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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg says that politics must be kept out of the ceremony that will be held on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. This understandable sentiment is being been sorely tested by New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, who has a habit of treating public discourse as if it were roller derby by other means.
Clyde Haberman offers his take on the news.
Clyde Haberman offers his take on the news.
Mr. Christie got some of what he wanted. City Hall, which orchestrates the remembrance, agreed to include Donald T. DiFrancesco, who was New Jersey’s governor when the terrorists struck in 2001. (If Mr. DiFrancesco’s name escapes you, it may be because he served at the start of a five-year period when New Jersey changed governors as often as Henry VIII changed wives.)
But the city has yet to accede to a Christie demand that the ceremony also include David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The governor grumbled publicly about Mr. Bloomberg’s “stubbornness.” Privately, according to The New York Post, he described the mayor in crude language.
In his pitch on behalf of Mr. Samson, Mr. Christie pointed out that the Port Authority lost 84 employees on 9/11. That is true. But by that reasoning, Cantor Fitzgerald should have an even more prominent place at the podium. It lost 658 people that terrible day, accounting for one of every four deaths at the World Trade Center.
Well, Mr. Christie said, it was his job to be “standing up for the people of my state.”
“If we allow New York to make every one of these decisions with just New York,” he huffed, “no one from New Jersey would be there.”
Right. That’s what this solemn ritual is all about: making sure that New Jersey gets its due.
Still, in his inelegant fashion, the governor laid bare a fundamental reality about 9/11 and its aftermath: Politics is often front and center, no matter what the mayor says.
Mr. Bloomberg, a political unknown back in 2001, would probably not have even become mayor had it not been for the attack on the trade center. In the election that November, he received the blessing of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Suddenly, a Giuliani endorsement became golden. Before Sept. 11, it was often the kiss of death for a candidate on the receiving end.
As for Mr. Giuliani himself, could he have gone on to command six-figure speaking fees, not to mention be taken seriously as a contender for the presidency, had the attack on the trade center not given him an opportunity to shine? What was it that Joseph D. Biden Jr. said of him during the 2008 presidential campaign? “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”
George E. Pataki, New York’s governor in 2001 and for five years after that, was another one who could hardly deliver a speech without invoking Sept. 11, no matter what the setting or the topic. Now there are reports that he, too, is contemplating a presidential run. And the main reason that Republicans held their 2004 national convention in New York City was so they could use the trade center site as a backdrop.
New York officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, add their own twist by proclaiming every Sept. 11 a politics-free day. In Albany, lawmakers have gone so far as to monkey with the schedule of party primaries to move them off that date. As a result, Sept. 11 has become a day when we practically outlaw the normal functions of our democracy — all the while telling ourselves that the terrorists haven’t won.
This ostentatious avoidance of politics is, of itself, a political decision. So, too, of course, is the choice of who gets to stand before a national audience on the anniversary, and who doesn’t.
For more local news from The Times, including an update from the lawyers representing Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, who predict that charges will be dropped; a report on the drama behind the battle for Anthony Weiner’s Congressional seat; and responses from designers on the M.T.A.’s decision to shade the new Second Avenue line robin’s egg blue on its maps and signage, see the N.Y./Region section.
Here’s what City Room is reading in other newspapers and on other blogs this morning.
Overall crime is gaining in nine New York neighborhoods, which could mean the first citywide crime increase in decades. Among the neighborhoods are swiftly gentrifying Williamsburg and Borough Park, where 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky was abducted. [New York Post]
Thousands of New York Police Department sergeants will receive back pay for thousands of hours of unrewarded overtime, a federal appeals court ruled. [New York Post]
Every Roosevelt Islander’s nightmare nearly came true this weekend, as a tram carrying passengers across the East River started swinging wildly. Passengers arrived safe, but others wondered why the new tram had come with a price tag of $25 million. [Roosevelt Islander]
A hawk surprised a man in a fifth floor walk-up at West 80th Street on Sunday. The bird had somehow found its way into the apartment’s hallway, where it swooped around, talons out. [New York Post]
A 75-year-old lobster was saved from the pot by the New York Aquarium in Coney Island. At 18 pounds, it is the largest lobster to ever grace the museum but it is nowhere near the largest ever found — a 44-pound beauty found in 1977. [Brooklyn Eagle]
In more animal news, Ephemeral New York takes a look at the wild jackrabbits that roam J.F.K. Airport, descendants of a shipment meant for a game farm 50 years ago that broke free to live on the airport’s desert grasses. [Ephemeral New York]
Manhattan is one step closer to becoming the Midwest. We’re getting our first International House of Pancakes. [EV Grieve]
Meet Eddie Lee, one of the top video-game players at the now-closed Chinatown Fair Arcade, and learn “turtling,” the style of play Mr. Lee invented, in a video from Jon Rafman. [Rhizome]
You can’t afford not to watch the Top 5 contestants in last week’s New York’s K-Pop Contest belt out Korean love songs. [All K-Pop].
What every gentrifying once-radical neighborhood needs: a vegan bodega. One is opening soon on the Lower East Side. [Bowery Boogie]
Rejoice, Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian are now happily married. Photos of the wedding of the New Jersey Nets player and the reality TV diva reportedly fetched $1.5 million. [New York magazine]
“Sex and the City” may come to New York to film a third movie, if it’s up to Sarah Jessica Parker. Get ready, ladies. [New York Daily News]
New Yorkers would rather watch “Jersey Shore” than the Yankees. [New York Post] | <urn:uuid:255e4d0f-ed1e-4a02-818a-b0e437c11999> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/the-ritual-draping-of-politics-on-sept-11/?ref=donaldtdifrancesco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957827 | 1,566 | 1.742188 | 2 |
We find out where San Diego shines and where improvement is needed.
January 24, 2012 1:07 p.m.
Ann Tarte, Executive Director, Equinox Center
Related Story: San Diego Trends: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
ST. JOHN: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Alison St. John in for Maureen Cavanaugh. In the thick of daily life, it's difficult to keep track of the big sweeping trend it is affecting our quality of life. But we notice the water and power bills going up, the traffic getting worse, how much we're spending just to cheap our homes. The equinox center today releases its third annual dashboard report card on our region, and it's worth paying attention to. Ann Tarte is executive director of the center. Thank you so much for being with us.
TARTE: Thank you, Alison.
ST. JOHN: Why should people care about this report? Reports gathering dust on shelves all over the region. What is superintendent about this 1?
TARTE: This is our third annual report on this these issues, and they really impact all of us. Whether you're a homeowner, when you're got a great job or you have kids that are going to grow up in this region, these issues are going to affect our quality of life.
ST. JOHN: Give us a thumb nail of some of the issues you discussed.
TARTE: We look at issues like transportation, which you were just talking about, air quality, water quality, water consumption, renewable energy, housing affordability, waste disposal. A number of issues as well as economic prosperity and clean jobs.
ST. JOHN: Let's start with transportation since we've just been talking about that. One of the things that I found interesting is that our state attorney general seems to think that San Diego has some of the worst ozone lairs of anywhere in the state. Your report says that our per capita emissions are 10% lower than the state average. What is the truth? Are we getting worse or better?
TARTE: Well, the dashboard data that we have around air quality, is that the number of unhealthy days for our vulnerable populations in particular, children and elderly, and lowest that year than it was in the past decade.
ST. JOHN: Okay.
TARTE: So things are improving. But there's no mistake that we do certainly have air quality challenges here in the region. And we're happy to see the trend going down in terms of the number of days that are unhealthy, but it's something that we need to be concerned with and still work on.
ST. JOHN: What did your study find in term it is of region transportation?
TARTE: Some interesting findings on that topic. One is that on average, San Diegans drive more miles every day than the average Californian, even more than our friends just to the north of us in Los Angeles. And so many of us think of Los Angeles as being so car centric. It was a pretty interesting finding
ST. JOHN: That's amazing. Is this just happening in the last year or so?
TARTE: No, we've seen San Diego County be higher than others in general for the past couple of years. But it's really striking this year. And another finding is that about 75% of San Diegans commute to work alone in their cars. And only a fairly small percent take public transit to commute to work. And that's lower than what happened in Los Angeles. You see more Los Angelesans taking public transit than San Diegans.
ST. JOHN: Do you have any sense about what needs to be done about that? Is it a matter of changing public attitudes or changing something about our environment? About our transit options?
TARTE: Well, you definitely hit on one thing there. Changing attitudes is something that people perceive publicity transit as something they don't want to take. That's other issues. A lot of people feel like the transportation system or the transit system we do have doesn't go to the places where they want to go. It's not as fast as as they'd like to see it be. But there are also other issues as well. It's our land use patterns and how our region developed is a pretty sprawling pattern of development. That makes it difficult to put get transit in the region as well.
ST. JOHN: I'd like to put the call out and say what is your concern about life in San Diego? If you live here and you're thinking about staying here in future decades, are you concerned about the cost? Are you concerned about your ability to move around? Are you concerned about bills for water and -- are you concerned about the environment? What do you think is the biggest challenge to our quality of life here in San Diego? And we have a caller standing by. Kirby Brady, who commutes to a job downtown. So Kirby, things for joining us.
NEW SPEAKER: Hi, thank you.
ST. JOHN: Do you drive? Do you use public transportation? New 92 I commute usually four or five days a week on my bike.
ST. JOHN: Okay. And did you have anything to do with the SANDAG plan that we just talked about in the last segment, the region transportation plan?
NEW SPEAKER: No, I mean, I do know about it.
ST. JOHN: So what is injure experience of getting from A to B in this town?
NEW SPEAKER: Basically, I live in Point Loma and I work downtown. And I started riding my bike, basically, maybe about six months ago for a variety of reasons, but mainly it's been a combination of my personal health goals as well as consideration for our environment.
ST. JOHN: Would you use public transport if there was more of it? Or do you feel like more people need to use their bikes?
NEW SPEAKER: I use public transition now. That's my alternative. It takes a little more thought and planning in terms of get fog where you need to be on time, but I definitely think the system works. And so I feel like they're both viable alternatives to riding alone in your car.
ST. JOHN: And you have a reaction to -- it sounds to me like Kirby is fairly rare. I know even SANDAG wants more people to ride their bikes. But are we making any progress on this front?
TARTE: Well, I think so, and I commend Kirby for her commitment to what she's doing. And I think there are a number of people in the region that do that, which is great. And we have the perfect climate for it too, in particular with biking. But it's not as convenient for everyone as it might be for Kirby living in Point Loma and going downtown. There's other areas we need to work on, improving the infrastructure.
ST. JOHN: Let's go to Mike in Oceanside who has a broader point to make. Go ahead.
NEW SPEAKER: Hi, I'm also a bicyclist, although I'm a retired satellite systems engineer but I did bike for 36 years to my job. And the comment I have is you're going to talk about quality of life, I think you have to talk about stabilizing the climate. And to do that, we're going to have to accomplish what climate scientists tell us we have to accomplish. And we have to be down to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. And that's where SANDAG fell down in its job. They ignored that, and they are not on that trajectory with cars and light duty trucks. Their own numbers are that in 2035, it would be 13% down. But I went through the calculations, and shared that with SANDAG, and asked them to check my math, and I didn't get anything back at all. Even in the environmental impact report, I did not get a response.
ST. JOHN: Interesting.
NEW SPEAKER: But my math showed me that we had to reduce driving per capita 35% by year 2035. And like I say, they only did 13%. That's what they asked CARB to give them, and that's what they gave them.
ST. JOHN: That's the California air resources board, right?
NEW SPEAKER: The whole point is we are destabilizing the climate. And if this lawsuit is not successful, other metropolitan planning organizations will continue their freeways, continue to drive, to destabilize the climate and this was an example for other states and other countries. And we all know the problems we have with China and India, and so on and so forth. And that is going to be a collapse of the human population. So I guess that's pretty much the opposite of quality of life
ST. JOHN: Mike, thanks so much for the call. I wanted to ask you, Ann, what does your report suggest about how we're doing with claimant change? You make some federal positive comments about the direction that San Diego is moving.
TARTE: There is some good news about climate change in the region in terms of the way that our jurisdictions are preparing to adapt to it, and also inventorying the Greene house gas emissions, implementing plans. There's unprecedenteds adaptation in this region for climate change, a number of cities surrounding the bay have really been working hard to come up with a good plan for that. Of so there's some good news on that front. I do need to say, though, that to Mike's point, there have been studies done about the region's Greene house gas emissions, and transportation, particularly cars are a huge percentage of what tribute to our emissions. So we need to get a handle on that challenge.
ST. JOHN: You've covered a lot of topics in this report. So I want to get onto some of the ones that you feel are of most concern. What would you say when you look at all the things that are happening, and the bigger trends that are perhaps of the most concern to you?
TARTE: One is the waste disposal issue, and higher numbers of waste being disposed in the region than we've seen in the last four years. It's difficult to site new landfills as expensive. There are environmental issues related to it. One of the others that we think is a core indicator that has a domino impact on others is this idea of cost of living and particularly housing cost, which are very high here in the region compared to other regions in California as well as nationally. And that affects all of us. It's really difficult for businesses to recruit and retain employees, when there's a high cost of housing. It also contributes to the transportation issues. If there's not a reasonable amount of housing that's affordable to the different income levels in our core area, it forces people to live further and further out in less expensive areas. And that puts them on the road for more hours, it increases their transportation costs, and it increases traffic congestion for all of us.
ST. JOHN: So what would the equinox center see as being a solution to that?
TARTE: We think we need to really start coming up with some better ways to make sure that we have reasonably priced housing in our core neighborhoods. That we're planning intelligently, in a more integrated way so those -- so that housing is near transit, near bicycle paths and other options. And really just kind of having a better integrated planning process for the region.
ST. JOHN: So that is coming down to land use, isn't it? And of course there's a lot of different opinions about, know, density. That's one of the things that's very unpopular in the past. But you were saying more intelligent use of dense housing might help to resolve that issue?
TARTE: Right, I definitely think so. And there are some great examples in the region. The city of San Marcos has really taken a leadership role on trying to increase the amount of housing that's affordable in its core areas, making sure that housing is near transit, and actually also finding some permanent sources of funding to improve their transportation city and their own community so as their region grows, they've got less traffic congestion and better air quality.
ST. JOHN: What about water? You can't have this discussion without talking about water.
TARTE: One of my favorite topics. There's kind of -- I'd say it's some good news and bad news in the water area. The data in the dashboard this year shows our water consumption is down by about 7%. So people have been more efficient with their water use during these recessionary times. But our water supply is very vulnerable still. And so we think we still need to make sure that we're using our water as efficiently as possible in this region.
ST. JOHN: Richard from El Cajon, thanks for calling the program. Go ahead.
NEW SPEAKER: Just what my point was. If we already have to ration water in dry years, there is just not enough water, but we go on subdividing property so that builders can make profit, jamming more and more people in so we need more freeways so that air quality is deteriorated. There is already the maximum amount of people living here. I mean, I actually own a large property in the east county. It's only zoned for one house. I'm willing to just build one house on it and not subdivide it because there's already too many people here.
ST. JOHN: Richard, thank you for your call. I know that maybe you're reflecting the view of many people, that it's time to just call a halt to the people arriving in San Diego. But how realistic is that, Ann?
TARTE: Well, the equinox center is not in the business of telling people whether they can or can't have children, etc. Population growth is a key factor to some of the challenges we face. But the reality is most of our growth that we'll expect in the coming decades is really the children and grandchildren of people already living here. And most people do want their kids to be able to stay here in the region; they want their grandchildren to be able to stay close to them. So we need to find a way, and we think there are smart ways and solutions out there to use our resources more wisely and make sure we can have great jobs and environmental quality as the region goes.
ST. JOHN: And then we should just talk quickly about energy. We have these goals we have to meet in the next few decades. And SDG&E is our local utility. How would the report card assess those goals here in San Diego?
TARTE: We're definitely making progress on that issue in term was renewable energy. I think the numbers from 20 ten were showing that SDG&E's procurement was at about 12%, and the end of 2011, the numbers are still being crunched but they're expected to be at 20% of renewable energy as part of their supply. We're hoping that that happens. And overall in terms of -- in terms of solar installations, we saw a significant increase in the past year, about a 28% increase in kilowatts of solar installed across the region so people I think are really taking up that challenge here.
ST. JOHN: We're in an election year. I know you're hoping that people will use this report card which you can find on the equinox center. There's a link to it on our website at KPBS.org. So if you want to see more of what they've found and some of the trend ends that they're keeping track of, you can find it there but what would you say, Ann in terms of the election year that voters can do to -- how can we empower ourselves to take control of some of these issues?
TARTE: I think one of the first things is to get informed, to really know the facts about how we are doing, how your city is doing compared to other cities, how this region compares to other regions, and really asking your elected officials, and the candidates questions about these issues, that we're all concerned about. So far that election rhetoric has been focused on pension reform, almost exclusively in this region. And we all know that many of these issues we talked about are key to our quality of life and our kids and grand kids. I think it's getting informed and asking your elected officials and candidates about what they're going to do about these.
ST. JOHN: Great, well, thank you so much for coming in and giving us a glimpse of your report.
TARTE: Thank you, Allison. | <urn:uuid:a8d4e583-75c0-44c2-a265-91898e398392> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpbs.org/audioclips/13367/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978663 | 3,476 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Everyone from Mashable to The White House is wishing Twitter a happy sixth birthday today, but we remember celebrating Twitter's birthday last July, too. So, what gives?
RELATED: Nick Bilton's Still Celebrating Twitter's Wrong Birthday
The way the world works, everyone -- even websites -- get just one birthday per year. This is birthday fraud. From now on, Twitter, like the rest of us, gets just one special day. And, after taking a closer look into the history of Twitter and the definition of birthday's, we've decided to revoke Twitter's birthday boy status today. From this point forward: July 15 and not March 21 is Twitter's real birthday.
RELATED: 4 Reasons To Praise Twitter's New URL Shortener
Today we are not celebrating Twitter's birth, but rather founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet:
just setting up my twttr— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006
Sure, this is cause for celebration. But only in the same way as a baby's first kicks in the womb are exciting. At the moment of that tweet (or twt?), Twitter was just a fetus of a site. Its parents, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, were thinking about what Twitter might look and act like when it made its public debut. They hadn't even settled on the name yet.
RELATED: Does Google Have a Double Agent at Twitter?
Twitter didn't pop out of the womb, or "become born" until July 15, 2006, with the public launch of the site. Stone made the announcement on his personal site. And Twitter, "a new mobile service that helps groups of friends bounce random thoughts around with SMS" entered the world.
RELATED: The New York Times's Bill Keller Riles Up Twitter
Even Twitter agrees with us on this birthday date. On that day last year it sent out a bunch of celebratory tweets. Today: Silence. Though, the social media site probably doesn't want to give up its second birthday -- it is great PR after-all. And with hundreds of "happy birthday" tweets, it doesn't look like the celebration will end until the day does. | <urn:uuid:a1f38fe2-594e-4023-a9ee-20b62c56a734> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.yahoo.com/today-twitters-birthday-not-really-152933616.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942903 | 450 | 1.671875 | 2 |
January 2011 Archives
Amy was a recent guest on WGBH radio's The Emily Rooney Show where she discusses how libraries might be re-imagined in the future.
She says libraries will continue to provide the public with two extremely valuable resources: youth services and access to technology.
Continue reading Do we still need libraries? GSLIS Prof Amy Pattee says yes.
As many of you know, Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was the victim of an attempted assassination outside a grocery store in Tucson, during a "Congress on Your Corner" outreach event.
What you may not know is that Gabrielle is a fellow women's college alumna. In support of Gabrielle and all the victims and family members affected by the national tragedy, Scripps College in California, her alma mater, began a "Letters of Hope" campaign, which asks the community to share their messages of encouragement for Gabrielle's recovery.
President Helen Drinan participated in the campaign and sent a letter to Scripps' president on behalf of the entire Simmons community to offer our thoughts, prayers, and support. She says:
Like others across the country and the world, we at Simmons also are profoundly saddened by the horrible tragedy that occurred in Tucson January 8.
Please know that you have the support of the entire Simmons community, including thousands of our alumnae/i. We too are planning a "Letters of Hope" event for Congresswoman Giffords, along with a day of community service dedicated to her later this spring.
Scripps and Simmons share more than just the common bond of being women's colleges. We also share similar values: commitment to community, transformative learning, and diversity. We see in Congresswoman Giffords our shared values in action, and the capacity to generously use resources for the advancement of humankind.
Please join us to today from 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. in Java City to write your own letter of hope, encouragement, and get well wishes to Gabrielle. The event, Letters of Hope for Gabrielle Giffords, is hosted by Simmons' SGA and co-sponsored by the Class of 2011 and Simmons Hillel. It will include remarks from Political Science Professor Leanne Doherty.
To read President Drinan's letter in its entirety, visit Letters for Gabby.
We all know Boston weather is crazy and unpredictable. One January day it could be 63 degrees and the next we could be getting dumped with 19 inches of snow. Winter in Boston is made for those who relish the change. We know the day after that 19 inches of snow falls, the area will look like these photos. Since most of our students are still making their way back to campus, we thought we'd share these photos, so no one feels left out.
Do you have winter photos to share? Post your photos to Facebook or Flickr or tweet them to @SimmonsCollege. If we get enough, maybe, we'll publish your photos on the blog.
Have you seen that Google commercial where the guy starts out by searching for "study abroad options in France" then searches "how to impress a French girl" and ends up searching "how to assemble a crib"? It's cute... and clever.
As it turns out, Google started an initiative that asks users to create their own Google Search Story on YouTube. "Parisian Love" set the tone for the project and has since inspired other videos, such as "how to fight against potholes" and "training a dog."
Well, remember Sonya '13? She emailed me the other day and sent me her own Google Search Story about... you guessed it... Simmons!
That got me thinking... what's YOUR Simmons search story? How did you find us?
To create your own Simmons video, visit Google Search Story. Maybe we should have a contest for submissions?
Simmons College is a member of the Colleges of the Fenway (COF), a collaboration between six academic institutions in Boston's Fenway neighborhood. The COF gives students the opportunity to engage and interact with other students, organizations, and classes at participating colleges.
If you are an undergraduate student at Simmons, Emmanuel College, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology, or Wheelock College, you can cross register and take up to two classes per semester at any of these six institutions at no extra tuition costs.
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Written on the Heart at
Across an 80 year divide, two men translate the word of God into the English tongue. For one, it means death at the stake. For the other, it could mean an archbishop's mitre.
After almost a century of unrest, the King James Bible was intended to end the violent upheavals of the English reformation. But deep-seated conflicts force a leading translator to confront the betrayal of his youthful religious ideals, for the sake of social peace.
Written by David Edgar, whose extensive work for the Company includes Destiny, Pentecost and Nicholas Nickleby, and marking the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, Written on the Heart is directed by Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran following his production of Cardenio, Shakespeare's 'lost play' re-imagined. | <urn:uuid:0ec51a95-7e55-4c6d-920c-6803db5f8d87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marlinapartments.eolts.co.uk/theatre/showid:3261/pg:72 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940792 | 173 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Waldorf's communications facilities are among the top in the nation. Equipment updates are facilitated once every three years with software updated annually. Every student has the opportunity to freely use the newest technology available, making it possible for graduates to begin a career already comfortable with current hardware and software applications.
Waldorf's radio station features Scott Studios, all digital operating system currently holding over 2000 songs with more being added on a weekly basis. This system also keeps KZOW fully operational without the presence of a human operator. The station is fully capable of broadcasting from multiple type of media including CD, cassette tape, and mini-disk.
Waldorf's radio facilities also feature the newest Digidesign Protools audio editing station capable of creating any audio production from advertisements to radio dramas.
KZOW 91.9 FM is a student-managed radio station that broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to listeners in a 35-mile broadcast radius. Programming can also be heard via web streaming capabilities. Students interested in joining KZOW have the opportunity to broadcast a live show as well as several other activities. Student staff members are assigned to production groups for music programming, public relations, studio production, and equipment management. Each group is headed by a student director with Professor Mark Newcom serving as advisor.
Previous KZOW shows can be heard on iTunes U.
Waldorf's television studio is fully operational, hosting several news and specialty show broadcasts which air on Forest City cable channels 3 and 55. The television studio features professional cameras, lighting, and an intercom system to communicate with producers and directors in master control during broadcasts. The television studio also features a green screen for video effects and one of two Avid digital video editing stations. Waldorf's master control is the nerve center for all television broadcasts. This is where all the finishing touches and decisions are made utilizing professional switching, audio and routing equipment. Master control also holds one of Waldorf's two Avid digital video editing stations.
Students in Broadcast News produce a weekly campus news program. Each week students take turns serving as producer, director, anchor, camera operator, audio technician, floor director, TelePrompter operator and other crew positions. Students may also choose to independently produce television programming. Shows are produced with Professor Mark Newcom serving as advisor.
Previous WAL-TV shows can be viewed on iTunes U.
The Lobbyist is a completely online student-run newspaper. Students interested in joining the Lobbyist have the opportunity to write, report, take photographs, edit, investigate, and design the layout of the publication. Each group is led by a student editor with Professor David Damm serving as advisor.
The Torch is Waldorf College's quarterly magazine. The Torch is student produced under the supervision of Professor Tiffany Olson. The process of creating The Torch takes the entire academic year. Students on The Torch staff are responsible for the publications-layouts, articles, photographs and graphic designs.
Previous editions of The Torch can be downloaded from iTunes U.
Waldorf's digital arts lab holds 14 Macintosh computers loaded with the newest design, video, and animation software. All computers in the Communications Department are connected to a central server located in the lab which allows the student to easily access and transfer their work to any point in the department. The computers in the multimedia lab are also connected to allow the video and audio on any particular computer to be posted on a large plasma display and central audio system for presentations.
Copyright © 2013 Waldorf College | Forest City, Iowa 50436 800.292.1903 (Residential Programs) | 877.267.2157 (Online Programs) | <urn:uuid:e314699b-c0a2-4e7f-8514-5595fe966180> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waldorf.edu/Residential/Academics/Programs/Communications/Facilities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949755 | 744 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Around this time of year, students begin applying for internships during the summer. And as we get closer to graduation in Spring, seniors will start sending out resumes, looking for their first jobs. Over the years, I've provided resume, cover letter, and interview coaching for many students—I started doing this career coaching during my role as adviser to Triangle Fraternity and ΑΣΚ Sorority, but I've also enjoyed helping students at Morris take that next big step. It's one more way I can serve the campus.
Having been a hiring manager for many years, I've seen some great resumes, and some that are not so great. This perspective helps me suggest what other hiring managers are likely to look for in a resume. Last year, I shared recommendations to make your resume stand out, but I'd like to address common mistakes most people make on their first resume, and ways to make your resume even better.
First, let's start with an example student: Jane Q. Student is a physics major, math minor, with a 3.355 GPA. She worked at an internship during her junior-senior break, where she did research in the field of photo-voltaic (solar) cells. During her time at Morris, she found student employment writing web pages in Computing Services. And she has some additional background in the R statistical program.
Many students write very plain resumes with very little formatting. Along those lines, here's how Jane might write her first resume: (apologies if you are reading this on a mobile device—the limited screen size might make the resume hard to read)
Let's look at this resume from the perspective of a hiring manager. In this economy, the reality is that when an organization posts an open position, many qualified candidates apply for that position. Your resume not only has to communicate your skills and qualifications, but it has to do so in a way that makes it easy for the hiring manager to find the important information. In the above example, very few visual cues call out interesting information, everything has equal weight, so hiring managers will have a hard time reading the resume.
Many candidates instead organize their resume in the form of of a table (section headings down the left column and content on the right) with the goal of making information easier to find. But it doesn't really help. Here is how the same resume might be formatted as a table:
That's still pretty hard to read.
A better way is to apply selective formatting, to emphasize the important information. For example, by organizing the resume linearly instead of in a table, you can allow for extra spacing so things don't feel so squished. Using a border around headings makes it easy for a hiring manager to skim the resume for relevant skills and background. Bold, italics, and indenting help to identify where Jane worked and what she did. Here's the same resume with the new formatting
In resumes, style matters just as much as content. Simply re-formatting the resume makes it really easy to pick out important details. Any hiring manager can quickly skim the resume to see where Jane attended university and where she worked previously. Granted, styling the resume in this way may add length, but it doesn't feel padded.
Also note that the "References available upon request" has been dropped. Hiring managers assume that if they need references, you will provide them if asked. And Jane's GPA has been shortened to simply "3.3" to make it easier to parse, instead of the longer "3.355" (hiring managers don't make much distinction between a 3.355 GPA versus a 3.3 GPA). This isn't rounding the number like you usually do in math class. (On a resume, rounding up is considered dishonest.) Rather, simply drop the portion after the first decimal place. You can talk about the slightly higher GPA during the interview.
Missing from this resume is a short description of each job in the work history, so Jane should add that. When describing your work history, use short incomplete sentences, not full prose. Hiring managers understand that you are the person described in the resume; you don't have to write full sentences such as "I did this thing" or "I wrote this program." You are assumed to be the subject.
Jane might also add some extra formatting to her resume to make it look sharp. Perhaps Jane prefers a sans serif font for the body—but for readability, my preference is to use the opposite font style for the headings (sans serif instead of serif, or vice versa). Jane might also prefer a single bottom border or uppercase text in the headings. Also, consider moving dates worked to the same line as the place worked.
Some candidates prefer to use color for the headings, but for most resumes, I advise against using colors. Remember that many hiring managers will opt to print your resume instead of viewing it online—and of those who print, many will print to black & white printers. If you choose to use colors, make sure they look okay in black & white.
Also, I'll add that if you have the option to upload a resume, and you can do it in either Word or PDF, always choose PDF. Word might change formatting very slightly in different versions of Word, leading to some things spilling to another page when you don't want them to. But PDF will always look the way you want it to, no matter the platform.
Finally: before you submit your resume, proof-read it. Then proof-read it again. And ask someone else to proof-read it for you. After they are done, proof-read it one more time before you send it in. (As a hiring manager, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen huge mistakes on resumes, spelling errors, etc … your resume is an important introduction to a new employer, make it a good one.) | <urn:uuid:fe48c82c-7186-4944-9dbc-69a0dc0b448f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jhall/blog/2013/02/on-writing-resumes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955055 | 1,223 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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Konstantin Momirovic (1932-2004)
Photo 1. Professor Konstantin Momirovic Ph.D.
Professor Konstantin Momirovic was a leader of the "Zagreb Statistics School". The term was coined in 1986 by the famous statistician Henry F. Kaiser of the University of Berkeley, USA, while working with Momirovic and his team as a Fulbright Fellow at the University Computing Centre - SRCE.
Professor Konstantin Momirovic was born on the 13th of January 1932 in Tetovo (Macedonia) as a son of Nikola and Aleksandra (GaliZ) Momirovic. Until 1939, he lived in Tetovo, from 1939 to 1942 in Berane (Ivangrad, Montenegro), from 1942 to 1949 in Belgrade, from 1950 to 1990 in Zagreb. He was married to Neda OstoiY from February 1956 (divorced 1970) and they had 1 child, Aleksandar Momirovic; he married again with Ankica Hošek on 4th of October 1975. From 1991 to 2004, he lived in Belgrade. He passed away, suddenly on 28th of March 2004. He completed his primary and secondary schooling in Belgrade and took his A-levels from the 1st Belgrade Grammar School in 1950. In the same year, he enrolled in the singleprogram study of psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. He graduated in February 1955, his graduation thesis being entitled, "Contribution to the Research of Isolated Communities". During and after the study of psychology, he also studied medicine, philosophy and history of art. Having defended the dissertation, "The Factor Structure of Certain Neurotic Symptoms", he earned his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. His mentor was Zoran Bujas, a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1959/60, he completed the military training course for reserve officers in Bileca.
He was a successful athletic. He played basketball in the first junior teams of Crvena Zvezda and Partizan in Belgrade. Along with this, he was a member of the first student chess club Mladost in Zagreb. From 1952 to 1955 he was the judo champion of Zagreb and of Croatia and won many awards from the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo. In 1957, the Institute of Physical Education in Zagreb appointed him Judo Coach and, in 1969, he was promoted to the position of Senior Sports Coach. He was a member of the teams of Zagreb, Croatia and Yugoslavia. Between 1961 and 1968, he was both the captain and selector for the national judo team. Since 1982, he was also a member of the Expert Council in the Yugoslavian Judo Federation.
Photo 2. Professor Konstantin Momirovic Ph.D as Judo master (1968).
He got his first job in the Military Hospital in Zagreb where he held the position of the head of Applied Psychology Department. Between 1959 and 1966 he was working, first fulltime and later part-time, at the Research Institute for Children's and Youth's Developmental Problems where he led the group for experimental projects and statistics. At that time, this institution was run by Professor Anka Matic, a former student of Professor Vallon, the famous psychologist and hero of the French Resistance Movement.
In 1960, Dr. Momirovic became assistant lecturer at the Physical Education College in Zagreb. Three years later he was promoted to the position of a senior lecturer and after three more years, in 1966, to the position of associate professor. He was elected a full professor at the Faculty of Physical Education in 1971 and re-elected to the same position in 1982 (the course he taught was Kinesiological psychology) and again in 1983 (for the course Quantitative methods). Since 1966, he was head of the Program, and later of the Department for Kinesiological Psychology, working part time since September 1976. From 1978 through 1985, he was head of the Department for Kinesiological Informatics and Statistics. He held the dean's office at the Faculty of Kinesiology (then operating as the Physical Education College) from 1969 to 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 he was the assistant dean for academic affairs. The field of kinesiology, that is, human kinetics which is the science of human movement, prof. Momirovic made Kinesiology into a research field. Early on he coined the names: Kinesiometrics and Kinesiological Informatics and Statistics.
In the University Computing Centre –SRCE– Professor Momirovic worked (part time) since its foundation in 1971 until September 1976. During 1973 he was the President of the Council (management board) of the University Computing Centre. In 1976 he started working full time as the manager of the SRCE's scientific-research activities. He was General Manager of the University Computing Centre from July 1979 to July 1983. From 1978 to 1990, he was also President of the University Computing Centre's Scientific Council. From 1961 to 1966 he worked as part time assistant lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Since 1964 he was a part time lecturer at the Physical Education College in Ljubljana, first in the post-graduate program and later in the undergraduate program as well. From 1970 to 1972, he was doing this in the capacity of full professor. That institution re-elected him to the same position in 1977. The course he taught within the post-graduate program was Kinesiological methodology. At the Faculty of Kinesiology (then operating as the Physical Education College) in Zagreb, he taught Psychology and Judo in the under-graduate program, whereas in the post-graduate program he taught Principles of scientific work and quantitative methods in psychology, Applied kinesiology 1 (Kinesiometrics) and Applied kinesiology 2 (Theory of coaching). After the reform of higher education was completed, in the undergraduate program he taught Kinesiological psychology and Quantitative methods and in the post-graduate programs he taught Kinesiological anthropology and Quantitative methods in Kinesiology.
At the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, he taught an optional subject Psychology of sport in the undergraduate program, whereas in the post-graduate program he taught Implementation of electronic computers in psychological data analysis. Within the teaching program of the University Computing Centre (illustrated with selection of 4 education related documents), he taught the following courses: Non-numerical data analysis; Taxonomic analysis and pattern recognition; Multivariate analysis 1 (regression and canonical correlation analyses); Multivariate analysis 2 (analysis of variance and discriminant analysis); Multivariate analysis 3 (principal component and factor analyses); and SS: Statistical System (programming system for multivariate data analysis). In the post-graduate program at the Faculty of Medicine, from 1964 onward, he taught Psychology of sport and from 1983 the subject Software for biological data analysis too. As regards the course Methods of scientific-research work, he taught it in the post-graduate programs at the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation and the Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, both in Zagreb. He taught similar courses in post-graduate programs of physical education studies in Belgrade and Novi Sad too. In the years 1980 and 1989, in the capacity of visiting professor, he taught Pattern recognition and Specialized metalanguages at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of the State University in Moscow.
In 1990’s, he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus at the University of Belgrade. He mentored Ph.D. students and served on commissions awarding doctoral degrees at the following institutions of higher education: University of Zagreb (Faculty of Physical Education, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, School of Medicine, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, and Interinstitutional studies for the field of Information Sciences; University of Belgrade (Faculty of Physical Education, Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation); University of Ljubljana (Physical Education College). His first scientific papers were published in 1957. By the end of 1990, he had published 24 books or monographs and 262 papers in psychological, kinesiological, anthropological, criminological, medical, statistical and computer science journals and conference proceedings. He lectured at 40 international and more than 80 domestic conferences and symposia on statistics, information science, psychology, anthropology, criminology, medicine and kinesiology (physical education).
For his scientific work, he received the May Award from the Croatian SFK in 1963 and, in 1986, the Croatian Society of Psychologists prized him with the prestigious "Ramiro Bujas' Award". He is recipient of Genetic research reward Sovjet Assoc. for Genetics, 1986. Besides these, he earned numerous acknowledgments for his scientific accomplishments in the fields of information science, kinesiology and biological anthropology. Between February 1954 and June 1990, being a distinguished person and great expert, he was politically active and highly influential, primarily in the fields of his professional expertise. He held various functions in youth and student organizations. With regard to his engagement in sports organizations, he fulfilled the following functions: President of the chess club Partizan in Belgrade; President of the Judo club Mladost in Zagreb; President and Vice-President of the Judo Federation of Zagreb and of Judo Federation of Croatia; vice-president and member of the Executive Board of the Croatian SFK; member of the Executive Committee of Yugoslavian Judo Federation; President of the Refereeing Corps of the Yugoslavian Judo Federation; President of the Coaching Corps of the Yugoslavian Judo Federation; member of the Expert Commission of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee; President of the Yugoslavian Judo Federation. He was first President, and then Vice-President of the Republic Council for Information Technology of the Socialist Republic of Croatia; President of the Committee for the Development of Information Technology Activities of the University Assembly; president of the Committee for People's Defense and Civil Defense; member of the Arts-of-war Committee of the Research Council of the Armed Forces of SFR Yugoslavia; member of the Committee for Computer Science of the Research Council of the Armed Forces of SFR Yugoslavia; member of the Executive Council and the Zagreb University Board; member of the Research Council of SR Croatia; member of Scientific Planning Commission of Selfmanaged Interest Community (SIZ) VI; president of the Commission for Fostering and Coordination of Research in the Field of Education by the Educational Council of SR Croatia; member of the Committee for Physical Education of the Commission for Ideological Matters of the Central Committee of the Communist Union of Croatia; member of the Committee for Information by Parliamentary Executive Council of SR Croatia; president of the Commission for Computer Science, Scientific and Technological Information of the Committee for Science, Technology and Informatics by Parliamentary Executive Council of SR Croatia; member of the Educational Council of SR Croatia; member of the Commission for Education, Science and Culture by Federal Conference of SSRNJ; president of Scientific Programming Council of RSIZ 14; member of the Scientific and Educational Council of Zagreb University.
He was also member of the following associations: Croatian Society of Psychologists, Croatian Society of Sociologists, Croatian Society of Informaticians, Ergonomic Society of Croatia, Classification Section of the Yugoslav Statistical Society; Section for Computational Statistics of the Yugoslav Statistical Society; Yugoslav Anthropological Association; FEPSAC (European Association of Sports Psychologists); European Anthropological Society, Psychometrics Society; International Association of Classification; International Association of Computational Statistics. He was also member of editorial boards or editorial councils of the following scientific journals: Glasnik Antropološkog društva Jugoslavije (Herald of the Yugoslav Anthropological Association); Kineziologija (Kinesiology) and Collegium Antropologicum. From Momirovic's rich and outstanding carrier, we are highlighting two activities that were of special importance to 30th years Anniversary of ITI Conference:
• His longtime contribution to the ITI Conference, and
• His longtime contribution to SRCE, the Conference organizer.
Professor Momirovic was involved in the Conference in many different roles, as a member of the Organizing and International Program Committees, an author and a reviewer, starting from the first symposium in 1974 (held under the name Computer at the University) until the 1990 Information Technology Interfaces or ITI Conference. He introduced the Conference topic Data Analysis and Statistics which has remained a permanent theme since the second Conference (1980).
He took all of the responsabilites and became the host of COMPSTAT’ 90 held in Dubrovnik, September 1990. From the second half of 1990’s, he completely withdrew from any social and sports associations and devoted himself entirely to scientific research and, to the extent he considered necessary, educational acivities. During the period between 1957 and 1995, a number of surveys and studies (with limited accessibility to scientific public) were written about morphological, motoric, cognitive and conative, micro- and macro-sociological characteristics, as well as about the instruments and procedures for their measuring and implementation in classification and selection. From 1998, he dedicatedly worked on the development of algorithms, coding and forming extensive collection of programs for multivariate data analysis, coherent macro commands realized in SPSS macro language and making an integral part of the macro-library of Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research (IKSI). At the end, his personal computer whose performances would today be considered as very modest (PC 486 at 150 MHz), contained almost eight hundred macro programs covering 21 topic areas of data analysis. Momirovic had very broad interests that included Statistics, and in particular, multivariate analysis and nonparametric analysis, psychometrics and tests, and psychology. He coupled these fields with knowledge of computer science.
Photo 3. Professor Konstantin Momirovic working on macro programs (1997).
The currently reconstructed list of his papers published between 1957 and 2007 consists of 38 books and monographs, 499 articles published in scientific and technical journals, as well as in the proceedings of numerous Symposia, 63 SS (out of 109), and 63 GENSTAT macro programs in the SRCE*SS-macro and SRCE*GENS-macro program libraries (accompanied with a selection of 4 education related documents) of the University Computing Centre, 762 SPSS macro programs in IKSI library, 390 technical reports, 63 published summaries of presented, yet unpublished papers from various symposia and conferences and 22 surveys and studies. The diversity and size of Konstantin Momirovic's intellectual heritage makes an impressive opus and creates a permanent obligation for his successors. In 2008, when the ITI Conference was celebrating its 30th Anniversary, Data Mining, Statistics and Biometrics Session was dedicated to the Memory of Konstantin Momirovic (1932- 2004).
Franjo Prot, Ankica Hošek, Ksenija Bosnar, Vesna Lužar-Stiffler, Vesna Hljuz Dobric, Zoran Bekic, and Marijan Gredelj | <urn:uuid:bf5caa0b-4fff-4c26-adc1-f2af87d8a48d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.isi-web.org/publications/isi-newsletters/15-nlet/nlet/12-isinewsletter-2009-3?showall=&start=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955607 | 3,167 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Michael Gerson and the Bush administration's "noble story"
The most under-appreciated influence on the Bush presidency is almost certainly Michael Gerson, the evangelical Christian who served as Bush's chief speechwriter from the beginning of Bush's presidency until recently, when he resigned. Gerson is a superb speechwriter -- measured by the ability to construct a persuasive and sometimes inspiring case for any given policy, regardless of the policy's merits -- and he is a close confidant of the President.
He has a new essay in Newsweek purporting to describe how the 9/11 attacks "changed George W. Bush." Most of it is nothing more than the now-cliched neoconservative claptrap about how the lesson the President drew from 9/11 is that "as long as the Middle East remains a bitter and backward mess, America will not be secure," and that consequently, the President is driven by "a vision: a reformed Middle East that joins the world instead of resenting and assaulting it." Gerson also tries to rejuvenate some of his old 9/11 rhetorical glory by lengthily describing his personal recollections of that day to justify the President's actions -- because, of course, only Bush supporters, not Bush critics, were moved by those events.
Initially, just as an aside, it is somewhat baffling that those who seek to defend the President do so by claiming that battling terrorism is dependent upon reducing the level of chaos and hatred in the Middle East -- even though the region has more chaos, violence, and anti-American resentment than at any time in recent history. To justify these disasters, Gerson elaborates on the administration's condescending and even creepy maternity metaphor: "Condoleezza Rice calls this the 'birth pangs' of a new Middle East, and it is a complicated birth." We achieve Middle East peace with war, stability with chaos, pro-American alliances with elections of intensely anti-U.S. regimes. And, like God himself did, we re-make their world in our own Good image -- through air attacks, proxy wars, and ground invasions. But all of that is just standard neoconservative incoherence that has been noted many times before.
What is most notable about Gerson's essay is that it certainly seems as though he believes a military confrontation with Iran is both necessary and imminent, and devotes the bulk of his essay to making the case:
First, the nation may be tired, but history doesn't care. It is not fair that the challenge of Iran is rising with Iraq, bloody and unresolved. But, as President Kennedy used to say, "Life is not fair."
Behind all the chaos and death in Lebanon and northern Israel, Iran is the main cause of worry in the West Wing—the crisis with the highest stakes. Its government shows every sign of grand regional ambitions, pulling together an anti-American alliance composed of Syria, terrorist groups like Hizbullah and Hamas, and proxies in Iraq and Afghanistan. And despite other disagreements, all the factions in Iran—conservative, ultraconservative and "let's usher in the apocalypse" fanatics—seem united in a nuclear nationalism.
Some commentators say that America is too exhausted to confront this threat. But presidential decisions on national security are not primarily made by the divination of public sentiments; they are made by the determination of national interests. And the low blood-sugar level of pundits counts not at all. Here the choice is not easy, but it is simple: can America (and other nations) accept a nuclear Iran? . . . .
There are still many steps of diplomacy, engagement and sanctions between today and a decision about military conflict with Iran—and there may yet be a peaceful solution. But in this diplomatic dance, America should not mirror the infinite patience of Europe. There must be someone in the world capable of drawing a line—someone who says, "This much and no further." At some point, those who decide on aggression must pay a price, or aggression will be universal. If American "cowboy diplomacy" did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
Several points to note about these striking passages:
(1) It has been obvious for some time that the President's most bloodthirsty supporters are pushing for war with Iran, and the disappointment and humiliation they feel in the face of a collapsing Iraq and a failed Lebanon invasion has intensified that need -- hence, all the talk about how "Iran won" the war in Lebanon. But Gerson isn't just some radio talk show host or National Review Corner warrior. He is one of the President's most trusted advisors, and the fact that he is openly and aggressively making the case for military confrontation against Iran is much more meaningful than some Mark Steyn rant or Rush Limbaugh monologue.
(2) The unbridled disdain for the democratic process is palpable in Gerson's sermon. Sure, he notes contemptuously, the public does not want more war. They are tired and angry about the disastrous one we are still fighting in Iraq. But nothing matters less than "public sentiments." No war president worth his salt can be deterred by something as meek and irrelevant as the "low blood-sugar level" of anti-war losers. The President has a mission, a "vision" to fulfill, and he must be driven by what he knows is Good and Right -- not by what Americans think and want, not by what "experts" believe, not by evidence showing that his course produces failures.
The 9/11 attacks justify all of this because it made the President something more than a President; it made him a Great Cause. As Gerson puts it, after recounting his most melodramatic 9/11 memories: "Starting in those days, I felt not merely part of an administration, but part of a story; a noble story." Nothing as lowly or ephemeral as public opinion is going to impede this "noble story," driven by this great man with his mission of overarching moral imperatives. In many ways, that is the Bush presidency in a nutshell.
Gerson's claim that "presidential decisions on national security are not primarily made by the divination of public sentiments" would come as a great surprise to the Founders, who expressly required a Declaration of War from Congress precisely because they believed the nation should fight wars only if the American people decide to take that risk. To be so disdainful about the role of American public opinion with regard to decisions of war and peace reflects nothing less than a contempt for the defining values of our country, something that is hardly surprising coming from one of the most significant advisors to the President.
(3) I have written before that the administration's theory of executive power almost certainly means that they believe they have the right to initiate a war on Iran even without any declaration of war or any other form of Congressional approval. Indeed, they would be empowered to do so even in the face of Congressional opposition. Groups such as the Heritage Foundation have made clear that in the wake of 9/11, there can be no limits on the President's decision-making powers with regard to the use of military force.
Although I cannot find the link right now (I will add it if someone posts it in Comments), Secretary Rice was asked at a Congressional hearing in 2005 whether the administration believed it needed Congressional authorization to attack Iran, and she was, as I recall, quite evasive in her answer (see UPDATE below). What is the administration's view as to whether it can initiate an offensive strike against Iran without a democratic debate followed by a declaration of war or authorization from Congress to use military force?
This administration would have a very hard time convincing a majority of Americans -- and a majority of a war-weary and frightened Congress -- to explicitly authorize military force against Iran. That is what makes these questions so pressing. The administration agreed to let Congress vote on the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq only because they were guaranteed in advance that Congress would give them all the authority they wanted. But they won't have it nearly so easy this time with Iran. Would that be an impediment to finding a way to provoke a military confrontation? Gerson's essay strongly suggests that the last thing that would impede the administration's warmongering is public opinion.
UPDATE: Here is the Rice quote (h/t IngSoc):
Last October, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked by members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whether the president would circumvent congressional authorization if the White House chose military action against Iran or Syria. She answered, "I will not say anything that constrains his authority as commander-in-chief."
When pressed by Senator Paul Sarbanes about whether the administration can exercise a military option without an authorization from Congress, Rice replied, "The president never takes any option off the table, and he shouldn't."
Is there any real doubt about whether the Bush administration would let something as petty as Americans' opposition to a new war (expressed through their Congress) stand in the way of the next chapter of their grand "noble story," set in Tehran? | <urn:uuid:667dec9d-b28c-43a9-bf2e-014b1c988373> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/08/michael-gerson-and-bush.html | 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 | 0.962457 | 1,869 | 1.507813 | 2 |
“All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail or to watch it — we are going back from whence we came.”
