
Ani Raven Haines interviews author and activist Robert Jensen on his new book, "Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity". Jensen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin.
This program, hosted by Denise Morris, has musical breaks from Pink Martini and features a discussion with Thomas Lauderdale, the band's co-founder. We also hear from widely-published writer Michael T. Klare about oil and its potential to provoke wars in the future; a review of an Alice Munro story collection; and a discussion of theater and politics. You can hear the whole show by clicking on the arrow above, or listen to individual segments by clicking on the links below.
This program includes a Movie Mole review of "Iron Man," a commentary on Racism in the Presidential campaign, a first-person report on May Day in Havana, music and the history of the Buena Vista Social Club, and a discussion of the crisis in food prices. Clayton Morgareidge hosts.
Hear the whole show by clicking on the arrow above, or go to individual pieces by clicking on their links below: | <urn:uuid:c5b79138-8e85-4da9-a5e1-775b09df1ce1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kboo.org/Topic/Womensissues?page=132 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946503 | 374 | 1.523438 | 2 |
iPhone Application Development
iPhone applications are programs that are able to be downloaded to your Apple iPhone, iPod and iTouch devices. These programs allow users to obtain information about your company, your products, play fun games as well as staying connected from their mobile devices.
Iphone application development should be looked at as a marketing strategy, allowing you to reach the estimated 26.4 million iPhone users, as well as the 18.6 million iPod & iTouch users. It is estimated that the average iPhone user downloads up to 10 new applications from the “App Store” each month.
Mobile marketing through iPhone application development allows you to find creative ways to interact with the mobile community, capturing more and more of your market share. The key to a successful application is to brainstorm ideas for unique applications that are useful, functional and are able to be easily used on the go.
Epidemyk Information Technology offers custom iPhone application development services for its clients. We have application developers who are ready to take your vision and make it a reality and launch it into the mobile community. If you are pondering an idea but have not really determined whether it is the right idea for an application, we can help you solidify your idea or help you find one that reaches the right demographics and targeted market for your business.
The completion of an iPhone application is approximately 3 months from the start of the project. This time will be used to outline the concept of the application, determine the programming needed, obtain or create the needed graphics and content that will be provided to the mobile users. | <urn:uuid:caab63b1-6663-4eba-a815-0182922a3253> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epidemyk.com/iphone-development.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948594 | 317 | 1.617188 | 2 |
What's the largest open-source dictionary that includes brief definitions of each word? Wiktionary is a great resource but:
There are over 200K words in the scowl list that aren't in wiktionary. I'd use scowl directly, but it only list words and has no definitions.
Wiktionary intentionally includes misspellings (sometimes not marked as such, and sometimes as redirection), and I'm looking for only correctly-spelled words.
Wiktionary's definitions are often lengthy, not brief.
It's difficult to automatically extract the portion of a wiktionary page that's the definition.
I'm somewhat surprised this question isn't in the FAQ, and that I couldn't find the answer by searching this site. | <urn:uuid:0b8a1600-1c3b-4613-87c5-3ff4ce82b717> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/8233/largest-open-source-dictionary-w-brief-definitions-not-wiktionary?answertab=oldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951839 | 155 | 1.679688 | 2 |
American Jews Rethink Israel
By Adam Horowitz & Philip Weiss
This article appeared in The Nation.
October 14, 2009
This year has seen a dramatic shift in American Jews’ attitudes toward Israel. In January many liberal Jews were shocked by the Gaza war, in which Israel used overwhelming force against a mostly defenseless civilian population unable to flee. Then came the rise to power of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose explicitly anti-Arab platform was at odds with an American Jewish electorate that had just voted 4 to 1 for a minority president. Throw in angry Israelis writing about the “rot in the Diaspora,” and it’s little wonder young American Jews feel increasingly indifferent about a country that has been at the center of Jewish identity for four decades.
These stirrings on the American Jewish street will come to a head in late October in Washington with the first national conference of J Street, the reformation Israel lobby. J Street has been around less than two years, but it is summoning liberal–and some not so liberal–Jews from all over the country to “rock the status quo,” code for AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).
Sure sounds like a velvet revolution in the Jewish community, huh? Not so fast. The changes in attitudes are taking place at the grassroots; by and large, Jewish leaders are standing fast. And as for policymakers, the opening has been slight. There seems little likelihood the conference will bring us any closer to that holy grail of the reformers: the ability of a US president, not to mention Congress, to put real pressure on Israel.
First the good news. There’s no question the Gaza conflict has helped break down the traditional Jewish resistance to criticizing Israel. Gaza was “the worst public relations disaster in Israel’s history,” says M.J. Rosenberg, a longtime Washington analyst who reports for Media Matters Action Network. For the first time in a generation, leading American Jews broke with the Jewish state over its conduct. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen said he was “shamed” by Israel’s actions, while Michelle Goldberg wrote in the Guardian that Israel’s killing of hundreds of civilians as reprisal for rocket attacks was “brutal” and probably “futile.”
Even devoted friends of Israel Leon Wieseltier and Michael Walzer expressed misgivings about the disproportionate use of force, and if Reform Jewish leaders could not bring themselves to criticize the war, the US left was energized by the horror. Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink, threw herself into the cause of Gazan freedom after years of ignoring Israel-Palestine, in part out of deference to her family’s feelings. In The Nation Naomi Klein came out for boycott, divestment and sanctions; later, visiting Ramallah, she apologized to the Palestinians for her “cowardice” in not coming to that position earlier.
These were prominent Jews. But they echoed disturbance and fury among Jews all around the country over Israel’s behavior. Rabbi Brant Rosen of Evanston, Illinois, describes the process poetically. For years he’d had an “equivocating voice” in his head that rationalized Israel’s actions. “During the first and second intifadas and the war in Lebanon, I would say, ‘It’s complicated,’” he says. “Of course, Darfur is complicated, but that doesn’t stop the Jewish community from speaking out. There’s nothing complicated about oppression. When I read the reports on Gaza, I didn’t have the equivocating voice anymore.”
In the midst of the war, Rosen participated in a panel at a Reconstructionist synagogue in Evanston organized by the liberal group Brit Tzedek v’Shalom and read a piece from a local Palestinian describing her family’s experience in Gaza. “It was a gut-wrenching testimonial. It caused a stir in the congregation. Some people were very angry at me; others were uncomfortable but wanted to engage more deeply,” Rosen says. The rabbi has gone on to initiate an effort called Ta’anit Tzedek, or the Jewish Fast for Gaza. Each month over seventy rabbis across the country along with interfaith leaders and concerned individuals partake in a daylong fast in order “to end the Jewish community’s silence over Israel’s collective punishment in Gaza.”
Grassroots Jewish organizations have experienced a surge in interest since the Gaza war. The Oakland-based Jewish Voice for Peace has seen its mailing list double, to 90,000, with up to 6,000 signing on each month. Executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson says JVP is finding Jewish support in unlikely places, like Hawaii, Atlanta, South Florida and Cleveland.
Jewish youth have played a key role. A group of young bloggers, notably Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman and Dana Goldstein, have criticized Israel to the point that Marty Peretz of The New Republic felt a need to smear them during the Gaza fighting, saying, “I pity them their hatred of their inheritance.” Rosenberg is overjoyed by the trend. “None of them, none of them, is a birthright type or AIPAC type. You’d think that one or two would have the worldview of an old-fashioned superliberal on domestic stuff, pure AIPAC on Israel. But they are so hostile to that point of view.”
Dana Goldstein personifies this spirit. A 25-year-old former writer and editor for The American Prospect, she grew up in a Conservative community with close ties to Israel and has made her name doing political journalism. Years ago she vowed never to write about the Middle East; it was a thorny topic, and she felt nothing was to be gained by addressing it. But when Gaza happened, she felt she had to speak out. “The Israeli government is doing little more than devastating an already impoverished society and planting seeds of hatred in a new generation of Palestinians,” she wrote in TAP. Gaza was especially dismaying to her because Barack Obama’s election had felt like a new moment. “The Jewish community helped elect Obama, and Obama had a different way of talking about the Middle East,” she says. Mainstream Jewish organizations’ steadfast support for Israel’s assault seemed very old school to her.
In this sense, Gaza is the bookend to the 1967 war. Israel’s smashing victory in six days ended two decades of American Jewish complacency about Israel’s existence; many advocates for the state, including neoconservative Doug Feith and liberal hawk Thomas Friedman, found their voices as students at around that time. In the years that followed, American culture discovered the Holocaust, and the imperative “Never again!” gave rise to the modern Israel lobby: American Jews organized with the understanding that they were all that stood between Israel and oblivion.
“Younger people don’t have the baggage of 1967,” says Hannah Schwarzschild, a founding member of the new organization American Jews for a Just Peace. “They are applying what they’ve been taught about human rights, equality, democracy and liberal American Jewish values to Israel,” she adds, “and Israel-Palestine is moving to the center of their political world.”
The shift is most pronounced on campuses, where being pro-Palestinian has become a litmus test for progressive engagement. Last winter a battle over divestment from the Israeli occupation rocked Hampshire College, and many students spearheading the movement were Jewish. One of them, Alexander van Leer, explained his support for divestment in a YouTube video: “I spent last year in Israel, where I firsthand saw a lot of the oppression that was going on there. And it hurt me a lot coming from a Jewish background, where I’ve been taught a lot of the great things about Israel, which I know there are, but I was saddened to see the reality of it.”
The Hampshire students are part of an international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that demands Israeli accountability for human rights violations. “Gaza gave BDS a huge boost,” says Ali Abunimah, author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. “It is shifting power between Israel and Palestinians. It shows there is a price for the status quo.”
The growing impact of the BDS movement can be glimpsed in several recent events. Palestinian activists and Code Pink pressured the international human rights organization Oxfam to suspend the actress Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), who had been serving as a goodwill ambassador, over her sponsorship of Ahava, a beauty products company that uses materials from the occupied West Bank (Davis’s commercial relationship with Ahava came to an end soon thereafter). Under similar pressure, a Brazilian parliamentary commission said Brazil should have no part in a proposed agreement that would bring increased trade between Israel and several South American countries until “Israel accepts the creation of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.”
Then there was the Toronto International Film Festival in September, at which a number of prominent figures, including Jane Fonda, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Julie Christie and Eve Ensler, signed a declaration opposing the festival’s association with the Israeli consulate and a city-to-city program featuring Tel Aviv as part of a campaign by the Israeli government to “rebrand” itself after the Gaza conflict. The declaration read, in part, “especially in the wake of this year’s brutal assault on Gaza, we object to the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime.”
Not so long ago, “apartheid” was a hotly disputed term when applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now even advocates for Israel, such as entertainment magnate Edgar Bronfman and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, have warned that Israel faces an antiapartheid struggle unless it can get to a two-state solution, and fast. Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, says such statements are a sign that the BDS movement is gaining traction. “The Palestinian national movement does not have power,” she says. “BDS is the only source of nonviolent power and is leading to an increasingly sophisticated discourse, but it’s early days yet.” Vilkomerson of JVP sees hope: “I think [the sanctions movement] will lead Israelis to shift. People do not want to be pariahs.”
n short, the change in the liberal-left discourse has been remarkable. Illinois writer Emily Hauser says she sees it in her synagogue. People once turned their backs on her after she published op-eds assailing Israel over its actions during the second intifada. Today many thank her for voicing their concerns. “The suffering of the [Palestinian] people there is a very, very powerful thing for people to be talking about. The community as a whole is far less likely to throw you out,” she says.
What does all this mean for the US political institutions that affect Middle East policy?
There are signs Washington is feeling the changes. Several members of Congress visited Gaza, and some dared to criticize Israel. After Democrats Brian Baird, Keith Ellison and Rush Holt returned, they held a press conference on Capitol Hill led by Daniel Levy, a polished British-Israeli who has played a key role in the emergence of J Street. The Congressmen called for Israel to lift the blockade. After first-term Representative Donna Edwards visited Gaza and called for a vigorous debate about the conflict here, old-line lobbyists came out against her. But J Street rallied to her side, raising $30,000 for her in a show of support.
Alas, those are the highlights. There have been few other courageous profiles. President Obama tried to change the game by speaking of Palestinian “humiliations” in his June speech in Cairo and calling for a freeze in Israeli settlement growth as a condition for progress toward a two-state solution. But the Israeli government has defied him, secure in the knowledge that Jewish leaders in Washington will back it. Dan Fleshler, an adviser to J Street and author of Transforming America’s Israel Lobby, says he’s frustrated by the lack of movement. “What I predicted in my book–that Obama could lay out an American policy and if Israel was recalcitrant about it, and if he took Israel to task in a serious way, he would get enough political support–well, he hasn’t tried it yet.” Fleshler is hopeful that the call for a settlement freeze isn’t the last test. “Other tests are coming up.”
Another longtime observer of Jewish Washington says the only thing that’s really changed is the presidency. That’s big, but it’s not everything. “Obama is strong and popular (still). He has a majority in Congress. Many in Congress feel that their political fate depends on his success. That is what generates the change in atmosphere here. So yes, there is significant change. But I think it has to do more with the atmosphere created by Bush’s departure and by the new policies of Obama than with generational shifts in the way Jews view Israel or talk about Israel.”
And so when Obama has seemed to lose his nerve–say, when he helped to bury the UN’s Goldstone report, which said Israel committed war crimes in Gaza–there has been very little resistance in the Jewish community to his capitulations. When Netanyahu was reported to have maligned Obama aides David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel as “self-hating Jews,” there was little outcry in the American Jewish community. And when we asked Representative Steve Rothman, a liberal Democrat, whether he welcomed J Street, he said he didn’t know enough about the group to say, before reciting the same old mantras about the “Jewish state”: “It’s always good for more people to get involved to support America’s most important ally in the Middle East…. As our president and vice president have said, Israel’s national security is identical to America’s vital national security.”
This is the treacherous landscape that J Street has stepped into, where it has been outflanked on occasion by both the right and the left. During the Gaza conflict, it issued a statement condemning not only Hamas but Israel, too, for “punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.” It was a brave stance for a fledgling Jewish organization trying to build mainstream support, and it brought down the wrath of community gatekeepers. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote in the Forward that the statement displayed “an utter lack of empathy for Israel’s predicament,” calling it “morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve.” Ouch.
More recently J Street has tacked in the other direction. During the Toronto festival it quietly began collecting signatures for a letter blasting the protest as “shameful and shortsighted.” Although never released as a letter, the initiative didn’t endear J Street to the growing grassroots movement. Which is not to say that progressives are not hopeful about its emergence. Rosenberg points out that in its more than fifty-year existence, AIPAC never got the positive publicity J Street got after just one year–a long, favorable portrait in The New York Times Magazine. “All the constellations are coming together. [Executive director] Jeremy Ben-Ami and Daniel Levy have a plan and a message, and they know how to work the media,” he says.
J Street is trying to position itself so that it is the only game in town for liberal Jews, affording Jewish advocates for the two-state solution the big political tent they’ve been lacking to this point. Rabbi Yoffie, for instance, will be addressing the J Street national conference, overlooking his ferocious criticism of the organization in January. “Let’s have a broad and generous definition of what constitutes pro-Israel,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in explaining his pragmatic shift.
The conference is sure to combine culture, youth and politics in such a way as to make AIPAC look about as à la mode as the former Soviet Union. “This is a watershed moment in terms of how people look at institutions,” says Isaac Luria, J Street’s campaigns director. “The old legacy institutions are dying.” Nadia Hijab says this has been J Street’s main achievement, transforming the terrain for left-leaning Jewish groups by taking on the traditional lobby in the mainstream political arena, mobilizing money and message. “J Street is a positive development as an alternative to AIPAC,” Hijab says. “It’s not comparable to AIPAC yet, but in the American context it is very smart.”
Political dynamism is precisely what J Street hopes to display at its policy conference. Expected speakers include Senator John Kerry and former Senator Chuck Hagel; 160 members of Congress will serve as hosts for J Street’s first annual Gala Dinner. It might not rival the famous “roll call” of luminaries attending AIPAC’s annual conferences (more than half of Congress showed up last May), but it is an impressive show of firepower all the same.
The ultimate issue is whether J Street will have any effect in bringing about a two-state solution, an idea that, despite official support, has been neglected in Washington nearly to the point of abandonment. Dana Goldstein is thrilled by the possibility that the rubber will finally meet the road. “J Street has had a great influence on intellectual progressives in DC,” she says. “There is now a lobby group that engages ideas that have been out there without political will. They are the political arm to this movement.”
Some critics on the left argue that conditions on the ground have already made the two-state solution unreachable. There are more than 500,000 Israeli settlers occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with more arriving every day, and Gaza remains under siege. Add to this the political scene inside Israel, where Netanyahu has balked at Washington’s request for a settlement freeze, and you could say that in the sixteen years since the Oslo Accords were signed, the possibility of two states in historic Palestine has never been as far off as it is today.
Abunimah sees the new organization as having little impact. “A kinder and gentler AIPAC does not represent serious change,” he says. “J Street is supposed to represent a tectonic shift, but it operates within the peace process paradigm and doesn’t challenge it at all.” Still, J Street has clearly panicked conservative Jews. And the Israeli embassy fired a warning shot across J Street’s bow in October, when it warned that the lobby group was working against Israel’s interests.
For its part, J Street knows these are desperate times for the liberal goal of a two-state solution. As Israel becomes more and more isolated globally, the Israeli government and the traditional lobby have only gotten more intransigent. At the AIPAC policy conference last spring, its executive director warned that Israel’s enemies were establishing a “predicate for abandonment” that only AIPAC’s faithful could reverse. Don’t expect such hysteria at the J Street conference, but behind all the hoopla, the organization will similarly be trying to preserve the old ideal of a Jewish state. “Getting Israel another thirty F-16s won’t help us combat the legitimacy issue [with] people who are trying to undermine the right of Israel to have a state.” Luria says. “Jews need a state. And that legitimacy window–the cracks in that window are getting wider. They’re dangerous. Dangerous.”
About Adam Horowitz
Adam Horowitz is an editor of the website Mondoweiss, which covers the Israel-Palestine conflict.
About Philip Weiss
Philip Weiss is the author of American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps (Harper Perennial) and an editor of the website Mondoweiss, which covers the Israel-Palestine conflict. | <urn:uuid:65401eba-016f-406e-b961-9a7101024f56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcpj.org/blog/uncategorized/american-jews-rethink-israel/ | 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 | 0.962793 | 4,396 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Why didn’t I do it sooner? Well, some articles and news pieces are so ridiculous that you think it’s not even worth gracing with an answer but the question, “Are green smoothies bad for you?” has come up from enough coaching clients, and in my classes, that I think it’s time to give this topic its due diligence (if only to arm my readers and clients with science-based facts).
Like everything in life, there is a yin and a yang ; so for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
So for all the amazing press and popularity that has graced green smoothies lately, universal laws dictate that there must be an equal and opposite reaction: people who decide to say that green smoothies are (surprise) NOT good for you on the basis they have oxalic acid.
In fact, they even go as far to say that green smoothies can devastate your health (what?).
The reason? That green smoothies contain small – very small – amounts of oxalic acid, which is a completely natural toxin, found in many types of foods like meat and dairy, soy products, fruits and berries and – here’s where green smoothies enter – in dark leafy greens (for a complete list of oxalic content, visit here).
The worry is that oxalic acid contributes to kidney stones, since over 80% of kidney stones contain calcium oxalate.
Here’s the kicker though: most people who have kidney stones, have never even had a green smoothie! In fact, their diets were more traditional diets really high in animal products, like dairy and meat. But you don’t hear these same opponents to green smoothies telling you to cut down on meat and dairy, do you? Of course not!
The Contradiction of Science
Many of you know that the field of nutrition is simply in disarray. There are so many diets out there it is impossible to keep up with what is the “right” way to eat.
I always say that for any way you want to eat, you can find an equal number of proponents and opponents. The real issue is that there are many supposed “scientists” posing as qualified researchers when they are really just trying to sell a diet to make lots of money from it.
If you’ve been involved in raw food or plant-food movement for any amount of time, you’ve probably gleaned that we go against the grain (no pun intended). This isn’t a shared scientific consensus on the impact of a raw food diet over a lifetime (due to lack of studies) other than that small subsets of the raw diet, like fruitarianism, isn’t healthy in the long term but there are many promising studies that show how vegans, vegetarians and more traditional raw foodists are healthier (far and away the best resource for scientific sources of peer-reviewed literature on the raw and vegan diet is Becoming Raw by Brenda Davis.)
Here’s the funny thing though – despite all this nutritional battling – almost every group of experts: doctors, dieticians, health counsellors, naturopaths, nurses, agree that increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet is positively life-changing (supported by peer-reviewed scientific studies and literature).
In fact, too few of fruits and veggies reduce our longevity and increase our odds of disease (see veggies on this longevity clock here).
A definite downside of nutrition and scientific studies, though, is how we study nutrients, since science tends to prefer studying nutrients in isolation. But, in line with the universal laws, nothing in this universe occurs in isolation.
There is not one best vitamin or nutrient; foods are eaten together, not in a laboratory. Vitamin C isn’t better than Vitamin E. Additionally, scientific studies have shown that, largely, anti-oxidants consumed in isolation (as supplements) do not have the same positive effect on health, as when they are eaten as a part of a whole-foods diet. Go figure!
As well, many nutrients are considered toxic in large amounts (think Vitamin D and selenium, iron, oxygen – the list goes on and on). Does this mean we should avoid eating or breathing these things? Far from it!
In fact, the real kicker (did I have already one kicker in here? It’s just that kind of article), is that our very own bodies maintains a certain amount of oxalic acid and even converts Vitamin C into oxalic acid, so the notion that it is toxic to us in small amounts is simply ludicrous.
Let’s talk chimps
As a society, we suffer from having too few fruits and vegetables, not too many. A popular raw food argument holds that humans are designed to eat far more vegetables, in particular, dark leafy greens, because chimpanzees, who share 94-99% percent of the same genes as humans, eat the equivalent of 1-2 bunches of greens a day (or 40% of their entire daily diet!).
Why as humans, do we think we can live healthy and flourishing lives with barely any greens?
In fact, I’ve seen people lives changed for the better, radically transformed, by eating more greens, my own life included. We don’t see any chimps suffering from kidney stones, do we?
The simple truth of the matter is that there are people wishing to capitalize (i.e. make money from driving traffic to their website) from flashy false headlines that contradict what mother nature, common sense and what science has proved to be wonderful for our bodies, at the expense of people’s health.
While there are some extremely rare conditions (primary hyperoxaluria, enteric hyperoxaluria – and yes, you’ll already know if you have these) where people should reduce the level of high oxalate foods, the vast, vast majority of people will experience nothing but the most positive effects from green smoothies.
The hierarchy of greens
As I’ve always said at my classes and with clients, is to graduate from spinach and rotate your greens. Anyone who has been to my green smoothie class has seen my huge slide with a list of the vast range of greens to include in your smoothies.
Just like we’re supposed to eat from the rainbow (i.e. eat many different coloured fruits and veggies since they all have different vitamins and minerals), it’s also best to rotate your greens so you’re not always eating spinach (which is the green with the very highest oxalic acid content).
I always call spinach a starter green, precisely because it is smoother and more palatable for people just starting out with green smoothies.
For long term though, I always suggest upgrading to other types of greens like kale, as well as rotating, since you’ll have a better intake of iron (your body can’t synthesize iron from raw spinach because of the oxalic acid, which is why it is arguably the one raw vegetable that is healthier lightly steamed, as it increases the bioavailability of the iron).
In conclusion, if it feels good to your body, like if your energy is skyrocketing, your skin is glowing, you’re getting rid of constipation, you’re sleeping better, you’re losing weight, you’re just in a better mood (just some of the side effects of green smoothies), then don’t let any bloggers try to tear you down.
Common sense and intuitive eating will prevail above all of the “controversies” about eating what is right and nourishing for us.
What has been your experience with green smoothies? Have they changed your life or the life of somewhere below? Help me weigh in below!
© 2012 – 2013, ohmyraw!. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:e7ed448c-c336-4691-9d64-fd95e290981f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohmyraw.com/are-green-smoothies-bad-for-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954407 | 1,659 | 1.734375 | 2 |
US 5524460 A
The needles of a knitting machine are continuously monitored, during operation of the machine, by an optical head having a light source and an electro-optical receiver which receives the light beam from the light source after the beam has crossed the area of passage of the needles. The output signals from the receiver are sent to an electronic control unit.
1. A device for continuously monitoring the needles of a knitting machine during operation thereof comprising:
a detecting optical head having a main support structure;
a light emitting source and an electro-optical receiver mounted on said main support structure in spaced apart relation to define a detecting area therebetween which is crossed in sequence by the needles of the knitting machine during operation thereof;
first optical means coupled to said light emitting source for receiving and guiding light emitted by said source toward said electro-optical receiver across said detecting area;
second optical means coupled to said electro-optical receiver for receiving the light from said first optical means and guiding said light into said electro-optical receiver;
said first and second optical means being comprised of first and second planar optical guide means, respectively, each comprising a flattened plate of dielectric material having two parallel major surfaces, a light inlet surface and a light outlet surface disposed in planes orthogonal to said major faces, the light inlet surface of said first planar optical guide means being coupled to said light emitting source and the outlet surface of said second planar optical guide means being coupled to said electro-optical receiver, said inlet and outlet surfaces of said first and second planar optical guide means being rectangular whereby a light beam emitted from said first planar optical guide means and crossing said detecting area to said second planar optical guide means has a rectangular cross-section with substantially uniform distribution of light intensity throughout said cross-section; said electro-optical receiver being adapted to emit an electrical signal indicative of light energy received by said second planar optical guide means; said device further comprising an electronic control unit connected to said electro-optical receiver for receiving the signal emitted by said electro-optical receiver and processing said signal to detect a defective needle passing through the detecting area.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit further comprises:
extracting means adapted to extract from said signal emitted by said electro-optical receiver output signals relating to said needles independent from variations relating to environmental operations; comparing means for comparing said output signals relating to one of said needles with output signals relating to a preceding one of said needles which has already passed through the detecting area whereby the monitoring of the needles is independent from variations relating to the type and width of the needles, operating conditions of the knitting machine and initial calibrating operations of the device.
3. A device according to claim 1, further comprising support means for adjustably supporting said optical head on a fixed part of the knitting machine, said support means comprising a first element fixable on said fixed part of the knitting machine being adjustable in a first direction and a second element fixable on the first element being adjustable along a second direction orthogonal with respect to said first direction.
4. A device according to claim 1, wherein said main support structure has a bridge-like configuration with two side elements carrying said light emitting source and said electro-optical receiver, respectively.
5. A device according to claim 1, wherein said main support structure is located on one side of a path along which said needles move and a reflecting element mounted on the other side of said path for reflecting light energy emitted by said light source toward said electro-optical receiver.
6. A device according to claim 1, wherein said outlet surface of said first planar optical guide means and the inlet surface of said second planar optical guide means are disposed parallel to a main axis of the needle passing through said detecting area.
7. A device according to claim 1, wherein said optical head is inclined so that the light beam is disposed at an angle different from 90 respect to a main axis of the needle.
8. A device according to claim 1, wherein said optical head is rotated so that the light beam is disposed at an angle different from 90 respect to a path of travel of the needles through said detecting area.
9. A device according to claim 1, wherein said detecting head is provided with transmission and reception windows aligned with said first and second planar optical guide means wherein said transmission and reception optical windows are each provided with cylindrical surfaces.
10. A device according to claim 2, wherein said extracting means comprises means adapted to extract from said signal emitted by said electro-optical receiver timing signals indicating passage of said needles in a detecting area.
11. A device according to claim 2, wherein said extracting means comprises means adapted to extract from said signal emitted by said electro-optical receiver, at least an output signal whose level is a function of waveforms of said signal emitted by said electro-optical receiver.
12. A device according to claim 11, wherein said extracting means comprises filtering means of the low-pass type adapted to filter said output signal, said filtering means operating in a condition of difference of phase null in frequency to generate a filtered output signal.
13. A device according to claim 12, wherein said extracting means comprise envelope demodulating means adapted to demodulate said filter output signal to generated a demodulated output signal, said demodulated output signal being delayed by a time interval corresponding to the passage of at least one needle.
14. A device according to claim 12, wherein said extracting means comprises level translating means adapted to move the level of said demodulated output signal as a function of a sensitivity parameter which is prearranged by selecting means.
15. A device according to claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit comprises aiding means for checking the installation of the device.
16. A device according to claim 2, wherein said electronic control unit comprises a processing unit 44 receiving an input signal generated by said comparing means to control actuating means and display means.
17. A device according to claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit comprises communication means adapted to render accessible for outside devices inside signals of said electronic control unit.
18. A device according to claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit provides a signal indicating state of cleanness of the surfaces having receiving and emitting windows.
19. A device according to claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit further includes actuating means for automatically stopping said knitting machine if said signal indicating a state of cleanness of the surfaces having the receiving and emitting windows passes a predetermined level.
With reference to FIG. 2, reference numeral 6 generally designates an optical head forming part of the device according to the invention. The optical head 6 has a supporting structure 7 which is fixed to a part of the knitting machine by support means 9 which allow the position in space of structure 7 to be adjusted.
With reference to the specific example illustrated in the annexed drawings, structure 7 of the optical head 6 is connected to a fixed ring 10 forming part of the structure of a circular knitting machine, by means of an adjustment support 9.
The adjustment support 9 includes a first element 11 having a connecting portion 12 which has a slot 13 for engagement of a fixing screw 14. The arrangement of the slot 13 allows fine adjustment of the position of the connecting portion 12 along a radial direction indicated by arrow A. Element 11 on its turn comprises a guide portion 15 where is vertically slidably mounted a connecting portion 16 joined to the supporting structure 7 of the optical head 6. Elements 15, 16 have a hole 17 and a slot 18 respectively for engagement of a fixing screw 19. The slot 18 allows fine adjustment of the position of the optical head 6 in the vertical direction indicated by arrow B, before tightening of screw 19.
Naturally, the adjustment means 9 may have any other configuration adapted to allow a fine adjustment of the position in space of structure 7.
Also with reference to the specific example illustrated in the annexed drawings, structure 7 has a bridge-like configuration, with two side elements 20, 21 connected by a cross member 22. The optical head 6 is positioned in space so that it bridges the path P of travel of needles 1 of the knitting machine. Naturally, as it has already been mentioned, the configuration of support 9 of optical head 6 is chosen so as to allow said positioning by simple operations and to ensure that such positioning is kept with the time.
The configuration of support 9 is also chosen so that it may be adapted to the specific needs of mounting and installation required by the various types of knitting machines.
According to the conventional art, during operation of the machine, needles 1 are forced to move along path P and are simultaneously subject to a reciprocating movement which brings them to protrude periodically from the guide structure or to retract within such structure.
FIG. 2 shows the simplest case in which the needles are mounted on a single path P. However there are machines in which the needles are mounted along two separate paths. It is clearly appearent that the invention is applicable also to this latter case.
The optical head 7 carries a light emitting source which emits a light beam L in the direction of a detecting area 24 which is crossed in sequence by the needles 1 of the knitting machine during operation of the latter, and an electro-optical receiver which is located so as to receive the light beam L after that this has crossed the detecting area 24.
The electrical-optical receiver is able to generate, in a way known per se, an electrical signal indicating the received light energy, which is obviously a fuction of the quantity of light energy intercepted by the needle 1 which is at the detecting area.
The detecting devices of the transmission type require, for best performaces, that the light beam L which is used has an intensity distribution which is as far as possible uniform in the cross section orthogonal to the direction of view. Only with an intensity distribution of this type signal variations caused by an object interposed between the transmitter and the receiver are directly proportional to the fraction of the beam intercepted thereby, and may be directly associated with the shape of the object under examination.
In the case of detectors of the transmission type, according to the prior art, it is observed that the use of conventional electro-optical devices, having in some case emitting (receiving) surfaces whose shape is defined by means of diaphragms, does not allow a suitable distribution of the light intensity in the cross section of the light beam L.
In FIG. 13, there is shown a detector of the transmission type comprising two conventional electro-optical devices Tx and Rx, transmitter and receiver respectively, for example a L.E.D. and a phototransistor, with two diaphragms DF associated therewith in order to define the shape of a light beam having a cross section with a width indicated by D in the direction indicated by z in the figure.
In FIG. 14, there is shown the value Id of light intensity I, versus z, of the light beam of the device of FIG. 13.
As it may be seen, the distribution of intensity Id has a strong curvature and is far from the ideal distribution with uniform intensity shown with curve Ig.
A result similar to Id is obtained also with a conventional device configured as shown in FIG. 15, in which the light emitting source Tx is an unmasked L.E.D., which emits therefore a light beam with a cross section which is not rectangular, only a part of which is received by the optical window Rx.
The present invention provides a system to obtain a light beam L with uniform distribution and at the same time with limited cross-section, having therefore a light intensity distribution substantially similar to that shown with Ig in FIG. 14, consisting in the use of planar optical guides.
Planar optical guides are non-conventional optical devices, which have the property of affecting the light propagation between an emitter and a receiver so that the propagation takes place in a guided way according to the desired characteristics. The light guiding effect is obtained by the use of plates of dielectric material, having uniform thickness, which due to the property of optical restraint of the dielectric materials, allow a propagation of bidimensional type to be obtained. In particular, the side surfaces S of such planar dielectric plates may be used as surfaces for inputting and outputting light rays as shown in FIG. 16. By defining a suitable shape of such plates it is possible also to obtain a bidimensional propagation according to the desired paths and distributions.
In FIG. 17 there is shown a configuration of the light beam obtained by planar optical guides.
The planar optical guides, both for emitting and for receiving light, have emitting/receiving surfaces or windows W whose dimensions directly depend upon the average dimensions of the needles which are used. This characteristic is shown also in FIG. 3. In particular, the width D, along direction z, is preferably greater than the width of the stem 2 of the needles with respect to the direction of view and is also preferably lower than the distance between two adjacent needles. The height H of window W must be obviously greater of the portion h of the needle (visible in FIG. 3) to be put under observation.
Consequently, a transmitted light beam is defined having a cross section WL with the same shape and size of the surfaces W. In the cross section WL of FIG. 17 there is shown also the portion SA which is intercepted by a needle which is in the optical channel.
The beam emitted and received by surfaces W of the planar optical guides opens slightly in the plane xz of FIG. 17, as indicated by rays R while it remains collimated in the plane xy, and has a substantially uniform distribution.
Furthermore, the use of planar optical guides allows a more efficient use of the light source because the guided transmission brings on the receiver a much greater portion of the light emitted by the light source with respect to the conventional devices.
The electric signals generated by the electrical-optical receiver are transmitted by a line 26 to a control electronic unit 27, which will be now described with reference to FIGS. 10, 11 and 12.
Control unit 27 comprises an amplifier 32 having the function of amplifying the signal coming from the electrical-optical receiver in order to provide an output amplified signal Vin, shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, to the various functional units of the control unit 27. The two figures refer to similar sequences of needles, having different frequence and width.
A first functional unit comprises a lever comparator 33, and an envelope demodulator 34 which receive as an input the signal Vin and have their outputs connected to a correct-installation module 35 of which they are the inputs. As a function of the level and the envelope of the signal Vin, the module 35 for controlling the correct installation emits two outputs, 50 and 51, respectively, indicating the achievement, with respect to the installation of the device, of a correct level of the received signal, and a correct positioning of the optical head 7.
A second functional unit is provided to control that the needles 1 are faultless. This unit comprises a module 36, adapted to receive signal Vin as an input and to output clock signals CLK in synchronism with the waveforms Vin corresponding to the various needles.
These clock signals CLK, also visible in FIGS. 11 and 12, are used as inputs by three further modules of the unit: a single waveform extracting module 38, a low-pass filter 39 and an envelope demodulator 40. The single waveform extractor 38 also receives as an input the signal Vin and has the purpose of translating into a single level information the single waveforms produced by needles 1 and to emphasize the differences referring to a 0 level; its output is constituted by a signal Ve.
This signal Ve is subject to fluctuations typical of a sequence of unbroken needles mounted on a knitting machine. For this reason, it is necessary to filter signal Ve by a low-pass filter in order to reduce the chance of faulty detections. Filter 39 therefore has an input signal Ve and has an output signal Vf, visible in the figures.
Filter 39 also has the non-conventional characteristic to introduce a phase difference null in frequence, to allow the device to operate in a way independent from the frequence, without the need of adjustment from outside.
Signal Vf is a further input of the envelope demodulating module 40. The purpose of this module is to create an output signal Vinv which is substantially a level signal relative to the previous needle, in respect of the needle which is crossing the optical head 6.
As a matter of fact, the device according to the present invention does not perform the comparison of the needle under examination with a threshold fixed value during the installation, but rather with a threshold value obtained from the needles which have just crossed the detection area.
In this way, the result is obtained that the comparison check for locating any failure in the needles is no longer affected by speed variations, type of operation, vibrations or other disturbing factors. As a matter of fact, the device is continuously self-calibrating.
Signal Vinv goes into a module 43 whose purpose is that of generating an output signal Vref. Module 43 supplies the threshold for the comparison, i.e. the reference signal Vref, by multiplying signal Vinv by a sensitivity coefficient α, fixed in 45 at installation. Signals Vinv and Vref supply the level information used for the comparison, and such level is represented in FIGS. 11 and 12 by the dotted lines indicated by l and αl respectively.
The comparison between the needle presently being examined, or needle i, and the previous needle, or needle i-1, is carried out in module 42 which includes a level comparator.
The inputs of module 42 therefore are signal Vf, relating to needle i, coming from filter 39, and the reference or threshold signal Vref, relating to needle i-1, described above.
