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A common element shared by all the schools of feng shui is the
concept of the 12 zodiac animals. Depending on the year you were born
in, you will belong to one of these zodiac animals. They are the
Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse
and the Sheep. | <urn:uuid:f2f81510-9940-427a-b3c9-6e37aaa39215> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wofs.com/index.php/images/stories/fsmalaysia/greybox/templates/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=20&Itemid=36 | 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 | 0.956239 | 77 | 1.5 | 2 |
'To Know Mexico Better Is to Know Ourselves Better'
UCLA is expanding its studies of and ties with Mexico with the creation of a dedicated center under the Latin American Institute and new programs of scholarly collaboration and exchange. At the inaugural event for the Center for Mexican Studies, speakers honored decades of service by UCLA's "dean of Mexican studies," Professor James Wilkie.
In two decades Mexico has witnessed a transition to an export economy, the rise of medium-sized cities in central and northern Mexico, new social movements, a dispersal of political power, and a sharp fall in birth rates.
It will come as a surprise to some that, formally, UCLA had no Center for Mexican Studies until Thursday, April 2, when Juan Marcos Gutiérrez-González, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles, Universidad de Guadalajara Professor Jorge Durand, and other distinguished guests turned out for the official launch on the Fowler Museum Terrace. In all, about 120 people attended the event and reception with music by the Son Jarocho band zocaloZüe. UCLA sociologist Rubén Hernández-León, an expert on the Mexico-U.S. migratory system, is the center's first director.
For decades prior to last Thursday, UCLA had been producing specialists and publications on Mexico, while serving as a frequent stop for the country's intellectuals. Especially since he founded the Program on Mexico at UCLA in 1982, one scholar, James W. Wilkie, has been responsible for an outsize share of the activity. Under his leadership, the program pioneered studies of modern Mexico in global and comparative contexts and hosted international conferences. On Thursday, a series of speakers recognized Wilkie's contributions, and a smiling Wilkie handed off "the virtual baton" of Mexican studies to Hernández-León.
"Establishing this center is the first of a number of steps required to raise the profile of Mexico and Mexican studies at this university," said Hernández-León. "But it is precisely the importance of Mexico to Los Angeles, California and the country that makes promoting research and disseminating knowledge on Mexico a fundamental part of the scholarly and social responsibility of UCLA."
"To know Mexico better is to know ourselves better," he added, noting the omnipresence in Los Angeles of "some of Mexico's most notable exports: music, visual arts and aesthetic ideas, constantly present in every venue."
Hernández-León explained that he was seeking "synergies" and a common agenda for study with related units on campus. Further, the center will actively seek new partnerships with Mexican universities. Professor Nicholas Entrikin, who as vice provost of international studies oversees the International Institute and its new mandate to internationalize UCLA, said that his campus-wide initiative "includes a very specific emphasis and plan for work with Mexico." UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Latin American Institute (LAI) Director Randal Johnson accompanied Entrikin in November on visits to leading universities in Mexico City.
Also at the event Gutiérrez-González, the L.A. consul general, congratulated Hernandez-Leon, Johnson, and Entrikin on the launch of the center. For the LAI, which this academic year spawned two centers on the Southern Cone of South America and on Brazil, the creation of the Center for Mexican Studies completes a process of restructuring.
"The Mexican government really appreciates, in these times of a lot of confusion about where international relations are going…," said Gutiérrez-González, "to know that we have institutions like UCLA that really appreciate the importance of the bilateral relationship itself."
Durand, an anthropologist at the Universidad de Guadalajara and co-chair of the Latin American Migration Project, in Thursday's keynote address discussed Los Angeles's status for half a century as the "migratory capital" for U.S.-bound Mexicans. Before the World War II–era Bracero program that brought temporary workers to California, he said, "the Texas border was the port of entry for every Mexican who was passing into the United States." At that time, 70 percent of Mexicans living north of the border were in Texas, and San Antonio was the undisputed migratory capital.
For all of Mexico's impacts on a changing United States, however, Hernández-León indicated that the new UCLA center would concern itself first of all with transformations occurring within Mexico. In just the past two decades, he said, the country has witnessed a transition to an export economy, the rise of medium-sized cities in central and northern Mexico, globally influential social movements, a "dispersal of political power" in competitive, multi-party democracy, and a sharp fall in birth rates.
"The demographic transition which took several generations to complete in most countries has occurred there in the passing of one generation to the next," said Hernández-León. He added, "If most projections are correct, by mid-century the demographic transition to an older society with fewer and fewer young people leaving their homeland will end Mexico-U.S. migration as we know it."
That vision of a Mexican studies that looks well beyond the U.S.-Mexico border is consistent with the legacy of Wilkie and his generation of scholars on campus. At the launching event, one of Wilkie's former students, Raúl Lomelí—who went on to found the nonprofit SABEResPODER, among other accomplishments—made remarks summing up not Wilkie's voluminous scholarship, but his effect on students.
Calling Wilkie a "transformational figure, a mentor and a friend" for decades of UCLA students now scattered from Latin America to Eastern Europe, several of whom Lomelí consulted before his talk, he said, "I could spend hours telling you about how much you have impacted me and those friends. We are your children."
Published: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 | <urn:uuid:63a72948-1066-4ce9-a5b7-70c8c9e1dfa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.international.ucla.edu/news/article.asp?parentid=106776 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953934 | 1,251 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Dr. Laura Jana, M.D.
Planning For Your Newborn
Dr. Laura Jana, M.D. author of Heading Home with Your Newborn and Food Fights, comes on the show to help new parents to be, plan for the arrival of their newborns. She will give tips and advice on what kind of gear to have ready and what to expect when you bring home your new baby!
Dr. Laura Jana is an Omaha-based pediatrician, health communicator, and the award-winning author of Heading Home with Your Newborn and Food Fights. Having first served as a consultant to Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dr. Jana went on to co-found The Dr. Spock Company in 1999, and then subsequently founded her own company - Practical Parenting Consulting. Well recognized nationally for her ongoing efforts to promote healthy lifestyles for children and offer credible practical parenting advice to new and expectant parents, Dr. Jana serves as a media spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics; is on the advisory board for American Baby magazine, The Walt Disney Internet Group and Nancy Snyderman’s BeWell Expert Network; and serves as an expert consultant for academic organizations, non-profits, and major corporations such as P&G and Reckitt Benckhiser/Lysol. Having spent several years as a parenting expert on Omaha’s top morning radio program and as the parenting expert for Omaha’s NBC affiliate, Dr. Jana is also the proud mother of three, a published children’s book author and early literacy advocate, and the proud owner of Primrose School of Legacy – a nationally franchised, 200-student educational child care center.
Melanie Cole, M.S.
Get our FREE Health Newsletter! | <urn:uuid:2e626436-25a0-4815-b2d1-289e7414830a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthradio.net/component/mtree/Health-Radio-Shows/Healthy-Children-%252D-The-Talk-Show-for-Parents/Baby-Gear-3A-What-Do-You-Need!-43911/details | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945685 | 367 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A few years back, some friends introduced me to the board game Settlers of Catan
, which has become quite popular in Silicon Valley
. I did eventually buy a copy of the game, and at one point my wife wondered if there was also a software version. After searching around, we discovered that the lawyers for the company that makes Catan seem incredibly aggressive, as there clearly had been some software versions around, but one by one, most of them had disappeared. There were some licensed versions, but they actually weren't that good. It was unfortunate.
So I was interested a few weeks ago when Michael Weinberg, a lawyer at Public Knowledge, put up a discussion about whether or not there was an IP violation in doing 3D printings of Catan pieces
. He explained why there actually was no actual violations there. In reading that, I realized that most of the same arguments would apply to software as well... and like magic, someone popped up in the comments to that post, noting that he had written an Android clone of Catan, and their lawyers had forced it down. Weinberg has now written a detailed explanation of why the lawyers for Catan are flat-out wrong
and are abusing intellectual property law to stifle competition.
You should read the whole thing, but the key points are that only parts of the game are covered by copyright: the graphics, for example. But if you're using different graphics, you should be fine. The Android app was using different graphics. Board game rules are also not
copyrightable, as they're like a recipe. Catan's lawyers claim that their rules are
covered by copyright because the rules "create a protectable fable." Weinberg points out that this is "simply ridiculous." He walks through the fable, and breaks it down piece by piece to show how it's not copyrightable at all.
Although this assertion is highly questionable as a general principle, in this case it is simply ridiculous. As far as I can tell the "fable" in question is this:
Players are recent immigrants to the newly populated island of Catan. Expand your colony through the building of settlements, roads, and villages by harvesting commodities from the land around you. Trade sheep, lumber, bricks and grain for a settlement, bricks and wood for a road, or try to complete other combinations for more advanced buildings, services and specials.
Everything beyond the first sentence simply describes the gameplay. The first sentence "Players are recent immigrants to the newly populated island of Catan" is far from a wildly original piece of storytelling, and may not be able to be protected by copyright at all. Even if you could protect that one sentence with copyright, if that sentence allows Catan to protect its game then "Nations are at war, fighting to control the globe" would protect Go, Chess, Checkers, Risk, Connect Four, and just about any board game in the world. Maybe even Catan. There is very little by way of original work to protect in that "fable," and certainly nothing to extend to the rules of Settlers of Catan. I am willing to bet that very few lawyers would be willing to make Catan's assertion in front of a judge.
Then there's the trademark claim. Clearly, "Settlers of Catan" is covered by trademark, so if you were offering a product by the same name, that's in violation. But the Android app was called "Island Settlers" which is not infringing. Catan's lawyers claimed that because the developer mentions
Catan, that makes it trademark infringement, but that's ludicrous. If you are accurately describing that a game is "like" Catan, there's no trademark infringement. In fact, you're specifically showing that there's no likelihood of confusion, because you're admitting that the games are not from the same source. As Weinberg notes, it's perfectly legal, if you're selling replacement parts for a Toyota Camry to mention that they work for a Camry, and thus it's perfectly legal to say you've made a game like Catan, or which matches with Catan, and not violate the trademark.
Unfortunately, the lawyers toss out all sorts of otherwise incorrect information and claims about intellectual property law, and the developer admits that, even if they're wrong, he feels he has no choice but to give up
, because he can't afford to fight any sort of lawsuit, no matter how bogus it might be.
As Weinberg points out, this is the worst kind of legal bullying:
The email exchange between Catan and Neil is the worst kind of ignorant (let's assume it was ignorance) legal bullying. It is full of patently incorrect or misleading statements of US law, punctuated by threats to pull the developer into court if he fails to submit. It is a shameful example of a company trying to control what the law does not allow it to control by relying on fear and an inability to afford to go to court.
Tragically, this how much of the law works today. | <urn:uuid:d5d596c9-bc44-4f5e-bbec-8d8f3cf70461> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techdirt.com/blog/blog.php/?start=20&tag=games&company= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980492 | 1,038 | 1.78125 | 2 |
I am settling into my third week of practice here in Mysore, slowly accepting the marathon of Third and a little more than half of Fourth Series. Last weekend’s conference was a wonderful way to bring in the new year and I am so grateful to be a student! The shala is as full as I have ever seen it with a long line of people waiting to register for practice even as the conference began to start. Some people who arrived late had to strain to hear from the lobby.
Sharath started off with a discussion about the important of asana, physical postures. He said that “in Ashtanga Yoga we always do so many asanas, generally in Krishnamacharya’s lineage, there are lots of asanas.” He noted that many people have this question about the need for asana and that many yoga teachers say that you can just sit for long periods of time, that you don’t have to twist your body and that twisting the body isn’t yoga. Sharath cited many Yoga Shastras like Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Upanishads that all say how asana is important to control the mind. One quote from the HYP states that before we think to get enlightened or self-realization we have to stabilize the body and mind. Without that basic discipline how can yoga, which means union, happen? First you stabilize the mind because if the mind is not in your control it will be like a monkey, a drunken monkey, that is jumping everywhere. First you need to control your mind and for that you need discipline and this comes from the practice of asana. Once we do asanas then mind will also come into your control. It doesn’t come all at once, you have to do for a long time.
Sharath continued, “Asana is the foundation for all spiritual building, if the foundation is strong then the building will be strong. Mind transformation will happen when you do asanas. For others it looks like physical, it is only when you go inside and practice asana for many years then only can you realize how spiritual it really is.” An analogy that Sharath likes to discuss this process is about a sailor who sails without diving doesn’t know the beauty of the ocean, the diver sees the beautiful fish and animals. If you just go on the ocean, on the surface then you never get anything, your mind becomes imagination, but there is no self-practice and no realization within. When you dive inside the sea then you will come to the conclusion that “this” is yoga with asana practice. He says, “You can relish the purity of this practice.”
From the Upanishads Sharath cited one portion that begins with “Tritiyange Sthitiyoge” and compares consciousness to sun. When the sun rises at noon it is very powerful but as the sun sets it becomes very calm as it withdraws its rays. The beach at sunset is very calm and exactly when a yogi sits in the third limb of asana then the yogi doesn’t have any mental disorders. You can feel this inner calm when you’re practicing everyday. When you practice every day the inner calm grows stronger inside and you get more focused and concentrated.
Sharath said that the system of Ashtnga Yoga that we do, known as the vinyasa system, is very special. If you go anywhere in India or the world, nobody knows the system, no one has practiced it unless they are from Krishnamacharya’s lineage. Three things define the Ashtanga Yoga method: breathing, posture, gazing. These are the three pillars or supports that we need for our practice. Sharath said that he was not including bandhas because that is to be done all the time. When the breath and movement are combined in the vinyasa method the blood and energy circulates throughout the 72,000 nadis properly. The tristana method develops your concentration so that when you go to pranayama, dhyana and the more subtle limbs, you are more focused. There is dhyana during asana and while it is not strong it is still present. Meditation is that which you cannot do but that which should happen within us. If you want to experience meditation, Sharath says that you have to understand what is meditation. You don’t just go sit somewhere and close your eyes–that just looks pretty. What’s going on inside is important and if you’re thinking of country, girlfriend, or othre thoughts then that is not meditation. First you have to control your sense organs and once that happens meditation will automatically happen within you. It can happen anywhere if your mind is in your control. Patanjali says yogas chitta vritti nirodah: yoga means to bring your senses in control. Thought waves are often so strong that you cannot still the mind, once you still the mind that is yoga, meditation and union. For that you need to develop certain discipline is needed within us. For discipline you need to practice asanas so the faculty of mind control will be slowly developed by you. Sharath concluded by stating that “Asana is the foundation to reach higher levels in your practice. Then think about yama, niyama and try to follow that. It is a process that happens day by day, year by year. Only if you do it for a long time will you understand. In this instant world no one has patience, their focus is only on authorization or certification. A real yogi doesn’t need a certificate saying that he is a yogi, that he is enlightened. For enlightenment you cannot get a certificate.” | <urn:uuid:2ce2a4e8-c41e-4877-8d4f-a3f669c0d169> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kinoyoga.com/january-1st-2012-new-years-day-conference-with-sharath-in-mysore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965881 | 1,200 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Facility for homeless vets may soon break ground
Published: Friday, December 28, 2012 at 5:38 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 28, 2012 at 5:38 p.m.
After years of setbacks and organized opposition that included a lawsuit, the Alachua County Housing Authority expects to break ground early next year on a transitional housing facility for homeless veterans.
“We’ll close on the land, I’m almost 100 percent sure, by the end of the year,” Housing Authority Executive Director Gail Monahan said. “It will take 30 days to get permits and then we’ll be building.”
A contractor, Alachua-based VetAmerica Enterprises, is already in place.
Monahan said the transitional housing development, which will house up to 112 veterans in 38 manufactured homes, should have its first group of residents around July.
It will have been a long time coming.
It was back in 2008 that the Department of Veterans Affairs first approved a $1.9 million grant to go toward land acquisition and construction of the facility and a 20-year agreement to put federal funding toward daily operations.
At that time, the planned location was the Oak Ridge apartment complex in northwest Gainesville. But that fell through and ACHA later turned its attention to an effort to purchase the Gainesville Hotel & Conference Center near Newberry and Tower roads out of foreclosure.
In summer 2011, a divided County Commission approved a permit to locate the facility there in a 3-2 vote. That met with backlash from nearby business owners and residents. The owners of Napolatano’s restaurant filed a lawsuit challenging the County Commission’s decision.
Members of the county’s Veterans Services Advisory Board objected that neither the county nor the Housing Authority had sought their feedback on the project. They also voiced concerns that a hotel was not a suitable location for veterans to live for up to two years, the maximum period they will be able to stay at the facility. Eventually, the bank that owned the hotel decided not to sell it.
Meanwhile, the VA continued to grant the Housing Authority extensions to the deadline to build the project.
So the Housing Authority started over again in the consideration of potential locations. This time the county’s Veterans Services Advisory Board was consulted every step of the way. By late 2011, they had set their sights on the current location, which is on the south side of Northwest 39th Avenue, a short distance west of Main Street. It’s the site where an abandoned residential development known as the Villas at 39th was once planned.
“The Housing Authority has the full support of the veterans community to put this where it is going,” said Don Sherry, chairman of the veterans advisory board. “I do not expect public backlash because the veterans community is with them on this.”
The VA will screen and select the veterans who live there.
They will be selected, in part, because they intend to work, return to school or go through job training, said Vianne Marchese, the chief of Community Care Services at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.
The operating plan calls for one full-time Housing Authority staff member to be on site 24/7. Clinical social workers will also make on-site visits.
The veterans will receive any needed medical treatment and substance abuse or mental health counseling at VA facilities in Gainesville, Marchese said
The new Gainesville project comes shortly after a similar facility opened at the Ritz Historic Inn in Ocala. It also comes with the VA at the halfway point of a five-year plan to house all homeless veterans by 2015.
Monahan said the VA has, in the pursuit of that goal, embraced what is known as the “housing-first model.”
“You put a roof over someone’s head and then they’ll be able to make the changes in their life that they need,” she said.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:e2738ce3-fb4e-4dab-9adf-102a0667547c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20121228/ARTICLES/121229631/-1/www.gatorsports.com | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964433 | 872 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Colorado is one of the most beautiful states in the country, and Denver- the Gateway to the Rocky Mountains- is one of the country's most dynamic metropolitan regions. It is the capital of the state, the industrial and manufacturing center of the region, and the headquarters for a large number of major businesses, many of which are associated with energy development and high technology. The metropolitan area population of two million is young, with a median age of 30.5, and highly educated, ranking near the top of U.S. cities in median number of school years completed and percentage of college graduates in the general population.
The magnificent Rocky Mountains begin their rise just 12 miles west of the city and provide the setting for Colorado's famous outdoor recreational environment. A true four-season haven for the sports-minded, Colorado's advantages include what some consider to be the world's finest skiing, mountaineering, fishing, and camping. Many of these resources are located within a one- or two-hour drive from Denver and include such world-famous resorts as Vail and Aspen.
Although Colorado is famous for its snow-related winter recreational activities, the city of Denver is located east of a high mountain barrier in a "precipitation shield" and receives only 15 inches of precipitation a year. The sun shines more than 300 days per year- more than in San Diego or Miami Beach. The snow the city does receive generally melts very quickly.
Denver boasts all of the traditional cultural urban amenities. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is one of the country's leading facilities of its type. It is home to the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Colorado Ballet, the National Theatre Conservatory, and other performing groups. The city is also home to the nationally ranked Denver Art Museum, Denver Zoo, Denver Aquarium, and Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the seventh-largest museum in the U.S. and one of the great centers of its kind in the world.
Known as the home of the "best sports fans anywhere," Denver supports a wide variety of professional sports teams including 1998 and 1999 Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos (football), the 1996 and 2001 Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche (hockey), the Colorado Rockies (baseball), and the Denver Nuggets (men's basketball).
In short, Denver is the center of business, culture, and entertainment for a geographical radius of at least 1,000 miles. Its western spirit and vitality imbue Denver with a relaxed but adventuresome ambiance. Whatever a student's interests, hobbies, or leisure activities, there are many convenient facilities and new friends to be found to share in them. | <urn:uuid:48400b1e-5920-42ee-bfc9-8bbd7e04503e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.du.edu/nsm/departments/environmentalscience/about/cityofdenver.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952343 | 541 | 1.828125 | 2 |
GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 16, 2010 -- Aquatech has been awarded a contract for a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) plant for a coal to chemicals facility in Hailer in Inner Mongolia. The ZLD plant incorporates HERO™ (High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis) and a Thermal Brine Concentrator. The plant will treat 2400 m³/day of wastewater and reuse 92.5% of it, producing 2000 m³/day of process water and 220 m³/day of distilled water for various end-user applications.
The waste streams to be treated are extremely challenging with high COD, BOD, ammonia, silica, and TDS levels that exceed 18,000 ppm. The HERO™ system is used to concentrate the feed water to a solids level of approximately 8.5% before taking it to the Brine Concentrator and subsequent evaporation pond.
Aquatech will be supplying this project on an Engineering & Procurement (EP) basis along with Commissioning service, and is targeting to start the commissioning by mid-2011.
The coal to chemicals plant is owned by Hulunbeier New Gold Chemical Co. Ltd. (NGCC), a Yuntianhua Chemical group company. Yuntianhua Chemical is one of China's largest state-owned enterprises with six major industries and a series of products such as chemical fertilizers, organic chemicals, new glass fiber materials, and phosphate ore mining and dressing.
The plant is located in one of the biggest grasslands in China; the local region is a famous tourist attraction and is also a major coal region attracting major industrial investment. The driving force for ZLD is to strive for a solution that will reinforce the delicate balance between industrial development and environmental conservation.
Tom Tseng, General Manager, Aquatech China, commented, "We are honored that the YTH Group has entrusted Aquatech with such an important project. Due to strict pollution control guidelines the reliable maximization of water reuse and ensuring true zero discharge are critical in such an important region of China. It is our goal to be the partner of our clients in developing solutions to conserve water and reduce pollution."
Aquatech (http://www.aquatech.com) is a global leader in water purification technology for the industrial and infrastructure markets with a focus on desalination, water reuse, and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). The company is headquartered in the United States, has offices throughout North America, and significant presence worldwide through subsidiaries in Europe, the Middle East, India, and China. Aquatech has executed over 1000 major projects, integrating several of its product groups, in over 60 countries across the globe
Aquatech has global sourcing, EPC, O&M, and onsite services capabilities to suit logistics of project sites throughout the world and also has the capability to deliver projects on a BOOT basis.
Aquatech strives to provide technology leadership and performance excellence to the global water industry and aims to support its clients with cutting-edge sustainable solutions, minimizing their life cycle cost, as well as their carbon and water footprint. | <urn:uuid:dc7e74fa-f6b9-4535-9d25-9394bfd83681> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2010/12/zero-liquid-discharge-plant-in-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938508 | 640 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Has the Supreme Court Overvalued Individual Rights?
Hans A. Linde is currently the Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Willamette University College of Law. He served as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1977 to 1990, and is a former professor of law at the University of Oregon and other universities. Early in his legal career he served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Wm. O. Douglas. His publications include a course book on legislative and administrative processes and more than 75 articles, lecturers, and reviews. He is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. | <urn:uuid:8e998d65-4cae-4d36-9a4e-952e364cec63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/speakers-and-guests/wayne-morse-chair-for-law-and-politics-2/past-wayne-morse-chairholders/hans-a-linde-1991/ | 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 | 0.973506 | 133 | 1.515625 | 2 |
(07-09-2011 07:32 AM)Brewman_Jax Wrote: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/04-7
From the article:
Quote:Some of our nation’s biggest corporations are planning a tax holiday and they want you to pick up the tab.
Actually, you already pay for their routine tax avoidance through the use of tax havens in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. These accounting acrobatics cost the U.S. Treasury $100 billion a year. Now they want Congress to pass a special tax holiday for money they “repatriate” back to the United States.
There’s nothing patriotic about this repatriation being pushed by Google, Cisco, Pfizer and other companies in the Win America campaign. To sell the tax holiday, they claim it will produce a burst of jobs and investment. In fact, Congress passed a “one-time-only” tax holiday in 2004 with similar promises. Instead, it produced a burst of shareholder dividends and stock buybacks, which goosed the pay of CEOs.
Corporations laid off workers and shifted even more income and investment to offshore tax havens in the wake of the 2004 tax holiday.
“Why should we reward firms for successfully gaming the tax system when we in turn are called on to make up the missing tax revenues?” Edward Kleinbard, former chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, told Bloomberg. “Much of these earnings overseas are reaped from an enormous shell game: Firms move their taxable income from the U.S. and other major economies — where their customers and key employees are in reality located — to tax havens.”
Taxes are not a "penalty for achievement", they're the price we pay for a civilized society. If the corporations paid even a fraction of the taxes they owe, there would be no deficit.
The whole idea that we can run a country on air is ludicrous. Today's republicans are trying to coalesce the worst of their bases into a party. One that does not tax, and does not pay for anything, but wants everything, and one that wants to run our private lives in a theocratic government. | <urn:uuid:c9cfce35-1458-4399-8315-29297e859808> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://democratsforprogress.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=7083 | 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 | 0.959922 | 471 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Ethics in the Workplace
The Real estate finance industry has been wrought by fraud for quite a while. Mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, mortgage underwriters, real estate agents, title insurance closers, title insurance underwriters and even appraisers have had their professions soiled by those unsavory sorts who choose to cross the line and commit fraud. The unethical members of these industries can, and for some of these business professionals have, ruined it for them all. Their lack of ethics in the workplace have had almost irreversible consequences - sometimes resulting in criminal charges.
My presentation Fraud & Consequences includes my real life story as a former white collar criminal. I was an entrepreneur who crossed the line. My decisions turned into a nightmare of FBI investigations, federal court and finally prison. This presentation eliminates the "gray areas" that exist in today's business-as-usual culture.
Since my release from federal prison in 2001, I have had the opportunity to speak at over one hundred association and Fortune 500 companies in the
I am the author of the book: Diary of a White Collar Criminal and co-author of the real estate continuing education text book titled, Mortgage Fraud and Predatory Lending: what every agent should know (Dearborn Kaplan Publishing). My articles have been published in The Mortgage Press, Scotsman Guide and the Niche Report.
My goal is that you take away ideas that will help you make the right decisions when the right decisions aren’t easy. And ultimately, stay out of prison.
You can also find me by searching:
Business Ethics Speaker - Ethics Keynote SpeakerWhite Collar Crime Speaker - Fraud Prevention SpeakerCalifornia Motivational Speaker - Minnesota Motivational SpeakerSpeaker Public - Ethics in the Workplace | <urn:uuid:67d68c91-9e42-4330-93b9-bdb71fa75f1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jeromemayne.com/index.php/keynote-speaker-video-presentation-ethics-fraud/keynote-speaker-ethics-fraud-for-your-event.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940476 | 357 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Matthew Herper, Forbes Staff
I cover science and medicine, and believe this is biology's century.
My Facebook wall is coated with tears today as Tom and Ray Magliozzi, otherwise known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, will stop making new episodes of their funny, informative, and generally brain-massaging NPR show ‘Car Talk’ in September.
But I’m not sad. I’m filled with joy for Tom and Ray and their continuing commitment to the principles I heard them lay out during one of the most important speeches ever: their commencement speech at MIT in 1999, which happens to be the year I managed to graduate. Now, you don’t have to continue reading my stupid prose. A full transcript of their speech can be found here, and it’s hysterical. For those too lazy to read, you can listen to audio excerpts here. If you want my Cliffs Notes summary, keep reading.
In the speech, Tom (MIT ’58) and Ray (MIT ’72) explained the concept of “reverse incarnation,” which is based on the principle that thinking things through in a logical way leads only to pain.
What their investigator, Paul Murky of Murky Investigations, discovered was that left brain people (data driven types like MIT graduates) were far less happy than right-brained people (like Harvard Students, who MIT student detest and wind up working for, or golden retrievers). To quote Tom:
Tom: Because what Murky finds out is that right brain people are about ten times as happy then left brain people. So the stupider you get — by left brain people’s measures of stupidity, of course. Because right brain people are too happy to waste their time developing IQ tests. But they’re ten times happier. We say, whoa! Paul, this is something…
Slide three, please. Slide three. Here it is. Here’s humans and the best of the humans, of course, is the right brain humans. And here is what he found. Happiness goes up. It begins to look like it’s exponential over there. The next happier life form is a golden retriever. Then a cow. Then worms. And he stopped his research at grass.
Ray: OK. We’ll just keep going.
Tom: Here’s the story. I mean what is the importance of this. We have always thought that we were the highest life form on the planet. Turns out, we are the lowest life form on the planet. And I am going to give to you now a theorem which will knock your socks off… This is the theory of reverse reincarnation. I mean some people believe in reincarnation. And what they believe is that when we die, we come back as better and better people. What the theory of reverse reincarnation says, if we are good people, we will come back as a golden retriever. Then a cow. Then a worm. Then grass. Now if the reincarnation was working in the other direction, coming back as better and better people, where are they? Duh! So, it becomes clear that the theory of reverse reincarnation may be the scientific finding of not the decade, not the century, but of all time. Now, my brother and I, L. Ron Magliozzi, are going to help you to achieve nirvana. We’re going to help you to become not smarter. Smarter is no good. That’s the wrong direction.
To put a more emotional point on this, Tom described how he quit his engineering job after he was almost run over by a semi while driving his MG on Route 128. Realizing that if he’d died, he would have spent all his life going to the office in “quiet desperation,” he drove back to work, quit, and spent a few years drinking coffee in Harvard Square. He came up with the concept of a do-it-yourself auto repair shop, which led to the radio show that has run for 25 years, and met his wife. But before that, he and Ray taught an entire graduating class of engineers a Latin chant: “Non impediti ratione cogitatonis.” Which means unencumbered by the thought process.
Without that advice, I might have gone into a profession where I could have made scads of money in my 20s without producing anything of value and then retired to a beach to paint watercolors, write bad poetry, and swim instead of toiling in an industry that is trying to hold on to its traditional formats during a period of profound business disruption. How miserable would I be? So thanks, Click and Clack. You changed my life.
Go be one with the grass, guys. Non impediti ratione cogitatonis. | <urn:uuid:d01a92c3-65da-4cfd-8a75-e8ed0a069d9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/06/08/thanks-to-the-car-talk-guys-for-the-best-graduation-advice-ever/ | 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 | 0.968446 | 1,014 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Sierra Club Blog Posts
I recently listened to David Suzuki interviewing Jim Prentice on CBC. What struck me most wasn’t the government’s approach to climate change – which is widely and rightly condemned – but the government’s approach to logic.
Once upon a time, I was a philosophy student. That line of study provided a fascinating opportunity to look at logical continuity. It’s not rocket science: you start from a set of premises, and work your way to a conclusion in a consistent manner. In theory, problems of politics find their root in incompatible premises – opposing worldviews that can lead two sides to dramatically different positions. Luckily, one would think, the climate change debate is largely scientific and so depends on empirical observation. As long as everyone accepts the premise that science provides objective insights into the ways of the world, we should reach similar conclusions.
... Read more »
So now you need to put up $50,000 before you can take the City of Ottawa to court.
The citizens' group that formed to save the Blanding's turtle and the South March Highlands could be forced to pay the money up front before their application for a judicial review and injunction can be heard. Pretty shocking considering the City has a policy of not seeking costs from citizens' groups.
What's Mayor O'Brien trying to hide that he would stoop to such strong arm tactics to prevent legal scrutiny of the Terry Fox Drive extension?
Plenty. The South March Highlands are one of the most unique and valuable ecological areas of the city. For O'Brien, the goal is to move ahead before too many people find out. It's all being sacrificed on the altar of the automobile in celebration of the stupidity of humankind.
... Read more »
I just learned the Canada Pension Plan has invested $250 million in a tar sands plant so I have written David Denison, President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to share my thoughts. You should too.
I read with dismay that my contribution to the Canada Pension Plan will be used to fuel catastrophic climate change. I presume this is a strategy to reduce future benefit payments by shortening the life span of Canadians. The stress alone from droughts, floods and extreme storms will have a devastating effect.
I can understand the potential benefits for my surviving children and grandchildren, but I would rather everyone live to a ripe old age.
I also wonder how you could be so oblivious to the urgency of the climate crisis that you do not realize burning fossil fuels - however profitable - causes climate change.
... Read more »
I read an article today called The Dirty Trail of the Black Gold in an Austrian newspaper. It was about the Albertan tar sands and other extreme sources of oil. It made me think about the first time I talked about the tar sands with an Austrian. He had never heard of them before.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - I have come full circle. Today, after sleeping very little on a 10 hour night train I arrived in the very first city I travelled to to spread the word about the Tar Sands Demonstrations Europe Project - Vienna.... Read more »
What a mess.
When I heard the G20 meeting was coming to Toronto, I knew it would be an expensive inconvenience to Canada’s largest city. But I nevertheless gave our leadership class some credit by thinking they would manage the inconvenience with a degree of competence.
It’s not the first time I’ve been wrong about our public elites. ... Read more »
Tuesday, June 22, Day Thirty-one: I left Thunder Bay early, I was breakfasted and on the road by about 8:30. I wanted to take full advantage of the two days of rest I had gotten. As always after a rest day, however, it was slow going at the start. I remember being convinced that my brakes were rubbing, and that my load must be about 10 pounds heavier than when I had gotten into town.... By three o'clock I had made it to Nipigon, where I had a big lunch and then got back on the road. I met a really nice cyclist whose name I unfortunately cannot remember and whose picture I lost, due to circumstances that will be explained shortly. Anyway, just past Nipigon is the point where the Highway splits into the #17 and the #11. I had already decided it would be the #11 that I would take, so I headed north and looked to put as much distance as possible behind me before nightfall.... Read more »
As Canada Day slowly comes to an end in Germany, I can't help but wonder what it is going to be like for me the next time I am in Canada?
By now, most of my friends and family in Canada have found out about what I am doing in Europe. None of them have said anything negative about the Tar Sands Demonstrations Europe Project, but I have had some experiences in the past which lead me to believe some may misinterpret my efforts as anti-Canadian.
The opinion piece I wrote last December about the damage the tar sands were doing to Canada's international reputation (see my 2nd post) enraged one reader so much that he told me to hand in my maple leaf. To test out the waters I sometimes tell Canadians in Berlin I am organizing demonstrations in five European cities to raise awareness about the tar sands. There is always an awkward silence afterwards.... Read more »
Offshore Oil information in Canada
This is my first blog on ``Offshore Oil Information in Canada`` in regards to my research of information on offshore oil extraction that had been given to me as a project by John Bennet. I was able to manage two documents, related to Natural Resources Canada, last week but had yet to make it available due to technical difficulties on my part.
... Read more »
This week I saw many things that I never expected to see with my own eyes, things I thought only happened in other parts of the world. I saw anarchists smash windows and jump on the roof of a burning police car and graffiti "Bomb the Banks", acts that detract attention from the thousands of peaceful protesters with legitimate concerns about climate change financing, labour rights, women's rights, poverty and other issues. But I also saw (with my own eyes and in numerous videos) police viciously beat and arrest peaceful demonstrators, journalists and innocent bystanders.... Read more »
I heard the news today oh boy!
BERLIN, GERMANY - Last March, when I sent my first email to my first group and subsequently got my first non-response, I never imagined this - a stop the tar sands action in Canada taking place the same day as our demonstrations in Europe (July 17th).
Don't get me wrong, a demonstration or action in support of shutting down the Canadian tar sands taking place in Canada is logical. The power to stop this disaster lies solely in the hands of us, the people of Canada. But back in March while trying to convince European environmental groups that the tar sands were a problem for Europe as well, I was having trouble staying optimistic that the demonstrations would take place in Europe at all, let alone Canada. ... Read more » | <urn:uuid:5c2fb615-5a3f-4936-a478-cb3a8ec33c53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sierraclub.ca/fr/blogs?page=13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96843 | 1,472 | 1.789063 | 2 |
On 6th November, 2000, the Central Bank of Brazil issued a Circular which sets out the information that must be obtained and registered by banks and financial institutions in relation to transactions involving deposits, transfer of funds and settlement of transactions made using bank cheques. The relevant information must be held for five years from the date of the conclusion of each transaction. The Circular takes effect on 28th February, 2001.
Source: Central Bank of Brazil Circular no. 3.012, published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Executive, Section I, of 11th November, 2000. Pinheiro Neto Advogados | <urn:uuid:8a05938e-bcb4-412a-ac54-614d1034d306> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crossborder.practicallaw.com/1-101-3614?q=&qp=&qo=&qe= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939522 | 126 | 1.796875 | 2 |
For the people of Newtown and for people across the country, 9:30 a.m. was a time to stop, listen and remember.
Bells rang in the Connecticut town and in churches and other buildings in multiple states Friday morning to remember the 20 children and six women who were gunned down at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School at that hour a week ago.
Standing in rain -- some holding umbrellas and others letting the water wash over their bowed heads -- people in Newtown gathered outside various locations and paused as multiple churches rang their bells, once for each victim.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman stood with others under the awning of Newtown's Edmond Town Hall, listening to bells of a nearby church. People also paused elsewhere in town -- under a tent that covered the numerous flowers and stuffed animals left as a memorial -- and outside various churches.
Some closed their eyes. Some put hands on their hearts. All stood nearly still as the bells rang.
At least one Newtown church rang its bells 28 times, marking the deaths of the school's 26 victims; the gunman's mother, who was slain before the shooter went to the school; and the gunman himself, who authorities say committed suicide after the shootings.
Three pastors at that church, Newtown United Methodist, took turns ringing the bell.
In the state Capitol building in Hartford, a bell was rung for each of the school's 26 victims after their names were read. "Amazing Grace" was sung afterward.
Bells were rung at the National Cathedral in Washington and the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Miami. Traders at the New York Stock Exchange paused silently for one minute before the opening bell.
Earlier, in a letter to other governors across the country, Malloy noted how the shooting in his state has resonated nationwide.
"Mourning this tragedy has extended beyond Newtown, beyond the borders of Connecticut, and has spread across the nation and the world," he said. "On behalf of the State of Connecticut, we appreciate the letters and calls of support that have been delivered to our state and to the family members during their hour of need."
At least 29 states declared a moment of silence for Friday morning, with flags flying at half-staff. People mourned on the Internet, as well: Some websites went dark at the urging of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway, who came up with the idea at a Christmas party attended by Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting that killed six.
Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma suggested that residents wear green, Sandy Hook's school color. In Alaska, the Capitol's bell was scheduled to ring at 9:30 a.m. local time. The bell is a full-scale replica of the Liberty Bell.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for residents of their states to pause to reflect one week after the shooting rampage. Perry also asked that churches ring their bells 26 times in honor of the victims at the school.
In an open letter to the people of Newtown in Friday's Hartford Courant, first lady Michelle Obama wrote that she and President Barack Obama are "holding you and your families in our hearts."
"As a mother of two young daughters, my heart aches for you and your families. Like so many Americans, I wish there were something -- anything -- I could do or say to ease your anguish," Michelle Obama wrote.
Although she "cannot begin to imagine the depths of your grief," she paid tribute to "the countless acts of courage, kindness and love here in Newtown and across America."
The states that observed a moment of silence are Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Obama ordered flags to half-staff last Friday after the shooting. Flags are also flying at half-staff this Friday.
In Danbury, Connecticut, about 12 miles west of Newtown, the congregation of United Methodist Church of Danbury gathered to pray, CNN affiliate WFSB reported. | <urn:uuid:e09946d4-d81d-498c-b40f-7268a4543dc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/Bells-across-country-toll-for-Newtown-victims/-/475880/17864700/-/item/0/-/14t0wh9z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964547 | 883 | 1.65625 | 2 |
An Israeli settlement watchdog has revealed that about 800 new housing units are being built in settlements across the West Bank, in addition to the thousands already under construction.
Despite US calls for Israel to stop building on occupied land, Peace Now said the new building projects began over the past three months in 34 settlements.
In addition, the watchdog's report notes that 55 buildings are in the process of being completed and foundations are being laid for an additional 50.
The projects are not among the 2,400 houses already in different stages of construction that Israel aims to complete despite agreeing to a temporary halt in settlement construction.
"The settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible so that these new housing units will be counted as existing settlements and not included in any future agreed upon freeze," the report said.
Washington has been pressing hard for Israel to halt all construction work on occupied Palestinian land ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks. Israel has so far balked at the demand.
Israeli settler colonies are widely considered as the main hurdle in the way of comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Under the Roadmap For Peace plan brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia in 2002, Israel has to "dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities".
It is estimated that there are almost 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the 12 or so Israeli settlements in Jerusalem. There are also about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers living in settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law because they are erected on occupied lands that the Palestinians claim for a future state. | <urn:uuid:40e15a59-39ba-4d5d-be97-7e408ca4d724> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2009/10/200910611338186952.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963069 | 345 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Family Charts and Other Historical and Genealogical Records of Rev. Oliver Perry Light (1828-1904)
By Kathy Alvis Patterson
Part I: Introduction to the O. P. Light family charts
Oliver Perry Light was born 27 April 1828 in Clermont Co OH, and became a Methodist minister, serving in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma Territory until his death in 1904. In 1853 he met and married Miss Nancy Jane Prather (1833-1895). He was Chaplain of the 7th Minnesota Regiment from 1862 to 1864 and probably participated in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889. More details of his life follow in Part V of this monograph.
The grandmother of the present writer was his granddaughter, Ethel Marguerite (Light) Armstrong (11 Dec 1900-7 Jan 1991). Although she had no clear memory of her grandfather, she did possess a great deal of pride in his career and knowledge of his life and work. She frequently wrote summaries of his life and gave presentations throughout western Oklahoma, especially in Methodist churches. O. P. Light baptized all of his ten grandchildren, except the youngest Evelyn Frances (Light) Eichor, who was born 5 Jun 1904 in Oklahoma City, a few months after his death.
In 1966, when I began family research, my grandmother obtained from her sister Evelyn Eichor a stack of papers that had belonged to Rev. Light. I spent a day copying everything possible; as a well-behaved teenager, but only a beginning genealogist, I conscientiously, but unfortunately, returned the papers to my grandmother, who gave them back to Mrs. Eichor, and they were never seen again by anyone with an interest in family history.
Of particular importance were a set of family pages, written in pencil, detailing the ancestry and cousins of Oliver Perry Light’s Light family, and in less detail, his wife Nancy Jane’s parents, her brother and sisters and their children, her Prather grandparents, their children, one uncle’s children, and her Veach grandparents and their children. I do not know if the Lights kept up with family births and deaths by mail or by visits. His pocket-sized notebook does include expenses from 1899 for a trip to Illinois; by this date his son was a Rock Island employee, and he may have traveled frequently by train.
This monograph is an effort to publish and establish the facts of Rev. Light’s notes, many of which are not known to exist in any other location. Their genealogical importance is not limited to my ancestry but to many Prather and Veach descendants. Since 1966, I have kept these notes separate from other research and not “contaminated” Rev. Light’s charts. His charts are printed here exactly as I received them. Internal evidence suggests they were completed after 6 Apr 1902, and before his death on 28 March 1904.
It has been possible to confirm from other sources the accuracy of some of Rev. Light’s charts. Recently published studies, census entries, wills and books not available to him at any time in his life have shown him to be almost always accurate. I have received letters from other researchers that Rev. Light’s lists confirm what they have postulated but been unable to prove.
It is my thesis that these documents are accurate and reliable as genealogical evidence.
Although except for the copies I made in 1966, O. P Light’s original family charts have been lost, a copy of the Light family data written by his daughter after his death, does exist. These are almost the same as the Light portion of what I saw in 1966, with some newer dates, minus the notes Rev. Light had added on younger family members. Rev. Light’s charts had each family on a separate sheet of paper, yet his daughter copied everything onto four pages; she did not list families before Jacob and Caty (Harmon) Light. It is possible that Harriet (Light) Vance did not copy her father’s papers, but that she had access to a family Bible, since her data are grouped in births, marriages and deaths, where his were arranged by families, with names and notes about children of the youngest generation. The Prather and Veach families were not included in her record.