— John F. Kennedy (5/29/17—11/22/63)
This Memorial Day you will inevitably see many posts about the famous raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. And to me this flag is more than a victory photo. It is hope for the future, because out of the 5 Marines and 1 Sailor that raised this flag 1 Ira Hayes was a Pima Native American from Arizona and another Michael Strank was a foreign born man fighting for the USA. Remember these men and thank them because 3 of them didn’t even make it home to see the dream they were fighting for.
(Source: The New York Times)
Through the lens of Chris Hadfield, Happy Earth Day!
Over the course of his ISS mission, Col. Chris Hadfield has been taking some of the most incredible photos of Earth ever seen. In this video, the Station Commander takes us to the best seat in the house to gaze at the visual splendor of our changing world.
(Source: Flickr / whitehouse) | <urn:uuid:661f3b14-2325-4228-9900-a804ee644c8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://janf.tumblr.com/tagged/photos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932947 | 303 | 1.796875 | 2 |
When you really stop and break down the techniques of boxing, it is amazing how everything works together. For every offensive move, there is a defensive answer. For every punch, there is a counter punch. For every type of boxer that exists he or she has a stylistically perfect match, in terms of an opponent. It’s incredible how it all works together in harmony. Nature provides an ideal balance in all that happens, even when it comes to what goes on inside the boxing ring.
When a fighter is delivering a punch or is making a specific offensive move, there is, in almost every instance, a built-in defensive component. This “byproduct” happens naturally when those offensive moves are performed correctly.
For instance, walk into any gym and you will constantly hear the phrase “keep your hands up your elbows in.” It sounds simple enough and is actually a pretty basic fundamental, but making this move also offers some built-in complexities/benefits that many people don’t even realize.
If you hold your hands high they are, defensively, in a better starting position to block punches quickly and easily. You don’t have to reach up or around to catch an incoming punch. Plus, by tucking your elbows in, this also makes it easier to keep your hands in that proper, high position and it also protects your rib cage and midsection.
From an offensive standpoint, with your hands up and your elbows tucked in, you also have your forearms in proper alignment with your shoulder joints so that your own punches have more accuracy and power. Part of natural power comes from locking your joints out when your punches are extended. How many times have you heard the admonition that “power comes at the end of your punch.” It’s true, but only when your punches are fully extended.
Another fundamental boxing technique is keeping your left shoulder out in front (not squaring your shoulders off to your opponent.) Offensively, this places your jab closer to your opponent, so that you can reach him with it faster. It also makes your jab longer by extending your shoulder out towards your opponent and utilizing your full range in its delivery. From a defensive standpoint, leading with your shoulder out front makes you a narrower target and also creates a natural defensive benefit of having your shoulder slightly covering your chin, which helps protect it from a counter right cross.
The next offensive technique that has a beneficial defensive counter point (when its delivered correctly) can be achieved by turning your punches over, rolling your shoulders over when you deliver a jab or straight cross. By doing this, you not only extend your punch to its fullest range and maximize your reach, but you’re also keeping your chin behind your shoulders. That is an ideal byproduct of delivering your punches correctly.
Even when throwing a right cross (assuming you’re right handed, otherwise it would be the opposite) if you shift your weight forward on to your left leg in the correct manner, that brings your weight forward, generates more momentum and also puts you in the proper position to follow up with a left hook, left hand to body or left uppercut, but it too provides a good defensive advantage. By bringing your weight forward, it takes your head out of the center target range and out of the direct line of fire. Most counters or punches thrown at the same time will miss because you have moved your head out of the normal center position.
Boxing is a thinking man’s sport, so it’s important to realize that everything you do has a natural ebb and flow. These are just a few of the numerous ways that offensive and defensive moves complement each other, so it’s important to remember that there’s purpose to all that you do in the ring. When performed with exact form and technical precision, most everything in boxing works together in perfect synchronicity.
As many uncertainties as there are in athletics and especially boxing, it’s kind of reassuring to know that even in the ring, nature has a way of providing meaning. Just like in life, there are natural dualities – light and dark, male and female, high and low, hot and cold – and in boxing you hit or get hit and you ultimately have control over both. Sometimes in one move. | <urn:uuid:ad10b24c-13e8-403d-907e-336cb3f7dc6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.titleboxing.com/news/the-nature-of-the-sport-opposing-forces-work-together-in-the-ring/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951484 | 887 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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Long John Silver's(R) is America's largest quick-service seafood chain with more than 1,200 units worldwide. The concept was developed in 1968 and the first Long John Silver's Fish 'n' Chips opened in 1969. Long John Silver's, whose name was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island, found overwhelming acceptance for this new approach. While the initial restaurants were small...
Ashore since 1969 and inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's ""Treasure Island,"" this pirate-themed fast-food chain has since gone global. Batter-dipped fish, chicken and shrimp...
I've loved Long Johns since I was young and this one reminds me of why. Granted, the outside leaves a bit to be desired but the food was great, inside...
Very nasty. Called corporate they had the manager call but can't return her phone call. she never answers. If I served food this bad I wouldn't want to talk to the customers either. Everything that we ordered was cooked twice. You want to eat somewhere else!
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© 2007-2013 Solfo, Inc. – All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:e95a144e-3ac6-4932-9645-7a119567c4d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yellowbot.com/long-john-silvers-dallas-tx-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963364 | 323 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Caolm Sentinus - The Sentinel of Progress
The Invicus are an ancient race, the first of whom date back millennia, to the very start of intelligent life. The method of their creation is unknown, although the elders of their race hypothesize that some form of super-intelligent, omnipotent creature must have constructed their race from nothing. They could not have evolved through conventional means, due to their unique abilities and incredibly long lives. They were created for a single reason: protection of their homeland, against the swarms of primal creatures that once dotted the land. Since then, they have branched out in their duties, some being high-paid bodyguards, while others have become magic hunters. Still others have become scholars, leaders, and trainers. They are not known for their race, but rather their accomplishments. Each well-known Invicus is well-known for a different reason. One might have slain a dragon terrorizing a peaceful village, while another might have struck down a black mage preying on a city. Regardless of their accomplishments, each and every Invicus is hard-wired from birth to be moral, just, and fair. Some might not call them ‘good’, per se, but they come as close as one might be able to attain.
Each Invicus is born with four special traits. The first is demi-mortality, or rather, an incredibly long lifespan. None know why this is so, but Invicus live almost unbelievably long lives, with the oldest being around six-thousand years old. An Invicus attains adulthood at thirty years old, and remains that way for most of their life. Around the last few centuries, they age into the senior portion of their life, before dying peacefully. Of course, this is assuming an Invicus lives long enough to die that way, what with all the combat, travel, and assaults they are the subject of. They are mortal in that sense, and a blade, poison, arrow, or claw may slay them as easily as any other mortal race.
The second trait is the Invicus’s most active ability. Something about their being twists space into such a way that all magical energy is dulled, diluted, and generally weakened. In this sense, a mage would need to expend twice as much energy, concentration, and time to create the same effect. This is in no means a complete drain, but it is sufficient to make an Invicus fight on equal terms with a magic user. The field, which the Invicus call Mana-drain, is only visible at night, and even then, it is only visible by a colored glow of one eye. This ability is one of the main reasons the Invicus are such accomplished warriors. The Mana-drain works by absorbing the magical energy of a spell or power, and dissipating it into the surrounding area. In this sense, if one were to use a spell on an Invicus in a wooded area, the trees would receive a dose of magic, and would become stronger, healthier, and tougher. It is thus thought that the Mana-drain only applies to sentient creatures, as most of nature is not affected by it. ((Of course, most of nature doesn’t actively use magic, so that might be another reason.))
This field has a weakness, as do most mortal abilities: if enough energy is fed to it, the Mana-drain will effectively collapse under its own power, knocking the Invicus unconscious, and defenseless, while the large amount of excess magical energy is dissipated. Besides that, the only way to cancel the field’s effects is to make a special deal with the Invicus, a life-long, unbreakable ‘Pact’, which results in the Pact-maker’s immunity to that specific Invicus Mana-drain. If the Pact-maker were to meet any other Invicus, the Pact would not apply, and therefore, the Pact-maker would still be affected. These two methods are the only ways to cancel out an Invicus Mana-drain. That being said, if someone manages to form a Pact with an Invicus, which is not an easy thing to do, and then proceeded to fight along-side said Invicus, the Pact-maker would be constantly imbued with the energy that the Invicus absorbs and dissipates.
The third Invicus ability is enhanced strength and reflexes. Because their power does not extend to physical skills, and most magical creatures and non-magical creatures were extremely fast/strong/intelligent, the Invicus evolved as such. Their mental capacity increased, their muscle reaction speeds increased, and their strength grew as well. At peak condition, an Invicus is roughly twice as strong, smart, and fast as an average human (meaning that they are only about 1.5 times as strong/fast/smart as a peak condition human, someone like Dean.) This ability allows them to hold their own against warriors and creatures that don’t use magic.
The final special, Invicus trait is a mysterious one, which manifests at around fifteen years of age. This skill is different for each Invicus, and ninety-five percent of the time, it is non-magical, as magical skills are directly influenced by the Invicus Mana-drain. This skill is most commonly a physical one, such as a sudden mastery of a specific weapon, or an incredible, superhuman endurance. Other noted skills are things like lightening reflexes, hawk-like vision, extreme jumping abilities, and other skills a body is capable of doing without any form of magic. In the rare case the ability is magical, which is about four-percent of the time, it is generally muted, and less effective than the other abilities.
In the last one percent of the time, an Invicus is born with a special type of Mana-drain. All of the usual effects still apply, but said Invicus now has a Mana-drain which completely nullifies a specific type of magic, such as Fire magic, Earth magic, or other categories. ‘Fire’ magic is anything that creates, manipulates, or attacks with fire. Earth magic is any magic that controls or uses rocks, dirt, gems, or other substances of the soil. In this manner, the Mana-drain effectively renders one form of magic completely useless in said Invicus’s presence. Of course, these percentages are mostly relative, as only a scant hundred thousand Invicus have ever existed. In that sense, only a thousand in all of time have possessed this ability.
As stated above, the Invicus appear to have been created to combat and protect. This involves the body, the mind, and the ‘life-force’. In every sense, an Invicus is meant to change history for the better.
368 (Relatively young by Invicus standards.)
Abilities and Skills
As stated above, Caolm has the natural Invicus abilities, such as improved reflexes and strength, heightened mental agility, and demi-immortality.
However, Caolm is one of the few Invicus with a specific magic-cancelling Mana-drain. His is specially attuned to instantly lethal magic (such as Lorn’s specialty). This does not refer to all offensive, lethal magic. For example, fire magic, while certainly deadly, incinerates the target, and in that loose sense, does not qualify as instantly lethal. His specific Mana-drain, although not used often, has saved his life many times during his short life, stopping magic designed to kill off a creature as soon as it touches, or as soon as the gesture or spell is completed.
Caolm also was raised and taught by one of the master Elders, who imparted a mastery of swordplay and incredible mental prowess on Caolm upon the Elder’s inevitable death. A useful skill, his sword mastery allows him to fight and win against some of the best of warriors.
Lastly, Caolm has hypersensitive senses, which give him his enhanced reflexes and improve his overall abilities, allowing him to hear better, see farther, etc. However, if a loud noise or bright light occurs without ANY warning in an area where he can see it or hear it, it incapacitates him for about as two or three minutes (or whatever amount of time the GMs think is fitting.)
Caolm is like most Invicus: calm, fairly methodical, and cool, externally. If one were to delve deep into Caolm’s psych, however, they would discover a whirlwind of ideas, thoughts, feelings, impressions, and many other things he or she would not be able to discern from an outside view. In battle, he acts the same way: composed, swift, and at times, bored. This being said, he is not quite as passive as some of his elders, tempered with ages as they are, and is still considered fiery and impulsive among his kind. To all of the other races, he comes across as stoic, near silent, and extremely dangerous.
Caolm’s childhood was different from many Invicus: he was born, raised by his parents until he was seven, and then selected by an elder, who raised and trained him until he reached adulthood. Unlike most Invicus, who had family tendencies similar to humans, Caolm had a special case. The elder taught Caolm everything; chemistry, swordplay, history, logic. The elder was a teacher, parent, and friend, all in one. It was one of the best ways to be raised. As there was no one else to rely on, Caol grew close to his mentor, and at the same time learned to rely on himself, and himself only. The elder always said, ‘allies are a bonus, not a requirement. Rely on yourself first, and then others. After all, our duty is to protect others, not send them into danger.’ To this day, Caolm is willing to work with others, but prefers to keep them out of harm’s way, no matter how powerful they acted or were.
When he reached adulthood, he went out into the world for a self-imposed, Invicus warrior test. Each Invicus raised by an elder was expected to do something with their long lives, and Caolm decided to prove that he would. If he succeeded, his mentor promised a welcome to the Invicus island with true immortality-having his name and deeds etched into a statue made in his likeness, to be then placed somewhere on the island. Only four or five of these statues exist, and they were all from great leaders or scholars. If he should fail, his mentor promised a hero’s welcome, and a family’s love. It’s a poor substitute to Caolm, as he would feel as though they have let his mentor down, regardless.
With only a hundred and sixty-two years left, Caolm started to get slightly nervous. Nothing he had accomplished felt worthy enough. He could do better. He had
to do better, for his people’s sake. For the world’s sake. He had recently visited Ishtar, and had joined a city guard there for a short time, and the rumors of Sterthorpe had reached his ears steadily. It was something that would not blow over with time. A queen snuffing out lives? Because of twisted ideals? This injustice couldn’t stand. He paced his things, resigned quietly, and left for Sterthope, helping and aiding others along the way, as was his hardwired nature. Along the way, he heard whispers of a man, a ‘Queen’s Hand’ of sorts, who killed people faster than they could think it. Caolm mulled this over in his mind. Perhaps his particular talents could be of use in this scenario. | <urn:uuid:dc7abcc3-aa23-46c3-81fc-cb920ec5b85a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://roleplayerguild.com/showthread.php?162358-Merc-s-Characters-(Compunded-for-my-own-Sanity) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981468 | 2,481 | 1.742188 | 2 |
the Consumer Cloud, today we compare the three leading music cloud services: Apple's iTunes Match (just launched today), Amazon's Cloud Drive and Google Music. With these three highly competitive services, online music fans have never had it so good.Continuing our series about
There are two main battles going on in the online music market, each of which is benefiting consumers greatly. One is between the three so-called cloud lockers mentioned above, which are competing to be the online archive for your digital music collection. The second battle is about whether you even need an online archive at all.
In this post we'll just focus on the cloud lockers, like iTunes Match. But it's worth noting that those services may eventually become redundant. Increasingly popular music streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and MOG are leading people away from the concept of owning music - and if you don't own the music, you don't need to store it. But that's an issue to explore in another post.
Assuming you want to use a cloud service to archive or backup your music collection (and at this point in the evolution of digital music, you probably do), let's check out the three main services.
I'm a big music fan and probably fairly typical in terms of my requirements for online archiving, so I'll use myself as a use case.
Why Do I Need an Online Archive For My Music?
Like tens of millions of people, I use iTunes to manage my digital music collection. I typically sync the songs in my iTunes to my iPod, which I take on walks or plug into the stereo in my lounge.
I currently have about 12,500 songs stored on iTunes; and I haven't even transferred a good portion of my CD collection to iTunes. I have a 148 GB 2008 model iPod, which has about 32 GB free currently. About 78.5 GB is taken up by music (note: the total file size for you will depend on the quality of digital file you choose, the length of the songs, and so on).
So my current iPod, over 3 years old, is still adequate for my digital music storage needs.
However neither my iPhone (13.7 GB) or iPad (58.1 GB) has enough storage to fit all of my iTunes music. So that's a good use case right there for me to use a cloud service for my music: it would enable me to listen to my music on iPhone or iPad, even if I hadn't synced it to those devices.
Having an online archive would also motivate me to transfer the rest of my CD collection into iTunes, a manual task that I've been avoiding for years. After I do that, I'd be able to listen to anything in my music collection, whatever device I'm on. That seems like a good deal to me.
The 3 Main Cloud Lockers
Just today, Apple launched iTunes Match (currently only available to U.S. users). Apple's online storage service iCloud is the backend. iTunes Match offers iTunes users the ability to sync their entire music library across devices. It does this by "matching" each song with a high quality version stored on Apple's servers, which saves you having to upload those songs. However any songs which Apple doesn't have can be uploaded. Currently Apple has imposed a limit of 25,000 songs (not including songs purchased from the iTunes Store). If you have more than that, you are currently prevented from using the service at all!
But wait, you can almost guarantee these days that anything Apple releases will be matched by a lower cost Amazon offering. Sure enough, Amazon has a "limited time offer" of unlimited music storage on its Cloud Drive for $20 per year. That offer also comes with 20 GB of non-music storage. There is some fine print as to what music is eligible, but it looks like most of my music collection would qualify.
Finally, there is Google Music. It's currently in beta and only available to U.S. users. Google Music offers storage of up to 20,000 songs for free, during the beta period. Pricing hasn't been announced yet for premium offerings, but it will no doubt be very competitive with Apple and Amazon. Google is also currently in negotiations with music labels to launch an MP3 store as part of Google Music.
Which Service Should You Use?
Each of Apple, Amazon and Google is offering a pretty amazing deal for storing your digital music. From zero to $25 per year, the pricing is almost irrelevant considering how much storage you get. If you have a decent music collection, you're talking about archiving 50 GB worth of music at the least.
There are tradeoffs with each of the three services. With Amazon or Google, you need to upload all of your music - which will likely be a big bandwidth and time hog. Apple's iTunes Match gets around that pain point by "matching" songs you have with songs on its servers. That's a very compelling advantage to iTunes Match.
Some people, however, may balk at submitting to Apple's control for yet another part of their digital life. So Amazon or Google may be a better bet for them.
For my purposes, with 12,500 songs currently in my iTunes and a good portion of them likely to be on Apple's servers, iTunes Match is a great cloud solution for me. At least it will be when it becomes available outside of the USA.
Let us know which one of these three you'll use - and why. Or perhaps you want to steer clear of the big companies and go with an indie solution. We're all ears in the comments... | <urn:uuid:02df5298-92ca-4dc7-acd0-5b1dc66ec46d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://readwrite.com/2011/11/14/heavenly_music_in_the_clouds | 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 | 0.967064 | 1,151 | 1.515625 | 2 |
An explanation on why I had to leave the communication major.
Plenty of people come into college undeclared and by the beginning of their second year, they have an idea of what major to pursue but unfortunately, I am the opposite. I started my freshmen year of college as a communication major (note communication NOT communicationS) but now as a second year, I find myself lost, seeking to major in something else.
What went wrong? I laid down a path for myself and tried to stick to it but then I fell off. A jack of all trades rather than a master of one, I found myself interested in any other major. Sociology? Economics? This communication major I was getting myself into lost it’s appeal. Let me give you a quick run down on why. But first, an explanation as to why I point out that I was a communication major not a communicationS major.
Tim Larson at the University of Utah defines the terms in the following way:
- Communication — The communicating of information. The exchange of information between individuals, for example, by means of speaking, writing, or using a common system of signs or behavior.
- Communications — The technology and systems used for sending and receiving messages, for example, postal, telephone, radio, TV and the Internet. The tactics used to execute a marcom (marketing communication) strategy, for example, advertising, PR, sales promotion, events…
So here, communicationS is related to media and such and such whereas communication is theory based. I would sit in class and learn about theories and would be tested on if I applied this theory to this situation, what would this person say next? What if I applied a different theory? How would the person behave differently?
I hated it. Yes, it sure as hell let me become a better communicator thanks to my newly acquired knowledge about why people react they way they do in social situations. But after needing to memorize theories about social this and social that and then learning about the stages of relationships and how they come together and fall apart (imagine having to be lectured on this right after a tough breakup. Not fun at all, I can tell you that) or having to write six page essays analyzing if this 30 second ad was effective and using communication terms, why; I was over it. I couldn’t do it anymore.
Besides the fact that I could not handle the communication major not being what I thought it was, I couldn’t handle going online and constantly seeing “Communication(s) Major is one of the most useless majors. Ever.” Oh. Okay. That’s cool too I guess. I was optimistic and told myself that it’s not so much about the major but rather the skills I would acquire from studying such a topic — well to be fair, I still tell myself this. I told myself that because I was interested in so many career paths, a broad major like a communication major would allow me to open many doors versus a career specific major like journalism (not that there’s anything wrong with the journalism major, I’m just too interested in other fields as well).
I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. I’m scared to fail, I’m scared of picking something wrong. I am fed up with constantly being pelted with arguments that a degree in communication(s) would be a complete waste, with being insulted and getting told that the comm major isn’t a real major. “It’s just that major that all the sorority girls and athletes do because it’s so easy and broad.” I am done with people silently judging me for my major and having no respect for my education.
I am weak. Not only did the comm major start to feel impossible with it’s difficult courses and high GPA requirement with little room for error, my heart was no longer in it. The classes were interesting and the communication department had me sold with their promises of bright futures for hard workers, but I hated that I started to doubt my major, my education, my future.
I was jealous of my friends that seemed to have it made. Biology, chemistry, engineering, political science, philosophy, economics, whatever. They all had their hearts set and I would always meekly admit that I was “just a comm major.” Do not get me wrong though. I have so much respect for communication(s) majors and what they endure. It’s a wonderful degree but it’s not for me. If I wasn’t so all over the place with my career interests and truly loved the comm major as my other peers, I would fuck what anyone else said and stick to it. But I don’t love the major the way it should be loved and I can’t exert the necessary amount of energy and effort it takes to cross the finish line. It’s not fair to the comm department.
It’s almost as though I’m breaking up with the major. “I can’t do this anymore,” I explain as I scroll down the long list of majors offered at my school. Is it too soon? “Ooh, you look doable,” I squeal to myself as I realize I’m already halfway there with the sociology major. “Ugh, maybe in my dreams, ” I groan while sighing at the requirements to chase after an economics/accounting major. I no longer saw a future with the communication major.
I’m sorry but it’s not you. It’s me. | <urn:uuid:9e7ccf7c-ccaf-46d8-b679-abfa84702109> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shittinasays.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969642 | 1,184 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Most Vegan-Friendly Campus?
Date: October 25, 2012
Andrews University has advanced to round three in a poll to be named the “Most Vegan-Friendly Campus” in the nation. Popular vote will decide the winner so cast your vote at http://bit.ly/T61gdW. Click on the Small U.S. School category and then select the Andrews University icon. Voting for round three ends at 5 p.m. ET on October 30. The winners will be announced on November 15.
According to PETA* (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), in the past seven years the number of vegetarians and vegans on college campuses has increased by 50 percent. But a vegetarian and vegan diet is nothing new at Andrews University. It has been an all-vegetarian campus since it’s founding over 135 years ago. Additionally, in recent years, as a vegan diet has grown in popularity, so have the vegan options at Andrews.
The poll, sponsored by PETA, is broken down into two categories: Large U.S. Schools and Small U.S. Schools. Each category began with 32 campuses and through the first two rounds of voting, has been narrowed down to 8 in each category. Andrews University is in the Small U.S. Schools category.
*This advocacy group, People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, is widely known for an active agenda speaking out against a carnivore diet, the use of fur, animal experimentation and other related issues. It’s views are considered to be controversial, even as they seek some ends that are aligned with Adventism, including their commitment to a vegetarian/vegan diet, as this campaign celebrates. | <urn:uuid:f2b15918-94be-401c-a6de-8d5815bca3d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.andrews.edu/news/2012/10/vegan_poll.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963672 | 354 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Some people get relief from their allergies this time of year. I'm not one of them... How about you?
You see, it all depends on what you are allergic to. "Lucky" seasonal allergy sufferers usually find that this time of year, pollen is pretty much nonexistent, as are mold spores, at least if a frost has hit your area by now.
The exception is people who live in more temperate areas that may not get frosts or at least not until deep winter hits. But even for those folks, pollen levels should be much lower, and symptoms much less.
But for those of us who are also allergic to indoor triggers, there is no respite this time of year, at least not enough of one. I'll admit that my symptoms aren't quite as severe once the pollen and outdoor mold counts go down, but I'm never really without some kind of symptoms. And if you're an indoor allergy sufferer, you probably feel the same.
Winter Allergy Triggers
As I said, the allergens around this time of year are mostly the type found indoors, such as pet dander, indoor mold, insect droppings and dust mites. And those are all allergens that can be difficult to totally eliminate from your indoor living space, no matter how hard you try.
Any efforts you make, however, can be well worth it. Here are some previous posts that may help with those efforts:
- Dust : The #1 Allergy Trigger?
- 7 Ways to Avoid Your Mold Allergy Triggers
- 5 Things In Your House You Need To Get Rid Of For Allergy Relief
But this time of year, with the holidays approaching, there can also be some triggers specific to the holidays, such as dusty decorations, wood smoke, moldy Christmas tree trunks, and so on.
I discuss those in more detail, along with giving some tips for dealing with them here: 5 Common Holiday Triggers & How to Avoid Them
Cedar Fever - Scourge of the South!
One last mention... if you live in the south (or Texas, which I prefer to think of as the southwest), you could also be feeling the effects of cedar fever this time of year. Cedar trees, for some reason, pollinate during the winter months.
So people who live in areas where this happens could suffer from severe pollen allergies this time of year too. I posted more info on this here.
This is not the time to become lax in managing your allergies, if your allergens are still lurking in your environment. Keep taking your antihistamine medicines, avoid the allergens as much as you can and keep in touch with your doctor if things do get out of control.
And also, get plenty of rest, eat healthy and in general make healthy lifestyle choices, as those actions will keep you healthier overall! | <urn:uuid:5643dd67-3b80-45f2-af69-26e40f8bd280> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcentral.com/allergy/c/962/147921/allergies-healthy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962126 | 589 | 1.671875 | 2 |
At issue is whether MTA should reopen the old South Ferry Station first, decommissioned in 2009 when it was replaced by a newer version, or concentrate on the new station, which would take longer and cost more. A third option is to work on both stations, though the cost of doing so would be much higher, and at present is not being seriously considered.
MTA Acting Executive Director Thomas Prendergast acknowledges that the agency's customers, particularly those traveling to and from Manhattan via the Staten Island Ferry, are still inconvenienced by the station's shutdown, due to severe flooding damage. "We can't have the impacts that people are experiencing today take many months," Prendergast said Tuesday.
The old South Ferry Station, terminus for the No. 1 line, provided a limited length, curved platform which allowed passenger entry and exit from only five cars, generating safety and crowd flow issues. The old station also did not link to the R line as the new station did, facilitating transfers.Both stations were inundated by flood waters overhwelming large portions of downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy.
No time line has been given for either approach, Prendergast said. | <urn:uuid:99871aa8-2d7e-4de9-a69c-2ce063e5836e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit/mta-mulls-reopening-which-south-ferry-station.html?channel=$tagID | 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 | 0.978282 | 242 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Five reasons why you need a mortgage.
|Date Added: December 20, 2008 09:21:26 AM|
|Category: Business: Financial Services|
|In my time as a mortgage broker, I have spoken with many people who were renting, and considering buying a home. Most have concerns about housing values and being able to afford carrying a mortgage. Often the thought that they owe $300,000 or more is mind boggling to them. It is with this in mind that I wrote the following analysis of the benefits of having the courage to step forward and make the decision to buy a home. 1. GOVERNMENTS REWARD DEBTORS Structured correctly, governments will reward debtors for borrowing money by making debt tax-deductible. Governments do not provide a tax credit to people who put money beneath their mattresses. Additionally, they charge the same amount of tax on interest-bearing investments as they do on employment income. As a result, GIC’s and term deposits offered by banks are unprofitable after taxes and inflation. Here is an example: $20000 term deposit earning 4.5% interest = $900 tax @ 40% = $360 inflation cost @ 2% inflation = $400 True return after taxes = $140 Rate of return after taxes and inflation = 0.7% In the above example, 4.5% interest results in only a 0.7% return on investment! Please note: If you are happy with this rate of return, I will be more than pleased to borrow your money and will even offer you a 5% rate of return! 2. INCREASE YOUR NET WORTH There is no guarantee that real estate will appreciate in value. However, real estate values have performed well in the long term. The B.C. Assessment Authority assessed that B.C.’s real estate values have increased by 16% in 2007! Let’s look at an example of how this could benefit you: Average rate of appreciation = 5% Property Value = $300,000 Value of home after 1 year = $315,000 Value of home after 5 years = $382,884.47 In this example, you would have made $82,000 tax-free over 5 years. How would you feel to have this equity available to you? 3. USE YOUR MORTGAGE TO PAY OFF OTHER COSTLY DEBTS Do you have much debt on credit cards, and are you finding it a burden financially? With a home, you can use the appreciation in value to consolidate debt into a much more affordable payment. Consider the following example: Payment Type Amount Monthly Payments Existing Mortgage @5.5% $ 230,362.61 $ 1,227.74 Credit Card Debt $ 35,000 $ 1050.00 Car Loan @ 6.5% $ 15,000 $ 450.00 Total $ 280,362.61 $ 2727.74 New Mortgage @5.5% $ 348,511.27 $ 1434.22 Monthly Savings $ 1293.52 Paying off expensive after-tax debt such as credit card debt can be a wise investment. This would only be possible with a home and mortgage. 4. REAL ESTATE IS HIGHLY LEVERAGED Were you previously happy with the 4.5% return on a GIC from the bank? If you were, you are about to be shocked. If not, it still might surprise you. Down payment (Investment) = $60000 Increase in value during year 1 = $15000 Return on investment = $15000/$60000 x 100 = 25% Equivalent pre-tax rate of return = 41.6% (assuming 40% tax bracket) Return on investment with no mortgage = 5% In this example your after-tax rate of return was 25%! This is where a mortgage is its most powerful. If you owned the home without a mortgage, your rate of return would only be 5%. Leverage is a powerful tool to put to use for your family. To learn more about leverage, please read my material on (the power of leverage.) 5. IT FEELS GOOD TO BE IN YOUR OWN HOME I often meet with my clients after they have moved into their own home and have been amazed by how much happier they appear to be. They are not happy for any of the other reasons mentioned above (although they will be in the future when they are realizing the benefits mentioned above). I have found that they are happier because they are living in a place they know is theirs, that they chose, and they can change to be whatever they want it to be for them. Often, when they were renting, they lived in basic spaces that just met their necessities. The space was maybe a bit small for their comfort, or it was created as an afterthought for the home owner to find a way to make some rent money. Each of their homes was a significant upgrade for them over where they were. Landlords can change, and the threat of always having to move is always there. Now they are in a place that they chose, and do not have to move unless they choose to. If they do not like their mortgage provider they can choose to change at any time. I hope that you have found this article informative and helpful, and I wish you the best of luck. http://www.ownthathome.ca| | <urn:uuid:9523b19c-ac73-4acb-a986-b746f2eafdd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.addurl.me/articles/article-18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970459 | 1,104 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Dr. Schwab’s Surgeonsblog is one of my favorite blogs ever. He has tremendous stories, and tells them very well, and I am inspired by his example as a caring and competent surgeon.
Lately, though, he’s taken to posting political and religious rants (his word) on the weekends. Creationists are a common target. I’ve got to respond to his latest post, but so many ideas came to mind I thought it would be better to write on my own blog.
Dr. Schwab’s post opens with an 8min clip of an ABC news segment on two creationist men who give tours of a Denver science museum to Christian homeschoolers, giving the creationist point of view in contradiction to the evolutionary teachings of the museum.
First, two things about the video: the two men, while I applaud their beliefs and their activism, are not the best possible spokesmen for young-earth creationism. When asked how long the period was between Adam’s creation and Noah’s flood, they stumble, and end up guessing that there were six or seven generations. In other instances, I agree that their responses are simplistic. If they know of the scientific evidence for creation, they’re not adept at mentioning it when called on. In their defense, this could be due to the young age of the children; most of them look to be in early elementary school. A disquisition on carbon-dating would be over their heads. I would bet that if you filmed an elementary school tour led by an evolutionist, there wouldn’t be much more sophisticated discussion than there was here. However, the ABC producers slanted the segment nastily. When the two creationist spokesmen guessed that there were six or seven generations of 800-yr olds between Adam and the flood, they multiplied 800 x 7 and got 5000+ years, making the creationists look ridiculous. Actually, the egg should be on ABC’s face. You don’t multiply generations like that. Each generation ought to start 20-40 years after the previous one. Better informed young earth theorists add up the genealogies in the Bible to make 1500 years between Adam and the Flood. There are other ways, as well, in which the producers went out of their way to pick soundbites that would make the creationists look bad. You might also notice that their claims, and those of the evolutionary scientist at the museum, are equally without evidence – in this video. Those watching this news segment were being asked to choose between creation and evolution based simply on the mockery of the museum’s scientist and of the producers.
(For further information on all kinds of questions regarding creation science, check out Answers in Genesis (specifically the answers page) and the Institute for Creation Research, which give much better evidence-based and Bible-based reasoning than the tour leaders in that video were able to do.)
Now, to Dr. Schwab’s comments. He says,
My reaction to the above video goes beyond anger: it makes me sick. These kids are deliberately being deceived. Brainwashed. And, yes, abused.
My question to Dr. Schwab is, who doesn’t brainwash their kids, by his definition? Children sent to public schools and taught to believe that the entire universe sprang into existence on its own (where, after all, did the material for the Big Bang come from?), and that random atoms then coalesced into organic molecules, which then arranged themselves into the infinite complexity of data coding which is DNA, and that information was somehow progressively added into the system, making more and more complex organisms, until their own intelligence randomly developed – are they not being “brainwashed” as well? They’re told that these are the facts, this is how life is, this is what they should believe, and the alternatives are mocked and laughed at, if they’re even mentioned at all. All parents want to teach their children the same things that they believe. That’s not abuse, that’s good parenting. If you, as an adult, believe that you know what is true, you want to protect your children and save them from the painful errors that you yourself may have made. I’m sure Dr. Schwab would not be thrilled to let a creationist lecture to his children. Neither would creationists want evolutionists teaching their young impressionable children – although most of us do encourage the study of the theory of evolution for older children, say highschoolers.
But this is the part that really annoys me:
They are being led to extremism which differs not from the kind that creates believers in paradise filled with virgins. And we know where that leads.
I respect Dr. Schwab’s right to believe whatever he wants about the origin of life and the universe, and to make his arguments for what children should be taught. But to accuse Christian creationists of being morally on a par with Islamic suicide bombers is – I think slander is the right word, although more loaded than I’d like for a polite discussion. There is nothing, nothing, nothing in orthodox Christian teaching which would in any way condone the killing of other innocent people simply to make a point. You cannot show a single instance in recent history of Christians, acting on teaching which has anything near polite acceptance in the Christian community, killing other people. (The rare instances of killing abortionists don’t count: the number of Christians who would approve of this is vanishingly small, too small to count in a percentage.) Islam, on the other hand, teaches repeatedly and clearly, throughout the Koran and the hadiths, and among the vast majority of imams, that it is not only right, but necessary, to kill unbelievers. Creationism, which teaches children that they were made in the image of God (and therefore they should respect and value their own bodies and the lives of others) comes nowhere near this kind of violence.
Dr. Schwab continues:
These are the people putting religious tests to our potential leaders, proclaiming their holiness above mine . . . banning books and destroying public education. Rioting over cartoons. These are the people claiming our country needs more religion, even as their religion-above-all attitude is subverting the very foundations of our democracy and aiming us toward societal failure by substituting indoctrination for education.
What can I say? I learn from the Bible to proclaim, not my holiness, but my sinfulness – and God’s holiness and mercy. My homeschooling family, and those like us, are not destroying public education, but trying to rescue our children from an educational system which has already failed disastrously (school shootings on a regular basis, drugs available in schools, high school graduates who can’t read or do simple math, high schoolers who can’t compete with most other developed countries in math and science, schools which spend more time teaching young children how to have sex than telling them basic facts about American history). When our religion is mortally insulted (as in the demeaning and gross “art” exhibits in New York a few years ago, which were far more insulting to Jesus than those cartoons were to Islam), we didn’t riot. We wrote polite letters to the editor.
I don’t want to make this sound like boasting, but in the homeschooling creationist community nationwide that my family is part of, there are many young people becoming doctors and nurses; we are acing the SAT and ACT, and are competitive applicants to the best universities in the country. My friends from college, creationists like me, went on to become biochemical researchers.
Dr. Schwab, your indignation would be better spent on the disaster that is the public school system, and the teachers’ unions who refuse to allow any changes, and the truly dangerous religious extremists (Muslims) rather than on a group which is simply trying to raise their children in peace to be good and productive citizens. | <urn:uuid:140d2f2e-c93a-4ef3-91f4-4f12c16252e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cutonthedottedline.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/my-own-weekend-rant/?like=1&_wpnonce=07995c002f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97334 | 1,663 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I am looking for a web app in which I can upload my images and convert them to web-friendly versions such as GIF/PNG? Something similar to when you upload photos to Facebook and they are automatically converted into GIFs.
For photos please stick to JPEG, it's the best format for those out there. Graphics should be in PNG format. There are many converters available, here are some of the best:
If you have graphics in PNG format you can smush them afterwards which saves a few extra kilobytes.
Neo is right. Photos are far too complex to be stored in GIF or PNG with any smaller filesize than the JPG version of a photo.
PNG's main strength is saving a perfect pixel-for-pixel copy of an image and compressing it as small as possible, given the constraint of preserving each pixel's hue, saturation, lightness, and opacity exactly as they were in the original image. Their ability to save 256 different shades of transparency makes them ideal for saving non-rectangular images and superior to GIF (which can only save one shade of transparency). Photos do not contain enough repeated colors or patterns to be losslessly compressed to a small size. Since a PNG version of a photo is all about preserving each and every pixel with its original value and there are virtually no repeated colors in a photo, a PNG version of a photo will rarely be much smaller than a fully uncompressed format such as BMP. By contrast, a graphic such as the famous presidential campaign poster of President Obama, which contains only four colours, is highly compressible and a perfect candidate to be saved in PNG with a very small filesize.
As Neo also mentions, GIFs are not a good candidate for storing photographic images because the total number of different colors able to be stored in a single image is very low in comparison to other image formats. A GIF can only store 256 total unique colors for each frame whereas almost any photo will contain a list of colors with many more than 256 unique colors referenced. When a photo is converted to GIF, the 256 most common colors will be preserved and all colors outside that range will be changed to the closest one of these 256, however this will lead to posterization.
I mentioned the famous poster of President Obama from his election campaign before which is an artistic and intentional use of extreme posterization where the entire image has been reduced to only four colours, however when converting a random photo to GIF the result will not generally be pleasant.
JPGs use a completely different manner of compression known as lossy compression. This means that they are not at all concerned with preserving each pixel with the precise value as the original, but rather the same overall impression. JPGs are inherently lossy - literally unable to be saved at any more than 99 percent quality of the original image, however most programs which save JPGs as output (such as image editors) opt to save with a much more aggressive compression ratio such as 80 percent original quality or less. If there is a JPG image which you have repeatedly opened and saved in an image editor, this can rapidly degrade the quality of the image as each time the image is saved another 20 percent of the previous version is permanently lost (assuming that the program is set to save JPGs at 80% quality).
JPGs can be saved at any quality level you choose (south of 99 percent), however as you get into lower quality levels, the JPEG artifacts will grow increasingly unacceptable to human eyes.
A central high-range (75% - 85% compression quality) JPG copy of a photo will appear acceptable and will be much smaller in filesize than the PNG version of the same photo (although the PNG will be perfect quality).
In addition to hosting your image lets you resize it in a variety of ways.
Registering for an account is optional. | <urn:uuid:da111519-12c0-4793-8f6d-768af22c02e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/1416/web-app-to-convert-images-to-web-friendly-formats-of-gif-or-png/1418 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954408 | 789 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Ever since moving to Boulder, we've been experiencing all sorts of great ethnic and domestic cuisine. Dot's Diner, which we visited today, is Alana's go-to breakfast spot; Tibet Kitchen is our favorite lunch special; Kho's Asian Bistro in Longmont might be our top choice for dining out. However, that top spot was potentially challenged in the past few days as we decided to give two…
Finding it hard to keep focused on you workout or getting side tracked? Don’t worry, this happens to all of us sometimes. Whether is a funny show your watching on the treadmill or you just can’t seem to get back on track, try these few tips and get on the path to better workouts and few mistakes.
3 Ways To Improve Mental Focus During A Workout
1. Move Faster
This is probably the best way to help improve your mental focus quickly. While everyone is standing still, grab your weights and go! You need to break through that mental clutter and fine tune it to the frequency to workout better. When you move faster your sense adjust to more complicated movements while balancing different units og weight. This will train your mind to never let your body rest and focus on your workout which improves timing, speed, accuracy and intensity.
2.Count Your Reps In Your Heads
Having small goals in your head will help your body achieve it. Setting a bar for yourself and trying to acheive takes a lot of mental focus. So for example you want to do 15 pushups, count up to that in your head. Once you achieve a number, it makes it much easier to reach it again because it builds confidence mentally and physical expands your limits.
3. Don’t Ever Sit Down
Sitting down is not what you should be doing if you want a great workout, when your standing this helps put your mind in a ‘need to do something’ mode. So try this next time you workout and only sit down if your actually going to do some lifting. If your not, keep on your feet and keep doing something.
Like the 50 million other people on the planet who love to exercise after they get off work, don’t struggle like they do when you hit the gym ready for a good time. Use the tips in this post to help boost your energy and get yourself ready for a good workout after you leave the office.
Eat A Very late Lunch At Work
Eating a late lunch at around 4:00 pm can help give you energy so that you can head straight to the gym for a good workout. This is how you really can maximize efficiency and skip going home for a meal and then to the gym afterwards. Always think ahead and make smarter choices
Drink Plenty Of Water At Work
Essentially, you should avoid any drinks like coffee or carbonated drinks with sugar during the day. These can often not make you feel that great and destroy your energy level. Stick to water, the more water you drink the better you will feel and more hydrated you will be for a good workout.
Take A Power Nap For 20-30 Minutes
Sometimes we are so busy during the day that we rarely take time to rest our eyes and mind. Take one or two breaks during the day to rest somewhere quiet, close your eyes and relax. A short nap can work wonders for helping you get back on your feet and ready for a workout after you get off of work.
These simple times might just help you get an even better workout than ever, or at least give you enough energy for the drive home! If you have any comments or suggestions for going home after work then please feel free to leave them below.
Looking for a great volumizer supplement that will increase your muscle size, look and feel? Ever wanted to get that very large vascular look like most bodybuilders and trainers seem to have, then you should really think about getting some BSN Vaso in your routine.
It’s not easy to maintain a very lean, healthy vascular look…believe me I have tried. The most impressive look is to have muscle in all the right areas, while keeping a ripped look all the way down to the stomach area showing off a nice carved stomach.
To achieve this look naturally it takes a lot of commitment, hard work and the proper nutrition to look this way. We all know how hard it can be with management of your hunger, while trying to keep hydrated enough and find time to exercise. So why not use a little extra boost, and enjoy the easy way out for a change?
Include a dose of BSN Vaso to your workouts and get more vascularity while increasing muscles size. Nitric oxide is the best and by far the safest way to accelerate your training results, other than taking Steroids! BSN Vaso contain 3 nitric oxide promoters.
The great part about this product is that it really helps you get through your workouts, and helps you push harder. If your tired that day, or just haven’t hydrated enough this supplement will help your blast though that barrier. Of course your diet does come into play, which is why you should continue with a healthy balanced diet with plenty of protein.
Fatigue will be squashed once you start using this product, you will notice the energy to do much longer workouts and more intense with your exercises. Enjoy a full 360 pill supply on amazon for $53.99, which will last you a long time.
I recommend a product like this if you are just starting out to use any type of nitric oxide product, and try using some added whey protein for after your workouts with a healthy balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein and natural fats. Supplements should never be taken as a replacement for real healthy whole foods. Use wisely, and stop taking if you notice any side effects like dizziness, jitters or sleeplessness.
Sometimes eating too healthy can be a bad thing, especially if you are an active person. Since active people need more energy everyday, they need to eat non or less healthy foods sometimes to keep up with those calories.
Muscles need good nutrition and energy, and even more so for people who are active and trying to build muscles. So why does it feel so good when he occasional hamburger or bowl of ice cream feel so good.
Well, to break it down technically its the high levels of sugars, which spark muscle growth and from those carbohydrates and insulin. Insulin levels need to be spiked before and after a good intense workout, this is how muscles can go so fast. Which is why companies like Gatorade or Powerade supply a variety of high sugar products with electrolytes in them for athletes to use.
Yet too much insulin can be a bad thing, since when you have too much sugar which is over your body’s capacity to use for muscle growth actually turns into fat.
So how does this relate to eating too healthy and how its bad for you? Eating to healthy can be often not enough to spark increased muscle growth and recovery during those peak times like before a workout. Which is why that sometimes on off days or before and after workouts it ok to eat high calories things to surge the power of insulin sparking muscle growth.
Not saying you should go out and buy a tub of ice cream and then go workout. Im saying that when you eat your healthy meals before your workouts try adding something extra to spark your insulin levels. Have some chocolate, drink a sports drink or eat a few greasy french fries.
Eating too healthy is not always a good thing, because much of the time it would take a lot of healthy foods to get your insulin levels to spike really high. So in moderation try to eat something sugary at those peak times, but remember to overall eat as healthy as you can. Everything moderation when you make those exceptions, just eat smart and you can’t lose !
Being more efficient in the gym by adding abs to your workout and in between your exercise will make sure your abs get an amazing workout.”Most people who are trying to get great abs that leave ab exercises to the end of a workout are not doing enough to get an amazing set of abs.” Bodybuilding Mr.Kyrela Champion says.
To get a great workout for your abs, you must work them like a regular muscle group. Which is why I do my ab exercises at the beginning of a workout?” The effort that people have left at the end of a workout is just not good enough. Which is why you should use these three ways to get a great ab workout in the middle or if not the beginning of your workout between exercises?
Here are the 5 ways to add ab exercises to a workout routine:
1. Use Added Weights
Using extra weight like a dumbbell or plate really gives your core a better workout. Add weighted leg raises, machine crunches or a medicine ball for 3 sets of 15 reps in between your muscle group exercises. (like Legs or Chest)
2. Do More Leg Raises
Hanging leg raises or stationary leg raises are extremely effective for carving great core muscles. If you are using cables, or a pull up bar. Do the same, 3 sets of 15 reps in between whatever else you are working on that day.
3. Do Planks
Doing side planks, front planks in between other exercises also workouts your core well. Try to do several sets of planks during your workout until you become a master.
4. Bosu Balls
Do more exercises on a bosu ball or exercise ball, this works your core also. When diving into a shoulder workout, you can sit on a ball, keeping your core tight and get an amazing ab tightening workout from just a few tough exercises. Then you can simply use the exercise ball to do some crunches in between sets.
5. Do more Exercises When Your Standing
When you’re standing up doing, which ever exercise, this will also be working your core, obliques and love handles. What you want to do at the end of every exercise, whether a shoulder press or a tricep press, is to keep your core tight and do the last three reps very slowly. This will contract your core, forcing you to maintain your stability, thus working out your abs!
If you enjoyed reading this post, please feel free to comment! Until next time Troopers!
Need a spotter, or about to do a really heavy set? Forget that, all you need is your confidence and technique to squeeze through the hardest sets of your workout.
Many people fail to complete their hardest set, which is where confidence is formed and growth happens. It’s so important to get your last set complete, since you should always be doing more challenging moves and lifting more every workout if you really want to see improvements.
First, you need to pimp yourself up and get some rest for the most challenging sets, after that explode with force and the will to win. Then physically and physiologically get prepared. Think of the weights as light feathers, and at the same time push out 3 really big exhales, count down from 10 and go!
Counting down to something mentally prepares your mind for action and force’s reaction. Breathing out really fast pump’s blood rapidly to you muscles, and of course remember to breath in. Your muscles need new oxygen and to release all that nitrogen, think of it like recharging them.
Second is the technique, if you have to right moves and form it can make it faster and easier to get through your hardest set. Study your routine and look for ways to help you on the first and last reps, such as kicking weight’s up in the air when you’re doing dumbbell shoulder press. Alternatively, how you should arch your back when you are doing bench press or incline bench press.
Technique can help anyone get through their toughest sets, or also knowing how to grip weights correctly. Proper grip can be equally important to provide added strength and help with th success of your most challenging feats in the gym. | <urn:uuid:8721a313-3d5f-4e98-9bc4-f052093bcdb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fitnesstroop.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955507 | 2,497 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The Society of Merchant Venturers
Established under Royal Charter in 1552, the Society of Merchant Venturers comprises prominent and talented men and women prepared to give their time and skills to contribute to the prosperity and well being of the greater Bristol area and to help enhance the quality of life for all.
Today, the Merchant Venturers invest heavily in young people, education, enterprise and entrepreneurship and caring for the elderly.
Through their associated entities, they currently provide care and accommodation to over 1,000 older people and help educate over 2,000 young people in the city.