For each needle, comparator 42 then compares the two above mentioned signals; in case is Vf>Vref, the device proceeds in its checking function, naturally updating the two signal Vf and Vref relating to the next needle to be checked; in case is Vf≦Vref, comparator 42 will show, by its output Vn, that a faulty needle has been detected.
Output Vn is the input of a processing module 44, which, upon receiving an input signal Vn indicating a faulty needle, carries out the necessary operations which tipycally consist in stopping the knitting machine and activating a signal for the operator.
Such operations are carried out by modules 48 and 49 respectively, which are provided to this purpose.
The control unit 27 further comprises an auxiliary unit, essentially consisting of a module for controlling the configuration of needles 41. This module receives input signals Vin, Ve and Vf, which have been described above, and renders them accessible for devices outside the control unit 27 in order to let them be displayed or processed. Such outside devices can be for example an oscilloscope 47 or a suitably arranged personal computer 46.
FIG. 9 diagrammatically shows a further variant, in which the transmitting portion and the receiving portion lie on a same side with respect to the needles 1 to be observed. In this case, a mirror 28 is used to deviate the light beam coming from transmitter Tx after that the latter has crossed the detecting area, in the direction of receiver Rx. Such solution is preferred in those cases in which, for construction or dimensional needs, it is not possible to use the solution illustrated in FIG. 2.
FIGS. 4, 5 show two further variants which are characterised by a greater detecting sensitivity.
As apparent from FIG. 1, the failure of the needle can take place both along the curvature of the hook 3 (left portion of FIG. 1) and along the stem portion which is next to the hook (right portion). In order to detect also failures of the type illustrated in the left portion of FIG. 1, the optical head 6 can be inclined in the way illustrated in FIG. 4, so that the optical channel is not orthogonal to the needle direction. FIG. 5 shows another solution in which the optical head 6 is rotated in a horizontal plane, so that the direction of the optical channel is not orthogonal to the plane of the needles. In this way, the needle image along the direction of the optical channel is that illustrated in FIG. 6 which allows failures of the end portion of the hook to be detected.
Preferably, the control unit 27 is provided with display lights which make the installation of the device easier and correspond to the functions carried out by the correct-installation module 35 as previously described. In particular, control unit 27 may be provided with a first display light S1, indicating the light intensity of the optical channel used by the detecting head. This first display light corresponds to the level output 50 of said module 35. Due to the adoption of a detecting system having the characteristics described above, the said adjustment is totally independent from the type of knitting machine, the type of needles which are used and the needle width and in general from any particular characteristic of any operation going on. Furthermore, a second display light S2 is provided, which shows when the sensor has been positioned in the proper way with respect to the needle sequence. This second display light corresponds to the position output 51 of said module 35.
Also this display is totally independent from the type of knitting machine, the type of needles which are used, the width thereof and the particular features of the operation going on, as well as from said level display of the light intensity of the optical channel.
The two said displays S1, S2 allow the device to be installed properly, and also provide an instant by instant information, while the knitting machine is operating, on whether the light intensity of the optical channel and the positioning of the sensor remain correct, once the initial installation has been carried out.
Another drawback of the devices used up to now lies in that the knitting machines usually operate in difficult environmental conditions.
As a matter of fact, in the surrounding air, there is present a substantial quantity of textile particles of little size, generated by the working process. Furthermore, there are present particles of the oils for the lubrication of the moving parts. The flying fibers and the oil particles tend to form a sort of greasy felt on every surface of the textile machine, including the surfaces of the detecting head, so as to decrease the intensity of the light beam used for the needle detection, until the whole device is rendered inoperative.
The control unit 27 is also able to display (S3) any dimming of the sensor due to the deposit of impurities, so as to invite the operator to proceed with the removal of the undesired deposit. An essential feature of the control unit is its ability of continuing to operate properly for a long time from the moment in which the progressive dimming of the optical channel has commenced.
This feature allows the textile process to proceed undisturbed with no faults, and the operator to attend to cleaning of the sensor according to the usual timing of the general maintenance operations without that any exceptional or repeated intervention is needed.
The control unit 27 automatically provides to stop the machine on which it is installed as soon as the dimming of the optical channel has reached and passed an acceptable maximum value, so that it is no longer possible to ensure a proper operation of the system.
In this manner, one avoids uncontrolled production of textile with faults due to needle failures, which would represent a much greater damage with respect to a temporary stop of the process.
Thus, the operator is forced to proceed to the cleaning operations, which can be carried out in a particularly easy way, due to a further feature of the device according to the present invention which will be now described.
The undesired deposit of said particles is particularly relevant on the surfaces which have some discontinuance, as areas joining planar elements, edges, steps, etc.
Still a worse consequence is that unqualified personnel are not able to remove the undesired deposits in short time and easily from such discontinuous surfaces, as it is instead required by the continuous operation of the textile machine and the lack of specific training of the personnel.
According to the invention, the detecting head is so arranged as to have its transmission and reception optical windows not lying on a planar surface, but rather on a cylindrical surface, as that indicated by 30 in FIG. 8. This measure allows an easy removal of the undesired deposits by simply rubbing a rag 31, held on the back side of the portion to be cleaned, as illustrated in FIG. 8a. On the contrary, in the case of an edged shape (see FIGS. 7, 7a) it is not possible to carry out an easy clean operation since the rag 31 is not able to adhere effectively to the optical windows, because of the edges of the structure.
Naturally, the principle of the invention remaining the same, the details of construction and the embodiments may widely vary with respect to what has been described and illustrated purely by way of example, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention.
The invention will be now described with reference to the annexed drawings, given purely by way of non limiting example, in which:
FIG. 1 shows needle defects,
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a device according to the invention in a condition mounted on a knitting machine,
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view which shows the principle of operation of the device according to the invention,
FIGS. 4, 5 show two further variants of the device,
FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view which shows the principle of operation of the variant of FIG. 5,
FIGS. 7, 7a and 8, 8a are diagrammatic views which show a further detail of the device according to the invention,
FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic view which show a variant of the device according to the invention,
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the control unit of the device according to the invention,
FIGS. 11 and 12 are representations of the signals of the control unit of FIG. 10,
FIGS. 13 and 15 are diagrammatic views of two transmission-type devices forming part of the prior art,
FIG. 14 is a diagram which shows a feature of the transmission-type devices,
FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic view which shows the principle of operation of a component of the device according to the invention, and
FIG. 17 is diagrammatic view which shows the operation of the device according to the invention.
The present invention relates to knitting machines and particularly to devices for continuously monitoring the needles used in such machines.
FIG. 1 of the annexed drawings shows, by way of example, two typical failures of a needle of a type used in such knitting machines.
FIG. 1 shows a needle 1 of the so called "tab-type" or "automatic-type", comprising a stem 2 ending with a hook 3 and a tab 4 pivoted in 5 to stem 2 and movable between an open position, shown in the figure, and a closed position, in which it defines the needle eye together with the hook 3.
Such needles are subject to a continuous mechanical stress, due to the pulling action exerted by the needle on the yarn; this stress, which takes place with every action of the needle on the yarn, causes a fatigue condition which may lead to the failure of the needle. This failure usually takes place in the area of hook 3, as visible in FIG. 1, and may be preceded by a stage of relevant deformation of the shape of the hook, usually consisting in a torsion deformation and in an opening movement of the hook.
The failure of a needle of a knitting machine during operation thereof has the consequence of a production of faulty fabric due to the absence of the loop corresponding to the broken needle. This results in an economical damage which may be very relevant, considering the very high production speed of the piece or cloth of fabric by the machine, as well as the fact that quite often the faulty fabric cannot be used.
In the absence of automatic control devices, the production of the faulty fabric goes on until the fault is visually noticed by the machine operators. This happens with a delay depending accidentally upon various factors, since the operator usually attends to various machines and to various tasks on each machine, beside controlling the product quality.
In the endeavour to overcome this drawback, there have been provided devices for the continuous and automatic check of the needles during the operation of a knitting machine. Most of the devices which are being presently marketed are based on electro-optical techniques which exploit the principle of the optical reflection.
Devices of this kind are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,027,982 and 3,937,038.
Such reflection-type devices comprise a light emitting device, able to direct a light beam in the direction of a detecting area which is crossed in sequence by the needles during the operation of the machine, and a receiving device, which receives the light reflected by the needles. If the needles are not correctly positioned, are deformed or broken, the quantity of reflected light energy changes, and this is detected, at least theoretically, by the receiving device.
The electro-optical devices based on the principle of the optical reflection, however, have a number of drawbacks. First of all, installing the detector is difficult because of the need to search critical alignment conditions with respect to the path of the needles, conditions which may be kept with difficulty.
Furthermore, the device is not precise, since it tends to overview broken needles or to consider unbroken needles as being broken. Consequently, wrong decisions are taken in controlling the operation of the machine.
Finally, the performance of the device depends in an unacceptable way from the cleanness condition of the detector.
Solutions have also been tested based on the principle of the optical transmission, as, for example, the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,659,346 and 3,946,578.
For instance, the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,578 comprises a light emitting device, able to direct a light beam in the direction of a detection area crossed by the needles, and two (or more) receiving devices (or surfaces) which receive the light emitted by the emitting device.
The needles, travelling across the detection area, intercept part of the light directed towards the receiving devices. In this manner, such receiving devices are able to show when the respective portions of the detection area are crossed by each needle.
The detection of the faulty needles is made by checking that the needles cross all the portions of the detection area controlled by the receiving devices, in the correct time sequence. The detection is possible in fact due to the specific shape and arrangement of the receiving devices, which are such that the faulty needles do not cause a correct time sequence.
This detection system has drawbacks similar to those of the reflection-type devices. As a matter of fact, for a correct operation of the device, it is necessary that the configuration and installation of the detecting electro-optical devices are very accurate and designed specifically for controlling a given type of needles.
In this way, the operation of the device is very critical, particularly with respect to variations of position of the installed device, vibrations, as well as variations in speed or type of operation of the knitting machine.
These drawbacks of the devices of the prior art render the performance of such devices not fully satisfactory, and cause a decrease of such performance during the operation.
GB-A-1 186 985 discloses a device for continuously monitoring the needles of a knitting machine during operation thereof, comprising:
a detecting optical head, comprising a main structure carrying:
a light emitting source,
first optical means for receiving the light emitted by said source and guiding said light up to an emitting window, for emitting a light beam obtained thereby in the direction of a detecting area which is crossed in sequence by the needles of the knitting machine during operation thereof,
a receiving window which is located in such a way as to receive said light beam after that the latter has crossed the detecting area,
second optical means for receiving the light of said beam coming into said receiving window and for guiding said light up to an electro-optical receiver, said receiver being able to emit an electric signal indicating the light energy which comes to the receiver as being not intercepted by the needle which is at each time at the detecting area, and
a control electronic unit for receiving the signals emitted by said electro-optical receiver and processing such signals in order to detect any broken needle passing through the detecting area.
A device of this kind is generally able to select between broken and unbroken needles, but is not able to secure an information on the general configuration of the needle, so that unbroken needles which are nevertheless defective, such as bended needles, cannot be detected. Moreover, the control operation carried out by the electronic unit of this known device is based on a comparison between the output data relating to the needle which is being monitored and standard reference data, so that the monitoring operation may be affected by operating conditions of the machine.
The object of the present invention is to overcome all the drawbacks of the prior art.
The present invention is directed to a new and improved device for continuously monitoring the needles of a knitting machine during operation thereof, comprising a detecting optical head, comprising a main structure carrying a light emitting source, first optical means for receiving light emitted by said source and guiding said light up to an emitting window for emitting a light beam obtained thereby in the direction of a detecting area which is crossed in sequence by the needles of the knitting machine during operation thereof, a receiving window which is located in such a way as to receive said light beam after that the latter has crossed the detecting area, second optical means for receiving the light of said beam coming into said receiving window and for guiding said light up to an electro-optical receiver, said receiver being able to emit an electric signal indicating the light energy which comes to the receiver as being not intercepted by the needle which is at each time at the detecting area, a control electronic unit for receiving the signals emitted by said electro-optical receiver and processing such signals in order to detect any broken needle passing through the detecting area, said first and second optical means include planar-type optical guide means, each comprising at least one flattened plate of dielectric material having two parallel major faces, a light inlet surface and a light outlet surface which lie in planes orthogonal to said major faces, for guiding light rays, entering into said plate from said inlet surface between said major faces up to said outlet surface, said emitting and receiving windows are the outlet surface and the inlet surface of respective optical guide plates of said first and second optical guide means, wherein the light beam crossing said detecting area has a rectangular elongated cross-section and a substantially uniform distribution of the light intensity throughout this cross-section so that said signals emitted by said receiver contain not only information necessary to select between broken and unbroken needles, but also information on the general configuration of the needle which enables any type of defective configuration to be detected; said electronic unit comprising extracting means adapted to extract from said signals emitted by said electro-optical receiver output signals independent from variations relating to the environment of operation of the device; means adapted to compare said output signals relating to one of said needles with output signals relating to a preceding one of said needles which has already passed through the detecting area, so that the needle monitoring operation is independent from variations relating to the type and width of the needles, the operating conditions of the knitting machine and the initial calibrating operations of the device, said device further comprises support means for adjustably supporting said optical head on a fixed part of the knitting machine. | <urn:uuid:7de010ab-c964-4051-a08c-3307e89a850b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US5524460 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952066 | 7,411 | 1.6875 | 2 |
MOBILE, Alabama -- March 11, the day an earthquake and tsunami obliterated hundreds of miles of Japan’s eastern coast, 16-year-old Mobilian Mackenzie Pitcock was in Houston visiting family.
It was supposed to be a farewell visit before she left for a semester in Ichihara, Mobile’s Japanese sister city.
But as her friends there posted pictures of a burning oil refinery and other destruction elsewhere in the country, she knew her trip wasn’t going to happen.
“I knew I needed to do something to help, I just didn’t know what,“ she said.
Within a few days, Pitcock and the Mobile Ichihara Sister-City Association, with help from the city of Mobile and the Southwest Alabama Community Foundation, launched a grassroots effort to raise money for relief.
Six months later, the group met its fundraising goal of $50,000. The group announced its accomplishment during Tuesday’s Mobile City Council meeting.
Yuko Jordan, co-president of the association, was moved to the point of tears during the presentation.
Jordan lives in Mobile now but was born in Chiba Prefecture, the same political subdivision that includes the city of Ichihara.
“I’m not sure when the 700 miles of Japan’s eastern coast will return to the beauty that it’s known for,“ she said. “But I’m sure that your kindness will be part of the recovery.“
Takayoshi Sakuma, the mayor of Ichihara, thanked Mobile and its residents in a prerecorded video message.
More than 15,000 people were killed in the disaster, with thousands more still missing, he said. Luckily, Ichihara escaped the worst damage, Sakuma said.
The city is now home to many refugees who fled the towns and cities that took the brunt of the disaster, he said.
Cynthia Zipperly, Mackenzie’s mother and the chairwoman for the association’s fundraising committee, said that the city of Mobile’s donation of $10,000 was the single largest contribution.
The majority of the contributions, though, were small, individual donations, she said. | <urn:uuid:7f47aabc-4ede-468a-a8d0-b213109d23b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/live/2011/08/mobilians_raise_50000_for_sist.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965998 | 467 | 1.585938 | 2 |
27 November 2009
GENEVA -- The Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia, Dr. Shamsul Bari, on Friday condemned the series of stonings that have been taking place in Somalia, and called on all parties to immediately refrain from and abolish the practice of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments, including stoning, amputations, floggings, and other unlawful acts of torture and murder.
“I would like to extend my solidarity and sympathy to the Somali people in view of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country including the summary executions, floggings and stoning to death carried out in public by Islamist armed groups in South and Central Somalia,” Dr. Bari said.
On November 18, 2009, according to reports from a village near the town of Wajid, 400 km north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, a 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery was killed by Islamists in public. The woman was taken to an open area where she was buried up to her waist. She was then stoned to death in front of a crowd of about 200 people.
Earlier this month, a man was stoned to death for rape in the port town of Merka, south of Mogadishu, and in October two men are reported to have been executed after being accused of spying. Similar executions took place earlier in the year.
Under the Al Shabab group’s interpretation of Sharia law, anyone who has ever been married – even a divorcee – who has an affair is liable to be found guilty of adultery and punished by being stoned to death.
"I strongly condemn these recent executions by stoning in Al-Shabab-controlled areas of Somalia, including that of the woman accused of adultery in the Wajid area, and of Abbas Hussein Abdirahman in the town of Merka," Bari said.
He urged all Islamist groups, including Al Shabaab and other armed groups and religious leaders to abide by their international human rights and international humanitarian law obligations.
"I call on all relevant parties to immediately refrain from and abolish the practice of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments, including stoning, amputations, floggings, various other corporal punishments, and further unlawful acts of murder and torture which amount to crimes under the International Law," Bari said. "Today is the start of the Eid Al Adha, an extremely important event in the Muslim calendar. It is a good moment for all those in power who are inflicting suffering on individuals and, indeed, on the population in general, to reflect on how they can help people, in accordance with religious principles, rather than harm them."
He also urged the International Community to engage with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to identify priorities in terms of security, humanitarian and human rights and to strengthen the capacity of the Government to investigate human rights abuses and hold the perpetrators accountable.
"On the occasion of this important religious feast, the Eid Al Adha, I express my solidarity to all the victims and their families," Bari said. "This should be an occasion of piety and celebration. Instead, for them, it is marked with great sadness and loss." | <urn:uuid:4f9c0e27-2cbf-45d7-97a8-65409677dfa8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=9647&LangID=e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96951 | 665 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Friday, May 17, 2013
DEIR GHASSANEH, Occupied West Bank, May 17 (IPS) - A reddish-brown dome sits atop an ancient stone house, used hundreds of years ago for prayer. It peeks out from the surrounding trees as the rolling green valleys and hills of the central West Bank stretch out into the distance.
Friday, May 17, 2013
SOUTHERN LIBYA, May 17 (IPS) - Kaltoum Saleh, 18, is elated to graduate from her overcrowded high school in the remote Saharan town of Ubari, near the Algerian border.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
, May 16 (IPS) - Many eyes are turning north to the Arctic, some in horror at the rapid decline of a key component of our life support system, others in eager anticipation at the untapped resources beneath the vanishing snow and ice.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
MANAGUA, May 15 (IPS) - Mayangna indigenous communities in northern Nicaragua are caught up in a life-and-death battle to defend their ancestral territory in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve from the destruction wrought by invading settlers and illegal logging.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
UNITED NATIONS, May 09 (IPS) - The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania has long been a beacon of traditional culture to many Africans - and for Westerners on safari through Maasai Mara, Samburu or Amboseli, a familiar face.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
WASHINGTON, May 07 (IPS) - More than two dozen environmental organisations are urging California Governor Jerry Brown to disregard recommendations from a United Nations task force to include so-called forest "offsets" in the state's new emissions-trading scheme.
Monday, May 06, 2013
MEXICO CITY, May 06 (IPS) - Radio Totopo was founded in February 2006 in the Pescadores neighbourhood, the oldest and poorest part of the city of Juchitán in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. But the authorities closed it down in late March, even though Congress is debating a constitutional reform that would recognise community radio stations.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
WASHINGTON, May 04 (IPS) - A United Nations expert group is warning that too many gaps remain in implementing new safeguards among businesses based in the United States, both in terms of their domestic and international operations, to ensure the protection of human rights of workers and communities affected by those operations.
Thursday, May 02, 2013
QUITO, May 02 (IPS) - The Constitution of Ecuador adopted in 2008 establishes a broad range of rights for indigenous peoples and nationalities, including the right to prior consultation, which gives them the opportunity to influence decisions that affect their lives.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 30 (IPS) - Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez, like most citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, has probably lost count of the millions of dollars being spent to renovate the Greek revival style "Red House" that serves as the parliament building in the oil-rich twin island republic.
Powered by Inter Press Service | <urn:uuid:36e735f5-e14b-462f-919d-09c2c0bcf414> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalissues.org/news/topic/693 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938972 | 660 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Master of Education in Educational Leadership
The Educational Leadership program prepares candidates for leadership positions which include principals, assistant principals, and other building level leadership positions. Our innovative program began in the summer of 1996, and was developed collaboratively with practicing school administrators in Nebraska as well as uses recommendations from the National Policy Board for Educational Administration.
Why Choose Doane?
- You will be part of a cadre environment, a cohort group of students will take the two-year learning journey together. It will be summer-intensive, require considerable school involvement and weekend seminars. This support group builds relationship that will last a lifetime. For certain circumstances and needs, Directed Studies may be used as part of the program.
- Successful Nebraska school leaders share their unique approaches to leadership, student success and expertise.
- Doane EDL Instructors meet with each student in the school site.
- You will develop a professional portfolio, a useful tool and alternative assessment, used to highlight the learning, skills, and ability of each emerging leader.
- You will gain practical experiences connected to classroom learning and the school site. You will develop a plan that is individually designed to meet the learning needs and styles of the students and be focused upon gaining leadership experience. A minimum of 280 hours is required.
- You will be involved in a School Improvement Project completed during year two and is consistent to the continuous improvement plans required of each school in the state of Nebraska. The project trains you to integrate activities from each of the EDL Program Outcomes and lead a team in analyzing data, seeking best practices, and implementing and measuring best practices within the school setting.
- Every EDL course will require you to regularly write and submit reflections as a way to explore, self-analyze, and demonstrate an increased understanding of the complexities of leadership.
What skills do leaders need to make a difference in school?
As a graduate student, you will answer this core question through a series of integrated courses and experiences focusing on the various dimensions of school leadership in K-12 schools.
- Lessons with successful regional leaders who share their unique approaches to leadership, student success and expertise.
- A complex understanding of the role of leaders through classroom learning, field experience, reflective activities and action-based research.
- How to manage change and create collaborative action on behalf of teaching and learning.
The graduate programs are fully accredited by the North Central Association, the State of Nebraska and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). | <urn:uuid:9ca73722-2e18-4d88-98a0-81b9d472df88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doane.edu/master-of-education-in-educational-leadership | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944302 | 510 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Give them points for thinking outside the box. Legislators in the 9th District have come up with a novel way to spend Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funds - building an exit on the Garden State Parkway.
For many years after the CRDA was established in 1984, figuring out ways to spend CRDA money was one of the most popular sports in the state. Casinos contribute 1.25 percent of annual gross revenue to CRDA projects. Public officials throughout New Jersey saw the CRDA funds as a pot just waiting to be raided, and millions of dollars were spent to build art centers, business parks and museums in various towns.
Every one of those projects had someone behind it arguing that it was worthwhile. And every one of them spent money that could have been used to revitalize Atlantic City.
In 2010, when Gov. Chris Christie and the state Legislature made a commitment to help re-energize the casino industry and the city by streamlining regulations and creating the Tourism District, one of the key strategies was to keep CRDA money in Atlantic City.
Now, just two years later, Republican lawmakers Sen. Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove, whose district includes Galloway Township and Port Republic, have introduced legislation that would allow CRDA funds to be spent outside the city - to build a full parkway interchange at Exit 40, where the parkway crosses Route 30, also known as the White Horse Pike.
There's nothing wrong with Connors, Rumpf and Gove pushing for that interchange. At recent hearings on parkway projects at nearby Exits 41 and 44, residents told the New Jersey Turnpike Authority that a full interchange at Route 30 is overdue.
Those residents argued that easier access from the parkway could help businesses along Route 30. And, although Route 30 is one of the main roads into Atlantic City, currently there is no way to access the road if you're driving north on the parkway. (Locals drive past Route 30 and turn around at the parkway rest area near Jimmie Leeds Road.)
Likewise, if you're driving west from Atlantic City on Route 30, there's no way to head south on the parkway and pick up the Atlantic City Expressway.
So a full interchange is very likely a good idea, but giving CRDA money to the Turnpike Authority to build it is not.
The authority has already said it will take another look at traffic studies near Exit 40 to see if a full exchange makes sense. The authority is well-practiced at evaluating such proposals, and, if they are warranted, it has a healthy stream of toll revenue to pay for them.
The last thing we need to do is start raiding CRDA funds again for projects outside Atlantic City.
So please, lawmakers, in efforts to be responsive to your constituents, feel free to lobby the Turnpike Authority. But keep your hands off CRDA funds. | <urn:uuid:fba4a26d-0614-4a50-9a2c-112821c464c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/crda-money-for-parkway-keep-funds-in-a-c/article_3b131354-840a-58d1-864c-6482f92afddd.html?mode=story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968021 | 610 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Scottsdale-based Axosoft is a Small Tech Company with Big Culture - AZ Tech Beat
Like his company, CEO Hamid Shojaee packs a bigger punch that he lets on. Standing next to him, you get the impression that his ideas are probably much bigger than he is, and that’s just fine for companies like Verifone, Lego, 3M and even NASA. That’s because these companies use Axosoft OnTime to plan and develop their own world-class products and services. Seeing the scale of the companies that trust Axosoft’s scrum software, it’s safe to say that the company’s future is looking bright.
What is Scrum?
Scrum started in 1986 with a paper by Harvard professor Hirotake Takeuchi. In it, he proposed a new and agile product development methodology that questioned the supremacy of command-and-control management. Scrum is about getting your product from idea to market using a collaborative approach. One dev team handles all phases of project development from top to bottom, start to finish. Professor Takeuchi described it succinctly 26 years ago, “Go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth.”
Building Software for Software Development
Scrum is about organization, efficiency, and teamwork. Obviously, its employees should be tightly-wound, oily-haired, bowtie-wearing, nerds, right? Well, apparently not – at least, not in Axosoft’s case.
Axosoft is not a run-of-the-mill company. For example, Shojaee rides to work on a Segway PT, he shares his workspace with 5 other employees, and he’s the type of boss that would goad a software engineer into a pushup contest before yelling at him for missing a deadline. Axosoft embodies the core ideals of scrum: teamwork, efficiency, and leadership. “We are software engineers to the core,” Shojaee explains.
Stepping into Axosoft’s corporate offices feels like crossing the plane from what typical office reality is, into how things should be. There are no cubicles and the employees work in team workrooms designed for 6 people each. People are welcomed into these through floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Each room is named after an important historical figure in science or engineering. Nobody has an office.
Instead of breaks, the engineers have Nerf battles with each other (which they later post on YouTube). Company meetings are often held in a kitchen with a dining area that is comfortable, inviting, and often the hub of interesting conversations. By all measures, Axosoft focuses as much on cultivating its own culture as it does on building world-class software.
That’s not bad for a company that started as a single-employee outfit in a home office just 10 years ago. Even more impressive is the fact that Axosoft has grown, organically and profitably, into a 30-employee organization without any outside funding.
In an open letter written to mark Axosoft’s ten-year anniversary, Shojaee had no qualms about honestly assessing its state of affairs. “Our pricing is confusing and not exceptionally cheap,” he confessed in March, 2012. “In the past, OnTime’s user interface was not fast or easy.” Shojaee explained how this realization allowed the company to reinvent the product and release its latest software addressing these issues.
Shojaee had no incentive to offer constructive criticism of his own product – when the letter was written, sales were still at record levels and Axosoft was continuing on a growth path, but he was being pragmatic about the company’s future.
It was also in this letter that Shojaee proposed the company’s simple $7 plan for all its SaaS offerings. This, he said, made pricing, “exceptionally attractive and simple.” The idea is that each SaaS product (Scrum & bug tracking, Help Desk, and Team Wiki), would be $7 per user, per month, per product (with an even more attractive price point for small teams of 10 or fewer members).
Since the announcement of its $7 plan in April of this year, Axosoft’s new customer rate has grown by more than 400%! Yes, Shojaee’s gamble to reinvent the company and lower its pricing drastically has yielded impressive results.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
In addition to showing the nimbleness of a startup with its change in pricing strategy, Axosoft continues to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in other ways:
30-Day Projects – Every year, after a major release of OnTime, the Axosoft dev team turns their attention working on new products that help them learn new technologies. The devlopers choose their own projects and go at it. When they return to working on OnTime, they report having renewed focus and energy for their flagship product and they bring with them some new knowledge to add to their tool bag. This year they are doing things slightly differently and have already announced one of the products.
TransferBigFiles – What started as a weekend project eventually turned into a file transfer service with thousands of customers and over 20,000 Facebook fans, so far.
AZ Disruptors – In an attempt to provide another spark-point for the Arizona software community, Shojaee and a few Axosoft employees started AZDisruptors as a YC-style accelerator that provides funding, workspace and mentoring.
AZ Tech Beat – This blog is another way that Axosoft is giving back to the tech community, and attempting to shine a light on the amazing software startups and resources we have all around us.
More About Axosoft
As Axosoft evolves, Shojaee expects that the company will maintain its focus: design great products that are easy to use and cheap. He calls it the “Sweet Spot” of product development.
# of employees: 30
Funding: Self-funded, no outside investments to date
Founder: Hamid Shojaee (@hamids)
Websites: axosoft.com • ontimenow.com • transferbigfiles.com
Phone: (800) 653-0024 • (480) 362-1900
Headquarters: 13835 N Northsight Blvd • Suite 205 • Scottsdale AZ 85260
Disclosure: We thought it noteworthy to mention that Axosoft is the financial backer of AZTechBeat.com. | <urn:uuid:36803661-5902-41a5-bc5c-f9dfbd8b7aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aztechbeat.com/2012/07/scottsdale-based-axosoft-is-a-small-tech-company-with-big-culture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958511 | 1,380 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Do you know that Kaiser has similarities to the new Health Savings Account that was incorporated in the expanded medicare prescription drug law signed by U.S. President George W. Bush last December 8, 2003?
In a special report of the November 8, 2004 Business Week Issue U.S. Edition, the health savings accounts legislation will give employees more choices in the use of their unutilized medical insurance and tax cuts.
Under the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization of 2003, Health Savings Accounts will be created for employees who are now covered by traditional HMO or medical insurance plans offering a network of doctors or providers. The HMO plan which is normally shouldered by employers will now be shared with employees on co-pay arrangement.
Depending on the company's policy on employee benefits, the worker gets to choose his own physician without the restrictions imposed by HMO-type plans. If the employee has a health savings account, he may use it to pay smaller covered medical expenses. What is not used in the account each year stays in the account or depository bank and continues to grow interest until his retirement years.
The health savings feature of The Kaiser Premium Health Builder is advantageous for employees and even self-employed workers since the plan is so portable that it goes with you for whatever career moves and residential relocations you may undertake.
At Kaiser, we shall serve as your fund managers as long as you are actively enrolled with us! | <urn:uuid:733cd158-a3d0-4859-9f3e-d8f84a8f98ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaiserhealthgroup.com/new.php | 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 | 0.972924 | 292 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Shhhh ... Some secrets you might need to keep
Strangers often trust Edward with their secrets, whether it be on planes or walking down the street. He even became a confidant in one place that he doesn't want most people to know he spent time: prison.
Edward's biggest secret is that he is a convicted felon, having been arrested twice for driving under the influence of alcohol. The second time, he spent 90 days behind bars contemplating his life.
Those reflections helped him make better life choices in the 10 years that have gone by since, he says. But he belongs to a professional organization that would boot him immediately if anyone there ever found out about his conviction, and he still fears that someone in it will discover what he's hiding. Edward, and the others who agreed to speak about their personal experiences for this article, asked that their real names not be used to protect their identities.
"It's not shame that's the reason I'm holding secrets in, especially with the DUI," says Edward, 35, who lives in the Midwest. "It's more about, I don't feel like getting into the story again to have to explain why I'm not your typical felon" -- a violent or sexual offender.
While he says he feels no guilt or shame about his criminal record, he laments he can probably never run for public office because his secret would emerge.
People keep secrets for all kinds of reasons.
Sam von Reiche, psychologist and success coach located in northern New Jersey, believes everyone has secrets to some extent.
"We all end up with some sense internally that we've done something wrong, or that there's something wrong about us and a little deceptive," she said. "I think that's just part of the human condition."
Generally, says von Reiche, "secrets do create a lot of separation from other people, and they also prevent you from feeling truly authentic." But psychologists say there are also situations where it might be better to withhold information from people, even close friends, if the revelation of secrets would cause more pain to you and others.
Nancy, 21, is still dealing with her feelings toward her ex-boyfriend, who physically abused her. They were together for four months in college and then broke up -- at least, that's what Nancy's friends thought.
But secretly, Nancy went back to him after one week. She didn't want her friends to know because she knew they would think it was a bad idea.
"I was just convinced that he was going to change, and it was my fault," she said.
But he didn't change. Three months later, Nancy's relationship ended when, she says, she had to call the police because of his abuse.
Nancy, who also lives in the Midwest, has seen a therapist, but secretly longs for her ex despite the abuse. She found a website called Secret Regrets where people can anonymously share situations that no one knows about.
"I regret not being able to let you go," Nancy wrote in a post. "I came back to you for the second time when I knew exactly what was going to happen."
Kevin Hansen, who founded Secret Regrets, has collected about 25,000 confessions from people who are hiding something from a lot of people. The sentiment among many of them, he says, is "nobody else could possibly understand what I'm going through, so I'm not going to tell anyone." Anonymity makes it more comfortable.
Hansen "has always been passionate about helping people," according to the website. He studied psychology and human behavior while earning a business degree, "and now, he's discovered an amazing way to reach people struggling with the biggest regrets of their lives, and connect them with others who know what they're going through."
The feedback from other anonymous users has helped, Nancy said. Some of the messages said things such as "you got out a lot sooner than me."
Anyone who has secrets about abuse should seek professional help, says Bobbie McDonald, a psychologist in Newport Beach, California. Revealing details of an ongoing situation can be risky, as an abuser's behavior can be unpredictable. A counselor, psychologist or expert at a hotline can help put the person in touch with the right resources.
Irene, 23, found out she was pregnant in August 2009. Her boyfriend at that time didn't want her to keep the child. Initially she wanted to go forward with the pregnancy, though she later changed her mind.
Irene, who lives in the South, didn't tell anyone in her family about the pregnancy until after the fact. Her mother didn't speak to her for two weeks, but eventually calmed down, she said.
Everyone she has told has been supportive about it, but it's not something she shares with everyone. Her grandparents, for instance, still don't know. Like Nancy, she found support on the Secret Regrets website, where women in their 60s tell her things will get easier with time.
The pregnancy and abortion used to be a source of shame, and Irene used to cry about it a lot. These days, she is able to tell herself that she made the right decision. She was able to finish school and move on from a dysfunctional relationship with her former boyfriend.
"Self-forgiveness is always critical to helping someone move past whatever secret that is," von Reiche said. She sometimes gives clients take-home exercises -- write down 15 reasons that you forgive yourself, for example.
The skeletons that Rachel keeps in her closet are actually costumes. Tucked away in her studio apartment are a wolf's head and a full leopard outfit.
Rachel, 26, doesn't want her co-workers to know that she's a "furry."
Portrayals in popular culture may suggest the furry movement is about having sex in animal costumes, but for some people that's not part of it at all, she said.
Individuals may define "furry" differently, but in Rachel's view, furry fandom consists of people who enjoy cartooning, fantasy and humanized creatures. It's a way of identifying yourself through animal characteristics, she said, and some furries just appreciate the artwork.
Rachel herself lives in the Midwest and is an artist on the side, drawing humanized animal characters. She particularly identifies with the hyena that she draws a lot.
As much as she enjoys going to furry conventions, she tries to keep that under wraps at work. She's a manager at a Web software company and wants to maintain a certain level of professionalism.
"If people knew I had this whimsical side that likes to dress up and goof off, and that I draw cartoons in my spare time, that might seem kind of off-kilter," she said.
It's important for people to be comfortable and confident with all parts of themselves, McDonald says. But there are situations where revealing part of your identity would do more harm than good.
"It can be unhealthy to reveal certain parts of ourselves if there are people close to us that would be very unaccepting of it, because of the pain and the separation that that would cause to reveal that," McDonald said.
"My biggest regret is that I ever started cheating on my husband," says a post on the Secret Regrets site. "Every time I do it, I say it's the last time, but it never is. I don't know how to stop, and I feel so guilty about it."
It's a secret that psychologists often hear -- that someone has cheated on a spouse.
If it's a one-time transgression -- perhaps a fling on a business trip -- it might be worth keeping that a secret from your partner, said Karen Sherman, a psychologist in Long Island, New York.
Some therapists might say honesty is important if there is to be healing in the relationship, Sherman said. But her own view is that it depends on the individual case. "Sometimes there really is more damage caused by telling it," she said.
However, if you're involved in an ongoing affair and living a duplicitous life, you should end one relationship or the other, McDonald said. "I think it's important to really take the time to introspectively look at all aspects of your situation."
The purpose of secrets
Shame, fear of embarrassment or fear of not being accepted often are the motivation behind keeping something secret.
But the anxiety that comes with some secrets isn't entirely bad, von Reiche said. Like nausea, "anxiety is your mind's way of telling you that something you are carrying needs to be purged," she said.
In other words, you may feel better if you get it out in a safe place, such as by confiding in a trusted friend, family member, community leader or mental health professional.
Therapists will keep your secrets except under certain conditions, such as if you are endangering yourself or others -- that's mandated by federal and state laws. If you are having suicidal thoughts, this is not a secret you should be alone with. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
But the main message in many of these scenarios is that you should weigh the consequences -- both to you and someone else. Think about whom you tell, how that person will react and whether you will both be better off.
"If the world were ready to be accepting of everyone, it would be a better place," McDonald said. "In an ideal society, we would have no secrets. Do I think that's likely in your lifetime or my lifetime? No."
Are you holding on to a secret? Tell us in the comments.
Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:876f3736-0375-49cb-adf1-a0b6d068ab58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/news/health/Shhhh-Some-secrets-you-might-need-to-keep/-/11788012/17279094/-/view/print/-/tahis/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983667 | 2,013 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Dakota County Technical College
1300 145th St. E.Rosemount, MN 55068Toll-Free: (877) 937-3282Local: (651) firstname.lastname@example.orgRequest information
This program is offered at the following locations:
Dakota County Technical College55068
The Energy Technical Specialist A.A.S. is a degree that has been developed using funding from a U. S. Department of Labor High Growth Job Training initiative Grant. The goal of the degree is to train students in the field of energy technology. Due to the increasing age of the current energy workforce and the growth of the renewable energy industry, it is estimated that there will be a great demand for skilled workers in the energy industry. The energy Technical Specialist, A.A.S. degree will convey the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in both traditional and renewable energy fields. The degree will prepare students for work (primarily as technicians) in the following industries: coal-fired electric power generation, natural gas distribution, ethanol production, biodiesel production, wind turbine maintenance or solar energy.
DCTC offers this additional focus for students wishing to pursue training as nuclear energy maintenance technicians that meets the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) standards. It is the goal to have the graduates of the Energy Technical Specialist A.A.S. degree and the nuclear energy advanced training to meet the Nuclear Energy Institutes (NEI) standards. These graduates will have the skills and knowledge necessary to obtain entry-level employment in the nuclear energy industry. This program will utilize the Uniform Curriculum Guide, which was developed as part of an industry-wide workforce strategy to standardize curriculum and increase efficiency of new and qualified nuclear workers focused on maintenance and non-licensed operators. | <urn:uuid:a627771e-9086-4a71-841c-a27f3b58c7e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mnscu.edu/collegesearch/index.php/program/profile/70007996/0211/modal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932945 | 368 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Does it surprise you that many federal agency employees still manage their documents by printing them out and placing them in filing cabinets?
Several years ago, it was that antiquated practice that made Rodger Matthews Sr., a Department of Agriculture official, determined to push for change in the Department's Risk Management Agency (RMA), which deals with crop insurance and related programs.
"We had filing cabinets everywhere, and we were running out of space," recalls Matthews, associate deputy administrator for product management. "We got requests for more filing cabinets, and we just decided that was enough."
"We didn't even have a records officer then," Matthews says. "We started working with our chief information officer at the time on our own records management system and hired a records officer to come in. We had to crawl, then walk, then run."
The RMA is in a much better position now in terms of its records management and retention. In fact, the agency won an award from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 2011 for its deployment of a SharePoint electronic recordkeeping solution for more than 500 users in 27 locations around the country.
But many federal agencies are still struggling with enterprise records management. For the last three years, NARA, which is charged with getting federal agencies to do a better job of satisfying their legal obligations concerning storage and discovery of their electronic business documents, has required agencies to complete self-assessment surveys. The findings reveal specific areas of weakness that the majority of federal records management programs have in common.
Following the 2009 survey, KMWorld interviewed NARA officials (kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/Many-federal-agencies-struggle-with-records-managementSome-fall-short-on-basic-infrastructureand-training-survey-finds.-69505.aspx) about the results, which found that one in six federal agencies had not established the basic infrastructure of a records management program. Additionally, 40 percent of agencies had not conducted a recent evaluation of their records management program.
Flash forward to 2012, and NARA has completed its third such assessment. The report finds that "agencies still struggle to manage a voluminous amount of textual records while simultaneously facing the technological challenges of preserving records created and maintained in electronic format."
No dramatic changes
This year's survey (see downloadable charts) may carry more weight because it is reinforced by a November 2011 presidential memorandum on managing government records that requires each agency to designate a senior official to supervise an evaluation of the agency's records management program. The memorandum also requires agencies to report to NARA on improvements in the management of e-mail and social media, and when agencies deploy cloud-based services or storage solutions. (NARA is currently reviewing those plans in order to formulate a new records management directive.)
Donald Rosen, director of policy analysis and enforcement in NARA's Office of the Chief Records Officer, notes that the rankings agencies are given based on their self-assessment responses haven't changed dramatically. Although the number of agencies rated as at low risk of improper disposition of records has improved from 5 percent to 10 percent, "the same areas of weakness remain," he says.
NARA notes that some agencies are using the results of the self-assessment to improve their records management programs. Several agencies have established sophisticated metrics for their records management programs, a practice NARA has encouraged. "We want them to do more evaluation, and more inventory of their resources," Rosen says. Agencies can do internal audits to monitor how much training is taking place. "They can use the findings of this survey as a starting point," he adds. "It is designed to help them isolate the issues. And there are always new issues cropping up, such as cloud computing and social media."
Training is key
One of the cornerstones of records management is regular training. Most enterprise records management systems require employees to enter metadata about documents to make them more readily retrievable. Rosen says that staff members don't have to become IT gurus, but they do have to understand how policies and procedures apply to them as they move into the realm of electronic documents. The surveys have shown that most agencies have records management training programs in place. Seventy-four percent of the respondents said they have developed agency-specific training for all personnel, and 62 percent said they provided annual training sessions.
Training for senior officials, however, continues to be a major weakness. Twenty-three percent of respondents said they do not provide records management training for senior officials. "It is very important that the senior officials get the training," Rosen says, "not just for their records, but so they understand the importance of this and make it a priority in their agencies."
Another challenge for records management executives is participating in the design, development and implementation of new electronic systems. Only 16 percent of federal agency records officers answered that they always participate in that process, while 43 percent said they are rarely or never involved. "Records managers are getting better at working with IT staff," Rosen says. "Sometimes they are located physically within the CIO's office."
Living within the budget
One CIO who has worked hard on records management systems is Doug Bailey of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. AMS provides grading services, market news reporting, school lunch purchase programs and a national organic program.
When Bailey arrived at AMS several years ago, no electronic records system was in place. "It was print it out and put it in a file," he says. "We have to meet these federal requirements about disposition of electronic records." Yet, buying a large enterprise system was not really an option. "We run a lean operation based largely on user fees. We try to be frugal," he explains. | <urn:uuid:760b6ce8-abd8-4cd6-b337-1791d88afd56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Features/Surveys-continue-to-show-weaknesses-in-federal-records-management-84536.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97118 | 1,195 | 1.609375 | 2 |
WASHINGTON—The federal government, along with the state of Connecticut, has reached three related settlements with numerous responsible parties to ensure funding for environmental clean up activities at the Solvents Recovery Service of New England Superfund (SRSNE) site in Southington, Conn., the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced.
The site is the former location of a solvent recycling and resale facility that disposed of solvent-laden sludge in lagoons or open pits for 36 years. The distillation process that the facility undertook caused heavy groundwater contamination. EPA has been conducting various cleanup activities at the site and has accumulated significant costs.
As a result of today’s settlements, EPA will receive payments totaling more than $6 million in reimbursement for past costs incurred by the federal government’s clean up actions. In addition, settling parties under the three decrees will pay about $200,000 to resolve federal natural resource damage claims and more than $2 million to resolve natural resource damage claims of the state of Connecticut. The $2 million payment will go to the Southington Water District to reimburse the district for costs incurred finding an alternate drinking water source as a result of the contaminated groundwater. The settlements will allow cleanup work to proceed without further costs being borne by taxpayers.
Under the first settlement, a group of 59 potentially responsible parties has agreed to perform the site-wide cleanup, estimated to cost approximately $29 million. These parties will perform the work under the oversight of EPA and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and will pay EPA and the state’s future oversight costs.
Under the second settlement, 213 “de minimis” parties have settled their potential liability for cleanup costs at the site by making cash payments. Only those parties that sent relatively small volume of waste to the site at the time that it was operating were eligible to join this settlement.
Under the third settlement, one potentially responsible party, M. Swift & Sons, Inc., will make a payment based on the company’s limited financial ability.
Under the terms of the cleanup settlement, the settling parties have agreed to implement the September 30, 2005, “Record of Decision” that outlines EPA’s clean up plan for the site. The remedy includes heating, capturing, and treating waste oils and solvents in the subsurface; excavating, consolidating, and capping contaminated soil and wetland soil onsite; and continuing to pump and treat contaminated groundwater. There will also be restrictions on uses of the site property and groundwater, and long term monitoring of the cap and groundwater to ensure that the cleanup remains protective of human health and the environment for the future.
“Many years of cooperation between all levels of government and concerned parties have led to today’s agreements and, as a result, this site will be cleaned up,” said Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“This marks the beginning of a new chapter at the Solvents Recovery site,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “These settlement agreements clear the way to design and implement a final cleanup plan for the site, for the benefit of the community.”
From 1955 to 1991, SRSNE operated as a spent solvent processing and reclamation facility at the site. Millions of gallons of waste solvents and oils were handled, stored and processed at the facility. Past operating practices, such as the use of sludge lagoons and a leach field, contributed to contamination at SRSNE and surrounding properties. Poor housekeeping from a variety of practices, including the unloading and loading of tank trucks, the transfer of spent solvents to storage tanks, and as the improper handling and storage of drums, resulted in numerous leaks and spills to the bare ground and into the underlying aquifer. The area near the site is a mixture of commercial, light industrial, residential and agricultural uses. The facility is located approximately 500 feet to the west of the Quinnipiac River.
The presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in drinking water forced the closure of the town of Southington's Production Well No. 4 in 1976, and Production Well No. 6 in 1979. Subsequent environmental investigations revealed that SRSNE was a major source of VOC contamination to the groundwater in this area.
From 1983 to 1988, EPA and the state of Connecticut took enforcement actions to compel SRSNE to clean up the facility and its operations. SRSNE failed to comply with these enforcement efforts and shut down in 1991. In 1992, EPA removed soil contaminated with VOCs and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a drainage ditch along the eastern side of the operations area. Chemicals stored on site also were removed.
From 1995 to 2005, the Potentially Responsible Parties' Group (businesses and individuals that sent waste material to SRSNE) installed and operated a groundwater and containment system for the overburden and bedrock aquifers. The combined system has extracted and treated more than 85 million gallons of contaminated groundwater to date and has removed an estimated 12,500 pounds of VOCs. In addition, the group has completed various investigations and studies, constructed a wetland in the flood plain of the Quinnipiac River adjacent to the site, and decontaminated, demolished and removed all the original buildings and tanks in the former operations areas of the site.
The proposed consent decrees, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, are subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. Copies of the proposed consent decrees are available on the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. | <urn:uuid:2f5b361a-ff1a-44b7-bc83-43daa73c8119> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2008/October/08-enrd-968.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954242 | 1,199 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Krakow is Poland's original capital and has a wide range of cultural attractions
Travellers looking for a solo holiday city destination in Europe should consider visiting Poland's original capital city, Krakow, according to a travel journalist working for the Daily Mail.
Malcolm Herdman wrote in the newspaper about his recent trip to the Polish city and revealed that he quickly fell in love with the destination.
"The weight of history hangs heavily in Krakow. As Poland's original capital, and still the country's cultural one, the city has been at the centre of political upheaval in Europe for centuries," he noted.
"[Krakow's] magnificent Wawel cathedral and castle … are testimony to a tumultuous past."
The travel writer also noted that the old town area of the Krakow is beautiful and home to the "largest medieval plaza in Europe", the Grand Square. This is where a range of Gothic-style buildings are located and also where street performers congregate. | <urn:uuid:c66298ab-8e6a-413f-979b-06291692630f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.explore.co.uk/features/14071-solo-holiday-makers-should-take-in-cultural-krakow?cc=GB&nr=1 | 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 | 0.967106 | 203 | 1.75 | 2 |
Master of Business Administration, most commonly abbreviated as MBA, is a professional post graduate degree aimed at developing bright and proficient managers out of students. Management has existed as a practice since the ancient times but today has evolved to become a very specialized branch of knowledge.
An MBA from any one of the top management colleges in Rajasthan has emerged as one of the most popular fields of study as is evident from the growing number of applicants for the course. Businesses, organizations and technologies are advancing rapidly by the day. In this scenario, efficient management and smooth running of a business lies entirely in the hands of an efficient and competent manager.
The top MBA colleges in Rajasthan offers management degrees with specialisations in personnel management, financial management, marketing management, production management. Carefully designed to equip students with essential leadership qualities, these courses at the top management colleges in Rajasthan produce skilled managers year after year.
Amongst the top MBA colleges in Rajasthan, an eminent name is that of JECRC, a renowned institution by the JECRC Foundation. JECRC Foundation is north India’s leading education groups focusing on academic excellence and cultural enrichment of its students. A case in point being its exemplary placement record for its management and engineering graduates. The foundation has over 3000 students placed in top national and multinational companies like TCS, Apollo tyres, Cisco, Ambuja cements, to name only a few.
And now, the foundation has set up JECRC University in Jaipur with a view to take its idea of excellence a level higher. The management courses at JECRC University will emphasise not just on creating good managers but also on improving and enhancing existing skills while passing on managerial competence to students. The courses will focus on and enhance each student’s ability to motivate, presentation skills, quality to work in a team and ability to solve problems. With this aim in mind and the legacy of the foundation behind it, the JECRC University is set to become one of top management colleges in Rajasthan. | <urn:uuid:f5d19885-dcaa-4400-9aa0-bd516c6b98b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jecrcuniversity.edu.in/blog/top-mba-colleges-in-rajasthan | 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 | 0.951221 | 418 | 1.765625 | 2 |
It put a new line in the newspaper vendor's larynx-straining lexicon and a new kind of vendor on street corners and in subways: "It only costs a dollar to help feed a homeless person" became its "Extra, extra, read all about it."
But now Street News, the debt-plagued newspaper sold by homeless people, may be crying "Stop the presses," not because it has a scoop but because it says it lacks the money to continue publishing. Its editor and associate publisher, Janet Wickenhaver, said Street News will fold early next year unless advertisers or underwriters come to the rescue.
News of the newpaper's plight comes at the time when many advocates for the homeless fear that public sympathy for their cause has waned.
Street News vendors said a crackdown on panhandling and unlicensed vendors in the subways had hurt sales by cutting off their access to their best customers. Ms. Wickenhaver said that at least a dozen Street News vendors had been taken into custody.
"The net is there to catch anybody," she said, "but it certainly has caught us. Having a portion of your sales force in jail every few days puts a damper on circulation and morale."
A spokesman for the transit police, Sgt. Luis Medina, said it was regrettable that Street News had been hurt by the crackdown. "It was not our intention to have that result" by enforcing regulations against unauthorized commercial activity in the subways, he said. Vendors are required to have licenses to sell anything in the subways.
"It's regrettable because a concern such as they had had benefited the homeless by getting them some ready revenue," Sergeant Medina said. "But they chose to distribute those papers in a way that's inconsistent with the law, and we were in the position of having to enforce the regulations that are on the books."
Cristyne F. Lategano, the spokeswoman for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, said the Mayor had supported the crackdown on panhandling and peddling in the subways. Street News provided an opportunity for homeless people to work instead of panhandling, she said, "but there are certainly avenues on which they should sell their paper."
Ms. Wickenhaver said the five-year-old tabloid-size paper is $15,000 in the red. She said the owner, Sam Chen, ordered the shutdown after concluding that he could not cover the printing costs any longer.
Ms. Wickenhaver said 15,000 copies had been distributed this month, up from 14,000 last month but a fraction of the 200,000-copy press run when Street News was new on the streets, the brainchild of a former rock musician who had set out to produce a concert in Times Square to benefit the hungry.
The founder, Hutchinson Persons, wrote in the first issue that he had been walking through Grand Central Terminal when inspiration struck. "I thought, 'What an untapped work force. But what can they do?' The thought plagued me, until suddenly it hit: they can sell newspapers!"
But Mr. Persons left in 1990, months after the State Attorney General issued a subpoena for the newspaper's financial records. Before Mr. Persons announced his departure, eight of the paper's salaried writers walked out, protesting what they said was the paper's financial mismanagement and his erratic and irresponsible behavior.
Ms. Wickenhaver, who had worked at The Manhattan Spirit and The Bergen Record, was brought in 18 months ago. "I got there with a mission to revamp editorial," she said, "on the naive theory that good editorial would rescue the business prospects. It turned out we needed a whole lot more." | <urn:uuid:a83300da-1d90-4669-b609-7f07242414ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/21/nyregion/street-news-sold-by-poor-falls-on-hard-times-itself.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980739 | 768 | 1.585938 | 2 |
June 23, 2011
It’s time to identify the unfolding Middle East crisis for what it is– a wider world war. Elaborating on his previous video “Obama Launching World War III,” Alex Jones analyzes the more than nine years of expanding middle east conflict since 9/11, with the U.S. now engaging in 5 simultaneous proxy wars including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen.
Tensions with Syria, Russia, China and other players may further fan the flames in the region, as top globalists, including Bilderberg attendees, have announced their intention to put ground troops in Libya and kick-off a “big war” encompassing much of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Despite opposition to the wars in U.S. Congress and throughout the NATO alliance, the Nobel Peace President will continue to try and save face as he escalates deadly conflict on behalf of his masters under a “humanitarian” pretext. The elites have craftily planted the seeds of chaos under the guise of the “Arab Spring” they helped fund and organize, which is now blossoming into an all-out war that could draw in major powers and proxy regimes alike. | <urn:uuid:23fc7b39-dab7-4ef6-8d6c-1b6f48bd5bef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fathers.ca/FEATUREDSTORIES/WorldWarIIIDefinedWiderWarUnfoldinginMidd.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946317 | 253 | 1.632813 | 2 |
By ROB REID
If you were attacked by pirates, who would you want by your side? A loyal horde of head bangers, gangstas and hard-core punks? Or a brainy clutch of bookish types? I'd generally advise you to go with the former group. But it turns out that in the swashbuckling arena of digital piracy, the publishing world is acquitting itself far better than the brash music industry.
Ten years ago this Sunday, the record labels thought they had turned the tide against piracy when the wildly popular Napster—a service that allowed anyone to find and download recordings online—declared bankruptcy. At the time, annual American music sales had dropped by about $2 billion, having peaked at $14.5 billion in 1999. The labels blamed Napster, claiming that the company encouraged copyright infringement. Sales have since declined by a further $5.5 billion—for a total plunge of over 50%.
The book business is now further into its own digital history than music was when Napster died. Both histories began when digital media became portable. For music, that was 1999, when the record labels ended a failing legal campaign to ban MP3 players. For books, it came with the 2007 launch of the Kindle.
Publishing has gotten off to a much better start. Both industries saw a roughly 20% drop in physical sales four years after their respective digital kickoffs. But e-book sales have largely made up the shortfall in publishing—unlike digital music sales, which stayed stubbornly close to zero for years.
This doesn't prove that music lovers are crooks. Rather, it shows that actually selling things to early adopters is wise. Publishers did this—unlike the record labels, which essentially insisted that the first digital generation either steal online music or do without it entirely.
As an online music entrepreneur from the industry's earliest days, I remember this disastrous policy well. In 1999, I founded Listen.com, hopeful that the music industry would soon adopt the burgeoning Internet as a format, much as it had previously adopted CDs, cassettes, eight-track tapes and three different speeds of vinyl.
But the record labels greeted the first mass-market MP3 player—the Diamond Multimedia Rio—with a lawsuit. An industry news release justified this, saying it was "doubtful that there would be a market for MP3 recording devices but for the thousands and thousands of illicit songs on the Internet."
Note the word "thousands." Illicit music traffic was a wisp compared with the hundreds of millions of tracks that now traverse the wires each month. Napster's debut was almost a year off, and file sharing was unknown outside of technical and college circles.
What really drove excitement about MP3 players was the $75 billion that Americans had invested in CDs by then. Those CDs had been expensive, partly because of collusion among music labels that added up to an extra $5 to prices, according to the Federal Trade Commission. MP3 players could make that vast consumer investment more valuable by making music collections far more portable, and almost infinitely more remixable.
But the music labels sought to protect the CD through a court-ordered technology ban, citing a pirate boogeyman that barely existed. A federal court scuttled this in June 1999. Had things gone differently, it's unlikely that the iPod would have been developed. And that would have derailed the chain of products and innovations that led to the reinvention of cellphones and mobile computing that is so electrifying the world today.
Consumers who had finished ripping their CDs were eager for new digital tracks as the capacity of MP3 players expanded from dozens of tracks to thousands. But while the major labels couldn't ban the devices, they weren't about to sell songs that could be played on them. So they withheld their music from countless entrepreneurs like me, who were desperate to develop licensed online services.
By then, digital music was starting an exponential expansion of the sort that VCRs, cellphones, TVs and so much else has experienced. Markets, like nature, abhor vacuums. And it was into this vacuum that Napster launched.
Napster's popularity surged, and the labels continued their blanket online boycott, insisting that the world be satisfied with CDs. It was therefore through illicit channels that millions—and then hundred of millions—of consumers discovered the huge advantages of obtaining music digitally. There simply wasn't a sanctioned alternative.
Napster raised institutional money and hired managers who—like the rest of us—wanted nothing but to sell the labels' music. But their overtures were shunned, and Napster was shut down. And the labels continued to ignore the public's voracious demand for MP3s, enabling a new crop of illicit (and largely offshore) file-sharing operations to attract massive user bases.
Eventually the labels issued streaming licenses to my own company's Rhapsody service and a few others. But the market only wanted downloads back then, and the major labels didn't license a download store until April 2003. This was almost five years after the first MP3 players appeared.
Licensing expanded quickly after that. But the damage was already done. The labels had granted piracy a half-decade monopoly on awesomeness, and consumers had grown technically adept at illegal downloads—and morally comfortable with them, in the absence of any legal alternative. Piracy's momentum was so great that music sales kept falling until last year.
Compare this to the situation in books. Although it had some small-time forerunners, the Kindle, like the Rio MP3 player, brought portability to a mass market. But the Kindle launched with licenses rather than lawsuits from the key rights-holders in its domain, and offered more than 90% of the day's best sellers when it shipped.
This meant that consumers discovered digital books through a licensed experience that delighted them. Exciting hardware, a critical mass of titles and Amazon's retail sensibilities were all integrated into a single elegant package that piracy has never matched.
Of course, piracy emerged anyway. Countless unlicensed e-books can be found online, and millions of people use them. But sales figures suggest that relatively few of these downloads represent foregone purchases. Most Kindle, iPad and Nook owners seem to view piracy as a low-rent and time-consuming experience compared with the sanctioned alternatives. They probably wouldn't if the publishers had kicked things off with a five-year content boycott.
This doesn't necessarily make publishers the Einstein to the music world's Ozzy Osbourne. Publishing had music's dismal example to learn from. It is also easier to see the digital light when a game-changing product is released by a major partner and customer, even if Amazon inspires more dread than comfort among publishers. Of course, things haven't gone perfectly smoothly: In April, three publishers—Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins—settled a Justice Department lawsuit alleging they conspired to raise e-book prices. (HarperCollins is owned by News Corp., as is The Wall Street Journal.)
Publishers face many challenges today, and some may be existential—Amazon's dominance, for one, and the potential for authors to sell directly to readers. But as one industry executive wryly observed to me after ticking off a list of his industry's perils, "at least we're not self-immolators."—Mr. Reid founded Listen.com, the company that created the Rhapsody music service. Copyright law features in his first novel, "Year Zero," which will be published by Random House in July. Find him on Twitter: @Rob_Reid. | <urn:uuid:090c3729-b606-457f-9353-6426ae322145> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303552104577438212250619458.html?grcc=grdt&mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_lifestyle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972364 | 1,576 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Posted on 17 May 2012 by Dipak Kumar
Coming down heavily on cooperative leaders of the country Union Cooperation Minister Sharad Pawar asked them to mend ways if they have to survive.
Comprising of over six lakh societies, cooperative sector suffers from “dependency syndrome” that has prevented it from functioning in a democratic and professional manner, he said.
Union Agriculture Minister was caustic on the country’s cooperative sector for sponging off the government and described this tendency as harmful to its interests.
Mr Pawar expressed this view when he was addressing the national meet on cooperatives in the capital.
India’s cooperative sector is the largest in the world with members of 250 million in six lakh cooperatives working almost in every field of business, particularly in agriculture.
According to the minister, the dependency syndrome can be put down to a host of factors including snags in the cooperative laws.
The abnormal tendency has prevented the cooperative sector from professionalizing and modernizing adequately.
Former President Abdul Kalam who also addressed the conference exhorted the cooperative leaders to work with honesty and integrity and suggested formulation of a policy framework that enables the cooperative organisations to work more effectively.
Some cooperative organisations including Amul in Gujarat were the aim of his favourable remarks.
Posted on 17 December 2010 by Vimal Kumar
Jai Pur celebrated a cooperative fair wherein many cooperative products were kept on exhibition. The fair in which a business of worth Rs 1.25 crores were transacted came to an end on last Sunday.
The Minister of State for Youth Affairs Mangilal Garasia participated in the event and told that increasing role of cooperatives will drive away the middle man from the business of duping people.
Cooperative fairs are important to popularize cooperatives and its products. The concept needs to be publicized in a major way.
Posted on 19 November 2010 by Akshay Kumar
Madhya Pradesh Cooperative Minister Shri Gourishankar Bisen has said that people increasingly see cooperatives as the last resort. While inaugurating a function on the eve of Cooperative Week in Bhopal he said that there is a need for better coordination between cooperative institutes and cooperative department of the government.
Giving bonanza, he also announced 50 per cent dearness allowance with the basic pay of the employees of Cooperative Federation.State Cooperative Federation Chairman Shri Arun Singh Tomar, Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation Chairman Shri Ramakant Bhargava, State Cooperative Housing Federation Chairman Shri Sushil Waswani, Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture And Rural Development Bank Chairman Shri Kishan Singh Bhatol and Commissioner Cooperative Shri Arun Pandey were present on the occasion.
Bisen claimed that the cooperatives have become beneficial to the farmers. Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken a historical decision to give agricultural loan to the farmers at 3 per cent interest rate. He said that this is an example for the whole country. Cooperative revolution in the state is better than any other state, he added
Bisen also patted himself and his BJP govt on back for checking the misappropriation of society funds. He said that strong action has been initiated against the land mafia who deprived society members of the cooperative housing societies of plots of land.
What is needed today is to give wide publicity for the good work being done in the cooperative sector, added the Minister The State Cooperative Federation can play important role in this direction, he said. The cooperative institutions should cooperative with the Federation to strengthen it financially for this purpose, concluded the Minister. | <urn:uuid:3dd63231-88cd-43bc-97b9-a12f5e522e26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indiancooperative.com/category/events/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96485 | 736 | 1.796875 | 2 |
By Jon Hilkevitch
7:12 PM CDT, October 19, 2012
ABOARD AMTRAK TEST TRAIN – The fierce, unresolved debate over whether the U.S. can afford to invest billions of dollars on high-speed passenger rail seemed to fall by the wayside, at least temporarily, in the heartland on Friday when an Amtrak train reached 111 mph – a record speed in Illinois during modern times.
The test train went 1 mph over the 110 mph goal set for the 15-mile stretch between Dwight and Pontiac, Ill., which are about 80 and 100 miles, respectively, southwest of Chicago. Illinois and Amtrak officials said they expect to begin revenue passenger service at 110 mph between Dwight and Pontiac before Thanksgiving.
The short leg is on part of what’s essentially a brand new railroad being built over 284 miles of the Union Pacific Railroad corridor to safely accommodate faster trains between Chicago and St. Louis.
Applause and gleeful laughter broke out at 110 mph among Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Sen. Dick Durbin and others counting up the incremental ticks in speed as they stared at a digital speedometer and a GPS map on a television screen in the last car of the refurbished Amtrak train.
“One eleven,’’ a happily surprised Quinn announced shortly after letting out a “Wooo!’’ at 110 mph.
Elsewhere on the train, nary a drop of refreshment was spilled, nor even one red grape spotted tumbling off fruit trays as the passenger coaches glided smoothly over the new rails and new concrete ties, like a jetliner slicing through calm air.
The history-making trip took place on a “smart train’’ that determines more than a mile before reaching the next railroad-roadway crossing whether the four barrier gates, warning bells and flashing lights are working properly.
If they aren’t, or if the train detects a vehicle stopped on the tracks, the automated control system on board instructs the locomotive engineer to slow down. If he or she failed to do so, the train would reduce speed and then stop automatically, officials said.
“That locomotive can sense whether there is any mass that is violating the safe zone inside the gates. If it senses a car, a human or anything, it shuts the train down or at least gets it below 20 mph depending on top-end speed,’’ Joseph Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said during the ride.
No train-vehicle accidents have occurred since the four-quadrant gates, which replaced a two-gate system that wouldn’t prevent drivers from snaking around lowered crossing arms, were installed on the 110 mph route, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The warning times for vehicles approaching crossings were also lengthened in the 110 mph Illinois test zone, from the current federal minimum of 20 seconds to at least 30 to 35 seconds and as much as 80 seconds, officials said. Fencing will also be installed to help keep out trespassers in urban areas, including between Joliet and Chicago, officials said.
Friday’s inaugural run at 110 mph carrying passengers went almost flawlessly, officials said.
There was a momentary glitch in the data communications link between the trackside signaling system and the Amtrak train that slightly delayed the acceleration from 79 mph toward 110 mph, according to railroad officials monitoring the test run.
But none of the high-speed rail boosters on board seemed to notice.
“This is a very important step forward today. We’ve been saying for 15 years now that high-speed rail is not only good for jobs and good transportation, but it is also great for the environment,’’ said Kevin Brubaker of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. “This is not just a demonstration run today. It’s what’s coming.’’
But when? President Barack Obama envisions a national high-speed rail network that would serve 80 percent of the U.S. population by 2025, according to administration officials. Two years ago, Obama asked Congress to approve spending $53 billion on an unprecedented infrastructure-modernization strategy designed to overhaul and expand the three R’s – roads, railroads and runways.
Congressional Republicans, locked in a debt-reduction battle with Democrats, declared the plan dead on arrival.
“This is like giving Bernie Madoff another chance at handling your investment portfolio,’’ U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, scoffed, comparing Obama to the convicted criminal Madoff who was behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
The GOP governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida returned to Washington millions of dollars that their states were awarded for high-speed rail. The governors cited expected cost over-runs and a perceived lack of ridership as their reasons against investing in fast trains. Quinn and other governors quickly scooped up the extra funds.
LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary and a former congressman from Peoria, pointed out Friday that about 70 percent of the upgrades on the Chicago-to-St. Louis route are paid for. The project, financed primarily so far through $1.2 billion in grants from the Obama administration and $400 million from the state, is being carried out by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Union Pacific and the Illinois Commerce Commission.
The total federal investment to date in high-speed rail across the U.S. is about $8 billion in economic stimulus funding.
“Eight billion dollars is eight billion times more than this country has ever invested in high-speed rail,’’ LaHood said Friday, adding that Illinois has received the third-largest share, behind California, which is working toward eventual 220 mph service between roughly San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the Northeast corridor where Amtrak Acela trains operate at up to 150 mph and tests at higher speeds are underway.
The total cost to complete the Illinois work between Chicago and St. Louis, including constructing a second set of tracks to separate freight and passenger trains, is projected at about $4 billion, and most of those funds have not been identified.
Still, federal and state officials predict that Amtrak trains could be running at 110 mph on large segments of the corridor by 2015. That would make a sizable dent toward shaving off about an hour’s travel time on the current 5½-hour Amtrak trip, which today isn’t any faster than driving.
In western Michigan and northwest Indiana, Amtrak trains have been operating at up to 110 mph for much of this year between Kalamazoo, Mich., and Porter, Ind. The goal is to extend 110 mph service to Dearborn, Mich., by 2015, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Yet traveling by rail at more than 100 mph is no big deal by the standards of bullet trains that are common across Europe and Asia. Even here at home, it’s back to the future.
More than 70 years ago, coal-burning locomotives were clocked going as fast as 124 mph on part of a route between Chicago and the Twin Cities, according to records. In the 1930s, trains often exceeded 100 mph in southern Wisconsin as well.
Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC | <urn:uuid:f088b030-2a86-478b-9ee3-a1787c17302e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-test-run-amtrak-passenger-train-to-hit-110-mph-20121019,0,2575547,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956086 | 1,537 | 1.523438 | 2 |
With about 95% of the vote counted, conservative New Democracy and Socialist PASOK, who have dominated Greece for decades and are the only two major parties supporting the EU/IMF bailout program that is keeping Greece afloat, won less than 33% of ballots and only 150 out of 300 parliament seats. According to the Greek system the party obtaining most votes obtains a 50-seat bonus.
New Democracy polled just over 19% and PASOK a humiliating 13.4%, while the left-wing Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza (anti-austerity), came second with 16.6%.
In the 2009 election, PASOK won a landslide victory with 44% and Syriza had just 5%.
The fourth-biggest party was set to be the Independent Greeks with 10-12%, a new right-wing party set up by New Democracy dissident Panos Kammenos, followed by the communist KKE with 7.5-9.5%.
Neo-fascists to enter Parliament
In another indication of the extent of public anger, the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party was poised to take nearly 7% of the vote. This would allow such a party to enter parliament, with potentially 21 MPs, a first such presence since the fall of a military dictatorship in 1974.
The Democratic Left, a Europhile new leftist party, received 4.5-6.5%. Two other parties, Ecologist Greens and the nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), appear to have passed the 3% barrier necessary to gain seats. In total nine parties were set to enter parliament compared with just five after the last election.
Under the constitution, Greek President Karolos Papoulias will give the biggest party three days to form a government. If it fails, the next largest group gets a chance and so on down the line. If they all fail, new polls would be called about three weeks later.
Any coalition is expected to be short-lived, plunging Greece into fresh political uncertainty and threatening to revive Europe's debt crisis.
As results trickled in, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras called for a pro-European national unity government that would keep Greece in the eurozone. PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos also called for a unity government, saying his party had paid the price for handling the sovereign debt crisis.
The small parties that gained in the election are all against the bailout, but they are too divided to form an alternative coalition.
Samaras is expected to be invited to try to form a government today (7 May).
Cuts for EU/IMF aid
Greece faces an acid test as soon as next month when it must give parliamentary approval for over €11 billion in extra spending cuts for 2013 and 2014 in exchange for more EU/IMF aid.
That looks like a tough task even if a new government can be formed in time, given the success of anti-bailout parties. Several analysts said the unprecedented fragmentation of the vote could mean weeks of instability and force another election.
International lenders and investors fear success for the small anti-bailout parties could lead to Greece reneging on the harsh terms of the programme, risking a hard sovereign default and dragging the eurozone back into the worst crisis since its creation.
Eurozone paymaster Germany has warned there would be "consequences" to an anti-bailout vote and the EU and IMF insist whoever wins the election must stick to austerity if they want to receive the aid that keeps Greece afloat.
But many voters bitterly dismissed such threats.
"I don't think that voting for a small party will make us go bankrupt. We already are," said 53-year-old Panagiotis, a craftsman, after voting for the conservative Independent Greeks. | <urn:uuid:f768fafe-5cb2-4b16-abde-555244b32d5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance/anti-austerity-vote-sets-greece-news-512511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957464 | 781 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Ticket to Milford Haven
- Bernard Shaw: A Life by A.M. Gibbs
Florida, 554 pp, £30.50, December 2005, ISBN 0 8130 2859 0
As anyone who has directed a remake of King Kong knows, revisiting classics is a perilous business. However much you claim to stand on the shoulders of the mighty beast, you still risk ending up, like Fay Wray, squeezed in its paw. A.M. Gibbs spends most of the introduction to Bernard Shaw: A Life justifying his decision to return to a very well-ploughed furrow. But by citing no less than four previous biographies by the end of page two, he is being consciously naive. He knows perfectly well he will be judged principally against Michael Holroyd, whose multi-volume Shaw is one of the longest, most detailed, comprehensive and highly praised biographies of the 20th century.
Gibbs’s major charge against Holroyd is that he allowed himself to be taken in by Shaw’s description of a miserable, shabby-genteel Dublin childhood, with an alcoholic father and a mother who was ‘simply not a wife or mother at all’. Holroyd’s thesis is that a consequent fear of emotion, passion and grief led Shaw to construct the witty, winking GBS carapace which he wore for the rest of his life. In Gibbs’s view, Shaw exaggerated both the privations of his childhood and the inadequacy of his parents. On the basis of previously ignored letters, he finds Shaw’s father to be ‘amiable, sweet-natured’ and keenly interested in his son’s early work; while to explain Shaw’s career ‘in terms of a search for the maternal love supposedly missing in his childhood is’, he argues, ‘to load the tenuous evidence with more weight than it can reasonably bear’.
In short, Shaw’s childhood was more normal (and nicer) than he cared to admit, and the adult more normal (and nicer) than he or his previous biographers have been inclined to acknowledge. Far from constructing a carapace in order to conceal his real feelings, Gibbs’s Shaw is a man whose ‘sensitivity, warmth and friendliness of feeling’ celebrate and exemplify ‘the intelligent heart’.