Part II: Verification of the Accuracy of the O. P. Light family charts
The Light family has more records in print than the branches of the other surnames, Prather and Veach, mentioned in O. P. Light’s family charts. They comprise pages 1-4 of my printed lists. John Light was O. P.’s great-grandfather, and O. P. listed seven children for him: Peter, Barbara, Jacob, Benjamin, Daniel, Samuel, and Marten. The will of John’s brother Jacob Light, Jr., establishes John’s children as Peter, Daniel, Jacob and Barbara. In addition, childless Jacob had previously adopted John’s youngest sons Samuel and Martin. The only divergence from O. P.’s list is the son Daniel, who is not mentioned in the will. At the time Rev. Light was making his lists, a contemporary Light researcher in Pennsylvania placed the Jacob who adopted his brother’s sons, Samuel and Martin, as a member of a different family. Moses Light wrote in 1896, concerning two brothers John and Jacob, “John was rich in sons; Jacob was rich in this world’s goods, but childless, so he adopted the two youngest of his brother’s children, Samuel and Martin.” This means that my great-great-grandfather Oliver Perry Light, writing in the 1890s, still had family records that showed the brothers Samuel and Martin to be children of our John, not the John Light of Moses Light’s book, and more accurate than the man who still lived in Pennsylvania.
O. P. Light’s grandfather was Jacob Light of Clermont Co OH. The 1880 History of Clermont County Ohio published by the Louis H Everts Co has biographical and family information about this Jacob Light, enough to confirm the essential accuracy of O. P. Light’s data, but enough variation to rule out Light’s having copied from this book. According to this book, Jacob had brothers David, Daniel, Peter, and a sister Barbara Robb. David and Daniel were not in the elder Jacob’s 1808 will, and David was not in O. P. Light’s list.
Jacob and Catherine (Harmon) Light had 11 children, according to O. P. Light. The Everts book agrees with “seven sons and four daughters,” but only names John, Daniel, Jacob, David, Peter and Benjamin. There is agreement that Jacob’s brother Daniel had eleven children, including John, Martin, Abel, James, Daniel, Betsy, Katie and Susan.
Daniel’s son John had 13 children, according to Rev. Light. This John Light was Oliver’s first cousin, and both were ministers in Iowa, which may account for O.P.’s knowing John’s children’s names, but not their birthdates. In his 1860 census, John Light was listed as a farmer, with his wife and six children. The oldest child at home was Joseph D., suggesting that O. P. Light listed Joseph and Daniel as two sons instead of one, followed by James A., Charlotte, John H., George H, and Mary Minerva, on the next page. Elvira and Marion H. are missing, as are four older daughters. In 1850 two of the older daughters, Ann and Emily, were in the household, in addition to the same younger children, except Mary Minerva, who wasn’t born yet. Urana and Jane appear to be living next door. (Frank Light lists Charlotte Elvira as one girl.)
Frank Light, a descendant of both Jacob Light and his brother Daniel, has compiled many Light family records, including the story of Barbara (Light) (Williamson) Robb, by a granddaughter. This lady’s list of her grandmother’s children is similar, but not identical to O. P. Light’s.
Frank Light also collected records of Peter Light, a brother of Jacob Light’s who bought and sold land in several locations and three states. Where O. P. Light stated this man, his father’s uncle, had four children, Frank Light lists only three.
I have census records that confirm the accuracy of the families of O. P.’s brothers and sisters.
David and Harriet’s oldest child was Charlotte (Light) Scott. Her family’s 1870 census reveals a youngest son her brother must have forgotten or not known about, Samuel, age 4. The oldest daughter was probably already married; otherwise, the remaining children are exactly as O. P. Light listed them, with the interesting addition of a middle name for Nancy C. and a question why the mother was listed at the end of the household. Even the birthdates match for precise ages on June 10th of that year.
Reuben S Light’s family was also still in Edgar Co IL. His second wife and the three surviving daughters of his first wife are listed, as well as baby Harriet, who O. P. Light believed had died in 1869. All the ages correspond with O. P. Light’s charts.
Brothers Samuel Henry, called Henry, and William are on the same page of the 1870 census as their parents, David and Harriet Light. Henry’s family has a few minor differences from O. P. Light’s charts; sons William M and Charles K had not had their birthdays yet, but are a year older than the charts would indicate, and the youngest child Hattie must have died. Everyone in William’s family matches the charts exactly.
Andrew and Catherine (Light) Wheeler were also in Edgar Co IL in 1870. The three children in their household match O. P. Light’s charts exactly, but daughter Alice, 17, was already married and living with her husband a few pages away.
I have shown that Oliver Perry Light was meticulously accurate in his Light family charts that can be confirmed from other sources. Only mistakes occur, but not very often. It should follow that if he wrote only what he was confident about as far as his own family, he would do the same with his wife’s parents’ families, the Prathers and the Veaches.
I will conclude by saying that I wish Rev. Light had included his mother’s family, the Dickinsons, in his charts. I have had the challenge of finding the Dickinsons without the help of Harriet (Dickinson) Light’s son. His grandmother’s family, the Harmons, would have been nice too.
Part III: The Accuracy of O. P. Light’s charts of the Prather family
In 1853, Nancy Jane Prather was an orphan, having lost her mother in 1841 and her father on 25 Jan 1850. Three versions of her obituary name her parents. Although her grandparents, uncles and aunts and brothers and sisters were all in the 1850 census in Jefferson Co IA, she was living with the Aaron Edwards family from New York State who were not related. Her stepmother and half-brother and sisters had returned to Indiana; their census has not been located.
For each of her siblings, I attach a copy of his or her 1850 census, plus a later census showing the accuracy of O. P. Light’s lists of their children.
The oldest of James and Louvica’s six daughters and one son was Mary Elizabeth, 18, living in the home of David Beach of Connecticut. By 1870, she and her husband, William Hamilton, and their family were living in Marin Co CA; their youngest son Charles, 4, whose name was known to O. P. Light, was the first of the family born in California.
While the daughters, as will be seen, were living with neighbors, probably working, the only son, 14-year-old Enoch, was with his uncle, next door to his grandparents. In addition to Enoch, his census page had Lloyd and Nancy, their sons Thomas H. and his family and Reason Prather and family; Reason’s wife, Sally Ann (Veach), was a sister of James Russell Prather’s first wife. The pages left by Rev. Light did not include a list of the children of Enoch Prather. In 1870, he was still living in Liberty Township, Jefferson Co IA, near his aunt Elizabeth Jane (Prather) Schwartz, and married to Ann with a baby. O. P. Light said his wife was Mary, and a descendant with whom I corresponded states that his wife was Mary Ann Walmer.
Sarah Ann, 12, was living in 1850 with the William Donaldson family from Kentucky. Her four children with husband Ben “Evens” in 1870 were Ann, Ellen, Jane and William. The three girls do not match the “Evans” daughters named on O. P. Light’s chart: Louvica (Sarah Ann’s mother’s name) Will, Margaret and Martha, although if census listings by middle names can be considered, they might fit. Sarah Ann had died by 1880 as Ben “Evins” had a new wife and four young children.
Indiann, Sarah Ann’s twin, was living with the Hiram Case family from Ohio in 1850, on the same page as one John L. Prather, a nephew of Lloyd Benton Prather, who had moved to Iowa in 1846. In 1870, Henry and Indiann Grammer’s three children are the same as on O. P. Light’s list, but the first and last names are spelled differently.
In 1850 Elvira was listed as a boy, Alvin, 11, with the Hiram Smith family from Ohio. She was one page after the one where her grandparents, two uncles and their families and her brother Enoch were listed, just two households away from one of the uncles, above. In 1870, the William and Elvira Smith family is identical to the four children on Rev. Light’s list, although in different order, and there is a fifth baby, William.
In 1850 Louvica Caroline, 9, was with the Iowa-native Carlisle Smith family. A gedcom at Ancestry.com identifies Carlisle as the brother of Hiram Smith, with whom Elvira was residing, probably half-brothers of Elvira’s eventual husband, William H Smith. She married Anson C. Jones. In 1870 her family was in Jasper Co IA with three children, named the same as the oldest three of four in O. P. Light’s list.
Oliver P. Light’s knowledge of his wife’s brothers and sisters and their families was not as complete as his awareness of his own nieces and nephews, but still shows that he and his wife, Nancy Jane, did keep in touch, even through the years when a few of the nieces and nephews were marrying, mostly those still in Jefferson Co IA.
The case was different with Nancy Jane’s half-brother and sisters. I corresponded in the 1980s with Becky Van Vliet, of Muncie IN, a descendant of Marion Washington Prather. She sent me, among other information, a Bible record and a copy of the second marriage license of James Russell Prather’s second wife, Elizabeth Jane (Jamison) Prather. The Bible record had a date of birth for Marion W. Prather two days difference from O. P. Light’s chart. It appears that after the death of James Russell Prather in 1850 there was no further contact between the children of his first marriage and the widow or her children.
The only known evidence specifically naming the children of Lloyd Benton and Nancy (Redman) Prather is O. P. Light’s list; other than that, the geographic proximity of the families is the clearest evidence. And four of the seven children of Lloyd’s have independent proof of their parentage.
Lloyd Benton Prather was a son of Basil Prather, DAR Patriot Ancestor and early settler of Clark Co IN. His census record exactly matches the sons named by O. P. Light, although there was apparently one more daughter than remembered by Nancy Jane or recorded by her husband. The biggest mistake in dates in all of O. P. Light’s pages was the age of Elizabeth Prather; he said she was born in 1824, when census information throughout her life indicates a date closer to 1810. In 1820 Clark Co IN, Lloyd’s family was comprised of one male 0-10 (Reason, 8), 3 females 0-10 (Elizabeth, 10, Cena Lillis, 7, Mary Ellen, 3), two males 10-16 (Thomas, 15, James, 13), one male 26-45 (Lloyd, 38) and one female (26-45) Nancy, 38.
By 1830, the youngest sons had been born, Lillis had probably died (she is not in O. P. Light’s lists), and the oldest three children were married. Lloyd’s entry was two males 5-10 (William, 10, Jonathan, 7), one female 10-15 (Mary Ellen, 13), one male 15-20 (Reason, 18), one male 40-50 (Lloyd, 48), and one female 40-50 (Nancy, 48). Elizabeth and Abraham Schwartz andJames R and his wife are at the bottom of the page previous to Lloyd, whose name is first on the page; they were consecutive households. The eldest son, Thomas Helms Prather, was higher on page 56, closer to uncles Aaron and Thomas. Aaron Prather had a son Thomas, still at home; Thomas, the uncle, had one son also named Thomas, but he was married with a son William by 1830. So, this is “our” Thomas.
By 1840, Lloyd and his family with the three older sons and their families had all moved to Blue River Township, Harrison Co IN; they were the only Prathers in the county. Still at home with Lloyd and Nancy were Jonathan, 17, William, 20, and Mary Ellen, 23. Thomas H. Prather had five children, James’s first four daughters and a son were with him and his wife, and Reason and his wife had two small children. The next year, James’s first wife died, and he married again while in Harrison Co IN.
In 1850, the children of Lloyd Prather were all in Jefferson Co IA, as noted above, with these exceptions: James had died and his children by his first wife were living with different families in the same county as their grandparents; Mary Ellen and her husband Campbell Rankin, and her brothers William and Jonathan and their wives were in Lucas Co IA.
Through census records we know that Lloyd and these seven next generation Prathers, and no others, moved together twice; this confirms O. P. Light’s Prather family lists. Further confirmation, and the only additional Prather evidence located in Jefferson Co IA comes from voting lists from 1850, where Lloyd, four of his sons, and two of his sons in-law are listed.
In 1973 I wrote to Mr. Clare Prather of Tulsa, sharing O. P. Light’s family charts. Mr. Prather’s response is attached. “You cannot begin to know the pleasure that your letter gave me when I received it today.” He had been trying to establish the children of Lloyd Benton and Nancy (Redman) Prather “for many years.” Mr. Prather’s assumptions were in almost complete agreement with O. P. Light.
In 1987, I copied several pages from Marriage Records of People Named Prather, Prater, Prator, Praytor at the NSDAR Library in Washington, D. C. I do not have all the pages for Lloyd’s children, but those I do have (James Russell, Jonathan C., and Elizabeth) reveal that Cartlidge connected the dots and assigned the sons and daughter to the same parents as O. P. Light wrote down based on personal knowledge.
These are the children Clare Prather, O. P. Light, Miss Anna Cartlidge, census data, and other sources agree are the children of Lloyd Benton and Nancy (Redman) Prather:
1. Thomas Helms Prather, the eldest was a Methodist minister, as was Oliver Perry Light. Perhaps because of this connection and the fact that both families left Jefferson Co IA and spent time in Kansas, among other places, Rev. Light had more information about the children of Thomas than for any other of the siblings of his wife. O. P. Light knew that one of Thomas’s daughters married a Mr. Gilliland; this couple’s son Willie was buried, long with Thomas and his parents, in the same cemetery in Douglas Co KS.
2. James Russell Prather, my ancestor.
3. Elizabeth Prather, who married Abram or Abraham Schwartz. Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties, Iowa, 1890, names her parents specifically, although misstating their ancestry as German and Scottish.
4. Reason Benjamin (or Reason Redman) Prather. Nancy Redman had a brother Reason Redman (or Rezin Redman), for whom this son was named; her father was Benjamin Redman, so conceivably he could have been named Reason Benjamin Redman Prather. He married a sister-in-law of brother James Russell’s and by 1860 was living in Lucas Co IA. I am attempting to communicate with a DAR member who descends from Reason and Sally Ann, whose line is proven; this evidence is available, just not necessarily speedily.
5. Cena Lillis Prather. Clare Prather wrote in the letter cited above: “Mrs. Ruth Van Tries, a daughter of Cena Lillis (Prather) Pearson, a daughter of Thomas Helms Prather, says that her mother told her on several occasions that she was named Cena Lillis for her father’s sister.” He proposed that the daughter who was present in the 1820 census, but not seen later was named Cena Lillis.
6. Mary Ellen Prather. O. P. Light’s identification of her husband as Campbell Rankin was not known to Clare Prather. Mary Ellen Rankin can be traced with her husband from their marriage in 1840 in Harrison Co IN to 1850 and 1860 in Lucas Co IA through 1870 and 1880 in Smithland Twp, Livingston Co KY. It is difficult to identify their children in census or other online records other than when living with the parents, in spite of some fairly unusual given names. A source I cannot locate at this time gave their death dates as 23 Apr 1881 for the husband and 28 May 1899 for Mary Ellen; probably the same source quoted her obituary as saying, “She was a niece of Rev. William Redman, a pioneer Methodist preacher, and her brother, Rev. Thomas H. Prather, was an able and devoted missionary to the Indians prior to the admission of Kansas into the Union.”
7. William W. Redman Prather was in Lucas Co IA in 1850, Sioux City Township, Woodbury Co IA in 1860, Shirley Township, Cloud Co IA in 1870 and North Longton Township, Elk Co KS in 1880. His children’s names, as first noted by Clare Prather, point toward his being the son of Lloyd and Nancy: Lewis Cass, Nancy E., Lloyd B., Martha E., William, Mary A., James R., Loretta Vergeia, and Charles B.
8. Jonathan Cass Prather. I disagree with Clare Prather when he identified this man as the same Jonathan Prather listed as a settler in 1855 in Kansas; for this to be so, he would have to have abandoned his wife and two children, who were listed under Elizabeth’s name in 1860 in Lucas Co IA. There were five Jonathan Prathers in the U. S. census in 1850, and five again in 1860, but one was a 7-year-old boy. Only this Jonathan is missing.
Every one of Lloyd and Nancy’s children had a daughter named Nancy, usually Nancy Elizabeth, except for the Rankins.
Part IV: The Accuracy of O. P. Light’s charts of the Veach family
In addition to her own mother, Louvica Caroline (Veach) Prather, who died when Nancy was seven, Nancy Jane (Prather) Light also knew her aunt Sally Ann (Veach) Prather, who was married to an uncle and lived in Jefferson Co IA, and another aunt, Frances Maude (Veach) Porter, at whose home in Shelbyville IL Nancy was visiting that summer of 1853 when she met and married O. P. Light. She probably also personally knew Elvira (Veach) Smith in Shelbyville, since this aunt was there in the 1860 census. She knew the names of other aunts, and that there was a brother Milton, possibly because her aunt Frances’s oldest child was a namesake named Milton Porter, but no facts about the brother beyond his name were recorded by O. P. Light.
O. P. Light made very few notes about the Veach family. What he knew was that his mother-in-law, whom he never met, was a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Hilton) Veach. Actually Jacob didn’t spell the name the way some earlier families did: Veatch. In this document I have kept O. P.’s spelling, that is apparently Jacob’s spelling, but as I turn to other sources, which I will spell the name as it appears.
Rev. Light also knew that there were at least six daughters and one son, and he knew the names of some of the daughter’s husbands, although imperfectly. Lucinda, the youngest child, was married to Hiram Porter, not Jonathan. Hiram was a nephew of Frances (Veach) Porter’s husband Zephaniah.
I will analyze Jacob Veach’s census record, as Clare Prather did with Lloyd Prather’s. In 1820, he was in Clark Co IN, p 14, with this family: 010010/42010/01. The six daughters named by O. P. Light were Louvica Caroline, Frances Maude (“Fanny”), Elvira, Rachel, Lucinda, and Sarah Ann (“Sally Ann”). Their ages were not known, but additional sources identified other daughters as Hannah and Mary Ann. The son would have been Milton.
On the same page in 1820 were Basil R. Prather and his son John.
In 1830, Jacob’s family was comprised of 0000101…/1221101…. The seventh and youngest daughter has been born. There is still only one son. Again there are Prathers on the same page, plus John C. Redman, a double first cousin of Nancy Redman’s.
In 1840 in Johnson Co IN, Jacob’s family was: 100000001/00101001. On the same page were two daughters and their husbands, Moses Holeman and Francis K Porter. The daughters living with their parents were Lucinda, unmarried, and Elvira, whose husband had died, apparently leaving her with one son under five. Milton Veach was still in Clark Co IN.
From the 1850 census it is possible to calculate the order of the children’s births. Louvica Caroline did not live until 1850, but might be the oldest child, since she was the first married of Jacob’s children’s. In Shelby Co IL, we learn that Frances (Veach) Porter was 42, born in Kentucky. Milton (“M. W. Veach”) was in Clark Co IN, 40, born in Indiana. Sally Ann (Veach) Prather’s 1850 census is given above, on page 10; she was 34. Elvira was married to Henry Eller, her second husband, by 1850, living in Shelby Co IL, 32; the child Harman Smith, 13, was the boy in Jacob’s 1840 census. Mary (Veach) Holeman, 30, and Rachel (Veach) Admire, 28, were on the same page in Johnson Co IN, both born in Indiana.
Finding evidence to link the children named by O. P. Light to Jacob Veach begins with the Light lists. The fact of Rev. Light’s knowing these names was used in 1974 by the Veatch Family Association, when they sponsored a 913-page compilation of all known Veatches.
Two of Jacob and Polly (Hilton) Veach’s children are named in American Guthrie, Milton “Veatch” and Rachel (“Veatch”) Admire are named, which means that with Mary Ann (Veach) Holeman, three of Jacob’s children are independently confirmed. Rachel and her husband both died of typhoid fever in 1861 in Warrick Co IN, although Guthrie gives the date 1860. His information is different from O.P. Light’s, but agrees with it.
While a college student and beginning family researcher, I copied all I could find about ancestors at my university library. I found Virkus’ The Compendium of American Genealogy, but not my Veach or Prather families, as far as I could tell. What I did find of interest was in a volume entitled Territorial Papers of Indiana, various petitions dated 1809-1816, which I copied, keeping spelling and capitalization as it appeared. And I only copied the names which I knew at that time to be ancestors’ names. The significance of these documents is the close and early connections found among these families, in the community of early Clark Co IN.
· Clark Co IN petition, dated 12 Dec 1809, included: truman hilton, James Hilton, Joshua W redman, Lloyd Prather, Benjamin Redman, Basil R Prather, Aaron Prather, Roger Redman, Jacob Veatch, Wm Prather.
· Another peition from 1809 included: Wm Prather, Truman Hilton, James Hilton, John Prather, Basil R Prather, Aaron Prather, Lloyd Prather.
· A territorial memorial signed 31 Dec 1810 included Aaron Prather and Jacob Veatch.
· A territorial petition, 11 Dec 1811, had: Aaron Prather, James Hilton, Basil Prather, Wm Prather, Basil R Prather.
· Clark Co IN petition, dated 16 Dec 1813, included: Aaron Prather, Samuel Prather, Basil Prather, Loyd Prather.
· Clark Co IN Memorial, 15 Oct 1812: Rezin Redman, Commandant of a Detachment from Clark.
· Territory Memorial, 1 Feb 1815: Basil Prather. A footnote mentons Basil Prather, a native of Maryland and postmaster in 1816 at Salem. 17 April 1816: a note from the Postmaster General to Basil Prather.
In 1820, there were Veach families in four counties in Indiana. Guthrie identifies the four families in Harrison County as sons of Nathan and Elizabeth (Craig) Veach, who moved there from Knoxville TN. Benjamin in Orange Co IN was probably a brother of my Jacob. The Fayette County Veaches were distant cousins from a branch which originated in Frederick Co MD; they were in Harrison Co KY in 1810.
All families in the 1820 census were spelled Veach; by 1830 both Veach and Veatch appear with no distinction. All of the nine names in the 1820 Indiana census are repeated in 1830, plus a Thomas in Henry County and two younger men in Fayette County; two of the Harrison County Veatches have moved, one to Spencer County and the other to Greene County. Benjamin in Orange County has now been joined by another brother Asa. Jacob is still the only Veach or Veatch in Clark Co IN. And the Veaches identified by O. P. Light were all married in Clark County until after 1830, and in Johnson Co IN after 1835.
While there is still uncertainty about the parentage of Jacob Veach, there is no doubt about his wife’s family. Truman Hilton and his wife, Christena Patrick, were part of a large number of Marylanders who went first to Rowan or Iredell Counties in North Carolina, tthen to Kentucky and finally just across the Ohio River to Clark County. There were numerous intermarriages among this group. In 1850 in that county, there were 115 people born before 1810 who claimed to have been born in Maryland, out of a population of 2499 in that age group, or about 22%.
These marriages are known to have taken place in Clark County between Veach, Hilton, Holeman (or Holman, as it is often written), Prather, Patrick, and Jacobs individuals:
HOLEMAN, – m JACOBS, THOMAS Clark, 5-22-1809
HILTON, LETHA m HOLMAN, AARON Clark, 8-6-1813
HOLMAN, MOSES m PATRICK, REBECCA Clark, 8-23-1814
PRATHER, ARY m HILTON, JAMES Clark, 3-30-1815
PRATHER, WILLIAM JR m HILTON, SARAH Clark, 10-25-1816
HOLEMAN, CATHERINE m PATRICK, JEREMIAH Clark, 11-4-1819
PRATHER, AARON J m PATRICK, ELIZABETH Clark, 6-5-1820
PATRICK, WILLIAM m DAVIS, NANCY Clark, 8-17-1820
PRATHER, JOHN JR m PATRICK, MARY Clark, 8-29-1820
HOLEMAN, MATILDA m PATRICK, JOHN Clark, 3-30-1822
HILTON, WILLIAM m JACOBS, REBECCA D. Clark, 9-28-1828
HILTON, PRESSHA m PORTER, FRANCIS K. Clark, 6-7-1829
PRATHER, JAMES R m VEACH, LAVICY Clark, 2-11-1830
PORTER, ZEPHANIAH K m VEACH, FRANCES M Clark, 6-3-1831
PRATHER, SAMANTHA m JACOBS, JEREMIAH Clark, 4-6-1833
VEATCH, MILTON m NEELY, ELIZABETH Clark, 11-30-1834
PRATHER, THOMAS F m JACOBS, CATHARINE Clark, 12-6-1838
PRATHER, THOMAS F m PATRICK, MAHALA Clark, 11-4-1842
PRATHER, JOSEPH A m PATRICK, SARAH ANN Clark, 11-28-1844
PRATHER, MARGARET ANN m PATRICK, LEWIS R Clark, 11-6-1845
Letha (or Aletha), William, Pressha, Sarah and James are all children of Truman and Christena (Patrick) Hilton. I have located ten probable children of this couple. My ancestor, Mary or Polly, was possibly the oldest child, married in Jessamine Co KY before the family moved to Clark Co IN. Louvica Veach was a granddaughter.
The nine Patricks are five children of Christena (Patrick) Hilton’s brother William Jr. and his wife Rebecca Jacobs, plus William’s own second marriage in 1820; Sarah and Lewis are two of the four children from the second marriage. Mahala Patrick was a widow when she married a Prather.
Part V: Additional documents relating to Oliver Perry Light
Oliver Perry Light was the third surviving child of David and Harriet (Dickinson) Light. In 1837, the family moved to Edgar Co IL, where David and Harriet lived for the rest of their lives. In the 1850 census Oliver P. Light was listed as a schoolteacher, and he is recorded in that year as a student at Georgetown Seminary, in nearby Vermillion Co IL. According to Methodist Church records, he was “ordained a deacon and given full connection in 1854,” after having begun serving as in 1852 in the first of many churches and circuits, moving from Williamsburg and other districts in Illinois to Dayton and Crow River, Minnesota, in 1856 to Blue Grass District in Iowa in 1867 to Wymore, Nebraska, in 1884 to the Washington circuit in Kansas in 1888 and ending his career in 1889 in El Reno, Oklahoma, where he preached the first sermon. In 1853, he had met and married a schoolteacher, Miss Nancy Jane Prather (12 Sep 1833-4 Aug 1895), whom he reportedly had known for only two weeks. Rev. Light served as a chaplain during the Civil War, enlisting 8 Aug 1862 in Co. H, 6th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, later serving as Chaplain of the 7th Minnesota, resigning 27 May 1864, due to disability. A letter from O. P. Light, dated 14 May 1864, to the Governor of MN is included in “Reports and Correspondence—Minnesota in the Civil and Indian War,” p 495. It also appears he took part in the famed Oklahoma Land Run, 22 Apr 1889. Rev. Light died on 28 Mar 1904 in Wymore, Gage Co NE, where he is buried next to his wife.
Since 1966, I have not seen any of O. P. Light’s family charts or many of the other papers I copied that day. I did, however, inherit some documents and typed pages when my grandmother died in 1990. Among these are:
· A typed extract from O. P. Light’s notebook. These are the first four pages and reveal the variety if dates and infmration contained in the pocketbook,
· Historical Review and Directory: Commemorating the 45th Anniversary of The First Methodist Church, 1889-1934, 24 Jun 1934, unnumbered page. “History of the First United Methodist Church of El Reno (OK)” written by either Ethel Armstrong or Evelyn Eichor.
O. P. Light’s original notes and documents, which have been lost, included a list of the churches he served, which were confirmed as I followed up with the Methodist State Archives, locating whenever possible the town or village, and finding contemporary records to his being in those places. His pension papers also follow his many moves. Sources not copied here include: History of the United Methodist Church at Anoka (MN), 1854-1979. Original pages of the Historical Record of the Stockton Circuit Church for 1855, in O. P. Light’s handwriting. Ephraim H.Waring, History of the Iowa Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909, p. 206. History of the First United Methodist Church of Wymore NE. “The United Methodist Church, Union City OK, 1890-1990.” 1870, 1880, 1900 FC. 1885 Iowa State census. Obituary, Weekly Wymorean, Wymore NE, 31 Mar 1904, p. 1.
Smith’s First Directory of O. T. Homesteaders in Run of 1889, p 281 “Oliver P Light, n w 21 12 7” (http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ok/logan/history/dir/smiths1890rural2.txt); photocopy of original.
Oliver Perry Light, notebook, in possession of Kathy Alvis Patterson, containing Biblical texts from which he preached with dates and places, several church lists and detailed expesnse acccounts; 28 Jun 1889 to 11 March 1897, not written in chronological order.
Moses Light, The Light Genealogy in America, “published for the author,” 1896, pp. 7-8, 10. A history of the Light family from the “Old Country.” Moses’s John Light settled in (then called) Lebanon Township, Lancaster Co Pa., now Lebanon Co Pa., and secured a tract of land, now a part of the city of Lebanon, patent dated April 2, 1742. Our John Light was from Caernarvon Township.
Frank L. Light, “Peter Light, Son of John,” posted online at Genforum.com, http://genforum.genealogy.com/light/messages/1505.html. See also Mary Kemmerle, Jacob Light of Caernarvon Township and Some of his Descendants, 1986.
This may be because Harriet had died in 1873, and Oliver did not remember her family from Clermont Co OH, which he left in 1837, at the age of nine or so. He did not obtain the data while she was living. None of her brothers and sisters is known to have come to Illinois.
Obituary, Wymore News, Wymore NE, 8 Aug 1895. A seccond, unidentified obituary; internal evidence suggests this obituary was from a Wymore NE newspaper. Portions of three additional, unidentified, obituaries, each with slightly different wording.
Year: 1850; Census Place: Des Moines, Jefferson, Iowa; Roll: M432_185; Page: 94; Image: 189. Contrary to her obituary, at this date almost a year after her father’s death, she was not “with an uncle in that county, near Fairfield,” but with a family recently arrived in Iowa from New York, not known to be related.
Letter from Becky Van Vliet, Muncie IN, 18 Apr 1988, to Kathy Patterson. Bible record of the family of Marion W Prather and wife Nancy J Smith, at that time in the possession of Becky’s grandmother Nancy Jane (Taylor) Thomas. Marriage license, Harrison Co IN, 1 Jan 1857, Job Clark and Elizabeth Jane Praitor [sic].
Lewis C. Baird, Baird’s History of Clark Co IN, B. F. Bowen, 1909, page 54. No title page. Also, A roster of Revolutionary ancestors of the Indiana Daughters of the American Revolution: commemoration of the United States of [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: A roster of Revolutionary ancestors of the Indiana Daughters of the American Revolution: commemoration of the United States of America bicentennial, July 4, 1976. Evansville, Ind.: Unigraphic, 1976, pp. 517-518.
This is a statement made to me by my grandmother in 1966. It is a valid explanation for why Nancy Jane was found in Illinois that summer. See the Zephaniah Porter household in 1850, below, for confirmation of the family’s being in that area.
My grandmother’s statement is also a measure of how strongly treasured any family traditions were among the Light and Prather descendants. Ethel Armstrong had no interest in tracing ancestors beyone her grandparents and no access to census records or other means of knowing family members were in Shelbyville IL.
Damaris Knobe, The ancestry of Grafton Johnson: with its four branches, the Johnson, the Holman, the Keen, the Morris: the history and genealogy of paternal progenitors, as confined to the United States, of the second Grafton Johnson of Greenwood, Indiana, great-great-grandson of the first Isaac Johnson, who reverts to the middle of the eighteenth century in Virginia, Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1924, page 110. HeritageQuest Online.
Marriage record, Dec 18 1805, Jessamine Co KY, “James Hilton, surety. Consent for daughter to marry given by treaman hilton. Jacob Veach resident of Woodford Co KY.” Jessamine Co KY Marriage Licenses, 1749-1867. NSDAR Library. Also at http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/jessamine/vitals/marriages/marr0006.txt.
Territorial Papers of Indiana, various petitions dated 1809-1816, from University of South Dakota Library, copied 1967, spelling as published. This researcher will be very happy when Indiana posts these records online, since I didn’t have access to a copier in 1967.
IN State Library Genealogy Database: Marriages through 1850, http://126.96.36.199/db/ in_marriages_1850/marriages_search.asp. For some reason, none of our Johnson Co IN marriages, except the second marriage of Jesse Woollard are in this database.
B. F. Henderson, “History of the Georgetown Seminary—Part I,” The Heritage (Spring 1967), pp. 15-17, and “Part II,” (Summer 1967), pp. 7-8, 10. Letter, 3 Jan 1967, from B. F. Henderson, Georgetown IL, to Kathy Alvis.
Letter, 18 Aug 1987, from Thelma Boeder, Archivist, Minnesota Annual Conference, The United Methodist Church, to Kathy Patterson, including Oliver Perry Light’s service record and a page from the Centennial History of the Elk River (MN) United Methodist Church, 1975.
Light grave stone, Wymore Methodist Church Cemetery, Gage Co NE, visited and photographed Nov 1988. The exact dates of the births and deaths of Rev. and Mrs. Light are in family and Methodist church records. Proceedings of the Iowa Conference, 1895, 260-261.
Presentation given in 1982, beginning “In the Contact Bishop Hardt exprssed a desire to of the vital part of methodism in the diamond anniversary of Statement….” I can recognize my grandmother’s antique typewriter and typing style. She later purchased a tiny portable, and I know pages from that machine as well. | <urn:uuid:ac1fe138-33fd-4b8c-9d59-ae61d716ed69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alvispat.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/rev-oliver-perry-light-documents/ | 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 | 0.972673 | 9,850 | 1.679688 | 2 |
“Judge not, lest you be judged”; ”Compassion and tolerance”; “Meekness”; “love”; “Never a harsh word”.
Those are a sampling of the scriptures and sentiments used to render Christianity in this country and the West – impotent and of no power. Modern Christianity has constructed an entirely new Jesus for itself. A Jesus whom would never utter an angry word of condemnation, would never fight or go to war, who does not condemn sin or expect His followers to overcome sin. Churchianity has decided to make those tenets it’s primary doctrine rather than to transform the world by encouraging repentance. That teaches instead that we are to be “tolerant” of the sinful world and not to “judge the world” by condemning sin. Because it is now said that to condemn the sin is to condemn the sinner, because the sin defines who the sinner truly is. And they say, Jesus would not judge someone for who they are.
Christianity, once a bulwark to the oppressive unGodliness and tyranny of men, has become conformed to the world, in order to believe a deception that there is nothing in this world Jesus would fight or stand against.
This sentiment, plaguing the Christian church is one of the major reasons Christianity is being shoved out of the culture and into the closet by secular hedonists. Christians are no longer standing, they are bowing down and surrendering the culture without a fight because they have been deceived into thinking being Christian means loving and accepting everything under the doctrine of tolerance. Praying for our enemies now means we should accommodate and make exceptions for our enemies to oppress us. Doing so is the highest form of Christian tolerance.
But Satan is NOT tolerant, and this secular culture that has replaced the Christian culture is the most INTOLERANT of any dissent, belief or practice outside of Islam itself.
The weak Jesus of modern Churchianity is being steamrolled and crushed by secularism, debauchery and political apathy. It is no wonder why Islam is conquering the globe while Secularists apologize for and are allied with them in their shared quest to rid the world of Christianity.
So who is the real Jesus? The meek and lowly waif and figure of modern abandonment theology that only loves and forgives and pours out blessings? Or is there something modern Christians are missing?
The Real Jesus
By Jim O’Brien
I don’t know exactly when it was that I looked at the picture behind the preacher on Sunday morning and said to myself “That picture is a fake!” but I do remember saying it in Sunday School class. It didn’t earn any gold stars.
Maybe it was after reading Paul’s statement that “nature itself teaches you that long hair on a man is a disgrace” (1 Cor. 11:14 GNB) I couldn’t envision the Apostle Paul saying that if Jesus had sported long hair.
Nor was he handsome. In fact Isaiah’s description of the Messiah says “there was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him.” (Isaiah 53:2 GNB)
It could have been when I first realized that any man who had grown up working in construction during the 1st Century A.D. would of necessity be a brawny guy. The picture just didn’t look very tough.
The picture on the wall did not look like the Christ who will return to the earth to make war described in Revelation 19:11-16.
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The typical picture of Jesus often overlooks the account of Jesus throwing out the moneychangers from the temple. (Matt. 21:12) How many moneychangers where there? The Bible doesn’t say. But it was a large area so one could reasonably expect it to be several, maybe a score or more. No wimpy man could physically throw out that many men and turn over their means of doing business. That was my kind of guy.
There is the Jesus that painted a verbal picture of carnality and said “for after all these things do the Gentiles seek.” (Matt. 6:32 KJV)
Jesus was too strong to be confined by politically correct speech. As in the time when he called the political and religious leaders of his day a bunch of snakes the children of snakes and asked how they could escape hell. (Matt. 23:33) That’s the kind of statement that makes the heart of an Irishman beat strong.
It’s also the kind of statement that makes me think something has been lost from mainstream Christianity.
The other day some news analysts were discussing the recent revelation of the sins of Tiger Woods, the golf phenom. It’s hard to pass a check out counter at the super market without reading about his loss of income and speculation about an impending divorce. So someone asked if Tiger can make an emotional recovery from the sins of the past. Brit Hume replied:
“The extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So, my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”
The reaction to Hume’s statement was predictable. A writer for the Washington Post demanded that Hume apologize because he had offended about half a billion Buddhists. Funny, there are over two billion Christians on the earth and multiple thousands being persecuted, some martyred almost on a daily basis around the world by Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims yet the American press seems strangely unconcerned about the offense caused to Christians.
Maybe the reason is that mainstream Christians resemble more the picture on the wall at the front of church than they do the man who stood alone against a mob intent on stoning a woman taken in adultery.
Maybe Christianity needs an infusion of the real Jesus, not the picture on the wall. | <urn:uuid:7a89c757-8b23-4273-a233-4f8e021393be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://swordattheready.wordpress.com/tag/brit-hume/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969338 | 1,438 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The Imams Council of the MMCC is a council of more than 25 Imams representing Islamic Centers in Southeast Michigan. The Imams meet monthly to discuss the needs of the Muslim Community as well as the community at large. They represent all the major Muslim sects, both Sunni and Shia, and multiple ethnicities, races and hometowns in Michigan. These Imam's created the historic Code of Honor in 2007, outlining the mutual respect that all Muslims, regardless of sect or ethnicity, must have for each other, and the imperative to work together out of mutual love of God and his Prophet.
4/18/13 The Imam's Council met at the Islamic House of Wisdom. This month, guests included representatives from Access and the Muslim Mental Health Professionals. The Imam's Council encourages attendance at an upcoming workshops on mental health issues and counseling. They also discussed the challenge of domestic violence and access to resources for victims. Finally, they issued the following statement condemning the Boston bombing:
Imams Condemn Terrorist Attack at Boston Marathon
(Royal Oak, MI, 04/17/13) – On behalf of the Imams Council of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC), we offer our condolences to the family of victims who lost their lives in the unfortunate tragedy in Boston on Monday, April 15, 2013. We express our sadness and sorrow for the loss of our fellow innocent citizens. Our prayers and thoughts are with their families and with those who were injured and the people of Boston. We condemn in the strongest terms such acts of terrorism that take the lives of innocent people. This evil act is detested by all faiths and all people. We turn to God for solace and help.
The perpetrators (extremists) with their perverted ideologies will not succeed in dividing our nation. As Americans, we stand in solidarity with all communities and men of conscience undivided against all acts of terrorism and ideologies that promote such heinous acts.
May God almighty help heal the wounds of the injured and grant patience to the families who lost their loved ones and fill the hearts of Bostonians and the American people with peace.
3/29/2013 Imam'c Council has issued a statement on the appointment of a new Pope:
The Most Reverend Archbishop Vigneron and the entire Religious Leaders Forum, greetings of Peace,
I would like to on behalf of the Imams Council of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) congratulate the most Reverend Archbishop Allen Vigneron and the Catholic community world wide on the election of the new pope, Pope Francis.
As the new pope deals with the many challenges the Catholic Church faces, we must trust that Pope Francis will continue treading on same footsteps his predecessors did, having a dialogue with people of other faiths particualrly the Muslim and Jewish Communities.
I must tell you that the love and welcome we received this past Tuesday at St. Fabian in Farmington Hills where Fr. Jeff Day serves, having an Abrahamic Trialogue (Faith Comparison) attended by more than 300 people was touching. My colleague and friend Rabbi Michael Moskowitz and I felt right at home with our brothers and sisters. We shared our faith perspectives on difficult issues such as Mary, Jesus, Trinity, Forgiveness, etc. and at the end everyone respected each other’s views and respectfully agreed to disagree. However, the atmosphere of having good friendship and fellowship is what counts. I believe if we continue to work together and understand each other better, our communities can unite under the banner of one race that care for each other.
We pray to the almighty God to continue to bless those relationships and bless our efforts in building a better community, country, and world. Amen.
On behalf of the Imams Council, once again, congratulations.
Steve Mustapha Elturk
Co-Chair of Imams Council of MMCC
3/19/2012 The Imam's council held a special briefing with renowned Islamic scholar and thinker, Professor Tariq Ramadan. Excerpts of this discussion regarding challenges Imam's have in their communites will be available shortly.
9/29/2012: Local Imam's held an Imam's picnic where several local Islamic leaders from various congregations came to Ford Field in Dearborn for some BBQ and friendly games. This outreach event allowed local community members to meet Imam's in a casual setting, and allowed them to see the deep mutual respect that exists between the Shia and Sunni communities in Michigan.
In their July 2012 meeting, The Imams met at the American Muslim Center (AMC) in Dearborn. Daedra McGhee from the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service, was present at the meeting and shared with the Imams ways to improve relations with neighbors. She acknowledged fact that the Anti-Islam/Muslim attacks are on the rise and the Imams must work together to address this important issue. The recent fire bomb thrown at an ongoing construction site for an extension at the AMC was discussed. It caused over $30,000 in damages. Another issue the Imams are discussing is same sex marriage and how it might affect our Muslim Community. The Imams are working on drafting a statement to be followed by a Seminar in the fall on Family Issues where the subject of homosexuality and same sex marriage will be explored.
The Imams Council welcomes questions and comments from the community at large.
Michigan Muslim Community Council
30701 Woodward Avenue, Suite 310
Royal Oak, MI 48073, | <urn:uuid:6017784a-68bd-4c92-a29f-474f33cbf724> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mimuslimcouncil.com/community-services-and-outreach/imams-committee/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948697 | 1,123 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Executive Order 9970
|←Executive Order 9969||Executive Order 9970
Creating a Board of Inquiry To Report on a Labor Dispute Affecting the Bituminous Coal Industry of the United States
|Executive Order 9971→|
|See the Notes section for a list of Executive Orders affected by or related to the issuance of this Executive Order.|
Whereas in my opinion such dispute threatens to result in a strike or lockout affecting a substantial part of the bituminous coal industry an industry engaged in trade and commerce among the several states and with foreign nations, and in the production of goods for commerce, which strike or lockout, if permitted to occur or to continue, will imperil the national health and safety:
Now, Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (Public Law 101, 80th Congress), I hereby create a Board of Inquiry, consisting of such members as I shall appoint, to inquire into the issues involved in such dispute.
- The Board shall have powers and duties as set forth in Title II of the said Act. The Board shall report to the President in accordance with provisions of section 206 of the said Act on or before June 23, 1948.
- Upon submission of its report, the Board shall continue in existence to perform such other functions as may be required under the said Act, until the Board is terminated by the President
- See Related:
- Executive Order 9939, March 23, 1948
|This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).| | <urn:uuid:3ae45641-a07c-4ccd-8194-50d8b5c98102> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9970 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946813 | 342 | 1.640625 | 2 |
February 21, 2012
Do you really love Him?
“She has done a beautiful thing to me.” [mark 14:6]
“If what we call love doesn’t take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love. If we have the idea that love is characterized as cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and never taken to extremes, we have missed the true meaning. This may describe affection and it may bring us a warm feeling, but it is not a true and accurate description of love.
Have you ever been driven to do something for God not because you felt that it was useful or your duty to do so, or that there was anything in it for you, but simply because you love Him? Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things—things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him. Have you ever created what Mary of Bethany created in the heart of the Lord Jesus? “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
Then there are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him even small gifts of surrender, just to show how genuine our love is for Him. To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God. “…but perfect love casts out fear…” once we are surrendered to God (1 John 4:18). We should quit asking ourselves, “Am I of any use?” and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time.”
—Oswald Chambers || My Utmost for His Highest
Added 1 year ago — 106 notes
The key of the greater work.
Added 1 year ago — 9 notes
1201… I say to you, he who believes in Me, … greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do …” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
I read this, this morning, [catching up from the day I missed] and it really spoke to me. Telling me that prayer works. I hope you read this and are able to get something out of this. happy wednesday, everyone. -meg
Key to Missionary’s Devotion.
october 18, 2011
“Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit—“the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” [Romans 5:5]. And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.”
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Added 1 year ago — 14 notes | <urn:uuid:507305f4-15bb-4c41-97bb-bae8def08d7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meggielynne.tumblr.com/tagged/My-utmost-for-his-highest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967219 | 1,173 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) on June 12 issued a statement regarding the introduction of legislation by the US Senate Committee on Finance to establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia.
The statement reads: "We applaud Committee Chairman Max Baucus, International Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member John Thune, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, and Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain for their commitment to improving trade relationships overseas and for working to create jobs across every sector of America's economy.