They also play an active role in many of Bristol’s charities, administer a wide range of trusts and grants and with the City Council are responsible for the stewardship of the Clifton and Durdham Downs. | <urn:uuid:75c486ca-f967-40ea-aba9-e45d14a251ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://merchantventurers.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95322 | 162 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Roundup: Media's Take
This is where we excerpt articles from the media that take a historical approach to events in the news.
Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Calt Harris, writing in frontpagemag.com (Jan. 28, 2004):
The university exists for the free exchange of ideas, right? Then why is it that representatives of one half the argument – the conservative half – need bodyguards and metal detectors when they speak on North American campuses, and their leftist counterparts almost never do?
Consider three suggestive parallels of how the Right needs security and the Left is welcomed.
Government officials. In September 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu, a former Likud (conservative) prime minister of Israel was to speak at Concordia University in Montreal, but he never made it. Nearly a thousand anti-Israel protestors rioted prior to the event, smashing windows and hurling furniture at police, kicking and spitting on people going to the event. “By lunchtime,” notes the Globe & Mail daily, “the vestibule of Concordia's main downtown building was littered with paper, upturned chairs, broken furniture and the choking aftereffects of pepper spray.”
In contrast, Hanan Ashrawi, a well-known Palestinian politician and activist, never faces such opposition. As she makes the rounds of American universities (such as the University of Colorado, Beloit, and Yeshiva), she speaks without interference, and what protests take place are completely non-violent. At Colorado College, students held small signs and a rebuttal was offered after the speech. At the University of Pennsylvania , protesting students were so respectful, Tarek Jallad, president of the Penn Arab Student Society which sponsored her visit, commented: “I was very happy with the way the crowd showed her a lot of respect.”
1960s activists. David Horowitz, a founder of the New Left movement in the 1960s and now a high-profile conservative, speaks often at campuses and often faces problems. Protestors at the University of Chicago shouted at him and disrupted his talk before he uttered a word. At the University of Michigan, “the university administration assigned 12 armed guards and a German Shepherd to protect the safety” of those who came to hear him speak.
By comparison, Angela Davis, a former Black Panther and still today a far-leftist, enjoys the highest of esteem when visiting campuses. As she tours American colleges, she meets no protests, requires no excessive security, and is dutifully acclaimed by campus newspapers for her “wise presence.”
Middle East specialists. Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, a Harvard University Ph.D., author of twelve books, and a recent Bush appointee to U.S. Institute for Peace, needs security precautions at more than half his campus appearances. At York University in Toronto, for example, security provisions included “a 24-hour lockdown on the building beforehand, metal detectors for the audience, identification checks.” Multiple bodyguards escorted Pipes through a back entrance and kept him in a holding room until just before his talk. More than a hundred police, including ten mounted on horses, stood by to ensure the speaker's safety and the event not being disrupted.
In contrast, John Esposito, head of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, a Temple University Ph.D., the author of more than twenty books, and key advisor to the Clinton State Department, enjoys honor and praise at the campuses. He recently served as keynote speaker for the inauguration of Stanford University's new Islamic Studies program, for example, with no hint of special security.
A clear pattern emerges. Speakers on the left are welcomed, conservatives require strict security measures.
William S. Lind, Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism, writing on the website of the Free Congress Foundation (Dec. 2003):
Will Saddam's capture mark a turning point in the war in Iraq? Don't count on it. Few resistance fighters have been fighting for Saddam personally. Saddam's capture may lead to a fractioning of the Baath Party, which would move us further toward a Fourth Generation situation where no one can recreate the state. It may also tell the Shiites that they no longer need America to protect them from Saddam, giving them more options in their struggle for free elections.
If the U.S. Army used the capture of Saddam to announce the end of tactics that enrage ordinary Iraqis and drive them toward active resistance, it might buy us a bit of de-escalation. But I don't think we'll that be smart. When it comes to Fourth Generation war, it seems nobody in the American military gets it.
Recently, a faculty member at the National Defense University wrote to Marine Corps General Mattis, commander of I MAR DIV, to ask his views on the importance of reading military history. Mattis responded with an eloquent defense of taking time to read history, one that should go up on the wall at all of our military schools. "Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation," Mattis said. "It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead."
Still, even such a capable and well-bread commander as General Mattis seems to miss the point about Fourth Generation warfare. He said in his missive, "Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun. For all the '4th Generation of War' intellectuals running around today saying that the nature of war has fundamentally changed, the tactics are wholly new, etc., I must respectfully say...'Not really"...
Well, that isn't quite what we Fourth Generation intellectuals are saying. On the contrary, we have pointed out over and over that the 4th Generation is not novel but a return, specifically a return to the way war worked before the rise of the state. Now, as then, many different entities, not just governments of states, will wage war. They will wage war for many different reasons, not just "the extension of politics by other means." And they will use many different tools to fight war, not restricting themselves to what we recognize as military forces. When I am asked to recommend a good book describing what a Fourth Generation world will be like, I usually suggest Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century.
Nor are we saying that Fourth Generation tactics are new. On the contrary, many of the tactics Fourth Generation opponents use are standard guerilla tactics. Others, including much of what we call "terrorism," are classic Arab light cavalry warfare carried out with modern technology at the operational and strategic, not just tactical, levels.
Peter Robinson, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Bush and special assistant and speechwriter to President Reagan. He is the author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan, 2003). In the WSJ (Jan. 22, 2004):
The White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, reported on Tuesday that by the time the president left to deliver his State of the Union address at the Capitol, the speechwriters were "on about draft 30 of the speech." From a speechwriter who went through the ordeal a few times himself, here's a report card:
* The Fatuity Factor: By the time a State of the Union address is in its 10th or 12th draft, it's easy for the speechwriters to start composing sentences that don't actually mean anything. Perhaps because they passed through so many hands -- his speechwriting staff was the largest in recent years, perhaps in history -- President Clinton's State of the Union addresses are especially rich in examples of empty rhetoric. Consider this beauty from Mr. Clinton's 1996 address: "Now is the time for us to look to the challenges of today and tomorrow, beyond the burdens of yesterday."
President Bush? I listened closely, but in all 54 minutes I never heard him utter a single sentence that didn't mean at least a little something. This may seem an odd category in which to award a grade. But within the speechwriting brotherhood, it's important. Even at the worst moments, everyone on the Bush staff kept his head. Grade: A
* Make 'Em Laugh: Humor is tricky in a State of the Union address. A few laughs would help set the audience in the House chamber at ease. But the occasion is supposed to be august. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush joked that Speaker Tom Foley and Vice President Dan Quayle, positioned on the rostrum behind him, "saw what I did in Japan [the President, ill with the flu, had vomited at a state dinner] and they're just happy they're sitting behind me." The elder Bush may have gotten a laugh, but he sounded undignified.
One of the finest moments this time took place during the president's discussion of the war on terror. Turning to the argument that the rebuilding of Iraq should be internationalized, the president deadpanned.
"This particular criticism," he said, "is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines . . . " As Mr.
Bush continued -- ". .. . Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands . . ." -- his audience began to laugh. Then the audience interrupted him with applause. And when he finally completed the litany of nations that have committed troops to Iraq -- ". . . Norway, El Salvador, and . . . 17 other countries . . ." -- the audience gave him an ovation.
The best use of humor in a State of the Union address I've witnessed. Grade: A+
* The Speech He Got Stuck With: State of the Union addresses often amount to not one but two speeches: the speech the president got stuck with, which sounds like a hodgepodge, and, somewhere inside it, the speech the president wanted to deliver, which sounds unified, authentic and complete.
How do chief executives get stuck with hodgepodges? For weeks, Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, chairmen of congressional committees, and members of the White House senior staff draw up lists of initiatives they insist the address must contain. Some of this material can be tossed out.
But a lot cannot. Speechwriters do their best to keep this portion of State of the Union addresses thematically unified. They always fail.
How was this portion of President Bush's address? Just fine. The president's own interest in the speech came and went -- he appeared a lot more intent on making his tax cuts permanent than on modernizing the electricity grid. But his delivery remained well-paced, the text itself craftsmanlike. And it isn't really the rhetoric in this portion of any State of the Union address that matters in any event. It's the dollars. By contrast with the spree over which George W. Bush has so far presided -- as this newspaper has pointed out, Mr. Bush has increased discretionary domestic spending more than any chief executive since Lyndon Johnson -- the hodgepodge of proposals the president advanced on Tuesday appears restrained. Grade: A
* The Speech He Wanted to Deliver: In 1992, President George H. W. Bush delivered one of the best speeches-within-a-speech in any State of the Union address, speaking with feeling about the end of the Cold War.
"[C]ommunism died this year," the elder Bush proclaimed. "There are still threats. But the long, drawn-out dread is over."
On Tuesday, President George W. Bush delivered a speech-within-a-speech of his own, devoting it to the war on terror. These first 25 minutes of his address proved beautifully written and powerfully delivered. "The work of building a new Iraq is hard, and it is right," the president declared. "And America has always been willing to do what it takes for what is right." Yet something was missing. Although the president provided a compelling defense of his actions in the 28 months since 9/11, he told us almost nothing about what comes next.
"[N]early two-thirds of [al Qaeda's] known leaders have now been captured or killed," the president stated. Did he mean to suggest that the war on terror is two-thirds over? If not, why not? At times the president spoke as if the war would end as soon as we caught "the remaining killers." At other times he spoke as if the war would continue until we had transformed the entire Arab world, remaking a region that "remains a place of tyranny and despair and anger." Which does he intend?
As he proved in his defiant address on Sept. 20, 2001, nine days after the terrorist attacks, George W. Bush knows how to sound Churchillian. In the State of the Union address, he should have told us whether the war on terror has reached the beginning of the end or only the end of the beginning. Grade: Incomplete
* "Good Enough": The president's failure to lay out our next objectives in the war on terror strikes me as serious. On the other hand, you can submit President Reagan's 1984 State of the Union address to the most minute scrutiny but find only the broadest hints about what he intended to do in a second term. Yet later that year he carried 49 out of 50 states -- and by the time he left office he had won the Cold War.
A pretty good speech is often good enough. Overall Grade: B+
Brian Klug, writing in theNation (Jan. 15, 2004):
In 1879 the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, a former socialist and anarchist, founded an organization that was novel in two ways. It was the first political party based on a platform of hostility to Jews. And it introduced the world to a new word: "anti-Semite."
Marr was an atheist, and the Antisemiten-Liga (League of Anti-Semites) was hostile to Jews on the secular grounds that they are an alien "race." However, his account of "Semitism" was not essentially different from the demonic conception of the Jew that had existed in Christian Europe for centuries. It boiled down to this: Jews are a people apart from the rest of humanity. They are the enemy. Wherever they go, they form a state within a state. Conspiring in secret, they work together to promote their own collective advantage at the expense of the nations or societies in whose midst they dwell and on whom they prey. Cunning and manipulative, they possess uncanny powers that enable them, despite their small numbers, to achieve their ends. The term "antiSemitism" has come to refer to this discourse, or variations on the themes it contains, because the same rhetoric persists whether Jewish identity is seen as religious, racial, national or ethnic. Sometimes this discourse is explicit; at other times it is the subtext of attacks on Jews. Anti-Semitism, thus defined, is not new.
But a spate of recent articles and books assert the rise of a "new anti-Semitism." This is the thrust of "Graffiti on History's Walls" by Mortimer Zuckerman, the cover story of the November 3, 2003, issue of U.S. News & World Report. In December New York magazine ran a similarly sensationalist cover story, titled "The Return of Anti-Semitism," which spoke of "a groundswell of hate" against Jews and suggested that Jew-hatred was now "politically correct" in Europe. At least three books recently published in English make the same claim: Never Again? by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League; The New Anti-Semitism by feminist Phyllis Chesler; and The Case for Israel by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Most of the contributors to A New Antisemitism?, edited by Paul Iganski and Barry Kosmin, take a similar view, with varying degrees of emphasis.
As the words "threat" and "crisis" in the subtitles of the books by Foxman and Chesler indicate, the "new anti-Semitism" is generally seen, by those who proclaim its existence, as a clear and present danger. Foxman believes that a "frightening coalition of anti-Jewish sentiment is forming on a global scale." Chesler goes even further: "Let me be clear: the war against the Jews is being waged on many fronts--militarily, politically, economically, and through propaganda--and on all continents." She even perceives a wider threat to Western civilization itself: "Who or what can loosen the madness that has gripped the world and that threatens to annihilate the Jews and the West?"
There is certainly reason to be concerned about a climate of hostility to Jews, including vicious physical attacks. On one Saturday this past November, for example, two synagogues in Istanbul were truck-bombed during Sabbath services, while an Orthodox Jewish school in a Paris suburb was largely destroyed by arson. Some researchers report a 60 percent worldwide increase in the number of assaults on Jews (or persons perceived to be Jewish) in 2002, compared with the previous year. At the same time, something is rotten in the state of public discourse. Anti-Jewish slogans and graphics have appeared on marches opposing the invasion of Iraq. Jewish conspiracy theories have been revived, such as the widely circulated "urban legend" that Jews were warned in advance to stay away from the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. And recently, certain public figures on both the right and the left have made negative generalizations about Jews and "Jewish influence."
The authors under review tend to lump all these facts together, along with a wealth of evidence for what they see as an explosion of bias against Israel: in the media, in the United Nations, on college campuses and elsewhere. They conclude that there is a single unified phenomenon, a "new antiSemitism." However, while the facts give cause for serious concern, the idea that they add up to a new kind of anti-Semitism is confused. Moreover, this confusion, combined with a McCarthyite tendency to see anti-Semites under every bed, arguably contributes to the climate of hostility toward Jews. The result is to make matters worse for the very people these authors mean to defend.
The claim that I am criticizing is not that there is a new outbreak of "old" antiSemitism but that there is an outbreak of anti-Semitism of a new kind. Thus the case in support of this claim is not merely cumulative: It does not consist simply in piling up one example after another. There is an organizing principle, a central idea that holds the case together. It is only in terms of this idea that many of the examples cited in the literature count as evidence of antiSemitism. Without this central idea, the case that is made with their help falls apart. So the question is this: What puts the "new" into "new anti-Semitism"?
Joanne Mariner, writing in findlaw.com (Jan. 21, 2004):
Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court opinion whose thirty-first anniversary falls on January 22, was not yet a decade old when I became pregnant. I was seventeen, living on my own, and the pregnancy was unwanted....
Even though, as the Supreme Court said in 1992, "an entire generation has come of age free to assume Roe's concept of liberty," the right to a safe and legal abortion remains under threat. According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, 335 anti-choice measures have been enacted since 1995. President George Bush has openly endorsed the goal of banning abortion, and some of his federal judicial picks have been anti-abortion zealots, a worrying indicator for his possible future nominees to the Supreme Court.
Publicly-funded abortion is not available in most states, except in narrow cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. Since 1977, federal law has prohibited Medicaid from paying for the abortions of low-income women in most circumstances. Because fewer than half of all states offer supplemental funding that goes beyond these federal limitations, the possibility of abortion is foreclosed to many poor women.
Mandatory parental consent or notification rules, which exist in more than thirty states, deter many teenagers from exercising their constitutional right to a legal abortion. Minors with abusive parents may risk physical or emotional harm if required to disclose their pregnancy. Judicial bypass procedures, which the Supreme Court has ruled must be included in parental consent and notice laws, may be ineffective when the reviewing judge is hostile to abortion.
Numerous procedural restrictions continue to impede women's access to abortion. Now, in twenty states, women seeking abortion face mandatory delays in obtaining the procedure, a requirement that is often paired with the obligation of receiving state-dictated informational materials designed to discourage abortion. Such rules particularly burden women who live long distances from abortion providers, or whose transportation arrangements are difficult. Other state laws target doctors who perform abortions, imposing complicated regulatory schemes.
The latest effort to hobble reproductive rights has been to redefine what constitutes an abortion, via legislation like the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Although the Supreme Court struck down the most restrictive of these laws, adopted in Nebraska, others have passed lower court scrutiny. Although they are supposed to cover only late-term abortions, the imprecise and unscientific language of such laws means that their scope threatens to extend far beyond the situations cited by their supporters.
Malcolm A. Kline, writing for Accuracy in Academia (Dec. 2003):
The Kwanzaa controversy somehow bypassed me, until my African bride forced me to evaluate it. My wife can trace her ancestry directly to Shaka, who reigned over much of sub-Saharan Africa until defeated by the combination of the most powerful European armies at the turn of the last century and tribal leaders who had grown disenchanted with the Zulu king. One of these defecting tribal leaders was, in turn, one of my wife's more direct ancestors. Shaka, in turn, was related to many of these tribal leaders.
"As an African-American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community," the official Kwanzaa web site tells us,"Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense."
You see, I took it for granted that it was an African holiday. When we were still engaged, I watched a Kwanzaa TV commercial in the living room of my fiancée's apartment while my bride-to-be attended to some errand or other elsewhere. As I watched the commercial, I panicked. My mind raced. After all, the official holiday web site gives us advice on gifts, Kwanzaa colors and decorations and the celebration of the holiday itself.
I wondered whether I needed to buy presents for all my future in-laws, whether we would all exchange gifts, whether I needed to send special Kwanzaa cards to every member of the family I was marrying into, whether we would have a special dinner. Would I have to learn some special Kwanzaa songs?
As I was lost in this reverie, my African-born fiancée came into the room, looked incredulously at the television set and said,"What in the hell is this Kwanzaa?"
Samson Mulugeta, writing in Newsday (Dec. 29, 2003):
For decades, former dictators' career paths have tended to lead to luxurious retirements, untroubled by trial or punishment. With his arrest this month, though, Iraq 's Saddam Hussein joins a small but growing group: former despots facing justice.
The trend is a new one. Uganda 's Idi Amin had an opulent life of exile in Saudi Arabia for decades until he died in August. Amin's successor, Milton Obote, reportedly lives undisturbed in Zambia .
Nigeria 's Ibrahim Babangida and Guatemala 's Efrain Rios Montt, former military strongmen, kept enough political power to avoid even the bother of exile. Both are influential and untried at home, despite allegations that they engaged in corruption and state-sponsored killing while in office.
But since the end of the Cold War, a number of retired dictators have been hauled into court or jail. The trend has been pushed by U.S.-led military interventions (they ousted Hussein, Panama's Manuel Noriega and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic) and by the rise of United Nations-sponsored tribunals, which have tried Milosevic and former rulers of Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
Dictators also are under new threat from the willingness of courts in some countries, including the United States , Spain and Belgium , to hear charges against abusive leaders from other nations.
Independent of U.S. action, other peoples - notably in Africa - have moved more aggressively in recent years to prosecute their deposed autocrats.
In Africa, the former dictator of Chad , Hissene Habre, was comfortably exiled until Senegal agreed in 2001 to hold him for possible extradition to face trial in Belgium . Jean Kambanda, who as prime minister of Rwanda helped lead the 1994 genocide there, was sentenced to life in prison by a UN tribunal in 1998.
The most prominent previous attempt to jail a former dictator has been that against Chile 's Augusto Pinochet. His detention in Britain during 1998 and '99 came at the request of a Spanish judge and marked a growing "internationalization" of such cases. Pinochet was ultimately deemed too ill to stand trial and returned to Chile .
Also in Latin America , Argentines last year charged former military ruler Leopoldo Galtieri with human rights crimes. He died in January under house arrest.
Still, it seems that most deposed despots stay out of court. "Almost a century after the appearance of modern dictators, the world still doesn't have a template of how to handle these people," said historian Benjamin L. Apers, author of "Dictators, Democracy and American Political Culture."
Con Coughlin, writing in the Sunday Telegraph (London) (Dec. 28, 2003):
We are winning the war on terror. To some this statement might appear somewhat rash in view of how 2003 is drawing to a close. French flights to America cancelled because of a potential threat by al-Qaeda; a failed assassination attempt (the second this month) against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan ; and yet more US troops killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq .
But just because al-Qaeda still possesses the ability to blow up the British consulate in Istanbul, or some such similar outrage, does not mean that we should draw the conclusion, as does Correlli Barnett, the eminent Second World War historian , writing in the latest edition of The Spectator, that the Islamic militants are winning.
While defeatism such as this undoubtedly lends encouragement to the disparate groups of Muslim extremists who believe they are engaged in a timeless jihad against the West, it is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror's stated objectives. Following the September 11 attacks, it was obvious that Washington would intensify its efforts to confront al-Qaeda. But in many respects this was merely an extension of the counter-terrorism campaign that had already been waged by the US against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network since the mid-1990s, when bin Laden first showed his willingness to attack American targets. When President Clinton left office in 2001, plans were well advanced for the Americans to assassinate bin Laden.
The most significant policy shift to emerge in Washington and, to a lesser extent, in London following the September 11 attacks was the introduction of the policy of pre-emption - hitting your enemies hard before they have the chance to hit you. President George W Bush first outlined this new policy in his address to Congress nine days after the September 11 attacks. He declared that apart from targeting terrorist groups that possessed "global reach", the US was determined to take on any country that provided "aid or safe haven to terrorism". In his State of the Union address in January 2002, he extended this policy to include "terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons".
When assessed on the basis of these criteria, then, the war on terror does not appear to be quite the calamity that some of its critics would have us believe. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan , which for many years provided a safe haven for bin Laden and his followers, has been decisively defeated, and bin Laden's operational infrastructure uprooted.
Many of bin Laden's key aides have been killed while others are in American custody - including some of those responsible for planning the September 11 attacks - and have revealed many details about al-Qaeda's methods and infrastructure to their interrogators. This information has resulted in many terror attacks being foiled, including a planned attack on the British embassy in Yemen and a repeat run of the September 11 attacks, with a hijacked civilian airliner set to crash into Las Vegas over Christmas. Foiled terrorist attacks, of course, do not generate as much publicity as those that are successful, but even within the narrow confines of the war against al-Qaeda, the past two years have hardly been a wash-out.
Paul Farhi, writing in the Washington Post (Dec. 28, 2003):
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has a vision of where he'd like to take the nation. It turns out to be the 1960s.
In campaign stop after campaign stop, in overheated high school gyms and smoky union halls, Dean repeatedly offers this misty-eyed homage to that turbulent decade:
"When I was 21 years old," he says, "it was the end of the civil rights era, and America had paid an enormous price. Martin Luther King had been killed. Bobby Kennedy was dead. A lot of other people who are less well-known, including four little girls in a Birmingham church, had died so that we could have equal rights under the law for all Americans.
"But it was also a time of great hope. Medicare had passed. Head Start had passed. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the first African American justice [was appointed to] the United States Supreme Court. We felt like we were all in it together, that we all had responsibility for this country. . . . That [strong schools and communities were] everybody's responsibility. That if one person was left behind, then America wasn't as strong or as good as it could be or as it should be. That's the kind of country that I want back."
It is a stirring piece of rhetoric, and one that inevitably draws cheers and sustained applause for the former Vermont governor as he campaigns through this state, which holds its first-in-the-nation Democratic caucus in three weeks. In this part of the farm belt last week, Dean used it as his closer almost every place he spoke.
His references to the '60s, Dean makes clear in an interview, are something personal. "We felt the possibilities were unlimited then," he said last week. "We were making such enormous progress. It resonates with a lot of people my age. People my age really felt that way."
As history, however, Dean's memories of the era are selective. Rather than the time of great national unity and purpose he describes, the 1960s were a period of great upheaval, and surely rank among the most divisive for America in the 20th century.
By 1969, the year Dean turned 21, the Vietnam War had split the country, fomenting sometimes violent protests on college campuses. Several long, hot summers of urban riots had turned cities into powder kegs of racial tension. Despite passage of the federal Civil Rights Act five years earlier, segregation and discrimination lingered, and poverty and educational disparity were rampant. Employment opportunities for women and minorities were still highly limited. Politically, the country was deeply divided as well, with Richard M. Nixon winning a narrow 1968 presidential election over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey and independent George C. Wallace.
As Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin puts it, "A lot of people would be glad not to go back to the '60s." ...
Dante J. Scala, a political science professor at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire , says Dean is tacitly summoning up the political ghosts of Sens. Eugene McCarthy ( Minn. ) and George S. McGovern (S.D.), two Democratic presidential candidates who, like Dean, took on their party establishment in 1968 and 1972, respectively.
"For liberals in this state, those years were the high-water mark," he says. In those primaries, "they made McCarthy and McGovern into credible candidates, and they succeeded in creating two earthquakes in the Democratic Party. Dean is doing the same thing. He's hearkening back to those heady days of the late 1960s when liberals were ascendant."
As for more moderate voters, Scala says, "They might be more wary of it, but they're not turned off by it. The problem for them is that they haven't found a candidate who lights them up the way Dean lights up reformed-minded Democrats here."
Kazin, the Georgetown professor and co-author of "America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s," pegs Dean's message earlier in the decade, which Kazin calls "the high point of liberalism." This was a period when the optimism of President John F. Kennedy's New Frontier gave way to President Lyndon B. Johnson's anti-poverty programs, such as Head Start.
"He's evoking a sort of grass-roots version of LBJ's Great Society," says Kazin. "Liberals did have that vision. Obviously, the '60s were a time of tremendous division in the country, but liberals felt that things were going their way. It's certainly a contested period, but he's trying to claim it for liberals, which is quite appropriate."
Adds Kazin, "Every political faith has a golden age. Conservatives like the 1980s, when we won the Cold War and America stood tall again. If you're liberal, you remember the '60s the way Dean is doing now."
Peter Carlson, writing in the Washington Post (Dec. 28, 2003):
Ah, it's nice to be Neil Bush.
When you're Neil Bush, rich people from all over the world are eager to invest money in your businesses, even though your businesses have a history of crashing and burning in spectacular fashion.
When you're Neil Bush, you'll be sitting in a hotel room in Thailand or Hong Kong , minding your own business, when suddenly there's a knock at the door. You answer it and a comely woman strolls in and has sex with you.
Life sure is fun when you're Neil Bush, son of one president, brother of another.
Just how much fun was revealed in a deposition taken last March, during Bush's very nasty divorce battle. Asked by his wife's attorney whether he'd had any extramarital affairs, Bush told the story of his Asian hotel room escapades....
Meanwhile, back home in Texas , Bush serves as co-chairman of a company called Crest Investment. Crest, he revealed in the deposition, pays him $60,000 a year to provide "miscellaneous consulting services."
"Such as?" Brown asked.
"Such as answering phone calls when Jamal Daniel, the other co-chairman, called and asked for advice," Bush replied....
Neil Bush is the latest manifestation of a long tradition in American life -- the president's embarrassing relative.
There was Sam Houston Johnson, who used to get drunk and start blabbing to the press until his brother, Lyndon, sicced the Secret Service on him.
And Donald Nixon, who dreamed of founding a fast-food chain called Nixonburgers and who accepted, but never repaid, a $200,000 loan from billionaire Howard Hughes. His brother, Dick, had the Secret Service tap his phone.
And Billy Carter, who drank prodigious quantities of beer, authored a book called "Redneck Power" and took $200,000 from the government of Libya .
And Roger Clinton, a party animal who spent a year in prison for cocaine dealing and who later appeared in a movie called "Pumpkinhead II" playing a pol called Mayor Bubba.
But Neil Bush has surpassed them all. Bush has done something that no other American has ever accomplished: He has become the embarrassing relative of not one but two presidents.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Bush embarrassed his father, George H.W. Bush, with his shady dealings as a board member of the infamous Silverado Savings and Loan, whose collapse cost taxpayers $1 billion.
Now Bush has embarrassed his brother George W. Bush with a made-for-the-tabloids divorce that featured paternity rumors, a defamation suit and, believe it or not, allegations of voodoo.
Stephen F. Hayes, writing in the Weekly Standard (Dec. 29, 2003-Jan. 5, 2003):
ARE AL QAEDA'S links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq just a fantasy of the Bush administration? Hardly. The Clinton administration also warned the American public about those ties and defended its response to al Qaeda terror by citing an Iraqi connection.
For nearly two years, starting in 1996, the CIA monitored the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan. The plant was known to have deep connections to Sudan's Military Industrial Corporation, and the CIA had gathered intelligence on the budding relationship between Iraqi chemical weapons experts and the plant's top officials. The intelligence included information that several top chemical weapons specialists from Iraq had attended ceremonies to celebrate the plant's opening in 1996. And, more compelling, the National Security Agency had intercepted telephone calls between Iraqi scientists and the plant's general manager.
Iraq also admitted to having a $199,000 contract with al Shifa for goods under the oil-for-food program. Those goods were never delivered. While it's hard to know what significance, if any, to ascribe to this information, it fits a pattern described in recent CIA reporting on the overlap in the mid-1990s between al Qaeda-financed groups and firms that violated U.N. sanctions on behalf of Iraq.
The clincher, however, came later in the spring of 1998, when the CIA secretly gathered a soil sample from 60 feet outside of the plant's main gate. The sample showed high levels of O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid, known as EMPTA, which is a key ingredient for the deadly nerve agent VX. A senior intelligence official who briefed reporters at the time was asked which countries make VX using EMPTA."Iraq is the only country we're aware of," the official said."There are a variety of ways of making VX, a variety of recipes, and EMPTA is fairly unique."
That briefing came on August 24, 1998, four days after the Clinton administration launched cruise-missile strikes against al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan (Osama bin Laden's headquarters from 1992-96), including the al Shifa plant. The missile strikes came 13 days after bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 257 people--including 12 Americans--and injured nearly 5,000. Clinton administration officials said that the attacks were in part retaliatory and in part preemptive. U.S. intelligence agencies had picked up" chatter" among bin Laden's deputies indicating that more attacks against American interests were imminent.
The al Shifa plant in Sudan was largely destroyed after being hit by six Tomahawk missiles. John McWethy, national security correspondent for ABC News, reported the story on August 25, 1998:
Before the pharmaceutical plant was reduced to rubble by American cruise missiles, the CIA was secretly gathering evidence that ended up putting the facility on America's target list. Intelligence sources say their agents clandestinely gathered soil samples outside the plant and found, quote,"strong evidence" of a chemical compound called EMPTA, a compound that has only one known purpose, to make VX nerve gas.
Then, the connection:
The U.S. had been suspicious for months, partly because of Osama bin Laden's financial ties, but also because of strong connections to Iraq. Sources say the U.S. had intercepted phone calls from the plant to a man in Iraq who runs that country's chemical weapons program.
The senior intelligence officials who briefed reporters laid out the collaboration."We knew there were fuzzy ties between [bin Laden] and the plant but strong ties between him and Sudan and strong ties between the plant and Sudan and strong ties between the plant and Iraq." Although this official was careful not to oversell bin Laden's ties to the plant, other Clinton officials told reporters that the plant's general manager lived in a villa owned by bin Laden.
Several Clinton administration national security officials told THE WEEKLY STANDARD last week that they stand by the intelligence."The bottom line for me is that the targeting was justified and appropriate," said Daniel Benjamin, director of counterterrorism on Clinton's National Security Council, in an emailed response to questions."I would be surprised if any president--with the evidence of al Qaeda's intentions evident in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the intelligence on [chemical weapons] that was at hand from Sudan--would have made a different decision about bombing the plant."
The current president certainly agrees."I think you give the commander in chief the benefit of the doubt," said George W. Bush, governor of Texas, on August 20, 1998, the same day as the U.S. counterstrikes."This is a foreign policy matter. I'm confident he's working on the best intelligence available, and I hope it's successful."
Wouldn't the bombing of a plant with well-documented connections to Iraq's chemical weapons program, undertaken in an effort to strike back at Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, seem to suggest the
Clinton administration national security officials believed Iraq was working with al Qaeda? Benjamin, who has been one of the leading skeptics of claims that Iraq was working with al Qaeda, doesn't want to connect those dots.
Borzou Daragahi, writing in Newsday (Dec. 30, 2003):
Painstakingly restored and maintained by successive Iranian governments since 1958, the citadel at Bam was one of the most important archaeological sites in Iran and a popular tourist attraction.
Its collapse in a powerful earthquake Friday dismayed archaeologists and conservation specialists, in particular.
"It's a cultural catastrophe," said Iraj Afshar Sistani, a Tehran historian and author. "This historical city constituted one of the wonders of Iran 's heritage."
Masserat Amir-Ebrahimi, a Tehran cultural expert, likened the loss of the citadel to the 2001 demolition of the giant Buddha statues in central Afghanistan by the hard-line Taliban regime.
The impressive reddish-gray castle compound, made of sun-dried mud bricks, palm-tree trunks and straw, was the greatest mud-brick structure in the world, dominating the Kavir Desert in southeast Iran , an arid and mountainous area near the Afghan and Pakistan borders. Tens of thousands of people visited each year, including one American who reportedly died in the quake.
At least 2,000 years old, the citadel of Bam has been subject to countless invasions during its history and was completely sacked on several occasions.
Part of a major trade route, Bam became one of the first places in Iran to adopt Islam. Its Zoroastrian inhabitants built the first mosques found in Iran , said Bernard Hourcade, a geographer and Iran specialist at Paris ' National Research Center .
The citadel was abandoned by its inhabitants in 1722 following an Afghan invasion of Iran . It was thus spared the burdens of modernization and preserved as an archaeological treasure.
"It's like a city frozen in time that gives the perfect picture of ancient cities of the old Iranian plateau," said Remy Boucharlat, an archaeologist at the University of Lyon, France, specializing in Iran.
Spread out over four square miles, the old city of Bam was perched on a 200-foot-high rock and dominated by 38 towers, some rising as high as 120 feet. Four walls protected the city from potential invaders.
Bam was a perfectly preserved specimen of an ancient fortress city, Boucharlat said. It included high walls, residential quarters and administrative buildings on a natural hill, streets, several mosques, bathhouses and windtowers.
"In short," Boucharlat said, "it's a true lesson in architecture."
Over the past two decades, the oasis town that developed around the ancient citadel has struggled to house and employ a new generation of young Iranians, and its identity as an archaeological city has been partly eclipsed by a growth in manufacturing jobs and a plan to turn the area into a tax-free trade zone to lure foreign investment. Daewoo, a Korean car manufacturer, has set up a car-seat factory there.
Migrant workers from the countryside and from Afghanistan flocked to the city, boosting the population of the sleepy village - which had no more than 13,000 inhabitants during its medieval peak - to nearly 80,000 in the city and 100,000 in the outlying areas.
With the ancient citadel leveled, global cultural experts have already begun planning for its possible restoration.
Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, writing in the Toronto Star (Dec. 26, 2003):
A recent editorial in one of Canada's leading papers condemned the French decision to ban religious symbols from public schools as an attempt at "social engineering." It's a strange argument, given that most of France's history is one vast experiment in social engineering - and looking at modern France today, one could hardly say it's been a failure.
As fellows of the Institute of Current World Affairs, of Hanover, N.H., we spent two years studying the French and trying to explain what makes the French tick.
One of our main conclusions was that the French system functions according to values and assumptions alien to Canadians, who pride themselves on their multicultural, British-style democracy. Democracy à la française involves a huge central state whose purpose it is to determine the common good, and this calls for a lot of social engineering.
French social engineering began five centuries ago.
To understand what France was back then, it is more useful to compare it to today's Balkans - it was a patchwork of lesser and bigger duchies, each with their own language, culture and religion. In order to create a single French identity, French kings set out to erase these differences.
This process was brutal and slow, but successful. At the time of the French revolution, half of the French still didn't speak French.
By 1900, most understood it and left their local language - Occitan, Breton, Alsacian, Corsican, or Basque - at home.
During this period, the French closed parishes, and forbade many religious orders. To this day, the French never appoint high civil servants to work in their home region, for the purpose of breaking down social ties and avoiding local power cliques. Now that's social engineering.
Part of the reason France waged total war on its own cultural differences was to overcome an essential trait of the French political
culture: extremism. Just to give a sense of this: From 1789 to 1958, the French went through four democratic regimes, three monarchies, two empires and one fascist dictatorship, each ending in a coup, a war or a revolution.
The reason France didn't dissolve into a banana republic throughout this was that their very strong central state acted as an arbitrator of the common good in spite (some say, because) of the political instability. Whether they were Protestants, Breton or Corsicans, French citizens had to fall into line, and they did.
For most of the 19th century and the better part of the 20th, France was the theatre of a struggle between Republicans and other groups who claimed they knew better what the common good was.
First it was the Royalists, who morphed into ultra-Catholics. The Republicans won, most of the time, but lost one big time in 1940 when the Catholics, using the political crisis resulting from the defeat to the Germans, seized power, scuttled the Republic, imposed a dictatorship and applied their anti-Semitic program. It was horrible, but the French came out of it even more militantly secular.
As a result of five centuries of social engineering, "assimilation" became a positive political concept in French politics.
Debra Schifrin, reporting on NPR about the history of walls (Dec. 30, 2003):
In the first century AD, the Roman emperor Hadrian built a massive stone wall dividing England and Scotland . British archaeologist Nick Hodgson says Hadrian built the wall to keep marauding bands in the north out of the Roman province of England .
Mr. NICK HODGSON (British Archaeologist): If the wall had not been there, such groups would have been able to penetrate the province very, very rapidly. The wall was there to allow the army to do something about their presence.
SCHIFRIN: While the wall succeeded in protecting the English villages to the south, Hodgson says, it made life very difficult for the people to the north of the wall.
Mr. HODGSON: They were cast out of the Roman Empire once the wall had been arbitrarily cut through the island of Britain and cut a good deal of the population off.
SCHIFRIN: Two hundred and fifty years later, Hadrian's wall was overrun by forces from the north. In fact, all the great walls were eventually overrun, according to Jonathan Roth, professor of military history at San Jose State University . Even the Great Wall of China , built up over a millennium to its peak of 4,000 miles long, was overrun several times by the Turks, Mongols and the Manchus. But there is a dispute among historians about the main role of these walls. Many historians like Roth now argue they were not built primarily for defense, but for economic functions.
Professor JONATHAN ROTH ( San Jose State University ): They were enormously expensive to build and enormously expensive to man and relatively ineffective in keeping enemies out. What they could do is prevent wagons from crossing, and that's the sort of thing you would collect customs duties.
SCHIFRIN: Enough customs duties, Roth says, to pay for the wall and then some. In that sense, he says, the walls served their purpose well. If the fence was only a secondary role of giant walls in ancient world, Roth says, it became even less important in walls built in the second half of the 20th century. The invention of airplanes, tanks and high explosives made walls much less effective as military barriers. Roth points to the Berlin Wall, which the Soviets built around West Berlin in 1961. Its purpose was to stop the thousands of East Germans who were crossing into West Germany . Roth says the wall was flimsy.
Prof. ROTH: You could take a sledgehammer really, as people did, and knock it down. It's a barrier to stop civilians from crossing. It's not intended to stop soldiers and armies and tanks.
SCHIFRIN: But some civilian East Germans did find a way to get past the wall. That has also been true for Mexicans illegally crossing the steel and metal fences that line the US-Mexican border. Belinda Reyes, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, says one illegal immigrant made this analogy.
Ms. BELINDA REYES (Public Policy Institute of California): If you look at a cow, and the cow eats the grass on this particular place and there's no more grass, even though there's a fence, if there's grass on the other side, they're going to jump over the fence and eat the grass on the other side. So he was, like, 'Are we going to be stupider than the cow?'
SCHIFRIN: Reyes says while the US is failing in its stated goal of stopping illegal immigration, it is succeeding in its symbolic goal: to show Mexicans and Americans that something is being done. Ironically, as we move into the 21st century, military historian Jonathan Roth says, walls are regaining a military function, because instead of fighting armies, countries are now fighting civilians. They are fighting terrorists.
Prof. ROTH: Tanks and planes don't really defend against terrorists, whereas barbed wire and concrete walls can.
SCHIFRIN: The great walls in history have been relatively rare because few empires or countries had the economic power and military strength to build them. But when an empire builds a wall, it often foreshadows the empire's eventual decline. Archaeologist Nick Hodgson says, for instance, that the great Roman walls kept attackers out, but they also kept the Romans in.
Mr. HODGSON: It really meant the end for the expansion of the empire. The forward-pushing Roman world of the republican early empire disappeared. And it became very much a static item, the Roman Empire .
SCHIFRIN: The word 'limit' comes from the Latin word 'limes,' which means 'border' or 'boundary.' History may be teaching us that although walls can symbolize the greatness and strength of a civilization, they can also symbolize its limits.
John Burnett, reporting for NPR about the history of Kellogg, Brown & Root, the construction company at the center of controversy in Iraq (Dec. 24, 2003):
I'm standing here below Mansfield Dam, 12 miles west of Austin in the Texas hill country. This massive concrete structure holds back 370 billion gallons of water above the Colorado River . The dam was constructed by the Brown brothers, Herman and George, between 1937 and 1941. It is the breakout project that transformed them from road builders into superbuilders, and it's emblematic of the daring jobs on which their company built its reputation. And the dam would not have been possible without the assistance of a young, ambitious Texas congressman named Lyndon Johnson.
Working inside Congress, LBJ helped get the dam legalized, authorized and enlarged. In so doing, he taught the Browns the crucial value of federal connections, a lesson the company has carried forward through the decades.
Is there a historical continuum between Brown & Root's cultivation of people in power from Lyndon Johnson to Dick Cheney?
Mr. JOE PRATT ( Historian/Author): I would say there is a historical continuum from the first day Herman Brown entered construction to what we're seeing in Iraq today, and that continuum is public sector contracting is a tricky business, and personal contacts are a very important part of it.
BURNETT: That's Joe Pratt, a historian at the University of Houston who has co-written a biography of the Brown brothers. Their lifelong friendship with LBJ was based on mutual affection and pragmatism. They donated millions of dollars to his political campaigns over the years, and won it all back and more in lucrative government construction projects. Robert Caro wrote in his first volume on Johnson, "The Path to Power," 'Brown & Root became an industrial colossus thanks to Lyndon Johnson.'
(Soundbite of phone conversation)
President LYNDON JOHNSON: Hi, George. How are you?
Mr. GEORGE BROWN: Pretty good.
Pres. JOHNSON: I just wanted to check in with you.
Mr. BROWN: Well, I'm glad to hear you, my friend.
Pres. JOHNSON: I was kind...
BURNETT: This is an excerpt from a phone conversation between President Johnson in the Oval Office and George Brown at his office in Houston . Their friendship had already begun to cause them problems when they spoke here on Valentine's Day 1964. They discussed the controversy that had erupted over two huge construction projects the government had awarded to Brown & Root, NASA's Manned Space Center outside of Houston , later renamed the Johnson Space Center , and a massive never-completed scientific project to drill down to the Earth's mantle, known as Project Moho.
(Soundbite of phone conversation)
Pres. JOHNSON: Did you see the Mark Shaw's column on Brown and Johnson on NASA and Moho?
Mr. BROWN: NASA and Moho--Johnson...
Pres. JOHNSON: Said you had a 500 million one on NASA.
Mr. BROWN: Yeah. (Laughs) I just told him I never had talked to you about NASA or Moho neither. Never had been mentioned to me. I didn't know what Moho was. And I never talked to anybody, never heard of it, but that didn't make any difference. Went ahead and printed it anyway.
BURNETT: At the time there was wide suspicion among newspaper columnists and the Republican minority in Congress that Brown & Root's contributions to Johnson earned it the inside track on multimillion-dollar contracts.
The sharpest criticism would come from its work in Vietnam . Brown & Root was part of a consortium of four big construction companies known as RMK-BRJ. They were contracted by the Navy to build ports, airfields, bases, ammunition depots and hospitals in South Vietnam . It was the first time the US military had assigned private contractors on a large scale to do work usually performed by combat engineers and Navy Seabees. Brown & Root's portion of the contract would be worth $380 million.
Dan Briody is a Connecticut-based author who's writing a book about Halliburton.
Mr. DAN BRIODY (Author): While they were in Vietnam , you know, the situation is not unlike it is in Iraq right now. There was a lot of looting and problems with keeping equipment in their hands, and also the consortium was criticized for overspending and overstaffing, much like it has been criticized in Bosnia and is being criticized right now by Henry Waxman.
BURNETT: By 1967, the General Accounting Office faulted the Vietnam builders, as they were called, for massive accounting lapses and allowing thefts of materials. The grunts' nickname for the company, Burn & Loot, seemed to ring true. Congressional critics were howling for investigations into cost overruns and alleged political payoffs. Out in the streets, anti-war protesters railed against Brown & Root as the embodiment of what President Dwight Eisenhower had called the military-industrial complex.
James Carter is a doctoral student in history at the University of Houston who has been researching nation-building in South Vietnam during the 1950s and '60s.
Mr. JAMES CARTER (University of Houston): You could draw the parallel line to Iraq that the anti-war movement has picked up on immediately the way contracts are let, and the enormous sums of money that are being given away to Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, in order to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure when Brown & Root and others, Morrison, Knudson and Raymond--they were given large sums of money in the 1960s to rebuild southern Vietnam infrastructure which had been destroyed by years of war and neglect. The parallels are just endless.
(Soundbite of drumming)
BURNETT: Last spring, a new generation of anti-war protesters, such as this group in Austin , rediscovered Brown & Root, which is now called Kellogg Brown & Root.
(Soundbite of protest)
Unidentified Man #1: And it's one, two, three. What are we fighting for?
Unidentified Man #2: Iraq .
Unidentified Man #1: Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. The next stop's Iraq again.
Unidentified Man #2: That's right.
Unidentified Man #1: And it's five, six, seven...
BURNETT: One of the most striking echoes of history is the reappearance of Donald Rumsfeld. As Defense secretary, today's he's a staunch supporter of reconstruction contracts in Iraq awarded to KBR. In August 1966, as a young Republican congressman from Illinois , Rumsfeld stood up in Congress and excoriated the Johnson administration for the stench of cronyism. Rumsfeld's speech in the congressional record could easily have come from the current Halliburton critic, Congressman Henry Waxman, the California Democrat. Again, James Carter.
Mr. CARTER: Donald Rumsfeld was overtly critical of Johnson's handling of the war. And I'll read a short passage from this. Quote, "Why this huge contract has not been and is not now being adequately audited is beyond me. The potential for waste and profiteering under such a contract is substantial," unquote.
BURNETT: The parallels extend even to the construction of detention facilities. In the '60s protesters denounced Brown & Root for building detention cells for the US military in South Vietnam to hold Viet Cong prisoners. As historian Joe Pratt explains, they came to be derisively called tiger cages.
Mr. PRATT: They were very small. They were very--they looked inhumane and the protests centered on the profits that Brown & Root and other companies made in building them.
BURNETT: And today Brown & Root has constructed the detention facility in Guantanamo for suspected terrorists.
Mr. PRATT: Yeah. It looks a little less inhumane than the tiger cages, so they might have learned a lesson from the Vietnam War experience there.
BURNETT: Brown & Root learned some other lessons as well. Hang tough, keep the client happy, do good work and massage the public relations. The criticism will blow over. The presidents and their parties will come and go, but Brown & Root outlasts them all.
An interview with Pilar Rahola, featured on PageMagazine.com:
A Catalan from Barcelona, Pilar Rahola is a highly colorful figure on the Spanish scene. She is known for her feminism, as well as for her frank and direct manner. A former parliamentarian, Pilar Rahola sat in the national legislature in Madrid for eight years, first as part of the republican left, then as the founder of the Independence Party. However, she decided to leave political life just over a year ago to devote more time to her other passions. She has just published "The History of Ada," a metaphor for abandoned children, those child-slaves or children-soldiers one finds all over the world, that is, when they are not turned into human bombs.
She has also decided to step forward to denounce the flagrant imbalance in the handling of information from the Middle East. Her most recent piece, "In Favor of Israel," is to be published in a book in which fifteen Spanish intellectuals, including Jon Juaristi, president of the Cervantes Institute and Gabriel Alviac, a well-known journalist with El Mundo [translator's note: a Spanish daily newspaper], seek to re-establish the facts.
Marc Tobiass (of proche-orient.com) talks with Pilar Rahola.
Marc Tobiass: Why did you feel the need to write "In Favor of Israel"; to participate in the publication of this book?
Pilar Rahola: Since the start of the second intifada, the Spanish press, on the right as well as the Left, has taken a particularly aggressive approach toward Israel, an approach that leaves out the reasons for Israel's actions and tends to ignore the Israeli victims in this conflict. In this situation, a small minority of intellectuals, public personalities-sensitive to the Jewish question in general and to Israel particular-felt deeply touched by this problem. Outraged by the return of Judeophobia in Spain, we, each in our own way, began to write articles; to use the media to condemn this situation. And then Oracia Vasquez Real, an important writer in Spain, suggested that we coordinate our activity; that we collect into one work the vision of the Middle East conflict held by fifteen well-known intellectuals.
Marc Tobiass: For whom did you write this book, and with what objective?
Pilar Rahola: Fundamentally, this book is addressed to the anti-Jewish school of thought in Spain. The goal of our book is to launch a debate about Judeophobia in Spain. We are convinced that the current view of the conflict, so Manichaean-with the good, always the Palestinians, and the evil, always the Israelis-has deep roots. It comes from an ancient anti-Jewish feeling that exists in Spain and that also explains the history of Spain. This feeling softened slightly after the Franco era [translator's note : post-1975], but today there is a virulent resurgence of this savage feeling to the point where one can find genuinely anti-Semitic expressions in the Spanish press. In essence, this is a provocative book in the face of totally pro-Arab thinking in Spain, that is completely uncritical of the mistakes of the Arab world in general and of the Palestinians in particular.
We want to counter this flagrant imbalance.