This thesis forms the spine of Gibbs’s biography, and is seen most clearly in his treatment of Shaw’s sexuality and the influence of Shaw’s lovers, friends, family and self on his work. Shaw claimed that his active sex life began at the age of 29 and ended 14 years later; for Holroyd, the chaos of Shaw’s early affairs, the celibacy of his marriage and the wild romantic agonies of his later attachments (usually to actresses, and most dramatically to Mrs Patrick Campbell, the original Eliza Doolittle) confirmed Shaw’s conviction that ‘the quantity of love that an ordinary person can stand without serious damage is about ten minutes in 50 years.’ For Gibbs, however, Shaw’s love life is both more extensive (he cites a previously unpublished letter confirming that the 70-year-old Shaw consummated his adulterous relationship with the 30-year-old American actress Molly Tompkins by the shores of Lake Maggiore) and more prosaic than this quotation suggests. His concern with the physical detail of Shaw’s relationships implies that Shaw was in a state of denial about their importance. By contrast, Michael Holroyd accepts that Shaw’s sexual passions existed, but argues that they were complemented with others. He quotes Shaw as saying that he ‘never refused or broke an engagement to speak on socialism to pass a gallant evening’ (or anything else: Stella Campbell didn’t believe Shaw ‘ever had a thoroughly frivolous afternoon’). That Shaw was nonetheless able to make room for romance when necessary is demonstrated in a letter to his second lover, Florence Farr, which begins with a protestation that ‘you are my best and dearest love, the regenerator of my heart, the holiest joy of my soul, my treasure, my salvation, my rest, my reward, my darling youngest child, my secret glimpse of heaven,’ and ends with the observation that ‘Wednesday is the nearest evening that shews blank in my diary.’
Gibbs admires the idea that, generally, politics should come before passion, but he doesn’t quite believe it (ignoring Shaw’s stern admonition to the ‘sex-obsessed biographer’ to pay no attention to the ‘sex histories’ of his or her subject). More generally, Gibbs’s ambition to expose Shaw as a closet normal contrasts with Holroyd’s fascination with Shaw’s eccentricities (and those of his circle and his time). So for Holroyd, the principle interest of the Fabian summer schools which Shaw assiduously attended lay in the solemn radicalism of their daily routine, from the morning Swedish drill and ‘experimental breakfasts’ through to tugs of war, convivial country dancing and 11 p.m. lights out. While for Gibbs, they’re all about flirtations with Fabian flappers. | <urn:uuid:50080e32-648d-4d18-b2cc-97bef7e4ff80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/david-edgar/ticket-to-milford-haven | 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 | 0.964368 | 1,126 | 1.5 | 2 |
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Police are alerting Greenburgh residents about recent coyote sightings in Edgemont, two of which have been seen on Edgemont High School's campus.
The most recent sighting occurred about 10:30 a.m. Thursday near 500 White Plains Road. The coyote was in the wooded areas nearby, and the caller told police the coyote appeared to be injured. Police responded to the area, but at that point the coyote had run off.
It's not uncommon for coyotes to be seen in Greenburgh's wooded areas, police said. Though no aggressive behavior has been exhibited yet, coyotes in the area have been known to be dangerous. Two years ago, a woman and her dog were attacked by a coyote in Travis Hill Park in Greenburgh.
Greenburgh police sent out an informational bulletin on Thursday to "assist residents in understanding the coexistence between people and coyotes," according to the document. To avoid risks, police warned against feeding coyotes, leaving food outside and allowing your pets to run free.
If you see a coyote, they can be easily scared by making loud noises or waving your arms, according to the bulletin. The wild animals are protected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, so there is little police or animal control officers can do other than chase the coyote away, the bulletin reminds Greenburgh residents.
For more information about coyotes, see the state department of environmental conservation's website. If you see a coyote that is lingering in a public area, call Greenburgh police at 914-682-5300. | <urn:uuid:cbdad732-d4f9-46b1-91a0-349986b51a3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greenburgh.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/several-coyotes-spotted-greenburgh-police-say | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959157 | 336 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Mental Capacity Act 2005 – SCIE launches a new resource
This new SCIE resource introduces a range of guidance materials and links to support the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The section is in the early stages of development, but will eventually provide an accessible resource that people will visit as their “first port of call” when looking for information about the MCA.
SCIE has also launched some new materials twhich have been commissioned by SCIE and the Department of Health with the aim of helping the people responsible for implementing the Act to understand its requirements. Some of the materials focus on a particular field (e.g. end of life care,
learning disabilities or mental health), others offer more general guidance. There are also links to materials about the MCA that have been produced by other organizations including Alzheimer’s Society, Mental Health Foundation and the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Given the potential of the MCA to touch the lives of millions – particularly those who live with learning disability, dementia or mental health problems and those working and caring for them – the resource will provide the opportunity to link related policy areas together. Examples include the development of the National Dementia Strategy and SCIE’s practice development work on restraint, due to be launched in late summer 2009. http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/misc/mca/index.asp | <urn:uuid:86d7789b-8005-4819-8c41-b6254a9a00d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shirleyayresconsulting.co.uk/the-elearning-revolution/mental-capacity-act-2005-scie-launches-a-new-resource | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941441 | 289 | 1.648438 | 2 |
So maybe that title is a bit misleading. Really what The Supremes did is shoot down a federal law that banned the creation and selling of animal cruelty videos including dogfighting. These videos feature “conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed.â€
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority for the 8-1 decision. Who was the one holdout? Justice Alito and wrote the dissent saying the majority analysis would protect “depraved entertainment.â€
Animal cruelty is illegal in every state so why shouldn’t footage of it be illegal also?
To be fair, unfortunately, though this ruling may seem outrageous, especially considering laws on child pornography, The Supremes are bound sometimes by these tricky things called laws.
In this case The First Amendment protection of free speech was a factor but so was the 1999 federal law in question.
Read more about this decision and what congress can do at nytimes.com
Are you offended by comparisons of animal cruelty videos to child pornography? How would you have ruled in this case? | <urn:uuid:456b2c86-d69c-4f9a-b2c9-570b4676ee94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sofreshandsogreen.com/2010/04/23/supreme-court-oks-animal-cruelty-videos/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964527 | 232 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Halevi's astute analysis of the current situation and how Israel can take the initiative and endorse freedom in the Arab world, with sobriety and resiliency. Israel Is Resilient but Watchful Amid the return of Palestinian violence and upheaval in the Arab world, there is broad consensus on issues such as land for peace. By YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI Jerusalem The ambulance sirens began sounding and didn't seem to end. The terrorist attack on March 23 that killed one person and wounded 30 was the first bus bombing in Jerusalem since 2005. And it happened just as missiles from Gaza began falling on Israeli cities and towns for the first time since the Gaza War of 2009. Suddenly it was as if the normal life we'd since managed to re-inhabit was an illusion. But the despair passed quickly. Two days after the bombing, 10,000 people—from as far away as Kenya, Ethiopia and Poland—jogged through Jerusalem in the city's first-ever international marathon. Residents lined the streets, cheering on the runners. Not one participant dropped out as a result of the bombing. After a brutal decade that began with the collapse of the peace process in September 2000, and which brought four years of suicide bombings, eight years of missile attacks, two wars, and at least two failed attempts at peacemaking, the Israeli public is resilient and sober. As terrorism and rocket attacks return to Israeli cities, and the Arab world reels, those are precisely the qualities Israelis need to cope. The precondition for containing terrorism is national unity, and on security matters at least, the nation is cohesive. In responding to attacks on civilian Israel, the government has the support of nearly every party. Knesset members of the opposition Kadima party are demanding that the government respond even more firmly—the left pressing the right to be resolute. Yet so far the government's response has been restrained—and rightly so. Another Israeli-Hamas confrontation is perhaps inevitable, but not now. As the Arab world finally begins to face itself, Israel must avoid focusing the region's attention on the Palestinian conflict. The upheavals have proven that what preoccupies the Arab peoples aren't Israel's actions but Arab failures. The dictators want to deflect their people's rage back onto Israel. Moammar Gadhafi, for instance, has urged Palestinians to board ships and descend on Israel's coast. This is also not the time for far-reaching political initiatives. With the open question of whether Israel's peace with Egypt will survive the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Israelis are reassessing the wisdom of land-for-peace agreements with dictators. What is the point, many here wonder, of exchanging the Golan Heights for a dubious peace with a Baathist regime run by the hated Allawite minority? Israelis are asking a similar question about Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is widely resented by Palestinians as corrupt and represents at best only part of his people. Why negotiate a land for peace agreement with an unelected, one-party government? Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is the first Palestinian leader to place economic growth before ideology, but he lacks a political base. In a time of regional change, Israelis are even more reluctant to risk irreversible strategic concessions for a deal that may well lack popular legitimacy. There is no basis now for an agreement. Claims in the media that Mr. Abbas and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were close to a deal are merely another example of the wishful thinking that once turned the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat into a partner for peace. Recently leaked documents from the Palestinian Authority reveal that Palestinian leaders continue to anticipate the "return" of hundreds of thousands of refugee descendants to Israel. No Israeli government will concede on what is, for the Jewish state, an existential issue. In the coming months, pressure to implement an immediate two-state solution will increase—from the United Nations, the European Union, and the Obama administration. Israel must resist that pressure. The premature creation of a Palestinian state—more precisely two states, ruled by the competing autocracies of Hamas and Fatah—will not bring peace but greater instability. Still, Israel must do more than passively await regional change. As the Arab world confronts its options of Islamism, democratization or military dictatorship, Israel needs to endorse freedom. Israel's contribution to the new democratic spirit should be sending an unequivocal message to the Arab world that it has no intention of continuing the occupation for ideological motives, and that the only impediment to Palestinian independence is Palestinian intransigence, especially on the issue of refugees. The least dangerous way for Israel to communicate that message is by declaring an open-ended building freeze in the settlements. That freeze would not include Jerusalem. No government—left, right or center—would stop building in East Jerusalem's existing Jewish neighborhoods. But a freeze should be unilateral—without expectation of reciprocity from the Palestinians. At the same time Israel should transfer control to the Palestinian Authority of more of the West Bank, and continue encouraging economic growth there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reluctance to impose another settlement freeze is understandable. His previous 10-month freeze—the first by any Israeli prime minister—was greeted with skepticism and brought only increased pressure from Washington to freeze building in Jerusalem. But regional conditions have since changed dramatically, and Israel needs to respond. Mr. Netanyahu cannot impose another freeze while maintaining his present coalition. So he should seriously examine the new offer of opposition leader Tzipi Livni to form a unity government between the prime minister's Likud party and Kadima. A combination of policies—military restraint, an unconditional settlement freeze, realism regarding a Palestinian state—will express the resolve and sobriety of the Israeli public. Israelis these days are preparing for Passover. The Passover seder is called a night of watching, in remembrance of the Israelites who were prepared at a moment's notice to flee Egypt and enter the unknown. This year Passover has particular resonance. For Israelis, living in a Middle East veering between freedom and even greater repression, it is a time of active watching. Mr. Halevi is a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a contributing editor at the New Republic.Click Here to Read More..
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Israel's Perpetual State of 'Shigrat Herum' or "Routine Emergency" & Michael Oren on Bill Maher Show
Liat Collins writes compellingly on her propulsion to Zion--and Zionism;
and Michael Oren with his usual eloquence, charm, and class: Timeshare with the Palestinians?
My Word: A routine emergency
By LIAT COLLINS
Instead of running away from terror, we might as well send Hamas and its allies a message of our own: We’re here to stay. Can you talk about why you chose to leave England for Jerusalem, a radio show host asked me recently. I thought it would be easy. But the simple question got me thinking. I briefly considered the flippant answer that the weather’s better. The daughter of a neighbor who immigrated from New Caledonia a year ago jokes she moved to Israel because it was “too boring.” When pushed, however, she admits that anti-Semitism played a role. How much anti-Semitism can there be in a country with hardly any Jews? “Well, it’s more an anti-Israel sentiment,” she explains. It made me think of another reason to make aliya: Israel is probably the only place in the world where, when someone calls you a “Zionist” it’s a compliment and not an insult. What really brought me here, strangely enough, was terror. It’s a story I’ve told before. The first time I shared it was in 1996, following the double bombing of the No. 18 bus – a bus on which I still regularly travel. Then, too, it was close to Purim. Instead of mishloah manot (gifts of food for the holiday), people walked down the narrow streets of my neighborhood carrying meals to the mourners. On the morning of February 25, 1996, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a No. 18 traveling down Jaffa Road near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Twenty-six people were killed and 48 injured. A week later, on March 3, a bomber detonated an explosive belt on another No. 18 on Jaffa Road, killing 19 and wounding seven. The following week, when I boarded the bus, a passenger asked the driver: “Does this go as far as the Central Bus Station?” eliciting the response: “With God’s help.” It was the time the joke began to circulate among those waiting for the already notoriously unreliable line: “Why do the buses always come in pairs? Because they’re afraid to travel alone.” You might have to be a Jerusalemite to appreciate it. It might not be funny. The lethal attack on March 23 certainly raises questions about how the new light rail, when it finally starts operating, will handle security issues. ULTIMATELY THE answer to what brought me from a comfortable London suburb to a place where pioneering spirit was an asset lies in Germany – no, not what you think: the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games. I was 11, a competitive swimmer and in love with Mark Spitz. That was when I first understood one could die simply for being Jewish. Anywhere. “Don’t worry,” my mother had tried to reassure me as I watched events unfold on TV. “Mark Spitz is safe.” What about the British competitor from my own swimming club? She had not been in danger, my mother explained; she wasn’t a Jew. My young mind grappled to work out why an American super swimmer was at risk when the medal-winning member of my own team was not. Why just Israelis and Jews? And then suddenly I understood the connection. Israel wasn’t just an abstract name in my prayer book. It really existed – and more than anything else, I wanted to go there. Arab terror turned me into a Zionist – a peculiar victory, indeed. There is nothing rational behind my decision to move to Israel; it was an emotional pull. My Zionism was strengthened by every subsequent pointless death, and unfortunately, there were many: the massacre of children during a school trip in Ma’alot; the murders in Kiryat Shmona; the Yom Kippur War. Each one contributed to my desire to come to the Promised Land. The blast of terror blew me across the sea, carrying me home. For where else could I go? There’s no other country with which I have that blood bond. Ironically, during a recent trip to London I felt far less safe than in Jerusalem. Perhaps it’s always like that when you’re away from home, and London is definitely not my home any more. I found it unnerving to travel on trains and enter a shopping mall with my suitcase on wheelswithout a single security check. If nobody had looked to see what was inside my case, then no one had examined what anyone else was carrying either. It was only slightly more comforting to have my luggage pulled to pieces by security at Heathrow airport where I’d forgotten to declare a plastic bottle of moisturizing lotion. I can’t vouch for the overall security at the terminal, but I can testify that no one is going to get the chance to blow up a plane with 150 ml. of Boots moisturizer. It’s more politically correct than profiling, of course; I just hope it’s as effective. THE BOMBING in Jerusalem was loud. It brought back all sorts of memories and instincts that I’d prefer to forget – the “turn on the radio and call the family” standard operating procedure that was second nature during the years of terror. There was the sound of sirens, ongoing news reports, and finally that utterly Israeli response when a certain kind of song is played on the radio. Whenever you hear Chava Alberstein singing “we’re all a part of the living human tapestry,” it’s worth checking whether there’s been a tragedy. You might have thought that 50 mortar shells and rockets make a lot of noise , but obviously it depends where they fall. The barrage on the Negev on March 19 did not really reverberate. The rest of the the country picked up its head at the sound, sighed and got back to the Purim revelries. The world didn’t hear even the missiles, which let alone the sigh. The missiles came with a message: “Look at us! We’re still here!” hissed the projectiles launched byIslamic Jihad in Gaza. While some commentators remarked that the terrorists were exploiting the turmoil elsewhere in the Arab world to attack Israel, it seems more likely that it was an effort to reclaim the spotlight. It almost failed. Apparently, most of the world doesn’t much care if missiles are lobbed at Israel at an everincreasing rate in ever-widening concentric circles. What is more important is Israel’s response. “Israel has a right to defend itself,” ambassadors and foreign ministers proclaim. Just don’t ask them how. “Israel doesn’t just have the right to defend itself,” said Minister Limor Livnat in a radio interview. “It has an obligation.” We’ll probably be damned if we do and damned if we don’t. As Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and the Gaza border communities all came under fire, and Jerusalem licks its latest wound, a phrase I hadn’t heard for a long time bounced back into usage: “Shigrat herum.” It is a typically Israeli term: a “routine emergency.” Life is going to continue as usual – for an emergency, that is. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called for the planned international marathon to go ahead on March 25. Instead of running away from terror, we might as well send Hamas and its allies a message of our own: We’re here to stay. Or as Mayor Barkat put it at the scene of the attack: “Jerusalem will not stop running” – forward, that is.
The writer is editor of The International Jerusalem Post | <urn:uuid:d06ce4c2-86fe-4f3a-b473-c730132242d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brumspeak.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959444 | 3,017 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund
The Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund (BFAAF) is administered by the Barr Foundation in Boca Raton, Florida and is a cooperative effort between the Fund and certified sponsoring prosthetists.
The Fund will pay for materials and fitting of a new prosthesis up to the schedule after financial need has been established by the prosthetist. Details are listed in the Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund Guidelines. The amputee and the prosthetist complete an application form which are then reviewed and verified. The approval process takes approximately 4-6 weeks.
Over 1200 amputees have received funding for prosthetic rehabilitation in 30 states and 21 foreign countries since 1996.
The Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund was established in 1996 through grants from the Barr Foundation. The mission of the fund is to provide assistance to amputees that cannot afford limbs, have no other financial resources, and to promote quality prosthetic care for all amputees. This is accomplished directly by providing reimbursement for materials and maintenance costs to the prosthetist that provides limbs to the amputee who has no other source of funding. This program is a cooperative effort between the Fund and the amputee's prosthetist to improve the quality of life of the amputee. Amputee applicants, who are seeking initial prosthetic rehabilitation, are first time amputees, are US citizens and in general good health will be prioritized.
The prosthetist, considering sponsorship, must request the application directly from us by calling 561-391-7601.
It is suggested that the amputee be evaluated by the prosthetist that may be sponsoring him/her, prior to them requesting an application in the amputee's name. Please provide the prosthetist with the amputee's name, address, date and level of amputation and telephone number.
The applicant will be reviewed and interviewed for the screening process by one or more members of the review committee upon submission of the application, which is to be completed by both amputee and prosthetist. The applicants will be considered based on need and general health conditions. Sponsoring prosthetist must accept our reimbursement levels as payment in full and provide a six (6) month warranty for adjustments and components used. First time amputees will be required to receive gait training as a condition of the approval by the prosthetist, physical therapist or other qualified personnel at no cost to the applicant.
The application must be completed within 30 days and returned to us with a $25.00 non-refundable application fee. We will then have 4-6 weeks to process the application and the prosthetist will be notified as to approval or denial. If the application is not received within the 30 day period of sending the application it will be canceled and the prosthetist considering sponsorship will have to resubmit.
We will request that proof of denial of any other funding resources be provided at the time the application is submitted. If the amputee is a US citizen, most likely they can qualify for Medicare/Medicaid funding. The prosthetist can help determine that.
Thank you for your interest, if there is anything else we can do, please e-mail or give us a call at 561-391-7601. | <urn:uuid:43a5fea3-3dc9-44d9-b8dc-b8f7b6d85350> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oandp.com/resources/organizations/barr/fund/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947239 | 683 | 1.601563 | 2 |
HIV/AIDS in Zambia
I first traveled in Africa in 1999 when I visited my oldest daughter who was attending the University of Tanzania for her junior year abroad.
I never imagined I would find myself on that continent. As a white woman who spent her childhood on the west coast and adult years on the east coast of the U.S., Africa was something else entirely. After my first visit, I found myself drawn into this other world where the landscape was wider, redder, wetter, dryer, and the people were warmer, more relaxed, stronger and happier. When I looked up at the sky at night, even the constellations were different. Each time I came to Africa, the power of this other way of living and seeing, the kindness, the courage, the beauty and vitality claimed my attention and redirected my life.
There was little evidence to the eye how the silent and growing presence of HIV/AIDS would affect this place where life was already a tightrope walk on the edge of survival. Only after many return visits and entering into the lives of the people I know there, did I begin to see the terrible pressures and relentless pain caused by the spread of the disease. Everyone I know there, almost without exception, has lost at least one family member and some have lost many. Grandparents and siblings are raising the children of dead sons, daughters and sisters and brothers. The communities are stretched to capacity. Orphanages are created when the relatives cannot support any more children. Resources are meager. International religious organizations that try to create group homes for orphans, though well-meaning, are often ignorant of local custom and fall into unworkable situations, sometimes having to abandon the very children they want to help. Fear and shame drive people into hiding, or into abandoning their families.
The Zambian government has begun some successful home care programs in rural villages where volunteers take daily care of one or two sick people in their town. Antiretroviral drugs have been made available at low or no cost, but not enough people are getting them and taking them in a consistent manner to reverse the growth of AIDS.
So why bother, many ask, when the problems seem insurmountable? By extending our hands to our fellow humans, in small gestures of support to people who have much to offer us in terms of cultural wisdom and personal strength, we all gain valuable connection.
We may not be wealthy philanthropists like the Gates or Oprah , but, in relative terms, we are wealthy. Even if we are teachers, secretaries, or plumbers, we are in the world’s top 5% economic bracket. We can’t imagine an economy where 80% of the people are below poverty level and there is little in the way of employment or education. So we do whatever is possible for us, whether it is sponsoring a child’s education or volunteering our services through non profit organizations. Or maybe purchasing an fair trade item that falls into your life, like the wooden figurine that initiated my relationship with Zambia. | <urn:uuid:223ad7ea-9d0a-40b9-919d-b2472ff5159b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aacdpafrica.org/african-artisan-crafts/index.php/about/about-me-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969615 | 621 | 1.6875 | 2 |
My book group, Janeites on the James, will be revisiting Pride & Prejudice in January. It will be the 21st or 22nd time I have read it, a bit often, I know, but at each stage of my life the story of Darcy and Elizabeth takes on new meaning. These days I pay more attention to secondary characters, like Charlotte Lucas and Lydia Bennet, to whom I gave short shrift in earlier readings. In fact I shall read Charlotte’s story with more interest, knowing that with her limited options and beauty, she seized on her one opportunity to snare a husband. I will pay particular attention to her resourcefulness in finding some peace and quiet from Mr. Collins in her private area in the back parlor.
The most comprehensive site online about Pride & Prejudice is the one developed by The Republic of Pemberley, an encyclopedic site about all things Jane Austen.
Also of vast interest is the Annotated Pride and Prejudice by David Shapard, which is both entertaining and informative. As one reads the book, the left side is devoted to novel, and the right side contains his annotations. Here is what David Shapard wrote in a discussion board about discovering Jane Austen’s work:
I only altered that intention years later when, unexpectedly, several historical or philosophical books I read included admiring comments on her, and of the profound thought in her books. This made me undertake a complete reading of her works, and I was entranced, so much so that it was not long before I began rereading the novels, an unusual step for me. My entrancement even posed dangers for my work. While scrambling to finish my dissertation, on the French Enlightenment, I had picked up a battered paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice at a book sale, and found myself frequently taking time off from my writing to read it again and again, finding new brilliant subtleties every time I looked. More than once I admonished myself that this was foolish—after all, I had a looming deadline for my dissertation and needed to get back to work. But my admonishments did not always succeed, so captivated was I by the novel. Little did I imagine then that an annotated version of Pride and Prejudice, rather than an expanded version of that same dissertation, was to be my first published book.
- In this link find a series of images I found on the 1940 movie version of Pride & Prejudice, in which the film’s creator’s revamped the plot and costumes (Civil War era), and in which the two stars are much too old to play Lizzie and Mr. Darcy.
- The Most Annotated: The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, reviewed by Linda Bree
Images source: 1940 Film of Pride & Prejudice | <urn:uuid:bcef2f00-2e2c-41c3-bb95-de87427694e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/pride-prejudice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967602 | 592 | 1.820313 | 2 |
VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS
(OF GREAT FILM LOCATIONS)
When Lassie comes home this summer on the big screen, he'll be coming home to Virginia. It's a choice many companies are making, as Virginia's extraordinary growth in the film industry continues.
This summer, a new generation will encounter one of the world's most enduring Hollywood stars in a contemporary motion picture. Many people in and out of the film industry will also discover Virginia. Lassie will come home, after choosing the Old Dominion as the place to make his return. "Lassie" was filmed in Virginia's Tazewell County and the capital city of Richmond.
"We loved every phase of working in Virginia, from preliminary scouting visits to production and post-production," raves Michael Rachmil, executive producer of "Lassie." He says, "I would love to work in Virginia again and hope to as soon as possible."
With a calling card containing "Lassie," "The Pelican Brief," "Sommersby," "Big Brother Jake," and many more, the Virginia film industry is opening doors in Hollywood. It's easy to see why.
"From the colonial settings of the 17th century plantations to contemporary urban architecture to pristine rural settings, the Commonwealth of Virginia can provide a rich backdrop for the film industry," says new Governor George Allen. "The Commonwealth has diligently worked to nurture and expand opportunities for on-location and indigenous production in the state."
The Old Dominion's success can be attributed to several very specific factors: visible government, private, and public support; Virginia's diverse geography and climate (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Blue Ridge Mountains, with mild and varied weather); historic architecture; right-to-work status; a talented crew base; a talented acting pool; a sound infrastructure created to support tourism in the state and good relationships and experiences with industry officials in Hollywood.
Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, says, "Savvy film commission offices around the country are looking for any advantage they can get to help capture motion picture production. Virginia has much to offer and producers need to know about these assets."
The Virginia Film Office was created in 1980 to attract motion picture and television production to Virginia, promoting the assets to which Mr. Valenti refers. Since that time, Virginia has hosted 91 major film and television productions.
The long list includes: "Lassie" (Tazewell County, Richmond); "Conduct Unbecoming" (the Shenandoah Valley); "Foreign Student" (Lexington, various locations); "Pelican Brief" (Northern Virginia); "Sommersby" (Bath County, Lexington, Farmville, Charlotte County); "The Vernon Johns Story (Petersburg, Richmond); Dirty Dancing (Giles County); What About Bob (Roanoke, Bedford, Franklin); Navy Seals (Hampton Roads); and long-standing "Big Brother Jake" (Virginia Beach). Virginia has also hosted dozens of national commercials for companies, including spots for BMW, Maxwell House, and Nike.
In 1992, "Somersby" brought nationwide attention to Virginia as a film location. Director Jon Amiel says, "Virginia has a unique team of people determined to make everything and anything possible. Only in Virginia could you find the scenery and setting that I hadn't seen in movies for some time."
In 1993, on-location film production generated more than $48 million for Virginia's economy, including more than $16 million in direct revenue. Nine major film announcements in 1993 represented an increase of 29% in film production compared to 1992. The number of production days grew from 758 in 1992 to 942 in 1993, an increase of 24%.
"Yes, Virginia, there is an entertainment lawyer in the Old Dominion," says Kirk Schroder, an attorney specializing in entertainment law. "The busy production schedule and the production companies returning or establishing an on-going presence show me that 1993 was busy and the rest of the decade will be even better for the state."
Virginia's production slate for 1993 was diverse. Four major films for television, "Conduct Unbecoming," "If I Die Before I Wake," "Vernon Johns," and "Vanishing Son," all chose locations in the state. Feature film production included: "Lassie," a remake of the family classic; "The Foreign Student," a film based on the true story of a Washington & Lee University exchange student in the 1950s; "In the Line of Fire" with Clint Eastwood; and "The Pelican Brief," the second in a series of films based on John Grisham's best-sellers. The sitcom "Big Brother Jake" is now in it's fourth season.
"Hollywood people told me that Virginia has a very talented infrastructure and experience for all phases of scouting, production, and post-production," says Kulla Winslow, with Virginia's Chesterfield County Department of Economic Development. This infrastructure played a major role throughout Lassie's lengthy stay in Virginia.
Location potential was one of the biggest draws in 1993 and will continue to be a big asset for the state. Small towns, big cities, rolling countryside, and historic sites like Colonial Williamsburg all contribute to Virginia's compact geographic lure.
"We love using Virginia because of its variety, concentration of sites, and our ability to make it look like almost anywhere," says Raffaella DeLaurentiis, producer of "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Raffaella Productions used Virginia for "Vanishing Son" and "Trading Mom," a movie featuring Virginia resident Sissy Spacek and locations in Richmond, Virginia, and the Shenandoah Valley.
Though Virginia clearly has "favored location" status in Hollywood, industry officials also addressed some of the liabilities in Virginia. These include: depth of the crew base (Virginia currently has enough personnel to provide local crew for two simultaneous productions); production equipment availability during busy periods; and lack of studio facilities.
State officials and local companies are working to alleviate these problems. Virginia's crew has grown consistently since 1980, as many people gain experience in and outside the state.
With film production continuing to expand, the equipment problem is becoming less of a factor. A corridor of professionals and equipment has developed in Northern Virginia, Richmond, and the Hampton Roads area. "As a result of so many successful ventures in Virginia, the crew base and experience at all levels has improved tremendously," says Charley Baxter, a Virginia-based location manager.
Susan Rohrer, a producer and director at NorthStar Entertainment Group in Virginia Beach, says, "Virginia has all of the correct components in place for a full-service feature film and television production company like ours." NorthStar has completed seven films in the state for CBS, ABC, and The Family Channel.
Finally, the Virginia Film Office is working diligently for the development of dedicated studio space. Given the state's success, it's just a matter of time.
Rita McClenny, director of the Virginia Film Office, says, "We have been successful because of our marketing, our location, and our people. Those who film here are greeted with an experienced film office, great locations, and professional and friendly people."
The Virginia Film Office is not alone in pursuing continued growth in the state's film industry. Statewide associations involved in the production industry include the Virginia Production Services Association (VPSA), the Independent Television Society (ITS), and the International Television Association (ITVA).
The Virginia Festival of American Film remains an invaluable component of the film community in the state. In its 7th year, the festival attracts numerous world-class filmmakers, industry officials, and several thousand citizens to screening and panel discussions. The festival offers Virginia's film industry an unequaled occasion to market to film industry leaders against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the fall. This year's theme is "Love and Romance."
"The Virginia Film Office, known for its superior service, has been successful in everything from recruitment of films to the establishment of the Governor's Screenwriting Competition," says Governor George Allen. "This tradition of commitment to the entertainment industry will continue and grow during my administration."
The Virginia Film Office assists filmmakers by providing location and production assistance and by arranging any necessary state or local services. Office personnel and industry officials throughout the state take deserved pride in their accommodating and professional ways. To find out more about shooting in Virginia, contact the Virginia Film Office at P.O. Box 798, Richmond, VA 23219, 804/371-8204 or 804/786-1121 (FAX).
LASSIE LOVES VIRGINIA
Lassie first captured the hearts of families more than 50 years ago and went on to star in nine feature films and more than 600 television episodes. The famous dog originally appeared in a short story by Eric Knight in 1938 for the Saturday Evening Post. A novel, Lassie Come-Home, soon followed and became the basis for the classic MGM film that starred Roddy McDowell and introduced the young Elizabeth Taylor.
As the Turner family travels from Baltimore, Maryland, to make a new life in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, they encounter a stray collie that seven-year-old Jennifer names Lassie. The dog becomes the unexpected companion of her cynical brother, Matt, as he explores the striking natural beauty of the Virginia countryside and moviegoers get to enjoy the scenery on film.
"'Lassie' preserves many elements of the original Lassie film, yet it isn't a remake," comments Jon Tenney, who plays the father, Steve Turner. "The story is very much in the '90s with issues that are pertinent now. Out of work, he moves his family from the city to rural Virginia. He ends up embracing this idea of becoming a sheep rancher, rediscovering himself and his ideas of how he wanted to raise a family all along."
The new movie stars Tom Guiry as Matt; Jon Tenney has his father; Helen Slater as Matt's stepmother, Laura; Federic Forrest as Sam Garland, a neighbor; and Richard Farnsworth as Matt's grandfather, Len.
Produced by Lorne Michaels, "Lassie" was directed by Daniel Petrie from a screenplay written by Matthew Jacobs, Gary Ross, and Elizabeth Anderson, based on the character of Lassie created by Eric Knight. Michael Rachmil was the executive producer and Dinah Minot and Barnaby Thompson were co-producers. It is an Eee-Yaw-Kee production, distributed by the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures.
We spoke with Mr. Petrie about "Lassie" and filming in Virginia.
HR: What is your background?
Petrie: My films have included "Cocoon: The Return," "Square Dance," "The Bay Boy," "Fort Apache, The Bronx," "Resurrection," and "A Raisin in the Sun." I've also directed many telefilms, including "A Town Torn Apart," Mark Twain and Me," The Execution of Raymond Graham," "The Dollmaker," "Eleanor and Franklin," and "Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years." These productions won a combined total of 23 Emmys, among 52 nominations.
HR: Why did you choose Virginia for "Lassie?"
Petrie: I shot in Virginia twice before--"The Murder of Mary Phagan" and "My Name is Bill W." My experience there was most pleasant, with full support and cooperation from the Virginia Film Office. We even used the Governor's mansion for an Akron, Ohio hotel!
HR: What is so special about shooting in Virginia?
Petrie: The diligence of the Virginia Film Office, the facilities available, the glorious scenery, and the warmth of the citizenry.
HR: Do you have any special memories of your time in Virginia?
Petrie: Just another example of extraordinary cooperation. For "Lassie," we needed to state a major highway accident and, through the Virginia Film Office and the state and local police, we were allowed complete access to an interstate highway for several nights while traffic was politely detoured around us.
HR: Is there anything unusual about filing in Virginia that will interest Hollywood officials?
Petrie: The message should by conveyed that the Virginia Film Office is second to none in providing information, in helping with location selection, and with services and accommodations.
HR: Tell us about working with Lassie.
Petrie: I was surprised by the charisma of my canine star. The charm, sweetness, commitment, and intelligence--those qualities make the story work on a level that wouldn't be possible without that animal. The dog has a wonderfully expressive nature that is most endearing.
HR: Would you work in Virginia again?
Petrie: Absolutely. Any film requiring a "look" that could be found in Virginia would have me heading for Richmond first.
HR: What's your next project?
Petrie: "The Assistant," based on Bernard Malamud's novel.
HR: Final comment?
Petrie: I love Virginia! | <urn:uuid:235c1e82-784d-4bae-a75f-4fd09fdb6b37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lynnseldon.com/article128.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956118 | 2,726 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Revealed in yesterday's New York Times is the backstory to one of the more iconic White House photos shot by resident photographer Pete Souza: President Obama's hair being stroked by then-five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia.
According to the Times, unlike most other West Wing photos, this particular snapshot has remained in place for the past three years. "The image has struck so many White House aides and visitors," writes Jackie Calmes, "that by popular demand it stays put while others come and go."
The scene came about after Jacob, son of a departing National Security Council staff member, asked the president if their hair was similar. Both of the Philadelphia boys, Jacob and his brother Issac, were given permission by their parents to ask the president one question each (they later said they did not know in advance what their kids were going to ask).
Jacob spoke first.
"I want to know if my hair is just like yours," he told Mr. Obama, so quietly that the president asked him to speak again.
Jacob did, and Mr. Obama replied, "Why don't you touch it and see for yourself?" He lowered his head, level with Jacob, who hesitated.
"Touch it, dude!" Mr. Obama said.
As Jacob patted the presidential crown, Mr. Souza snapped.
"So, what do you think?" Mr. Obama asked.
"Yes, it does feel the same," Jacob said.
(Isaac, now 11, asked Mr. Obama why he had eliminated the F-22 fighter jet. Mr. Obama said it cost too much, Isaac and his parents recounted.)
Speaking to the significance of his son's seemingly odd request, Carlton Philadelphia said it was "important for black children to see a black man as president," adding that "you can believe that any position is possible to achieve if you see a black person in it."
[photo via White House Flickr] | <urn:uuid:c571c113-e592-4667-b1d9-f2e8c993cb0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gawker.com/5912985/how-the-most-adorable-white-house-photo-ever-came-to-be-taken | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984621 | 399 | 1.632813 | 2 |
When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality—and he must reach the same conclusion.
He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president’s accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
I agree with Caddell and Schoen: Obama should step down and retain what dignity he may. Also, I agree with them when they document current polling that shows Hilary trouncing current Republican candidates.
Hilary’s popularity has come from being in a good spot: not in charge, but in the news as our representative to other nations. Things go wrong, not being in charge, she doesn’t take the heat. Things go right, she basks in the glow of a job well done.
If Hilary were the Democrat nominee, all that changes. All the Clinton baggage would comes into play, and Hilary doesn’t travel light. I think we could beat her, with the right candidate. But it would be a huge challenge.
All fascinating, but Obama’s ego is too large to allow him to step aside. For the sake of our nation, I wish he would; Hilary Clinton would be better for us than a second Obama term. President Romney would likely agree, come January 20, 2013. | <urn:uuid:4c1a7ba6-b75e-4464-82dc-7ec8c0d5c27d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jackrich.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/moral-high-ground/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972177 | 363 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Hunting and fishing mean more than fresh, tasty meals and prized wall trophies in Maryland. They also mean thousands of jobs and an annual economic impact of more than $1 billion, according to a new report.
The study, from the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation of Washington, D.C., shows that the 445,000 people who hunt or fish in Maryland supported 10,707 jobs and generated a $1.25 billion economic impact in the state in 2011.
Nationwide, fishing and hunting enthusiasts spent $90 billion in 2011 — more than the combined global sales of Apple’s iPhone and iPad that year, according to the foundation. Maryland ranked No. 35 in spending, trailing neighbors Virginia and Pennsylvania, which had $2.4 billion and $1.5 billion in sales, respectively.
“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” said Keith Fraser, owner of Alltackle.com in Annapolis and Ocean City. “Even from out of state, there’s a lot of money spent on the side that people don’t consider. People coming here to fish spend a lot of money on fuel for their boats, as well as hotels, restaurants and marina docking.”
Maryland benefits from the Chesapeake Bay, which provides numerous options for fishing and hunting, Fraser said.
Alltackle.com, in business for 13 years, handles about 50,000 transactions annually, including through its online presence, he said.
Lori Patten, owner of Tuckahoe Sportsman in Denton, which sells hunting and fishing supplies, pointed out that fishing also provides low-cost entertainment for Marylanders.