"The World Trade Organization has opened its doors to Russia, and the US must do the same if it wants to capitalize on free-market access to the world's ninth-largest economy. Access to new foreign markets like Russia is increasingly essential for the continued expansion and competitiveness of American chemistry, and it will help the US meet President Obama's stated goal of doubling US exports by the end of 2014.
"Chemical-product exports totaled $197 billion (B) in 2011, and one quarter of the chemical industry's 788,000 jobs depends on international trade. Export growth in the chemical industry spurs additional investment in manufacturing and related exports, creating a ripple effect of job creation, investment and economic growth."
ACC is committed to improving environmental, health and safety performance through the Responsible Care program, it said, including commonsense advocacy designed to address major public policy issues, and health and environmental research and product testing. T
he business of chemistry is a $720bn enterprise and a key element of the US economy. It is one of the nation's largest exporters, accounting for ten cents out of every dollar in US exports. | <urn:uuid:ca7b6fa1-b50f-4896-bfd2-588f924beb9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3045739/Search/Results/US-trade-group-eyes-normal-Russia-trade-relations.html?PubDate=06-13-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939672 | 330 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Bored? Let Wasps and ants sting you!
Courtesy of Shelley at Retrospectacle comes this story of an entomologist named Justin O. Schmidt who decided to let a variety of toxic creatures bite and sting him to compile his Schmidt Pain Index. Looking at that beautiful pepsis wasp reminds me of one of my first wildlife rules of thumb: if it's pretty, it's dangerous. Just ask anyone in Texas who has tangled with some of the very large and beautiful centipedes we have. | <urn:uuid:9bb8bd4e-793c-4c77-9e3d-2e66da7f74dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceavenger.blogspot.com/2007/05/bored.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965654 | 111 | 1.585938 | 2 |
WASHINGTON_The government announced new security requirements for air cargo Wednesday that include criminal background checks for more than 100,000 cargo airline and freight workers and screeners to check packages delivered to airport ticket counters.
The Transportation Security Administration said it also will use more bomb-sniffing dogs to screen freight shipped by airplane, and it soon will finish hiring 300 new air cargo inspectors, which Congress included in the agency's budget this year.
"We have set a solid foundation for a major segment of the transportation network," said administration chief Kip Haley. "In the time-sensitive and dynamic air cargo industry, a layered security approach is essential to thwarting would-be terrorists."
Cargo pilots long have complained that the government focuses most of its efforts on protecting passenger airliners from terror attacks, leaving cargo planes vulnerable. They point out that cargo planes also could be seized by terrorists and used as weapons.
Some lawmakers have criticized the Bush administration for screening airline passengers and their luggage but not inspecting cargo carried aboard the same airplane.
The air freight industry, though, doesn't want commerce to be impeded.
The TSA's long-awaited plan, originally proposed in November 2004, includes new regulations for restricting access to sections of airports used for loading and unloading cargo.
It also requires the employees of more than 4,000 freight forwarders - agents who accept packages and arrange shipment - to attend security training courses designed by the TSA.
The administration has relied on a "Known Shipper" program to make sure that bombs or weapons do not make their way onto passenger airplanes. Air cargo companies must register with the government and be approved by the TSA before they're allowed to send cargo aboard passenger airliners.
The TSA said it will consolidate 4,000 Known Shipper lists into one so that it can keep closer track of companies that ship cargo on passenger planes.
The agency said it banned three companies from sending cargo on passenger aircraft in recent weeks.
On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov | <urn:uuid:4eb08672-0953-45d7-9b64-6d31cb9925f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationpros.com/news/10400081/tsa-issues-air-cargo-handling-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951022 | 416 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Lactalis's Bid For Parmalat May Force Italy To Compromise
After making a fuss about defending Italian champions of industry, it turns out that the Italian government is willing to compromise, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. When France's Groupe Lactalis SA first appeared on the scene in March, building up a 29% stake in dairy group Parmalat SpA, the government sounded the alarm amid fears that yet another Italian company would fall prey to a French predator. With Lactalis' move on Parmalat, the government went into action. It called on the country's bankers and industrialists to save Parmalat and passed measures to help them do so. Parmalat was allowed to postpone its annual meeting to give it more time to build up a defense. State-run lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, or CDP, was given the go-ahead to change its statute so it could invest in nationally strategic companies. The government also started work on a creating a kind of shield to protect from foreign takeover Italian companies that were deemed strategic. However, after weeks of talks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, UniCredit SpA, Mediobanca SpA and other potential members of a consortium to defend Parmalat have yet to come up with a definitive plan. With Lactalis' surprise offer Tuesday to buy the 71% of Parmalat it does not already own for EUR3.4 billion ($5 billion), they are under even more pressure to work something out. As far as the financing is concerned, Italian news reports have spoken of EUR500 million coming from the banks, EUR500 million from an industrial partner and another EUR500 million from the CDP. Another EUR1.5 billion would come from the banks in the form of loans, say various reports. But a Milan analyst said it is no longer a question of whether they can agree on the financing and organize themselves in time to make a rival offer. It will be politics that will determine the outcome, he said. At a news conference after a summit meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Rome Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he did not consider Lactalis' approach as hostile. Berlusconi said he favored market competition, adding that the shield being set up by his government to protect strategic companies from foreign takeovers would be fair. He welcomed an arrangement in which Lactalis would be joined by an Italian partner in Parmalat's ownership structure. Parmalat filed for bankruptcy in December 2003 after a decade-long fraud left the maker of long-life milk, yogurts and juice saddled with EUR14 billion in debt. The savings of thousands of bondholders were wiped out. | <urn:uuid:7da1bc32-0b9b-4b0a-b84d-49adb5644294> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalinsolvency.com/headlines/lactaliss-bid-parmalat-may-force-italy-compromise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969148 | 561 | 1.578125 | 2 |
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:
Welcome. This is James Corbett with your Eyeopener report from BoilingFrogsPost.com. And now for the real news.
A recent court case in Utah has uncovered yet more evidence that the FBI is hiding key documents from the public by placing them in a separate, hitherto unknown electronic storage medium known as an “S-drive.” The fact that this drive was previously unknown has raised the specter that the FBI are using it as a place to hide requests for sensitive documents through the Freedom of Information Act. Now, a federal judge has given the FBI until the end of the month to explain what the S-drive is, how it is being used, and whether it contains key documents related to the case in question.
The case concerns Salt Lake City-based lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who has been investigating the death of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, at an Oklahoma Federal Transfer facility in 1995. The government has maintained his brother’s death was a suicide by hanging, despite the fact that his brutalized corpse revealed him to have been beaten to death, with cuts and bruises all over his body. Numerous irregularities in the wake of Trentadue’s death were suggestive of a coverup, from the government’s unprecedented offer to cremate the body before it was sent to the family at its own expense to the fact that the coroner was not allowed to examine the cell until it had been washed, to the fact that the visitor logs from the facility on the night of the death had been destroyed. Subsequent investigations uncovered leaked documents showing that the cover-up went all the way up the chain of command to Eric Holder, currently Obama’s attorney general.
Originally baffled by the extent of the cover-up, several tips, including one from Timothy McVeigh himself, led Jesse Trentadue to the understanding that his brother had been transferred to an Oklahoma transfer facility because he fit the description of the so-called John Doe No. 2 in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Since that time, Trentadue has been suing the FBI to try to pry more information about the OKC investigation from the agency’s vaults.
Among the documents he is pursuing are the surveillance tapes from the Murrah Building itself, which were being stored off-site and thus were not damaged in the blast. These tapes, which sources connected to the investigation have told the LA Times and other major media outlets that they have seen, are purported to show the approach of the Ryder Truck to the building, and also show Timothy McVeigh’s accomplice getting out of the truck.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI is not required to say if a document exists, only that they searched their database and found no records responsive to the request. If these documents are placed in an external or disconnected storage drive, however, the agency can insure that they will never show up in any FOIA request.
In fact, the FBI has been known to have used this very technique in the past. Going under such names as “June files,” “zero files” and “I-drive,” the agency has a long and documented history of placing key evidence in special, compartmentalized files that are reviewed by senior officials before the information is placed into the bureau’s official files.
Joining me earlier this week to discuss the history and significance of the FBI’s secret storage drives was attorney Jesse Trentadue.
Critics of the FBI have long noted how the bureau under J. Edgar Hoover’s leadership sanitized files to hide potentially embarrassing information about the FBI and its agents from the public.
In a conversation with The Corbett Report last week, Coleen Rowley, the former privacy act coordinator at the Minneapolis FBI field office and noted FBI whistleblower, confirmed the sordid history of the FBI’s attempts to conceal information from the public and reveals other methods that keep key records from being accessed through FOIA requests.
Spokespersons for the bureau have so far refused to comment to the press about the S-drive story, citing the ongoing litigation. The court order requires them to present a full explanation of the use of these document storage systems to federal court by June 30th. For more on this story, stay tuned to boilingfrogspost.com and corbettreport.com. | <urn:uuid:8608f04f-370e-4258-bb59-250fdcd09010> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/andie531/secret-fbi-storage-drive-shield-evidence-foia | 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 | 0.968672 | 909 | 1.570313 | 2 |
TIF=Temporary Internet Files in the paragraph below.
I am running XP and Internet Explorer 2000.
What I want to do is write a program or script to delete all files in the TIF. I want to load a vb program or WSH script. The program would quickly go to the TIF and copy all files to a new unhidden directory that I set up, then delete all the TIF and now go back to the explorer and allow me to load another page and over and over etc.
It is a tedious project doing it manually since I do it so frequently. I tried WSH window scripting, but seemed slow and did not always work. Maybe someone knows about some shareware out there along these lines.
I am fluent in WSH and VB and could write the short program if I knew how to access hidden files via VB.
I did move my TIF to c:\tempinet\Temporary Internet Files just to make it easier to find. I can go to dos and get into the directory, but all files are hidden and can't be copies since I don't know how to copy hidden files.
Is there a way to make all TIF unhidden and is it safe to run that way. No one else accesses my computer so they would not accidentally get into that area. | <urn:uuid:e4e0bbd3-d0c8-4029-9c96-28025180864d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sillydog.org/forum/how-to-access-the-hidden-temp-inet-files-in-explorer-p19412.php- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951027 | 275 | 1.585938 | 2 |
My Sunday column — written before the Paul Ryan pick, but still relevant in its aftermath — argues that Mitt Romney’s understandable reluctance to talk about his Mormon faith has cut him off from what would otherwise be a very natural part of his campaign narrative, both in personal and philosophical terms. My argument runs counter to some of the arguments in Adam Gopnik’s tour d’horizon of Mormonism in a recent issue of the New Yorker, and particularly this passage:
Yet class surely tells more than creed when it comes to American manners, and Romney is better understood as a late-twentieth-century American tycoon than as any kind of believer. Most of what is distinct about him seems specific to the rich managerial class of the nineteen-eighties and nineties, and is best explained so—just as you would grasp more about Jack Kennedy from F. Scott Fitzgerald (an Irish and a Catholic ascending to Wasp manners) than from St. Augustine. In another way, though, this is precisely where faith really does walk in, since commerce and belief seem complementary in Romney’s tradition. It’s just that this tradition is not merely Mormon. Joseph Smith’s strange faith has become a denomination within the bigger creed of commerce. It’s unfair to say, as some might, that Mitt Romney believes in nothing except his own ambition. He believes, with shining certainty, in his own success, and, more broadly, in the American Gospel of Wealth that lies behind it: the idea that rich people got rich by being good, that the riches are a sign of their virtue, and that they should therefore be allowed to rule.
The Fitzgerald-explaining-J.F.K. point is brilliant, and it summons up one of my favorite Jacqueline Kennedy lines: “I think it’s so unfair of people to be against Jack because he is a Catholic. He’s such a poor Catholic. Now if it were Bobby, I could understand …” But Romney’s life trajectory suggests that he’s considerably closer to Bobby, the rosary-saying Mass-goer with 11 children, than to the rather less pious President Kennedy. (If any prominent Mormon politician resembles J.F.K. in his relationship to his childhood faith, it’s arguably Jon Huntsman.) It’s possible, I suppose, to spin a narrative in which Romney’s years as a Mormon bishop and stake president were mostly a case of a tycoon-on-the-make exploiting a networking opportunity. But the level of commitment required of someone serving in those offices suggests a considerably higher level of religious devotion. Given the differences between the faiths, there’s no perfect analogy to Catholic practice, but imagine if J.F.K. had been ordained to the permanent diaconate and assigned to help an overworked priest manage a crowded parish in Brookline while ascending to the Senate, and you’ll have some sense of what Romney’s service to the L.D.S. church involved. There are many ways to describe this chapter in the Republican nominee’s life story, but at the very least it counts as strong evidence against the premise that Romney’s main religious commitment is to the worship of his own success.
As for Gopnik’s description of Mormonism as “a denomination within the bigger creed of commerce,” this is apt in a way, but also strikingly incomplete. Read more… | <urn:uuid:f8469ab6-e41c-4d16-885d-947aaff7ff77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/mormonism/ | 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 | 0.969101 | 724 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Television History to DVD
Remember when there was no reality TV? Remember when television consisted of timeless stand up and sketches? Sid Caesar was a genius who took television to the next level in the late 1960′s with his show “Caesar’s Hour”. Well, over 50 years later, Sid is now splashed on AVANT’s monitors as we help prepare the PBS show that reunited the Caesar writing team to soon be released on DVD.
Caesar’s Hour was a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen. PBS brought this incredible team back together in 1996 for a special event at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles, CA. The evening’s events eventually broadcasted on PBS under the title “Caesar’s Writers”. Now, AVANT has the opportunity to be a part of the team to bring this historic production back to life by creating the DVD to master for duplication and worldwide sales. WOW!
So, at AVANT, we’re all about today’s productions along with the helping memorialize the productions from long ago that helped get our industry to where we are today….reality TV! | <urn:uuid:e3b2bfe9-3c05-4f66-8448-2300d101dd5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avantproductions.com/latest-news/television-history-to-dvd/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938453 | 283 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Sorry, 'Emergence Christianity' Still Isn't the Reformation
Through a series of vignettes and a 32-page photographic essay, Phyllis Tickle, former and founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, takes readers on a journey through the world of what she calls "emergence Christianity." No stranger to this terrain, Tickle's Emergence Christianity: What It Is, Where It Is Going, and Why It Matters(Baker) is her fourth installment on "this new thing that God is doing," her own descriptive tag from the preface. Building on her previous books, such as The Great Emergence (2008), this book offers another interim field report.
I for one am grateful for Tickle's work. Getting a handle on the present is no small task, and when that present includes something as amorphous as the "emerging church" phenomenon, the difficulty only increases. As one endorsement of the book notes, Tickle has a way of seeing and making connections among varying pockets of emergence Christianity. She weaves these divergent stories into a larger, unified one. In other words, this book helps us see emergence Christianity. The photographic essay makes that description more than a metaphor.
Tickle's historical discussions of both the distant and more recent past significantly shape her sense of the present. She starts the book by noting that significant changes tend to come every five hundred or so years, including the coming of Christ in the first century, the era of the consolidation of the church under Gregory in the fifth and sixth centuries, the Great Schism of the 11th century, and the Reformation of the 16th century. From this historical trend, Tickle deduces that, here in the 2000s, we're poised for another such seismic change. She also offers readers a handy take on the more recent past, that of the last few decades and the emergence, if you will, of emergence Christianity. Those new to the party will appreciate her back-stories in chapters one through twelve.
In chapters thirteen to nineteen, Tickle takes us along on her travels to emergence outposts in both words and, as already noted, pictures. Her travels through these "fresh expressions" of Christianity cross geo-political boundaries (though the book mostly talks about the West and Latinized Christianity) and ecclesiastical boundaries, as Anglicans and Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, and more come into view. She even crosses the boundaries of concrete existence as she looks at cyber-world manifestations of emergence Christianity, such as 1PSL (First Presbyterian Church of Second Life), which congregates in the world of "virtual reality."
The final chapters offer an assessment of these trends and a bit of prophecy, as Tickle attempts to decipher where emergence Christianity may go. She raises two theological issues as her book draws to a close. First comes a problematic treatment of emergent attitudes toward atonement. She begins by declaring that "Christianity, in its early days, had no theory of atonement or of its mechanics." She then proceeds to note the remarkable unanimity of emergence Christianity in rejecting the view of substitutionary atonement, seen by her as the most recent of theories. She rejects this "repugnant" theory of "God as cosmic child abuser," and adds, "Substitutionary conversation in any form is in error." And Tickle makes all these pronouncements without ever referencing or discussing a single biblical text. | <urn:uuid:08adc077-e096-446a-b850-04883f409748> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/november-web-only/sorry-emergence-christianity-still-isnt-reformation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958253 | 711 | 1.546875 | 2 |
St. Thomas is in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Even though it's only 31 square miles, St. Thomas does have a couple of official cities.
Other destinations
This is the islands, so naturally the locals are very laid back. You can count on speedy service especially in the areas where they are used to dealing with a lot of tourists though. Some decorum is still important; keep swimwear on the beach, and dress comfortably for other activities.
Say "good morning" "good afternoon" or "good night" when you enter a room, get on a taxi or before you start talking to someone and they will be more friendly, this is the polite thing to do and shows that you aren't a complete tourist.
English is spoken throughout the island.
Get in
If you are on a cruise ship, it will not matter much what day of the week you visit. However, if you have more control over your schedule, try to arrange to be there on a "no ship day", when the island is less than crowded with tourists and the locals will stand out even more. Check near term schedules at .
By plane
Cyril E. King Airport (IATA: STT) (ICAO: TIST), 340-774-5100, . This international airport is on Red Point on the island's southwest coast. Local carriers like Cape Air and Seaborne Airlines also offer frequent flights linking the St. Thomas Airport with St. Croix's Henry Rohlsen Airport.
Several airlines serve the island from nearby islands and numerous U.S. mainland cities, e.g., US Airways, Delta, Continental, United, American, Spirit.
By Cruise Ship
Saint Thomas is a very popular stop for cruise ships on both Eastern Caribbean and Southern Caribbean itineraries. When they're in port (often in-season, usually during daylight hours), you may see many large ships...1-2 per week off-season, frequently four or more (occasionally eight or so) on certain days in high-season. Each can put 2-3,000 passengers on the island...mega-ships 5-6,000 each. You can also find fairly dependable data on scheduled ship arrivals and maximum passenger loads at by using the "ports" feature.
During "high season", Monday through Wednesday (especially Tuesday) tend to have the most cruise ships in port.
By Ferry
Get around
Once you've reached any area (e.g., "downtown", Havensight, Red Hook), walking becomes the preferred way to get around. However, the island in general is too expansive and hilly to explore totally on foot, especially if you are on a limited schedule (like a cruise ship).
By Bus Tour Several tour operators offer professional tours to popular locations by air-conditioned bus. You can make arrangements privately, or through your hotel concierge or cruise ship.
By Private Tour If you want to tour the island thoroughly, without the restrictions of a large bus tour by your hotel or cruise ship, consider hiring a cab/driver for a few hours. Many are amiable and well-qualified to show you places the buses can't or don't go, and where buses go, your driver can time your arrival to avoid the bus crowds. For 3-5 hours, a common rate is around $50 per hour, so four or more people can have a "private" tour for much less than all on a "bus" tour. Cab drivers are happy to oblige, so you should have no trouble hiring one at any resort, the cruise ship docks, downtown or in shopping areas.
By car
There are plenty of rental car offices in the airport and around Charlotte Amalie. Traffic drives on the left side of the road, and all cars are US Specification left-hand drive cars. Outside of Charlotte Amalie, the roads are mostly narrow and quite dangerous if you go too fast. Obey the speed limits and take the curves with caution. Local drivers are rather aggressive, and they speed around the turns and honk liberally, although the horn is used more often to say "hello" or "thank you" than express displeasure.
Major routes are marked with two-digit route numbers (beginning with 3 and 4 on this island), and minor connectors get three-digit numbers. The sign of choice is black numbers on a white circle, the same as several states on the mainland. You generally should not stray off the numbered routes (except in Charlotte Amalie) unless you need to do so to go to your hotel or resort. Unlike St. John or St. Croix, all of St. Thomas' numbered routes are paved. However, the routes are not well signed on most of the southern half of the island, especially around Charlotte Amalie, and they are prone to suddenly turning off onto another road or changing numbers without notice.
If you are planning to go on a driving tour, bring a good map, then, if you want any hope of following the numbered routes. Most rental car offices hand out a map with a rental; if you didn't get one, the same map can be picked up at most stores. The one in the back of your guidebook is likely not detailed enough. However, even if you do have a map, you may still have to ask a local for directions. If you are in this situation, be aware that any question such as "How do I get to Route 30?" will be almost universally met with a blank stare. The route numbers are mostly for tourist convenience; locals do not know the numbers, or even the road names in most cases. Often you will get directions such as "Turn left at the fork in the road, then right at the gas station."
By ferries
Ferries leave from Charlotte Amalie and Red Hook to other islands pretty much all day every couple of hours. There are information booths along the waterfront where you can get a schedule for the local ferries and a ferry terminal near French Town for the longer distances (BVI etc). For on-line schedules to plan your outing, try for getting around the USVI, and for reaching the British Virgin Islands. If you are going to St. John it is much cheaper and faster to go from Red Hook.
By taxi
General note: Everyone in the city uses their horns liberally...short toots for "hello". They drive on the left side of the street and don't really follow the rules. They don't follow the rules about a lot of things, in fact they are very disorganized, but it can be charming.
[add listing] See
Charlotte Amalie
Outside the city
[add listing] Do
[add listing] Buy
The island is arguably the biggest shopping mecca in the Caribbean. Goods are imported to the island duty and excise free, and visitors do not directly pay any duty or tax on purchases (merchants do pay a Gross Receipts Tax of 5%.) Buyers may face Customs duty as they return home if they exceed their Customs exemption (see discussion below).
U.S. currency is used/accepted universally. ATMs can be found in numerous locations. As anywhere, major purchases should be made by credit card. (Credit cards issued by U.S. banks do not induce foreign-exchange fees, others may.) Most store-front establishments, resorts and restaurants accept credit cards and traveler checks. Few places accept personal checks. Sellers in open-air bazaars may not accept credit or debit cards.
You can shop many dozens of stores downtown (in Charlotte Amalie), and others in a few malls dotting the island, and near cruise ship docks, e.g.,:
You'll find numerous tent kiosks at Vendor's Plaza at the near southeast side of downtown...across the highway from the waterfront. There you'll see many colorful offerings in shirts, caftans, rainwear, etc., often marked with USVI scenes or logos, most manufactured elsewhere. Other stores in resorts, strip malls, etc., tend to serve locals and land vacationers; many of them open on Sundays whether cruise ships are visiting or not, e.g., K-Mart (one walkable from Havensight, & a larger store in Tutu Park that also has a Cost-U-Less grocer nearby.
Gems, jewelry, watches, liquor, cosmetics, perfumes, linens and (sometimes) cameras, optics, electronics and fine crystal and china can be good buys, but know the costs for the same/similar items back home. (Some cameras, optics and electronics may be obtained at home from aggressive discounters (e.g., on Internet) for equivalent or lower prices. But those savings can disappear if those sellers charge sales tax, shipping costs, or extra for US-importer warranties.) Price advantages for U.S. citizens may be helped by generous duty exemptions. These advantages can make the economics of buying in the USVI slightly better for U.S. citizens than elsewhere (e.g., St Martin) where prices may be similar, sometimes better. However, unique, appealing or well-priced items seen elsewhere should not be avoided because of feared duty costs...often modest even if you exceed your exemption. (see "Customs and Duty", this section below)
Bargaining is appropriate in open-air bazaars, and should be tried in stores but may be rebuffed in a few for some kinds of items. Here, ensure that items of interest that need any kind of (service) warranty have one in writing that is usable at home, e.g., for electronics, watches, cameras. You need to ask if any warranty is "grey-market" (e.g., see ), international or backed by the US-importer, and understand the consequences of what's offered. For valuable gems or jewelry, ensure the seller provides a written description and certified appraisal of each item's worth.
In exchange for very large fees, "port shopping advisers" on cruise ships tout certain merchants as more reliable than others, with passenger satisfaction "guaranteed, except for negligence or buyer's regret". But most stores are quite reputable, ready to rectify any problem that's truly their responsibility. Touted or not, smaller retailers such as Artistic Jewelry and Mr. Tablecloth offer quality fully-equivalent to such large and famous stores as Cardow or A.H. Riise. And they may offer items seen nowhere else. The best approach...always thoroughly inspect any high-cost item and obtain a written description or appraisal before accepting it.
Per "Get In" discussion above, when many cruise ships are in port, the open-air bazaar and stores can be crowded...sometimes very crowded. That can compromise bargaining success and how well you are helped even in the best stores with fine staffs. Shopping early or late can help avoid some of the crowds. Stores downtown (Charlotte Amalie) usually open at 0930-1000 and close around 5:00 PM. Half-day, morning ship's tours (the most popular) end about noon back at the ship, and ship itineraries often call for departures at 4-6 PM (with all-aboard as much as an hour earlier). You might time your shopping accordingly.
On Sunday, early can be essential. A few stores (mostly in downtown Charlotte Amalie) don't open, more open only if at least one cruise ship is in port, and many of those stores close by early-mid afternoon. Occasionally, local holidays/festivals make shopping downtown problematic due to street and store closures, e.g., for parades. Most carnivals/celebrations are in late April & early May.
Especially if you must fly to get home, you may wish to have stores ship out-sized or heavy items home for you (liquor, perfumes and tobacco excluded). Costs for surface shipping can be modest, air a bit more but faster. (Your local Post Office, UPS or FEDEX store should be able to give you example costs. "Know Before You Go" noted below indicates the US Postal Service is more convenient for sending dutiable items.) Any method helps avoid the dangers of damage (or theft) by baggage handlers, greatly simplifies your return home, and allows you to refuse to accept (at/hear home) any shipment that appears damaged. There are requirements for documentation and customs labeling when shipping dutiable items. Retailers should help, and may even arrange everything. If significant customs duty will be involved, you may have to pay it at/near home as you receive the item(s). But ask the merchant if you can simply declare the item on your Customs form as you return home.
Several stores offer large and varied selections of quality and premium liquors at low prices rarely if ever seen in the U.S. They include: A.H. Riise, Dynasty and others downtown; many of the same in Havensight, plus K-Mart, Pueblo Supermarket and Al Cohen's Warehouse near Havensight; A.H. Riise and Supreme Liquors at Crown Bay, with another Pueblo Supermarket nearby. As of Spring 2011, prices in most stores for popular brands were quite close except for scattered "specials". Prices for highly-premium brands can vary more. The airport now has stores outside and inside the secure area (airside) (see discussion under "Returning home" below). Most liquor comes in one liter bottles (some larger), some US-produced liquors come in .75 liter ("fifths"), and liqueurs may be in still other sizes. So take care when calculating or comparing cost per ounce or liter.
Some of those stores will box your purchases and deliver them to your ship, hotel or airport the same day at no charge if you ask and purchase early enough. That way, you don't have to carry them with you the rest of the day. Others (e.g., K-Mart, Cohen's) usually have boxes available, and may box bottles for you to carry. (Boxes/boxing and delivery may be the major difference among sellers.) If you have a choice, smaller boxes (e.g., 2-4 bottles each) are easier to pack and pad in luggage. As discussed in "Returning Home" below, large purchases of liquor induce considerable logistics challenges, so plan ahead on what to buy and how to carry it back, especially if you must fly home. If you are on a cruise,:
Customs and Duty
The following discussion focuses on U.S. customs laws/procedures. Many of these basic processes are similar for travelers returning to any home country.
Always consult authoritative sources to obtain and understand consequences of customs limits and duty costs before making major purchases, e.g., for U.S. Customs, download/print and take with you "Know Before You Go" . Another useful, U.S. Customs FAQ page is at . The "keyword" feature helps to quickly get to your interest. Otherwise, unscrupulous sellers may try to convince you that you enjoy far higher exemptions and freedom from inspection and seizure of illegal items.
Don't pay duty on valuables you already own and take on your trip. See short article at .
Best-effort recap of U.S. duty exemptions:
The following summarizes your duty exemptions/allowances as you return home having visited the U.S. Virgin Islands (actually any part of any U.S. protectorate) on any part of your trip:
- Total purchases: Each U.S. citizen is allowed to return to the U.S. (mainland or Puerto Rico) with $1600 in total purchases (up from $800 for the Caribbean generally). At least half the value of purchases must have been made in the USVI. Members of immediate families can "pool" exemptions. Even if you exceed your total/aggregate exemption, you may have to pay only 1.5-3% of the next $1000 per person. Example: two parents and two children have a total/aggregate $6400 duty-free exemption, and the next $4,000 would cost $120 at most.
- Liquor: Under a separate duty exemption, but within the above $1600, each adult U.S. citizen is allowed to return to the U.S. with four liters or five fifths of liquor duty-free (up from one liter), provided at least half of the value was purchased in the USVI. If you purchase at least one liter of product made or bottled in the USVI (e.g., Cruzan rum), you can return with five liters/six fifths duty-free. (Otherwise, if you buy only outside the USVI, your exemption is one liter.) With different bottle sizes noted above, take care about numbers of bottles versus total liters purchased for your Customs declaration. Exemptions for wine and beer are different; again, consult "Know Before You Go". Adult members of immediate families can "pool" liquor exemptions as well. Beyond your exemption, costs are moderate, reportedly 3% duty plus $2.14 tax per liter for 80 proof.
- Gems/Jewelry: U.S. Customs treats loose gemstones (even fully faceted) as "rocks" having no dutiable value. However, if mounted in jewelry, the full cost as finished jewelry must be declared. No reputable jeweler will separately sell you an unmounted stone and its mount to avoid duty; it would place them and you in violation of the law; if discovered by Customs, items may well be confiscated.
- Tobacco: A separate quantity restriction applies to tobacco products. Overages may be confiscated.
- Blacklisted sources/items: Any goods made in Cuba (or other "blacklisted" countries), and items deemed contraband (e.g., certain animal or plant products) will be confiscated by Customs if found. Major amounts may generate a fine or result in arrest.
- Unique items: Original art works created here/abroad and certain other custom-made items may also be treated as non-dutiable; you'll need a certificate of origin from the seller.
- USGR/AGR You may find goods that were made in the U.S., e.g., some T-shirts, a few brands of jewelry...ask sellers. They're called "U.S./American Goods Returning" (USGR or AGR) and do not count against your duty exemptions. If so, ensure the seller provides proper/formal indication on or with a receipt so that the cost(s) will not count against your duty allowance. Similar policy may apply for products made in and returning to other countries.
All purchases (including USGR/AGR) and gifts you've received (except what you've consumed or given away) must be itemized on your customs declaration; USGR/AGR and other exempted item costs should not be included in the dutiable sum of your purchases. Have receipts, certificates and merchandise for all listed purchases readily at hand as you pass through Customs. Be sure to list any food products by type.
As you return home (U.S. mainland/Puerto Rico)...
- Other customs enforcement (e.g., for Canada or EC countries) depends on country limits and customs diligence.
For a general discussion of "duty free", go to .
Returning home
(Emphasis U.S.; please expand):
Driving. If you return home on land from the end of a cruise, you are weight/size limited only by the capacity of your vehicle, and your ability to put everything in your luggage or carry it off the ship. You'll probably go through customs processing at the U.S. port where your cruise ends.
Flying. With airlines now charging for checked bags (plus heavy fees for overweight and too many bags), the economics and practicalities of flying with heavy or large purchases gets complicated. Many bottles of liquids in luggage greatly affect weight, e.g., six boxed, well-padded one liter glass bottles can approach 30 pounds.
Purchases may also be too numerous or heavy to be hand-carried on flights even if permitted. Compare luggage fees you may encounter with cost-savings enjoyed at purchase, especially for large or heavy items. (Yes, these realities have greatly affected merchants' business worldwide.) If you have weight or size challenges, consider shipping what you are allowed to. If you need to pack fragile items in luggage, avoid placing them in the same bag with heavy items.
Even if in checked luggage, high-alcohol-content liquids (e.g., liquor over 140 proof, major quantities of perfume/cologne) are deemed a fire hazard and will be confiscated if found. For perfumes/colognes, you might wrap, bag against leaks and pack single bottles separately in different checked bags.
If you fly home from Saint Thomas:
Carry-on: TSA and airlines both have limits...numbers, size and weight. For current U.S. carry-on restrictions when flying, see , e.g., to understand the "3-1-1 rule".
Some travelers try to avoid TSA restrictions by purchasing items (e.g., perfumes, liquor) in shops inside airport secure areas immediately before boarding flights. Though that purchase option is available at the Saint Thomas airport, it may only be usable if you are flying non-stop to your destination airport. Shops may put the items in specially-sealed bags, and may deliver items to your flight gate for you to claim and carry on. Specially sealed bags have no "standing" if you leave the secure area in an enroute terminal to change planes. (Note: TSA is gradually implementing scanners that detect dangerous liquids in carry-ons; their restrictions on liquids may eventually be relaxed as world-events permit.)
Liquor Packing Insights:
Boxes: Those offered by stores are usually strong enough to be used as checked "bags" if well-strapped with strong tape, e.g., wide, nylon reinforced. (Note: Some airlines may not accept them as checkable, so know in-advance from the carrier before you count on it.) Two boxes of up to three bottles each can be strapped together, but be careful...dual box handles are clumsy and can only support so much weight and casual handling, your airline may have limits on numbers and weights of such boxes, internal padding alone may not be enough to avoid damage from mishandling (accidental or otherwise), and the costs of more than two checked items per person can escalate rapidly
Securing box contents: Regardless of how to be transported, before you tape any box of bottles shut, check the arrangement of bottles (all-upright preferable). Then add internal padding all around each bottle to avoid breakage, e.g., crumpled newspaper on bottom and around necks, sides wrapped in newspaper...to eliminate any movement in box and complement internal box dividers. Then strap each box outside with strong tape, place a name tag on a handle and write similar information on the box. (You can choose to bring the materials with you or purchase them at a store such as K-Mart.)
Boxes/bottles in luggage:
If the boxes must or should go in your checked luggage, do it thoroughly in your room/cabin.
The above challenges may be helped if you pack lightly at home for your trip, and bring or buy an extra, soft carry-on bag/duffle for things displaced by the bottles/boxes in your to-be-checked luggage.
[add listing] Eat
Eat a fresh coconut, there is an old man who comes to the tent market in Charlotte Amalie every day with a pickup truck full of coconuts and a machete and sells them for 2 or 3 dollars, you drink the milk and give it back and he gives it another crack so you can eat the "meat".
In addition to offerings in resort complexes, a few independent restaurants include:
[add listing] Drink
With bottled liquor so inexpensive, most "watering holes" are for visitors.
Most resorts and many restaurants have bars if not nightclubs. You'll also find a few nightclubs in or near most towns, especially Frenchtown and Redhook.
[add listing] Sleep
Stay Safe
As a pedestrian, take care with the often heavy traffic by looking both ways before crossing. Remember that they drive on the left side.
At night, most locals recommend taxis to/from any location, and to avoid walking alone. Virtually all stores downtown (and after 8-9 PM, most other stores) will be closed and shuttered, with no display windows or other sights to enjoy.
Generally, tap water is potable everywhere, although most is reclaimed by desalination plants, so the water temperature may be warmer than expected.
Get out
If you are staying for a few days, consider ferry rides or inter-island flights to St Croix, the British Virgin Islands (passport required) or the islands just east of Puerto Rico (passport may be required). Even just as a day-trip, try St. John, to enjoy the quieter life, less-crowded and beautiful beaches and limited but wide-range shopping selection at prices similar to Charlotte Amalie. Ferries regularly depart from Charlotte Amalie and Red Hook at the east end of St. Thomas.
The airport has private aviation operators (on north side of the runway) with amiable, highly-qualified pilots and well-maintained equipment, e.g. Ace Flight Center . With prior arrangements, they can provide, at modest cost, flights in small aircraft, to provide perspectives of the area's islands that can be seen no other way. If landing elsewhere is planned, passports may be required, especially for other than U.S. citizens.
There are several small internet cafes located around the island as well as connections offered by the larger resort hotels. Havensight has two and Crown Bay one that cater to ships' crews; they are open to the public.
Cell phones can be used in most places, with some spotty coverage in the shadows of mountains and hills. All cells support technology used in the U.S. Calls to the U.S. are treated as long-distance, not international, for most carriers. Generally, calls are standard rate for those on nationwide plans with AT&T, Sprint, MVNO's on their networks, and T-Mobile. Also, data coverage with AT&T, Sprint, and MVNO's on their networks are similar to mainland coverage, with no roaming charges. Verizon data service is non-existent, and voice service is considered international, charged at a rate of $1.99 per minute. Check with your wireless provider before making calls. | <urn:uuid:c0eb81b2-66d3-4ac6-8723-ca9deed2f136> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wikitravel.org/en/Saint_Thomas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940177 | 5,581 | 1.507813 | 2 |
See these? These are macaron cookies from Laduree in Paris. Laduree was founded 150 years ago during a massive economic boom that transformed the city. It became known as a tea room where ladies could visit with each other (sans male companions) without being considered, as Edith Piaf once put it in the song “Milord,” ombres de la rue (translated: shadows of the street, or prostitutes). The folks at Laduree didn’t make macarons in those days, but by the twentieth century they had this bright idea that maybe they could take light-as-air cookies that had been around for centuries and sandwich them together with a thin layer of ganache.
It was a good idea and it became the way to make macarons. Just ask any fashionista who has been in Paris for Fashion Week, or any Franco-geek like me who has attempted to recreate them Stateside after having religious experiences with boxes like the one pictured above. The cookies are delicate, not overly sweet, and a bit of a scientific marvel, if you ask me. On the face of it, macarons should be easy to make. They have few ingredients and their recipes are fairly straightforward. How hard can it be? Well, even he admits it’s not so simple, that making picture-perfect macarons is more about technique than it is following a recipe. After reading his The Sweet Life in Paris and staring at the very technical Les Petits Macarons, I decided to venture into this pastel land of no return, hoping that something edible might result from my efforts. The method to my madness: Use Lebovitz’s chocolate macaron recipe (because who hates chocolate?) and refer to Les Petits Macarons in case of trouble (which was sure to come).
Here’s what happened:
I have two things working against me when it comes to making something like this. The first is that I am impatient. I do not like to wait for eggs to come up to room temperature, for example. The second strike against me is that I live in a humid place, which is not good if you happen to be patient enough to allow the aforementioned eggs to come up to room temperature so that you can whip them into a fluffy white meringue. Meringue is a crucial element of macarons.
You see where I’m headed with this.
I started macaron madness on Monday, a day when I was struggling with cookies of the cyber variety. This should have been an omen of sorts, and yet it was not. Absentmindedly, I poured egg whites from two large fresh-from-the-fridge eggs into my KitchenAid stand mixer and waited (and waited and waited and waited) for the magic to happen. While I was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, I Googled “How long does it take to make a meringue?” on my phone. The answer: Not this long, sister. I ditched my sorry attempt at meringue, ran to the store for more eggs (and some cream of tartar, just in case. Because it helps.) and by the time I got back home they were just the right temperature for whipping.
South Louisiana is hot like that.
So far so good.
The next step involves dry ingredients: 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup of almond flour, 3 tablespoons of Dutch-process cocoa powder. The thing about dry ingredients is that they really do need to be dry (which can problematic with almond flour, which has oils) and fine. You can pulse these ingredients together in a food processor (which resulted in a clumpy dry mix for me, meaning I probably overdid it), or sift them together (much better).
After the ingredients are blended together, you pour them into the meringue and gently fold them in until they are well incorporated, but not over-incorporated because that can make the batter too firm. This appears to be a step you learn through lots of trial and error. The first time I folded things together, the batter got so firm, I could barely fold it anymore. Even so, I put the batter into a pastry bag and piped little quarter-shaped bits of dough onto a Silpat-covered cookie sheet:
This is what I got. You do not want cracks on the top. You also don’t want slightly-burned edges. And before we start to assume that this bears a striking resemblance to a brownie and could still be edible, let me say this: Do not make that assumption. Because if you get this result, you should pitch it in the trash and start over again, lest you break a tooth on this rock-hard monstrosity. What you want is a smooth thin shell on the top, a soft moist interior and a narrow edge around the bottom of the shell that is called a foot (don’t ask me why).
What adjustments did I make to get close to this? I didn’t beat the batter to death and, per the suggestion of Les Petits Macarons, I baked the shells at 200 degrees for 15 minutes and then for another nine minutes at 350 degrees. Here’s what I got:
Not perfect, but much better. These things (as with most things) require persistence. While the cookies cooled, I made a chocolate ganache filling by heating 1/2 cup of heavy cream with 2 teaspoons of light corn syrup until it came to a boil. I blended this hot cream with 4 ounces of chopped dark chocolate and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. If I weren’t making such an effort to get back into pre-grad school shape (moderation is the name of the game right now, macaron experiments notwithstanding), I’d dive face first into this:
When the ganache and cookies cooled, I spread some of the ganache between two shells for this result:
The cookies got good reviews from taste testers (2 family members, 2 neighbors) and cheers from the few kind folks on my Instagram and Twitter feeds who followed the folly. One person even put in a request for a few dozen. But I grew up with her, so I figure she was being sweet. We’ll see how I’m doing with this in a few weeks… | <urn:uuid:7b47c6e8-97d2-4b4b-a50f-a6f4628bf502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paigebowers.com/?p=899 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961024 | 1,331 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The other day I was in lounging around my home doing some much needed blogging. I was in full concentration mode, ferociously typing away on the keys of my laptop — excited that I was getting so much accomplished. And then it happened. That dreaded chirping sound from the smoke alarm letting me know that it was time to change the battery.
I totally ignored it and kept on working. I thought, surely this thing will stop chirping in a minute or two. The chirping didn’t stop at all! It just kept going and going. Frustrated, I set my laptop aside, climbed in my chair, and yanked the battery out. We didn’t have any extra batteries so I made a mental note to pick one up that evening.
The only thing — I forgot.
A few days later, I was in the kitchen cooking a yummy pot of beans for my hubby. I put them on and then went to lay down and catch me a nap. I only intended on sleeping about 30 minutes, but two hours later I was awakened to the smell of something burning and ran to see what the problem was. The kitchen was full of smoke and my beans were burnt to a crisp. Things could have been SO much worse, especially since the smoke alarm would not have worked (thanks to my removing the battery.)
In a recent study by Kidde, homeowners admitted that while aggravated by “home annoyances” such as late-night, chirping smoke alarms, they don’t see this scenario as the potentially life-threatening safety risk it actually is. I know I did not — that was until I really needed that smoke alarm.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) statistics indicate that the primary reasons smoke alarms fail to operate in home structure fires is a missing/disconnected battery (50%) and dead/discharged battery (23%).
A chirping smoke alarm is more than just a “home annoyance” – it’s a sign that batteries need to be replaced to keep your family and whole house safe from potentially deadly fires.
This fall, Kidde is launching a line of Worry-Free Smoke Alarms, which offer a variety of benefits to the millions of Americans who rely on continuous battery-powered smoke and fire detection in their homes. The new alarms are powered by sealed-in, long-life lithium batteries for 10 years (the life of the alarm).
Kidde wants to make sure you are safe this holiday season
Kidde is giving away a two-pack Worry Free Smoke alarm set to one of our readers here at 5 Minutes for Mom. New to Rafflecopter? Watch this 45-second video on how to enter!
We are working with Kidde to help bring awareness of the dangers of removing batteries from smoke alarms and never replacing them. Thanks to Kidde and the new Worry Free Alarm, that never has to be an issue again. | <urn:uuid:20303893-5065-422f-b511-89c53d48bf5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.5minutesformom.com/67606/what-noise-in-your-home-annoys-you-the-most-giveaway/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975362 | 617 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Spiro State Bank
The Spiro State Bank began operations on February 8, 1913, when
it acquired its original Certificate of Authority to operate, from
the Office of State Bank Commissioner.
The certificate hangs in the lobby at our main location in Spiro.
An interesting point in Oklahoma History is recorded by the line drawn
through “Guthrie, Oklahoma” and Oklahoma City being written
in as the State Capitol on this certificate.
The Spiro State Bank assumed certain assets and liabilities of the
defunct Choctaw Commercial Bank, which was located in Spiro prior to
February 8, 1913.
There were three banks located in Spiro during the 1920’s and
early 1930’s. The Farmers State Bank, with Lyman Moore as President
and F.H. Tibbitts serving as Cashier, was located on the west side
of Main Street in the building just south of what used to be Sullins
Drug. The First National Bank was located at the southeast corner of
Main Street, formally the Spiro American Legion Building.