Marc Tobiass: This imbalance is not specifically Spanish, nor, for that matter, is the Judeophobia. You rightly recall in your piece the troubling remark of Hermann Broch [translator's note: Austrian anti-Nazi novelist, 1886-1951] denouncing the indifference of Europe as the worst of the crimes in the bloody madness of the Hitler era.
Pilar Rahola: Yes, I think that Europe was indifferent on the surface because it felt guilty within. I believe that this indifference unquestionably comes from Judeophobia. And in the ultimate paradox, the Jewish soul is part and parcel of Europe. Europe cannot be explained without its Jewish soul, but it is also explained by its hatred of the Jews. Thus, all the repeated attempts of Europe to get rid of its Jewish soul are, in fact, a kind of suicide.
After the Holocaust, after Auschwitz, that is, after the ultimate stage in the destruction of the Jewish soul-a process which lasted for centuries in Europe-Europe is shattered, many of its elements are dead, but it also has a bad conscience; it knows it is guilty. Since then, Europe has looked for and found in the Palestinian cause the expiation for its guilt. It is from this that the uncritical and Manichean attitude toward the Palestinian cause emerges-it is, primarily, the last heroic (European) adventure. Further, the more the Jews are presented as being the evil party, the bad ones, the less difficult it is to carry the responsibility and the guilt. This is a process of collective psychology. From such a perspective, there essentially is no difference between France, for example, and Spain It is unbelievable how Europe continues to hate its Jewish soul, even after it has expelled it!...
Marc Tobiass: Isn't this legitimization of hate the true obstacle to peace?
Pilar Rahola: Without doubt. I believe that Europe is directly responsible, and not only for the conflict. In the final analysis, who, if not Europe, created the Jewish problem in the world? In a certain sense, one can even say that Europe is the actual founder of the State of Israel. Europe expelled its Jews-its Spanish Jews, its Russian Jews, its French Jews, and its German Jews. It expelled them from its body, even though these Jews felt themselves to be European to the core.
Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate (Jan. 5, 2004):
Having been screened by the special operations department of the Pentagon last August (see Charles Paul Freund's piece in Slate ), The Battle of Algiers is now scheduled for a run at the New York Film Forum . Unless I am wrong, this event will lead to a torrent of pseudo-knowing piffle from the armchair guerrillas (well, there ought to be a word for this group). I myself cherished the dream of being something more than an armchair revolutionary when I first saw this electrifying movie. It was at a volunteer work-camp for internationalists, in Cuba in the summer of 1968. Che Guevara had only been dead for a few months, the Tet rising in Vietnam was still a fresh and vivid memory, and in Portuguese Africa the revolution was on the upswing. I went to the screening not knowing what to expect and was so mesmerized that when it was over I sat there until they showed it again. I was astounded to discover, sometime later on, that Gillo Pontecorvo had employed no documentary footage in the shooting of the film: It looked and felt like revolutionary reality projected straight onto the screen.
When I next saw it, in Bleecker Street in the Village in the early 1970s, it didn't have quite the same shattering effect. Moreover, in the audience (as in that Cuban camp, as I later found out) there were some idiots who fancied the idea of trying"urban guerrilla" warfare inside the West itself. The film had a potently toxic effect on Black Panthers, Weathermen, Baader-Meinhof, and Red Brigade types. All that needs to be said about that"moment" of the Left is that its practitioners ended up dead or in prison, having advanced the cause of humanity by not one millimeter.
Those making a facile comparison between the Algerian revolution depicted in the film and today's Iraq draw an equally flawed analogy. Let me mention just the most salient differences.
1) Algeria in 1956—the"real time" date of the film—was not just a colony of France . It was a department of metropolitan France . The slogan of the French Right was Algérie Française . A huge population of French settlers lived in the country, mainly concentrated in the coastal towns. The French had exploited and misgoverned this province for more than a century and were seeking to retain it as an exclusive possession.
2) In 1956, the era of French and British rule in the Middle East had already in effect come to an end. With the refusal by President Eisenhower to countenance the Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt at Suez in November of that year, the death-knell of European colonialism had struck. There was no military tactic that could have exempted a near-bankrupt France from this verdict. General Massu in Algiers could have won any military victory he liked and it would have changed nothing. Frenchmen as conservative as Charles de Gaulle and Raymond Aron were swift to recognize this state of affairs.
Today, it is Arab nationalism that is in crisis, while the political and economic and military power of the United States is virtually unchallengeable. But the comparison of historical context, while decisive, is not the only way in which the Iraq analogy collapses. The French could not claim to have removed a tyrannical and detested leader. They could not accuse the Algerian nationalists of sponsoring international terrorism (indeed, they blamed Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt for fomenting the FLN in Algiers itself). They could not make any case that Algerian nationalism would violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty or even threaten to do so. Thus, French conscripts—not volunteers—and Algerian rebels were sacrificed for no cause except the lost and futile one of French reaction. The right-wing generals of the Algeria campaign, and some of the extreme settlers, actually did conduct an urban guerrilla rearguard action of their own, in Paris as well as Algeria , and did try to bring off a military coup against de Gaulle, but they had been defeated and isolated by 1968.
Market Caps Off Sustained Rebound
Ben White and Carrie Johnson
Washington Post, January 1, 2004, Page E1
Year’s Big Rally Helps Investors Regain Ground
New York Times, January 1, 2004, Page A1
Energized by the Economy, Small Stocks Lead the Way to Big Gains
New York Times, January 2, 2004, Page C1
These articles report on the stock market’s performance in 2003 and assess the prospects for 2004. The articles report that the market’s prospects for another strong year in 2004 are good, based on predictions that the economy will be healthy.
None of these articles ever mention the price to earnings ratios of the various market indexes. The price-to-earnings ratio is the most important measure of the stock market’s value indicating whether it is currently undervalued or overvalued compared to historic patterns. Discussing the stock market’s value without making reference to its price to earnings ratio is comparable to assessing the value of an apartment building without ever considering how much rent it generates. For a sports analogy, this is like assessing running backs in football without ever considering their average yards per game or per carry.
Historically, the price-to-earnings ratio for the stock market as a whole has averaged approximately 15 to 1. If the price-to-earnings ratio were considerably higher than this (e.g. it hit a bubble peak of 33 to 1 in March of 2000), then an investor would be foolish to hold stock even if the immediate prospects for the economy were very bright. Alternatively, the price to earnings ratio has sometimes been under 10 to 1, as was the case in the mid-seventies. In such situations, the stock market is likely to provide good returns, even if the economy is not performing very well.
At present, the ratio of price to trend corporate earnings is approximately 20 to 1. At this ratio, investors can anticipate lower than normal returns over the long run. Historically, stocks have provided an average real return of 7 percent annually. If the price to earnings ratio remains at 20 to 1, then investors can anticipate average real returns of approximately 5 percent annually (see “Stock Returns for Dummies” [http://www.cepr.net/stock_market/Stock%20Returns%20for%20Dummies.pdf].
Erik Todd Dellums, a Brown University graduate and actor and son of former Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, writing in the SF Chronicle (Jan. 4, 2004):
I am an African American, professional actor, semiotician and film lover. I am, therefore, underemployed, underappreciated and an afterthought in Hollywood. I am also a man who rarely sees an accurate depiction of black people and American history in film and on television. It's something I've grown used to, but now I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!
All people who truly care about honest representations of American history in Hollywood should boycott the heavily promoted"Cold Mountain." At a cost of $80-plus million and sporting a stellar cast and crew, this film adaptation of Charles Frazier's acclaimed best-seller opened Christmas Day and is being touted as the film to beat at the Academy Awards. It has generated glowing reviews for Disney, Miramax and all involved.
It is also a sham, a slap in the face of African Americans whose ancestors gave their lives in the Civil War, fighting for true freedom (take that, President Bush) from the most heinous form of slavery known to modern man: the American slavery system. How could a three-hour film depicting life in the heart of Virginia and North Carolina during the Civil War use only momentary shots of black people picking cotton and a few black actors portraying runaway slaves as its total picture of slavery during this period?
In an article in the Washington Post, the film-makers have said that slavery and racism were simply"too raw" an emotional issue to present in their film. In other words, who would want to see a love story with the beautiful Jude Law and Nicole Kidman set in the reality of the Southern monstrosity of slavery?
The film opens with a depiction of one of the more important battles of the Civil War, one in which the Union-trained black soldiers tunnel under Confederate lines -- a battle in which blacks suffered their highest rate of casualties of any Union division in the fight. Yet, it is almost impossible to spot any black actors fighting in this film (as three University of Virginia history professors recently noted in another Post article). It plays like"Saving Private Ryan," another Hollywood epic in which black contributions to history -- namely the Battle of Normandy -- are left out. Shame on you, Hollywood.
The Weinstein brothers (owners of Miramax, the distributors of"Cold Mountain") are smart, astute businessmen with keen cinematic sensibilities. They should know better. Could you imagine"The Pianist" or"Schindler's List" ever being made with but a few seconds of the reality of the Holocaust? Of course not. A film with such a gross misrepresentation would never make it past page one of a screenplay! And in reality, isn't the Holocaust, which occurred a mere two generations or so ago, emotionally"rawer" than slavery?
Ben Macintyre, writing in the London Times (Jan. 3, 2004):
Michael Howard's credo, published in The Times yesterday, included this little self-revelatory nugget: "I believe," declared the Tories' answer to Martin Luther King, "that these islands are home to a great people with a noble past." This statement might seem as straightforward as some of his other platitudes ("injustice makes us angry": well I never) but it hints at a broader truth.
History is the new politics, and the politician who can wield history effectively is worth any number of prepackaged beliefs.
Once history was mostly a matter of commemoration, damp remembrance ceremonies and dry scholarship. Increasingly it is about control and interpretation, preservation and national self-image.
I counted eight different "history" stories in the newspapers yesterday, each of which said at least as much about the political present as the historical past.
In Iraq , a monument to British troops killed in the horrible 1914-21 Mesopotamian campaign has been vandalised. Before the latest Gulf conflict, most Britons (and practically all Iraqis) were entirely ignorant of this small but bloody footnote in British imperial history. Today the image of a defaced memorial to 40,000 British dead in the desert west of al-Zubayr is freighted with modern symbolic relevance.
Colonel Tim Collins anticipated this when, in his now-famous peroration before battle, he declared: "Your deeds will follow you down history. Iraq is steeped in history." The deeds of the soldiers who fought in Mesopotamia in the First World War have indeed followed their latter-day counterparts to Iraq , and the vandalism of the monument is inevitably linked with the continuing effort to subdue Iraqi resistance, and with national pride on both sides. Preserving the monument is partly a matter of defending, not what was done there in 1914, but what is being done there now.
Britain is not alone in conflating past events with present politics. France has just invited Germany to attend the D-Day anniversary celebrations for the first time. The invitation is couched as reconciliation, but the move is clearly intended to reinforce the drive for a European defence force. In Japan, the Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, made a point of offering new year prayers at the country's most notorious militarist shrine, to the fury of China, at a time when Japan is about to send troops to Iraq in the largest military deployment since 1945. Switzerland , meanwhile, has finally passed a law pardoning citizens who were prosecuted for helping refugees in the Second World War. It is no accident that the law, intended to demonstrate awareness of the darker side of Swiss neutrality, came into force on the day that the head of the far-right anti-immigration Swiss People's Party took office as Justice Minister.
Politicians have always used (and often abused) history, for better and worse, the most recent examples being Tony Blair and Saddam Hussein. Blair's prewar oratory echoed with Churchillian gravity and clumping references to our martial past; conversely, Saddam liked to depict himself in the ancient role of Islamic hero, defending his homeland against infidel crusaders.
Perhaps because the future is so uncertain, the world is fascinated by history as never before. History journals, books and television programmes have undergone a huge renaissance, and historians enjoy a role once reserved for novelists and poets, as the imaginative story-tellers who interpret our own time by explaining an earlier era. The downside, however, is to make the past ever more vulnerable to those who have a political point to make. | <urn:uuid:3224b6e0-96d3-4288-932f-223a0cae543c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hnn.us/roundup/archives/12/200410?page=429 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969156 | 16,720 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Johannesburg – Big discounts on hotel rooms countrywide have created an imbalance in the market that affects less expensive hotels in particular.
Some five-start hotels’ average daily rates for rooms are currently at lower levels, with the result that they are cannibalising the market of the four-star hotels and even certain three-star establishments.
This is evident from recent research by Kamil Abdul Karrim, managing director of Pam Golding Tourism & Hospitality Consulting.
Joop Demes, chief executive of Pam Golding Hospitality, says the discount on five-star hotels’ daily rates for rooms is 19.4%, that on four stars 19.9% and that on three stars 12.2%. The discount is calculated by extrapolating the average 2008 room tariffs using the inflation yardstick of 6% a year, and comparing it with current average room tariffs, he says.
At national level the average discount is 12.6%.
The discount that starts at five-star level is forcing down the tariffs of the other levels and obliging hotels with lesser gradings to give discounts as well, says Abdul Karrim. This has a negative effect on the affordable hotels as their customers are being enticed by hotels with higher gradings.
But one needs to remember that this is not the case with all five-star hotels and that several of them are still doing business at top daily room tariffs, says.
Hotel guests can consequently get a more luxurious room for the price of a cheaper one. The four-star guest will stay in a five-star hotel, the three-star guest in the four star, the two star in the three star, while the one star guest will also upgrade.
The dilemma is that the demand for one-star hotel accommodation is on the decline and because there is no market segment below this level to fill the vacuum, occupancies in the one- to three-star hotel segment are declining.
He says this has contributed to occupancies of three-star hotels falling from 70.4% in 2007 to 57.3% this year. It's a surprise, because the cheaper segments were previously rarely affected by imbalances between demand and supply.
Demes says it's a temporary phenomenon and not sustainable because certain of the newer hotels will eventually have to raise their tariffs to service their debt.
The 15 on Orange hotel in Cape Town. The owner of the hotel, A Million Up Investments (AMU), was recently placed in liquidation.Signs of recovery
After exceptionally difficult times between the last quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2011, the South African hotel industry is starting to show sustainable signs of recovery.
Joop Demes, chief executive of Pam Golding Hospitality, says that according to the Smith Travel Research (STR) “Global Hotel Benchmark” report for July this year, the average income per available room (revPAR) in hotels for the year to date grew between 9.8% for three-star hotels to 12.6% for five-star hotels.
In a recent research report on the hospitality industry by audit firm PwC, revPAR growth of 14.4% is expected for this year and an annual growth rate of 8.7% from 2012 to 2016.
There have nevertheless been a number of casualties in the industry with probably a few more in prospect, he says.
Hotels that are struggling are normally those with excessive debt, not being run by well-known and reliable operators and frequently in the wrong location.
The most recent casualty was the Quantum Property Group (QPG) subsidiary A Million Up Investments (AMU), which has been put into final liquidation. The company’s only asset is the luxurious 15 on Orange hotel in Cape Town.
- For business news in Afrikaans, go to www.sake24.com
* Follow Fin24 on Twitter | <urn:uuid:e3a42a1e-ae80-4b6e-91da-9bb3af5ff10a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fin24.com/Companies/TravelAndLeisure/An-additional-star-at-the-same-rate-20120916 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960801 | 801 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The restored B-17G Flying Fortress “Liberty Belle” made her first flight in more than 14 years Dec. 8.
Owner Don Brooks and the restoration crew at Tom Reilly’s Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum in Kissimmee, Fla., had hoped to make the flight Dec. 7 — Pearl Harbor Day — but electrical problems prevented that.
The following day’s flight was accompanied by well-wishers Syd Jones (conservator for Tom Reilly on the project) flying his AT-6 and Thom Richard of Warbird Adventures, flying his SNJ. More test flights are planned from the Warbird Adventures corner of Kissimmee Municipal Airport (ISM) during December and January.
Brooks, who owns a chain of automobile supply stores in Georgia, created the Liberty Foundation and bought the B-17, now named “Liberty Belle,” as a tribute to “all the men who flew in World War II.” He was inspired by his father’s Eighth Air Force experiences during that war, he says. The plan is for “Liberty Belle” to tour the country, making flights available to people wanting an idea of what flying a B-17 is like — and to those who actually flew the great bombers in World War II.
Restoration of “Liberty Belle” brings the number of flying B-17s in the world up to 13, out of 12,731 that were built. Brooks is in the process of salvaging another B-17 from the icy waters of a lake in Labrador. | <urn:uuid:0d21b373-915a-4ad5-99e0-765e14ea48f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.generalaviationnews.com/2004/12/ring-one-up-for-the-liberty-belle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967666 | 328 | 1.820313 | 2 |
“All you need is love,” boomed from the record player, and Janie was singing too, as loudly as she could. “All you need is love, love. Love is all you need. Love is all you need.”
“Turn that music down Janie,” yelled Rita, her mother. “I can't concentrate on my sewing.” The decibels decreased, a little.
Rita sighed. Five days into the school holidays and she wondered if she could cope. Fourteen-year-old Janie was a Beatle-maniac and Beatles music blared out relentlessly every day.
Holidays boredom had set in and Janie was looking for something to do. She thumbed through her mother's recipe books, looking for something to make. It had to be easy, and definitely sweet.
“Not one of those boring cakes Mum makes. I want to make something different,” she thought. She flipped over the pages and found a no-bake recipe for chocolate cigars. Perfect.
“I'll help you get the ingredients together, then I'll get out of the kitchen and leave you to it,” said Rita, glad that Janie was doing something constructive. “What do you need?”
“Marie biscuits, condensed milk, cocoa and coconut,” read Janie. “Do we have all those?”
Rita checked the pantry. “Surprisingly, we do.” She put them on the bench. “Now call me if you need some help.”
But as she headed back to her sewing machine. Janie calling was out to her, over the top of “I wanna hold your h-a-a-a-and”.
“Can't hear you Janie. You're going to have to turn the music off.” With a click there was blissful silence.
“Hey Mum, this is the wrong sort of milk. This is sweetened condensed milk and the recipe just says condensed milk. I'll look in the pantry for some unsweetened condensed milk.”
“Janie, I think it means sweetened condensed milk. Just use the one I gave you.”
But Janie was rummaging around in the pantry. She called back, “It's okay. I've found some unsweetened condensed milk. It's called evaporated milk, but condensed and evaporated mean the same so I'll use this,”
Rita thought she had better come into the kitchen to sort this out. “Janie, I'm sure it means the sweetened milk. It needs the sweetness and the stickiness of that type of milk. Trust me in this and your chocolate cigars will turn out brilliantly.”
“Mum, I'm going to do exactly what the recipe says, and it doesn't say sweetened condensed milk. I'll use the evaporated milk. I know what I'm doing!”
“Okay, your call,” said her mother and left her to it.
Janie crushed the biscuits, measured the coconut and cocoa carefully and added them. She opened the tin of evaporated milk, poured it in and mixed everything together. Now to make the mixture into cigar shapes and roll them in coconut. Easy. Janie knew she was doing well.
She tried to shape some of the mixture into a cigar, but it collapsed into bits. It wouldn't hold together. She kept trying, but each time it just ended up a mess. She tasted the mixture. It was edible, but not the delicious,sweet treat she had expected.
“Mum!” she yelled. “It's not working and it doesn't even taste good. This recipe is rubbish!”
Rita took a deep breath. Going into the kitchen she suppressed her “Told you so” response.
She chose her words carefully.
“It's okay Janie. We can make this into something. I'll think of a way to make it into a dessert. Do you know what the problem was?”
“Yes,” muttered Janie, “You were right about the milk. I should have taken your advice.”
“We cooks have to learn from our mistakes,” said her mother. “You wouldn't believe how many cooking disasters I've had. You can try again tomorrow. It's a good thing we still have a can of sweetened condensed milk left.”
Jamie's scowl slid off her face. “Sorry Mum! I'll listen to your advice next time. But only if I ask for it!”
I think there's a bit of Janie in us all. How often do we think we know better than wiser and more experienced people? And how often do we think we know better than God and what he tells us to do? It takes humility to take notice of others' wisdom and it takes faith and submission to follow God's way.
This is based on a true story of the 1960s. Names have been changed to hide my identity!
'Evaporated Milk' is runny and unsweetened. 'Condensed Milk' is always sweetened condensed milk and is much thicker.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel. | <urn:uuid:72a8a8da-fc8c-4426-8895-bc2dca5cddd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article-level3-previous.php?id=43626 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982263 | 1,178 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. William O'Connor earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions during the Kosovo War in 1999, flew in eight different aircraft in his 26-year Air Force career, and currently trains the next generation of NATO pilots as a civilian T-38 simulator instructor at Sheppard Air Force Base's 80th Flying Training Wing. But now he can add another title to his distinguished resume — author.
O'Connor wrote a book, "Stealth Fighter: A Year in the Life of an F-117 Pilot" about his experience flying the F-117 Nighthawk aircraft during the Kosovo conflict that was published in April and is one of the only accounts of that war from a pilot's perspective.
"I love books about aviation and military history, and when I got done in Kosovo, I thought 'This is going to be fun, I get to come home and read about my war' but nobody was writing any books about it," O'Connor said.
The book begins with a prologue that puts the reader right in the middle of the action, early in the morning on March 25, 1999, with O'Connor in the cockpit of the F-117, the then-most advanced stealth aircraft in the Air Force inventory, cruising toward Serbia to drop two 2,000-pound bombs as part of a NATO airstrike.
O'Connor said at the time, he and his fellow warfighters weren't sure they would even end up seeing action. After having been an Air Force pilot for 17 years, and not having been deployed to a war zone, O'Connor said he was ready to "get in the show."
"We fully expected this to be a one-, two-night thing, a quick strike and that would be that," O'Connor said. "I was in the second wave of the first night strike, and those of us in that second wave thought, 'The phone is going to ring and this is going to be over.'"
But he did end up participating in the war, received the Distinguished Flying Cross and now is one of the few authors to tell that story.
"I wrote it as a year in the life of an F-117 pilot. I started writing pretty much when I came back, and I probably started writing four different books," O'Connor said.
From a broad focus on the history of the Kosovo War, he narrowed his book's focus down to the F-117's role in the conflict.
As a stealth aircraft, he said the F-117 had a very specific role in the Air Force's arsenal.
"The F-117 was designed as one tool in a toolbox, it did one thing very well, but that's all it did," O'Connor said. "We flew at night, we flew straight level, we dropped two bombs and we went home."
After the Kosovo deployment, O'Connor and wife Betsy moved their family, including daughter Megan, now 27, and son Sean, now 25, from Holloman Air Force Base to Sheppard in 2001 where he served in the 80th Flying Training Wing for six years until retiring. It was after retirement that O'Connor said he decided to hunker down on the book.
"By the time I retired in 2007, I decided if I was going to do this, I needed to finish it," O'Connor said.
After sending a draft of the completed book to the Pentagon for review to make sure no classified information was revealed, O'Connor sent the book to one publisher that ended up going out of business and then to Zenith Press, the book's publisher, which he said had published similar books to his story.
As a voracious reader of nonfiction, O'Connor said he is glad to have been able to contribute to the aviation history genre, especially to tell the story of the Kosovo conflict from a unique perspective.
"Everyone can say they have pulled 1,000 books off shelves, but how many can say they put one back up there," O'Connor said. "Part of me has always wanted to write a book, and this was my best story." | <urn:uuid:48c10ffe-1945-4c13-bc53-7b3acb941563> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2012/sep/30/pilots-book-could-just-fly-off-the-shelves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985983 | 851 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Government departments can for the first time talk directly to businesses about their innovation needs. As a result of this, the ultimate innovations will be better matched to their specific needs.
Businesses are given the unique opportunity of collaborating directly with government departments on innovation. In due course, the projects shall also lead to new markets and promising niches for participating companies.
Citizens will be able to enjoy a more modern and efficient public service. Furthermore, societal challenges such as mobility and ageing will be tackled in an innovative manner.
Flanders will be given a boost as a knowledge region. In time, Procurement of Innovation must contribute towards achieving the Lisbon targets, which specify that 3% of GDP is spent on Research and Development.
Benefits for Business and Research Institutes
- Direct contact with the government. Procurement of Innovation brings you into direct contact with the government as a buyer of innovation. You are given the opportunity of working on innovative projects in close consultation with the relevant departments, in an open atmosphere and without the red tape that is often associated with a conventional public tendering procedure.
- New markets, promising niches. The projects that are eligible for Procurement of Innovation involve current societal themes such as smart pay-as-you-drive, the ageing population, energy-efficient housing, etc. Each of these projects will result in new markets and promising niches for innovative businesses.
- Visibility. Working with Procurement of Innovation means working on projects that have a high government priority and high visibility.
- Financial support. Procurement of Innovation has a budget of EUR 10 million for research and development by businesses.
Benefits for government departments
- Direct contact with the right partners. Procurement of Innovation makes it easier for government departments to come into contact with the right partners. Via our Innovation Platforms government departments can discuss their needs directly with the partners that possess the required know-how: businesses, research institutes and other subject specialists.
- Innovation that matches government departments' needs. The close consultation with the businesses and research institutes and the support provided by subject experts, guarantees solutions that perfectly match government departments' real needs.
- Financial resources. Procurement of Innovation has a budget of EUR 10 million for any research that may still be required for achieving a feasible and workable solution.
- Simpler tendering. A clearly defined solution makes it easier for government departments to prepare the public tender documents for the project.
- Government departments define their own needs. Each policy domain will be instructed to define its short-term and long-term challenges / requirements. What resources do government departments need to improve their service? What innovations can help government departments tackle the major societal challenges that government departments are facing within their policy domain?
- Innovation Platform brings partners together. Once government department project has been defined we set up an Innovation Platform which is open to all interested parties - businesses, research institutes and other subject specialists. In this way government departments are able to come up with innovative solutions that are customised to government departments needs.
The "Public Procurement of Innovation" pilot approved by the Flemish Government in July 2008 is the first implementation of the integrated approach to procurement of innovation. The pilot scheme has been introduced to all interested stakeholders in September 2008, followed by a positive response from all governmental departments. Rollout is planned in over the 2010-2014 period.
At the beginning of 2009 ten topics for procurement projects were defined. Innovation platforms are being set up for the selected projects. The first recently launched pilot came from the cultural sector with a digital book platform (e-book). Four others are in the pipeline: eye screener for young children, a leisure infrastructure and culture information system (ICIS), ICT in health care and a personal development plan for citizens.
The first Innovation Platform related to the e-book procurement project already had its first kick-off meeting 21 April 2010 and will finish end of this year when the e-book call for tender is expected to be published. The aim of the e-book project is the development of a digital platform for lasting and secure storage of digital works in function of a pluriform exploitation by different actors in the book profession: editors, book stores, libraries and content aggregators.
A second Innovation Platform related to the ICIS procurement project will have its first kickoff meeting 28 October 2010. The call to join the ICIS Innovation Platform was published in the Official European Journal. The aim of ICIS (Infrastructure and Culture Information System) is to create a public information service where users can find at any time relevant personalised information about the culture, leisure and infrastructure offer in Flanders. | <urn:uuid:d4a4b911-dc35-41d2-b31e-a91e5195fafb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/poi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937737 | 954 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Cape Town - Baboon conservationists have initiated a legal process to halt the euthanising of any more baboons on the Cape Peninsula, pending a full public review of the practice and the scientific reasoning behind it.
Their lawyer has sent a letter to the three authorities legally responsible for managing the baboons – SANParks, City of Cape Town and CapeNature – calling on them to immediately stop killing the animals and to provide detailed information about how and why the June 2011 “Protocol for reducing the frequency and severity of raiding behaviour by Chacma baboons of the Cape Peninsula” is being implemented.
“Our client (Baboon Matters Trust) is of the opinion that the protocol, as presently constituted, is unreasonable, irrational, arbitrary and therefore unlawful,” the letter states.
It suggests a high court interdict application may follow.
So far only the City of Cape Town has responded to the letter, and it ducked a direct response to the demand.
In the meantime, the three authorities that operate collectively as the Baboon Technical Team (BTT) are continuing to euthanise male baboons considered to be serial raiders in urban areas, with at least one – “Peter” of the Da Gama Park splinter troop – being put down last week.
There are also unconfirmed reports of two more being killed in the past few days – “blue tag” of Scarborough and “TK9” of Tokai – and a further three, Merlin, Force and Carpenter, have been earmarked for removal.
The three authorities confirmed Peter’s death, saying in a joint statement that his euthanasia was done “to reduce the frequency and severity of raiding behaviour by Chacma baboons on the Peninsula” which is “a threat to human health, terrorises local residents and causes significant damage to homes and property”.
They said: “Management decisions by the authorities regarding raiding baboons are subject to assessment by recognised wildlife management experts and are supported by academic research and elected civic representatives living on the Peninsula.”
The Baboon Matters trust was started by baboon conservationist Jenni Trethowan.
In an open letter last week, Trethowan accused the authorities of turning the protocol “on its head”.
- Cape Argus | <urn:uuid:12f02131-6387-4dbf-8ed0-132caa5803c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/environment/stop-baboon-killings-urge-conservationists-1.1376275 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95347 | 485 | 1.71875 | 2 |
ALPENA - The safety of roads and of those working on roadways can be improved in Northeast Michigan, and communication is a key tool. A large group of first responders, police, fire, EMS, road agency towing/recovery, and dispatchers from Presque Isle, Montmorency, Alpena, Oscoda, Alcona and Iosco counties gathered for a traffic incident management workshop in Alpena Thursday morning. Eric Precord, Michigan Department of Transportation maintenance coordinator, hosted the presentation at Alpena's Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary where a variety of guests and speakers discussed traffic incident management and safety issues that develop on Michigan roads.
Angie Kremer, MDOT traffic incident management engineer, presented information about the National Unified Goal for traffic incident management, which includes working together for responder safety, safe and quick road clearance, and prompt, reliable, interoperable communications.
"When it comes to safety, communication can always be improved on," Kremer said.
According to Kremer, in 1998-2011 the leading trend was roadway deaths. She said more officers were killed in traffic-related issues than any other occurrence in the line of duty, and 20 percent of firefighter deaths occur on roadways each year.
In order to protect responders and anyone else working on roadways, Kremer said wearing high visibility safety apparel is effective.
"If the apparel is not worn, it really opens yourself up to liabilities, you really want to make sure you're wearing your vest," she said.
Kremer also discussed safety tips for working near live traffic and how responders can ensure safe and quick road clearance through communication, cooperation, collaboration and coordination, an objective of the National Unified Goal for traffic incident management.
"I'm here looking back at incidents and how things could have been done differently and more efficiently. My goal is for you to walk out of here with knowledge on how to do our jobs better and safer," Sgt. Tim Robbins, MSP reconstructionist, said.
Robbins discussed Michigan laws and tips on how to use best judgment when responders use lights and sirens. He said all responders should consider the priority of the call and patients, the time it would save to use the sirens, and safety before deciding to use sirens or flashing lights.
"I encourage cooperation. You guys have a great opportunity here to help clear roads quicker ... for a small community, you have a good cohesive group that can be more progressive," Robbins said.
An emergency traffic control trailer lodged in Alpena is now operable for the six counties and will be used regionally to help assist first responders in re-routing traffic during road closures.
"The trailer is now operational. When and where it will be used will be determined case by case," Precord said. "Hopefully through this workshop we have improved our communication and coordination a little bit."
Other discussion topics included reponder safety, sharing information, notification, Department of Transportation information, hazardous spills, and primary and secondary accidents.
"Be aware of surprises, anything can happen," Robert Wagner, of the DEQ, said. "Communication is very important for public heath and safety."
For more information on construction and traffic closures, commuting, laws and licensing, and maps, visit Mi Drive at www.michigan.gov/drive. To report any pollution or environmental emergencies, call the DEQ hotline at 1-800-292-4706, for emergencies or routine business, contact the Gaylord DEQ at 731-4920.
Emily Siegmon can be reached via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org or by phone at 358-5687. | <urn:uuid:a93061d9-2343-42a7-9db8-efdcb4ff1db9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thealpenanews.com/page/content.detail/id/522655/Road-safety-targeted-at-workshop.html?nav=5004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944699 | 763 | 1.828125 | 2 |
a new APTA podcast lead
investigator Gail Jensen, PT, PhD, FAPTA,
and coinvestigators Jan Gwyer, PT, PhD,
FAPTA, and Terry Nordstrom, PT, EdD,
describe the history and background of the study Physical Therapist Education for the 21st Century (PTE-21).
The PTE-21 research team, which also includes Laurita M. Hack, PT, DPT,
MBA, PhD, FAPTA, and Elizabeth
Mostrom, PT, PhD, is in the process of conducting 4 site visits aimed
at uncovering and examining the crucial dimensions of excellence in physical
therapist education across academic and clinical settings.
The group will issue a final report on the first phase of the study in the
fall of 2013. Also in 2013, Jensen and colleagues will begin fundraising for
the second phase of the study that will include an additional 6 sites.
Phase I of the study is funded by a 2-year APTA award of $50,000. The
funding is the result of a request for proposal (RFP) for "Innovation and
Excellence in Academic and Clinical Education Funding" developed by APTA
and announced in November 2010. The RFP was targeted at stakeholder groups
throughout the profession. | <urn:uuid:236e366c-d50d-428c-ab76-e1541edfd7dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/NewsNow/2013/1/24/PTE21Podcast/?blogid=10737418615&category=Membership%20Matters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933188 | 277 | 1.507813 | 2 |
David, I too had a search on Google and also a look at the French Ministry of Culture website, but couldn't find anything.
I'm assuming you are interested in orders of magnitude, rather than exactitude. From the dim and distant past, I have a memory that the full Paris Opera grant was greater than the annual US National Endowment for the Arts budget, suggesting around $150m.
For comparison, the Royal Opera House now receives around $50m per annum, which is around 30% of total income. Given that:
- the Paris Opera has two major venues, as opposed to one in London
- POB has many more dancers (is it around 140, Cathy?) than the Royal's 92
- I would imagine the Paris Opera subsidy %age is around double or more that of the Royal, especially looking at ticket price comparisons.
Where does that leave us?
RO - $50m
scale up by factors of 2 for %age subsidy, 1.5 greater cost base due to staff and building, gives:
$50x2x1.5 = $150m
So both guesstimates for the entire Paris Opera subsidy comes out at $150m (I didn' fix it, honest!!)
What about Paris Opera Ballet alone? Well, the Royal Opera grant is no longer split between opera and ballet, but when it was, around 45% of the total was for ballet. If POB is similar, then that gives a subsidy of the order of $67.5m.
Given all the guesses here, there is clearly an error bound. I would be inclined to say that the Paris Opera Ballet grant was probably within the range $50m-$80m per annum.
Given the quality of the dancers and the mix of 19th, 20th classics and innovative work, it's money well spent in my book.
<small>[ 31 March 2005, 04:11 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small> | <urn:uuid:616f59d8-8d68-4963-ae75-0abf1c456d09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=160906 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971111 | 412 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Fresh from a bruising setback to his attempt to regulate sugary drinks, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed another aggressive public-health initiative Monday: banning the public display of tobacco products in stores.
Vote and Comment
If the City Council approves the measure, the ban would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Retailers would still be able to sell tobacco items, but the products would have to be stowed away.
Mr. Bloomberg, who eliminated smoking in bars and restaurants a decade ago, said the new effort is aimed at keeping young people from experimenting and others from acting on impulse. The minimum price of a pack of cigarettes would be $10.50, and no discounts or coupons could be applied.
"We know that out of sight doesn't always mean out of mind. But in many cases, it can," Mr. Bloomberg said during a news conference at Queens Hospital Center. "If it does, it will literally save lives."
Reaction among retailers was mixed. "He wants to control everything," said Lin Ko, 50 years old, the owner of H&H Grocery in the West Village. "People know it's bad, the prices are already high. Maybe later he'll make us hide the beer?" At the Broadway Best Deli in Brooklyn, manager Sam Mohammed said he frequently argues with minors over buying cigarettes. "It'd be good to hide them from kids," said Mr. Mohammed, 63.
Mr. Bloomberg has made public health a centerpiece of his nearly dozen years in office, earning him praise from medical circles and jeers from those who see his efforts as infringing on personal liberties. After pushing the smoking ban through the Council in 2002, he also stopped restaurants from cooking with artificial trans fats, forced fast-food outlets and chain restaurants to post calorie counts, ended smoking in public parks and on beaches and led a drive to lower sodium content in processed foods.
But he was dealt a blow last week when a Manhattan judge struck down another far-reaching initiative: a plan to stop restaurants, movie theaters and other venues from selling sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces.
Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling found that Mr. Bloomberg had exceeded his authority by placing the beverage ban before the city's Board of Health, which he appoints, instead of going through the City Council. The judge also called the ban arbitrary because some outlets and drinks would be covered and others wouldn't. The city has said it plans to appeal.
Mr. Bloomberg seems to be handling his approach differently this time by putting the proposal before the council, as he did with other tobacco initiatives. Speaker Christine Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat and mayoral candidate, said she is "very, very open" to the proposal. The legislative branch will hold hearings on the issue, she said.
Canada, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia have similar policies in place. One exception: tobacconists. Those shops can still display their wares, though minors couldn't enter the stores without a parent or guardian. Penalties would range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the nature of the violation.
The bill allows tobacco advertising, which falls under First Amendment protections. But city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the products themselves aren't similarly shielded by the Constitution.
Still, it is likely the proposal will end up in front of a judge. The sugary-drink ban faced an aggressive industry fight. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said a ban on public display of a legal product could face a challenge under the Constitution or federal statutes that already regulate tobacco.
Ted Potrikus, executive vice president of the Retail Council of New York State, said he expects his group will oppose the legislation. "On the surface it raises a lot of concern," he said. "We don't want every store in New York City to turn into 'Little House on the Prairie'…where everything that you want is behind the counter."
The New York Association of Grocery Stores called the idea "tyrannical."
In the West Village, Ms. Ko joked that her store wouldn't have much to sell if soda, beer and cigarettes would all have to be hidden. "What about candy? This one is too big," Ms. Ko said while grabbing a king-size chocolate bar and pretending to break it into pieces.
The measure has some support in the council. Council Member Stephen Levin, a backer of the plan who began smoking when he was a teenager, said he believes the accessibility of tobacco and near-ubiquitous advertising by the tobacco industry was the "main culprit" for his smoking habit as a youngster.
"I've learned the hard way that quitting a habit as addictive as smoking is a constant struggle," the Brooklyn Democrat said. "So if we can take action now so that we can keep just one young person from smoking, then that is a step in the right direction."—Jessi Rucker and Andrew Grossman contributed to this article.
A version of this article appeared March 19, 2013, on page A19 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New Anti-Tobacco Push. | <urn:uuid:35e57669-e399-4e86-8d1e-443007626dc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topics.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324323904578368743331326654.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_NewYork | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972568 | 1,066 | 1.640625 | 2 |
You Actually Have to Know Something Sometimes
Roy Fielding, Mr. REST himself, writes a nice article about REST APIs and how they must be hypertext driven. I thought this was a pretty good article, and that I’d use it in the future when trying to explain REST APIs.
Apparently, not everyone agrees. It sounds as though Roy had a little bit of grief which is outlined nicely in this followup article.
Understandably, Roy isn’t pleased.
Apparently, I use words with too many syllables when comparing design trade-offs for network-based applications. I use too many general concepts, like hypertext, to describe REST instead of sticking to a concrete example, like HTML. I am supposed to tell them what they need to do, not how to think of the problem space. A few people even complained that my dissertation is too hard to read. Imagine that!
In the very first comment Dorian Taylor says:
With all due respect, I think you’re continually going to encounter that contingent that is expecting the bullet list of instructions, or even lazier, the screencast of ultra-practical steps to make the baubles twirl on their displays. My only consolation is the notion that this is probably just a symptom of the industrial age’s death rattle, and it’s anomalous that this behaviour is even considered acceptable.
Well, I don’t know how “ultra-practical” this video is, but it *is* from Joe Gregorio. Nice to see what Joe looks like. Oh, and it’s quite informative too, of course.
UPDATE: REST is UnAmerican, David Ing I think.
It’s long been our belief that REST and Roy Fielding has been palling around with Hypermedia. He barely denies it. But, my friends, let me tell you that no washed up PhD dissertation will dictate our request/response. He says it, in his own words – he talks about ‘constraints’, he toys with the idea of a transfer of ‘state’. My friends, in these times of economic crisis we need less State involvement, not more. REST doesn’t understand. Let’s give state transition back to the hard working people of the USA. Enough with this hypermedia socialism. | <urn:uuid:80e1a111-b9f1-4eb4-ae8a-1192e7a7a366> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bobhutchison.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/you-actually-have-to-know-something-sometimes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957822 | 492 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Glenn Ivers said he felt like Santa Claus as he delivered 10 tons of dog food to local animal shelters and rescue organizations this week.
The director of Wanderers’ Rest animal shelter in Madison County secured the 20,000 pound donation of first-quality canned dog food from a DelMonte plant in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
The cans of Kibbles N Bits, Ol Roy and Nature’s Select dog food arrived in Canastota on Thursday, some with slight damage that kept them from the grocery store shelves.
But the name brand food was more than welcomed at local shelters, including the Humane Association of Central New York.
“It is one of the invisible needs in this community,” Ivers said. “Families really love their pets, but they really struggle to feed them.”
This week, Ivers delivered pallets of food to Dog Daze in North Syracuse, a pet store with a pantry that serves 50 low-income families, and Angels of Fur, a pet rescue group which has placed homeless dogs in 30 foster homes and also serves 14 low-income families that need help feeding their pets.
About 50 families depend on the food pantry at Wanderers’ Rest, Ivers said.
“If they can’t afford to feed their cat or dog, they are going to end up at the shelter,” Ivers said. “We would much rather have them keep their animals.”
In the city of Syracuse, St. Lucy’s Church food pantry director Leslie Dubiel didn’t think twice when Ivers called. A healthy pet clinic at the church last month served about 150 animals; another 50 or more were turned away.
“They said, ‘We have it,’ I said, ‘We’ll take it,’” said Dubiel, whose pantry fed over 600 families in November – up from an average of 450 last year – and often gets requests for pet food.
Getting the large donation to Central New York has been a community effort.
The pallets were transported from the DelMonte plant in Pennsylvania by Canastota growers, Isadore Rapasadi & Sons.
“Their trucks go down full of potatoes and onions, but come back empty,” Ivers said. “Instead, they came back with 20,000 lbs. of food.”
The food is being stored in warehouse space in Canastota donated by Kime’s True Value.
“All these little things add up to make a big difference,” Ivers said. “Everyone is pitching in. When money is short during the holiday week, this will help a lot of families and make a lot of dogs happy.” | <urn:uuid:077b5783-d146-4e20-886f-f42c142dd184> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/wanderers_rest_shares_10_tons.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965277 | 585 | 1.554688 | 2 |
On another note about culture in and around the Cleveland, Ohio area...
This year Ohio celebrates 200 years of statehood. There are lots of planned
festivals going on around the state. From July 9-20 is the Celebration of
Lake Erie Heritage: Ohio Bicentennial Tall Ships. "As many as 25 historic
replica vessels sail along Ohio's north coast during the Parade of Sails.
It will be the largest gathering of tall ships on Lake Erie since the
1800's." AAA magazine. Sail's up, Sandy B! | <urn:uuid:ffe18b95-18f0-480d-a950-efbe6088f6e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.getty.edu/education/teacherartexchange/archive/May03/0121.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95347 | 112 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Safer Streets? Fewer On-Duty Officers Slain
Number Of Police Officers Killed, Assaulted Dips
The streets may be getting a little safer for police officers.
New statistics from the FBI show a slight drop in the number killed on the job last year, and a bigger drop in assaults.
Fifty-five officers died in the line of duty in 2005, most of them while working for city police departments. The report refers to the officers as "feloniously killed." Traffic duty was the deadliest job, with 15 killed in pursuits or after pulling someone over.
About 1,800 fewer officers were assaulted on the job last year, compared to 2004. Of those 57,546 who were, the FBI said many worked the overnight and found themselves dealing with things like domestic disputes and bar fights.
Of the deaths, 28 of the officer slayings occurred in the South, 10 in the West, 10 in the Midwest, and 5 in the Northeast. Two of the deaths took place in Puerto Rico, the report said.
The 55 felonious line-of-duty deaths took place during 53 separate incidents, according to the report. Police officers were killed in 24 states and Puerto Rico. The number of officers feloniously killed in 2005 decreased by two compared with the 2004 figure (57 officers). A 5-year comparison showed a decrease of 15 line-of-duty deaths compared with the 2001 number (70 officers) and a decrease of 6 compared with the 1996 figure (61 officers).
Among the officers who were feloniously killed, the average age was 37 years. They had served in law enforcement for an average of 10 years at the time of the fatal incidents. Fifty-four of the slain officers were male; 47 officers were white; and 8 were black.
Of the 55 slain officers, 15 were handling traffic pursuits or traffic stops. Eight of the officers who were killed were handling arrests, and another 8 were ambushed, according to the report. Seven of the slain officers were answering disturbance calls, and another seven were investigating suspicious people. Of the remaining 10 officers who were slain in the line of duty, four were pursuing investigative activities, such as surveillance; three were in tactical situations (e.g., high-risk entry); 2 were handling what the report referred to as "mentally deranged persons"; and one had custody of a prisoner for transport.
Killers used firearms to take the lives of 50 of the officers. Of these 50 officers, 42 were slain with handguns, 5 with shotguns, and 3 with rifles.
The report said that 15 of the 55 victim officers who were slain fired their own weapons during the fatal incidents, and six officers attempted to use their own weapons during the incidents. Five officers were slain when hit by vehicles that the offenders used as weapons, the report said.
Law enforcement agencies identified 57 alleged assailants in connection with the 55 line-of-duty deaths. All of the suspects were male, and 54 of them had previous criminal arrest records.
Sixty-seven law enforcement officers were killed in accidents while performing their duties. Automobile accidents claimed the highest number -- 39 -- of accidental line-of-duty deaths.
Law enforcement agencies in the United States reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program that 57,546 officers were assaulted while performing their duties. The largest percentage of victim officers, 30.5 percent, were assaulted while responding to disturbance calls like family quarrels or bar fights.
The smallest percentage of assaulted officers, 0.3 percent, were assaulted during ambush situations. The report said that assailants used personal weapons, including hands, fists, feet, and other objects, in 80 percent of the incidents, firearms in 3.7 percent of the incidents, and knives or cutting instruments in 1.8 percent of the incidents. In 14.4 percent of the assaults, other types of weapons were used.
The FBI's assault data were collected from 10,032 law enforcement agencies nationwide, serving 75 percent of the population. | <urn:uuid:e1c1762a-6444-4267-a779-84c98ef2ac6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.handgunforum.net/general-discussion/4606-safer-streets-fewer-duty-officers-slain.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986383 | 816 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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Sunday, June 10, 2012
BIG IN JAPAN
It's not that easy to quit
"If you don't like it, quit."
That ill-tempered remark, lately uttered by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, echoes a sentiment frequently encountered in people in authority — but how true is it? How free are we to "quit" what we don't like?
Hashimoto was addressing the 513 city workers defying his order to come clean about their hidden tattoos, if any. Back in February, recounts Weekly Playboy magazine, a staffer at a local children's facility flashed a tattoo at the kids — presumably to amuse them, but it backfired. "Tattoo" to many people suggests "yakuza." Gangsters do sport them, but not exclusively — tattoo parlors are open to the general public and body art is not criminal. Like many things, tattoos are easier to acquire than to erase. Given the prevailing prejudice against them, a tattoo can turn into a kind of brand. Many gyms, hot springs, swimming pools and other public resorts won't let you in with one. The children's facility staffer should have thought twice. He presumably knew — it's common knowledge — that Hashimoto's late father was a gang member. It's a fact likely to awaken acute sensitivity in a politician. Be that as it may, Hashimoto reacted by issuing a questionnaire to all 33,500 municipal employees under his jurisdiction — did they have hidden tattoos? Anyone refusing to answer would, he vowed, be denied promotion. Unfair? Arbitrary? Too bad. Don't like it? Quit.
Quitting an oppressive environment is certainly liberating, but it's not enough to just quit. You need somewhere to go. Not everybody has that. If ever an environment seemed suitable for quitting it's the hot zone and its immediate vicinity near the gutted Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — and yet the young Horikoshi family, profiled in Friday magazine, have decided to stay put. Why? They have a newborn infant. Shouldn't less radioactive surroundings be an urgent priority? You can question their judgment if you like, but are you so sure you'd behave differently in their situation?
Tamura City, where the Horikoshis live, affords a close-up view of the Fukushima No. 1 plant 20-odd km away. It stands "eerily silent," says Friday, against the mountains. Takayuki Horikoshi, 28, works at that "eerily silent" place, helping to clean it up. The family's choice is stark — uproot and go jobless and homeless into the wider world, or cling to their home and income, hoping the colorless and odorless but pervasive presence known as radiation is not as harmful as many, but not all, experts say it is.
"Our lives were bound up with the plant before the earthquake, and as long as I can make a living here, this is where we're staying," says Horikoshi, sounding a little desperate. He's not claiming to have made a good choice, only that in his situation there are no good choices, and yet a choice must be made. It's the devil you know versus the devil you don't. The devil you know, or at least can imagine, is unemployed homelessness. The devil you don't is radiation, which — to him absolutely and to his wife Ai somewhat less so — seems the more manageable of the two. Ai, also 28, says of their 3-month-old son, "Will he grow up normally? What effect does radiation have on a child? I don't know anything. With a first child, there's so much anxiety even at the best of times. I just haven't any anxiety left over for the nuclear power plant."