The array of peninsulas around the Pasadena area make it a prime fishing spot, said Joe McHenry, co-owner of Cobe Marine. Although Cobe Marine’s former owners specialized in hunting supplies, McHenry has focused more on fishing and boating since he and his partner took over the business in 2007.
“Just about anyone in this area has a boat and fishes,” he said, adding that fishing supports 30 percent of his business. Cobe Marine makes about $1.3 million in annual sales, McHenry said.
The state boasts the fourth-largest tidal coastline in the U.S., said Fearl Bradley, owner of Fearl’s Bait & Tackle in Baltimore.
“There is a fishing niche that’s been here for a long time,” he said. “We’re proud of that.”
Maryland is also one of the prime waterfowl hunting spots in the country, said Steve Schneider, owner of Atlantic Guns in Silver Spring and Rockville. He said Maryland’s deer population also is attractive to hunters, with the number of deer hunters increasing “dramatically” over the years.
But Schneider also expressed concern that the state’s population growth was making it increasingly difficult to find appropriate hunting grounds.
Atlantic Guns, in business since 1951, has 25 employees, he said.
Patten also denounced the O’Malley administration’s push for more gun regulations, which she said will make it harder for hunters to enjoy their sport.
“The Eastern Shore has a lot more area to hunt than other parts of Maryland. It attracts people from everywhere,” she said. “We’re trying to get people outdoors so they’re not sitting around all the time.”
Tuckahoe Sportsman receives about 1,500 customers annually.
“Many people may not fully comprehend how important hunting and fishing are to the fabric of this country,” Jeff Crane, president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, said in a statement. “Yet nationally there are more people who hunt or fish than go bowling, and their spending would land them at No. 24 on the Fortune 500 list.” | <urn:uuid:8ebceec0-e1ef-4bc2-85b1-5f3f5f355440> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gazette.net/article/20130211/NEWS/130219966/1122/sorority-celebrates-100th-anniversary/Hunting-fishing-pack-an-economic-wallop-for-Maryland&template=gazette | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962775 | 815 | 1.84375 | 2 |
“The first biologist I had any close connection with was J.R. Harris, who wrote that classic book ‘An Angler’s Entomology’. He was my first boss in Garnett & Keegan, a fishing tackle shop in Parliament Street, in Dublin. That was my very first job.
“I was interested in wildlife having grown up on the River Dargle in Co. Wicklow, just outside Bray. Our house looked straight out onto a salmon pool and a weir. The river has influenced my whole life. I could make rods, I could make flies, I knew about fishing. To have a biologist as your boss, in an establishment such as that, was unusual. It influenced me very much.
“One of the most extraordinary things about the ‘Amuigh Faoin Spéir’ programmes was the drawings by Gerrit van Gelderen. Gerrit was a friend of mine, who was a wildlife illustrator and a naturalist from Holland. When the series began in 1963 it was completely in studio. I used to borrow animals and birds and bring them into studio.
“The very first programme was to be about swans. Gerrit lived on the Liffey, on Conyngham Road near the Phoenix Park, and he went out in the middle of the night and captured a swan and brought it into RTÉ. You couldn’t do that nowadays, of course, because it would be quite illegal. We had the prop men build an enclosure to put the swan into.
“The show was broadcast live from the studio. I had a script and as I was talking about the animals Gerrit would stand hidden behind a large, white paper screen and draw them. For example, if I were describing a particular bird such as a swan, suddenly as if out of nowhere, a very large letter S would begin to appear on the full TV screen as Gerrit began sketching from behind the screen. The S would quickly develop into a beautiful finished drawing of a swan. Nothing like this had ever appeared before on Irish TV; it was pure magic!
“It was only by degrees that we got film into the programme. We had never filmed for television before so we knew nothing about it. Gerrit had a Bolex camera in a pawn shop. When we got our first contract he was able to take out the camera.
“There were objections in the newsroom to these outsiders going to shoot film. We said to one of the most vocal newsmen that we were doing something on city wildlife and we wanted some shots of house sparrows. The last I heard of that newsman and his escapades into wildlife filming was that he was crawling around under the seats in St. Stephen’s Green, throwing crumbs at the sparrows that kept flying away. He didn’t succeed in getting any shots, so we were left alone after that. Then I got a camera and I started to film as well.
“Neither of us had any training. Filming wildlife is very difficult and you have to know your animals. The equipment that is available to wildlife filmmakers now is only fantastic. They can attach tiny cameras to an eagle or put them down into a burrow. We didn’t have that kind of thing at all.
“We had to be terribly careful not to disturb the animals. At that time, you could go into the mountains, leave your car with your equipment anywhere, and it wouldn’t be touched. You wouldn’t see anyone in the mountains. Now there are walkers all over the place, so it’s more difficult to get places that are not disturbed.
“If you got up at five o’clock on a summer’s morning to record wildlife sound, there were no helicopters flying around, there were no power saws making noise, there was no traffic, because nobody drove around at five o’clock in the morning in those days.
“It was really exciting because it was all so new. We were independent filmmakers when there were hardly any independent filmmakers. Radharc, who were financed partly by the church, were working at that time as well. I remember one occasion when we were being presented with a budget by John Baragwanath, who gave out the money in RTÉ. We used to refer to him as Barracuda. When he handed us the budget sheet, Gerrit said: ‘What do you think we eat, grass?’ And he said: ‘Well Radharc do it for that,’ to which Gerrit replied: ‘Radharc have a vow of poverty. We don’t.’
“In 1969, ‘Operation Seafarer’ was a survey by a British-Irish team of ornithologists of various islands around the south west, especially the Blaskets. Oscar Merne, one of the Irish biologists, asked me if I’d be interested in going. My soundman, Pat Hayes, and I arranged to meet the boat in Portmagee in Kerry. It wasn’t an ideal boat, we soon found out when we went aboard, because we could hear the water in the bilges going from side to side. I don’t think the crew were real seamen.
“Five of the British ornithologists were on the Tiaracht, which is a lighthouse island in the Blasket chain. We arranged to take them off as we were heading out to some of the other islands. The two boatmen decided that the day was getting too late and they dropped us off on the Blasket and promised to come back the next day to collect us, which they didn’t do. We were left on the Blasket with no sign of any boat.
“Every day we’d be waving at any boat that went up the Blasket Sound. Oscar’s wife had her young baby with her. Luckily enough she was feeding the baby herself. We lit a fire to attract attention but people over in Dún Chaoin thought we were just holidaymakers having a good time. There were no mobile phones back then.
“It was on the morning of the fifth day when a Shell tanker went up the sound. We were waving napkins and shouting and eventually we heard a hoot from the boat. They’d realised something was wrong and contacted the Valentia lifeboat, who came and took us off the island. The boatmen lost their licence shortly after that.
“The pressures on the environment are far greater now. The overdevelopment of areas during the building boom was just crazy. Planning permission was given out to projects that should not have been given permission.
“I'm in constant communication with Government about a project in which I have been involved with Dr. Rory Harrington and the Department of the Environment. It is called Integrated Constructed Wetlands and involves creating a series of shallow wetland areas to treat polluted water, such as farmyard effluents. A variety of specially chosen aquatic plants in the ponds support micro-organisms that process and digest all the pollutants. All the health-threatening bacteria are cleansed from the waste water resulting in a perfectly clean water course. I have had an interest in this concept for over 20 years.
“When I look back now, one of the most satisfying things about the programme is the way in which it changed people’s perception of wildlife and the environment. Even today, there isn’t a week that goes by that people don’t say to me something about ‘Amuigh Faoin Spéir’. It’s very satisfying when a young person comes up to me and says: ‘I’m a zoologist today because of you.’ It has happened countless times. It just amazes me it had such an effect. I think we’ve gone some way towards making people more conscious of the beauty of the countryside and the need to look after it.”
Watch an interview with Éamon de Buitléar on the RTÉ Player here.
To find out more about Éamon de Buitléar, visit his site at www.eamondebuitlear.com | <urn:uuid:2343c2dd-c9dd-4d57-a2ec-57de48e481f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rte.ie/tv50/essays/eamondebuitlear.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987041 | 1,736 | 1.757813 | 2 |
January 8, 2010
Does China need bright-line rules?
I just read a very stimulating paper by Prof. Ofer Raban of the Univ. of Oregon School of Law entitled "The Fallacy of Legal Certainty: Why Vague Legal Standards May Be Better for Capitalism and Liberalism." As commentators both domestic and foreign - no doubt including me at times - often criticize Chinese legislation for its vagueness and ambiguity (that is, when it's vague or ambiguous; it's not always so), I thought it might offer a useful opposing view. Bottom line: the argument is certainly worth taking into consideration when thinking about China, but it doesn't map perfectly onto the Chinese context. (I should add that Prof. Raban does not purport to be writing about China, but he does purport to be writing about rules and standards in legal systems generally.)
Let's first clear away a couple of preliminary obstacles. The author accepts (perhaps just for the sake of argument) that predictability in the law is good for the economy and, I think it's fair to say, good in itself (which is not to deny the existence of any countervailing values). And let me go further and assume here, for the sake of argument, that predictability in the law would be a good thing for China. The interesting issue is what kind of laws best provide that kind of predictability: rules or standards?
The author's argument is that we have to distinguish predictability for lawyers and judges from predictability for parties, and that we should worry about the latter because that's why predictability is valuable in the first place. If we worry about predictability for parties, then often bright-line rules will serve to confound, not support, their expectations. It is standards, on the other hand, that authorize a court's inquiry into context, surrounding circumstances, etc. - precisely the things that will tell us (if the inquiry is properly conducted) what the parties really expected. (See the article for examples.) If we apply a bright-line rule, a lawyer or judge can predict the result, but it may not at all be what the parties expected would happen.
I don't think Raban anywhere denies that applying standards may cost more than applying bright-line rules, but that's another issue; he's out simply to deny what is commonly assumed, that there is a cost in certainty and predictability to applying standards. He argues that in fact certainty and predictability where it matters - in the actions of parties when they transact - can be enhanced by the use of standards.
So far so good. He raises some good examples, and the argument shows at least that we have to be careful about assuming that bright-line rules have the conventionally-assumed benefit of predictability. Can we take this insight to China?
I can think of two main problems with doing so. (This doesn't mean we should reject the insight; just that we have to apply it with more care than usual.) First, we need to compare the result of the use of standards in the substantive law of the US and China. In the US, the result is that more discretion is placed in the hands of the decision-maker. Pretty straightforward, right? But in China this is not always going to be the case. We often see that when vague standard-like language is used in Chinese legislation, the reaction of courts, at least, is to say, "This isn't enough for us to use in adjudication," and they refuse to accept cases (or arguments) predicated on that standard. The end result is that it's as if the standard had never been promulgated. Courts wait around until the Supreme People's Court issues a document making the standard much more concrete and specific.
The second problem is a little more obvious. Doesn't any discussion of the relative merits of rules versus standards have to take into account the people or institutions that will be administering them? And surely those people and institutions show a lot of variation over space and time. Standards might yield more predictable results than rules in the hands of judges of a certain type (the type Prof. Raban has in mind), but less predictable results in the hands of judges of another type. (I suppose this goes back to the issue I raised earlier of the costs of applying standards versus rules.) Prof. Raban does address this in the final paragraph of the paper, but only briefly and, to my mind, unsatisfactorily:
A final caveat: the extensive use of vague legal standards no doubt harbors dangers. Vague standards can easily mask arbitrariness, inconsistency, and injustice, and can also (of course) generate uncertainty. Their proper use requires good faith, professionalism, and intelligence, and therefore depends on a high caliber legal profession. But then again, it’s hard to imagine a form of law (and of legal interpretation) that doesn’t.
This seems to me far too flip a dismissal of a real problem. Since not all societies at all times have the kind of legal profession called for, we must think about whether the argument works when that kind of legal profession is not present. If it doesn't, then that means that we can't know whether the argument is correct or not as applied to a given society without undertaking an assessment of the legal profession of that society - unless, very improbably, we were to assume that as the quality of the legal profession declines, there is no relative change in its ability to administer rules versus standards predictably. Thus, even if Prof. Raban's argument is correct as applied to the United States (I should note that he frames his argument in universalist, not national, terms), we can't apply the argument to China (or any country) without thinking first about the capacity of the judiciary to administer standards versus rules.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Does China need bright-line rules?: | <urn:uuid:4ddd93ca-5f97-461b-a9c2-90cdc2a2f015> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2010/01/does-china-need-brightline-rules.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952505 | 1,219 | 1.648438 | 2 |
County backs dual plans for hydropower
Company pursuing projects at Dresden Island, Brandon Road
The generation of power at the Dresden Island and Brandon Road dam sites is a concept Grundy County can get behind.
In fact, with a unanimous vote Tuesday evening, during a brief regular meeting, the county board did just that. With Jeremy Ly absent, the board unanimously approved a statement of support for projects Northern Illinois Hydropower has proposed at each location.
“Based upon our appraisal of these materials, and by signing this letter, we hereby provide our support to both the Dresden Island and the Brandon Road hydroelectric projects,” the statement of support read. “While opportunities like those presented by these projects may be rare, it is our belief that they represent the type that will benefit all interested parties and, most importantly, the people of the state of Illinois.”
The board authorized the signing of the statement with no discussion Tuesday, so no details of the project were presented during the meeting. The statement, however, points out that Northern Illinois Hydropower, which is based in Joliet, has been working to obtain approval for these projects since 2006.
It notes that the projects’ benefits to the local economy will be significant, with 75 cents of every dollar spent on the projects being spent locally.
“Moreover,” the statement reads, “building and maintaining these projects will require local workers of all variety and Northern Illinois Hydropower is absolutely committed to working with local unions to find these workers. Once the Dresden Island and Brandon Road projects get off the ground, Northern Illinois Hydropower will need to hire local ironworkers, carpenters, millwrights, electricians, laborers, engineers, lawyers, and bankers, just to name a few.”
It is also noted in the statement that the employment of local workers will create local spending on food, housing, gasoline and a variety of other services.
“Put simply, the impact of these projects on the economy of north-central Illinois cannot be underestimated,” the statement said.
In noting the county’s support for the projects, the statement also discussed the fact the project will not have a negative impact on the environment, and may actually have a positive impact on certain fish species in the Lower Des Plaines and Upper Illinois rivers.
It is anticipated the projects will generate clean energy for up to 13,000 homes. | <urn:uuid:ff4e292f-ff32-4e7b-913d-a8d0ca9fd964> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/2012/10/10/county-backs-dual-plans-for-hydropower/apiely5/?__xsl=/print.xsl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952986 | 500 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Flame burns bright.
It was a touching display of hope stacked upon hope. A circle of family, friends, supporters, teachers, students (and a few of us journalists) gathered for a brief ceremony, a site dedication for the future Guardians Institute next to the home of Herreast Harrison, at the corner of North Johnson and, appropriately enough, Independence.
On a block that's still relatively desolate, Herreast, who lives in a trailer beside her partially rebuilt house, dug a shovel into her yard and envisioned a future "a safe haven for children, and a place where cultural traditions are supported and authentically transmitted." At her side was her daughter, Cherice Harrison-Nelson, Counsel Queen of the Guardians of the Flame tribe, who has worked in a variety of contexts -- at the Albert Wicker School, where she teaches, and widely throughout the Mardi Gras community. (Alison's Fensterstock's piece for Gambit Weekly offers further background on Cherice.)
"Something deep within your soul calls you to do this, to participate in Mardi Gras Indian culture," Cherice told me. "It just calls you and you've got to do it for your mental and physical survival, and for the welfare of those around you." (She's captured an important slice of that tradition with her documentary, "Guardians of the Flame: A View from Within").
Herreast's son Donald Harrison, the jazz saxophonist, was in New York for a gig. But he'll be back in New Orleans in time to lead the Congo Nation tribe, of which he is Big Chief, on Mardi Gras day. But Kevin Cooley was there -- the five-year-old who leads the Young Guardians of the Flame tribe (perhaps the youngest Big Chief in Indian history).
Herreast Harrison explained that in furthering tradition, her institute was an extension of the legacy of her late husband Donald Harrison, Sr., who was during his life chief of four different Mardi Gras Indian tribes. Educator and historian Al Kennedy, who has written a fascinating book about public schools and New Orleans musical traditions, offered a tribute drawn from his forthcoming biography of Donald Sr. (and posted here with the author's permission):
I 'm the Big Chief from the Guardians of the Flame, Big Chief Donald Harrison would sing.
Barkin' out Thunder/Roarin' Out Lightning/Kickin' over tombstones/Wakin' up the Dead
Barkin' out thunder. Roarin' out Lightning!
Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr. lived his life barking out thunder and roaring out lightning. And he never bowed down. He took center stage wherever he stood. He challenged everyone, yet he earned respect and he gave respect. He crossed the social and cultural boundaries of New Orleans and left behind an artistic and historical legacy. He believed in education, strength of character, honesty, generosity, and pride. He found all of those in the Mardi Gras Indian traditions, and he shared those qualities with his children and his grandchildren and the other lives he touched.
Throughout his life, the Mardi Gras Indian tradition directed his footsteps, shaped his philosophy, and guided him through his final days. Being a Mardi Gras Indian was a fundamental part of Donald Harrison Sr. He needed the Mardi Gras Indians Indians in the same way that he needed air and water--to survive.
But he also knew he needed an education to survive. Many things can be taken away in this life; but Big Chief Donald Harrison knew the one thing that never could be taken away is an education. So he read -read almost everything he could find, from the Louisiana Weekly's he sold in the 1940s on through some of the most difficult philosophers whose works he sought out in the public library.
He also believed in strength of character, and he believed in honesty. "Truth is truth," he once stated. "One thing that never changes is the truth. You can twist anything else. Can't twist the truth. It will come back the truth. Then you are going to have to tell a lie to try to cover it up."
Throughout his life he sang "Indian Red," the sacred song of the Mardi Gras Indians, repeating the refrain: "We won't bow down." These were not idle words. Donald Harrison never bowed down. He was fearless in life, and he was fearless on his deathbed.
But, just as fearless as he was, Donald Harrison was just as generous. He was the man behind countless generous and unselfish actions for the people around him. He was motivated by his unwavering belief that people deserved a good life. He gave away money and many of his possessions. He helped people find jobs. He maneuvered and manipulated governmental bureaucracies to help people get the benefits they needed to survive.
The toughest decision he ever made was in 1968 when he put away the crown and the feathers he loved--for almost two decades, showing he loved his family more. The money that had been going into the Mardi Gras Indian suits now went into educating his four children.
Today that spirit is here. No one has kept that spirit alive more that Mrs. Herreast Harrison, the wife of Big Chief Donald. Whereas her husband roared out thunder and barked out lightening, she exhibits a different kind of strength.
Donald Harrison Sr.'s love for learning was matched by Herrerast Harrison's love for learning. She also knows the value of offering children a safe and secure place, which is what she is going to do here. The Guardian Institute, while it honors Big Chief Donald Harrison, is also a tribute to Herreast Harrison and her courage and her perseverance and her love for community. Her roots are deeper than an oak tree, and the worst natural disaster to hit our country has hit her and hurt her; but, like her husband, she has never bowed down--not even to Katrina. She is an example of the resilience of New Orleans. And, right here, in this place, we are seeing the strength of New Orleans, and, most important the hope for New Orleans' future.
The last time I saw Donald Harrison Jr., in October, he was in this same front yard of his childhood home. The filmmaker Jonathan Demme and a small crew were there, filming the Harrisons for a documentary that centers in part on the hardships they've endured since Katrina, and the family's centrality in New Orleans culture. Harrison's mother stood on the step of her trailer and recalled the day, decades ago, that Donald Harrison, Sr. came home from Werlein's Music Store, where, on a whim, he bought a saxophone for his son. Donald picked up his current alto horn and played some of "Amazing Grace" -- and swung it hard, as he might have played it in a brass band, while in his teens.
A few minutes later, Harrison grabbed a tambourine and, with his sister, Cara, and a nephew, Kiel, by his side singing along, underscored the Mardi Gras Indian traditional "Two-Way-Pocky-Way" with that same rhythm. His mother stood proudly, watching the scene unfold on a block lined with empty houses of undetermined fate. When he finished singing, Harrison put down his tambourine and looked into Demme's camera.
"I'm going to continue to be a Mardi Gras Indian," he said. "I'm going to play my saxophone. If enough people do their part, everything will endure. But that's the question: Will people be allowed to do their part?"
Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise
Dave Douglas: Greenleaf Music
point of departure
Jazz Journalists Association
Steve Smith: nightafternight
Willard Jenkins: Open Sky Jazz
music/food/justice in NOLA
Howard Mandel's JazzBeyondJazz
AJ BlogsAJBlogCentral | rss
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Laura Collins-Hughes on arts, culture and coverage
Richard Kessler on arts education
Douglas McLennan's blog
Dalouge Smith advocates for the Arts
Art from the American Outback
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
No genre is the new genre
David Jays on theatre and dance
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
John Rockwell on the arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
Bruce Brubaker on all things Piano
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world
Public Art, Public Space
Regina Hackett takes her Art To Go
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog | <urn:uuid:bdeb492a-aebe-488f-9efc-534fd92ff448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artsjournal.com/listengood/2007/02/flame-burns-bright.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963859 | 2,004 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Book excerpts from the Spirit and Flesh religion and spirituality online library.
Addiction, stillness, passion, and dispassion:
earthly attachment, and spiritual detachment
excerpted from OM, baby! a pilgrimage to the eternal self, by Jack Haas
I know now that all of my compulsions have been the outcome of my primary addiction- the need for inspiration. Inspiration is my drug. Such things as spirituality, booze, travel, psychedelics, contemplation, music, dance, laughter, wilderness, and ribaldry- these have simply been the different forms of the drug of inspiration for which I have had great need in this confounding life. I could not live without being inspired, be it from beauty, wonder, intoxication, love, God, adventure, merriment, or profundity. And that means I have been an addict to perhaps the most relentless addiction of them all, because any moment I was not soaking in the thick tremor of inspiration was but an agony waiting to be relieved. And relieve it I did.
Oh, did I relieve it. I went mad with anguish and euphoria. I tramped and wandered and roamed this magnificent earth. I drank and smoked and ingested the bounty of the earth's intoxicants. I studied and scoured and devoured this inexorable mystery into which I was born. I laughed and wept and played and roared at the glory and gore of this whole mad show. I walked away and came back again. I ran away and returned. I shouted with rage and bellowed with praise. I fought with fists and made love with wild abandon. I sought inspiration in the guts, the heart, the spirit, and in the bowels of our cosmic corpulescence. And whether it was right or wrong no longer matters, for I could have done no other. I could not live without inspiration. I knew this, and I resigned. Inspiration would be my oxygen.
And yet all the jangle and boom which resounded from my feverish endeavors were themselves but aspects of only one half of my true nature. The other half was stillness. Absolute stillness. And it was not until that stillness devoid of opposites arose within me did I truly realize my inexorable addiction. It was not until I blew apart in a subtle super-nova caused by the coalescence of all I had endured, that I then merged into the all from which I had been sucking inspiration.
It was from this apocalyptic transformation that I became still. But even as the peace and equanimity of the limitless void dissolved and became me, and I became that oxygen I once so feverishly inhaled, still did I look out from the eternal harbor of the eternal self. And with a subtle grin of excitement I learned to settle comfortably back into the flesh, knowing that no word describes this inspired life of action and peace better than Hallelujah!
Passion and dispassion now merge within me as if I am at rest amidst an apocalypse. I am at the still point, and I am in the maelstrom. I am calm, and I am exploding. I am full of faith, and I am wild with mania. I am love, and I am rage.
I am a rock rising inviolably out of the sea, and I am the roaring waves trying to break it.
I am the horror and the caress, the thrashing and the quiescence, the pandemonium and the peace.
I am the link between the one and the many, the perfection and the dross, the glory and the gore, the victory and the loss.
I am an invisible bridge between invisible worlds, a tightrope uniting spirit and flesh, heaven and earth, ennui and ecstasy, becoming and eternity. There is no end. And I am no longer afraid.
I am no longer afraid because I know now that fear is the wall which divides the ecstatic-All into agonizing parts. To take down the wall is to become the All. To become the All is to be torn into pieces like Osiris, only to then be re-membered into the eternal, divisionless realm of Love.
I am no longer afraid. And it is for this inextinguishable reason that like a madman with an unquenchable song in his tremulous heart do I now sing without shame for the glory. Om, baby!
by Jack Haas
To find out about books by Jack Haas, click on the image:
Books by Jack Haas. Autobiography, Memoir, Spirituality, Mysticism, Comparative Religion, Poetry, Art, Photography. | <urn:uuid:535e49fd-1095-4a99-9be0-25650f496c75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spiritandflesh.com/bookOMAddictionstillnesspassiondispassionspiritualdetachment_religion_spirituality.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962134 | 954 | 1.539063 | 2 |
This week, the Chamber of Commerce announced a $100 million campaign “to defend and advance economic freedom.” Chamber President Tom Donohue proclaimed the campaign “one of the most important and necessary initiatives in our nearly 100-year history.”
Never missing an opportunity to promote the interests of the business lobby, CNBC dedicated its “Most Underplayed News Story” segment last night to the Chamber’s campaign, with host Dennis Kneale proclaiming “it’s about time business started fighting back.” Not surprisingly, all of Kneale’s guests agreed. Watch it:
First, the claim that this story was “underplayed” is spurious at best. Politico essentially repackaged the Chamber’s press release announcing the campaign into an article, and both the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek covered the campaign’s launch. In fact, C-Span thought the campaign was important enough to merit asking Vice President Biden’s economic adviser Jared Bernstein about it on Washington Journal yesterday.
But more importantly, this notion that the business lobby hasn’t been fighting the Obama administraion’s agenda until now — thus making the Chamber’s campaign vitally necessary — is absolutely ludicrous. Consider:
– The Chamber partnered with the National Foreign Trade Counci, Business Roundtable, and the National Association of Manufacturers, and threatened to “spend whatever it takes” to defeat President Obama’s corporate tax reforms.
– The Chamber, in conjunction with other business interests, “said they will spend about $200 million on advertising and lobbying” against the Employee Free Choice Act.
– During the stimulus debate, the Chamber released a plan that centered on corporate and capital gains tax cuts.
And none of this takes into account the vast influence that the banking industry has had over the legislative debate so far this year. The Chamber is merely throwing another $100 million into an already intense effort to bog down the administration’s health care, climate change, and tax reform agendas.
Earlier this year, Duke Energy left the National Association of Manufacturers “because of disagreements with the lobbying group’s stance on climate change policy.” So far, no one has rebuked the Chamber, but are companies like Nike, IBM, and UPS (which all have spots on the Chamber’s board of directors) okay with this campaign of obstructionism? | <urn:uuid:0b57a508-68e9-4bf7-99e6-a80b061b10c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2009/06/12/172818/cnbc-and-the-chamber/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939925 | 507 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Since asking the question I have now read three books by influential pentecostal pioneers on the issue, and they do not agree on the definition of the gift of the word of knowledge.
In the book on Spiritual Gifts, a collection of sermons by Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), who received the baptism of the Spirit in 1907, the gift is described as a quickening that gives understanding of the Scriptures:
It is as we feed o the Word and medidate on the message it contains that the
Spirit of God can vitalize what we have received and bring forth through us
the word of knowledge... As all the Scriptures were inspired by God
(2 Tim 3:16) as they came forth from the beginning, and though the same
Spirit they should come forth from us vitalized...
It is unclear if SW think that the essence of the gift is the act of illumination per se, or if it also must include a speaking forth of the knowledge received to others. The passage in the book is very short and neither exegetically or systematically complete.
A view more in line with the current understanding within the charismatic movement is given in the book Questions & answers on spiritual gifts by Howard Carter (1891-1971). The book consist of stenographic notes from a Q and A session at Hampstead Bible College in London. Carter claims that he received his insights on the gifts during imprisonment as a conscientious objector during world war one.
Carter says on page 43:
The word of knowledge is a participation, to some infinitesimal degree, in
the omniscience of God. If the Lord who knows all things, is pleased to
reveal to us by His Spirit any fragment of His unlimited knowledge, then we
can claim to have this manifestation of the Spirit, which is designated
"the word of knowledge".
Furthermore, Carter says, that the fragment may be received by the mind as a thought, but it is not created by the human, only received (page 53). The process is completely supernatural. It is not the by-product of diligent study, nor is it in any way connected to education (page 38, 46, 49-50. (Carter does not despise diligent study, but it is unrelated to the definition of the gift.)
The scope of the knowledge includes everything that God knows, which may be worldly facts as when Jesus saw Natanael sitting under a fig tree (John 1:48) or when Ananias was told about the name of the street where Paul was praying after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:11) (Carter:45). But what makes this a very eminent gift is that God has used it to reveal His very own nature to the authors of the Bible (Carter:43-44). Carter is, however, clear that no new insights can be given that conflicts with Scripture or appends new doctrines to it (page 23-24).
Revelation about the purpose and plans of God, and of the future are not words of knowledge, but words of wisdom (Carter:17ff).
Carter is very clear that we should not talk about the gift of knowledge or the gift of wisdom, but the gift of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom (page 20-21), as we are all expected to grow in wisdom and knowledge through a plethora of means.
A very different view is offered by Donald Gee in the book Concerning Spiritual Gifts. The book was originally published 1947, but builds upon earlier works published 10 and 20 years earlier (page 133), and Gee says that his views on this subject "have undergone practically no change".
According to Gee, the word of knowledge is a teaching gift in the church (page 134. However, before he arrives at that conclusion, he has a few words of warning:
The Scriptures provide for the task [of defining the gift] no material
that is avowedly and unmistakably a manifestation of the word of knowledge...
Assumption is not proof... We ought carefully to avoid dogmatizing on this
subject. (page 41)
Having acknowledged the types of supernatural revelations that Carter speaks of in a way that affirms that Carters view indeed was held by many, Gee proceeds to call such revelation prophecy, neither denying its existence or its value (page 42). But when it comes to the definition of the gift, he still begs to differ.
For Gee the setting of 1 Cor 12 is of utmost importance, it is in the gathered Church that the gifts are to be used, whereas most of of Carters examples are from happenings in individual lives. In agreement with Carter, Gee claims that the gift is completely supernatural (page 44f), but it is not "spectacular" (page 45-46).
There come times when the Spirit of revelation is so operating through a
teacher exercising an anointed ministry that we become conscious of an
illumination transcending all natural ability either to gain or to impart
(knowledge). It is in such hours that the sheep hear the voice of their good
Shepherd speaking through human lips... We know it because our hearts burn
within us as surely as theirs did upon the Emmaus road when Christ "expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself". By the gift
of of the Spirit that Voice still expounds the Scriptures on the sweetest of
all themes - himself (Gee:46-47)
In the book edition from 1947, Gee has added a whole chapter that was not part of the edition from 10 years before, where he gives a systematic argument in favor of his interpretation. However, those arguments are outside the scope of this question on StackExchange.
In summary we see that although Gee argues strongly for his view and he at least is in some agreement with an influential preacher (although he was not a "teacher") like Wigglesworth, he pleads his case as if he perceives himself to be in a minority view. At least that is how I judge his tone. Thus it seems that Carter's view was more widespread within early pentecostalism. But it did not enjoy complete dominance.
Later teachings (2nd generation pentecostalism/charismatics/neo-pentecostals) are mostly using definitions similar to carter, but they are, according to the teaching I've read and heard, very reluctant to include revelation about the nature of God, and restrict the gift to worldly knowledge.
According to the view within the pentecostal movement. I am aware that this view is not shared by all Christians, but it is a significant fact to date the involvement of SW in pentecostalism.
Wigglesworth, S. (1998). Smith Wigglesworth on spiritual gifts. New Kensignton, PA: Whitaker House. Pages 76-77
Carter, H. (1976). Questions & answers on spiritual gifts. Tulsa, OK: Harrison House.
Off topic fact: Pacifism was very common among the early pentecostals.
Gee, D. (1980). Concerning spiritual gifts. Sprinfield, Mo: Radiant Books. | <urn:uuid:5725bc49-39f1-4ac7-97d4-bf5511c6cfee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/14069/what-was-the-definition-of-the-spiritual-gift-of-the-word-of-knowledge-in-early | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962714 | 1,495 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Nano Bridging Molecules
S.A., a Swiss early stage med-tech company devoted to developing new generation
medical implant surface modifications, has announced the successful conclusion
of the second of three planned financing rounds.
Following oversubscription of the company's first funding round in 2007
NBM significantly expanded its pre-clinical testing program, embarked on its
first dental human clinical trial, recruited key scientific and clinical research
staff and relocated its operations to purpose built laboratories and new offices
in the Swiss canton of Vaud. Notwithstanding the current economic downturn the
company has fully subscribed its second funding round. The funds raised are
being used to conclude a 52 week large animal pre-clinical study (one of the
largest of its kind conducted in Switzerland), commencement of orthopedic pre-clinical
studies and expansion of its ongoing human dental clinical trials with the establishment
of additional study centers in each of Europe and the US. The company is working
closely with regulatory consultants aiming to have its first CE Marked dental
implant surface treatment on the market in Q4 2010 and to achieve first sales
in the orthopedics area in 2012.
NBM is an award winning company which owns the global rights to develop, manufacture
and market its SurfLink® technology. At the heart of this technology are
patented multi-phosphonated molecules which have been developed over a twelve
year period by world-leading, multi-disciplinary scientific teams from the University
of Geneva and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Presently patients requiring joint replacement or spinal implant surgery are
required to wait for as long as they possibly can before being operated on as
a direct consequence of the limited life span of today's devices and the
likelihood they will, at some point, need to be replaced. Covalently bound to
implant surfaces prior to surgery, NBM's SurfLink® molecules facilitate
a chemical reaction that naturally fuses treated implant surfaces to the patient's
bone. This gives rise to the exciting prospect of patients, regardless of age,
being able to receive SurfLink® treated implants which will provide truly
long term if not a lifetime of service. | <urn:uuid:d7888a77-2ee4-49e9-b432-c649f559bcfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=13293 | 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 | 0.936558 | 459 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Parking along Jeannette or Annette Drive may seem like a good free option for commuters traveling by rail to New York. But if the residents who live on those blocks have their say, that option may soon be a thing of the past.
These residents are tired of the number of commuters who park there for hours, blocking driveways and restricting emergency vehicles access.
At a recent public hearing at , officials and residents looked at establishing parking restrictions to improve sight distance and corner clearances in these two areas and to establish alternate side of the street parking restrictions from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. But a vote will not be held until June 4.
“Fire trucks and ambulances cannot get through these streets because of the parking in this area and it has become a public safety issue,” Councilman Fred Pollack pointed out. “This has been an issue for a couple of years and it’s getting worse.”
Donna Nachman, Port Washington resident who lives in the area, feels that too many commuters park their car by day and walk to the train station. She believes alternate side of the street parking would only push the cars further back to one side of the road.
“We need a solution that everyone can live with – maybe three-hour parking restrictions,” Nachman said. “If we leave for 15 minutes in the morning and then come back, we cannot park in front of our home because cars are blocking the streets. We need to make it clear for school bus and emergency vehicles to pass.”
Like her neighbors, Maria Harris wants results.
“We need a neighborhood-wide solution,” she said. “It’s going on too long.” | <urn:uuid:6d81cc30-67da-4773-9cce-d51577f21c56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://portwashington.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/residents-parking-on-jeannette-and-annette-drive-a-nuisance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969714 | 370 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Coalition Government has committed to making clear to the public how it uses taxpayers’ money. All Government departments have been asked to publish a wide range of information about how it meets and measures its objectives and the use of resources.
The FCO already publishes some data on its people, buildings and money, including in our annual public accounts and in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
The FCO supports greater transparency of public information, as this can help explain our priorities to a wider audience, and how we achieve them. At the same time we need to make sure that we protect our security.
Below you'll find Foreign Office information. Our published data is also available on data.gov.uk, which aims to store national and local data for free re-use. You can also get information on the Government's transparency agenda on the Cabinet Office website.
Foreign Office spend in the UK for transactions totalling over £25,000.
Exceptions to public sector moratoria
How to view tender and contract information from Government Departments.
New central Government ICT contracts are being published from July 2010.
Quarterly returns on hospitality, gifts, meetings and overseas travel
Salary information for senior staff at Director and Director-General levels in London
Senior staff data 30 June 2010
Staff organogram showing the FCO headquarters structure based in London
The Foreign Office is making available to the public the energy it uses.
Data relating to consular activities.
Data relating to our country information can be found in this section. | <urn:uuid:38173e43-638a-4aed-9320-2813491a0051> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110107155849/http:/www.fco.gov.uk/en/publications-and-documents/transparency-and-data1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937436 | 318 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Bali, Indonesia on July 21, after concluding two days of meetings and events in India. Her visit to Indonesia demonstrates the United States' sustained commitment to enhance our strategic engagement in Southeast Asia and with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the opening of the U.S.-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting today, Secretary Clinton said:
"Thank you very much, Foreign Secretary del Rosario. Thank you for co-hosting and co-chairing this important U.S.-ASEAN ministerial. I want to thank our hosts, the Government of Indonesia and our colleague, the Foreign Minister, for giving us such a warm welcome to this beautiful part of your country.
"I am pleased to have this opportunity, once again, to affirm the commitment of the United States to our partnership with ASEAN. For two-and-a-half years, the Obama Administration has prioritized our engagement with ASEAN and the region, because we believe it is an important commitment to peace, progress, and prosperity, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but throughout the world. The countries of ASEAN are home to nearly 600 million people, and represent America's sixth largest export market. And the community of nations represented here today are really important leaders in meeting the global challenges we face together, from climate change, to proliferation, to piracy.