The Spiro State Bank was located on the east side of South Main Street
in the building now owned and operated by the Spiro Graphic, a weekly
The First National Bank was merged with the Farmers State Bank during
the early 30’s and then later liquidated by its shareholders.
All depositors and shareholders received their funds in full.
In 1950, Spiro State Bank had a change in ownership from the
Dunklin family to the Echols family of Ft. Smith, Arkansas. On October
24, 1953, the Spiro State Bank assumed the liabilities and part of
the assets of the Exchange Bank in Bokoshe, Oklahoma.
On August 1, 1966, the bank had its last change of ownership.
William F. Schmidt, Jr., was elected President and Chief Executive
Officer and Cooper Redwine, who had been with the bank since 1958 was
The bank continued to operate from its banking building in the 200
block of south Main Street where it had been since opening in 1913.
Then, in February of 1974, the bank moved to its present location on
the west side of Spiro on Highway 271. The bank’s continued growth
over the next 10 years made certain changes necessary. By the summer
of 1984, the bank’s building had been extended to its present
size of over 10,000 square feet.
On September 23, 1988, Spiro State Bank purchased from the FDIC the deposits and certain assets of the former First State Bank of Talihina. The Spiro State Bank opened its new location as the "Talihina Branch". Several longtime employees of the former bank were retained to become officers and employees of the new branch.
In 1997 Deborah Schmidt Barrett and her husband Ty Barrett joined
the bank and became members of the board of directors. Debbie is a third
generation banker following her grandfather Wm. F. Schmidt, Sr. and her
father Wm. F. Schmidt, Jr.
The Directors of the bank plan to continue with the policies and practices that have built this bank into one of the best in Oklahoma, both in service to its customers and the communities it serves. These policies and practices have further been responsible for its’ five star rating for many years that is reflected in its’ financial statement of condition. | <urn:uuid:680a3bd3-a7c7-4eb1-a640-7830ed88d1b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spirostatebank.com/history.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979522 | 707 | 1.78125 | 2 |
and Peter said to him, 'Aeneas, heal thee doth Jesus the Christ; arise and spread for thyself;' and immediately he rose,
Acts 9:34 Additional TranslationsClarke's Commentary on the Bible
Jesus Christ maketh thee whole - Not Peter, for he had no power but what was given him from above. And, as an instrument, any man could heal with this power as well as Peter; but God chose to put honor upon those primitive preachers of his word, that men might see that they were commissioned from heaven.
Arise, and make thy bed - Give now full proof that Jesus Christ Has made thee whole, by arising, and by making thy bed. He was at home, and therefore was not commanded, as the paralytic person, to take up his bed; but he was ordered to make it - strew it afresh, that all might see that the cure was perfect.
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Acts 3:6,12,16 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk...
Acts 4:10 Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified...
Acts 16:18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit...
Matthew 8:3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be you clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 9:6,28-30 But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise...
John 2:11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
Acts 9:34 Parallel CommentariesAeneas Arise Bed Care Christ Couch Cures Eneas Feet Heal Healeth Heals Immediately Jesus Makes Maketh Mat Once Peter Rise Rose Spread Straight Thyself WholeAeneas Arise Bed Care Christ Couch Cures Eneas Feet Heal Healeth Heals Immediately Jesus Makes Maketh Mat Once Peter Rise Rose Spread Straight Thyself WholeTHE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica®.
Acts 9:34 Mobile Bible
Acts 9:34 Bible Suite
Acts 9:34 Biblia Paralela
Acts 9:34 Chinese Bible | <urn:uuid:7df90338-802e-4a62-9498-6eeb3cdfe374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biblehub.com/niv/acts/9-34.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962312 | 562 | 1.648438 | 2 |
To go along with my earlier post, Cleaning Up the Family File, I’ve done some additional searches using a wonderful resource – Marriages, Coshocton County, Ohio, 1811-1930 : compiled from marriage records, Probate Court, Coshocton County, Ohio. This book was put together by Miriam C. Hunter for the Coshocton Public Library in 1967. She spent most of one year searching the records in Coshocton County in order to compile this book. I was able to access it through HeritageQuest via my local library.
Since most of my paternal ancestors lived in or near Coshocton during the time period included in the book, I spent the better part of three days carefully combing through the names comparing them to the surnames in my family file. The time spent searching paid off as I was able to enter dates or a location (Coshocton County) that I didn’t have.
The first part of the book – Volume I – is alphabetized by male surname, then giving the bride’s name and the date of marriage. However, if the bride had been married before, sometimes she was listed as “Mrs.” and other times not. Volume II is alphabetized by bride surname and only gives the groom’s first initials and surname. No date of marriage. To find that, I had to go back to Volume I and locate the information. It was pretty time consuming going back and forth – especially when I located several marriages for the bride under previously married names. I had to keep searching until I found her maiden name.
One example is my grandmother’s (Ella House Amore) half-sister’s, son, Guy Irvine Conger, was married to a woman whose name I’d found awhile back. It was Ethel Ford Maple. I had located their marriage on Page 65 of Volume I.
She was listed as Mrs. Ethel Ford Mapel. I also knew that some of the names have been misspelled so I kept searching. The next time her name jumped out at me was on Page 262.
So her marriage to Frank Murphy was 5 years prior to the marriage to Guy Conger – yet the entry in the book still reads Mrs. Ethel Ford Maple (this time with Maple spelled correctly). Hmmm. I had to go find a Maple who had married this woman in order to find out if her true maiden name really was Ford and not a previously marred name or a middle name. So I went back to Page 220.
That’s when I located Ethel Ford who had married Samuel Maple on July 9, 1914. If I hadn’t looked through this book carefully, I might not have discovered any of this information.
That also solved a mystery for me as I have Maple ancestors and thought that perhaps Ethel was a Maple whose parents I hadn’t found. Turns out she wasn’t born a Maple – she just married one! And obviously she liked the name for she used it even after her second marriage to Frank Murphy was dissolved by divorce or his death.
Another mystery that I solved happened as I searched for the marriage of my first cousin once removed – Pauline House. She was my grandmother’s niece (daughter of her brother). I had many newspaper clippings that listed her as Mrs. Pauline Torjusen but I had never located her husband’s first name. I couldn’t locate her husband’s family in any of the censuses in order to figure out who he might be.
In Volume II, page 82, I found the HOUSE entries. There she was – Pauline Hazel House who married T.S. Torporsam.
Talk about a misspelling! In every other source (newspaper, family letters, etc.) it is spelled Torjusen. That is why I didn’t see it in Volume I – because it was listed differently. So then I had to flip back to Volume I in order to find out what this man’s name was! On page 372 I found him – Tobias Suran. The last name was still spelled incorrectly.
Information such as what I found by scanning this book has also helped me in locating Ohio Death Certificate information off of FamilySearch and in the censuses. Sometimes all of that combined can lead to new names, correct ages, etc.
So I urge you to see if there is a resource such as this available in the areas you are researching – perhaps in the Genealogy area of your local library or nearest large city public library or even from the Genealogy Society.
Now – I’m off to continue my research on many of these names and family members I’ve recently discovered! | <urn:uuid:abe5b5fa-5a35-4103-939c-94aa85aaaa0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allmybranches.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/additional-research-techniques/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=7f81158ee4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984139 | 996 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Wed May 30, 2012
Computer Security Companies Debate Flame's Origins
Originally published on Wed May 30, 2012 5:34 am
A new cyber-spying program called Flame has been spreading across the Middle East. A Russian security company called Kaspersky Labs discovered the virus. Some experts believe Flame was developed by the makers of the virus Stuxnet. | <urn:uuid:a0d277ae-76eb-410e-9434-e3d64d19dff3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northernpublicradio.org/post/computer-security-companies-debate-flames-origins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948861 | 73 | 1.617188 | 2 |
May 22 2013 Latest news:
Thursday, January 17, 2013
A BIT of frost and snow wasn’t enough to put off these adorable animals.
It was business as usual for the animals at Jimmy’s Farm, and not even the freezing temperatures could stop them from roaming around the fields.
Kate Cotterill, marketing manager for Jimmy’s Farm, said the primary concern was ensuring the animal’s drinking water didn’t freeze.
“It is very much so business as usual here,” she said. “We do have to make sure that the drinking water for the animals doesn’t freeze and that they have water to drink.
“We have all the bedding sorted for them.
“Our rare breed pigs have a large layer of fat around them so they are doing okay. The larger livestock animals are doing fine because they are built for this.
“Our smaller animals, including guinea pigs, normally come inside for the winter.
“Some of the ponies have had some TLC because they had some warmer food earlier.” | <urn:uuid:36e78cbb-d87d-4fe0-bd6a-5cc95a7e760f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/wherstead_animals_brave_the_freezing_conditions_1_1795643 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974585 | 232 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In Leeds, there aren’t many who have not found new friends or acquaintances with a Polish person since the country joined the EU and many took advantage of free economic migration. We’re no different and thought it high time we went to see a little of the homeland our friends have left to take up a life in Britain.
Lublin is situated a little over 100 miles East of Poland’s capital, Warsaw. It is the nations’ ninth largest city (population a little over 350,000) and has existed since Medieval times. It’s current old town is undergoing a significant refresh – thanks to the collapse of the eastern bloc and Poland’s entry into the EU.
This centre is virtually car free, and composed of largely high, tightly-packed buildings around narrow cobble streets. Having an air of romanticism, with cafés spilling out onto the streets and an air of positive change the city feels on the tipping point of vibrancy and a new found sense of purpose.
These images were taken while attending with a friend who grew up in the area and I hope they help share this city as a hidden gem of the Poles.
All images © Jon Eland, all rights reserved. It’s best seen full screen!————————————————-^ | <urn:uuid:4e857328-8284-482c-a0e5-0de331ffd24d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://exposureleeds.org/lublin-poland/3590 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941166 | 265 | 1.6875 | 2 |
|FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY|
|» May 7, 1921:
Bob Meusel of the Yankees hits for the cycle, and his triple with 2 on beats the Senators 6-5 in the 9th. Former president Wilson witnesses the exciting game in Washington.|
» August 25, 1921: With Cleveland waltzing to a 151 win over the Yankees, NY hurler Harry Harper, pitching in the 8th, plunks OF Charles Jamieson in the ribs, Larry Gardner in the arm, and Steve O'Neill in the back. O'Neill throws the ball back at Harper precipitates a bench clearing brawl. New York OF Bob Meusel contributes four errors in the game. The Tribe takes over 1st place from the Yankees.
» September 5, 1921: In the Labor Day afternoon game at Boston, won by the Red Sox 82, the Yankees outfield makes a American League-record five assists, four by Bob Meusel. Meusel, with one of the strongest arms in baseball, will lead the AL in assists in 1921 and 1922.
» October 6, 1921: In the opener, Johnny Rawlings and Frank Frisch collected the only Giants hits. In game two it's the same story. Waite Hoyt (19-13) surrenders two singles in another 30 Yankee win. Art Nehf (20-10) deserves better, allowing just three hits; but three errors and two mental lapses by the Giants, plus a steal of home by Bob Meusel, put the Giants down 20. The five hits are the fewest ever in a World Series game.
» October 10, 1921: In game five an unearned run in the first is all the Giants can manage off Waite Hoyt, despite 10 hits and a walk. A 11 game is decided in the 4th when abe Ruth surprises the Giants IF with a perfect bunt, then makes it home on Meusel's double off Art Nehf. Bob Meusel scores on a sacrifice fly, and 31 is the result. The 35,758 spectators bring the players' pool to a record $302,522.23.
» October 16, 1921: In defiance of a Kenesaw Mountain Landis ban on World Series participants playing post-season exhibitions, Bae Ruth, Bob Meusel, and P Bill Piercy launch a barnstorming tour in Buffalo. Five days later, they cut it short in Scranton. In the meantime Ruth openly challenges Landis to act. The judge does, fining the players their World Series shares$3,362.26and suspending them until May 20th of the next season.
» April 12, 1922: President Warren Harding throws out the first ball in Washington, and the Senators beat the Yankees 65. Former Yank George Mogridge starts for the Nats against Sam Jones, making his Yankee debut, as rookie manager Clyde Milan passes over Walter Johnson as starting pitcher. The Nats star has been ill most of the spring. Both Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel are out of the Yankee lineup, suspended by the league for barnstorming, and the Babe watches the game from the presidential box. Washington outhits New York, 159, and comes from behind to win in the 8th.
» May 20, 1922: Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel (and since-traded pitcher Bill Piercy), suspended on October 16, 1921, by Judge Landis, are reinstated and return to the New York lineup going hitless in New York's 82 loss to the rallying Browns at the Polo Grounds. The Browns, down 20 after 7, score one in the 8th and seven in the 9th, six of them coming after the game-ending out is called by ump Ollie Chill at first base. Pitcher Sam Jones, taking the throw at 1B from Wally Pipp, apparently makes the 3rd out and fans swarm the field. But Jones does not hold onto the ball cleanly and plate ump Brick Owens instructs Chill to make a safe call. The tying run scores on the play and, when the action resumes 15 minutes later, Wally Gerber singles to make the score 32. Walks to Sisler and Williams force home another run, and Baby Doll Jacobson clears the bases with a grand slam into the RF stands to complete the scoring. Winner Urban Shocker allows just three hits, including a two-run homer by second baseman Aaron Ward. The loss to Jones starts him on a 10-game losing streak, while a cold Ban Johnson will let umpire Ollie Chill go after the season.
» May 22, 1922: Down 30 to the Browns' Vangilder, Babe Ruth finally puts the Yankees on the board with a homer in the 8th. The Yankees win in the 13th when Ev Scott's single off Hub Pruett scores Bob Meusel.
» July 3, 1922: Bob Meusel hits for the cycle for the 2nd time in his career to pace the Yankees to a 121 whipping of the Athletics. Meusel and Ruth go back-to-back in the 7th as Carl Mays cruises to his 22nd straight win over the Athletics. As noted by historian Ted Farmer, all of the wins have been complete games.
» July 26, 1922: In several pregame fights between Yankees teammates, Bob Meusel and Wally Schang duke it out in the dugout. Then Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp take a turn. The players then turn on the Browns, beating them 116. Ruth bangs two homers, Pipp adds another, and Schang chips in with a two-run triple.
» August 5, 1923: Against the Browns, Ruth again bats righthanded. After the Babe hits his 26th and 27th HRs off of Ray Kolp, relief P Elam Vangilder takes no chances with Ruth and walks him intentionally in the 11th and again in the 13th inning. Ruth bats righty against Vangilder. Bob Meusel's single wins the game 9-8.
» October 15, 1923: After Babe Ruth's first-inning home run, the Giants peck away at Herb Pennock for four runs and take a 41 lead into the 8th. With one out, Art Nehf loads the bases on two singles and a walk, then walks in a run. Reliever Rosy Ryan forces in another run with a walk to Joe Dugan. Ruth strikes out, but Bob Meusel raps a single that scores the go-ahead runs. Sam Jones holds off the Giants, and the Yankees have their first World Championship.
» June 13, 1924: The first-place Yankees come to Detroit with the Tigers close on their heels. New York leads 10-6 in the top of the ninth. Bob Meusel takes a pitch in his back, hurls his bat at P Bert Cole, and charges the mound. Players from both teams start swinging. Fans rush out of the stands, eager to mix it up with players, police, and each other. The fight goes on for nearly 30 minutes while umpire Billy Evans, unable to clear the field, forfeits the game to New York. Cole and Meusel are suspended for 10 days; Meusel is fined $100, and Cole and Ruth $50 each.
» September 10, 1925: Bob Meusel, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig hit successive homers in the 4th inning of Game One versus the A's, all off Sammy Gray. New York wins, 73. Then, Ruth and OF Ben Paschal hit back-to-back homers in the 4th of game 2, but New York loses, 54.
» September 15, 1926: The Yankees beat the Indians, 64, as Bob Meusel drives home three runs with three sacrifice flies. This ties the major-league record set by Harry Steinfeldt in 1909. Bob Shawkey is the winning hurler.
» October 10, 1926: On a drizzling New York afternoon, only 38,093 show up at the Stadium for the deciding World Series contest. Grover Alexander, possibly sleeping off a hangover in the bullpen, barely notices when Jess Haines take a 32 lead over Waite Hoyt into the 7th. Haines weakens in the last of the 7th; three walks put Earle Combs, Bob Meusel, and Lou Gehrig on base with two out and Tony Lazzeri at the plate. Hornsby then waves in Alexander. On a 1-1 count Lazzeri hits a line drive into the left-field seats, a few feet to the foul side of the pole, then swings and misses for strike 3. Alexander sets the Yanks down in order until Babe Ruth draws his 11th walk with two out in the 9th, and is thrown out, inexplicably trying to steal 2B. The Cards and St. Louis have their first World Championship. Each winner collects $5,584.51, the losers, $3,417.75.
» May 5, 1927: The Senators even the series at two apiece with the Yankees as Hod Lisenbee wins, 61. The Yanks manage six hits -- 3 by Bob Meusel. The Nats are playing their 4th game without stars Sam Rice and Goose Goslin: Rice is out with sinus trouble and Goose has pleurisy.
» May 29, 1927: In a loosely played game at Yankee Stadium, the Yanks swamp the Red Sox, 157, scoring seven runs in the 8th inning. Babe Ruth propels his 13th homer, off Danny MacFayden, while Johnny Grabowski is 4-for-4 with a walk. Dutch Ruether is ineffective, serving up gopher balls to Bosox Grover Hartley in the 2nd and Fred Haney in the 3rd. The Sox give it back in the 4th with three walks, two errors, a single by Bob Meusel and a double by Mark Koenig, to make four runs. Ted Wingfield, pitching 2/3 of the 4th, takes the loss.
» October 8, 1927: Down 3-0, the Pirates give the ball to their biggest winner, Carmen Hill (22-11). In the 5th, Ruth's 2nd HR of the Series scores Earle Combs ahead of him for a 3-1 lead. The Pirates tie it in the 7th. In the last of the 9th, Combs walks, Mark Koenig beats out a bunt, and Ruth walks to fill the bases. Reliever Johnny Miljus strikes out Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel. With 2 strikes on Tony Lazzeri, a wild pitch rolls far enough away for Combs to score the winning run. The Bronx Bombers are World Champions in 4 straight. Ruth's .400 is good for 7 RBI; Lloyd Waner's .400 tops the Bucs.
» September 1, 1928: In Washington, Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover looks on as "approximately 99 percent of the spectators wore their straw hats, hoping the Senators would give them a chance to get excited and hurl them away" (NY Times). Alas, the Yankees win, 83. Waite Hoyt is the winner and beneficiary of Bob Meusel's 4-for-4 hitting. Meusel has three RBIs. Garland Braxton takes the loss.
» September 2, 1928: The Senators top the Yankees, 20, as Fred Marberry does it all, shutting down the Yanks and driving in both Nat runs. Bob Meusel's hit streak is stopped at six straight, The New York lead is now one 1/2 games over the A's, winners of an exhibition game in Lycoming, PA.
» September 9, 1928: A total of 85,265 jam Yankee Stadium to watch the Yankees sweep two from the A's, 30 and 73, to move back into first place to stay. George Pipgras is the winner in the first game while the Yankee star of the nitecap is Bob Meusel, who takes an Ed Rommel knuckler out of the park for a grand slam in the 8th. Waite Hoyt is the winner.
» September 29, 1928: The Tigers and Yankees set an offense record when they combine for 45 hits, Detroit tallying 28 of them. Four Tigers collect four hits apiece for an American League record, as Detroit win the slugfest 1910. The Yanks will finish the season with the top three RBI men (Lou Gehrig and Ruth with 142, Bob Meusel with 113), just the 2nd time this has happened. It will occur just once more, with the 1932 Phils.
» October 4, 1928: The first game is a swift execution before 61,425 at New York. Babe Ruth has a single and double and scores twice, once on Bob Meusel's 4th-inning HR, and Lou Gehrig is 2-for-4 with 2 RBI off Bill Sherdel (21-10). Waite Hoyt (23-7) sets the Cards down with 3 hits, one a solo HR by Bottomley in the 7th, for a 4-1 win.
» May 4, 1929: At Comiskey Park, Lou Gehrig wallops three home runs against the Sox in an 119 New York shootout. His middle home run, in the 7th inning, is sandwiched between roundtrippers by Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel. With his homer off Red Faber in the 2nd, Gehrig joins Ruth as the 2nd slugger to clear the RF stands, 75 feet high and 360 feet away from home plate. The Ruthian clout came off Tommy Thomas in 1927. His last homer of the day is served up by Dan Dugan.
» October 16, 1929: The Reds acquire aging Yankee star Bob Meusel for cash.
» September 12, 1930: Brooklyn C Al Lopez drives one over the head of Cincinnati LF Bob Meusel, and the ball bounces into the bleachers at Ebbets Field. It will be the ML's last recorded bounce HR, as the NL rules after the season that such a hit will henceforth be a double. The AL had made the change after the 1929 season.
» May 2, 1961: In their first appearance in Minnesota, the Yankees top the transplanted Washington team, 64. Mickey Mantle's grand slam in the 10th inning off Camilo Pascual, is the big blow. Luis Arroyo picks up the save after the Twins score 2. Mick's extra inning grand slam is the 6th by a Yankee, joining Wally Pipp (1923), Babe Ruth (1925), Bob Meusel (1929), and Joe DiMaggio and Tommy Henrich (1948). | <urn:uuid:91b90ac6-cddd-4f2d-879c-036c36304df7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/includes/M/Meusel_Bob.chr.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942394 | 3,070 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Storm system brings wind, rain to Spartanburg area
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 1:44 a.m.
A storm system that spawned deadly tornadoes in Georgia and Tennessee raked across the Upstate with strong winds and heavy rain Wednesday.
Upstate residents braced for bad weather, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the area effective until 8 p.m.
Spartanburg County school districts canceled all after-school activities and events scheduled for the afternoon. Spartanburg School District 2 canceled almost all afternoon events, and no activity buses ran.
Cherokee County schools also canceled after-school events and Union County schools canceled middle-school activities and high school competitions. Some practices were dismissed early.
Wofford College closed at 3 p.m. in anticipation of the approaching severe weather. Because today was the last day of interim classes, most students had already left campus.
Many Upstate churches also canceled Wednesday evening services.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for northern Spartanburg County, and there were a few reports of trees and power lines down.
Spartanburg County Emergency Management coordinator Doug Bryson said he was in the Campobello area in the northern part of the county when the worst of the storm swept through and the warning was issued.
“My truck was shaking and rocking really bad,” Bryson said. “It was impressive.”
There were no confirmed reports of a tornado, Bryson said.
“There were trees down, power lines down and water ponding on the roads but nothing significant,” he said. “We were prepared for it, but it seemed to dissipate some before it got here. Then it got dark and that usually makes severe storms lose some of their energy.”
Firefighters with Inman Community Fire Department and utility workers responded to damaged power lines along G Street in Inman on Wednesday afternoon. One home was hit by a power pole, and several homes were without power.
The county was later under a severe thunderstorm warning, and torrential rain fell in parts of the county. At Greenville Spartanburg International Airport, about 1.25 inches of rain fell on Wednesday, and the highest wind gust was 39 mph, said Doug Outlaw, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service at the airport.
Dime-sized hail was reported north of Lyman and power lines were felled at 5:38 p.m. northwest of Boiling Springs, Outlaw said.
At the height of the storm, about 1,500 Duke Energy customers were without power in Spartanburg County, but about 1,000 of those had their power back on by 8 p.m., when the tornado watch for the county expired. Broad River Electric Co-op reported only about a dozen outages in Spartanburg County about 8 p.m., and none in Union.
The chance for high winds remained through the night, and the weather service placed the Upstate under a high wind advisory, with winds of 20-30 mph and gusts to 50 mph possible.
Wednesday's high temperature of 70 degrees fell short of the record of 76 set in 1975. By 9 p.m., the temperature had fallen to 54. Today's high will be 53, with a high of 46 on Friday, and highs in the 50s on Saturday and Sunday.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:c52a7446-255d-4abb-8e00-1f9996598ed1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130131/ARTICLES/301311010/0/living01?Title=Storm-system-brings-wind-rain-to-Spartanburg-area | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973271 | 752 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Advisor(s) - Committee Chair
Dr. Elizabeth Shoenfelt (Director), Dr. Reagan Brown, Dr. Jacqueline Pope-Tarrence
Department of Psychology
Master of Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Content validity methods, such as matching matrices, have been used to assist in the design and evaluation of training programs. In the present study, the Water Training Institute (WTI) curriculum was evaluated using a content validation approach. The purpose of the study was to identify topics that were being under-emphasized, over-emphasized, or receiving the correct amount of emphasis in the curriculum. A Job Knowledge Survey was developed and administered to subject matter experts to determine the importance of topics to the jobs that WTI graduates would most likely enter after graduation; the importance ratings were used as the criterion for the study. Subject matter experts in a Course Content Workshop indicated the amount of emphasis placed on each topic in four WTI courses. Matching matrices plotting job importance against course emphasis were created for each of the four target jobs for WTI graduates. These matrices did not identify any hits (i.e., topics receiving correct amount of emphasis). However, there were a number of deficiencies that were near hits. These findings will assist WTI in developing future courses and in redesigning their currently offered courses.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Psychology
Turner, Alicia, "A Content Validity Study of the Water Training Institute Curriculum" (2010). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 167. | <urn:uuid:1a345794-fed4-48f3-95a9-4bd97be0d1cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/167/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935845 | 311 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The driving impetus for this Tarrytown residence was centered around creating a green and sustainable home. The owner-Architect collaboration was unique for this project in that the client was also the builder with a keen desire to incorporate LEED-centric principles to the design process. The original home on the lot was deconstructed piece by piece, with 95% of the materials either reused or reclaimed. The home is designed around the existing trees with the challenge of expanding the views, yet creating privacy from the street. The plan pivots around a central open living core that opens to the more private south corner of the lot. The glazing is maximized but restrained to control heat gain. The residence incorporates numerous features like a 5,000-gallon rainwater collection system, shading features, energy-efficient systems, spray-foam insulation and a material palette that helped the project achieve a five-star rating with the Austin Energy Green Building program.
This photo has one question
Who manufactures that floor? Is it wood or tile? Color? » | <urn:uuid:eb82c352-170d-4c3f-8e53-d8c329494439> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houzz.com/photos/421666/Bowman-Master-Bath-contemporary-bathroom-austin | 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 | 0.940662 | 210 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Gallery unveils its evocative Lautrec poster
ONE of the rarest posters made by the celebrated French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has been bought by the National Gallery of Australia and is to be displayed for the first time as part of the gallery's new show Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge opening next month.
The poster, La Goulue, is one of 10 Lautrec posters the gallery has acquired since 2010 at a cost of about $2 million.
The gallery's director, Ron Radford, said the gallery now had one of the world's top collections of Lautrec's printed work, the result of a concerted effort to increase holdings.
Rare … the National Gallery director, Ron Radford, with La Goulue. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
It will go on show as part of a collection of more than 100 paintings, posters, prints and books borrowed from more than 30 institutions and collectors around the world.
Made in 1891, the La Goulue poster was a huge success when it was first displayed after Lautrec had been commissioned by the owners of the Moulin Rouge to do its advertising. Performers such as La Goulue - ''the glutton'' - were superstars, earning big money in a period when the French government was making a concerted effort to position Paris, and in particular Montmartre, as the world's pleasure capital. ''It cost the most because it was the first poster and by far the largest one,'' Mr Radford said this week of La Goulue, that measures 195 cms by 122 cms.
''You get a shock when you see how enormous it is. When people first saw it on the Paris streets they tried to pull it down and collect it. It was an instant success.'' As a result, Lautrec achieved great fame quickly.
''It was probably the most pivotal and influential poster in the history of poster-making in the world,'' Mr Radford said. ''[Lautrec] is regarded as the father of the modern poster. People were just amazed at how alike his characters and the real people were, yet how fabulous the design was and how clear a message it was in promoting the Moulin Rouge.''
Jane Kinsman, the gallery's senior curator of international art, who put the show together over three years, said the gallery's Lautrec collection comprised a single poster in 1972. The new posters that are soon to be exhibited were bought with money from the Orde Poynton Bequest Fund and the NGA Foundation.
Dr Kinsman, responsible for most of the purchases, some at auction, was unable to get hold of Lautrec's extremely rare last poster, Theatre Antoine: La Gitane de Richepin. ''It is almost impossible to get, it is so rare. There is one in Chicago and one in Bremen.''
Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge is at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, from December 14 to April 2. | <urn:uuid:73a0b99e-87d4-4123-b484-524944227d0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/gallery-unveils-its-evocative-lautrec-poster-20121123-29yoc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956607 | 638 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.
On May 3, 1980, a 13-year-old girl named Cari Lightner was killed by a drunken driver. A terrible alcoholic, the man had three prior drunken driving convictions. He had just come from a bar, on the back end of a three-day binge.
Within weeks, Cari’s mom, Candy Lightner, co-founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). All over the country, mothers fed up with the unwillingness of politicians to do anything about drunken driving flocked to the organization. Within a few years, MADD had persuaded President Ronald Reagan to support a national drinking age of 21, and it had pushed through state laws toughening the penalties for driving while intoxicated. Perhaps most important, MADD turned a dangerous behavior that had long been socially acceptable into a taboo.
I was out of town on Friday when the Newtown, Conn., massacre took place and could only connect to my loved ones by phone. My fiancee wept uncontrollably: “I can’t imagine what it would be like to drop Mackie off at school and never see him again,” she said, referring to our 2-year-old son. My grown daughter also cried.
Listening to them — and seeing how powerfully affected the country has been by this horrible slaughter of children and their teachers — I couldn’t help thinking about MADD. Its success came about because its founders tapped into a wellspring of anger that had been quietly building — just like the current anger over the recent spate of mass killings. But it also came about because mothers could give a human face to the consequences of political inaction: their own children. How do you trump that?
Sadly, thanks to the elementary school shootings on Friday, children are now inexorably linked with the kind of mass killing that has become far too common. On Sunday, at the vigil in Newtown, President Barack Obama explicitly cast the country’s lax gun laws as a failure to protect children. I have no doubt his remarks were heartfelt, but they were also politically shrewd. Rarely has the National Rifle Association been so silent.
One absurd argument some gun extremists already are making is that, instead of tightening gun laws, we should go in the other direction and start packing heat. That way, you see, we can mow down the bad guy before he gets us.
In Michigan, a bill to allow concealed weapons to be brought into public schools, day care centers and churches has been approved by the Legislature and is awaiting the signature of that state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder. In the most recent issue of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg argues that the country is so “saturated” with guns — some 300 million — that it’s pointless to try to put controls on gun ownership. Besides, he says, “people should have the ability to defend themselves.” A Texas congressman, Louie Gohmert, said that if only the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School “had an M4 in her office,” she could have stopped Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman.
But the experience of other countries puts the lie to that argument. In 1996, a man in Australia killed 35 people in the course of an afternoon rampage. Australia soon went from having relaxed gun laws to having tough gun laws, including such measures as character witnesses for people who want to own a gun, and the purchase of a safe bolted to the wall or floor. There still are plenty of hunters in Australia, but it hasn’t had a mass killing since.
South Africa may be an even better example. For many years, South Africa was a country every bit as gun-soaked as America. I have a friend, Greg Frank, a hedge fund manager in Charlottesville, Va., who lived in Johannesburg during a time when it had become so crime-ridden that people felt the need to own guns to protect themselves. He, too, owned a gun as a young man: “I made the excuse that I needed it for self protection.”
The guns didn’t make anybody safer. People who were held up while waiting at a red light rarely had time to pull out their guns. And the fact that so many homes had guns became an incentive for criminals, who would break in, hold the family hostage, and then order that the safe with the guns be opened. “Everyone knew someone who had family or friends who had experienced gun violence,” he said.
Finally, he says, people got fed up. In 2004, the laws changed, requiring annual relicensing, character witnesses and other measure to keep guns out of the wrong hands. There was also an appeal to voluntarily surrender guns.
“I took my gun to the police station,” Frank said. “The cop receiving it wrote down the serial number, took my ID, and I was gone. It felt transformational, like a huge weight off my shoulders.”
It will for us, too, when we finally get serious about stopping gun violence.
Joe Nocera is a columnist for The New York Times. | <urn:uuid:a2ce6f61-1cd8-4d98-9bbe-dd950db50155> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/20/lets-get-madd-about-guns/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982689 | 1,073 | 1.765625 | 2 |
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Written by Anna Benfield
Football? Oh yeah, we have one of those teams. Varsity sports are a great way to get involved on campus, and most teams welcome walk-ons and first-timers. The upside is that you don't have to sign your life away to play on a varsity sport; the downside is that our final records can be a bit dismal. That's not to say that our small pockets of fans aren't as die-hard as the crowds at some of big-name schools, there's just not quite so many of them. A handmade Earlham Quaker flag (designed in the style of the Japanese war flag, with a headshot of the Quaker Oats dude in the center) often billows on the side of the lacrosse field in the spring as the core group hoots and hollers and bangs on drums. Once you get them going, the fans can be better entertainment than the players. With a mascot like the Hustling Quaker, you've got to get creative. Cheers help evoke a dose of competitiveness to counteract that Quakerly spirit of cooperation and pacifism: "Fight! Fight! Inner light! Kill, Quakers, Kill! Knock `em down, beat `em senseless! Do it till we reach consensus!" Soccer and basketball draw the biggest crowds, but don't get you're expectations up-"bigger" is just relative.
For those students who aren't interested in going varsity but still want to play some ball with the buds, there are always intramurals. People of all abilities get really pumped up about the latest developments in the IM tourney, and the league has even given rise to a collection of small team subcultures.
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GULFPORT, Mississippi – President Barack Obama Monday implored Americans to visit southern tourist beaches and munched on local seafood, seeking to boost two key industries threatened by the BP oil disaster.
"There's still a lot of opportunity for visitors to come down here. There are a lot of beaches that have not been affected and will not be affected," Obama said, at the start of a two-day trip to the region.
"We just want to make sure that people who have travel plans down to the Gulf area remain mindful of that.
"If people want to know what can they do to help folks down here, one of the best ways to help is to come down here and enjoy the outstanding hospitality."
Later, Obama lunched with Mississippi's Republican governor Haley Barbour and other officials, discussing the safety of local seafood while savoring mini crab cakes, fried shrimp and shrimp salad sandwiches at a local restaurant.
The lunch appeared to be an attempt to show Americans that seafood from parts of the Gulf coast not under a fisheries ban over the oil spill remained safe to eat.
The three states Obama is visiting on his two-day trip -- Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- have each seen their tourism industries overshadowed by the disaster, and are threatened by a massive oil slick spawned by a ruptured BP-operated undersea well.
Some Louisiana wetlands and beaches have already suffered from a thick soup of oil that has washed ashore, killing sea life and birds.
Any large-scale fall-off in tourism numbers would reap a heavy economic price in a region also suffering a devastating hit to its fishing and shrimping industry.
Obama was likely later to get a first hand look later Monday at Alabama's stunning white sands, which state officials fear could be blackened by oil, and are calling for an all-out effort to protect the state's coastline.
Near a staging facility which deploys equipment used in the disaster mitigation effort that Obama will visit later Monday, booms used to stop oil leaking into wetlands and inland waters could be seen in estuaries and inlets.
Obama spoke briefly to reporters after getting a briefing on the latest efforts to limit the scope of the oil disaster from local officials and the top US official dealing with the operation Admiral Thad Allen.
The oil has been spewing into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana coast sank two days after being crippled by an explosion on April 20.
© AFP 2013 | <urn:uuid:cc540418-0800-4a59-b1e5-90fed2869750> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/obama-barbour-gulf-mississippi/2010/06/14/id/361955 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963909 | 501 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Problem with Christus Victor
Universalism is not the only topic in Rob Bell's Love Wins that deserves comment, though given the buzz, you'd think that's all he discusses. Among other things, the book also attacks "toxic" forms of substitutionary atonement, and advocates the use of a plurality of atonement theories. In this, Mr. Bell is repeating decades-old arguments in our movement, arguments that seem to be winning the day. One atonement theory in particular has exploded in popularity, in fact. Hardly an atonement discussion goes by that I don't hear an evangelical say they doubt the usefulness of substitutionary atonement and now favor Christus Victor.
The Christus Victor model has much to commend it. The idea is this: Christ is victor. Christ in his death and resurrection overcame over the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection, those powers variously understood as the devil, sin, the law, and death. While the model assumes humanity's guilt for getting ourselves into this predicament—beginning with the original sin of Adam and Eve—the theory's anthropology (view of humanity) emphasizes not our guilt but our victimhood, at least the way it is often discussed today. The main human problem is that we are trapped and we need to be rescued: "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb. 2:14-15) .
Indeed, we are enslaved to powers beyond our control, both personally and corporately. This model also highlights big picture atonement: Christ's death isn't merely about me and my salvation. It's about the redemption of the cosmos: "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:15).
On the other hand, "neurotic substitutionary atonement" needs to be abandoned. The picture of a wrathful Father having his anger appeased by the death of his Son is wrong on many fronts. Here's one: It separates the work of the Father from the Son, as if they have competing concerns—the Father with righteousness, the son with compassion. It sounds like the Son saves us from the Father! This is manifestly unbiblical, for Paul clearly says that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). While we were sinners, God took action. God would not have come to us in Christ had he not already determined to reconcile with us. This is not the behavior of a God who stands aloof in a huff, waiting for propitiation before he'll have anything to do with us.
With these clarifications, biblical substitutionary atonement in all its nuances (the Bible frames it in subtly different ways: as sacrifice, propitiation, and payment) remains the dominant metaphor for atonement in Scripture. When he wanted to demonstrate his love for us, God substituted himself for us on the cross. It is an especially fitting move, given who God is—both just and merciful: "[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:24-26).
Many interesting comparisons can be made between the two theories. Both actually include dimensions of personal guilt and victimhood, but as I listen to the discussion today, it seems that Christus Victor highlights our state as victims. Substitutionary atonement focuses on our guilt. In Christus Victor, we are liberated from hostile powers out there. In substitution, we are forgiven, and liberation is from ourselves and our addiction to our sin. Naturally, both models speak to truths of the human condition! And both have nuances worth exploring. But I'm concerned at the rising popularity of Christus Victor when it comes at the expense of substitution.
In "SoulWork," Mark Galli brings news, Christian theology, and spiritual direction together to explore what it means to be formed spiritually in the image of Jesus Christ.
- Christian Athletes Are Not Role Models
- On the Death—and Life—of Innocent Children
- Closer than Ever to the Breath of God
- Making Non-Sense of the Colorado Shootings
- Mastering the Golf Swing of Life | <urn:uuid:e8c75eaf-528b-4412-b517-97c5de5a9851> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/aprilweb-only/christusvicarious.html?allcomments=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970146 | 988 | 1.710938 | 2 |
- A & E
- Business & Science
The Reserve Officers Training Corps at Weber State University will participate in a competition this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 19-20, as the annual Army Ranger Challenge gets under way. Known as the varsity sport of the Army ROTC, the competition will feature teams of nine cadets: eight men and one woman.
These cadets will compete against 15 preselected ROTC teams from six states in a survival race for national recognition and a trip to the New York Ranger Challenge later this year.
“We’re looking forward to the home field advantage,” said Cadet Michael Heath of WSU ROTC. “Traditionally we’ve had to travel, so it’ll be nice to have it in our backyard.”
Teams must consist of ROTC cadets from each academic class, including at least one freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.
“Our team was picked on a combination of fitness, team camaraderie, experience, maturity, toughness and the ability to move the team forward,” said Jeff Stuart, the team coach and WSU ROTC operations and training officer. “Endurance is a huge factor too; they’re going to be out there for 7-8 hours straight and the competition is brutally hard.”
The competition will begin at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning after teams draw their starting position the night before. Teams will leave in 10-minute intervals, depending on their drawn starting order, then begin with a 10-kilometer run (6.2 miles) in full equipment, carrying the supplies needed to accomplish their tasks throughout the day.
“It’s brutal, but it makes for better soldiers and officers,” Stuart said. “You compete the best when you’re prepared to suffer the most. The more you’re willing to deal with exhaustion, fatigue and with blisters, and the more you’re mentally prepared for what’s ahead, the better you’ll do. It’s not going to kill you, but it will make you tough.”
After the run, cadets must cross a rope bridge spanning an estimated 60 feet before navigating to the location of a dummy in need of simulated first aid. The teams must move the 200-pound dummy via ladder up the side of the mountain for a simulated helicopter extraction before facing a leadership reaction course to test their problem-solving abilities. Afterward, the cadets will dissemble and reassemble three different weapons before finally exiting the race by crossing the Jordan River. The locations of the events must be found and navigated to before the team can complete each task.
“In the past, events were scored with varying point values, but this year, the clock is always running,” said Cadet Zachary Lowe, a senior ROTC cadet and three-time Ranger Challenge veteran. “It sucks, but it’s a good experience. Besides, I like the competition; I enjoy the physicality, and I enjoy that it pushes you, which ultimately makes you better.”
Though WSU has fared well in the past, Brigham Young University is the team to beat, having won 28 of the last 30 Ranger Challenges.
“We love to hate BYU,” Stuart laughed as he spoke about the competition. “They’re a very traditional college; they have standard 18-25-year-old kids, they have a good history, they train hard, and they have a Ranger Challenge class where ROTC cadets can earn credit by training for the competition. It gives them a slight advantage, but that’s not our focus.”
Opening ceremonies for the Ranger Challenge will begin at 6 p.m. at the Camp Williams parade grounds. The competition is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. the following morning. | <urn:uuid:aaee7235-c6a1-4b12-98ff-7f44f59303f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wsusignpost.com/2012/10/16/wsu-rotc-set-to-compete-at-ranger-challenge-25657 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955198 | 825 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Unidisplay + Unipsycho acoustic (by carsten nicolai)
Awesome concept art from Ben Mauro for a cool little movie project called “From the Future with Love”. (Look for trailer in next post.)
*Ransomware bandits posing as cybercops and hacktivists
Energy harvesting pavement powers its own streetlights.
London-based startup Pavegen has developed tiling that can harvest kinetic energy from people’s footsteps, turning it into up to 8 watts of electricity per footstep.
The tiles are made of 95 percent recycled tyres, and use a proprietary wireless communications technology to transmit data about the number of footfalls and the energy generated via the Internet. A wireless network of the tiles could provide valuable information to city planners and nearby business owners about the number of pedestrians in the area at different times of the day.
At the last Summer Olympics in London, the tiles were installed outside a tube station where they generated enough energy to power lights in the area for five hours a night.
What would happen if police forces were fully outsourced into private, competing companies and where everyone needed a police insurance? Take a look.
Gibson recently made an appearance at the New York Public Library, and he also did a surprise reading of the first couple pages of his forthcoming science fiction novel The Peripheral. The reading begins about 80 minutes in.
For more Gibson, check out our dossier.
Yesterday three economists, (Tobias Preis of Warwick Business School in the U.K., Helen Susannah Moat of University College London, and H. Eugene Stanley of Boston University) published an eye-opening paper that said Google Trends data was useful in predicting daily price moves in the Dow Jones industrial average, which consists of 30 stocks.
Gerd adds: yet another reason why the current form of stock markets won’t exist in 5 years;) | <urn:uuid:5fa8dbfd-d2e8-4f28-9326-0e4592040be5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crazygm.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935704 | 394 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Monday, Oct. 29, 2012
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- Gov. Nikki Haley says South Carolina taxpayers have until Jan. 31, 2013, to register for free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
This follows Friday's news that international hackers gained access to millions of taxpayers' Social Security numbers and credit and debit card numbers.
Anyone who has paid taxes in South Carolina since 1998 is encouraged to register for free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
The state is providing one year of free credit monitoring to victims through Experian. To call Experian, dial 1-866-578-5422. You may not be able to get through right away, as thousands are calling in this week. The call center is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST on Saturday and Sunday.
According to a news release from the Governor's Office, the Experian call center received approximately 455,000 calls and approximately 154,000 sign-ups as of Monday morning. Gov. Haley says the average wait time is 12 minutes and that 300 operators are working to take calls. She says they are in the process of hiring more.
You can register online at protectmyid.com/scdor. To register, you need to enter the access code, SCDOR123. Note: You need to click the button that says "Click to redeem your activation code" instead of just pressing enter. Georgia residents can register online with the same access code.