She's right about the ubiquity of things to worry about, and maybe she's also right about the futility of focusing on any one worry exclusively. Take, for example, smartphones. If you're going to start worrying about worrisome things, they're a good place to start, suggests the weekly Shukan Gendai. Who's watching you via your ultra-clever smartphone? You never know, is the magazine's point, but bet on it that someone is.
Its article is titled, "Your life is on full display." The problem is the devices' extreme vulnerability to malicious software. "Spyware," "malware" — the neologisms proliferate and somehow make it all seem normal; shades of George Orwell's "1984," where too an invented vocabulary sanitized the frightfulness of being "on full display." The number of those whose private information — names, addresses, phone numbers, contacts, website viewing history — have been stolen and broadcast could be in the millions, according to the National Police Agency. Unpleasant consequences range from fraudulent demands for payment to a general sense of being watched, listened to, photographed and tracked everywhere you go.
It's curious how blasé most people are about this. You'd think it would weigh more heavily than it does. It's not "1984" in that there's no Big Brother, but it is in that free human beings are not meant to be "on full display," even to nameless and numberless little brothers. Shukan Gendai puts it this way: "You can't even have a love affair anymore."
If you don't like it, quit, said Hashimoto. But quitting, whether it's a home, a job or a convenience, is not easy. | <urn:uuid:0b3576e8-bd79-4c75-85ec-b70a2db1d378> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://info.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20120610bj.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970623 | 1,209 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Those who remember the 2008 GOP convention surely remember the chant of "Drill, baby, drill," led by then VP candidate Sarah Palin. As money seemingly always trumps the environment, high oil prices were making Americans think about more offshore oil drilling, despite the fact that any oil extracted that way would be a drop in the ocean of oil the U.S. needs.
It was also based on the fact that for two decades there had not been any large-scale accidents. That has radically changed, with the vast oil spill from the BP oil rig explosion begins to hit U.S. coastlines.
Bill Maher said it best in a tweet:
Every a**hole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup dutyThose who think technology is infallible are fools. It was 100 percent certain we would have another oil accident. The question was not if, but when.
Sarah Palin, head over to the Gulf Coast today, will ya? | <urn:uuid:33be53d7-092f-4ac0-89a3-fd26f147bb38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.snafu-ed.com/2010/04/drill-baby-drill-believers-should-help.html?showComment=1290431463180 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979034 | 205 | 1.625 | 2 |
Fuquay-Varina High School freshmen, class of 2016, are invited to visit the school campus in a few weeks to meet new friends and see old ones. They will also have the chance to meet several teachers and some upperclassmen who will be lending a hand. There will be lots of fun activities to help everyone get to know each other better and to help new students learn their way around campus before the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 27. Visit the School Website for more information. http://fvhs.wcpss.net
Attendance for Freshman Camp will depend on the first letter of the student’s last name. Students are asked to attend on their designated day. Students who need to attend on a different day, please email Freshman Camp coordinator, Jesse Brush at firstname.lastname@example.org or call the Main Office 557-2511.
There will be challenging and funfilled Team Building activities, custom designed for Freshman Camp by FVHS teachers. These activities are a favorite at Freshman Camp and are designed to build leadership skills while providing lots of fun for all participants. Be sure to dress for physical activity.
During a presentation in the Media Center, students will receive their class schedules for the upcoming school year, learn important information about Bengal Pride Advisory, and have a chance interact with upperclassmen. In addition, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and become familiar with the Steps of Intervention, the bell schedule and the Working Lunch program.
If you ask any new student entering high school what their biggest fear is, getting lost is usually number one. That is why there is an entire session designed to allow students to navigate their way around our campus. The Scavenger Hunt is intended to introduce students to FVHS hallways and classrooms and help them find their way on the first day of school.
Lifetouch will take pictures so they can produce ID cards. Pictures will only be taken for rising 9th graders who did not attend Fuquay-Varina Middle or do not have a Wake County picture on file. Pictures will be taken during Freshman Camp between 7:45-8:30 a.m. in the Main Gym. Lifetouch will have its official picture date for all students on Monday, Sept. 24.
Camp Dates are by Last Name
Freshman Camp is 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 25
A — G
Tuesday, July 31
H — O
Thursday, August 3
P — Z
FVHS Main Gym
Drop-off & Pick-up
(Near Football Field) | <urn:uuid:d377c862-8e0a-4e2f-90d9-eed8a08c7847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fuquay-varinaindependent.com/view/full_story/19188008/article-Fuquay-Varina-High-School-Freshman-invited-to-Summer-Camp?instance=popular | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95044 | 549 | 1.515625 | 2 |
|There are two pictures showing a view of the covers and a few inside pages of these (3) 1928 - 1929 Liberty Magazine Boy Salesmen Booklets in this lot. These booklets are for boys who were selling and delivering magazines back then.|
The left booklet is from July, 1928. It is Vol. IV, No. 7. It has (24) pages filled with sales and other stories. They also promoted competition for sales. There is a story on the movie star cowboy, Buck Jones. There is also a story about model aeroplanes and a picture of the plans of the Charles Lindbergh Spirit Of St. Louis airplane. There are different opportunities to earn prizes by selling magazines.
The right booklet is from January, 1929. It is Vol. V, No. 1. It has (24) pages filled with competition sales information and other stories. There is one story about what you’ll see in New York City. It has a nice full page picture of the Statue of Liberty. There are different opportunities to earn prizes by selling magazines.
The center booklet is Libertys Prize Catalog #1. It has (14) pages filled with many premiums and prizes that could be acquired by selling magazines. A couple pages are pictured. The things you could win or earn include:
Ranger Bicycle, Bicycle Accessories, Baseballs, Baseball Gloves, Baseball Bat, Football Equipment, Football, Helmet, Roller Skates, Ice Skates, Punching Bag, Basketball, Boxing Gloves, Volley Ball, Radio Equipment, Wrist Watch, Pocket Watches, Sports Timers, Flash Light, Pocket Knives, Watch Chain, Fountain Pen, Mechanical Pencil, Musical Instruments, Violin, Banjo, Ukelele, Mandolin, Drum Kit, Saxophone, French Cornet Horn, Rain Coats, Fishing Rods, Reel, & Tackle, Simmons Koaster Wagon, Sled, Cameras, and many Boy Scout Items.
The catalog measures a little larger then the others at 6" x 9". Overall they are in good condition. They each have some edge/corner wear and some wear and soiling to the covers. | <urn:uuid:ae1fcde1-c510-4837-a45c-657446b16a34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&pm=0&searchkeywords=Salesman&sin=6035 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942538 | 445 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Late yesterday I recorded an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. She is one of my favorite interviewers (smart, and what a voice!). She had called me to ask about credit reporting agencies. What made the interview stand out was her introduction. She told a story about her husband's trip through Credit Reporting Hell.
Her husband's experience is no real surprise. After all, a 2004 PIRG study found that 87% of credit reports had errors, and one in four had an error big enough to change a credit score. Consumer Federation of America reported that 31% of credit reports had an error that would change a credit score by 50 points or more. If a serious error hasn't happened to you, then it has happened to someone you know. Because Terry Gross's husband could hire a lawyer, the problem was eventually fixed, but not until he had spent a lot of time and a lot of worry.
Starting the interview with a personal story about the impact of an error raised an important question: Why should consumers be saddled with the responsibility to monitor the errors of credit reporting agencies? It is MY information about ME. Someone else is collecting it, creating errors, and passing those errors along to other people. Those errors can cost me a job, denial of homeowners' insurance, a higher premium on my car loan, a higher price to buy a car even for cash, and, of course, a higher price for a mortgage, a credit card, a car loan, or any other loan. And the system says, in effect, it is my problem to monitor the information. It isn't enough that I don't impair my own credit. It is also my problem to find errors that the company has put in, to document the correct those errors, to fight with the company if they won't believe me, to check to make sure the errors were removed and to make sure those errors never reappear. I can even pay for insurance to help me if a credit reporting company makes a mistake.
Since I already have a full-time job and a life outside that job, I resent this capture of my time. I also believe that a law that puts the burden on consumers to correct errors and puts no penalty on the credit reporting companies for passing along bad information is designed to encourage a high error rate. There are simply not enough incentives for the credit issuers to spend their money to reduce errors in the credit reporting system or to make correction cheap and quick.
In some states, it is possible to lock a credit report to stop all activity. That helps prevent future errors, but it still puts the burden on the customer.
A lot of people end up paying for bad credit reports. Many never know it because they don't know that the price quoted for insurance or a car was based on their credit score. They will just be poorer than they would have been if the credit reporting companies had more incentive to get it right. | <urn:uuid:6d55a379-3d3a-46d3-8b9b-67033c61968a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2008/07/credit-check.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984099 | 595 | 1.570313 | 2 |
From Wichita Falls, Texas, USA:
Nearly 2 weeks ago we took our 4 year old daughter to the ER because she was having trouble breathing. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and Type 1 diabetes. (My father has Type 1). She had no symptoms of DKA, except her blood sugar level was 330. After 2-3 doses of insulin while in the hospital her blood sugar normalized and has remained so since then. We check her blood sugar before breakfast and before dinner, and it is between 73 and 125, except one reading before dinner was 57. Her pediatrician has decided that no insulin therapy is required at this time. Based on what I've read on your website about the benefits of continuing insulin during the honeymoon period, is this good if she is in fact in the honeymoon period? Is it possible she doesn't have diabetes at all? I don't believe she had any antibody tests. Should we request those? We're in the military and don't have ready access to a large medical center.
This is not an uncommon dilemma. You need a bit more information. Was your daughter's HbA1c tested and was the value high? If it was, then she does have diabetes because this indicates that her sugars had been high for longer than a few hours. Stress such as pneumonia, admission to hospital and having blood samples taken can cause short term elevations of blood glucose.
I'm not sure if you are saying that her blood sugars have been normal since the two or three doses of insulin she had in hospital and she's had no insulin since then or if the normalisation took longer. If the latter then she certainly has diabetes.
As to whether withdrawing insulin in the honeymoon period is a good idea, I think there is now general agreement that it shouldn't be, provided the child is not having hypoglycaemic symptoms on very low doses. Occasionally one has little choice because hypos are happening with doses as low as 0.1U/kg. The withdrawal is usually only for a few weeks however until endogenous insulin production is insufficient.
Finally, if there's still doubt in your mind about the diagnosis (discuss this with your daughter's doctor) then antibody tests may help but can be negative at diagnosis.
Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:09:00
This Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other health care professional.
This site is published by Children With Diabetes, Inc, which is responsible for its contents.
© Children with Diabetes, Inc. 1995-2013. Comments and Feedback. | <urn:uuid:54f58ee6-1b36-40f6-afe3-905b5a87243f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/dteam/1998-11/d_0d_39v.htm | 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 | 0.976628 | 553 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Only a week after the nation’s third largest utility, Duke Energy, announced it was terminating its membership in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), citing disagreement over clean energy legislation, another company has followed suit.
Alstom Power is joining Duke for similar reasons. From the NY Times/Greenwire article:
Alstom Power, a French company that makes parts for power plants and is working on carbon sequestration, said it is leaving ACCCE immediately. “We have resigned from ACCCE because of questions that have been raised about ACCCE’s support for climate legislation,” said Tim Brown, an Alstom spokesman. The French company, which is partnering with U.S. utilities on power-plant projects, said that it wants to “remove any doubt about our full support” for a climate bill.
Check out what Duke Energy said last week:
As the debate evolved, it became clear that there were some influential members who would never support climate legislation no matter what,” Duke Spokesman Tom Williams told the press.
Duke has also withdrawn its membership in the National Association of Manufacturers for similar reasons; the NAM is currently running a misleading ad campaign against clean energy legislation.
Duke Energy and Alstom Power washing their hands of the coal lobby comes as welcome news. ACCCE is trying to preserve the status quo for dirty coal, and they will do whatever it takes to keep things that way.
ACCCE doesn’t want any climate legislation and has actively been fighting the legislation using any means necessary. ACCCE contracted with Bonner & Associates, the lobbying firm that forged letters against ACES and otherwise tried to subvert the democratic process. Then ACCCE hired “Astroturf” firm Lincoln Strategies.
The defections of Duke Energy and Alstom Power are a clear sign that this front group has gone too far–even for energy companies like Duke that are heavily invested in coal and have more coal plants under construction than any other utility.
The big question now is why is General Electric staying in the coalition? Why is General Electric continuing to sully its name by associating with a coal front group that is under investigation by Congress for corrupting our democracy? When will they realize that the coalition is trying to kill markets for clean energy, the very markets that GE allegedly cares about? | <urn:uuid:ff62e846-43bd-4efa-90fa-9bbcaee426fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grist.org/article/2009-09-09-dominoes-keep-falling-for-clean-coal-coalition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975224 | 493 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A comment from a reader prompted me to write the response below, which I then decided to reproduce as a blog post:
. . . [P]erhaps I am guilty of skimming over the details of the beating Justin Barker received at the hands of Mychal Bell and his friends. I’ll repeat again that I think the practice of a bunch of guys “jumping” one person is pretty despicable. It used to happen at my high school and I always hated it. But like many people in Jena and elsewhere, I think the charges, sentence, and incarceration of Mychal Bell were and are excessive.
Ultimately, the adults in this case have to bear the responsibility. If school and law enforcement officials in Jena were interested in teaching these students—Black as well as White—that taking the law into their own hands is wrong, they would have intervened when the nooses were hung, when the Black student was assaulted by White students at the party, and when the Black students had a gun pulled on them. I failed to mention in my blog that the boys reported the incident to the police after they disarmed their assailant but he was not even questioned. Instead, these Black boys were arrested and charged with assault and theft of a firearm after they did the right thing by going to the police.
The signal sent to these boys was that they could not look to school or law enforcement officials to protect them from overt racism—which is psychological violence—and physical violence. Violence is used to put and keep people in their place, and the nooses were supposed to remind Jena High School’s Black students of their place. When these students defied the racists by peacefully gathering under the “white tree” on which the nooses had been hung, District Attorney Reed Walters arrived at the school surrounded by armed police and threatened to end the students’ lives with a stroke of his pen. Is this not intimidation? Weren’t the nooses themselves symbolic of violence to the Black students? Clearly, they didn’t think it was just a prank. Yet school officials and the legal establishment continued to pooh-pooh the issue until it escalated into the violent confrontation with Justin Barker that resulted in his beating. Was it right or necessary? Of course not! Could it have been avoided? Certainly, if school and law enforment officials had taken the racism directed at the Black students more seriously and intervened sooner.
The whole incident reminds me of Simpsons character Chief Wiggum’s response to Marge when she said, as she was being arrested: ”I thought you said the law is powerless?” Wiggum replies, “Powerless to protect you, not to punish you.” Clearly, when it came to protecting Black Students, Jena’s law enforcement officials were asleep at the wheel. When it comes to punishing them, however, they’re operating in overdrive.
If that’s not racism, what is it? | <urn:uuid:58933f00-a50b-4992-9804-03ceff51d3d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mightyminnow.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/jena-6-a-question-of-equal-protection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987758 | 618 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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The Secret Behind Attraction
The secret behind the attraction
All our lives, we’re been told not to judge a book by the cover. We’ve been told that people shouldn’t be judged until we know them well enough.
These words may be told to you by the wisest and the greyest, but that still can’t stop you from going ahead and judging people by their faces.
And it’s not just you. Even the ones who told you not to do the judging can’t help but judge people at first glance.
So what do we call them? Hypocrites? Or perhaps, we should just blame our genes.
The first glance
How many times have you met someone and felt a sudden rush of emotions, good or bad? There may have been times when you felt uncomfortable hanging around someone new, and you couldn’t wait to get out of the room.
So you've finally met a guy who seems worthy of your time. He is everything you've been looking for and more: handsome, successful, smart, and funny. There's just one thing; he's a little bit older than you...make that, a lot older. More so than you're willing to reveal to your parents--let's just put it that way.
As if the world of dating didn't already have enough nuances and complications, differences in age between you and your significant other can be a common source of complication. Whether you are currently dating someone or considering dating someone who differs greatly in age from yourself, read on to see what you can expect from a relationship with this kind of age gap involved.
Social Minang Organization
Genealogically speaking, the matrilineal Minangkabau social organization consisted of four levels : The kaum, paruik, payuang, and suku. Kaum is the smallest genelogical unit who traditionally occupied one rumah gadang (a big house with horn-shaped roofs) . In the old days, although the central figure of the ingerited communal house was the oldest woman, the head of the house was usually a male, the mamak ( uncle) who was sometimes alho called tungganai.
A group of a maximum of four kaum forms a paruik ( womb). A bigger group is called payuang ( umbrella ) , and the biggest one is the suku (clan). The suku was traditionally an exogamous group. One of the major functions of these genealogical units was to secure the orderly transfer of the sacrosanct inherited land. Another function, of course, was to take care of the ranji, the genealogical register. After all, it is the register that should be used to determine one’s right to the pangulu ship.
According to Encarta Dictionary, Morality is the accepted moral standards. It is a standard of conduct that is generally accepted as right or proper. It is the rightness or the wrongness of something as judged by accepted moral standards. While Deviance, It is different or unacceptable behavior. It is the behavior that is sharply different from customary, traditional, or generally accepted standard.
Some church people and laymen always talk about the lack of morality. More appropriately social morality/responsibility as it applies to our perennial, national political-economic crises. For 480 years and counting, most of us Filipinos have been taught or inherited the Catholic Christian (or any Christian variety) religion. For some reason, there obviously is something wrong in the inherited teaching or method of teaching. Since we supposed Filipino Christians have become superficial, truly nominal or "split-level" Christians (Fr. Jaime Bulatao, SJ 1960s).
The Coconut Worm lives inside coconut tree.It's a pupa of some kind of insect.
an ambassador of speech and Romanian song
Gubbaw: Igorots’ Traditon Of Naming A Child
Gubbaw is one kind of tradition that makes some of the Igorot people unique. When a child is born, they will wait until the umbilical cord is detached from the child as a sign the baby can be named or “Maigubbawan”.
The ritual is called gubbaw. This is the igorots’ traditional way of giving the child a name. It is like baptizing in Christianity. In the church a priest does the ceremony of baptism, while the igorot’s tradition, the elders do it.
The priest directs its prayer in heaven, the Igorots call to their God Kabunyan, and to the ghosts of the dead relatives of the family. | <urn:uuid:1dbc42cb-973b-42f5-8f1d-fda15667edaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://profile.fanbox.com/PremiumBlogs/APB_SA.aspx?st=&mode=&CloudPageOffset=&BlogSortType=HighestRated&TagName=tradition | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956096 | 986 | 1.765625 | 2 |
-- Ross is participating in first auction for the natural gas blocks through EXCO with a JV partner in Chinese.
-- Investing in China shale gas is like investing in Wild West. It is still the early days. China has a lot of reserves but has only drilled about 63 wells so far. They have a long way to go, but there is lot of potential.
-- China's economy is slowing but still has 6% growth expected which is much better than a lot of western nations.
-- It is a lot harder to drill in the kind of reserve and geography China has than the U.S. It will be costly to drill, but low labor cost will compensate for that.
-- Main issue with drilling in China is water, as fracking uses a lot of water, but overall drilling will still be much cheaper in China than the U.S.
Credit and source: www.cnbc.com, CNBC
Here is the video: | <urn:uuid:e2e1f645-1ab4-4c51-86e3-cf553f18b1c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gurufocus.com/news/191028/wilbur-ross-joining-hands-with-china-on-natural-gas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978835 | 195 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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U.S. natural gas production is booming. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), production grew by 23 percent from 2007 to 2012. Now--with production projected to continue growing in the decades ahead--U.S. lawmakers and ...
UK and South Korean researchers will work together to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology after institutions in the two countries yesterday signed a ground-breaking strategic agreement.
The Memorandum of Understanding ...
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. In many parts of the country, coal
has been king for many years, but that's changing. Ten years ago, coal
fired half the U.S. electrical power plants. Now ...
The first warning came in the form of dead fish floating in a river.Then officials in this city got confirmation that a chemical spill had taken place at a fertilizer factory upstream. They shut off the tap water, which sent residents ...
The Alberta government said on Monday it canceled C$285 million ($278 million) in funding for a carbon-capture project tied to a proposed synthetic natural gas plant, the second withdrawal of such an environmental initiative in less than a ...
For the second time in less than a year a key carbon capture and storage project in Alberta has been hit with a major setback, denting the province's efforts to combat carbon emissions.
The Alberta government cancelled its $285-million ...
Long before the full frenzy of the boom, you could see its harbingers at the Mountrail County courthouse in Stanley, N.D. Geologists had pored over core samples and log signatures and had made their educated guesses, and now it was the hour of ...
Peabody Energy, the biggest private-sector coal
company in the world, has removed the claim that it is "the global leader in clean energy solutions" from its home page. The two images below show the shift (sometime between Dec. 19 and Dec. 29), ...
Electricity, including that generated by coal
combustion, has been a boon for humanity. In fact, there`s much truth in the headline on Indur M. Goklany's new analysis for the anti-regulatory Cato Institute: "Humanity Unbound: How Fossil Fuels ...
As low-cost natural gas displaces more and more conventional coal
plants, a relatively unknown method for extracting energy from coal
- without removing it from the ground - might seem far-fetched.
Backers of the technique, however, ...
The International Energy Agency`s Medium-Term Coal
Market Report, issued today in Paris, is essential reading for anyone wishing to maintain a reality-based view of global trends in fuel use. While many energy forecasts end up wrong, on short ...
Emphasis on early introduction of a regulatory framework for carbon storage by speakers marked the valedictory session of the three-day international training programme on Clean Coal
Technologies (CCT) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) here on ...
China fires up an average of one new coal
-fired plant each week to fuel its blistering economic growth. In the U.S., despite growing opposition and the flood of cheap "fracked" natural gas, the Department of Energy says coal
"will continue to ...
The state environmental agency has denied a permit request to build a $2 billion plant to convert coal
to synthetic natural gas in southern Illinois, further clouding prospects for the clean-energy project already more than six years in the ...
Only two U.S. electric utilities are building expensive coal
-gasification power plants, while dozens of similar facilities have been scrapped and some remaining projects may eliminate coal
in favor of abundant, cheap natural gas.
As mayor of Dallas from 2002 to 2007, Laura Miller helped lead the charge against a utility company called TXU that wanted to build 11 coal
-fired power plants in Texas. Miller and her allies, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the ...
China is come a step closer to capturing and storing its carbon emissions with the launch of the GreenGen coal gasification
plant in Tianjin, according to a report in Nature.
Carbon capture and storage was highlighted by the leaders of ...
Mississippi utility regulators on Friday issued a temporary certificate to allow a unit of Southern Co to continue building an $2.8 billion coal
-gasification power plant in the state despite a court ruling that overturned the existing certificate ...
When Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits the White House on Valentine's Day, he and President Barack Obama aren't expected to exchange words of love over energy.
The world's two largest energy consumers have clashed over their ...
When Energy Secretary Steven Chu visits China's capital, he spends days with his counterpart Wan Gang, China's minister of science and technology, as they shuttle from meeting to meeting and listen to each other's speeches.
Both top ...
Reducing carbon-dioxide emissions is primarily a political problem, rather than a technological one. This fact was well illustrated by the fate of the 2009 climate bill that barely passed the U.S. House of Representatives and never came up for a ...
After months of speculation, the British government has set back the development of one of the most promising weapons in the war on climate change.The government had a plan to build the world's first industrial-sized carbon capture and ...
A leading tea party candidate who hopes to knock off venerable Sen. Richard Lugar in next May's GOP primary has campaigned heavily against measures to combat climate change even as he holds stock in an energy company that's banking on those ...
How to contact Congress $100 million Wyoming clean coal
plant suspended General Electric and the University of Wyoming announced Friday they have suspended plans to build a $100 million joint clean coal
research facility near Cheyenne amid ...
Alberta thrives on the strength of its oil and gas sector, while coal
keeps the province's lights on -- as such, in an era where many demand lower emissions, the province is a carbon giant looking to change its ways.
Choking the output ... | <urn:uuid:5a2241d0-d4db-4e08-96cb-e5df792868cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/news/welcome.aspx?keyword=coal%20gasification | 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 | 0.936998 | 1,311 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s victory in Sunday’s Russian presidential election was the tear in his eye as he stepped to the microphone to address supporters outside the Kremlin walls in Moscow. Video tagged #putinwept by one incredulous blogger appeared to show Mr. Putin tearing up as he was introduced by the outgoing president, Dmitri Medvedev.
While Mr. Putin said later that the tears were caused by the bitterly cold wind in Moscow, not emotion, Agence France-Presse reported that his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, was more equivocal. “Well, at least that was his explanation for what happened,” Mr. Peskov told state television.
Whatever the truth of the matter, Mr. Putin’s opponents, who plan to protest his election on Monday night in Moscow, used the tears to poke fun at him. “Today, our leader really had a reason to cry,” the blogger Aleksei Navalny told a private television channel. “He looked at everything around him and said: ‘God, what have I done to this place?’”
No Putin no cry
— Пeрзидент Роисси (@KermlinRussia) March 4, 2012 | <urn:uuid:f4e74d07-579f-4773-9f7b-760f6cf5fc74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/putin-wept/?ref=europe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97791 | 277 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Water Quality Assn.’s (WQA) Professional Certification program helps identify professionals who have demonstrated a certain expertise level. Water Quality Products Associate Editor Nicole Bowling spoke with Kelly Thompson, president of Moti-Vitality LLC, a provider of exam preparation, about why this certification is needed and how it benefits the industry.
Nicole Bowling: Why is WQA certification important for dealers?
Kelly Thompson: The short answer is that certification adds credibility to the company and its employees. The larger answer is that it helps raise the standards in the water quality industry. The certification exam and requirements are tough, and if someone has reached a level of certification, then they know quite a bit. This exam is like the bar exam for water quality professionals. You are not likely to pass and receive certification unless you have knowledge and familiarity with the industry, both practical and academic.
Most people in our industry have come from within, specializing in plumbing or well drilling and doing water treatment on the side for their grandfathers or fathers. These sons now run the companies, and since they grew up in the business, they never got formal training. All they know is what works. They have not had time to get certified because they are wearing a million different hats and they will bring people in who do not have certification either. So what you have are these owners and employees who are trying to serve their customers with integrity, but cannot do it because they learned the wrong things many years ago. Certification helps correct that.
Bowling: How does certification benefit dealers?
Thompson : The more dealers are able to serve their customers, they more they are going to prosper. The more involved all of us are in the industry, it is less likely that we will have people that do not always understand how the laws work and how legislation is affecting our industry. It basically comes down to this: If we are going to be the professionals, we are supposed to know more than our customers. That is why certification is important.
Bowling: How does certification benefit customers?
Thompson: I mentioned earlier that the certification process raises the standards in the water quality industry. Customers are served more effectively when water quality professionals have reached these certification levels.
Bowling: How does the certification process work?
Thompson: There is no minimum time in the industry required to take the certification exam. However, someone just starting out is not likely to pass because the exam tests practical and academic knowledge. Essentially, people just order study materials and prepare for the exam. In most cases, it takes about three to six months to prepare thoroughly, although I have seen people order the books and read them a month before the exam.
Bowling: What is the most challenging part of the certification process?
Thompson: The most challenging part is probably practical knowledge. Some people are not very good test takers and it is a very difficult test, but also, it is hard to transfer knowledge from the books. In Level 1 of the certification process, there are three required books: The Legal Considerations Handbook, Water Processing and Water Treatment Fundamentals. The last two are very tough to get through because they are like textbooks. Many people find it difficult to translate what is in the book to what they are doing in the field every day.
Also, many water quality professionals in administrative positions want certification, and while they may grasp academics, they do not have the practical knowledge required to pass because they are not in the field every day.
Bowling: What education opportunities are available to prepare for the certification exams?
Thompson: Many people just choose to order the books and study on their own—you can get significant discounts for being a WQA member. Others sign up for my webinars, which I created to help translate the academic knowledge to the practical. | <urn:uuid:4b98d00f-1593-416b-8bc0-8d5e29a2eb04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wqpmag.com/print/15445 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968825 | 778 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Friday, April 12, 2013
Stand Up For Peace in Jeju Island and in NYC!
Stand Up For Peace!
Stories of Struggles to Stop Naval Base Construction in Jeju Island
Please join Nodutdol in welcoming Ms. Jeong Young-Hee to New York. Ms. Jeong Young-Hee, a grandmother and tangerine farmer living in Gangjeong village, has been the chairwoman of Women Villagers’ Committee to Stop Naval Base Construction since 2007, standing at the forefront of struggle against the illegal naval base construction. She has cut her hairs twice in 2012 during protests as a symbol of dedication (significant in Korean culture) and stated, “my hair will grow again. However, once the naval base is built, our home town, our village would disappear forever.”
Ms. Jeong will be speaking in:
Honolulu, Hawaii – April 24, 2013
Portland, Maine – April 28, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts – April 30, 2013
New York, New York – May 2, 2013
Oakland, California – May 5, 2013
Los Angeles, California – May 10, 2013
In her U.S. speaking tour, she will talk about the current struggles of the Gangjeong villagers with the Park administration in 2013, and will tell us what people in the United States can do to support the struggle against the naval base.
Light snacks and refreshments will be served.
Suggested donations: $5-20 Funds raised will help cover Jeong’s travel costs, and any additional funds will go to the Women Villagers’ Committee to Stop the Naval Base.
Please visit for more info:
> Continue Reading...
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Stop War Games, Start Peace Talks
Statement Opposing U.S.–South Korea
Joint Military Exercises Key Resolve Foal Eagle
March 4, 2013
The Korean War, known in the United States as “The Forgotten War,” has never ended. Every year, the United States stages a series of massive joint war games with its ally, South Korea (ROK). These coordinated exercises are both virtual and real. Among other things, they practice live fire drills and simulate the invasion of North Korea—including first-strike options.
While we - peace, human rights, faith-based, environmental, and Korean solidarity activists – are deeply concerned about North Korea’s third nuclear weapons test, we also oppose the U.S.-ROK joint war games as adding to the dangerous cycle of escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea views these war games as an act of provocation and threat of invasion like that which we have witnessed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya and routinely condemns these maneuvers as aimed at “bring[ing] down the DPRK by force” and forcing it to “bolster up the war deterrent physically.” South Korean activists also decry the role of these war games in the hostile perpetuation of the division of the Korean peninsula and are often persecuted for their protests under South Korea’s draconian National Security Law.
The U.S.-ROK “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle” annual war games, usually staged in March, and “Ulchi Freedom Guardian” in August, typically last for months and involve tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and deployed from the United States, as well as hundreds of thousands of their ROK counterparts. U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Space Command forces will participate in these exercises and practice scenarios including the removal of North Korea’s leadership, occupation of Pyeongyang, and reunification of the peninsula under U.S. and South Korean control.
In South Korea, peace and reunification groups have long opposed these war games. They have called for peninsula-wide demilitarization entailing the eventual removal of U.S. troops. As one organization puts it, “Unless and until US forces are completely and permanently withdrawn from South Korea, it will be impossible to establish peace on the Korean peninsula.”
We call upon the U.S. and South Korean governments to stop the costly and provocative war games and take proactive steps to deescalate the current tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The Perils of the U.S. Pivot
In the past five years, hard-won efforts by the Korean people to ease North-South tensions have been reversed. Through its massive military buildup across the region, the United States has amplified regional tensions. Recent years have been witness to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, increasing nationalism and militarism in Japan (the world's sixth greatest military spender), and a host of increasingly militarized territorial disputes. The global Cold War may have ended 20 years ago, but as the recent round of U.S.-led sanctions on the DPRK and threat of a third DPRK nuclear weapons “test” illustrate, the anachronism remains alive and well on the Korean peninsula.
Crisis on the Korean peninsula furnishes a rationale for U.S. militarization of the region, and the Pentagon has committed to deploy 60% of its air and naval forces to Asia and the Pacific to reinforce its air sea battle doctrine. Announced as the “pivot” of U.S. military resources to Asia and the Pacific, President Obama’s policy, which necessitates more training areas, runways, ports of call, and barracks for the massive shift of U.S. military forces, disregards the impact of militarization on the lives of ordinary people in the region.
The disastrous ecological and human costs of this "pivot" are acutely apparent in the current construction of a naval base on Jeju, an "island of peace" in South Korea known for having the planet's densest concentration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Once celebrated for its pristine beauty and sea-based culture, Gangjeong, a 450-year-old fishing and farming village is being torn to shreds by the South Korean government in collaboration with the United States, which can freely use any ROK military installation. Base construction crews are dredging acres of world-class, bio-diverse coral habitats and covering them with concrete. The obliteration of these coastal ecosystems also destroys the millennia-old livelihoods of the villagers, 94% of whom voted against the base in a local referendum. Gangjeong villagers are watching their heritage, economy, vibrant local culture, spiritual center, and very core of their identity collapse into rubble.
This same multi-facted people’s struggle is being played out in many places across the Asia-Pacific. Within President Obama’s “pivot” policy, U.S. bases in South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, and Guam are ever more important. Moreover, his administration has been pressing hard to open up previously closed U.S. bases in geostrategically vital nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the July 27, 1953 Armistice Agreement that brought the combat phase of the Korean War to a temporary halt but did not end the war. The Armistice Agreement stipulated that a peace agreement be realized within three months and that negotiations take place for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea. Over the past several decades, North Korea, often portrayed in mainstream media as an irrational rogue state, has repeatedly requested peace negotiations with the United States. Yet today, we station nearly 30,000 military personnel and operate over 40 military bases on the Korean peninsula. We have spent the past 60 years living not in a post-war era, but under a ceasefire whose consequences are borne most acutely by the Korean people. On this anniversary of the irresolution of the Korean War, the longest conflict the United States has been involved in, we as human rights, Korean solidarity, faith-based, peace, and environmental organizations call for attention to the human and ecological costs of permanent war as the modus vivendi of U.S.-Korean relations. Efforts that promote increased militarization and conflict and the destruction of the rich biodiversity in Korea are immoral and go against universally shared values of building peace, caring for Earth, and respecting the human dignity and worth of every person.
Resolution for Peace
We, the undersigned peace, human rights, faith-based, environmental, and Korean solidarity activists, call upon the U.S.-ROK governments to cancel their dangerous and costly war games against North Korea.
We strongly urge the United States to turn to diplomacy for common and human security rather than militarization, which will only undermine regional and U.S. security. We further request that the Obama administration focus its strategic shift to the Asia region on finding diplomatic and peaceful solutions to conflict, and building cooperation with all nations in the region, including China, DPRK, and Russia.
On this anniversary of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice Agreement, which several decades ago called for a peaceful resolution to the Korean War, we join with our peace-minded brothers and sisters in Korea and call on the Obama administration to deescalate the current tensions and do its part in realizing “Year One of Peace” on the Korean Peninsula.
Statement Initiated by the Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific
Christine Ahn, Gretchen Alther, Rev. Levi Bautista, Jackie Cabasso, Herbert Docena, John Feffer, Bruce Gagnon, Joseph Gerson, Subrata Goshoroy, Mark Harrison, Christine Hong, Kyle Kajihiro, Peter Kuznick, Hyun Lee, Ramsay Liem, Andrew Lichterman, John Lindsay-Poland, Ngo Vinh Long, Stephen McNeil, Nguyet Nguyen, Satoko Norimatsu, Koohan Paik, Mike Prokosh, Juyeon JC Rhee, Arnie Sakai, Tim Shorrock, Alice Slater, David Vine, Sofia Wolman, Kevin Martin
The Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific is comprised of individuals and organizations concerned about and working for peace and demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific on a comprehensive basis. For more information see: www.asiapacificinitiative.org
> Continue Reading...
Monday, January 7, 2013
KEEP-DPRK 2013 Now Accepting Applications
For Koreans in the U.S. and Canada
APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE FOR KEEP-DPRK 2013
(Korea Education and Exposure Program-DPRK)
Application Deadline: February 2, 2013.
Please send an email to requesting an application, if you wish to apply.
KEEP-DPRK celebrates its 10th year as an education and exposure program for Koreans in the U.S. and Canada visiting the northern half of our homeland for approximately 13 days. This year’s focus is: Refocusing Peace: Understanding Growing Military Tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Accordingly,
1. This year, we are looking for applicants who are committed to understanding what is behind the current military tensions on the Korean peninsula and what North Korea’s perspective is.
2. Those who wish to apply for this year’s program are expected to commit for a 2–3 year period in nurturing and helping to grow the KEEP program and working with National Campaign to End Korean War.
This program is hosted by Nodutdol for Korean Community Development (NDD), a non-profit organization based in New York, and is part of NDD’s overall efforts to work towards peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. After 10 years of hosting KEEP-DPRK and 15 years of hosting KEEP-ROK, Nodutdol hopes to build partnerships with progressive Korean diaspora activists in various regions to share in the vision and work of building the two programs. It is our hope that this year’s program to the DPRK will help us to develop new leadership that will continue to work together to shape future programs.
> Continue Reading... | <urn:uuid:fe84ecd4-4588-4bdb-b1bc-00e3708b50de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nodutdol.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935392 | 2,531 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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Soccer Passing Videos
In Beckham's first few minutes playing for the LA Galaxy against Chelsea he made a pass across the video, a diagonal ball, that is rarely seen in the MLS, and a skill that is hard to come by--someone who can make that laser pass right to the feet of a player, so they can score or get a team out of a jumbled area of pressure.
Beckham: In the 81st minute, he launched a 40-yard crossfield laser right to the head of Quavas Kirk, who, unlike, say, Van Nistelrooy, had no idea what to do with. From Dead Spin
Or, there are key players that act like walls, get it and give it back to the player who's open or has more time and space. Then there's the player who, seemingly, never loses the ball and allows his team to get organized, players like Xavi for Barcelona or Makelele for Chelsea and formerly of Real Madrid.
Passing is really an art though--at times the pass being more beautiful than the actual goal. And that is where players like Beckham, Alonso, Deco, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Riquelme, Zidane distinguish themselves and their teams. | <urn:uuid:16debf04-9295-416f-b502-50ebbec33eab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.soccer-training-info.com/passing_videos.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952985 | 292 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Glenn Gould was one of the foremost pianists of the 20th century. Best known for his interpretations of Bach, Gould hosted a series of radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. This article comes from a program by Gould on Leopold Stokowski.
When I was a teenager back in the 40s, Leopold Stokowski shared for some years the podium of the New York Philharmonic. His co-director was the late Dimitri Mitropoulis and together they contributed to that memorable Sunday afternoon series on CBS radio, which was one of the few redeeming features of American broadcasting in the years after World War II. Running opposite the Stokowski/Metropoulis programs on CBS was NBC’s entry in the symphonic sweepstakes, a series featuring the orchestra which bore the network’s name, which was created for and conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
The attitude of the young people of my generation toward these weekend music specials was rather interesting. It was generally bandied about by my conservatory friends that you were either a Stokowski fan or a Toscanini devotee. There was apparently no middle ground, except perhaps that which was occasionally occupied by Bruno Walter. According to the academic banter of that time, Toscanini embodied most progressive musical virtues. His performances were direct, straightforward and emotionally objective. Whichever notes, dynamic marks or tempo indications appeared before him in the score were, to the best of his and the NBC Orchestra’s ability, what you heard. For Toscanini, the composer’s notational suggestions were gospel.
YouTube: Toscanini conducts the overture to
La Forza del Destino (Verdi) 1944
Not so with Stokowski. He was and is, for want of a better word, an ecstatic. Stokowski is involved with the notes, the tempo marks, the dynamic indications in the score to the same extent that a filmmaker is involved with the original book or source which supplies the impetus- the idea of his film. So, Stokowski’s performances either stand or fall depending on the degree he can infuse them with a sense of his own commitment to the project. And happily for those who became addicted to his way of making music, there’s rarely been a more committed, more imaginative, more resourceful artist than Leopold Stokowski.
Leopold Stokowski conducts the second movement from
Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony (Carnegie Hall/1947) at YouTube
There was however another reason for the disrepute into which Mr. Stokowski’s interperative techniques had fallen in those years, besides that penchant for a neo-literalist performing style which the young people of my generation espoused. He was not only a popularizer- a man who thought nothing of transforming the keyboard works of Bach into massive orchestral statements. But more than that, he was a film personality. In the mid-1930s, he’d relinquished his post as the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, in which he single-handedly transformed the standards of orchestral playing in North America, in order to join Deanna Durbin and Donald Duck on the silver screen in Hollywood.
Stokowski from “Big Broadcast of 1937″ at YouTube
“I go to a higher calling.” he was reported to have said to the press conference which was called to announce his departure, and if one can filter out the inevitable quotient of defensiveness which one may assume to infiltrate a remark of that kind, it was a remarkably revealing comment.
Technology for Stokowski was a higher calling. He was indeed the first great musician to realize that the future of music would inexorably wound up with technological progress, and that communications media were in fact the best friend that music ever had. Many of his recordings… and all of which I know from personal experience where he maintains a firm hand in relation to the processes of production… were years ahead sonically.
But the real benefit of his interest in technology, I think, was that it enabled Stokowski to resist the inhibitions induced by those pre-technological attitudes toward music-making which created the stratified roles of performer, listener and composer; and which held that those roles would ever remain separate and distinct. For Stokowski, I think, those distinctions are themselves are the single greatest danger that the artist must face. And I suspect that the enormous appeal of his music-making over the last sixty years or so is precisely his realization of that fact, and his willingness to act upon the assumptions that follow from it.
Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” Part 1 at YouTube
Stokowski is 88 now, at least he was when I interviewed him for this program. Nothing in his manner, his outlook or the vitality of his music-making suggests the incipient nonagenarian, but it’s perhaps useful to recall that Stokowski was born while Wagner was still alive, and when Brahms died, Stokowski himself was already a teenager.
In theory, his outlook and his art should represent the aesthetic attitudes of a bygone era, or eras. But in fact, because of his extraordinary warmth and humility, his remarkable receptivity to new ideas, and above all because in his lifetime we’ve already seen nothing but triumph. But the essential humanity of those technological ideas which have informed all of his work as a musician, Leopold Stokowski is very much a man of the future.
So, what is the connection to animation, you might ask… Well the obvious link is the fact that Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski collaborated on Fantasia.
But it goes deeper than that. Stokowski shared certain creative instincts with some prominent animators. For instance, In the space of a little more than a decade, Stokowski built the Philadelphia Orchestra up from scratch until it was the preeminent orchestra in the United States. He employed the latest technology to bring the highest possible production value to his recordings. After he had reached the peak of popularity, he turned his attention to bring his music-making to a whole new media. He embraced motion pictures, radio broadcasts and television programs as a means to present his music in an entirely new way to the broadest audience possible.
Walt Disney pressed his artistic staff to improve and develop new techniques for the art of animation, making huge strides between “Steamboat Willie” and “Snow White”. He employed Technicolor, the multiplane camera and live action/animation compositing to advance the tools available to his artists, which set his films apart from his competition on a technical level. After he had conquered the medium of the cartoon short with Mickey Mouse, he turned his attention to creating the first hand drawn animated feature. And when that was established, he turned to live action films, television and theme parks to take his ideas to new mediums. He succeeded in reaching the entire world with his creations.
In the article above, Glenn Gould touches on the differences between Arturo Toscanini and Stokowski. Toscanini was a disciplined conductor who demanded and got complete control. He unified a group of over 80 musicians into a single mind, expressing the will of Toscanini. This resulted in performances of incredible directness and power. Toscanini’s aesthetic choices were consistent and were handed down as the law through the regimented beat of his baton.
In contrast, Stokowski was more of a magician, evoking a unique performance out of each and every musician in his orchestra. Instead of deciding on a plan of attack in advance and executing it with precision, Stokowski allowed for the inspiration of the moment to guide him. He was constantly experimenting and evolving as an artist. His carefully modulated hand gestures directed the ebb and flow of the performance without rigidly controlling it. Even without a rigid hand controlling the proceedings, he could take an orchestra with which he had never worked before and quickly lead them to that distinctive “Stokowski Sound”.
Chuck Jones was a director of animated cartoons who planned out his films in great detail at the layout stage and required his animators to hew close to his drawings in their scenes. He precisely controlled every aspect of the timing of his films, and as he developed his characters, he created a canonical set of rules for the story structures and the way the characters acted within them. His Roadrunner and Pepe Le Pew cartoons were more like variations on a single theme than individual cartoons because they were constantly refining and focusing the specific ideas of Chuck Jones.
Bob Clampett approached the direction of his films quite differently. Instead of insisting that the artists draw precisely the way he did in the layouts, he encouraged them to go beyond his drawings and work within their own style to express themselves in the most creative way possible. Robert McKimson was encouraged to create scenes of great solidity and strength, while Rod Scribner was directed to explore the fourth dimensional aspects of cartoony exaggeration. This freedom didn’t result in a dilution of Clampett’s control over the film. On the contrary, he used his artists’ strengths and weaknesses to put across his own unique vision and sense of humor. There were no rules in Clampett cartoons. In one, Bugs Bunny would be the victor, in another, he would be foiled at every turn. Each film was developed as its own creative experiment, and the variety of moods, stories and atmosphere in his films is kaleidoscopic.
Both Toscanini and Stokowski were great conductors. In fact, they may have been the two greatest artists ever to work in their artform. But they were as different as they could possibly be. The same might be said of Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett.
This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit entitled Theory.
Music shares an indescribable magic with animation. It’s hard to describe in words exactly why certain walk cycles or pantomime gags are so wonderful. Music is a source of non-verbal delight as well. The rhythms and pacing of cartoons often mirror the construction of popular music with a statement of theme followed by variations, culminating in a restatement of the theme and a big finish. If you think about it, the best cartoons are inseparable from music. Adventures in Music explores the wide world of music with an eye to revealing the relationships between music and creativity. | <urn:uuid:a93b48e8-44dd-4bf2-80e0-d8ce5b8d98ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://animationresources.org/?cat=515 | 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 | 0.980267 | 2,195 | 1.617188 | 2 |
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
|Troupe of dancing skeletons|
Company of travelling dancers
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (possibly)
- "By the time Hallowe'en arrived, Harry was regretting his rash promise to go to the Deathday Party. The rest of the school was happily anticipating their Hallowe'en feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumours that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment."
There were rumours that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had booked this troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment at the 1992 Hallowe'en feast at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is unknown whether or not these rumours were true.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Mentioned only) | <urn:uuid:474784b9-30f3-41f0-9c43-231cbacf077b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Troupe_of_dancing_skeletons | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938689 | 247 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing:
There was a time when companies entirely dependent upon television and print media for advertising their products but today, this option can be scoffed at. Now, with social media in full swing, it is in fact, very difficult to find one who does not use at least one tool of social media like Facebook or Twitter. The weapon that social media holds close to its chest is what we call “a personal touch” and it is this “touch” that enables it to beat its opponents of newspapers and magazines face down. We see from small beverage companies to BMW and even up to Presidential Candidates using social media tools and it is obvious that it is a very powerful phenomenon.
What is social media marketing (SMM)?
As simple as those words sound, it is the process of gaining attention via social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and, personal and company blogs. It is true that in the present era, luxury is at the click of the mouse. More people are online than ever before. It is but natural that companies and profit making organizations feel the urge to reach this online population in order to turn eyes towards their products. Scott Monty, global head of social media for Ford Motors Company blogs that this is the “era of sharing”. The power of content sharing and getting word out on products, services and programs paves the way for success. Those who do not embrace this change are simply left behind.
FANCY SOME FACTS?
- 53% of employers research candidates on social networking sites before hiring.
- 71% of companies are present on Facebook and 59% on Twitter.
- 43% of companies now, have a company blog for marketing.
- One in every four Americans watches a YouTube video every day.
- Top 10% of all social network accounts for nearly 80% of all social networking traffic.
- Women outnumber men in almost all social networks.
- LinkedIn is used by 92% of top executives!
Social media is now a gauge for businesses success and accountability. How do you know if you’re doing it right? It is necessary that marketers deal with the right audience and use the right tools in order to enhance their brand name.
THE NEW US J
The social media adoption survey by Dr. Nora Barnes at UMASS Dartmouth in 2010 reveals that over 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies resort to social media marketing and the number is ever increasing. It cannot be denied that companies of this modern scenario are truly blessed to embrace such a technological advancement in the field of marketing.
Ping tech group is innovative and fluent with Social Media Marketing – SMM . Through our unique approach, we create a personality behind every brand, a customer relationship that cannot be achieved without the spaces of the World Wide Web. We achieve the kind of success that seems far fetched to the past world. Our out of the box strategies can make your business go viral on social media. Through our efficient social media marketing services we push small business being into medium business. Our sheer passion to demonstrate quality with results makes our clientele grow throughout the nation. Let us be your Social Media Company Get a free analysis on your business / a free quote on SMM fill out a simple online form. | <urn:uuid:d421e0e9-0b3f-4913-91e2-be128ed4d627> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pingtechgroup.com/marketing/social-media-marketing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937542 | 673 | 1.703125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON, DC.- Industry Gallery
opened Nature / Data, the first solo U.S. exhibition for New York‐based Italian designer and architect Antonio Pio Saracino. The exhibition, which runs through October 30, 2010, premieres two new designs, feature work created mostly during the past year and introduce two large‐scale models of triumphal arches representing Italian emigration to North and South America. The works in the exhibition are executed in plywood, metal, carbon fiber and synthetics and abstract from natural forms such as molecules, leaves, blossoms, and crystals.