"So, from our perspective, ASEAN is where the United States wants to be, which is why we have elevated our relationship. We acceded to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. President Obama first -- hosted the first-ever U.S.-ASEAN leaders meeting. We have sent our first permanent U.S. ambassador, Ambassador Carden, to ASEAN, and joined the ministerial dialogue on defense and security. And we look forward to formally joining the East Asia Summit, which is ASEAN-driven. And today I hope we will agree to a new plan of action, a five-year blueprint for taking the partnership between America and ASEAN to the next level." | <urn:uuid:c2419571-e7f2-474f-9148-27372c126174> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.state.gov/2011/07/article/travel-diary-secretary-clinton-delivers-remarks-opening-us-asean-ministerial-meeting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942464 | 433 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Last week, after the first presidential debate, I spoke at an architecture school in downtown Los Angeles. One of the questions the moderator asked was about American exceptionalism. The foam flecked to his lips at the very phrase. What, pray tell, was American exceptionalism, he asked?
When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Townhall.com is the leading source for conservative news and political commentary and analysis.
Townhall is packed with breaking news headlines, political news, and conservative opinion with Townhall columnists including Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Barone, Star Parker, Dennis Prager, Thomas Sowell, and many more of your favorite conservatives.
Political cartoons full of satire and political humor from editorial cartoonists including Michael Ramirez, Glenn McCoy, and Henry Payne.
Townhall.com also features the latest news videos and pictures on the latest political hot topics including health care reform, the economy, immigration, government tax, President Obama, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Iraq, immigration, politics, gay marriage laws, and many more big news issues.
Townhall Magazine is our monthly print magazine that offers more exclusive investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, analysis, interviews with the heavy hitters and powerful exposés. | <urn:uuid:67800909-cddb-4ff7-8247-377351b8f363> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/tags/the-founders/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944872 | 306 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Anyone who has ever listened to The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band–and that’s a few hundred million people at the last estimate–will know the swirling melody and appealingly nonsensical lyrics of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” one of the most unusual tracks on that most eclectic of albums.
For the benefit of Mr. Kite
There will be a show tonight on trampoline
The Hendersons will all be there
Late of Pablo Fanque’s Fair—what a scene
Over men and horses, hoops and garters
Lastly through a hogshead of real fire!
In this way Mr. K. will challenge the world!
But who are these people, these horsemen and acrobats and “somerset turners” of a bygone age? Those who know a bit about the history of the circus in its mid-Victorian heyday–before the coming of the music halls and the cinema stole its audience, at a time when a traveling show could set up in a mid-size town and play for two or three months without exhausting demand–will recognize that John Lennon got his vocabulary right when he wrote those lyrics. “Garters” are banners stretched between poles aloft held by two men; the “trampoline,” in those days, was simply a springboard, and the “somersets” Mr. Henderson undertakes to “throw on solid ground” were somersaults.
While true Beatlemaniacs will know that Mr. Kite and his companions were real performers in a real troupe, however, few will realize that they were associates of what was probably the most successful, and almost certainly the most beloved, “fair” to tour Britain in the mid-Victorian period. And almost none will know that Pablo Fanque–the man who owned the circus—was more than simply an exceptional showman and perhaps the finest horsemen of his day. He was also a black man making his way in an almost uniformly white society, and doing it so successfully that he played to mostly capacity houses for the best part of 30 years. The song that lent Fanque his posthumous fame had its origins in a promotional film shot for “Strawberry Fields Forever”—another Lennon track—at Sevenoaks in Kent in January 1967. During a break in the filming, the Beatle wandered into a nearby antique shop, where his attention was caught by a gaudy Victorian playbill advertising a performance of Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal in the northern factory town of Rochdale in February 1843. One by one, in the gorgeously prolix style of the time, the poster ran through the wonders that would be on display, among them “Mr. Henderson, the celebrated somerset thrower, wire dancer, vaulter, rider &c.” and Zanthus, “well known to be one of the best Broke Horses in the world!!!”—not to mention Mr. Kite himself, pictured balancing on his head atop a pole while playing the trumpet.
Something about the poster caught Lennon’s fancy; knowing his dry sense of humor, it was probably the bill’s breathless assertion that this show of shows would be “positively the last night but three!” of the circus’s engagement in the town. Anyway, he bought it, took it home and (the musicologist Ian MacDonald notes) hung it in his music room, where “playing his piano, [he] sang phrases from it until he had a song.” The upshot was a track unlike any other in the Beatles’ canon—though it’s fair to say that the finished article owes just as much to the group’s producer, George Martin, who responded heroically to Lennon’s demand for “a ‘fairground’ production wherein one could smell the sawdust.” (Adds MacDonald, wryly: “While not in the narrowest sense a musical specification, [this] was, by Lennon’s standards, a clear and reasonable request. He once asked Martin to make one of his songs sound like an orange.”) The Abbey Road production team used a harmonium and wobbly tapes of vintage Victorian calliopes to create the song’s famously kaleidoscopic wash of sound.
What the millions who listened to the track never knew was that Lennon’s poster caught Pablo Fanque almost exactly midway through a 50-year career that brought with it some remarkable highs and astonishing lows, all of them made a little more exceptional by the unpromising circumstances of his birth. Parish records show that Fanque was born William Darby in 1796, and grew up in the English east coast port of Norwich, the son of a black father and a white mother. Nothing certain is known about Darby senior; it has been suggested he was born in Africa and came to Norwich as a household servant, even that he may have been a freed slave, but that is merely speculation. And while most sources suggest that he and his wife died not long after their son’s birth, at least one newspaper account has the father appearing in London with the son as late as the mid-1830s. Nor do we know exactly how “Young Darby” (as he was known for the first 15 or 20 years of his circus career) came to be apprenticed to William Batty, the proprietor of a small traveling circus, around 1810, or why he chose “Pablo Fanque” as his stage name.
What we can say is that Fanque proved to be a prodigy. He picked up numerous acrobatic skills (he was billed at various stages of his career as an acrobat and tightrope walker) and became renowned as the best horse trainer of his day. The latter talent was most likely developed during a spell with Andrew Ducrow, one of the most prestigious names in the history of the circus and a man sometimes considered the “greatest equestrian performer who has ever appeared before the public.” By the mid-1830s, Fanque was noted not only as a daringly acrobatic master of the corde volante, but also as a superb horseman, billed in the press as “the loftiest jumper in England.”
His most remarkable feat, according to the circus historian George Speight, was leaping on horseback over a coach “placed lengthways with a pair of horses in the shafts, and through a military drum at the same time,” and during the 1840s, the Illustrated London News reported, “by his own industry and talent, he got together as fine a stud of horses and ponies as any in England,” at least one of which was purchased from Queen Victoria’s stables. Fanque was capable of turning out horses that “danced” along to well-known tunes, and it was said that “the band has not to accommodate itself to the action of the horse, as in previous performances of this kind.”
John Turner, who has researched Fanque’s life more thoroughly than any other writer, says that he found little or no evidence that Fanque suffered racial discrimination during his long career. Contemporary newspapers mention his color infrequently, and incidentally, and many paid warm tribute to his charity work; the Blackburn Standard wrote that, in a world not often noted for plain dealing, “such is Mr. Pablo Fanque’s character for probity and respectability, that wherever he has been once he can go again; aye, and receive the countenance and support of the wise and virtuous of all classes of society.” After Fanque’s death, the chaplain of the Showman’s Guild remarked: “In the great brotherhood of the equestrian world there is no colour line, for, although Pablo was of African extraction, he speedily made his way to the top of his profession. The camaraderie of the Ring has but one test, ability.”
Yet while all this may be true—there’s plenty of evidence, in late Victorian show-business memoirs, that Fanque was a well-respected member of an often disrespected profession—racism was pervasive in the nineteenth century. William Wallett, one of the great clowns of the mid-Victorian age, a friend of Fanque’s who worked with him on several occasions, recalls in his memoirs that on one visit to Oxford, “Pablo, a very expert angler, would usually catch as many fish as five or six of us within sight of him put together”—and this, Wallett adds, “suggested a curious device” to one irked Oxford student:
One of the Oxonians, with more love for angling than skill, thought there must be something captivating in the complexion of Pablo. He resolved to try. One morning, going down to the river an hour or two earlier than usual, we were astonished to find the experimental philosophical angler with his face blacked after the most approved style of the Christy Minstrels.
Although Wallett does not say so, the gesture was a calculated insult, and it may also be significant that it took Fanque years to gather up the wherewithal to go into business for himself. He did not own his circus until 1841, three decades into his career, and when he did finally leave Batty it was with just two horses and a motley assortment of acts, all of them provided by a single family: a clown, “Mr. R. Hemmings and his dog, Hector,” together with “Master H. Hemmings on the tightrope and Mr. E. Hemmings’ feats of balancing.’ ”
Still, Fanque’s showmanship, and a reputation for treating his acts well, helped him to expand his troupe. We have already seen that he was joined by William Kite, the acrobat, and John Henderson, well-known as a rider, wire-walker and tumbler, in Rochdale in 1843. By the middle of the century, historian Brian Lewis notes, Fanque’s circus had become a fixture in the north of England, so it seemed entirely natural for the schoolchildren of one mill town to celebrate a holiday with “a tour of a bazaar … refreshments and a visit to Pablo Fanque’s circus.” The troupe grew to include a stable of 30 horses; clowns; a ring master, Mr. Hulse; a band, and even its own “architect”–a Mr. Arnold, who was charged with erecting the wooden “amphitheatres” in which they generally performed. When the circus rolled into the Lancashire town of Bolton in March 1846, Fanque himself announced its coming by driving through the main streets twelve-in-hand, a spectacular feat of horsemanship that brought considerable publicity. There were many extended seasons in locations throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. At one point, the circus was based in its own purpose-built auditorium in Manchester, capable of holding an audience of 3,000.
One reason for Fanque’s success that goes unremarked in the circus histories is his keen appreciation of the importance of advertising. Among the advantages that his circus enjoyed over its numerous rivals was that it enjoyed the services of Edward Sheldon, a pioneer in the art of billposting whose family would go on to build the biggest advertising business in Britain by 1900. Fanque seems to have been among the first to recognize Sheldon’s genius, hiring him when he was just 17. Sheldon spent the next three years as Pablo’s advance man, advertising the imminent arrival of the circus as it moved from town to town. Several other mentions of Fanque also testify to his talent for self-promotion. In Dublin in 1851 (and perhaps not entirely inadvertently), another of his stunts prompted a virtual riot. The Musical World reported:
The Dublin playgoers … have nearly torn down a theatre, because of a shockingly bad riddle. “Pablo Fanque, the acrobat,” advertised the gift of a pony and car to the propounder of the best riddle. There were 1,056 competitors, and the prize was awarded to Miss Emma Stanley, for a conundrum so mediocre, that we will not attempt to transcribe it; it is neither good enough nor bad enough for notice. The audience, touched with a sense of national degradation, that out of more than a thousand Irish, not one could make a better piece of wit, broke into such excesses, that a body of police had to be marched into the building, to preserve it from wreck.
For most of these years, Fanque remained respected and esteemed, a fixture on the northern touring circuit, while attaining national prominence just once, when, in Bolton in May 1869, his decision to hire another female performer, “Madame Caroline,” (billed as “the Female Blondin” in imitation of the world-famous tightrope walker and conqueror of the Niagara Falls), almost resulted in tragedy. As the “wire dancer” set off on a rope strung between two buildings in one of the town’s busiest streets, the Penny Illustrated Paper reported, she
stumbled, threw away the balance pole, but by a desperate effort grabbed the rope. She made strenuous efforts to regain her position, but although a strong muscular woman, she was unable to do so and remained suspended in mid-air. Loud cries then arose from the crowd… Attempts were made to lower the rope, which was at a height of about 30 feet, but these were unsuccessful. Just as the poor woman was becoming exhausted, men’s jackets were piled below her and she was persuaded to drop into the arms of those beneath … sustaining no injury beyond the fright and a shake.
Yet Pablo’s life was not without its tragedies. The circus was a harsh mistress. Wallett’s memoirs are filled with gleeful accounts of “triumphs” interspersed with almost equally numerous descriptions of the “chequered fortunes” that saw the circus play to tiny crowds, in bitter weather, or lose out to the more compelling spectacles offered by competing shows. Members of the profession lived on the cusp of financial disaster; the Law Times of December 1859 contains the record of a successful action that Fanque brought against a bankrupt performer to whom he had lent “a number of horses and theatrical accessories,” while he was forced on at least one occasion to close down his circus and sell most of his horses, retaining just enough “to preserve the nucleus.” (On this occasion, Turner notes, “short of resources, Pablo is reported to have appeared at William Cooke’s circus, on the tight-rope.”) On another occasion, Fanque found his troupe sold from under him when a creditor transferred Fanque’s debts to his old master, William Batty, who—Wallett recorded–”came down, holding a bill of sale, and in a most wanton and unfeeling manner sold up the whole concern.”
The lowest point of Fanque’s career, however, came on March 18, 1848, when his circus was playing in Leeds. The troupe took over a wooden amphitheatre that had been erected for his rival Charles Hengler, and used it to put on a benefit performance for Wallett. Partway through the show, when the pit was packed with an audience estimated at well over 600, some supports gave way and the floor collapsed, pitching the spectators down into the lower gallery used for selling tickets. Fanque’s wife, Susannah—the daughter of a Birmingham button-maker and mother to several children who also performed with the circus—was in the ticket booth, and happened to be leaning forward when the structure, according to the Annals and History of Leeds:
fell with a tremendous crash, precipitating a great number of people into the gallery… Mrs Darby and Mrs Wallett were… were both knocked down by the falling timber; two heavy planks fell upon the back part of the head and neck of Mrs Darby, and killed her on the spot. Mrs Wallett, besides a many others, received bruises and contusions, but the above was the only fatal accident.
Fanque rushed to the scene, helped to move the heavy timbers, and carried his wife in his arms to a nearby tavern; a surgeon was called for, but there was nothing to be done. A few days later Susannah “was interred at the Woodhouse cemetery, where a monument records the melancholy event.” At the inquest into her death, it emerged that the builder’s men had partially dismantled the amphitheatre before Fanque arrived, removing a number of the supporting beams, and the structure had been sold to him “as it stood,” with the new owner undertaking “to make any alterations as he liked at his own expense.” Although Pablo still employed Arnold, the architect, nothing was apparently done to strengthen to flooring, but no charges were ever brought against either man for negligence. To make matters worse, it was discovered that as Mrs. Darby lay dead amid the pandemonium, the box containing the evening’s takings, amounting to more than £50, had been stolen.
After his wife’s death, Fanque married Elizabeth Corker of Sheffield, who was 20 years younger than he. They had several children, all of whom joined their circus, and one of whom, known professionally as Ted Pablo, once performed before Queen Victoria and lived into the 1930s.
As for Fanque himself, he survived just long enough to witness the beginnings of the circus’s terminal decline. He died, aged 76 and “in great poverty” (so the equestrian manager Charles Montague recalled in 1881), in a rented room in a Stockport inn.
He was remembered fondly, though. A vast crowd lined the route of his funeral procession in Leeds in May 1871. He was buried alongside his first wife.
Anon. “Irish war.” The Musical World, 19 April 1851; Anon. “Hope and another v Batty,” The Law Times, November 19, 1859; Brenda Assael. The Circus and Victorian Society. Charlottesville [VA]: University of Virginia Press, 2005; Thomas Frost. Circus Life and Circus Celebrities. London: Chatto and Windus, 1881; Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (ed). Black Victorians/Black Victoriana. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003; Brian Lewis. The Middlemost and the Milltowns: Bourgeois Culture and Politics in Early Industrial England. Stanford [CA]: Standford University Press, 2001; Ian MacDonald. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties. London: Pimlico, 1994; John Mayhall. Annals and History of Leeds and Other Places in the County of York. Leeds: Joseph Johnson, 1860; Henry Downes Miles. Pugilistica: the history of British boxing containing lives of the most celebrated pugilists… London: J. Grant 1902; Cyril Sheldon. A History of Poster Advertising. London: Chapman and Hall, 1937; John Turner. ‘Pablo Fanque’. In King Pole, December 1990 & March 1991; John Turner. The Victorian Arena: The Performers; A Dictionary of British Circus Biography. Formby, Lancashire: Lingdales Press, 1995; W.F. Wallett. The Public Life of W.F. Wallett, the Queen’s Jester. London: Bemrose & Sons, 1870. | <urn:uuid:c5f4907e-6ac2-4df9-a122-1af48231ace1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allkindsofhistory.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/pablo-fanques-fair/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977417 | 4,208 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Thousand of Sri Lankans venerate relics of St. Anthony
CWN - March 15, 2010
Thousands of Sri Lankans have venerated the relics of St. Anthony of Padua since they arrived in the nation’s capital on March 7. The saint has been a favorite saint of Sri Lankan Catholics since the island’s initial evangelization five centuries ago. “People were seen in tears with the arms stretched for the intercession of St. Anthony, some apparently for disappeared family members, some for peace and harmony in this country, and most of them praying for personal and family intentions,” according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Colombo.
7% of the nation’s 20.9 million residents are Catholic; 69% are Buddhist, 8% are Muslim, and 7% are Hindu.
An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:
Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!
Progress toward our June expenses ($15,085 to go):
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off! | <urn:uuid:78d083dc-e250-4363-8aaa-9962e996a0f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5721 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941089 | 297 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Our state and our country are at a crossroads. As citizens, it is our votes that will determine whether we continue down the path of self-inflicted financial ruin or the one that not only brings us back from the brink but changes course to one of financial strength. In this election, the Democratic and Republican parties on both a state and national level are presenting the voters with a clear and distinct choice of what path they will lead us down if they are elected.
The Democratic Party's path to prosperity consists of an ever larger government that taxes us more, spends more and seeks to control the economy by picking winners and losers.
The Republican Party seeks to lead us down a different path. This path consists first and foremost of being true to the Constitution's foundational principles of limited government and respect for individual freedoms. This path also consists of the principle that it is individuals operating in a fairly, but not overly, regulated free market economy that brings prosperity to all Americans.
The choice is yours and it cannot be any clearer what the consequences of your decision will be. | <urn:uuid:3606ba5d-90c3-4378-be35-0bbd6d8eeccc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121027/OP02/310279998/1069/rss06 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956469 | 215 | 1.578125 | 2 |
What business would you tell a young person to go into these days? Plastics? Oooh, that can mean lots of regulations. Wind turbines? Solar panels? Who knows how long those may take to pay off? App development? How many Angry Birds does the world need?
Then what about superPACS? They're political-action committees that can spend unlimited amounts of money to laud, mock or bash any political candidate.
The Center for Responsive Politics says that as of Friday, 942 superPACs have raised more than $403 million during this election season. They include Restore Our Future, which supports Mitt Romney — and has raised $97 million — and Priorities USA Action, which supports President Obama — and has raised more than $47 million.
If you look down the list of superPAC filings with the Federal Election Commission, you see a range of other groups with exalted names, like Campaign for Our Future and It's Now or Never.
My favorites are: Americans for Logic, which, maybe significantly, reports no contributions; and Zombies of Tomorrow. Maybe their take will pick up around Halloween.
But a beguiling pitch aimed at people eager to contribute to a political campaign can also have some of the makings of a classic con. And this week, the news outlet Politico reported that indeed, at least a few of what they call "Scam PACS" have sprouted.
Several groups — which may be no more real than a website and a credit card reader — have invoked the image of Rep. Allen West of Florida to raise money, but do not spend any on ads or other activities to support his campaign.
Mr. West is a Republican, but Politico reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns say the potential for this kind of fraud transcends party lines — finally, something does.
"A cottage industry has sprung up," they write, "in which groups with such seemingly innocuous names as Patriots for Economic Freedom use high-profile campaigns ... to raise money for themselves and build their e-mail lists."
In a time of high anxiety about jobs, superPACS sound like a growth industry. Coin a name, maybe a slogan, put up a few photos, send out a few emails, and you're in business — er, politics:
"Dear American Friend: Are you worried about our country? Are you worried about your children? Are you worried about unemployment at home, unrest overseas, street crime, cybercrime, fine lines and wrinkles around your eyes, drought, floods and Rob and Kristen's reunion? This is the most important election since George Washington! Or Julius Caesar! We need your help. Act now!" | <urn:uuid:6ec37d48-ad7f-4b76-9f13-6c3fb3040a77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/2012/10/20/163298808/beware-election-year-scam-pacs?ft=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963168 | 541 | 1.742188 | 2 |
edonnelly wrote:I wish I understood verse well enough to benefit from this interesting work.
Statistical analysis of poetry, hmmm, I don't know why, but it feels like the kind of thing Bardo might have an interesting opinion on.
1%homeless wrote:Maybe a particles article next?
Edit: In case it matters, the file name lost an n.
auctor wrote:An interesting and thought-provoking essay but I wonder whether you have you done the subject full justice yet. I get the impression that you are suggesting that certain words fit in certain places in a line more often than not due to their prosodic shape rather than their 'emphatic' purpose.
If this is the case shouldn't your tables also indicate the relative emphasis of the words that you are testing?
I wonder how many times an epithet, or synonym, has been used simply because the 'bald' word wouldn't fit at the spot where the writer would've preferred.
Your proposal would appear to throw the technique of enjambment out of the window.
I don't believe that ancient versifiers were slaves to the metre in same way that modern (or more accurately, non-native speakers) are-
-they wrote as they did because they felt certain word orders, or positions in a verse, did carry more emphasis.
auctor wrote: I shall try again after the w/e when I've read O'Neill and the follow up articles.
auctor wrote:To wit, I believe that the first piece of information in a Greek sentence IS more emphasised than what follows, be that sentence prose or verse
(despite your dismissal of Dennison's scholarship elsewhere on these forums) . The last piece of information supplied is also somewhat emphasised (the listener has been waiting for it),
I am also a little concerned that we appear to have no knowledge of the ancients being aware of these statistical data. If verse were written in the fashion that you suggest, presumably taking O'Neill's lead, wouldn't we have some reference to these data somewhere? Could such a valuable piece of info. have become lost?
In conclusion, I agree absolutely that prosody dictates word position in quantative verse; but I cannot accept that 'emphasis' should be ignored--
auctor wrote:O' Neill, it seems to me, makes no such suggestion about 'emphasis', but you do. Rather he admits in his opening paragraph that he has made no attempt to consider anything other than the prosodic shape of individual words. I accept that certain shapes of words appear more regularly in some places of a verse. But, and in this I disagree with your suggestion, poets DO use position and word order to emphasise certain words--I am convinced of that.
For you to back up your assertion needs much more work: work that I would be interested in following up, but not until next academic year I'm afraid.
I know that I should no more mix messages than I should metaphors, but your comment that 'many professors haven't read the entire Iliad' vel sim, is preposterous. taught by two professors,
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests | <urn:uuid:c89c3f6c-866b-4eef-b37e-5fb00c80b318> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?p=46687 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971767 | 666 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Filed underPolitical Blog Progressive
Last night, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan addressed the Republican National Convention. After a shaky start, Ryan became comfortable with the TelePrompter and delivered a talking points filled speech that was well received in the Convention Hall and drew positive reviews.
But if Paul Ryan tried to submit his speech as a school paper he would draw a F for failing to do even the most basic checking of his facts.
If Paul Ryan turned that speech in to an editor it would be either covered in corrective red ink or unrecognizable if the editor chose to use track changes and emailed it back. Or they would simply reply: start over.
If a CEO received a paper from his staff full of such glairing inaccuracies Paul Ryan would be looking for a new job this morning.
While Paul Ryan is entitled to his own opinions, he is not entitled to his own facts.
Maybe if he spent less time doing P90X and more time doing the most basic research his speech would not have been filled with little white lies.
He lied to America about Medicare. He lied to America about the debt commission. He really lied to America about the stimulus and America’s debt rating.
He went out of his way to lie and blame President Obama for a plant closing that happened when George W. Bush was President. That is a bold lie to tell America when your boss wrote an op-ed that demanded that we “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”.
Across the Midwest auto plants are adding jobs, like in Lordstown, Ohio where they make the Chevy Cruise and keep adding shifts. If W. Mitt Romney had his way those jobs would not be in Lordstown or anywhere else in the US.
When it comes to the stimulus, Ryan likes to call it “a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst.” He lied to a reporter’s face about requesting stimulus money and he lied to America about it last night.
Ryan also lied when he said the “American people were cut off” from the benefits. The payroll tax reduction that put dollars in people’s pockets hardly left them cut off from the stimulus. The stimulus built and repaired roads and bridges they use every day don’t leave them cut off.
Just another Paul Ryan little white lie to America.
The fact is, that Paul Ryan requested tens of millions in stimulus dollars, voted for an alternate stimulus in 2009 and spoke on the House floor of the benefits of stimulus and borrowing money to boost the economy, when George W. Bush was President.
Paul Ryan’s white lie to America on the Debt Commission is that he voted against it. He failed to mention that when he criticized Obama for not acting urgently on the recommendations that Ryan, himself, opposes.
That is a cleaver little lie to America for a deceitful person.
Paul Ryan blamed Obama for the decline in America’s credit rating. That is a big lie coming from the leader of the Tea Party House that scuttled a budget deal and threatened to throw America into default as a temper tantrum.
But Paul Ryan does not want America to know about his tantrums or his record.
The kid has a lot to learn.
But the biggest of Paul Ryan’s little white lies to America was saved for Medicare. Ryan criticized Obama for reductions in Medicare and lied when he said benefits were cut. The fact is, and Paul Ryan knows it, that the cuts are in fees for services and those reductions are used to create efficiencies in the way we deliver health care. That helps the economy and improves the long-term outlook for Medicare.
Raul Ryan, if he were an honest man, would tell you that in his budget roadmap he kept the Obama Medicare payment reductions but used the savings to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, not to reduce our national health care costs.
He also failed to tout his couponing scheme that ends Medicare and raises the cost of health care for seniors while lining the pockets of the health insurance industry.
But Paul Ryan knows that the truth is politically toxic.
So instead he tells lie after lie to America about Medicare, the debt, the auto recovery, the economy and the stimulus. But mostly he lies about his record.
There is a reason that the Obama campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wanted to make the Ryan Budget the focus of this election.
First, it is the most detailed policy outline of the Republican Party and every Republican has voted for a version of it or promised to support it.
Second, it is a political loser. It is the skunk at the garden party. And that is why Republican House and Senate candidates are not happy with a Romney-Ryan ticket (and Democratic candidates were, to say the least, overjoyed). It is why those Republican candidates have run as fast as they can away from their record of supporting Paul Ryan and his radical plan to end Medicare.
Even W. Mitt Romney immediately tried to distance himself from his running mate. He clearly believed that he could pick Paul Ryan to be a heartbeat away from the presidency but expect everyone to ignore the Ryan record.
A monumentally dumb belief.
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local. | <urn:uuid:ae353496-2fa8-48b1-8f39-1cc1704267a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/08/30/paul-ryan-and-his-little-white-lies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969793 | 1,163 | 1.59375 | 2 |
News and Analysis: Colombia
On Sept. 23 military sources in Colombia reported the murder of Jorge Briceño, aka Mono Jojoy, one of the members of the FARC secretariat. Amidst all the celebratory propaganda statements issued by the U.
A recently published report by the Fellowship of Reconciliation found a link between U.S. military aid and the extrajudicial execution of civilians by the Colombian army. Co-published by the U.S. office on Colombia, the report focused on the Leahy Law, which supposedly prohibits U.
Forty union members were killed in Colombia during 2009. Colombia has become one of the most dangerous countries for union activists as workers struggle for justice there. This adds to the tally of over 2,700 union and labor activists who have been slain in Colombia since 1987.
On Dec. 16, 2009, the Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) released a joint statement, revealing a plan of unity between the two main guerrilla forces in Colombia.
Tensions between Colombia and Venezuela have been on the rise. On Nov. 20, the Venezuelan army destroyed two footbridges used by smugglers operating along the 1,375-mile border between Colombia and Venezuela. | <urn:uuid:a97199fb-8647-4f06-ba56-438776fe699a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/?headlinestopic=colombia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957905 | 256 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Lu’ma Native Housing Society was incorporated in 1980 and is operated by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Society was incorporated to provide affordable housing to Aboriginal families and individuals with low to moderate income. The Society currently owns and operates an affordable housing portfolio in excess of 300 units.
Though our primary focus is to build, own and operate affordable housing, we have evolved and now provide a good range of services such as: Aboriginal health and wellness; act as the community entity for the BC region to fund Aboriginal homelessness projects; and own and operate other community social enterprises including First Funds Society, Lu’ma Native BCH Housing Society and Community Voice Mail.
The Society is headed by a CEO with over 25 years experience in developing and managing Aboriginal social housing across Canada. Our CEO is backed by a dedicated and professional staff with over 200 human years of experience in arranging affordable housing.
The Aboriginal Patients’ Lodge is a shining example of a best practice in Canada that highlights not only the needs of health and wellness for Aboriginal communities, but demonstrates the capacity of the Aboriginal community when governments allow the community to create its own solutions to critical problems.
In response to the challenge of finding solutions to critical Aboriginal concerns, the Society partnered with the Federal government and the broader community and became the First Aboriginal community entity responsible for funding Aboriginal projects that provide front-line homelessness services to the Aboriginal community.
First Funds Society is the charitable organization that fundraises for support and contributions towards Aboriginal housing in Vancouver and health and homelessness programs for Aboriginal people in Vancouver and across BC.
We have also developed projects with the Province of British Columbia (“BCHMC”) under a similar program operated by CMHC. To facilitate the development of projects under BCHMC we incorporated a separate (sister society) known as Lu’ma Native BCH Housing Society. | <urn:uuid:939a6d37-01d4-42ad-9100-04a73d4450f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lnhs.ca/ | 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 | 0.954453 | 374 | 1.75 | 2 |
Advice for private landlords and tenants
Housing standards enforcement officers are responsible for inspecting property conditions within the private rented sector. They target unfit properties, overcrowding and poor maintenance through education and enforcement, which can lead to legal action.
If you experience problems with the condition of your rented property, our housing standards officers can help and advise with issues including:
- Fire Safety in flats and bedsits
- Overcrowding conditions
- Inadequate facilities
- Dangerous fixtures
- Structural damage
Our aim is to improve the poorest housing within the private rented sector by tackling issues that affect the health, safety and wellbeing of families and individuals who have least control over the standard of their living accommodation.
Accredited property scheme
The aims of the accredited property scheme are to encourage, acknowledge and actively promote good standards of privately rented accommodation, and to assist landlords and tenants to undertake their respective responsibilities to each other.
For further information, see our accredited property scheme page.
Harassment and unlawful eviction
Most landlords want to provide good and secure homes for their tenants and have no intention of causing distress to their tenants or of breaking the law.
If you feel that you are being harassed, threatened with unlawful eviction or if you have already been evicted unlawfully, contact us on 01524 582257 or email firstname.lastname@example.org
A HMO (house in multiple occupation) is a house or flat that is occupied, as a main
residence, by more than one household, where occupiers share facilities such as kitchens, bathrooms and toilets.
This includes houses containing bedsits, a combination of bedsits and self contained flats where the bedsits share facilities, shared houses (including student houses) and hostels.
For further information see our houses in multiple occupation page.
Private tenancies - getting repairs done
Most landlords want to provide a good standard of accommodation for their tenants, so the first step to getting repairs done is to let your landlord know about the problem.
Sometimes some landlords may take too long to carry out repairs, or even refuse to do them altogether. If this is the case you should contact our housing standards team and explain the problem. Please call 01524 582257 or email email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:61ae8970-b11d-43ef-85ef-0784514dd25a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lancaster.gov.uk/housing/private-housing/advice-for-private-landlords-and-tenants/?textsize=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939001 | 471 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Sept. 4-7 Food Lion AutoFair to Celebrate Edsel's 50th Birthday
It is often called "Ford's famous flop," but when the Edsel automobile celebrates its 50th anniversary during the Sept. 4-7 Food Lion AutoFair at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a special display might convince spectators the controversial car was simply a victim of bad timing and its own hype.
Ford Motor Co. had momentum in the 1950s. Its first postwar offering, the 1949-51 "shoebox" design, had been a huge hit with the car-starved public, and by the middle of the decade the company was selling 20 of its Thunderbirds for every Corvette that Chevrolet built. Flush with profits and confidence, Ford upgraded its premier Lincoln brand to compete directly with General Motors' Cadillac division, which left only Mercury to serve buyers looking for something between a basic Ford and top-line Lincoln.
In 1955, Ford designers showed management plans for an intermediate-level passenger vehicle known internally as the "E-car," the "E" was short for "experimental." The clay model depicted a uniquely unappealing sedan with an enormous overhanging nose whose grille resembled a large chrome "U." The decision was made to launch an entirely new division within Ford Motor Co. based on the E-car concept.
It has been said Ford spent more time choosing the division's name than making styling decisions. "Edsel" was suggested early in the process as a tribute to Henry Ford's only son and former Ford president who died in 1943, but his family opposed it. An advertising firm generated 6,000 candidates, but none were accepted. A prominent poet was informally asked for some direction, but somehow the committee did not warm to her suggestions of Utopian, Turtletop or Mongoose Civique. In the end, the new division was named in memory of Edsel Ford.
Establishing an automobile brand meant creating a 1,200-dealer network, building Edsel Division headquarters in Ecorse Township, Mich., and scheduling production time at plants in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, Kentucky and California. As the national launch on Sept. 4, 1957, grew closer, the division's optimistic general manager claimed buyer demand would "exceed the originally announced first-year sales goal of 200,000 units."
So-called "E-Day" came and went, as did an hour-long television broadcast a month later called "The Edsel Show" in which performances by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope were regularly interrupted with endorsements for the car. What America saw, America didn't like. The public scratched its collective noggin, wondering what happened to the groundbreaking gee-whiz machine Ford promised. The 1958 Edsel was exactly like every other Ford, GM or Chrysler in the showrooms, but with a nose only a mother could love.
The infamous Edsel beak seemed like a good idea in the styling studio. The tall, oval radiator surround, outlined in chrome, was similar to that of an F-86 Sabre jet fighter. Squint hard and it could be the stately, handcrafted grille of a classic Packard.
What potential customers described, however, was a "horse collar,"
"toilet seat" or worse. Predictions of runaway sales evaporated as cars trickled out of showrooms, with only 63,000 Edsels going to new homes in 1958. Ford toned down the car's Edsel-ness with a bit of creative rhinoplasty for '59, but the car had already become a synonym for disaster alongside "Titanic" and "Hindenburg"-less than 45,000 were ordered. By the time the 1960 model hit showrooms wearing a generic American car grille, Ford had pulled the plug on the brand, and only 2,846 of the re-designed Edsels were built.
Ford Motor Co. lost $350 million betting on a car named for its founder's son, but was the Edsel's spectacular failure really the result of its unusual appearance? Detroit automakers produced several just-as-unattractive cars in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so looks don't tell the whole story.
It is most likely the case that Ford sank its new division with its own hype. The company had America talking about the Edsel before anyone in the public even saw a drawing of one. The oddly named car could not have generated more enthusiasm had it been capable of flight or turning invisible, when, in fact, it was no more advanced in design or engineering than its Lincoln, Mercury and Ford stablemates. It was really just a new body design on contemporary Ford and Mercury chassis with some equipment upgrades, broken out into Ranger, Pacer, Corsair and Citation models.
Adding to this psychological letdown was the 1957-'58 economic recession that stifled new-car sales, especially those products in the intermediate and upper categories. With Edsel prices ranging from $2,484 to
$3,766 ($18,102 to $28,433 in today's money), buyers sought cheaper transportation from Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth.
Food Lion AutoFair attendees will have the opportunity to decide for themselves if the Edsel's appearance doomed it to be the butt of a half-century of jokes when they view a special display of five 1958-'60 models.
The fall Food Lion AutoFair annually attracts more than 120,000 visitors. It features more than 50 car club displays and more than 7,000 vendor spaces that offer a plethora of automotive parts and memorabilia.
More than 1,500 collectible vehicles of all makes and models will be available for sale in the car corral that rings the 1.5-mile superspeedway.
Food Lion AutoFair hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Sunday. Tickets are $10 for adults while children 12 and under are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
Parking for the event is $5.
For information, contact the Charlotte Motor Speedway events department at (704) 455-3205 or visit us online. | <urn:uuid:a920ff07-9ddd-4e6d-b5f7-3ceedfb5088d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/media/news/549431.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969905 | 1,280 | 1.75 | 2 |
- Story Ideas
- Send Corrections
State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th of West Whiteland, will be a guest speaker Wednesday evening at “Facing the Monster: Slavery Then and Now,” an event supporting Nation Human Trafficking Awareness Month at the Chester County Historical Society.
The event begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Historical Society is located at 225 North High Street in West Chester. It is open to the public.
At the event, Dinniman will discuss new legislation and efforts to combat human trafficking, including Act 197 of 2012, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline Notification Act, which took effect last month.
“Due to the covert nature of human trafficking and a lack of awareness, accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, but there is no doubt that modern day slavery is taking place in Pennsylvania and our region,” Dinniman said in a prepared statement. “We’ve taken some important steps to crack down on this fast-growing criminal enterprise, but more needs to be done. A key part of the battle is bringing the public’s attention to the problem and shedding light on the scourge of human trafficking.”
Last session, the legislature unanimously passed Act 197. It requires travel centers such as airports, train and bus stations, as well as certain businesses, like adult clubs, and bars and hotels found to be drug-related nuisances by the Pennsylvania State Police to post a human trafficking hotline poster in a clearly visible area. The law also calls for the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to work to provide support services, including housing, health care, child care, substance abuse counseling, career assistance and legal assistance to the victims of human trafficking.