If you have signed up, you will hear back from the credit monitoring service through email or postal mail within a few weeks to find out if you are affected.
Children of victims will be covered under a family plan. You will receive the information on this from the credit monitoring service after you sign up.
Gov. Haley promised all of holes in the South Carolina system have been fixed.
There has been some backlash about the timing of the announcement of the hacking, which came out on Friday.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Director Mark Keel says the state did not announce the cyber attack earlier because they believed it compromised taxpayer information even more.
"By allowing us the time that we had to conduct our investigation, we believe that this information is better protected than it would have been otherwise," he said in a news conference Monday.
According to the Governor's Office, here's what the state is offering to those affected by the cyber attack:
- A free copy of your Experian credit report.
- Daily 3 Bureau Credit Monitoring: Alerts you of suspicious activity including new inquiries, newly opened accounts, delinquencies, or medical collections found on your Experian, Equifax® and TransUnion® credit reports.
- Identity Theft Resolution: If you have been a victim of identity theft, you will be assigned a dedicated, U.S.-based Experian Identity Theft Resolution Agent who will walk you through the fraud resolution process, from start to finish.
- ExtendCARE: Full access to the same personalized assistance from a highly-trained Fraud Resolution Agent even after your initial ProtectMyID membership expires.
- $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance: As a ProtectMyID member, you are immediately covered by a $1 Million insurance policy that can help you cover certain costs including, lost wages, private investigator fees and unauthorized electronic fund transfers.
If you want to take an extra step, you may want to consider freezing your credit, which will prevent someone from trying to get a card in your name. Here is who you need to call if you want to do this: Trans Union (888-909-8872), Experian (888-EXPERIAN) or Equifax (800-685-1111).
Gov. Haley's news conference:
Have information or an opinion about this story? Click here to contact the newsroom.
Copyright WRDW-TV News 12. All rights reserved. This material may not be republished without express written permission. | <urn:uuid:b80a45b5-cfe7-4b06-b14e-d755d98934e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wrdw.com/news/onyourside/headlines/Taxpayers-affected-by-cyber-attack-have-until-January-to-register-for-credit-monitoring-176279041.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94012 | 824 | 1.515625 | 2 |
We created Pandora to put the Music Genome Project directly in your hands
It’s a new kind of radio –
stations that play only music you like
The Roots' focus on live music began back in 1987 when rapper Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) became friends at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. Playing around school, on the sidewalk, and later at talent shows (with ?uestlove's drum kit backing Black Thought's rhymes), the pair began to earn money and hooked up with bassist Hub (Leon Hubbard) and rapper Malik B. Moving from the street to local clubs, the Roots became a highly tipped underground act around Philadelphia and New York. When they were invited to represent stateside hip-hop at a concert in Germany, the Roots recorded an album to sell at shows; the result, Organix, was released in 1993 on Remedy Records. With a music industry buzz surrounding their activities, the Roots entertained offers from several labels before signing with DGC that same year.
The Roots' first major-label album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, was released in January 1995; forsaking usual hip-hop protocol, the album was produced without any samples or previously recorded material. It peaked just outside the Top 100, but was mostly ignored by fans of hip-hop. Instead, Do You Want More?!!!??! made more tracks in alternative circles, partly due to the Roots playing the second stage at Lollapalooza that summer. The band also journeyed to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Two of the guests on the album who had toured around with the band, human beatbox Rahzel the Godfather of Noyze -- previously a performer with Grandmaster Flash and LL Cool J -- and Scott Storch (later Kamal), became permanent members of the group.
Early in 1996, the Roots released Clones, the trailer single for their second album. It hit the rap Top Five, and created a good buzz for the album. The following September, Illadelph Halflife appeared and made number 21 on the album charts. Much like its predecessor, though, the Roots' second LP was a difficult listen. It made several very small concessions to mainstream rap -- the bandmembers sampled material that they had recorded earlier at jam sessions -- but failed to make a hit of their unique sound. The Roots' third album, 1999's Things Fall Apart, was easily their biggest critical and commercial success; The Roots Come Alive followed later that year.
The long-awaited Phrenology was released in late November 2002 amid rumors of the Roots losing interest in their label arrangements with MCA. In 2004, the band remedied the situation by creating the Okayplayer company. Named after their website, Okayplayer included a record label and a production/promotion company. The same year, the band held a series of jam sessions to give their next album a looser feel. The results were edited down to ten tracks and released as The Tipping Point in July of 2004. A 2004 concert from Manhattan's Webster Hall with special guests like Mobb Deep, Young Gunz, and Jean Grae was released in early 2005 as The Roots Present in both CD and DVD formats. Two volumes of the rarities-collecting Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide to Understanding the Roots appeared at the end of the year.
A subsequent deal with Def Jam fostered a series of riveting, often grim sets, beginning with Game Theory (August 2006) and Rising Down (April 2008). In 2009, the group expanded its reach as the exceptionally versatile house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The new gig didn't slow their recording schedule; in 2010 alone, they released the sharp How I Got Over (June), as well as Wake Up! (September), where they backed John Legend on covers of socially relevant soul classics like Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "Wake Up Everybody" and Donny Hathaway's "Little Ghetto Boy." The next year, as they remained with Fallon, the Roots worked with Miami soul legend Betty Wright on November's Betty Wright: The Movie, and followed it weeks later with their 13th studio album, Undun. ~ John Bush & Andy Kellman, Rovi | <urn:uuid:b2c5b6f2-9a86-4d72-805a-3c7661bf1987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pandora.com/roots | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969568 | 887 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Jacksonville Daily Progress
Gov. Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 18, a eminent domain reform bill, into law Monday.
“I’m proud to sign into law stronger eminent domain provisions protecting Texas landowners from local and state government entities that might consider abusing private property rights,” Perry said in a press release.
Perry was joined by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, Sen. Craig Estes, Sen. Robert Duncan and Rep. Charlie Geren for the bill signing.
“We know that Texas is thriving as a state and property is a valuable asset, but that growth should not come at the expense of property owners,” Estes said. “This is the most important bill to strengthen private property rights for landowners.”
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) has pushed for the reform for three legislative sessions, said TSCRA President Joe Parker Jr.
“Today is a proud day for Texas landowners,” Parker said Monday. “After years of hard work, Texas has new eminent domain law that will protect the private property rights of Texans.”
The law requires: 1) local and state government entities interested in acquiring private property to first make an offer, in writing and based on an appraisal, to the landowner to purchase the property through a voluntary sale for a fair price, 2) condemnation petitions to specifically state the public use for which the land is needed, 3) a governmental or private entity may not take private property through the use of eminent domain if the taking is not for public use, 4) a government entity that takes land to first have a record vote stating the land to be taken and the project for which it is being taken, and 5) entities to provide all appraisals of the property they have during negotiations.
Also in the law, landowners may repurchase their land if in 10 years it is not used for the public use it was condemned for.
The law does allow a common carrier pipeline or an energy transporter to use eminent domain, something that has East Texas landowners still worried.
“It actually does more harm for landowners,” said David Daniel, founder of STOP (Stop Tarsands Oil Pipelines) and Winnsboro landowner. “In my opinion, when they say eminent domain reform to me it looks like it’s reform for the industry and not for the people.”
East Texans are especially concerned about eminent domain abuse because of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, which is slated to carry an unrefined oil 370 miles from Cushing, Okla. through 18 counties in Texas, including Cherokee, Rusk, Nacogdoches and Smith counties. TransCanada has not yet received a presidential permit to begin construction, but has begun acquiring land for the project.
After receiving letters from a Houston lawyer representing TransCanada that threatened the use of eminent domain, Daniel said he signed a contract with the company to allow a temporary easement of his land.
The law only benefits landowners if they have the funds to hire a lawyer and dispute an entity’s use of eminent domain, Daniel said.
“It’s a tiny percentage of people who end up going through the eminent domain process. I rest, like myself, can’t afford to go through it,” Daniel said. “If they open the door for any entity to come in then that opens the door for more abuses.”
Daniel said the law is unclear on whether TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is an entity that will now be restricted from using eminent domain.
Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans United for Reform & Freedom, said SB 18 is a “special interest bill.”
“I think that there’s some giveaways in there to oil and gas companies,” Hall said.
The law requires that easements for oil or gas pipelines can only be obtained after a public and record vote to initiate eminent domain proceedings.
The vote may apply to all units of property to be condemned, so if an motion is passed the oil or gas company may acquire all units at once.
“They never changed the fact that your parcel of land might be up for eminent domain taking by a vote of county commissioners or city council,” Hall said. “They can now gain your property together with a bunch of other landowners and label it under something else so that you can’t even have true disclosure about the fact that the government might be taking their land for condemnation.”
The provision to the law which allows landowners to buy back their land has holes, Hall said.
“How that land actually gets released is very broad and people are very concerned that they can still hang on to your land indefinitely because there’s nothing spelled out in the bill that makes it specific of is there an action taken by a governmental entity or is there something done that allows you to have that opportunity to buy it back,” she said. | <urn:uuid:29c512c3-c531-4215-a6f2-cf614ac12722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jacksonvilleprogress.com/local/x898211628/Eminent-domain-bill-passed/print | 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 | 0.949382 | 1,038 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The FBI director and a Republican congressman sketched out a far-reaching plan this week for warrantless surveillance of the Internet.
During a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI's Robert Mueller and Rep. Darrell Issa of California talked about what amounts to a two-step approach. Step 1 involves asking Internet service providers to open their networks to the FBI voluntarily; step 2 would be a federal law forcing companies to do just that.
Both have their problems, legal and practical, but let's look at step 1 first. Issa suggested that Internet providers could get "consent from every single person who signed up to operate under their auspices" for federal police to monitor network traffic for attempts to steal personal information and national secrets. Mueller said "legislation has to be developed" for "some omnibus search capability, utilizing filters that would identify the illegal activity as it comes through and give us the ability to pre-empt" it.
These are remarkable statements. The clearest reading of them points to deep packet inspection of network traffic--akin to the measures Comcast took against BitTorrent and to what Phorm in the United Kingdom has done, in terms of advertising--plus additional processing to detect and thwart any "illegal activity." (See the complete transcript here.)
"That's very troubling," said Greg Nojeim, director of the project on freedom, security, and technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It could be an effort to achieve, through unknowing consent, permission to monitor communications in a way that would otherwise be prohibited by law."
Unfortunately, neither Issa nor Mueller recognized that such a plan is probably illegal. California law, for instance, says anyone who "intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication" conducts electronic surveillance shall be imprisoned for one year. (I say "probably illegal" because their exchange didn't offer much in the way of details.)
"I think there's a substantial problem with what Mueller's proposing," said Al Gidari, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm who represents telecommunications providers. "He forgets the states have the power to pass more restrictive rules, and 12 of them have. He also forgets that we live in a global world, and the rest of the world doesn't quite see eye to eye on this issue. That consent would be of dubious validity in Europe, for instance, where many of our customers reside."
For its part, the FBI isn't talking. After we made repeated attempts to get the bureau to explain what Mueller was talking about, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson responded by saying, "At this point, I'm going to let the director's comments, in the context of the exchange with Rep. Issa, speak for themselves."
What step 1 appears to involve is persuading Internet providers to amend their terms of service and insert an FBI-can-monitor-everything clause. Informed consent is one thing. But does anyone actually read the fine print on their contracts with their broadband or wireless provider? If not, is that fine print good enough?
Informed consent is important because of the wording of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, which says providers may share the contents of customers' communications only "with the lawful consent" of the user. Otherwise, providers are breaking the law and can be sued for damages. And without consent, the FBI would bump up against the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches.
Originally, Congress seemed to take a liberal view of what constituted "lawful consent." When ECPA was enacted in 1986, a House committee report said "consent may be inferred from a course of dealing," and if "those rules are available to users," consent can be implied.
But that was written way back in the early, pre-Internet days of Compuserve and bulletin board systems. More recently, courts have interpreted ECPA more strictly.
The 2003 In Re Pharmatrak decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit offers one useful measuring stick. The court ruled in a case involving Web tracking "that it makes more sense to place the burden of showing consent on the party seeking the benefit of the exception." The judges approvingly cited a second case, which said "consent can only be implied when the surrounding circumstances convincingly show that the party knew about and consented to the interception."
The Federal Trade Commission, too, has taken a relatively strict view of informed consent. In its lawsuit filed against Odysseus Marketing, the FTC argued that it was unlawful for a company not "to adequately disclose" to customers that it was sharing information with third parties. The case ended in a settlement.
Translation: Obtaining "lawful consent" for FBI monitoring means making sure that your customers actually know what's going on and agree. Hiding it in the terms of service doesn't qualify.
But assume that the FBI can persuade Internet providers to include a prominent notice in every monthly bill, or some other mechanism that would be legally sufficient. Another problem is that even if the person who pays the bills consents to monitoring, other people may use the connection--think homes with open wireless connections. ECPA's legal protections follow individual people, not customer accounts.
Rewriting U.S. surveillance laws
Because the FBI would run into serious problems doing wide-scale Internet surveillance under existing state and federal law, step 2 may be necessary. That means rewriting U.S. surveillance law.
Issa said he wants to "craft" legislation that would give the FBI the power to look "for those illegal activities, and then act on those, both defensively and, either yourselves or certainly other agencies, offensively in order to shut down a crime in process." He worried about "national-security secrets and just the common information of private individuals" being at risk. In his response, Mueller said he wants Congress to "give us the ability to pre-empt that illegal activity."
"Looking for" a crime in process on the Internet can take multiple paths. If it's a denial-of-service attack against eBay or Amazon.com originating from Russian servers, it can be detected by measuring the amount of traffic without inspecting the contents each packet. But to detect fraud and "national-security secrets," as well as personal information being transferred, deep packet inspection would be necessary--roughly on a scale of the Great Firewall of China.
Needless to say, detecting "illegal activity" would soon be extended to copyright infringement and peer-to-peer networks. Under the No Electronic Theft Act, swapping music or video files is a federal crime, if the total value of the files exceeds $1,000. If the value tops $2,500, the penalties jump up to not more than five years in prison. And as Jammie Thomas found out last year, allegedly sharing 24 files can lead to $222,000 in civil penalties.
"I think you bump squarely into the Fourth Amendment when you get into the required waiver of constitutional protections to use a service," said Gidari, the attorney at Perkins Coie. "Why don't we extend it to include not criticizing the government? Which right is next? 'You may use our service, as long as you don't disparage Verizon?' Why not that one?...You've still got to have, at the end of the day, a constitutionally supportable legal process to get access to anyone's communications. This cannot be an end run around that."
The problem of how to "shut down a crime in process" and "pre-empt that illegal activity" is more difficult and, perhaps, more worrisome.
Here's what Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, had to say when I asked him to read the transcript of Wednesday's hearing:
It certainly is Mueller's responsibility to explain what it is that he's looking for. But it seems that he's saying, essentially, that the surveillance society is the best society. A society in which the government has complete information about illegal activities and is able to enforce that. Throughout our country's existence, we've lived in a society where the government doesn't have perfect information.
Is (Mueller) suggesting that there's a search capability using filters that would identify an infringing work and fail to deliver a message containing that work? Is that the choke point? If that is the case, how can that be done well? How about fair uses? How will the government tell whether a copyrighted work is sent pursuant to a license? Will it have a centralized database of licenses? How does he propose to have this work, so it only identifies illegal activities and doesn't overly choke?
The FBI has some obligation to explain: what is it going to focus on here? Once you have the technology in place, will it then be used for more and more?
If you thought the tussles over Net neutrality were heated before, imagine a broadband provider throttling certain applications--and being able to blame that throttling capability on law enforcement. At the very least, it would be a wonderful excuse.
Which is why it's a shame, and somewhat troubling, that the FBI has chosen not to say what its director is proposing (and apparently will be working with Congress to write into law).
Odds of FBI-filtering legislation: Zero?
One possible germ for this Internet-monitoring idea lies in Homeland Security's so-called Einstein program, which is designed to monitor Internet mischief and network disruptions aimed at federal agencies. Not much about Einstein is public, but a privacy impact assessment offers some details.
Homeland Security Spokeswoman Laura Keehner said in a telephone interview that the primary focus of Einstein at the moment is protecting federal-government networks. "Obviously, the FBI could clarify or elaborate on what they said," Keehner said. "I do know that (from Homeland Security's perspective) we now first need to get our .gov in order. We need to concentrate on our federal networks...We're also bringing in the private sector to open those lines of discussion and figure out ways that the private sector can better equip themselves to stop any cyberincursions."
Another possibly related effort is the Bush administration's so-called Cyber Initiative. In January, President Bush signed a pair of secret orders--National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23--that apparently deal with detecting and preventing Internet disruptions. Issa is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which held a closed-door hearing on Thursday devoted to the Cyber Initiative--and, during the exchange with Mueller a day earlier, he said his monitoring idea was related.
The House Intelligence committee didn't want to talk. But a representative of the House Homeland Security committee chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) sent us three bullet points in an e-mail message:
1. Chance of a legislative initiative that would allow FBI to place filters to identify illegal activity at choke points on the .com space: 0
2. We still have concerns and questions about the initiative, and we continue to do oversight.
3. Legislation is not being considered for any of the new proposals, outside of the budget requests made by the administration.
Point No. 3 seems to relate to the administration's 2009 budget request, which asks Congress for $293.5 million to expand Einstein to the entire federal government.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is headed by Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, also held a classified hearing last month on the administration's Cyber Initiative.
But a committee aide told us, "The idea of filtering for criminal activity has never been discussed with us. Nor has any new statutory authority been discussed. In fact, the administration explicitly said it didn't need any legislation. Furthermore, the idea of monitoring nongovernment domains has never been proposed in briefings the committee has received."
It's true that, at least in the current political climate, legislation of the sort Issa wants to draft isn't likely to slide through Congress unopposed.
Still, it's worth keeping in mind that the FBI has a recent, and not very flattering, history of trying to expand the scope of surveillance methods. Bureau agents used so-called exigent letters to obtain records from telephone companies, claiming that an emergency situation existed.
In reality, there was often no emergency at all. The Justice Department's inspector general found similar abuses of national-security letters. The FBI also tried to bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when it denied requests to obtain records.
Perhaps Mueller can provide a convincing argument for why laws giving the FBI "omnibus search capability utilizing filters that would identify the illegal activity" would be wise. Perhaps not. But when politicians weigh the idea of trusting the FBI with such broad and unprecedented authority, they should consider the abuses that have already taken place with far less powerful tools.
CNET News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:2d01110d-942a-4467-a67f-65b889f1e73f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9929085-38.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960622 | 2,649 | 1.742188 | 2 |
It started with the comics.
The “EC” originally stood for “Educational Comics,” a shockingly ironic title for a line of proudly subversive horror mags. With titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear (in addition to a little non-horror number titled Mad magazine), they represented everything the panicky parents of the 1950s feared. They were blood-thirsty, exploitative, almost shockingly crude, and reveled in the kind of ironic twists that Rod Serling raised to an art form just a decade later. In other words, they are an ideal way for Boomer kids to march to their own beat: a quiet rebellion against the status quo that ended when the Comic Code Authority landed on them like a ton of bricks.
Luckily for us, two of those kids were named George A. Romero and Stephen King, both of whom went on to careers of some note in the horror field. In 1982, they collaborated on a love letter to those long-forgotten shockers, and created a minor masterpiece in the process. Creepshow, the title of a fictitious magazine containing five “tales of unspeakable terror,” delivered over-the-top gore with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, and reminded us how much fun a horror movie can be. HBO’s Tales from the Crypt followed its example to great success, but never quite managed the spot-on homage that King and Romero created here.
At its heart lay one of King’s long-standing adages: we really love watching awful things happen to equally awful people. The film’s five stories thus constitute one part morality tale, one part cautionary example and three parts geek show, with a thick helping of make-up effects from the legendary Tom Savini to help it all go down smooth. Even more surprising is the cast, ranking among the most eclectic and unusual you’re likely to see. Slumming legends Hal Holbrook and E.G. Marshall rub shoulders with genre pros like Adrienne Barbeau and Fritz Weaver… as well as a pre-star Ed Harris, a pre-star Ted Danson and a post-Airplane Leslie Nielsen playing the nastiest cuckold you’ve ever seen. Even King himself gets into the act, starring as a backwoods bumpkin in a performance that screams “don’t quit your day job.” One of the great things about Creepshow is how little that matters: King can get hammier than Sunday dinner and it just feeds right into the gleeful madness crowding every frame.
Romero, for his part, works overtime to keep the comic book feeling alive. Animated frames often surround the live action, and the pseudo-realism of each story periodically gives way to wide swaths of primary colors (and even a few panic lines around the heads of the new victims). The five stories (framed by a sixth that features King’s then-ten-year-old son Joe) fit those trappings like tailored suit. A rotten family receives a posthumous visit from their murdered patriarch. King’s hick uncovers the world’s best fertilizer in a crashed meteor. A wronged husband buries his wife and her lover up to their necks below the high tide line. A pair of professors discover something lurking in a centuries-old crate. And a modern day Howard Hughes learns to his dismay that the local cockroaches have formed a union. Each story is short, brisk and to the point. “Here’s a horrible, awful person you instantly despise; now watch him get his comeuppance.”
Had they played it straight, it likely would have been doomed. But both Romero and King understand the need to keep a sense of humor about it all. The old comics certainly told their tales with a certain bright-eyed glee, and Creepshow adds just the right amount of knowingness to let grown-ups in on the gag. It ultimately feels quite loving, with a few well-placed raspberries directed at the fuddy-duddy killjoys (past and present) who tried to rain on its parade. Nothing doing with a film this terrific. As much as I love and admire Romero’s zombie pictures – which defined a genre and remain the basis for one of the greatest geek intellectual exercises ever – I may love Creepshow just a little bit more. | <urn:uuid:0ccc974b-b798-4794-9cae-09390378f04b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mania.com/fall-82-creepshow_article_134660.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95135 | 927 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State has every right and justification to celebrate every October 25, the month he claimed his mandate through the Supreme Court from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that sidelined him in the 2007 elections for Sir Celestine Omehia after he had won the party’s primaries in December 2006.
Amaechi has every right and justification to even re-think taking this day as his birthday due to its uniqueness as the day he openly won justice against injustice. His victory signifies that no matter how fast injustice is in a sprint, justice will always overtake it. His journey to the Government House was not a smooth ride. It was as bumpy as it is today riding on the Nigerian roads. Amaechi, on becoming governor, even said that he has lost count of many times he embarked on dry fasting for weeks, as a Christian, in stretching hand for divine intervention. He was praying everything humanly possible to win his then case in the court, and he finally won, which made his supporters, indigenes and non-indigenes alike, rollout drums in jubilation that CHANGE had come. Rivers State then wanted change, like the Niger Delta today wanted presidency.
Amaechi has been governor of our state for three years now. His second year in office was elaborately celebrated. I remembered Rivers’ stakeholders and journalists were, on October 24, 2009, taken on tour of projects embarked upon by his administration in the three senatorial districts of the state. The inspection was aimed at giving the stakeholders firsthand knowledge of how funds that accrued to the state were spent. People gasped that Amaechi had worked. Governor Amaechi used the tour of projects’ to perform the foundation-laying ceremony of the Greater Port Harcourt City and the new Port Harcourt International Market. At the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt on October 26, there was also an Accountability Forum, which afforde people the opportunity of asking the governor questions and he supplied the answers without hesitation. We heard sums of money mounting in billions, how they were spent and were going to be spent.
One unique aspect of this administration is the governor’s assurance that his administration was determined to make a difference in the state, declaring that no amount of blackmail would deter him from carrying out projects and programmes that had direct bearing on the people. And since then, Amaechi has achieved some feats in the areas of roads construction, education (where he declared an emergency) and health, among others, except the inability of his administration to provide potable water in Port Harcourt, which still lingers till 2010. What is still holding the Rivers’ Ministry of Water Resources which had reached an advanced stage in the design of the Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas (LGAs) water master plan as of 2009, with a view to providing potable water for the residents of the city, while urging Rivers people to bear with the government?
Amaechi is regarded today as the action and visionary Governor of Rivers State because of the landmarks in revolutionary approach towards governance he took on the areas of people-oriented needs. Very prejudiced articles indeed, that make no sense at all, had been written against him within this period. A lot of us had written advisory articles to his administration because Amaechi said he was open to criticism. And as we can see today, there has not been any case of politically motivated killing in his administration as we had full of it between 1999 to 2007: an era that I regarded as political Armageddon in Nigeria.
As Amaechi celebrates, I deemed it fit to go back to the drawing board on the area of appointments in the state. The governor might not have made any promises to my quest but his administration had always boasted of carrying everybody along and emancipating the indigenes and non-indigenes alike in his administration. But this is three years of this administration and non-indigenes are yet to be nominated in his cabinet owing to their massive support to the development of Rivers State and to the Amaechi-led government of Rivers State.
I would like to remind Amaechi that Lagos State has at various times appointed non indigenes to positions of responsibility. E.g., the appointment of Prof Yemi Osubanjo, an indigene of Ogun State as Attorney general & commissioner for Justice under Tinubu's administration same period his brother was holding same office in Ogun State. Also the appointment of Nwabueze, an Igbo by origin as Commissioner for Economic planning in the Tinubu administration and is still holding to that portfolio in the present administration of Fashola and also an indigene of Kano as head of the popular agency KAI ( Kick Against Indiscipline ). These are among many instances of non indigenes performing excellently in the delivery of the dividends of governance to the people.
I once in the past wrote a piece which I didn’t intend to aggrieve any person with it on the matter of appointing a non-indigene a commissioner of the state. That piece didn’t officially welcome the nod of the government but it did won the minds of residents in our state and the staunch members of Amaechi’s cabinet. Many of them called then that it was what was supposed to be done. However, my bill for a non-indigene being appointed commissioner appalled some indigenous fanatics against non-indigenes in Rivers State that over their dead body could they see a non-indigene become a commissioner in Rivers State.
But what this ignorantly Rivers fanatics didn’t understand is that things are changing rapidly. For example, in the USA, their democratic culture is so advanced that you had two brothers becoming Governors of different states at the same time. President George Bush Jr. was once Governor of Texas at the same period his younger brother was Governor of Florida. These are our expectations in Nigeria. We have a ready example but must approach it subtly for better appreciation that would not whip sentiments capable of heating the polity. Appointing a non-indigene a commissioner is a beautiful idea that must be beautifully driven. In states like Imo, Abia, Anambra and even Ebonyi State, you would agree with me that the population of non indigenes is very low as against Lagos and Rivers, as such that the democratic culture in the respective states mentioned are relatively resistant to issues bordering on non-indigenes participating in elective positions as well political appointments.
I see the fanatical indigenes as lacking not only in the intellectual shortcomings but also for the sickening misrepresentation and mismanagement they display against the so-called non-indigenes without compunction. Amaechi once followed that line when he wore “Indigene” as a garb, always saying that the Rivers State money is meant for the Rivers indigenes. But I lacked words to express his turn-around approach when in this year, perhaps he had seen that many of the indigenous contractors handling major Rivers State Government’s projects could not deliver; Amaechi punctured his belief of the INDIGENE mantra and said, Rivers State money is for the competent people.
It is heart-warming that Amaechi realised himself and I stand the umpteenth time to say that it is the so-called non-indigenes that develop any state but they are meted out with gross misrepresentation the indigenes display against them without repentance. The history is there that it was Ndi-Igbo that developed Rivers State and many Igbo speaking persons claiming Rivers State indigenes today could be Igbo aborigines of Aro-Chukwu extraction. But it is disheartening that wherever there is something to share, some people are ready to even deny their maternity.
The former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Sir Peter Odili was it who started this INDIGENE virus in Rivers State when he indigenized Rivers State that before any non-indigene got a job from any company operating in the State he or she must pass through the eye of the needle of the host community. Things were not like that before he assumed office; things were done on competence. But is Odili an aborigine of where? Your guess is as good as mine.
Like I mentioned earlier, under the ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo-led government of 1999-2007, for example, were there no indigene in Lagos State under Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and he appointed a non-indigene in Lagos State to head a ministry? Likewise a governor did in the North? In the same line, I think Amaechi with a changed administration should recall that commissionership is a privilege accorded those who have been tested and have something to offer the society irrespective of the state of origin. Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State has what it takes not to make this writer stay away from such advocacy if he wishes to change the dynamics or the current state of affairs between Rivers state and the non-indigenes.
I can recall that Rivers State chapter of the Action Congress (AC), (now Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) the strongest opposition party in Rivers State as of then, led by Prince Tonye TJT Princewill, called on Governor Amaechi to immediately sack his cabinet with an observation to injecting fresh blood into his supervision. According to the party, ''some of those (the indigenes) in Amaechi's cabinet are spent forces. They have run out of ideas on how to lift the state to an enviable height.'' Did the then spokesman of the party, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, not say ''we of the AC are of the view that Governor Amaechi's cabinet is overdue for a shake-up. Sacking the cabinet has become very imperative in order to enable the governor inject fresh blood that will speed up his vision of taking Rivers to the next level?”
Chief Eze went further: “On our part as the governor's partners in progress, we are expecting extra five slots in the new cabinet that will eventually emerge...” Based on that, I advocated that Governor Amaechi should consider the idea of bringing in at least two non-indigenes into his cabinet – as Commissioners – when he was to hearken to the clarion calls by the AC. I said that Amaechi should do this as it will boost his image across the divides of the state and strengthen his political and charismatic self-confidence. I urged the Secretary to Rivers State Government, Mr. Magnus Abe, who later announced the dissolution of the state executive council to see this proposal of appointing a non-indigene commissioner as an action that needs immediate effect.
The Rivers State Action Congress chairman then, Mr. Suage Badey bought the idea of appointing a non-indigene in the Amaechi’s cabinet. He saw the idea of appointing a non indigene into government in any state of the federation, be he/she an Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ikwerre or Ogoni as it applies to the state in question, as a bright idea, no doubt about it. Badey said, “I for one, would advocate that qualitative content rather than tribe or religion should be the yardstick for nominating persons to add colour and produce the desired goal of a responsive government, e.g. Amaechi's administration, which has set a new precedent in a long while since King Diete Spiff administration of the 70's... Suffice it to say that this is intellectually based and not like the "wandering disease'' that was captured in Cyprian Ekwensi's Burning grass (and also not intended to turn you into a fugitive in a state that appreciates your inputs) rather it was a genuine concern to alert discerning minds on the obvious which should open the door for ways of getting around this "vexed issue" as described by Odimegwu Onwumere (in his article entitled, Before Amaechi Sacks His Cabinet).
According to Badey again, “...Agreed, we definitely have a liberal and mature leader in Rivers state as exemplified by the present Governor who understands the benefits of working with persons of proven integrity and knowledge but would have to exhibit his democratic expectations through discussions with other stake holders and arms of government to achieve this or may be left with other options of looking inwards for equally sound and productive indigenous persons that would not lead to a rancorous situation bearing in mind the fact that he has succeeded a great deal in curbing the insecurity that plagued the state during the Omehia days... One approach I deem very appropriate for the people of Rivers state is to appreciate first, the presence of our brothers (Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas etc ) and allow them to participate in elections so that the talents amongst them would be exposed through our act of comradeship. This would provide the spring board and opportunities of having non indigenes in various positions from the local government to state and also at the legislative level. This would of course put aside those huddles encountered at the State House of Assemblies when non indigenes are nominated for political appointments assuming a member representing this constituency is a bonafide member of the legislative body constitutionally empowered through the ballot box to substantiate their case when ever such an ugly matter is raised. What do you think?
Badey went further without mincing words: “I will posit that we generally follow the trend in the United States of America where our zeal for democracy is anchored. The USA suffered such for so many years and the most hit were our African brothers who were badly treated and made to be regarded as an inferior race. Racial discrimination was as intense even as trivial as boarding a commuter bus. This cowardly act of discrimination was always brought to the fore until Rosa Parks struck and Martin Luther King Jr. lifted the torch. Today under a sound democratic setting in the USA, something that was never heard of has become a reality; we now have blacks (men and women) who have been mayors, members of congress, Governors, secretaries of state and now a black president. How else would one value the tenets of a democratic system that seeks to bring out the very best of the most difficult situation? This is possible in Nigeria and we must enact the enabling laws using the American example so as to reduce violence and unnecessary deaths while achieving the ideal... I look forward to Igbos, Yorubas, Itshekiris, Hausas etc of Rivers origin to be in the executive, legislative and judicial arms of the Rivers government just as I would want same to be applied for the Rivers man and woman who has made Imo, Anambra, Delta and Ebonyi their homes...”
I had deemed it necessary that the non-indigene Commissioners would help confront the non-indigenes when any such tagged ‘bias’ of the government comes up. I highlighted my example by asserting that Ndi-Igbo always accuse Amaechi-led government on the demolition exercise in Rivers State as a way of sending them packing from the state, as they hold half of the state’s commerce, if not all. I advised that Amaechi have the right to appoint a non-indigene Commissioner in Rivers State, at least, Ndi-Igbo have helped in no less ways to the development of Rivers State and as well as have shared bilateral relationships with Rivers people before and after the creation of Rivers State in 1967.
While I was of that opinion and a lot of people said it is worth doing, at least Amaechi should understand the fact that Ndi-Igbo fought tirelessly for him during his travails with the PDP and INEC. But it was a shock then that Amaechi re-appointed his sacked cabinet without a non-indigene on the crew, whereas many of us had hoped that at least, the Information Commissioner wouldn’t go for the non-indigenes following how competent and close a newspapers publisher in Rivers State was with the politics and administration of the state.
In the publisher’s article when the debate was raging that no non-indigene made the list of Amaechi’s new cabinet titled “Because I am Involved”, the opening of the page was with a heart piercing narration. And it reads: “I have chosen to break my long silence on the issue of the appointment of a new Commissioner for Information in Rivers State to replace the former who was re-assigned to another Ministry after the last dissolution of the State Exco. I chose to stay away from the politics of who gets what in a government we fought hard to ensure its enthronement irrespective of what anybody thinks now about those who were known as the ‘Believers’, made up of strong supporters of Governor Amaechi, strong believers in the ideals of a true democracy and in the struggle which he believed in.”
The publisher hinged her breaking silence, according to her, out of the need to bring to public glare some of the actions that took place behind the scene before and after the PDP primary election in Rivers State which resulted to a protracted legal battle which though gave Gov. Amaechi victory, but it had seriously divided the once seemingly united ‘family’ headed by the former governor, Dr. Peter Odili. She made us to understand that despite what anybody may think of some of the major actors in that saga today, the plain old truth is that it was a formidable bloc of Amaechi zealots who preferred to go hungry rather than mortgage their conscience and the future of this great country whose democracy of uninterrupted ten years was further strengthened by the Supreme Court decision on Amaechi vs. the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
She said: “The bold effort by Amaechi then to fight a just cause has also paid off as the apex court displayed judicial gallantry without fear or favour and in any case has been used as a deciding factor in several other cases that had to do with the arbitrary substitution of a duly elected candidate by any political party without recourse to the laws of the land... I do not intend to blow my trumpet here on the role I played even long before the PDP primaries because it is not in my nature to do so though the gory details of how we fought and won will be published soon in my book titled, “My life on the Line”. It is mind blowing and a no-holds-barred! I will only try to assuage the feelings of those who have sent me text messages expressing their surprise on why the governor in his wisdom decided to appoint Ibim Semientari as the next Commissioner for Information, one of the vital Ministries of any government. It is no mean task.”
Whether that was a mien task or not, it is important that she didn’t hands-off in what she believed. And she said: “Some have argued that I should have been appointed… I definitely know my limits, though sometimes, challenges can offer one the opportunity of improving on skills and know-how. I rather think that one of our own should have again been given that opportunity to serve… It is because I am involved… As we were meant to understand, Mrs. Sementiari is the daughter of the former deputy governor of the state during Dr. Odili’s eight year reign. She is a seasoned journalist who has been practicing in Lagos state. Many do not know that she was formerly a staff of Tell Magazine, one of the national weeklies that did not hide its disdain for the Odili-Toby-led Administration for eight years. So much was the heat on the government of that day that it resulted to an open confrontation between Odili’s wife and Toby’s wife, Sementiari’s mother. The former First Lady considered it embarrassing for the magazine to constantly and consistently throw punches at the government under the watchful eyes of Sementiari. Of course, that did not change anything as the weekly could not be deterred in publishing what they considered facts which hounded Odili while exonerating his deputy. I remember the former First lady lamenting in my presence over the ugly trend and I recall telling her that it is possible Sementiari did not have what it takes to compel the management to shift grounds and at least give them a fair hearing through objective reporting.”
Going further, she reported: “It was on the cover of the same magazine that the present governor was described as a thief during his travails with the crime commission, the EFCC. He was brought before public glare as being guilty as charged even when no court of competent jurisdiction had declared him guilty of any of those financial crimes. The magazine in its report portrayed him in that light without recourse to the former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly to state his own side of the story. Again, Sementiari was there. I remember asking the governor to avail us his response to the charges against him by the EFCC as published by the magazine, but he preferred we maintained silent due to political reasons as the former President was still prowling about seeking who to ‘devour’. It is then worrisome that someone whose organization never saw anything good in her home state not even when her father was the number two citizen could be appointed as the spokesperson of government today. Just like our most eminent jurist, Niki Toby would say, “This is what makes a Hausa man shout ‘Haba!’ If she could not risk losing her job for standing in defense of her state and on the principles of objectivity, I am afraid she may not be able to deliver. The matter is even worse if after office, she cannot toe the path of those information managers who rose to defend the government they served with facts and figures after they have left office particularly in the days of reckoning if need be.”
It is a shock today that time is fast running and the build up to the next general elections in 2011 is already gathering momentum. Is it not a surprise to find Igbo speaking people of River State very highly reclusive and ever willing to have identity complex and get over defensive when they perceive their Igbo brothers and sisters from Abia, Anambra, Imo, Enugu or Ebonyi states as competitors? Amaechi’s performance speaks for him, but why do Nigerians easily forget those that helped them? Badey’s belief that the Igbo (non-indigenes) in Rivers State deserved commendation in this regard, should be executed in the state level, even though that some local government councils in Rivers State had started it. Non-indigenes appointment in the government would help breach any narrow perception of the non-indigenes in the area against the government. This would tie-up some myopic battles. When the non-indigene who is with the government says anything, his people would not see it as a vendetta from the indigenes since it is coming from one of them. But it becomes a war when the ‘talk’ comes from the ‘almighty’ indigenes. This we have heard and had much in Rivers State. While Amaechi had the justification to celebrate his 3rd year in office, is there any justification for not appointing non-indigenes that fought for him as commissioners? | <urn:uuid:4e805a2d-bf01-4337-ac0b-f2de18673088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transparencyng.com/index.php/articlesauthor/13-akintokunbo-adejumo/2598-the-commissioner-rivers-never-had-as-amaechi-celebrates-3rd-year-in-office | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980992 | 4,950 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Hammer invented the bulb in 1976, he said, and primarily worked alone.
Although executives at GE liked the idea, they decided not to market it at the time. CFLs would require entirely new manufacturing facilities, which would cost $25 million. "So they decided to shelve it," Hammer said.
The electronics giant contemplated licensing the design. Unfortunately, the design leaked out. Others copied it before GE started a licensing program. Read full | <urn:uuid:7a0d248b-d57f-48a2-8513-219cf67d1643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ehsmanager.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977894 | 91 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Dr. William (Bill) R. Raun has been named as the Nutrients for Life Foundation Professor of Soil and Food Crop Nutrition at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The professorship, which is funded in-part by the Nutrients for Life Foundation, The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), will explore the linkages between fertilizer use and the nutritional quality of food. Dr. Raun accepted the professorship duties on July 1, following the OSU Board of Regents' recommendation.
“I believe ours is the most progressive nitrogen management program in the world,” said Dr. Raun. “This is the result of a team effort that has been ongoing since I arrived with Dr. John Solie (Mechanical Engineer), Dr. Marvin Stone (electrical engineer), and a host of incredibly dedicated graduate students.”
The Nutrients for Life Foundation Professor of Soil and Food Nutrition is in the Department of Plant and Soil Science located within the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The cross-disciplinary position will work closely with the college's Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center. Dr. Raun will teach a class each semester about fertilizer's role in healthy food, while also researching this important issue.
The industry pooled its resources to donate $250,000 to OSU. Through a rare matching program made available from oil and gas executive and OSU alum T. Boone Pickens and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the fertilizer industry's $250,000 will translate to $1 million to fund a professorship in perpetuity. This position brings the strengths of three organizations together to address fertilizer's affect on food nutritional quality.
“In Dr. Raun's 17-year career at OSU, he has developed into an outstanding faculty member who has brought national and international recognition to Oklahoma through his total commitment to teaching, research and extension components of the land-grant mission,” said Robert E. Whitson, Vice President, Dean and Director of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. His research is focused on making a difference in the lives of people and the environment in which they live.”
Endowed professorships and chairs are academic designations which provide support for faculty salary, graduate assistantships, equipment and research needs, as well as other support. These endowed faculty positions allow a university to attract and retain the best and the brightest academic minds in the world.
Don't forget to
Cattle Today Online! | <urn:uuid:1505edc9-1233-4e47-851f-1a860731ae35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cattletoday.com/archive/2009/August/CT2037.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951495 | 526 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Kalamazoo College's Student Newspaper
By Kelsey Donk, Web Editor
Last Tuesday morning, Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran wore a black hoodie and stood before a gathering of people in Red Square. “My friends have spoken my mind,” she said loudly into the microphone, referring to the over one hundred fifty students and faculty members wearing hoodies and headscarves in a demonstration against hate-crimes and racial injustice.
This protest, “Speaking Truth to Racial Terror,” was intended to “commemorate those who died recently, and bring awareness to a wider issue that has plagued this country,” Arcus Center Program Coordinator Hussain Turk said. The demonstration was a response to the recent deaths of Trayvon Martin and Shaima Al Awadi, according to Turk. Martin, an African-American teenager, was killed in a Florida neighborhood on Feb. 26 and Al Awadi, an Iraqi immigrant and mother, was killed in her California home on March 24.
Throughout the event, the speakers highlighted that the slayings of Martin and Al Awadi were not isolated events. “I wish we didn’t have to do this, but we do” Turk said before the demonstration began, “To me, this event means a lot, it’s a sad event because it’s about the murder of people of color.”
Several faculty and students spoke about the two slayings and racial injustices during the protest. Turk, along with English professors Gail Griffin and Diane Seuss, shared poems about their own experiences. Anthropology professor Adriana Garriga-Lopez called community members to action during her speech. “We must seek a broad and transformational social justice,” she said, “We see a pattern that’s being repeated … we need to recognize these connections.”
The messages presented by the speakers at the demonstration were well received by the students and faculty present. “I’m here because I’m black and I’m brown,” Morgan Overstreet, K’14, said, “The issue of racism applies to my life.” Dean of Students Sarah Westfall was happy that so many members of the Kalamazoo College community supported the event. “This helps us in a local way to be aware of things happening outside of campus,” she said.
The Arcus Center and supporters of the movement against racial injustices now face the challenge of taking action after the demonstration, according to Lee Caldwell, K’12, who spoke at the event. “Honestly, I don’t know if it’ll change things. We have events that get everyone excited, and then it’s pushed aside,” he said, “We have to push this movement now.” | <urn:uuid:bd48ec3f-826e-4627-9458-fa0bd43cad22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kzindex.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/speaking-truth-to-racial-terror-inspires-students-faculty-to-take-action/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968171 | 599 | 1.734375 | 2 |
VIDEO: Isn’t Stevie ‘Wonder’ful
OBERLIN — Hundreds of children and their parents lined up outside the Oberlin College Conservatory to catch a glimpse of what might have been the first famous person they have ever seen in person. Grammy Award winning singer Stevie Wonder came to the campus yesterday to help celebrate the opening of the conservatory’s Kohl Building, which will house the Department of Jazz Studies.
Many of the children had never heard of Stevie Wonder until their music teachers played some of his songs in class.
“I came to see someone I’ve never heard of before,” 11-year-old Prospect Elementary student Brittany Bosma said. “This is the first famous person I’ve ever seen.”
Her best friend, 10-year-old Dana Townsend, said she was excited to be there because it had “something to do with school.”
“I like the song about Stevie’s daughter,” Dana said of “Isn’t She Lovely.” “I like his music. It’s fun to dance to and listen to.”
Nine-year-old Ajah Shumate, also a student at Prospect, said the only other famous person she has seen is the mayor.