Nature / Data features eleven different chair designs, including two newly created for the exhibition: Riccio, a chair with a smooth interior and spiky exterior; and Molecular Bench, a baroque, steel‐framed work covered with molecule‐shaped recycled wool. The other nine designs, most created within the past year, are exhibited along with two large‐scale models for triumphal arches inspired by two centuries of Italian emigration to North and South America. The models were constructed from layers of hard foam, each layer a graphic representation (referencing bar charts) of emigration data from 1810‐2010. In Spring 2011, a planned stainless steel version, commissioned by the Italian Cultural Institute, will be erected in front of the Museum Carraffa in Cordoba, Argentina.
Saracino's designs stem from his lifelong fascination with nature and natural systems. As a child in Puglia (in southern Italy), he collected plants, rocks, fossils and insects. "I have always been fascinated by the mystery of nature, and the beauty and complexity of the natural world," said Saracino. "However, I do not seek to replicate nature. I look to replicate the feeling that nature creates within me." Living in Rome from the age of 19, "affected my vision and made me realize the power of design in making and defining a civilization. Design is important in the evolution of a culture and its identification process, by which I mean its sense of pride and belonging."
Speaking about the broader concept of design, Saracino said, "In Italy people truly value design. We believe that beauty will save the world. Beauty is not a shallow concept, but a broader idea of balance that creates a sense of continuity between our place in the world and what we design and live with everyday (objects, fashion, houses) ... Design is an act of love for other people. Every designer hopes and believes that his or her work will make the world a better place in which to live."
Antonio Pio Saracino is an Italian‐born architect and designer currently working and living in New York. For more than a decade Saracino's designs and artwork have been shown in individual and group exhibitions in Rome, Brussels, London, Moscow, Cordoba, Sydney and New York. Nature / Data at Industry Gallery in Washington, D.C. is his first solo U.S. exhibition.
In 2003, Saracino graduated cum laude with a master's degree in architecture from "La Sapienza" the University of Rome. Since 2004, he has worked in tandem with New York-based architect Steve Blatz on interior design, conceptual projects and design competitions, such as the Seed House, a pod‐shaped residence that received an American Architecture Award in 2007 from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Saracino has received numerous international art, design and architecture awards and is a four‐time winner of the Future Furniture Design Competition sponsored by Interior Design magazine. His projects have received extensive coverage from design and art media in Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Australia, Japan and the U.S. His 2007 design work at the Tibi boutique in New York's Soho was featured in Interior Design's "Best of the Year" issue and the "Global Shop" section of Wallpaper*. He was also named one of ARTnews magazine's 25 trendsetters.
Saracino was selected as the winner of the Agorafolly art competition at the Europalia Europa Art Festival 2007/2008 in Brussels, Belgium, designing a work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Union. His large‐scale installation created on behalf of the nation of Italy was mounted in front of the La Gare Centrale train station. This past summer he unveiled the design for the 2010 eni Formula One and Moto GP World Championship trophy. | <urn:uuid:06fcedee-45da-4662-ae43-acebcf5f7c23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=40845&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962328 | 920 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Increased cellular data use may be linked to streaming bug in iOS 6.0
A bug in Apple's AV Foundation framework, which handles streaming audio and other media for podcast apps, radio apps, and more, could be behind the mysterious, maddening cellular data spikes many users, myself included, have experienced since updating to iOS 6 or the iPhone 5. In essence, iOS just keeps on downloading data, over and over and over and over again, sometimes gigabytes worth at a time. Here's what PRX Labs found after doing some research into it:
The player appears to get into a state where it makes multiple requests per second and closes them rapidly. Because the ranges of these requests seem to overlap and the requests themselves each carry some overhead, this causes a single download of an MP3 to use significantly more bandwidth than in iOS 5. In one case, the playback of a single 30MB episode caused the transfer of over 100MB of data.
PRX was testing Wi-Fi, but seem to believe cellular, including LTE, would exhibit the same bad behavior. PRX also believes the bug is fixed in iOS 6.0.1, though Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web points out that some believe they're still seeing the bug even after updating.
iMore has had complaints about video podcasts taking longer to download than usual as well, and while it's unknown if the issues are related, it's also impossible to rule them out.
Let's be clear though, this is an issue that is costing real people real money. I've never before gotten close to my $35/6GB data plan limit before, yet last month I blew past it far enough to be surcharged $50. All I do is stream audio, and I haven't been streaming anything different than I used it. Less in fact.
If this isn't fixed already, it needs to be fixed immediately. | <urn:uuid:1a1fd1bc-841f-4b08-9fbb-bf2a00cf5102> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/comment/370932 | 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 | 0.972277 | 388 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Kathmandu, July 2
The earlier ceiling of the budget for the next fiscal year set by the government is likely to exceed by around Rs. 13-15 billion as the government has further liabilities to allocate additional amounts.
The government had set a ceiling of Rs. 429 billion budget for the fiscal year 2069/70.
Talking to The Rising Nepal, Janak Raj Shah, Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), said that the budget ceiling may go up to around Rs. 442-445 billion owing to the additional liabilities on the part of the government.
"Earlier, we had a ceiling of the budget to around Rs. 429 billion. However, with the announcement of the elections and formation of new ministries, we have additional liabilities to increase the size of the budget," he said.
He said that the government would increase the budget taking into consideration the macro economic indicators of the country.
"Given the size of our domestic borrowing, foreign loan and assistance and the revenue mobilization record, we have our own resource limitations," he said clarifying that the ceiling would not cross Rs. 445 billion.
Asked about the major programmes and policies of the government in the next fiscal budget, Shah said that the government would speed up the work of the national pride projects by increasing their budget.
Besides, we have also giving maximum focus on the implementation of the budget, he said.
The government would increase the budget of the national pride projects such as Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, Second International Airport of Nijgadh, Bara, Melamchi Drinking Water Project, Mid-hill Highway, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, Sikta Irrigation Project, Rani Jamara Irrigation Project, Babahi Irrigation Project, Budhigandaki Hydropower Project, West Seti Hydropower Project, East-West Electric Train, Postal Highway, the river corridor of Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali, among others.
Similarly, the government has accorded top priority to infrastructure development, tourism, agriculture, hydropower, among others.
"The government’s top priorities are peace, constitution, good governance and prosperity. As the constitution writing process has come to halt now, we have even more responsibilities to provide relief for the people by introducing programmes having direct impact on the people," he said.
Saying that the budget would accord due priority to employment generation, creation of investment climate for attracting and promoting the government, foreign and domestic investments.
Similarly, the government has thought of brining new programmes to encourage volunteerism, make the self-employment programme more effective and increase private investments.
Asked about the possibility of introducing completely new programmes and populist programmes targeting election as demanded by the opposition political parties, Shah said that the government would fully abide by the financial discipline and bring programmes to meet the goals set by the Three Year Plan.
He, however, said that as the budget was the government’s political document, there would be slight redesigning of the existing programmes.
He also suggested that the parties should not make the budget a bargaining tool and asked the government to work forge consensus with the political parties to bring the budget. | <urn:uuid:28881d08-d7de-4600-ae57-dde6cc77a64e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/gopa.detail.php?article_id=68563&cat_id=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961857 | 656 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Ezekiel 22:29 WYC
The peoples of the land challenged false challenge, and ravished by violence; they tormented a needy man and (a) poor (man), and oppressed a comeling by false challenge, without doom. (The peoples of the land oppressed, and robbed with violence; they tormented the needy and the poor, and oppressed newcomers, without justification.)
Read Ezekiel 22 WYC
Read Ezekiel 22:29 WYC in parallel
The sins of Jerusalem. (1-16) Israel is condemned as dross. (17-22) As the corruption is general, so shall be the punishment. (23-31)
Verses 1-16 The prophet is to judge the bloody city; the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, because of her crimes. The sins which Jerusalem stands charged with, are exceeding sinful. Murder, idolatry, disobedience to parents, oppression and extortion, profanation of the sabbath and holy things, seventh commandment sins, lewdness and adultery. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness. Sinners provoke God because they forget him. Jerusalem has filled the measure of her sins. Those who give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts, will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those who resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other happiness than their own hands can furnish; and a miserable portion it will prove.
Verses 17-22 Israel, compared with other nations, had been as the gold and silver compared with baser metals. But they were now as the refuse that is consumed in the furnace, or thrown away when the silver is refined. Sinners, especially backsliding professors, are, in God's account, useless and fit for nothing. When God brings his own people into the furnace, he sits by them as the refiner by his gold, to see that they are not continued there any longer than is fitting and needful. The dross shall be wholly separated, and the good metal purified. Let those who suffer pains, or lingering sickness, and find that their hearts can scarcely bear these light and momentary afflictions, take warning to flee from the wrath to come; for if these trials are not sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the cleansing their hearts and hands from sin, far worse things will come upon them.
Verses 23-31 All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run them down.
Ezekiel 22:1-31 . GOD'S JUDGMENT ON THE SINFULNESS OF JERUSALEM.
Repetition of the charges in the twentieth chapter only that there they were stated in an historical review of the past and present; here the present sins of the nation exclusively are brought forward.
2. See Ezekiel 20:4 ; that is, "Wilt thou not judge?" &c. (compare Ezekiel 23:36 ).
the bloody city--literally, "the city of bloods"; so called on account of murders perpetrated in her, and sacrifices of children to Molech ( Ezekiel 22:3 Ezekiel 22:4 Ezekiel 22:6 Ezekiel 22:9 , Ezekiel 24:6 Ezekiel 24:9 ).
3. sheddeth blood . . . that her time may come--Instead of deriving advantage from her bloody sacrifices to idols, she only thereby brought on herself "the time" of her punishment.
against herself--( Proverbs 8:36 ).
4. thy days--the shorter period, namely, that of the siege.
thy years--the longer period of the captivity. The "days" and "years" express that she is ripe for punishment.
5. infamous--They mockingly call thee, "Thou polluted one in name (Margin), and full of confusion" [FAIRBAIRN], (referring to the tumultuous violence prevalent in it). Thus the nations "far and near" mocked her as at once sullied in character and in actual fact lawless. What a sad contrast to the Jerusalem once designated "'the holy city!"
6. Rather, "The princes . . . each according to his power, were in thee, to shed blood" (as if this was the only object of their existence). "Power," literally, "arm"; they, who ought to have been patterns of justice, made their own arm of might their only law.
7. set light by--Children have made light of, disrespected, father . . . ( Deuteronomy 27:16 ). At Ezekiel 22:7-12 are enumerated the sins committed in violation of Moses' law.
9. men that carry tales--informers, who by misrepresentations cause innocent blood to be shed ( Leviticus 19:16 ). Literally, "one who goes to and fro as a merchant."
10. set apart for pollution--that is, set apart as unclean ( Leviticus 18:19 ).
12. forgotten me--( Deuteronomy 32:18 , Jeremiah 2:32 , 3:21 ).
13. smitten mine hand--in token of the indignant vengeance which I will
14. ( Ezekiel 21:7 ).
15. consume thy filthiness out of thee--the object of God in scattering the Jews.
16. take thine inheritance in thyself--Formerly thou wast Mine inheritance; but now, full of guilt, thou art no longer Mine, but thine own inheritance to thyself; "in the sight of the heathen," that is, even they shall see that, now that thou hast become a captive, thou art no longer owned as Mine [VATABLUS]. FAIRBAIRN and others needlessly take the Hebrew from a different root, "thou shalt be polluted by ('in,' [HENDERSON]) thyself," &c.; the heathen shall regard thee as a polluted thing, who hast brought thine own reproach on thyself.
18. dross . . . brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isaiah 1:22 , especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated ( Jeremiah 6:29 Jeremiah 6:30 ).
23. From this verse to the end he shows the general corruption of all ranks.
24. land . . . not cleansed--not cleared or cultivated; all a scene of desolation; a fit emblem of the moral wilderness state of the people.
nor rained upon--a mark of divine "indignation"; as the early and latter rain, on which the productiveness of the land depended, was one of the great covenant blessings. Joel ( Joel 2:23 ) promises the return of the former and latter rain, with the restoration of God's favor.
25. conspiracy--The false prophets have conspired both to propagate error and to oppose the messages of God's servants. They are mentioned first, as their bad influence extended the widest.
prey--Their aim was greed of gain, "treasure, and precious things" ( Hosea 6:9 , Zephaniah 3:3 Zephaniah 3:4 , Matthew 23:14 ).
made . . . many widows--by occasioning, through false prophecies, the war with the Chaldeans in which the husbands fell.
26. Her priests--whose "lips should have kept knowledge" ( Malachi 2:7 ).
violated--not simply transgressed; but, have done violence to the law, by wresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it.
put no difference between the holy and profane, &c.--made no distinction between the clean and unclean ( Leviticus 10:10 ), the Sabbath and other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. "Holy" means, what is dedicated to God; "profane," what is in common use; "unclean," what is forbidden to be eaten; "clean," what is lawful to be eaten.
I am profaned among them--They abuse My name to false or unjust purposes.
27. princes--who should have employed the influence of their position for the people's welfare, made "gain" their sole aim.
wolves--notorious for fierce and ravening cruelty ( Micah 3:2 Micah 3:3 Micah 3:9-11 , John 10:12 ).
28. Referring to the false assurances of peace with which the prophets flattered the people, that they should not submit to the king of Babylon Ezekiel 21:29 , Jeremiah 6:14 , Jeremiah 23:16 Jeremiah 23:17 , Jeremiah 27:9 Jeremiah 27:10 ).
29. The people--put last, after the mention of those in office. Corruption had spread downwards through the whole community.
wrongfully--that is, "without cause," gratuitously, without the stranger proselyte giving any just provocation; nay, he of all others being one who ought to have been won to the worship of Jehovah by kindness, instead of being alienated by oppression; especially as the Israelites were commanded to remember that they themselves had been "strangers in Egypt" ( Exodus 22:21 , 23:9 ).
30. the hedge--the wall leading the people to repentance.
the gap--the breach ( Psalms 106:23 ); image for interceding between the people and God ( Genesis 20:7 , Exodus 32:11 , Numbers 16:48 ).
I found none--( Jeremiah 5:1 )--not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. For Jeremiah, Baruch, &c., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people ( Jeremiah 11:14 ), as being doomed to wrath. None now, of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none "among them," that is, among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins ( Ezekiel 22:25-29 ), was morally able for such an office.
31. their own way . . . recompensed upon their heads--( Ezekiel 9:10 , 11:21 , 16:43 , Proverbs 1:31 , Isaiah 3:11 , Jeremiah 6:19 ). | <urn:uuid:c1f6dbed-05b1-4124-8dab-fdd60327cb9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/ezekiel/22-29-compare.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952901 | 2,273 | 1.578125 | 2 |
At the suggestion of my dear friend and sister in law, this post will be pertaining to baking and cooking. M* is wonderfully healthy, and has recently decided that he does indeed like the rice flour bread that I have been purchasing frozen and thawing one or two slices at a time. Because of the limitations up to this point, he hasn’t really had sandwiches, but now that he has chosen a bread he likes, that is in our near future.
Let’s talk basic baking ingredients:
Things that are safe as is:
Things to watch for, omit or substitute
Eggs - any form of actual egg is flat out. The only substitution that works for us has been Ener-G Egg Replacer. It can not be used as a whole ingredient (like scrambled eggs), but is priceless in its function as egg substitute in baking. In fruit breads, an extra banana has proven a workable but flawed sub.
Flour – no wheat flour whatsoever. Read carefully. Some flours are blended with wheat, even if labeled otherwise. M* is fortunate to not have a gluten intolerance, meaning that other grains which contain gluten are not off limits. Only wheat. So this means we are experimenting with all different kinds of flours. Rice, Brown Rice, Tapioca, Potato (which is purely potato powder…wonderful for substitute white sauce/rue), chickpea flour, oat bran. There are unique qualities to these flours, and I am still discovering what works best for which item.
Milk – No animal milk of any kind. No soy. No almond. This leaves hemp, sunflower and rice milks, and in our case I have used some of his formula in a sweeter dough. It adds a vanilla/sweet flavor, but is not unpleasant. I have used this when a higher fat content is desirable.
Vegetable Oil – Be very cautious. Much of the vegetable oil produced is pure soy oil. This is a problem. Instead, use corn oil, olive oil, or sunflower oil. NEVER use walnut oil. Coconut oil is great, but some recipes require the liquid form of the other two I listed. An extra portion of applesauce can be used to add moisture in sweeter recipes/breads as well.
Chocolate Chips – most, unless pure dark chocolate, contain milk and soy lecithin. This rules them out. There are a few brands I have used that produce a very tasty dairy free, soy free chocolate. My favorite at this point is the Enjoy Life brand, mini chips. M* loves them!
Peanut Butter – no. Sunflower butter is the best sub for him. Soy butter is out, as are all of the other common butters, such as walnut, cashew and almond.
Nuts – no.
Seeds – most seeds are okay, but stay far away from sesame seeds. Sunflower is the most common one for us, and pumpkin seeds.
Butter – NO. Really, really no. There are two that we love and use constantly. One is Dairy free, soy free, everything free buttery spread from Earth Balance. I also really love the Coconut Oil butter spread from Olivio. Both are very good on other foods as well, such as potatoes and rice.
Other dairy products - Sour Cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, anything like that, is not good. BUT never fear, the good people at SoDelicious have come up with wonderful yogurts to use instead. They make plain coconut yogurt, flavored, and Greek versions. Fabulous!
As far as cooking in general, it’s pretty simple to cook for someone with allergies. You just have to get in the habit of clean eating. The opportunities that come from eating only vegetables, fruits and meats from whole ingredients are amazing! Flavors are pure and clean, and it is easy enough to make tasty meals that everyone can enjoy together. Granted, now and then I would like to chow through an entire loaf of Texas Toast, but honestly it’s not that good for the tummy – it’s a helpful aid to be tethered to a strict diet.
A few meals that we have come to love eating together are :
Spaghetti and Meatballs:
Gluten Free Italian Sausage Meatballs
Spaghetti noodles with Rice Flour
Any one of a number of big brand sauces OR home spiced tomato sauce. Just watch the labels for added cheeses or soy ingredients.
Beef, seasoned as desired, served in a lettuce wrap
oven fries, just sliced and tossed in olive oil
Taco seasoning, scanned for dairy and soy, or seasoned at home
meat of choice
toppings, other than sour cream
Corn tortillas or corn taco shells (crunchy tacos are already corn!)
Bacon, steamed broccoli, greek yogurt or butter as toppings
served with salad or chicken
Next up, we will tackle ready-made desserts! | <urn:uuid:101c8ded-cd24-4c4d-8bc9-a691df86a922> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ricemilkandhoney.com/2012/05/22/30/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949589 | 1,040 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Stir in 1 1/2 cups/375 ml water to blend. What you'll have is a wet, shaggy, sticky dough, but not so wet as to be batter. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours, and up to 24 hours. It's ready for the next step when the surface is dotted with bubbles.
Flour a work surface and dump the dough out onto it. Sprinkle over a little more flour and fold it once or twice. Cover with the tea towel and let rest 15 minutes.
Using only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers, shape the dough into a ball. Coat a cotton towel with cornmeal, wheat bran or flour and lay the dough on it, seam-side down. Dust with more cornmeal, wheat bran or flour. (You need quite a lot because you want to be sure the dough doesn't stick to the towel). Cover and let rise for about 2 hours. When ready, the dough will be more than double in size.
Half an hour before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F/230 degrees C. Put a 2-liter cast-iron pot or Dutch oven (cocotte) inside to heat.
When the dough is ready, remove the pot from the oven and turn the dough into it, seam-side up. (It will look messy, but this is OK.) Shake the pot to settle the bread evenly. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake until the loaf is nicely browned, another 15 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack. | <urn:uuid:4e4ba718-0f59-42bf-90ab-b6e7cd8ad69d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/laura-calder/the-miracle-boule.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93081 | 355 | 1.625 | 2 |
This will be a combination of a halachic review, practical suggestions, useful information, and more. Do not take anything written here as “the last word”; if you have any doubts, check things out with your Rav. We are including it the week before Chanuka to give you time for careful review.
FRIDAY, 24 KISLEV (Nov. 29)
In general, one should prepare his Chanukiya during the afternoon so that there will not be a delay in lighting at the proper time. This is especially so on Friday, Erev Shabbat-Chanuka (we have two of them this year) because things get kind of hectic as Shabbat approaches.
Some have the custom of preparing the Chanukiya in the morning for the evening (this goes for every day, except Shabbat, of course). This not only serves the practical purpose of being ready to light on time without delaying to set up later, but it also commemorates the practice in the Beit HaMikdash called Hatavat HaNeirot, whereby the Kohen (Gadol) tended the Menora and prepared it in the morning for kindling in the late, late afternoon. Since our lighting on Chanuka directly commemorates the lighting of the Menora in the Beit HaMikdash, this suggestion provides a nice "added touch" to the mitzva and symbolism of Chanuka lighting.
In addition to preparing for the first candle of Friday evening, it is a good idea to also prepare for the second candle which will be lit on Motza’ei Shabbat, on Friday. This will allow lighting on Motza”Sh without any unnecessary delay, especially since the Motza”Sh lighting is already delayed until after Shabbat. One can set up two candles in another Chanukiya, or even at the other end of the same Chanukiya he/she will be lighting on Friday. (Don’t worry about the left-right business; it is more important to be ready to light as soon as possible after Shabbat.) Also, have your Motza”Sh Shamash and matches ready nearby.
Something else that one should try to do on the two Fridays Erev Chanuka, is to daven Mincha before candle lighting. This is so because Mincha “belongs” to Friday and candle lighting “belongs” to Shabbat (even though we are lighting when it is still Friday). The lighting of the Menora in the Beit HaMikdash was done after the Tamid sacrifice of the afternoon. All this said, if it means not davening Mincha with a Minyan, it is better to light and then go to shul for Mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat & Maariv. However, one should try to daven at a Mincha Gedola Minyan.
To that end, we will be davening Mincha at the Israel Center on Fridays, November 29th and December 6th at 12:00 noon, in the Wolinetz Family Shul Ohel Shmuel, on the ground floor of the Center. (Men and women are invited.)
We cannot follow the standard weekday timing (sunset or stars-out - see further) on Erev Shabbat, because of the prohibition of kindling and handling fire on Shabbat. So we will have to light early. And this will require longer (or fatter) candles or more oil than usual. Furthermore, the rule is that Chanuka candles are lit before Shabbat candles. Shabbat candle lighting in most places is 18-22 minutes before sunset. This time should not be tampered with. Chanuka candles should be lit a couple of minutes before Shabbat candles (even when different people are lighting). Preferably, they should not be lit a lot before Shabbat candles, but in all cases, never before Plag.
Jerusalem (and Petach Tikva) custom for every Shabbat is to light candles 40 minutes before sunset. There is an acceptable custom to delay Shabbat candles 15 to 20 minutes after the posted time (remember - Jerusalem and Petach Tikva only, or other places where the same practice is observed) so that one's Chanuka candles do not have to be lit so early. This matter should be explained well to the family so that misunderstandings do not arise.
Be very careful not to get anywhere near sunset. Let 4:30pm be a "redline" for lighting candles (Chanuka or Shabbat) - otherwise, one runs the risk of encroaching on Shabbat. If you are late, be absolutely sure the sun is still in the sky - otherwise it is better not to light Chanuka or Shabbat candles.
TACHLIS: Shabbat candle lighting time for Jerusalem on both Erevs Shabbat- Chanuka is 4:00pm. (Because Chanuka is at the beginning of December this year, the sunset times throughout Chanuka week hardly vary.) Either light Chanuka candles right before 4:00pm and then light Shabbat candles, or wait until 4:15-ish, then light Chanuka candles followed by Shabbat candles.
Remember, if you are not in Jerusalem [or...], stick to the posted Shabbat candle lighting time - do not delay it.
In all cases, do not light either sets of candles before PLAG Mincha, 3:35pm (Jerusalem time, slightly padded to protect one from errors), and usable throughout Chanuka this year.
Also - and this is very important - whenever you light Chanuka candles, they must have enough fuel (oil or wax) to last until at least a half-hour after stars-out, that is, at least until 5:30pm (better would be 5:45pm and even later). This applies to Friday night too, which means that the standard (or even the prettier, longer) Chanuka candles will not make it. Recommended are the #16 or #20 Shabbat candles, which will fit most Chanukiyas and will last long enough. For oil users, experience will teach you how much oil you need. If you do not have the experience, it doesn’t hurt to experiment a couple of days before Chanuka so you will be ready.
A practical and nice suggestion is to hold MA’OZ TZUR for the Shabbat table as one of the Z’mirot, rather than say it at candle lighting. Basically, as soon as candles are lit, it’s off to shul.
Many shuls will sing L’CHA DODI to the tune of MA’OZ TZUR on Shabbat Chanuka. And, of course, at the table, if you have any GAN-age children or grandchildren, there is a host of Chanuka songs to add to your usual Friday night repertoire of Z’mirot and other songs. Remember, although Chanuka does not require a SEUDAT MITZVA, any meal with songs, stories, and relevant Divrei Torah (especially, but not only, on Shabbat) becomes a special Chanuka Seuda.
AL HANISIM is added to every Amida and all Birkat HaMazon throughout Chanuka. (There is no reference to Chanuka in “AL HAMICHYA”, i.e. Bracha Mei’ein Shalosh.)
Forgetting AL HANISIM does NOT invalidate either the Amida nor Birkat HaMazon. That means that one does NOT repeat either due to leaving AL HANISIM out. However, if one realizes the omission before the end of the Amida, AL HANISIM can be said right before YIHYU L’RATZON. In Birkat HaMazon, an omitted AL HANISIM becomes a HARACHAMAN, right before HARACHAMAN HU Y’ZAKEINU, as follows...
HARACHAMAN HU YA’ASEH LANU NISIM V’NIFLA’OT KA’ASHER ASAH LA’AVOTEINU BAYAMIM HAHEIM BIZMAN HAZEH. BIMEI MATITYAHU...
SHABBAT, 25 KISLEV (Nov. 30)
Full HALLEL is said on each of the eight days of Chanuka (because there was the manifestation of a miracle on each day).
Two Sifrei Torah are taken out. (When there are two Shabbatot-Chanuka, the first is VAYEISHEV and the second is MIKEITZ.) Parshat HaShavua - Vayeishev - is read from the first, and the Torah reading for the first day of Chanuka is read for the Maftir in the second Torah. The reading starts at the beginning of the 7th perek in Bamidbar (Parshat Naso), with the description of the dedication of the Mishkan, almost a year after the Exodus. The reading begins with the anointing and sanctification of the Mishkan, its furnishings, and vessels, and the gifts of the Leaders of the Tribes to the families of Levi for the transport of the dismantled Mishkan. It continues with the gifts and offerings of Shevet Yehuda on the first day of Dedication, the first day of Chanukat HaMizbei’ach. Some shuls begin the reading of the first day six p’sukim earlier, to include the portion of Birkat Kohanim in the Chanuka reading. The reason (or one of the reasons) is to identify and acknowledge the Chashmona’im as Kohanim.
The Torah reading is followed by the special Chanuka Haftara, which preempts the regular Haftara of Vayeishev. The reading is from Zecharya, and includes his vision of a golden Menora. (More on this in next week’s Sedra Summary.)
MOTZA’EI SHABBAT, eve of 26 KISLEV (Nov. 30)
(Times are for Jerusalem; other places require proper adjustment.) Sunset is 4:40pm. Shabbat is out at 5:16pm. Although 5:16 is considered Stars-Out (Tzeit HaKochavim) as far as Shabbat is concerned, there are earlier times that qualify as Stars-Out for other purposes, such as reciting SH’MA at night. There are different opinions, but let’s use 20 minutes after sunset as an earlier TZEIT. It is recommended (not everyone agrees) that we start davening Maariv at 5:00pm so that we can finish at or shortly after the Shabbat-out time. This will allow lighting Chanuka candles earlier (sooner after Stars-Out) than if we daven Maariv at the usual time for Motza”Sh.
Those who say V’YITEN L’CHA should say it after Chanuka candles are lit.
Okay, it’s Motza’ei Shabbat and Chanuka, we’re home from shul as soon after Shabbat as possible, what now?
Two mitzvot to perform - Havdala and Chanuka candles. By the rule of TADIR (that which is more frequent should be done first), havdala should be said first. And by logic, one should "finish" with Shabbat and then light candles for the next day of Chanuka, which is Sat. night & Sunday. Many authorities hold that on Motza’ei Shabbat, one should say havdala first and then light Chanuka candles. This opinion is followed by the majority of Chanuka-candle-lighting Jews all over the world. The Maharal (among others) is vehement in his insistence that we cannot possibly consider doing something so "weekday-ish" as lighting Chanuka candles, unless we have first said havdala. He rejects any argument to the contrary.
ON THE OTHER HAND... there is a strong argument for lighting Chanuka candles before havdala. First of all, Shabbat is over when it is 5:16pm (some calendars might vary slightly) AND one has said Havdala in davening (ATA CHONANTANU in the Maariv Amida) OR at least said BARUCH HAMAVDIL BEIN KODESH L'CHOL. Havdala is NOT what ends Shabbat - it is what honors the departing Shabbat. Even so, havdala should go first, except for one very important factor: The prime time (according to some opinions, the only time) for Chanuka candles is ticking away. We cannot, of course, light Chanuka candles when it is still Shabbat. But we should maximize the amount of time of the "half-hour after" once we are allowed to light. Havdala will wait; Chanuka candles will not. Therefore, the OTHER opinion is that Chanuka candles go first and then havdala. This procedure comes with the reminder not to use the Chanuka candles for havdala, since one may not benefit from the Chanuka lights, and the bracha in havdala is specifically upon using the light (hence the examining of fingernails, etc.). Chanuka candles first is the opinion of the Vilna Gaon and many others, and is Minhag Yerushalayim. (Remember that not everyone in Yerushalayim follows the practices known as Minhag Yerushalayim.)
This dispute is one of the few in halacha that is resolved in the following manner: "Whichever opinion you follow, you have performed correctly". Either procedure may be followed. Family and community custom should play a deciding role in this issue. Again, a Rav should be consulted, especially if one is considering a change in practice.
Some say that those who light outdoors should follow the custom of lighting before havdala. Those who light indoors can take their pick.
Remember that Shabbat is paramount. In case of doubt as to whether Shabbat is being encroached upon, one should NOT light Chanuka candles. It must be DEFINITELY after Shabbat before lighting. But one should not unnecessarily delay the fulfillment of the mitzva of Chanuka candles.
A note for Rabeinu Tam people: Those who follow the Shabbat-out time of Rabeinu Tam (72 minutes after sunset) and consider it to be the correct halachic time, must keep it even on Motza’ei Shabbat Chanuka, even though it means losing "prime time" for Chanuka candles. Those who keep Rabeinu Tam time as a CHUMRA (a strict measure, but accept the earlier time as halachic), might end Shabbat earlier on Motza’ei Shabbat Chanuka, in order to fulfill the mitzva of Chanuka candles at their better time. It is advised to check this out with a Rav.
In shul, it is the universal practice to light Chanuka candles before saying havdala, this to maximize Pirsumei Nisa in a situation where everyone present will be leaving for home shortly.
At home, people will still be there for the Chanuka candles, so there is no need to light before havdala (according to those who follow this first opinion).
Those who say havdala first can light their Shamash for the Chanuka candles with the havdala candle before extinguishing it, thus dovetailing two mitzvot.
Those who follow the second opinion can light the havdala candle from the Shamash, thereby dovetailing one mitzva into another.
On Motza’ei Shabbat, when we light after Stars-Out, it is sufficient for the candles to burn for half an hour. Still, it is preferable that they last longer. This has to do with the fact that in our time, people are out in the streets later than in times past and Pirsumei Nisa (publicizing the miracle) applies later than the original “half-hour after stars-out”.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings, the eves of 27, 28, 29, 30 KISLEV, and 1 TEVET (Dec. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
There are two practices as to when is the ideal time to light Chanuka lights during the week (i.e. except for Friday and Motza'ei Shabbat, when different factors affect the timing, as already discussed). Minhag Yerushalayim (which many, but not everyone follows) is to light with the setting of the sun. As mentioned earlier, this year sunset during Chanuka week hovers at 4:40pm (Jerusalem). People in other locations should check when their local sunset is.
The other opinion [that of "the rest of the world"] is to light when the "light of the sun has left the sky", i.e. Stars-Out a.k.a. Tzeit HaKochavim). Remember that there are different opinions as to when Stars-Out occurs. Except for Motza'ei Shabbat, most people will use an early-ish Stars-Out time, in order to be closer to the Minhag Yerushalayim timing, and because Z'RIZIM MAKDIMIM, people who are enthusiastic about doing mitzvot, do them "right away". 5:00pm will work for this early Stars-Out time this Chanuka (except for Motza"Sh - as above). Those who light with Stars-Out should light right after Maariv, unless they have a fixed time later in the evening for davening. This will result in lighting Chanuka candles a little later than the 5:00pm TZEIT time.
Those who light with sunset should daven Maariv at the appropriate time, after candles.
Candles must burn at least a half hour after stars-out. This was the original time period after dark that people were still around outdoors and defined the PIRSUMEI NISA aspect of the mitzva. Although in our day, people are out later than this time, the halacha only requires the half hour after stars-out. However, it is recommended that one use longer candles or more oil to extend this time [one need not go overboard on this issue, but...], in recognition of the expansion of the current-day Pirsumei Nisa time-frame.
TACHLIS: If one lights at 4:40 or 5:00 or earlier than 4:40 (remember, not before PLAG, 3:35pm) or as late as 5:15, then the candles should burn until at least 5:45pm, preferably somewhat longer.
(Since Rabbeinu Tam's Stars-Out is 5:52 during Chanuka week (this year), one might try to have his Chanuka lights burn at least until 6:25-ish. This is not a requirement, but it does acknowledge the different opinions concerning Stars-Out. Treat this as an off-the-record suggestion, especially in light of the reality that the Pirsumei Nisa time is later into the night than it was in the time of the Gemara.)
If someone lights after 5:15pm (and certainly if it is after 5:52pm), then the candles must last at least a half hour, regardless of what time one lit. (Preferably longer, as already mentioned.)
For those who must light early, the earliest time one may light is PLAG MINCHA. For all of Chanuka, we can use 3:35pm as PLAG. This time is padded slightly to avoid someone’s being off a bit and lighting too early.
Those lighting early should remember that the candles or oil must be able to last until the minimum half-hour after Stars-Out.
Also know that the closer to sunset, the better is the early lighting. 3:30pm is TOO EARLY TO LIGHT - probably BRACHOT L'VATALA (brachot in vain) and no performance of the mitzva. 3:35pm is okay, because it is after PLAG, but 3:40pm is better. 3:45 is better still. Etc. Get the point? The closer to sunset one lights, the better it is for visibility of the candles, and that means the better it is for Pirsumei Nisa.
If, because of one’s work or travel schedule, one has to choose between lighting early or late, or between lighting early or appointing someone to light for you at the proper time, or between lighting late and appointing someone to light for you at the proper time — one should consult a Rav for a p’sak based on how early and how late, and any other relevant factors.
Sometimes a less-than-perfect performance of a mitzva is a fine, acceptable "second best". Sometimes, not. Lighting Chanuka candles early or late is a poor second, at best. Lighting early lacks an element of Pirsumei Nisa because a candle flame is not eye-catching (so to speak) during full daylight. Lighting late is not so good because of the opinions that the time-period for Pirsumei Nisa from the days of the Gemara remains the optimum time (and some say the ONLY time) for the fulfillment of the mitzva.
Although we follow other opinions, and basically allow lighting any time of the night, it is far less than ideal to light late. A "good" excuse makes it okay, but not great. One should consult a Rav especially for recurring situations, such as coming home late from work or school, and the like.
Remember that having someone light for you is a valid alternative to your lighting for yourself, and sometimes it is even the preferred alternative. Ask your Rav.
POINT Brachot (including SHE'HE'CHE'YANU) should be recited BEFORE beginning to light the candles. This complies with the general rule for Brachot of Mitzva, that they be recited immediately before performance of the mitzva, if possible. This means, that even on the eighth night, the candles are not begun to be lit until the brachot are completed.
POINT Opinions differ, but a common practice is to place the first candle (or oil cup) in the right side of the Chanukiya. If one lights at the doorpost, then the first candle should be closest to the doorpost, even if it is the left side of the Chanukiya. From the second night on, the custom (one of the customs) is to "load" the Chanukiya from right to left, but to light it, left to right. At the doorpost, one loads it from the doorpost out, and lights it starting with the candle closest to the doorpost. Loading and lighting direction is not crucial to the performance of the mitzva, but there are reasons for the various practices.
POINT The essential performance of the mitzva of Chanuka Lights is the lighting of a single candle each night, and the custom that we follow of increasing the number of candles each night is considered HIDUR MITZVA (enhancement of the mitzva). One practice that has developed because of this, is to begin reciting HANEIROT HALALU after the first candle is lit, while lighting the others. Alternatively, one can wait until the lighting is done to say HANEIROT HALALU.
POINT One should not just light the Chanuka candles and then go on to business as usual, but rather one should look at the candles for a while, ponder G-d's miracles, spend some time with the family talking about the message of Chanuka and how it relates to our time, play a little dreidel, sing a song or two, have some Chanuka fun.
POINT It is recommended to learn some Torah, share a Dvar Torah, have a family shiur, or something like that, right after candle lighting. The decrees of the Greeks included a ban on Torah learning. Our celebration of Chanuka marks our freedom from Greek oppression, including the ability to learn Torah in public without fear. So let’s do just that!
POINT Notice on the other sheet of this Pull-Out that the word SHEL in the first bracha is in parentheses. There is a dispute as to whether the bracha ends NER SHEL CHANUKA or NER CHANUKA. One should follow his own (or family) minhag, if you have one (and remember it). If not, you might want to ask your Rav which wording you should use. (Those who say NER CHANUKA have a bit of a problem if they sing the brachot, but don’t let that determine your choice of wording.)
The original place for lighting and displaying of the Chanukiya was outdoors at the entrance to one's courtyard or home.
Over many generations in exile, where lighting outdoors was often inconvenient to say the least, and sometimes dangerous, the practice evolved to light indoors. In some circumstances, the lighting was to be done at a window, so that the candles would be visible to passersby in the street. In other cases, the Chanuka lights were lit in a conspicuous location for the attention of the members of the household.
Many people who have come to Israel, still light inside, at the window, as they had lit in their countries of origin. Others have gone back to the original practice of lighting outdoors. It seems that this is the preferred method in Yerushalayim.
If you are considering changing any aspect of your Chanuka candle lighting routine, (candle to oil or vice versa, sunset to stars-out or vice versa, indoors to outdoors or vice versa, window to door or vice versa, each family member to one for the family or vice versa, etc.) it is advisable to consult a Rav.
These pages should be considered a review of some – but not all – of the many Chanuka topics. (Others might be included in the body of TT, this week or next.) Often, different opinions were presented, but there were still sides of the different issues that were left out. It has been said often, but we repeat, it is best to consult your Rav to clear up any doubts you might have.
Sunday thru Wednesday, 26-29 KISLEV (Dec.1-4)
Full Hallel. One Sefer Torah. Three people to the “Tribal Leader” of the day (from Naso, Bamidbar 7). Each day’s portion has 6 p’sukim. The first three are read for the Kohen, the next three for the Levi. The third Aliya is a repeat of the whole portion. (Outside of Israel, the third Aliya is the next day’s portion.)
Thursday and Friday, 30 KISLEV and 1 TEVET, a.k.a. Rosh Chodesh Tevet (Dec.5,6)
Two Torahs. Three people are called to the first Torah for the Rosh Chodesh reading. (Same reading as all weekday Rosh Chodesh, except it is divided into three portions, rather than four, which makes repeating a pasuk or two unnecessary.) From the second Torah, we read a fourth Aliya from Naso - the Tribal Leader of the day. Musaf with Al HaNisim for Chanuka.
Friday, 1 TEVET (Dec.6)
See the lengthy presentation of the first Erev Shabbat-Chanuka - pretty much the same, except there is no need to set up candles for Motza’ei Shabbat.
Shabbat, 2 TEVET (Dec.7)
Parshat HaShavua is Mikeitz. It is read from the first of the two Torahs. The Maftir, from the second Torah, is the longest Maftir there is. We read from Naso of the “Tribal Leader” of the eighth day, and we continue with the gifts of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th days of the dedication of the Mishkan, then the summary of the animals, gold and silver, and spices given over the 12 day period, and we conclude with the first portion of B’HAALOTCHA, the portion of the Menora (more on this, IY”H, in TT 547). The Shabbat meals give us a wonderful opportunity to discuss and sing about G-d’s miracles, then and now.
Shir shel HaYom - Psalm of the Day - for Chanuka
According to MINHAG YERUSHALAYIM (mostly based on minhagim of the GR"A, brought to Eretz Yisrael by students and followers about 200 years ago), there is a special chapter of T’hilim said on each day of Chanuka (Ps.30) which reempts the regular Shir shel HaYom. That is, except for Shabbat. Shabbat’s perek, 92, is said on Shabbat Chanuka, not 30. The chapter for Rosh Chodesh (104) also trumps that of Chanuka, and even that of Shabbat. The following chart covers all possible arrangements of Chanuka in our fixed calendar. For this year, 5763, use the last row.
T'hilim 30 is the introduction to P'sukei D'Zimra (or the bridge between Korbanot and P'sukei D'Zimra) and is said by some not only at the end of Shacharit on Chanuka, but also at the end of Maariv and/or at candle-lighting. (BTW, according to the GR"A, it is not said every day - only on Chanuka.) | <urn:uuid:dff9e0e7-6ee5-46e1-a9bf-9fe227646fc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ou.org/torah/article/chanukah_with_torah_tidbits | 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 | 0.939483 | 6,416 | 1.5 | 2 |
A Year of Biblical Womanhood, in which she explores just what exactly the term "Biblical womanhood really means." She does this by trying to take the Bible's directives for women as literally as possible, even taking certain things a few steps further than they're intended. She camps out in the yard during her period, she "submits" to her husband, she remains completely silent during worship (unless she's prophesying with her head covered, of course), and she attempts to live into the image of womanhood found in Proverbs 31 as much as possible. Along the way she visits an Amish community, regularly corresponds with a Jewish woman in Israel, spends a few days with a Baby Think-It-Over, cooks her way through Martha Stewart's cookbook, and prepares a seder meal, among so much else. As she not only recounts all of these experiences but also delves into a deep treatment of various scripture passages (including profiles of some Biblical women), her basic conclusion is that there's no such thing as "Biblical womanhood;" that some passages such as Proverbs 31 are not meant to be taken literally or as a set of rules, and that many women in the Bible do not hold to the concept either, which is really more of a 1950s housewife model to begin with. Evans' book is a call to treat scripture as living tradition, a humorous take on the "traditional" model of womanhood, a celebration of womanhood past and present in all its diversity.
Some days, I wonder why I've gotten into zombies so much the past few years. I wonder whether it's just the thrill, or maybe there's something redemptive about such a universe or at least the hope of something redemptive, or maybe it's just brainless fun. I'm not sure. I'm halfway through the episodes so far released for the third season of The Walking Dead, and while on the one hand I'm completely engrossed in the story and the world that it presents, it's really an incredibly bleak show. I really can't help but root for these characters, but at the same time I watch knowing that one or more of them may not make it through any given episode. It can be depressing and scary, and I just can't help myself.
I was alerted to this video of a "virtual choir" put together by composer Eric Whitacre, and was so inspired by it that I talked about it in my sermon this past Sunday. He's put together four of these, but I still like this first one the best. It's just amazing to me what technology has made possible, uniting people from all over the world in projects like this:
Albumwatch, Mea Culpa Edition!
This is a version of Albumwatch where I take a second listen to albums that I didn't really like the first time to see if I've changed my mind, and offer up some "mea culpas" for those that struck me in a more positive way the second time around. I think doing one of these maybe mid-year and then at the end of the year is a good way to handle it, so this one will be for as long as I started including this feature up to this point.
No Doubt, Push and Shove - When Coffeewife gets ready for work in the morning, she likes to listen to dance-pop radio on her iPhone. The first time I listened to this album, I called it a weak, lazy electronics-heavy effort that made No Doubt sound like a shell of its former self. Upon listening to it again, I was able to appreciate it as more of the kind of dance-pop that Coffeewife likes. Besides that, I was able to pick up on the ska influences that this group is known for. I still don't think it's their best effort, but could at least appreciate it more.
Zola Jesus, Stridulum - I think that if I was feeling really down, as in wanting to sit in the dark drinking wine by myself, and I needed an appropriate soundtrack for that situation, I would choose this. Being that I heard this again when I was in a more positive state of mind than that, I yet again did not find it to be ideal listening. But I'm saying that there would be an ideal situation for it. So I guess that counts.
The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow - I did enjoy this album a lot more the second time around. I think I was in much more of a reflective mood, and this laid-back, acoustic-driven sound aided it perfectly.
Professor Elemental, Father of Invention - If I wanted to award a top Mea Culpa Of The Week, it would probably go to Professor Elemental. I won't do such an award, I'm just saying that this is probably the one I didn't get into the first time that I feel worst about, since a second listen showed me that he's just as hilarious and brilliant in this effort as with others. Silly me.
Divine Fits, A Thing Called Divine Fits - I'm still not big on '80s revival type stuff, but it was much more tolerable the second time around. Plus Coffeewife dancing around goofily to it was fun. I'm glad she doesn't read my blog very often.
Passion Pit, Gossamer - I was pretty lukewarm to this the first time I heard it. I found myself bouncing my foot to it and having a little more fun during a second listen. | <urn:uuid:475bf541-0a4d-4775-adbb-f2a92c524719> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philosophyovercoffee.blogspot.com/2013/01/pop-culture-roundup_25.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986824 | 1,143 | 1.578125 | 2 |
She was born Katheryn Elizabeth Fredreka Nusbickel on July 25, 1877 in Lyons, Wayne County, New York, United States. She was the first child and eldest daughter of Frederick Nusbickel (Jr.) and his wife, Anna Marie Kletzing. She was also my wife's second cousin, twice removed.
She preferred to be known as Elizabeth and she was able to enjoy the relative prosperity gained through the family hardware business that was located on the northwest corner of Water and Broad streets in Lyons, New York. Elizabeth attended the Lyons High School, graduating in 1897. The graduation class photo, shown below, includes Elizabeth, seen standing in the back row on the left side of the large pillar. Notably absent from the photo are all the boys from the class. The only men present are school principal, Mr. Worthy Hanks Kinney, on the left in the back row, and teacher, Mr. Francis Gardner, on the right. (The photo is from school files and was re-printed by the Geneva Times newspaper in September 1960).
On June 25, 1902, Elizabeth married Oakley Earl Van Slyke, a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and Congregational clergyman who had graduated from Syracuse University in 1900. The announcement of their engagement included the note that Oakley was one of four students who won scholarships to continue their education at the Ph.D. level in Boston.
Oakley and Elizabeth were residing in New York state when their daughter Alice was born in 1905 but had moved to California by the time their son, Oakley Earl Van Slyke, known by Earl, was born in 1911. Oakley (Sr.) appears to have followed a path different from his ministerial calling as he worked initially as a nurseryman on a citrus farm in Glendora, California before going into the real estate business, first as an agent and then as a broker in the South Pasadena area.
Elizabeth passed away on July 23, 1952, two days short of her 75th birthday, in Santa Ana, California and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.
The URL for this post is http://ianhaddenfamilyhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/03/elizabeth-nusbickel-van-slyke.html | <urn:uuid:d0f54bee-99e7-4396-bb2c-29459ce5b16e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ianhaddenfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2012/03/elizabeth-nusbickel-van-slyke.html | 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 | 0.987056 | 471 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Iv been learning c++ for a couple of weeks and im really pleased with a few games i have made. My friends cannot really see why what im making is appealing to me or anyone. I thought id look into allegro and SDL to see what i could do. Iv managed to install SDL to studio 2008 and got the "hello world" bit nailed down with my own bmp that i made in paint.
Iv looked at some of the game examples that are on Main that also give the source code. Itsinteresting to say the least.
Now i feel really out of my depth. I will continue to make text based games as its fun, but i really want to add graphics to the programs i am making.
My question is should i continue to try to understand allegro and sdl or try something else?
or should i have more practice with c++ ( first language ) before trying anything else.
any advice would be awesome. To give you some backround, im not an academic and im just learning about programming in my spare time for fun.
Armed with SDL and LazyFoo's stellar tutorials, it won't be hard for you at all to get going with some 2D.
I will concentrate on that then. Might take me a while but its all fun after it starts making sense. Thanks for the advice again. | <urn:uuid:70a5cb27-fe45-4b80-83d7-502dff61a175> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/game-programming/149228-overstretching-printable-thread.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970888 | 277 | 1.679688 | 2 |
APA — On an unusually hot and sunny autumn day, visiting the beach rekindled old and exciting memories from the recent summer. Employees from Ford's offices in Shanghai visited Waterside Forest Park, Pudong, China, where the Huangpu and Yangtze Rivers meet and flow into the East China Sea, not to celebrate the Chinese Autumn Festival but instead to work and break a sweat. With rubber hand-gloves, masks, and boxes of garbage bags, the Ford team of volunteers rolled up their sleeves and began to clean the beach blanketed with old shoes, broken bottles, cigarettes, old milk cartons, and many other forms of trash.