In addition, Dinniman is the prime co-sponsor of Senate Bill 75, legislation that would improve and better define Pennsylvania’s human trafficking laws, so that they can be better used by law enforcement. According to Dinniman’s representatives, the current legal definition of human trafficking is vague, making it difficult to effectively prosecute perpetrators, who are often charged with other crimes and allowed to plea to lesser charges. In addition, victims of human trafficking can face prostitution charges even though they have been forced into the sex trade.
“To effectively fight human trafficking we must give law enforcement personnel the tools they need to bring perpetrators to justice and help victims begin the path to recovery,” Dinniman said. “That is why we must pass Senate Bill 75 to tighten and strengthen the law.”
Wednesday’s event will feature a program about two teens who escaped slavery: Delia in Maryland in 1818 and Jaya in India in 2011. It will be presented by Laurie Rofini, director of Archives and Records Services at the Chester County Historical Society and Chester County resident Carol Metzker, author of “Facing the Monster: How One Person Can Fight Child Slavery.”
A suggested minimum donation of $5 for Dawn’s Place, a Pennsylvania residence for survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, is asked at the event
The event is sponsored by the Chester County Historical Society, the Chester County Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the Chester County Women’s Commission, the Quaker End Modern Slavery Working Group, the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County, Dawn’s Place and the Rotary. | <urn:uuid:aa45d738-e531-4b9b-8e72-979ad5e49584> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20130115/NEWS01/130119729/rememberingpa.us/rememberingpa.us/dailylocal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932074 | 706 | 1.796875 | 2 |
This article was originally distributed via PRWeb. PRWeb, WorldNow and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE: Absolute Rights, LLC
Download a survival guide PDF to begin the journey towards "40 Days and 40 Nights" of safety, security, and hope from Absolute Rights.
Austin, TX (PRWEB) May 03, 2012
A survival guide PDF document with up-to-date, priceless information on disaster recovery is available now from the experts at Absolute Rights. “40 Days and 40 Nights” is their latest release, and it’s jam-packed with the most vital survival information compiled from years of firsthand experience.
The most recent AbsoluteRights.com article said that the preparedness level of modern society is far from adequate, and people aren’t realizing the very real, very dangerous threats to their well-being that take place almost every day, in all corners of the world.
Wallace Streete, a nationally-recognized survivalist and businessman, has joined forces with the leaders in freedom preservation to produce the “40 Days and 40 Nights” training course. It requires every subscribing member to take personal responsibility for the protection of themselves and their loved ones with ultimate emergency preparedness, said the article.
The course includes a series of 6 training modules, each dedicated to different aspects of disaster survival. Security, safety, health, nourishment, and communication become ten times more difficult after a natural or man-made crisis, the article said. When the economy breaks down and the store shelves are empty, self-sufficiency is the only way to make it through.
“40 Days and 40 Nights” encourages accountability and critical thinking to fully prepare for any disaster. It shares the 25 threats that should be monitored constantly, as well as the three keys to psychological survival.
Survivalist mentalities have grown in frequency and volume over the last several years, and created a full community of people striving for complete preparedness, said the article. The community has a wide range of worries, experience levels, and preparation skills, but what they all have in common is the frame of mind they need to survive the worst.
Absolute Rights informs patriotic Americans on their given rights, plus helps protect those rights from government intrusion. Most importantly, it prides itself on alerting people when their rights are being threatened, creating an active and informed community. For more information, be sure to visit AbsoluteRights.com.
The objective of “40 Days and 40 Nights” is no mystery, the article said. The real point of the training course is to give people a chance to develop their survival skills and ensure the highest hopes of staying alive in the most deadly scenarios possible. The training system, complete with its survival guide PDF, video lessons, additional assignments, and unprecedented disaster information, is now available for subscription.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebsurvival/guide_pdf/prweb9463834.htm | <urn:uuid:30cb2473-af7a-458c-9a3c-9683b9d3c079> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fox44abc22yourvoice.com/story/18087720/survival-guide-pdf-offered-as-part-of-new-training-course-says-absoluterightscom-article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930566 | 634 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Jobs 'more showman than geek': Daisey
Mike Daisey is author of The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs and says the Apple co-founder was not a classic geek but was intimately involved in everything Apple did.
TranscriptTONY JONES, PRESENTER: Back to our top story, the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and we're joined from New York by writer and performer Mike Daisey who's been touring the world, including Australia, performing his one man show The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.
Thanks for being there.
MIKE DAISEY: Thanks so much for having me.
TONY JONES: Let's start with the ecstasy of Steve Jobs. What do you think was his particular genius and what do you think his legacy will be for that matter?
MIKE DAISEY, WRITER AND PERFORMER: I think it is heartbreaking today, I think we'll never actually know how much we have lost.
Steve was devoted to work in a way that few people are. He easily could have led Apple for another 20 years and so just thinking about the scale of the things he did in his time since he returned to Apple, through to the present day. When you think about what could have happened in 20 more years, where he could have taken computing to, it is hard to swallow because there's really no one like him in the tech industry.
There is no one else with that kind of vision, that kind of leadership.
The tech industry is actually an industry of followers and Steve has for a generation been the leader of the entire computing movement.
TONY JONES: Did he really change the world as a lot of people are saying today?
MIKE DAISEY: Oh yes. When you use a computer, even if you don't use an Apple computer, when you interact with that interface, when you use your phones, all these devices, he's responsible for three fundamental shifts in the nature of computing.
He's directly responsible for the propagation of the personal computer in a form where it was actually in people's homes, actually by them, where it shifted from being a mainframe.
He's responsible for the Macintosh which introduced the world to the graphical user interface and introduced the mouse to everyone, and the idea of computing in a metaphor that today seems second nature was extraordinary when we shifted from using computers that were like typewriters to computers where you had windows and cursors.
And then he's responsible for the innovation of touch computing that you saw with the iPhone which was introduced in 2007 and that completely disrupted the way people were computing before that as well.
No-one else in the computer, in the entire history of computing, is responsible for even one metaphor shift and he's actually been responsible for three.
So there's no one like him.
TONY JONES: How much influence did he have on your own life? I know you used to be one of those famous Apple fan boys queuing up outside the stores for every new device as it became available on the market. What effect did he have on your life?
MIKE DAISEY: Oh a huge one. I think everything I really understand about industrial design I learned working with and using his machines. I think one of the reasons people feel so strongly about Steve Jobs today is that because he controlled his company so closely.
He was personally involved in every step of Apple's hardware and the software in a way that almost no CEOs ever are because of that level of personal attention to detail.
People who used Apple products feel very legitimately that they have been engaged in a decade's long conversation with Steve. In their day to day usage, when they use these devices they can see the human side of his attempts working through and with Apple to make devices that work well.
And so for me, my entire life in computing has been defined by Steve Jobs in a very direct way.
TONY JONES: It is interesting, isn't it, because he wasn't himself a technological genius, he employed technological geniuses.
In fact his original partner Steve Wozniak was the computer designer of the original Apple Macintosh computers.
So what was it that made him so fundamentally important if he wasn't himself technologically as fluent as these others?
MIKE DAISEY: He wasn't completely unversed. He just wasn't what you would classically call a geek in tech speak. You know he was more like Barnum. He was a showman. He was an inventor entrepreneur. He had the skill to take things that you didn't even know that you wanted and make you need them. Not only through showmanship alone but because he understood how we use computers or how we could use them and then he was constantly pushing forward the boundaries of what was possible.
And he did it with a tremendous amount of panache, a tremendous amount of drive in an industry that is actually devoid of these things, an industry run by people who are honestly introverted and honestly not good at taking the stage and understanding human impulses. Jobs was so good at that.
TONY JONES: Let's go back to the beginning because I've seen you quoted as saying that Jobs started out as someone whose devices were forged out of piracy. What did you mean by that?
MIKE DAISEY: The very first thing that he and Steve Wozniak worked on together, the very first project, was a pirate box. It was a box that lets you hack into the telephone company and steal long distance calls.
They didn't just make one of them, they made hundreds of them and they sold them to everybody. I mean there's actually a famous story about the fact they were testing this box and so Jobs told Wozniak to use the box to place a call to the Vatican but spoofed the call so it looked like the call was coming from the White House and so Wozniak does this and he says, "Hello, Vatican, this is the White House, I have Henry Kissinger on the line for the Pope."
And the cardinal or whoever answers the phone at the Vatican in the middle of the night says, "He's sleeping but please hold on, we will go and wake him" and Wozniak freaked out and hung up the phone.
I mean these guys were pirates, they were rebels. They were doing things that no-one had ever thought of before and that's how they created this movement. I mean very much was borne out of an anarchic sense of 1960s sort of counter-cultural freedom.
TONY JONES: There is a great story about how he goes to Xerox which is the company on the cutting edge at that point of technology, that's where he finds the very first mouse, the very first icons on the screens and the click and drag facility and he walks out of this laboratory and goes back to his guys at Apple and says, "These guys are doing this for tech heads, we need to do this for the rest of the world. We need to make this for households", and that is where they get their start, isn't it?
MIKE DAISEY: Yes, that has always been part of Apple's ethos. They haven't always been the first people somewhere but they're the people who make an implementation that actual human beings might want to use. That's been their genius the entire time and Steve was very, very good at that, seeing the human story beneath the technological.
TONY JONES: So tell me this, from your perspective, how does Apple under Steve Jobs turn into what you call now the most locked down computer company in the world?
MIKE DAISEY: It is hard. It is a story that affects a lot of us, I think. You know we get older and we are often trapped by the circumstances, the strengths that we create ourselves. The story of our lives are often are defined that way. We start out as rebels and pirates and then we go out to change the world and when we're not looking we succeed and we change the world but the world changes us too.
And I think Apple today is locked down in a way that almost no computing platform has been; the iPhone, iPad. People can't touch the software in there; it is controlled by Apple very directly. And part of that is out of the desire, Steve Jobs' desire to control everything.
But after a certain point that level of control starts to take away choice from the user and it is a hard thing this continuum because you start you start out with the best of intentions but if you're not careful, you can go from a place where you're creating something and shaping something to taking away options from users and making computing fundamentally less free.
TONY JONES: It's interesting isn't it because your own love affair with Apple really ended I suppose when you went to Shenzhen in China and you discovered how and where and who actually made these gadgets these days. Of course years ago they were made in California but then it all shifted to China. Tell us what you found.
MIKE DAISEY: Well I found the work conditions in southern China and in the special economic zone, which have been there now for a decade and have been well documented by numerous sources but are never talked about because we have divided ourselves off from how any of our devices are man fractured.
What I found were horrendous working conditions at Foxconn and the other subsidiaries that make devices for Apple and all the other technology companies. I found children constructing electronics. I found the electronics are made by hand under circumstances where people are working on lines for 14, 15 and 16 hours a day until after months and years the joints in the fingers of their hands disintegrate.
And simple humanitarian measures that could be taken to make this workplace safe for the people who are working in it are not taken and it is because no-one in the ecosystem, not Foxconn, not the companies at the end making the devices in China, not the companies like Apple and Dell and Nokia that are requesting, that are using the companies to get the devices made.
No-one in that system is applying a human vision, the kind of human vision that Jobs originally stood for and was always trying so hard to give to his users, he didn't apply to his own workers. He didn't see them as being Apple employees but they made every device that Apple makes is farmed out to the Chinese companies. Those people should have been Apple workers.
TONY JONES: Mike, how did you get into these factories in the first place because they are themselves pretty much locked down? You can't get cameras in there. How did you manage to do it?
MIKE DAISEY: Well I went in on a tourist visa instead of applying for permission from the Chinese government which I think limits a huge amount of our legitimate journalist access to China and one of the reasons why we don't hear the stories and the way that they might resonate with us is it's so difficult for journalists to get in and get these stories.
I posed as a businessman. I said I was looking for suppliers for companies back in America and I went through a lot of steps along the way in finding people to help me. I managed to work with people and get in and see the conditions on the ground and I had the luxury of spending weeks and weeks doing this.
So I had the time to make connections with labour groups who are in China, who are under constant threat of being imprisoned by the Chinese government, and work with the groups and talk to them and learn from them.
And so the truth is that everything that we need to know about how our devices are made, how are whole first world is supplied, is sitting in the open down there. We just don't have systems in place to get the story out in a way where it reaches people in a human sense.
TONY JONES: Your monologue talks about suicide, it talks about child labour, robotic conditions. You've talked about some of that already, Steve Wozniak the co-founder, the partner of Steve Jobs actually came to see your monologue and I think you spoke to him afterwards. what did he say to you?
MIKE DAISEY: He wept. He told the New York times that he was changed. That he would never be the same again and I admire his bravery, you know that he would say that in public because as someone who works in technology, you know it's very possible to be blind to be things. In fact the dominant paradigm is going to be that kind of blindness. You're going to see it in all the coverage of Steve Jobs today and in the weeks to come because we don't want to look at how we actually make things.
But it's so important and you can embrace the genius of the design, understand that it is beautiful and incredibly well made and still understand the circumstances under which they're made. In fact it's vital, if you don't actually embrace both halves of that then we can't really begin to understand the true cost of what we make. So I really admire him.
TONY JONES: Is it possible that Jobs himself was so single minded, so focused on these devices and the genius contained within in them that he wasn't even looking at who was making them? That he didn't know about these conditions?
MIKE DAISEY:I can't accept that. He was far too smart. He was one of the sharpest people, I met him in 2002, one of the sharpest people I've ever met and I think everyone knows just how smart Steve was.
I think he made calculated decisions along the way. I think he made decisions about where his priorities and he made judgement calls like we all make judgement calls in our lives. It's difficult thing to be alive. It's a difficult thing to try to stay truthful to the ideals you have in your youth.
We don't all succeed.
TONY JONES: Final question then, Apple without Steve Jobs will it stay on the top of this rapidly changing technology market?
MIKE DAISEY: I'll tell you the truth. My fear is that it will stay on top because Apple is never better when it is the underdog. Apple is never better than when it's scrambling its way up and fighting and clawing to be relevant. That is when Apple has always been at its sharpest and its best and when Apple has ever been dominant, when it's comfortable, the last time Steve left, when he was thrown out of the company; it's not the same place. That rigour starts to fall apart, that drive more than almost any other corporation in modern times.
Apple is a reflection of Steve Jobs. Without his animating spirit at the core of it, an era is over. And while everyone in the marketplace might love to have Apple still be the same company it was, it is not the same company and even if it dominates the marketplace in terms of selling devices, that spirit and that time is passing and that's really the sadness for me that I lived through this time and now I'm watching it begin to fade.
TONY JONES: Mike Daisey, you're obviously very conflicted about this man and his life and death. We thank you very much though for sharing some of your thoughts with us tonight.
MIKE DAISEY: Thanks so much for having me.
Do you have a comment or a story idea? Get in touch with the Lateline team by clicking here.
Got a news tip?
If you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news, contact Lateline. | <urn:uuid:a8ea09e5-cd62-4457-af8a-3ef0fef0a924> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3334201.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984684 | 3,241 | 1.78125 | 2 |
I was wondering has anyone ever bleed during pregnancy I went to the er Friday and found out I was pregnant but i was having brown spotting hcg level 99 Over the weekend bleeding continued not enough to soak a pad just drops here and there while wiping no cramps or pain.The blood color is red now went to doctors office Monday positive urine test blood test taken results should be ready Wednesday Is this normal I'm freaked out.
Welcome to ehealthforum,
Few women experience period like bleeding during their expected period time during first few months of pregnancy which is also known as Decidual bleeding. If you are pregnant, it is possible that you had decidual bleeding. If the symptoms suggestive of pregnancy are persistent, you should consider visiting your doctor/gynecologist for further evaluation. If pregnancy gets confirmed, an ultrasound scan done will help to know the gestational age and viability, and a serial HCG level test done showing doubling up of the hormone levels in 48-72 hours will show that pregnancy is going on smoothly. If levels are not adequate, then external hormonal supplements would be considered to be started to help you in preventing miscarriage. Be in regular monitoring and follow-up with your treating doctor/gynecologist and report any new/abnormal symptoms immediately.
"Ask a Doctor" questions are answered by certified physicians and other medical professionals.
For more information about experts participating in the "Ask a Doctor" Network, please visit our
medical experts page.
You may also visit our First Trimester of Pregnancy , for moderated patient to patient support and information.
The information provided on eHealth Forum is designed to improve, not replace, the relationship between a patient and his/her own physician.
Personal consultation(s) with a qualified medical professional is the proper means for diagnosing any medical condition. | <urn:uuid:d3659f5b-9d6a-410f-8b60-afd2fdec45ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ehealthforum.com/health/bleeding-during-early-pregnancy-t337679-a1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956989 | 373 | 1.710938 | 2 |
International Security Studies
Walking Away: Disengagement and De-Radicalization From Terrorism
This event, co-sponsored with Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies, is part of International Security Studies' ongoing Terrorism and Homeland Security Forum.
John Horgan, an applied forensic psychologist, discussed the findings of his fieldwork interviews in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia with former members of radical and extremist groups, ranging from the IRA to Al Qaeda, and from European neo-Nazis to Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami. He argued that the inability of governments to stem the tide of terrorist recruitment reflects a lack of knowledge about the underlying processes. The recent attention on the phenomenon of disengagement arises from the increasing visibility of former terrorists, increased research on group weaknesses, and the increasing prevalence of deradicalization programs in countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Horgan's focus is on the individual level of analysis. His 18-month pilot study entailing interviews with 29 former terrorists and an additional 23 supporters and family members yielded detailed case studies. Citing the pioneering book, Origins of Terrorism by Wilson Center Senior Scholar Walter Reich, Horgan noted that the role of the individual must be viewed in the broader context of the group, organization, and ideological or religious milieu within which that individual operates.
The popular debate on terrorism frequently focuses on the question of terrorists "becoming" – what motivates them to perpetuate horrific acts. What is striking, Horgan noted, is the relatively miniscule number of people from radicalized communities that actually become terrorists. The utility of profiles is limited since they miss the critical underlying process of radicalization.
Horgan drew the important distinction between "disengagement" and "deradicalization." Disengagement is a behavioral change, usually the result of breaking off participation in terrorism; whereas deradicalization is a cognitive change, usually the result of a reorientation in belief or ideology.
The key finding of his comparative case studies across terrorist groups is that "just as there are multiple routes in" so too are "there multiple routes out." The major reason for leaving terrorist groups is "disillusion from the disparity between fantasy and reality." The disillusionment frequently arises from an assessment that the group's goals are unattainable, revulsion with the group's violent methods, the unrelenting pressure of being in a terrorist group, and the competing loyalties between group and family obligations. These "push" factors need to be complemented by "pull" factors, including: the availability of an exit route, an amnesty or reduced sentence for crimes committed, education and job training, and economic support.
The major recommendation emerging from Horgan's analysis is that U.S. policy should aim to "systematically develop counter-narratives [to those of terrorist groups] drawing on former terrorists and victims."
Robert Litwak, International Security Studies | <urn:uuid:40c1978c-7f24-43bf-971d-6d4ac15d48a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/walking-away-disengagement-and-de-radicalization-terrorism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93864 | 595 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to permanently repeal a global "gag rule" on abortion funding overseas, a move likely to lead to yet another clash with the Republican-led House over family planning and reproductive rights.
State lawmakers are on their way to enacting even more abortion restrictions this year than in 2011, a record-breaking year for attacks on reproductive rights.
In an 18-12 vote, the committee voted to overturn the so-called "gag rule," which bars federal funding for nonprofit groups that provide abortion-related information or services. The repeal is contained in an amendment to a $52.1 billion foreign aid and operations bill introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. The move comes less than a week after the House Appropriations Committee voted to reinstate the gag rule -- which was repealed by President Barack Obama in 2009 -- and slash international family planning by $149 million.
"House Republicans continue efforts to put politics in the way of vital health care for women by attempting to reinstate the global gag rule," Lautenberg said in a statement. "This amendment ensures this backwards policy never returns and protects access to family planning services for some of the world's poorest women."
Senate Republicans have already indicated the amendment could derail the bipartisan bill by, once again, opening up a debate about social issues that will almost certainly leave the two parties at loggerheads.
"This is where we break apart," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told The Hill.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., was the only Democrat voting against the amendment. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mark Kirk of Illinois broke with their party to vote in favor of the repeal.
The U.S. has provided international family planning and reproductive care services to developing countries since the 1960s. The gag rule has had a shaky history since it was introduced by the Reagan administration in 1984. While President Bill Clinton rescinded it in 1993, it was reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001; in 2003, Bush expanded the restriction to programs supported by the U.S. Department of State.
Almost immediately after taking office in January 2009, Obama issued an executive order overturning the ban, writing that its conditions were "excessively broad" and "unwarranted."
To contact the editor, e-mail: | <urn:uuid:8564c17f-45ca-406f-aa49-bb488fb35542> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/345140/20120525/senate-repeals-global-gag-rule-abortion-family.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96573 | 489 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Controversy over Che Guevara project rumbles on in the USAJuly 10, 2012 - 7:00am
BY CIARAN TIERNEY
The local politician who received unanimous backing when he proposed that Galway City Council should honour Latin American revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara has admitted that he has been taken aback by the criticism he has received from the United States.
Cllr Billy Cameron (Labour) has been subjected to vehement criticism from members of the Cuban-American community in Miami since word first spread that the Council intends to honour the revolutionary hero with a five metre high monument in Salthill.
The issue received transatlantic coverage again this week when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd described the controversy as an “international incident” in an opinion piece which was syndicated all across the US and was reproduced in yesterday’s Irish Times.
Ms Dowd, who received an honorary degree from NUI Galway last Friday, described Cllr Cameron as a “lefty” with a “bizarre idea” and pointed out that outgoing Mayor Hildegarde Naughton, among others, had backed down from supporting his plan.
Yesterday, Cllr Cameron reiterated his support for the monument, although he admitted that he would settle for a scaled-down version of the structure at another location, after people became surprised by the size of the Salthill Promenade plan.
“I am gobsmacked by the reaction this has got, in terms of the negative coverage in the United States,” said Cllr Cameron. “Che was a major figure of 20th century politics and this plan first came about because of his Galway heritage.”
Cllr Cameron said that the project was first mooted during a “chance meeting” he had with the Ambassadors of Argentina and Cuba to Ireland at a Labour Party conference last year. He has described the proposed structure as a gift to Galway City from the two countries.
After the members of Galway City Council unanimously agreed to back his plan to honour the revolutionary leader – because of his connection with the Blake and Lynch tribes of Galway – criticism soon began to pour in from the Cuban-American community in Florida.
The Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, described Guevara as a “mass murderer and human rights abuser” in a letter to the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and Cllr Cameron has had to field regular questions from elements of the US media ever since.
For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel. | <urn:uuid:1626c171-02e6-4110-9e51-04ecf4ffde2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.galwaynews.ie/26702-controversy-over-che-guevara-project-rumbles-usa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977364 | 555 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Reviewed by Sarah C. (age 6)
The author is trying to teach us that Ruby needs to take her time, and sometimes people need to take their time so they can do things really well.
My favorite character is Ruby because she never gives up, and she keeps on learning what she needs to do. My favorite part is when she learns how to fly, because she does it beautifully and she does it the best.
This book reminds me of school. Sometimes kids take a long time to do something, and that's ok. Some people need to take their time. It is taking me a long time to learn how to jump rope, but my friend Devanee already knows how. I think it's ok, becasue just like Ruby I will learn when I am ready.
I think everyone should read this book, especially if you are learning how to do something. It's a really awesome story. I think that mommy's and daddy's should read this book with their kids, because they have to take their time doing things too. | <urn:uuid:c94fcea4-5368-4886-9ba1-05a9abaf8052> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spaghettibookclub.org/review.php?review_id=9467 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990053 | 216 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Gay rights campaigners have expressed disappointment that long trailed plans to introduce same-sex marriage were not included in this year's Queen's Speech.
Following last week's punishment by the electorate at the ballot box, several Tory MPs urged the prime minister to re-focus his efforts on the economy rather than be distracted by controversial plans to legislate for same-sex marriage and reform the House of Lords.
Among the critics was Tory defence minister Gerald Howarth, who suggested the election losses could be blamed on gay marriage.
“A lot of Conservatives have written to me saying ‘I am a lifelong Conservative, there is no mandate for this, why is this being proceeded with?" he said.
While Lords reform made it in and is likely to dominate much of this parliamentary session, it appears same-sex marriage will not be legislated for straight away.
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall, said he was concerned plans for gay marriage legislation would be abandoned.
"We’re disappointed that this modest measure has not been included in the Queen’s Speech. We trust that extension of the legal form of marriage to gay people isn’t going to turn into a 'tuition fees' issue, announced with much hoopla in the run-up to an important election and then abandoned.
"Stonewall will fight on to push both coalition parties to deliver on their promise to implement this measure by 2015."
In March the government launched a consultation on how best to introduce gay marriage and insisted it would proceed with the plans in spite of vocal opposition from some religious groups as well as some Tory MPs.
On Monday Liberal Democrat equalities minister Lynne Featherstone insisted there would be "no U-turn" on gay marriage and it would be brought in by 2015.
“In the aftermath of a tough set of election results for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, I couldn’t help but notice a few naysayers popping up in the media and uttering dire warnings about a government that needs to concentrate on core issues rather than same sex civil marriage,” she said.
“For goodness sake, it’s not either/or. The economy is clearly the No. 1 priority – but the Coalition can multi-task."
The Home Office said it was committed to introducing gay marriage but a consultation on the issue was not yet complete.
A spokesman said: "We are absolutely committed to introducing same-sex civil marriage and have been clear that we will make any legislative changes by the end of this Parliament.
"There was never any plan to include equal civil marriage in this year's Queen's Speech. Our consultation is still ongoing and it's important we listen to people's views." | <urn:uuid:2e8c7b2c-e5ab-4671-9b41-ace32b2ffc9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/09/queens-speech-2012-gay-marriage-plans-dropped_n_1502149.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975725 | 563 | 1.765625 | 2 |
- When China Met Africa
- Production year: 2011
- Country: Rest of the world
- Runtime: 90 mins
- Directors: Marc Francis, Nick Francis
An eye-opening documentary that puts into concrete images that truism of the geo-political commentariat: that China is a new economic superpower. Specifically, it illustrates a new type of colonialist exploitation in present-day Zambia, enthusiastically aided and abetted by the national government. On a micro level, it involves individual Chinese emigres buying large plots of scrub, and hiring locals to clear and farm the land. On the macro, giant Chinese corporations are handed contracts to improve infrastructure: we follow one such, building a highway more than 300km across the country. On the face of it, there's an anti-western, post-imperial rhetoric fuelling the relationship, but fairly evidently it's a grossly lopsided one, with considerable benefits to China in the form of plentiful and cheap natural resources. If this documentary is anything to go by, the Chinese incomers are just as suspicious and disrespectful to the Africans as their European forebears; you have to wonder how long it will take the Zambians to become aware of what they've let themselves in for. | <urn:uuid:19615082-8174-4af5-9149-99a59d38cf76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/06/when-china-met-africa-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932791 | 254 | 1.59375 | 2 |
5 tips for better real estate video
Rethink audio, script to capture home shoppersBy Mary Umberger, Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
Fred Light maintains a "Video Hall of Shame" section on his website. It's filled with real estate videos whose most memorable qualities are their grainy picture quality, bouncy camera technique and teeth-grindingly bad audio.
Of course, he's biased: He's a professional videographer who has little patience with real estate agents and homeowners who insist on producing video home tours themselves.
Yet some in the industry say they're seeing some improvement in quality.
"Camera equipment is getting better and better in low-light situations, so that's becoming less of a problem," said Christian Sterner, co-founder of WellcomeMat.com, a video platform that publishes and distributes real estate video.
Nonetheless, he said, he sees certain mistakes repeatedly, most of which are avoidable. It would seem to go without saying that dark rooms are a problem, as well as glaring light streaming in through windows -- but both Sterner and Light said proper lighting seems to get scant attention in real estate video.
"And get a tripod," said Light, who owns Nashua Video Tours, which produces real estate videos in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. "You can't hold any video camera, for the most part. The little cameras are the worst because they're so lightweight."
Beyond those basics, five things to know about improving real estate videos:
1. Dub in the audio later, Light suggested. Not only does it give you time to write an effective script, but the likelihood of improved sound quality will hold the audience.
"People are much more forgiving of a bad picture than they are of bad audio," Light said. "Eighty percent of good video is good audio.
"The best way to do it is not to do any audio (while shooting) and then record it in a studio, so you can control the noise and the echo," he said, explaining that the high ceilings and hard surfaces that fill houses, such as granite countertops and glass, can have a terrible effect on the sound quality.
Light concedes that most people don't have access to a studio -- but you can simulate one, to a point.
"I have one real estate agent who does her own video," he said. "I finally talked her into going into a closet with her laptop (to record her scripts). The clothes dampen the sound, and she puts a blanket over her head and records."
2. Rethink your approach to the script.
"People will focus on the features of a property," said Sterner. "They will point to the kitchen and say, 'Here's the kitchen.' "
Not only is that obvious, it's sometimes annoying, he said. One option in such a room is to talk about how it has been remodeled and what was done to it, or to talk about its potential, he said.
Real estate videos should sell the benefits of a home, not its features, Light said.
"If you're going to talk about the heating system and the 100-amp electrical, that's the audio equivalent of reading someone a spreadsheet," he said. "Sell the warm-and-fuzzies -- they can get the stats off the (multiple listing service) sheet if they're interested."
Light recalled one homeowner who narrated her own audio, and he said she nailed it perfectly. "She explained, 'We had 15 people in the dining room for Christmas last year, and 100 people in the backyard for my daughter's graduation.'
"That's the stuff that sells houses," he said.
3. You're not just selling a home, you're selling a neighborhood.
"One of many values of a video is that you're able to elaborate on the location and everything in and around the property," Sterner said.
"Some people actually create local highlights -- the proximity of the schools, which you might show on a Google map, or they show that two blocks down there's a shopping center where there's a coffee shop and a grocery store," he said.
4. The video shouldn't repeat what home-shopping consumers have already learned about a given house, said Light, who theorized that home shoppers who look at real estate videos view them after they've seen everything else provided online about a given house -- after reading about the pricing, room sizes and tax data, and after looking at all the still photography.
"By the time people look at the video, they're seriously interested in the house," said Light, who estimates he's produced more than 1,000 real estate videos. "The video is the final qualifier, and they do watch it intently, from beginning to end.
"If people are taking time to download it, they want to see something more," he said. If you repeat information, "the buyers (will) say, 'I already saw this' -- just because you repackage it doesn't make it different."
5. How long should a video be? Even Light concedes there's no proper length.
"Some people say a minute or two minutes, but I don't think that's true," he said. "It shouldn't be more than seven or eight minutes, tops."
It really boils down to how interesting you can make it -- how much you can make a would-be buyer picture him- or herself in the place, he said.
"If I showed you a wedding video and you didn't know anybody at the wedding, you'd be gone after 30 seconds," he said. "But if your kid is in the wedding, you will watch it from end to end."
Mary Umberger is a freelance writer in Chicago.
|Contact Inman News:|
|Letter to the Editor|
All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law. | <urn:uuid:35215495-7304-428f-ac22-c96a816b3141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lowes.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/maryumberger/5-tips-better-real-estate-video | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973782 | 1,256 | 1.5 | 2 |
Matthew Weier O'Phinney has posted the first part of a new series he's been working on about creating RESTful APIs with the help of Zend Framework v2. In this part, he looks at things like the "Richardson Maturity Model" and "Hypertext Application Language" as parts of development of the API too.
RESTful APIs have been an interest of mine for a couple of years, but due to circumstances, I've not had much chance to work with them in any meaningful fashion until recently. Rob Allen and I proposed a workshop for PHP Benelux 2013 covering RESTful APIs with ZF2. When it was accepted, it gave me the perfect opportunity to dive in and start putting the various pieces together.
After going over the "Richardson Maturity Model" for the REST structure he spends the rest of the post looking at HAL ("Hypertext Application Language") structure and examples. He mentions the media types it uses, how it handles links between resources and how to embed a resource into the resulting response. | <urn:uuid:f6f7b3e3-fad2-4689-8327-536b422630f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phpdeveloper.org/tag/hal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963517 | 216 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) reported today that it has more than 60% of the nation’s milk supply signed up to participate in its Cooperatives Working Together program for 2011 and 2012.
NMPF will require 75% participation for the program to continue, and CWT officials hope that plateau can be reached by the end of this month. CWT officials announced in October it would limit its activities to export assistance and no longer buy out entire herds to reduce U.S. production. The CWT contribution also falls to 2¢/cwt from 10¢.
To date, CWT has signed up 22 of its existing members and has added seven more: First District Association, Magic Valley Quality Milk Association, Midwest Dairymen’s Company, Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc., Premier Milk, Southeast Milk and Swiss Valley Farms. | <urn:uuid:9e689272-a967-4589-a144-5bb2e6950036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/farmjournal/farm_journal_corn_college/news/news.aspx?ArticleId=299948 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963939 | 175 | 1.585938 | 2 |
For the UK, these paragraphs are instructive:
"A more integrated eurozone will also provoke non-euro members of the EU by driving them further away from core decision-making. They will react adversely – which is why an early announcement of fiscal union is unlikely. Instead, judicially enforceable controls over deficits, early harmonisation of corporate taxes and a permanent chairman of the eurozone are likely early moves. We are drifting towards full fiscal union: only the timescale is flexible.
This has consequences: non-euro members will not wish to be marginalised and may sniff suspiciously at euro-core proposals, rendering decision-making even more of a hurdle. If the eurozone integrates and co-ordinates policy, non-euro members may co-ordinate too. Confrontation looms. Deeper eurozone integration may encourage non-euro member states to seek to repatriate key policies they can’t influence. The UK will not be alone in this. In the next decade, a federal eurozone will change Europe’s mosaic. Within the eurozone it will become more prescriptive; outside, a looser union could emerge. A pattern of variable alliances is likely. EFTA countries may move closer to non-euro members. One thing is certain – the EU will not remain the same.
In the UK, and elsewhere, many are pressing for their nation to leave the EU. This is an extreme option that would throw up far more problems than it would solve. For the UK it would be a dangerous mistake but, even so, our relationship within the EU will shift. Cool heads and clear minds are needed: our future depends on it." | <urn:uuid:20ed96fa-1726-44e5-9623-ee09c26ca181> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/cool-heads-and-clear-minds.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945491 | 336 | 1.679688 | 2 |
the world's smartest travel social network
Learn about the history of the Academy and what life is like for those who have the honor of attending. The tour starts in the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center where there are several interesting displays. The fee is $9.50 for adults, less for seniors and children. The number of visitors in each tour is limited so reservations are suggested and those 16 or older must present a valid picture ID.
The tour begins with the greeting, “Welcome to Duty, Honor, and Loyalty.” The goal of the Academy is to train the students “mentally, morally, and physically.” While the students get a free education they must give back by serving five years in the Navy or Marines. When the Academy started it was male-only but today half of the 4,400 students are female. The school has an 80% graduation rate.
The grounds are beautiful with many Beaux-Art buildings designed by Ernest Flag along with many memorials. The tour includes the Bancroft Hall, referred to as “Mother B.” It is the largest dormitory in the U.S. with 4.8 miles of halls and a beautiful marble rotunda. The rotunda is open to the public along with a full-size model of a midshipman’s room. Also included is the chapel with beautiful stained glass windows some of which are by Tiffany. Beneath the chapel is the crypt where John Paul Jones, a Revolutionary War hero, is interred.
The hour-long tour ended at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Preble Hall which was completely remodeled a few years ago and how houses excellent displays and videos including the History of the U.S. Navy and the Academy. On the second floor is an amazing display of model ships – and not just your run-of-the mill models. The Naval Academy has one of the world’s largest collections of model ships made of bone. They were made by French prisoners-of-war held in England during the Anglo-French War. | <urn:uuid:7faaaa30-47d5-430e-98a7-cb3b41cce348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tripatini.com/profiles/blogs/when-in-annapolis-visit-the-u-s-naval-academy | 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 | 0.973438 | 430 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Preying on the parishThink of a parish council and you might conjure up conjure up
1. to create an image in the mind: the name Versailles conjures up a past of sumptuous grandeur
2. Vicar of Dibley-esque meetings in church halls, full of squabbling tweedy gents and Women's Institute stalwarts. The government sees them as the potential future bedrock of community governance, but they are not generally regarded as hotbeds of political insurrection A rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence.
Under federal law, it is a crime to incite, assist, or engage in such conduct against the United States.
Except in Lickey End Lickey End is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove district of Worcestershire, England. It is situated just north of Bromsgrove, to the south-east of the junction of the A38 (Birmingham Road) and the M42. , Worcestershire. Residents of the sleepy village (electorate 2,114) have endured a farcical far·ci·cal
1. Of or relating to farce.
a. Resembling a farce; ludicrous.
b. Ridiculously clumsy; absurd.
far four-year dispute with the government. And why? Because they want the parish council abolished and the government won't allow it.
In the two elections since the council was established in 2000, the village has voted pro-abolition candidates into power (there are currently 10 pro-abolition members and seven anti-abolition on the 17-strong council). The pro-abolition lobby contends that the cost of running the parish council (£7,000 a year) is an unnecessary tax on local people because the community's needs are already adequately met at district council level.
"We don't need another tier of government," says Roger Griffiths, clerk of the parish council. "Local people have made it clear they don't want it."