“I want to see who Stevie is,” Ajah said. “I’ve never heard of him.”
Her friend, 10-year-old Gary Fields, said he was excited to see what Wonder looked like.
Once they filed inside the Warner Concert Hall they waited patiently for their “wonder” to come on stage. After he was introduced, the applause was thunderous, from not only the children, but the parents who accompanied them to the show. Continued...
Wonder started by playing a classical piece that he had written. He played the synthesizer while the Oberlin Orchestra sat behind him and played the accompaniment.
“I give praise to God because I wrote this piece through the years,” Wonder said of his piece titled “Sketches of a Life.” “I finished it on the day (Nelson) Mandela became president of South Africa.”
Blind since birth, Wonder made the audience laugh when he said he messed up a part of his song and said, “I lost my music and I wasn’t watching what I was doing.”
After, he sang “My Cherie Amour,” which lit up several of the children’s and parent’s faces. Several mothers clutched at their hearts, while others wiped away tears.
“I am thankful to be in Oberlin and playing for you,” Wonder said before he was ushered out of the room for the next event. “I love you and I thank you for the opportunity to have played this music. Thank you for giving me this chance to confess my love.”
Location, ST | website.com
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Wed February 20, 2013
Five Social Media Lessons Learned From Surfing
In October, the best surf we have experienced in South Florida in a generation got me thinking about how surfing taught me important lessons about social media. Our shared passion for surfing was evident in five ways, which are similar to what happens on social media.
1. Behavior, Culture, and Norms
I learned to surf shortly after I first moved to Miami in 1979. Things were different back then: the sea floor created better waves before the big dredging projects. There was a nice pier by Penrod’s in South Beach that also helped make waves. Since then, South Beach has been gentrified, many retirees have been driven out, fashion industry professionals have moved in, topless tourists flocked to the beach, the classic pier was torn down, the sea floor was dredged to expand the beach, and we no longer could count on cold snaps to guarantee a good swell. Nowadays it seems like it takes nothing short of gusting winds or a hurricane to send us waves.
However, one thing that remains unchanged are the cultural and behavioral norms of surfers. As we learn to surf, we also learn the vocabulary, history, names of the best breaks, news of the pros, and a profound respect for the ocean and nature. Most importantly, we learn survival skills and surfing etiquette that is universal to surfing: how to duck dive an oncoming wave, how to fall, when to go for a wave, how not to get pitched over the falls, how to get out of the way, deciding who gets the next wave, and why not to snake people to get a better position. The lineup of surfers is organized, and a respect for etiquette and norms increases everyone's safety and enjoyment of surfing sessions.
Social Media Lesson: Social media embodies its own set of skills, norms, and etiquette, which helps make it a more productive and pleasant experience for everyone. People that don't act as expected are quickly identified, avoided, and in some cases alienated, just like a surf kook or poser.
Each surf town and even each break is a community in its own right. At the core of the surfing community are the break's respected locals, who you learn to identify and who set the norm for behavior at the break.
Miami has gotten much friendlier over the years, perhaps because the old-timers have mellowed after a lifetime of surfing. This translates to a more relaxed and welcoming atmosphere and into surfers helping each other out and even sharing food on great surfing days when driving off means losing a coveted parking space.
Social Media Lesson: In social media, we form communities around shared interests. Certain people within these communities wield greater influence and help shape the values and expected behaviors for everyone else. These shared norms of the community create boundaries for behavior, just like at local beach breaks.
A surfer exists by expressing the art of surfing. From the way you dress, to how you behave in the lineup, to the way you surf, it's all about expressing your vision of surfing. Are you an aggressive short-boarder, a laid-back long-boarder, or a soul-surfer? Do you interact with others or do you keep mostly to yourself? How does your surfing style express your personality? Do others recognize you as a top surfer, as a respectful one who knows the ins and outs, or as an amateur who's learning? Do other locals greet you when you paddle out? Do you command authority when you go for a wave? Are you out there creating a good vibe for everyone? Do you display your respect for nature by supporting the Surfrider Foundation's local actions?
Social Media Lesson: In social media, you must publish yourself into existence. The credibility of your content and your behavior defines your reputation and determines the amount of authority and influence online. People observe your style and behavior, and they notice how others treat you, and they learn from you, just like in the lineup.
There's a lot of technique to surfing, from duck diving the breaking waves to maneuvering in the lineup and to riding the wave. There's the take-off, the drop, the bottom turn, carves, cutbacks, snaps, stalls, floaters, getting air, re-entry, tube-riding ... and these can take years to learn and perfect.
The only way to learn these moves is from watching how others do it and by practicing over and over again. You watch and learn from the best surfers at your break, you celebrate and talk about their rides when they paddle back out, and you start imitating their moves, in your own way. Like in any field, the passion and style of the best surfers leads to innovation.
Social Media Lesson: We learn by watching how other people and companies are using (and misusing) social media. We make progress and advance our craft by emulating the best, in our own way. We stand on the shoulders of leading practitioners, who continue to innovate creatively and technically, just like in surfing.
5. Respect and Humility
Perhaps more so than in most other sports, you quickly learn your place in surfing; you're only ever one bad wipeout away from humility. I take very little for granted on big wave and stormy days – and we don’t even have a coral reef to worry about, unlike some of the best surf breaks around the world. A big wave can keep you down for what seems like forever, and after a couple of hours of surfing, all you want to do is make it back to the beach and count your blessings.
In a sense, a few hours surfing is like a mini vacation, because you’re living more intensely and in the moment -- especially when you're riding the wave -- and that in itself develops your sense of wonder, humility, and respect.
Social Media Lesson: There's a lot more to social media than initially meets the eye, and there's much to be learned. There are no experts or gurus. You learn by doing. Humility and modesty yield greater dividends than pride and bluster, just like in surfing.
This item was reprinted with permission from Alex de Carvalho’s blog. Based in Miami, de Carvalho has helped unite South Florida’s tech community by founding Social Media Club, BarCamp, Ignite, Social Media Day and Mobile Monday events for South Florida new media professionals. He is also a founding member of RefreshMiami. He has co-founded several startups and recently co-authored Securing the Clicks: Network Security in the Age of Social Media. Connect with Alex on Twitter,@alexdc.
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Personal colours of William de Warenne
William de Warenne Vincent de Caen Member RostrumBackground:
Count William de Warenne: CV_William_de_Warenne
Miles: CV_Barabas, CV_Lancelyn_Mayeux, CV_Adelaide, CV_Manfred, CV_Vincent_de_Caen
Vavassuer: CV_Louis_de_Chalons, CV_Alard_Stark
Prior to the invasion of England, William the Bastard, soon to be known as the Conqueror, called upon his cousin William to join him in the invasion. William, whose seat was the town of Varenne, answered the call with his men and sailed forth with the Duke of Normandy to the shores of England.
Upon defeating the Saxons, de Warenne was granted the 'Rape', a sub-division of land, of Lewes and a large swathe of land in Suth Saexa, as well as holdings in other counties. He made Lewes his home and set about laying the foundations for both Lewes castle & the Lewes Priory. With the rebellion of 1088 de Warenne was granted the Eorldom of Surrey, but died later that year in Lewes from wounds sustained during the rebellion.Cavalier de la Varenne
Cavalier de la Varenne, Horsemen of Varenne, will act as the personal body for William de Warenne. Focusing on fighting from horseback these hauberk clad, spear carrying warriors will answer their Lords call to battle, serving him to their best ability.Ranking System
A Vavassuer is the equivilant of a squire and 'senior' servant to a knight. The vavassuer would learn the arts of horse riding, lance tilting & sword play from their master and in return cleaned & maintained the knights weapons and armour as well as supervising the knights other servants.
A Vavassuer acts as the recruitment rank, for new players to get to grips with using the Norman cavalry in Vikingr, to learn horse riding drills & formations, combat whilst mounted and on foot. Once they are judged to be worthy of becoming a knight they shall join a Conroi as a Miles.
The Miles is a mounted warrior who is at the bottom of the Norman military elite. Skilled warriors, disciplined horsemen and loyal soldiers, the Miles forms the heavy armoured fist of the Norman army. Arrayed into Conroi's, often having trained as a group for years, the Miles is the hammer of a Norman commander.
The Miles will form the backbone of the Conrois, having been judged capable with both sword and spear and considered to be an able rider.
The senior Knights and of minor nobility, the Baron's form the elite of the Norman army. Clad in the finest mail hauberks and armed with strong steel swords, the Baron's are hardened warriors and soldiers, but are also wealthy landholders.
Each Baron will lead 10 Knights to form a Conroi. The Baron's will be chosen from the most able fighters who have good leadership skills. They will be responsible for each member of their Conroi.
Amongst the senior nobility of the Norman hierarchy is the Count, a wealthy individual who, through the fuedal system, is followed into battle by his Baron's and knights at his command. As rulers of large swathes of countryside their word is law amongst their lands and their household troops implement their will upon the battlefield.
The Count leads the Compagnie in battle, relying upon his Barons to lead their individual Conrois. In the case of the Cavalier de la Varenne, the Count is William de Warenne, a cousin to William the Conqueror.
The Compagnie is a military Company, a collection of units under the command of a central figure. In the Cavalier de la Varenne these units take the form of Conroi. Each Conroi will consist of between five and ten knights and their vavassuer.
In overall command of the Compagnie is William de Warenne, who ranks as a Count. As direct commander of the Compagnie his decisions form the battleplan for the Compagnie and any other units beneath his authority. Next down the chain are the Barons, each of whom lead a single Conroi each. They are responsible for the discipline of their knights & their vavassuers. It is up to the Baron to make sure that the Counts orders are fulfilled to the best of their ability.Uniform
Yet to be decided. This is a work in progress area.Training
Training will consist of one evening each week on a day yet to be decided. It will take place upon the Fyrd of Lewes training server and will last for roughly one hour. Passwords are changed each week and will be distributed via TeamSpeak. For each session a schedule will be penned and posted in this thread in this section.
TeamSpeak is a requisite for training as it allows our trainers to relay instructions. Whilst training we do ask that you do not mess about by attacking/teamkilling each other or equip anything other than you are instructed to by the trainers. This is to make sure the training schedule is more easily adhered to as well as not wasting time when we could be fighting.
Training sessions last for an hour and activities are split into four sections;
Use of sword, mace and spear from horseback, both individually and as a group.
Use of sword and mace on foot, with some attention paid to spears. Also use of shield to protect the body.
Control of horse in differing terrain, both in and out of melee. Alternating speeds whilst charging and manouvering to evade arrows & throwing weapons
Moving and manouvering on horseback as a group, charging en masse for maximum shattering effect.
19:00 Setting up
Get everyone on TeamSpeak & go over Schedule as well as any news/updates. Warm up with some duelling.
19:10 5-minute Mounted Fighting Overview & Spear Work
Weapons, armour & horses! Which ones are better? Positives & negatives?
Aligning spears to targets. Using the dismounted Count as their target, each horseman rides up one after the other at full gallop and tries to hit the Counts shield with their spear whilst he moves around. Horsemen are to avoid hitting the Count with their horses! The idea is to use spears, not the mounts!
On a thickly wooded map the horsemen must follow the Count as best they can, avoiding trees & bushes. The horsemen should do their best to follow the Count through the trees & bushes, keeping as close to him as possible without obstructing other horsemen. Should any horsemen drop behind from colliding with trees then they should rejoin the group as quickly as possible.
Basic formation work as a group. Moving from column into line and back into column. Will not be expecting it to be perfect first time, so we will work at it. Should we manage to perfect it during this session then the Count will be overwhelmed.
20:00 Winding Down
Finish off session
- To create a sub-Clan that may eventually become a Clan in its own right, either under the wing of the Fyrd of Lewes or as an independant Clan.
- Have a historically correct tag whilst playing Vikingr. This will be preceeded by the tag CV_ .
- A living, 'breathing' group of Norman horseman, competant on foot and on horseback.
- Have as much fun as possible with Vikingr.Rules
As with the Fyrd of Lewes there are but three rules;
- Be courteous, polite, friendly & welcoming at all times whilst playing Vikingr & upon the M&B forums and any Vikingr related sites. I will be merciless if anyone performs any actions that will sully our good name.
- Have a historically correct tag whilst playing Vikingr. This will be preceeded by the tag CV_ .
- Do your best to crush your foes beneath your horses hooves, run them through with sword and lance. No retreat, no surrender, no complacency!
Any questions, or if you want to give me a hand working on this, do send a carrier pigeon my way... or just drop me a PM.
I think this 'sub-Clan' idea requires a little explanation. We at the Lewes Fyrd are now getting into the swing of things. We have two weekly training nights, we've made our presence known at the Stamford Bridge event, have had our first sort-of scrim, are present often on Einherjar and so on. During one training session Eirikur asked us kindly to 'pose' as Normans for screenshots and we performed a variety of formations & manouvres for him, which he was rather pleased with. I, for my part, was so impressed by the co-ordination & ability of the Fyrd members to follow commands and move as a cohesive group that I was struck by how much of an impact a co-ordinated group of horsemen, both in terms of gameplay & looks. To give you an idea of the kind of vision I had inside my head;
Imagine, please, that you're playing Vikingr as a Vikingr or Saxon or Rus and you're in a shield wall facing off against a Norman shield wall. From the Norman ranks a group of a dozen horsemen trot forward in formation and form a line in front of the Norman footmen. For a few moments they stand there, facing your shield wall, and in a moment of panic you realise no-one in the wall has a spear. The horsemen suddenly stir in to motion, walking their horses towards your shield wall. Behind them the Norman infantry start their advance in their wake. Your attention is drawn back to the horsemen as they break into a trot, moving as one. As the distance closes the horsemen break into a trot, and as the beasts thunder towards the shield wall a horn call rises, clear and distinct and screaming their challenges the Norman horseman lower their spears.
Now I personally would love to be standing in that shield wall at the time, I'd switch to first person view just to suffer the smashing impact of those horsemen on the line for the experience, but then I am odd. I also loved the 'mock' charges we made as the Lewes Fyrd during our 'screenshot' session with Eirikur and this got me thinking - are there any active Norman Clans? Well there were the Warriors of Normandy, who have disbanded as of this weekend, 10th April, and there is the Order d'Lyons of whom I had not seen many members in Vikingr. So with a hesitant hand I began to draw up the idea of a sub-Clan. I deliberated long & hard over it (well about an evening) before posting a proposal on the Einherjar forums. The idea seemed to have some merit and I intended to put it on a backburner until I discovered that Warriors of Normandy were disbanding. Thus I decided to thrust the idea to the 'fore.
To explain my intentions with this Clan is easy. I love Vikingr, it's the only reason I keep on playing Warband, and as such I want to see a lively, active community with plenty of Clans and as such I felt that if I could help that, by building a sub-Clan and working on it to the point that it no longer needs me, allowing someone else to take the reins, then I would be doing my own bit to help populate the Clans of Vikingr.
So that is why we have taken this step as a Clan to create a sub-Division of the Fyrd of Lewes. The Cavalier de la Varenne are tied into Lewes through their commander & background, so there are parallels there. Depending on the success of this sub-Clan it may pave the way for us to do other sub-Clans of the other factions, such as if they're introduced we might do one for the Gaels.
If you are interested in the sub-Clan, in playing as a Norman horseman, do apply & do get in contact with me. I hope that through this sub-Clan you will have as much fun playing together as we in the Lewes Fyrd do.
Leofwine aka. William de Warenne
If you wish to apply, please just respond to this thread and answer the following;
Forum Tag:Steam Group PageSignatures
Proposed 'Period Name' in-game Tag:
TeamSpeak 3 & microphone?: | <urn:uuid:07d02f61-5e2d-4966-b639-256444964826> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,165119.msg3999341.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954426 | 2,686 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Saxo Bank, a Danish investment firm, has made 10 "outrageous predictions" for the coming year, inspired by the Black Swan theory of the thinker and financier Nassim Taleb. Mr Taleb has made a fortune and influenced many of the world's most powerful people with the premise that unlikely, unpredictable events such as the September 11 attacks and the subprime mortgage crisis are central to the course of history.
Few, if any, investors saw such events coming and those who did profited handsomely from the knowledge. In its list of unlikely predictions for next year, Saxo said it looked for things that could happen in the coming year but probably will not. The list "should be seen as the black swans of the market rather than outright predictions", said David Karsbol, the Saxo chief economist. "We do believe that the odds of these events happening are somewhat higher than what is currently priced into the market."
In the US, the bank predicts the possibility of the government-run social security fund, which pays out welfare benefits to retirees and the disabled, no longer being able to cover its outlays, which account for almost 7 per cent of the American economy. "This is not so much an outrageous claim as an actuarial and mathematical certainty," the bank said. "The outrageous part is that social security taxes and contributions have been squandered for so long."
As the disillusionment of the US public increases with regard to the political class, a new third political party could emerge and play a deciding role in next year's elections, Saxo believes. The roller coaster of American public life will not be the only place where investors could experience and profit from a wild ride. While Saxo thinks the price of gold is on a long-term rise that should hit US$1,500 an ounce by 2014, it says a serious price drop in the near term is not out of the question.
"This trade seems to have become too easy and too widespread to pay out in the shorter term," the bank said. "A serious correction towards the $870 level could shake out the speculative community while keeping the metal in a longer term uptrend." Sugar, gold's sweeter cousin, could also drop in price by a third, the bank predicts, driven by decreased demand for ethanol fuel in the US. Still, commodities investors should give pause to the second half of Saxo's reasoning for a depressed sugar price.
A return to more normal weather conditions, it said, would mean fewer droughts and disappointing rainy seasons that caused production to drop and prices to spike this year. Not even the great Mr Taleb is on record trying to predict the weather. @Email:firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:1e399c68-286e-482a-bab0-fd7b0fca88a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/danish-bank-joins-soothsayer-ranks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964855 | 558 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Archive for May, 2012
An international court has sentenced former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for orchestrating atrocities during the horrific civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Taylor, the 64-year-old former president of Liberia, was convicted April 27 of aiding, abetting and planning “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history,” according the presiding judge at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
It is the first time a head of state has been convicted and sentenced on such charges since the Nuremberg war crimes trials after World War II, the New York Times reported.
During the 10-year Sierra Leone civil war thousands of people were killed, raped, mutilated or kidnapped and forced to be soldiers or sex slaves. The international court is barred from imposing a sentence of life in prison or death. Taylor still has many followers in Liberia.
A private company based in the UAE plans to outfit three boats to patrol the pirate infested waters off the Horn of Africa, the BBC reported.
The company, Typhon, plans to man each of the patrol boats – now being outfitted in Singapore – with a complement of 40 former British Royal Marines and a crew of 20.
The boats, which will be contracted to protect cargo ships plying the Western Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden, will also be armed with machine guns. The security officers will have rifles.
Unlike some 25 naval vessels patroling the pirate zone, the Typhon boats will assigned to protect specific boats instead of patrolling a vast area of seas.
Currently, eight vessels and 235 crew members are being held by pirates.
Lest We Forget
Here in the United States, it is easy to understand why Memorial Day is seen by many as a national holiday that marks the unofficial beginning of summer — especially since its date of observance was changed in 1971 from May 30 to the last Monday in May.
But the holiday started out as a day set aside to decorate the graves of the fallen from the Civil War and to remember their sacrifice. Originally in the North it was known as Decoration Day and Memorial Day in the South. In November, on Veterans Day, we honor the living who have served their country in uniform.
Your 4GWAR editor thought it was important to note — as newspaper editorial writers have done for decades — that Memorial Day is more than a collection of patio furniture sales, ball games, car races, band concerts, picnics and fireworks. It is a day to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country. Their deaths may not have all been heroic — many a warrior succumbed to disease or accident without ever meeting the enemy — but they are all certainly heroes, and deserve at least a pause in holiday activities to be remembered.
SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
Beach Party, Thailand
O.K., so it’s not the kind of beach “party” you’d expect to see in a Thai travel brochure or website. This week’s photo shows Thai and U.S. Marines participating in a simulated amphibious assault during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012 in Hat Yao, Thailand on May 23.
About 3,500 Thai and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel participated in the niner-day exercise, which ended today (May 25). CARAT is a series of annual bilateral naval exercises that the U.S. has conducted with counterparts in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. See CARAT Facebook page.
If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can get a good look at the Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) used to transport the Marines and Thai troops from the amphibious landing dock ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) to the beach. Note the AAVs coming ashore in the background. As we have noted in the past (July 22, 2011) the Marines are looking for a replacement to the ageing AAVs, which have been around since the 1970s.
The Marines in this week’s FRIFO are assigned to Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. To see more photos of this exercise, click here.
More unrest in Mali. Earlier this week an angry mob stormed the presidential palace and attacked the interim president.
Interim President Dioncounda Traore suffered a head wound after Monday’s attack by protesters, the Associated Press reported. He was treated and released from a hospital a few hours later.
Now the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is threatening to impose sanctions on those responsible.
The political situation has been chaotic in the largely desert northwest African nation since a military coup on March 21 when the democratically elected president, Amadou Toumani Toure, was forced from office. Soldiers blamed him for botching the response to a rebellion by Tuaregs in the north.
Rebels swept over the northern half of the country after the coup. A number of militant Islamists followed in their wake sparking the imposition of strict Muslim sharia law in some areas.
War on Drugs
The use of West Africa as a staging point for the shipment of narcotics to Europe by international drug cartels is getting more attention from U.S. And international organizations.
Officials in the Cape Verde islands seized 1.5 metric tons of cocaine with assistance of the new Counter narcotics and Maritime Interagency Operations Center there that U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) helped to support.
AFRICOM is also collaborating with the U.S. State Department and Drug Enforcement Agency to help Ghana establish a specialized counter drug unit.
In testimony before a Senate panel May 16, William Wechsler, deputy assistant secretary of defense for counter narcotics and global threats, said the drug cartels, increasingly under the gun in the Western Hemisphere, are turning to Africa – especially the politically unstable countries of West Africa.
“As they target the lucrative and growing European market for cocaine,” he said, “we are also concerned about trafficking of southwest Asian heroin, as well as other drugs, such as khat.”
Restoring the Rule of Law
One of the countries said to be most penetrated by Latin American drug lords in Guinea-Bissau, which also saw its government overthrown by an April military coup.
Now the military junta says it is handing back power to a civilian regime, the BBC reports, but foreign observers are skeptical.
ECOWAS brokered a deal with the junta to organize elections in a year. Meanwhile more than 600 peacekeeping troops are to be stationed in the former Portuguese colony – .about 70 soldiers from Burkina Faso have arrived so far.
Beginning the End Game
The top commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan says Afghan National Forces (ANF) will fill in the gaps left by U.S. troops as they begin withdrawing later this year after more than a decade of war.
“It’s not our intention to cede the ground [already secured] to the Taliban,” U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John Allen told a Pentagon press briefing today (May 23).
Allen, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, said 23,000 U.S. combat and support troops – part of a surge to suppress the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and break their longtime hold on parts of the country – will begin leaving the country later this year.
That will leave 65,000 U.S. troops in country. Allen couldn’t say how many of them would have to stay until December 2014 when ISAF turns over full responsibility for Afghanistan’s security to the Afghans. “There’s no number out there right now,” Allen said, adding that he will have to make a series of assessments in coming months and report back to the White House.
Meanwhile, the ANF will fill in behind departing U.S. troops in East and Southwest Afghanistan, the ISAF commander said. Coalition forces are increasingly turning over leadership responsibilities to the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.
At the recently ended NATO summit in Chicago, leaders agreed on a road map for drawing down operations in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama said at the conclusion that NATO is committed to bringing the war in Afghanistan “to a responsible end.” Afghan troops will take the lead on all combat missions by the middle of next year. Most troops are expected to be out of the country by December 31, 2014. The troops that stay behind after that will be trainers and advisers.
In the interim, Allen said, “we’re going to need combat power” and “not just U.S. Forces,” after the drawdown begins. While longtime NATO members such as the U.S., Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and the Netherlands have provided the bulk of troops to ISAF, recent NATO members like Poland and Romania and non-member countries like Australia, Georgia and Sweden have sent sizeable troop contingents although several – like France, Canada and the Netherlands — have withdrawn or are in the process of withdrawing their troops before the end of 2014.
Allen noted that the traditional Afghan fighting season will start soon and “some significant dynamics” will occur during that period including month-long fast of Ramadan, which starts in July.
New and Improved
AeroVironment today (May 22) introduced the latest development of its Wasp class of small unmanned aerial system (SUAS) — the Wasp AE, which stands for all environment.
The tiny 2.8-pound (1.3kilogram) Wasp AE is capable of ground and water landings — making it suitable for maritime as well as land operations. The Wasp AE is equipped with a digital data link, allowing it to communicate and work with AeroVironment’s larger UASs, the Puma and Raven — as well as the Shrike vertical take off and landing (VTOL). It can be equipped to handle encrypted communication, operation beyond-line of sight and voice, video and data relay.
The earlier version of the Wasp has been adopted by the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps for tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations by small units. After a year of engineering and user assessments, the Air Force is including Wasp AE in its Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle (BATMAV) program and has placed an order for Wasp AE systems valued at $2.45 million.
The command island on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN-70) dwarfs man and machine on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier.
If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can clearly see a SH-60 Seahawk helicopter (right foreground) two E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and on the very far left an EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft. You can also see the tractors used to haul aircraft around the flight deck.
The Nimitz-class carrier recently arrived in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii after completing deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet (Indian Ocean and Middle East) and U.S. 7th Fleet (Asia-Pacific) areas of responsibility.
To get a better idea of the enormity of this super carrier, click on the photo below.
First Land Attack
The European Union naval force patrolling for pirates off the Horn of Africa has launched its first strike against a pirate lair on shore. A pirate tells the Associated Press that the helicopter gunship raid on the Mudug region of Somalia’s central coast destroyed speed boats, fuel depots and an arms store.
Somali pirates have extended their raids out into the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden in recent years. The BBC reports they are believed to be holding 17 ships and 300 crew members for ransom. No Europeans or Somalis were killed in the night time raid, which also included fixed wing aircraft.
Since December 2008, EU members have mounted an international naval patrol, Operation Atalanta, off the Horn of Africa. The patrol monitors an area extending from South of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Somali Basin and part of the Indian Ocean –including the Seychelles. It is an area in size comparable to the Mediterranean Sea, according to a 2010 report to the British House of Lords.
High Tech Response
Two of the U.S. Navy’s top research labs are teaming with scientists in Chile to develop widget – or web-based applications – to help police the world’s oceans and combat piracy.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific have formed a research alliance – the International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness – to build the widgets that will analyze data and other information for sailors and maritime interests to combat pirates, drug smugglers, arms traffickers and other criminals on the high seas.
ONR will be working with researchers at the Technical University Federico Santa Maria, a top engineering school in Chile, to create web-based tools in an open source environment. The focus will be on software to improve automation, small-target detection and intent detection.
Ultimately, the software will be compatible with multiple maritime network systems so that navies around the world can use the tools and share information. John Stasny, an engineer in SPAWAR’s advanced systems analysis systems branch at Systems Center Pacific, says the plan calls for integrating the software tools into a widget framework accessible to coalition partners at a web portal.
The project with Chile is part of a larger collaboration that includes researchers at the University of Ghana, the University of Pretoria, the University of Mauritius and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.
The Hills Have Eyes
What it really shows is U.S. Army Cpl. Esteban Lopez and an Afghan guard on security detail at an entrance to Contingency Operating Post Pirtle King in Afghanistan’s Kunar province (April 18, 2012). If you click on the photo to enlarge it and then click again you can see the earth and rock-filled Hesco barriers that form the walls of the COP. Lopez is assigned to the 4th Infantry Division’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.
One of the tasks the soldiers perform from the COP is recording and later verifying the identity of locals using a handheld interagency identity detection equipment (HIIDE) that photographs the subject’s iris and face and also takes a latent fingerprint using a sensor. That information is stored in a database that can be used to verify identies.
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To Live, To Love and To Leave a Legacy
To be successful you need to get things done. To get things done you need to know what to do, what not to do, when to do and how to do it. Prioritizing and planning both play an important role.
One of good things about this whole MBA business is that it gets you thinking about organizing life. In the past few months as I have been planning on my MBA program I have also been spending time organizing my life. I have been asking the tough questions as to what is important to me and why? I am trying to understand what is that I like and how to work more in those areas.
I have started by observing the thinks I do. For example, on my bloglines RSS reader I looked at the feeds that I have subscribed to. I strated seeing a lot of feeds related to the social software field. Without actually planning I have been involved in this field. This infact was consistent with the non-job activities that I performed in the last year. Blogging, Yahoo groups, Information portals, Wikis, Collaboration tools etc. And it struck me how much I liked this field. I read the people in this field on a regular basis and loved the things that they were doing.
The next step was figuring out my main passion "rural development". My weblog, WorldisGreen.com, has been a pioneer in the small Indian blog world concentrating exclusively on rural India. The blog acted as a knowledge base, a networking tool and created my online identity. The biggest benefit has been that after working and thinking about the field of rural development coupled with my love for business it made me realize my lifelong goal.
"To create products and/or services to the bottom of the pyramid and enhancing their ability to live a fuller life."
To actionate this process I created a new category called the Green Pyramid on my blog which will drive this project.
The third passion for me has been "manufacturing", more specifically automobile manufacturing. I love the whole idea of creating products, products which can make life easier, better, happier. The other aspect of manufacturing that I like the most is Deming and his quality revolution. I am not sure how I am going to be part of this industry but I will always keep my ideas and options open. One of the opportunities in this field is that my MBA program will be conducted in the city of Adelaide. Of other things, Adelaide is the capital of the manufacturing industry in australia, especially Automobile manufacturing. Thats' some coincidence which can help.
The fourth passion is education. For a lot of years I have been thinking about education. Education is I believe a very impotant aspect for a human being. The ability to read, write, talk, listen, understand, communicate, argue, think, and create will help people in appreciating life and ultimately make life more meaningful to each one. Luckily, I have been married to a wonderful person who has selected teaching as her profession. This has enabled me to be in touch with "education" on a consistent basis. Education will be one field I will try to make a difference in.
To live my passions I will need to be self-aware, calm, strong willed, clear thoughts and empathize with the people in the world. The teachings of the Buddha provide me hope that here is a program for living life better. The four noble truths and the eight fold path provide guidelines on how I can lead my life. I call myself a Buddhist from now on.
In all this, people become the most important aspect. The people I love, the people I like, the people who have influenced me, the people whom I have influenced, the joys and sorrows that I have shared, the friendships that I have fostered, the relationships that I have created...the connections between the various dots that I have been able to create and nurture, ultimately will determine if I am living life to the fullest.
The vehicle that I have chosen for this is Entrepreneurship. It provides me the satisfaction, the experience and the control to live the life I want to.
The actions and consequences that I create around my passions and the relationships that I create and nurture will determine my legacy, if there will be one.
* To Live, To Love and To Leave a Legacy has been first used by Stephen R. Covey. | <urn:uuid:e78c8b60-163b-449b-8462-495faef073f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aussiemba.blogspot.com/2005/01/to-live-to-love-and-to-leave-legacy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967378 | 906 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Is the Gilded Age of the corporate website in decline, or are these sites merely being transformed by the rapid rise of the social communities that surround them? The answer has great implications for marketers—and their content strategies—as they adapt to market changes, new online social tools and platforms, and new customer behaviors.
Much like the Gilded Age in the late 1800s in the United States—an era marked by extreme growth and economic expansion, massive immigration from Europe and incredible innovations—the last 15 years of the corporate website have been similarly remarkable. Once companies broke through the early walled gardens (AOL, CompuServe, etc.), corporate sites took off, first as static brochures, then as commerce engines and on to dynamic, engaging communities.
But all good ages eventually come to an end. The Gilded Age in the U.S. gave way to the Progressive Era in the early 1900s; now, we have the rise of the social Web. It's a multichannel Web dominated by Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter flanked by upstarts such as Google+, Path and Pinterest.
Has this era of social media vanquished the corporate website altogether?
There is certainly plenty of evidence suggesting this is true: Large numbers of advertisers use a Facebook.com/brand address as the call to action in spots for the Super Bowl. Small, local companies don't bother with a website and instead let their Facebook or Yelp pages do the talking for them. And word-of-mouth, tweets, social recommendations and even Pinterest drive recommendations like never before.
However, it seems too early to proclaim the death of the corporate site. In fact, that day is probably pretty far off. Most companies are not about to turn the keys to their brands over to a social channel which they do not control.
There is no question, however, that the function of the corporate website is shifting. Companies have realized that customer engagement happens everywhere on the Web, not just on their corporate sites, and they are engaging with their communities in the channels they frequent around the topics that matter to them most.
Although the corporate website is still critical for establishing a strong, recognizable brand, creating meaningful and engaging conversations in social channels will ultimately drive business results.
That means two things: participating appropriately in relevant, existing communities and creating an authentic community around a topic of interest to your prospects. Being active and engaged allows your prospects to experience your brand in these communities without any hard sell. If they migrate back to your site to convert, then great. But just as often they will convert right there in the community without ever visiting your site.
Here are three strategies for making these social communities work for you:
These three actions will help smooth your own transition from the Gilded Age of corporate websites while remaining relevant in the new era of the social Web. | <urn:uuid:80e16806-8d23-4173-af29-67892adcc1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120912/SOCIAL/309129998/1501/rss16&rssfeed=rss16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95477 | 577 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Danfung Dennis, a war photographer and videographer who turned his experiences in Afghanistan into an Academy Award-nominated documentary, would like people to get a look through his eyes. But instead of referring people to his pictures or documentary, he’s got a more ambitious plan to build a new video standard that let’s people encounter moving imagery in a much more visceral and interactive way.
Dennis’ company Condition One, which is set to graduate from TechStars’ New York class Thursday, has created a video technology that lets people with cameras film video that can capture 180 degrees of view. The video, which can be manipulated through swipes or an accelerometer, can be viewed through iPad or iPhone apps. The goal is to help consumers, big brands and publishers create videos that allow people to live inside a moment, letting them act as if they are in a given place, experiencing it firsthand.
The company is announcing today that it has raised $500,000 from Mark Cuban and is embarking on a pilot program with Mercedes, Discovery Communications, XL Recordings, The Guardian and Popular Science. Popular Science, for example, has created an iPad app with Condition One technology that takes people on a tour of the ATLAS Large Hedron Collider. The new money will help the company improve its technology and build its team. One key hire is CTO Julian Gomez, a 3D graphics engineer pioneer, who has worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Google, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems and Apple, where he helped develop QuickDraw 3D, which led to 3D development standard OpenGL.
In addition to the Popular Science app, Condition One has its own showcase app (by the same name) that lets people see examples of the video experience. There’s a simple one of New York’s High Line Park that let’s people see a full field of vision as people walk by, kind of like a live version of Google Street View. Dennis believes this video can be used in a number of settings, from live music and sporting events to more traditional documentaries. He said creating video with Condition One results in a much more transparent portrayal of an event or story because it doesn’t involve traditional editing and framing techniques.
“There is less control and less ability to filter and it’s harder to construct a narrative,” Dennis said. “We’re taking the power of a still image and the narrative of film and marrying it with virtual reality to make a new experience that’s highly interactive.”
Dennis said that with the proliferation of mobile devices, it’s time we moved beyond traditional, flat video to a more immersive form of video. Condition One, however, will not work with basic point and shoot cameras, as it requires devices with more advanced sensors. Still, Dennis said there are 30 million Condition One-compatible cameras on the market. Condition One allows creators to transform their video into interactive stories using existing tools, such as Final Cut and Avid, and the company is working on its own editing software. It’s also looking letting other developers embed Condition One videos into their existing apps using an API.
I like what Condition One is doing and am tempted to get a more advanced camera just to create some of these videos. It’s great that users don’t have to buy special hardware but can use cameras already on the market. We’ve seen a lot of hype around 3-D but there’s been very little payoff, especially among consumers making their own 3-D video. But I’d like to see more uses of Condition One that help people experience moments such as, perhaps, the Olympics or other major events. I think documentaries could be really interesting, too, though it will definitely require a more open-ended approach to video (kind of like how video game designers allow for a broad set of actions inside a game). Or it could lead to some kind of choose-your-own-adventure type of video that lets people control the narrative.
It’s too bad that regular cameras and smartphones can’t capture this video. That would make it really interesting for many more people. But I still think this could become a big deal as bigger publishers and brands embrace the possibilities. | <urn:uuid:bf4f5428-ea28-4bf0-830a-8f0cee6e0c27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2012/06/13/is-condition-one-the-future-of-video-mark-cuban-thinks-so/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954963 | 889 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Thursday was the Tenth Annual Day of Prayer at the state Capitol. This year the national event focused on our troops overseas and government.
The Tenth Annual National Day of Prayer celebration was clearly Christian oriented, but there was no mention of Muslims and no Jewish presence, and a prayer for the media came across to some as threatening.
Mike Floyd, radio station owner, said, "Lord let us have an anointing for broadcast. Lord if someone is not willing to obey you, move them out and put someone else in that will obey you."
This is the smallest crowd in the ten-year history of the National Day of Prayer in this city. In addition to that, organized religion and government have seen some setbacks this year.
While school children clearly recited, the fate of those words remaining in the pledge is in limbo and will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Alabama, federal courts banned a display of a Ten Commandments monument. The American Civil Liberties Union, which supports prayer everywhere but in government, says the courts have been doing their job.
Larry Spalding with the ACLU, says, "When government and prayer come together in a political context, it's a false fix."
State officials say even if the national prayer event favored one religion, that's okay.
"I think we have opposite views on a lot of things opened right here in front of everyone. That's what the United States is all about," says Sen. Dab Webster, (R) Orlando.
In the past, state lawmakers have defeated most ideas to mix church and state. Jeb Bush is a regular at these Capitol prayer celebrations, but he was a no show this year. The governor was in Washington, DC for a series of meetings and for a Florida congressional dinner. | <urn:uuid:7cc6ceaa-deeb-47d0-851b-3d3bdf28ee9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/757547.html | 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 | 0.973233 | 366 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The St. Tammany Parish Zoning Commission agreed Tuesday night to recommend that the Parish Council rezone the land that encompasses the Tulane Primate Center near Covington as a medical research district, which allows buildings as high as 100 feet.
The commission voted 9-2 to change the property's zoning from a public facilities district to MD-4, a designation that Tulane believes is more compatible with the use of the property.
Jimmie Davis and Bill Matthews balked at the change, saying such a designation could allow Tulane or another property owner, should Tulane ever sell a portion of its land, to build 100-foot high buildings just 35 feet from residential areas. Three Rivers Road cuts through most of the nearly 530-acre compound, with the Bogue Falaya River serving as its western boundary.
Jeff Schoen, who represented Tulane before the commission, said Tulane has a self-imposed 200-foot buffer around the perimeter of its property. Tulane does not plan to build any 100-foot buildings as part of the center, but even if it did, such a building would be at least 200 feet away, Schoen said.
But Matthews worried that a future owner might not honor the 200-foot buffer, which is not required by deed restriction, and build tall buildings close to homes, particularly on the southern portion of the property closest to Interstate 12.
He tried to persuade the commission to leave that portion of the property as a PF-1 zone, which allows buildings no higher than 45 feet, but a motion to that effect failed.
Schoen tried to reassure Matthews that the commission would have to approve any plan by a new owner to develop a portion of the property, as it would need to go through the minor subdivision process.
At this time, Tulane uses about 50 percent to 60 percent of the property and plans to develop additional areas with buildings no higher than three or four stories for research, educational and animal care facilities, he said.
He also noted that these same discussions took place when the commission created the MD-4 district but that the commission chose to create the zone with the knowledge that Tulane would be seeking the zoning for this property.
Commissioner Martha Cazaubon said Tulane has been a good neighbor and that some of the commissioners were making the matter more difficult than it needed to be.
Christine Harvey can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 985.645.2853. | <urn:uuid:82f4203b-10e0-4bec-9f8a-6720ac9ca708> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nola.com/northshore/index.ssf/2010/05/tulane_primate_center_rezoning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96952 | 509 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the Dell Studio One 19 cannot be configured with an Atom processor.
Just a year ago, this category didn't exist. But after several Atom-powered all-in-one PCs debuted at CES in January, it's officially the hottest grouping of desktops on the market.
A category long dominated by Apple's $1,200 iMac is suddenly rife with nice-looking imitators that pack less power than traditional Windows desktops, but are also gentler on the wallet. They're a subcategory of desktop PCs called Nettops, and, like Netbooks, they're generally defined as a computing platform powered by the Atom processor that runs either Windows XP or a version of Linux. Combined with the all-in-one form factor and a smaller screen than most desktops (between 15 inches and 19 inches), they're essentially the Netbooks of the desktop category.
"A year ago I would have said Netbooks are not going to cannibalize the notebook market. Then the economy went kablooey," said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch. Since then, many people who needed a notebook have chosen to spend $400 on a Netbook instead of the typical $800 on a full-size notebook.
"I think we'll see something like that for Nettops," he said. "Either for retirees or younger folks who don't need the portability of a notebook, and just need something to get on the Internet and do basic computing. Nettops, and all-in-ones will be very attractive devices, and we expect to see a lot of retailers who have stayed out of it will jump into it."
The all-in-one category as a whole is expected to grow to more than 6 million units in 2009, and to over 7 million in 2010, according to DisplaySearch. That's almost an 80 percent spike in shipments, which was unexpected at the end of 2008.
Reinvigorating a tired category In fact, the rise of all-in-one Nettops looks to be the most interesting thing to happen to desktop PCs in years. And, just as the economy helped bolster Netbooks' appeal, so too will it make Nettops more attractive to buyers, industry watchers believe. … Read more | <urn:uuid:5e4c2cfa-0435-4ea1-998f-9002630b3545> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8300-5_3-0-246.html?categoryId=1089 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964384 | 477 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Q: Your high-schooler wants to trick-or-treat. Isn't this just an excuse to egg people's houses in a costume?
(from our panel of staff contributors)
This is a total trust call on the part of the parent and your teen's track record with you, and the group he intends to go with. (At this point, you will likely know who the trouble magnets are.) If you have made trips to bail him out of the local hoosegow, you probably will want to impose restrictions — like "Yes, dear, you may trick or treat, but I'm dressing up like Lady Gaga and coming with you." But if he has shown that he can follow the rules and meet your expectations, I say let him go.
— Denise Joyce
Sixteen is too old. By the time you're 16, going door-to-door in disguise isn't cute or adorable — it's vaguely threatening, and the neighbors will resent your kid's participation even if they might not say so. If your kid really wants to get into the Halloween spirit, let him or her put on a scary costume and take charge of candy distribution at your house. Or if there are younger kids in the house, or next door, let your teen be the costumed chaperon for the little ones. Without taking any candy.
— Phil Vettel
It may be an excuse to egg houses in costume. Or it may be an excuse to hang safely with pals and score some free candy. Do you really want to quash the latter in fear of the former?
"Parents sometimes forget to teach their kids to retain a fun and playful spirit throughout life," says clinical psychologist Barbara R. Greenburg, co-author of "Teenage as a Second Language" (Adams Media). "We send them the message that growing older is not fun, and that's not a good message to send."
Holidays, in particular, are a good time to remind kids — of all ages — about the importance of injecting fun and free-spiritedness in life, argues Greenburg, who also blogs at talkingteenage.com.
"It's a magical time," she says. "Let them celebrate."
Of course, if your teen has a history that gives you reason to believe he's more egg-minded than candy-minded, you'll need to set some parameters.
"He has to be home at a certain time, you have to know what neighborhood he's going to be in, he has to check in with you at a specific time in order to be allowed to go," Greenburg suggests. "You should have some ground rules."
But if you're relying largely on your imagination to conjure the evening's events, cut your kid some slack.
"What happens a lot during the teen years is kids communicate less with their parents, and the parents have less idea what's going on with them," says Greenburg. "The less information, the more likely you are to make negative assumptions."
In their defense, she says, parents are most often operating from a place of protectiveness and love.
"It's a fear that the worst might happen," she says, "rather than an assumption that kids are he-devils or she-devils."
Ideally, you can balance the desire to protect with the desire to raise a well-adjusted kid.
"We need to teach teens there's a time for seriousness and a time for fun, and this really ties into teaching kids about the importance of balance in life," Greenburg says. "People who do the best in life have the ability to work and play, and a resiliency skill that helps them skip through their days more easily."Got a solution?