This was just one of the many community activities Ford Motor Company conducted during its 2011 Global Week of Caring (GWC) programme held throughout its markets in Asia Pacific and Africa (APA). By the time GWC concludes, approximately 3,511 dedicated Ford employees and family members in APA will have devoted a total of 16,566 hard-working hours while participating in the programme.
“The 2011 Global Week of Caring programme of activities reflects the diversity and dynamism of the Asia Pacific and Africa region,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa. “Whether they are cleaning beaches, planting trees, or supporting healthcare, education, or safe-driving projects, every one of our volunteers is committed to improving their beloved communities.”
The following are just some examples of the beneficial activities each market performed during GWC:
Between their Shanghai and Nanjing offices, Ford China cleaned the beach by Waterside Forest Park; grass and small forest clean-up near the Technology Museum; charity sale at the Shanghai office; support for fall outing program for Ming'Xin Autism Training School; and donate and set-up PC room for Huanglong Hope School.
Ford India volunteers devoted their time on coordinating door-to-door awareness campaign across seven local villages on the "3 R's" – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle; held eye care camps at Sanjeevi Clinic for truck drivers while also conducting Driving Skills For Like (DSFL) classes; distributed school shoes for village schools; and collected clothes, electronics, and toys to integrate with FTSI/FBSC Waste to Wealth Initiative.
|Children receive shoes and food from Ford India employees.|
In Thailand, Ford employees and family members renovated the Wat Chalermlarp Primary School building, library, and playground, while also donating equipment and conducting fun activities for students.
|Ford Thailand volunteers repainting a classroom at a primary school in a local village.|
In the Philippines, employees from Ford planted trees in Santa Rosa City, while also providing food and medical vaccinations to its children and gifts to the abandoned elderly.
|Volunteers from Ford Philippines are all smiles as they bring gifts to abandoned elderly.|
Ford Motor Company South Africa (FMCSA) volunteers conducted gardening, painting, and general maintenance work of homes housing abandoned children in Mamelodi and Atteridgevill; held a party for disabled children at Ford's Horizon Care Centre Project; cleaned alien infested waterways and wetlands at the Telperion-Ezemvelo Nature Reserve; completed repairs on mobile houses for children in Port Elizabeth; and improved the environment surrounding the Ford Assembly Plant with general clean-up and planting of trees.
|FMCSA employees install a new car port with the assistance of a local design expert.|
In New Zealand, Ford volunteers completed the Variety – The Children's Charity Mini-Bash, raising money for the charity, and made donations and grants, such as funds for library books and equipment to a school outside of Hamilton on the North Islands.
|Employees from Ford New Zealand present a $1,000 grant to a local school, plus books and sports equipment.|
In Vietnam, employees from Ford supported orphans and disabled children at the Hai Duong Community Centre by donating books, clothes, and gifts for the Mid-Autumn Festival; and in Ho Chi Minh City, gifts and clothes were donated to the elderly near the Ford office.
|Children enjoying the slide and play-sets donated by Ford Vietnam.|
“Ford employees are dedicated to building vehicles that meet the needs of our customers, and they bring that same commitment and energy to helping people in the communities where they live and work," said Hinrichs. "We are extremely fortunate to have the resources and the people to make a world of difference.
In Taiwan, 800 employees and family and community members gathered for a clean-up at Yung-an Beach, in the county where Ford Lio Ho is located, which was a huge family event, attracting volunteers as young as four months old.
Ford volunteers in Australia joined a clean-up with the Rainbow Riders children's charity, which provides specialist equine and farm programs for disadvantaged and at risk young people, and in a separate project helped provide lunch for homeless and disadvantaged people.
Since 2005, the Ford Volunteer Corps has been the face of Ford in communities around the globe and throughout the year. Each year more than 20,000 Ford employees and retirees participate as part of Ford Model Teams that support community projects.
To learn more about GWC and Ford's other global community activities, please visit www.volunteer.ford.com and www.community.ford.com, respectively. | <urn:uuid:aa5d46e9-0e85-4350-99a1-f7b3e6db5e58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.at.ford.com/news/cn/Pages/Ford%20Makes%20a%20World%20of%20Difference%20in%20APA.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952615 | 1,109 | 1.734375 | 2 |
(CNN) -- U.S. naval forces hunting pirates off Somalia detained six people this week who appeared to be pursuing a commercial shipping vessel, but soon released them because of a lack of evidence.
A Yemeni Coast Guard boat patrols the Gulf of Aden for pirates who threaten shipping.
The Navy said on Saturday the six matched the description of suspected pirates aboard a skiff in the area. The naval crew saw the men throwing objects overboard before they picked up the suspects.
Investigators didn't say what was thrown overboard but said the evidence was not sufficient "to hold the suspects for prosecution."
The detentions reflect the aggressive U.S.-led fight against piracy. The United States is spearheading an international naval task force in the waters off Somalia that launched in February after a rash of attacks.
Participating ships are patrolling more than a million square miles of water, an area about four times the size of Texas, Navy officials have said.
The Navy said it arrested the six on Friday after responding to a distress call from the Philippines-flagged MV Bison Express in the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia. The ship, a livestock carrier, reported a small skiff containing six heavily armed pirates was pursuing it.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg arrived and found a skiff matching the description. A Seahawk helicopter flew from the Gettysburg over the skiff and reported seeing objects being thrown overboard, the Navy said.
A team from the Gettysburg boarded the skiff, along with members of the U.S. Coast Guard Legal Detachment and detained the six suspected pirates. The U.S. officials transferred the suspects onto the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, the flagship for the international anti-piracy task force, the Navy said, before releasing them.
The attack on the Bison Express was the second one Friday on commercial shipping vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the Navy said. In the first incident, pirates attacked the MV Sea Green, which managed to fend them off by firing flares as the men approached, the Navy said.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed| | <urn:uuid:ba319a68-7542-4fca-9057-8f0fad5d2e1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/21/somalia.pirates/index.html?iref=nextin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94817 | 433 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Swiss utility BKW FMB Energy has delayed a decision on making safety-related upgrades at the Mühleberg nuclear power plant. The decision - originally expected in mid-2013 - will now be made at the end of 2013.
|Mühleberg (Image: BKW)
The utility noted that the timeframe for planning the upgrades will only become clear after the Federal Court has made a ruling on the continued operation of the Mühleberg plant.
Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court (FAC) ruled on 1 March 2012 that the 40-year-old 372 MWe boiling water reactor can only operate until 28 June 2013, overturning a 2009 decision by the environment ministry to issue an unlimited-duration operating licence to the plant.
BKW lodged an appeal with the Federal Court against the FAC's ruling, but is still awaiting the court's decision.
The company has informed the Bern government and the country's regulatory authorities that its decision has been delayed by at least six months while it undertakes additional investigations into its plan for the long-term operation of the plant. BKW said that "the initial indicative tenders show that the original estimated costs of CHF170 million ($187 million) will be exceeded."
It added that, "due to a lack of competition among the suppliers", investigations into price fixing would need to be carried out before the results of the economic viability audit and the application to conduct the work can be submitted to its board of directors.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News | <urn:uuid:5d47b157-28ad-4460-a33a-99566bbf3b55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://world-nuclear-news.org/C-Muhleberg_upgrade_decision_delayed-1912125.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961763 | 317 | 1.765625 | 2 |
He was clear. He was (almost) concise. He was specific and he was energized.
In what can only be described as a brilliant performance, Republican nominee Mitt Romney dominated President Barack Obama in Wednesday evening’s first debate, when the questions pertained to domestic policy, specifically the economy, health care and the role of government.
President Obama appeared lackluster while speaking and did not project confidence, even as he described his vision for a “new economic patriotism” while attempting to scare undecided voters by stating that “the only way” to cut taxes — as Governor Romney plans through tax reform — is by cutting education and other important domestic programs.
While Obama gazed at the ground or spoke directly to moderator Jim Lehrer, Romney projected enthusiasm as he directed his answers directly to Obama.
Romney clearly and unequivocally denied Obama’s assertion that his tax reform plan would do anything other than help the middle class. Although Obama did not offer any specifics to improve the American economy, Romney pointed to his five-point plan, which, he claims, will broaden the tax base by putting more Americans back in the workforce.
Energy independence is Romney’s first economic goal, which he believes will create four million jobs. He also wants to open up Latin American trade, eliminate Chinese “cheating,” improve skills training and education, balance the budget and “champion” small business.
'Trickle Down Government'
Romney observed that new business startups under Obama are down to a 30-year low.
“Trickle down government is not the answer for America,” Romney said, thus spinning a well-worn liberal slogan to a conservative advantage.
Romney expressed disbelief, and rightfully so, that President Obama would choose to focus the first two years of his presidency on passing health care reform, which Romney noted did not receive one Republican vote, instead of working to put Americans back on the job — and on the tax rolls.
President Obama appeared tired and nearly disinterested as he repeated worn and inaccurate Democratic talking points pertaining to tax policy, education and entitlement programs.
Romney, on the other hand, appeared presidential, energized, knowledgeable and forthright — especially during the countless number of times he pointed to putting people back to work as his top priority: “this is about jobs”, “my priority is jobs”, “create more jobs” and “putting people back to work” were heard consistently throughout the evening from Romney.
Obama mentioned his desire to hire 100,000 math and science teachers; to this point, Romney retorted that with Obama’s green jobs plan, he could have hired two million teachers.
“My friend told me, [Obama] doesn’t pick the winners and the losers, [he] just picks the losers,” when it comes to investing in green jobs, Romney said, referring to Solyndra and other failed taxpayer-funded green business initiatives.
The Middle Class
For the most part, Obama refrained from blaming the George W. Bush administration for the failures of the past three-and-a-half years. But he was unable to refute Romney’s observations that the economy is growing more slowly now than it was last year or the year before that and that gas, food, energy and health care costs — important issues to middle class voters — have all risen under Obama.
“I call it ‘the economy tax,’” Romney said.
Romney also criticized Obama for failing to reduce the deficit as promised and for failing to take advantage of the reforms suggested by the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission.
“You should have jumped on that” recommended bipartisan reform, Romney said.
Obama’s response that his new plan would take into account elements of Simpson-Bowles felt too little, too late. And Obama’s claim that he listens to all ideas regardless from whom they come rings false, as any close observer of the 2009 stimulus package knows.
In fact, each of Obama’s “plans” are warmed over talking points from 2008. The difference is, he’s had 3.5 years to deliver and has failed to do so. And all we have left is a higher cost of living, a stagnant job market, a precarious foreign affairs predicament and a tarnished international reputation.
Obama performed better when he spoke about entitlements, such as Obamacare, Medicare and Social Security, although Romney won the point when he said his entitlement policy would be, “I would ask myself, ‘is the program so critical that we have to borrow money from China to pay for it?’”
Ultimately, the difference between the two candidates was most stark near the end of the debate when Lehrer asked about the role of government in society.
Obama noted that he believes government offers people a “ladder of opportunity” and that “some things we do better together.”
Romney, on the other hand, pointed to the words written on the backdrop behind the candidates from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The president should “promote and protect the principles of those documents,” Romney said.
“We are seeing a belief that government can do a better job than the individual,” he continued. Yet “college graduates can’t find work, more Americans are on food stamps.”
Obama also noted his responsibility to keep Americans safe.
I can’t help but wonder what the diplomatic staff in Libya thinks about that. | <urn:uuid:85c27117-1c74-4592-a693-bca78790fffa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://danbury.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/romney-hammers-obama-in-first-presidential-debate-53913467 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973144 | 1,156 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Most people are well acquainted with the concept of an orphaned child being protected by a guardian and/or a conservator until he or she becomes of age. But are you aware of what would happen if an adult was to become mentally or physically incapacitated and require supervision?
The matter of whether a sick parent, a senior citizen or even a young adult requires a guardian and/or a conservator to manage his or her personal and/or financial affairs is usually an emotional one that needs to be handled with care. Usually, a parent does not want to give up his or her autonomy, though in the end it may be for the best.
For instance, if an aging parent has Alzheimer’s disease, it can leave him or her with the false sense that he or she can still manage things effectively. In cases like these the children may be doing the elder a service by petitioning the court to appoint a guardian.
Conversely, some adult children want to rush things along when their parent slows down a bit due to old age. Sad to say, there are cases when adult children are motivated to rush to judgment with regard to a parent’s supposed incapacity due to greed.
However, if the proper incapacity planning strategy is carried out by the parents with the assistance of a Stockbridge qualified estate planning attorney, there should be no need for a guardianship proceeding. You can simply execute a durable power of attorney for health care matters, and another one for financial matters, naming different respective attorneys-in-fact if you so choose. In this manner, decision makers of your own choosing will be in place in the event of your incapacitation.
To learn more about guardianship and conservatorship and how it can be avoided, consult with a licensed, experienced Henry County estate planning attorney.
Pyke & Associates, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys. | <urn:uuid:76e3e689-00fb-4524-b41c-e381a5c60eda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cpyke.com/blog/guardianship/elders-guardianship-conservatorship/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960392 | 392 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Holiday Gift Guide 2012
Prodigious in talent, appetite and girth (the latter two metaphorical as well as literal), Charles Mingus was a true jazz giant, a jazz Gargantua. His widow, Sue Mingus, suggests him as a Whitmanesque figure containing multitudes, and The Complete Columbia and RCA Albums Collection, to which she contributes liner notes, gives a sense of this multitude's career. This is hardly the whole Mingus story, not even an overview of the whole story, but it suggests the epic of Mingus. Where the artistry of his peers seems to unfold from some core — think of Coltrane or Monk or Rollins — Mingus' story is more unruly, more like multiple cyclones along a storm front. So messy was his career that he went to his grave in 1979 with his greatest project, "Epitaph," barely hinted at.
Unlike Miles Davis, whose association with Columbia lasted for 30 continuous years, Mingus recorded only sporadically for the label. Still, Mingus' spotty work for Columbia and RCA, now both under Sony's umbrella, spans 25 years of his life and the posthumous recording of the composition "Epitaph" a decade later.
The 10 discs here include two consisting largely of botched takes, outtakes and alternate takes, which Sue Mingus protests should never have been released, let alone re-released here. But the miscellany on the two discs also includes some gems that have either been long unavailable or never issued as part of a Mingus disc before — a 1959 commission for a Third Stream Gunther Schuller project and a duet with Dave Brubeck among them. That leaves eight CDs that range from good to great, to among his greatest.
The Sony/Legacy collection begins with Mingus at age 35, already recognized as jazz's pre-eminent bassist, a sophisticated composer following (more than any of his contemporaries) in the footsteps and ambitions of Duke Ellington; in his long-form "Pithecanthropus Erectus," he'd set out to chart nothing less than the rise of humankind; his roiling "Haitian Fight Song" was another high-water mark. He was also, among other things, a lover of Charlie Parker's music, as outspoken politically as anyone in jazz, a music entrepreneur, and a magnetic bandleader who attracted some of the best musicians around. He was so many things. To note a few more: boisterous and overbearing, sensitive ... sometimes a little crazy, sometimes more than a little crazy.
Recording for an RCA subsidiary, in 1957, he brought jazz and Spanish music raucously together. This was flamenco table dancing in a cantina — a marked contrast to Miles Davis' stately balance of cool and hot in his revered Sketches of Spain sessions, two years later. In one of several bad-luck turns in Mingus' career, RCA sat on Tijuana Moods until 1962, by which time his claim as a pioneer on this count was academic.
Mingus fared better with Columbia in 1959, recording his most successful album to date, Mingus Ah-Um, which debuted "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," his most famous composition, and "Fables of Faubus" another classic-to-be (although Columbia barred Mingus and company from singing the lyrics that equated a Southern segregationist governor and his ilk with Nazis).
Mingus Ah-Um's worthy successor, Mingus Dynasty, followed later that year, again celebrating the textures and possibility of a combo with a small horn section, again including the voluble saxophonists John Handy and Booker Ervin.
After those sessions, Mingus left the label. He'd eventually leave the music business — disgusted by the business — in 1965, descending into a dark mental state from which his escape was uncertain. But return he did, coming back at gale force with Let My Children Hear Music in 1971, a record emphasizing Mingus the composer, making the point with something like 50 musicians involved, and Teo Macero's production amplifying and projecting the sound to make it all the more powerful.
The lesser successor to Children, and the last Columbia project of his lifetime, came a year later in Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert, originally cut down to two LPs, here expanded to two CDs. The list of friends is exhaustive — Lee Konitz, Randy Weston, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, James Moody, Bill Cosby as MC, just to hit some of the biggest stars. The disc seems a little exhausting, yet it's too good to cut. Mingus famously summed up in three words the night of a thousand solos: "Too many friends."
After Mingus' 1979 death, Sue Mingus discovered a box of music that turned out to be compositions intended for his 1962 Town Hall concert, a live-recording debacle in which only a fraction of the music had been played — and that with mixed results. Forensic musicology by scholar Andrew Homzy led to the interpretation of the find as a 500-page, 18-movement manuscript, incorporating pieces that Mingus had written through his life, and including others unlike anything he'd heard before. It was a grand celebration of the history of jazz (and a lot of European classical music) as channeled through Mingus' genius. And with an all-star 31-musician ensemble, the two hours of music have been performed just a handful of times, the first included stunningly here. (One has to wonder what it might have been with Mingus at the helm, or with a band that could play and really grow into the music.)
The Sony/Legacy Mingus collection covers more than 30 years in 10 discs. The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-1965 on Mosaic covers just a year and a month in seven. But what a stretch of Mingus music begins in April of 1964! The down-home and witty pianist Jaki Byard, along with Mingus — at the height of his bass virtuosity — and Mingus' right-hand drummer Dannie Richmond made for one of most dynamic Mingus rhythm sections, one of the most exciting sections ever; "the Almighty Three," Byard proudly christened them. Eric Dolphy, the most original soloist to come through the Mingus ranks, was nearing the end of his tenure, and was being sent off with the showcases "So Long Eric" and "Praying with Eric." The estimable voices of Clifford Jordan on tenor and Johnny Coles on trumpet completed a powerhouse lineup that could rage and laugh, shift tempi and feel, keep the background support crew in flux and as fascinating as the soloist in the foreground.
The collection captures the band at New York's Town Hall on the eve of a major European tour and then six days later in Copenhagen with largely the same set list and even more gusto. (Notably, Town Hall's 11 minutes of "Fables of Faubus" gives way to a half-hour exploration of its multiple possibilities in Copenhagen.)
Back in the United States that September, Mingus has a new horn section for the Monterey Jazz Festival: young bop firebrands out of Detroit on trumpet (Lonnie Hillyer) and alto (Charles McPherson), plus a band veteran returning on tenor (John Handy). They absolutely kill in an Ellington medley that concludes with an ecstatic "Take the A Train." There's also an augmented version of that band with additional horns at Monterey. And a year later, Sept. 18, 1965, Mingus is at Monterey again with an augmented version of his working band and a batch of particularly adventurous compositions in an unfortunately truncated performance.
The second Monterey set (some of it issued in this collection for the first time) is actually the last music recorded here, preceding Mingus roughest years (depicted in Sue Mingus' Tonight at Noon and elsewhere). But the last selections featured in the Mosaic set come from four months earlier. It's a far more pleasing conclusion with a Hillyer-McPherson horn section in a feisty Minneapolis date.
Clearly, the attention given the avant-garde was getting under Mingus' skin and here's his answer: going out Mingus-style. He takes the mic to put down an unnamed avant-gardist for not knowing Charlie Parker, then he shows how far the band can go out with a potpourri of Bird faves and themes. To mention one more Minneapolis highlight: a "Cocktails for Two" that's almost slapstick, like nothing else in the Mingus oeuvre. But we know this comic was hurting inside.
Like Mosaic's Mingus box, the label's eight-CD Classic Coleman Hawkins Sessions 1922-1947 boasts a 10-by-10-inch box and booklet, and there's first-class material in the latter, both in essay form and detailed track-by-track annotations. Mostly culled from the era of 78 rpm releases, this set documents one of the most important of all jazz men — the virtual inventor of the tenor sax as an expressive instrument in jazz (and by extension R&B and rock), an influence on instrumentalists throughout jazz, and the creator of, arguably, the single best known solo in all of jazz that wasn't recorded by Louis Armstrong or rendered in vocalese, 1939's "Body and Soul."
Through 190 selections — so maybe you need to be an obsessive for this one — scholar-musician Loren Schoenberg tracks Hawkins' development as a bandmember and later as an off-and-on leader. Of course, jazz itself was progressing through these years, so this is also a recounting of jazz's history across three key decades with tubas giving way to the smoother flow of string basses, banjos for electric guitar, etc. Swing was being invented (boogie too), then bop. Schoenberg ably captures a time when committing a solo to disc was freighted with significance as much as a batter stepping to the plate. And few at-bats were as highly anticipated as slugger Hawkins. Here are samples of Schoenberg's color commentary on Hawkins:
• Dec. 20, 1922: "Sticking close to the theme, he makes good use of the prevailing slap-tongue effects in vogue at the time, and plays with a bravado impressive for an 18-year-old novice."
• Sept. 8, 1924: "There's one magical moment in the third and fourth measure of the last eight bars, where he ritards the beat and we hear the makings of the Hawk's genius."
• Oct. 24, 1927: "Hawkins manhandles his saxophone and gets an effect that may have brought a smile to Albert Ayler's face."
• Nov. 7, 1929: "... a Hawkins solo that must have made saxophonists' heads spin with its unstoppable forward motion, opening finger twists and sheer confidence. This is nothing less than the reinvention of the instrument. ..."
• Nov. 14, 1929: "Here for the first time, we have, albeit in embryonic form, the sophisticated Hawkins ballad style that set the pattern for untold millions of sax soli to come."
• Aug. 18, 1933: "Hawkins shoots off dozens of ideas in spots, many stated in blocky quarter-tone triplets."
Unfortunately, there's a 1934-1939 gap when Hawkins moves to Europe, but the selections and the story pick up with Hawk back in the States playing with a couple of his tenor acolytes (Chu Berry and Ben Webster) in Lionel Hampton's band. Then, on Disc 5, comes the epochal "Body and Soul" session, for which Schoenberg has been preparing us all along, although he constantly cautions against letting it overshadow Hawkins brilliance elsewhere and yet to come. Some of the latter is documented in the next discs here, replete with various aggregations of "all stars," which Hawkins surely was and remains.
Unlike the other boxes here discussed, there's no particular arc or story or coherence from Sarah Vaughan's The Complete Columbia Collection. It's just four almost random selections from one of the greatest vocalists of any genre, the most operatic of jazz singers. After Hours with Sarah Vaughan and Sarah Vaughan in Hi Fi capture Vaughan in her mid-20s in 1950 and 1951, her connections to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald clear. Hi Fi is the far jazzier of the two, with Miles Davis on trumpet.
The collection jumps ahead 30 years to Vaughan plus her working trio and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, co-credited to conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; it's soaring high-drama stuff, tour de force, monumental it shouts! This is about as far from the nightclub ambience as you can be. The collection finishes with one of her final projects, the third of her Brazilian songbooks, with Sergio Mendes producing and Milton Nascimento turning in a guest vocal.
The short booklet essay in 50th Anniversary Collection by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band tells the story of how traditional jazz found an institutional base in New Orleans, where so much of the jazz story begins. And, ironically, the story about preserving the tradition is also a story about carving out Preservation Hall as a space for progressive values in the Jim Crow South (note to Bill O'Reilly on that whole "traditional America" thing). With the platform provided by Atlantic and then Columbia Records and a heavy touring schedule, a battle was won. Consider these four discs as a small taste of the fruits of victory. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong like George Lewis and Sweet Emma Barrett, over the course of the collection, give way to a younger New Orleans generation (including longtime Detroit transplant Charlie Gabriel). Later sessions expand the tradition with sympatico collaborators like Tom Waits, Richie Havens and the Del McCoury Band'; some selections revamp the beat to connect the dots of a New Orleans second line to rock. Want a really special gift for someone? Send them to NOLA to hear this music at Preservation Hall. More reasonable, probably: Tell them to close their eyes, and play some of this.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band performs a holiday-themed show starting at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-576-5111; dso.org; $18.
W. Kim Heron is editor of Metro Times. Send comments to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:4c072555-1b4d-47cc-a308-edd65bbcf535> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metrotimes.com/mobile/music/jazz-geniuses-boxed-in-1.1406517 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955809 | 3,045 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Waiting for the president
Click to view caption|
Clockwise from top left: Mubarak's plane landing; a protester facing security forces; TV crews spreading the news; street vendors selling tea to the crowd outside the Security Academy; an ice cream vendor serving the soldiers inside the academy; military men praying; Mubarak wheeled into the trial (photos: AP & Nesmahar Sayed)
Preparations for the fateful day -- the sentence in the trial of the former president, his sons, his interior minister and said minister's aides -- was every bit as high-profile as the names involved. The trials of well-known businessmen and other figures have created media sensations in Egypt in the past, but few people who had as much airtime or print-space as the former president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak in his time -- and none of them was subjected to trial -- followed closely by his heir apparent Gamal, whose pictures and news were widely and frequently circulated whether to accustom people to his presence in preparation for him becoming president or because he had been Egypt's de facto ruler; both claims have been made.
Nor was the next in line any less celebrated, though perhaps celebrated is not the right word: former interior minister Habib El-Adli, the regime's iron-fisted protector, is the longest-serving arbiter of the police state in recent memory (having started his term in November 1997 after the terrorist attack on the Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, and remained in power till January 2011). But also there was Hassan Abdel-Rahman, the head of Egypt's notorious secret police, State Security: for many years, this apparatus formed the foundation of Mubarak's rule. He managed to eliminate domestic terrorism, but he also managed to garner the animosity of the vast majority of Egyptian people. All were now accused, behind bars, their destiny about to be decided.
The Security Academy (called the Mubarak Academy for Security prior to the revolution) seemed like the embodiment of a paradox; it was as if a person's end is involuntarily chosen by that person, for weren't the people being tried here now for the killing of demonstrators -- Mubarak and his henchmen -- the very ones responsible for people's lives and security? Ironically apt, therefore, that he should be tried in the security headquarters that was named after him. Still, with enormously involved security preparations, the place bespoke its name: police and army troops and special forces were stationed around tanks, armoured vehicles and even aircraft; no room was made for mistakes.
At 6.15am the vehicles conveying those in custody arrived, in the protection of Central Security vehicles, heading for the main entryway of the Police Academy where the security arrangements might have been set up to receive the president prior to him stepping down. By the time I took my seat, all the suspects had arrived with the exception of Mubarak. I chose a place somewhat far from the space assigned to the media, aiming to be roughly in the middle so that I could inspect as many angles as I could and to avoid talking to fellow journalists just yet; I needed to relax after the rigmarole of excessive security: machines beeping repeatedly for no apparent reason until, having submitted my phone and ring and watch, I realised I was wearing a silver necklace that I had forgotten about -- it was responsible for the beeping.
At 7am I recall that the trial is due to start at 10am: three whole hours to pass; what am I to do with all this time? Deciding to do as Romans do, I watch, observe, scrutinise everyone around me exactly as everyone around me is doing me. Security in uniform and in plainclothes are heavily present in the seating area; while classic secret intelligence and bodyguard corps officers are on their toes -- some with badges, some without; all extremely smart in expensive suits and sunglasses -- some guards appear to have been dismissed temporarily and are no longer exactly tense. Many are visibly tired. Some show signs of impending sleep; resting their heads on the seat in front of them, some doze quietly off. They seem to have come from all across Egypt's huge security expanse: many exchange warm greeting; they have evidently not seen each other in a long time. But subtle smiles and unforgiving commands are the name of the game: the confident veneer is somewhat disturbed by cigarette smoke; many, trying not to look too ruffled, are smoking inside. Someone is on a mobile phone right behind me: I realise he must be security; otherwise how is he allowed a mobile? I do not turn my head.
It is 7.40am: "Has everyone arrived?" Except for the president. One policeman rushes to him, asking him his name and rank and checking his ID to make sure, then leaves cordially. I ask the man behind me if he is among those securing the hall and he says no. "A journalist, then?" I play dumb. "No," he says. "Why?" I explain that I want to know why there are police among the court audience; it recalls football matches, especially those involving the army. He smiled like a true intelligence agent, effortlessly extracting all possible information from me, claiming that he worked somewhere or other, revealing nothing. In the meantime cameramen are checking their equipment, workers installing the seats for the judges and the prosecution. The basmallah followed by slow counting to test the microphone: the sound recalled popular weddings. Then, another phone call behind me: "Is the driver here?" I figure the driver was Mubarak. Even now I am pretty sure I am right about that.
8.25am. A scuffle between journalists and security over the journalists' seats, which are right next to those of the suspects' lawyers. At 8.30 Sameh Ashour, the head of the Bar Association, arrives at the hall; the legal team of civil prosecutors welcome him with gusto. It is at this moment that the said prosecutors begin to wield signs bearing pictures of the martyrs, waving them at the cameras. A long wait yet: people are chatting, others scanning newspapers; one lady is reading a book with the word "constitution" in its title. At 8.45, with permission from the officer, I move to where I can see the suspects, who are now blocked from view by a load of cameras and microphones and surrounded by security from every conceivable angle.
I end up next to the civil prosecutors, one of whom I cannot help turning to, asking, "What do you think your reaction to the sentence will be?" Magdi Rashed, who has spent 35 years of his life in courts, accommodates me, "if the suspects are indicted, however lightly, only the defence can appeal -- not us. If any of the suspects is declared not guilty, the prosecution and the civil prosecutors have the right to appeal, the criminal and the civil case respectively. The court might choose to transfer the case to a civil court too if it sees fit." I ask Rashed whether Judge Ahmed Refaat's high standing and his spotless record might affect the civil prosecutors' response to the sentence. "All I care about is the sentence," he says. "I am not interested in the judge's integrity or his professional history. In court there is no place for a personal opinion. What interests me is the legal soundness of the sentence and how it follows from the elements of the case. In fact there is no reason for the civil prosecutors or the defence to be here today, but because it concerns martyrs most of us have chosen to come, with the notable exception of Mubarak's best-known lawyer Farid El-Deeb. All that is legally required is for the suspects to be present and for the session to be public."
At this point another civil prosecutor, Amr Alieddin, joins the conversation: "In the case of Mubarak being indicted, as soon as the court utters the sentence it is no longer responsible for the suspect, who is now under the Prisons Authority supervised by the General Prosecutor. If declared not guilty, the suspect is released on condition that he is not implicated in any other case. If the prosecution decides to appeal within 60 days, the suspect is banned from leaving the country and it is up to the prosecutor to keep him in custody or release him̉ê¦"
At 9.05am the documents pertaining to the case are placed on the tables. 9.15: A civil prosecutor chants, "Out! Out!" addressing a Kuwaiti lawyer who has entered the hall and sat some distance away. Rashed discusses the tight security: "Such security is common in trials that concern public opinion. Such was the case with the trials of the Muslim Brotherhood in the long period 1965-2006, the Jihad organisation case in 1988, the businessman Hisham Talaat Mustafa's case in 2009, the Ezzat Hanafi case in 2006̉ê¦ But this particular case is exceptional in every imaginable way."
10 am: the journalists are standing on their seats in order to make out the suspects as they enter to stand behind bars. (The bars have been reinforced since the trial of the Port Said massacre suspects). The prosecutors and the judges enter, surrounded by rows of security. A woman holds a Quran. A lawyer is tapping a table with her fingers, anxious. Journalists, civil prosecutors and other lawyers fall silent as Ahmed Refaat begins to speak.
Refaat's long introduction, a paean to the revolution and an unequivocal condemnation of the last 30 years of government in Egypt, proves deeply moving to the audience; some broke audibly into tears on hearing words like "black black black" and "injustice". Since the judges entered people have communicated primarily with their eyes, the looks bearing anxiety and anticipation, warnings and commands, hope and fear. They were sometimes followed by mumbling but on Refaat beginning to speak there was no longer any sound. The dead silence remained until he uttered the sentence. Mubarak and El-Adli were sentenced to life. El-Adli's aides were acquitted. Mubarak and his sons were cleared of corruption charges. Then, noise. | <urn:uuid:9274fdff-4e1b-4e9c-ab73-9960420cddbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1101/feature.htm | 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 | 0.976232 | 2,083 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In Chicago, an organization called African American Women Evolving has spent the past decade pursuing a positive, holistic vision for reproductive health and social justice — by and for Black women.
Compelling social justice advocacy and activism must take the form of multidimensional organizing and intersectional thinking. Justice NOW in Oakland, California is a brilliant example of this kind of work.
At least 7 percent of incarcerated women are pregnant when they are sent to prison, with little access to health care or pregnancy resources. A group of Washington state doulas are there for them though.
Abortion funds around the country make sure that every woman does have the right to abortion — regardless of her economic situation. Tyler LePard interviews Tiffany Reed, President of the DC Abortion Fund in Washington, DC. | <urn:uuid:f073f245-07a8-447b-a327-afbdb9ac7afe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rhrealitycheck.org/tag/organization-spotlight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940367 | 157 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Hurt by low interest rates, retirees should consider steering their portfolios beyond bonds, according to Rob and Tom Fross at Fross & Fross Wealth Management.
First, stay calm. Then get all your documentation together to prove your case to the IRS.
Home staging is the process of renovating your house to increase its value and sell it faster.
Don't let credit card debt accrued over the holiday season linger by using a few key tips to help pay down your balance.
Money Magazine's Donna Rosato says 2012's historic low interest rates will continue into the new year.
The new pay-as-you-earn federal student loans could ease your debt burden for decades to come.
2013 could bring on more home price appreciation and changes in the popular mortgage interest tax deduction.
Money Magazine's George Mannes asks people, from students to seniors, about their money plans for next year.
Investing lessons from 2012: HP and other dogs may keep sliding. Winners like Apple may continue to do well. Close analysis is crucial. | <urn:uuid:2a5c634e-3eb1-41d3-9825-6d522eecca73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/06/01/pf-hd-job-interview-trick.cnnmoney/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942245 | 214 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Shipping of plasmids and X-rays - (Apr/20/2004 )
I am sending some plasmid DNA overseas courier and I have been told that packages are routinely X-rayed. Do companies like FEDEX X-ray all biological samples, presumably all the samples that I have sent out in the past have been X-rayed! Now, from my undergraduate lectures, I can remember that ionizing radiation (X-rays) can induce double strand breaks in DNA. If this is the case, then would the 'damaged' plasmid DNA be repaired (religated?) after transformation into E.coli? I have often received plasmids from my collaborators overseas and I haven't detected any mutations. Anyone have any ideas or thought about this?
Why don't you just spot your plasmid on a filter paper and sent it as regular mail? Will regular mail get x-rayed? probably not . | <urn:uuid:383b1576-5c61-4916-8093-6abe991d041f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.protocol-online.org/biology-forums/posts/3044.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965885 | 194 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I thought we were making significant progress in holding Utah public education accountable. But now, I’m not so sure. Last month a report by the Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel (OLRGC) revealed that the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) is failing to report the results in 29 areas of accountability. Additionally, a report on Utah’s success in literacy improvement appears to contain highly inflated results.
Failing to report or overstating performance is not new for USOE. Last year it was discovered that USOE had claimed a 90% graduation rate for Utah high school students when a federal report showed the Beehive State completion rate at just 76%. In response, USOE spokespersons said the apparent discrepancy was merely a result of differences in assumptions used in the calculations. | <urn:uuid:164f6dfc-5c18-4d34-87eb-1c0602efd257> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utahpolicy.com/view/full_story/20403509/article-New-Taxpayers-Association-Newsletter?instance=featured_home_policy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955968 | 165 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Beginning Sunday, California will become the first state in the nation to prohibit the sale of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to minors.
The prohibition is the direct result of a law authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), Senate Bill 514.
DXM reportedly causes a life-threatening high, and the act of abusing is commonly known as “robotripping.” Starting January 1, store clerks must check ID's to ensure that no one under 18 purchases these medications.
The law was suggested by a constituent in Simitian's "There Oughta to Be A Law" contest.
Here's a rundown of some of their other noteworthy bills passed in Sacramento and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown:
Authored by Simitian:
SB 2X requires private and public utilities to obtain 33 percent of their electricity from renewable resources – such as solar, wind, and geothermal – by 2020. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has called SB 2X a “groundbreaking piece of legislation that would put California at the forefront of the clean-energy economy.”
SB 24 strengthens and standardizes the notification requirements when someone’s personal information has been hacked into, stolen, or lost. The bill also requires state agencies, businesses and others to notify the Attorney General if more than 500 Californians are affected by a data breach, so law enforcement can zero in on patterns of identity theft.
SB445 extends library privacy protections to electronic content: online records, emails or other communications with library staff, computer research, social media communications and online courses.
SB221 expands California consumers’ access to Small Claims Court, considered an efficient and cost-effective way to resolve minor disputes, by increasing the limit of damages from $7,500 to $10,000.
Authored by Yee:
SB 397 allows citizens to register to vote via the internet. Under the bill, citizens will input their voter information online and the county elections office can use the voter’s signature from the Department of Motor Vehicles to verify authenticity.
SB 41 allows pharmacies to sell sterile syringes to an adult without a prescription.
SB 602 requires government agencies to seek a court order if they want to access consumers’ reading records from bookstores and online retailers.
SB 216 requires PG&E and other gas utility companies to install automatic and remotely-controlled shutoff valves throughout California’s pipelines.
Assemblyman Hill authored additional pipeline legislation in the aftermath of the San Bruno explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.
Authored by Hill:
AB56 requires remote-controlled shut off valves in high population areas and the comprehensive testing and record-keeping of gas transmission lines. It also prohibits utilities from using ratepayer money to pay penalties for safety violations assessed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and requires natural gas corporations to meet annually with local fire departments to review emergency response plans.
AB1601 empowers judges to suspend a driver’s license for 10 years after a third DUI conviction. The current limit is three years and the authority to suspend a license rests with the Department of Motor Vehicles. According to Hill's office, if every judge utilized the 10-year license revocation created in this legislation, over 10,000 repeat DUI offenders could be removed from California roadways every year.
AB75 closes loopholes with respect to notary services and misleading solicitations sent to homes and businesses. Hill says solicitors often send official looking letters that contain threats of penalties, fines, and license suspension unless payment is remitted immediately. The letters appear to be from government agencies and cause many unsuspecting individuals and businesses to pay hundreds of dollars. The bill requires disclosure of nongovernmental status to be placed at the top of the first page of the solicitation to avoid any deception. The law was suggested by a constituent in Hill's 2010 "Oughta Be A Law...Or Not" contest.
AB459 says California, in conjunction with other states, will award all of its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The legislation does not go into effect until it is adopted by states representing a majority of the Electoral College. His 2011 "Oughta Be A Law...Or Not" contest provided this idea. | <urn:uuid:be2f690e-3e42-4b3a-8032-b03e15440fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://redwoodcity-woodside.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/new-laws-take-effect-sunday-robotripping-internet-vot329d9baa7e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937412 | 903 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Find and make your own Reptiles in the Museum
16 February 2012
M.C. Escher loved strange animals. He made prints and drawings with frogs, snakes and reptiles. These reptiles can be found this Holiday in the Museum. 9 reptiles are hidden in the palace and children will be able to make and decorate their own reptile in the Escher Lab.
Date: Sunday 19 February, Sunday 26 February, Wednesday 29 February and Sunday the 4th of March
Time: 13:30 – 16:30 p.m. | <urn:uuid:1ee36aa8-da7c-4d6b-a9b9-1e9b9e3f83d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/2012/02/1957/?lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94228 | 110 | 1.796875 | 2 |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The average price for a gallon of unleaded gas in Arkansas is $3.43 - which is 20 cents higher than it was a month ago.
The AAA says the national average Tuesday is $3.57 a gallon. That's also up almost 20 cents from last month.
The surge in gas prices follows an increase in the price of oil.
In Arkansas, the Pine Bluff metro area had the most expensive gas, averaging $3.47 a gallon. The price was $3.43 in the Little Rock-North Little Rock area, and $3.36 in northwest Arkansas.
Prices in Texarkana were $3.43 per gallon.
The AAA says the highest recorded price in Arkansas for a gallon of unleaded gas was $3.98 in July 2008.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) | <urn:uuid:6fe79a7b-3cf0-4cf6-b616-c796a845d99d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thv11.com/news/article/197288/2/Arkansas-gas-prices-up-20-cents-since-January | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951335 | 186 | 1.632813 | 2 |
It is within limitations that good things happen.
For example, on the piano the diatonic scale, say from C to C, (and not the motto of Canada, ad mare usque ad mare), is not very easy to compose in, let alone improvise in. And when you move to other scales, say E major, with 4 sharps, black notes that are mixed with white, things can get complicated.
More than that, there seems to be built into this harmonic system, that most western art music has used, a propensity for errors.
You just can't get it right.
But when you move into another mode of harmony, say pentatonic, just all the black keys, for example, everything works!
And then there is the blues scale which gives the sound so distinctively blues.
And then there are limitations of rhythm you can build in, and chord progressions, too.
You can't go into the void without a method.
I wish life were this easy. | <urn:uuid:103534e2-19b5-459f-b5d9-05e478ff67fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everything2.com/title/limitations+of+the+system | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942827 | 211 | 1.75 | 2 |
News of Riverton, Lander and Fremont County, Wyoming, from the Ranger's award winning journalists.
Artists paint fast for WWWC auction
Feb 8, 2012 - By Emily Etheredge Staff Writer
He began with a stroke of green. The next steps were sideways brushes of yellow, black and brown bursting into a scene of trees being kissed by the sun.
A tap on each branch with fingertips blended the colors together. In a few moments, the scene was captured.
Dubois artist Gary Keimig focused on his painting of an aspen scene as the clock ticked for an hour Saturday night at the Wild West Winter Carnival Quick Draw Auction. The event was sponsored by the Riverton Artists Guild, Wind River Gallery and A.D. Lumber Company. Artists were challenged to create a painting in one hour as the public milled around watching them. The pieces were auctioned off at the end of the evening.
"I have been participating in the quick draw since it first started 25 years ago," Keimig said.
"I absolutely love it and have a lot of fun with the challenge to create something in such a short time."
After debating whether or not he should paint a scene from the Tetons, Keimig decided to paint aspens and use gouache water colors, which he said he really enjoys.
"It is a different technique, but I thought it turned out pretty good and was pleased with the result," Keimig said.
Although some painters might get distracted from passersby, Keimig said he enjoys interacting with the crowd.
"People walking up behind me and watching me paint really isn't a distraction," Keimig said. "I actually welcome anyone to come talk to me while I paint."
Keimig moved to Wyoming in 1978 where he found a unique area with a variety of wildlife and habitat. His educational background is in art and biology, which he said has served him well in the work he enjoys painting. He often captures the grandeur and adventure of nature and puts his love of the outdoors in his paintings.
He said he has been involved in many one-man shows throughout the Rocky Mountain region, has been invited to attend a number of National Western and Wildlife Invitational shows and has won numerous awards for his work.
Keimig said he considers his paintings successful when the viewer is touched equally or catches a glimpse of the enduring spirit of the wilderness and can find meaning within.
Painters at the event experimented with a variety of mediums including canvases, animal hide and sketch pads. Some artists used pencils, charcoal, chalk and oil-based paints to create everything from mountains to horses, mountain lions and nature.
"I have been painting all of my life and for over 40 years professionally, so I really look forward to the quick draw event every year," Keimig said. "It just allows a group of people who enjoy the same thing to get together and show the public how much we love painting."
Keimig said anyone interested in viewing his paintings can visit his website at www.garykeimig.
blogspot.com where he posts different pieces of art for those unable to attend his shows. | <urn:uuid:53141587-2fd1-4a1f-8815-f7abf3075ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyranger.com/story.php?story_id=119&headline=Artists-paint-fast-for-WWWC-auction | 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 | 0.981784 | 662 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Upcoming events offered by FGC, including workshops, trainings, retreats and other opportunities.
High School Program participants live together creating community through a multitude of activities during the week. An intense and amazing, fun-packed Quaker experience.
Sixth through Eighth Graders (2012-13) spend their mornings in workshops and their evenings with both small support groups and large group recreational activities.
Kindergarten through Fifth Graders (2012-13) spend time with similarly aged friends, working on projects, singing, worshipping, playing and learning.
Preschoolers spend their mornings in a variety of spirited outdoor activities... all with abundant staffing.
Infants and Toddlers spend their mornings pretty much as they would if they were at home . . .
Read the Junior Gathering Times.
What Love Requires: Community and the Challenge of Diversity
As Friends we are called to love each other in unity. For many of us, the challenge of diversity overwhelms our ability to labor with each other in love. . . . Read more.
These small-group sessions often spark new leadings and insights. Choose from varied topics likely to include peace and justice issues, international conflict and peace-making, education, economics, spirituality, and other Quaker concerns. To offer an interest group, submit a completed proposal by May 7.
As spiritually sensitive as Rumi, as dedicated to the common good as Pete Seeger, as complex in his characterizations as Joni Mitchell–David Wilcox brings depth, conscience, rollicking energy and gentle humor to his recordings and stage shows.
A superb guitarist with a light baritone voice, David creates songs and stories to touch Friends’ hearts.
To Create a More Perfect Union: A reflective, public conversation concerning the healing of our wounded American historical experience and our possible capacity to be midwives in the birth of a new nation.
An opportunity for Friends to move toward living out a deeper faith and a richer future, based on a more honest encounter with the history of settlement, displacement, slavery, and racial supremacy we have helped to create in our land. This democratic dialogue will be lead by Dr. Vincent Harding, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Human Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, and his brother/colleague, Dr. George "Tink" Tinker, member of the Osage Nation and Professor of Native American Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff. It is their intention that the conversation will be based on hope rather than on guilt. They recommend that Friends also participate, if possible, in the exercise, "This Land Was Your Land: Seeking Right Relationship with America's Native Peoples," on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. | <urn:uuid:362f9064-b34e-4272-a024-3ac515e95f64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/events | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956912 | 553 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Writing for musical course featured in Globe
Writing for the Film Musical
October 20, 2011
Writing for the Film Musical, a new course taught and created by Emerson Visual and Media Arts Assistant Professor Diane Lake and Berklee College Professor Michael Wartosky, was featured in a Boston Globe front-page article.
Visual and Media Arts Assistant Professor Diane Lake won a grant from the ProArts Consortium to create the course "Writing the Film Musical" for Emerson and Berklee students.
Read the Boston Globe article below:
Colleges strike common chord
Class on musicals blends talents
The writing class started much like any other. In the first half of the screenwriting exercise, Emerson College students discussed plot development, effective characters, and establishing conflict.
Then they added music. They moved to another classroom, where they joined students from Berklee College of Music. One played a flawless riff on the piano. Another sang and tap danced. Several intensely studied musical scores.
The students are part of an unusual hybrid class jointly offered by the colleges. The course, “Writing the Film Musical,’’ pairs Emerson’s screenwriting students with Berklee’s music students to work on pieces of a musical screenplay that will ultimately be performed before an audience.
The idea originated with Emerson screenwriting professor Diane Lake, who thought that exposure to musicals would help her students think about writing in a different, more creative way.
“I am full of crazy ideas,’’ said Lake, whose 2002 film “Frida’’ - her first big writing assignment - won two Academy Awards.
Undeterred by the fact that her own formal music education ended at age 5 when her parents sold the family piano, she reached out to Berklee professor Michael Wartofsky, whom she’d been told had a musical theater background.
Together they drafted a proposal, which won a $3,000 grant for “the most engaging and innovative course’’ from the ProArts Consortium, an association of six Boston-area visual and performing arts colleges that aims to facilitate cross-college collaboration. The students are working in pairs to write and compose music for an act from a musical. Highlights will be performed for the public on Dec. 13 at Emerson’s Paramount Theatre.
It’s not uncommon for students enrolled at one college to take courses at another nearby. But it’s rare for two colleges to team up for the same course, especially schools as different as Emerson and Berklee.
They may be close to each other geographically - 1.2 miles, to be precise - but in terms of culture they are miles apart. Emerson pumps out communications majors; Berklee’s mission is to create revolutionary musicians. Emerson’s writing students fret over plot and dialogue. Berklee’s think in terms of tempo and melodic themes.
“Your toolbox contains your personal vocabulary and 12 notes,’’ said Rafael Sanchez, a Berklee student taking the class. “The rest is pure creativity.’’
There aren’t many obvious points of intersection between the two worlds. But Lake and Wartofsky thought they could find common ground in musicals, thanks to a resurgence of interest in the genre inspired partly by Fox’s hit show “Glee’’ and by a spate of musical films.
“Every high school on the planet is doing their version of ‘High School Musical,’ ’’ Lake said.
Wartofsky believes musical films with strong social themes like “Moulin Rouge,’’ “Chicago,’’ and “Rent’’ shifted public opinion about musicals, which had lost their luster in the 1970s and ’80s.
“They showed that movie musicals could be very cool and hip,’’ said Wartofsky, whose own credits include writing the music for “Cupcake’’ and “Car Talk: The Musical!!!’’
The course started this fall, with 12 students enrolled from each college. They meet once a week on Tuesday nights, alternating schools.