Responding to complaints from residents, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister A Deputy Prime Minister or Vice Prime Minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting Prime Minister when the real Prime Minister is temporarily absent. has insisted that the parish council should be given time to prove its worth, and claims that the case for abolition is "not clear". The pro-abolitionists are unconvinced, dismissing the suggestion as "nonsense and undemocratic".
It might seem strange that central government is getting involved at all when local people have made their views clear. But some at Bromsgrove district council - which at first backed the idea of setting up a parish council but now agrees that if local people want to get rid of it, they should be able to - are convinced that the ODPM ODPM Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (UK)
ODPM Objective Directed Project Management is digging its heels in for fear of political embarrassment.
"This has been a very strange saga," a Bromsgrove official says. "The government would be going against the grain of its own policies of promoting parish councils if it gave in and allowed one to be abolished."
Last week, the deputy prime minister, John Prescott
a. A local linguistic feature.
b. A local custom or peculiarity.
2. Devotion to local interests and customs. ", with the introduction of "super parish councils". But if the local rebellion in Lickey End is repeated elsewhere, what has so far been a quirky parochial saga, could turn out to have much wider political implications.
The Lickey End row looks unlikely to die down soon. The 10 pro-abolitionists intend to stand again in 2007. "We might not win, but we won't give in," Griffiths says.
· Lickey End parish council is at www.bromsgrove.gov.uk/pcs/lickeyendpc/index.htm | <urn:uuid:ee4e5dc3-275e-487f-b58c-1c1d07398be1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Preying+on+the+parish-a01611493679 | 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 | 0.963703 | 830 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Belize ~ Paradise in Central America
This beautiful little country, nestling on the shores of the Caribbean Sea is a veritable Paradise. In Toledo there are Mayan, Garifuna, Creole and East Indian people and others.
The Toledo Ecopark Association
People helping people and Creating a new life for all
The Mayan Mountains and Rain Forest. The very words conjure up an exotic area and way of life.
Here we find the amazing Flora and Fauna of Central America.
Here we meet simple, generous and talented people.
Here we see the glorious scenery of Forest and Sea.
And here we learn how to get away from the rat race of modern living and to adapt to the relaxed way of life that exists in this Paradise on the shores of the Caribbean.
Belize is a land of contrasts. You can travel there and spend your time in high class establishments that compare favourably with those in what have been classed as more exotic areas. There is also the Mayan and Garifuna run Guest Houses of the Toledo Ecotourism Association. (TEA)
Here one may experience all that is either Mayan or Garifuna culture with a little east Indian and Creole thrown in as well.
No visit to Belize is should omit a visit to Lubaantun.
Here one may see the actual spot where the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull was found in 1926. Four years ago the Mayan elder who guided you through the Ruins, an ancient man, actually witnessed the finding by the arcaheologist's daughter. Many controversial articles have been written about this Skull. Was it genuinely found there or at Sotheby's and the young lasses father merely wanted her to have a thrill on her birthday. Have a look yourself at the spot and see what you think. You will see that even the dates are in dispute. The best way to see this is to take a tour from San Antonio in Toledo District. Here you may be fortunate enough to be guided by Reyes Chun, the TEA Chairman and guiding light. (I first met Reyes in Punta Gorda and not only did he inspire me to write a book, we became firm friends.)
The detail shown by the carvers of the Skulls has become legendary and inspired the Harrison Ford Movie. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Mr Mitchell-Hedges' daughter still maintains that she found the skull at Lubaantun in 1924.
Other articles state that it was found in Honduras in 1927.
Belize was Birtish Honduras prior to independence on 21st September, 1981.
With the advent of the Mayan Calendar ~ End of Long Count ~ which is supposed to be in December 2012 there is great interest in anything Mayan. Why don't you share that interest?
I actually subscribe to the teachings of Ian Xel Lungold and Dr Carl Calleman. You could do worse by studying these sites for they give a very different picture to the ones filled with doom and gloom that we are being inured to. You could also work out YOUR Mayan Tzolkin Birthdate!
Books about or set in Belize, Central America.
Get the feeling for a great country with great people ~ treat yourself to a book!
This is the deluxe Colour Paperback for those who are interested in Belize. All profits go to the Toledo Ecotourism Association. Inspired by William 'Chet' Schmidt of TEA it shows some of the challenges facing this wonderful little country.
This is the Black and white Paperback for those who are interested in Belize. All profits go to the Toledo Ecotourism Association
An instant download in full cover. Almost all the purchase price goes to Toledo Ecotourism Association. (In my biased opinion well worth buying.)
When young Patricia Parker went down to London to answer an advertisement for a job in the capital, she never thought that she would instead accept a very different kind of assignment that would take her to Central America from a stranger she met at her hotel. Neither did she expect to meet and fall in love with the handsome, dashing ex-soldier from America. And who was the young girl who was so similar to her that they could be twins? What is the secret of the Obeahman who influenced her life but whom she never seemed to meet? Would she have accepted the assignment if she had known in advance what was to befall her in this beautiful part of the world? Did she ever find out the secrets that could change her life forever? The answers are all contained within this book. | <urn:uuid:bc76efe3-af13-4f73-b95d-a2e6bda5b26e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wizzley.com/belize-paradise-in-central-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959843 | 952 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Finding good value flights to the Caribbean is very difficult, so here are a few pointers
Unfortunately there really is no such thing as a cheap flight to the Caribbean these days, as increasing fuel prices and the astronomically high Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax make Caribbean destinations even more expensive than they traditionally have been. As there is also generally very little competition on scheduled flights to the Caribbean beyond the illusion of rivalry between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, finding a bargain is harder than it is on flights to many other long-haul destinations.
Until relatively recently, passengers had the choice of long-haul flights operated by BWIA, who then became Caribbean Airlines, together with flights to Jamaica operated by Air Jamaica. Neither of these airlines operate long-haul flights any more, leaving the Cuban national airline Cubana as the only Caribbean-based carrier to offer flights to the Caribbean from the UK.
However, some Caribbean destinations, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Montego Bay in Jamaica and Barbados do have a reasonable offering of holiday charter flights, and on these routes, prices can sometimes be more reasonable.
Top tips for finding flights to the Caribbean:
1. Be as flexible as possible with dates.
This means avoiding peak travel periods during school holidays, and it also means being prepared to travel during the hurricane season (roughly June to November). Don't be put off by this - hurricane reports in the news always focus on the places that are unlucky enough to get hit, and these will always stay at the forefront of people's memories. Remember that although the hurricane season lasts for several months, the statistical chance of your resort being hit during the time you are out there is actually very small.
2. Look for flights to destinations served by leisure airlines.
Holiday airlines like Thomson and Monarch offer flights to the Caribbean as well as traditional carriers British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Flights to destinations served by the big leisure companies tend to be more competitively priced. Examples include Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Barbados.
3. Forget regional airports and fly from London
Generally, the cheapest flights to the Caribbean operate from London, although you can sometimes find good deals from Manchester or other regional airports.
Be prepared to shop around between different departure airports, especially as the only option for flight connections from many regional departure points is to go via New York or another other airport in the USA. This is a very long way round, and really isn't worth the hassle as you will have to go through US immigration in each direction. Unless you either want to add in a US city break or you are flying to a destination which is relatively close to the USA, such as the Bahamas or Jamaica, then I really would avoid these routings.
Note that Caribbean flights from London tend to depart quite early in the morning, so it isn't always easy to find a feeder flight from other regional departure points. Be prepared to budget for a night in a Gatwick airport hotel on the outbound leg, or to get up at an ungodly hour to drive or take a coach to the airport. Note – all flights to the Caribbean depart from Gatwick, except for British Airways flights to Nassau (Bahamas), Providenciales (Turks & Caicos) and Grand Cayman, which depart from London Heathrow.
Some Caribbean flights operate with a stop en-route, and you can usually (but not always) expect to pay more if you are travelling to the final destination.
4. The exorbitant cost of Air Passenger Duty (APD) on direct flights from the UK to the Caribbean can be avoided if you are stubborn enough.
The way to do this is to take Eurostar or a low-cost flight to Paris or Amsterdam and then to book a long-haul flight to the French or Dutch Caribbean. Flights to islands such as St Martin, Martinique or Guadeloupe are usually considerably cheaper than flights to their English speaking equivalents anyway.
However, this is a false economy if you then try and book a local Caribbean island hopper flight on to a destination like St Kitts or Antigua, as these connections can sometimes cost over $300 for a 30 minute flight!
You also might find cheap flights to former Spanish colonies like Puerto Rico or Cuba from Madrid. Note that you are always taking a risk if you make your own connections, as neither airline will accept responsibility if one flight is delayed.
5. Consider one of the Indian Ocean destinations instead.
If you can't find a suitable deal to the Caribbean, why not consider flights to the Seychelles, Mauritius or the Maldives instead? These destinations can sometimes be more competitive as the option is available for taking flights via Arabian Gulf hubs such as Dubai and Doha.
In addition to this extra competition, you can combine a paradise island getaway with a shopping extravaganza on the way out or back. Alternatively, Mexico has an extensive Caribbean coast, and flights to Cancun are readily available from many UK departure airports.
6. Book a package trip.
As a general rule, packages are much better value than booking flights and accommodation separately, especially if you are travelling with a leisure airline. You also might find a much better value by booking a cruise package and sampling a host of Caribbean islands rather than staying in one place.
7. Consider how much you will spend when you get there
Bear in mind that the cost of getting around and of eating and drinking out can vary considerably from one Caribbean island to another.
As a general rule, islands that have larger hotels and a wider range of holiday flights are usually cheaper, with Cuba and the Dominican Republic being at the lower end and islands like St Kitts and Grenada being considerably more expensive. In the middle, you will still find plenty of variation – for example it is usually much cheaper to buy a round of rum punch in Barbados than it is in Antigua.
The best value packages are usually all inclusive flight and hotel deals, although this kind of deal can leave you boxed in to the hotel you are staying at, so you don't always get the full Caribbean experience.
8. Watch out for Caribbean car hire pitfalls!
Before setting off, consider how you will get around the island you visit. Car hire in the Caribbean can be astonishingly expensive (£300+ per week), especially as you may have to pay around £40 for a temporary local driving licence before you can rent a car.
Caribbean islands can also be deceptively slow to travel around -- distances might not be that far, but the roads can be poor quality and very winding. St Lucia is particularly bad -- don't expect to drive at any more than 30 miles an hour there.
Many tour operators will provide both transfers between your hotel and the airport and a range of island tours. Another great way to explore many Caribbean islands without the hassles of getting a hire car is to rent a bicycle – and you can even take a tour around St Kitts in an open air sugar train.
9. Caribbean island hopping
You will find a plethora of beautiful islands in the Caribbean, but many people will only visit one on each trip. Unfortunately, inter-island flights within the Caribbean are often ridiculously expensive, as there is virtually no competition, and you are usually clobbered still further by extra local handling taxes.
Many routes between the smaller islands only operate once each day, and some are even less frequent than this.
Major hub airports in the eastern Caribbean include Antigua, Barbados and St Martin. The busiest airport in the Caribbean is in San Juan, Puerto Rico, although I would avoid travelling through it unless you absolutely have to because it means you will have to endure the hassle of going through US immigration.
If you are staying on St Kitts, you can easily make a day trip by boat to neighbouring Nevis, and this is a highly recommended excursion.
Another possibility is to take a helicopter tour, which might give you views over several islands. Although these don't come cheap, they are often good value compared with Caribbean passenger flights! If you ever want to experience the true power of nature, take a helicopter tour from Antigua around neighbouring Montserrat's active volcano:
10. Heart-stopping flights
If you fancy setting your heart pounding with an aerial rollercoaster ride, then the Caribbean is blessed with some of the most dramatic take off and landing experiences in the world.
St Martin is a mecca for plane spotters due to the way hulking passenger jets pass only a few metres over a popular beach just before landing at the island's airport.
From St Martin you can fly across to nearby Saba, home to the shortest commercially active runway in the world, with sheer cliffs at each end just for good measure.
Alternatively, the approach into neighbouring St Barths is equally dramatic as planes have to fly over a steep hill before lining up on the airport's tiny runway. | <urn:uuid:f2b1a5d3-b946-4faa-8750-a04a6b376c57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flightmapping.com/james-blog/flights-to-the-caribbean | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95722 | 1,841 | 1.523438 | 2 |
WMBD/WYZZ -- Peoria - State health officials say 41 probable cases of swine flu are in Illinois, while all of those cases are in the Chicago area, two central Illinois college students have been tested for the virus as a precaution. A Bradley University student went to the the University Health Center to get checked out, and one Illinois State University student who had close contact with friends who've recently visited Mexico has also been tested for the H1N1 virus. Some of those friends developed flu like symptoms but all have recovered. Illinois State President Al Bowman wants to stress there have been no confirmed cases of the flu virus on campus.
Meet The Team
Take a moment to meet WMBD 31's team. Click here to learn more about the people who are "Taking Action for You!" | <urn:uuid:8a72143d-576b-4b8b-aac6-cbc766e971a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centralillinoisproud.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=57071 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959742 | 164 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Review to be emailed:
Audience: 5th Grade - 7th Grade
When Nate's leg is crushed under a wagon he can no longer help his father on their farm. He feels even worse when his father brings Worth, an orphan boy, home to help with the chores while Nate has to go to school. Nate's frustrations with book learning and Worth's clumsiness at farm chores make them resent each other more and more as time passes. There is, however, a battle brewing between ranchers and farmers for land, and Nate and Worth are forced to put their differences aside. Can a cripple and a city boy do anything against the fence cutters? You'll have to read to find out!
Date read: 4/28/2009
Library Home |
My Account |
St. Charles Public Library, 1 South 6th Avenue, St. Charles, IL 60174
630-584-0076 • 630-584-9390 Youth Services
Copyright © 2004-2013 St. Charles Public Library. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:1deb46bd-596e-4561-a029-eb9b19f8ec7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stcharleslibrary.org/ygtrt/email.asp?BookID=468&returnURL=%2Fygtrt%2Fdefault.asp%3FCategory%3D24%26grs%3D0%26gre%3D9%26Page%3D256 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950355 | 214 | 1.632813 | 2 |
What's hot: Cold water redfish are active, chasing and eating lures aggressively. Great sport on light to medium tackle, wintertime redfish are a great battle. With large flounder and great speckled trout in the shallows, this leads to a great mixed bag of action.
Tackle and techniques: In the clear waters of winter, downsize your leader to no heavier than 20-pound fluorocarbon. Move quietly around the flats. Concentrate on areas 1-2 feet in depth. Make long casts with the lightest jigheads and 3- to 5-inch plastic tails. Keeping the rod tip high, finesse the lure back to you at a steady, slow pace. Redfish will chase and thump the lure so set the hook when you feel the take. There is a daily bycatch of trout and flounder. A mostly mild start to winter, flounder have remained inshore in good size and numbers. Flounder have been caught on the sand patches of nearly all depths lately. The very largest trout are caught in the shallows where redfish are found. The bigger concentrations of trout have shifted to deeper areas inside Tampa Bay. Many redfish schools also shifted to areas well inside the bay.
Neil Taylor charters kayak fishing trips in the Tampa Bay area and can be reached at strikethreekayakfishing.com and (727) 692-6345. | <urn:uuid:bcbf20de-995a-4725-8f61-163549b63afb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/captains-corner-redfish-good-winter-bite/1269383 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938065 | 297 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Study wants children's homes report
An independent investigation is needed into England's children's homes which are failing to manage and protect youngsters who run away or go missing, MPs and peers have said.
The report by parliamentarians also called for urgent action to prevent children being sent to live in areas up to hundreds of miles from their family, which is believed to be a major factor in causing some of them to run away.
Labour MP Ann Coffey, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for runaway and missing children and adults, said the issue of children who go missing from care was a "scandal".
As well as the investigation and urgent action on "out of borough placements", the joint report by two APPGs calls for a scorecard system to rate local authorities, an end to barriers which prevent police knowing the location of children's homes and a new system for reporting runaways from care.
The report recommends that more weighting should be given to the management of missing incidents in Ofsted's inspections.
The inquiry also highlights a lack of training for professionals. One practitioner told the inquiry: "You can have someone looking after a young person who, the day before, their experience may have been working at a deli counter in Asda."
The joint report by Ms Coffey's group and the APPG for looked after children and care leavers follows the jailing of a sex abuse ring in Rochdale which preyed on vulnerable girls. Only one of the girls was in care at the time of the abuse but all were said to have been known to social services at some point in their childhood.
Ms Coffey said: "There is a scandal going on in England involving children missing from care and until recent cases of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and other places put the spotlight on this issue, it was pretty much going unnoticed.
"This inquiry has revealed the widespread concern that what we have in place at the moment falls dramatically short of what is needed to protect some of society's most vulnerable children.
"We know that dangerous predators are exploiting large gaps in the system and targeting children. Our inquiry has demonstrated how the system is far from fit for purpose and needs an urgent rethink to address these failings." | <urn:uuid:4056e7c9-9387-4790-aeab-356ed6bd6fbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/national/news/9766838.Study_wants_children_s_homes_report/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976971 | 461 | 1.570313 | 2 |
First solo — exciting for both the student and the CFI. For me, soloing a student is a source of great joy. I am helping someone fulfill their dream. I hope I never become one of those CFIs who treats first solo as “just another part” of training.
Per FAR 61.87, there are 15 things that a student must be proficient in before they are ready to solo. “How many hours does it take to be ready to solo?” is the most common question I hear. I reply with the words of Dutch, my first CFI, who told me in his gravely, deep voice, “It takes as long as it takes.”
Weather is critical for that first solo. Crosswinds cannot be more than 5 knots, and with no gusts. It must be daylight. The ceiling must be at least 2,000 feet, visibility at least three miles. These are my rules, not the FAA’s. As the student’s experience increases, the weather minimums will change. They are aware of this and respect my commitment to keeping them safe.
Before the student is allowed to solo, he or she must complete a pre-solo open book test. It’s not enough that the student knows the information, he or she must tell me where the information comes from. “Because my CFI told me so” is not answer. “FAR 91.105, or page 6 Cessna 172 POH” is an answer. The test includes questions about the traffic pattern and regulations for the airport the solo takes place at. We go through the test line by line because it’s my responsibility to make sure the student understands the answers.
Prior to allowing the student to solo, I make sure that they’ve flown to at least one other nearby airport, just in case they have to divert because of an unforeseen emergency.
They need to be comfortable on the radio. I’ve had some students who fly beautifully, but choke on radio calls. To get over this I fly the airplane and they fly the radio for a few trips around the pattern.
Consistency of performance is key. There are specific airspeeds and altitudes for downwind, base, and final.
Judgment also is key. I can show and tell the student what to do if the airplane is too high or too fast, but they need to be able to make these determinations on their own. Judgment is developed by experience. You can’t teach it.
When I am sure the student is ready to solo, I ask “Are you ready, or would you like one more lap in the pattern?” Sometimes they say they are ready. Others want that last lap. During that lap I sit there in what has become known as “toad mode” because I don’t say anything. I sit there like a toad in the sun.
When the student agrees he or she is ready, I sign their logbook and medical certificate, and record the limitations. I note the time on the Hobbs indicator so the student doesn’t pay for dual when I’m not aboard.
I step on to the ramp with a handheld radio. We do a radio check. We listen to the automated weather to make sure it meets the standards. I show the student the hand signal for “come to me” just in case I need to talk to them between landings, and a sweeping motion, like I am launching them off an aircraft carrier, which means “cleared to take off.”
When the student taxis away from me I start pacing on the ramp. I tell my students I will be nervous for them, they should focus on the flying.
As the airplane lifts off I often shout and cheer. I am witnessing the birth of a new pilot, the latest link a long chain of aviators. I key the mic on the handheld and utter the word “airspeed” in my best imitation of Dutch. This is a tradition, an homage to the man who taught me to fly and established my place in the chain. The day I soloed Dutch stood on the ramp with a hand-held radio. As the airplane lifted off I heard Dutch’s voice intone “airspeed.” That was the last thing he said until I finished my three takeoffs and landings. I was truly on my own.
I fly every nano-inch of the approach from the ground. I’m ready to step in on the radio if the student looks like they are in trouble.
One, two, three landings later the solo is done. I stand with my arms straight up over my head, the signal for the student to taxi to my position. The students are usually grinning ear to ear (as am I) as I climb in the airplane. There are exclamations of joy from the student and a seal bark (my signature call) from me.
After a student solos it is tradition to cut off the back of the shirt tail and write their name and the date of the solo. The shirt tails are often mounted on the wall of the flight school. The cutting of the shirt tail goes back to the days of tandem aircraft when the instructor tugged on the student’s shirt to get his or her attention. The cutting of the shirt represents that the student is ready to fly alone.
I have an additional ritual after solo: The gift of a toy tiger tail and call sign. Exxon gives away the tails as a promotional item at air shows. I usually pick up a few during AirVenture. The tail represents the tiger of flight, something so many people talk about taming but never do. I also give the student a call sign. This is not done lightly. The name speaks of the student’s skill in the aircraft, overcoming a challenge, or a character trait that has manifested during their training.
Bulldog was named for his tenacity. Big X (named for the mastermind of The Great Escape) was named for his leadership.
As I write this, I have just soloed Mike Beasley. Mike is an A&P. He was leery about flying (at first) because of a fear of heights. He conquered it. His call sign? Helios, after the Roman god of the sun, because like the sun god, he wants to be in the sky.
Why do I make such a big deal out of the first solo? Because I know that a great many people do not get past solo. Although they may want to become private pilots, life gets in the way.
Beasley’s experience was extra special because his mother was there to see it. She dropped by the school to pick him up. The chief instructor told her that Mike was out flying, and asked if she would like to watch him? He then led her out to the viewing area, not realizing that earlier in the day she had told me that she didn’t want to know when Mike was soloing, because it would make her a nervous wreck. She was on one side of the airport and I was on the other.
She told me that she watched the airplanes coming in, saw her son and then realized that I wasn’t in the airplane with him. There was a bit of a moment of concern, but then she realized that her son is actually a very good pilot. It’s hard to say who had a bigger smile on their face when the call sign was bestowed, mother or son. I’m reasonably certain neither one of them will forget that day.
And neither will I.
People who read this article also read articles on airparks, airshow, airshows, avgas, aviation fuel, aviation news, aircraft owner, avionics, buy a plane, FAA, fly-in, flying, general aviation, learn to fly, pilots, Light-Sport Aircraft, LSA, and Sport Pilot. | <urn:uuid:c2b5c2a1-4cc3-4148-a3da-4278161879f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.generalaviationnews.com/2012/04/first-solo-the-cfis-perspective/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975734 | 1,669 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The Ashes Action (1992)
AIDS Community Television weekly series
originally telecast September 16, 1996 ~ (29:00)
produced and edited by James Wentzy, with Jerry Lakatos
Additional Cameras: James Wentzy, John Schabel, Tony Arena, Shraga Lev, Andrew Chang,
Gloria G. Horning, Elaine Angelopoulos, Tim McCarthy.
[from a flyer announcing the 1992 Ashes Action: ]
BRING YOUR GRIEF AND RAGE ABOUT AIDS TO A
in Washington D.C. Sunday October 11, 1992 at 1:00 P.M.
For more than a decade,
your government has mocked your
loss. You have spoken out in anger, joined
political protests, carried fake coffins and mock
tombstones, and splattered red paint to represent
someone's HIV-positive blood, perhaps
your own. George Bush believes that
the White House gates shield him,
from you, your loss, and his responsibility
for the AIDS crisis. Now it is time to
bring AIDS home to George Bush.
On October 11th, we will carry
the actual ashes of people
we love in funeral
the White House.
In an act of grief and
rage and love, we
will deposit their
ashes on the
MEET AT THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING AT 1:00 P.M.
for more information about attending the funeral (with or without ashes) Or
about sending ashes to ACT UP New York for someone else to deliver, call
Shane at ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ or David at ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^
THE ASHES ACTION Eyedrum Screening
"The Ashes Action" (shown at Eyedrum) makes the personal highly public, as it follows a group of protesters on their way to the White House to fling their loved ones' ashes on the lawn. This protest, equal parts poignancy and rage, is mirrored by this complexly structured, emotionally involving video which uses multiple views of the event to directly involve the viewer in the intensity of the action.
ACT UP Fight Back: Art and Activism in
the Time of AIDS
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA
Friday, April 1, 2005
James Wentzy is one of the most prolific of AIDS activist videomakers, having produced over 150 half-hour programs in his series AIDS Community Television. The Ashes Action documents an ACT UP protest in Washington DC in October of 1992. Motivated by the expressed desire of several activists for their bodies to be used in some sort of political way after their deaths, ACT UP staged a march to the White House lawn, where they outflanked a group of guards and police and achieved their objective of dumping their loved ones ashes directly on the lawn as a protest of White House inaction on AIDS. The event was also motivated by the display that same week of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall. In the video, march organizer David Robinson points out that the quilt is very useful, its very important - but its very beautiful. Hence the need for a reminder of everything that was not being done to combat AIDS, and the result of this inaction.
By the time of The Ashes Action, many half-hour, TV-formatted activist documentaries had been made by enterprising collectives and individuals, including such classics as Testing the Limits, Doctors, Liars, and Women, and Stop the Church. The Ashes Action stands as one of the very best. The pacing and editing are superb. The video channels the anger that motivated all of ACT UPs actions, but is also suffused with an elegiac, even autumnal mood. (The election of Bill Clinton soon after this event was to signal the beginning of a decline in street activism.) Most remarkable of all is the repetitive way in which Wentzy shows the climactic moment of the march. This scene appears four different times in the video, and only gains in emotional power each time it is repeated. The footage itself is shot in a way that draws the viewer directly into the action and gets across the full mortality of what we are seeing on screen: when the ACT UP members fling the ashes out of boxes, urns, and plastic bags, through the fence and onto the lawn, we are seeing not only an audacious political protest we are watching each of them say goodbye to their loved one, and it is devastating. A brief coda which employs agitprop-type on-screen statistics brings this powerful work to a close.
curated by Andy Ditzler
The Film Love series provides access to great but rarely-screened films, and promotes awareness of the rich history of experimental and avant-garde filmmaking.
PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE
Rare footage of historic protest actions, 1961-2006
Friday, June 26, 2009 at the Museum of Design Atlanta
An evening of rare films and footage of historic protest actions, culled from archives and personal collections, presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Graphic Imperative
a Film Love event, curated by Andy Ditzler
Friday, June 26, 2009, 8:00 pm
at the Museum of Design Atlanta
Film and video have played an important role in international protest movements, by documenting acts of resistance and sometimes becoming an integral part of the protests themselves. In conjunction with the Museum of Design Atlanta's exhibition The Graphic Imperative, Film Love presents an evening of rare films and videos on historic protest actions. Most of the selections come from private collections or archives, and are not available on commercial video.
Both formally daring and emotionally moving, James Wentzy's The Ashes Action is a neglected masterpiece of the prolific AIDS activist video movement. It documents a typically controversial ACT UP protest in which marchers outflanked police and reached the White House lawn, where they scattered the ashes of loved ones who had died of AIDS.
ARTPAPERS September/October 2009 p.47
Peaceably to Assemble: Protest Film and Video 1961-2006
Museum of Design, Atlanta June 26, 2009
More incendiary is James Wentzy's The Ashes Action, 1995, a film of the meticulously organized assaultive, emotionally intense ACT UP protests in Washington, DC, during the exhibition of the AIDS quilt, in which activists took a more dramatic tack, throwing their loved ones' ashes onto the White House Lawn. The film brings to mind both the carefully orchestrated drama and the radical techniques of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, with its repeated action and the depiction of the same event from multiple angles.
The Museum of Design Atlanta
285 Peachtree Center Avenue, Marquis II Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Friday, June 26, 2009, 8:00 pm | <urn:uuid:3d74b2f8-8212-4ea8-b0a4-613937cfa8bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.actupny.org/diva/synAshes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939153 | 1,411 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Fragments of language wash up in the semi-consciousness between waking and sleeping, which the watching brain scrambles into near-sense and non-sense.
Fragments from a lost valley society...that much was clear. Perhaps sea-levels rose to demolish and digest a midden of these mostly inconsequential missives. No, not letters. More, stories...perhaps a coming of age gift would be a bone book of these ordinary stories of the people.
'Tying a ribbon on his shoe – 'well, we're not quite sure about those two.'
'What it's like to be addled with...[lost or illegible]'
'My old lass and my extinction...'
'I'm not as old as I sound I was...if you cut me trunkwise and count the rings.'
'It happened one day, God's country...'
'My bright green uncle...'
'''It happened one day'', I said it screwingly...'
'She must be looked at like a person!'
'It'll be the first one though – jeeez.'
'I don't mind king paper and the calf paper.'
'He needed all the necessary darts.'
'People were lifting that noisy ogg (?) [indistinct/illegible] | <urn:uuid:082369b6-126e-47f6-996d-d71eadaa2cfe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rogueseeds.blogspot.com/2012/04/ok.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952489 | 274 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Inside the Pentagon's secretive
and revolutionary new strategy
for fighting terrorism.
In the years following the 9/11 attacks, the United States waged a "war on terror" that sought to defeat Al Qaeda through brute force. But it soon became clear that this strategy was not working, and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new way.
In Counterstrike, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of The New York Times tell the story of how a group of analysts within the military, at spy agencies, and in law enforcement has fashioned an innovative and effective new strategy to fight terrorism, unbeknownst to most Americans and in sharp contrast to the cowboy slogans that characterized the U.S. government's public posture. | <urn:uuid:d86f0953-2c21-4b2f-bed8-f7f65e40c401> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterstrikethebook.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946748 | 147 | 1.539063 | 2 |
|08/09/99- Updated 10:56 AM ET|
Judy Keen, USA TODAY
OSKALOOSA, Iowa -- The tall corn and lush soybeans blanketing central Iowa's gentle hills are warnings that the miserable farm economy may soon get even worse. And the problems of Iowa farmers are bad news for the presidential candidates whose buses are rolling past the bountiful fields this summer.
Prices for soybeans, corn and livestock are at their lowest levels in decades. An abundant harvest probably will drive prices even lower.
As candidates fan out across the state in anticipation of Saturday's nonbinding Republican test vote in Ames, farmers and thousands of other Iowans whose jobs depend on the farm economy are worried. Their frustration is certain to affect next year's caucuses, which launch the presidential nominating process.
All the candidates talk about the farm crisis when they're in Iowa. If they don't bring it up, voters usually do. There's discontent in the air, and there are signs that dissatisfaction with the government's response to the crisis is growing into outrage.
Wednesday, the Senate approved $7.4 billion in aid to hard-hit farmers. Democrats had proposed $11 billion in emergency aid, but the House of Representatives won't consider the bill until next month.
Farmers say they hear little from candidates of either party that satisfies them. Some farmers, and the people who work in businesses that depend on them, have all but given up on politicians' promises to help stabilize the farm economy. Some have walked away from the whole political process.
"I don't think there's anybody on the farm that isn't hurting," Rob Scott, 21, says as he watches 4-H members groom their calves before showing them at the Southern Iowa Fair. Scott, who works a 1,000-acre farm with his dad, has heard the candidates talking about federal aid. He's heard them vow to find new markets for American farm products. Does he have confidence that any of them will come through?
"Yeah, right," Scott says. He says he won't bother voting next year.
Phyllis Higbee, 60, who collects fees from visitors to the fair's antique implement display, can't contain her fury with politicians. "They lie through their teeth and tell farmers what they want to hear, and it never happens," she says. "Republican or Democrat, there's no difference."
Iowa's senators are nearly as annoyed at the presidential candidates. "This is going to have a big impact on the election, because farmers right now are in dire straits," says Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat. "I am just sick and tired of politicians coming to Iowa every four years and talking about agriculture. Then when they leave, it's forgotten."
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley agrees. "How bad is it? (Iowa farmers) are in a depression. I almost want to say it's catastrophic.
Three years of bumper crops around the world, plus low demand tied to depressed economies in Asia, have led to the commodity-price crisis. Gilbert VanderHart, 70, a farmer in Peoria, defines the problem this way: "We can raise more than you people can eat, and the barrel is flowing over."
VanderHart, whose 300-acre farm was founded 100 years ago by his grandfather, might get $1.50 or $2 a bushel this fall for corn that costs him $4 a bushel to produce. He'll take similar losses on soybeans. He's glad he sold his hogs eight years ago, but he won't make much on his cattle.
He isn't counting on politicians for help or hope. "They don't give a hang about my problems," he says.
They say they do. Nearly all the candidates have said they support emergency federal assistance for farmers being debated in Congress.
Farmers say cash to help them get through this crisis, though welcome, does nothing to address the real problems driving them into debt and out of business.
Candidates don't talk much about the explosion of large corporate farms that gobble up small family farms. Those big companies can withstand losses that would bankrupt a family-run operation.
"Pretty soon, there'll be no such thing as a family farm," says Dale Dickinson, 75, selling Minneapolis-Moline(bold) (/bold)equipment at the fair. "Five big grain companies control the market worldwide, and they couldn't care less about small farmers."
And there's little talk among candidates -- except Vice President Gore and Republican Gary Bauer -- about reconsidering the Freedom to Farm Act. That 1996 legislation, proposed by Republicans in Congress, is phasing out federal price supports, subsidies that insulate farmers from fluctuations in the market. The legislation also eliminated restrictions on how much farmers may plant.
The bill, which President Clinton signed, was supposed to link the farm economy to the marketplace and make it less dependent on the government. Instead, the law's critics say, the end of planting restrictions resulted in overproduction.
Most of the country is enjoying an economic boom, but the Agriculture Department estimates that net farm income will fall to $43.8 billion this year. That would be about 4% lower than the annual average in the 1990s. Iowa farmland values dropped 2% in just six months last year. The Senate's Democratic Policy Committee reported in June that in the nation's heartland, including Iowa, annual farm income has dropped 43% since 1996. The panel predicted that a quarter of the region's farm businesses won't be able to cover their expenses this year.
"What's happening is a depopulation of the Farm Belt," says Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "It affects much more than family farms and small businesses. It affects the values that bring people together and make a community. The issue ought to be front-and-center in the presidential campaign."
John Chamra is trying to sell Allis-Chalmers farm equipment at the fair. He has few takers though his dealership decided two weeks ago to let buyers who can come up with half the price delay paying the rest, without interest, for a year.
Chamra, 55, gave up his 450-acre farm two years ago. Besides selling farm equipment part time, he's a substitute mail carrier. He has given up hope that presidential candidates really care about Iowa farmers.
"There comes a point when you get up in the morning," he says, "and you can't see the sun anymore."
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© Copyright 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. | <urn:uuid:ccfa860f-93e7-492c-bca1-9c0871e51e93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/e98/e204.htm | 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 | 0.971327 | 1,385 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The Universe works in mysterious ways, and – as I learned this week - often for good. Recently I have been yearning for the chocolate sponge and chocolate custard that was a regular feature of school dinners in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Then, Nigella Christmas arrived containing a recipe for a far fancier version. I admit that the book wasn’t really much to do with the Universe, more my personal view that a day without an Amazon package arriving is a bad day. Anyway, such omens could not be ignored – the Universe was clearly telling me to make my chocolate pudding.
Most people nowadays steam puddings by standing the basin in a pan of boiling water. I prefer the old fashioned method of standing the pudding over the water. The CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) has a cast iron – I think it’s Victorian – pan that has been handed down through the family and is perfect for the task as the capacity is so great that there’s no need to top up the water level mid-steam. Just to the left you will spot a saucepan full of cabbage – I left that in to prove that we don’t live solely on cake:
The pudding turned out perfectly:
Oh my word. It’s hard to think what to write about this. I have a passionate weakness for steamed sponge puddings – the sponge always seems so light that the laws of physics are defied. The thick, glossy chocolate sauce is irresistible and the work of minutes.
Who wants some of this moist, chocolate, light sponge and sinful sauce?
Sauce or custard? I recommend both. The CCB (Caked Crusader’s Brother) reckoned there was a yin and yang vibe going on here; he had a point - I certainly felt a sense of harmony and well being whilst eating this:
For the sauce (this can be made in advance and reheated when required):
125g milk chocolate, broken up into squares
125g plain chocolate, broken up into squares
250ml double cream
75g golden syrup
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the pudding:
175g plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
40g cocoa powder
175g caster sugar
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60ml plain yoghurt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
How to make:
- Start by making the chocolate sauce. If kept refrigerated, it can be made up to a week in advance and simply reheated when required.
- Place all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Stir the mixture occasionally to ensure that no lumps remain. Either serve straight away or decant to a bowl and leave to cool. Refrigerate when cool.
- Now make the pudding: generously butter a 1.7 litre (that’s 3 pints for those of you working in old money!) boil proof plastic pudding basin and lid.
- In your steamer, ensure that you have enough boiling water to come halfway up the basin. However, I used a steamer basket, so my sponge didn’t sit in the water. Both ways work just as well.
- Put all the pudding ingredients into a food processor and blitz until the ingredients are well combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared basin and level the surface.
- Clip the lid onto the basin and then wrap the basin tightly in foil to ensure that no water can get in.
- Steam for a minimum of 1 ½ hours. I gave mine nearer 2 hours and it did no harm at all.
- When ready to serve, remove the basin’s foil and lid (careful for steam burns – it’s very hot) and put a lipped plate on top. Invert both plate and basin, and give it a slight shake until you feel the pudding is released.
- Reheat the chocolate sauce and either pour over the pudding, hence the lipped plate, or put in a jug for people to serve themselves.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made. | <urn:uuid:50b26624-282e-469c-b0cf-7dc72c010eec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.com/2008/10/steamed-chocolate-sponge-pudding-and.html?showComment=1292585665039 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930766 | 862 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.