You witnessed your 6-year-old shunning a new kid at the park. What's an appropriate response? Email us at email@example.com. Find "The Parent 'Hood" page on Facebook, where you can post your parenting questions and offer tips and solutions for others to try.
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Red Bull is much more than a soft drink - it is an energy drink. It was made for moments of increased physical and mental stress and improves endurance, alertness, concentration and reaction speed. In short: it vitalizes body and mind. The effectiveness of Red Bull Energy Drink has been proven by a large number of scientific studies and is appreciated by many of the world`s top athletes and drivers, opinion-leaders and hard-working people with active lifestyles.
Red Bull Energy Drink supplies tired minds and bodies with an immediate boost of energy from vitamins. Appreciated by athletes, professionals, students and drivers.
• Red Bull is the leading energy drink brand, with a 37% share of the entire energy drink category.
• With the highest consumption occurring in the morning, Red Bull is also heavily purchased throughout midday and evening.
• Consumers tend to buy Red Bull and another beverage, increasing incremental sales.
• Packaged beverages are the number two category in the c-store segment. | <urn:uuid:0a797db2-4771-457e-9e6b-2dbe58334dc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationwidecandy.com/snacks/items/S637127.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955162 | 202 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Despite an appeal from the state liquor control board for a veto, Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law Friday legislation making changes to the board and Utah's liquor laws.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to request that Herbert veto SB314. They objected to allowing the governor to appoint the chairman of the board instead of having commissioners select their own, and opposed allowing bars and restaurants to sell their liquor licenses.
Herbert had declined comment on the matter prior to signing the bill.
The bill also swaps 40 tavern licenses for 40 restaurant licenses, after restaurant chains complained that the available licenses were already allocated, keeping them from expanding in the state.
It prohibits bars from offering daily drink specials, bans mini-kegs that some local micro-breweries have begun selling and beefs up liquor enforcement.
The liquor bill was just one of 51 bills that Herbert signed into law Friday, including HB199 allowing school districts to sell advertisements on the sides of school buses, and HB220 that mandates that all schools must teach that the United States is a "compound constitutional republic," and not a democracy.
Another bill, HB177, would create a check-off on state income tax forms allowing taxpayers to contribute to a fund to buy body armor for police dogs, a bill prompted after a Midvale police dog was shot and killed in the line of duty.
The governor also signed SB123 that would prevent school districts from hiring lobbyists to work on Capitol Hill, although district employees could still lobby legislators. | <urn:uuid:97512dcb-e6f6-4d33-817c-4f5600651faa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51505598-76/allowing-bars-bill-board.html.csp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968878 | 307 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Parliament's Constitutional Affairs committee yesterday (27 May) rejected, by a slim one-vote majority, a proposal to raise the threshold for the creation of a political group, which in effect would ban two of the current parties from Parliament after the next election.
The issue will now be debated and put to vote by the full Parliament during the July plenary session. Any changes adopted would come into effect after the 2009 European elections.
Out of the 29 committee members, 15 voted 'no' while only 14 favoured the amendment, falling one vote short of the required absolute majority.
The two dominant parties, the centre-right EPP-ED and the Socialists, who were largely in favour of the amendment to make the Parliament more efficient, did not manage to close their ranks and bring all 16 MEPs behind the initiative.
This provides the smaller parties, notably INDEM (the European United and Nordic Green Left) and the UEN (Union for Europe of the Nations), whose survival will be seriously challenged if the new initiative comes into being, with breathing space until the plenary votes on the issue in July. | <urn:uuid:f2fbb58b-1d14-4ca7-acad-38fa1eaa459a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.euractiv.com/future-eu/small-political-groups-face-eu-parliament-ban/article-172764 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957535 | 227 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Erica Bovino, a Southington, Connecticut mother who was days away from her due date for her second child, found herself laboring at lightening speed and delivering her baby girl right on her bathroom floor. Today.com has more:
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She drew herself inward and did not panic. Summoning all of the relaxation and breathing techniques she knew, she chanted and moaned and stayed calm through the pain of labor.
Somehow, she managed to do what many would find unthinkable: Bovino delivered her daughter with her own hands while her 3-year-old son lay sleeping in a room nearby and her husband was rushing home from his overnight shift as a police officer.
“There was no time to be scared,” said Bovino, 34, of Southington, Conn. “You get into a primal mode. If I had an ounce of fear, I wouldn’t have been able to have a healthy outcome.”
Little Stella was born in the couple’s bathroom early on May 6, five days before her due date.
The birth was not without complications. The umbilical cord was severed during delivery and there was a lot of blood loss, Bovino said. But Stella did not require any special treatment at the hospital where mom and baby were taken after the birth for monitoring.
“I’m blessed that everything turned out the way it did, that she was healthy and I was healthy because, who knows, any number of things could go wrong in childbirth,” Bovino said.
Still, Bovino said, she hopes her unique experience will inspire pregnant women “to trust themselves and trust their bodies. For thousands of years, women birthed naturally. Now women don’t trust themselves and they fear the unknown of it.”
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
The amazing stories of survival abound in the tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, and now Shayla Taylor’s remarkable story of how she endured active labor during the worst of the storm–in a hospital that took a direct hit–is among those stories. NBC.com reports:
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The blow devastated the hospital, as news photos plainly show, ripping away the roof and walls.
After the chaos, Taylor said she heard not the freight train sound described by so many witnesses, but the absolute silence of the storm’s center. Then she opened her eyes.
“All of a sudden I could see daylight and the wall was gone,” she said. “I look out and I see I-35 and part of the Warren theater,” which later became the triage center for victims of the tornado that killed 24 and injured more than 230 people.
She had been dilated to 9 centimeters, nearly ready to deliver the baby, when nurses gave her a quick shot to slow labor during the height of the storm.
Taylor was quickly reunited with her husband, Jerome Taylor, 29, who had taken their 4-year-old son, Shaiden, to wait out the tornado with others in the hospital cafeteria. With the help of hospital workers, she was carefully carried through the destroyed building and out to a waiting ambulance, which whisked her 5 miles to another hospital in the Norman Regional Health System.
Three hours later, after doctors determined that the petite Taylor would need a cesarean section due to the baby’s size, she delivered Braeden Immanuel, a healthy 8-pound, 3-ounce boy.
“His middle name means ‘God is with us,’” said Taylor. “The name had been picked out for months. Now I know why.”
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
The drug Pitocin, which is used to induce labor or keep labor going when it has slowed or stopped, has been found in a new study to have adverse effects on newborn babies. The study, which was presented this week at the Annual Clinical Meeting of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, was the first to report a negative effect of the widely-used drug.
The study was based on data collected from 3,000 women who gave birth between 2009 and 2011. The results showed that women who were given oxytocin (Pitocin is the most common brand name of this type of drug) were more likely to deliver babies who were unexpectedly admitted to the NICU after birth, and that those babies were more likely to remain in the NICU for more than 24 hours. Babies born from Pitocin-augmented labors were also more likely to score less than 7 on the Apgar test, the standard test that evaluates a newborn’s physical condition at one and five minutes after birth based on appearance (skin coloration), pulse (heart rate), grimace response (medically known as “reflex irritability”), activity and muscle tone, and respiration (breathing rate and effort). An Apgar score of 8 or higher is generally regarded as the standard for a baby in good health.
Researchers insist that they are not advocating for Pitocin to be eliminated from the labor room, but instead that the drug should be used only when strongly indicated, not, for example, for an elective labor induction.
“We don’t want to discourage the use of Pitocin, but simply want a more systematic and conscientious approach to the indications for its use,” Dr. Michael S. Tsimis, the study’s primary investigator, said in a statement.
Image: Woman with IV in hospital, via Shutterstock
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Aimee and Ashlee Nelson, 19-year-old identical twins from Akron, Ohio, welcomed the new year in remarkable fashion–by each giving birth to a baby within hours of the other on New Year’s Eve. From Cleveland’s FOX 8 News:
The twins say they were born just 15 seconds apart themselves, but learned about two days apart that they were both expecting.
Their due dates were five days apart in early January.
On Monday, the two sisters ended up at Summa Akron City Hospital.
Aimee, whose expected due date was January 6, got to the hospital at 3:30 a.m.
Ashlee, who was due on January 1, was still at home.
“My mom told me that she was here and when I got up to go to the bathroom, my water broke so I had to come in too,” said Ashlee.
At a little after noon, Aimee was the first to deliver, welcoming a 7lb, 2oz son named Donavyn Bratten into the world.
A little less than two hours later, it was Ashlee’s turn, giving birth to an 8lb, 12 oz girl named Aiden Dilts.
“We didn’t think it was going to be this close at all,” said Aimee, admitting that they hoped it would turn out this way.
“We tried getting induced together but they wouldn’t let us. That was like two weeks ago, but it happened anyway,” added Aimee.
“We’re best friends,” said Ashlee of herself and her sister, who adds “Now our babies are going to be best friends.”
Image: Two pregnant bellies, via Shutterstock
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Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
Twin boys were born this past week on the road…two different roads, in fact. ABC News has the amazing story:
Siobhan and Bryan Anderson expected to welcome their twin baby boys next Friday, but Siobhan’s water broke at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning — nearly a full week early, Bryan said.
Heeding their doctor’s advice not to rush or panic, they took their time and got into the car at about 7 a.m.
Siobhan said she felt a big contraction, and suddenly felt the baby’s head, a few minutes after they pulled onto Southern State Parkway. She told her husband he was going to have to deliver the twins right there on the side of the road.
“She kept screaming, ‘The babies are coming,’” he said. “I was like, ‘I think we have time to at least get to the hospital.’”
Siobhan told Bryan to pull over near Exit 30, where he called 911….
“They were helping her out of the car and into the stretcher and that’s when Gavin was born,” he said. “Born right there on Southern State Parkway….”
Once Siobhan delivered the first baby, EMTs got her in the ambulance. The plan was to drive to the nearest hospital in time for her second son to be delivered.
Meanwhile, Bryan got back in his car and followed the ambulance, calling his brother-in-law to himself calm down.
“You don’t think at the time that this is the way they used to do it back in the day,” he said, adding that seeing his wife go through a surprise birth without pain medications was “very scary.”
But less than 10 minutes later, the ambulance pulled over on Wantagh State Parkway.
Confused, Bryan said he jumped out of the car. EMTs told him “baby number two” was coming, and let him in the back door of the ambulence.
At 7:46 a.m. Declan was born at 5 pounds, 15 ounces.
Image: Pregnant woman in car, via Shutterstock
Add a Comment | <urn:uuid:f43d578d-6a62-4604-b7e4-b1a68d8ff4e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parents.com/blogs/parents-news-now/tag/labor-and-delivery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983239 | 2,067 | 1.5 | 2 |
U.S., Iraq Deal Taking Shape — Troops Would Leave Cities By June in Draft Plan
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra; Robert Burns
BAGHDAD – Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have completed a draft security agreement that would see U.S. troops leave Iraqi cities as soon as June 30, 2009, Iraqi and American officials said Wednesday.
In addition, the Iraqi government has pushed for a specific date – most likely the end of 2011 – by which all U.S. forces would depart the country. It remains unclear if Washington has agreed to that.
“The improved security in Iraq allows us to have conversations with the Iraqis about setting goals for more American troops to come home and for the Iraqis to take the lead in more combat missions,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “Any dates in an agreement will be based on conditions on the ground because we do not want to lose the hard-fought gains of the surge.”
Senior Pentagon officials said the draft is consistent with U.S. objectives, which include setting a “time horizon” rather than a firm date for the future withdrawal of U.S. forces.
The Pentagon officials told The Associated Press the emerging deal is acceptable to the U.S. side, subject to formal approval by President Bush.
It also requires final acceptance by Iraqi leaders, and some members of Iraq’s Cabinet oppose some provisions.
Also completed is a companion draft document, known as a strategic framework agreement, spelling out in broad terms the political, security and economic relationships between Iraq and the United States.
The draft agreement addresses issues that are key points of contention in the U.S. presidential election – in particular, the future U.S. troop presence in Iraq. GOP hopeful Sen. John McCain is opposed to setting any timeline for withdrawals; his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, says he would bring all combat troops home from Iraq within 16 months.
An Iraqi official who was involved in the protracted negotiations said the latest draft was completed last week and sent to the two governments.
The Iraqi official said a compromise had been worked out on the contentious issue of whether to provide U.S. troops immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law, but he did not give details.
In Washington, U.S. military officials said the draft agreement reflects the U.S. position that the United States must retain exclusive legal jurisdiction over its troops in Iraq.
While Iraqi negotiators signed off on the draft, another official close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the country’s political leadership objected to parts of the text, including the immunity provision.
The Shiite-led government has been pressing for some sort of timeline for the departure of U.S. troops, saying that is essential to win legislators’ approval.
The security deal would govern the status of the 140,000-strong U.S. military force after the U.N. Security Council mandate for its mission expires at the end of 2008. Some details:
U.S. forces could leave Iraqi cities as soon as June30 .
Iraqis are pushing for a U.S. withdrawal deadline of 2011, but it’s unclear if Washington has agreed.
Pentagon officials said the draft maintains U.S. legal jurisdiction over its troops in Iraq.
Originally published by Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert Burns Associated Press .
(c) 2008 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:ad71564b-023e-42cd-a78d-8b3539a5131a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1529412/us_iraq_deal_taking_shape__troops_would_leave_cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964844 | 729 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The EU-funded P2P Next project has been beta testing a new open source streaming solution since late last week, streaming both a live webcam transmission and an archived video from the BBC through its BitTorrent-based SwarmPlayer. I had a chance to check in with P2P Next’s scientific director, Johan Pouwelse, today about the progress of the test. “(It’s been) positive beyond our expectations,” he told me, adding that more than 4,000 users have installed the latest beta version of SwarmPlayer.
Of course SwarmPlayer isn’t the only effort to utilize P2P for streaming video. In fact, hardly a week goes by without some startup pitching a new P2P streaming solution to us. These companies should pay close attention to P2P Next, not only because the project has €14 million to develop an open source streaming alternative, but also because broadcasters from the BBC to Germany’s ARD just seem to love the idea of ditching their proprietary platforms.
P2P Next’s SwarmPlayer is loosely based on research that a team of P2P developers at the Delft University of Technology has been doing in the last couple of years. The team, led by Pouwelse, has been publishing the social BitTorent client Tribler, and it started to test P2P Next’s BitTorrent-based streaming earlier this year with a closed beta test in cooperation with the Dutch BitTorrent website Mininova. Those early tests didn’t always work too well. We had difficulties accessing the streams when doing an early test for NewTeeVee back in February.
Pouwelse acknowledged that the system needed some tweaking early on, but the reason wasn’t that P2P wasn’t working. Instead, it worked too well, blasting the client with huge amounts of data that overloaded the client computer’s CPU and affected live playback. These initial problems have been fixed, according to Pouwelse, and in fact we had no problems accessing the two test transmissions with the SwarmPlayer client.
Even more interesting than then test itself, however, is who’s participating. P2P Next uses content from the BBC for it’s beta test. Granted, it’s not Dr. Who, just an outdated weather report, but the mere presence of a major broadcaster in a field test like this is noteworthy. Pouwelse says working with the BBC has had bigger benefits for the project than cooperating with Mininova did, since broadcasters like the BBC “have done TV for decades already.” The fact that the project’s not getting sued for copyright infringement might also help when it comes to conducting publicly funded research.
But of course there’s something in it for the BBC as well. The Beeb has been pushing out massive amounts of bandwidth through its iPlayer service. It’s been using Kontiki’s proprietary P2P client to offset some of that bandwidth for show downloads, but all streams have been completely server-based. The BBC also has been deemphasizing their Kontiki player, even though Kontiki’s president Eric Armstrong told us back in May the companys’ relationship is “very strong”.
Still, one has to wonder why broadcasters like the BBC would even need to buy services from Kontiki if a reliable, open source P2P solution existed. The same is obviously true for BitTorrent Inc’s DNA streaming solution and many other P2P streaming providers. BitTorrent Inc’s video streaming is based on a proprietary enhancement of the open source BitTorrent protocol, a strategy echoed by other P2P streaming solutions like the one from Mediamelon. So why not just use open source and get rid of those licensing costs?
Pouwelse agrees and goes so far as to call P2P Next’s efforts disruptive to the still-emerging P2P CDN market. “By developing a common open standard we can move P2P to the next level and craft a single overlay,” he told me, adding that he sees a potential to have an open standard for P2P streaming included in any future browser or next-generation television set. | <urn:uuid:acbfd8cd-ad45-46d8-9d21-f5751b5b161a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2008/07/24/open-source-p2p-streaming-getting-ready-to-disrupt-cdn-business-models/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949735 | 899 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Getting Frank in the war on drugs
YOUR teenager is moody, unpredictable, up all night and asleep all day. They mope around the house, refusing to speak unless it’s to their friends down a mobile telephone. They get on your nerves, you get on theirs, you argue and doors are slammed.
Typical teenage behaviour? Or could it be a sign of something much more worrying - that the son or daughter who just a few years earlier enjoyed nothing more than playing with their Action Man or Barbie dolls is now involved in the world of illegal drugs?
According to many sources, there’s a fair chance that your moody youngster may well be demonstrating typical drug abuse behaviour - nearly five out of ten secondary school children questioned by Scotland Against Drugs in 2000 claimed they had been offered drugs, while 17 per cent admitted using them, with boys more likely than girls to indulge.
Even the signs from government seem to suggest that parents must accept that their children come into regular contact with all kinds of illegal substances, with recent drugs education initiatives revealing a steady shift away from the zero tolerance approach towards informing them how to reduce the chances of harm.
Indeed, Westminster’s latest approach is a controversial 3 million advertising campaign for a drugs information website, www.talktofrank.com, which blends graphic information on how to feed drug requirements and avoid the wrong drugs cocktails with quirky jokes and even an agony aunt column. "Don’t mix Ketamine (a tranquilliser) and tobacco", it warns. "If the ketamine knocks you out you could burn the house down".
But for parents concerned about their youngsters’ likelihood to dabble with drugs, it’s no laughing matter. Confronted by either the hard evidence of their child’s habit or the crippling fear that their moody youngster may well be tinkering with ecstasy, cannabis or cocaine, simply accepting the drugs menace may not be an option they want to consider.
For them, the statistics are chilling: 60,000 people have died in Scotland over the past 20 years from drug misuse and there are currently 56,000 heroin users across the country. Use of crack and cocaine has increased by more than 200 per cent in Scotland in the past five years, while the number of babies born to drug-addicted mothers has dramatically increased to one in every 56 babies born.
Even closer to home - and school - last November a 14-year-old pupil at St Thomas of Aquins was charged by police for being in possession of cannabis, while a UK Drugs Unlimited report of clubbers in Edinburgh and Glasgow showed nearly half of them, mostly undergraduates and young professionals, had taken cocaine.
And there may be further cause for them to be worried: from July 1 cannabis becomes a class C drug rather than class B, and punishments for personal use become much less severe.
So where does it leave the worried parent who would rather not see their youngster stumble through early adulthood and into prison, in a drug-induced haze? And what if they want to guide their teenager away from the drug dealer’s trap long before any damage can be done?
Unfortunately for them, trying to figure out whether their youngster’s unsociable behaviour is just another annoying symptom of adolescence or a warning sign that they could be tampering with illegal drugs, is far from an exact science.
However, help for them could come in the form of a new programme from Australia, which is said to have helped thousands of families there deal with the threat of harmful drugs and sustained misuse.
How to Drug Proof Your Kids, unveiled at the Scottish Parliament last week, is specifically designed to educate parents about substance misuse through a series of community-based programmes led by fellow parents trained by the organisation, along with drug education and child care professionals. The first Scottish session is expected to be held at an Edinburgh primary school in autumn.
"It may not be possible to stop children from trying out tobacco, alcohol or illicit drugs," concedes Jacqui Foggitt, manager of Care for the Family’s office in Scotland - the charitable Christian organisation which has brought the initiative from Down Under.
"But extensive research shows that parents can play a vital role in keeping their children from long-term involvement in substance abuse."
The six-point programme of two-hour sessions covers key areas including: the extent of the drugs problem; why young people indulge; how to educate children to make "good" choices; prevention tools for parents; learning to intervene and where to get help, and advice on how to handle "relapses".
The package - which focuses on stressing to parents the need to build a strong relationship with their children long before a drugs crisis may even arise - was put together from a book, Drug Proof Your Kids, written by Dr Steve Arterburn, who has a doctorate in addictions and runs several clinics in America, and his colleague Jim Burns in the late 1980s.
It urges parents to arm themselves with knowledge of the drugs scene - from how drug dealers prey on and befriend vulnerable young children to street names for drugs - to become aware of support groups in their area and how to deal rationally with evidence of their child’s drug use.
"Parents need to understand and respond in a way most appropriate to their situation," states the programme. "To simply tell children who are already casual or dependent users to stop taking drugs is naive. As is lecturing young people that ‘all they have to do is say no’. It is a much more complex issue, and there are psychosocial and health issues that need to be addressed."
Blowing your top or finger-wagging is exactly what parents should not do, agrees one Edinburgh parent with direct experience of a drug-abusing son.
"I look back on how I handled it and there are many things I probably did wrong," says the 57-year-old father who lives in the west of Edinburgh. "I didn’t know what to look for, where to go or who to talk to. I didn’t understand what it was all about."
His son started smoking cannabis 14 years ago at the age of 13, although his suspicions were only really aroused when he noted evidence of him smoking roll-ups instead of cigarettes. "I didn’t know anything about smoking hash - I didn’t even know what it looked like," he admits.
"My son said hash was ok, most kids have either been offered it or tried it by the time they are 16 or 17. What do you say? It was tremendously difficult. I didn’t know what to look for and found I was always second-guessing my son. Eventually it became much more serious than hash."
His son now has a heroin addiction which has seen him spend long periods in prison and left his father shattered.
"He spends about 50 per cent of his time in prison - addicts who take drugs and then go out stealing usually get caught," says the father, who asked not to be identified. "He has even run up a drugs bill while in prison and then got into trouble trying to pay it back once he was released by smuggling drugs back inside.
"The whole culture of drugs brings bewilderment, stress and hurt, a whole selection of feelings. I’ve even had to go down to his dealers and try to pay them off. It’s hard for the parents as well."
He believes the key to helping parents is encouraging communication with children at an early age, gathering as much information as possible and learning to identify warning signs - just the kind of skills which How to Drug Proof Your Kids appears to stress.
"This is primarily a parenting course," explains Jacqui Foggitt. "It’s about improving the relationship between parents and their children with the emphasis on drugs." The course also advises parents on how and where to find support and advice at local level and how to support their child should they relapse by looking at diet, emotional state and the issues which may have led to drug abuse in the first place.
Paula Pridham, training manager for the programme, adds: "The course is aimed at prevention, it’s about parents learning how to relate to their children to put in enough protective factors so they don’t feel the need to try drugs. It looks at building self-esteem, open communication and making sure children are well educated about drugs. And it’s about parents looking at their own behaviour and lifestyle."
Indeed, the most recent Scottish anti-drugs television adverts also strived to show parents how they shouldn’t react, with two furious parents wagging fingers and simultaneously shouting at their sullen daughter after discovering her dalliance with drugs.
Alistair Ramsay, director of Scotland Against Drugs, agrees that this approach is the wrong one. "Parents often get it wrong because they don’t want to think their children know more about a subject than they do. And drugs can be an emotive topic.
"We want to encourage children to look up and beyond drugs, rather than wag fingers at them. Finger wagging and sermonising about don’t do this and don’t try that often backfires."
Paula Pridham agrees. "Parents will want to scream and kick them out of the house. They won’t ever want to see their child again. And that’s the wrong way to handle it. They have to think about how they might react beforehand, so that if drugs do become an issue they can talk about it with their child in a positive way and not an emotive one that doesn’t help anyone."
New heights for extreme sports fans’ festival
EXTREME sports fans are to be given the chance to watch their peers perform death defying stunts thanks to a new festival of short films to be opened in Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival will show a series of short films on mountaineering, skiing and snowboarding, kayaking and canoeing, and other sports on Wednesday, October 8 and Thursday, October 9.
The Festival will be staged at the Caledonian Brewery, Slateford Road, and 250 people are expected each night to witness short films focusing on mountain sports taken to the extreme. These will be followed by a slide show presentation by a leading figure from the world of mountaineering.
This year’s speakers are Scott Muir and Jamie Andrew. Mr Muir is one of Britain’s leading mixed climbers and will speak about his recent attempt to climb some never repeated Alpine routes that were first conquered by legendary Edinburgh mountaineer Dougal Haston.
Mr Andrew’s climbing career appeared to be cut short in 1999 after a horrific accident on Mont Blanc cost him both his hands and feet after they were ravaged by frostbite during a five-day ordeal on an icy ridge. His companion, Jamie Fisher, died after the pair were trapped in bad weather.
However, Mr Andrew made an inspirational recovery and became the first quadruple amputee to climb Ben Nevis. Last year he managed to climb some rock routes graded Very Severe.
Clowns serious for Lothian meet
CLOWNS from across the globe will descend on Midlothian next month for an International Clown Summit.
More than 40 clowns are expected to attend a week-long event in Dalkeith.
The comical characters have agreed to help put smiles on the faces of polio sufferers by supporting Rotary International’s Polio Eradication Campaign.
Dalkeith and Esk Valley Rotarian Clubs are hosting a Clown Extravaganza in the grounds of Dalkeith Palace, High Street, Dalkeith, on Thursday, June 12, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.
An evening of slapstick, fun and games is promised, as well as fundraising stalls and musical entertainment.
Clowns from Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Britain, Israel and America will entertain visitors.
Prior to the extravaganza, the performers will be clowning around in Midlothian primary schools, which Rotarians have organised for them to visit.
Timing is right for Tempo gig
CHARITY youth group Tempo are following their success of the Sound of Musicals last year with a fundraising concert next week entitled Razzle Dazzle.
Performers aged between ten and 17 will be taking part in the musical extravaganza, which will feature a mix of songs from both stage and screen, emphasising Tempo’s aim to encourage and stimulate youngsters’ awareness of the performing arts.
The Tempo Youngstars will be performing with the regular cast at Edinburgh’s Church Hill Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 10 and 11 at 7.30pm.
City designer makes it two in a row with architect prize
LEADING city architect Malcolm Fraser has scooped a top Scottish design prize for the second year running.
Mr Fraser was named Architect of the Year at the prestigious Scottish Design Awards, which was held in Glasgow on Friday night.
The Scottish Design Awards, staged by The Drum magazine, cover the entire design spectrum from brochure and new media to architectural design.
There were 72 nominations in total for a range of prestigious awards with 18 designers and 12 architects picking up prizes.
Greenbank Parish Church in Morningside won the Best Public/Leisure Space Award for the kirk’s new contemporary multi-purpose hall for its parish church.
The church’s congregation raised around 1 million to meet building costs for the scheme, which was designed by Lee Boyd Ltd of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh-based Reiach and Hall Architects won the best use of photography award, while Oliver Chapman Architects was highly commended for the best domestic project.
City architect Allan Murray was also commended for best public project for Edinburgh City Council’s new Under-fives nursery in the Cowgate.
Today, Mr Fraser, who leapt to prominence with the award-winning Dance Base in the Grassmarket, said he was delighted with the award.
"It is pleasing because this is voted by fellow professionals. I won it last year with Dance Base. In the intervening year, I have been vocal on various issues about architecture in Scotland.
"I believe the award reflects the fact that people like what I say, my optimism about architecture in Scotland and how business and heritage groups should work together."
He added: "It’s not about starting again, but valuing what we’ve got."
Shear joy as sheep flock in
AROUND 4000 sheep will descend on the Capital later this month for the Golden Shears World Sheep Shearing and Wool Handling Championships.
The world’s top shearers and wool handlers are expected to compete in the two-day contest at the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston, which begins on June 21.
four-time world champion David Fagan and Scots pair Tom Wilson and Hamish Mitchell will all compete in the event, the first time it has been held in Scotland.
Competitors from a host of other countries including Australia, South Africa, Austria, France and the Falkland Islands will also take part.
The competition is divided into four sections, wool handling, team, world blade and world individual.
A purpose-built open-air "theatre" featuring sheep pens and a stage for the competing shearers has been built for the event, which is forecast to inject up to 100,000 into the city's economy.
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Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 20 May 2013
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
Temperature: 6 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west | <urn:uuid:324e8ce4-761c-4d10-b28f-4aaaf738bfe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scotsman.com/news/getting-frank-in-the-war-on-drugs-1-881629 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969664 | 3,281 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Passive Agriculture . . . what a great expression and what a great idea. It's the notion that I can harvest what's growing in my yard that I didn't plant, that it actually has some use—say, for dinner!
Some people crave unbroken expanses of green in their yards, every blade of grass identical in color, shape and height, not a weed anywhere. Such yards typically are obtained through the meticulous efforts of a truckload of guys laden with chemicals and machinery. But I find that kind of yard really pretty boring. I prefer the wild 'n wooly look, with a variety of types of grass and plant life giving the place some diversity and interest. AND incidental food.
As a Southern girl, I understand the soil and climate of an entirely different region of the country from where I live now. Living in the desert just doesn’t come naturally to me, and I struggle to get anything to grow in our sandy, nutrient-deprived, full-sun yard in Los Angeles. Even if I succeed in getting anything to grow, the squirrels and possums—and rats—come through when I'm not looking and help themselves to what’s out there. So taking advantage of what's hardy enough to survive in my little postage stamp of desolation—without attracting the attention of the local varmints—is a necessity.
Let’s face it—whether you buy plants or seeds and place them in your yard yourself or you pick a few dandelion leaves to incorporate into your salad, you’re getting plants that have had the same water and care, regardless of which side of the little artificial border from the local weed-n-seed those plants grow on.
A weed is merely a plant that isn’t where you wanted it to be. Nettles, dandelions and chickweed all grow in my yard and I’m happy for that, as they nicely augment the lettuce, chard, sorrel and herbs I’ve planted. Incidentally, you can batter and lightly fry the yellow dandelion blossoms and eat them as well as their leafy appendages.
Sometimes I rely on things that were planted for other reasons. I garnish salads and dishes with nasturtium blossoms. And while I never manage to get any grapes—the birds harvest them long before they’re ripe—I pick the leaves, blanch and brine them and use them for making dolmates.
With a little research to be sure I don’t poison myself, I find grazing in the backyard to be a good way to trim the food bill a bit and take advantage of what Mother Nature offers. | <urn:uuid:5eac11af-69ba-46c1-9f9e-ed577060955c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hungrypassport.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.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 | 0.960904 | 558 | 1.804688 | 2 |
By OSV readers -OSV Newsweekly, 12/11/2011
Rationale for one Roman Missal revision
Re: “Curtain time for the revised Mass” (In Focus, Nov. 20).
Your article on the new Roman Missal explains the response, “And with your spirit” in a way much the same as has been explained by other authoritative sources. It is that through the “Sacrament of Holy Orders, Christ has configured the priest’s soul to himself in a special way ...”
That being the case, I have to wonder why is the same response made to a deacon when he introduces the Gospel reading? The deacon, though ordained, is not configured in the manner that is the priest.
It makes one wonder whether the rationale for some of the changes was established after the wording was agreed upon rather than before. In the end, perhaps, all that matters is that it is faithful to the Latin, regardless of the meaning it has when we say it.
— Deacon Joseph Keenan, Netcong, N.J.
Re: “Ten things to do before you kick the bucket” (In Focus, Dec. 4)
That’s a great list, but since I did my undergrad at Belmont Abbey College and am working on my master’s degree at St. Meinrad School of Theology, I think my bucket list is more simple and easily done. I would add “Do a monastery tour of the U.S.A. or E.U.” Travel from abbey to abbey, stay a few days and donate, if able. I’m a firm believer that all the best “Catholic culture” can be found in your friendly neighborhood monastic community: art, architecture, chant, theology, stewardship of creation and healthy social concern.
— Elizabeth Suaso, via comments
Held into account
Re: “A call for reform” (Editorial, Nov. 6).
If I understand the Vatican’s document, we have a serious concern in our country and global community today to make the greatest number of citizens productive and to grow our nation as well as promote investment abroad. First we may need to address the difference between an accountant and the bellwether economist.
To provide for the world’s financial reform we must be accountable. The accountant, like Pope Benedict XVI, is the one who takes a look at the books. The servants in Matthew 25:14-30 were held accountable. The unfortunate one who buried his treasure was in serious trouble.
One will ask an economist what are the odds for the occupier (on Wall Street) who buries his talents. Unable to make a move, he will likely lose out to the risk taker who knows the rules, studies his moves carefully and rolls the dice in order to buy holdings and the many options in a Monopoly game to come out a winner.
What, we ask the economist, are the chances the “gravy train” comes along for those who line up for a free ticket and a ride to the future, who want no messy conditions or rules to follow, will take his chances alongside the helpless, homeless and infirm.
The accountant is obliged by the Good Book to tell the befuddled occupier that without skin in the game, you don’t pass Go.
— Sheridan J. Arnold, Denver, Colo.
Re: “Beyond Penn State” (Spectator, Nov. 27).
It’s really a shame that Greg Erlandson chooses to treat the assertions in a grand jury report as Gospel truth and to join the rush to judgment about what Penn State authorities were told about Jerry Sandusky and what they did and didn’t do.
In the process, his journalistic boots have joined in the trampling into the mud of a basic principle of our justice system: innocent until proven guilty, and of the reputations of decent men. As Erlandson no doubt knows, there have been many people released from prison and totally exonerated in recent years, even though they had been sent to trial on grand jury reports every bit as damning as the one concerning Penn State.
One would think a Catholic journalist might be more concerned about the moral gravity of repeating assertions that cast the character of men like Mike McQueary and Joe Paterno in the darkest of tones. And he might want to ponder the fact that the accusation against Paterno amounts to the same one made about John Paul II regarding Father Marcial Maciel, that his administration received reports about Father Maciel molesting boys and did nothing.
— Mark Gronceski, Warren, Ohio
Refreshing role model
Re: “Blitzing Tebow” (Catholic Journal, Dec. 4).
Until bigotry is eliminated, we will always have situations like the ones Robert P. Lockwood addresses in his column.
It is so refreshing to have a Christian role model for the young people to emulate. I think we all should thank God for Tim Tebow and his public witness to his faith in Jesus Christ. We all can learn from him that it’s an awesome thing to be a Christian in today’s world, and that we must stand firm in the faith.
— Peggy Doyle, via comments
Source of guidance
Re: “St. Steve of Apple?” (Faith, Dec. 4).
While I admire Steve Jobs for being a tech/business visionary, that’s the only thing I find admirable about him. His biography shows very little to admire in his personal and family lives. This article puts a grounding perspective on who Steve Jobs is. This shows the difference between a visionary guided by money and a visionary guided by the Spirit.
Please note: Comments left online may be considered for publication in the Letters to the Editor section of OSV Newsweekly.
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Catholic Faith Resources | For Catholic Parishes | Order OSV Products | RSS | Advertise | About Us | Contact Us | Jobs | <urn:uuid:e7481bcc-3298-48ce-aafd-5f1b45ecbeef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8776/OSV-Letters-to-the-Editor.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955235 | 1,270 | 1.625 | 2 |
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Brief author info: Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French moralist and essayist.
Showing: 1 - 10 Michel de Montaigne Quotes of 189
I admire the assurance and confidence everyone has in himself, whereas there is hardly anything I am sure I know or that I dare give my word I can do.
What a man hates, he takes seriously.
If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.
Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability.
He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.
Kings and philosophers shit; and so do ladies.
Opinion is a powerful party, bold, and without measure.
The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
Men ... are not agreed about any one thing, not even that heaven is over our heads.
How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defense and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth and innocence itself?
A woman we love rarely satisfies all our needs, and we deceive her with a woman whom we do not love.
There are times when sorrow seems the only truth.
You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.
If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it. | <urn:uuid:237047ef-bbab-4538-95c9-c5490bf23c87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifequoteslib.com/authors/michel_de_montaigne.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958553 | 365 | 1.726563 | 2 |
When I travel, you will most likely find me in hole-in-the-wall restaurants, run-down eateries, or markets that offer traditional and authentic local foods. Nowadays, food has defined where I travel to, and eating local is a big part of all my travels. Through local cuisines, I’ve come to learn–and appreciate–the unique culture, traditions, and heritage that represent the places I go to. Eating local food is also a nod to the many dedicated and passionate mom-and-pop chefs who feverishly preserve their culinary identity and legacy through the foods they serve, and Ono Hawaiian Foods is one such restaurant…(learn more about traditional Hawaiian food after the jump)
When it comes to traditional Hawaiian food, the mental picture of luau springs to mind instantly. Luau is basically a Hawaiian feast that features local foods, hula dances, and island music. The foods offered at Ono consist of luau foods (sans the festive luau, dances, and music) and other ala carte local dishes.
We had a combination plate–a traditional Hawaiian food sampler–with six dishes: kalua pig, laulau chicken, pipikaula, lomi salmon, haupia, and poi. Poi is the staple Hawaiian food–a mixture of taro root (or corm) with water. The corm is cooked, peeled, and then mashed by hands using a stone pestle until a desired sticky consistency is reached. Water is added during the process. Poi is mostly eaten like rice, where you take a bite of a savory food such as kalua pig, laulau, or lomi salmon and follow it with a taste of poi.
Out of all the dishes we had, I especially enjoyed the laulau chicken. Wrapped with layers of taro leaves (yes, they are edible and taste like watercress but with a distinct aroma), laulau is steamed for hours. As a result, the meat contained inside the parcel–either pork or chicken–becomes exceedingly tender and juicy with the chicken meat practically falling off the bones. It was simply delicious!
The kalua pig was pretty good, too, with pulled pork kind of consistency. Poke, or raw fish mixed with seaweed, is another renowned island dish. Lomi salmon (or lomi-lomi salmon) is a tomato and salmon salad. Pipikaula are slices of beef jerky, and haupia is a pleasing local dessert with coconut milk and milk.
There you have it, traditional Hawaiian food that is humble but rich in characteristics and unique in its own sense. Please check out the gallery above to view individual item.
Ono Hawaiian Foods
726 Kapahulu Avenue
Open Monday-Saturday 11:00 am to 8:00pm | <urn:uuid:562190f3-096a-4ca9-8b6b-6fda648a0e6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rasamalaysia.com/traditional-hawaiian-food/comment-page-1/?pid=2376 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935999 | 596 | 1.734375 | 2 |
BOCA RATON, Fla. - It's not football or a rock start bringing out the crowds at FAU's campus Tuesday - it was President Barack Obama.
Stifling the excitement was impossible.
"The only words coming out of my mouth all morning is, I'm so excited, this is so cool, no really," says Pauline Holsker, a student.
Many were in awe and impressed that Mr. Obama stopped by. Having a ticket to hear his speech was a major accomplishment for many students.
"It's like a golden ticket, like Willy Wonka. Everyone is saying I got the golden ticket," says Bailey Hamm.
Several FAU Honors students took the Tri-Rail from Jupiter Tuesday morning to arrive early.
"We're skipping classes and as Honor students that's a big deal to us, but it's the President and it's an historic opportunity," says Rachel Blythe.
About 1000 others from the tri-county area were hanging on the President's every word about the economy and the Buffett Rule.
"We're here to stand with the President and say the one-percent needs to pay their fair share also," says Terry Scott, from Deerfield Beach.
They feel FAU is the perfect platform for that message.
"With it being an election year, it's a great target to come to a college campus and talk to the youth of the nation," says Hamm.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:395e1bf8-ce13-4525-9871-812a8a252767> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_s_palm_beach_county/boca_raton/president-obamas-visit-to-fau-creates-buzz-on-campus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979884 | 326 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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On 19 December 2002 CISS lodged a complaint to the ABC, the latest of a series of complaints to the ABC over the previous 14 years.
The Background History
CISS first acquainted the staff at ABC Radio in about 1987 with information showing that most orthodox cancer therapies had not been shown to be effective and actually caused significant harm in many cases; and that there were some alternative therapies, based on a different paradigm, that appeared to have significant benefits and were not harmful; and that we believed these therapies were being suppressed. We received no acknowledgement of this material that was provided to Dr Norman Swan.
Over the subsequent years we sent several letters to the ABC about this problem.
In July 1990 as the evidence mounted supporting our claims we wrote to the ABC’s Andrew Olly program and the ABC General Manager raising the same issue again. In August 1990 we also wrote to the ABC program “The Investigators” pointing out this situation.
When Don Benjamin’s first paper, “The Efficacy of Surgical Treatment of Cancer”, was published in early 1993 we again drew Norman Swan’s attention to the situation and sent a News Release to the ABC on the issue . This paper showed that there was no evidence from any randomised trials that surgery affected survival in any type of cancer. No media outlets aired the Release.
We raised the issue again with ABC Radio in November 1996 when Don’s second paper, “The Efficacy of Surgical Treatment of Breast Cancer”, was published and sent a News Release to ABC radio and TV. (This paper showed that all the randomised trials evaluating mammograms were flawed and that early detection of breast cancer with mammograms had not produced any increased survival; so the conclusions from Don’s earlier paper were still valid. The paper also identified one of the major sources of the errors: the results had ignored several “confounding variables” because post-screening treatment differed between the two matched groups.)
In August 1998 the ABC’s Health Report covered the mammography screening issue, in particular the information provided to women to help them make a choice. Although it was a very useful program in that it highlighted the shortcomings in current information supplied to women, it included comments such as “Clinical treatments these days are very effective. We know that five out of those seven women will survive their breast cancer.”
There is no reliable evidence from randomised trials that survival is affected by clinical treatment; rather it appears that survival figures reflect what would have happened without treatment. So it is not good for people developing information booklets to be misinformed about efficacy and passing this on to women who rely on such booklets for accurate information.
The program also repeated the invalid claim that mammography screening reduces mortality from breast cancer by 30%. These invalid claims were also made by Associate Professor Jeanette Ward who runs the Needs Assessment and Health Outcomes Unit at Central Sydney Area Health Service.
In January 1999 ABC Life Matters had another biased program on the treatment of late-stage breast cancer in that it failed to mention the benefits of psychotherapy that had been shown in two randomised trials not only to have a dramatic effect on survival with late stage breast cancer patients but also to improve their quality of life. We again wrote to Life Matters expressing our concern with continued bias on this Program.
In May 1999 ABC Health Report/Life Matters had another biased program on breast cancer that failed to mention the role of the mind/emotions in the treatment of cancer. We again wrote to the ABC expressing concern at the two programs’ bias.
We received a reply from Dr Norman Swan dated 9 June in which he stated that “he” believed that psychotherapy is not a proven treatment for breast cancer because “there is not enough research in that area to make a solid recommendation”. His understanding was that “the main evidence relates to the survival rates for women who receive good support from each other and from their families” thus ignoring the results of two well-run randomised trials by Spiegel and Eysenck published in 1989 and 1991 respectively, both of which he must have been aware of as he had mentioned them in passing on earlier programs.
In June 1999 we again wrote to the ABC summarising our complaints over the years and referring to the ABC relying on Norman Swan deciding what its listeners would hear. We received a reply from Andrew Lloyd James, then Head ABC National Networks essentially admitting bias by stating that “the [Health Report] program is constrained by medical orthodoxy – it would be irresponsible if it were not….” and stating that the Program would not air views suggesting that Psychotherapy could help people with breast cancer because “the program’s producers believe medical orthodoxy is clear that psychotherapy is not an effective treatment for cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can all be effective…”
In other words no other viewpoints would be considered by the Health Report or Life Matters that questioned the current orthodox paradigm, irrespective of the latest evidence.
In July 1999 we wrote to the ABC General Manager citing the ABC’s recent response as an confirmation of a conflict of interest on the part of the ABC, contrasting it with the more objective ABC TV program “Too Much Medicine”.
In January 2000 the Lancet published a paper by the Nordic Cochrane Group whose findings confirmed those of this Society that had been published in 1996, viz mammograms have not been shown to save lives. The trials claiming reduced mortality were all biased and failed to correct for several variables (as Don had pointed out). Their conclusions were widely criticised by the cancer establishment.
We again wrote to the General Manager, ABC pointing out that Norman Swan was still claiming on air that “mammograms save lives” despite this evidence to the contrary recently published in the Lancet and that such comments were misleading its listeners.
In October 2000 we wrote to the new CEO Jonathon Shier complaining about continued bias by ABC Radio.
In December 2000 we raised the issue of bias on ABC Radio with the Senate ECITA Reference Committee, S1.57.