Initially there wasn’t much interaction between the two groups; the students sat clumped together by school. Some of the Emerson students had trouble relating to the music conversations.
“They were talking about things like vamps,’’ recalled Ethan Young, an Emerson student.
In one of the first classes, the topic was an analysis of “Chicago.’’ Lake discussed screenplay structure. Wartofsky talked about song placement and song “moments,’’ and the way songs can tell a story.
“Then [Wartofsky] goes to the piano and we start singing lyrics,’’ said the perpetually effusive Lake. “And here are my students - the playwrights, the film writers, the writers of short stories. And they are singing! My kids don’t sing! It’s a new way to tell a story through song.’’
Things got tougher the next week, as the students split into screenwriting and songwriting teams. Working in pairs, Emerson students were charged with writing the first act of an original screenplay. (“The title should kill,’’ Lake told them.) Berklee students were assigned to write songs to help tell that story.
To simulate the competitive nature of the entertainment business, screenwriters would try to sell their idea to the musicians in a compelling, five-minute pitch in the hope that their script would be picked. “We’re trying to create a little bit of an industry vibe here,’’ Wartofsky said.
The pitches came a week later, and they were nothing if not inventive. Lorena Mora and Young pitched “The Swamp Thing,’’ about a supernatural creature in a Mississippi swamp. Michael Giese and David Ladr offered up “Starving Artists,’’ about a down-on-his-luck circus performer who takes a gig eating a metal sculpture. Neil McNeil and Tim Zientek pitched “One Killer Musical’’ about a serial killer in a musical theater.
Some of the writers apparently hadn’t quite grasped the concept of song placement. One team forgot to leave room for any music. Another accounted for an implausible plot twist by promising it would be preceded by a “song moment.’’
But the musicians had no problems seeing potential.
“I’m seeing old American military music,’’ said Sanchez, 21, who taught himself to play several instruments by ear and has so many ideas for melodies he said he has to memorize them or sing them into his phone. He and his partner Don Ngatia were charmed by “One Killer Musical,’’ seeing strong potential for uptempo blues music and 1930s-inspired jazz.
The Berklee students got only a week to create lyrics and music for a song for two different screenplays. Sanchez, who played piano, and Ngatia, who sang, performed a tango called “Let’s Dance.’’ They thought it would be a haunting way to establish the killer protagonist. (“There’re so many ways to die - I mean dance, tonight/Mambo, tap or tango, what’s your delight. /So what if when we dip you may slip, never to rise?’’)
Some of the Emerson students were so impressed with the musical renderings of their stories they were close to tears.
“We got a tad emotional during the song pitches,’’ said Mora, who is majoring in film and television writing.
A few weeks into the course, it was hard to tell they were from different schools. Said Zientek: “We’re weirdly similar.’’ | <urn:uuid:1fff9679-0d8b-46d0-88e9-474bf252dbc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emerson.edu/news-events/emerson-college-today/writing-musical-course-featured-globe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966314 | 1,698 | 1.804688 | 2 |
TOPIC: The 14th Annual Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
“30 Years since Helsinki: Challenges Ahead”
DATE: July 1 - 5, 2005
LOCATION: Washington, DC
The 14th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly convened in Washington, DC, July 1-5, 2005. Speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), the host for this year’s Assembly, welcomed more than 260 parliamentarians from 51 OSCE participating States as they gathered to discuss various political, economic, and humanitarian issues under the theme, “30 Years since Helsinki: Challenges Ahead.” Commission Chairman Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) served as head of the U.S. Delegation, Co-Chairman Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) was delegation vice-chairman.
Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice gave the inaugural address at the assembly’s opening session, thanking the members of the OSCE PA for their work toward “human rights, the rule of law, free and fair elections, and the development of transparent, accountable institutions of government across the OSCE community and around the globe.
“As the Chairman-in-Office and Parliamentary Assembly take a fresh look at the OSCE agenda and consider these and other items, preserving the integrity of Helsinki principles and ensuring that the OSCE continues to be an agent of peaceful, democratic transformation should be paramount objectives,” Secretary Rice said.
Chairman Brownback in plenary remarks underscored the rich history of the Helsinki Process, unwavering U.S. commitment to human rights and the dignity of the individual, and the dramatic advances made in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, he pointed to the remaining work to be done in the OSCE region and beyond to meet the promises made with the signing of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.
Offering guidance to the body, OSCE PA President and Helsinki Commissioner Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) reiterated the gathering’s theme: “In this new Europe, and in this new world, the OSCE and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly must stand ready to respond to new threats and challenges, and this means evolving and adapting to new realities.”
AGENDA AND ISSUES
Among the issues considered by the Assembly were recommendations for changes in the OSCE Code of Conduct for Mission Members, efforts to combat human trafficking, and calls for greater transparency and accountability in election procedures in keeping with OSCE commitments made by each of the 55 participating States.
The First Committee on Political Affairs and Security met to discuss matters of terrorism and conflict resolution, including resolutions on the following topics:
· terrorism by suicide bombers
· the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia
· terrorism and human rights
· Moldova and the status of Transdniestria
Under the chairmanship of Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), the Second Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment moved on a number of issues, including resolutions and amendments on:
· small arms and light weapons
· maritime security and piracy
· the OSCE Mediterranean dimension
· money laundering
· the fight against corruption
The Third Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions tackled a number of resolutions, as well as two supplementary items brought by members of the U.S. Delegation. Other topics addressed by the Committee included:
· the need to strengthen the Code of Conduct for OSCE Mission Members
· combating trafficking in human beings
· improving the effectiveness of OSCE election observation activities
The Assembly plenary met in consideration of the resolutions passed by the general committees as well as the following supplementary items:
· improving gender equality in the OSCE
· combating anti-Semitism
Special side events were held in conjunction with the 5-day meeting, including a briefing on the status of detainees at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, held by senior U.S. officials from the Departments of Defense and State. Members of the U.S. Delegation also participated in the following organized events:
· Parliamentary responses to anti-Semitism
· Working breakfast on gender issues
· Mediterranean side meeting
· Panel discussion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
· Human rights in Uzbekistan
· Meeting of the parliamentary team on Moldova
In addition, while participating in the Assembly, members of the U.S. Delegation held bilateral meetings with fellow parliamentarians from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. They also had formal discussions with the newly appointed OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.
KEY U.S. INITIATIVES
The successful adoption of a number of supplementary items and amendments to the Assembly’s Washington Declaration illustrated the extent of the activity of the members of the U.S. Delegation in the three Assembly committees. The delegation met success in advancing its initiatives in human trafficking, election observation activities, and religious freedom. As a result, the Washington Declaration reflects significant input based on U.S. initiatives.
In the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Senator Voinovich (R-OH) sponsored, and successfully passed, a supplementary item on funding for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to allow it to continue its missions and responsibilities.
Speaking on the passage of his resolution on combating trafficking at the hands of international peacekeepers, Co-Chairman Smith said, “In the past, the lack of appropriate codes of conduct for international personnel, including military service members, contractors, and international organization’s employees, limited the ability to counter sexual exploitation and trafficking. That is finally changing.”
The U.S. Delegation also overwhelmingly defeated text offered by the Russian Delegation that would have weakened the ability of ODIHR to effectively perform election observations. Co-Chairman Smith, principal sponsor of the amendments that served to frustrate the Russian resolution, praised the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly saying,
“The Parliamentary Assembly has reaffirmed the central and historic leadership role of the OSCE’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in monitoring elections….Parliamentarians from the participating States have soundly rejected the ploy to weaken OSCE election standards, holding participating States accountable when they fail to fulfill their OSCE election commitments.”
On the issue of religious freedom, the U.S. Delegation carried through two amendments to the final Assembly declaration.
“I am very pleased that these amendments passed,” said Co-Chairman Smith, who offered the amendments to the draft resolution. “However, the fact that the first amendment passed by only 10 votes underscores the continuing challenge in the fight for religious liberties in the OSCE region. The fact that parliamentarians are willing to discriminate against minority religious communities is sobering.”
In addition, an amendment brought by Del. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC) that calls on the U.S. Congress to grant voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia secured passage.
Commissioner Hastings was re-elected unanimously to another one-year term as the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Joining the U.S. leadership on the Parliamentary Assembly, Commissioner Benjamin L. Cardin was also re-elected Chairman of the General on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment by unanimous decision. Commission Co-Chairman Christopher H. Smith continues in his role as Special Representative on Human Trafficking to the OSCE PA. Additionally, Rep. Hoyer chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on Transparency and Accountability, which works to foster greater response from the governments of participating States to Assembly initiatives.
The close of the Assembly was marked with the adoption of the Washington Declaration and concluding remarks by OSCE PA President Hastings.
The Parliamentary Assembly will meet again next year, July 3-7, in Brussels, Belgium.
U.S. Delegation to 14th Annual OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:
Commission Chairman Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ)
Commission Ranking Member Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)
Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD)
Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-NY)
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL)
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA)
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce. | <urn:uuid:8b134e9c-7ef7-44c7-9253-f40743333bfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=104&ContentType=G&ContentRecordType=G&UserGroup_id=69®ion_id=69&year=0&month=0&Subaction=Reports&CFID=9458816&CFTOKEN=98896631 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936468 | 1,899 | 1.546875 | 2 |
That record 2012 crop: Behind the numbers
By now you’ve all heard about California’s record 2012 harvest, at 4.4 million tons the largest ever. It edged out the previous record, in 2005, and was up 11% over 2011’s harvest, which was more in line with historical averages.
I don’t think anyone foresaw how big 2012 would be. Here in California, I remember the anecdotes that started to be heard last summer about “bigger than normal.” On Sept. 18, Allied Grape Growers, a Fresno-based growers association, predicted the crop would hit 3.7 million tons, which would have made it the second largest ever. That turned out to be a serious underestimate.
By harvest time the rumors of huge crops became frantic realities. On Oct. 19, I wrote, in my Vintage Diary, “Scattered reports of WMs [winemakers] running out of fermentation vessels, having to use storage bins, etc.”
As usual, the largest crops by variety were Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, in that order. Prices, as measured by dollars per ton, hit record levels, too: Red wines averaged $879 (up nearly 25% over 2011), whites $624 (up 15%)
Another way of appreciating how huge the crop was is to look at the production of individual varieties and compare them to past vintages. Nearly three-quarters of a million tons of Chardonnay were crushed in 2012, an astonishing 31.5% spike over 2011. Cabernet Sauvignon similarly saw a 20% increase over 2011, while even shy-bearing Pinot Noir was up a dramatic 45% (247,303 tons vs. 170,450 tons). I thought this latter number was so unbelievable, I double-checked it against the Districts where Pinot was grown. District 7 (Monterey-San Benito) was the biggest producer of Pinot in the state, clocking in at more than 54,000 tons–double that of the 2011 crop! Similarly in District 3 (Sonoma-Marin) the Pinot crop was nearly double that of 2011. And so on, all down the line.
With Cabernet Sauvignon, District 4, Napa Valley, was the top producer, as usual, with just shy of 71,000 tons produced. Compare that to 2011’s 50,846, an increase of nearly 40%.
Was the vintage a good one? After all the hype and spin, it probably was. As I wrote on Sept. 18, “It’s the year nothing happened: No rain, no frosts, no damaging heat waves, no chilly temperatures, no smoke taint from wildfires, no mold, no spring shatter.” A heat wave in October sped up the picking process, while anticipated rains in the third week of October led to that crush rush. But overall, 2012 continued a string of successful harvests in California.
What will the impact be of the huge crush on prices? We’ll have to wait and see, of course, but it should have a temporizing effect. At least, growers won’t have the excuse of short crops to raise prices. And the continuing impact of the Recession also should encourage producers not to risk unreasonable spikes. | <urn:uuid:8ce9a445-8a8a-40e2-af1f-0f5e702a1347> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2013/02/14/that-record-2012-crop-behind-the-numbers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959353 | 705 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Scientists can be critical people, especially as they are critiquing others' work, writes Prof-like Substance at the Spandrel Shop. "Critique pushes science forward (especially when it's of that other lab!) and keeps us thinking," he writes. "But everyone has spent time in that journal club or lab meeting where it seems like the sole purpose is to tear anything to shreds."
Prof-like Substance adds, though, that he is going to make a "concerted effort this month to dedicate roughly the same amount of text to both the 'Strengths' and 'Weaknesses' sections of my reviews."
In a separate critique-related post, Prof-like offers tips for those serving on review panels, advising panelists to get their reviews in early and to choose which proposals they want to fight for. Once panelists have submitted their reviews, they can read what others have written. By doing so, Prof-like says, panelists can get a sense of the "mood" of the group, by seeing whether reviews are generally positive or negative, and panelists can determine who they'll have to win over to fund their favorite proposals.
"Above all, remember that you are there to talk science and participate in the process of getting people funding. As a group you'll have to make some hard decisions and it's easy to walk out of one of these feeling a little depressed by the amount of good science that doesn't make the cut," Prof-like Substance notes. "But do what you can, learn what you can and get to know the other panelists — there's a decent chance they will be reviewing one of your grants some day." | <urn:uuid:18c84e34-8c21-4860-bfda-146af4a99d11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/keep-it-positive | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971536 | 343 | 1.78125 | 2 |
2007-03-29 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- On a bipartisan unanimous vote, legislation that would end California's ban on donations of sperm from HIV-positive men was approved Wednesday by the Senate Health Committee.
The ban was imposed 18 years ago before the development of medical technology which can "wash" HIV from sperm so it can then be used to fertilize a consenting woman without risk of HIV transmission.
Without a change allowing HIV-positive men to use the treatment, the only way they can impregnate their wife or partner is through unprotected sex, which can lead to transmission.
"All families deserve access to the tools that reproductive science has to offer," said Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, the bill's author.
A decade of studies from around the world have logged 4,500 fertility treatments using washed sperm with no instances of HIV transmission to either the woman or child.
California is one of two states whose laws don't recognize the sperm treatment. "I just feel it's unfair to play Russian roulette with my wife's health," testified Dan Hartmann, a 32-year-old Oakland graphic artist who got HIV from a blood transfusion when he was 12. | <urn:uuid:6792a0e4-cdc3-4023-ba20-c07d6f210789> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/SACRAMENTO-Unanimous-OK-for-bill-on-sperm-2606034.php | 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 | 0.957788 | 249 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Designed for the study of exodus and for the research of modern incarnations of historical iconic figures.
The latest camera is named Yama, the Tibetan God of Death. In Tibetan Buddhism, Yama will see all of life and Karma is the "judge" that keeps the balance. The skull was blessed by a Tibetan Lama for its current journey and I'm working with a Tibetan legal organization that is sending me to the refugee cities in India.
Yama's eyes are cast from bronze and silver with a brass pinhole in each. A divider runs down the middle of the skull creating two separate cameras. A finished contact print mounted on copper is inserted in to the back of the camera to view what Yama saw in 3D.
Yama is made from Aluminium, Titanium, Copper, Brass, Bronze Steel, Silver, Gold, Mercury with 4 Sapphires, 3 Rubies (The one at Yama's third eye was $5000.00), Asian and American Turquoise, Sand, Blood, and 9 Opals inlayed in the Skull. The film loading system is pneumatic. A 300psi air tank in the middle of the camera powers 2 pneumatic pistons to move the film holder forward and lock it into place. The switch to open and close the film chamber is located under the jaw.
Designed for two photo series. First series is of my interpretation of the modern incarnation of Southeast Asians deities. Second will take place in the Tibetan refugee cities of India, a home coming through the eyes of a 500 year old Tibetan. | <urn:uuid:8acc97c9-4f66-4d06-af6e-4752dbb2f299> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boyofblue.com/cameras/yama/yama11.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943818 | 323 | 1.773438 | 2 |
There are some advantages to artery-opening angioplasty over medication treatment for people with heart disease, but those advantages disappear within three years, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Angioplasty does offer a higher quality of life for months to a couple of years, says study leader Dr. William S. Weintraub, chief of cardiology at the Christiana Health Care System in Newark, Delaware.
In the COURAGE trial, the researchers tested angioplasty, with stent implants, against medication treatment for 2,287 people with stable coronary disease.
Earlier analysis found improved quality of life for those having the artery-opening procedure that is formally called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
The new report found that by 36 months, there was no significant difference in health status between the two treatment groups.
"What one can say is that for people with chronic, stable coronary disease, PCI can be deferred," Dr. Weintraub says. "They can continue on medication aimed at their specific risk factors - hypertension, lipid disorders, diabetes - and should be encouraged to have a good lifestyle, with exercise, smoking cessation, and weight control."
A decision to have PCI can depend on how an individual feels, says Dr. Weintraub.
"If people say, 'My pain is so bad I can't function,' that is one thing. If people say, 'I have angina, but I'm doing OK,' that's another," he says.
Angina is the chest pain that is a chief symptom of coronary disease.
Cost could be a factor in some decisions, notes Dr. Weintraub. PCI is more expensive than medication therapy, but the current report does not mention money.
However, a preliminary cost-benefit analysis presented by Dr. Weintraub last November found that "PCI adds about $10,000, without any significant gain in years of survival or quality of life."
The cost of one year of life added by PCI varies from $150,000 to $300,000, the analysis found.
The cost of PCI versus medication treatment must be considered "by society as a whole," he says. "But when a doctor talks to a patient, the doctor is an advocate for that patient."
An individual's health insurance status can matter, Dr. Weintraub acknowledges.
"Paying the cost out of pocket gives one a different point of view," he says.
The attitude of medical insurance providers does matter, says Dr. Eric D. Peterson, at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Insurance companies now are quite willing to pay for PCI, and "until that category is changed, the effect of this study will be modest," he says.
The COURAGE results show that PCI should not be the treatment of choice for people with stable heart disease, says Dr. Peterson.
"We have justified angioplasty for years by saying it is of great benefit to patients," he says. "This study shows no survival benefit and shows that the benefit in regard to symptom relief is temporary. Medical therapy should be considered for all patients with stable angina, unless they have severe pain when diagnosed."
The fact that 21 percent of those in the COURAGE trial who started on medication treatment eventually had PCI shows that a decision on surgery can safely be delayed, he says.
The hazards as well as the benefits of PCI should be considered when a decision is made, notes Dr. Peterson.
Of 1,000 persons undergoing PCI, two will die, 28 will have heart attacks related to the procedure, 60 to 90 will have improved symptom relief, and 800 will have no noticeable benefit above that given by drug treatment, his editorial explains.
Always consult your physician for more information.
Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is performed to open blocked coronary arteries caused by coronary artery disease (CAD) and to restore arterial blood flow to the heart tissue without open-heart surgery.
PTCA is also called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI.
A special catheter (long hollow tube) is inserted into the coronary artery to be treated. This catheter has a tiny balloon at its tip. The balloon is inflated once the catheter has been placed into the narrowed area of the coronary artery. The inflation of the balloon compresses the fatty tissue in the artery and makes a larger opening inside the artery for improved blood flow.
The use of fluoroscopy (a special type of x-ray, similar to an x-ray “movie”) assists the physician in the location of blockages in the coronary arteries as the contrast dye moves through the arteries. A small sample of heart tissue (called a biopsy) may be obtained during the procedure to be examined later under the microscope for abnormalities.
A technique called intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), a technique that uses a computer and a transducer that sends out ultrasonic sound waves to create images of the blood vessels, may be used during PTCA. The use of IVUS provides direct visualization and measurement of the inside of the blood vessels and may assist the physician in selecting the appropriate size of balloons and/or stents, to ensure that a stent, if used, is properly opened, or to evaluate the use of other angioplasty instruments.
In the past few years, many refinements have been developed in the PTCA procedure. One common procedure used in PTCA is stent placement. A stent is a tiny, expandable metal coil that is inserted into the newly-opened area of the artery to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing again.
Once the stent has been placed, tissue will begin to form over it within a few days after the procedure. The stent will be completely covered by tissue within a month or so. It is necessary to take a medication, such as aspirin or clopidogrel (Plavix™), which decreases the “stickiness” of platelets (a type of blood cells that clump together to form clots to stop bleeding), in order to prevent blood clots from forming inside the stent.
Newer stents (drug-eluting stents, or DES) are coated with medication to prevent the formation of scar tissue inside the stent. These drug-eluting stents release medication within the blood vessel itself. This medication inhibits the overgrowth of tissue that can occur within the stent. The effect of this medication is to deter the narrowing of the newly stented blood vessel.
If scar tissue does form inside the stent, radiation therapy (called brachytherapy) may be used to clear the scarred area and open up the vessel.
Always consult your physician for more information.
(Our Organization is not responsible for the content of Internet sites.) | <urn:uuid:f80eeaf5-33aa-4049-b6e7-5261e79c74a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyhq.org/diw/Content.asp?PageID=DIW009546&More=WTN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952248 | 1,427 | 1.84375 | 2 |
September 11, 2003
Our Heroes and Theirs
Last night's terror struck close to home. The boom of the blast at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim shook the windows of our house and left no doubt that we were hit again -- this time in our own neighborhood. Our son, Yossi, was on the phone with his brother, Momo, asking when he would be back so they could watch another DVD episode of "24," the addictive series about terrorism. Momo was crossing Emek Refaim, which is two blocks from our house, and they both heard the blast. Momo, 16, a trained paramedic with Magen David Adom, took out his plastic gloves, which he keeps in his school backpack, and began to run the block to the cafe to help with the injured. Yossi ran out the door with my wife, Jane, to go get Momo. (For more on the bombing, see page 24.)
Momo was one of the first to arrive at the scene. As he described it later, it was a scene straight out of Dante or Eli Wiesel. Victims were screaming and strewn about. A group of bystanders was attempting to put out a fire that was consuming a man. Amputated legs and arms were lying in pools of blood. A man's head was in the middle of the street.
Momo acted according to the training he received this summer from a course designed to teach him how to handle these kind of events. As soon as the lead ambulance arrived, he was told whom to evacuate and he helped carry the injured on stretchers. Within 10 minutes it was over, and the amazing Israeli emergency medical teams had again acted with alacrity and professionalism. His mother and brother found him covered with victims' blood and walked him home.
I was in the office when the blast hit, and was frantic with worry because I could not find anyone by phone. Finally, I got a call from my Yossi telling me that our family was OK and that we would meet at home.
Getting home and seeing your son's clothes splattered with blood of a terror attack is a parental experience I will not forget. The relief of seeing him unhurt mixed together with the pain, outrage and grief of an attack so close to home. After Momo showered, we watched on TV the surreal scenes of our amazing and beautiful neighborhood hit, hurt and bleeding. Momo was curled up with his dog, Lucy, hugging her and trying to regain some semblance of normalcy. A 16-year-old boy, having done his heroic work and having seen scenes that one should never see, trying to return to what's left of his adolescence.
We watched the scenes of jubilation in Gaza, with thousands of Palestinians taking to the streets in spontaneous celebration, delirious with joy at the "quality" attacks. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and others praised the "bravery" of the suicide bombers and shouted their satisfaction. He in particular mentioned the "great" Abu Shnab, the "engineer" of dozens of Israeli deaths whose own death was now avenged.
I was struck by the contrast between the two societies: Our heroes were out on Emek Refaim fighting to save lives, to practice emergency medicine, to reduce casualties; their heroes were sowing death and destruction, their engineering was the science of terror.
This morning, as the bright Jerusalem sun came up again over our neighborhood, most of the outward signs of destruction had been washed away and cleaned up. Despite the continued terror alerts and torrent of news about yesterday's attacks, our children needed to go to school; we needed to get on with our lives. But the news contained more bitter tidings. Among the dead in last nights blast was Dr. David Applebaum, 51, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and his daughter Nava, 20. Nava was due to be married tonight in a joyous wedding of 500 guests. David Applebaum, a native of Cleveland, was a fixture in Jerusalem's medical scene, having treated hundreds of terror victims. He had just returned from New York, where he addressed a symposium on Mass Casualty Medicine at NYU Downtown Hospital near Ground Zero. He was the founder of Terem, Jerusalem's private emergency medical clinic, and he was my best friend's partner. He was a learned man, a kind man, a tzadik. He was a true hero of Jerusalem.
I am letting Momo "sleep in" this morning. I tried to wake him, but he said he needed some more sleep. His teacher just called to say that he heard from Momo's friends that he had a "tough night" and was among the first on the terror scene. He suggested that after we attend this morning's funeral for Applebaum and his daughter that I take him to school, so he can be with his friends and talk about what has happened. My son and his friends, true heroes of Jerusalem.
Los Angeles native Jonathan Medved is the founder of Israel Seed Partners, a venture capital fund, and resides with his family in Jerusalem. | <urn:uuid:8d641e43-4a8c-4ced-a826-e807722b7aaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/print/our_heroes_and_theirs_20030912 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987059 | 1,060 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Posted at: 12/05/2012 6:15 AM
By: Associated Press
Federal authorities say a western New York food company is recalling more than a ton of beef and cheese pies because they weren't subject to federal inspection and pose a health risk.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Cantina Foods of Buffalo distributed about 2,375 pounds of the "Beef and Cheese Pastellios".
It says cartons containing four clear plastic bags containing six, 4-oz. servings of the product were sold from Oct. 3 through Nov. 20 to retail outlets in the Buffalo region, including some convenience stores that sold the pies from heat trays.
The FDA says its food safety investigators had found a problem with Cantina's program for preventing Listeria contamination.
It says it hadn't gotten any reports of illness as of Tuesday. | <urn:uuid:80da8fcb-8d40-439e-9eb8-02bee7acbddf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hbispace.com/printStory/whec/index.cfm?id=2855871 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954605 | 175 | 1.75 | 2 |
Difficulty: Easy. The 0.5-mile loop trail travels over even terrain. The biggest difficulty walkers may face is water; the trail is soggy in the spring and can be icy in the winter, depending on snow cover.
How to get there: The trailhead to the Sherwood Forest Park loop trail is located at the end of Robin Hood Drive, where it intersects with Little John Lane and Friar Tuck Lane (no joke). Robin Hood Drive is located off Parkway South in Brewer, just south of Brewer Community School.
Information: Sherwood Forest — a 10.5-acre parcel of forest boxed in by Little John Lane, Rotherdale Road, Canterbury Road and Locksley Lane — was designated as a park by city officials in 2005. Plans for a nature trail was presented to the city by Ken Hanscom, director of the Brewer Parks and Recreation Department, in 2006, but it was years before a clearly defined trail was created on the land.
In April 2011, BDN reporter Nok-Noi Ricker wrote a story about the park entitled, “Site of proposed Brewer park under scrutiny,” which summarizes a discussion about the undeveloped park at a March 2011 council meeting. At the meeting, City Councilor Larry Doughty asked the council to explore selling the land, and the motion was defeated 3-2. City leaders voiced that they wanted to hear from people from the neighborhoods surrounding the forest, as well as the people who initially proposed the trail.
Since 2005, nearby residents had created small footpaths and had started work on a 0.5-mile loop trail through the forest. But after the discussion in 2011, the Brewer Department of Parks and Recreation began working to clearly define loop trail, with the help of Brewer Land Trust. And in October 2011, Eagle Scout Ryan Ward led Boy Scout Troop 15 of Brewer to construct a sizeable bridge so that the loop trail could cross a brook. At about that time, residents of the surrounding neighborhoods worked to spread mulch on the entire trail, which averages six feet in width.
As of winter 2012, the trail was marked by red painted maple leaves on the trunks of trees, and a large sign marked the trailhead.
There is no parking area for the park, so those visiting the trail must park to the side of the road, but off of people’s lawns and away from road bends or corners. Trail use is free and pets are permitted. For information, call the Brewer Parks and Recreation Department at 989-5199.
Personal note: I discovered the Sherwood Forest Park Loop listed on www.brewermaine.gov while recovering from a stomach bug on Sunday morning, Jan. 27, 2013. I was looking for an easy trail in the Bangor area, so I wouldn’t have to travel far or stress out my body in cold weather. Temperatures reached a high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit that day, though high winds made it feel closer to 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
I’ll be honest. The first thing that came to mind when I saw Sherwood Forest Park on the list was, “Robin Hood!” He’s my favorite hero, by a long shot. My favorite Disney movie is “Robin Hood” (1973), and my favorite comedy is “Robin Hood, Men in Tights” (1993). I just love how he splits that arrow in twain. But before I get carried away, my spirits were only lifted further when I looked on a map to located Brewer’s Sherwood Forest, which is surrounded by streets named after characters and places of the medieval Robin Hood story; there’s “Maid Marion Lane” and “Nottingham Way,” to name a few. I knew this was the place to visit while recovering from a nasty winter sickness.
While walking the 0.5-mile loop — which was very easy to find, being at the end of Robin Hood Drive — I came upon a man walking his dog (on a leash, thank you), and we talked a bit about the big woodpeckers he’s seen while walking through the forest. I realized that the bridge that the Eagle Scout had built was quite the structure, not a simple bog bridge.
I also had the opportunity to observe a golden-crowned kinglet, a tiny bird with a bright yellow cap. This little bird doesn’t like to stay still, but I did manage to get a few photos. And later, with field guide, I learned that the kinglet was a male because he had both orange and yellow in his cap, ringed by black, while the female has only yellow, ringed by black. I’ve realized that the best way to learn about and remember birds is to take them one at a time. | <urn:uuid:402f1e2e-5b2a-4d1d-8d16-bca67d8500e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com/2013/01/29/one-minute-hikes/1-minute-hike-sherwood-forest-park-in-brewer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97325 | 1,005 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Written by Ven. Londonaye Dammagawesi Thero
Monday, 11 May 2009 06:25
Here are some qualities to be adhered in improving a relationship ......................................
- Trust yourself first and then the other (need to feel like one another.)
- Cherish the companionship as this is what a relationship brings. (Understand the word "ship" friendship / partnership / companionship)
- Compliment each other for all of the good that they bring and give. Always give and wait to get. Never take against what you have given.
- Correct all shortcomings & inadequacies openly & with respect to one another
- Be restraint with your speech as expression of words are the cause of "most" conflicts
- Make sure that you fulfil your duties, responsibilities objectives & commitments towards one another. (first to yourself and then the other. Don't forget your extended family)
- Enjoy the present and leave the past alone as neither of you can do much about anything that was done, said or felt.
- Keep a smile on your face all the time, as this will always need a wholesome thought within you to smile about.
- Make sure that you are aware of how to keep a promise to yourself and with one another. (make sure that you live by your principles and disciplines
- Always be happy, healthy, peaceful and content with the little you possess | <urn:uuid:d6726c57-acda-42dc-a447-f2b6137d32a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nissarana.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1&limitstart=21 | 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 | 0.955494 | 286 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I actually always saw this as coincidence with her being the "original past version" of this woman, who's unaware of her future.
Whereas your interpretation makes much more sense I have a major problem with it: causality! They cannot stop the outspread of the virus because this would prevent Bruce Willis' and her future actions and therefore the whole movie and their stopping of the virus. And he already let it free in the airport when he opened the glass, didn't he?
Well most movies about time travel don't care about such causality problems, but especially Twelve Monkies is one of the few films (or the only one? maybe Source Code in its own theoretical physical interpretation) I know that handle causality in a plausible way. So I'm pretty sure in the context/story/universe of the movie they cannot prevent the outspread of the virus because all their actions are already prescribed, like Bruce Willis' death in the airport has always been prescribed.
But well your interpretation still makes sense, so I think they could still try to stop him (the characters are still unaware of the causality problems) without success or even heal it in the future, where the story is still open.
So yes, she's likely to be the insurance to stop him. But again, she will not be able to achieve it.
EDIT: In my coincidence-interpretation the "insurance" remarks could also be just a symbol for her, one of the scientists/leaders, being an ordinary citizen in the past, in this case an insurance agent. Similar to the symbol of the Holnist leader being a former copier salesman in The Postman. | <urn:uuid:7acf00fe-f68c-40d9-9dd6-3913d299a6ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/871/in-12-monkeys-what-does-the-woman-from-the-future-mean-when-she-says-shes-i/884 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974503 | 339 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Some people believe the DA will reinstate Apartheid should they win the national elections. Anneke Scheepers can't understand why anyone would think this.
President Jacob Zuma has urged religious leaders to continue promoting social cohesion. (Beeld)
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Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma urged religious leaders on Saturday to continue promoting social cohesion in the community."We urge the religious sector, in the memory of Sister Bernard [Ncube], to continue promoting social cohesion and stability in families and communities."We were truly pleased with the swift response of religious leaders to the tragedy of 44 people who were killed in Marikana last month," Zuma told mourners at Ncube's funeral in Soweto.He commended religious leaders for their involvement in the Marikana tragedy and the work done by the SA Council of Churches' through its Bench Marks Foundation in producing a report on the state of the mining sector in the Rustenburg area."We cannot achieve transformation or sustainable development working alone. We are therefore encouraged by the support of the faith-based sector as we continue to build a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society," he said.HonourNcube's funeral was held at the Regina Mundi catholic church in Soweto. She died last Friday at the age of 80, having played an integral role by organising women in the 1970s and '80s, in what was then called Transvaal.She also assisted in establishing the Federation of Transvaal Women and later became that organisation's president.She was the former mayor of the Westrand Municipality and member of Parliament from 1994."Her passing has also brought into sharp focus, the immense contribution and role of the church in the struggle for liberation and human rights in our country," Zuma said.He said South Africa produced exceptional men and women of the cloth who fulfilled Biblical scriptures through bravely using the church as a site of struggle to free the people they ministered to.These included among others Beyers Naude the founder of the Christian Institute, Archbishop Dennis Hurley, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Alan Boesak, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Father Albert Nolan and Reverend Frank Chikane.He said these leaders realised the need for a new theology which took account the deplorable living conditions of the majority and the need for their total liberation from colonial oppression and apartheid. "Sister Bernard felt more pressure as she was a woman and a nun, which brought about its own additional stereotypes and expectations of behaviour. "Despite constant threats and numerous attempts on her life, Ncube poured her heart and energy into her Christian and political work," Zuma said. "We will always remember Sister Bernard as a selfless citizen who did not seek accolades, regardless of her personal achievements and the positive impact she made in the lives of others."
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Website keywords automated by OpenCalais. | <urn:uuid:ed1e4ab3-7122-4f6c-bb4c-da2b9e1251ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Religious-leaders-must-promote-cohesion-Zuma-20120908 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946726 | 1,572 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Archive for June 4, 2012
Brad Miller and David Ranum have opened up their eBook for general use at their new http://interactivepython.org site. This is the book whose use we have been studying for the last year as part of our CSLearning4U effort. It’s a great alternative to the Udacity/Coursera model of distance education, to make a book more like a course, rather than capture the course in video. Our paper on this analysis just got rejected, so I’m not sure when and where we can tell the story of what happened, but I’m hoping that we can talk about it soon*.
*I try to be careful when talking about new, not-yet-published work here, because it annoys reviewers when they can easily discern the authorship of a “blind review” paper. In CS Ed, the identity of *any* work can be easily determined within five minutes of Googling/Binging — there are just too few people in the field. Still, reviewers downgrade our scores because I “broke faith” by talking about the work in my blog. Sigh.
On a more positive note, we got three papers accepted to ICER 2012, so I do plan to talk about that work here soon. | <urn:uuid:14ad7edf-07a8-4b73-913c-4ac72f4ad2a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://computinged.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/ | 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 | 0.957991 | 274 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Monday, January 24, 2011
Journal Entry: Sept 14, 1864; Cat Tail Creek, Virginia
Camping alone tonight near Petersburg; crickets stand picket at the perimeter to protect me. Their rhythm will stop with any unfamiliar movement; I trust in the nature I know. The nature of man; I am not as sure of that. Thousands of tattered men now stand in a death stare across the lines, waiting, watching as more and more Federal troops cross the James River in the last deadlock of this war; no final feint to slip away, this is the endgame that could last months.
This is a new way of war; not a battle and then a respite. General Grant does not rest; he fights and moves, still fighting; the battles have different names, but it is one continuous fight. It has been this way since May, and our lines are pulled as thin as twine, unable to stretch any tighter. Once Grant finds the frayed threads; the cut may be quick, but it will not be clean, and that day will end it all.
Letter: Sept 17, 1864; Cabin Point, Virginia
I have not heard from you since I returned to my duty; I know the postal system at this point is less effective than a message in a bottle sent down the Rappahannock. I trust you have moved westward to join Cousin Betty at Lexington and not returned to the hospitals in Fredericksburg.
The rumble of the railcars, the rattle of the battery wagons, and the noise of war keeps a man from thinking beyond the battle ahead. That is why we camp together, to keep the comradery. I am not cut from that cloth; I am reclusive and my search for silence has brought me to the river once more to hear the calming rush and roll of water; that is the only way I can collect my thoughts, which are always of you. Here, by the water, under the black walnut, with the scent of sassafras, I can find brief passage to another time, a September, ages ago, when you would simply seduce every sense I possess.
This fight is nearly over, and soon, you and I will gather up our loose threads to sew our life back together; as beautiful a double ring quilt as has ever been seen.
Until then, I remain
yours beyond the ages.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Journal Entry: Nance’s Shop, Virginia; June 23, 1864
I am becoming more and more aware of time; the days, the months, now years spent away from home. Soon, I will turn twenty-four, but I feel as tired and worn as a hobbled greybeard, as though my life has passed; I should be home. I should have lived life, as it was promised. While this war has dragged on and on, approaching its fourth year, there are so many opportunities I have missed. I should have lived a quiet life, instead for riding with the firebrands. I should have watched the red-winged blackbird near the river run, instead of watching red blood turn black on the banks of the Antietam. I should have shared an ale at the Wilderness Tavern with my friends, not buried them there. I should have farmed with my brothers, instead of fighting my other brothers from the northern states. I should have lived by now.
By now, I should have taken on my role as adult, to take care of my mother and father, as they cared for me. I should have built my own home, a small cottage down near the run. By now, I should have married, and danced many a Virginia Reel in the parlor with my dearest Marianna. I should have started a family; the tiny tickle of babies laughing should have filled my rooms, filled my heart.
I should have built a red bank barn and raised a fine stable of Morgan horses by now. In the three years that I have lost, I should have planted and harvested, planted and harvested, and then, planted once more. I should have seen the seasons, the spring growing, the winter resting; all that, I should have lived it.
My list of should could go on and on, but I should not dwell upon it. I will have my time to live that life of simple treasures; I will take note and honor every moment. It is a time that hundreds of thousands of boys will now never have; hundreds of thousands buried far from the life they should have lived.
I should live; I could have died.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Many evenings, when I am able to visit my journal, it is a calming experience; an old friend to share the joy and sorrow of this journey. I try to find balance by revisiting letters from family or remembering the old way of the world before war. Today, though, I keep returning to a letter given to me when I was last home. It came from a boy that apprenticed in the blacksmith shop with me several summers ago. A man now, he lives in Pennsylvania, a blacksmith with his own prosperous shop. I had written him a year ago to explain that I had joined the cavalry to protect my farm and family; I bore no animosity toward the North and hoped he was safe from the horrors of this war. These are his words that he wrote in return:
~Someday, my old friend,
Someday, your life could be better. You sit there with your pencil, and your paper, and your pitiful candle scribbling some nonsense about nature. Nature won’t help you, it won’t hold you up. Your precious sun quits halfway through the day and leaves you cold in the dark. But some day; some day soon, we will have sun all day, all night. We are on the threshold and there is a door; behind that door is the solution; a powerful solution in the iron that makes the steam engine, the iron that forges the cannon. We will wield that iron, as a hammer, and batter that door to bits. The steam engine that drives the railroad will drive everything. Someday, there will be prosperity for all that follow, and mark my words, everyone will follow. Who would want to stay behind; who would want to stand behind a plow and horse. Steam will power an engine to plow the fields of plenty; fields so large that one farm could be the size of ten, of a hundred. Let me tell you, many people make this war out to be about ending slavery, but, I know, the future promises more slaves than you can imagine. Men and women of every stripe will flock to our shores, begging to be among us, begging to purchase a portion, however small, of our prosperity. They will work their fingers to bone for the promise of a future here, and they will do so without force or fetters. They will be slaves to the idea of an easier life.
You are a poet of the past; you have been on the land too long. Grand ideas are rising up from the ashes of this war. The old agrarian society is being burned away, and industry will rise in your fields. When this war is over, there will still be slavery; we would not call it that, for every man will be legally free, but this new chattel will embrace their position, because of the promise that each and all have an equal chance to rise and prosper. Whole families will rush to share in the crops they harvest, share in the industries they work. This is America; we do not need to hold men down by force; men can be held down by fortune’s promise.
So, you may sit in the dim light of your candle writing in your journal; your pencil will become a stub; your candle will burn out, but the forge that is the future will burn forever and there is no limit to land’s resource or the power of the fire.
I believe you have talents that can take you further than the fields of Virginia; I am enclosing a rail pass. Come to the city and join us.~
I keep his letter in my journal and think, how a man could be so wrong, and then hope that it is he that is wrong, not me.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sunday, January 2, 2011
President Lincoln has placed General Grant in charge of the Federal Army and I am told that he will never retreat, which was confirmed after his defeat at the latest Wilderness battle. Instead of moving back across the river, he turned to his left and continued on toward Richmond. The Federal Army has unlimited men and supplies, so if ten thousand fall, he will bring twenty thousand; if they fall, he will bring a hundred thousand. Grant will outlast his enemy, leaving a scythe swath of sorrow throughout this state, my home. Our leaders will attempt to hold off the inevitable; it might be a month, it might be a year, but with that turn to the left, the outcome was determined. Within a year, we will return to what we once were, though that seems impossible now. My home, the Wilderness is no longer what it was; even the trees are riddled with battle scars, as though ten thousand downy woodpeckers had explored every oak and maple. I am scarred as well; beyond my sutured war wounds, I am torn terribly each moment between a hope and a despair that split me down my middle.
I am not who I once was; none of us are that. I remember boys who were assigned to the cavalry merely because they rode into town that first day on a horse. If you owned a horse, you could be a cavalryman. Many of those boys had never ridden faster than a trot and their horses were more adapted to the furrowed field than the battlefield. Most of those boys are dead now; the rest learned quickly the awful lessons of war. Our mothers’ lessons were left at home; here on the field, duty requires another mother’s son to kill you, so you act first. Even our tools are not what they were; our plows replaced by pistols.
After six weeks recovering at home in peace, I now see my fellow troopers differently. I look around the camp and see an army of doppelgängers; each of us is who we are and who we were; all twins to ourselves, almost ashamed to acknowledge one another, so different are our passions. I am both kin and killer, both the one and the other; I know every person is my brother, but I ride fiercely into battle, even as I regret it in that same moment.
I, who had never even raised a fisted hand against another, now carry three revolvers; one holstered on my hip and two in pommel holsters on my saddle. When possible, I won't shoot to kill; a wounded man requires another man to carry him from the field, thus incapacitating two men at the expense of one. That carries some small bit of consolation, that the second man will live another day. Having the power to take a life is an impossible ordeal; I am damned if I do, and dead if I don’t. | <urn:uuid:613eb151-45c1-49a5-a0b9-a9c05311c94f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michaeldouglasjones.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973875 | 2,365 | 1.710938 | 2 |
By Perry Diaz
In 2004, I wrote an article titled, “Hey, do you want to buy buko juice?” (PerryScope, December 10, 2004). At that time, although buko juice – or Coco juice — was then being sold in markets in the United States, it was mostly distributed in Asian markets. You couldn’t find them in mainstream markets then.
The following is an excerpt of what I wrote in 2004:
“Hey, do you want to buy buko juice?”
“When I was attending high school at the San Sebastian College on Azcarraga Blvd. in Manila, I always treated myself to a glass of ice-cold buko juice — peddled by street vendors – while waiting for my JD bus to Quezon City. It was a good refreshing drink especially during the hot and humid months. This was in the late 50’s.
“Today, buko juice is still being peddled in Manila in the same way they did 50 years ago. However, in the past five years, buko juice is now being peddled in Asian markets in the United States. Recently, I went to my favorite Filipino supermarket and looked for the canned buko juice. Eureka! I found it in several brand names. But none of which were processed in the Philippines. They were processed in Thailand or Vietnam.
“Buko or coconut is grown rampantly in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, the Philippines is the world’s number one grower of coconut. A hardy tree, coconut can withstand the worst typhoons unleashed by Mother Nature and it can grow on just about anything, including water.
“With the abundance of coconut, exporting processed coconut products — from buko juice to ‘macapuno’ — should not be a problem. However, the Philippines, due to lack of capital infusion, does not have the means to process its huge deposits of natural resources — from seaweeds to oil.
“In a nutshell, the Philippines needs an infusion of capital to modernize its manufacturing industry. Local sources of capital are drying up fast. Foreign sources of capital is abundant; however, because of the 60/40 rule, foreign venture capitalists are not motivated to invest in the Philippines — for a good reason.
“The 60/40 rule applies to the ownership ratio of businesses including corporations; that is, Filipinos must own 60% of capital stock. There is nothing wrong with this provision in the constitution. The major problem is that foreign investors are required to capitalize and pay up their stock subscription 100% while Filipino investors are required to only capitalize 25% and pay up 20% of their capitalized stocks, which means that a Filipino investor needs to pay up only 5% of the subscribed stocks while a foreign investor has to pay up 100% of the subscribed stocks. However, dividends are distributed according to the subscribed stocks. To begin with, the corporation’s operating capital would be less than the subscribed stocks. There is not much to expect when a corporation is operating at 45% of its capitalization.
“I brought this issue up with Speaker Joe De Venecia — during the Ramos presidency — when I arranged for him to speak to a joint session of the California Legislature, the first and only time that a Philippine congressional leader addressed the state legislature. He explained to me that it would take a constitutional change to do away, or modify, the 60/40 ratios. He further explained that a “charter change” convention — known as Cha-Cha — had to be convened to make a constitutional change.”
Fast-forward to 2011
The Philippines has not changed much since 2004. It has yet to amend the constitution to make the country more attractive to foreign investors. The “60/40 rule” is still the “serial killer” that drives foreign investors away. And buko juice is still being sold on street corners. But today, canned buko juice – or “coco water” – is now being sold in some mainstream markets in the U.S.
Recently, at an airport press conference upon his return from the U.S., President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III said that he found out that Americans have discovered the joys of drinking buko juice. “Drinking what they call coco water and what we call buko juice is a growing trend in the US. Because of its nutrients, because it is natural and environment friendly, it is becoming the new natural sports drink in America and is now a hundred-million-dollar industry,” he said.
He then announced that Pepsi-Cola and Vita Coco are going to tap the Philippine coconut industry for the production of coco water. He said that New York-based Vita Coco, in a business venture with Philippine-based Fiesta Coco Equity, had committed $15 million in capital investment.
Vita Coco is being advertised in the U.S. as “the nation’s best-selling coconut water and one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the U.S.” Vita Coco is currently sold at over 14,000 retailers in the U.S. Therefore, a Vita Coco-Fiesta Coco joint venture would insure the influx of Philippine-produced coconut water into the U.S. market, a boon to coconut farmers in the Philippines.
Coco Levy Fund
But even with Vita Coco’s presence in the Philippines, the coconut farmers are suffering financially from lack of government support. The multi-billion Coco Levy Fund would have been a great source for financial aid that the coconut farmers need to sustain and maintain their farms. However, it is still sequestered by the government since 1987 when the late President Cory Aquino confiscated and sequestered all known assets of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos and his cronies.
The Coco Levy Fund was created during the Marcos dictatorship purportedly to provide financial assistance to coconut farmers. The fund was raised from taxes forcibly collected from coconut farmers. However, to this day, only the former cronies of Marcos have benefitted from the Coco Levy Fund. One them who arguably benefitted the most was P-Noy’s uncle, Danding Cojuangco, whose 20-percent ownership of the shares of stock in San Miguel Corporation are being claimed by coconut farmers as rightfully theirs. Today, the Coco Levy Fund is reportedly estimated to have ballooned anywhere in the range of P100-150 billion in assets.
Time to act
Recently, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the government should use the Coco Levy Fund and not wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on the case to help the local coconut industry. Yes, it’s time for the government to use the Coco Levy Fund for what it was originally intended for; that is, financial assistance to coconut farmers.
With coconut growing in 69 of the 79 provinces covering some 3.3 million hectares — which is about 30% of all farmlands — and comprising 1.4 million farms, expanding and marketing buko juice for worldwide distribution could become the country’s number one agricultural industry.
Has buko juice’s time come? Mr. President, we heard you talk. Now it’s time to walk the talk. | <urn:uuid:3fd62779-dc68-4b29-96b2-52093579b6ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalbalita.com/2011/09/29/has-buko-juices-time-come-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969091 | 1,518 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In a society that abhors censorship and in which policymakers have traditionally placed the highest value on the freedom to communicate, it is unrealistic to conclude that statutory authority to regulate conduct implicitly authorized the Executive to regulate speech.
Stevens dissent Rust v. Sullivan 500 U.S. 173 (1991)
A peculiarity of the situation is that the parents of this odd creature—the courts—do not realize, despite the labor pains of its birth, that they have brought forth a child. This article is written for the benefit of lawyers and courts of the States that have produced the new offspring, so that they may see that it is a new creature, and that it is ugly and illegitimate and ought promptly to be strangled.
Charles E. Carpenter, 17 S. Cal. L. Rev. 347 (1943-1944) | <urn:uuid:a8fe06be-2f7b-4408-89a1-f5f5799a4a7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lemonlines.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951848 | 171 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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