In July 2001 the ABC issued a Health Minute reporting that early detection using breast self examination did not produce benefits and caused harm. For years the Health Report had claimed that breast self-examination was a useful technique for early detection. The ABC had changed tack only because the cancer establishment had been forced to admit they had been wrong.
In October 2001 the Nordic Cochrane Group republished its paper in the Lancet reconfirming what our Society had been saying and adding that (like breast self-examination) mammographic screening not only produced no benefits but also produced harm, including more aggressive treatment. ABC Radio continued its biased presentation by airing views from only one side of the debate, those criticizing the Cochrane Group’s findings.
For example the ABC issued a News Item “Cancer Council encourages women to ignore Danish research and the ABC issued an item as Health News on the debate over evidence for breast screening in which two people were interviewed, both of whom rejected the findings of the Nordic Cochrane Group. No other opinion was aired to answer their criticisms in either ABC news report. So we wrote to the Manager, ABC Radio pointing this out.
In November 2001 Norman Swan issued a Health Minute pointing out that “proponents of breast screening point to falling death rates from breast cancer in the population at a time when the incidence of breast cancer is rising as a positive indication that it’s working”. He then cited results from a report that he said provided “encouragement for women to be screened”. He said the report showed that breast screening discovered tumours that were “significantly smaller with fewer involved lymph nodes” which he said should translate to better outcomes” thus again reflecting only one side of the debate. He did not mention that the review of the breast cancer screening trials showed that although these effects were found in the screening trials they had not translated into better outcomes.
Nor did he mention that mortality rates had fallen and risen again several times in Australia and the current mortality rates are no better than those of 30 years ago, well before screening was introduced. He also did not mention that all screening programs result in an increasing incidence of the particular cancer, so comparisons of changes in incidence and mortality are fraught with problems of interpretation. Nor did he mention that such comparisons are much less reliable than randomized trials.
In effect Norman Swan took sides in the debate, ignoring evidence from reviews of randomised trials and accepting far less reliable evidence. In supporting him in doing so the ABC management effectively stifled all opposing views in the debate.
In April 2002 Norman Swan again presented only one side of the debate by quoting from a paper by Nystrom et al who had reviewed several of the Swedish mammogram trials and ignored the adverse findings by the Nordic Cochrane Group. Nystrom had broken all the principles of interpreting randomized trials and compared a sub-group of women in one trial arm with all of those in the control arm, thus making any conclusion invalid. He had claimed that women invited for screening who had actually been screened had a 21% lower risk of dying from breast cancer than those who weren’t invited for screening. Nystrom had ignored the increased deaths from other causes that had accompanied their reduced deaths from breast cancer, one of the reasons Don had found in his 1996 paper that the mammogram trials were all invalid, a point confirmed by the Nordic Cochrane Group.
The ABC has in effect, by taking sides in this debate, decided that it knows more about randomised trials than the world’s leading specialists in assessing clinical trials in medical science, the Cochrane Collaboration. In fact it then refuses to allow anyone to outline any plausible alternative explanations for falling breast cancer mortality rates although there are several available.
Don Benjamin was the first Australian scientist to identify serious methodological flaws in all of the randomised trials evaluating the efficacy of mammographic screening in improving survival and have his results were published. Randomised controlled trials are supposed to allow only one factor to vary. He found that all the trial authors allowed up to six factors to vary and did not correct for any of these other factors. He then identified one possible explanation for the observed reduction in deaths from breast cancer after screening and this explanation has never been refuted. (This is that harm from radiotherapy or chemotherapy had resulted in more women in the screened group dying of causes other than breast cancer, so that while breast cancer deaths fell in some trials this was accompanied by similar increases in deaths from other causes. So overall death rates were not reduced by screening.) Rather this explanation has not only been confirmed in the Nordic Cochrane Review referred to above but also in
l a recent review of other randomised cancer screening trials (colorectal and lung cancer) that have found serious and similar flaws in their methodology that render their conclusions questionable;
l a review of trials evaluating the harm from radiotherapy;
l a review of apparent percentage increased survivals; and
l discovery of harm from intervention in all forms of cancer.
Earlier last year The New York Times devoted a lead editorial to the subject of the questionable conclusions from the mammogram trials in the light of the Nordic Cochrane Review. In its editorial Uncertainty Over Mammograms, it questioned the likelihood of ever getting an honest answer to the question of whether or not mammography is a worthwhile screening technique.
"It may not be easy to get a truly independent review. Mammography has been so strongly endorsed by the cancer establishment and has become such a significant source of revenue and patients for many hospitals and doctors that it may be difficult to excise without overwhelming evidence that it is dangerous."
In contrast the Australian public has heard little of this debate. The ABC has presented only one side of the debate and suppressed all opposing viewpoints.
This is the context of our recent complaints about bias in ABC Radio.
When ABC Health Report’s Rae Fry was interviewed by Norman Swan in July 2002 about the reliability of information on websites she claimed that the ABC was a trusted source because it relies in the “best available evidence”.
We therefore wrote to her to explain why we disagreed, concluding with the comment: “So the ABC presumably sees no need for Australian women to hear that the world's leading independent research collaboration whose work is based on the principles of evidence-based medicine has found that mammograms are not justified”.
Her reply missed the point. She thought we meant that the issue had not had sufficient coverage. In her response she listed five occasions when the mammogram screening issue had been covered by ABC Radio in recent times.
We had said the issue had not been covered objectively because it had only aired one side of the debate. In fact in all of the five cases she cited as fair coverage, none aired viewpoints supporting the Nordic Cochrane Group’s findings or questioning current orthodoxy about the value of mammographic screening
She had listed five recent ABC stories.
1. Two local representatives were invited to comment on Olsen’s findings published in the October 2001 Lancet. Both were critical of the Olsen findings.
2. Norman Swan had presented the findings from a recent paper by Nystrom supporting mammography screening. He did not mention that the Swedish trials covered in the Nystrom paper had been found in Olsen's paper to be flawed.
3. This item on mammogram screening was supportive of the efficacy of mammographic screening in general, questioning its efficacy in some cases only.
4. This item was also supportive of mammographic screening.
5. This item was also supportive of mammographic screening. Professor Ward repeated the invalid claim that screening reduces mortality from breast cancer by 30%.
We pointed this out in our response to her. Her evidence cited as ABC objectivity showed that the ABC had only allowed one side of the debate to be aired.
She then forwarded our response to the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs Team to comment on behalf of ABC News Media and ABC Radio.
Denise Musto replied in December 2002 on behalf of the ABC. She backed up Norman Swan as “the ABC’s specialist medical broadcaster” and implied that any comments questioning his viewpoints would have to go into “the minutiae of medical research debate regarding any particular issue”.
She then went on to justify Norman’s Swans rejection of the Cochrane Group’s Review: “Norman Swan and the Health Report team have therefore discussed mammographic screening cognisant of the epidemiological evidence of falling mortality from breast cancer, alongside the increasing incidence and prevalence of breast cancer. There would appear to be few plausible alternative explanations to this dynamic other than the use of mammographic screening.”… “It would be reckless of the ABC to over-emphasise the evidence against mammographic screening you refer to unless the evidence was stronger than it is…. The ABC believes these [stories] were balanced and gave both sides”
As with earlier correspondence, the ABC has in effect stated that it must present only the prevailing orthodox view (presumably even when this runs counter to the latest evidence).
In the UK there are now calls for the $100 million a year UK Breast Screening Service to be scrapped, including a call by one of its previous main proponents, Professor Michael Baum who helped to set it up. There has been little if any reporting of this political debate in Australia.
According to the ABC Code of practice:
4.2 Every reasonable effort must be made to ensure that
programs are balanced and impartial. The commitment to balance and impartiality
requires that editorial staff present a wide range of perspectives and not
unduly favour one over the others. But it does not require them to be
unquestioning, nor to give all sides of an issue the same amount of time.
4.3 Balance will be sought through the presentation, as
far as possible, of principal relevant viewpoints on matters of importance. This
requirement may not always be reached within a single program or news bulletin
but will be achieved as soon as possible.
Members of this Society have complained that they have been misled by the media into having unnecessary surgery and radiotherapy for breast and other cancers.
When the complaint from CISS was passed to the Independent Complaints Review Panel (ICRP) our complaint was upheld.
The ICRP commented that “this an extremely difficulty issue to adjudicate. Not that there is much doubt about bias in the ABC broadcast and online material….”. In their findings the ICRP found that “there was bias in the presentation of this issue, mitigated to some extent by the concern of the ABC that repudiation of orthodox treatment might lead to serious outcomes”.
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In the past several days, Governor Cuomo's environmental department has announced that it's undertaking a new health review of fracking, and that it will likely miss a deadline and have to restart the rule making process to permit the gas drilling process in the state.
Governor Cuomo, speaking in Syracuse, denies that he’s delaying. “There is no step back,” he said.
Cuomo says the health review is in response to request by environmentalists, who had wanted an outside survey. The governor says his agencies can do a better job.
“It will be a stronger review to withstand a legal challenge,” Cuomo explained.
And the governor says lawsuits are likely.
The new delays mean fracking probably won’t begin until at least next year. That has angered some leaseholders hoping to make a profit from fracking. Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic. | <urn:uuid:6fe6020f-cfbc-4161-bdae-56bfaea7c561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/20597/20121003/cuomo-denies-any-fracking-delay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978699 | 180 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Post-transplant patient swallowed by exceedingly high medication cost 0
Gord Lawrence sits at his kitchen table and looks at the pile of pills in front of him.
They’re in boxes, plastic bottles and individually wrapped packages. They are essential, life-sustaining medications. They are also paving the path to his financial ruin.
“I can become a ward of the state, dependent on the province for the rest of my life, if I go any further into debt than I already am,” he said.
Those are the worse fears of the 59-year-old Mississauga resident who said he and his wife Maryjean have lived a “middle-class life” until his liver, and a vital part of Ontario’s medical system, failed him.
“What happens after the transplant, after the million and a quarter dollars was spent on saving my life, is you’re hung out to dry,” Lawrence said.
Just a few months ago, Lawrence was optimistic about the new opportunity before him. He had received the ultimate reprieve – a new liver – in the form of a life-saving transplant at Toronto General Hospital. | <urn:uuid:0f80bd8c-5e3b-49a2-b786-454557e4de4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lfpress.com/2013/03/02/post-transplant-patient-swallowed-by-exceedingly-high-medication-cost | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97926 | 246 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Gemstone Program at the University of Maryland is a unique multidisciplinary four-year research program for selected undergraduate honors students of all majors. Under guidance of faculty mentors and Gemstone staff, teams of students design, direct and conduct significant research, often but not exclusively exploring the interdependence of science and technology with society. Gemstone students are members of a living-learning community comprised of fellow students, faculty and staff who work together to enrich the undergraduate experience. This community challenges and supports the students in the development of their research, teamwork, communication and leadership skills. In the fourth year, each team of students presents its research in the form of a thesis to experts, and the students complete the program with a citation and a tangible sense of accomplishment.
We are committed to providing our Gemstone students a challenging and rewarding experience based on the following goals:
- Develop students' research skills in the context of multidisciplinary team research projects of importance to society
- Develop students' ability to work effectively in teams
- Provide students' leadership opportunities through peer mentoring, teaching and service throughout their four years in Gemstone
- Provide students' with a close-knit community that supports them in their Gemstone and other commitments and activities at the University of Maryland
We are committed to the development of citizens, scholars and leaders. Our efforts are focused on holistic student development, both inside and outside the classroom. We value qualities of mutual respect, intellectual excitement, collaboration, and diversity of thought. We strive to give our students transferable skills that will be valuable for wherever life leads them. | <urn:uuid:7cc13d2a-9d41-460a-b239-1b87781a5445> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gemstone.umd.edu/about/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951872 | 321 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Paraiso v. United States - 207 U.S. 368 (1907)
U.S. Supreme Court
Paraiso v. United States, 207 U.S. 368 (1907)
Paraiso v. United States
Submitted December 2, 1907
Decided December 16, 1907
207 U.S. 368
Where a case is brought up from the circuit court on the ground that the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States is involved, the record must show that the question was raised for the consideration of the court below, and, under § 10 of the Act of July 1, 1902, 32 Stat. 695, this rule applies to write of error to review judgments of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands.
A complaint, sufficiently clear to the mind of a person of rudimentary intelligence as to what it charges the defendant with, informs the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and a conviction
thereunder is not in that respect without due process of law under the Philippine Bill of Rights.
A motion for rehearing in the lower court on grounds set out in the assignment of error, but which was denied, cannot be relied on as properly raising the federal question necessary to give this Court jurisdiction. McMillan v. Ferrum Mining Co., 197 U. S. 343.
This Court is not called upon to consider error argued but not assigned. O'Neil v. Vermont, 144 U. S. 323.
5 Phil. 149 affirmed.
The facts are stated in the opinion. | <urn:uuid:4cedccf2-b594-45ab-9cef-d4fec35bdb8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/207/368/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943209 | 323 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Ivan Chermayeff Sculptures
Ivan Chermayeff: Collages and Small Sculptures
Today, the galleries of Pera Museum welcome the works of remarkable artist Ivan Chermayeff. He has been producing collages and assemblages for over forty years, utilizing the everyday ephemera collected in different parts of the world where he has worked and traveled. He saves the envelopes received from friends and colleagues, who send him abandoned gloves, discarded candy wrappers and other visual delights to add to those he has picked up on the streets of the world.
Chermayeff is a graphic designer practicing in New York with his partner Tom Geismar since the mid 1950s. His collages have been exhibited and published in the United States, Europe and Japan.
“A collagist working from a pile of debris that he has collected over several decades, Chermayeff abstracts materials from their original context, and casts them into figurative shapes of great character and representational specificity. The collages are at the same time abstract, figurative, materialist, objective, subjective and disarming.” | <urn:uuid:9d85785c-a91c-4b6b-beb4-a45e67fb49b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.peramuzesi.org.tr/exhibitions/detail_past_exhibitions.aspx?Page=LeCDLPager130044606716017466__1&SectionID=9RE4fgwzlaDdhUADe4b0zQ%3D%3D&ContentID=eDEI2gC1eFGqBr7zoFoXww%3D%3D | 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 | 0.964129 | 233 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Randolph County America's Promise Coalition will meet at Woodford Church in Elkins at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Everyone is welcome.
With a growing concern about the issue of substance abuse within Randolph County for some time, the group is interested in hearing from residents about the issue.
The meeting is designed to gain input from area residents about how they see substance abuse within their county and individual communities.
Members of the coalition will be gathering specific information about drug issues, why residents feel it is a problem within their community and county and will also be asking those in attendance for solutions to the problems they see.
Throughout the past several months, the coalition has been involved in many projects to assist in the fight against Randolph County substance abuse.
Some of these projects include the development of a drug task force, an anonymous tip line and the education of youth and adults about the dangers of substance abuse.
For more information about the coalition, you may contact the Randolph County Family Resource Network at 304-636-4454.
This is a project funded by a substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant from the Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities of W.Va. | <urn:uuid:92e2139d-59d0-4027-a9e2-b23c1aa9bd66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theintermountain.com/page/content.detail/id/557035/Coalition-to-hold-meeting-on-Tuesday.html?nav=5008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95692 | 240 | 1.515625 | 2 |
CARLOS BARRIA / Reuters
Hu Yi Xin, left, embraces her daughter Rong Xi as she arrives from Egypt at the Pudon International airport in Shanghai on Monday.
BEIJING - For nearly a week now, as much of the world remains riveted by the events unfolding in Egypt, China is making assiduous efforts to appear uninterested.
At least judging from what’s being reported and what’s being discussed here.
The political turmoil in Cairo has received barely a headline in the People’s Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper, or much coverage by Xinhua, the state-run news agency. And a quick thumb through issues of the China Daily since last Tuesday show the protests only made the front page a couple of times, and photographs from the streets of the Egyptian capital were conspicuously rare.
What has been written is sanitized and the focus is largely on lawlessness. “[W]e hope Egypt could restore social stability and normal order at an early date,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Sunday.
The coverage also avoids details of the underlying political factors or the calls for democracy, with the demonstrations characterized generally as “anti-government” or “anti-American.”
Information online hasn’t been any more comprehensive. Over the weekend, searches for the word “Egypt” was discovered to have been banned on Weibo, the leading microblogging site run by Sina, and then from other Twitter-like sites and online discussion groups.
No discussion of dissent
The tight restrictions on media coverage and Internet discussion of the protests in Egypt isn’t much of a surprise. Beijing, after all, played from the same rulebook in July 2009 after riots broke out between ethnic Han Chinese and Uighurs in Xinjiang. Internet and cell phone services were immediately cut off in the northwestern province and were only reinstated very gradually over the following year.
There’s been no public official pronouncement, of course, on the information restrictions, but an editorial in the Global Times, a state-run newspaper with strong nationalist leanings, reinforced the fact the Chinese government tolerates no discussion that might lead to questions about its supremacy:
“[D]emocracy has been accepted by most people. But when it comes to political systems, the Western model is only one of a few options. It takes time and effort to apply democracy to different countries, and to do so without the turmoil of revolution.”
The Chinese, of course, know a little something about the turmoil of revolution. The scars from China’s 20th century upheavals – the Great Leap Forward (1959-61) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), to name just two that caused the deaths of tens of millions – have left the Chinese government, and arguably the Chinese people, with little appetite for political instability.
At least that’s what some China-watchers are betting.
Is China next?
As the protests in Egypt entered their second or third day, and unrest appeared to spread to Lebanon and Yemen, foreign journalists began wondering aloud whether China would be next. To some, it seemed obvious. The images of tanks rolling through the streets of Cairo, in particular, recalled the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and could well rekindle that kind of mass uprising in China.
In fact, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times arrived in Cairo’s Tahrir Square over the weekend and drew immediate comparisons to Tiananmen Square, which he’d covered for the newspaper.
One reporter even point-blank asked U.S. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at a press conference: “Does the U.S. believe – or do you think that China should be concerned in any way about what’s happening in Egypt? Or do you think it’s – they're such completely different societies and that this is mostly an Arab-Muslim thing at this point?”
Here, in the land of China-watchers, the question provoked confident responses of “No.”
While acknowledging “anything is possible,” Richard Burger, a PR specialist who has lived in Taiwan and the mainland, explained why he believed China is different.
“China has done a far better job than Egypt and Tunisia in terms of keeping people employed and placated,” said Burger. “Its public works projects and subsidies of Chinese businesses have helped keep unemployment in check and, unlike in Tunisia, the mood in China [is] wildly optimistic.”
C. Custer over at ChinaGeeks, a China-watcher’s blog, is more circumspect, noting that the chief reason for Beijing’s sensitivity to Egypt coverage is because “the protests in Egypt are motivated by factors that exist in China, too: wealth disparity, corruption, censorship, etc. Of course, China is not Egypt. But the spin machine is still running.”
At the New Yorker, however, Evan Osnos, who has experience both in Egypt and in China, noted, “For all of China’s problems these days, the simple fact is that the dominant sensation in China is the polar opposite of that in Egypt: China is a place of constant, dizzying, churning change…[T]he lives of average Chinese citizens continue to improve fast enough that they see no reason to upturn the system.”
At any rate, today saw slightly more coverage of Egypt in the Chinese media. In part, that came because Beijing issued a warning to its citizens not to travel to Egypt and made arrangements for some 500 Chinese travelers currently stranded in Egypt to be evacuated by plane.
Whether that is the only ripple effect remains to be seen.
Melissa Phillip / AP
Doaa Khedr, with her daughter, Maryam Ali, 1, protests along with others outside the Egyptian Consulate in Houston, Texas on Sunday. Click here to view a slideshow.
1 February Update:
One more China pundit enters the fray. Christina Larson at Foreign Policy notes a few more features that set China apart. "There is no widespread seething anger towards China's rulers equivalent to what exists in Tunisia and Egypt," she writes. "In recent years, high-profile protests in China have erupted over specific grievances – ethnic tensions, land rights, environmental degradation among them – but they have not touched Beijing.”
But perhaps all this speculation is misdirected. As Adam Minter writes, “It might be better – if not more empirical – to step back and ask whether China has sufficient, robust institutions whereby average Chinese citizens can vent their frustrations, anger, and grievances.” | <urn:uuid:73dd9013-eed2-4074-8f3f-2391a3a90e48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/01/31/5961028-will-china-walk-like-an-egyptian?chromedomain=behindthewall&lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958474 | 1,391 | 1.757813 | 2 |
LONDON — Gerry Anderson, puppetry pioneer and British creator of the sci-fi hit ‘‘Thunderbirds’’ television show, has died. He was 83.
Mr. Anderson’s son Jamie said his father died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday at a nursing home near Oxfordshire after being diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago.
His condition had worsened the past six months, he said.
Mr. Anderson’s television career launched in the 1950s. Once ‘‘Thunderbirds’’ aired in the 1960s, ‘‘Thunderbirds are go!’’ became a catchphrase for generations. It also introduced the use of ‘‘supermarionation’’ — a puppetry technique using thin wires to control marionettes — and made sci-fi mainstream, said Jamie Anderson.
‘‘He forever changed the direction of sci-fi,’’ Jamie said. ‘‘Lots of animation and films that have been made in the past 20 or 30 years have been inspired by the work that he did.’’
He said the television show was perhaps his father’s proudest achievement — along with the cross-generational appeal of his body of work, which also included television shows ‘‘Stingray’’ and ‘‘Space: 1999.”
‘‘Most people know some aspect of one of his shows, which is not something that many television producers can say,’’ Jamie said. He said his father first broke ground with puppets in ‘‘Thunderbirds,’’ but was trying new techniques, such as advanced computer-generated imagery, into his later years.
Mr. Anderson also worked as a consultant on a Hollywood remake of his series ‘‘UFO.’’
‘‘He was very much a perfectionist and was never happy with any of the end products, although he may have been happy with the responses,’’ Jamie said, describing how his father involved himself in every aspect of production.
In recent years, Mr. Anderson and his son had become active supporters of Britain’s Alzheimer’s Society.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of society, said Mr. Anderson tirelessly attended events to raise awareness and raise money for a cure. | <urn:uuid:bb50f5bb-bb56-40cc-82b0-eb13b1e843a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2012/12/27/gerry-anderson-thunderbirds-creator-dies/X3mSGgyQQirW0WB42QQBLO/story.html | 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 | 0.989587 | 502 | 1.546875 | 2 |
On September 27, 1997, at 0849 Pacific daylight time, Continental Airlines flight 1046 (a Boeing 737-3T0, registration number N13331), a scheduled domestic 14 CFR 121 passenger/cargo flight enroute from Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, Washington, to George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston, Texas, returned to Seattle/Tacoma International when the crew noted immediately after becoming airborne that large amounts of aileron and rudder input were required to maintain wings-level flight. The crew was able to land at Seattle/Tacoma International without damage to the aircraft or injuries to the airline transport pilot-in-command, first officer, 4 cabin crewmembers, or 128 passengers aboard. The aircraft was on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan. Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page
The crew reported that at liftoff, "considerable aileron and rudder input" was required to maintain straight and level flight, and that when aileron input was reduced to zero, at least 5 units of left rudder trim was required to maintain wings-level flight (according to Boeing, a minimum of 16.4 units of rudder trim is available.) Upon returning to the gate, it was noted that the right aileron remained up with the control wheel centered. Postflight troubleshooting revealed that the ABSB-4 aileron bus cable was broken and the ABSA-4 cable was frayed. The cable break and fraying occurred where the cables ride over the right wing/body joint aileron pulleys in the right wing root/main wheel well area. Maintenance personnel did not find any discrepancies with the pulleys. There was also no evidence found to indicate that the cables were, or had become, misrouted.
According to Boeing's records, the aircraft was delivered on August 11, 1986. On its NTSB incident report, Continental Airlines reported the aircraft's airframe total time as 34,633 hours. Continental further indicated on its NTSB incident report that the aircraft had 378 hours in service since its last inspection, a continuous airworthiness inspection performed on August 15, 1997, approximately 6 weeks prior to the incident. Continental reported that this inspection was a segmented "C" check, and that aileron cables were to be inspected during the "C" check segment which was performed at that time. Continental further reported to the NTSB that it was unable to determine whether or not the parted and frayed cables were the original cables installed at the time of aircraft delivery.
The ABSA-4 (frayed) and ABSB-4 (fractured) right wing aileron bus cables, which are both similarly constructed from 3/16 inch diameter, 7x19 wire rope, were sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for examination. Examination of the fractured ends of the ABSB-4 cable revealed severe amounts of wear between the individual wires and strands (the NTSB metallurgist's factual report stated that this type of wear is generally referred to as internal cable wear.) On the vast majority of parted wires, wear had reduced the individual wire diameters to knife edges with little or no perceptible fracture surfaces. The only wires showing significant fractures were those from the core strand of wires; the features of these fractures were reported to be typical of overstress separations. It was estimated by the NTSB metallurgist that over 90% of the cable's total section had been removed by the internal wear, which appeared to be present along about 2 inches of the cable with some wires showing several locations of severe reduction. Severe external wear was also noted on the cable adjacent to the location of the separation; however, no wires appeared to be fractured at this wear. Energy dispersive x-ray analysis of individual wires found wire composition and tin coating consistent with MIL-W-8342, composition "A" wire rope.
In the NTSB Materials Laboratory examination, magnified optical examinations of the frayed location on the ABSA cable uncovered many of the same features as at the separation on the ABSB cable, including severe internal wear of the wires and strands. Visual examinations of the cables also disclosed several other areas of locally severe external wear, as well as several locations where the overall diameter of the cable had been reduced without damage to the exterior cable surface, which the NTSB metallurgist characterized as indicative of internal cable wear. In some locations, the cable diameter was reduced by as much as 0.03 inches (corresponding to approximately a 30% reduction in cable cross-sectional area for a nominal 3/16 inch diameter cable.)
The ABSA-4 and ABSB-4 cables were subsequently examined at Boeing's Equipment Quality Analysis (EQA) Laboratory in Renton, Washington. This examination was performed with the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC) along with representatives of the FAA, Boeing, and Continental Airlines in attendance. Boeing's examination of the ABSA-4 cable found wear "on the exterior of one side of the cable, the side which contacted the OD of the pulley, and not on the other side." The EQA report also stated that internal wear was also evident on this cable. The EQA report stated that on the ABSB-4 cable, "the wear occurred on the exterior of one side of the cable; the side which contacted the OD of the pulley, and not the other side." The EQA examination also noted wear on the interior of the ABSB-4 cable, between the bundles. Boeing's conclusion was: "The cables exhibited external wear which is believed to have resulted from contact with their respective pulleys. This external wear is likely the cause of the cable fraying and separation....The existence of external wear was evidenced on several portions of the cable....The internal wear was likely subsequent to the excessive external wear...."
A similar B-737 incident to the one involving Continental flight 1046 occurred at Newark, New Jersey, on March 15, 1993 (NTSB incident number NYC93IA059.) In that incident, involving a B-737-130 series aircraft also operated by Continental as flight 1659, the airplane rolled left immediately after liftoff but the pilot controlled the roll with right aileron and was able to return to Newark and land without further incident. Post-incident examinations of the left wing ABSA and ABSB aileron bus cables from that aircraft revealed that the left aileron down cable had parted in the same location (but on the left side) and manner as the parted right wing ABSB cable on Continental 1046. The NTSB determined the probable cause of the 1993 incident to be "inadequate maintenance/inspection by company maintenance personnel, the manufacturer's inadequate inspection and/or replacement procedures for the aileron cables, and subsequent failure of the 'down' aileron control cable due to wear." Based on the March 1993 Continental Airlines B-737 incident at Newark, the NTSB issued Safety Recommendations A-94-64 through A-94-66 to the FAA as follows:
A-94-64. Issue an Airworthiness Directive (AD) to operators of Boeing 727 and 737 airplanes requiring periodic inspection of the aileron cables for both internal and external wear, and for broken wires, with particular attention to the area of the cable contacting the pulleys. The inspection should include releasing cable tension to better detect cable wear and wire breakage and establishing a maximum allowable reduction in cable diameter where pulley contact occurs. Based on the inspections, develop specific flight hour intervals for replacement of the cables.
A-94-65. Require that the Boeing Company examine the consequences of a 737-100 aileron cable failure, and provide appropriate flightcrew operational guidance for the best landing configuration in the event of such a failure.
A-94-66. Conduct a comprehensive study to determine the frequency of spoiler, rudder, and aileron cable failures on airplanes weighing 12,500 pounds or greater. Where the study reveals flight control inspection procedures to be inadequate, require appropriate revisions to those inspection procedures and/or issue Airworthiness Directives to mandate service life limits to assure greater reliability of those control cables.
In response to recommendations A-94-64 and A-94-65, the FAA responded on August 3, 1995, that it had conducted flight simulations in which it determined that the B-737-100 was controllable with a broken aileron cable, that no additional flightcrew guidance was necessary with regard to this condition, and that it did not consider an AD requiring periodic inspections in addition to the existing regular maintenance inspections to be necessary. The FAA also reported it reviewed the flight control cable failure rates for the B-737 fleet and found the failure rate for aileron wing cables to be 8 x 10-8 per flight hour, with the failure rate for aileron body cables being 6.4 x 10-8 per flight hour. The FAA stated that "this system performance further supports the conclusion that a broken aileron cable is an improbable occurrence." Based on the FAA response, the NTSB classified recommendation A-94-65 "Closed-Acceptable Action" on November 20, 1995.
In further response to recommendation A-94-64, the FAA stated to the NTSB on June 28, 1996, that it had examined the maintenance manuals for Boeing airplanes that utilize wire cable operated flight controls. The FAA stated that it found inconsistencies among some of the procedures, and that the best practices possible were not reflected consistently in all manuals. The FAA stated that as a result, Boeing had eliminated the inconsistencies and developed one standard inspection procedure for the Boeing family of airplanes. The new standard procedure, which the FAA stated was to be performed every 12 to 18 months, involved rubbing a cloth along the cable length to catch on broken cable strands and lock-to-lock control wheel rotation to expose cable hidden on the pulleys. Additionally, instructions for checking cable diameter wear were provided as an option. The FAA indicated Boeing would include this procedure in the B-737 maintenance manual by August 1996. In response to the FAA actions with regard to recommendation A-94-64, the NTSB replied on October 30, 1996:
While the Board remains concerned that inspecting aileron cables without releasing cable tension may not provide adequate assurance of detecting internal broken cable wires, the Board finds that FAA and Boeing efforts to standardize and improve cable inspection procedures and to establish specific flight hour intervals for inspecting cables will address most of the concerns that prompted the recommendation. Based on this information, the Board classifies A-94-64 "Closed-Acceptable Alternate Action."
In response to recommendation A-94-66, the FAA responded on August 3, 1995, that it had completed a comprehensive study to determine the frequency of spoiler, rudder, and aileron cable failures on airplanes weighing 12,500 pounds or greater. The FAA reported this study found that in the 10 years preceding the study, there had been 6 aileron cable separations on B-737 aircraft. The FAA reported that its study found inconsistencies in the cable inspection procedures for different Boeing aircraft, and that to address these inconsistencies, Boeing had developed one standard inspection procedure for the Boeing family of airplanes. This standard inspection procedure was included in a maintenance manual revision which was published in August 1996. Based on FAA responses, the NTSB classified recommendation A-94-66 "Closed-Acceptable Action" on April 7, 1997.
The B-737 AMM control cable inspection procedures were revised to incorporate the above procedures pursuant to the above-noted FAA actions following the March 1993 B-737 incident, and following a May 1995 FAA Critical Design Review (CDR) of the B-737 flight control system, which also recommended that the FAA "evaluate the adequacy of the B737 maintenance manual actions addressing flight control cable inspection, rigging procedures and replacement criteria...." (FAA, B-737 Flight Control System [FCS] CDR Report, May 3, 1995, Recommendation -23.) The CDR also recommended that the FAA "require control cable service life limits unless acceptable inspection and/or test procedures are developed and utilized that can determine the continuing serviceability of the control cables" (FAA B-737 FCS CDR Report, Recommendation -24.) In regard to CDR Recommendation -24, Boeing and the FAA determined that, based on in-service experience and airline responses, neither life limits for the cables nor any change in cable inspection frequencies was required.
According to Boeing's aircraft maintenance manual (AMM) for the Boeing 737 (B-737), the ABSB-4 aileron bus cable is a replace-on-condition item, with wear criteria for replacement specified via a figure in the AMM (Section 20-20-31, Figure 601) which depicts diagrams of cable wear to aid in gauging the extent of wear. The AMM recommends inspection of exposed cables at each maintenance "C" check (every 3,200 flight hours), with non-exposed cables checked every other "C" check (every 6,400 flight hours.) According to a Boeing air safety investigator, "C" checks are performed approximately once each year at typical airline aircraft utilization rates.
The AMM procedure for inspection of the control cables (Task 20-20-31-206-002) specifies the following procedures: doing a check for broken wires by rubbing a cloth along the length of the cable in both directions (broken wires are indicated where the cloth gets caught on the cable); displacing the control cable system full travel in each direction for complete inspection at seals, pulleys, and fairlead areas; use of a flashlight and mirror to aid inspection in hard to see places; and replacement of a 7x19 control cable upon finding (among other conditions) 4 broken wires in 12 continuous inches of cable, or more than 6 broken wires in a total cable length between the two cable terminals. An "optional as needed" check for wear directs cable replacement if (among other conditions) one strand has worn wires where one wire cross section is decreased by 40% or more. The General section of the AMM "Control Cables - Inspection/Check" procedure states, "Wires break most frequently where cables go through fairlead areas or around pulleys. Examine these areas carefully."
As a result of the September 1997 Seattle incident involving Continental flight 1046, Continental Airlines took the following remedial actions:
1. Issued Fleet Campaign Directive (FCD) number 2711-01011-A, "Inspection of the 737 Aileron Bus System Cables in the MLG Wheel Well Area", on January 9, 1998. This FCD directed a detail visual inspection of aileron bus cables in both main landing gear wheel well bays on its entire B-737 fleet in accordance with AMM section 20-20-31, along with replacement of any cable found damaged or with excessive wear or reduced thickness.
2. Issued Engineering Authorization (EA) 2711-01012, "737 Aileron Bus Cables Inspection and Replacement", effective November 13, 1997. This EA established a repetitive inspection requirement for aileron bus cables on Continental Airlines B-737-100/-200/-300/-500 aircraft for wear, damage, and corrosion every 4,000 hours. In addition, the EA established hard time replacement of the ABSA-1, ABSA-2, ABSA-3, ABSA-4, ABSB-1, ABSB-2, ABSB-3, and ABSB-4 aileron bus cables on Continental Airlines B-737-100/-200/-300/-500 aircraft at every "D" check.
3. Issued Maintenance Specification Amendment (MSA) number 970148, "B737-300/-500 Aileron Bus Cables - Discard", on December 1, 1997. This MSA amended the Continental Airlines B-737-300/-500 maintenance specifications by creation of a specification task to remove, discard and replace the aileron bus cables at an 8 year frequency per EA 2711-01012.
Additionally, in response to the May 1995 FAA B-737 CDR, Continental Airlines issued MSA number 970081 on June 2, 1997. This MSA increased the level of detail of control cable inspections on Continental Airlines B-737s from "General Visual Inspection" to "Detailed Visual Inspection." | <urn:uuid:02a566d2-053e-464b-9dd5-a12cbbc95b43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20001208X08926&ntsbno=SEA97IA219&akey=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9437 | 3,416 | 1.625 | 2 |
Denise Noyes stood in front of 80 fellow social-networking engineers on the 18th floor of Facebook's Seattle office on the northeast edge of downtown. Following the ring of a gong, she announced the start of Facebook Seattle's second-ever "hackathon."
"If you've never used spray paint, this may not be the best time to start," she said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.
But just about everything else was fair game.
From noon to midnight on a recent Wednesday, engineers were set free to pursue interests outside of their normal day-to-day work obligations.
Engineering director Peter Wilson says these events are ingrained in the company's identity. Late-night hackathons - events where software engineers collaborate on coding - were a handy way to zip out new code dating back to when CEO Mark Zuckerberg's first opened his company's Silicon Valley headquarters in 2004, an eternity in the tech community.
But they also keep engineers' creativity and job satisfaction riding high. In a sector where tech giants compete fiercely for top talent, that's key.
"Engineers value being able to have an impact, being able to direct themselves, having ideas," Wilson said. "A hackathon is just an extreme example of that."
While hackathons are normally an opportunity for programmers to flex their coding chops, this one extended well beyond the digital walls of ones and zeros. Rather than work on her laptop, Noyes, for example, decided to improve the office's amenities.
Normally one of two engineers who works on developing Facebook's video chat application, Noyes decided to solicit help from a coffee expert for her project.
"We're bringing in a barista from Trabant to teach us how to make fancy lattes," she said, referring to Seattle cafe Trabant Coffee and Chai.
"I'm a little bit of a coffee snob," she added.
Brian Steadman, who normally works on Facebook's mobile engineering team, also stretched the definition of hackathon. His project involved Legos, paint and pop art. He pieced together Legos to form the background of a Roy Lichtenstein painting. He then painted the round connector tabs of each Lego piece to create a dotted image of a Lichtenstein work.
Steadman's only trouble? The plastic Lego base cannot easily be attached to Facebook's office wall.
"I might have to frame it," Steadman said.
Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is not the only company to pay its employees to work on projects outside of its main business plan. Google's 20 percent program, where employees were given one day each week to pursue their own computing interests, has been credited with developing Google Earth, among other applications.
Wilson, however, argues Facebook's hackathon is different. It's more limited in time, he says, and the goal is to mainly explore conceptual ideas without worrying about the toughest coding challenges.
"It enables you to focus on what is the core value," he said.
The project is appealing to at least one aspiring engineer. Parth Upadhyay is an intern who participated in the recent hackathon. He is a junior at the University of Texas and, in a year, wants to find a job as a software engineer. Facebook is a contender for his services.
"They give you so much freedom," he said.
For the hackathon, he wanted to develop an application that will allow Facebook users to briskly review their updates, similar to how users can view photos.
He admitted, however, the idea is still in its infancy.
"I just started an hour ago," he said.
Explore further: Kim Dotcom slams Megaupload 'data massacre' | <urn:uuid:bb29cfc9-463d-42ec-90a7-a43e64e9de4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news/2012-07-facebook-hacker-ways-trickle-offices.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961307 | 774 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Modern and Contemporary Art
1962 cast of 1951 copper-electroplated plaster original
Marcel Duchamp, American (born France), 1887 - 1968
Bronze with inlaid lead rib
1981-87-1Gift of Arne Ekstrom, 1981
LabelWhile secretly working "underground" on his final masterpiece, Étant donnés, Duchamp claimed that he had given up art for chess. Mysterious objects nevertheless emerged, hinting that the artist was indeed at work on another project. This enigmatic molded item in bronze alludes to human anatomy and offers insight into the working process involved in the making of Étant donnés.
* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit. | <urn:uuid:8031a204-9338-411c-8a8a-2e9eb25cf2f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/75083.html?mulR=22090%7C18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94165 | 183 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Subtlety Quotes (5 quotes)
For many parts of Nature can neither be invented with sufficient subtlety, nor demonstrated with sufficient perspicuity, nor accommodated unto use with sufficient dexterity, without the aid and intervening of the mathematics, of which sort are perspective, music, astronomy, cosmography, architecture, engineery, and divers others.
For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.'
There are many things akin to highest deity that are still obscure. Some may be too subtle for our powers of comprehension, others imperceptible to us because such exalted majesty conceals itself in the holiest part of its sanctuary, forbidding access to any power save that of the spirit. How many heavenly bodies revolve unseen by human eye!
[About the great synthesis of atomic physics in the 1920s:] It was a heroic time. It was not the doing of any one man; it involved the collaboration of scores of scientists from many different lands. But from the first to last the deeply creative, subtle and critical spirit of Niels Bohr guided, restrained, deepened and finally transmuted the enterprise. | <urn:uuid:22fe878a-6034-41f8-a2d1-d2c5d7ee6ef8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.todayinsci.com/QuotationsCategories/S_Cat/Subtlety-Quotations.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963878 | 456 | 1.710938 | 2 |
INTEGRITY - We deal honestly and fairly with the public and one another. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
We do so in ways that are ethically based and represent the highest standards of public service. Through our actions we aim to earn the trust of those we work with and serve. We are accountable to the public and each other. | <urn:uuid:6f92e992-60bb-44e7-bcc0-cd403fad5d3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/training/uc/integrity.htm | 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 | 0.965981 | 74 | 1.59375 | 2 |
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture". It is a system of running a farm where customers pay for a share of the harvest up front and then receive produce as it becomes available throughout the growing season.
At Green Meadows Farm, we operate a summer produce share, a fall produce share, an egg share, a flower share and a fruit share. Our summer share runs from mid-June through October. The fall share runs from November through December and has limited openings. To sign-up for any of these shares, please click here.
We also sell meat shares that work a bit differently from the other shares. Click here for more information on them.
Benefits of being a CSA Shareholder:
Certified organically-grown vegetables and berries, harvested at their peak of nutritional value.
A weekly e-newsletter containing seasonal recipes, as well as an update on the crops and notice of upcoming events.
The opportunity to learn how your food is grown.
Access to exclusive pick-your-own crops.
Support of the local economy, the community, and local agriculture.
For more information and details of what we offer this year, please click here for our CSA Member Agreement. | <urn:uuid:fa3a1bd4-8c47-4cfc-be3d-fa1213194ccd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gmfarm.com/what-is-a-csa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951561 | 254 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Have a sip of hot aromatic Aceh’s coffee and visit the cocoon of one of the world’s best. Hardly can you find a place in Indonesia like Aceh when it comes to coffee. It is a long held tradition that blends with daily necessity where people in and around Aceh translate it into coffee drinking habit in the province’s ubiquitous coffee houses. Although Takengon of Central Aceh is dotted with numerous coffee plantations and factories, Lamno in West Aceh is said to be the country’s best coffee producer.
Lamno has a unique story. Portuguese army was once fled from a defeat battle in Malacca strait, and ended up in Lamno. The King Daya at that time captured them. Realizing the help was never going to come, the Portuguese soldiers surrendered and embraced Islam voluntarily. They live like the locals since then. Acehnese accept them as one of theirs until today, although they romanticize them with a special moniker, ‘The Blue Eyes’. Only two elderly ‘Blue Eyes’ are left after the 2004 tsunami; Jamaludin Puteh known as Lelaki Putih or the white man, and 80-year old Cut Pudo.
Best known for its Arabica coffee beans, Aceh contributes 40% of Indonesia’s coffee production. The coffee houses in Aceh are second to none when it gets down to coffee preparation. The baristas who never go to formal or even special trainings, serve the coffee differently from any other coffee makers throughout the region in the nation. The coffee is brewed through multiple filtering until desired consistency, making it much more aromatic, smooth, clean tasting, and having a robust effect. The best thing about coffee drinking in Aceh is the grand meet-ups among friends and relatives. It’s a tasteful experience with a touch of cultural blend. | <urn:uuid:44d0b9e0-d6ae-4647-bf9f-6bc3b38c43b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indonesia.travel/forum/index.php?topic=15.0;prev_next=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950113 | 391 | 1.734375 | 2 |
LONDON (USA TODAY) - Twitter is proving lethal for some Olympic athletes.
Less than a week into the 2012 London Olympics and already two athletes have been expelled for racially charged tweets. On Monday, the Swiss Olympic Committee bounced 23-year-old soccer player Michel Morganella after his comment following Switzerland's 2-1 loss to South Korea a day earlier.
Such offensive remarks are in breach of the International Olympic Committee's code of ethics.
Morganella "discriminated against, insulted and violated the dignity'' of the South Korean team, as well as the nation's citizens, Swiss committee chief Gian Gilli said Monday in a statement at a news conference.
Gilli said Morganella willingly accepted the punishment.
"Michel indeed does realize that his behavior was wrong,'' Gilli added. "We hope that he will draw the necessary lessons for his still-young football career.''
A Swiss spokesman said Morganella had signed an agreement about social media and how to use it.
Swiss media reported that Morganella later apologized on Twitter, and the account has since been deleted.
Last week, Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou, a right-wing political supporter, was expelled by Greek athletic officials after she mocked African immigrants. She made her comments in Athens and had been expected to travel to London before the track and field completion begins Friday. | <urn:uuid:c4032e19-e3b9-4fca-93b3-edd1fb105291> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/220032/2/Another-Olympian-sent-home-for-racist-tweet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975785 | 279 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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